New Constructs' Trainer: Meta, Disney aare among big names headed for trouble

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs has been warning about off-balance sheet debt concerns — particularly among popular artificial-intelligence stocks — for months, but he returns to the subject today by putting "companies with the most hidden debt expenses" in the Danger Zone. While he says they are a lot of big names with messy balance sheets, he identifies four stocks by name, Meta Platforms, Oracle, Disney and Lockheed Martin as companies where adjusting earnings to reflect hidden expenses would dramatically drop profit numbers. Trainer noted that the majority of the S&P 500 companies do not have this kind of hidden-debt expense, but the ones that do indulge go for it heavily, to where profits could easily be 10 percent or more less than Wall Street thinks they are by sticking with ordinary accounting disclosures.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital discusses the good and bad for investors in having a few companies driving Wall Street to record highs while the majority of stocks are struggling, how it's possible to be building an A.I. bubble in the middle of a bull market, and how investors should deal with the duality of those conditions, and more.

Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor, goes Off The News with Chuck, discussing a decision the Trump Administration made last week to end its legal fight that would have overhauled a popular student-loan forgiveness program. Judges had previously ruled in favor of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which under proposed rules changes could have become a weaponized tool for political retribution. Farrington notes that while the decision keeps the plan in place, it does not end the logjam on proposed student-loan rules changes, nor does it clear the way for a lot of graduates to get out from under their debts.