September 25, 2024 • 36 mins
Chuck Zodda and Paul Lane discuss journalists writing horribly mistimed articles about monthly and yearly trends. Corey Adams joins the show to chat about return-to-office initiatives backfiring. Google files EU antitrust complaint accusing Microsoft of stifling cloud competition. Restaurant customers aren't tapped out. They're just bored. Restaurant portions are about to get smaller. Are Americans ready?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(01:06):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zutta and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Chuck, Paul and Tucker with your and markets not doing anything.
It's uh you guys ever read XKCD, the like comics
that's online. Nope, there's a good one there. Like guys
sitting there with a stick and he's poking this thing
and he's going do something. That's what this market's like
(01:34):
this week. It's just not really doing much of anything.
And look, that's not bad if you're someone who's benefited
from the run up inequities over the last almost twelve months.
We're up almost forty percent on the S and P
five hundred since mid October of last year. If you're
someone who's benefited during that time, he might be like, Yeah,
I'm cool with it just hanging out here. It doesn't
need to go anywhere else right now, as long as
(01:56):
it doesn't go down again. And so you got the
S and P up one point today, the dows off
one thirty, the nasdaqc's up fifty eight, so just kind
of treading water at this point. I will also point
out that at this point, with three and a half
days left in trading for the month. The S and
(02:16):
P five hundred is still up more than two percent
for the month, despite the pieces that were published after
the first three days of trading suggesting that September was
gonna be another very bad September four equities. Granted, I
know this can still go the other way in the
next three and a half days because markets can move quickly.
But when you publish pieces saying, hey, we've had three
(02:39):
bad days in the market and that means September is
gonna be a bad month, and then it doesn't turn
out to be the bad month, you're gonna get called
out for being kind of the scammy grifter that you are.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That's that's a little harsh.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
No, it's not like we had this. We had another
one earlier this year. It was January fifth, I think
it was. There were three down days to start the year,
worst days of the year in twenty twenty four. I
don't remember if it was Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal
or CNBC, but one of them had this whole piece
that was published about, hey, when when the market does
badly in the first three days, it means that the
(03:16):
year is gonna be bad. And honestly, when you publish
crap like that, you deserve to be called a scammy
grifter because that just doesn't mean anything about what's actually
going to happen.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, sure, but I wasn't against in general. I'm against
that sentiment where you look at CNBC, you know, worst
day in since twenty twenty two, or you know all
these outlandish headlines that they use. I mean, that's the
business that they're in, right, they want to grab your attention.
You can't just put a headline CNBC Stock's not moving
this week, very boring week. Then no one's gonna click
on it. So I get your frustration with that. The
(03:51):
September statistics, though, I did find interesting where there was
a referendum on Hey, actually there's statistical proof thats September
to be the weakest stock line. That commentary I did enjoy,
And that's why I'm pushing back on the slimy grifteris
because I actually did enjoy that commentary.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So there's it's one thing to say before the month, Hey,
September tends to be a bad month for stocks. You're
saying the reactionary It's the problem that I have are
the ones where it's hey, let me pull up the piece.
I just have to get it here, just because again
I want to make sure that I call it out
(04:28):
properly when I when I do this, let's see, Nope,
it's not that one. Where is it going to be?
I'll dig it up just because again it was it
was notable to me. Here we go. It was on
September ninth, after the first four trading days of September,
because the first week of September was shortened because of
(04:50):
labor day. Quote, September is once again a tough month
for stocks. Okay, well, let's wait till My point was, Hey,
let's wait till September and even says, going back to
nineteen twenty eight, the S and P five hundred is
decline average of one point two percent in September, the
weekest month of the year for stocks. Fine, okay, that's
that's that's great that you have it there, But then
(05:13):
you have this this whole thing. I'm trying to find
the part that I that really bothered me. Despite the
market's recent slide, it still looks expensive. By some measures.
Companies are trading twenty one times they projected earnings over
the next twelve months above their ten year average multiple
of eighteen. And it's this whole piece about hey, September's
(05:35):
in the red and this is the norm for September. Okay,
well it's September twenty fifth now and September is not
in the red. Why'd you write this piece after four
days of trading like that? That's the problem is someone
writes this, and yes, I know that they have to
write something, but like, we have a show to do
every day also, and we don't resort to stuff like
(05:57):
this that then influences people to make decision is based
on incomplete information, right, you know, like we do a
show every single day and not once have you ever
heard us come in and you know, big first time
because again this was like front page in the journal
business section. Well the whole journals is the business sect.
But you get what I'm saying. We never come in
(06:18):
and say, hey, this happened and you need to, you know,
sell everything, or this happened and you need to because
that's not how it works, you know, Like and especially
we don't quote incomplete information. You can't quote September returns
after four days. That's very fair, you know, like because
this piece it can't be published. Now the piece of
(06:41):
the if the month ended today, which it hasn't, which
is why you don't publish it today. That headline could be, Hey,
September normally a tough month for stocks, not so bad
through the first you know, twenty five days of the
month actually, which I know doesn't sell anything, but like,
you don't have to get into all this stuff. The
(07:03):
other one that we did it was at the beginning
of the year. Let me get to this because again,
this stuff just bothers me, because people do make trading
decisions based on this and investment decisions based on these pieces,
which we tell them, Hey, look, if you're making an
investment decision based on one piece, you need a better
investment strategy. But there's other stuff that was in here.
(07:29):
Here we go, We've got this one. This is from
January fourth of this year. Major industries have pulled back
in the first three sessions after ending twenty twenty three
with a bang. The S and P is down one
point seven percent. It's worse start to the year since
twenty sixteen. I love those. That's great. The Dow is
down point seven and the Nasdaq is down three point three. Okay,
(07:50):
they quote an investment strategist here. If January is positive,
that's investors putting money to work. They're telling the Federal
Reserve that the economy and the companies they're investing in
that they think they can grow for it. And the
first month is typically strong for stocks. A phenomenon knows
the January effect. Another theory suggests that investors have more
cash to put to work in markets in January after
(08:10):
receiving their year end bonuses. And then it goes on
to talk about, hey, this could you know, be this
early year slump that doesn't pretend well for markets, And
it's like, guys, it's been three days of the year
and you're saying that we need to be nervous because
January could be bad. And guess what, January wasn't bad
this year, Like that's the worst part of it. They
(08:32):
talk about, Oh, this January effect that you need to
watch out for. And stocks were up in January.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Not to mention, they were up twenty four twenty five
percent in the year of twenty twenty three. So you're
coming off the heels of if you participate in the
full year prior, you were up twenty five percent. If
you had the market.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's it's always like everyone always gets a kick out
of being bearished because it makes you sound smart. But
the fact is, if you're actually investing in stocks over
the timeframe that you're supposed to, which is the long term,
being bearish is pretty much the worst consistent investment strategy
(09:10):
that you can have. There are times to go against
the herd and everything, but it's just the bearishness that
comes out when we have three bad days to start
the year, or four bad days to start September. Oh gee,
this is the September that they warned us about. It
(09:31):
just it bothers me because I see people who read
that stuff and they're like, yep, I've got a trade
based on what I saw there, And it just feeds
into the whole idea of hey, the real money if
you look at like, if you look at where the
real money's made in markets. I say this quite a bit.
