Bloomberg Businessweek – "Stocks Pare Oil-Fueled Rout on Trump’s Assurances"

Date: March 3, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the complex interplay between ongoing geopolitical unrest, U.S. policy actions, market volatility, and evolving investment strategies. Featuring insightful conversations with top financial industry leaders, including Connor Teske (CEO, Brookfield Asset Management), Lynn Martin (President, NYSE), John Rogers (Founder, Ariel Investments), and Alex Rodriguez (Chairman & CEO, A-Rod Corp), the episode explores the future of credit markets, public and private investing, labor trends in sports, and the enduring strength of U.S. capital markets. Throughout, the hosts probe how shocks—like new U.S.-Iran conflict developments and oil price volatility—shape investor behavior, corporate strategy, and economic outlook.

Key Segment Summaries

1. Long-Term Investing Amid Geopolitical Volatility

Guest: Connor Teske, CEO, Brookfield Asset Management
Timestamps: 02:16 – 10:25

Brookfield’s Approach in Uncertain Times

• Incremental Leadership Transition
  • Teske describes becoming CEO as an "incremental transition" (“Nice to get the announcement out of the way and just back to business as usual.” [02:23]) with little change to daily operations.
• Reaction to Global Turbulence
  • Despite Middle East tensions and recent attacks, Brookfield maintains a focus on “long-term assets that are essential... These are assets that produce cash across a cycle. They're down protected, they're inflation linked.” [03:15]
  • The safety of personnel and the performance of core assets remain the company’s immediate priorities.
  • On Middle East AI infrastructure investments: “It does not change our investment in the region at all... It's got very significant growth.” [04:09]
• Impact of Geopolitical Events
  • Brookfield’s strategy is not tied to short-term political shifts: “They tend to have durations far beyond single administrations, political parties, individual leaders.” [05:02]

The Credit Market Landscape

• Current State of Credit & Risks
  • On market health: “Credit markets are actually in very good shape. Corporate balance sheets are strong, banks are great, capital markets are incredibly liquid today.” [05:57]
  • Differentiates between private credit, asset-backed lending, and “direct lending,” noting the last is a minor part of the broader market but drawing most concern.
  • Cautions against conflating credit quality issues with liquidity issues: “There's a lot of talk about perpetual credit vehicles... They offer diversification... But they need to be executed in a way that is thoughtful given the liquidity requirements.” [07:43]
• Expansion of Private Market Products
  • Teske strongly supports wider access: “Private markets offer an incredible opportunity for investors of all type... but when offered to the individual investor, it needs to be through a structure that is well understood.” [08:44]

AI and Infrastructure Outlook

• AI-Driven Demand
  • Data center build: “The demand is being driven by the largest, highest quality credit counterparties... Nothing slowing down." [09:54, 10:23]

2. IPO Markets, Disclosure, and Prediction Markets

Guest: Lynn Martin, President, NYSE
Timestamps: 12:59 – 20:45

IPO Market Resilience

• Geopolitical Influence on IPOs

  • “There's always going to be geopolitical events happening... If you're a global good company, you can always go public.” [13:19]
  • Notes strong performance of recent IPOs, e.g., Reddit.

• Public vs. Private Markets

  • On long private-company gestations: “Being private for longer, that's a great thing because... they have refined their strategy... already profitable.” [15:50]
  • Calls for more streamlined disclosures, less litigation risk, and shareholder reforms to make U.S. public markets more appealing.

• Quarterly Reporting Debate

  • On ending quarterly reporting: “It’s a bit of a two-edged sword... you don't want to give people less transparency.” [16:32]
  • Possible compromise: “If you're a newly public company, maybe you don't fall into the quarterly reporting cycle immediately.” [16:46]

Prediction Markets

• Polymarket Partnership
  • NYSE invested $1 billion in prediction-market operator Polymarket, “focused more on the data side and giving transparency, particularly... how data is impacting your more traditional markets.” [18:51]
  • Example: “Someone said, Poly just called the election for President Trump... the S&P futures started to spike up.” [19:16]
  • Believes prediction markets increasingly influence traditional markets and aid in interpreting market impacts from geopolitical events.

3. Market Cycles, Wealth Disparities, and The U.S. Economic Engine

Guest: John Rogers, Founder, Ariel Investments
Timestamps: 21:00 – 33:47

Navigating Crisis-Driven Volatility

• Current Cycle Uniqueness

  • “But this is the first time we're seeing, like, we're making this crisis happen... a conscious decision to make policy decisions, whether it's tariffs or now, whether it's the war, and that's causing all this drama and angst.” [21:48]
  • Differentiates between past (“normal” economic cycles) versus current (“policy-created turmoil”).

• Trump’s Market Approach

  • "President Trump cares about the markets. He sees that as a scorecard... eventually, he figures out a way to adjust, to get things back to a calm state.” [22:16]

• Risk of Wider Conflict

  • Rogers expresses fear that Iranian retaliation could lead to “something that's extraordinarily painful for America... you just hope that nothing like that happens again ever in the United States or in our friendly countries.” [23:06]

Economic Outlook and Policy

• Forecast for a Small Recession

  • On U.S. consumer bifurcation: “Wealthy consumers doing okay. So many other consumers are not... ordinary Americans are having a hard time covering the cost of just day to day life in America. I think that's a real challenge for our economy.” [24:42]

• Wealth Gap and Middle Class Hope

  • Optimism in the American system: “We'll ultimately put the right people in place. Governments will shift and change... I think we'll get there.” [25:42]
  • “I'm optimistic that we will create [so] the wealth gap... will start to diminish over time.” [26:24]

Investment Strategy in the Current Market

• Opportunities in Financials and Private Equity

  • Undervalued sectors: “Financial services companies... have gotten to be extremely cheap... what's happened in private credit is overdone.” [26:45]
  • “Companies like Carlyle... as interest rates get lower... will be able to do extremely, extremely well. And then secondarily, a company like Lazard... is moving in the right direction.” [27:04]

• AI and Value Investing

  • “AI helps to make [real estate brokers] more efficient and more effective. And AI is not going to replace that real estate broker...” [28:20]
  • Warns against overexposure to mega-cap tech: “Large cap growth stocks have gotten way, way, way too expensive... small stocks get neglected... opportunities get created.” [29:29-30:09]

• U.S. Market Endurance

  • “It's really, really hard to diversify away from the U.S. Markets in any meaningful way. We still have the deepest economic system, the most successful economic system, the best universities...” [32:10]
  • “Even though there's been all this drama... people want to come back to the country where you can count on our currency, our democracy.” [32:10]

4. Investing in Sports: Scarcity, Labor, and Media Rights

Guests: Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod Corp) and discussion of Alex Waxman (6th Street)
Timestamps: 36:48 – 43:30

Opportunities and Contrarian Bets

• Current Sports Landscape

  • Rodriguez highlights the unique investment appeal of the NFL due to “the combination of appreciation and cash flow... very, very unique in sports.” [38:17]
  • On baseball: “It's the best opportunity to invest today. I'm a contrarian by nature, so I would invest right into the teeth of this collective bargaining agreement.” [38:59]

• Collective Bargaining, Labor Disputes & Media

  • Rodriguez predicts significant labor noise but sees volatility as manufacturer of opportunity: “where you have apprehension, I think you have opportunity.” [39:43, 39:52]
  • On salary caps: “I don't think so. I don't think so.” [40:07] (about MLB players agreeing to a cap)

• Moats and Scarcity

  • “If you're a real estate investor and there's only 30 beachfront properties in the entire world. Yeah, boy, you would do anything to own one of those. So scarcity is a big deal.” [42:24]
  • International growth propels NBA’s value: “20 years ago less than 3% of the league was foreign-born athletes, now 35%. Basketball in Europe is a $45 billion annual business; NBA owns 1% of that.” [43:00]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Connor Teske, on managing through the chaos:
  "Our focus is on our people who are safe and our assets that are operating. So we continue to look forward and the fundamentals for the key themes we're investing in continue to be positive." [03:15]

• Lynn Martin, on U.S. market resilience:
  "Our public markets are the envy of the world... It is why more and more companies are looking towards the US as the most desirable geography from a capital formation standpoint." [14:30]

• John Rogers, on repeating market history:
  "Large cap growth stocks have gotten way, way, way too expensive. Everyone's fallen in love with that trade for quite a long time... The small stocks get neglected, they get misunderstood, they're not as well followed. And so opportunities gets created." [29:29]

• Alex Rodriguez, on contrarian sports investing:
  "You have volatility. Where you have apprehension, I think you have opportunity. And the multiples, if you can buy a baseball team in four or five multiple versus other sports... that’s an opportunity." [39:52]

Key Timestamps

• 02:16 – 10:25: Brookfield’s Connor Teske on global volatility, credit markets, and AI Infrastructure
• 12:59 – 20:45: NYSE’s Lynn Martin on IPOs, market transparency, and prediction markets
• 21:00 – 33:47: Ariel Investments’ John Rogers on economic bifurcation, market cycles, and U.S. resilience
• 36:48 – 43:30: Alex Rodriguez on sports as an asset class, media rights, labor issues, and contrarian opportunities

Tone & Style

The episode is fast-paced, thoughtful, and informed—balancing measured optimism with frank discussions of risk. The hosts favor a journalistic, probing style, while guests respond with candor and experience, often offering historical perspective and personal anecdotes alongside sharp market analysis.

Takeaways for Listeners

• Investors are focusing on durability and staying power rather than reacting to immediate turbulence.
• Public markets remain robust, but private markets’ appeal continues to expand—provided transparency and good governance are prioritized.
• Market cycles exhibit familiar patterns: today’s neglected value sectors may be tomorrow’s outperformers.
• The U.S. market and economic system maintain unique global advantages—even amid political and social uncertainty.
• In both markets and sports, times of heightened “noise” often create fresh opportunities for prepared, patient investors.

This episode offers a panoramic view of how today's big stories—oil, war, AI, public vs. private markets, labor relations, and demographic changes—matter for anyone making investment decisions or just striving to understand the trajectory of the global economy.