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Semiconductor Stocks Lead the Rally While Big Questions Surround Apple · The Financial Exchange Show

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Speaker 1: a donation today. This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck
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Speaker 1: Zada and Paul.
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Speaker 2: Lane, Chuck Paul Sucker with you here today, and as
1:17
Speaker 2: we get things kicked off, we've got stocks rallying with
1:22
Speaker 2: the S and P five hundred up fifty four point
1:26
Speaker 2: of runes as of this very particular moment, which by
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Speaker 2: the way, does put us back within sniffing distance of
1:33
Speaker 2: new all time highs. Still not there today, but only
1:37
Speaker 2: about a quarter to a half percent off after a
1:40
Speaker 2: brief two day pullback. Again, let's not say that this
1:44
Speaker 2: will continue up or fall apart, Like I don't know,
1:47
Speaker 2: I have no idea exactly where stocks are going to go,
1:50
Speaker 2: but I can tell you the driver, the bid that is,
1:54
Speaker 2: you know, really driving everything continues to be semiconductors right now.
1:58
Speaker 2: Semiconductor Index up about one and a half percent today,
2:01
Speaker 2: but all three major US indices, the Dow's up. What
2:04
Speaker 2: do we got here? Hang on, there's a piece of
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Speaker 2: dust here. It looked like, yeah, that's better. Three hundred
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Speaker 2: and eighty eight points, about three quarters seven percent, NASDAK
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Speaker 2: can posit up one to quarter percent, three hundred and
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Speaker 2: thirty four points. So again broad green on the board,
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Speaker 2: with semis leading the way. When we take a look
2:21
Speaker 2: at other parts of the market, tenure. Treasury not really
2:24
Speaker 2: doing much of anything today, down four tenths of a
2:26
Speaker 2: basis point to four point two eight eight percent, so
2:29
Speaker 2: nothing exciting happening there. We've got the dollar index up
2:33
Speaker 2: point oh nine percent to ninety eight thirty one, again
2:36
Speaker 2: not really worth getting out of bed. For gold is
2:39
Speaker 2: up thirty three to twenty and ounce to forty seven
2:41
Speaker 2: to fifty two. And we've got crude oil up two
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Speaker 2: fifty eight a barrel on West Text Intermediate to nine
2:47
Speaker 2: to two twenty five triple a. National average for gas
2:50
Speaker 2: price is holding steady at four to oh two, even
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Speaker 2: down just two tenths of a cent overnight, so continuing
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Speaker 2: just to float in that low four dollars range. And
3:01
Speaker 2: that's kind of where we've been for the last couple
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Speaker 2: of weeks.
3:05
Speaker 1: Here.
3:06
Speaker 2: Those are the big things that are moving in markets.
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Speaker 2: But big company making a big move earlier this week
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Speaker 2: with Apple announcing a new CEO, John Turnas who Again,
3:17
Speaker 2: anytime that you you know, see one of these names
3:20
Speaker 2: come through, it's it's not like I know these people.
3:22
Speaker 2: So you go to Wikipedia and you know, you find
3:25
Speaker 2: their bio in the good news is that John Turners
3:26
Speaker 2: has a Wikipedia bio so that you can actually find
3:29
Speaker 2: this stuff out, like.
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Speaker 3: It's wasn't recently created.
3:31
Speaker 2: No, it would have been bad if it were something
3:34
Speaker 2: where you're like, hey, like this guy doesn't have a
3:37
Speaker 2: Wikipedia page, like how is he, you know, becoming the CEO?
3:41
Speaker 2: But in fact, turnus's page. Let's see. I want to
3:46
Speaker 2: see how far back it goes actually in Wikipedia, Like
3:48
Speaker 2: when when did it? Well, the last five hundred revisions
3:52
Speaker 2: are through twenty twenty one. Oh that's what. So it
3:55
Speaker 2: was made in twenty twenty one. So he's had a
3:57
Speaker 2: wikipaid Wikipedia page for five years. And it messures with
4:00
Speaker 2: the fact that back in twenty twenty one he was
4:04
Speaker 2: promoted to a CB the senior vice president of hardware
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Speaker 2: Engineering for Apple. So he's a hardware guy. He had
4:11
Speaker 2: previously worked on displays for them. Then he was in
4:14
Speaker 2: charge of iPhone hardware for a while, Apple Watch hardware,
4:17
Speaker 2: so like he's worked, you know, basically headed off hardware
4:21
Speaker 2: in a lot of these big projects. And what's interesting
4:25
Speaker 2: to me is you always think about, you know, okay,
4:26
Speaker 2: when you're when you're naming a CEO, what does it
4:30
Speaker 2: tell you about what the company thinks is important? When
4:35
Speaker 2: Boeing named their new CEO. A couple of what was
4:38
Speaker 2: it maybe two years ago now, it was Okay, it's
4:41
Speaker 2: someone from outside the Boeing ecosystem. You know, there's not
4:44
Speaker 2: many companies that like have the relevant experience. But yep,
4:46
Speaker 2: we're gonna bring someone in. Was a Kelly Ortburger, Kelly yea,
4:50
Speaker 2: And we're gonna bring someone else in because we need
4:52
Speaker 2: someone from outside to help reform the culture. When Tim
4:57
Speaker 2: Cook took over from Steve Jobs at Apple, it was, okay,
5:01
Speaker 2: Tim is the operations the logistics guy, and so that's
5:06
Speaker 2: what you know was being prioritized. And look sure enough,
5:09
Speaker 2: like I don't think anyone looks at the last fifteen
5:11
Speaker 2: years of Apple and says, wow, like they've innovated the
5:13
Speaker 2: way that Jobs did. No, but the execution has been incredible, steady,
5:17
Speaker 2: and the execution has been great. So it's interesting to
5:20
Speaker 2: me about Apple naming a hardware guy. There are two
5:25
Speaker 2: places that are being left out, And look like, just
5:27
Speaker 2: because you're naming a hardware guy doesn't mean these other
5:29
Speaker 2: things don't matter. But here's what I find interesting. Apple
5:34
Speaker 2: has been really working in the last couple of years
5:36
Speaker 2: on growing recurring services revenue software. Yes, but that's not
5:42
Speaker 2: what they're they're saying, is you know, necessarily the most
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Speaker 2: important here. The other piece is Apple still the only
5:51
Speaker 2: big tech company that's not really doing anything interesting on
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Speaker 2: the AI side of things, or even trying to really.
5:56
Speaker 2: And so I think the questions that are raised by
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Speaker 2: turnus and these are not bad things. It's just again,
6:03
Speaker 2: any CEO coming in would have certain questions about him.
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Speaker 2: These just happen to be his. Okay, does this mean
6:09
Speaker 2: that there's going to be a you know, not pivot,
6:12
Speaker 2: but is the focus going to you know, gradually shift
6:16
Speaker 2: back to Apple being more of a hardware company versus
6:18
Speaker 2: the recent shift towards software and services? And likewise, hey,
6:23
Speaker 2: what does this say about Apple's AI ambitions? You know,
6:26
Speaker 2: is there any there there or is that going to
6:30
Speaker 2: continue to be something where they say, no, this isn't
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Speaker 2: really for us and we're gonna punt on it.
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Speaker 3: It seems like that would be the area that he
6:37
Speaker 3: I mean, that has to be the biggest mission for
6:40
Speaker 3: his job from a strategic standpoint, is to try and
6:43
Speaker 3: make inroads within our official intelligence because the efforts have
6:47
Speaker 3: largely lagged and in general from an innovation perspective, certainly
6:51
Speaker 3: during Cook's tenure. You can point to sever products that
6:53
Speaker 3: were great sort of ancillary products to the iPhone. He
6:57
Speaker 3: was there during the iPad, AirPods and a couple others
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Speaker 3: the Apple Watch that were extremely successful. But you can
7:04
Speaker 3: also point negatively to the Vision pro not really taking
7:07
Speaker 3: mass adoption there. You also had the Automus vehicle efforts
7:10
Speaker 3: that were just a disaster, really a decade, spent billions
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Speaker 3: of dollars that went nowhere, And now with turn Is
7:18
Speaker 3: taking over, you'd have to think that there's ambitions for
7:22
Speaker 3: some sort of hardware product within the artificial intelligence space.
7:25
Speaker 3: Now they've had some brain drain with Johnny Ivy going
7:28
Speaker 3: to Open AI, who was the head designer from many
7:31
Speaker 3: of those stellar products that I just mentioned before, But
7:34
Speaker 3: it's really gonna seem like check that that is going
7:37
Speaker 3: to be the focus. I would think that they would
7:42
Speaker 3: come out with some try and come out with some
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Speaker 3: sort of hardware product that is going to heavily incorporate
7:47
Speaker 3: AI into their wearable devices like that's been the wearable
7:51
Speaker 3: devices is what they've been working on. I feel like
7:53
Speaker 3: the integration of AI into that that's probably where they're
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Speaker 3: going with this.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it just here here's the thing about AI. I've
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Speaker 2: thought a lot about this over the last year or so,
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Speaker 2: and I can't figure out any like, I can't figure
8:10
Speaker 2: out any way that AI meaningfully improves an individual's life
8:18
Speaker 2: on the consumer side of things, because like the way
8:21
Speaker 2: the consumers use it and the way the consumers almost
8:23
Speaker 2: will have to is basically as like if you're talking
8:28
Speaker 2: about like on current tech devices, it's basically as a
8:32
Speaker 2: replacement for a search engine, right you know, right now, Yes,
8:37
Speaker 2: the stuff that's exciting with AI right now is all
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Speaker 2: agentic AI, which is okay, I want you instead of
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Speaker 2: just me asking you something to do something, book.
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Speaker 3: My hotel, book the trip for me for the vacation
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Speaker 3: next next year.
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Speaker 2: Like what what does that really do? Like if you're
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Speaker 2: a person right now who has an example, like let's
8:56
Speaker 2: say that I'm me, which I am, okay, and and
9:00
Speaker 2: I'm sitting at home watching the Bruins beat these Sabers
9:04
Speaker 2: last night during the intermission, I pull open my phone
9:08
Speaker 2: and I say, huh, I've got, you know, an anniversary
9:10
Speaker 2: coming up in a little bit. Let me look for
9:12
Speaker 2: restaurant recommendations. Why do I need AI to go and
9:18
Speaker 2: do that and book something for me, Like, what's the
9:22
Speaker 2: cost to me of doing that?
9:24
Speaker 1: Like?
9:25
Speaker 2: Is that saving me money?
9:26
Speaker 4: No?
9:27
Speaker 2: Is it saving me time? I guess? But I still
9:31
Speaker 2: have to sort through whatever the AI brings me, because
9:33
Speaker 2: what if it books something that like I don't like?
9:36
Speaker 2: And by the way, the way to get AI to
9:38
Speaker 2: book something that like you do like and to do
9:40
Speaker 2: all this stuff like as an agent is to give
9:43
Speaker 2: it as much context as.
9:44
Speaker 3: You got to debt and basically as well as possible. Right, So, like,
9:48
Speaker 3: but we're not you're not there yet, idea, your profile
9:51
Speaker 3: is my mine? Isn't there?
9:52
Speaker 1: No?
9:53
Speaker 2: So it's like, I guess where I'm at on the
9:55
Speaker 2: AI side of things. I see a bunch of places
9:58
Speaker 2: where it can make money on the enter side, yeah,
10:00
Speaker 2: from streamlining and processes there. What if Apple is right
10:04
Speaker 2: in that Hey for the consumer facing, for personal use,
10:09
Speaker 2: what if there's not really any money to be made
10:11
Speaker 2: from AI because all people want to do is make puppies,
10:13
Speaker 2: Bob sledding or you know, ask it questions that you
10:18
Speaker 2: ask search engines and it's just a more expensive search engine.
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Speaker 3: Then on the monetization front, you could make the argument
10:26
Speaker 3: that it's the pivot away from the generic search engines.
10:29
Speaker 3: This is the new frontiers, just large langing as well
10:31
Speaker 3: as and you monetize that where every product reximmendation that
10:34
Speaker 3: you're looking for going forward, you step further and further
10:37
Speaker 3: away from the Google search. To look for best toy
10:39
Speaker 3: for your four year old son for his birthday, you
10:42
Speaker 3: just go there. And they've tried early attempts at monosens
10:46
Speaker 3: in't that, but it's been a little shoppy in terms
10:49
Speaker 3: of the user experience. Walmart I think pulled off of
10:51
Speaker 3: chattbt in terms of product listings there. But I agree
10:56
Speaker 3: with you right now, looking at the landscape, it's hard
10:59
Speaker 3: to make too much of the argument of the consumer
11:01
Speaker 3: front the argument that people who are pro I would
11:05
Speaker 3: say it's going to only get better and more powerful,
11:07
Speaker 3: and it's going to once it's fed more data on
11:10
Speaker 3: you and your situation, that it will become more prolific
11:13
Speaker 3: at making those things easier. But right now it is
11:17
Speaker 3: hard to see how much of a jump that would make.
11:20
Speaker 3: On the enterprise side, we can we can really see
11:22
Speaker 3: it now. That's like those concerns have really been put
11:24
Speaker 3: to bed. When you look at Claude Code and a
11:27
Speaker 3: bunch of the other cybersecurity stuff software stuff that's come out,
11:30
Speaker 3: but interesting pivot, our interesting time that Apple finds itself
11:35
Speaker 3: in in a difficult putt. We were saying yesterday on
11:38
Speaker 3: the show for turn us to take over. At this
11:40
Speaker 3: point in time, Cook has done tremendous job, has been
11:42
Speaker 3: a great executor. The iPhone seventeen did big numbers. They
11:46
Speaker 3: still are a company that's worth four trillion dollars and
11:49
Speaker 3: does four hundred billion dollars of revenue a year. So
11:52
Speaker 3: it's they're in a great place. But people are always
11:54
Speaker 3: looking for the next thing.
11:55
Speaker 2: And I gotta say, like, people said the same thing
11:57
Speaker 2: when Cooke took over, because they're like, oh, like tough
11:59
Speaker 2: fault following Steve Jobs. And then I saw something yesterday
12:03
Speaker 2: like someone was trying to pooh pooh Cook being like, oh,
12:06
Speaker 2: like Apple's underperformed all these other tech companies and blah
12:09
Speaker 2: blah blah and this and that, and I'm like, here's
12:12
Speaker 2: the thing. Apple at its core and most of its revenue,
12:16
Speaker 2: it's still a hardware company. M hm. Apple's like the
12:20
Speaker 2: only company in the world that makes meaningful profit as
12:24
Speaker 2: a technology hardware company consistently. Yeah, Like as a consumer
12:30
Speaker 2: technology like hardware company, like you get anyone else who
12:33
Speaker 2: tries to get into those spaces. No one makes money
12:36
Speaker 2: selling smartphones, no one makes money selling tablets, no one
12:39
Speaker 2: makes money selling watches. Like no one can figure out
12:42
Speaker 2: how TVs.
12:43
Speaker 3: None of the electronics stuff is.
12:44
Speaker 2: And and Apple does like they're just like yep, we've got
12:47
Speaker 2: it down. And you know, the people comparing them to like, well,
12:51
Speaker 2: they haven't done as well as in video or guys
12:53
Speaker 2: like they're completely different companies Like in video doesn't make
12:58
Speaker 2: anything themselves, act like they out so all of the building.
13:01
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that that's good or bad. But Apple,
13:03
Speaker 2: it's like, okay, like they actually do like Apple makes
13:07
Speaker 2: its own silicon. Apple make like they have their own
13:09
Speaker 2: stuff that they actually build. And I think that anyone
13:14
Speaker 2: selling tim cook short is really missing the boat because
13:18
Speaker 2: it is one of the most competitive spaces and they've
13:21
Speaker 2: kind of made it look easy for the last fifteen years.
13:23
Speaker 3: To do it for fifteen years. Is the point to
13:25
Speaker 3: really emphasize, is that's really freaking hard in that space,
13:29
Speaker 3: in hardware, in tech to do that. And yes, Nvidia
13:32
Speaker 3: has been the darling of the markets for the last
13:34
Speaker 3: four to five years, but that doesn't mean that they're
13:37
Speaker 3: going to be able to replicate this for the next
13:39
Speaker 3: ten We've seen time over time with Chips that it
13:43
Speaker 3: is a competitive field and it's hard to hold that
13:45
Speaker 3: place on the mantle and Apple deserves a ton of
13:48
Speaker 3: credit or Tim Cook for the last fifteen years to.
13:50
Speaker 2: Take a quick break. When we return, we've got trivia,
13:54
Speaker 2: and then we're talking about Anthropic did their new model
13:57
Speaker 2: fall into the wrong hands?
13:59
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14:36
Speaker 4: It's time for trivia here on the Financial Exchange. And
14:39
Speaker 4: today Jack Nicholson turned eighty nine years old. The legendary
14:43
Speaker 4: actor one the Academy Award four Best Actor twice and
14:47
Speaker 4: Best Supporting Actor once. Jack holds the record for most
14:51
Speaker 4: Academy Award nominations for a male actor. So our trivia
14:56
Speaker 4: question today, how many times has Jack Nicholson been nominated
15:00
Speaker 4: for an Academy Award?
15:01
Speaker 2: Once again?
15:02
Speaker 4: How many times has Jack Nicholson been nominated for an
15:06
Speaker 4: Academy Award? Be the third person today to text us
15:10
Speaker 4: at six one seven three six two thirteen eighty five
15:12
Speaker 4: with correct answer along with keyword trivia, and you want
15:15
Speaker 4: a Financial Licks Shane Show T shirt once again. The
15:18
Speaker 4: third correct response two textas to the number six one
15:21
Speaker 4: seven three six two thirteen eighty five with correct answer
15:24
Speaker 4: along with keyword trivia will win that T shirt. See
15:27
Speaker 4: complete contest rules at Financial exshanshow dot com.
15:31
Speaker 2: So a couple of weeks ago, Anthropic decided not to
15:35
Speaker 2: roll out their newest most powerful model. Uh, it's called Mythos.
15:40
Speaker 2: I pronounce it Mythos just because there's a a Greek
15:44
Speaker 2: beer by the name of Mythos that I like to think,
15:47
Speaker 2: is what Anthropic named it after. They probably did because
15:50
Speaker 2: they made the model while they were drinking it. But
15:53
Speaker 2: here's the deal. It's supposed to be like this, you know,
15:55
Speaker 2: crazy powerful model that they got nervous that it was
15:57
Speaker 2: going to cause all kind of cybersecurity problem, so they
16:00
Speaker 2: basically rolled it out to a small number of technology
16:05
Speaker 2: and financial institutions, basically saying, hey, go patch up your
16:09
Speaker 2: stuff and once once you've done so, maybe we can
16:12
Speaker 2: release this. And it turns out that, according to a
16:18
Speaker 2: report from Bloomberg, a small group of unauthorized users users
16:23
Speaker 2: have actually accessed this new model somehow, and pretty much
16:29
Speaker 2: what it seems like happen. I'm gonna quote here just
16:31
Speaker 2: because it's it's kind of wild. The users relied on
16:34
Speaker 2: a mix of tactics to get into mythos. These included
16:38
Speaker 2: using access, using access the person had as a worker
16:41
Speaker 2: at a third party contractor for Anthropic, and trying to
16:44
Speaker 2: find commonly used Internet sleuthing tools that are often employed
16:48
Speaker 2: by cybersecurity researchers. As well. The users are part of
16:51
Speaker 2: a private discord channel that focuses on hunting for information
16:55
Speaker 2: about unreleased models, including by using bots to scour for
16:59
Speaker 2: details that at Topic and others have posted on unsecured
17:02
Speaker 2: websites such as GitHub. So again, if it was really
17:07
Speaker 2: Anthropic's goal to not let this model be used by
17:10
Speaker 2: anyone man, it sure seems like they didn't use the
17:13
Speaker 2: model to prevent someone from gaining access to it through
17:17
Speaker 2: you know, ways that it was still publicly accessible, because
17:19
Speaker 2: it's if the model's really that good, don't you just say, hey, Mythos,
17:24
Speaker 2: go go look on the internet for any way that
17:26
Speaker 2: someone could accidentally access you sure, you know, like, I'm
17:31
Speaker 2: just like hypothesizing here, but apparently like some unauthorized parties
17:38
Speaker 2: gained access to it. It's unclear if they still have
17:40
Speaker 2: access to it or I have been able to do anything.
17:42
Speaker 3: But yes, this whole world, I just I kind of
17:47
Speaker 3: wish I was more tuned into it and could keep
17:50
Speaker 3: up with the sentiment that you the paragraph that you
17:53
Speaker 3: just had there where it was like a discord channel
17:55
Speaker 3: hunting for information about unreleased models, using bots to scour
17:58
Speaker 3: details and on unsecured websites such as get up, Like
18:03
Speaker 3: it is just so beyond my level of expertise. I
18:06
Speaker 3: try to keep up with this stuff, but you can't,
18:08
Speaker 3: you absolutely can't. And I just wish I could have
18:11
Speaker 3: like a little very easy understand documentary or a quick,
18:15
Speaker 3: you know, short on what these guys are capable guys
18:18
Speaker 3: or gals are capable of doing to get into these
18:21
Speaker 3: models it's incredible.
18:22
Speaker 2: You Also, I'm at the point now where in Grant
18:25
Speaker 2: did I read a piece on this earlier this week
18:26
Speaker 2: which has influenced my thinking. The average person shouldn't be
18:30
Speaker 2: trying to keep up with what's going on here. Yeah,
18:32
Speaker 2: because you don't need to be cutting edge for what's
18:33
Speaker 2: happening with AI. You just don't. And people say like, well,
18:37
Speaker 2: I need to for my job, Like I'm gonna no.
18:41
Speaker 2: Like if if you are thinking you need to be,
18:43
Speaker 2: your job's already lost. Sorry, Like it's just how it is.
18:48
Speaker 2: What I'm saying is the jobs that will matter and
18:52
Speaker 2: be important in the future are not going to be
18:55
Speaker 2: based on who's the best AI prompter and stuff like that.
18:59
Speaker 2: That it's a losing race. You're not going to win
19:02
Speaker 2: that because there's someone out there that's better than you.
19:05
Speaker 2: What I am saying, and this is again this is
19:07
Speaker 2: there's a piece that influenced me on this. The companies
19:11
Speaker 2: that made the best use of the Internet weren't the
19:14
Speaker 2: ones that tried to build the best Internet. They weren't
19:17
Speaker 2: the ones that like learned how to build the best
19:19
Speaker 2: web page. I mean, like again, they're just not Let's
19:23
Speaker 2: hold that thought for a second. Take a break and
19:26
Speaker 2: when we come back, discuss more about what it means
19:30
Speaker 2: to try to use AI the best.
19:40
Speaker 1: Bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio every day.
19:45
Speaker 1: It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
19:51
Speaker 1: Try out full Wall Street Watch tracking the stocks, the data,
19:55
Speaker 1: and the headlines driving markets so far today right here
19:58
Speaker 1: on the Financial Exchange Radio.
20:00
Speaker 4: The markets are well into positive territory after the US
20:03
Speaker 4: and definitely extended its ceasefire with Iran. Despite the uncertainty
20:07
Speaker 4: with Iran, investors are reacting favorably to a strong earning
20:11
Speaker 4: season to this point. Right now, the Dow is up
20:13
Speaker 4: over eight tenths of a percent, SMP five hundred up
20:17
Speaker 4: over eight tenths of a percent as well. Tech heavy
20:21
Speaker 4: Nazac up one point three percent, Russell two thousand up
20:24
Speaker 4: about half a percent, Tenure Treasure reeled flat at four
20:27
Speaker 4: point two eighty eight percent, and Oil up nearly three percent,
20:32
Speaker 4: higher trading and ninety two dollars a barrel. According to
20:34
Speaker 4: the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is nearing a
20:38
Speaker 4: rescue deal for Spirit Airlines. Under the agreement, the US
20:42
Speaker 4: government would loan the embattled discount carrier as much as
20:46
Speaker 4: five hundred million dollars receiving in return warrants to take
20:49
Speaker 4: a potential significant stake in spirit. Meanwhile, Boeing posted as
20:54
Speaker 4: smaller than expected loss in the first quarter as aircraft
20:57
Speaker 4: deliveries increased, while his defense and service units also showed improvements.
21:02
Speaker 4: That stock is up by four percent. Meanwhile, United Airlines
21:05
Speaker 4: dropping six percent after it cut its twenty twenty six
21:09
Speaker 4: earnings forecast is it continues to grapple with the surge
21:12
Speaker 4: and jet fuel prices Elsewhere. Best Buy announced this morning
21:16
Speaker 4: that twenty seven year company veteran Jason Bondfig will succeed
21:20
Speaker 4: Corey Berry as CEO on October thirty first. Best Buy
21:24
Speaker 4: shares down by four percent and Tesla will report earnings
21:29
Speaker 4: after today's closing bell. I'm Tucker Silva and that is
21:33
Speaker 4: Wall Street Watch. And in the previous segment, we asked
21:36
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21:39
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21:45
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21:51
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21:57
Speaker 2: So I want to dig in more this AI topic
22:02
Speaker 2: that we were talking about in the last segment, and
22:08
Speaker 2: my statement was, look like you don't need to become
22:12
Speaker 2: an AI expert right now, because quite honestly, it's evolving
22:16
Speaker 2: so quickly that you're just not going to be able
22:20
Speaker 2: to in most cases. And I saw this piece earlier
22:24
Speaker 2: this week that I thought was relevant here, and it's
22:28
Speaker 2: from the Look everyone's got a blog right now. I
22:30
Speaker 2: don't know if they're any good. This one's called Educated Guests.
22:34
Speaker 2: Maybe it's fun, maybe it's not.
22:35
Speaker 3: I don't know.
22:36
Speaker 2: You guys can check it out if you want take
22:37
Speaker 2: an educated guess exactly. But it talks about the scene
22:41
Speaker 2: in Alice in Wonderland, where you know, Alice says, you know,
22:44
Speaker 2: she meets the Red Queen and she's like, hey, in
22:46
Speaker 2: our country, you generally get somewhere else if you run
22:49
Speaker 2: really fast, you know, for a long time, and the
22:52
Speaker 2: queen says to her, well, you know, look, when you're here,
22:55
Speaker 2: you've got to run twice as fast just to stay
22:58
Speaker 2: in the same place. And it's basically how everyone feels
23:01
Speaker 2: relating to AI right now. Like you talk to people
23:03
Speaker 2: that are actually involved in trying to do stuff with AI,
23:06
Speaker 2: and they're like, I'm working so hard, but i feel
23:08
Speaker 2: like I'm not getting anywhere. And my point is that
23:11
Speaker 2: you don't really need to. And it's the point that
23:13
Speaker 2: this piece makes as well, which is, look back in
23:17
Speaker 2: the early two thousands, you had all these companies that
23:21
Speaker 2: tried to optimize their websites and they wanted them to
23:25
Speaker 2: look perfect and be perfect and this and that and everything.
23:28
Speaker 2: And the people that actually ended up winning the e
23:31
Speaker 2: commerce battle, well it was Amazon. And they have still
23:35
Speaker 2: today like the ugliest website possible. Like you go on
23:38
Speaker 2: in and it's just like a mess of stuff being
23:40
Speaker 2: thrown at you in no particular order. There's a giant
23:43
Speaker 2: like menu like it. If you look up good web design,
23:46
Speaker 2: it basically says do the opposite of what Amazon did.
23:49
Speaker 2: But the point that this this piece made is, look,
23:52
Speaker 2: Amazon didn't attract all of the commerce that it did
23:58
Speaker 2: by building the most beautiful website that's so user friendly.
24:03
Speaker 2: They built it by building just this massive flywheel on
24:06
Speaker 2: the back end that could get you the stuff that
24:09
Speaker 2: you wanted. Really early they're logistics company dressed up as
24:12
Speaker 2: a tech company, right like that. That's what they do
24:16
Speaker 2: better than anyone else.
24:17
Speaker 3: And they leverage the exploding popularity of the Internet and
24:20
Speaker 3: they saw the trend of the usage and then pivot
24:24
Speaker 3: and then put a business model together that would leverage
24:27
Speaker 3: that just continued growth of Internet usages over time.
24:30
Speaker 2: But they didn't win because they are Another way. They
24:32
Speaker 2: won because people realized, hey, I can order anything from
24:35
Speaker 2: Amazon and it'll get there in two days if I
24:38
Speaker 2: have Prime. Now it'll get there like in six hours
24:39
Speaker 2: if you have Prime or whatever it is. And so
24:42
Speaker 2: the point that this piece makes is, look, if you're
24:47
Speaker 2: trying to like optimize for building the best agent rough
24:50
Speaker 2: this and that or the best workflow, you're missing the point.
24:54
Speaker 2: The point is you're heading towards the world. Now, what
24:57
Speaker 2: the Internet did was it allowed information to be commoditized.
25:01
Speaker 2: The cost of either receiving or sending information went down dramatic.
25:07
Speaker 2: What we're now heading towards with AI. And look, you
25:10
Speaker 2: can debate this if you want, but again i'd urge
25:14
Speaker 2: you to not. We're heading towards a world where intelligence
25:17
Speaker 2: is going to be commoditized, not information, but intelligence, Like
25:20
Speaker 2: what do I do with information? And people be like, well,
25:23
Speaker 2: like hey, I told me to eat a rock, and
25:26
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, Like, first of all, that was two
25:28
Speaker 2: years ago, and second like, all those models are getting
25:32
Speaker 2: better every day, and if you haven't used any of
25:34
Speaker 2: the new ones and seen what they can do, go
25:38
Speaker 2: eat a rock. You know, Like it's just kind of
25:41
Speaker 2: how it is. So my point is, if intelligence is
25:45
Speaker 2: going to be commoditized or at least devalued somewhat, then
25:51
Speaker 2: what does that allow you to do? And what's the
25:54
Speaker 2: flywheel that you need to be building for your business?
25:57
Speaker 2: Not spending your time on what do I do with today,
26:01
Speaker 2: because that's the wrong answer. The question is when intelligence
26:04
Speaker 2: is commoditized, what am I building to take advantage of that?
26:09
Speaker 2: I don't know. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here,
26:12
Speaker 2: you know, I'd already have several billion dollars. Yeah, how
26:16
Speaker 2: can I figure this out? I'm not the genius, you
26:19
Speaker 2: know what My big idea was last week? And I'm
26:22
Speaker 2: giving this away just because I'm not gonna like, I'll
26:24
Speaker 2: never make anything of it on my own. My wife
26:27
Speaker 2: has gotten into Majong recently. Oh yeah, that's exploded. But
26:32
Speaker 2: here's the thing, as men, don't you feel the world
26:36
Speaker 2: of Majong is a little bit intimidating and maybe a
26:39
Speaker 2: little bit too feminine for you to get into. Yes,
26:43
Speaker 2: I bring you Manjong Majong sets for men, okay, so
26:49
Speaker 2: that they've got airplanes and dinosaurs and stuff like that
26:52
Speaker 2: on them instead of you know, just like whatever else
26:56
Speaker 2: is on them normally. So again, someone can take it
26:59
Speaker 2: and run with it if you're listening, like here you
27:01
Speaker 2: go like have fun. But I thought that that was
27:03
Speaker 2: that's my big idea, and that's why I'm not a billionaires,
27:06
Speaker 2: because my big idea is man Jong, not what do
27:08
Speaker 2: I do with, you know, commoditized intelligence.
27:11
Speaker 3: It reminds me of the Curb episode where Larry has
27:13
Speaker 3: his inventions. The one is a telescope that comes through
27:17
Speaker 3: the top of your car so you can see traffic ahead.
27:19
Speaker 3: And then the other one he had was the pool
27:20
Speaker 3: stick Q approach to skis so that you didn't have
27:24
Speaker 3: to lug around just one piece of ski that you'd
27:26
Speaker 3: be able to scream together. I think man John is
27:28
Speaker 3: right up in the pantheon with those three, with those two.
27:31
Speaker 2: If you do want my ai ida, I've said this
27:33
Speaker 2: one before. It's an ai agent that you can use
27:37
Speaker 2: to call all of your subscription services and negotiate the
27:40
Speaker 2: rate without you having to do call on the eight.
27:42
Speaker 3: Hundred numbers with it. That would be great, like navigate
27:45
Speaker 3: the eight hundred numbers.
27:46
Speaker 2: Like that's a place where I'm like, Okay, I really
27:49
Speaker 2: don't have the patience to sit on hold, and you know,
27:51
Speaker 2: even not even to sitting on hold. But oh now
27:54
Speaker 2: I've got to talk to someone for half an hour
27:56
Speaker 2: about my problem, and then they send me to the
27:58
Speaker 2: next department and I got to explain to them the
28:00
Speaker 2: same problem I already explained, and then I got to
28:02
Speaker 2: write a letter to the vice president. Like by the
28:05
Speaker 2: time I'm done, I'm like, okay, I don't even want
28:09
Speaker 2: the money anymore, Like just take it. I can't do
28:13
Speaker 2: it anymore. That would be a great AI agent is
28:16
Speaker 2: someone who can negotiate and handle customer service for me.
28:20
Speaker 2: Sure would love that. Like if you think that's something
28:22
Speaker 2: that you can build, have at it. I can't do it.
28:26
Speaker 2: But in any case, let's take a quick break. When
28:30
Speaker 2: we come back. We got a little bit of stack roulette.
28:32
Speaker 2: I also want to talk a little bit about retirement.
28:36
Speaker 1: Right after this, follow the Financial Exchange show on Instagram
28:40
Speaker 1: and see what's driving the conversation about Wall Street and
28:43
Speaker 1: economic trends. Pace is the Financial Exchange Radio network. Okay,
28:48
Speaker 1: real time financial insight as news breaks. The Financial Exchange
28:52
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28:55
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28:57
Speaker 1: to know. Face is the Financial Exchange.
29:09
Speaker 2: Paul, We got a piece here in Barn just titled
29:11
Speaker 2: confidence and Comfortable Retirement is faltering? Making a plan can help? Yeah.
29:17
Speaker 4: Check.
29:17
Speaker 3: What we're seeing from recent polling is that compared to
29:20
Speaker 3: last year, workers' confidence has sunk that they are ready
29:24
Speaker 3: to retire comfortably, down about six percentage points to sixty
29:28
Speaker 3: one percent. We previously were at a level in twenty
29:31
Speaker 3: twenty one in this particular survey where it was much higher,
29:35
Speaker 3: but that number has decreased over the course of the
29:38
Speaker 3: last five or six years. So and big culprits behind
29:41
Speaker 3: that are the concerns regarding healthcare costs and of course
29:44
Speaker 3: of course social security as well. They tie into this
29:49
Speaker 3: piece on just the amount of inflation assessed to healthcare
29:53
Speaker 3: costs and the concerns that people who are approaching retirement
29:56
Speaker 3: that presumably are going to be in retirement for a
29:59
Speaker 3: long period of time. As Life expectancies continue to increase.
30:02
Speaker 3: Rising health costs are something that really concerns a lot
30:05
Speaker 3: of people planning for retirement, and of course you have
30:07
Speaker 3: the social security piece where the trust is supposed to
30:11
Speaker 3: be depleted by twenty thirty three. How they incorporate that
30:14
Speaker 3: within their financial plan is having a lot of people concerned,
30:17
Speaker 3: and in particular, they also hit on this idea of
30:21
Speaker 3: having a magic number. You know, what is the amount
30:23
Speaker 3: that I need to retire? A Northwestern Mutual survey said
30:27
Speaker 3: that numbers about one and a half million bucks. What
30:30
Speaker 3: we've learned in working with clients is that you know
30:32
Speaker 3: that number is different for everyone. I've had that question
30:34
Speaker 3: posed to me before. I'm sure you have too. What's
30:37
Speaker 3: the magic number? What do I need Chuck to retire?
30:39
Speaker 3: And first of all, that one and a half million,
30:41
Speaker 3: we know, is a moving target. If you have the
30:43
Speaker 3: money invested, it's always going to be flown up and down.
30:45
Speaker 3: And secondly, a lot of people have different lifestyles and
30:49
Speaker 3: so you have to take all that into account when
30:51
Speaker 3: planning for retirement.
30:53
Speaker 2: Folks, if you've got questions about your retirement, specifically social
30:58
Speaker 2: security and medical costs, which is one of the big
31:00
Speaker 2: things that Paul mentioned there. The Armstrong Advisory Group is
31:03
Speaker 2: having an event on April thirtieth, so it's a week
31:07
Speaker 2: from tomorrow and it's gonna be at the Crown Plaza
31:10
Speaker 2: in Wuburn, and its specifically is a retirement planning seminar
31:15
Speaker 2: focusing on social security and Medicare essentials. And it's gonna
31:19
Speaker 2: be happening from five pm to six thirty pm. And
31:22
Speaker 2: it's really easy to sign up for it. You can
31:25
Speaker 2: go to Armstrong Advisory dot com slash events and sign
31:29
Speaker 2: up for it. There, you can email contact at Armstrong
31:32
Speaker 2: Advisory dot com or you can call eight hundred three
31:36
Speaker 2: nine three four zero zero one. There is still some space.
31:40
Speaker 2: Again it's limited, but there is still some space available.
31:43
Speaker 2: So again that is gonna be on April thirtieth, which
31:46
Speaker 2: is next Thursday. It's a retirement planning seminar on social
31:51
Speaker 2: security and Medicare essentials. It's at five pm at the
31:54
Speaker 2: Crown Plaza in Woburn. Again, you can call eight hundred
31:59
Speaker 2: three nine four zero zero one to sign up for
32:02
Speaker 2: it or go to Armstrong Advisory dot com slash events.
32:06
Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
32:09
Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
32:11
Speaker 1: Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
32:14
Speaker 1: your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
32:17
Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong make contact you to offer investment
32:20
Speaker 1: advisory services.
32:22
Speaker 3: Paul, you want to talk a little pasta with me?
32:24
Speaker 3: I was gonna go in this direction as well. Let's
32:27
Speaker 3: get into it as the resident Italian. You can kick
32:30
Speaker 3: it off, all right. So yeah, here's the deal. You've
32:33
Speaker 3: got Prego, who's a sauce brand. They make sauces for pastas.
32:37
Speaker 3: They're coming out with this thing.
32:38
Speaker 2: It's called the Connection Keeper, and it's supposed to look
32:42
Speaker 2: like a big oversized pasta jar lid. And basically what
32:47
Speaker 2: it does is you have your conversations at dinner. Hey,
32:51
Speaker 2: did you remember your homework? No? But I got the milk.
32:56
Speaker 2: That's what you're gonna say, And it's gonna record them
32:59
Speaker 2: so that then you can go and relive those conversations
33:03
Speaker 2: in the future as memories.
33:07
Speaker 4: Yes, let's put a recording or device at an Italian
33:09
Speaker 4: dinner table because that works.
33:11
Speaker 2: So they'll be so comfortable with that. Now, the sopranos
33:15
Speaker 2: would love that. Here's the thing it's not. Here's the thing.
33:18
Speaker 2: It's not uploading anything to the cloud talker. Okay, it's
33:22
Speaker 2: all local. But you can move it through a USBC cable,
33:25
Speaker 2: which I'm told is the greatest USB cable there is.
33:29
Speaker 2: You can upload it to a computer then and then
33:33
Speaker 2: you can access it as the uploader. No one else
33:36
Speaker 2: can upload it. It's just you. But you could if
33:39
Speaker 2: you wanted to. You could somehow have them archived with
33:41
Speaker 2: the Library of Congress so that future senators can listen
33:45
Speaker 2: to your dinner table conversations when they are reading. If
33:50
Speaker 2: you're interested in that kind of thing.
33:52
Speaker 4: Why would you, Okay, why would you want to go
33:55
Speaker 4: back and listen to dinner conversation?
33:57
Speaker 2: Hey, why wouldn't you?
33:59
Speaker 4: I would never in a millionaires go back and be like, hmm,
34:02
Speaker 4: what did I say on April twenty second to twenty
34:05
Speaker 4: twenty six. Let's go back and look at the dinner
34:08
Speaker 4: table conversation.
34:09
Speaker 3: Particularly as parents to young children. Now, I really think
34:12
Speaker 3: that we're gonna want to avoid hearing back our old conversation.
34:16
Speaker 4: And if you want it to record it, there's this
34:19
Speaker 4: thing called an iPhone that you have a microphone on
34:23
Speaker 4: that you can hit record, not a jar.
34:26
Speaker 3: Does it have a US staus.
34:29
Speaker 2: It does not have. You you have to bring your
34:31
Speaker 2: own USB cable. Then short supply right.
34:33
Speaker 3: Now, I guess, Oh yeah, Well, they're clearly expecting a
34:36
Speaker 3: tremendous amount of demand for these. They're gonna make a
34:38
Speaker 3: wopping one hundred of them.
34:41
Speaker 2: One hundred of them. It's a collectus item.
34:45
Speaker 3: You can get them for a whopping twenty dollars starting
34:48
Speaker 3: on April twenty seventh.
34:49
Speaker 2: And they're even throwing a jar of tomato sauce it
34:52
Speaker 2: looks like in a jar.
34:53
Speaker 3: Of prago too, for what what a what a deal?
34:56
Speaker 3: What a steal.
34:57
Speaker 2: It also comes with a deck of CODs you're in
35:00
Speaker 2: a conversation, prompt and ideas, because let me tell you,
35:05
Speaker 2: those conversations are gonna be scintillating if you need cards
35:08
Speaker 2: to tell you what to say. I mean, holy cow.
35:14
Speaker 4: This is one of the top headlines we've ever covered.
35:18
Speaker 3: This.
35:18
Speaker 1: This is wild.
35:20
Speaker 3: We gotta shelve this for U Festivus. Gotta shelve that
35:24
Speaker 3: for Festivus. I mean a recording device and also A
35:27
Speaker 3: had to chuck for doing that accent for minutes on end.
35:31
Speaker 2: I enjoyed it is anyone doing an accent, I don't think.
35:35
Speaker 2: So this is not a joke. It is No, this
35:40
Speaker 2: is real, Like, this is a real thing. I mean,
35:43
Speaker 2: this would be like if Taco Bell came out with
35:44
Speaker 2: like the memory burrito and you're like, do I eat
35:49
Speaker 2: or do I talk into it?
35:50
Speaker 1: Like what?
35:52
Speaker 2: I don't know this? Look, don't get me wrong.
35:55
Speaker 4: I mean the one thing that is attractive is it
35:57
Speaker 4: doesn't upload to the internet. Like, okay, again, why would
36:02
Speaker 4: I want to go back and play this?
36:04
Speaker 2: So what am I gonna do?
36:05
Speaker 1: Like?
36:05
Speaker 4: What am I gonna do it?
36:06
Speaker 2: Here's the thing I think a lot of times we uh,
36:11
Speaker 2: we very easily see the physical clutter in our house.
36:14
Speaker 1: Right.
36:14
Speaker 2: You walk into a room and you're like, you're like, oh, man.
36:19
Speaker 3: Anxiety, so sick of cleaning up that toy room for
36:21
Speaker 3: the one hundreds.
36:22
Speaker 2: No, not even that, Like the stuff that's just sitting
36:24
Speaker 2: in your house that doesn't get used anymore. It's like, man,
36:27
Speaker 2: there's a toys there's a box that's been there's a
36:30
Speaker 2: box that's been sitting in that closet since I moved
36:33
Speaker 2: four years ago. I haven't opened it, but I brought
36:38
Speaker 2: it here, so I must have something interesting in that
36:40
Speaker 2: otherwise I would have gotten rid of it.
36:42
Speaker 4: I can think of four boxes off the top of
36:44
Speaker 4: my head that are sitting there.
36:45
Speaker 3: For a year and anything.
36:47
Speaker 2: I have one box in every cause of my house
36:50
Speaker 2: that's just there, and it's like, okay, like this we
36:53
Speaker 2: brought it with us after throwing a bunch of stuff
36:55
Speaker 2: out from our old place.
36:56
Speaker 3: Just get rid of it.
36:58
Speaker 2: But I haven't opened it in four years. Can we
36:59
Speaker 2: just get rid of it?
37:00
Speaker 3: Recall to day you never know you need something from that.
37:03
Speaker 2: Here's the thing we we noticed the physical clutter and
37:06
Speaker 2: we just say it's fine. Digital clutter, in my opinion,
37:10
Speaker 2: is worse. We hold on to like this is just okay,
37:13
Speaker 2: it doesn't take up space, but it's just like, why
37:16
Speaker 2: do you need that conversation from April twenty second, twenty
37:20
Speaker 2: twenty six, was that when you invented the fox capacitor,
37:26
Speaker 2: you know, like and.
37:27
Speaker 4: You wouldn't even remember the day.
37:28
Speaker 2: You want to know what what we did at my
37:30
Speaker 2: dinner table last night? My kids were singing songs for
37:33
Speaker 2: twenty minutes in My wife and I just kind of
37:34
Speaker 2: sat there and listened to.
37:35
Speaker 4: It, and you probably recorded it on your phone.
37:37
Speaker 3: No, no, wellough, it's fine.
37:41
Speaker 2: We're gonna get another one today and that's great, Like
37:43
Speaker 2: these are great things, but you don't get the same
37:47
Speaker 2: feeling from reliving it. I'm sorry, but you just you don't.
37:52
Speaker 2: And the sequel is never as good as the first one.
37:56
Speaker 2: So I'm sorry, but I'm gonna pass on this one.
38:00
Speaker 2: So if any of you are listening, so you're gonna
38:01
Speaker 2: pass on the pasta sauce for quarter Tucker. It was
38:06
Speaker 2: a hard conversation we had to have here, but ultimately,
38:09
Speaker 2: good for you. You gotta pass. Ultimately I had to
38:12
Speaker 2: do what was right for the family. Let's take a
38:16
Speaker 2: quick break for the rest of the day. We'll see
38:17
Speaker 2: you back here tomorrow. On the Financial Exchange,