Good Tuesday morning from the Yahoo Finance New York City headquarters studios. I'm the Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sazi. You are watching Ryman Hospitality Properties ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and Okta getting trading underway over at the NASDAQ. Okta, no stranger to the Yahoo Finance airwaves, had a good chat with Todd McKinnon, co-founder and CEO at Dreamforce last week. It's on the podcast Opening Bid Unfiltered. Check it out. Free plug. All right, it's a morning of big earnings beats for the markets to ponder. The beats have been so strong, it's as if tariffs didn't exist and the consumer hasn't slowed. General Motors blew past analyst profit forecast and hiked its full-year outlook. GM CFO Paul Jacobson tells me the results reflect cost discipline and strong sales of trucks. Over at Coca-Cola, weak volume in the US as it raised prices didn't stop the soda giant from beating analyst profit estimates either. Company also left its full-year sales outlook unchanged. Busy, busy earnings morning. All right, let's head down to NASDAQ and check out Yahoo Finance senior reporter Ali Canal, see what's moving in the early going. Ali, hi.
Hi Brian. Well, across the board for the major indexes, it looks like we are opening pretty much flat. And this comes despite the fact that we saw some pretty significant beats for those companies and really intense share reactions as well. You're looking at the majors on your screen right now. We do have the NASDAQ hovering near the flatline just below it. The Dow is up around 50 points and the S&P 500 again another one just hovering around the flatline. But I want to take a look at some individual movers there. You were mentioning General Motors and that's a top trending ticker on the Yahoo Finance site right now. We're seeing shares open nearly 10% higher after the company beat on earnings. Revenue did slightly miss expectations, but the company did raise its overall full-year guidance and had some more optimistic rhetoric around tariffs. GM CEO Mary Barra talking about how the Trump administration and the mitigation policies that they've made are going to make GM and other US manufacturers more competitive in this environment. She actually thanked the administration. So that helping boost shares today. Coca-Cola, same story there. You're seeing shares open 3% higher on the back of better earnings results. GE Aerospace, same thing, up around nearly 2%. And you mentioned how a lot of these companies are talking about the lack of tariffs impacting their bottom lines and that was a big concern around the April tariff announcements. We haven't necessarily seen that filter through into a lot of these companies. So we're going to keep track on all of these names as well as keep track of the rest of earnings season here.
Indeed we are because that's what we do. Ali, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Here's what I'm tracking right now. Bring on the earnings beats. The earnings beat parade marches right along. General Motors and Coca-Cola are out with better than expected profit results. GM's results are stealing the show though given the magnitude of the beat and guidance raise. I caught up with GM's CFO Paul Jacobson on the quarter and outlook and I'll bring you that chat in just a few minutes. Jacobson telling me though the consumer is staying resilient though acknowledged Trump tariffs are weighing a lot on profits. Losing some shine. Gold prices are being pressured as hopes of progress in US-China trade talks dented the appeal of the precious metal as a safe haven asset. Should investors be worried here as gold prices have risen to new heights this year alongside stock prices? We'll dig in. And Apple getting consumed. Shares of Apple achieved their first record of 2025 on Monday as optimism on iPhone 17 sales builds. The move in the stock has Apple knocking on the door of hitting a $4 trillion market cap. In case you are wondering, because I know you are, Nvidia's market cap is $4.5 trillion. Here on the Opening Bid round table, Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye and Yahoo Finance senior reporters Ali Canal and Anz Fere. Good morning to you all. Tom, coming right to you out of the block on earnings season. Some strong earnings results out of Coca-Cola and General Motors this morning. Should that fuel this buy the dip mentality in markets?
Good morning, Brian, and thank you for having me on. Always a pleasure. Yes, I think it should. Excuse me. I think that earnings so far, and it's still early in the season, are coming in better than scheduled. And I think that that just adds to the overall bullish narrative. Yes, last week we had a little dip on some credit concerns, but Zions Bancorporation results last night pretty much made those an idiosyncratic event. And now we're seeing strength across the economic complex, right? We're seeing it from a beverage maker, Coke. We're seeing it from an auto, GM. And what we're seeing is that tariffs are not derailing the economy yet. That just adds to the already bullish mix in this market.
Tom, what in the world am I missing? Because companies are in fact being impacted by tariffs. GM CFO Paul Jacobson told me that this morning, yet they're out here beating by what, almost more than 20 cents, lifting their full-year outlook. Paul telling me 2026 might be better than this year. It almost doesn't make any sense.
It almost doesn't. It's almost too hard to believe, right? That we could introduce all these tariffs, fundamentally sort of change the global trade system, and companies make more money. But that's exactly what's happening.
That's not how it works, right? It shouldn't work that way.
It's not how it works, right? It's not how it should work. But guess what? This is the second time in about five years we've seen that US companies can make money and increase earnings in almost any environment. We thought COVID was going to kill earnings. They figured it out. We thought closing down the country was going to kill. They figured it out and now they're figuring it out through tariffs. It's a very bad bet to bet against US companies' ability to grow earnings.
And as Tom brings up a very good point, corporate America is figuring it out. And when I talk to Paul Jacobson, he's figuring it out. He's cutting costs. He's raising prices on the cost to deliver a vehicle. He's raising prices on options packages. So to Tom's point, they are figuring it out.
They are figuring it out and the tariff situation has been also fluid. I mean you have had carveouts, you have had deals. The sky was falling back in April but not anymore. I mean it has turned around and it has sort of faded in a way with respect to risks. In the case of some of these earnings, yes, strong and you're seeing trends. I mean, in the case of Coca-Cola, the fact that they're going to be using real sugar instead of high fructose. I mean, this is something that the government has also wanted for them to do as well. And also leaning into sort of the healthier options that the consumer has wanted. So these are trends along with the figuring it out as you well put it that they are able to sort of raise prices in some areas and they are able to sort of figure out this whole tariff landscape that has sort of panned out over the last several months.
Ali, the way my brain is working now, we're getting big, we got big earnings beats from Coca-Cola, General Motors, even Delta was pretty good. Are we, I got to think some of these AI stocks like the Mag 7, you know, Microsoft, Google when they report, I mean, they can put up some monster quarters.
Yeah. And the bar has been set high, especially for those companies because we know within this stock market rally, what's been holding up the rally? It's been the MAG7 stocks. And let's not forget, Brian, that the high-income consumer is really driving a lot of this spending. Why are they spending so much? How do they have the means to spend so much? Because stocks are at record highs and those high-income consumers have their assets in the housing market, have their assets in the stock market. So, it's this circular flow of money that we're seeing and part of the reason why we're seeing a lot of these companies that are exposed to that higher income consumer outperform. Now, we have heard in the last earning season from names like Walmart, Dollar Tree, Dollar General that those higher income consumers, those making around $100,000 or more are trading down to some of those names. They are seeking value. You mentioned Delta. They were talking about how premium seats might overtake the general economy.
And they should because Delta One is amazing, Ali. Delta One is amazing. You see those seats? I never sit in them. I actually walk by them to get into the back of the plane. I mean, they're awesome. I get it. I get it.
Yeah. And Brian, when it comes to the few things I splurge on, one is direct flights. I do not like to take layovers. And if I can, especially for long flights, yeah, I would love to go economy, premium economy, if you can afford it. And those consumers that can, that's what they're doing. They're paying up for those types of experiences.
Tom, let me get back to you. You know, I want to ask you how many times you fly Delta One, you know, it's super premium class. Look, we're seeing a rally now in Apple. Finally, a lot of optimism building on this iPhone 17. If you had to choose, what is the better trade here? Is it an Apple with the momentum building or is it something like Nvidia where we know the story is still going to be strong, but the valuation might reflect it?
Yeah. So, you know, luckily I'm here in Southeast Florida, so I try to travel as infrequently as possible and enjoy the beach, but when I do, I do try and go up in the cabin a little bit. Looking at Apple versus Nvidia, I think that I prefer Apple. I think that we have seen a lot of expectations baked in around the AI super cycle and that's worked wonderfully, right? Nvidia shareholders have done fantastically well, but I think that Apple was really viewed as the laggard in this race and they got discounted because of it. Their core business is still doing very well though and I think that people are appreciating that now. So, I like Apple on a continued catch up here as opposed to chasing Nvidia, you know, with all the momentum that it has.
Anz, get in here. It looks like you want to stay bullish on Nvidia. Not that you're picking stocks, but I can see it. Or maybe I'm wrong.
No, I mean, look, Nvidia is great and it has been a massively great play and people are long Nvidia. As far as Apple, I do agree with Tom in the sense that their core business is still strong. I mean, the demand for iPhone 17 upgrade that is supposed to go into 2027. Wall Street's very bullish on that. And I will also say that the connected home devices as well that they're going to be making also in Vietnam. I believe that is also going to be playing part of the entire ecosystem for Apple. I think that Wall Street is very bullish on that.
Tom, last word to you. We're seeing gold sell off here. Any cause for concern?
No, I think this is just a bump in the road. The fundamental factors, you know, you still have elevated inflation, you have low real interest rates, you've got geopolitical concerns, you've got US government dysfunction. That's all a bullish cocktail for gold. It's not going to go straight up. This is most likely a dip.
Bullish cocktails just like on Delta One where Tom flies. All right, a big thank you to my Opening Bid round table, Tom Essaye, always good to see you. Ali Canal and Anz Fere, always good to see you, too. Coming up, Citi fries up a cautious pre-earnings note on McDonald's and we'll have my convo with GM CFO Paul Jacobson following a monster monster earnings beat. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Opening Bid. McDonald's stock has treaded water this year, up only 6% as consumers balk at the ever higher cost of eating fast food. To that end, Citi analyst John Tower, big fan of John, is warning that the third quarter was likely a transition period for Mickey D's business as it picked up marketing messages around value. Two call outs from this note that served as red flags, at least to me. One, Citi's research showed slowing traffic to McDonald's restaurants in the quarter, especially in September. And two, Citi surveys point to consumers increasingly worried about their budgets because of inflation. McDonald's will report its earnings on November 5th before the market open. All right, General Motors is out with much better than expected earnings and a raised full-year outlook, but the auto giant is still warning that tariffs from the Trump administration will hammer profits by as much as $4 billion. Company's also restructuring its EV business as it takes a more subdued view on the industry's outlook. I caught up with GM CFO Paul Jacobson earlier today on the NYC trading floor to get an inside look into the results and outlook.
Well, you know, I think this is just a testament to the resiliency of the GM team. When you look at what we've done over the last several years in terms of reducing our inventory levels, being lean, and being able to respond quickly to the changes around us, this is just another example. And as we started the year, tariffs were all the noise and we said that we were going to be able to adjust and work through it. And now we're on a track to be able to lean on that track record and ultimately look to a '26 that could be better than 2025.
If we were to have this conversation April when the tariffs first hit, I think this would be a different conversation. But I mean tariffs are still impacting your business, right?
