The Rundown - Buffett Takes $1.6B Stake in UnitedHealth, White House Weighs Intel Investment

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Stock market update for August 15, 2025. This video is for informational purposes only and reflects the views of the host and guest, not Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. Mentions of assets are not recommendations. Investing involves risk, including loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For full disclosures, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Public.com/disclosures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, August 15th. In today's episode, we'll tell you about Warren Buffett's big investment in United Health Group and why he continues to sell his Apple stock. We also discuss the Trump administration's plans to take a stake in Intel. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out the latest merch to come out of the White House. We got a great show for you today.

Let's go. Well, the stock market got off to a rough start on Thursday, thanks to a poor inflation report, but clawed their way back by the close. The S&P 500 finished basically flat up 0.03%. And the NASDAQ couldn't quite finish the comeback, closing down 0.1%. I mean, I just continued to be surprised

by the market's ability to bounce back so quickly. I thought that hot PPI inflation report yesterday would kill the momentum. But nothing seems to be stressing out investors these days and they just continue to buy the dip. We talked more about that PPI inflation report on yesterday's episode and why it's a little concerning. So go check that out if you missed it. Now, looking ahead to next week, we're going to get a much better read on the health of the consumer and the overall economy because we're getting earnings from giant retailers like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, T.J. Max and more. Hundreds of millions of people shop at these retailers.

So investors are going to be paying close attention to the earnings call and commentary from executives on. on shopper behaviors, sales trends, and how tariffs are impacting prices and profits. We'll be covering those earnings next week, so make sure you guys are subscribed to the rundown and lock in daily to stay in the loop. Also, if you guys have like 10 extra seconds today, check us out on Spotify and vote in today's Spotify poll.

In today's poll, we're trying to find out how you guys discovered this show. Was it word of mouth? Did you guys hear about it on another podcast? Did the Spotify algorithm bless us? Let us know by voting in today's poll. It's really curious to see what the results are going to be. Let's run through some headlines.

Starting with Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway just revealed all their portfolio changes from Q2 in their latest 13F filing, and there was some notable moves. Something that's catching the market's attention was Berkshire took a stake in United Health Group buying more than 5 million shares worth about $1.6 billion. And that news sent United Health stock up more than 10% this morning. It's a good all-fashioned Buffett bump. You know, United Health has had a pretty brutal year.

The stock has lost nearly half its value thanks to a Justice Department investigation into shady Medicare billing. There's also public outrage over rising health care cause. And their business hasn't been doing great. In fact, the company pulled its earnings outlook earlier this year and their CEO stepped down back in May. But it looks like Warren Buffett thinks the company could make a comeback. And in fact, he's not the only one.

Michael Burry also bought shares of United Health. Now, looking over some of the other moves from Berkshire, what stood out to me was that they continued to trim their Apple position. They sold about 20 million shares in Q2. Now, Apple is still Berkshire's largest holding, but Buffett has been slowly selling off the stock over the last couple years. I guess he must not be a fan of their AI strategy either. Overall, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks last quarter unloading nearly $7 billion worth and buying just under $4 billion. And they're still hoarding a mountain of cash, about $344 billion. So yeah, it's pretty interesting. Warren Buffett's still keeping a ton of cash on the sidelines, despite the market ripping to new highs this summer.

Let's shift gears and talk about Intel. The U.S. government is thinking about becoming a part owner of the struggling chipmaker. Bloomberg reported the Trump administration is in talks to take a stake in Intel and inject fresh capital into Intel's delayed factory project in Ohio. That site was once pitched as the future of U.S. chipmaking, but it's been pushed back so many times and it's now on the 2030s calendar. Now, the timing here is pretty interesting. Just last week, President Trump called for Intel CEO Lip But Tan to resign over conflicts because of his past business deals in China. Two days later, Lib Butan visits Trump at the White House. They have a closed door meeting. And then Trump calls Tan a success. So I don't know what Mr. Tan said at that

meeting, but he got Trump to like him. And now even potentially invests in the company. The thing is, Intel is a very important company for multiple reasons. But special geopolitical. It's really the only U.S. company with the capabilities to produce top-tier chips domestically. But over the last few years, they fell behind other chip makers like Taiwan's TSM, where most of the high-end AI chips are currently manufactured today. Intel's found re-business, which manufactures chips for other companies, has yet to secure a major client, and their AI chips haven't really made a dent in the market. So maybe a fresh injection of cash could help Intel compete with the likes of TSM. And if the Trump administration does move

forward with this, it's going to be the latest sign of the administration having a very hands-on approach with the economy. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. government took a stake in a rare earth materials company, MP Materials, and last week, Trump struck a deal with Nvidia and AMD to take a 15% cut of revenues from chip sales sold in China. So it's very unconventional, it's a very hands-on industrial policy, and the administration says it's all aimed at shoring up critical supply chains and competing with China. Having the ability to make AI chips in the U.S., is a matter of national security. And it's also giving Intel investors hope. Intel stock jumped more than 7% on Thursday and it's up again this morning. Let's talk about some stocks making moves

today. Eli Lilly is on a hot streak this week. The pharma giant was up 3% yesterday and it's up another 2% this morning after the company announced plans to hike the price of its blockbuster diabetes slash weight loss drug Manjaro in the UK starting next month. See right now a month's supply of Manjaro costs about 100 pounds in the UK, which is around $135. But starting on September 1st, the price for a month's supply will go up to between 130 to 330 pounds. So that's a pretty substantial price increase. Now for comparison, one month's supply of Manjaro costs about $1,000 in the US. That's before insurance and rebates. So it's still going to be way cheaper compared to the US. Now this move by Eli Lilly comes as President

Trump is putting pressure on drug makers to lower US drug prices and raise them overseas to rebalance the costs of medical research. So you might see more pharma giants raise drug prices all over the world, which I guess investors are excited about. Now on the flip side, investors are not excited about applied materials. Their shares are tanking after the semiconductor equipment supplier cut its revenue and profits forecast for Q3. The CEO blamed the current macroeconomic environment and a slowdown in China, saying that the demand from big chip customers have been uneven, especially in China where a two-year building spree has cooled off. Applied makes the tools needed by chip makers like TSMC to build chips, and those chip makers seem to be delaying orders for new tools.

As a result, shares of applied materials are down more than 10% this morning at the time of this recording. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. President Trump is selling a new line of perfume and cologne called Trump Victory 45-47. And the most expensive bottles go for $249 a pop. But there is a deal. If you buy two, you can save $100. But hey, there seems to be a lot of demand for these fragrances. There's a limited edition version, and they're selling fast.

Apparently, several options have already sold out. So if you want to smell like the president, you might want to act quick. I wonder if Trump's going to be rocking this cologne in his meeting with Putin this weekend. And speaking of presidential merch, I'm still waiting for an update on the gold Trump phone. I mean, is that still coming out? And is the Trump phone going to get a tariff exemption just like Apple did? Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week.

It's hard to believe, but we're already halfway through the month of August. We're also getting pretty close to the end of earnings season. We got two more weeks left of major reports. And then we're going to be in September. Again, as a reminder, if you guys have like nine extra seconds today, consider checking us out on Spotify and voting in today's Spotify poll. In today's poll, we're asking how you guys discovered this podcast. Also, if you guys have any feedback for us and how we can improve the show,

Let us know in the comments on Spotify and YouTube as well. You post all these episodes on YouTube with video, so definitely check us out there. Thank you guys so much for listening and watching. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here this weekend for the deep dive.