Last Call | Breaking Down the Post Election Decline

Brent Kochuba, Ben Hunt, Aahan Menon and Eric Pachman join Matt Zeigler and Jack Forehand on November’s Last Call to make sense of the post-election selloff and the pressures facing businesses and households.

Brent Kochuba explains why the weakest AI cloud stocks caught his eye even while the Nasdaq was rallying. Ben Hunt argues the midterms changed what investors could take for granted about presidential power, with governors gaining a bigger say in where data centers get built.

Aahan Menon traces how a decline in AI shares could reach the dinner table as households that grew wealthier on paper rethink their spending. Eric Pachman follows a different cost all the way to the grocery aisle. When diesel gets more expensive, a grocer has to decide how much of the freight bill to absorb and how much to pass on to shoppers.

Topics covered:

- Why Brent Kochuba watched the weakest AI cloud stocks for confirmation of the rally

- How negative dealer gamma can amplify selling and why November options expiration matters

- What Ben Hunt means by an election making the limits of presidential power “common knowledge”

- Why governors, electricity bills and local jobs matter to the next data center permit

- Why Aahan Menon sees little immediate change in federal spending after the midterms

- How stock gains support consumer spending and data center investment feeds corporate profits

- How Eric Pachman uses the Producer Price Index to see how many industries face unusual cost increases

- Who borrowed oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and what it will take to return those barrels

Guest research and links:

Brent Kochuba | SpotGamma

https://spotgamma.com/

SpotGamma on X

https://x.com/spotgamma

Ben Hunt | Perscient

https://www.perscient.com/

Epsilon Theory on X

https://x.com/EpsilonTheory

Aahan Menon | Prometheus Research

https://www.prometheus-macro.com/

Aahan Menon on X

https://x.com/AahanPrometheus

Eric Pachman | Data 4 The People

https://www.data4thepeople.com/

How the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Works in 2026

https://www.data4thepeople.com/p/spr-exchange

Chapters:

00:00 A post-election rally gives way to a Nasdaq selloff

05:06 Brent Kochuba on unwinding election hedges

12:05 The AI cloud stocks that missed the bounce

16:38 Negative gamma and what could break the selling cycle

26:28 Ben Hunt on what the election made common knowledge

37:31 Aahan Menon on fiscal policy and the AI wealth effect

43:03 What a slowdown in data center spending would mean for profits

48:35 Eric Pachman on price pressure across industries

57:31 Tanker traffic, freight costs and emergency oil loans

1:05:10 Who gets a say when a data center comes to town?

1:10:48 Political compromise and a Philadelphia sports story

Learn more about the Excess Returns podcast network:

https://excessreturns.co

No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.