Loading summary
A
Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zadod Mani, and Today is Tuesday, July 21st. In today's episode, we'll tell you about the latest tariff threat from President Trump and why the market is ignoring it for now. We'll also break down GM's earnings and how the automaker is growing profits while selling fewer cars. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how much money FIFA made from this World Cup. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks kept sliding on Monday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.2%, while the Nasdaq was basically flat, technically down 0.05%. So overall, not a lot of movement in the index. But nearly two thirds of the stocks in the S and P were, were in the red yesterday. In fact, there's been a lot of volatility under the surface. According to BTIG, there have been 52 trading days this year where the S and P moved in one direction while the majority of the stocks moved in the other direction. That's not very common. In fact, this ties the year 2000 for the third most times that's happened this century, and we still have five more months left in the year. Also, if you look at the vix, which is the market's fear gauge, it's sitting at a relatively chill 17.5. So what that indicates is that investors aren't expecting an overall market crash crash, but they are expecting volatility in certain stocks and sectors. And we're already seeing that there's been a lot of rotation in and out of sectors over the last few months. And a part of this is because of all the uncertainty. Right now, the war in the Middle east is ramping back up, driving up oil prices and energy stocks for that matter. There's uncertainty around the AI trade and AI bubble fears. And now the market has to deal with tariffs again. Yesterday, President Trump said that he was imposing an additional 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods and including wine, cement, and hockey sticks. The White House said this was in response to Canada's discriminatory treatment of American products, like the provisional bans on US Wine and liquor. This new tariff will kick in in 30 days, so there is a window for negotiation. But there are also questions about whether these tariffs are even legal. Remember, earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump's tariffs. Now, these new tariffs on Canada are being implemented under a 1930s trade law that that has literally never been used for tariffs before and that's why some analysts are already skeptical that these tariffs ever take effect. So yeah, we're dealing with tariff uncertainty again now. The market is shrugging this off for now. Stocks are in the green in pre market trading at the time of this recording, led by a bounce back in chip stocks. We'll continue to say it on top of this new tariff development along with everything else happening in the market. So if you're new here, it's a great time to get subscribed to the podcast and tune in every day to stay in the loop. Also, we've been working very hard to get these episodes up sooner every morning. We actually finished early yesterday, but then had some very frustrating tech issues that delayed the upload. So I appreciate everyone being patient with us. We are working hard to get these up as early as possible in the morning. Let's run through some headlines and we're talking General Motors GM reported second quarter earnings this morning and they beat expectations pretty much across the board. But but how they did it is pretty interesting. Let's start with the numbers. First, revenues came in at $48 billion, ahead of the 46.6 billion that Wall street was expecting. Adjusted operating profit came in at $3.9 billion. That was also a beat and up from the $3 billion a year ago. On top of that, GM raised their full year profit outlook again. They now expect adjusted operating profit of 14 to 16 billion dollars this year, up from the 13 to 15 billion dollars range they gave back in January. So GM pulled off the earnings trifecta. Beat on revenue, beat on profits and and increase their guidance. But here's the thing. Despite the strong earnings beat, GM's actual sales are falling. US deliveries in the first half of the year dropped 6.8%, including for pickup trucks and SUVs, which is like their bread and butter. But despite the drop in sales, profits are going up. And that's happening for three main reasons. First is higher prices. GM is deliberately keeping inventory low for the most profitable vehicles like the Chevy Silverado and Cadillac Escalade, allowing them to charge higher prices. The second reason for the improved profitability is that tariff costs have come down, thanks to the Supreme Court striking down many of President Trump's tariffs earlier this year. And the third reason is more of a corporate accounting thing. GM is buying back a ton of their own stock. The company have repurchased about $2 billion worth of their stock in the second quarter and their share count has dropped from roughly 960 million a year ago to fewer than 900 million shares today. And this is helping boost their earnings per share because a smaller share count means the company's earnings are divided across fewer shares. So that's why their earnings per share is improving, despite the underlying business not growing. GM reported earnings per share of $3.57 last quarter, which was way above the $3.19 that analysts were expecting. And look, there was some additional red flags as well. EVs continued to be a drag on the company. GM recorded another $2.3 billion EV related charge as they cut their production on EVs. These charges pushed their quarterly net income down to $1.3 billion from from the $1.9 billion last year. And overall, their total EV write downs have now hit $11 billion. Big picture though. I think GM is doing the same thing that many other companies are doing now. Instead of growing their volume, they're now squeezing more profit by catering to high end consumers. So I wouldn't be surprised that they keep raising prices on their high end vehicles like their trucks and their Escalades. But the question is, how long can GM keep doing that before they need to eventually start growing sales again? I mean, the market isn't totally convinced of their strategy, right? Stock has been down 7% this year heading into this earnings report. And despite the beat on earnings this morning, shares are only up around 1% at the time of this recording. And if you look at valuation, the company is trading at less than 6 times expected 2026 earnings, which is a pretty low multiple. And that tells me that the market isn't fully convinced on GM's strategy moving forward. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of 3M are rising after the industrial giant delivered better than expected earning and raised their full year outlook. 3M is the maker of post IT notes and Scotch Tape and a bunch of other stuff. They reported adjusted earnings of $2.40 per share on $6.5 billion in revenue, beating Wall street expectations on both the top and bottom line. Comparable sales also accelerated, growing 5.4% from a year ago after just 1.2% growth last quarter. Management attributes some of this to the impact of tariffs, which have been smaller than expected thanks to price increases, supply chain adjustments and cost cutting efforts. Shares of 3M are up more than 6% this morning at the time of this recording. Sticking with the winners here, Nebia shares are climbing after a new regulatory filing revealed that Nvidia now owns 9.3% of the company. On Nebius is one of those AI cloud companies, also called Neo Clouds, that build data centers filled with Nvidia chips and they rent that computing power to to companies that need AI compute. Nvidia first announced a $2 billion investment in Nebias back in March, and in that same month Meta also signed a long term agreement to spend up to $27 billion on Nebus infrastructure. Since then the stock has more than doubled and shares are getting another pop this morning, up around 7% following this disclosure. I also find it interesting that Nvidia owns more than 9% of this company and Nebias is one of their biggest customers as well. So this is only going to add to the concern around AI circular financing. Moving on, let's talk about a loser. This morning, Equifax shares are getting hammered after the credit reporting company issued a disappointing full year revenue outlook. Management now expects full year revenues to come in at 6.71 to $6.78 billion, which is a range that landed just below what Wall street was expecting. And it also signaled slower growth than investors were hoping for. Equifax is being hurt by the frozen housing market. Higher mortgages have resulted in fewer home sales, which means falling fewer mortgage applications, which means fewer Equifax credit checks. Now, profits for the company are still growing. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.25 per share, up from the $2 a year ago. But investors are more focused on the slowing growth. The stock is down more than 11% this morning at the time of this recording. And if you zoom out, shares were already down 15 on the year heading into this earnings report. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. The World cup wrapped up on Sunday with Spain beating Argent nil in extra time in what I would describe as a pretty terrible match. Let's be honest here, it was very boring. But hey, shout out to Spain. They were dominant all tournament and they walk away with the trophy. But you know, the real winners here might have been FIFA's bank account because they're expected to generate more than $9 billion from this world cup, making this the most lucrative sporting event in history. And look, FIFA squeezed just about every dollar they could out of this thing. Their new hydration breaks during the matches added more slots for commercials. They also use dynamic ticket pricing for the first time ever, which pushed the medium ticket price to over $900. And even at those prices, demand was strong. Stadiums were basically sold out all tournament. So it's possible the next World cup is going to be even more expensive and FIFA is even considering expanding the field from 48 teams to 64 teams for the 2030 World Cup. Now, the other winner here, I think is also the US the team may have disappointed on the pitch, but the country did get a nice little economic and cultural BO from hosting the World Cup. Host cities across the US like Philadelphia, Kansas City, Houston, Dallas, saw packed bars and hotels and honestly, I loved seeing all the videos of international tourists having a good time in the U.S. you know, everything from the Dutch fans taking over Kansas City to the Scots drinking all the beer in Boston and also seeing all the tourists visit BUC EE's and trying canes for the first time. It was just great vibes all around. So I'm really going to miss the World Cup. It was also great just having soccer on in the background in the middle of the day. The next World cup is in 2030. It's being co hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. And this might just be the American in me, but I feel like the US should host every World cup at this point. If you're listening to this podcast and you were in the US for the World cup, let me know what your experience was like in the comments on Spotify and YouTube. Well, all right guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching and commenting. Shout out to Mike for all the work behind the scene scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.
Episode: GM Profits Jump While Sales Fall, Trump Slaps 50% Tariffs on Canada
Host: Zaid Admani
Date: July 21, 2026
This episode delivers a concise daily stock market update, focusing on the latest surprise U.S. tariffs on Canada and a deep-dive into how General Motors (GM) increased profits in spite of falling sales. Host Zaid Admani also highlights notable earnings from 3M and Nvidia’s investment in AI infrastructure, explains Equifax’s struggles, and wraps up with an analysis of FIFA’s record-shattering World Cup revenues.
[00:15]
[02:20]
[03:55]
[08:35]
[12:15]
Tone:
Energetic, informed, conversational, with frequent asides and contextual explanations.
For listeners and investors:
This episode gave critical insight into how legacy companies like GM are managing short-term profitability at the possible cost of long-term growth, what new US-Canada trade tensions might mean, and how major earnings announcements are shaping the market. The wrap-up provided a lighter take on the financial side of global sports.