(09:51):
It's in the flow. It's in being the bro the
company that's actually handling the transactions. It's not in you know, hey,
I need to invest in this or invest in that.
And all these pieces do, in my opinion, is convince
people to do one thing or the other, when in fact,
most of the time. The best thing for them to
do is absolutely nothing, because they have no edge.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Do you have a folder of articles that you put
in your kind of grind your gears folder that you
look at for set occasions.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Not not like this, I should have one for this,
Quite honestly, I keep my I build it up my
Festivus folder over the course of the year. But that's
more just for fun companies we do. We do Festivus
at the end of the year, and that's more for
stories that are just more humorous, you know, the ones
that really bother me. Sometimes you get humorous ones that
(10:41):
do really bother me, Like the Bloomberg one from was
that last year or the year before talking was last year, Yeah,
the Bloomberg one that said, hey, the best way to
deal with inflation is to let your pet die. Oh
gosh it literally it was like, hey, if you can't
you know, pay all of your bills right now, maybe
you should skip out on going to the vet the
next time your pet gets sick. It is expensive. And
(11:02):
it was like, oh, like wow, I didn't realize we
were going there, Like that's a fluffy that just got
really aggressive.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A lot of pet shatter over the last twelve plus months, there.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Has been there has been.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So, now that we've covered that for the entire first segment,
we're going to take a break, and then Corey Adams
from Robert Half is going to join us talking about
this uh burgeoning battle about employees returning to the office
that's ramping up, and so we'll talk to him right
after this.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
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Speaker 3 (12:30):
We are joined by Corey Adams from Robert Half who
just put out a piece regarding the return to office battle. Corey,
thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Us, Hey Paul, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Amazon made headlines Corey over the course of the last
week or so when they announced that they were going
to haul all their employees back into the office five
days a week effective January twod and really made a
public display of making this a mandate in something that
they felt was very important. But here in your piece
you covered that there is still a semblance of quite
(13:03):
a bit of hybrid and remote work throughout the New
England area and the rest of the country. What were
some of the biggest takeaways that you had from the
piece that you guys put together regarding remote work?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Corey, Sure, so research for the mid year update as
your reference for Robert has Demand for Skill Talent report
found that thirty seven percent of US job seekers are
interested in fully remote positions, while sixty percent with like
a hybrid role. Thirty one percent of workers planning to
look for a new role in the second half of
(13:33):
this year or those who are currently looking went on
to say that the desire for more flexibility is their
primary driver motivator to look for a new job. And
then in the same survey, thirty eight percent of workers
who aren't looking at all in this moment went on
to say that they're not looking because they do not
want to lose the flexibility that they currently have. And
(13:54):
then the last kind of key finding and a little
bit of a local perspective on this, and I think
this is really encouraging. Massachusetts was amongst the states with
the highest number of newly created hybrid jobs in Q
two of this year at twenty six percent, and that's
up sixteen percent from the same period last year in
twenty twenty three. However, Massachusetts is also on the low
(14:17):
number side of being fully remote jobs reported at eight percent.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It seems like the hybrid is the sweet spot that
most employees are clamoring for. One of the things that
we've been monitoring quite closely is the state of the
labor market in general. Obviously, we were in the golden
age for employees over the course of the last couple
of years, with tremendous wage growth and very low unemployment
around three and a half percent. Today we sit at
four to two percent, and I just wonder, Corey, one
(14:44):
of the thoughts that I had is that as the
pendulum is shifting back towards the employer and unemployment creeps up,
have you seen in any of the data any evidence
that there are more employees trending to going in office
or what has that migration looked like in the other
direction as people coming back to the office. Do you
have any insights there?
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Yeah, so let's just take a national look at this
for a moment. So new fully inoffice job postings actually
declined in twenty twenty three by fourteen percent. Now, at
the end of twenty twenty three, the analysis went on
to show that sixty nine percent of job postings were
for fully on site rules and that held steady in
(15:26):
the first quarter of this year. Now, in Q two,
which is when the survey was conducted, the figure fell
to sixty seven percent.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
So you've got this dynamic happening nationwide.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
At least you're seeing a decrease right now for in
office five days a week, but you're also seeing a
decrease for fully remote. And then the juxtaposition of that
is you're seeing the rise and increase of hybrid.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
So I basically think it's safe to say.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
That the flexible work model across the US is currently
shifting to hybrid.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Seem like that is the case. Perhaps Amazon just stands
out as an anomaly here in this sector. If this
is Corey Adams from Robert Half Corey, thanks so much
for taking the time today speak with us.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Thanks, Paul, I was a pleasure of Good Week.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Paul. You familiar with Google, Yes, am, so. They're probably
one of the four biggest tech companies on the planet,
and they filed an EU anti trust complaint accusing Microsoft
of anti competitive practices as it relates to cloud services.
(16:38):
And what's interesting to me about this is not whether
or not there's any merit to it, because I have
absolutely no idea. What's interesting to me is that Google
filed it in the first place.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Because Kellen calling the kettle black, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It seems to me, just based on my basic understanding
of how Google's business operates, and I don't know, maybe
the two different anti trust cases that have been brought
against them in the US recently, that maybe they're not
really I don't know, maybe poking Microsoft this way isn't
the best thing for them, because I'm sure Microsoft has
(17:15):
loads of data that they can say, Okay, you think
we're anti competitive here, fine, we're gonna file over search
in the EU because of reasons X, Y and Z,
and now you've got to deal with this as well,
and we'll just you know, rack up legal costs for
each other.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
What was their search engine?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Bing? Is that Microsoft's? That tells you how well Microsoft
is doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes, yeah, I was about to I was about to
google what is Microsoft's search engine? That's just say that's
where they That's where.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They sit at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
That was the most amusing takeaway that I had to
is that Google is out there throwing their weight around
the antitrust pool where they often swim in that same
pool themselves. EU is the best place to do it.
