Let's Talk Money

December 14th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and good morning everybody. This is Stephen Bouchet. I'm
sitting here live December fourteenth. Christmas is around the corner,
and Honikah starts tonight, So happy Honikah to everybody who celebrates.
And Christmas will be here before we know it, and
then it'll be a new year and the clock starts
ticking again. It's funny how we reset, isn't it every

(00:21):
January first? Whether it be our New Year's resolutions or
looking at the stock market. But everything keeps going and
going and going. Here we are. The holiday season is
before us, and this year is flying by. If you
have any questions this morning, any questions whatsoever, Folks, give
me a call. I would love to talk to you

(00:42):
and get you pointed in the right direction. I promise
I'll give you my honest opinion. You may not like
to hear it your advisor, if you're working with an
advisor who's not doing a good job for you, they
may not want to hear it. But I promise I'll
give you my honest opinion any questions that you asked me.
The phone lines are open. I'm sitting here this morning

(01:04):
with Elijah and Kate, Katie, my producers today, So give
us a call one eight hundred Talk WGY one eight
hundred eighty five five nine four nine, Any questions whatsoever.
I know Harmony did the show yesterday. She's one of
my rock stars. She always does a great job on
the show and very very smart. Harmony is truly. You know,

(01:28):
I'm surrounded by twenty colleagues and we just hired a
twenty first colleague who will start on January fifth. And
I'm blessed, folks, when I tell you I'm blessed. I'm
blessed to have the talent, the level of professionalism that
I have in all of my colleagues that work alongside me.

(01:50):
So yesterday was Harmony, and you never know who you get,
but today you have me. The phone lines are open,
one eight hundred eighty five nine, Any questions whatsoever. So
you know, the week, depending on how you want to
look at it, you know, the winner was gold. Gold
was up two percent. Gold was just on a tear.

(02:13):
I admitted it last week. I think that I missed
getting in on the gold trade. I just never thought
it would go from you know, two thousand dollars announced
to forty three hundred announced. That's where it closed on Friday.
The all time high was forty three thirty six this

(02:33):
past week, and it's up sixty four percent year to date.
So for you gold bugs, my hack goes off to here,
you made some money. You made some good money, really
good money. Right. The Russell two thousand and the equal
weight in Dexas did well. Russell two thousand was up
one point, which was nice to see. You hear me

(02:57):
say it often. We need more than just the Magnificent seven,
those big tech names to take part in the market rally.
That's when you know the market rally is broadening out.
So the Rustle two thousand did well. All the indexes
this week hit all new all time highs, which which
was nice to see. I mean, you hear me say

(03:19):
it often. And I was actually at a function last night.
Somebody was saying, oh, the stock market. I said, yeah,
this isn't a beautiful thing. I said. The stock market
goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down.
Funny though, it always goes on to make new all
time highs. That's a funny thing about the stock market.
So if you have time on your side, if you're
not a day trader. You need to be patient and

(03:41):
you can't let volatility rock you. The SMP down six
point or I'm sorry, no, down point sixty three percent,
not six SMP down point sixty three percent, and NASDAC
Composite down one point sixty two percent. Qqq M, remember

(04:01):
we talked about that last week. Our traders actually traded.
We sold our qqq and bought QQQM, same exact, same exact.
It follows the Nasdaq one hundred index. The only difference
is the internal management fee is less expensive, and my
traders are always looking to save our clients money because

(04:22):
the fees are there, we talk about them, we disclose them.
We're very transparent whether you buy it. Anity have three
percent on average internal management fees, mutual funds on average
one percent, or exchange traded funds, which is predominantly what
we use in our portfolios. We don't have any any
neutral funds, and we don't obviously have any annuities. We

(04:46):
don't sell annuities, and we just have a couple individual
stocks that's Apple and Amazon, so ETFs. It's important, and
our core holdings start out at point zero three percent,
point zero three percent, and that's all that's a big
savings to mutual funds and annuities, which is one of

(05:07):
the reasons why we we like investing our clients hard
earned money into ets, and that our total portfolios are
less than point two zero percent when you add up
all the you know, the average fees that we use
with our strategies, so we really we really look to

(05:29):
save our clients some money, and that's a beautiful thing
when we can make money for our clients without taking
any undue risk and using the most cost effective investment
vehicles possible. So you're to date, the SMP up sixteen
point one percent, with dividends up over seventeen percent, Nasdaq

(05:50):
Composit and QQQN, the NANSDAK one hundred up just about
twenty percent, and even the Russell two thousand is up
almost fifteen percent. There you had it. One thing that
is coming down our mortgage rates. You know, the thirty
year fifteen year average rates, the thirty years closer to

(06:12):
six percent than seven and the fifteen years under six percent.
So if you're looking to buy a home or sell
your home and you know, upgrade to another home, it's
becoming more affordable mortgage when interest rates come down, folks.
Mortgage rates follow usually follow, and it's it's nice use.

(06:35):
It just allows the consumer to afford more and allows
businesses to be able to invest into their businesses because
the cost of borrowing money is a lot lower. And
even for our great country, the USA, when when you
think about the money that we spend on interest paying

(06:56):
people who buy our tea bills, treasury notes, treasurey mind
you know, whether it be individuals, corporations, or countries, foreign countries,
we had to pay interest on the bonds that they
Basically they're loaning us money. So when when you buy
a treasury you are loaning the government money. If you

(07:20):
buy a CD, you are loaning that bank money and
they they promised to pay you a certain interest rate
and they take that money and they'll maybe you know, banks,
what do you think they do with your money? If
they're paying you three four on a CD, they're taking
that money and maybe loaning it to your neighbor buying

(07:42):
a car at seven, eight, nine, ten. And that's how
banks make their money. So they're when interest rates come down.
This is why President of Trump is adamant. He wants
to see interest rates come down more. We did have
an interest rate cut this past week. It was nice
to see J. Powell come out and the third meeting

(08:02):
in a row where they cut point two five percent.
And that's you know, that's good news for the consumers.
It's good news for the stock market, and it's it's
it's good news for this great country of our spiece.
We won't be paying as much in interest. One eight
hundred eight two five five nine four nine. I'm gonna
take a quick fifteen second freak, folks. You can go

(08:26):
ahead and count the seconds. Fifteen seconds. I'll you right back.
The phone lines are open. One eight hundred eight two
five five nine four nine. So, speaking of the Fed,
President Trump is going to name a new He's you know,
he's not happy with Jay Powells. So Ja Powell's not
going to get his his chairmanship renewed. And President Trump

(08:46):
is leaning towards choosing either former FED Governor Kevin Walsh
or National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett to lead the
Federal Reserve next. You know, as we come into the
new year early on in the New York J. Powell
will be stepping aside. And in an interview with The
Wall Street Journal on Friday, President Trump said Walsh is

(09:10):
on top of his list. Basically, his quote is, yes,
I think he is. I think you have Kevin and Kevin.
They're both. I think the two Kevins are great. And
during that meeting he had a meeting with Kevin Walsh.
We have two Kevins that are in the running. And

(09:31):
what's nice, folks, You may not realize this, but our
next Fed Reserve chair could be right from our backyard
here in the Capitol Region area. Kevin Walsh grew up
in Loudonville. He's a great guy, a smart guy. Used
to be a you know, a Fed governor from two
thousand and six to twenty eleven, former George W. Bush

(09:52):
Administration economic advisor, and he worked on Wall Street. The
guy is smart. So that would be nice. That would
be a nice feather in our cap if by chance,
Kevin worsh is picked as the next Federal Reserve chair.
And if not, he'll he'll he'll he'll have a pretty
good job. He's really just uh, a dynamic individual and

(10:16):
a local, a local guy. So hats off to Kevin
for for being in the running for such a prestigious
you know chairmanship. I mean just folks that that that
that's pretty outstanding. And you know, as I said, the
Federal Reserve officials reinforced Friday, why this past week's ray

(10:40):
cut was so, you know, it wasn't a unanimous decision,
you know, basically one one person argued that the central
Bank had room to keep cutting if the labor market
continues to saw Others warned that rapecuts could threaten the
Fed's hard one work on inflation. Remember was nine point

(11:01):
two percent a few years ago, came all the way down.
We're under three percent or somewhere around three. The Fed
has a target of two. I'm not sure if we'll
get there or not, but we're definitely under three percent.
And that's a whole lot better than the nine point
two percent we experienced a few years ago. So the
Bank on Wednesday, you know, right at two o'clock two fifteen,

(11:23):
they voted, there's twelve governors that vote nine to three
to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point to
a range between three point five and three point seventy
five percent. Two voters favored no cut and one preferred
a larger reduction. So one felt that the event should
have cut more than point two five percent should have

(11:44):
gone all in foer point five oh percent. That's pretty
cutsy right. I'm sure President Trump likes to hear that,
because he's been publicly publicly saying that the FED needs
to do more. We need to get this this economy going.
We're going to have the jobs report from November, which
should have been released the first week of December, coming

(12:07):
out on Tuesday. I think it is because of the
government shut down. They just can't get that information together.
Crazy right, So we'll we'll see what the job's number
was like in for November and the revisions for October
and September. It's always nice to see what the revised
number is and if that made their decision last week

(12:30):
without having that number, they did not. They do not
know what the labor market looked like in the month
of November, so they're going on obviously outdated numbers going
back October before, and they still, you know, basically cut
by zero point two five nine to three. As I said,

(12:52):
So there you go. We you know, we the stock
markets like that, and I think I'm in the case
that this stock market rally will continue. I don't see
any reason why I don't think we're heading into a recession.
You know, we're gonna have some bumps in the road.

(13:12):
The market's had a good run, folks, for a long time.
And I'm not talking just this year. The market has
had a great run. And we'll see what happens. But
the market, you know, listen, it's nice when you see
the market up over the last eleven years, including this year.

(13:33):
When you see the market up nine out of those
eleven years. That's why I say, when there's volatility in
the marketplace, do not do not get scared, folks, Do
not get out of the market because there's a little volatility.
You go back all the way back to twenty and fifteen.
The only two years where the market, if you want

(13:56):
to look at the S and P five hundred was
down was two thousand and then eighteen down four point
five six percent, and twenty twenty two down eighteen point
one seven percent. But every other year, the market, the
market has just been on a roar, doing amazing. The
ten year average of the S and P year in

(14:17):
year out almost fifteen percent, so two out of eleven years,
and the same you know, if you look at qqq QQQM,
if you look at that long term, same thing. In
twenty eighteen it was down point one two percent, so
you know, you're splitting hairs. It almost broke even, and

(14:39):
twenty twenty two it was down thirty two point five
eight percent, but then it came back in twenty twenty
three and up almost fifty five percent. So there you
have it. You know, you can have a big down
year like twenty twenty two, and if you got out,
you you missed out, because the following year the market
did well, up fifty five percent. Twenty twenty four up
twenty five point five eight eight percent, and year to

(15:01):
date the Nanstak is up twenty percent. I always talk
about Nanstac because it's our number one holding that in
the S and P five hundred indecks are our top holdings,
So that's that's why I talk about that no matter
as well. Talk about bonds. Right, if you look over
the last eleven years, bonds were down two out of

(15:23):
those eleven years as well, So if you you know,
I'm looking at the ICE shares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF,
which is really like the SMP index, it's the bond index,
and it was down two out of those eleven years.
Going all the way back to twenty and fifteen. And
the difference is, you know, so here the SMP is

(15:45):
up on average fifteen percent fourteen to fifteen percent over
over the last fifteen years, NASTAC up almost nineteen percent
over the last fifteen years year in year out average return,
and you're turn almost nineteen percent, and the bond de
decks over the same fifteen year period, up two point

(16:08):
three seven percent. So did not obviously did not do
as well as stocks did. And this is why, you know,
a lot of people add bonds to their portfolio to
reduce the volatility of the stock market. And I always
remind investors there's risk in everything every asset class that
you buy, whether it be stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, crypto,

(16:35):
holding cash, there's risk in every asset class. You have
to think about the risk and decide if you want
to live with that risk or not. But there's volatility
in every asset class. Stocks always taken on the chin.
Everybody always wants to talk about the stock market, the
stock market, the stock market. Now you say, well, there's
a whole lot more to talk about than just the

(16:57):
stock market. Folks. You know, when people say, hey, how
did the markets do I look them in the eye?
I say which markets? I said, there's a lot of
markets out there. You got Hannofverg, you got price Shopper,
you get the picture. So when it comes to investing,
you got a whole lot of markets out there to
choose from. And now you know, we got crypto. We

(17:20):
got bitcoin under ninety thousand dollars. Bitcoin has been on
a rip roaring, you know, roller coaster ride. It was
eighty five thousand back in the spring, went all the
way up to one hundred and twenty thousand, came back
to one hundred and eight thousand, went all the way
up to like one hundred and sixteen thousand, came back
to you know, around the eighty five thousand mark, which

(17:42):
is when we bought and we did buy some bitcoin
for our clients. It'll be an aggressive position, a volatile position,
but our clients know we manage that risk and we
think over time our clients will make money. It's a
small position in the portfolio. We we don't go create easy,
but we wanted it in the portfolio and I think

(18:03):
it'll bring some diversification and if if crypto does what
we think it will, you know, listen, it's becoming more regulated,
it's being accepted, and pretty soon you're going to be
able to buy it in your four Human K Plans
More and More forum when K plans are looking at
adding crypto is a choice. So it's it's it's there,

(18:28):
you know, it's it's it's a force to be reckoned
with one eight hundred eighty two five five nine four
nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine forty nine.
Any questions whatsoever, folks, give me a call. So the
big news this weekend Toddcolm's uh surprised departure from Berkshire Hathaway.

(18:51):
You know it was announced that here we have we
have Warren Buffett getting ready to retire. I think in
May he's retired and maybe it's the end of this month.
But you know, Todd Colmes, it's you know, that was
a big, big surprise to brichare Hanthaway and you know

(19:13):
Warren Buffett is retiring at the end of the year
and the new CEO will be Greg Abell. I mean
maybe Todd left because he wasn't the chosen one that
that happens. You know, there's so much emotion when you
want to be the leader and if somebody else gets
picked over you, you know your your your feelings get
hurt and maybe you move on. Todd Holmes moved on

(19:36):
to the JP Morgan Chase. He's going to head up
a ten billion dollar strategic investment group and we'll we'll
see what he does there. We'll see who replaces him.
Jamie Diamond, who I like, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase,
called Todd Holmes one of the greatest investors and leaders

(19:57):
I've known. So that's a big loss to Berkshire. Warren
Buffett basically said JP Morgan, as usually as the case,
has made a good decision, praising Combs for making many
great hires at Combs. Combs kind of had the head
of the Geico insurance unit for Berkshire Hathaway. He's fifty

(20:18):
four years old. He's got a long, long career ahead
of him. So he left Berkshire Hathaway and as I said,
that was that was a surprise. And Warren Buffett retires
the end of this year, in another three short weeks,
and we'll well, we'll see how the new guy does.
I'm pretty sure Warren Buffett took years to choose his successor.

(20:42):
And I'm pretty sure that Warren Buffett, you know, he
doesn't he doesn't mess around. I'm sure he feels greg
Abel is the person to head up all of Berkshire Hathaway.
But that was that was big news over the weekend
or over the past week, let's say, and a big surprise,

(21:06):
as I said, a big surprise. One eight hundred eight
two five five nine four nine. One eight hundred eight
two five fifty nine forty nine. Give me a call
if you have any any questions, anything on your mind
at all, folks, give me a call. One eight hundred
eighty two five fifty nine forty nine. I would love

(21:27):
to talk to you, get your pointed in the right direction.
And Deuie and Katie would love to talk to you.
They're my producers sitting in the studio, and that'll be
the first people you talk to. And then you'll you'll
you'll talk to me. They'll put you on with me.
I'm just looking at our website, you know, I keep
promoting on our website. Piece. We have a lot of

(21:48):
good information on our on our website and if you
just go to the homepage, you know the three things
that we have pointed out as you know, we have.
Paulo la pietro U wrote the December Market Insights, a
month of headlines and opportunity. And yes, we look at
volatility as an opportunity. I can't begin to say that enough.

(22:12):
And if you're an investor, if you want to be
a good investor, when you see volatility, grasp it, absorb it,
wrap your arms around it. Use it as an opportunity.
That's that's really what it is. You know, when when
when when you have volatility in the marketplace, it gives
you an opportunity of maybe getting rid of some dogs,

(22:36):
buying into Like we took the volatility in crypto when
we saw it come all the way back to the
mid eighties, we decided it was an opportunity to buy
and we we we bought for our clients. So that's
how you have to look at at volatility, you know.
So we have that we had the holiday season of

(22:56):
time to give back, Strategies to maximize impact and tacks
written by Scott Stracker, and then we have our year
end planning a video up there all on our web page,
all right there on the homepage for you to few folks.
I can't for listening to Let's Talk Money this morning,

(23:17):
brought to you by Bouchef and Andrew, where we help
our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth
for life. We are going to take a quick break
for the news, but I promise I will be back
after the news break. I promise you that I'm not
going anywhere. We have another half hour to talk, and
I hope you give me a call if you want
to talk. One eight hundred eight two five five nine

(23:40):
four nine one eight hundred eight two five fifty nine
forty nine. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for staying tuned
in through the news. Thank you for tuning in today.
I can't thank you enough on this this Sunday, Sunday, Sunday,
Sunday Funday. Right, a little nippy out there, but it
was colder over the last couple of weeks than it

(24:01):
is today. I mean, at least we're in the twenties today.
And I want to take a minute to say Happy Hanukkah.
Honikahs begins tonight and we enter the holiday season. So
happy Honikah to everybody celebrating Hanukkah. I wish you the
happiest of of especial next eight days one eight hundred

(24:23):
eighteen five five nine four nine, one eight hundred eighty
two five fifty nine forty nine. If you have any
questions whatsoever, folks, you know, give give me a call. Uh,
you know, I can't begin to tell you. I'll give
you my my honest opinion and help get your pointed

(24:45):
in the right direction. One eight hundred eighty five fifty
nine forty nine. So you know, this past week, the
dollars slipped as investors, you know, awaited results of the
serve policy meeting. We know on Wednesday they came out
and reduced interesting said stocks. You know, they started out

(25:07):
the week down and for the most part the S
and P and NANISAC ended the week down. President Trump
launched more interviews for the FED chair as the FED
cut rates, and as I said, the FED was not
unanimous nine to three votes. Governors voted against eighty cups
and one wanted a bigger cut than the point five percent.

(25:29):
So there you have it. Oil rose after the US
ceased sanction oil tanker off of Venezuela. I guess we're
not fooling around down there. And then you know, oil
fell on Fox going on in Ukraine. Stock stocks like Oracle,

(25:50):
you know, a lot of tech stocks plumbs this week.
Oracle missed on revenue and race spending, you know, and
as I said in the first half of the show,
the S and P down about point sixty three percent,
Mastack down one point six percent. So it wasn't a
good week. But you're to date, we're we're doing just fine.
We are doing just fine. And on Tuesday, we'll have

(26:14):
the jobs report for November. We'll see what the numbers
were and the revised numbers for October and September. It's
you know, the revised numbers are probably more important than
the actual number announcem because there's always a revision and
sometimes the numbers are are reduced or they rise in

(26:37):
the revised reports. So we'll see what the revised reports are.
Economists are forecasting a fifty thousand increase in non farm
payrolls after one hundred and nineteen thousand game in September.
The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at four
point four percent. Jobs growth has slowed this year to

(26:58):
about seventy six thousars in a month on average through September. Well, well, well,
we'll say you know, it's all about jobs, right We
want people out there working, and the jobs market has
soften a little, which is why I think the FED
decided to cut rates, Because there's other parts of the

(27:19):
economy that show that inflation may be a little stingy,
and there's almost you know, it's almost mixed signals going
out there. So the FED cut rates by a quarter
point and you know, but believing that doesn't give you
the green light for for reckless investing. It just means
that I'm optimistic that I think the stock markets will

(27:43):
rejoice in that. I think it will. It will, it
will be good. Lower rates are generally good for stocks, folks,
but not all stocks benefit equally. So lower rates are
generally good for stocks. When rates fall, leadership in the
market often changes. Investors who don't adapt get left behind.

(28:04):
Bonds are no longer the boring part of the portfolio.
When you have interest rate cuts, they're you know, all
of a sudden, there's some action, and you know, as
with every great portfolio, diversification is important, you know, psychologically, Listen, folks,

(28:25):
you know there's a lot of investors out there that
feel the biggest risk right now isn't missing the rally,
it's chasing yesterday's winners, and that's you can't chase yesterday's winners.
You know. Basically, the markets don't move on today's news.
They move on what comes next. The market is always

(28:45):
looking out three six, nine months. Volatility isn't the enemy.
Emotional decision making is the enemy. You know, making a
decision based on your emotion is never good. You gotta
almost take a deep breath and think about why you
want to make the change that you want to make,

(29:07):
and don't sell out of stocks just because there's volatility.
I give this statistic often over the last forty four years,
stocks on average high to low Pete de Trough swing
fourteen percent on average fourteen percent high to low every

(29:27):
year on average, some years more, some years less. But
on average the stock market is, you know, from Pete
de Trough fourteen percent a year. So volatility comes, especially
in the stock market. You know the the I love stocks.

(29:48):
You know, if you listen to the show more than once,
you know that I volatility doesn't scare me when the
markets are are down. I never, ever, folks, I never
look at my portfolio. I can almostly say that I
know I have good investments, and I'll ride it out.
The only time I look at it is if I
want to make a change and take advantage of volatility.

(30:12):
But I don't. I don't look at my portfolio, and
investors get so emotional. You know, you've got some people
that are looking at your portfolio every every day, every
hour on the hour they're they're looking, and that's crazy.
That just creates stress. Folks, we don't need stress in
our life. Stress it's not good for us. You hear

(30:34):
me say often. When we have our health, we have everything.
And if you're fortunate enough to have your spouse or partner,
a loved one near you, then God, you're pretty lucky.
And if financially you can make things happen, don't mess
around because you never know when your health or your
loved one, when the situation may change. We don't have

(30:55):
any control over that. Eighty two five five nine four nine.
Give me a call with any questions, you know, any
questions whatsoever. I can't begin to tell you. Even if
you're nearing retirement, just because you're going to retire, let's

(31:16):
make believe you retired at age sixty five, that doesn't
mean you plan on leaving us. It just means you
plan on retiring and then in retirement, you know, on
the average. You know, listen, folks are living well into
their eighties, you know, late seventies, eighties, at the very
least some folks, I mean, Dick Van Dyke just turned

(31:38):
one hundred. Warren Buffett's ninety four is still working. So
there's some folks out there that will will will live
beyond that. And that's why when when you retire, it
doesn't mean you should take all your money out of
the stock market and not have any any growth oriented

(31:59):
investments in your portfolio. You always want to have growth
oriented investments in your portfolio. Don't be afraid of the
stock market. You know, in the first half of the show,
I told you, if you want to just take it
easy and sit back and not worry and have let's say,
let's say less positivity, you can invest in bonds and
make two point less than two point four percent over

(32:22):
the last fifteen years year in year out. Or you
could have invested in the S and P brought stock
market index made almost fourteen percent year in year out,
And if you wanted some real growth oriented investments like NASTAC,
you'd be up almost nineteen percent year in year out.
That's where diversification comes in. And having diversification is really

(32:47):
you know, that's that's always always smart, folks. I'm going
to take a quick fifteen second break. I made a
nice cup of coffee and I just want to take
a little sip on it. Don't go anywhere here, I am, folks.
I thank you for letting me take that quick break.
As I said, I made a nice cup of coffee
and I just wanted to enjoy a sip or two
of it. One eight hundred eighty two five five nine

(33:10):
four nine one eight hundred eighty two five fifty nine
forty nine. So you know this past week, No, listen,
artificial intelligence it's here to stay. It's a real thing.
If you haven't played with it, play with it. It's
like going back to thirty years ago when you played
with AOL. Right, that was a new thing. Well, AI

(33:30):
is really the newest, greatest thing out there. And it's
amazing how artificial intelligence is going to just find its
way in our in our lives. I know I shared
with you we and a little bit of our money
and AI specific ETFs a few weeks ago, and sure

(33:51):
it's down this this week. Navidi is down, you know,
all broad broad Coom and you know, so many chip
stocks are down. But that's okay. You know, we'll actually
look for clients that have cash and get that money invested.
We think AI will will be up over time. But
you know, basically the news this week is the delay

(34:14):
of hundreds of billions of dollars in promise spending on
artificial intelligence. That that's what really through a curveball to
the markets this week. Investors, you know, kind of rotated
into shares of banks, industrial companies, materials producers early in

(34:35):
the week with bets that lower interest rates will reheat
of luggage economy. Broadcoms worst day since the deep seek
route back in January. We ken to worries that investment
in AI won't yield the expected blockbuster products anytime soon.
Shares dropped eleven percent, and that helped pull the SMP down,

(34:58):
nastack down. Remember when you look at at the makeup
of the SMP, you know SMP is listen, so many
technology companies make up the S and P. The top

(35:19):
ten holdings of the S and P, you have Navidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Broadcom,
Alphabet better known as Google or I should say Google
better known as Alphabet whatever you want to call it Meta.
And then the ninth and tenth holding is Tesla in
Berkshire Hathaway. So eight out of the ten top holdings

(35:40):
are technology companies. In Tesla, I guess is it a
car company? Is it a battery company? Is it a
you know, spaceship company? What is Tesla? It's the ninth
largest holding in Berkshire. Hathaway is the tenth largest holding
in the S and P five hundred and you know
the P five hundred really is the broad stock market.

(36:03):
So when when you have when you have companies like
you know, N Video, broad Com, A m D. You
know those companies, when they have a bad hair day,
everybody feels it, folks, everybody feels it. So late Thursday,
broad Com reported a record eighteen billion dollars in sales.

(36:25):
They reported strong profit growth, but the markets, you know,
investors zoomed in on questions about the margins of its
custom AI chips, the timing of a massive commitment from
Open Ai, and the chip designer's ability to see over
the horizon. In the twenty twenty seven investors did not

(36:46):
like the reaction, and they wanted to hear, you know,
basically some more rosy or positive things than they did.
And you know, AI stocks took an e the Chin
or just about all the AI companies, chip companies, cloud
computing vendors, you know, basically their demand of offering. You know,

(37:17):
AI is is AI is where it's at. I guess
that's what I'm trying to say. AI is where it's at.
Oracle narrowly missed revenues estimates while disclosing greater than expected
capital expenditures. And you know Oracle at one time was
an AI. Darling too lost four point five down thirteen

(37:39):
percent on the week, Navidia fell four percent on the week,
a m D losing more than three percent. Listen, I
got a sandbox account. I think I'm going to go
in and buy some of those stocks tomorrow Monday. Why not, right?
I Like, in my sandbox accounts, most of my money

(38:00):
managed just like my client's assets. I'm in the same portfolio.
The only difference is I'm in our all equity portfolio,
one hundred percent stock portfolio with some clients are follow
my lead. You know, I have clients that have been
clients forever and ever and ever, and they've made a
lot of money. And basically they say, Steve, whatever you're

(38:20):
invested in, I want to be invested in the same thing.
And I'll tell them I say, yeah, but I'm one
hundred percent in the stock market. I don't always recommend that.
They said, no, if you're in it, I want to
be right there alongside with you. So we've had a
lot of clients make a lot of money over time
because they're not afraid of the stock market, and we

(38:41):
manage that risk of what stock holdings to buy, what
stock holdings to sell, and it's you know, it's a
good portfolio. But as I said, when when when you
have stocks a Broadcom, AMD Oracle NA Video down as
much as they are this week, I may go in

(39:02):
and buy some in my sandbox account. I'm actually, as
I think about it, I think I just talked myself
into doing that. And add to some of those positions,
add more, I should say to those positions eight two, five, five, nine,
four nine. If you have any questions, give me a call. Folks.
Don't let me do all the talking. Jump in, you know,

(39:25):
the water's great jump in. Barons did a nice piece
this week and you know, It's Barons is a weekly newspaper.
I get mine every Saturday morning at the Stuarts. Love Stuarts,
Love the people that work at Stuarts. I love the
Dake family and all that they do for our communities.
But what they do for their employees is just amazing.

(39:47):
You know, they all are partners somehow, some way to
the company there. They're in the East Side, and there's
a lot of Stuart's employees that have have become millionaires
because if they're a long term, longtime employee, they've made
some good money. So I pick up my Barons in

(40:08):
my Wall Street Journal weekend edition every Saturday morning. And
yesterday when I was reading the Barons, there was a
nice article on the GE split three ways, when GE
basically went into three different companies back in twenty twenty one,
and how one of the companies, Vernova, became a rock

(40:31):
star because of AI. But let me give you a
first a little background. There used to be a company
called General Electric, formed when a banker with more influenced
than personal wealth named JP Morgan forced a client with
more inventions than profits named Thomas Edison to merge his

(40:52):
electric company with a connected in New York lighting outfit
that had more commercial momentum than Star Power. So there
you have it. You know, JP Morgan kind of encouraged
Thomas Edison to merge his company, and that's how General
Electric started. You know, over over a century of of

(41:14):
I mean, GE was truly an amazing company for a
long time. You know, washing machines, turbines for jet engines,
power plants, medical imaging machines, you know, a finance company.
Uh you know, listen, they they were into everything. And

(41:34):
you know, if if you had GE for the twenty
years right up until when they split in twenty twenty one.
So let's say the first twenty years of this century GE,
you would have lost thirty eight percent while the SMP
was up five hundred and twenty four percent. That's why
I always say diversification is key, and you never want

(41:55):
to have most of your wealth in any one given investment.
I remember I tell this story often. I go back
to you know, just about thirty years ago, we had
a gentleman who interviewed our firm. He did not engage
our services because he had ninety percent of his wealth
in GE. That's when GE was flying high, and we

(42:18):
said if you become a client, you know, we have
to advise you that you need to sell off some
of those holdings. You're you basically have all your eggs
in one basket. No, GE's a good company, it's a
great company. You want to keep my Ge. Well, we
know what happened. Ge, you know, hit its peak, and
as I said, the first twenty years, up until twenty

(42:40):
twenty one, before it split, GE was down thirty eight
percent while the S and P was up five hundred
and twenty four percent. Just think about that. So GE
split in twenty twenty one, investors who bought shares went
it split and held on to each of the spinoffs
made more than six hun beating the SMP bitcoin in

(43:05):
the video. So you know, for those investors that hung
in there and lost money for the first twenty years,
over the last four or five years, they were rewarded.
You know. Basically management predicted that GE Healthcare Technologies would
be the fastest growing of its three companies, but it
was actually the slowest growing, you know, up about forty

(43:28):
two percent since it split, about half as much as
the s MP. So GE Healthcare Technologies did not do well.
And then you know you had ge Vernova, which was
the rock star. You had GE Aerospace, which kept the
ticker GE. So if you buy GE, you're buying the
ge Errows Aerospace. And you know, the three companies combined

(43:54):
did did well. But Vernova four years ago, it was thought,
you know, back then, everybody thought it was going to
be you know, like this is in the barons. This
isn't me saying this is the ugliest child of a family,
because we know there's never an ugly child in a family.
But four years ago, Bernova was supposed to be the dog,

(44:16):
and Gernova turned out to be amazing, you know. And
initially g you referred to the business as renewable energy
and power when it unveiled the name for Nova, and
you know, basically, you know, what did what does that mean?
But Ge? You know, artificial intelligence is driving demand for electricity,

(44:39):
and firing up more natural gas is the easiest way
for utilities to meet demand. Our investment team just just
and invested in some of our clients' money into believe
it or not, nuclear energy companies because a high is

(45:00):
it takes a lot of energy to run AI and
where's this energy going to come from? So Gie Bernova
did well. GII Bernova was the darling and it wasn't
supposed to be ge Ernova was supposed to be the dog.
So if you if you hung in there, you did well, folks,
you did well, you did very well. And as they

(45:22):
shared with you, there's another story in this weekend's barons.
And basically Amazon and nine other stocks are the stocks
to buy in twenty twenty six and nice to see.
Number one is Amazon. You know, basically you had Metal
which is Facebook surge in twenty twenty three, Navidia surge

(45:45):
in twenty twenty four. This year was Alphabet that's surge,
and Amazon. It might be Amazon's turn next year to surge.
At about two hundred and thirty two dollars a share.
It's only up six percent this year, so you know,
we're in our Amazon holdings, but we believe in Amazon.
It's trading at twenty nine's projected twenty twenty six earnings,

(46:08):
whereas Walmart's thirty eight, so it's a discount to Walmart,
believe it or not. Folks, we're coming up to the
end of the show. You are listening to Let's Talk Money,
brought to you by Bouchet and Andrew, where we help
our clients prioritize their health while we manage their wealth
for life. I can't thank you enough for tuning in today.
If there's anything I can help you with, please go

(46:30):
to our website make an appointment with our concierge, which
happens to be my favorite daughter, Lauren. And before you
get crazy out there saying how can I have a
favorite I only have one daughter, so she'll always be
my favorite daughter. Folks, thank you for tuning in. Enjoy
your Sunday, Happy Hanukkah. I'll be back next weekend. One
eight hundred eighty two, five, five, nine, four nine are

(46:52):
the phone numbers, although don't call now because we're coming
to the end of the show, but go to our
website Bouchet dot com. Have a great day. Bye bye,