Ukraine officials push back against Musk tweets, EU votes on common charging port
Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany pushing back against Elon Musk’s Twitter poll, the EU voting in favor of USB-C being the common charging port, and UBS upgrading pizza chain Domino’s from Neutral to Buy.
Video Transcript
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BRAD SMITH: Welcome back, everyone. It's time for Cut for Time, three stories, one minute each. We start with this today. Elon Musk causing a stir on Twitter again. This time when it comes to Ukraine. Musk tweeting out this Twitter poll, what he claims is the most likely outcome of Russia's invasion. The tweets brought a string of criticism, including that of Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany, who did not mince words.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, and Zelenskyy as well tweeted--
BRAD SMITH: Yes.
JULIE HYMAN: --tweeted directly at Musk--
BRAD SMITH: Yeah.
JULIE HYMAN: --pushing back against this.
BRAD SMITH: I mean, just why? Why the poll? Why that's necessary from Elon Musk? I mean, you've got so many other things to be able to focus on. What's-- what does this actually kind of move forward?
BRIAN SOZZI: Well, tweets like that, I would say, really terrify you if he does end up owning Twitter. Wow. The access and the platform he would have to crank things like this up to the other level would be just immense.
JULIE HYMAN: It's kind of difficult to imagine it cranking up anymore--
BRIAN SOZZI: And he would own it. Just like it-- just--
JULIE HYMAN: --what it is, though, right? I don't-- I don't know where that would go. And it's interesting, because he sort of defended himself saying, well, I've done a lot for Ukraine. I provided Starlink, you know, to connect Ukraine to the outside world. And--
BRIAN SOZZI: Just leave it there.
JULIE HYMAN: --Garry Kasparov, the former Chess champion or I guess still Chess champion, pushed back against that as well.
BRIAN SOZZI: All right, let's stay on tech here-- or switch gears to tech. The EU voted overwhelmingly in favor of enforcing USB-C as a common charging port today. This would impact a wide range of consumer electronic devices, including the iPhone and AirPods. Many Apple devices currently use the lightning cable to charge. This ruling would be fully in effect by the end of 2024. Does this mean we have to go out and buy new cables? Do we get--
JULIE HYMAN: Thank you. Thank you, EU.
BRIAN SOZZI: Do we get free cables?
JULIE HYMAN: Like, but how--
BRIAN SOZZI: Do they send them to us? How does this work?
JULIE HYMAN: No.
BRIAN SOZZI: How's this going to work?
JULIE HYMAN: Probably not. But how dumb is it that all the cables are different?
BRIAN SOZZI: It's all awful.
JULIE HYMAN: Come on. Come on.
BRIAN SOZZI: I got a new iPhone recently. And it doesn't come with a brick anymore to plug the thing in. I-- where's my brick? I want my brick. I don't want to pay $30 for a brick. Give me a brick.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, either you get the brick or you have to-- everybody has to redo all of their plugs. You know we're doing a renovation in our house. Many of our plugs now allow you to just plug-in that USB.
BRAD SMITH: Sure.
JULIE HYMAN: But now, are we going to have to redo-- is that the right kind? I don't even know if-- which kind is the right kind?
BRIAN SOZZI: You better rip out those plugs.
BRAD SMITH: It's not because--
BRIAN SOZZI: You got to go buy [INAUDIBLE], Julie.
BRAD SMITH: --you have to now have the-- well, not the lightning one. You have to have the USB-C one then because that's what some of the new Apple blocks on the MacBooks and all of the other devices have.
BRIAN SOZZI: Well, just get rid of everything so we have to plug anything in. No more phones. No more phones.
JULIE HYMAN: Why are we charge--
BRIAN SOZZI: No more iPads. Nothing. Just get rid of everything.
BRAD SMITH: Well, it should be wireless charging.
JULIE HYMAN: Who are you? What?
BRIAN SOZZI: Just go totally off the grid.
JULIE HYMAN: OK. Off the grid and get some pizza. Domino's Pizza is getting a boost after UBS upgraded the stock to buy, saying the concern over the demand slowdown is overblown. The note goes on to say the pizza chain looks more attractive than its competitors and consumers will still buy pizza even in an uncertain spending environment. And by the way, that spending environment is going to get spendier, because the note also says, Domino is gonna be raising prices.
BRAD SMITH: That's my favorite technical term, spendier. I think for the pizza companies that we have seen-- not just in kind of how they've weathered the recession in the past, because if there is a purchase that consumers will continue to lean back into, even if they're looking for some type of value, yeah, it's the pizza.
It's the digital integration, too, that when you sign up for some type of loyalty membership or rewards membership with pizza, you can say, oh, yeah, I'm gonna sign up if they're gonna give me some free wings with that pizza, too. That's meals for two days right there.
BRIAN SOZZI: I'm a-- I'm a Pizza Hut and Papa John's guy. I like the buttery crust. Domino's does not put enough butter on their crust.
BRAD SMITH: I thought you were gonna say garlic sauce.
BRIAN SOZZI: They need to put more butter on the crust, Domino's. They need to step it up.
JULIE HYMAN: Butter on the crust?
BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, I think they just paint it with a brush.
JULIE HYMAN: I didn't even know that was the thing.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yes, it's a thing.
BRAD SMITH: Oh, yeah. Yeah, got to.
BRIAN SOZZI: Oh, it's a thing. And Domino's does not have it.
JULIE HYMAN: I don't know, I--
BRIAN SOZZI: I know you go to the local pizza spot. They don't put butter--
JULIE HYMAN: Yes.
BRIAN SOZZI: --on the crust. They don't--
JULIE HYMAN: Trattoria.
BRIAN SOZZI: Yes.
BRAD SMITH: First major chain to come out with the grandma's pizza, they will have my dollars.
BRIAN SOZZI: [LAUGHS]
