Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on Main Street.

Frank Curzio: What’s going on out there? It’s January 3rd. Happy New Year. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast, where I break the headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. Hope all of you are enjoying the New Year, had a great holiday, nice and fat, New Year’s resolutions. Speaking for myself there, yes, ate a lot, but enjoyed it with the family. Think about going to New York, but no way, not with the weather, it was too crazy. But hopefully, all you guys made it home okay and made it to wherever you had to go, okay, because I know, especially Southwest. Holy cow, it’s a nightmare over there, right? Just traveling, freezing weather, horrible.

Frank Curzio: The holidays are supposed to be fun, and I think it was more stressful this year, especially for me, closing my house towards the end of the year, just very stressful. Actually, glad to be back at it, and today, you’re going to hear from me. And the next few days, you’re going to hear from Daniel Creech, because I am about to head to the Consumer Electronics Show, which I do every single year for… I believe it’s over 10 years. I lose track. I’d say 11, might be 12, might be nine. I don’t know; I lose track.

Frank Curzio: But every year, I go there, I sample all the technologies. And this is, if not the biggest, one of the biggest conferences in the world. And every year, it’s around the first, second week, it takes place, and it’s in Las Vegas. And all the technology companies from around the world, the biggest and the best, present their new technology, their new services, what they’re going to release for 2023, for the full year. And I’ve found some of my greatest ideas at these conferences. I think this year, it’s going to be even bigger.

Frank Curzio: And you could say, well, COVID 2020 was canceled. It wasn’t, when I say canceled, it wasn’t in person. Last year, I actually went, and then Omicron hit, and then a lot of companies decided to cancel later, pretty much a day or two before the conference. It was pretty crazy. I mean, you saw half of the companies set up, half of the, it was pretty much a disaster. It was a real disaster last year, it was a shit show.

Frank Curzio: This year, everybody’s back, 2.1 million square feet of space. Look it up if you don’t know how much that is, holy cow. It’s not just the conference center, which is one of the biggest in the world, but this is at several hotels. It takes four days, and you’re lucky, if you see 60% of everything. I have great contacts there, giving the right direction, where to go. Used to take tours and stuff like that, no longer need to do that, just have great contacts there. You meet a lot of subscribers there as well, Curzio One members. If you’re going to be there, give me a shout. I’ll be there until Sunday and I’m leaving today, later on today.

Frank Curzio: I have a media badge because a lot of people, for some reason, like this podcast and listen to it, so they say that I’m an influencer. An influencer, whatever that means these days. So, I get immediate band, which allows me to have access to everything, right, and even days before and the top executives there, and to be able to sample the technologies. You don’t have to wait in line.

Frank Curzio: And I bring video guys down with me, and we do all kinds of videos I send to you. We’re going to keep a lot of stuff behind a paywall, at least a lot of the ideas and things like that. So, I’ll be sharing some of the videos. Guys, be sure to watch me at Twitter, @FrankCurzio, TikTok, you’ll see a lot of stuff. I’m going to try to broadcast things live. And again, having that kind of access and being able to do so much is really, really cool, especially since, there will be 323 of the Fortune Global 500 companies in attendance.

Frank Curzio: We’re talking about Sony, Samsung, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, LG, P&G, Caterpillar, John Deere, Qualcomm, AMD, Verizon, Accenture. I swear I didn’t write them down; I memorized them. Anyway, 174 countries will be represented, 40 top retailers in the world will be in attendances. And over 100,000 people, that’s what we’re expecting. I think it got up to 170,000 people just before COVID, that was the record. So, it’s going to be over a 100,00. If I had guess probably about 115, 120,000, just because it’s an international show. And still places like China, the places are closed and not flying in, so otherwise it would be a lot bigger.

Frank Curzio: But this show is going to be significant this year. It’s the first time that I can remember where you saw an absolute collapse in a tech sector, all right? Usually, it’s rocking and rolling. Everything’s great. It’s been awesome since 2008, 2009, a few hiccups here and there. Not like this. I mean, looking at the NASDAQ down 33% on the year. So, you have all these semiconductor companies that are going to be there. You’re going to get a chance to talk to them.

Frank Curzio: These are semiconductors that were seeing record demand probably less than six months, nine months ago, six months ago? Less than nine months ago, I’d say more like six months ago. But so much so that they were building more fab facilities, going… All of a sudden, they’re like, whoa, everything just got turned off.

Frank Curzio: Why? Because of the Fed. Seeing demand slow, demand is going to continue to slow throughout the year. So, this is a time for these companies not really to be aggressive with their growth plans. And a lot of these companies are trained to astronomical valuations like the NVIDIAs and Snowflakes and things like that. Still great companies, great companies, guys. I’m not ragging on these companies and their AMDs. I’m not rigging on these companies. I’m just saying, Snickers is a great candy bar, but you don’t want to pay $25 for it, right? That’s where a lot of these companies are still trading, even though a lot of the sector is down.

