Join Bill Gunderson and Barry Kider as they discuss the implications of the U.S.-China trade tensions that have been causing ripples across global markets. Discover insights into tariff policies, their broader economic consequences, and detailed evaluations of stock performance, including the likes of Disney, AMD, and others. This episode promises a comprehensive look at the interplay between international negotiations and stock market dynamics.
He’s been seen on CNBC, the Fox News Channel, and the Fox Business Channel. His articles can be found on MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, TheStreet.com, and many other places. He’s the author of the weekly Best Stocks Now newsletter and the inventor of the Best Stocks Now app. He’s president of Gunderson Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gunderson.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome to the Tuesday morning, May the 7th, 2025. It’s the China trade update version of the Best Stocks Now show today with professional money manager Bill Gunnarsson, president of Gunnarsson Capital Management. I’m here with Barry Kider, chartered financial analyst. And the China talks are probably why the market is up today. The Dow is up 230. Disney is helping the Dow. The NASDAQ is now up 62. It was up just a skosh. Now it’s up 62 points to 17,752. The S&P 500 is up 25 points right now to 5,632. Small caps are up 40 basis points. The 10-year is basically flat right now. The 10-year is trading at 4.30%.
SPEAKER 1 :
4.30%.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we’ll hear from our friendly Fed. Our friends at the Fed, sometimes they are, most of the times they’re not. Later today, whether or not we’ll get a rate cut or not, don’t count on it. The crude oil is down to $58.87. Gold is down almost a percent today after a new high yesterday. And last but not least, Bitcoin is up, risk on today, up 3,184 to 97,042. So welcome to today’s Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson, president of Gunderson Capital Management. And I’m here with Barry Kite, our chartered financial analyst. And we did have a weekday in the market yesterday. It’s kind of a rough day, actually, with the Dow down 390. Oh, and the NASDAQ down 154. I think it’s not a lot of progress being made between the U.S. and China. But wait, wait a minute. Breaking news last night, right? Didn’t I say there would be something would give this week? Because it’s virtually come to a standstill. I mean, I look out here at the Wando River. It’s just as calm as could be right now. There’s no transactions taking place. There’s no ships being unloaded. It’s just very, very quiet. But top officials from the U.S. and China to hold trade talks on Saturday in Geneva. The futures were up quite a bit last night on this news, and then I think it’s kind of like buy the rumor and then sell the news, and we really don’t know how well that’s going to go, but that’s a major breakthrough.
SPEAKER 06 :
In Switzerland, not a bad backdrop for trade talks, right? I mean, you know, Besson’s been to Davos, I’m sure, a few times along the way.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and Switzerland’s always been kind of the neutral party where people like to meet and discuss differences between them. But senior officials… Now, I don’t think Trump’s going to be there, but senior officials from U.S. and China are set to meet in a neutral third-party country, Switzerland, this Saturday for crucial trade talks. Maybe I’ll go to represent Best Docs Now show at the Switzerland talks. The meeting is aimed at easing the escalating trade tensions between the two nations. This is the first official interaction. since Trump announced broad tariffs in April, which led to a global market meltdown and a string of retaliatory actions from Beijing. Now, I did notice for the first time today, I went on Amazon to reorder something that I’ve been using, and it wasn’t there anymore. And I have to believe, I mean, it’s a pretty common thing, and I’m pretty sure it probably comes from China, and all of a sudden it’s not there. It says temporarily out of stock or not available. I just went to reorder it. I’ve got to believe that the… The inventory is starting to be used up that’s here in the U.S. And, of course, anything that arrives now and is unloaded is subject to 140% tariff. And they’re waiting for you at the port. To inspect your – I’d like to go down there and see that. I don’t know anybody that works at the port. Maybe you know somebody.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, well, no, yeah. I mean, my wife’s dad used to have a trucking company, and the trick is you can’t – because I asked him. I’m like, I’d like to just ride through there to see the automation, right, and obviously go from the front all the way through and then come out with a load, right? And there’s no – Really, I think probably since 9-11, but there’s no ride-along. From a security purposes standpoint, they won’t let you out there. It’s crazy. It’s kind of locked down like Air Force bases.
SPEAKER 07 :
I could watch from my boat and a pair of binoculars.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, you certainly can do that, right? Just follow the load.
SPEAKER 07 :
Inspect those containers, right? I mean, they must inspect, open them up, what’s in them, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER 06 :
You’ve got some that are hazardous. You’ve got some that are refrigerated, right? They come in all the same shape usually.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, all the same shape. They were talking about the 4th of July this year, how we might not have fireworks because all the fireworks come from China, right?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think it was like 90. I think I saw a stat. It was like 97%, yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. Well, I have a big box of leftovers. So at least if there’s not a show in Charleston, you can come to my house and watch. We’ll be blasting some into the river on the 4th of July. Well, right now, here’s where the tariffs sit. The tariffs against China are at 145%. So figure it out. A $10 item would be $29, right? Am I figuring that out right? Yes. $29 to pay $19 in tariff, which goes to the U.S. Treasury, I guess, and the other $10 goes for the product. I don’t think anybody’s going to buy any. That’s why I say it’s at a standstill.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, essentially, you hear this term, it’s essentially a de facto embargo, right? Yeah. I mean, from that standpoint.
SPEAKER 07 :
This is like the Civil War, really, kind of, with all of the taxes they placed on the cotton and stuff, the indigo that was being produced here in South Carolina. China’s tariffs on the U.S., 125, so something that cost you $10 would now cost you, let’s see, $22.50, right? $22.50. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer will meet their counterparts. Well, that’s a heavyweight team there.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, that’s when I saw that news come across the wire. And then I was like, when is it going to be? Because Besson is in front of Congress or part of Congress today, the second day in front of that. So he probably can’t wait to get to Switzerland.
SPEAKER 07 :
Headed for Switzerland, Vice Premier He Leifang, widely regarded as China’s chief economic policymaker and trade negotiator, will represent China. My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, Besson told Fox News Channel’s The Ingram Angle after the announcement. We’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward. This is not sustainable, said Besson, as I have said before, especially on the Chinese side. Like you said, Barry, 145% and 125% is the equivalent of an embargo. We don’t want to decouple. What we want is fair trade, said Besson. And I would just say this. I mean, China, you know, okay, we’re buying a lot from them. And they charge a tariff on a lot of the items that we would like to sell to them. And they’ve either got to drop their tariffs completely, and we drop our tariffs completely, or there’s going to be some kind of reciprocal tariff. China, if you charge 10%, we’ll charge 10%, something like that. We don’t want to decouple. I mean, that’s obvious, right?
SPEAKER 06 :
We need them. They need us. And that was part of those. What I liked about the interview where I heard him speak here recently was, you know, talking about decoupling. And he says, you know, there’s certain things we don’t want to decouple on, right? Trinkets, you know, things that, you know, things that, you know, they’re made in China that we don’t really want to necessarily move production here to produce. And then there’s things that they do want to decouple on, especially things that we actually need, especially if you’re in a COVID-type situation or some kind of, just for national security purposes, they’re trying to bring that production back to the U.S.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, and here’s China’s side of the story. If the U.S. wishes to resolve issues through negotiation, it must face up. In other words, admit to, kind of grovel a little bit, must face up to the severe negative impacts of its unilateral tariff measures. Well, China, you’ve had unilateral tariff measures on us, on itself and the world. Acknowledge international economic trade rules. Are there international trade rules? I don’t know. Fairness and justice and the rational voices of all sectors. They must demonstrate sincerity in negotiation, correct its wrongdoings, and work with China like it’s all our fault. I think Besson’s the right guy to send. I really do. I like him a lot. So we’ll see what happens. We’ll be right back. And welcome back here to the second quarter of today’s Best Docs Now show. Well, I can tell you that Cleveland is filling up very rapidly, as I expected, as I warned. And if you want to reserve an appointment with us, You need to do it fairly soon. We’re just two weeks out. You can call Edie at 855-611-BEST, 855-611-BEST. We’ve also got a nice crowd lining up for the workshop on Tuesday night. You better reserve a spot as it is filling up. 855-611-BEST, 855-611-BEST will get you a reservation to the workshop and or a personal appointment with the team you hear on the radio. It sounds like we’re going to all be there. on Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, I’m encouraged by these trade talks. Blessed are the peacemakers. Switzerland’s always been a land that’s tried to accommodate the peacemakers. Let’s see if two sides with big differences between them can come together I like Besson a lot. I see him as a peacemaker. I don’t see him as giving up the farm either. I think just, you know, let’s come away with something that works for both countries and go on with life.
SPEAKER 06 :
And he’s had plenty of Chinese investment experience as well. I’m sure he has.
SPEAKER 07 :
He knows how to deal with them, and they know how to deal with him, I would think. So let’s all hope that things go well. Okay, now let’s talk about some stocks here that are in the news. Palantir, I want to follow up with Palantir. It was down 13% yesterday. I just think that it’s a very expensive stock. It went a long ways in a short period of time. And, you know, it’s vulnerable. Even though their report was good, it was down 12% or 13%. It is rebounding today. It’s up 2.3%. So still about 10% off of its high. I did read today, and I agree with this assessment from a technical point of view. It’s a classic double top. It reached its old high that it set back in February. Then it went on a big swoon, and now it’s back at that high. So that is a double top right there. Now, when you hit a double top like that, there’s two ways it can go. It can stall out, which it did. It stalled out now here for two days at that top, old top. And it can refuse to go through there, and that can be massive resistance, or it can break on through to the other side, as Jim Morrison said, and go on to new highs, all right? We’ll just have to wait and see. I cannot tell you what it’s going to do.
SPEAKER 06 :
A couple of ways to look at it, too, because you could almost pick out a little – you know head and shoulder there too and then of course that that right shoulder is the one where it took back off and then of course now we’re coming a little bit back down so now it kind of turns that uh head and shoulder back into a potential double top right and uh keep in mind that its p e ratio is 237 but it’s probably you know like you say it’s the operating system for ai
SPEAKER 07 :
So the future is very bright. You’re paying a lot of money for a star player in the fastest growing industry in the entire market, no question about it. Now, this brings to mind another issue here is the need to power. Now, they kind of backed off from the nuclear during the sell-off, the Trump tariff sell-off, and now the nuclear is starting to catch bids again and doing quite well. Yesterday, Constellation had a good day. SMR had a good day. Oklo had a good day. Why? Well, there were a couple of earnings reports yesterday. And there’s one today that has reported, Vistra, which is the Texas nuke company. Vistra is down 6.7%, however. Constellation had a breakout yesterday, very good day. It’s down 1.8%. But the Trump administration will seek to speed up. nuclear deployment well there’s not much they can do other than grease the skids from a uh… environmental impact regulation point of view uh… because you know it takes a lot of time to build and i have read and i believe it is going to be twenty thirty before any new nuclear comes online That’s five years out. So, you know, that’s the problem with investing in nuclear right now, unless one of these portable ones. I don’t know. There are two countries out there. Russia has a little smaller nuclear reactor, and so does China. And now we’re joining the fray with Oklo and SMR. I don’t know when they’ll have theirs out and actually be deploying those things, but I think it’s still several years out. Executive orders could seek to leverage the Department of Defense’s Army Reactor Office and Department of Energy. Both have the authority to regulate reactor development to avoid any licensing delays from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. So that’s what I said. He’s going to grease the skids. And I think it’s a good investment to make in nuclear, but you also have to realize that it’s not going to happen this year or next year. Cisco unveils a quantum chip. We haven’t heard much about quantum lately. Not since… Jensen Wang pretty much stuck a knife in the heart of the burgeoning quantum computing sector.
SPEAKER 06 :
He threw some water on computer chips.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, he went out further than 2030, it seems like. He went way out to like 2040 or something like that before there’s anything… But Cisco’s going to throw their hat in the ring. They need to do something. Cisco has been a pretty soggy stock here for a long, long time. And Cisco’s up a little bit on that news, not much. Okay, the big news today and this week, earnings, earnings, earnings. But wait a minute. Before we get to the earnings, let’s not forget that we’re going to get a big announcement around 2.30 p.m. today, and the earth is going to shake, right? The Fed, that’s usually at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time when the Fed says there will be no change in interest rates, and you’ll hear Trump holler from Washington, D.C., or wherever he’s at, And then the Fed will answer questions. And I think the tariffs are on pause for 90 days. I don’t know how many days we’re into that. Maybe there’s 70 days left. That’s not China. That’s other areas of the world. And I think he’s going to put the cuts, the interest rate cuts on hold, too, along with those tariffs. I think they’re both on hold. And I don’t think we’ll get a rate cut today. I would be shocked if we did. The market would certainly celebrate if we got one. And I don’t think we’ll get one at the next meeting either until this whole tariff stuff. We’re 140% on China right now, and they’re at 120%. I can’t see him giving us a rate cut in the midst of all that. Now, when we come back, Disney… AMD, Oscar Health, Novo Nordisk, Vistra, CrowdStrike, Arista, all in the news today with earnings. We’ll be right back. This is Bill Gunderson. Thank you for tuning in to today’s Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. I put several hours of research in during the wee hours of the morning each day to bring you the very best cutting-edge stories that I can To get two free weeks of my newsletter, go to GuntersonCapital.com. To talk to us about our fee-based only money management services, call us at 855-611-BEST. Now, back to the second half of the show. Call out the instigator Because there’s something in the air
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve got to get together sooner or later.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back here to the second half of today’s Best Docs Now show. And we begin with Disney. And that’s the main reason that the Dow is up right now. In fact, let’s just get an update here on the Dow. The Dow is up 208 points. or a half a percent. And Disney actually came in and beat their earnings estimates. Disney’s up 10.4% today. I mean, that’s like the biggest move I’ve seen in a long, long time in Disney. I don’t know what… I saw a headline this morning.
SPEAKER 06 :
Big on the theme park, right? So theme park business better than expected, and then the um other side of that streaming streaming turned out uh better uh better than expected which i thought in terms of the movie studio i thought they’ve had a couple of duds along the way so i was wondering how that was yeah that’s no i want to kind of read just to play with the uh just to see you know what the you know what those numbers were from a movie standpoint but yeah the the part that’s moving the stock is on the On the theme park, kind of that core business, and then, of course, the piece of the growth engine being the Disney Plus.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, here’s the bottom line with Disney, okay? There’s the beauty of the Best Stocks Now app. Whether you’re using the Apple version, the Android version on your iPhone, I use the online version, which is beststocksnowapp.com. It’s the truth teller. Okay, so, you know, whatever they say in the news conference and in the questions and, you know, what a great quarter, blah, blah, blah. Over the last 10 years, an investment in Disney. Which, if I’m not mistaken, don’t they own ABC News?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, yeah, ABC, ESPN. ESPN? At one point, there’s not a lot they don’t own. Pixar.
SPEAKER 07 :
ABC slants every headline that they can, so I have a problem with that. Ten-year average. Here’s Mr. CEO. It’s been Iger and someone else, and now it’s Iger again over that ten-year period of time. What have you delivered to these shareholders that have been invested in your company? Negative 1% per year for the last 10 years. Negative. So what, 100 grand has turned into like 90 grand. You’ve lost 1% a year over the last 10 years. That’s dismal. Over the last five years, it’s 1.6% per year. And I’ve seen one misstep right after another. from my point of view. You’re dealing with young families. I grew up when Disney was like king. In the early days, when I was maybe 10, 11, 12 years old, we lived next to a drive-in theater. That’s all they played were Disney movies. And everyone was sold out. I mean, they would camp out in line, Barry, to get into that Disney movie. And I knew right where all the horns were going to honk at 9.30 p.m. when the such and such happens.
SPEAKER 06 :
And Disney just ruled. Because guess what? You weren’t going to watch it on VHS at that particular time, right? No. Drive-in movie. You had to be at the theater.
SPEAKER 07 :
Laying down in this station wagon. And people would pack their cars full of kids and popcorn and blankets. And Disney was king. Over the last three years, it’s gotten even worse. Minus 6.1% per year.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that doesn’t include COVID years, by the way, those three, you know, because we’re only looking three years back, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And really, they should have benefited, well, not so much the theme parks. But over the last 12 months, the stock’s down 18%. So I call it a real stinker. Yes, it would have been a candidate for a value, but, you know, I only buy best stocks now that are on sale, that are value, that are relative value. You may be shocked at those numbers, but those are the numbers. i mean i look at uh their earnings uh back in 2018 they were more back then than they are today and i just see the stock has gone nowhere over the last 10 years so anyways i’m going to look at a monthly chart just to make sure uh 10 years ago yep it’s at the same spot it was at 10 years ago only a little lower okay Now, let’s go to the next one. Disney did beat their top line and bottom line estimate, and they initiated Q3, and they updated FY25. And they may – I don’t know if they mentioned the tariffs, but to watch a Disney – no, it’s going to be the other way around. If we want to watch a foreign movie, we’re going to have to pay a tariff. But it shouldn’t affect Disney. I mean, they can watch a Disney movie and not pay – I don’t know how that’s going to work in China.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I saw something where a lot of different, in terms of the movie making business, at some point you may get some type of shot from overseas, right? Or you do some editing overseas or vice versa. So it’s a lot like a… you know, like a part that comes from overseas and then gets plugged into a, you know, into some kind of widget. Well, you know, it could potentially, and I don’t know how it’s going to work out yet, but potentially part of that movie, right, could be subject to a tariff. Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you just go out of the room during that part of the movie to avoid the tariff, make your popcorn, whatever.
SPEAKER 06 :
And a lot of the movie making business has, I mean, you know, a lot of the, you know, the, you know, I saw some stories on just a lot of the movie making business has moved overseas, not just because you need some mountain backdrop necessarily that you’re looking for, but also just from a labor standpoint. Like I said, some of the editing and other things, it’s just been cheaper to do it, say, overseas than it is, of course, to do it in Hollywood. That’s a problem.
SPEAKER 07 :
Trump has a problem with that, I guess. Okay, AMD, all right. They had a good report. Very good report. Their sales were up 36%, and their earnings were up 55%. I think they knocked the ball out of the park, and yet the stock is absolutely dead flat in the water today. And I think there’s still worries over the whole China situation with certain chips not being available for the Chinese. And AMD, I guess, is under… Stress, they impress Wall Street, but China worries and their AI concerns.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, because they’ve been behind. I mean, certainly have been behind on that. They’re not even in the conversation anymore. You know, it’s Nvidia and everyone else, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
And the CEO of AMD, Lisa Su, is a cousin of Jensen Wang.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And you would think that they must not talk to him. He must keep that NVIDIA chip recipe really undercover. AMD numbers were good, says Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore. The argument could be made that the client numbers are too good in an environment of fear. AI and traditional server matters more, and they’re doing well there. But anyways, the stock is dead flat in the water after a really good report. Now, here’s a blast from the past. We don’t currently own Oscar Health, but we did well with Oscar Health, and it is having a huge day. It’s up 25% today. And that is the old CEO of Aetna who made a lot of money for investors because Aetna ended up getting bought out by CVS. I owned Aetna when it was bought out. And then he got bored sitting on the sidelines watching Disney movie stream, and he went to work for Oscar Health, which is backed by, you know, not Trump’s sons, his son-in-law. The Kirshners are involved in Oscar Health. And they had a beautiful report. Their sales were up 67% and their earnings were up 40%, 48% in a tough environment. You know, it’s been difficult for UnitedHealthcare and for Humana and for Cigna and others. And Oscar comes in and they’re doing something a little bit different. And they knocked the ball out of the park. That stock’s trading at just 16 times forward earnings. I should have owned it in the value, but I’m just down on the sector right now.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, there’s so many. To me, the regulatory risk, right? I mean, where’s one of the places, right, if you want to save some money? some money from a federal government standpoint, right? It certainly, you know, is on the health care side. That’s a big expense for the U.S. So, you know, reimbursements, other things for health care, you know, are certainly, you know, potentially on the chopping block. And so when you translate that into the health care sector, it creates a good bit of uncertainty in terms of the backdrop.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, absolutely. Okay, and the next one here, Novo Nordisk. Lily was down big yesterday. I don’t know what was up with Lily. They did not meet their earnings estimates, and they did warn. You know, I was talking actually with the doctor yesterday. She said a lot of her clients are getting charged $900 to $1,000 a month for these weight loss drugs. That’s one of the problems, but Novo Nordisk is up 3% today. We do own that in our value, relative value portfolio. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’ve got to go where you want to go and do what you want to do and do it.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back here to the final segment of today’s Best Stocks Now show. A little add-on to that Novo Nordisk NVO story. They said that this is why the stock is up today. Even though their sales were down, let me see what their quarter here looks like. Novo Nordisk has lost quite a bit of sales to the compounders, but that window, well, their earnings were up 21% and their sales were up 22%. That’s all their products. They have a lot more than just Wegovy. But they’re saying that their diet drug, Wagovi, should start rebounding because the loophole closes next month after the FDA declared an end to the U.S. shortage of semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in Wagovi. Novo said this will lead to a recovery in the drug’s sales.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and they also mentioned, right, when was it, last week, where they’re going to team up with him and hers in terms of distribution of the drug, preferably at a cheaper price, it seems. You’re talking about $9,000, $1,000. I mean, you’re talking about folks who were already on, say, the Lilly drug, right? And then, of course, folks who were at Compounders, I mean, they’re paying $300 to $400, somewhere in there. So just to think that, okay, there’s no more compounding, I’m going to hop over to the $1,000 drug, right? I mean, that’s a bit of a jump.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think the price is going to start coming down. It’s going to need to, I believe. If you have sleep apnea or diabetes indications, you can get help. and a much lower price uh also uh you know lily’s drug outsells wagovi and uh you do have the issue with the possible tariffs seeing how novo nordisk is a company in the netherlands i think they’re manufacturing i think they’re manufacturing the drug here in the u.s though at least they announced
