Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside my co host Matt Miller.
Every business day we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along with essential market moving news.
Find the Bloomberg Markets podcast called Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast.
The Israel Hamas war does seem to be broadening out the US and the UK striking back against Houthi rebels who've been targeting shipping in the Red Sea, and now the Huti are vowing to strike back oil hire as a result, Let's take a deeper dive into the story, look also at the political fallout. Wendy Schiller, professor at Brown University, joins us. Now, Wendy, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. Did the Biden admonstration have much of
a choice in its response? And what's the worry about how deeply we may or may not get involved in a broader conflict?
Well, I mean, I don't think the Biden decision had any choice. I mean, obviously we are a major superpower, but we also have very strong commercial interests in making
sure that commercial carriers can use shipping lanes unaccosted. You know, we've had issues with piracy in the past and other parts of the world, but this is you know, reminiscent of a conflicts that we've had over the years, the last fifty sixty years, and it reminds voters of our dependence on foreign oil and the globalization of the energy market.
And so I think that's where Biden has to sort of figure out how to sell this to the American people as important to the United States, but also to the environmentalists, talk about where we are in terms of our energy independence.
Now, when you the Houthi rebels, they said they have no issue launching more attacks after this, So how much of a thread of that and are the our only point of concern right now?
Well, I mean the biggest concern I think to the United States directly is that we do have carriers in golf, We have personnel all over the Middle East, and we want to make sure that they are safe. I think that's the biggest fear the Biden decision has currently. But there are also lots of civilians who are in commercial shipping, and you know, the United States feels some obligation to protect that kind of commerce. So I think these are
the pressures on the Biden administration. I think we're fully equipped militarily to really deal with any and all of the attacks. But I think they're trying to show fairly massive force early. And want to say massive, I mean joining with the UK and doing it all at once, doing a number of different strikes to limit civilian casualties, but also make sure that those that would attack the United States know that there will be a response every time they do, and that's been I think Obama, Trump,
and Biden. I don't see a lot of daylight across any of the three presidents in that regard.
All right, let's shift gears a bit. I would imagine Wendy, if you live in Iowa a year of a different stock, you're kind of a heartier breed. Is the weather going to matter for the Caucus?
I think the weather doesn't matter as much as maybe those of us on the East Coast or West Coast who are experience in bad weather might be deterred from getting out the door. I think that the caucuses are locally held, and so I think they are prepared for it.
I think that Trump supporters, and Trump himself has an advantage in that way because there's generally more enthusiasm consistently among Trump voters in the nomination process so far, particularly in Iowa, than there are the Dysantis or Haley voters. So that's the big challenge for Nikki Haley. Can she draw close enough? She'll probably lose Iowa. I think most of us agree on that, But can she actually draw close enough to say I'm viable going into New Hampshire
and really put DeSantis on the sidelines. And if she can do that with some percentage of the vote, maybe more than the fifteen percent or twenty percent, maybe twenty five percent, something like in that range, I think it makes her more viable as a candidate going into New Hampshire. As I just said. Also, the broader primary season becomes more attractive for donors for Nikka Haley if she can slice out a bigger coalition for her in Ireland.
Remind me how that the caucuses work. That the local it's not winner take all, right, No.
No, it's basically people people. It's yeah, it's in terms of the precincts, so people actually go to their precinct. It can be a school, it can be a library, it can be somebody's home, and people vote in that area for their choice. Right, But you know, the Republicans have proportional representation in their primaries at least going till March fifteenth, So this is an interesting thing people are forgetting.
You can pick up delegates throughout this contest until the middle of March, So even though Trump looks like the big front runner, we don't get to winter take off for a couple more months. So that means people like Haley and the Santis can pick off or collect delegates, and I think that makes a difference at least in the next couple of weeks.
So if you can, we'll dig into the economics a little bit of this. So like we do, we have the electioneer, we have the Warren Ukraine, we have the Warren Gaza. How is this affecting the markets? If you can just dig deeper into the market reaction from all of this put together, well, I mean.
I think, you know, I think the question is consumer confidence in both government but also in market predictions. Because you know, there was supposed to be a recession didn't really turn out that way. We have maybe a soft lanning. Maybe they'll be a little bit more of a slow down, but we've seen a very healthy job market just last month.
So the question is who are we going to believe the same kinds of forces that have infiltrated politics in terms of misinformation, perception, you know, partisanship, the lens of looking at the economy through partisanship will start to affect people's trusting of economic reditions and the market at the very high elite levels. Not but for people who are thinking, do I put my money in a savings account in a bank that I know, or do I put it
in the stock market? You know, the bank that you know is becoming far more attractive given interest rates than the amorphous stock market. So I think that people who do watch consumer behavior in terms of the stock market have to pay attention to what's happening in politics now in terms of credibility to figure out where people will actually end up putting their money as we go forward this year.
One of his cases, Donald Trump showed up yesterday kind of turned it into a political rally of sorts. Is there any degree that you can sense of maybe as it makes all of these appearances in court, usually that there's some Trump fatigue.
I think we're seeing the opposite, and I have been surprised by that that trend, but the opposite in terms of his core supporters. There is no bad publicity in Trump's world. In Trump's mind, every single opportunity to present himself and make his case he takes, and he takes with vigor and energy. And these are the kinds of
things that are frustrating to the Biden campaign. So he will now get the kind of free press, even if we all think maybe it's press, but he thinks it's good press, good opportunity, and I'll get the same kind of free press he got in twenty sixteen when everybody covered him, and I think that's what he's looking for. Will will be Trump fatigue three or four months from now among independence and suburban voters who have not yet committed in their choice for twenty twenty four, that's the
big question mark. The more we see it here from Donald Trump in what we call the mainstream media, do we get more tired of Donald Trump? He's betting the opposite, at least for the primaries to show up his base once we get to the summer. I think that's where we really have to take a look at whether people are going to choose Trump and all that Trump brings versus right now Biden. And that's where if we're going to see Trump fatigue, we'll start to see it.
Then, Okay, what's the gap between undecided versus his core supporters.
So let's just say maybe there's you know, the public party, you know, you'll do polls and people say they'll vote for Trump, will vote for Trump. But essentially there's about thirty eight to forty percent as we saw in the primaries in twenty sixteen and might see again of support for Donald Trump that's unwaiverable that they will not budge. So it does leave open the possibility of winning the nomination. But those people are Trumpers and they're never going to
sway and they're never going to affect from Trump. But there's still a lot of open GOP people. And also there are primaries that are open to independence to register, like New Hampshire where you can register to vote in the Republican primary. So a lot of states have that opportunity. That's what could swing these Republican primaries, not the closed primaries of the type that are typically in place like
South Carolina. But the open primaries are semi open where you can register as a Republican and then vote in that primary if independents choose to do that. That is what the Haley campaign is counting on to make her competitive. As we move forward, and before.
You go really quickly Biden's running meete. There's been different talk. I know you Mind mentioned it too, Kamala Harris still still sticking with them on the side or is he going somewhere else?
Yeah, I've said before that picking somebody like Raphael Warnock, who won in Georgia four times technically and who certainly in terms of making sure that you stay loyal to your promise to the African American community, to pick an African American candidate, Biden said, woman candidate. But nonetheless, that's somebody who can make Georgia competitive. Right now, Georgia won't
be competitive. I don't think in twenty twenty four there's nobody on the bout that really will generate Democrat turnout. So my proposal has been that if he is faltering generally in ways that are sort of systemic against Trump by the summer, by the convention, there could be a shift in who he selects as his VP.
Wendy, always a pleasure, appreciate it. Thanks for the Updaid, Wendy Shilder, Professor at Brown University.
You're listening to the Team Ken's Are Live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business app, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcast.
What stands out to me right now, Lisa? The two year treasury which is more policy reactive. That's seven basis points lower four sixteen. That would be just around the lowest since May, an unexpected decline and producer prices reinforcing bets. The Federal Reserve cuts rates this year. Of course, it comes after the hotter that expected CPI figures we got yesterday. Let's get the MAC review now. Phil Orlando, chief equity strategists with Federated Hermes, joins us. Phil, good to talk
to you. Take your pick. What narrative have you latched onto?
There are many from which to choose. I'm less inclined to look at the PPI, the wholesale inflation this morning. Yesterday's CPI critically important, and then the personal Consumption Expenditure Index coming up later in the month. So looking at yesterday's CPI, that number was just much hotter than expected. November year on year nominal was up three point one percent, December three point four percent, and that was a couple of tecks higher than expected. So what you look at
what the Federal Reserve has been doing. You've got some investors out there. Frankly, I think the consensus is expecting the Fed to cut rate six times over the course of this year, with that first cut coming in the month of March. We just don't see that. Given how hot inflation still is, we think the Fed is going to be patient, vigilant, try to make sure that inflation is heading down to their two percent core PCEE target.
So we're looking at a couple of rate cuts in the back half of the year, not six that are, you know, starting in the month of March.
And what about recession thoughts? Are they on the back burner?
We are officially in the soft landing camp. That said, we still expect the economy to slow materially over the course of the next year or so. So you look at this fourth quarter that's gonna get flashed in about two weeks, we're at one point five percent GDP growth. That compares to the third quarter at four point nine percent. That's a pretty significant decline. And then as you look at say the first three quarters of this year, we're gonna be limping along, we think at about a one
percent run rate. So the Federal Reserve, in our view, has done exactly what it intended to do over the last two years. They took the funds rate from zero to five and a half percent, They cut their balance sheet from nine trillion dollars to you know, seven point seven trillion dollars. They were hoping to see the economy slow, the rate of unemployment increase a little bit, inflation come down materially, and all of that's playing out at this point.
I think they just want to be you know, very careful, very cautious, very patient to make sure that inflation is sustainably moving down to their target. I think they'll come to that conclusion by the time we get to say the July FMC meeting.
I don't want to get two wonky, but I'm still having a little trouble wrapping my thoughts around the sheltered component and how that specifically is measured in whether it really is accurate at this point, well.
We can discuss or debate whether or not it's accurate or not. But here's the big picture. That inflation peaked last year and is coming down, no question, full stop. But you look at the housing market, and in calendar twenty one and calendar twenty two, housing prices in the United States went up by fifty percent five zero percent.
So while it's absolutely true that inflation is generally coming down and that housing prices have sort of peaked here, we're not seeing a fifty percent decline in housing prices. And the investment that we make as individuals in our homes for a lot of us is the most significant investment that we have in our personal portfolios. I think that's weighing on consumer attitude and consumer mentality, and then that translates back into the rental component of the CPI calculation,
which accounts for about forty percent of that number. So it will come down and wash itself out over time, but it's not going to happen tomorrow, and to some degree that's creating some of the noise and some of the stickiness in the data.
So with all that said, felt CPI PPI, How are you changing your strategy moving into twenty twenty four.
So we sort of made that change back in late October when the S and P five hundred got to that forty one hundred level, we felt that that was dramatically oversold, and we felt that we could get to the forty eight hundred level by the end of this year, the fifty two hundred level by the end of calendar twenty four. And we felt that the rally last year was disproportionately driven by the mag seven and we felt that there was going to be reverse the mean there.
So what we wanted to do and we're maintaining that strategy now is look at the sectors of the market that had been left for dead that we felt would finally find some love. So domestic small cap growth, domestic large cap value, and international the areas that we think are going to be the winners in the fourth quarter of last year and over the course of calendar twenty four.
All right, your view overall of technology in the new year, and then since we got their earnings today, the financials.
So you know, growth stocks, technology stocks are still great companies. I'm not going to tell you that Google or Softy or Nvidio or bad companies. They're not. The question is that valuations may have gotten a little bit ahead of themselves in terms of all of the AI FOMO that we experienced over the course of last year. So at this point we are slightly underweight growth and technology, but
we're not zero. We're maintaining a slight underweight position. Financials are one of the areas that we really like, along with energy and healthcare. Those were areas you look at financials for example, this time last year, first quarter of last year, those stocks were absolutely obliterated based upon the problems with the commercial real estate market. A lot of those stocks were down fifty percent. They sort of double bottomed in the fall and then have started to come
back up. So there's a lot of catch up that has to happen there. And you look at some of the quality numbers, for example, that came out of JP Morgan this morning. We think financials are a sector that that's probably going to do pretty well over the course of this year as they sort of get back on trend in terms of evaluation.
Felt disinflation good for markets or not good for markets?
I think everyone would be happy to see the FED hit their core PCE number at two percent. But here's sort of the interesting thing. We're rapidly approaching that number, and by our account, we could be there by the end of this year at the beginning of next year. But you look at the fed's latest SEP, the Summary of Economic Projections that they publish just in the middle of December, they're telling us that they're not confident that we're going to get to that two percent level until
the end of calendar twenty twenty six. That's three years from now. So where's the disconnect here? Is the FED being too conservative or do they know something that we don't know that this last mile, so to speak, I'm getting to that two percent target is going to be like hand to hand combat, and they're taking a very prudent, very patient approach, just to make sure that things are moving in the right direction.
All right, unfair question time year ENDO S and P five hundred target.
Not unfair. Fifty two hundred's our number.
Okay, we're right now forty seven to seventy six. Also, you know, still we.
Think we're going to be up eight or nine percent over the course of this year, which is a very modest year compared to the twenty four percent game we saw last year.
Phil, always a pleasure, appreciate it. Happy Friday, have a great weekend. Phil Orlando, Chief Equity Strategists with Federated Hermes.
You're listening to the tape Can's our live program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Well, we all know about geopolitical risk lease. We saw oil pop hire after US and allies launched air strikes against Houthi rebels and Yemen. As an investor, can you mitigate risks like that? Or should even try? Let's get some answers this morning Global Macro View with Jeffrey klentz Up, the Global Strategist, Chief Global Strategists at Charles Schwab. Thanks for being with us. We call risk assets for a reason. Should I be losing sleep over events over which I have no control?
Well, these types of events are gosh, you know, just an ever present risk.
When it comes to investing.
We've seen backups a chow point at the Panama Canal for months now. It's only getting worse as we head into February, as the cargo traffic through that particular vital global supply chain link is really cutting back to less than fifty percent of capacity. By February, forty percent of the world's freight traffic moves to the Panama Canal.
That's an issue.
The Red Sea certainly moves a lot of energy, yet the world is oversupplied right now, and so I think that's one of the reasons. Yes, we're seeing a balance and energy prices, but we are not in a deficit situation, and as a result of that, I think this is something that can be probably absorbed. We're not likely to see the type of surge to input prices that we saw during the pandemic tied to supply chain issues related to these particular their threats at these two vital supply
chain choke points. That could be different were they to linger into the latter part of this year, where maybe we run into an undersupply situation with energy.
But for right now now, I.
Don't think you need to lose sleep over this just expecting this is part of one of those risks when it comes to investing.
Now something else people might lose some sleepover interest rates. I want to talk give a little economic outlook yesterday where Cleveland FED President Loretta Mester, she said Central Brankos probably will have to wait past March before they can start cutting interest rates. What's your take on this.
I think that the market has gotten a little carried away with the magnitude of rate cuts likely in twenty twenty four.
I think it's.
Probably something closer to what the FIT has been telling us, maybe three or four rate cuts rather than five or six. And some of the reasons for that is the potential volatility in the path of inflation. We know inflation rarely subsides in a straight line, and we're now beginning to see this. As we get closer to the Fed's target, it's getting harder and harder to push those numbers down.
We know housing remains very challenging in the US to try and push those housing rental rates down, and the.
Result is that, yes, it may take a little bit longer.
So I think the rally we saw in the market at the end of last year, enthusiasm around a soft landing and a flood of rate cuts might need to be tempered early this year, as maybe we see a push out in the beginning and the magnitude of the number of cuts we expect from the Fed.
Hey, Jeff, is disinflation good for markets or not?
Well, it's generally good in that it lowers borrowing costs and we generally see a little bit more investment by businesses. But we've really yet to see that pick up, right, So we're still in an environment of much higher rates than businesses have been used to a few years ago, and so we're not seeing the type of capital expenditures or hiring that would normally go along with lower rates
and the disinflation. So in general it's a good thing, but it takes some time for that begin to show up in economic activity.
Ajef's big bank earnings out today. That's been the big talk. If rates go lower, what's the impact of margins? I mean, is that still a place to invest?
I do think financials are our favorite sector for twenty twenty four, and there's a variety of reasons.
One is that you've got this balance of you.
Know, what, what are banks going to earn in the short term on their cash, balanced by the fact that they hold a lot of maybe longer data fixed income because of that's how.
They hold their reserves.
And of course we all know the challenges that caused last year with the route in some of those banking stocks on that big surgeon interest rate. So there's that balance in terms of what the yield curve does this year. But maybe even more importantly is the credit outlook. And looking at the credit picture, it looks relatively bright. Usually we're going to see soaring bankruptcies through a deeper downturn in the economy.
In the economy, we didn't get that this time, and we may not.
Businesses seem to have been holding more cash. The economy seems to be managing its way through this downturn and manufacturing with a bit more strength and services, and the result of that is that we may see much less in terms of losses and provisioning for losses bank So are actually pretty bright outlook for the banks, given how they are raced on a valuation basis for a more difficult environment.
What's the outlook for the consumer? You mentioned loan loss provisions and credit cards. Probably not as high as we would have expected, But what is the outlook there for the consumer?
So much is going to be dependent. I think upon the job market. We've seen some signs of layoffs last year, but really it's not much of a follow through. Businesses sening to be hoarding labor, and we know that a lot of consumer spending really comes down to confidence in the employment situation and wages, and as long as that remains fairly high, I think you can see a consumer that continues to spend.
And what about your twenty twenty four, your whole global outlook, what are you liking right now?
So I'm actually looking outside the US overall, what we've seen is a pivot, but not less of a pivot towards ray cuts and more of a pivot to international outperformance. After years of the US market lead the way. Sure, last year on a cap weighted basis, the S and
P five hundred beat the rest of the world. But if you look at what the average stock did using the equal weighted benchmarks, we actually saw the EFI index outperformed the S and P five hundred, The average international stock beat the average US stock really eclipsed by just those seven magnificent stocks in the AI universe that really
led the US cap weighted into CES downperform. I think that broader performance is going to be revealed this year in a period where we're going to see some volatility in the economic data and the inflation picture. I think those stocks outside the US lower valuations, maybe a better earnings environment. As a manufacturing sector recovers, that looks.
Brighter to me.
I think we'll see the first year in a long time of international market out performance.
I looked to Charles Schwab when I want to know about the fund flows. What are you seeing on that front?
Investors are still favoring fixed income. Money is flowing into the bond market after many years where it was just unattractive to be there, So that's where we're seeing money go. But at the margin, we're also seeing money flow into international equities. Perhaps that's a little bit of rebalancing after
last year where the US out performed. But it is interesting to note this has been several months now we've seen more money flowing into international markets than the US markets, and I'm speaking broadly for the industry as a whole, and that's encouraging to me as well as investors maybe reconsider their portfolios and broaden that diversification.
Hey, Jeff, before we go quickly, we started this segment here talking about risk. I want to bring it back full circle here, so you can hedge risk, but is hedging worth it because it's not cheap.
It really is not cheap.
And I think that's the one of the challenges here and one of the benefits of having a diversified portfolio right now we just talked about is.
The fact that bonds are actually paying you.
They offer some interest now and are offering a little bit of an offset when we go through these periods of volatility. Just this morning, you know, a rally in the bond market on this you know, revelation of these attacks on the Hoofy rebels, and so you get a little bit of that volatility dampening effect in your portfolio
with that classic sixty to forty mix. That maybe that's back as a dampening factor after so many years where fixed income really didn't act as an effective hedge tequity volatility, maybe we're beginning to see that now.
Yeah, I missed out on five percent is what is it three ninety three right now on a ten years that still a screaming buy.
We still think that's attractive in a reason to extend duration. We think that the around year end yields maybe around that same level. So we don't see a big rally in the fixed income markets, but we don't see a further sell off either, and that means you can pocket some of that yield and benefit from the volatility damping effects.
Jeff always a pleasure, Appreciate it. Jeffrey Klinop, the chief Global Strategist, joining us from Charles Schwab.
You're listening to the tape Can's our live program, Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen Love I have on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Lisa, here's a question for you. Yeah, what is it that keeps you up at night?
Probably sleep?
I'm always worried about him. That keeps me up at night.
I know it's pretty much everything. Well, the folks at the conference board put that question. The global CEOs Dana Peterson's chief account of it is at the conference board with the results of their survey, So Dana welcome. First of all, are the big wigs in the C suite gloomy, happy or what?
It's kind of a mix. They're very worried about recessions and slow downs, as well as high inflation and geopolitics. But they are looking forward to growth and they certainly have plans in terms of expansion and also investments and innovation to make sure that they do grow over the next year.
Now are what are their biggest worries? I know, recession, inflation, I mean, are they ready for worried? How are they preparing?
Well? The interesting thing is that given those two things that they're very very worried about, they are not prepared to deal with another crisis having to do with a recession or high inflation. They're also very worried about labor shortages and geopolitical risks, including wars, and for most of those things they are not really ready, but they are thinking about, well, how do we push through despite these
very high risks. And certainly when it comes to labor shortages, they're looking at attracting and retaining top talent, So that includes things like investing in their talent AI upskilling and retraining. So they're certainly trying to find their way through the fog.
What is it that backs up those views? Is it anecdotal evidence? Is it sales figures? I mean, they have to be gloomy for reason, right.
Well, CEOs are notorious for looking ahead and looking down the road, and certainly it's also going to be colored by recently experience. Certainly, in recent experience, they've seen major increases and input costs, and certainly that includes higher interest rates. The cost of capital is elevated, and all that feeds into inflation. They've seen around the world China slowing, Europe
is slowing. A number of conflicts are causing disruptions and production and trade and investments, and all those things have gotten them very worried.
So with all these negative things that we're hearing, how did they even plan to grow profits in twenty twenty four.
Well, they're looking at expansion. So expansion means looking at new regions and countries to investment new lines of business, looking at new products and new services, and also using tools like AI to really enhance the performance of their businesses and also their workers. And they think all of this is going to be great for not only cutting costs and driving the bottom line, but also increasing profits.
Well wait a second. If they're worried about labor and they want to hold on to their workers and top talent, are they paying them more? I mean, is it an inflationary picture we're looking in.
Well, certainly when we look at the BLS data, Yes, in those industries that are suffering from labor shortages, they are paying their workers more. And also those industries where they're worried about people quitting or a lot of people are retiring, they are raising wages. But again that's very costly, so businesses are trying to find ways around that, and a lot of that's through digital transformation and technology.
Now you're talking about the workers getting paid, but where are they working? That's the big question. This whole battle back and forth between are you in the office, are you at home?
Where are you going?
Are CEOs? Are they just throwing in the towel and saying you know what you guys, do what you want to do? Or are they going to try and try and get more people in the office.
Well, it's interesting.
We did ask about the imperative to bring people back to the office, and it was really low. CEOs are not that focused on it. They're on flexibility and making sure that their workers are having a good experience, that they're collaborating, that the culture is very important, that there's a right culture to keep their workers and also to
attract new workers. So again, you know, I think they're recognizing that remote work is here to stay in some form, but they're really trying to enhance the culture to make sure that people do when they come into the office, they have a good experience and they're productive.
Is this survey broken down by region and industry and if so, what, if anything does that tell you.
Yes, it's definitely broken down by region, and so that includes the US, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and then the rest of the world. When we look at those regions, there's really not much of a big difference in terms of how CEOs think in terms of the big issues, though I would note that Japan was very much worried
about labor shortages and also US China relations. When it comes to industry, we looked at finance, manufacturing, and then everyone else, and certainly there's not there's a big focus in terms of finance on the cost of capital and higher interest rates. But for the most part, there's a lot of synergies, a lot of commonality in the way that CEOs around the world are viewing business, the business environment.
Yeah, with manufacturing, since it's been in recession, I would imagine they're a little a little more pessimistic than the mode than most.
Yeah, they definitely are, And you're right, there has been this manufacturing recession, and a lot of that reflects the fact that manufacturing was one of the pandemic darlings. It did extremely well when everyone was stuck at home and buying things, but certainly as we shifted more towards a better balance between goods and services consumption, manufacturing experience a slump. And certainly when you look around the world, you see that there's very weak growth in China, also very weak
growth in Europe in and out of recession. UK Germany may go back into recession. And these are areas that you tend to be big manufactoring hubs and also big consumers of goods, and so if you have weak demand in those areas, that's certainly going to impact the manufacturing sector as well.
Hey, Danna, we have about probably a minute left. You had mentioned Ai so I want to kind of bring it back there because this has been another problem in the workplace too. Our CEOs are they embracing it? You had mentioned they have to do some more training. How are they tackling AI in twenty twenty four.
Well, it's interesting they're welcoming AI with open arms. Most CEOs that we canvas said they have already adopted AI or have plans to do so. So they're overwhelmingly for it. They think that it's going to enhance profitability, it's going to make their workers more productive. But they are wary. They are aware that there are some risk and responsibilities.
There may be more regulation. You have to think about how to make sure the AI is not going to compromise your intellectual property or even that there will be an unethical use. But for the most part, companies are very welcoming. They're did about.
AI all right, Dana, Always a pleasure, appreciate it. Dana Peterson, the chief account of is at the Conference Board.
Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller nineteen seventy three and I'm fall Sweeney.
I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio
