Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - Tariffs, Trump, and Turmoil

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Today we talk economic uncertainty, airlines, building materials, and assorted spirits. Motley Fool Senior Analyst Asit Sharma caught up with Martín de los Santos, the CFO of MercadoLibre, a few weeks ago for The Motley Fool's Market Volatility Summit. They talked about how MercadoLibre became resilient, and the long-term opportunities for the company. And Emily and Matt share two stocks on their radar. Host: Ron Gross Guests: Emily Flippen, Matt Argersinger, Asit Sharma, Martín de los Santos Engineer: Dan Boyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

T is for tariffs, Trump, and turmoil. Motley Fool Money starts now. Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees. 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 are senior analysts Emily Flippen and Matt Argesinger.

Fools, how you doing? Ron? Doing all right. Doing all right. Glad to hear it. Today, we're going to talk banks and assorted spirits, but we must, 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. And Emily, I am truly exhausted, but let's dig in. Where are we now from an economic and markets perspective? And I know you don't have a crystal ball, but where do you think we're going? Well, if financial media has anything to say about it, it's straight to hell in 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 markets, the earlier inflation metrics that we got out earlier this week were 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, okay, 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. And 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 win for this week. And what about from the markets? Do you think the markets are just nervous, don't like uncertainty? You know, 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? 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. So 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 example. That would be certainty. But I'll tell you what, I bet the stock market would sell off. Not the good kind. Understood. Matt, U.S. 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? Sitting back is very good advice. Watching it unfold, I don't know. I mean, 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-year yield crossed about 4.5%. But guess where we are today as we tape on Friday. Back above 4.5%, Ron. And if you go back to April 2nd, which was Liberation Day, as the administration called it, the 10-year was just above 4%. So we're up 50 basis points in a week. And that's through all this market dislocation. I mean, 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 kind of hinted at this. I mean, if countries like China, Japan, the 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 U.S. 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. 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 6% or 7% as they are now, but 8%, 9%, 10%. I think it also spells big trouble for small, mid-sized 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. 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. So I think it really could mean bad news for the economy. So 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. Yeah, I was going to say that 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. So 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 met lots of data, plenty of commentary from the CEOs. What stood out to you in these reports?

Well, the results, you said it, Ron, the results were actually really solid. The problem is, no one really cares about that right now. I mean, it's really all about guidance and kind of how these CEOs are thinking about the environment post-terrorist, post-liberation day, and what they see going forward. And so, here's what they're saying. If you look at CEO Jamie Diamond, CEO of the largest U.S. bank, J.P. 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 Q1 results, quote, the economy is facing considerable turbulence, potential negatives of tariffs and trade wars, end quote, ongoing

sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits, and still rather high asset prices and volatilities. What else he said. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf, quote, we support the administration's willingness to look at barriers to fair trade with the United States, though there are certainly risks associated with such significant actions. Timely resolution, which benefits the U.S., 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, end quote. And then Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, which I think is now the world's largest asset manager, quote, the sweeping tariff announcements went further than I could have imagined in my 49 years in finance, end quote. And then in an

interview on CNBC, he also said, quote, I think we're very close, if not in a recession now, end quote, talking about, of course, the U.S. economy. So in sum... Thanks for cheering us up, Matt. Well, there you go. So yeah, let me sum it up, too. These tariffs 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. And remember, these are the banks some 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 not exactly, you know, it's kind of sobering when you look at it in terms of what they're seeing. On Wednesday, Constellation Brands reported fourth quarter results that beat expectations, but a weak full year earnings outlook that focused on the impact of yes, tariffs was the focus. Emily, how'd the quarter look to you? And is it possible for us to remove tariffs from this conversation and focus on the business or they are so intertwined that we just can't do that? I actually think that tariffs are maybe the least interesting thing happening to Constellation Brands business today. And I understand why the narrative was around

tariffs. It's like you can't open up an internet browser without being slapped across the face with news about tariffs and how they're going to be impacting companies. And 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 and an otherwise weak environment. So 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. And they're selling some of their wine brands, Cooks, Naomi. Is that a good move? You like that? I do. They're actually almost entirely divesting of their wine and spirits business. And if you look at their performance on an earnings per share, non-adjusted basis for this 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. So 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 synergies right now and focusing on what works, which is obviously the Corona, the Modelo, the Pacificos. Those have an audience that are way more loyal than, not to be offensive to Naomi, of which I love their wine, is a bit more loyal coming up we'll talk airlines building materials and used cars you're listening to motley fool money in toronto every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this cadillac optic was the number one selling luxury ev in canada for 2025 find your rhythm across a seamless 33 inch display and an immersive 19 speaker akg surround audio system this city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary let's take the

Cadillac. Find out more at cadillaccanada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle total registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Ron Gross here with Emily Flippen and Matt Argesinger. 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.

