Tariffs, Trump, and Turmoil

Globe and Mail

16-04-2025

In this podcast, Motley Fool analysts talk about economic uncertainty, airlines, building materials, and assorted spirits.
Motley Fool analyst Asit Sharma caught up with Martín de los Santos, the CFO of MercadoLibre, at The Motley Fool's Market Volatility Summit. They talked about how MercadoLibre became resilient, and the long-term opportunities for the company.
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A full transcript is below.
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This video was recorded on April 11, 2025
Ron Gross: T is for tariffs, Trump and Turmoil. Motley Fool money starts now.
From fool Global headquarters. This is Motley Fool Money. It's the Motley Fool Money Radio Show. I'm Ron Gross sitting in for Dylan Lewis. Joining me today, our senior analyst, Emily Flippen and Matt Argersinger fools, how you doing?
Matt Argersinger: Ron.
Emily Flippen: Doing all right.
Matt Argersinger: Doing all right.
Ron Gross: Glad to hear it. Today, we're going to talk banks and assorted spirits, but we must, once again, begin with the big macro and, oh, boy, what a week it has been following several very rough days in the stock market, on Wednesday, the Trump administration put a 90-day pause on its so-called reciprocal tariff policy, sending the market soaring for its biggest one day gain since 2008. Then, on Thursday, inflation data came in tamer than expected and just for good measure, on Thursday, we saw another sell-off in stocks. Emily, I am truly exhausted. But let's dig in. Where are we now from an economic markets perspective? I know you don't have a crystal ball, but where do you think we're going?
Emily Flippen: If financial media has anything to say about it, it's straight to hell on a handbasket here for American consumers and investors. I'm teasing here because I really don't necessarily think that is going to be the case. While we still have a lot of economic data that is not coming out as favorably as I think some investors want, and that's leading to some of that volatility we're seeing in the market, the earlier inflation metrics that we got earlier this week, we're actually very encouraging. It was a sign that some of the concerns that I think we had around stagflation may be coming down a bit. Now, that is the core PPI, the producer price index that excludes food and energy, but it's the Fed's favored inflation metric here. That actually fell nominally month over month.
And it wasn't just a matter of, Okay, this is lower than expected, but still rising inflation, but an actual month-over-month decline here. Of course, if we add food and energy, the story changes. But this is a little bit of a silver lining that I think investors need to say, OK, we have a lot of data that's pointing in the wrong direction right now. Here is something that continues to say, it may not be as bad as we expect. But of course, the emphasis is, of course, on this was the case. Inflation metrics are a lagging indicator. We're always forward-looking. Some of the policies that we've seen since this data has come out over the course of the past month, I think, are pretty clearly indicating that inflation is expected to heat up substantially. But I'll take this when for this week.
Ron Gross: What about from the markets? Do you think the markets are just nervous, don't like uncertainty? That's what we typically say. Markets hate uncertainty, and there's so much uncertainty around here nowadays. Do you think that's why we're seeing the volatile the big sharp moves?
Emily Flippen: I don't think it's just uncertainty. I think there's genuine concern about the business impacts that these tariffs, if they stay in place, will have both on companies that are supplying, manufacturing, as well as consumers looking to make purchases. This has wide-ranging implications for the performance of the broader economy as a whole. It's not just a matter of uncertainty because I think if we came out tomorrow and said, Okay, we are certain, 100% sure. The tariffs, as they are today, are going to stick this way for the next 12 months for certain, for example. That would be certainty. But I'll tell you what, I bet the stock market would sell off.
Ron Gross: Oh. Understood. Matt, US consumer sentiment is now worse than during the Great Recession. New data just came out. Anything here for an individual investor to do other than sit back and just watch it unfold?
Matt Argersinger: Sitting back is very good advice. Watching it unfold, I don't know. You're better off just turning everything off and maybe going away for a week. But look, we're investors. I know that's impossible. It's definitely impossible for me. But here's what I think if you're an investor, what you can or should pay attention to, and that is interest rates. The Trump administration only really blinked this past week when the 10 yield crossed about 4.5%. But guess where we are today as we tape on Friday, back above 4.5%, Ron. If you go back to April 2nd, which was Liberation Day, as the administration called it, the 10-year was just above 4%. We're up 50 basis points in a week, and that's through all this market dislocation. It usually doesn't work that way. Usually, investors are buying treasuries as a safe haven during times like this. That's just not happening right now and I think that is where the real danger lies, and I think Emily hinted at this.
I mean, if countries like China and, Japan UK, various members of the EU stop buying our treasuries, either because they're exporting less as a result of these tariffs, and they don't have as many US dollars to invest anyway, or much worse, guys, they willfully decide to stop buying treasuries in favor of other safe-haven assets or currencies. I mean, just look at the Swiss franc as of the past week. If that happens, it will almost certainly send treasury yields much higher. And I think that would spell huge trouble for the housing market, which we already know is suffering from high mortgage rates. Imagine mortgage rates not at six or 7% as they are now, but 8, 9, 10%. I think it also spells big trouble for small, midsize businesses who don't have as much flexibility with their balance sheets and where they source their products. It's bad for auto manufacturers, bad for commercial real estate and then to consumers to Emily's point. Consumers are sitting on record credit card debt and if interest rates move higher that situation gets a lot worse. I think it really could mean bad news for the economy. If you're going to watch anything at all, sit back and watch this shake out, watch treasury yields. If they keep moving higher, I expect that could trigger a response by the administration. To be less aggressive with these tariffs, maybe come to the table, that'll be the trigger point.
Ron Gross: I was going to say one silver lining may be we do have anecdotal evidence that the administration does keep an eye on the bond market, and on interest rates, that could very well be the reason we got the 90 day pause. We don't necessarily have proof of that, but that certainly could be. I would encourage them to keep an eye on the yields, so we don't get into too much trouble, as you outlined. But speaking of interest rates, on Friday, many of the larger banks reported pretty solid results for the first quarter, and Matt, lots of data, plenty of commentary from the CEOs. What's set out to you in these reports?
Matt Argersinger: Results you said, Ron, the results were actually really solid. The problem is no one really cares about that right now. It's really all about guidance and how these CEOs are thinking about the environment, post tariffs, post-liberation Day and what they see going forward. Here's what they're saying. If you look at CEO Jamie Diamond, CEO of the largest US bank, JP Morgan, he's been pretty vocal this past week about the dangers of tariffs, even saying he believes that a recession is all but unavoidable now. And then he said this after his bank reported quarter results, "The economy is facing considerable turbulence, potential negatives of tariffs and trade wars," ongoing sticking inflation, high fiscal deficits, and still rather high asset prices and volatilities.
What else he said? Wells Fargo 's CEO, Charlie Sharf, "We support the administration's willingness to look at barriers to fair trade to the United States. Though there are certainly risks associated with such significant actions, a timely resolution, which benefits the US, would be good for businesses, consumers, and the markets. We expect continued volatility and uncertainty and are prepared for a slower economic environment in 2025" Then Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, which I think is now the world's largest ass manager, "The sweeping tariff announcements went further than I could have imagined in my 49 years in finance." Then in an interview on CNBC, he also said, "I think we're very close if not in a recession now," talking about, of course, the US economy.
Ron Gross: Thanks for cheering us up, Matt.
Matt Argersinger: Well, there you go. Let me sum it up, too. These tarifs are dangerous. If not resolved quickly, the risks are high, expect continued uncertainty, which we keep talking about, and we may already be in a recession. Remember, these are the banks and financial institutions that have a pulse, I think, in a lot of areas of the economy, which is from housing to credit, consumer spending. Wait until we start hearing from industrial companies or consumer discretionary companies, especially those that make and sell products all around the world. What will be their reactions and guidance when they report in the coming weeks? I think this is just the first Salvo, and it's sobering when you look at it, in terms of what they're seeing.
Ron Gross: On Wednesday, Constellation Brands reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations, but a week full-year earnings outlook that focused on the impact of, yes, tariffs was the focus. Emily, how did the quarter look to you? Is it possible for us to remove tariffs from this conversation and focus on the business, or they are so intertwined, just can't do that.
Emily Flippen: I actually think that tariffs are maybe the least interesting thing happening to Constellation Brands business today. I understand why the narrative was around tariffs. It's like you can open up an Internet browser without being slapped across the face with news about tariffs and how they're going to be impacting companies. Certainly, Constellation Brands did say in the quarter that they're expecting a low single-digit increase in their total cost of goods that's associated with the tariffs and sourcing, of course, aluminum cans and other bottling items for the beers and the accessories, I'll say, for the wine and spirits business that they sell. But all of this stuff is happening to Constellation Brands. Meanwhile, Constellation Brands as a business itself, is actually doing a pretty decent job of a turnaround, especially considering the overall beer market. I think it's a disappointment that there's not more discussion around how strong this business has been in an incredibly weak environment for alcohol sales.
If you compare their performance against other large beer makers, Boston Beer, with Sam Adams being a great example, which has seen declining depletions, declining shipments, declining profitability and sales, Constellation Brands is growing and growing pretty solidly because the beer brands that it is continuing to focus on just have continued to resonate with a consumer that's a little bit more niche, that is a bit more loyal, and that has led to pretty incredible market share gains really consistently for this company in otherwise weak environment. I love that Constellation Brands has performed so well. I'm disappointed that the narrative is, Oh, no, that small single-digit increase associated with the tariffs. But I actually think fast forwarding five years from now, we're probably looking at a better business than today.
Ron Gross: They're selling some of their wine brands, Cooks, Miomi, that a good movie? You like that?
Emily Flippen: I do. They're actually almost entirely divesting of their wine and spirits business. And if you look at their performance on earnings per share, non-adjusted basis for the quarter, you'll see the impact of that nearly $3 billion in goodwill write-offs associated with the sale of that business, which has been an underperformer for them for a while. That is obviously a ding on them. Some of the investments this company has made historically just haven't panned out. But they're really focusing on cost energies right now and focusing on what works, which is obviously the Corona, the Medello, the Pacificos. Those have an audience that are way more loyal than not to be offensive to Miomi, which I love their wine is a bit more loyal.
Ron Gross: Coming up, we'll talk airlines, building materials, and used cars. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
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Ron Gross: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Ron Gross here with Emily Flippen and Matt Argersinger. On Wednesday, Delta reported that revenue growth stalled a bit in the first quarter and the company did not reaffirm its full year guidance, citing headwinds from the economic uncertainty around global trade. Matt, seems to me it wasn't the quarterly results, but the lack of full year guidance that spooked investors. Shares were up big on Wednesday as Trump paused tariffs, but the stock got smacked on Thursday as investors continued to digest what it all means. As I asked Emily with constellation, I'd love to strip out the economic noise here and talk about the business. Can we do that?
Matt Argersinger: Well, let's try, Ron. It was actually a record quarter for Delta in terms of revenue. Pretty surprising, revenue was up 3.3% year over year, 13 billion, and growth was particularly strong in the premium segment of the business. So first class, business class, revenue there was up 7% year over year. International revenue was also pretty strong, and even corporate revenue was higher year over year, and Delta generated 1.3 billion in free cash flow in the quarter, paid down about 500 million in long term debt. All fairly positive and aligned with what CEO Ed Bastian said near the beginning of the year, which was that 2025 was going to be Delta's best financial year in our history. That is not really working out.
Ron Gross: Maybe not so much.
Matt Argersinger: Because even if you go back a month ago, Delta had actually guided for 6-8% revenue growth this quarter. That's a big comedown from that. According to Bastion, things actually started to slow back in February. Well, before these tariff announcements or any hint of them, the company slashed its first quarter forecast. It did maintain its full year outlook back then, though. As you mentioned, Ron, that has now changed. They're not reaffirming that year outlook anymore. The company has pulled its guidance. It's still expecting to be profitable this year, but a far cry from where the company thought things would be coming into the year. I think you have to worry a lot about the state of the consumer here. What travel demand is going to look like, say, over the next 6-9 months, you mentioned the consumer sentiment numbers at the top of the show. One thing that's got to be helping Delta a little bit, though, over the past week is the fall in energy prices that we've seen. It's a big cost input for every airline including Delta. That will undoubtedly help Delta's margins and probably help the company remain profitable for the year if not growing.
