Bloomberg Surveillance
Episodes
Page 40 · 50 per page Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene and Damian SassowerFriday, January 19th, 2024
Featuring:
- Stephen Schork, The Schork Group Principal
- Greg Daco, EY Chief economist
- Brian Levitt, Invesco Global Market Strategist
- Neil Dutta, Renaissance Macro Partner/Head of Economic Research
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Brad Stone, Bloomberg News Senior Executive Editor for Global Tech, shares his AI insights from the World Economic Forum in Davos. Wedbush's Dan Ives details his takeaways from the CES conference. Dana Telsey of the Telsey Advisory Group discusses the strength of the US consumer in the wake of retail sales data. Charles Schwab's Liz Ann Sonders ties in Led Zepplein with her markets outlook.
Hosted by Tom Keene and Damian Sassower.
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrell and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. He is definitive on Amazon of course, the Trophy book right now Amazon Unbound. Jeff Bezos The Invention of a Global Empire. He joins us from Davos, the meetings of the World Economic Forum at brad Thrilled to have you with Bloomberg Surveillance this morning. Let me cut to the chase. I see AI at Microsoft is countable, revenue, co pilot, azore all the rest of it. And I see a lot of other AI is smoking mirrors. How do you parse between legitimate artificial intelligence future and the makeup, the fantasy, the comedy of it. How do you parse? Oh? Boy, well, thanks Tom for having me. Hi Damien. Look, I've been covering Silicon Valley long enough that I've seen this story play out before. We're at the beginning of a hype cycle. There will be disappointment a lot of you know, the visions of Agi computers that reason that change our world, they seem far fetched, you know. There there we talk about a trough of dissolutionment that will happen. But you're right that there you know that there are real revenues, real benefits. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it was bringing its open AI powered co pilot to the office seat, so you know at twenty dollars a month, making it available small business as an individual users. That's real. Yeah, brtt I signed up last night. I was going to be reack. Can you see me, Damien? Can you see me do an artificial Intelli get out of the way. Fred. If I look at this, can you say that the Magnificent seven they seem to be away from the hype. How is the Magnificent seven going to create revenue and cash flow out of AI? Yeah? I mean they're the best position because they're they're they're selling the picks and shovels to all the miners. You know, this is Alphabet and Amazon and Microsoft running the world's most powerful cloud services and making basically AI available as a service to every university and startup in consumer goods company that you know wants to use these tools for a variety. It's it could be R and D could be customer service. So you know, even even though that'll be a work in progress there, the revenues will be real. My question for Santia Tom by the way yesterday was you know, do you control any of this. You're you're investors in open AI. You don't even have a board seat. You're like in the back of the bus with a seatbelt, and it's got such peculiar governance. And he said, you know, it's fine, we just want stability. So I don't know if I quite believe it. I think they're outsourcing a key competency. But they're in the cappards seat, the driver's seat because they did make that investment. I'm sure the Amazons and the Googles of the world wish that they hadn't passed up the open AI opportunity when they had the chance. Well, Brad, I appreciate you answering those two questions from that artificial personification of Tom Keen that wasn't really Tom Keen answering those questions, And my question for you is talk to me about deep fake videos X these platforms. What's to stop open AI and chat, GPT and all this artificial nonsense from mudding the waters ahead of the election? Yeah? Well, what it's funny because it is really the talk of the conference that you've got national elections in some seventy seven countries around the world. Half the world's population could head to the polls at the same time as this enormously powerful technology is made available to people, and what's to stop it from being missus? I know this is going to carry a lot of water with our listeners, but you know they are raising their right hand and putting their left hand over their hearts and saying, we're not going to allow our technology to be abusing. They really understand the risks. I mean, I mean do they? I think they do? They? I think they do because we've all seen this movie before and meta its reputation went through the meat grinder because social media was perverted. You know, yesterday, it's no surprise that Sam Altman's here. He spent time with us at the Bloomberg House, and before our interview, they posted a statement on their blog on their election policy and said that chat GPT cannot be used for any political campaign. And they said that images generated by DOLI, their their image maker, will carry a cryptographic watermark to show the providence. And but you know, and my question for Sam was like, these are great intentions. You've got the weight of all the black cat developers trying to break this stuff. How to enforce it where Meta and Google and TikTok have all kind of let failed it with the genie out of the bottle, right And he said, you know, they're aware of the risks. So I do think it's going to be a rocky year with some of these elections, and we're going to see this technology abuse, right, brand I'm sure that no one can forge those crypto water marks. I have one last question. I mean, my colleague Tim Craig had from BI is actually in Davos listening to Altman, and he said, I mean, you know, Paulman obviously spoke and he was talking about how AI will make people more productive. Talk to us a little bit about that narrative. The great worry is that when this technology is fully implemented, that there will be a great dislocation of workers at low level level programmers, customer service agents, you know, in en mass replacement along with productivity, and it will worsen the digital divide, and you'll have countries that are particularly hard hit, and it could lead to further political alienation and you know, maybe more or autocratic government's or real nightmare scenario. So you know, that's the worry. And I think the stewards of this technology, you know, Davos is the land of performative optimism, I kind of like to joke, And so of course they're saying that it's going to increase productivity and we're all going to lead better lives working less. You know, maybe Tom will get to sleep in one one morning when AI kind of takes over. But I don't know. I mean, you know, the I think it will make people more productive, but I think it might replace some jobs as well. More question, I think it's what everyone knows. With your your ownership of Amazon and all you've done with the Amazon unbound, They've gone round trip massive post pandemic collapse. The come back is the next Amazon, Josie's Amazon. Is it going to make total return like we've known over the last decade. Excuse me, so you're asking me about the stock price. I mean it's it's yeah. I mean, look, if I could predict it, I'd probably be in a different line of work. I mean, I do think. You know, Andy Jassey is now a couple of years into his tenure. He is and by the way he's here at Davos, he has pared back some of the excesses of the late stage Bezos that we just saw another round of Laos. This is becoming a very lead and efficient company as he bets on the core competencies, which is AWS and the Amazon marketplace, empowering third party sellers. They've got their work cut out for them. But I do think there's a bit of momentum there. Brad Stone from the meetings of the World Economic Forum, I can't say enough about his new book, Amazon and Bound. Jeff Bezos, The Invention of a Global Empire, Joining us now the Tech Pignata of two twenty four. Daniel Heize joins us in Webbush. He's been traveling ces Las Vegas, joining us today from Warsaw Poland. And what you learn at Las Vegas at cees don't give me the mumbo jumble. What was the backstory in Las Vegas? I thought it's about Ai just how mainstream the technology is getting. I mean, tom My opinion, the biggest cees in the last twenty five years. It shows this AI revolution it's not hype, it's real. It's on the doorstep. I want you to talk Dan Ives, and this is what you don't see folks, as Dan Ives is doing the media blah blah blah by this apple. The gloom crew hates them, but beneath it is careful financial work. Can you quantify what the new announcement of AI over to Microsoft three sixty five, like, can you add up the impact of that to a giant company like Microsoft. It's when you put it together, this is going to be eight hundred billion to a trillion of incremental value to the Microsoft story. I mean they are leading the AI revenlue with the Della and Redman, along with the godfather of AI jents and the video Tom I think the monzation that's happening in Microsoft is still so underappreciated in terms of what we're seeing in the field. Dan they're asking for more money, I mean they're asking for more computing power, more hardware, more technology. They say, this is not just big, it is massive. It is huge. Do you agree with that. I think it's the biggest transformational tech we've seen since Star of the Internet. And that's why enterprises they're lining up. Conversion could be sixty seventy percent. And that's why as Tom's talking about the doomsayers again, you know, obviously negative untech, I think this earning season turns that around because the real monization of AI is here. It starts from the Della and Microsoft and Dan. I mean the real I mean you just said it right there. Don't you need access to data, to unique data sets in order to basically make the AI go. And so when I think of Amazon, okay, find they've got access to consumer data, I think of Microsoft. It's everything else. You know, people on their computer and talk to us about these companies and the data they have access to and how that's going to differentiate them in the environment you're talking about. I mean, it's a new age. And that's why when you look at the cloud, the big hyperscale players, Microsoft, of course, Amazon, Google and others, they've had the data sets, but they haven't had the tools that they can monetize and make intelligence. That that's why the use cases are excluding. That's why this AI revolution right now, I believe it fuels is new tech bull market. I a February second, We're going to get Apple earnings. It's a ballet. I actually sit down with the beverage of my choice folks at the home computer after the surveillance n APP and what's a joy here? Is they release like other firms, a press release that's clear and in English? Dan ies, what are we going to see in the treatment of the four accounting statements from Apple? Four pm, February second. Yeah, look, that's the drum roll, right, And I think when Cooper Tino comes out, the big thing is going to be services. We are looking at team type of growth for services and that's key that could really be incrementally we need that as a one point five to one point six trillion services the margins double out of hardware obviously all focus on iPhone units. Despite obviously many yelling fire in a crowd theater, I actually think it was a pretty strong iPhone unit number. Okay, wait, well, want to get upside of the track now, Dan knows a drill, Damian pick it up here. Okay, But I'm sitting there with the beverage in my left hand, looking at the accounting statement, and the media is not readjusting the currency iPhone sales as mister Ive says, we're pretty darn good. And then you had to figure in dollar currency adjustments. Whoa doom and gloom? I mean, Ives is one hundred percent right about the iPhone of the global market, Tom. I mean, it just passed Samsung as the world's top phone in the full year twenty twenty three. But I mean, Dan, here's my question. What companies are best position to profit from what you're talking about here? I mean, is it the chip makers? I mean what sort of hardware companies? Is it software? I mean, what are you seeing? I think it's software and chips. When you look at names like Microsoft, the Magnificent seven, you can Microsoft, Google, Amazon. Then you look at some of these names like Mango, dB, Salesforce, dot Com and of course a MD with Lisa Sue and chips. This is the start of this tidal wave, A trillion dollars of incremental spend next decade. That's how this is all going to play out. Software and chips leading it. You know, I got one more for you. I mean, if you're a new company with you know, and you're in the AI boom, and you know you've got the talent, and you know you're competing. Where do you want to be located? Do you want to be on the West Coast? Do you still want to be in Palo Alto. I want to be based in a five one two area. Oh. Really, that's new look and that's what that's that's that's a silicon value two dot of you're seeing that boom more and more for AI engineers, and I think that's really started the new age that we're seeing from an AI perspective. Well, we'll help our international audience. What is Michael Dell and Venna down in Austin to the two of you, Damien? When you think five to one two South Congress, I think of South Congress. I think of barbecue. I mean I think of Austin, Texas. I mean that is the Los Angeles. I think of Joe Wisenthal's band myself. I think they're you know, outstanding dan Ees. What's special about Austin, Texas. I Mean, there's a lot of things special about Austin, Texas, but the engineering talent that that's been created there, obviously outside University of Texas, is really unprecedented. It's one of the you know, more and more tech companies from Google to of course Tessa to Meadow moving down there, and it's really becoming a really go to destination for tech leaving the four one five, going to the five one two worldwide on Bloomberg surveillance. And it's time now to make some news. You got a two hundred and fifty dollars price target on Apple. Can we lift that up to day? Miss Graves? I mean, look Tom, I mean you talk the bolt case. This will be a four trillion dollar mark ab we believe by the end of this year. I remember AI. There's zero dollars given for AI in Apple's valuation. That's why this is it. Get that popcorn ready in the key in household when they come out with that AI and au June from Warsaw poland a trooper to be with us in his travels. Dana is a Webush of course, outstanding work by him. It's he's with Webbush Security is optimistic on Apple and computers. Right now, we're going to talk about the pulse of the Christmas holiday this season that we saw. There's just no one better to do with this than Dana at Telsea with all of our heritage at the corner in Fifth Avenue in fifty seventh Street, her family's heritage, and she's done it in securities analysis per year at Dana, you were right, the gloom crew was wrong. What did the people of caution get wrong about retail America into the end of the year. I think overall, and Tom, thank you so much for having me. I think overall. One of the key things that was the difference is we had Christmas that was later this year, so people had more time in order to procrastinate, and so really everything was driven around the event days, whether it was the Black Friday weekend or then that week leading up to Christmas. It's what made the difference. It's not that holiday sales were so great, but goods sold at full price inventory levels only, and sales came in line with expectations for the most part. And as a Dana Telsea Microeconomics Damien sasaw or what she just said there goods sold at full price was to me my observation on it. You know, I'm curious, Dan, I'm curious to here we got some China date overnight, right, I know, I just I'm pivoting away here, but I mean, wow, that economy is sluggish, and I think a lot of the big luxury goods LVMH carrying her mad I mean, they were a pretty big overnight in Europe. Talk to us a little bit about what that GDP figure means to you, what it means to me, especially for luxury and I spoke last week to the CEOs of Neiman, Marcus and Sacks, and they all talked about the slowing and more challenging luxury goods environment. Look at Berbery's numbers, which we were just released at the end of the week last week, it talked about the slowdown and in Europe, the local slowdown spending and you're still not seeing the Chinese come over and spend, whether in Europe or in the US, anywhere near what we had pre pandemic. We're gonna get next week LVMH. And I think all eyes are going to be on what they say about the deceleration globally. Is there Tiffany experiment working out for those of you internationally? We have two blocks away from us, really across the street from where Dana grew up, Tiffany's with one hundred million dollars or so investment by the Arnoul family. Has that experiment been successful for LVMH. It has. Not only has it been successful, but also they garnered profitability much quicker, frankly than when it was a public company. And the way they've done it, they modernized the store, they've modernized the products. They've brought in influencers, celebrities that appeal to younger consumer. Think about it. You're talking about engagement jewelry. When do people get engaged twenties and thirties want to have a store to cater to that demographic. She's just joining us on Bloomberg surveinglist. Dana Telsey, the Telsey Advisory Group. She and Joe Feldman with great work across all of retail. And I know Damien Missus Sassa are called me up. She said, you got to ask about the ani there leathern Red Soul Christian labby Tom Boots one thousand and five hundred ninety five dollars. It's a way to get through the snow drifts. Yeah, no, I'm not in New York City. I'm not worried about demand with Missus Sasa right there. But what I will say and Dana, And this is my question for you. You know, El Nino, right, input costs, margins, you know, talk to me about the impact of El Nino on cotton prices on some of these things. I mean, do you see that kind of trickling through to the bottom line? It does? I mean one of the things keep in mind all the freight expenses and the tailwinds that companies got from lower freight costs in twenty twenty three. Apparel, it's going to benefit with lower cotton costs in twenty twenty four, but maybe not to the same magnitude. We're still going to need some level of sales leverage. And there are two drivers in twenty twenty four. It's about innovation and it's about value. You have those two elements and you'll have a formula to drive sales growth. So talk to us also. I mean on the input side, I mean, what are you thinking here? I mean, gas prices are now ticking up. Obviously we didn't see much evidence of that in the retail sales print. But you know, how does this really impact some of these you know, these large luxury goods companies. I mean, do you see any pack there? I don't for certainly for raw materials, cost increases, luxury goods. Companies have the power frankly of being able to raise price. You're certainly seeing Chanelle do it trying to reach what Ourmez is doing. But all the others you're not seeing price increases like you had, and they're managing their inventory much more carefully. I gotta go get your away from March data. Telsey, tell me about your single best buy when you and Joe Felman get to work. Where's the value? Is it in big box? Is it in middle of the road or is it in lux I think overall, definitely. I think when the weakness and luxury, like any weakness in LVMH, I think that's an opportunity. But really it continues to be about off price and discount. Given what you've seen in the moderation consumer spend a low TJX I mean air Mez, I mean, I guess leading Away is being least affected. Why are they trading at a multiple of forty seven times earnings? Because, frank when you think about something like Ramez, there is so far there is no level of supply where the demand doesn't exceed the supply. Miss yeah, perfect, I mean to interrupt Missus Sassar's on the phone. What's the question? She only shots at the Ponsovecchio in Florence. Tom Now, I mean, you know, I was just in Europe and I have to say, I mean there was a lot of foot track in some traffic in some of these places. And you know you talk about Hugo Boss, you know who had disappointing operating profits. I mean Berber you mentioned them. I think you know, the things seem to be turning around here in Europe. That's good to hear. I think that would help all a luxury. Lisa Mateo's here as well. She wants to ask the question. Lisa Matteo, question here for Dana Telsea to get your retail days started. Ooh, all right, what is the hottest? What should I be looking for? As far as you hear these talks about selling back those fashionable high end pocket books, if I just happened to have one at home, what's the remarket value of something like that? It depends if it's an ermez bag, whatever market value you walked it out of the store of or tried to bring it to someone to sell, it's higher. And for some I've heard it's at least ten percent higher. Even the day it walks out the door, it holds its value. What's the greatest brand destructure into Lisa Matteo's brilliant question, which is the bag Lisa wants to unload this morning? Do you want a higher price? A Birken or a Kelly? Is your bag that you're going to get a higher price? Dana Telsey, thank you. So it's give me a single best buy, please, I need a name here. Give me a single best bike. Go to TJX. Believe me, it's the winner for twenty four and they have the Kelly bag as well. Dana Telsey, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. On the real retail of America now joining us to piece it Together's liz Ane Saunders, chief investment strategist to Charles Schwab, She's in charge their led Zeppelin division or thrilled that you could join today. I look at the market and I need a whole lot of love here, and to me, the whole lot of love is going to come from six trillion dollars in money market funds. How much of that is going to go? At Schwab over to the equity market. I wouldn't necessarily count on a lot of it. I don't think that that should be seen as money that is poised to jump into the equity market. I think a lot of that is stickier money that might have been in other places, including traditional deposits, or in riskier places in order to pick up income that now can be in the safety. And also, yes, six trillion dollars is a record, but we're nowhere near a record as a share of total stock market capitalization. All you have to do is look to the nineteen nineties to see a period where you consistently saw increases in the amount of money and money market funds commensurate with the increase in the stock market, the drivers being different. So I don't view that as some sort of moment in time source of additional funds that would flow into equities. Right now, I'm confused because I get a stream of thought that people are cautious, nervous, and I get another stream of thought that everybody, including damiens ors O Pair, is in the market. Which is it at Schwab, is there an enthusiasm by your clients for equities? I think there's cautious optimism I wouldn't consider it over enthusiasm. In fact, if you look at attitudinal measures of investor sentiment more broadly than Josh Schwab, although at seven trillion dollars we're a pretty big slice of the retail investing universe. But if you look at attitudinal measures like AAII, those are purely attitudinal. It's survey base, and that's jumped around quite a bit, and it's just there tends to be more of a knee jerk reaction to what's going on in the market moment in time. But even within that survey you get the equity exposure, and at times where you've seen bearishness really pick up fairly quickly, it's not met with a similar move down in equity exposure. So I think when looking at sentiment, you've got to look at the marriage between the attitudinal side and the behavioral side. Interesting and of course, in the nine o'clock are here Wall Street time, Damien Sassar has been medicated to tang mimosas have clicked in Damien. No questions to lizan on Indonesia. Okay, I'm not going to channel Robert Planting led Zippelin led Zeppelin now Lizan, but I am going to channel Pink Floyd. I'm gonna channel Roger Waters. Here are the markets comfortably numb to the concept of a FED cut in March? I mean, let's be clear, I mean like, this is unbelievable that you know the markets are priced that way, yet you know it seems to becoming fast becoming consensus. What are your thoughts on that? So we have seen a bit of a shift, particularly with with today's retail sales report. So a week ago, if you look at probabilities in terms of FOED funds future market of what's going to happen at the March FOMC meeting, you were up at around sixty five percent probability. I think that's down to I don't know, fifty seven or fifty eight percent now, and it's been kind of a moving target. So I think the market may slowly be adjusting to what. Frankly, most FED speakers have been trying. The message they've been trying to impart is you know whoa all l squel. It's given what we know now, it is probably not a backdrop supportive of not just starting as soon as March, but the FED providing you know, six rate cuts this year. I think that disconnect still exists, it's just not as wide as it was even a week ago. So then lusanna backuping yields means, I guess from the equity perspective, you want to get a little bit more defensive. What areas of the market would you go to to protect to protect in this type of environment. I mean you would think classic defensive sectors like you know, utilities. I mean, I mean, look at where valuations are there, I mean, what works in your portfolio. Well, so there are the classic defensive sectors like utilities. Then there's this era's defense sectors, which incorporates what I call the growth trio of tech communication service as a consumer discretionary of course, housing all of the Magnificent seven and really all the way back to the early part of the pandemic. That's been this era's defensive type names. And that's because of strength the balance sheet. They don't have to rely on funding in the traditional banking system or even in the capital markets. So defensive is just a descriptor. It's not some well determined type, and it is quality and you know, it's specific to the beginning of your question with this direct relationship in yields, I mean the peak and yields. It gave us the big move up from late July, I mean from late October until the end of the year. But then we saw that bottom end yields, and that meant we saw the market rollover, particularly small caps. And one of the things we've been saying, especially with small caps, do you know there's money that's once to find ideas down the cap spectrum, but do not sacrifice quality, particularly when you go down the cap spectrum. So you want to still have that strength of balance sheet, interest coverage very importantly, especially as yields tick back up again, strong return on equity, have an actual earnings profile, don't be a zombie company or a non profitable company. And I think that's a lesson being taught in the last few weeks. Well, Lazan, I do have one last question there, what about this low volatility factor. I see a lot of investors moving into low VALL as sort of a defensive way of approaching the equity market. Here, how did those sectors screen from a low VALL perspective? So it's a factor that has done well when the other quality factors have been doing well, when you get these moves shifts in expectations for either FED policy or the economy, and you see it reflect and yields. You can go through short periods where you get higher volatility, higher variability as factors that do well. I think those you probably want to fade those lower quality factors, And I think low volatility maybe not as important as it was last twoar but I still think it's in the basket of quality oriented factors. Lisanzi, your iconic work. How for our listeners are viewers on YouTube? How do you avoid a Boeing? How do you avoid a Disney? How do you avoid blue chip stocks that blow up? Well, don't have a heck of a lot of your portfolio invest in any one name or even group of names. So I think that that's one of the messages that come from things like the mag seven. There's nothing wrong. There's a reason why those stocks have done well because they check the boxes on so many of those quality factors. But be mindful of volatility and portfolio based rebalancing. You know a lot of investors do the rebalancing based on the calendar. They might do it once a year, at best once a quarter. But our message has been let your portfolio tell you when it's time to rebalance, even at the individual stock level, where the moves in your portfolio are going to dictate when you add low and trim high. Maybe don't focus so much on doing it at the calendar. Okay, trigger, stop the show. This is the single most important insight of the day for all of you listening and watching. I can't say enough the importance of moving to a Sander's percentage ownership rebail versus a calendar gimmick invented by marketing people that have never owned a share of Anaconda Copper in their life. Liz Anna, what percentage is a vanilla statement? Do you rebail? Is it when something gets the five percent of portfolio? Or is there a Sander's magic number. I don't know that there's a magic number for individual investors. Keeping mind though, that part of the issue with the mag seven and how big they've become as a share of the SMP recently hitting thirty percent, is that even institutional managers, whether it's mutual funds or even ETFs, have perhaps on how much they can own if the S and P. If someone just said, hey, let's create this index and here's what's going to look like. It wouldn't actually pass muster or securities regulations, not to mention the fact that many fund managers can't hold such a large share of those names. So you can use that as maybe not an exact guide for what percent becomes too much, but this notion that there are going to be a lot of institutions that simply have to trim because of their own guidelines on how much they can own of the stock. Just in many cases it's fibers. We've got to interrupt with. And just in from led Zeppelin News, Robert Plant will tour the United Kingdom with Saving Grace. Look for that two thousand and twenty four. I want to see him tour with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones and Jason Bottoms. So that's what I'm waiting for. That's what she's waiting for, and she will be there in the arena when they do that. So well, Lizzie Siders, thank you so much. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern. I'm Bloomberg dot com the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen, and this is Bloomberg
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Julie Norman, University College London professor, discusses Donald Trump's victory at the Iowa Caucuses. Claudia Sahm, founder of Sahm Consulting, gives her take on the Fed's approach to interest rates. Julia Coronado, MacroPolicy Perspectives President, talks about the inflation environment. Barry Ritholtz, host of the Bloomberg Masters in Business podcast, breaks down the week ahead in markets. Ken Rogoff, Harvard Professor and former IMF Chief Economist, takes a look at inflation in the face of our current geopolitical situation. Hosted by Tom Keene and Damian Sassower.
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Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets Large Cap Bank Analyst, and Ken Leon, CFRA Director of Equity Research, break down Friday's 4Q bank earnings releases that included record NII for JPMorgan and disappointing results for Citi. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, discusses the latest in the Middle East after the US and UK launched airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Mohamed El-Erian, Bloomberg Opinion Columnist, overviews his outlook on global markets and says he expects consumer inflation to get stuck at 3%. Michael Nathanson, MoffettNathanson Sr. Research Analyst, discusses the latest in sports streaming after a strong year for NFL viewership.
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Dana Peterson, The Conference Board Chief Economist, breaks down December's hotter-than-expected US consumer inflation data. Erika Najarian, UBS Large-Cap Banks & Consumer Finance Equity Research Analyst, previews Friday's bank earnings releases. Michael Collins, PGIM Fixed Income Senior Portfolio Manager, predicts the Fed will wait to cut interest rates. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, discusses the latest in the Middle East as tensions continue to escalate.
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Sheila Kahyaoglu, Jefferies Senior Equity Research Analyst, discusses the latest on Boeing and the airlines sector amid a nationwide grounding of the 737 Max 9 aircraft. Seema Shah, Principal Asset Management Chief Global Strategist, expects a positive nominal growth environment and a continued fall in inflation. Kathy Bostjancic, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Chief Economist, says a mild recession is still a possibility despite strong economic data. Matthew Bartlett, Darby Field Advisors Principal & Republican strategist, previews the final GOP debate before the Iowa Caucuses begin on Monday.
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This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keene, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best an economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal and the Bloomberg Business app. Where are Boeing Aircraft made? I believe it's Renton, Washington where they were tuned into the college football game here a while back. The seven thirty seven comes out of Reton, Washington. An expert on that is Sheila Kiglu, senior equity research analyst at Jeffreys and joins us this morning. Have you been to Reton, Washington? I have. There's three production lines. The third one just opened up, so if you think about it, each one of those turns out fifteen to seventeen max's per month. The fourth one will open next year and ever at about an hour and a half away from Renton. So I want you to speak and I don't want you to talk about all your leverage finance work at JP Morgan and your wonderful work at Jefferys, your award winning work and institutional investor forget about it. Our listeners and viewers want to know where's the problem and is it easy to fix? Is it rent in Washington or is it the fuselage riveters in Kansas. I think the problem is the pandemic deteriorated their aerospace workforce not so much. And I mean the problem is in Renton, not only at the Boeing factory, but the small Tier three, Tier four suppliers around there. They're seeing strain on their workforce. The problem has been really focused over the last year in Spirit in Wichita, with three incidents either on the Max or the eight to seven involving quality issues. So there's been management changes there to address those quality issues, and I think that's really the focus item. Given we've seen small improvements in the engine manufacturers and the Tier three, this sounds absolutely shocking when I start to hear about this, At least for ask this question earlier in the week. I'd love your response to it. Are we suggesting that things are safe but not as safe as they were before the pandemic? Now in this industry, I think the industry is having a tough time recruit you know, getting back up to post pandemic levels, and you know we're manufacturing. In September, we were only manufacturing in the teens a month on these max is when we were supposed to be at thirty eight a month. So we essentially, you know, in December deliveries were forty four. Half of that was out of inventory, half of it was actual production. So we basically doubled output in three months, right, we were trying to double output. So there's a stream, given air traffic is back to one hundred percent of twenty nineteen levels, to get this aircraft production back, and it was very constrained over the last three years. You've now did demand at Boeing isn't the problem, it's deliveries. We had Ryan as Michael O'Leary sit in your seat actually at the end of last year, complaining about the delays to the seven thirty seven max getting delivered to Ryanair how Osawi to further delays and ultimately canceled orders because of what's tanking place. I'm sure he was more entertaining than me, and this seat, I will tell you that he's more entertaining than I Am, don't worry about it. You know, what we've seen is that we've seen a delivery slip. We delivered about one thousand aircraft in twenty two. That number was fifteen hundred post pandemic on the narrow body. So we've seen that happen already. But we're not going to see cancelations. We're seeing the order brook stretch out twenty eight twenty nine. Everybody wants to get in line, and even Ryanair, who's been the most outspoken against Boeing, has talked about wanting that aircraft sooner and pricing being better for them, Pricing being better for Boeing on some of the Ryan Air aircraft because they want the aircraft sooner. What's the opportunity here for Airbus? I mean, I mean just as simple and tou luise I got to play this low. It could be them. I get the whole dance. But is this a huge strategic opportunity in the United States of America for unit sales for Airbus? Not so much. I think the opportunity was from twenty nineteen to twenty three twenty two, when the Max was essentially grounded, not delivering to China as well, where we're forgetting about that China element. But Airbus had their market share opportunity. So what we see in twenty five as Boeing produces fifty max is a month and Airbus does seventy five maybe in the twenty twenty six time frame is more likely to be honest. So they already have that market share game. And let's not for Yes, Airbus has its own issues. The Airbus aircraft is mad has two engine options, either the ge leap option and the Raithyon GTF option. We know the GTF has a contaminated powder in it, so they're basically grounding forty percent of the GTF engines in the first half of this year to do inspections on them. So Airbus is not short of its issues as well. Okay, some of this is the complexity of the engineering across all of aviation. Are we at a point now and then, I mean, I get the COVID idea. I think that's brilliant, But are we at a point where these things are becoming too complex? Some areg you, it's not complex enough, not enough fuel efficiency, not enough energy efficiency, two pilots to by the plane. So I think that what we've seen in the aircraft industry is no new models really, this is the twenty twenties are just an upgrade of the existing models and efficiency. Are they still trying to do a one pilot plane. I think that's off the books for now. The focus has really been on the engine, the fuel efficiency, and what kind of engine we get in the twenty thirty five twenty forty time frame and how that aircraft takes us over the next two to three decades. The sitting of the jet back and forth on the wing was due to fuel efficiency, right, should we jettison? Fuel efficiency is an engineering mandate, that's what we're aiming for. But clearly the engine OEMs have had a lot of trouble, not only in production but the efficiency that they're getting. So not calling out GTF only with the raytheon issues. Not only do they have the contaminated powder, they've needed to do upgrades to get their engine up to par so is leaps. So that's what we're calling fence building. Let's finish on the regulator. This is a difficult one. How do you expect the regulator to respond to this? How do authority step in here? Given what could have taken place on Friday. So, John, you started off very stark contrast with Dave Calhoun yesterday, and I think the regulators took that same message. NTSP is solely focused on the accident. Well, no, in twelve to eighteen months, what really happened? The FAA said Grounding twelve hours in, so did Yassa. So I think that they're taking a stark stance. Boeing has this directive out on how to inspect the aircraft, and I think we could see the aircraft back in the air by the end of next week. The end of next week. That quickly. The directive said four to eight hours to inspect the aircraft. You think about just the pr element of it. An extra week when you hear from the regulator. Of course, they have to start out really broad, actually have all options open, t K consider everything, Shila. Do you get the sense that they've narrowed this investigation down already? Then, given your expectation, we'll be back up in the air next week. So the NTSP, I think, will take a year to come to a conclusion on exactly what happened and what the cause was. But the FAA seems pretty confident that the directive came out so quickly, thirty seconds normal conversation. What's your single best buy right now? Oh, this amazing company called Higo. When I started covering it's called Hiko. Hiko. Yes, twenty one billion market cap fifty one times PE. But when I first started covering this stock, and I won't tell you when that was, the market cap was two billion dollars. They are a generic aircraft parts manufacturer and they supply the aftermarket. The more we don't get new aircraft deliveries, the more Hiko benefits because the old planes get serviced. Interesting. I thought we could have rund out that conversation sort of long bowing, but we didn't. Shada, thank you, it's good to hear. Free me. Just fantastic, real depth to that conversation. Shada kyli that of Jeffreys. Let's catch out with say Mishap the chief club was strategistic principal asset man wish and seem pleased to say joined us right now. Seem a greater catch up two part story this year for you, first half, second half, first half, volatility, second half rally. I have to say it reminds me of some of the outlooks that I got last year for twenty twenty three, saying, what is it about twenty twenty four where you think that story could actually take place? So I think that Look, if you think about where we were at the end of last year, where you had I think a price per perfection, you know you couldn't get better news in the idea that the FED would start cutting it early in this year. You would have a soft landing, et cetera. Now, I'm not saying that that's not all going to come true, but at the beginning of this year, you're already seeing the market push back on some of those original expectations about early FED cuts. You're seeing ecod basilience that is creating a wobble, and I struggled to see what is going to be the catalyst to drive another leg up in the near term. Yourys need to see a bit of a pullback as the market starts to question their raid expectations. And then as you get towards the middle of the year and you get closer to that actual rate cut date, you see an economics slow down, but it doesn't turn out to be too damaging. That to me is that greed signal four and a more prolonged rally. Yes, seem a dovetail nominal GDP. Now that combination of real GDP plus the inflation with the IMS call of a beleaguered, slow global economy out four years to twenty twenty eight, where are we in that continuum as we go into twenty twenty four? Is there an animal spirit within our nominal GDP or is it going to drift away? So, look, we are anticipating a bit of a global growth slowdown. You know, if you look across the US, Europe, China, it's not particularly exciting, but you do have a couple of bright spots around the globe. But we're not anticipating a very prolonged economic weakness. So I think this is a fairly decent nominal growth environment. But along with that comes the idea that we don't necessarily see inflation coming all the way back down to two below two percent like you saw in previous years. So from a real rate, which I know you've been focused on, it is a slightly more challenging environment than we've seen in previous years, and I think investors need to start taking that into consideration as they're starting to position their portfolios. What does the real rate do this year the ten year inflation adjusted rate in the United States, So we're expected to come down slightly, but not too much. If I give you an idea, you know, we're expecting the FED to color three times twenty five basis points each time, so it's not very significant. We are expecting inflation to come down to around the two point four percent level, so it's not too far from where we are today. That is a little bit still quite restrictive, so you're not in a fantastic environment for risk assets, but there is a lot of cyclical factors that we can take into consideration. It's just if you're thinking about your portfolio, you're looking at a higher cost of capital than you've had in the last decade or so, so you need to be kind of screening your stocks a little bit closer. You need to be start thinking a little bit more about bonds as well. You know, in terms of it's great in inflationary, it's or in a disinflationary scenario. But in an inflationary scenario where inflation doesn't come all the way back down to what maybe was accustomed to before, bonds don't necessarily perform as well as you would have expected. I wonder what your call is then on consumer discretionary. I'll share with you what we heard from Lori Cavasina of RBC overnight, greating discretionary to market way and saying this, Seema, We're wary of being underweight going forward, given the tendency of this sector to outperform when interest rates are falling. They're two sectors at the moment that are kind of leading the pact to close out last year. And whenever we rally, it's discretionary, it's tech. Where are you on the format and for that matter, where are you on the latter. So actually on the consumer discretioning, I'm not too negative. I do think there are challenges coming for consumers, but I don't think there is significant as maybe a lot of people, including myself, were worried about at the end of last year. There's just a lot going for consumers at the moment. I mean, as long as the labor market is holding up as strong as it is, and I think consuming discretion can do well. On the tech side, I still have good, I guess solid expectations for tech. I do worry though about whether the expectations from the market is going to be fulfilled. So whereas I wouldn't want to go negative or underweight technology, I think there are other parts of the market which are a little bit more interesting for twenty twenty four. If, as you said, you're going to see FED cuts and soft learning, I think there are other parts of the market can do well. We'll talk to me about the other parts. Then what's the big call for you? Banks? Where do they fit in? Give me we get earnings on Friday. I think banks can do pretty well. I think you know, as you're going to see in a lot of parts of the market, there are headwinds in the first half of the year, but as you get through to the second then I think banks can do well. The other part of the market, which I think should be gaining interest, there's going to be a bit of a warble in the first quarter at least bit small caps, I think the evaluations are very attractive. Typically, when you get a fed cutting cycle and it's accompanied by a kind of a return to or at least solid growth, that is typically a very good signal for small caps. And when you're looking at that valuation gap between the large and the small cup, it is very attractive so I think this is the time that investors start thinking about it and maybe edging into those positions. If youels come down, is the is the flow of money out of money market funds it's assumed. Is it linear or does it all come in one great surge. I think that's it's really difficult to say in terms of how the investors sentiment is going to go. What I do think though, is one is that those money market funds, they do have the potential to create a pretty strong rally once some of the questions that investors have hanging over them are answered. So those questions would include when is the going to start reducing interest rates? And the second thing is is there could be an economic slow down? And if there is an economic slow down, how devastating is it going to be. I think all three of those questions are going to be answered fairly from in a positive tilt in that there's a slowdown, but it's not too devastating at all. And I think once you have some of these questions answered, then money market funds that trickle is going to move towards those risk acids, which is one of the reason do you think investors should be positioning for a stronger second half of the year. Russ Coastrick at Black Crog said something similar in Raka Semath thank you. Going to hear from your Sam a Chant of Principal Asset Management right now to further discussion and the American economy. Kathleen bus Johnson joins his chief economists Nationwide Mutual Insurance. Kathy, what's the state of the consumer? Good morning, Tom and John Happy to be with you. Well, the consumer has been really resilient and not really reflective of the labor market continue to be quite strong. We've got employment growth that continues to kind of outpace the monthly estimates, and wage growth continues to be buoyant. So you know, put that together, you still have you know, income wherewithal of the consumer to keep spending. Now, it's not going to be the buoyant spending that we had in the past. You know, most much of the of not all of the pandemic related savings has been run down. But you know, until we see a slow down a labor market, the consumer can continue to run Here. The character of our wage growth is compared to a declining inflation is something the optimist speak of. Is it normal? Is it a normal dynamic now or do you put an asterisk around what that means? It's getting more normalized. I mean wage growth. If you look at the average earlier earnings numbers running four to one, you know you would probably in a more normal time see that around three and a half. So you're seeing wage growth is still a bit you know, buoyant there, but inflation is not back to two percent yet either. So I think in the mix, what you're seeing is real wage growth that is steady. You know, it's not stellar, but it's not negative either, So you know that that helps to you know, kind of keep the consumer buoyant. But we do think there's some slowing underneath the headline and employment numbers, and I do think we are going to see The question is do we see you know, just a soft patch in growth in the middle part of the year, or do we get a mild recession. We're still thinking that mild recession is possible, but you know, certainly recognize that the data have come in stronger than expected and that could continue. Kathy, how would you expect John Williams, the New York Fed President, to address some of those issues this afternoon? Yeah, very much. Looking forward to his comments, you know, and to put into perspective like they kind of we're talking about ray cuts. Well not really, but you know, and the Minute's helped us out a little bit there. But I do think they're at an interesting time now. I mean, in a way it's better than they thought, right, but it's still complicated. It's better because inflation has come down much quicker than they thought, the labor market has been more resilient. But now that the idea is well, it's not just about lowering inflation, but can we stabilize the economy to avoid, you know, a harder landing. So I'm very interested to see how he kind of threads out. I think one message you'll probably deliver is the bond market is still a little too optimistic in the start of the timing of rate cuts. But to be honest, we're looking for May May June market sort of pricing and high odds and marks not all that different. The fact is the Fed's is going to be cutting rates this year unless something on inflation starts to turn around in a very ugly way. Well, Kathy, not all rate cuts are created equally, and I think that on the surface, it's almost contradictory to talk about maintaining a restrictive stance and entertain the surgical rate cuts at the same time with a focus on real yields. Do you think they can entertain both iteas simultaneously and communicate effectively and clearly. Well, communication has not been there, you know, the top bright spot here really to be honest, you know they need to communicate clearly. But I you also think your point is well taken. Are you just removing some of that restrictiveness but still want to hang on to it because you're not quite one hundred percent confident infleetion's getting back to two percent? Or do you say, you know what inflation? We do have a high degree of confidence. You're getting to the point with you know Mike's interview with Lorettemester. You know how confident they are we're going back to two percent? And how does that real rate, you know, play in to the mix of things, because right now the real rate is higher. Right the fact that it can't in Columbus, Ohio nationwide is on your side, and all that the unemployment rate is two point eight zero percent. Help me with Senator Warren from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Shouldn't we be up on the tables pop and champagne and celebrating an unemployment rate of two point eight zero percent. Yes, I mean we should be celebrating that this economy is is quite good, and you know, inflation is coming down. You know, maybe that is why consumers overall and maybe there's not as much exuberance out there, but inflation's coming down eventually. If it's going to be cutting interest rates at some point this year, you know, that's that's a very positive mix. And to your point, and employment rate certain parts of the country, like Columbus, very very low and very positive. So I think we need to applaud a lot of that, and that sort of gets overshadowed by all of our concerns. Kathy, just quickly, where do you have unemployment your end? Yes, so we see the unemployment rate drifting a bit higher, but because we have a mild recession, it doesn't even get above five percent. So you're looking at something around four point seven percent or so at the high so let some of the air out of the economy, but certainly does not crush the labor market. Interesting, Kathy, Thank you appreciate the insight. Kathy Chance it that of nationwide. Matthew Bartland knows each and every ward in Nashua, New Hampshire. He is hardcore in New Hampshire. Enjoins us this morning Darby Field Advisors, a Republican strategist with service in the Trump administration until a certain January date. I got to go there first, Matthew, as you joined surveillance for the first time. What was it like on January sixth when you said, Sea, Yeah, you know, thanks Tom. Listen. It was a very very hard day here in this town in Washington, and I remember walking home it was during COVID and crossing the Capitol and just seeing the utter mayhem and feeling utter discussed and made what was just the easiest decision I've ever made my career, which was, dear mister Secretary, I hereby resigne immediately from the State Department. Decisions will be made in this excuse me, decisions will be made in Hampshire, Mass Bartlet what's the tone you see right now among Republicans? Well, exactly, it's January, and you know the business community that the country is looking at a lot of those those snow covered roads right now. It's not Davos might be Davenport, Iowa, might be dover New Hampshire. And you know, we are looking at what is either the beginning or maybe the end. President Trump has a significant lead. There are really two battlegrounds right now. It's Iowa, which he may have locked up, and it's a question of expectations. And then it's over in New Hampshire, the Granite State, my home state, where Nikki Haley may be putting together some puzzle pieces with her granite heels on climbing the mountain and may shock the Trump campaign, may shock the world. And if so, then we have a race. But if President Trump really blows it out in both states, I think this nomination might be wrapped up and wrapped up ptty quickly. Well, Matthia, talk about that. You've been on the ground with every candidate I believe in the field, Matthew, do you see anything on the ground. It's difficult to reconcile with what we all see in the polls. Oh sure, right now. Polls. You'll see a lot of national polls. Those poll polls are certainly, you know, lagging indicators. It is the state polls that are the leading indicators. The nomination process is not a you know, as we know, a national election, it's a state by state event, and right now in Iowa and in New Hampshire, the race is not nationalized. Rather it's personalized. People get to go and meet the candidates upfront, hear from them directly, unfiltered from you know, free from from media, free from ads, get to ask questions, and that's really where where people can can can make their stake. And I think that's what we see Nikki Heley do to to a very high degree. What's the number one issue that you think is attracting voters to the likes of Nicki Hailey? You know, I think it's probably a mix of policies of you know, maybe the Biden administration, whether it's foreign policy, domestic spending, inflation that have kind of pushed people away from you know, their vote maybe twenty twenty or away from the Democratic Party, but more importantly looking back towards what people see, as you know, a firmer Republican party that maybe is absent some of them, mayhem, some of the personality deficits that former President Trump has displayed for the better part of a decade. Now. Matthew Barlow. Terry Hayes visits often from Pangaea, and he made a common a number of months ago where he said, there's a complete misjudgment about the number of GOP who really aren't in love with the former president. In political Jonathan Martin the headline where are all the anti Trump Republicans? Where are they? Matthew? And are there any conquered New Hampshire? Oh, certainly, you know, if you look at New Hampshire, it is the only purple state, maybe the only swing state. In addition to being an early state. Republicans can only vote in the Republican primary, Democrats can only vote in the Democratic primary. But independence, of which there are more than Republicans or Democrats, can vote either one. So right now, the independence of New Hampshire, those that actually decide the general election are going to have a significant role in choosing the Republican nominee, or at least impacting that. Right now, it looks as if they are going to Nicky Haley. There is a Trump fatigue factor. In fact, when you go to her town halls, one of the biggest applause lines you hear. She's quite candid, she says, listen polling says Donald Trump might be up one to four points on Joe Biden, but I'm up seventeen points. So I think a lot of strong conservatives look at that as a resounding, you know, rationale for her candidacy, and a lot of independent voters, you know, find her to be the Goldilocks King. What does President Biden need to do to garner those GOP diss affected votes. Does he need to communicate with him like his communicating with a Pentagon. Yeah, I think communications a good start, you know, putting priority that you see, you hear, you listen to those that it is a warm place. Maybe some of his policies have been rather progressive. He's been for the past four years really attuned to the left wing of his party. Now, as we turn a corner into a potential you know, general election, he really needs to make sure that that coalition that he built in twenty twenty stays with him, that they do not feel deflated. And that's from the left on certain issues which may be a little more sensitive. Maybe it's foreign policy issues as we're seeing in playout in Michigan. But again, those disaffected voters who thought Trump, you know, maybe they liked his policy, but they just thought his personality was just too much. Now it's going to be yet again a choosing time potentially between Trump and Biden and who can swing those voters right back. Let's get to TV programming later on the seven and just to wrap things up math nine pm Eastern time. I believe you've got Run versus Nicky on CNN and then you've got the former president kind of programming on Fox News. What's the approach from Nicky im Ron going to be they going after each other or going after the former president. I mean, listen, it's gonna be both, you know, more than anything right now, the Republican Party wants somebody with attitude and swagger, and that is certainly why Donald Trump has had a command over the party, not just over the past few months, but over the past few years. So it is a performance. It is how you take a punch, how you land a punch, how you come back from a punch. Nicki Haley has really made her bones in this race by lighting up vivek Ramaswany like a pinball machine at debates, and it seems their voters appreciate that. Look for more of that tonight. Let's continue the conversation for this month. Matthew Greta catch out Matthew Bountle at the f Danby Field Advisors. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every week starting at seven am Eastern. 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Emily Roland, John Hancock Investment Management Co-Chief Investment Strategist, says the Fed's 'pivot party' over rate cuts has led to a hangover in the equity market to start the year. Brooke Sutherland, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, walks through a hectic week for Boeing and the airlines sector. Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group founder, outlines his top ten risks in geopolitics for 2024. Nadia Martin Wiggen, Svelland Capital Director, expects a seasonal slowdown in global oil production amid low crude prices.