And 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? Well, let's try, Ron. So 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 flowed in the quarter, paid down about $500 million in long-term debt. So all fairly positive and kind of 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 right. Maybe not so much. Because even if you go back a month ago, Delta had actually guided for 6% to 8% revenue growth this quarter. So that's a big come down from that. And according to Bastian, 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. That, as you mentioned, Ron, that has now changed. They're not reaffirming that full-year outlook anymore. The company has pulled its guidance. It's still expected 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 and what travel demand is going to look like, say, over the next six to nine 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. On Thursday, CarMax reported worse than expected fourth quarter results. While it said it was making progress towards its financial goals, it will remove the timelines associated with them due to the potential impact of broader

macro factors. And 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. Yeah, I actually think the business is doing a lot better than people expect, especially, again, given the narrative right now. And 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 price some people out of markets. 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. So 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 the space like CarMax when the

prices of used cars go up, especially in comparison to something like a new vehicle, because new vehicles will also increase, making used cars look relatively more attractive for consumers who can make a purchase. Plus, higher costs means higher fees for CarMax. So 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. So all things considered, does CarMax go on your radar or are you staying away? If I had a radar stock this month that I thought was an attractive value that I could make a 20-second, 30-second pitch for, 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. Sounds good. On Tuesday, RPM International reported fiscal third quarter results that came in weaker than expected. And the maker of Dayglo and Rust-Oleum 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'd the quarter look to you? And does it tell us anything about industrial activity in general? 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 got tough. The weather was a big problem in the quarter. If you don't know RPM, they serve primarily the construction industry. 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. The slow housing market also continues to have an impact. That's been the story for a few years now. Until that picks up, RPM's consumer business is really going to struggle. So, sales were down 3% overall. Pre-tax operating profits, this is a business with high operating leverage, were 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 a small amount of cross-border activity. So, it sounds like a situation for RPM where sales might 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, which I'm sure if you've ever done an industrial cleaning of a bathroom, you've definitely used or at least should use. The pink stuff joins other cleaning products within RPM's portfolio, including Crud Cutter, Mean Green, and Conctobium, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. That guy sounds

like the 1927 Yankees when it comes to cleaning portfolio lineup. I love it. All right, 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, an 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. Motley 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 and the long-term opportunities for Melly. Motley Fool members can access the full interview and replays from the event at live.fool.com. 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. So, what makes MercadoLibre such a resilient business? Yes. I mean, we were founded back in 1999, and we turned 25 years in 2024. So, 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 Venezuela as an example, hyperinflation in Argentina, then things coming back as we're seeing it today, Brazil, Mexico. So 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, right? Competition of commerce continues to be very low compared to other places. So 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. So that's one thing. I will also highlight the culture of the company. Our CEO, our chairman continues to be Marcos Galperin, who was the founder of the company. But not only him, a lot of people who were with him at the beginning continues to be with the company.

So 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're operating in very competitive markets to the outside. So 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. I mean, in Latin America, we came from being a startup of five people in a garage 25 years ago to last year, we became the most valuable company in Latin America. And we have done that by, I think, by culture and execution and the quality of people that we brought into our team. 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? Yeah, 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 Melly, we call it GrowFit because we operate in many different verticals that have tremendous growth opportunities, but at the same time, they require investments. So if you look at the history of the past five, six years, we improved significantly the profitability of our business while at the same time we continue to deliver very high growth in both 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 right deciding whether 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 is thinking in those terms then in terms of risk taking i think it's the nature of our business right we 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 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 a lot of risk and a mindset of really changing the way we were doing things. And if we didn't do that, we wouldn't have a company today. 10 years ago, we started with logistics, which is critical for e-commerce solution. If you think about it, 10 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. So in those type of bets, when you need to take risks 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. 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 key in on a few metrics almost on a daily basis. So how do you gauge the health of MercadoLibre from day to day? Yeah, we are a very data-oriented company. I mean, we'll go to business reviews that are so deep in terms of analysis and data that that is true.

It's hard to keep up with all the businesses. It's a very complex MercadoLibre 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. So it's many different businesses, 19 different countries. So you can imagine that the metrics are hundreds. But I would say that, obviously, top-line metrics, you know, GMB on our commerce business is very important. Users, last year I mentioned we have 100 million users, 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. TPD for the acquiring business, then credit book, asset under management that has been growing more than 100% year on year.

It's a metric that is very important to see engagement with our platform. And then frequency of use. In fintech, it's very important to have principality. So 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. And then the credit business, obviously the traditional metrics, MPLs, the spreads of our books, the different books and so on, the repayments of our credit card, for instance, which is a product that you need to invest to build cohorts. I would say those. And 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. Those are the two metrics that tell us how we are doing in terms of growth fit, right? Profitability as well as growth. And 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? Very important to have an owner's mentality. We are fortunate to operate in a platform, in a company that has, as we like to say,

has more doors to be opened than has to open them. We have opportunities everywhere we see. In commerce, we're just getting started. The penetration is very, very low. We continue to grow at a very rapid pace, north of 30% year on year, twice the speed of the market. So we continue to gain market share. Even after 25 years, we're growing at startup rates.

On fintech, in Mexico, less than half the population have a bank account. Less than 15% have a credit card. So the opportunity is immense as well to continue growing. Advertising, we mentioned it before. Everywhere you look at Melly, there are opportunities. We're fortunate to have a lot of resources to take on those opportunities. 18,000 developers, a very strong balance sheet to invest. we generate lots of cash even though we're investing in our business as well so i think

that the bigger 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 and that that represents not only choosing what to invest but also choosing what not to do right now not to get and also to make sure that you are investing on things that really have a good payout right and they actually result in growth going forward. So that's something that continuously me, my team, and my colleagues at the C-level are continuously looking at. And at the end of the day, it's maintaining this road 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 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 in every heart there is a home a sanctuary safe and strong to heal the wounds from lovers past 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, so don't buy or 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 Argesinger. Fools, we've got time for two quick stories before we hit stocks on our radar. So 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? 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. So they actually have or perceive 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. So 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. And 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 kind of 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. So 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. The new Superman movie is scheduled to hit theaters this July. As some listeners know, I am kind of a Superman fanatic. I'm 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? And did you have a favorite part of the sneak peek? I'll go to you first, Matt. Well, I mean, how can you not love Crypto coming in there? Crypto the super dog coming in to rescue Superman from whatever ails him in that particular scene. But no, I mean, look, I think it looks awesome. I think Gunn did a fantastic job with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I like that he's bringing a lot of interesting characters into the Superman movie, including looks like Hawkman's in there, looks like Guy Gardner, the new Lantern character's in there. And so I'm

excited. I'm going to go see it with my son, for sure. Emily, a hit or a dud? Well, let me 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 the, I didn't know that the creepy CGI dog had a name. Um, nice to know creepy CGI dog. There's a lot of CGI in that trailer. Um, and 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. And I do think it's a little bit of a red flag. If you're having to bring in other superheroes, right. To attract excitement. What does that say about Superman? All right. Well, Well, I am hopeful. And my favorite part was when the Fortress of Solitude rises out of the snow

as Superman gets closer, almost like it could sense where he was. And I love that part. So very cool. All right. 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 ron can i just say yes matt 16 years actually 17 years at the motley foal 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. I appreciate that. Thanks, Matty. Very nice. All right, 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 do you got? 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. And 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's extending the life versus

their previous model. It puts them in more direct competition with Abbott, who's one of their competitors, which also has the Freestyle Libre, which can be worn up to 15 days and ahead of Medtronic. So definitely move in the right direction here for Dexcom. And 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. Dan, you got a question or a comment? You know, Dexcom is 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. That's a good point. And 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. All right, Matt, you're up. What do you got? Ron, I'm looking at Robinhood Markets, ticker H-O-O-D. This is kind of an unusual one for me. But 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 Robinhood's chief brokerage officer last week. I mean, 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 Robinhood. Nearly 26 million funded customers, many, I think most of which are in their 20s and 30s. And when that large cohort of investors matures, starts opening retirement accounts, trust accounts, getting mortgages, doing more sophisticated trading, I think Robinhood is really growing its offerings to meet a whole range of financial services. They also have the

Robinhood Gold membership, which is approaching 3 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. Dan, got a question? When I hear Robinhood, 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? Dan, I thought the same thing. It's kind of 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 me confidence that has long-term staying power 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 for your watch list well it really seems like dexcom is like the smart choice but robin hood i feel like is the more interesting choice so can i do both on your last day ron you can do whatever you want dad both it is that's awesome all right emily flip and matt argus singer thanks for being here my friends

that's gonna 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