There was a movie called Jery McGuire that was about a football agent and one of his clients in the movie said “show me the money! and had Jerry repeat the phrase. That phrase is a good way to examine how companies spending their money on. What you as an individual or what a company spends money on or the allocation of resources, is the priority.

In an article by Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni of Reuters, Mark Zuckerberg said, Meta Platforms will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers for superintelligence.

The social media giant is among the largest tech companies in the world. The first multi gigawatt data center dubbed Prometheus is expected to come online in 2026.

Industry publication Semi Analysis noted Meta was on track to be the first AI lab to bring a gigawatt-plus supercluster online.

Meta the owner of Facebook and many other sites generated $165 billion in revenue last year, reorganized its AI efforts under a division called Superintelligence Labs. The division is to be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexadr Wang and ex-GritHub chief Nat Friedman. Meta bought Scale for $14.3 billion.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, profitable companies generate lots of revenues and one of the most important jobs of the Senior Executive is the allocation of resources or show me the money. When you do your homework, because homework is never done, how your companies allocated their resources is what is important?

There are more questions than answers, till next time – to raising questions.

A few weeks ago, President Trump decided that he did not like the Brazilian Supreme Court trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro who was charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss and is set to increase the tariff on Brazil to 50%.

In an article by Gabriela Sa Pessoa and Mauricio Savarese of the Associated Press, they examined what does the US import from Brazil and what would the consequences for the American consumer? Two of the biggest crops grown in Brazil are oranges and coffee.

Ibiapaba Netto, a director of the Brazilian association for citrus juice exporters, said Brazil has no replacement for a country that buys 3 billion litres of orange juice every year and the US does not have enough product at home. About 40% of Brazil’s orange juice go to the US. But about 60% of US imports of orange juice comes from Brazil. Except for a few companies producing 100% Florida orange juice, every other brand depends on Brazil because of a citrus disease in Florida, it could not make up the difference.

America’s coffee habit is almost exclusively on imports. Brazil provides 30% of the American market, followed by Columbia by 20% and Vietnam at 10%.

If tariffs increase imports, then consumers will pay higher prices.

In terms of beef production, Roberto Perosa, president of the Brazilian Association of Exporting Industries, said he had been meeting with partners since the announcement.

Although JBS SA is the largest meat processing enterprise in the world, which is majority controlled by Brazilians with operations in the US, Brazil’s beef is not a competitor for the US as Brazil has offered high production volumes in recent years, which has helped American consumers buy cheaper products.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all decisions tend to have consequences, and it is important to know what they are. If the government wants to go ahead, that is ok but there will be consequences in terms of higher prices for consumers, it all depends on what you believe the government wants at the end. If it a good thing, then people will pay higher prices and all is ok. If you want lower prices, then finding an alternative will be a motivation.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

It used to be that there was a barrier or China Wall between the President and some of the holdings which made his family wealthy. Under President Trump the barrier was broken down and the shining example is Truth Social.

In an article by Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times News Service, the President had a falling out with Elon Musk the owner of Twitter which became X and started Truth Social. All social media sites sell advertising to pay the bills and Truth Social has struggle to expand its user base and attract advertisers beyond those selling to President Trump’s fan base. The company has 29 employees and never made a big commitment to selling ads and only has a few people on staff charged with that task. The company incurred a net loss of $31 million in the first quarter of the year.

However, Truth Social has 10 million followers because the President has no official position at Trump Media and does not advise on corporate policy, he is the largest shareholder. The President uses Truth Social as his primary social media channel. According to Similarweb, roughly 80% of the traffic for Truth Social is to view comments of the President.

In the past few months, President Trump has become a major player in the crypto industry. Truth Social raised $2.5 billion from selling stocks and bonds to dozens of hedge funds and the Wall Street trading firm Jane Street Capital.

The $2.5 billion is being invested in a partnership with Crypto.com, a Singaporean based cryptocurrency exchange to launched 3 ETFs to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The ETFs will be called Truth Social Bitcoin ETF, Truth Social Bitcoin Ethereum ETF and Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF. The money will make Trump Media the 4th-largest public company to hold bitcoin.

Trump Media will be competing with a dozen other firms including iShares, a division of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset management firm. Bryan Armour, the director of ETF research at Morningstar said there is not much to distinguish the funds outside of the name.

On the regulatory front, the President has signaled his strong support for crypto and to rein in the SEC. Crypto companies donated $18 million to President Trump’s inaugural committee and President Trump has met with people from the industry at his golf courses and the White House.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while there might be a role for crypto in one’s portfolio, people such as Warren Buffett are staying away because you need to ask your yourself the price will fluctuate but what keeps the price up besides the fear of missing out? What supports the price when it goes down? If you buy profitable stocks which can pay a dividend, when the market goes down the support level is the dividend payments. Eventually, when the market begins to recover, the value buyers will start buying profitable companies at lower prices and they will rise to their former levels the quickest.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In Washington, President Trump will issue an executive order on something to Make America Great Again and it will sound good. For the President and many people, they will buy the order, but for those in the industry they see reality and what it needs to make reality the truth.

In an article by Niall McGee of Reuters, President Trump wants to impose tariffs on copper but his plan to quickly boost domestic mining, smelting and refining capacity is a pipe dream says industry executives, analysts and consultants.

The tariffs are designed to repatriate industrial production to the US and encourage investment in the US. However, the push to do this will be extremely difficult in copper. And even if it happens on a small scale, it will take years.

Christoper LaFemina, an analyst with Jefferies, said the tariffs should incentivize some investment in mines and smelters, but to be achieved in less than a 10-year horizon is doubtful.

There are mines under development in Arizonia, but the reality is the earliest production expected is 2029.

The US is a significant global copper miner producing 1.1 million tones last year. But it relied on imports for about half of its needs. The biggest copper mines are in Chile which produced more than 5 million tones last year.

In terms of refining capacity, domestic capacity is 890,000 tones. In 2024, China which has dozens of smelters produced 12 million tones.

The last American company to build a smelter was Freeport-McMoRan which built one in Indonesian for $4 billion. The reason was the Indonesian government wanted it and ensured there were no environmental considerations to worry about. Very few communities in the US want a mining smelter in their backyard.

Mr. LaFemina of Jefferies believes the biggest beneficiaries of potential copper tariffs would be Freeport, which accounts for 60% of US mine production. A 50% tariff would bring in $2.8 billion in annual free cash flow. Other companies mentioned are Asarco, Rio Rinto PLC and Arizonia Sonoran Copper Company.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with most government announcements, there are some potential winners, some losers and many that could be winners under the correct conditions and assuming higher prices in the raw material. Before you chase the stocks, do your homework which implies taking time. If the prices all jump, it tends to mean they will also fall back and when results actually happen they will rise again based on making money. As an investor, most of the time your job is to research or do your homework to decide when the market turns in the way you are hoping you benefit. On shows which discuss the stock market you will hear keep some dry powder or cash to invest. One way to build up the cash is buying dividend paying stocks and when the dividends are paid you can invest it into your list of potentials.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When President Trump decided to implement Liberation Day tariffs, global markets reacted and fell and millions of investors wonder what is going on? the 90 days are over, what has been learned?

In an article by Lewis Krauskopf, Saqib Ahmed and Laura Matthews of Reuters, among the lessons for investors are: Brace for surprises from the Trump administration and be flexible. Pay attention to trade as you would monetary and fiscal policy. Do not overreact to headlines but make your portfolio as resilient as possible.

Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, said investors and the market more broadly are used to literal interpretations of announcements and what we are realizing with the Trump administration that is dangerous because there is often flexibility in the end result.

Michael Reynolds, VP of investment strategy at Glenmede, noted the uncertainty at Liberation Day was very open-ended. But the outline of a couple of theses initial trade deals have kind of narrowed the field of what’s probable on tariffs. The fact that we do not have this open-ended risk where tariffs could go anywhere, I think is pretty constructive.

Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at the Man Group, noted what I have learned is to expect to be surprised.

Some investors have referred to TACO or Trump always chickens out, meaning the fear of the announcement of harsh tariffs is overrated because many believe they will likely be moderated.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the best strategy since the Liberation Day announcements was to hold and increase your holdings because the market bounced back and there were stocks offered at bargain prices. However, one did not know that at the time, but if you believe moderation will be the result, then it is a good strategy. President Trump will surprise people; an example was imposing a 50% tariff in Brazil for its treatment of a former corrupt President, what will Brazil do? how is that legal? if Brazil or a company that imports Brazilian goods sues, what court will hold the rationale? President Trump will surprise, and people will sue and eventually some form of moderation happens, and the cycle will continue. Hopefully for your investments you can watch most of the action from the sidelines.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

As a consumer, you will likely notice while there are holidays on the calendar, the events around the holidays slow begin to lengthen. The preparation that used to be a few days before can be moved to weeks or what is the next holiday. The notion is holidays means many work activities shutdown and people are paid, so what will they do? Often times they go to entertainment and shopping places to spend their holiday money, which is why the US economy runs on consumer spending.

In an article by Anne D’Innocenzio of the Associated Press, Amazon is trying to do the same thing by extending its special days. If you shop online, one of the costs is shipping. To combat that Amazon (and others) have a membership Amazon Prime which includes free shipping. Over the years Amazon has added other features to the membership, but free shipping is the biggest feature.

For the past 11 years, Amazon has Prime Days where you can save money on your spending or discounts. This year the company is offering new membership perks to Gen Z shoppers and increased the number of days to 4.

The retail world is very competitive and will match what their competitors are doing so Best Buy, Target and Walmart are having sales at the same time.

Amazon Prime VP amil Ghani, recently told the Associated Press, that shoppers want more time to shop and save.

Analysts are unsure the extra days will translate into more purchases.

While Amazon does not disclose Prime Day sales figures, but said last year had record global sales. Adobe Digital Insights predict the sales event will drive $23.8 billion in overall spending from July 8 to July 11, which is 24.8% more than the similar period last year.

Typically July spending is down, but this year analysts expect sales to be up because tariffs will increase prices for back-to-school spending season.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every industry has a time when it tends to be busier than others and they would like sales to increase. In the consumer area, what will it take to loosen the purse strings in your wallet? for you to buy? It is a never-ending question, and millions of dollars are spent trying to find the answer. Depending on your investments, you can ask the same questions when is the best quarter? did the company meet expectations or beat them? do you want to hold or look for alternatives?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Similar to many people, having gone to Florida for winter vacations, one of the offshoots was to go on a boat cruise into the everglades and see alligators. One of the shows on TV was hunting alligators which because of the teeth and music of the show made the hunt exciting to watch. In addition, the University of Florida teams has the gator for a mascot. Being in the northeast, fortunately we do not deal with alligators. In the summer reading came across a book called Gator Country by Rebecca Renner, published by Flatiron Books, NY, 2023.

The book is both a description of the Florida everglades and a story about a sting operation about trying to protect the alligators from poachers. With every issue, there are rarely lines where people do not cross.

One of the reasons why people from the northeast go to Florida is for the weather, there is no snow in the winter. However, to accommodate the tourists and potential new residents, swamp land in Florida has been and continues to be changed to housing developments and golf courses. Often times alligators are a nuisance in these areas. In the protected areas of the Everglades National Park, the alligators exist as they have always existed. When the tourists come, they like things relatively simple like roads which lead to the Army Corp of Engineers trying to ensure roads could be built which meant diverting water. This changes the habitant of the Everglades which meant the locals had to adjust, but would they? do they really change?

When the Army Corp changed the habitant, the animals moved but when they moved the scientists noted fewer animals which they believed would lead to extinction. This leads to enforcement and the story in the book, what is good for the animals and good for people?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all these companies do good because they sell products people want to buy and contribute to their communities and distribute dividends. Sometimes decisions that are made benefit the companies to a greater deal than the consumers, is that good? perspective matters and as a shareholder you say yes as long as the company can be profitable and pay their dividends.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

One of the reasons why you buy dividend paying stocks which are profitable is because they should be resilient and adaptable. Recently in a press conference, the Defense Secretary was asked about plans for the military, and he said, we have plans for everything. One hopes that companies have the same ability to have plans and be adaptable to what the government proposes.

In an article by Emiliano Rodriguez Mega of the New York Times News Service, is about a Mexican factory. Danfoss is a HVAC company headquartered in Denmark and has operations around the world. It built a factory a few hours from Texas to supply the US as 80% of its air conditioners and refrigeration units were sent to the US.

When President Trump put on tariffs, first they sought out Mexican suppliers for products bound for the US. The market was not big enough, they managers analyzed which products already complied with the pact’s rules but had not yet been certified as such.

Today, virtually all Danfoss products shipped from Mexico to the US comply with the trade deal of USMCA. The next step is to make some of the components in Apodaca, where the Danfoss factory is instead of relying on China which will help in mitigating the impact of punishing US tariffs.

Until now, Mexico’s trade strategy was closely tied to Asia. Bringing in supplies from there was financially viable because of the low costs: instead of thinking how to manufacture things here, Xavier Casas, who oversees the factory says he would import them from China. Now he is thinking why not manufacture them in Mexico?

After July 9th, President Trump’s deadline, what is expected is some products will be lower and some significantly higher.

The top officials at the Mexican Economy Ministry, said more exporters wanted to show their products were mostly manufactured in North America with materials mostly sourced from the region. Data shows 87% of Mexican exports are now free of US tariffs.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when politicians change the rules, which they are allowed to do, it takes time to adjust to the new rules. Many profitable companies can do that, as long as the next step is some form of stability, the rules last so they can plan. The tariffs were a good indicator how flexible your investments are, how did they adapt?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

During the campaign and since being elected, President Trump says he loves imposing tariffs on other countries. There can be many reasons, but he believes if something is imported into the US, the other country pays the tariffs. He is wrong, the importer pays the tariffs and then the importer will likely increase the price to protect their margins which means the consumer pays the tax. For many consumers because much of the manufacturing has gone to other countries, this means the consumer has limited choices in their purchases because for many categories they are imported.

President Trump imposed tariffs, then lowered them or paused them and offer July 9 as a deadline. Just before July 4th, only one country had signed a tariff deal. If you crammed for exams, you would be experiencing what the negotiators have felt.

In an article by Alexandra Stevenson of the New York Times News Service, President Trump signed a deal with Vietnam for 20% tariffs. In addition, the deal would put a 40% tariff on export from Vietnam classified as a transshipment, or goods that originated in another country and were merely passed through Vietnam. The 40% aspect is aimed at China.

Vietnam has China’s manufacturing companies first choice to expand outside because the cost of labor was going up in China. In addition, as the US was targeting China over the years, Chinese companies expanded to over south Asian countries. (a small example is the produce bags you use to put produce in at the grocery store – they came from China, then Vietnam and now Cambodia and Thailand. Next time, you are in the grocery store, ask where the bags are made). Otherwords, if the US puts on tariffs on one country, they move to another.

President Trump’s negotiators have been pushing Vietnam’s export oriented neighbors to reduce how much Chinese content is in their supply chains. Of course, it is possible to use the American method of having a 50% plus 1 partner and that makes it the product of the company where it is located.

The trade terms that the US and Vietnam have so far agreed to will hinge on how they are defined. For example, how much Chinese inputs will be allowed in Vietnamese exports, and how will they be enforced?

Trade and investment from Chinese companies has helped bolster economic growth in Vietnam and the region. However, Southeast Asia is struggling to beat back the torrent of goods from China that are putting domestic companies out of business. In recent years, the Chinese government has heavily subsided factories (to keep people working) leading to surge of Chinese exports around the world.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all profitable companies want to stay profitable and to that end they must control the costs to protect their margins. When something becomes less expensive to do outsource it. whether it is the next state or next country, outsourcing will be studied and reports written to move the operation to somewhere else. Where there are clear advantages, the outsourcing happens. When that happens there is always another country that is a little bit less expensive. At the moment, companies are going through Asia, eventually it will be Africa and then maybe back to the Americas? When a company has multiple operations in countries around the world or is global in scope, what is it? where the headquarters are? some things are hard to define when the goal is to maintain profits and keep the good margin.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.