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 August 31st. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast, where I break down headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. Today is Wednesday. It’s Daniel Creech day.

Daniel Creech: I like that.

Frank Curzio: You like that, right? Just name the day after you?

Daniel Creech: Best day of the week, other than Friday.

Frank Curzio: Best day of the week. Is it because of the podcast, or because it’s just you like Wednesdays?

Daniel Creech: Yeah, no. Well, because of the podcast, but I always liked Wednesdays, going back a long way anyway. It’s middle of the week, it’s a good time. It’s a good excuse to have a…

Frank Curzio: When’s your next tee time, by the way?

Daniel Creech: Manyana.

Frank Curzio: And what’d you shoot the last two scores?

Daniel Creech: 79 and 80.

Frank Curzio: Oh my God.

Daniel Creech: Getting back. I no longer hate… Quick rant here. My new clubs, I no longer hate and want to trade back in for a big discount or break over my knee. I’m coming around, Frank.

Frank Curzio: I know. I know. You got to give me a break here.

Daniel Creech: Hey, yesterday was tough. I went and hit a bucket of balls for about 20 minutes in the heat. That was rough, but I made it.

Frank Curzio: I know. Tough life, though. I know, really tough.

Daniel Creech: Came back to the office, little recharge of the batteries. It’s good therapy.

Frank Curzio: I got to give you much more work to do if you’re shooting 79, 80. Definitely, definitely. So, how are things going? We’re seeing the market pull back, and even today. I mean, it tried to go up yesterday, it came down. Even yesterday. Now today, seeing Dow is down. Now I’m looking at it, Bitcoin’s back over 20. But still, the markets are kind of weak, still digesting the Fed rate hikes and what’s going to happen.

Frank Curzio: And we saw a couple companies report. A few are coming out now. Ambarella came out. I thought that was interesting because Citigroup came out with a report saying that, all of a sudden, that the chip companies were saying that things are, “It’s so busy, our supply chain concerns, and we have all the supply,” and they’re trying to basically… Well, they don’t have supply. And now all of a sudden, they have a glut.

Frank Curzio: And that’s what Citigroup said, that a lot of people are canceling orders. And Ambarella actually came out and said something like that, which is interesting. And that stock is getting hit. And also, Chewy is another one. But there’s a lot going on, a lot of confusion here with the markets. It’s hard to get a direction. What are your thoughts?

Daniel Creech: I think you hit it on the… I thought you did a good job yesterday in your monologue, not to just kiss your butt because you’re my boss. But to explain that we’re basically held hostage until the next Fed meeting on the 21st of next month, which, by the way, starts tomorrow, the next month. How crazy is that? We’re at the end of August already. You’re fighting the Fed here by buying stocks, in my opinion, because they’re hellbent on raising rates, which you could argue… We’re not going to get into that right now.

Daniel Creech: The key thing here is, I just think it’s okay to be safe. I mean, it’s not good business per se. We always want to be talking stocks. There’s always opportunities. It’s just a tough period right now, because you have to wait and you have to listen. Because by definition, rising rates are going to cause investors to continue to be nervous and sell stocks. That’s why, like you said, we’ve seen volatility. You see these market rallies.

Daniel Creech: Just today, market bounces a little higher, try to get over a few days of selling, and then boom, you go right back down a little bit. It’s nothing crazy. It’s not a reason to ring the alarm. It’s just okay to be cautious right now. Chewy, I think where you’re going with this, is a good point, because I don’t follow this company. Pets, to me, are a different world. I know you’re Dr. Dolittle over there, and you have every animal under the sun.

Frank Curzio: I do have a lot of pets. Yeah.

Daniel Creech: I don’t understand… And I like animals, don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-animal, by any means. But the bigger picture here, I think where you’re going with this, on spending is key, and I think that investors just need to continue. Listen, we’ve been on this theme for quite a while now, and we want to be on this theme where it’s a stock picker’s market that’s selfish for us.

Daniel Creech: Just because you are technically fighting the Fed by buying stocks at certain times while they’re rising interest rates does not mean that there’s not going to be continued opportunity. We’ve talked about energy, which is making a comeback. We’ll talk about that in a little bit more.

Daniel Creech: But looking at companies, this is similar to what we did with Dick’s, and what’s one of my restaurants that I like, the Cracker Barrel. Those are just good to pay attention to because you get a macro theme on spending consumer behavior. The pet thing, I’m surprised it was down a little bit. Hell, they beat earnings. They actually reported a profit. They were expected to earn a loss. They only lowered guidance for the earnings per share, from the high end to the low end, about 5%. I was kind of shocked it pulled back as much as it did, to tell you the truth.

Frank Curzio: I mean, it’s down 6%, but it’s kind of weird when you pull up the chart. And this is why it’s so difficult right here, because it’s not that I’m sounding the alarm. I’m saying that the Fed could really, really hurt us here. If it’s more than just Fed speak, you have to be careful. With that said, if you’re going to invest, invest in small caps right now. You have close to 90% of small cap managers are underperforming their benchmark, so they have to put money into this market. The stocks that I’m seeing there are incredible, so even if we do see a pullback, I think a lot of that is already factored in.

Frank Curzio: These names are not down like the S&P 500 is down, whatever it is, 12-13%, whatever it is today. Nasdaq is down 20%. They’re down 30, 40, 50% still. And Chewy is a good example, because when you bring up that chart… And it’s crazy. Let me bring it up, if you’re watching on the YouTube channel. Again, that’s for free, and I like to share some of the things. It’s down 7% today.

Frank Curzio: But if you look at a year chart, I mean, this stock was 90, right? And then, of course, the Fed went crazy. Everything came down. I mean, this thing just almost went straight down to $23 in May. And then from May, and this is just a couple of months, into August 15th, it went to 50. So, it doubled. Doubled off. So, it’s still down 50% off its highs. Looking at this chart, how do you invest in companies like this? It’s very difficult, right? I mean, you’re seeing, okay, well when do you like Chewy? Well, you could have liked it… Unless you liked it absolutely at the June low, but the June low, you went up, now it’s 50. Now it’s 34. It’s like energy companies.