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Helane Becker, TD Cowen Sr. Research Analyst, remains confident in the airline industry despite the recent Boeing in-flight safety incident. Lori Calvasina, RBC Capital Markets Head of US Equity Strategy, says sentiments around the equity market got carried away at the end of 2023. Claudia Sahm, Sahm Consulting Founder & Bloomberg Opinion Writer, says December's jobs data points to a healthy labor market. Isaac Boltansky, BTIG Director of Policy Research, discusses Congress' agreement on a spending-cap deal as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's unannounced stay in the hospital. Barton Crockett, Rosenblatt Securities Managing Director, details the reasons behind his firm's neutral outlook on Apple this year.
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best an economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. Helene Becker joins now senior research analyst at TD Cowen, and we're thrilled that she could be with us today. Helene, January twenty second. I guess we get an earnings report from United, the others will lined up. What is their urgency to act, not so much off the Boeing accident, but their urgency to act because of the topsy turvy markets they're in now. I think that we have a situation where we're expecting, or we saw fourth quarter traffic was pretty good. The further we get away from twenty twenty, the more we'll see managed corporate travel come back. I think the trip where you have maybe a one day trip isn't coming back anytime soon. I feel like it's a lot like after nine to eleven tom when the really short haul trips went away, and we expect that to continue really now. But the longer haul trips. People need to get out, they need to see their clients. We've been talking about this for about a year now and we're seeing that. We're seeing that increase in managed travel, and we think that we'll continue into the rest of this year. With the Boeing accident, with the rivets, the fasteners, whatever, we're going to see in the coming weeks of that analysis, even months, I should say, of that analysis, what does it mean for the dynamic of refleeting A word I discovered last week. I think Helene Becker, you know, refleeting is going out and buying the bright, shiny new thing accelerated. Yeah, well yes, and no American did their refleeting in the last decade, so they're on the downside of that. United is doing it now and into twenty thirty two. Delta is in the middle of it. But Delta has a different and Southwest actually have different viewpoints on the way they refleet. They kind of spend about ten percent revenue on capex, somewhere between eight and ten percent every year, so they're continually refleeting, so we view that fairly favorably. I don't think anything changes. There's a lot of pressure on the industry to lower their carbon footprint. I know aviation only makes up two percent of total transportation carbon, but others are doing the whole reduction carbon faster, so aviation over time will become a bigger percentage of it. So there's a lot of pressure to fly young are more fully efficient aircraft oleane. I can't get past this comment from George ferguson words you never want to hear, when he basically came out and said it's not as safe as it was before the pandemic, talking about the safety of flying at a time when we did just have this incident with Alaska Airlines, also the incident that we saw in Japan, Questions around the competency and staffing levels at some of the agencies. Are you concerned? Do you feel like that is an accurate statement that it is not as safe to fly today as pre pandemic. No, no, no, I disagree with that completely. The fact that there were no casualties on the japan Air A three thirty is hugely significant. They were able to evacuate that entire aircraft without any incident, with half the doors being half the emergency doors being unusable because of fire. So I think that's one thing to consider. I think from an aviation perspective and a safety perspect that every time there's an incident, there's an investigation. There is no cover up. You never see that as you would in some as you may in some other industries. There have it. I mean, not to cha the industry, but there really haven't been any major accidents. The fact that Alaska air pilots were able to declare any emergency turnaround land safely with no injuries is hugely significant. And I think aviation is still the sepest form of transportation. No other industry does the deep dive into accidents that aviation does, and then aviation trains for every accident, and I think I think it's I think aviation is still very safe. I think that a lot of people will point to what happened in Japan and point out that that plane that everyone did manage to get out of I believe was an air bus and not a poet. But nevertheless, Yeah, So going forward, though, I'm curious what about some of the air traffic control issues and some of these other things. How important is it for airlines to do some sort of pr job, if nothing else, to assuage some of the concerns of neurotic people like myself. Where you're looking at this and thinking like, I don't know, well, I think you have to think aviation is safe number one. Number two, Yes, we do need to address the air traffic control situation, and the fact that we now have a permanent administrator is hugely important. That's another, you know, another thing that we view favorably. The FAA is certified to March eighth, so the government needs to really step up its efforts and get it certified permanently. My views are different than some of my peer group. I personally think the government should be responsible for safety and security, and I think your traffic control should be a separate corporation that's public that's paid for everybody. Right now, General Aviation, TOLUM and least in John don't pay for using air traffic control system. Helen, this is I wish we had another hour to cover this because I think each and every listener and viewer want to know about Back to the Reagan uproar and unions of years ago. How different is our transportation safety structure versus other major developing countries. Yeah, so euro Control runs Europe and that's a public company and Canada's public company and Canada it's just run differently. And I'm not saying it's better. I'm not saying it's worse. I'm just saying it's different, and you don't have the puts and starts that you have here. I've been talking about next gen since I started covering the industry four decades ago, and we're still talking about it. It's years behind schedule, it's over budget. Air traffic control, to your point, Tom, the Reagan administration fired all the air traffic controllers. They retrained them NAT because the union that represents them. They're they're well trained, but they're overworked, they're fatigued. We don't have enough of them to handle what we're doing right now, and so the aviation system will slow down. You won't be able to We'll see growth through replacing smaller aircraft with larger aircraft. We don't think we'll see the same level of pilot hiring in twenty four and twenty five that we saw in twenty one, two and three. That from that perspective. As we move further into the decade and people have more experience, that will be beneficial. But we're not going to grow as fast as we grow in prior decades because we just don't have the experience, and we can push the air traffic controllers to too much over time because it's a very taxing job to begin with, and we don't want any accidents to occur in the US because we want to continue to be able to say it's the safest form of transportation. Helen, I've got sixty seconds left on a clock top pic if ivor trade this year? What is it? Oh? Yeah, our favorite trade this year is Delta after United was our face for trade for the past two years. Why the change? The difference in capex, frankly is the biggest difference. I think United will continue to do well, but they're going to borrow a lot of money, sick. They have a sixty billion dollar capex program between now and twenty thirty two, and Deltas is not nearly as big, so you won't see the stress and the balance sheet that you may see at United. Interesting, Helene, thank you, thanks for the up date and lane backing there of td count, Thank you very much. Starting in the conversation this morning with Lori Cavassino, the head of US screty strategy at RBC Capital Markets, Loury, Good morning to you. This line jumped down from your most recent note, the week's start in January is just the beginning of a phase of turbulence. How concerned are you about that? Well, well, Johnny, I was talking to one of my traders last week and we were discussing the CFTC data. We're starting to see it's really just looking very very stretched, and I said, this looks scary, and I think we need to keep in mind that sentiment has been oscillating very very quickly over the last six months, so this isn't necessarily something that has to derail a call for the year. Maybe damp an enthusiasm just a little bit, but really what we've started to see the CFTC data on institutional investor positioning line up with what we're seeing on the retail survey for aaii, and both are looking very very stretched right now. I think there are a number of things that could come in and trip this market up a bit, but usually it's something the market doesn't see coming, So I think we need to focus here on the idea that sentiment itself just got carried away at the end of last year. Laurie Mike Wilson has been cautious on the markets. Over at Morgan Stanley has a brilliant paragraph parketing to nominal growth could be the surprise this year. It's one of his more optimistic constructions of where we're heading in the mystery of twenty twenty four, what do mid caps and small caps do? If we get legitimate animal spirit, we get legitimate nominal GDP. So what we've done typically seen is that when GDP and we tend to look at it in real terms as opposed to nominal terms. But if you're looking at real GDP above two point six percent, and two point six percent has been the long term average since the late seventies, we typically see that small caps and value stocks outperform in that environment. When GDP is running cool below trend, that's when large caps and growth tend to outperform. So it goes back to this question of leadership and rotation in the market. We've got GDP forecasts sitting at about one point three percent this year. That's up from about one percent back in November, so they're moving in the right direction. But if we really want to get a lasting, sustainable, durable leadership rotation away from the megacap growth stocks and into basically everything else in the market, you need to see GDP expectations move up quite a bit more from where they are right now. I mean, okay, well, the GDP's got to come up. I get that, But what do we do right now? I mean, you're deploying cash to small you know they've pulled back. You deploying cash this morning to small caps and mid caps. So I still like them, I don't like them quite as much as I did, you know, say four or five weeks ago when we last spoke. One of the things we've seen is that, in addition to sentiment getting a little frothy at the broader market, if you look at small cap positioning on the CFTC data, we're at important crossroads. We're basically at the three year highs, but we're not at all time highs. So we're going to know pretty soon whether or not small caps are really able to power through and take things up another leg of we's also still seeing that small caps look very cheap relative to large But if you look at a Russell two thousand and forward pe, it's back to average. Now that's not usually where things top out at, but it is telling us that maybe we have made a lot of the easy money in small caps already. So do I like them? Yes? Do I like them as much as I did a month ago? Not quite? This sounds all kind of negative, and yet you just upgraded your forecast for year end twenty twenty four to a fifty one fifty. That's a ten percent upside from here. If it's not small caps what leads. So I think that the value stocks in particular are something to keep an eye on. From here. We've seen the financials act quite well now I'm actually a little bit nervous about that heading into reporting season, but we've started to see some more favorable views emerge on the industrials as well. So I think we're going to get some interesting clues in this reporting season. But I do think sector composition is very, very tough right now. I do think, Lisa, if you kind of go back to our target, we were anticipating about a ten percent return, and we put that target out in early our mid November we were on sort of the earlier side of putting targets out. We trued up all of our you know, sort of models for year end. We did have this big, ferocious run in December, and now where we're sitting today, even with this upgrade on the fifty one to fifty, it's only about an eight percent return on the year, So it's not necessarily getting more bullish. It's just kind of truing up our model for the year ahead based on the moves that we had in December. You mentioned banks, and I find this interesting. How important is Friday going to be as JP Morgan kicks off earnings to give a sense of what the landscape is for banks? Or is it just JP Morgan's world and everybody else is living in it? So I think they all matter, Lisa. You know, I don't think it's just any one particular bank. I know some get more attention than others, especially the one that come at the beginning. But I tell you what I think is important for the banks is one, are those sort of strong numbers that we've seen in terms of performance going to hold up. Sometimes we do see, you know, sort of the banks give back when they've had a strong lead into reporting season, So are the numbers going to be good enough to really justify sustaining some of the better trends we've seen recently. I think that's one thing. But also I think for someone like me who's not a specialist in the financials, we really go in and look at the financials for clues on the plumbing of the economy, on the health of the consumer. And I think that's probably going to be the most important thing coming out of the next kind of week or so with those banks earnings, the real headline over the weekend coming into this morning a positive surprise in Washington, d C. Laurie this story congressional leaders announcing a deal on top line spending for the current fiscal year. Laurie, I was speaking to Wemy with Silverman in the last week and we talked about your line that talking about politics the election this year specifically is like staring at the sun. Is it that bad this year for you and the team? Yeah, it's pretty awful, John. I mean it's interesting that line comes from my conversations with US based investors who are like, Okay, it's time to write our outlooks. You know, this is kind of thinking back the last month or so, you know, what do we say about this? And we kind of walk people through data, We get through it quickly, and then we move on European and Canadian investors. I mean, you could easily spend a whole meeting on this. It's like it's like a spectator sport for them at this point. But I do think it's a major source of uncertainty. And I'll tell you what it was interesting to me last week when I was working through some of the data we saw at the end of the year in the beginning of this year, is that you are starting to see money flows improve or turn positive to Japan, to emerging markets, to China, and to Europe. US flows are still holding up, but we are starting to see non US geographies really attract, you know, some better flows. And I think part of that has to do with the election. Based on what I'm hearing from the non US investors, Laurie answer a question for OURBC clients watching listening, which is, jeez, we started the year week and that signals a terrible year ahead. Is there any valid to that emotion? So I tend to be very skeptical of you know, these seasonal, you know kind of studies. Whenever we do this on this day, we do this for the rest of the week. I think that those kinds of studies can be massaged frankly, you know, change your starting point to show whatever you want to show. I've been actually looking at seasonality over the last ten years. We've had some good ones, we've had some stinkers, but we have seen that January has been pretty much a mixed bag. There have been some difficult ones if you especially look over the last five years. So it would be sort of keeping with a recent seasonality to have a rough start to the year. Does that necessarily tell you that you have to run away for the rest of the year. I don't think so. And I go back to what we talked about at the top of the show. Sentiment has been oscillating so quickly. We were basically overbought in August, oversold in November, overbought in December again, and that all round tripped off of oversold conditions last October and post SVB. So I think that sentiment helps you tactically. I don't think you can use it that much to make a really kind of longer term view. At this point, Laurie. Wonderful to get your views this morning. Thanks Obama. This lor Convasaye of the vampy seat capital market. Claudia sam will be up all night watching a football game as well. Claudia for the Department of Economics at Michigan, all that heritage. What does blue football actually mean? Do you completely ignore it? Or are you at the fifty yard line for every game? Well, they don't. Let the grad students have very good seats. But we went. You know, it's it's Michigan, Go Blue, Go Blue. We'll see tonight. Thank you so much for joining Claudia. Barry rid Oldson. You had a great idea out there that in our hysteria right now of single statistics, we have denominator blindness. Let's take the national debt the interest expense of that, and we forget how large our economy is or how large our labor force is. How is hysterical are we right now? And do we need to calm down? Well, we've needed to calm down for decades. This is not a new conversation. The debt has to be put in context, not just of our GDP. That's a flow that we get that every year. We need to think about in terms of their wealth, which is multiples of what that debt is. And I also a firm believer, and we need to look under the hood and what are we spending our money on. There's good ways to do it investment R and D, and there's ways that aren't as good, maybe really high income tax cuts. So that's where we need to have a conversation, not just throwing around big numbers. Is the FED throwing around big numbers? Are they having a conversation as they move out into twenty twenty four that you would consider appropriate and rational in terms of the debt or in terms of what they're doing in terms of what they're going to do with their monetary policy? Excuse me? Yeah, no, I mean the FED is trying to do the impossible. Well, right now, my heart goes out to them, and we will play a parlor game for the next year or two and what their next move is. And yeah, they've got the eye on the prize, right. They work through financial markets, but they really don't care about financial markets. It's about getting inflation down, it's about keeping people with jobs. And we're well on our way, but it's going to be tough. To know when they're there and can say, okay, we can back off. Let's do an anatomy of what happened on Friday, because it was some confusing data that I tried to parse through and continue to and read more reports, and I'm just as confused. Which data screams the truest to you at a time where we got stronger than expected headline number, some real shows of strength, and then real signs of weakness, particularly in services. Employment. Big picture of Friday's payrolls was a good day. We had unemployments staying at three point seven percent. We're averaging a little under two hundred thousand jobs in recent months. If you think about what the labor market is buffering, we have a five percentage point more than that increase in the federal funds rate. This is a labor market. Now. You can go under the hood. You can do this in almost any month and say, ugh, that doesn't look so good now. Granted, there were some real science things to keep an eye on, you know, and we always need to, but this was not a flashing red We're going over the cliff. I mean, come on, we've been under the one employer it's been under four percent for the longest stretch since the nineteen sixties. Well, it's good. What about the services ISM data. That's fact that hiring fell the most, the sort of sub index for that particular data point came in the most going back to twenty twenty at the height of the pandemic. Does this make you feel like we're at a tipping point? Even if no, we're not heading into the abyss that we are cooling off in a much more material way. It's been like case last year. We needed to rebounce. We needed to get to a place that was expansionary but not red hot. I mean, we were coming out of a really bad labor market with COVID. So we do need to see things normalizing slowing, not just this pace that's been so strong, because we want to get to a sustainable place and there are going to be all signs. Frankly, I take a lot more out of the payrolls data than I do the ISM and we need to look at everything. And yet we've gotten a lot of mixed signals from the data you know so far. So we adres a Samrell for us right now? How many states are in a miserable situation, doctor Son? So I haven't looked at every state recently. One that has stood out, and I imagine is still in the same place as California. That's a really good example of how you can have an industry that's having a tough time. I mean, tech in the Bay Area is legitimately having some tough times, and yet we have seen no signs of its spreading because it's an industry issue, it's not like a broad based contraction. And I will say at the national level, the samrull went back down to two tenths of a percentage point, So looking good so far. Coldly, I just want to weigh in on some of the politics, and I don't want to beg you too much, but whenever I listen to you talk about the labor market, you offer clarity where clarity can be found, and why there isn't any It leaves the question open. It's ready digestible, very very intuitive. Why do you think this administration is struggling with the messaging so much around what's happening with this economy? For a long time, Democrats have really put an emphasis on being the adult in the room. When I saw the jobs number, I had a gift that I use as like boom. You know, it's like, come on, let's get excited about this. Yes, there's more to do, and yet when I look at all it has been accomplished in the last four years and even during the Trump administration, the big push with CARES Act we really help people. Is not perfect, but like, don't hide behind what you've done, like go out and say we did agree. Job Okay, Then why can't they do that? I mean, John brings up an incredibly important point. Claudie sim You've been in the trenches. Why can't somebody just come out not say, you know, Rosie Morning in America and all that, but say, look, we understand the agonies out there, but boy has this worked out from COVID versus many other countries and continents. I really don't know. I mean, I have come across the fact that across the democratic spectrum there's just so much anger at each other. I mean, I've gotten the worst feedback from far left, and you know center isn't exactly happy with me either. So it's just it's so strange, right, But you know, I don't know. I hate politics. I really don't understand it. I just keep doing my work and trying to explain and trying to learn from what people are going through, and we value your work. Clodia, thank you as always, just fantastic to hear from you. Todi Samda of some consulting right now on your Washington. Isaac Multanski joints Director of Policy Research at BTIG. Isaac, I got to go with the lead a headline, which is, I guess all clear in Congress we've actually passed a budget. Is that true? Absolutely not. That couldn't be farther from the truth. We now have top line agreement on what we can spend for the fiscal year. That's great, it's wonderful, and that just means that the hard work gets to begin now. You know, I think you're two points to highlight. Number one is you've got to notice how angry the far right flank of the House GOP is this morning. We need to understand that the speaker, Speaker Johnson is operating with no room for error and he will almost certainly need democratic support to pass his bill. That's something that former Speaker McCarthy didn't want to do, ended up doing and then got thrown out from the speakership. And the number two is there are so many points of departure between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to the specifics of the spending agreement. There are upwards of forty different poison pills some groups have counted that could shut down the talks around this. So look, I think the temperature has been taken down. The risk of a shutdown is slightly lower this morning. But there's still a lot of work that needs to be done over the next eleven days. So what's the primary to do list arking over the next eleven days. Yeah, So what I'm looking looking at is I can get movement on the other issues around the spending bill. So it's good that we've got this, and now I think the appropriators will slink back into their offices and you'll see some backroom negotiation and maybe not much on that. I'm interested in the border deal, Tom, because we've got to keep in mind, the spending agreement is just part of this three D chess game that we have going on. The other part is the supplemental spending measures, and here I'm talking about border security, and then of course funding for Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel. That's the other part of it. And we'll Lynch. All of that is the border security deal that we're now expecting to come later this week. You mentioned the international security concerns, big foreign policy issues. We've got to talk about the curious case of the missing Defense Secretary now Isaac. First of all, we wish him all a speedy recovery from what none of us sink to know the detail. According to our reporting, Lloyd Austin underwent an elective procedure in late December, didn't tell his staff they should notify others when he was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center on New Year's Day after experiencing severe pain at the same time as chief of staff was ill with the flu, and failed to notify anyone, the person said that we've been speaking to. According to our source, that Austin's military aid quickly put Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks in charge of running the Pentagon, although she wasn't informed of the reason for this decision, and the President seemingly for days didn't have a clue. I say, what was going on? What is going on? This is one of the weirder stories you're going to come across in the Biden administration, which by and large has been pretty tame when it comes to these personnel stories, especially compared to the previous four years. But it's deeply unsettling, right, I know that the secretary is an incredibly personal excuse me, an incredibly private person, and that this is something that all the staff have highlighted about him. Don't get to be this private when you're sixth in line in the presidential line of succession, and so, Look, this is deeply unsettling, especially given that transparency is one of the pillars of our political system. But ultimately, this too shall pass, and I think it just reminds you of some of the stories of personnel volatility that we saw during the Trump administration, which is going to be one of the campaign trail considerations as well. You said volatility. Do you expect him to step down? No, Look, I think that, depending on health, of course, that he is going to be fine. I mean, the President has not made any comment that suggests that the Defense Secretary won't will leave here, so I think he will stay. I wouldn't be surprised if he's replaced if the President Biden does win reelection, though, I think this is the type of thing that doesn't get you reappointed. Well, this raises a question though, in general about foreign policy and also the platform for President Biden going forward. There were a list of asks that people are talking about his new platform, all of which you're going to get red and are dead in the water. Is he going to basically be running on the anti Trump candidacy once again at a time when Trump is consolidating a lot of popular support. Yeah. Look, I mean there's obviously you've heard that line a thousand times that you campaign in poetry, but you govern in pros I don't think anyone's going to like the poetry we see from a campaign trail this time around. It is truly going to be a fear driven campaign. It is fear of the other side. It is fear of reversal, is fear of retribution. I don't seem to think that we're going to see much hope and excitement coming from the campaign trail over the next few months. Isaac, you know the polarity of the states with Ohio and Ohio Wesleyan, I'm absolutely fascinating of the polarity in the Iowa caucuses. What is the distinctive tension as we begin the political season in Iowa. I mean, looking, presidential primaries are about retail politics, and they're about and they're about personal preference more so than any national old pole could ever understand. And then when we think about Iowa, we've got to think about President Trump having a thirty two point leaked and we've got to think about also, and I think this is important. Tom DeSantis went all in on Iowa. This is it for him. And if he comes in second and loses by thirty points, which the polls are suggesting, pretty hard to imagine him being considered a serious contender going to New Hampshire where he's clearly third at far behind Haley. And so really this is to me, Iowa is a little assess for the DeSantis campaign. If he loses as badly as it looks, I think that his campaign, which already been floundering, will effectively be over. And it's really a question then of how strongly Nikki Haley can look in New Hampshire a week later. But to that point, Isaac, if he loses and he has to drop out, who does he back? Where do those votes go? Look? I think it will be incredibly difficult for him to back anyone. I think that he will remain in the background. My bet though, is that those bets, those vote's actually split somewhat to Haley and the rest stay home from the primary. But my point to clients say is Trump is going to be the nominee. That is very clear right now. He is the likely nominee. Those votes weren't trying to figure out where they're going. They're going to him in the general election. And so that's the important point here. There's still so many clients and so many people in DC who don't want it to be Trump v. Biden, and I understand that. But all indications are it's Trump vi Bide, and that's what the market and DC folks need to start wrapping their heads around when we think about the politics and the policy of it all. Isaac, thank you, sir, isa Boltanski then of b tch bot, a Crockett senior research analyst that rusn't black securities join just not for more. But and let's talk about that the prospective. Say I was picking up for the iPhone and what's been holding them back over the last year. Well, look, I think that you know, we downgraded Apple in August early August. We currently have one hundred and eighty nine dollars price target neutral rating, And you know, our concern at that time is that you had a combination of a muted growth trajectory really across much of the company, including the iPhone, certainly factoring prominently into that, and a high valuation. So that combination, in our mind was not compelling, not something you needed to be overweight on. I think the issue with the iPhone is the feature set, innovation and the consumer pocketbook and some question about China, and I think all of those things have you know, given us data points that are very supportive of the notion that you're in a very muted place right now for iPhone. And I think given that that's something like fifty percent of sales, very difficult for that stock to have a lot of excitement. I think if there's not a lot of excitement in the iPhone marton, the basic idea here I guess for the bulls is they're running it for profit. If you look at the Evada margin from COVID twenty nineteen, they've moved from twenty nine cents on the dollar up to thirty three cents in the dollar. Even if they get a Barton krack at sales lassitude. Can they maintain margins? You know? The company I think can maintain margins, you know, but I don't know that that's type of story, you know, nickel and diming margins, muted growth is something that's going to be really compelling at currently about twenty ape thirty PE when we downgrade it, I think the certainly, it's a great company. It's a good company that you could want to own at the appropriate price. But I think you've got to be price sensitive. I think it's a maturing company, and you can't buy it at any multiple, and you can't sit back and predict blue sky multiple expansion and perpetuity with this type of business as we see it right now. I look at the center tendency of a long term chart when you say a pullback, how much would that be if you do get some negative news out of China, et cetera. Is this from one to eighty down to one sixty, which is a center distribution? You know, certainly we would feel more comfortable with a healthy double digit return to our price target. You know, I do have some comfort with our estimates and with the street consensus. I do believe that you know, people have baked in the idea of a very muted iPhone. You know, this is a company you can own at the right price, but it's a mature company price. It's not a growth multiple. I think, Martin, is this an Apple problem or is this a big tech problem? More broadly, you know, I think this is much more Apple. I mean, we look at some other big tech companies in our coverage and we see a really great confluence of things developing lower interest rates, certainly supporting multiples, expansion, certainly favoring scarce growth, which you don't have it Apple, but you do have it things like Amazon, And I think there's been a reset in the Internet model. People have understood that you can run these businesses with much better margins, much more efficiently. You know. So while you're nickel and diming some mar improvement at Apple, you're seeing explosive margin improvement at Amazon, at Meta, Pinterest, at Spotify. You know, those that I think are much more interesting opportunities in this environment. I've never thought that people would say Pinterest in Spotify would trump Apple when it came to potential opportunities. Is it negative enough in your view for them to really drop out of the mag seven for this to be defined by a very different narrative that Apple is just not included in in twenty twenty four. Well, you know, I mean max seven certainly, that's kind of, you know, a term of art. I guess the thing with Apple is, I think it's a CpG company. I think that, you know, it's a company that you'd like to own at the right price, you know, in a certain macro environment where perhaps it's defensive, if the economy is slowing, maybe it's more interesting. But you don't need to be overweight Apple in every environment. You should pick and choose your places. I always wonder what the appropriate multiple on that name actually is. You've got the core good, the iPhone going ex grow, You've got a multiple that still looks pretty growthy as the revenue mix starts to shift towards services. I'm ordering from your perspective, what most part did you put on that business? Well, look, I mean I think that it's trading at about one point four times or so the market multiple. You know, I think a lesser premium is appropriate. You know, you can give it some premium given the strength of its franchise, the strength of its brand, the durability you know, the iPhone's not going away, and they've got good cash flow and good share repurchase. So to think that this could be a load image twenties multiple makes more sense to me than a thirty multiple. Bana, Thank you, sir for your insight. The update to a new year. Bona Crockett there of Rosenblat Securities. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern. Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app you can watch us live. I'm Bloomberg Television and always I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen and this is Bloomberg
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Randy Kroszner, University of Chicago Professor of Economics & former Fed Governor, along with Bill Dudley, former NY Fed President & Bloomberg Opinion columnist, Alan Ruskin, Deutsche Bank Chief International Strategist, and Tiffany Wilding, PIMCO Economist, break down December's stronger-than-expected US jobs report. Ellen Wald, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow, discusses the latest on oil with news that Maersk will avoid sending ships through the Red Sea for the 'foreseeable future' amid increasing violence from Houthi rebels.
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Carl Riccadonna, BNP Paribas Chief US Economist, breaks down the year's first US weekly jobless claims report which fell below all estimates. Katy Kaminski, AlphaSimplex Chief Research Strategist, says we've entered the next phase for bonds as she shifts from long positioning to short. Ed Mills, Raymond James Washington Policy Analyst, previews a busy month ahead in Washington ahead of Congress' return. Steve Trent, Americas Airline Analyst, advises a selective approach with airline investments. Sarah Hewin, Standard Chartered Head of Europe & Americas Research, predicts the ECB will cut interest rates before the Fed.
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Torsten Slok, Apollo Global Management Chief Economist, says the Fed's easing of financial conditions could pose risks to the US economy. Cameron Dawson, NewEdge Wealth Chief Investment Officer, suggests that a potential repricing of rates would be a pain trade. Dan Ives, Wedbush Sr. Equity Research Analyst, says Apple's growth potential makes the stock a 'golden buying opportunity.' Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets Large Cap Bank Analyst, advises incorporating bank stocks into investor portfolios and believes we'll see further consolidation in the industry. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, discusses the latest in the Middle East after a senior Hamas official was killed in Beirut.
