Many employees can't afford a hefty medical bill that pops up out of the blue, but it happens. And employees who are financially stressed are, understandably, more likely to be distracted at work, costing their employers greatly and lost productivity. Luckily, Aflac plans help with out-of-pocket expenses not covered by health insurance and can be offered at no direct cost to businesses. Learn more at aflac.com slash brewmarkets. That's aflac.com slash brewmarkets. Intel shares hitting another all-time high. We have the latest on reports the company may have finally landed a major foundry client. Cheers to beers, but without the buzz, we look at what's driving Budweiser stock to the top shelf. And one money mover who is building ETFs around the legendary approaches of some famous investors. Our conversation coming on up. For Tuesday, May 5th, it's Brew Markets Daily, and I'm Anne Berry. More market details to come. But first, Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, Stanley Druckenmiller, three legendary investors, perhaps best known for their high levels of conviction. When they're in on a stock position, they are all in with confidence. Well, since it's Tuesday, which is our Money Mover Day, I wanted to hear from one money mover who is building a suite of ETFs designed to mirror the high conviction portfolios of these famous stock pickers. So I welcomed Adam Patti onto the show. I first came across Adam's name when doing research for my recent interview with John McNeil, former president of Tesla, who co-founded VistaShares ETFs with the goal of delivering innovative investment solutions and to shake up the world of ETFs that's become so important to retail investors. Adam serves as VistaShares CEO, And he believes it's time for investors to diversify away from the core indexes that are now so heavily weighted in mag seven stocks. And it's his view that we're now in a stock pickers market. We discuss the philosophy behind his funds, the role of activist shareholders in driving change, and what he learned from watching every hour of Berkshire Hathaway's first annual meeting under its new CEO. And as for his ETFs, we learn how Adam wants to, quote, leverage the expertise of legendary investors while layering on top a strategy to generate consistent incomes from adjustments to their underlying portfolios. It's an interesting approach, one that caught our eye, and it's a great conversation coming up in just a moment. But first, this episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Is recency bias skewing your potential stock picks? Is attribution bias messing with your retirement plan. Overconfidence describes our tendency to overestimate our abilities. Loss aversions helps explain why losing a dollar hurts more than gaining a dollar. Financial Decoder, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, explains how these cognitive and emotional biases can affect the decisions you make about your financial life. Host Mark Repe, head of the Schwab Center for Financial Research, and his guests offer actionable insights on what you can do to help fight off these decision-making biases. Download the latest episode and follow at schwab.com slash financial decoder or wherever you listen. And now my money movers conversation with Adam Patti, the CEO of VistaShares ETFs. This is so timely, Adam. I caught a look at three ETFs in particular that VistaShares has as part of its target 15 group of ETFs. And here's why they caught my eye. These three in particular are named after famous investors, Bill Ackman, Stanley Druckenmiller, and Warren Buffett. And the tickers of these are A-C-K-Y-O-M-A-H, which is a nod to Omaha, and D-R-K-Y. Why did you pick these three? Yeah, well, thank you for having me, firstly. You know, look, over the last several years, the market has really just driven up, right? I mean, we've been in a momentum-driven market, largely led by the Mag7 and other large tech firms. So everyone was a genius by just investing in the S&P 500. Everything just went up. But that's not the reality of how the market works in most market cycles. We're moving into more of a stock picker's market. And we were trying to talk to investors. We try to understand what their needs are. And the indexes, they're looking to move away from the core indexes. Now, you never want to go completely away from the core indexes, But you want to diversify because they are so heavily weighted in those MAG7 stocks. The S&P 500, for instance, is around 45 percent in the top 10 holdings. The Qs, I think, is around 65 or 70 percent at this time. So, you know, you're really over-concentrated in those names. So when we went out into the market, we said, all right, well, who are the best stock pickers in the world? And then we did an analysis to try to determine which ones we believe were best suited for kind of an asset allocation related ETF. And what the parameters we put in place were, you know, high conviction and concentrated bets. People who held their positions for a long period of time. So the first one we brought out was the Warren Buffett, of course, OMAH. He's the godfather. And then we moved into Bill Ackman, ACKY, Stanley Druckenmiller, as you mentioned, DRKY. And we also just launched a David Tepper Fund TPRY And what makes them special is not only do they all hold the top picks in their equity portfolios but then we overlay what we call our target 15 process. It's an options overlay to generate 15% income annually paid monthly. So every single month, we look to pay 1.25% distributed out to the investors. So we're not looking to maximize income. We're not looking for 126 or 124. We want that 125, nice, stable income that people can rely on and really build wealth over time. So let's just talk about the process a bit, if you don't mind, Adam. To your point, you could not have picked three more individuals better known for the level of their conviction, right? The courage of their convictions. But to the extent you're trying to get a portfolio together that replicates how they have allocated their own portfolios, there is a lag, right? We only find out through retroactive filings what these filings are. We don't really get visibility into when a Bill Ackman or a Warren Buffett actually buys into a stock. So how do you deal with that timing difference? Great question. So these are active ETFs, active to a rules-based process. The process, to your point, is where we scrub through the 13 Fs every quarter to try to determine what moves they make. But when we get wind of a move that has been made intra-quarter, for instance, Bill Ackman came out a month or two ago, I forget now, that he just put meta into his portfolio. We were able to actually execute that trade that day before the rebound. So we can be responsive when we do get information. But even with the 13F filings, there's an average of a 45-day lag, right? It's a 90-day quarter. Average, you know, 45 days is half of that. But the reason why we chose these investors is because they're not wheeling and dealing. You know, they are making moves, let's be clear, but they're not making rapid trading moves, you know, either short or long on a daily basis. They have high conviction and long holding periods, which is why we thought they were perfect for our strategies. I'm really curious that you picked an activist. And let me give you the context for what I'm about to ask you. I actually love to follow where activists are putting their money. I really believe in following that particular bucket of capital. Do you think that with a market this expensive, we should be paying more attention to these folks? Because at the end of the day, they are willing to take action. They are willing to try and create value through operational changes. But they do get a tough rap from some corners of the market. What's your overarching view on activists in general and then Bill Ackman specifically at Pershing? Well, I'm a big Bill Ackman fan. And to be clear, none of these products are endorsed by them, right? We are using publicly available information. I want to make that clear. But I am personally a big fan of Bill Ackman's. I mean, look, the activist approach is healthy for markets. It keeps things healthy, right? They go in, they shake things up, they want to create shareholder value. And that's, at the end of the day, as investors, that's what we're looking for. So certainly, you know, some people don't like it when they're on the losing end. But as an investor in their portfolios, clearly, we believe it's a good thing. And to your earlier point, the markets have been expensive. But that's why we're in a stock pickers market, at least we believe, and why it's important to, you know, be smart about where you're deploying capital. And for us, the best way to be smart is to leverage the expertise of these legendary investors. My last question on the activist distribution ETF, ACKY. Have you seen any sort of patterns, either people coming in or out of your ETF, Adam, since Pershing Square took public in recent weeks, one of its entities? Were people trying to buy into a little piece of Ackman by buying into your ETF? And have they now switched their flows over to Bill's own direct vehicle? Yeah, I mean, certainly he's going to get the flows. He's Bill Ackman. He should get the flows. But what we do in ACKY is we actually now own a 10 percent stake in PSUS. So similar to what we do with OMAH, we own 10 percent in BRKB and then the top 20 holdings of Berkshire Hathaway. For Ackman, we couldn't wait for the IPO to come out because we wanted to acquire it within the portfolio at a 10 percent stake and then have his largest holdings below that. We believe, just like OMAH is a complement to BRKB, it's not a full replacement. Berkshire is Berkshire. But it's a great way to create a dividend off of BRKB. And now with PSUS, which is Bill Ackman's fund, that's not kicking out income, right? So own PSUS. We own some of it too. But by buying ACKY, you're getting that 15% annual income while you get the capital appreciation or most of it that you'll experience in the core security they're offering. Let's talk about OMAH. That's your ETF named after the Oracle of Omaha. That's Warren Buffett, of course. There is some sort of narrative out there, which is to own Berkshire Hathaway or a derivative of it is basically just to own surplus cash in some regards, right? To be sort of overweight cash holdings. What's your thinking on that? And how is your ETF perhaps rebalanced in a different way to make sure that you're not overexposed to security, to treasuries? A great question. So, well, first of all, Berkshire Hathaway has underperformed for the past year, as we know, which is understandable because we been in this momentum market where value stocks typically don perform Now when value stocks start performing which is I believe we moving into more of a value and quality tilted market now Berkshire typically acts as a coiled spring and outperforms So I think we right at the beginning of that now which is exciting So in terms of the cash, yeah, I mean, look, Berkshire is locked and loaded. They have almost $397 billion in cash ready to deploy, which is very exciting having a new CEO in place who has, particularly more familiarity with the technology space, there might be some action going on there in the rebalancing of the portfolio over the years. Again, with OMAH, the difference with us is we do own a 10% stake in Berkshire Hathaway itself, but then the rest of the portfolio is the top 20 names within Berkshire Hathaway. So American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Visa, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, they're top holding. So OMAH doesn't have that cash drag, though with other than the position we have in Berkshire itself. But look, I would view the cash in Berkshire as a positive, right? I mean, they're going to deploy that when they find opportunities. So that's what you buy Berkshire for. Well, we just had Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting this weekend. It was Greg Abel's first in the CEO seat. Were you tuning into that, Adam? And if so, what were the big takeaways for you? I watched the whole thing. You did. Hours. I did. I did. Because I mean, I paused it a little bit here and there, But pretty much for hours. And I really wanted to get a sense of Greg Abel as a CEO because that is really the issue, right? Can we trust him? And, you know, beyond the excellent operating results and the resurgence of their insurance operations, that was all stellar. But I really took away a few really interesting things. First, there's no replacing Warren and Charlie Munger, clearly, as a duo. But Greg Abel and Ajit, a lot of personal chemistry, which was I was looking for that, you know, because that would have been a risk factor to me if there wasn't that clear personal chemistry because we need them both to perform. So that was really interesting, I thought. The other thing I thought was interesting is that Greg took great pains to continually hammer that the investment process and discipline that Warren Buffett is best known for is going to remain. And that is how they're going to run this company. So I thought that should give people a lot of comfort that he's not going to make wholesale changes in what has worked so well over 50 years. The last thing I thought was very interesting as well is people say, well, where is Greg going to take the portfolio? When he had a conversation based on a question about the utilities, and he was talking about the utility assets as a growth area, which I thought was interesting because he kept talking about AI and technology. which to me meant, you know, this is a man that is very comfortable with technology and AI, just based on the depth of his conversation around it, which, you know, of course, it wasn't stated, but it will be interesting to see if coming soon over the years that we see more of a technology bent to the portfolio now that we are at a technology-driven economy versus industrial-driven economy for the last 50 years. That's right. The one criticism that has been levied at Buffett It has been that he was maybe a little late to the game on some of these big tech names. We're going to wrap, Adam, with Druckenmiller, of course. So this is the third named ETF. You've also got Tepper. Hopefully, you'll come back. We'll talk about Tepper another time. But I'm very curious. I've got in front of me the top 10 holdings in your ETF, DRKY. This is as of May 1st, which I found on your website. And you've got in there a couple that aren't names I hear talked about, certainly in sort of the podcast or the sort of X universe with quite so much frequency. You've got Teva Pharmaceuticals and you've also got Woodward. I mean, look, he is a very eclectic portfolio. I mean, he is known for kind of going where the opportunities are, looking at everything top down. Those are very, Teva Pharmaceuticals I'm very familiar with. You know, it's a generic branded medical company that creates these generic brands. when these name brand drugs come off a brand, come off patent, I should say. So he is very heavy in biotech and health care generally versus a lot of these other great investors who are more kind of tech and industrial focused. So I think they're very interesting companies. I mean, Bloom Energy is certainly another one that's been on a tear. Now he does that to Alphabet and Amazon in there as well. But, you know, his performance has been stellar. Let's finish, Adam, with a question for you on what's next for VistaShares, because these ETFs we've been going through have been, you know, they've been in motion since, call it October of last year. Is that right? So give us a sense for where you're heading next in terms of other ETFs that might be on the horizon or what you plan to do with these three. Well, we're going to continue leaning into our growth equity super cycles, which you talked to my partner, John McNeil, about. We're going to keep going with the Target 15s, which have been really exciting to investors. And we have some other things in the hopper that I can't really talk about. We launched, we're a new company. We launched our first ETF in December 24th. And, you know, we just went through $1.25 billion in assets. So we've got a nice growth trajectory. And it's really because of investors like you serve in your audience. We've been really leaning into the retail investors who are very sophisticated. When I was 25, 30 years old, I was not as sophisticated. I was looking for a quick hit. These people are really looking to stack dividends and build for the future and being very intelligent about it So thank you Well thank you so much for joining Adam Please do come back I do know there a lot going on I will say quick sneak preview I went onto your website It looks as though there is maybe a private company product on the horizon. So I've signed up for the alerts on that. So hopefully you'll come back when you're able to share more with us. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. Well, huge thanks to Adam Patti for joining me. Great energy, great insights. But for now, let's take a break. And when we come back, a spin through the headlines that are moving the markets today. Let's face it, major medical might not have been designed to cover everything. And unfortunately, sometimes all it takes is an unexpected medical or dental bill to throw your carefully curated financial world into disarray. And your wallet isn't the only thing thrown off. Financial stress can also mean lost employee productivity, impacting business costs. That's why Aflac works to pay claims quickly, accurately and fairly to help employees find their balance again. Offering Aflac plans comes at no direct cost to businesses and these plans can save businesses and employees tax dollars when payroll deductions are pre-tax. Learn more at aflac.com slash brewmarkets. That's aflac.com slash brewmarkets. If you can't afford childcare or can't afford to take a sick day, that's not just your bad luck. It's actually bad for our economy. I'm Katherine Anne Edwards, an economist. And I'm editor Robin Rousey. On our podcast, Optimist Economy, I break down how our lives intersect with the economy, whether it's wages, social security, the national debt. And I ask the questions that you're actually thinking, like, is AI going to take my job? Americans deserve a better economy than the one we have, so let's talk about how to get there. Every Tuesday on Optimist Economy, wherever you listen to podcasts. When it's 4 p.m. on the East Coast, the markets have closed, and we don't have a ticker tape, so instead we'll throw it over to our human ticker, our producer, John. That's right, the major indices all finished higher today with the S&P 500 up 0.8% hitting an all-time high. The Dow was up 0.7% for the day. And the NASDAQ up 1% to 25,326, an all-time high. And fueling those NASDAQ gains, Intel itself hitting an all-time high for the day, shares up 13%. That is following a Bloomberg report that Intel may land Apple as a client for its chip manufacturing services in the United States. For over a decade, Apple has partnered with TSMC to produce its main processors, but Apple has been under pressure to consider additional suppliers as AI-driven demand surges. So for context, Intel has invested billions in its foundry unit and famously hasn't landed any major external clients for that foundry, at least to date. Well, according to people familiar with the matter, these discussions remain preliminary, but the market looks to be backing expectations that a deal will be reached. Shares of Intel are up a whopping 430% over the past 12 months. Well, let's pivot now over to earnings as quarterly reports continue to pour in, keeping us fueled up on coffee as we wade through them, starting with Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer conglomerate in the world. The owner of Corona, Stella Artois, and Budweiser, ticker BUD, saw its share price up 10% today. That was after reporting earnings that beat expectations. And that was despite a slowdown in global alcohol consumption, the company's CEO cheered the results, saying, quote, Cheers to beers, love it, nice bit of rhyming, as total beer volumes ticked up 0.8%. Well, we were asking around the office today, what is a beer? I don't know exactly what beer is to which he's referring. Because the company is continuing to push into alcohol-free beverages, expanding brands like Budweiser Zero and Michelob Ultra Zero. That no alcohol beer portfolio delivered 34% revenue growth in 2025. And for the most recent quarter, no alcohol beer revenue rose 27%. So it looks like the company is successfully catering to both drinkers and non-drinkers who apparently just like the taste of beer. Shares of Bud up 25% so far this year. And finally, Xbox's new CEO is shaking things up in Microsoft's gaming unit. In a memo to employees, Asha Sharma said Xbox is, quote, bringing in new leaders with consumer and technical expertise we do not yet have. Four of those leaders, by the way, coming from the core AI groups that's internal from Microsoft's AI engineering home and incidentally, Sharma's former home base. And Sharma took over the role just back in February after longtime Xbox leader Phil Spencer retired following 38 years at the company. And Anne, Spencer joined Microsoft before Sharma was born. She's not yet even 38. And Microsoft's gaming division has now posted revenue declines in four of the past six quarters, putting pressure on a turnaround. And maybe the next generation can deliver. People that are almost AI native. Shares of Microsoft finished the day flat. Lots going on. We're going to keep on top of those earnings. Meanwhile, that's it for today's BrewMarkets Daily. BrewMarkets Daily is hosted by Anne Berry and produced by John Corteau. Tarkab De La Teef, Avni Leroye, and Emily Millard. Our technical director is Luis Farias. Jim Orzo is our audio engineer. And the president of Morning Brew, Inc. is Devin Emery. Wake up tomorrow with the Morning Brew newsletter and tune in to Neil and Kobe on Morning Brew Daily to start your day. We'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place.
