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Foreign.
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Are we headed for stagflation in 2026? Miley Full money starts now.
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Everybody needs money.
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That's why they call it are free. But you can give them to the
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From Fool Global Headquarters. This is Motley Fool Money.
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Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I am Travis Hoyam, joined today by Jason Moser and Lou Whiteman. And guys, we've got to start with the topic of the day. That is the economy. We got information about GDP growth in the fourth quarter. This morning that growth was 0.7%. Earlier estimate was 1.4%. The reason that this is notable is that the further we get away from the end of the fourth quarter, the better the data gets. Lou so where does your head go when you, when you think about this? Because this is a sharp drop from, I believe it was 4% growth in the third quarter. We also have inflation, which was over 3% in January. So it seems like we're. That stagflation word starts to come up when you have low growth and high inflation. That's not a great place to be from an economic perspective standpoint.
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Yeah, you're right. With each revision, not only do you get more better data because they've had time to digest it, but you also get this rare gift to see into the future. Compared to a few weeks ago when we didn't know what the first quarter of 2026 was going to look like, now it's almost over. So we can actually take that data from the fourth quarter and look at the world now. And look, it's not great. I wish we had a real uncertainty gauge, the way we have the VIX for volatility. And it's kind of the same. But it feels like what's going on, this lack of activity, it isn't because just everything's terrible. It's because just for the last year, between tariffs, between war, between just so much uncertainty, it is causing companies, it's causing consumers to just do a little less or to kind of wait and see. The good news there is is that in theory, if we get more certainty, that's a quicker turnaround than it would be if just the economy is in the dumps. The bad news is, like I said, we've had time to see how things play. Arguably, I think we weren't at war at the end of the fourth quarter. We have oil, we have so much going on. If anything, things look worse now than they did at the end of the year. So kind of combining the fact that things weren't growing in the fourth quarter with, wow, look at what's happened in the first quarter. I think there's a lot of reasons to be concerned right now.
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Yeah. Jason Liu brought up the oil market to put some numbers to that. January 2nd West Texas Scenery Intermediate crude was 57 a barrel. Today, as we're recording, it's 93. It has been over a hundred dollars a barrel in the past few days. So that's a big piece of people's consumer spending. You know, if you want to, if you need to get to work, you need to take your kids to soccer practice, whatever you've got to do in your life, it's hard to cut back on spending for energy, in particularly in particular gasoline. So maybe you got to pull back in other ways. How are you thinking about that as an investor? And is this something that just sort of goes into your, the mix of data that you're pulling in or is there anything actionable here that you're actually doing when you get GDP data like this?
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Yeah, I think, I mean, Lou, I think is right there. I mean, looking at things currently right now, they probably look a little bit worse. The wild card in here, right. Is of course, what's going on in Iran and how long this is ultimately going to last. So when you look at like energy prices, hopefully this is something that's short lived, right. When you look at oil and you think, okay, why is oil going up, right. I mean, is oil going up because demand is going up? Right. Because of growth? Because then you can kind of support that. But if oil is going up, as in this case because of geopolitical conflict, well, that's another problem altogether. And when you combine that with low growth, right. You combine that with inflation, that really is still very sticky. Right. I certainly understand sort of the pessimism here. In the near term, again, kind of the wild card is how long does this go on? If it's something that is very short lived, then maybe things start to look a little bit better. But yeah, for right now, I think what will be interesting and when we look at these first quarter numbers, whenever we get them in, right. That's going to take into account the Supreme Court's decision to reverse the tariffs. Right. So that could be kind of a tailwind. Right. It also doesn't really incorporate higher energy prices and how persistent that may be. So, you know, the news is always in the revisions, of course, and we'll continue to get revisions as time goes on. But it's very understandable for now just sort of the near term trepidation.
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C
So I'm not, I'm not going to pretend to be an oil expert, but I am really worried about this, the idea that it could be temporary, the energy spike. And I'll tell you why. I do know a thing or two about logistics and I think we are greatly underestimating. Even if, like, even at the drop of the hat right now there is peace, I don't think we're going to see the flow resume. And I'll point to, look at the, the Red Sea. It has been at least what, six months since we had headlines about attacks, you know, in the Red Sea from Yemen. Look at what's going on there. Shipping is still very, very depressed relative to averages. We're dealing with insurance markets, we're dealing with just the safety markets. Shippers are going to be gun shy. Well, after the strait is open, I don't think we're just going to see an immediate flow. We need an oil expert in here. But I don't think some of these, you know, they have, they've run out of storage capacity so they are being forced to just shut down the wells. That's not a simple valve like your garden hose. I think even there I am really worried that energy, it's almost too late for this to be quick with energy. And yeah, this is a major headwind heading into at least for the first half of 2026, I think.
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Yeah.
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And Lou, let's just kind of explain what you're talking about there. Oil is what you would call an inelastic market. So like we talked about going to, going to work. If you need to fill your tank, you're going to fill it whether the gasoline is $2 a gallon or $4. $4 a gallon. So about 20% of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. If my, if my memory is correct, that is a huge, huge number. I mean, a 5% reduction in the supply of oil will send oil prices spiking. If this lasts for a while, a 20% reduction or impact in the supply of oil could have a dramatic impact on prices. Now, you know, we're not trying to like fear monger here, but this is, this is the real potential economic impact if there is a prolonged, you know, a prolonged conflict there. And it's not just as simple as, well, the U.S. makes enough oil to provide energy for the U.S. this is a global market. So there's a lot of, a lot of worms in this can that has been opened up real quick.
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A couple things. Yeah, we are advantaged to the extent that we are not going to run out of oil, but we're not advantaged in terms of we're not going to feel the price shock. So yeah, that's it exactly. We will have oil. It will just be more expensive. The inelastic thing is kind of interesting and just a quick dive into that. Where it is elastic is, especially on the corporate side, trying to scale back, say factories, so you use less. And then that really ripples through the economy in terms of jobs, needed employment hours and just all sorts of things. So there's a lot of ways this can ripple. Truth is, we don't know. And again, as you said, we don't want to fear Monger, but just it feels like there's enough has happened that it will reverberate for a while and I think we should acknowledge that and you know, as we try and figure out what's going on.
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Yeah, the US did announce that they were going to release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. To put that into context, that's about two days of global oil consumption. So it's, it's a lot of oil, but it's, it's not, it's going to be a band aid on what could be a pretty big problem here. When we come back, we are going to talk about the future of autonomous driving and where Uber sits. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
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Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. We have been waiting for Tesla to run away with autonomous driving for a decade, but it's actually Uber who is making deal after deal over the past few months, they're connecting riders with Waymo in some cities already, they're the kind of demand source for Waymo vehicles. They've announced a deal with Lucid and Neuro. They're going to be launching vehicles potentially later this year, commercial for commercial use. But this week, just, just this week alone, they announced a deal with Zoox, which is owned by Amazon Wave, in a partnership with Nissan. And then this morning they came out with a deal with Motional, who is making the technology for Hyundai vehicles. Lou, this is really interesting that we don't really think about Uber as an autonomous vehicle company, but they may be the way that we actually access these vehicles. And it seems like everybody wants to work with Uber right now.
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Yeah, well, also they don't have their own tech stack, so they have to be the ones out announcing partnerships. So I think that's worth saying. I worry about almost like the press release war because, you know, just because somebody is talking about it more doesn't mean they're the only ones doing it. But yeah, Uber is set up pretty well, at least for now, as this gets more commoditized, as more people seem to be able to do that, owning the customer is a pretty good way to, you know, to be an early winner. I don't know if that holds all the way through. I'm honestly not sure I'm of two minds on that. I'm also, I will say, guys, I am, you know, ground zero for what Waymo is doing. I'm in Atlanta and just yesterday I watched a Waymo vehicle behind me get out of my lane, then realized they needed to get back into my lane and then leave my lane again. And I wonder about how much we should think that this is just the future for everything right away. I know they're getting there, but I wonder if we're headed towards the disappointment part of the curve. But yeah, for now, Uber is pretty well positioned for the market as it is.
