Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Market Volatility, Supply Chain, And Electric Vehicles (Podcast)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney. Alongside
- 0:04Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day, we bring
- 0:06Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
- 0:11Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
- 0:15Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
- 0:18Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. Let's turn to Omar Aguilar,
- 0:23Speaker 1: CEO and ce IO Schwab Asset Management. Omar, thanks so
- 0:25Speaker 1: much for joining us. I'm sure your phone is ringing
- 0:28Speaker 1: off the hook with your Schwab clients saying what do
- 0:30Speaker 1: I do in this market here? What are you telling
- 0:33Speaker 1: Schwab clients? Good morning, Thanks for having me And um,
- 0:37Speaker 1: you know we're we're telling clients to just take a
- 0:40Speaker 1: deep breath and in a stay of the screen set
- 0:42Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. It is is we have we
- 0:45Speaker 1: have a market that went away from fundamentals to focus
- 0:49Speaker 1: on mackero and right at this moment, it's really all
- 0:51Speaker 1: about sentiment. Um. You know, we clearly see significant amount
- 0:56Speaker 1: of client anxiety, UM, which is very understandable. Um about
- 1:01Speaker 1: you know, what's going on in the market, what's going
- 1:03Speaker 1: on in the economy, Um, you know, as you just
- 1:05Speaker 1: laid out what they see on their house and there
- 1:08Speaker 1: are gas prices anytime they go to the pump, anytime
- 1:10Speaker 1: that they go out to a restaurant. You know, they
- 1:13Speaker 1: clearly see that inflation numbers hitting them on their real
- 1:16Speaker 1: pockets and then at the time at the same time
- 1:19Speaker 1: they see everything that is going on overall. So you know,
- 1:22Speaker 1: this is this is an area where we encourage clients
- 1:25Speaker 1: to top three advisors to look at their strategy. And
- 1:27Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of strategies you can use
- 1:30Speaker 1: to try to minimize any any inside is that you
- 1:32Speaker 1: may have to do things that may not help you. So, UM.
- 1:35Speaker 1: I heard Paul Tutor Jones the other day. I'm not
- 1:38Speaker 1: sure if Critty will know who Paul Tutor Jones is,
- 1:40Speaker 1: but to those of us who have been on the
- 1:42Speaker 1: street for a few decades, he is an absolute legend. Right.
- 1:46Speaker 1: He was saying capital preservation is his number one concern
- 1:49Speaker 1: right now, which kind of freaked me out a little bit.
- 1:52Speaker 1: I wonder, are your investors reallocating right now or rebalancing
- 1:59Speaker 1: um in eiver of capital preservation rather than looking for
- 2:02Speaker 1: any more games? Well where where where that you know,
- 2:05Speaker 1: if you take a step back and you know, for
- 2:09Speaker 1: any of the business and economic cycles that we have
- 2:12Speaker 1: seen historically, we have clearly accelerated going through the last
- 2:17Speaker 1: part of the cycle. A lot of that as a
- 2:18Speaker 1: result of you know, the war in in Ukraine and
- 2:22Speaker 1: also just the fact that the Federal Reserve has you know,
- 2:26Speaker 1: probably been slow and reacting to what the inflation numbers
- 2:29Speaker 1: were going even in the last year. So when you
- 2:31Speaker 1: put that into perspective, um, you know, this is the
- 2:35Speaker 1: part where you need to become defensive. This is the
- 2:37Speaker 1: part where you need to start figure out how you
- 2:39Speaker 1: increase your duration in your bond portfolio. This is the
- 2:42Speaker 1: part where you need to be very selective in the
- 2:46Speaker 1: kind of issues that you have with cash flows, high
- 2:49Speaker 1: quality areas that will allow you to protect your balance sheet. Now,
- 2:53Speaker 1: the fact that capital preservation it is really a risk profile,
- 2:56Speaker 1: and the risk profile doesn't necessarily meet the investment objectives
- 2:59Speaker 1: of every investor. So when we encourage people to see
- 3:02Speaker 1: is that well, if your objective it still is to grow,
- 3:05Speaker 1: depending on what your situation is, you just need to
- 3:08Speaker 1: figure out what is the right rebalancing strategy to maintain
- 3:11Speaker 1: that risk profile that makes you feel comfortable for some people,
- 3:15Speaker 1: you know, people that are close to retirement, people that
- 3:17Speaker 1: are in retirement where capital preservation is their main objective.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Clearly this is an opportunity to de risk, but it's
- 3:24Speaker 1: not necessarily for every investor. So omar one of the
- 3:28Speaker 1: pieces of chatter I've picked up on the last maybe
- 3:31Speaker 1: day or two, it's just kind of where's the bottom
- 3:33Speaker 1: in this thing? In the selling phase here? Do you
- 3:35Speaker 1: even try to catch the bottom? Do you think about
- 3:38Speaker 1: identifying the bottom? And if you do, what are some
- 3:41Speaker 1: of the metrics you look at? Yes, Well, we encourage
- 3:44Speaker 1: clients to you know, try to speculate. You know, the
- 3:47Speaker 1: chances that you're going to find the bottom and actually
- 3:49Speaker 1: be there are very very low. We always, um, you know,
- 3:53Speaker 1: have these particular you encourage clients not to try to speculate.
- 3:57Speaker 1: That's correct, not to try to speculate. We you know,
- 4:00Speaker 1: market timing it's very very difficult, um And we have
- 4:04Speaker 1: this phrase that we tell clients, you know, time in
- 4:07Speaker 1: the market is better that timing the market. And what
- 4:12Speaker 1: that means is that is staying invested and stay consistent
- 4:15Speaker 1: with invested risk profile and the long term objectives is
- 4:18Speaker 1: more important than trying to find, you know, the dips
- 4:21Speaker 1: and the bottoms of the market and trying to figure
- 4:24Speaker 1: out where it is now. That being said, markets like
- 4:27Speaker 1: these provide opportunities for you know, tactless harvesting. This is
- 4:30Speaker 1: an opportunity to reallocate within the rest tolerance of every client.
- 4:35Speaker 1: And this is an opportunity just to find other opportunities
- 4:38Speaker 1: that they may have not had in the past. All right,
- 4:41Speaker 1: you know you know why sounds so smart man? You
- 4:43Speaker 1: want to do PhD from Duke there and you can
- 4:45Speaker 1: do it. Why, by the way, how much swab asset management?
- 4:49Speaker 1: Just we got ten seconds here? What are you? What
- 4:51Speaker 1: are you managing? What are the assets? We're close to
- 4:55Speaker 1: seven six hundred and ninety billion dollars? Alright, couple sucks
- 4:59Speaker 1: in the market change that is, oh Mar Aguilar CEO
- 5:02Speaker 1: and c i O schwab Asset Management PhD from Duke.
- 5:06Speaker 1: I will add giving us his thoughts on these markets.
- 5:08Speaker 1: Here again a little bit of bounced back. We're definitely
- 5:10Speaker 1: off our highest put some green on the screen today.
- 5:16Speaker 1: I want to get to our next guest right away.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Uh Matt Faster our chief strategy obviously for XPO Logistics,
- 5:23Speaker 1: it's a publicly traded company on the New York socka Change.
- 5:25Speaker 1: XPO is the ticker there. It's got about a six
- 5:28Speaker 1: billion dollar market cap. Matt. One of the key issues
- 5:31Speaker 1: that Matt Miller and I have been focused on keenly
- 5:34Speaker 1: since the beginning of this pandemic from an economic perspective,
- 5:37Speaker 1: has been the supply chain, the global supply chain challenges.
- 5:41Speaker 1: And there's no company that I can think of that
- 5:43Speaker 1: has a more broader view of the global supply chain
- 5:47Speaker 1: than XPO Logistics. So, Matt, thanks so much for joining
- 5:49Speaker 1: us here. I'd love to get your expert opinion on
- 5:53Speaker 1: how we got here, i e. Supply chain problems that
- 5:56Speaker 1: are impacting everybody, and how we get out of this thing.
- 6:01Speaker 1: Thanks for having me really happy to be here, and
- 6:03Speaker 1: especially happy to be here on a day after we
- 6:06Speaker 1: reported strong results and a strong outlook. On your question
- 6:11Speaker 1: as to how we got here from the supply chain perspective,
- 6:15Speaker 1: think of it this way. First of all, in very
- 6:18Speaker 1: early two thousand and twenty, we saw some initial disruption
- 6:22Speaker 1: as the first round of COVID hit China and you
- 6:26Speaker 1: had to slow down in UH import and export activity
- 6:30Speaker 1: from China. We thought at the time that that was
- 6:32Speaker 1: going to be the crux of the impact. Little did
- 6:34Speaker 1: we know, obviously, in so many ways subsequent to that, uh,
- 6:39Speaker 1: there was, as you know, virtually a halt in the
- 6:43Speaker 1: global economy at a moment in time, after which you
- 6:47Speaker 1: had a resumption of demand. Uh, and you had a
- 6:52Speaker 1: lot of goods making their way into the United States
- 6:54Speaker 1: and around the United States with finite capacity. And even
- 6:59Speaker 1: in a normal demand environment, it's sort of the pick
- 7:02Speaker 1: of the Python situation. You try to get an enormous
- 7:05Speaker 1: amount of goods through a fixed amount of infrastructure. Now
- 7:09Speaker 1: that infrastructure was even more constumed than it otherwise would
- 7:12Speaker 1: have been, because during the pandemic, lots of providers of
- 7:16Speaker 1: supply chain services pulled back on their orders of new equipment.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Beyond that, obviously, you had fiscal stimulus, and there was
- 7:24Speaker 1: a lot of money in people's hands. Moreover, they were
- 7:28Speaker 1: spending a lot of that money on goods rather than services.
- 7:31Speaker 1: So you had more goods than usual making their way
- 7:34Speaker 1: through less infrastructure than usual, all at once. And then finally,
- 7:39Speaker 1: as you know, whether you call it a great resignation
- 7:41Speaker 1: or simply a labor shortage, there are fewer people to
- 7:45Speaker 1: help perform those tasks, so there was less infrastructure, Uh,
- 7:49Speaker 1: there was less labor to get the job done, there
- 7:52Speaker 1: was more demand. There was obviously in that sense, a
- 7:56Speaker 1: perfect storm. Now our role has been and remains helped
- 8:00Speaker 1: people are customers and ultimately their customers navigate through that.
- 8:04Speaker 1: And that's something that we've been able, thankfully to do.
- 8:07Speaker 1: And obviously your services have been a huge demand. You
- 8:11Speaker 1: just as you said, published results that beat estimates and
- 8:15Speaker 1: you raised your outlook as well for the full year.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Given that UM, you have a really good view of UM,
- 8:25Speaker 1: the US economy, the global economy. How do you see UM,
- 8:30Speaker 1: how do you see it developing right now? I mean,
- 8:32Speaker 1: obviously for XPO the picture looks great because the industry
- 8:36Speaker 1: that you're in, the area that you're in is in
- 8:38Speaker 1: is in huge demand. What about for the broader economy,
- 8:41Speaker 1: do you see a slowdown this year? There are cross winds,
- 8:46Speaker 1: for sure. There are a number of macro factors to
- 8:50Speaker 1: consider and for them to keep their eye on. The
- 8:53Speaker 1: said has obviously been has started the process of raising rates.
- 8:58Speaker 1: That's been an in partner sponse to an inflationary environment.
- 9:02Speaker 1: That's something we need to watch. There obviously is a
- 9:06Speaker 1: war in Ukraine, and that's something that we need to watch.
- 9:09Speaker 1: The Our European business has actually performed quite well. We're
- 9:14Speaker 1: primarily in the western part of Europe, UK, France, and Spain.
- 9:18Speaker 1: Organic revenue growth in that part of the world accelerated
- 9:20Speaker 1: for US in the first quarter versus the fourth quarter.
- 9:24Speaker 1: And then in China, obviously there have been COVID related
- 9:27Speaker 1: lockdowns that has led to UH some suspension or slow
- 9:32Speaker 1: down in the amount of freight making its way to
- 9:34Speaker 1: our shores from China. Obviously, something we're watching very carefully.
- 9:39Speaker 1: To our view is that once those lockdowns ease, you'll
- 9:42Speaker 1: see a flood of freight and certainly nothing like what
- 9:45Speaker 1: you saw in two thousand twenty that we spoke about
- 9:47Speaker 1: a moment ago, but potentially some retightening of the truckload
- 9:51Speaker 1: markets and other transportation markets. So definitely some cross winds
- 9:55Speaker 1: and things to watch. But if if our business is
- 9:58Speaker 1: a gauge of what we're seeing in truck brokerage, where
- 10:01Speaker 1: we were helped arrange truckload transportation UH for for many
- 10:06Speaker 1: many of the largest shippers in the country and the
- 10:09Speaker 1: world in the first In the first quarter, our load
- 10:11Speaker 1: growth was our volume growth has the sixth consecutive quarter
- 10:16Speaker 1: growth or more. And in April our volume growth was
- 10:20Speaker 1: quite strong. Our growth and revenue per day, and our
- 10:23Speaker 1: less than truckload business in April a bit stronger than
- 10:26Speaker 1: And you really focused the business, right, I mean you
- 10:29Speaker 1: were for years, for a couple of decades at least
- 10:32Speaker 1: at Goldman sachs Um and you came in to run XPO.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Just give us the shorthand version of what you've done
- 10:41Speaker 1: to to focus m this logistics business. Well, well, well, uh, my, my, my,
- 10:48Speaker 1: my boss. Brad Jacobs is our chairman, CEO and founders,
- 10:50Speaker 1: so he runs XPO. I'm the chief strategy officer, So
- 10:54Speaker 1: I want to put myself in my place, if you will,
- 10:56Speaker 1: about what we've what we've done, what we've done collectively.
- 10:59Speaker 1: I appreciate the motion, um, what we've done collectively of
- 11:04Speaker 1: late to your point, we have refocused the business we
- 11:08Speaker 1: used to operate within XPO, a supply chain or contract
- 11:12Speaker 1: logistics business offering warehousing and distribution services also for many
- 11:17Speaker 1: of the largest companies in the world. We spun that
- 11:19Speaker 1: company off as g XO last August. They've had a
- 11:23Speaker 1: very good run. They reported their numbers last week. That
- 11:26Speaker 1: was a very successful spin, and we are further focusing
- 11:31Speaker 1: our business. We recently divested our intermodal operation. We sold
- 11:35Speaker 1: that in March. We've indicated that we planned to divest
- 11:39Speaker 1: our European transportation operation, the business I spoke about a
- 11:43Speaker 1: moment ago, and and then also in the fourth quarter,
- 11:47Speaker 1: we plan on divesting our tech enabled brokera services platform
- 11:51Speaker 1: into a separate public company, which will leave the remain
- 11:54Speaker 1: COO if you will, XPO as an lt L enterprise
- 11:58Speaker 1: and then the brokerage business as a separate public company.
- 12:01Speaker 1: And what what we what we found through g x
- 12:03Speaker 1: O and what we expect to find when we complete
- 12:06Speaker 1: the spin, is that these companies each will be better
- 12:08Speaker 1: fit for their purposes of serving their customers and able
- 12:11Speaker 1: to engage in many decisions that are precisely specified to
- 12:15Speaker 1: their business missions, and we think will be quite successful.
- 12:18Speaker 1: About thirty seconds left, I love to get your best
- 12:21Speaker 1: guests as to when these supply chain issues will become
- 12:24Speaker 1: more normalized. Uh. We think that it's gonna stay tight
- 12:30Speaker 1: for a while. We think that disruption will persist for
- 12:34Speaker 1: a while. We think that things actually might tighten up
- 12:38Speaker 1: a bit more. Again, as I said in the second half,
- 12:40Speaker 1: if it has great flow resumes from China. Uh. We
- 12:44Speaker 1: we are there to help our customers. Were there last
- 12:46Speaker 1: Christmas to help people get their gifts under their trees.
