The Market Is Hiding Danger and Opportunity

The financial landscape is more unpredictable than ever. On Wealth Transparency,  I sit down with Michelle Connell from Portia Capital Management, Lex Nikpour from Ethos Financial Group, and Andrew Tang from Turner Financial Group to uncover the hidden pressures shaking markets today.

From oil volatility to inflation spikes and global tensions, this full episode dives into how these forces are affecting your investments. We break down what investors may be missing, why conventional wisdom isn’t enough, and how to position yourself before surprises hit your portfolio.

This isn’t theory. These are real strategies you can act on today to protect your wealth and seize opportunities.

Stop guessing and start understanding. Watch this full episode now to see how market shifts could directly impact your financial future. If you value actionable insights, hit like, subscribe to stay ahead of the curve, and share this with anyone who cannot afford to be caught off guard. The time to act is now.

Chapwood Investments, LLC, is a partner of Ethos Financial Group, LLC, a Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment advisor. No mention, opinion, or omission of a particular security, index, derivative, or other instrument in this webcast or video constitutes an opinion on suitability of any security. The information and data in this video were obtained from sources deemed reliable. Their accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. At any given time, principals at Chapwood Investments, LLC may or may not have a financial interest in any or all of the securities or instruments discussed in this webcast or video. The guests appearing on videos do not receive compensation or provide endorsements or testimonials. Past performance is not indicative of any future results.

All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 
No mention, opinion, or omission of a particular security, index, derivative, or other instrument in this webcast or video constitutes an opinion on suitability of any security. The information and data in this video were obtained from sources deemed reliable. Their accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. The guests appearing on videos do not receive compensation or provide endorsements or testimonials. 
Securities are offered through Innovation Partners, LLC (member FINRA/SIPC). Ed Butowsky is a Registered Representative with Innovation Partners LLC. Ed Butowsky is licensed to business in: CA, FL, LA, TN, TX. 
Innovation Partners LLC and Chapwood Investments are not affiliated.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Hello and welcome to another podcast Wealth Transparency. Today we have Michelle Connell with uh Portia Capital out of Fort Worth. We have Lex Nickpoor with Ethos Wealth Management or Ethos Financial Group, excuse me, out of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and Andrew Tang with Turner Financial Group. For those of you who are consistent listeners, we appreciate you very much. We'd love for you to share this recording with others. We do believe with wealth transparency, we bring state-of-the-art thinking. When I say that, what I mean is that we're right on the cusp uh and cutting edge of every subject that's going on. Wealth transparency was created to talk about subjects that don't necessarily make the big headlines. Although right now it's hard to talk about anything other than oil prices in the Middle East. So, Andrew, why don't you kick us off and give us your view on oil prices, when they're gonna change, because we had President Trump last night give a speech and it did not go over very well with the oil prices.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Not at all. His speech actually was worse than expected, in my view. It's really more of the same. But regarding oil, we we're seeing a little bit more volatility as the the uh the Strait of Hamoose, is it gonna open or reopen? But the good news is that two days ago, UAE had pledged that will join the US to basically help to in the effort to reopen the straits. So that's good in in the long term. Uh in our study, we also predicted that uh you know the the straits will reopen and uh there's be a uh resolution coming soon. And that's also looking pretty good. But you see, oil for the May futures pop up to 108. Oil per barrel, it's uh already at 100, and gasoline prices is uh over$4 right now for the national average. That's what we're seeing right now, and the pressure is on, but most people in the United States, it's still thinking with confidence that the oil prices is still going to be transitory and short-lived for this kind of spike.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, that's the way that I feel about it. I do not believe the events in the Middle East are a major economic event. I believe that they're a short-term event when it comes to oil. But Lex, when we talk about oil, the countries that are getting oil from the Middle East, it's not the United States, it's the European countries and the Asian countries. Why is it, you know, and I'm asking you to put on your geopolitical military hat now, but why is it that you believe that these countries are not getting in there to back the US in their effort to open up the Shreder Humus?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I wouldn't know exactly what I've start to that because I think there's I think dependency would be the dependency in so many ways, not just from an energy perspective, but across all the byproducts from the oil, not to mention the agricultural needs of these countries and so on and so forth. So I think they're going to go in necessarily tempted themselves to the United States when there's so much dependency across the slave commodities, but for a lot of these other countries, it doesn't leave them many options to hedge their national security risks and then on a go-forward basis for the industries that support those relative sovereignty. So I it's it's a disagree just on the basis of this thing being short-lived.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

I don't believe that to be the case, and I believe a lot of the a lot of what's occurred already is some damage that it's going to take years to be able to retize it.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Luckily, to your point, the US isn't in a position from a demonstrating perspective. That being said, there's still quite a bit that we transact with other countries that do rely on those resources. So I think the shocks will be reverb.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

You know, it's interesting because when you think about all the players involved in the Strait of Hormouth, you have China, which is obviously a huge uh you know power in the world, then you have Japan, both of them needing oil from the Middle East, and you even have Russia being impacted because of the price of oil. Uh, Michelle, which countries do you think have the biggest negative, you know, kind of negatives could hurt them uh from the from what's going on in the Strait or House?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I think it's eight, I think it's Asia because I think it's 80% uh the LNG that goes through the strait supplies Asia. And so it's really important to countries, especially those that are making uh semiconductors and their fabrication facilities. Uh, I know that you also have heating oil and and cooking oil issues with a lot of the smaller countries in Asia. I read yesterday that the LNG shortages are causing robberies and a few killings as as well, because they just don't have they don't have options that we're fortunate enough to have.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Yeah. And and part of one of the byproducts of this oil problem is inflation. Andrew, why don't you you know dive into the inflationary impact in the United States because we're already starting to see it in the European central bank uh or European zones.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, we we're definitely seeing inflation pop up, but the good news is is that you know, according to Trueflation, this is one of the uh the uh the engines that I look at, has come down from 1.7 roughly at 1.26 right now. And so if we can agree that the current CPI uh collection system is still full of lagging data, then we can also address that the inflation issue on the longer term basis is still under control and is still coming down from a long-term, long-term trend basis. If we look at the five-year and the ten-year, we also see that they're very tamed. Also, the Fed chairman recently spoke at Harvard University and he compared the inflation scenarios in three different cases. So he stated that basically, if we can read between the lines, that COVID cost inflation is much more longer duration versus even tariff, tariff cost inflation. It's more of a one-time event. And then also for this particular oil spike scenario from the war of Iran, he maintained that staying put and not raising interest rate is the right move because by the time the effect comes in, oil prices likely it's going to come down already. And so, with that said, we still believe that the long-term inflation is still in check. Overall, I still have to repeat the same thing is that when we're going through a tech and innovation boom, it's deflationary. So that is the the most powerful undercurrent deflationary pressure that's working behind the scenes. And these short-term events, again, it's not slowing down consumption. People are still buying with uh you know$4 gas and even with oil at$100 per barrel. We are a net exporter, but still, there's incoming and outgoing that makes it a net exporter, but still, we're still dependent on importing oil as well, as well as we're exporting. LNG is doing well, but then we can't really ship it overseas as much as we wanted to. So, yeah, inflation will will be a little bit higher, but not for too long, in my view.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

So, so Lex, Andrew kind of contradicts what you said about this being longer lived versus shorter lived, and the Fed chair, or the I guess the Fed chair or the Fed president spoke at Harvard. I can't remember who that was, Andrew, and saying that Yeah, it was Jerome Powell. It was Jerome Powell saying saying that he thought it was gonna be short-lived. Do you do you think the European central bank is taking measures that will be you know uh you know basically deflationary or raising rates? Do you think that that's the path they're gonna choose?

SPEAKER_03 8:42

I think it's a little I think from a conflict perspective, it's still it's still too early to tell. Europe is gonna be far more impacted than the best of it. So I don't disagree with this conflict uh you know the present for the last month and two or three weeks. So that that seems to be his constant his constant line, two, three weeks, two, three weeks. Yeah, all of last night was was rather contradictory to that. So I think it's very difficult to sit here and lay a state on what the expectations are moving forward because uh until there's real until there seems to be a real end to the conflict, just the variables and the and the factors really are from one side to the other. I don't think it's really wrong with the other. I think more than that, so it's all happening more than just it's too early to kind of say, first of all, it's not what you know listeners want to hear, they want something actionable and they want something to go on how in moments like this, it's important to know what strategy is.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

I think it's also important to remember that strategy does need to include some sense of flexibility in moments like this.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

No action, sometimes that doesn't need the right course of action to then be able to not throw good money out of that situation. I feel good. I feel that plenty of calls and calls are not okay. So this is a good time to sort of trading a discount and we have seen inflows into the market. But I think you know this is a relative this is sort of catching the perceives and I think it's all here.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I think that's an excellent uh point you make. And and Michelle, which countries do you think are going to be impacted the most from what's going on in the Strait of Hermoose? You had said Asian countries, but now we're talking about inflationary pressures, and I think they go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Well, if you have um fuel that you're cut off from, that's really going to impact your cost of living. Definitely you're going to see Asia being impacted. I also read that Australia, which I didn't realize is hugely impacted because they depend upon that fuel as well. And they've already had 500 to 600 gasoline stations where you have to queue up. You know, it's restricted. So a lot of that part of the world is trying to pivot to make do with what they have. And in some cases, their countries are even releasing what little reserves they have to keep the pressure down on prices. So we're not, we don't have that issue here. So we have to be careful about investing in parts of the world that are going to have a longer impact. I also thought it was interesting that Christine Lagarde said that she will not be paralyzed by inaction. So I think they're fine if they keep interest rates high in order to keep uh their inflation rate low. So she's willing to be more punitive to their to the EU. Then fortunately, we don't have that issue with our Federal Reserve. You know, they're a little bit more softer in their approach.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Yeah, and and the Fed held rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75 and said that no cuts until inflation clearly drops. And that goes back to what Lex had said is that you just don't know which way things are going to go. So you're probably better off not doing anything. But that does bring us to the labor markets, Andrew, something I know that you like to talk about quite a bit. And the hiring has slowed and job losses have picked up. What do you think is the reason for that?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah, it's it's the continuation of the expansion and automation, software, hardware included, and obviously, you know, the word AI. Right now, Fortune 100 companies, 500 companies, if you're not using AI, that something is wrong with the company. The teams are getting smaller and smaller, and we have directors in each department that I've talked to, boots on the ground, you know, with people that run departments, they have the AI agents, they're testing them out, they're hiring business consultants to teach them how to use AI. And almost each department are basically cutting staff, and they are also, you know, once you see people, there are even they're old school, they're older, and they have multiple screens because they're running AI agents on the other screen. So they're really they're doing this testing and real application, and we're also seeing the efficiency improving quite a bit. So this firing or this labor market reshuffling, it's gonna continue for a while. It's going to continue. And uh even though we see you know uh unemployment and and and hiring and the the jobless claims bounce up and down, it's still gonna be a downward trend there. New jobs are are still opening with AI, robotics, and these uh uh you know tech-related fields. But again, this reshuffle is happening faster than people can switch their careers. Well, constructions and blue collar work, you know, those jobs are also available too, and they're not filled fast enough. So that really goes to show that uh this whole hiring is really changing the way we think about higher education, too, because now that the college grad jobs are not being filled as plentiful as promised. MBAs are not finding jobs, PhDs are not finding jobs, and then for the beginning associates, they're looking for three years' experience. So there are a lot of college grads that are under pressure right now, and also existing workforce that could face, you know, job cuts are also not feeling good, and that's why the consumer sentiment is always down.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

So uh Torsten Slock, the chief economist at Apollo, put out a memo today saying uh that in recent years, employment in the software sector has declined by about 200,000 jobs. The factors driving the decline could include AI head hikes or immigration restrictions. Either way, the 200,000 decline in software employment should be compared with the 63 million people who find a new job each year, the 38 million who voluntarily quit their jobs and the 21 million who are laid off. And I found that note to be uh really timely for this conversation in that he's saying basically we have 63 million people looking for new jobs every year, and so far this year we've lost 200,000 to possibly AI. I'm sure that you read that memo because it was put out uh by your firm of today. What what do you what are your thoughts about one of the job losses in slow highland?

unknown 16:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

I did. I tend to follow Torsten. I've been following him for years. I think he does a nice job of saying political and be just explaining the facts. But did you hit it? I believe that the AI adoption is certainly causing these business owners and CEOs and managers to look at their operations and see how can we be more productive and increase our margins while decreasing our costs. And costs, as we know, for business owners by way of personnel, particularly underperforming personnel, is a significant one. So, but I think a tone of optimism should be found in that where really you're finding productivity. So there will be productivity gains, and I think that's important. And while it might be dismal for those, uh those graduating from school, there's also opportunity because those individuals can now start businesses through the use of and the leverage of AI that perhaps they might not have been able to before for far less of a cost than they would have been able to before. Rather than going to take a rank and file early position at Microsoft, not to say that there's absolutely anything wrong with that, but that might have been just the go-to. Hey, I'm gonna go to a stalwart corporate entity, learn something, and try to make my way through the ranks, where now they have the inspiration, perhaps, to go start a new company that then gets acquired by a Microsoft or rivals a Microsoft. And so I think that there's productivity gains to be had here. We are going to go through this difficult time where it does look like there's going to be folks looking for new jobs and there's going to be layoffs, but I think it needs to be really looked at relative to the opportunity as well. I was at a conference last week and CEO of a company was talking about how they're using AI and how they've integrated it over the last call 18 months or so, and how they've been really allowing their workforce to take a step back and say, we're all learning here. And say we're giving you the opportunity to take on this new role of adding a gentic AI into your work model, and then they're grading everyone on that, on their ability to scale that learning into their process. So what's unique about that is you're gonna get folks who are early adopters and they're starting to use it day in and day out, just like Andrew said, where they've got their other screen that's using this model while they're working, you're gonna have folks that just can't seem to get there. And that's okay. There will be a place for them. It's just it might be somewhere lesser than they were before. And I think that that's all really a sign of, hey, we're in this revolution point oh or whatever you want to call it, where we're gonna go through some difficulty, but at the end of this, and I think moving forward, we're gonna realize where the job creation lies. It's just a little bit hard to see through the far through the trees.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Well, Michelle, small businesses are under pressure uh because of fuel cost tariffs and regulation squeezing margins, which somewhat surprises me given that I believe that the Republicans um are less into regulations and more of relieving regulations, uh, but increased regulations are are hurting small businesses. And then you have diesel near five dollars a gallon uh in in many areas, and many firms are delaying expansion or shutting down. So, what what do you say to small business owners at this point?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Hopefully they can hang on because we're dependent upon them as a country for job creation. I mean, when you read we read what was it the last couple days, Oracle let uh 30,000 people go via email. I mean, there is no safety in those large companies anymore. If I were to give advice to employees or students graduating, it'd be go to towards the more mid-sized firms or smaller firms where you can probably build out a niche for yourself. It's easier to stand out. But at the same time, those companies are their costs are higher, as you said, the diesel's higher. Deregulation's not happening as fast as we had hoped with Trump. You're seeing that in the companies that we thought were going to benefit sooner from that trend. I think it's going to happen, especially if we keep control of the Senate. But we're dependent upon those small businesses, especially now. So we're going to have to find a way to make sure that they can hang on despite the all the the cost. I am seeing in North Texas the smaller businesses are holding on to less inventory. And when you go in and you want to buy something, something that's even basic, a lot of times they don't have it. And so they have to order it. I'm talking even things like everyday things that a a woman would use, like cosmetics or go into a department store and they're like, sorry, we're just not keeping as much anymore, because they don't want to tie up their money in inventory. And that means if you don't have the inventory to sell to a customer, they may not come back.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

So that's so that's going to be an issue too. So in that case, I think I don't come back. I order it online. It's like, why am I going to go into the small business even though I want to support them? Yeah. But you're not able to.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Oftentimes I try to calculate the profit margin. I go to Salada and I count the number of people that come in at lunchtime. And I think, my goodness, you know, if they're making$5 a customer and there's 20 customers, I mean they made just$100 in that lunchtime. I mean, it's really difficult for small business owners to make it. And the food business is one that you can't replicate from being, you know, online, although you can order in. Um and I know it's surprising looking at me that I go to Salada, but I do. Um let's just get that out of the way. But it It it definitely there's definitely a lot of economic pressures in the world today. And one of them, Andrew, and our final subject has to do with uh mortgages. The 30-year mortgage went back over 7%. Even though we cut the Fed funds rate, the loan rate went higher. Can you explain to everybody how that happens?

