Bloomberg Markets: The End 02/06/2024

Live from Studio two at Bloombergheadquarters in New York. I'm Scarlet Fu and I'm Alix Steel.And to point out this has been eight or nine years in the making.We used to have a show together around this time and now we're doing it again.Is it 2015 all over again? Is that what it was?Yeah. I so long before the show.What did you mean, something? Yeah.What did you miss? What do you miss?All right. Anyway, let's get a check in on themarkets, because I got to tell you,.

Equities are tremendously boring.So is the counting down to the closed? Pretty much ignore the index level andvolume is also terrifically light. NASDAQ 100 kind of same thing.A little heavier, though, down by 3/10 of 1%.I did want to point out the two year in particular, up by six basis points,seeing that the the the most buying there along the curve is me down by sixbasis points most across the curve. You had a nice takedown of the threeyear auction we get that ten year auction today as well.You also got continued Fed speak about pushing out that cut later and later.Not there yet.

Not there yet.That message really trying to sink home here and the Bloomberg dollar index justwatch the 200 day moving average get a nice run over the last couple of days.We're pausing here really close to that 200 day Scarlet Fu.Well, Alex, you mentioned fed speak. It's certainly helping to soothe thebond market while stocks have settled into a pretty tight range, Cleveland FedPresident Loretta Mester said policymakers will likely gain confidenceto cut rates later this year since there's no economic data on the calendartoday. What it means is investors are leftsearching for direction.

They're counting on earnings and fedcommentary to provide cues. Meantime, regulators are taking aim athedge funds. The SEC is set to label prop tradingfirms that regularly trade treasuries as dealers because they're increasinglyresponsible for liquidity in this massive market.Now, doing so would mean more guardrails that would lead to increased scrutinyand higher compliance costs. All of that.As for a company news, Boeing is in the spotlight today.The fallout from its 737 max midair blowout last month has made it the worstperformer in the Dow Industrials this.

Year, Alex, down almost 20%.What's the latest on Boeing? The headlines, right.They just keep on coming. The latest is the NTSB saying thatAlaska Air Boeing Max nine door plug was missing bolts.I kind of thought we knew that. But still, when you get these headlinesthat just continue, it's pretty rough going.Also, Spirit Aerosystems did have its earnings call.They didn't provide guidance because of that.They get the majority of their revenue from Boeing.And here is really why it matters.

This is a fantastic chart.Thank you. Brooke Sutherland at Bloomberg Opinion.The blue is operating income for Boeing and the white is operating income forcommercial airplanes. And they just I mean, you got to squint,but they just got that into positive territory.About $283 million of total operating income and 41 million for commercialplanes. Now, unless you can deliver the planes,then you can't get the money. And then that operating income getsharder and harder to come by. That's why it's so important.Now, this also became an issue in DC.

Today.You had FAA administrator Mike Whitaker testifying to the House TransportationCommittee earlier today, vowing to hold Boeing accountable for those qualitylapses. The events of January 5th.It really created two issues for us. One, what's wrong with this airplane?But two, what's going on with the production at Boeing?And there have been issues in the past and they don't seem to be gettingresolved. So we feel like we need to have aheightened level of oversight. Mike Whittaker, the FAA administratorthere.

Now, let's get some more perspective onthis hearing and Boeing's issues overall from Stan Saucier.He is a former Boeing engineer who worked at the company for nearly 20years. He's also a policy adviser for theInternational Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers labor union.Stan. So good to speak with you.Just some more headlines out of Boeing right now.The company saying added scrutiny will make us better.And the CEO, Dave Calhoun, making clear that Boeing is accountable for whathappened and it is implementing plans to.

Improve 737 production quality.It is cooperating with all the agencies and the probes as well.Stan, Mike Whitaker posed an important question at the hearing today, which iswhat is going on with production at Boeing?And one answer that comes up a lot is culture.So briefly, tell us what you saw at your two decades in Boeing.What was the culture like when you started there in 1980?What was it like when you left? Yeah, So I had a great job at Boeingthat I had a visibility for a lot of the functions and the work that was going onat Boeing.

I was quite surprised to see how socialengineers were. I had never seen such a high level ofcommunication and coordination and trust and willingness to sacrifice yourindividual interests for the success of the program.It was not only fascinating, it was extraordinarily productive.And so to me, that was that was the strength of the engineering problemsolving culture. I also saw it in the manufacturingareas. I wasn't out there as much as in theengineering. But again, each each airplane programhad its own culture, which, you know,.

Reinforced this problem solving to agreater and lesser degree. I also had the opportunity to see thatculture displaced and replaced with a current cost cuttingbusiness model, which had a completely different workplace culture.So, you know, I understand, you know,Whitaker's question, it's an excellent question.To me, the framework that I used to analyze that is, you know, what is theproblem solving culture? Are you encouraged to solve problems?Yeah. So to that point, will an FAAindividuals or those that work for.

Boeing but report to the FAA having themon the floor, does that solve that problem of a culture that you're justdefining? Yeah, the relationship with the FAA waspart of the problem solving culture that I saw before.And it was it was on a technical level, TheBoeing certification engineers and the FAA certification engineers had atechnical relationship over time. That changed a lot.Any any way to strengthen that connection betweenthe Boeing employees and the FAA oversight would be a good thing.And.

That that connection had deterioratedquite a bit. And it was very difficult for the FAA tokeep up. So, Stan, another development that'shappened today, as I'm sure you know, is that Boeing's largest union is nowdemanding a pay increase. They're inspired by the UAW and theHollywood writers and actors strike. You worked with a union representingcompany engineers during your time at the company.Given the pressure Boeing is under, how much of an upper hand does the unionhave right now, would you say? Thenthat's I guess we'll see you right.

There.Another question is, which way is Boeing going to go in the future or are theygoing to stick with this cost cutting business approach or are they going tohave more of an engaged, empowered workforce?And, you know, that ultimately comes aroundinto compensation and benefits and the work environment.All right, Stan, really got it. Really appreciate your joining us andsharing your insight. We got to leave it there.Stan Saucier is a former Boeing engineer policy advisor for the IFP.Coming up on the close, excitement.

Building for the Super Bowl in five daysas the Chiefs and the 49 ers prepare for a rematch of their 2020 game.The president of the Chiefs joins us. All right.This is football, right? Yes, it is.All right. Let's share the DocuSign taking a leglower even after the firm announcing it's cutting 6% of its workforce morethan what's dragging the stock lower. It's our stock of the hour.And fresh slate of earnings on deck. We've got Ford, we've got Chipotle, Snapand a lot more. We're going to have breaking analysis onall of that coming up in a4pm hour.

This is the close.I'm Bloomberg. And. But in the last six weeks of the year,we announced six deals across the US and Europe, many in sectors we like digitalmarketplaces, enterprise software, energy transition and in real estate.We also saw pick up in activity, privatizations, a big distressed loanportfolio. So we are seeing a pick up.It does often take a bit of time, but things are starting to loosen.So it does feel like for M&A, a bit of an inflection point.That was Blackstone President John Gray.

Weighing in with his expectations fordeals. And we've seen a bit of a comeback foractivity this year. Now, Bain is out with its own global M&Areport. The firm writing, quote, This year,buyers have their eyes on a growing backlog of deals, adding that asinterest rates stabilize, we expect the logjam in M&A markets to break.And when it does, competition for assets will be significant.Want to bring in one of the authors of the report, Suzanne Kumar, GlobalPractice, vice president of M&A and Divestitures, and our own Nina Trestman,who helps lead Bloomberg's deal coverage.

For us.Suzanne, let's start with you. When does this happen?When do we get the flurry? Well, this backlog has been building fora while. Last year, the only thing that buyersand sellers seemed to agree on was that they didn't agree on price.And so it was happening at two years of a market decline and decliningvaluations. Buyers were looking for a bit of a deal.Sellers didn't want to sell in that environment, and so they're holding ontoassets wherever they can. So, Nina, you covered deals forBloomberg News.

You talked to a lot of CFOs, a lot ofCEOs. What are you hearing from them when itcomes to the the urgency to make deals? I'm certainly hearing that people aremore optimistic this year than they were last year talking to that backlog thatyou pointed out, Suzanne. What I'm certainly hearing from peopleis interest to do deals, to basically add to the portfolio, to add gaps thatcompanies might be having specifically in AI in technology.What we are also hearing is people being concerned about regulatory issues.So that comes up in many of the conversations and therefore many of thecompanies also saying, well, maybe we'll.

Do tuck in or a smaller acquisition too,to avoid some of those hurdles. These aren't like transformativemegadeals, like we saw some of that in the oil patch, but that's not what we'rereally looking at. Well, I think, of course, it's hard toforecast most of the year. But I think so far what we've seen thisyear, we've seen more these these kind of smaller deals.We saw a few pharmaceutical deals in recent days whereby companiesspecifically acquired a type of therapy or medication instead of just buyinglike a whole a whole big company. Nina mentioned AIG, and that's somethingthat M&A dealmakers are starting to.

Incorporate in their process.How are they using it, Suzanne? So it's it's the early days, but it'sreally exciting. A small portion of early adopters areusing AI for sourcing, screening and delivering seeing deals that make sensebecause there's a lot of outside and data that Jeni, I can help synthesizeand summarize. The real question is going to be, as Jenand I really becomes part of how we all do business and in our daily life.Can dealmakers use Jenny AI to get a competitive advantage, to get find atarget that no one else can see, can a differentiated insight on it and ontarget and ultimately better outcomes in.

Their deal making.So that's what we're really going to be paying attention to.As So in this mature multipronged, it's like using general AI to help find theright deals and then maybe also merging within that sector to begin with.Right. Where are you seeing the business spreadcome in the most? Is there a particular sector?Well, one place that it really was evident in the past year has been intechnology. So two years ago, 2021, the median dealvaluation was at 25 times, it was down to 13 to 15 in the past 18 months.And so in that environment, you're not.

Surprised to see again that sellers arekind of waiting out. They remember the those days of highvaluations and buyers aren't really willing to to come to the table ifthat's what the sellers are expecting. You talk about technology.Health care is often said in the same breath as technology because it has thatgrowth aspect to it. You know, what are you hearing aboutfrom the tech firms when it comes to biotech, which relies on a lot of May?Well, we've seen a few deals come to market already this year.I think it's interesting to point out that if we just look at the volume ofdeals that were announced this year that.

We already had, I think sort of roughly212 billion involving U.S. companies, which is up 76% compared tothe prior year period. I guess that tells us that there isinterest from from corporates. And also it's not just the technologyside, of course, but also interest rates, for example.So companies are expecting interest rates to come down this year.So if you can raise that more cheaply to fund your deal, that might also be apositive. So it sounds as if there's quite a fewpositive signals there. On the other side, do you expect thisnow to be an exit market for like.

Private equity or VCs or something like,well, that part of the market open up well.The women and I can observe is that, you know, more than half a portfoliocompanies have now been held for more than four years.So kind of pre Covid era. And just from a fund economicsperspective, they do need to get to market.So we're going to be looking for some momentum there as well.Suzanne, really appreciate your joining us today, sharing the results of yoursurvey. Global practice, vice president for M&Aand divestitures over at Bain.

And thank you as well to our very ownNina Troutman, who covers deals. Coming up on the close, Spotify isfocused on financial discipline, playing out well for the streaming giant.We're going to give you a recap of the fourth quarter performance next.This is the close. And. It's time now for our top calls, wherewe take a look at some of the big movers on the back of analysts recommendations.And let's start with Tesla. A downgrade to neutral from outperformover at Daiwa Securities. Investors anxious about governance atthe Elon Musk, Elon Musk run company.

And analysts expect things to get morevolatile with Tesla facing tough financial conditions.The stock nevertheless up 2% right now. Next up, United Parcel Service raised abuy from neutral at UBS, a price target set at $175.UPS recently cut thousands of manager roles, and the analyst expects thiscommitment to cost reduction to support margin expansion and profit growth.The shares are up almost four and a half percent.Finally, an upgrade from Palantir. Jefferies lifted its rating to hold fromunderperform after the software company posted a strong fourth quarter.Analyst Brent Thill says the quarter was.

Driven by backlog in its U.S.commercial business. The upgrade also reflects his interestin Palantir's. What else?I platform the shares up by more than 30% on the day and those are some ofyour top calls. Let's take a look now at Spotify.Its appeal is showing no signs of slowing down.The music and audio streaming service posted its second largest monthly activeuser gain for the fourth quarter, jumping to 602 million listeners.Joining us now to talk through the earnings report is Michael Morris,senior managing director at Guggenheim,.

Who has a buy rating on the shares.Michael, so much of the story about Spotify has been driven by cost controlsand restructuring. How we turn the tide to go back towardsthe growth story? Well, I think it is a growth story, evenin the context of the cost cutting. When you listen to CEO Daniel EK talkabout the business and the progress that he's made at the business over the last12 months, he's focused on both being disciplined on the cost side.But he was very clear today that this isn't sacrificing growth.When you look at the top line, the top line did accelerate throughout the yearon a constant currency basis, hitting.

20% growth in the fourth quarter.That's being fueled by price increases. And I think there's really more to comeboth on the top line as well as on the cost discipline side.I mean, Michael, you look at the stock performance, it's been recently justtremendous. It has 52 week high today.It's just sort of at the top of that range.How much more upside can you actually attribute to that kind of growth thatyou're talking about? Well, we are in the process ofevaluating our model right now and what our price target will be following whatwe've learned today and the filing.

So I want to be clear about that.But I can talk conceptually about what's going on here.And there are a couple of things. Number one, we believe the companycontinues to have tremendous amount of pricing power with the consumer goingforward. The music industry at large has been areal success story in terms of going from a traditional media industry thatwas really struggling to one that really has had a lot of growth in a streamingenvironment. And despite all the growth that they'vehad with the consumer, they really haven't taken much price.The price increase that Spotify.

Implemented last year was really itsfirst sizable and global, you know, relatively global increase ever.That's over the course of over ten years.So we think you will see more of this pricing growth power going forward forthem. And that's the type of thing that's notin the model yet and I think can really lift the investors perception of thevalue here. Yes, But from the consumer perspective,if there are going to be more price increases, the listener wants to getmore for their money. What other are new program initiativesis Spotify likely to roll out in the.

Next couple of years to justify thatprice increase? Yeah, it's a it's a great and it's afair question. I'd comment on a couple of things.First of all, there are several major audio players in the marketplace rightnow. Spotify is the largest and I would arguethe best in class player. But Apple, Amazon and Google all havestrong audio streaming services. But across the board, nobody has reallytaken price in a while. So you are seeing those price increasesacross each of those players. And really, I mean, the consumer hasbeen getting a great deal.

So I want to start with that.It's all the world's music at your fingertips for an hour to an averagecost to the user of under $5 a month. It's a great deal.But I also think that the company is enhancing their service.They've added things like podcasts, they've layered in audio books, they'veimproved the audio quality, they've added AI technology to help with music,discovery and deejay and things like that.So there are definitely enhancements made to the service over that time frameas well. The final thing I would point out is weare close to having some regulatory.

Changes in Europe.It is unclear the extent of those changes, but I do believe that thosechanges, if implemented in the way Spotify envisions them, could free upthe app to have even more commerce on the platform and more functionality forboth artists and users. Something to get excited about over thecourse of the next year. European regulation being taken off tohelp support a company do. That's weird.That's not what normally happens when it comes to Europe.This is. Anomaly scar.Are you are you a Spotify user?.

I am a Spotify user.But, you know, as Michael was talking about music discovery, I don't reallydiscover new music. I just kind of rediscover old songs Iused to listen to back in my my youth. Your youth?Yeah. I'm discovering Taylor Swift because ofmy nine year old daughter, but. Well, Michael, I ask because I wonder,like, can you with all the streamers, really, is there going to be at somepoint saturation where you're not going to have all the services?You're going to have to really pick and choose, particularly as these guys startto take price?.

Well, you're not going to have all theservices and there will be saturation. So let me be clear about both of thosethings. And we look at the video industry aswell, and you see dynamics for businesses like Netflix and otherstreamers on the video side and you see some parallels and you see somedifferences. Okay, So there's a finite number ofpeople in the world. At some point they all have the streamerthat they want. We understand that in the case of music,I don't think that you're anywhere close to that saturation yet, first of all.And second of all, I do think people do.

Only take one service so that when itcomes to music, so that makes it a little bit different, right?Spotify, like I said, I do believe that they are best in class and I do believethat they continue to invest in making that functionality better.And one of the great things about it is when you think about the network effectof it, if I have Spotify, you have Spotify, we share our playlists.It's more of a social has a social element to it that gets difficult topeel yourself away from once you're already in there.And so that's part of what we think supports the pricing power for thisparticular service.

And like I said, we see a lot ofopportunity for the company ahead. Who is Modifieds biggest competitorright now, Michael Apple.Apple Music is probably the biggest competitor.And it's interesting because I talked about the regulatory environment inEurope and kind of joked about how it's typically not a tailwind for businesses,but this is really about companies like Apple that have a very strong hold of anumber of elements of their app economy, the hardware, the the store, theoperating system and sort of exercising a certain amount of economic power whenthey have that structural power, The you.

Know, the regulation in theory isdesigned to help create a free or market dynamic.And that free or market dynamic would allow a business like Spotify, as Imentioned before, to have some more commerce on the platform.So when you talk about the big companies like Apple and others, they have so manydifferent parts of the ecosystem that they can exercise control over.It is challenging for for a smaller business, it's kind of hard to say thatfor a company like Spotify, but a smaller business to achieve some of thethings that they want. Yeah, and will.But hopefully that's the kind of thing.

That will unfold going forward smalleron a relative basis. We can can put it that way.Hey, Michael, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it.Michael Moore is over at Guggenheim Securities.I finally had to succumb to the iTunes thing because my daughter's a hugeTaylor Swift fan and I have nothing. So in the car for 4 hours, I'm like,Sure, I'll throw some money at that problem.Here are Taylor Swift and Madonna. Her second favorite artist is Madonna.Wow. She's like bridges, A differentgeneration.

I know, right?And she was stunned that her mother, like New Madonna and I had been to herconcerts. You taught her while she was like, what?You know, Madonna, mom, maybe not so much.She likes Madonna more. Right.Exactly. Coming up, excitement is building forthe Super Bowl. In just five days, the Kansas CityChiefs and the 49 years of San Francisco prepare for a rematch.And. Andit's just about 3:30 p.m.

In New York.This is the countdown to the close. I'm Scarlet Fu and I'm Alix Steel.It's a pretty view. And I say that because you know what?Go do that because stocks are low during literally nothing.Volume is super light. Individual stocks moving quite a lotbecause of earnings or something. But I just wonder, like, what are wewaiting for now? And we reverting to an old playbook.We're waiting for data. There was none today.We're waiting for Fed speak, but we basically know what the message is goingto be.

So we're waiting for earnings, which,you know, the big earnings have already come and gone.So we'll see retail next week. I think we tell you something about theeconomy and the consumer, which is a huge, huge importance to everyone.Right. Well, speaking of the consumer in theeconomy, a lot of spending is going to happen this weekend.Are you doing anything this weekend? No, but I know the right answer is Ishould be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday.Yeah, five days ago before the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Kansas CityChiefs kick off against the San.

Francisco 49 ers.So I'm thrilled to welcome Mark Donovan, the longtime president of the Chiefs.He is responsible for all of the Chiefs non football operations.Mark, so good to see you. Thank you.It's great to be with you guys. So your team is playing in the SuperBowl for the fourth time in five years. Just making it to the big game once is ahuge, huge deal. It's incredibly difficult.So congratulations, first of all. And I'm curious, does this make theChiefs a dynasty team? We're not going to use the D-word justyet.

We're going to focus on what we've doneall season long and leaving each other and getting through Sunday with anothervictory and hopefully another Super Bowl championship.Now, for those who are not making it to Vegas, the Super Bowl is the ultimateappointment viewing TV experience for five months of the year.We know NFL games top the ratings. Alex, your daughter is a huge TaylorSwift fan. Has she been watching NFL games?No, but she might on Sunday. There you go.So everyone is watching football, including young girls, teenage girls.Mark, is there still an untapped.

Demographic in the US that the NFL hasyet to reach or win over? Absolutely.I think there's an untapped market in the US.I think there's an untapped market internationally and I think to at thispoint, you know, our demographic reach hascontinued to expand. So if you look at the traditional NFLfan over the years, like any sport, it has aged.And the reality is with this product that we've put out there with the factthat the NFL games themselves have just generated this enormous ratings surgethat really separates it from just about.

Any other content on television and thengo deeper into that. You see the demographic shifts.And our team, fortunately, is one of those teams that's been able to deliverreally, really strong revenue, really, really strong ratings.And within those ratings really expand the demographic of our families.And of course, Taylor Swift responsible for part of that because she's datingthe tight end. Travis Kelce, according to one estimate,she has increased the value of your franchise by more than $330 million.Does that sound right to you? Well, she's been a positive impact onthe entire league and obviously a huge.

Impact on the Kansas City Chiefs.I would say this, that she's had a huge impact.I'll go back to that demographic point, but she's had a huge impact in expandingour demographics. So to Alex's point earlier, you know,her daughter is now a fan of the NFL and probably a fan of the Chiefs becauseshe's a fan of Taylor Swift that we've seen that internationally.And the timing of this for us has been really, really positive.If you look at what our ratings have done over the years, Pre Taylor, we'vebeen on a really, really good run. And winning Super Bowls and havingsuccess is a big driver of that.

With our expansion internationally inthe games in Germany that's expanded that further.Yeah. Then you add the fact that Taylor andTravis are a couple right now and her international fan base.All of a sudden we're playing in Germany.All those things match up and really help us grow critically.I think there's betting on whether or not Taylor Swift can get from Japan tothe Super Bowl. I think that you can now bet on thatmark to that point. And forgive the question, it's reallyhard to know where to watch football in.

Terms of streaming, what channel andcable for someone who doesn't follow on a regular basis.How do I manage that? How do you manage that?Yeah, So it's it's been a really important point for our league as ageneral point. And when you look at the NFL versusother sports leagues, the commissioner made a comment yesterday during hispress conference that, you know, we're one of the few teams, one of the fewleagues that actually puts the majority of its content on over the air freetelevision. The world is changing and consumers areconsuming content differently.

You know, I use the example of Germany afew minutes ago, you know, our game in Germany was the highest rated game inthe history of international broadcasts. You know, a few weeks later in theplayoffs, in our playoff game in the wildcard round against the Dolphins wasstreamed on Peacock right Well there are critics of that.The reality is the 23 million viewers tuned into Peacock.It was the highest streamed game and highest streamed event in the history ofStream. So the consumers are everywhere and theconsumers are going to find us in general.The reality is, back to that demographic.

Point that the streaming audience ofthat game against the Dolphins in the playoff round actually was one of theyounger audience in the history of playoff games, that it actually reducedthe average age by about ten years. Right.So that's a really powerful point when you look at how our product is beingconsumed. You talked about the Chiefs growing itsbrand overseas in places like Germany. How would you characterize marketing theteam to a Kansas City specific market, which obviously you dominate versus aninternational market or even the national market here in the US?Yeah, it's an amazing opportunity for us.

Right now.And I'll go back to that point about the timing and everything converging.You know, it started with our founder, Lamar Hunt, who really, really believedin the growth of this game worldwide. And he was thinking that in the sixtiesand the seventies. Now we have the opportunity with the NFLto literally expand our broadcast rate, our reach internationally.I mentioned that game in Germany. That created an opportunity for us tojust expand our fan base. We saw that in 15 and 14.We were in London to play a game in London and we saw the same thing.Fans are coming worldwide to come to the.

Chiefs games to experience the Chiefsproduct. And now all this is combining, right?You can. So things live in a place you've neverseen before. Got it?Got it. You mentioned Hunt.Mr. Hunt, the Chiefs owner right now isClark, and he told Bloomberg News that he sees private equity investors as apotential source of capital for franchises.From where you sit, that obviously hasn't happened yet.But from where you sit, what operational.

Value and best practices wouldinstitutional investors like hedge funds bring to the league?Do you think it'd be good for the league the way it has been for Europeanfootball, or has it not been good for European football?I think you've seen it across all sports.Look at the NBA and the amount of institutional investors who are there.You know, the NFL does a really, really good job of this.They're very methodical. We look at things and try to learn fromothers, and then we try to figure out what's best for us.Our model has worked very, very well.

Over the years.We've formed a committee. Our Chairman Clark is on that committee,but is looking at this right now and trying to figure out, does this makesense for us as a league? What are the pros and the cons?We have a meeting coming up in March, and that committee is planning topresent to the owners their findings. I expect that you're going to see thisin the future. We're going to take it like we takeeverything. We're going to be very methodical andwe're going do the right thing for the National Football League.Marc, do you think that those kind of.

Investments, if and when they come, willbe passive active? Does it matter?Has it paid off in Europe in the same way that you might expect?Yeah, it's hard to say right now until this committee comes back to us.I would say that when you look at all the models that are out there, you lookat what has happened in the NBA, you look at what's happened internationallywith Premier League. Well, we'll take that as evidence.We'll take that as best practices. We'll learn from their successes andwe'll learn from their mistakes. So I think it's a little premature tomake a decision right now.

But we're going to take this findingfrom our committee and then we'll make decisions based on that.All right, Mark, we got to leave it there.But before we go, you willing to give us a prediction on the final score?Well, my hope is that our team and our fans continue to believe in the thingswe've done all season long, trust each other and have some success on Sundayand hopefully bring another trophy home to Kansas.And maybe then you can say the word the D word, the dinosaur word.We'll have a discussion after that. Okay.He's not going to do that.

I'm not going to jinx it.Mark, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations and good luck to you.Mark Donovan is the president of the Kansas City Chiefs.So what are you doing Sunday with I'm actually going to get on a plane lateron, but before him, I'm going to watch the game.I'm actually yes, I'm bound through marriage to root for the 49 ers.Got it. But if that didn't happen, maybe thingswould be different. Yeah.I mean, I root for whoever is more entertaining at the moment.Okay, fair enough.

Apparently, what we watch and I guessyou're going to have to watch, too, because of Taylor Swift.I mean, I'm guessing and also apparently we're going to talk about this nowMonday at work. So I think I should probably be read inon it. And that was easy way of doing it.So hours on your Sunday, you go pretty much, right.Coming up, we're going to pivot here because in the tech sector, the layoffskeep coming and this time it's at DocuSign.The shares are sliding after the software company announced it's cuttingstaff by 6% and restructuring.

This is the closeand I'm. And. Time now for Stock of the Hour.And we're taking a look at DocuSign, the electronic signature tech company whogot shares down by over 2%. However, if you look at that chart justfor this year, it is ugly. They announced a restructuring plan thatincludes laying off about 6% of its workforce.Disappointing investors. They were hoping for a takeover planthat didn't work anyway.

Abigail Doolittle is joining us withsome of the details. Abigail.And if you were to take that chart back, Alex, it would be down 80% from the peakback in 2021 or the pandemic peak essentially.So they've been in a world of hurt. So they, of course were one of thepandemic darlings, ton of business and revenue, and then competition came inand not so much. So this decline today on the workforcereduction is interesting because some stocks on these reduction plans, theyactually saw yesterday we had a slaughter soaring snap, did not sockdown, did not.

So today we have this one down as wellon this. I think it has more to do with the factthat some people are taking this as an admission, this cutting of theworkforce, restructuring as an admission that a possible sale has stalled, thatthat's the bigger idea here, that people had been hoping for that sale to maybeBain Capital, Hellmann and Friedman, apparently they weren't really able tofigure out a price. And then last week, there was aninteresting article on the Bloomberg about some of the big banks, Jp morganand Bank of America potentially being willing to finance one of those deals,which is kind of new.

But this is just like one of thosetrends for 2024. I mean, I think there's already 16,000,16,000 tech jobs laid off last year, last month, excuse me.And then, of course, we had Spotify in December.So, you know, on and on and on. They're saying it's A.I., But I'vestarted to wonder, is it like a sign of something a little bit more insidious?And you have to wonder to score like, is it actually just that or is it justright sizing the pandemic? Right?So you're just sort of embracing the last four years, or is there like a realbig downturn?.

Remember Lee Drogin From Estimates?Yeah, so he covers Bitcoin now, but he used to come around and talk aboutearnings all the time. And I remember him saying, when DocuSigngoes down, the pandemic pandemic is over.Like that was his like number one indicator stock.I love that. I mean, as just a way to gauge where weare in the cycle. I feel like people still use DocuSign,but it's just not going to get the growth that it did during the pandemic.So he's just plateaued and that's it. It's a business, but it's notcompetition, right?.

Isn't having competition Adobe, forexample, and also how they make money off of it and all that at the same time.So I think but again, is it just normalizing or is it showing somethingvery different or is a good idea and maybe it needs to be acquired by someoneelse as part of a bigger package? Yeah, that might be the idea.Abigail Doolittle Thank you so much for our Stock of the hour.What do we have coming up? Do it.You can do it. Should I do this?You you were just habitantes then. Well, let's talk about the earnings arecoming on.

Dak.We've got Ford, we've got Chipotle, we've got snap.We've got one that you're looking forward to.The F corp. Yeah, yeah.Let me what, what brands they have again.Vans. Timberland.You said North face. Right.North face Yeah. So mothers of teenage boys frequentthere So basically just to Scarlett pretty much we're going to break downwhat else investors should watch because.

You know Hooper of Invesco coming upnext This is the close on Bloomberg. I got to say, though, equity markets,even a whole lot of nothing. You got the S&P pretty much flat on theday and volume very, very light despite a nice flow of earnings.This is Bloomberg. This is a countdown to the close.I'm Scarlet Fu. And you are?I'm Alix Steel and it's 2015 all over again.It is. It's the same thing.Okay, so what am I doing here? As you go into the close, S&P doingnothing but underneath some interesting.

Stuff, the Chinese Dragon index thattracks a lot of Chinese equities than here in the US is actually up becauseBloomberg reported that regulators could actually update leadership on what'sgoing on with the market and conditions. And, you know, that could be somespillover filter through into the equity market.And just important as we set up for the open of that session, the close of this.The other thing that I love to watch here is the New York Community Bancorp.We look at that down 22% yet again, double digits, fourth time in five days,lowest since 1997. There may not be huge bank stress as asSecretary Treasury Janet Yellen said,.

But there is stress.Oh, there are particular banks. Yeah, on that name and on regional banksin general. And just questions about their exposureto commercial real estate. Right.And spirit Aerosystems a bit of a rebound here up 4.4%.Yeah, but they didn't issue guidance, of course, because of the Boeing issue.So there's that. All right.There's also a lot of Fed speak out today which accounts for the recovery intreasuries with, of course, investors listening closely for any clues on therate outlook.

It would be a mistake to move rates downtoo soon or too quickly without sufficient evidence that inflation wason a sustainable and timely path back to 2%.If the economy evolves as as I expect, I think it will.I think we will gain that confidence later this year and then we can beginmoving rates down. The last 3 to 6 months has beensurprisingly good news. Again, I don't want to say we're doneyet. I don't want to say we're necessarilygoing to just glide past all the way to 2%.But fingers crossed, the data is looking.

Positive.All right. Joining us now is Christina Hooper,chief global market strategist over at INVESCO.Christina, there's been a lot of volatility in the bond market the lastcouple of days, what with the data and then, of course, with Fed speak and whatwith Chair Jay Powell said about March being pretty much off the table, thatinstability, that volatility, has it ended for now, or is it going tocontinue to turn and continue to, you know, throw equities into this world ofuncertainty? I think it's absolutely going tocontinue because that uncertainty will.

Persist.And the reality is the Fed wants to tamp down financial conditions.They don't want to see them ease. So they have a very vested interest insending that message that they are not going to cut in March and that theycould hold for longer. Whether or not they actually do that isanother thing. But I think they're going tocertainly inject a lot of uncertainty into markets in coming days and weeks.So a lot of the data we see is like, oh, well, yeah, just push out the cuts.Like this is not an economy that needs it.But then we get the data from the.

Federal Reserve in New York todaytalking about household debt and balance sheets, sort of how much debt is beingloaded on. Do we need the cuts?Do we not need the cuts? We absolutely need the cuts, although Idon't think there's a big difference between March 20th and May 1st.I think it's the level of cuts we get this year.I think we need between 100 and 150 basis points.I think we're going to get that. But I know that that is certainly notthe narrative that the Fed is going to be pushing right now.So Alex brought up New York Community.

Bank and how it's tumbling yet again,down 22%. It's had a little bit of a relief rallyjust on a Friday in that it stopped falling for the first time in four days.Nevertheless, the pressure continues on these smaller lenders.The big question is, is this the start of a new round of turmoil for theregional lenders? Your take is not necessarily.No, I think that's very unlikely. I'm certainly, as we saw last last Marchand April, there were a few names that had some specific factors that they allshared that created that weakness. And similarly, we're seeing that now.Now it is casting a pall over regional.

Banks in general.But if we were actually to dive down, there are only a few that have reallythose those same vulnerabilities. So I do not think this is contagion atall. This is very much contained.It's still a $4 stock that's got to hurt.So why do we need seven cuts, six cuts this year, as you're looking at?Because it makes sense, given the level of disinflation.I go back to something, Chris, was a normalization or is that like, oh, mygoodness, the growth is going to fall out of it?It is normalization.

It has nothing to do with growth,although I do think we have to worry about the lagged effects of suchaggressive tightening. But this is simply about policy thatwhen you get significant progress on disinflation and you admit that ratesare in very restrictive territory, you need to start cutting.So it's very much what we heard from Chris Waller back at the end ofNovember. And it's actually what we heard from JayPowell at the FOMC press conference last week.Now, he's certainly also talking tough and trying to sound hawkish, but at theend of the day, I do believe that's.

Going to be the Fed's policy.Let's talk about overseas markets. Alex brought up the Chinese index thatis rising today on hopes that we'll get something concrete out of the Chineseauthorities. That's been the theme for the lastcouple of months, waiting to see if policymakers come up with something thatappeases investors. And so far it hasn't happened.Why the fact that something has got to come now?Well, first of all, I think that investors are overlooking some of whatthey've already heard from Chinese policymakers.They have made some strides.

There has been some policy.But, you know, you can often see with whether it's a sector, whether it's astock or whether it's a region, you can get oversold conditions, you can getpessimism that really isn't grounded in reality.And I think that's what we're seeing today is an over pessimism that doesn'treflect the opportunities for Chinese equities.And so a lot has been overlooked. But certainly if we get more in the wayof policy stimulus, I think that could be a very, very powerful catalyst,especially given valuations are so attractive.And I wonder, Scarlet, though, will we.

Get the same boost that we did last yearat this time because we were kind of burned, right?Like if you invested in luxury and rode that boom a little bit because you weregoing to get the, you know, consumer policy, we didn't get that.And then now those retailers have fallen out of bed like, will you get theinterest at the same time? And that's a really, really good point.We were talking earlier about how earnings are going to come out after theclose, and we've kind of hit a slower period of corporate earnings, but theretailers will start to come out. What will you be watching for?You're someone who's looking for six or.

Seven rate cuts this year.What are you going to be watching for from the retailers as a given outlook?Well, it's all about their confidence in the consumer, how much they think theconsumer is overextended, although the reality is within retail, there are somevery different business models. Some will work, some brands will work,some won't. So it's certainly helpful to get somekind of outlook on the consumer. But at the end of the day, it's going tobe very company specific, as it always is.Christina, really appreciate your joining us as always.Christine Hooper is chief global market.

Strategist over at INVESCO.Alex, no data to speak of, but, you know, I still go back to that jobsreport on Friday that was unusually strong, kind of knocked everyone'sexpectations off the charts or whatever. Yeah, but I mean that Fed Reserve NewYork Bank talking about consumers. Here's some stuff for you.Consumers aged 30 to 39 are struggling with delinquencies on their credit carddebt and credit card balances have increased in the fourth quarter to $1.13trillion is the point. I mean, it's not going be across theboard, but that's going to be bifurcated in some way.Right.

And if you have 32, 39 year olds withless purchasing power, like what kind of retailer does that support?What kind of growth and consumption does that support?I know. So it's kind of a disservice to talkabout the consumer at large because you really have to designate what kind ofconsumer higher income, consumer, lower income consumer.They face very different face. Yeah.All right. We are moving closer to the closingbell. We've got full market coverage righthere on Bloomberg as we take you to the.

Bell and beyond and rejoin our radiocolleagues. This is the closeBeyond the Bell Bloomberg's comprehensive cross-platform.Coverage of the U.S. market.Close starts right now. We are about 2 minutes away from the endof this trading day. I'm Scarlet Fu here with Alix Steel.We're counting down to the closing bell. Here to help us take you Beyond the Bellwith a global simulcast. Carol Massar and tim stanwick bringtogether all of our different platforms bloomberg television, bloomberg radio,youtube audiences.

We're streaming to pass through the mostexciting moments. But i have to say, Carol, there's not alot of exciting moments in the trade today in equities.It's like, what's going on? Like it feels like a market, if youwill. But after the last couple of days, andas we have been kind of obsessed with passing over Jay Powell after the Fedmeeting and then after 60 Minutes, I do feel like there's some calm.Having said that, we do have some earnings.We've seen some big movers today. I'm thinking about Ford reporting afterthe close, and it's up 4% in today's.

Session.So you do have some names that are outperforming the kind of malaise you'reseeing or what do you guys want from this market predicted to drama?Okay. We're up 2.2% just this month on the S&P500. The NASDAQ composite up almost 3% justthis month. Not every day can have wild swings ofone and one and a half percent. You mansplaining the market.Okay. I guess it's fair to say that hurts,man. You know, I'm the only guy here.Yeah, he's got nothing.

He had nowhere to go from help room inAlix Steel Point. The S&P is trading 11% above its 200 daymoving average. So the idea that we can get stretched,maybe we take a pause and a break. Positioning is still very much one way.Citigroup saying that U.S. tech stocks is now so bullish thatanything could trigger a sell off. So maybe we're just in you know, we'rejust waiting. Thanks for backing me up, Alex.I think anything we can do to help, right?Okay. There you have the closing bell as we'reabout to close out a day in which I.

Actually indexes did have a little bitof a rally heading into the close. Last 20 minutes is pretty much astraight line higher, but volume is still very, very light at this point.The S&P 500 closing up a quarter of 1%, 4954, just below that 5000 level.Dow Industrials gaining a third of 1%. The Nasdaq little change on the day.Let's rounded up to 1/10 of 1% and the Russell 2000 gaining 9/10 of 1%.The outperformer. Yeah, and a little bit of buying righthere in the close. Having said that, you are looking atwhat most of the names in the S&P 500 higher today, 351 to the upside guys,150 to the downside and Scarlet Fu.

Unchanged.All right. Let's look at the sectors are imap,which really showcases the different sectors in the s&p 500.There's not a lot of red. The red really is in tech, which is downhalf of 1% and communications services losing 2/10 of 1%.That's why it's so sizable on that chart.But overall, in terms of gainers materials gaining 1.7%, REITs up one anda half percent, and health care also gaining at least 1%.All right, guys, let's get to some of the individual gainers, if I may, GEHealthcare.

Go figure.It is topping the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 biggest intraday gain in more than ayear. Of course, the, you know, former memberincluded in General Electric, It was spun off, as we all know.It's now a medical technology company exclusively earnings and sales for thefourth quarter beat estimates and that Scarlett with Citi calling it betterthan expected. This name up almost 12% here.All right. Let me just jump in really quickly,because MicroStrategy has reported results and the fourth quarter revenuemisses, analysts estimates, down 6% to.

124 million.Analysts were expecting 133 million. This is a company that really is just away to play Bitcoin given its strategy. Now, Michael Saylor has basicallydecided to bet the enterprise software maker's future entirely on Bitcoin.So the stock off by 2.6% as again the fourth quarter revenue misses theaverage analyst estimates. Okay.So some other highlights from the report.The company now holds 190,000 bitcoin. They acquired 31,755 Bitcoin since theend of Q3. They paid $1.25 billion for that or$39,411 per bitcoin under 90,000 Bitcoin.

At a total cost of $5.93 billion.So that average price of 31,224 per Bitcoin, that's as of February 5th,2024. Talking about the important stuff here.Scarlett Yeah, let's go to important stuff too.Let's go to Gilead and Amgen. So Gilead is coming out right now.You have revenue for the fourth quarter coming like being in line withestimates, their forecast for this year also maybe a little bit light on the lowend, but high on the high end. So 27.5 billion, if you take a look forsome of their most important drugs, TRO dalvi, we're waiting to see what's goingto happen there because that failed to.

Keep patients alive longer in the lungcancer trial. But overall it does see earnings forthis year and revenue this year. It appears in the high end to be alittle bit better than estimated, guys. All right.So let's get to Amgen. Also reporting, as you mentioned, Alex,Amgen, let's go to the outlook, sees 2024 revenue folks of 32.4 billion to33.8 billion the estimate out there There.is 32.51 billion. So it does sound like it's kind ofmoving up the higher end, if you will, or the upper end fourth quarter revenuegoing back to the fourth quarter, 8.2.

Billion, that's a beat.8.12 billion was the estimate among analysts out there on the street.Fourth quarter adjusted EPS, $4.71 a share.That's $0.11 better than what the Street was expecting.And also looking at fourth quarter adjusted operating income, 3.66 billion.And bang, that was in line with what the street was expecting.And the important thing to remember with Amgen is that it is now a player orwants to be a player in the obesity drug market.Right. Because of its purchase of HorizonTherapeutics in over the past year.

In October, it closed in October $27.8billion purchase. And as a result, Amgen is looking forrevenue to jump as much as 20% this year, thanks to the seemingly bottomlessdemand for these treatments. Just going through the press release,looking for some color, Amgen shares up by just about half a percentage pointright now. The company CEO saying that 2023 wasanother year of performance and progress for our company.Our marketed products are reaching many more patients around the world and weanticipate more than a dozen significant pipeline milestones in 2024.Alex Yep.

And we're still waiting for otherearnings as well. We have Corp so good look on theretailers. We're going to be getting that.We're also waiting for Ford. So looking out there as well.And just to reiterate, when it comes to Gilead, let me go back to here.They're looking at about their 2024 earnings as well as revenue and saleskind of bumped up on the higher end versus estimates.So very similar to what Carol was talking about.It comes to Amgen. Yeah, I'm looking at Amgen.Right.

Which is up already about 10% this year.And as you guys said, you know, we're not seeing a ton of movement in theafter. I was just going back to it.Now it's just down scarlet, about half a percent here.Yeah, I'm looking ahead to Ford. I'm really excited to see what thecompany says with regards to EVs, because we know that the big legacycarmakers, GM, Ford, they've really had to scale back a lot of their ambitionsas Tesla and the other EV makers continue to cut costs And look, thenumbers just cross. It's like we wished it to happen.All right.

Let's talk about Ford here.Fourth quarter. Where should we start, Fred?Go to the outlook, maybe. Yeah, let's go to 2024.Yeah, Ford model E bit loss. Okay.That's the electric vehicle. 5 billion to 5 and a half billiondollars. 2024 adjusted EBIT of 10 billion to 12billion. Analyst We're looking for nine and aquarter billion. Yeah.I'm looking at the it's a slew of numbers here.Adjusted EPS coming in above estimates.

To $0.29 versus estimates of $0.13.Shares were higher by about 4% today in the after hours, shares higher now by2.6%. I'm going to say this outlook is reallyimportant. Sees 2024 adjusted EBIT of 10 to12000000000 billion. The estimate was 9.24.Remember, General Motors came out and they kind of set it up.They put out an adjusted EBIT of for 2024 of about 12 to 14 billion.And that beat that estimate that was on the street of about 10.96.So in other words, they set the bar high, saying, yep, we're having troubleswith EV.

We understand there's kind of areadjustment, but look at what we are doing in terms of the overall outlook aswe kind of shift our product mix and basically are at Ludlow, we talked tosaid, let's see if we get Ford to give an outlook similar to what we got fromGM that is upbeat and that's essentially what we got.And you've got Ford up about 6.2% here in the aftermarket.And if you don't like those numbers, then they'll be like, look at this shinything over here. And that's in first quarter, asupplemental dividend of $0.18 a share. So you may not like where we are in themix.

You may not like where we are in termsof reallocating money and workers. And we don't may not like our marginswhen it comes to our EVs, but we have this nice little supplementary dividend,$0.18 a share. Yeah.Buys us some time as we try to reconfigure everything.Mehta did it I mean met us numbers or blowout obviously.But overall there's a big transition taking place at the company and thatdividend widens the shareholder base. Certainly.I mean Ford doesn't have that issue because of course its shareholder baseis there and a supplemental dividend,.

Does that mean it's a one time thing andit's not going to get off of that ex reducing?Yeah, I'm interested to hear how Ford positions itself right now, given thatit's made this pivot away from electric vehicles or de-emphasizing electricvehicle pricing, de-emphasizing, given the struggle that it's had in recentmonths when it comes to the MACH-E and the F-150 lightning, Here's what JimFarley, the CEO, said in the press release.He said he's he's talking about consumer choice.He said, we're the only company that gives customers such a wide range ofchoices gas, hybrid and EVs made.

Possible by our Ford Plus plan and thetalented team that's carrying it out. Ford is creating a product, software andservices powerhouse with huge potential for this year and the long haul.Yeah. Also in the press, the press releasessay they've got a quote, EVs are here to stay.Customer adoption is growing and their long term upside is central to Ford.So this is also coming from the C-suite in Ford.So anyway, the stock definitely off and running with that outlook.So you're looking at what, Ford up about 8.2% here in the US.Thank you.

Shiny bright thing of supplements of itearnings up interim dividend but also guys they gave an outlook that despiteall the nervousness and concerns there like we.Have some good numbers, better than what the Street was expecting.They did definitely manage expectations well.All right. Is that a little skepticism?All right, guys, that's a wrap. Our cross-platform coverage on radio,TV, YouTube and Bloomberg Originals. We call it Beyond the Bell.We'll see you again, same time, same place tomorrow.All right.

Coming up on the close from BloombergTelevision, we've got more earnings analysis coming up.We're going to start with Ford. Don't go anywhere.This is the close on Bloomberg. Welcome back to the close.I'm Scarlet Fu. And joining me now is Sonali Basak.Great to see you. Good to see you.Busy earnings day. Busy earnings day.Let's just talk about the numbers that crossed in the last few minutes.We're going to start with Ford. The shares are rallying right now in theafter hours trade after Ford said it.

Will pay a first quarter supplementaldividend of $0.18 a share. As for the numbers themselves, fourthquarter numbers beat analysts estimates $0.29 was the adjusted EPS.Analysts were looking for $0.13. The outlook is also higher thananticipated insofar as it sees a just a bit of 10 to $12 billion unless we'relooking for just under nine and a quarter billion.But again, Ford had given some lowered guidance back in Novemberand the stock had tumbled on that. So it had managed expectations.Let's bring in Ed Ludlow, who is the co-host of Bloomberg Technology and hasalso been going through the numbers and.

What pops out to you.Yeah, I think you guys are right that the outlook for eBay of 10 to $12billion, even at the low end of that range, is above what the streetexpected. And it was exactly what the streetcheered when General Motors gave the outlook last year.When you read the earnings release, they're just reiterating the same story,that there is a slowdown in growth of EV sales and they've already acted on that,something that you haven't covered. I see lower down the release from CEO.Oh, gal hot trees. They've been able to identify $2 billionof cost savings relating to materials,.

Freight and manufacturing.And that's interesting in the context of Ford's global footprint.And because you guys nailed the story, they are cutting back on the output ofEV supply because the demand is not there.But they're also having success with their legacy business.And if you look, for example, on the narrative of their profitability outsideof North America, they're getting traction with that range of pickup inEurope and they have a lower capital base in China that's working out forthem. So it's good stuff.So you have to kind of drill down on.

What investors are more excited about.You see about 7% of a rise after market and Ford stock right now.Is it more excitement around this, a cut of $2 billion in additional costreductions or is it this supplemental dividend or investors just excited toget some money back? It's probably both.It shows good cost discipline in a tough environment.I would also look at the CapEx forecast, which I think was slightly higher orabove what was estimated, and that gives a bit of confidence that 24 might be abit better. They can be a bit more bullish andproactive.

I'm just going to read this to you guysbecause I want to get this right. There is both a regular divvy and asupplemental divvy, regular dividend of $0.15, supplemental dividend of $0.18per share, both payable March 1st to shareholders of record on February 16th.But yeah, a nice little sweetener for investors older year.Interesting that it would be a supplemental dividend right now.You can see the stock being still celebrating the extra payout, but thesupplemental dividend, I'm curious why they didn't go forward with something,just a bigger increase overall. Can you tell us a little bit more aboutthe plan to continue to dial up output.

Of the traditional combustion internalcombustion engine models? Because that's the moneymaker for Fordright now? Yeah, it's the money maker from Ford andit's where they took actions. And not only did they say we're going tocut 50% of all planned output of the F-150 lightning, for example, but we'regoing to take some of that workforce and put it to the assembly lines.They're working on the likes of the Bronco, the likes of the Ford Ranger andthe higher price point pickup and SUV. And what was interesting as well, wereally focused on the outlook for the quarter just gone.They had eBay of $10.4 billion to end.

The full year.That was at the higher end of their previously guided range.But it also takes into account the cost of the UAW contract, which Ford, itsaid, was $900 of additional cost per vehicle built.But it showed that they were able to manage using the cash cow that is thelegacy combustion engine business. The bottom line, and give us thispositive outlook for this year. I also would say if you have some timeread what they said about software and subscriptions in the release, becausethere's some pretty big numbers there and it's a nascent business for them.But think about the parallel with Tester.

And how much credence investors put ontosoftware sales for Tester going forward. And thank you so much for your time nowto bring you some breaking news as well as SNAP results.SNAP dropping pretty significantly after market after revenue misses analystestimates. We also have North American revenuewhile it came in above estimates. Europe and the rest of the world fellshort. Daily active users in North America fellshort of estimates. We know that this is a company that islooking to cut costs as well. Shares extending their decline now morethan 26% down after hours in some of the.

Commentary from the company as well.They are being impacted by the conflict in the Middle East.They say it was a headwind to year over year growth of approximately twopercentage points in the fourth quarter. Scarlett.Yeah, that is an ugly after hours print. Snap.They are down 29% at the moment. Let's also bring you earnings out ofChipotle, The the chain restaurant reporting comparable sales that beatanalysts estimates 8.4% increase in the fourth quarter.Analysts were looking for a 7.1% increase.EPS also tops the consensus, $10.36 for.

The period revenue.However, the top line basically matching estimates two and a half billiondollars, 2.49 billion was the expectation.Margins, however, do exceed analyst estimates, 14.4% versus 13.8%.Let's stay on Chipotle here and bring in Michael Hill and his Bloombergintelligence senior restaurant analyst. Michael, what jumps out at you when youlook at chipotle? I'm curious about why the revenue, thetop line matches even as margins have beat the consensus.That's all cost cutting, isn't it? How that could have just been some ofthe timing of the new store openings in.

The quarter.They could have opened in the latter half of the quarter.I would say it was a very strong print top line.They've been on the top line. They've been on the bottom line.You know, they issued guidance that was in line with with consensus for 2024.So, you know, so far it's hard to find anything wrong with this print.If there's nothing wrong with this print.The question is what sustains the stock into the year?You see a stock that has been rising this year and had a very healthy boostthe year prior.

What's the story into 2024?It's going to be more of the same. I don't think there's any question thatthat they can continue to grow the store base in that high single digit to almost10% range. I'd say the two other main drivers arereally traffic. Can they continue to grow traffic, whichmost of the restaurant competitors haven't been doing for the last fewyears? And they and can they continue toincrease their restaurant and operating margins at the same time.Yet we know that consumers have been shifting to lower price items becausewe've seen prices for food and.

Ingredients increase for all thesedifferent stores and restaurants. What can we say about their promotional,their promotions and what kind of offerings they can put out there todrive that traffic that will keep that growth moving?Yeah, One of their strengths is that they don't really have to discount,right. There's the demand is so strong thatthat's that's not something they actively engage in.They typically bring customers into the fold more through their limited timeoffers. You know, I'd say if I had a question,you know, going forward and in this.

Call, it's going to be what they sayabout January, because January was a very difficult month in the restaurantindustry, just lapping very tough year over year comparisons and having muchmore, you know, much more tough winter weather to deal with.So we're really interested in what they have to say about the first quarter,same store sales guidance and how things went in January.But that that would be, you know, the one minor concern, but in terms ofthings that they can control, they're doing a phenomenal job.Well, speaking of growth, they opened a record number of new restaurants.That was something highlighted high up.

In the statement here by CEO BrianNiccol. Do you think they can sustain this paceof growth? We don't see any reason why not.You know, there's very strong demand for the brand.These new stores are generating very strong returns for the company.So so we think there's still significant whitespace here in the United States.And, you know, as you saw on the release there, most of the stores that they'reopening have Chipotle lanes. Right.And so those stores tend to do even higher volume than some of the stripmall type locations.

So, yeah, in terms of of U.S.growth, there's still some significant whitespace here.Chipotle gains, I love that. All right.Michael Hale in a Bloomberg intelligence, really appreciate yourjoining us again. Chipotle knocking it out of the parkwhen it comes to fourth quarter as it raised prices menu prices in october forthe first time in more than a year, Bloomberg will actually be speaking withBrian Nicole, the CEO of Tripoli, tomorrow at 2 p.m.New York time. You want to tune in to Bloomberg at thattime.

Still to come, we have more on Ford,whose shares are rallying right now after the automaker's adjusted forecaste beat, forecast, beat analysts estimates and it announced asupplemental first quarter dividend. David Traynor of New constructs will bejoining us with his take on Ford. This is the close Bloomberg. And. This is a close eye on Bloomberg, thebig mover in after hours trading. Trading that's gaining right now isshares of Ford up more than 6% after the automaker reported profit that toppedanalysts estimates for the fourth.

Quarter.It curbed its outlook, but it did boost production of models fueled by gas,those traditional legacy vehicles. And on top of that, it announced asupplemental dividend for the first quarter.Let's now bring in David Treanor. He is CEO of New Constructs, whocurrently has a buy rating on Ford. Ford is one of your favorite stocks.David, It's been that way for a long time.And one of the reasons is because it's not just a pure play, EV.We know that it's losing money forward on the EV business, but that's okaybecause it's got a really strong legacy.

Business.That's right. I think that the market is starting towake up to this idea that being a diversified auto manufacturer is betterthan being a pure play EV maker or a pure play internal combustion engine carmaker. So the diversified platform for Ford andGM, for that matter, is increasingly a competitive advantage, especially as wesee the EV market softening. How do you think about the dynamic ofinvestors looking for exposure to EV? You think about what's happening today.This will bring forward into positive territory for the year.Tesla down significantly this year.

Are investors just going to move back into pure play auto? I you know, I don't think so.I think they want to be in diversified auto.I think Ford and other legacy automakers have proven they can they can producesuper high quality electric vehicles. There's not really that much of a reasonto pay the premium for Tesla unless you're just a huge Tesla fan.And having the cash cow legacy business is just it's a bigadvantage. And it's you know, there's a lot ofexperience there in large scale manufacturing that, you know, some ofthese EV pure plays have really yet to.

Achieve and are still struggling toachieve. You know, really don't really have asort of a low cost low market car from from Tesla.Lots of promises on all kinds of things that keep not coming true.Meanwhile Ford, GM, they just keep plugging away, taking market share andmaking a lot of money. What's there to like about today?You know, you look at some of the numbers, the supplemental dividend, youlook at their cost cutting plan, billions of dollars on the line here onthe chopping block. What as an investor, are you looking formost in their numbers?.

What's not to like?I mean, you see a management team that has shown that they care about beinggood stewards of shareholder capital. Period.That's a rare thing these days. That's part of the reason why we'veliked Fords for so long. There are very few executive teams outthere that care about being good stewards of shareholder capital.Plenty of executives out there that are good about taking care of their owncapital, making sure they have outrageous pay packages.And those are conflicting interests with shareholders.That can work for some of the time.

Because pumping the stock can makeeverybody money. But often if that comes at theunderlying expense of a good fundamental business model, you're in trouble.And that's what Forbes about. They're not about a bunch of flamboyant,bombastic statements. They're about executing, generating cashflow and delivering real shareholder value over the long term.Speaking of shareholder value, I'm looking at a dividend yield of 4.97% andthis announcement today that it will pay a first quarter supplemental dividend of$0.18 a share. Why?Supplemental, David, what is Ford.

Holding on to?Why not increase it to a permanent higher dividend?Why is for choosing to hold something back and make sure it still has someflexibility? We're in a dynamic world.I mean, look, they spent a lot of CapEx on building a new platform for electricvehicles. They may need some dry powder to to leanmore into that. I think it makes sense to cut back on itbecause they were sort of forced into it with almost this, you know, ESGgreenwashing, forced into maybe making more EVs than they needed to to showinvestors they could do it.

Now they've got to cut back.Who knows? Maybe the market shifts again.If I were that management team, I'd like to keep some dry powder around to makesure we can react and stay competitive in the way they always have been.And so giving all that capital, promising it all the way maybe isn't agood idea. You can always give it to people againlater if there's excess. But in the meantime, keep it around tomake sure you stay as competitive as you need to stay.All right. Well, David Traynor, really appreciateyour joining us and giving us your.

Instant analysis.David is CEO of New Constructs. Lots of breaking news this time not onearnings necessarily. Fox, ESPN and Warner Brothers arejoining forces for a sports streaming site.Once again, Fox, ESPN and Warner Brothers Discovery creating a jointstreaming platform to share sports assets.And this comes, of course, as those sports rights, live sports rightscontinues to skyrocket higher. The understanding is it'll be on ESPNplus Hulu Max subscribers will get access to college sports, regular sportslots look forward to.

For sports watchers, this is a close onBloomberg. Let's get back to a developing storywith a big sports event coming up this weekend.You have some big headlines on sports streaming because ESPN, Fox and WarnerBrothers, Discovery, they're joining forces to launch a sports focusedstreaming service that will feature major college and professional games.This will be one third owned by each company.There's no details yet on pricing or name.Let's now bring in Chris Palmeri, joining us from Los Angeles.Chris, is this something else that.

Consumers will need to pay for?Yes, but the companies are targeting the noncable subscribers because everything in this package is going to be sports thatare available already if you pay for cable on ESPN or Fox or the Turnerchannels from Warner Brothers. So the idea is really aimed at thesesports cord cutters and people who don't want all the other stuff they get for acable package and are willing to pay for for all of those sports.Chris The premiere sports content, though, Yeah, it's amazing.A Fox, ESPN, Warner Brothers, that means ESPN plus Hulu and Mac subscribers willget access to this, whatever they're.

Going to pay for it.We consider these rivals. How weird is it for them all to begetting together on a venture like this? It's very strange.I mean, if you think about Hulu in the early days was it was kind of anexperimental thing from a lot of the big broadcasters and it ultimately unwoundand Disney owns all of it. This is certainly an unusual situation.They haven't decided who's going to manage it yet.But you can imagine there'll be fights over control and payments and strategyand things like that. So it's this is a very unique situation.You know, one thing that's missing or.

Two things are missing are NBC and CBS.The Super Bowl is going to be broadcast on CBS.They're nowhere in this partnership. That's also kind of weird because you'renot actually solving any problems. You're just it's still fragmented, isn'tit? Right.So you're still going to need those two other subscriptions if you want to getthe complete major broadcast package. And of course, Apple and Amazon are alsogetting major sports, right. So this doesn't solve everything, butit's sort of a step in the direction of the people who don't want to pay forcable, but really want all those sort of.

Premiere shows.You know, Fox, you know, afternoon, Monday Night Football, all of that.The college tournament's March Madness. And that the best quote I've heard aboutmedia is the history of media is bundling and unbundling.So this is just bundling once again. Finally, they're all friends untilthere's not. And we should remember that all of thesetitans of this industry are facing strategic questions of their own.Chris, what does this mean for Warner Brothers Discovery and ESPN Disney inparticular? Well, you know, this raises questionsnow and Disney reports tomorrow.

You know what?That whole strategy of taking ESPN direct there is you know, they've alwayshad ESPN Plus, which has some of the lesser sports.But Bob Iger, the CEO, has talked about a direct version that may no longer beneeded if if this package exists for Warner Brothers, They're looking fordifferent ways to monetize the content that they've got.So this is another avenue for that. Same with Fox, which doesn't really havea streaming service. And so, you know, this is their way toto capture that new subscriber. But again, this is not great news forthe cable bundle.

You know, the traditional cable guys,Comcast Charter and all those folks. There's less reason now to subscribe tothose if you can get the sports live direct from this.And to Scarlett's point, perhaps more expensive for the cord cutterthemselves. Thank you.Bloomberg's Chris Palmeri on breaking news.We're going to turn now to politics because a federal appeals court hasruled that Donald Trump can be prosecuted for trying to overturn the2020 US election, rejecting his claim that a president is immune from criminalcharges.

And that's all, as the former presidentis all but guaranteed a victory in the Nevada primary today, a very complicatedprimary that is. For more, we're joined by Bloomberg.Balance of power host Kailey Leinz maybe we start with trump's presence in theprimary itself because of how complicated the primary is on top ofthis other layer of news woven in. Well, Sonali, just to underscore howcomplicated this is, Trump isn't actually even technically on the ballotin the primary. This is the first time that a primary isbeing held in the state of Nevada in over two decades because of a new lawthat dictates you have to have a primary.

If more than one candidate is in therunning, which is why the Democrats are holding a primary today.And there is a Republican primary as well in which Nikki Haley is on theballot. But Nikki Haley cannot actually get anydelegates from that because of the decision of the Republican Party inNevada that says we're going ahead with a caucus in the caucuses where you getthe delegates and the caucus is what Donald Trump is in the running for.So presumptively all of these delegates are going to go for him.That said, I would note that Nikki Haley, according to her campaign, reallyhasn't been putting much stock in.

Nevada.They haven't been devoting time and resources to that state.They're really focused on the South Carolina primary coming up on February.24th is. Of course, that is her home state, butshe is still lagging far behind the former president by about 30 points inthe most recent polling. Yeah, that's pretty incredible, giventhat it is her home state that she was governor there.I want to turn to the headline that should only told us earlier, which isthat a federal appeals court has ruled Trump can be prosecuted for trying tooverturn the 2020 election.

Has he responded yet?And his next move to basically appeal to the Supreme Court.He has until February 12th to do just that, to take this to the highest courtin the land, Scarlett. So he has about six days to make thatdecision. But his campaign, in a statementreacting, reacting to the ruling we got from the D.C.Circuit Court here, said that he does indeed intend to appeal.So it will be a question now as to how this moves forward.If the Supreme Court even decides they want to hear this or they will let theruling today stand in which the three.

Judges that were on this paneleffectively said that the former president is not former President Trump,he is citizen Trump, and that therefore, he is not entitled to the immunity fromprosecution he had during the time in which he was president.They said that effectively that argument that the former president has beenmaking would render the entire separation of powers unusable because itwould put the executive, the president of the United States out of the reach ofthe executive branch, the judicial branch and the legislative branch, sothat effectively it goes against the Constitution in that way.So it's going to be a question of timing.

Moving forward.If the Supreme Court decides to hear this, how quickly, how quickly wouldthey rule, knowing that this trial originally was supposed to start onMarch 4th, The judge in this case, Judge Tonya Chacon, vacated that date lastweek as we awaited this immunity decision.And we're waiting to see if this could actually go to trial before theRepublican convention in July and more importantly, the election in November.And keep in mind as well, at the end of March, March 25th, Trump is stillslated. It is still on the books right now forhim to go to trial in the state of New.

York.In the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels case.A lot of moving parts there. Kelly, I don't know how you keep it allin your head, but thank you for that round up.Kelly Hynes of Bloomberg. And of course, you'll want to catchKelly and Joe Mathew hosting Balance of Power at the top of the next hour.Let's stay on Washington here and discuss the risk of the US elections forfinancial markets. Drew Pettit, director of U.S.equity strategy for Citi, joins now, joins us now.Drew, how are you thinking about this.

Federal appeal court ruling on Trumpable to be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election?We know that the Trump campaign, the Trump response has been that they willappeal and presumably to the Supreme Court.But how does this play out in terms of how you'reassessing the election impact on the markets?But first, I think the starting point for all of this when it comes to U.S.politics and markets is expect the unexpected.And admittedly, we can't just look to history as a guide for a lot of theseevents that are unfolding.

So how we're thinking about markets inadmittedly, this is really, really early.We're starting to focus on Trump versus Biden.Look, a lot of the early polling and in markets and so on have you know, we havethe rematch coming up. So right now we're trying to think aboutthose two against each other. I understand the news is evolving.Things can change, but right now it's Trump versus Biden in our assessment ofpotential political risk this year. Okay, Got it.You mentioned that it's still really early and people say this all the timeas well, that it's not going to be an.

Issue until I think, early the secondhalf of 20, 24. Nevertheless, I'm curious as to here asto what your clients are asking you when it comes to the election.Is this something that they bring up with you at all?Oh, a ton of time. It's all sorts of clients, fast money,long onlys, all sorts. Right now they're trying to think aboutrisks right now and they're trying to think about what do I have to monitor aswe get closer to the election itself? Because right now we really don't have aton of policy clarity. So we have to start working off someassumptions to start.

So on Biden, we admittedly think it'sit's more of the same going forward and you're going to have a divided House andSenate. If Trump wins, we're starting to workoff of a case where we're going to have a red sweep.But I think this is the big bite and this is what we're talking to clientsabout right now, is it is not going to be the same Trump if it's a Trumppresidency to point out why not?And what would change in a Trump 2.0 scenario and how would the markets reactto those changes, whether it's from tariffs to spending to tax cuts?So it's a different fiscal starting.

Point.I think that is huge when we start thinking about this going forward.And also the macro backdrop is much different.So first, like when it comes to the fiscal, the first Trump presidency wasnot really fiscal negative. We think there's going to be less of apositive fiscal impulse if we see a red way of going forward.Because, look, we have seen debt as a percent of GDP spiked during thepandemic and stay elevated. So there's much, much more focus ondeficits going forward. So that's point number one.So point number two is everyone likes.

This idea of potential deregulation.If we have a red wave. Admittedly, that was good the first timearound. We saw that initial market pop marketstraded well and then we stumbled in to steel tariffs the first time around.I think tariffs, you know, that is the risk that we're focusing on if we see ared wave deregulation. It's a positive, but might be offset bysome of the fiscal constraints. So there's a lot more puts and takes andit all has to do with our starting point from a debt perspective.Well, it's worth asking, too. If you're worried about tariffs themost, then what industries, what stocks.

Are going to be most impacted and howwould that impact the overall indices in the event of a Trump presidency?Part two. So overall, we think that's a negativefor equity markets. I think how the market reacted the firsttime and that was around more focused tariffs was pretty negative.So again, if there's more of a tariff focus, that could be a broad negativefor equity markets. But when it comes when it comes tosectors and industries, you know, a lot of people are going to want to point totech as having a lot of revenue coming outside of the US.They're going to look at banks maybe on.

The other side because they're moredomestically focused. But we think that's the wrong way tothink about it. Admittedly, we should be looking back atwhich companies did really well when supply chains were disrupted or I shouldsay did relatively well when supply chains were disrupted during thepandemic, and use that as a guidepost to who actually has more complicated valuechains. So instead of looking at it sector bysector, we basically broke up the stocks within sectors to see who has morecomplicated supply chains, which could mean international sourcing.Right.

And basically pin those againstcompanies that have, you know, less diverse, less complicated supply chains,more domestically oriented. Drew Pettit of Citigroup, we thank youso much for your time. Looking around the corner.Long way ahead. Long road ahead for this election aswell. Let's take a look at how markets closedon the day because it looked kind of shaky there, Scarlett, but we did end inthe green with the S&P 500. It was interesting.It was not the most loved sectors typically bringing the index up today.It was materials, real estate, health.

Care.But we did see some weakness in those tech stocks.We saw the Nasdaq 100 down on the day. So not a clean equity story, but we didsee some relief in yields and we did see a hike higher in crude on the day.Yeah, And of course, there's more Fed speak for everyone to fixate on in thecoming days. There sure is.Let's keep an eye on those yields. We have a ten year flirting with gettingdown to that 4% level, but we are certainly not there yet.This is the close on Bloomberg. And.

This is the clothes on Bloomberg.Just to clarify something we said earlier, Amgen shares on the move rightnow in after hours trading after it says it expects revenue to jump as much as20% this year, thanks in large part to the purchase of Horizon Therapeutics,which allowed it to get into rare disease treatments.Separately, the company is, of course, looking to be a big player in the weightloss drug industry with its own products there.But the two are not necessarily connected.Just to clarify there, again, Amgen coming out with a forecast that beatanalysts estimates.

All right.Let's go now to the top three where we take a deep dive into the people at thecenter of the day's top stories. And first optionally, is Adam Neumann.He is the we were co-founder. And guess what?He's teaming up with Dan Loeb's third point to explore an offer to buy.We work out of bankruptcy, according to a letter sent to Wework's lawyers.Neumann stepped down as CEO in 2019. He wanted to take the company public,didn't He Got paid off by SoftBank, and now he wants to come back and buy it.And remember, this is a shocking headline in and of itself in a twist ofevents.

But remember also, there's a lot ofdetail we don't have. We don't know how much he would pay forthe company. We don't know the details of thefinancing. We don't know if he wants all or some ofthe assets. And Dan Loeb's third point, remember,which is said to have been involved in this kind of negotiation here, has saidon the record that they have only had preliminary talks with Neumann and thestartup about this idea. You know, that that TV show we crashedthat documented what happened. We work.I feel like they need to do an update.

Here, you know, because their storycontinues. Right?Continues. Well, there's another story thatcontinues. I'm watching Jack Dorsey because theformer Twitter CEO and founder is expanding his new social network toeveryone. Remember, this is a company, Blue Sky,that opened to the public a year ago and it was on an invite only basis.And it has the goal of decentralization that is allowing anyone to create theirown social network using blue skies technology protocol.Blue sky itself claims to have about 3.

Million users.The reason I love this story is because Twitter and X had this idea of gettingcloser to the crypto world. Decentralization is a big thing for JackDorsey. In the meantime, like normal people Ifeel like have just kind of dropped off using Twitter or X and never got aninvite to Blue sky. So and Threads you know, is kind ofthere, but you're not doing anything with it or at least I'm not.We'll get you into all the clubs, don't I?I'm waiting for my invite. All right.Saving the best for last.

The biggest to Taylor Swift.Her attorneys have threatened legal action against a college student whotracks the pop star's jet use. Social media commentators, of course,have been criticizing the amount of carbon that her private jet emits.She is resuming her tour in Tokyo this week.US spending is estimated to total some $230 million, raking in the money andusing the private jet. I appreciate very much the response fromthe student himself as well. In the statement he said You should havea decent expectation that your jet will be tracked, whether I do it or not.After all, it is public information.

Indeed, jets are private, and for apublic you are big enough that someone will track you, if not me.Yes, exactly. Like every other finance titan in theworld. All right.We've got a lot to cover, a lot more to cover here.Still ahead, what investors need to watch for tomorrow.There's a big earnings report tomorrow after the bell.Disney. This is the close on Bloomberg and. There was a flurry of earnings today andit doesn't end because it's all part of.

The big lead up to the start of mediaearnings season. And Disney will be reporting tomorrowafter the bell. So joining us now for a look ahead isJessica Reif Erlich. She is a senior analyst for Media andentertainment at Bank of America. Jessica, so good to see you.Thanks for speaking with us. There was a headline that came outearlier this hour that I want to get your thoughts on.We don't have a lot of details, but ESPN, Fox and Warner Brothers Discoveryare going to be joining forces to launch a sports focused streaming service.What do you think we'll get from Fox and.

Disney when they do report tomorrow interms of any kind of actual details? Well, hopefully more details.All we know is that it's on to third, third or third.Look, this has been discussed for a long time, putting sports assets together sothat consumers can find the games that they're looking for.It's just so confusing, whether it's entertainment content or sports andsports is something that's easier to put together.So, you know, in that sense it's positive, but we don't knowhow much of what assets are going in, how much they'll charge for the service.Is it something that would pull apart.

The bundle, which would be really badfor these all three companies? So I don't think it's that.But you know what? What's different about this except for,you know, we just there's not a lot of detail, but the concept of puttingsports together is very positive. Well, it begs the question also, ifyou're thinking about ESPN in the scope of the Disney empire here, how importantis it for them to really make more of what they have there, given thechallenges they have at some other businesses?I mean, look, sports is very important to Disney.We know that they're exploring strategic.

Investors who can either help them withdistribution or content. There's been speculation the NFL isinterested in maybe the NBA as well. So hopefully tomorrow they'll saysomething about, you know, we'll get an update, We'll see.But sports is obviously a very important area for them.It feels like it's stabilizing. Yeah.And so that that's one thing that that we'll see tomorrow with the earnings.Absolutely. We'll look for that.We'll also look for any kind of improvement on Disney plus subscribernumbers after that price increase.

But I wanted to get your take on Parksand Recreation, the resorts in particular, because that's been a strongpart of Disney's business operations. But they have some difficultcomparisons, don't they? Very tough in Orlando.I think the other parks will probably be doing very well, a little morecompetitive in L.A., because Universal opened, you know, a new attraction.Having said that, the the parks, this is not a huge quarter.This will not be a huge quarter because of the tough comparisons.But Disney is in a great position with their parks.Do not you know, it's not something.

We're really concerned about.There's a long term growth path for them and the cruise ships will be ramping upas well, which is their highest return on invested capital.So it's a business that will grow. There's some speculation that they mayannounce a fifth gate at some point in Florida.They certainly have the plans to do that.So that's one area where I think they're very confident will be a growth area fora decade, you know, the coming decade. All right.So we'll watch for that. We'll watch for ESPN.Any details on this new sports streaming.

Service?We'll watch for Disney Plus as well. Jessica, thank you.So why is Disney divided? Okay.Thank you. No, no.What were you going to say? Sorry I cut you up.Well, I was going to say Disney Plus did well this quarter.Disney Plus, they've already said that, you know, the first fiscal quarter, theDecember quarter will not be a strong quarter in terms of subs, but the comingquarter, they have the charter deal kicking in which will really drive subs.And the one thing that Bob Iger has been.

Totally focused on is is improving thecost structure of that business. So if there's a surprise on the upsidetomorrow, we would think it would come from from the direct to consumerbusiness. All right.Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing yourinsight with us, Jessica Reif Erlich from Bank of America.I got to enthusiastic about what's coming up, but really, I mean, we shouldstay with Disney because that's what's the big thing Fox in the morning, Disneyin the app. Absolutely.More things during the day, though, and.

Those are economic data as well.We didn't have any data today, so everyone just fixated on Fed speak.But there is some data, especially on the housing market there.Certainly some MBA data had more Fed speak.Kugler, Collins, Barkan and Bowman. We had a lot of mester today.Yields really came down on the heels of really what Abigail Doolittle call theyhaven bid here. Let's see if that sustains into the restof the week. The message has been fairly consistent.March is probably not likely, but you know, further into the year, maybe theFed will gain some confidence that they.

Can start cutting rates.All right. Let's talk about earnings.Lots and lots of earnings to talk about. Madison Square Garden sports, and reallythat's the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Carlyle, which I know you'vegot your eye on as well. Yeah, absolutely.It will be almost. Harvey Schwartz's first full year as CEOareas is also reporting soon to big rival in the private credit space.But you also have Spirit Yum Brands. We have a whole tasting of the economyhere. All state, PayPal, Mattel and Coty.A lot to look forward to.

And of course, we know the S&P has beenreacting. Yes.Yes. I mean, today it did levitate a littlebit higher and the moves have up. Fairly modest, but maybe these earningswill give our prices a little bit more of a push.That does it for us. Balance of power is up next.Have a great evening. This is a close on Bloombergand.

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