Special Guest: Bilal Little, Nvidia Invests $5B into Intel, & Fed Rate Cut Reactions

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0:46Visit a Marshalls store near you or shop online at marshalls.com. Zena.com presents the Rich Habits Radar, a new Friday episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, where every Friday morning we're coming at you with the biggest headlines impacting you and your money. My name is Austin Hankwitz and I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croak. The three things sitting at the top of our Rich Habits radar this week include Nvidia investing$5 billion into Intel, China and the United States reaching a deal for the U.S. to take over operations of TikTok, and Jerome Powell announcing a 25 basis point rate cut on Wednesday.

1:25Now, be sure to stick around as we have a very, very special guest joining us from the New York Stock Exchange. A little interview here in the next, call it 10, 12 minutes. So stick around for that. Robert, let's dig into our first story. Yes, NVIDIA announced a$5 billion investment with Intel, sending Intel's stock up 30%. The two companies will now co-develop chips for PCs and data centers, combining Intel's processors with NVIDIA's graphics technology. NVIDIA will acquire Intel stock at$23.28 per share, giving Intel a significant financial boost as they face the continued challenges from competitors and rising costs.

2:04Now remember, the United States government also took a 10 % stake in Intel last month, and now their investment is up, drumroll, 55%, roughly$5 billion in a month. So hedge fund United States, I need to somehow get in on that one. Man, and here's why that matters for your money. NVIDIA now dominates AI and accelerator computing, while Intel has struggled to maintain manufacturing leadership and market share. By partnering, Intel gains access to NVIDIA's market-leading technology and a critical infusion of capital, giving it a chance to remain relevant in both PCs and data centers. Intel's CEO, Lip Boo Tan, noted that the partnership positions Intel to innovate across its portfolio while leveraging NVIDIA's technology.

2:52All I'm saying is that Robert called it. Robert was saying, he's like, listen, guys, if the United States is in on Intel, so am I. And 30 % after that one. So shout out, Robert. Now, up next, China and the United States reaching a deal on TikTok. So the United States and China have agreed in principle on a framework that would require ByteDance, which is TikTok's Chinese owner, to sell or otherwise relinquish control of TikTok's U.S. operations. The aim is to avoid a U.S. ban of TikTok. Now, TikTok's U.S. operations are on track to be controlled by Oracle, Silverlake, and Andreessen Horowitz, with the U.S.

3:33investor base kind of holding about 80 % of the company. The plan is to spin up a new U.S.-based TikTok with an American-led board, and yes, of course, one of those board seats is for the U.S. government. Yeah, and existing users, just so everyone understands, would shift to the new app built by TikTok engineers using algorithms licensed from ByteDance. Oracle will manage the user data from its Texas facilities, and the deal pushes the TikTok ban back to December 16th while U.S. and Chinese negotiators finalize the terms. So here's why it matters. TikTok's algorithm is arguably the crown jewel here, and the U.S.

4:12is insisting it stays in American hands. The deal also signals that Washington and Beijing can cut deals even on highly sensitive platforms without blowing up the markets. So Trump says he's reached a deal and will confirm it with Xi Jinping soon. Dance's revenue rose by 25 % in the first half of this year. They've got an internal valuation of$330 billion. So that's pretty wild. But for investors, this is a reminder that even regulatory drama can create massive upside if you find the right spots. Why does it matter? How does this come together? TikTok's here to stay. Seems like we're good to go.

4:47And as what Trump said in the beginning, he's going to have a stake in it. TikTok's going to benefit from the hundreds of millions of users, probably, yeah, hundreds of millions, I'm sure, users here in the United States. He gets a board seat, maybe some stock in the company. I'm sure someone's got stock in Oracle, which has been going crazy. I'm sure they're going to benefit from all this. So keep an eye on this one. Pretty interesting, especially how Oracle just seems to find their way to slide on in there. So, Robert, wrap us up with our last point here for the episode's top three. Yeah, the Fed cut rates signaling more cuts this year and next.

5:22The Federal Reserve just delivered its first rate cut in nine months, shaving a quarter point off their benchmark and flagged the possibility of two more rate cuts before years. And yes, for sure. Jerome mentioned recent softness in the labor market as outweighing stubborn inflation, now focusing on preserving employment rather than lowering inflation. So here's the deal. 11 out of the 12 voters backed this 25 basis point cut. And the new Fed governor, Stephen Myron, was the one that actually was one of the 12 that did not back it. They wanted a half a point cut, ended up, of course, going with 25 basis points.

6:02Jerome Powell sort of framed this decision as a careful balance, right? You got the risks of a cooling labor market now outweigh the inflation concerns. The path ahead definitely is not clear. The only thing that is clear to me is that I will, fingers crossed, hopefully be able to refinance my mortgage at a lower interest rate in the coming 6, 9, 12, 18 months, baby. Come on now. And here's why it matters for your money. Payroll growth has slowed with only 29 ,000 jobs added over the summer and unemployment is now at 4.3%. Fed is nudging rates down cautiously, keeping a close eye on jobs while letting inflation run a little hotter.

6:43an approach that is used to stabilize the economy without shocking the system. So the moral of the story, own assets. It's the only way to weather any storm. Well, beyond that, Robert, we were talking in our Tuesday live stream that takes place every Tuesday night for two hours in the Rich Habits Network. And we had a chart that we had shared that showed the performance of the S &P 500 over the following 12 months after the Fed cuts rates for the first time while the S &P is near all-time highs, not in a recession, and after they pause for like six months or something. I think the average return, it happened like four or five times in history, the average return is like 17%.

7:24So fingers crossed, the markets continue to trend higher up into the right. I think we've got the perfect storm. We've got this deregulation, the weaker dollar. We've got rate cuts. We've got tax cuts from the big, beautiful bill. We've got all these things happening. Own assets. Now is more important than ever to be a net buyer of assets. When we say that, we're talking the S &P 500, the NASDAQ, blue chip, single stocks, cryptocurrency, precious metals, real estate. It doesn't matter. Own an asset that will appreciate over time. You will thank yourself in three to five years from now. Yeah, don't listen to all the naysayers.

7:58As Austin always says, bears sound smart and bulls make money. And we always want to make sure you guys are understanding where the markets are going and you're in the markets as buyers. Now joining us as our first Friday episode guest is Bilal Little, Director of Exchange Traded Funds at the New York Stock Exchange and host of the ETF Central podcast. With nearly two decades in financial services, Bilal has helped raise more than$15 billion for leading asset managers through his work at BlackRock, Harbor Capital, and now the New York Stock Exchange, where he helps firms navigate the fast-evolving ETF in digital asset landscape.

8:38He's also the author of The Money Standard and a passionate advocate for financial empowerment, having taught nearly 10 ,000 young people the fundamentals of money. Beyond the markets, Bilal has served on several leadership boards, partnered with the Boys and Girls Club to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in support during the pandemic, and volunteered globally through Habitat for Humanity. He's been featured in outlets like Black Enterprise and Wealth Management Magazine and brings a perspective rooted in both professional excellence and service. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Rich Habits podcast, specifically our Friday episode, Rich Habits Radar.

9:17And also, Bilal just got an award, I think it was last week. I saw it, maybe it was this week, saw it on his Instagram. Talk about that, introduce yourself, give us the quick and dirty, Bilal. Guys, look, thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I got to tell you, look, I spent 20 years in this business and it's exciting to see what you guys have been building and for me to be a part of it. So just my background, so people get a better sense of who I am. I've spent the bulk of my career in distribution. So raising capital for asset managers through the advisor channel. So I would go and consult financial advisors for BlackRock, for Neuberger Berman, for Harbor Capital, and actually a digital asset manager as well.

9:51So I got a bit of a background there. And it's been really unique to see the evolution of the wealth management space, right? And my career somewhat always followed ETFs, which has been ironic. Back in 2015, I left Neuberger Berman and I actually joined BlackRock. And at the time, you remember, obviously they had acquired iShares and you had this sort of proliferation of the ETF space. So it's been really exciting. But throughout that time, I've always been a cheerful giver, which leads to your comment about the award. Not only is it biblical for me, but it's also rooted in just the fundamental belief that we have to be good humans.

10:26And I've always had an affinity for the advisor community, not only for the fact that I was working with them, but I think they actually do some very important work for families. Inheritance, wealth planning, tax planning, not only access to investments, but it's actually about giving back. So the award that I received was from the Association of African-American Advisors, also known as Quad A. It's the largest nonprofit group of advisors in the country. It was started by LeCount Davis. He is the first ever black CFP in the country. And look, there are different market segments for everything.

11:00And I think capitalism is naturally inclusive. So these advisors were servicing a portion of the community and they've been growing and they represent advisors across the spectrum. Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones, and the like. So there was about 800 people in the room and it was really exciting to receive the award. It was called the Spirit of Vision Leadership Award. So I'm really excited about that. Well-deserved, man. Congratulations on all you've accomplished. And we're honored to have you here as our first guest on these Rich Habits Radar episodes. So Robert, why don't you kick us off?

11:30Yeah, our first question, and I'm really excited about the episode, so thanks for joining, is what innovations or trends in the ETF space are you most excited about over the next two, three, five years? Because like you mentioned, there is such a proliferation leading into ETFs and the growth of ETFs. Austin and I love them. We believe everyone should have a bag of these ETFs, you know, to build their base and build their wealth. So walk us through what you're most excited about in the near future in this space. Yeah, look, I think people need to, one, just embrace the fact that ETFs are innovation.

12:04It's just technology. And when you think about technology, it moves in one direction. It is naturally about speed, efficiency, cost, and security. And the ETF wrapper is that, but the innovation allows for some really unique developments to take place. So since we've moved past, call it just indexing products into more defined outcome solutions, I think you're going to continue to see some growth, obviously, with crypto. There's obviously regulation coming down from Capitol Hill, which will continue to embrace that particular space. You're also seeing some really interesting developments when it comes to structured or defined outcome products.

12:40So I don't want to name names, but there was an auto-callable product that was listed not too long ago. They've raised over$200 million in the last probably two and a half months. But that particular product was purely going after$100 billion structured product space. And I think the more that we pay attention to outcome-based investment needs, investors are going to need solutions, not only with the silver wave of people retiring around income, but you're also going to have risk management tools that will be levered and pulled on. And then that's also different from an institution perspective versus a retail investor, right?

13:14When you think about it, institutions leverage ETFs, not only for trading capabilities, but possibly hedging. The retail, they're leveraging these for long-term investment solutions. So we want to make sure that we're mindful of what's being launched and how they're being launched and how they're actually being used. I think those are some of the things that I'm paying attention to. So definitely the innovation. The ETF wrapper itself is innovation, right? Because we've talked about on the show in the past, direct indexing. So it's like if you don't have VOO or QQQ, for example, and you want to have the S &P 500 and its incredible performance and the rebalancing, everything goes into it, you have to direct index it.

13:49And turns out that's really hard to do if you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars or someone doing that for you full time. So no, I really appreciate that perspective. And it's kind of like, makes you want to take a step back and say, wow, this is actually really great. It's really inclusive, right? I mean, anyone with$5,$10,$15 can go invest in American capitalism now through these ETFs. So, you know, kind of piggybacking on that question is like, what do you think are some of the biggest growth opportunities for ETFs right now? I think you mentioned automatic call something. I'd never heard of that before.

14:21So is it like, is it thematics? Is it automatic call stuff? Is it fixed income? Is it something else? Yeah. So let me touch on that, actually. It's really interesting, right? So it's called an auto-callable product. So that's a structured product, meaning structured usually by banks or institutions, but they're leveraging the ETF wrapper as an access point, and they've been able to hedge out some of the time component of risk. So if the bonds were, or if the products inside of the ETF had a time component where they could be called, that portion has actually been hedged out, right? So that's a very important sort of selling point for investors that say, well, I like that product, but can it be made more efficiently?

15:00And the ETF wrapper allows this particular money manager to do so. But you asked an important question. So just thinking about innovation, here's the other piece that I did mention. I think you're actually going to also see more personality or, how should I say, personality and high profile investors launch more products. So everyone knows about Tom Lee, right? And Fundstrat and the success that they've had with the launch of his product. But then you had Dan Ives come to market as well, right? And that product is, you know, north of$700 million in less than six months. Bill Ackman recently launched here at the New York Stock Exchange with Ackie, or someone's leveraging that particular sort of title.

15:38When you think about that, there's brand, there's cachet, and there's a little bit of quote unquote splash from a marketing perspective. I think you continue to see those types of products launch in the market and actually receive some success. And then I think the biggest area that's going to be disrupted will continue to be fixed income. Fixed income market is twice the size of the equity market, but more importantly, need for innovation to continue to happen in that space when it comes to precision. Portfolio managers may want to laser in or focus in on a specific area within credit. The ETF wrapper is allowing access and it's providing a unique leverage point to receive the exposure that you want from a portfolio construction perspective.

16:18That will be the biggest splash, I think, over the next couple of years. That's interesting. I appreciate you sharing that perspective. I guess the only feedback I have is if you're dressing like Daniel Ives, you deserve to have a BTF. I don't know if you guys ever see this guy on CNBC, but he's got some cool fashion sense. I'll say that. I want to unpack that a little bit further before I ask my next question. And that is, do you see in the ETF space, because I read something the other day that said over 100 new ETFs in the crypto space would be approved in the next 12 to 18 months, which that seems like a massive number to me.

16:54So do you see that as being one of the bigger sectors of this growth in ETFs right now in the next two, three, four years? Or where are you at on that? Yeah, no, absolutely. One, you have accommodative administration to support that. Let's be very clear. There's an innovation run and push that the America needs to win. And I think once you get the administration behind you, and you've probably seen or read about some of this stuff, it's called generic standards. They basically level set what the standards will be to actually launch and list and market, shorten in the time span of 240 plus days to 75.

17:30and there is already north of, I don't know, 90 products already been filed. So getting some continued momentum behind that, you'll see that. That's not, that's nothing to be surprised about. That's going to happen. Now, who and what types of strategies will win? I think, look, that's to be seen, right? You have the XRP army on one end and you have Bitcoin army on the other end, and then you have the Solana folks on one end. I think there's only so much money to go around, but you will see people, not only retail, but institutions lean in to these particular areas. One, because again, from an institution perspective, the ETF will provide liquidity.

18:07So they are much more tactical in the way that they manage capital versus on the retail side, it's much more buy and hold. And if it's not buy and hold, they probably do not understand all the mechanics of some of the products that they're invested in anyway. So I think that's to still be seen. And then you also have, just going back to your question, Robert, about thematics, like you're also having a rollback of like ESG based products, right? Just from a branding perspective. So you're seeing closures there and you're actually seeing less marketing behind those types of products. At the end of the day, again, I think this is a capitalistic view.

18:42If you're naturally investing in your business, it will have an ESG tilt anyway. There's a sustainability component of all investments that any prudent money manager or a business person would actually need to think about. Like, let's just be honest here, nobody wants to be, what is it called, blockbuster. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy because you think about the markets and how far behind Wall Street was in crypto, you know, and now they're catching up and it's all hands on deck. And people say to me every day and ask me every day, is it too late for me to invest in crypto? And even though I've been an investor in crypto for over 13 years, I still feel like it's really early and the growth of all of these ETFs I feel like it's just a huge arms race where everyone's pivoting to get in the game of the ETFs in the crypto space because it is such a big market but I agree with you there's only so much money to go around and so I think that's an important thing for all of our listeners to understand because everyone's not going to win in this party and in this game and in this race and I think that's really good that you touched on that.

19:49So my next question and our last question today is, if someone is listening and want to build rich habits with ETFs, what's one of your simple principles or best practices that you would recommend that they follow? And I want to see how it differs from what Austin and I say, because you do this every single day and you're one of the leaders in the markets in this. And I just really want to understand it from your perspective. I think this principle is fundamental to who I am. I think investors need to go slow before they go fast. Keep it really simple. You need blistering clarity and confidence and conviction when you're going to make an investment decision.

20:27That does not mean you need to know everything. That means, you know, go slow at understanding concepts to understand the risk that's associated with said investment. Just to give you an example, there are over 4 ,500, you know, ETF products in the market today. The vast majority of people are very familiar with the index products of SPY, IVV, VOO, right? Now, when we start talking about this arc of innovation and where products have launched and where are they going, not only just are you thinking about cost, you're talking about exposures. And to give you a concept that I think is very important on the ETF side, portfolio construction is the missing component from all of the conversations.

21:06What do I mean by portfolio construction. Diversification matters. And how do I source the risk that I want in my portfolio? What zigs when something else zags? Do I actually have proper diversification? Am I taking on the right amount of risk? These are big level conversations that you need to go slow to consume. So when I say go slow to go fast, yes, you can just jump in the market with a splash with SPY or IVV or whatever. But I think it makes more sense when you say, what are my goals? What am I trying to achieve? What's the outcome? If the goal is 10 years, then I need to think about solutions that can get me to that 10-year mark.

21:40So if you humor me for one second, I think this is a very important point. Right now, the Fed lowers rates. There are certain parts of the market that actually do better when the Fed lowers rates. I kind of shared this earlier with some friends that small cap equities is a great example of that. No one's excited about small cap equities. From a value perspective, they've been undervalued for a very long period of time. They're probably significantly underweight in most people's portfolios. There are some of the most innovative names from healthcare, financials, tech in those spaces, but everyone's focused on the big tech names.

22:11And I get it. That's the sexy story of the month. But if I'm looking at strong diversification, and I looked over the last three months because the Fed has already been telegraphing that rates would be lowered here, you actually see small caps outperform the S &P 500 and tech. No one's excited about that. It's income. It's mega tech. I understand. But there are parts of diversification that actually matter when it comes to building a portfolio. So go slow to go fast and understand how market cycles work. I really appreciate you sharing that because it is the underpinning of everything we talk about on the show, right?

22:44Making sure people understand not just, you know, what's happening around them and how to sort of react to that if it is to your point with some small caps, like, you know, being diversified. But to not just like be this consumer who, you know, drifts through life and it's just life happens to them. Like, we want our listeners to happen to life. We want our listeners to be investors, not just consumers. understand everything happening around you. And, you know, I really take pride in being able to give as many actionable insights as we possibly can to all of our listeners. And it's funny you mentioned the small cap stuff because just on Tuesday night, this is coming up Friday morning, but people inside of our rich habits network, which seven day free trial, go check that out.

23:26I pretty much spent an hour explaining exactly what you just said and why I think the Russell 2000 is headed higher. And I've got a whole small cap portfolio right now in public.com dedicated that's up like 12 % in the last four days. It's wild, but it's just like, you got to know, man. And it's cool. And here's the best part about it. The best part is something Robert and I are really excited about is we get to unlock access to the experts. You are an expert, right? You are someone who is in the trenches every single day at the New York Stock Exchange, understanding ETFs, understanding what's happening behind the scenes, everything as it relates to this entire financial market.

24:00We get to unlock that access now to hundreds of thousands of people that are going to tune into this episode. So Bilal, I'm so excited you joined us. Please come back. We'll definitely, definitely have you back. And be sure to tune into the ETF Central podcast. Go to ETFcentral.com. Bilal is the head honcho over there and do everything you can to support what Bilal and the New York Stock Exchange are up to. And my final takeaway, and thank you for joining us, Bilal, is you just solidified and reiterated everything we say on a daily basis to everyone. Because one of our big messages is, there's always ways to make money if you know where to look in the picks and shovels, the small caps, and all of these kind of emerging sectors.

24:43And so I love hearing someone as astute as you in this business saying the same things. And it really makes me feel good about our message for our audience. So thank you so much for joining today. Thank you so much for having me. If I can just leave you with something, I love what you guys are doing as far as access to the community. that's really important information and access, right? I've consulted advisors for 20 years. I've literally helped them build portfolios for the wealthiest families. So the fact that you guys are having these conversations on an ongoing basis, it means a lot. So thank you for the work that you guys are doing.