Frank Curzio: So now, you’re going to see demand shrink, which means your total addressable markets are going to shrink. And it’s all about taking market share from everybody else. And that’s who’s going to be the winners and the leaders going into the next bull market, which will probably be a couple years from now.

Frank Curzio: But make no mistake, it’s going to be really frigging crazy, especially early on next year. I showed you how, the Moneyflow Trader provided certificate discounts. A lot of people took me up on that offer, again, sending me emails and thanking me. And how did I protect their portfolio, not just protecting, they’re making a fortune. They’re really making a lot of money just betting against a lot of things.

Frank Curzio: And I still think going into next year, the first six months, earnings are way too high. Yes, sentiment’s a little weak and people are kind of predicting a recession now, but still most outcomes are not predicting a recession. There is going to be a recession. In fact, there was a recession, right? Two straight quarters of negative GDP growth. They said the jobs number was great. Now, we realized second quarter job numbers were a million jobs off. There’s only 10,500 job openings, compared to the 1.1, whatever, million that were forecasted. Which is, I explained that in a podcast, that that’s, there’s no other reason that you could look at that from a statistical point of view and be that wrong, over 95% wrong, and not say that that was fraudulent. And had to do with an election, had to do with whatever, whoever reported those numbers.

Frank Curzio: This isn’t some crazy idiot that just wrote a report saying the judge, this is a Philly Fed going back and look at real-time data. Going back and saying, “Hey, you know what? Second quarter, no, no, no, it wasn’t 1.1 million jobs we added.” Which everyone said that’s not a recession, we don’t define a recession anymore. Yes, it’s been defined for the last 60 years as two straight quarters negative GDP, but that doesn’t exist anymore because we have good strong jobs. Well, turns out, second quarter jobs weren’t strong.

Frank Curzio: However, we’re going to go into another recession coming this year. And companies, the good news is, they should see it coming. And if you see it coming, you could prepare. So, this isn’t a credit crisis where you don’t know where the bottom is. People can prepare, they can cut their costs significantly. But this is about management teams, this is about balance sheets.

Frank Curzio: And for the first time since I can remember, talk about 2004, 5, 6, where numbers actually matter. Numbers like balance sheet, cash flow, earnings, things like that. Not just like free subscribers that will one day turn into paid subscribers, hopefully. That used to be the business model. Get as many people on your platform as possible. 10 million, millions, billions, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you make money now, it doesn’t matter. Now it matters. It matters a lot.

Frank Curzio: But this Consumer Electronics Show is going to be significant. You’re going to find lots of ideas. I plan on finding lots of ideas for you. I mean, you’re looking at all the major auto companies. This is where they go to now. It used to be the Detroit auto show; they go here first. All of them going to be in attendance, going to get a look at the latest EV technology. Which a lot of these companies can’t make money on EVs, they’re losing money on every EV they sold, demand’s falling off a cliff.

Frank Curzio: A lot of these companies do not have the supply when it comes to batteries. Seen Tesla crash, sharply crash, past couple of months. Seen, due to Twitter and sales from Elon Musk, whatever you want to blame it on. But a lot of these companies, where the whole world was like EVs are the future, be careful. In order to make a change, in order to disrupt the world, you got to do two things. You’ve got to make something easier; you’ve got to make something cheaper.

Frank Curzio: EVs are not easier. It’s not easier than going to the gas station to fill up, and they’re definitely not cheaper. So, be careful thinking that that’s the biggest trend that’s guaranteed to happen. It’s not guaranteed. And you’re seeing a lot of companies in big trouble when I’m looking at their balance sheets.

Frank Curzio: So, let’s see with the GMs, the Fords, let’s see what, with Mercedes and BMW. I’m going to be able to test drive a lot of these vehicles because of that media badge, which I did last year. Going to look at, again, semis, very, very important. You have 5G, robotics, drones, cryptos, NFTs, going to be a big part this year. Gaming, streaming, augmented reality, virtual reality is going be very, very, very big this year. Smart cities. Smart homes. AI is going to be massive this year, massive. Finally, it’s not just a story like 5G was.

Frank Curzio: Because how many years, we’re finally, finally this year, last year, we’re starting to see 5G roll out. Everybody says it’s rolled out, it wasn’t really rolled out. Now, it’s rolled out. But those smart cities, smart homes, and Web3 in the metaverse making their first, this is the first time in a CES history that Metaverse, Web3 are going to have a presence there. A lot of those companies have a presence, even with TCG there.

Frank Curzio: Talk to everybody. It’s going to be really cool. It’s got some great connections. It’s going to be a lot of fun, guys. So, be sure to watch on Twitter, listen to me on Twitter, go to TikTok or whatever. I got to be relaying stuff back to Daniel. I’ll try to do… I broadcast when I’m there, but Dan’s going to be updating you as I’m updating him.

Frank Curzio: But our whole team is going to be on this like we are all the time; We’re going to be broadcasting everywhere. And it’s really cool shit, guys. It’s really a lot of fun. It’s something you see there, you’re talking of robots, you see drones flying around. It’s just all latest and newest technology. And just having that kind of access is really, really awesome.

Frank Curzio: So, going to bring that to you, Curzio Research subscribers, listeners, it should be a lot of fun over the next week. But I am leaving in a little while, so I’m going to keep this podcast short.

Frank Curzio: Just to let you know, stay tuned, okay? Make sure you’re tuning in to those channels. Make sure you’re going to our website, Curzio Research, where we’re going to have a link to our YouTube channel, where we’re going to have a lot of this stuff. Because this is a time where you’re going to find great, great companies.

Frank Curzio: It’s not often when you see a total collapse. As many years as I’ve gone there, it’s never been like this before, where the NASDAQ’s down this much. Where you’re going to see great ideas, you’re going to see companies moving the needle. They have to reinvent themselves; they have to pull back on growth and focus on what areas are working, where should we push growth, where do we need to dial back a little bit? Like Web3, maybe we need to dial back a little bit here, let’s see.

Frank Curzio: But the management teams and what they’re going to do in the announcements, this is how you make a ton of money in technology, is when the market gets absolutely crushed. This is what you want to look for. A lot of these names are still overvalued, but there are some very, very good names in this space that are down significantly. Because if the NASDAQ’s down 33% of the year, you know that there’s companies in the NASDAQ that are down 70% plus.

Frank Curzio: And there are plenty, even some of the largest names. Look at the Amazons, look at the Facebooks, which is now Meta, let’s see. Are those buys, or do we want to go someplace else? We’re going to get a firsthand look at a lot of companies, have lots of meetings set up. It’s going to be a lot of fun, really, really cool stuff. And you get to see me test a lot of these technologies live, so I know you’re hoping that I fall on my ass when I’m trying this scooter. Or, last time, I jumped into this big tank using this underwater scooter thing and stuff, and I had to put on one of those wetsuits and I looked like a big fat seal.

Frank Curzio: I don’t care. I shouldn’t say, I don’t care how great a shape you’re… Because if you’re in absolutely perfect shape and you’re slender, you look good in that. But 99.9% of the people, you don’t look good in the wetsuit. And me being a little chubby, much better shape, but a little chubby, ah, wasn’t that pretty. But, man, that thing was so cool, I actually bought it. It was $1,200; I bought it. My kids loved it, and we still use it to this day.

Frank Curzio: This is a lot of really cool stuff there. It’s going to be gaming, eSports, all this thing. You’re going to see celebrities there, but a lot, a lot of fun. And, again, my purpose there is not just to entertain and try these gadgets out and have fun and make a fool out of myself, but to really find the best ideas. And every single year, if you follow me, I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. Not just CES, we’ve been this business for 30 years plus.

Frank Curzio: And I look forward to the CES just because it gives me an edge in terms of ideas I want to invest in over the next few months. And in 2023, based on some of the meetings I had, and I’m not talking about meetings with CEOs and key executives; the employees there are brilliant. These are people that know their shit. You have the booth babes, right? You have the booth babes, you get by them, you ask them a question, they don’t even know how to count to ten. Oh, hold on, let me get you somebody, right? Just so they get some of the people in these booths.

Frank Curzio: But the employees behind there, like when I talked to Ericsson, and they were talking to me about, man, it’s just Cisco and Ericsson and talking about the internet of things and the Cloud.

Frank Curzio: I didn’t understand Cloud in 2013, and I was talking to Ericsson in 2014, I think it was. And Cloud was starting to be a really big deal in 2014. I said, “What inning are we in?” He goes, “We’re not even in the first.” And he was right. And I was like, holy shit, just things like that.

Frank Curzio: You’re talking to very, very smart people who have been in the company for 20, 30 years who, below the executive positions, but guys that… When they see your badge and they see that they can get exposure, that’s what you’re doing there. You want media attention, you want to get exposure, you want to get pictures taken, you want to get interviewed. And a lot of the times these guys shut down their booths for us, and we do live stuff right there on the floor, and it’s a lot of fun.

Frank Curzio: So, definitely tune in. Also, take a look at biotech, JPMorgan Healthcare conference coming up too. So, the next couple weeks are going to be really, really busy. These are two sectors that have been annihilated. And right now, I want to get as much information as I can for you guys, try to find some really, really good ideas. Because there are going to be lots of good ideas, and also lots of names that you need to avoid. I’ll try to bring all those to you over the next couple days and over the next couple weeks in my newsletters. It’ll be a lot of fun.

Frank Curzio: Leaving it to Daniel, you can give him shit, daniel@curzioresearch.com. Be sure to bust his chops because he’ll be taking over the reins for the next couple days. But, again, I’ll be reporting to him, and hopefully, we’ll do something live and see if we could figure that out on our end, technical end. I am bringing my camera guy and crew with me, so it should be really cool. I’ll try to do one podcast there if I can. If not, I’ll relay everything back to Daniel, just to give you updates. But, again, follow me on social media. It’s going to be a really, really good week. And I’ll see you guys soon. Take care.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curio Research, one of the most respected financial media companies in the industry. The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its host and guests. You should not base your investment decision solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility.