The Rundown - Gold Hits Record High, Electronic Arts to Go Private at $55B Valuation

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Stock market update for September 29, 2025. Follow us on Instagram ⁠⁠@therundowndaily⁠⁠This 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 Monday, September 29th. In today's episode, we preview this upcoming week, including a job support and a potential government shutdown. We'll also tell you why the video game giant electronic arts is going private. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out what the founders of Google almost named the company and why I think that Google could be the most valuable company in the world.

We got a great show for you today. Let's go. The markets are coming off a down week. Despite the rally on Friday, it wasn't enough to save the week. The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% last week, and the NASDAQ was down 0.7%. The economy is in an interesting spot right now. Inflation is still at 2.9% according to the PCE inflation report, which we covered on Friday's episode.

and the job market is showing signs of slowing down. But the slowing job market hasn't impacted consumer spending just yet. Consumer spending was up 0.4% on a price adjusted basis in August. So despite the concerns around the cooling labor market, American consumers haven't cut back on spending. So that's definitely an interesting metric to watch. Now, I do want to point out that a lot of consumer spending is being pushed up by the top 10% of income earners in the U.S.

But yeah, we'll have to see if there's any cutback in consumer spending moving forward. Now, we should get more information regarding the health of the job market because the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to drop the jobs report on Friday morning. Right now, analysts are expecting around 39,000 new jobs to have been added to the economy in September. That's a relatively modest estimate. So if the actual number comes in higher, we could see the markets get a nice bump to end the week. Or maybe not because a healthy job market might mean the Fed won't cut interest rates at the next meeting. We'll have to see how things shake out on Friday. But look, there's a chance that we don't get the jobs report at all this week because of a pending government shutdown.

Right now, lawmakers in D.C. are still arguing over a funding bill. And if a bill doesn't get passed by Tuesday, the government will shut down on Wednesday. It would be the first government shutdown in seven years. So we'll see what happens in D.C. this week. It seems like Republicans and Democrats are pretty far apart right now when it comes to a funding bill. But they are meeting at the White House today. We'll update you guys on the latest regarding the shutdown and the economic impact of a potential government shutdown. So make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast to stay in the loop.

Let's run through some headlines. Starting with gold. Gold has been on an unstoppable rally this year and prices are now getting another boost as the risk of a government shutdown hangs in the air. Gold is already up 45% this year and prices move past $3,800 an ounce this morning, hitting another record high. Investors seem to be piling into the Safe Haven Medal as a hedge against everything from trade wars, the geopolitical flare-ups, and now the looming risk of a U.S. government shutdown. But it's not just doomsday scenarios driving this rally. Demand is being fueled by two big forces. Central banks all over the world are buying gold at a rapid clip, and then Western investors

are pouring cash into gold-backed ETFs. In fact, inflows into gold-backed ETFs have been positive for four straight weeks. And total gold ETF holdings are close to pandemic era highs. See, whenever someone invest into a gold ETF, the ETF issuer has to go out and buy that gold. So that increases the demand for gold, which raises prices. But by the way, hedge funds

having a big contributor to this rally. They are holding a record $73 billion in gold, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And all this demand in the rally in gold prices has pushed U.S.'s gold reserves to more than a trillion dollars in value. In fact, the U.S. has the biggest

stash of gold by far. The U.S. holds about 8.1 trillion tons of gold. Most of it is locked in places like Fort Knox, West Point, and a vault 80 feet under the New York Fed. The next closest country in gold reserves is Germany with 3.4 tons, so less than half of the U.S.'s holdings. And the rally in gold is also pushing other metals higher too. Silver just hit its highest level in 14 years and platinum is at a 12-year high. So everyone is just trying to get their hands on some metal. You know, I've said this many times in the show. I've historically been a gold hater because it's just a dumb metal that isn't productive. I'm kind of with Warren Buffett on this one. Gold doesn't generate revenue or pay dividends. But obviously I'm regretting not

investing in gold at this point. I should have just listened to my mom and bought those gold bars from Costco last year. Let's shift gears and talk about some big news coming out of the gaming world. The video game giant electronic arts is going private in a monster $55 billion deal. The group taking EA off the market includes Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, Silver Lake partners and Jared Kushner's affinity partners. Now, the Saudi Public Investment Fund already owned about 10% of EA, and they're going to become the majority shareholders once this deal closes. The Saudis also own a 6.5% stake in rival game publisher, take two interactive.

Apparently, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is a big-time gamer, and he's buying these gaming companies to turn things around. I don't know, we'll see. You know, the video game industry has been going through some struggles lately. EA especially has struggled since the COVID gaming boom. Earlier this year, EA stock suffered its worst one-day drop in 17 years after weak guidance tied to their global football game, which used to be called FIFA, but now it's just called EA Sports FC after they lost the naming rights with FIFA.

But yeah, the bigger picture here is that the slowdown in the gaming industry has led to a ton of deals. Remember, Microsoft bought Activision for $69 billion a couple years ago, and then the mobile gaming company Zanga was bought by Take 2 in 2022. So we're seeing a lot of consolidation in the gaming industry. Now, as for EA, EA CEO Andrew Wilson will stay on after this deal closes, and he told employees that the new owners believe in our people, our leadership, and the long-term vision. I wonder if they believe in micro-transactions. Maybe the crown prince of Saudi Arabia will have them removed.

This deal to take EA private is expected to close in early fiscal 2027, and there's also a 45-day window open in case another bidder wants to jump in. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Kelanova's shares are getting a bump this morning after the Italian candy company Ferreiro officially closed its deal to buy WK Kellogg. Now this might sound a bit confusing, so a quick history lesson here, Kellogg split itself into two companies back in 2023, WK Kellogg and Kelanova. All the breakfast and classic cereals like Frosted Flakes went to WK Kellogg, while snacks like Pringles and Pop-Tarts stayed with Kelanova.

Now Ferreiro announced that they were acquiring WK Kellogg in a $3.1 billion, deal earlier this year. They paid $23 a share, and now that the deal has closed, WK Kellogg's stock is going to be gone from the New York Stock Exchange. But the reason that this is pulling up Kelanova stock is because Kelanova is also being acquired by the Mars company in a $35.9 billion deal. And these big food mergers need antitrust approval from the government. So the fact that the Ferreiro deal went smoothly is a good sign for Mars closing on Kelanova by the end of this year as well. And that's why Kalanova shares are up more than 5% this morning. Now, on the flip side, Nova Nordist stock is sliding this morning after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock.

Nova's Nordus has been trying to push its weight loss drug OZempic and Weigwee as a way to combat Alzheimer's too, but Morgan Stanley doesn't think that will happen. But that's not the only headwin for the company. Prescription growth for OZempic has slowed while rival Eli Lilly's Manjaro keeps gaining steam. And that's why Morgan Stanley is downgrading Novo's stock and setting their price target at $47 per share. Currently, the stock is trading north of $53 a share. As a result, shares of Nova Nord score down more than 3% this morning in pre-market trading. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Google celebrated its 27th birthday over the weekend.

The company was founded back in 1998, and they celebrate their birthday every year on September 27th. Now, here's a bonus fun fact. The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they originally wanted to name the search giant backrup. You know, I got a feeling that backrub.com probably wouldn't have aged very well or helped recruit top tech talent. Google is just a way, Google is a way, Google is a classic Silicon Valley story. The two founders started the company in a garage with a $100,000 funding from the co-founder

of Sun Microsystems to organize the internet's information. And today, the company is worth nearly $3 trillion. And I think they're starting to find their groove again when it comes to innovation. their AI tools have been great, and the company's stock is at all-time highs up nearly 30% this year. In fact, Google is the second best-performing Mac 7 stock only behind Nvidia. Now, this might be a hot take here, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google eventually becomes the most valuable company in the world. And I think it could happen before the end of the decade. Maybe I'm crazy here, but let me know the comments on what you guys think.

Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like six extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast. We are really trying to get to 6,000 five-star ratings on Spotify before the end of this month. So we have less than two days.

I think we're less than 100 away to hit that 6,000 mark. So if you haven't already, please go on Spotify and tap those five stars and get us over the top. If we hit 6,000 five-star ratings before the end of the month, we're going to do some sort of merch given. way. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes.

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