Latest / Best of Business / Sam Dickie: Fisher Funds expert on what the current US earnings season says about American consumers

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Sam Dickie: Fisher Funds expert on what the current US earnings season says about American consumers · Best of Business

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• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Brian Bridge.
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  Speaker 2: Wall Streets. Heavyweight banks have kicked off earning season there
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  Speaker 2: and the message is pretty clear US consumer is bending,
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  Speaker 2: but certainly not at this point breaking. Sam Dickey from
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  Speaker 2: Fisher Funds is with me now, Hey Sam, good evening, Right,
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  Speaker 2: So where are we at this reporting season? Who's reported
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  Speaker 2: so far? How the result's been looking.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we're less than ten percent of the way through.
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  Speaker 3: But the big US banks always kick things off, and
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  Speaker 3: they've got a pretty good bird's eye view of the
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  Speaker 3: US and the global economy. And they mostly beat expectations,
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  Speaker 3: which is quite interesting given how bearish sentiment was sort
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  Speaker 3: of two months ago. So JP, Morgan and City Bank,
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  Speaker 3: especially two giant banks, beaty expectations and that's probably no
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  Speaker 3: surprise now given stock markets thro at all time highs
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  Speaker 3: and bond markets have been volatile. So they're trading flows
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  Speaker 3: have been humming and minting cash.
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  Speaker 2: And how households spending habits going at the moment starting
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  Speaker 2: to crack.
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  Speaker 3: Yet, yes, that they do have a great view of
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  Speaker 3: that and the answer is not yet. So JP Morgan's
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  Speaker 3: Jamie Diamond said the consumer is resilient still, and City
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  Speaker 3: Group CEO said the consumer is holding up nicely. Bank
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  Speaker 3: of America said solid consumer spending data and no signs
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  Speaker 3: of a recession.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So what rests of the bank's really worried
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  Speaker 2: about here? Sam?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's a really good question, because everything we've
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  Speaker 3: talked about so far was backwards looking for the first half,
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  Speaker 3: and most sounded notes of caution for the second half.
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  Speaker 3: So Wells Fargo said they expect pressure on borrowing demand
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  Speaker 3: for the rest of twenty twenty five because interest rates
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  Speaker 3: remain high. Jamie Diamond lamented how expensive equity markets looked
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  Speaker 3: and asset prices look pretty high. And as a group,
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  Speaker 3: they all talked about the risks of geopolitics, US government
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  Speaker 3: debt levels and generally higher interest rates pressuring the ability
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  Speaker 3: of the US government to pay the interest on that debt,
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  Speaker 3: and of course, the uncertainty of tariffs and whether they
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  Speaker 3: will kick in in August was talked about a lot
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  Speaker 3: by the big banks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, still a lot of it on setting around that.
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  Speaker 2: What does all this mean for investors? Sam?
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  Speaker 3: The US economy remains exceptionally robust and We've seen this
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  Speaker 3: many times since COVID when people expected a recession as
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  Speaker 3: at April for example this year post Liberation Day, and
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  Speaker 3: it just remains very, very robust. But stop market sentiment
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  Speaker 3: is red hot. It's been an incredible run in equity
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  Speaker 3: market since April the eighth. And the only other thing
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  Speaker 3: I would say is it's all about AI at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: and any company with AI and the name is going up.
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  Speaker 3: And it does seem like the US economy is a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of a sideshow at the moment until it's not.
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  Speaker 2: So.
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  Speaker 3: I would just say in a note caution there given
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  Speaker 3: the exceptional run that equity markets have had.
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  Speaker 2: And it has been exceptional SAMD thing. Thank you for that,
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  Speaker 2: Sam Dicky Fisher Funds.
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