Union Pacific ($UNP) podcast mentions

1. Union Pacific got a recommendation today. So I don't know, but I see at least the rails don't have it as bad as the truckers. Look, this is all supply chain. The supply chain numbers are going to bring down if we were to have a lot of these quarters report right now. They would be very unsure about what they have. But again, let's, let's put this in context. This can reverse. Yes, it's going the wrong way. And the fact, Carla, it's going the wrong way makes us feel that we have to have multiple rate hikes. It's not that we just feel like, you know what, things are out of control everywhere. It's things are out of control at the supermarket. And I got to tell you, there's just a lot of people I talk with, a lot of political people out here, and I'm not political. Just saying this is what the worst possible situation for the president. Now, when I say not political, I'm not meeting the GOP young, you know, the Lincoln Federation here. But I do feel that people are thinking that you're in California, really starting to hurt. I'm in California.

   Jim Cramer · Squawk on the Street · Squawk on the Street 9/16/26 · 2026-09-16

2. I would push back a little bit, and that is a lot of people are actually looking at the debt markets because for the first time they feel like they're being rewarded for the risk they're taking. And that is you are getting— you are getting not, not serious money, but if you can buy a corporate bond that looks very healthy, including, you know, and get a 6, 7, 8% return, you know, that's not bad. And keep in mind, the debt. So it's almost like my investment strategy right now is not to get rich, it's to not get poor. The way you don't get rich, you know, you not get rich but you don't get poor, is with bonds. Because bonds, typically credit has real teeth. They're not as volatile typically. And with a company like Apple, unless shit gets really real at Apple, like unimaginably real, it's hard to imagine they would, not have the assets and the cash flow to pay the interest on their bonds, right? So I do think, and by the way, I have never been a big debt investor. I don't understand it. I've never been interested in it. I've always deluded myself into thinking I can outperform what feel like fairly paltry returns. But I do think still a mixed portfolio of stocks and bonds makes sense. Just going back to the markets, we said that there's always a transfer of wealth and winners and losers. Some of the winners, with $100+ oil. Shell's up 27%, ExxonMobil 34%, Chevron 37%. Norway's Equinor is up 84%. They supply 30% of all the natural gas consumed in the EU. Home sellers, okay, home prices, as we talked about, up 2% nationally, up 77% in Odessa, Texas. And then railroads, which are much more efficient from an energy standpoint. Canadian Pacific, Kansas City plus 21%, Union Pacific 23%, CSX up 34%. So a transfer of wealth from consumers who have to pay higher prices at the grocery store and at the pump.

   Scott Galloway · Prof G Markets · The Rate Hikes Are Coming · 2026-09-14

3. I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that railroad stocks tend to be bad investments. Actually, they're some of the best businesses in the world. They have natural monopolies on a very efficient way to move goods through different nodes in their network. Yes, there are alternatives of shipping via truck or plane, but those tend to be very inefficient, especially when you're moving large quantities of, of products to specific locations, especially locations where you know, there's, there's a large population. And if you go look at the profitability of some of these names, I'm just looking at like Union Pacific, one of the largest out there. The return on equity right now is 41%. And if I zoom out historically, it's basically— I'm going back to a chart all the way to 1998 and through the early 2010s, the return on equity is around 10-11%, but it's been steadily rising. And over the past decade or so, it's averaged 30%, 40%. Now we own a separate rail company than UNP, but it's still very profitable. These are consistent businesses. Yeah, they tend to be cyclical, but once again, they operate an efficient service. Yes, not as flexible as some of the other ones, but for the bulk of the move from, say, the ports to the middle of the country. There's nothing more efficient. Once again, most of them have very strong monopolies on different routes. So I don't know where you're getting the idea that railroad stocks are bad businesses. No, they're actually some of the most incredible businesses out there. They're boring. Sure, they are boring. I get that. Not exciting. It's railroads. It's old school. But the trailing returns are incredible. I mean, if you look at For UMP, 15-year total return, 13% annualized. That's very good. Go look at, let's see, the name that we own is also a domestic railroad company. Their 10-year annualized return, 19%. So yes, everybody should be, should have railroad stocks on their watch list. Now is the time to buy it? It's another question. You know, a lot of them have good momentum now, Part of this is higher oil costs. It makes their service even more efficient or more cost-effective, shall we say, because shipping via plane or truck suddenly just got a lot more expensive.

   Justin Klein · InvestTalk · Best of Caller Questions · 2026-09-09

4. Right. Well, I mean, like, the idea was you can't just suddenly say, look, everything that you heard, you did wrong. I mean, I'm waiting for Union Pacific to take a lot of heat. They have planes, you know, they have trains in Mexico that really matter. And maybe they put a tariff on Union Pacific. I don't know. It's very hard to figure out who's done wrong. It's very hard.

   Jim Cramer · Squawk on the Street · 9am Hour: OpenAI Urges Caution, Qualcomm & Amazon Partnership, Novartis’ Drug Trial Setbacks 9/8/26 · 2026-09-08

5. That's exactly right. Quick update on what is it, CSX and Union Pacific, the merger to create the Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern. Okay. So where are we on that?

   Paul Sweeney · Bloomberg Intelligence · Chevron to Invest $7 Billion to Double Its Venezuelan Output · 2026-09-02