The Rundown - Intel Scores $2B Investment from SoftBank, Home Depot Delivers Mixed Earnings

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Stock market update for August 19, 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 Tuesday, August 19th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why SoftBank is investing billions of dollars into Intel. We'll also recap earnings from Home Depot and Palo Alto networks. Then stick around to the end of the show to learn about the Robot Olympics taking place in China and why our jobs are probably safe for now. We get a great show for you today.

Let's go. The markets are off to a pretty slow start this week. Stocks were flat on Monday with the S&P 500 down 0.01%, and the NASDAQ was up 0.03%. So not a lot of action. Wall Street seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach this week as investors wait for retailers to report earnings and tell us whether consumers are still spending

or if they're tightening their belts. Plus, we have Jerome Powell given his big speech at Jackson Hole on Friday. And you know, when he talks, the markets tend to listen. This is likely going to be Jerome Powell's last speech at Jackson Hole. So I bet he's going to make it a memorable one. Now, the crypto markets did have a bit more action on Monday with Ethereum and Bitcoin both down more than 5% from last week's highs. Overall, though, it was a pretty slow Monday, but I got a feeling that things are about to pick up over the next few days. So keep it locked into the rundown to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines.

And we have to start with Intel because they just got a major shot in the arm from a surprise investor. SoftBank announced that they're investing $2 billion into Intel. The Japanese conglomerate is buying Intel stock at $23 a share, which gives them about a 2% stake in the company, making them Intel's fifth biggest shareholder. You know, Intel is a unique company. I think we're going to keep hearing about them because not only do they design chips like Nvidia and AMD, but they also manufacture chips like TSM and Samsung. And what makes the company very important, specifically for U.S. national security, is that they're the only U.S. company

that has the ability to manufacture advanced chips. But these days, they're lagging behind the competition, especially in manufacturing. And they've totally missed the AI boom. They tried to turn things around. They've invested billions of dollars into their foundry business, but so far they haven't landed a big customer. Meanwhile, you have TSMC out in Taiwan having the biggest tech companies in the world begging for them to make their chips. So this investment by SoftBank is a much-needed boost for the company and it could help Intel mount their comeback. And for SoftBank, I mean, they're familiar with the chips business. They actually bought the chip design company Arm back in 2016 for $32 billion. And now that company is worth over $150 billion today. They've also invested in

NVIDIA, TSM, and even Open AI. And the timing of this investment is pretty interesting because there are reports that the Trump administration is considering taking a 10% stake in Intel, potentially converting some of the money that Intel got from the Chips Act into equity. That could be worth around $10 billion. But the bigger question is whether all this cash can actually fix Intel's core problem. They've fallen way behind TSMC when it comes to manufacturing. And they've fallen miles behind Nvidia when it comes to chip design, specifically when it comes to AI chips.

Now, Intel stock is up 5% this morning in response to this news of the investment. So there's some optimism from investors that this new capital can help spark a turnaround. Let's shift gears and talk about Home Depot. They just reported earnings and they gave us a first real look at how consumers are handling this economy. And honestly, it's kind of a mixed bag. The home improvement giant missed on both earnings and revenue for the quarter with comparable sales growing just 1%. Wall Street was expecting a bit more. The company is sticking with their full year forecast, calling for nearly 3% sales growth in 2025,

which tells me that management isn't panicking just yet. Now, according to Home Depot, people are still delaying big renovations because of economic uncertainty and high interest rates that's making borrowing expensive. And it might take some time or lower interest rates before that turns around. Now, on the tariff front,

Home Depot doesn't expect to be impacted too bad. They say that most of their inventory was bought before the tariffs kicked in, so they haven't had to raise prices much. On top of that, over half of their products are sourced domestically. But management did warn that some items could get pricey.

later this year. Home Depot is also leaning hard into the pro business. In fact, more than half of its sales now come from contractors and builders, thanks to acquisitions like SRS distribution and GMS. The pro business tends to be a bit more consistent and it helps cushion the softer demand from DIYers. Now, in reaction to this earnings, Home Depot stock popped 2% this morning, probably because investors were relieved the company didn't slash their guidance. But I think we're going to learn a bit more about how consumers are feeling when Walmart and Target report earnings later this week. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Palo Alto networks are jumping this morning after the cybersecurity company pulled off the earnings hat trick. They beat expectations

on profits and revenue and also issued strong guidance for the rest of the year. Cybersecurity is becoming more critical than ever and Palo Alto is one of the leaders in the space. The company saw its revenues hit $2.5 billion in Q2, which is a 16% jump from last year. The company did announce that its founder, Nairzouk, is retiring from his role as chief technology officer after starting the company back in 2005. But investors didn't seem to be too concerned about that. Instead, focused more on the solid earnings, with the stock jumping more than 5% this morning at the time of this recording. On the flip side, it's a rough day for Viking therapeutics. Their shares are getting hammered after the pharma company's weight loss pill drug study showed poor results.

Now, the pill itself actually worked pretty well. Patients lost over 12% of their body weight. But the problem is that nearly 30% of the patients bailed on the study in just three months because of side effects. And it just goes to show you how difficult it's been to develop these weight loss pills. Other pharma companies have been struggling too. Eli Lilly had disappointing late stage trials recently.

And Pfizer gave up on their pill after a patient developed. a liver injury. Investors are getting concerned and shares of Viking therapeutics are down more than 30% this morning in reaction to this news. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. The first robot Olympics took place in China over the weekend and honestly it's as cool as it sounds. There were robots running 400 meter dashes, long jumping, even throwing down in martial arts and dance battles. And this was a full-on competition by the way with 280 teams. from 16 countries, including the US. And the big winner in the games was the Chinese company Unitry.

They took home multiple medals, including first place, in the 4x100 rally. Unitary is seen as a main rival for Tesla's Optimist robot. I thought this was pretty cool. I saw some highlights of the games on Twitter over the weekend. China wants humanoid robots to be a major industry soon, so this event was a cool way to show off what the robots can do. What I thought was interesting was that these robots even tried their hand at day jobs,

including working as a hotel housekeeper, a pharmacy counter, and even factory shifts. And it turns out the hardest task for these robots was opening a door. So I think our jobs might be safe for a little while longer. China plans to make these robot games an annual thing. So who knows, by 2050, the Robot Olympics might be a bigger event than the actual Olympics. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like seven extra seconds, consider giving us a free.

five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you are listening and watching on Spotify or YouTube, consider leaving us a comment. I know I keep bringing it up, but all that engagement really does help us out. It lets the algorithms know that we exist. And, you know, we're all relying on the algorithm these days, aren't we? Thank you guys so much for listening. And watching, shout out to Mike and Garner. For all the help behind the scenes, I will see you guys back here tomorrow.