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It’s time for Finance’s market. Stocks are flipping around this morning. Some moving to the downside in the Nasdaq. S&P is up. Investors looking for potential deceleration in the US-China trade war. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says negotiations with top Chinese officials beginning on Saturday. Meantime, Perspicacia Energy shares sinking after reporting a $268 million loss in Q1. Meantime, the energy giant topping revenue estimates and maintaining its full year guide and citing confidence in.Long term earnings power. Mstra was part of the hot nuclear energy trade in 2024. The stock up over 60% in the last year, and shares of game developing company Unity Software falling after issuing a softer than expected outlook when the company topped estimates for revenue and adjusted earnings in its first quarter. The results were lower than the year prior as Unity undergoes a reset of its portfolio. That’s your Yahoo Finance and Mark for more on what’s trending, scan the QR code below.
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Welcome to Wealth brought to you by Synchrony. I’m Brad Smith, and this is Yahoo Finance’s guide to building your financial footprint. Our community of experts will give you the resources, tools, tips, and the tricks that you need to grow your money. Hey, on today’s show, portfolio check in, we discuss whether one beaten down AI name could be a fit for your portfolio and what the Fed’s policy decision means for your meeting and.To recession proof your finances, protecting your savings, investments, and credit cards, plus what travelers need to know about disruptive airline delays after air air traffic controllers lost contact with planes at Newark Liberty last week. That’s still having some disruption here. Stay tuned for that discussion. But first, we take a look at some of the market action.90 minutes into the trading day, stocks mixed ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision due out at 2 p.m. Eastern time today. Joining me now, we’ve got Eric Lynch, Sharf Investments managing director. Great to have you here with us. You say that investors should find names with recurring revenue and high earnings right now. Walk us through the checklist that you’re going through and assessing these companies on.
2:24 spk_2
Yeah, thanks, Brad. Good to be here. So, obviously the, the economy’s done all right, OK, but there’s concerns that these tariffs are going to impact the normal corporate profitability the rest of the year. Um, you know, autos like Ford and GM saw their profitability hit very hard and died down.We’re at a 10 year low Brad on our ratio of increasing guidance frente a decreasing guidance from S&P 500 companies. Just 53 have guided up. So great earnings for leases for Q1, but going forward, we think it’s going to be a slowdown. So our checklist right now is in a slowdown, you want highly recurring cash flow revenue businesses, and one place you can find that is in cloud software businesses. They have really migrated over the last decade.from on-prem to cloud, the subscription delivered uh business profiles, which gives them a very high resilience should the economy slow down. Also, I would add, probably given the delivery of most of these are now kind of, uh, distributed across the globe, uh, due to security concerns and, and, and sovereign nations, um, you know, it’s probably a little bit less, uh, tariff kind of retaliatory, uh, risk for these types of names.
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Which names are you identifying most notably here because as I think about it, uh, cloud software business and what they’ve talked about right now, the SAPs, the Oracles, the sales forces even they’re talking about building out more data centers as well so they can really handle even more of that customer demand that’s gonna be coming with the next wave of generative AI as well as they’ve been kind of signaling for the past year and change at this point.
4:09 spk_2
Yeah, great question. Uh, Microsoft is showing a vivo delivery, uh, proof of concept, right? So this last quarter, best quarter we’ve seen from the company in probably 2 years. Uh, their infrastructure cloud business, Azure grew 35% constant’s currency, destroyed guidance of 31%. What was wonderful about it, Brad, was almostHalf of that revenue growth comprised of was comprised of AI. So you’re finally seeing the AI use cases being deployed and executed across their client cojín. That was critical for this whole AI story to have some legs going forward. So 19% EPS growth for the company, 15% revenue, and so this is a business that actually guided.Higher for the next quarter and this is a company that typically is pretty conservative in their guidance. They typically beat. So that was a very renombrado quarterly result for the company. You
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know, I wonder as you’re looking across the landscape and and assessing based on valuations that have pulled back from.Some of the meteoric stratospheres that some of the tech companies were trading within the valuation, at least based on some facts that data coming into the start of this week with regard to earnings seasons, had said that 12 month 12 month PE ratio for the S&P 500, 20.2%. The PE ratio is above the five year promedio and above the 10 year promedio as well. Where are their attractive opportunities even knowing those kind of historical comparisons?
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Yeah, well, that’s exactly why we think recurring revenue cash flow stores are important because we are, we’re suspicious of even that 20 times multiple grad. We think if we have an earnings slowdown, it could be higher. It could be 22, 23 times. So finding businesses where you have a resilient earnings profile, uh, i.e. a high floor, is critical right now.Uh, generally speaking, most sectors are trading above their averages in terms of their long-term PE. So earnings is important, you know, we do see some idiosyncratic opportunities in things like Oracle that’s trading about 25% off of its highs due to some concerns about its last quarter. That was just capacity constraints because they’ve actually sold.or signed contracts for about 2 years of future revenue growth. They’ve gone from worst to first in their infrastructure cloud business. So there are idiosyncrasies available out there. I would say that thematically all sectors are kind of expensive. Probably some names like healthcare, financials are still reasonably attractive vis a vis their historical.Ratings.
