Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Stocks Slip on Trade Concerns
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Penl Podcast. I'm Paul swing you
- 0:05Speaker 1: along with my co host Lisa Brahma Waits. Each day
- 0:07Speaker 1: we bring you the most noteworthy and useful interviews for
- 0:10Speaker 1: you and your money. Whether at the grocery store or
- 0:12Speaker 1: the trading floor. Find a Bloomberg Penl podcast on Apple
- 0:15Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as
- 0:17Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com. One of the biggest consensus trades
- 0:21Speaker 1: heading into next year is betting on reflation of steepening
- 0:25Speaker 1: in the yield curve. This concept of perhaps better than
- 0:28Speaker 1: expected earnings coming out of companies that have pretty weak
- 0:31Speaker 1: comps to to beat. Basically joining us now is Ben
- 0:35Speaker 1: Emmon's Medley Global Advisors Global macro Strategy, and Ben, I'm
- 0:38Speaker 1: looking right now at what might be the initial phases.
- 0:42Speaker 1: I don't want to see the death of their inflation trade,
- 0:44Speaker 1: but the death of the inflation trade. You're seeing the
- 0:47Speaker 1: yield curve continue to flatten, and you're seeing a measure
- 0:50Speaker 1: of forward inflation five year five year up break even
- 0:53Speaker 1: rates dropped near their lowest levels since two sixteen. What
- 0:57Speaker 1: do you make of that? I can only say thanks
- 0:59Speaker 1: for much for having us Um, well, there's obviously uncertainty
- 1:03Speaker 1: has creeped in since the speech from Trump in New
- 1:05Speaker 1: York last week when he started to voice his word
- 1:09Speaker 1: about substantial rising tears as the deal doesn't happen. So
- 1:12Speaker 1: I think the bond market listened to that closely and
- 1:15Speaker 1: saw like, okay, you know, there's always a risk that
- 1:18Speaker 1: there will be no deal or will be delayed, and
- 1:20Speaker 1: then people are looking at these December fifteen tears as
- 1:23Speaker 1: the first one of the substantial rise. I think this
- 1:26Speaker 1: is what's in the market's mind right now, that that
- 1:29Speaker 1: risk isn't totally abated yet, right. You know, the real
- 1:32Speaker 1: reflationary trades you spoke about that happened in sort of
- 1:36Speaker 1: mid October was only idea that the tears would be
- 1:39Speaker 1: de escalated. So that's now been taken a little bit back.
- 1:42Speaker 1: At least the market seems to be cautious that that
- 1:46Speaker 1: that that the escalation may not happen so quickly. So
- 1:48Speaker 1: therefore I think this is why the YUK flattened. In
- 1:52Speaker 1: addition to that, what we have had in the meantime
- 1:55Speaker 1: is really soft inflation data, right, whether you look at
- 1:58Speaker 1: PPI data for example aland Germany today or import price
- 2:01Speaker 1: in next last week in the US all shows very
- 2:03Speaker 1: global disciplationary pressure from the trade wars. I think that
- 2:07Speaker 1: too presses down on the UK whoy I get this flattening. So, Ben,
- 2:12Speaker 1: if we do get a Phase one type of deal
- 2:14Speaker 1: on schedule as we head into would you want to
- 2:17Speaker 1: be you know, more exposure to the US or maybe
- 2:20Speaker 1: have a little bit more of a global exposure. How
- 2:22Speaker 1: do you view that? Yeah, I'm definitely on that idea, Paul,
- 2:26Speaker 1: because you know, if you look at the performance, then yes,
- 2:30Speaker 1: the US has outperformed this mostly this entire time in
- 2:34Speaker 1: the trade war. And the areas that have been effected
- 2:37Speaker 1: most by the trade war are an, Asia, Pacific in Europe,
- 2:40Speaker 1: and so there is of course a valuation difference there
- 2:43Speaker 1: that that you would presume that if the Phase one
- 2:45Speaker 1: deal happens and as some confidence coming back that trade
- 2:49Speaker 1: in particularly global trade, which seems to be pretty depressed
- 2:52Speaker 1: at this point. Take for example, the export import data
- 2:55Speaker 1: from Japan overnight is a good good indicator of death
- 2:58Speaker 1: and that could see be some some rebound there and
- 3:00Speaker 1: I think then countries that are very sensitive to the
- 3:03Speaker 1: global trade are going to benefit from that. I think
- 3:05Speaker 1: days where the value is as opposed to the U
- 3:08Speaker 1: stock market, which could to perform, but maybe not as
- 3:12Speaker 1: much as relative to those you know, undervalued markets. If
- 3:15Speaker 1: if you, if you will, right like so, I think
- 3:17Speaker 1: that is probably your trade next year, of course, condition
- 3:20Speaker 1: upon that this Space one deal successfully gets completed. One
- 3:23Speaker 1: thing I'm struggling to understand. Yesterday, at around I don't know,
- 3:27Speaker 1: six fifteen pm Eastern time, Wall Street time, there was
- 3:31Speaker 1: the headline about the Hong Kong Bill that was passed
- 3:33Speaker 1: by the Senate, and this is basically UH saying that
- 3:36Speaker 1: the U s stands in alliance with the Hong Kong
- 3:39Speaker 1: protesters in asserting freedom and pushing back against Beijing. Beijing
- 3:44Speaker 1: has come out vehemently against this. There was concern that
- 3:47Speaker 1: this would impede or torpedo any potential for a Phase
- 3:51Speaker 1: one trade deal. Come now, Uh, you know, several hours later,
- 3:55Speaker 1: people are not even thinking about it or talking about it.
- 3:57Speaker 1: It's and largely dismissed as no ways and being sort
- 4:01Speaker 1: of symbolic more than anything else, not leading to any
- 4:04Speaker 1: serious disruption. What's the right narrative here? Well, I think
- 4:08Speaker 1: that is the right narrative at leastaid that that yes,
- 4:11Speaker 1: it's an important signal by the Senate of course, to
- 4:14Speaker 1: take a stance on pro democracy in Hong Kong. And
- 4:18Speaker 1: that's that is I think well known out there and
- 4:21Speaker 1: I think markets understand it. But the link between that
- 4:24Speaker 1: bill and the progress in the trade talks that may
- 4:27Speaker 1: be not so strong, and and probably the reason really
- 4:30Speaker 1: is that the retaliation that China talks about may not
- 4:34Speaker 1: just necessarily happen so quickly. I think one of the
- 4:38Speaker 1: the news items that can out this morning is actually
- 4:40Speaker 1: making the comparison to other measures that the US has
- 4:43Speaker 1: threatened with or or even done, like the UAHWE case,
- 4:47Speaker 1: that that China has not retaliated on those situations either.
- 4:51Speaker 1: So I think this is probably what creeping into the
- 4:54Speaker 1: market's mind of that this is an important bill and
- 4:57Speaker 1: it matters, but it may not matter as much for
- 4:59Speaker 1: the trade deal from here. With more matters is of course,
- 5:02Speaker 1: ultimately the agreement on what is the there rollback going
- 5:06Speaker 1: to be about and what is the agricultural agricultural purchase
- 5:10Speaker 1: is going to be about to make this deal actually happen.
- 5:13Speaker 1: In other words, will the deal phase one be really
- 5:16Speaker 1: the sixty that Trump talks about, or will be less
- 5:18Speaker 1: than six? I think that's ultimately with a market will
- 5:21Speaker 1: trade on if it is a lot less than six,
- 5:24Speaker 1: I think then you get more uncertainty about the future
- 5:27Speaker 1: of the trade deal that you know phase two. So Ben,
- 5:30Speaker 1: if we do again I'm operating assumption that mean we
- 5:32Speaker 1: do get a Phase one deal on schedule. Is that
- 5:34Speaker 1: my signal to maybe to dip my toe into emerging markets? Yeah,
- 5:39Speaker 1: I mean that is I think the general consense out
- 5:41Speaker 1: there that again, where is the value at the moment
- 5:45Speaker 1: if you compare the US to other markets? Right? And
- 5:48Speaker 1: that and that is indeed Asia specific or Europe and
- 5:50Speaker 1: some parts of emerging markets. That's that's I think the
- 5:53Speaker 1: catalysts that people feel confident that if Phase one is completed,
- 5:57Speaker 1: it's in writing we really have a base for we
- 6:00Speaker 1: can work off the more structural issues over long term.
- 6:03Speaker 1: And what most of all that matters is that people
- 6:06Speaker 1: probably discount that there will be a level of de
- 6:08Speaker 1: escalation from the tears have been put in place over
- 6:11Speaker 1: course in time next year into into that would have
- 6:15Speaker 1: an economic impact, and that I think is why investors
- 6:19Speaker 1: are pre positioning themselves on that Phase one complete. There's
- 6:23Speaker 1: opportunity in these undervalued marketss Ben Emon's thank you so
- 6:28Speaker 1: much for joining us. Bend is uh metally Global Advisors,
- 6:31Speaker 1: global macro strategist, giving us some thoughts on kind of
- 6:34Speaker 1: how this could play out. Trade still very much front
- 6:36Speaker 1: and center for investors in the question is I have
- 6:38Speaker 1: probably is you know, it seems like the consensus is
- 6:40Speaker 1: a phase one deal is coming. Is there downside if
- 6:43Speaker 1: it doesn't come? You know, and what is that downside?
- 6:46Speaker 1: And trying to uh, you know, kind of put a
- 6:48Speaker 1: handle on that. But there's certainly some arguments for taking
- 6:51Speaker 1: on a little bit more risk should we get that
- 6:53Speaker 1: phase one deal. What a year nineteen has been for
- 7:11Speaker 1: equity markets, double digit increases across the SMP, the doll
- 7:14Speaker 1: and NASDAK. Where do we go in? Phil Orlando, chief
- 7:18Speaker 1: equity market strategist and had of client portfolio management at
- 7:22Speaker 1: Federate Investors, I'm sure has some answers. Phil, thanks so
- 7:25Speaker 1: much for joining us. You know, one of the discussions
- 7:27Speaker 1: we have, you know, almost daily here is this is
- 7:30Speaker 1: kind of the bull market that nobody really loves or trust.
- 7:35Speaker 1: What is your sense of the market here given where
- 7:37Speaker 1: we are at, you know, close to twenty thousand on
- 7:39Speaker 1: the Dow. No one loves or trusted. This is the
- 7:42Speaker 1: most hated bull market in the history of civilization. There
- 7:46Speaker 1: you go, remember that that a year ago and after
- 7:51Speaker 1: that waterfall decline that we saw that that ended in
- 7:56Speaker 1: Christmas Eve because the market was pricing in with absolute
- 8:00Speaker 1: certainty the fact that recession had you just started, it
- 8:03Speaker 1: was about to start. Stocks were trading at fourteen times earnings.
- 8:06Speaker 1: We had a very different view that that we did
- 8:09Speaker 1: not believe that there was any near term risk of
- 8:12Speaker 1: recession in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen or twenty we
- 8:16Speaker 1: still believe that multiples at fourteen times forward earnings in
- 8:20Speaker 1: our view, we're way too pessimistic because you had very
- 8:24Speaker 1: benign levels of both interest rates and inflation. Core inflation
- 8:28Speaker 1: the PC sitting at one point seven percent right now.
- 8:32Speaker 1: So the multiple at eighteen times earnings, where it was
- 8:35Speaker 1: a year ago October was exactly where it should have been.
- 8:40Speaker 1: In our view this year is that we would spend
- 8:42Speaker 1: the year sort of grindering our way back to that level.
- 8:44Speaker 1: So we're probably in around I don't know, seventeen seventeen
- 8:47Speaker 1: a half times earnings right now. We're not quite there yet,
- 8:51Speaker 1: but we have hit our thirty one hundred full year forecast, um,
- 8:55Speaker 1: you know, six weeks before the end of the year. Indeed,
- 8:58Speaker 1: so what drives things are here? Um, the consolidation that
- 9:04Speaker 1: we saw on corporate earnings this year was was absolutely
- 9:10Speaker 1: understandable because we were up twenty in calendar eighteen. That
- 9:15Speaker 1: that's not sustainable. So we're gonna get back onto a
- 9:18Speaker 1: growth trajectory for earnings next year. LI So we think
- 9:22Speaker 1: maybe something in the eight percent neighborhood, give or take,
- 9:25Speaker 1: we're gonna get a little bit more multiple expansion because
- 9:28Speaker 1: inflation and interest rates are still relatively benign. So if
- 9:32Speaker 1: we do a hundred and eighty dollars and earnings next year,
- 9:34Speaker 1: which is our forecast, and and we get a multiple
- 9:38Speaker 1: that's in that eighteen eighteen and a half times earnings neighborhood,
- 9:41Speaker 1: we get to our thirty five hundred forecast on the
- 9:44Speaker 1: SMP five hundred. Now we're sitting at thirty one hundred.
- 9:47Speaker 1: Now that's not a huge move, but like you said
- 9:50Speaker 1: at the very beginning, Paul, where we're up you know,
- 9:53Speaker 1: thirty two percent or something like that in the last year,
- 9:57Speaker 1: and and uh, if we can do another ten or
- 9:59Speaker 1: fifteen percent next year, that ain't bad. That ain't bad. Indeed,
- 10:04Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out that what the leader is
- 10:06Speaker 1: going to be here because it's really been tech driving
- 10:08Speaker 1: a lot of the games that we've seen in Can
- 10:10Speaker 1: You to Be Tech? So they understand what's going on
- 10:14Speaker 1: as a result of of the reduction in tax rates,
- 10:17Speaker 1: the repatriation of two point seven trillion dollars back into
- 10:21Speaker 1: the United States and we've we've only brought a trillion
- 10:24Speaker 1: dollars of it back so far, and the automatic expensing
- 10:27Speaker 1: of cap X. We are going through, in my opinion,
- 10:31Speaker 1: one of the most significant technology upgrade cycles we've seen
- 10:35Speaker 1: since the White two K build up back in the
- 10:37Speaker 1: late nineties. That that trend ought to continue through at
- 10:41Speaker 1: least the end of next year. So you look at
- 10:43Speaker 1: you say, well, texts had a pretty good year the
- 10:45Speaker 1: last year or two. They should have had a good year,
- 10:48Speaker 1: and we should have another good year as companies continue
- 10:51Speaker 1: to you know, upgrade their software and whatever else they're
- 10:54Speaker 1: doing in order to fix up their their technology platforms.
- 10:57Speaker 1: So so you've been absolutely on it on this equity call,
- 11:00Speaker 1: this bullish call here. Where could you be wrong in
- 11:03Speaker 1: your here? Well, I think there's a very significant uh
- 11:10Speaker 1: swing factor here and that's the results of the presidential
- 11:12Speaker 1: election in in t I mean, our base case is
- 11:17Speaker 1: that we get good election results that allow the market friendly,
- 11:23Speaker 1: economic friendly, investor friendly fiscal policies that we've seen the
- 11:27Speaker 1: last couple of years to continue. But that could be wrong.
- 11:31Speaker 1: We we could have a very radically different set of
- 11:34Speaker 1: fiscal policies, uh waking up to in calendar twenty one.
- 11:39Speaker 1: And and the market is a forward looking discounting mechanism
- 11:42Speaker 1: is going to price that in early based upon polling
- 11:45Speaker 1: or based upon the the actual election results in November
- 11:49Speaker 1: of next year. If if it looks as if there's
- 11:52Speaker 1: gonna be a radically different change in fiscal policy approach
- 11:56Speaker 1: and therefore economic growth, corporate earnings growth, and everything else.
- 12:00Speaker 1: Phil Orlando, thank you so much for that. Phil Orlando
- 12:03Speaker 1: is cheap equity market strategist at Federated Investors. Always wonderful insights.
- 12:08Speaker 1: Interesting to think that tech will continue to drive the
- 12:11Speaker 1: market towards that goal for the SMP five hundred and ten.
- 12:18Speaker 1: That ain't bad. He's been right, He's been right. Let's
- 12:36Speaker 1: shift gears a little bit to healthcare and what some
- 12:40Speaker 1: people are calling a drug shortage, which is incredibly ironic
- 12:44Speaker 1: considering the focus on the costs of certain drugs catering
- 12:49Speaker 1: to specific niche diseases. Michael al kare joining us here
- 12:53Speaker 1: in our Interactive Broker Studios, President of Premier Inc. Healthcare
- 12:57Speaker 1: Management Company, and I'm wondering from your person, Factive, what
- 13:00Speaker 1: is this shortage all about? Yeah, thank you for having
- 13:02Speaker 1: me first. First of all, the drug shortages pertain to
- 13:06Speaker 1: a certain part of the pharmacy market. So it's it's
- 13:11Speaker 1: related to generic drugs. So as you are well aware,
- 13:15Speaker 1: in the sort of the evolution of a drug, a
- 13:17Speaker 1: drug comes out typically it's a branded and then um,
- 13:20Speaker 1: after a number of years, that drug goes to a
- 13:23Speaker 1: generic status. What happens then is obviously the price goes down.
- 13:28Speaker 1: And I'll just use an analogy. It starts at a
- 13:30Speaker 1: hundred bucks, it sometimes ends up at two bucks. Along
- 13:33Speaker 1: the way, you have various producers of that product that
- 13:37Speaker 1: have to exit the market because they can't make margins.
- 13:39Speaker 1: So some may have high cost and at fifty bucks
- 13:41Speaker 1: to share they exit. Some have to exit at twenty
- 13:44Speaker 1: and then you know, when the market sort of settles out,
- 13:46Speaker 1: you may only have one or two suppliers. When you
- 13:49Speaker 1: have either a monopoly or a duopoly. That's when obviously
- 13:53Speaker 1: drug prices actually go back up. Uh. And then our
- 13:56Speaker 1: job at Premiere is to figure out ways to create
- 13:59Speaker 1: health markets. So the focus of a company that we
- 14:02Speaker 1: just launch called provide g X is to bring new
- 14:05Speaker 1: entrance into the market when you have a monopoly or duopoly.
- 14:08Speaker 1: So we'll actually invest capital in new companies that we
- 14:13Speaker 1: think have a history of high quality manufacturing to create
- 14:17Speaker 1: a healthier market, healthier supply. So what are some of
- 14:20Speaker 1: the drugs or treatments that are experiencing shortages? Now, yeah,
- 14:26Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy because there's some just basic stuff that
- 14:31Speaker 1: our healthcare systems need that will be uh in a
- 14:33Speaker 1: shortage situation in any point in time. Think of sailing solutions,
- 14:37Speaker 1: So those are the those are the the therapies that
- 14:40Speaker 1: are being utilized by I V s. UH. Think of nutritionals,
- 14:44Speaker 1: just basic nutritionals. If you're in the hospital for a
- 14:46Speaker 1: longer term stay and you need nutritionals. You know. Those
- 14:49Speaker 1: are drugs that oftentimes are in short supply. Things like
- 14:53Speaker 1: morphine have been on the shortage list. Probifle that's the
- 14:56Speaker 1: drug that allows you to go under anesthetic that has
- 14:59Speaker 1: been under a shortage. UH. There was a very very
- 15:03Speaker 1: important drug that focused on um toxic shock. Uh and
- 15:09Speaker 1: there was a Jamma article written in two thousand and seventeen.
- 15:12Speaker 1: UM And because we didn't have access to this drug,
- 15:15Speaker 1: the Jamma article sort of proved out that uh it
- 15:18Speaker 1: increased mortality because we didn't have that drug by three
- 15:21Speaker 1: point seven percent during the time that that drug was
- 15:24Speaker 1: in a shortage situation. UH. And it was a uh
- 15:30Speaker 1: EF the epene from family, so it really helped to
- 15:35Speaker 1: sort of treat low blood pressure when your body entered
- 15:37Speaker 1: into shock. So we think there was about thirteen billion
- 15:39Speaker 1: dollars of costs associated with that. Alright, So going forward,
- 15:43Speaker 1: I'm trying to just understand from a big picture standpoint,
- 15:46Speaker 1: what can be done to put the emphasis on creating
- 15:50Speaker 1: more and affordable generic drugs at a time when the
- 15:55Speaker 1: pharmaceutical companies in large part are focused on the cancer
- 15:59Speaker 1: drug rugs that are sort of hot, and they're and
- 16:02Speaker 1: they're very they can be priced at very high points,
- 16:06Speaker 1: but don't necessarily take care of this need. So great questions.
- 16:10Speaker 1: So what we want to do uh and again through
- 16:13Speaker 1: um that company I mentioned provide g X, we want
- 16:16Speaker 1: to actually go out to smaller manufacturers who are actually
- 16:19Speaker 1: are in the market to produce drugs today UH and
- 16:23Speaker 1: help them expand either their production or help them get
- 16:26Speaker 1: additional and s, which is the approval from the s
- 16:29Speaker 1: the f D eight actually UH to actually manufacture the drugs.
- 16:33Speaker 1: So that's number one. Number two and this is something
- 16:36Speaker 1: that keeps me up at night is we have issues
- 16:39Speaker 1: with the active pharmaceutical ingredient, that's the raw goods that
- 16:43Speaker 1: go into manufacturing these generic drugs. UM. Little known fact
- 16:48Speaker 1: of these raw goods for generic drugs are actually done
- 16:51Speaker 1: in China, manufactured in China. So what keeps me up
- 16:56Speaker 1: at night is the ability of potentially China to weaponize
- 17:00Speaker 1: you know this this and balance sort of in the
- 17:03Speaker 1: supply chain. So think of a p I s for antibiotics,
- 17:07Speaker 1: think of things around UM cancer drugs, things around UM acid,
- 17:13Speaker 1: reflectious basic drugs that our population needs. I do worry
- 17:18Speaker 1: about having such a dependence on that raw material being
- 17:20Speaker 1: produced in one country. Michael Alcary, thank you so much
- 17:23Speaker 1: for joining us. We appreciate you coming in. Michael's the
- 17:26Speaker 1: president of Premier Healthcare coming talking about healthcare shortages which
- 17:30Speaker 1: are more pronounced and I probably would have guest. Thanks
- 17:32Speaker 1: for listening to the Bloomberg P and L podcast. You
- 17:34Speaker 1: can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or
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