← The Rundown
The Rundown
Weight Loss Drugmakers Hit with Antitrust Lawsuit, Trump’s Plan Brings Down Energy Stocks
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Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Aidan Mani, and Today is Friday, January 16th. In today's episode, I'll tell you what I told the Wall Street Journal about Jerome Powell. We'll also discuss the latest lawsuit that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are facing regarding their GLP1 dominance. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why it's not a great time to be a Wall street banker. Despite record trading revenues. We got show for you today. Let's go. After two straight days of losses, the markets were finally back in the green. On Thursday. The S P 500 rose 0.3% while the Nasdaq added roughly 0.2%. The markets actually started out much stronger than that. Both indices were up more than 1% at their high points yesterday before giving back some of those gains at the close. The bigger story that investors are watching right now is the Supreme Court. Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on the legality of Trump's tariffs. See, some of the tariffs that President Trump issued last year were under the International Emergency Economic Powers act, which are meant to be used in times of emergencies. There's been multiple lawsuits claiming the president overreached his presidential powers. So now it's in the hands of the Supreme Court to decide if the court rules against these tariffs. It could require the federal government to refund some of the tariffs that were collected. So that could get really messy. Don't be surprised if this decision leads to more market volatility. So, yeah, it's a very interesting moment in the markets right now. We'll see how things play out over the the next few weeks as investors wait for the Supreme Court ruling and as more companies start reporting earnings. Now I'm really looking forward to the big tech earnings because the tech sector has been a weak spot so far this year and we'll see if that bounces back at these big tech giants post strong earnings. Oh, and don't forget we also got the beef between President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Now, speaking of the Fed, our deep dive for tomorrow is going to be about the history of the Federal Reserve. We're going to talk about why it was formed, some of the failures the Fed has had in the past, and why an independent Fed is so important. So if you want to learn more about the Federal Reserve, keep an eye on your podcast feed for that. Also, I have to mention this is kind of crazy, but I was actually quoted in an article in the Wall Street Journal this week about Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The reporter who wrote the article, Hannah Aaron Lang, she did a great job in the piece. She asked me why I thought that Powell gets memes so much on the Internet and I said it's because he has aura. Now I said a bunch of other stuff too, but they ran with the aura quote, which I think is just great. We even got a mention on the Wall Street Journal's Instagram page as well. So yeah, that was a pretty surreal moment and getting quoted in the Wall Street Journal. We'll put a link to the article in the description if you guys want to check that out. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are being sued over their GLP1 duopoly. This lawsuit was filed by a compounding pharmacy called Strive Specialties, which alleges the two pharma giants are illegally blocking consumers from getting low cost versions of their weight loss drugs. Now here's where it gets a little technical, but stick with me here. Compound compounding pharmacies are allowed to make copycat versions of drugs when there's a shortage. And for a long time that was the case for GLP1s demand massively outpaced supply. But now that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have ramped up production, there is no more shortage. So these compounding pharmacies are supposed to stop mass producing the copies. But there is an exception for a very limited case like customized patient specific doses. And it's this gray area where all the fighting is happening. Right now Strive feels like they should be allowed to make these patient specific GLP1s. But late last year, Eli Lilly actually sued Strive, accusing the pharmacy of falsely marketing its compound drugs as personalized. So there's some bad blood there. And now it's escalating into a full blown antitrust lawsuit. Now one thing that you got to keep in mind is that the patent for these drugs don't last forever. In fact, Novo Nordisk is already feeling the pressure. The patent for its semi glutide, which is the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, are already expiring in several countries outside the US Opening the door for regulated generics to enter the market. Now in the US and uk Novo Nordisk still has a few years of production left. Eli Lilly has a bit more Runway here about a decade before their patents start expiring on Manjaro and Zeppelin. So as you can imagine, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk want to capitalize on their patent for as long as they have it and shut down these copycat compounding pharmacies from taking market share. So I wouldn't be surprised if we keep seeing more lawsuits about this because Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have a short window to capitalize on their patent. Let's shift gears and talk about Netflix. Netflix continues to make big content moves as they're in the middle of an $80 billion takeover of Warner Bro. This week, Netflix signed a deal to expand their partnership with Sony Pictures. Under this new multi year agreement worth about $7 billion, Netflix will become the exclusive global streaming home for Sony Films after they finish their theatrical run and video on Demand window. This exclusivity will last for the first 18 months and it includes some big titles like the Spider man movies and an upcoming live action Legend of Zelda movie which I didn't even know was in the works. Now beyond just movies, Netflix is also expanding into podcasts. This week, Netflix started streaming video podcasts from the Ringer and Barstool Sports on their platform. I actually checked it out. I watched some Bill Simmons on Netflix this week and I still prefer watching it on YouTube. But I can see why Netflix is leaning into video podcasts. They want subscribers like me to spend more time on the platform and have podcasts running in the background. Netflix also announced that Pete Davidson is launching an exclusive video podcast on Netflix. And this is where I start getting confused. I don't really understand what makes this a podcast and not like a Netflix original talk show or something. So you know what? I'm going to bring this up to our guest this week, Ashley Carmen. She's a reporter at Bloomberg who covers the audio and podcasting space. We'll talk about a lot of things, including Netflix breaking into podcasting. And if they're a legit threat to Spotify and YouTube, that interview will drop on Sunday morning. So keep an eye on your podcast feed for that. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of AST Space Mobile are jumping after the satellite company landed a spot on US Missile Defense Agency Shield program. Now, this doesn't mean that AST just won a single contract or anything. It just means that they're now eligible to bid on future task orders tied to missile defense research, development, engineering and prototyping. AST is best known for building satellites designed to create the first cellular network connected directly from space. In fact, they already have satellites in orbit and they have contracts with cellular networks all over the world. But now that same satellite technology could potentially be used for military use, where low Earth orbit satellite networks are becoming a big priority. As a result, AST shares are up more than 7% this morning on this news. On the flip side, energy stocks like V Straw and Constellation Energy are taking a hit after President Trump announced a plan to shake up wholesale electricity markets. His plan is specifically aimed at slowing the cost of power bills for Americans as big tech companies ramp up energy hungry AI data centers. Under this plan, the grid operator PJM Interconnection, which controls wholesale electricity markets across much of the Northeast and Midwest, would sell energy to big tech giants and lock into a 15 year power contract instead of the current pay as you go system. These long term contracts would help fund about $15 billion in new power generation projects, according to the White House. And it gives tech companies guaranteed power supply for AI while taking pressures off of consumer electricity bills. So that's bad for companies like V Struck and Constellation, which have benefited from tight supply and volatile electricity pricing. Locking in long term contracts at a set price caps their upside. So as a result, shares of V Star are down 6% and Constellation Energy is down 10%. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Wall street banks just had their biggest trading year ever. In 2025, the largest US banks pulled in a record $134 billion in trading revenue, which is the most ever recorded. The reason for the big surge in trading revenue is increased volatility. More volatility is good for and last year we had plenty of volatility. Remember there was Trump's tariff drama back in April. Then there was nonstop policy uncertainty where markets got whiplash. So investors were constantly repositioning their portfolios and taking out hedges. And all of that is good for trading desk at these banks. Now, beyond just the trading, these big banks also got a boost from all the M and a activity and IPOs last year, which is expected to pick up this year as well. They also help finance a lot of that debt that these big tech giants are taking out to build AI data centers. So yeah, Wall street banks are partying like it's 2000, but it's not all great for everyone working on Wall Street. According to Bloomberg, Wall street firms cut more than 10,600 jobs last year, which is the most since 2016. You know, I think a big reason for that is AI. These big banks are replacing junior analysts with AI tools and I think that trend might continue. So interesting times ahead for big Wall street banks. Well, all right guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like five extra seconds. Consider giving us a five star RA, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast. 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. Remember, the stock market will be closed on Monday for MLK Day so no show from us. But we are going to have a deep dive and an interview over the weekend, so keep an eye on your podcast feed for that. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow for the deep dive.
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