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Yeah, absolutely. Because this really moves freely, you know, and it's more tied to the 10-year yield. And so, you know, whenever there is uh a risk-off environment, you know, cost of capital, uh sentiment of cost of capital going up, you're gonna see the yield, which especially the 10-year, will move freely. So as of late, the 10-year yield has been, you know, moving up, you know, quite significantly. And that's why we saw, you know, with the the risk environment and pressure on you know future inflation or intermediary inflation has moved up. So from let's say the end of February, you know, the 30-year fix for jumbo mortgage, you know, hit sub-six just for a day, 5.99, and it popped all the way back up to 662. So now it resides 664, actually. Now it's residing somewhere around 645. And that's if you have really good credit. And then uh, you know, you're gonna add a point or two if your credit is subpar or not the perfect score. Gosh, the price of a home right now, you you need a third-year jumbo. You know, it wasn't the case in the past. It's very challenging in terms of uh housing affordability. It is it is uh a great pressure for the economy and and for folks who are looking to start a family. You know, first-time home buyer, again, the age of that has popped up to 40. And that's really very difficult for the country and for young people who are trying to start a family. Altogether, yeah, affordability is quite an issue. 30-year jumbo, you know, right now is still receding, but it popped back up to as high as you know, um, 6.64.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

That that's that's amazing that if the average age for a first-time home buyer is 40 years of age. That that's that's a shocking statistic to me. But I believe you. I don't doubt that.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Let's actually, actually, one one more thing. Going back to small businesses, right? Sorry to interrupt you. Every time I pass a store, especially, you know, I live in New York area, I pass a store. I always say, how many of that widget or whatever they're selling they have to sell in order to pay rent? Every time I do that challenge, I'm astonished and I don't know how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

You know, style it. How many styles you have to sell in order to pay rent? You sell trinkets, how many of those things you have to sell in order to pay rent? And rent keeps going higher and higher. What is it? 7% grows to 7% annually? It's insane. Again, sorry for the interruption.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

No, no, no. You make an excellent point. Lex, you're in the uh Philadelphia area. Are you feeling small businesses getting hurt? And are you seeing them close up more frequently than they have in the past?

SPEAKER_03 25:19

You know, so my dad, my father's a tailor, and small business at multiple locations. For him, it's an interesting intersection when still a tailor in the western side of Pennsylvania or Philadelphia. So you get sort of the sentiment that the tail, whether they bring more electric coming into alterations, they can afford to do it, or not. It's been he's had challenging times candidly for since uh COVID. It's just been it's been there have been bursts of opportunity, but I think the consumer is feeling squeezed, so I sort of use him as a little bit of my my gauge. Now it's not not not not foolproof here, but I was just in Kansas City this weekend, and I was amazed at how much of the downtown area and starting to push out that there were storefronts and great what looked like great office locations were absolutely vacant. Now, there's there's a trend to that as well, but I think you would they would show that Kansas City has seen some population increase. It's just amazing to me that there are so many vacancies. Now, maybe it's because there's a lot of e-commerce and people aren't in the office as much anymore, too. Yeah, I I don't know. In in my area, in Wayne PA, small business seems to be doing okay. But I think to Andrew's point, you know, there's it's a matter of time and the cost of doing business as those creep up, no one's immune from from that that margin price. Um and as far as buying homes, I mean, I just did it last year, so uh or or this past summer, and I can tell you I was 37, buying a house, and my wife and I, this was our second home that we were looking at, and we were by and large the younger ones looking and bidding on homes. Which you know, you go from someone that's then in their mid-40s in their career, what you're earning in your career in your mid-40s to late 40s, the bidding up that happens is unbelievable. It it was unique. But I'd also say that this is one of those times where if you need to, and buying a home, I think is important. There are other products other than just your 30-year mortgage, and you have to, as a consumer, I think you need to be smart about how you look at okay, what's my career trajectory? Where would I, where do I anticipate being in 10 years from where I've been, and making decisions that are really personalized to you, not necessarily taking the advice of maybe the parents' generation that was far more risk averse than you are, and and recognizing the products and also recognizing you know 2008 wasn't all that long ago and 2005, which led to 2008, and all of the unique real estate transactions that led to that. But just being aware of listen, if I take a 10 in one arm, so I lock in a rate today and I'm just paying interest only, but I get my bonuses at the end of the year, and I can put down to principal and just pay the interest now. I mean, you start to sort of work those together, and that's in having conversations with financial professionals to be able to actually model that out. I think it can ease some of that tension that maybe home buyers have on saying, Oh, well, I just can't afford to do it, so I'm not even gonna look. It's incumbent upon the consumer to really figure out the best personalized advice for them.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

I'll tell you, Lex, you gave me an idea for a great new business, and that is getting these GLPs to tailors because they can you know kind of help people say, Hey, look, you know what, I could do that, but if you take this, this will help you lose some weight, and then we can really do some tailoring.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

So verticals, right? Get as many verticals of any kind as you can.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

So, Michelle, you know, we both live in North Texas, and what what are your thoughts on small businesses and the closing up of stores? Um, because we see here in Dallas, restaurants are changing every six months, it seems like.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

It's interesting that Lex brought up the tailor, because I'm I know that my tailor is having trouble getting back to where he was business before COVID. And even the dry cleaners that is in a very affluent area near a country club in Fort Worth, they're sending out text messages, which they've never done. We're having a special this week on get your bedding cleaned. I think they're even having issues getting people coming in and having, yes, people are working less uh in offices. You know, I think small businesses in general are having issues. People are spending less. And I read that if this uh oil stays or gasoline stays where it is now, the average family will lose$2,000 in purchasing power. So that that's a lot, that's not a lot of money to you know people in our income category. But you know, the average family, it's a big$2,000 is a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Yeah. Well, as we do every week, we end with a stock idea. And Andrew, you cannot say Microsoft again.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

I'm not going to because Microsoft might take a little bit longer to realize. Yeah. It's going to take a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

So why don't you give us your stock that you would buy today that is not well known?

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Um, and I have a great one for you. You ready for this? Yeah. First of all, this is not investment advice. Check this out. In the low carb keto environment trend that we're going, I'm going to give you one that is full of sugar and carb, crispy cream. It's a turnaround story. DNU T, check out the stock unfilled gap at what$850,$9. Trading at$3 and change. It's a turnaround story. It's not a top-end revenue story, but who knows what can happen.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

Let's what about you? That might be a new segment since I was last on. I'm slightly unprepared in that. But I will tell you something that again, this is not the best request I've been mentioning, but in line with what's going on from the oil commodity perspective, I've been buying the ETF a lot nuclear for quite some time. I just think there's a long tail on I think the investor can be somewhat dismissed this is gonna be this might be a little provocative, uh dismissive of entry level on on price, but I think that's just because of right now and the time and the long tail on the back end of it. And in particular, if we get shocks like this, and you know, like Australia, people are in queue for gas. I think you know, electric vehicles, alternative uh usage of energy are really going to pick up demand and different than decades ago, where the idea was great, the costs were too high, the costs have come down over the last, you know, however many years, and the feasibility is real. So I like NLR.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Great. And Michelle, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Being the tech person that I am uh this week on in some other situations, I talked about NVIDIA looks interesting because the forward PE has been cut in half since the end of January from uh 40 down to about 20. And that's about in line with the forward PE with the S P 500. So I think that looks interesting, and several other technology areas also continue to look good, but I've always liked semis, so I think there's some strength there. And uh tech in the emerging markets will continue to do well, and we've seen some softness in general because of their lack of fuel in Asia, as I spoke to earlier. The ETF EMXC, which I believe is the MSC without China.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Okay, great. Well, I want to thank everybody for watching. Please share this with your friends and co-workers. And I want to thank Michelle, Lex, and Andrew for once again putting on a great show for us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Thanks, Ed for having me.