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. Right now, our conversation of the day. Synthesizing all this together. Torson Stock is chief economist at Apollo Global Management. Torson I'm going to pull in here a whole bunch of threads. The Bloomberg Financial Conditions Index is showing massive accommodation, and yet I look at the old liboard, the news, Sofa, sofr and I'm seeing huge restriction within the short term paper market tensions on Wall Street and the ill liquidity on Wall Street. How urgent is it for the FED to make some direction on a March cut or dare I even say a January first cut? Well, it has a number of different dimensions. First, there is a dimension on the real economy. It's clear that the FED pivot has eased financial conditions dramatically, and this begins to run the risk that we might see a repeat of what happened at the citycon Valley Bank. Remember Chris Waller just said a few weeks ago the easing of financial conditions in Q two that boost the GDP growth to five percent in Q three. Could we see the same now where the easing of financial conditions after the fat pivot might actually be boosting the housing market, the label market, services inflation, goods inflation. We are not out of the woods when it comes to battling inflation. So on the real economy, absolutely, the easing of financial conditions is very supportive. There are some issues when it comes to the plumbing when the tightness as you're highlighting in very short term markets, and the FED for sure has to play this difficult talk of wall between do we want to ease financial condition on the rial side or how much can we ease financial conditions in the very front end of the curve. But this is the challenge for the FED. At the moment that you're highlighting, Torsten, you didn't listen. They didn't respond to the idea of financial conditions. They didn't seem to think it mattered at all at the last press conference. Why should it matter now? I mean we're going to actually hear them come back and say, actually, just kidding about that financial conditions question. Well, they were debating in October and September, well maybe financial conditions have done a lot of the work for us, and now they're saying, well, maybe financial conditions it doesn't really matter because it can fluctuate so much. So I still think that it's a little bit inconsistent what they're saying when that data dependency, it only talks about the real data, whereas the financial conditions impulse. If you take the easy and financial conditions that we've had since the fit pivot and stuff it into furpose the fed's model of the US economy, you will get a boom of up to one and a half percent growth over the next slevel quarters in GDP. It's going to be very supportive as a tailwind to the economic outlook. Although we did have Ganadi on earlier of TD securities, and he said even with this idea that inflation could remain stickier, that we could get this ongoing growth, the FED could still cut rates and still be restrictive. Given the positive real rate. Do you ascribe to that kind of thing or do you think that just means many fewer rate cuts going forward for the Fed. I think that's absolutely right that we have. Of course, for the better part of the last year, we have talked about higher for longer. Now the conversation is more restrictive for longer, because they can still be restrictive if inflation is coming down, because real interest rates is what matters. So if real interest rates are still positive as inflation comes down, the fact and according you also gradually begin to lower rates. But note also that if you look at the outlook for sofa futures, as also Tom was mentioning, you still have that the bottom will still be around three and a half four percent. So one very important conclusion for as an allocation is that we are not going back to zero. We have still higher for longer, in the sense that the level of interest rates, the level of the free rate on page one in your finance textbook, will be significantly higher for the next several years than where it was from the period from twosand and eight to twenty twenty two. Let's try and get to the half of what we're discussing. Care the interest rates sensitivity of the US economy exactly. And now what we've seen over the last two years is rates go up aggressively and not slow down the economy. And what you're suggesting is that as rates start to come in and financial conditions ease, that the economy picks up again. Can you help explain that to people why higher rates haven't slowed the economy down but easy find financial conditions will boost it. Ye. But what's very important in that debate, and that's also taking place on Twitter and X of course here at the moment, is that my lift very critically sophisticate. Important to remember that that is significantly a function of whether you talk about the interest rate sensitive components of GDP or the non interest rate sensitive components of GDP. If you split GDP into the cyclical components and the non signal components, the main component that is sensitive to interest rates is housing. And housing did respond dramatically to higher rates. So this whole idea that the economy didn't respond to higher rates, that's just completely wrong. Of course, the economy responded to rates. It was the interest rate sensitive parts that responded to rates going up. Housing started slowing down. But the non interest rate sensitive components, in this case travel, restaurants, hotels. After COVID had such a long tailwind that that more than dominate the slow down in the housing market. So splitting that debate away from the academic textbook, which we all love, is so important because it becomes so critical to think about did the parts of the economy that are sensitive to interest rates did they actually respond? And absolutely, in particular housing Kapix also of COMMERCIALI state things that are sensus of two interest rates they did absolutely respond to when interest rates window. This is a fantastic explanation. So let's build on it. Let's project this out. What are the forecasts now for you for GDP in the next couple of quarters. We heard from the likes of Max Kanner of HSBC who said, the biggest risk right now is that we have to reprice rates again higher because exactly of what you're talking about, what are you looking for in the data? Well, if I type ECFCG on my Bloomberg screen, I will see that over the next six months we are very close to zero, zero point four and zero point five on GDP for Q one and Q two. So the consensus answer to your question is GP growth is continuously slowing as a result of the fat's campaign of hiking rates. The new risk that has emerged is that because of the fit pivot, that means that the interest rates sensitive components that we're dragging down GDP for the better part of last year, they might now begin to rebound. Housing most importantly, case SHILLA is now up five percent. Case SHILLA is a very important leading indicator for the OEI, meaning the shelter components of the CPI, and shelter makes up forty percent of the index, So that means that if something that makes up forty percent of the index is about to rebound, we could come back to that discussion about maybe the rates markets we'll have to reprise to higher for long gun and more restrictive for longer. I just looked at the two year inflation adjusted yield. I haven't looked at it since time began Nixon was president, and I can use the word never over twenty years, the integran, or the duration of a high two year real rate, we've never seen. We had a spike in eight with a great financial crisis, but these sustained high two year real yields are absolutely unprecedented for global Wall Street. How unstable are we right now? I would say, at least from a fet perspective. If you just take the economic textbook out and think about what matters, it is absolutely as you're highlighting real rates, So real rates being at these levels would tell you that we're still in very restrictive territory. So the challenge here for the FIT is that they still want to have the soft landing, and we all want to have the soft landing. That will be the best outcome, of course, from so many dimensions. But what is beginning to matter is that they have now sucked so much liquidity out. We've gotten to a point where we are beginning to see some strains in the plumbing that you're highlighting. And that's why real rates it has a very significant different impact on the long end and what it means for the real economy relative to what high real rates means for the front end and what it means for financial markets as host. And this has been an absolute Cameron Dawson joins US now chief investment Officer at New Edge Wealth Camic and morning and happy New year, Good morning, Happy nowear are you sitting on the fence because I'm written this first line in your work. It says we could have a scenario where both bulls and hairs are right this year, which one is it? Well, I think that we have to be nimble because I believe that there is going to be a scenario where you could very easily see people get drawn even further into this market. We think positioning is overweight, but not quite as is extreme as it was in times like twenty twenty one or twenty eighteen. So you could see some pain get pulled in. But the other reality is that you could see a rationalization of the fact that sentiment is very extended and that valuations are extended. So it's how you react to market rallies or market corrections, I think is how you will win. In twenty twenty four we mentioned that HSBC. So let's talk about the work coming from Max Kentna this morning. Here's this line, biggest risk another repricing and rights. Do you agree with that one hundred percent? That's the pain trade. The pain trade is that everybody thinks that inflation is fully vanquished and then gets surprised if things like oil prices move higher. Wages end up being stickier than expected rates move higher, and then all of those stocks that rerated in the last two months up thirty forty percent because now they're not worried about their balance sheets anymore. Balance sheet risk becomes an issue again, and you get a reversion of a lot of the names that were lower quality that happened to lead at the end of last year. The modeled out earnings are nine percent ten percent. Dare I say double digit eleven percent earnings growth for this year? Is that in the price now or is that going to develop out in the first half of next year. It is in the price now, and I think that we always have to think about the path of twenty four will be pricing in what actually happens in twenty twenty five. So if a recession looks more likely in twenty twenty five, that's when you'll start to see those earning estements get cut into the out years. The thing that's the biggest challenge for us for earning estments in twenty four is the expectation that top line growth will re accelerate in a year where nominal growth because of inflation is expected to decelerate. Can you see that happen at the same time where we get less inflation, less pricing power, and yet we get a big acceleration in top So away for the romance of Apple and Microsoft. If you look at Staples and discretionary and all, you've got to model out there, what you go back from a six percent wonderment of growth back to four percent revenue growth? Yeah, very likely. And there are idiots and pockets where you're going to see improvement. You know, healthcare had its earnings down almost twenty percent last year, that will flip positive this year just because of easy comps. So that's where we're trying to look outside of just the macro drivers, Staples being a great example of one that can't get away from this inflationary dynamic, and look instead to the more idiotsyncratic opportunities our banks to douse syncratic opportunities. And I ask with JP Morgan at new record high, Yeah, I mean you've seen such a huge rerating. Of course, there's pockets of banks where there is still inexpensive areas. You know, banks do have the tailwind of a less inverted curve, hopefully a reopening of capital markets. But then we have to consider things like BTFP, does it get re extended Basil three in game, all of these things that could be big drivers of bank earnings or at least appetite for bank risk as we go through twenty twenty four. It sounds like you're not buying the rotation story. I am buying the rotation story. Yeah. I think that we have to have an open mind that even great companies with great balance sheets, with monopolies could still underperform simply because positioning is so crowded and because valuations are so elevated. That's the smartest insight I've heard in the last forty eight hours. Are we going to have rotation or not? That's a really, really undersaid cool question. I think that that was really some of the anks behind the sell off that we've seen that was living, that was really led by big tech. We were talking about this yesterday with Apple, and I guess that you know, how much does that have legs versus what we saw last year, which was a headfake and everyone came in saying, all right, this is the year to sell tech, and by the end of the year of them was saying in Nvidia Magnificent seven, it's going to change the world. Kumba Yah it's going to save the United States, I mean, et cetera, et cetera. And what a different setup because at the very end of twenty twenty two you had record outflows from tech ETFs. You look at the course of twenty twenty three, you had forty billion dollars of inflows into technology compared to twenty billion dollars of outflows out of things like energy and financials and healthcare. So really this could just be about positioning and pain trades and the fact that you already re rated tech because now it's already just one turn away from its twenty twenty one peak valuation, so you're hitting a ceiling. Let's put a couple of stories together. You said, maybe the biggest paying trait the risk here is high, right, so reprice give rights again at Lisa brought up banks. How woud the banks respond to that given what we saw last year? Yeah, I mean it would raise balance sheet risk again. It probably puts into sharp focus again issues with commercial real estate because we've all kind of breathed this collective sigh of relief that higher for longer is dead if it's not dead, and the path of the cost of capital instead of the last forty years of being down is actually marching slightly higher and in a choppy path. Could mean that we have to reprice some of the risk in some of these balance sheets. Is it just JP Morgan then everyone else? When we talk about the banks, is that what we're talking about? JP Morgan then everybody else? We actually just are looking very deeply at some of the regional banks. Some of the regional banks are underpriced. We think if we look at the balance sheets, they're not as extended as or as issued as some parts of regional banks that some don't have as much commercial real estate exposure, have great presence in their local areas, so they're trading at very discounted valuations. If we're going down in value, that's one of the areas we're actually looking. Yeah, it's somebody at you know, the last five six, seven days at JP Morgan's capturing one out of five profit dollars in American banking. If that isn't the third or fourth or fifth national bank of the United States, I don't know what is. There is nothing else. It's JP Morgan versus everyone else. That's been a story the last year. I'll refer to our guests done this. But yeah, I mean they're capturing some twenty percent of profits according to the source. I'm sorry you don't have a source in front of me to side. I think it's it's the it's the Bramow newsletter. You know that newsletters. It's a muster r. It's a muster reader. Camic. Thank you got to leave this. It's going to catch up. It's going to say a happy new Year, Cameron Dawson, the new h wel let's get right to it. This is so important right now. Dan Ives joins us. He is a bull on any number of technology companies. We wait for him to come out on controlled data here and with a birecommendation at some point. That's a little bit of history there. Dan Ives with webbush Dan, what's a channel check? What exactly is a channel check? I just I just don't see it. Yeah, and look for us in terms of our easier supply gene checks, really trying to focus on what demand looks like in terms of the suppliers for iPhones. There have been no cuts from an iPhone perspective as of data, and I think that's that's bullets and ultimately that shows demand through howadays season has actually been on part, actually better than expected. And to me, that's what I focus on rather than the haters continue, Okay, but data tell Okay, you've been gracious about this, and they've been gracious about your twenty twenty three ganormous success. But when you do a channel check, are you counting iPhones? Are you over in China guessing the manufacturing line? Are you in the store on Madison Avenue looking at how many people from Lisa's family are buy an Apple loot? What's a channel check? Yeah? All above time. I mean, we feel we're in Apple stores around the country, around the world. We're also talking to suppliers basically trying to triangulate to what we think units is going to look like for the quarter and for the year. And that's how we've done it from the beginning, I mean, over the last decades so. And it's one of you're always gonna have different opinions. You just talk about the Barclays downgrade. We continue to stick with our checks. That that has navigated us, you know, a lot more right than wrong. I think when you look at I from fifty, it's easy to take shots, you know, relative to maybe some of the fears out there, especially fire and a crowd theater first day at the trading you know a year I it's a groundhog day. You know, we saw it last year as well. It's underestimated. Two hundred and fifty million. Is the install based upgrade cycle that's due in that window has an upgrade in four years, Dan, let's get into it. You mentioned Barkleys, Tom mentioned it too. I mentioned this, so let's get to that line. The continued period of weak results coupled with multiple expansion not sustainable in that it is a statement of fact, and then there's an opinion of the end. The statement of fact is iPhone cuts. They haven't been great for the last twelve months. That's the fact. Yet it's been coupled with multiple expansion, also a fact. The opinion piece is they're saying it's not sustainable. Are you suggesting that it is? Yeah, So what I'm suggesting is that the next three to four quarters you're going to have iPhone growth. You have growth coming out in China despite the fears and abs are the bare noise, and I think the most important thing is services, and I think services is going to be teenager type of growth. That's key to the multiples Manson story. And then we go into later this year, there's gonna be more monization from an AI as we talked about. That's gonna be the next layer. I think it all results and this is gonna be viewed as more of a golden buying opportunity rather than the start to hit the elevator exit. How much Dan, is your bullish call predicated on this idea of rate cuts, the idea of rates coming down as much as people think, yeah, look, that's probably five ten percent from multiple perspective. I mean, as we saw twenty two to the disaster twenty three in terms of now popcorn movement, in terms of FED gonna cut in twenty four. Look, it speaks to our overall bull tech thesis, right that the soft landing Killsberry do a boys soft landing. You're starting to see now more and more focus on tech. I do think now. You know, as Pharaoh's talked about multiple expansion twenty three, I think the numbers show it in twenty four. That's the difference. Twenty four is where the numbers come through, and tech twenty three was more than multiple expansion. Well, you mentioned China and how China demand is going to pick back up, But I wonder if it's going to be for iPhones. And I know we've been talking about this for a long time, but yesterday this caught my attention. The Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla in terms of deliveries for the first time. You're seeing that really start to be a main theme. People said that that was never going to happen. People say that it's never going to happen, that Chinese consumers are going to throw out their iPhones. What makes you so confident that we're not going to see the same thing happen in the iPhone cycle that we're seeing right now in the electric vehicle one? Yeah, great question. And look, when you focus on Tesla, I mean that's essentially two horse race between TESTSA and BID. Tests actually beat numbers and China was strong for them. But I think it does speak to look domestically BID they're beast. I mean, they've done a phenomenal job, but Tessa is always going to be aware there in China. When you look at what's happening within the China market from an idphone perspective, it speaks to just a massive and all bays that they built in China. You have one hundred million iPhones in China right now, window of an upgrade opportunity, and the irony is despite geopolitical the last eighteen months, Apples gained three inch books of market share because the average high end, as in middle income Chinese consumer, they want an iPhone despite government basically trying to push WAWE. And I'm so pleased to Lisa brought up the EV comparison because I think that industry right now has the potential to be the industry story of twenty twenty four and beyond byd beyond Tesla. How much of a reality check are we getting for the industry for the likes of GM and Ford, I think a big reality shacka. That's why you've seen Farley. I think Mary they pull back, you know, in terms of a bit from the EV strategy in Detroit. And the problem here is do consumers want EV or they just want to tessel And I think that that's really the issue that's really starting to play out. And at this point, Tesla's doubling down on evs, but no doubt there's been I think much more moderate demand that we're seeing across the board, and you know, I think as that puts out, you're going to see others peel back while others go more aggressively, like the likes of the Tesla. I wonder what you think the endgame actually is. If you speak to the leadership at GM of thought, they've been generous with that time we've had this conversation with them. They talk about a change in execution, maybe not a change in strategy. Would you expect to see a change in strategy this year and what would that look like? I think slight changing strategy where maybe they pull back on some of their long term numbers in terms of EV when they expect to go fully EV you know, as a two thousand and thirty four thirty five. Look, the UAW also put their back against the wall. It's a different cost structure and they're trying right now to it's a tight balancing act that they're trying to get to in Detroit. And I think also it's tough going up against the likes of Tesla and some of these other evs. That's been a big part of the problem that they're focused on, especially now with the UAW. Increase in the cost structure, well said Dan. Going to hear from your happy new year, Sir Dan is Wetbush. Jere Cassidy, Large Camp Bank analyst that RBC Capital markets rights in this. After a tumultuous twenty twenty three, we believe the banks are our positioned for investors to warn outsize returns in twenty twenty four and investors should overweight the sector in their portfolios. Jer Cassidy, I'm pleased to say join us. Now let's go straight to it. Number one question. This is a question for me, and I know it's a question for Lisa. Is this off the back of high yields or lower yields? I would say John that we're expecting that the yields gravitate lower, especially at the front end of the curve when you take a look at what the Fed has done. If we truly are at the terminal rate for FED funds in the past four tightening cycles when they started to cut rates, it's always been a catalyst for bank stocks. And think what we're expecting as the market is that at some point in twenty four the Fed could cut your term interest rates. Is this for bank stops or is this for JP Morgan at least a very good question, because JP Morgan has been the risk off trade and it's been spectacular, as you guys mentioned, record highs. And so if we're going into a risk on environment, which I believe we are, if the FED is finished tightening, then actually JP Morgan is probably going to be a source of funds for many investors. It is a stock that is owned everywhere. It's been a great stock, but risk on may be the better way to go with a Bank America or City Group or others like that a source of funds. I love that it's a euphemism for it gets sold, so that you could raise money to buy something you think is going to return more the fact that you think it's going to be Bank of America. Do you also lean into the Mic Mayo idea that City Group and its whole revamp with some of its streamlining, hutting units, massive job cuts is going to be the real winner over time is going to be certainly an opportunity to be a winner. They've still got a lot of heavy lifting. Jane Frasier's leading the charge here, of course, and I think it's a very big, complicated job. It's turning around the notion liner. There's early progress, a lot of heavy lifting, as I said to do. But if she can succeed in the management, succeed this stock is definitely undervalued and it has great upside, but it's been a value trapped for many years, so we'll have to wait and see. Jarred I went to a seminar once at a firm long ago called Tucker, Anthony and Rlday, and I was lectured that banks are supposed to return nominal GDP plus a little bit. I'm going to center tendency. Is that make an eight, nine, ten percent once in your lifetime? JP Morgan has turned that upside down. You didn't see this coming. You're the expert, nor did anybody else. The returns of ten years, of twenty years or fifteen percent or so. Their thirty year return is solid double digit return. What did Harrison? What did Diamond get right? Tom? It's really Jamie Diamond. I think you could get give Harrison credit, I guess for merging with Bank one when Jamie Diamond was their CEO. And of course Diamond has taken over since then, and it's been his steadfast focus on delivering for shareholders, both through expansion and growth, but at the same time controlling expenses. They also have done a very good job in diversifying their revenue. Their consumer banking business, similar to Bank America, is very very profitable. On top of that, they've got a very strong capital markets business. The bear Stearns acquisition, which was very difficult in early years because of the reputational problems that came along with it, has worked out extremely well for them. So I would say the diversity of revenue, Tom and the focus on leading or delivering for shareholders. But back to Andrew Jackson, who you covered, you know years ago, Girardi, I mean, are they the fifth bank of the Uni United States? Over the holidays, somebody said one out of five profit dollars comes to JP Morgan. They're building their palace on fifth on Park Avenue right now. I mean to the Butch Cassidy idea, who are these guys? Are they the Bank of the United States. I don't think they're the Bank of the United States. But they have done a great job in delivering for their shareholders and for their employees and their communities as well. It's been a big growth engine for the company. This economy, the global economy as well. And again it's this leadership that they have under Diamond and his executive management team. And Tom, you know, many of his senior folks have left JP Morgan and are now CEOs of other banks, like Charlie Sharp at Wells Fargo, and so he's got a very deep bench and they execute. And that's the key. Tom. You know, banking is a commodity business. As you well know, it's all about execution. And JP Morgan is that you executed extremely well. What is the business model though, that you want to execute as a big US bank? Chard And this, I think is one of the key questions that we had during last year when the rise of private capital, private equity, private debt really was challenging the capital markets activity of certain big financial institutions. Can the JP Morgans, the Bank of Americas, the city groups get into the private debt world that in some ways has been stealing their lunch? I think it Ken, Lisa, And when you think about it, and you're right, the private equity private debt area is certainly growing much faster than the banks. But believe it or not, the shadow banking industry has been taking the bank's market share for forty years you go back to the early eighties and you look at the market share that the banks had of lending into the United States, it was well over forty percent. The private or shadow banking market was in the low twenties. Today it's completely flip flopped. The bank's market share now is in the low twenties and the shadow banking is in the fifty over fifty percent. So the banks have done it through consolidation. You know, when Tom and I were young, we had over eighteen thousand banks in the United States in the early nineteen eighties. Today there's forty six hundred. JP Morgan has been a big beneficiary of that, and they've been able to create those efficiencies. So yes, they can compete. They will compete, and I don't think that the banks are going to be put out of business, but certainly they don't have the market share that they used to have. But we have to remember too, the economy has grown dramatically in forty years, and they have the smallest slice of the pie, but they're more profitable than ever, not just JP Morgan, but other banks as well. What about the smaller banks, Given the fact that you're talking about a bigger slice of just overall activity. You haven't seen that so much in the smaller banks, and with rates forbading high, you're going to have real commercial real estate pressures as well. It's interesting, it depends on you know how small the bank is and who owns it. I've always maintained this banking system we have in the United States is obviously very polarized. You got the very small banks at one end and the very large banks at the other end. And if it's a non if it's if the owners of the smaller banks, private banks, or mutual savings banks or another group of banks, if their owners are comfortable with earning returns on equities of four or five percent, and they're not going to sell the bank as long as they have FDIC insurance, they're going to remain in business indefinitely. On the other end, if you do have a bank with thirty billion in assets and it's not earning up to what its shareholders want it's to earn, then they're going to have to consolidation. Consolidation is going to continue. We're in a pause right now, but the long term trend has been consolidation in the industry will continue to consolidate in the future and argue, Jared, let's finish on Washington if we can. I was speaking to your colleague Amy with Silverman just yesterday and were reflected on a line that came from Lori Cavasina, who I think described presidential politics in the election on the horizon like staring at the sun. I just wonder if that's what it's like for you. Have you given any thought to changes in leadership in Washington and what might mean for the companies to fall under your cover? John, It's a good question because it's going to be the topic du jour this year, of course, with the election coming. And what we can say is that under the current administration there's been more regulation of banks, particularly with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We don't know who's going to be running, you know, just yet in November, but if Trump is the candidate for the other party, the Republican Party, and if he was to win, his administration had less regulation for banks. So if that administration was to come back, you would have to expect they would change the heads of different regulatory agencies in twenty twenty five, and it probably would be less regulation for the banks as we move forward, you know, Johnny. I think Bloomberg Radio is missing it today because we're seeing the fireplace with your dacity here on Bloomberg Television talks about inflation South Paris, Maine. Three hundred and twenty five dollars per cord of red oak that's delivered to Shake Cassidy and he's he's popping like eight night cords of winter. He used a thing about that. I mean, it's adding up. It's expensive. But don't you love the smell. The smell's great. The damn dog is over by the fireplace. The smell you know, this dog's called Elizabeth. We won't call Aaron. We want to thank you, Joe Capital of Marcus, Thank you, sir. Let's get to it, and we do it with an authority that we have had through Auto Tournament of the Eastern Mediterranean. Norman rule joins us now senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the courses work for the nation in intelligence. Norman. When I say Lebanon, for all of us of a certain persuasion, we are completely formed by something frankly is stunning forty years ago, which is the Beirut Barracks bombing. When we lost marines at accountable iwo Jima level. Where are we now with Lebanon, with Hesbela, Do we have a relationship? Was it forever fractured forty years ago? That's an excellent point, and I regret I remember that incident well and lost friends. The event of forty years ago actually had a different message for the world. The US pulled out of Lebanon at that time, and Osama bin Laden later stated that watching the withdrawal of the United States from Lebanon was one of the motivators for him to undertake his operations because he realized the West could be pushed back out of the region. Are we being pushed back now? I mean within the multiple fronts at Lisa Abramowitz's outlined this morning Gods of the West Bank and again up to the border with Lebanon as the West is America being pushed out now? No, we have a very different profile, and indeed, diplomacy is likely going to increase in intensity and come out weeks because we need to come up with a way to move. Lebanese has belowed north of the Israeli border so that Israeli citizens can return to their homes. The thousands tens of thousand of Israeli citizens to open their businesses, go to school, and also so that tens of thousands of Lebanese can return south to that border which has become such a flashpoint in recent weeks. Yeah, hundreds of thousands of people have been misplaced or displaced as a result of some of the fighting on both sides. But Norman and I'm curious whether this is an escalation the fact that Israel did attack according to Hamas, but also with a wink, wink, nod nod from Israeli officials to kill this is Mamas executive. Well, to be clear, Israel has stated from the beginning of the October seventh massacred that it would eradicate the Hamas leadership responsible for that action, and therefore this is no surprise. I think what you have to look at is this drone attack, which Israel has not admitted but is understood to have undertaken, took place in an incredibly secure, prey conscious neighborhood, and it demonstrates an exquisite and dynamic intelligence capacity. So as Hesbula thinks about it's connor its response to this, it's got to think about what is known around us and what can we get away with and what will happen to the people who might be involved in that attack against Israel. Do you have any sense, Norman, of what the conversations are like with Hamas, with Hesbelah, with the Iranian leadership, given the fact that a lot of people think that they're taking some cues from Iran, that there has been funding from Iran, that you have the Iranian warship going to the Red Sea, and the huthis also Iranian fact making noise and trying to interrupt Western shipping lines. Iran It's proxies have no strategic drivers to involve themselves more fully in this conflict. It would impact multiple strategic equities for a game that is uncertain that they have multiple incentives to continue and perhaps raise the intensity of attacks against Israel to show that they have skin in the resistance game. I should also note that today, the January third, is the fourth anniversary of the killing of Cossum Solomoni, and that's a day when one would expect Iranian proxies to attack US or Israeli versus just for that symbolic anniversary. Exactly where I wanted to go normally let's talk about it, the assassination of the major General. It's easy to forget that it ever happened because several weeks later, many weeks later, we were all drowning in a global pandemic. What has happened since then with the relationship between the United States and Iran, between two different white Houses, very little. The indirect engagement that took place did produce the possibility of some sort of engagement, a hostage released by the Iranians in exchange for the release of personnel. But Iran's regional activities did not change, and I don't think the White House expected them to change. More So, Iran's nuclear program has continue to expand. And here's the important point. Iran is now producing enriched uranium at level that no state that is not pursued a nuclear weapon has ever produced. It has no civilian use for the nature of its current enrichment. So you have to ask yourself the question, has the West de facto recognized the Iranian military nuclear program? The White House would say no. The facts do raise the question. Norman a tough way to Segui here, but I'm going to do it as one final question. Taiwan continues to come up within our first of the year conversations. Do we have good intelligence on mainland China? The United States intelligence program against China, has stated by Central Intelligence Agency had Bill Burns, is robust and works significantly. I won't comment on those operations to the extent that I know of them, but I will say that this remains such a priority that it's an all source intelligence programs at all imagery and a variety of different aspects. We're going to have a good understanding of some of China's activities that will provide the warning policy maker's need for the update. You're insights so valuable, Norman Roll there for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thank you, sir. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern. I'm Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen, and this is Bloomberg
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John Stoltzfus, Oppenheimer Chief Investment Strategist, says the consumer and the jobs market will play an important role in 2024. Elliot Ackerman, US Marine Corps Veteran & Former White House Fellow, overviews the latest in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific as global geopolitical tensions continue to rise. Sarah Hunt, Alpine Saxon Woods Chief Market Strategist, says six rate cuts could indicate a weaker economic scenario. Thierry Wizman, Macquarie Global Interest Rates and Currencies Strategist, advises holding a long position on oil. Doug Kass, Seabreeze Partners President, details the catalysts that could drag down stocks in his '10 surprises of 2024.'
