Latest / The Curve / A Tariff Truce, Markets Rebound, and Buffett’s Got a New Favourite.

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A Tariff Truce, Markets Rebound, and Buffett’s Got a New Favourite. · The Curve

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So Vic, I think I've fallen in love with LA.
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I feel like you need to go to every city in the world and then make a decision because
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every new place you go to, it's quite cute, sorry, that's condescending.
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It's quite endearing, I guess, what you're going for.
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endearing, yeah, that you go to every new city with like rose tinted glasses of like you
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only see the best and I think it's great.
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But let's do every city first before we start.
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Yeah, no, that's a good idea.
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But I think the time zone, like being between the UK and New Zealand is great for work.
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I do for pain, yeah.
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But also just like the, this is like the start of the centre of the world.
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I don't know how to explain it.
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Like, there are, you know, those cars, weways or weways or whatever they're called,
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that drive themselves, shooting down the street, there's like these little robot things
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that go and pick up your Uber Eats and drop them to it.
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Like, it is wild.
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Like, it's really...
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I don't know how to explain it, but like, you know, even when we had Rachel filling in for you
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when you were away and she spoke about that, that like drink brand called Poppy and it's like a,
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it was bought by Pepsi for like two billion dollars and it's a, it's like a functional drink,
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you know, it's got like adaptor germs and blah, blah, blah, and it.
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Anyway, I'm staying here with one of my best friends and she's been giving me the full tour
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and she took me to this supermarket called Erawon or something.
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And there's this Erawon.
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Have you, have you heard of it?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It's like, it's like, it's like a fun thing.
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Oh, I was just like, I want to move in.
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How do I get a job?
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This is insane.
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Like, the most amazing food.
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Like, they're like, 20 US dollar punitive blueberries and the 20 US dollar smoothies and...
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Take all my money.
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I'm fine with it.
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Like, I'm just, it's amazing, anyway.
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I was like, is this a public company?
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She was like showing me all these like products that do well.
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Anyway, there's this entire wall, like this huge fridge,
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full of like poppies, not poppies, but all these different brands from like
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come butchers to this to that.
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Like, I was just like, this is insane.
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And it feels like everything, like the innovation happens here, you know?
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I was just like, wow, this is amazing.
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You see, and I said to her, I was, she was like,
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this tuna brand is really good.
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This thing's going off.
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This is an amazing fast fashion brand that's, and I was just like,
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can you feed this info back to us?
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Like, all of these ideas are investing ideas, you know?
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Like, say it in the club.
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We'll go researcher and then, because she was sort of saying like,
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there's this clothing brand called, it's kind of like an H&M Zara,
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more expensive, but like, going off at the moment.
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And just stuff like that where you just don't know unless you're here.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yeah, but you could say that about anywhere in the world, right?
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Like, you're a little meco chamber of your surroundings.
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And like, yes, you're like, oh my god, this is amazing.
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And yes, LA is in big, major city.
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But people would come to London and say the same thing.
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Do you know what I mean?
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No, I know what you mean.
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But like, as an example yesterday,
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we went, so skims has opened a store in West Hollywood.
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And we went in there and it was just absolutely packed.
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You would have loved it.
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Like, there was just like,
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underwear on sale, a pair of...
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Oh my god, can you buy me some?
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I'll see you in my sizes.
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Literally, there was like a queue out the door.
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And inside the shop is this giant body with like,
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this huge ass that you're just like,
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trying to get around, trying to get to the underwear and stuff.
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And I was just like, this is just...
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I don't know, it feels like it's where everything happens first.
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That's what it feels like being here.
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Yeah, from like the type of exercise classes that there are,
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to the sorts of food, to the sorts.
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It just feels...
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It feels forward, but backwards.
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Like, we went to the comedy show last night.
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And there was all these people just like,
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absolutely rinsing.
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People from Texas, any of the blue states,
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anyone that votes Trump, you know,
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it was like this little echo chamber,
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where they're making jokes about all the news
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that we talk about every week in the Curve Weekly.
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Do you know what I mean?
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I was just like, this is where it's at.
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Oh my God, I keep just being like,
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I want to tell Vic about this.
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Oh, do you know what I have done,
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which you'll be like, what is wrong with you?
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I also forgot to get health insurance.
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Like, going to a near-record without health insurance,
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are you all good?
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Like, no.
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So...
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Something very careful.
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Oh, I'm sorry, you haven't...
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So I've got it.
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Well, I can't, because now that I'm here,
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like, I'm just fucked.
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Like, if something happens and I have to go to hospital,
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I'm pretty sure you can get insurance.
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When you've already started,
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you can definitely get travel insurance.
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No, you can't.
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Not when you're in the country.
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You definitely can.
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What if your plans change?
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I'll look that up, but I'm pretty positive
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you've got to get it before you go.
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Because otherwise, you could just be like,
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put off needing to go to the doctor,
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get travel insurance,
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and then go use it.
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You know?
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I just realized, can you hear this giant dice in behind me?
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Is it like...
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Yeah, yeah, I'm going to turn it off.
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Because that's an air purifier.
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Because of all the LA fires.
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Yeah, what's that like?
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Have you gone through the power sades?
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So I haven't on throw it,
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but we went to a coffee shop this morning,
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and I was standing in front of this woman,
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and we just started talking,
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and she was like, yeah, she was just like,
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oh, like most of my friends lost their homes.
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Like, my kids have had to change school,
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because the primary school burnt down,
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like, just, wow.
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And that's sort of what I mean about
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you hear all this news,
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or you hear trends that are happening,
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but unless you're living it,
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kind of feel, you feel sort of separate.
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It's like, yeah, if you've visited somewhere,
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and then you see a natural disaster,
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or you know, you can,
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it's very way more real,
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or if you go and visit somewhere,
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after I can visit 9-11,
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after it had happened,
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and you're just like, wow,
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the scale of that.
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This is what you see on TV,
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like, yeah, everything.
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It's just perspective, right?
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Yeah.
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One of the things that I was speaking to my friend about
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was the idea of health insurance,
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because you know how everyone bangs on about,
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like, you need health insurance in the US, blah, blah, blah.
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I didn't really understand how it worked,
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but I thought it was actually quite interesting
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to explain for anyone that doesn't know.
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So, like, your job,
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like, your full package,
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when people are looking for new jobs or whatever,
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they're like, oh, what's your health insurance policy?
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So, she was explaining that, like, her workplace,
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it's quite massive,
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so there's like 3,000 employees or whatever.
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So, she pays, I think it's 150 US a month
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towards her health insurance,
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but the business is paying like 850 US a month
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towards her health insurance.
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So, if she had to pay that all herself, can you imagine?
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Nearly $1,000 a month just in health insurance,
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but then, on top of that,
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there's like an amount, like, 4,000 US,
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you have to have spent out of pocket
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before your health insurance kicks in.
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So, like, you have to spend up to like 4,000 US,
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and then your health insurance pays up to 80%.
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I'm like, oh, my God, no wonder no one has health insurance.
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It's unbelievably expensive.
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Oh, the US health system is like so effed up.
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Like, that is why the United Health Care CEO
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got shot in broad daylight or not in broad daylight, but...
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To hey, holy fuck.
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Yeah, because if anyone was cheering on the murderer,
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not everyone, but a lot of people, you know,
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because these big United Health Care
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is one of the largest health insurance in US,
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had said no.
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And there was like doctors coming out saying,
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you know, your mid-surgery was someone
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and they've been declared health insurance
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and you can't proceed.
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It's just, it's so, so effed up over there.
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Yeah, I've had a friend that whose wife was pregnant
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and his company screwed up his visa or something,
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and so he didn't have health insurance
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and though he told he had to leave a country in a month
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and his wife was like, well, I can't fly,
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but if I stay in the US, I have no health insurance
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and I'm about to give birth.
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And it was like this whole cuff-o and they were like,
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well, it's the company's fault because they didn't file the visa proper.
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Anyway, turn to this whole drama and it's just like so scary
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being in a country where one of the most developed countries in the world
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yet there isn't a support network in terms of healthcare
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that you could fall back on if you needed to.
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Like the fact that people are just getting turned away
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like dying and not getting operated on
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or not getting the medicine they need
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because they don't have insurance is I can't even imagine
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what that would be like to work in a hospital or an environment
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that you don't just never, doesn't put people first
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because the money's not going to come from anywhere to,
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do you think about how many millions of people there are in the US
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if there's all these people that don't have health insurance?
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Of course they can't but it's just like such a messed up system.
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And the doctors there being like having a moral obligation
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to work on a patient because they're sick or injured
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and yet the person's like, please don't because then I have to pay
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Oh, it was just like just so screwed anyway.
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So actually my friend who I'm staying with, she was saying,
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you know, in the US you can get fired like that, you know?
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Like so the other day her boss's boss or whatever they were on a call,
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they're like, so Serena's leaving or whatever they were on a call.
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Yep, she just, we told her today and it's like, what?
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And then anyway, so she was, because she's also pregnant
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and she was like, so it works both ways.
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We're like, you can leave your job that day if you want to.
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You know, so her healthcare is the same thing as your friend
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is tied to her work.
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Yeah.
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So if tomorrow they turned around and were like,
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you don't have a job anymore, she doesn't have health insurance,
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she's pregnant.
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She's like, I don't know what I do.
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In any way, she was searching for income protection,
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which you know, we've spoken about on the podcast before,
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which is the idea of like, if for some reason you lose your income,
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insurance basically can kick in and like help pay.
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So she can get a thing up to three months or something of a percentage of her wage.
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But she said she was absolutely scouring the internet,
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couldn't find any insurers that would ensure income.
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She had to get someone like on the other side of the country.
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Yeah, I don't know.
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There's so many things that I'm just like,
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this is so bizarre for such a forward-thinking country.
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And so we're backwards like,
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she has like five credit cards because she's trying to get a credit score up
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so that she can borrow money and be in good debt.
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So she has to get all these credit cards, manage her debt.
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Like imagine if you didn't know what you were doing and you mucked it up,
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the downward spiral of like not having the education,
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not knowing how to get out of your,
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you know, it's just, it's so, it's so messed up.
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Well, it's like there's beauty in smaller countries with such simple systems.
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And yes, there's like, it's a double-edged sword because, you know, we live in New Zealand,
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for example, and there is a very simple retirement scheme.
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There is a very simple healthcare scheme.
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But we can't invest in some of the biggest household names and we don't see these
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forward-thinking brands and we don't see, you know, we don't see all that.
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But there's like pluses and minuses to every city that you live in, right?
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But yeah, and transport's not expensive as it is in the US and in the UK.
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And like there's, there's, well, it may seem small sometimes and almost suffocating sometimes.
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And, you know, there's maybe not a lot going on.
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What do you mean?
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Winter New Zealand is so much fun.
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I know, don't mean that.
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I just mean, you know, like when you go to these big, exciting new cities and you're like,
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oh my God, there's so exciting and new products and like,
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all these brands and these, you know, new concepts.
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And then, but yeah, you're right.
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There is like downfalls as well and incredible mind fields of healthcare and
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superannuation schemes and all of that.
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Like if you get two weeks holiday in the US, two weeks, like that is insane.
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And if you take it sometimes, it's like, you don't appreciate your job.
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It's just so many things that are absolutely effed up.
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But anyway, one of the good things is that the US stock market is doing very, very well again.
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Oh yes, so I saw this in your notes and then I quickly checked my portfolio
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to see how it was going and in the time, I mean, how long ago was it that we had the giant
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mobile? Was it like six weeks ago?
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Ish? Yeah, like four to six weeks ago, yeah.
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So I've nearly made 2000 USD from the investments that I made during that time.
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Isn't that wild?
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Imagine if you had more money to invest, you know, and that 2000 was 200,000.
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It's like, money makes money, baby, 100%.
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This is literally, I was like, imagine if I'd had, because I put like 10,000 in,
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which is by the way, quite a lot, you know, like that's not exactly nothing.
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But I was, I thought the same thing, imagine if I'd done 10 times this.
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Well, this is the thing, right?
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We're sitting here now and the stock market's gone up nearly 20% in the last few weeks.
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What's to say we're not going to be sitting here in another few weeks or months
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and the stock market has gone up another 20% and we're going, damn it, I wish I'd invested more.
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Like you just never know.
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And so as long as you are investing as much as you can,
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then you won't have that regret of, oh my God, I should have invested more,
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you know, because we're always going to have that.
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Like it's always going to miss out on good opportunities and not invested.
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But you can't think like that.
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You've got to be like, I'm doing the best that I can and that's going to put me in the best
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position for the future.
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Yeah, I think this is a really good lesson because when all of the, you know,
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when all of the stuff was going down with the tariffs and blah, blah, blah,
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in my like heart and my brain, I was like, I believe that this is going to come back.
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You know, like I wasn't, I wasn't too scared, too scared.
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I definitely had moments where I was like, oh God, am I having a total shock of putting
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money into the market right now.
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But generally, I was like, the market goes up to the right, the market goes up to the right,
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you know? Exactly.
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Always come back to the facts.
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The facts is that markets always recover.
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But my point is, is that like when those things happen, it's so easy to go into like,
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you know, the media frenzy, which is, you know, blogs and articles and news headlines everywhere,
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being like, you know, we're going into a global recession, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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I think the biggest thing that it's taught me is just because this is probably the first
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major wobble that I have like lived through as an investor and I think it was just that.
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I guess you weren't really impressed.
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But I wasn't, no, not at all.
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I was like, I was learning about it, but I wasn't really investing.
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Certainly wasn't putting $10,000 in the stock market, but it's just been a really good
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learning for me to, in those moments, get rid of the fear, remember what we, you know,
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teach literally every day, every week.
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And I think the more times that happens, it's like almost building your muscle or your
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resistance or what's the word, your resilience towards like the ups and downs of the market,
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because the more times that you can hold on and not go and sell stuff or buy more even better,
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you're kind of like proving to yourself, like, yeah, okay, I do know what I'm doing.
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This is fine. We're all okay, you know, and also like the reason the headlines are so
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excited when these stock market falls happen is because they don't happen that often.
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So it's boring to have a headline, the stock markets up 5% again, the stock markets up 10%,
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these corrections and these falls that they don't happen very often.
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So it's like they're one time, we're like, yeah, it's cool.
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Do you know what I will say though, like, so the friend that I'm staying with over here works in
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like kind of new product development, I guess, or in that space and she, you know, I was listening
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and on the way back from the airport on a call she had and they were talking about the price
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that they'd given for something like the invoice or something was needed to be adjusted because
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it was given before the tariffs came in and they needed to update all the pricing and I was just
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like, gosh, you know, the like the reality of how much that's impacting businesses was just,
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it was kind of this light bulb moment of again, you can hear about it, but then when you see someone's
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job being really affected and impacted by something, you're like, oh wow, okay, this is quite
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major and even though I've paused tariffs and I'm sure we'll get into it in a second, if and when
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that does come back, it's really, really not ideal. I've spoken to so many friends over the past two
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weeks they have businesses and they just, they're exhausted, you know, it's like how do you function
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and plan a budget of forecast for business when you have no idea what's going to happen around
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the corner and they just all look exhausted and they feel so sorry for any small business, big
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business going through this because it is, it must be so incredibly hard and I just think,
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thank our lucky stars that we have a services business and we don't have to navigate this.
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Imagine if like 90% of our business was like the investing planners or something,
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okay, all T-shirts and we had to, oh yeah, be such a distraction, such a business distraction,
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but yes, you're right, the reason that the stock market has gone up is because there is a truce
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between the US and China right now. Are we worried about why they're in a truce? A truce?
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I've just said so many juices since I've been here, like the amount has been on takeaway drinks
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is unreal. I'm really worried for like, are you budgeted, have you budgeted for these 20,
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20 US dollar juices? Yeah, it's actually really interesting that you say that because
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it's okay, here's the thing, I've been putting money into a travel amount, which I've been doing
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for like six months and I've probably got about 800 pounds in there at the moment, which is meant
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to be getting me to a destination wedding in a few months, having booked the flights,
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haven't paid for accommodation, so like there is a chance that I'm like actually maybe having a
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blowout, but rather than like all of my, you know, the enemies take away ice coffees going out of my,
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like, you know, wants amount as in my normal food takeaway budget. I'm taking it out of my travel
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budget because I'm kind of like, I put money there to enjoy being overseas, you know, like that's
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the purpose of that fund. Yeah. The worst part is though is that my friend is paying for stuff and
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we're going to then split it afterwards, so I actually don't know how much we've spent. That's
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a bit of a difference. Well, it's because like a lot of the time they need credit cards or whatever
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and I've only got Apple Pay. So it's the kind of worst when it pops up later and you're like,
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hey, can you send me 1000 US for like all the things we've done? And I'm like, bless your heart,
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like it's so kind of you to be paying as you go, but also now I don't really have context
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for how much we've spent. You know what? My goal is to be able to go on holiday with my friends and
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not use slipwires and just have the funds to be like, you know what? I've got this guys.
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How nice. Oh, I know. To be like, you know what? Don't worry about slipwires, this trip.
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It's on me. Oh, you know, it'd be so good. You let me know when you're there so I can come on
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holiday with you. Yeah. I don't even remember. I'll come, I'll come, I'll come. Yeah. Where do we
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going? Italy. Yeah. That you've got this one, right? Yeah. But yes, we were talking about tariffs
20:13
and a truce, not juice. And we, the US and China have had a truce. Oh my god, now I can't
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even think of a program. So tariffs are not no longer going to be 145% on Chinese goods being
20:27
imported to the US. They're only going to be 30%. So they're still high, but they're not as high
20:33
as people with thoughts. So people kind of like reacted to the news of 145% and now they're back
20:38
to 30. They're like, okay, this is as bad as we thought. And that's why stock prices have gone up.
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But I just want to say like, this is only a 90 day truth. So this is not tariffs back to, you
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know, they've completely disappeared. Also, if one thing the last kind of two months has
20:56
kids told us is that Trump's word means shit. Like, I'm sorry. I would not be able to even do
21:03
business on this announcement because I'm so scared tomorrow that he's going to change his mind.
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And I'm just get really nervous. The fact that the stock market is up now. And people were just
21:16
kind of forgetting about this. And I think we, one thing I'm just going to be really cognizant
21:20
about and one thing we've got to like learn from all of this is that like diversification is just
21:24
so key because we have no idea what's going to happen around the corner. We've got this erratic
21:29
person in power. And one of like you said, one of the most advanced countries in the world.
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And we don't know what it's going to do tomorrow. And I think that's really a really scary place
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to be in and the best defense that you can have is to diversify. Good offense. Yes. Basketball,
21:48
I used to play basketball. I was really sure. I know I was defense. Oh, yeah, nice. I got
21:57
sold off because I used to get so angry. Did you? Did you have your eyebrow piercing at this point
22:02
in your life? No, that was another phase that I had. I think that the biggest takeaway here is,
22:12
I don't know, maybe this is a bad takeaway, but this is what it's making me think.
22:18
You know when most people panic when the stock market falls and then they panic sell,
22:22
it's actually making me feel like, should I be selling now that I've made a 20% return
22:28
in such a short space of time? No, that's what we call timing the market. No, we are not timing
22:35
the market here because what if you guys have another 20% and you've sold out and you'd be so
22:39
gathered? Actually, that's what we did with crypto and that was gutting. Yeah, we were like,
22:43
we've doubled our money and we took it out and then it went out by like seven times. No, we
22:46
invest consistently and regularly and we take advantage of opportunities. Get that on a bumper
22:51
sticker. Yeah. But imagine me rolling around. But with this whole 90 day truce, there is people
23:05
are expecting a lot of products to kind of be flooding the shops and stuff because people have
23:10
almost been holding back all of these products like companies and businesses and now they're like,
23:15
okay, cool, let's go, let's go, let's go, we've got like a 30 day, sorry, we've got a 90 day
23:19
window, let's go, go, go, go, go, get as much product out as we can before the prices go up. So
23:24
plus side, we could get a lot of kind of cheap coffee machines, smoothie machines. You know,
23:31
you can make your own 20 dollar era on smoothie. The Curve Investing Club is the world's first
23:37
digital investing club for women to build their wealth. It's a place where industry experts
23:42
like myself and beginners can really, really join forces to share knowledge, swap ideas and make
23:47
money through investing. So if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are aware that saving
23:53
alone unfortunately can't make your millionaire, but investing definitely could. So we wholeheartedly
23:59
believe in the power of community in that the best investment ideas come when we collaborate and
24:04
learn with each other. So bring your friends, your mum, even strangers on the street if you want,
24:11
there really is strength in numbers and we're so excited to create a community that's just for you.
24:17
In other news, Japan. Okay, so this is something that I'm quite excited to talk about,
24:22
and I have a whole take on Japan, but I want you to take this away and see, I want to see if I'm
24:27
right. Oh, okay. Okay, actually maybe take your headphones down, don't listen for a second,
24:32
and I'll tell everyone what I think about Japan and then you put them in and tell us. Okay.
24:36
Okay, so I think with Japan, I think that Japan will be the new China. I think that all these,
24:43
like, you know, how Warren Buffett for years has been talking about how he's been slowly investing
24:48
in Japan. And we were all like, what is Warren Buffett say that we don't? Maybe it's Trump.
24:54
Everything's going to all be diverted and made in China. I mean, in Japan, from now on,
25:01
yet that basically Japan's going to become the new China. And that's why he's invested heavily in
25:05
China, or you can totally hear me, you bitch. I can hear you laughing. Okay, I'm done now.
25:09
Maybe she's not listening. Oh my god, that was so weird. All I heard was like,
25:16
could you see I was like convinced you were listening to me? No, I couldn't hear a thing. Okay,
25:21
right. So do tell me, what do you think? What do you think about Japan? Love to hear. I haven't
25:26
invested in Japanese ETF. And I did it a while back when Warren Buffett first kind of was
25:33
talking about his investments in Japan, so just being able to copycat. And anyway, he's come out
25:41
in his kind of recent annual meeting and reaffirmed his really, really strong stance on Japan.
25:48
Now we know that he's stepping down as CEO from Berkshire. I had the way we spoke about that last
25:53
week, but the company itself, which is based on his investment, you know, strategy has got over
26:02
$24 billion invested across five Japanese companies, but he's taking a very, very long to view.
26:10
Like he takes a very long to view with all his holdings, Japan in particular, but it was just
26:17
the fact that he has doubled down on this. And this is something that we are going to talk about in
26:23
the club this week. So yes, it's been, there's been a few people that have been interested in it.
26:29
So I'm going to dig deep into a Japanese ETF. Oh my god. Awesome. Yeah. And Berkshire,
26:36
I had the way. So we're going to do a whole bunch. Yep. What, what types, you don't need to
26:42
even name what they are. And we can put this in the club, but what types of companies are these
26:47
five Japanese businesses? What industry do they operate on? It's a combination of lots of different
26:54
industries, but they're big, what you'd call trading companies. So they have lots of different
27:00
divisions, different things with Japanese companies. There are a lot of corporations with what might be
27:08
industrial company, a manufacturing company, you know, they've got the huge, huge big conglomerates.
27:15
Okay. So what's our overarching take on Japan? Why Japan? So the reason that Japan is attractive
27:23
is because it has been, you know, very, it's had deflation, it's had low growth. It's been kind
27:28
of a bit of a, what would you say, a forgotten economy for a while. And being kind of uninteresting,
27:34
uninvestable, people have been like, you know what, China is the exciting one, India is the
27:38
exciting one, US is the exciting one. But foreign investors in the 1970s owned 5% of the Japanese
27:47
stock market. So 5%, that's like so, so, so tiny. And now they own 32%. So that's still really,
27:57
really low. But it shows just like the incredible interest in Japan. And that is going to go
28:05
even higher in terms of percentage in my opinion. So I think there's going to be a lot of foreign
28:10
interest. And we know when there's increased interest, increased demand that drives prices up.
28:17
Yes. Okay. We haven't got to the point that I've thought was the reason. So maybe I'm wrong.
28:23
But is there in your opinion a reason that Warren Buffett has decided Japan and that there's
28:31
this huge opportunity, like why, what are all of the factors that contribute to Japan being
28:38
potentially a much more booming economy in the future? The big overarching region region reason
28:46
is that it's turning from a deflationary environment to an inflationary. So
28:50
then deflationary is really, really bad. It's like people don't want to spend money. They're like,
28:56
you know what, it's going to be cheaper tomorrow. It's just really, really bad for economic growth.
29:00
And it's now turning into an inflationary, which is really, really good. It's got an aging
29:05
population. So that's something that they have to monitor as well. They've got a lot of very,
29:10
very high percentage of older people that, you know, are very reliant on what we've talked about
29:16
before, healthcare, so that cost economy a lot, pension, all of that. Damn, I thought I had a
29:22
really good idea here and I've totally missed it. I think you will just tell me. No, no, I don't
29:28
think I got it right. My idea was just with all the stuff that's happening in China,
29:34
with the US and all the tariffs that eventually Japan might be the place that like a lot
29:41
is manufactured, there's a lot more happening in Japan because it hasn't been seen as this place
29:46
that's, you know, particularly, I don't know, attractive for manufacturers, for goods and exportation
29:53
and blah, blah, blah, but that maybe, you know, we spoke maybe last week or a few weeks go about how
29:57
China didn't used to be the place for everything to be made. It just happened to be the cheapest,
30:03
and therefore everyone now made in China is like a tagline that's just so normal,
30:08
but with all these tariffs in the, you know, China US that there might be another economy that
30:13
really benefits from thus and that maybe Japan was going to be the up and coming place for that.
30:19
Yeah, and I think you're, you're part of that would definitely be true because the tariffs on
30:27
Japan, I mean, actually the tariffs on Japan are pretty high as well, but Japan is already
30:33
a very developed country and so therefore the wages that you're paying to get something manufactured
30:41
or made in Japan is going to be, you know, expensive or just as expensive as the US, whereas
30:49
really, really great mindset though, so because that is kind of how you should be thinking about it,
30:54
but it's probably more places like India that will benefit, you know, where they've got low wages,
30:59
you can still get made, get things made that are, you know, at a very reasonable price,
31:06
cheaper price as opposed to, you know, China, and like the thing with Warren Buffett and the thing
31:12
with the reason that he's doubling down in Japan, he's thinking way more long-term in tariffs,
31:18
you know, like he is not thinking about the next four years, he's thinking about the next 50 years,
31:22
so he is, you know, that's what he's thinking about and so, well that's sometimes so incredibly hard
31:28
to do because the world's going to look so different in 50 years time than it will in say, you know,
31:33
the next few years, the way you're thinking about it is correct in a sense.
31:38
How weird is it that for Warren Buffett, you know, he's 96 and he's making these investment
31:43
decisions based on a future he's not even going to see, like it's quite amazing.
31:46
And to be honest, that's what we should all be thinking, but it's so hard to do, gosh,
31:51
I feel like the world's changed so much in the last like two years, let alone.
31:55
Yeah. Anyway, one other thing that I wanted to mention, two other things actually.
32:03
Firstly is Nova Nordisk, so this is the company that
32:09
manufactures and makes ozempick and wagovi, the two weight loss drugs.
32:15
Sorry, is wagovi, have they basically created almost like a rival for ozempick?
32:20
What's the difference in those two?
32:22
They're both weight loss drugs. Ozempick was just the first one that came to market
32:26
and then wagovi and now there is so many, there's like, oh my god, I feel like pharmaceutical
32:31
names. Can they just not call it like ABCD? Get a bit more like Apple.
32:36
This is the apple, this is the banana, this is the orange drug.
32:39
Like hurricane, they're like hurricane Katrina, you're like perfect.
32:42
Yeah, well, like hurricane Sarah, great, got it.
32:45
Do you know my sister, my sister thought that it was what even meteorologist spotted
32:52
the hurricane, got it named after them. So she thought like Katrina spotted it.
32:57
So she gets it named. I was like, no, you idiot, it goes in down for medical orders.
33:02
So it's like, to be fair, I thought the dot on bubble, which we talk about all the time is
33:06
because of Kim dot com. So sorry, back to Nova Nordisk. So actually on this, a lot of people
33:11
in the club are keen to talk about some of the investments in this space too.
33:15
Which are we going to do this month? Because I was like, I saw a few people being like,
33:18
can you look into this? Can you look? And I was like, oh, I'm actually so interested to hear
33:22
about that too. Yes. So an update on Nova Nordisk. So it has, it was been one of the most
33:30
phenomenal stocks you could have owned. Like it is, it has been up 300 percent in the last
33:36
eight years. Like it's, it's done eight years as well. It's been an insane performer because
33:42
of this hype of, you know, weight loss drugs are going to absolutely change the world.
33:47
But recently in the last 12 months, it has not done very well. And it's because Eli Lilly,
33:55
which is another big pharmaceutical company, has launched a drug that is very similar.
34:01
And it is taking market share. So the reason I want to talk about this, this company though is
34:07
because the CEO has been out. He's been asked to leave. How eft off would you be if you'd like?
34:15
You know, you've increased the share price by 300 percent. And they're like, thanks so much John
34:19
by. Oh, he, he has made this at one point. It briefly became Europe's most valuable company,
34:27
a head of LVMH, a head of companies that have been around forever. It became Europe's most valuable
34:34
company. And he was at the helm. And he tripled sales. And she holders got incredible returns.
34:43
And they're like, oh, okay. No, recently we're losing market share. See you by. I would be
34:49
so pissed off, but also just the fact that like all those people can dictate who runs the company
34:58
is so weird to me. Imagine if the curve got huge and all of a sudden, I don't know,
35:04
you a CEO and you decided to make a curve coin and crypto. And everyone thought it was a terrible
35:09
idea. And our stock price fell and then everyone was like, actually, Victoria, can you get out of
35:13
your seat? We want someone else in there like it's brutal. That's what we say when you become a
35:18
partner of a company like the shareholders, the investors own the business. And if enough of
35:25
them vote in one way or the other on certain topics, they can, they can do things like get rid of
35:32
the CEO, they can do things like veto or takeover or you know, there's so many things that investors
35:39
can do if they band together, you know, it's kind of like, yeah, that you remember that
35:43
and finding Nemo and the fish get caught in the net. And they're like, no, we've been caught in the
35:48
net. And then it's like, this one fish is like, we've got it all swam down. We've got it all swam
35:53
down. And then they all start swimming down. And they all it with the force of all of them,
35:58
they break the net and they set themselves free. And it's like the best analogy, an example.
36:04
I love that so much. I love that movie. Yeah. That was actually one of my first business ideas
36:09
anyway. So it was a net. No, it was selling, selling goldfish at school. And it was at the time
36:15
of finding Nemo. And I just remember looking around the, the quad, the courtyard at school.
36:21
And everyone was carrying these little bags of goldfish that I'd sold them. And I was like,
36:26
genius. And it became a trend. But also selling live fish. Yeah, interesting, interesting business
36:34
idea. I also had a very successful business for our year 12 business studies. We were selling
36:39
toilet tree bags. And they were like those, well, they called Lulu's or something or Lulu,
36:43
they were in, you know, they were in a random shop that we all loved. You know, they had those
36:47
cherry prints and all that. Anyway, if very well. Look, both of us just, you know, at a very
36:53
young age coming up with random ideas that actually didn't totally suck quite good. Another one
36:57
of mine, do you want, this was actually a really good one. Oh, we had issues with our manufacture.
37:02
It was a quad bike alarm that was like motion sensitive. And if you stole a quad bike,
37:10
this ball in the dish would like wriggle and sit off an alarm. So it's like motion sensitive.
37:15
Can we just look at how on earth did you think about quad bikes? When had you either been on a quad bike?
37:20
I know, it was, I know, it was like these like six, six city girls at this private school
37:26
launching a quad bike alarm was quite funny. Quite clear though. Yeah, it was because in the paper
37:31
at the time, someone had been shot because they'd stolen their quad bike and it was like all this
37:35
new stuff. Anyway, and we were like, oh, we're coming up with an idea. I was looking at the news
37:40
from a young age. I don't think I'd opened a newspaper until I was like 30. That's impressive.
37:46
Anyway, Novo Nordisk CEO has left. She prices fallen and the board of directors. So they're
37:54
kind of like the spokespeople for the shareholders have said, don't worry, things are all going to
38:01
keep going to plan. We're just going to get a new person to steer the ship and investors are like,
38:06
you know what, you had a really good one that did really well. You got rid of him. So yeah,
38:13
but I think they're still such a huge big opportunity. Yeah. It's such a massive market and we're
38:18
only seeing the beginning of this. I actually agree. And I'm quite interested to hear about the Lily
38:23
Lou or whatever the competing business. Eli Lilly. Eli Lilly in the club because it's like,
38:30
do you buy Novo Nordisk? Well, it's down or is the opportunity for whatever the Lily one is to
38:37
you know, grow even bigger than Novo Nordisk. It's kind of the question, right? Like what?
38:42
It's like, do you back the the winning horse or do you back the under the coming studs?
38:48
It's kind of the only thing I would say is I don't like, I really don't like the way that these weight
38:54
loss drugs are like becoming recreational drugs. I had no idea there. And it's like with any,
39:03
with a new technology, for example, there's always those people that the minority, which is
39:09
actually kind of probably turning into a lot of the majority here as well. They're abusing it and
39:14
it kind of taints it. Like social media, for example, you know, there is certain people that
39:21
abuse it or that use it for the wrong reasons or so. I have an example of this. Yeah. So we've
39:27
been going around LA trying to go to these yummy spots. We just went to this bagel shop before
39:32
this. And we were waiting in the queue. No joke for an hour. There was people around the corner
39:38
for bagels. And then once you'd ordered, it's another half an hour once you've paid. Like it was,
39:43
it's basically a day, day activity. And my friend was like, this never used to be like this. It's
39:48
bloody tick-tock, you know? And the same thing happened yesterday. We went to go get like a nice
39:52
to mantra or whatever from this place. And the queue was like a kilometre long. It was like,
39:57
this is ridiculous, but it was all because of social media. It's because there's all these young
40:01
people being like, this is the best bagel in town. A minute just like, you know, for all the things
40:06
that social media can be good for, there is an underbelly. And you're right. It's like this,
40:10
there's always going to be like downsides of something great and with something like a weight loss
40:15
drug, while it can be amazing for people who are like needing it for health reasons, there's always
40:21
going to be the undercurrent of someone taking advantage of or exploiting in a bad way or whatever.
40:29
And then there's regulation that comes, right? There's, we're seeing that now with social media,
40:34
we will most likely see that probably soon around them later with all these weight loss drugs as
40:38
well, like there's, yeah, everyone gets excited and it gets to a point where it's like, okay,
40:45
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, now we need to. Actually, that's so true. There might be like
40:48
one regulation around, you know, you have to be actually clinically obese to be able to get
40:53
access to it or whatever. Yeah. And then that would be obviously detrimental to the share prices
40:59
of these companies of this so many, particularly when you're dealing with healthcare companies,
41:05
regulation is so, so key because it's also working the other way, right? You could be like,
41:11
all right, actually, this has been really, really great. The government's going to give 50%
41:15
subsidies to all weight loss drugs. And so that just booms in demand. So regulation can work either
41:23
way when you're dealing with healthcare companies. Yeah, that's actually such a good point. And lastly,
41:29
a little bit of news is that footlocker. So you're a footlocker? Yeah, the cool sneakers. Yeah,
41:36
they have just been bought. So they were, they were a public company and they've now just been
41:42
bought by Dick sporting goods, which is a massive, massive US sporting company. I think of it
41:47
like rebel sport like has lots of different sports inside this one store. It's a 14 billion dollar
41:53
company and it is buying footlocker, a two billion dollar company, but footlocker's share price
42:00
went up 85% in one day. Can you tell me this shit before it happens, please? I don't know. That's
42:07
inside a training. If I knew that, I would be arrested. But I, but I want to say there's like,
42:15
footlocker has not been doing very well. Like it's share price in 2021 was $65. And it just got bought
42:24
for $24 a year. Oh, my God. That was 80% up. That was, that was 85% up. So it was 13 dollars.
42:31
It jumped to 24, but it's not nearly back to where it was in 2021. So if you had
42:35
hope in holding shares all the way down and you've got 85%. Well, it's great for someone who bought,
42:41
you know, the day before, it's still pretty shitty for someone who's been holding for a while.
42:46
I feel like it is quite 90s dollars enough for a locker, you know, like I think it had its
42:51
heyday about 30 years ago. So I'm kind of, I'm not overly surprised. It's great for, it's a great
42:57
realization though that if you want to get your kids into interested in investing, there are
43:02
lots of companies out there that kids will know, right? Like teenagers will know footlocker. They'll
43:08
know if it's doing bad or good. And so it's a really good example of, that you've got to be a
43:13
cooler mum than that. You're not, I mean, your kid looks at footlocker. Let's get it.
43:18
No, but if they, you know, I think, sorry, it's more the mindset of if your kids interested in Nike,
43:25
you know, there's, you can buy Nike shares. If your kids interested in Puma,
43:28
if your kids interested in Adios, say, if your kids interested in Pepsi, yeah, yeah, yeah.
43:34
You get my brain. There are so many companies out there that are great for getting your kids
43:40
interested in investing. But that is all for me. A guy would enjoy your $20 smoothie and take photos,
43:48
take photos of all the cool trends and everything. Write it down. Let's make this a research trip,
43:52
please. Yeah, I agree. Also, what I would say is I think this is a good example of when the
43:58
investing club has people from all over the world will be spotting all these ideas from all
44:02
these different places. Because like, you know, if we had had like some photos in from Irrawan or
44:07
whatever it's called with all of the drinks, we would have been like six months ago, you know,
44:13
and maybe we could have bought Pepsi before it got, I mean, Poppy before I got taken over by Pepsi.
44:18
Well, it's a public, it's a private company, sorry.
44:20
Don't kill my dreams. Sorry. Yeah. Okay, we'll enjoy your Saturday.
44:24
Thanks for spending it. Oh, no, it's Sunday, isn't it? Sunday speaking to me. And I'll see you
44:30
soon. I'll see you soon. She's halfway here. She's slowly making way. I hope it wasn't
44:35
early. You won't. Okay. Thank you. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Curve Weekly.
44:41
Make sure you hit the subscribe button to stay up to date with all the many business stock market
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podcast. And we hope you have a good week and see you next Monday. Bye. Bye.
45:05
So yeah, see you next Tuesday. Well, see you next Tuesday. I mean, Monday.
45:12
No, actually though, new episodes out every Tuesday.
45:18
Okay, quickly, the Curve was created to empower and educate you about investing, but we are not
45:23
financial advisors. Our platform exists for educational purposes only and it doesn't provide
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personalized investing advice for your individual needs and should not be relied upon to make
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