Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Outlook For The Retail Space

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Outlook For The Retail Space · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. All right, let's talk retail.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: We had a lot of the retailers report their numbers
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: over the last a week to ten days. Very solid numbers, uh,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: some cautious outlooks, the delta varying obviously being a big issue,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: as well as supply chain issues. Let's really dig down
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: on the world of retail. We can do that today
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: with a Lane Kuan, co founder and partner of Quantified.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: She was a former head of Luxury at Amazon E. Lane,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us here. Again, some pretty
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: good numbers out of the retailers over the last week
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: or so. How are you thinking about the important back
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to school and then of course the holiday shopping season
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: coming up? Absolutely, Paul Taylor, thanks for having me. So
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: when we look at the holiday season this year, what
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: we can expect is that everything is going to start earlier.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Brands and retailers have lost so much as we know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: over the last eighteen months, and frankly, during the last year,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: brands and retailers cut a lot of their manufacturing, their
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: purchase orders, inventory movement because they didn't know when things
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: would start moving back into um, you know, normal retail cycles. However,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Q four has been pinned as the time to return,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and so we're starting to look at Q four not
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: just starting in November, but frankly starting in September next month.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So I would expect to see fantastic new products starting
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to come out. Lots of brands know that they cannot
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: afford to risk another peak season going awry, and so
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: we're going to see fantastic new selection coming to shelves,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: coming to online e commerce sites starting next month. Are
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the products though, able to get there given some of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the supply chain issues we've seen, Yeah, that's a fantastic question.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: As we know, transportation and logistics are much more expensive
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: nowadays due to labor shortages. Have your import volumes, higher
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: fuel costs, increased partsy material costs across the board, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: so that is part of the reason why we expect
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the season to start early is because everyone knows we
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: cannot afford to be late. We cannot afford to miss this.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We have to get it in three to four months
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: earlier than when we would normally bring these products in
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: for the holiday season. Lane, what do you trying to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: gauge the consumers always such a difficult part of retail
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and in this environment where we're reopening but we're cautious
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: about the delta variant? And how do you view the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: consumer here? How are you talking to your clients about
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: how they should view the consumer? Another great question. So
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest changes we saw last
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: year with the consumer behavior during COVID is that people
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: stopped buying for the future. Their immediate mental shift came
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to what do I need today. I'm buying for today.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I'm not buying long term items. I'm not buying investment
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: pieces or specific luxury item that I was saving up for.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not certain about the future, so I'm going to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: buy things that take care of me today. And that's
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: why we saw a huge shift into buying for comfort
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: practicality while bringing some joy. For example, we saw huge
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: increases and athletesure wear, clothing, skincare, mail care and hair care,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: everything from home gadgets, appliances, in decor, even home fragrances
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: saw a massive jump, and so we are starting to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: see folks starting to buy more for the future again,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that is definitely coming into play. We think that's back
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to school. UH specific era that we're in right now
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: has been incredibly productive and folks are very very happy
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to see that that consumer demand has been returning. But
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: we're still counting on the short term buying. I would
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: say area focus for most consumers right now. It was
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: really interesting that there were reports earlier this week that
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Amazon was looking at opening up several retails brick and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: mortar locations, which is the exact industry lane. As you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: know that they totally disrupted for some of the merchants
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: on Amazon. You know, what are you thinking, what are
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you advising? Is it too early to tell or we
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: now thinking about shifting back and we will maybe we
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: want to retail presents. You know, it's funny that you
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned that, because we think that this is potentially very
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: exciting idea that, if executed correctly, could be the next
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: big thing in brick and mortar that we have been
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: looking out for. As we know, you know, Amazon has
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you know, taken out some of the largest major department
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: stores in the brick and mortar presence over the last
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: several years in some ways, and ironically it makes sense
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that they are now coming back to the space to
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: try and claim it, you know, thinking that they can
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: do it better than perhaps those that came before. We
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: don't believe that brick and mortar in and in and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: itself is dead by any means. We just think that
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: it needs to manifest in a new way. And so
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: based on what we're hearing, the department store could be
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: incredibly productive. I think the secret sauce of Amazon's incredible
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: customer service translating into a physical space is going to
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: be really special. Not to mention that if they do
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: focus on clothing, apparel, and perhaps even a beauty counselor
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in that physical space, they could frankly dominate the apparel
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: space in the fashion space, which is a goal that
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: we've had for several several years now. Elane talked to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: us about luxury here, Um, how has it performed during
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the pandemic and kind of what's the outlook going forward,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: because I was shocked when I see some of the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: e commerce numbers from some of the luxury brands. I
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: just can't imagine spending ten thousand dollars on a piece
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of jewelry and buying it online, but apparently people do
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that stuff. You know, you're you're correct. Uh. So we
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: have been seeing some really interesting trends, and I would
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: say one of the other uh movements that we're starting
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to see pick up and would expect to see continue
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: is what we're calling the return of the Roaring twenties.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: You know, folks on the same token, even though they've
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: been buying lots of matching tight eye hoodie and jogger
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: sets and comfortable rogues, they're also getting tired of that
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: as well. They want to be able to dress up.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: They want to be able to enjoy feeling glamorous and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: getting you know, made up. And so we're definitely seeing
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that there's a pretty steady stream of demand that's growing
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: um by the month in terms of you know, customers
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: buying luxury items, and because they know that a lot
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of these store physical presences are still unavailable, they're willing
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to do it online. And to their credit, many brands
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: through their e commerce site have done a pretty amazing
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: job of improving the overall customer experience online, and so
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: we're seeing a nice i would say, overall shift of
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: customers willingly buying very very expensive items through e commerce.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Elaine Kwan, thank you so much for joining us. We
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Elaine Kwan, co founder partner of Quantified,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a former head of Luxury at Amazon, giving us an
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: outlook for retail back to school. We're underway in the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and it says apparently Elaine was saying, you know, we're
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: gonna start shopping for the holiday stuff even sooner. Well,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: our good friends at Charles Schwab they have their latest
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: latest Trader Pulse survey out tries to capture what's on
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: top of mind for traders right now and again markets
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: hitting new all time highs. How much higher it can
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: we go? Barry Metzger joins us, his managing director of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Trading Services fort Charles Schwab. Again, Barry, thanks so much
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: for joining us here. And we see markets at a
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: near all time highs, seemingly on a daily basis, our
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: traders getting nervous that we might be near the top here.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Paul, and thanks for having me. Uh, well,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you know we're not actually seeing that. In fact, I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: would say in terms of market sentiment amongst our traders,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: one third of traders are bullish on the market and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: almost half our neutral on the next six months. So
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: you know, there is a mix. There's a mix of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: optimism and perhaps some caution, and no question, the rise
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of the delta variant and inflation is clearly weighing heavily
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: on their minds. You know, traders universally reported that the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: continuation of the COVID nineteen pandemic is their number one
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: concern right now, and eighty seven are concerned about the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: rise of the delta variant and the potential market impact
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: through the rest of the year. It is interesting because
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: at least here in the media, we've been talking a
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: lot about the rise of the variant. I had, for example,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the pet Cove CEO on the other day and we
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: asked him that question, is the variant are you seeing
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: it in sales? And he said, like, we we haven't
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: seen anything yet. When you talk to some of the airlines,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: they are saying they're seeing to change in bookings and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: some hesitancy. So while it maybe on top of minds,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: is that translating into a change in behavior into a
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: change in the way traders are trading. Yeah, Taylor, we
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: we we have seen that. So you know, in terms
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of what we're seeing in traders, you one third of
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: traders have already changed their strategies since Delta emerged, opting
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to increase their exposure to equities, cash, and fixed income.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And among the traders that haven't made changes due to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Delta have say they may change strategies in the coming months.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: And so this group is looking at increasing cash exposure
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: first and foremost, and then decreasing exposure to equities and
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: investing in more domestic stock. So we we are seeing
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the Delta variant certainly play a role in how clients
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: take a look at their portfolios. One of the things
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: very like when we talked to you know, you guys
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it Schwab. You give us a good insight into the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: retail investor. We had a big retail trading boom, if
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you will, during the pandemic as folks were kind of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: locked down here. Is that a thing to stay or
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: are we gonna go back to more normalized trading activity
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: from the retail sector, Paul, The retail trading boom is
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: here to stay. A six percent of traders think this
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: trend will continue, you know, and it's Schwab. We've seeing