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business App. John Stolfus joints chief investment Strategist at op co Op and I'm our asset management and we speak to him about the bullmarket he nailed last year and continues to nail this year. John, I'm going to take it back to the analog of the middle seventies, a horrific recession, the leap in nineteen seventy five, and then a follow on in nineteen seventy seven. It's twenty twenty four, a follow on bullmarket. I think in many ways it is, Tom. I think the question here really is, or rather the difference is, it's a substantially different background in terms of a digitalized global society for business as a consumer and what was back then, which was essentially an analog world. And I think things get digested much quicker. I think that the data is a better quality. And because we've been in crisis in an out of crisis since two thousand and eight, all the players as well as you know, the traders as well as the investors are more experienced with dealing with volatility. John, I think what's so important here is only Stolphus is talking about last year was a prelude. I just think that's so important. Fifty two hundred price target year rent this year, John, let's build on that. You and I have talked about this a few times in the last few months, and I've appreciate it. Can we just address it right now? How dependent that call is on interest rate cuts from the feder Reserve? Not much really. You know, we're not of the camp it's looking for six cuts this year in twenty twenty four. We're looking for perhaps one or two. And we're not looking for the first half for cuts. We think it'll happen in the second half of the year, and lightly later rather than earlier. In the second half. To us, the Fed has been remarkably sensitive in practicing its mandate. You know, where as able to comy and full employment is described by unemployment between three and four percent, and we think it wants to keep it that way, and so that's what we're looking at A little bit different. We like the Fed. Ironically, very few people do we think the Fed has done. It shows the Ben Bernank legacy carried on through Jerome Powell in the sense of communication and clarity. So it might not necessarily the rally my not be dependent on j. Powell. But how much is it dependent on the Central Bank of Tim Cook? I would have to say, perhaps I'll keep it away from a company specific here, but I would say certainly a business, the consumer and the jobs market will play an important role this year. Keyword to watch for is resilience when we look at economic data, what we're looking at is for things to show resilience, and naturally is a challenging environment when you're making transitions and you have the levels of trouble around the world. The geopolitical risks seems to keep ramping up by the day. But consider where business plays out in this where the opportunities are both this cyclical point where we are on the calendar, as well as the secular trends that are driving potential growth for all eleven sectors. Okay, So in other words, his text still lead me. I guess if that's the question at a time, or that accounted for fifteen percent of the twenty four percent game of the SMP last year at least, I think tech certainly remains a major participant in this, But I think what we need to watch well, of course communications services, which is about fifty percent tech related, you also have when you look at the other sectors, just think about industrials and all the technology in that. And it's a good customer of technology, whether it's it's sensors of robotics or what have you, and the cloud, big data and all that aon. So when we look at this, it's you know, whether it's it's a utility company, whether it's a materials company, whether it's a pharmaceutical or a biotech. Technology is where it's at. So we can but think. The other reason is last year Tech was was fabulous it's performance because it had been so brutalized in twenty twenty two when the Bears sold all of Tech, the long duration they sold because they were worried about red dancings, but they sold the good stuff that was highly profitable positive cash low, create products, and deeply embedded in the lives of business and the consumer. John the cliche is the boat has left the duck. I would guess a very large percent of the surveillance audience feels like they missed twenty twenty three. How do you get back in the game if the boat's left the duck. Yeah, Tom, I would say for the people who missed this, I would say it's a question of layering in. That's not back up the truck. At these levels, consider opportunities that show up when you get some weakness in names that may have gotten away from you. Look for babies that get grown out with the bathwater in downdrafts to add to positions that you're building, and in essence, what you want to avoid is just blindly buying deps. You want to be selective, even within what appears to be a nicely broadening rally. After as Lisa pointed out earlier, I mean we're still back to the future in terms of the prices of stocks. In many cases outside of the magnificent seventy eight there you know they've got it would look like they've got plenty of headroom available to move higher in so many ways. We had a decade in a year. As Lisha and I discussed a little bit earlier on the program, John want to put to catch up with you, sir, Happy new year. John stelfiestet of Oppenheim arrasted management. Right now, we need perspective, and we get it from someone gifted. He's served the nation in the Marine Corps, also a White House fellow, and critically he is a king of speculative fiction with James Travitis, Elliott Ackerman's must read two thou thirty four, boy is out of mustard right now, given the Philippines, given the South China Sea, and we eagerly anticipate two thousand and fifty four that you'll see in March. Elliott Eckerman joins us this morning. Elliott, if this is not speculative fiction, it is reality in the Red Sea. What is lost in the press coverage? I think the one thing that is often lost is we have a tendency to focus kind of specifically on military events while losing perspective that all military events happen in a political overlay. You know, ultimately these are political questions. What's going on in Taiwan? What's going on in Ukraine, what's going on in Israel. And the longer these wars play out, the more and more central the politics of the war it self become. And what the outcome is going to be the heart of your fiction with the Admiral st Vetus is things happen suddenly and then in sequence, do we have the ships in place against these terrorists whatever you want to call them. Do we have the process in place where unexpected bad things can happen in sequence? I think when it comes to the Middle East and the challenges that we're seeing there, yes we do. And that is a situation where we the United States vis the Iranians. We are not facing a peer level adversary necessarily in Iran. And I agree with Terry's comments that the underappreciated conflict here is Taiwan. And when it comes to Taiwan, you know, the United States does not have the forces in place, at least peer level forces in place that could meet Chinese aggression across the Taiwan Straits, and that's one of the huge challenges that we face it. But the Chinese would be fighting that conflict in their backyard and we would be fighting it from across the Pacific Ocean. I want you to elaborate a little bit on the point that you just made that all of these international conflicts have real domestic political implications. What are some of the ramifications that we've seen over the past year, how the conflicts have developed, and how public opinion has shaped the inaction that we're currently seeing in Congress to continue providing aid. I think when we go around the go around the world, if we look at Ukraine right now, I would argue that that's probably a war that's not going to be decided on the battlefield as those conditions stagnate. Is a war that's going to be decided at the ballot box. And I think in Ukraine, in Israel, as we see this war is now extending in two months, I think domestic political considerizations in Israel are going to determine the outcome of their war with Hamas. And I think when we look at the United States, you know, the elephant in the room is we have an election. It's going to occur this fall, and how that election unfolds will be determinatives of those conflicts. And lastly, when we look at Taiwan, I mean, in two weeks the Taiwanese people are having a presidential election, and the outcome of that election will certainly affect China's perceptions on what they should do in Taiwan. How different is the foreign policy of Donald Trump versus President Biden. I think the foreign policy of Donald Trump is much more unpredictable, and I think the foreign policy of Joe Biden, as we've seen it, as much more. It has it much more incremental. So I don't think anyone can necessarily say what Donald Trump's policies would be on any three of these conflicts Taiwan, Ukraine, or Israel, Whereas I think we've seen sort of a more consistent approach that Joe Biden has applied. I mean, I look, Elliott where we are, and it's about public service. There's a lot of people watching this across this nation that have loved ones. That's the loved ones on long tours of duty. I know that the Ford is coming back from the Mediterranean. Are we fit now in our defense budget for multiple wars you mentioned Taiwan. Let's say our war Ukraine, our war Iran, maybe our war China. Do we have a budget near capable of meeting those three threats? I think we're I think we have to take a very very hard look not only at the budget and the financial resources that we're applying, but you know, also the intellectual resources. And that's actually where I have the most concerns. You know, is a what a war against China look like a repeat of the Second World War, in which the coin of the realm and naval battle or aircraft carriers eighty years after the aircraft carrier became the corner of the realm. And I don't know that that is necessarily the case. You know, we've seen in places like Ukraine that the Ukrainians have been very effective in sinking Russian ships of the line with shore based missiles. And so I know, I'm a marine veter in my own service right now is in the midst of doing some real strategic a real strategic reset about what it would look like to fight a revisited island hopping campaign in the South China Sea, and they're restructuring the entire Marine Corps to do that. So I think there's a budgetary question, but there's also an intellectual question of you know, what will the wars of the future look like, and that work needs to be done now, and it's going to force some American military institutions to transform in ways that are going to be very uncomfortable with the war of the future. Elliott, what's a more effective strategy one that's predictable or one that's unpredictable. Well, I think in terms of your battle plans, you always want to be unpredictable. The word I would use is one that is adaptive. Because it's very difficult to predict what the war the future is going to be. It's most essential not to get the prediction right, but to get the prosture right so that your forces can adapt to whatever the next conflict looks like. And to use an analogy from the Second World War, at the outset of the Second World War, in terms of naval warfare, again, the coin of the realm was the battleship, and it had been the corner of the realm and was the central platform for centuries. But as we all know, you know, Pearl Harvard, the entire US battleship fleet was sunk, and we had this new platform, which is the aircraft carrier, and that platform was able to adapt and become the central force around which naval battles were fought, and I think whatever the next war is, we're going to see a similar process of adaptation need to occur. It's going to have to occur very fast, and the side that gets their right will probably be the side that wins oty. Just to finish that, what do you suspect it is. I think it's going to probably be a network of platforms. I think it's going to be unmanned, unmanned ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, our ability to fight both a high tech war and also a hybrid low tech war where many of those high tech systems are taken offline and our forces ability to kind of toggle between the two. So it's gonna be very, very complex, but more of the network centric version of warfare as opposed to a platform center version of warfare built around you know, very big ships and aircraft and things of that. Interesting. Interesting Elliott, thank you, I appreciate your time this morning. Always do Happy New Year, Sir Akman, US Marine Corps veteran whether surround the table. Sarah Hunt, chief market strategist at Alpine Saxon Words, Sarah, good morning and happy New Year. Let's revisit that quote from Berkley's This Morning. We believe the continued period of week results coupled with multiple expands is not sustainable. You on the same page. I think you almost have to be. I mean, you know, the theme for twenty twenty three was all about the FED and what was going to happen, and as soon as the cycle peak, you could be okay. So if we pulled forward a lot of multiple expansion on the back of the idea that rates are going to come down, they're probably not going to come down to that great Financial crisis level. If they come down a couple hundred basis points. Is the multiple expansion already too much? And I think that that's going to be the big tension in a lot of them. And you know, for Apple, which we were talking about, you've got to look at all that consistency and all that cash onlo and that's what people are paying for that and the exclusivity of its Apple, and people will keep replacing those products. It's that assessment true. If the whole market of just a select group of stocks that dominate the market, I think it's more select group. I mean, you have to I think valuations and we keep saying and it's one of like, this is Europe's year, this is valuation's year. It's going to matter this year, right, I don't know when it's going to matter, but at some point it will. I think having money have a cost makes valuations matter in a way that we had fifteen years where you know, people talked about it, but it didn't really matter. And maybe that starts to happen now and maybe people really start looking at those metrics. But I think you've got a lot of money on the table, and you've got a lot of places that you know, I got a lot of money that needs to be invested. Frame out total return. You could go to the Bloomberg folks. The terminal tr is the function, and you can model in and your return quickly one year back, two years back, three years, et cetera. And the answer is we're now addicted to oh, I made fifteen percent. I failed Blooney, it's a single digit return. At the most, you're going to make eleven percent. But the answer is do we need to get use again to equity return of eight or nine percent? I think that you do. And I think that you also have to look at history. I mean, yes, you had a huge move last year, and a handful of names, and yes, some of the other stocks started to catch up at the end of the year. I'm just looking at a chart of L three Harris before I come on here, and I was like, Wow, that back end of the performance was really really quick. I don't know where you end up with multiples here, but I don't think that you can have the kind of growth that we've had given the kind of economic backdrop that we're looking at. You. If the Fed's really going to cut six times like the market is pricing in, then we probably have a much weaker economic scenario than earnings are pricing in. So I don't know. There's a tension here. In twenty twenty four has got a lot of questions that need to be answer. You're the person I've been wanting to ask this question too. One of the big surprises last year was that the great underperformance came from oil. Tom and John were talking about why that was so surprising considering some of the conflicts that really were escalating in the Middle East. At this point, we are seeing oil perkop just a touch with relative in relation to what's going on in the Red Sea. Could this increase if it continues, change the disinflation narrative absolutely, I mean just the changing the trade routes alone could change some of that because you're going to things get more expensive. But you've had a huge supply response to oil demand and you've got you were talking about earlier, the US is a huge producer now right commodities are priced on the margin. If I've got excess supply, I can't get prices to really move that high, which is why the Saudias had to keep taking oil off the market. But if you start to see a crimping of some of those roots and you can't move things the way you thought you could before, then you're going to see then you could see some problems. And that's been a huge help for the inflation picture. And if that changes and you start to see data that is a little bit more inflationary, that narrative on how much the Fed's going to cut has to change, and then that's going to be a question. Then where to equity multiples go given that scenario. I know that you're bullish on energy stocks through the beginning of last year, then you've got a little more tapid as you saw as some of the moves at this point, how much are you leaning in to some of those names because of just how offsides people would be if the disinflation narrative fades an oil prices surge. Well, we think of energy as an area where you need to have some position, but you trade around that position, and you get heavier when you think that you've got an opportunity, and you get lighter when you think that the market is not going your way. When the supply came up a lot, that's where you sort of lighten up on your energy positions. I don't think you want to be out of it entirely. You've got a lot of very good dividen yields in those and you've got a lot of stocks that act better in a bad market than some of the other things do. So I think that's something you want to trade around. And we still think that energy has a longer tail. You've got a Barbell portfolio, You've got short term stuff for your day trading. We know you're famous for that, Sarah, and then you got the buy and hold. I want you to talk to the audience that their heads are spinning off of COVID. They're stating, Okay, COVID's over. Can I maintain some form of three year or four year or five year ownership of whatever equity uncomfortable? Can you still do that act? I think you absolutely can, and I think that this is the time to really be thinking about that thematic trade of what's going to happen in the next few years. Right, so we look at something like Tetratech that does all sorts of engineering construction but basically on a lot of water and some of the infrastructure stuff. I think that you can definitely look at companies that have a longer term theme that are playing into some of the things that are going on, but the volatility within that you have to be able to say, okay, this is where I will allow some volatility to occur, because some of those stocks that we like a lot still have had some challenges in a year where someone makes an acquisition or somebody does something. But I think you can look at the matic investing now because you really got a longer term view and you've got a market. It's fairly expensive, so you better really like where you're positioned. Let's finish on the banks, the regional banks specifically, not a big players, the regionals Kori closely followed Regional Bank ETF you know them well, up almost fourteen percent in November of sixteen percent in December. Is that just a leftige trade on what's happening in the bond market in treasuries as yields fall aggressively or is there something to get your hands around for twenty four I think that's a lot to do with what's going on with interest rates, and I think it's also a lot to do with people looking for okay, where has completely still been on the floor and maybe we can pick something up here, because the valuations on that group were very, very not challenging relative to the rest of the market. I think you still have issues with the yield curve. I think it's still difficult to make some money in some of those and I think we still have some commercial real estate issues that we haven't flown through yet. So it's a little bit challenging to say that that's a definite thing about the environment as more as like it was being picked up off the floor. Speaking of the yeld curve, Lisa two year versus ten year still negative thirty six basis points. They're not going to really make up some of the difference through lending long and borrowing short. To also Sarah's point one hundred and seventeen billion dollars of commercial mortgage debt coming to just this year alone, that's really going to raise some questions on that front. With some of these reached out. I had the same article. I believe it is in the fteam. My brain's frozen on that right now. But the answer John is I saw a bar chart. I'm going to say ten cities in America, there's basically New York in some of all the others, and maybe every other city combined is the same as New York. I mean, it's amazing. Now this is a local issue for us. E Sarah, It's going to see you. Happy New year, Sarah. About pont Snackson Woods. Let's quickly get the ry isman of acquiry here on global FX and all the other things that get us back to a great bull market in the United States. Wonderful to have your after Wiseman to get us started for the year. Let me go to the larger view, which is everything hinges on China. Do you agree not for twenty twenty four? No, Although I do think that China is a very important part of the macro story. Globally. We have this central banks in the US to worry about, we have the central banks in Europe to worry about, and we have supply shocks, especially in the natural resource markets and the oil markets to worry about too. So China is important, but it's not all or nothing as it comes to China. I will say this though, I think the market is somewhat wrong in focusing too much on the property sector in China an agurate demand in China. I think what the market has lost sight of to some extent is President's willingness to go after the tech sector in China and more generally, you know, against the whole concept of private property in China. I think this is what is souring sentiment for China, and I think to the extent that that is find some relief in twenty twenty four, it could be a bigger deal for China on the upside than you know, some resolutions to the problems on the balance sheet of the property sector. There's been a multi decade failure of international stocks and some correlated over to an ever stronger dollar. Is a dollar finally broken where there's an unspoken opportunity in international equities. Well, if you're asking, is the dollar is a lot dollars a reserve currency as the standard for international trade, international finance is over No, I know, I don't think so. If what you're asking for, is there going to be a structural break with regard to the status of the dollar, international capital markets, and international trade, I think the answer is no. Remember that we had a period before we had globalization, before nineteen ninety five for that matter, when China and Russia and the other emerging markets were not that fully integrated into the global economy or the Washington Consensus for that matter, and yet we still talked about the dollar is the reserve currency of the world. Why, because you know, a good part of the of the world still depends on the dollar for its trade and for its commerce and for its it's financing. So no, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. At least, one of the trades that we do at the beginning of every year is to come up with potential tail risks, which inevitably will probably be wrong. But there is a question here. Tail risk the dollar being somehow profoundly debased, seems to be off the table. From what you just said, what about a sort of the tail risk of some sort of significant supply shock. You sort of alluded to that initially in the commodity space, so that I think is a bigger tail risk, and I think it behooves every investor out there to at least have some oil in one's portfolio, be long oil, because when you think about US recessions in the postwar period, you'll find it an amazingly large number of them had been preceded by a rapid rise in oil prices. You'll see that, and it behooves investors to have some oil in the portfolio because we just don't know to the extent that we do have a supply shock. Oil prices will go up, and you'll offset the losses you would otherwise experience from seeing stocks go seeing bonds go down. In that context, this raises a question to me of how off size the market would be should there be some sort of oil supply shock. Given the fact that people have kind of gotten accustomed to the idea that the US is a producing record amounts, and then even in the phase of conflict, oil prices went down, how wrongly positioned are people for this kind of this kind of event. I don't know how wrongly positioned they are. There is a case to be made, however, for the logic of oil prices having come down in the last few months, and the logic is very straightforward. The elasticity of supply in oil is actually quite high, potentially higher than the market surmised before six months ago. What we have seen with the increase in oil prices that preceded this decline is a huge increase in oil production in the US, and that is the basis for why oil prices are down. But if we were to get a shock, a shock out of the Middle East, for example, a shock out of Russia, it's not conceivable that production can go up quickly enough to offset that in a very short period of and that's the risk that we face right now from these shocks. Over the long term, there'll be an adjustment in US supply that's positive and beneficial, but not in the short term. Is the US donar a commodity currency now? No, I don't think so. Certainly the market doesn't see it that way, right. It's interesting there are some emerging markets that we don't necessarily associate that much from the perspective of their current account balance and their trade with oil, because they're not huge net exporters Brazil, for example, but they are large producers. And yet the market tends to associate the Brazilian real with oil more than it does associate the US dollar with oil. Do you expect that to change anytime soon? No? I don't think so. And that's because no one's going to really associate the US with a very large net export balance in oil. It really has to get to a point where US trade is dominated by oil, and that is not the case. Yet it's still dominated by services. Knowledge very true, TK The number is just absolutely staggering when it comes to production, thirteen million barrows a day in this country. Yeah, well, it's interesting here is we don't have an oil policy. I mean, we take great pride that Washington has never come up with the plan. We've got this plan, that plan, whatever plan. I guess it's a technological success. Not sure. We needn't want no plan. Well to that point, do we need one? It's Washington is the White House of renovant with regards to this conversation, only to respect that oil is such a geopolitical issue, and of course geopolitics and politics generally have to manage you through diplomacy or through some management of market forces that are relevant to geopolitics. That's ok. There's a case be made for the energy market to be managed from that perspective. But if it wasn't for the importance of oil from a geopolitical perspective, I don't think so. Terry. It's good to see you. Happy new year. Thank you, sir, Terry Wiseman of Macquarie. We're beginning strong this year, and part of that is with Doug Cass, who is many of you know out on social media. Seabree's Partners is a great pinata and Doug, before we get to your always interesting, thought provoking ten ideas, if I'm cautious on the market, or if I'm short on the market and the market runs away from me the other direction, what do you do? What do you do? In December? Given this bull market leg up? How did you respond? We were short in two time frames. One was timely mated after July after the majorly I run, but we didn't lose money in the majorly run, and we were net short in November and December. We didn't lose money either. And now how do you do that? I think a lot of people want to know, Doug, how do you not lose money? It's tough, you know, to begin with, Why did I get it wrong in the last two months? I think I underestimated the animal spirits and the price momentum that had been accumulated. I underestimated the power of the herd as the pressure on the upside intensified, and so did Fomo. I understand. I estimated the contribution from market structure, which had basically intensified the upside to equities, and same applies to interest rates. The momentum and the yields to the downside accelerated. And you know, we live in a market which is has a structure. It's far different than I started when I was a housing analyst kit or Peabody. Buyers live higher and sellers of lower, so you have to adapt. Warm Buffett said the first two lessons on investing don't lose money, and the second lesson is don't forget the first lesson. So we trade opportunistically around short positions and risk averse. Because my short book is pretty diversified, and when I'm wrong, I take a lot of small office that's the answer. But as we entered the new year, I am not short. So how do you think about here this twenty twenty four? Again, I think the you know, late October through the year end twenty three caught a lot of people by surprise, the vigor of that rally here. So what do we do here on January second? Well, I always find it amusing that there is now a universal view almost after the quantum rise, especially the NASDAC, the markets are headed higher. However, I think it's important Paul, to observe how wrong the confident consensus has been in each of the last two years. If you remember, in the end of twenty twenty one, the herd was optimistic. In twenty twenty two was a disaster. We had such a bad experience in twenty twenty two that the consensus ended that year wildly confident, and that especially but this time barish, especially on tech stocks, and that couldn't be for their off sides. Today, the consensus found the momentum is very bullish and an area bear can be found. In fact, many of the bears that I watch when I'm on the desk stars the NBC have now become bulls. So I see a vast of a ray of unexpected political, geopolitical, economic, and market surprises that could be untapped for next year. And my biggest concern is the equity risk premium. And despite the enormity of the drop in yields, the equity risk premium is still paper thin, and historically this is a reasonable predictor of weak markets. Paul Apple, Yeah, exactly, Doug surprises for twenty twenty four. What should Maybe we're not thinking about it. I mean we should, sure. I think one of the things we're not thinking about is in part due to fear that the Democrats will continue to hold on to the presidency. Foreign powers step up military confrontations and my surprise, my second surprise, is that the West continues to lose patients with how the war is going with Ukraine, as a US backs off and support and negotiations of a territorial split began and Ukraine is forced to give up east side of the country. North Korea, with support from Russia, undertakes skirmishes in the DMZ and makes threats to invade South Korea. Iran completes its nuclear build up, which provides a direct attack from Israel. Though China doesn't invade Taiwan, it continues with aggressive war game tactics in the Kia Sea. So my feeling is that the global economy, Tom and pol are more susceptible to supply shocks than has generally believed. And with Russia and Saudi conspiring on production cuts, I wouldn't be surprised as a surprise that the price of oil exceeds one hundred and ten dollars a barrel, and the price of a gallon gasoline US approaches six dollars, and shares of Exxon oxy chevron each rise by a third in the year. Doug, I want to get to send it's so important within all of this, you really go after the Blackstones, the Apollos of the world. You say, private equity quote to get torn to shreds. Discuss that that's important for global wall Street. Sure, Surprise number seven is Wall Street's most vicious vultures. Private equity are about to get torn to shreds. And remember we still Tom have elevated interest rates, and we have a slowing global economy. We have the loan rate reset cliff beginning at the last half of this year, and I think it's going to contribute to a leader in private credit failing. Blackstone shares could drop by a third after the BREI, which is the private real estate fund run by the company, and the public fund bx MT come under new redemption pressures. And finally, I wouldn't be surprising. I was involved as a director of a business development company in New York Stock Exchange and I personally saw vividly the phony marks in our books. So my surprise is that shares a private equity stocks like KKR, Apollo and Blackstone plunge as the SEC opens and investigation into the failure of the private equity industry to realistically marked to market their portfolios in the timely manner. Wow, interesting because that's been an issue for a long time, particularly now that these companies are public. How about private credit, Doug, This is a new business for you, Tom and me. Over the last decade or something. It's just exploded in terms of size. We were all comfortable with, or we think we understand private equity, but private credit has become a huge business and it just doesn't feel like it gets the regulatory scrutiny that they get the regulatory scrutiny at all. Paul it's hurting the banking industry. It's one of the reasons why I'm so negative on banks, besides the credit cycle, the emerging credit cycle. So this is something to watch, you know, whenever there is such quantum increase in balance sheets as are currently in private equity, we have to be on the alert. Well, speaking of alert, Doug, I got time for one question. I read my Padres in Red Sox the athletic coverage this week. I'm sorry Juan Soto for the dreaded New York Yankees. He's basically Weighe bogs with power that changes the Yankees lineup, doesn't. It's a massive move for the Yankees. Our team has lacked left hand sluggers in recent years, and we never had the necessary lineup support for Aaron Judge. Remember, he bats left handed right and he's fully capable of taking advantage of the short porch in right fielded Yankee Stadium. I think we're one Jordan Montgomery type away through the World Series. But the problem is Montgomery, Montras, Manea Lugo, they're all going, they're all signing. But this is a powerful lineup from may U Sodo, Judge, Zo, Stanton Torres, twenty seconds. Dougcast, could you do something about the food at Yankee Stadium? People that live in glasshouses in Fenway Park? Doug, Thank you so much. Doug Cass the series partners. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always. I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keane and this is Bloomberg.
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Sam Stovall, CFRA Chief Investment Strategist, advises going for breadth in equity investments next year. Mark Gurman, Bloomberg News Chief Correspondent, recaps another robust year for Apple and discusses the ongoing legal saga with the Apple Watch. Terry Haines, Pangaea Policy Founder, says markets may be undervaluing geopolitical and US domestic risks. Angela Stent, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow, breaks down the latest in the Russia-Ukraine war amid Russia's largest missile barrage since the invasion began. Josh Weinstein, Carnival CEO, walks through a year that saw record demand for the international cruise line.
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Cathie Wood, Ark Investment Management CEO, CIO & Founder, recaps a prosperous year for Ark Invest ETFs and discusses her outlook on the crypto and technology sectors for 2024. Lara Rhame, FS Investments Chief US Economist, breaks down the final jobless claims data of 2023 and predicts a moderation in consumer spending next year. Mona Mahajan, Edward Jones Senior Investment Strategist, says bouts of volatility next year could provide opportunities for investors to get more involved. Geoff Yu, BNY Mellon Senior Market Strategist, says the US dollar has peaked and advises to pick any dollar shorts with caution. Ellen Wald, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow, discusses the latest in the global oil markets amid increasing instability in Red Sea trading.
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Kristina Hooper, Invesco Chief Global Market Strategist, says the key for investors in 2024 is to be well-diversified.
Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets Large Cap Bank Analyst, advises a risk-on investment strategy going into the new year.
Steven Cook, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Middle East & Africa Studies, says the US will opt to remain on the defensive amid recent escalations in the Red Sea.
Nadia Martin Wiggen, Svelland Capital Director, overviews the impacts of ongoing geopolitical conflicts on the global oil market.
Sel Hardy, CFRA Research Analyst, predicts a gradual recovery in the healthcare sector next year.
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Dana Telsey, Telsey Advisory Group CEO, recaps a busy holiday shopping season and says there's been a moderation in consumer spending across all income levels.
Dan Ives, Wedbush Sr. Equity Research Analyst, predicts Apple will hit a whopping $4 trillion market capitalization next year.
Matt Miskin, John Hancock Investment Management Co-Chief Investment Strategist, predicts the Fed will have less influence over markets in 2024.
Tom Tzitzouris, Strategas Head of Fixed Income Research, says rate cuts are easier to justify for central banks outside the US than for the Fed.
Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, overviews escalating tensions in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spill over.
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Michael Gapen, Bank of America Securities Head of US Economics, says November's Core PCE inflation data supports a March rate cut from the Fed. Ed Yardeni, Yardeni Research President, calls for a bullish 5,400 on the S&P 500 by the end of 2024. Kim Wallace, 22v Research Head of Washington Policy Research, gives his end-of-year political recap and outlines his expectations for 2024. Deborah Cunningham, Federated Hermes Global Liquidity Markets CIO, says cash is continuing to enter the markets via deposit products and money market funds. Brian Kelly, The Points Guy founder, overviews the holiday travel season and says most of the current travel growth is international.
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Steven Ricchiuto, Mizuho Securities Chief US Economist, reacts to a resilient US jobless claims report and cautions that the recession the market is pricing-in doesn't happen. Stuart Kaiser, Citi Head of US Equity Trading Strategy, says bullishness likely has a wider window to perform going into 2024. Susan Thornton, Paul Tsai China Center at Yale University Senior Fellow, expects a tumultuous year ahead for US-China relations. Robert Fishman, Moffettnathanson Sr. Research Analyst, discusses the potential merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global.
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Michael Hirson, 22V Research Head of China Research, discusses a new NBC News report that claims Xi Jinping warned President Biden that Beijing intends to reunify Taiwan. Frances Donald, Manulife Investment Management Global Chief Economist & Strategist, says we've already entered a global easing cycle. Jim Caron, CIO, Portfolio Solutions Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, advises a balanced portfolio approach going into what he expects to be a 'very rocky year'. Dan Ives, Wedbush Sr. Equity Research Analyst, says Apple margins will continue to expand despite pressure from EU regulators. Aaron David Miller, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow, says 'huge' problems lie ahead for the US in addressing the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping vessels.
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Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Chairman & CEO, sits down with Bloomberg's David Westin for a conversation on the bank's eventful year in 2023 and his economic outlook going forward. Rich Clarida, PIMCO Global Economic Advisor, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman & Columbia University Professor, says he doesn't think Fed Chair Powell made a mistake in suggesting rate cuts next year. Chris Hyzy, Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank Chief Investment Officer, says investors are eyeing a broadening out in the equity market over the next several years. Subadra Rajappa, Societe Generale Head of US Rates Strategy, expects the bond market rally to lose momentum going into the year-end. Ellen Wald, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow, discusses the impacts of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea on the global oil market.
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Bill Dudley, former NY Fed President & Bloomberg Opinion columnist, says the market could be getting ahead of itself after Fed Chair Powell's optimistic outlook. Priya Misra, JP Morgan Asset Management Portfolio Manager, says markets are not pricing in the chance of Fed cuts below the 3% level. Jay Pelosky, TPW Advisory Principal & Founder, says that we're moving toward a rate cutting cycle in 2024. Elliot Ackerman, US Marine Corps Veteran & former White House Fellow, breaks down the latest on the Israel-Hamas war. Kevin Book, Clearview Energy Partners Co-Founder & Managing Director, discusses the impacts of ongoing attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
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Julian Emanuel, Evercore Chief Equity & Quantitative Strategist, expects the Fed to stay as quiet as possible over the next few months after giving markets the ‘all-clear’. Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group United States Managing Director, discusses the implications of increasing global resistance for supplying aid to Ukraine. Greg Daco, EY Chief Economist, says the economy has “all the right ingredients for a disinflationary environment” in 2024. Meghan Swiber, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Director of US Rates Strategy, says uncertainty around inflation is leading to a reluctance for markets to price-in the Fed’s 2% goal.
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Neil Dutta, Renaissance Macro Head of Economics, says the Fed is following a "rules-based framework" around inflation and expects the economy to continue top grow. Elyse Ausenbaugh, J.P. Morgan Private Bank Global Investment Strategist, reacts to the ECB decision. Sree Kochugovindan, Abrdn Senior Research Economist, says she sees the possibility of a start of a technical recession in the UK and expects recession-like conditions to persist. Stephanie Roth, Wolfe Research Chief Economist, says the runway is wider for a soft landing in the US.
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keene, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. This is a joy. Yesterday was humbling ability for everyone, no question about that, and today well accept But today a recalibration year of where we go in our optimism on the American experiment. A few have been right, nobody like Neil duddat how to Economics at Renaissance Macro over the last eighteen months an absolute tewort of force that America economic might will prevail. This morning, David Rosenberg writes of a tepidominal GDP. At the same time, the tech analyst Dan ives Hit Webbush and Joel Fish buying it truest go out two in three years. I'm technical excellence of the Magnificent seven. Can our technology lead continue the dota optimism on American economy? That's a tough question, Tom, I mean, I hope so. I mean, productivity is notoriously difficult to forecast. But if productivity is picking up, which it has been over the last couple of quarters, then it raises the you know, the capacity for the economy grow without stoking inflation, and that takes a lot of pressure off the Fed. The last few months, you've been absolutely locked in. You seem to have some kind of visibility on what's happening here that some of the people are lacking. What's helping you. What's the framework that you're using to see things a little bit more clearly over the last few months. Well, I mean you had mentioned earlier that you know, Powell uh sounded some sounded different a couple of weeks ago. I mean, but you know, to me, the die has been cast for this for for a little bit of time now, I mean, and that's because inflation is slowing more rapidly than they expect. I mean, I think the Fed is following essentially a rules based framework where they're taking changes in inflation and the unemployment rate and translating that into expectations around the federal funds rate. And that's basically what's happening. That's what they did yesterday. And so you know, core inflation in November is likely to come in barely one tenth of one percent month over month, and that means that the momentum going into twenty twenty four is quite weak. And so if they're revising down inflation in December, which they did, and then a few months later they're going to be revising down inflation again in March, what do you expect expect them to do? What I would push back on, John, is this notion that this is because I mean, you know, you see all this already. Oh the ten years broken below four percent, that means a recession is happening. No, that's not what this is about. This is about inflation coming in better and the adjusting as a result, and that's ultimately a good thing. And you know, I think it's going to, you know, give the economy it a chance to continue growing. And I think that's that's what's likely. Well gets you around look on growth in just a moment. Policymakers like to use the word if just to hedge themselves if this continues, we might do this. You don't think that if is that large? You think this is already kind of baked in these right cuts are coming. Well, I don't know that it'll be six because to me, six feels like, you know, if there's a recession, six wouldn't be enough, but if the economy is growing, six feels like too many. Frankly, but I do. I don't think it's much of an if about round inflation. I mean, Powell talked earlier this year about a disinflationary process, and I think that was a little bit premature to talk about it. But now it really does feel like a meaningful disinflationary process is underway, and we have continued moderation in housing rental inflation coming. You know, the Terminal has an article today about Manhattan rants going down year over year. We also know that used car prices will continue to deflate over the next several months, and that was actually it popped in November. So and between that and you know, core goods excluding cars, I mean there's continued downside there as well, so I do. And the labor markets are basically normalized. I mean, they're they're back into balance. So I think you kind of go down the line, and you know, to me, it suggests that we're going to see continued disinflation over the next several quarters. Jpewell did not want to really dig into the question around financial conditions and the easing of which we've seen over the past couple of weeks, but I'd love you to weigh in on it. Do you have any concerns that the easing and financial conditions will actually push inflation in the other direction? Well, I think that's a reason to expect there to be a ceiling on how many cuts they'll end up doing. But I don't think that they're going to be upset about the easing of financial conditions in and of themselves. I mean, if you think about the Fed's reaction function, right, it's labor market, it's inflation, and then financial conditions. If labor markets are in balance and inflation is slowing, why would they be The markets are then reassessing the Fed's interest rate paths, So why would they be upset about that? Well, you've been really good about tracking homebuilders. For example, if suddenly you start to see a reacceleration in the home space, right, if you start to see people re engaging with selling homes and being able to price up some of these homes because mortgage rates are lower, could that pose a problem? Right? These are some of the questions that people have. So I think I'm of still robust growth. So Powell yesterday talked about the seesaw thing right where we go from like one story like no landing, soft landing, hard landing back to soft landing. And I just feel like we need to get through this about of disinflation first before we talk about what happens next. And I mean, could I make a case for things may reaccelerate and that could reignite inflation, and then the FED will have to come back and undo the cuts that they put in place in twenty twenty four. I mean, that's a plausible scenario. You know, we're not going to have any multi family construction really next year, and that could you know, reignite inflation because there won't be enough housing supply. But I do think the FED has to deal with the issues that are in front of them, and right now, the overwhelming issue is that inflation is slowing more rapidly than expected. And for a central bank that believes that neutral rates are two and a half percent, they're going to be more cognizant and sensitive to the risk that they overtightened, and so I think that's why they want to get the cuts away first. It's not about you know, I mean what my reaction function is. It's about what their reaction function is. And that's what we're trying to get. I want to go quickly here. The Neil Deta optimism is much like the edge Yardeni optimism. He on Inequity Call has a huge stock market out to Dow forty seven thousand, SPX six thousand, you know, two three years out, and he talks about the Roaring twenty twenties. There was a Roaring twenties one hundred some years ago and it didn't end. Well. Your optimism, how it different from the effervescence the exuberance of an unstable roaring twenties, Well, I would just say, I mean, if we do have a roaring period of economic activity, I mean, it does help that we we had a financial crisis in two thousand and eight. We already had the big one, and you know we have guardrails and we have well we have the benefit of hindsight, right, I mean, you know, one of the ways you avoided depression is by going through on the first time and you know, so I think that that's that's helpful. What do they say, congratulations on a great quarter? Congratulations now, oh, thank you, thank you, Sir nod'nswer of NISO's Macro at least saw some of US global investment strategist JP Morgan Private Bank, and she has a wonderful image in her note summing up the FED, the ECB, the Bank of England and fourteen other central banks about investment strategy into twenty twenty four. Somebody's got to land the plane. After what we saw on the turbulence yesterday at two o'clock and in that press conference, recalibrate this morning, how are we going to land the plane given the instabilities of the last fifteen hours. Look, I think there is a distinction between what's going on domestically in the United States and the position that that puts the FED in too potentially cut in the first half of next year, versus what we're seeing abroad in England and in the broader euro region. You know, it's no surprise to us that both the BOE and the ECB stayed on hold, and we do think that the ECB is probably still the most obvious candidate to deliver the first cut simply in light of the economic weakness that you're seeing. This is a really interesting point, and it's frankly what I'm sniffing out from markets that are not reacting to this as I thought that they would. I would expect the euro to actually strengthen dramatically on the heels of this in response to a more hawkish ECB that many people say, are you just saying that you don't believe them? No, not necessarily, you know, I think the ECB has to continue to kind of hold this hawkish posture, especially given that wage growth hasn't necessarily rolled over in a commencing way in Europe, but given the economic slow down and maybe nascent signs of some sort of economic life coming back, I think the ECB has to talk tough, but we'll probably be the first to cut, maybe as soon as the spring. This was the conversation we had yesterday before we went into chair and powe. If we got push back, how credible would it be? Just feels like from the ECB doesn't feel as credible might be given what we already know about what's happening in the economy. Here's the market question at least you're more bullish now than you were yesterday morning after what you heard from Powe. Sure, we were having a lot of conversations about this on our floor yesterday. I think what we learned from the FED is that we have to start entertaining our bowl case a little bit more. But we came into yesterday's decision on the front foot, and we've been encouraging investors to add back to risk exposure. We have a relatively bullish view on the S and P five hundred for the year ahead, and I think this just kind of underwrites our conviction in that call. What's the bullcase bolcase is S and P five hundred ends next year five thousand, But we'll see. I think that would probably dictate the FED cutting before the second half of the year. But right now our base case pencils and cuts in the second half of the year and not yet. So the Banner's Awesome Bosses Fortress Diamond calls five fodcast. Yeah, not quite, I would say, isn't there a risk we could be there in January based on what we're seeing? How I think January feels a little aggressive. We still have to see, you know, the earnings come through. We are making this call that the earnings recession is likely over and that we're going to see rolling earnings recoveries. But let's get through the fourth quarter reporting season and then look beyond to twenty twenty four US. That sounds like equal white and not market cat whited SMP. Is that right? We do have conviction in making sure that you have exposure to the other four hundred and ninety three names in the index beyond the magnificent seven. But we're constructive on the magnificent seven. I mean, these companies are projected to grow earnings north of twenty percent in twenty twenty four, and that is definitely an exposure that we're encouraging investors. That's your conviction. When everybody gets out of cash, what's going to happen? I want to We've never been here, six trillion in cash, we get under five percent money market fund, what happens? Well? I think you have to take into consideration that bonds are back on the table, right. That to me means that there is still a trade to step into some duration and not necessarily just plow into the equity market. I think some folks will remain a little reticent given where valuations are today, but given the you know, improved free cash flow generation of S and P five hundred companies relative to ten years ago, we are comfortable with today's valuations. We just don't think that that's going to be what drives the upside into the next twelve months. At least it's going to see in person. Thanks for coming in that Jpmulgan private bank following the ACP decision. These are absolutely extraordinary time. Let's get a European brief on this with Aberdeen three Katrikavidian joining us this morning. Siri, the divide here between the central banks, I believe I've never seen. Do you perceive that, how alone is Jay Powell versus Governor Bailey or what we're going to see from Christine Lagard in a bit. I think this really highlights is the differences across the economies and the different challenges that each of these central bankers are facing. So obviously we had a bit of a pivot yesterday from the FED and that's really spilled over into rates markets across these different regions. However, as we've seen the Bank of England does face a very different challenge. Inflation is less of an outlier that it used to be. It is coming down at a steady pace, but they still have some challenges if you look at the core inflation and services inflation in particular services is still running at six point six percent year on year, So that's still a problem there for a Bank of England which is trying to manage we GDP growth as well as a stickier inflation picture then compared to other regions. So hence there's no change in guidance, no changing statement, and we still have a six to three vote split. And I think that's a key communication point right there, the fact that you know we have that split, given that there is no statement of economic projections, let's create our own. If they did put out whether they thought that the economic growth was going to be better or worse they previously expected, what direction do you think it would go? Well, I think what we've seen just in the recent data, we had the October GDP which was a disappointment there and I think that will be something that they would definitely consider. If we look at the moving averages across if we look through that contraction that we saw a month or month for October that was across the board for services, construction and manufacturing. But if we smooth that out, it is we are looking at a flat three month on three months, but there's a possibility tive a start of a technical recession and recession like what we're expecting is recession like conditions to persist throughout the first half of next year. So really it's a difficult balancing act for the Bank of England, but we do think that they're more likely to hold on with this five point two five percent and stay there for a few more months. Yet, timing is obviously quite fluid and will depend on inflation how fast inflation decelerates, But they might be one of the later central banks to cut if we compare with potentially ECB and the change in tone from the Fed se how much does that benefit them in a sense, given the fact that we are seeing the pound strengthen that this actually could be a disinflationary if they do diverge from the other central banks. Yes, I think the move in the sterling will help somewhat in terms of imported price impact, but really it comes down to this wage inflation that's that's really going to be key. Now. One good piece of news is that real wages are a bit stronger because inflation has come down a bit, so that should help boost or at least support consumers to some extent. But nonetheless, the imbalances in the UK labor market are still there. They've improved, but they're still there and that's going to create that bumpy last mile for the UK. Three if we've got to run rate in the United States of nominal GDP of four percent, anybody's guests, what is your custamate a nominal GDP for the Bank of England and for the ECB, what numbers are What of those two different numbers this morning, what we have seen. I think we're going to see a slow down there in terms of GDP growth, particularly for the Euro Area. I think the challenge there is that we've seen a much weaker inflation outlook than they've they've actually projected, and I think that what we're projecting versus what's happening versus what c beer projecting. I think that challenge is what we're going to really see later on today from from the ECB, whether they're you know, how they address the fact that actual data has been weaker, both inflation as well as the growth outlook is weakening, so I think that could be quite important in terms of what they say about the shift in timing. Obviously, the markets have pulled forward the timing for the first cut from the ECB, and we have as well. We've moved. We were looking more mid year and now we're looking for in March April, more likely April. So you know, I think this is the kind of signaling that we need to be focusing on in terms of what what messages are coming out of the ECB later today and again going forward for the for the UK as well, it's going to be you know, that relative shift in data that the UK will be will be focusing on in the coming meetings. Sorry, thank you, Sory goatcha guvnd of Appetite Stephanie Rod's had a very busy weekend scheduled cancel that the chief economist at Wolf Research has to rewrite the view, as she did last night in a sharp post FED note. Let's go to your post FED note. What was the biggest change in that note after the drama of two o'clock yesterday. I think the biggest change is that the FED is less scared of stronger growth and they're now appreciating that inflation's come down. Like they took up their growth numbers, but inflation came down so much that they feel pretty good about the backdrop. It said, so far, so good. Is this FED still data dependent? They're data dependent, but they're more inflation dependent than growth dependent. I think they're recognizing that inflation can come down even if growth remains fairly strong. This, to me was the biggest change that basically this is not going to be contingent on some sort of deceleration in the economy that they are really leading into the soft landing narrative. Do you have a more optimistic view that they can achieve a soft landing after yesterday than you had before? Yeah, and I've been calling for a soft dish landing. Now I think I just have more conviction in that they can. The fact that they can cut rates even sooner than our base case. Our base case was Q three of next year heading into yesterday. We've pushed that up to Q two, and that just makes the runway even that much wider for the soft landing to happen. Do you think that financial conditions don't matter? Were you were you okay with how Chair Powell responded to that question yesterday. Yeah, he didn't. He didn't really talk about financial conditions that much, and November he mentioned it thirteen times. This was a big turnaround. I think he's just not that scared with the way financial conditions have eased, because inflation has come down, notably with the markets that where there are futures up twelve. I have been really I've really failed at the core theme that I think that was somewhat alluded to by the chairman yesterday. We're going to go to Mike mckeere and a bit folks before we get to Christine Legard and Frankfort. But Stephanie Roth, you're quite good at this, which is interpretating what I call the three ratio productivity dynamic of capital labor in the pixie dust of American efficiency as well. What have you learned to reaffirm better productivity in the last fifteen hours. Do they have a confidence that we're more efficient, a better run economy. We have seen productivity pick up in the last couple quarters. I don't know if we can bank on that continuing, but I think there's real scope for that. The economy has learned to operate with fewer workers than what the pre COVID trend would suggest. The standard idea is of you have ten years, you know, we'll know in five years or whatever about productivity now, But are you guestimating that we grossly underestimate not the capital dynamic, the labor dynamic. And you know Alisa Torsten Slock with that comment out today have more employed people in the middle of the age bracket in America. But is it really about the technology overlay that we're completely underestimating even as we live it. I think there's an element of that, but I think the bigger story here is a labor supply. We've had such strong labor supply this year that's helped the rebounds the labor market. It was a combination of immigration and female elberforce participating in Claudia Sah mentioned this yesterday with a Nobel Lauri at Claudia Golden at Harvard and that the women coming back into the labor force is jaw dropping. If you are just joining us, just to repeat some of these numbers because they are notable, I want to just take a look. Initial jobless claims came in yet again below the expectation. That is a good downward surprise, two hundred and two thousand versus the expectation of two hundred and twenty thousand retail sales month over month. The control group came in zero point four percent versus the expectation for zero point two percent. Zero point six percent versus zero point two percent expected when you strip out autos and gas, Stephanie, do you get a sense that basically the consumer is not cracking at all, That basically they still have money and the actual real wages going up will continue to fuel the spending spree that has underpinned a lot of the recovery. Yeah, I think the consumer is doing just fine. I mean, the one thing to highlight within the print is we did get some downwards vision to the prior month, so like if you smooth through it, it's a little bit less strong than it seems. But yeah, the consumer seems fine. You're starting to see some delinquencies at the most vulnerable spots, but with rates coming down and conditions easing, maybe that's the Maybe that's kind of the end of that. What would you have to see to start to really question the soft landing thesis? Where would the weakness come from? Do you see it anywhere on the horizon that you're watching and some of the incoming data. I think there's two things to watch out for. One, the labor market is that going to crack As long as the consumers are employed, they're going to keep spending. And then on the on some of these cracks that are forming within within the consumer, that's just you know, keeping keeping me looking quite closely. So some of the delinquencies at the lower end or with the younger borrowers by now pay later, that kind of thing that feels very late cycle to me. But overall the consumer seems fine. What's your run rate for GDP? All of us got wrong third quarter? There was a third quarter quiet and we got this shock optimistic number. We're going to reduce that in the fourth quarter as well and get say three percent GDP two point eight percent. Those are pretty good numbers. Yeah, I think it looks like it could be tracking above two percent, above two coming, give me above three? Can we get above three percent? I don't think so. You're gonna have an inventory drag, so I don't think so. Okay, what about export imports? We got the you know, the pricing on export and imports today, but on trade to me. The wild card next year's China, And to me, the great question is do we underestimate China once again and the export import dynamic of America adds to GDP. Is that possible? I think trade could be a bit of a boost next year. I don't think it'll be dramatically, So I think the thing to think there's two things to think about. One is are we going to end up with cross the board import tariffs in twenty twenty five? Is that? Is that a real issue depending on how the political cycle plays out. And then the second thing is everybody's talking about reshoring, but there's not really that much signs of it yet, so they're not really you know, we're still importing disinflation. It's not as if we're all of a sudden manufacturing all of these goods here and that's going to create lots of goods inflation in the US. Who do you think is more right the Fed projecting out three rate cuts next year or the market pricing out six rate cuts next year the Fed unless we get a recession, which is not my bease case. So in other words, that that seems the most likely, which is actually less than the market is currently expecting and less sort of disinflationary than people are pricing in. Yeah, but I think the one thing is the market's not pricing the FED getting all the way down to somewhere on two and a half to three percent, which is where I think the FED will ultimately cut to. So that's where the rest of the market could sort of price too. We have to turn to Franford. Thank you so much, Stephanie Roth with it's just terrific summer here with the Wolf Research publishing and that we can get that research from Wolf. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always on the Bloomberg Turn No, No, thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen, and this is Bloomber
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Blackrock Managing Director Jeffrey Rosenberg discusses the latest Fed decision with Bloomberg's Tom Keene, Lisa Abramowicz, and Jonathan Ferro.