Ron Gross: On Thursday, CarMax reported worse than expected fourth quarter results, and while it said it was making progress toward its financial goals, it will remove the timelines associated with them due to the potential impact of broader macro factors. Emily, I know I sound like a broken record here, but the macro environment is hard to escape. Do your best. Tell me how CarMax's business is doing.
Emily Flippen: I actually think the business is doing a lot better than people expect, especially, again, given the narrative right now. I understand that the market is in part selling off CarMax for a few different factors. Of course, one aspect of the tariff implication for CarMax and any other business that is operating in the auto parts industry is that the used car parts that it needs in order to fix and resell vehicles on its platform, those are likely to increase, and that's likely to hurt margins at least in that narrow perspective. There's also an element of, Okay, used car prices are likely to increase with the tariffs as well, and that could hurt demand for used cars.
That could certainly pride some people out of market, and management was so uncertain of this environment that they did pull that guidance for vehicle sales, which is concerning to investors adding to the uncertainty. You can make the logical argument there for the interim of like, Okay, I understand what's happening here to CarMax. But I actually think that a little bit longer term, taking it one step further, we're likely to see similarly to what we saw during the pandemic that used car prices are likely to go up and that could price some people out of the market. But it's actually a boon for a lot of leaders in this space like CarMax, when the prices of used cars go up, especially in comparison to something like a new vehicle 'cause a new vehicles will also increase making used cars look relatively more attractive for consumers who can make a purchase plus higher cost means higher fees for CarMax. All of that is to say, I actually think they could make up some of the margin here, and the future may not be as negative for CarMax as some investors are pricing in today.
Ron Gross: All things considered, does CarMax go on your radar or you still go away?
Emily Flippen: If I had a radar stock this month that I thought was an attractive value that I could make a 22nd, 32nd pitch for it, CarMax would certainly be up there. Digging into it this morning and in preparation for our show here, it reminded me this is an incredibly strong, profitable company, market share leader with a lot of tailwinds if you're willing to hold and overlook some of the near term uncertainty.
Ron Gross: Sounds good. On Tuesday, RPM International reported fiscal third quarter results that came in weaker than expected, and the maker of Deglo and Rustleum blamed unfavorable weather conditions and said that sales would be flat in the fourth quarter. Matt, RPM does a lot of business overseas, so it's got the trade situation plus the weather to contend with. How the quarter look to you, and does it tell us anything about industrial activity in general?
Matt Argersinger: Well, lots of headwinds for RPM and lots of headwinds in general for industrial activity, even coming into this quarter and all the tariff news. Really two big challenges for them. They had record results last year in last year's fiscal third quarter, so comparisons are tough. But weather was a big problem in the quarter. If you don't know RPM, they serve primarily in the construction industry, and in much of the country, you had a fairly lengthy winter and then a lot of unusual storm activity in the south and the West, which really affected them. Slow housing market also continues to have an impact. That's been a story for a few years now. Until that picks up, RPM's consumer business is really going to struggle. Sales were down 3% overall. Pre tax operating profits, this is a business with high operating leverage we're down around 30%. With regard to tariffs, though, the good news for RPM is that they tend to be fairly insulated. For the most part, the company manufactures products in the countries or regions where it sells them. They do small amount of cross border activity. It sounds like a situation for RPM, where sales may be slightly down for the year with lower margins, but here is something, Ron, you and Emily can be excited about. RPM is acquiring the pink stuff.
Ron Gross: The pink.
Matt Argersinger: Which I'm sure, if you've ever done an industrial cleaning of a bathroom, you've definitely use or at least should use. So the pink stuff joins other cleaning products within RPM's portfolio, including Crud Cutter, Mean Green, and Contobum, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. That guy sounds like the 1927 Yankees when it comes to cleaning portfolio lineup.
Ron Gross: I love it. Alright, fools. We'll see you a little bit later in the show. Up next, an interview with Martin de los Santos. He's the CFO of Mercado Libre, E-commerce giant and the largest company in Latin America. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Ron Gross. Molly Fool senior analyst Asit Sharma caught up with Martin de los Santos, the CFO of Mercado Libre, a few weeks ago at our Market Volatility Summit. In this clip, you'll hear how Mercado Libre became resilient in the long term opportunities for Meli. Motley Fool members can access the full interview and replays from the event at live.fool.com.
Asit Sharma: Martin, I wanted to start. Just looking at this company in general, Mercado Libre has such a history of dealing with formidable challenges from hyperinflation and geopolitical events within Latin America to providing fintech and lending services to populations that often are new to the banking and credit systems. What makes Mercado Libre such a resilient business?
Martin de los Santos: Yes, we were founded back in '99, and we turned 25 years in 2024. With those 25 years, as you can imagine, in Latin America, operating in 19 different countries, we've seen it all. Things going sour very rapidly. Maybe Mezuela as an example, hyperinflation in Argentina, then things coming back as we are seeing it today, Brazil, Mexico. I think we went through a lot during those years. I would highlight a couple of things. First, we operate in commerce and Fintech in a region where there's a lot to be done in those two fronts. Production of commerce continues to be very low compared to other places. We are riding a secular trend of people moving online. The same with Fintech, I think the banks have done a really poor job of including financially, most of the population in Latin America, so that generates an opportunity for us. That's one thing. I will also highlight the culture of the company.
Our CEO, our chairman continues to be Marcos Galbrin, who was the founder of the company. Not only him, a lot of people were with him at the beginning continues to be with the company. We have a very strong culture of entrepreneurship, willingness to take risks. Many times in the history of our company, we have to reinvent ourselves or take big bets, and that's a big part of our success, a culture of excellence, execution, bringing good talent, teamwork internally while competing because we operating in very competitive markets to the outside. I think I would say that we operate in a region that has tremendous opportunities, both commerce and Fintech, and we also have a culture of executing and operating in Latin America that has helped us to be resilient and to be successful in this. Latin America, we came from being a start-up of five people in the garage 25 years ago to last year we became the most valuable company in Latin America, and we have done that I think by culture and execution and the quality of people that we brought into our team.
Asit Sharma: I liked one thing that you mentioned between the culture and the execution, which is the ability to take a risk, to take those big bets. How are things different now that you sit in the chair of a CFO to make sure that the bets have a commensurate payoff for the risk and also maybe in some cases to be the person who's encouraging the company to take those risks?
Martin de los Santos: It's not only my role. I think it's the role of the senior management team. We keep on thinking about the trade off between growth and profitability. In fact, we have a name for that within Meli we call it grow fit because we operating many different verticals have tremendous growth opportunities, but at the same time, they require investments. If you look at the history of the past five, six years, we improve significantly the profitability of our business. While at the same time, we continue to deliver very high growth in both in commerce, Fintech, advertising at the different verticals. However, when we look forward, we don't shy away from investing, even if in the short term, that might put some pressure on margins because the main thing for us is to make sure that we do capture those opportunities that we had ahead of us and not necessarily to maximize short term profits. We do have a long term perspective on the business, but that's a trade off that we do it all the time, deciding where to invest and sacrifice a little bit of margins to capture opportunities in the future, and the whole company and the whole senior management team is thinking in those terms. Then it does risk taking, I think it's the nature of our business.
You mentioned I used to run the credit business, which we started back in 2017. That's probably the ultimate one that you need to manage and to deal with risk, and we're very cautious in the way we manage that risk. But in other cases in the history of our company, maybe 15 years ago, we took a big bet on adapting our platform to mobile, and that required lot of risk and a mindset of really changing the way we were doing things. If we didn't do that, we wouldn't have a company today. Ten years ago, we started with logistics, which is critical for e-commerce solution. If you think about it ten years ago, we didn't touch one single package. Today, last year, we have 1.8 billion packages delivered through our own fulfillment infrastructure or logistic infrastructure. I think those type of beds that when you need to do when you need to take risk and make sure that you invest behind the long term growth opportunities, that's what differentiates mainly from other companies that might not be willing to take those risks.
Asit Sharma: I wanted to ask you about some overall metrics that you use as you look at the business. I used to work for a company where while we had so many drill down metrics, the owner would come in every day, and he said, I just need one number to run this business. Now, that wasn't true. You need more than one number to run a business. But it taught me something that people like yourself often Kean on a few metrics almost on a daily basis. How do you gauge the health of Mercado Libre from day to day?
Martin de los Santos: Yeah, we are a very data oriented company. Business reviews that are so deep in terms of analysis and data that is true. It's hard to keep up with all the businesses. It's very complex Mercado Libre today. So it's important to have some, big picture views, and then you can drill down whenever you see something that we want to go into more detail. Many different businesses, 19 different countries. You can imagine that the metrics are hundreds. But I would say that obviously, top line metric GMB on our commerce business is very important. Users, last year, I mentioned we have 100 million users, or 100 million buyers on our commerce platform. In terms of engagement, transactions per user is a metric that we follow very closely. That's on the commerce side. On the Fintech side, obviously number of users, 61 million monthly active users last quarter. TPV for the acquiring business, then credit book, asset and the mansion that has been growing more than 100% year and years, is a metric that is very important to see engagement with our platform and then frequency of use.
In Fintech is very important to have principality. We're seeing people who have engaged with more than one product and how often they engage with different products. That's something that we pay a lot of attention. Then the credit business, obviously, the traditional metrics, MPLs, the spreads of our books, the different books, and so on the repayment of our credit card, for instance, which is a product that you need to invest to build a cohort, I would say those. Obviously, financial metrics at the end of the quarter, at the end of each month are very important to see top line growth, as well as profit margins are the two ones, the two metrics that tells us how we are doing in terms of growth feed rate profitability, as well as growth.
Asit Sharma: Strategically, where you sit, where are you focusing the organization to create the most value when we look out over a very long time horizon? Is there a specific activity or investment that's going to create the greatest yield as we look beyond, say, the medium term that you like to talk about within the management team and encourage employees to think about?
Martin de los Santos: Very important to have an owner's mentality team. We operate. We are fortunate to operate in a platform in a company. That has, as we like to say, has more doors to be open, that has to open them. We have opportunities everywhere we see. In commerce, we're just getting started. Penetration is very low. We continue to grow at a very rapid pace north of 30% year and year, twice the speed of the market, so we're continuing to gain market share. Even after 25 years, we're growing at start-up rates. On Fintech in Mexico, less than half the population have a bank account. Less than 15% have a credit card. The opportunity is immense as well to continue growing. Advertising, we mentioned it before, everywhere you look at mainly there are opportunities. We are fortunate to have a lot of resources to take on those opportunities. 18,000 developers, a very well, very strong balance sheet to invest.
We generate lots of cash, even though we are investing in our business as well. I think the big challenge is when you don't have a clear constraint is how to make sure that you are investing in the right things. That represents not only choosing what to invest, but also choosing what not to do, not to get and also to make sure that you are investing on things that really have a good payout, and they actually result in growth going forward. That's something that continuously my team and my colleagues at the sea level are continuously looking at, at the end of the day is maintaining this growth feed mentality that we have been operating. We want to make sure that we hit the growth targets. While, not shying away from investing, even if in the short term, we might put some pressure on margins. We don't mind. We don't run the business on a quarter by quarter basis. We run the business for the next 25 years.
Ron Gross: Coming up after the break, Emily Flippen and Matt Argersinger return with a couple of stocks on their radar. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. 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. Don't buy r sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and are not approved by advertisers. The Motley Fool only picks products that it would personally recommend to friends like you. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money Ron Gross here with Emily Flippen and Matt Argersinger Fools, we've got time for two quick stories before we hit stocks on our radar. Let's start with the Walmart news on Wednesday, Walmart withdrew its earnings guidance, citing uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's newly imposed tariffs specifically on China. Emily, the health of Walmart can tell us a lot about the health of the consumer and, frankly, the economy as a whole. What did you take away from these actions by Walmart management?
Emily Flippen: Unfortunately, my takeaway is that things will likely get worse before they get better. The silver lining to this is that Walmart did reaffirm its sales guidance. They actually are perceived to have a little bit more clarity into how consumers are behaving versus what their bottom line may look like, which is obviously heavily impacted by things like tariffs and any negotiations there. Not only does Walmart really act as that bellwether for how consumers are behaving, but it's also really easy to forget that Walmart's a little bit of a bellwether and a leader for other businesses that look to Walmart for guidance. So many companies are likely watching Walmart's decision here to pull back guidance on their bottom line, and they could potentially adopt a very similar wait-and-see approach here as it applies to their own guidance. And that can almost turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic slowing and leading to a market sell-off all because of the cautiousness around things like earnings guidance. Now, I think that could be a dramatic interpretation, of course, and I'll just quickly mention that Walmart does have much more complex supply lines than a lot of other small businesses. Their certainty and clarity there could be more opaque than other companies. But the fact that they are a bellwether for both consumers, which we focus on, as well as other businesses is a bit of a red flag.
Ron Gross: The new Superman movie is scheduled to hit theaters this July. As listeners know, I am a Superman fanatic, really looking forward to it. Admittedly, the movies haven't always been so super, but there is a new sneak peek out there. I know you have both seen it, so I'm curious to ask. Do we have a hit on our hands or a dud? Did you have a favorite part of the sneak peek? I'll go to you first Matt.
Matt Argersinger: Well, how can you not love Krypto coming in there, Krypto the super dog, coming in to rescue Superman from whatever ails him in that particular scene. But no, look, I think it looks awesome. I think Gunn did a fantastic job with the Guardians of Galaxy movies. I like that he's bringing a lot of interesting characters into the Superman movie, including looks like Hawk Man's in there. Looks like Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern characters in there. I'm excited. I'm going to go see it with my son, for sure. Emily, a hit or a dud?
Emily Flippen: Well, let's put it this way. You're barking up the wrong tree, because I am not a superhero movie watcher. But I will say this. I watched the trailer at your bequest, and I didn't know the creepy CGI dog had a name. Nice to know.
Matt Argersinger: You don't know Krypto? A creepy CGI dog.
Emily Flippen: There's a lot of CGI in that trailer. CGI has come a long way. I don't know what I'm talking about, as it applies to CGI. I will say, it was obviously CGI, though. I do think it's a little bit of a red flag if you're having to bring in other superheroes to attract excitement. What does that say about Superman?
Ron Gross: Well, I am hopeful, and my favorite part is when the Fortress of solitude rises out of the snow as Superman gets closer, almost like it could sense where he was. I love that part. Very cool. Alright, Fools, a quick personal note before we hit stocks on our radar. This will be my last Motley Fool Money radio show. It has been the joy of my career to play a small part in the financial journey of as Chris Hill would say, our dozens of listeners. Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you for 16 wonderful years. Thank you all very much. I really appreciate it.
Matt Argersinger: Ron, can I just say?
Ron Gross: Yes, Matt.
Matt Argersinger: Sixteen years, actually, 17 years with the Motley Fool. You've been a colleague, a mentor, a leader, most of all, a friend. I wish you the very best in retirement, and we will do our very best. It will be a lot harder now, but we will do our very best to keep this show firing on all cylinders.
Ron Gross: [laughs] I appreciate that. Thanks, Martin. Very nice. Fools, we have time for a couple of stocks on our radar, so let's close out the show that way, and I will bring in our man Dan Boyd, to ask a question and pick his favorite. Emily, you're up first. What have you got?
Emily Flippen: I'm looking at Dexcom this week. It's nice to have a little bit of positive news in a world that is changing around us so rapidly. Some of the excitement here for Dexcom did get drowned out by tariff talk. But Dexcom did see a little bit of a revival this week because they did get FDA approval for their newest continuous glucose monitor that is a Dexcom G7. It could be worn for up to 15 days so that extending the life versus their previous model, it puts them in more direct competition with Abbott, who is one of their competitors, which also has the FreeStyle Libre, which can be worn up to 15 days. Ahead of Metronic. I definitely move in the right direction here for Dexcom. CGM penetration for diabetics worldwide is still so much lower than what it should be, considering the health benefits that it can bring. I will say, though, I always have in the back of my head, just the fear around a couple of things. One is weight loss drugs, leading to a decline in type 2 diabetes that could eat up some of the market here for Dexcom, as well as actually a potential cure for something like diabetes. That's further down the line, but a lot of research and time is being spent into it, considering it is such a deadly and expensive disease.
Ron Gross: Dan, you got a question or a comment?
Dan Boyd: Dexcom it's one of these companies that the name doesn't really match up with what they do. The name, to me, is, like, something out of Superman, very sinister. But what they do very good for society. I don't know what to do here, Emily.
Emily Flippen: That's a good point. I will say Abbott sharing its name with Abbott Elementary. Sounds like the friendlier of the options, but I like Dexcom more, despite the name.
Ron Gross: Matt, you're up. What have you got?
Matt Argersinger: Ron, I'm looking at RobinHood Markets. Ticker H-O-O-D. This is an unusual one for me. I just want to stress, this is a true radar stock, a company I'm just beginning to take a look at. But I heard a great interview with Robin Hood ' s chief brokerage officer last week. If you look at where young people, I'm talking mainly Emily's age, where they're going to open up brokerage accounts. It's not Fidelity. It's not Charles Schwab. It's certainly not Interactive Brokers where I tend to toil. It's Robin Hood. Nearly 26 million funded customers, many, I think most of which are in their 20s and 30s. When that large cohort of investors matures, starts opening retirement accounts, trust accounts, getting mortgages, doing more sophisticated trading. I think Robin Hood is really growing its offerings to like, a whole range of financial services. They also have the Robin Hood Gold membership, which is approaching three million accounts. It offers members higher levels of market data, greater margin access, could be dangerous, and then higher interest on cash and accounts. I have to say, I'm a shareholder in Schwab and I will probably be a shareholder in Schwab for a long time. But if I'm going to make a long term bet on a brokerage company, I might also want to have exposure to a brokerage company that has the most young people coming to it because it's likely to prosper right alongside that growth over time.
Ron Gross: Dan, got a question?
Dan Boyd: Yeah, when I hear Robin Hood, I associate it with meme stocks like GameStop and AMC and all that jazz. Is this a company that actually has legs, or is it just something that's going to be a flash in the pan?
Matt Argersinger: Dan, I thought the same thing. It's the meme stock brokerage. But the fact that they have 26 million funded customers, and that has continued growing way past the GameStop and AMC stuff that we saw several years ago, that gives you confidence that has long term staying power.
Ron Gross: I, too, am a Charles Schwab shareholder, not a Robin Hood one, but I'll take a look. Could be interesting. Dan, you got a favorite fear watch list?
Dan Boyd: Well, it really seems like Dexcom is, like, the smart choice, but Robin Hood, I feel like is the more interesting choice. Can I do both on your last day, Ron?
Ron Gross: You can do whatever you want, Dan. Both it is.
Dan Boyd: That's awesome.
Ron Gross: Emily Flippen and Matt Argersinger, thanks for being here, my friends. That's going to do it for this week's Motley Fool Money. Our tremendous engineer is Dan Boyd. I am Ron Gross. Thanks for listening. The Motley Fool Money Radio Show, we'll see you next week.
JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Charles Schwab is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Wells Fargo is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Asit Sharma has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Dan Boyd has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Emily Flippen, CFA has positions in Constellation Brands and MercadoLibre. Matthew Argersinger has positions in Boston Beer, Charles Schwab, MercadoLibre, and RPM International and has the following options: short May 2025 $45 puts on Delta Air Lines. Ron Gross has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Boston Beer, CarMax, Interactive Brokers Group, JPMorgan Chase, MercadoLibre, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Charles Schwab, Constellation Brands, Delta Air Lines, DexCom, and RPM International and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $65 calls on DexCom, short January 2027 $75 calls on DexCom, and short June 2025 $85 calls on Charles Schwab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.