The Rundown - Intel Seeks Investment from Apple, Starbucks Cuts 900 Corporate Staff

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Stock market update for September 25, 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 Thursday, September 25th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why Intel is trying to get Apple to invest in them. We'll also discuss the changes happening at Starbucks as they try to turn things around. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how many users Instagram added in the last three years. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

Stocks continue to slide this week with the S&P 500 and NASDAG dropping about 0.3% on Wednesday, making it the second red day in a row. In fact, it was the first time that both indices had a back-to-back drop since September 2nd. So we're seeing a mini pullback this week, but overall, it's been a surprisingly strong month for the stock market. In fact, the S&P and NASDAQ were having their best September. since 2013. The same can't be said for crypto though, especially Ethereum. You know, Ether hit an all-time high of $4,900 about a month ago, thanks to the hype around ETH Treasury companies and stable coins. But now, ETH just dropped below $4,000. So it seems like some of the hype from this past summer is starting to fizzle out a bit. Bitcoin hasn't been hit too hard, though. It just

continues to trade sideways. In fact, it's been trading between $110 and $120,000 since July. Honestly, these days, it feels like Bitcoin is less volatile than stocks and gold. Maybe it's finally becoming a good store of value after all. Now, speaking of volatility, we could get more action in the markets to end the week because the PCE inflation report drops on Friday morning. This is the Fed's preferred inflation metric. There's been some concerns that inflation might start ticking back up because of tariffs. So tomorrow's number will be important. And if the number comes in hot, it could impact the Fed's decision to continue cutting rates moving forward. So we're going to. going to be breaking down that report and the market's reaction to it in tomorrow's episode.

So make sure you guys tune into that to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Intel. Intel has been in early talks with Apple about a possible investment as they tried to engineer a comeback. This is according to reporting from Bloomberg. You know, Apple and Intel have a very interesting relationship. Apple started using Intel chips for their Macs back in 2005. But then Intel turned down Apple to make chips for the iPhone in 2007, which was obviously a huge mistake for Intel.

And then Apple ditched Intel completely in their Macs and started using their Apple silicon chips starting with the M1 in 2020. So yeah, I would say that these two companies aren't exactly friends, but an investment from Apple into Intel could make sense here, especially from a political angle. See, the U.S. government really wants Intel to be successful. They see it as a national security matter, especially Intel. Hell's Foundry business, which manufactures chips. Right now, all the advanced AI chips are manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC.

So the Trump administration has already stepped in last month and took a 10% stake in Intel, calling it a national security priority to revive American chipmaking. And then Nvidia followed that up by announcing a $5 billion investment into Intel to co-developed some chips. So Apple could come in with an investment and work with Intel to manufacture their Apple silicon chips, which would make Apple less reliant on TSM. And a few billion dollar investment into Intel might help Tim Cook get more tariff exemptions from the Trump administration down the line. So an interesting situation playing out here. For Intel, you know, they need the money.

But more importantly, they need customers for their foundry business. And what better customer to have than Apple. So yeah, we'll see what Tim Cook decides to do here. Now, even if Apple does move forward with an investment, I don't think we're ever going to see Intel chips and iPhones or Macs anytime soon. The Apple Silicon chip. is just too good and Apple's never going back to Intel. But this could be big for Intel's manufacturing business. By the way, Intel stock, it's gone up more than 60% since the beginning of August. Now, speaking of companies trying to make a comeback, let's talk about Starbucks. Starbucks is brewing up another round of cuts, this time laying off about 900 corporate jobs and closing about 1% of their

stores in North America. This restructuring will cost Starbucks about a billion dollars on severance, lease exits, and other costs tied to the layoffs and closures. But CEO, Brian Nichols says this will all be worth it in the long term. Brian Nichols says that these cuts will free up cash to invest in the actual coffee shops. Now, his strategy is all about making the Starbucks locations feel like destinations again, kind of like how they were the hangout spot in the early 2000s. So the company is planning to spend more money on revamping locations and better training for employees.

Starbucks said they reviewed all of its North American stores earlier this year, and they found that some just weren't profitable or didn't meet their standards, so they're closing about 1% of stores and remodeling a thousand others in the coming year. You know, Starbucks has seen their same store sales decline for six straight quarters, so we'll have to see if the remodeling efforts will change that. Early signs have shown that customers are visiting the remodeled locations more often and sticking around longer. I don't think I've seen a remodeled Starbucks in my area just yet, but if I do, I'm going to definitely go check it out. I'm really curious to see what the vibe is going to be like. If you guys have been to a remodeled Starbucks in your area,

let me know in the comments if you think this is actually going to help Starbucks turn their business around. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Open Door shares are jumping this morning after the investment firm Jane Street revealed a 6% stake in the company. Now, Jane Street is a big name on Wall Street. They're a quantitative trading firm with about $30 billion under management. And when Jane Street makes an investment, everyone on the street takes notice. Now, it's not clear if Jane Street is investing in Open Door because they see it as a long-term operational. or if they're just riding the meme stock wave. Now, Open Door stock has gone up over 1,300% since the start of July,

thanks to hedge fund manager Eric Jackson promoting the stock on his social media page. Now, we interviewed Eric Jackson a month ago on this podcast, and he saw Open Door as a 100-bagger opportunity and called them the Google of the housing market. Open Door's been making a lot of changes. They got a new CEO as well recently. So, yeah, Jane Street is now jumping in, and that is sending the stock up more than 4% this morning. Now, on the flip side, CarMax is getting smoked this morning after the company missed on both earnings and revenue estimates for the quarter. Their car resailing business saw a drop of more than 6% in comparable sales.

So the company is selling less cars and they also bought fewer cars last quarter too. They bought about 293,000, which is down more than 2%. Now, funny enough, I actually sold my old car to CarMax a couple weeks ago and I got a pretty decent offer, a lot more than I thought I was going to get. So yeah, it seems like CarMax's business is. slowing down. Now, the company is going to try to soften that blow by cutting back $150 million in overhead costs by, you know, cutting back on marketing and office expenses. But that wasn't enough for Wall Street to get excited. CarMax stock is down 13% this morning after the earnings report. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Instagram now has three billion monthly active

users, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Instagram has been growing like crazy. They just crossed 2 billion monthly active users back in 2022. So in just three years, they added a billion more users, which is wild. At this point, everyone knows the story. Facebook bought Instagram back in 2012 for a billion dollars. At the time, Instagram only had like 30 million users. But that acquisition is going to go down as one of the greatest deals of all time. I think if Instagram was a separate company outside of the meta umbrella, it would be worth over $100 billion by itself. Now, Instagram probably doesn't get this big without the help of Facebook. But I mean, the growth is still really impressive.

By the way, Instagram is now the third app under the meta umbrella to join the 3 billion club. Both Facebook and WhatsApp have more than 3 billion monthly active users as well. So yeah, the chances are if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have an Instagram account and you should follow the rundown on Instagram. Now, we post clips of the show, but also some bonus content as well. Now, I'll randomly drop a rant or two on there, usually about the Fed. So go follow us.

on Instagram for more market content. 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, wherever you listen to your podcast. You know, we are so close to 6,000 five-star ratings on Spotify. I think we need less than 200 people to get us over the top.

If we get to the 6,000 number before the start of October, we'll do some sort of merch giveaway. How about that? So if you are listening on Spotify and you haven't given us a five star rating yet, hit those five stars so we can get over the top. And while you're at it, leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting.

Shout out to Mike and Connor. For all the work behind the scenes, I will see you guys back here tomorrow. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-Ojo, the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won.

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