Wall Street Lunch: JPMorgan To Take Over Apple Card From Goldman Sachs (undefined:JPM)

Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

JPMorgan Chase acquiring the Apple Card business from Goldman Sachs. (0:15) Costco rallying ahead of tariffs decision. (1:19) BlackRock is not Blackstone. (1:46)

This is an abridged transcript of the podcast:

Our top story so far, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has struck a deal to acquire the Apple (AAPL) credit card program from Goldman Sachs (GS), further cementing Chase’s already dominant position in consumer credit.

JPMorgan will become the new issuer of the Apple Card, one of the largest co-branded card programs with roughly $20B in balances. Apple said key features, including 3% cash back on select purchases and the high-yield savings account tied to the card, will remain in place until the deal closes in about two years.

The Apple Card, with no number on the front and the customer’s name etched in metal, was designed as a bridge between physical plastic and Apple Pay, tightly integrated with the iPhone.

The shift reinforces JPMorgan’s dominance in cards: it was the top U.S. issuer in 2024, with more than $1.344T in purchase volume, according to The Nilson Report.

Goldman Sachs expects the deal to add about $0.46 per share to its Q4 2025 earnings.

Among active stocks, flyExclusive (FLYX) has more than doubled after the company signed an authorized dealership agreement with Starlink (STRLK) to become a certified dealer and installer for its high-speed, low-latency aviation connectivity system.

Costco Wholesale (COST) is rallying after a solid December sales report. Evercore analyst Greg Melich also reminded investors that a favorable resolution on tariffs could come as soon as Friday, when a Supreme Court ruling is expected.

And Snowflake (SNOW) is higher after Argus Research upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold with a $300 price target, with analyst Joseph Bonner saying the cloud-native data platform has become critical infrastructure for enterprises building generative and agentic AI applications.

In other news of note, it’s an echo of Bill Pullman and Jeff Daniels – everyone’s talking about the wrong guy.

BlackRock (BLK) is among today’s top search terms for business news. But that should be Blackstone (BX).

President Donald Trump said he would move to restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Social media quickly targeted BlackRock, but there’s a hitch: BlackRock does not purchase or own single-family rental homes.

Blackstone (BX) is the firm most closely associated with large-scale single-family rental ownership. After the financial crisis, Blackstone was an early and aggressive buyer of distressed U.S. homes, helping to institutionalize the single-family rental market. Its former portfolio company, Invitation Homes, went on to become the largest publicly traded single-family rental landlord.

And in the Wall Street Research Corner, BofA notes that lower-quality stocks have historically outperformed high-quality stocks in a January “dash for trash.”

Quality names tend to have consistent earnings growth, strong cash flow, high profitability, stable demand, strong brands, and solid management. But BofA points out that since 1987, the lowest-quality stocks (C & D by S&P Quality ranks) have outperformed the highest-quality (A+) nearly 80% of the time in January. And funds are heading into this January with elevated quality exposure.

The team screened for low-quality stocks that long-only funds are underweight but that are Buy-rated by BofA analysts.

Among the names: Amcor (AMCR), Camden Property Trust (CPT), Healthpeak Properties (DOC), Devon Energy (DVN) and Hasbro (HAS).

Editor’s Note: This article covers one or more microcap stocks. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.