The Howard Lindzon Show: Software Stocks Crash as Margins In Question from The AI Boom...

Good morning…

I am back with another episode of The Howard Lindzon Show with Michelle Steele. We cover a lot of ground as AI panic spreads from software stocks to financial stocks.

We start by discussing my software thesis - “this bear market is AI Independence Day (freeing software shareholders of their fantastic gains - sarcasm heavy)”. AI is coming for it’s own - the software engineers and the SAAS companies they built.

Then we hit the Hindenburg Omen (five of them just this month!), what it actually signals when highs and lows spike at the same time, and why “the contrarian software dip-buy” might be too consensus. I prefer at this point to select a few stocks than buy the software ETF.

My biggest takeaway: the agent era is already here. Kids don’t want/needto surf the web. They want to ask a chatbot for the answer, the flight, the stock, their mood, everything. Google went from being left for dead to AI first search lickety split with Gemini and they are not looking back.

We close with a brutal dose of reality (for Canada): USA vs Canada hockey, three-on-three overtime, and the kind of sports trauma that builds character.

You can see all the topics below and skip around however you like…

JUMP TO THE GOOD STUFF:

• (0:05) - Claude parenting + father-in-law’s bank account

• (0:51) - “AI Independence Day” bear market tweet explained

• (1:26) - Software margins, dilution, and AI coming for engineering “Kobe beef”

• (2:37) - Taxes, private equity leverage, and the software unwind

• (3:26) - Tech forward P/E at parity with staples: regime change or chart crime?

• (5:09) - Credit card stocks, the Citrini chatter, and “is the consumer tapping out?”

• (6:44) - Visa($V ( ▲ 1.88% ) )/Mastercard ($MA ( ▲ 2.29% ) )/Amex ($AXP ( ▲ 2.06% ) ) take rates, stablecoins, and 24/7 money movement

• (8:09) - Why energy ($XLE ( ▼ 0.42% ) ) is the shelter trade in this market

• (10:40) - South Korea as the “country of compute” + $EWY ( ▲ 3.0% ) and flash memory mania

• (13:47) - Hindenburg Omen explained: 52-week highs and lows at once

• (14:48) - What the omen really means: markets acting weird, not “guaranteed crash”

• (17:12) - Be careful calling the bottom in software: consensus contrarian risk

• (20:05) - AI usage chart: toys vs real workflows—and why the “right people” matter

• (23:42) - Kids skip search: the chatbot-first internet and what it means for brands

• (26:13) - Google AI answers vs blue links: there’s no going back

• (28:16) - Stop debating “if”—start building for the agent era

• (29:00) - Canada vs USA hockey: trauma, three-on-three, and Olympic revenge talk