We'll see how that lawsuit trains tanspires here.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So that's the latest between these two tech companies. And
again I have no idea of what Google is alleging
has any merit, but.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Generally, when you're anti competitive, it's best not to accuse
other people of being anti competitive too.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
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(18:40):
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Speaker 2 (18:43):
Let's talk a little bit about restaurants here. There's a
piece in Bloomberg Opinion. Headline is restaurant customers aren't tapped out,
they're just bored. Your thoughts on the piece and what
it says, Paul, It.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Was an interesting piece here, basically breaking down a group
of restaurants that have really struggled post pandemic. Obviously there
was a surge when restaurants reopened, but they've struggled over
the last couple of years compared to others in the
fast casual space that have done a little bit better.
So basically sort of pinning Chipotle, whose stock is up
two hundred and forty six percent since twenty nineteen against
(19:17):
some of it's I wouldn't say necessarily direct competitor peers,
but swimming in the same sort of space Darden restaurants,
Applebee's Outback, and Denny's other sort of casual sit down
restaurants that all are trading below their twenty nineteen levels
and have struggled quite a bit. And basically what this
Bloomberg piece is outlining is that those restaurants, all of
(19:39):
Garden and others, have failed to innovate the way that
Chipotle has. And I've been trying to rack my brain
and think, Chuck, it just seems like they're in that
middle ground that isn't very appealing at this point in
time when I think about my own personal dining habits,
where either if you're looking for something that's kind of
a casual meal, you're kind of skewing to the pickup
(20:00):
delivery side of things.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But if I really want.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
To go out to eat, I kind of want to
do it on the nicer end of things, you know,
have a couple of drinks with my wife and have
a good time when I go out. And that middle
tier section that all of Garden kind of falls in
is just not as appealing, And I wonder if that's
the reason why they've seen sort of a cut down
in traffic and sales growth there.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
So I guess the question that I would have on
something like that is why now, because that's always been
the case, Like it's you've always had kind of Okay,
you get cheaper options, you know, the fast casual places
have always been around. The high end places have always
been around, but there's always been this you know, middle
area for the Applebee's and cracker barrels and those of
(20:41):
the world. So why are they like what specifically is
making people view them differently now because that was a
very successful business model for a long a long time.
And and just the idea that hey, there, you know
people are bored with going out to dinner. I don't
(21:02):
know that that does enough to get me there, because
we're still seeing very much increase spending on traveling things
like that you will get you know, tsa throughput, and
it's still is setting all new records. Airlines have said,
look like we're seeing some weakening demand in the future,
but hey, overall, you're still seeing all kinds of spending
on travel and all that stuff. So it's not just
(21:25):
services related spending in general declining, And so I can't
make heads or tails of like the exact reason, but
just oh, like people have gotten sick of these places?
Why'd they get sick of them now? Why not ten
years ago or twenty years Why today?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I wonder if the innovation on the Chipotle side of things,
or all those restaurants where their product is just so
much easier to obtain now, whether it's pick up through
their mobile app, delivery options through Uber Eats, whether that
just makes them so much easier to grab that there's
not need to really go to this middle tier. And
again I'm spitballing here that you know, the excuse that
(22:05):
they've leaned on the most, the alli of guards of
the world is that their lower income consumer or their
lower income patron that they typically make the most of
their money on, they've cut back significantly and spending. But
that does run in the face as you mentioned, that
services spending in general has kept up paced pretty well.
So it's an interesting debate to me, and it's not
(22:26):
really exactly pinpoint the direct reason, but everyone has their
theories as to what's going on.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
There, folks, want to let you know that the Armstrong
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(22:50):
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(23:10):
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Speaker 1 (24:01):
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Speaker 2 (24:17):
Piece in the New York Times, sticking with the restaurant
topic here, restaurant portions are about to get smaller our
Americans ready, And basically what this is talking about is that, look,
portion sizing's gotten a little bit out of control. Mean,
how many times do you go when you say, Okay,
I'm getting a burger at this place and it comes
with literally a mountain of fries so big that you
(24:38):
couldn't hold them all with two hands if you tried to.
And I'll be honest, I view it as a personal
challenge to try to eat every one of those fries.
I might not think that as I'm sitting down, I
might say, well, I'll just need a few of them,
but as long as they're on my plate, I'm going
to keep eating. Is basically where I end up.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
That's the biggest mental hurdle that I had to overcome
is I'm the same mindset where whenever I go out
to a restaurant, you view it as kind of a hey,
a special occasion, you're out of the house, and what's
on my plate. I'm paying for it or someone's paying
for it. I want to get the most out of
this meal. I've got to clear my plate. And what
that results in for years was terrible stomach aches because
(25:17):
I overdid it. And I still even we were out
to dinner this past week and my wife with the kids,
where we're trying to get in now quickly, I still
found myself kind of kicking myself that we ordered more
food than we ultimately consume. And it backs up waste
studies that they've done that forty percent of restaurant foods
according to a study in twenty twenty, get discarded because
(25:37):
their portion sizes are so big and you don't consume
it the whole time. So it's it's a problem that
I agree with that it is very standard in most
American restaurants, and according to a twenty twenty four National
Restaurant Association survey, seventy five percent of us out there
Americans want smaller portions for less money.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
No, I don't think this means we're gonna get you know,
one French fry or anything like that. But the whole
premise of this piece is one of the major forces
that is reshaping the restaurant industry is restaurants trying to
stay cost competitive because of inflation in their supply costs
the last couple of years. Hey, if you can just
shrink the number of French fries that you give, you know,
(26:19):
things like that. Okay, you got ways that you can
potentially figure out how to manage your pricing and still
maintain fair value. Now, there are in any restaurant. You
talk to any restaurant owner, chef, for anyone who knows
the business side of a restaurant, they'll tell you, Look,
there are certain items that are higher margin than others. Okay, pizza,
(26:41):
I was going Caesar salad with it, you know, that
pizza from the margin. The pricing. So I had a
buddy of mine who lives in New York text me
the other day. It was like he was complaining about
how expensive pizzas and I'm like, okay, like send me
the pricing that you're getting. And this was not from
like crazy high end place. It wasn't Dominoes, but it was,
(27:03):
you know, good middle of it. It's like twenty eight
dollars for a large pizza in New York. Wow, I'm
sitting there, I'm like, my goodness, you know, like that's
a lot for a pizza. You know, I'm not saying
it needs to be ten dollars, because I understand that
it's not nineteen ninety three anymore. But I don't know.
It feels to me like you start getting a pizza
(27:25):
north of nineteen twenty bucks and you're kind of like,
this better be a really good pizza, right, you know,
like this better be life changing. And most of the
time it's it's pizza. You know, it's just what it is.
