00:00Let's start with IBM. It is up about 2% here this morning. It says it has the blueprint
00:06for the next generation of tiny but mighty AI chips. It says it can deliver chips with 50%
00:14better performance and dramatically lower power consumption. To give you an idea of what this is
00:19all about, it says that it can cram more computing power into these smaller devices and pack about
00:26a hundred billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail. I don't know what these
00:31people are doing. Well said. Is there anybody not putting out these press releases? Everybody's
00:40got the new whiz bang technology on a pin of a needle. Apparently, this is the smallest and
00:46fastest. At least till Friday. IBM has so many patents. They come up with so much new technology
00:53even today. I mean, they do it year in and year out. You talk about all the new tech companies
00:59out there, but IBM, from a research perspective, they just crush it every year.
01:02But I do have to say, it's not ready for industrial use yet. They said they see a path to
01:06production
01:07in about five years. And what does this mean? Because I'm like, okay, well, what does this
01:12really mean? More transistors mean faster and more powerful computing can help drive advances
01:17like faster smartphones, laptops, more efficient data centers, better self-driving cars, all that
01:22good stuff. The chart here, for 2022, they were asleep and then boom, up they go.
01:26Exactly. And the stock is down 11% year to date. So that's not accounting for this rise
01:31we're seeing pre-market. We have got McCormick. Let's move over to the spices world. McCormick,
01:36it was up earlier this morning. It's now up about 1%, but down 30% year to date. So it's
01:41been
01:41a tough 2026 for McCormick. This is, of course, the spices and seasonings maker. It makes Cholula
01:48hot sauce, Cholula, Cholula hot sauce, the red and the green. French's mustard, Frank's red hot.
01:54I like that. Said adjusted earnings per share reached 80 cents. That topped estimates. It said
01:59a tariff-free fund helped to reduce costs of goods by $28 million. We're hearing more and more of that
02:04now from companies talking about those tariff-free funds and what it meant to their bottom line. Also,
02:08McCormick reaffirmed its full year guidance. The company saw slower growth, though, in spices and
02:14seasonings because, quote, people were using more of what's in their pantry. You know,
02:18one thing about it, how long do you have your spices for? Forever.
02:21When do I buy a new spice? Oh, this is the reason for divorce.
02:24Oh, no. Forever. Oh, my God. She throws them out.
02:28Well, is it like a go-bad thing? Mrs. King looks at, like, the expiration and goes,
02:32this, you know, some unpronounceable spice is, like, three years past sell date.
02:36It's fine. I go, it's fine. We could use it. The hot sauce thing.
02:39Maybe not as potent, but yeah, it's still fine. I don't understand the hot sauce wave. All the kids,
02:43they have it at their desk. They have it with them. It's almost like their water bottle and
02:48their hot sauce. And so you go to a restaurant and there's not a ketchup on the table. There's hot
02:53sauce. Very perceptive. Is it not good if I walk around with a water bottle that has a martini in
02:59it? You can do that. You can do that. Is that as a hydration break? Yeah, we do that at
03:03the beach,
03:04maybe. Next. All right. What else? Oh, let's stick with food. Darden Restaurants. All right. This
03:08stock taking it on the chin here down three and a half percent in the pre-market. Same store sales
03:14at Olive Garden trailing expectations. And they say it's raising questions about demand at the
03:20company's largest chain. And it actually overshadowed really an earnings report that was
03:24better than expected overall. So Olive Garden, fourth quarter, same store sales growth, 2.4%,
03:30a full percentage lower than expected. This suggests that promotions and lighter portions were not
03:36enough to offset pressure on lower and middle income consumers. Remember, they used to have
03:40those humongous portions, which were in some ways unappetizing. So they actually pulled back on that.
03:46Yeah. I've seen a lot of on-air stuff of European soccer fans in the U.S. being interviewed. And
03:52the
03:52one thing they always say is, boy, your portions here are big. Because they are. But I do want to
03:58point out Longhorn Steakhouse doing really well, continuing to benefit from strong demand,
04:02even though steak prices are so high. So that's what sort of buttress Darden.
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