September 29, 2025 • 38 mins
Mike Armstrong and Paul Lane discuss Walmart's CEO's comments about AI changing literally every job. Corey Adams (Robert Half) joins the show to chat about the company's 2026 salary guide. Debt is fueling the next wave of the AI boom. The fastest-selling cars in America are used EVs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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(00:43):
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(01:03):
This is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstrong and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Good morning, Happy Monday, Welcome back to the Financial Exchange.
We've got markets in mixed territory here, but largely.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
To the positive.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now is off by about twenty five points, whereas the
SMP and Nasdaq are up about half a percent, four
ten percent and eight ten percent, respectively. We have got
a busy week from a labor market perspective. Tomorrow we're
going to be getting the Jolts Report, the job Openings
Labor Turnover Survey, and then the rest of the week,
(01:35):
depending on whether or not the government shuts down at
midnight on Tuesday, we may be getting some data on
weekly jobless claims as well as the monthly jobs report
that we get. Tucker, were you putting on your thinking
face or it was a thinking face? I'm just not
sure if it was relevant to this.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I think it just dawned to me. So if the
government were to shut down, we would not see a
job report, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Or it would be nobody working there to release said
JUGS reports. So even if it's fully prepared, it's a
guess nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I suppose they could get the data to the head
of the agency by Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
In case they shut.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Down, Yes, they probably have it all compiled at this point,
but I would suspect that we would not get that report,
okay if the government shut down. We have a few
earnings reports that we'll be covering this week, including from Nike,
whose stock is down nearly fifty percent of over the
last five years, and some data that we did get
this morning on home sales. So pending home sales in
(02:37):
August actually closed out the summer on a pretty happy
note here, So home sales in August increased. These are
pending home sales so under agreement by four percent from
the prior month three point eight percent year of year
according to the National Association of Realtors. Wanted to take
a look at this on a regional basis, so no
(02:57):
surprise here.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Biggest uptick is.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Coming from the South, where the inventory uptich has been
the biggest. But nonetheless, you know, you're still seeing this
across the country except the Northeast. So month over month,
pending home sales down one point one percent here in
the Northeast, up three point one in the South, eight
point seven percent in the Midwest, so something interesting going
on there, and then up five percent in the Western
(03:22):
region of the country as well, So I'll take this,
I guess as good news for the housing market. I
still think that with mortgage rates at this level, we
will have kind of a mixed bag of a housing
market this spring, but I think, you know, should we
get under that six percent range, that would be a
very desirable housing market to see next spring again for
(03:43):
most parts of the country.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Other than the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Last piece that will be going back to probably all
week this week is a very lesser known car parts supplier,
First Brands, is filing for bankruptcy and the story among
financial you know, financial outlets and analysts this could be
some sort of canary in the coal mine, not so
much for the auto industry, which is clearly under struggles,
(04:10):
but for the private credit industry, and so more to
cover on that, and you'll be hearing us, you know,
kind of talk about it throughout the week on the program.
Would be my guest Walmart's CEO issuing a wake up
call to who exactly this is targeted to. Is an
interesting question, but about artificial intelligence and it's likelihood of
changing every single job out there. So Paul, let's talk
(04:33):
about first what he said before we get into why
he seems to be saying it.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, what he was talking about is this idea that
it's going to change every single job in some way,
shape or form. He said, and I quote, maybe there
is a job in the world that a I won't change,
but I haven't thought of it. This was at a
conference at Walmart's Benville headquarters with its own work first
and executives from other companies. I think to unpack that
(04:59):
they're in the near term, there is going to be small,
modest changes to the labor market, and this idea of
widespread change I feel is going to take longer than
a lot of people anticipate. And even some of the
executive here do lean into this idea that it could
take a while longer. What are some of the low
hanging fruit that you could see changes. I am more
(05:22):
and more convinced that customer service jobs on those you
know eight hundred numbers, yep, that that position is going
to be dramatically changed by the use of AI agents
instead of having the typical customer service center reps out
there sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So let's talk about that before we can get back
to Walmart.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But in that space specifically, you're not seeing a huge
adoption yet of AI agents that are actually answering phone calls,
but yeah, they are permeating online. They are using more
of those when you're asking for a chat bought to
ask questions too. One area though, for call centers themselves,
that this is getting used in at least I heard
of several companies, especially in the Philippines, where a lot
(06:05):
of US support calls.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Get routed to.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
If you worked in that space previously, effectively all of
your calls were monitored and you would regularly have a
review with your manager about you know, what went well,
what went wrong. They would listen in on a few
of the calls, and you know, probably on a pretty
regular basis, it was this is how you could have
improved that outcome, This is how you could have left
the customer more satisfied, this is the tone of voice
that you should have used.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I've done them before started.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So the way that that's being done now is a
little bit different. Every call is being monitored by artificial intelligence.
Immediately that AI is providing you feedback on how the
call went, every single call, and is grading you and
is saying, okay, this is our best call. Support this
is the right tone of voice, the bad tone of voice.
(06:54):
In some cases it is live changing the sound of
the person's voice on the call so that they sound
like they have less of an accent than they actually do.
And from what I've heard from you know, some people
that were willing to be interviewed for this piece that
I can't remember if I read it or listened to,
but it was basically has turned the job into what
(07:14):
was already a difficult job because you're working nights, into
a nightmare scenario because you are getting feedback from a
computer on every single call that you answer. In addition to,
you know, the only time you ever call a customer
service place.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Is when you're up upset about something.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
So do a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You're trying to solve a problem, and sometimes those people
are pretty upset about the problem. And so it has
made that specific work very difficult because of the constant
feedback loop that you're getting from a non human now.
But I found that really really interesting that that's how
it's being used already in some of these call centers.
Back to Walmart for a moment here. I think he's
(07:53):
saying this for a few reasons. One if there's one
company you can look at to say they should probably
have a lot of employees that aren't affected by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's Walmart. Right. You think about how many people they
employ in two point one million.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They employed two point one million, How many of those
their job involves physical labor, checking people out at a
grocery store, stalking the shelves, driving the product across the country.
You would think that this is a company that's not
heavily affected by artificial intelligence. I think that's the entire
reason he's saying this. His job is to try and
(08:29):
get excitement about his company stock. So if he comes
out and says every job at Walmart is going to
be affected by IAI that's.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Going to make a splash.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
By the very nature of his company, I think he's
gotten incentive to convince people that it is affected by
artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And yeah, he's probably right, but I'll tell you, I.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Think it's going to be a long ways before a
truck driver has their job dramatically shifted by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Long ways away. But I don't think it's wrong to
bring it up. And I think you're understating how important
it is or their business. I mean they're competing with
the likes of Amazon, who we gloss about how they
do such a tremendous job with technology, or they are
putting these stories very frequently in terms of how much
they use robots in their warehouse and things like that.
That's this is their main competitor. And I think what
(09:15):
would surprise people is that Walmart has always invested very
heavily in technology. Now they were behind on some of
the last mild delivery stuff that Amazon crushed them on,
but they're catching up quickly, and so I do think
that it's important to the business. I will agree with
you that the idea that some of these physical jobs
are going to change overnight, that's that's probably not the case.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But interesting story nonetheless, and.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You know a follow on piece some Boston companies talking
about workers. This is I think the message that CEOs,
especially CEOs that are actually able to invest in their
homegrown artificial intelligence, which that's increasingly how it's being done,
is because companies don't want their IP, their intellectual property
ending up on one of these systems. They're basically hiring
(09:57):
companies to come in and build a generative a AI
system for in house and basic teaching it to learn
on proprietary data. The message from DraftKings under a new
policy is that you cannot hire anyone next year unless
you've already proven that AI can't do the same job.
And again we're thinking of customer service jobs. That's not
(10:19):
all that they're talking about here. It's coding, right, it
is financial analysis. It is all sorts of different things
that different AI agents that are trained on different things
can learn to do hypothetically, and that I think is
more the message that you are going to be seeing
delivered from CEOs is not dream up this new business model,
(10:40):
but rather prove to me that this job cannot be
supplemented or done by an artificial intelligence agent rather than
by your new seventy thousand dollars head.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
What's a challenging ripple effect from that is you think
about many of us who started in their specific industries
often would take these types of jobs, like I started
working customer service in a call set as my first
job out of college, and the ability to do those
types of jobs that would be entry level, they're at
least going to shift in the way in what they
look like before you are to be hired. And was
(11:12):
I hired with the goal of doing that for the
rest of my career. No, but it was a great
place to start to learn. And so you wonder for
those college graduates who've already seen a slower job market.
For those folks, how that changes that market there for graduates.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Let's say quick break.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
When we come back, Corey Adams from Robert Half speaking
of the job market, join us talk about the twenty
twenty six salary guide that Robert Half has put together.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That's next on the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
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(11:58):
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Speaker 2 (12:27):
Joining us now is Corey Adams from Robert Half for
their twenty twenty six Salary Guide. An important one to
mention because this is actually the seventy fifth annual salary
Guide that Robert Half has been putting this together for Corey,
Thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Us, appreciate it, Thank you all.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Good to be with you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
So as you celebrate seventy five of these things, what
do you think are the biggest takeaways that you have
from the twenty twenty six Salary Guy that you put together.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
So you referenced seventy five years and this guide has
been a trusted source for salary benchmarks and workplace trends.
And the three trends that are jumping out for us
for twenty twenty six. The first one, We've been saying
this for a while, but employers are willing to pay
more for hard to find skill sets. They have been
and it will continue to do so. The second trend
(13:15):
is that workers are negotiating for way more than just salary.
And then the third trend is that total compensation is
becoming a deciding factor with many professionals willing to trade
flexibility for stronger overall packages.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Okay, so important and obvious caveat or jumping off point.
A few years ago, I would have told you that
that heart to find skill is something like coding, and
that's where a number of students have been investing their
time and effort, and all of a sudden, it seems
like that is not quite the desired skill set. So
what are employers willing to pay more for when it
comes to heart to find skills?
Speaker 6 (13:50):
So the guide itself references what we're calling bright spots,
and so I'll give you three, and these are the
three that are seeing These are the roles that are
seeing the greatest above average gains. So first, no surprise,
artificial intelligence and machine learning that had the greatest growth,
that full point one percent increase. The second and I
(14:11):
feel like this is on the list every year strictly
is a byproduct of supply and demand. But public accounting, tax,
audit assurance that was at three point seven percent, and
then the last one was content strategy, digital project management
and marketing analytics at three point three percent.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Those are a big three.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I know internally, you know it's insurance renewal time and
I know internally at our own company, our health insurance
costs I think balloon some nearly thirteen percent this year.
What are employers trying to do to stand out to
their employees when it comes to offering perks and additional
stuff other than just the compensation, And how should employees
try and evaluate that stuff that can oftentimes be I
(14:50):
guess put to the side compared to say the headline
compensation and bonus.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a great question, and there's some really interesting
data on this. So again, looking at that third freend,
total compensation right now is truly a key differentiator. So
workers are looking well beyond the paychecks. They're looking at
perks and benefits that support their overall wellness and growth.
So really important here. More than fifty three percent of
workers which switch jobs for a stronger financial package, which
(15:18):
includes bonuses and stock options. The good news here is
that half of hiring managers who filled our survey actually
plan to add new benefits and perks to stay competitive.
So some of those popular offerings include student loan repayment assistance,
wellness stipends as well as paid time off for volunteering,
and that's becoming really popular and really prevalent right now,
(15:41):
some of the non monetary perks like flexible work arrangements
and childcare are increasingly valued. So the big bottom line
here and reminder is that employers who tailor their benefits
to the needs of their employees are actually signaling a
long term commitment to retention within the organization.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
The biggest area that I continue to see slack and
where employees seem to be having a really tough job
time finding work is those new entry level folks, especially
those with college degrees. Right now, we are seeing a
reasonably significant uptick in the unemployment rate there, and I
hear more and more about it. If folks are looking
(16:20):
to find that new job in twenty twenty six, what
are the tips that Robert haf has for that demographic.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
So I'll give you four and some of these I
know we've talked about in the past, but I think
they're important, and I think the last one is probably
the biggest one, particularly with this topic around salary. But
the first one is you really want to leverage your
specialized skills for premium pay. Many employers, in fact, eighty
four percent are actively offering higher salaries to candonates within
(16:49):
demand expertise, so I encourage you to please focus on
building skills that are hard to find and highly valued
within your field. Next, you want to invest in skilled development.
Upskilling is one of the most effective ways to boost
your earning potential, so consider certifications or additional learnings and
areas like AI data analytics or industry specific tools that
(17:13):
align with your current hiring trends. The third one, again,
this is part of the third trend, was that you
want to weigh your turlet compensation, so salary truly is
just one part of the package. So look for roles
offering strong financial incentives like bonuses, stock options. And then
obviously everyone certainly appreciate a student loan repayment assistance program.
(17:34):
And then finally, again this is the big one here,
but know your worth and be ready to negotiate. Research
the market rate for your position in your area using
a tool like the Salary Guide, and find out what
a typical salary range is for a similar role. I
can't emphasize this enough, but being informed truly does help
you advocate for yourself effectively.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Corey, thanks so much, appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Thanks, Mike, talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That's Corey Adams from Robert Half joining us today for
the twenty twenty six salary Guide. You can check that out.
They apparently have been putting together for seventy five years.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
All right, we'll do trivia quick before we hit the
brake here. On this day in two thousand and eight,
at the Dow fell seven hundred and seventy seven points,
its then largest single day point loss. The dramatic loss
followed the bankruptcy of two of the nation's largest banks.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
So our trivia.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Question today, name one of the two major banks that
filed for bankruptcy just before the September two thousand and
eight market crash. Once again, Name one of the two
major banks that filed for bankruptcy just before the September
two thousand and eight market crash. Uh, be the seventh
person today to text us at six one seven three
(18:44):
six two thirteen eighty five with the correct answer.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
You know when a Financial.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Exchange Show T shirt? Once again, The seventh correct response
to text us to the number six one seven three
six two thirteen eighty five will win that T shirt.
See complete contest rules at Financial look Show dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Take a look around at markets here, we've got two
of the three major indices in positive territory, one of
them being led by giant AI company Nvidia. Dow still
slightly in negative territory, but we're gonna have a full
market recap for you just coming up. We've got to
take a quick break here, but we'll be back with
Wall Street Watch after.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
This, bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio.
(19:42):
Every day. It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange
Radio Network. Time now for Wall Street Watch. A complete
look at what's moving market so far today right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
A new week is upon us.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
In markets, we are currently mixed with a AI sector
seeing a rebound after recent pressure. Traders are also eyeing
a potential government shutdown, and we have a September jobs
report due out on Friday morning, but who knows if
we'll even see that this week with that government shutdown.
Right now, the Dow is down by nearly two tenths
(20:21):
of one percent, or seventy nine points lower. SMP five
hundred is up two tenths of one percent of fourteen
points higher, NASDAC up about half a percent to one
hundred and ten points higher. RUSTED two thousand dipping into
negative territory, but mostly flat. Ten year treasure reel down
four basis points at four point one three to nine percent.
(20:41):
In crude oil down over three and a half percent
lower right now trading at sixty three dollars and thirty
six cents a barrel. Some major news in the video
game space this morning, where Electronic Arts said it is
going private for fifty five billion dollars, marking the largest
private equity backed buyout in history. The video game maker
(21:02):
this morning said agreed to be acquired by public Investment
Fund of Saudi Arabia silver Lake in Affinity Partners. Shareholders
of the company will receive two hundred dollars two hundred
and ten dollars per share in cash. EA stock is
up by five percent. Meanwhile, cruise operator Carnival reported quarterly
results this morning, beating earnings and revenue expectations, driven by
(21:24):
resilient cruise demand and strong advanced bookings for twenty twenty six. However,
shares are down nearly five percent right now. Elsewhere, global
drug maker asked for Rezenka said it plans to list
directly on the New York Stock Exchange in a push
to broaden its investor base. Separately, the company said it
would offer discounted asthma and diabetes drugs in the US
(21:46):
as President Trump pressures pharmaceutical companies to cut drug prices.
And cannabis stocks are seeing a pop today after Trump
out of the benefits of CBD four Seniors Advisor shares.
Pure US Cannabis ETF is jumping nineteen percent, Aurora Cannabis
up by thirty percent, until Ray stock is surging over
(22:07):
forty percent higher. I'm Tucker Silva and that is Wall
Street Watch. And in the previous segment, we asked you
the trivia question name one of the two major banks
that filed for bankruptcy just before the September two thousand
and eight market crash. We were looking for either Washington
Mutual or Lehman Brothers. Mike from Brandonon, Florida is our
(22:28):
winner today, taking home a Financial Exchange Show teacher. Congrats
to Mike. We played trivia every day here in the
Financial Exchange See complete contest rules at Financial Exchange Show
dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Paul, it is eleven thirty six and we have just
barely talked about artificial intelligence in the stock market.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Boom on it, So congratulations.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I think this is the longest we've made it during
a show for weeks, but we're going to go there now.
Wall Street journalize the piece debt is fueling the next
wave of the AI boom, and Paul You and I
were talking about this a little bit off air. The
AI boom started as a bunch of very cash flow
positive and profitable companies Microsoft, Google, Facebook to name a few,
(23:10):
investing a tremendous amount of money into the space. And
that's what's been occurring over the last three years and
continues today. These companies are continuing to pour a lot
of money into it, and they can afford to do so.
What is relatively new, as the journal points out, is
the debt fueled spending of some other companies that are
(23:30):
also you know, big in the AI space. That look,
if AI does not pan out to be as big
of a deal as it's currently being bet on, then
Microsoft is still going to have a very profitable business model.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So well. Facebook's still Google.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
These other companies that are betting on it in different
ways are not quite in the same position, and they
are not using cash flow from existing operations to fund
this thing. They're borrowing a tremendous amount of money to
do so exactly.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I mean the parallels to kind of the mid to
late nineties build out of fiber optic fiber optic networks.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Damn, we made it to eleven thirty six before we
made the comparison.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I gotta mention it. And it's similar in a sense
that you're building it before. It's the field of dreams
sort of phrasing of you know, build it and they
will come. And what ended up happening is building out
the fiber optic cable build out was they did come eventually,
but they came later than anticipated. And for those companies
that were integral as part of the buildout, they struggled greatly.
(24:35):
The world comms the world, and if you make the
same comparison here the Oracles or others that are heavy
in the capex expending on the infrastructure side of things.
So think about data centers that are the size of
ten home depots in North Dakota. The amount of expense
that is required to continue to run those data centers
(24:56):
if demand weekends for any reason. Because adoption is not
as strong as people initially thought, you're left holding a
really big bag for a huge data center that is
ten home depots big to keep the lights on for
that is really expensive if you don't have the demand
to match it with. So that is a point that's
(25:16):
being mentioned again and again is that when you get
heavily indebted for things that the demand isn't therefore it yet.
I believe it's just three percent of people consumers are
actually paying for artificial intelligence, whether it be chatbot or
other services out there. There's a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I wonder if that includes through their employer. But that's
a wild statistic. Now again, not necessarily a bad thing. Facebook,
nobody's ever paid for and right they make a tremendous
amount of money off of all this.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
But they did it on the backs of cheaper internet infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, yep, folks, want to tell you about two events
that we're hosting. But these types of conversations about where
the market has been and where it may be headed
based on this artificial intelligence trade is so fascinating to
us at the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And we'd love to share our thoughts with it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
We'd love to have you come and join us at
one of our two free events that we are hosting
next month. The first one is that the Showcase Super
Lucks and Chestnut Hill. Actually sorry, that's the second one,
October sixteenth, of the Showcase super Lucks. The first one
is on October ninth at the Margaritaville Resort. So I'm
gonna say that again since I screwed it up. October ninth,
(26:30):
Margaritaville Resort on Cape cod Showcase super Lucks is the
October sixteenth date. If you don't want to listen to
me tell you about it, go to Armstrong Advisory dot
com where we have all the details in plan written English,
so you can log in and register for your spot.
But we're gonna be doing a live broadcast of this
show after that a lunch and a chat with the
(26:51):
Armstrong Advisory Group. We're gonna be talking specifically about where
markets have been, what is really dominating the themes for markets,
and you cannot talk about the stock market today without
artificial intelligence. But inflation, housing costs, rising indust rates are
all playing a role too, putting on pressures, pressure, putting
pressure on families everywhere, and we're starting to see some
of the cracks in the foundation of some of those
(27:11):
companies that support those folks. If you'd like to register again,
you can go to Armstrong Advisory dot Com or you
can call us at eight hundred three nine three four
zero zero one, but make your reservation now. October ninth
or October sixteenth, Chestnut Hill Showcase, Superlux, Margaritaville Resort, Cape
Cod Those are the two locations. Check it out again
(27:32):
Armstrong Advisory dot Com.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
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, and estate planning advisors before making
any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
advisory services.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
We keep talking about the AI space and what could
disrupt the narrative, and so far it's a lot been
about you know what, if the narrative about AI just
changes and people don't needed or feel like paying for
it in the same way that they do other technologies.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
The other way would be China disrupting it in some way.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
We saw some of that earlier this year with deep Seek.
It was this new AI model that had been allegedly
created on really kind of weak semiconductors. I think there's
been some questioning about that now because ultimately Chinese companies
can get a hold of in Nvidia's best in class chips,
they just can't get a ton of them. In either case,
(28:26):
Huawei is doubling the output of their top artificial intelligence
chips as the Nvidia offering in China continues to see
lackluster demand. Mainly that's because the Chinese government is saying,
do not buy in Vidia's chips. But they are replacing
that with a big tech leader that I don't think
any of us truly know how far behind they are
(28:48):
compared to in Vidia's latest and greatest semiconductors. And the
big story when it comes to this and artificial intelligence
is can Chinese companies produce a still very impressive artificial
intelligence product without the best chips? And it's not because
they will ultimately create chips that compete within video, but
(29:10):
maybe they don't need to. Maybe they can just produce
so many of them powered by such immense electricity generation that, yeah,
it doesn't matter if you're the most efficient anymore. What
matters is your ability to compute a whole lot of stuff,
and if you have to do that with ten times
as many semiconductors and ten times as much power uput
China is the company that China is the country that
(29:31):
I would bet on to be able to do that.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Yeah, we've seen that playbook before in terms of them
flooding a market with cheap goods or just creating so
much excess inventory for different countries out there that they've
been able to gain adoption. Just look at what they've
done kind of with the EV market, specifically in Europe
and Latin America. So it is something that is really
significant to monitor in this race where we're pretty much
(29:56):
in direct competition with China in terms of who can
advance this technolog g the fastest and furthest It's very
clear from recent activity that in Vidia's position in China
is almost all but gone going forward. It's completely diminished
to that point where you said that they're really not
going to be buying any of US chips anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Let's take a quick break. When we come back. Stack
Roulette is next.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
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Speaker 2 (31:34):
Paul, what do you have for us for stack Roulette, Mike,
Used electric vehicles are flying off the shelves.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Apparently I did not know that there was a huge
market for this, or maybe not a huge market, but
they're seeing a ton of growth, where used EV's sales
through June had increased about thirty four percent from a
year earlier. Basically, what you've had is at the end
of this year, I believe it was with the last
month or so, you no longer get the seventy five
(32:02):
hundred dollars federal tax credit, and instead, rather than looking
for the new vehicle purchases, there has been a lot
more demand for buying used ones. The reason being that
you can buy a use electric vehicle for close to
the same price as a used gas combustion engine. There's
(32:22):
some examples here where a retired realtor was able to
buy a twenty twenty four version of a Ford Mustange
mock EGT at thirty three thousand bucks when it only
had thirteen thousand miles on it. It was a car
that originally went for fifty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
These car companies are so offsides on this. Yeah, they
are so far over extended on this EV play.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I just did my own search here, Paul just I
was curious. I've looked at this before, but if I
want a used Tesla in my area, I said, it's
got to be twenty twenty two or younger and under
thirty thousand.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Miles no accidents, twenty six grand for a three year
old car that probably went for fifty when it.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Was Now sure, I'm easily maybe more.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yes, I can get a Volkswagen you know, I internal
combestion engine for cheaper than that, but not way cheaper.
So yeah, the demand side of the equation for these
evs has just been way way under what the auto
manufacturers were planning on and investing based upon.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
And we talked about this from the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
How are you going to build out this massive new
demand for electric vehicles when our electricity infrastructure just does
not support it? Right like it still doesn't to this
day support the idea that all of us are going
to be driving electric vehicles. And then you know, this is,
by the way, not just a US focused thing. Go
look at Europe. The demand for evs is way underestimates
(34:05):
there as well, and they're all pivoting the build out
that you started getting from these American car makers especially,
and the investments that they were making, the partnerships with
big battery companies. It all to me was putting the
cart way before the horse and story and you know,
it's just come, you know, failing in spectacular fashion now
(34:27):
where they're all taking pretty big losses on these facilities
that they built out and going back to what has
always buttered their bread, which is.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
The big druv.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, that's what people want to drive. Like you weren't
just going to create this market overnight. So some some
are more offside than others, you know, don't get me wrong.
Like Ford had one big EV, so I'm guessing they're
still fine. But there are big, big investments that were
made here, and it's not that the demand doesn't exist,
but it's not growing the way that they had been
(34:59):
banking on, and certainly isn't growing the way that they
were investing based upon.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yeah, it's an interesting story where you can get these
two or three year old vehicles for a pretty decent
price that would be akin to an internal combustion engine
that's six or seven years old.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I'm waiting this one out to me again. I've brought
this up before. Give me the EV with the built
in gas generator and I will buy that thing all day.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Dodge is the first company I think to come out
with this. They're going to have a new truck that
has an internal combustion engine. No, sorry, it's got an
electric vehicle engine. And then just a generator that will
recharge the battery on that electric vehicle that can run
on gas. So if I am going on that long
road trip and I can't find that charging station or
(35:44):
I don't have time, then I have another option other
than sitting at the charging station for an hour and
recharging my car.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
I'm immediately recalling a client event radio event we were
at the weekend where the listener said to me, we
don't know anything about cars, so I'll refrain from making
any more common So then the evs are cheap.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yes, that's fair. Are you planning on moving and retirement?
It doesn't always go as planned.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
This is from Barons, and they've got a few tips
on what to keep in mind when it comes to this.
I think some of them people are aware of, like
look before you move. I can't tell you how many
people I've seen move because they vacationed somewhere and then
end up hating it once they actually live there. You know,
study all the costs. Insurance costs in Florida have gone
through the roof. Make sure you understand how much more
(36:29):
expensive groceries and insurances down there before you move there.
Here's the one that I think people miscalculate and misunderstand frequently,
which is the tax piece. So we are doing our
show from Massachusetts, Paul, you have a lot of clients here,
as do I. I hear frequently, Hey, couldn't I save
a lot of taxes by moving to New Hampshire and
(36:51):
moving to Florida? And the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no.
It depends on your income, it depends on the makeup
of your assets, and all sorts of different complicating factors.
But one thing that I always point to people that
is really important when you're talking about tax savings by
moving from a state like Massachusetts or New York or
Washington State or California, A lot of it is the
(37:11):
estate tax when you die. And very frequently, what do
we do when we are seniors and getting older. It's yeah,
I've been living in Florida for twenty years, but you
know what, all my family is up in Massachusetts and
I need a little more help doing the things that
I used.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
To do every day.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Great hospital and.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I've got really good health networks, and just all my
family is there and they want to spend more time
around me, and I want to spend more time around them.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I'm moving back. That's where all your cost savings.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Is, right when you're talking about which state you die
in as a resident of That's when you're talking about
the big tax savings. It's not so much the five
percent income tax difference, because you'll make that up oftentimes
elsewhere in real estate taxes and others. It's where you
die that ends up mattering a lot in this calculaty.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
That's what frustrates me and doesn't get cover enough, is
that just because there's no state income tax doesn't mean
there's not tax revenue being generated elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
That is all the time we have for today's financial
exchange markets closing the new closing in on the noon
hour in mixed territory. We'll have a full recap for
you and jolts tomorrow and a looming government shutdown tomorrow
in the financial exchange
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(01:03):
This is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstrong and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Good morning, Happy Monday, Welcome back to the Financial Exchange.
We've got markets in mixed territory here, but largely.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
To the positive.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Now is off by about twenty five points, whereas the
SMP and Nasdaq are up about half a percent, four
ten percent and eight ten percent, respectively. We have got
a busy week from a labor market perspective. Tomorrow we're
going to be getting the Jolts Report, the job Openings
Labor Turnover Survey, and then the rest of the week,
(01:35):
depending on whether or not the government shuts down at
midnight on Tuesday, we may be getting some data on
weekly jobless claims as well as the monthly jobs report
that we get. Tucker, were you putting on your thinking
face or it was a thinking face? I'm just not
sure if it was relevant to this.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I think it just dawned to me. So if the
government were to shut down, we would not see a
job report, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Or it would be nobody working there to release said
JUGS reports. So even if it's fully prepared, it's a
guess nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I suppose they could get the data to the head
of the agency by Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
In case they shut.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Down, Yes, they probably have it all compiled at this point,
but I would suspect that we would not get that report,
okay if the government shut down. We have a few
earnings reports that we'll be covering this week, including from Nike,
whose stock is down nearly fifty percent of over the
last five years, and some data that we did get
this morning on home sales. So pending home sales in
(02:37):
August actually closed out the summer on a pretty happy
note here, So home sales in August increased. These are
pending home sales so under agreement by four percent from
the prior month three point eight percent year of year
according to the National Association of Realtors. Wanted to take
a look at this on a regional basis, so no
(02:57):
surprise here.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Biggest uptick is.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Coming from the South, where the inventory uptich has been
the biggest. But nonetheless, you know, you're still seeing this
across the country except the Northeast. So month over month,
pending home sales down one point one percent here in
the Northeast, up three point one in the South, eight
point seven percent in the Midwest, so something interesting going
on there, and then up five percent in the Western
(03:22):
region of the country as well, So I'll take this,
I guess as good news for the housing market. I
still think that with mortgage rates at this level, we
will have kind of a mixed bag of a housing
market this spring, but I think, you know, should we
get under that six percent range, that would be a
very desirable housing market to see next spring again for
(03:43):
most parts of the country.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Other than the Northeast.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Last piece that will be going back to probably all
week this week is a very lesser known car parts supplier,
First Brands, is filing for bankruptcy and the story among
financial you know, financial outlets and analysts this could be
some sort of canary in the coal mine, not so
much for the auto industry, which is clearly under struggles,
(04:10):
but for the private credit industry, and so more to
cover on that, and you'll be hearing us, you know,
kind of talk about it throughout the week on the program.
Would be my guest Walmart's CEO issuing a wake up
call to who exactly this is targeted to. Is an
interesting question, but about artificial intelligence and it's likelihood of
changing every single job out there. So Paul, let's talk
(04:33):
about first what he said before we get into why
he seems to be saying it.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, what he was talking about is this idea that
it's going to change every single job in some way,
shape or form. He said, and I quote, maybe there
is a job in the world that a I won't change,
but I haven't thought of it. This was at a
conference at Walmart's Benville headquarters with its own work first
and executives from other companies. I think to unpack that
(04:59):
they're in the near term, there is going to be small,
modest changes to the labor market, and this idea of
widespread change I feel is going to take longer than
a lot of people anticipate. And even some of the
executive here do lean into this idea that it could
take a while longer. What are some of the low
hanging fruit that you could see changes. I am more
(05:22):
and more convinced that customer service jobs on those you
know eight hundred numbers, yep, that that position is going
to be dramatically changed by the use of AI agents
instead of having the typical customer service center reps out
there sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So let's talk about that before we can get back
to Walmart.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But in that space specifically, you're not seeing a huge
adoption yet of AI agents that are actually answering phone calls,
but yeah, they are permeating online. They are using more
of those when you're asking for a chat bought to
ask questions too. One area though, for call centers themselves,
that this is getting used in at least I heard
of several companies, especially in the Philippines, where a lot
(06:05):
of US support calls.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Get routed to.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
If you worked in that space previously, effectively all of
your calls were monitored and you would regularly have a
review with your manager about you know, what went well,
what went wrong. They would listen in on a few
of the calls, and you know, probably on a pretty
regular basis, it was this is how you could have
improved that outcome, This is how you could have left
the customer more satisfied, this is the tone of voice
that you should have used.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I've done them before started.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So the way that that's being done now is a
little bit different. Every call is being monitored by artificial intelligence.
Immediately that AI is providing you feedback on how the
call went, every single call, and is grading you and
is saying, okay, this is our best call. Support this
is the right tone of voice, the bad tone of voice.
(06:54):
In some cases it is live changing the sound of
the person's voice on the call so that they sound
like they have less of an accent than they actually do.
And from what I've heard from you know, some people
that were willing to be interviewed for this piece that
I can't remember if I read it or listened to,
but it was basically has turned the job into what
(07:14):
was already a difficult job because you're working nights, into
a nightmare scenario because you are getting feedback from a
computer on every single call that you answer. In addition to,
you know, the only time you ever call a customer
service place.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Is when you're up upset about something.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
So do a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You're trying to solve a problem, and sometimes those people
are pretty upset about the problem. And so it has
made that specific work very difficult because of the constant
feedback loop that you're getting from a non human now.
But I found that really really interesting that that's how
it's being used already in some of these call centers.
Back to Walmart for a moment here. I think he's
(07:53):
saying this for a few reasons. One if there's one
company you can look at to say they should probably
have a lot of employees that aren't affected by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's Walmart. Right. You think about how many people they
employ in two point one million.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They employed two point one million, How many of those
their job involves physical labor, checking people out at a
grocery store, stalking the shelves, driving the product across the country.
You would think that this is a company that's not
heavily affected by artificial intelligence. I think that's the entire
reason he's saying this. His job is to try and
(08:29):
get excitement about his company stock. So if he comes
out and says every job at Walmart is going to
be affected by IAI that's.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Going to make a splash.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
By the very nature of his company, I think he's
gotten incentive to convince people that it is affected by
artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
And yeah, he's probably right, but I'll tell you, I.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Think it's going to be a long ways before a
truck driver has their job dramatically shifted by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Long ways away. But I don't think it's wrong to
bring it up. And I think you're understating how important
it is or their business. I mean they're competing with
the likes of Amazon, who we gloss about how they
do such a tremendous job with technology, or they are
putting these stories very frequently in terms of how much
they use robots in their warehouse and things like that.
That's this is their main competitor. And I think what
(09:15):
would surprise people is that Walmart has always invested very
heavily in technology. Now they were behind on some of
the last mild delivery stuff that Amazon crushed them on,
but they're catching up quickly, and so I do think
that it's important to the business. I will agree with
you that the idea that some of these physical jobs
are going to change overnight, that's that's probably not the case.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But interesting story nonetheless, and.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You know a follow on piece some Boston companies talking
about workers. This is I think the message that CEOs,
especially CEOs that are actually able to invest in their
homegrown artificial intelligence, which that's increasingly how it's being done,
is because companies don't want their IP, their intellectual property
ending up on one of these systems. They're basically hiring
(09:57):
companies to come in and build a generative a AI
system for in house and basic teaching it to learn
on proprietary data. The message from DraftKings under a new
policy is that you cannot hire anyone next year unless
you've already proven that AI can't do the same job.
And again we're thinking of customer service jobs. That's not
(10:19):
all that they're talking about here. It's coding, right, it
is financial analysis. It is all sorts of different things
that different AI agents that are trained on different things
can learn to do hypothetically, and that I think is
more the message that you are going to be seeing
delivered from CEOs is not dream up this new business model,
(10:40):
but rather prove to me that this job cannot be
supplemented or done by an artificial intelligence agent rather than
by your new seventy thousand dollars head.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
What's a challenging ripple effect from that is you think
about many of us who started in their specific industries
often would take these types of jobs, like I started
working customer service in a call set as my first
job out of college, and the ability to do those
types of jobs that would be entry level, they're at
least going to shift in the way in what they
look like before you are to be hired. And was
(11:12):
I hired with the goal of doing that for the
rest of my career. No, but it was a great
place to start to learn. And so you wonder for
those college graduates who've already seen a slower job market.
For those folks, how that changes that market there for graduates.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Let's say quick break.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
When we come back, Corey Adams from Robert Half speaking
of the job market, join us talk about the twenty
twenty six salary guide that Robert Half has put together.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That's next on the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Miss any of the show. Catch up in your convenience
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(11:58):
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Speaker 2 (12:27):
Joining us now is Corey Adams from Robert Half for
their twenty twenty six Salary Guide. An important one to
mention because this is actually the seventy fifth annual salary
Guide that Robert Half has been putting this together for Corey,
Thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Us, appreciate it, Thank you all.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Good to be with you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
So as you celebrate seventy five of these things, what
do you think are the biggest takeaways that you have
from the twenty twenty six Salary Guy that you put together.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
So you referenced seventy five years and this guide has
been a trusted source for salary benchmarks and workplace trends.
And the three trends that are jumping out for us
for twenty twenty six. The first one, We've been saying
this for a while, but employers are willing to pay
more for hard to find skill sets. They have been
and it will continue to do so. The second trend
(13:15):
is that workers are negotiating for way more than just salary.
And then the third trend is that total compensation is
becoming a deciding factor with many professionals willing to trade
flexibility for stronger overall packages.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Okay, so important and obvious caveat or jumping off point.
A few years ago, I would have told you that
that heart to find skill is something like coding, and
that's where a number of students have been investing their
time and effort, and all of a sudden, it seems
like that is not quite the desired skill set. So
what are employers willing to pay more for when it
comes to heart to find skills?
Speaker 6 (13:50):
So the guide itself references what we're calling bright spots,
and so I'll give you three, and these are the
three that are seeing These are the roles that are
seeing the greatest above average gains. So first, no surprise,
artificial intelligence and machine learning that had the greatest growth,
that full point one percent increase. The second and I
(14:11):
feel like this is on the list every year strictly
is a byproduct of supply and demand. But public accounting, tax,
audit assurance that was at three point seven percent, and
then the last one was content strategy, digital project management
and marketing analytics at three point three percent.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Those are a big three.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I know internally, you know it's insurance renewal time and
I know internally at our own company, our health insurance
costs I think balloon some nearly thirteen percent this year.
What are employers trying to do to stand out to
their employees when it comes to offering perks and additional
stuff other than just the compensation, And how should employees
try and evaluate that stuff that can oftentimes be I
(14:50):
guess put to the side compared to say the headline
compensation and bonus.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Yeah, that's a great question, and there's some really interesting
data on this. So again, looking at that third freend,
total compensation right now is truly a key differentiator. So
workers are looking well beyond the paychecks. They're looking at
perks and benefits that support their overall wellness and growth.
So really important here. More than fifty three percent of
workers which switch jobs for a stronger financial package, which
(15:18):
includes bonuses and stock options. The good news here is
that half of hiring managers who filled our survey actually
plan to add new benefits and perks to stay competitive.
So some of those popular offerings include student loan repayment assistance,
wellness stipends as well as paid time off for volunteering,
and that's becoming really popular and really prevalent right now,
(15:41):
some of the non monetary perks like flexible work arrangements
and childcare are increasingly valued. So the big bottom line
here and reminder is that employers who tailor their benefits
to the needs of their employees are actually signaling a
long term commitment to retention within the organization.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
The biggest area that I continue to see slack and
where employees seem to be having a really tough job
time finding work is those new entry level folks, especially
those with college degrees. Right now, we are seeing a
reasonably significant uptick in the unemployment rate there, and I
hear more and more about it. If folks are looking
(16:20):
to find that new job in twenty twenty six, what
are the tips that Robert haf has for that demographic.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
So I'll give you four and some of these I
know we've talked about in the past, but I think
they're important, and I think the last one is probably
the biggest one, particularly with this topic around salary. But
the first one is you really want to leverage your
specialized skills for premium pay. Many employers, in fact, eighty
four percent are actively offering higher salaries to candonates within
(16:49):
demand expertise, so I encourage you to please focus on
building skills that are hard to find and highly valued
within your field. Next, you want to invest in skilled development.
Upskilling is one of the most effective ways to boost
your earning potential, so consider certifications or additional learnings and
areas like AI data analytics or industry specific tools that
(17:13):
align with your current hiring trends. The third one, again,
this is part of the third trend, was that you
want to weigh your turlet compensation, so salary truly is
just one part of the package. So look for roles
offering strong financial incentives like bonuses, stock options. And then
obviously everyone certainly appreciate a student loan repayment assistance program.
(17:34):
And then finally, again this is the big one here,
but know your worth and be ready to negotiate. Research
the market rate for your position in your area using
a tool like the Salary Guide, and find out what
a typical salary range is for a similar role. I
can't emphasize this enough, but being informed truly does help
you advocate for yourself effectively.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Corey, thanks so much, appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Thanks, Mike, talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That's Corey Adams from Robert Half joining us today for
the twenty twenty six salary Guide. You can check that out.
They apparently have been putting together for seventy five years.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
All right, we'll do trivia quick before we hit the
brake here. On this day in two thousand and eight,
at the Dow fell seven hundred and seventy seven points,
its then largest single day point loss. The dramatic loss
followed the bankruptcy of two of the nation's largest banks.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
So our trivia.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Question today, name one of the two major banks that
filed for bankruptcy just before the September two thousand and
eight market crash. Once again, Name one of the two
major banks that filed for bankruptcy just before the September
two thousand and eight market crash. Uh, be the seventh
person today to text us at six one seven three
(18:44):
six two thirteen eighty five with the correct answer.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
You know when a Financial.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Exchange Show T shirt? Once again, The seventh correct response
to text us to the number six one seven three
six two thirteen eighty five will win that T shirt.
See complete contest rules at Financial look Show dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Take a look around at markets here, we've got two
of the three major indices in positive territory, one of
them being led by giant AI company Nvidia. Dow still
slightly in negative territory, but we're gonna have a full
market recap for you just coming up. We've got to
take a quick break here, but we'll be back with
Wall Street Watch after.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
This, bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio.
(19:42):
Every day. It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange
Radio Network. Time now for Wall Street Watch. A complete
look at what's moving market so far today right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
A new week is upon us.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
In markets, we are currently mixed with a AI sector
seeing a rebound after recent pressure. Traders are also eyeing
a potential government shutdown, and we have a September jobs
report due out on Friday morning, but who knows if
we'll even see that this week with that government shutdown.
Right now, the Dow is down by nearly two tenths
(20:21):
of one percent, or seventy nine points lower. SMP five
hundred is up two tenths of one percent of fourteen
points higher, NASDAC up about half a percent to one
hundred and ten points higher. RUSTED two thousand dipping into
negative territory, but mostly flat. Ten year treasure reel down
four basis points at four point one three to nine percent.
(20:41):
In crude oil down over three and a half percent
lower right now trading at sixty three dollars and thirty
six cents a barrel. Some major news in the video
game space this morning, where Electronic Arts said it is
going private for fifty five billion dollars, marking the largest
private equity backed buyout in history. The video game maker
(21:02):
this morning said agreed to be acquired by public Investment
Fund of Saudi Arabia silver Lake in Affinity Partners. Shareholders
of the company will receive two hundred dollars two hundred
and ten dollars per share in cash. EA stock is
up by five percent. Meanwhile, cruise operator Carnival reported quarterly
results this morning, beating earnings and revenue expectations, driven by
(21:24):
resilient cruise demand and strong advanced bookings for twenty twenty six. However,
shares are down nearly five percent right now. Elsewhere, global
drug maker asked for Rezenka said it plans to list
directly on the New York Stock Exchange in a push
to broaden its investor base. Separately, the company said it
would offer discounted asthma and diabetes drugs in the US
(21:46):
as President Trump pressures pharmaceutical companies to cut drug prices.
And cannabis stocks are seeing a pop today after Trump
out of the benefits of CBD four Seniors Advisor shares.
Pure US Cannabis ETF is jumping nineteen percent, Aurora Cannabis
up by thirty percent, until Ray stock is surging over
(22:07):
forty percent higher. I'm Tucker Silva and that is Wall
Street Watch. And in the previous segment, we asked you
the trivia question name one of the two major banks
that filed for bankruptcy just before the September two thousand
and eight market crash. We were looking for either Washington
Mutual or Lehman Brothers. Mike from Brandonon, Florida is our
(22:28):
winner today, taking home a Financial Exchange Show teacher. Congrats
to Mike. We played trivia every day here in the
Financial Exchange See complete contest rules at Financial Exchange Show
dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Paul, it is eleven thirty six and we have just
barely talked about artificial intelligence in the stock market.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Boom on it, So congratulations.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I think this is the longest we've made it during
a show for weeks, but we're going to go there now.
Wall Street journalize the piece debt is fueling the next
wave of the AI boom, and Paul You and I
were talking about this a little bit off air. The
AI boom started as a bunch of very cash flow
positive and profitable companies Microsoft, Google, Facebook to name a few,
(23:10):
investing a tremendous amount of money into the space. And
that's what's been occurring over the last three years and
continues today. These companies are continuing to pour a lot
of money into it, and they can afford to do so.
What is relatively new, as the journal points out, is
the debt fueled spending of some other companies that are
(23:30):
also you know, big in the AI space. That look,
if AI does not pan out to be as big
of a deal as it's currently being bet on, then
Microsoft is still going to have a very profitable business model.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So well. Facebook's still Google.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
These other companies that are betting on it in different
ways are not quite in the same position, and they
are not using cash flow from existing operations to fund
this thing. They're borrowing a tremendous amount of money to
do so exactly.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
I mean the parallels to kind of the mid to
late nineties build out of fiber optic fiber optic networks.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Damn, we made it to eleven thirty six before we
made the comparison.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I gotta mention it. And it's similar in a sense
that you're building it before. It's the field of dreams
sort of phrasing of you know, build it and they
will come. And what ended up happening is building out
the fiber optic cable build out was they did come eventually,
but they came later than anticipated. And for those companies
that were integral as part of the buildout, they struggled greatly.
(24:35):
The world comms the world, and if you make the
same comparison here the Oracles or others that are heavy
in the capex expending on the infrastructure side of things.
So think about data centers that are the size of
ten home depots in North Dakota. The amount of expense
that is required to continue to run those data centers
(24:56):
if demand weekends for any reason. Because adoption is not
as strong as people initially thought, you're left holding a
really big bag for a huge data center that is
ten home depots big to keep the lights on for
that is really expensive if you don't have the demand
to match it with. So that is a point that's
(25:16):
being mentioned again and again is that when you get
heavily indebted for things that the demand isn't therefore it yet.
I believe it's just three percent of people consumers are
actually paying for artificial intelligence, whether it be chatbot or
other services out there. There's a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I wonder if that includes through their employer. But that's
a wild statistic. Now again, not necessarily a bad thing. Facebook,
nobody's ever paid for and right they make a tremendous
amount of money off of all this.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
But they did it on the backs of cheaper internet infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, yep, folks, want to tell you about two events
that we're hosting. But these types of conversations about where
the market has been and where it may be headed
based on this artificial intelligence trade is so fascinating to
us at the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And we'd love to share our thoughts with it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
We'd love to have you come and join us at
one of our two free events that we are hosting
next month. The first one is that the Showcase Super
Lucks and Chestnut Hill. Actually sorry, that's the second one,
October sixteenth, of the Showcase super Lucks. The first one
is on October ninth at the Margaritaville Resort. So I'm
gonna say that again since I screwed it up. October ninth,
(26:30):
Margaritaville Resort on Cape cod Showcase super Lucks is the
October sixteenth date. If you don't want to listen to
me tell you about it, go to Armstrong Advisory dot
com where we have all the details in plan written English,
so you can log in and register for your spot.
But we're gonna be doing a live broadcast of this
show after that a lunch and a chat with the
(26:51):
Armstrong Advisory Group. We're gonna be talking specifically about where
markets have been, what is really dominating the themes for markets,
and you cannot talk about the stock market today without
artificial intelligence. But inflation, housing costs, rising indust rates are
all playing a role too, putting on pressures, pressure, putting
pressure on families everywhere, and we're starting to see some
of the cracks in the foundation of some of those
(27:11):
companies that support those folks. If you'd like to register again,
you can go to Armstrong Advisory dot Com or you
can call us at eight hundred three nine three four
zero zero one, but make your reservation now. October ninth
or October sixteenth, Chestnut Hill Showcase, Superlux, Margaritaville Resort, Cape
Cod Those are the two locations. Check it out again
(27:32):
Armstrong Advisory dot Com.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
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, and estate planning advisors before making
any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
advisory services.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
We keep talking about the AI space and what could
disrupt the narrative, and so far it's a lot been
about you know what, if the narrative about AI just
changes and people don't needed or feel like paying for
it in the same way that they do other technologies.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
The other way would be China disrupting it in some way.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
We saw some of that earlier this year with deep Seek.
It was this new AI model that had been allegedly
created on really kind of weak semiconductors. I think there's
been some questioning about that now because ultimately Chinese companies
can get a hold of in Nvidia's best in class chips,
they just can't get a ton of them. In either case,
(28:26):
Huawei is doubling the output of their top artificial intelligence
chips as the Nvidia offering in China continues to see
lackluster demand. Mainly that's because the Chinese government is saying,
do not buy in Vidia's chips. But they are replacing
that with a big tech leader that I don't think
any of us truly know how far behind they are
(28:48):
compared to in Vidia's latest and greatest semiconductors. And the
big story when it comes to this and artificial intelligence
is can Chinese companies produce a still very impressive artificial
intelligence product without the best chips? And it's not because
they will ultimately create chips that compete within video, but
(29:10):
maybe they don't need to. Maybe they can just produce
so many of them powered by such immense electricity generation that, yeah,
it doesn't matter if you're the most efficient anymore. What
matters is your ability to compute a whole lot of stuff,
and if you have to do that with ten times
as many semiconductors and ten times as much power uput
China is the company that China is the country that
(29:31):
I would bet on to be able to do that.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Yeah, we've seen that playbook before in terms of them
flooding a market with cheap goods or just creating so
much excess inventory for different countries out there that they've
been able to gain adoption. Just look at what they've
done kind of with the EV market, specifically in Europe
and Latin America. So it is something that is really
significant to monitor in this race where we're pretty much
(29:56):
in direct competition with China in terms of who can
advance this technolog g the fastest and furthest It's very
clear from recent activity that in Vidia's position in China
is almost all but gone going forward. It's completely diminished
to that point where you said that they're really not
going to be buying any of US chips anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Let's take a quick break. When we come back. Stack
Roulette is next.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Here The Financial Exchange every day from eleven to noon,
Non serious XM's Business Radio Channel one thirty two. Keep
it here for the latest business and financial news and
the trends on Wall Street. The Financial Exchange is now
Life on Serious XM's business radio Channel one thirty two.
This is the Financial Exchange Radio Network. Find daily interviews
(30:45):
and full shows of the Financial Exchange on our YouTube page.
Subscribe to our page and get caught up on anything
and everything you might have missed. This is the Financial
Exchange Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
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Speaker 2 (31:34):
Paul, what do you have for us for stack Roulette, Mike,
Used electric vehicles are flying off the shelves.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Apparently I did not know that there was a huge
market for this, or maybe not a huge market, but
they're seeing a ton of growth, where used EV's sales
through June had increased about thirty four percent from a
year earlier. Basically, what you've had is at the end
of this year, I believe it was with the last
month or so, you no longer get the seventy five
(32:02):
hundred dollars federal tax credit, and instead, rather than looking
for the new vehicle purchases, there has been a lot
more demand for buying used ones. The reason being that
you can buy a use electric vehicle for close to
the same price as a used gas combustion engine. There's
(32:22):
some examples here where a retired realtor was able to
buy a twenty twenty four version of a Ford Mustange
mock EGT at thirty three thousand bucks when it only
had thirteen thousand miles on it. It was a car
that originally went for fifty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
These car companies are so offsides on this. Yeah, they
are so far over extended on this EV play.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I just did my own search here, Paul just I
was curious. I've looked at this before, but if I
want a used Tesla in my area, I said, it's
got to be twenty twenty two or younger and under
thirty thousand.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Miles no accidents, twenty six grand for a three year
old car that probably went for fifty when it.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Was Now sure, I'm easily maybe more.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yes, I can get a Volkswagen you know, I internal
combestion engine for cheaper than that, but not way cheaper.
So yeah, the demand side of the equation for these
evs has just been way way under what the auto
manufacturers were planning on and investing based upon.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
And we talked about this from the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
How are you going to build out this massive new
demand for electric vehicles when our electricity infrastructure just does
not support it? Right like it still doesn't to this
day support the idea that all of us are going
to be driving electric vehicles. And then you know, this is,
by the way, not just a US focused thing. Go
look at Europe. The demand for evs is way underestimates
(34:05):
there as well, and they're all pivoting the build out
that you started getting from these American car makers especially,
and the investments that they were making, the partnerships with
big battery companies. It all to me was putting the
cart way before the horse and story and you know,
it's just come, you know, failing in spectacular fashion now
(34:27):
where they're all taking pretty big losses on these facilities
that they built out and going back to what has
always buttered their bread, which is.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
The big druv.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, that's what people want to drive. Like you weren't
just going to create this market overnight. So some some
are more offside than others, you know, don't get me wrong.
Like Ford had one big EV, so I'm guessing they're
still fine. But there are big, big investments that were
made here, and it's not that the demand doesn't exist,
but it's not growing the way that they had been
(34:59):
banking on, and certainly isn't growing the way that they
were investing based upon.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yeah, it's an interesting story where you can get these
two or three year old vehicles for a pretty decent
price that would be akin to an internal combustion engine
that's six or seven years old.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I'm waiting this one out to me again. I've brought
this up before. Give me the EV with the built
in gas generator and I will buy that thing all day.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Dodge is the first company I think to come out
with this. They're going to have a new truck that
has an internal combustion engine. No, sorry, it's got an
electric vehicle engine. And then just a generator that will
recharge the battery on that electric vehicle that can run
on gas. So if I am going on that long
road trip and I can't find that charging station or
(35:44):
I don't have time, then I have another option other
than sitting at the charging station for an hour and
recharging my car.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
I'm immediately recalling a client event radio event we were
at the weekend where the listener said to me, we
don't know anything about cars, so I'll refrain from making
any more common So then the evs are cheap.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yes, that's fair. Are you planning on moving and retirement?
It doesn't always go as planned.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
This is from Barons, and they've got a few tips
on what to keep in mind when it comes to this.
I think some of them people are aware of, like
look before you move. I can't tell you how many
people I've seen move because they vacationed somewhere and then
end up hating it once they actually live there. You know,
study all the costs. Insurance costs in Florida have gone
through the roof. Make sure you understand how much more
(36:29):
expensive groceries and insurances down there before you move there.
Here's the one that I think people miscalculate and misunderstand frequently,
which is the tax piece. So we are doing our
show from Massachusetts, Paul, you have a lot of clients here,
as do I. I hear frequently, Hey, couldn't I save
a lot of taxes by moving to New Hampshire and
(36:51):
moving to Florida? And the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no.
It depends on your income, it depends on the makeup
of your assets, and all sorts of different complicating factors.
But one thing that I always point to people that
is really important when you're talking about tax savings by
moving from a state like Massachusetts or New York or
Washington State or California, A lot of it is the
(37:11):
estate tax when you die. And very frequently, what do
we do when we are seniors and getting older. It's yeah,
I've been living in Florida for twenty years, but you
know what, all my family is up in Massachusetts and
I need a little more help doing the things that
I used.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
To do every day.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Great hospital and.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I've got really good health networks, and just all my
family is there and they want to spend more time
around me, and I want to spend more time around them.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I'm moving back. That's where all your cost savings.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Is, right when you're talking about which state you die
in as a resident of That's when you're talking about
the big tax savings. It's not so much the five
percent income tax difference, because you'll make that up oftentimes
elsewhere in real estate taxes and others. It's where you
die that ends up mattering a lot in this calculaty.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
That's what frustrates me and doesn't get cover enough, is
that just because there's no state income tax doesn't mean
there's not tax revenue being generated elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
That is all the time we have for today's financial
exchange markets closing the new closing in on the noon
hour in mixed territory. We'll have a full recap for
you and jolts tomorrow and a looming government shutdown tomorrow
in the financial exchange
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