Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Fed to Cut Biggest Banks' Capital Hike by Half in Overhaul
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- 0:02Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. Now you're listening to
- 0:09Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten
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- 0:23Speaker 2: I'm Alex Deel longside false.
- 0:24Speaker 3: We need.
- 0:24Speaker 4: This is Bloomberg Intelligence Radio. We bring you all the
- 0:26Speaker 4: top news and business, economics and finance right here at
- 0:29Speaker 4: our Bloomberg World headquarters in the beautiful Midtown in Manhattan.
- 0:33Speaker 4: So at the top of the hour of Federal Reserve
- 0:35Speaker 4: Vice Chairmichael Barr commented in a speech in Washington, and
- 0:38Speaker 4: this concerns Basil three endgame capital rules for banks, and
- 0:42Speaker 4: he made some material changes to those bank capital proposals.
- 0:45Speaker 4: The biggest banks are now going to face just nine
- 0:47Speaker 4: percent capital increase after some revisions, and some smaller banks
- 0:50Speaker 4: will be exempt altogether. Michael McKee, Bloomberger inter National Economics
- 0:54Speaker 4: and Policy correspondent, joins us now to go through all
- 0:57Speaker 4: of this. Okay, So, if I'm a JP Morgan, I
- 0:59Speaker 4: like this.
- 1:01Speaker 5: You like it better than what you had before. It's
- 1:04Speaker 5: still higher than they would like to see, and it's
- 1:09Speaker 5: sort of a compromise from the FED and the other
- 1:12Speaker 5: regulators now. Michael Barr also noted that this hasn't been
- 1:15Speaker 5: completely finalized yet. They're going to hopefully propose it next
- 1:18Speaker 5: week and then it has to go through another comment period,
- 1:22Speaker 5: and he noted that the other regulators haven't signed off yet,
- 1:25Speaker 5: but this is likely what we're going to see. The
- 1:28Speaker 5: nine percent is still a fairly hefty additional level of
- 1:35Speaker 5: cushion against financial shocks for them, So it is better
- 1:40Speaker 5: than the nineteen percent that had been in a lot
- 1:43Speaker 5: original proposal. And then the medium sized banks the one
- 1:47Speaker 5: hundred to two hundred and fifty billion, They won't see
- 1:51Speaker 5: any change in any additional change in their capital requirements,
- 1:55Speaker 5: with the exception of capital held to maturity, the stuff
- 2:00Speaker 5: that got SVB in trouble. They if yours isn't in
- 2:04Speaker 5: good enough shape, then you'll have to pay a bit more.
- 2:08Speaker 6: Is this still from great Financial Crisis?
- 2:13Speaker 7: All these rules.
- 2:14Speaker 6: Here is kind of I mean, are we done yet?
- 2:17Speaker 7: I mean, come on enough?
- 2:18Speaker 2: Maybe after endgame? Maybe this is why it's called endgame?
- 2:21Speaker 5: Well, jamis that's that's the laugh, you know. The Marvel
- 2:26Speaker 5: The Avengers movie series did a movie as a two
- 2:30Speaker 5: part movie called Endgame, which was supposed to be sort
- 2:33Speaker 5: of the end wrapping up all these threads over the years,
- 2:36Speaker 5: and now they're doing more Marvel super hero movies. So
- 2:40Speaker 5: Endgame is not going to be the endgame. There will
- 2:43Speaker 5: always be something that comes up. But this is a
- 2:47Speaker 5: process that's been under way for a very long time.
- 2:50Speaker 5: BOZZL process started back in the nineteen nineties trying to
- 2:53Speaker 5: harmonize international banking rules, and this Bozzle three process came
- 2:57Speaker 5: after the Great Financial Crisis and to harmonize and agree
- 3:01Speaker 5: on safety standards for banks around the world. And that
- 3:06Speaker 5: goes a lot deeper than just capital it's what kind
- 3:08Speaker 5: of models they can use. In this case, they're going
- 3:11Speaker 5: to have to switch from using their own models for
- 3:15Speaker 5: risk to standardize risk models stuff like that. It has
- 3:20Speaker 5: a major impact on how the regulatory offices in these
- 3:26Speaker 5: banks will operate.
- 3:28Speaker 6: All right, Michael McKee, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
- 3:31Speaker 6: Michael mcge is a our economics dude here for Bloomberg
- 3:33Speaker 6: Radio TV JP Morgan is stock down four percent, no idea, why.
- 3:37Speaker 4: Well, we also have some the big banks are all
- 3:39Speaker 4: talking right now. So Jimmy Pinto over at JP Morgan
- 3:44Speaker 4: is saying that third quarter investment bank banking fees could
- 3:47Speaker 4: rise about fifteen percent from a year ago. Not a
- 3:49Speaker 4: big fan of acquisitions and asset management, David Solomon, Woman
- 3:53Speaker 4: Sachs spoke yesterday at a conference talking about their trading revenue.
- 3:57Speaker 4: So we're getting all that feedback right now.
- 3:59Speaker 6: So out there, it's September, which means it's conference time.
- 4:04Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 4:08Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple car Play and
- 4:11Speaker 1: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also
- 4:14Speaker 1: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
- 4:18Speaker 1: Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 4:22Speaker 4: So today the EU's top court delivered two final binding
- 4:26Speaker 4: rulings against two US tech companies.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Apple lost its court fight.
- 4:30Speaker 4: Over a fourteen point four billion dollar Irish tax bill,
- 4:32Speaker 4: and Google lost its challenge over a two point four
- 4:35Speaker 4: billion euro fine for abusing its market power. EU Competition
- 4:38Speaker 4: Commissioner Margaret Vasteier spoke to Bloomberg following the victories for
- 4:42Speaker 4: the European Commission, and she said she hopes her record
- 4:45Speaker 4: show she was willing to take the risks to prove
- 4:47Speaker 4: that the market works for consumers.
- 4:50Speaker 8: You need to of course own your victories, but you
- 4:53Speaker 8: also own your defeats, and we have had both, and
- 4:58Speaker 8: hopefully that shows that we will to push the envelopes
- 5:01Speaker 8: also sometimes to take a risk in order to try
- 5:05Speaker 8: to make sure that the market serves the consumer and
- 5:09Speaker 8: that we are not just small ponds or meet for
- 5:11Speaker 8: the machine. And I hope that is what people take
- 5:14Speaker 8: down from today's judgment, both that we won the Google
- 5:17Speaker 8: case and it is final, and we won the Apple
- 5:19Speaker 8: case and its final.
- 5:22Speaker 4: Now was Margaret Westdeyer joining us. All right, let's get
- 5:24Speaker 4: more insight here with Tamlin Basin, Bloomberg Intelligence technology analysts
- 5:29Speaker 4: who joined us on this.
- 5:30Speaker 2: Was this at all surprising to you? Tamlin?
- 5:33Speaker 9: Now, this wasn't terribly surprising, Alex. The Apple tax case,
- 5:37Speaker 9: we start with that. In twenty sixteen, the European Commission
- 5:40Speaker 9: made this finding. It assess the thirteen billion dollar penalty,
- 5:44Speaker 9: which is basically what it said were unpaid taxes because
- 5:47Speaker 9: the Irish tax authority had given these favorable opinions to
- 5:51Speaker 9: Apple that essentially amounted to improper state aid. Now, what
- 5:55Speaker 9: was interesting is that the Intermedia A court in twenty
- 5:58Speaker 9: twenty did reverse that decision and said the Commission didn't
- 6:01Speaker 9: follow certain guidelines and setting that fine. But when we
- 6:06Speaker 9: looked at the briefing going into this this final I'm hearing,
- 6:09Speaker 9: it did seem like this was going to be the result.
- 6:12Speaker 9: So I think this thirteen million dollar verdict against Apple
- 6:15Speaker 9: wasn't entirely surprising. And this money has been held in
- 6:17Speaker 9: s grow for a number of years, so I think
- 6:20Speaker 9: people sort of saw this this coming this way.
- 6:23Speaker 6: So I mean, is this just another I guess hurdle
- 6:27Speaker 6: that Apple and you know, other big tech companies have
- 6:30Speaker 6: to deal with from a regulatory standpoint just all over
- 6:33Speaker 6: the world.
- 6:33Speaker 9: Here, Yeah, I mean the hurdles are certainly stacking up.
- 6:38Speaker 9: But I think what's interesting about this is I look
- 6:40Speaker 9: at these two decisions as really some of the last ripples,
- 6:44Speaker 9: some really regulatory actions that began kind of nearly a
- 6:47Speaker 9: decade ago, and I think now we've certainly moved on
- 6:50Speaker 9: and both and especially in Europe but also in the US,
- 6:53Speaker 9: there are increasing hurdles there that the companies are having
- 6:57Speaker 9: to face. I mean, especially if you look at Google
- 6:59Speaker 9: and you know it's sort are locked up in another
- 7:01Speaker 9: trial this week with the DJ over competition concerns. So
- 7:04Speaker 9: these these these challenges really are mounting up around the globe.
- 7:08Speaker 2: So put it all together. So I guess that's a
- 7:11Speaker 2: great point.
- 7:12Speaker 4: What's on the dock at court wise for big tech
- 7:15Speaker 4: in Europe, and then what's on the dock at big
- 7:17Speaker 4: tech wise in the US. And do have like a
- 7:19Speaker 4: spreadsheet that sort of outlines everything? So I honestly can't
- 7:22Speaker 4: keep track, and also like what the money is associated with.
- 7:24Speaker 2: All of it?
- 7:26Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, We've got quite a few spreadsheets. I do
- 7:28Speaker 9: have one wide track all the ones that are in Europe.
- 7:31Speaker 9: And if you look at Europe, what's I say that
- 7:33Speaker 9: we've moved on from that is because after these these
- 7:36Speaker 9: regulations or sorry, these litigations were started five, six, seven
- 7:40Speaker 9: years ago, what the Europegian Commission did is they went
- 7:42Speaker 9: back and they rewrote some rules where they said, we're
- 7:45Speaker 9: going to make it easier to really go after some
- 7:47Speaker 9: of these anti competitive practices that we're seeing. And that's
- 7:49Speaker 9: why we have the Digital Markett Act, That's why we
- 7:51Speaker 9: now have the Digital Services Act, and we already see
- 7:55Speaker 9: under the DMA that there are some probes facing both
- 7:58Speaker 9: Apple and Google Google for sort of similar practices that
- 8:01Speaker 9: were at issue here, where it was alleged to have
- 8:04Speaker 9: abused its dominant position and search to elevate its own
- 8:07Speaker 9: products over the products of peers. It's already facing investigation
- 8:11Speaker 9: for that. Apple's facing two DMA probes, both related to
- 8:16Speaker 9: that store, and I think these ongoing have brying more
- 8:19Speaker 9: of an operational risk because they really could go to
- 8:22Speaker 9: how these companies are currently operating, not just sort of
- 8:25Speaker 9: this backwards looking financial penalty thing that we saw today.
- 8:30Speaker 9: Then if you look at the US, so of course,
- 8:31Speaker 9: I think the biggest thing facing Google right now is
- 8:34Speaker 9: this DOJ lawsuit that is going to trial this week
- 8:38Speaker 9: based on its ad stack. So I think that could
- 8:41Speaker 9: have some really profound ramifications for the company, not just
- 8:45Speaker 9: in terms of financial penalty, but really behavioral remedies, which
- 8:49Speaker 9: is I think, moving forward, what could be the most
- 8:52Speaker 9: frightening thing for a lot of these companies.
- 8:54Speaker 6: Camlin is the UK view of big tech different than
- 8:58Speaker 6: the EU? And reason asks now that obviously the UK
- 9:01Speaker 6: is out of the EU, do they look at tech
- 9:04Speaker 6: any differently than the European Union?
- 9:07Speaker 9: Maybe there's some slight variations where they maybe trend slightly
- 9:11Speaker 9: more towards the US, although I say that but US
- 9:13Speaker 9: now is really fairly aggressive in their stance on big tech.
- 9:17Speaker 9: But the UK doesn't really quite have the competition rules.
- 9:21Speaker 9: But they also are saying that we're going to reevaluate
- 9:24Speaker 9: how some of these rules are going to be applied
- 9:27Speaker 9: against these big tech firms. So I think it's difficult
- 9:31Speaker 9: to find any real safe haven in terms of a
- 9:34Speaker 9: regulatory standpoint for these big tech companies, whether it's EU,
- 9:38Speaker 9: UK or even increasingly the US.
- 9:41Speaker 4: How do you handicap all of this within say valuations
- 9:44Speaker 4: or how you model the stock.
- 9:46Speaker 9: I honestly think a lot of investors have a little
- 9:49Speaker 9: bit of regulation fatigue when it comes to this. This
- 9:53Speaker 9: is by no means a new story, especially if you
- 9:56Speaker 9: look at how the EU has been going after the
- 10:00Speaker 9: these dominant firms for over a decade now, and I
- 10:04Speaker 9: can't say when you look at them you can see
- 10:06Speaker 9: really a loosening of their grip on the markets here.
- 10:09Speaker 9: So I do think in many ways that the investors
- 10:13Speaker 9: are sort of shrugging off these actions. And I think,
- 10:16Speaker 9: you know, especially when you look at the the increasing
- 10:19Speaker 9: trials that we're having, that we actually could see some
- 10:24Speaker 9: huge sort of landmark litigations coming out, So it's definitely
- 10:29Speaker 9: something to keep an eye on, even though we've been
- 10:31Speaker 9: seeing it for years and years and years.
- 10:33Speaker 4: All right, Tamlin and Apple stockdown about eight tenths of
- 10:35Speaker 4: one percent. Tamlin Basson joining us Bloomberg Technology a technology analyst.
- 10:41Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 10:45Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, car Play and
- 10:48Speaker 1: rout Otto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand
- 10:51Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 10:56Speaker 6: Alex Deal Paul Sweeney live here in our Bloomberg Directive
- 10:59Speaker 6: Brokers studio. We're also streaming live on YouTube as well.
- 11:02Speaker 6: I've been a loyal BMW customer for probably twenty five
- 11:07Speaker 6: thirty years, currently driving the X three, which is the
- 11:10Speaker 6: best vehicle I've ever driven. Period. Not a good day
- 11:13Speaker 6: however for the stock of BMW down eleven percent today.
- 11:16Speaker 6: That's the most since March sixteenth, twenty twenty, just the
- 11:20Speaker 6: beginning of the pandemic, and it's the lowest since twenty
- 11:22Speaker 6: twenty one. So tough times out there for BMW. Let's
- 11:25Speaker 6: get the latest of what's happening with them. Michael Dean,
- 11:27Speaker 6: head of Global Autos of Bloomberg Intelligence, joins us from
- 11:31Speaker 6: London via zoom. Michael, what's going on with BMW today?
- 11:35Speaker 6: I saw that they took their earnings forecast down. What's
- 11:38Speaker 6: driving that?
- 11:40Speaker 10: So BMW had a profit warning today and that was
- 11:43Speaker 10: partly on the back of a warranty issue has with
- 11:46Speaker 10: its breaks not on the xtreet. So you're fine, Paul, good,
- 11:50Speaker 10: but they're going have to recall one point five million
- 11:53Speaker 10: vehicles and that's going to cost a high three digits
- 11:57Speaker 10: million in terms of earnings for twenty twenty four. But
- 12:00Speaker 10: that doesn't tell the whole story because they've downgraded their
- 12:02Speaker 10: margin by about two hundred basis points, which is about
- 12:05Speaker 10: two billion of v bits. So the balance of that
- 12:08Speaker 10: is coming from we could China sales, lower pricing in Europe,
- 12:13Speaker 10: lower demand in Europe. So just the demand and pricing
- 12:16Speaker 10: environment globally has been very difficult and that's part of
- 12:19Speaker 10: the reason for the profit warning, which.
- 12:21Speaker 2: Then leads us to Volkswagen.
