Brian Stewart

Great to be here, Rina.

Great to be here, Rina.

There's kind of a background radiation going on in terms of the CPI report that recently came out and the effect on the Fed. Also shenanigans out of Washington, a lot of Doge related headlines coming out recently. I think that's going to be kind of a standard background noise for trading in the foreseeable future.

There's kind of a background radiation going on in terms of the CPI report that recently came out and the effect on the Fed. Also shenanigans out of Washington, a lot of Doge related headlines coming out recently. I think that's going to be kind of a standard background noise for trading in the foreseeable future.

There's kind of a background radiation going on in terms of the CPI report that recently came out and the effect on the Fed. Also shenanigans out of Washington, a lot of Doge related headlines coming out recently. I think that's going to be kind of a standard background noise for trading in the foreseeable future.

It seems that we're going to have to kind of rifle through the kind of bickering in Washington. However, I think the stock market itself has seemed pretty immune to any of that. There hasn't been pickup and aggressive volatility over the last several weeks. I think by and large, it's been following momentum of its own. A lot of that is sort of still the AI trade. in effect.

It seems that we're going to have to kind of rifle through the kind of bickering in Washington. However, I think the stock market itself has seemed pretty immune to any of that. There hasn't been pickup and aggressive volatility over the last several weeks. I think by and large, it's been following momentum of its own. A lot of that is sort of still the AI trade. in effect.

It seems that we're going to have to kind of rifle through the kind of bickering in Washington. However, I think the stock market itself has seemed pretty immune to any of that. There hasn't been pickup and aggressive volatility over the last several weeks. I think by and large, it's been following momentum of its own. A lot of that is sort of still the AI trade. in effect.

And I think there's still a lot of individual stock picking. I think with the earnings season peaking in the last couple of weeks, I think investors have largely been looking at the individual company's financial results and not been too worried about the macro scene.

And I think there's still a lot of individual stock picking. I think with the earnings season peaking in the last couple of weeks, I think investors have largely been looking at the individual company's financial results and not been too worried about the macro scene.

And I think there's still a lot of individual stock picking. I think with the earnings season peaking in the last couple of weeks, I think investors have largely been looking at the individual company's financial results and not been too worried about the macro scene.

One interesting theme over the last week is there's quite a few old school consumer companies that did well following the earnings. One example is Philip Morris, which jumped 14%. the past week. That was kind of an individual company story. The company is seeing a very successful transition to smoke-free products.

One interesting theme over the last week is there's quite a few old school consumer companies that did well following the earnings. One example is Philip Morris, which jumped 14%. the past week. That was kind of an individual company story. The company is seeing a very successful transition to smoke-free products.

One interesting theme over the last week is there's quite a few old school consumer companies that did well following the earnings. One example is Philip Morris, which jumped 14%. the past week. That was kind of an individual company story. The company is seeing a very successful transition to smoke-free products.

And so it was moving out of the traditional tobacco cigarettes and moving into things like nicotine packages and vapes. And so that process was seen as being sort of aggressively underway in the earnings since that drove But you also have companies like Coca-Cola, which beat expectations, showed strong organic sales growth.

And so it was moving out of the traditional tobacco cigarettes and moving into things like nicotine packages and vapes. And so that process was seen as being sort of aggressively underway in the earnings since that drove But you also have companies like Coca-Cola, which beat expectations, showed strong organic sales growth.

And so it was moving out of the traditional tobacco cigarettes and moving into things like nicotine packages and vapes. And so that process was seen as being sort of aggressively underway in the earnings since that drove But you also have companies like Coca-Cola, which beat expectations, showed strong organic sales growth.

There's worry still about higher costs and the prospects of tariffs affecting a large international company like Coke. But by and large, the results kind of going into the current quarter that just finished have shown that it's prospering pretty well. And the same with a company like McDonald's, which is up 6%. in the past week.

There's worry still about higher costs and the prospects of tariffs affecting a large international company like Coke. But by and large, the results kind of going into the current quarter that just finished have shown that it's prospering pretty well. And the same with a company like McDonald's, which is up 6%. in the past week.

There's worry still about higher costs and the prospects of tariffs affecting a large international company like Coke. But by and large, the results kind of going into the current quarter that just finished have shown that it's prospering pretty well. And the same with a company like McDonald's, which is up 6%. in the past week.