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The Rundown
Apple Charms Trump with Extra $100B U.S. Investment, Eli Lilly's New Obesity Pill Underwhelms
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Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zaydad Mani, and Today is Thursday, August 7th. In today's episode, we'll tell you about Tim Cook's visit to the White House and how he got a big tariff exemption for Apple. We'll also recap earnings from Eli Lilly, Doordash and Airbnb, then stick around to the end of the show to find out about the most expensive listing in Airbnb's history and the surprise owner of that place. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. The stock market bounced back on Wednesday with the S&P 500 jumping 0.7% and the NASDAQ was up 1.2% and getting pretty close to record highs again. You know, it's been a pretty up and down kind of week. The market takes two steps forward, then one step back and then back to moving forward again. And I guess that tracks historically because August tends to be a pretty volatile month. Last year it was the yen carry trade that sent the markets into a tailspin. You guys remember that. And this year here it's been the tariff news. Yesterday, President Trump announced plans to impose 100% tariffs on the import of semiconductors and chips. But there's going to be pretty broad exemption, so companies like Apple and Nvidia will likely avoid paying those tariffs. We're going to talk more about that in a bit. And starting today, Trump's reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries goes into effect. Some notable rates include a 39 levy on Switzerland. So Rolex watches are about to get a bit more expensive. And India's tariff rate was just increased to 50%. It was originally set at 25%, but yesterday President Trump added an additional 25% as a penalty for India buying oil from Russia. So all of that is leading to more volatility in the markets. Now, we're not seeing the markets have a full on panic like we did during Liberation Day back in April, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on as these tariff rates continue to go up. If these tariffs start hitting earnings or increase inflation, I think we're going to see the impact of that in our portfolios. But right now, the market seemed to be in a wait and see phase when it comes to tariffs. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Apple. Yesterday, CEO Tim Cook showed up to the White House and walked away with a tariff exemption. President Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on imported semiconductors, with one big carve out Companies that invest in US Manufacturing like Apple get an exemption. So Tim Cook was at the Oval Office standing next to President Trump and VP JD Vance, and he announced that Apple is increasing their US investment commitment by another $100 billion, bringing the total to $600 billion over the next four years. And this new spending includes a $2.5 billion investment in Corning, the company that makes the glass for iPhones and Apple watches. In fact, for the first time ever, all iPhone and Apple watch glass will be made in the US At Corning's factory in Kentucky, Tim Cook also laid out plans to work with Global Wafers in Texas and also to partner with Samsung, Broadcom and Texas Instrument to boost chip production in the U.S. but the thing is, Apple didn't commit to mass manufacture any of their products here. Like, they're not going to be making iPhones or MacBooks in the US but Tim Cook is trying to signal to President Trump that they're doing something. As longtime reporter Mark Gurman said, this was all spun well enough for Apple to be on Trump's good side and get that crucial tariff exemption. And it worked. Tim Cook seems to be a master of playing this game. In fact, he even brought a gift to the White house. It was a 24 gold plated glass plaque. So, yeah, there you go. That's what it takes these days to get a tariff exemption. But investors seem to be happy about it. Apple stock jumped more than 5% yesterday, and it's up another 3% this morning. Don't be surprised if you have a bunch of companies lining up now to give gifts to the President to get a tariff exemption. Let's shift gears and talk about Eli Lilly. The pharma giant reported earnings this morning and they raised their outlook for this year and announced earnings that topped Wall street expectations thanks to booming demand for their weight loss drugs. Manjaro pulled in $5.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, which is up 68% from last year. And Zepbound, their other weight loss drug, brought in $3.4 billion, which is a 172% year over year increase. But despite the blowout numbers, their stock is still down this morning. And it has to do with Eli Lilly's weight loss pill. Eli Lilly released new data from their late stage trials of their upcoming obesity pill, and it was kind of a disappointment. According to the latest data, this pill helped patients lose around 11% of their body weight after 72 weeks, which isn't bad, but the market was expecting more. For comparison, Nova Nordic's WeGovy drug, which is an injection, helps users lose about 14 to 15% body weight. So I think investors were hoping for something closer to that number. But on top of the underwhelming body weight loss from the pill, the dropout rate by study participants was also higher than investors wanted to see. About 10% of patients dropped out due to side effects. That's a little bit more than what you were seeing with the injections. So as a result, Eli Lilly stock is down over 77% this morning on this news. Meanwhile, Novo Nordis Stock is up 7% on this news. You know, every big pharma company is rushing to get a weight loss pill to market that matches the performance of the GLP1 injections because, you know, pills are convenient, they're scalable, and they don't require needles, which some patients just refuse to use. Now, Eli says they aren't disappointed with the results of the pill trial and they plan to submit the results to regulators by the end of this year if all goes to plan. The company says the weight loss drug will be available by this time next year. But I guess the markets don't seem to be as optimistic. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of DoorDash are popping this morning after the company reported a solid earnings beat. The revenues were up 25%, total orders on their platform jumped 20% and order value also saw a 20% boost. So it seems like people continue to order food instead of cooking at home, which, you know, guilty as charged. And all of that is finally leading to profits for the company. DoorDash saw their profits jump to nearly $300 million in Q2. Compare that to Q2 of last year where the company lost $150 million. So investors are pretty excited about DoorDash's growth. And shares of the company are up nearly 8% this morning on this news. You know, it's just the convenience of getting food delivered is just so addicting. Now on the flip side, Airbnb shares are dropping this morning even though the company beat earnings estimates and announced a massive six month billion share buyback program. Revenues for Airbnb was up 13% and management said they had a strong quarter despite uncertainty from Trump's tariffs weighing on consumers. But investors seem to be worried about the slowdown in growth. The total nights and experience booked only grew by 7% in Q2, which is basically where it's been for the past year. Now Airbnb has been trying to juice things up with a new in app design and also new Services like private chefs and massage therapists, but that really hasn't caught on. As a result, Airbnb stock is down 6% this morning. I also think that it's possible people are waking up to the fact that hotels are just a better experience than Airbnbs. And not having to pay a cleaning fee and following a 12 step process before checking out. That's kind of nice. But that's just me. I'm team hotel, always have been, by the way. And finally, let's talk about Intel. Their stock just took a hit after President Trump publicly called for the company's new CEO, Lip Bhutan to step down, saying that he's conflicted. He made this statement in a Truth social post this morning. Now, Tan took over as CEO back in March, but some lawmakers have raised concerns about his ties and investments in Chinese semiconductor companies. On top of that, his former company, Cadence Design Systems, also reportedly sold tech to the Chinese military, which violated US Export controls. So Lit Bhutan is coming under some scrutiny, including from the President of the United States. And this true social post. And intel stock down more than 3% this morning. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. The most expensive listing on Airbnb was a $60,000 per night private island in the Bahamas. The island is called Musha Cay and it has everything you want from a 12 bedroom mansion to tennis courts to a spa gym. And it even comes with a 30 person full time staff, including a private chef and a bonus. Fun fact about this island is that it's owned by David Copperfield, the magician who made the Statue of Liberty disappear back in the 80s. Apparently he's worth like a billion dollars. So I guess all those Vegas magic shows must pay pretty well. But I don't know, man. I feel like owning a private island these days. Kind of a red flag, you know. Anyways, if you try to go looking for this listing on Airbnb to, you know, look up how much they charge in cleaning fees, you're not going to find it anymore. They took their listing off of Airbnb. You can now only book this island directly on the Musha K website. I guess they didn't want to give a cut and pay the Airbnb listing fee anymore. Well, all right guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. It's been a pretty busy week with a ton of earnings and a lot of tariff news and we'll see if the markets can end the week on a positive note. By the way, if you guys have been enjoying our show so far. Consider giving us a five star rating on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you are listening on Spotify, don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Also, we are on YouTube as well, so if you guys want to help us out, consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Thank you guys so much for listening and watching. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.