The Rundown - Trump Enacts New Round of Tariffs, Amazon Settles FTC Suit for $2.5B

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Stock market update for September 26, 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 Friday, September 26th. In today's episode, we'll tell you about the latest inflation report and what it means for future rate cuts. We'll also tell you about a potential AI deal between Meta and Google and why Amazon just paid a $2.5 billion fine to the FTC. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out about.

but the latest tariff threat from President Trump and the companies that are being impacted. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks fell for the third straight day on Thursday with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both dropping about 0.5%. You know, earlier this week, I was bragging about how stocks have had a surprisingly strong September, despite September being the worst month of the year for the market. And since I made those comments, the markets have dropped every single. day. So my bad guys, I might have jinxed it. Now, beyond just the markets, we got some tariff news

last night. President Trump announced that he's slapping tariffs on pharmaceuticals, furniture, and heavy trucks. Now, we'll talk more about those tariffs in a bid and the companies that could be impacted by these new levies. But, you know, I think everyone kind of let their guard down regarding tariffs since Trump has been quiet about it for a few weeks. So these new tariffs were kind of a surprise. I guess Trump isn't backing down on tariffs anytime soon. Now, remember, the wild card here is that the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments regarding tariffs in just a few weeks on whether President Trump even has the authority to impose these tariffs. There is a chance that all these tariffs that Trump has announced over the past few months could be struck down before the end of the year.

So that could really shake things up. Now, one of the concerns that economists and the Fed has about tariffs is that they could lead to higher inflation, at least in the short term. But so far, the data hasn't shown that yet. In fact, the Fed's favorite inflation gauge, the PCE report, just dropped this morning. And according to that report, prices in August rose about 0.3% month over month and was up 2.7% year over year. And if you look at core PCE, which strips out food and energy, that was up 2.9%. So inflation is still kind of stuck around the 3% range, but all of those numbers were right in line with expectations, which means the Fed is likely to keep cutting interest rates. You know, Jerome Powell indicated in the last meeting the Fed is more focused on ensuring the labor market

conditions don't get any worse. So they're probably going to keep cutting interest rates as long as inflation doesn't get totally out of control. Right now, the markets are pricing in an 88% chance of a rate cut at the next Fed meeting, which is on October 29th. But I mean, that's in more than a months and a lot can happen between now and then. Let's run through some headlines. Meta is reportedly in early talks with Google to bring in Google's Gemini AI models to enhance Meta's ad Yes, you heard that right. Meta, the company that spent the summer handing out NBA-sized contracts to AI talent, is now turning to Google for their AI tech. The idea here is that Meta would fine-tune Gemini on meta's own ad data, helping meta better understand contacts and recommend better ads. The bigger picture here, though, is that it's another indication that meta's not making any significant progress when it comes to their own AI efforts.

Their homegrown Lama models haven't gotten great reviews. Now, it's possible that Zuck's super intelligence AI team that he made over the summer is cooking up something spectacular and Meta will just use Gemini as an interim plug-in while their model gets perfected. But the optics here definitely aren't good. Meta's planning to spend over $70 billion on AI CapEx this year and even more next year. So I think investors are going to want to see some sort of return on that investment. And as for Google, this is yet another sign that they are probably the leaders in the AI space right now. The Gemini models from Google seems to have caught up with Open AI. In fact, the Gemini app has been the number one app on the app store for a couple weeks now,

overtaking chat GPT. Now, I'll be honest, I'm finding myself using Gemini a lot more these days. So yeah, while Google might have started off slow with AI, they seem to have fully caught up. That explains why their stock was hitting all-time highs earlier this month. Now, sticking with big tech, let's talk about Amazon. Amazon just reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the FDX, FTC over accusations that it tricked millions of customers into signing up for Amazon Prime, and they made it hard to cancel on purpose.

$1.5 billion of the settlement funds will go to 35 million Amazon customers who were involved in the deception, equaling to like $51 per customer. And then the other $1 billion will go to the FTC. And just for some context here, this is one of the biggest penalties the FTC has ever handed out, second only to META's $5 billion fine back in 2019. You know, Amazon was only three days into their trial over this, and they decided to settle because they were probably worried they would have to pay even more if the jury sided with the FTC. No, regulators were also trying to hold two Amazon executives personally liable, which would have set a major precedent. So Amazon decided to settle before it ever got that far.

Now, beyond just the money, Amazon is also not allowed to trick users into subscribing to Prime anymore, and Prime cancellation has to be simple and straightforward. Still waiting for the FTC to go after Jims. By the way, this case was brought on by the Biden administration in 2023, and it now ends under Trump. But it's not the only case that Amazon is fighting against regulators. The FTC also sued Amazon over antitrust allegations. Amazon got that case partially dismissed, but the rest of the case will be headed to trial in 2027. So yeah, I bet Amazon's lawyers will already shopping for their fourth, maybe fifth vacation house. And finally, I want to give you guys a quick update on the TikTok sales situation.

President Trump has officially signed an executive order approving a deal regarding the sale of TikTok's U.S. operation, valuing the business at about $14 billion, which is a lot less than I thought it would be, to be honest. This deal would give Oracle, Silver Lake Capital, and Abu Dhabi's MGX investments a 45% stake in the company. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company based in China will keep a 20% stake, and the remaining 35% will go to ByteDance's existing investors, like Sequoia and General Atlantic. Now, as part of this deal, Oracle will handle the TikTok U.S.'s security operations and continue to supply cloud services.

So it seems like TikTok will stay alive in the U.S., but there are a few things to keep in mind. For one, Bight Dance hasn't publicly acknowledged this transaction yet, and it's still unclear whether the Chinese government will greenlight this deal. China would need to tweak some laws for this to fully go through, but President Trump insists that President Xi of China has signed off on it. We'll see. I mean, nothing official has been announced from the Chinese side. What I'm still shocked about is the $14 billion price tag. Like, I legitimately thought it would be more than $30 to $40 billion. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Some pharma companies like Eli Lilly are seeing a boost this morning after President Trump announced a new round of tariffs.

Trump is slapping a 100% tariff on branded drugs that are imported to the U.S. unless that pharma company is actively building factories in the U.S. So Eli Lilly should be clear from these tariffs since they've invested billions of dollars into U.S. manufacturing. And that's giving investors some confidence. And Eli's stock is up nearly 2% this morning. Now, the Danish pharma giant Nova Nordisk, on the other hand, is taking a hit down around 1% this morning at the time of this recording.

I'm kind of surprised these stocks didn't move more after the tariff announcement. Now, furniture retailers are also taking a hit this morning after Trump proposed up to a 50% tariff on things like kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanity, and other things that my wife really wants to buy, but I keep resisting. Shares of Wayfair, William Sonoma, and R.H are all down between 3 and 4% this morning at the time of this recording. I guess I could use these tariffs as an excuse to put off remodeling the kitchen. Sorry, honey, it's not my fault.

Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. Private equity funds are now allowed to buy a stake in NFL teams, and the first deal was just done for the New England Patriots. The Patriots owner Robert Kraft sold an 8% minority stake in the team at a $9 billion valuation. Three of that 8% is being bought by the private equity firm's 6th Street Partners. And the other 5% is being bought by billionaire Dean Metropolis, who became a billionaire for inventing the Twinkie. By the way, the Patriots aren't the only NFL team doing deals right now. The New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and Chicago Bears all had transactions for a minority stake recently,

valuing each team between $8 to $10 billion. So NFL franchise valuations just continue to go up. By the way, Robert Kraft bought the New England Patriots in 1994 for $172 million. That investment has more than 50xed in the past 30 years. Now, it probably helps winning six Super Bowls during that time period and having Tom Brady on your team. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. I hope you guys have been enjoying our show so far.

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It really helps us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys again for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow for the deep dive. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo.

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