But in any case, so you've got economics that are
kind of weighing on things. You also have the rise
of these GLP one drugs that are now you know,
(27:47):
causing a bunch of Americans to lose weight. I say causing,
like it's a bad thing. They're losing weight because of
these and the reason why is it depresses their appetite. Well,
if that's the case, you don't you know, you don't
go into a restaurant looking for the same portion size
that you used to have into restaurants ad just as
a result of that by offering, you know, some smaller
portion sizes that are available and things like that. So
(28:09):
I think we're at this really interesting junction where a
combination of a few factors could reshape how big meal
sizes are at sit down restaurants. And I'll be honest
with like, it's going to be really interesting to see
how it plays out and how that affects, you know,
the balance of how these businesses operate over the next
(28:29):
five to seven years. Here definitely stake a quick break,
Rooney when we come back, time for stack Roulette.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
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Speaker 4 (29:00):
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Speaker 2 (29:36):
Paul, What do you have for me for stack Roulette?
Speaker 5 (29:39):
Chuck?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
We'll kick it off with the CEO of Novo Nordis
was grilled yesterday by the Senate regarding weight loss drug pricing.
Nova Nordisk is famously behind ozempic as well as well
GOVI I believe is the pronunciation that I've heard it
pronounced otherways, but regardless, you know what I'm talking about
weight loss drugs, and the focus of this Senate meet
(30:00):
was to grill him on the weight loss drug pricing.
Nova Nordice ozempic drug retails for I believe, around thirteen
hundred bucks a month, or nine sixty nine for ozempic
and thirteen fifty for a Goovi in the United States
and in many other countries out there, you can get
it for much lower than that, in the hundreds of
dollars a month, whether you're talking about Germany or others
(30:21):
out there. And while I would agree that the sticker
price is high, the crux of the issue comes back
to just how convoluted and messed up our system is
on the healthcare side of things, where you have the
manufacturer nov Nordice going with a list price of that
one thousand dollars a month, then you have the PBMs,
(30:42):
the pharmacy benefit managers that are charge of negotiating against
that list price, and then you have the health insurance provider,
and those three people are all taking a cut at
some point in time during that transaction, which leads to
these exorbitant list prices in order to get to the
end consumer. And so nothing was really resolved as a
result of this meeting, but it's certainly something that is
(31:04):
in the headlines because it's surge in popularity as it
tries to address OBC in this country, which there's a
large market to hit.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, it's Look, I don't have any unique insight on
drug pricing or how it should or shouldn't work. I
don't know. The piece that most people I think look
at and object to is that difference in cost between
what it is in the United States and in other
economies that are similar in nature. Again, the UK and Germany,
(31:33):
I think you'd classify as you know, pretty similar in
terms of their their developed countries without you know, too
much overall economic growth. And you see the pricing that
that they're getting, and so you sit there and you're like, Okay,
why is the list priced so much higher? And the
answer is, well, the US healthcare system is basically combining
the worst parts of the private and public sector into
(31:55):
something that makes it just this albatross that you can't
really figure out how it works or change in any
meaningful fashion. It's just kind of gross. How do we
fix it? I have no idea, you know, I'm not
going to sit here and like be like, oh, well,
we got to I don't know. There's a bunch of
smart people that look at this and they have yet
(32:16):
to figure out the best things that we can do
on it. What I can't tell you is what we're
doing is probably not the answer. And most of the
criticisms that I think tend to be valid are as
you mentioned, Hey, there's a bunch of middlemen that get
rid of transparency and pricing and take a cut for themselves,
And if you were to streamline that whole process, you,
(32:38):
I think have a better ability to actually get the
kind of pricing that you want to see with more
transparency and fewer profits being taken in the middle by
people that don't really do anything in terms of actually
affecting health outcomes.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Medicare goes
up to negotiate with the Nova noordice and whether or
not to cover a ZEMPE that should be done in
twenty twenty five, and the price changes if any, or
if they cover, would go into effect in twenty seven.
So interest to see what happens there.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Piece in the New York Times, the Biden administration is
announced a sweeping initiative to ban Chinese developed software from
Internet connected cars in the United States, justifying this on
national security grounds. And this is basically something that look,
(33:30):
we've talked about quite a bit in terms of the
potential for espionage, you know, on American citizens through you know,
back doors that lead to the Chinese military. And so
the Biden administration proposing this, whether or not it actually
makes it into effect, and how watered down it is
and how strong it is I think remains to be seen.
(33:52):
But look, this is something that is a major concern
for me in terms of the ability of the Chinese
military potentially access information about the mobility and transportation of
all Americans, but in particular those with access to you know,
classified or sensitive technology and who might work in areas
(34:13):
that make them vulnerable to you know, potential espionage. And
so this is something that I view is welcome, But
I don't know how strong it's going to be because
it still is just a proposal and we don't have
the final rules and what kind of carve outs might
exist in here.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, I think it's important to make the point that
this is a national security concern rather than the tariff's
assessed on the EV's exportation from China, which I believe
it's one hundred percent tariff on any EV's come from China.
It's not something that really there was any cars prior
to that tariff in being in place being imported that
were electrical vehicles from China. But this is more focused
(34:51):
on not because of the trader economic advantage. It's all
about national security and it's something that I can certainly
get behind too, and many other should be in a
similar boat where you just don't want any way for
them to leverage any sort of vespionage practices in place
if this were to proliferate Chinese software through our vehicles.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Taking a look at markets as we head towards the
top of the hour, the Dow was off two hundred
and seventeen points, about half a percent. SP five hundred
is down five points a tenth of a percent in
the Nasdaq up twelve points about a tenth of a percent,
so not too much movement there. Ten Your US Treasury
is up three point seven basis points to three point
seven seven three percent. Oil West Texts Intermediate following a
(35:33):
dollar twenty four barrel to seventy thirty two, and we've
got gold here up five dollars and twenty cents nouns
to twenty six eighty two and twenty cents. Also the
triple A national average four gas prices up three tenths
of a cent to three twenty one and three tenths
still footing around that three twenty market, not making any
(35:54):
major further moves lower. As you know, we'd kind of
hoped for it and saw the potential for given gasoline futures,
but hey, three twenty still better than three p fifty,
So we'll take it for now, quick break for the
entire rest of the day. We are back tomorrow, and
we would love it if you joined us here on
(36:15):
the Financial Exchange
The Financial Exchange is produced by Money Matters Radio and
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(01:06):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zutta and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Chuck, Paul and Tucker with your and markets not doing anything.
It's uh you guys ever read XKCD, the like comics
that's online. Nope, there's a good one there. Like guys
sitting there with a stick and he's poking this thing
and he's going do something. That's what this market's like
(01:34):
this week. It's just not really doing much of anything.
And look, that's not bad if you're someone who's benefited
from the run up inequities over the last almost twelve months.
We're up almost forty percent on the S and P
five hundred since mid October of last year. If you're
someone who's benefited during that time, he might be like, Yeah,
I'm cool with it just hanging out here. It doesn't
need to go anywhere else right now, as long as
(01:56):
it doesn't go down again. And so you got the
S and P up one point today, the dows off
one thirty, the nasdaqc's up fifty eight, so just kind
of treading water at this point. I will also point
out that at this point, with three and a half
days left in trading for the month. The S and
(02:16):
P five hundred is still up more than two percent
for the month, despite the pieces that were published after
the first three days of trading suggesting that September was
gonna be another very bad September four equities. Granted, I
know this can still go the other way in the
next three and a half days because markets can move quickly.
But when you publish pieces saying, hey, we've had three
(02:39):
bad days in the market and that means September is
gonna be a bad month, and then it doesn't turn
out to be the bad month, you're gonna get called
out for being kind of the scammy grifter that you are.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That's that's a little harsh.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
No, it's not like we had this. We had another
one earlier this year. It was January fifth, I think
it was. There were three down days to start the year,
worst days of the year in twenty twenty four. I
don't remember if it was Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal
or CNBC, but one of them had this whole piece
that was published about, hey, when when the market does
badly in the first three days, it means that the
(03:16):
year is gonna be bad. And honestly, when you publish
crap like that, you deserve to be called a scammy
grifter because that just doesn't mean anything about what's actually
going to happen.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, sure, but I wasn't against in general. I'm against
that sentiment where you look at CNBC, you know, worst
day in since twenty twenty two, or you know all
these outlandish headlines that they use. I mean, that's the
business that they're in, right, they want to grab your attention.
You can't just put a headline CNBC Stock's not moving
this week, very boring week. Then no one's gonna click
on it. So I get your frustration with that. The
(03:51):
September statistics, though, I did find interesting where there was
a referendum on Hey, actually there's statistical proof thats September
to be the weakest stock line. That commentary I did enjoy,
And that's why I'm pushing back on the slimy grifteris
because I actually did enjoy that commentary.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So there's it's one thing to say before the month, Hey,
September tends to be a bad month for stocks. You're
saying the reactionary It's the problem that I have are
the ones where it's hey, let me pull up the piece.
I just have to get it here, just because again
I want to make sure that I call it out
(04:28):
properly when I when I do this, let's see, Nope,
it's not that one. Where is it going to be?
I'll dig it up just because again it was it
was notable to me. Here we go. It was on
September ninth, after the first four trading days of September,
because the first week of September was shortened because of
(04:50):
labor day. Quote, September is once again a tough month
for stocks. Okay, well, let's wait till My point was, Hey,
let's wait till September and even says, going back to
nineteen twenty eight, the S and P five hundred is
decline average of one point two percent in September, the
weekest month of the year for stocks. Fine, okay, that's
that's that's great that you have it there, But then
(05:13):
you have this this whole thing. I'm trying to find
the part that I that really bothered me. Despite the
market's recent slide, it still looks expensive. By some measures.
Companies are trading twenty one times they projected earnings over
the next twelve months above their ten year average multiple
of eighteen. And it's this whole piece about hey, September's
(05:35):
in the red and this is the norm for September. Okay,
well it's September twenty fifth now and September is not
in the red. Why'd you write this piece after four
days of trading like that? That's the problem is someone
writes this, and yes, I know that they have to
write something, but like, we have a show to do
every day also, and we don't resort to stuff like
(05:57):
this that then influences people to make decision is based
on incomplete information, right, you know, like we do a
show every single day and not once have you ever
heard us come in and you know, big first time
because again this was like front page in the journal
business section. Well the whole journals is the business sect.
But you get what I'm saying. We never come in
(06:18):
and say, hey, this happened and you need to, you know,
sell everything, or this happened and you need to because
that's not how it works, you know, Like and especially
we don't quote incomplete information. You can't quote September returns
after four days. That's very fair, you know, like because
this piece it can't be published. Now the piece of
(06:41):
the if the month ended today, which it hasn't, which
is why you don't publish it today. That headline could be, Hey,
September normally a tough month for stocks, not so bad
through the first you know, twenty five days of the
month actually, which I know doesn't sell anything, but like,
you don't have to get into all this stuff. The
(07:03):
other one that we did it was at the beginning
of the year. Let me get to this because again,
this stuff just bothers me, because people do make trading
decisions based on this and investment decisions based on these pieces,
which we tell them, Hey, look, if you're making an
investment decision based on one piece, you need a better
investment strategy. But there's other stuff that was in here.
(07:29):
Here we go, We've got this one. This is from
January fourth of this year. Major industries have pulled back
in the first three sessions after ending twenty twenty three
with a bang. The S and P is down one
point seven percent. It's worse start to the year since
twenty sixteen. I love those. That's great. The Dow is
down point seven and the Nasdaq is down three point three. Okay,
(07:50):
they quote an investment strategist here. If January is positive,
that's investors putting money to work. They're telling the Federal
Reserve that the economy and the companies they're investing in
that they think they can grow for it. And the
first month is typically strong for stocks. A phenomenon knows
the January effect. Another theory suggests that investors have more
cash to put to work in markets in January after
(08:10):
receiving their year end bonuses. And then it goes on
to talk about, hey, this could you know, be this
early year slump that doesn't pretend well for markets, And
it's like, guys, it's been three days of the year
and you're saying that we need to be nervous because
January could be bad. And guess what, January wasn't bad
this year, Like that's the worst part of it. They
(08:32):
talk about, Oh, this January effect that you need to
watch out for. And stocks were up in January.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Not to mention, they were up twenty four twenty five
percent in the year of twenty twenty three. So you're
coming off the heels of if you participate in the
full year prior, you were up twenty five percent. If
you had the market.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's it's always like everyone always gets a kick out
of being bearished because it makes you sound smart. But
the fact is, if you're actually investing in stocks over
the timeframe that you're supposed to, which is the long term,
being bearish is pretty much the worst consistent investment strategy
(09:10):
that you can have. There are times to go against
the herd and everything, but it's just the bearishness that
comes out when we have three bad days to start
the year, or four bad days to start September. Oh gee,
this is the September that they warned us about. It
(09:31):
just it bothers me because I see people who read
that stuff and they're like, yep, I've got a trade
based on what I saw there, And it just feeds
into the whole idea of hey, the real money if
you look at like, if you look at where the
real money's made in markets. I say this quite a bit.
(09:51):
It's in the flow. It's in being the bro the
company that's actually handling the transactions. It's not in you know, hey,
I need to invest in this or invest in that.
And all these pieces do, in my opinion, is convince
people to do one thing or the other, when in fact,
most of the time. The best thing for them to
do is absolutely nothing, because they have no edge.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Do you have a folder of articles that you put
in your kind of grind your gears folder that you
look at for set occasions.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Not not like this, I should have one for this,
Quite honestly, I keep my I build it up my
Festivus folder over the course of the year. But that's
more just for fun companies we do. We do Festivus
at the end of the year, and that's more for
stories that are just more humorous, you know, the ones
that really bother me. Sometimes you get humorous ones that
(10:41):
do really bother me, Like the Bloomberg one from was
that last year or the year before talking was last year, Yeah,
the Bloomberg one that said, hey, the best way to
deal with inflation is to let your pet die. Oh
gosh it literally it was like, hey, if you can't
you know, pay all of your bills right now, maybe
you should skip out on going to the vet the
next time your pet gets sick. It is expensive. And
(11:02):
it was like, oh, like wow, I didn't realize we
were going there, Like that's a fluffy that just got
really aggressive.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A lot of pet shatter over the last twelve plus months, there.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Has been there has been.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So, now that we've covered that for the entire first segment,
we're going to take a break, and then Corey Adams
from Robert Half is going to join us talking about
this uh burgeoning battle about employees returning to the office
that's ramping up, and so we'll talk to him right
after this.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
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Speaker 4 (11:57):
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Speaker 3 (12:30):
We are joined by Corey Adams from Robert Half who
just put out a piece regarding the return to office battle. Corey,
thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Us, Hey Paul, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Amazon made headlines Corey over the course of the last
week or so when they announced that they were going
to haul all their employees back into the office five
days a week effective January twod and really made a
public display of making this a mandate in something that
they felt was very important. But here in your piece
you covered that there is still a semblance of quite
(13:03):
a bit of hybrid and remote work throughout the New
England area and the rest of the country. What were
some of the biggest takeaways that you had from the
piece that you guys put together regarding remote work?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Corey, Sure, so research for the mid year update as
your reference for Robert has Demand for Skill Talent report
found that thirty seven percent of US job seekers are
interested in fully remote positions, while sixty percent with like
a hybrid role. Thirty one percent of workers planning to
look for a new role in the second half of
(13:33):
this year or those who are currently looking went on
to say that the desire for more flexibility is their
primary driver motivator to look for a new job. And
then in the same survey, thirty eight percent of workers
who aren't looking at all in this moment went on
to say that they're not looking because they do not
want to lose the flexibility that they currently have. And
(13:54):
then the last kind of key finding and a little
bit of a local perspective on this, and I think
this is really encouraging. Massachusetts was amongst the states with
the highest number of newly created hybrid jobs in Q
two of this year at twenty six percent, and that's
up sixteen percent from the same period last year in
twenty twenty three. However, Massachusetts is also on the low
(14:17):
number side of being fully remote jobs reported at eight percent.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It seems like the hybrid is the sweet spot that
most employees are clamoring for. One of the things that
we've been monitoring quite closely is the state of the
labor market in general. Obviously, we were in the golden
age for employees over the course of the last couple
of years, with tremendous wage growth and very low unemployment
around three and a half percent. Today we sit at
four to two percent, and I just wonder, Corey, one
(14:44):
of the thoughts that I had is that as the
pendulum is shifting back towards the employer and unemployment creeps up,
have you seen in any of the data any evidence
that there are more employees trending to going in office
or what has that migration looked like in the other
direction as people coming back to the office. Do you
have any insights there?
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Yeah, so let's just take a national look at this
for a moment. So new fully inoffice job postings actually
declined in twenty twenty three by fourteen percent. Now, at
the end of twenty twenty three, the analysis went on
to show that sixty nine percent of job postings were
for fully on site rules and that held steady in
(15:26):
the first quarter of this year. Now, in Q two,
which is when the survey was conducted, the figure fell
to sixty seven percent.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
So you've got this dynamic happening nationwide.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
At least you're seeing a decrease right now for in
office five days a week, but you're also seeing a
decrease for fully remote. And then the juxtaposition of that
is you're seeing the rise and increase of hybrid.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
So I basically think it's safe to say.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
That the flexible work model across the US is currently
shifting to hybrid.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Seem like that is the case. Perhaps Amazon just stands
out as an anomaly here in this sector. If this
is Corey Adams from Robert Half Corey, thanks so much
for taking the time today speak with us.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Thanks, Paul, I was a pleasure of Good Week.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Paul. You familiar with Google, Yes, am, so. They're probably
one of the four biggest tech companies on the planet,
and they filed an EU anti trust complaint accusing Microsoft
of anti competitive practices as it relates to cloud services.
(16:38):
And what's interesting to me about this is not whether
or not there's any merit to it, because I have
absolutely no idea. What's interesting to me is that Google
filed it in the first place.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Because Kellen calling the kettle black, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
It seems to me, just based on my basic understanding
of how Google's business operates, and I don't know, maybe
the two different anti trust cases that have been brought
against them in the US recently, that maybe they're not
really I don't know, maybe poking Microsoft this way isn't
the best thing for them, because I'm sure Microsoft has
(17:15):
loads of data that they can say, Okay, you think
we're anti competitive here, fine, we're gonna file over search
in the EU because of reasons X, Y and Z,
and now you've got to deal with this as well,
and we'll just you know, rack up legal costs for
each other.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
What was their search engine?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Bing? Is that Microsoft's? That tells you how well Microsoft
is doing?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yes, yeah, I was about to I was about to
google what is Microsoft's search engine? That's just say that's
where they That's where.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
They sit at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
That was the most amusing takeaway that I had to
is that Google is out there throwing their weight around
the antitrust pool where they often swim in that same
pool themselves. EU is the best place to do it.
We'll see how that lawsuit trains tanspires here.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So that's the latest between these two tech companies. And
again I have no idea of what Google is alleging
has any merit, but.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Generally, when you're anti competitive, it's best not to accuse
other people of being anti competitive too.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
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(18:40):
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Speaker 2 (18:43):
Let's talk a little bit about restaurants here. There's a
piece in Bloomberg Opinion. Headline is restaurant customers aren't tapped out,
they're just bored. Your thoughts on the piece and what
it says, Paul, It.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Was an interesting piece here, basically breaking down a group
of restaurants that have really struggled post pandemic. Obviously there
was a surge when restaurants reopened, but they've struggled over
the last couple of years compared to others in the
fast casual space that have done a little bit better.
