Why we've got an eye on this week's corporate earnings

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Speaker 2 Government date is coming soon, but not yet. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.

Speaker 2 In Los Angeles, I'm Con Risdahl. It is Monday, today, 17 November.
Good as always to have you along, everybody.

Speaker 2 You know, when you come back from being out of the office for a while, a week or maybe two, if you're lucky for a vacation or something, and then you open your work email and you spend hours plowing through it all?

Speaker 2 That, except for 44 days away, and when you're allowed to come back to your government statistical job, the whole economy is waiting for you to start producing again.

Speaker 2 All of which I mentioned because the last data we had on retail sales in this economy usually comes from the Census Bureau. The last data we have is from August.

Speaker 2 TBD on when we're going to get those figures for September and October, if at all, as the Bureau works through its backlog.

Speaker 2 In the meanwhile, though, we are going to get quarterly earnings from a bunch of big retailers this week, starting with Home Depot tomorrow, Lowe's, Target, and Walmart to follow.

Speaker 2 So using them as a proxy, Marketplace's Henriette previews what those results might tell us about the health of retail and about the consumers who power it as holiday shopping season looms.

Speaker 4 Big retail companies will tell investors this week how much money they brought in between August and October, but they'll also likely talk about how many things they sold.

Speaker 4 And that's what Gaurav Chabra, managing director at Alex Partners, will be paying attention to.

Speaker 5 When a consumer walks in and buys fewer things at a higher price, that could result in a higher revenue performance by retailers.

Speaker 4 Fine for those big box retailers, but if consumers are buying less stuff overall, that might not be great news for the economy.

Speaker 5 What it'll tell us is

Speaker 5 how consumers may or may not be tightening their wallets in the short and medium term.

Speaker 4 And Jessica Ramirez, managing director of the Consumer Consumer Collective, says a lot of shoppers, especially on the lower end of the income spectrum, are feeling pinched.

Speaker 7 Food is very expensive, rent is expensive, utilities are expensive, yet those are the priorities. And so their discretionary spend is quite limited.

Speaker 4 Just in time for the holidays, the most discretionary time of the year, Ramirez's firm has been surveying consumers who make less than $75,000 a year, and most of them are in bargain hunting mode.

Speaker 7 They've already either started shopping for holiday or will be shopping ahead of Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 To find the best deals, that early shopping, though, might rob retailers of some of their usual traffic in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Speaker 4 But Rick Miller, a partner at the retail consulting firm Big Chalk Analytics, says his data about consumers show something a little bit different.

Speaker 10 What we're seeing is actually relatively robust spending intent for the holidays.

Speaker 4 His firm also surveyed consumers earlier this month.

Speaker 4 Most said their household incomes have actually risen and they've improved their savings a bit this year, even those on the lower end of that K-shaped economy we keep talking about.

Speaker 10 Even though this is still a consumer segment that is under a lot of pressure, very slowly, very generally, things have gotten a little bit better for them over the course of this year.

Speaker 4 Which could make for a better holiday season for families and big retailers. I'm Henry App for Marketplace.

Speaker 2 Wall Street today tech was the drag, including a certain chip design company you're going to hear about in the bottom half of the program. We will have the details when we do the numbers.

Speaker 2 We've been reporting pretty much all year on this program that the American housing market in 2025 has been stuck.

Speaker 2 High prices, low inventory, current owners not wanting to sell and lose their very attractive mortgage interest rates. The third year right now, by the by, about 6.3%.

Speaker 2 Turns out, though, that mortgage applications have been moving up of late compared to the same time last year, and the National Association of Realtors predicts 2026 is going to be a good one, a 14% jump in sales.

Speaker 2 So, marketplace's Daniel Ackerman looked into who might be buying.

Speaker 13 A lot of folks are getting pretty tired of waiting on the sidelines of the housing market, says Lisa Sturtevant of Bright MLS.

Speaker 14 We're sort of reverting back to the mean, and it makes sense to see more sales next year because of pent-up demand.

Speaker 13 There's also a psychological barrier, says Anuban Bassu, CEO of Sage Policy Group, and that's the interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage. It's been hovering around 6.25%,

Speaker 13 and it could dip below 6% next year.

Speaker 11 I've spoken to many people who manufactured installed doors, manufactured installed windows, and they really believe that once it falls below that threshold, then the lid will come off the market.

Speaker 13 Especially in the south and southwest, which have seen more housing construction. Basu says prices in places like Miami and Phoenix have actually been falling.

Speaker 11 And that's because those built environments are poised for in-migration.

Speaker 13 Still, affordability will remain a challenge and could impact who will be buying. Lawrence Yoon is with the National Association of Realtors.

Speaker 12 We have a huge baby boomer population retiring each year.

Speaker 13 Often with equity in a home already. Yoon says that used to mean retirees buying in warm, sunny locales, but that's not always the case anymore.

Speaker 12 Some people go to Arizona, some people go to Florida, but a surprisingly large number was to be near where their grandkids are located.

Speaker 13 Yoon's group has dubbed this the grand baby effect.

Speaker 13 But for first-time buyers who have just regular babies, or none at all, and no equity built up, sadly, I don't see a lot of relief for the entry level of the market.

Speaker 13 Michael Orbino is a realtor in Bellevue, Washington. He expects a jump in sales, but he says that'll be driven by high-end buyers.

Speaker 9 And so that old discussion of, is it a better time to rent versus buy,

Speaker 9 I don't know that that's a universal answer.

Speaker 13 With rental costs ticking down, Orbino says some renters might prefer to sign that lease for one more year. I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace.

Speaker 2 If I might paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, the only things certain in this world are death, taxes, and here in late 2025, an ever-increasing demand for electricity.

Speaker 2 Far less certain, though, bordering on unsettled, is where all that power is going to come from. And that has opened the door for more nuclear energy.

Speaker 2 Bill Gates has thrown a billion dollars into a first-of-its-kind nuke project in rural southwestern Wyoming that's scheduled to open in 2030. Wyoming Public Radio's Kentland Tan brings us the story.

Speaker 15 Terra Power's Andy Crushal is in a hard hat, waving vehicles and people around, including me.

Speaker 2 Now, we got to try to keep getting you run over.

Speaker 15 That'd be ideal. They're standing up a building that by this time next year will house a nuclear power plant training center, identical to the real thing.

Speaker 13 By the time this building's complete, we'll have maybe 60, 75 operators lined up to be trained.

Speaker 15 But today, it's still bulldozers pushing around a big pile of dirt.

Speaker 2 All right, well done, fellas. That's what we're looking for.

Speaker 15 Wyoming's Governor Mark Gordon is here to see the progress, too.

Speaker 2 Hi,

Speaker 2 Gordon. How are you? Good.
How are you?

Speaker 2 I'm well.

Speaker 17 Good to see you.

Speaker 15 He's wearing a cowboy hat sitting in a conference room on site. Gordon says he's excited about the flurry of activity.

Speaker 17 We are adding to the energy matrix.

Speaker 15 He says nuclear, gas, wind, coal, it's all needed.

Speaker 17 There's so much more demand for electricity. It really has exploded.

Speaker 15 The multi-billion dollar power plant will use a first-of-its-kind technology that the company claims is safer and smaller than traditional nuclear plants. Gordon says even lawmakers in D.C.

Speaker 17 recognize how important this is for the country. It's really nice to hear Wyoming is such a prominent mover and shaker and leader in that space.

Speaker 15 And Kemmer is sort of a test case, a nearby old coal town all all too familiar with the boom and bust cycle.

Speaker 15 That's actually why Brian Muir was brought on six years ago as city administrator to help stabilize the local economy. Oh, good.
I meet him at City Hall.

Speaker 16 Oh, I didn't know the governor was coming to town. Great.
I'd like to talk to that guy myself. He's probably too busy for me.

Speaker 15 Talk to the governor because Muir is still solving the puzzle of Kemmer's future. The nuclear plant is key.

Speaker 18 Very enthusiastic for this, and it's very much needed.

Speaker 15 Needed because just a few miles down the highway is Kemmer's Lifeblood, a coal-fired power plant that's slated to fully switch to natural gas at the end of the year, putting in question the future of the local coal mine and its roughly 160 miners.

Speaker 18 So those jobs are at risk, I would say. Yeah, a lot of them are at risk.

Speaker 15 Ideally, the nuclear industry will absorb those workers. The plant will need about 250 employees, but it could take a few years.

Speaker 15 And while Muir is grateful for the incoming new jobs and growth to Kemmer, it's also a big stress.

Speaker 15 That's because the state legislature slashed property taxes this year, which means town revenues dropped.

Speaker 18 Well, we've lost tens of thousands of dollars that are not in our budget anymore, and so it makes it harder to provide the services that people need.

Speaker 15 This rural community needs about $10 million in road repairs, plus a new wastewater treatment plant with a price tag of at least $45 million.

Speaker 15 Muir doesn't know how the town will pay for it.

Speaker 18 You know, there's more need than there is revenue.

Speaker 15 He says these are bottom-line infrastructure needs for Kemmer to grow. And all that work has to happen before Bill Gates' nuclear power plant can take off in this little town in the sagebrush.

Speaker 15 In Kemer, Wyoming, I'm Caitlin Tan for Marketplace.

Speaker 2 The good news is that after more than 5 million people were affected by delays and/or cancellations, the Federal Aviation Administration's flight restrictions were lifted this morning.

Speaker 2 The really good news is that air traffic controllers and TSA agents and other essential federal workers are finally being paid for the work they've been doing.

Speaker 2 The not-so-great news is that the FAA's annual funding is still tangled up in politics and the congressional budget cycle.

Speaker 2 And as Marketplace Kimberly Adams reports, that makes things very, very messy.

Speaker 20 You've probably heard this recently, but there was already a shortage of air traffic controllers even before the shutdown.

Speaker 20 And now, even with it over, says Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Eno Center for Transportation.

Speaker 12 These interruptions keep making it more and more difficult to train new air traffic controllers and to finance and adequately install the systems needed to modernize the air traffic control system.

Speaker 20 Other places, like Canada and several European countries, don't have this problem, according to Rick Geddes, who teaches and directs the program for infrastructure policy at Cornell.

Speaker 21 The problem with air traffic control in the United States is that it's subject to the vagaries of congressional appropriations processes, and that makes it subject to political forces.

Speaker 20 Geddes and others argue for a different model of funding, like the one in Canada, that doesn't rely so much on government funding and instead leans more on user fees from the airlines.

Speaker 20 Airlines already have to collect fees to help fund the FAA, but that money can't be used automatically during a shutdown. Here's Jeff Davis at the Eno Center for Transportation again.

Speaker 12 There is discussion of switching them to a user fee if they charge the airlines directly for the number of hours in the air, takeoff and landings, etc., instead of the current system, because the current system is very much about the number of people in the airplane.

Speaker 20 But opponents of that kind of change say it would serve to benefit larger airlines at the expense of smaller operators and private aviation.

Speaker 20 We reached out to the FAA for comment, but they didn't get back to us.

Speaker 20 Ed Bolin is the president of the National Business Aviation Association and says the focus should instead be on implementing the FAA's multi-billion dollar plan to modernize the whole system over the next few years.

Speaker 22 Parts of the air traffic control system are antiquated. So we have a clear plan from the FAA for phasing in the building of a brand new air traffic control system.

Speaker 20 And that includes surging a number of air traffic traffic controllers who may need a bit more encouragement to sign up for the job after watching what just went down.

Speaker 20 In Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams for Marketplace.

Speaker 2 Coming up.

Speaker 8 It's sour. It's visceral.
You eat it and your mouth tuckers.

Speaker 2 The business of sour, but first, sure, why not? Let's do the numbers.

Speaker 2 Dow Industrial is down 557 points today. One and two-tenths percent closed at 46,590.

Speaker 2 The NASDAQ gave back 192 points, about 8 tenths percent, 22,708. The SP 500 down 61 points, 9 tenths percent, 6, 6, 7, 2 there.
Checking in on some of those retailers Henry was telling us about.

Speaker 2 Home Depot dipped 1.2% today. Lowe's descended 1.25%.

Speaker 2 Target drooped 1.6%

Speaker 2 today. Packaging manufacturer Sealed Air is being taken private by investment firm CD and R, which is paying just over 10 billion Smollions.
Shares in Sealed Air deflated 3.10%.

Speaker 2 Sealed Air? Deflated? Come on. Food Service and Facilities Management Company Aramark.
Missed revenue and profit expectations for the last quarter quarter cooled 5.25% shares did today.

Speaker 2 You are listening to Marketplace.

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Speaker 3 Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by Ondeck or Celtic Bank. Ondec does not lend in North Dakota.
All loans and amount subject to lender approval.

Speaker 2 This is Marketplace. I'm Kai Rizdahl.
There are give or take 4,500 publicly listed companies in the United States. There are a couple of 100 maybe that are household names.

Speaker 2 There is arguably one right now, though, that really, really matters. Nvidia reports earnings Wednesday after the closing bill.

Speaker 2 Wall Street is pretty much expecting another blowout quarter from the premier designer of semiconductors that are used to develop and teach and run AI on computers around the world.

Speaker 2 And as Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports, all eyes are going to be on the company and what CEO Jensen Huang says for clues about that much-discussed AI bubble.

Speaker 23 NVIDIA is the main game on Wall Street this week, with investors looking for revenue and earnings to be up more than 50% year over year. Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities is a well-known bull on NVIDIA.

Speaker 24 NVIDIA is the foundation not just of the tech world, not just of AI revolution, but I'd say the stock market.

Speaker 23 That might seem a bit hyperbolic, but ever since the AI stock boom kicked off, Ives says NVIDIA has been way out in front, developing and supplying the chips powering the rapidly expanding technology.

Speaker 24 It's starting off with trillions of dollars being spent on data center build outs, GPUs, capacity. But where it's ultimately ultimately going, robotics, autonomous.

Speaker 24 It's year three of an eight to ten year build out.

Speaker 23 And where we are right now, year three is going strong based on the other tech earnings we've seen this quarter, says Angelo Zeno at CFRA Research.

Speaker 6 Thus far, it's been most of NVIDIA's customers that have reported, right? The Microsofts, Metas, Alphabets, and Amazons of the world.

Speaker 6 And for the most part, we've seen in line to better than expected results.

Speaker 23 How frothy the AI sector has become is giving some investors the jitters, says e-marketers Jacob Bourne.

Speaker 25 There is just rising concern that we're in this AI bubble and NVIDIA is such a linchpin for the AI sector that it would be very much implicated in any kind of market correction.

Speaker 23 Dan Ives, on the other hand, predicts continued growth and strength across the sector.

Speaker 24 It's easy to call a bubble from the 25th floor of a New York City office building, but we're out there around the world in Taiwan, in China, trying to understand what demand looks like, and it's not a bubble.

Speaker 23 Still, many Americans are increasingly worried AI will be a job killer. Angelo Zeno says in some ways it may be.

Speaker 6 A lot of these junior level type jobs in a lot of different industries, AI in many respects can replace.

Speaker 23 So companies may well cut workers to pay for the AI that could boost productivity for those who remain. I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

Speaker 2 Hey, when you go get a snack, what do you reach for? Do you go salty or do you go sweet? I ask because it may be time to add a third option to the mix.

Speaker 2 Sour demand, it seems, for sour foods is growing like crazy, as Mehera Rivers wrote about the other day in Taste. Mehira, it's good to talk to you.

Speaker 8 Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 I would like you to begin, please, with these grapes that are coated with citric acid. I would like you to tell me about them, and then I'd like you to tell me why they exist.

Speaker 8 Oh, they're wonderful. If you haven't had them,

Speaker 2 I have not, and I probably will not, but go ahead.

Speaker 8 Oh, I highly recommend them.

Speaker 8 They are quite delicious.

Speaker 2 Wait, can I get them at my local Piggly Wiggly or what?

Speaker 8 You know, I think you can. I think at this point, they are everywhere.
So they should be accessible, but they are very simple. It's frozen fruit.
It's a company called Fruit Riot.

Speaker 8 And what they do is they just coat it in, I believe it's a little bit of coconut oil, and then they add some citric acid, malic acid. And that's it.
That's your snack. It's frozen.
It's sour.

Speaker 8 It's visceral. You eat it and your mouth tuckers tuckers and it's really, really quite delicious.

Speaker 2 Okay. Well, you know, beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that stuff.
But I will try. I promise you, I will try them.
But I want to know

Speaker 2 why and where has come this

Speaker 2 tartness and sourness trend? Because this market is booming, as you say.

Speaker 8 It is booming. And I see it everywhere.
I see it on the internet. I see it in restaurants.

Speaker 8 And, you know, I think that a lot of it has to do with a generation of of flavor-curious diners who are going out and looking for new experiences.

Speaker 8 The other one I thought, which was so interesting, is that

Speaker 8 you have this highly engaged online audience, and it feels like it's somewhat of a one-dimensional interaction.

Speaker 8 You're staring at your screen, you know, oftentimes you're isolated, but then you come across this visual of someone eating something sour, and it could even induce a response, a physical response in the viewer.

Speaker 8 So your mouth starts to water. So I think that, you know, sort of tapping into that really engaging and at times extreme emotional and physical reaction can explain why this taste is taking off.

Speaker 2 I had thought, though, that like sourness denoted that food had gone bad and was to be avoided, like historically, right?

Speaker 8 Yeah, absolutely. And that's part of the tension in the story.
And I think, you know, that's sort of the beauty of fermentation.

Speaker 8 And I think for a long time, different cultures have explored with this boundary between repulsive and compelling. And, you know, people have tried cheese and pickles and cured meats for generations.

Speaker 8 This has been staples of cuisines all over the world. And so crossing that border or going back and forth between that sort of questionable line has always existed.

Speaker 2 Gutsy move going back and forth between that questionable line.

Speaker 2 I do think it's interesting that in the popular culture, it has gone from

Speaker 2 candies and sweets, mostly, right? Sour patch kids and warheads and all those things to now stuff for adults, right? And it's being actively marketed that way.

Speaker 8 Absolutely. And I think part of that is a little bit of nostalgia.
I think, you know, millennials have aged into a buying demographic.

Speaker 8 And I am a millennial, and I remember growing up and just eating crazy sour candies as a child. And so these are absolutely things that I turn to again.

Speaker 8 But even elsewhere, like in cooking in the kitchen, you've got people using things like yuzu and kimchi and ingredients that are pantry staples in other cultures, but they're sort of like permeating the American pantry as well.

Speaker 8 And that's definitely appealing to an older audience.

Speaker 2 There is a supply-demand thing here, right? The demand now is clearly rising and companies are going to just start pumping out more of this stuff because companies are companies, right?

Speaker 2 So we're going to see more of it.

Speaker 8 Oh, absolutely. And I mean, even since I published the story, it seems like every big candy company is releasing an extreme sour version of something it had.

Speaker 2 Extreme sour, because that's what we need.

Speaker 8 Right, it is.

Speaker 8 I think, so Skittles just released something. I believe they have like an extreme sour version of an already kind of sour candy.

Speaker 8 And I feel like we're going to just be seeing this more and more in candy and even beyond. Like, I know protein is a very hot topic right now.

Speaker 8 And I just recently saw protein bars that were sour, sour protein bars. So I think it's really permeating a lot of different angles.

Speaker 2 I have to go find some sour grapes. That's what I have to do right now.
Mihir Rivers. I do like them.
I don't know. All right.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you what. I'll call you back, okay?

Speaker 8 And we'll talk about that. Amazing.

Speaker 2 All right. Mihira Rivers, writing at Taste

Speaker 2 about sour grapes and a bunch of other things. Mihira, thanks a bunch.
I appreciate your time.

Speaker 8 Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 This final note on the way out today, in which Bitcoin proves not to be immune from the investing yips that seem to be stalking Wall Street.

Speaker 2 The granddaddy of cryptocurrencies lost another 2.5% today, trading below $91,500 at one point.

Speaker 2 Yes, that is still a whole lot of money for a, let's be honest, not entirely reliable store of value much less a viable means of exchange but it is a far cry from its high this year just shy of 125 000 dollars for one bitcoin

Speaker 2 amir babawe kaylin ash john gordon noia carr amanda peecher and stephanie seek are the marketplace editing staff kelly silvera is the news director and i'm kai rizdahl we will see you tomorrow everybody

Speaker 2 This is APM.

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