Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Gorman's Model Reaps Rewards for Morgan Stanley: Whalen
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, along
- 0:04Speaker 1: with my co host of Bonnie Quinn. Every business day
- 0:06Speaker 1: we bring you interviews from CEO, market pros and Bloomberg experts,
- 0:10Speaker 1: along with essential market moving news. Kind the Bloomberg Markets
- 0:13Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com. Let's bring somebody in who
- 0:21Speaker 1: knows a lot about Morgan Stanley and can be construct
- 0:23Speaker 1: a little bit of what's going on with the big
- 0:24Speaker 1: banks right now, and that is Chris Whelan. Chris thrilled
- 0:28Speaker 1: to have you. And you heard what some of Mr
- 0:31Speaker 1: Pruzan said. You know, obviously there's going to be a
- 0:34Speaker 1: good face put forward, but what are the problems that
- 0:38Speaker 1: you see being stored up in the banks for down
- 0:41Speaker 1: the road when some of all of this gets sorted out.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Well for Morgan Stanley, you know, it's a great quarter, Bunny,
- 0:46Speaker 1: and I think they are one of the few franchises
- 0:49Speaker 1: this quarter that are reporting up revenues across the board.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Um As John was just saying, he doesn't have a
- 0:57Speaker 1: lot of credit risk and interesting he didn't talk about it,
- 1:01Speaker 1: but one of his great strengths is that bank holding
- 1:04Speaker 1: company doesn't have to go out into the market and
- 1:07Speaker 1: raise net funds. They have such a big deposit base
- 1:11Speaker 1: now that they are actually a net provider of funds
- 1:15Speaker 1: among banks. So totally different from Goldman Sacks, which has
- 1:19Speaker 1: a very high dependence on the money markets to fund themselves.
- 1:22Speaker 1: So asset management, the strong investment bank. Plus they have
- 1:27Speaker 1: liquidity in the background, which is great. Is that part
- 1:30Speaker 1: of the reason why they bought eating Vance though, Chris,
- 1:32Speaker 1: is that to make sure that that stays the case. Well,
- 1:36Speaker 1: he Advance gives you two things. Funny, it gives you
- 1:38Speaker 1: the a u M assets under management, which generates fees.
- 1:42Speaker 1: That's a very stable leg for the stool, you know,
- 1:46Speaker 1: think about it. He has cash, he has the asset
- 1:48Speaker 1: management business which pays you every quarter, and then the
- 1:51Speaker 1: sc investment bank, which can fluctuate. Right, So they get
- 1:55Speaker 1: the assets under management. But with that a u M
- 1:58Speaker 1: comes deposits from those high network customers. And remember Morgan
- 2:02Speaker 1: Stanley has got a very broad wealth management business. They
- 2:06Speaker 1: don't just have very rich people. They have all sorts
- 2:08Speaker 1: of people different from Goldman. You know, a trillion in
- 2:11Speaker 1: a u M at Goldman and over a trillion now
- 2:14Speaker 1: in a um at Morgan Stanley are two different businesses,
- 2:17Speaker 1: very different profile. The bank that had always been the
- 2:21Speaker 1: bank of you know, the Vault if you like, the
- 2:24Speaker 1: Fortress bounce Sheet, had been JP Morgan is Morgan Stanley
- 2:27Speaker 1: is sort of giving them a run for their money
- 2:28Speaker 1: at this point. No, no, no, Jamie Diamond's got well
- 2:32Speaker 1: over two trillion dollars in court deposits. Morgan Stanley is
- 2:36Speaker 1: a little shy of a trillion until lass it's funny,
- 2:39Speaker 1: and it's about forty funded by bank deposits. So in
- 2:42Speaker 1: other words, their banks inside Morgan Stanley can lend to
- 2:46Speaker 1: the broker dealer on an arms length basis. You know,
- 2:49Speaker 1: they have to be priced like the market, um, but
- 2:51Speaker 1: that's a huge advantage. It's huge. Now Jamie Diamond is
- 2:55Speaker 1: like a country. He has so much going on inside
- 2:57Speaker 1: of his bank. Oftentimes the payments don't leave the bank,
- 3:01Speaker 1: it just goes from one customer to another. So he's
- 3:04Speaker 1: an island of liquidity like all of the top four.
- 3:07Speaker 1: But Goldman and Mortgage Stanley are more broker deal are
- 3:10Speaker 1: still than they are bank. That's the key thing to remember.
- 3:14Speaker 1: So we'll get to well as far ago maybe at
- 3:15Speaker 1: the end, because it's a slightly separate case. But what
- 3:18Speaker 1: about Golden Sacks this year? Is Goldman feeling a little
- 3:21Speaker 1: bit of pressure even though they also had you know,
- 3:23Speaker 1: a great quarter of course, you know, it's great to
- 3:26Speaker 1: see them hit one out of the park like this,
- 3:28Speaker 1: but they are the last dinosaur in the line. You know,
- 3:30Speaker 1: if you ever watch the Animal Planet, the one at
- 3:33Speaker 1: the end is the one the t rex seats. So
- 3:35Speaker 1: in terms of funding, in terms of volatility of the business,
- 3:39Speaker 1: I think Goldman is still very vulnerable as his city.
- 3:41Speaker 1: Those are the two at the back. The rest of
- 3:44Speaker 1: the group is doing better, and I think, you know,
- 3:46Speaker 1: God bless Jim Gorman. He had a lot of people
- 3:49Speaker 1: criticizing him, but he's ended up creating a business that
- 3:53Speaker 1: kind of looks like the U B S is any
- 3:55Speaker 1: other big European asset managers. But he's got a world
- 3:58Speaker 1: class investment back. So it's a much more balanced model,
- 4:01Speaker 1: I think than a lot of his competitors. So talk
- 4:04Speaker 1: to us then about City. It's been a decade at
- 4:07Speaker 1: this point, Chris, and it looks like it's going to
- 4:10Speaker 1: have to need some kind of i don't know more,
- 4:12Speaker 1: if not restructuring, massaging. There's going to be a new
- 4:15Speaker 1: CEO to try and do this. She was present the
- 4:17Speaker 1: last time there was a restructuring, so she knows exactly
- 4:19Speaker 1: what's going on inside the bad bank and the big
- 4:22Speaker 1: good bank and in the units that have spun off
- 4:24Speaker 1: and so on. We would your prescription for cityv Well.
- 4:28Speaker 1: City suffers from the h of sandy while you know,
- 4:32Speaker 1: uh my core back has done a great job of
- 4:35Speaker 1: turning things around, but he was the first competent CEO
- 4:38Speaker 1: of that bank had had in fifteen years. And again
- 4:41Speaker 1: Jane Fraser, great operator. She's touched all the relevant parts
- 4:45Speaker 1: of the bank, and I think she's got to just
- 4:47Speaker 1: try and work with her board to fashion a business
- 4:51Speaker 1: that makes sense. You know, they're not really much of
- 4:53Speaker 1: a U S bank well that you only have about
- 4:57Speaker 1: core deposits inside City. The rest of it is funded
- 5:00Speaker 1: like Goldman Sachs in the markets. Their cost of funds
- 5:03Speaker 1: is higher and the thing that saves them is the
- 5:05Speaker 1: big consumer book because their credit card book has you know,
- 5:10Speaker 1: a gross yield in the teens, so that makes up
- 5:12Speaker 1: for a lot of sins. But she's got to figure
- 5:14Speaker 1: out a way, I think, to get back or buy
- 5:17Speaker 1: an asset manager um, so she can compete with the
- 5:21Speaker 1: rest of these universal banks. Right, They're not just monolithic
- 5:25Speaker 1: commercial banks with a broker dealer anymore. Funny, everybody wants
- 5:28Speaker 1: to have a trillion trillion and a half two trillion
- 5:31Speaker 1: in a u M, so they can compete with black Rock,
- 5:34Speaker 1: which is much bigger than all of them. So that
- 5:37Speaker 1: to me is the competitive landscape. She's got a decent
- 5:41Speaker 1: capital markets investment bank. It's not as good as Morgan Stanley.
- 5:45Speaker 1: And she's got a great, great advantage in that consumer
- 5:48Speaker 1: book because it throws off a lot of income in
- 5:51Speaker 1: good times. So that to me is a challenge with
- 5:53Speaker 1: City What do they want to be when they grow up? Okay,
- 5:57Speaker 1: because look, you know we've had systems and control issues
- 6:00Speaker 1: so you and I were kids. Funny, we've been watching
- 6:01Speaker 1: this movie for twenty five years. This goes back to
- 6:04Speaker 1: John Reid and when Sandy Wild started buying those non
- 6:07Speaker 1: bank businesses, that's where they got into trouble. When you
- 6:10Speaker 1: started turning you know, sales offices of Associates Corp. Into
- 6:14Speaker 1: branches of City Bank, that was that was not a
- 6:16Speaker 1: good idea. Yeah, I mean, and and so many of
- 6:19Speaker 1: the places where these banks were able to make a
- 6:20Speaker 1: little extra cat on the side. They just don't exist anymore, right, Chris,
- 6:24Speaker 1: You know, currency trading and so on, Like it's just
- 6:26Speaker 1: become such a different kind of experience to run a bank.
- 6:31Speaker 1: But tell me this. You look at the banks and
- 6:34Speaker 1: the quarters that they've had, and yes, a lot of
- 6:36Speaker 1: it has come from the capital markets, but you would
- 6:38Speaker 1: also imagine by looking at them that the consumer is
- 6:41Speaker 1: extraordinarily comfortable right now. But that's not the case. We
- 6:45Speaker 1: just got more initial jobless claims that don't even reflect
- 6:48Speaker 1: the problems in California nine hundred thousand initial jobless claims
- 6:52Speaker 1: just for last week. Empire Manufacturing is down to ten
- 6:56Speaker 1: point five. We had obviously a better Philly fired business
- 7:01Speaker 1: outlook and so on, and you know, there's definitely mixed data.
- 7:05Speaker 1: But how are the banks going to whether out what's
- 7:09Speaker 1: obviously coming to the consumer if we don't get more stimulus. Well,
- 7:13Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a tale of two countries, Bonnie.
