Yahoo Finance

Now, time for some of today's trending tickers, sponsored by Tastytrade. We're locking in on shares of Apple, Pan American Silver, and NRG Energy. First up, Apple getting a boost today from that US-China trade truce. This is coming as well, The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that Apple is weighing whether to raise prices for its upcoming iPhone lineup this fall, but the Journal is saying if Apple does raise prices, that it will be careful to not attribute the gains to tariffs. That it will rather say, oh, well, there's going to be this new technology or that, and that's why they would raise prices. Because as we know, for example, when there have been other companies that have had some transparency about the effect the tariffs are having,

You can get on President's bad side real quick. You do that. It was just because I was, I was talking to Gene Munster over at Deepwater Asset Management this morning. Munster of course is, you know, well-known long time Apple analyst, so I was just curious what he made of that report. And Munster's point to me was, there's, I mean obviously, there's a lot of moving pieces here. Um, but let's say, Munster said, you had that 10% basic universal tariff in place. Let's say we, we, we think that's what's going to be the case. He does think if that was still the case that Tim Cook would raise prices on the new iPhones by 5%, and then he doesn't think 5% would dent demand materially. But of course, above that, who knows.

So, here's a question I have that we obviously are not going to know the answer to. The tariffs are changing, um, but companies like Apple, they're huge behemoths that, you know, have operations all over the world. They've already said what they're going to do in reaction to the to the worst-case scenario tariffs. They're going to move a lot of their production to India. So, the question is if now tariffs come back down, do they reverse some of those plans? Do they just do it more quietly than the announcement of what they were doing to react to the highest tariffs?

But then, and there's the added wrinkle of which iPhones are coming from India. Like, is it the most

It seems like it's the most advanced iPhones that we're still going to be coming from China, regardless.

Right. The most profitable, highest margin, high-end iPhones. The journal was saying, in their reporting, the bulk of those would still be coming from China.

But I, I guess I'm asking the question, not just about Apple, but about all of these companies that have been scrambling to try to make an alternative plan if tariffs go to 10% everywhere. Then do they reverse some of those plans? I don't know.

I mean, I think for some of these companies, those supply chains are so global and so complex, it's just not as easy as flicking a switch. No, it's definitely not. All right, shares of Pan American Silver, they're sinking today after the Canadian mining company announced it will acquire MAG Silver Corporation in a transaction worth about $2 billion. So, this one, about two billion per reports that this gives Pan American access, I guess, really, to a major mine in Mexico, and the backdrop, of course, being here the rally. We've seen in precious metals this year. Spot silver up, I think, double digits. Um, so gives Pan American access to a major mine in silver and two undeveloped projects in Canada, as well.

Yeah, this is really what it has to do with, right. Silver prices have been going higher, and according to, um, the presentation that the company gave, um, this would bring down Pan American's cost by about 20%. So, silver prices up, costs down, you would think that that would be a good thing, although we are seeing the shares fall today. 2054 is how this values MAG. Um, so it's about a 21% premium, so maybe investors not thrilled with the price that is being paid here.

No. Pan American CEO saying this brings into portfolio one of the best silver mines in the world. Mm, that's how he phrases it.

And then there's shares of NRG Energy rising on another deal, uh, topping first quarter earnings expectations and also announcing a $12 billion acquisition of natural gas assets from a company called LS Power Equity Advisors. So it's a $12 billion deal, including debt, and it gets NRG Energy 18 gas-fired power plants. Now, why is this important? Really, we have seen the utility industry and the generation industry leaning into natural gas, and so this strengthens NRG's, um, position in that business. Energy, by the way, already owns some gas-fired plants. It also owns, um, alternative energy sources, solar, et cetera. So this would increase its exposure to gas.

And the CEO telling Bloomberg it's kind of like finding the Holy Grail. Mm, yes, that's how he put it. This portfolio seems to be the perfect fit for us. With the purchase, it sounds like NRG is also saying adjusted EPS will now expand at 14% compound annual growth rate over five years, and that is up from their previous guidance, helps explain the pop you're seeing today, for sure.