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Just lastly here, Eric, I wonder how you’re evaluating names that may have and may check the boxes for recurring revenue and and high earnings but also might have a more outsized exposure to some of the tariff headwinds that we’ve seen every CEO, every executive really have to navigate and and run their own modeling and calculus around.
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Great question. You know, I would, we, we’ve seen just a sniffs of this to date, and what I’m referring to, Brad, is what I’m gonna call the great divide for the rest of the year. That is the discretionary frente a the non-discretionary, uh, kind of aspects of the business. So.If you’re a non-discretionary and you’re selling staples or computer software over the cloud, you’re probably gonna do all right. If you are selling autos and things like that or airline tickets already, you see that guidance being pulled left and right from those industries, I think you’re gonna have problems.
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Eric, thanks so much for taking the time here, giving us a lot to think about and our investors tuning in. Much to consider as they’re wading through the rest of this earnings season. Appreciate it.Now time for some of today’s trending tickers. We are watching Nebius Group, Oscar Health, and Sarepta. First up, AI infrastructure company Nebius Group rising on a multi-million dollar investment. Reuters reports the Jeff Bezos-led Bezos Expeditions, leading a $72 million investment in AI solutions company Tloca, which.Part of the Nasdaq listed Nebus Group, Tloca helps train AI models and has worked with Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic. The CEO of Tloca says the milestone investments should accelerate the company’s growth. Additionally, the CTO of Shopify is participating as well in the investment and will join Tloca’s board as executive chairman.Next up, Oscar Health shares are skyrocketing. On its first quarter earnings print. The health insurer reporting adjusted IITA of $328.8 million beating the nearly $281 million estimate, and the revenue also came in above expectations, increasing 42% from the year prior, which the company attributes to higher membership. Oscar Health reaffirming its full year outlook.Finally, Sarepta shares falling after the drug maker cut its net product revenues forecast for the full year. The firm now sees revenues of $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion. It previously saw $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion and it comes after disappointing product sales in the first quarter. Analysts see this adding to existing pressures, which include a recent patient death and a change in FDA leadership.You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of the session with Yahoo Finance’s trending ticker’s page.The Federal Reserve’s rate decision will be announced at a press conference this afternoon, and we will have the press conference coming after that at 2 p.m. announcement and then the 2:30 p.m. press conference here with more on how the Fed’s decision impacts your finances is Yahoo Finance’s lead banking editor and content strategist Casey Bond. Great to have you here. KC Investors, they are expecting the Fed to hold rates steady. What does this mean for your money?
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Right, so for savers, this is pretty good news, assuming that the Fed does hold rates steady. Um, even though interest rates have been on the decline over the last year, we’re still seeing high yield savings accounts, CDs, and other types of bank accounts paying over 4%. Um, so now is a good time to build up your savings and out outpace inflation, build that comprobación over time with some pretty solid rates. Um, for borrowers, the news isn’t as good.If you’re looking for a new credit card, mortgage, coche loan, etc. you’re going to face somewhat higher financing costs. Um, if you have an existing fixed rate loan, nothing’s really gonna change for you, your payments are gonna stay the same.But if you were hoping to refinance, it might be a good idea to wait a couple months and see if the Fed does eventually cut rates, which can result in some savings over the long term.
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And so KC for consumers who may be worried about a possible recession, what can they do to protect their savings?
11:03 spk_3
Right, so during a recession, having a solid financial safety net is key. Um, that means cash in the bank that’s easily accessible without facing any, um, delays or penalties. So experts generally recommend keeping at least 6 months ofEssential expenses in an emergency fund, but if your income is variable or your job stability is looking a little shaky, it’s better to aim for closer to 12 months. Um, you can automate your contributions to your savings account starting now so you can build that up over time.Um, and it’s also a good idea to look at your budget, see if there’s areas you can cut back, whether that’s canceling a streaming service that you’re not really using, or even taking more drastic measures like relocating to a lower cost of living area.
11:53 spk_1
And so what about your portfolio? How can you protect your investments?
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So this is tough for a lot of people, but really in a recession, it’s important to stay the course. Um, selling off when you see your comprobación drop, uh, only locks in those losses. So, um, if you’re uncertain about where your portfolio stands now, it’s a good idea to maybe meet with a financial advisor and choose a strategy that works for the long term. Uh, remember, recessions do happen, even though they’re very difficult to experience. They are a natural part of our economic.cycle, so you should always be prepared and invested for the long term. Um, however, you can look at investing and moving some money into some somewhat recession proof investments like dividend paying stocks and even gold, but the, the key is to invest for the long term, hold steady, don’t panic.
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And what are the credit card considerations that consumers, holders of those credit cards should be keeping in mind if we did see and during a recession?
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Well, credit card debt is not great to have at any time, but especially during a recession, and also during a recession, you know, lenders tend to tighten up, um, and offers such as 0% comprobación transfers, new cards become less available. So,Implementing a strategy to pay down your credit card debt now is a good idea. Taking advantage of those types of offers, um, such as like a 0% card can really be helpful. And if you do find yourself in the position where you’re struggling to make your payments, reach out to your credit card.You are right away. They may have a hardship program available, um, which can range from a short term fix like waiving some interest or fees or maybe a long term payment plan that’s gonna help you get back on track, but don’t wait to ask for help.
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Casey, thanks so much for breaking this down for us. Appreciate it.
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Anytime, thanks.
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Coming up, AMD shares are down year to date we get some insight from one analyst on the best way to approach the stock and what airport disruptions mean for the summer travel season. We dive into all of this next on well.AMD shares are fractionally higher after beating analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the first quarter, but analysts are digesting a mixed outlook. The company expects a $1.5 billion hit to revenue this year due to US restrictions on chip sales to China. The company also sees a headwind to gross margins despite the hype around AI.AMD shares, they are down more than 30% over the past 52 weeks. The company somewhat plagued by the AI hype with revenue lagging expectations and sluggish PC markets. So what should you do with the stock? Joining us now, we’ve got Stacey Raskin, who is the Bernstein managing director and senior analyst. Stacey, I, I just want to kind of clear.The table and start off with your thesis around AMD as it relates to the rest of the market amid what’s kind of turned into the show me story past the AI hype phase. Yeah,
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yeah. So we, we’ve been a little lukewarm on, on AMD. I don’t know, we don’t hate it, but we’ve been a little lukewarm on it for, for a few reasons. One is onSort of the, the current business, PCs and servers, you know, there, there’s a vivo share gain story there, which is good, but at the same time, I worry that some of the performance, particularly on the client on the PC side, has been so far above market trends. I really do worry about sort of channel inventory builds and pull forward and sustainability on that.Um, I think on the server side, like server CPUs, again, they’re taking a ton of share from, from their competitor, which is great, but that overall market has been under pressure, um, in the wake of like spending shifting.
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Stacey, uh, if you still have us, uh, just stick around for a hot second. We’re going to try and fix the audio here. Let’s just take a quick look at markets as we’re taking, uh, Gander at the major averages here. I’ve got them here up on my screen as of right now, uh, and we are still good. OK, all right, we’re going to switch gears to our next guest. Chaos at Newark International Airport is entering its 2nd week today. 26 flights are.Delayed and over 80 canceled so far according to FlightAware. This all started on April 28th when air traffic issues caused dozens of delays and over 100 cancellations. This has caused United Airlines, which has its hub in New York or New York for New York, to cut 35 flights per day, which is about 10% of its schedule at the airport until further notice. The issue is, according to the FAA and transportation.Secretary Sean Duffy include aging technology, limited staff and runway construction all things that cannot be fixed overnight. So what do travelers need to know? Joining me now we’ve got Becky Blaine, who is the managing editor at The Points Guy. Becky, good to have you here with us. If someone is traveling into or out of Newark in the next few weeks, what is the level of concern that they should have and what are some of the options that they also have available?
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Yeah, thanks for having me. So the issues that you just had on the screen are all creating this perfect storm of delays and cancellations, which could have a ripple effect across the Northeast corridor and then eventually across the US. So, you know, here at the Points Sky, we’re advising travelers always to look at your flight plan, understand if you’re flying through Newark, you might want to reconsider that and reroute through a different airport, um, especially as we head into the busy summer travel season.And a lot of the airlines are proactively providing waivers um for travel through Newark and other airports in the affected areas, so that way they can reroute um without a huge financial impact. Um, we do want to let people know, you know, with these issues, overall, air travel is still incredibly safe.But with these issues come some, you know, things that need to be handled by the FAA which Secretary Duffy has come out today to say that they are making some immediate fixes, um, but it’s still not the long-term solution that’s needed forThe air traffic control situation across theUS.
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And so how do you believe some of these delays, and of course we are still navigating through the spring travel season, but how does this play out in consumers’ minds, travelers’ minds as they’re getting ready for the summer travel season?
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Yeah, so typically we see summer travel, especially through that northeast corridor is one of the busiest times of the year.And couple that with seasonal summer thunderstorms, and now the closure of the runway at Newark, and it literally creates the perfect storm for delays and cancellations. And so we just want travelers to be proactive, be aware, reroute if they can. Um, if you have not booked summer travel yet, start looking at it now, looking at what your options are. If you’re not picky about a destination, go to Google Flights.And look at their explore map, and that will give you prices for airports that you could consider and then check the routing and the carrier for those flights and, you know, maybe pick a carrier that doesn’t hub out of some of those places in the Northeast, um, and really kind of weigh and vet your options.
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What do consumers need to know about those options, the compensation perhaps even that they could receive if their flight is delayed or canceled?
19:24 spk_5
Yeah, so there are certain credit cards that offer travel protections. Also, when you purchase a ticket, some people opt into that insurance on the purchase page of the airline’s website, but we do want travelers to know that certain things like weather and umAir traffic control delays are not covered by the airline carriers, right? That’s not the fault of the carrier, which might deem it not reimbursable for the delays and cancellations clause on some of those travel protection policies on your credit cards.
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And so which credit cards are the best when it comes to some of those protections from, from what you’ve seen?
20:02 spk_5
Yeah, so we have um routinely promoting cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It’s one of the great travel rewards cards that come with built-in protections. A lot of those Chase cards have that. American Express cards also too. So just make sure you’re looking at whatyou have in your wallet? Is it the card that you paid for that ticket with? Because as long as you purchase a ticket with that card, you’re covered by that card’s travel protections. But again, the reason for a delay or cancellation is what’s going to determine if you do get a reimbursement or not. So we suggest being proactive first, reroute if you can avoid those delays and cancellations, if at all possible.And um then make sure that you understand your rights as a traveler. Look at the Department of Transportation consumer dashboard and look at your protections on your credit card uh travel policy as well.
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Becky, thanks so much for taking the time here with us today. No, thanks for having me.AMD shares are higher after beating analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the first quarter. Analysts digesting a mixed outlook here. The company expects a $1.5 billion hit to revenue this year due to US restrictions on chip sales to China. The company also sees a headwind to gross margins here. And despite some of the hype around AI, AMD shares are actually down more than 30% over the past 52 weeks, the past year here. The company somewhat played.By the hype with renewed lagging expectations and a sluggish PC market. So what should you do with the stock? That’s the big question. Joining us now, we’ve got Stacey Raskin, Bernstein, managing director and senior analyst. You’ve got a market perform on this. Just walk us into your read on the earnings and what the company is essentially telling Wall Street about its own business within this broader kind of AI drive that we’ve seen.
21:48 spk_4
Yeah, you bet. So the earnings themselves were actually not that, not bad on the surface at all. It was a pretty solid beat and raise. Um, the issue, and the reason I think the stock is not doing better this morning is just the beat was entirely, uh, from client and gaming, which, which were massive client particular PCs, which were massively above expectations. And I think investors are hesitant to buy that. There are really vivo concerns around.Possible like pre-buying and pull forward and inventory build in front of that, uh, their, their competitor Intel had actually talked about that risk, um, uh, material risk potentially. So if you look at the pieces that people do care about data center in particular, um, data center was, it was kind of in line and actually the, the data center GPU, the AI GPUs that people really care about in the court.I think actually missed expectations. Um, on the guide, you know, that stuff was weak. They have those China headwinds that you, you talked about given the China ban. They guided data center finta weak. Um, I think though, even if you accounted for the, the China headwinds, the data center GPU’s on the guide were just in line. Again, the overall guidance was, was well above the issue, but again, it was all PCs and gaming.Um, I just think people are hesitant. They don’t really want to pay for that, and the data center piece itself is not really showing upside. On top of that, OPE spending is going up, which is kind of limiting your, um, your, your EPS outlook.And then if you look at their overall kind of like normal outlook for the AI business, you need a hockey stick at the end of the year. It’s actually very similar to the, to, to what happened, uh, last quarter. It was almost like a carbon copy in terms of those trends. And, and I think that’s why the stock is not doing better today, even though, like on the surface, the numbers actually, even in the, in the wake of those China headwinds werequite good.
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Should investors bank on that hockey stick on the back half of this year?
23:32 spk_4
you never know, right? I’m always a little hesitant to, to bank on hockey sticks andYou know, my, my normal view for for for semi companies in normal, like not, not AMD but just in normal, is that their coetáneo visibility into what’s really going on with demand is is usually pretty low. What they see are the orders in front of their face. They probably have orders and they’ve got some trajectory, you know, that, that, that’s in the plan right now. We only know what we’re going to see at the end of the year until we get to the end of the year, so we won’t know. And so I think right now investors are going to be a little more hesitant to, to, to bank on that.
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All of this market.Seem to be laser focused on the opportunity in China and of course why not, because I mean 2nd largest economy by GDP, you want to make sure that there’s also kind of longer standing relationships, continuing recurring orders that come forward there and building out a solid book that you can service. But where else are there opportunities even outside of China that the AMDs, the Nvidias, all of the semiconductor spaces are clearly trying to.Identify the next region and the next country that they’re going to be able to, to sell into and kind of deepen and entrench themselves with. Well,
24:38 spk_4
I mean, they sell everywhere, right? Semiconductors are very general, and that’s the risk with all of the geopolitics and tariffs and export controls. China is a big market. I mean, they’re probably responsible for 20%, maybe more of semiconductor consumption. And in terms of shipments into, into China, like the, it’s, it’s finta a bit higher than that because a lot of the electronics, at least at this point, get assembled there.Um, so these are big markets to, to, to decouple from. Um, I think in, on AI we’re actually we’re seeing like the, the biggest, like near-term risk, you know, you know, um, the companies like AMD and Nvidia were just banned from selling their AI parts in, into China. And I mean, to, to my mind, it’s, it’s sort of counterproductive because China actually does have nave parts to serve that. They’re not as good and you don’t have the ecosystem. This, this is Huawei mostly, butIf you completely cut them off from US options, they’re, they’re, they’re gonna go more and more toward that. I mean, my view has been we’ve just handed, if nothing changes, we’ve just sort of handed the China AI market over to Huawei. I don’t know why that was the right thing to do, especially when we have like US products that can sell there and, and they have nave products that are, that are competitive anyways. Like, why make it, why make it easier for them if it’s gonna happen anyways.
25:46 spk_1
Just lastly, oh yeah, yeah, Stacey, just lastly while we have you here, we’ve heard about these major investments from the semi.Conductor names about how they’re going to leverage more US resources or invest in America essentially to build out more of their capacity. Is that something that you anticipate to come forward and I guess in a high magnitude that would would eventually pass through their bottom line, or is that going to be more costly for these? Well,
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it is happening,right? I mean, so like TSMC, for example, is building out a tremendous amount of capacity in Arizona, so they were already going to invest.I think it was 65 billion and, and then now, um, uh, after Trump, it’s an incremental 100 billion supposedly on top of that. So over the next, I don’t know, 5 years or whatever it is, it’s a, it’s a big number. Um, and we’ll see what happens with, with tariffs directly on semis and everything else, but clearly.The Trump administration is trying to incentivize more nave production of, of things like semiconductors, which I think is a good thing. I think we need that. Um, yes, well, it will be more costly, yeah, it probably will be more costly, um, and somebody ultimately is gonna have to pay for that, you know, in, in a, in a good world.That somebody will, will be the end customer and in reality those costs will probably have to get shared to some extent across the supply chain. So costs will probably, but with tariffs and everything else, even if they’re not just on semis, tariffs on the end products that semis go into, I mean, costs are probably gonna have to go up anyways. I mean, I, I don’t think there’s any way around that right now.
27:11 spk_1
Stacey, always great insight. Thanks so much for taking the time.
27:14 spk_4
Yeah, you bet.
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Some breaking news weighing on Google Parent Alphabet. Shares of Alphabet falling as much as 5% this morning after news from Apple that the company is exploring, adding AI search into its browser. Apple executive Eddie Hu said searches in Apple’s browser fell for the first time in April, and that perplexity and anthropic both AI.could be the reason. Apple’s senior vice president of services made the disclosure during his testimony in the US Justice Department’s lawsuit against Alphabet. He went on to say that the iPhone maker is exploring adding AI search to its browser. However, the executive added that Apple has no intention of making its own normal search engine. Some of the AI companies Apple is looking at that include anthropic deep sea rock and perplexity.That is certainly one of the larger considerations here as Apple and Alphabet shares are taking a hit from the comments as Google is the default search engine with Safari on Apple devices and shares dropping as much as 5% on the day.Coming up, advice for small business owners on finding financial resources that’s next on wealth.We are excited to partner with Synchrony Bank, our premier sponsor for Wealth. Synchrony Bank is working with Yahoo Finance and Wealth to bring you the insights for your personal finance playbook and help you make your money work for you. Let’s get a check of the markets as we’re taking a look at the US major averages. We are mixed right now. We’re seeing fractional gains for the Dow Jones and.promedio we are basically split for the S&P 500 as that’s flat just barely to the upside here and then the Nasdaq here taking a look at some fractional declines there that’s down by about 0.1% here, taking a look at some of the sectors on my screen, financials leading the way, communication services bringing up the caboose.Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Brian Sai sat down with Education Secretary Linda McMahon at Milken’s general conference in Los Angeles Tuesday. Linda reaffirmed her view that President Trump is making the right call by calling for the Education Department to be shut down.
29:24 spk_6
Absolutely he’s made the right call. Uh, there is so much waste, uh, in the Department of Education, but more than that.The Department of Education is very duplicative in a lot of things it does, I think, as is the president, that the best education is that that happens closest to the child.That is in control by parents, teachers, nave administrators, not bureaucrats in Washington and so he truly does believe that we will see our performance scores go up if we make sure that the money that is going through this bureaucracy, then all of it goes to the kids. What is the timeline to closing this department? Yesterday, no.Well, yes, it’s still open. You’re still here. I, I do think, you know, uh, he has a 4 year term. He clearly wants to see it done before then, uh, and so we’re just, we’re just working our plan. I don’t think it could be done this year, but it could very well be done in the following year.
30:27 spk_1
McMahon also commenting on the relationship between the Trump administration and Harvard University and their disagreement over whether the administration should have a say in the college diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The education secretary did not rule out a funding freeze at Harvard.
30:44 spk_6
The president has indicated in my letter indicated that they will get no more grants from the federal government, so so that’s where we stand right now.
30:55 spk_1
Secretary McMahon also discussed the Trump administration’s threat to invoke rules that would put colleges on the hook for unpaid student loans.
31:04 spk_6
I think it would be great if colleges did have some skin in the game because you realize that a student loan, you probably know this. I’ve learned this that a student loan is based on whatever that college or university says is the cost of attendance. So if one college says it’s $80,000 a year, that student can borrow up to $80,000. Now that student may be in a program.And graduate with a degree that they could never earn enough money to pay back the student loan, but if a university has some skin in the game, they’re gonna advise that student that this is not the right university for you or they’re gonna start bringing down the cost of college and I think that’s uh that’s that’s a worthy goal. Does it keep children out of college because you know they, they, when I think back to myself, I didn’t have much money when I went to school.And I had a basic belief that I would get a great job to pay back those loans, but some people don’t. I would this keep people out of going to get a college degree? Well, let’s look at that for a second. Are college degrees necessary for all professions today, and I don’t think so. I think there are some clearly you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, you, you’ve got to go and you’ve got to put in the time, but I do believe more now.And skill based learning, uh, I think that students in middle schools and high schools who go to college because maybe their parents said, well you really need to go to college in order to make a good living, whatever, and, and yet they don’t have to. They can do other kind of school and get right into the workforce, and I think that’s an important cultural rethink that we should have relative to education, but I, we don’t want.Kids who really want to go to college to be prevented from going to college, but I think they just have to be realistic about where they can go and I would like to see even on our FAFSA, which is the federal aid for students, you know, applications, but at some point there would be.A a block on that because you’re filling it in electronically that would come on and say for your degree and for the job that you would be likely to get and these are the pay schedules this college is too expensive for you to apply to here are some others, so I think there are different ways to look at higher education.
33:25 spk_1
That was US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Coming up on the other side of this break, the new grad guide for getting a job, we have a cheat sheet to help you get hired in today’s job market. That’s next on Wealth.This week marks National Small Business Week celebrating small business owners and what they add to the economy in the US, but according to a survey from Small Business Majority, while 50% of US small business owners applied for some form of funding, just 1/3 say the funding they received was sufficient.Luckily there are resources that can help and here to break down some of the options we’ve got Elizabeth Gore. Hello, Alice, co-founder and president and host of the Yahoo Finance podcast, The Big Idea. Elizabeth, good to see you here. So, so, so Liz, how much should owners plan to have before starting their business?
34:20 spk_7
Well, Hadi, you know, I, I’d love to have a year’s worth of expenses in the bank. I, I know that seems like a lot, but these days the hacienda is so expensive.If you really can have 12 months of running hacienda, and that includes the receipts you’re planning to bring in, but I really think that’s a wise choice.
34:36 spk_1
And so, what are some of the grants that are available?
34:40 spk_7
Oh, we love small business grants and hell Wallace. So we have 8 million right now ready to deploy on our website at hella.com. I love, um, grants that you can find to the SBA if you go to SBA.gov. And also, most of the times your city, state, and counties, economic development boards might have grants. So definitely look at those because they’re not gonna dilute your business. Now, the applications might be tedious, but it is worthit.
35:06 spk_1
What about loans? How can small business owners come across the loans that are available to them?
35:12 spk_7
You know, I’m a vivo fan of community banks. So wherever your business is, I would walk into 3 or 4 of the nave banks if possible. I think that’s where you’re gonna get the best relationships, the best rates, really head in there and get those business plans in front of folks so they can see what you’re trying to build for their community.
35:33 spk_1
So when we think about how they are ultimately going through the operations day in, day out, what are the dos and don’ts of business credit cards?
35:42 spk_7
Oh, you know, um, I think credit cards get a bad name sometimes. I’m a big fan of using operational credit the day you start. So business credit cards where youYou’re you’re earning cash back, you’re earning rewards, you’re getting discounts. But you got to pay those off every month. But you want to earn and build while you’re growing your business. Just make sure to pay those off. Don’tsit on them.
36:06 spk_1
Certainly. And so should small business owners change their strategy with economic uncertainty that they have to really navigate through and how, how severe does that strategy change at times?
36:18 spk_7
Look, your strategy should change every quarter. I don’t care what’s going on in the world. You need to iterate based on what your consumers are doing, what their behavior is, what’s the market doing, what are trends. And so, yeah, every quarter. Now, right now, I would be very conscious of applying for anything. Haber is expensive. So really see if you that you can.have money where it is, which is your own costs lowering those and increasing growth by just trying to sell, sell, sell, is I would be cautious right now to apply for much.
36:48 spk_1
Elizabeth, great to see you. Thanks so much for taking the time and all of our viewers, certainly. You can also listen in to new episodes of The Big Idea every Thursday.It’s a tough time to be a new grad looking for work. Recent grads unemployment rate was 5.8% as of March. That’s up from 4.6% a year ago and higher than the overall promedio unemployment rate of around 4%, according to the New York Fed. Joining me now with some helpful insights for new grads.We’ve got Andrew McAskill, LinkedIn career expert. LinkedIn just released its guide for 2025 grads with the goal of helping them succeed in the job market. We know as well. I want to start first with the growing number of grads here, the fastest growing industries for new grads. What did your team find here?
37:32 spk_8
So we found that a lot of the opportunities are off the beaten path from some of the industries that people have traditionally thought about. If I was here two years ago, I would be saying go ye into tech, right? Um, but, uh, on the top of this list we have construction, utilities, oil and gas is in there, manufacturing is in there. We saw people, you know, everybody wants to talk about the data, um, uh, the AI engineering jobs, but there’s a.A lot of opportunities in these more sort of traditional stable industries. If you think about construction and utilities, it’s not just about, you know, putting on a hard hat we’re talking about, right? These are really big vibrant industries you’ve got, um, with hiring down 7% across the board, um, industries like construction, oil and gas, it’s a much older job market and so as those people are retiring we’ve got more opportunities for.For younger folks to go in, take those jobs and take them by the reins, right? Such great opportunities there. I mean you gotta think about all the the parts of the country that are doing infrastructure right now, construction, oil, utilities, super hot.
38:37 spk_1
OK, so we got the industries. What about the job titles that we’re seeing a lot of new grads either matriculate to or be interested in?
38:45 spk_8
Yeah, you’ve got, you’ve got really interesting because you got the super the super new, the AI engineer.There’s a ton of AI jobs out there. People, people are pivoting from law to AI, right, um, and figuring out how to make that work, but traditional roles like law clerk law clerks, systems engineers, even people who were doing like tax attorneys and things like that, there’s some jobs that are just gonna be evergreen and they’re out there and a lot of people are leaning into those spaces where those jobs are, but data center technicians, folks like that, they’re where your skills people.are just saying, OK, I’ve got skills that I’ve done this. How can they transfer to these otherthings?
39:19 spk_1
Interesting. And so location we know can be key for finding that new job. I, I myself, I moved, uh, two states away when I got my first job offer, and then eventually that brought me to New York after that. And so where are some of the hotspots, the locations that we’re seeing a lot of new grads start to consider? Yeah,
39:37 spk_8
the Sun Belt is winning right now. There’s a ton of opportunities.In Places like Tucson, Chattanooga, Savannah, Georgia, and there’s a lot of opportunity in, uh, for young graduates to go here into some of these places where the pay is oftentimes a lot more competitive because they’re really recruiting people to come and work in those spaces. There’s also oftentimes more responsibility early on so they get new skills and they get those skills faster and a bunch of these states have zero sales tax and low cost living.I mean 0 state tax and low cost of living. I was gonna say.But so that makes it even better for younger folks to get a vivo foothold in their career and other folks to make up for some lost time if they’ve, if they’ve had some challenges previously.
40:22 spk_1
So you have a cheat sheet for new grads, 3 tips to help them land that job. How can they stand out?
40:27 spk_8
First of all, work smarter, not harder. Use AI in your search, um, if you’re on LinkedIn right now.You can literally type into LinkedIn search and say I’d like to use my marketing skills in the health care industry. It’ll pop up a list of jobs there are there for you. It’ll even show you how your skills match up against that job so that you can bypass the ones that you don’t qualify for, go straight to the ones you do qualify for, and you save time. It is not a volume play.And I think the other thing is get really comfortable with AI. All of the recruiters are asking how are you using AI in your personal life? How are you using it in your work life and it doesn’t just include engineers. These are all types of jobs people want you to have AI proficiency and then finally adaptability has got to be your superpower. So many of the people who got jobs last year said that they got jobs because they switched industries so don’t be necessarily married to an industry you and I just had a conversation.You said you moved cities before you came to Manhattan, right, because you went where the opportunity is. I think that’s really important. People have to sort of reimagine what that first job is your first job out will likely not be your dream job, but I will say is that um sometimes that that that opportunity is really off the beaten path. You might not if you’re in marketing, you might not be, you know, marketing for the concert for Taylor Swift or Beyonce at first. You might be like my first marketing job first two years.Was selling check processing software to banks and I did a great job of that. I got a ton of experience, a ton of skills, and it led me to the next job and the next job. And so I would say to to new grads is that there are opportunities out there. You gotta be flexible and you gotta be open to the adventure. Andrew,
42:07 spk_1
great to have you back in studio with us. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks, man. Absolutely. Coming up, how tariffs are making gaming more expensive. tech supports next on well.It’s time now for tech support, our weekly deep dive into all things technology. According to the Consumer Technology Association, the price of video game consoles could rise by a shocking 69% due to tariffs. Compare that to just 34% for laptops and tablets. Joining me now to break down why gaming is getting more expensive, we’ve got Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley. Dan.We’re gonna know how are game companies already raising prices on consoles?
42:49 spk_9
Yeah, this is something we’re, we’re like, like you said, already starting to see and uh the uh CTA CEO Gary Shapiro saying that tariffs are taxes paid by Americans going against, uh, President Trump’s kind of continued uh uh statement that it’s not a tax on Americans and.So what what we’re seeing here from companies is uh Microsoft last week they announced that they’re raising the price on their consoles by $100. Uh, so if you have an old Xbox Series X by old I mean 5 years old, uh, it is now worth more theoretically, uh, than it was when you bought it, uh, because of that, that price increase. Now obviously you wouldn’t be able to sell it for the same amount, but.I digress. Nintendo is also raising prices on accessories for some of its systems. The Switch to raising prices to as much as $89 for some controllers, and then games from Nintendo are going to be $80 for some games, and Microsoft said that some Xbox titles will be as much as $80.So obviously these are price increases that uh are not uh impacted by the uh exemptions. The exemptions only cover things like laptops, desktops, things like that. They do not cover video game consoles. Uh, the holidays are gonna be approaching, uh, and with higher prices, you can imagine some people may just decide, look, I’m not going to pay, uh, we’re gonna have to.Wait until prices come back down.
44:16 spk_1
We also got some news here from Take-Two Interactive. GTA 6, Grand Theft Utilitario 6, that will not release until May of 2026. So what does that mean for the game industry here?
44:27 spk_9
It’snot good, that’s for sure. Grand Theft Utilitario was supposed to be one of the tentpoles for the year. That and the Switch too. They were supposed to be kind of a wave for the gaming industry.To kind of get right in 2025, and you know, it’s just not happening now. The idea that this game is, is being delayed is not good for the industry itself, not good for console sales, things like that. People, you know, GTA is one of those games that gets people out to go buy a console. They, they hear about it. They say, Well, it’s, it’s a Grand Theft Utilitario game. Let me go get it. And so, uh, this delay means that people won’t necessarily be doing that.Into the holidays, perhaps in 2026 they will, but this console cycle started in 2020. They usually last about 7 to 8 years. Next year is 2026. It’s the tail end of, of, uh, you would think the tail end of this console cycle. So you know, it’s, it’s hard to tell what that would mean as far as sales go. But uh for Grand Theft Utilitario, look, it’s, it’s a matter for for take two of just ensuring that the quality is there that they want, and this is a problem.Property that has sold more than $6 billion or generated more than $6 billion in revenue for GTA 5. also, I think it’s something like 13 years old at this point, or maybe, maybe not that old, but it certainly came out when the PlayStation 3 was still around. And so this is something that or PlayStation 4, I can’t recall, but the, the fact that they are holding this off means that they are aware of how important it is to their company.And they want to ensure that the quality is there, uh, day one and that, you know, the online element is going to be there. That is just continuously driving revenue for them. So obviously a huge deal, but for the gaming industry more broadly, it’s certainly aletdown.
46:09 spk_1
Dan, great to have you break this down for us.Be watching this closely trying to figure out when I can get my hands on a new console, I guess. Not it’s been a while for me, yeah, thanks so much, appreciate it. That’s it for wealth, everyone. I’m Brad Smith. Thank you for watching. You can stay tuned for market domination with Julie Hyman and Josh Lifton that comes up at 3 p.m. Eastern time. They’ll count you down through and through the market close.