So basically sort of pinning Chipotle, whose stock is up
two hundred and forty six percent since twenty nineteen against
(19:17):
some of it's I wouldn't say necessarily direct competitor peers,
but swimming in the same sort of space Darden restaurants,
Applebee's Outback, and Denny's other sort of casual sit down
restaurants that all are trading below their twenty nineteen levels
and have struggled quite a bit. And basically what this
Bloomberg piece is outlining is that those restaurants, all of
(19:39):
Garden and others, have failed to innovate the way that
Chipotle has. And I've been trying to rack my brain
and think, Chuck, it just seems like they're in that
middle ground that isn't very appealing at this point in
time when I think about my own personal dining habits,
where either if you're looking for something that's kind of
a casual meal, you're kind of skewing to the pickup
(20:00):
delivery side of things.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But if I really want.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
To go out to eat, I kind of want to
do it on the nicer end of things, you know,
have a couple of drinks with my wife and have
a good time when I go out. And that middle
tier section that all of Garden kind of falls in
is just not as appealing, And I wonder if that's
the reason why they've seen sort of a cut down
in traffic and sales growth there.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
So I guess the question that I would have on
something like that is why now, because that's always been
the case, Like it's you've always had kind of Okay,
you get cheaper options, you know, the fast casual places
have always been around. The high end places have always
been around, but there's always been this you know, middle
area for the Applebee's and cracker barrels and those of
(20:41):
the world. So why are they like what specifically is
making people view them differently now because that was a
very successful business model for a long a long time.
And and just the idea that hey, there, you know
people are bored with going out to dinner. I don't
(21:02):
know that that does enough to get me there, because
we're still seeing very much increase spending on traveling things
like that you will get you know, tsa throughput, and
it's still is setting all new records. Airlines have said,
look like we're seeing some weakening demand in the future,
but hey, overall, you're still seeing all kinds of spending
on travel and all that stuff. So it's not just
(21:25):
services related spending in general declining, And so I can't
make heads or tails of like the exact reason, but
just oh, like people have gotten sick of these places?
Why'd they get sick of them now? Why not ten
years ago or twenty years Why today?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I wonder if the innovation on the Chipotle side of things,
or all those restaurants where their product is just so
much easier to obtain now, whether it's pick up through
their mobile app, delivery options through Uber Eats, whether that
just makes them so much easier to grab that there's
not need to really go to this middle tier. And
again I'm spitballing here that you know, the excuse that
(22:05):
they've leaned on the most, the alli of guards of
the world is that their lower income consumer or their
lower income patron that they typically make the most of
their money on, they've cut back significantly and spending. But
that does run in the face as you mentioned, that
services spending in general has kept up paced pretty well.
So it's an interesting debate to me, and it's not
(22:26):
really exactly pinpoint the direct reason, but everyone has their
theories as to what's going on.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
There, folks, want to let you know that the Armstrong
Advisory Group is hosting two different seminars this fall. The
first it's coming up in just a couple of weeks
at the MGM Hotel in Springfield's on Tuesday, October eighth,
will be broadcasting from the hotel, which is connected right
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(22:50):
All you do is take the elevator down to the
casino floor, short walk to the hotel from there. So
that's on October eighth. The next one is at the
Margarita Hotel and Resort in Hyanas. That's on October twenty fourth,
so about a month from now, and that's gonna have
Ed Lambert, host of the WXTK Morning Show, joining us
(23:10):
there as well. In both cases, you join us for
a live broadcast of the Financial Exchange, followed by an
educational lunch with the Armstrong Advisory Group. What are we
gonna be talking about maybe the upcoming presidential election, maybe
the policies that each candidate have proposed and what effect
those policies might have on the current economic landscape. We'll
(23:33):
also talk a little bit about potential market volatility and
how that might influence decision making going forward. You can
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by visiting Armstrong Advisory dot com slash Events. That's Armstrong
Advisory dot Com Slash Events. Just fill out the form
(23:53):
associated with the event that you'd like to attend, and
again that is Armstrongadvisory dot Com Slash Events.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal or tax advice. Consult
your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
advisory services.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Piece in the New York Times, sticking with the restaurant
topic here, restaurant portions are about to get smaller our
Americans ready, And basically what this is talking about is that, look,
portion sizing's gotten a little bit out of control. Mean,
how many times do you go when you say, Okay,
I'm getting a burger at this place and it comes
with literally a mountain of fries so big that you
(24:38):
couldn't hold them all with two hands if you tried to.
And I'll be honest, I view it as a personal
challenge to try to eat every one of those fries.
I might not think that as I'm sitting down, I
might say, well, I'll just need a few of them,
but as long as they're on my plate, I'm going
to keep eating. Is basically where I end up.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
That's the biggest mental hurdle that I had to overcome
is I'm the same mindset where whenever I go out
to a restaurant, you view it as kind of a hey,
a special occasion, you're out of the house, and what's
on my plate. I'm paying for it or someone's paying
for it. I want to get the most out of
this meal. I've got to clear my plate. And what
that results in for years was terrible stomach aches because
(25:17):
I overdid it. And I still even we were out
to dinner this past week and my wife with the kids,
where we're trying to get in now quickly, I still
found myself kind of kicking myself that we ordered more
food than we ultimately consume. And it backs up waste
studies that they've done that forty percent of restaurant foods
according to a study in twenty twenty, get discarded because
(25:37):
their portion sizes are so big and you don't consume
it the whole time. So it's it's a problem that
I agree with that it is very standard in most
American restaurants, and according to a twenty twenty four National
Restaurant Association survey, seventy five percent of us out there
Americans want smaller portions for less money.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
No, I don't think this means we're gonna get you know,
one French fry or anything like that. But the whole
premise of this piece is one of the major forces
that is reshaping the restaurant industry is restaurants trying to
stay cost competitive because of inflation in their supply costs
the last couple of years. Hey, if you can just
shrink the number of French fries that you give, you know,
(26:19):
things like that. Okay, you got ways that you can
potentially figure out how to manage your pricing and still
maintain fair value. Now, there are in any restaurant. You
talk to any restaurant owner, chef, for anyone who knows
the business side of a restaurant, they'll tell you, Look,
there are certain items that are higher margin than others. Okay, pizza,
(26:41):
I was going Caesar salad with it, you know, that
pizza from the margin. The pricing. So I had a
buddy of mine who lives in New York text me
the other day. It was like he was complaining about
how expensive pizzas and I'm like, okay, like send me
the pricing that you're getting. And this was not from
like crazy high end place. It wasn't Dominoes, but it was,
(27:03):
you know, good middle of it. It's like twenty eight
dollars for a large pizza in New York. Wow, I'm
sitting there, I'm like, my goodness, you know, like that's
a lot for a pizza. You know, I'm not saying
it needs to be ten dollars, because I understand that
it's not nineteen ninety three anymore. But I don't know.
It feels to me like you start getting a pizza
(27:25):
north of nineteen twenty bucks and you're kind of like,
this better be a really good pizza, right, you know,
like this better be life changing. And most of the
time it's it's pizza. You know, it's just what it is.
But in any case, so you've got economics that are
kind of weighing on things. You also have the rise
of these GLP one drugs that are now you know,
(27:47):
causing a bunch of Americans to lose weight. I say causing,
like it's a bad thing. They're losing weight because of
these and the reason why is it depresses their appetite. Well,
if that's the case, you don't you know, you don't
go into a restaurant looking for the same portion size
that you used to have into restaurants ad just as
a result of that by offering, you know, some smaller
portion sizes that are available and things like that. So
(28:09):
I think we're at this really interesting junction where a
combination of a few factors could reshape how big meal
sizes are at sit down restaurants. And I'll be honest
with like, it's going to be really interesting to see
how it plays out and how that affects, you know,
the balance of how these businesses operate over the next
(28:29):
five to seven years. Here definitely stake a quick break,
Rooney when we come back, time for stack Roulette.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
The Financial Exchange streams live on YouTube. Like our page
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Speaker 4 (29:00):
The Financial Exchange has built an incredible partnership with the
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take part in this year's DAB five K, set for Saturday,
November ninth at Fort Independence on Castle Island and registrations
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(29:21):
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Speaker 2 (29:36):
Paul, What do you have for me for stack Roulette?
Speaker 5 (29:39):
Chuck?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
We'll kick it off with the CEO of Novo Nordis
was grilled yesterday by the Senate regarding weight loss drug pricing.
Nova Nordisk is famously behind ozempic as well as well
GOVI I believe is the pronunciation that I've heard it
pronounced otherways, but regardless, you know what I'm talking about
weight loss drugs, and the focus of this Senate meet
(30:00):
was to grill him on the weight loss drug pricing.
Nova Nordice ozempic drug retails for I believe, around thirteen
hundred bucks a month, or nine sixty nine for ozempic
and thirteen fifty for a Goovi in the United States
and in many other countries out there, you can get
it for much lower than that, in the hundreds of
dollars a month, whether you're talking about Germany or others
(30:21):
out there. And while I would agree that the sticker
price is high, the crux of the issue comes back
to just how convoluted and messed up our system is
on the healthcare side of things, where you have the
manufacturer nov Nordice going with a list price of that
one thousand dollars a month, then you have the PBMs,
(30:42):
the pharmacy benefit managers that are charge of negotiating against
that list price, and then you have the health insurance provider,
and those three people are all taking a cut at
some point in time during that transaction, which leads to
these exorbitant list prices in order to get to the
end consumer. And so nothing was really resolved as a
result of this meeting, but it's certainly something that is
(31:04):
in the headlines because it's surge in popularity as it
tries to address OBC in this country, which there's a
large market to hit.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, it's Look, I don't have any unique insight on
drug pricing or how it should or shouldn't work. I
don't know. The piece that most people I think look
at and object to is that difference in cost between
what it is in the United States and in other
economies that are similar in nature. Again, the UK and Germany,
(31:33):
I think you'd classify as you know, pretty similar in
terms of their their developed countries without you know, too
much overall economic growth. And you see the pricing that
that they're getting, and so you sit there and you're like, Okay,
why is the list priced so much higher? And the
answer is, well, the US healthcare system is basically combining
the worst parts of the private and public sector into
(31:55):
something that makes it just this albatross that you can't
really figure out how it works or change in any
meaningful fashion. It's just kind of gross. How do we
fix it? I have no idea, you know, I'm not
going to sit here and like be like, oh, well,
we got to I don't know. There's a bunch of
smart people that look at this and they have yet
(32:16):
to figure out the best things that we can do
on it. What I can't tell you is what we're
doing is probably not the answer. And most of the
criticisms that I think tend to be valid are as
you mentioned, Hey, there's a bunch of middlemen that get
rid of transparency and pricing and take a cut for themselves,
And if you were to streamline that whole process, you,
(32:38):
I think have a better ability to actually get the
kind of pricing that you want to see with more
transparency and fewer profits being taken in the middle by
people that don't really do anything in terms of actually
affecting health outcomes.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Medicare goes
up to negotiate with the Nova noordice and whether or
not to cover a ZEMPE that should be done in
twenty twenty five, and the price changes if any, or
if they cover, would go into effect in twenty seven.
So interest to see what happens there.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Piece in the New York Times, the Biden administration is
announced a sweeping initiative to ban Chinese developed software from
Internet connected cars in the United States, justifying this on
national security grounds. And this is basically something that look,
(33:30):
we've talked about quite a bit in terms of the
potential for espionage, you know, on American citizens through you know,
back doors that lead to the Chinese military. And so
the Biden administration proposing this, whether or not it actually
makes it into effect, and how watered down it is
and how strong it is I think remains to be seen.
(33:52):
But look, this is something that is a major concern
for me in terms of the ability of the Chinese
military potentially access information about the mobility and transportation of
all Americans, but in particular those with access to you know,
classified or sensitive technology and who might work in areas
(34:13):
that make them vulnerable to you know, potential espionage. And
so this is something that I view is welcome, But
I don't know how strong it's going to be because
it still is just a proposal and we don't have
the final rules and what kind of carve outs might
exist in here.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, I think it's important to make the point that
this is a national security concern rather than the tariff's
assessed on the EV's exportation from China, which I believe
it's one hundred percent tariff on any EV's come from China.
It's not something that really there was any cars prior
to that tariff in being in place being imported that
were electrical vehicles from China. But this is more focused
(34:51):
on not because of the trader economic advantage. It's all
about national security and it's something that I can certainly
get behind too, and many other should be in a
similar boat where you just don't want any way for
them to leverage any sort of vespionage practices in place
if this were to proliferate Chinese software through our vehicles.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Taking a look at markets as we head towards the
top of the hour, the Dow was off two hundred
and seventeen points, about half a percent. SP five hundred
is down five points a tenth of a percent in
the Nasdaq up twelve points about a tenth of a percent,
so not too much movement there. Ten Your US Treasury
is up three point seven basis points to three point
seven seven three percent. Oil West Texts Intermediate following a
(35:33):
dollar twenty four barrel to seventy thirty two, and we've
got gold here up five dollars and twenty cents nouns
to twenty six eighty two and twenty cents. Also the
triple A national average four gas prices up three tenths
of a cent to three twenty one and three tenths
still footing around that three twenty market, not making any
(35:54):
major further moves lower. As you know, we'd kind of
hoped for it and saw the potential for given gasoline futures,
but hey, three twenty still better than three p fifty,
So we'll take it for now, quick break for the
entire rest of the day. We are back tomorrow, and
we would love it if you joined us here on
(36:15):
the Financial Exchange
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