Frank Curzio: If you invested in energy companies four months ago, guys that invested a year, had people on this podcast investing, telling you to invest in energy, and I missed that, and they told you, and we put some of those stocks into our Dollar Stock Club. And I’m happy about that. But when you’re looking at energy, as well, if you invested five months ago, you’re like, “Wow, this thing’s working. 20, 25%.” They declined 35% out of nowhere. Now, of course, they’re coming back, but it’s… When you’re looking long-term, there’s still that uncertainty with the Fed of what they’re actually saying and what they plan on doing. I mean, you’re seeing the cutback, but…

Frank Curzio: Going back to Chewy, look, people love their animals. They love their animals more than they love their family, most people. Not me. I’m not one of them. I do like my animals. I have three dogs, cat, bearded dragon, a rabbit, and a snake. Blame that on my dad. But just always had animals in the house. And I don’t know, just to most of the time, they make the environment a little more happy sometimes.

Frank Curzio: But when you see Petco, Freshpet, and now Chewy… And Chewy did warn… Again, it wasn’t a big warning. It came down, a lot of buying before the quarter, just to see it really pull back from 50 to whatever it was, 20 something, and still really come down a little bit. I was surprised. I thought you’d see more of a pop, because the guidance wasn’t that bad. But Petco and Freshpet, they’re all warning that consumers are slowing down their spending.

Frank Curzio: Now of course, they’re going to need to spend money on food. They’re not going to slow that down unless they want their pet to die. But it’s discretionary, like toys or those stupid outfits that you see on those tiny dogs that people bring on planes, which I freaking love. I don’t know why you bring them… I hate that. I don’t know. Just another pet peeve. But Target and Walmart also said the same thing. It said discretionary items. So they’re not seeing that, especially in this area, which is a sign. People are cutting back. I talk about the velocity of money. You’re seeing people cut back.

Frank Curzio: And it makes sense when you’re seeing your portfolio down 20%, because most fund managers are significantly underperforming their benchmarks. Not everyone just owns the S&P 500, and that’s it. So, they’re looking at portfolio, going, “Holy shit. This is down 20%.” They saw the home value rise tremendously, and they told everyone. Everybody did. That’s what you do. “Holy shit. Did you see how much my house was worth the past couple of months?” Now, it’s starting to come down.

Frank Curzio: That’s sentiment indicators. Because even though you could say, “Well, home prices are still higher than they were,” it’s kind of like a sentiment indicator with energy. Everyone is saying, “Wow, energy is great. It’s come down.” It’s still a lot higher than it was a year ago. But yes, it came off its highs. So, it’s perception. But the sentiment indicator there is saying that, “Wow, I’m worth less, and I’m hearing everything on TV that looks like it’s going to get a lot worse,” so they’re cutting back on spending. I mean, this is a clear example. People never cut back on spending when it comes to their pets.

Frank Curzio: You can look at COVID. These were great COVID plays. It’s not like people stayed home longer with their pets and wanted to hang out with them. No. People, they spend a lot of money on their pets. For them to be cutting back, this is one of the last things that people cut back on, if you know animal lovers. They’re out there. I’m not out there. My family’s more important than my dogs, and my cat, and everything else. But some people are out there. This is a clear sign. Look, people are cutting back.

Frank Curzio: I’m seeing it in so many industries. We’re seeing it with Ambarella. We’re seeing it at chips. We saw it significantly, and this was about four months ago, with Walmart and Target. We’ve seen it with the home builders. They reported and said, “Okay, we’re seeing people cut back now that mortgage rates are 6%.” They’re cutting back. You’re seeing clear signs it’s cutting back. Inflation is still high, but you’re seeing it. So, the Fed is doing its job, but do they want to really destroy everything? Because that’s the point they’re getting to.

Frank Curzio: As a 75 base point, their last rate hike is not even factored in. You’re definitely going to 50 at least, hopefully that’s it, on a hike in September. But it’s going to be interesting to see what they say. They have to ease their tone just a little bit. They can’t be like, “No matter what, this is…” Because if you do, you’re going to see this type of market, where even things rallying a little bit in a week or two off of lows, it’s just going to be selloffs. And it’s hard to invest in this environment. It’s not easy. That’s not easy for me to say. That’s why you guys listen to the podcast, but it’s even difficult for me.

Frank Curzio: When we nailed Alcoa, we nailed Mosaic, we nailed a lot of these companies, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you’ll see 20% declines. Then they went up, and then they come back down. You want to be able to invest in sectors and stocks over a certain period of time where you’re not… If you’re a trader, it’s a great environment for trading with these massive moves in the volatility. But it’s not an easy market right now. But are seeing the cutback in spending. It’s going to be interesting to see what the Fed does.

Frank Curzio: That doesn’t mean you can’t buy stocks now. I know I was very nervous yesterday and I sounded the alarm. I want you to be cautious. But looking at small caps particularly, these are names that already got nailed. So, if the Fed does change its mind in September, these things are going to rocket higher, especially in biotech. There’s a lot of great names. I would say, if anyone doesn’t have any of our products and looking for a high end product, it’s Curzio Venture Opportunities would be the best bet. That’s where I see the most opportunity right now. Even if we do get a sell off, yes, it’s small caps, but a lot of these names are down incredibly already.

Daniel Creech: You think Jerome Powell is a dog or a cat person? You think he’s got any pets, Frank?

Frank Curzio: I don’t know. He’s probably a cat person. I don’t know.

Daniel Creech: Well, you can say that. You can say anything. You got everything.

Frank Curzio: I’m going to get in trouble if I say that.

Daniel Creech: Well, you got everything. Hey, you got dogs and cats. Just because you don’t have the same number amount…

Frank Curzio: I mean, there’s an unwritten law when it comes to men, where if you meet a girl and she has two cats and she’s single-

Daniel Creech: Like the cat woman? Crazy cat woman saying?

Frank Curzio: Yeah, it’s kind of the red flag.

Daniel Creech: Oh.

Frank Curzio: I’m just saying it’s a red flag. I don’t know. But I hate saying that, because even-

Daniel Creech: Yeah, we’re going to get in trouble in that.

Frank Curzio: Someone on our staff owns a cat. And she laughs about it. But I’m like, just listen, this is what we talk about. Say, “Oh, she’s got cats? Uh-oh.”

Daniel Creech: I know a handful of guys that like cats more than dogs. I would have to say, typically it’s-

Frank Curzio: It’s just a lot easier. Right? It’s a lot easier. It’s a lot easier to take care of-

Daniel Creech: Well, I don’t know. I’m not… Cats are like children. I have none, and that’s not my area.

Frank Curzio: Dogs are kind of like children, but anyway. So, another topic I want to go to before I get in trouble… And yeah, those… Yeah.

Daniel Creech: Moving on, Frank.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. The PETA people, they’ll knock on my door and sleep out in tents and stuff like that. Those guys are crazy.

Daniel Creech: Like I said, they got to love you. They knock on your door, the noise from all the animals, they got to know they got somebody on their side.

Frank Curzio: It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Those people… I mean, I wish I had their job, where I guess they don’t need to get paid and they have all time in the world to just protest and go anywhere. But I wish I could do that. I don’t have the time. I have to support my family. But maybe they don’t have families. I have no idea how they get to do it. Anyway, let’s move on. Let’s move on to the metaverse. Getting some questions on it. And McKinsey updated its latest figure, where it was 120 billion the first five months spent. Now, it’s 177 billion spent so far. 177 billion in capital spent in the metaverse. However-

Daniel Creech: That’s this year. Sorry to interrupt. That’s this year.

Frank Curzio: That’s this year. That’s this year, in a market where no one is really spending on anything. I mean, I’d like to see the capex numbers for energy, actually. And I’ll try to bring them up. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find them quick enough. I’m going to do that right now. I love doing stuff on the fly. So 8%, that’s global. I want to see US. So, global is 2.4 trillion. Holy cow. But US capex energy, I don’t know. I’m trying to find it. It was 22… No, that can’t be right. 19 billion. I don’t know. There’s so many different estimates.

Frank Curzio: But I’m just going to tell you, for an industry that people are looking at and people don’t understand and don’t really know, that is a massive, massive amount of money to be spending in any market in the biggest bull market ever. We’re in a market where everybody’s cutting back and massive amount of money, even from the big players, are going into this. However, we’ve seen reports where one report was like, “177 billion. How come the graphics still suck?” The MTV performance, which I saw, in the Video Music Awards, VMAs, with Snoop Dogg and Eminem, I thought was a horrible depiction of the metaverse.

Frank Curzio: And I see where they’re coming from, and I understand it, but it’s interesting to see both sides. There’s a lot of people, even on TV, they’re discussing the metaverse. You’re seeing it pop up. It’s on the front cover Time Magazine. Today Show was, last month, they did a whole thing where they had all the hosts as avatars, and they were doing Decentraland and also Meta and stuff like that, but the graphics are terrible. I get it. But this back and forth, where I don’t think it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, it’s kind of funny. And you’re seeing a lot of articles being printed about it, right?

Daniel Creech: Yeah. And I think that’s a… If you’re pro metaverse or bullish on the metaverse, which obviously I know you are and we are, I think this is a low hanging fruit criticism to get out in front of. Or not get in front of, but just you shouldn’t be concerned or worried about the graphics right now, in my opinion. And I think that it’s clear, if it… Now, I want to talk about the… Was it VMAs?

Frank Curzio: Yeah.

Daniel Creech: Okay. I want to talk about that in a second. But to this… And you’re looking at the article from Decrypt, right? And Decrypt is a great website. I think that’s really good for crypto and everything alike. If you’re an average person and you see metaverse commercials, Meta, formerly Facebook, has several commercials, at least a handful, I want to say, that I’ve noticed on different programs. I was watching the golf channel. I saw a few commercials and things like that. And they’re using those avatars and just mix it into real world.

Daniel Creech: I think that is a very smart introduction over a macro trend. I think even if people are watching TV and they see something, they’re like, “I don’t know what the hell I just watched as a commercial,” I do that all the time anyway, but that’s just introducing it. And then once you start seeing it more often, I think that’s genius. But you can’t look at the metaverse, in my opinion, and not notice that the graphics are cartoonish maybe. And I’m not trying to be overly critical here, but as a kid that grew up playing video games, video game graphics have come a long way.

Daniel Creech: Hell, you go to the latest Xbox or PlayStation, and look at a Madden or sports game, Frank. If you just walk through a living room with somebody playing that, you’ll take a double look thinking they might just be watching an actual football game. Just because the metaverse isn’t there yet, I am not smart enough here, Frank, but I’m going to tee you up one, I think it’s silly to expect and criticize the metaverse now on their graphics if you don’t understand that everything evolves, technology-wise, like this. And do you think that critics right now honestly don’t believe that the graphics will get better from here going forward in the metaverse? Do you think they’re going to continue and look as they do right now?

Frank Curzio: So, everything you’re seeing about the metaverse is a joke to me, especially on MTV. I thought that was an absolute… I mean, you have two guys that are promoting their Bored Apes and that group. Because they’re shareholders, they own Bored Apes, which is a JPEG as an NFT, which hearing from the back channels, those guys could be in trouble because they did pay… I don’t know if it’s a special dividend, but when you pay a special dividend, you got to do KYC AML. That is the most important thing.

Frank Curzio: My shareholders know that very well, because we had to do it four freaking times, which is okay, because it’s a brand new industry. Now it gets done in seconds and minutes, but it took three, four days at the beginning, to make sure you’re checking those things out when you’re in crypto. Also, by just handing money over to Bored Ape holders, it makes that token a security, which opens up the door to a lot of legal issues with the SEC. They could probably settle. They have the money. They raised 400 million anyway. That’s what you hear in the back channels.

Frank Curzio: But when you’re looking at the metaverse and how they’re displaying it, and just that whole thing was terrible. You’re looking at graphics that are bad. And I could see why the critics, who really don’t understand this trend, are just like, “Wow, this isn’t going to happen.” Even the guys on the Today Show are like, “I just don’t see it.” It’s not a video game guys. I mean, if you look at the estimates of… All the ones that I read from Goldman Sachs, I mean, these are 35 page reports, to Citigroup, 170 page report on the metaverse, to Jeffries, to JP Morgan, all of them wrote massive pieces on this saying it’s going to be around a 10 trillion, on average, market. 20% of that is due to gaming. Gaming is an introduction to that.

Frank Curzio: Now, you’re seeing graphics. Why are they so bad? Because you need much faster speeds, which are coming through 5G, which is not available everywhere yet, even though they promote it and say yes, it is available everywhere. It’s not really, really available to the full extent. Now, it’s easy to get more people online when you have the graphics that are not as good. So, you’re seeing a lot of things out there, and they’re like, “Wow, the graphics aren’t that good.” And they said that about Roblox, they said that about… What was it? Minecraft. And Minecraft is the most played game ever. And they were like… Just like they killed… What’s the show on comedy channel with the worst graphics ever. The funny show? What is it?

Daniel Creech: Oh, the cartoons like South Park or something?

Frank Curzio: Like South Park. South Park.

Daniel Creech: Is that over?

Frank Curzio: Yeah. So when South Park came out, you had to see the critics. This is the most stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, look at the graphics, and everybody freaking watched it. Besides that, the graphics going to get considerably better. If you look at streaming, when did it start? 2007, Netflix. That’s when they started streaming. Up to like five, six years ago, there were still people in the United States that were streaming, would come in and out. And sometimes, it’ll stop and you’ll see the circle, then come in. Now, that’s an afterthought, because the technology is so much better.

Frank Curzio: But it took a while for everyone. Now it’s like 85% of households, 90% of households, stream, where that number went considerably higher over the last three, four years. So, we’ve got more faster internet connections directly to the home. You’re looking at what’s going on in the metaverse right now. It’s incredible. This is a much bigger concept than what they’re showing, because a lot of people don’t understand it. You’re going to understand it by listening to us. I promise you.

Frank Curzio: There’s the reason why we invested in TCG. I’m going to set up something with David, who is a CEO of TCG. We made the largest virtual real estate purchase in history at the time. I don’t know if it still holds. I know the people had bigger purchases, but some of the cash is put up, half the cash is put up, or some of it was put up. So anyway, we had it at the time, and that real estate is worth considerably more based on the recent land sales on TCG. The reason why people go on TCG is because it’s an open metaverse. That’s not what Facebook is. It’s not what Roblox is. It’s not what Meta is. It’s not what any of these things are.

Frank Curzio: So Meta, you’re looking at Fortnite and Epic. They’re not open metaverses. I don’t know how… They sign an agreement, and you can go online. It’s this coalition thing where they all sign. It was 35 companies. Nvidia was on there, Microsoft is on there, and Meta is on there. And now, it’s like 1200 companies. We’re probably going to enter it too, where they promise to be open source, where everybody shares technology. They can’t do that. They cannot do that. They have all their data, unless they… Because they have shareholders. And the most important part with these guys is they have the audience and they have the data.

Frank Curzio: But when we say it’s a closed metaverse, everything flows into them. You need their permission to enter. An open metaverse is open. You can go in it, you could do whatever you want, you could build on it, you can make money off of it yourself. You’re not getting 60-70% taken away by everybody else. That’s why you’re going to see the developers build the greatest shit in the world, in the open metaverses like TCG, and then you’re going to see the crowds coming over, and being like, “Holy shit. This is amazing. These graphics are 10 times better.”

Frank Curzio: I’m going to set something up, only exclusive to Curzio Research followers, members. And I’m going to set up with David… And it’s in beta mode right now, and it’s coming out very, very soon. It’s going to launch soon. And I told him, if you still have little bugs here and there, it doesn’t matter. Go a little bit later. You want that first experience to be great, because I’ve seen it. When you see what he’s doing and you see the graphics, you’re going to know why, the power of the metaverse and how fricking cool it is, where it’s not just video games, it’s interaction and it’s the ownership, for the first time ever, of your own content, your own digital content, which none of us have.

Frank Curzio: I don’t even have that with this fucking podcast. Apple could shut us off, just like they shut off Truth Social. Google shut off Truth Social. “Oh, well, our guidelines,” even though Google steals everything from you and steals everything from everybody, from the beginning, from Alta Vista and the patents you steal. Steal, steal, steal, steal, steal, and then you’ll settle here and there, whatever, under the table. They control it. And now, they’re trying to control the metaverse, and that’s what they’re doing. But for them to be truly open, it’s going to crush their stocks, because that means you’re sharing all of the data that you have. And they’re not going to share the data.

Frank Curzio: And that’s what pisses off the entire generation from 40 and younger. That is the concept of the metaverse. We own this shit. We own our material. We can make money off of our name. No more third parties, no more crap, no more sharing. We decide. If you want to share my data, pay me. I should be getting paid to share my data, which I will be okay with, because the data I’m sharing with the companies I use the most may offer me discounts. That’s fine. You should be getting paid to share your own data. And there’s companies that are actually doing that. It’s what Facebook should be focusing on, and giving a percentage to their users and everybody.

Frank Curzio: I mean, they have 3 billion of the 5 billion people on the internet, but still, that’s what it’s about. And when you’re looking at the metaverse and everything being built on it, I’m going to show you, just with Curzio Research, I’m going to set it up, where… I don’t know how we’ll do it. I don’t know if you can do separate Twitter spaces or a special call. And he’s going to show us. You’re going to get inside that world to take a look at it.

Frank Curzio: Because what I’m seeing with the metaverse and the companies I’m talking to, compared to the shit that you’ve seen on MTV and just the garbage and the graphics and stuff like that, I could see why you hate it. And you’re going to say, “Well, why am I… I don’t know if I want to invest in this. I just don’t get it.” It doesn’t matter if you don’t get it. You didn’t get cloud in 2012, and look where it is now. It created $3 trillion companies. Trillion. Trillion. Over $2 trillion companies. So, you got Apple, a lot of that has to do with cloud, you have Google, and you have Microsoft. All these companies got to those levels because of cloud.

Frank Curzio: A lot of people don’t understand cloud. I understand you don’t get it. I’ll bring it to you. I’m going to show you exactly what I’m seeing, why companies want to partner with us. Because when I look at the metaverse and I see shit like MTV with the Bored Apes and it’s like a cartoon, I’m like, “Man, I could see why people hate this shit.” Don’t hate it. Believe me, I’m investing in it. I’m not just, “Hey, you should invest in this, and I want subscriptions.” I don’t give a shit if you subscribed to anything of mine. I mean, I invested $5 million within this company, within the metaverse. I’m personally invested in it. This is where I’m putting my money, because this is the biggest trend I’ve ever seen in my life.

Frank Curzio: Why? Follow the money. Follow the money. You name another trend. I follow them all. I go to consumer electronics shows. Every single time… I don’t mean to rant about this, but I’ve never seen a trend that people don’t understand at this stage with the amount of money flowing in. And you know where all the money’s flowing in? It’s flowing in from the biggest tech companies that own the internet, those gatekeepers, those wall gardens. That’s where it’s coming from, because they know that this is where the world is going.

Frank Curzio: They know they can’t keep everybody’s data anymore. They know they can’t suppress anything. That’s why you saw Zuckerberg go on Joe Rogan’s podcast and say it, with the whole Biden laptop. The FBI actually came to him and said, “Listen, you don’t just rush in information.” They’re influencing them, and they don’t want to be influenced anymore, and people don’t want to be influenced anymore. They want to do their own shit. They want to capitalize off their own stuff that they build. And if you’re 55 or you’re 60, you might not understand that. Everyone who is 40 and under, which is Millennials and Gen Zers, they understand.

Frank Curzio: Even the people that are 55 understand, because they see their kids building amazing stuff on Fortnite, Roblox. All that stuff, they’re going to be able to capitalize and make money off for the rest of their life and put royalties behind it, where it’s sold and sold again, and again, and again. They’re going to be able to sit back, and generate royalties, and make a living, and be perfectly fine for the rest of their lives. This is the story we’re trying to tell with our movie. It’s not about Curzio Research, the meta movie. It’s about… And it’s going to be titled, “What The F is the Metaverse?” It’s about showing everyone what the metaverse truly is, what you don’t get. Because when you show the graphics right now, people are like, “This is freaking horrible.” And I get it, and I hate it.

Frank Curzio: But when you look at the bigger picture and the stuff that we’re seeing, going to conferences, talking to the insiders in this industry, this is a trend you have to invest in. It is amazing. And I like the fact that it’s being so misrepresented, and you have Mark Cuban come out and say, “You’re an idiot to buy real estate,” which he doesn’t understand. The metaverse is not going to be one thing for many, many, many years. There’s going to be several great metaverses. And owning commercial real estate within those, that’s what all the major companies are going to go to. That’s where every single retailer, every one of them, all the major retailers are spending money on the metaverse, because the stats showing 80% of everyone in metaverse buy something.

Frank Curzio: They’re all analytical, statistics, everything, all these companies, restaurants, they’re all going to metaverse. Where are they going to go? They’re going to go into the best metaverses, that have the biggest traffic, that have the best graphics, and they’re going to have to rent that real estate or either purchase that real estate from whoever owns it in the commercial real estate areas within this. Me, I’m betting it’s going to be TCG. If you don’t believe me, it’s fine. It’s okay. But when I do that special, I’m going to tell David to do it for us, where it’s just going to be online for everyone at Curzio Research, that’s when you’re going to see, what I’m seeing, what a true open metaverse looks like, and why the graphics are great, and why it’s cool, and why you’re going to see so many great developers, including Unity and Unreal.

Frank Curzio: Unreal has got the best graphics. Unity is more compatible, a little bit less graphics. You can use both. Unity’s going to be the winner at first, because that’s going to be more compatible. You can go different metaverses using that same technology. That’s what you’re going to see going forward. And I’ll explain that to you. You’ll see it in person. And hopefully, I’ll be able to bring that to you shortly within the next couple weeks. I’ll talk to David about setting that up.

Daniel Creech: Quickly, and I confess, I didn’t watch the performance, although I do like a lot of Eminem and Snoop Dogg songs, what didn’t you like about it? Because from their perspective, they own that content. Obviously, it’s good for them. You’re saying it was just more good for their brand or their Apes instead of the general metaverse.

Frank Curzio: It was kind of boring. It was like a cartoon. It was a cartoon.

Daniel Creech: Was it just a performance? Was it just them rapping?

Frank Curzio: Well, it was a performance with them sitting on the couch, and the smoking weed, and pretending they’re smoking weed, and this is the whole thing about just…

Daniel Creech: Hell, you can even get high in the metaverse, Frank. It’s getting a lot better.

Frank Curzio: You can. That’s even better. But they were promoting their own stuff, which I get, but it wasn’t a good representation of the metaverse.

Daniel Creech: Of the macro? I got you.

Frank Curzio: Of the macro. It was like, “Oh, what? This is what it is? These guys have their characters that look a little bit like them, and they’re just jumping around and singing, and you got to go watch them in the metaverse sing?” And then, of course, they have them pictured in Bored Apes, promoting their brand. I just didn’t like it. I get why they’re doing it. I’m not criticizing why they do it. You got to be self-promoting.

Daniel Creech: You’re just saying there’s a lot more to that.

Frank Curzio: Oh my God. Because seeing that, people are like, “Why would I go to the metaverse to see that?” That’s how I felt. And I’m like, “Man, you’re not getting…” By watching that, it turned me off to the metaverse. And that’s what I’m saying. Which is a good thing for us, because it’s going to make a lot of people still not understand it. That’s why you’re seeing articles. They’re right. Why do the graphics suck? $177 billion, what’s going on? You’re going to see the graphics get much, much better, because the more people that are going on this platform, the better it is.

Frank Curzio: The metaverse is not about wearing these big fucking glasses. That’s not it. No one’s going to run… You’re not going to have 3 billion people wearing these glasses, just like you’re not going to see 3D TV everywhere, where, “Oh, hey guys. Want to come over? All right. I got to buy seven 3D glasses for you to watch the football game.” That was never going to happen. So the hardware part, I don’t know. Maybe you get glasses. That’s different. There’s a lot of people working on glasses. I tested those out. They’re amazing. Those are different.

Daniel Creech: Easy transition for us. We already wear them.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. But it’s not going to be that either. I mean, that provides a better experience in terms of the graphics, yes, and a total 360 3D whatever. But you look at the 4k view of going in these things, that’s not what the metaverse is going to be. You’re not going to need that. And people are like, “Well I spent the whole day in the metaverse with these glasses on.” You’re crazy. You’re going to have headaches, and that’s not what it is either. You’re going to see a 3D world that you’re going to be able to go in. It’s even the 4k graphics. And you’ll see it. You’ll see it when I show you, and you’re going to be like, “Holy shit.” And I’m going to be like, “This is why we invested in this company.”

Frank Curzio: They still have to follow through. They could still drop the ball. There’s a lot of competition out there. People are getting funded. I’m not telling you that just because something’s cool now. This is going to be an industry that’s totally different two years, three years, to five years from now. And right now, what you’re seeing is just not a good representation of it. But you’re going to see that going forward, and you’ll see exactly what I mean when I show it to you personally.

Frank Curzio: Anyway, nice little rant on that. But I mean, some things do piss me off. Look, if you’re going to represent it, represent it the right way. But I get it. I get why they did it. Bored Apes, everyone’s like, “Bored Apes, let’s pay $2-3 million,” which is just going to give you access. It’s a JPEG. And that’s not what NFTs are anyway. NFTs… And when I say access, I’m saying access just to that community and group, which is a massive group of very rich people, and wealthy people, and famous people. But overall, it’s just a JPEG.

Frank Curzio: You want to get NFTs that are going to open the door and you give you rights to things, whether it’s tickets, whether it’s those non-fungible items, collectibles. But now, you have it on the blockchain, it’s like that’s your patent, that’s your signature. Now it’s on there. Now you own it. And that’s why NFTs are so powerful. It gives you the chance to really create NFTs to fund your own business before you really launch the whole entire thing, because you have so many fans. That’s a massive, massive trend. That’s a great idea.

Frank Curzio: So with NFTs, you’re seeing these art pics and people promoting like garbage and just the JPEGs. NFTs are so much more than that, and you’re going to see that. That’s why you’ve seen all this $177 billion flow into these industries. That’s why you’re seeing it. Everybody flowing into Web3. Consumer Electronics just came out and said they have a whole section on a metaverse for the first time ever. Again, still early in this trend. It’s not as early as you think. You don’t see $177 billion within eight months, nine months flow into this industry. It’s going to happen a lot quicker than you think.

Frank Curzio: It’s not something like 3D printing that’s coming, and you see it in classrooms. This is… It’s here. It’s now. I’ve seen the technology. It’s going to come a lot quicker than you think, and I’ll show you how to position yourself. But it’s something we’re very excited about. Anyway. Wow, did I really get into that? You can tell I’m passionate about it.

Daniel Creech: I know it’s great.

Frank Curzio: And I’m not selling it. This is me. We invest in it. This is what I believe in. Of all the trends I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen anything like this before. This is the whole entire internet going to this one day. In the meantime, you want to focus on the right metaverses that are doing it right. TCG is one of them. I have one or two others that I’m looking to invest in. But really, really cool stuff.

Frank Curzio: Anyway, wanted to go to one more topic, since we’re running a little late, and it is energy related. And I wanted talk about uranium enterprises are pushing past $50 again, which I would say, 2010, pre-Fukushima, you would’ve been, “This is shitty.” But $50 is amazing now, where I would say $65 is where you’re going to see a lot of production and producers. Why is it pushing higher?

Frank Curzio: You’re seeing more and more countries announcing that, “Hey, we have to go back to nuclear right now.” And uranium prices, after having a massive move come down tremendously, like we’re seeing almost in every freaking sector across the board… You’re not seeing a sector that you invested in nine months ago that continues to go higher and higher. You’re seeing 40% moves up, 30% moves down, and then back and forth.

Frank Curzio: Uranium is on an uptrend right now. This uptrend I think is really going to be sustainable because of the amount of countries that are announcing that, “Hey, we…” It’s not like they have a choice anymore, especially in Europe. We don’t have a choice. We have to go back to nuclear. And you’re seeing France, you’re seeing Germany, seeing Japan, Belgium. Elon Musk, massive, massive fan, has a massive following. To me, this makes sense. It just makes sense right now

Daniel Creech: He actually mentioned we need oil and gas. I’m sure he thinks nuclear too. But I like that, being the electric guy. I think you have two main tailwinds for uranium. One, obviously the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and you want to sanction Russia, so you’re getting off a lot of their oil and gas. You have to have something to replace that. Green, quote-unquote, with solar and wind is not there yet. And then two, you have this push to zero emissions.

Daniel Creech: And Frank, if you’re going to transition from one to the other, I don’t… Listen. I get you understand about, “Hey, we don’t want to be around a nuclear power plant because if something goes wrong, you have this meltdown, you have chaos, you have… That’s crazy.” I understand that fear. However, you cannot get to zero emissions, or whatever lofty goals that government agencies set, without nuclear power.

Daniel Creech: And to your point, you’re seeing a lot of people, even here in the US, even California is thinking about extending some of the life of their nuclear reactors. You have a lot going into production, construction, et cetera. However, the good thing for the bulls in my opinion is that, and I don’t know, but Frank, give me a decade here, if we announce that we’re going to start building a power plant, we’re not going to be up and running and actually serving any customers for at least-

Frank Curzio: A decade.

Daniel Creech: Huh?

Frank Curzio: A decade.

Daniel Creech: At least, right? Decade? Seven to 10 years if you’ve got the best contractors, and the best money, and supplies, and all that. Anyway, that’s a natural bull thing. And in fact, to pat us on the back, even though it’s been volatile, we wrote back, Frank, in October of 2018, when Cameco, CCJ, was trading around $12 a share, and we said, “Hey, basically buy this and forget about it,” because there were some head fakes that you just mentioned.

Daniel Creech: Yes, it pulled back from $12 down to $9, so you would’ve been down 25, 30%. But again, if you’re buying energy stocks for the long-term, it’s been not quite four years. And where is CCJ right now? It’s about $30 a share. So, $12 to $30 in less than four years, when you just said, “Hey, buy it and forget about it.” Because the long-term trend, to your point, just like the metaverse, it’s coming. This is the future. If you’re going to do half of what everybody pledges to, you’re going to have to use nuclear energy.

Frank Curzio: So, I’ve been looking at natural gas for a long time, especially since we had trucking companies that are going to go natural gas. I put up a chart now, if you want to see it. This is EU natural gas, where when you look, they usually have a map of the country. And this is why L&G always made sense, and this is why when we started producing… People forget, I think it’s Cheniere, or however you pronounce it. I mean, now that stock is absolutely soaring. But they were first looking to import.

Frank Curzio: When they built those facilities, they were looking to import natural gas. And then we said, “Holy shit, the fracking boom, we have so much gas we could export now,” so they had to change the whole thing. So now, we’re exporting. And when you look around the country, it always made sense, because around 3X to 4X, depending where, if you’re looking at Asia, looking at Europe, 3-4X, their natural gas prices were higher than ours, so you could produce it here and sell it for that. That’s a nice margin there. And again, without shipping costs or whatever. But it was still nice margins.

Frank Curzio: So, if you look at a chart I’m looking at right now, you’re looking at natural gas, November of 2020, it was at $12. It was at $4-5 in August, 2020. You’re looking at $350. You’re looking at… Now, it’s like $2.35, which it’s come down, but you’re looking at… People are upset about energy and gasoline prices going from $3.50 to $5. This is an absolute joke. This is what happens when you’re dependent on one country, and you start messing with them when it’s 40% of your energy needs, because energy controls the world. It’s not technology, because technology is run by electricity and electricity is run by energy.

Frank Curzio: So, what’s going on? Well, Germany is like, “All right, F this. All right?” The whole environmental thing and carbon free, forget it, because Germany just said, “Okay, we have to increase coal usage now.” Poor choice. We’re going to increase coal usage. So, this is going through parliament and everything. They’re going to revive 15 coal fire plants, which were slated to be phased out. So, these are already built. They’re already there. They’re not building these coal fire plants.

Frank Curzio: It’s not like China, that’s building them like crazy and laughing at everybody else with this whole green initiative, where do we need green? Yes, but not to the point where we’re replacing. Not just get rid of fossils fuels completely, like we’re trying to do. This is what happens to energy prices. So now, they have to do this heading into winter. They don’t want to do this. But now, Australia is also doing the same when it comes to coal. You’re looking at all the European nations. They have to do this. They have to do this. They need it for the winter. This is life or death for them, so there’s no decision here.

Frank Curzio: But you look at Germany as a European leader. They’re the large GDP outside. They’re 25 times bigger than the UK. But outside the UK, it’s three times that of Russia GDP, two times size of Italy and Spain. So, when you have the largest one in the world doing this, they’re all going to follow. You’re setting precedence. You’re like, “Okay, we’re going to go more coal.” So now, you’re seeing nuclear make a better play. Why? Because nuclear is the greatest thing in the world. It’s very, very easy. It’s very safe, as we see. I don’t know why. If you look at a map of the ring of fire, I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. The ring of fire is where the most earthquakes happen, and that happens to be where the most nuclear plants are built, which makes me laugh.

Frank Curzio: So, that’s why we got Fukushima. But you’re restarted. Belgium, France, Japan, restarting plants of nuclear. This is clean energy. Outside of California, who love green energy but hate the cheapest, safest, most reliable source of base oil power in the world. They hate nuclear for some reason. Frank Curzio: They think they’re all going to die tomorrow. They’re looking to close a plant. But Japan, Belgium, France, you’re seeing this. You’re seeing prices go above $50 now. I mean, they were below $30 at one time, they went to almost $60, and the last run up, it came down to $35 again. I think high thirties. Now we’re pushing higher, because they don’t have a choice.

Frank Curzio: It’s not like, “Oh this is politics.” You can’t play politics anymore. This is about people’s lives. You don’t have energy. You don’t have energy. You don’t have electricity. You’re going into winter, going, “Holy shit. Are we going to be able to power our homes? Are people going to freeze to death?” Older people. So now is the time. Now, you’re seeing where uranium stocks have pull back, the Camecos, the UECs. I mean, these are good names. I have Uranium Royalty in my portfolio for a very long time. Again, I rode that out, which was not that good. And then, it’s very, very good now. It’s come off their highs.

Frank Curzio: But these things are still down 35% off their highs, even though they’ve had a nice rally recently. Have uranium right now. People were telling me to buy uranium for freaking 15 years, 10 years, seven years, after Fukushima, it’s been a disaster. And these companies were not producing. All they did was dilute the shit out of everybody, because they’re not generating any money. They keep diluting, diluting, diluting to raise money. Now is the time you’re going to see a lot of this stuff start to come online.

Frank Curzio: And you look at domestic producers, EnCore is one that I like a lot, which I’m invested in. That’s a hidden one that bought Azarga under the radar. I just think it’s cheaper than UEC, but UEC is definitely one of the best in the US. And then you have Cameco, Canadian. Have exposure to the sector. Because now, the catalysts are here. You’re seeing prices going higher. And Russia, this thing isn’t going away tomorrow, Daniel. It’s not going away tomorrow. So for me, uranium is definitely a sector that you can invest in. Don’t think that you missed the boat. Now, it’s for real.

Frank Curzio: Japan, doesn’t have a choice. I know they’re going to try to say, “Well we’re okay,” back and forth. First, it was like, “Yeah, we’re restarting,” and they dial it back a little bit. They have to. They have no choice. Because it’s coal or nuclear right now, and coal is a disaster when it just, again, it defeats the purpose of everything that you’ve done on climate change so far, and all the bullshit in your agenda, and everything that you’ve said. Just to go back to coal is kind of a slap in the face.

Frank Curzio: Nuclear is sitting there for the taking. A lot of these plants exist. You just shut them down. You could restart a lot of these, which a lot of them are in Europe. When they do, that’s when you’re going to see this really, really take off, where prices could hit $100. And we’re at, just broke through $50, they could easily double here. I think there were $130, $140 pre-Fukushima. You have to do it now. These natural gas prices are out of control. That’s not going to change anytime soon. That’s a trend that is going to happen. I think this is an area that you can definitely invest in.

Daniel Creech: I like it. Well said. Yeah. I’m with you. You can buy any of those.

Frank Curzio: Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy to see. Again, I’ve been in these, where I was able to get warrants and invest in private placements. And a lot of you invested in private placements alongside of me, and held them, and they were shit. But now, you have five-year warrants on some of these deals, and we’re making out very, very well on some of these things. But for me, I’m holding it. I sold some of it. I took some profits in some of these names. I’m holding the rest of my position. I think this is one of the best sectors that you could possibly be in. Now is the time.

Frank Curzio: Everyone’s been pitching this thing for five years, seven years, nine years. Again, since Fukushima happened, what was it, 2011, everyone’s pitching and it’s going to go higher, higher, higher, all the way to… Right now is the time where the catalysts are here, right now, and you have a chance to buy these things at cheap levels. Don’t look at you missed the 30% move off the lows, because they’re still down 40% from their recent highs from, whatever, six months ago.

Frank Curzio: Now, more bullish on your aim than I’ve ever been. I’ve owned these stocks for a long time. I was always skeptical and saying, “We need to see the catalyst. We need to see the…” Here’s the catalyst. It’s right in front of you. Europe has to go back, unless they want to go all coal, and they’re not going to go all coal. They’re restarting coal, but you’re going to see a lot of these plants open up. You’re going to see more and more positive news in this sector, and this is one of the areas I think you can make money in this market over the next three to five years, at least, regardless of these crazy market conditions, which everything’s bouncing all over the place.

Daniel Creech: I like that. Hey, I got to sign off with an important off topic thing real quick. Okay? So, college football starts. That’s exciting. I got two lines that everybody needs to pay attention to. I like looking at football lines. I like looking at all betting lines. The Buckeyes, even though I’m biased, Frank, I rank number two. They’re 17 and a half point favorites against number five, Notre Dame. That’s so crazy to me. If I had a gun to my head, I’d bet the Buckeyes to cover. Don’t know why. And I don’t bet the Buckeye spread every time.

Frank Curzio: Where are they playing?

Daniel Creech: At Columbus. But still, 17 and a half on a two and a five. That’s a lot.

Frank Curzio: They’re going to blow out Notre Dame.

Daniel Creech: Anyway. Second one is Utah, ranked number seven, I believe, if memory serves correct. They’re playing at Florida, which is unranked. The line is only Utah by two. That is so crazy on the other side, I would take Florida in the points. I know zero about all these teams. I just like looking at lines, and that’s fun. So, we’ll see if I go 1-1, 2-0, or the dreaded 0-2.

Frank Curzio: He’s going to start a gambling site pretty soon. I know. You know what? When I see big lines like that, I mean, I think Ohio State’s going to… Ohio State is just prime. I mean, they’re great. They’re much better-

Daniel Creech: Let’s not get into that. You’re going to get my hopes up. I don’t want to do that.

Frank Curzio: Anyway, it’s good that they play each other early. Because if any of them lose, they could easily get to National Championship losing this early, so it’s not that bad. So, it’s better that… I think Notre Dame has a shitty schedule after this. Ohio State usually plays no one, because everyone-

Daniel Creech: Hey, hey.

Frank Curzio: Penn State is okay. Michigan, we’ll see. They got lucky last year. Michigan, we’ll see what happens. They finally won after a million years.

Daniel Creech: I don’t want to talk about that. Look at the time, Frank. We got to go. We can’t give any credit to that team up north.

Frank Curzio: Oh, we got to go. All right. So guys, thank you so much. That’s it for me. Any questions, comments, feel free to email frank@curzioresearch.com. We have an awesome interview tomorrow, which is a person that’s going to give you lots and lots of stock ideas, like he always does. Just haven’t had him on in a while. Very, very good friend. So, be sure to tune in tomorrow. It’s a really, really good interview. And I’ll see you guys then. Bye.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curzio 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.