Welcome to "Enlightenment," the podcast hosted by Keith Lanton. In this enlightening series, Keith explores the intricate world of finance, offering listeners invaluable insights into the latest trends and developments. With a keen eye on the financial markets, Keith discusses topics such as interest rates, government deficits, and the evolving landscape of the economy. He shares Barron's perspectives on individual stocks, like General Dynamics and Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), and provides a deep dive into the challenges faced by drivers dealing with increasing car insurance premiums. "Enlightenment" is your go-to source for gaining a deeper understanding of the financial world and its impact on your financial journey. Tune in to unlock the secrets to financial enlightenment with Keith Lanton.
** For informational and educational purposes only, not intended as investment advice. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice.
For full disclosures, ADVs, and CRS Forms, please visit https://heroldlantern.com/disclosure **
To learn about becoming a Herold & Lantern Investments valued client, please visit https://heroldlantern.com/wealth-advisory-contact-form
Follow and Like Us on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn | @HeroldLantern
Welcome to "Enlightenment," the podcast hosted by Keith Lanton. In this enlightening series, Keith explores the intricate world of finance, offering listeners invaluable insights into the latest trends and developments. With a keen eye on the financial markets, Keith discusses topics such as interest rates, government deficits, and the evolving landscape of the economy. He shares Barron's perspectives on individual stocks, like General Dynamics and Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), and provides a deep dive into the challenges faced by drivers dealing with increasing car insurance premiums. "Enlightenment" is your go-to source for gaining a deeper understanding of the financial world and its impact on your financial journey. Tune in to unlock the secrets to financial enlightenment with Keith Lanton.
** For informational and educational purposes only, not intended as investment advice. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice.
For full disclosures, ADVs, and CRS Forms, please visit https://heroldlantern.com/disclosure **
To learn about becoming a Herold & Lantern Investments valued client, please visit https://heroldlantern.com/wealth-advisory-contact-form
Follow and Like Us on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn | @HeroldLantern
And now introducing Mr Keith Lenton.
Keith Lanton:Good morning, welcome to the first business day of the fourth quarter, october 2nd Friday, representing the end of the third quarter of 2023 and the end of September, which was once again living up to its reputation as one of the rougher months for financial markets. This morning we're going to talk about interest rates, treasury rates, how they interact with other asset classes and why it's so important and what it may mean that treasury rates have increased so significantly, especially the longer term treasury rates, as the Federal Reserve has raised the shorter term interest rates. Then we'll talk about what's taken place over the weekend, specifically with a few different ideas from Barons. Then we'll turn it over to Brad to give us some further insights on both the bond market and overall financial markets. Now, over the weekend, we got a deal between Democrats and Republicans to keep the government open, so those of you who are traveling today are utilizing government services maybe glad for a reprieve, albeit until November 17th, and then we do it all over again. But nevertheless, it is significant that Beacon McCarthy did reach across the aisle, work with Democrats and that potentially could be a change in dynamics in terms of how the house is going to work for the foreseeable future. We'll see if this is a watershed moment or one off.
Keith Lanton:So I said we were going to talk about interest rates, and what we have been experiencing and seeing is that longer term rates have gone up dramatically just in the past few weeks, and I think it's really significant for all markets, because all markets are correlated, whether it's interest rates and bonds, whether it's the stock market, whether it's currencies, commodities, crypto collectibles or private equity, private business valuations, private credit. Everything is auto-correlated, meaning that each one affects the other. But I would argue that none of that has the greatest impact, more so than the level of treasury rates and the level of treasury rates is so important because it is built into our assumptions and into our financial models that many of the other financial modeling tools to value these other asset classes are driven off of what is considered the treasury rate, which also has been given the moniker of the risk-free rate. Now it is possible, I would argue that what we are experiencing right now as we've taken ourselves to the edge of a government shutdown, we've run up our debt to very significant levels that perhaps that word risk-free when we think of treasuries, is something that we may no longer take as sacrosanct, and I'll talk about that a little bit. So the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in the third quarter of this year by 25 basis points. Yet the 10-year treasury went from 385 up to about 457 and this morning, I believe, we're up 5 or 6 basis points, about a 462, 463. So that increase in the 10-year was about 75 basis points versus 25 basis points increase in the Federal Reserve interest rate.
Keith Lanton:So what was going on in the third quarter that caused these long-term rates to increase so dramatically when the Fed really didn't have their foot on the accelerator to the same extent? So going into the third quarter, the expectation was the Fed was near the end of its rate-height cycle and inflation had peaked and was coming down. In fact, this morning Bill Ackman was on CNBC and he suggested that he thinks the Fed is done hiking and he suggested that the interest rate increases the Fed has already implemented are really starting to have an impact. We'll see if he's correct, but if he is correct, that would lend one to believe that we would see a decrease in longer-term interest rates as the economy slows. Not an increase in those longer-term interest rates, but the fact that what has happened is despite the fact that the expectation is that we're near the end of the cycle, that perhaps inflation has peaked, yet none of this has had a material impact on longer-term treasuries. So why did the 10-year go up a half a point more than the Fed funds rate in the third quarter? Perhaps the answer is the real rate is higher because the US Treasury is no longer being viewed as risk-free by the financial markets. Now that would be a watershed moment, truly, and a real, fundamental change. Perhaps the true is in the Treasury rates no longer are simply the sum of the inflation expectations plus the real rate, plus maybe a term premium no longer holds true. What if we now need to add a risk premium to treasuries, like we do for nearly all other credits?
Keith Lanton:Just a few years ago, many politicians were all over the media espousing something called MMT. You may remember this was a very big belief of certain politicians called Modern Monetary Theory. That states that a country with its own currency and country that certainly is the reserve currency, like the US at least currently is can spend almost unlimited sums of money. And this was the justification that nobody's talking about anymore for why we could print as much money as we did during COVID and why we could hand out money to all sorts of constituencies and deficits don't matter anymore. Remember that thinking just two or three years ago. No one's talking about it now. We're talking about deficits and worries about deficits whenever anything gets too extreme. Perhaps that reflects an inflection point. So perhaps the mainstream espouser of this theory was a signal that explanations, but not worrying about our deficit, had reached the apocryphal or fantasy level, typically a sign that a top, or in other words, indicative of a top, that soon deficits will matter. And we're seeing that happen today. No one is saying deficits don't matter. We certainly have a contingent of the Republican Party that is taking a strong stand on deficits. So here we are at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2023, and I would argue that the bottom vigilantes are back and they are telling you that deficits do matter.
Keith Lanton:In 2002, we had the Vice President of the United States, dick Cheney, saying, with respect to government spending and this was in the wake of 9-11, that Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. But that was when the US government debt was smaller than the US economy, which is no longer the case, and that was a different era, different time and a different level of spending relative to the size of our economy. This past week, moody's said that the fight between Democrats and Republicans in Congress shows the weakness of US institutional and government strength relative to other AAA credits, which means that Moody's, which is the one company left that rates the US AAA, is considering revisiting that thought process. So Barron's written an article saying shutdowns come and go. For the moment, this one go'd why deficits pose real and present danger.
Keith Lanton:Barron goes on to say that the federal deficit has never expanded so rapidly when the economy has been so robust at any time in the past half century, and that hasn't been because of spending initiatives such as the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Investment Act, the JOBS Act and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. The huge rise in federal spending, barron says, has been on the ever-present increases in things like social security, healthcare, military education and now interest. On the debt, the sharp rise in the federal debt relative to GDP. Where entering a new fiscal regime, wrote the Bank of America's global economists, global government, us government specifically now face tradeoffs that didn't exist when money was free and with the approaching US presidential election and the divided Congress, any improvement in the fiscal situation is unlikely. If anything, deficits are likely to deteriorate, notably because of an increase in Uncle Sam's interest expenses.
Keith Lanton:Adding numbers to the problem, alpine macro analysts calculated that the US deficit ballooned by over $900 billion in the past 12 months, when employment was at full tilt. Federal spending surged by $934 billion, a rate of growth unequaled except during recessions or the Vietnam War. If you factor in that increased government spending on the federal level with increased spending on the state level over the past year, you will have seen that we have seen about a $1.5 trillion increase in spending, and that increase has represented about half of the increase in GDP over the past year. So the GDP is going up, not because we're getting more efficient and not because we're eating into savings and spending money that we've built up during COVID, but because we've spent so much money on a federal and state level that we're seeing that growth, which indicates, perhaps, that growth is juice growth and growth that we may not be able to see as sustainable. On the flip side, on the tax income side, meaning money coming into the government last year the amount of revenue coming into the federal government dropped by $400 billion, and that was largely because of lower to capital gains tax collections, because 2022, as you may remember, was not a great year for the stock market. Adjusted to the effects of student loans, the deficit is projected to double to 7.5% of GDP and about 2.5% of that 7.5%, or 1 third of that deficit relative to GDP is entirely because of interest expenses.
Keith Lanton:The US deficit is simply too large for an economy of full employment and calls for fiscal tightening. And, of course, after this shutdown fight come elections and a divided Congress, along with soaring treasury interest costs. Two thirds of spending is mandatory and will keep growing due to demographic trends we're getting older, we're using more Medicare spending, medicaid spending, and we are also increasing how much money we're outlaying for social security. So when the interest rates were really low, governments faced very minimal trade offs so they could get away with increased debt finance spending in bad times without the need to implement consolidation in good times. We are seeing a paradigm shift and the US is going to have to sound the wake up call in order to start addressing our deficit, or financial markets and the bond vigilantes will do the bidding for them and potentially increase those interest rates, increase that risk premium embedded into treasury something we do not anticipate, something that we have not expected and will have a significant impact on our economy potentially if we don't address the growing deficits.
Keith Lanton:So, moving on to this morning and what's going on this morning in financial markets, we mentioned, of course, that the Republicans and Democrats came up with a bipartisan solution and we avoided a shutdown. So how futures look in this morning. Right now, futures were relatively flat. They have now trended down. Now, futures down 76, s&p futures down 7, nasdaq futures down 5, and this is largely on the heels of a weaker bond market, meaning yields are picking up, which very well may give some credence to the thesis that I just laid out here. We have a deal between Democrats and Republicans, at least, to keep the government open until November 17th, which, albeit, is a short term deal, but nevertheless the markets not responding favorably to that. What the markets are doing is they are pushing interest rates up, perhaps suggesting that they are concerned that nothing is being done about these deficits, and this is something that would further lend positive affirmation to, perhaps, that bond market vigilantes are speaking loud and clear about the deficits. So, 10 year yields up almost 7 basis points to a 464. 30 year yield up to a 475. I believe that these are near levels that we saw back in 2007. So we're at 16 year highs, the two years all the way back up to a 510, the one years at a 550. So Other news related to this fact is that Rep Matt Gates of Florida says he will bring a motion to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his from the speakership this week as punishment for working with Democrats on government funding.
Keith Lanton:That's according to CNN. Cbs News is reporting that House Speaker McCarthy believes he has enough support to survive a leadership challenge. Other political news California Governor Newsom appointed LaFonza Butler to the Senate to fill Diane Feinstein's seat. Fox News is reporting that migrant encounters at the southern border are reaching an all-time high, and that last month represented an all-time high. As we know, the agreement between Republicans and Democrats to keep the government funding did not include short-term increase in the funding for Ukraine and their fight against the Russians, and that was something that was supported very heavily by Mitch McConnell, who was in favor of providing some support. So there is some talk that there may be a separate bill with respect to aid to Ukraine.
Keith Lanton:Washington Post talking about today is the day that, if you have student loans, well, you got to start paying them back, and is another factor that may weigh on consumer spending, something that hasn't taken place now for over three years, apple announcing that they will issue a software update to fix iPhone 15 heating issues. What do we have going on today, 10 o'clock, we have construction spending expected to rise half a percent, down from seven tenths of a percent last month, and also we get the September ISM manufacturing index. We're looking for that to come in at 47.8 versus 47.6. Overseas equity indices in Asia began the week on a mixed note, though. Markets in China, south Korea and India were closed for holidays, resulting in lower volume, and markets in Europe down about tenths to about a half a percent, pretty much across the board. A couple of companies in the news Rivian Automotive, rivn upgraded to outperform from inline at Evercore, isi. Personally, I'm starting to see a lot more Rivian vehicles on the roads here in New York. Nvidia NVDA added to the conviction list at Goldman Sachs, fedex upgraded to positive from neutral at South Escobar and Clorox symbol CLX upgraded to buy from neutral at the A Davidson.
Keith Lanton:Moving on to Barron's, barron ran an article in the trader column Rough September is finally over. Now is the time to buy stock. Thesis here is that September was so rough that we are due for a bounce, acknowledging that the forecast for the market is cloudy at best. Questions about the strength of the economy, what the Federal Reserve plans to do next and even the path of corporate earnings won't be answered for months, leaving certainty starved investors feeling like they're walking on quicksand. But this column says it's a good time to buy stocks anyway.
Keith Lanton:The reason for the optimism starts with a just completed September, which lived up to its reputation as the toughest stretch of the year. S&p, which was down about three quarters of a percent last month, closed the month down 4.87 percent, it's worth month since December. The Dow, down about half a percent last month, was down 1.34 percent to finish the month off three and a half percent, and the Nasdaq dropped 5.8 percent in September, despite the fact that it rose slightly last week. There was a lot to dislike about the past month. Over those 30 day, stock investors had to contend with a hawkish pause by the Fed, alluming federal government shutdown, a jump in bond yields and rising oil prices. No wonder just 27.8 percent of respondents in the American Association of Individual Investors sentiment survey described themselves as bullish the lowest level in four months. Yet even as the darkened days in October approach, the markets disposition should become sunnier.
Keith Lanton:The most straight forward argument for a near-term bounce the stock market is simple mean revision. One month periods where stocks do nothing but go down have usually seen a bounce back effect in the period that followed, wrote analysts at bespoke investment group last week, and a data back them up. In this September's first trading day 20 trading days the S&P hit an intraday low. Between the prior days, intraday low 15 times, including a stretch of nine straight days of selling pressure. That many days of lower lows in such a short span had only occurred 14 times since 1993. Before this September, and according to bespoke, the index was higher 79 percent of the time three months later by an average of 8.1 percent. The S&P also found support this week around 4300, as it did during pullbacks in June and August before closing at 4288. So even a 4300 should break. The next support level isn't far off. It can be found that the 200 day moving average near 4200, and they go on to say, all else being equal, market technicians expect that level test to hold.
Keith Lanton:On the fundamental side of thing, third quarter earnings season begins October 13th when JP Morgan and other large banks report earnings. Analysts expect to see a modest 2 percent year over year increase in S&P 500 earnings per share, but that's after three straight quarters of no growth. And if you're worried about walls of worry to climb, one that you won't have to be climbing in the next several weeks is that the Fed is not meeting again until November, so there will be a vacuum of news on monetary policy for the next several weeks. Barron's also talked about something that nobody's talking about anymore, and that is Bitcoin, saying that Bitcoin is in a slumber, and when I found most interesting about Bitcoin being in a slumber. We talked before about modern monetary theory, how everybody was talking about that. That was all the rage. Certainly, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were all the rage, and now what we're seeing is the rage has turned into almost radio silence.
Keith Lanton:Google searches for Bitcoin are off 87% from their peak. Searches for cryptocurrency are down 96%. Crypto software development, which is still going strong, has been having a hard time to get funding. Silicon Valley has been losing interest in startups having to do with cryptocurrency. Venture capital funding for crypto companies fell 71% from 2022 to 2023. Where is all the money going? It's going to the new craze, which is artificial intelligence and machine learning. That's where the big growth in funding from venture capital is going.
Keith Lanton:If you're thinking what may rekindle interest in cryptocurrencies, one thing that could rekindle some interest would be an approval of a spot-based Bitcoin ETF. And if you're looking at a little bit further, another catalyst might be a Bitcoin halving event, which is due in next April. Issuance of new Bitcoin tokens will be reduced by half for every block of transactions approved by the network, going from 6.25 coins to 3.125 coins, according to Bitcoin's governing software. Lower supply could push up prices and demand could get a lift, and that's happening next April.
Keith Lanton:A couple of individual stocks to discuss First up. Barron spoke favorably about General Dynamics symbol, gd Gulf Delta, saying General Dynamics is as sturdy and dependable as any of the big US prime contractors. The company has locked into long-term contracts to produce some of the US military's most iconic assets, such as the M1 Abrams main battle tank and the next generation nuclear submarines, and it has a growth kicker in the Gulfstream business jets segment. Yet the stock is down 11% so far in 2023. Defense spending by the US and its allies, though, shows no signs of slowing in a more geopolitically volatile world, and rebuilding stocks of munitions and equipment after large transfers to Ukraine will induce industry sales in the coming years. Gulfstream is preparing to launch a new jet which adds the potential upside and the stock remains cheap. Relative to its own history and its peers, it also has a history of dividend increases and share buybacks.
Keith Lanton:General Dynamics's defense business is strong and getting stronger. The company had a record committed backlog. The largest share of that backlog is in the marine system segment, which builds and maintains submarines and surface ships for the US Navy and its allies. These are long-term contracts, expensive products that rank among the top US defending spending priorities. Shipbuilding is one of the safest parts of the US defense budget. China is building its fleet very rapidly and a large number of ships are reaching their end of their useful life here in the US over the next decade. Back on dry land, general Dynamics produces the M1 Abrams tank and the Striker armored vehicle and, unlike most other defense leaders, general Dynamics investors also get a kick in the form of Gulfstream, which competes with manufacturers like Bombardier and Dissault Aviation. Gulfstream has an estimated 50% share of long-range large cabin jets the fastest growing segment of the market and its offerings are only getting stronger.
Keith Lanton:Analysts expect General Dynamics earnings per share to rise 18% in 2024 and a free cash flow to hit a record 4.2 billion, up 12% year-over-year Yet about $221 per share, they say its stock is not getting the credit it deserves. It's trading for about 14.8 times next year's earnings, at discount to its historical average. General Dynamics has boosted its dividend payment for 26 straight years, with its annual payout increasing by an average of 9% over the past decade for a current yield of 2.4%. Over the same period, the company has reduced its shares outstanding by nearly 25% with repurchases. Wall Street's average price target for General Dynamics is $265 per share, or about 17.5 times next year's earnings, and upside of about 20% if it's realized Next stock.
Keith Lanton:To mention this one is not a stranger to most investors. The name of the company is Meta, used to be known as Facebook symbol, m-e-t-a. Some would argue that Mark Zuckerberg's decision to rename his company, meta Platforms, will go down as one of the silliest ideas in American corporate history, right up there with New Coke and the Ford Edsel. Last week, mark Zuckerberg was the headliner at the Meta Connect Companies annual developer conference. He kicked things off with the widely telegraphed launch of the Quest 3 mixed reality headset, which goes on sale soon for $499. Barron says it's a nice upgrade with better graphics and sound. Then he followed up the Quest 3 by introducing a new version of the company's Ray Band smart glasses, which are basically a sleeker, better designed version of Google's glass, which was shut down after they launched in 2013. A few years later by Google. Some concerns about privacy and Barron suggesting there may be some concerns about privacy continuing here with these glasses from Meta. But they said he finally got along in this developer's conference to the good stuff A flurry of new initiatives in generative artificial intelligence software.
Keith Lanton:The announcement shows the company is thinking creatively about AI as a way to make its platforms more engaging and eventually more lucrative. Barron goes on to say the new wave of announcements show Meta is thinking cleverly about how consumers will experience AI in the years ahead, while opening up new business opportunities for Meta. One example is a new text to image software called EMU, where users can create EMU powered stickers. The concept has the potential to make the platform stickier and eventually it could be applied in the commercial space, like generating advertising images on the fly. Meta is also adding AI photo editing tools to images on Instagram. Additionally, zuckerberg unveiled Meta AI, a general purpose chat bot like chat, gbt, google Bard and Microsoft Bing Chat. In Meta's case, the chat bot will be embedded, at least initially, inside Messenger and other apps. Meta AI can be used in group chat, where it acts as a useful information resource without leaving the app. One intriguing element of the Meta AI story is that it can access the open internet via a partnership with Bing not Google offering current information on weather, news and sports. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, meta launched a new family of chat bots 28 to start many infused with celebrity personalities. Meta is opening that platform to businesses, who can create their own chat bot personalities through a software tool it calls AI Studio.
Keith Lanton:After the keynote, evercore analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a research note that he was incrementally more positive on Meta shares and he has a 435 price target, which is about 40% above the recent level. He goes on to write that Meta may be an unappreciated AI winner. He thinks the company almost certainly will drive improved user engagement on its platforms, while also allowing businesses to create their own AI chat box chat box that can immediately scale across a large user base of more than 3 billion souls. And he thinks that business driven chat bots could be the long awaited monetization unlock for the company's messaging services. Finally, before I turn it over to Brad, I mentioned one other article in Barron's.
Keith Lanton:This one's relevant to all of us who have cars and pay car insurance. I'm sure many of you on the call have noticed, when your premiums renewed, that you're seeing increased insurance premiums, and the bad news is that those of you who haven't very well may soon see increased insurance premiums. Barron saying insurance premiums have gone through the roof and it's going to get worse. Us motor vehicle insurance inflation hit 19% last month. That's the largest increase in over 50 years. The national average cost of car insurance is now $1,700. Annual auto insurance now eats up about 2.4% of average household income, and much of that price growth owes to soaring claim costs, which are closely tied to surging car prices. On top of it, another thing that's taken place is we are getting into more accidents and we are experiencing more fatalities, despite the fact that there is more safety equipment being built into vehicles, and this is also impacting the cost of the liability insurance portion for auto insurance. On top of that, repair costs have been escalating they're up about 12% year over year and wait times to get the parts still remain elevated for those of us who need to fix damaged cars, enterprise rental car companies saying that the replacement car rental times where people are renting cars are up 33%, meaning that we're seeing longer repair periods as people are waiting for the parts.
Keith Lanton:How does this play out for the car insurance companies? Like all state, like Progressive Hartford Travelers, at the moment things still aren't very good, despite these significant increases. More increases are to come and just last quarter many of the auto insurance companies were operating at a ratio a combined ratio, they call it which is the ratio of the cost to repair cars versus the premiums that are coming in, and those ratios, while coming down, still exceed 100%. What that means is, despite the fact that we are paying a lot more in car insurance premiums, the insurance companies still aren't bringing in enough revenue to satisfy their claims. So we can expect more increases or hopefully start to see the prices level off for cars and car repairs and perhaps that'll bring some reprieve. But for the moment, if you're doing your annual budgeting budget in a few extra dollars for your car insurance in 2024. I'm going to turn it over to Brad.
Brad Harris:Good morning Keith. Good morning everyone. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Last thing was a long one jumping back and forth between the Jets versus Taylor Swift game and Bloomberg TV to see how stock futures and bonds were reacting to the avoidance of the government shutdown. The Jets and stocks put up a good fight. Both have fall flat this morning, but bonds are truly the enigma.
Brad Harris:Since the initial headlines in every respected periodical counting bonds as the place to be starting at least a few months ago, the 20-year treasuries are down in price well over 10%. There are a couple of main factors going into this. One, the government is still on a spending spree and we have to keep issuing bonds to pay for this, so supply is rampant. And two hedge funds and speculators are pounding bonds on the short side. Additionally, the Fed is still leaning hawkish. My concern is that the sickening reality is that we are going to be paying over half a trillion dollars annually just in interest on bonds, which is not going to help balance our budget by any means. I'm sure the rating agencies are looking at this as well, and I think this is something that probably needs to be discussed in the political arena as well as the Fed.
Brad Harris:On the investing trading front, I wish I had the luxury to follow the advice I give my investors. Worst case scenario is at maturity, you get your money back. In the meantime, you can either use the interest or have the opportunity to invest in higher rates. So that's the only silver lining about what's been happening here. In municipals, 4% is readily available in less than 15 years. This is better than 7% tax equivalent yield for high tax state high bracket investors. Ultimately, I do want to be constructive on bonds at these levels, but the knife keeps falling and we've not even seen one dead cat pounce, which is very unusual. When this turns, though, watch out because with all these short positions out there in the market, we may wind up with an explosive rally in bonds. If I knew that when that was, I'd be calling from the Beecher Golf Course, but since I don't, I can be reached in the office this week and I'll hand it back to Keith. Thank you.
Alan Eppers:(Keith Lanton) Thanks, Brad. That's everything I've got. (Alan Eppers) Thank you for listening to Mr Keith Lanton. This podcast is available on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Pandora. For more information, please visit our website at www. heraldlantern. com.
Sophie Cohen:Opinions expressed herein are subject to change and not necessarily the opinion of the firm. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The information presented herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide personal investment advice. It is important that you consider your tolerance for risk and investment goals when making investment decisions. Investing in securities does involve risk and the potential of losing money. The material does not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations.