Bloomberg Surveillance TV: December 15th, 2025 - podcast episode cover

Bloomberg Surveillance TV: December 15th, 2025

Dec 15, 202530 min
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Episode description

  • Sarah Hunt, Chief Market Strategist at Alpine Saxon Woods
  • Henrietta Treyz, Co-Founder and Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners 
  • Pooja Sriram, Vice President of US Economic Research at Barclays 
  • Keith Lerner, Co-CIO and Chief Market Strategist at Truist 

Sarah Hunt, Chief Market Strategist at Alpine Saxon Woods, joins to discuss investor concerns on AI capex spending. Henrietta Treyz, Co-Founder and Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners, weighs in on President Trump telling the Wall Street Journal that he’s unsure if his economic policies will lead to Republican wins in next year’s midterm election. Pooja Sriram, Vice President of US Economic Research at Barclays, shares her expectations for Tuesday’s US jobs report. Keith Lerner, Co-CIO and Chief Market Strategist at Truist, gives his outlook for the tech sector heading into 2026.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

Speaker 2

This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. I'm Jonathan Ferrow, along with Lisa Bromwitz and Amerie Hordern. Join us each day for insight from the best in markets, economics, and geopolitics from our global headquarters in New York City. We are live on Bloomberg Television weekday mornings from six to nine am Eastern. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you listen, and as always on the Bloomberg Terminal and the Bloomberg Business app.

Speaker 3

Stocks trading their record highs once again after Friday's AI pullback, Sarah Hunt of Alpine Saxon Woods, writing.

Speaker 4

We think this illustrates a level of.

Speaker 3

Concern from investors that there is too much spending on the horizon and not enough cash flow to fund it. Sarah joins us now for more, Sarah, wonderful to see you. Thank you for being here.

Speaker 4

Good morning. It's great to be here. So is it enough fear?

Speaker 3

Is it enough skepticism to make you actually interested in AI once again?

Speaker 4

Or does it need to go a little bit further.

Speaker 5

Well, it certainly seemed like enough last week. I mean there were some big moves last week, and I don't think the market. I mean, you look at Broadcom's earnings and the numbers themselves were very good. It's back to the expectations problem and the second derivative problem which Cameron just mentioned, which is what happens when you're still spending a lot of money, but you're not spending it quite

as fast as you were. And the more you spend, the bigger that the problem of large numbers comes in. And can I go ten percent on every ten percent or twenty percent every year every year? And I think that's an issue. And now people are starting to question where is that money coming from? And it wasn't that question didn't happen in the beginning. And you've got some real issues with companies that used to be cash rich

now getting more sset heavy. And I think that that's a little bit an absorption issue for investors right now.

Speaker 3

But have we gone a little too far with this with the idea that Microsoft and Google really are going to face some sort of solvency risk or some sort of serious existential question because they're borrowing a bit from the bond market, right I mean, have we sort of thrown the baby out with the bathwater, to use John Soulfus's term. Given the fact that people seem skeptical more broadly of the promise that they embraced two weeks ago.

Speaker 5

I think that that is just indicative of what we've been living with for the last several years. Out of the pandemic, which is narrative ships every day, and yes, the pessimism gets wildly bad, and then it gets wildly fantastic again. And this is why I wouldn't say that this is a moment where you have to go, oh my goodness, we have to change everything, but you have to think about what who else might benefit and how

that's going to go. And I actually think that even the story about the CDs for Oracle, I think that's much more about hedging the stock than it is about actually thinking that Oracle's not going to pay its spons back in the end. So I think a lot of this is the mechanics of how that spend is going to come about. And I don't think it's a really challenging the fact that money's going to get spent.

Speaker 1

I want to say that group think is great, but I want to pick up on what you just said there, which is we have all of these narrative shifts, doling narratives. What does that say to you just about conviction investors, conviction in this not not just this trade, but in the prospect's.

Speaker 5

FAYI generally it is difficult to have because it's hard. I mean, it's the conviction that is going to be a big thing. It's going to make a lot of changes. I think hasn't changed. What those changes are going to be, who is going to benefit from those changes, and how fast they're going to be implemented seems to be a big part of the current concern.

Speaker 4

It was easier to say at the.

Speaker 5

Beginning of the year, we see a ton of expending on infrastructure. There's still going to be a ton of spending on infrastructure. But now that that's getting questioned, is that the peak of infrastructure spend discussion? Now do we have to look at use cases and who's using it and how they're using it, and is this going to improve margins? Because in the end, that's what it all comes down to. Is it going to make people more money? Because if it isn't, then it isn't going to raise earnings.

Then it's less exciting than if it is going to raise earn.

Speaker 1

No, it's December. I'm in retrospective mood. Perhaps you are as well. You mentioned that question wasn't being asked at the beginning, which was hou is all this going to be paid for? It's going to be cash? Is it going to be dead? What do you make of that in hindsight now, the fact that people weren't wrestling with those questions to begin with.

Speaker 5

I think with every big investing enthusiasm, there is a willingness to suspend belief about whether or not and how things have to happen to get to the point where everyone's excited about And I think that it doesn't mean that we won't suspend that disbelief again. Right, So, there's

going to be some technological changes. I don't see how you get the molecules and the electrons to as many data centers as we have, so I think that there will be changes, and those changes are going to occur in ways that are right now difficult to parse, so you don't know who's going to win and who's going to lose.

Speaker 1

There.

Speaker 5

I think it was very clear at the infrastructure beginning who is the winners, and now it's like, Okay, who's going to win now? And are the winners really over or is that just something that isn't going to grow as.

Speaker 3

Found you get the conversation of the weekend was you almost need bubbles to fuel technological advancement. I mean, I know that that sounds really strange and perverse, but there is a sort of element of you need thatcham to

finance absolutely everything. Is there sort of this feeling that you need to see the broadening out in the trade, the idea that other companies benefit from AI to keep the am machine chugging, right, that in order for people to justify valuations where they are in the big tech giants, you need to see participation on a broader scale.

Speaker 5

I think you absolutely need to see that participation. And I think that that was a question even earlier in this year, in the beginning at the end of last year,

which was who's going to use this? And then Walmart came out and said a few things about how it was helpful for margins, and other companies came out and said, yes, we can use it this way and it's going to be and that sort of solved the short term problem, but longer term that has to broaden out, and that has to be This is also the question about small caps.

Can they use this to make some margin improvements because the small cap earnings revolution was supposed to happen two years ago and then last year and then this year, and is that.

Speaker 4

Really going to come through?

Speaker 5

And I think all of those things are very important as we go forward, and where valuations are right now, it's even more important.

Speaker 3

This is where the economy starts to matter again. This is where, all of a sudden, when we were talking about how anything related to AI could be at its own universe and the economy could keep sort of dragging along and basically being in a recession if it weren't for that AI investment. At what point can you see this expansion, this broadening out unless you see economic data like what we're going to be getting this week really pick up.

Speaker 5

It's interesting because I think that the government shutdown has not only made the data that's current difficult to see what happened just recently, but it also may have shifted some activity into next year.

Speaker 4

So it's going to be interesting to see that.

Speaker 5

You do have to see an economy that keeps jogging along if it doesn't, you're going to have a problem. There's no question that that's going to be an issue. That's an issue for earnings, earnings lead evaluations, and that's the circle that investors are looking at.

Speaker 1

Speaking of circles, let's talk about circular investment and your sort of thoughts on that right now. I mean, we can't have this conversation about it, i AI without going back to that. And I'm curious how worriesome that is to you. Have you been sufficient have your worries been significantly or sufficiently assuaged by these companies saying that it's not a big deal.

Speaker 5

I'm not sure that I can say one way or the other it's definitely not a big deal or it's a huge big deal. I know that in two thousand there were a lot of issues with vendor financing. It was quite simple, right that companies were selling.

Speaker 1

Stuff that we say circular deals and vendor financing are the same thing.

Speaker 5

I don't think that you can because I think that there are some some of the players in that circle have much more cash than they did before. So last time it was vendors financing who didn't have the cash to companies who didn't have the cash. Now, there is cash in the mix, and there's quite a bit of cash. And that's where you're seeing the have and have nots on the tech side of who's as rich and who's not and who are people concerned about whether or not

they're going to raise money or not. Again, I don't think the Oracle anyone's concerned that it's going to go bankrupt. But I think that there are concerns about overburdening balance sheets right now.

Speaker 1

Lisa brought us to the economy, let me go back to that sort of to pull us away from that. They're just remote. But I'm curious, how do you think about growth in the year ahead. Are you, to borrow a phrase from competers, you're saying not saying when about it? Or are you feeling like prospects are good, things are going in the right direction.

Speaker 5

I think it's tough because the K shaped economy is a real thing that people who are spending the most money are the people who have the most money. The lower end consumer is not doing well. A lot of the companies that track that are not doing well, and I think it's going to be that's really a question. Now, how much have we owed overstated jobs. Right, So in Poll's conference he talked about some of those overstatements and maybe instead of generating jobs, we're losing jobs every month.

How much is that really occurring? What can we see and what do wages look like? Because all of those things matter. It's great that the high end can spend, but you really need for the full economy to chug a long you need broader participation.

Speaker 3

Which is the reason why everyone's watching and hoping for this broader participation in the equity space. Sarah Hunt of Alpine Saxon Woods is with us for the hour.

Speaker 2

And stay with us. Mult Blomberg Surveillance coming up off to this.

Speaker 3

Here's the latest President Trump telling the Wall Street Journal he's unsure his economic policies will lead to midterm wins. An NBC News poll showing the president's approval rating down to forty two percent. Is economic concerns way on Americans. Henrietta Treys of Veta Partners joins us now for more. Henriette, how do you sort of view this interview in the Wall Street Journal, in particular with President Trump, where he's saying that people just haven't felt the ramifications or the

benefits from some of his policies. Will that actually make any headway early twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6

Yeah, that's absolutely true.

Speaker 7

The one big beautiful bill went into effect immediately for corporations. Indeed, we've seen that corporate tax revenue has dropped by about a third into federal coffers this year.

Speaker 6

That's because of.

Speaker 7

The tax preferences that went out very quickly after they passed that bill on the corporate side. But the individual side is back end loaded and starts in the new year when the tax filing season starts. So when you think about the odds of a reconciliation bill two point zero for example, or the two thousand dollars tire freebate

checks for example, that requires another Act of Congress. And as far as the White House is thinking about it, and indeed, when I talk to Republican staff on the House and Senate side, they're saying, you know, we already did the individual tax cuts, you just haven't seen them yet. So when Kevin has it comes out and says twenty twenty six is going to be a boon year for the consumer and individuals, it's because the tax preferences that hit the individual side of the docket.

Speaker 6

Really start in the new year.

Speaker 7

So if you are really looking forward to the salt deduction that's coming for you, there's a really small segment of the economy that's on the no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime piece that all starts in the new year, and they're hoping that that's going to be enough to overcome the continued hit of tariffs, the continued negative narrative around affordability and the high cost of living, housing, healthcare going up by one thousand dollars, etc.

Speaker 1

We'll see, henriettas you talked to staffers on the hill, I'm curious what they want this president to be doing. So you lay out very clearly sort of the benefits that will be very evident imagined to the American public here come in the new year. What do they make of his emphasis on immigration, on foreign policy, him not talking about affordability. What would they like him to be doing more, and what's the reaction to him not doing more on that front.

Speaker 7

It's a real mixed bag with the same answer. Get President Trump on the campaign trail, and for Republicans, they really want to see that because the majority of the new voter turnout of the last decade of sort of the magabase. They're here for President Trump, They're not here for your average run on the mill, rank and file Republican. So those members really want President Trump to come to

their district, come on the campaign trail. You know, they would have liked to see him more in Tennessee, for example, a couple of weeks ago to boost the numbers, because he is a turnout generating machine, and there's a lot of anxiety on the Republican side about going into a midterm election cycle where the president himself, who is highly popular with the Republican base and MAGA voters, is not

on the docket. Those voters tend to not show up in a midterm, which is why you saw such as shell lacking for the Republican Conference.

Speaker 6

In twenty eighteen.

Speaker 7

They don't want to see a repeat of that, So they really want Trump to get on the cam Hayne trail, come rally their voters, and get the turnout machine. Unfortunately, that's what Democrats also want, because they know that Republican voters that are still the court of a President Trump

are more likely to stay home. And the majority of Americans now have a negative view of the Republican Party's handling of the state of the economy, inflation, prices, housing, and healthcare, and those are the top five issues of voters going into the midterm cycle. So Democrats similarly want President Trump to be.

Speaker 6

Front and center.

Speaker 7

So it's really a tough road to hoe for the Republican conference and for President Trump in particular. He's got to get out there. He's got to talk about affordability. But the more he talks about it, the more health Democrats. So it's sort of a catch twenty two.

Speaker 4

Good morning, Henrietta. So what of all those things.

Speaker 5

That you mentioned, it seems to me that one of the most important things to try to nail down right now is healthcare because you can't really change a rise in price levels.

Speaker 4

Whenever you do about further.

Speaker 5

Height doesn't matter as much as changing what's going to happen now with those subsidies. And this is a train wreck that's been coming and pushed off and pushed off and pushed off. Is there any do you think that they can get something done in a timeframe that's going to be meaningful? And do you think that there's enough bipartisan anything, because everybody is going to be affected by this.

Speaker 4

How does that look in your opinion?

Speaker 7

Yeah, I'm not shy about making projections. There's no chance that they fix Obamacare before the end of the year, so we're going off the cliff. To put it into perspective, that's twenty two million people that are going to be hit.

Speaker 6

Four million people will lose their insurance.

Speaker 7

If you're sixty years and older, your premiums are going up by almost one thousand dollars in the new year.

Speaker 6

That's going to happen.

Speaker 7

There is this period of time between January fifth and January thirtieth where they could find a solution.

Speaker 6

Our odds are pretty slim, my colleagues.

Speaker 7

Spenser Proman is our healthcare expert, and he's now down to twenty five percent that we get any two year, one year extension.

Speaker 6

Of the ACA subsidies.

Speaker 7

And you can hear it from Republicans in the United States Senate who saw this train wreck coming, as you rightly point.

Speaker 6

Out, and consider this a subsidy that needs to expire.

Speaker 7

We have a thirty eight trillion dollar debt load in the United States. Let's cut this and make sure that it is not extended. Unfortunately, when American consumers look at Republicans speak to the healthcare issue.

Speaker 6

We're now on y're sixteen of not having an alternative to Obamacare, so that leads to an erosion of trust.

Speaker 7

Within voters of Democrats and Republicans alike around the entire concept of healthcare. For the Republican conference, i'mer speaker Bayner had the best quote the other day. He basically said, I've been in all these meetings with Republicans for decade now, and we've never all been on the same page. And so as long as that's the case, you're not going to see a fix, then we'll go into the year with that one.

Speaker 2

Stay with us. Mulblomberg surveillance coming up after.

Speaker 3

This, Poojaree Room of Barclays writing we expect a non farm payroll and employment flat in October and up fifty k.

Speaker 4

In November, providing further evidence.

Speaker 3

That the labor market is not is slowing but not breaking. Poo just realm of Barclays joining us now, Pooja, great to see you, Thank you so much for being with USKS. So just looking at slowing but not breaking. What's the difference between the two. How narrow is the gap between slow and before and between broken.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I think that's a great question.

Speaker 8

I think we're getting close to the point where people, ourselves included, are seeing risks clearly to the downside. But in terms of breaking that is a world where you expect labor markets slack to shoot up, you know, pick up very rapidly, and that's not something we're seeing either in the official day or in some of the other statistics, like you know, think about job openings and the separations rate there or jobless claims data. So it is a labor market which for a while now has been stuck.

You know, we're not hiring, but we're not firing as much, so there's very little dynamason risks, sure of the downside, but we still think we're.

Speaker 4

Not at that point where we're ready to fall off the cliff.

Speaker 3

Well, I guess I'm wondering if we're at an inflection point of sorts, or maybe we've been grinding along. We could be heading toward an inflection point. Why wouldn't it be to the upside, Because we have seen smaller businesses really pull back and hiring. The hiring has been concentrated

in the larger companies. If they get some stimulus if there is these rate cuts that kind of start percolating through the economy, why wouldn't we see a pickup in hiring rather than sort of the other way around.

Speaker 8

That's a great question, and I think that's a very feasible scenario to keep in mind, just given you know, we are quite constructive about growth into twenty twenty six. We're seeing a lot of positive impulses that could keep the economy highly support and in that world, yes, you could have a labor market that actually stabilizes. In fact, our own forecast, official forecast has the labor market looking quite resilient in twenty twenty six, and we have the

unemployment rate coming down. So I think we really subscribe to that view that there is a world where the labor market stabilizes and eventually starts to look better. But given where we are now, I think it's reasonable to also see that risks could very well be to the downside. It would take very little to push the labor market in the opposite direction.

Speaker 1

I'm curious how you think about the legacy of what we have been through here with this government shut down, the delay of data that we hadn't seen before, and all the while there was this conversation about what might be a decent substitute for the data that we weren't getting from the Labor Department. How could we get as good as sense as we could about the state of

the labor market life not having that data. Now that we're beyond it, I'm curious of what we've learned about how good a sense we have of the jobs market in this country. We've heard from the Fed share suggesting perhaps are more fundamental problems with the way that these numbers are are collected and counted. How are you thinking about what we've been through?

Speaker 8

Absolutely so, I would say this that the government shut down basically brought to the forefront the fact that we are highly, highly reliant on official statistics, and there's a good reason why. You know, we have very talented statisticians who've been doing it the right way for a very long time. But at the same time, I think it also exposed the wonderabilities of suddenly not having these data, or now we're in a scenario where the data could

be clouded in some sense. Right to answer your question, we have looked at a dashboard of indicators which are quite useful, and our reasonable alternatives to get a gauge where the economy is headed. And you know these come in different shapes and forms. You've got job openings data, you've got job postings, some of them about hiring, so it gives you a decent picture of where things are. But we still don't think those are enough to substitute the official statistics.

Speaker 1

I suspectedly it's going to ask my inflation am before we get there. Let me just ask you that the FED speak the mony. I'm sorry that Mike was mentioning all that we're going to hear from and I'm curious, what are you listening for? In specific, we've talked a lot about the silent of sense, the quietest sense that happened at that meeting. What are we likely to learn from kind of pan and believe speakers who are going to be giving remarks and the interviews over the course of the week.

Speaker 8

Yeah, I think the one thing that stood out in the December FO and C meeting is just how divergent

views are within the committee. I mean, if you just look at even the dot plot for example, in twenty twenty six, seven participants felt that it's appropriate to whold rate steady where they are now, so I think going into this week and also just you know, beyond this week, we want to get a sense of who's thinking how For example, we did hear from Goolsby that his descent was to some part tied to the fact that he didn't have enough data to go by, right, And so

that gives you some insight into I guess what he's looking for. And you know, we're likely to get similar insights from others, and I'm sure like a lot of other FED watches, we will be trying to you know, we're trying to place them on the dove hog lineup to see exactly where their minds are at and to go to give us a sense really of what the reaction function is for each of these participants.

Speaker 3

Over the weekend, San Francisco FED president Mary Daily put out a blog post and she was talking about why she supported cutting rates the last meeting, and she talked about how, yes, it was a very difficult decision because there is this dual mandate that's very much in conflict.

Speaker 4

She was talking about inflation.

Speaker 3

Yes, I always got to talk about it and how it has been really punitive for these families. But she said, how you get down to two percent matters because if you get there too quickly, you break the labor market, and then you've got families grappling with both above average

inflation and potential job losses. Do you think that there is this theory right now presiding over the FED to run the economy a bit hot, especially at a time of technological transition, with artificial intelligence posing some existential questions around the labor market, in order to avoid some sort of labor markets scarring at the expense of inflation knocketting down to two percent any time in the near future.

Speaker 8

Well, I okay, Well, this is what I think stood out to me in the December presser. There seems to be this view in the FED that inflation is really not a problem right now. In fact, Chair Powell's own comments on inflation is he's quite sanguine about it. I think in some part of the press that he did think that inflation, you strip it out of all the tariff effects, is somewhere in the low twos. Then he mentioned something about productivity also likely to support the economy.

So if you sort of put all those views together, I think there is this view out there in among the FED participants that inflation is perhaps not a problem to be concerned about, and what they need to be concerned about right now is the labor market. That's perhaps what you know Mary Daily is also subscribing to.

Speaker 4

In some sense.

Speaker 8

My own take is I think it's a little too premature to think that inflation is going to take care of itself. You know, we at Barclay's have been saying for a while that we are yet to see the full effects of tariffs on the inflation data. And sure, while it may be a one time price shock, I think it's a little too early to declare victory on inflation yet.

Speaker 2

Stay with US multile imperg surveillance coming up after this.

Speaker 3

Keith Lerder of Truest writing, we are still positive tech longer term, but in the near term there is a lack of a catalyst for the sector, so investors will need to be patient.

Speaker 4

Investors known for their patients.

Speaker 3

Keith joins us. Now, okay, thank you so much for being with us. I just want to start there. I mean, do you think that this so off that we've seen or on a performance I should say probably putting it more fairly. In the tech sector is something that can persist for a longer period of time or is this sort of like an end of the year melt off given how much it's been outperforming.

Speaker 9

Yeah, well for us, great to be with you.

Speaker 10

I didn't realize it was the actually last full trading week of the years, so that's exciting in some ways. So to your points, specifically at LISA, I still think tech is long term leadership.

Speaker 9

But to your point, we.

Speaker 10

Went up off the loads about seventy percent versus thirty five percent for the S and P five hundred, and now you get all these different questions as well.

Speaker 9

So I just think it's a point.

Speaker 10

Where you know that we have to kind of rebuild that wall of warrior, which we're doing. But at the end of the day, the earnings momentum for the tech sector is still the strongest one out there. So I think in the air term, I think the challenge is what is the catalyst to move this up, Because you know, we just went through an earning season. People are focused on obviously Oracle and video comes out with some news about some more chip selling to China, it's not moving it.

So I think it's just maybe a digestion phase, and I think, you know, the next year at some point, maybe that's three months or six months from now, we'll see money rotate back into it. And when we look historically at bull markets, maybe my final point here is the leadership of a bull market tends to endoor towards

the end, notwithstanding periodic you know, pull and rotations. We're seeing one of those rotations right now on this kind of boarding theme, and I think that boarding theme, at least in their term, has a bit more to go.

Speaker 3

You found somewhat skeptical of it long term. Is that correct, Keith, that this broadening theme maybe is a short term lip but not necessarily a twenty twenty six full year trend.

Speaker 7

No.

Speaker 10

I think, you know, Lisa, if we were here a year ago, I think the theme was very similar about this boarding theme. It didn't work out, but I know I do think next year there's more of a reason that we can see more broading. So I think a lot of times people think about it's tech or X and of you it can be both, especially as we

have these sharp rotations. But you know, the good news, I think as we think about the equal weight index, were we came into this year around the seventeen multiple We're ending the year around the seventeen multiple and it's been mostly earnest with The key for next year is is profit margin and do we see the adoption and the profit margins dot to expand for these four ninety three But I think listen to their term. Were all seeing some positive action. We had industrials breakout last week.

The equ Weight index just made a fifty two week high.

Speaker 9

Here's an interest.

Speaker 10

Since that, guys, you know, the EQUAT index is only up about four percent since the November peak right after the election, so almost more than a year we'll only have four percent.

Speaker 9

So no, I think it has further to go. I just think it's both not either or there's.

Speaker 1

A tendency to have this kind of monomoniacal focus on the big tech names, the Magnificent seven and the like. Do you foresee us you look into your crystal ball more eagerness to look overseas in the year ahead. Of course, it's done. Markets overseas have done extremely well this year in many cases, Are you looking more to Europe for instance in twenty twenty six?

Speaker 10

I don't know that we're looking more, but it's kind of a similar story when we look around the globe. I just checked this morning, ninety eight percent of the markets we tract more than forty countries around the globe, they were in up trends, defined as above their tunia day moving averages.

Speaker 9

So it's kind of that similar story we just had. It's like either or no. Both.

Speaker 10

We still have a tilt towards the US because that's where the innovation and earnings are there. And let's you know, if we think about the last year, the US underperformed, but that was after a you know, in the prior year, the US had outperformed by the most since the nineties in twenty twenty four, so we had a bit of mean version and almost all the increase in international was pevaluation that earnings and the currency side. So I think as we move into next year, we had a bit

of a revaluation. Currency has come down to the US dollars, so I think both will do well. We're still tilting towards the US on the margin.

Speaker 1

We've been kind of threading this needle over the course of the three hours this morning. Mike Wilson's note Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley right about how we are now firmly back in a good as bad, bad as good regime. As you look ahead to this week and the data that we're going to get, how are you thinking you're in agreement with mister Wilson.

Speaker 9

I think the market like Scoldilocks.

Speaker 10

I think we want an economy that is still you know, kind of chugging along.

Speaker 9

We expect a modest uptick into next.

Speaker 10

Year, with you know, with inflation that doesn't get out of control, which we don't think it will, and interest rates that remain you know, kind of in this range that it's been overall. So I would say on the margin, you know, solid news is good news. I don't think we want extreme. If it's something that's really much stronger to the upside for the economy, that probably means rates

go up and that will hit maybe valuations. If we see a real weakening in the in the labor market continues and it's divergence between GDP data and the labor market, I think that's problematic as well. So I think, you know, we're using an analogy for our outlook, the seventhing in a stretch. I think we want something kind of in the middle between those two extremes.

Speaker 3

Do you think Keith that this market's fully wrapped its heads around the idea that we have seen the end of one of the biggest global easing cycles ever outside of some sort of recession.

Speaker 10

You know, it's an interesting question because it hasn't really come up a whole lot in conversations as I speak with investors.

Speaker 9

So I think that is, you know, a potecially a risk.

Speaker 10

And I think the other thing, you know, all things come back, All roles lead back to the ten year treasury. As we think about next year, we still are positive. We think that the uptrend deserves the benefit of the doubt. But going to your point about central banks, I mean, I think the key tell for next year and the risk fact that we'll be watching is the ten year, which again seems relative to be contained at this point.

But that is a shift, and I think, just like this past year, I think earnings will be the key.

Speaker 9

Again.

Speaker 10

We expect solid earnings and we do expect those earnings to born out as we move through twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3

When you talk about earnings, this kind of leaves us in the same place of yes, bonds may offer a hedge, but maybe you don't want that hedge In twenty twenty six, maybe you want to be exposed to the equity space and then on the short end of the yield curve

at a time of yield curve steepening. I mean, how do you look at that kind of interplay given the fact that people are expecting enough growth an accommodator fed despite that ongoing growth and this yield curve steepening that we have seen really start to reassert itself.

Speaker 10

Yeah, So overall, heading into the year, we do have a modest killed towards equity relative to fixed income. In cash, we're still overweight gold as well, which.

Speaker 9

We've been overweighted all year long.

Speaker 10

And then on the on the fixed income side, you know, again going back to the analogy around baseball, we still look at fixed income as that consistent head kind of collecting that coupon, you know, all and all over the last year where the equity markets have done pretty well, we are having a solid year in fixed income with high quality returning six seven percent. And I think as we think about next year, we talked about this, there's

a lot of cross currents. There's a midterm election year, and there's a scenario where the economy is stronger than expectations or there's a scenario where the labor market weekends further and the latter one you would actually want bonds. So I think going back to diversifications, kind of a simple diversification aspect, you still.

Speaker 9

Want to have bonds.

Speaker 10

Are they at a modestly lower rate, Yes, but I still think it makes sense. But we are peering that with some exposure to gold still into the new year.

Speaker 1

Let's stick with the diversification. So there's this market Mason rebuilding the wall of worry as you look beyond tech, if you look beyond big tech telecommunications as well, where do you see opportunity sector wise here in the year ahead that might have been neglected in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 10

Sure so where we were overweight tech and communications for most of this past year and we still are again, We're still positive long term. What we've been doing is making incremental changes based on this bordening theme. So you know, over the recent months we added healthcare. You know, healthcare is a sector where just you know, a little bit of good news can go a long way. I know it's done better recently, but it's out. I'm sorry it's underperformed. The S and P by over fifty percent over the

last three years, and that's a historic extreme. So you just get a little good news that can go along a way. And we're seeing valuations attractive and some better fundamentals there as well. And then just last week we upgraded industrials. Industrials was a hot sector early in the year. Since July, I kind of moved sideways, only up about two percent. It just broke to the upside of a

five month trading range. And as we think about this economic uptick that we envisioned and some of the benefits from the one big beautiful bill, like accelerated depreciation, we think that's an area that should benefit as well.

Speaker 9

So again tech communications.

Speaker 10

Now paired with healthcare and industrials and something else, we're looking closely out, not.

Speaker 9

Quite, not quite there to upgrade.

Speaker 10

You know, Financials with that steeper curve that Lisa mentioned early, are acting very well.

Speaker 2

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