- 12:22Speaker 4: So the latest news today is that it's ending its
- 12:25Speaker 4: job protections for autoworkers in Germany as part of its
- 12:27Speaker 4: cost cutting push.
- 12:29Speaker 2: There are several.
- 12:29Speaker 4: Agreements that were linked to a three decades old pack
- 12:32Speaker 4: that was supposed to safeguard employment un till twenty twenty nine,
- 12:35Speaker 4: but now those guarantees are going to run out by
- 12:36Speaker 4: the middle of next year.
- 12:39Speaker 2: I mean, wow, yeah.
- 12:43Speaker 10: So you know, Volkswagen was in the news last week
- 12:45Speaker 10: because it said it needs to close half a million
- 12:48Speaker 10: units of capacity in Germany. So that's very difficult because
- 12:53Speaker 10: of workers' rights. And you know, worker's rights have been
- 12:55Speaker 10: very one sided for Volkswagen in particular because you have
- 12:59Speaker 10: VW law and this is where twenty percent of the
- 13:02Speaker 10: ordinary shares, the voting shares are owned by the States
- 13:05Speaker 10: of Lower Saxony, which is where Volkswagen's biggest battery is,
- 13:08Speaker 10: and funnily enough, and they have the ability to block
- 13:13Speaker 10: certain agreements. So worker's rights are very strong for Volkswagen employees.
- 13:18Speaker 10: And now I think management are saying, Okay, hold on
- 13:21Speaker 10: a minute. The automotive world's changing rapidly. We need to
- 13:24Speaker 10: do something to reduce costs, and part of that is
- 13:27Speaker 10: the close factories and reduce jobs.
- 13:30Speaker 6: Michael, give us it just a thirty thousand foot view
- 13:32Speaker 6: of kind of the global auto business here. I mean,
- 13:35Speaker 6: the weakness that you're seeing in Europe. The weakness you're
- 13:38Speaker 6: seeing in China. Is that just general economic weakness effect
- 13:42Speaker 6: that we've seen in past cycles or is this something
- 13:44Speaker 6: to do with this ongoing transition to electric vehicles.
- 13:49Speaker 10: Yeah, it's a bit of both. So you know, you
- 13:51Speaker 10: have the transition to battery electric vehicles. It's going much
- 13:54Speaker 10: slower than expected in Western markets. Other markets probably going
- 13:58Speaker 10: quicker than expected, such as China. But the problem Volkstagener
- 14:01Speaker 10: has is that the competition is so intense and has
- 14:05Speaker 10: overtaken them in China, such as BYD So Volkswagen a
- 14:08Speaker 10: couple of years ago was the market leader in China.
- 14:10Speaker 10: Now byd within two years has overtaken Volkswagen, and really
- 14:14Speaker 10: it's going to be a survival of the fittest in
- 14:17Speaker 10: these markets.
- 14:18Speaker 4: Well, I mean, these companies aren't going to go under
- 14:21Speaker 4: or anything, right, So I guess I'm wondering when the
- 14:23Speaker 4: trough is.
- 14:23Speaker 2: When do we know what is a trough actually going
- 14:26Speaker 2: to look like?
- 14:27Speaker 10: Well, you say, well, a lot of companies could could
- 14:30Speaker 10: go under, particularly the pure play battery electric vehicles.
- 14:33Speaker 4: I just meant that, like Germany's not gonna let Bolkswagen
- 14:35Speaker 4: go bankrupt.
- 14:37Speaker 10: Now, of course, and the interesting thing if you look
- 14:40Speaker 10: at the valuation of Volkstagen today is valued at forty
- 14:43Speaker 10: five billion euros. I've had a lot of clients talk
- 14:46Speaker 10: to me about this today. They have almost forty billion
- 14:49Speaker 10: of cash on the balance sheet, there's seventy five percent
- 14:51Speaker 10: stake in Porsche is worth forty five billion euros. They
- 14:56Speaker 10: own Lamborghini brands, which has higher probability rates that Ferrari,
- 15:00Speaker 10: which is currently value at seventy seven billion, So we
- 15:03Speaker 10: think Lamborghini's worth thirty billion to use a Ferrari valuation.
- 15:06Speaker 3: So there's some of the parts.
- 15:07Speaker 10: Is volksg is huge compared to the actual valuation at
- 15:12Speaker 10: Volkswagen at the moment.
- 15:13Speaker 6: So you highlight an area for me that just kind
- 15:17Speaker 6: of feels like a long term issue, which is China.
- 15:20Speaker 6: I mean, if you they spend decades they being any
- 15:22Speaker 6: auto company, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes, whatever, building brand value and
- 15:27Speaker 6: brand loyalty in a market like China, and in a
- 15:30Speaker 6: period of two years they've lost that, it seems like,
- 15:34Speaker 6: I mean, is that the real barish case for some
- 15:36Speaker 6: of these global auto companies.
- 15:39Speaker 3: It's a it's a big case.
- 15:40Speaker 10: So for the German automakers In the past few years,
- 15:43Speaker 10: China was the most profitable market, accounted for thirty five
- 15:47Speaker 10: to forty percent of their profits. Now this year it
- 15:49Speaker 10: could be as low as ten percent, and you know
- 15:52Speaker 10: what the market's pricing is is that could be zero
- 15:55Speaker 10: in the future. And that's because the technology changing and
- 15:59Speaker 10: the way that startups in China are pushing through so quickly.
- 16:04Speaker 10: They're really fighting for market share at the moment and
- 16:06Speaker 10: their future.
- 16:07Speaker 4: So then it goes back to my question, what does
- 16:10Speaker 4: the bottom for either US car companies or for European
- 16:14Speaker 4: car companies wind up looking like as the tariff's go
- 16:17Speaker 4: into place, as China keeps producing these really cheapvs, as
- 16:21Speaker 4: we have different restrictions here in the US, like what
- 16:23Speaker 4: is that?
- 16:25Speaker 3: Well, you look at what GM and Ford have done.
- 16:27Speaker 10: I mean, in particulate, it's looked at different markets and
- 16:30Speaker 10: if it's not profitable, it's pulled out at those markets.
- 16:32Speaker 10: So China's one example, Europe's another example. So it's whether
- 16:36Speaker 10: the German automakers take a view that can they be
- 16:39Speaker 10: profitable in China in the future, And many foreign carmakers
- 16:43Speaker 10: are saying no. Volksfagen at the moment is saying yes,
- 16:46Speaker 10: we can and they've got this long term plan and
- 16:48Speaker 10: they've invested in xpaying so hopefully accelerate their transition. But
- 16:54Speaker 10: it's going to be very, very difficult for foreign carmakers
- 16:56Speaker 10: to continue to make profits in China.
- 17:00Speaker 6: I mean again, it feels like is there an even
- 17:03Speaker 6: discussion on whether they should be there at some point.
- 17:07Speaker 10: Certainly within the market, but for the company itself that
- 17:11Speaker 10: they've invested heavily in China and they've got a plan
- 17:15Speaker 10: now to try and catch up with local producers, to
- 17:18Speaker 10: catch up with BYD, which is with this partnership with xpang.
- 17:22Speaker 10: So they think they've got an opportunity because they've got
- 17:25Speaker 10: a good brand in China.
- 17:27Speaker 3: But it's going to be very tough. I mean, pricing
- 17:29Speaker 3: in China is.
- 17:30Speaker 10: Really really competitive at the moment, so the point where
- 17:33Speaker 10: battery electric vehicles are actually priced below internal combustion in
- 17:37Speaker 10: the vehicles compared to that to Europe, where the average
- 17:40Speaker 10: battery electric vehicle is thirty five percent higher than a
- 17:43Speaker 10: ice vehicle, and they still can barely make a profit
- 17:46Speaker 10: in Europe.
- 17:47Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a very tough environment.
- 17:49Speaker 4: Yeah, and then they'll have ev factory there, but then
- 17:51Speaker 4: all of a sudden you're looking at potential losses then
- 17:53Speaker 4: for workers in actual Germany.
- 17:55Speaker 2: A really interesting story.
- 17:56Speaker 4: Thank you very much, Michael Dean and joining us from
- 17:59Speaker 4: bloom Intelligence.
- 18:02Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 18:06Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecard Play and Android
- 18:09Speaker 1: Otto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen
- 18:12Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
- 18:16Speaker 1: Just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 18:20Speaker 6: It's September, which means it's conference time. It's also time
- 18:23Speaker 6: to talk about the hedge fund business. I'm not buying it,
- 18:26Speaker 6: per se. I'm not a fan of the hedge fund business.
- 18:28Speaker 6: I think the model's broken. I think it was broken
- 18:30Speaker 6: in the mid two thousand's. That's just my personal opinion.
- 18:32Speaker 6: Donald Steinberger joints us here. He's founder and CEO of
- 18:35Speaker 6: Agecroft Partners. I know the term Agecroft. That's from Richmond, Virginia,
- 18:39Speaker 6: and that's where he's based on a Richmond, which is
- 18:41Speaker 6: one of my fall time favorite towns. My twins are
- 18:44Speaker 6: born there, I went to school down there, great town.
- 18:47Speaker 6: Don I think those whole hedge fund games is scam.
- 18:50Speaker 6: But tell me about what's going on in the hedge
- 18:52Speaker 6: fund business in terms of can people raise capital? Are
- 18:55Speaker 6: they what's the state of the hedge fund business these days?
- 18:58Speaker 11: Well, first of all, it's great to be back, and
- 18:59Speaker 11: I think it's probably going to take a couple more
- 19:01Speaker 11: interviews before I finally get you to buy into hedge funds,
- 19:04Speaker 11: but it's going to happen. You're moving, you know a
- 19:06Speaker 11: little bit each time. You know, hedgehont industry is pretty strong.
- 19:09Speaker 11: I started an industry in two thousand and one. It
- 19:11Speaker 11: was six hundred billion industry. It's now five trillion. The
- 19:15Speaker 11: market is pretty saturated, meaning when you look at who's
- 19:18Speaker 11: investing in hedge funds, pensions and Downmans, foundations, softoign wealth funds,
- 19:22Speaker 11: the ones that are going to invest in hedge funds
- 19:24Speaker 11: tend to be pretty fully allocated. So you're not really
- 19:27Speaker 11: seeing growth from an inflow standpoint. As matter of fact,
- 19:30Speaker 11: you've had a little bit of money come out of
- 19:32Speaker 11: the industry, but the industry has grown significantly because of performance.
- 19:36Speaker 11: For example, you know, year to date, the hedgehont industry
- 19:39Speaker 11: is up seven point five percent. In addition to that,
- 19:42Speaker 11: it's a great business to raise assets because you have
- 19:47Speaker 11: huge divergence in performance between strategies and managers. There's always
- 19:51Speaker 11: people getting fired. Average person owns a hedge fund for
- 19:54Speaker 11: five years means twenty percent of the industry turns over
- 19:58Speaker 11: trillion dollars to be had. But it's still difficult because
- 20:02Speaker 11: ninety percent of assets are going to five percent of managers.
- 20:05Speaker 2: Wow, So what kind of strategies work right now?
- 20:08Speaker 11: Well, the one with the biggest demand right now is
- 20:11Speaker 11: long short equity. And long short equity went through a
- 20:14Speaker 11: real laughing at you right now, just yeah, a really
- 20:17Speaker 11: long period where people just hated it. I mean, last decade,
- 20:20Speaker 11: money just kept coming out and their performance was under
- 20:24Speaker 11: the S and P five hundred over and over and
- 20:26Speaker 11: over again, and a lot of people said, hey, you
- 20:29Speaker 11: put all your money in the S and P five hundred,
- 20:31Speaker 11: and what has that done. It's driven the S and
- 20:33Speaker 11: P five hundred to an extremely high valuation. It's dominated
- 20:36Speaker 11: by a small handful of stocks. And reason people like
- 20:40Speaker 11: long shred equity is some people are worried about the market.
- 20:43Speaker 11: If you're worried about the market, be hedged. If you're
- 20:45Speaker 11: not worried about the market, go all in.
- 20:48Speaker 7: Other people like the fact that.
- 20:50Speaker 11: There's huge divergencies between valuations between value growth, small cap,
- 20:55Speaker 11: large cap US non US and over time, these these
- 21:00Speaker 11: vergences have contracted. So it means a lot of people
- 21:03Speaker 11: think fundamentals are going to add value. And the last
- 21:06Speaker 11: thing is you can make money on the short book
- 21:08Speaker 11: in your portfolio because short term rates are high. You
- 21:11Speaker 11: might get another two percent return based on the interest
- 21:15Speaker 11: on the short book.
- 21:16Speaker 3: You know, is it?
- 21:17Speaker 6: You mentioned that you know a lot of the most
- 21:19Speaker 6: of the funds are with a relatively few managers, the
- 21:21Speaker 6: citadels of the world. How did that come about? I mean,
- 21:24Speaker 6: it used to be a day where if you had
- 21:26Speaker 6: hotshot trader at Morgan Stander Goldensacks, you could go out
- 21:29Speaker 6: and raise five hundred million dollar billion dollars. That's not
- 21:33Speaker 6: as prevalent today, is it?
- 21:35Speaker 11: You know it's not, And I will say that that
- 21:38Speaker 11: is one of the big issues at the industry is
- 21:41Speaker 11: a lot of people by brand. They think you know
- 21:43Speaker 11: their safety and brand. A lot of these top managers
- 21:46Speaker 11: had phenomenal track records a long time ago. They're managing
- 21:49Speaker 11: way too much assets. Their returns have been very mediocre
- 21:53Speaker 11: for a lot of famous hedge funds. A lot of
- 21:56Speaker 11: these pods have done recently, have done very well recently,
- 22:00Speaker 11: but they've gotten very large. You're beginning to see some
- 22:03Speaker 11: money focus more on smaller managers. Smaller managers, if you
- 22:06Speaker 11: want good returns, is where you want to invest. But
- 22:09Speaker 11: you don't want to invest in them unless you understand
- 22:11Speaker 11: the inefficiency that they're focusing on and what their differential
- 22:14Speaker 11: advantages to capture that efficiency.
- 22:17Speaker 4: What about all the main strategies like volatility focused funds.
- 22:22Speaker 4: CTA is like the trend followers. What's the interest there?
- 22:26Speaker 11: So there's been a pickup and interest for commodity trading
- 22:30Speaker 11: advisors And basically they're people that invest in financial futures
- 22:34Speaker 11: across the forming capital markets and their quantitative quantitative managers
- 22:41Speaker 11: that are looking at price patterns historically, and they tend
- 22:45Speaker 11: to do very well during markets selloffs. So they help
- 22:48Speaker 11: protect markets if the market's going to sell off.
- 22:52Speaker 6: Help diversify a lot of.
- 22:53Speaker 11: People are worried about evaluations of the equity marketplace, so
- 22:57Speaker 11: that's one way to diversify away from equity.
- 23:00Speaker 6: How about pricing fees? Is two and twenty still the game?
- 23:03Speaker 2: So is this why you don't like hedge fund because
- 23:05Speaker 2: of the fees?
- 23:05Speaker 6: Yeah? No, No, I love the fees, so it likes
- 23:07Speaker 6: the fee. But I just if I were managing money,
- 23:09Speaker 6: I just don't think that fee of just the returns
- 23:11Speaker 6: are worth it.
- 23:13Speaker 11: People need to focus on fees, and fees have come
- 23:15Speaker 11: down a lot. You know that the prominent managers you
- 23:18Speaker 11: pay two and twenty for performance that might not be
- 23:21Speaker 11: you know, that great because now they're really large, but
- 23:24Speaker 11: new managers, smaller managers, I mean typical fees probably one
- 23:28Speaker 11: and a half and seventeen performance fee potentially less. It's
- 23:33Speaker 11: also diverted between individual investors and institutions. You know a
- 23:37Speaker 11: lot of people listening to this radio broadcast may indirectly
- 23:40Speaker 11: own hedge funds through their government pension fund or corporate
- 23:44Speaker 11: pension fund. Big institutional investors on average are probably paying
- 23:47Speaker 11: one in ten, maybe one in fifteen, so huge contraction.
- 23:52Speaker 11: Also hurdles, you know, hurdle is for performance, and a
- 23:56Speaker 11: lot of people don't want to pay performance fee on cash.
- 23:58Speaker 11: They're saying, hey, you got to be cash before we're
- 24:01Speaker 11: going to pay a performance fake.
- 24:02Speaker 4: Well, this is any other question, and this may be
- 24:04Speaker 4: a really ignorant question, but with the dominance of Nvidia
- 24:07Speaker 4: and the mag seven, how does a hedge fund compete
- 24:11Speaker 4: against that because the end of the day, like wouldn't
- 24:13Speaker 4: they do just as relatively well, just like buying the index.
- 24:16Speaker 11: Or like well, I guess it all depends whether you
- 24:19Speaker 11: think that those companies can continue to go up the
- 24:23Speaker 11: way they've gone up. I mean a lot of people
- 24:24Speaker 11: we have.
- 24:24Speaker 4: To wait for the mag seven to sort of fall
- 24:26Speaker 4: out for them. Those hedge fund strategies to pay off.
- 24:28Speaker 4: Is that the idea, I just.
- 24:29Speaker 11: Don't think you can you know, I don't think you
- 24:32Speaker 11: can time it. And if you think that the equity
- 24:36Speaker 11: market is overvalued, then you want to You don't want
- 24:39Speaker 11: to wait until certain things happen and then change your portfolio.
- 24:42Speaker 11: You need to change your portfolio before it happens. And
- 24:46Speaker 11: so one way is to hedge it. Another is you
- 24:48Speaker 11: could also overweight certain factors through mutual fund index funds
- 24:54Speaker 11: if you wanted underweight the S and P overweight other
- 24:59Speaker 11: types of indiscy that are cheap from a relative value standpoint,
- 25:03Speaker 11: the S and P five hundred real quick thirty seconds.
- 25:06Speaker 6: Has the growth in ETF? Is that taking funds away
- 25:08Speaker 6: from hedge funds, or is that the ETF growth just
- 25:11Speaker 6: come from mutual funds?
- 25:12Speaker 3: Maybe.
- 25:12Speaker 11: Yeah, I think it's come from mutual funds. I think
- 25:14Speaker 11: it's come from you know, long only managers. You know,
- 25:17Speaker 11: as I mentioned, the hedge fund industry now is a
- 25:20Speaker 11: little over five trillion dollars. I think it's you know,
- 25:23Speaker 11: again fairly saturated, but it's it's growing through performance. And
- 25:28Speaker 11: you know, the environment for a hedgehond manager is good
- 25:31Speaker 11: if you're really good, and if you're not really good,
- 25:34Speaker 11: it's a very difficult market to be in.
- 25:36Speaker 3: Yep.
- 25:37Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a life lesson there.
- 25:39Speaker 7: There is exactly right.
- 25:40Speaker 6: Donald Steinberger, he's founder and CEO of age Croft Partners,
- 25:44Speaker 6: joinings live here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Get
- 25:46Speaker 6: update on the hedge of fund business against five trillion dollars.
- 25:50Speaker 6: Just extraordinary there and there are some obviously some big
- 25:53Speaker 6: names out there.
- 25:55Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 26:00Speaker 1: ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android Auto with
- 26:03Speaker 1: a Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on
- 26:06Speaker 1: Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa,
- 26:10Speaker 1: play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 26:13Speaker 4: Alex Dealer alongside Paul Sweeney. This is Bloomberg Intelligence radio,
- 26:17Speaker 4: we bring you all the top news in business, economics,
- 26:19Speaker 4: and finance. There are lens of our Bloomberg Intelligence folks.
- 26:21Speaker 4: They cover two thousand companies in one hundred and thirty
- 26:24Speaker 4: industries all around the world. Let's check in with one
- 26:27Speaker 4: of them right now, with Nathan Dean, Bloomberg Intelligence senior
- 26:30Speaker 4: policy analysts. Yeah, shaker, there's a debate tonight in case
- 26:33Speaker 4: no one's been paying attention, So it's at nine pm. Well,
- 26:35Speaker 4: a special coverage here at eight pm, simulcast on radio
- 26:38Speaker 4: as well as television. Nathan, though from an equity side,
- 26:43Speaker 4: is there a Harris or Trump trade evolving at all
- 26:47Speaker 4: that we can sort of zone in on?
- 26:49Speaker 7: Now? I don't think exactly.
- 26:50Speaker 12: I mean, anytime you talk Trump trade or Harris trade,
- 26:53Speaker 12: you know, we really just you know, there are certain
- 26:55Speaker 12: sectors you can say we'll impact in certain.
- 26:57Speaker 7: Ways to the presidency.
- 26:58Speaker 12: But for I think for tonight's purpose is we really
- 27:00Speaker 12: want to hear more about tax plans and we want
- 27:03Speaker 12: to hear more about economic plans, because you know, both
- 27:05Speaker 12: candidates have been fairly light, you know, over the past
- 27:08Speaker 12: couple of weeks in terms of saying how they're going
- 27:09Speaker 12: to actually change certain things Now, obviously for tonight's debate,
- 27:12Speaker 12: we've heard President Trump say that he wants to cut
- 27:14Speaker 12: the corporate tax right down to fifteen percent. Kyla Harris,
- 27:17Speaker 12: the vice president wants to go up to the twenty
- 27:18Speaker 12: eight percent. But we would always just caution our clients
- 27:21Speaker 12: and investors and so forth like that, just remember every
- 27:23Speaker 12: statement that comes out of the candidate's mouth, you have
- 27:26Speaker 12: to remember how they're going to get that through Congress
- 27:28Speaker 12: or how they're going to get through Washington. And for
- 27:30Speaker 12: a lot of these tax proposals that you're going to
- 27:32Speaker 12: hear tonight, you know, the other folks down on the
- 27:34Speaker 12: other side of you know, Pennsylvania Avenue the Congress, they
- 27:37Speaker 12: may have different plans. So it's just interesting to hear
- 27:40Speaker 12: those thoughts, but you know, most likely they're not They're
- 27:43Speaker 12: going to have to be curtailed.
- 27:43Speaker 7: They're restricted some.
- 27:45Speaker 6: Should a question be asked tonight of both candidates talk
- 27:48Speaker 6: to us about annual deficits, talk to us about the
- 27:51Speaker 6: total debt of the United States? Should that be a question?
- 27:55Speaker 7: I think it should be.
- 27:56Speaker 12: I mean, this is something that we get from New
- 27:57Speaker 12: York a lot, especially from you know, asset managers that
- 28:01Speaker 12: are concerned with the state of the US debt. But
- 28:04Speaker 12: from the Washington perspective, you know, the US debt is
- 28:07Speaker 12: not something that many people have thought about, or at
- 28:09Speaker 12: least if they are thinking about it, it's certainly not reflective
- 28:12Speaker 12: in what Congress spending goals are. So, you know, I
- 28:14Speaker 12: think when it comes to the debt, though, however, it's
- 28:16Speaker 12: really gonna be whoever wins the election, because if Kamala
- 28:19Speaker 12: Harris wins the election, you're gonna have a return of
- 28:21Speaker 12: the debt ceiling fights that we saw under the first
- 28:24Speaker 12: half or the end of the Obama administration, where you know,
- 28:28Speaker 12: dead ceiling comes up, it's going to be negotiated, and
- 28:30Speaker 12: then ultimately when the markets begin to react to it,
- 28:33Speaker 12: they kick the can down the road. Now, the dead
- 28:35Speaker 12: ceiling doesn't expire till January first, twenty twenty five, which
- 28:38Speaker 12: is good news because the lame duck it will probably
- 28:40Speaker 12: be one of President Biden's last signature as president to
- 28:43Speaker 12: kick the can down even more. But if President Trump wins,
- 28:46Speaker 12: I don't think you're going to see many of this
- 28:47Speaker 12: debt ceiling fights at all.
- 28:48Speaker 4: What about some of the sectors on the key sectors
- 28:51Speaker 4: that are kind of most exposed here.
- 28:54Speaker 12: Yeah, So, you know, we just put out a large
- 28:56Speaker 12: report on the Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump race. In
- 29:00Speaker 12: some of our key sectors to watch where we're like
- 29:02Speaker 12: renewables tied to the Inflation Reduction Act.
- 29:04Speaker 7: There's a lot of tax carrots, if you will.
- 29:06Speaker 12: In there that are spurring renewable investment, especially in cap
- 29:09Speaker 12: BACX and a lot of GUP states. Others involve the banks,
- 29:12Speaker 12: you know the Basil three end game. You know, a
- 29:14Speaker 12: proposal that would increase CAPPER requirements around nine percent for
- 29:17Speaker 12: the investment banks. If President Trump wins, that may not
- 29:20Speaker 12: go forward. Other things are global manufacturers due to the
- 29:23Speaker 12: tax changes that we just talked about healthcare, they're twenty
- 29:25Speaker 12: five hundred twenty five billion dollars in Obamacare subsidies that
- 29:29Speaker 12: are up for renewal next year.
- 29:30Speaker 7: And finally, big tech.
- 29:32Speaker 12: You know, whether if you Kamala Harris wins, are going
- 29:34Speaker 12: to have a continuation of the very stringent M and
- 29:37Speaker 12: a anti trust authority that the Biden era regulators are
- 29:39Speaker 12: putting on big tech.
- 29:40Speaker 7: But if JD.
- 29:41Speaker 12: Vance's idea of economic populism gets into the White House,
- 29:44Speaker 12: you could see a Republican president also be.
- 29:46Speaker 7: Very skeptical of big text. So a lot of what ifs.
- 29:49Speaker 12: But a lot of you know, you know, scenarios in
- 29:51Speaker 12: which those industries could be heavily impacted.
- 29:53Speaker 6: You know, I listened to former President Trump's Economic Planet
- 29:57Speaker 6: Economic Club of New York. I don't know hard time
- 30:00Speaker 6: making heads or tails out of it, but I guess
- 30:01Speaker 6: it was lower taxes, higher tariffs. Is that kind of
- 30:05Speaker 6: the basis of his economic I guess platform.
- 30:08Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 30:09Speaker 12: I think that's the really good point to point out,
- 30:12Speaker 12: because I think it's almost like a phase one, phase
- 30:14Speaker 12: two type of deal with President Trump wins.
- 30:16Speaker 7: Phase one is tariffs. You know, this is something that
- 30:18Speaker 7: he can do.
- 30:19Speaker 12: The power of the presidency is a lot more powerful there,
- 30:21Speaker 12: and so sorry the first half of twenty twenty five,
- 30:24Speaker 12: you could see a lot more tariffs coming in.
- 30:25Speaker 1: Now.
- 30:26Speaker 7: I would argue that a lot of these tariffs are
- 30:28Speaker 7: negotiation ploys.
- 30:29Speaker 12: You know, if he holds up an executive order and
- 30:31Speaker 12: says I'm going to sign a tariff, there's probably language
- 30:34Speaker 12: in that executive order saying two hundred and seventy days
- 30:36Speaker 12: from now, it won't go into fruition until then, because
- 30:38Speaker 12: you're gonna give the opposite side multiple times to negotiate.
- 30:41Speaker 12: But it's certainly something that he's comfortable with and I think,
- 30:43Speaker 12: you know, would easily put out if he feels that
- 30:46Speaker 12: it's necessary. But then the tax reform debate is what's
- 30:48Speaker 12: going to come next, because at the end of twenty
- 30:50Speaker 12: twenty five, those Trump Ara tax cuts for individuals expire.
- 30:53Speaker 12: Now President Trump is said fifteen percent corporate tax rate.
- 30:56Speaker 12: I'm not sure he'll be able to get that. You know,
- 30:58Speaker 12: he's gonna have to negotiate. We've seen a little bit
- 31:00Speaker 12: of statements from House Republicans saying, yeah, maybe we should
- 31:03Speaker 12: go down to twenty or nineteen or eighteen percent, But
- 31:05Speaker 12: being able to pay for that fifteen percent is going
- 31:07Speaker 12: to be somewhat difficult for these deficit hawks. So, but
- 31:11Speaker 12: there's a lot of provisions of the tax era Trump
- 31:13Speaker 12: are tax cuts that have already expired for industry, and
- 31:16Speaker 12: I think President Trump is going to try and institute those,
- 31:18Speaker 12: though at a large level, think Trump two point zero
- 31:21Speaker 12: is going to do another version of the same tax cut.
- 31:23Speaker 4: I literally remember having the exact same conversation in twenty fifteen,
- 31:26Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, like the phase two how you get it done,
- 31:30Speaker 4: et cetera. So what's interesting to me though, is the
- 31:33Speaker 4: lack of response though in say, high tax companies versus
- 31:37Speaker 4: low tax companies, like the things that would make sense
- 31:39Speaker 4: because those policies are so different, say on corporate taxes.
- 31:42Speaker 4: Are we seeing that reflected within market moves?
- 31:46Speaker 3: You know?
- 31:46Speaker 12: I think so, But you know a lot I've been
- 31:48Speaker 12: talking to a lot of investors over the last few weeks,
- 31:51Speaker 12: and a lot of folks come to me and they say,
- 31:53Speaker 12: we just really don't know what's going to happen on
- 31:55Speaker 12: tax until we know the makeup of Congress. And the
- 31:58Speaker 12: reason being is is that if Trump wins but the
- 32:01Speaker 12: Democrats take the House, pretty much all of his tax vision,
- 32:05Speaker 12: if you will, is going to be curtailed, negotiated, and
- 32:08Speaker 12: a lot more restricted. Now, if he ends up winning
- 32:10Speaker 12: the House and the Senate, they can use reconciliation to
- 32:13Speaker 12: essentially bypass the Democrats, and they have a very.
- 32:16Speaker 7: Broad net that they can cast.
- 32:18Speaker 12: So a lot of people that I've been talking to
- 32:20Speaker 12: you of saying, look, we understand the Trump era desires,
- 32:23Speaker 12: and we understand that these broads deficit inducing tax cuts
- 32:28Speaker 12: potentially could be on the horizon, but we're not excited
- 32:31Speaker 12: about it. Just yet because we need to see how
- 32:33Speaker 12: the House and Senate races play out.
- 32:35Speaker 6: What is the thinking currently in Washington, Nathan about how
- 32:39Speaker 6: that will play out in Congress?
- 32:41Speaker 12: Well, look, I mean, you know, if you go to
- 32:43Speaker 12: the function on the terminal WSL election, you can see
- 32:46Speaker 12: all the data there.
- 32:46Speaker 7: But I think you know when.
- 32:48Speaker 12: It comes to the Senate, that's going to be somewhat
- 32:50Speaker 12: very difficult for the Democrats to control because right now
- 32:52Speaker 12: it's fifty one to forty nine. You're gonna lose West
- 32:55Speaker 12: Virginia because Senator Joe Manchin is retiring, So now you're
- 32:58Speaker 12: at a fifty to fifty and the Democrats are sent
- 33:00Speaker 12: have to run the board just to keep that fifty
- 33:02Speaker 12: to fifty. Think of Senator Shery Brown in Ohio, Senator
- 33:05Speaker 12: John Tester, and Montana Senator Jackie Rose in Nevada.
- 33:08Speaker 7: So assuming that if the Democrats.
- 33:10Speaker 12: Lose one, the Republicans are most likely going to take
- 33:12Speaker 12: the Senate, and if President Trump wins, then obviously allow
- 33:15Speaker 12: him the ability to put in judges and his regulatory
- 33:18Speaker 12: leadership when it comes to the House, I've seen pulling
- 33:20Speaker 12: up both sides. But my general view, and this is
- 33:22Speaker 12: just my personal view, is that whoever wins the president
- 33:24Speaker 12: also wins the house.
- 33:26Speaker 2: Okay, interesting, How excited are you for tonight? Is this
- 33:29Speaker 2: like a super Bowl for you?
- 33:30Speaker 13: Like?
- 33:30Speaker 4: Do you get out popcorn? Do you have like guawk,
- 33:33Speaker 4: do you have avocados? There's an avocado debate happening right
- 33:35Speaker 4: now on rading.
- 33:36Speaker 7: I think I'm rich.
- 33:37Speaker 12: I think I'm gonna try and take as much Bloomberg
- 33:38Speaker 12: popcorn away from the pantry. I canned home with me tonight.
- 33:41Speaker 12: So nice, It's gonna be a fun night.
- 33:44Speaker 2: That was awesome.
- 33:44Speaker 4: All right, Hey, Nathan, we really appreciate Nathan Dean Bloomberg
- 33:46Speaker 4: Intelligence senior policy analyst and the most recent deep dive
- 33:50Speaker 4: on the impact of the US election.
- 33:53Speaker 2: It's one of those things. I mean, it's one of
- 33:55Speaker 2: those things where it's like I want to cringe, but
- 33:57Speaker 2: watch it.
- 33:57Speaker 4: It's like you want to watch it through your hands,
- 33:59Speaker 4: like a scary movie or something, because you just don't
- 34:01Speaker 4: know what's going to rap him, what's going to happen.
- 34:03Speaker 6: Yeah, and again, as Nathan's just pointing out, this research report,
- 34:06Speaker 6: which you can get a bi go, is just really
- 34:09Speaker 6: in depth, basically just saying from an economic Wall Street
- 34:12Speaker 6: financial perspective, you know, under two different presidencies, which industries
- 34:16Speaker 6: are winners and losers.
- 34:17Speaker 13: So it's great research.
- 34:18Speaker 6: B I go on the terminal and that's where you
- 34:21Speaker 6: can find it good stuff.
- 34:23Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 34:27Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, card Play and
- 34:30Speaker 1: Android Otto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also
- 34:33Speaker 1: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York
- 34:36Speaker 1: station Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 34:41Speaker 6: Let's talk about the broader markets. One of the things
- 34:44Speaker 6: we like to do is get a sense of what
- 34:46Speaker 6: is investor sentiment out in the marketplace. It's one of
- 34:49Speaker 6: the factors that Genie, Martin Adams and Bloomberg Intelligence factors in.
- 34:51Speaker 6: And I think if you want to do that on
- 34:53Speaker 6: the retail side, nobody better than talk to than the
- 34:55Speaker 6: folks at Charles Swap because they've got like a jillion
- 34:58Speaker 6: customers out there. Joe missola It joins us head trading
- 35:01Speaker 6: and derivative strategist for Charles Schwab, joining us here in
- 35:04Speaker 6: our studio. He's based out in the Bay Area, but
- 35:06Speaker 6: he joins us here in a New York studio because
- 35:08Speaker 6: why wouldn't be in New York if you're in your
- 35:09Speaker 6: financial services business. That's what I say. Talk to us
- 35:12Speaker 6: about your STACKS index. What is it and what's it
- 35:15Speaker 6: telling you these days?
- 35:16Speaker 13: Yeah, hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate that. And
- 35:18Speaker 13: the STACKS index, what it does is it measures our
- 35:21Speaker 13: SCHWAB Trading Activity index, or measures are our SWAB clients
- 35:24Speaker 13: what are they doing?
- 35:25Speaker 3: You know?
- 35:25Speaker 13: So it's the behavior over the attitudinal. Basically, what we
- 35:29Speaker 13: do is we look at thirty two million accounts, we
- 35:32Speaker 13: take a little subset of that and say where we
- 35:34Speaker 13: buyers or where we sellers over the course of the month,
- 35:36Speaker 13: and you learn And there was a little bit of
- 35:38Speaker 13: selling in August, so it basically pulled back a little
- 35:41Speaker 13: bit from what we saw in July. Still you know,
- 35:43Speaker 13: still above levels that are above moderate, but for the
- 35:46Speaker 13: most part we did see some selling. And what I
- 35:48Speaker 13: would say is this was almost a tale of two months.
- 35:50Speaker 13: So beginning of the month, we saw clients kind of
- 35:53Speaker 13: step in and buy that dip from the August fifth
- 35:55Speaker 13: sell off, saw a lot of activity and AI stocks
- 35:58Speaker 13: a lot of buying there, but as a month kind
- 36:00Speaker 13: of trailed on. What we saw was a little bit
- 36:02Speaker 13: more of shifting towards away from equities and interfixed income.
- 36:06Speaker 6: All right, So this index typically ranges between a reading
- 36:10Speaker 6: of thirty five and seventy, and then I guess the
- 36:12Speaker 6: reading for August was somewhere in the fifty three range,
- 36:16Speaker 6: so it's kind of right in the middle there. Does
- 36:18Speaker 6: that kind of suggest to you that your clients are
- 36:21Speaker 6: neither overly bearish or bullish.
- 36:24Speaker 13: So we always follow that up with an attitudinal study
- 36:27Speaker 13: as well. So we have the behavioral study that we're
- 36:29Speaker 13: talking about now, but we always like to do like
- 36:31Speaker 13: a trader sentiment study where we actually asked the clients,
- 36:34Speaker 13: you know, how they're feeling about going forward, and what
- 36:36Speaker 13: we found out is that they're still feeling moderate to
- 36:38Speaker 13: positive kind of as they're heading into the September month.
- 36:42Speaker 13: There's a little bit of concern around interest rates, so
- 36:45Speaker 13: that's giving them a little bit of a pause in
- 36:46Speaker 13: terms of, you know, what the federal action will be.
- 36:48Speaker 13: We're hearing a little bit of concern in terms of
- 36:51Speaker 13: the political cycle and what the elections could do for
- 36:54Speaker 13: the markets as well. But overall, yeah, Paul, you're right,
- 36:57Speaker 13: I would say for the most part, they're moderately bullish.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Oh, what are they buying more of the selling.
- 37:02Speaker 13: So what we saw on the buy side is some
- 37:04Speaker 13: of the typical names kind of rose to the top,
- 37:06Speaker 13: in Video being one of them. Amazon is new to
- 37:08Speaker 13: the list, it's been off for a little bit, so
- 37:10Speaker 13: that one came back. One of them that we haven't seen.
- 37:13Speaker 13: I was shocked to see this one was Intel, and
- 37:15Speaker 13: I think part of that, yeah, I think part of
- 37:16Speaker 13: that is just because we got about a thirty thirty
- 37:18Speaker 13: five percent pullback right off for earnings and we saw
- 37:21Speaker 13: some dit buyers kind of step in on the cell side.
- 37:24Speaker 13: What was interesting about the cell side is these were
- 37:27Speaker 13: a lot of the names that kind of flipped lop
- 37:29Speaker 13: between both sides. But what was interesting to me is
- 37:33Speaker 13: out of the mag seven names, you had Metta and Apple,
- 37:36Speaker 13: and if you think about kind of how those stocks
- 37:39Speaker 13: performed relative to the other ones, they actually held up
- 37:42Speaker 13: pretty well throughout throughout the month. I mean, Meta even
- 37:44Speaker 13: put in a fifty two week high. So I think
- 37:46Speaker 13: what we saw was some profit taking maybe from some
- 37:48Speaker 13: of the dip buying that we saw earlier in the month.
- 37:51Speaker 13: And then the last one was Starbucks. And if you
- 37:54Speaker 13: remember star Wars as a new CEO came over from Chipotle,
- 37:57Speaker 13: got a nice little pop there, and we saw some
- 37:59Speaker 13: clients trim some profits after that occurred.
- 38:01Speaker 6: Yeah, interesting, I'm going to stock that. Remember that day
- 38:03Speaker 6: was up eighteen percent just when the news I must.
- 38:06Speaker 4: Be really good, like you leave a job and everyone's
- 38:08Speaker 4: like yeah exactly.
- 38:10Speaker 6: One of the sectors that was most pronounced of buying
- 38:14Speaker 6: was energy, which is interest because we were just talking
- 38:16Speaker 6: to Mike mcglon our commodity and also we were just
- 38:18Speaker 6: talking about the decline in oil prices.
- 38:20Speaker 7: But maybe maybe.
- 38:21Speaker 6: Some of your customers clients are seeing value there.
- 38:24Speaker 13: Maybe I think that's probably what it is, Paul. I
- 38:26Speaker 13: think you're right. I think that there's some day buying
- 38:29Speaker 13: in there looking for some opportunities with what I found
- 38:32Speaker 13: interesting as well to consumer discretionary was another sectors in buying.
- 38:35Speaker 13: I think a lot of that has to do with
- 38:37Speaker 13: the Amazon, right, the Amazon buying that we saw. When
- 38:41Speaker 13: you look at the sectors that were sold, a couple
- 38:44Speaker 13: of rides at the top there and communication services being
- 38:46Speaker 13: number one. A lot of that has to do with
- 38:48Speaker 13: some large sales and meta and there as well. What
- 38:52Speaker 13: I when I look at kind of what our clients
- 38:55Speaker 13: did relative to where maybe we saw some of the
- 38:57Speaker 13: rotations in the market. I think it's interesting because the
- 39:01Speaker 13: breadth right, you know, where we saw kind of a
- 39:03Speaker 13: breadth thrust would have been more on the interest rate
- 39:05Speaker 13: sensitive sectors financials right, utilities, reads. Didn't see a lot
- 39:10Speaker 13: of retail movement into that. To me, that says it's
- 39:13Speaker 13: a little bit more institutional buying there.
- 39:14Speaker 2: Here's a numb for a question. How do you feel
- 39:16Speaker 2: like retails looking at the election?
- 39:19Speaker 13: Well, I don't know what side they're picking, but I
- 39:21Speaker 13: know that.
- 39:22Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 39:22Speaker 2: But in terms of like do you see any hedging,
- 39:24Speaker 2: Like yes.
- 39:24Speaker 13: Yeah, absolutely, no, absolutely, how are doing it? Yeah? So
- 39:27Speaker 13: there's a couple couple different things we're saying we're seeing
- 39:29Speaker 13: on the broader side. And I don't know if that's
- 39:31Speaker 13: retail over its institutional, but you're definitely seeing some put
- 39:35Speaker 13: buying in the SPX and that's kind of pushing up
- 39:37Speaker 13: the VIX a little bit. You're seeing the skew kind
- 39:39Speaker 13: of get bit up a little bit more, the difference
- 39:41Speaker 13: between the puts and the calls and the twenty five delta.
- 39:43Speaker 13: So we're starting to see that as well. We do
- 39:46Speaker 13: see that on the retail side, you know, I'd love
- 39:49Speaker 13: to say that our clients are educated. I mean, we
- 39:50Speaker 13: have a lot of educational opportunities for them. A lot
- 39:52Speaker 13: of them utilize options in their strategies, and we're starting
- 39:55Speaker 13: to see more and more activity and on the option
- 39:57Speaker 13: side heading into the elections.
- 39:59Speaker 6: Do you see your your clients do they trade around
- 40:02Speaker 6: events like we kind of think that they do, whether
- 40:05Speaker 6: it's the FED Day or jobs Day? Do you see
- 40:08Speaker 6: like a spike and volume, a spike in trading. Does
- 40:10Speaker 6: that happen on that platform or your people just I'm
- 40:13Speaker 6: just I'm along, I'm holding well.
- 40:15Speaker 13: I mean, I think you have to look at it
- 40:16Speaker 13: two ways, right, you have the investor base and then
- 40:17Speaker 13: you have the trader base, and a lot of that
- 40:19Speaker 13: trader base came over from the td ror Trade acquisition.
- 40:22Speaker 13: So they are pretty active clients and they love you know,
- 40:25Speaker 13: event risks, they love earnings, they love trading around that
- 40:28Speaker 13: different type of strategies specifically alex As you were talking
- 40:30Speaker 13: about some option type of strategies around there. So yeah,
- 40:32Speaker 13: we do see a pickup around those events, and you know,
- 40:35Speaker 13: and how they had it or how they play it,
- 40:38Speaker 13: that kind of depends on the client themselves. But we
- 40:40Speaker 13: do see activity.
- 40:41Speaker 2: It's so cool. I love all of this insight. How
- 40:43Speaker 2: are how's retail trading bonds right now?
- 40:47Speaker 13: Yeah, we've seen a rotation into fixed income and what
- 40:50Speaker 13: I think what we're seeing from the from that side
- 40:52Speaker 13: is that they're probably trying to maybe front run the
- 40:55Speaker 13: FED announcement on September eighteenth, maybe trying to buy bonds
- 41:00Speaker 13: four yeels come down a.
- 41:00Speaker 2: Little bit at the front end of the long end.
- 41:02Speaker 13: We're seeing it more in the middle. Yeah, definitely in
- 41:04Speaker 13: the middle, a little bit, a little bit of the
- 41:06Speaker 13: belly ETFs.
- 41:08Speaker 6: It's just I mean, Alex and I have just been
- 41:09Speaker 6: amazed at the growth of the ETF business. Maybe yet
- 41:13Speaker 6: to some extent that the expense of the mutual fund business.
- 41:15Speaker 6: How much or how often are to what's agree or
- 41:17Speaker 6: your client's use using ETFs.
- 41:19Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean think about think about the flexibility that
- 41:21Speaker 13: ETFs offer, right whether it's you know, being able to
- 41:23Speaker 13: trade intra day on them or not having to wait
- 41:25Speaker 13: to end to day settle you want to use option
- 41:27Speaker 13: type strategy. So yeah, that's something that's employed quite a
- 41:30Speaker 13: bit by our clients just because, like I said, the
- 41:32Speaker 13: flexibility and it gives them the ability to have some
- 41:34Speaker 13: diversification choose sector ETFs. That's another thing we've been looking at,
- 41:38Speaker 13: and you know it's wy We offer a lot of
- 41:40Speaker 13: thematic type trading. That's just something that we've really seen
- 41:43Speaker 13: start to pick up as well too, so clients they
- 41:45Speaker 13: don't have to necessarily pick a stock, they can pick
- 41:47Speaker 13: a theme and it gives them the ability to have
- 41:49Speaker 13: exposure to that.
- 41:50Speaker 2: This is a super weird question.
- 41:52Speaker 4: We had an article out a couple weeks ago, I
- 41:54Speaker 4: think that said that as online gambling has picked up,
- 41:57Speaker 4: you've seen more of that and less actual retail trading.
- 42:00Speaker 4: Have you noticed like any correlation of like when you
- 42:04Speaker 4: see surges and not for retail or is it the
- 42:06Speaker 4: same kind of volume and stuff that you were seeing
- 42:09Speaker 4: back in twenty twenty.
- 42:11Speaker 13: I mean, I would say if you look at the
- 42:12Speaker 13: options market, ash Pole, right, I mean we're doing I mean,
- 42:14Speaker 13: not schwapping in general. The whole market is doing fifty
- 42:17Speaker 13: million contracts a day. So I don't know how much
- 42:19Speaker 13: of that's being pulled from gambling. I guess we'll find
- 42:22Speaker 13: out now the football season started again, to see if
- 42:24Speaker 13: that pulls some of the money away. But at this
- 42:28Speaker 13: point I just continue to see. You know, the options
- 42:30Speaker 13: market continue to expand, so I'm assuming it's pulling some
- 42:32Speaker 13: of that gambling dollars in there.
- 42:34Speaker 4: So cool, all right, Joe, thanks a lot, Joe Mazzola,
- 42:36Speaker 4: Charles Schwab, head of Trading and the Rivetive strategist.
- 42:38Speaker 2: I'd definitely come back.
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