BI Weekend: Homebuilder Sentiment, Natural Gas Outlook, Connie Chung - podcast episode cover

BI Weekend: Homebuilder Sentiment, Natural Gas Outlook, Connie Chung

Dec 26, 202538 min
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Episode description

Watch Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF

Hosts: Paul Sweeney and Scarlet Fu.

On this podcast:

- Lindsay Dutch, Bloomberg Intelligence Consumer Hardlines Senior Analyst, on North America Consumer Hardlines 2026 Outlook
- Drew Reading, Bloomberg Intelligence U.S Homebuilding Analyst, on homebuilder sentiment in 2026
- Vincent Piazza, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Equity Research Analyst, Oil & Gas on 2026 Outlook: US Natural Gas E&Ps
- Calvin Butler, CEO of Excelon, on data center boom/challenge of managing an energy grid.
- Beth Kowitt, Bloomberg Opinion Columnist, on Inside Walmart’s Masterclass in Reputation Rehab
-  Connie Chung, award-winning journalist and news anchor, recent author of her memoir "Connie" on the changing media/news landscape

Bloomberg Intelligence, the research arm of Bloomberg L.P., has more than 400 professionals who provide in-depth analysis on more than 2,000 companies and 135 industries while considering strategic, equity and credit perspectives. BI also provides interactive data from over 500 independent contributors. It is available exclusively for Bloomberg Terminal subscribers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Bloomberg Audio, Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarletfoo and Paul Sweeney.

Speaker 2

How do you think the FED is looking at tariffs? The uncertainty of terriffs.

Speaker 3

Let's take a look at the sectors and how they.

Speaker 2

Performed a lot of investors getting whipsaled every day by news.

Speaker 1

Events, breaking market headlines, and corporate news from across the globe.

Speaker 3

Could we see a market disruption of market events?

Speaker 2

So people just too exuberant out there?

Speaker 3

You see some so called low quality stocks driving this short term rally.

Speaker 1

Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarletfoo and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio, YouTube, and Bloomberg Originals.

Speaker 2

On today's Bloomberg Intelligence Show, we dig inside the big business story is impacting Wall Street and the global markets.

Speaker 3

Each and every week we provide in depth research and data on some of the two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries are analysts covered worldwide.

Speaker 2

Today, we'll look at the outlook for US oil and natural guests heading into the twenty twenty six and why it's well positioned to benefit from SAR structural demand.

Speaker 3

Plus, we speak with award winning journalist Connie Chung on the changes she is seeing in the media landscape.

Speaker 2

The first perspective, homeowners in twenty twenty five were boxed out by high borring cost and limited inventory, keeping affordability near record lows. That's according to the latest research from Bloomberg Intelligence.

Speaker 3

That pressure is now reshaping twenty twenty six as builders look to ramp up construction to meet pent up demand while still moving cautiously because of financing costs, labor shortages, and of course, uncertain economic growth.

Speaker 2

For more, I spoke with Drew reading Bloomberg Intelligence US home building analyst. I first asked Drew if lower interest rates will help the home building sector.

Speaker 4

So we actually think that twenty twenty six is going to be another challenging year from a fundamental perspective for the builders. If you think about the weakness that we've had in demand over the last several quarters, it leaves much of the group coming into the year with backlogs that are down anywhere from ten to forty percent, and that's ultimately what translates into revenue over the next called

it three to nine months. In addition, I think you're going to see further pricing pressure as builders look to adjust prices to meet market demand. So we're going to have further base price reductions, and I think builders are going to have to continue to lean on incentives because it's something that home shoppers have become accustomed to, and you know, they're looking for deals when they're out there

in the market. So, you know, slow top line growth, and I think that incentive dynamic is also going to continue to pressure gross margins as we get into next year.

Speaker 5

You know, on the on the.

Speaker 4

Positive side, we do have lower rates, so I do think that orders can grow next year. You know, we're looking at a six and a quarter rate call it right now last year, room as one hundred basis points higher heading into the spring. So lower rates and community count growth could support orders, but I think that revenue and margins are going to be down this year.

Speaker 2

What's the relationship historically drew between new housing and existing home sales.

Speaker 4

So the new home market is historically about fifteen percent of overall housing trands action, so a much smaller piece of the market. You know, they've they've performed vastly differently over the last couple of years. If you look at the existing home market, we've been bumping along a four million annualized run rate of home sales for about three years now, and that's about twenty percent below normalized levels. So there's been a lot of pressure because the mortgage

rate lock in effect affordability. We have seen an improvement in demand in the resale market as rates have come down. You know, we're looking at purchase applications, which is the most high frequency data point that we have. So we have seen some improvement and we think, you know, looking into twenty twenty six, you could see growth in the resale market anywhere from five to ten percent call it, but keep in mind that's off a historically low level.

Speaker 2

What's the Has the tariffs impacted the new home building market? I'm thinking lumber and all the other materials used in building a home. Is that god an impact on the profitability?

Speaker 5

Yeah, good question. To this point, it really hasn't.

Speaker 4

We've heard from a number of builders who haven't seen much of a increase in twenty twenty five. I think you could see as you get into twenty twenty six that become more of a problem. You know, we did an analysis that looked at all the tariffs that have come through in it and you know, it shows that there could be a ten thousand dollars cost increase per home as it relates to tariffs. Now, when you think about who's likely to feel that the most, it probably

won't be the large single family production builders. They've got a lot of scale, they've got a lot of leverage, and they've had success in pushing back against their suppliers. I think you're more likely to see the pinch among smaller private home builders who just don't have that scale and ability to push back. So to this point it hasn't had a bigger impact, but I think that's something you need to watch as we look in the next year.

Speaker 2

Are they still building like crazy down there in Florida and Texas and Tennessee and those kinds of states.

Speaker 5

Yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker 4

I mean, during the pandemic, that's where a lot of people were flocking to there was a lot of construction down there. If you look at inventory levels now in the South, they're actually at the highest level on record. So that's where we're seeing a lot of the weakness in the new home market. There's so much inventory, builders have had to get increasingly aggressive on prices, you know, to move inventory. A lot of incentives in the market,

a lot of base price reduction. So that's really where we've seen the weakness, and if you can trast that to some of the stronger markets, it's really a tale of a couple of regions. You have the Midwest and the Northeast, which tend not to be boom markets. We didn't see the same type of inventory growth there, and

you're seeing a lot more price stability. On the other hand, you mentioned the South, but you also have the West where there was a lot of inventory growth and we're seeing similar price and pressure.

Speaker 2

So is there still a housing shortage in this country? And if so, how does it right itself?

Speaker 4

Yeah, another good question and the one that's frequently debated. Just to take a step back, you'll hear estimates of anywhere to you know, a million to five million unit housing shortage. But I think, you know, I think it's a more complex answer that the shortage, so called shortage, is probably more at lower price points. So there's a mismatch between where there's theoretically demand, which would be at lower price points, and what's available out there in the market.

So it's really a affordability problem that's holding things back and how do we get I mean, the government has talked of about all sorts of things in order to boost production and help builders to build more homes at reasonable prices. Whether it's you know, dangling carrots in front of local municipalities to get them to reduce their regulations, you know, whether it's trying to knock down the price of building materials.

Speaker 5

There's a lot of different things.

Speaker 4

But I don't really think that there's necessarily any one single silver bullet that's going to solve this problem. I think at the end of the day, you have home prices that are up, you know, more than fifty percent since twenty nineteen, and I think we need to let kind of the basic laws of supply demands kind of take course in order to write that our.

Speaker 2

Thanks to Drew Writing, Bloomberg Intelligence, US home building analyst. We move next to the consumer hardline space, focusing on the retail sector for durable, non consumable goods like electronics, appliances, tools, and sporting goods.

Speaker 3

Bloomberg Intelligence recently put out its twenty twenty six outlook for consumer hardlines in North America, and according to BI revenue gains should extend into twenty twenty six for most consumer hardlines retailers.

Speaker 5

For more.

Speaker 2

Guest hosts Isabelle, Leah and I were joined by Lindsay Dutch Bloomberg Intelligence Consumer hardline senior analysts. We first asked Lindsay to talk to us about her expectations for hardline retailers in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6

I think if you look at, you know, the guidance for the rest of the year, I think a lot of these big hardline companies are baking in a lot of uncertainty with the consumer. But the reality is that if we look back, you know, to performance to date and results to date, results have you know, largely been better than expected, and a lot of these retailers are sort of tracking to the upper half of their guidance range for the year because that consumer has stayed pretty

pretty resilient. You know, we see strength, you know, continuing to come from that higher income consumer, while the lower income might be you know, continuing to pull back a little bit. And if you think about companies like Best Buy, All To Beauty, Williams, Sonoma, dick Sboarding Goods, you know they are bringing you know, premium products, new products, exclusive products to that consumer and the consumers are willing to pay up for that.

Speaker 7

What was the one trend that shocked you this year? Now that you look back.

Speaker 6

I think a lot of the trends have been a continuation of what we've been seeing. I think, you know, if we go back to late twenty twenty two, that is when the first pullback in that discretionary spend has been. But this is the first year that we've seen more newness, and newness is really a key driver to getting consumers in the store and to fueling transactions. So the best

retailers are getting both transaction and ticket growth. But I think those innovation pipelines that maybe we're you know, settled down a bit during COVID, they've picked up again and bring more newness is driving those transactions.

Speaker 2

How promotional do you think retailers will be in twenty twenty six to kind of drive the consumer to the store or to the mouse to click.

Speaker 6

So promotions are very important to bring shoppers to the store, you know, especially for someone like a best Buy. You know, promotions are very key, especially around holiday. We seen that promotions are about flat, you know, in twenty five versus twenty four, and I would sort of expect a continuation of that in twenty six unless we see a huge spike in demand, in which case the retailers might be able to pull back on that promotional lever a little bit.

But this year so far it's been about flat. You do see companies like a William's Sonoma very select promotions. This has been a strategy coming out of COVID. They sort of have stuck with it. They're even sticking with it, you know, through this season going into next year. Pottery Barn was a big focus for them. You know, they need a rebound in that brand and growth is slowly coming back, but they are staying steadfast in keeping those promotions very limited.

Speaker 7

I was going through your notes and then I read that many retailers are resuming or accelerating brick and mortar expansion plants because this leads to installing online sales. And that's just kind of the reverse trend that I was expecting. But you made a point that gen Z shows a strong preference for in person shopping. Can you talk to us more about that and how each generation is different.

Speaker 6

Sure, Yeah, in store shopping is definitely back, and just meeting the consumer where they are so retailers I think are more focused on all channels, whether I'd said whether they have an app, they're online site, their brick and mortar stores, but brick and mortar as a whole. You know, we are seeing more openings than closings, and that has

been a trend for the past couple of years. But when we think about sort of the retail real estate market, the demand has been solid coming out of COVID and so vacancy is starting to get low and there's really no new properties being built. So these retail are looking to expand, which is great for their businesses. You know, they really have to work hard to do so and find good space to open stores because there's just not

that much of it. But best Buy has talked about gen Z's preference for instore shopping, so has Alta Beauty, and so we're definitely seeing that across the board, but especially that younger generation.

Speaker 2

There's plenty of retail space on Lexington Avenue and fifty eighth Street. Man hen Lindsay John from the Highlands rights in and you want to ask about Alta Beauty, ELF Beauty, So for how does that category look.

Speaker 6

For twenty twenty six, So demand has showed a strengthening sort of in the back half of twenty five. I think that momentum can continue into twenty six. I think for Alta in particular, they have done a great job, you know, bringing elevating their assort and bringing on.

Speaker 7

Exclusives and that has really helped them.

Speaker 6

Comps are going to get tougher next year and they need to continue to drive growth and I think for them, you know, leaning into their salon services could be a key way to do that. Leaning into wellness is a key way to do that. There's multiple levers that they can pull. The categories that are showing the most strength is really fragrance and skincare, and we would expect that demand to continue into next year.

Speaker 2

Our thanks to Lindsay Dutch, Bloomberg Intelligence Consumer Hardline Senior Analyst.

Speaker 3

Coming up, twenty twenty six should be a big year for natural guest producers. We'll explain why you're.

Speaker 2

Listening to Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in depth research and data on two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries.

Speaker 3

You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via bi go on the terminal. I'm Scarlet Foo and I'm.

Speaker 2

Paul Sweeney, and this is Bloomberg.

Speaker 1

This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarlet Foo and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 2

The US continued to strong oil and gas production in twenty twenty five, with crude output near record levels and export growth.

Speaker 3

One sector that performed particularly well is liquefied natural gas, and that is set to continue into twenty twenty six. According to BI natural Gas Exposed, E andp's financial performance will gain momentum next year as winter fully kicks in and raises US gas benchmarks.

Speaker 2

For more on this, we were joined by Vincent Piazza, Bloomberg Intelligence senior equity research analyst. First ask Vincent what the outlook is for natural guests demand in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 8

From our perspective, we are definitely more constructive on natural gas commodity relative to oil, and there are three key drivers for natural gas in twenty twenty six. Number One, we have structural demand growth and that's from LNG exports and also pipeline exports down into Mexico. We have what the other presenter hinted at was AI demand growth. That's also a strong structural a growth driver for twenty twenty six.

The demand side is really quite clear. It's really the production side that is running a little hotter this year versus last year, and that is our biggest risk to our twenty twenty six call. That's the first key driver. The second key driver is relatively robust free cash flow yields as balances tightened. So there is a great deal of cash flow sloshing around for this group. That gives

them a great deal of optionality. And where we think that optionality is going to be targeted, aside from base and supplemental dividends, is really and a natural gas m and a lagged oil M and A. We think that turns in twenty twenty six. We saw the first real big hint of that in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five when Expand Energy was created via the Seminal

Acquisition Company between Chesapeak and Southwestern Energy. That created a goliath, the largest natural gas operator, natural gas producer, independent producer in the lower forty eight. We think that'll drive incremental M and A. Because the biggest central theme for us in twenty twenty six is concentration via consolidation, we think that continues for the natural gas operators as it did for the oil centric names in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2

What are the folks down there in domestic production? What do they do with oil around these prices here?

Speaker 5

They don't grow.

Speaker 8

We think production has peaked. We think you will see a change in sentiment as we see more focus on natural gas relative to oil. What is interesting for the natural gas producers. As you produce less liquids, so less crude, you also produce a fewer molecules of what's called associated gas. That's great for the natural gas guys because that means balance is titaned. So when you think about relative prices, that's a net benefit for the natural gas producers relative

to the oil producers. Since associated gases roughly call it one third of total production of natural gas, So lower oil actually good for natural gas.

Speaker 3

Which nat gas players are best positioned. I know Bloomberg Intelligence doesn't do by holed sell on individual companies, but surely there are some that are more attractive than others.

Speaker 8

Yeah, absolutely so. Again on this central theme of concentration via consolidation, expand has really gone out there and created a dominant player into the central basins EQT as well. Those are the two key names for twenty twenty six, given their size and relative importance in the market, not only in the lowerst Basin of Appalachia in the northeast, but also near Seaborn export markets around the Gulf around

Haynesville as well. So expand EQT those are two names that we have focus ideas out for twenty twenty six. You can take a look at that on the terminal within the Bloomberg ecosystem.

Speaker 2

Nice, what's the OPEC plus do in these days? Do we really how much do we care about those folks? If we're a net exporter.

Speaker 8

These days, they are still the dominant player, the dominant governor of oil markets. They will still drive twenty twenty six supply balances. From the demand side, we think we are past that peak peak growth of demand here in the US, we pumped out roughly thirteen point six million barrels per day. We think we're past a peak there as well. In fact, the other central theme that we talked about for the oil players is really capital discipline.

You're going to hear a lot more of that, similar to what we talked about in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. Investors, what your guys are telling people, Paul Scarlett is we don't want to see the production. We don't want to see a higher spending. What we really want to see is that free cashload coming back to the investor base. All that sung capital during the initial stage of the growth in shale. We are now at a maturity phase. We want to see those higher dividends.

We want to see the based dividends. We want to see supplemental growth in dividends with buybacks taking a little more of a backseat. In order to clean up any equity issues via m and A market our.

Speaker 2

Thanks to Vincent Piazza, Bloomberg Intelligence senior equity research analyst. Staying with energy, we now look at how one of the nation's largest utility companies is faring.

Speaker 3

Excellent Corporation primarily engages in the generation of electricity from nuclear, fossil fuels, hydro electric and renewables. For one of the company's recent data center boom and some of the challenges in managing a large energy grid, we spoke to Callan Butler, CEO of Excellent.

Speaker 9

We're critical to the development of AI data centers and large load quantum and we take that responsibility very serious. And from a standpoint of building that infrastructure, protecting that grid, it's going to be the backbone of all this. We always say that the energy sector is five percent of the GDP, but we power the next ninety five and we take that very seriously.

Speaker 3

You take it seriously. So walk us through some of the plans you're making, how you're preparing for this transition, for this increase in demand.

Speaker 9

Yeah, thank you, Scarlett. What we have done, We've done a few things. Is one understanding for your listener's excellent. We are truly a transmission and distribution company, you know, proud to have six utilities operating the electric gas side through the pipes and wires. So, having said that, being the backbone of that, we're encouraging those data centers and large developers to come into the states in which we operate, and we put together a comprehensive plan to get them online,

up and running sooner rather than later. Speed is everything for them, and so what it takes is a coordinated effort, and we've worked very hard to move upstream to get them online so they can do what they do, which is on the technology side. Now, as we do that, we have to keep in mind, first and foremost the affordability factor for all of our communities, and that's where we're working with them to identify sites that are more ready to put their equipment and their technology in place.

Speaker 2

We had a couple of governor races in New Jersey and in Virginia and affordability was one of the big issues. And in New Jersey, see the governor elect who actually won, one of our number one issues was bringing down electric utility bills. So this is an issue I we got to fund, we got to I guess, create and develop these data centers, but we've got to do it in a way that it doesn't cause everybody's power bills to go up. How do you think about that transition, Paul.

Speaker 9

You're absolutely right. It was a race in both New Jersey and Virginia an issue, and we believe it's going to be an issue in the twenty twenty six elections because of affordability, pocketbook issues are going to be key. So let me tell you what we're doing from excellent perspective. We are protecting our residential customers. You know, we serve almost eleven million customers. So as as important as it is for data center development, it's more important for me

to protect the other customers in this process. So we've come up with what we consider a rather innovative solution in creating a tear up a transmission security agreement. So what that does is we require a letter of credit or a cash deposit from these large developers speculating are identifying what thir ten year revenue projections or cost projections coming back to our utility is, and anytime that they do not meet eighty percent of that load projections or

cash projections, we draw down from that deposit. And what it does it protects the other customers on the systems for the investments that we're making. So we're being very intentional about protecting the other users on the system because when it's done right, it should reduce the costs for everyone, but when it's done haphazardly or piecemeal, it can have ramifications that everyone else has impacted. But what you're seeing not just from the capital investment, you're seeing the supply

costs go up. Supply costs are going up because of the increased demand, and we have inadequate generation on the system to do that. You use New Jersey as an example. Let me give you a real example of what happened to New Jersey customers.

Speaker 5

Last year.

Speaker 9

New Jersey customers average residential customers bill rose thirty four dollars because they were reconciling our bill, our bill, our cost, the demand. The transmission and distribution part went down four dollars, but the bill still went up thirty four. That's how important it is to get this supply stack right to help lower all customers bills.

Speaker 3

Kelvin, let me ask you about nuclear, because the government announced it plans to buy and own up to ten large new nuclear reactors that could be paid for using Japan's pledge to fund five hundred and fifty billion dollars of investments in the US. Of course, this is part of a push to meet surging demand for electricity, and nuclear is increasingly seen as a solution to this need.

Speaker 7

What's your take.

Speaker 9

I think it's critical. I truly believe in a all of the above approach and that nuclear base load generation is going to be critical to us meeting this effort. As you know, again, we've always taken an approach that every electron matters to help on affordability, and that's why it's so critical. I use an example, the Crane Center that's coming back online in Pennsylvania. That's critical because it's

new generation coming back online. Microsoft is paying for it, and that billion dollar loan is exactly what we need to encourage reopening of these former facilities to get more electrons back on. And that was one of the best operating nuclear plants prior to its shuttering.

Speaker 3

Thanks to Calvin Butler, CEO of Excellent Coming Up, we go inside Walmart's masterclass and reputation rehab plus an honest conversation with renowned news journalist Connie Chung.

Speaker 2

You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in research and data on two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries.

Speaker 3

You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via bi go on the terminal. I'm Scarlett Foo and I'm Paul Sweeney and this.

Speaker 1

Is This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarlet Foo and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 2

Walmart was once criticized for its treatment of workers as well as its negative impact on communities, but its reputation has been rehabilitated under CEO Doug McMillan.

Speaker 3

That's the subject of a recent Bloomberg opinion piece titled Inside Walmart's Masterclass and reputation Rehab. For more, we're joined by the author of the piece, Bloomberg Opinion Colmus Beth Kohen.

Speaker 10

It's hard to think about this now, but a decade ago, Walmart was one of the most reviled companies in America.

Speaker 5

Right.

Speaker 10

It was being criticized for paying its employees low wages, for wiping out mom and pop retailers, for basically creating a culture of disposable consumerism. So it really was getting hit from a lot of different angles. And rather than just ignore the bad press or hire an army of pr people, it decided to do something about it. And Doug McMillan decided, we're going to invest in our people and two point seven billion dollars over a couple of years, and we now know this really paid off.

Speaker 2

So I mean, for Doug McMillan, I mean to me, after reading your article, this could be one of his as he's stepping down, could be one of his lasting legacies at the company.

Speaker 10

I really think so. I think that you know, he's been at the company now more than a decade. I think this will be amongst the most enduring things that he has done.

Speaker 5

I think this.

Speaker 10

I'm not sure that the company would be in the place it's at today if he had not really addressed this.

Speaker 3

And let's be clear about what exactly he did with that two point seven sharing dollars. Pay increases, there is training, and really just attracting a better quality worker.

Speaker 10

Yeah, and the way he did this was right. It was pay increases, but more than anything else, it was creating not low paying jobs, but a career.

Speaker 4

Right.

Speaker 10

There was now a path for people who started at Walmart to move up the ranks and that was really important, right to attracting more ambitious and employees to getting them to stay. And I think that that shifted the whole culture of the company.

Speaker 2

So what's the company saying about AI? Because there's a lot of answer just in the overall economy about what the impact AI will have upon jobs. One could look at big box stores as an industry that might be at risk because they do employ so many People's what does Walmart say.

Speaker 10

Walmart's taken a very different approach, I think than some other big employers, and it has embraced ay. Let's be clear, like there's a AI is through embedded throughout the company, but it has not used AIE to have some of these mass layoffs that were justify some of these mass layoffs that we've seen at other companies. And I think part of that is this history, Like it knows how important these entry level workers are and that they need a path, they need this workforce to sort of grow

the company. So it said AI will change every job. It knows that, but it is trying to get every worker through to the other side, so whether that's retraining, finding new rules, rules for them. So it's just a very different outlook, I think than what we're hearing from others.

Speaker 3

And you've noted as well that the last ten years at Walmart has led to tremendous return for shareholders, but also it's become a case study at Harvard Business School on how to on how an experiment on paying your workers war or investing your workers can pay off.

Speaker 10

Absolutely. I mean, we you mentioned this at the beginning, but Wall Street hated this plant. I mean, the company lost tremendous value, tremendous value when they announced it, and now you know, we have the receipts a decade later, and the I think the market gap has tripled. The stock has returned more than four hundred percent. So they really took a gamble on this and stuck with it, and it really it has paid off for them.

Speaker 2

I mean every time I look at the dees screen for on the Bloomberg terminal for Walmart had just blown away by the fact that they have two point one million employees. What's the retention of those employees. I'm wondering if there's like I would think in the warehouses that might be really really high. I'm not sure about the stores. How is retention sure?

Speaker 10

So they've actually increased retention by ten percent since twenty fifteen when they started this plan. And another thing is that they've some of the more management level roles. Seventy five percent of those are hired from with it. So this pipeline is really critical for them. And so that's why I think that they are so focused on creating a place where people stay.

Speaker 5

That's key.

Speaker 3

And you only have to look at the outgoing CEO and the NTO, right, Both Doug McMillan and John Ferner, the successor, are Walmart lifers. They started off as hourly workers.

Speaker 10

There, right, they know the importance of that and having worked their way up. That needs to be something that continues.

Speaker 2

There is this something that you think the new CEO is as committed to as the prior CEO.

Speaker 10

I would think so because he has the same background. I mean, I think he knows the importance of emerging technologies. He's really focused on that. But I think because of his history and he's worked very closely with McMillan for a long time, so they must be aligned on this.

Speaker 2

Our thanks to Beth Kwitt Bloomberg Opinion Calmness. We move next to the interview we had this year with award winning journalist and news anchor Connie Chung.

Speaker 3

Connie was a first woman to co anchor the CBS Evening News, the flagship news broadcast on CBS. She was also the first Asian American to anchor any news program on CBS, NBC, and ABC. Both were milestones and broadcast television history. Connie Chung was also out with a memoir this year titled Connie.

Speaker 2

We began our conversation with the changing landscape of the news business and whether journalism should be treated more like a public good rather than a profit driven business.

Speaker 11

With a question when I first started at CBS News in nineteen seventy one. It was owned by William Paley yep, and he believed so strongly that the news division should be autonomous. We could spend as much money as it took to cover the news, and it was for the public good. But then what happened at CBS equally happened at NBC and ABC. Greedy owners took over, bought the companies, and made the bottom line the ultimate goal. We lost all our obligation to be objective and be truthful, and

all they wanted was money. And I am just mortified that to this day I see it at CBS, money drove, the greed drove the fact that it was sold to David Ellison and Larry Ellison and they're unattention. I mean, they're not paying any attention to the old rules of journalism.

Speaker 2

Well is one could argue just over the last twenty twenty five years that the divide in this country and the the divide in the in the media coverage has been so stark and become maybe maybe even more stark. How do you make what do you make of that? The bias that may or may not be in the news business these days? Who that it is Okay, how do you view it?

Speaker 4

How do you help?

Speaker 2

How's it changed?

Speaker 11

Maybe I'm horrified, horrified with anyone who says on television, who purports to be an anchor or a news reporter, say, I think I don't care what you think. All I want is the facts. And I think everyone out there, because I've been across the country just in this last year, and people just want the facts. I think the only saving grace is actually local news. Local news still just primarily provides the facts and.

Speaker 3

The weather right and sports. With big tech comes, of course, artificial intelligence. How do you make the case for why companies should not replace news reporters news anchors with AI generated and presented news where they could focus on presumably the facts.

Speaker 11

It's fake two, it's all fake news and we cannot depend on it. The social media has truly destroyed our reporting ability in many ways because nothing is fact checked, and I fear that AI would not be fact checked. We can't depend on it. I can see the value of AI. For instance, if a doctor wants to look up research and figure out what a person's ailment is, he or she no longer has to go through volumes and volumes of medical literature. AI can find it in

a second, and there are so many good benefits. But I think AI has no place in news.

Speaker 1

It just doesn't.

Speaker 11

I mean, I don't know what happened to truth. I believe that truth ruled when I was working in television. News was ancient, an ancient.

Speaker 2

How about even though you have white hair palms?

Speaker 11

You know I have white hair too, Just color it right.

Speaker 2

I understand. I understand what's also changed. It seems like initiatives not just in media, but across corporate America, in society, the diversity, equality, inclusion, those that movement, if you will, or that that seems to have lost its momentum. And is that a concern for the newsroom?

Speaker 11

Do you think it died with this administration? It's become non existent and forced upon us. I would not have had a career had it not been for the nineteen sixty four civil rights law which created the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. My sister in law, Lynpovich, who was a researcher at Newsweek, filed a class action lawsuit with the other women. Because they were not allowed to move beyond the research stage, they could not be reporters, they could

not be writers. They could not be editors period, full stop. And I was thanks to Lynn and the women's movement and the black movement at the time in the sixties and seventies when I started, I would not have had my first job at CBS News covering Watergate, covering a presidential campaign, the losing campaign of George mcgovernor in nineteen seventy two, And I would not have covered Nelson Rockefeller when he was vice president after he took over Ford

took over from Nixon. We are seeing a replay of Nixon and Watergate. But during Watergate, at least Congress had a backbone. Members of Congress like Center Barry Goldwater went to Nixon and said, You're not gonna You're not gonna survive.

Speaker 3

Right, Yeah. No, It's a clear contrast to what we have on Capitol Hill today. Speaking of water eight, Connie, there is a famous photo of you at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Watergate, and it's you, a young Asian woman in a sea of white men. Do you think female news reporters in twenty twenty five case the same challenges that you did in the seventies through nineties.

Speaker 11

It really hasn't changed that's surpressing. No, I know, I'm sorry, but it hasn't changed for men who still dominate. Not that not that there's anything wrong with being a man, Paul.

Speaker 2

You know, so far, so good, so far, so good, So far, so good. You mean what, just you know, we all work together, we'll all get along happy in here in this little studio.

Speaker 11

Okay, Well, that's good.

Speaker 3

We control what we can control, right, that's right.

Speaker 11

Yeah, well despite management. But yeah, it was in the nineteen seventies. But even today there's a dominance of white males.

Speaker 5

And the.

Speaker 11

It's not a level of parody we do. We are not seeing that. And in terms of this administration and its determination to kill DEI I'm I'm hoping that we the people will not stand for it.

Speaker 2

Our thanks to award winning journalists and news anchor Connie Chunk. That's this week's edition of Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in depth research and data on two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries.

Speaker 3

And remember you can access Bloomberg Intelligence b I go on the terminal. I'm Scarlett Foo.

Speaker 2

And I'm Paul Switt. Me stay with us today's top stories and global business headlines are coming up right now.

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