- 7:18Speaker 1: We have a lot of people who are unemployed now
- 7:21Speaker 1: who may or may not have been particularly bankable. If
- 7:24Speaker 1: you think of the bomb Americans, they're not big users
- 7:27Speaker 1: of credit because either they don't have credit at all
- 7:31Speaker 1: or their scores are quite low. And so in this
- 7:33Speaker 1: bullmarket you've seen for mortgages, for example, other areas, even
- 7:38Speaker 1: auto autos is doing fine. Um. You know, it's the
- 7:41Speaker 1: middle to the upper third of the market and the
- 7:44Speaker 1: credit terms. So will the banks feel that, Yes, the
- 7:47Speaker 1: ones with big consumer exposure, City Capital One, some of
- 7:51Speaker 1: the others. But look at American Express. American Express is
- 7:54Speaker 1: almost back up the four times book. Um. So you know,
- 7:58Speaker 1: you have to think of it in terms of the
- 8:00Speaker 1: segmentation of society, and unfortunately, the lowest income Americans are
- 8:04Speaker 1: the biggest losers. And then you think about the cost
- 8:08Speaker 1: that we've put on top of the banks for dealing
- 8:10Speaker 1: with consumer issues over the past ten years. Kamala Harris,
- 8:14Speaker 1: that's not helpful either, because there's no incentive for those
- 8:16Speaker 1: banks to stretch and lend. They could do good loans
- 8:19Speaker 1: all day long. You know, if there's anything that's a
- 8:23Speaker 1: reflection of a shaped recovery, it's that, Chris. I mean,
- 8:26Speaker 1: it's it's really something to say when you say, well,
- 8:28Speaker 1: banks aren't seeing it among their consumers because their consumers
- 8:31Speaker 1: are fine. The ones that are suffering can't even get
- 8:34Speaker 1: banked in this country and in many other countries too, Chris,
- 8:37Speaker 1: I have one more and Funny Freddy. You know, if
- 8:40Speaker 1: we get a different administration or just you know, a
- 8:43Speaker 1: continuation of the same, what happens next for Fanny Freddy. Nothing,
- 8:48Speaker 1: nothing can happen anyway. But it's just problematic. You cannot
- 8:51Speaker 1: detach these things from government support, direct sovereign credit support
- 8:56Speaker 1: and expect them to survive. You know, it's just not
- 8:59Speaker 1: going to happen. Um. But one thing I do want
- 9:01Speaker 1: to leave you with, Funny, is the reason the banks,
- 9:03Speaker 1: especially JP, we're able to pause in terms of putting
- 9:07Speaker 1: aside more cash for future losses is because of the
- 9:10Speaker 1: Forbearance and the Cares Act. The FED has said, well,
- 9:13Speaker 1: those are not delinquent loans. Until those are considered delinquent loans,
- 9:18Speaker 1: the banks don't have to put more cash aside for them.
- 9:21Speaker 1: So we're pausing. Can that pause be forever? Pause? And well,
- 9:26Speaker 1: ohly if we want to become Europeans. I mean, that's
- 9:28Speaker 1: what they did in Europe. They used to just ignore
- 9:31Speaker 1: nonperforming loans and it was a horrible, horrible mistake on
- 9:34Speaker 1: the part of the Meracle government. So you know, that's
- 9:38Speaker 1: that's kind of where we are. I think US banks
- 9:40Speaker 1: are in much better shape. They're going to clean up
- 9:42Speaker 1: the mess. Fourth quarter will be taking a lot of
- 9:44Speaker 1: stuff to the curb, Bunny, Chris. It's one of more
- 9:47Speaker 1: sanglent interviews that I've had with you. You seem actually
- 9:50Speaker 1: quite positive, which is he I work in a mortgage business.
- 9:53Speaker 1: We're going to do four and a half trillion dollars
- 9:56Speaker 1: worth the mortgages this year. That's the higher, almost higher
- 9:59Speaker 1: than two thousand war, which is a little scary, but
- 10:01Speaker 1: at least we have part of the economy that is
- 10:04Speaker 1: going to help pull us out. And housing, I think
- 10:07Speaker 1: there's accumulated demand. You have a lot of demographic factors,
- 10:11Speaker 1: younger people, one of you know, five families, and you're
- 10:13Speaker 1: going outside of the big cities, which I think is great.
- 10:16Speaker 1: This is a very good point. Maybe it's karma, the
- 10:18Speaker 1: mortgage industry finally getting a bit jp. The banks aren't
- 10:23Speaker 1: buying a third party production right now. But Jamie did
- 10:26Speaker 1: enough new mortgages so he had almost no net change
- 10:29Speaker 1: in the value of his servicing. I'll guarantee you his
- 10:32Speaker 1: servicing book is pre paying a year. Well, that's good,
- 10:37Speaker 1: it's it's good given what the mortgage industry went through
- 10:39Speaker 1: ten years ago, right, and some of it brought We
- 10:43Speaker 1: can have a longer conversation about that some other time,
- 10:45Speaker 1: and Chris, we have to let you go, but thank
- 10:47Speaker 1: you so much. That is Chris Whalen, chairman of Whalen
- 10:50Speaker 1: Global Adviser, is always a pleasure to speak with. Chris.
- 10:57Speaker 1: Let's get some more market reaction out of Sapons, who
- 11:00Speaker 1: covers all of the assets for us. She is cost
- 11:02Speaker 1: asset reporter here at Bloomberg News, and she's been obviously
- 11:05Speaker 1: keeping an eye on equities today because that's you know,
- 11:08Speaker 1: what's really sort of moving the most to the naked
- 11:11Speaker 1: eye at least. But there's a lot going on, Sarah.
- 11:14Speaker 1: In Europe and in the United States with those jobless claims,
- 11:17Speaker 1: there is a lot going on and not necessarily what
- 11:20Speaker 1: you want to see to bring optimism to this market.
- 11:24Speaker 1: So in the United States, jobless claims did come in
- 11:26Speaker 1: at eight hundred ninety thousand. The estimate was for eight
- 11:30Speaker 1: d twenty five thousand, and the prior week was also
- 11:33Speaker 1: revised hire to eight hundred forty five thousand, So not
- 11:36Speaker 1: only just a miss of that estimate, but also an
- 11:39Speaker 1: unexpected increase in jobless claims now. As Chris Lowe over
- 11:44Speaker 1: at FHN Financial put it, he said, the ongoing decline
- 11:47Speaker 1: and claims paid stretching from late April to two weeks
- 11:50Speaker 1: ago is encouraging. There he is referring to those continuing claims.
- 11:54Speaker 1: But then he said the increase in initial claims is disturbing.
- 11:57Speaker 1: It is difficult to see it and not think there
- 11:59Speaker 1: are cocovery is vulnerable, and that really just epitomizes where
- 12:03Speaker 1: we currently stand. Yes, we have gotten through the rebound.
- 12:07Speaker 1: We have gotten through that initial stage of the v
- 12:10Speaker 1: shaped recovery, if you want to call it that. However,
- 12:12Speaker 1: the question is now what is next, especially since it
- 12:16Speaker 1: looks like we may not be getting fiscal stimulus. We
- 12:18Speaker 1: do see COVID cases rising, particularly you look at Europe
- 12:21Speaker 1: right now, where we see record cases in particular countries
- 12:25Speaker 1: like Germany, Italy, Australia, the Czech Republic at the same time,
- 12:29Speaker 1: or hearing about restrictions in London, curfews in Paris, so
- 12:33Speaker 1: not what you want to see. Globally, when COVID cases
- 12:36Speaker 1: are rising, there's fears of another wave ahead of the
- 12:38Speaker 1: winter and a labor market recovery. In the United States,
- 12:41Speaker 1: seems to be stalling. And with all that said, we
- 12:45Speaker 1: still have in disease not far from records. I mean, yes,
- 12:48Speaker 1: we're down one percent today and the sack down wanted
- 12:50Speaker 1: a half percent and so on, but I mean that's
- 12:52Speaker 1: not even that much of a self. Well, that's why
- 12:54Speaker 1: it's so important to keep this all in perspective. I mean,
- 12:57Speaker 1: I think about the earning season that we are in
- 12:58Speaker 1: the middle of. Shirt is very very very early on.
- 13:01Speaker 1: But to this point, the beat rate for US companies
- 13:04Speaker 1: that have reported earning so far is about that would
- 13:09Speaker 1: be a record beat rate. However, if you look at
- 13:12Speaker 1: the average move for a stock that has reported earnings
- 13:15Speaker 1: in the twenty four hours post reporting, that average move
- 13:18Speaker 1: has actually been about a two percent decline. So even
- 13:21Speaker 1: though companies are beating, companies are delivering, it's not showing
- 13:25Speaker 1: up in the stock market. And part of the reason
- 13:27Speaker 1: for that is, yes, the fact that many of these
- 13:30Speaker 1: estimates analysts had no clue what was going to happen.
- 13:34Speaker 1: We had gotten no guidance. It was almost as though
- 13:36Speaker 1: we were living in a vacuum, and an information vacuum.
- 13:39Speaker 1: And you see that sparity between the estimates and the
- 13:43Speaker 1: actual numbers that are coming out. But when you have
- 13:45Speaker 1: markets that are trading at record highs, it is such
- 13:48Speaker 1: a different setup than the beginning of the second quarter
- 13:50Speaker 1: or first quarter earning season, when even though we got
- 13:53Speaker 1: such negative numbers, we saw an unbelievable rally in the
- 13:56Speaker 1: stock market of older notes that you read ol day,
- 13:59Speaker 1: and I know you so many how many people are pessimistic, Sarah,
- 14:04Speaker 1: because of the ones I read, It really doesn't seem
- 14:06Speaker 1: short of a couple of mornings here and there, that
- 14:08Speaker 1: people out on wool Street sending out research are that pessimistic.
- 14:12Speaker 1: I would say that my read is very similar to yours.
- 14:14Speaker 1: It seems at this point in time, more and more
- 14:16Speaker 1: strategists are actually highlighting breadth measures, for example of the
- 14:20Speaker 1: market saying that this is a market that has been
- 14:22Speaker 1: broadening out that Davis reach Arch, for example, had highlighted
- 14:26Speaker 1: this the other day, changing their stance on US equities
- 14:28Speaker 1: to become a bit more optimistic, saying that one of
- 14:31Speaker 1: their breadth measures had actually flagged and was now positive
- 14:34Speaker 1: and pointing to the fact that we are in the
- 14:36Speaker 1: early stages of a true bowl market and that does
- 14:39Speaker 1: seem to be what the majority of those notes that
- 14:42Speaker 1: I am reading are saying. People are saying, yes, of
- 14:44Speaker 1: course there are risks out there. You have an election,
- 14:46Speaker 1: you have COVID nineteen. You need to see what happens
- 14:49Speaker 1: with the labor market, not just in the United States,
- 14:51Speaker 1: but the economy around the world. However, at the same time,
- 14:53Speaker 1: if you look at the internals of the market, many
- 14:56Speaker 1: strategists are starting to say this is resembling a true
- 14:59Speaker 1: early stage bowl market. I suppose the next catalyst will
- 15:02Speaker 1: be the actual election itself. At this point, I mean, yes,
- 15:05Speaker 1: we might get something between now and then on breaks
- 15:08Speaker 1: it all. Well, it's not likely. We might get some
- 15:10Speaker 1: better news on the virus, but you might also get
- 15:12Speaker 1: some worse news. So I suppose is that what people
- 15:15Speaker 1: are focused on the election coming up, especially considering the
- 15:18Speaker 1: fact that nineteen days away as the U S election,
- 15:21Speaker 1: that is thirteen training sessions, so it's going to be
- 15:23Speaker 1: here before we know it. It's pretty unbelievable, but I
- 15:26Speaker 1: would say still top of mind, and you really can't
- 15:28Speaker 1: get away from it. It's just COVID nineteen, especially when
- 15:31Speaker 1: you see headlines of what is happening in Europe currently,
- 15:34Speaker 1: and also when we see headlines dropping about officials or
- 15:37Speaker 1: people involved in the White House or campaigns testing positive
- 15:41Speaker 1: as well. That brings it into it too, And it
- 15:44Speaker 1: is really what's dictating our lives, businesses, and the economy
- 15:48Speaker 1: at the moment. And I'm sure everyone has seen by now.
- 15:50Speaker 1: But obviously Kamala Harris has to stop traveling because AIDS
- 15:53Speaker 1: in her front office tested positive as well. So the
- 15:57Speaker 1: effecting both sides. We're going to get to tell holes
- 16:00Speaker 1: to competing town holds nights. We'll see if we hear
- 16:02Speaker 1: anything that might change the narrative, but it doesn't feel
- 16:06Speaker 1: like we will at this point. The other quick things
- 16:09Speaker 1: Sarah that I'm watching, and it hearkens back to everybody
- 16:12Speaker 1: buying outdoor patio furniture and heaters and so on, is
- 16:16Speaker 1: energy prices. They might go up a little, right. It's
- 16:19Speaker 1: interesting because when you think about the COVID nineteen pandemic.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Originally this was seen as a deflationary force. Now some
- 16:25Speaker 1: are wondering if we are going to see pockets of
- 16:27Speaker 1: inflation pick up. We saw that in the last CPI
- 16:30Speaker 1: report with used cars, for example. There are certain pockets
- 16:33Speaker 1: of the economy that may benefit. Now we will see
- 16:37Speaker 1: what happens as we start getting into the winter. Like
- 16:39Speaker 1: you said, it would be imaginable that many restaurants, uh,
- 16:43Speaker 1: people maybe in their homes are trying to get heaters
- 16:46Speaker 1: to use outside. In particular, I have heard that there
- 16:49Speaker 1: are extreme backlogs to achieve these because they're in such
- 16:53Speaker 1: hot demand currently. But yes, you have to think about
- 16:56Speaker 1: the derivative effects. I bought some p Paine from local
- 17:00Speaker 1: hardware store and they're why and I felt like saying, well,
- 17:03Speaker 1: it's it's for heating. What else is complaine used for
- 17:07Speaker 1: these days? Leave out to your imagination. Sarah Ponzac, thank you,
- 17:12Speaker 1: cross Usset reporter here at Bloomberg News and general just genius.
- 17:18Speaker 1: Carl Weinberg joins US now founder in chief, international economist
- 17:22Speaker 1: of High Frequency Economics. Carl, Let's get straight to the point.
- 17:26Speaker 1: How awful is it out there? What are we going
- 17:29Speaker 1: to see in terms of recession in layers or not
- 17:33Speaker 1: in layers for the US this year and next year?
- 17:35Speaker 1: Most importantly? Okay, well, thank you for having me on vannie.
- 17:40Speaker 1: You know we're looking at a second wave of the virus,
- 17:42Speaker 1: and we've maintained the high economics that you can forecast
- 17:46Speaker 1: the future of the economy until you know where the
- 17:48Speaker 1: virus is going to go, and we don't know there
- 17:51Speaker 1: can possibly be a real recovery until we see a
- 17:54Speaker 1: cure for the virus or at least a good treatment
- 17:57Speaker 1: for the virus, and none of that is at hand.
- 18:00Speaker 1: As the virus spread increases, we're getting increasingly pessimistic in
- 18:04Speaker 1: our outlook for the U. S. Economy, especially when you
- 18:06Speaker 1: see Europe right now, right, Carl, because so many countries
- 18:09Speaker 1: in Europe did do at least partially the right thing,
- 18:12Speaker 1: and France in particular just can't keep it under control
- 18:15Speaker 1: right now, that's right, Varney. Also in the United States
- 18:18Speaker 1: from seeing outbreaks in the heartland of America at an
- 18:21Speaker 1: accelerating pace. The issue is with the virus now and
- 18:25Speaker 1: why this is different from what we saw West Springs.
- 18:27Speaker 1: West Spring, we closed the economy down, and then we
- 18:30Speaker 1: use the same power that we invoke to close it
- 18:33Speaker 1: down to open it up again. Right now, the virus
- 18:35Speaker 1: is in charge, and the virus shuts down the economy
- 18:38Speaker 1: by infection. One worker missing from a factory, sick at
- 18:42Speaker 1: a factory closes an assembly line if what that factory
- 18:45Speaker 1: makes is used to make something else. Saying in the
- 18:47Speaker 1: auto industry, one part for the assembly line missing shuts
- 18:51Speaker 1: down the whole assembly line. And similarly, one students sick
- 18:54Speaker 1: at the school closes a whole university or a whole
- 18:57Speaker 1: school and keeps kids at home, or one office work
- 19:00Speaker 1: they're ill, shuts down the whole office. Right now, the
- 19:02Speaker 1: virus is in charge, and we don't know how soon
- 19:07Speaker 1: this is going to be brought under control and what
- 19:09Speaker 1: kind of economic activity it's going to take out along
- 19:12Speaker 1: the way. Just a quick update for people. COVID is
- 19:15Speaker 1: in forties six states right now detectively and that we
- 19:18Speaker 1: know of, and deaths around the world have topped one
- 19:22Speaker 1: million there at one point zero nine million. New York
- 19:26Speaker 1: hotspots are leveling off, but Houston, I see use intensive
- 19:30Speaker 1: care units are seeing a surge. Carl. Let's talk about then,
- 19:34Speaker 1: what we do know. We got economic data this morning
- 19:36Speaker 1: that showed in a jobless claims are just not getting
- 19:39Speaker 1: any better. And that's pretty distorted data right now, and
- 19:42Speaker 1: there's lots to not not like out there, including the
- 19:45Speaker 1: fact that the stimulus talks are just going nowhere. Yeah,
- 19:48Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot not to like. In this
- 19:50Speaker 1: morning's employment claims number claims are are not going down
- 19:55Speaker 1: as we like them too. And more importantly, the number
- 19:58Speaker 1: of people who are on benefits are going down for
- 20:00Speaker 1: the wrong reason. Probably people want it's losting the benefits
- 20:03Speaker 1: that they have. They've lost their all supporter. They're going
- 20:06Speaker 1: to lose that all supports from any number of programs.
- 20:09Speaker 1: And what this means is that the income hit that
- 20:11Speaker 1: we've avoided so far has now started to catch up
- 20:15Speaker 1: with us, and it's probably started in July, but it's
- 20:17Speaker 1: going to get a lot worse in the next month
- 20:19Speaker 1: or two. The next detail sales number that we're going
- 20:22Speaker 1: to see is probably not going to be too terrible. However,
- 20:25Speaker 1: we're very grim about what's coming up in the months
- 20:28Speaker 1: ahead as people lose their support unemployment insurance and jobs
- 20:33Speaker 1: do not need materialize to put them back to work.
- 20:36Speaker 1: I mean, we haven't even had a chance to talk
- 20:38Speaker 1: to you recently about China, which was the only topic
- 20:40Speaker 1: we were talking about for a long time. But China
- 20:42Speaker 1: is really receded into the background now in terms of
- 20:45Speaker 1: trade negotiations and so on. Given what's actually happening right
- 20:48Speaker 1: around us. What what do you think about at night, Carl,
- 20:51Speaker 1: when you're thinking about the economy and the stock market
- 20:54Speaker 1: close to highs and the election coming off and so on.
- 20:56Speaker 1: What's the most important question for you right now? Any
- 21:00Speaker 1: funny you should ask. I was just writing about China
- 21:02Speaker 1: for our Notes on the Global Ecountry tomorrow. China's going
- 21:05Speaker 1: to print a GDP number next week that's going to
- 21:07Speaker 1: sail about three and a half percent growth. That's not
- 21:10Speaker 1: a particularly good number from an historical perspective, but from
- 21:13Speaker 1: the perspective of the world at large, that's a pretty
- 21:16Speaker 1: darned good result, giving what's going on with this pandemic
- 21:19Speaker 1: in other countries. China right now is exploiting its advantage
- 21:23Speaker 1: having also with the pandemic, albeit harshly from a social
- 21:28Speaker 1: um um, from a political pressure point of view, all right,
- 21:32Speaker 1: but nonetheless they contained it, and now they're using their
- 21:35Speaker 1: windfall from having contained the virus to exploit openings in
- 21:39Speaker 1: the world economy to step up to the plate, if
- 21:42Speaker 1: you will, say, in relationships with Iran and defiance of
- 21:45Speaker 1: the US sanctions, with relationships of Africa and other countries,
- 21:49Speaker 1: spreading AID and so forth. China is benefiting from this
- 21:52Speaker 1: pandemic and multiple dimensions and so far for whatever reasons
- 21:57Speaker 1: that we may not approve of politically or socially they're
- 22:00Speaker 1: managing to keep the pandemic under control. Yeah, I mean
- 22:04Speaker 1: it sounds pretty malignant. How much hay can bad actors
- 22:08Speaker 1: make from the situation that we're in right now, including
- 22:11Speaker 1: the fact that we have an election coming up, and
- 22:14Speaker 1: you know that's what people are concentrating on. We just
- 22:15Speaker 1: have a few seconds left. By the way, Carl, Well,
- 22:18Speaker 1: I agree with you about that money, but measures, some
- 22:20Speaker 1: of the measures have been extreme. Then again, if you
- 22:22Speaker 1: were living in China right now, commonly would be growing,
- 22:26Speaker 1: you would have a job, you wouldn't be worried about
- 22:28Speaker 1: losing it, and you wouldn't be worried about getting the
- 22:31Speaker 1: disease um. You know, So there are obviously a lot
- 22:34Speaker 1: of costs associated with this. There also true benefits as well. Carl,
- 22:41Speaker 1: is always an absolute pleasure to speak with you, and
- 22:44Speaker 1: Carl again, we did get to talk a little bit
- 22:46Speaker 1: about China, So that's good. Carl Weinberg of High Frequency
- 22:49Speaker 1: Economics covering the gownma there from this morning's economic data
- 22:53Speaker 1: to the stock market to what's happening in China. Speaking
- 22:56Speaker 1: of the stock market, re seeing just a little relief
- 22:59Speaker 1: the dow down only quote unquote just more than a
- 23:02Speaker 1: half percent right now, or undred and fifty eight points,
- 23:04Speaker 1: the SMP down twenty five points, seven tenths of percent,
- 23:07Speaker 1: and then as DEAC down one percent. It probably bears
- 23:10Speaker 1: repeating that we saw initial jobless claims for last week
- 23:14Speaker 1: coming in today higher than economists were anticipating, just below
- 23:18Speaker 1: nine hundred thousand claims, and we know that there are
- 23:21Speaker 1: some problems with California data which is skewing the data
- 23:24Speaker 1: continuing claims staying over that one million mark. We do
- 23:27Speaker 1: not like to see continuing claims staying over a million
- 23:30Speaker 1: for many weeks in a row, but that's what we have.
- 23:35Speaker 1: Nice guest, Christian mcgoon, CEO of Amplify e t F
- 23:39Speaker 1: joins us. He's also portfolio of the Amplify online retail
- 23:44Speaker 1: et F I buy and for anybody who's looking it up,
- 23:47Speaker 1: it's I b U I And that is obviously something
- 23:53Speaker 1: that has been involved with Amazon and is involved with Amazon.
- 23:56Speaker 1: So let's start off right there, Christian. We've just had
- 23:59Speaker 1: primed days this year, an extra prime day. Amazon hasn't
- 24:04Speaker 1: released a lot of data, but it definitely released third
- 24:07Speaker 1: party or fulfilleries data which was higher. Talked to us
- 24:10Speaker 1: about what you've seen. Yeah, so Prime Day concluded, and
- 24:15Speaker 1: you know, once again it was a record Prime Day.
- 24:17Speaker 1: This was the sixth annual Amazon Prime Day. Last year,
- 24:21Speaker 1: Amazon found about a seven billion dollar kind of sales
- 24:26Speaker 1: um UH to two day period. This year, UM, early
- 24:30Speaker 1: projections look like it's going to be closer to ten
- 24:32Speaker 1: billion dollars about nine point nine billion, with about six
- 24:35Speaker 1: billion coming from US versus about four billion coming from
- 24:39Speaker 1: outside the US. The average order is up about forty
- 24:42Speaker 1: five dollars per order. The average household spend looks to
- 24:45Speaker 1: be about seventy six dollars. Thirties percent of customers surveyed
- 24:50Speaker 1: by one data provider show that they're buying holiday gifts. Remember,
- 24:54Speaker 1: Prime Day has traditionally been in July. This year it's
- 24:56Speaker 1: in October. So um Amazon is able to front run
- 25:00Speaker 1: a little bit this holiday shopping trend in the age
- 25:02Speaker 1: of COVID, which UM many people believed would make this
- 25:06Speaker 1: the record Prime Day, and sure enough, it looks like
- 25:08Speaker 1: it's going to be a record. By about your I
- 25:13Speaker 1: Buy E t F generates what at of its revenue
- 25:16Speaker 1: from online purchases in normal times? What about right now
- 25:20Speaker 1: during the pandemic? What do you imagine that percentage is question. Yeah, yeah,
- 25:25Speaker 1: it's definitely increased. So I buy only looks at companies
- 25:28Speaker 1: that have se or more of their revenue coming from
- 25:30Speaker 1: online retail sales. And you know, online retail still in
- 25:34Speaker 1: the US from a market share standpoint, is only six
- 25:38Speaker 1: of overall retail sales based off the last US Census
- 25:41Speaker 1: Bureau report that happened this past quarter. That's up from
- 25:46Speaker 1: eleven percent. Now, during holiday shopping, we typically see like
- 25:49Speaker 1: last year saw a little over twenty of market share
- 25:53Speaker 1: going online. This year, early survey results show that it
- 25:56Speaker 1: could be an excess of fifty market share. So it's
- 26:00Speaker 1: a bang up year for online retail and online retail stocks.
- 26:04Speaker 1: I buys get eighty nine percent this year, as in
- 26:07Speaker 1: it's as it's focused on online retail, believe it or not.
- 26:10Speaker 1: Amazon is only up eighty two percent, so it's actually trailed.
- 26:14Speaker 1: The average online retail stock I buy is actually equally weighted,
- 26:18Speaker 1: so it doesn't have this massive waiting to Amazon, which
- 26:21Speaker 1: is actually benefited it this year. Absolutely, and you have
- 26:24Speaker 1: two billion dollars in US it's across the sweeten e
- 26:27Speaker 1: t F that amplifies. So that's really interesting that this
- 26:30Speaker 1: is the particular one that you play pobly most close
- 26:33Speaker 1: attention to. I want to ask you a little bit
- 26:35Speaker 1: about Colorado Springs if I can. That's your location. I mean,
- 26:38Speaker 1: is that in an area that's seen an influx of
- 26:41Speaker 1: people during the coronavirus pandemic or just tell us a
- 26:43Speaker 1: little bit about what it's like in Colorado Springs right now. Yeah,
- 26:47Speaker 1: So we've definitely seen um people migrate down from the
- 26:51Speaker 1: larger city in the state, Denver to have a little
- 26:54Speaker 1: bit more of quality life in Colorado Springs. We've also
- 26:57Speaker 1: seen an influx of California uns. Frankly, in fact, in
- 27:01Speaker 1: the next few months we'll see the first opening of
- 27:04Speaker 1: In and Out Burger, which, if you're from California is
- 27:07Speaker 1: kind of a staple food there. So um, Colorado is
- 27:10Speaker 1: definitely attracting people who now can work in a place
- 27:15Speaker 1: that has some great um uh, natural beauty, a lot
- 27:19Speaker 1: of different activities all all year for seasons, and um
- 27:23Speaker 1: we're definitely seeing a nice population increase, probably due to
- 27:27Speaker 1: not only COVID restrictions, but also kind of this work
- 27:30Speaker 1: from home trend. So um definitely part of maybe one
- 27:34Speaker 1: of the areas that is a benefactor of of kind
- 27:37Speaker 1: of this changing landscape, uh, in terms of kind of
- 27:40Speaker 1: physical locating yourself based off your work. Sure, I mean
- 27:44Speaker 1: I want to say congratulations, I guess on in an
- 27:46Speaker 1: out burger, but there's definitely a question mark at the
- 27:48Speaker 1: end of that congratulations. Talk to us a little bit
- 27:51Speaker 1: about what the retail environment is like there though, because
- 27:54Speaker 1: you must see small businesses, medium sized businesses in town
- 27:58Speaker 1: and in surrounding town. Are they suffering right now or
- 28:02Speaker 1: or you know, will they actually almost in some weird way,
- 28:05Speaker 1: benefit from this too. Yeah. So you know, there is
- 28:10Speaker 1: a larger population kind of trend happening in Colorado, So
- 28:14Speaker 1: that is good. But to your point, there's still um
- 28:17Speaker 1: some physical restrictions here. We certainly have our mask mandate
- 28:21Speaker 1: that just got extended by Governor polis Um. I know
- 28:25Speaker 1: that many of the restaurants, particularly in the Denver area,
- 28:28Speaker 1: are in limited capacity about capacity, which is uh, you know,
- 28:32Speaker 1: stressing their ability to you know, stay open. Um And
- 28:37Speaker 1: overall though it seems like you know, people are adjusting, uh,
- 28:41Speaker 1: and you know the economy has um you know, slowed
- 28:44Speaker 1: down in some areas, but you know, speaking to a
- 28:47Speaker 1: lot of home improvement type businesses, whether that be people
- 28:51Speaker 1: building decks, are doing remodeling, etcetera. They're having record years.
- 28:56Speaker 1: Just spoke to several contractors UM who are seeing you know,
- 29:01Speaker 1: unbelievable backup. One for example, who's builds decks. UM has
- 29:06Speaker 1: now a five month wait for all the new decks
- 29:09Speaker 1: they're building out here in Colorado. Uh their previous high
- 29:13Speaker 1: was to two months. So um they're operating at more
- 29:16Speaker 1: than double their capacity. There's more work than they can handle.
- 29:19Speaker 1: So I think a lot of the kind of home
- 29:21Speaker 1: depot um you know type retailers are doing quite well
- 29:25Speaker 1: out here. Restaurants are are struggling. But again, you know,
- 29:28Speaker 1: we're hoping to get through this, and you know, restrictions
- 29:31Speaker 1: have been a little bit more um um, less intense,
- 29:36Speaker 1: I guess since the kind of the peak in Corona.
- 29:39Speaker 1: But definitely there's going to be some more challenges to
- 29:42Speaker 1: overcome here as we think we get into cold winter. Well, Christian,
- 29:45Speaker 1: congratulations on lots of things, honestly, but also on the
- 29:48Speaker 1: performance of I Buy Your E T F. Christian Magoon,
- 29:51Speaker 1: CEO of Amplify E t S, joining us right there
- 29:55Speaker 1: from beautiful Colorado Springs. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Markets
- 30:01Speaker 1: podcast You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple
- 30:05Speaker 1: Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Bonnie Quinn,
- 30:09Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Bonnie Quinn. And I'm Paul Sweeney.
- 30:11Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you
- 30:14Speaker 1: can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio