In this episode, Scott Becker breaks down market optimism, President Trump’s tariff moves, startup advice on cash discipline, shifting market cap leaders, and more.
Chapter 1: Who is Scott Becker and what is the focus of today's podcast?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. We are thrilled to be back with you after a long weekend. And thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. These are eight stories we're following this morning. A couple of these will break down into shorter pieces.
Chapter 2: What is the current state of the markets and recent trends?
Chapter 3: How are President Trump's tariff actions affecting the market?
First, the markets point up this morning after also a good rebound day on Friday and overall a good week in the markets last week. God bless that. Second, the market's upward trajectory comes on the heels of President Trump easing up on and delaying some of the tariffs. The markets loved this.
Chapter 4: Why is maintaining industrial capacity important for national security?
Third, notwithstanding the easing up, long-term for defense and security reasons and perhaps some economic reasons, We do need to make sure that we have some level of industrial capacity in this nation, i.e. to be able to make chips, not potato chips, semiconductor chips, planes, ships, et cetera, and more. Fourth, two core business thoughts for startups. One came from ex-Twitter.
Chapter 5: What are key cash management tips for startup founders?
Chapter 6: What does it mean to avoid running a startup like a rich person's hobby?
One comes from a discussion with a close colleague. First, don't run out of cash. If you're running a startup business, don't run out of cash. It seems so simple, but people are not always careful early on in their management of cash. Second is don't run your business like a rich person. This means you can't constantly keep pouring in money into the business, even if you can afford to.
Chapter 7: Which companies currently lead by market capitalization and what has changed?
There's a certain discipline in turning it into a private loss center versus a money lost advanced hobby. Fifth, the top five companies by market cap This is interesting. There's been some movement again amongst the top five. We'll go Apple's number one, Microsoft number two. It's come back up in front of NVIDIA. Microsoft's only down about 8% year-to-date. NVIDIA down about 70% year-to-date.
Third, NVIDIA number three. Fourth... amazon is number four and finally alphabet google is number five so those are the five biggest market cap companies apple microsoft nvidia amazon then google slash alphabet sixth three stocks that motley fool says to buy and hold intuitive vertex pharmaceuticals and alphabet google We watch Intuitive very closely.
They're a great client, customer, someone we work with at Becker's Healthcare. We love the company, so fascinating to watch that. Seventh, Rory McIlroy. Amazing to watch him win the Masters yesterday. He missed and screwed up a couple shots under pressure, which all of us can relate to, but then came back in the playoff hole to birdie the playoff hole and win the Masters yesterday.
It gives him the winning. He's won all four Grand Slams, all four majors. Gives him what's called a career Grand Slam. Only six golfers have ever done that. It was a really dramatic finish. It was similar to the drama we had at Northmore last year with Adam Rosick overseeing it all, who's got great leadership and great class.
And then Justin Rose, who lost, has been a third-time second-place finisher in the Masters, also was phenomenal. We did a Twitter poll, which I love doing. What is your top goal this week? Eat well, advance your business, exercise a good deal, or other. This poll received about 1,200 votes. The two top choices were eat well or exercise. Third was advance your business.
And finally, fourth was other, which could be a whole bunch of different things. In any event, those are eight of the stories we're following today. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Thank you very, very much.
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