Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Brewing U.S. Relief

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Trump drops 40% tariffs on Brazilian beef, coffee amid rising food prices. (00:22) Joby Aviation (JOBY) accuses rival Archer Aviation (ACHR) of corporate espionage. (01:26) PepsiCo (PEP) preps for its prebiotic drink launch. (02:16)

This is an abridged transcript.

President Trump has signed an order to lift 40% tariffs on certain agricultural products from Brazil, including coffee, beef, fruits and cocoa expanding efforts to bring down rising food prices in the U.S.

Trump said the order was due to progress in negotiations with Brazil and various officials recommending the move.

The order applies to Brazilian imports to the U.S. on or after Nov. 13, and may require refunds of duties already collected.

The move follows a rollback of tariffs on several agricultural products to help ease high grocery prices for American consumers.

Brazil has faced 50% tariffs for months. Trump raised them beyond his 10% across-the-board tariffs to penalize Brazil for prosecuting his ally Jair Bolsonaro, the country’s former president.

To note, Brazil is the world’s leading coffee exporter and a third of the coffee beans in the U.S. comes from the Latin American country. It is also the world’s top beef exporter and a key beef supplier for burgers.

Joby Aviation (JOBY) has filed a lawsuit against rival Archer Aviation (ACHR) in a California Superior Court in Santa Cruz, alleging that confidential information taken by a former employee who went to work for Archer (ACHR) was used to disrupt Joby’s exclusive client partnership.

According to court documents, Joby’s (JOBY) then U.S. state and local policy head, George Kivork, had access to confidential and proprietary information regarding Joby’s strategic partnerships, technical information, and sensitive information that would be valuable to a competitor.

Two days prior to announcing his resignation, Joby (JOBY) alleges Kivork exfiltrated a cache of “highly valuable Joby files.” Less than three weeks later, Joby (JOBY) was notified by a strategic partner that they were approached by Archer (ACHR) with detailed knowledge about the confidential terms of that partner’s agreement with Joby (JOBY).

“This is corporate espionage, planned and premeditated,” Joby states in its lawsuit.

In a statement to CNBC, Archer’s (ACHR) chief legal officer called Joby’s (JOBY) allegations “without merit,” and the complaint “does not identify a single specific trade secret, let alone any evidence of misappropriation.”

A hearing is scheduled for March 20, 2026.

PepsiCo (PEP) is unveiling its latest innovation in the soda category next week. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola will launch initially as an online exclusive for Black Friday before rolling out more broadly in 2026.

The introduction of Pepsi Prebiotic Cola comes on the heels of PepsiCo’s major $1.95 billion acquisition of Poppi, an independent prebiotic soda company.

Pepsi Prebiotic Cola will be offered in Original and Cherry Vanilla. Each 12-ounce can contains 3 grams of prebiotic fiber to support gut health, with only 5 grams of cane sugar and 30 calories per can. The beverage line will have no artificial sweeteners. The move reflects PepsiCo’s (PEP) broad strategy to market a lower-sugar, clean-label alternative in response to evolving wellness trends. Company officials called it the boldest evolution in cola in more than two decades.

What’s Trending on Seeking Alpha

Wall Street’s slide likely driven by signals in crypto – Fundstrat’s Lee, IBKR’s Sosnick

Nvidia-Foxconn’s Taiwan supercomputing center to be ready by H1 2026

Strategy may face billions in outflows if excluded from MSCI indices – JPMorgan

Catalyst watch:

• Universal Pictures’ (CMCSA) Wicked: For Good will open in U.S. theaters. The film has generated strong advance ticket sales, with Fandango calling it the biggest pre-seller for a PG film in their history.

Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in mixed territory. Crude oil is down 2.6% at $57/barrel. Bitcoin is down 4.7% at $82,000. Gold is down 1% at $4,033.

The FTSE 100 is down 0.5% and the DAX is down 1.1%.

The biggest movers for the day premarket: The Gap (GAP) +6% – Shares jumped after beating Q3 expectations, with comparable sales rising for the seventh straight quarter and hitting their highest level since January 2018, outperforming estimates by nearly 2 pts.

On today’s economic calendar:

• 7:30 am New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams gives keynote before the Annual Conference of the Central Bank of Chile.

• 9:00 am Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Lorie Logan participates in a moderated panel before the”SNB and its Watchers 2025″ event.

• 9:00 am Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Susan Collins is scheduled to deliver opening remarks and appear in a televised interview at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

And today is news quiz day. I’ll leave a link in the show notes section.