DHUnplugged #716: Path Change

Path Change - Once the air clears, how will markets react? Cracking down on excessive "junk" fees Cracking down on Unfree Speech? Jackson Hole - big update about "The Path" PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter DONATIONS ? Warm Up -Cracking down on excessive "junk" fees - Cracking down on Unfree Speech? - Jackson Hole - big update about "The Path" - Intel is nervous Market Update - Lower End Consumers Fueling Spend - Big news this week - NVDA earnings - Rotation ? Consumers are still spending (Discounters loving it!) - Taxing Unrealized Gains? Political rhetoric - Taxing Unrealized gains - questions coming in --- Realize this is for the ultra-rich and the potential to get this passed is not high - BUT - Harris campaign wants to see about higher taxes - which are needed, but not a good thing ----- How else are we going to pay back this mountain of debt? Jackson Hole - Time to Change the Path of Rates - Powell was clear and they are now pricing in a 100% probability of a 0.25% rate cut for September - 0.50% will probably scare some people - so 0.25% is plan - Odd ahead of election - but maybe Powell realizes he is behind the curve Target - Against the odds? - Target beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue expectations on Wednesday. - Sales at the discounter grew as shoppers made more visits to Target’s stores and website and bought more discretionary items like clothing. - Yet, the retailer struck a cautious note, saying it expects comparable sales for the full year to be in the lower range of its guidance. - Target raised its profit guidance, however, saying it expects adjusted earnings per share to range from $9 to $9.70, up from the previous range of $8.60 and $9.60. - Investors loved it! Stock moved from $135 - $169 on the news (back to $158) ---- Walmart near ATH and Ross Stores stock at ATH SpaceX - Boeing - So embarrassing for Boeing... - Starliner is going to come back - Unmanned... - Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year Telegram - Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France - Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody. - Free speech under fire? Or is this more than just a Twitter alternative. - Supposedly 900M Daily Active users??? Junk Fees - FTC trying to crack down on "junk fees" - Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association - Inflation fee, credit card fee, health-care fee, house fee - Restaurants are fighting back as they want the fees to add to bottom line and increase profitability and benefit staff. - Makes the entire idea of going out to eat an expensive proposition. What is this? - Microsoft said Friday it will hold a conference in September for cybersecurity firms to discuss ways the industry can evolve following a faulty CrowdStrike software update that caused millions of Windows computers to crash in July. - Microsoft will meet with CrowdStrike and other security companies at its campus in Redmond, Washington, on Sept. 10 to discuss how to prevent similar issues in the future --- Wasn't this already something that was not supposed to happen? - The executive said participants at the Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit will explore the possibility of having applications rely more on a part of Windows called user mode instead of the more privileged kernel mode. - Software from CrowdStrike Check Point,