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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
Pinpointing the genetic changes that predispose us to disease Identifying the roots of mental illness Treating congenital anomalies even before birth.
- [00:10]
Carol Massar
At Boston Children's Hospital, we're investing in.
- [00:13]
Narrator/Announcer
Children'S health today to ensure the well being of adults tomorrow.
- [00:17]
Carol Massar
As home to the world's largest pediatric research enterprise and more than 260 specialty programs, Boston Children's is where the world comes for answers.
- [00:27]
Narrator/Announcer
The learn more@bostonchildrens.org introducing the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio now with AI powered PDF spaces do more with PDFs than you ever thought possible. Need AI to turn 100 pages of market research into 5 insights with a click. Do that with Acrobat. Need templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal. Do that with Acrobat. Need an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report to sound real smart in real time. Do do that with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more@adobe.com dothatwith acrobat this holiday season.
- [01:03]
Josh Wingrove
Is likely to be a roller coaster.
- [01:04]
Tim Stenovec
For logistics and manufacturing, but having the.
- [01:07]
Josh Wingrove
Right staff in place can be easy.
- [01:09]
Tim Stenovec
When you choose Express employment professionals, they can handle everything.
- [01:13]
Josh Wingrove
To ensure you have the right size contract workforce, go to expresspros.com solve your workforce challenges when you choose Express to support your hiring in a variety of roles and including two of our biggest.
- [01:24]
Tim Stenovec
Areas, manufacturing and logistics, visit ExpressPros.com today.
- [01:29]
Josh Wingrove
That's ExpressPros.com.
- [01:34]
Narrator/Announcer
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts Radio News this is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business, finance and tech news news as it happens. The Bloomberg businessweek Daily Podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stanweck on Bloomberg Radio.
- [02:04]
Tim Stenovec
The latest on the Charlie Kirk assassination. The suspect in the killing identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah after a tip from a family member led to his apprehension. Joining us is Josh Wingrove. He's Bloomberg News Senior White House Correspondent. He joins us from the White House. He's featured on a new episode of the Bloomberg Big Take podcast discussing Charlie Kirk's impact on conservatism. It's called the Big Take How Charlie Kirk Changed Conservatism. Josh joins us from the White House. Josh, we spoke earlier with Miles Miller at the latest on the case and what we heard at the press conference earlier. I want to take a big step back and understand the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk because no question an outsized force when it comes to Republican Politics friends and close to so many in this current administration. What is the political legacy that he leaves behind?
- [02:51]
Josh Wingrove
Yeah, I mean, he was arguably the most influential conservative of his generation, starting with Turning Point usa, which looked to mobilize conservatives on campus. Of course, American conservatives have long complained that they don't get a fair shake on college campuses. And, you know, the professors there are too liberal. And so they saw that as sort of one front of the struggle to sort of expand the conservative tent, as you will. And Kirk really led the push on that. He was also a very early supporter and advocate for Donald Trump specifically, and spoke at its convention, convention regularly. All this, of course, at a young age. He was 31 when he was shot and killed on Wednesday. So this is just a very, very influential figure. It's hard to really put into words, you know, Trump, his son, Vice President Vance. You know, everyone is putting out statements and mourning him. Of course, Trump himself this morning was the one who announced the arrest of, or let it be slipped that there had been an arrest in the case in Utah. And so Kirk's influence is just so big. There are questions now as to where this goes, of course, including more logistical ones about who will run Turning Point. Can it still be as effective without Charlie Kirk? And more broad questions about, you know, where we go from here. President Trump indicating that he, you know, worries or is treating this as part of a larger left wing effort. And we should note there's no evidence yet from investigators that that is fully the case. In other words, that this shooter was participating in some sort of network. But President Trump thinks it is growing from, you know, left wing protests and advocacy in particular, this morning renewed his threat to potentially pursue some sort of racketeering investigation, investigation against George Soros, not for this, but more broadly for funding left wing protesters. So this has the chance to sort of be the basis on which Trump tries to do stuff. And that's what's got a lot of Democrats concerned.
- [04:43]
Carol Massar
God, we just feel so broken, Josh, in a moment of tragedy. And all I can think about is his friends, his family, you know, a loss of life. And I understand there's a lot of political discourse out there. And it just makes me think, like, why, why can't we all get along? Why can't we discuss the differences we have, you know, what is, though, also the responsibility perhaps of those who know Charlie Kirk of the president, perhaps of the Republican Party, of conservatives and maybe saying, hey, like, enough, you know, there's been too many political targets and shootings and incidents and political violence. What's the responsibility of all politicians to step forward and say, like, we need to stop this and what's the likelihood that any of that happens?
- [05:26]
Josh Wingrove
I mean, the Utah governor has been calling to take down the temperature in his press conference this morning. Of course, he's a Republican. There are calls from both parties to do that lest this sort of spiral into other violent acts or without that even just sort of further embitter the partisan kind of environment that we're living in here in the US but others, and there are conservative voices right now calling for, you know, the way to sort of honor Charlie Kirk's legacy is to push back against the progressive and left wing groups that Kirk enjoyed sparring with. And so that's really the crossroads that we're at. I should note that President Trump himself is not really among those calling to take down the temperature. He has said he supports nonviolent action, but he also called Charlie Kirk a martyr and as I said earlier, has indicated that he plans to pursue sort of other measures in the wake of this fatal shooting on Wednesday. That, of course, is being treated by authorities as a political assassination. So it is a fraught time here, no doubt about it. And you know, Kirk is so influential in the conservative community that many are simply grieving, including people in this building behind me who knew him personally. This is just a tragedy where they've lost someone they know important to their movement. But also just on a personal level, it's also true that, of course, some Democrats were not the biggest fans of Charlie Kirk and are, you know, those who are speaking to that right now are being seized upon by conservatives who think this is not the time to be litigating what he said or what he didn't. And so this is all just has the potential to really continue to be pretty fraught. Of course, we should know that Kirk leaves behind a wife and two kids. Focus on them as well right now, including from Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, who sent well wishes to his widow today. So, so this is just a tragedy on Wednesday. The hope, of course, is that it doesn't continue because we have seen too many of these, of course, you know, shooting Minnesota lawmakers. Earlier in Minnesota, we had, of course, the arson outside Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's home. We've had shootings in the past of lawmakers, including Steve Scalise, a Republican, including Gabby Giffords, a Democrat. There have been too many of these in America, I think is a pretty widely held view right now. And the question is, what can be done to sort of bring down the temperature and not have these sort of spiral into, God forbid, more violent acts. That's not something we should, you know, anyone wants to see happen. I should note that President Trump is emphasizing, though, the acts that have targeted Republicans, not so much the ones that have targeted Democrats. So he's feeding sort of his audience a different view, a partial view of the overall landscape of political violence that we're seeing in America over recent years.
- [08:05]
Carol Massar
Yeah, as we know, violence doesn't distinguish between parties, and we certainly have seen that play out. Josh, I just want to layer something else on top of it and has come out in some of the reporting and pointing to global forces kind of jumping on and seizing on, you know, this moment of tragedy and turbulence in American politics. Is there anything to that?
- [08:28]
Josh Wingrove
I think it's a little early to say yet, but there certainly are concerns and reports and indications that, you know, essentially bought armies are pouring gas on the fire, for lack of a better phrase. And that is a concern that predated the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. You know, to what extent are, through social media platforms, Americans being exposed or manipulated by foreign actors? This is a long standing issue. We just don't know yet how much it's playing here. But of course, yeah, it's a concern that this is just another partisan issue that can be sort of seized upon by America's enemies to inflame domestic political tensions.
- [09:05]
Tim Stenovec
Josh. A lot happening out of the nation's capital. We're speaking with Josh Wingrove here, he senior White House correspondent. I want to talk a little bit about shifting gears. The US urging G7 sanctions on Russian oil as President Trump loses patience. I feel like the idea of losing patience is something that we've heard with regard to Russia quite a bit over the last few months. Josh, what's the Latest?
- [09:28]
Josh Wingrove
Yeah, the US is proposing that the G7 sort of increase the pressure on Russia, including by sanctioning China and India for their purchases of Russian oil. Of course, the US has taken steps towards India, but not China itself. And talking about some other measures, measures in terms of trying to further monetize or even seize Russian assets that are frozen. Of course, most of them are frozen in Europe. In other words, the US can't get its hands on it quite yet. So they're sort of trying to tighten the screws on this at a time when Europe is already considering its biggest sanctions package or more recent, excuse me, sanctions package. I believe this would be the 19th one. And so they're all kind of deciding where to go from here. But of Course, the Europeans are also juggling what they, you know, what they can count on from the US in terms of support for Ukraine, support for Naito's troop levels and all that right now. So I think there are just so many moving parts on this. But the US is at least trying to get the G7 to sort of try to turn the temperature up. President Trump indicating this morning in his interview with Fox News that he is losing sort of, you know, patience with President Putin a little bit. But he had high hopes for that summit, remember, you know, so that there were a lot of people clutching, you know, worried, I guess, that it would backfire. And we just haven't seen any movement since that summit. And even behind me in this building, there are still photos of President Putin and President Trump from that summit on the walls of the White House. So he hasn't fully exhausted patience yet. We haven't seen President Trump fully commit to sort of, you know, saying, oh, well, it doesn't seem like Russia's interested in getting some sort of end to the fighting. So right now it remains in a murky area. And if you're the Europeans and in the case of the G7, also the Canadians and the Japanese, that has to be part of your calculus right now. So that's why there's so many moving pieces here as they consider what they can do or can't do or don't want to do to try to raise the pressure on Russia. One final note is that President Trump continues to advocate for these secondary sanctions. In other words, sanctioning or tariffing countries that do business with the countries that they're trying to apply primary tariffs or restrictions to. That remains pretty uncharted ground, pretty untested authority that could be a tricky one for the other countries to try to execute it, even if they chose to try to go down that path.
- [11:39]
Tim Stenovec
Josh, appreciate you joining us on so much. Josh Wingrove is Bloomberg News senior White House correspondent. Also make sure to check out on the Bloomberg Terminal a lot more stories from our team in Washington, D.C. including the President sending the National Guard to Memphis in its next deployment. Also, for more on Charlie Kirk, check out the latest episode of the Big Take podcast featuring Josh Wingrove. It covers the legacy of of Charlie Kirk and how his death is rippling through the political world. You're listening to and watching Bloomberg businessweek Daily. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg businessweek Daily. Coming up after this.
- [12:14]
Carol Massar
Pinpointing the genetic.
- [12:16]
Narrator/Announcer
Changes that predispose us to disease, identifying the roots of mental illness, treating congenital anomalies even before birth.
- [12:24]
Carol Massar
At Boston Children's Hospital, we we're investing.
- [12:27]
Narrator/Announcer
In children's health today to ensure the well being of adults tomorrow.
- [12:31]
Carol Massar
As home to the world's largest pediatric research enterprise and more than 260 specialty programs, Boston Children's is where the world comes for answers.
- [12:41]
Narrator/Announcer
Learn more@bostonchildrens.org introducing the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio now with AI powered PDF spaces do more with PDFs than you ever thought possible. Need AI to turn 100 pages of market research into 5 insights with a click to do that with Acrobat. Need templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal. Do that with Acrobat. Need an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report to sound real smart in real time. Do that with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat every business has an ambition. PayPal Open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with business loans so you can expand and access to hundreds of millions of PayPal customers worldwide. And your customers can pay all the ways they want with PayPal, Venmo pay later and all major cards so you can focus on scaling up when it's time to get growing. There's one platform for all business PayPal open grow today at paypalopen.com loans subject to approval in available locations. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app or watch us live on YouTub.
- [14:00]
Carol Massar
Now we want to get to some market news. There's a lot going on and it's not just Gemini, which is still up about 31% in its first day of trading and we're going to talk about that a little bit later on. We are also watching some of what's going on in some of the different asset classes. And I don't know if you've checked out gold recently, Tim, but it has rallied by nearly 40% this year. It is making it one of the best performing commodities outpacing other market gauges and that includes The S&P 500 central.
- [14:26]
Tim Stenovec
Bank buying, geopolitical uncertainties, inflows into ETFs, all supporting the commodity. Our next guest is someone we've turned to for years to talk gold and much more. Back with us is Axel Merck, President and CEO of Merck Investments, joining us from Menlo park on the West Coast. He manages the ASA Gold and Precious Metals Fund up more than 100% so far this year. The VanEck Merck Gold ETF with about $2 billion in AUM, meantime is up 3, 38% year to date and invest in the precious metal. Axel Carol mentioned how well the fund has done and how well the commodity has done in recent years. But let's look forward. What is the outlook for the remainder of this year, in your view, for gold?
- [15:05]
Axel Merck
Great to be with you. And the fact that you're covering gold, I suppose, means it's got the attention of.
- [15:11]
Tim Stenovec
So is at the top. Is this the top then? Is that what this means?
- [15:14]
Axel Merck
If anything, is the most pessimistic thing I've heard about gold in a long time.
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Narrator/Announcer
Well said.
- [15:19]
Axel Merck
What took you so long to get me on the air?
- [15:21]
Josh Wingrove
Right.
- [15:24]
Axel Merck
But I mean, obviously we've had a stunning run, right? And obviously we have to keep in mind if something is this volatile on the way up, there's always a risk on the downside. Correction. That said, if there are two key drivers, I think one is in the U.S. we have an easing path at the Fed. And if you take the European Central bank, for example, as far as the eye can see, rates are going to be steady. So we have a more dovish monetary policy. The other one is the broader debasement trade. And of course is that correlation or causation is anybody's guess. If that is the case, that may have legs that might last year, so to speak, right. The dollar was always the cleanest shirt. One thing I'd like to mention that maybe not the other guests are not mentioning is when, when we talk about tariffs, it doesn't just impact the trade, the flow of goods, it impacts financial flows, because that's the other side of the goods trade. And so I happen to believe that a wrench has been thrown into the engine that we call the exorbitant privilege, that it's more difficult to use the US to finance things for higher returns abroad. Obviously this is not a light switch or anything like that, but a side effect is higher borrowing costs in the us and in the absence of fiscal discipline, it means more pressure on the Fed to lower rates. And we've obviously seen plenty of that. And so that's a dynamic that has a lot of way to, to play out. And of course, the other context is that valuations are somewhat high and what in the equity markets more broadly, and what do you do to diversify? Now, I'm not suggesting that gold is very cheap here, but gold historically is one of the things that does well in the Easing environment especially also as well if we were to have a more severe correction of stock market. And so an increasing number of people have been looking for this sort of diversification.
- [17:22]
Carol Massar
Well, what's interesting too, as we've seen gold take off and you talk about throwing a wrench into the US exorbitant privilege. I mean I'm looking at the dollar which are at least the dollar index axle, which is down about 10% year to date. Tim and I constantly are asking guests, is the US an investable? You know, are the days of the US dollar running supreme over? Although so much is still done in dol. I guess we're just trying to get an idea if this is a tipping point for the US dollar especially too with the rise of digital and stablecoins perhaps.
- [17:58]
Axel Merck
I don't think digital and stable. I mean the stable coins are US dollar base. I think that's supportive of the dollar, if anything. If you look at the breakdown in the G10, the best performing currency is the Swedish krona versus the dollar. And guess what? The Swedish economy is most as part of its GDP exposed to defense spending. And as you may be aware, Europe is ramping up its defense spending. So there are specific things. Right. And of course as a gold person, the debasement trade kind of fits into our narrative. Whether that's really the case remains to be seen. There is of course more competition and some people say that there is no alternative. And while that may be true, my argument is there does not need to be an alternative. What I foresee is a greater fragmentation. Because if you think it go back to the exorbitant privilege part of that is it's kind of a machinery that's that that provides liquidity for. For the world. And if that begins to sputter somehow or is less effective than it has been, less efficient.
- [19:07]
Carol Massar
Right.
- [19:08]
Axel Merck
It doesn't mean the world coming to an end, but it means that less trade might be happening, more things might be happening locally. Ultimately that's of course healthy for emerging markets in particular if they finance more things domestically. But we have some structural transformations and the dollar might be weakening in that process.
- [19:25]
Carol Massar
Hey, just got about 25 seconds, Axel. So buy gold, buy the commodity, buy the bullion, buy miners, or don't buy any of it at this point?
- [19:34]
Axel Merck
Well, I do both. I haven't sold any of them. Typically the gold and gold miner buyers are very different. The gold miners tend to be more speculative, especially the more juniors. And the physical gold through ETF otherwise tends to be more of a diversification play. There's a lot that hasn't happened in the junior mining space. Very speculative, but some very interesting opportunities.
- [19:53]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah.
- [19:54]
Carol Massar
All right. We promise we will catch up more often.
- [19:57]
Tim Stenovec
Hey hey. He was on in May. If you were watching us in May, it's a little. You saw Axel. Okay, so it was a little while.
- [20:02]
Carol Massar
Ago, but you know, we always appreciate Axel. Have a great weekend. Axel Merck, Chief Investment Officer of Merck Investments.
- [20:09]
Tim Stenovec
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg businessweek Daily Coming up after this.
- [20:17]
Narrator/Announcer
Introducing the all new Adobe Acrobat studio now with AI powered PDF spaces. Do more with PDFs than you ever thought possible. Need AI to turn 100 pages of market research into 5 insights with a click. Do that with Acrobat. Need templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal. Do that with Acrobat. Need an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report to sound real smart in real time. Do that with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat. Every business has an ambition. PayPal Open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with business loans so you can expand and access to hundreds of millions of PayPal customers worldwide. And your customers can pay all the ways they want with PayPal, Venmo, pay later and all major cards so you can focus on scaling up when it's time to get growing. There's one platform for all business PayPal open grow today at paypalopen.com loans subject to approval in available locations.
- [21:18]
Tim Stenovec
So have you heard the story about the prescription plan with savings automatically built in, it's where a family of any size can feel confident the cost of their medication won't hold them back. Go to CMK Co Stories to learn how CBS Caremark helps members save just by being members. That's CMK Co Stories.
- [21:44]
Narrator/Announcer
This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at 2pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg 11:30 only.
- [22:03]
Carol Massar
Only he can lead the company's next phase and his political engagement. It's up to him as just two of the many, many headlines out of the Bloomberg Technology team. Interview with Tesla Board Chair Robin Denholm Bottom line, Tesla's chair saying Elon Musk is the man to continue to take Tesla to its next phase. The Board's responsibility is to look at who the CEO is for the next period of time and we believe that Elon is the right CEO for Tesla over this transformative period of time. And our view is he's a generational leader. There aren't any other people out there like Elon who can actually lead the company over this next decade or so. And so once you decide who the leader should be, you need to put in place a compensation package to incent and motivate him to actually deliver. Yeah, Trillion dollars would motivate me as well. That, of course, was Tesla board chair Robin denholm Talking to BTech, the BTech Dynamo Dynamic Duo of Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde. Ed is co host of Bloomberg Technology every Monday through Friday, 11am Wall street time on Bloomberg TV. He joins us now from the Bloomberg news bureau in San Francisco. Tesla shares, by the way, folks, rallying up about six and a half percent, the number two gainer in both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 today. Ed, well done, well done, well done. You guys covered so much. And there was and always is so much to cover when it's involving Elon and Tesla. What was the priority for you and Caroline and really your team as you thought about your interview with Robin Denholm? Yeah.
- [23:41]
Ed Ludlow
When the news broke a week ago that there was a proposed pay package for Elon Musk, the headline was the trillion dollar value of the total award. Right. But because of how the board had to communicate it in the proxy, it's like a very dense 300 plus page document that is incumbent on shareholders to read the specifics, get lost a little bit. And for me, you guys mentioned the politics angle. One of the few things that was like very explicitly codified in the proxy was that the board had got reassurances from Elon Musk that he would wind down Political activity. Now actually the big takeaway from the interview was that they are actually pretty relaxed about the idea that Musk might continue to have involvement in the political domain. You know, we pushed so hard when you guys say political activity and when I. Sorry, that was too casual. When the board says political activity, what do you even mean? We ask that. Do you mean Musk has told you he won't participate in a political party or he'll stop making donations behind specific candidates or initiatives. And Denham's response was really simple, is it's up to Elon Musk what his political activity is. But they are reassured enough that this package they will get in return. Somebody that will be focused on Tesla.
- [25:03]
Tim Stenovec
You know, it's a, it's a. I appreciated how you pushed her head. Because if you Think about Elon Musk's own political evolution. I mean, he said in the spring of last year that he wasn't going to donate to either political candidate. This was when Joe Biden and Donald Trump were running against each other. That all changed after Butler, Pennsylvania in the assassination attempt. And then, you know, Elon went full fledged and even served as part, you know, in the administration in the, in the capacity of for Doge. So we saw how quickly he changed his mind in a very short period of time. So I guess it can only be up to him because he's the one who makes these decisions. I don't know.
- [25:39]
Ed Ludlow
Well, well, the way that Robin Denholm put it, and you know, this was an on the record, on camera interview and Ms. Denholm I'm sure chose her words very carefully, but she said that Musk's political activity or time in government has concluded and he is now back focused on Tesla. You know, the main thing that we got to it was it was a long interview, right. But again the detail is like so important in what the board is requiring of Elon Musk. You know, these are not goals. The word goal is not correct to say that Musk gets a trillion dollars in the end if he hits goals, their mandatory requirements and if he doesn't hit the operational and financial goals, Denham was very clear like he doesn't get not the dollar value comp. But remember at the heart of this is the Elon Musk's condition. It was a negotiation and what he wanted was voting power. Because Musk's idea is that with greater voting power he will be able to keep Tesla focus focused on a future that is about artificial intelligence, not necessarily the legacy of Tesla, which is selling electric vehicles to consumers.
- [26:52]
Carol Massar
Well, speaking of power and voting power and just power generally, I mean there's been a lot of criticism, I think it's fair to say, of the Tesla board and who's in charge and you know, Robin Denholm, I mean I'm looking at the Bloomberg description. Australian business executive, former accountant, who's chair of Tesla, chosen by Elon in November of 2018 to be chair and prior to that she was relatively unknown. I'm just curious about the board and correct me, because you know this company.
- [27:25]
Ed Ludlow
No, no, no, but nothing's correct.
- [27:27]
Carol Massar
Like what do we need to know about the Tesla board and what they say and what it really means to what Elon can and can't do.
- [27:36]
Ed Ludlow
I regret not saying this out loud explicitly. If even if I did not then ask, you know, I should have asked about it. But basically the criticism from all kinds of investors, the biggest institutionals on Wall street to the smallest retail investors is that it's a rubber stamp board that just does what Elon Musk wants. There's something really important to understand that it was a special committee that negotiated meeting with Elon Musk 10 times this compensation package. So. So Musk had input into it. But the special committee is made up of just two people. Robin Denholm and then Kathleen Wilson Thompson, who also kind of chairs the financial and comp committee on the Tesla board. A board of two or a committee of two, because Elon Musk is on the board so he recuses himself technically even though he negotiates. And then his brother Kimball Musk is on the board of Tesla. Tesla, but he's his brother. So he recuses himself from negotiating the comp. It actually is was really important to say that out loud. Now at the end of the day it's a shareholder right to vote on this package on November 6th. And a lot of what Denham was explaining and she really wanted to get this across. This is a proposal. You have the right to vote on it. So you need to understand what's in it. Even though there is some sort of, you know, there is skepticism about how solid that board is. Robin Denham lives in Australia for what it's worth. But I can tell you from, from conversations in the company investors that I know she's highly engaged, reads everything, knows everything that's going on.
- [29:13]
Tim Stenovec
Ed. Well, you've been on air with us. There's been some breaking news that we'd love for you to react to this about Apple company that you follow very closely. Mark Gurman replacement reporting that Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker, Robbie Walker will leave the company. One of the iPhone maker's most senior AI executives. This according to people with knowledge of the matter. This follows a slew of folks who've left in recent months not just to go to Metta platforms for those huge pay packages. What's your immediate reaction to this?
- [29:41]
Ed Ludlow
Well, I'm just checking at the stock. You guys have the ticker up. Okay. So the shares haven't sort of plummeted. What I know is limited about Robby Walker. He had been reporting to John G. Andrea, which I'm sure in this show you've discussed Mark's other reporting which was about who was in charge. So to a point, John Gian Drayer had led the AI team and a lot of the departures that we've reported on in aggregate had left, had been reporting onto him. But you have to remember that Craig Federighi who's like the software. Software chief, the software guru at, at Apple, he had sort of taken command of the team. So I guess and I pull up the draft and I'm scrambling to find it, but forgive me for that, but I think that it's just a signal that these exits have continued since that restructure is what I was going to say.
- [30:36]
Carol Massar
No, you're laying it out really well.
- [30:37]
Tim Stenovec
And we should remind everybody the news came out when, when Ed was speaking about test Tesla.
- [30:42]
Carol Massar
So yeah, yeah, it's okay. After leaving, I guess his Siri role walker became one of the top Apple execs working on the new AI powered web search system to compete with Perplexity and ChatGPT. It's scheduled to debut next year. So. Yeah, kind of fluid, huh?
- [30:59]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, I mean I'm doing this deliberately because it's relevant. You know, part of the Den Home conversation about why it has to be Elon Musk that leads Tesla is that you have right now this huge talent war. Apple is one of the losers of it, let's be honest. Based on the reporting matter is paying over the nose to get people. And Denham's argument about Elon Musk is that he is a draw. So the compensation doesn't really matter. People want to go and work for him because he's seen as this great engineering mind and he's so hands on, you know, in the trenches, I believe he's been. The building I was in is 3000 Hanover street which is like the Global Engineering HQ. And Elon Musk was there this week and getting involved in stuff, that's the landscape right now. So these stories are so interesting because for AI, you know, the human capital, the human intelligence that's building out AI, that is a battleground. Right. And that's all I'm reflecting on.
- [31:58]
Alan Lance
Yeah.
- [31:59]
Carol Massar
All right. Great stuff as well. Always. Thank you. Thank you. Ed Ludlow, Breaking news Are talking about breaking news in real time as well as folding it into an incredible interview that he and Caroline Hyde of the Bloomberg Tech team had with the chair of Tesla's board, Ed Ludlow, as we said, co host of Bloomberg Tech, joining us from our San Francisco bureau.
- [32:19]
Tim Stenovec
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg businessweek Daily. Coming up after this.
- [32:27]
Narrator/Announcer
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Tim Stenovec
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- [33:51]
Narrator/Announcer
I E S. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app or watch us live on YouTube.
- [34:08]
Carol Massar
I'm driving in my car.
- [34:10]
Josh Wingrove
How about you let me drive?
- [34:11]
Narrator/Announcer
Oh, no, no, no, no.
- [34:12]
Tim Stenovec
This is not a toy.
- [34:13]
Josh Wingrove
Who's going to drive you home? Honey, please, I'll do the driving.
- [34:17]
Axel Merck
Drive on.
- [34:18]
Ed Ludlow
Excuse me, I want to drive. You drive.
- [34:21]
Carol Massar
Singing prison it's the question that drives us.
- [34:27]
Narrator/Announcer
This is the drive to the close.
- [34:28]
Ed Ludlow
The funky music will drive us till.
- [34:31]
Narrator/Announcer
The dawn on Bloomberg Radio.
- [34:35]
Carol Massar
All right, everybody, we've got just about 18, 19, 15 minutes to go until we wrap up the trade on this Friday. Wrapping up the Friday session and also the week overall. Got to say very clear what I love about the Bloomberg is I always have these charts up of the S and P, dow and the NASDAQ 100.
- [34:49]
Tim Stenovec
How's it looking? What's going on?
- [34:51]
Carol Massar
You've got the S and P at its lows of the session. So a straight leg down. We're down only eight points. But the point is we are definitely off our best levels of the session. We've seen this movement in like the last 20, 30 minutes, so makes me wonder a little bit of what's going on. Maybe people ahead of the Fed meeting meeting next week, closing out positions, I'm not quite sure. Dow Jones Industrial Average, it is down 283 points, down 6.10of a percent. And NASDAQ 100 still in positive territory, up about 1/3 of 1%. But it too has rolled over off its best level of the session. So I'm taking a look at our Markets Live blog to see what is going on. Yeah, maybe it's just investors. It's been a bullish week for investors. We've seen several records and I'm just taking a look at where the s and P500 is for the week. Overall, we're still up about one and a half percent. So do you just kind of, for lack of a better phrase, take some money off the table heading into the weekend?
- [35:48]
Tim Stenovec
Up 12% for the year. Let's see what Alan Lance has to say about this. He's president of the ria, Alan B. Lands and Associates and director of research at the research firm Lance Global. He joins us once again from Toledo, Ohio. Been a while since we last had you on the program, Alan. How are you?
- [36:04]
Alan Lance
We're doing well. How are you, Tim?
- [36:05]
Tim Stenovec
We're doing well. It's good to talk to you again. I wanted to just get your idea about where we are in this market cycle given I think a lot has happened, especially since April, so called Liberation Day, and the way that investors have essentially shrugged off the threat or implementation of tariffs.
- [36:24]
Alan Lance
Yeah, it's been an incredible rebound and I agree with what investors are doing as far as at the close here and that's taking a little bit of profits. When you look at a company like Oracle, that's one of our core positions. But I'd be much more inclined to take partial profits there and redeploy them into areas that haven't moved. Mitigate risk rather than chasing. I think we're about in the sixth inning. I know you have a lot of people on and they're talking first, second inning. But really when you look at the valuations here and now the IPO market's starting to heat up. We still have a ways to go. We're not at the end of this, but we're more than halfway through. So those people loading up and chasing the AI plays, I think, you know, you got to be nimble enough to get out in time, that's for sure.
- [37:11]
Carol Massar
Well, investors look like they're getting out ahead of the weekend. I think it's kind of notable and I'm sure you've got your screens up and you're looking at the trade. Is it Just good week, bullish week. And maybe you just take a little bit of a breather ahead of next week's Fed meeting or what.
- [37:26]
Alan Lance
Yeah, I think you got some positives and they're getting discounted, Carol. So you get a situation where, you know, it looks like interest rates will go down. You know, the IPO market's heating up. You know, good news with, with, you know, some of the tech stocks, the. And as, as far as. Even the, you know, Tam, you know, situations as far as with Nvidia and what have you. So I, I think it's, it's a situation where why not take some money off the table? The interesting thing, there's still some good buys out there, you know, some, you know, leaders that haven't moved early part of the summer. We're buying Johnson Johnson and Pepsi. They have. But there are other companies that have good dividends that I still think are attractive. So this is not like 2007 when we talked and said, you know, get out and everything's overvalued. But it is something where I think you gotta be a little precarious as far as in chasing.
- [38:18]
Tim Stenovec
You said last year you started taking profits in Nvidia. That was at. When it was at $140. You said you then redeployed some of those profits into companies like snowflake or MongoDB. Do you regret selling Nvidia last year at 140?
- [38:36]
Alan Lance
Not at all. You know, if you look at Snowflake, it's done better in the past year than, than Nvidia and, and, you know, MongoDB at the end of the year was down and it's up, you know, so again, I, I think, you know, investors look at it like, oh, you know, Nvidia's higher. It's, you know, 170s now instead of 140. But really it's been an underperformer compared to, you know, the industry, which is hard to believe. Even Oracle, it's up, you know, 40 some percent over the last five years. The industry's up 18. 18 is great, but if you're in the right areas, you can do, you know, much more. So I, I think that diversification is important, Tim, and, and investors shouldn't just be in one or two or seven stocks. They, you know, I think it's going to broaden out and that's what you have in the latter innings. And that's what we're seeing. So, so, you know, we're actually doing more of that.
- [39:26]
Carol Massar
Well, if I'm doing play by play with the markets right now. We've now bounced kind of off our of the session on the S and P and Dow and now we've seen investors come back wacky trade, weird. I don't know, am I just too laser focused on the tick by tick today? I don't know.
- [39:44]
Alan Lance
Yeah, it's short term. I wouldn't worry about that. I think the long term trends is only going to be the critical area as far as that goes. And there's good investments that still can be purchased, which, which, you know, I'm appreciative of. If everything's overvalued, then it gets really hard. So, so to take some money off the table, even Nvidia I think will go higher, you know, but take some money off the table and buy things that haven't moved yet that have lesser risk, better risk reward, I think is, is prudent strategy right now.
- [40:16]
Tim Stenovec
I want to talk a little bit about risks that you see out there and when you think it's time to if at all move to cash or, you know, it's a question I don't ask lightly because that's a drastic move for investors. And you know, people are always saying do not time the market. I'm not giving financial advice here, but I'm just wondering how you're thinking about risk right now because there are a lot of folks out there who say valuations are very high.
- [40:40]
Alan Lance
Yeah, they are high in certain areas and that's why, you know, we are starting to take profits and you know, again, partial profits in Oracle and, and companies have done well like Nvidia. But I, I also think that there are areas you can still buy so you don't have to be in cash. Like in, in 2007 and late 1999, we're saying get in cash and be defensive. Now I think you could be defensive but still have companies that have dividends and, and are trading at historic lows really valuation wise. And that, that's what makes this divergence, you know, interesting where you can get out and take some good profits or partial profits and redeploy the money and things that have lesser risk and better reward. Like you know, as far as Snowflake had a year ago.
- [41:25]
Tim Stenovec
Alan, sorry to jump in, but we've got like, we've got a million questions left and only like a minute left. I just want to talk MP materials because we had Jim Latinsky on the show. We spent a lot of time talking about that company. It was on your radar before it was on a lot of people's radar. You spoke with us about buying it. What's the status there?
- [41:41]
Alan Lance
We would hold it again, not, not chase it. You know, we're buying it. You know, in the mid-20s it went down to 10. We're just buying more. Just long term play, you know, two good pieces of news. You know, earlier this summer we increased our target to 80 to $90. So we did take some profits. But again, I think it's a good long term play. Again, another one of those high flyers that we wouldn't chase. But you know, hopefully we can find some like MP materials from, you know, six months ago that will do well, even though I don't think you'll see those kind of gains.
- [42:13]
Carol Massar
20 seconds really quick. You're comfortable with the government taking a stake?
- [42:18]
Alan Lance
Yeah, I think on this it's very important. I disagree with the intel and with the aerospace and what have you. But on this I think it is critical and it really helped put the company on the map.
- [42:30]
Carol Massar
Well, as we mentioned, the stock has been on a tear. It is up more than 300% year to date. Alan Lance, have a great weekend. President of Alan B. Lance and Associates joining us from Toledo, Ohio.
- [42:40]
Narrator/Announcer
This is the Bloomberg Business Weekday Daily podcast available on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5pm Eastern on Bloomberg.com, the iHeartRadio app, TuneIn and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live Every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg Terminal. Time for a sofa upgrade? Visit washablesofas.com and discover Annabe where designer style meets budget friendly prices. With sofas starting at $699, Annabe brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anabe is the only machine washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy. Liquid simply slides right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink in feel or a supportive memory foam blend. Plus our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30 day money back guarantee. Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washablesofas.com Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Every business has an ambition. Paypal Open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with business loans so you can expand and access to hundreds of millions of PayPal customers worldwide. And your customers can pay all the ways they want with PayPal, Venmo pay later and all major cards so you can focus on scaling up when it's time to get growing. There's one platform for all business PayPal open grow today at paypalopen.com loans subject to approval in available locations hey, it's.
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Carol Massar
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Josh Wingrove
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Carol Massar
Tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.
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So I thought it would be fun.
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Carol Massar
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So there goes my big idea for the commercial.
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Carol Massar
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