The Rundown - Novo Nordisk's Wegovy Gets U.S. Approval for Liver Disease, Sam Altman Warns of AI Bubble

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Stock Market update for August 18, 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, August 18th. In today's episode, we'll get you ready for an action-pack week. We got Jerome Powell in Jackson Hole and a ton of retailers reporting earnings. We'll also tell you why Sam Altman thinks that AI might be a bubble and why Nobino Nord's stock is getting a big bump this morning. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why solar,

stocks are surging and Tesla stock is dropping. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. The stock market is coming off another winning week with both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ adding about 1% last week and sitting at record highs. I guess I should mention the Dow as well. It was up 1.7% last week and it's inches away from record highs, but you know, nobody cares about the Dow. So now this market rally seems to be driven by the hype that the Fed is going to cut interest rates in the September meeting. There's currently an 80% chance of a September rate cut according to the CME Fed Watch tool. And this week, we might get another major clue about whether that's actually going to happen. The Fed is having their annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

this week. Think of it as like a Coachella for central bankers. Central bankers from all over the world gather in Jackson Hole. But, you know, instead of listening to niche DJs that no one's ever heard of, they discuss monetary policy. It honestly sounds pretty awesome. I want to go one year. Now, to be clear, the Fed doesn't make any official rate decisions at the Jackson Hole meeting, but all eyes are going to be on Fed chair Jerome Powell, who's going to give a big speech on Friday. I'm sure the markets are going to be dissecting every word, every pause, every time he clears his throat for hints about the September rate cut. You know, Jerome Powell is in a tough spot right now. For one, he's getting a ton of pressure from President Trump to cut interest rates.

On top of that, last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson also said the Fed should be cutting rates. But inflation is still above the Fed's 2% target. and there are some reports that it's starting to creep back up again. We saw that with the PPI report last week. Added all the uncertainty around tariffs and the impact that will have on prices moving forward, but on the flip side, the job market is now starting to show some crap. So the Fed doesn't want to wait too long to cut interest rates and the job market get worse. So we'll see what Jerome Powell has to say about all that.

Again, he's in a tough spot right now. Now, we are going to learn more about the health of the U.S. consumer this week because we are getting earnings from giant retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. These reports are basically like a report card on the health of the U.S. consumer. Investors pay close attention to them and on the earnings call listening for any hints about consumer slowdown, what people are actually buying, and if tariffs are impacting prices. So these reports, along with comments from these executives at these retailers could end up moving markets.

So we'll be breaking them down all week. So make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast and locked in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Sam Altman. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, thinks that we're in an AI bubble right now. At least that's what he told a reporter at the Verge during a dinner this past week. He thinks that we're in a phase where investors as a whole are over-excited about AI. But he followed that up by saying that AI is the most important thing to happen in a very long time.

So he's sending mixed signals, but he's also not shying away from the fact that the AI hype might be a bubble. In that conversation with the Verge, Altman compared today's hype cycle to the dot-com. bubble of the late 90s. Back then, everyone piled into internet stocks, but many of those companies weren't making money or profit. So when the bubble finally popped, the NASDAQ dropped 80% from its peak. Fast forward to today, there's some similar signs. The NASDAQ has doubled since the December 2022 lows, and Big Tech now makes up nearly 40% of the NASDAQ 100 index. In fact, Nvidia alone accounts for over 6% of the entire index. And if you look at the private markets, I mean, it is insane. AI startups are getting insane valuations even though they haven't shown a business model that

works. Sure, their revenues are growing at a crazy rate, but they're not making any profit. I mean, Open AI themselves is a great example of this. They're on track to make over $20 billion in revenue this year. They have over 700 million weekly active users, but yet the company is still unprofitable. But that hasn't stopped their valuation from ballooning to over $300 billion. Now, if or when this bubble is going to pop is hard to tell. Because every big tech company outside of Apple are spending like crazy on AI chips and infrastructure. Current estimates is that these big tech giants are planning to spend $364 billion in AI CAPEX this year. We're going to have to see if all this spending ends up being worth it. For now, investors are okay with it. In fact, I think the market seems to be encouraging it.

But when the guy running the company who started this AI revolution says that things are getting a bit too frothy, that might be worth noting. Let's shift gears and talk about another company trying to justify their valuation. Novo Nordisk. The Danish pharma giant just scored a big win from the FDA. Their blockbuster weight loss drug, Weigovie, has been approved to treat a serious liver disease called Mash, which affects about 5% of U.S. adults. This makes Wegovy the first GLP1 drug cleared to treat a liver disease. Now, investors were loving this news because this opens up a massive new market for Nova Nordisk. Instead of just selling their drug. drugs to people who want to lose weight or manage their diabetes, they can now target liver disease

patients too. Nova Nordus shares jump 5% on this news, which was desperately needed. The stock has lost more than two-thirds of its value since their peak back in June of last year. But here's thing, though, Nova Nordus' exclusivity on this treatment won't last long. Eli Lilly, the other pharma giant in the weight loss space, is hot on their heels. They've had positive trial data for their own mass treatment using trizepatide. That's the ingredient in their Manjaro and Zepbound weight-loss drugs. So the competition with Eli Lilly isn't going anywhere. The bigger picture here, though, for both these companies is that GLP1 drugs are evolving way beyond just weight loss these days. We're talking about treatments for heart disease, kidney problems, and now liver conditions.

In fact, Eli Lilly estimates that 170 million Americans could benefit from these GLP1 drugs. Right now, only about 8 million are currently taking them. Part of the reason for that is because these drugs are super expensive. They usually start at about $1,000 a month without insurance. Now, Nobod Nortis is starting to drop the prices on their drugs. They announced that cash-paying customers can buy a month's supply of OZempic for just $500. So that's half off the normal price, but I still think it's way too much for most people to afford. These drugs are really going to take off once they start selling them for like $50 a month. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today.

Soho House shares are jumping after the members-only club announced that it's going private in a $2.7 billion. deal. Now, I feel like Soho House had a lot of buzz a few years ago where people would go to pretend to network while they're sipping $30 cocktails. But I think the hype has kind of faded a bit. In fact, the company's stock is down about 40% since they IPO back in 2021. So now a group of investors are coming in led by the hotel operator MCR. They're buying out shareholders at $9 a share. MCR owns and operates 150 fancy hotels all over the U.S. And maybe they can turn things around at the Soho House. Soho House shares are up more than 16% this morning. on this news. Now, sticking with the winners here, let's talk about solar stocks. They are catching

some rays this morning after President Trump announced new rules for tax credits related to wind and solar, stating that residential users will still have access to solar and wind credits, while bigger commercial projects need to show some proof that they're actually building something before getting their credits. Now, this is a huge side of relief for the solar industry. Back in July, Trump's executive order had everyone thinking these credits were gone for good, but it looks like all the residential credits are here to stay, and as a result, Sun Run stock is up over 4%, and Enphase stock is up nearly 3%. Now, on the flip side, Tesla stock is slipping this morning on reports that the EV maker is offering some serious deep discounts on leases over in the UK.

According to the London Times, Tesla is doing this to clear out a backlog of inventory. This fire sale from Tesla comes after the company reported a 12% sales drop last month, with Elon warning that some tough quarters are ahead. see these discounts are enough to get the cars moving off the lot. But either way, it can't be great for their profit margins. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. Well, we had another very expensive celebrity wedding go down in Italy this past weekend. This time, it was the social media mega influencer turned WWE heel Logan Paul. He tied the knot with Sports Illustrated model Nina Agdahl over the weekend in Lake Cuomo. And it's rumored this wedding cost about

$10 million. Now, look, I know that Logan Paul is rich, but I mean, dropping eight figures on a wedding is still pretty wild, especially if you consider the fact that Jeff Bezos's wedding earlier this summer in Italy cost around $70 million, and he's worth like $200 billion. I also wonder what percentage of Italy's GDP is made up of mega rich people having their weddings there. Now, Logan Paul is probably going to be hanging around in Europe for the rest of the month because he's scheduled to take on John Sina at a WWE event in Paris on August 31st. Imagine having to delay your honeymoon because you had to go fight John Sina in a couple weeks. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today.

Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you guys have been enjoying the show so far, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, 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 of that engagement. does help us out and it helps other people find the show. We got a lot of people commenting over the last couple of weeks. Thank you guys so much for all the engagement. Thank you guys again for

listening and watching. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.