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the entrance of younger investors also come into play, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: from more than half of new Schwab retail households, we're
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: forty years old or under. For Q one, more than
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: six of new households were forty and under. You know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the factors around the pandemic. It definitely helped to fire
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: for new investors, but it's not the only factor we're
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: seeing driving this UM. I think it's a combination of
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: three things. Greater use and accessibility to investing and trading,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: so example of lower minimums or fractional shares, and then
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: retail traders now have access to increasingly sophisticated tools that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: look very similar to what institutional trader use use. And
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: then lower training costs and most notably the move to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: zero commissions over the past year. Barry, I hate to
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: ask this, but I hear that gen Z all their
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: trading is bitcoin and dose coin, and it was interesting
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: that there are some concerns about robin Hood's outlook, but
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that dose coin trading it actually really come and saved
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the day. Do you see that what are they trading. Well,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a great question because this is something
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that is always on our mind. You know, we see
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: both veteran and new traders alike digging into trading strategies
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and education and this is what's really important. Nearly half
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of traders reports spending more time on research before placing
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: trades than they did before March. And that's fantastic. And
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: on average, traders spend are spending seven hours researching and
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: more than five hours pursuing trading education each week. And
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: we see this reflected in our own data. As an example,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: viewership of the t D and Marriage Trade Network increased
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: from June to June of So, you know, traders have
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: a preference for getting their information and research through online
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: news sources and research reports um from their trading firm
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: or elsewhere, versus say social media. You know, social media
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: does provide some engagement opportunities to less than a quarter
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of traders are using it for trade ideas in education,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: good news, I think. Barry Metzker, Managing director of Trading
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Services for Charles Schwab, thank you so much for joining.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Is Charles Schwab out with our latest Trader Pulse, A
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: survey indicating that the traders that Trump chats with remain
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: generally bullish on this market place. Looking at the markets here,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: NASDAC leading the way up almost one full percentage point today.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: That's a good segue to our next guest, Ted Smith,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: co founder and President Union Square Advisors. I want to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: talk technology here, tech, m and A, I p O
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: S capital raising. It seems like technology continues to lead
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: this market. Ted, thanks so much for joining us here,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: love to get your thoughts on kind of what you
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: guys are seeing in the M and A space, particularly
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the tech side. Well, thanks for having me on. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it's certainly been a busy year over the course of one.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Really that this rally for us in tech started back
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: in the second half of last year as we were
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: first kind of coming out of the first wave of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: the pandemic. We continue to see tremendous activity across all
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: all elements of the tech sector, but particularly in M
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and A. Across all M and A today, we've got
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: more deal volume in the first half, and we saw
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: saw all of last year. Tech continues to to drive
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: tremendous deal volumes were almost this year over last year,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: so we're just seeing a lot of volume and really
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: no signs of that debating. Is it shocking given that
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: we've really had an administration that's focused on dealmaking, focused
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on promoting more competition, very hard language about anti big tech,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: and yet some of these tech companies are saying, well,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: we're just going to try to squeeze it through while
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: we can. I think there's some element of that, there's
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a little asked for forgiveness rather than permission. But the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: reality of it is, even in the current administration, the targeting,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: if you will, or the focus of their uh clamping
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: down on big on dealmaking is really reserved for the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: largest of the large companies. UM so you see some
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: concerns that the facebooks and the Googles is there may
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: be some some focus on those companies, but check m
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and a volume really that we've seen over the course
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of the last year has been spread much more broadly
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: than just those largest of the large companies, and so
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: that that active is going to continue a pace and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: really hasn't been the focus of this administration. I love
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: to talk to you about just kind of capital raising
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: in general. You know, we used to just focus on
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I p O s, but then we had direct listings
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and and SPACs and those types of things. What's the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: trend here? What are you seeing in the tech side
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: in terms of capital raising? UH? In the equity markets? Well,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we we think that the that the trend is really
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: all about making more options available for folks who are
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: seeking liquidity. Yes, the regular way I p O market
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that we all know and love UH continues to be active,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and we think that's going to continue to be the case.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Direct listings are not for everybody, but for a certain
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: class of issuer UH not necessarily needing to raise significant
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: capital but simply wanting to see their shares traded, that's
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: an option for them. And then SPACs represent yet another
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: alternative that we think we'll bring back some of the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: smaller sized i p o s or midsized i pos
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: that have fallen out of favor over the course of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the of the last few years as I p o
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: s of gotten larger and larger and larger. UM. So
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: what it really means from our perspective is is the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: capital markets are are evolving to enable different types of
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: liquidity options for different types of companies, and we think
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that's a good thing. What are the biggest headwinds though
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: that you see from a capital raising perspective, I think
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: there's continued scrutiny UH with respect to are these companies
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: ready to be public? We've seen some of that, particularly
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: UH in in UH. In the spack world, a number
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: of companies have gone public through spacts that are pre
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: revenue or very early stage in their evolution, and I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: think there's going to be more scrutiny on that and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: investors and spacts. There's been some headwinds with respect to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the pipe market as they say, public UH or private
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: investment rather in public entities, which typically come along alongside
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: of spacts, and that market has been sort of clogged
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: up for a little bit. So we haven't seen as
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: much as much activity in the in the back half
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: of the spact that the spacking process, if you will,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But we think that will all settle out. From From
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: an M and a transaction perspective, there really isn't a
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: lot of headwind other than the regulatory one about which
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: we spoke earlier. Right now, corporate balance sheets reflect a
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: lot of cash. Private equity funds have a tremendous amount
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: of capital available to them, and they need to put
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: that capital to work otherwise they need to either it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: invested in much lower yielding securities or give it back
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: to their their limited partners, neither of which is very
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: palatable to the folks who run those big pools of money. Ted,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: what are some of the sectors that you guys are
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: seeing some activity. I mean, I'm thinking, I'm trying to think,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: but what we write about and what we hear about
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the most, maybe like fintech, healthcare i T. What are
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: some of the areas that you think are going to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: continue to be active. Well, those are certainly two that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we see a lot of activity in. Fintech has been
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: particularly active as we continue to to really evolve and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: in some cases rewrite the infrastructure that that underlies our,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: you know, the entire financial services sector. Obviously, crypto currencies
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and and and exchanges around crypto continue to get obviously
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of press, and there's a lot of evolution
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: around what digital currencies are going to look like over
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the next five, ten years and beyond. We also think,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: to your point about healthcare i T, that there is
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of of ongoing evolution and in some
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: cases revolution of the health care system. The use of
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: software and digital technologies to improve patient outcomes, track how
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: patients are are managed and monitored, and ultimately improve the
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: overall health care system is getting a lot of focus
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and we're seeing a lot of activity there the broader
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: digital transformation. I mean, many business processes today today are
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: still done by you know, by hand, paper, pencil, rough spreadsheets.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Were continuing to see large organizations continue to invest in
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that um and then things that that are certainly not
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: new to to your audience, uport to the tech sector,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: things like e commerce and in cloud infrastructure continue to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: evolve and change and we see tremendous amount of investment
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in the in those areas to make to make the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: overall operation business more efficient. So basically what you're saying
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: is it's a good time to be a tech investment banker,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: tech investor. That's kind of what I'm hearing here. Ted Smith,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: co founder and president of Union Square Advisors, always appreciate
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: getting his thoughts on the tech space, and you know,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Taylor is as Ted was mentioning it, just there's a
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: lot of activity out there, there's a lot of capital
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: out there, and there's a you know, um, a lot
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: of M and A as a result and capital raising
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and really interesting comments, not only about the shift that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: we've seen indirect listings and spacks, and we saw flurry
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: of activity. Some of that, of course within the stock
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: market has started to cool off. You wonder if there's
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: now another push for that. Yeah, exactly, So we will
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: keep on top of that green on the screen here today.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: We will have more coming up. Taylor Riggs sitting in
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: from Matt Miller and Paul Sweeney. This is Bloomberg Markets. Alright,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the as we talk about this COVID, the story has
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: now moved towards the delta variant, the impact on that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: we're seeing on the hospital system. A lot of i
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: c U beds uh filled, most of them filled in
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of key states. And the questions in the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: turn to PPE, are we're gonna have any type of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: shortages like we did back at the beginning. Let's bring
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in Michael Senensky, he CEO of we Shielded is a
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: PPE company. Michael, thanks so much for joining us here.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: We're starting to see the numbers in certain states go
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the wrong way, prompting some questions, will we have any
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: PPE shortages like we did at the beginning of the pandemic.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me UM. The unfortunate answer is we
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: are tracking shortages that are happening right now. Over the
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: next two months, we're expecting major shortages as well as
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: huge spikes in prices. Is for PP. Can you remind
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: us again, are these supply chain issues or is this
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a demand problem? So, UM, these are supply chain issues
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: that UM. For the past three months, it was pretty
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: slow as far as the you know, the COVID spread
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: and people were getting a little lax UM. So the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: supply that was on the ground was here and people
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: weren't bringing in a lot of stuff from overseas because
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: we were so saturated. But with the spike from Delta UM,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: all of the supply on the ground is getting gobbled
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: up UM and and causing us you know, left us
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: with a shortage as far as what's coming in UM,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: coupled with huge uptick in shipping costs. So the perfect
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: storm has been created of of lack of supply on
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the ground and not a lot of stuff coming in.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's talk about just you know, a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: lot of people. Obviously, the vaccination rates are much better
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: than they were obviously just even six months ago. When
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: they continue to get better, despite some hesitancy. How do
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you think this delta variant will play out as should
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: we expect a peak at some time in the next
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: weeks or could this go even longer? From your perspective. So, um,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the bad news is about delta is people with vaccinations
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: are still getting COVID and sick. Um. So it is
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: bypassing the virus vaccines, the virus is just continuous, but
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: still extraordinarily low percentage, right though, right, Um, you know,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: even with lower percentage, it's it's still a lot of people,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: you know, the grand scheme of things. So Um, when
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the hospitals are getting these new infections with the vaccines
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: even um, you know, they're getting pressured and coupled with
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: mask mandates, than the citizens put a pressure on the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: supply chain. So it's all these things combined. Before COVID,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you didn't have these pressures of every single person meeting PPE.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: But when all these surges happen plus mask mandates plus
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: hospitals getting innovated, that's when you have these supply chain issues.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of conversations from the previous administration
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the current administration that I'm thinking, and Michael bear with me,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: is I sort of do a bird's walk here with
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: chips right in manufacturing chips and protecting their own supply
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: chain here in the US. Where are we in terms
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of manufacturing PPE here in the US as well, So
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: we don't have to worry about some of the bottlenecks
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: and the frustrations I think that we really had when
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: we were trying to get this stuff from China. So UM,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: we have seen you know, progress in national supply chain
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: with with new pop up mass companies, especially in disinfecting
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: white companies. UM. But the problem is, you know, and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: this is just overall macro where you know, everything labor, uh,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the costs of the products to to make them overseas
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: is so much less than America. And you know, when
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: we are looking for these uh personal protective equipment to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: be utilized one time, one time use, you know, people
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: aren't really looking at American aid UM as as something
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: which I wish we could. But the pricing is around
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: half of it, you know, when you bring it in
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: from overseas. So while we have made progress on on
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: having um, you know, American supply uh you know come
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: up since the pandemic, it's still the cost benefits of
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of bringing it in from overseas outweighs the you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: buying American products. So, Michael, you were a longtime restaurateur
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in New York City. Give us your thirty second view
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of kind of what's the lay of the land of
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the restaurants scene here in New York City. So my
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: company was destroyed, um, you know March sixteen when the
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: government mandated shutdowns and um, you know, uh right now
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: it's been brutal, with around half the restaurants still never
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to reopen, and coupled with the government funds, the Restaurant
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Releaf Fund running out of money, uh, leaving a ton
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of restaurants just um, you know, without any help from
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the government. So that that is created huge void of
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: of you know, a lot of businesses being closed and um,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: it's not looking right right now. All right, Michael, thank
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: you so much for that. We appreciate it. Michael Sninsky,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: CEO of we Shield UH and a longtime restaurant for
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: UH in New York City. Very tough times there, but
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: you know we've seen what we have seen, you know,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: through this pandemic as the restaurants that have survived to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: become extraordinarily creative whether it's outdoor seating or delivery or
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: curbside pick up, and uh, you know, unfortunately not enough
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: for some, but a lot of the others are hanging
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: on there. Hopefully they continue to prosper. Thanks for listening
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller. Yet
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: on ball Sweeney, I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Radiot