By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
It’s now time for some of today’s trending tickers. We are watching Nvidia, Hertz and On Holding. First up here, Nvidia with the CEO, Jensen Huang, saying the company will send chips to Saudi Arabian AI company Humane. Humane, which is focused on data centers, AI infrastructure and developing Arabic LLMs, is owned by the kingdom’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund and was unveiled on Monday. Here, the shares up over 4 and a half percent, responsible for a lot of that lift in your Nasdaq this morning. Lou Basenese is still here with me. Lou, how are you thinking about Nvidia? I know it wasn’t on your buy list for the MAG 7, but where do you see the shares going?
00:43 Lou Basenese
Yeah, so I am a shareholder. I got in late though, so I didn’t enjoy all the run. I think it’s really critical. If you want to play AI, you have to own this blue chip, no pun intended, chip maker because they are the majority of the chips sales. I think chips are the oxygen of the digital economy. We have to understand that for us to do 600 to 700 billion dollars a year in annual sales in chips, they fuel everything. It’s not just AI. I think that’s what everyone overlooks. Is the chip sector is much broader, much bigger, there’s tailwinds here that are going to persist. Nvidia alone, I mean still trading about 21% off its all-time high, 52-week high. There’s room for it to continue to run on good news like this and obviously on good earnings because they report off cycle. So we’ll still get that look here before too long.
01:41 Speaker A
Right, exactly. That’s going to be the key. Final earnings print of those big tech names to watch here. But let’s look at Hertz reporting a wider loss and lower revenue in the first quarter. The rental company attributing lower revenue to a tighter fleet and current macroeconomic conditions. Still, executives say turnaround efforts are working. The shares though, down over 18%. And Lou, we were talking before this about Bill Ackman and his continued love for the stock, or maybe spiteful love. It’s a relationship he can’t get out of. So what do you think Ackman is thinking on this stock?
02:22 Lou Basenese
Yeah. It’s toxic death spiral. I just don’t understand what attracts him to a business. Automobiles, airplanes and groceries have terrible operating margins. When you’ve got tens of billions of dollars to invest, why are you going after things that don’t have much margin to improve upon? So, I think Hertz is really still struggling post-COVID. They seem to be in this rut relationship rut, if you want to call it, where they keep going back to trimming down their fleet and then building it back up, and everyone gets excited because, you know, you’re seeing better economics after they trim. But look, this is a business that I think we talked about it is overpriced. The rental rates, if you travel a lot, they’re not the most competitive. And their operations are not very seamless or smooth. So I don’t know what he’s betting on, but he’s got a lot more money to lose and make in other places where he can afford to do it.
03:25 Speaker A
Yeah, you don’t want to be betting on a company that has high priced services when we’re in a macroeconomic question mark environment right now. But let’s look at On Holding lifting its full year outlook for sales driven by strong demand. The Swiss shoemaker’s first quarter sales also topping expectations up 40% from a year earlier. The shares up nearly 9% at the moment. And we’ve spoken with the CEO previously on this program and CEOs have talked about the fact that the company is really in a strong place when it comes to any headwinds from tariffs. We know footwear is one of the areas that has been subject to some headwinds from tariffs, but clearly this quarter able to eke out some.
04:13 Lou Basenese
Yeah. I mean look, you got to applaud the growth. I think they’re benefiting from the halo effect too. You can see On sneakers everywhere. I was in Paris and Amsterdam in the last month, all over the US. You know, it’s there, but now they’re getting that halo effect from apparel. You’re starting to broaden out into that which has better margins. I think this is a growth stock that’s got more momentum and this report shows it. So,
04:41 Speaker A
Are you buying at these levels?
04:43 Lou Basenese
I don’t know. I’m not really. Retailers is not usually on my list, but no, it’s interesting. It’s worth following right now for me as a potential momentum play. The thing that’s surprising, this is a good read through for Birkenstock on Thursday, right? Which, I can’t believe Birkenstocks or Crocs are still a thing, but everything comes full circle. So the retail shoe trend is definitely on point.
05:20 Speaker A
One to watch.