Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Boeing in Talks To Buy Spirit Aero
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- 0:25Speaker 3: M and A talk just kind of coming across the
- 0:26Speaker 3: tape here Boeing and talks to buy supplier Spirit Aerosystem.
- 0:31Speaker 3: Spirit air System stock is higher Boeing a little bit
- 0:33Speaker 3: lower here. But you know, one could argue this is
- 0:35Speaker 3: a transaction that probably needs to happen for Boeing to
- 0:38Speaker 3: address some of their concerns. Let's bring on them. George Ferguson.
- 0:41Speaker 3: George Ferguson covers the aerospace and airlines of business for
- 0:44Speaker 3: Bloomberg Intelligence. George tell us why Boeing would want to
- 0:49Speaker 3: do this transaction.
- 0:52Speaker 4: Good morning, Paul. Quality control. It's absolutely quality control. They
- 0:57Speaker 4: must be looking inside Spirit. I know they've been looking
- 0:59Speaker 4: inside spe for months. My guess is they've looked inside
- 1:05Speaker 4: and they just feel like they can't control quality well enough.
- 1:09Speaker 4: As an outsider. They used to own Spirit, not as
- 1:13Speaker 4: it looks exactly now, but they used to own you know,
- 1:16Speaker 4: those facilities. It makes a majority of the seven thirty
- 1:21Speaker 4: seven fuselage, it makes the front portion of the seven
- 1:24Speaker 4: eight to seven, two extremely important products. I think they've
- 1:27Speaker 4: looked inside and they said, we can't control quality well
- 1:31Speaker 4: enough from the outside.
- 1:32Speaker 5: We've got to buy this thing.
- 1:34Speaker 6: Do we trust Boeing to have the kind of quality
- 1:36Speaker 6: control that Spirit needs?
- 1:39Speaker 5: Bowe doesn't have a choice.
- 1:40Speaker 4: Boone's got to get quality control or they.
- 1:43Speaker 5: Got a major problem on their hands. And so I.
- 1:46Speaker 4: Guess I think as an owner, I think it is
- 1:50Speaker 4: the path, probably a good path forward. I do think
- 1:54Speaker 4: they will get the quality issues in hand, but it's
- 1:58Speaker 4: going to take some time, but they have to.
- 2:00Speaker 5: They have no choice.
- 2:01Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking at the stock A bug is pretty
- 2:03Speaker 3: much unchanged on the news here. I think if I
- 2:06Speaker 3: were an investor in Boeing, I would think I may
- 2:09Speaker 3: or may it, may or may not make financial sense
- 2:11Speaker 3: to own this Spirit thing, but I would say it's
- 2:14Speaker 3: probably the best way to move forward here. And when
- 2:17Speaker 3: you talk to investors Georgia, did they think that way?
- 2:22Speaker 3: You know?
- 2:23Speaker 4: I think investors, you know, I don't know that you
- 2:27Speaker 4: could say they all monololiithically think that way. I think
- 2:30Speaker 4: if there if there could have been a way to
- 2:32Speaker 4: keep it outside not have to buy it, you know,
- 2:37Speaker 4: I think they that probably would have pleased people more.
- 2:39Speaker 4: I mean, there will be an unwinding required in this transaction. Right,
- 2:43Speaker 4: So Airbus is a three twenty. Some of the components
- 2:47Speaker 4: are made at Spirit. I'm imagining that Airbus is not
- 2:50Speaker 4: going to be interested in having you know, Boeing as
- 2:54Speaker 4: a subcontractor on their airplane, you know, and their their
- 2:57Speaker 4: other defense products, you know, for lockeed things like that.
- 3:01Speaker 4: It's going to require some work I think to unwind
- 3:03Speaker 4: this thing a little bit in order to you know,
- 3:07Speaker 4: in order to pull it inside of Boeing. Probably energy
- 3:10Speaker 4: you would prefer not Boeing to spend. But again I
- 3:13Speaker 4: think it's their most important products are flowing through Spirit,
- 3:17Speaker 4: and Spirit's been a source of the problems in some
- 3:20Speaker 4: of those products lately. And if Boeing is going to
- 3:23Speaker 4: a much higher production rate, which is where they're going
- 3:25Speaker 4: to generate the cash flow they need, the profitability they need,
- 3:28Speaker 4: they've got to stabilize production. And I think, you know,
- 3:31Speaker 4: they must have looked at it and said we got
- 3:33Speaker 4: to own it. And so if you're an investor, I
- 3:35Speaker 4: think you're okay, Yeah, it's the way forward. I'd rather
- 3:39Speaker 4: not have taken this path, but it's the way forward.
- 3:41Speaker 6: This is the leading question, and it could be very wrong.
- 3:44Speaker 6: But does this tell us anything about how bad things
- 3:47Speaker 6: are at Spirit that this is the option?
- 3:51Speaker 5: I think it does.
- 3:52Speaker 6: So how bad are things at Spirit?
- 3:55Speaker 4: To me, it sounds like it's so bad they got
- 3:57Speaker 4: to buy it, And I think that's bad. Right, If
- 4:01Speaker 4: you're Boeing, you do want to preserve cash, right, you
- 4:03Speaker 4: don't want to go make an acquisition. You got plenty
- 4:05Speaker 4: of other things to manage right now. But I think
- 4:09Speaker 4: it means that, yes, the turnover at Spirit's been bad.
- 4:13Speaker 4: The quality control, I think that's led it to the quality
- 4:16Speaker 4: control problems. You want to have your hand in how
- 4:20Speaker 4: those line workers are being managed, how the quality control
- 4:23Speaker 4: is being handled. Yeah, it means it was really bad
- 4:27Speaker 4: at Spirit, all right.
- 4:27Speaker 3: The shares of Spirit Error Systems SPR is a ticker
- 4:30Speaker 3: for your Bloomberg terminal, up fourteen percent a year today.
- 4:33Speaker 3: Trading has resumed here, so obviously the market signing pretty
- 4:38Speaker 3: high probability that something will get done here. So George,
- 4:40Speaker 3: just looking at Boeing holistically, you know, as you've told
- 4:44Speaker 3: us in the past. You know, this is a scale business.
- 4:46Speaker 3: You've got to make as many planes as you can
- 4:48Speaker 3: for that over that fixed cost base. You have talk
- 4:51Speaker 3: to us about the production goals, but taught to us
- 4:53Speaker 3: where they are in production today and where do they
- 4:56Speaker 3: want to get to and do you think that's a
- 4:57Speaker 3: reasonable glidepath.
- 5:01Speaker 4: So they are at thirty eight today, although they'll tell
- 5:05Speaker 4: you even though their suppliers are building at thirty eight
- 5:08Speaker 4: and delivering the Boeing at thirty eight, Boeing is not
- 5:11Speaker 4: putting thirty eight out.
- 5:13Speaker 5: So I don't know. There's somewhere between.
- 5:14Speaker 4: They's somewhere in the high thirties.
- 5:16Speaker 5: Let's say it depends what month it is.
- 5:18Speaker 3: That that's you know, their mother base is just in general.
- 5:21Speaker 4: Sorry, and that's on the seven thirty seven. Yep, that's
- 5:23Speaker 4: the most important product. On the seven eight seven. You know,
- 5:27Speaker 4: we're in the in the I think five is six
- 5:30Speaker 4: ish area right now on seven thirty seven. You know,
- 5:35Speaker 4: they've got goals to be into the fifties. They've and
- 5:40Speaker 4: at the end of the last expansion phase before the pandemic,
- 5:44Speaker 4: before the max crashes and groundings, you know they were
- 5:48Speaker 4: they were in the sixties. They're not going to go
- 5:50Speaker 4: in the sixties airbuses, you know, for the seven thirty seven.
- 5:53Speaker 4: Airbus is talking about going to seventy five for the
- 5:57Speaker 4: eight three twenty. So I think if you and I
- 5:59Speaker 4: were inside the Boeing management meetings and they told you
- 6:01Speaker 4: where they really wanted to go, they want to be
- 6:04Speaker 4: up there near.
- 6:07Speaker 5: Airbus.
- 6:08Speaker 4: They're taking a fifty to fifty complement of this market.
- 6:12Speaker 4: Is that the right place to go? Yes, they're talking
- 6:14Speaker 4: mid decade. Yes, probably pulling Spirit inside. Timing probably had
- 6:19Speaker 4: a lot to do with that too. They thought, look,
- 6:21Speaker 4: how can we stabilize this the fastest, because we don't
- 6:25Speaker 4: want to keep giving away share to air Bus.
- 6:28Speaker 6: Going to Spirit back to just for one second. We're
- 6:30Speaker 6: also reporting that Spirit is exploring strategic options. So that
- 6:34Speaker 6: leads me to believe that if the Boeing thing doesn't happen,
- 6:36Speaker 6: they're still in deep trouble and they got to get
- 6:39Speaker 6: a buyer or do something else. What would be Plan B.
- 6:44Speaker 5: For Spirit?
- 6:45Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 6:46Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean when we look at Spirit spirits, you know,
- 6:49Speaker 4: you know, Spirit has has a bunch of debt coming
- 6:51Speaker 4: do the capital markets haven't loved them as much. I
- 6:54Speaker 4: think they've they you know that some of the debt
- 6:57Speaker 4: they've placed has been up in the nine percent ish level.
- 7:00Speaker 4: I think the capital markets, the debt capital markets especially,
- 7:03Speaker 4: have looked at the Boeing relationship and that's given them
- 7:06Speaker 4: more comfort probably to give them rates that perhaps were
- 7:09Speaker 4: better than what Spirit should have got. I think it, frankly,
- 7:13Speaker 4: would be strategic options, you know, away from Boeing are
- 7:17Speaker 4: really difficult because again some you know, some fifty to
- 7:21Speaker 4: sixty I'm talking off the Kuffey I have to go
- 7:23Speaker 4: pull the exact number of their revenues flow through Boeing.
- 7:28Speaker 4: What I'm guessing, and that's that strategic comment, is that
- 7:33Speaker 4: Spirit is probably looking at how they would spin off
- 7:36Speaker 4: portions of the business that are not Boeing focused, so that,
- 7:42Speaker 4: you know, so that it could continue, you know, to
- 7:45Speaker 4: serve those customers. Like I said, Airbus, Lockheed, other defense
- 7:50Speaker 4: companies have products that are being built by Spirit. I
- 7:53Speaker 4: think They're probably looking at ways to continue to service
- 7:56Speaker 4: them in an entity that would be.
- 7:59Speaker 5: Outside of Boeing.
- 8:01Speaker 4: You know, the fuselage building business, which is largely what
- 8:05Speaker 4: Spirit does, isn't one of the great money makers in
- 8:08Speaker 4: the industry. And you know, we've seen it go to
- 8:12Speaker 4: some you know, to go offshore. You know, the Koreans
- 8:16Speaker 4: want to be in this business, the Japanese are in
- 8:19Speaker 4: this business, the Chinese are in this business. There's a
- 8:22Speaker 4: lot of competition in that space, and so I think
- 8:25Speaker 4: it makes it a really hard part of the business
- 8:28Speaker 4: to be in to make very good returns and looks
- 8:32Speaker 4: it's a space, the fuselage building space that I think
- 8:34Speaker 4: Airbus has kept more inside because again they want to
- 8:37Speaker 4: control their quality. So, you know, I guess that's a
- 8:42Speaker 4: lot a long way of saying, I don't know that
- 8:44Speaker 4: options as a complete entity away from Boeing. I don't
- 8:47Speaker 4: know the great ones exist and I don't see that.
- 8:50Speaker 4: My guess is they're trying to spend parts of it away,
- 8:53Speaker 4: all right.
- 8:53Speaker 3: George, thanks so much for joining us on short notice.
- 8:55Speaker 3: Really appreciate it. George Ferguson, he covers the airspace business
- 8:59Speaker 3: was the airlines is the whole complex over there, including
- 9:01Speaker 3: the defense manufacturers. Again, Wall Street Journal first reported, now
- 9:05Speaker 3: Bloomberg News matching that Boeing is in talks to acquire
- 9:10Speaker 3: Spirit Aerosystems Holdings SPRS.
- 9:13Speaker 7: The ticker Spirit is.
- 9:15Speaker 3: The stock is up fifteen and a half percent today
- 9:17Speaker 3: right now, So suggesting to the market believes that there
- 9:20Speaker 3: is something there in s George was suggesting, Alex, it's
- 9:22Speaker 3: probably something they gotta do.
- 9:24Speaker 6: George was awesome, Like that was great, that was great perspective, etc. Yeah,
- 9:29Speaker 6: And I thought that it was really interesting that it's
- 9:31Speaker 6: the fuselage business. So if you can spin off other stuff,
- 9:34Speaker 6: maybe that's the profitable money maker. You can still keep
- 9:37Speaker 6: the contracts with Airbus and Boeing, but it's the fuselage business. Like,
- 9:40Speaker 6: that's the part that Boeing just has to basically absorb
- 9:42Speaker 6: and suck up within its within its company. We'll see
- 9:46Speaker 6: if that works.
- 9:48Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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- 10:01Speaker 2: station Just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven.
- 10:05Speaker 6: Thirty New York Community Bank down twenty percent. All right,
- 10:09Speaker 6: you know the story. It has discovered quote material weaknesses
- 10:13Speaker 6: in how it tracks loan risks. They wrote down the
- 10:16Speaker 6: value of the company that acquired years ago and replace
- 10:18Speaker 6: its leadership to help grapple with the turmoil, there was
- 10:21Speaker 6: a theory that maybe this kind of risk was idiosyncratic.
- 10:25Speaker 6: They are one of the big exposures to rent control
- 10:27Speaker 6: departments here in New York City that has been hurt
- 10:31Speaker 6: by a revamp of some of those rent control laws.
- 10:35Speaker 6: So when there's a banking potential crisis, we go to
- 10:37Speaker 6: one guy, Herman cham Lumberg, Intelligence Senior analyst for US
- 10:42Speaker 6: Regional banks. Herman, can we still call this idiosyncratic?
- 10:48Speaker 7: It is a good question. I think it's the appropriate question.
- 10:51Speaker 8: What's idiosyncratic is you mentioned the exposures to commercial real estate,
- 10:56Speaker 8: specifically apartment lending in office. But what's also idiosyncratic is
- 11:02Speaker 8: that it recently cleared the one hundred billion dollar asset mark,
- 11:06Speaker 8: which ushers in higher capital liquidity regulatory issues.
- 11:11Speaker 7: For the bank.
- 11:12Speaker 8: And what's happening in our view is that it's easy
- 11:16Speaker 8: to reach the big leagues of one hundred billion dollars,
- 11:19Speaker 8: it looks like it's harder to stay there, right And
- 11:22Speaker 8: what we're seeing is that they're facing growing pains and
- 11:25Speaker 8: becoming such a bigger company, and these lack of material
- 11:30Speaker 8: weakness and internal controls just reflects.
- 11:32Speaker 3: That change in management. Is that usually doesn't look good, right,
- 11:37Speaker 3: I guess that's contributing to the stock here today. But
- 11:39Speaker 3: tell us about that.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 11:40Speaker 4: Sure.
- 11:40Speaker 8: So a few years back, the bank acquired another institution
- 11:47Speaker 8: called Flagstar Bank, and the CEO of Flagstar Bank is
- 11:50Speaker 8: now the CEO of NYCB. He was named the executive
- 11:55Speaker 8: chairman back earlier in February once these issues became apparent,
- 12:02Speaker 8: and it looks like the former CEO it just has
- 12:05Speaker 8: been sidelined because of.
- 12:08Speaker 7: The need for new management.
- 12:11Speaker 6: Okay, So what's interesting is that if we rewind to
- 12:15Speaker 6: when they were able to buy with a signature correct,
- 12:18Speaker 6: some signature assets, right, it was like, oh, look, yay,
- 12:20Speaker 6: they were the savior, et cetera. Is that gonna are
- 12:24Speaker 6: regulator is going to rethink what being a bank savior
- 12:28Speaker 6: is in that circumstance.
- 12:30Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a great question, and I think it really
- 12:35Speaker 8: poses a different question. Was New Your Community the right
- 12:39Speaker 8: bank to acquire the signature assets and deposits if we knew,
- 12:45Speaker 8: if the regulators should have known, that New Community wasn't
- 12:49Speaker 8: really up to snuff up the speed on a number
- 12:53Speaker 8: of these internal issues, capital issues, liquidity issues, and reserve issues. So, uh,
- 13:01Speaker 8: does do the bank layers need to be more cognizant
- 13:06Speaker 8: of what they're doing and anointing of potential savior and
- 13:12Speaker 8: a year later, now this bank is in the crossairs.
- 13:15Speaker 3: What one of the lessons I'd take away from this
- 13:17Speaker 3: story is I think a basic fundamental investing lesson, which
- 13:21Speaker 3: is kind of concentration risk. Look like, had so much
- 13:26Speaker 3: exposure to this type of loan class i e. Loans
- 13:30Speaker 3: to rent controlled apartments, that presents a whole level of risk.
- 13:35Speaker 3: I either not diversified in their portfolio as much as
- 13:38Speaker 3: maybe we would like. But I guess if you were
- 13:40Speaker 3: investor in YCV, you knew that going in, right, Yes,
- 13:43Speaker 3: you knew that.
- 13:44Speaker 8: Going in that this was the bank that has historically
- 13:47Speaker 8: focused on the rent regulated apartment lending sector. There they're
- 13:53Speaker 8: the big ahuna in this niche business and they've been
- 13:56Speaker 8: doing it for decades.
- 13:57Speaker 7: So that's not new.
- 13:59Speaker 8: And you should have known that a few years back
- 14:02Speaker 8: when when New York imposed tougher regulations, that this was
- 14:07Speaker 8: going to hurt their their main business.
- 14:10Speaker 7: So it's taken a few years for just to really
- 14:14Speaker 7: bore itself out.
- 14:14Speaker 6: Also, maybe an investor should know, but the company also
- 14:17Speaker 6: should have known, Like that part couldn't have come as
- 14:20Speaker 6: a surprise from that end.
- 14:21Speaker 3: No, but they're risking controls. That's a real problem exactly.
- 14:24Speaker 6: And now they're trying to do what is this risk,
- 14:27Speaker 6: synthetic risk something something. So basically the aesthetics sounds.
- 14:32Speaker 8: Not great, but synthetic the rid of a transaction to
- 14:37Speaker 8: help reduce their their loan exposures and improve their capital.
- 14:42Speaker 8: So that's one way to get rid of or improve
- 14:46Speaker 8: their capital without actually selling the loans.
- 14:48Speaker 3: All right, for our listeners and viewers that are not
- 14:51Speaker 3: exposed to New York RAN controlled real estate, talk to
- 14:53Speaker 3: us about the regional banks in general. What's kind of
- 14:56Speaker 3: the feeling. And you talk to investors today, are they
- 14:59Speaker 3: warming up to this? I know it's bounced off that
- 15:01Speaker 3: October low, right, but I'm not sure if that's a
- 15:04Speaker 3: market bouncer. People are saying, I think I've seen the
- 15:06Speaker 3: worst in regional banks.
- 15:07Speaker 8: It's it's an interesting question. You're right that they've bounced.
- 15:11Speaker 8: But now a number of folks in the market are
- 15:16Speaker 8: saying potentially no rate cuts this year, which would be
- 15:20Speaker 8: viewed as negative for the regional banks, just because the
- 15:23Speaker 8: positive costs have risen.
- 15:25Speaker 6: Yeah, cuts because the economy is good and accelerating, So wouldn't.
- 15:30Speaker 9: That be good?
- 15:31Speaker 7: There's two things that that weigh on that.
- 15:33Speaker 8: Number One, there's not a lot of loan growth and
- 15:36Speaker 8: rate cuts would improve loan demand. And number two, elevated
- 15:41Speaker 8: interest rates is bad for credit quality and being able
- 15:44Speaker 8: to refinance the existing loans.
- 15:46Speaker 7: And the decline and value.
- 15:49Speaker 8: In areas like office commercial real estate could hamper banks
- 15:53Speaker 8: credit quality.
- 15:54Speaker 3: So where are we all on that commercial real estate risk?
- 15:56Speaker 3: I kind of feel like it's a time bombs still
- 15:59Speaker 3: out there, and at any time over the next two
- 16:01Speaker 3: or three or four years, maybe multiple times over that timeframe,
- 16:05Speaker 3: we're gonna have bank a or group of banks are
- 16:08Speaker 3: going to call out CIRI is a reason why they
- 16:10Speaker 3: really missed or they have to really up their reserves or.
- 16:13Speaker 5: Something like that. Where are we on that?
- 16:15Speaker 8: Yeah, that continues to play out. We saw that with
- 16:19Speaker 8: your community in the fourth quarter. We'd expect more of
- 16:22Speaker 8: that going ahead in the coming quarters. That being said,
- 16:28Speaker 8: the risk in our view is really relegated to the
- 16:31Speaker 8: smaller banking institutions.
- 16:33Speaker 7: We just looked at some data which I think was
- 16:35Speaker 7: pretty interesting. Since the.
- 16:40Speaker 8: COVID era starting in twenty nineteen, the top twenty five
- 16:45Speaker 8: US banks have grown their commercial real estate loans by
- 16:48Speaker 8: only two percent, and then the large the smallest banks
- 16:51Speaker 8: have grown their commercial real estate by forty three percent.
- 16:54Speaker 8: So that shows me that really the risk is comprised
- 17:00Speaker 8: largely in the smaller bank cohort.
- 17:02Speaker 6: That's interesting. So let me ask a question. Went back
- 17:05Speaker 6: to the FED cut, So if we don't get a
- 17:07Speaker 6: cut for this year, let's just pretend game out.
- 17:10Speaker 3: Did that just Torton wor other people know it's just Torston?
- 17:12Speaker 3: I think.
- 17:13Speaker 6: I think a couple of weeks ago people were talking
- 17:14Speaker 6: about the worry that we may have to have another
- 17:17Speaker 6: hike because inflation was reaccelerating. But this is maybe the
- 17:20Speaker 6: first I've heard of no cuts at all. So if
- 17:22Speaker 6: that happens and there's no cuts, who's going to be
- 17:25Speaker 6: under pressure? I mean, you mentioned the fact that a
- 17:28Speaker 6: cut would help loan demand, So who's already seeing sketchy
- 17:32Speaker 6: loan demand?
- 17:33Speaker 4: Right?
- 17:33Speaker 8: So that's an industry phenomenon where where we're not seeing
- 17:37Speaker 8: loan growth across the group. The FED puts out weekly
- 17:41Speaker 8: data and it shows that loans are down quarter to
- 17:44Speaker 8: day in commercial loans, so that's a big driver of
- 17:48Speaker 8: the regional bank the large region on bank balance.
- 17:51Speaker 7: Sheets, so that's hampered. It's going to affect.
- 17:57Speaker 8: Banks like probably New York community the most because any
- 18:01Speaker 8: potential rate cuts review as a savior for them because
- 18:05Speaker 8: then their borrowers could refinance at rates.
- 18:08Speaker 3: All right, Herman, thanks so much for joining us. Hermy Chands,
- 18:10Speaker 3: senior analysts for the banks, joining us here in our
- 18:12Speaker 3: Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio.
- 18:15Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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- 18:30Speaker 10: This is the.
- 18:30Speaker 6: Bloomberg Intelligence Radio Show. We bring you great analysis with
- 18:34Speaker 6: all our Bloomberg Intelligence folks. Two thousand companies, one hundred
- 18:38Speaker 6: and thirty industries. You want to know about it, they
- 18:40Speaker 6: cover it. We also like to give you a perspective
- 18:42Speaker 6: of how to invest on a broader level, particularly on
- 18:44Speaker 6: a day where the data My point to, maybe we're
- 18:46Speaker 6: going to get some fed cuts, but then Tauris and
- 18:48Speaker 6: Slackowapaula said, you're not going to get any cuts this
- 18:51Speaker 6: year because the economy is just actually accelerating. Things are
- 18:54Speaker 6: too strong. So Anna Rappern joins us now she is
- 18:57Speaker 6: CIO at CBIZ Investment Advisory Service. Says Anna, do you
- 19:01Speaker 6: agree with Torsten Slock maybe or what's the case for
- 19:04Speaker 6: no cuts at all this year?
- 19:06Speaker 1: I don't know about no cuts, but I think it's
- 19:08Speaker 1: certainly difficult for the FED to raise rates at this
- 19:11Speaker 1: time or at least looking out into twenty twenty four.
- 19:15Speaker 1: And it's not just the inflation, it's their target of
- 19:17Speaker 1: two percent. It has been really sticky. Sticky doesn't mean
- 19:21Speaker 1: it's not falling sticky me that's falling very slowly and
- 19:24Speaker 1: that it's very very bumpy. So either the FED is
- 19:26Speaker 1: going to have to accept a higher than two percent
- 19:30Speaker 1: inflation rate and call it maybe the momentum is heading
- 19:33Speaker 1: down and start to normalize rates, or they may have
- 19:37Speaker 1: to be higher for longer. That may be one cut,
- 19:40Speaker 1: maybe two cuts, maybe no cuts. But I think no
- 19:42Speaker 1: cuts is that's a pretty hockey shew.
- 19:47Speaker 3: He's certainly got some airtime if nothing else today, Anna,
- 19:51Speaker 3: what do you think about this kind of soft landing
- 19:54Speaker 3: scenario that seems to be out there? People kind of
- 19:56Speaker 3: feel like I think the Fed's doing a pretty good
- 19:58Speaker 3: job here negotiating a soft landing. You buy into that, well,
- 20:03Speaker 3: I think.
- 20:03Speaker 1: You have to look at the underlying risks that are
- 20:07Speaker 1: in the markets. I mean, there's the labor market. You know,
- 20:09Speaker 1: weakness in the fringes that we've seen, and this is
- 20:12Speaker 1: sort of like, you know, what would a recession look
- 20:15Speaker 1: like if we didn't have external shocks? If you think
- 20:19Speaker 1: about the last three recessions that we had, they all
- 20:22Speaker 1: came from crazy external shocks. How often do you have
- 20:25Speaker 1: a pandemic? How do you often do you have a
- 20:28Speaker 1: global financial crisis? Maybe there's a tech bubble. I don't know,
- 20:32Speaker 1: depends on who you asked, but that was in the
- 20:34Speaker 1: late nineties. These are sort of triggered by outside factors.
- 20:39Speaker 1: If you have a normal economic cycle where you really
- 20:42Speaker 1: have like a natural boom and bust, you're going to
- 20:45Speaker 1: see weakness around the fringes. And I think we're starting
- 20:47Speaker 1: to see that and in the consumers labor market as
- 20:51Speaker 1: well as delinquency rates, et cetera. And you're starting to
- 20:54Speaker 1: see some cracks in the markets, especially with New York
- 20:58Speaker 1: Community Bank, right, I mean, was news that came out.
- 21:01Speaker 1: We started to see some cracks about a year ago,
- 21:03Speaker 1: it's almost a one year anniversary, and here we are
- 21:07Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four talking about banks again.
- 21:10Speaker 6: So does that would that be a call then to
- 21:13Speaker 6: sell the rally in small caps because what you're describing
- 21:16Speaker 6: is really great for large cap companies and really bad
- 21:19Speaker 6: for the small guys.
- 21:21Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think the small caps have been
- 21:23Speaker 1: telling us that it's been pretty uncertain because.
- 21:25Speaker 6: They've outperformed Anna and the short term they have outperformed.
- 21:29Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so short term they've outperformed because the yields
- 21:32Speaker 1: came down, right. So if we're talking about a higher
- 21:34Speaker 1: for longer scenario, I mean, look at the ten year today,
- 21:37Speaker 1: it's falling pretty dramatically and yesterday as well. I mean,
- 21:41Speaker 1: small caps tend to like these things. But if we're
- 21:44Speaker 1: talking about a higher for longer, we're talking about a
- 21:46Speaker 1: pretty volatile rate environment where it can definitely go back up,
- 21:50Speaker 1: and when it goes back up, it sort of supports
- 21:52Speaker 1: that higher for longer narrative, and that's not as friendly
- 21:55Speaker 1: for small stocks.
- 21:57Speaker 3: How About on the fixed income side here, I'm looking
- 21:59Speaker 3: at you know, just the to your treasure for example,
- 22:01Speaker 3: what's pulling back today off a seven basis points but
- 22:03Speaker 3: you know, you're still getting north of four and a
- 22:05Speaker 3: half percent for a two years. How do you kind
- 22:07Speaker 3: of advise your clients I think about the fixed income.
- 22:10Speaker 1: Space, Well, so depending on why you're investing in fixed income,
- 22:14Speaker 1: I think that that reason is very important. Look, I mean,
- 22:17Speaker 1: yield is very, very attractive, and so even if you
- 22:20Speaker 1: have some sell off on and some headwind on the price,
- 22:25Speaker 1: there's enough yield there to cushion some of that below
- 22:28Speaker 1: so that we're not talking about the same environment as
- 22:30Speaker 1: before the FED started to raise rates, right, So we're
- 22:34Speaker 1: less sensitive to price changes, so we do invest for yield,
- 22:39Speaker 1: especially on the shorter end. We are keeping durraser a
- 22:41Speaker 1: little bit on the shorter side because of some of
- 22:44Speaker 1: the volatility that we were expecting on the longer end
- 22:47Speaker 1: of the curve.
- 22:47Speaker 6: So is that a steep Nerd trade then.
- 22:51Speaker 1: Yes, I mean we're not like that.
- 22:53Speaker 6: He doesn't like to talk about steepeners. But because a
- 22:56Speaker 6: steep nerd trade has been real.
- 22:58Speaker 10: Rough, Oh yes it has.
- 23:01Speaker 1: And I think that's because every time the FED comes
- 23:04Speaker 1: out and says, well, you know, we we're thinking about
- 23:08Speaker 1: cutting rates, we're thinking about doing this, that I think
- 23:11Speaker 1: the markets interpret that to be Okay, the FED is
- 23:14Speaker 1: going to be dubbish and the financial conditions loosen and
- 23:17Speaker 1: then it tightens again. I think it's that volatility that's
- 23:20Speaker 1: very hard to stummch for some of our investors. So
- 23:23Speaker 1: keeping duration a little bit on the shorter side to
- 23:26Speaker 1: minimize some of that price impact is sort of our goal.
- 23:29Speaker 3: How about on in the credit space here, should I
- 23:33Speaker 3: be willing to go out there and maybe take some
- 23:35Speaker 3: credit risk in in an effort to maybe goose up
- 23:38Speaker 3: my yield here, So we're.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Talking about credit spreads or every talking about treasure yields,
- 23:45Speaker 1: because the treasury yields are very very attractive, and of
- 23:48Speaker 1: course you put the credit spreads on top of that,
- 23:50Speaker 1: it's even more attractive. But we are a little bit
- 23:53Speaker 1: more careful on credit, especially on high yield. I believe
- 23:57Speaker 1: our high yield is at the lowest that we're in
- 23:59Speaker 1: tern a percentage that willing to go it is still
- 24:02Speaker 1: a very attractive yield. Again, there's some cushion for some
- 24:06Speaker 1: of the price volatility. But when high yield spread widens,
- 24:11Speaker 1: that widens pretty quickly. There's a big price action there
- 24:14Speaker 1: on the negative side that we don't necessarily want to
- 24:16Speaker 1: participate in. So we're staying on the investment grade credit.
- 24:21Speaker 1: As we all know, that market has been very very
- 24:23Speaker 1: healthy in terms of new issuance, in terms of demand,
- 24:27Speaker 1: and so we are there at the moment. I can't
- 24:29Speaker 1: tell you that we'll be there next month, but we're
- 24:33Speaker 1: certainly for now. We've been clipping very nice coupon on
- 24:36Speaker 1: that on that front.
- 24:37Speaker 6: Okay, So that's a good point because so you're you're
- 24:40Speaker 6: in the investment grade market, but that's for the coupon.
- 24:42Speaker 6: In the tragy market, are you there for price appreciation
- 24:45Speaker 6: or are you there for the coupon.
- 24:47Speaker 1: We're there for the coupon because again, rates are so
- 24:50Speaker 1: volatile that we sort of have to ignore it as
- 24:53Speaker 1: noise for the time being, and we're there to clip
- 24:56Speaker 1: the coupon. So we were there for a while now,
- 25:00Speaker 1: especially after let's say in twenty twenty three, about halfway
- 25:04Speaker 1: into twenty twenty three, we increase duration, we increase our
- 25:08Speaker 1: fixed income exposure to participate on that yield, and a
- 25:13Speaker 1: lot of our clients are actually looking for that yield,
- 25:15Speaker 1: so that made sense for us.
- 25:18Speaker 3: So Anna, the issue here is for a lot of
- 25:20Speaker 3: folks is what is our federal reserve going to do.
- 25:23Speaker 3: And you know, again there's lots of competing calls out there,
- 25:25Speaker 3: but overall, where do you think the risk profile for
- 25:30Speaker 3: this market is? Do you think people are willing to
- 25:31Speaker 3: take risk when when you talk to your clients, are
- 25:33Speaker 3: they a little bit more risk adverse?
- 25:37Speaker 1: It's mixed, So there's definitely fomo, but there are people who,
- 25:43Speaker 1: especially small business owners, they see some of the you know,
- 25:46Speaker 1: some of them see strength, some of them definitely see weaknesses,
- 25:49Speaker 1: and a lot of them tell us that this market
- 25:52Speaker 1: doesn't make sense to them. So what is priced into
- 25:55Speaker 1: the markets right now is a lot of optimism, including
- 25:59Speaker 1: the area where FED starts to cut, and if that
- 26:03Speaker 1: doesn't materialize, I think that the markets may be in
- 26:06Speaker 1: for a surprise, and a lot of our clients are
- 26:08Speaker 1: definitely thinking in that way. The valuations, you know, the
- 26:11Speaker 1: numbers don't sit very well with them. So certainly there's
- 26:15Speaker 1: some fear, but you know, there's always a pusson pool
- 26:18Speaker 1: between fomo and fear.
- 26:20Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, I definitely have some fomo, but I'm also
- 26:23Speaker 6: like soup cans under my bag kind of gal so
- 26:25Speaker 6: Anna thanks a lot, really appreciate it. In a Rathburn
- 26:27Speaker 6: cio at Sibiz Investment Advisory Services.
- 26:32Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 26:36Speaker 2: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
- 26:39Speaker 2: Auto with the Bloomberg Business. You can also listen live
- 26:42Speaker 2: on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station Just
- 26:46Speaker 2: Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 26:50Speaker 6: We did see paul A Spike once we got the
- 26:53Speaker 6: ism and the you mish in the S and P
- 26:55Speaker 6: like I get, we're only up one tenth of one
- 26:56Speaker 6: percent and definitely buying coming into the front end. It's
- 26:59Speaker 6: like buy everything. It's okay, the Fed's gonna cut not
- 27:02Speaker 6: at all what torrest and slock was saying, No, no.
- 27:04Speaker 3: Tors and side. We justaid Torson slock On saying economy
- 27:06Speaker 3: is better than expected. Well, these numbers don't show that.
- 27:09Speaker 6: They don't, so let's kind of understand what's going on.
- 27:12Speaker 6: Tim Fiori is chair of the Institute for Supply Management,
- 27:15Speaker 6: so he's the ISM GUYE. So he does all the stuff,
- 27:17Speaker 6: He does all the surveys, he knows the things, and
- 27:19Speaker 6: just to recap ism manufacturing coming in light of forty
- 27:22Speaker 6: seven point eight the new orders, though slipping below fifty,
- 27:25Speaker 6: All right, Tim, what happened.
- 27:26Speaker 5: Was going on? So Alex, it was actually a pretty
- 27:30Speaker 5: good month.
- 27:31Speaker 9: So what's actually happening on the number side is seasonal
- 27:35Speaker 9: adjustment factors. So we got a huge benefit in January
- 27:39Speaker 9: from seasonal factors, and we got a huge deducted in
- 27:42Speaker 9: February from seasonal factors. If you look at the raw numbers,
- 27:45Speaker 9: we're actually positive in February compared to January, which you
- 27:47Speaker 9: would normally expect to see anyway. So overall, you know, go,
- 27:51Speaker 9: I go through the ten sub inducs, I categorize them
- 27:54Speaker 9: as positive, negative, or mixed for the month, and I
- 27:58Speaker 9: determined all the sub inducks were positive for the month.
- 28:01Speaker 9: So let me let me support this whole thing on
- 28:03Speaker 9: the demand side, because the new order number is the
- 28:05Speaker 9: one that's going to really.
- 28:06Speaker 5: Flash out of people.
- 28:07Speaker 9: By far, the majority of our comments around softening demand
- 28:12Speaker 9: is decreased in half, so many fewer panelists are commenting
- 28:15Speaker 9: about softer orders, which is a positive thing. Our sentiment
- 28:19Speaker 9: around future demand is still running at about two to one.
- 28:23Speaker 9: You know, we peaked at ten or twelve to one,
- 28:25Speaker 9: you know, many many months ago, but two to one
- 28:27Speaker 9: still says we have a predominant amount of people saying
- 28:29Speaker 9: that things in the future are going to get better.
- 28:32Speaker 9: You know, I've been tracking the percent of respondents that
- 28:35Speaker 9: are below fifty industry sectors and the ones that are
- 28:38Speaker 9: below forty five, which is a real warning sign.
- 28:41Speaker 5: So I think last month under forty five we were
- 28:43Speaker 5: twenty seven.
- 28:44Speaker 9: Back in January, twenty seven percent of manufacturing was contracting
- 28:47Speaker 9: in forty five or less.
- 28:49Speaker 5: This month is one percent.
- 28:51Speaker 3: Wow.
- 28:51Speaker 9: And then on the overall contraction under fifty last month
- 28:55Speaker 9: was in the range of sixty five. This month we're
- 28:58Speaker 9: in the range of forty. So overall we're moving in
- 29:01Speaker 9: the right direction. This is going to be a slow recovery.
- 29:03Speaker 9: I think the month of February indicated that, yes, January
- 29:07Speaker 9: was a pivot month. We're starting to grow again. The
- 29:09Speaker 9: headline number is and showing that with the detail underneath
- 29:12Speaker 9: supports for sure. So I think the man is coming back,
- 29:16Speaker 9: for sure, especially with the raw number being up.
- 29:17Speaker 3: Okay, So how about so tim four us folks that
- 29:20Speaker 3: just kind of look at the headline number, What am
- 29:23Speaker 3: I going to see a I in manufacturing number north
- 29:26Speaker 3: of fifty? When do you think we're going to see
- 29:27Speaker 3: that and see a little bit of growth in manufacturing ecounomy.
- 29:30Speaker 9: I think it's very possible in March. I've been saying
- 29:33Speaker 9: that for the last three four months. It's very possible
- 29:35Speaker 9: that we could see it over fifty in March. You know,
- 29:39Speaker 9: you know, the seasonal factors are an interesting thing. I'm
- 29:41Speaker 9: a big believer in seasonal factors. We had three years
- 29:44Speaker 9: of no seasonality, and those three years are now factoring
- 29:47Speaker 9: into our seasonal adjustment factors. You know, we had, for instance,
- 29:50Speaker 9: on the new order side, we actually up the January
- 29:53Speaker 9: new order number up four point two points in January
- 29:56Speaker 9: and we're now deducting four point three. So there's some
- 29:59Speaker 9: real voluti going in here because of what happened in
- 30:02Speaker 9: the pandemic is your carryover effects. But so you look
- 30:05Speaker 9: at both elements, look at the seasonal factor, look at
- 30:08Speaker 9: the non seasonal factor.
- 30:09Speaker 5: We're definitely heading in the right direction.
- 30:11Speaker 9: And I think the other thing here is on the
- 30:12Speaker 9: production side, we again were generally stable to the prior month,
- 30:17Speaker 9: so revenue continues to be stable, which is good. We
- 30:20Speaker 9: continue to take headcount out to match the future projections.
- 30:24Speaker 9: At least within the next six months. We're running at
- 30:26Speaker 9: about a one to one hired to force managed ratio,
- 30:29Speaker 9: with half of the force managed activity being layoffs, so
- 30:32Speaker 9: people are a little bit more urgent and eliminating the
- 30:34Speaker 9: head count compared compared to where they were in September October.
- 30:38Speaker 5: I think that's all positive.
- 30:39Speaker 9: And then for the first time in many, many months,
- 30:41Speaker 9: I think sixteen, the supply base is now stiffening up.
- 30:45Speaker 9: For the first time in many months, we've now gone
- 30:47Speaker 9: to an environment where the suppliers are struggling to deliver.
- 30:50Speaker 9: So that's all positive. It means demand is aggregating at
- 30:53Speaker 9: the lowest level and we're now starting to feel the
- 30:56Speaker 9: impacts of it.
- 30:56Speaker 6: So this is why we love having Tim on because
- 30:59Speaker 6: you look at the headline number and we're all like, oh, oh,
- 31:02Speaker 6: this isn't good here, and we get the idea and
- 31:05Speaker 6: we get the real data behind those numbers. So maybe
- 31:08Speaker 6: when Torston's Slock says the economy is better than expected,
- 31:11Speaker 6: maybe that's true. Tim. I know you're not an economist
- 31:14Speaker 6: or a FED official or Torsten's Slock, but is the
- 31:17Speaker 6: economy better than we think?
- 31:20Speaker 5: Well?
- 31:21Speaker 9: I think Alix, you and I have talked about this
- 31:23Speaker 9: for many months now, back in the August timeframe. I
- 31:26Speaker 9: think in September, I came out with the declaration I
- 31:29Speaker 9: think we're in the trough, and I think we've been
- 31:30Speaker 9: in the trough since August. The thing I didn't have
- 31:34Speaker 9: any insight into is when did we get to climb
- 31:36Speaker 9: out of it. Then we did our forecast back in
- 31:38Speaker 9: December before Chairman Powell releases predictions on twenty twenty four,
- 31:43Speaker 9: the most important one being I'm pretty much going to
- 31:46Speaker 9: cap out increases and then by the time we get
- 31:49Speaker 9: to twenty twenty six, sometime I might get get to
- 31:52Speaker 9: the two percent. So at that point we already had
- 31:54Speaker 9: a very positive forecast of twenty twenty four and that
- 31:57Speaker 9: just provided really good tailwinds to help us through. And
- 32:01Speaker 9: then you know, last month I said, I think we've
- 32:03Speaker 9: now started to climb out of the trough. And I
- 32:05Speaker 9: think this month supports that it's unfortunate that the seasonal
- 32:08Speaker 9: factors are so fluid here, but that will all stabilize.
- 32:13Speaker 9: March and April are really strong manufacturing months. We probably
- 32:16Speaker 9: will have significant seasonal factors to overcome. I think, like
- 32:20Speaker 9: I said, we're not on a huge ramp up here
- 32:22Speaker 9: in terms of the expansion. It's going to be slow
- 32:24Speaker 9: and gradual, but we're going to be expanding nonetheless, so
- 32:27Speaker 9: I think we'll probably break the fifty mark in March
- 32:31Speaker 9: April for sure.
- 32:32Speaker 3: Hey, Tim, any particular industry out there leading the way
- 32:35Speaker 3: or is there any industry kind of holding back this
- 32:37Speaker 3: US manufacturing?
- 32:39Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks Paul.
- 32:40Speaker 9: So, I mean the one I've been watching for three
- 32:42Speaker 9: years now is chemical products coming back to an expansion
- 32:45Speaker 9: mode because they support the other seventeen industry sectors.
- 32:49Speaker 5: Chemical products is positive.
- 32:50Speaker 9: It's expanding at about a fifty one to fifty two
- 32:53Speaker 9: in the month of February for the first time in many,
- 32:55Speaker 9: many months. But we've had five or six months of
- 32:57Speaker 9: improving in chemical products, so that just continues to support
- 33:01Speaker 9: the story. And then also in the month of February,
- 33:03Speaker 9: fabricated metal products, which is another feeding industry sector. They
- 33:08Speaker 9: generally don't sell anything direct to the consumers themselves. They
- 33:11Speaker 9: sell it to other companies that then convert it and
- 33:14Speaker 9: sell it. That's our strong that's one of our strongest
- 33:16Speaker 9: industry sectors for the month of February. Two in the
- 33:19Speaker 9: positive territory, I think the number was fifty one fifty two,
- 33:22Speaker 9: So two of the big big feeder industry sectors that
- 33:25Speaker 9: support growth overall are in the positive territory.
- 33:28Speaker 5: I think that's a very good sign.
- 33:30Speaker 9: Transportation has gotten a little bit weaker than it has been.
- 33:34Speaker 9: We're still expanding at a fifty and some change. Okay,
- 33:37Speaker 9: food and beverage is contracting. It's probably of our big
- 33:40Speaker 9: six industries that we follow, it's the one that's probably
- 33:43Speaker 9: the weakest. But I've come to learn that there's a
- 33:46Speaker 9: real seasonal factor in the food and beverage industry, and
- 33:49Speaker 9: we're at the bottom end of that seasonal factor.
- 33:51Speaker 5: Now.
- 33:51Speaker 9: They did really well in Q four, they've done really
- 33:54Speaker 9: weekly in January February they expected to. That's our number
- 33:57Speaker 9: three industry sector. So back by the time we heard
- 34:01Speaker 9: April that's gonna come out of the it's going to
- 34:03Speaker 9: pass fifty and move on, and that supports the whole
- 34:05Speaker 9: PMI expansion over fifty in the March April.
- 34:07Speaker 3: TIMEA Hey, Tim, thanks so much. You know what, I'm
- 34:09Speaker 3: gonna give you an unsolicited room rader here, I mean
- 34:11Speaker 3: your room raider in the background. It's fine, but the
- 34:14Speaker 3: fact is you're in Miami, Tim, you should have we
- 34:16Speaker 3: should have the background be like the ocean or your
- 34:19Speaker 3: yacht on the inner Coastal Waterway. So if you can
- 34:22Speaker 3: work on that that that'd be great.
- 34:23Speaker 5: It's even better. I'm a Jupiter.
- 34:25Speaker 3: Ah, there you go. That's what I'm talking about. Golf course.
- 34:28Speaker 3: Then Tim Fury, thanks so much for joining us, Chairman
- 34:31Speaker 3: of the Manufacturing Business Survey for the Institute for Supply Management. Again,
- 34:35Speaker 3: headline numbers not looking so great, but if you go
- 34:37Speaker 3: under the surface, Tim suggesting there's some strength out there,
- 34:41Speaker 3: so I appreciate it his time.
- 34:44Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 34:48Speaker 2: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple card Play and
- 34:51Speaker 2: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business at You can also
- 34:54Speaker 2: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York
- 34:58Speaker 2: station just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven.
- 35:02Speaker 6: Let's get back some of the ECO data. At the
- 35:04Speaker 6: top of the ten University of Michigan sentiment, the final
- 35:07Speaker 6: read for February coming in a bit lighter. Current conditions
- 35:10Speaker 6: revised lower as well, and expectations revised lower as well.
- 35:15Speaker 6: We want to get to the bottom of it. Joan Chu,
- 35:17Speaker 6: University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers Director joins us. Now
- 35:20Speaker 6: the revision lower. Joeanne, what happened there.
- 35:24Speaker 10: You know, essentially it edged down just a little bit.
- 35:27Speaker 10: It was not much of a change at all, and
- 35:29Speaker 10: essentially we should interpret this as moving sideways between January
- 35:33Speaker 10: and February. Essentially, consumers haven't really noticed any material changes
- 35:37Speaker 10: in the state of the economy since the start of
- 35:39Speaker 10: the year, and that comes through in our data. At
- 35:43Speaker 10: the same time, it's also solidifying the really enormous games
- 35:46Speaker 10: that we saw in December and January. We're still almost
- 35:51Speaker 10: thirty percent above where we were in November. That hasn't
- 35:54Speaker 10: really changed even with this little wiggle this month. So
- 35:56Speaker 10: consumers feeling better than last fall, feeling about the same
- 36:00Speaker 10: as last month.
- 36:02Speaker 3: I guess a lot of folks, uh, Joanne, right now,
- 36:04Speaker 3: given some of the inflation data we saw in January,
- 36:06Speaker 3: CPI and PPI and so on, maybe concerned and maybe
- 36:10Speaker 3: inflation's coming back into this economy. Are you seeing that
- 36:14Speaker 3: in any of.
- 36:14Speaker 7: Your survey work.
- 36:16Speaker 10: No, Consumers broadly have felt pretty assured that the slowdown
- 36:21Speaker 10: in inflation is going to continue. You know, the data
- 36:25Speaker 10: that the that these new inflation numbers came from comes
- 36:30Speaker 10: from consumer reflects consumers experiences last month. You know, it
- 36:33Speaker 10: comes in at a lag, so consumers already notice those
- 36:35Speaker 10: prices around them and any changes in prices. And you
- 36:39Speaker 10: know last year we were seeing quite a bit of
- 36:40Speaker 10: volatility see sawing and inflation expectations in January and February
- 36:45Speaker 10: exactly the same.
- 36:47Speaker 6: So, Joanne, what are we going to be looking for
- 36:49Speaker 6: for the preliminary read then for March, like, what are
- 36:52Speaker 6: going to be like the standouts that you're looking at.
- 36:55Speaker 10: The main thing we want to look for in the
- 36:57Speaker 10: months ahead is whether this thirty percent game that we
- 37:01Speaker 10: saw in December and January, whether that's actually going to
- 37:04Speaker 10: stick given how dramatic those increases were. You know, so
- 37:08Speaker 10: far the February week confirm that. Let's see if that
- 37:11Speaker 10: stays put in March and April. And you know, as mentioned,
- 37:17Speaker 10: inflation expectations absolutely top of mind for consumers. Right.
- 37:21Speaker 3: Very good at Joann, thanks so much for joining us.
- 37:23Speaker 3: Really appreciate it. You inshoot Surveys of consumers Director hit
- 37:26Speaker 3: there at the University of Michigan. We had some data
- 37:28Speaker 3: come out there today.
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