
What’s going on with the Dow Jones? & Taco Bell’s unique chicken nuggets
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Neal Freyman
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.
Toby Howell
And I'm Toby Howell.
Neal Freyman
Today the DAO is in its longest losing streak since 1978. So why aren't more people panicking then?
Toby Howell
Taco Bell is a loco for Pollo. It's adding a surprise new chicken dis to its menu this week. It's Wednesday, December 18th. Let's ride.
Neal Freyman
Got a fun thought starter for you all this morning. Maybe it'll help you come to a deeper understanding of what makes you you. So someone on Twitter posed the question, what are your personal foundational texts? You know, the books you keep coming back to, the ones that most represent your values and interests, and you can't fathom having a personal library without them. Toby, the people want to know, what are your foundational texts?
Toby Howell
As part of this prompt, there was the question of these are books you revisit multiple times throughout your life that you've read multiple times. And by that definition, the only foundational text that I've read multiple times are mostly sci fi or fantasy novels. The Aragon series growing up, I read multiple times. World War Z by Max Brook is a book that I've read, is a book I've read three times. The Red Rising series. Most of these were books that I did read as a kid. Then you revisit as an adult. There's something just very cathartic about that. But Neil, if we expand the definition beyond just books you've read multiple times, what are your foundational texts?
Neal Freyman
Yeah, when I was thinking about this prompt, I was thinking the one that like most values most represents me as a person and the one that is just like a base layer for me. And I think when I was a kid, I would just look over the Atlas all the time. So I'm going with Atlas as my foundational text. I could just stare for maps at hours. I loved memorizing all of the countries of the world. So we're going with Atlas. If I had to pick a book with a little more words than maybe Bill Bryson's A Walk in the woods, that's pretty solid. So travel humor. All those, all those themes I think represent me as a person.
Toby Howell
I thought you're going to say Atlas Shrugged at first and I was like wait, that's foundational to you, but an atlas is just as good.
Neal Freyman
That is too long of a book.
Toby Howell
Now a word from our sponsor, the Range Rover Sport. Neal, got a question for you. You are a road trip guy. Give me some of the elements you are looking for on the perfect road trip.
Neal Freyman
Well, I'm a journey guy, not a destination guy. So I need some long scenic roads where I can just toss it on cruise control and go. Some good classical music is always nice, but arguably the most important thing is a smooth and comfortable ride.
Toby Howell
The Range Rover Sport has all the bases covered. It's got adaptive off road cruise control that monitors ground cond conditions and acclimates to your present terrain as well as dynamic suspension that reduces unwanted body movements.
Neal Freyman
I haven't had a good road trip in a few years, Toby, but this is making me want to get up and go.
Toby Howell
Well, finish the pod first, then the open road is all yours. Explore the Range Rover Sport@Land RoverUSA.com that's Land RoverUSA.com the Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the most well known stock indexes in the world. And it just did something it hasn't done since Jimmy Carter was in office. Like Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side, things have been going decidedly downhill recently for the Dow. It is now finished in the red for nine straight trading days, suffering its longest losing streak since 1978. To make matters worse, the Dow has been heading south while everyone else heads north. Both the broader S&P 500 index and the tech focused NASDAQ have not record highs in the last week compared to a 3 1/2% decline for the Dow. What's dragging it down? Well, UnitedHealth Group is down 30% since the shooting of executive Brian Thompson, accounting for nearly 60% of the entire index's drop. Remember, the Dow is price weighted, so the companies with a higher individual share price have a greater impact on the index as a whole. When one high priced stock like UnitedHealth tanks, it brings the other 29 down with it. Still, more than two thirds of the Dow Jones members have also fallen over the same period. So it's not just a one company issue. Neil. As we enter into the last few weeks of the year with an important Fed meeting on the horizon, stocks are exhibiting some squirreliness still.
Neal Freyman
This is, I would say the chillest historic sell off ever. What we've had nine Straight losing days for the Dow and overall it's down three and a half percent over that period. That is just not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But this is mostly a United Health story. It is down 30% since the shooting, but so there's been greater scrutiny around health insurers. It's not just about the shooting though. There is a push among Congress to force the large health companies like UnitedHealth, like CVS to divest their pharmacy units in order to break up what they think is more of a monopoly that these companies have. So it is mostly a UnitedHealth story. And I do want to home in on the fact that the Dow is generally considered a misleading index because of the fact that it's weighted by share price. I'm just looking at the companies that move the Dow the most and it's Goldman Sachs number one, UnitedHealth number two, Sherwin Williams number six. So the paint company, we're not even close to getting to Amazon, Nvidia or JP Morgan. So the paint company, Sherwin Williams, no offense to Sherwin Williams, moves the Dow more than Amazon, Nvidia or JP Morgan. So it is very skewed. And I think that's why investors are mostly brushing this off.
Toby Howell
Right. It's more of a headline like you get to say longest losing streak since 1978. But it is almost opposite day as you go down the Dow because you have companies like Nvidia who have been actually stinking it up recently a little bit. It's down 17% since it hit a record high in November 21st. Sherwin Williams is down about 7%. That's a recent addition to the index. Meanwhile, Boeing has jumped 10% over that nine day losing streak and is actually the top performing stock in the index over that period as well. It is also the biggest loser if you zoom out to the year as a whole. So this nine day period has just been a little funky where part of the reason why you see all the other indexes around it going up is that the Magnificent Seven, those tech focused companies have climbed about 8% in that same period, which is pushing the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 higher. But it is just a little bit of a weird time on the Dow even though it is a technically a historical losing streak.
Neal Freyman
And you tease this at the top, but there is a big Fed meeting today which is certainly getting investors a little nervous. We're pretty sure we're pretty much guaranteed that the Fed chair Jerome Powell is going to cut rates for the Third time this year. The big question we're all going to be paying attention to this at the 230 press conference is what he signals for next year. As we've talked about on this show, President President Elect Trump's policies of tariffs, tax cuts and mass deportations are expected to be inflationary, which could get Powell a little more cautious about Fed cuts through the next year. So we'll see how stocks respond to what he says about the future forecast of rate cuts.
Toby Howell
Right. It seems like right now Powell wants to put the car in neutral, not to go down road trip analogy here. But the Fed might be taking its foot off the brake after lowering this last final time to get to a more neutral interest rate, that it's no longer restricting growth. But they also don't want to provide any additional growth stimulus either. So finding that equilibrium is something that the Jerome Powell comments have indicated that he is more likely to do. That being said, the market does forecast potentially three rate cuts next year. It just won't be front loaded by any, by any means.
Neal Freyman
All right, so we're literally going to be Talking about this 24 hours exactly from now with we'll give you an update on what Powell says. President Elect Trump escalated his legal war against the media yesterday, suing the Des Moines Register and Pollster and Seltzer for election interference. Weeks before the election, Seltzer released an extremely surprising poll that showed Trump down three points to Kamala Harris in the state. He ended up winning by 13 points. Trump alleges a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud act, which bans deception when advertising or selling merchandise. The lawsuit comes on the heels of a major defamation settlement Trump agreed to with ABC News on Saturday, ABC parent Disney agreed to pay $16 million toward his future presidential library after Trump sued over inaccurate comments made by top host George Stephanopoulos when conducting an interview earlier this year. Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump was ruled liable for rape of the writer Eugene Carroll, when in actuality, Trump was held liable for sexual abuse. That ABC News settlement sent shockwaves across the media industry. Legal experts expected the network to win the challenge because defamation is such a high bar in the United States, which has the strongest protections for defendants of any country in the world. So the fact that ABC would settle at this stage of the dispute was highly unusual and surprised a lot of people. And it sparked concerns among Trump critics that his relentless litigation against the news will allow him to silence or control the press. And this new challenge in Des Moines shows he's only emboldened he's definitely emboldened.
Toby Howell
The surprising thing about the ABC settlement, which is let's start there first, is that the constitutional standard in defamation cases is usually pretty defendant friendly because, you know, in America we have very strong freedom of speech laws, rights literally enshrined in the Constitution. So a lot of people are like, whoa, why did ABC end up settling here? Part of the reason is we probably don't know why they settled. Maybe something that they didn't want to come out and discover. They didn't want this to go in front of a jury. Potentially some things said behind the scenes contributed to them settling. As for the Des Moines case, this is a non traditional claim. Remember, it's not technically a libel suit. It is going against. They're saying Trump is trying to say that they violated Iowa Consumer Fraud act, which prohibits deceptive ads. That one seems like it's less likely to succeed. But just in general zooming out here it is a bit. The word that has been tossed around by a few outlets is that it is a chilling kind of effect to go after these and use your intimidation power as the president elect to go after these media organizations.
Neal Freyman
And that's exactly what he wants to do. I mean, he knows he's probably not going to win this because the bar for defamation is so high. He would have to prove Stephanopoulos acted in actual malice or with a record reckless disregard to the truth when he could have just been misspeaking, like Stephanopoulos would have had to been scheming with ABC News staffers in order to deliberately lie to the public about Trump. That is very hard to prove. But the point of this may not even be to win it all. Trump has sued many, many major media companies in the past. He's lost pretty much all of them. The ABC News 1 is the only settlement that he's gotten. He's lost against cnn, he's lost against the New York Times. But in an interview with the Washington Post, he gave this was in reference to a previous lawsuit he filed against Tim O'Brien, who was a New York Times business reporter at the time. He said he could knew he couldn't win, but he brought it anyway to make a point. And this is a Trump quote. I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees and they spent a whole lot more. I did it to make the reporter's life miserable, which I'm happy about. And the goal here may be just to drain media companies of resources, financial resources, by making them lawyer up and spend time and divert their attention away from actually covering it.
Toby Howell
And then the final, you know, aspect of this case is that trust in the media is at an all time low. So maybe ABC didn't want to go in front of a jury because there have been instances in the last decade where a jury has not been favorable to a media company. Though what I'm thinking of is the 26. In 2016, a Florida jury ordered Gawker, which was this online media publication, to pay Hulk Hogan More than $115 million in damages, which ended up bankrupting the media site. So maybe they just did a quick calculus here and say we don't want to go down that road because juries have proven to be unfavorable in the past in cases similar to this one.
Neal Freyman
Here's a tech startup you need to know about Databricks. Yesterday, the software company raised a staggering $10 billion funding round at a $62 billion valuation. And some superlatives are in order. That is likely the biggest venture capital fundraising ground of all time. And it cements databricks as one of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley. I never thought a startup would raise more than the $6 billion open a I received earlier this year, but here we are just a few months later. What does data bricks do? What if I told you it had something to do with AI? Yeah. Shocking. Databricks tells software that allows big companies to sift through all the data they collect and use it to build AI models that help them run their businesses smoothly. For example, Walgreens is a client and they use databricks to help them learn when to refill prescription inventory. Others use databricks to predict when to offer promotions and to whom. While automakers like Rivian use the software to extend the battery life of their vehicles. Only 11 years old, Databricks will soon do $3 billion in annualized revenue, is growing over 60% annually and is now flush with cash. So much cash for growth in acquisitions. Toby, this is a company and management team executing at an elite level.
Toby Howell
It is. And this is a chunky fundraise because, yeah, $10 billion largest in the history of venture capital. Looking into it a little more, some people actually think, actually Ghosty, who is the CEO of Databricks, said that a lot of these late stage investors, these big funds like Andreessen Horowitz, don't really have a ton of companies in which they can deploy their capital. There aren't that many companies that can, you know, even take a $10 billion or even need a $10 billion funding round. The only names that he threw out were databricks Stripe or maybe open AI. So part of this could just be market conditions that these funds need to deploy their capital. And Databricks is saying, all right, I guess we're the only ones on the table for it. But also, Databricks is doing very well. One of its big competitors is Snowflake, kind of in the same data warehousing game in the data slicing and dicing game. And right now their market caps. Snowflake is a public company, is similar to Databricks. His new funding valuation after this latest funding round. So I think we're gearing up for a little bit of a data software war between these two companies.
Neal Freyman
And people listening are probably like, wow, databricks like this is growing like a so fast. They have, I really want to invest. Well, the problem is they're not, maybe not going to IPO anytime soon. And that's the point of this fundraise. They're going to use a lot of this money to provide liquidity to let their employees cash out, which is what an IPO would do. So they're being a little more patient for an ipo. Snowflake, as you mentioned, is a public company. Databricks now eclipse their market cap, but is going to remain private for a little while longer. Maybe at some point they will IPO and you can invest in this company, but for now, they're staying private.
Toby Howell
You can stay in private. And one thing about databricks, again, it's a little hard to wrap your mind around unless you are a data, you know, engineer. But some of the quotes coming out of people who use it. One person, Dan Demir, who is the chief product officer of Thredup, said, you can pry it out of my dead cold fingers. So it is one of those companies with a very, you know, fanatical following in the industry that it serves. So even if you are sitting here at home and say, I don't know what Databricks does, talk to your data engineer friends. They'll know exactly what they do. Up next, Taco Bell gets nuggie with it.
Neal Freyman
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Neal Freyman
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Toby Howell
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Neal Freyman
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Toby Howell
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Toby Howell
The newest way Taco Bell wants you to live Moss is by getting into the chicken game. Starting Thursday, the chain is adding chick nuggets to its menu for a limited time. But they aren't just any old nuggets. They'll be marinated in a zesty jalapeno buttermilk and fried with a coating of tortilla chips mixed with breadcrumbs for little Taco Bell twist on the fast food staple. While adding nugs might not seem to jive with the rest of Taco Bell's cuisine, adding chicken is most certainly in line with where the fast food market as a whole is heading. As the cost of beef rises, more and more restaurant chains from McDonald's to Chipotle are relying on chicken to be its main growth driver. Taco Bell's former CEO Mark King said during an investor day last year that a large percentage of our business is beef. But the Gen Z consumer wants chicken. Neil Nuggets are a dangerous category to enter into because incumbents like Chick fil A and McDonald's have their extremely loyal followers. But I think Taco Bell looked at where the industry winds were blowing and realized they'd be clucked if they didn't go for nuggets.
Neal Freyman
I think there's one word that only matters here out of crispy chicken nuggets and that is the word crispy. You look crispy because the texture of Taco Bell is largely one note. It's a mostly beef slop or cheese slop or bean slop. I mean that is the one note texture of Taco Bell and people love it. But I think adding this crispy texture to their menu expands their universe a little bit. It is what consumers want. We can, we're obviously going to talk about chicken, but I also think consumers want that crisp. Chili crisp is everywhere. This is the kind of texture that consumers really want from fast food, from their food in general. So I think that really is the one word and they make pains to show that they're going to do this very interesting breadcrumb situation around it. So I think that is one word we should pay attention to.
Toby Howell
I actually think you're dead right too because I read an Eater article, they did test out the the new nuggets from Taco Bell and they said they have a thrift thick, thick and craggy coating that's more akin to a raising cane's than a Chick fil a or a McDonald's or a Wendy's. They found the nuggets to be pleasantly juicy and crunchy. They didn't use the word exactly crispy, but they did love that, that breading. And I do think you're right. One thing too obviously chicken is very popular right now. McDonald's just rolled out the chicken Big Mac. They are seeing a greater percentage of their sales come from chicken than ever before. But also market research shows that Gen Z doesn't just like chicken. They specifically prefer boneless chicken and chicken tenders to traditional boneless wings. So I think there were two industry, you know, tailwinds here that Taco Bell was looking at. One, everybody loves chicken. But then two specifically younger customers love boneless chicken as well.
Neal Freyman
Everyone loves chicken. I just want to provide some stats to back that up, chicken products at fast food quick service restaurants have increased 11% since 2019. That includes sandwiches, wings, nuggets and strips. If you go back to 1970, we were a beef loving nation and the average person in the United states ate about 50 pounds of chicken each year. Today that number has more than doubled. And this year we're expected to pass 100 pounds of chicken per person in the United States. So we've, we've started. Our love affair with chicken has really blossomed. And restaurants love this because chicken is a lot cheaper than beef. It's much easier to source. We read all of these articles about sweetgreen. When they put beef on steak on their menu, it was a nightmare. From a supply chain perspective, it's not like it's not the case with with chicken. So everything is coming up chicken for fast food restaurants. Big questions for Taco Bell's is it compete? Can it compete with the big guns in the chicken nugget market? And what the heck are going on with these sauces? Because that is key. We need to talk about the sauce.
Toby Howell
I was going to ask your opinion on these. So it's offering. They want you to pair it with three new sauces. One is just the chain's signature bell sauce, two is a jalapeno infused honey mustard sauce, and then three is a spicy ranch sauce that is concocted in collaboration with Hidden Valley. Of those three sauces, Neal, what are you ordering as your side dipping?
Neal Freyman
Whenever they say signature dip, I'll go with that. The other two, I have to say, are not inspiring to me. Honey mustard, I mean, that became boring 20 years ago and then a spicy Rancho sounds fine, but I'm looking for a little more innovation when it comes to dipping sauces. And apparently they tested over 100 sauces just to get to those three. So I'm a little disappointed with the options for the sauce to be.
Toby Howell
We're in the wrong industry because I want to be the 100 sauce tester right there because I also have a lot of opinions on sauces. I actually disagree with you though. I think the spicy ranch is delicious because that is what I do at Chick Fil A is I get one ranch, one buffalo, and I mix them together. They just took that mixing step out of it for me. Now let's sprint to the finish with a few headlines you may have missed. The FTC is getting serious about cracking down on junk fees. Yesterday, the commission passed a rule requiring ticket sellers, hotels and short term rentals to show total prices upfront including all those annoying extra fees so customers aren't caught off guard anymore when they check out. So no more finding the perfect weekend getaway only to get hit with a hefty resort fee or buying a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert only to see the price rocket upwards at the end of the checkout process. Definitely not speaking from experience there. This rule to push those hidden fees to the forefront of advertised prices is likely the final act in Joe Biden's war on junk fees. Neil, how has the war gone, by the way?
Neal Freyman
It's gone okay. I mean they've, they've tried to do a lot of things to get rid of junk fees or cap credit card fees, do things that make airline disclose baggage fees. You know, they've introduced those. But those have seen a lot of pushback from industry and there's been some setbacks in the courts and appeals court in New Orleans blocked a requirement that airlines disclose baggage and other fees upfront. So that is currently in litigation. A judge in Texas blocked a rule that would cap credit card late fees. And an interesting point about this particular measure introduced yesterday was that there was a one person on the commission. There's a commission of five at the ftc. One person who did voted against this and that is Andrew Ferguson, who is going to lead the FTC next year. So a lot of question marks remain around this war on junk fees because it's happening. It just matters whether it will last in the next four years. With President Elect Trump in charge, Honda and Nissan are reportedly exploring a merger, an accord that would create a $52 billion Japanese auto giant that can better compete against Toyota and fast growing Chinese EV makers. Nissan has went totally rogue this year. Shares have fallen 40% and its net earnings in the middle of 2024 were down more than 90%. Year over year, Honda's piloted the shifts in the auto industry a little bit better, but it still thinks it needs to scale up to better handle the transition to EVs. Combined, Honda, Nissan and another Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, sold 4 million vehicles globally in the first half of the year, compared to 5.2 million for Toyota by itself. Both Nissan and Honda were demure about a merger, saying they were exploring various possibilities for future collaboration. Toby, talk about a sign of the times.
Toby Howell
I didn't know you knew so many Honda and Nissan models, Neil. That was impressive right there. One of the things you look at is what would either side get out of this potential partnership beyond just the obvious, you know, fact that you're combining growing scale a little Bit. One potential partnership or benefit to Nissan is that Nissan needs a hybrid in their lineup. They need some help with that hybrid technology. That's something that Honda has really pioneered. And then on the other side of things, remember, even though Nissan has fallen a little bit in the EV race, Nissan was one of the first, the OGs of the EV, remember the Nissan Leaf? It was, it had its growing pains. It was, it didn't exactly set the world on fire. But. But Honda could probably get some EV technology out of this partnership as well. So those are two of potential, potentially the synergies that they're looking at at this potential merger. Finally, a famous British cello player was forced to cancel a concert after the airline he was flying on didn't let his instrument on the plane. This wasn't any old cellist. Shekhu Khana Mason was a household name after performing at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. And this wasn't any old cello. Conor Mason's cello is worth about $3.1 million. But after his original flight was canceled, the gate agents on his rebooked Air Canada flight denied his cello from coming on, citing a policy that says the extra seat for his instrument needed to be booked 48 hours in advance. Neal, as a former cellist, did this strike a chord with you?
Neal Freyman
No, it did not strike any chord because I can't imagine having a cello that is valuable enough, first of all, to fly with. I would never need to go fly anywhere to perform with my child or anyone that needs its own seat. So this I cannot resonate as a very, very, very amateur high school cellist with this story. But it is interesting when you think about the fact that this instrument is. Is so critical to their profession and cannot be in the way you transport it or store it is so important, so fragile. This thing is $3.1 million was made in the year 1700. That is something you do not want to put on the bottom of an aircraft. So they're calling for a global regulation standard for taking cellos on a plane. And I think we need it.
Toby Howell
Right? This was not the first time it has happened to kind of Mason either. He has been very vocal about it. I never thought about transporting a cello because, yeah, obviously you can't check it because it's so delicate. You can't put it in the oversized overhead bin either. So it is one of those things where you have to just sit next to it on the plane. And I didn't even know that airlines even had policies related to it. Why would Air Canada have a 48 hour policy specifically relating to instruments traveling with you in the seat. I guess this isn't the first time they've dealt with it either, but just a whole different world that I've never even considered but now I'm kind of fired up about.
Neal Freyman
But you take golf clubs on the plane and you, you put them in very air.
Toby Howell
Yeah, but tossing, sure, toss them beneath in the, in the cargo hold. I mean, mine aren't $3.1 million. Let's just be clear.
Neal Freyman
Let's wrap it up there. Thanks so much for spending your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. For any questions, comments or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. And Toby, who should our listeners share the podcast with today?
Toby Howell
I want you to share the pod with someone you want to go try those Taco Bell nugs with. Neil and I will be venturing to our local Taco Bell come Thursday to give them a taste test. So share the podcast with someone who you want to accompany you because taste tests are always better with friends.
Neal Freyman
Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Eugenwa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio. Hair and makeup is too chicken to come into work. Devin Emery is our chief content officer and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
Toby Howell
Great show, Danielle. Let's run it back tomorrow.
Morning Brew Daily: Dow Jones’ Worst Streak in 46 Years & Taco Bell Serves…Chicken Nuggets?
Release Date: December 18, 2024
Hosted by Neal Freyman and Toby Howell, the latest episode of Morning Brew Daily delves into significant economic fluctuations, corporate maneuvers, and intriguing shifts in the fast-food landscape. This comprehensive summary captures the essence of their engaging discussions, enriched with notable quotes and timely insights.
Neal Freyman and Toby Howell kick off the episode with a thought-provoking conversation about personal foundational texts—books that profoundly influence one's values and perspectives.
Toby Howell reflects on his affinity for sci-fi and fantasy novels, mentioning:
“The Aragon series, World War Z by Max Brook, the Red Rising series… there's something cathartic about revisiting them as an adult.” (01:15)
Neal Freyman shares a nostalgic connection to maps and atlases:
“I could just stare at maps for hours. Memorizing countries was a fascination.” (01:51)
This segment not only offers personal insights but also underscores the importance of literature in shaping individual identities.
The hosts transition to financial news, highlighting the Dow Jones Industrial Average's significant downturn:
Neal Freyman notes the Dow’s decline:
“The Dow has been down three and a half percent over nine straight losing days. It’s not a massive drop, but historically notable.” (04:39)
Toby Howell explains the underlying causes:
“UnitedHealth Group’s 30% drop since its executive was shot is dragging the entire index down.” (04:50)
Key Points:
“Sherwin Williams moves the Dow more than Amazon or Nvidia. It’s very skewed.” (05:50)
With an impending Federal Reserve meeting, the hosts analyze potential monetary policy shifts:
Neal Freyman anticipates a rate cut:
“We’re pretty much guaranteed that Jerome Powell is going to cut rates for the third time this year.” (07:02)
Toby Howell discusses Powell’s cautious stance:
“Powell wants to put the car in neutral—balancing interest rates without adding growth stimulus.” (07:44)
Insights:
A significant portion of the episode addresses Donald Trump’s aggressive litigation against media outlets:
Neal Freyman outlines recent lawsuits:
“Trump is suing the Des Moines Register and Pollster and Seltzer for election interference, following a settlement with ABC News.” (08:20)
Toby Howell provides context on the ABC settlement:
“Defamation is usually defendant-friendly in the U.S., making ABC’s $16 million settlement surprising.” (09:56)
Key Points:
ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit, paying $16 million towards Trump’s future presidential library after misreporting claims.
Neal emphasizes Trump’s strategic lawsuits:
“He’s not necessarily aiming to win but to make the media’s life miserable and drain their resources.” (11:04)
Toby adds concerns about media trust:
“Using intimidation power as president-elect to go after media organizations creates a chilling effect.” (11:04)
This segment highlights the escalating tensions between Trump and major media entities, raising questions about press freedom and political influence.
Shifting to the tech sector, the discussion centers on Databricks, a leading software company:
Neal Freyman announces:
“Databricks raised a staggering $10 billion at a $62 billion valuation—the largest venture capital fundraising round ever.” (12:53)
Toby Howell elaborates on investor motivations:
“With limited late-stage investment opportunities, funds like Andreessen Horowitz are channeling capital into powerhouses like Databricks.” (14:08)
Key Insights:
A surprising twist comes as Taco Bell ventures into the chicken nugget arena:
Neal Freyman expresses skepticism:
“Neck injury is not a big deal, but the word that matters here is 'crispy.'” (21:18)
Toby Howell counters with enthusiasm:
“The spicy ranch is delicious—I mix it with buffalo for the perfect dip.” (22:53)
Highlights:
The episode covers regulatory changes aimed at increasing price transparency:
Toby Howell reports:
“The FTC now requires all ticket sellers, hotels, and short-term rentals to display total prices upfront, eliminating hidden fees.” (24:11)
Neal Freyman evaluates the administration's efforts:
“President Biden’s war on junk fees has faced significant pushback, with some rules blocked in courts.” (24:39)
Key Points:
The hosts discuss potential mergers in the automotive industry and a peculiar incident involving a cello:
Neal Freyman outlines:
“Honda and Nissan are exploring a $52 billion merger to better compete against Toyota and Chinese EV makers.” (25:56)
Toby Howell analyzes the benefits:
“Nissan could leverage Honda’s hybrid technology, while Honda might gain from Nissan’s early EV advancements like the Leaf.” (26:58)
Additionally, a notable incident involves Conor Mason, a renowned British cellist, whose concert was canceled due to airline policies on transporting a $3.1 million cello:
“It's critical for professionals to transport their instruments safely, and current airline regulations are inadequate.” (27:28)
This segment underscores the complexities of corporate strategies in the auto industry and highlights logistical challenges faced by performing artists.
Neal and Toby wrap up the episode with plans for an upcoming taste test:
Toby Howell invites listeners:
“Share the pod with someone you want to try those Taco Bell nuggets with. Taste tests are always better with friends.” (29:19)
They announce:
“Neal and I will be venturing to our local Taco Bell come Thursday to give them a taste test.” (29:19)
Listeners are encouraged to engage with the podcast by sharing the episode and anticipating future content, such as the hands-on nugget review.
Notable Quotes:
Conclusion:
This episode of Morning Brew Daily adeptly navigates through a spectrum of topics, from economic indicators and corporate strategies to cultural shifts in fast food. Hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell provide insightful analysis, balanced with personal anecdotes and engaging discussions. Whether you're interested in the financial markets, tech innovations, or the latest in fast-food trends, this episode offers a rich tapestry of information to start your day informed and entertained.
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