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Bloomberg's Tom Keene, Jonathan Ferro and Lisa Abramowicz discuss remarks from Fed Chair Jay Powell following the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision.
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Claudia Sahm, Sahm Consulting Founder & Bloomberg Opinion Writer, says her biggest risk factor in the markets is the Fed itself. John Stoltzfus, Oppenheimer Asset Management Chief Investment Strategist, says any interest rate cuts would likely happen toward the end of 2024. Mike Schumacher, Wells Fargo Global Head of Macro Strategy, says that markets are running ahead of the Fed. Andrew Hollenhorst, Citi US Chief Economist, says an overall slowing of economic activity points to a Fed cut. Chris McGratty, KBW Head of US Bank Research, says banks are deleveraging amid expectations of slower growth.
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Dana Peterson, The Conference Board Chief Economist, expects consumers to pull back on spending as core prices ticked up in November. Alicia Levine, BNY Mellon Wealth Management Head of Investment Strategy and Equity Advisory Solutions, predicts the Fed won't cut rates until the second half of 2024. Lindsey Piegza, Stifel Chief Economist, says her concern is that the Fed doesn't tighten enough, and allows inflation to become further entrenched. Christyan Malek, JP Morgan Global Head of Energy Strategy and Head of EMEA Oil & Gas Equity Research, says it's only a matter of time until the global oil markets tighten.
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Carl Riccadonna, BNP Paribas Chief US Economist, says we still have yet to feel peak restriction. Sarah Hunt, Alpine Saxon Woods Chief Market Strategist, says there's a place for bonds as investors look to a more balanced portfolio. Greg Valliere, AGF Chief US Policy Strategist, says we could see a surprise from the Democrats with an unknown nominee. Max Layton, Citi Global Head of Commodities Research, says OPEC+ would need to maintain cuts next year in order to balance markets.
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Julie Su, US Acting Secretary of Labor, reacts to the better-than-expected November jobs report. Michael Darda, Roth MKM Chief Economist & Macro Strategist, says that the report should compel the Fed to hold off on cutting rates in early 2024. Jeff Rosenberg, BlackRock Portfolio Manager of the Systematic Multi-Strategy Fund, says the report suggests a very strong labor market supportive of services inflation. Jerome Schneider, PIMCO Managing Director, Short-Term Portfolio Management & Funding, gives his take on the jobs report.
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Tiffany Wilding, PIMCO Economist, expects growth to stagnate next year as the Fed's policy drags continue to build. David Bailin, Citi Global Wealth Chief Investment Officer & Global Head Of Investments, says there's opportunity in rising earnings as markets begin to normalize. Randy Kroszner, Univ. of Chicago Professor of Economics & Former Fed Governor, says continued wage growth makes the Fed's inflation goal unlikely. Paul Sankey, Sankey Research Founder & Lead Analyst, says he's concerned that Saudi Arabia may dump the oil market as prices continue to drop. Terry Haines, Pangaea Policy Founder, recaps a fiery Republican presidential debate.
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Full transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Lisa Abramoids along with Tom Keane and Jonathan Farrow. Join us each day for insight from the best in economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business App. Right now, I've been out a few days, but I really want to reset here on the American economy, and there's no one better to do that than Tiffany Wilding, economist at Pimco. Tiffy, I'm going to go beyond the labor reports. We'll circle back to that. What is your real GDP growth for twenty twenty four? Yeah, I mean, so we think that the good news from twenty twenty three, the resilient story, the you know, two and a half percent kind of above trend GDP growth, you know, that's probably squarely behind us. You know, the saying kind of goes you can't go to heaven twice, and we think some of the factors that led to that, you know, we're still some of these excess savings sloshing around from the pandemic and other supports, and you know, and those kinds of things in our and under our estimation are going away next year. And when you when those things go away, what you're left with is still tight monetary policy, you know. And obviously we have a Federal Reserve that is telling us they're going to remain on hold. So those policy drags are continuing to build. So overall, we think growth probably is closer to something, you know, the stagnant. You know, whether it's slightly positive or slightly negative, I think is anyone's guest. But we're kind of a stagnant situation next year. So are you basically saying that we're in heaven and that this is the Goldilocks and that you can't go there again it's over? Yeah, I mean, so we do think there's a lot of good news this year with the US economy. There's a lot of surprising resilience in the growth numbers, of course, you know, and and so we think, you know, the supply picture, as the Federal Reserve has also pointed out, has also helped that, you know. But again, if you looked at twenty twenty four, you have demand which is potentially coming down, you know, but some of the things that added to supply, like supply chain normalizations. You know, we have the labor force participation rate for the prime age folks that are now you know, it's back to pre pandemic levels. You know, we're just not convinced maybe that you're going to get as much on the supply side next year. Now. Of course, immigration has been a story here, and that's why we've also seen you know, the unemployment rate rise because some of those labor market inflows aren't getting absorbed by just a strong labor demand. But again, overall, all of those signals kind of point to us of something that's closer to more stagnant. More stagnant economy. Baked into this is this assumption that you're going to have higher yields for a longer period of time. You said, what we're going to be left with is just tighter financial conditions, and yet it's unclear whether that's going to be the case. There have been a lot of people calling for pretty substantial rate cuts by the Fed, by the ECP in response to inflation coming down significantly. Do you agree with the paradigm or oil prices stay lower than they have and keep inflecting lower because of production, because of supply, you start to see a re engagement of global trade, forget deglobalization, and you start to get more people come into the workforce. It's basically everyone that people use. It's the opposite of the this time is different narrative that we heard this year. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm not exactly sure in terms of labor market inflows. You know, higher participation rates for that prime age cohort, you know, I'm not sure that that's going to continue to increase. I do think there's some potential for immigration flows to stay high in twenty twenty four. That's been a story not only in the US but across the developed markets. Obviously geop elevated, you know, geopolitical risks and conflicts are are contributing to that as well. But overall, you know, I guess what we would say is is that, you know, the Federal Reserve has told us that they are still worried about the last mile problem on inflation. In order to really ensure that inflation's back to target, you know, I think we think, you do, you need to see some more labor market loosening. Marketing's coming back here in equity's, bonds, currencies, commodities, a little bit of adjustment off the claims, and we've come back in a little bit. I call it noodling. As we staggered to tomorrow morning at eight thirty, Tiffany, one of the great responsibilities you have is to stagger down the rows at PIMCO, tripping over the antique Monroe traders and looking at people's Bloomberg screens. And the two minute drill is what is a short space going to do, the Jerome Schneider space, And what's it going to do in terms of the wall of money that's out there that's off your remit? But your remit is what are the economic conditions that make cash finally move? Can you come up with a scenario where cash finally moves? Yeah? Absolutely, I mean I do think it's it's certainly this quote soft landing scenario, right, you know. And I think that the fact that the Federal Reserve as well as other central banks have signaled that they're at the top of their cycle, you know, along with this coinciding shock to term premiums, just made bond market valuations look really attractive and as a result, those higher yields just didn't stay around that long, and you are starting to see cash I think, come off the sidelines, go into the bond market now, you know, I think there's a question around the equity market, you know, riskier assets. I mean, certainly the soft landing will be helpful, but when we look at valuations, you know, for equities, for example, we are more cautious. Equity risk premiums are still within their historical range. They're not pricing in a lot of recession risk in our view, and we don't think were out of the water yet or out of the woods yet. There's still a lot of uncertainty here, and we just don't know that you're paid for it going out the risk spectrum. The quality of a lower GDP reset off of the shock of what happened in two thousand and three, two thousand. Listen, ma, I'm decades away. Lisa helped me here twenty twenty three. To me, what's so important, Tiffany, is the productivity discussion of the last ninety days. Give us the PIMCO brief on the efficiencies of the American economy. Yeah, well, you know, I think if you look more, you know, kind of a more broadly, there was a lot of noise around the productivity statistics during the pandemic because you had unproductive sectors that were effectively shut down then they reopened, and so there was kind of a mixshift, if you will, in terms of economic output that impacted the productivity data. But if you look more broadly, it looks like it's on trend at a low level, you know. And I would say that there is you know, probably good news in terms of the productivity outlook that's embedded in you know, AI and large language models and things like that. But if we look at research that you know, just kind of estimates how long it takes for those types of technologies to puller for it, obviously that time has come down, but it's not twenty twenty four. It's still likely a quote secular horiso three to five year time horizon that you're really seeing the productivity gains from something like that. And the last thing I would just highlight is that, you know, we saw PCs or the internet, you know that it took you know, quite some time for us to actually see productivity gains in the nineties to come from that. So you know, at least from a twenty twenty four perspective. You know, we're not as convinced that you really start to see that in the data. But I think there's you know, room for encouragement on a secular timeframe. Just quickly, Tiffany, you seem to be pushing back against market expectations for rate cuts next year. Do you think that we will get rate cuts by the Fed? Do you think that they'll be in the first half or do you think that they're going to be squarely in the second half and not that many? Yeah, well, I mean, look, I do think it depends. I mean the real side of the economy. You know, it does need to slow in our view, and it needs to slow, and you need to see a little bit more you know, loosening of the labor market, we think, in order for central banks to really feel confident that inflation is more sustainably at their target and you know, looking at you know, I think there's definitely some still resilience in the economy and we could see central banks lag worried about that outcome. You know, Powell has very clearly stated, you know, that he wants to be a vulgar you know, and Nana Burns, and so you know, we think they could be laggy in terms of when they start to cut, you know. But but nevertheless, you know, obviously the market's going to price a balance of risks here, and the inflation data certainly has been good over the last couple of months. Tiffany, thank you so much. Tiffany World. With pimcoll they manage Bill's notes and bonds out of Newport Beach, California. I think David Fann is doing what every other guest is comes on this program over the last ten years, does trying to work out the first question that Tom's going to ask, because no one's got any. I got two. It's a double bear. I hear it from guests all the time. I thought he was going to ask me what devis was. That's where I was leaning over David Baale and CIO and head of investments at City Global Wath with this in just a moment, let's turn to the price section equities on the S and P five hundred shaping up as follows, t K positive by point one yields up five basis points four fifteen fifty two on a US ten yet audible question to Baalen, you worked with John Henry years ago, the owner of the Boston Red Sox. How in God's name is John Henry let one Soto go to the New York Yankees and not the Boston Red Sox. And if you I won't answer that question, but tell me how it is that John Henry, as a trend followers won three World Series when the Yankees have only won one. And that's said very nicely finased, Thank you, very much, very good. Let's go to cash. I mentioned at the Bramo. It's in your review here the mystery here of all this cash and you talk about there's just too much cash out there. What do we do with our cash? Next year? You've laid out actually an incredible introduction to our what we're writing for this next year. We're just called slow then Grow, And the idea is that you are going to see a slowing economy at the beginning of the year. A lot of the concerns at LISTA just talked about, you know, actually could come to bear right, which is the economy slows down, but it does not crash. We do not have a recession, we do not have a v shape recovery. And because we don't have a clear signal to investors. They sit there in cash five point eight trillion dollars worth of cash at this point in overnight funds. It's extraordinary. And yet when you take a look at all the different parts of the economy, right, you take a look at the average stock in the US hasn't done that well. Ten stocks have done incredibly well. Bond market's already started to move, energy is down. You are seeing real signs that inflation is not an issue and that the FED will hit their target of two to two and a half percent by the end of the year. So if that's true, right, what you then need is a boost of earnings, right in order to believe that all of this comes together. And this is where I think the story is being missed by the average investor, is that in the US you're going to see ambient like earnings up by probably five percent this year and then eight percent in twenty twenty five. And that sets us up for a thing where you know, an opportunity where a balanced portfolio. Right, you put your money in bonds, and you put your money in stocks, and you sit there and you're patient, and over the next eighteen months you can get yourself a fifteen or twenty percent total return. Now you're giving me the skeptical look, Lisa, Right, and here here's there's the here's the here's the here's the interesting data point. In nineteen thirty one and in nineteen sixty nine, the last two times we had stock and bond markets down for an entire year, if you looked out just two years later, in each of those periods, you know the A balanced portfolio sixty forty was up more than twenty percent. And while that's not statistically significant, what's interesting is we've already had incredible negativity in the stock market and incredible negativity in the bond market this year. Okay, you point to Tom, but this to me is really a question of can you bet on the grow before we get the slow? Right? Well, the grow is already the grow is the is really the is the coming off of it? Was good? One sec. Did you just make that up? Because that's correct. But that's essentially what we're asking is can you bet on the expansion before we get any kind of slow? I love that. That's awesome. Okay, so we have to answer the question that please stake. So let's let's take a look along real estate, right, which, right, has already been in a recession. We've had manufacturing already been in a recession. We've had parts of the you know, parts of our economy like healthcare, right, negative earnings for the first time in fifteen years this last year, lots of these you know parts of our economy. Forty or fifty percent of our sectors are going to be having very positive earnings relative to twenty twenty three. And then the average stock which has gone virtually nowhere this year, you know, has the opportunity to rise. You know, one of the things we put into our portfolios is the most boring investment we've added, which is sn P equal weight. If ten stocks have done well, you want to own the other four hundred and ninety. So I just think that this is where people have sort of missed it is that we haven't seen the overall market rise yet. And that's what twenty four is going to be about in terms of earning. So the double digit percentage point game that you think we can get next year, that's the equal weight and not the market can't whites it index. That's right, Okay, that's right, And I think that's you know, that's the opportunity, is this rising earnings because you've had you know, large portions of the US economy are coming out of a recession. Now, their inventories are down, they've got to rebuild, they're not hiring. Wage cross are coming down. You know. It's it's not about a landing. That's the other things everyone's LP does. This is the hard landing something forget about it. We're now in the situation where we're now beginning a normalization of markets to back to you know, sort of where they were like four years ago, pre pandemic conditions, and we're going to be coming out of this in a grow mode. A bank structured well for that moment, a bank structure or our client structure now a bank structured as in the equities, the bank equities that have struggled so much this year off the back of high yeas. I mean, I definitely believe that the normalization of the yield curve is going to definitely change valuations for banks as a segment. I think that's more of a twelve to eighteen months trade than it is a long term, you know, long term opportunity. I do think that banks are very undervalued at these At this point, I guess I'm trying to understand this perfect scenario and how much oil plays into it as well, given the fact that that has been one of the reasons we've seen this disinflation narrative get some legs. How much is that factor in that we're going to keep seeing suppressed valuations? Right, So, I don't think we expected oil to move down as quickly as it has, and I definitely think it's supply. Like you said earlier, earlier in the program, what we I think discounted as the fact that globalization is still a major disinflationary force. Import costs of goods coming into the US, both finished and unfinished goods are negative three point seven percent relative to last year. They are adding to the disinflation story. So between energy and import costs, you have this situation where you just don't have inflation on goods, and that of course translates into a better economic scenario. It seems like you're having trouble believing that this is actually that you could have a really good backdrop for markets. Now, what I find fascinating is just how much the narrative has gotten it wrong. Everyone's talking about deglobalization, how that would lead to inflation. Oil prices would be higher because their production just wasn't capable of meeting demand. As all of the transition happens, and all of a sudden, workers are going to cost more to do the jobs that need to get done. And what we're seeing is all of the exact opposite. Isn't that sort of remarkable? Is remarkable? Hiring for the last years has been surprising. We've hired more people with slower gd GDP growth in the US than in history, and now that's coming the other side. And you know, the Saudi's and Opek wanted to keep oil prices higher, right, but they were unable to do so. They were originally willing to cut back production. So there's a lot of things where people, you know, think they can control market. And just to add one more thing, expectations in China and Europe are so low that they can't help but contribute, I think, to the growth story. Sometimes in twenty twenty thirty four, this was great. You should get a podcast. You do that all the time here podcasts. Yeah, we can do another one. Why not? What should we cod it? Help and glue something like that. We just call it sloth and grow or what was the other oh forget okay, but it was good. It was like drive, It's awesome. That's his work time for that. That was the whole thing. I mean, that's the bet that we have going on. That's great, David, Thank you and thanks for sharing you around with us as well. My great pleasure. Depending then, a city glob of waff looking ahead to next year, is the FED put back? There's no better way to answer that question than speaking with a former FED governor, Randy Krasner, professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School in Chicago, joining us. Now, Randy, do you believe in this idea that the FED will cut rates aggressively next year simply in response to disinflation, even if it is not accompanied by weakness. So, if they've reached their goal of bringing inflation down to their two percent target, they'll be happy to bring rates down. But I don't think they're going to get to their target anytime soon. I look, Governor Crasner, and I know you had a recent meeting where the Booth School graduate John Stadzinsky, in all of his work now at PIMCO as well, but what the John Stadinski world is about a global sense of we're all in this together. That's been the hallmark of his work for years. How linked now our central banks to develop a constructive disinflationary trend. I think that's right. I think you saw that once the FED took off raising rates fairly aggressively, that the major central banks in the world did the same, so that they kind of played from the same playbook because they were experiencing inflation in a similar way, which suggested that at least part of the inflation wasn't just due to what central banks were doing, but was also doing to some of these broader global supply chain factors. And we've seen inflation come down, we've seen them move down together. But the FED is is really the big player, and so it tends to be that other central banks will follow what the FED is doing. But of course there's some discussion across the central banks, but the Fed's got to do what it's got to do for the US economy if we are the big player. And I guess this is off the job report tomorrow on the American exceptionalism of strong nominal GDP better than good fiscal stimulus. You know, we all know the story, But the answer is we're dealing with the technological excellence. Does the FED pull that into their debate? That's one of the debates about productivity, and because if you have high productivity growth, it's perfectly fine to have high wage growth and not have inflation. But if you have low productivity growth, you can't sustain high wage growth without there being inflation because the costs are going up relative to the outputs. And so that's one of the debates. Are we going to see productivity continue to be strong as we have over the lastree quarters? Is that the main reason? Ready, you don't think we're going to get to the Fed's target. Oh, it's I think their whole variety of reasons. I think you've got expectations that never went up very much for inflation, I think to the Fed's credit, so that never really lost credibility as the FED did in the late nineteen seven in these early nineteen eighties, but I think it did lose a little bit and people have kind of gotten used to asking for a little bit more in wages, and they also have to make up for having lost so much in real terms inflation adjusted terms over the last couple of years, so I think there's going to be a catch up in wages. I think nominal wage growth is going to be above the inflation rate as it has been over the last few months, and that means at some point it will be less exciting for firms to be hiring and holding workers. The employment rate will move up, and as you know I've mentioned before, I think we'll probably have a hard ish landing. Not a hard landing, but hard ish. So if you talk about the nodes of inflation that are stick here that are going to be concerning to the FED, that aren't going to allow them to cut as aggressively as some people are currently pricing in Is it particularly the service sector. Is there an area of inflation that you're focused on to sort of signal what you're talking about. I think the FED is going to be laser focused exactly as you said, on services as well as on the key thing that will be driving services inflation, which will be wage growth, particularly wage growth relative to the inflation rate, which until recently, until really maybe four or five months ago, had been wage growth, nominal wage growth was below the inflation rate, and now nominal wage growth has been above the inflation rate. It's great for workers because they're getting increase in real wages, but that means that firms are going to be a little more reluctant to to higher Randy, our lower prices. If oil inflationary or disinflationary, well it certainly for headline inflation it's lower. It helps to lower the headline inflation rate. But as we know, the oil prices have gone down, gone up, down, down, and so the FED kind of looks through that, and that's one of the reasons why they look at the core numbers that strip out the more volable food and energy sectors. Randy, you're one of our giants in financial economics. Where we are right now? Is it out of the textbooks you learned from or post pandemic? Is this all original? Well, I wouldn't say it's all original, but it's at least a little bit unusual. The amount of supply chain disruption we had. Pandemics so far have only come from along once a century, and hopefully it will be another century before we have another one. And we've also seen an unusual resilience, not only the US economy but elsewhere to very significant interest rate increases, and so that's a little bit off of the traditional playbook. Is it a whole new playbook, I'm not so sure yet. Certainly it's pushed the existing playbook to the edges. Professor Krasner, thank you so much, Randall Krasner, the former governor of the Federal Reserve System. Paul sank joins right now foundered lead analyst at Sankie Research with one of the most red notes on the street. Paul, I want to go to the madness of nineteen eighty six. I'll pack absolutely blow it in nineteen eighty six with a price plunge. Can we get a redux on that again? And particularly with the new American production of oil, it's not eighty six now. And by the way, it's a pump jack and leap to think about the joke. That's kind of more realistic. As you use your swimming pool to store oil that you need a can tango. You need can tango for that swimming pool trait. And we're in vanquidation. So eighty six is not the right one, to be honest, Tom. It's that was when opek increased into the Asian financial crisis, and it's quite the opposite here. What we've got here is a twenty fourteen, probably not a twenty twenty, but in both cases that's where Saudi flushed the market essentially because they got frustrated with cutting back and cutting back production to maintain prices, such as twenty fourteen being the really excellent example. What was happening is they were losing market share, particularly to Iran, which was coming back through sanctions, and you had, of course the growth in US production that was squeezing Saudi from the other side. And then in fourteen they essentially couldn't get the rest of OPEC to agree with them. They dumped the market. They flushed the market. We went in a straight line from one hundred and ten in summer to fifty twenty fifteen January, so in six months we went, we've cut in half and then we bottomed again. If you remember in twenty sixteen, I don't think COVID you know the twenty twenty market share wall, which was more extreme. Sadi went to an all time high level of production in twenty twenty, which was in April twenty twenty, which was truly praised in a lot of ways because of course it made for negative oil prices in the US. But here you've clearly got a situation where Saudi has cut production and is facing a very strong demand environment. So it must be extremely and in fact an all time record demand environment. It must be very frustrating for them to be losing market share to Iran and as John mentioned, to an absolutely booming US industry. And I think everyone's turn negative oil, not least because the US has accelerated this year into the second half in terms of production and you know, taking more market share from Saudi. So our concern is that Saudi said they'll push through Q one with cuts, but by the time you get to Q two and if demand isn't strong enough seasonally, you could see Saudi dump the market and try and make everyone honest again. So you know, that's I think that's the analogy. Paula. Just want to be really clear about where we are right now. There's a lot of people trade in equity as a columnists making recession calls. You think this is about supply and not demand right now currently, I don't know how you can get higher demand than all time record demand. Now. Having said that, because we're one hundred and two point five million barrels a day. We're at over one thousand and two hundred barrels a second of demand, so demand site's pretty much good. And China's been pretty good in the second half too, which was always the balancing item in terms of bullishness and oil. And keep in mind, of course, John, that it's seasonally a weak time for oil here, so we're dumping into the traditional post labor day weakness. And we'd actually think, whilst we're worried about the Saudi market share war, we can see a bounce here in oil. Distillate demand here remains very strong. It's cold this morning in Brooklyn, but more importantly it's cold in Europe. And you know, I think we're a bit over sold in oil here. Doesn't change the fact that we think there's a structural problem in the market, which exactly as you say, is too much supply and too much better capacity. Particularly well, but Paul, I want to just develop. You think that were over sold here, and you think that there is a good chance that Saudi Arabia flushes the market, increases, production goes away from some of those cuts, as you said, make everyone honest again. In that case, how low could prices go, well, it's an interesting question because what you're trying to do at that point is shut down US supply growth, and that becomes the knotty debate, that's the analysis, that's the Permian question, because of course what Saudi's trying to flush at this point is going to be excellon Chevron Conicco. You know, it's not your old school emp's with a lot of that kind of collapse at the first side of trouble. And of course all these companies have basically planned at sixty dollars maybe less in terms of what they're doing, and have growth targets that they want to meet. So I think it's going to be a more inelastic supply side for the Saudis to attack. Additionally, in twenty five we're adding eight FPSOs that's a floating production and storage vessel, which are very big in places like Guyana, Senegal, and those are very priced and sensitive as too. That is to say, once you've built your huge production vessel, you don't shut it down. Because I was at fifty So it's a pretty it's a fascinating market. By the way, Tom, going back to eighty six, the whole peak oil question is like what were you talking about the supply side. The supply side has got excess at one hundred and two point five million doles of their demand. It's like what I think, a lot of bit of technology and AI. Actually, seriously, I'm very proud to say I didn't believe in peak oil for one minute. That's maybe one thing I got somewhat right. Paul, we see mister Putin on a junket to Saudi Arabia or Muhammad ben Salman. What's a dynamic there? Does the Saudis tell the Russians what to do? In the Paul Sanke world, I think they ask them for help, for sure. The problem is the Russians lie, right, I mean, whatever they say is like whatever they say, I don't know how much they really do. It's possible that they realize that there's enough of a problem and that they want that relationship with Saudi to be good, that they do get on board. And I think it is very significant obviously the Putin's meeting MBS, because there must be some quid pro quo here. We suspect and we really don't know that. The Saudis have also asked the US to tighten sanctions on particularly Iran, but also Russia obviously, because those have been two other major problems for the Saudis. The US has essentially been allowing a lot of additional oil onto the market into an election year. We think that maybe the Saudis have said, if you tighten sanctions, will make sure the ol price doesn't get too high for elections. But of course then the camp next years to the Saudis really preferred Donald Trump. So you know, I'm not sure about that that speculation, but certainly there's been evidence the US has been tightening somewhat the Iranian and Russian sanctions, which would help Saudi apoor. Didn't they try that going into the midterms last year, tried to tighten sanctions or try to try to get the Saudis to boost output to get THRUD prices lower. Yeah, I think Saudi US relations have improved over the last year, for sure, and I think through the Hamas, you know, a nightmare, we've seen obviously a lot of work from Blincoln to try and get everyone back on the page. And of course it's said in the press that the NBS actually kept blinking waiting for quite a long time at a time when he was insanely busy, which I'm sure he didn't appreciate. So I think they're still sending messages that the original language of this administration, which you'll remember well before the election, when Biden was very negative about oil and very negative about the Saudis. They don't forget that stuff easily. But at the same time, they're very pragmatic people. I think they realize that the US is hugely important to them. We've had subsequently had security agreements between Saudi and the US. So it's really complex, and I think a lot of people are saying a lot of things to a lot of you. There's a lot of multipolar world going on here. I don't know how much they really truly love the Russians as well. I mean, the history of that relationship is nothing like the quality of the history of the US Saudi relationship. Well said Paul, appreciate the explanations this morning. Thank you, sir. You're one of the best pol of Sanki research joining us right now. Terry Haynes and Pangae are really timely discussion here. Staggering to January, Terry Haynes, the zeitgeist out there is OMG a red nation a Republican presidency, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House. Maybe maybe not. Where are we heading? Here? Are we heading to a Republican sweep? I think where we're heading is very much like what you see today, Tom Frankly, Whether or not the president is Democratic or Republican, I'd still give Biden Biden Trump race. I'd still give Biden a little bit of edge. So let's start there. I think what you've got is a Senate that is more likely to be marginally Republican majority and a House that's more likely to be marginally Democratic majority. So it's another version of the same thing. People will spend the next year winding themselves up about this, but the reality in Washington is, unless you have a sweep of all three parties plus a sixty vote majority in the Senate, which nobody's had for decades, not much changes. Do you see a Trump Haley ticket. I was asked at least three times this week about that. Is she running for vice resident? No? I think she's running for president, And you know, I think she's doing reasonably well. As I say, and as you well kindly headlined, six out of ten Republican voters don't want her. You know, even in the Trump numbers in early primary states, one third of those people at least are what pollsters call soft, in other words, willing to entertain other options. Iowa has a history of surprising. She's very much running for president and thinks that if a couple of breaks go her way, she might well get the nomination. And if that's the case, poll show today she do much better than Biden would do. So there's a path there for her, and you know she sees it and she's trying to seize it. Could you develop a little bit more what that path is considering the fact that Trump is still pulling in about sixty percent of Republican voters and she currently is it at fifteen percent. Well, the path is this. Firstly, throw out the national number. At no point in the presidential race is a national beauty contest number ever relevant. It's all about getting a nomination. It's all about primary states. You get down to the primary states, Iowa, New Hampshire. Now Trump's at about forty five to forty to forty five depending on the polls. So what you have is you've got fifty five to sixty percent that already don't want Trump. A third of those, as I say, or at least willing to entertain an alternative. So it doesn't take much to see the quick consolidation and the race that's already happened, combined with some Trump underperformance. Say, you know a lot of those people decide, you know, gee, cry what I heard from Christie's right, you know Trump's not really going to be able to govern or anything else, and make a break all of a sudden. What you've got in the in the first race or two is you've got a real race where Trump looks like he's underperforming and the not Trump field is coalescing' that's the race, Hayley sees. My only point is there's a much bigger chance of that than most people are willing to entertained, because I think, frankly they're blinded by the national number. In the meantime, terry, there's this question around the ability to govern before that, especially heading into the new year, given the fact that Kevin McCarthy is going to be stepping down the former House speaker who is going to leave at the end of this year, how much more likely, given the thin majorities, how much more luck likely does that make some sort of government shutdown. Well, you know, I think marginally, I think there's a likelihood that what you see either in January or February from House Republicans is some sort of a shutdown. You know, a lot of this vast majority of this course is performative. They're wrangling over thirty percent one percent cuts in thirty percent of the budget, so it's not as if they're taking an act to anything. But you know, what they'd like is some backtracking and spending. You've heard that from the presidential candidates last night, where you know, Hayley frankly proposed something Gill return to pre COVID levels. Then even House Republicans are doing so, you know they want to not in that direction, but you know there's not a lot of meeting that opens on the spending thing. Terry. The middle of July next year, the Yankees are going to be playing seven hundred baseball with Aaron Judge in one Soto. I mean, it's a no brainer right there. There's going to be a confab in Milwaukee to the convention in Milwaukee and frankly the Democratic equivalent. Are these going to be normal conventions? If Biden is the nominee. It's going to be a fairly normal convention. If Trump is the nominee. In the Republican Party, I'd predict kind of mass affections and even a temporary split in the party as a lot of people walk out and refuse to support. Not unlike in a very broad sense, not unlike what happened to Democrats in nineteen seventy two, where you know, a lot of the traditional Democratic coalition, including Labor, refused to support mcgovernor instead, you know, supported Nixon. I think you see a lot of that stuff. The other great unknown between now and Joel I is what happens with third party races, whether it be with Bob Kennedy, whether it would possibly be with Joe Manchin somebody else. I say, I think there's a huge restiveness in the electorate, and you could see a third party candidacy gaining buyer really quickly. When do we see the machinery to have a third party candidate? Is that a January event, an April event, or dare I say into the convention season? I think more like a March to April event. Frankly, that is kind of what the labels people have promised but more importantly, what No Labels has promised is the idea that, look, once things begin to take shape and we know whether there's a Trump versus Biden likelihood or not, you know, then we'll make a decision. So you're looking at Super Tuesday in early March, and after that I think you probably get a decision. Terry Hines of PANCHEA Policy, Terry, thank you. 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Liz Ann Sonders, Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist, says the status of the economy doesn't justify the Fed cutting rates. Amanda Lynam, BlackRock Head of Macro Credit Research, claims banks will remain at the center of lending, but that private credit can now compete in ways it previously couldn't. Libby Cantrill, PIMCO Director of Public Policy, previews the fourth GOP presidential debate. Elliot Ackerman, US Marine Corps Veteran & Former White House Fellow, breaks down the latest on the Israel-Hamas war. David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group Co-Founder, previews a brand-new episode of Bloomberg's "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations" featuring Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman.
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This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Lisa abrahmoids along with Tom Keen and Jonathan Ferrell. Join us each day for insight from the best in economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business App. I've been looking forward to this conversation. Liz An Son is the chief Investments trying to just a chold swap joins us right now. Lizan, I've been looking forward to it because we're not going to talk about self landing, hard landing, no landing, none of that. We're going to talk about what you and a team have been focused on now for a while, and that's rolling recessions. That is a framework, Lizen. Why is that so important for you? That nuance? Well, first of all, this is a unique cycle. That's the ultimate understatement. I think taking a nuanced approach is important, and we've been using that term for quite some time. I think the only other person that I know that's been using as long as we have is Ed yard Denny, and not that we want to rehash the last three and a half years, but if you think about the stimulus fuel demand surge coming out of the worst part of the pandemic, all of that demand and money associated with it was funneled into the good side of the economy because we had no access to services. That was where the inflation problem first began on the good side of the economy, exacerbated by the supply chain disruptions. But fast forward to the more recent period, we've gone into hard landing recessions for housing, manufacturing, a lot of housing related, many of the consumer product areas that were big beneficiaries of the lockdown, and we've gone from inflation to disinflation to deflation in many of the goods categories. We've just had the later offsetting strength on the services side. Same thing as rolled through in terms of inflation. So to me, best case scenario is not really soft landing that Schuberti sailed for many important segments of the economy. It's a continued roll through where if in when services in the labor market get hit, you have found stability and maybe even some improvement in those areas that have already taken their hit. Lezan, love your nuance. Let's build on that. Where are you seeing opportunities that might have hit bottom that you want to be investing in now, In particular sectors that you think already have rolled through, they're hard landing and are now buys. I still think that investors are better off taking a factor based approach as opposed to a monolithic sector based approach, But we have made some adjustments in terms of the foot factors that we're focused on. As you know we've talked about it on this program. We have been emphasizing stay up in quality with factors like interest coverage and strong return on equity and strong balance sheet, but also growthy factors like positive earnings, revisions and surprises. But I think you want to now add kind of evaluation kicker into the mix because this year was characterized by all multiple expansion, no earnings growth. We see in the last month that there is money itching to move out of the Magnificent seven to find opportunities down the cap spectrum. And you have seen some lower quality characteristics to of what has rallied. I think you want to fade that and continue to lean into quality. But you can find it across the spectrum of sectors and also outside that group of just the Magnificent seven. So you said something Lezen talking about how people are itching to take the money that they've put into the Magnificent seven and put it to work elsewhere that might be at a lower valuation. How big is that wave of people is to get out of the Magnificent seven. Is this something that could cause an underperformance or is it just simply there's just been so much money people are looking for other ideas well. So far, so good in terms of the rotational nature of this easing of some of the excesses, You've seen some pullback in the Magnificent seven. The rest of two thousand SMP equal weight is outperforming the SMP over the past month or so. It's happened in kind of a stealth way. That's obviously the best way to go through a corrective phase of excesses versus the bottom falling out all at once. What concerns me, particularly once we get past the year end seasonality, is that there is an incredible amount of overlap, especially in the large institutional world and the hedge fund world, in terms of ownership of not just the magnificent seven but up the cap spectrum, and that you know, if we get some sort of catalyst and it unleashes more frenzy around selling, I think maybe the hit would have to be larger, but I do think absent that we could continue to see a broadening out via rotation again as opposed to some significant crack occurring in the market. Lasan, can you help us gauge sentiment? Just sort of a bit wittold, least from myself repeatedly that the money money market funds is really really sticky. As you look across clients, to the people you speak to daily, have they been moving into equities over the last month? What was that move in November? So you've seen some move in equities, But it's actually, interestingly within the US equity market been toward areas like real estate utilities, and I think that is in keeping with expectations of sooner rather than later fed cuts. I'm skeptical about that, but that's where the money has gone. But sentiment is really interesting because attitudinal sentiment measures have gone off the charts of bullishness and very little bearishness. Yet even the AAII survey that we get those attitudinal bullish bearish readings, the equity exposure of that same cohort of investors has actually been coming down. On the other hand, active institutional managers have actually been significantly increasing exposure. So much like cross currents in the economy, there's even a lot of cross currents in terms of sentiment data, and it's really a mixed picture, and sentiment is hard to It's always hard to use as some market timing tool, even at extremes, but it's particularly murky in this environment right now. Lizen, just a put a bow on it. You did just mentioned that that you're skeptical about right cuts. Can you just explain that a little bit more, Well, the inflation is still above the FEDS target, the labor market is hanging in there, the economy is hanging in there. How that justifies a pivot from the most aggressive tightening cycle to easing as soon as the first quarter of next year. I don't get it. It's possible to find to be easy, but probably because there's more economic dislocation between now and then. In addition, you had the Fed and Powell specifically pointing to the bond market doing a lot of the tightening for the FED when you were in the surge and yields up to five percent. To me, what would be interesting to hear is if they start to say, well, the loosening, which is a record one month loosening in financial conditions in November, maybe that does some of the loosening for the FED. And it wouldn't surprise me if Powell has to yet again reinforce the notion that they're not at this point considering rate cuts. That's the conversation for a week today. Listen. Thank you Lizanne Sunders, a child swab one of the very best joining us at Amandelinum, head of macro credit research at Black Crock Andmanic good morning, good morning, Thank you both for having me. How much money is shift into private markets. So our forecast calls for that asset class to grow from one point six trillion globally to three and a half trillion by the end of twenty twenty eight. So that implies a pretty significant continued growth pattern through the next five years. There are really four drivers behind that. The increase in the addressable market is one of them, but it's really investors looking for diversification, borrowers looking for certainty of execution, structural shifts in the public markets which are now serving larger and larger borrowers, so that renders small middle market debt deals ill liquid. And then fourth is the opportunity for banks to partner with non banks. And also just given the well telegraphed contraction in bank lending and tightening of bank lending standards to really fuel that growth. And so that's our forecast. Was that a really nice way of saying D banking that basically private credit is stealing banks lunch. I watched all of your great coverage yesterday, and I did see the D Banking dialogue. I actually think I agree with the comments that banks will remain at the center of the lending universe. That said, I think the important takeaway is that as private credit has become sizeable and scalable in its own right, it can now compete against other parts of the market where it wasn't historically. And so what we've actually seen are some companies with demonstrated access to the public markets choosing to refinance in the private markets. I think there's an opportunity for banks to partner with non banks in terms of in an environment where capital and liquidity rules may change, to partner and maybe move some of that lending into other parts of the non bank system. Doesn't mean that the risk transfer is a negative. It just means that capital is being reallocated, just like it did after the financial crisis. So there is this sort of larger question when you say banks will still be the center of the lending universe, it raises this question about what that means. There'll be the center in terms of maybe organizing some of these transactions, but not necessarily the center of profits, not necessarily the center of deploying risk and then getting that outsize return for some of these private loans. Is that what we're saying that they're going to be the center of sort of some of the transactional aspects, but that private credit firms are going to really get the upside from these loans that banks used to capture. I mean, I think from the side of the banking relationship, they really have a lot of the client relationships, a lot of the underwriting expertise. But in an environment where risk weighted assets are going up, does it make sense to hold all of that capital on the bank balance sheet or is there a more capital efficient way to do it? I think that's really the shift that we're seeing now. Some of these factors have been in place for a really long time, going back to the Financial crisis. After Dodd Frank was enacted, the public syndicated leverage loan markets grew because banks didn't want to keep those loans on their balance sheet. Instead they syndicated them out to a wide range of investors. That's how the public debt markets have been growing for so long. So I think that's just it's another sort of iteration of this capital allocation that's shifting in response to the regional banking disruption in March, in response to the potential rules for Basle three endgame, and I think it's probably a longer term shift. By the way, I would say, you know, our three and a half trillion forecast, it assumes a fifteen percent compound annual growth rate. That's actually below the growth rate that we've seen over the past five years, and it's consistent with the growth rate over the past decade. So it sounds large, but it's actually a continuation of the trend that's already been in place. Let's talk about big moves out of the last month. Credit spread so much tighter on high yield. I think three sixty seven right now, I just want it from your perspective, still up in quality, and what do you make of this move? So, I mean, I think the move it's very It's consistent with this kind of year end rally that has been fueled by pretty favorable technicals. We've seen issuance pick up, but not to a significant extent that it's interfering with that tightening. From our perspective, yes, up in quality still makes a lot of sense. For this really important reason. Most of the issuance in twenty twenty three, and I'm talking about the left in market has been up in quality within that market, so double bes and high single bees. The low low end of the quality spectrum, so triple c's and low single bees, has really been untested. There's been a lot of talk about rate cuts. That's not really our base case in the first half. But even if we do get a few modest rate cuts, just to put that in perspective, the implied refinancing cost on average for triple C's is above six hundred basis points. For the distressed universe it's above fourteen hundred basis points. So this low end of the quality spectrum. Even if we get some rate relief, they're still going to be refinancing into a much higher cost of capital regime. How long can goldilocks lost goldilocks last? Then? I think it's the title of our one Q outlook was a widening divide, and I really think it speaks to the dispersion that's evident under the surface and a lot of these markets. So for goldilocks, investment grade goldilocks, you know, high quality, high yield, they're in a pretty good spot, especially if we can achieve the soft landing. If you're a triple C rated credit that has refined nancing to do and you're looking at your current coupon and then the six hundred basis points that it may cost you to refinance in today's market or more much different story. It's part of the reason why we expect defaults to continue to march higher through the first half of next year. It's not not a spike, not a significant increase. But I don't think we ask a lot have we seen the last of this transition to a higher cost of capital. I don't believe that we have with us around the table. I'm really placed society brilliant. Libby Cantroll, the managing director and head a public policy over at PIMCO. Libby, good morning. Another big debate for Republicans. Big debate? Yes, is this the big one? The difference? This is the big one? So this may be the last one. Actually, there's not another debate schedule before Iowa, when voters, of course on the Republican side, will go to the polls on January fifteenth. Viewership has declined since the first debate. That's when we saw sort of top tick of thirteen million. The last debate was around seven million, So we'll see if people are even paying attention to this. I think the real question, though John is does can Nicky Haley have another breakout moment? Does this sort of sustain the momentum that she has both in terms of the polling but very importantly in terms of the donors, And that remains an open question. I think that the other three folks on the debate stage will be sort of attacking Nicki Haley. I think Nicki Heley will be attacking President Trump, so it should be raucous as usual. But does it actually make a difference. I think that's the open question. What's the chance that you see another Biden Trump matchup. Well, so you know, what we're guiding our clients too, is one is that Biden will be the nominee. This sort of idea that there is some great cabal at the convention that will unseat him. We just do not think as founded. Senator bros from Louisiana, who had served with Joe Biden in the Senate, said, as long as President Biden is breathing, he is running. And I think that is something we should just you know, take take for what it is. You know, on the Republican side, obviously, if the primaries were held tomorrow, it looks like Trump would be the nominee. They're not going to be held tomorrow. They're held in around forty days. And what we've seen with Iowa and New Hampshire is that things can change. They haven't really changed in terms of dictating who the nominee is since two thousand and eight when Obama, who was sort of underperforming all of the polls, that really outperformed in both Iowa and New Hampshire and was able to get the momentum to the nomination. So a lot can still happen, but as of now, if you were saying, if the primaries were held tomorrow, it would be another Biden Trump rematch, and you know, ironically, I'll just say, is that seventy percent of Americans don't want that. So that's the reason why I think it got so much attention yesterday when Joe Biden said if it wasn't for Donald Trump, he wouldn't be running again. What do you make of that? Do you make that if NICKI Haley is the nominee for the Republican side, that there is a chance that Joe Biden would step down and pave the way for somebody else. So his his pressure ap really watched that back last night after those comments were made. They were made, of course in private at a fundraiser, so was maybe I think they're saying taken out of context. You know. However, you know, this is something that President Biden has been saying since he was a candidate in twenty twenty, that that's why he was running the first time, and so this is somewhat consistent with that messaging. However, if Trump does not get the nomination, I still think that President Biden is the incumbent president. He believes that he really has a record both on the economy and then foreign policy to feel confident to run on. So we are not getting sort of any indication from folks close to the Biden world that he is, that he's not running. He is running. We've been all appreciate. I think we could all benefit from a delegation oudication rules clinic from you. How have things changed for Republican primary, especially as a non Yes, a US citizen, So I appreciate you on that question. Yeah, so this is important. It's like very wants and a lot of our client's eyes understandably glazed over. But to get the nomination, it's just a delegate game. You need to get fifty percent of the delegates at stake on the Republican side and the Democratic side. The Republican side is the real story here, though, because the Trump campaign much more organized than it was in twenty sixteen. By their own emission, they have now systematically changed the way that states allocate delegate rules to benefit him as long as it's a crowded field, meaning that he They've changed the rules to what's called winner take all, So as long as President Trump is winning a plurality of the vote in many states, he will get one hundred percent of the delegates, and the punchline for all of us is that that makes it much easier for him to get the nomination much more quickly. So I would argue that by March fifth, which is Super Tuesday, we'll have had forty five percent of the delegates at stake being voted on, we likely will have a very good idea of who's going to be the nominee or whether it's going to be more of a competitive two person race. As you said, so we know there's four people on the stage. Later is on the calendar where that for needs to become one to change the outcome of this. Well, I think there are a lot of folks on both the Republican side and then also some of the Democratic side. As you've seen, there's some now Democratic donors who are you know, donating to Nicki Haley sort of interesting, unprecedented in many ways, who are trying to argue for a Chris Christy to say drop out of the race before Iowa. You know, John, I think what we've seen though before is that again so much can change. That much of this is unprecedented, particularly given what we might be facing, which is you know, two incumbent presidents effectively running against each other. So you know, I don't think there's a drop dead date, but I do think that it needs to become a two person race sort of by South Carolina. That's February twenty fourth. So I think the bottom line for kind of the markets and for investors is that the next seventy five days really matters. We will have a very good idea by sort of South Carolina by Super Tuesday, which is March fifth, whether this is going to be President Trump Biden or whether it's going to be more of a two person race between Nicky Haley and Trump. In those seventy five days, we're going to be dealing with a couple of deadlines for funding the government. Before I let you go, we keep talking about where is the leverage. The leverage is in the US government. I then you figure something out in order to keep operating. How are you advising people in the market to understand what's happening, what the likelihood of a shutdown is, what that means in terms of the growing risk frankly that it's been attributed to in markets. Yeah, So mean I think that two things. One is that this is not the dead ceiling, right. The debt ceiling was existential for the markets that has been fortunately addressed until January or February of twenty twenty five. This is really the most foundational function of Congress is just to keep the lights on. They keep kicking the can down the road, Lisa, does it really matter if they shut down the government? Probably not if it's not for a sustained period of time, But if it does go on for weeks, then we don't get some of the economic data, then it could actually start hurting the economy. But I think this is just sort of noise. But I think the punchline here from a fiscal perspective is this effectively funds of government at the same levels as last year, and what we're not We're not going to see any more physical stimulus. And I think the threshold for any sort of stimulus, even if we do go into recession. I know your previous guest was pretty sang one about the economy. I think we maybe we as as bond investors, are a little less so, but the threshold for any sort of fiscal stimus is going to be very high. So we think the government probably will be funded probably at the last moment, but again from a market's perspective, we're not sure. We're there's more noise than really anything. It's always the way, isn't it. Equities, hopes and dreams, bonds, fares and nightmassy do you know? Yeah, obviously obviously, Well yeah, thank you, thanks, good to see it. Great to catch you out let me cant with their Pimcoke. I'm pleased to say that John, I guess now is Elliot Akerman, the US Marine Corps veteran and former White House fellow. Ali wonderful to hear from you, sir. Always appreciate your perspective and your deep experience. Let's start with that experience. Can you describe for our audience the type of urban combat taking place right now, the urban commet that we're seeing in Gaza. You know, it's that happens really at a very close quarters, you know, street by street, house by house, room to room. As I think I've said on this show, eating in an urban fight is like it's like being in a knife fight in a phone booth. So it also takes away that the advantage that high tech militaries have, and I think we're seeing that play out and also oftentimes it's very very messy. And one of the greatest casualties in an urban fight is the city that the fight is taking place. And I think we're seeing that today as you know, vast parts of Gaza are are being turned to rubble and the civilians who lived there. So let's discuss that, given the type of combat that was seeing at the moment, how on earth do you prevent the tragic loss of civilian life we've seen. You know, It's extremely difficult, and that factors into the into the calculus on on both sides. A fundamental to you know, Hamas's attack on October seventh was they knew that they were going to force the Israeli's hands to fight them inside Gaza, which would lead to civilian casualties, which would lead to much more attention being placed in the Palestinian cause in the world, and also a significant international outcry to and the fighting. And so, you know, I think the one thing that we can see when we're looking at what is going on in Gaza is that, at least thus far, it would seem that it has preceded exactly according to Hamas's plan. Given that Elliott how much longer. Do you think that Israel has from a political perception standpoint as well as just their own aims before they're going to stop. You know, the aims of the Israeli government, as they've articulated, is the complete annihilation of Hamas. I think one of the things that's difficult is that's an extremely high bar to completely destroy a terrorist organization, as opposed to degrade its capabilities or make it so it's no longer a threat. So if that is their stated objective, I think they're in some ways probably setting themselves up for failure because it's difficult to see how they are going to completely destroy every single number of Hamas from the face of the earth, particularly as many of them are not in Gaza, you know. And the other issue that complicates factors that we can't forget about is there's a significant number of hostages still inside Gaza, so the Israelis can't finish this operation until those hostages have been freed. So, unfortunately, I think this is going to go on quite a bit longer, but every day that it extends, it becomes politically much more costly for the Israelis. Do you agree with Secretary of Defense to late Austin when he basically said that the fear here is that Israel setting itself up for a strategic defeat. I think that is certainly. I don't know that they are going to end up in a strategic defeat, but I think if the Israelis lose sight of the fact that war is always fought on two planes, both the tactical of the operational, what's happening on the ground, you know, how much of Gods is being taken or retaken, but also the political, how those actions are perceive and so you know, history is littered with cases of nations and armies that won the battle but lost the war. And I think the Israelis need to be very mindful that they don't place themselves in that situation. And we've been through a period of really intense diplomacy. We've seen that over the last two months, how elevated. Still, do you think the odds are they brought a conflict in the region. I think they've certainly lessened, but I think we absolutely want to keep our eye on any actions it seems that they could spread the conflict. You know, as you know, the United States, as you know, a very significant military presence there. We've surged naval assets into the Mediterranean Sea, all signaling very strongly to the Iranians not to spread this conflict or engage in those actions. But we've also seen simultaneously that the Iranians have been attacking US forces abroad, that there are many instances of provocation, and not only our leaders but also our troops on the ground had to be very very mindful that their actions could have TGIC consequences. So I don't think it does not seem as though the conflict is going to spread, but it's still on a hair trigger. This is a conversation about a direct conflict. I just wonder, from your perspective, in your opinion, Elio, whether you think we're already in a proxy war with Iran. I think we certainly are. But we've been in a proxy war with Iran for for decades now, and it is just waxed and waned. I mean, I mean, I'm a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and both those conflicts we were fighting a proxy war with Iran, and about those conflicts, you know, so the American service member I was, you know, having to dodge IEDs built by Iran and having to deal with Coudes Force paramilitaries who are operating or Iranian in those theaters. So we've been fighting that war for a long long time. But it's very important that as you know, you know, it doesn't escalate into an all out conflagration across the Middle East, particularly as we have another war going on in Ukraine. So these are you know, these are dangerous times where they I'm glad you brought that up as a former American service member, as someone who's actually served and seeing the threat, what is your sense of this increasing isolationism or the increasing fight over funding for some of these conflicts. Do you think that it's a valid one or do you think that that's really our retracement from the role that you served for. Because I think that there should always be robust debate in this country about issues of war and peace, and I think that is very very healthy. However, I also think that, you know, those debates should occur in a functional as opposed to a dysfunctional way. They should occur in a way that has a very clear eyed or it takes a very clear eyed view of the world beyond our shores and isn't naive of the place of America in the world. So, you know, I don't think it's inappropriate for members of Congress to be debating how long and how much the United States is going to spend on these wars. But I also think if there's some of idea that the US can just retreat within its borders and that's going to be the best interest of this country. I mean, you know, we've seen that, we've seen that play out before, and it doesn't play out to the best interests of the United States. You're implying, Elliott that the debate right now is not healthy. What would a healthy debate look like? And why is what we're seeing right now not healthy? So I think there's a degree of brenksmanship that's going on. And I think that braksmanship of you know, buying aid packages together the much of the dysfunction that we've seen them in Congress where we no longer where Congress no longers exists with the culture, and I'm olding to remember this culture in which most people operated under a mode of that you know, America's differences ended at our shores, and we projected ourselves abroad, we projected ourselves as a unified country. I mean, now we know that our allies, you know, have different you know, they prefer republican or a democratic administration and have policies that they set for both. So I think there's the overall fractiousness in our country is hurting the efficacy of our foreign policy. So that's what I mean, Ellie, thank you, sir Vio Clarity, Ellie Aikman. I'm the latest on the situation in the Middle East and with Ukraine and rest as well. I'm so pleased to say. Joining me right now is David Rubinstein. I want to pick up on that point that Bill was saying, which is his activism as now not in a corporate boardroom but on college campuses. And we heard this yesterday from Mark Rowan of Apollo. How much you hearing that increasingly from some of your peers. Well, there's no doubt that Bill Ackman doesn't need to be an activist in investing anymore, because, as he said in the interview, he wasn't that well known when he was an activist, and therefore he had to get attention, and doing activist kind of things got people's attention. Now he's pretty well known, so he can avoid that part of his investing process. In terms of College and Harvard, he has been very active with his letter to Clouding Gay and Mark Rowan has been very active at Penn as well, and a number of other business people have been active. There's no doubt that there's a lot of concern in the business but other communities about what's going on in college campuses. And as we all know, it's not a pleasant situation to be Jewish student in some campuses these days, or to be a Muslim student some campus has been a problem as well. So I don't think there's a perfect answer. We're not going to solve it overnight. It's going to take some time for all these colleges to kind of figure out what the right balance is. Do you get a sense that there is something specific that people are asking for that goes beyond a statement on anti Semitism or Islamophobia and goes more to the nature of conversation at certain universities. Well, at certain universities, I would say on the left, far left are far right. There's not a lot of room for people who disagree. Some campuses are far left, some are maybe more conservative, and people who disagree with the conventional or the majority view, don't get the kind of support that they might want to receive from the college presidences or universities. In some cases, Harvard is seen by people in Congress who said yesterday in the hearing that is seen as far left. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I was on the board of Harvard for many years, and I think Harvard tries to do the best it can. But it's a very large campus, very diverse. The president of university has done as good a job as she can in a very short period of time dealing with these issues, but nobody is going to be able to solve this problem overnight. You're also on the University of Chicago board, and full disclosure, I attended there, so if I'm biased, I just want to be completely transparent. There is this question about whether it's appropriate for a university to take a stand at all on any social issue, or just to let the individual professors and students have their own voices rather than have some sort of collective voice that you have to stay within. Do you think that that is the way to go well? With the same issue CEO's face, Should corporations be taking positions on these kind of issues. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Universities are places where young people are generally allowed to grow and experience what life is going to be about when they leave campuses, and they tend to be sometimes more shrill and certain things they might be when they become an adult. I think at the Universe Chicago, we've had a long standing one hundred year policy of basically letting people say what they want, has provided that they don't do anything that harms anybody else or incites violence. But there's been a lot of free speech at univer Chicago, and I think that's a great tradition there. Do you think that going forward there's going to be any change in response to some of the pressure, Given the pressure that we have seen now, I suspect something will happen, but I don't know that Congress will do anything. I think the university boards are probably going to be more sensitive to these issues. There is going to be more security for certain students there, for sure, But I think there'll be more of a move towards a University of Chicago approach where more people are allowed to say what they think without feeling that if they say something that's unpopular. They'll be criticized or harmed physically. Just besides this particular issue with Bill Lackman, he's also been vocal about investing in treasures just to shift a little bit to the investment side. And I am curious if you're starting to hear this more that certain hedge funds that maybe are struggling to get an edge in public markets are just making bull trades on the path of interest rates. How much you're hearing that well. Bill Ackman said in the interview is that he doesn't generally doesn't make big macro bets. That's not what he generally does. He generally makes bets on companies. But in a couple of times in his history he has made macro bets and some have worked out extremely well. And he's made one not two year long ago, where he made a couple of billion dollar I mean, I guess it was a two billion dollar profit on a relatively modest investment in a relatively short period of time. That's hard to do. This time, he's made a bet, in effect, that the treasury rate will go down, or the interest rate will go down, the Fed will lower interest rates sooner than the conventional wisdom thinks, and I assume he's structured it so that if they do, he'll make a fair amount of money. And I'm assuming that right now he's pretty happy with what he's seeing because the market's coming along to his view. Conventional wisdom today is that the Fed is likely to cut interest rates sooner than maybe people thought a month ago. Right now, I think the Fed doesn't want to get into the election season, So if they're going to cut rates, they're probably not going to do it too close to the presidential election, so they probably would have to do it sooner. Meanwhile, just want to bring this to you. Just Breaking City Group is reporting some figures and what they expect, and they say that fourth quarter trading revenue is expected to drop fifteen to twenty percent compared to the third quarter, and you can see as the CFO does talk, you can see shares falling. This really does speak to this sense that there isn't going to be the same kind of opportunity to make profits for some of these firms as there has been earlier in this year. That basically this is what they're going to pitch when they CEOs go down to Washington, DC and start saying, you know, maybe we earned record profits, but we're going to lose it to people like you, David Rubens, sign at private credit and private equity. What do you make of some of these arguments. I'm not worrying too much about the large banks. They can take care of themselves. I'm sure they'll do well. Interest rates go up or down. There's no doubt when interest rates go up, they tend to make more money. Historically, if interest rates go down, they're very smart. They'll find other ways to make money. Private equity firms and private credit firms have done quite well generally over the last ten twenty years or so, and we have a lot of very smart people. We'll try to figure out how to navigate whatever interest rate environment we have. David Rubenstein, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much for being on. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern, on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always on the Bloomberg terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Lisa Abramowitz, and this is Bloomberg
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Marc Rowan, Apollo CEO, says his firm has no plans to shift from private equity amid the best year in its history, and also discusses rising antisemitism and the 2024 presidential election. Jim Zelter, Apollo Asset Management Co-President, says the Fed put is back in the market. Torsten Slok, Apollo Global Management Chief Economist, says there's evidence of a weakening labor market. Olivia Wassenaar, Apollo Head of Sustainable Investing, joins from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai where she says there's a 'tremendous' amount of optimism and capital.
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Peter Tchir, Head of Macro Strategy at Academy Securities says he wants to be underweight Treasuries right now.George Saravelos, Global Head of FX Research at Deutsche Bank, says the ECB should cut rates when it meets next week. Ajay Banga, President of The World Bank joins from COP 28. David Turk, US Department of Energy Deputy Secretary joins from COP 28 where he says now is the time to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Helane Becker, Senior Research Analyst at TD Cowen weighs in on Alaska Air's plans to buy rival, Hawaiian.Get the Bloomberg Surveillance newsletter, delivered every weekday. Sign up now: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/surveillance
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Reports of crimes targeting Jews, Muslims and Arabs have risen around the world in since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the Israeli military’s retaliatory operation in Gaza. While previous conflicts in the Middle East also sparked a backlash outside the region, this time it is more intense and the wave of hate may be far from cresting, according to advocacy groups, former law enforcement officials and analysts. In this Bloomberg Radio special report, Stephen Carroll examines how these communities are confronting a global surge in hate speech and hate crimes.
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Liz Young, SoFi Head of Investment Strategy, says the correlation between stocks and bonds could remain positive going forward. Lauren Goodwin, New York Life Investments Economist & Director of Portfolio Strategy, predicts the story around technology in 2024 will expand into the digital infrastructure. Nadia Martin Wiggen, Svelland Capital Director, says she doesn't see a long-term negative price path for oil. Antonio Neri, Hewlett Packard Enterprise President & CEO, discusses the company's expanded partnership with Nvidia into the generative AI space. Dan Ives, Wedbush Sr. Equity Research Analyst, breaks down the "historic" launch of the Tesla Cybertruck.
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John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Editorial Editor-in-Chief, reflects on the life and career of the late Henry Kissinger. Neil Dutta, Renaissance US Economic Research Head, says the economy is on a glide path toward a Fed interest rate cut by March. John Lawler, Ford Motor Chief Financial Officer, says the company is focusing on increasing efficiencies and reducing labor hours to produce vehicles. Kelsey Berro, JPMorgan Asset Management Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, suggests the Fed is done hiking rates amid faster-than-expected disinflation. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, discusses the latest on the Israel-Hamas war.
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Henry Kissinger, the child refugee who rose to become US Secretary of State and defined American foreign policy during the 1970s with his strategies to end the Vietnam War and contain communist countries, has died. He was 100.
Not long before his passing, Kissinger sat down with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait for an extended conversation. He talked about his life and career, what shaped his worldview, and his thoughts on the current state of global affairs. Listen here for that special conversation, in its entirety.
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Mary Barra, GM CEO, discusses the company's announcement of its biggest-ever buyback plan, and says she expects 'strong adoption' of more affordable EVs. Thierry Wizman, Macquarie Global Interest Rates & Currencies Strategist, says the biggest risk right now is another sudden shock in the oil market. Scott Nuttall, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co-CEO, discusses his firm's acquisition of insurer Global Atlantic. Lara Rhame, FS Investments Chief US Economist, says the state of services in the economy could threaten the Fed's 2% inflation goal. Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Co-Chairman & Co-Founder, reflects on the legendary life and career of Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger. David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group Co-Founder, previews brand-new episodes of Bloomberg's "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations" featuring AIG CEO Peter Zaffino and Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman.
