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00:00Where many shippers, I would have told you 30 days ago, were getting ready to decrease prices
00:04in 2026, we're seeing many of those shippers have a change of heart and start, you know,
00:12increasing prices for many carriers.
00:21Good morning. Welcome to the Myers Report Fast 15. It is Friday, January 15th, 2026.
00:29I can't believe the first month is almost gone, half gone anyway. With us today is Don Day,
00:37our weather and climate guru. If it's weather above the water level, he's the guy. If it's
00:44weather in the ocean depths, he's the guy. And if it's space weather outside the Earth's atmosphere,
00:51Don's our guy. We also have Isaac Issa. He's our logistics man, which gives us his logistics
01:01insights give us early real-time economic indicators. Isaac is the owner of a 200 fleet
01:08of trucks operating across the United States. And for economics today, we have Carlos Legaspi
01:15sitting in for Dr. Bob. Carlos is the CEO of Insight Investments, an investment firm with offices in
01:25the U.S., Mexico City, and nine South American countries. He has his finger on the pulse of
01:32certainly areas of interest today. Don, you were right again. We had a break and now,
01:39baby, it is cold outside. What's up for us next? Yeah, I tell you, a good part of the nation east
01:46of the Rockies for the next week is going to have a lot of very cold weather. I don't necessarily see
01:52a big snowstorm for anybody, but it is going to be well below average with temperatures for a good
01:59seven to ten days. How cold will it be? Well, there will be temperatures approaching zero or below zero
02:07as far south as Interstate 80. That's us. I know. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, that Bears game on Sunday
02:16is going to be a little chilly with some flurries, so football fans need to bundle up. And we could see
02:23freezing temperatures into North Florida, Atlanta. I could see Georgia getting some snow next week.
02:30So, yeah, it's going to be quite the Arctic outbreak. It's really three Arctic outbreaks
02:34working together. Okay. How's winter looking for Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and is this going
02:41to affect Iran? Well, yeah, and that's something that we are definitely going to be watching very
02:48carefully. In fact, what I'll do here is I want to share a screen to be able to show you what's going
02:55on with these cold outbreaks. In fact, this is what the cold is going to be across the U.S., and there's
03:03the snow. But I want to show you something that's going to be going on in Europe. What I'm showing you
03:08here is an animation of the cold forecasted over the next two weeks in Europe. And where you see the
03:15green and the blue and especially the purples, that is bitterly, bitterly cold air, especially the
03:22purples. And notice that we have what we call the beast from the east. We have these Arctic waves that
03:30begin in Russia, and then they work their way across Eastern Europe into Western Europe. This will
03:39affect Ukraine. This will affect Russia. And some of this cold, and some of this will be resulting in
03:47snow for Iran as well. So I think the weather has geopolitical ramifications on this side of the
03:55globe over the next two weeks. Whether it's in Iran, but watch energy conditions in Europe.
04:01That is something to keep an eye on here over the next couple of weeks.
04:07Well, so with all this cold, what kind of energy situations are you looking for in Europe?
04:13Well, the thing is, is their natural gas supply, last I heard, this was a few days ago, was at about
04:1954%. So there's going to be a very big drawdown of natural gas reserves in Europe from this. Also,
04:28keep in mind, the infrastructure and the, you know, the shanks going on with Russia and all those
04:34things, the supply isn't, is going to be, is going to be set low. I think what this does is, is that if
04:41they get another cold wave in February, and they're not able to replenish their natural gases, that it's
04:47going to be stressing the energy prices over there that are already very high.
04:52Okay. Isaac, what is the current state of the trucking industry now that we're a couple of
04:59weeks into 2026?
05:02Oh, it's been busy. It's been busy, busy. And it's not really a, it's not really a cause of
05:07really significant increase in volumes here, Gary. It's all lies around capacity for 2026. So we're
05:15already seeing a, uh, the, um, we're already seeing the effects of the exodus that took place
05:21in 2025. Um, so 2026 has started with a bang. Um, shippers are starting to feel the trucking
05:29shortage already. And, uh, many shippers are, you know, we're, we're, we're many shippers. I would
05:35have told you 30 days ago, we're getting ready to decrease prices in 2026. We're seeing many of
05:41those shippers, um, have a change of heart and start, you know, increasing prices for many carriers.
05:48So that's going to impact inflation.
05:50Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
05:53You previously reported a high number of bankruptcies, uh, toward the end of 2025 has,
06:00uh, in the last few weeks, has that trend eased at all?
06:03If anything, it's increased. Yeah. I feel like every other day, freight waves, um, which is a,
06:07uh, media outlet for the transportation industry. Every other day, we're seeing bankruptcies,
06:12larger companies, STG, which is a $3 billion dredge outfit just filed bankruptcy on Wednesday.
06:19So just a couple of days ago. Um, although many, many in the industry are very optimistic about
06:252026 for, for many, it's just simply too late.
06:29Uh, what are you seeing in terms of freight volumes and available capacities so far for 2026?
06:35I don't see a huge recovering volumes. I do see a small increase, but again, it's, it's,
06:40it's going to be, uh, it's going to be all about capacity in 2026. He, with the truck driver
06:45will win in 2026. And even, even on our side, we're, you know, we're in a, we're definitely in
06:51growth mode. We're in a hiring frenzy right now. And it is, I've been doing this for 15 years.
06:57I've never seen it be, I've never seen it this as challenging as it is today to find truck drivers.
07:03Okay. Carlos Legaspi, how did the stock and bond markets do this week?
07:11It's, uh, modestly up. So we're about a little bit under 3% up for the year, year to date in
07:19the Dow and about a one and a half percent on the S&P and one and a quarter for NASDAQ.
07:25So this is coming in a year that some, that a few people, not us, were forecasting a stock
07:32market crash. I guess they were wrong.
07:35Yeah. Right now it's, I, it's, I think it's going to be a year of muddle through. Um,
07:40I still think we might have a little bit of a pullback just related to, uh, rebalancing from
07:49such strong 2025, but, um, but overall we're constructive on the, um, on the stock market
07:56for the year. Uh, I think the, the economy is gonna continue to grow, not huge strength,
08:05but it's going to keep pushing through and they're going to be supportive for earnings
08:08and therefore supportive for stock prices.
08:11Were, were the markets at all impacted by the events of, uh, going on in this event in
08:16Venezuela and Iran?
08:19Other than the Venezuelan debt?
08:23No. Uh, of course, Venezuela that had a big, big rally after the Maduro capture, um,
08:29sold off a little bit, but still fairly strong holding, holding onto its, its gains. Uh, the
08:37rest of the market.
08:38Can you elaborate what you mean by a Venezuelan debt?
08:41And they're both, both PDVSA and the Republic of Venezuela have, they issued bonds, um, trade
08:49in international markets. They defaulted in 2020, 2017. So they're trade on cents on the
08:56dollar, you know, so it's a bet on a restructuring and, you know, it, it, those claims having
09:04a greater value under a new government than, uh, than they are now. So they were trading
09:11around 23, 24 cents on the dollar before the Maduro capture. And they went to the mid thirties,
09:17just about a 50% jump. Um, and they're holding the, uh, the rest of the market, both in Latin
09:24America and globally was not really impacted, um, oil, which you would think would be the
09:29most susceptible to something and a geopolitical event of this nature has still sideways trading
09:36in the mid fifties. So, um, so it's, it's, so it is, I think the market is just digesting
09:43what happened and they're not anticipating a significant, uh, like influx of production of
09:50oil production in the near future that would change oil prices or that would have anything
09:54of consequence to global markets. From the people that you speak to daily, which I know you do down
10:01in South America. And also I know you've got contacts, uh, in Cuba, uh, what, what's happening
10:08there briefly? So Delce Rodriguez, the, the acting president of Venezuela had her state of
10:16the union address yesterday. She had a mixed message, you know, a little bit of rhetoric and,
10:22and still support for the captured hero Maduro and all that. But on the other hand, the actions
10:30have been, um, of engagement with the U S and, and, and from the U S, um, clear, um, recognition of
10:41that they're the ones who hold power, despite of Maria Corina Machado's visit to the white house
10:47yesterday. Um, everything is dealing with the, um, the government in Venezuela, not her. So the,
10:56uh, the run of the consensus is that, um, the, the, the Chavistas will remain in power. They're just
11:04going to be in much more favorable terms or some sort of deal with, uh, with the Trump administration for,
11:10for, for resources access. And Cuba, Cuba, Cuba. That's so they, uh, they're in a really difficult
11:19position. They had a big kind of honoring ceremony for the, the bodyguards of Maduro that died and got
11:28repatriated their bodies to, to Cuba. And so there was a lot of rhetoric as well. Um, our, our view is
11:37that, um, it's, it's really, really tough times coming even harder for the Cuban population.
11:46However, we're not convinced that it will be sufficient for regime change because it's, uh,
11:54it's, it's such a cruel regime that even if the people are starving, they don't care, you know? So,
12:00so, so I think it's going to take more than this to, to knock him out of power. So, uh,
12:05so what, what do you, in general for the markets, what do you see coming next?
12:11For us, we, um, we view the economic growth between two and a half and two and three quarters
12:20percent for the year. Um, which, um, with very anemic or even contracting labor growth,
12:29because you have significant productivity gains from AI and other, and other, um, situations. So,
12:36um, good for corporate profits, um, not, uh, necessarily good for, um, for consumer confidence
12:45and population because, uh, like I said, there's, we're not seeing much employment growth. And so a
12:52little bit of job insecurity translates into, uh, hesitance and consumption. Uh, we do not see
13:00significant interest rate cuts. Um, JP Morgan came out and they, uh, forecast no more Fed cuts
13:09the rest of the year and even some rate hikes next year. No more, no more rate cuts?
13:15As JP Morgan's view is not our view, but that JP Morgan's view, our view is probably-
13:19Yeah, look, and we're, we're, we're, we forecast it'd be another one or two cuts coming.
13:24Yeah, that's where we are, one or two, but that's it, no more, because inflation is still
13:282.6% and you need interest rates above that to, um, to bring it to target.
13:35Okay. Don, are you knowing everything that you know and wherever you travel, uh, are you
13:42optimistic or pessimistic going forward? Don, you're-
13:48I am, uh, I am optimistic. Um, you know, I, I think the, the geopolitical landscape and all
13:55the stuff that's going on should trend positive in my opinion, but I do think some turbulent times
14:01are ahead.
14:04Isaac, how do you, how are you, how's the future looking for you?
14:07You know, it's up to, I'm very optimistic. It's been entertaining, uh, watching Mr.
14:11Uh, President Trump and I'm looking forward to continuing to root for him here in the upcoming
14:15years and I am very optimistic. Things are looking bright.
14:19Carlos, and your view?
14:22Yeah, cautiously optimistic. I'm, I'm long the market and I'm staying long.
14:27Okay. With that, I want to say thank you guys. It's always a pleasure. Carlos, it's wonderful
14:32to see you again. Uh, stay safe, be well, and God bless America.