Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / U.S Tech Earnings, Jobs Report
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
- 0:05Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Affle Car, playing Android
- 0:08Speaker 1: otto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever
- 0:11Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 0:16Speaker 2: In a couple of star wars tech names reporting last night,
- 0:20Speaker 2: Amazon a good quarter. Stock up six and a half percent.
- 0:23Speaker 2: It's up very close, within a couple of dollars of
- 0:26Speaker 2: its all time high, and it is a fifty fifty
- 0:30Speaker 2: two week high, buten just a couple of bucks away
- 0:31Speaker 2: from its all time high. Meta also reported numbers stocks
- 0:35Speaker 2: up twenty percent. This is a trillion dollar market cap stock.
- 0:38Speaker 2: It's not like a penny stock. This is a trillion
- 0:40Speaker 2: dollar market cap stock. No, and it's up twenty percent.
- 0:44Speaker 2: So some real, real paper money's being made out there
- 0:47Speaker 2: for some people. Let's break this stuff down. We can
- 0:49Speaker 2: do it with two of our best at Bloomberg Intelligence.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Put On Goile, she covers the retail business for Bloomberg Intelligence,
- 0:55Speaker 2: and Men Deep Sing, supposedly a tech analyst. We'll see
- 0:58Speaker 2: if he's got the goods here today. Let's start with
- 1:00Speaker 2: you Amazon. It seems like the consumer is in pretty
- 1:05Speaker 2: good shape. What you hear from Amazon last night.
- 1:08Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks Paul. The consumer is an excellence shape and
- 1:11Speaker 3: that's part of the strength that we saw on holiday.
- 1:13Speaker 3: So the nine percent online sales gain that you saw
- 1:16Speaker 3: come from them and twenty percent and third party was
- 1:19Speaker 3: pretty impressive and actually probably the best in a few
- 1:22Speaker 3: years since after the pandemic. So clearly a sign that
- 1:25Speaker 3: the consumer has the funds to spend. But I'd say
- 1:27Speaker 3: it also means that the consumers choosing Amazon to spend
- 1:30Speaker 3: their funds there. I think that's very key, as you
- 1:33Speaker 3: will see some losers still coming out of the holiday season,
- 1:36Speaker 3: but online is gaining traction, and Amazon is what comes
- 1:40Speaker 3: to mind when you want to shop online.
- 1:41Speaker 4: So what I found to be really fascinating was like
- 1:43Speaker 4: a nugget. I forgot what research report I read it in,
- 1:45Speaker 4: but that the cost to serve a customer's order fell
- 1:49Speaker 4: by forty five cents a unit last year. Can you
- 1:52Speaker 4: how big a deal is that and how hard was
- 1:54Speaker 4: it to get there?
- 1:56Speaker 3: So Amazon doesn't disclose how many units they sell, so
- 1:59Speaker 3: it's kind of hard to back into that. I'd say
- 2:01Speaker 3: it's still a fairly small piece of the cost space.
- 2:05Speaker 3: But what I would say is what's going to help
- 2:06Speaker 3: them to continue to drive these costs down is just
- 2:09Speaker 3: the efficiencies that they've created within their fulfillment network.
- 2:12Speaker 5: Right.
- 2:13Speaker 3: You've heard them talk about getting packages to customers faster,
- 2:17Speaker 3: and that's really a function of how they centralized their
- 2:20Speaker 3: shipping and distribution networks. And we think that traditionally, when
- 2:25Speaker 3: you hear about things coming to you faster, it's usually
- 2:27Speaker 3: more expensive, and in the case of Amazon, it's actually cheaper.
- 2:31Speaker 3: So it's pretty impressive, and it's all driven by scale.
- 2:33Speaker 2: The trucks are everywhere. I mean, it's just amazing. They
- 2:37Speaker 2: gotta be the biggest trucking fleet in the country. I
- 2:39Speaker 2: don't know. Let's bring in Man deep sing here. Let's
- 2:41Speaker 2: get to the technology aspect of Amazon, which has really
- 2:45Speaker 2: been the driver of its profitability and many would argue
- 2:48Speaker 2: the stock price performance, Mandy, would you hear from Amazon
- 2:51Speaker 2: last night about its cloud business AWS?
- 2:55Speaker 6: I mean, look, I think when you compare it to
- 2:59Speaker 6: Microsoft Azure growth, the growth is still kind of far
- 3:04Speaker 6: weaker between the two. But Amazon is, you know, much
- 3:08Speaker 6: higher run rate, ninety seven billion dollar run rate, so
- 3:11Speaker 6: they clearly seem to be stepping up in terms of
- 3:14Speaker 6: their generative AI exposure, and they've given investors hope that
- 3:18Speaker 6: they will be able to catch up. But look, overall,
- 3:22Speaker 6: I think profitability wise, they seem to be doing very
- 3:25Speaker 6: well on the AWS front. AD business continues to work
- 3:30Speaker 6: very well for them, you know, twenty six percent growth,
- 3:32Speaker 6: So Amazon, I think the diversification play they have and
- 3:36Speaker 6: the fact that they seem to capitalize on any new trend,
- 3:40Speaker 6: you know, seemingly fast, even though in this case Microsoft
- 3:44Speaker 6: Azure clearly still has the strongest momentum when it comes
- 3:47Speaker 6: to generative AA.
- 3:48Speaker 4: What I also found really interesting, Mandeep is that with
- 3:51Speaker 4: Amazon and even Meta, they're spending more, but the market
- 3:56Speaker 4: feels okay about that. I saw the same thing with
- 3:58Speaker 4: Exxon too. They're spending a little bit more, but their
- 4:01Speaker 4: market's okay with that. What do you make of that?
- 4:06Speaker 6: I mean, look, when you know Meta is growing at
- 4:09Speaker 6: over twenty percent, nobody cares about the reality lab losses.
- 4:14Speaker 6: They're losing eighteen billion dollars a year on reality labs.
- 4:18Speaker 6: It's okay. They get a pass the moment that growth
- 4:21Speaker 6: papers And we saw that in twenty twenty two when
- 4:23Speaker 6: they had those negative quarters, everyone you know, start started
- 4:29Speaker 6: to complain about you know how irresponsible management was im
- 4:33Speaker 6: betting on Metaverse, and yesterday there was not even a
- 4:35Speaker 6: mention of Reality Labs, given you know, the beat and
- 4:38Speaker 6: rays and the fact that they really seem to be
- 4:41Speaker 6: executing very well with twenty five percent layoffs. So it
- 4:44Speaker 6: all comes down to your top line. And if they
- 4:46Speaker 6: keep executing the way they did last quarter, I think
- 4:50Speaker 6: people don't mind the capex and generative AI. CAPEX actually
- 4:55Speaker 6: is a trend that we're seeing across the board from hyperscalers.
- 4:58Speaker 6: So what we I heard last night was Meta does
- 5:02Speaker 6: have a generative AI play. It may not be on
- 5:05Speaker 6: the cloud, but they are deploying their AI assistance everywhere
- 5:08Speaker 6: and that seems to be helping engagement.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Hey put them give us this an update on the
- 5:14Speaker 2: advertising business for Amazons. I think that's a business not
- 5:18Speaker 2: enough people pay attention to or it gets enough credit
- 5:21Speaker 2: because there's some big numbers there it is.
- 5:23Speaker 3: It's actually at a run rate of sixty billion now
- 5:25Speaker 3: and we think it can get to one hundred billion
- 5:28Speaker 3: by twenty twenty eight. So clearly great growth there. And
- 5:31Speaker 3: what you have to remember, and when they mentioned this
- 5:33Speaker 3: a little, you know, the advertising business is very lucrative
- 5:37Speaker 3: it carries about fifty percent profit margins. So if you
- 5:40Speaker 3: think about just the run rate they're at, that's thirty
- 5:42Speaker 3: billion dollars to the bottom line in the coming year.
- 5:45Speaker 3: That's huge for Amazon, and that's really the backbone of
- 5:48Speaker 3: what's driving profitable growth in North America or you could
- 5:52Speaker 3: say their retail business.
- 5:53Speaker 2: See that that was revenue that propelled my career? Is
- 5:57Speaker 2: that advertising revenue? But during the peak of microos, radio TV,
- 6:01Speaker 2: cable TV, maybe in a little bit on newspapers, we.
- 6:04Speaker 4: Still know the radio people. We love the radio to
- 6:07Speaker 4: the radio.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Now it's sixteen billion dollars going on Amazon.
- 6:11Speaker 4: Amazing. Hey Mandy, before we let you guys go to
- 6:14Speaker 4: your point before. If we keep getting these kind of numbers,
- 6:18Speaker 4: can we still call like Meta a growth company even
- 6:20Speaker 4: though it's now paying this dividend. Typically you don't see
- 6:23Speaker 4: that in the growth of your company. Is like, can
- 6:24Speaker 4: all things be true?
- 6:27Speaker 6: I mean, advertising is a very cyclical business. Right now
- 6:30Speaker 6: we are coming out of LA trough and ad pricing
- 6:33Speaker 6: environment is improving, and if you're an e commerce company,
- 6:36Speaker 6: there is nowhere else to go to acquire customers. Given
- 6:39Speaker 6: Meta has four billion you know users across its family
- 6:43Speaker 6: of apps, so clearly they get that mind share, and
- 6:46Speaker 6: it's still a duopoly when it comes to digital ad spending,
- 6:49Speaker 6: but I would say we are closer to saturation in
- 6:52Speaker 6: terms of that digital ad growth then we were, you know,
- 6:55Speaker 6: a couple of years back. So not a lot of
- 6:59Speaker 6: runway in from maintaining that twenty percent plus growth, but
- 7:02Speaker 6: the next few quarters I think they clearly will benefit
- 7:05Speaker 6: from this at pricing tailvin A right, guys.
- 7:08Speaker 7: That's good.
- 7:08Speaker 4: Yeah, amazing guys, Thanks lot, really appreciated, Mandy P. Sink
- 7:11Speaker 4: and Punam Goyle really great. I mean, like I was
- 7:14Speaker 4: shocked when I saw those numbers, Like Apple didn't surprise
- 7:17Speaker 4: me that much, but when I saw those numbers come
- 7:19Speaker 4: through the terminal yesterday on the clothes, I was just
- 7:21Speaker 4: totally forged.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Now the thing with Apple, and we've talked to a
- 7:23Speaker 2: couple experts today, including gene monsters. If I were investor
- 7:27Speaker 2: in Apple, I'd still be really concerned about China. I
- 7:29Speaker 2: don't feel like I don't have a call of Hey,
- 7:32Speaker 2: is it just the Chinese economy kind of slowing down
- 7:34Speaker 2: or is it Chinese people saying I'm not buying Western stuff.
- 7:36Speaker 2: I'm by it. It's more nationalistic. Now that's a concern,
- 7:40Speaker 2: although i DC the research firm says Apple's got like
- 7:44Speaker 2: it's best market share ever, so I don't know how
- 7:47Speaker 2: that's all playing out.
- 7:47Speaker 4: So, but the competition is real no matter which we
- 7:50Speaker 4: look at it, It's all about competition.
- 7:51Speaker 3: Yep.
- 7:53Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 7:57Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple.
- 7:59Speaker 8: Car Play and and royd Otto with a Bloomberg Business app.
- 8:02Speaker 1: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
- 8:05Speaker 1: flagship New York station just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 8:11Speaker 2: Big Tech Earnings. And there's some themes coming across here
- 8:14Speaker 2: in terms of AI, in terms of digital advertising that
- 8:17Speaker 2: are pretty well, it's pretty constructive here and we've been
- 8:19Speaker 2: talking about most of the morning here. We're going to
- 8:21Speaker 2: bring in Angela Zino. He's a senior equity analyst and
- 8:24Speaker 2: vice president c f R Research. He joins us via
- 8:28Speaker 2: Zoom from New York. Angela, I'd love to start with
- 8:31Speaker 2: Apple because for me, that's the most fascinating story coming
- 8:34Speaker 2: out of big tech. I just don't know which way
- 8:36Speaker 2: to go, and my big big issue is China. Could
- 8:39Speaker 2: you give us your sense about how you think China
- 8:42Speaker 2: is as an opportunity and as a risk to the
- 8:45Speaker 2: Apple story.
- 8:46Speaker 1: Yeah, and I.
- 8:47Speaker 7: Think Apple there's a huge Bullbard debate going on with
- 8:50Speaker 7: that name right now. And when I think about Apple, yes,
- 8:55Speaker 7: I mean China is absolutely an issue right now. We're talking,
- 8:58Speaker 7: you know, a thirteen percent of client revenue in that
- 9:00Speaker 7: region when overall you actually did see you know, a
- 9:04Speaker 7: broader industry growth in the in you know, the some
- 9:06Speaker 7: reporter there mid single digit decline on the constant currency
- 9:11Speaker 7: basis from so from that perspective doesn't seem as bad.
- 9:14Speaker 7: My guess is some of the guidance that they alluded to,
- 9:16Speaker 7: even though they kind of blamed some of the tough
- 9:18Speaker 7: comps from a year ago, probably also indicates that there
- 9:22Speaker 7: is going to continue to be some weakness going on
- 9:24Speaker 7: in China, probably through calendar twenty twenty four at the
- 9:28Speaker 7: very least. So you know, it's China becomes an issue
- 9:31Speaker 7: for Apple becomes ahead wind. We do expect them to
- 9:34Speaker 7: continue to lose share, but there is so much good
- 9:38Speaker 7: stuff going out outside of China where we think kind
- 9:42Speaker 7: of the story really plays out, but specifically in Asia
- 9:45Speaker 7: Asia Group seven percent outside of China, and you know,
- 9:49Speaker 7: you kind of look at areas that are going to
- 9:51Speaker 7: continue to attribute, you know, to that in sold base growth.
- 9:53Speaker 7: It's going to be areas like in India and Indonesia
- 9:56Speaker 7: over the next decade plus.
- 9:58Speaker 4: So Angelo, what's it going to take for appily at
- 10:00Speaker 4: for that because it feels like the straight up China
- 10:02Speaker 4: competition is truly what this company is training on.
- 10:06Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, it's going to take time first. I mean,
- 10:08Speaker 7: but you know, when we think about the actual numbers
- 10:11Speaker 7: here in terms of you know, not the top line,
- 10:14Speaker 7: but more on the bottom line side of things than
- 10:16Speaker 7: on the free cash flow side of things, and that's
- 10:18Speaker 7: really what drives we think the valuation is in Apple,
- 10:21Speaker 7: it's that free cash flow number. Despite the lower the
- 10:24Speaker 7: five billion are so less in expected revenue, the free
- 10:27Speaker 7: cash flow number hasn't budget in terms of expectations here
- 10:30Speaker 7: over the next year. And a big reason for that
- 10:33Speaker 7: is because of all the kind of improvement they're they're
- 10:36Speaker 7: doing on the margin side of things, the better mix
- 10:38Speaker 7: on the services, but also the fact that margins are
- 10:41Speaker 7: improving not only on the services side, but also on
- 10:44Speaker 7: the product side of things. So that's really kind of
- 10:46Speaker 7: helping to sustain you know, the actual free cash flow
- 10:51Speaker 7: potential of this company. So you know, you have to
- 10:54Speaker 7: be patient if you're an investor in this name and
- 10:57Speaker 7: kind of believe in the whole compounding effect over time.
- 11:00Speaker 7: But right now, it's tough to really kind of expect
- 11:04Speaker 7: significant gains from a stock price perspective here over the
- 11:07Speaker 7: next three to six months.
- 11:08Speaker 2: All right, Well, talk about significant games from the stock
- 11:10Speaker 2: price perspective. Meta platforms up twenty percent today, all time high.
- 11:14Speaker 2: Over two hundred billion dollars of market cap was created
- 11:17Speaker 2: just today in trading. So an end. They're paying a dividend.
- 11:21Speaker 2: They they've been listening to me. Now the folks at
- 11:23Speaker 2: Apple need to listen to me and up their dividend
- 11:26Speaker 2: and give me a good three percent dividend yield. Talk
- 11:29Speaker 2: to us about Meta here. Boy, it seems like everything's
- 11:32Speaker 2: working there. What's your key takeaway?
- 11:35Speaker 7: Yeah, I think this is as good a quarter as
- 11:38Speaker 7: an investor could have asked for. I mean, you're right
- 11:41Speaker 7: they initiated the dividend, but you know it implies less
- 11:44Speaker 7: than a one percent divit in yield, right. I think
- 11:46Speaker 7: it's more kind of you know the fact that they're
- 11:49Speaker 7: just demonstrating to investors out they're the conviction they have
- 11:52Speaker 7: in that business and kind of some of the guidance
- 11:55Speaker 7: that they provided out there. But listen, I think they're
- 11:58Speaker 7: running on all cylinders. Grew the top one twenty five
- 12:00Speaker 7: percent actually to one guide points to an acceleration of
- 12:04Speaker 7: growth where we actually expected growth to start to decelerate
- 12:06Speaker 7: sharply in the first half of twenty twenty five four.
- 12:10Speaker 7: You kind of look at how they're doing this. They're
- 12:13Speaker 7: actually keeping operating expenses in check. And there's nothing you
- 12:17Speaker 7: know better that Wall Street lights than kind of keeping
- 12:19Speaker 7: the opex numbers in check in a world where AI
- 12:23Speaker 7: is extremely expensive, and they continue to grow that top
- 12:27Speaker 7: line by holding it, you know, by keeping it unchanged.
- 12:30Speaker 7: So I think, you know, that's really the key as
- 12:33Speaker 7: far as the metastory is concerned, and you really do
- 12:35Speaker 7: have to love it if you're an investor.
- 12:38Speaker 4: I mean, Paul does. He's he's been talking about it
- 12:40Speaker 4: pretty much all day. But the idea that like the
- 12:44Speaker 4: year of Efficiency of twenty twenty three will continue despite
- 12:48Speaker 4: the information we got on Reality Labs in terms of
- 12:51Speaker 4: how much they're losing and the capex going into it.
- 12:53Speaker 4: When do I care about that when it comes to Meta.
- 12:56Speaker 7: As far as you know, losses and reality labs and
- 12:59Speaker 7: the potential revenue trajectory there, I mean yeah, I mean,
- 13:03Speaker 7: this is a long term vision for the company, so
- 13:05Speaker 7: they're looking for they're making these investments for five ten
- 13:08Speaker 7: years out from now. You're not going to get the
- 13:10Speaker 7: immediate type of return that you're seeing on the AI
- 13:14Speaker 7: side of things. I mean, AI has been absolutely phenomenal
- 13:16Speaker 7: for Meta because it's a parent that advertisers are willing
- 13:21Speaker 7: to kind of pay up for it because you're you're
- 13:23Speaker 7: getting a higher ROI out there, so you know, it
- 13:26Speaker 7: makes a lot of sense. You're you're seeing the you know,
- 13:29Speaker 7: most of the kind of the the extra CAPEC spends
- 13:33Speaker 7: that's going into this company really on the AI side
- 13:36Speaker 7: of things. But as far as those losses are concerned,
- 13:38Speaker 7: that's going to that's going to remain because you're not
- 13:40Speaker 7: going to see that revenue trajectory really kind of play
- 13:43Speaker 7: out for at least kind of another three to five
- 13:46Speaker 7: years at your you know, in the basic past case scenario, So.
- 13:49Speaker 2: Angela, if investors are trafficking in the metas of the world,
- 13:52Speaker 2: the Google's, even Amazon, they have to have a call
- 13:55Speaker 2: on digital advertising? What's your call on digital advertising?
- 13:59Speaker 7: So entering the year it was it was a high
- 14:01Speaker 7: single digit growth rate, so you know, it's pretty much
- 14:04Speaker 7: going to be a similar growth rate that we saw
- 14:06Speaker 7: in twenty twenty three, and our outlook for twenty twenty
- 14:08Speaker 7: five also kind of a high single digit growth pace.
- 14:11Speaker 7: I think how you're going to get that growth pace
- 14:13Speaker 7: is going to be interesting. I mean, it looks like
- 14:16Speaker 7: on the social media side of things, you're seeing some
- 14:18Speaker 7: additional share gain taking place there relative to what you're
- 14:22Speaker 7: seeing on the search side. I think although alphabet you know,
- 14:25Speaker 7: to be fair, did not provide any type of guidance
- 14:28Speaker 7: on their end, but it just appears like that momentum
- 14:31Speaker 7: continues to really be taking form on the social media
- 14:34Speaker 7: side of things. We'll get some additional numbers next week
- 14:37Speaker 7: when the snaps and pinterests of the world start reporting,
- 14:40Speaker 7: but there are much smaller player in the industry. But
- 14:42Speaker 7: I think at the end of the day, the numbers
- 14:44Speaker 7: look pretty good for us. There's probably upside to those
- 14:47Speaker 7: assumptions that I've provided to you because of some of
- 14:50Speaker 7: that AI play and the fact that you're going to
- 14:51Speaker 7: see an acceleration. You know, away from those traditional sources
- 14:55Speaker 7: to more of the digital side of things.
- 14:57Speaker 4: Hey, Angelo, taking a look at just the run that
- 14:59Speaker 4: we seen with some of these guys on some of
- 15:01Speaker 4: the numbers, even in Vidia at another record high today,
- 15:05Speaker 4: What stock is most over their skis right now?
- 15:10Speaker 7: That's a great question. That No, that's that's that's a
- 15:13Speaker 7: really good question. You know, as far as you know
- 15:16Speaker 7: we're concerned. I say the names we like the most,
- 15:19Speaker 7: the ones where there were absolute table pounders on our
- 15:23Speaker 7: Microsoft and Nvidia. I think those names on any type
- 15:27Speaker 7: of pullback, you just continue to load up and buy
- 15:29Speaker 7: more of it. You have to love kind of the
- 15:32Speaker 7: meta results here. But if there were a name I
- 15:34Speaker 7: were to throw out there right now, it would probably
- 15:37Speaker 7: be meta one because of the type of move that
- 15:40Speaker 7: you've seen in the in the in the stock today.
- 15:43Speaker 7: I'd also say that the comps do get a little
- 15:45Speaker 7: bit more difficult in the second half of this year,
- 15:47Speaker 7: So there could be a scenario where as those comps
- 15:50Speaker 7: get a little bit more challenging and they need to
- 15:53Speaker 7: you know, potentially you know, spend a little bit more,
- 15:57Speaker 7: that could kind of set up some potential disppointment later
- 16:00Speaker 7: this year for the thought. So that's probably the name
- 16:03Speaker 7: where maybe I would raise a little bit of an
- 16:05Speaker 7: eyebrow among kind of the you know, the mags have
- 16:08Speaker 7: a names right now.
- 16:09Speaker 4: Hey, Angela, thanks a lot, super appreciate it. Angelousio, Vice President,
- 16:12Speaker 4: Senior equity analyst at cfr A Research.
- 16:16Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 16:20Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on fo card playing Android
- 16:23Speaker 1: outo with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever
- 16:26Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 16:31Speaker 2: That'd be very, very encouraged by the strong labor numbers
- 16:35Speaker 2: I got out today in terms of giftness, economy growing.
- 16:38Speaker 4: Yeah, but I still think that the idea of like
- 16:40Speaker 4: people still feel bad and then the number is still
- 16:43Speaker 4: good and bridging that gap and how that winds up
- 16:46Speaker 4: playing out. We're still really early in twenty twenty four,
- 16:48Speaker 4: but how that plays out I think really interesting.
- 16:50Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess that's a messaging story for you know,
- 16:53Speaker 2: the politicians out there. You know, you got a GDP
- 16:56Speaker 2: print better than expected. Everybody kind of has a job,
- 16:59Speaker 2: wages are going up, inflations coming down.
- 17:01Speaker 4: But man, but then you have to wonder, does that
- 17:03Speaker 4: mean that we were going to wind up seeing the
- 17:05Speaker 4: FED not cut in May, and then does that keep
- 17:07Speaker 4: conditions tighter? And then you have real rates actually increasing,
- 17:10Speaker 4: et cetera, et cetera, and then it actually does wind
- 17:12Speaker 4: up hurting later sort of the longer you push it off,
- 17:14Speaker 4: then are we headed for something a lot harder.
- 17:17Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point, and that's kind of the
- 17:18Speaker 2: discussion now. I guess it's all about May. Jonny Biley
- 17:21Speaker 2: joins us. She's a chief workforce analyst at inmploy Bridge
- 17:25Speaker 2: joins us on zoom from Pompino Beach, Florida.
- 17:28Speaker 8: What is it?
- 17:29Speaker 2: What are we doing wrong here?
- 17:30Speaker 4: I don't want to be in Florida.
- 17:32Speaker 2: Be in Florida right now because it's been we haven't
- 17:33Speaker 2: seen the sun in like two weeks, that's true.
- 17:36Speaker 4: I don't know I was in Florence. So if we're
- 17:39Speaker 4: reassigning bet.
- 17:44Speaker 2: Well, pretty Jony, thanks so much for joining us here.
- 17:46Speaker 2: I'd love to get your thoughts here and kind of
- 17:48Speaker 2: what we saw on this job's uh date data print
- 17:51Speaker 2: this morning? How do you how do you kind of
- 17:52Speaker 2: deal with it?
- 17:54Speaker 9: Well, definitely a big surprise right this morning, and I
- 17:58Speaker 9: don't think anyone predicted numbers that would be that high.
- 18:01Speaker 9: I think maybe Goldman Sachs said it was going to
- 18:04Speaker 9: be about two hundred and fifty thousand, but never expected
- 18:07Speaker 9: over three hundred and fifty thousand jobs created. And the
- 18:11Speaker 9: reason I think it really is a surprise is we
- 18:15Speaker 9: are still you know, seeing.
- 18:17Speaker 5: Layoffs, you know, not just in the big tech.
- 18:20Speaker 9: Companies, but we're seeing more and more employers that are
- 18:25Speaker 9: you know, cutting back.
- 18:27Speaker 5: Now, there is some optimism about.
- 18:29Speaker 9: Twenty twenty four. Certainly the companies that we work with
- 18:32Speaker 9: at employee Bridge, I would say our hiring managers are
- 18:37Speaker 9: cautiously optimistic and they are saying that they are predicting,
- 18:41Speaker 9: you know, a better year of growth of job growth
- 18:45Speaker 9: in twenty twenty four than twenty twenty three, but we're
- 18:49Speaker 9: not seeing the robust growth that this report actually shows.
- 18:55Speaker 4: Well, let's talk about the one thing that confused me
- 18:58Speaker 4: the most in the report, and that average hourly work
- 19:01Speaker 4: week goes down, which basically means maybe there's a demand problem,
- 19:04Speaker 4: but wages go up. What does that mean?
- 19:09Speaker 5: Yeah, I was surprised by that number as well.
- 19:11Speaker 9: So we are seeing people working a little bit less.
- 19:14Speaker 9: The hours you know worked per week did decline, and
- 19:19Speaker 9: to your point seeing wages go up so substantially. That
- 19:23Speaker 9: was a surprise as well. We're not seeing as much
- 19:26Speaker 9: wage movement. We track wage data as well. Employ Bridge
- 19:31Speaker 9: focuses primarily on the supply chain sector, so manufacturing, construction, drivers, transportation,
- 19:38Speaker 9: and I'll tell you wages have been pretty pretty flat.
- 19:42Speaker 9: But when we see hours go down, it is the demand.
- 19:45Speaker 9: You know, the employers are not demanding right that workers
- 19:50Speaker 9: are working overtime or you know, working really that full
- 19:54Speaker 9: forty hour work week.
- 19:56Speaker 5: We're not near that level.
- 19:57Speaker 9: So it definitely is a supply and demand issue. And
- 20:03Speaker 9: again I think something that would be concerning in this report.
- 20:08Speaker 9: But there were some real bright spots in the report,
- 20:11Speaker 9: you know, seeing professional and business services add I believe
- 20:15Speaker 9: it was seventy four thousand jobs. That was a big number,
- 20:19Speaker 9: and we had seen some declines in that sector. I
- 20:22Speaker 9: did go back and look at the revisions and they
- 20:25Speaker 9: have revised them upwards. So you know, those are more
- 20:29Speaker 9: of the white collar professional jobs, and that definitely came
- 20:33Speaker 9: back stronger.
- 20:34Speaker 5: Than I think anyone predicted.
- 20:36Speaker 9: We did see that also increase in the Jolts Report,
- 20:40Speaker 9: the job opening report that came out earlier in the week.
- 20:44Speaker 9: There was a big increase in the professional service sector
- 20:48Speaker 9: job posting.
- 20:49Speaker 5: So that is a good sign.
- 20:51Speaker 9: That can mean some good things for twenty twenty four
- 20:54Speaker 9: that employers are you know, hiring more of those skills positions.
- 21:00Speaker 2: Where are these people working, Jonny, Are they coming back
- 21:04Speaker 2: to the office or is it three days a week,
- 21:06Speaker 2: four days a week. I mean, we're we're like the
- 21:09Speaker 2: last people to ask because we're in five days a week,
- 21:11Speaker 2: so you know, but we're we're the normal people. What
- 21:14Speaker 2: are they doing?
- 21:15Speaker 5: Yeah, So it is interesting.
- 21:17Speaker 9: I think, you know, one of the big concerns out
- 21:19Speaker 9: there certainly is commercial real estate because you can see
- 21:23Speaker 9: in large cities that people are not coming back to work.
- 21:27Speaker 9: They're not in the office buildings employers, you know, in
- 21:31Speaker 9: this again mostly in the white collar you know, professional
- 21:35Speaker 9: service jobs and also in healthcare, we do see that,
- 21:41Speaker 9: like there's opportunities to even work you know remote or
- 21:45Speaker 9: go to a hybrid schedule, and employees don't necessarily want
- 21:50Speaker 9: to go back to the office.
- 21:52Speaker 5: They like the flexibility, and I do have some concerns
- 21:56Speaker 5: about that.
- 21:56Speaker 9: I think there there are a lot of benefits, right
- 21:59Speaker 9: of collaboration and working together and these social aspects. I
- 22:04Speaker 9: have some big concerns about our younger generations that are
- 22:08Speaker 9: just getting into the workplace. I have two children in college,
- 22:11Speaker 9: you know, I don't want them to have their first
- 22:13Speaker 9: job and like be working from home.
- 22:16Speaker 5: They're going to miss out.
- 22:17Speaker 9: On so many great experiences and building those professional, you know,
- 22:21Speaker 9: communication skills.
- 22:23Speaker 5: So I do have some concerns about it.
- 22:24Speaker 9: But right now, for the most part, we're seeing hybrid
- 22:28Speaker 9: models remote work. Of course, that's very different in the
- 22:33Speaker 9: trades and in supply chain where people really have to
- 22:37Speaker 9: be on site.
- 22:38Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, Joni, thanks a lot. We really appreciate it.
- 22:41Speaker 4: It's really fun to dissect all of this with you.
- 22:44Speaker 4: Thank you so much for joining us to a bilely
- 22:46Speaker 4: chief workforce Analyst at employee Bridge on January. Job support
- 22:50Speaker 4: just coming in a lot better than estimated.
- 22:54Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 22:58Speaker 1: weekdays at ten Amy's there on applecar.
- 23:01Speaker 8: Play and Android Otto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- 23:04Speaker 1: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
- 23:06Speaker 1: flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 23:13Speaker 4: Big tech still strong, high yields. Maybe that hurts equities.
- 23:16Speaker 4: Maybe you wind up having a FED that's going to
- 23:18Speaker 4: push out its rate cuts. That's going to be negative
- 23:20Speaker 4: for equities, But the economy is strong, that should be
- 23:22Speaker 4: good for equities. Do you guys get all that? You
- 23:24Speaker 4: got that? We're good to go? Now, Well, let's ask
- 23:26Speaker 4: someone who knows more than us, James Demmert. He is
- 23:29Speaker 4: chief investment officer at main Street Research. Hey, James, there's
- 23:32Speaker 4: a lot of conflicting resource narratives here. What's the right
- 23:35Speaker 4: one for you?
