The Rundown - Adobe’s CEO Steps Down, Oil Tops $100

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Market update for Friday March 13, 2026Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:Oil surges past $100 as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut downAdobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announces plans to step downTesla sales rebound in China while BYD deliveries fallUlta shares drop after issuing weaker growth outlookMLB team values approach $3B despite razor-thin profits

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, March 13th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why Adobe CEO is stepping down after 18 years at the company. We'll also tell you about Tesla's comeback in China. Then stick around to the end of the show to learn a shocking stat about the profitability of baseball teams. We got a great show for you. today, let's go.

Well, markets had a rough day yesterday. The S&P 500 fell by 1.5% on Thursday, while the NASDAG did even worse, dropping by 1.8%. Energy was once again the best performing sector, because right now, it's all about oil prices. Oil shot up 9% yesterday to over $100 a barrel. It was the largest one-day spike for oil prices since the pandemic. So the situation in the Middle East isn't getting any better. Iran said yesterday that it plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, and there are reports now that Iran is even laying naval mines across the strait, which signals that there is no de-escalation in sight. So the strait remains closed, and that means that 20% of the world's oil supply is trapped and unable to get through.

The International Energy Agency is calling this the largest oil supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Now, the U.S. and the IEA have tried to calm things down. Yesterday, the U.S. announced plans to release. up to 172 million barrels from their strategic petroleum reserves as part of a broader IEA plan to release about 400 million barrels globally. On top of that, the U.S. government has even issued a waiver allowing some countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil to help offset the supply shock from the Hormuz closure. But none of that is really calming to oil markets much because at the end of the day, you can't replace 20 million barrels a day with reserves.

Now, one interesting thing to note here is that the oil market, still seems to believe this disruption might be temporary. A quick explanation, when you hear oil prices quoted in articles or on this podcast or on TV, that usually refers to the front month futures contract. So when I say that oil is trading at $100 a barrel, I'm talking about the oil scheduled for delivery in April. But if you look further out, the December WTI contract is trading closer to $75 a barrel. So the market seems to believe prices will eventually come down by the end of the year. Still, even short-term energy shocks can ripple through the economy, pushing up gas prices, transportation cause, and inflation more broadly. So yeah, I think that oil

prices are going to continue to dominate the market conversation for a while. Now, looking beyond oil, the crypto markets are seeing some signs of life. Bitcoin and Ethereum are both up 10% in the last week. Bitcoin is trading above $72,000, while Ethereum is back above $2,100. Gold, on the other hand, is still stuck at the $5,000 mark. Not much activity in gold right now. So yeah, a lot of interesting things are happening. We're staying on top of all of it for you guys. So make sure you are subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop.

Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Adobe. Adobe reported earnings last night and announced that their longtime CEO would be stepping down. Adobe's CEO for the last 18 years has been Shantanu Narayan. He announced on the earnings call last night that he is stepping down. Now, he's going to stay. on as CEO until a successor has chosen.

And then after that, he's going to be the chairman of the board. And look, it was under Noreans' leadership that Adobe transformed from a company that sold one-time creative software to becoming a subscription-based business. For some of you young people out there, there was a time like 10, maybe 15 years

ago where you could pay 200 bucks for Photoshop and then have it for life. Now, it's all a monthly subscription, which a lot of people don't like, but it has been great for Adobe's business and the stock price. During Noreans, 10, your adobe's revenue has multiplied nearly six x to around 24 billion dollars and the stock price has also gone up six x but lately the company is going through a mini crisis the stock has lost

over half its value since peaking back in 2021 it's down more than 20% this year alone and it all has to do with AI the market is worried that AI tools from google open AI and others might mean that less people use Photoshop or other Adobe software moving forward now Adobe's business seems to be doing fine so far in their latest quarter revenue was up 12% to $6.4 billion and profits came in at $1.9 billion, both numbers beating estimates. Adobe has also kind of embraced AI. They're launching AI tools of their own and integrating it into their products. But the market seems to think that Adobe is doomed. Adobe's price to earnings ratio is just 11 times right now. The S&P 500 average is 21 times. So the market is basically pricing Adobe like a company with no growth ahead of it. I

personally think it's a bit of an overreaction. I don't think that people are going to dump Adobe's software completely and use AI. In fact, I think that AI is going to help Adobe, but the market doesn't see it that way. So whoever's going to take over as the next CEO for Adobe is going to have to overcome the negative sentiment on Wall Street about the company. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Do you think that Adobe is doomed because of AI? Let's shift gears and talk about Tesla. Tesla's China-made EV sales jumped over 35% in the first two of 2026 to about 128,000 vehicles. Meanwhile, Tesla's biggest rival, BYD, saw deliveries drop 36% over that same time period. Now, to be clear, BYD is still absolutely dominating the market.

They sold about 393,000 vehicles in January and February, which is three times as many as Tesla. So Tesla probably isn't catching up to BYD anytime soon. But the rebound in Tesla's sales numbers in China is encouraging. And Tesla's also finding some success. in Europe as well. Reuters reported last week that Tesla's new registrations for EVs jumped across a handful of markets in February. That's notable because Tesla's European sales have declined for two straight years as cheaper Chinese EV brands flood the market. So, you know, signs of stabilization in Europe would be a welcome news for investors, especially as many investors are still waiting for Tesla's Robotaxi strategy to actually start generating real revenue. Now, Tesla's stock

has had a bumpy start to the year, down about 10% in 2026 so far. But, if you zoom out, the stock is up 60% over the past 12 months. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Fertilizer companies are seeing their stock jump recently because of the Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. You know, about one-third of the world's seaborne fertilizer normally travels to the Strait of Hormuz, and that's why fertilizer prices have jumped roughly 30% since the war started. And because of that, investors are betting that North American producers will benefit from this shortage. Companies like CF Industries have seen the stock go up 76% this year. There's also mosaic and nutrient who are up 30% on the year as well. So this is great for fertilizer stocks,

but it's not great for American farmers. Increased fertilizer prices means it's going to cost these farmers more to grow their crops. And the spring planting season is right around the corner, so the timing of this fertilizer spike isn't great. The stock price of these fertilizer companies are down today, but it's just another example of the ripple effects that the war is having and showing up in places that you wouldn't expect. Now, moving on, let's talk about Ulta. Their shares are dropping after the beauty makeup retailer provided a weak outlook for 2026.

Ulta says they expect sales to grow between 6 to 7% this year, which is a slowdown from the 9.7% growth they posted in 2025. Management says that shoppers are still buying beauty products, but they're becoming more price conscious and selective, which is putting a pressure on Alta's revenue growth. As a result, Ulta stock is down around 10% this morning. at the time of this recording. If you zoom out, though,

Ulta stock has nearly doubled in the last 12 months. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. The average major league baseball team is now worth $2.95 billion, which is up 13% from last year. This is according to a recent report

from CNBC. The most valuable team is the New York Yankees. No surprise there. They're valued at $9 billion. And the recent champs, LA Dodgers, are worth $8 billion. So they're catching up. Now, here's the thing that blew me away from this report.

The average EBDA margin for an MLB team is under 2%. You compare that to an NFL team at 20%, the NBA at 21% and an NHL team at 22%. So these baseball teams are worth billions of dollars, but they're barely profitable. Now, I'm not sure if that's just a sketchy accounting thing they're doing, but yeah, that number was kind of shocking to see. I was also kind of shocked to see that an Aaron Judge baseball card just sold for $5.2 million, That makes it the most expensive modern baseball card ever sold. Now look, I'm not a big baseball fan, but from what I've heard, Aaron Judge, not really that guy, you know?

Now, if this was a Shoahe Otani baseball card selling for $5 plus million, I'd get it. Aaron Judge, though, I don't know, seems like a massive overpaid a meme. The Yankee fans are going to come after me in the comments now. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

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