- 12:49Speaker 1: Were there to help our industrial customers I get their
- 12:51Speaker 1: equipment out there, and and and I think next year
- 12:54Speaker 1: you could see some normalization. But I think the value
- 12:57Speaker 1: of outsourced transportation advice answer this says, has been proven
- 13:01Speaker 1: to show and that should endure. All Right, good stuff,
- 13:03Speaker 1: Matt Fassler, chief strategy officer for XPO Logistics Logistics, giving
- 13:08Speaker 1: us the latest on the supply chain issues still out there.
- 13:14Speaker 1: If I were to choose a diesel, a big diesel engine,
- 13:19Speaker 1: I would definitely go with the power stroke. Ford has
- 13:22Speaker 1: a six point seven Leader power stroke. It's only available
- 13:24Speaker 1: in the super duty trucks. I wish they sold it
- 13:27Speaker 1: in the half tons, but it puts out more than
- 13:31Speaker 1: a thousand pound feet of torque pound feet unbelievable torque figures. Now.
- 13:38Speaker 1: I know Greg Jarrett because he was stuck in some
- 13:42Speaker 1: oil field fires during the First Persian UH, during the
- 13:46Speaker 1: First Golf War. UM is allergic diesel. He's gonna be
- 13:49Speaker 1: very happy when they start putting out electric pickup trucks
- 13:54Speaker 1: for a long time we thought Teslas was going to
- 13:56Speaker 1: make a cyber truck. I'm not sure if that's really
- 13:58Speaker 1: still happening. I've started to see some Rivyan's um on
- 14:02Speaker 1: the street. Uh there, you know, a hundred thousand dollar vehicles,
- 14:06Speaker 1: and they're not really what you think of that work truck,
- 14:09Speaker 1: you know, although TfL did um use one on on
- 14:12Speaker 1: on a farm for a little bit. Um. I think
- 14:14Speaker 1: most people are waiting for Ford to put out the
- 14:17Speaker 1: F one fifty Lightning. Obviously, the F one fifty or
- 14:21Speaker 1: the series pickup truck is like the best selling nameplate
- 14:25Speaker 1: of all not just trucks but cars in the US
- 14:30Speaker 1: and has been for at least forty years. I'm gonna
- 14:33Speaker 1: say that's not a joke. Um. Americans by by their
- 14:38Speaker 1: F Series trucks and absolutely love him. Jason Turnbull joins
- 14:41Speaker 1: us right now. He is the marketing manager for the
- 14:44Speaker 1: Lightning and he's been working at Forward for uh the
- 14:48Speaker 1: better half of the better end of a decade, I
- 14:50Speaker 1: should say a little more. I think what thirteen years? Jason,
- 14:53Speaker 1: great to have you on the program. Tell us when
- 14:55Speaker 1: we're gonna actually see this truck. I'm so worried that
- 14:59Speaker 1: it's gonna be like, um, you know, not until because
- 15:04Speaker 1: the chip shortage and the supply chain issues are are
- 15:08Speaker 1: making us wait for all these automotive products. Well, thank you,
- 15:12Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Yeah. So that as the Lightning,
- 15:16Speaker 1: It's are all electric, all electric basic pickup truck. And
- 15:21Speaker 1: the greatest thing is we announced it two years ago,
- 15:24Speaker 1: we revealed it a year ago, and starting this month,
- 15:28Speaker 1: we're actually starting customer deliveries. So it's a real product
- 15:32Speaker 1: under UNDERT dollars and we're really excited about it this alright.
- 15:36Speaker 1: So I knew, like Mike Lavine is a buddy of
- 15:39Speaker 1: mine over at Forward and he gets to test the
- 15:41Speaker 1: coolest all the new products, you know, and I see
- 15:44Speaker 1: pictures of him taking the Lightning out to like Moab
- 15:47Speaker 1: or on the Baja or whatever. But I didn't know
- 15:50Speaker 1: that real people we're gonna start, So people are going
- 15:53Speaker 1: to start taking deliveries. What's the weight list? Though? If
- 15:55Speaker 1: I put my order in today for a Lightning, when
- 16:00Speaker 1: am I gonna be likely to go pick it up
- 16:02Speaker 1: from my from my four dealer. Yeah. So when we
- 16:06Speaker 1: revealed last May, we took reservations and last December we
- 16:11Speaker 1: hit two hundred thousand reservations. We just had to shut
- 16:14Speaker 1: off our reservation system because now our goal is to
- 16:17Speaker 1: fulfill and convert those all the orders. So if you
- 16:21Speaker 1: don't have to have a have a resonance right now,
- 16:24Speaker 1: you're really gonna wait probably about eighteen months before that
- 16:27Speaker 1: you can place in order for a lightning because we're
- 16:30Speaker 1: later focused on getting them out the door to the
- 16:33Speaker 1: current customers that have ordered. Jason, I think you just
- 16:36Speaker 1: answered my question because you know, it's one thing to
- 16:40Speaker 1: drive around a Tesla around Coupertino, California. It's another thing
- 16:44Speaker 1: to go on my big ranch out in the middle
- 16:47Speaker 1: of Arizona where I have to do some real work
- 16:49Speaker 1: with a pickup truck and convert that to electric. Are
- 16:53Speaker 1: Ford f one fifty buyers are are they ready to
- 16:56Speaker 1: go electric? So this is a key benefit of definitely
- 17:00Speaker 1: like me as we are attracting a broad range of customers.
- 17:03Speaker 1: So from that traditional truck customer, it is gonna tow
- 17:07Speaker 1: and haul just like your current gas du towes up
- 17:10Speaker 1: to ten thousand pounds, halls over two thousand pounds. It
- 17:14Speaker 1: will have three range, so it will do the bill
- 17:19Speaker 1: as well as it passed all their ability capability is
- 17:22Speaker 1: built for tough and at the same time as we
- 17:24Speaker 1: were attracting new to e V and new to Ford
- 17:27Speaker 1: customers that really want that technology to do. So we
- 17:30Speaker 1: have that hands free blue cruise highway driving. We have
- 17:34Speaker 1: onboard scales that actually measures what's in your pickup bed.
- 17:37Speaker 1: So this product can do all the work stuff and
- 17:40Speaker 1: then also is loaded with advanced technology. For me, the
- 17:44Speaker 1: coolest thing is you can power your house. So here
- 17:47Speaker 1: in the Northeast we have a lot of storms that
- 17:49Speaker 1: knock out power. If you have this thing parked in
- 17:52Speaker 1: your garage and it's charged, you can use it as
- 17:55Speaker 1: as use it as a generator. UM. I still have
- 17:58Speaker 1: range anxiety though, Jason, and I'm wondering, was there ever
- 18:02Speaker 1: any thought, even you know, as a as a dealer
- 18:06Speaker 1: add on to offer like a diesel generator to put
- 18:11Speaker 1: in the bed so that I don't have to worry
- 18:13Speaker 1: about getting to a charging station. Yeah. So when we're
- 18:17Speaker 1: developing the product, it was all about efficiency. So the
- 18:20Speaker 1: way that we package the battery and kind of how
- 18:24Speaker 1: it's within the frame rails and how it's a parallel system,
- 18:27Speaker 1: it is the most efficient. UM And what we found
- 18:30Speaker 1: is for customers, over of them charge at home. So
- 18:34Speaker 1: for the most part, you know they can they drive
- 18:38Speaker 1: less than that three miles rains a day when you
- 18:41Speaker 1: go on a road trip. That's where EV infrastructure is critical.
- 18:45Speaker 1: And we really believe that as we grow the footprint,
- 18:48Speaker 1: it will meet our customers needs. So how quickly can
- 18:51Speaker 1: you grow the footprint? I mean, um, you know, I
- 18:54Speaker 1: live in the great state of Ohio. I'm from there,
- 18:56Speaker 1: thank God, and uh, but I live way out here
- 18:59Speaker 1: in New York, and so I try and get back
- 19:02Speaker 1: as much as possible. That's like a six mile trip.
- 19:04Speaker 1: I would have to I probably realistically charge up twice
- 19:09Speaker 1: on the way back. And I'm driving through like legit
- 19:12Speaker 1: flyover country like I go when you when I go
- 19:16Speaker 1: through Pennsylvania. Yeah, exactly. Happy Valley is like the only
- 19:19Speaker 1: sign of life for six hours. How am I going
- 19:23Speaker 1: to charge this thing on the way home to Granville? Yeah.
- 19:27Speaker 1: The key thing at Forward is we realize, you know,
- 19:29Speaker 1: we're not the experts in basically e V basically charging.
- 19:32Speaker 1: So what we're doing is we're partnering with all the
- 19:35Speaker 1: major UM charging station so Electry America EV go green lots,
- 19:42Speaker 1: so to our customer is in our ford past app
- 19:46Speaker 1: it just kind of looked like Ford foard charges for
- 19:50Speaker 1: charging stations and you can be folly lead the driveway.
- 19:53Speaker 1: You can plug in your address, your destination and it
- 19:56Speaker 1: will automatically tell you what's the most efficient route and
- 20:00Speaker 1: here to charge. So our goal is to be, which
- 20:02Speaker 1: we are right now, the largest EV network because we
- 20:05Speaker 1: partner with all the charting stations, you know, instead of
- 20:08Speaker 1: going alone. So Jason, as you you know, ramp up
- 20:13Speaker 1: your manufacturing gis a sense of supply chain challenges that
- 20:17Speaker 1: you guys are feeling. Here can you get all the
- 20:19Speaker 1: chips you need for these evs and and plus the
- 20:22Speaker 1: old ice. Yeah, So what I can say is, you know,
- 20:26Speaker 1: a macro kind of impact in the industry is is
- 20:29Speaker 1: the tip short at Ford? You know, we're managing that
- 20:32Speaker 1: as best we can. And lightning is a key product launched,
- 20:35Speaker 1: so we're prioritizing. So we're laser focused on having a
- 20:40Speaker 1: on time on track and a quality lawn for lightning Pacifically, dude,
- 20:45Speaker 1: that's two laser focused, two times you've focus. This is
- 20:49Speaker 1: an old phrase that Alan mollally brought to the Ford
- 20:52Speaker 1: Motor Company back in the day. I like it. I
- 20:55Speaker 1: like it. I'm sure you get points for it. Farley
- 20:57Speaker 1: Will Farley will allow it. By the way, Jim is
- 21:00Speaker 1: a good friend of mine, and I'm sure he won't
- 21:02Speaker 1: mind you sharing just with us, just with me and Paul,
- 21:07Speaker 1: some of your secret plans. I've been driving the Broncho
- 21:10Speaker 1: around for the last week and it is a ton
- 21:13Speaker 1: of fun. I gotta say, I'm super impressed by the
- 21:16Speaker 1: two point seven leader V six in there, and I
- 21:19Speaker 1: hate V six is traditionally. I think it's the most
- 21:22Speaker 1: boring if you're gonna choose an engine, obviously a V eight, right,
- 21:25Speaker 1: but at least an in line six. They went with
- 21:28Speaker 1: a V on this and I thought, oh no. But
- 21:29Speaker 1: it's so fast and it's so responsive, so I'm blown away.
- 21:34Speaker 1: My question, though, is, Jason, when do you go electric?
- 21:37Speaker 1: I don't know why you didn't introduce the Bronco as
- 21:39Speaker 1: an electric vehicle in the first place. How long do
- 21:41Speaker 1: we have to wait for, at the very least, a
- 21:43Speaker 1: hybrid Bronco. Yeah, so I I can't count on that,
- 21:48Speaker 1: But what I can tell you is Ford strategies. We're
- 21:51Speaker 1: not just saying we're going electric everything, because we know
- 21:53Speaker 1: a sucy in in the oment. There's different usage cases,
- 21:58Speaker 1: so someone's gonna tow heavyweight long distances frequently a dis
- 22:03Speaker 1: or guest engine will work. Obviously, Bronco is a blasted
- 22:08Speaker 1: drive currently, and we're always looking at kind of feature
- 22:11Speaker 1: plans electrified, so stay tuned in the future. All right, Jason,
- 22:15Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us. Jason Turnbull their marketing manager,
- 22:20Speaker 1: clearly doing an excellent job talking about the F one
- 22:23Speaker 1: fifty Lightning. We're pumped to see that come out. I'm
- 22:26Speaker 1: also pumped to see an electric Broncho. It's got to happen.
- 22:28Speaker 1: I heard the Broncos is awesome. Dude, It's so much fun.
- 22:30Speaker 1: I've been driving it back and forth to Westchester. I
- 22:33Speaker 1: dropped the top yesterday the sun was out. I'm like
- 22:36Speaker 1: blasting bad religion flying up the west Side Highway. Super
- 22:41Speaker 1: super fun. Alright, good stuff. Jason Turbull F one fifty Lightning,
- 22:44Speaker 1: marketing manager for the Ford Motor Company. I want to
- 22:50Speaker 1: bring in John Author. She covers all this great economy
- 22:53Speaker 1: market stuff for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Opinion. John, you
- 22:57Speaker 1: know we're looking at the markets here. We had to.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Did you see the top of his colle I did not.
- 23:01Speaker 1: I love it all right, let us I love it.
- 23:04Speaker 1: Party over Oops, out of time. Oh, I got it.
- 23:07Speaker 1: Look at him being so hip there, um passing quoting
- 23:13Speaker 1: a song from forty years ago. But yes, okay, twenty
- 23:17Speaker 1: three years ago. No, wait, the song was. But it
- 23:20Speaker 1: must have come out in the eighties, because I remember
- 23:22Speaker 1: I had it was it was it was before Purple Rain.
- 23:25Speaker 1: I think it was about eighty two or eighty three. Yeah,
- 23:27Speaker 1: it was on the Little Red Corvette album. Uh, what
- 23:30Speaker 1: a great record. I loved Prince. Not that we're all
- 23:34Speaker 1: more interested in Prince than what's going on in the
- 23:36Speaker 1: financial market, so on what is going on in the
- 23:39Speaker 1: financial markets from your perspective time. Yeah, the point is
- 23:41Speaker 1: you're comparing this to two thousands, so it's rough and
- 23:45Speaker 1: in some in something well, in some critical respect, it ease.
- 23:48Speaker 1: I mean, bear in mind, what what's different? Um Or
- 23:54Speaker 1: Until recently, I would have said this didn't have that
- 23:56Speaker 1: much in common with two thousand, because that was very
- 24:01Speaker 1: much an internally financially driven incidents, whereas this time around,
- 24:07Speaker 1: we're you know, we have a war, we have in
- 24:11Speaker 1: writing inflation, we have the shock from the pandemic. There
- 24:14Speaker 1: were all kinds of very obvious external reasons why why
- 24:19Speaker 1: they're the markets are being shocked and having to react.
- 24:23Speaker 1: But what is interesting the last few days, in particular,
- 24:27Speaker 1: is how this has been about driven about, and the
- 24:30Speaker 1: stock market has been driven all about valuation. It's the
- 24:35Speaker 1: most overpriced stocks that have sold off the most period
- 24:40Speaker 1: right the way through the markets that that that relatively
- 24:43Speaker 1: cheap stocks are barely down. Some of them are actually
- 24:47Speaker 1: gaining a bit. If wal Mart or you Will Brands
- 24:51Speaker 1: or whatever doing moderately well, and the names that have
- 24:54Speaker 1: excited people are tanking very very somlicitus and maybe not
- 25:00Speaker 1: maybe not enough yet, right John. I heard um Luke
- 25:03Speaker 1: Kawa was on the Odd Lots podcast on Friday, and
- 25:06Speaker 1: he said, you know, valuations have come in, um, but uh,
- 25:12Speaker 1: you know, terminal rate expectations are up a hundred basis points,
- 25:16Speaker 1: so maybe it's not worth it yet. I would I
- 25:21Speaker 1: would certainly say that there is no clarity over While
- 25:25Speaker 1: there isn't clarity over the terminal rate, while there isn't
- 25:27Speaker 1: clarity over how inflation comes under control, then there can't
- 25:31Speaker 1: be clarity over an appropriate valuation either. If you look,
- 25:37Speaker 1: it's you know, I don't want to get too technical,
- 25:40Speaker 1: but if you look at the cyclically adjusted pe, which
- 25:42Speaker 1: is Robert Schiller's great invention at university, which has been
- 25:49Speaker 1: very good at predicting medium term returns, like returns over
- 25:54Speaker 1: the next ten years. Then it has come down sharply
- 25:59Speaker 1: in the last a few months, but it's still almost
- 26:01Speaker 1: exactly at the level it was at before the Great Crash.
- 26:09Speaker 1: So we've already been talking about Prince forty years ago,
- 26:11Speaker 1: and we're about as expensive us we were almost a
- 26:15Speaker 1: hundred years ago before that's crash. But by the way,
- 26:19Speaker 1: in particular reason of evaluation for things to stop selling
- 26:22Speaker 1: off now, and who knows what was on the charts,
- 26:24Speaker 1: then yes I don't. By the way, I wonder what
- 26:28Speaker 1: you how do you explain to a layman um like
- 26:33Speaker 1: me why rising rates are bad for these you know,
- 26:38Speaker 1: growthy text docs, for these disruptive innovators? Why is why
- 26:44Speaker 1: are rising rates necessarily bad for you know, a Netflix
- 26:48Speaker 1: or maybe even an Amazon? What's the relationship there? Okay,
- 26:53Speaker 1: if your gross is in the future, if you if
- 26:56Speaker 1: all your earnings are in the future, you're not turning
- 26:59Speaker 1: out earnings regularly now, But all the hopes reasonably enough,
- 27:04Speaker 1: but all the hopes are for growth in the future,
- 27:08Speaker 1: then you need in any discounted cash flow analysis through
- 27:13Speaker 1: to account for the time value of money and discount
- 27:16Speaker 1: those future flows by a reasonable interest rate. In Layman's terms,
- 27:23Speaker 1: money in the future isn't worth as much as money
- 27:26Speaker 1: is today. That's worth in the future declines as interest
- 27:31Speaker 1: rates rise, So if all your value is in the future,
- 27:37Speaker 1: higher rates will clover your valuation. Meanwhile, if you're mules
- 27:42Speaker 1: brands making rubber made and sharpies and stuff, your valuation
- 27:48Speaker 1: is centered in the here and now and rates don't
- 27:51Speaker 1: matter anything like so much. John, if I'm a glass
- 27:54Speaker 1: half empty person, is it fair to say these markets
- 27:58Speaker 1: aren't going to rebound until industrate stuff one up? Still
- 28:02Speaker 1: we're confident in terms of are they going to make
- 28:06Speaker 1: a firm rebounds and get above get above the levels
- 28:11Speaker 1: they were at at the turn of the year. I
- 28:13Speaker 1: don't see how that can happen until we have clarity
- 28:16Speaker 1: about where interest rates are headed. No, I that doesn't
- 28:20Speaker 1: mean that I doubt it. But it's possible that the
- 28:23Speaker 1: bottom is already in. But in terms of a really
- 28:26Speaker 1: strong recovery to the levels that we've seen in the
- 28:30Speaker 1: seen as recently as the turn of the year, we
- 28:33Speaker 1: need to know how bad inflation and the interest rates
- 28:38Speaker 1: are going to get. Yeah, you need to know what
- 28:40Speaker 1: the Fed is going to do before you can price
- 28:41Speaker 1: it in, right, and and and the fad itself doesn't
- 28:44Speaker 1: know because the Fed itself doesn't know exactly how bad
- 28:48Speaker 1: the inflation problem and how quickly it will come under control.
- 28:50Speaker 1: So I don't see a way. I'm sure there are
- 28:53Speaker 1: plenty of ways I'm not thinking of where people can
- 28:56Speaker 1: make money over the next few months. Um. In terms
- 29:00Speaker 1: of a sustained clear buying opportunity taking us up to
- 29:05Speaker 1: new levels, I don't see how that's possible in the
- 29:08Speaker 1: next few months. Somebody clever up there is going to
- 29:10Speaker 1: make money in the next few months. They always do. Um.
- 29:13Speaker 1: But in terms of a secular uplift to the stock
- 29:16Speaker 1: market of the kind we've been become accustomed to, that
- 29:20Speaker 1: that can't happen until we know what's happening with the
- 29:24Speaker 1: with inflation in rates. Well, you've got to be able
- 29:25Speaker 1: to see who lives through this if we have the
- 29:28Speaker 1: kind of drops like we had in at the end
- 29:31Speaker 1: of the Internet bubble. I remember a buddy of mine
- 29:34Speaker 1: was working at bat Alex Brown and he said, I
- 29:36Speaker 1: don't care. Um, if you think all these you know,
- 29:40Speaker 1: revenue churning tech companies are worthless. I think Amazon is
- 29:44Speaker 1: still going to be a big behemoth someday. And I
- 29:47Speaker 1: always think about that because I should have bought Amazon
- 29:50Speaker 1: when he was telling me. But we still I mean,
- 29:53Speaker 1: the cruel math part of this is bt Alex Brown
- 29:58Speaker 1: that he is known to its friends of Deutsche Bank. Yeah. Yeah.
- 30:00Speaker 1: The poor math thing is we have to in order
- 30:04Speaker 1: to get back to the turn of the year, we've
- 30:06Speaker 1: got to climb so much further than we've fallen because
- 30:08Speaker 1: the denominator is smaller now, right, Um, the Nasdaq has
- 30:12Speaker 1: lost like, but it's got to go up to get
- 30:16Speaker 1: back to where it was on January third, Math, Yes,
- 30:20Speaker 1: uh and uh. At some point that probably will happen,
- 30:25Speaker 1: but it's unlikely to happen this year unless inflation comes
- 30:30Speaker 1: really rapidly under control without hurting growth. So to that end,
- 30:37Speaker 1: see how that can happen. So when we get the
- 30:39Speaker 1: CPI did it, tomar John, what what? What do you
- 30:40Speaker 1: think we should really be focusing on? You should be
- 30:44Speaker 1: focusing on rents, which is the big element that most
- 30:50Speaker 1: worries people that that um, that's a third of the index,
- 30:54Speaker 1: and for one reason another it tends to show up
- 30:57Speaker 1: in in the CPI with a leg uh. And it's
- 31:01Speaker 1: been relatively under control and is now rising. So that
- 31:05Speaker 1: is a critical issue. Um. And beyond that, take a
- 31:09Speaker 1: look at the trimmed mean of inflation, where you remove
- 31:15Speaker 1: outliers in both directions. But by the way, it's lately Sorry, well,
- 31:21Speaker 1: I was gonna say, we're we're about to have to
- 31:23Speaker 1: listen to President Biden come out and talking to talk
- 31:26Speaker 1: about inflation. I can see the background, um behind his podium.
- 31:30Speaker 1: It says lowering costs and tackling inflation, which I'm sure
- 31:33Speaker 1: he wants voters to think that he's doing. Um. This
- 31:37Speaker 1: brings very little he can do, certainly decide of the midsterms.
- 31:40Speaker 1: There's more or less nothing he can do. But it's
- 31:43Speaker 1: a It's a rule of politics, isn't it you If
- 31:45Speaker 1: you're the one in charge when the economy goes sour,
- 31:48Speaker 1: it's yours. It doesn't matter how much money the federal
- 31:52Speaker 1: government was spending even before he came into office, exactly. John,
- 31:56Speaker 1: I want to just finally ask you what your take
- 31:58Speaker 1: is on the housing market and interest rates, because we
- 32:03Speaker 1: saw a mortgage rates climb to. I think at the
- 32:06Speaker 1: end of last week it was already five point three percent,
- 32:09Speaker 1: and at least anecdotally, I have heard first time buyers
- 32:13Speaker 1: scared out of the market or people selling their homes
- 32:16Speaker 1: say well, we better lower the price now. Um is it?
- 32:20Speaker 1: Is it problematic because you know, we've seen this huge
- 32:24Speaker 1: land grab and prices are unbelievable, there's no inventory, and
- 32:28Speaker 1: now you've got mortgage rates rising. Yes, it's it's very problematic.
- 32:34Speaker 1: And this is the big difference, bad difference from two thousands.
- 32:39Speaker 1: In the two thousand was an equity market bubble, a
- 32:43Speaker 1: massive one, but it wasn't a housing market bubble as well.
- 32:47Speaker 1: This time we have something that looks as though it
- 32:49Speaker 1: might even be a bubble in American housing. Now. There's
- 32:53Speaker 1: one huge advantage that the US has compared to almost
- 32:57Speaker 1: the rest of the world, which is that America for
- 33:00Speaker 1: years have preferred fixed rate mortgages. I happen to be
- 33:05Speaker 1: looking into piece of research, so something like from Deutsche
- 33:08Speaker 1: Bank that shows that only about two percent of US
- 33:12Speaker 1: mortgages are on variable rates. In the UK, it's more
- 33:17Speaker 1: like forty In Australia, Italy, Germany, We're talking about more
- 33:20Speaker 1: than are variable, so the impact of rising mortgages takes
- 33:26Speaker 1: longer to affect house prices here than it does in
- 33:31Speaker 1: the other developed economies. But plainly, at this point it's uh,
- 33:36Speaker 1: you know, this is overextended and people have been making
- 33:41Speaker 1: their calculations on the assumption that money would stay phenomenally
- 33:46Speaker 1: historically cheap and it isn't anymore. So, yes, it's very concerning.
- 33:50Speaker 1: All right, John Authors, thank you so much. We appreciate that.
- 33:53Speaker 1: John Author's covers global markets and investments and the Red
- 33:55Speaker 1: so Thanks Bloomberg News and Bloinion. Rents really a year
- 33:59Speaker 1: for the right. He sounds like a soccer fan, I know,
- 34:01Speaker 1: but he's a big Red Sox guy. I didn't know that. Yeah. Absolutely,
- 34:05Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can
- 34:09Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever
- 34:12Speaker 1: podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter
- 34:16Speaker 1: at Matt Miller three and on Fall Sweeney I'm on
- 34:20Speaker 1: Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast. You can always
- 34:23Speaker 1: catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio.