Enlightenment - A Herold & Lantern Investments Podcast

The Fed Walks a Tightrope Between Inflation and Employment This Week

• Keith Lanton • Season 7 • Episode 34

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September 15, 2025 | Season 7 | Episode 34

The financial world holds its breath as the Federal Reserve prepares for its most consequential meeting in months. Markets have climbed to record highs, yet beneath this strength lies a complex economic puzzle that affects every investor's decision-making process.

At the heart of this week's financial drama is the Fed's delicate balancing act. Fresh data reveals a labor market losing steam faster than expected, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics dramatically revising job creation figures downward by 911,000 positions. Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims have spiked to their highest levels since 2021. Yet inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target, creating a central banking dilemma that Chair Jerome Powell must navigate under intense political scrutiny.

This economic contradiction directly impacts your money's future purchasing power. We explore why funds sitting in traditional bank accounts earning negligible interest (often 0.01%-0.05%) face the silent threat of inflation erosion. Even "safe" Treasury bills now yield just 3.63%, potentially delivering negative real returns after taxes with inflation running near 3%. This changing landscape explains why many investors are reevaluating their approach to cash positions.

Despite these challenges, equity markets display remarkable resilience. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ continue setting records amid global tensions and economic uncertainty, while the IPO market shows signs of renewed vigor with successful debuts from companies like Klarna. Historical patterns suggest markets often perform well after the Fed begins cutting rates, providing a potential tailwind for investors willing to look beyond current concerns about valuations.

From rising food and healthcare costs to the opportunities in alternative investments, we unpack the complex factors shaping today's investment landscape. Whether you're focused on preserving capital or growing your portfolio, understanding these economic crosscurrents is essential for making informed financial decisions in today's challenging environment.

Subscribe for more insights that help you navigate market uncertainty with confidence and clarity. Your financial future depends on staying ahead of these critical economic shifts.

** For informational and educational purposes only, not intended as investment advice. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice.

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Alan Eppers:

And now introducing Mr Keith Lanton.

Keith Lanton:

Hello, good morning. Today is Monday, September 15th, halfway through the last month of the third quarter. This week we have Federal Reserve hosting a two-day meeting Always a big event, but this week this event is getting even more attention, given the economy here in the United States, the concerns about tariffs and inflation, offset by the weakening employment reports and data, and, of course, the pressure that President Trump has been placing on the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Chairman, jerome Powell, to reduce interest rates. So we have a soap opera sort of moment here coming to a crescendo, as all eyes are on the Federal Reserve and the executive branch and we will see what the result is in terms of interest rates, as well as what the Fed Chair, jerome Powell, and the Federal Reserve has to say about the policy going forward, which is perhaps getting as much attention as whether or not there will be a 25 or perhaps even a 50 basis point rate cut. That's still the outside unlikely scenario, but in the realm of possibility. So we're going to talk a lot more about what the Federal Reserve may or may not do. We'll talk about the economy. We'll talk about why the equity markets and real estate and alternative investments and commodities are continuing to do so well in the face of a significant wall of worry and a persistent environment where we are seeing not only sticky inflation, at least at the moment, as well as concerns about growth going forward and certainly lots going on geopolitically with the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, as well as events taking place in the Middle East, of course, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as well as all the other things that may happen in this world, and we'll talk about that and why placing your money into investments outside of just safe and secure treasury bills may still continue to make sense. But before we begin that, I'm going to take a dive back and just think about starting the week off and perhaps give us some things to think about as we begin another week and really getting into the end of the year, as we approach yes, thanksgiving, christmas and New Year's and start thinking about how to position our portfolios for 2026, how to start thinking about what sort of actions we may want to take from a tax and from a planning standpoint. We've got lots of new tax laws coming into effect next year, so actions may be necessary to be taken here in 2025. We've got a few more weeks to do it, and then we start kicking ourselves into holiday mode. So I'm going to take a little bit of a digression here and talk about happiness.

Keith Lanton:

Gretchen Rubin and this was in CNBC over the weekend she came up with an article 12 Rules for a Happier Life. I Wish I Learned Sooner. I am going to synthesize this down to five things to think about and share them with you. Number one accept yourself and expect more from yourself. So think about pushing yourself outside your comfort zone in order to accomplish more, in order to feel more fulfilled, in order to get where it is that you want to go. Just staying within that comfort zone probably is not going to get you there.

Keith Lanton:

What we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. So if we go for a 20-minute walk most days each month, it's okay if we miss a few days here and there and not be so hard on ourselves, but if we go for an hour walk just one day each month, we're probably not accomplishing much. So if you're procrastinating, saying I really want to get out there, do some exercise, and one day you finally do it and you get that hour workout in, whatever it is that you're doing, but then for the next 29 days you don't do anything, probably being unduly, unduly stressed that you're creating and you're not accomplishing nearly as much as if you just took 20 minutes and several days a week you did that exercise, whether it's a walk or something else. And even if you miss a few days, don't be too hard on yourself. The key is that you're out there doing it most days. But this one was interesting.

Keith Lanton:

Number three perfectionism is not driven by high standards, which we often attribute it to. Saying that person, or perhaps ourselves we're perfectionists because we want everything to be just right and we've got super high standards. Well, she's saying most of the time it's really because we have anxiety, perhaps even an anxiety disorder, that we want everything to be perfect, that we're waiting to get everything exactly right. And you know what, if we do suffer from this desire for perfect perfectionism and we don't accept many times, good enough or we need to get started, lots of times you get caught up in this loop where you feel lots of anxiety, you're seeking to be perfect, but you don't even get off the starting line. Same concept If we're not failing, we're not trying hard enough, back to expect more from yourself. By trying to avoid failure, we are avoiding the risks and challenges that lead to accomplishment and opportunity.

Keith Lanton:

Of course, failure leads to lack of success. Lack of success because we are creatures that focus on the negative. That's a survival instinct. So if we're not successful, those are the situations where we typically try and figure out what it is that we did wrong, because we become much more introspective when we fail than when we succeed. Very often, when we succeed, we don't necessarily look back and say what did I do right, but when we fail, we very often look back and say what did we do wrong? And there's lots of opportunity for self-improvement and future success is born out of that failure.

Keith Lanton:

And finally, think of this as you get your day started. Nothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started. So if you're thinking about what it is that you have to do today that you don't really want to do, get it out of the way. Get it out of the way. Get it out of the way early, because if you let it sit and linger, you'll probably be thinking about it all day long. It might only take you 5, 10, 15 minutes. Some of these things might even take you 30 or 60 seconds. You might think it's going to take you longer, and yet you're spending so much of your energy and time and your mental energy thinking about it, not getting it done, and that is truly exhausting you and sapping your strength. So don't focus on what it is that you don't want to do. Get it done and move forward.

Keith Lanton:

All right, let's come back to the financial world, although certainly this is all tied into the financial world and our portfolios, how we are operating mentally is as critically important as the analysis that we do. But let's talk about the event going on this week and that's the Federal Reserve, and I think it's important that we talk about interest rates, interest rate policy, because we are starting to see interest rates come down Now. The Fed did start cutting rates last year, if you may remember, before the election, which President Trump has certainly talked about as being potentially politically motivated. But here we are, nine months later, and we are starting to get the real expectation of an interest rate cut. So what are some things to watch out for if the Federal Reserve gets together this week and comes out with their policy decision on Wednesday week and comes out with their policy decision on Wednesday? Well, first off Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who President Trump is seeking to have removed on claims that she had allegations of mortgage fraud. As of right now, she is expected to participate in this meeting. Also expected to participate in this meeting is the Council of Economic Advisers Chair, stephen Moran, who is expected to join the Fed board. The Senate Banking Committee has advanced President Trump's nominee, who is Stephen Moran, for a full vote. He is expected to be confirmed before the meeting and that confirmation is expected as early as tonight. What's expected? Well, quarter point rate cut is likely, but there certainly will be some doves on the committee pushing for more, so we'll see what the final decision is.

Keith Lanton:

Lots of attention will be paid on what the Fed has to say about economic projections going forward. The Fed will release updated economic projections that will include the closely watched dot plot, which is a chart which shows where each member of the Fed that can vote expects interest rates to be at the end of this year, giving us some insight into their thoughts and processes. It'll also tell us what they think rates will be next year and the year after that, next year and the year after that, and this quarterly snapshot gives us important insights into how aggressively the Fed plans to cut rates in the future. This is not something we get at every meeting. This is a quarterly release, so we did not get this at the last Fed meeting, so lots of attention will be on what these projections look like. If you go back to June, the last time the dot plot was released, officials expected two quarter point cuts this year, but that consensus may be shifting after we had some weaker than expected revisions to employment. So we will see if we are up to three rate cuts based on those dot plots. Now the Fed will certainly be contending with mixed economic signals, which will complicate this decision. This is a situation where the Fed has to weigh conflicting data. That makes these choices difficult, something that the Fed has not had to contend with as much in the last, let's say, 25 years as they do today, where we have an environment where employment growth is clearly weakening, but other indicators remain very healthy.

Keith Lanton:

Now to give you some numbers behind those statements, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is that agency that President Trump removed the head of, you may remember a few weeks ago. Well, the BLS, or the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported last week, on Tuesday, that it marked down previously reported net payroll gains by 911,000 over the last year, so 911,000 fewer jobs created than had been reported being created. So what does that mean? That means that the US economy only created 847,000 jobs over that 12-month period, not 1.8 million jobs. And then, on top of that, last week on Thursday, we get weekly unemployment claims, which typically is an uneventful number but has been getting increasing attention. And last week that report showed a spike of 27,000 new folks filing for weekly unemployment claims. That is the highest level we got, which was 263,000 since October of 2021. Now, to add to this puzzle, the Fed last week also got a report on inflation, the Consumer Price Index, and that number ticked up slightly from what was expected. And now we have data showing that employment is weaker than expected and inflation is running closer to 3% versus the Fed's target of 2%. So the Fed clearly has some decisions to make regarding putting too much fuel on the inflation fire, at the same time being too hard and keeping rates too high on the employment situation. So we clearly have a balancing act. You can think about a left hand and a right hand and one's going up and one's going down, and how do we try and get these two hands towards the middle. That's what the Fed's trying to do as they meet this week.

Keith Lanton:

Now all of this has some real-life implications for you and your financial portfolio. So you may be saying to yourself well, the equity markets have been really strong. You know what? I've noticed? That real estate in my neighborhood has been moving up in prices. First-time homebuyers have a real hard time buying a house because houses are very expensive. You may notice, if you're going out and purchasing some jewelry, that the gold prices have increased significantly as well, so commodity prices are higher. You may have noticed when you go to the grocery store that food prices are significantly higher. Certainly, eggs have gotten lots of attention.

Keith Lanton:

So you say to yourself how should I be investing my money? Because if you are investing your money in a safe and true and reliable spot, like putting your money into most commercial banks, well, the problem is that if you're putting your $100,000 into your not to pick on let's talk about the money setter banks your Chase account, your Wells Fargo account, your Bank America account and you leave that $100,000 in your checking account, there's a good chance you're earning 0.01%, 0.05%, basically close to zero interest on your money. And if you're leaving your money there for a long period of time, even though you say to yourself well, I'm just leaving it there for now and I'll find a place to put it. And a year goes by, two years go by, three years go by. Well, what happens is your purchasing power is declining. Well, your bank account, your $100,000, is not declining. It might be up to $101,000 or $102,000. But inflation is taking along, now at 3%, the dollar this year, down about 7%. So if you're thinking about taking a trip abroad, that certainly has gotten more expensive. So if you're thinking about your inflation-adjusted returns, and you do this for a long period of time, that $100,000 in 25 years from now isn't going to be worth a long period of time. That $100,000 in 25 years from now isn't going to be worth a whole lot of money, even though it'll still be over $100,000, which is perhaps one of the reasons why many market participants are thinking about alternatives.

Keith Lanton:

Now, one alternative which market participants have certainly been engaging in individuals is investing in treasury bills. Now treasury bills are becoming less attractive than they were just a year ago. So if one year ago you had invested in a one-year treasury, in October of 2024, a little less than a year ago you would have gotten about 5.15% return. Inflation is running at 3%. You got to pay some taxes but your overall return, still after paying a little bit of taxes, after inflation, would have still been positive. You would not have lost purchasing power.

Keith Lanton:

But today, if you invest in a one-year treasury bill, you're earning 3.63%. And if you think about that, if inflation is running at 3%, 3.63%. And if you think about that, if inflation is running at 3%, you're earning 3.63, you're down to just 0.63%, better than inflation. And if you think about it, you got to pay tax, potentially, if this isn't a taxable account, on that 3.63%. So there's a good chance, if this is a taxable account, that that 3.63% in that one-year T-bill is now presenting you with a loss of purchasing power one year from now. So what do you do? And very often the case is the decision is being made well and perhaps this decision is very logical.

Keith Lanton:

I would perhaps rather invest and take my opportunities investing in other investments, whether it's, as we mentioned, us stocks, foreign stocks, real estate because, despite the risk, I feel that 5, 10, 15 years from now, I will have more than the inflation adjusted after tax returns. My money will not be losing money If you keep your money in the bank right now. It's safe, it's secure, it's FDIC insured up to $250,000. But 20, 25 years from now, your million dollars may not be worth very close to a million dollars If you're thinking about giving it to the next generation or you're thinking about spending it 20, 25 years from now. That return, that risk of less purchasing power, has to be weighed against alternative investments.

Keith Lanton:

Another source of reduced purchasing power Barron's talked about it this week is food price inflation. And they say that food price inflation is not just being driven by tariffs. So even if you have the view that it's a one-off, it's something that may even go away. Tariffs might be reduced on lots of countries maybe not. But even if you believe that the food price inflation is partially due to tariffs, there's other reasons that it is more endemic than that.

Keith Lanton:

And just last month, in August, grocery prices rose six-tenths of 1%. That's the largest monthly increase in three years, with costs up in every grocery store food group. If you shop in grocery stores, you might be saying to yourself well, I could have told you that. Well, produce and meat drove much of the increase. Fresh fruits and vegetables were up 2%. Beef was up 2.7%. Coffee was up 3.6%. If you're a regular coffee drinker, perhaps you've noticed coffee the cost of coffee beans is up 21% year over year. Part of the increase in agricultural costs are due to factors like the fact that 40% of agricultural workers here in the United States are undocumented. In order to grow the food, you need fertilizer. Fertilizer costs are up about 9.2% year over year, so the cost to be able to continue to eat, which is obviously something that's critically important, is looking like it is not going to decline anytime soon. Another reason to think about your purchasing power.

Keith Lanton:

Now, if you're confused about investing in markets. You're worried about valuations being high, because they are. It's certainly very reasonable to be uncertain and to find this to be a moment of, let's say, lack of clarity, opaqueness and you can see this no better place than if you were a reader of Barron's this weekend and two articles that were very close to each other within the magazine. One article entitled the World is a Mess Markets are Ignoring those Risks for Now and implying that the valuations are high. The second article in the trader section, who's entitled? Who Says the Market is Topping Out the case for staying bullish. So both views, both optimistic and pessimistic, certainly pervasive. Seeing them just pages away from each other in a weekly magazine certainly lends lots of credence to the discord that's out there and the challenges that we face when making decisions about asset allocations.

Keith Lanton:

So let's talk about the concerns first, and we touched on these a little while ago. We had markets reaching record highs last week. That was despite the fact of the abhorrent assassination here in the US of Charlie Kirk. We had Russia sending drones that supposedly intended for Ukraine into Poland. Israel expanded the war of Gaza into Qatar, as well as the fact that the concerns about Chinese President Xi potentially tagging along with an assault on Taiwan, or India's Prime Minister Modi raising the ante with Pakistan those scenarios not priced at all currently into the current market dynamic. But stocks advances in the face of these risks, mainly prove President Calvin Coolidge's observation that the business of America is business. Even if the US economy is slowing, it's still growing and profits are growing even more than our revenues. Among equities, along with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, they ended the week at new high marks and the Dow set a record on Thursday.

Keith Lanton:

Also, if you've been paying attention, you've noticed that initial public offerings, or IPOs, are back. This is something that usually happens in the later stages of a bull market. Those who are around in the 1990s may remember the super hot IPO market of the late 90s, but that IPO market did stay super hot for a lot longer than people at the time expected. So trying to time things is challenging, but we are seeing IPOs finally making their ways into the market and getting lots of attention. Last week we saw the debut of the Klarna Group, which is a company that allows you to pay over time buy now, pay later service. Klarna was followed by Figure Technology Solutions and Gemini Space Station, both crypto-related outfits that popped following their debuts.

Keith Lanton:

If you're thinking about the short term and what happens to financial markets when the Fed starts easing rates, like they're expected to do this week, and try and factor out the noise and say well, just give me that data, maybe that'll give me some insights Well, this will be the ninth time the Fed has cut rates within 10 days of the S&P 500 hitting a 52-week high since 1994,. According to Bespoke Investment Group, it would be only the sixth time that the Fed has cut since then after a pause of more than six months between rate reductions. And if you take those two scenarios going back to 1994, bespoke found the S&P was higher a year later, with bigger gains than the average 12-month median return. So, based on that history, equity investors can potentially ignore political risks, international tensions, richly priced bonds, exalted equity valuations, signs of a speculative fever in the IPO market, and take comfort in the fact that the VIX is sitting well below 15, indicating that, at least at the moment, the markets do not see anything terrifying on the horizon. The economic headlines this is coming from the article where perhaps we are topping out but staying bullish. The economic headlines look scary but the market sees good times ahead and we will see if the markets are perhaps, as the Fed begins a period of easing or an easing cycle, that we are nevertheless in a late stage economy right now, but perhaps and this is coming from Michael Wilson, the chief equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, who's suggesting that we could be at the end of one cycle, but nevertheless he's suggesting we are at the beginning of a new cycle as the Fed begins to cut interest rates. All right, so what is specifically taking place this morning? Well, equity futures are pointing to a modestly you guessed it higher open this morning. Dow futures up about 100. S&p futures are up 18. Nasdaq futures up 41. 10-year Treasury down about two basis points to a 404.

Keith Lanton:

Market, of course, focused on Wednesday talking about that cut in interest rates this week. We already mentioned that, stephen Moran potentially being given the green light to be a voting member in the Fed's meeting expected to be confirmed this evening by the Senate. Lots of news this morning on the trade front and the negotiations between the US and China continue in Madrid. Negotiations between the US and China continue in Madrid. This morning, a few minutes ago, president Trump implied that there may be an extension of the may speak on Friday, a conversation between President Trump and Xi, premier Xi of China. I also see crossing the headlines that President Trump is advocating that companies stop reporting earnings on a quarterly basis. Perhaps there'll be some more around that, just seeing that headline. On the trade front, we talked about the big event here with the US and China potentially speaking later this week. Also reports that the Chinese would like the two leaders to get together in October. Haven't seen anything on the likelihood of that happening.

Keith Lanton:

Nvidia in the news sticking with the China theme, china saying that they have been found to be in violation of China's anti-monopoly law. Nvidia is down about two and a half points this morning. Blackrock, this morning down about 1%. They're going to invest up to $678 million in Chinese data centers. Tesla moving significantly higher this morning, saying that Elon Musk purchased around a billion dollars in shares on Friday. Also reports that the company's production in Germany has been upwardly revised for the third and fourth quarters. President Trump saying that too late, which is a reference to Chairman Powell must cut rates now and bigger than he had in mind. And then he said that housing will soar. Three exclamation marks after that comment. Unitedhealthcare up slightly this morning that they are hiring Trump allies as they face government investigations. That's according to the Wall Street Journal.

Keith Lanton:

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region began the week on a mixed note. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday. Major markets in Europe trading on a mostly higher note. In rating action there was Fitch lowered France's rating to A-plus from AA-minus and advised the outlook to stable from negative. That's due to a high debt load, weakening fiscal standing and ongoing political uncertainty. Separately, fitch raised Portugal's rating to A from A-minus, revised the outlook to stable from positive and S&P raised Spain to A-plus from A-minus and said the outlook there is stable. Oil up slightly this morning, gold and silver down slightly Over the weekend.

Keith Lanton:

Barron's talked about the headline story, us taking aim at China's rare earth market dominance. Talking about a strategy here in the United States through the stock symbol MP, to use that company as well as other strategies, and that is MP Materials, which is up on that article, about 4%, to challenge China and for the United States within five to ten years to be able to meet about 50% of the world's demand for these rare earth materials, versus just a small fraction of a percentage today in the single digits. So US policy, trump administration, really gearing up to increase rare earth production and be less reliant on China. Also, china out with the commentary that they are probing US trade policy. That, according to Reuters, all right. So this week, tomorrow we get retail sales looking for a two-tenths of 1% month-over-month increase. That's down from half a percent last month, excluding autos, expecting it to be up four-tenths of a percent versus three-tenths of a percent last month.

Keith Lanton:

Wednesday, Federal Open Market Committee releasing its monetary policy decision and we are now to an 85% probability of three cuts for the rest of the year. So we'll see if the Fed meets or exceeds those expectations. The number of the day is Aon out, saying that the cost of employer-provided health insurance is expected to rise the most since 2011. So hold on to your wallets here. So hold on to your wallets here, but the increase in cost of health insurance is expected to be about 9.5% this year, most of which is expected to be passed on to employees, so maybe paying a greater percentage of your health care out of your earnings next year than this year.

Keith Lanton:

We'll talk about the two stocks that have been in the news, that were in Barron's, and then we will open it up to any commentary. So, first off, pfizer, mentioned in Barron's. Pfizer's dividend, well north of 6% Stock has been stuck in the 23 to 25 range. And Barron's talking about that. Pfizer has become more reliant on vaccines, and this is in an era where the Trump administration policies are creating an unpredictable situation for vaccine makers like Pfizer. Kennedy, who runs the health care policy here in the United States this is RFK Jr. His policies and his actions have dampened investor enthusiasm for the vaccine makers. And Barron saying that we could be looking at vaccines representing 25% or more of Pfizer's revenue by 2030 as patents expire on some of their other drugs.

Keith Lanton:

And then next up Oracle, which was the darling of last week. Symbol O-R-C-L. Barron's out suggesting investors may want to take some profits on their Oracle, despite the fact that Oracle has done everything right Back in 2021, barron's published a cover story back when Oracle was not the darling it is today, saying it was an up-and-coming cloud giant that was also a legacy software, free cash flow machine, and suggesting that Oracle has the ability to reinvent itself for the cloud computing era. This certainly proved prescient and correct. The stock is up 437% since that article appeared. The stock is up 437% since that article appeared. That's a 45% annualized compound rate versus about 14% for the S&P, which has certainly not been a poor performer.

Keith Lanton:

So Oracle trouncing the rest of the market, barron's making a very good deal and now suggesting that, even after a run like this, that to step back and reconsider their investment. They're suggesting that Oracle, given the significant run-up in the share price, has now set a very high bar for what it needs to do in order for the stock to continue to ascend. They have taken a portion of their business. This is the cloud section that represented about 20% of revenue and they've grown it by 1,300% over five years. That is truly exceptional but also truly rare kind of growth and that they need to be able to continue to deliver exceptional growth, which, of course, is challenging.

Keith Lanton:

But there's the even greater question about the backlog that Oracle has on their books. Wall Street Journal reported that nearly all of Oracle's backlog came from one customer, which is OpenAI. They signed a five-year $300 billion contract with Oracle that's set to begin in 2027. And Barron's is saying investors should ask themselves where is OpenAI getting $300 billion from? Openai is burning through cash and relies on investors for its growth. In the last round that AI participated in seeking funds, they raised about $40 billion. Now $40 billion is not $300 billion $100 billion. So even assuming that the last round, which is not fully funded, does get fully funded and that OpenAI gets $40 billion, it still has to raise a lot more money to get to that $300 billion mark in order to pass those funds on to Oracle.

Keith Lanton:

And even if they're capable of passing those funds on to Oracle, oracle is going to have some challenges in building out that data center for OpenAI, if OpenAI actually comes up with the money to pay them.

Keith Lanton:

So how will it build out the capacity to fulfill that OpenAI deal? So over the last 12 months. Barron's stating that Oracle had $22 billion in cash flow from operations but they had $27 billion in capital expenditures. So CapEx right now $5 billion more than cash flow. In the past year, oracle has increased their debt by $27 billion total debt at Oracle up to $112 billion, and they will need to increase that debt significantly if they are to meet that commitment to provide $300 billion in services to OpenAI. So the bottom line for Oracle is that both sides of the deal face $100 billion questions for which we don't yet have answers. So Barron suggests for Oracle investors the profits have piled up time to take some money off the table. So again, they're not suggesting you take all your money off the table, but if you have been fortunate enough to own Oracle and have seen and participated in this big run-up, you might not want to pressure luck and be super greedy.

Keith Lanton:

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:

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