- 23:37Speaker 10: Good morning, Alex and Paul. I think the narrative is
- 23:42Speaker 10: again investors get really caught up with FED talk, and
- 23:47Speaker 10: you know, just look at the basic fundamentals here. We
- 23:50Speaker 10: had to blowout jobs report. What does that tell us?
- 23:53Speaker 10: Investors should know the economy is really resilient, right, I mean,
- 23:58Speaker 10: that's really great data there this morning. And then I
- 24:01Speaker 10: think at the same time, you know, there's a concern
- 24:05Speaker 10: that people are sort of caught up with the FEED
- 24:06Speaker 10: has to keep cutting rates or has to start right away.
- 24:09Speaker 10: And they're doing the right thing. I mean, they're they're
- 24:12Speaker 10: luckier or smart, They've got the economy right where they
- 24:15Speaker 10: want it. Who would have guessed? And so I think
- 24:18Speaker 10: investors here should realize inflation's gone. The PCEE their favorite
- 24:22Speaker 10: number right, less than three, very close to where they
- 24:25Speaker 10: want it to be. They don't need to cut. And
- 24:28Speaker 10: you've got a resilient economy. What that means, new business cycle,
- 24:32Speaker 10: new ball market. Keep it simple, Investors, don't overthink this.
- 24:36Speaker 10: Earnings are what drive stocks in phase one. That's where
- 24:40Speaker 10: we are. Focus on earnings. Look at Meta right, look
- 24:43Speaker 10: at Amazon, look at Microsoft. Focus on earnings. Yes, higher
- 24:47Speaker 10: rates can have an effect negati effect on certain parts
- 24:50Speaker 10: of the market. If rates are higher for longer, we
- 24:52Speaker 10: can talk more about that.
- 24:54Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 24:54Speaker 2: I mean, I'm former equity analyst, so I like to
- 24:57Speaker 2: think earnings matter. I spent so much time trying to
- 24:59Speaker 2: figure out wh the earnings are going for some of
- 25:01Speaker 2: these companies build these monster models. What are you seeing
- 25:05Speaker 2: so far, James? Again, today is all about to fed.
- 25:08Speaker 2: But again, we've had a ton of earnings, including some
- 25:10Speaker 2: big tech last night. What do you see in some
- 25:12Speaker 2: of the earnings that we've had so far?
- 25:15Speaker 10: Well, I think you know, one of the things investors
- 25:17Speaker 10: should really focus on here is you know what's driving
- 25:20Speaker 10: these earnings. And one of the things I think that
- 25:22Speaker 10: all of us should be excited about you're already seeing
- 25:25Speaker 10: it in tech earnings. Is this effect of AI right A,
- 25:30Speaker 10: that's going to be a tailwind for better productivity growth
- 25:34Speaker 10: within companies that should lead to higher stock places over time.
- 25:40Speaker 10: We're also, and I think this is really important, the
- 25:42Speaker 10: META numbers show us that as an equity MLS, you
- 25:45Speaker 10: can appreciate this. We've gone through an era of efficiency
- 25:48Speaker 10: what we call it otherwise, I know it's cost cutting,
- 25:51Speaker 10: and that cost cutting that a lot of companies have
- 25:53Speaker 10: done over the last eighteen months as they had inflation
- 25:56Speaker 10: fears and market fears is now coming to be very rewarded.
- 26:00Speaker 10: So I think, you know, the cost cutting is obviously
- 26:02Speaker 10: increasing margins. Meta a really good example, but that's going
- 26:05Speaker 10: on across all sectors. And then you've got this sort
- 26:09Speaker 10: of forward looking productivity growth that we're really excited about.
- 26:12Speaker 10: And that's why we think not just a new business cycle,
- 26:14Speaker 10: but maybe a supercycle.
- 26:16Speaker 4: Supercycle, a business supercycle. But hey, if we wind up
- 26:20Speaker 4: having higher for longer now the economy actually is heating
- 26:24Speaker 4: up and it's just kind of firing on all cylinders,
- 26:27Speaker 4: doesn't that at some point isn't that bad for equities?
- 26:31Speaker 10: Well, it could be, and it could be bad for
- 26:33Speaker 10: the economy, and it could, you know, bring the inflation
- 26:36Speaker 10: boogeyman back. And that's why again investors should just get
- 26:40Speaker 10: over their anticipation the Fed has to cut. I think
- 26:43Speaker 10: the Fed's doing the right thing. They see this economy
- 26:46Speaker 10: is strong. The last thing they want to do is cut.
- 26:48Speaker 10: I think that's exactly where we'd end up in that
- 26:51Speaker 10: risk of oh gosh, now it's you know, they've really
- 26:54Speaker 10: juiced it by lowering rates when it was already pretty
- 26:57Speaker 10: smoke and hot. I think the Fed sort of just
- 26:59Speaker 10: sit back and does nothing. And let's face it, it
- 27:03Speaker 10: might be that, you know, everybody anticipates all these rate cuts,
- 27:05Speaker 10: even the FED does this year, it could be the
- 27:07Speaker 10: economy strong enough that they don't need to do any
- 27:11Speaker 10: and earnings then will drive stocks. So I think as
- 27:14Speaker 10: long as the FED keeps their hand on the tiller
- 27:16Speaker 10: very carefully here, the economy can grow all by itself.
- 27:20Speaker 10: The market is obviously pushing interest rates up today. Let
- 27:23Speaker 10: the market do that. Keep the Fed out of the
- 27:26Speaker 10: out of the way, and I think the economy can
- 27:27Speaker 10: be perfectly fine and not overheat.
- 27:30Speaker 2: James, I like big numbers as much as the next person.
- 27:33Speaker 2: Big round numbers, and you've got them in your research.
- 27:35Speaker 2: You say, over the next ten years, the Dow, Jones
- 27:37Speaker 2: industrials could cross one hundred thousand, s and P fifteen thousand,
- 27:42Speaker 2: NASDAK fifty thousand, all within the next ten years or so.
- 27:46Speaker 2: What's kind of the thesis that get you those kind
- 27:49Speaker 2: of numbers?
- 27:50Speaker 10: Yeah, Dow one hundred k, right, yep, you know some
- 27:54Speaker 10: historic reference. I just finished my recent book which is
- 27:57Speaker 10: really about the market and what it does over time,
- 28:00Speaker 10: and so you know, really what we're using is some
- 28:02Speaker 10: data points. One is if it is a new business cycle,
- 28:05Speaker 10: which we believe it is, and if it's an AI
- 28:07Speaker 10: driven productivity growth type of cycle. What we're doing is
- 28:11Speaker 10: we're attaching what would growth rates be for companies, and
- 28:15Speaker 10: we can see earnings tripling over that seven to ten
- 28:19Speaker 10: year period. That's usually as long as a business cycle lasts.
- 28:22Speaker 10: Ten is a long time. I'd say seven to eight
- 28:24Speaker 10: nine years, we'll probably see earnings triple again with this
- 28:29Speaker 10: AI tailwind and that sort of just through the math. Right,
- 28:33Speaker 10: the Dow goes to one hundred grand, the SMP goes
- 28:37Speaker 10: to fifteen, and the Nasdaq and the SMP probably you know,
- 28:41Speaker 10: we'd say Nasdaq is fifty thousand, because that's the core
- 28:45Speaker 10: of where that AI really is going to provide better
- 28:48Speaker 10: earnings growth.
- 28:49Speaker 4: WHOA, that feels like a lot. What's your downside to
- 28:54Speaker 4: that thesis? Like, what what would be your risk to that?
- 28:59Speaker 10: Well, that's a good point. I mean, you can't just say, Wow,
- 29:02Speaker 10: that's going to happen and let's put it all an
- 29:04Speaker 10: index monet and go go home or come back in
- 29:06Speaker 10: ten years. I think there's a lot of risks in this,
- 29:09Speaker 10: and one of them is, well a lot of them
- 29:11Speaker 10: are the obvious ones, right, you know, if we fall
- 29:14Speaker 10: it into a significant recession, maybe because the Fed doesn't
- 29:17Speaker 10: manage the interest rate cycle correctly, I think I think
- 29:21Speaker 10: I'd give them the faith that that's not going to happen.
- 29:25Speaker 10: But we also have you know, we have national debt.
- 29:27Speaker 10: That's a problem. Usually that's taking taken care of. As
- 29:30Speaker 10: it was in the nineties we had such a big economy.
- 29:33Speaker 10: We actually filled the debt back that hole that the
- 29:35Speaker 10: debt was creating. We filled it up by capital gain
- 29:39Speaker 10: saxes on corporations. So but you've got some stuff going on,
- 29:42Speaker 10: and of course we have this geopolitical risk. You know,
- 29:44Speaker 10: they can always turn the world upside down, which is
- 29:46Speaker 10: why you know, in our case we use risk management tools.
- 29:50Speaker 10: I think it's very important investors, you know, things like
- 29:52Speaker 10: stop loss orders are really important. Know how much equity
- 29:56Speaker 10: exposure you need. Even if I say down one hundred K,
- 29:59Speaker 10: I'm not saying investors you should be fully one hundred
- 30:01Speaker 10: percent in stocks. Understand your planning, how much risk you
- 30:05Speaker 10: need to take, and only have enough equity exposure to
- 30:07Speaker 10: get the return that you need because there are those
- 30:10Speaker 10: risks out there, and there's some ways to protect yourself.
- 30:13Speaker 2: What are some of the sectors that you think are
- 30:16Speaker 2: interesting right here, James, A lot of folks, you know,
- 30:18Speaker 2: we got a lot of tech numbers over the last
- 30:19Speaker 2: couple of days showing some pretty good strength there. What
- 30:23Speaker 2: are some sectors you guys.
- 30:24Speaker 10: Like, Yeah, I know, right, it's the elephant. We are
- 30:31Speaker 10: big fans of tech, and that's where we're overweighted. But
- 30:34Speaker 10: I gots you know, if you look at just about
- 30:37Speaker 10: every other sector of the market, and this is important.
- 30:39Speaker 10: If you look at Ford pe earnings pees, right, you
- 30:44Speaker 10: usually pes or are not correct when you're starting a
- 30:47Speaker 10: new business cycle because the e is going to be
- 30:50Speaker 10: bigger than people expect because of the earnings of the
- 30:53Speaker 10: profit margins. So we look at valuation and we look
- 30:55Speaker 10: at what sectors look good. Oh, it's not just tech,
- 30:58Speaker 10: it's the financials, the historically cheap, it is the industrial
- 31:03Speaker 10: companies historically cheap. A lot of this stuff is less
- 31:06Speaker 10: than fifteen times earnings. I think even you know, if
- 31:09Speaker 10: you wanted to reach out into the remarket which has
- 31:12Speaker 10: gotten crushed, or the small cap stocks which are not
- 31:14Speaker 10: acting well today but they certainly would thrive over the
- 31:18Speaker 10: next few years, I think investors should look there. So
- 31:20Speaker 10: I think pretty much broadly across all sectors, you're going
- 31:23Speaker 10: to see some better earnings from these low valuations. And
- 31:29Speaker 10: again you're gonna have the AI tailwind. I mean, AI
- 31:31Speaker 10: is going to have a tremendous effect on healthcare, and
- 31:35Speaker 10: we were really excited about that as well. Low valuations.
- 31:37Speaker 4: That's all right, James, thanks a lot. That was a
- 31:39Speaker 4: bullish view to a Friday. We appreciate it. James Emmert.
- 31:43Speaker 4: He's a chief investment officer at main Street Research.
- 31:47Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 31:51Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
- 31:55Speaker 1: Auto with.
- 31:55Speaker 8: The Bloomberg Business app.
- 31:57Speaker 1: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
- 31:59Speaker 1: flo USIP New York station just say Alexa playing Bloomberg
- 32:03Speaker 1: eleven thirty.
- 32:06Speaker 4: So we brought up a University of Michigan sentiment. So
- 32:08Speaker 4: this is a wonderful indicator. The inflation expectations also can
- 32:12Speaker 4: tend to use market tend to move markets. We got
- 32:15Speaker 4: the final read for January. Here's where they stacked up.
- 32:18Speaker 4: Michigan sentiment up to seventy nine current conditions, lower than
- 32:23Speaker 4: the last read, but at eighty one point nine. Expectations
- 32:27Speaker 4: much stronger actually at seventy seven point one, and the
- 32:30Speaker 4: one year inflation expectations at two point nine. We've kind
- 32:32Speaker 4: of been around that level for a while. We want
- 32:35Speaker 4: to do is bring you direct analysis from the person
- 32:37Speaker 4: who knows these numbers, who did these numbers, and for
- 32:40Speaker 4: that we're doing with Joanne Shue, University of Michigan Surveys
- 32:43Speaker 4: of Consumer Director. She joins us, Now, Joan, always good
- 32:46Speaker 4: to see you on a you miss day. What's your
- 32:48Speaker 4: take from the numbers.
- 32:51Speaker 11: This is telling us that consumers are really starting to
- 32:54Speaker 11: feel more sure that the inflation slowdown is going to continue.
- 32:58Speaker 11: They had been reserving, judge for much of the fall
- 33:02Speaker 11: of twenty twenty three, you know, not really sure if
- 33:04Speaker 11: the slowdown was going to persist or if inflation was
- 33:06Speaker 11: going to come back. And at this point they're feeling
- 33:08Speaker 11: much more confident about it, and that is the main
- 33:10Speaker 11: thing that's supporting this very large increase in sentiment that's
- 33:16Speaker 11: been continuing on for two months now.
- 33:18Speaker 2: So, Joanne, the good sentiment numbers that you're talking about,
- 33:22Speaker 2: you know, I guess coincide or let me let me
- 33:25Speaker 2: ask you to what extent do they coincide with the
- 33:27Speaker 2: fact that, again we get the non farm payroll number
- 33:30Speaker 2: came in today really strong kind of everybody who wants
- 33:32Speaker 2: a job has a job. That figures into your data
- 33:35Speaker 2: as well, right.
- 33:36Speaker 11: Oh, absolutely. You know, consumers are by and large they're workers,
- 33:41Speaker 11: and so they recognize that labor markets are strong. And
- 33:46Speaker 11: that's also bearing out when we ask people about where
- 33:48Speaker 11: they think their incomes are going in the year ahead.
- 33:51Speaker 11: Their income expectations have strengthened over the last few months,
- 33:55Speaker 11: and that's very much supporting strong consumer spending as well
- 33:58Speaker 11: as their strong levels of.
- 33:59Speaker 4: Sen Joanne, is there any divide between if the respondents
- 34:04Speaker 4: identify as Democrat or Republican.
- 34:08Speaker 11: So there is typically a partisan gap in sentiment and
- 34:12Speaker 11: this month is no different. As it turns out, this
- 34:15Speaker 11: two month increase, Republicans saw most of that gain in
- 34:20Speaker 11: December and we're not particularly changed in January. Independence as
- 34:25Speaker 11: well as Democrats, they also saw a gain in December
- 34:28Speaker 11: and continued to gain in January as well.
- 34:32Speaker 4: For all three political groups, we're.
- 34:36Speaker 11: At the highest level of sentiment in a couple of
- 34:38Speaker 11: years now, So interesting, what.
- 34:40Speaker 2: Is your sense? I mean, we need your survey work.
- 34:44Speaker 2: I mean, is a recession still kind of on the table,
- 34:47Speaker 2: or if you take your data, you take the GDP print,
- 34:50Speaker 2: you take the labor print. I'm not sure I can
- 34:53Speaker 2: make a recession call here.
- 34:56Speaker 11: Consumers actually are quite split on what they think is
- 35:00Speaker 11: going to happen with the economy going forward. There's still
- 35:03Speaker 11: forty eight percent of people who are expecting challenging, you know,
- 35:06Speaker 11: bad times with business conditions ahead, compared with forty one
- 35:09Speaker 11: percent to expect good times ahead. Now, this isn't to
- 35:12Speaker 11: say that we will be in a recession. You know,
- 35:16Speaker 11: consumer sentiment numbers are about seven percent below average, so
- 35:20Speaker 11: they are not nowhere close to the lows we were
- 35:22Speaker 11: seeing last year, but the fact that we're on an
- 35:25Speaker 11: upward trajectory, we're pretty much back to the same upper
- 35:27Speaker 11: trajectory that we've been seeing since the all time historic
- 35:30Speaker 11: low from June twenty twenty two, and that definitely bodes
- 35:33Speaker 11: well for in terms of supporting GDP growth in the
- 35:39Speaker 11: months ahead.
- 35:40Speaker 4: Here's what I find confusing, Joanne, because if you wind
- 35:43Speaker 4: up having respondents feeling better about the economy, which would
- 35:46Speaker 4: imply like, Okay, maybe the FED is going to cut rates,
- 35:49Speaker 4: so I can feel a little bit of pressure ease.
- 35:51Speaker 4: But then because of that we see an acceleration which
- 35:54Speaker 4: then increases GDP, which then means the FED has to
- 35:57Speaker 4: keep rates higher for longer and not cut. Is any
- 36:00Speaker 4: of that track and the data and the conversations that
- 36:03Speaker 4: you have, I mean, I think this is you ask
- 36:07Speaker 4: an interesting question. And the reason this is interesting is
- 36:09Speaker 4: because you know, the survey is not happening in a vacuum.
- 36:12Speaker 11: Policy makers, including FED policy makers, are are reacting to
- 36:16Speaker 11: lots of data, including ours, and when we are asking
- 36:21Speaker 11: consumers what they think is happening now, they you know,
- 36:25Speaker 11: they are folding in their own expectations for where FED
- 36:27Speaker 11: policy is going to go. We have the largest share
- 36:30Speaker 11: expecting rate cuts since two thousand and eight, So consumers
- 36:34Speaker 11: are absolutely expecting rate cuts in the year ahead. Now,
- 36:38Speaker 11: of course, you know, if all the strong indicators in
- 36:41Speaker 11: the economy lead the FED to, you know, take to
- 36:46Speaker 11: exercise more caution in their rate cuts, I think we'll
- 36:48Speaker 11: see that play out in consumer expectations, especially as it
- 36:51Speaker 11: passes through to consumer interest rates and credit conditions. But
- 36:54Speaker 11: in this very moment, you know, consumers are expecting much
- 36:59Speaker 11: more strengthen the economy than they were expecting six months ago,
- 37:02Speaker 11: a year ago.
- 37:03Speaker 4: All right, Joanne, it's good to catch up with you.
- 37:05Speaker 4: We'll get you for that preminary February read too, Joanneshu,
- 37:08Speaker 4: University of Michigan, Surveys of Consumers, Director Paul. Do you
- 37:11Speaker 4: feel better than I do?
- 37:13Speaker 2: I do? I think the I feel like I can
- 37:16Speaker 2: really see the end in sight for the FED, and
- 37:18Speaker 2: that's all I need. That's really all I need. And
- 37:20Speaker 2: I think if earnings are going to kind of stay
- 37:22Speaker 2: in there relative to where the market's disc and I
- 37:25Speaker 2: think the market's set up for a pretty good move here.
- 37:28Speaker 2: And then we've seen a lot of it. We've seen it.
- 37:29Speaker 2: We are Yeah, The question is how much do we
- 37:32Speaker 2: see in November and December.
- 37:34Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
- 37:39Speaker 1: and anywhere else you will get your podcasts. Listen live
- 37:42Speaker 1: each weekday, ten am to noon Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
- 37:45Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app.
- 37:49Speaker 1: You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube
- 37:52Speaker 1: and always on the Bloomberg terminal