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Hello and welcome to Market Domination.

I'm Josh Lipton live from our New York

headquarters. There is just an hour to

go until the closing bell now and stocks

are under pressure here as Treasury

yields rise and investors digest the

latest batch of earnings. The hour

finances Jared Blickery standing by with

the latest. Jared,

>> thank you Josh. We had a nice 4-day run.

Then the S&P and NASDAQ fell off

yesterday as the Dow hit a record high.

Today, all three are underwater,

although it's not uh the Dow was

underwater the most. It's down 3/4 of 1%

or 400 points. Here's the Nasdaq just

barely barely in the red there, about 8

basis points. And the S&P 500 down about

12 basis points or 9.29 points. But, uh,

one one of the things I was highlighting

over the last few days, this is a

year-to- date chart of the S&P 500. Here

is a breakout level that I'm drawing.

Not very well, by the way. Uh about

7,600. It would be normal for the S&P to

retrace to that prior ceiling and use it

as support and then use it as liftoff.

It could also do another thing. It could

go back down that prior ceiling, use it

as resistance, and then go down. In

which case, this would be a false

breakout. But suffice to say, today's

price action does not ch uh change the

game at all. Now, here's a Russell 2000.

Let me dial this back down to an

intraday. You can see it's under

underwater by about 4/10en of 1%. And

let me get to the bond market because

we've got yields jumping to the upside

once again. I've been watching the

30-year like a hawk. It is up to 5.21%

up another four basis points. And I'll

just show you uh it's been higher. It's

been higher as of last week. Uh but

we're getting up to the levels. And by

the way, that's the highest since 2007.

So these things matter. And uh when we

have the 30-year surging higher, it's

not always a level. It's really the

speed of the movement and how much risk

is priced into there by the options

market that can cause stocks to uh roll

over to the downside. Here's a 10-year.

It's also up about six basis points here

to 4.67%. Meanwhile, US dollar index up

27 basis points or one quarter of 1%

today. And we don't need to know the

10day there. So, we'll just leave it

there. And take a look at the large cap

sector action. Energy in the lead. That

is up 1 and a.5%. You can see

communication services and tech. Both of

those just barely green. And uh tech,

we're going to get to uh semiconductors

versus software in a minute. But to the

downside, we got materials down 8/10en

of a percent followed by real estate and

industrials. Each of those off by a

little bit more than half of 1%. Now,

here's the NASDAQ 100. Microsoft up 2%.

Uh Broadcom up 1%. Semiconductors, the

dip was bought today. They started the

day underwater, but they rallied. Uh not

so for software. Let me just dial over

to that board here. And you can see a

lot more red than green. Microsoft is a

standout. Uh the Kahuna is up about 2%

but seeing a lot of red action here

especially when you compare it to the

semiconductor board. Uh SanDisk after uh

well we've had some ups and downs with

SanDisk. It's now down 4.6%. Let's see

if I can get uh two-day up there. And

there there's that big big post earnings

plunge. But to to be only down about 10%

over 2 days is not bad. Western Digital

was another story earlier. Not sure if I

have time to find that. So I'm just

going to move over to the Dow. And

besides the mega caps, which we already

took a look at here, noting that Chevron

is up one and a half%. I did say energy

was leading the large caps today.

Notably Goldman Sachs down 2% and Boeing

off almost 3%. Lot of red in here. Uh

but nothing too spectacular. And Jared,

I know you're also following uh, you

know, big tech's accelerating AI

spending along with the latest buy in

Alphabet's bond sale. What do you see

there?

>> That's right. Alphabet uh, raising or

selling $25 billion worth of bonds

today. You can see the stock is down

1.3%. Now, Alphabet has been a leader

among stock sellers this year. Uh, over

$80 billion worth. And I got a couple

charts for you. So, uh, and I'm writing

about this for my chart of the day on

Friday morning. Check it out. It should

post about 6:00 a.m. We got Amazon,

Alphabet, Meta, and Oracle. All of their

bond sales this year. And you're going

to notice Microsoft as a hyperscaler is

missing from this. That's because they

have not sold bonds. Uh at least not in

a big amount. But here's Amazon leading

the charge up about $92 billion, having

sold 92 billion worth of bonds. Uh

here's Alphabet. This represents the $25

billion pending amount. When you add it

up to what was uh already sold this

year, you get about 77 billion. And you

can and that's only the debt size.

That's only the bond size. You throw in

about $85 billion worth of uh stock.

Well, now we're talking about some

serious numbers north of $150 billion.

So the point is these hyperscalers, they

have to fund the AI buildout uh that

huge capex capex expense and that is no

longer coming out of their free cash

flow. Let's remember that Alphabet only

a couple weeks ago had its worst day in

a year or something like that. And that

was on the disclosure that it went cash

flow negative for the first time since

it became a public company over two

decades ago. Um I got another chart

here. So let me just show you that real

quickly. This is the Alphabet stock

buying or not buying last year. This is

January through June. The first six

months of 2025. They uh didn't buy they

didn't issue any stock. In fact, they

bought back their stock for $28 billion.

that lowered their share count. That

improved the uh share price. Now, this

year, the first six months, they sold

$50 billion worth of stock and they also

have another 40 billion pending that

they can sell at any moment. So, this

just illustrates how deep a change this

is within the hyperscaler universe. So,

on that note, I'm going to send it back

to you, Josh.

>> All right. Thank you, Jared. Well,

investors remain hyperfocused on AI

capital requirements and valuations

while also keeping tabs on must SpaceX

as it continues to trade near all-time

lows. Here to tap into it all, got Corey

Johnson, Pistrophy Capital Research

chief market strategist and the Drill

Down podcast host. Cory, it is good to

see you. Let's do a roundroin of tech

news today. Cory, get your hot take on a

few big names. We'll start with SpaceX.

Uh shares are holding higher here,

right? First batch of shares unlock,

more lockups we know are going to be,

you know, lifted ahead. Bernstein

actually says here that schedule an

unusually complex scheme with nine main

unlock points. What do you make broadly,

Cory, of just the the post IPO SpaceX

story so far?

>> Yeah, SpaceX really is unique in a lot

of ways. And I think that, you know,

Bernstein's right. I've been I've been

writing about this from the start when

it first came out. This is the weirdest

unlock and a really aggressive unlock to

just dump shares on the public at the

same time of creating creating this

artificial demand with uh with Tesla and

Elon Musk Tesla Elon Musk and on behalf

of SpaceX um lobbying uh the indexes

saying hey you really need to get a

piece of this your indexes don't reflect

the market if they don't reflect my big

giant company. He created these

artificial buyers who aren't based

buying on wanting to own the stock, but

on a on a mechanical uh need to own the

stock. So, you're issuing a lot more

shares and you've got buyers sort of

built into the marketplace. And as the

float increases, that buy that need to

buy that need to be represented in the

indexes increases by the indexes. But

here's what's not appreciated, Josh. And

and you get this, you used to be out

here back in the old days, you were in

the Bay Area, and the the vent this is a

really weird venture deal. You know,

usually if you're lucky enough to have

invested in a company that goes public,

you're out within six or eight years.

For the investors in SpaceX, they've

been walking around the the country club

or their Soul Cycle classes or whatever,

boasting about their early investment in

SpaceX without a dime to show for it

sometimes for 10, 20 years. They want

that money out. The demand for sellers

to sell, I believe, will be a lot

greater than we've seen in previous IPOs

just because SpaceX has been private for

so long.

>> By the way, Corey, since we're talking

all things Musk, I don't know if you you

saw this. Uh Elon is now giving us this

this sneak peek at Terraab, Corey, um

the chip plant in Texas. Um he says

Terraab, Texas will be the largest and

most valuable building on Earth by far.

There it is. Musk going on to say it

will be stunningly beautiful. What do

you I don't know. What do you feel when

you see this, Cory? Are you impressed?

Are you rolling your eyes? What do you

think?

>> I you, you know, I'm always rolling my

eyes. I look at the size of my eyes.

It's like there's a thyroid issue or

something. But um you know, yeah, the

this the sexiness of a Tesla Model 3, I

don't know. Um, it would be nice if we

had uh TSMC kind of production in the

United States. That would be great. Um,

whether it needs to be beautiful or not

beautiful, uh, why not opt for some

beauty? But the task of building a

company like they've announced with

Terraab is an incredible task and and

one that will be born on the

shareholders of Tesla and SpaceX. And um

you know what what no one else does what

TMC does TSMC does because no one else

has been able to do it including people

like oh Intel you know the greatest

manufacturers of semiconductors in the

history of semiconductors. So the notion

that that Elon Musk and and SpaceX

people can go into this new industry and

have technical success with I would

argue the second most technically

difficult thing ever in the history of

mankind. Most difficult thing was

designing the machines that ASML does to

make those chips. look or or at least to

know put the patterns on this on the

wafers themselves. A lot has to go right

for this to happen and the expense of

trying to get there is going to be uh

borne by the SpaceX shareholders. It's

another reason I would say that there's

more risk on top of SpaceX shares. Uh

let's go broader, Cory. Heading into

this earnings season, my friend, uh, big

question for big tech was, "Hey, listen.

Where is the ROI on all this massive

historic AI spend? Show me the money."

Yeah. In your opinion, was that question

answered?

>> So, I think of this a little bit

differently. Um, I think of this sort of

in three tranches that there's three

levels of ROI. And if we start at the

top of AI, right, the use of large

language models to provide a return on

investment, are you getting what you

wanted with your tokens, the the token

maxing argument, the argument about

token throttling, are some companies are

limiting how many tokens their their uh

employees can use because it was getting

too expensive once uh uh chat GPT and

claude prices went up. Well, I think

that's undetermined, but that's the sort

of the last question that's going to get

answered here. You know, we'd love to

know if it's profitable. Turn on your AI

machine. Your company will make more bis

more money. That would be nice to know

the answer to that. We don't know the

answer to that, but I think that that's

the last thing we're going to find out

in AI. The second trunch is with a data

center. Is renting out a data center a

profitable business to be in Microsoft

Azure, AWS, and now XAI. You throw in a

core or some of the Neoclouds or

something. And we've seen mixed results

there. The results from companies like

Coree and things I would argue have not

been great. Um, the numbers that that

XAI put up by renting out their data

centers uh were really nice and

surprising. I think that my guess is

that the stock promoters behind SpaceX

really hoped that sneaking in this

rental revenue would lead to this huge

revenue boom, which it did, which would

drive the stock up, which it didn't. But

the first layer, the first layer, the

question, is there ROI in building data

centers? Is there ROI in selling stuff

that goes into data centers? And

overwhelmingly in the last two weeks and

I expect next week and the week after as

we get second quarter earnings we have

seen that doesn't matter what you sell

into a a data center whe whether you're

selling semiconductors uh GPUs or CPUs

like AMD or you're selling uh memory uh

uh uh components on memory memory uh

chips whether you're selling optical

transceivers we're going to see results

next week from Lummenum and from uh

coherent we're going to see results

after the close today from applied opto

electronics whether you're selling fiber

or copper or concrete. I'll bet if

you're selling burritos to the guys

building the data centers in Texas. It's

a fantastically ROI delivering business

right now. We know that to be true that

the building of data centers has been a

very profitable business for lots of

companies and we're seeing more signs of

that accelerating with every report that

we've seen in the second quarter.

>> Let's stick with that AI theme. Get your

take on another highf flyer. Palunteer

Cory. Now they reported this week stock

surged. I spoke to CEO Alex Karb. Here's

what Karb told me. Every single person

who's financially illiterate or

illiterate in anything like technology

is spitting out their dentures when they

look at these numbers. What you really

see here is the first company that's

been able to lever AI at scale

internally and then externally with

partners. What do you make of it?

>> How I did not see your interview. I'm

missing that. I'm going to find that

online. I'll even tweet about it because

I can't wait to see it. Alex Karp is

really really entertaining. Um I I'm not

invested in the company. I'm not about

to be I I tend to I like to avoid

bombass whenever possible unless

conducting an interview. Um you know he

call his results otherworldly. They were

not. They're very much of this world.

SpaceX wants to call the results

otherworldly. It's only one of their

business units, right? Um I think that

uh what Palanteer has done is shown

really remarkable revenue growth. Um,

they've shown some nice earnings growth

and operating margin growth. They

haven't shown fantastic free cash flow

generation historically, but maybe

things will get better there. Um, uh,

he's a a bombastic and entertaining guy.

Um, uh, and, uh, I be surprised if any

of his shareholders have dentures.

>> Well, and here, Corey, on on another

name, Oracle, now we talked about this

on the show. You're a shareholder. I

don't have to tell you the stock. It's

been rough. We're down nearly 30% this

year. We're down more than 50% from the

year ago high. What What do What does

Larry Ellison and that team need to do,

Corey, to convince investors, you know

what, Oracle is a smart bet?

>> Yeah. You know, it's interesting that

Oracle um so the the things that Oracle

does, they get blamed for, taking in a

lot of orders, having huge RPOs, signing

the the contracts that every other

company's out there chasing after an

Oracle signs the deal, and then Oracle

gets beat up for it. When other

companies sign deals, they generally get

rewarded for it. Um there is a lot of

concern whether or not Oracle's

customers are going to show up and pay

their bills. And and if there if look,

if OpenAI stops paying their bills, all

these stocks are going down. Believe me,

uh, if OpenAI can't, uh, fulfill their

obligations and shocks the market, um,

we're going to have big problems here.

And, you know, I've been saying that for

a couple of years. I had Bill Aman

saying it now. Come on in, Bill. The

water's warm. You know, Oracle has has,

uh, what they've got to do. They've got

to deliver. And they've got to deliver

some cash flow, and they've got to close

the deals at the pace that they have

been closing them. They've got to

continue to do that. and every quarter

is going to give them a chance to show

that they're doing uh in their results

they're doing what they've said they're

going to do. They've done it thus far.

Um uh for whatever reason the market's

not giving them a lot of credit for

that. I yes I am a shareholder and I'm

very biased. I have friends and people

at Oracle I care about as well and yet I

think you know they're they're getting

blamed where other people are getting

credit. Um you know I'm up on the stock

as as far as that goes. I don't give

stock advice right there. I'm not

telling people to buy or sell the

shares, but when I look at the results

from Oracle, they're really strong. What

they're being blamed for is is not

completing things that are not

completed. They've said that are not

going to be completed yet. So, I don't,

you know, I don't know what to do with

that as a as an analyst of of

businesses. Right. I look at what

they've done, what they've said they're

going to do, and if they've completed

those things. And thus far, they have.

>> Corey, as as always, we are lucky to

have you on the show. Thank you, sir.

>> Oh, I'm lucky to be here. Come on.

>> See you soon. Coming up, we dive into

the catalyst behind Microsoft's comeback

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with Yahoo Finance Tech Dan Howley.

That's next on Market Domination.

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>> Microsoft's winning back investors as

Azure growth accelerates and paid

co-pilot seats topped 30 million. from

we're bringing in Yah finance tech or

Dan Halley. All right, Dan, so investors

want to know, listen, are these AI

investments, are they making money? Did

Microsoft answer that?

>> It seems like for now they did. Uh, you

know, year to date before earnings they

were in the red as far as the stock

price goes and since then they've gone

positive. I think last time I checked uh

they were uh up by about 2%. Um and you

know for for Microsoft the narrative has

been less about uh you know it's it's

it's been interesting because they rely

so heavily on open AI.

>> Uh Google has Gemini. Amazon's just kind

of playing the field it seems. They say

they're working on their own models as

well. Meta's doing their thing and

Microsoft was kind of you know you you

were the leader but now you fall behind.

What what's going on? What what are you

doing with co-pilot?

>> How are you doing? And then there was

this whole like the whole Bayer

narrative goes up like oh AI disruption

fears front that's going to wreck

Nadella enterprise software

>> but it seems as though the the co-pilot

numbers they have 30 million co-pilot

paid co-pilot seats Microsoft uh 365

co-pilot seats

>> that coupled with Azure growth I think

was enough to get investors on board

with Microsoft going forward. Now it

seems as though this is starting to

really pay off for them. you know, it's

it's 30 million seats. They have a lot

more Microsoft 365 users than that,

which by the way, that's just Office.

They just rebranded it

>> for whatever reason. But, uh, they still

have a way to go, but it's proof that

they're they're seeing the growth

accelerate. Azure growth also

accelerating. It was 43% in the quarter,

>> looking to accelerate into Q1 and Q2 as

well. So, we'll just have to see, but it

looks as though this is kind of the

start of perhaps where they they start

to show that return on investment. Now,

one wrinkle in your story, Dan, you talk

about how Bloomberg notes here the bulk

of Microsoft's AI growth came from open

AI. In your opinion, does that raise uh

questions about customer concentration

risk?

>> Yeah, I mean it's uh I think uh they did

the calculations over at Bloomberg. They

said about 70% of that co uh that excuse

me that uh AI revenue is

>> open AI. And yeah, I mean they're they

are one of OpenAI's biggest backers, you

know, despite the kind of uh friendnemy

relationship that they have going on

right now. They'll still continue to

have OpenAI using their Azure services

going forward. And so, you know, uh they

have that revenue sharing agreement

where Microsoft gets the revenue, they

don't have to share it anymore. We'll

just see how this kind of goes on moving

forward. uh you know, OpenAI is now

working with uh uh Microsoft's

competitors.

>> And so over time, you you would think or

you would hope that Microsoft continues

to try to diversify away from this, but

it's it's yeah, this this concentration

is still I think it's it's enough to

keep people on edge just just enough at

this point.

>> Let's say you're looking out D 6 months

out, 12 months out. What could in your

opinion I mean what do we have to watch

to see if you know this Microsoft AI

story could get derailed if honestly if

co-pilot growth doesn't keep up if they

you know uh don't give us updated

numbers as to overall AI uh revenue

right because this this this number that

that uh Bloomberg was referring to

>> uh they basically took the revenue that

was generated from OpenAI it was like$

24 billion something like And then they

took uh a prior estimate of what

Microsoft expected uh going forward. Uh

and so we haven't gotten an updated

number from Microsoft yet. So if that

number, if they do update it, doesn't

come in as impressive as people were

hoping or doesn't grow as much as people

were hoping, that would do it. if

C-Pilot doesn't keep up or continue to

grow. If in the back half of next year,

their next fiscal year, we see a

slowdown in Azure growth because they've

only said the first half of their next

fiscal year will see continuing uh

growth or ra accelerating growth.

>> If that starts to slow down, then people

might say, "Okay, was that it?" this

kind of a big, you know, whoop. It was

growth and then it kind of petered back

out. So I think those are the things

that people are going to be watching

here as well as obviously the

investments. You know, Microsoft has

been a little bit better about their

investing strategy or not not better I

would say uh uh more cautious about

their investing strategy and that caused

some back and forth between them and

OpenAI. Uh but they they've now kind of

reworked some of their uh leasing uh uh

leasing kind of uh categorization where

they say that uh they're extending the

usefulness of offices and data center

space. So doesn't necessarily go to

capback. So I think they're they're more

better equipped to uh kind of handle

that blowback from Wall Street than say

you know Meta. Uh but I I do think if

those kind of growth numbers don't

continue to show if Copilot doesn't

really take off and people say I'm just

going to use OpenAI or you know

anthropic then that could be a problem.

>> All right. Thank you Bunny. Appreciate

it. Coming up, Crispy Cream CEO joins to

talk the company's better than [music]

expected quarter. That's next on Market

Domination.

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>> Crispy Cream is showing signs its

turnaround has taken hold, bearing

losses and revenue coming in above

estimates here to talk through the

quarters. is Crispy Cream CEO Joshua

Charlessworth. Josh, it is always good

to see you. Let's just dig into this

report, Josh. Uh it looks like narrowed

your loss, um expanded margins, reduced

leverage, uh revenue did fall about 13%.

Maybe start big picture, Josh. What are

the the big takeaways in the quarter?

>> Yeah, it's great to see you, too. Uh

good afternoon. The results today

reflect the outcome of our turnaround

plan that we've been working on for the

last year. um a turnaround plan designed

to deliver sustainable profitable growth

and you're right strengthen the balance

sheet and we've seen uh adjusted uh

EBITD DAR up $340 basis points

year-over-year we've generated $und00

million more cash at this point of the

year than we did a year ago reducing our

debt leverage 1.3 turns perhaps most

importantly uh for the future we've also

seeing underlying growth the the

headline revenue reduction you mentioned

relates to our reffranchising program.

The underlying growth also if you

exclude um revenues that we exited last

year specifically with McDonald's um in

the US organic growth was up 4.4%

year-over-year. So uh across each of

those crucial measures of the turnaround

plan, we're seeing significant progress.

>> Josh, I see this Bloomberg report noting

42% of sales now coming from franchises.

That's up from 25% last year. goal is to

open at least 100 shops this year,

nearly all of which will be franchises.

Um, you know, the more you franchise,

the less capital you need, but you also,

um, you know, you give up give up some

control under that model. I'm just

curious how you think about that

balance, Josh.

>> Yeah, in the US, we're actually

leveraging our own company operations to

bring donuts to people more conveniently

and expand that way. places like

Walmart, Target, Kroger, or even online.

Um, internationally, we've been driving

a lot with our franchise partners, as

you already referenced, aiming to be

more than 100 shops this year. We're

actually in 42 countries around the

world. Half our systemwide sales are

international. And that's why we

reaffirmed our guidance today uh of 2 to

4% systemwide sales growth this year. a

balance of both that domestic and

international a balance of company and

franchise but we have been upping the

franchise proportion particularly

internationally I'm curious Josh what

you're seeing with commodity inflation

and whether there are any plans to

offset that with higher prices

>> although there has been some inflation

obviously most recently with gasoline uh

we're really focused on the productivity

benefits to our P&L uh of the

initiatives we've taken uh to for

example outsource logistics to third

parties uh improve uh our production and

demand planning even leveraging AI most

recently to do that um and those are

more than offsetting uh any headwinds uh

on inflation and hence why we're able to

deliver the results we shared today. I

think on the call, Josh, you said you're

you're in about 30% of your major retail

partners' store network. So, Walmart,

Target. I mean, how how big, Josh, is

that opportunity ultimately financially

and and strategically for you all?

>> Yeah, we've been working with great

partners like that to see how we can get

to more of their stores, but also it's

been really important to make sure that

when we show up in their store, it's in

the right place. um and that the

infrastructure we put around uh them uh

is sustainable and profitable local

deliveries um and efficient delivery

routes. And so we have been thoughtfully

expanding and plan to continue to do so

with those partners. And as a result,

the average weekly sales we saw this

quarter in those fresh delivery channels

was 30% higher than at the same time a

year ago, showing that we're making

we're growing. Uh we added 450 of those

locations. so far this year, but we're

also growing quality growth, profitable

growth that's sustainable for the long

term.

>> Josh, as you can imagine, we talk a lot

about AI on this show, and I'm curious

how you all are leveraging that

technology, how and where, Josh, it's

making a difference.

>> Yeah, we're evaluating AI enabled

solutions in many parts of the business.

Now, um the one I just mentioned in

demand planning is the one of the most

uh recent and exciting ones. That's an

AI enabled technology solution to

support our fresh delivery business to

make sure that we have the right donuts

in the right place at the right time.

When you're doing more than in the for

example in the US 7 and a half thousand

locations um you uh with daily

deliveries deliveries uh through the

week you have to make sure that you are

on top of that complexity. And we've

been able with this technology that

we're now rolling out in the system to

see uh reduced out of stocks on the

shelf and even minimize return. So it's

really exciting opportunity ahead. Uh

>> investors I imagine Josh still have

questions about GLP1s and the potential

impact those medicines would have on

snack companies. And I'm curious what

you're seeing in the business.

>> Well, as we said today, we're seeing

good underlying growth. We think that's

because crispy cream as a fresh doughut

is uh often uh bought for sharing

occasions, celebrations, and actually

bought on average only two or three

times a year by our customers is is u

well positioned in this environment. Um

we've seen uh the results continue to to

grow well and we we we do know that

people are looking for different

options. So we have a minis, mini

donuts, doughnut dots, mini crers that

give people choice and option, but

overall uh we actually think uh that a

fresh sharing proposition like a dozen

original glazed is what people are

looking for in this environment.

>> Finally, Josh, the journal, you saw

this, they they recently wrote about

crispy cream is leaning into handcorated

limited edition donuts. So Harry Potter,

He-Man, I guess seasonal collections.

How how important uh Josh are those

donuts versus you know the classics you

offer?

>> You know the the the classic original

glazed is our most popular donut. It

presents great value for our customers.

Uh whether it's in a dozen or

increasingly people are taking advantage

of our offers on buying second dozen

donuts. But we also need to and do bring

excitement to the category. We have a

seasonal range that we continuously

bring. Uh here's the pumpkin uh spice uh

cake donut that we'll be launching

tomorrow for example. Uh and also a

cadence of constant innovations as well.

Uh and they create a lot of buzz and

excitement particularly online in our

social and digital channels. We've had

70 billion media impressions this year.

Um we've been able to grow digital sales

8%. They now represent 22% of our retail

sales. And that's all around built on 18

million loyalty club members who are

looking for innovation, looking for

excitement like this. And we really do

balance the combination of the classics

with the new and exciting donuts to

really delight our customers. Josh,

always great to have you on the show.

Thank you.

>> Thank you. Really appreciate it.

>> Well, Figma shares sliding despite the

company reporting Q2 earnings that beat

analyst expectations. Y finances Julie

Hyman spoke to Figma's CFO about those

results.

>> Do you see you all as sort of turning a

corner? And I know last quarter you're

building on that momentum. Um do you

think that this is the pivot that some

investors have been waiting for?

>> Yeah, really good to be here, Julian.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really

proud of the way the team executed. It

was a strong quarter across the board.

Uh you know, companies are coming to

Figma to reimagine how they're building

with AI and they're doubling down. So it

was to your point it was our third third

consecutive quarter of accelerated

revenue growth. Uh we you know we put up

48% in the quarter. It was our first

full quarter of AI credit monetization.

Um and so this gives us a sense of of

where things are going and the

opportunity ahead. Um and then net

dollar retention held strong at 136%. Um

what one of the things I was personally

really proud of is our gross profit

dollar acceleration at 40%. Um and this

is because everything that Figma offers

is unique over here. Um it has never

been more important for folks uh you

know as code is becoming commoditized

for value to move up the stack there.

And so you know we see the opportunity

here um to be the the full stack rather

to be the canvas for full stack creation

and I think um you know the the the you

know the next little bit for us is going

to be really exciting.

>> Um preier I wanted to do I do want to

get more into sort of product and what

you're talking about but just to linger

[clears throat] on the the numbers for

just a moment. So your third quarter

forecast at the midpoint is $374

million. So that would be about about $4

million higher than this current

quarter. It seems as though that's what

some analysts are zeroing in on that

basically they're calling it sort of a

deceleration in growth on a sequential

basis here. Um so do you see that do you

think that that assessment is correct

sort of a slowing down of growth as the

year goes on?

>> Yeah, you know maybe take us back to our

guidance philosophy. Um you know we want

to be really really clear with investors

what we know and what we don't know and

for the things that we have a high

degree of confidence in. Uh we'll take

credit for it in the guide and you know

there's a number of new things that we

rolled out uh even over the past couple

months here um that are you know very

materially growing the overall uh the

overall amount of credit consumption on

the platform. Um you know we rolled out

uh agents which are you know uh these

agents would sit side by side with you

uh in your design file that can help you

uh move more deeply within within a

whole range of different workflows. Uh

we brought code layers uh onto the

canvas as well which which allows you to

flip between different modalities all on

the same surface. Um, and you know, I

think as we start to move those products

that today are sitting in beta and early

access programs into into into

opportunities that are actually GA and

drawing down paid credits, we'll be able

to have more confidence to be able to

raise that raise that over time. And

then we're also giving ourselves some

some opportunity here to experiment with

pricing and packaging. We think that,

you know, the market is moving really

quickly. Um, you know, our AI offerings

are still new to the market, but we want

to give ourselves some opportunity to

learn and and ensure that we're building

the right things for our customers over

the long term.

>> Um, and and this was the first quarter.

um the first full quarter that you were

charging for some of these AI features

that you're talking about. So, was um

was the revenue mostly conversions from

people who were maybe using those

features in beta or a free version who

are now paying for them? You know, is it

new users signing on? Is it people

adding those AI features? How how did

that all look in the quarter?

>> Yeah, honestly, Julie, it's a little bit

of everything for us. So, you know, we

look at we look at expansion of C

licenses at time of renewal. So for a

10k plus customer cohort about 2/3 of

those customers grew their full seat

count at time of renewal this quarter

which was really consistent with what we

see in in prior quarters as well. Uh

gross retention for that same 10k plus

cohort held held steady and consistent

in the mid to high 90% range and you

know it's been that way now for for a

number of quarters and years. Um you

know and we did get the benefit there of

that initial credit monetization. So as

folks were transitioning from periods

where we were not upholding those credit

limits to now upholding them, uh we then

see the benefit um of of driving that

initial conversion. And so you know I

think customers are taking different um

they're going down different journeys uh

through that credit monetization path.

Some are starting and ready to go day

one. Uh others you know um start with a

pay as you go offering and then uh

purchase an add-on that's co- terminous

with their subscription. And others

require a little bit more handholding

and enablement. And so, you know, we get

in there with them and help work with

them to define the workflows of the

future and, you know, grow credit

consumption with them. Uh, and on the

other side of it, you know, we end up

with a more material scale data on. And

so, you know, we're seeing a little bit

of everything. Uh, but it's how all

these pieces come together and then also

all the innovation that we've got um,

you know, in the wings over here that

gives me excitement and confidence in in

the ways ahead. You know, we've got

history here of uh, of innovating and

innovating extremely rapidly. Um, and

you know, I think we we showed an

ability to really meet the moment. And

I, you know, I, you know, I feel really

confident that we're going to continue

to be able to do that in the quarters

ahead.

>> Um, you mentioned, uh, pricing and sort

of being, um, dynamic in the way you,

you think about pricing. And I, I

believe you're you're changing the way

that you're charging for AI credits

here. Talk me through that and what that

means then for the rest of the year.

>> Yeah, right now we right now I think we,

you know, we today embed credits on all

of our seat types. So, we want to give

folks the ability to try uh and generate

excitement and familiarity with the

number of the features that we've rolled

out. Uh and then from there, for folks

that, you know, want to go over and

above what we've embedded, we we allow

folks to purchase a scaled add-on. Um

you know, the things that we're thinking

about from a pricing and packaging

perspective, and you know, I see it as a

purchaser of of a whole bunch of

different AI tools. Customers want

choice uh and they want control and they

also want to have a clear a clear story

on how how the additional spend that

they um are making on your platform is

driving clear ROI. And I think the

exciting thing for for Fragma is we've

got a really clear ROI story framework.

Um you know as folks are are you know as

an example using our our our uh our um

our code connect product and then

translating the code over to design over

to code. What we're seeing is folks are

saving a whole are saving a material

amount of tokens on the other side of it

because they're able to do it that much

more efficiently. Um, you know, you want

to you want to give customers the

ability both to have the ability to

prompt their way uh to great design

while also then having direct

manipulation. And so, you know, one of

those is going to draw credits and the

other is not. And so, you know, for us,

having the ability to really meet our

customers where where where they're at

and, you know, where they want to go is

is the spirit behind, you know, my

comment on on wanting to be thoughtful

on pricing and packaging. So, as much as

we can do to give them more control,

visibility um and context and and what

they're paying for is is uh you know, I

think the thing that will continue to

unlock more and more opportunity for us.

>> Pier, good to see you. Thanks so much

for taking the time to chat with us.

>> Yeah, thanks Julie. Have a great day.

>> You too.

>> Coming up, Zillow's got a new report on

the state of the housing market. We dive

into that [music] next on Market

Domination.

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>> Salary increases are expected to rise in

2027, but pay strategies are shifting.

Yeah, our finance is Carrie Hannon

joining me with the details. All right,

Carrie. So, start big picture for us.

You know, uh, is the outlook for raises,

Carrie, generally improving and and how

much of a an improvement are we talking

about?

>> Yeah, Josh, great to be here. And, um,

yes, the most recent, uh, surveys that

came out this last week or so show that

it will be the average pay raise is

likely to be next year 3.5%.

Now, that's just a hair above the 3.4%

4% that it was this year. So, it's

nothing to go dancing in the streets

about, but it is at least keeping pace

with inflation, which is a pretty good

thing. And it is down uh significantly

though from the 4.8% we saw in 2023. But

don't expect to get back to those levels

anytime soon is what the experts told

me.

>> Carrie, you also write about how

companies they appear to be moving away

from peanut butter raises. What does

that mean, Carrie? Yeah, Josh, I just

love that. Um, peanut butter raises is a

term they use to explain if you evenly

give a give raises across the board to

everybody. So, a smooth even if you uh

actually are one who can put the peanut

butter on smoothly. That's what they're

talking about. So, everyone would get a

3% or a 2% raise and nothing to do with

your performance, if you were fabulous

or not. No way. It's all about just a

standard across the board. But there was

a lot of backlash about that. people,

you know, you can feel this. I mean,

workers, if you feel like you can bust

it and crush it and you're still getting

the same raise that someone uh down the

hall from you is getting who you don't

feel is doing quite the same job. It's a

little demoralizing and it's hard to

retain workers that way when they start

to get discouraged. And employers notice

that. So, coming in 2027, about three

and 10 say they're going to continue

doing the peanut butter raises. uh but

it's a significant drop from the number

who said they were going to do that this

year and in fact did and I will add that

some large employers or government uh

universities academia they often have a

system of pay increases that's locked

into these even across the board raises

but for industries that do allow

performance reviews and merit reviews

they're on the way back

>> maybe Carrie there's someone watching

right now and and they're getting ready

for a you know an annual review with the

boss and and they They have this plan.

They're gonna they're gonna ask uh for

more money. Any tips and tricks we can

give them, Carrie? Some advice?

>> Yeah, we certainly can, Josh. Number

one, uh first you ask up front, are you

before they even dig into a

conversation, are we doing raises across

the board? Is this or are these truly

merit raises? Because if you know what

the plan is, then you're not going to

get all resentful that you didn't get

the raise you expected because it is

company policy that it's going to be

across the board. So, it's good to know

that upfront. The second thing is really

important to to know your story and know

the business case, not why you think you

did a great job, but the business case

for why that you deserve a raise that

makes it something that that your

manager can get their hands around. So I

call that your car story, the challenge,

the action, the result for the business.

So have those stories in hand when you

walk in the office to show that, hey, I

I'm valued and this is why. And and

finally, I think that you need to always

like starting right now, add those

skills that they're looking for to

retain um in their workers, the ones

that they want they're hiring workers

for. Be sure that you're up to speed on

those and be proactive about adding

those skills. So when you get to that

review or shall we call negotiation, you

can show that you've been actively

adding skills.

>> Carrie, great to have you on the show as

always. Thank you.

>> Thanks, Josh.

>> Well, Zillow's July housing market

report just dropped showing a 7% rise in

sales from the year prior, but some

signals point to a slower second half.

Joining me now, I got Misha Fischer,

Zillow Group chief economist. Misha,

it's good to see you. So your headline

here, Misha, home sales jumped 7% in

July, strongest gain of the year. That

sounds pretty good, right? But then your

report suggests maybe we shouldn't we

shouldn't celebrate just yet. So walk us

through this, Misha.

>> Yeah, so I mean, we've got a housing

market that I'd characterize as

resilient but slowing. I think a lot of

people were more pessimistic about what

the front half of the year would look

like. But besides January, we actually

had compelling year-over-year gains in

sales every single month capstoneing

with June and July, which both had, you

know, almost doubledigit gains in sales

year-over-year.

But given the rate environment and the

deterioration there, we're kind of

expecting the second half not to be able

to keep keep that same momentum. So, if

you look at the signal you get from the

newly pending listings in June, we had

pending listings happen at, you know,

roughly 7.5% year-over-year in terms of

gains, and that was pretty strongly

predictive of the 7% gains we saw in

terms of final sales in July. But if we

look at those newly pending listings in

July, they've basically flatlined. So,

they've come down considerably from

June. And we think that's because there

was a lot of momentum in June when rates

were declining almost every week of

June. And obviously right now in July

we've got a a higher rate environment

and so that's our expectation for a

slowing second half.

>> So Misha, could we be looking at

potentially then flat or even uh

declining sales for the rest of the year

>> for the rest? So for the total 2026

right now we're expecting sales gains to

average out to about 1.2%. So to make

that math work, there are probably going

to be some months and certainly some

regions where we're seeing negative

sales growth year-over-year in those

areas. the net effect for the full year.

We're still expecting to be modestly

positive, but because of the the overall

rate environment, it's not going to be

the, you know, four 5% that we were

hoping for at the beginning of the year.

It's probably going to be more in that 1

one and a half% range.

>> Misha, uh, the 30-year fix is here at uh

6.77%

per mortgage news daily. Where do you

see that headed near to intermediate

term?

Yeah. So, obviously, there's there's

pressure on the 30-year mortgage, and

that's not acting as a tailwind for the

housing market, to put it mildly. Our

expectation is that the rate comes down

a little bit towards the end of the

year, but stays in that, you know, right

around the midpoint of the sixes. The

the brief moments we had where the

30-year was in the high fives, you know,

towards the end of the first quarter,

that was a really really strong bullish

signal. And so as we get further from

there, that's why we have some of this

tailwind pulled from the market. But,

you know, the quick answer to your

question is, you know, roughly in the

mid60s. Uh, if things go really well,

maybe we could be in the lower half of

the uh of the mids, but certainly not

back into the fives.

>> You say inventory here, Misha, it's now

increased for 32 straight months. Why

then um I guess why then aren't prices

falling more, Misha?

>> Well, so I think there's a couple of

things going on right now. Home values

are flat roughly, right? So in July, we

had them at roughly 1% year-over-year in

terms of increasing home values, but as

everybody knows, the inflation

environment is a multiple of that. So

right now, the real price after you

control for inflation of housing is

actually down. So I think that's part of

what's driving it is that people are

effectively getting cheaper houses when

they go out onto the market to look for

them. when you've got incomes up three,

three and a half percent and you've got

home values up 1%, that's doing some

work for you. Um, the other thing that's

been doing some work has been the

tailwind we've had from lower rates.

Right? We're just now hitting the point

where we're not at the the level of

having cheaper mortgage rates

year-over-year, but for most of the

year, we've had that. So, that's also

been putting some extra wind in the uh

in the sales of buyers, uh, giving them

more more buying power. And then, you

know, sellers are still in a pretty good

place in most parts of the country,

right? The labor market's held up.

People have a lot of equity built up and

people don't have to sell if they're

going to realize a loss. And we've got

Zillow research sort of showing that

when people think they're going to

realize loss, they don't list it. They

make it a rental. They do other things

to mitigate that.

>> You know, we've been talking Misha

nationally. I'm just curious, you know,

regionally, are are there regional

differences that are important to note,

parts of the country that are that are

holding up better than others?

Yeah, it's sort of been a reversal of

some of the boom we saw during the

pandemic. And you know, the pandemic is

now, you know, the onsets of it. We're

we're more than six years past it, but

we're still feeling a lot of the

residual effects. So, if you look at

some of the hot spots in the the Sunb

Belt and the Mountain West, those are

the areas that are much stronger buyers

markets. Sellers in those markets are

still having a a harder time. And, you

know, the areas that were hardest hit

are now booming. So, if you look up in

the northeast, the New York metro, some

of the the outlying uh metro areas

around some of the the big population

hubs in the in the northeast are all

doing really really well. If you look on

the west coast, you know, San Francisco

is obviously doing uh very very well in

a large part of the city. And so, you've

got this uh regional breakdown where the

west coast and the northeast are doing

pretty well. and then parts of the sunb

belt, the southeast and the mountain

west are areas where uh there's a little

bit more of a struggle. The Midwest is

an interesting midpoint between those

two. So the Midwest is still a pretty

strong area in terms of affordability.

You've got some pretty strong markets in

Detroit and Chicago in terms of sales

volume and in terms of price

appreciation. And so it really is a

mixed story across the country.

>> Misha, great to have you on the show

today. Thanks for your time.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> Coming up, we're going to cover the

closing bell on Wall Street. Don't go

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>> Stocks ending the day lower with the Dow

snapping its win streak here. Jared

Blickry joining with the very latest.

Jared,

>> that's right. Excuse me. No records

today to speak of at least among the

major markets here at Dow down 463

points or about eight or nine ten of 1%.

Here is the intraday price action.

Closing pretty close to the lows of the

day there after starting the day out in

the green, but not a huge loss. Still

under 1%. NASDAQ composite just barely

negative that was kind of hugging the

unchanged line as we call that yellow

dotted line there from the close

yesterday. Most of the afternoon S&P 500

also a very small loss there. Equal

weighted index though uh was down about

half of 1%. So the mega cap uh kind of

supported the regular rate weighted

calculation here and the equal weighted

fell off a little bit. I'm going to get

to the mega caps in a little bit but let

me show you the Russell 2000. Small caps

ended at the lows of the day down 6/10en

of 1%. So here's a little bit of green

good news um in that 4day surge we saw

coming uh starting last Thursday,

Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday.

Magnificent 7 were leading and so it's

nice to see them green on a day when the

rest of the market kind of underwater.

Same thing for semiconductors. They

didn't close with a big gain. It's only

1/3 of 1% but they started off in the

red and it was looking to be kind of a

negative day here. And very similar

logic applies. They were leading the

surge higher starting last week and

they're still kind of leading here

today. Meanwhile, software didn't do

that well, down 1.8%. We'll get to some

heat maps on those in a second. First,

the large cap sector action XLE, that's

energy, up 1 and a.5%, followed by

communication services and healthcare.

Uh, nominal gains for both of those two.

And those three are the only green and

also the only outperformers from the S&P

500. Materials biggest loser down 9/10en

of a percent. Real estate closely on its

heels. Same for industrials. Utilities

also off more than half a percent there.

NASDAQ 100, Microsoft doing the doing

the work there for software up 2 and a

half%. Uh also SpaceX up 6%. Very

impressive. We saw that 900 million uh

share count released into the market

today. Not that everybody's selling, but

they have the option to. So, it's nice

to see SpaceX up 6% but still pretty

close to those all-time lows. 105 and

change was I believe the intraday low

just a couple days ago. Anyway, uh

moving on, we do have Alphabet down 1

and a3%. They had that big bond offering

today. And let's just get to the

semiconductors here and you can see ARMS

up 4%. Uh still got some spillover from

earnings. Sandis down 7%, Microch down

4%, Super Micro down three. But you take

a look at software aside from Microsoft,

not a whole lot to get excited about.

And we got some outsized losers as well

that was kind of dragging things down at

least on a sentiment basis. HubSpot down

19%, so is Data Dog almost 20%, Plika

down 15 uh% and Apploven not shown here.

I believe that was down about 19 20% as

well. We did have some winners. WPP up

26%. Uh Paycom up 23% uh and then you up

15. So, let's get to the Dow. And there

we have uh more red than green here, but

I'll call out some of the winners.

Chevron up 1 and a.5%. There's your

leading energy trade. Uh Verizon up 1%

and uh let's see, Visa up half a

percent. Biggest loser is Boeing down

3%, United Health and Goldman Sachs each

down about 2%. Josh.

>> All right, thank you Jared. Well,

Celsius saw second quarter revenue climb

11% compared to the same period last

year with its Alani new brand remaining

a key driver to growth, but shares under

pressure as its namesake brand sees

declining sales. Here to dig into the

quarter and the state of the energy

drink market, we got the CEO of Celsius

Holdings. That would be John Fieldley.

John, it is good to see you. Uh, you

know, John, as my colleagues at Yahoo

Finance can attest, I I put down a

Celsius every day, John. I'm not sure I

can make it through an afternoon without

a Celsius at this point. So let's start

there.

>> Let's start there with that flagship

Celsius brand, John, cuz it looks like a

decline of about 12%. So, so what what

is going on there, John? Explain that

for us.

>> Yeah, you know, when you look at we

understand the second quarter was

challenging for Celsius and we

understand the concern of investors. Um,

we made some strategic decisions with

the Celsius portfolio in the beginning

of the year. We optimized the portfolio

reducing the lower turning SKS to put

more focus on the faster higher turning

SKs to build out more national

distribution and presence.

Unfortunately, the timing of that didn't

come to fruition. The lower SK turning

SKS moved out of the system faster

before the resets took place and you're

seeing that really materialize in the

second quarter. Now, what we did do, we

integrated Alani, which is over a

billion dollar brand. It's doing

extremely well and we integrated

Rockstar. So now we're well positioned

for a total portfolio approach as we're

capitalizing on the growth in the energy

category. Unfortunately Celsius took the

brunt of the impact but we have great

innovation plans in 27 and beyond and

this summer right now we have a lemon

cello spritz vibe that's out in the

market. Uh but the first quarter and the

second has but the second quarter has

been challenging. We're looking to

optimize that and fix that. we got the

right strategies in place and we're

investing in key areas in our business.

So John on that point that decision to

sell um fewer versions of the product um

on the call it sound like you suggested

there John you went you know too deep

there I mean so would you just do we

just chalk that to you know execution

error John is that it

>> yeah I think it is execution I think

when you look at it we shouldn't have

cut the tail as deep as we did on the

lower turning skews we could have

optimized a little less but there's a

there's a lot of strategies at place at

hold there we're going through that

process proess of rationalizing,

optimizing the SKUs. We had Alani coming

in as of over a billion dollar brand and

Rockstar coming into the system. We

really transformed this organization uh

from we it was about roughly a 10 share.

Now this organization is over a 20 share

in the energy category and one out of

every five energy drinks sold in the

United States are coming from Celsius

Holdings, which is truly impressive. We

have a firm foundation of opportunities.

Now that the integration is done, it's

on us to continue to capitalize on the

movement that's in place. Healthy,

better for you energy is not going away.

More females are coming into the

category than ever before and our

portfolio captures that and we're

getting really exciting conversations

with retailers as we're planning for 27.

>> Um, it sounded from the call, John, like

you also decided to to delay innovation

and I'm curious, John, why do that?

Especially when we know, you know, the

broader energy drink market, John, it

it's just more it's more competitive

than ever.

>> You're correct. And some of the

innovation was delayed on the Celsius

portfolio as that was our main

portfolio, but we had Alani coming in

and Rockstar coming in and there's a lot

of disruption when you're taking a

billion-dollar brand from a third party

distributor network and bringing it on

the PepsiCo systems. There's a end into

the key account systems. And when your

sales organization, supply chain and

finance, there is a lot of moving parts

on that. Uh we made strategic decisions

in the beginning of the year to simplify

the Celsius portfolio for this moment of

time to get a bigger foundation of

faster turning SKUs which we can

capitalize on and continue to grow from

here on out and into 27.

>> When you talk about in addition, I'm

sorry, go ahead. coming out with a new

16o line with the Celsius portfolio in

27 which we're really excited about

which will further enhance our

capabilities allowing the Celsius

portfolio to further play in additional

pack sizes. Our main stay our core

portfolios in 12 ounce with Celsius and

we have a huge opportunity to play in 16

ounce as retailers are leaning in and

growing the energy category. All

retailers we expect this expand space

and energy and we want the Celsius

holdings portfolio to take advantage of

that. So bottom line, John, like if I'm

an investor, I'm listening right now,

you know, and I'm looking for a

turnaround in that Celsius brand. Would

you, you know, is the timeline this

year, John? Is it 2027? What do you

think?

>> Well, I think, you know, we're going

through this rationalization.

So year-over-year cycling will start to

fade in the fourth quarter, and we got

permanent innovation coming in within

the new year. We'll have uh a variety of

great programs coming in in the back

half of this year. So, you know, I think

as you look for Celsius specifically, as

it exits the year, we expect to get back

to growth and in 2027, we expect to

continue to drive incrementality and

take advantage of the growth in the

category.

>> John, it looks like margins fell uh

there 51.5 to 48.1.

What are the what are the puts and takes

there, John? And what what is the margin

trajectory look like ahead?

Yeah, I think the margin trajectory

ahead as we're looking right now at

commodity prices as we're going through

the end of the year, we're looking at

the high 40s. Um, you know, when you're

comparing versus last year, uh,

commodity prices have we've been seen

the impact just like everyone else with

gas and aluminum. Uh, we expect those to

normalize and when they as they

normalize, we'll start to increase our

margins. We've done a lot of strategic

initiatives to further optimize our

supply chain, further increasing margin

opportunities, less miles on trucks, uh

further enhancements within our supply,

uh partnerships, strategic purchasing,

and we're unlocking the power of going

from one brand to a portfolio of brands,

uh which has truly changed our

purchasing power with re with our supply

chain. based on on what you see in your

business, John, I'm just curious, how

would you gauge um the consumer right

now? You know, confident, cautious, what

do you see?

>> Well, what we see in the energy

category, it's an affordable luxury. So,

although we have seen impacts before

when the economy turns, but it's less

likely to be impacted. And when you're a

consumer and you start to go down your

list of of cuts as you're looking, you

know, to finalize your budget, your

energy drink is usually on the lower end

of that. So, we've have seen less impact

versus some more premium restaurants,

fast casual restaurants, those type of

things, and more luxury brands.

>> Finally, John, just curious, what kind

of uh traction uh do you foresee

overseas, John? What are the

international markets that that excite

you the most?

>> That's a big unlock for us. Uh we've

been expanding internationally. We're in

the early phase in Australia, France, uh

New Zealand, uh Spain, a variety of

other markets. Uh we see great

opportunities. is we actually see about

it's less than 10% of our revenue today.

We expect that to grow exponentially

over the years to come. The same health

and wellness trends in the US are in

international markets. Right now we're

over a six share in Paris alone. Uh and

that's a fairly new market we entered.

So we're excited. We think the

opportunity is big. We're going to

launch Alani new internationally next

year for the first time. So not only

expanding Celsius but bringing Alani

into the playbook.

>> John, great to have you on the show

today. Appreciate your time.

Thank you. Cheers.

>> Coming up, I speak to the CEO of Planet

Fitness about their latest results.

[music] That's next on Market Domination

Overtime.

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>> Planet Fitness topping analyst estimates

in its second quarter results but

trimming its profit outlook as new

member growth slows. Joining me now is

Colleen Keaton, Planet Fitness CEO and

Yahoo Finances Broo De Palama. Uh

Colleen, it's good to see you. So, let's

just talk about this earnings report,

Colleen. Um, systemwide sales growth. It

looks like that beats consensus, but it

does also sound like you're saying

member growth slowed. I saw your CFO on

the call talking about a slowdown in net

new join. So, what is going on there,

Colleen? Explain it for us.

>> Yeah, you're right. 1.7% same club sales

growth and uh 3.6% member growth

year-over-year. We're making progress

leaning in on our priority of reigniting

sustainable net member growth really

focused on our core consumer, our core

audience, uh, which is the 70% of the US

population today that doesn't currently

have a gym membership. We're the

category leader and we bring people into

the category. Colleen, when you think

about that opportunity, when you think

about 70% of people who don't have a gym

membership, how exactly do you reach

them if they're not going to the gyms,

they're not looking for a fitness

outlet?

>> I'm glad you asked that question because

uh our our marketing our marketing

engine is one of the most powerful

engines in uh in in fitness and uh and

we know when we reach or when we point

toward our target consumer uh we bring

people into the category. So, we're uh

developing new creative that conveys our

approachability, our affordability, and

one of the things that makes Planet

Fitness so unique and different is the

fact that we've got a judgment-free, no

gym intimidation environment. And one of

the biggest barriers to joining a gym or

a club is intimidation. We welcome

people at Planet Fitness of all fitness

levels, whether beginners, a more casual

gym goer, or those who are progressing

on their fitness journey. I guess

Colleen, if I was an investor, I guess I

might be wondering, you know, is this

really like a a marketing campaign issue

or is it something more, you know,

foundational and basic that you got a

consumer who is, you know, just more

price sensitive right now and and

ultimately you have a demand issue.

We're um so I'll you know I'll say we

again are uh are a leader in high value

low price and I always think about HV

the high value in capital letters and

low and low price LP and lowercase but

at the same time uh we welcome people

into membership at Planet Fitness for

$15 a month. So a affordability is one

of the core tenets of our brand. Um you

at the same time I often say we're in

the golden age of fitness. you can't

open a newsfeed. Today, people are more

focused on fitness and wellness and

longevity, not just for physical health,

but also for mental health. Uh we're at

the we're perfectly positioned to

capitalize on this trend.

>> Colleen, you also hinted at a limited

time offering of a $10 membership. What

can you tell us about that and and who

are you looking to reach there with

affordability in mind?

One of one of the things we'll test with

uh with that uh limited time promo offer

um is how regional what regional nuances

uh we see as we as we roll that promo

nationally. So, it really is an

opportunity to bring people into the

category uh at a very low price offer

and it'll also tell us a little bit

about kind of price elasticity and

consumer behavior uh across multiple

regions as we will run the promo

nationally across the US.

>> I'm curious, Colleen, do you think

there's something kind of fundamentally

changing about gyms? Like, do do younger

Americans do they do they want something

different?

So we see Gen Z as the fastest growing

segment uh of our member population, but

of course they're aging into fitness as

well and becoming eligible for

membership. One of the things that we've

done very successfully over the last 18

months is our focus on format

optimization. And that's making sure

that we've got the right mix of

equipment in our clubs to meet the needs

of all of our members. So whether a

younger consumer uh or whe whether

someone uh you know who's been with us

uh for a longer period of time, we

penetrate across all generational

cohorts and made we've made sure that

we've got the right equipment mix uh for

for all consumers.

>> Colleen, what always amazes me about

Planet Fitness is the black card

amenities. I mean Josh, I don't know how

much you know about this, but they're

testing red light therapy. You have red

light uh saunas essentially. I mean, are

tanning beds old news now? Is this what

the next generation of gymgoers are

looking for?

>> Well, uh, as we think about the five new

modalities that we're testing in our

black card spa, we've got, uh, we've got

them in about a 100 clubs at, uh, in a

in a DMA, a market level test. Uh, right

now, certainly, red light is extremely

popular. And when you think about access

to red light for $24.99 a month, that's

our black card member rate. Uh, it's an

incredible value. But also as it relates

to tanning, one of the new five one of

the five new modalities is uh is spray

tanning and that's become very popular

as well.

>> You know, Colleen, there's some uh

speculation about GLP1s and you've heard

this that these new medicines are going

to create just, you know, millions of

new gym fans. I'm just wondering, are

you seeing, you know, any signs or

evidence of that in the business,

Colleen, or or is it still too early?

>> There there is evidence. Um, so we

launched a partnership with one of the

GLP1 providers as a perks partnership

for our members at the end of Q uh Q4

last year and to date it's been our most

successful perks partnership yet. So

there certainly is interest among our

members in GLP1s. We also uh as we've

studied GLP-1 utilization and the

population that's taking GLP-1s um it

really does span uh all socioeconomics.

Um it's you know it's an opportunity for

us again to bring people into the

category is people are embarking on a

health and wellness journey with a GLP1

very often they're considering fitness

um as a component of that uh of that

wellness journey. And if you think about

someone who's maybe not been uh engaged

in fitness before, maybe a bit

intimidated about walking into a club

for the first time, doesn't really know

how to use all of the equipment and

feels a little bit intimidated. We are

absolutely perfectly and uniquely

positioned uh to partner uh with that

audience. So uh we see GLP-1s as a net

tailwind for us and again as there as

new modalities of GLP1s are coming out

pill formats uh and also prices are uh

are coming down there's the

democratization of access to GLP1s which

aligns very beautifully with our

democratization of access to fitness.

>> Colleen definitely a trend to watch

there. I also want to ask you quickly

because you're launching a redesigned

app come September. How do you

differentiate an app in this overly

saturated market that is for fitness

apps?

>> Yeah, our app is uh is one of it's

actually today the number two most

downloaded fitness app on the uh on the

Apple app store. Um so high utilization

with our app. Our members engage with it

very regularly. Uh, one of the things

that we've put on the app, speaking of

GLP1s, is GLP-1 uh, targeted workouts or

focused workouts that uh, that focus on

muscle mass and uh, and strength

building. But certainly the opportunity

to help our members track their

progress, um, their reps, their the

their weights, their workout frequency,

and also serve up offers that could be

nutrition, um, anything that would help

our our member with a holistic approach

to health and wellness. Uh, we want to

be their partner.

>> Colleen, great to have you on the show

today. Thanks for your time.

>> Oh, thanks for having me. Nice to see

you.

And Brooks, switching gears. You're

watching furniture stocks post earnings.

What's the trend?

>> Yeah, we've had quite a bit of companies

report earnings this week and what we

really are seeing is consumers are

starting to spend on furniture again.

Now, the hold up or the hope is that

these companies will hold on to this

momentum that we're seeing so far. And I

do want to pull up Alphas for this

because what we're seeing specifically

even today is we saw some more luxury,

more higherend furniture stocks report