Can the Magnificent Seven Earnings Hold the Market Up?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is InvestTalk from KPP Financial, helping investors make sense of the markets one day at a time. Here's your host, Luke Guerrero.

**Luke Guerrero** (0:16)
Good afternoon, fellow investors, and welcome to the Tuesday, July 21st, 2026 edition of InvestTalk.
I'm your host, Luke Guerrero, and I'll be with you over the next hour as we seek to educate you about the stories that matter, give you actionable items to improve your portfolios, and most importantly, answer your finance and investment questions. To that end, before we talk about today's market performance and run down those show topics, let's tackle this caller question now.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:49)
Hello, InvestTalk. My name is Brian.

**Luke Guerrero** (0:52)
I'm calling from Ohio.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:53)
I was wondering if you could go over the stock question. Western Union, WU.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:59)
I always like to listen to the program. Thanks.

**Luke Guerrero** (1:03)
Western Union is a global money transfer giant. They've been around for really quite some time at this point doing their thing. They first IPO back in 2006, but they've certainly been around a bit longer than that.
And looking at the past six years of performance, it is not great. They have been negative every year. Their relative return at some points has been as high as 45 in terms of underperforming the index, sometimes as high as 50 in underperforming their industry. Their revenue is falling on an annualized basis going back to the past five years. It's projected to grow a little bit this year from 4 billion to 4.18 billion. And that's the first time they've seen growth, at least in the past six years. Their net income is down 48% year over year in Q1. Revenue was flat year over year on a gap basis.
I'm not really seeing much that I like here. Q1 EPS miss by differences in vendor incentives. They have FX losses that are mounting.
It is a company that tends to benefit from seasonal travel money transfers. And that's been weak. I think the only positive I'm seeing is that they affirmed guidance in their most recent earnings which was in mid-April. But I'm not really seeing much I like. I can guess you're interested in it because the dividend is 11% right now.
This is another example of not choosing to invest in a company because of its dividend because it's been at least 6.8% going back to 2022 But on a real return basis, that's not great if you're losing 20-30% a year. So, I mean, it's a melting ice cube in a lot of ways. There isn't really any clear path towards strong performance. I mean, there is an acquisition that's closing in Q2 that might help them out with Intermex. But I'm not seeing anything structural that is likely to push this thing in a direction that makes me want to invest in it, even though it's now trading nearly as low as it has over the past 5 years. So, Western Union, hard to pass. Thanks for the call. We had a great show for you yesterday. We talked all about India and how they have been affected in multiple ways by an oil shock, by issues with their currency, the rupee and its weakness. And in spite of that, still believe they have a pretty strong position in the US trade deals. We talked about what that meant for emerging markets and what it meant for your emerging market investments within your own portfolios. We also answered a listener question on a little known company called NVIDIA, Tigger NVDA. If you happen to miss it, I encourage you to check it out. And remember, the best way to never miss an episode of InvestTalk is to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. All right, onto today, where our main focus point is about whether or not MAG7 earnings are going to continue to hold the market up because we have major earnings season kicking off for these MegaCap Tech names.
And this obscure volatility measure is pointing to a potential breakout, but the bar, it's pretty high. And geopolitical headwinds are creating an unusually uncertain backdrop. So how these earnings come in will likely determine whether the broader market can hold its current levels or whether we start to see a bit of a breakdown. Also got a couple more stories, including one on the Permian Basin and how gas pools in the Permian Basin, natural gas is, can't even give it away right now. Let's touch on that, but to also touch on Trump imposing an additional 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods. In true to time at the end of the show, we'll touch on China and how state-owned funds have been buying a lot of shares in order to float their market. We also have some voice bank calls ready to play, including one on M-Core Group, ticker EME, and another on Meta Platforms, ticker META. There's also some questions that came in from the comment section of the InvestTalk YouTube channel, and hopefully we'll hear from some of you live throughout the show. We're headed into a quick break. Please remember, you can call anytime and leave your questions on the InvestTalk voice bank. If you're listening via our live stream or on AM 1220 in the Bay Area, I encourage you to pick up the phone and dial 888-99-CHART. When we come back, we'll talk about today's market activity.