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Full Transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keene, along with Jonathan Ferrell and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best an economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. John Ferrell with Mary Burrow, I want to go through some of the numbers for our audience. Divid end up thirty three percent, biggest ever buyback plan ten billion dollars, forty billion dollar name yesterday. Just some context perspective there that is massive inquiring minds. Mary will want to know why have you decided to deliver a ten billion dollar buy back shortly after you've signed a labor contract that adds nine point three billion to expenses over its term. Well, as we looked at what was happening from a labor perspective, we had built and really the labor environment going into our negotiations, we had put conservative estimates into our plan. So although it was a little higher than what we expected, we believe that we have and our guidance for next year, we've already said that we'll be able to offset that completely with the plan that we already had of a two billion dollar cost out perspective. So we did the right thing to recognize our manufacturing team members who have done a great job and continue to build vehicles safely with high quality. And we also thought that we've got to look and make sure that we're balanced across all of our stakeholders, and our owners are very important. So we think this was a very balanced response when we look at what was done from a labor perspective and what we're doing as part of our capital allocation framework for our owners. Well, let's get into that. So shareholders are super happy. The name is up by almost eleven percent so far this morning. I wonder if you aw Wiz Mary, they didn't get the forty percent they wanted. They got twenty five plus cost of living adjustments and other things as well. Is the old things of this morning not something that concerns you. When I look at it, I think it's balanced. Again, we have very well compensated and you know, when you look at the suite of benefits that our represented team members have it's a very very appropriate package and frankly leading from an industry perspective broader than just the auto industry. So I think we did the right thing to recognize and reward the hard work of our manufacturing team members across the board. But also one of the things our manufacturing team members very much value is job security. And to have job security, you have to have a strong company and you have to look at all of your stakeholders. So what we did from a share buyback perspective for our owners is I think a very balanced response. As you know, this move this morning not just about the capital return program, also about cost cuts. We know you're looking to fully offset that labor contract the additional costs from it. Have you identified where you will cut where you need to cut? Yes, a lot of this was already underway. At the beginning of this year calendar year twenty twenty three, we announced it too, billion dollar cost reduction structural cost reduction between twenty three and the end of twenty four. That's well underway. As I said, we also comprehended that we would have increases in our labor cost as we looked at what the environment was and also wanting to reward our manufacturing employees. So you know there's work going across many aspects of the business and including making our products more efficient while still having the features, the functionality and beautiful designs that our customers want. So there's been a concentrated effort at the company to lower our fixed costs while enabling wonderful products and rewarding the team that is helping us deliver them. Clearly, these are additional costs. Are they forcing a change in execution or a change in strategy? Definitely not a change in strategy. Our strategy is clear. It's really based on four pillars of executing our strong internal combustion engine program vehicles, and we see we're performing very well in the market and we see that we're below the average incentives. I think that speaks to the strength of our internal combustion engine products. From an EVY perspective, we have confidence in the portfolio we have. We're a bit disappointed this year that we were constrained by the automation to build modules. So this is not something that is fundamentally an issue with Altium. It was more manufacturing automation issue that we're working and we'll be out of it by middle of next year and making improvement every quarter from that perspective. Also software and this year. Earlier this year, Mike Abbott joined our team who brings tremendous software expertise and he's built a very strong team that we'll share more about when we get to our investor day in March of next year. And then autonomy and when you look at autonomous vehicles and the importance of this technology and the talent that we have at Cruise. We are doing an independent review from an incident perspective but also overall from a safety perspective, and that will guide our path forward there. But we have a very capable team there. So the four pillars of our strategy have not changed at all. What has changed is our tactics, and our tactics are changing because of the world is changing. We never thought that the EV adoption would necessarily be a straight line. We've seen this in other markets, we're seeing it now in the US. But I think the thing that everybody has to remember, if the growth is slowing, it is still growing. And we think as we get more of the EV products we have this year into next, we think we're going to see is strong adoption for our products, and as the charging infrastructure continues to be more robust, we think that's going to drive adoption as well as having affordable evs. And that's where when you look at the Chevrolet Equinox as well as the Blazer and the Bolt that's coming, we're going to be having products in that range of affordable vehicles. That is going to be very important from EV adoption. Two things to unpack there. One is robot taxis. The other is EV. So let's deal with robot taxis. First, your counting expenses on crews substantially, just how committed are you there? I remember only a number of years ago we were talking about bringing in fifty billion in revenue by twenty thirty, and I get it. Married We'll understand that new tech is tough to develop, its to deploy. I think we're seeing that across a range of issues. But when do you know if it's the right time just to walk away from this well, I think the first of all, when you look at the progress that the Cruise team has made over the eight last eight years when General Motors acquired crews, I think it's substantial and we've already demonstrated that the cruise vehicle can perform at a level that's safer than a human driver. Let's not forget over forty thousand people on average lose their lives in traffic accidents in the US alone, and ninety percent of them are caused by human error. What we have learned with this incident is it's got to be significantly better than a human driver to drive adoption, and we have to do a much better job of working with the regulators. That's something that GM has a long reputation of working and being transparent with regulators at the local, state, and federal level. So I think as we do that and get the results of the independent review we're doing, that will guide us on our path forward. From an AV perspective, I'm always interested in how we know when we're wrong an exit size I think everyone has to go through, including myself married. But on this topic of EV's the slow down, what's behind it and why aren't we just learning that American consumers just don't want these cars? Well, I don't think it's that American consumers just don't want these cars. I think there still is limited availability when you look at the choice that customers had today, from an internal combustion vehicle perspective, I think a lot of the evs that are out right now are more expensive. You've got to look at where the sweet spot of the market is, and when you really want to win an EV's you've got to make sure that you are meeting the customer who only owns one vehicle. That's the bulk of people who buy vehicles today, new vehicles. They only own one vehicle or if they have two in their family. They're needed every day to earning their livelihoods. So we've got to get affordable. There's got to be a robust charging infrastructure. So again, the growth hasn't gone in reverse. It's slowing. I think we never expected. We thought it would be have some bumps along the way. I think that's what we're seeing right now. But I think when we have evs that are affordable, when people realize how much fun they are to drive and the performance and they're not giving anything up, and then that all important charging infrastructure, I think you know we're going to see them start to grow at a more rapid break again. And that's something that we'll continue to watch. And that's why we've changed some of our tactics to be responsive to where the customer is. You've been super generous with your time. Marriage. Just want to fit in one further question. Right now, you're a forty three billion dollar name. It's a big move this morning by ten percent. The forward multiple we're talking about four times expected earnings a little more than that after today's move. The stock has been dead money for the best part of a decade. You've been doing this a long time. I know you're super close with investors. What is it that you think is in this plan, this strategy that you have and a strategy that you've suggested this morning hasn't changed that's going to turn this around. Well, I think demonstrating our commitment to all of our stakeholders and the I think when you look at a ten billion dollar accelerated buyback program, it should signal because it means we have confidence in the cash generation ability of this company. We have confidence in our strategy across the four pillars that I covered. Yes, we had some challenges that this year with our ultim based evs that I think gabe investors some concern, But we're demonstrating the confidence that we and the board have that we're executing the strategy, and we're going to see growth, strong cash flow and strong margins. That's what we're going to deliver. That's captured in today's move nine percent. Mary, appreciate your time ready tell you thanks for catching up with us, Mary Parda of GM too. Wiseman joins us right now. Global Efects interest rate strategist much more than that at Macquarie, with lots and lots of experience on this. I love the first sentence of your note. Don't believe the hype You've been skeptical. Are you combining and dovetailing in with your low rate call a true slowdown in the economy? Yes? Absolutely. I think the narrative these days from Wall Street that I've seen in the last few weeks is that the reason the ten year field has been coming down is because we're in a disinflationary phase here in the economy, and there's going to be more disinflation to come in the US. I agree with that we are going to see disinflation in the US. It's going to come in rants, it's going to come in those eras of the CPI that are linked to consumer discretionary spending. But let's Also keep in mind one of the reasons we're going to see this disinflation is because the consumer is slowing. And there you have the don't believe the hype story, right, I don't believe the story is about record breaking Black Thursdays, by Friday sales and Cyber Monday sales. I think what I think these sales were on the back of heavy discounting. If you look at what some of these corporate execs had said prior to the start of the holiday spending season, they talked about having to cut prices. We'll all Marty even talked about deflation. So this is this is about disinflation. But let's keep in mind where this this inflation is going to come from. It's going to come from a weakening and pricing power at the consumer product and services level. It's going to be driven by slow down in agurate demand in the US. Also about how they're pank for this stuff Binapailita. You look at some of the numbers just booming. What do you take away from that? So my takeaway is from a macroeconomic perspective, what it does is it shifts spending to the early part of the season because normally you would have to save up a few more shekels as you approach your deadline on December twenty fifth to get those purchases done with by now, pay later. You don't need to do that, so it allows you to spend earlier, especially if you don't have access to revolving credit or credit cards. So I think that's another reason why we might have seen the so called record breaking days on last Friday and Monday. But again, if that's if it's the case that spending was only pulled forward, it doesn't mean that in aggregate for the whole of the season we're going to get that much that much hype. So far, people have viewed weaker US data as a positive. It's both been for a bond rally and a stock rally, And you're saying that we could see that bond rally continue quite significantly going forward. Will there be a diversion so in terms of risk asseesis or have to be to fuel a bond rally that goes much deeper than where we are now. Absolutely, to let the bond rally extend to say where the ten yure yield gets the three percent, I do think it has to be associated with a sell off at risk assets. I don't think you know, to get that kind of forceful move early in the bond market, you need to have some sort of dislocation in risk ASTs, some sort of drop in stocks, but over time, not necessarily. I think we can see a situation where, if this inflation continues slowly, you get the bond deal going down to where it was, let's say in the spring. Three and a half percent is not inconceivable without a stock market drop as long as it happens slowly and steadily. But well, corporations adapt. If I go back to bear Stearns, where you're held court, you had an entire security analysis team looking at these slowdowns, I don't buy the gloom. And the corporations, like General Motors, will adapt. I'm not sure what they're going to adapt to. Technological progress and changes. They can adapt to. Government policies that spur more investment in electric vehicles and clean energy technologies they can adapt to. But what do you do when you have excess inventory as the auto dealers do? Now? What do you do when the banks and the finance companies are cutting off credit to auto buyers? What do you do? Then you're not in control of that situation. You're in control of what's happening on your factory floor, You're in control of promotions, and maybe the way you adapt is by cutting prices. Let's face it, that's a way of adapting to to hold on to market share in the face of excess inventories, in the face of consumers slowing their demand. So yeah, they can adapt, but it's not necessarily in a way that is going to make their stock prices shoot up. You've identified a series of places in this economy where we could see lower prices retail, Walmart, talked about the auto makers, We're talking about GM, maybe lower prices, going to see that come through the pipeline soon. What's the biggest threat that still lingers for you? The biggest threat to that view that this disinflation continue through next year, it's supply shocks. I think the lesson of twenty twenty twenty two and early twenty twenty three was that we cannot control what happens in the rest of the world, especially as it pertains to the supply of oil, the supply of natural gas. So from my perspective, if we get another shock in that market, and by the way, it doesn't have to be because of a war, although in the past two years that has been the case. It could be simply that OPEC plus decides to curtail supply and we get a brand going back up to the low nineties as a result of that. Again, it's a question of how much they curtail supply by, but that's the biggest risk right now. The good news is that gasoline prices in the US have been falling for six weeks straight, I think, and steadily. I think that's going to show up in the CPI by the time we rolled around to seeing the November numbers and the December numbers. But the real reason that the CPI is going to still see disinflation is because rents rents in the new tenant market and the new lease market are coming down. That's going to put a lot of pressu ultimately on the yellows as measures of rents of primary residences. We're going to get that disinflation over the next few months. This is exactly what nil Data of Renaisance Macro is talking about tom the disinflation that's in the pipeline for rents for used cars, which is why based on what Walla said yesterday, it's not that much of an if for the likes of Terry, for the likes of Nil Duta, which is why they think you're going to get this conversation early next year about which you said interest rates. Yeah, there's no question there's a school of thought out there that this is not if. It's just simply when in the path to it. But I would dovetail it back to the labor economy, which we've barely touched on today, and we've got claims coming up here Thursday. And then you mentioned the late jobs report for November. I believe it's December eighth. But the basic idea here, John is when does a labor economy finally go? If you get a labor economy to go, you get there instantly. Claims two O nine, keep going back to two nine claims to eighty one economy in so many different ways over the last eighteen months or so. Terry, it's going to see it, Terry wi there at Macquarie longer going far away. There was KKR nineteen seventy six with history made in a style and a method. At KKR it was original. Shanale Basset gets an update from their co CEO Shanale, Good morning, Thank you, Tom. I'm standing by with the co CEO of KKR, Scott not All, and it is a really big day for KKR because they are doing this. They're buying the rest of Global Atlantic, a big insurance company that they don't already own. That is an all cash, two point seven billion dollar deal. But you're also creating a new unit at KKR that houses a core private equity business. If you had to give the market one way to understand what you're trying to do over there, what is it? First of all, Shanali, great to be with you, Thanks for having me. Really, what we're trying to do today is lay out the big three growth engines we have as a firm. So you're right, we are buying the minority stake in Global Atlantic we don't already own. We already owned sixty three percent of the companies, so we're buying the other thirty seven percent. Global Atlantic has been a great partnership for us. This is a transaction we did in twenty twenty one. The company is more than doubled since we announced the original deal in July of twenty twenty and it's been highly recurring a lot of growth earnings for KKR, so that's part one. We are also modifying our compensation ratios so our asset management business continues to scale. Our run rate management fees have doubled over the last three years. So the second thing we're doing is reducing the compensation ratioon fees, making an offsetting increase on kerry, and that will allow us to create more fee related earnings for our shareholder. You're changing the way you pay people, in effect, not the aggregate amount of compensation, but we're providing more of the fee related earnings to our shareholders, a little bit more carry to our people. The net of that is about neutral, but it will mean more of few related earnings overall. And then the third thing we're doing to your point, and this is relatively new for us, is we're creating a new segment for the firm. So we've historically reported as asset management and insurance. We are adding a new segment called Strategic Holdings. And what we will include in there are the dividends that we're receiving and will begin to receive in greater magnitude from our core private equity portfolio, which is a portfolio of great diversified recession resistant companies that we've been building up over the last several years. KKR, Apollo, Brookfield, they're all buying insurance companies. All of you are diversifying in pretty meaningful ways if you think about it. It's made private equity, by the dollars, by the assets under management, a smaller part of all of your businesses. What does this mean for the future of private equity? Private equity is still a growth business for us. We expect to continue to grow that part of KKR for a long time, both with respect to the flagship strategies, but also we've created a number of different growth strategies. The core private equity business is part of private equity that's now a thirty billion dollar franchise for us. So this isn't about an ore. This is about an and we see an ability to grow PE and all the other parts of KKR, and we've diversified meaningfully over the course of the last ten to fifteen years. We're just continuing our way down that path. Now, what does Global Atlantic exactly do. It seems like what it's really doing is giving you a whole balance sheet to be using to compete on you've mentioned capital markets is one place there's been a lot of competition from your industry to the banks. How does this help you now compete in a bigger way? Sure, Global Atlantic, as you know, it's largely issued annuities to individuals, and so if you think about what we do at KKRE, we work for pensioners, retirement retirees all around the world now family offices and individual investors as well. Global Atlantic distributes its products to that same kind of an audience. So historically we've worked for tens of millions of retirees. We still do, but now they're just in the form of policyholders. And that's our mission at KKR is to actually do a great job for all those people that we work for. We're not confused about who our bosses are. And so to the second part of your question on capital markets, what Global Atlantic allows us to do is create more synergy. We didn't necessarily see all this three years ago when we started our way down this path, but we think there's even more we can do to unlock value between the two companies, and capital markets is just one of those examples. Capital markets means you might be appearing on more and more deals lending a balance sheet to provide capital for big buyouts and other leverage loan deals. That's right, and we're already in that business. So the way that we built our capital markets business is by partnering with a Street, So we'll be alongside of the traditional banks and investment banks as we built that business. But what Global Atlantic brings us is an ability to expand the vision for that franchise. So there's more to do across asset based finance. As an example, more, when Global Atlantic does their large institutional block transactions, we can put some of the Global Atlantic balance sheet. GA has its own sidecard third party capital funds called IVY, so some can go into those third party funds, and then we can syndicate the excess through our capital markets forranchise as well. Just like we do private equity and infrastructure transactions, it applies to insurance deals as well. Something interesting about these deals is that you already have told investors this morning that this will add twenty percent to total operating earnings. You're boosting your targets into twenty twenty six for few related earnings. What are the real financial impacts? What can stockholders feel for KKR over the next two three years, well, I think what they'll be able to see is we are going to grow all three of our recurring forms of earnings in a much more meaningful way going forward, So a few related earnings will be higher. We continue to see a lot of organic growth in our businesses. Just by changing our compensation ratios, you get accretion on few related earnings, and we think by virtue of what we're renouncing today, we can do even more. With the Global Atlantic where we invest that portfolio, it's already gone from seventy two billion of AUM when we announced the transaction to one hundred and fifty eight billion over the last few years. We think we can do even more together. But they'll also see more insurance operating earnings, which we believe are highly recurring and fast growing. And then we'll have this third element, which will be the core private equity dividends showing up in the strategic holding segment. If you put those three things together, we think that'll be seventy percent or more of our overall pre tax income is those three forms of recurring earnings, and we're going to introduce them a new metric around that called operating earnings and we'll talk about that later today with our shareholders. Scott, we do have to leave it there. Thank you for joining us on a big day over at KKR. Tom shout on the basic Thank you so much with a gentleman from KKR in the future of what they do, joining us now, Lawyer. I'm chief US economist at FS Investments. On an eight point nine percent nominal GDP America, Laurie, what's so great about your economics is you've got it from the litmus paper of the FX market. How alone is the United States with an eight point nine percent nominal GDP. When Rishie Sonak is telling Francy Qua he's worried about austerity, I think we are still the growth continued to just surprise to the upside, and to me, it's remarkable the inconsistency between talking about rake cuts to you know, this idea that we're going to need rake cuts in the near term to support the economy, or the short term idea that we've seen the labor market slow. And really we do feel like we're an economy and the data would show that we're an economy firing on all cylinders. Government, business bending, consumption the only keys that's not really adding to it as residential construction. I would say that we are the standalone leader on growth. And what's so important here, Lisa, A nominal GDP topline, that's real GDP posts inflation is there's an assumption here by the Bill Ackmans of the world economists and not that it's going to plunge down to what six percent, five percent? Even that's a boom economy. And when you say it, they're talking the inflation component. And Laura, that's what I want you to weigh in on. How much does it matter if we see a slow down do we need to slow down if we continue to see the pace of disinflation that we've seen so far this year. I think there's two pieces to that argument. To me, the real and one place from probably off consensus is I am really reticent to think that we are going to get this magical slow down in inflation back to that two percent lane that we have had. On the good side, we have a lot of indications that just from some slower demand and from some of these resolutions and inventory that we're going to see lower goods prices. But I think we are really ignoring the big elephant in the room, which is services. We still have a hot labor market by my measure, we still have wage pressure that is way higher than prior to the pandemic, and the resting heart rate of inflation is still well above two percent. And on the services side really is the problem here. So I think we need to be careful about being very complacent about inflation coming down, and that really feeds into this non recessionary rate decline Goldilocks complacency that has taken hold of equity markets at this moment. In some ways, the Fed's wall are really kind of fed into that yesterday, which is a reason why maybe he gave Steams some of these market movements. He said, there is just no reason to say you would keep rates really high and inflation is back at target, how high is the threshold then to cut rates. If we do see the disinflation in the pipeline significant, it might not be long lasting because of some of these other issues, but we do see year over year comps come in with autoprice disinflation or outright deflation with rents coming in, with the fact that goods, as Walmart said, just prices are actually going down outright. I think the FED is good at looking around the corner on especially this rent issue. There's no doubt that rent is a very lagging indicator, but it's sticky for a reason. And all of the short term indicators that you know, six months ago were really pointing to rents coming down fast have now reversed. And I think something that's very important to me is the fact that rents are far below the cost that it is to buy a home per square foot. You are costing you a lot less to rent, and landlords are rational. They're going to see this, and they are going to over the next several quarters, you know, push rents higher again. So it's something that you just can't ignore in the core, even if you get the headline hitting two percent. I get nervous when the FED tries to micro manage the inflation process, Laura, and this with your overarching philosophy of summing all this together, are we beyond the pandemic? It sure doesn't feel like it to me. It feels like the stimulus is still pop and popping, popping. But from where you sit, are we beyond COVID Not? In the data, Tom, I think we're seeing this trampoline effect and the Q three GDP numbers are great example of that, and we had a big inventory, you know, push higher. We could very well get that. Still detracting from the fourth quarter, you're still getting some of these big swings in factors that are disguising what's going on underneath with demand which is still really red hot. So this is a big to me, you know, piece that we're looking at. For twenty twenty four, we start to see some move away from reliance on savings towards income. I think the irony is it could be a period of lower growth next year, but actually better sentiment about household economics as you see income finally catch up to the prior year and a half of inflation. Okay, I'm gonna pinion down it. Give me some twenty twenty four lower outlook numbers, real GDP. What do you think? Real GDP one point four and I think the tenure stays pretty high. I'm putting it at four percent for twenty twenty four. I mean, these are Lisa, these are huge slow down numbers. And then the question comes over immediately, what does non farm payrolls do? David Kelly, a JP Morgan would say goes negative well and This is really the ultimate question, Laura, do we get that kind of slow growth but high yield along with a full, fully employed America, along with job creation that continue to chugle all. I think that we look at the recessions that we've had in the two thousands, twy tens, even the nineteen nineties, we saw very little. If you look at nineteen ninety two thousand recessions, we saw very little drop and output, but a massive decline in labor in this I think upcoming year we're going to see a slower economy, but I think that companies continue to view labor as a scarce resource. I think the true Goldilocks is not going to be defined by output. It's going to be defined by the labor market, and we are going to see the I think the unemployment rates stay quite low. Lar. Thank you. We FS investment slower rhyme this morning there were a one point four percent called slower economy year. Howard Marks, chairman of oak Tree Capital Management, and I must point out author of not one, two, but three important books on investing of What to Do and just as importantly Howard What Not to Do. Howard on Charlie Munger getting the odds on your side. How did Charlie Munger get the odds on his side? He started off with a brilliant mind and a brilliant partner. He intensively studied the financials, thinking about the long term. He never tried to guess what a company or a stock would do in the short term. And he held for many years. You know, he was a great practitioner. Sit on your hands, and he did it flawlessly in the modern day, in the modern media, I remember reading those annual reports. How are years ago there was no financial media, there was no blogging internet. The short termism we're living it now. What is the lesson of Charlie Munger's long termism? Well, if you want to hit the long ball, you have to be very patient, and you know, when the stock moves up the first twenty percent, you can't start taking profits. Charlie and Warren have held things for decades. And the other thing is they were and Charlie always talked about this, you have very few moonshots. Charlie said within the last year that most of his wealth came from four decisions. And so you know what would have happened if he would have started trimming those four decisions early he certainly would not have accomplished what he did, and I think Warren would the same thing. Maybe the number four would be a little different with Warren, but you know, you know, Warren's famous for having said, put all your eggs in one basket. And I watched the basket really closely, and I think that it wasn't one basket. But the idea of concentration and patience coupled with good decisions makes for a great success. You know, a concentration and patience don't accomplish anything if you can't make above average investment decisions. But putting it all together is the formula for success. Howard, you wrote in some of your thoughts about Charlie Mungerth that he had very definite opinions, in particular regarding the investment management industry. He viewed the industry with considerable skepticism, and while a member of it, I found myself in agreement with him more often than not. What exactly are you talking about in particular? You know, I think both Charlie and Warren felt that our industry, relatively few members of it made substantial contributions to their clients wealth. Many more members that were well paid. He was always one who questions incentives. He says, you give me incentive, an incentive, I'll tell you the behavior. And and I think that, you know, I think that Warren and Charlie, if you're their operation, they, in fact Warren's ed and quotes, not a partnership, not a corporation of partnership. And they considered there there the people they manage money for their shareholders to be their partners. And they considered themselves to be working for their partners and not themselves, and their own wealth and success was a byproduct of working of doing great work for the partners. So you know, I like to put my sameself in the same boat. Those sentiments appeal to me greatly, and I've tried to follow that. How difficult has it been to sort of to adapt the strategy to different eras When you had conversations with Charlie Munger, there are questions around tech and how that changed the investment thesis. How did they think about the changing concept of what a wonderful company looked like and what fair value was. You know, you, on the one hand, you have to evolve with the times. On the other hand, you know they never went a full bore into the tech sector. You know, their famous are having made a lot of money with Apple, but you know, most tech the way they said it, they put it on the too hard pile. And if you have if you understand that your success will come from a small number of holdings, that means you don't need twenty thirty thirtyfty sixty. You don't need to exploit all the sceptors. You just have to find a few great ones. Of course, on the other hand, you know Tom said that we're you know, we're in a new era with all the communications we have. Part of what that means is that the world is a more interconnected, intelligent place. You know, back fifty years ago we used to be able to exploit things nobody else knew. Today there's very little information that doesn't make its waste speedily around the world. Howard to help us with one final question here to the management the future management of Berkshire Hathaway. They have a from COVID buildup of cash a four hundred and twelve billion out to half a trillion dollars five hundred and twenty five trillion. You and everybody else out there is living with explosive money market fund growth. You know the story in that forward here for Berkshire, Hathaway, what's the best use of there in our mounds of cash? You know, the people who run Berkshire today and will run it tomorrow understand the limitations of size. All things being equal, size makes it harder to outperform. They have the best probability of outperforming of any company their size, but their size will matter. And you know one of my professors at University of Chicago. I asked him afterwards, how would you manage a big fund? He'd say, I would index the cord and manage the hell out of the periphery. And I would imagine that at their size, they'll have to move in the direction of something like that, although they will not give up on outperformance. Howard Marx, thank you with oak Tree Capital Management. In remembrance of Charlie. I'm so pleased that we get to speak with Tipenstein, co founder and co chair of Carlisle Group, host of Peer to Peer Conversations on Bloomberg Television, because David is somebody who talks with all the executives across Wall Street, Main Street and beyond to understand how they're dealing with some of these transformative technologies of the moment, and David, I want to start there kind of where the similarities are in how some of these executives are thinking about the developments and artificial intelligence in a generative AI. Well, everybody wants to be an expert on AI and figure out how it's going to affect their company positively or negatively, but honestly, nobody really knows for sure yet how it will work. We're really inning one of artificial intelligence in terms of how major companies are going to use it or have it used against them. So everybody's trying to hire artificial experts or get people into their firm who can help them assess whether artificial intelligence is going to be useful to them or helpful to them, And nobody really knows yet, So I can't say anybody is certain how it's going to impact their business yet. David, mister Zevino stealed Marsh mcclennan and others, and then Nannie goes to AIG where different than other executives, he has to deal with disaster. What did you learn about how he handles the unexpected? Well, insurance is about dealing with the unexpected, really, and so AIG became the largest insurance company in the world for many, many years, and as a result of that, it had enormous tentacles throughout the entire financial complex. It clearly extended itself too much, didn't anticipate problems that arose, particularly in the mortgage area, and as a result had to be bailed out by the US government to tune of about one hundred and eighty billion dollars. Now that money's been paid back with interest. But AIG is no longer the biggest insurance company in the world, and it doesn't have quite the tentacles around the world that it once did, but still a very profitable company. David and Newsmaker yesterday. This is what Rubinstein does. He's steering the thunder from journalist David Rubinstein with Bill Ackman yesterday and the track that this nation will take. What did you learn from mister Rackman, David Rwinstein. Well, Bill is a very impressive person who obviously is outspoken, has been outspoken on many issues over many years. Recently has become quite visible in what he's been saying about Harvard. But he said in the interview which will air not too long from now that he's made a new bet. He's made a number of macro bets that have turned out to be extremely positive. One of them, he made it over one hundred times his money on a bet that he made a number of years ago in the time of COVID. Now he's made a bet that interest rates will be cut sooner by the Fed than is otherwise expected. And if that bet is successful, I guess he'll make a fair amount of money. But that's the big issue that many people are grappling with. Will the Fed decide and it needs to lower interest rates before the political season starts, let's say, in the summer or the fall of next year. Dave, excuse me, go ahead, Lisa, please my fault. David, is it surprising to you that a big hedge fund is focused on making big bets on treasuries right now? Well, many hedge funds people are doing that. Honestly, he has not done the so called treasury trade that others have done, where he's buying treasuries and shorting treasury futures. He hasn't done that. This is basically a bet that the Fed will succumb to some pressure to lower interest rates before too long. Now, the conventional wisdom in Wall Street is that the Fed will lower interest rates at some point during their first or second quarter, more likely the second quarter. I think his bet is it'll probably do it sooner than the conventional wisdom. And I have said publicly before, and I still think it's the case that the Fed will get in trouble if it lowers interest rates around the political season, because the Republicans will say, well, you're helping Joe Biden by lowering interest rates if you do so over the summer or in the early fall. So the Fed is going to lower interest rates, probably to avoid political criticism. It don't have to do it sooner than later. David, you mentioned mister Ackman in Harvard in the Horror of the Eastern Mediterrane. I want to go to your Duke University where they have a bridge. Folks. There's an old bridge called the Free Expression Bridge. And to make a long story short, they had to paint over a pro Palestinian tone as well. David, I want you to talk to the great and good right now about how those of means and success should deal with their shock at our American universities. Well, the American university system is still the envy of the world, and our private universities are really the places that people from all over the world want to attend. There's been a shock that many people didn't realize how strong the anti Israel feeling has been in some campuses, and the result of that has been outraged by some alums. Some universities have handled this better than other universities. I am the chairman of the board of the University of Chicago, and we have a tradition of not issuing statements on political matters or outside matters, and we have an issue one in this case. But in many cases other universities have not had that policy, and they've got in trouble for issuing statements that don't please one side or the other. It's a difficult way to walk his fine line, and I don't know that anybody has figured it out properly or correctly. David All glorious day for Bloomberg Surveillance with Doug cass and Howard Marks with us and membrance of Charlie Munger. Give us your thoughts on the hugely successful experiment that was Berkshire Hathaway. For those who don't know. Charlie Munger was from Warren Buffett's hometown of Omaha. He moved to Los Angeles and later reconnected with Warren Buffett, who hadn't really known before, but he had worked for Warren Buffet's grandfather at one point in a store. Charlie Munger was had outspoken, very very smart, a lawyer who transitioned from being a lawyer to being an investor, and his track record early on was actually better than Warren Buffett's in some respects. They teamed up became an incredible team of people who were mostly known to the public through their annual meetings where Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger would answer questions for six hours on end. And Charlie Munger was quite well known for his I would say, dismissive ideas of some other people's thoughts about investing. He was a very fundamentalist kind of investor and he transformed Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett was taught to buy things very cheap, and buy things cheap you can always make money. It was Charlie Munger's view that you should buy good companies. Maybe you pay a reasonable price for it, but buying good companies is better than buying cheap companies which may not be that good. And Warren Buffett gives a lot of credit credit to Charlie Munger for having transformed his views on the investment world. David, thank you for joining us today with us remember, and so Charlie Munger and of course with your excellence. Look for a conversation with Peter Zefino. Peer to peer conversations hugely anticipated in the next ten days. A conversation with Bill Eckman that move I would suggest move Markets. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Easter. I'm Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always I'm the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen, and this is Bloomberg
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Special Report: Berkshire Hathaway's Charles Munger Dies at 99
Charles Munger, the alter ego, sidekick and foil to Warren Buffett for almost 60 years as they transformed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from a failing textile maker into an empire, has died. He was 99. For more on Munger's life and legacy, Bloomberg Radio hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with Bloomberg News reporter Noah Buhayar, and long-time Berkshire investor, Bill Smead of Smead Capital Management.
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Cameron Dawson, Newedge Wealth Chief Investment Officer, says that signs of a recession will come from the market, not the Fed. Bill Dudley, Former NY Fed President & Bloomberg Opinion columnist, expects central banks to introduce digital currencies amid disarray in the crypto sector. Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo Senior Equity Analyst, says AI can take the relationship between banks and technology to another level. Katy Kaminski, AlphaSimplex Chief Research Strategist, says she's concerned about the risk-on rally in the bond market. Norman Roule, Center for Strategic & International Studies Senior Adviser, breaks down the latest on the Israel-Hamas war amid the release of more hostages from Gaza.
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Full transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keane, along with Jonathan Farrow and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business app. Cameron Dawson tear eyed over the quality of that data. Check Cio of New Edge Wealth joining us right now. What's your conviction the next year? I'm talking about you need to get conviction. Now, do you have a lot of conviction? I think that we have to judge as we go into the end of the year when we look at where we in the year with positioning and sentiment and valuations and earnings expectations, because if we get to a point where those things are stretched, where people have been drawn into the market, everybody chases the market into a rallying to the year end, that's when you probably want to start asking questions of how sustainable or durable is We learned that lesson really powerfully this year in the opposite direction. People were underweight, valuations had come in, positioning was very light, and that set up for a very powerful year this year. One really difficult thing for a lot of people is to get two things right. Won the call on the economy and to what the economy means for financial markets. I was looking at Deutsche Bank's call yesterday least when I were going back and forth on this, They've got recession one hundred and seventy five basis points of cuts. Then bink chat is saying fifty one hundred on the SMP. Is good news bad news? Or is bad news good news? What is it? I mean, it's sort of that I want it all and I want it now kind of mentality, which is that I want a FED that's supportive, and I want an economy and earnings that are going to be growing very strongly. And I have to think that we need to ask the question of if a strong economy and strong earnings are consistent with having FED rate cuts and a recession, and if we can have both at the same time, meaning that if the FED is cutting rates, can we really grow earnings at twelve percent next year? Do we actually have the potential that we could have a third year in a row of earnings being closer to flat. If we have a recession. Well, this is John Sulfis basically saying people think we're late cycle, we're actually mid cycle. That if the Federal cuts rates is just sort of a mechanical year over year trying to adapt restrictiveness to inflation, and that that will pave the way for companies to continue to evolve, particularly in the consumer cyclicals. Thoughts. Yeah, it's interesting. You go back to the times when the Fed cut rates and we didn't have a recession ninety five, ninety eight, and twenty nineteen. What's interesting is that the Fed was actually very fearful of a recession in each of those times. They talked about the US not being an island. What's interesting is that the market wasn't scared of a recession. There was no impact to earnings. You had the market hitting all time highs as they were cutting rates. So I think we have to take the cue from the market if it starts to sniff out that data is weakening, that data is starting to come in where we need to be cutting earnings stents we don't hit all time highs in markets, that's when you'd say maybe recession risk is actually higher. So what's your conviction is it to basically shift away from the conviction of everybody else that equities are going to go higher and to take the other side. I think it's incredibly important to remain invested even in times of uncertainty, and the way that we do that is focusing on quality, focusing on companies that can block and tackle, which just means that I want to take out the risk that the economy is going to roll over and I'm going to have big earnings downside. But I also don't want to be over levered. I don't want to be overextended on risk having to have the best case scenario in order for my investments to work. So it's still that middle ground. It's worked really well this year, it likely works really well next year as well, as we think we are still in that late cycle environment. What's so interesting to me is the idea of developing a conviction with five percent money market fund trillions out there. Is part of your optimism of that money shifts given disinflation yields? Yeah, you know, it's a really good question. If all the money market funds is truly investible cap not all, but even at the margin that supports the bid. And we do know that investors compared to the twenty twenty two peak are about three percent less allocated to equities than they were at the peak and twenty twenty two looking at the AAII data, so that would suggest that there is still money on the sidelines, that there still is positioning to be drawn back in. And the good news is that there's cash, there's liquidity. In order to do that, we'll have to continue to watch that data because once people get fully invested, this is critical. I don't mean to interrupt, but you've nailed it. Three percent as the delta here from AAI or whatever it is, AARP, whatever. But the answer is if that money shifts and makes up the three percent difference, what does that do in SMP or Dell points, Well, it likely means that we can continue the rally, But then it calls into question the durability of the rally. Do we test the twenty twenty two high, do we break through it with gusto and really have the kind of rally that we saw coming out of time like twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, or instead, do we have this sideways chop that looks a lot more like what we experienced in the seventies or even in the two thousands. And it's Chris Harvey is talking about did you just request a down forecast? I did, just busting this. You have a down forecast? Absolutely not. I'm sorry. That was beautiful. Do you want to explain why you don't have a down forecast because it's a price weighted index? Thank you, Cameron Tak Is that enough? Jar Denney SPX five thousands, forty one thousand on the show clip that? I mean, honestly, you guys just gonnatrol each other all morning beautiful. And I said, the perfect ending to this exchange was very good. You know it was great. It was very good. Camera. Thank you. It's going to see it. Cameron Dawson, I knew ittch Wealth, welcome back anytime. I'm going to play this off my book of the year years ago, Ken rog I was very courageous, The Curse of Cash. He's writing about where we are with digital currencies, what the Bank of International Settlements in Geneva thinks, what Central Bank says. He was at the New York Fed. Thanks. Bill Dudley joins us right now writing an important column on c B d C central bank digital currencies, Bill Dudley, very valuable and thought provoking. This morning, we just saw criminal trials, guilty verdicts, maybe appeals involved. But are we getting away from the presumed criminality, the punishment, the secrecy that Ken Rogoff had the courage to talk about. Well, I think that the crypto space is in disarray right now, and the real question now is our central banks around the world going to introduce central bank digital currencies to sort of take up that slack. I think that's going to happen, probably going to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, because it depends on what payment system that you're starting with. I think we're central bank digital currencies could play a very very important role. This is highlighted a new paper that we put out by the brent Witz Committee is really on cross border payments. We had a system of central bank digital currencies where the interfaces were harmonized, you could probably execute payments on a cross border basis at a fraction of the cost. Today, for a lot of migrant workers when they're sending their payments abroad, it costs over five percent of the value of the payment just to execute the trade. It's very slow. So we can certainly do a lot better than than we're doing right now now in this process. The FIT is very far far behind in terms of their work on central bank digital currencies, and in the US there's a quite a bit of skepticism about the need for central bank digital currencies. Why is this work continue? Well, that's so hard of the matter. I'm going to go to Raphael Our owns a high ground on this at BIS. He's documented the incredible friction of transactions in the real world. We all thought we'd be trading bitcoin and you know, John would be down at Selene trading bitcoin for a sweater, but the answers were not. We could really get down to where this is efficacious for central banks. We could really squeeze us down to where there's no transactional friction. Well, that'll obviously always give a little bit of transactional friction, but we can do a lot better than we're doing right now. I mean, in central bank digital currencies should be a pretty significant improvement over cash. I'll be just the safest cash, but in terms of the fault risk, because you'll be guaranteed by the sovereign nation, but you don't have worries about storage. You can transact with digital cash across long distances, So to me, it's like cash plus it's superior to cache and something that we the US should start to innovate on. There's a concern bill that as you disintermediate banks, essentially those agents that really capitalize from those frictions that exist, that some of the functioning of markets that traditionally has supported things like treasuries starts to ebb away. How concerned are you as you start to adopt new, less friction build methods and as capital markets slow in the wake of rate hikes, how much does that really disintermediate banks that really are still essential for the functioning of the treasury market. It really depends on central bank digital currency design, and I think there you want to have a two tier system where the banks continue to own the customer relationships. Central banks don't want to have customer relationships with hundreds of millions of households, so they should hand that off to the banking system. The second thing you want to do is make sure that the central bank digital currency doesn't pay interest. If it doesn't pay interest, it's basically going to be used for payments, not for investment, So that preserves the role of the central of commercial banks as intermediaries. So I think if you do those two things essentially protect that the commercial banking system is providing financial intermediation services, but the central bank helps provide a better payments medium. The reason why I ask is on a broader sense away from digital currencies, is there is increasing concern about how much of the risk taking activity and how much, frankly, of financial market functioning has moved outside of the highly regulated banks into the private sector. Earlier this morning, UBAS chair Clem Kelliher came out warning again that there's a bubble in private markets and that there's risks building there as an increasing amount of lending moved to that area. Are you concerned about that? Do you think that there is this sort of situation forming on the heels of rate hikes, on the heels of the more tightly regulated banks that deserves greater scrutiny. Absolutely? I think this notion that all we need to do to fix the problems that we saw in March of twenty twenty in the banking system is to appile a lot higher capal requirements on the largest banks. I think that's misguided. Increase the cabal requirements on the biggest banks, You're just going to push activity out into the non regulated banking sector, and that's going to make the financial system less secure, more unstable than the current regime. So I think we need to think really hard about what were the problems in March twenty twenty and how to address them. Bill, thanks for catching out with us. Give us an your view on that built outly the former New York Fed President Lie So this is joy. Why don't you bring in mister Mayo here because he's all AI in bankings, which makes me very happy actually because Thanksgiving dinners several of them. All of the discussion was about artificial intelligence. Mike Mayo focused on artificial intelligence as well, saying that it's not just going to be in big tech, it's also going to be in banks that you need to have AI talent at the financial institution, saying the marriage of banks with tech, including AI, is a long term positive that can help the industry trend toward record efficiency. Joining us now is the one and only Michael Mayo, Mike, thank you so much for being with us. So tell us just how much banks could benefit at a time where people have written them off as utilities that are overspending and are not going to make big returns. Well, if you're a bank and don't have an AI strategy, then you don't have a strategy because if the bank across the street has calculators or spreadsheets or Bloomberg terminals, yes, and you don't have those, then how are you going to compete? So AI is here to stay. The marriage of banks and tech has been a good one. It's stalled recently, but I think AI can rekindle that relationship by taking the productivity benefits which have been revenues per employee have improved by one third over the last decade. So banks and tech have been working, but I think AI can take that to another level. Is it a kind of thing where there'll be a few winners you mentioned Golias Mike Mayo in your noe is a kind of thing where four or five will win and the rest lose? Or can it actually be a benefit distributed across the industry? Well, I think most jobs at banks will be impacted. I mean, think of what I do. I'm an analyst, and analysis can be improved by this extra tool called a Now I do think there will always be a human in the loop for most cases. In other words, to prepare for your show today, Lisa and Tom, I went to chat GPT and said, what should I say in one sentence about this? And they said it's a revolution that will enable productivity, savings and better customer service. Well that's an improval. Well that's an improved starting point. But you know it's partly wrong. First, I'm not sure it's a revolution, especially at banks. It tends to be more of an evolution, and simply by enabling that potential doesn't mean that becomes a reality. And you've seen false starts cloud, You've had some buyers remorse. Blockchain didn't come out as quickly as expected. You know the dot com bubble one point. Oh, Tom, you remember all these Internet pollows which didn't survive. So I'm positive on the implications of AI, but I also I'm aware of the cast come back even further. George Ball E. F. Hutton. They blew it. They couldn't keep up on technology. This is Lisa. When there were cards with holes in them and a thing called Fortran. The answer is I want to know who the losers are going to be in this. I mean, I know you've got single best buys in all this, but what is the scale of the losers that you see in technology and banking three to five years out. Well, I do think Goliath is winning, and you have this poll by Evident. I know they've had the founders on your show. In fact, they have an all day conference in New York City tomorrow. So JP Morgan is number one front and center right now and their investment in technology are paying off. I'm surprised to see City Group in the top ten for all their issues with their back office, and they have major issues. They're making some efforts with AI. On the other hand, those banks that have not advanced with digitization and the cloud and getting their data together could struggle. And I do wonder about some of these mid sized banks. I mean, do they have the scale to really leverage these solutions and getting talent. Talent is such a big issue and you can't just buy talent off shelf. You can get solutions, but who's actually going to implement those solutions in each business line? So when I'm listening to you, I'm thinking how much are they're going to pay them. I mean, we're talking about open AI paying eight hundred thousand dollars to engineers at just at of a base level. I mean, how much your bank's going to have to pay some of this talent to come to their bank and develop similar solutions that can effectively support and reduce certain headcount in certain areas well. I think what you'll see is you'll see a reduction in headcount and some of those savings plowed back into paying other employees more money, especially AI engineers. They're in serious demand. But if you go to one of the largest banks, you have a whole career path. You can scale these solutions across tens of millions of customers as opposed to going to a smaller bank. I mean, what's your pitch. Now? There are some smaller banks in this evidence survey that performed quite well because they were already ahead on technology. So I think those winning in technology can keep winning more and those that are behind are going to have to have kind of a existential moment here. This can all work if banks have the cash to invest right and that sort of you put a pause on that at a time when potentially there could be a slow down and there could be some kind of reduction in revenues tied to slowing capital markets how much I understand this is a longer term call, but how much do you see a thawing in that kind of environment next year versus a tightening and the screws I mean, this is sort of one of the big disagreements for the backdrop for banks and capital markets activity at a time where yields are still high, but we also are potentially going to start seeing the effects of that. Well, I promise you I will be the first analyst to ask that question or earnings calls. If banks are spending too much money. Banks have no choice because of the headwinds from rates, recession possibility, and regulation. They must get more efficient. So if I'm the CEO of any bank and you're coming to me with the program for AI and want to invest a lot of money, I'd say, great, where are you saving the money to fund that? Nobody cares. All we want to know from Mike Mayo is what to do this year? Twelve months out, twelve months ago now flat on its back. We've had a magnificent seven moonshot right now. Keith briat Indexes twenty five percent above the pandemic low. Is this the year twenty twenty four of the banks? Do you load the boat here on banking? Well, look, the long arc of the benefits of the industry de risking has still yet to play out. Banks didn't get credit through the pandemic. The excuse was the government stimulus. Right now, you had some smaller regional banks fail earlier this year, so it's still delayed. So I still think over the next two to three years you see the benefit of the improved banking industry resiliency play out, and then they aren't as risky as perceived and they re rate at least back to historical And then the bigger question is longer term for the rerate above. Now, it's not immediate tom. I think as you get further out, you get better inflection points when it comes to banks, bread revenues, interest rates, effects, monetizing that capital markets backlog, and more clarity on regulation, which is a very big issues. Still, just real quick, just to follow up on the AI, what is the right AI investment? Is it getting some sort of application to write your reports for you. Is it being able to collate data from your customers to basically prescribe what they're going to do or want. What's the correct way. There's no one size fits off when it comes to AI investments. It's about banks tailoring those AI investments to their use cases that they have that's unique to them. So I find interesting anything related to compliance, fraud, cyber that's where you're seeing some really low hanging fruit early benefits. I think when it comes to some additional automation in the back office. I love what it can do for technology, the idea of Cobyl program change to Python, change to c plus plus, the ability to change archaic code. And by the way, most or almost all large banks still are advertising for Cobyl programmers. Tom, why are you killing me? By my first programming class at punch cards too so fourteen Yeah, what were that? Ancient? Lisa is like, what are they talking about? Single? Best buy ten seconds, JP Morgan and City Group. I had said, Okay, Barbell approach, Barbell approached, Mike Mayol, thank you so much, as WILLI s Fargo, Kati Kaminski, Chief Investments, trying to just to Alpha Simplex joins us now Katie the journey the low on a tenure yield back in twenty twenty in spring fifty basis points the high over the last couple of months through five percent. It paid to be short this bond market. You have been short, but the turnaround in the last couple of months has been brutaled the other way. We've come from five percent down to four forty on a ten year Katie, you've been short. Are you still short? And if you are, why, Yes, still short? But that has to do with different signals having different views. Take a look at the chart for the year. If you look at the year chart, the last month has been a miraculous turnaround relative to where we've come. So we're still way ahead of where we began the year, even prior to what happened in post what happened in the regional banking crisis. And so I think the key question to ask yourself about bonds right now is where are we going next? We have been looking all year for a distant version of the curve, and we got that in October, and the next point is still really uncertain. Are we moving to a steeper curve and if so, which way? Or are we just going to move around and sort of a range until we figure out what's actually happening with the Fed, Katie, Why is it not as simple as taking a look at the economic data coming out showing that it is disappointing much more frequently than it is outperforming, and just sort of leaning into that which the rest of the market seems to be doing. This is a good question, because really what I find the most concerning about the last month is there's been a massive has gone rally on weaker economic data, and that to me is sort of a relief rally from where we've come, because we've been through a lot, particularly in bonds, and so I think most people are buying right now because they're saying, if we see cuts soon, then we know that yields are going to come down. My concern is that it could take a lot longer than people think, pointing out that inflation is still way above target, or at least one percent above target, so we could take a year or so to get there. People are very quick to think that things are over when they take time to actually get through the system. Katie, we're setting up for the new year. I want to go back to the advent of all this, and this is trend based studies, and it's Andrew Low the giant, and you know, working with Elf Simplex and Wells Wilder and Monroe Trout, John Henry and the rest and the Germaine question twenty years ago is the same today. If you look at trend based studies or the complexity of trend based setups, are they elegant right now? Is the math good or are you blind? Well? Turning points are notoriously difficult for trend following. It's because we're not really set up to pick the tops and bottoms of big moves. And what happens in these turning points is we have to figure out using math, where is the next step of the trend. And that's where right now is an inflection point. And I'm looking forward to see if we can actually see that steeper curve. And when we've done historical analysis, what you do see is flat curves or steepening of curves. Is very difficult for trend signals because it's moving. Everything's moving, so it's a stochastic environment and you've got to find a new trend. What is the key attribute for our listeners and viewers to establish the trend? Well, I think the key thing that we always think about as trend followers. We try to blend different views. So right now, the long term view is still cautious. The shorter term view is very very optimistic, And if you combine those two together, you're really sitting in a situation now where we need more data and we need more time to understand where the market's going next. And that's why I think the market is so focused on every data point that comes out, because we're trying to sift through which view is correct. Is there a new trend, have we moved to a new era, a new phase of the of the curve shift, or are we still sort of treading water trying to figure that out. Time is expensive for shorts, and that's something that we have seen play out again and again. How much are some of the short positions being washed out adding to the rally? The stability that we've seen in bond yields over the past week and something that you think maybe can't last, Yes, of course, but I think there's a lot. There's been plenty of shorts this year, especially last year as well. When you think about where we've gone, we definitely need a balance between shorts and longs in this market. We have seen more buying pressure recently, which has been of perhaps causing some deceleration or deleveraging in short positions. But from the trend space, that's a strategy that's much more slow moving than some that you might be discussing. But there are definitely potential that some people are unwinding shorts as well. Hey Kitty, thanks for the update. Still short on this bomb market, Keady Commitski of Alpha Simplex. We take immense pride and I'm talking for the wonderful team we have working twenty four seven of giving you people of experience as we look at the horrific war in the Eastern Mediterranean. We've been advantaged by Norman Rule to say he's a former senior US intelligence official at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, barely describes his public service to the nation. Mister Roland, I want to cut to the chase here my amateur reading of fiction. Is it a ceasefire? Is an intelligence opportunity? Is this ceasefire good for the Israelis to develop intelligence in Gaza? Good morning, and you are absolutely correct. Keep in mind that the Israelis have a variety of means of intelligence. They must ingest a preasent. Prisoner interrogations take quite a while. Laptops have thousands of pages of data that must be reviewed, and you're looking to identify locations of individuals, hiding sites, weapons capacities, movement profiles, so that your troops can then use this as they plan operations when hostilities resume. So this is indeed probably one of the busiest periods for Israeli and partner intelligence. Does their military effort on a longer cease fire? Well, their military right now is supportive of the hostage release. They are concerned obviously that they allowed hostages to be taken and there because of the failure of October seventh, and this period is allowing that innocent Israelis are returning home, but that does not undermine their commitment to eradicating Hamas. Do we understand Have they articulated an endgame? Norman, No, And I think it may be a bit unfair to even think about what an endgame may be. So let me give you a give you an example. We are, in some ways in the easiest period of hostage negotiations. Once the negotiations turned to Israeli soldiers or men, you're going to see Hamas perhaps demand a lot more from the Israelis, the Israelis are unlikely to give, and therefore this could extend the hostage negotiations far longer than Israel could permit. And also we're looking at a period of time when the American presence among the hostages remains significant. Only one American has been released, likely because Hamas wishes to keep American political pressure on Israel. So it may well be that Americans may not be released in the initial period. There's something that you've said that I'd like you to explain to our audience. You said it's important not to confuse procedural hangups with strategic differences on hostage releases. Can you just go through what that actually means, Norman. In the early days of hostage negotiations, you've got issues such as how do you bring hostages to a safe location, exactly which hostage is going to be released, and what that particular group holding the hostages feels about their loss of that influence. And then on the Israeli side, you've got prisoners who have committed in some cases quite horrific acts, and the families of the individuals behind those sentences are going to be unhappy about the release. So you're going to have a process of working through this. But it doesn't mean that each side in this issue isn't interested in the release and the ceasefire. In fact, all sides involved Hamas, Israel, the United States, Qutar, they all benefit from a ceasefire and hostage release. Norman, can you just elaborate on the different factions within the Hamas group that are holding hostages and why they might be reluctant to release certain hostages. How this is sort of playing out in a political sphere over in Gaza. Well, we not only have different factions among the Palestinians, primarily Hamas, palestin Islamis Shihad criminal groups that may have taken hostages and seek to sell them to their own Palestinian partners, but we also have a communications problem. Imagine if you are these various groups and you know the Israelis are looking for your communications and looking for your movements, how do you exchange the data and conduct those intra Palestinian negotiations just to get that process going. It's a very complicated situation. What do you expect Tony Blinken to do on his latest tour of the region. We're always going to push for some sort of continued pressure on Hamas to release not only hostages, but to think about how they would consider a day after event. There's been very little actual crystallization of what day after means. You may have anything from an international police presence to Hamas thinking it can still survive because it will retain hostages for a period of time. And these talks are ongoing among all the various partners, and perhaps most important here are going to be the Saudist because they're leading such a large portion of the Islamic the Islamic world in Israel. It's really to make sure that he has a sense of where the coalition is in terms of resumption of hostilities and how Natanya, who is handling the various hostage debates within his own government. Norman role Aaron David Miller with us yesterday was just brilliant, and how this is not nineteen sixty seven, if that is true, and if there's not going to be a Camp David visit, a Camp David accord. Whatever our memory is of normal diplomatic ties, what do you presume will be the administration's approach to finding some kind of accord. Where are we a year from now, two years from now? Very difficult to think forward. First, you've got to identify which partners are going to show up for a camp David's style agreement meeting. I mean, think about it. Will Benjamin Netanyahu survive in his current political situation? It's stoutful. Who is going to be the leader of the Palestinians? Abu Mazen Mahammuda Bass, the head of the Palestine Authority is eighty eight years old. There will be no hamas presidents at the table. So who do you bring to the table that those entities don't actually exist at present? That's a massive question. Norman has tried to get your for you, it always says no one. Roll of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday starting at seven am Eastern. I'm Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can watch us live on Bloomberg Television and always on the Bloomberg Terminal. Thanks for listening. I'm Tom Keen and this is Bloomberg,
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Lori Calvasina, RBC Capital Markets Head of US Equity Strategy, says the path for equities is higher in 2024. Dana Telsey, Telsey Advisory Group CEO, breaks down record-high Black Friday sales. Aaron David Miller, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow, discusses the latest on the Israel-Hamas war. Torsten Slok, Chief Economist, Apollo Global Management, says the Fed's rate policy is leading to a gradual slowdown. Steve Schwarzman, Chairman & CEO of Blackstone Inc., says his firm has seen a bevy of buying opportunities in real estate across Europe.
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Full transcript:
This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Tom Keene, along with Jonathan Farrell and Lisa Abramowitz. Join us each day for insight from the best and economics, geopolitics, finance and investment. Subscribe to Bloomberg Surveillance on demand on Apple, Spotify and anywhere you get your podcasts, and always on Bloomberg dot Com, the Bloomberg Terminal, and the Bloomberg Business App. We begin the program with Lori Cavasina, head of US ecority Strategy at RBC Capital Markets. Lori, good morning. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I want to kick off with your call fifty one hundred for five thousand rather year rent on the s and P five hundred for next year Deutsche Bank going one further, a fifty one hundred, Lurie talk to us about the path to five k. Well, thanks for having me as always, and look, you know we purposefully did not put out you know, we see a near term pullback and a resurgence. I think a lot of people got caught in that trap in twenty twenty three calling for a near term pullback in the first quarter that didn't end up happening. I do think we'll be watching our sentiment indicator very closely. It's been the best star in the sky to navigate the equity market this year, but it's also round tripped a couple of times. It started out giving you a screaming by signal because of deep pessimism. Return to that post. SBB gave a sales signal in August and then gave a by signal again in November. So I think we're going to have to just be very tactical in that. You know, I have been telling people November is very consistently a strong month, but December is a little bit more hit or miss. So we'll see if we end up getting the Santa or Grinch in December. But I do think the path for equities is higher next year, and if we do have a bit of a short term pullback either in December to start the year, I expect it to be temporary. Llurie Goldman Sachs had a note thanks zero Edge for this on sales girls looking out two years twenty three, twenty four to twenty five and the difference between them magnificent seven with eleven percent sales grows versus the SPX four ninety three of three percent sales growth. Why would anybody sell the magnificent seven right now? I think it's a great question, Tom. When we look at our indicators and we look at the megacap growth trade broadly, it looks crowded. If you look at the weekly CFTC data on Nasdaq one hundred futures positioning, we're basically close to peak valuation and growth relative to value. If you look at the rustle one thousand on a weighted PE multiple, which is going to be very heavily influenced by that magnificent seven. And if you look at earning's momentum, we're still seeing better earnings revision trends and growth and value, but value is starting to catch up a little bit, so we are seeing that leadership on the earning side fade a little bit. All of that tells me that there should be a pause in growth leadership at some point. But I think one of the reasons people can't really permanently quit these growth stocks is kind of hitting on exactly what you said, the idea that there will be superior growth there over the intermediate term. And if you look at GDP forecasts for next year one percent in real terms anticipated by the street one point eighty percent in twenty twenty five. When we're in a sub two percent GDP environment, growth stocks usually do outperform because economic growth is perceived to be scarce. So I do think there is a real tension. You know, we still like the tech sector even though we have these shorter term tactical concerns on growth, had those tactical concerns on growth frankly for a while, and they've yet to really materialize in a big way. And I do feel like you may need to see a real ratcheting up of GDP expectations before you can really see growth loose some of that leadership dominance. When you talk about sentiment and how really that's been the loadstone for you, it's figuring out where is investor sentiment em betting against it? Am I correct? Basically? You know, one of the things I've learned over my career, Lisa, is that when everybody is really really pessimistic, that's usually a fantastic time to buy. If you look at when the AAII net bullishness indicator is, you know, sort of one standard deviation or two standard deviations below the long term average. I forget the exact stat, but it's in the eighties in terms of the percent of time that you're up twelve months later. And you see similar stats if you look on the flip side when people are overly enthusiastic. Now, if you're above one standard deviation on extreme optimism, you still tend to see like a five percent gain over the next twelve months. So it's not necessarily a washout, but it does tell you that you tend to see consolidation. You do tend to see some choppier markets, And I think that's why it's so important, Lisa to really prioritize data over narratives. I know a lot of strategists like to tell a great story and then they go out and put together their charts to try to fit whatever narrative they're pushing out there. But I really think that you have to stick to the data, and things like that centiment indicator will keep you into falling into consensus traps. Again, everybody just sort of gloms onto the same narrative and things get too extreme. Well, the narrative that we've been hearing again and again is five thousand on the SMP going into next year at least, if not more, And there has been a sort of boom and optimism that we've seen. Does that mean it's time to start taking some chips off the table and to be a little bit less optimistic or does this mean that finally you might see some of that cash at record levels going into the equity market. Well, it's interestingly so you know, everybody wants to sort of talk about this idea, and this is maybe on the more barish side of the table that bonds look more attractive than stocks and the earning shield has collapsed relative to the bond yield, and all that is true, But if you actually go back, there have been periods in history when equity investors or investors in general have taken up both their equity allocations and their bond allocations at the same time. So I don't think it's unheard of for both to do. Well, you know, five thousand, it's starting to be a number we're hearing a lot. I think we were maybe the second person on the cell side that had it when we put ours out, but you are starting to hear about it. And I think ten percent is usually a reasonable place that a lot of strategists start, we do have one model that can take us up to fifty three hundred, and that's looking at our valuation work and earning's work. And I will tell you, Lisa, like and as I was putting the report together, you always think about kind of where did you go wrong in the past year. I was more optimistic than most, but not optimistic in the end. And that valuation model was the one thing that was telling me all year to look for forty seven hundred, forty eight hundred on the S and P it's pointing to forty seven hundred on the end of the year. Now twenty twenty three one point it was saying forty eight forty nine. So I do think you have to have a little bit of humility when you look at these forecasts. We look at a bunch of different models. We take the median. Some are more constructive, some are less. But I do think we do have to pay attention to that bowl case setting into next year, because so it's really what works this year? Does that mean a banner? Kelvistin says fifty three hundred. I'd like we could go there quite I think we stick with five K. I just wanted to jump in when you were putting this together. Surely five K was something like twenty percent upside of the time. So you know, John, I started back in October pricing the models, and we actually published a report in October where we said we're not going to do our target yet, but here's what all the models are showing. And back then we were getting, you know, more a little bit of a more subdued number because we had a lower starting point, so we did price everything. As of mid November, I think a lot of our models we froze as November fifteenth, November sixteenth, so we really are kind of getting sort of a true ten percent from current conditions as of mid November. Basically, when I do this, John, I go into a black hole for a few days, don't answer my phone, don't answer email, and don't talk to anybody, and update all at once. So well, welcome Bocasta the black hole, Laurie. We're happy to see you, Lori Cavasena. Obviously, Capital Markets, there's no one better to speak to on this. As if you stand at the four corners of fifty seventh Street and Fifth Avenue, the Dana Telsea is a child gazing upon Berg Dorth Goodman and across the street to Tiffany's and where Louis Vuton is now when there's some other unpronounceable I can't afford store on the other corner. Telsea joins us now CEO, chief Research officer of her Telsey Advisory Group. You got this right. A lot of people got this wrong. How did you expect this optimism that we come out of the season. Well, thank you very much for having me, and hope you guys had a great holiday. Here's I think overall, keep in mind we did have a barrage of earnings reports all talking about the cautious consumer inventory levels are lean. Promotions were in place thirty to forty That isn't outstanding, that isn't going off the rails. In terms of level of promotions, they were definitely clean. What you saw in terms of traffic, look at the Lululemons, the bathroom, body works. Macy's had more traffic than what you had at Nordstrom, and off prices like TJX had a ton of traffic. And the teen retailers picked up the reason why, value and innovation. If you add value and you had innovation, the consumer was coming So look at Uggs and Hoka where there was innovation. You look at the value on the pricing. It meant something. But we have a long season coming up now. Christmas is on a Monday. Watch that weekend before Christmas. Because procrastinators, it's their choice of when they want to spend. Just let's build them that this idea of watch what happens later in the season. Are you saying that you suspect people brought forward their shopping much more than they had in the past because they are being cautious. So the numbers are inflated to represent that more than just excessive spending altogether. Yes, I think. You look at the savings rate which has come down, You take a look at delinquencies which have gone up, and you look at what's happened with the pattern of promotions. It began in October, So with Amazon Prime Day in October their second Prime Day, you had a pull forward of what the promos were, and of course online is going to be strong. Stores are no longer open on Thanksgiving Day? So what did people do? They shop with their phone? Mobile mattered? Well, this really raises this question. Is it the modality of shopping that matters? Right now or is it the type of product mix that matters right now? And I'm curious, can you parse that up? Is it just online shopping or is it the products that people are getting online. It's the products that people are getting, and don't throw out the stores. The stores matter, the engagement that people have, the social interaction. So many companies in twenty twenty three came out with new store formats. You look at on mall and off mall, they both won and even outlets are strong. And that measure for value, where's the best total return of twelve months? You and Joe Feldman they're not on speaking terms on this, but the basic idea of which kind of retail and which individual stock is the best possibility off price I think is going to win over the next twelve months. TJ Max, would you off price? Off price? Not luxury, different world, it's off price. It's the TJ max Is of the world, the Burlington's and the Ross stores. Why they're getting the benefit of a trade down. Look at what you just saw in their results last week when they each delivered same store sales of at least five percent, when you typically these are three percent same store sales increases. They're getting the benefit of the trade down. There's been a heritage of Tjmax executing what's the secret sauce that makes them do that? The experience of their buyers. They know how to buy, They have their relationships with brands. Brands like being in their stores and they sell through and don't forget their locations. The description that you're painting of the American consumer is not that positive. It's one that is trading down. As you said, it's one that has caution that might not show up in force before that Monday Christmas. So where are we in this cycle, right? I mean, is this a matter of people running out of money or is it just them saying, well, we've been spending a lot recently. We probably should be a little more prudent. They had more money two years ago with the stimulus package during the pandemic. The load to middle income consumer is battered right now by higher interest rates. Even though inflation's moderating, it's still a higher price than it was in the past. And even you take a look at the luxury consumer, you need the feel good factor. With the geopolitical issues going on, the macro headwinds out there and the volatility the stock market, it makes it more challenging. So that's why experience. Look at the tailor swift concerts over the summer, what people are willing to spend on. Give them something innovative, they'll be there. So what does it say about the trajectory of the consumer and how people are going to be spending. Is it the beginning of more pain or is this basically the bulk of it. I think this is in the middle of the pain that we're I think the focus on essentials is right there. I think you need newness in order to drive demand. And even though the labor market continues to remain very good, the watchwords are out there and saying what's it going to look like? And inventory is cleaner, so you don't need to promote as deeply as you had in the past. Look at what's happening with the department stores. They're ordering more cautiously, and why are they ordering cautiously if they don't feel the demand is going to be there. They'd rather sell at full price than markdowns. And your most profitable markdown is your lowest markdown, not your greatest markdown. Toughest job in retail this year is a guy named Sabata Dico at Gucci absolute toughest, toughest job. Dana Telsey on what Gucci's going to do right off that corner of Fifth Avenue and fifty seventh. I think they're going more basic than they've ever been before. Absolutely, they're going away from what the idiocy was for three years. Yeah, the mismatching of the three years is all about matching now and it's about safe. They're going back back to their archives and seeing what can they reinvent and updated proof that we want that. Is there a proof that will sell to the Chinese? I think there's some proof it will sell to the Chinese, But we're not seeing the Chinese travel yet. We need them traveling to really drive demand. And don't forget you're seeing the local Europeans slow down. Also, what do you make of the buy now, Pay Later and we were hearing that it's actually picking up. Do you buy that? Do you think that this is a positive sign for the retail world or is it a negative sign that people are just basically turning to leverage. People are turning towards leverage. When buy Now, Pay Later first came out, it was a huge event. A huge development because it got younger people and frankly the millennials to spend. I think now that it's been around for a few years, if they can't pay on time, they're willing to delay and frankly be able to extend what their payment terms are. Is it changing charge cards? I mean, is buy now, pay later changing the charge card business? Not what we've seen. It didn't take off tremendously. It took off with a certain graphic and those are the millennials single best buke go. I think that it's going to be TJX. I think TJX is going to be the winner for Holiday in twenty twenty four. Dana, thank you for the brief. Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group. Here we have seen far too much of him. He is an expert on turmoil, war and terrorism. Aaron David Miller with a continued brief, Senior Fellow Carnegie Endowment for International Piece. Aaron, just let me just cut to the chase. If we get out to a point of negotiation from where you sit, is there a hamas to negotiate with? Now there is, and the cutteries and the Americans are validating Hamas's effectiveness. The three of you are better analysts than I am, because you've i think, identified the core questions. There's growing daylight. The world is mad at Joe Biden, even though I think frank his own party's mad at him. There's a degree twenty five years at Department of State, I've never seen, never the degree of dissension and vocal opposition to an administration's policy from inside the foreign policy and national security space. On one resignation, but an extraordinary amount of noise. I think the President Frankly handled this pretty effectively. The Israeli Lebanese border is relatively quiet. The fears of escalation into a regional war which could produce plunging financial markets and rising up prices. So far that's been avoided, And you're right to focus on ostages, but I think the deal is very clear. I'd be stunned, frankly, if this humanitarian past collapsed. Hamas is trading hostages for time. They're hoping that the hostage families inside of Israel will continue to pressure the government in order to redeem all of the hostages that have not been The Arabs are angry, and THEWS earliers are going to face probably in the next week. If the ten hostages for a day of quiet, which is the offer on the table, If Amas accepts that doesn't add requests for more Palestinian prisoners, you could get another week out of this. But at some point the Israelis are going to want to resume in their ground campaign, and at that point, I think you're going to see growing awkwardness and uncomfortableness, maybe even tension in the US Israeli relationship. There's daylight between President Biden and some of his own members within his party, within his team that he has surrounding him. But he also reportedly has expressed concern about the collateral damage, about the civilians who have gotten killed, the incredible number, more than people had originally expected. How much is that going to lead to pressure in a new way that Benjamin not to Yahoo, who is not exactly popular at home, we'll have to listen to. I think that's the core question. President persona alone among modern presidents, he considers himself part of the Israeli story and is preternaturally his emotional support for Israel literally is impressed on his DNA. The politics. As you point out, he has to be concerned about rising the rising type opposition the Democratic Party, but the Republicans, who have emerged as the sort of Israel right or wrong party, are also waiting for him to pressure the Israelis so that they can pressure Joe Biden. And finally, there's I think the president's realization that he doesn't have many good answers to the two or three critical questions that the Israelis are facing with. How do you prosecute a ward to eradicate Hamas without an exponential rise in Palestinian desks? How do you surge humanitarian assistance into a war zone? And finally, what do you do about the proverbial day after its weeks and months after? So I think part of the reason he's reluctant to press the Israeli's hard so far is because he doesn't have better answers for them these core questions. Aaron David Miller a student of this, with your books back thirty years, don't go out thirty years for but I'm going to give you five years or ten years forward. Is our relationship with Israel irrevocably changed? A fascinating question. The headline would suggest that generational changes in voter constituency in Congress. The growing divergence between United States and the values proposition that Israel is a liberal democracy more or less seeking the same things that we do, and growing policy differences suggest that, yeah, there is a lot of fraud tension in this relationship. Whether it's a headline or a trend line, that's the key issue. I suspect that the operating system that has kept the US's a Reeli relationship pretty much very close together is going to continue for quite some time. But again, we support Israel because it's an American interest to do so, and because it reflects American values to do so. When those things change in the face of our right wing Israeli government that's pursuing opposite policies both at home and with respect to diplomacy on the Israeli Polish Ennian issue, then I think the US is really relationship will begin to change. That tension is continuing to build. And thank you so fantastic to hear from you, Aaron David Miller. There of the kind of endowment for international pain. Torsten Sluck He's chief economist at Appalled Global Management and writes a piercing short note each morning and here he hearkens back to the skeletons in the closet, the worries that those older have about is this time like well, try nineteen seventy two, Is this time like a nifty to fifty or the point where Polaroid and Xerox were one of the five Magnificent five that we're out there, Doctor Slock joins us this morning, I loved the equal multiples. Now with nineteen seventy two, I believe that ended ugly. Do you take that over to an analog that this will end ugly? Well, we still, of course have to wait and see exactly how AI will be used, and no one really knows how it'll be implemented, and how much productivity we'll get out of it, how much more consumption or welfare overall. But the bottom line really is what we can track is the valuations, And what I did right in the note today is exactly that the valuations and the trajectory is beginning to look quite similar, including the levels we're at with the pe for AI stocks or the Magnificent seven. Now at above fifty on a trailing basis, it does make you wonder a little bit whether this is indeed going to have a different story compared to what we've seen before, or whether this is actually going to be similard some I mentioned Tom Galvin years ago at Donald sim Lufkin Generator was very top line sales specific. Are we going to have the nominal GDP to support the magnificent seven even if they level out, or to bring the breadth up in a good market. Well, the problem is that the SMP four ninety three has basically been flat for the last year. So the conclusion is that so far all the market gains have been driven by this handful of stocks. So that of course also should bring us all to the discussion, Okay, is this sustainable? To what degree? Is this something that is a good representation of the oral index? If you really end up just buying into one simple story, namely AI, which is the reason why a lot of people are focused on the consumer to understand exactly where we are in this spending picture. And I want to go back to what we really began with this idea of are we seeing sustained sales and a sustained strong consumer or are we just seeing these shifts underway regardless of who ends up benefiting the most. But shifts underway. That represents strength in pockets in the overall picture. Yeah, and absolutely, I do think that it's clear that the shifts have been towards services. So that's why goods have generally been slowing down. Another strength point, as you're pointing out, is that we've also seen strengthen online. But if you really back up and look at the data for how is the consumer doing. Well, we just heard your previous guests talk about trading down. If you look at the language rates for all the loans have been going up, the language rates for credit cards have been going up. We're seeing across the board the level of interest rates are beginning to bite harder and harder and harder on consumers. So the conclusion, of course, is that the FED is actually achieving exactly what the textbook would have predicted. Namely, the slowdown might not have been as fast as we all thought just a few quarters ago, but it is still playing out. The slowdown is here and it will continue. We still have the worst ahead of us. It is the case that monetary policy is biting continuously also going forward, what's the distance between goldilocks and a full blown recession. Well, the runway that we are on here for slowing the economy down. From a FED perspective, certainly is that inflation is coming down. The labor market is also gradually coming down, and we got to get a soft landing not only in invasion but also the labor market. But we begin to see that on a plant rate has gone up from three point falls now at three point nine. That's create a lot of discussion about the PSAM rule and to what degree that's an indicator of a recession or not. But the conclusion to your question, Lisa is I do think that we should view this in the broader context of what is it the FIT is trying to do? And the FIT is trying to slow the economy down. That's why they raise interest rates, they raise interust rates because they want us to buy fewer costs fuel wash us fuel refrigerators, let's furniture, let fewer iPhones, and because of that we should over time continue to see that process play out. There is a real tension right now, and I see this under the notes underpinning the notes calling for five thousand or fifty one hundred on the S and P by the end of next year, which is how the federal respond to the slowdown that they wrought that they wanted to see. Will they cut rates aggressively just simply because they're tightening the screws at a faster pace as growth slows. Do you buy that they will do that even if it keeps perhaps the economy flow and prolongs this period of disinflation. This is a really important discussion in teams. In M language, we are looking at the tailor rule. How much weight do they put on inflation? How much weight do they put on the labor market. So far, all the weight has almost entirely been on inflation. And the question is next year, once inflation does get closer to two, will they begin to shift their attention over towards the label market? In other words, are the coefficients changing so that we put more weight on the label market. Now that the labor market is beginning to show some signs of weakening, I appreciate that jobless claims are not slowing, but the work week is coming down. If you look at job openings is coming down. A number of indicators are suggesting that label demand is weakening. So I do think that they will begin to shift away from focusing purely on inflation to begin to focus. Also more on the label a slock rule. It's like the tailor. I'm inventing it right now. Focus the slock rule. Look for this. The slock rules is three months moving average and non farm payrolls. What statistic do we need on a three months moving average of non farm payrolls? Where we make the great tailor to slock shift. See if you look at your latest number for a non found it was one hundred and fifty thousand. If idays one eighty eight two, and if I type Ecoco on Bloomberg, I will see that by second quarter of next year, non found paybrows will on average fall April, May and June be thirty five thousand. So now goes not wondering, thirty five thousand, So that is not wondering. That's the average, So that can have some fluctuation. I was not wondering. I always say this and p going to trade. If we get thirty five thousand and non fund payrose, what if it even goes below zero? The risk is here that we may have a runway and the lack of effects of Martins hear pology essentially beginning to be a big a trag on growth. Adobe just out Amy, Thank you so much for this. This is Bramo spending this weekend. Adobe a twelve billion to twelve point four billion Cyber Monday spend last year was eleven point three billion. But to your distinction, that's cyber that's just we're parsing out how all of us are glued to Amazon and it's cyber Monday today, let alone all the other spending that we've seen over this period of time. Really, I mean, honestly, the distortions have been incredibly difficult to really pick up on, which is the reason why I'm listening to what you're saying toward Sten, this idea of the labor market weakening and the FED maybe responding to that, and I'm thinking about, well, people still have money to spend, Their real wages are actually going up, and oh yeah, this is a job full recession that people are accepting. This is what they say, right, that people are hoarding labor, this is a new world. Do you push back against that? Well, there is in your weekend reading from the Fed the working papers that write about this. There is some debate between the Boston Fed, the San Francisco Fed, the New York Fed, has also written about this. The Board of Prominence has also written about this. The key issue still is it's very clear that we are ultimately running out of savings, excess savings in the household sex. So the question is some people view that has already happened, other view that's about now, other view that may only happen in the next few quarters. But the trend is very clear. The fit is getting what they want. They want a slowdown, and that's why you will also madly get excess savings running out. And let's not forget student dont payment started on the first of Octoba. That's why retail sales for Octoba was readtivy week. If we put all these things together, I still think that the slowdown continues. Deutsche Bank put out a forecast for one hundred and seventy five basis points of FED rate cuts next year. Is that feasible with the recipe that you just put out there. Well, that does require, of course quite a hot slowdown in the economy. That certainly requires a recession and a hot landing. The question is that's not what the contentious is expecting at the moment. But it's clear that if we do get a shop all slow down, and that is also what the contentious is expecting. It's just above ceral DP is expecting it below zero. Both scenarios make sense on their own, but the conclusion still is we still have more downside risk from where we are at the moment. I got to go back to your day job a couple of years ago before you got this easy slog with Apollo, and that was a Deutsche Bank Rischie Senak, the Prime Minister told our Francine Lacroix adamantly he is not prescribing austerity. You and folk arts Landau live this at Deutsche Bank, of the continent of Europe and of the United Kingdom. Is there a risk they slip into an incorrect austere policy. Well, the problem is that both the UK and EU have some same list of problems at the US broadly speaking, and then have some addition. We stimulus. We did a lock in New world stimulus. They're stuck in the old world. Isn't that simple? Well, in some sense, fiscal policy is certainly very different. In the US. It was much more aggressive than what it was in the UK and Europe, and in that sense, all the rules that in particular the growth constability plaque in Europe but also in the UK have certainly played a very critical role in why fiscal policy has been very different in the UK relative to the US. The fiscal policy will be more expensive than perhaps some people would say given where rates are. That's what we saw from Germany and the recent prognostications over there. Do you think auctions matter? I do think auctions matter a lot. And as you know, as you just talked about two year, three year, a five years and seven year this week is very important. And if you go also and look at the auction sizes over the last several months, they have gone up and as they continue to go up. The risk really here is that short rates may eventually come down, but we may have a steepener because long rates may potentially not come down as much because now we are dealing with this supply issue that potentially to put up what pressure and limit how much of a time we can get in loong rates. Let's revisit a banner from two hours ago. Outnumbered again, Pharaoh gone slock here. Auctions matter two, No one cares one. I think we were at two before. Now I think we're at three. Yeah, you know, it's just so it's like three to one is how we're going to take that matter. It depends if you care. I care auction a few weeks ago with a matter quite alone, Yes, exactly. Thank you doctor, Please of the tursen go away at least till next week by Steve Schwartzman of course Blackstone. Steve, thank you. You were just on stage with the Prime Ministeryunak. How much are you putting in the UK? What are you most excited about when it comes to the UK growth. Well, we've been putting a lot of money into the UK. First of all, we're doing our headquarters building here, which is very significant size building. It will be the largest built in the Mayfair area in the last several decades. We bought two companies in the last two weeks in the United States in the UK, and you know we have a total of seventy billion pounds that's close to ninety billion dollars of investments in the UK with thirty seven thousand people working in these companies in real estate. See what stands out as the biggest strength actually for the UK. So there are many questions. There was an autumn statement we're not sure how they're going to fund some of the tax cuts if they continue down the road, and we don't know if the Conservatives are in power in twelve months. Well, the big advantages of the UK are the English language, the rule of law. They have a terrific university system, they have a great life science areas. They're the number one tourist area in Europe, which actually I found surprising, and so they have a lot of pockets of strength. They've been through a complex time politically, but if you look longer term, the rule of law in the UK is very strong. Their regulatory posture has been quite consistent over time. But we forget that these are good things and not all places in the world have them, and so I think I'm not an expert on the UK, you know, sort of laws in the sense of what they're doing politically. I think their autumn statement on balance, which was stimulative, is and necessary thing for their economy. And they have a much more open approach to immigration at the top levels of education, which is good for helping to power an economy. So I think there's some interesting things going on here. Steve, what can you tell us about private market valuations at Pe firms? So in general. Do you see LPs actually demanding more information on marks and more reporting requirements and evaluation. Is that something that's shifting. I don't see a big set of enormous concerns on that. What always happens at this stage and the cycle, you know, when you go to very high interest rates and the world sort of starts slowing down, is that deals slow down. So for l P is their biggest concern is they're not getting capital flows back that they normally were depending on. Just people aren't selling assets. These types of cycles always end and things returns to normal. It's quite interesting that, you know, we just did two deals in the UK in the last two weeks, one in the affordable in what they call social housing area, one in computer software. Both are million billion dollar, two billion dollar type deals. We're doing a number of things in the US now, some of which have been announced, some of which haven't. We just were involved with a situation in Norway that's twelve billion dollars. So the deal business is not totally in mothballs, and these things start again, and I think we're more on that side of the cycle. Although it has been you know, somewhat dreary for a year in terms, for example of real estate, I think you're raising an opportunity to stake funds ten billion. How's that going, Well, we're raising money for a European fund. Actually, we're always raising money for a lot of funds for ran scene, and you know, we're gone through a big fund raising cycle. So we have over two hundred billion dollars. It's one of the biggest pools of uninvested capital in the world and that will be deployed in due course. Interestingly, in real estate, which you just asked about, we're seeing a good deal of volume of buying things in Europe because European real estate is under pressure in large parts because interest rates were so low here for so long. Sometimes in countries they were negative, so the barring costs to own real estate were next to nothing, and now it's closer to six percent. So if you have to carry a whole portfolio that used to cost you next to nothing at six percent, they need to sell things, you know, it's necessary to just hold their other properties. And so we're seeing some very very good buys in that kind of environment because unlike most people, we have enormous capital and can buy the types of real estate that we like, whether they're data centers, whether they're warehouses, whether they're student housing, where those sectors have done very well. See what can you tell us about great? So, have you seen any redemptions in that? How's that going? It breaks greats? How do you say b r e it t you say b reat Yeah, Well, those those redemptions have gone down. You know, they're I think forty or something like that of what they were a year ago. And so that that pool of capital is actually doing quite well compared to almost all of the real estate, and so you know, we look forward to that sort of ultimately going back to a very normal kind of world. Overall. Does UK politics seem benign compared to the US, but also what we saw in the Netherlands, well, you know, commenting on politics of other countries, let alone our own, which has a sense of drama and you know sort of incredulity is outside of my remit fair Steve Schwartz with a thank you so much. As always, Steve also has to get to another meeting right here, because people are coming and going in all the corridors of course of Hampton Court Palace. John subscribe to the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live every weekday, starting at seven am Eastern. 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Jeff Gennette, Macy's CEO says department stores are still relevant and his company is ready for the holiday shopping season. Joe Feldman, Telsey Advisory Group Sr. Research Analyst says retailers are starting to embrace AI. Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan, University of Michigan Professor of Public Policy & Economics discusses the surprise drop in prices of Thanksgiving dinner. Brian Kelly, The Points Guy Founder says use your credit card points before they lose value.
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Jack Caffrey, JP Morgan Asset Management Equity Portfolio Manager, says the holiday rally in the equity market is in full force. Aaron David Miller, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow, discusses the latest in the Israel-Hamas war and its impact on domestic politics. Helane Becker, TD Cowen Senior Research Analyst, walks through what's expected to be the busiest holiday travel season in years amid uncertainty in the airline industry. Earl Davis, BMO Global Asset Management Head of Fixed Income & Money Markets, doesn't expect the Fed to cut rates until after the US presidential election. Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence Sr. Technology Analyst, recaps a chaotic week for OpenAI founder Sam Altman and Nvidia's lukewarm earnings report.
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