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Waymo is apparently testing in the Minneapolis area, where I live in the snow, and I haven't heard of any accidents or any sort of problems there. So hopefully that's a good sign for Those of us in the northern half of the country. You know, Jason, what's so interesting here is Lou used the word that I think we should probably be thinking about, which is commoditized. I mean, the auto industry has always had a problem making money because it's essentially a commodity. It's four wheels, it has seats. And yes, there's a. There's differences between each vehicle, but the pricing power, unless your name is Ferrari, the pricing power is not super high. And you've got all these manufacturing costs, capacity costs. If you're an autonomous vehicle company, and you're not Tesla or Waymo or maybe Zoox, you gotta just find riders. And Uber seems to be the one going, hey, we'll provide them, and we're happy to be a partner with you. And they're. It seems like every automaker is kind of going, all right, I guess we got to go down this commodity road
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that reminds me of the Planes, Trains and Automobiles line. Right? Steve Martin, four bleeping wheels and a seat. I mean, that's ultimately what this is at the end of the day. And I think that's what a lot of us have talked about in regard to AVs and just the general sort of commoditized nature of it. I mean, at the end of the day, that really ultimately is what it is. And so I would rather be in Uber's position. Right. Capital life business that's able to really go any different direction at once. And I mean, you're already hearing companies like Tesla try to move past the vehicle narrative altogether. Right. Tesla's no longer a car company. It's humanoid robots. So, yeah, I mean, I think that. I don't think this is something where we're going to see it all one way or the other. Right. The future is not all EVs, or at least not for the rest of my life, I don't think. I think it's a little bit of both. Right. I think it's important to remember, too, for some individuals, having a car and being able to drive represents freedom. Right. So it depends on where you live, if AVS even really make sense. Like where I live here in Northern Virginia, it's not necessarily an ideal solution. And we need to be able to drive to get to where we need to go. But if you're in a city, like, if you're in Washington D.C. or San Francisco or Las Vegas, it absolutely can make more sense. And so either way, I like the idea that Uber can. Can play this opportunity any number of
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ways, just to play Devil's advocate because I honestly don't know the answer to this. But I'm curious, like, if we continue down this path of commoditization where it just becomes every table stakes, how important then is the owner of the customer? You know, like, if you could almost get this anywhere from anything, how important
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is you're saying you're going to talk to your AI agent and they are going to disintermediate Uber?
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Isn't it possible if it's everywhere, if every taxi cab out there is. Is an autonomous vehicle, do we need the middleman in the app? I mean, maybe, but I just wonder if Uber could end up commoditized as well. That's a long way off. I'm not really worried about that, but it's just, it's weird to think about how this ends. I'm not sure if it ends well for anyone other than the consumer, which. All right, I'm okay with that.
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Well, it will be interesting to see how this plays out because everyone is racing towards autonomy and I don't know that everybody has a phenomenal business model, but who those winners and losers are going to be is. Is kind of fluid at this point. But the fact that Uber is going so aggressively and partnering with seemingly everybody seems. Seems notable no matter where you're invested in the space. Let's get to Adobe. They reported earnings this week and the stock plunged. It wasn't necessarily because they had terrible results, Lou, but it was because their CEO said he was retiring and it kind of caught everybody off guard. Was this something or kind of a nothing burger?
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I don't know, but it is funny because, yeah, he's been there 18 years, he's 62 years old. He's going to stay through and find the replacement. You know, I saw headlines and it was an abrupt resignation, but this is the sort of abrupt transition that I want in my companies.
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Right.
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The weird thing is, is that a lot of investors have been criticizing him too, for going too slow with this. And now that he's gone. Look, there are times in the market where we're just looking for the narrative. You know, we are looking for confirmation bias from the narrative. The narrative right now is Adobe is doomed because of AI. And so everything good news or bad news is sort of being view that lens. That's not to say they aren't doomed. I don't know, the quarter looked great, the guidance looked great, but look, right now the glass is half empty on a company like Adobe. So, yeah, I think that that's the market reacting to any news as bad news.
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It's really interesting with Adobe like this, the narrative, right, we keep on talking about this quarter in, quarter out, that AI is going to just disrupt Adobe, it's no longer needed. Right. AI is going to kill it. But then you go through the earnings call for example, and they're just, all they're talking about is AI and how AI is making their business better. And so somebody's wrong here. And I tend to kind of, I tend to side with the company in this case. I mean, Adobe is certainly something. It's, its tools are enmeshed in a lot of our workflows already. It's not to say that it is, you know, without competition, but I mean when you look at the actual numbers, I mean again, I thought this was a really good looking quarter. A 13% increase in subscription revenue and I mean it's very highly subscription style business. They continue to repurchase shares at a rapid pace. I've been looking at this just over the last five years. Share counts down 13%. Right. I mean the company just generates, ironically,
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they were buying shares at a much higher price than they've been buying them.
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True. And I think statistically when you look at companies repurchasing shares, oftentimes they just aren't really nailing it. But you know that share price is also something that's beyond their control as well. Right. I mean, there are other interests that may make that share price go up or down, but the fact of the matter is they see value in there and those repurchases have resulted in a meaningful reduction in that share count. Outstanding. So I think that the bet that you're making today, if you believe in Adobe as a long term story, is you're looking at this company and saying, well, this is a company that's utilizing AI to make its business stronger. Time will tell whether that actually is the case. But like I said, Adobe's tools are still enmeshed in a lot of our workflows on a daily basis. And that is, that's on a widespread scale. So I'm not willing to give up on them yet. But certainly we'll have to continue to follow the AI narrative to put their
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growth into a little bit of perspective. Because you would think at this point with Nano Banana and all these AI imaging apps, even all the applications canva, things like that, their growth rate was higher in the most recent corner than it has been since any quarter since September 2022. So it seems like they're doing okay. We've just Got a minute left. But, Lou, I'll start with you. Is Adobe a value or a value trap for investors today?
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I mean, guys, 11 times future earnings. I feel like even if they are doomed, it's going to take a while. I'm growing more and more curious about this. I don't own this stock. I keep staring at it, though, as it keeps going down. I might bite eventually.
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I've owned a handful of shares for a while, so I'm willing to hang in there and just sort of watch this play out. I mean, they're hiding for 13% revenue growth again this quarter. I mean, that's not nothing, right? So I would probably lean into the value as opposed to value trap, but it may take a little while. They're. They're going to have to figure out a way to really convince investors that they are utilizing AI for the better, for the betterment of their company as opposed to being disrupted by it.
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Definitely one that I'm putting on my watch list and watching very closely. Right, right now. When we come back, we're going to play executive free agency. You're listening to Motley Fool. Money seems like I falling in your trap again and it seems like I'll be wearing the same old pain
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but
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good must conquer evil and fruit will set me free.
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So you see that somewhere.
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Have you been sleeping on your mattress a little too long like I have? My back's getting sore more than it used to, and I feel like Homer Simpson with my body shape imprinting on the mattress. But like you, I'm busy with a job and kids and who wants to go to the mattress store with the family only to deal with a pushy salesperson? That's why I was excited to learn about Leesa and their premium mattresses that you can shop for from the comfort of your own home. We wanted stability and comfort, so we went with the Legend Hybrid. It has over a thousand individually wrapped springs for extra support. But here's the great thing. It virtually eliminates motion transfer. Just in case one of us has a restless night, no matter how you sleep or your budget, Leesa has a mattress for you. They're made from premium materials right here in the US With a focus on using sustainable materials like recycled steel. Check out which mattress is right for you@leesa.com for 20% off plus get an extra $50 off with the promo code fool exclusive for our listeners. That's L-E-E-S-A.com promo code fool for 20% off plus another 50 off. Support our show and let them know that we sent you after checkout. Lisa.com promo code fool. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. In this segment, we like to have a little bit of fun. And so I thought we with NFL free agency going on, we've got a bunch of executive changes at companies like Adobe. If we were going to have executive free agency, what would that look like? And here's the idea here, guys. I'm going to give you an executive, a founder, a CEO, somebody with a track record, and I'm going to give you a few options for them. Let's say that they, they got offers from all of these companies to become their next CEO. Some of these jobs are available, some of them are not. But it might be fun to see who would be which, which job would they take? What would it take? Let's say that the compensation is the same except you're getting stock options, all that kind of stuff. All right, let's start with somebody who doesn't have a full time job right now. Technically, Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify, he's kind of stepped away from that company, you know, still on the board, still involved. But let's say some big whales come after Daniel Ek. Alphabet, Adobe and Tesla. If you are Daniel Ek, Lou, where are you going as a CEO?
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So I am so uncreative here. All I can think of as well, Adobe needs a CEO, so therefore that's a natural. But you know, I think it kind of works. I mean, Beck has done a pretty good job adjusting to the AI world or kind of using AI to his company's advantage. I think that that fits nicely into kind of what we were just talking about with Adobe and also maybe the credibility to actually pull it off. It's a turnaround story here at this point with the stock down what, 40% of the last year. So if you're getting paid in stock, it's a great opportunity. Alphabet, I don't know, I love Alphabet's management. So I, maybe I'm struggling to see how even a very talented manager kind of takes that one to another level. And Tesla, you're going to have to show me the fine print about what Elon's role is going to be before I believe that any CEO has to, is going to really make a mark. So how about Adobe?
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Jason, what do you think?
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Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of baggage that comes with something like Tesla, so I'm going to take a pass on that one. Yeah, Lou's right. Adobe, I think is a turnaround. And so from that perspective, it could be cool to go in there and actually turn things around or at least just reshape the narrative so the market is more convinced. I mean, I don't think Adobe is a business in peril. Right. The numbers we talked about before are still quite impressive, but for me, I think honestly I'd send the Alphabet. I think it's in line with kind of the business that he built at Spotify and there's a lot of that dynamic that comes with Alphabet and Alphabet is just on fire, fire right now. I think Alphabet has done a very good job of pushing back against that narrative that AI was going to ruin Search or whatever it may be. So I think that Alphabet, that position comes with a lot of the skill set that he already possesses. And it would be neat to see how somebody takes Alphabet to the next level and he might be the one to do it.
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Yeah, one of the reasons I thought that was an interesting option is if you're Danielle Ek, you're not taking over another, you know, 30 billion dollar company, but if Alphabet comes calling, one of the biggest companies in the world, you at least take the call and you know, see, see what they, what they want to be doing. Let's go to the retail space. This is an area where there's been a lot of changes and a lot of challenges. One of the companies that's done extremely well over the past five or six years is Dick's. Their CEO is Lauren Hobart. The stock's up about 240% since she took over. So I got three options for you. Someone's going to try to poach her as CEO Target, you know, that would be another turnaround. Play Costco, maybe more of a prestige play, or Best Buy. Jason, if you're advising Lauren Hobart, where, where does she go?
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Yeah, I like the prestige angle that you took there with Costco and that's where I'd be sending Lauren Hobart if, if that was the choice there. I think with Costco you've got such a well established and strong business and really the main job there, I think it's kind of member relations. Right. I mean you're just going in there, don't rock the boat. Make sure you keep on giving your customers the rock bottom, lowest prices. You can give them raise that membership fee every once in a while just to kind of keep in line with the cost of doing business. But it's such a well established business already. I think going into something like a Costco would be exciting just because to be able to continue just Wanting to give your customers exactly that value proposition that they've come to know and love over the years.
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C
Yeah, I think that's probably right. So let's kind of have fun and go through the others because I do think there's at least an interesting case we made. What's gone right at Dick's is realizing what you are and what Amazon is going to just commoditize from you and focusing on what they can't.
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Right.
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That's very similar to what Best Buy has done.
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Right.
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So in a way, if Best Buy needed a new CEO, it's probably a pretty good fit here because again, I think just understanding your customer, understanding what you can give them that others can't and leaning into that. So you know, I guess like for like Best Buy works, but really if, if Target, I mean this is what Target needs. I don't know if they, if they're going to be able to find it, but if there's an opportunity there, if, if, if, if we could pitch to the Target board, here's how I see doing what we did at Dick's at Target, that would probably be the most intriguing. My fear with Target is I don't know what that is, but maybe a good CEO who has been at Dick's and has proven that you can do this, maybe it's just the person they need to come up with an idea. I don't know. I think I'm dreamcasting here. But I can at least make the argument for the others. I'd probably just go to Costco.
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That's the argument that I would have made. It reminds me a little bit of Alan Mulally with, with Ford. You know, hey, this is going to be my last job. I'm going to take a big swing. Either works or it doesn't. And if I, if I, you know, turn the company around, I'm going to be a hero, I'm going to be a legend. But yeah, I think all of those would be such an interesting balance because Costco, you're not going to get, you know, bookoo bucks and stock based compensation. Target, I mean if you turn that business around, that stock could, you know, double, triple, quadruple.
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C
Here's the thing. The Mulally story I know pretty well he knew going in like we need to do A, B and C really quickly and that'll lead to D, E and F. If Hobart could go tell that story, then yeah, that'd be great. My fear is, I don't know, maybe I'm not giving anyone enough Credit, but it seems like a much harder story to come up with going in.
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Can we just say too like Alan Mulally, that is a story for the ages. I think like what he did at Ford was just. I don't know, to my mind, it was unreal given how on the ropes not only Ford, but really all the automakers were at the time. And you know, I, I just, I had the very good fortune to be able to interview him on the floor of the North American International Auto show in Detroit several years back. And I mean, just what a nice guy. I mean like just he, he is as seen on tv, just super nice, really relatable. But man, Rockstar CEO.
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So jmota use something from your world. He wasn't just shooting par there. I think that that's what it comes down to. Yeah, that was a lot better.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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My favorite was that he, he kept his house in San Diego and he just flew to Detroit every week. That was a, that was a pretty long commute. All right, let's go a little bit deeper here. I don't even know if you knew who this person is. Jeff Dean is arguably the kind of the person who turned Google's and Alpha Alphabet's AI fortunes around over the past couple of years. He's been with the companies since the 90s, worked on search very early. One of the reasons that, you know, he comes to mind for me is he is also a Gopher alum like I am here at the University of Minnesota. But, you know, he's, he's one of the bigger names that's maybe doesn't get a lot of attention outside of Silicon Valley. But if Apple were looking for a new CEO, he would absolutely be on the list. If they were looking external, Amazon, Nvidia. If you're Jeff Dean and you have all three of those officers, Nvidia, we're going a little bit off the board. We're assuming that Jensen Huang has, you know, bought an island and decided that he's going to hang, hang up running this, the Ferrari that he's built at Nvidia, which is never going to happen. But let's say that those three jobs are available. Lou, which one are you taking if you're Jeff Dean?
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So Apple is the knee jerk because the narrative is Apple has failed at AI and this is a smart AI person. I'm giving Apple a lot of credit for that though. I think Apple knows exactly what they're doing. When AI is all commoditized, they will just pick it up and go with what they want. I'm going to go with Amazon here because Amazon I think is more of a collection of always moving pieces where maybe not just AI at the it's consumer facing front, but just kind of how does AI integrate into our business long term? There's both opportunity there and risks. It's not the kind of, I don't know, easy job than Nvidia. Although I'm very, very not giving Jensen Huang enough credit there. But Amazon just feels like the middle for me. So I'll take that.
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Jason.
- [30:49]
A
Yeah, I like man. Apple seems like I think Lou's right. I think they're just kind of biding their time. They're not terribly worried over there about the AI conversation. It's in line with that philosophy. They don't have any interest in being first. They just want to be best. They're watching everybody else kind of build this out and just sort of bring home the use cases and the real value that's going to be seen in AI. I think Apple, I would actually volunteer. That is my recommendation. I think it's just because of that. Right. I think that it's going to be really interesting to see kind of what they do with AI as the technology is built out. Right. Apple does a very good job of partnering up in Alphabet I think is a great example. Right. So I suspect we'll see more of that in the coming years. And with such a large installed user base, I mean billions of devices active today in that Apple universe. It does. It seems like they have a lot, a lot going for him.
- [31:46]
B
Yeah. Given the things that he's done in AI and also the way that Google's products have gotten so much better in the AI space than I think a lot of us would have thought. I thought Apple would be interesting too. All right, let's do this one quickly. Mary Bara is actually a GM stock has outperformed Tesla for quite a while here. Really turned that business around. This was supposed to be a CEO who was getting disrupted left and right. So if she's going to go on to a bigger and better job. Jason, Boeing, 3M and Tesla have all come to call. Come calling.
- [32:18]
A
Where should she go, man? Post its huh? Let me see here.
- [32:22]
B
Well, manufacturing. That's the angle here. She's running a manufacturing company. They, they could use a little invigoration going, going off the board.
- [32:30]
A
Yeah, I like 3M is one of those sneaky businesses. Like you don't really ever think about it, but it's, it's everywhere. Right. Again, Tesla too much Baggage, don't want to go there. Boeing maybe. I actually kind of like 3M. I think it lines up with their skill set and it could be an opportunity to sort of reinvigorate the brand at least kind of create the awareness to the consumer of all of the different things that that company does because it does a lot of. And it does a lot of stuff very well.
- [32:57]
C
Yeah, again, I'm not, I'm not going to Tesla until I get, I don't know, some, some reassurance about, you know, you won't have Howard Schultz leaning over your shoulder so that, that one's out for me. I like the 3M idea. But you know what Bar has really done well at GM is kind of just focus on what they do well and getting it to. They do everything well again. And Boeing, so much of it is just toe stubbing and self inflicted wounds. I do think just a no nonsense, let's get this right CEO. Hopefully they finally found that and to their credit they have a CEO I think is much better than the last two predecessors. So maybe they're already there. But I think Barra fits the mold, if not of someone who could just kind of, let's clean this up and make it work.
- [33:43]
B
Yeah, it'll be interesting. She has done such a good job at gm. Think those of us who watch really respect what she's done. But there's a lot of companies that could use that similar skill set. When we come back, we're going to get to stocks on our radar. You're listening to Motley Fool. Money leading a life without question. I have a new bathroom conception. No worries at hand when it's part of the plan and you beg me to see your perception, sir. Well, I thank you kind. I simply can't follow so blind and
- [34:18]
D
give up so much support for the show comes from Fundrise. For the past 70 years, there's been a room in finance most people couldn't enter. A room where you could have invested in some of the biggest names in tech companies like Airbnb and Uber before their multi billion dollar IPOs. I'm talking about venture capital. Fundrise recently took a sledgehammer to those closed doors by launching a venture capital product that's available to anyone. Their mission is to give everyone the chance to invest in the best tech and AI companies before they go public. You can visit fundrise.com fool to check out Fundrise's venture portfolio and get in early today. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This is a paid advertisement.
- [35:10]
B
As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fool's editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. Let's get to one of the strange stories of the week, since that is Netflix. Lou, they. They got a couple billion dollars. I know they probably don't have the cash yet from the Warner Brothers Discovery acquisition that fell through. Paramount is now buying and they're using some of that money to buy Ben Affleck's AI company. Is this them just wanting to do something? Is this technology that they really need in house? This is kind of a production AI tool. It's not, you know, like a nano banana kind of a competitor. What in the world is going on here?
- [36:05]
C
Good question. And you know, I'll be honest, this might be a me problem, but it's weird to me and it just feels like we're seeing. It's like, I don't know, maybe I'm looking at the celebrity and underestimating the product. But look, this is like you say, a post production tool. It doesn't replace acting. It's for editing the scenes after they're shot. Maybe, you know, it's just the best undisputed tool out there. Although it's in stealth and Netflix just had to have it. But is it really worth 600 million doll to bring it in house? I don't want to be cynical, but yeah, it feels like they were in acquisition mode. Maybe it's worth the money just to come off as creator friendly, to signal to the community that we're doing post production stuff. Maybe they just want a big deal with Ben Affleck and it's the way to do it. I don't know what's going on here, but yeah, it's weird.
- [36:55]
A
Yeah.
- [36:55]
B
Jason, this reminded me of when Apple bought Beats by Dre just so that Tim Cook could hang out with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine a few times. I'm sure there was more to it than that, but that was a big check for some headphones.
- [37:09]
A
It was like Dorsey buying Tidal. Right? It just was the weirdest acquisition. And I'm convinced that just because he wanted to saddle up with Jay Z. But whatever. Yeah, I'm with Lou. This just Seems like they were in acquisition mode and they needed to do something right. And I, I'm not a Netflix shareholder. I wish I was, but I, I am glad that that deal did not go through. I think that would have been just a, that would have been a troublesome acquisition. I, I don't think it would really resulted in, in the creation a lot of shareholder value for Netflix. I think Netflix is going its own. But it does feel like, hey, this is found money from the breakup. They got to spend a little bit of it on an acquisition here with some post production stuff and maybe they feel like they're a little bit cooler because they can call Ben Affleck a partner. I don't know. But we'll see.
- [37:54]
B
Yeah. Be interesting to see how often he's in the Netflix office.
- [37:58]
C
For the record, I think I'd rather hang with Dr. Dre. But no, no offense, Ben.
- [38:04]
B
We like to end the show with stocks on our radar. We'll bring in Dan Boyd from behind the glass to get some thoughts. Jason, you're up first. What's on your radar this week?
- [38:13]
A
Yes, well, Dan, did you know that there are more than 150 different diseases and conditions that can impair our musculoskeletal system? Say that five times fast, resulting in pain, limited movement, and even worse. My radar stock this week, Globus Medical Ticker GMED is a company dedicated to fighting those diseases and conditions. And it's a company that I've recommended in our services before, done very well through the years, but they are ultimately they're devoted to developing the solutions for musculoskeletal disorders through the devices and surgical equipment, monitoring and technologies. They are on the cutting edge when it comes to immersive technology, utilizing things like augmented reality and even virtual reality to train physicians on how to use their solutions. And it's a company just wrapped up a very strong 2025 revenue growth was better than 16%. Looks poised to continue here the year to come. And it's a big market opportunity out there. This is $50 billion or so market opportunity for a company that's still really just, just in the early innings. So I think a lot of market share to capture and that's what I'm watching.
- [39:25]
B
Dan, can you say musculoskeletal five times fast? I cannot, Travis. Not even going to try. You know, Jason, you made a good pitch, but what really is selling me is it seems like your dogs are really excited about it too.
- [39:40]
A
Well, they're right there. You know, they're excited every week just to have the opportunity to make an appearance on this show. And it seems like they, they, they nailed it again this week.
- [39:49]
B
Lou, what's on your radar this week?
- [39:51]
C
I don't want to downplay my chances, but if Dan is really just leaning into going with the dogs, you could do a lot worse than that, Right? Okay. So again, I'll say that at the front, Dan, this week I'm looking at aerovironment ticker av. And frankly, I'll be honest, I'm not sure I like what I'm seeing. Aerovironment is the maker of mostly military drones. Its products have been a key part of the Ukrainian war effort. The company has gotten a lot of attention and a real boost to the stock price because of it. Basically, it showed that the products are just as good as what the PowerPoint slide projected they'd be. But this week, AeroVironment reported quarterly results that missed expectations. They lowered full year guidance, too. Issue is a lost space contract, and it was a significant part of AeroVironment's backlog of future business. This was something they bought last year. Most of the existing business of a company they bought last year. I do think this can just be a temporary setback. I don't think it's thesis busting, but to be honest, it removes a lot of the reasons for investors to be excited about air environment, at least in the short term. Stock is down 13% for the month, Dan. I fear it could be hard to get airborne again. For now, I'm watching this one, but not for the good reasons.
- [41:03]
B
Dan, what do you think about the military drone business? Yeah, well, you know, I love it when somebody comes onto the show and brings us a stock that they're not excited about. That's not a cop out whatsoever, Lou. And I just want to say it stinks to hear that a company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia is not doing well at the moment.
- [41:21]
C
Dan, I can only bring you the news. I can't make the news. All good.
- [41:25]
B
That's fair. All right, Dan, what caught your attention? Globus Medical or Aerovironment? Well, I'm curious as to who let the dogs out. Maybe somebody should put them back in. But I'm going to go with Clovis Medical this time around. All right. Congratulations, Jason. That's all the time we have for this week. Thanks for listening to Motley Fool Money. We'll see you here tomorrow.