Latest / The Financial Exchange Show / Which is more important, Fed Meeting or Presidential Election?
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- 1:04by Veterans Development Corporation. This is the Financial Exchange with
- 1:09Chuck Zada and Mike Armstrong.
- 1:13Speaker 2: Kicking things off on a busy week here on the
- 1:16Financial Exchange, we're through the vast majority of the you know,
- 1:20economic data that we were waiting for last week. We're
- 1:23through most of the important earnings at this point for
- 1:28Q three. At this point, just to give you a
- 1:31quick little earnings update, seventy percent of S and P
- 1:34five hundred companies have now reported earnings. The only one
- 1:36that really matters to the index that hasn't reported is
- 1:40in Video, which typically reports about two to three weeks
- 1:42after all your other major tech companies. I think it's
- 1:45going to be like the third or fourth week in
- 1:47November this year.
- 1:49Speaker 3: They don't like any competition.
- 1:50Speaker 2: What's that?
- 1:51Speaker 3: They don't like any competition?
- 1:53Speaker 2: Why would you? Why would you? And so thus far
- 1:56through that seventy percent of companies reporting SP five hundred.
- 2:00Annual growth rate for earnings is five point one percent.
- 2:04That'll be the fifth straight quarter of year over year
- 2:06earnings growth. When we look at the projections heading into
- 2:11the quarter, on September thirtieth, the S and P five
- 2:14hundred was expected to see four point three percent earnings growth.
- 2:16And remember this is missing Nvidia, which is a heavy
- 2:19weight and is showing rapid earnings growth. So this number
- 2:22is going to end up higher than where it is
- 2:24today unless like the other twenty nine percent of companies
- 2:28end up reporting poorly. And so again, it's been a
- 2:32good quarter for earning so far. Overall, it has not
- 2:36been one where you've seen any major challenge to you know,
- 2:40the idea that the US is in a growing but
- 2:43slowing economy. I think that's, you know, kind of a
- 2:46fair statement. And at this point stocks have largely been
- 2:51humming along, aside from a brief interruption last Thursday where
- 2:55we saw about a two percent pullback on the S
- 2:57and P five hundred.
- 2:58Speaker 4: Let's face the music here for a moment. This week,
- 3:02none of this matters. The most important political and economic
- 3:05event of the week is the election tomorrow. I would
- 3:09say most important economic event of the week too, not
- 3:11because it's going to determine whether the economy continues to
- 3:14grow or contract, but obviously the priorities of the President
- 3:19and the Senate and the House are going to override
- 3:22really anything that I can think of that we might
- 3:24hear from Jerome Powell from publicly traded corporations.
- 3:27Speaker 3: Or anywhere else.
- 3:28Speaker 4: It is going to be the most important, even economic
- 3:31event of the week will be tomorrow's election, the outcome
- 3:36of which hopefully we'll have some clarity about by Wednesday, and.
- 3:41Speaker 3: All of the other stuff that's going to happen.
- 3:43Speaker 4: I mean, you know, the Federal Reserve is so aware
- 3:45of this that they kicked their meeting back by a
- 3:47full day so that they didn't have to compete for
- 3:50any eyeballs with the election coming out. So that's going
- 3:54to be all that really matters, and I can understand
- 3:56why people listening might have a tough time focusing on
- 3:58anything other than that this week.
- 4:01Speaker 2: I'll disagree with that, will you fed meeting is more important?
- 4:06Completely disagree j Powell. At the stroke of a pen
- 4:13or push of a button or however they actually whatever
- 4:15they actually do in order to change interest rates, it's
- 4:18unclear to me the exact mechanism, whether it's button, dove,
- 4:21lever dove. I don't think they change rates by dove.
- 4:26Hawk could be a hawk could carry sometimes that was
- 4:29gonna be my case.
- 4:30Speaker 3: They carry a pigeon.
- 4:32Speaker 2: It's like you're waiting for them to name the new pope.
- 4:34Whatever birds they release out of the uh, but they
- 4:38don't burn the birds, that will be bad. Uh. J Powell,
- 4:42with the push of a button, can have more impact
- 4:46on the US and global economy than any other person
- 4:50on the planet, true President, Senate House included. I'm not
- 4:59saying that tomorrow 's vote isn't important to you know,
- 5:04the the broader idea of like humanity in the world
- 5:07and everything. But from an economic perspective, honestly, there is
- 5:12nothing like Jay Powell, and not him specifically, but the
- 5:16Fed Chair like that there is no one else who
- 5:19is that powerful economically. They're like, there's no one else
- 5:26that that has that level of control.
- 5:28Speaker 4: Yeah, I will still say that, Uh, the importance of
- 5:32tomorrow's election outweighs what we're going to hear from Jerome
- 5:36Powell in terms of the economic implications, because we don't
- 5:38just have the presidential election going on.
- 5:41Speaker 3: We have the Senate, we have the House, and we
- 5:42have a whole new makeup people law making. None of
- 5:45them can do that again, but of course not.
- 5:48Speaker 4: But Powell's not going to do something that is outrageously
- 5:52out of uh, out of predictability.
- 5:57Speaker 2: But nothing unpredictable can really pass. Like even predictable stuff
- 6:01has trouble passing Congress. And like, this is the point
- 6:03that I come back to the last two presidential elections
- 6:08that we've had, twenty sixteen and twenty twenty. In both
- 6:11of those cases, you ended up with a trifecta with House,
- 6:14Senate and White House control Republicans in twenty seventeen Democrats
- 6:19in twenty twenty one. Could either of them accomplish all
- 6:22of their priorities even given two years.
- 6:25Speaker 4: Of course not, But would you debate that those priorities
- 6:27were completely different.
- 6:29Speaker 2: I don't think they affected the economy nearly as much
- 6:32as people think. I think they affected markets because hey,
- 6:37here's where we're gonna give tax breaks, or here's where
- 6:39we're going to lower or raise taxes. Yep, and so
- 6:42certain sectors may benefit more than others. Sure, but from
- 6:45an actual economic perspective, no, I don't think that there
- 6:50was a meaningful change as a result. And I know
- 6:54that everyone listening like that there's just like exploding, like Chuck,
- 6:58you're an idiot, Like you're I get it. I get
- 7:02that we want to think that this is what moves markets,
- 7:07But for three hundred and sixty four days out of
- 7:12the year, and for you know, almost fifteen hundred days
- 7:16every four years we don't have elections, and most of
- 7:20the time we don't pass anything in Congress.
- 7:23Speaker 4: See you agree on ninety you and I agree on
- 7:25ninety percent of this. I don't think it's going to
- 7:27move markets. I don't think that either candidate leading here
- 7:31will change anything in the way of deficits or the
- 7:33fact that social Security is going to run out, or
- 7:35broadly speaking, what you know, the big economy looks like
- 7:40over the next decade. My mere point is that the
- 7:42outcome of the election for the economy is more impactful
- 7:45than anything Jerome and Powell will have to say on Thursday.
- 7:48Speaker 2: But what's that impact of all? That's like what we
- 7:50have no idea what it will be.
- 7:52Speaker 4: No, but but whether we will still have assault deduction,
- 7:55whether or not.
- 7:56Speaker 2: Doesn't matter to the economy. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter
- 8:03absolutely does Okay? What walk me through again?
- 8:07Speaker 5: No?
- 8:07Speaker 2: No, no, no, this is this is really like there's
- 8:10a lot of meat here. I think this is like
- 8:12really great to dig in on this.
- 8:14Speaker 4: So what you're describing is what does it matter to
- 8:16the big gross economy of the whole United States, And
- 8:21you know the salt deduction doesn't matter. But yes, would
- 8:23you say that the salt deduction doesn't matter to your
- 8:25personal economy? Would you say it doesn't matter to everyone
- 8:29said no, I said it doesn't matter to the economy.
- 8:31Speaker 2: Yes, and I believe it does not matter to the economy.
- 8:33I believe it absolutely matters to the economy.
- 8:35Speaker 1: No.
- 8:36Speaker 2: Yeah, the economy will figure out how to live with
- 8:38or without the salt deduction. But that's like, but it.
- 8:42Speaker 4: Will prioritize different people, and different people win or lose
- 8:44based on whether or not it happens.
- 8:45Speaker 3: It is immensely and more important than whatever jerone Palace
- 8:47say this week.
- 8:48Speaker 2: No, here's the thing. J. Powell can quite literally. If
- 8:52the FED makes a policy mistake, not intentionally but accidentally. Sure,
- 8:57if the FED makes a policy mistake, the US has recession.
- 9:01If Congress makes a tax code mistake, the US doesn't
- 9:05have a recession. It's just okay, some people get more
- 9:08money and some people don't.
- 9:13Speaker 4: Are we like on completely different pages here? If the
- 9:16US Congress makes a bunch of mistakes, then we have
- 9:18another ten trillion dollars of deficits and potentially ruin the
- 9:22United States long term future.
- 9:25Speaker 3: We've just talked about how there is so much more important, but.
- 9:27Speaker 2: We've talked about how there is no meaningful daylight on
- 9:30deficits between these two parties agreed, So like, what are
- 9:33we talking about?
- 9:34Speaker 4: Then I would think that a split Congress would be
- 9:37a net positive for all of this.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Why split Congress or not? No one's dealing with it. Well,
- 9:43the point that I'm making is there's no meaningful difference
- 9:49in what you are going to get as far as
- 9:51the things that we're concerned about from an economic perspective,
- 9:55deficit control, you know how responsive Congress is in the
- 9:58event of recessions. There's no meaningful daylight on these things.
- 10:03It's just okay, if you end up with Democrats in office, Okay,
- 10:09the money is going to clean energy instead of traditional energy. Like,
- 10:14is that something that we're really looking at and being like, well,
- 10:17you know this is gonna dramatically change the No, Like.
- 10:21Speaker 4: It's again, I don't know that it dramatically dramatically changes
- 10:24anything between the Republicans what would do and what the
- 10:27Democrats would do. But in terms of the importance compared
- 10:30to what's going to come out of Jerome Powell's mouth
- 10:31on Thursday to me, and I think almost every American's economy,
- 10:35real world economy is far more important.
- 10:39Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 10:40Speaker 4: I just I don't see it, but I don't. And
- 10:44land on the other side, I I.
- 10:47Speaker 2: Think everyone listening thinks I'm the idiot, which is cool,
- 10:50Like it's it's fine, you can think I'm the idiot.
- 10:53But ultimately, like, think about the last month just as
- 10:58an example, and what we've seen from interest rates and
- 11:02things like that, we're gonna say that, like stuff like
- 11:05that doesn't matter more than hey, Like on the margins,
- 11:11the tax code's gonna shift from you know, the top
- 11:13bracket being thirty seven percent to thirty nine six or
- 11:16thirty seven to thirty five. Like I can't get there,
- 11:24Like I just can't. And the thing about the FED
- 11:26is we we don't know if they're making a big
- 11:28mistake until a year or two after the fact. Sure,
- 11:31like we can't judge any of this even look even Congress,
- 11:34if they make a mistake, you look at it and
- 11:36you're like, okay, we won't know until I mean, if
- 11:39we're talking the deficit, it could be like forty five
- 11:41years sure, And it's probably not even this Congress then,
- 11:44So it's like, I, I just don't know how from
- 11:48an economic perspective we can look at it and say, yes,
- 11:54like tomorrow matters so much more than Thursday. A FED
- 11:58mistake is like, in my opinion, infinitely more important then
- 12:03whatever happens tomorrow from an economic perspective, because I would
- 12:09just say that a FED mistake literally causes a recession.
- 12:12Speaker 4: Yeah, and A again A depending on the makeup of how
- 12:18Congress looks like the country's economic priorities to me look
- 12:21vastly different under one party versus another. Again, whether even
- 12:25even if that is still these exact same amount of deficits,
- 12:29which parts of the economy are prioritized, which people in
- 12:32the economy are prioritized, looks incredibly different under these two
- 12:35candidates running for president, and nothing that Jerne Powell is
- 12:38gonna say on Thursday, specifically, what.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Do they actually pass?
- 12:43Speaker 3: Like what the hell if? I know but that?
- 12:45Speaker 2: But that's like what what's meaningful that's gonna pass?
- 12:49Speaker 3: Is it?
- 12:49Speaker 2: Like, no one's gonna deal with Social Security while the
- 12:51other doesn't. No one's gonna deal with Medicare while the
- 12:54other doesn't. No one's gonna deal with the defense budget
- 12:57while the other does. Like what, I don't know, what
- 13:00are we talking about? Like, hey, there's a billion dollars
- 13:03going to like Doe or something like that. All right,
- 13:06Like who cares? I don't know. I can't get there
- 13:11on tomorrow mattering much economically. I know that that's heathens
- 13:16to like everyone in the entire country because it always
- 13:20has to be the most important election of our lifetimes.
- 13:23Speaker 3: No, I don't think it has to be the most
- 13:24important election of our lifetime.
- 13:25Speaker 2: No thing about everyone listening more.
- 13:28Speaker 4: Important than one FED meeting, more important than one FED
- 13:31meeting because it is a presidential end election that will
- 13:34swing the Senate in all likelihood.
- 13:37Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't get.
- 13:39Speaker 3: Excited about it.
- 13:40Speaker 2: Sorry, take a quick break here. When we come back,
- 13:43we'll talk about what the FED might do on their
- 13:45meeting on Thursday.
- 13:47Speaker 5: Woll Street watch a full update on the markets performance
- 13:50todate week days at ten thirty only here on the
- 13:53Financial Exchange Radio Network. Find daily interviews and full shows
- 13:57of the Financial Exchange on how are you too, Pad?
- 14:00Get cut up on anything and everything you might have missed.
- 14:03This is the Financial Exchange Radio Network, all right, So
- 14:21we do have a.
- 14:22Speaker 2: FED meeting on Thursday. It's more important than anything else
- 14:27going on.
- 14:27Speaker 4: How annoyed would you be if every story you brought
- 14:30up today, I just said it doesn't matter.
- 14:31Speaker 2: Nobody cares. I didn't say nobody cares. I said I
- 14:35don't care. I know, I don't speak for anyone else.
- 14:40Speaker 3: Big FED meeting coming up on Thursday usually occurs on Wednesdays.
- 14:43Speaker 4: They've delayed a day, the only FED meeting certainly of
- 14:47the year that's not occurring on a Wednesday, and widely
- 14:50anticipated for another twenty five basis point rate cut after
- 14:55the fifty basis point during the last meeting. And I
- 14:59don't know about your but I can't really think of
- 15:01anything at this stage that should dissuade them.
- 15:04Speaker 3: From that path.
- 15:06Speaker 4: I think Muhammed eler and makes some good points about
- 15:08their mistake on whether or not it was mistake to
- 15:10do a fifty base point previously. But you know, you
- 15:13had a weak jobs report, you had soft inflation, and
- 15:17they're already on this cut path. I don't think you
- 15:19can divert from it at this stage.
- 15:20Speaker 2: No, quite. Honestly, I don't think you would want to know,
- 15:23because I also think that you have to realize it's
- 15:29there's no immediate pass through in terms of, you know,
- 15:33how quickly rates are transmitted in this and that. But
- 15:37it is something where okay, people were expecting the FED
- 15:41to cut, and did that shift behavior even in advance,
- 15:46and people started saying, okay, like, if the Fed's going
- 15:48to be cutting, we're going to be okay doing X,
- 15:51Y and Z. And look no further than how markets
- 15:53have reacted. Just as an example, since the FED started cutting,
- 15:58you've had the S and P five hundred situation where
- 16:00despite you know, the negative seasonality in September and stuff
- 16:05like that, you know, the FED cut on the nineteenth
- 16:07of September. The S and P five hundred closed at
- 16:10you know, fifty seven thirteen, it still is about two
- 16:14thirds of a percent higher than then, and at one point,
- 16:17you know, we were like three percent higher when it
- 16:18was closing in on fifty nine hundred, and so it's
- 16:22something where hey, to markets, the signal is, hey, if
- 16:26things get bad, we're gonna cut more like that was
- 16:30very clear and so markets, at least in the short
- 16:32term found some support because of that. And I think
- 16:36if you want to look at you know, recent weakness,
- 16:40I think it's probably ascribed to, Hey, the economy might
- 16:44be hotter than we think, and maybe the FED doesn't
- 16:46need to do as much, and so that's been why,
- 16:49you know, rates have been moving up and maybe EVE
- 16:51been seeing some signs of I don't want to say
- 16:54slow down, because again it's it's mostly the labor market
- 16:56that we're concerned about at this point. But I think
- 17:01ultimately the FED can probably go through another two to
- 17:03three cuts and kind of sit there and say, Okay,
- 17:06when we get to four and a half, let's see
- 17:09what the situation looks like at that point. And I
- 17:13don't think they've necessarily done any harm in continuing on
- 17:16that path. And in fact, if this little burst that
- 17:19we've had turns out to be a dare I say,
- 17:22transitory form of strength, then I think THEE can say, yeah,
- 17:27the underlying stuff that we were seeing, which is stuff
- 17:29that we've been talking about, Hey, we were justified in
- 17:32looking through that strength. Just like remember in the spring
- 17:37they were talking about, Hey, we think that this uptick
- 17:40in inflation in January through March was kind of this
- 17:43aberration that they look through. They might end up being
- 17:46justified similarly here and saying yeah, this was, you know,
- 17:50transitory strength, and we're not going to get fooled by
- 17:53it because the underlying data is pointing still in a
- 17:56negative direction.
- 17:57Speaker 4: So pretty clear what the outcome of Thursday is going
- 17:59to be. By by all accounts, probably no significant change
- 18:03in what that means for long.
- 18:05Speaker 3: Term rates or mortgage borrowers out there.
- 18:07Speaker 4: What do you make of Muhammad al Arian's most recent
- 18:10commentaries published this exact story multiple times over the last
- 18:14year or so, But I'm starting to buy in more.
- 18:16And here's a quote. Consider the following. A FED that
- 18:19saw no need to cut interest rates at the end
- 18:21of July proceeded to do so by an unusually large
- 18:25fifty basis points at its next policy meeting in mid September,
- 18:28slashing the target FED funds rate to a range of
- 18:30four to seven five to five from a range of
- 18:32five and a quarter to five and a half.
- 18:34Speaker 3: The intention to go big rather than valid the.
- 18:35Speaker 4: Twenty five basis points that the market expected that stage
- 18:38was communicated via newspaper leaks. He goes on, I'm starting
- 18:42to buy into this a little bit more. To say,
- 18:44the Fed seems to lack any long term strategic vision
- 18:49and instead seems to be bouncing back and forth to
- 18:52different data points and inconsistently, by the way, right to
- 18:56your point. Back in the spring, they saw higher inflation,
- 18:59didn't really seem to rect to it. This time they
- 19:01saw possibly lower inflation and quickly reacted with a fifty
- 19:03base point cut.
- 19:05Speaker 2: I think it's a FED that has been proven very
- 19:08clearly in the last three years to be more afraid
- 19:11of causing a recession than letting inflation linger. They've behaved
- 19:14dubbishly every time they've had the opportunity to do so.
- 19:19I don't know if I agree with Larian that they
- 19:21lack strategic vision. I just think that that vision is
- 19:23asymmetrically skewed to being afraid of recession more than being
- 19:27afraid of inflation. Fair let's take a quick break here.
- 19:33When we come back, we got Wall Street Watch and
- 19:34we're talking housing.
- 19:41Speaker 1: Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Act
- 19:44TFE show Breaking business news is.
- 19:46Speaker 5: Always first right here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
- 19:52Time now for Wall Street Watch, a complete look at
- 19:55what's moving markets so far today right here on the
- 19:58Financial Exchange Radio Network.
- 20:01Speaker 6: The busy stretch on Wall Street continues this week with
- 20:05a FED meeting this week in a tiny, little presidential
- 20:09election you may have heard of tomorrow. Markets right now
- 20:13are in mixed territory. The Dow is off by just
- 20:16about a quarter percent, SMP five hundred is up by
- 20:20only five points, and the Nasdaq is up by twenty
- 20:23three points. Russell two thousand up by half a percent,
- 20:26ten year treasure yealed down by nine basis points at
- 20:30four point two seven percent, and crude oil is up
- 20:34over two percent, trating just above seventy one dollars a barrel.
- 20:38Over the weekend, Berkshire halfway posted their third quarter third
- 20:42quarter results, narrowly missing earnings expectations. Worn Buffett's conglomerate also
- 20:47revealed it further trimmed its holding of Apple stock, selling
- 20:51about a quarter of its stake last quarter. Despite the cut,
- 20:55Berkshire still remains Apple's largest shareholder. Berkshire also continued to
- 21:00reduce its position in Bank of America. Apple shares are
- 21:03off by half a percent, while Bank of America shares
- 21:06are down by about a third of a percent. Meanwhile,
- 21:09after initially jumping at the opening at the opening, bell
- 21:13Viking Therapeutic stock now down by eight percent after the
- 21:16biotech company reported promising results from an obesity pill trial.
- 21:20If successful, the pill could compete with medications from Novo
- 21:25Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which have to be injected elsewhere.
- 21:29Boeing up by about a third of a percent ahead
- 21:32of the big vote from its machinist union on a
- 21:35new labor deal with the hopes of ending the seven
- 21:38week strike, and ahead of Friday's opening. Bell and Video
- 21:41will join the dowd Jones Industrial Average, replacing Intel. Paint
- 21:46manufacturer Sherwin Williams will take Chemical Company Down Incorporated's place
- 21:53in Video shares up by two percent while Sherwan Williams
- 21:56stock is up by four percent. I'm Tucker Silvan. That's
- 21:59Wall Street Watch.
- 22:01Speaker 2: It's always exciting when you get some new Dow components.
- 22:04It's also confusing because you're now comparing stocks today to
- 22:11stocks that are no longer in there.
- 22:13Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like.
- 22:14Speaker 2: Mentally, I always struggle with this one when a new
- 22:17component comes in, especially in a thirty company index.
- 22:20Speaker 3: Right.
- 22:21Speaker 4: Yeah, it's one thing with the S and P five
- 22:23hundred when somebody gets the boot and yeah, you're technically
- 22:26comparing very different companies today than you were thirty years ago.
- 22:31Speaker 3: Even in the S and P five hundred.
- 22:32Speaker 4: But yeah, when it's when it's only thirty companies and
- 22:35they boot out a company like Intel, who's off by
- 22:39fifty percent this year, and replace it within Video Who's.
- 22:41Speaker 3: Up what one hundred and fifty percent this year? It
- 22:44does distort things a bit.
- 22:46Speaker 2: It does. And I also want to U just reference
- 22:50one thing that I love to go back to. Do
- 22:52you remember when Salesforce got added to the dow? Uh
- 22:55twenty one or two twenty twenty? Okay, and do you
- 22:58remember who they replaced? Ibm uh Exon Mobile?
- 23:04Speaker 3: Really?
- 23:04Speaker 2: Yeah, they basically do the same thing.
- 23:07Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously, Yeah, obviously Salesforce and Exon Mobile have a
- 23:11lot in common.
- 23:12Speaker 2: Since August twenty fourth of twenty twenty, Salesforce is up
- 23:17forty two percent, Exon Mobil is up two hundred and
- 23:20twenty six percent.
- 23:22Speaker 4: What was the prespice for? What was the cause to
- 23:24give x on the boot? Is there another integrated oil company?
- 23:28Speaker 3: And press? Is?
- 23:28Speaker 5: What?
- 23:29Speaker 2: Negative that?
- 23:29Speaker 5: Sure?
- 23:30Speaker 2: That's all I can think of.
- 23:31Speaker 3: But like, is there a single other oil producer in
- 23:34the Dow?
- 23:35Speaker 2: Let me think of who's Lescu?
- 23:36Speaker 4: That's a massive absoint if you're just gonna say, hey,
- 23:38this is the representation of the US marketing von still
- 23:42in there.
- 23:42Speaker 3: Chevrons in there.
- 23:43Speaker 2: Okay, Chevron's in there.
- 23:44Speaker 3: And again, I.
- 23:45Speaker 4: Don't know how you prioritize keeping Chevron over exon given
- 23:49the comparable size the two.
- 23:50Speaker 3: But nonetheless, here we are.
- 23:52Speaker 2: I believe it's called Chevron deference. Yeah, it's such like
- 23:57show like it's such a nerd I crap joke. There's
- 24:01like this three of our talking about. Actually no, I
- 24:07would say most of our listeners might know about that.
- 24:09Speaker 4: They've heard of the Chevron difference. Yeah, but a very
- 24:13small portion of them would find that joke funny, like
- 24:15I did.
- 24:17Speaker 2: I'm glad I made you smile, Mike. Let's talk a
- 24:19little bit about the housing market, something that's not gonna
- 24:21make anyone smile anytime soon. If you own a home,
- 24:25I'm not if you want to move, and not if
- 24:28you want to refinance. Basically, if if you like everything
- 24:32exactly how it is right now with your housing situation,
- 24:34you can smile. If you have any problems, you probably can't.
- 24:38Piece from connor Son in Bloomberg Opinion Today, It's titled
- 24:41Squeezed homebuilders are bad news for the housing market and
- 24:43This is a story I've been following for the last
- 24:45couple of weeks, which is homebuilders have been reporting earnings
- 24:48just like other companies over the last couple of weeks,
- 24:51and there are two things going on. First, the earnings
- 24:53have been bad, just not good. The second is that
- 24:58these companies are just significantly reducing backlogs in places where
- 25:02they're actually building houses in large numbers. Remember, the housing
- 25:06industry is just hugely fragmented. There is no there is
- 25:10no apple for housing. Even the biggest home builders in
- 25:14the country build like two percent of all the new
- 25:18homes that are built each year, so like it's just
- 25:20not a very concentrated market. But what we're seeing from
- 25:24those large home builders is in places like Texas, Florida, Georgia,
- 25:30all the places where the growth has been population wise
- 25:33the last few years, the backlogs that they are reporting
- 25:37in terms of you know, unit construction and orders and
- 25:39things like that are dropping by like twenty to thirty
- 25:42percent year over year. And what this means is these
- 25:45companies are looking at pricing and looking at what people
- 25:48can actually pay, and they're pretty much saying, hey, we
- 25:53can't sell nearly as many homes as we used to,
- 25:55so we're not gonna build them.
- 25:57Speaker 3: And that's also problematic.
- 25:59Speaker 4: Like you could look at that and say, well, you know,
- 26:01if people are leaving Florida and Georgia and North Carolina
- 26:05and returning back to the northeastern California, for example, which
- 26:08does some extent might be happening somewhere out the margins,
- 26:11maybe you know, the logical thing to be like, well,
- 26:13just build the homes in New England.
- 26:14Speaker 3: But that doesn't really happen.
- 26:16Speaker 4: It is just so much more difficult to build a
- 26:19home anywhere in New England compared to Florida and Georgia
- 26:21and North Carolina that you won't see an easy replacement.
- 26:25Like Chuck said, also, the same companies that build those
- 26:28homes in Georgia aren't the same ones that do it
- 26:30in New England.
- 26:30Speaker 3: In the first place.
- 26:31Speaker 4: But yeah, nonetheless, a slow down in housing construction is
- 26:35a slow down for the US economy. And you know,
- 26:39it was wildfire for the last few years in terms
- 26:41of cost materials and everything else. And a somewhat logical
- 26:47turnaround here, although you know could look could have looked
- 26:51very different. Head rates started coming down a little bit
- 26:53faster than they have recently.
- 26:56Speaker 2: Yeah, and so this is ultimately going to be a
- 27:01big continued problem because if you don't build enough new housing,
- 27:07then you don't get enough used housing, and then you
- 27:10end up with prices that don't really move the way
- 27:14you want them to. We've seen this with the auto
- 27:17market in terms of how it's cleared, but even in
- 27:19the auto market, you still are not quite back to
- 27:23where you would expect it to be, just because part
- 27:26of that is just a shift in consumer preferences and
- 27:28what we're seeing in autos. But even in the auto market, look,
- 27:33once automakers squared away their supply chains, you've had like
- 27:36two years now have used car prices going down. They've
- 27:38kind of bottomed out a little bit, but it still
- 27:42is something where, hey, once you finally produced enough new cars,
- 27:46it cleared a lot of the issues on the used
- 27:48car market that we were seeing that we're leading to them,
- 27:51you know, going up in value by thirty forty percent
- 27:53a year.
- 27:55Speaker 4: This is only tangentially attached to housing. Have you seen
- 28:00any uptick in ADU construction in your area? Only because
- 28:06nationally there's been a big push for accessory dwelling units
- 28:10and specifically a big push for states and municipalities to
- 28:15pass laws saying hey, by default, you're able to build
- 28:18one of these. I know in my town, for instance,
- 28:20there's an exemption where you know, you don't have to
- 28:23go through traditional zoning requests and things like that, so
- 28:26long as it's under a certain square footage, sure, and
- 28:28as long as you're not in an environmental zone. For example,
- 28:31I was working with somebody else up in Maine who
- 28:33you know, so long as it's not being used for
- 28:35short term rentals, pretty much can construct one of these
- 28:38things without much in the way of requirements. I haven't
- 28:43seen locally any significant uptick, but to me that logically
- 28:46makes a good bit of sense for folks that you
- 28:50know might have family or you know, aging family that
- 28:54needs to be close by.
- 28:57Speaker 3: Seems like a logical next step.
- 28:58Speaker 4: But I haven't can't say I've seen a ton of it,
- 29:00and I wonder if from builders, if they're saying it anecdotally.
- 29:03Speaker 2: I haven't seen much either. It's something where I also
- 29:08don't know in some cases like how you would see it,
- 29:11because the idea behind these ADUs is, hey, they might
- 29:14be built as like like it almost looks like a
- 29:18slightly larger shed behind someone's house, So true, you might
- 29:21not see it. You might not have the signs of it.
- 29:25You might see, you know, construction vehicles outside someone's house,
- 29:28but it looks like they're just doing a kitchen renovation,
- 29:31but really they're building an ADU behind it, and so
- 29:33you just don't know it's which is again, that's kind
- 29:37of the whole point of making them more allowable, is Hey,
- 29:41if you can't see it from the street, who cares?
- 29:45What are we really doing here?
- 29:46Speaker 3: Now?
- 29:47Speaker 2: Like there's limits to that. Obviously, this is an ADU,
- 29:49not you know, a missile silo. I know there's a
- 29:53lot of middle ground between that, but ultimately, you know,
- 29:57nuclear power plant things like that, Like you wouldn't just
- 30:00be like, yeah, pop a little miniature reactor in your
- 30:02backyard and hook your Dolorean up to it and you're
- 30:05good to go. But yeah, you would hope that you're
- 30:08seeing more of this, but you might not actually see it.
- 30:11If that makes sense either way, that the housing market
- 30:15is stuck. It really doesn't really show any signs of
- 30:20budget either. With rates where they are no and the
- 30:22places that do now have higher inventory levels than pre pandemic.
- 30:26You're seeing prices coming down and that is something that
- 30:31feels like a feature, not a bug of this market. Unfortunately,
- 30:35at this point, if you're if you're trying to sell
- 30:39in one of those high inventory areas, it's it's it's
- 30:44not great like it's it's unclear there's gonna be anything
- 30:46that clears that in the near future. Take a quick
- 30:49break here when we come back, talk a little bit
- 30:52about Berkshire, Hathaway and Boeing. Right after this text, does.
- 30:58Speaker 5: Six one seven drink six to two one three five
- 31:00with your comments and questions about today's show.
- 31:03Speaker 1: This is the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
- 31:07Speaker 5: The Financial Exchange Show podcast drops every day on Apple, Spotify,
- 31:11and iHeartRadio. Hit that subscribe button and leave us a
- 31:14five star review. You're listening to the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
- 31:21Speaker 6: Just want to remind everybody that coming up right here
- 31:24on the show at eleven am, we have the Ultimate
- 31:26Boston Sports Auction to benefit the Disabled American American Veterans
- 31:32Department of Massachusetts once again, that auction is going to
- 31:35open up at eleven am. We'll have four incredible items
- 31:38to bid on in one massive package, including a pair
- 31:42of tickets to see each of the Boston sports teams.
- 31:46Some nice memorabilia, including a Drake May autograph, team jersey
- 31:51of Pedro Martinez autograph baseball and much more. It's a massive,
- 31:56max massive Boston sports auction in that will be open
- 32:00again coming up here at eleven am and will be
- 32:03happening the entire week and again all the proceeds will
- 32:07benefit the Disabled American Veterans Department of Massachusetts once again.
- 32:12That will be open at eleven am and the phone
- 32:14number to call at eleven am is eight eight eight
- 32:17two zero five two to two sixty three. To bid
- 32:20at eleven am once again, the number eighty eight two
- 32:23zero five two two six three.
- 32:27Speaker 2: Love the Drake, wonderful play at the end of yesterday.
- 32:30Oh yeah, I love the Drake. He's a stud. There's
- 32:33not much else going on there, but uh yeah, that's it.
- 32:38There's not much else. Just to see Drake May.
- 32:40Speaker 6: I mean that would be amazing, right.
- 32:42Speaker 2: Like just fantastic, absolutely fantastolutely Mike, did you watch any
- 32:45of the game yesterday?
- 32:47Speaker 3: I did. I watched them listen overtime.
- 32:48Speaker 2: Yeah, oh good good. It was one of the more
- 32:51enjoyable overtime losses I've ever waitnessed.
- 32:54Speaker 6: Our house, our household was standing watching that game all
- 32:58that matters, which hasn't happened in a while. And right,
- 33:00but this new quarterback, Drake May, who stud.
- 33:03Speaker 2: Drake May so hot? Right now, let's talk a little
- 33:06bit about Berkshire Hathaway. They announced that they are continuing
- 33:11to trim some of their holdings, specifically their Apple holding.
- 33:16They sold about one hundred million shares of Apple in
- 33:18the quarter, but it's about twenty five percent of their
- 33:21steak and they've now sold more than six hundred million
- 33:25Apple shares this year, so they've reduced their steak by
- 33:29almost seventy percent over the course of the year. Does
- 33:33Warren know something, Mike, what's he doing?
- 33:37Speaker 4: Probably he knows lots of things he does. I think
- 33:39it's a good reminder that while Warren Buffett does have
- 33:43a lot of great advice to dole out, and frequently
- 33:46does on all sorts of different topics, from taxes to
- 33:51how to invest, using Berkshire Hathaway's investment strategy as your own,
- 33:58should you know should be looked at with some extreme caution.
- 34:03To know the least, no one is able to invest
- 34:05like Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway is an entity that is
- 34:10designed to hopefully continue to exist for decades after this
- 34:14has all sorts of reporting and regulatory requirements to its
- 34:17shareholders that don't and should not invest and exist for
- 34:21the average investor.
- 34:22Speaker 2: Beyond that, I think there's a very simple thing that
- 34:24I come back to, which is, there's a reason why
- 34:27Warren Buffett is Warren Buffett in your you and I
- 34:30include me in the your you right category like it's
- 34:32all of us, yeah, and we're us.
- 34:35Speaker 3: You know.
- 34:35Speaker 2: It's he's really good at investing. I know that he's
- 34:41playing the long game. He can afford to play the
- 34:45long game. You know, when when he comes in in
- 34:48two thousand and eight and makes the deal with Bank
- 34:51of America to rescue them from blowing up, he wasn't
- 34:55concerned about, Hey, how's this going to look for me
- 34:57next year, next week? Or do I need the money
- 34:59to buy a house? He's no, I'm getting a huge
- 35:01deal on this, And even if it doesn't pay off
- 35:04for eight to ten years, which is it took like
- 35:06seven or eight years for it to kind of get
- 35:07to be as good of a deal as it was. Hey,
- 35:10that's fine, I can sit and wait on that. That's
- 35:13no problem. On top of that. Remember, Warren Buffet's also
- 35:16a great example of like do as I say, not
- 35:18as I do. He always talks about the dangers of leverage.
- 35:20Warn Buffet uses a ton of leverage his businesses. It's
- 35:23because he knows what he's doing. And I'm not saying
- 35:25that none of us know what we're doing either, But
- 35:28Warren's pretty special. There's a reason why most people don't
- 35:31accumulate the level of wealth and the types of returns
- 35:35that he has. It's because he's really good at it.
- 35:38And you can't just look at what he did in
- 35:40the prior court and be like, I should do that,
- 35:42because you don't know why he was doing it. You
- 35:44don't know when he was selling it, what prices, you
- 35:46don't know when it's all.
- 35:47Speaker 3: He's done for the better part of a century.
- 35:50Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, he's ninety four years old, He's seen some stuff,
- 35:54knows a few things.
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- 36:57Speaker 3: Chuck, how many leaders are an a HECTA leader?
- 36:59Speaker 2: One hundred?
- 37:00Speaker 3: Okay.
- 37:02Speaker 4: In twenty twenty three, global wine consumption came in at
- 37:05two hundred and twenty one million hecto leaders, which sounds
- 37:09like a lot, but it was actually down almost ten
- 37:11percent from two hundred and forty seven million Hecto leaders
- 37:15back in twenty seventeen, which hopefully means that I'm going
- 37:19to start finding some bigger discounts on wine.
- 37:21Speaker 2: It's three point five billion fewer bottles of wine. To
- 37:24put that in you know term that we're more than
- 37:26a lot because most of us don't buy by the
- 37:28Hecto leader. No, we don't even buy the leader. No,
- 37:31he buy three quarters for flye. And so what you're
- 37:36seeing here is that apparently there is too much wine
- 37:39being produced and not enough people drinking wine. There's various
- 37:43different reasons for this. There's one theory that baby boomers
- 37:48have been the primary wine you know consumers, and younger
- 37:50generations are more beer and whiskey.
- 37:53Speaker 4: You know now that there is that younger consumers just
- 37:55aren't drinking as much alcohol in general.
- 37:57Speaker 2: Yep, you've got kind of like dry anuary and stuff
- 38:00that goes on. Ultimately, as someone who does enjoy drinking wine,
- 38:05I come back to the idea that hey, if no
- 38:07one else wants to buy it, it's better for supply
- 38:09and demand for me, and hopefully I can get some
- 38:12better pricing on it. Sounds nice.
- 38:14Speaker 3: Some winers will probably also go out of business.
- 38:15Speaker 2: Not great if you're in the wine business, though, It's uh,
- 38:18you know, something that's gonna be a real challenge. Let's
- 38:21take a quick break here. Hour two coming up in
- 38:23a bit