The Rundown - Nvidia is Developing AI Chip for Robots, Boeing Slumps After Deadly Jeju Air Crash

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Stock market update for December 30, 2024. Follow our new Instagram account ⁠@TheRundownDaily

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zadmani, and today is Monday, December 30th. In today's episode, we preview this upcoming week and tell you why investors will be paying close attention to Tesla. We also tell you about Nvidia's plans for AI robots and Donald Trump's plan to block the TikTok ban. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why Boeing stock is down and why credit card debt levels are starting to become concerning. All right, let's go.

Well, guys, the stock market is coming off another winning week. Despite markets being only open for three and a half days last week, the stock market still squeezed out again. Both the S&P and NASDAQ finished the week up 0.7%, and it would have been even better if it wasn't for a big sell-off on Friday. We got two more trading days left this year for what has been a fantastic year for the stock market. The S&P 500 has gone up 25% while the NASDAQ is up more than 31%.

Those are some incredible numbers. Now, we have another short week coming up. The stock market will be closed on Wednesday for New Year's Day, and I'm sure volumes will be low as well. But there are a couple of things that I'm going to be keeping an eye out for this week. We should be getting a lot of data regarding the retail sector and specifically detailed holiday spending reports. Early indications show that it was a strong holiday shopping season,

but we should be getting some more numbers regarding that. And the big event this week is Tesla. On Thursday, Tesla is going to report how many cars they delivered in Q. Now, this number is always closely watched, but it's going to be even more important this time because Tesla stock has been on a massive run-up over the last couple months. So there are high expectations for Tesla, so we'll see if they end up following through. So we should have a lot to talk about this week, despite it being a short week. If you guys haven't already, subscribe to the podcast to stay in the loop of everything that's

happening in the markets as we close out this year and enter 2025. And if you guys have any New Year's resolutions or personal investing in finance goals for 2025, let us know in the comments on Spotify or YouTube. or if you have any recommendations for us for the show, let us know. And 2025 has a lot of big shoes to fill. Let's run through some headlines. NVIDIA is working on an AI chip for robots. NVIDIA's new robot chip is called Jetson Thor,

and it's planned to be released in the first half of 2025. And NVIDIA has been working on this tech needed for smart robots since 2014, so over a decade now. NVIDIA offers software needed to train models for robots, including simulations for real-world interactions and hardware needed for robot brains. A lot of this stuff is a bit over my head, but really cool stuff. NVIDIA believes that progress for humanoid robots is being driven by the emergence of generative AI and the ability to train robots through simulation technology, which is part of NVIDIA's software offering. In video seems to be pretty bullish on robotics. In fact, according to an interview with the Financial Times, NVIDIA's management thinks that the chat GPT

moment for physical AI like robots is right around the corner. Right now, robotics is just a small division inside of Nvidia by revenue, but the company has been emphasizing its growth lately as new robotic players emerge. Tesla being the most famous example of that, they have their optimist humanoid robots. And Nvidia recently joined an investment round into figure AI, which is a humanoid robotics company that is now valued at $2.6 billion. You know, Nvidia is starting to face a lot a competition when it comes to their data center AI chips with big tech companies trying to find alternatives to Nvidia's chips by developing their own chips like in Amazon and Google's case. So Nvidia is hoping that their work in robotics will be their next big revenue driver.

I'll be honest with you guys, I'm a little skeptical about the whole robotics thing. I mean, it's really cool. I just don't know how close we are to it. Let me know what you guys think. Do you guys think that AI robots are actually around the corner or are we like a decade plus away? Like, I don't think that humanoid robots are going to be mainstream until, like, 2040, maybe even 2050. Let's shift gears and talk about something that is mainstream today.

TikTok. The TikTok ban is right around the corner, but Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to pause the ban. The president-elect wrote a brief for the Supreme Court asking the court to hold off on interpreting the law that can see the social media giant be banned on January 19. One day before his inauguration. In this brief to the Supreme Court, Donald Trump says that he is capable of negotiating. a deal that would keep TikTok alive and also address the concerns related to the app regarding national security. Remember, Congress passed a law back in April that was signed by President Biden that would ban TikTok over national security concerns and it received bipartisan support.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is challenging this law saying that it violates the First Amendment of free speech. And Donald Trump himself in the brief said that TikTok is important for the freedom of expression. Trump didn't go as far to endorse TikTok's First Amendment challenge, though. He didn't take a side on this case against the Supreme Court. he just asked them to pause the ban until he gets into office on January 20th. So we'll see what the Supreme Court decides to do. They were set to hear arguments on this TikTok ban case on January 10th.

So this ban might come down to the wire. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Verasine are up this morning. After Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed they bought another 140,000 shares of the company for $28 million. Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Verasin is now $2.7 billion. becoming its largest shareholder. Now, I'll be honest with you guys,

I'd never heard of Veracine before, but they're an internet domain provider, and they're actually an S&P 500 company. So if we ever get the rundown.com up, maybe we'll use Veracine to buy the domain name. Shares of Veracine are up more than 2% in pre-market trading. Now, on the flip side, shares of Boeing are down this morning

following the deadly crash of the South Korean airline Juju Air, which killed 179 people over the weekend. The plane that was involved in the crash was a Boeing 737, which is a very popular model used all over the world with a stellar safety record. And there's still some uncertainty on what caused the crash. Boeing says they are in contact with Juju Air and ready to support them in the investigation

of the crash. Shares of Boeing are down more than 3% this morning and shares of Juju Air fell to a record low on the Korean exchange. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Credit card defaults have hit their highest level in the past 14 years. $46 billion in credit card loans were written off in the first. nine months of 2024 because that debt is not expected to be paid. That is a whopping 50% increase compared to last year. The last time the defaults were this high was back in 2010, where they reached

north of $50 billion a couple of years after the 2008 financial crisis. Now consumers continue to use credit cards. Credit card debt for consumers reached north of $1 trillion for the first time in 2023, and higher interest rates have caused some hefty payments on that debt. Credit card debt holders paid $170 billion in interest payments over the past year as of September. So not only are consumers suffering from higher inflation, but the cost of debt is going up as well because of interest rate hikes. So we'll see what happens with this trend in 2025, especially with the expectation now that Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve are only expected to cut interest rates by a half percentage point next year. The cost of debt is something to keep an eye on that could have a big

impact on the economy over the next few years. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. We got another short week this week, but we'll have a lot to talk about as we recap this year and look forward to 2025. By the way, if you guys want to see video clips from this podcast, go follow our Instagram account. It's at the rundown daily. We'll put a link in the description if you guys want to go check that out. And if you have like 12 extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, on Spotify. Voting today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify.

Leave us a comment on YouTube. 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. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. This is the rundown, your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security.

Run-down guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or its subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. Respected professionals. Learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Aided Money. Brokred services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by open to the public investing incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.