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, they announced probably a month ago now that they were going to increase production. They were in the process of increasing production here in the U.S. Essentially, they probably announced that in hopes that there isn’t going to be a tariff at some point or preparing against it. So they’ve taken some steps to kind of hopefully avoid that whenever those kind of things get announced.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and I’m talking with the doctor yesterday. I asked her, I said, you know, from my perspective, the number one health problem we have in America is obesity. She said 100%. She has so many clients and patients that are morbidly overweight or overweight. But they can’t afford, you know, unless they’ve got sleep. I’m sure you just have to go get tested for sleep apnea. And I don’t know. You used to have to go to a lab and spend the night.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, it used to be, I was going to say, pretty intensive. I think nowadays there’s easier ways to do it. With a monitor of some sort. You can do a sleep study at the house, basically, instead of having to be monitored.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, just play with the little thing that’s plugged in, you know, or stop breathing off and on. You’ll get the discount on the Wagovi. Okay, now, Vistra. All right, Vistra reported. Constellation had a great report. On Monday, today Vistra is down 6.8%. They lost money. I don’t know what it was. I’d have to read through it. Maybe they had a one-time thing. But they had an operating loss of $200 million. on revenue of $620 million. So I have to read through that. We do own Vistra in one of our portfolios. Now, the last one, or the other one here that I’m going to talk, well, there’s two more I’ll try to get in here before the close. Uber, let’s mention Uber. Uber reported that’s a pretty big company in today’s economy. It’s down 1.3%. And then you’ve got CrowdStrike that I consider it to be that and Palantir are two of the best software stocks out there. CrowdStrike has also done a classic double top. It’s got the same exact chart pattern as Palantir does. It’s down 4.8%, but they had a monster report. But, you know, the problem is with these high PE, high beta stocks, Their earnings were only up 8%. That’s not very good. Their sales were up 25%. That’s good sales growth, but all of a sudden their margins are decreasing. I’ve got to look into that. Maybe I’ll have Jeff. Jeff, why are CrowdStrike’s margins, is it just a temporary thing? That’s not very good, 8% growth in earnings. There’s something wrong there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and I saw what they – I think they announced they’re going to lay off – I think it’s 5% of the workforce. And, you know, I’ve heard some of this in terms of down the road for AI where, you know, AI is doing – can do a good bit of the programming, right? And so some of the – you know, some of your IT workers, you know, at some point, right, may get – and may get crowded out by some AI programming. And so that’s over. They announced a 5% workforce. I’m going to look in to see who they’re actually laying off. My guess is probably not sales folks.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s a competitive product. I mean, you’ve got Palo Alto. You’ve got crowds. I don’t know if they all do have their own little niche and do something different. You have Palantir. You have a lot of cybersecurity companies that have large sales forces that are competing one with another. Datadog, ZS, Zscaler, there’s a lot of them. And I’m sure there’s a big difference in the price, but for some reason you’re seeing some margin shrinkage here. And it may be just something temporary that they’re working out at CrowdStrike. And the last one is Arista Networks, which has been a good one, but it’s down 6.7% today too. It’s doing a double top. So a lot of these AI stocks, which have been on fire for the last two or three weeks and have led to this major recovery into the market, Now they’re extended, they’re running into resistance, and they’re expensive. Okay, well, we’re out of time. You know, Cleveland is filling up just like I said it would. If you want to grab an appointment with us, the team that you hear on the radio, call 855-611-BEST. It’s two weeks from yesterday and today, May 20 and 21st at the Marriott in Warrensville. And the workshop is Tuesday night at 7 p.m. That’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait for that. Call 855-611-BEST to get the four-week trial to the app, the newsletter, and all the, you know, wise and sells that I make for the next four weeks. Go to GundersenCapital.com. GundersenCapital.com. Have a great day, everybody.
SPEAKER 04 :
This show is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Bill Gunderson or clients of Gunderson Capital Management may have long or short positions in stocks mentioned during the show. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Gunderson Capital Management is a fee-based registered investment advisory firm. All accounts are held at Charles Schwab. Schwab is a member of SIPC and FINRA.
