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“The results are striking, Mr. Smith finds in almost every case, not only when prices are rising, but also when they were falling, that common stocks have turned out best in the long run. . . . This actual experience in the United States over the past fifty years affords prima facie evidence that the prejudice of investors and investing institutions in favour of bonds as being “safe”and against common stocks as having, even the best of them, a “speculative” flavor, has led to a relative overvaluation of bonds and undervaluation of common stocks.”
May 2nd – This Day in Stock Market History
May 2nd, 1985 – Microsoft announces Excel to compete with Lotus and others’ spreadsheet software.
Image from Pingdom
Excel was unveiled in New York City, by Bill Gates who had stayed up late into the night to get the demo of the software working. He was unshaven and reportedly had not showered in days. Regardless, the world’s introduction to Excel went off without a hitch, and would get Steve jobs to publicly endorse the software.
The original version of Excel was made only for Macintosh computers. It would be another 2 years before Microsoft would release excel for windows.
In the early 1980s, VisiCalc was the dominant player in spreadsheet software, selling over 700,000 copies. However, Lotus Development released an updated spreadsheet software called Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983 that quickly became the dominant software.
But Lotus was slow to release a windows version, and as Microsoft’s Windows operating system gained market share, excel followed.
Source: Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
Best May 2nd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1898 – Up 5.65%, 1.90 points.
Worst May 2nd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1930 – Down 2.92%, 8.03 points.
