The Rundown - Microsoft Hit by Cyberattack, Block Soars on S&P 500 Inclusion

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Stock market update for July 21, 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 Monday, July 21st. In today's episode, we'll tell you what to look forward to this week, including earnings from Tesla and Google. We'll also discuss why CBS canceled the late show and an earnings recap from Domino's and Block. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why beef prices are skyrocketing right now. We get a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks are coming off a winning week with the S&P 500 up 0.6% last week and the NASDAG added 1.5%

both of these indices reaching record highs. Now, what's been surprising to me is that the stock market has been pretty calm over the last few weeks. In fact, the S&P 500 has not had a 1% move in either direction, upper. down since June 23rd. It's just been a steady climb up for the stock. Now, one reason for that might be because it's summertime right now and volumes tend to be lower as Wall Street traders hit the Hamptons. But I have a feeling that volatility might pick up over the next few weeks as we get deeper into earning season. So we'll see if more of that continues this week. We got some heavy hitters reporting

including Tesla, Google, Intel, and more. I think everyone's going to be paying really close attention to Tesla because the stock is down 13%. It's been more. of the worst performing max seven stocks this year. You know, the company has seen lackluster demand. Their delivery numbers haven't been so good. And with this EV tax credit expiring soon because of the big beautiful bill, we'll see what Elon Musk has to say about the future of the company. So we're going to be paying close attention to that on Wednesday. And in the backdrop of all these earnings, we're also tracking tariff negotiations as well. Now, it's getting closer to that August first deadline where the tariff pause expires. And rumors is that the EU negotiations are getting

pretty tense. So yeah, we should have an interesting few weeks coming up, probably some volatility in the markets. So it's a great time to get subscribed to the podcast if you aren't already and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Microsoft. Microsoft is back in the cybersecurity hot seat after hackers exposed a critical vulnerability in their SharePoint software, which is triggering a massive wave of cybersecurity attacks all over the world. The company issued an alert over the weekend warning of active attacks on his document sharing software and security researchers are already calling us one of the most serious threats in years. Now, to be fair, I feel like I hear that every time there's any sort of

cybersecurity hack, but regardless, this is a problem for Microsoft. Because this flaw allows attackers to access file systems, steal data, and even plant back doors that could survive software updates and reboots. So basically, it's like leaving the front door open, letting the hackers in, and not even being sure you got them out after a security update. One cybersecurity expert described this as a dream for ransomware operators. This attack appears to be a global operation targeting everything from government agencies to universities to major corporations. The CISA and the FBI are involved to track this down.

And while Microsoft has started rolling out patches, thousands of organizations, especially those running on-premise servers, are still at risk. And that brings me to Microsoft because their recent track record on cybersecurity has been pretty shaky. In fact, last year, a White House mandated review board called the company's security culture inadequate. And they specifically pointed to a China link hack breaching the email accounts of senior U.S. officials. And then just last week, Microsoft was under fire for allegedly letting engineers in China maintain Department of Defense systems with minimal U.S. oversight. So Microsoft is starting to face the heat a little bit. That has an impact on their stock price,

though. Shares are barely down at the time of this recording. But, you know, Microsoft does need to clean up their act, especially if they don't want regulators getting involved. Let's shift gears and talk about Stephen Colbert. The entertainment industry got some shocking news late last week when CBS announced they were canceling the late show with Stephen Colbert. Now, fans were stunned about this because the late show has been on air for like 30 years with Stephen Colbert hosting it for the last 10. But according to multiple reports over the last few days, the finances of the show were not in great condition. The show had a budget of over $100 million a year with a staff of 200 people. And the problem is that the audience just wasn't there anymore. And that's why the show was losing nearly

$40 million a year. And to me, it's an overall sign of the decline of traditional TV in the age of TikTok, podcast, and YouTube. The ratings for late night shows have fallen off a clip, especially for younger audiences, and so has advertising revenue. According to the Wall Street Journal, advertising revenue for late night TV has been cut in half over the last seven years. going from $439 million in 2018 to $221 million in 2024. Meanwhile, you have podcasters and TikTokers pulling in bigger audiences with a fraction of the budget, sometimes just a ring light and an iPhone.

So honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if more late night shows got canceled. Because these shows were built for a different time when people used to watch TV at night before going to bed. Now, most people are scrolling TikTok at 11 p.m. before falling asleep. Now, I should address the, political elephant in the room. Because there's a lot of commentary about how the show was canceled as a way to appease President Trump. You know, Stephen Colbert, he makes a lot of jokes about the

president. And remember, CBS's parent company, Paramount, is currently in the middle of a sale. They're being bought by Skydance Media, which is owned by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison. And this deal is currently stuck in regulatory review. So maybe this late night show cancellation was a sweetener to get the deal pushed through. But I think there's no denying that the media industry continues to change, and these old school TV shows just don't work anymore. The economics of traditional media are breaking down, and it's hard to justify a hundred million dollar budget for a show that only boomers watch as they fall asleep. But I don't know, maybe I can be way off here.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments. And let me know if any of you guys actually watch late night TV. I don't think I've watched late night since like 2014, when I used to watch Conan on TBS while I was studying for some sort of college exam. Let's talk about some stocks making me. moves today. Shares of Block, the fintech company behind Cash App, are up nearly 10% this morning on the news that it will join the S&P 500. The company formerly known as Square will replace Hess in the index after that oil and gas company was acquired by Chevron. This change will go into

effect on Wednesday. Now, Block has been working to evolve itself into an everything financial platform with a full embrace of crypto. Blog wants to turn their cash app into a full banking and lending platform through its borrow product, which recently received approval from the US FDIC. And they're also currently integrating Bitcoin payments through their point of sales square devices. So basically, Block wants to be your bank, your wallet, your paycheck, and your crypto bag all in one app. And now they're going to be part of the S&P 500. Now another winner for today is Stalantis. Shares of the car giant are up 2% this morning, despite the company reporting a revenue decline of more than 12% for the first half of the year. Stelantis,

Stalantis owns brands like Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, and Chrysler, and they said their shipments in North America are expected to fall by 25% in Q2. Stalantis is blaming the performance on tariffs and restructuring. In fact, they expect tariffs alone to cost them $2.7 billion in loss for the first half of the year. But shares are still up this morning. And finally, we have Domino's Pizza. Shares of the pizza giant are down because they missed second quarter profit expectations. Now, there was some good news, though.

the company did beat sales estimates with same store sales for the world's largest pizza chain coming in at 3.4% beating out the 2.2% rise that Wall Street was expecting. The company says that outperformance was driven by promotions and their new menu items like the Parmesan Stuff crust. But investors were more focused on the profits miss and shares are down about 2% this morning. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Beef prices are up more than 9% since the beginning of the year. And this has been a bigger trend over the last few years. The price of a pound of beef has gone up by more than 50% since December of 2020. This is according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And steak has also seen the impact. It's gone up more than 42% in that same time period. Now right now, the average

price for a pound of beef stands at $9.26. According to the CEO of Tyson Foods, beef is experiencing the most challenging market conditions ever seen. Cattle herds are shrinking and droughts are making the situation even worse. I mean, the cattle ranching business as a whole is already tough with tight margins, which has pushed several ranchers out of business. So now imported beef is becoming more in demand with meats from Argentina, Brazil, and Australia, making up around 8% of the U.S. beef market. So it seems like beef is having the same problem that eggs were having not too long ago.

So yeah, pretty expensive to just get a breakfast of steak and eggs these days. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. We got a big week coming up, especially earnings from Tesla and Google. Really looking forward to those. If you guys have been enjoying our shows so far, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify,

or wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you are listening on Spotify, don't forget the vote in today's Spotify poll. 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. Shout out to Mike and Connor

for all the help behind the scenes. I'll see you guys back here tomorrow.