All-time highs – SP500 up 9% MTD – NAS100 even more
Balanced risk – up or down from here is evenly matched
All tech right now (Example Monday Equal Weighted up 0.33%, SP500 down 0.35%)
Worried about No More Mr. Nice Guy
The new “Blockchain” , “SPAC”, “MEME” that is pushing stocks
PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts!
Click HERE for Show Notes and Links
DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar.
Love the Show? Then how about a Donation?
Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter
Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter
- HUGE MOVES - All from Tweets
- Earnings seasons - banks did goooood
-- Earnings season - carrot ahead of next week when the tech giants report (lots of bulls on this)
- A belated 420 day to all you stoners out there! Grab a gummy, come back in about 45 minutes and listen - show will be much better...
- Tariff refunds now available
- All-time highs - SP500 up 9% MTD - NAS100 even more
- Balanced risk - up or down from here is evenly matched
-- All tech right now (One day Equal Weighted up 0.33%, SP500 down 0.35%,) - Equal weight up 4.5% MTD, S&P up 9%
- Worried about No More Mr. Nice Guy ? - Seems like Trump is bored with the Iran thing...
- The new "Blockchain" , "SPAC", "MEME" that is pushing stocks
Announcing the Winner of the Closest to the Pin for NetGear...
- Straits of Hormuz closed again, and again
- The brief opening allowed for a cruise ship to sneak through last week.
- Celestyal Discovery, a 1,360-guest vessel operated by Greece-based Celestyal Cruises, departed Port Rashid in Dubai, U.A.E., on April 17 at 11:36 a.m. local time, becoming the first cruise ship known to exit the strait since the crisis began earlier this year.
- No passengers aboard - aside from Captain and Crew.
- - That must have been a pretty scary passing....
- Oil hovering in the $80-$90 range for a while, now topping $100
- WTI and Brent flipped back to the normal relationship
- UAE leaving OPEC - (accounts for 12% of OPEC and 4% of global oil)
---- They need more flexibility and there seems to be a rift with Saudi Arabia and others as they have not been protected
-- China! China to begin exporting jet fuel, diesel and gasoline - DOES THIS MEAN PRICED IN YUAN?
- Retail sales up more than expected.
- Some is due to the high cost of gas - but stripping out gas prices - still beat expectations
- How do we square this with the UMich at all-time lows?
- MRVL Shares jumped more than 7% after a report by The Information said the company is in talks with Google to build two new AI chips.
- AVGO (Broadcom) dipped as they had a deal announced prior and this seems to have watered down some of the importance.
- Fast forward a few days and then we see a story about OpenAi missing user and revenue projections. Commentary about concern that if they do not meet their numbers, may not have enough money to fund all the build-outs they promised. (Lots of names dropping on this concern)
- Apple announces that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple's board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple's next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026.
- Ternus joined Apple's product design team in 2001 and became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team in 2021 as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. Throughout his tenure at Apple, Ternus has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products across every category. He was instrumental in the introduction of multiple new product lines, including iPad® and AirPods, as well as many generations of products across iPhone®, Mac®, and Apple Watch.
- Ternus's work on Mac has helped the category become more powerful and more popular globally than at any time in its 40-year history.
Prior to Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mo Money - Vendor Financing
- Anthropic to secure up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of current and future generations of Amazon's Trainium chips to train and power their advanced AI models.
- Anthropic's Claude Platform available on AWS, providing their full AI developer experience in one place.
- Amazon to invest $5 bln in Anthropic today and up to an additional $20 bln in the future.
- AST SpaceMobile — Shares fell 15% after a satellite launched was placed into the wrong orbit.
- The company said in a release it expects the cost of the satellite to be recovered by an insurance policy, and it still plans to conduct orbital launches once every month to two months in 2026.
- DH Space Cleanup - this is going to be huge. Like the Spaceballs Mega Maid Scene - goes from suck to blow. Mega maid cleaning up space trash - Operation Vaccu Suck
- Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh told Senate hearing that Fed must stay independent and "stay in its lane"
- Opening statement (Senate) : "I do not believe the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials—presidents, senators, or members of the House—state their views on interest rates. Central bankers must be strong enough to listen to a diversity of views from all corners.
- But the actual confirmation may still be stuck until the lawsuit against Powell is dropped (Which it seems is in process)
- Compass Pathways — The biotechnology company surged nearly 25% after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directs his administration to speed up reviews of psychedelic drugs.
- Compass is conducting studies of psychedelics to create drugs for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD.
- A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump imposed without the constitutional authority to do so is scheduled to launch Monday.
- Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.
- It’s the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.
- Sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s has confidentially filed for an IPO.
- - Blackstone bought a majority stake in the sandwich chain in 2024 in a deal that valued the company at roughly $8 billion.
- - - With more than 3,000 locations nationwide, Jersey Mike’s is the second-largest hoagie sandwich chain in the U.S.
-- Did some research - typical franchisee makes about $100-$200k per store.
----- Initial cost to get store going ~ $700k (3-7 year make-good on initial investment plus risks)
- SPACS were HOT - now by all accounts one of the worst performance groups EVER
- AI Pivot
- - - Not sure this has legs like some of the ones in the past...
- Myseum shares more than doubled after the social media firm became the latest company to refocus efforts on artificial intelligence.
-----Shares of Myseum, which has been renamed Myseum.AI, will still trade under the MYSE ticker
- The New Jersey-based company announced Wednesday that it would change its name to Myseum.AI amid a concentration on integrating AI into its platforms like Picture Party and DatChat. Myseum will use AI agents to manage personal media in a way that adapts to users’ preferences while also maintaining privacy, the company said.
- Allbirds’ shares during the previous session after the struggling shoemaker announced a pivot to AI (Went from $3 to $24 and now $11)
- Charles Schwab is rolling out crypto trading, allowing clients to buy bitcoin and ether in the coming weeks.
- The move places the brokerage in direct competition with Robinhood and Coinbase, both of which tend to serve younger clients and offer commission-free trading on stocks (but still carry a fee on crypto).
- Schwab is the latest example of increasing crypto acceptance by traditional financial firms that previously were waiting on the sidelines to launch crypto offerings. (Only Ether and Bitcoin)
-- Stock was down on this news an some earnings hangover (8% from recent high)
- Robinhood and Coinbase had some selling on the news too....
- Sam Altman is seeking the dismissal of punitive damages claims in his sister's civil lawsuit accusing the OpenAI co-founder and chief executive of repeated sexual abuse more than two decades ago, an accusation he denies.
- Annie Altman accused her brother of sexually abusing and raping her between 1997 and 2006 at the family home in suburban Clayton, Missouri, starting when she was three and he was 12. She said the "last acts of sexual abuse and rape" occurred when Sam Altman was an adult. He is now 40.
- Sam Altman is countersuing his sister for defamation over her posts, including a video that said "an almost tech billionaire" molested her. (He is seeking $1)
- FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national security.
- The magazine's story, initially titled “Kash Patel's Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job," cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern about Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” that “alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
- The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.
- Netflix beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue and reported a big jump in earnings per share thanks in part to a termination fee related to its proposed Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
- The company said it expects second-quarter revenue to increase 13% and reiterated its earlier warning that content spending would be weighted in the first half of the year due to the timing of title launches.
- The company announced Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and current chairman, would exit the board in June when his term expires.
- Netflix reiterated that it’s on track to reach $3 billion in advertising revenue in 2026, which would mark a doubling year over year, as that newer revenue line shows growth.
----Shares fell 9% after the announcement
- QVC Group Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to shed $5 billion in debt, as the company struggles with declining network viewership and stiff competition for its e-commerce operation.
- QVC's business model, which relies on live sales sessions and call-in ordering, gave customers a sense of a personal relationship with their favorite peddlers, but the company's best year ever was in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its revenue has dropped by more than a third since then.
- The rise of short-form video platforms like TikTok, which has seen success with live shopping and has brought in more than $15 billion in US revenue in 2025, poses a significant challenge to QVC as it tries to restructure its debt and evolve its business model.
- There will still be QVC for a while - really just a debt restructure - but eventually they are toast
- Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. has floated offering the US government an equity stake in the discount carrier to help stave off its potential liquidation, according to people familiar with the matter.
- The Air Current first reported that Spirit is seeking a bailout from the US government.
- Any proposed bailout is likely to get pushback from competitors that are also struggling with a spike in jet fuel prices during the conflict in the Middle East, some of the people said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy plans to meet with low-cost airline chief executives this week to discuss their challenges, the people said.
- Jetblue CEO told employees it isn’t considering filing for bankruptcy protection this year.
- Geraghty’s comments come amid higher fuel costs and speculation sparked by the New York-based carrier’s founder that the airline could go bust.
- The airline has sufficient liquidity and access to additional capital, Geraghty said in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. That includes a recently secured $500 million loan backed by aircraft, with an option to raise another $250 million.
- A humanoid robot completed a half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, about seven minutes faster than the men’s world record.
- The second annual robot half marathon showed rapid advances in artificial intelligence, with 40% of the robots running autonomously and demonstrating improvement in handling generalized environments.
- The race, which featured over 100 teams and 300 robots, showcased China’s industrial policy priorities, including progress in artificial intelligence and robotics to mitigate the economic risks of an aging population.
- About 40% of the robots this year rant autonomously
AVIS
Microsoft
EPS: ~$4.00–$4.05 (+15–17% YoY)Revenue: ~$81–82 billion (+15–16% YoY)Focus: Azure growth, AI monetization, and whether heavy AI spending is translating into margins.Alphabet (Google)
EPS: ~$2.60–$2.70 (~5% YoY decline, due to higher depreciation)Revenue: ~$106–107 billion (+18–20% YoY)Focus: Strong Cloud growth and proof that AI investment is turning into sustainable revenue.Meta Platforms
EPS: ~$6.60–$6.70 (+20%+ YoY)Revenue: ~$55–56 billion (+18–22% YoY)Focus: AI?driven advertising performance, core margins, and cost discipline outside Reality Labs.Amazon
EPS: ~$1.60–$1.65 (+10–12% YoY)Revenue: ~$177–180 billion (+13–14% YoY)Focus: AWS growth, advertising margins, and clarity around large AI capital spending plans.Apple
EPS: ~$1.90–$2.00 (+15–16% YoY)Revenue: ~$90–95 billion (mid?teens YoY growth)Focus: Services growth, iPhone demand stability, and capital return priorities.Love the Show? Then how about a Donation?
THE WINNER OF THE CLOSEST TO THE PIN
for NETGEAR
Winners will be getting great stuff like the new "OFFICIAL" DHUnplugged Shirt!
See this week’s stock picks HERE
Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter
Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter
