Cooler Inflation Gives Fed Breathing Room — Open Interest 8/12/2026

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Policymakers exhale an inflation print in line with expectations. 30 minutes until the start of trading. I'm David Gurra. And I'm Bonnie Quinn. Matt Miller and Danny Berger are off today. Bloomberg Open Interest starts right now. Coming up a tame inflation report gives the Federal Reserve some breathing room on rates. Upbeat earnings from Corweave and Supermicro reigniting the AI trade. And oil waivers as President Trump once again escalates his rhetoric over the Strait of Hormuz. [00:00:33] Speaker 2: Well let's take a look at some of those stocks to watch today then because it feels like it's going to be an up day no matter what else happens thanks to Corweave and Supermicro, NVIDIA and all of the related companies. So Supermicro and Corweave raising their outlooks as demand for AI infrastructure products shows absolutely no signs of letting up. It is potentially alleviating fears around circular financing from that $500 billion fundraise plan by NVIDIA with major Wall Street players, David. [00:00:58] Speaker 1: Looking at Kava this morning as we look at the health of the consumer. Kava's quarterly sales topped estimates even as Cyclospora and Salmonella outbreaks weighed on demand from other restaurant chains. Kava customers also spending more on premium proteins and add-ons than expected. We see those shares up in the pre-market 17%. [00:01:16] Speaker 2: VONNIE: Well we're just half an hour after that CPI report. Let's get a closer read on this morning's inflation data. We have Michael McKee, Bloomberg's International Economics and Policy Correspondent with us. Michael, is it fair to say that all in all a fairly benign report? Is it likely to change any hawkishly inclined minds? [00:01:32] Michael McKee: I don't think it will change anybody's minds either way. It is a fairly benign report. I don't even know why I'm here because it's exactly bang on with what economists had anticipated. A tenth of a percent rise for the CPI on a monthly basis and that drops the year-over-year number to 3.4%. And two tenths for the core and that puts the year-over-year at 2.5%. So those are declines and that is good news. A little bit of disinflation. But when you look at what's under the hood in terms of what moved, we did see some prices still rising. Gasoline prices were down 2.9%. That's no surprise with the course of the war. But core goods and services both up two tenths of a percent and airfares up 2.2%. Used cars up four tenths of a percent. Computers up three and a half percent. So maybe there's an AI effect there. But what it tells you is basically that we are looking at a if anything very slow disinflation trend. We're sort of back to where we were before the war started. But that's not going to be good enough for the hawks on the Fed who were upset at that point that inflation wasn't farther down. And this chart I just want to show you here. This compares the level with the monthly changes. And the economists are and the Fed looking at the blue line. The level the monthly changes. And Americans are looking at the white line. And you can see what happened. That is over the last five years since we had the first inflation increases under Joe Biden. And they've continued under Donald Trump. And that's why Americans are upset because the level doesn't go down. And it went up sharply. And they're still seeing prices at those levels. [00:03:12] Speaker 1: Noting here lettuce down 16 percent maybe because of the cyclospora outbreak. [00:03:16] Michael McKee: That's probably there's less demand less demand for probably a lot more supply. And the only thing the administration can take a little credit if they want to fudge eggs were up four tenths the last two months. [00:03:28] Speaker 1: But then last month they were down half a percent. I do digress. Let me just ask you quickly the way that Fed policymakers are looking at this. You and they getting ready to go to Jackson Hole the next meeting in September is and occur and put it. This is one piece of the jigsaw puzzle. More pieces to come between now and September. [00:03:41] Michael McKee: More pieces to come. We get the P.C.E. for the month of July at the end of August. And that should probably rise a little bit unlike CPI because some of the categories that come from CPI in here into the P.C.E. like airfares were higher. But we'll see what we get tomorrow with the P.P.I. But then we get another CPI another P.P.I. another jobs report before the next Fed meeting which is another reason I say this isn't definitive for anybody. [00:04:08] Speaker 1: We are glad to have you here even if the numbers are in line with expectations. Mike McKee thank you very much joining us here on set in New York. And we mentioned Corweave's upbeat outlook leading the A.I. trade higher this morning when it gets more details now from Bloomberg tech host Ed Ludlow. And we were talking yesterday with Carmen Reinecke about this company's problems with quarterly earnings often disappointing over these last four or five quarters. [00:04:27] Speaker 4: It was a different story yesterday. What explains it. Yeah it's not just the sort of beat in the quarter gone or even the forward looking data. It's essentially evidence that the A.I. infrastructure build out is probably accelerating rather than cooling. The backlog is growing. They had twenty five billion dollars of new commitments going into this quarter. And you know very simply Corweave is in the same environment that everyone else is. Where demand is outpacing its ability to supply typically like that's an enviable position to be in in the quarter gone revenue more than doubled year on year. Two point five eight billion dollars slightly above consensus. But if you look at their guide for the current period sales of three point four four five billion to three point six billion. Even the bottom end of that range is pretty healthfully above street expectations. So lots of science that they have momentum and that they're executing on it. So like you were right to flag historically quarterly earnings can be disappointing. Corweave in its case has always been a sort of like you guys haven't done a very good job of taking that demand and moving to meet it. [00:05:29] Speaker 2: Yeah. Is this good for all the new clouds. Or is this a particular story to Corweave that its fundamentals are strengthening. [00:05:36] Speaker 4: No would note that some of the other neo clouds and but neo cloud is just data center or cloud computing capacity dedicated to A.I. Right. But those operators seem to be you know having similar success. You guys said right at the top of the program in video pushing higher. And you know the thing that Corweave has in common with those other neo clouds or a super micro for example on the supply chain side is that they all house in video GPUs inside their gear. And so that's a pretty positive sign. [00:06:04] Speaker 2: All right. Ed Lodlow. Thank you so much. You'll see him on Bloomberg Tech at 11 a.m. Let's discuss how the inflation print and day ironings are impacting market momentum now with Bloomberg macro strategist Michael Ball. Michael it feels like equities were going to do their own thing one way or the other today. Right. With all of these stocks powering higher just based off of Supermicro and Corweave today. [00:06:25] Speaker 5: Yeah again a continuation that the A.I. trade is getting a renewed momentum after sort of the sell off we saw in July. Everything seems to be lining up as far as the whole stack. And basically there isn't any weakness. And you're getting a lot of commentary to saying that we've been searching throughout July from you know analysts all the way to strategist to P.M.'s I speak to for any weakness in actual you know on the ground kind of reporting and none of it's really showing up. So people that are rebulling up and a lot of people have got underexposed. A lot of people de leverage underexposed to this trade and now they're rushing back in. And you're seeing that in the option markets now call skews shooting up again and people are chasing. [00:07:00] Speaker 1: Michael it's been about 36 hours since we got news of that video financing deal. And I wonder sort of how you're thinking about it in a broader sense. I think there were so many open questions at the beginning of it. How is this going to be structured. Who's going to be investors in this. What does it mean for the A.I. [00:07:12] Speaker 5: trade. How are you thinking about. Yeah I think it's a positive. Obviously we all have our kind of concerns with the circularity. This alleviates some of that. It spreads the pie out. The concentration and cash flow into just a few names is a problem for the overall pie to grow fast enough. Obviously there's on the ground constraints to that growth but the actual financing constraints then sort of are alleviated more. So I think it's a positive. I'm you know dubious enough some ways like most because we'll see how this plays out. But it is sort of another way of just expanding the financing avenues. And that's what we want to see because it is ramping quickly and this is going a lot faster. Every quarter we get these CapEx numbers growing. We know capacity is even more constrained than we thought prior. So again we need to make sure that the sort of straw becomes a pipeline. [00:07:52] Speaker 2: And this is part of that. I'm mesmerized by the amount of charts you have up on your Bloomberg term is 18 at least. Right. I'm curious going into this inflation print we had yields grinding higher. We're at 1064 on the on the 10 year. But we haven't really moved. Do we continue to grind higher now after this inflation report? [00:08:09] Speaker 5: Well again I think this was in line like we just said. Mike hit it on the head and basically now that's taking the pressure off. We're seeing what we'd expect a weaker dollar yields falling and equities taking a relief. But you know we're still all watching oil. It's very unsettled in the Middle East oil sort of in the sweet spot. The vol component of that's come off. So remember we went from like 70 back up to 100 in short order. That rate of change really spooked the real rate market. And we saw rates come up. And effectively now that we've had oil trading in a tighter range although the situation hasn't by any means been clarified. It's at least calming the risk sentiment across asset. And that's a big important thing. So again we go back to watching oil for a while into Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole we're looking for wars to clarify basically his [00:08:47] Speaker 2: reaction function not necessarily anything more. Yeah. If he does. All right. If he does. Big question so much. Yeah. Our guest Diane Swank saying it's going to be crucial as well. She'll be joining us in a little bit. Let's take a look at those markets then. Michael mentioned oil. We do have it lower now but it's been wavering all day on various headlines. Right now Brent just below $89 a barrel and WTI at 83 or just short of it. It looks like we're going to have a positive day with the neoclouds the chip companies really everything AI related rallying today off the back of some results. The Nasdaq 100 futures as you can see pointed to a gain of 1%. But S&P futures also higher. We had the equal weighted index hitting a record yesterday and that 10 year yield going nowhere after the inflation data which might be a relief to some for 64 at 96 right now. All right. Let's get a look at some other movers on our radar with Bloomberg's Hannah Palmer. Hannah. [00:09:34] Speaker 6: Thanks Bonnie. Let's kick it off with some breaking news. Home Depot CEO Ted Decker is taking a temporary medical leave of absence. He had been in the role since 2022. The stock is down slightly as traders absorb the news. Goldman Sachs will buy ETF provider Neos Investments in a $2.3 billion deal. It's Goldman's latest moves as it amps up is pushed into the ETF universe. The deal will boost the bank's ETF assets to a whopping $130 billion. Stock up a little bit in pre-market. And from Wall Street to Main Street consumers are hunting for bargains and Chili's is cashing in. It's owner Brinker International reported steady sales growth as its value meals drew more traffic nationwide. Everyone loves a good deal. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Coming up here. [00:10:25] Speaker 1: Primary results are in with mixed signals for both parties. We're going to break down the key takeaways next on Bloomberg's Open Interest. I'm not a high interest to look at what's making headlines around the world. London's white collar exodus may accelerate. New analysis by the recruitment company Robert Walters estimates that 90,000 jobs could shift to other UK cities over five years. Manchester expected to be the biggest winner followed by the Midlands and Yorkshire. The exodus being driven by London's high costs, the rise of hybrid work and a government push to shift economic power beyond the nation's capital. Goldman Sachs doubling down on ETFs agreeing to buy Neos investments for up to $2.25 billion. Neos manages about $32 billion largely in options based income ETFs. The deal will lift Goldman's ETF assets to roughly $130 billion. And moderate Democrat David Crowley projected to win Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary narrowly defeating Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong in a race that tested the party's ideological direction. Crowley now advances to face Republican Tom Tiffany in November in a key battleground state on Wisconsin as they say. Let's get the latest from Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall. Help us understand what's happened here. So after Michigan I think there was a lot of caution Tyler in terms of what should we take away from the Michigan results. Does it signal that the kind of progressive branch of the Democratic Party was in the ascendancy. What can we take away kind of broadly from those results in Wisconsin yesterday. [00:12:01] Speaker 7: Well David it's important to put into context some of the nuance here because if anything these results from last night including the race in Minnesota do tell us that those intraparty tensions in the Democratic Party still remain because yes Francesca Hong's projected loss in the Wisconsin primary does mark a set a setback for what really has been momentum behind Democratic Socialists after a string of wins in recent weeks. You have to keep in mind that she had failed to secure the endorsement of some very prominent progressive figures in the party like Senator Bernie Sanders amid broader reported concerns about her viability as a candidate when it comes to November and the general election. But then compare that to what happened in Minnesota the Democratic primary there for the open U.S. Senate seat. We saw Peggy Flanagan the lieutenant governor who is a progressive win there. So that was a progressive win last night but Flanagan had of course secured those more progressive endorsements from some of those big players in the party. So it does go to show us that there seems to still be you know a dichotomy here within the party whether or not Democrats use what happened in Wisconsin to help the more establishment candidates move forward remains to be seen. But it's very clear that both parties are going to be looking at what happened last night as they try to inform their messaging as we get closer and closer to Election Day. [00:13:24] Speaker 2: And then Tyler President Trump had something like 13 endorsements across the various primaries yesterday and a couple of losses also in South Carolina and you know an inconclusive results there. [00:13:37] Speaker 7: So we should mention that President Trump's endorsement track record for the primary season so far has been pretty significant and pretty strong. But last night as you're alluding to Bonnie we saw at least two of his endorsements fall short of perhaps expectations. One was in the Minnesota gubernatorial Republican primary. That was Mike Lindell the MyPillow founder. He did not secure that nomination despite having President Trump's backing and then the race in South Carolina that critical Senate seat left vacant by the late Senator Lindsey Graham. His sister Senator Darlene Graham does advance to a runoff. She secured President Trump's backing but she did not secure enough votes to clinch the majority which then would have given her the nomination. She now faces Republican Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina who I think it's fair to say has a rather complicated history with this White House so that potentially could expose some cracks when it comes to President Trump's support and sway among his base. [00:14:37] Speaker 1: He famously backed Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley saying she's going to back him in that runoff. Tyler let me ask you about Iran before I let you go. A breakthrough still seemingly very elusive here as talks continue. I gather not between the U.S. and Iran but with these intermediaries and Iran. What's the latest you can tell us about where things stand as we see oil again climbing higher on this Wednesday morning. [00:14:56] Speaker 7: Well David we actually have new reporting out on the Bloomberg terminal that Iran's military is restructuring to take a more aggressive posture amid what has been a flurry of new military appointments confirmed just yesterday. We heard from a top IRGC official telling Iranian state media that this new confirmation of appointments marks a quote offensive doctrine compared to what he says has been a defensive posture so far in the war. This is really the first indication that we've gotten about the strategy behind Iran's military appointments in recent days coming from this IRGC official who was speaking on behalf of the supreme leader. That does seem to signal that escalation is here on the table as at least publicly both sides have been digging into their positions. We can say that mediators from Pakistan are in Iran today. So the idea that diplomacy is continuing is at least in the backdrop but really no indication on what a potential breakthrough could really look like at this point. [00:15:54] Speaker 2: Tyler is there going to be more fallout from the story that emerged that the president has now acknowledged that he was taken in a catering truck to a different airplane and that basically the American public and many senior officials wouldn't have known where he was for several hours. [00:16:08] Speaker 7: Well, Vani, there's a few different threads that we could pull on here. President Trump yesterday publicly confirming that this covert operation did happen, but he did deflect back against that criticism, saying that he does as he's told and that the Secret Service and the military had instructed him that he needed to change planes. It raises questions about, one, the threat assessment when it comes to Iran's threats against the president and his safety and making sure that he's able to move freely and safely. This, of course, of course, happening just days after the U.S. decided to bomb Iran amid disruptions to commercial shipping while the president was overseas at the NATO summit. It is also raising those questions about how the intended plane that President Trump was believed to be on was carrying other White House officials and journalists on it. And then lastly, the thread that we can pull on are questions about that Qatari gifted jet that we know President Trump would like to use. But reporting indicates there could be a lack in terms of the safety features on that specific aircraft carrier, which didn't allow him to take it overseas. [00:17:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, gone for a tune-up, apparently. Tyler, thank you so much. That is Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall in Washington. Coming up, Kava's pomegranate-glazed salmon is a hit, apparently, as diners spend more on high-protein options. More on the sector next. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. Shares of Kava are soaring pre-market, thanks to a 9% jump in sales. Brinker, parent company of Chili's, rewarding steady sales growth. Let's get a read on the sector with Michael Halen, senior restaurant analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Swimming upstream, I think, is probably the right metaphor for Kava, right? Because it was basically sales of salmon. Is this the protein obsession? [00:17:56] Speaker 8: You know, this is interesting because steak was the hot item last year. Salmon seems to be even more impactful. And I think the real reason why is there's not really good or many options for seafood in fast-casual, right? And so this is novel, something a little bit different. And it's really driving, it has really driven strong traffic in the first half of this year. [00:18:18] Speaker 1: What can we take away here about the health of the consumer? I guess an insatiable hunger for pita chips with sumac and other seasonings here. What explains the success in light of what we've really seen here, which is a lot of pressure on consumers, even though they've managed to kind of spend their way through it? [00:18:33] Speaker 8: They've been resilient this year, right? And a lot of that has been the higher tax refunds than the year before. I think that's a good piece of it. But we're actually surprised at how strong they've been, you know, over the last couple months, despite all the inflation we've seen at the pump and with food prices. So a resilient consumer is what we're seeing. [00:18:54] Speaker 2: And it's because of the add-ons, too. So David mentioned the pita chips. They're add-ons, apparently, at the last minute. We heard this from Starbucks, as well. Customers are more inclined to just take that little extra treat. So is it the ingenuity of some of these, you know, offerings? Or is it really that the customer just has plenty of disposable cash? [00:19:11] Speaker 8: No, I think, you know, what we see in our business is that, you know, there's a wide divergence between winners and losers. And Kava's winning because they're providing guests with a good value for their money, with a good experience, right? Like the value equation, which is what you get for what you pay, is being hit by places like Kava, Chili's, right? Where we're also seeing places like Wingstop and some other chains that we cover struggle mightily right now. So there's really a big divergence between winners and losers. So it's hard to discern, you know, consumer spending overall based on one chain's results. [00:19:47] Speaker 1: I've got to get to Brinker. And I know you've got to make the sales pitch to Vani to go to Chili's for her first time ever. But let me ask you about Cyclospora. Kava, not affected by this, but it brings this broader question about how companies that have been have to navigate a perception or a fear that it might be something that consumers have to contend with. [00:20:02] Speaker 8: Yeah, it's interesting. There was a little bit of impact on Kava, but sales have rebounded to the mid-single digits. You know, I think part of it is how much lettuce is on your menu, right? And that's kind of been what a lot of these chains have been battling. Sweetgreen obviously sells a lot of salad, so that's been most impactful for them. But these problems, Salmonella as well, haven't been due to the chain's food handling procedures. It's really been about supply. Farther down the chain. And then the supply chain. And because of that, we think they're going to be generally short-lived. [00:20:33] Speaker 2: Talk to us a little bit about Chili's. So also, you know, nice positive trends there. What's Chili's doing that's so attractive? [00:20:39] Speaker 8: Oh, the management team is phenomenal. You know, best-in-class marketing. The marketing team has been great. This year, a lot of it, you know, better operations was early on in this turnaround. This year, it's been about improving the food quality. They continue to invest in improving the quality of the food, improving different popular menu items. And, you know, it's really driven stronger same-source sales there. [00:21:05] Speaker 2: So are we going to see more sweet fruits paired with proteins for next season? [00:21:10] Speaker 8: For kava, for sure, I would expect. [00:21:12] Speaker 2: Look for a mango or something. Did they give us any hints? [00:21:16] Speaker 8: Yeah, I think they did. But to be honest with you, it escapes me. It's been a long-earnings season. [00:21:21] Speaker 2: Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be delicious. Michael, thank you so much. That is Michael Halen of Bloomberg Intelligence. Let's get a check on these markets now. Four minutes before the opening bell, it's going to be an update for the NASDAQ, pointing to gains of more than 1%. Another update for the S&P. You might even see a record after two days of very small declines. And then no trouble, really, in the 10-year yield at 465.57. Remember, we have that auction at 1 p.m. [00:21:51] Speaker 1: We're just mere moments away from the start of trading. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. I'm David Burr. Let's get a check of those futures, of course. We're waiting with bated breath over the course of the morning for those CPI data. They came across in line with expectations. And we've seen futures reacting, as you might expect, with some exhalation here. They were not as bad or as softer as we expected they might be. Let's take a look at a few companies here. As the bells begin to ring here, let me turn to the NASDAQ, let me turn to the New York Stock Exchange. We've got Lundy & Watson. This is the largest manufacturer, I learned this morning, of copper foil. It's celebrating its IPO at the NYSEE this morning, as we see the opening bell ringing. Let me pivot over here to the NASDAQ, where we see a lot of applause for Kodiak. This is a company, Kodiak AI, that's in driverless technology. This is a company that went public almost a year ago to the date. And Kodiak has 35 autonomous trucks now, if not on the road, getting there, ready to be tested. So the AI story in driverless vehicles on full display at the NASDAQ market center. Bonnie. [00:22:49] Speaker 2: Physical AI. [00:22:50] Speaker 1: Physical AI, the future. [00:22:52] Speaker 2: A.K.A. robots. Yes. All right, let's take a look at some of the stocks that are powering, not just the physical AI, but everything else AI-related. CoreWeave and Supermicro just powering ahead today. CoreWeave and all of the neoclouds are going to get a boost from this. Really blowing away estimates, up 21% in the pre-market, and we'll see how it happens to trade after the open. Supermicro computer also, there we go, we have opened now. Supermicro up almost 9%. Investors really just encouraged by these companies' results. Their outlooks raised as demand for AI infrastructure products shows absolutely no signs of letting up investment. And potentially putting to bed some of the, at least, fears surrounding the circular financing and NVIDIA's $500 billion platform fundraise with various Wall Street firms, David. [00:23:38] Speaker 1: Yes. And Kava's quarterly sales, as we're just discussing here on the show, topping the expectations, even as cyclospora and salmonella outbreaks weighed on demand for other restaurant chains. Kava customers also spent more on premium proteins and add-ons than expected. We see Kava up here within 12.5% on this Wednesday morning. Well, speaking of the consumer, July CPI came in line with estimates, which is still above the Fed's 2% target. Joining us now is Devine Chief Investment Officer, Sarah Malik. Sarah, great to have you with us. And let's start with those data that we got this morning. Your reaction to them, both the headline and what you saw under the hood, and sort of what it means for markets going forward. [00:24:13] Speaker 9: Today's CPI print puts the bar for a Fed hike much higher than the bar for a hole. The Fed has no reason to raise hikes at its next meetings. What I liked about the CPI number was the rent number was much softer than expected, which was positive. Right now, markets are pricing in a 35% chance of a rate hike at the September meeting. But I think that that number will continue to decline. I don't think the Fed will hike at the September meeting. And this gives them permission to stay on pause for a while, because this CPI number follows a soft payroll number. The number I will be watching to perhaps change my mind will be PPI tomorrow, particularly watching non-housing within PPI. But that likely will not be enough for the Fed to raise rates at the September meeting. They can stay on pause until they see hotter inflation data or labor market data. And right now, that is not what we're seeing. We're seeing some nice soft prints and inflation trending closer to that 2% Fed target. [00:25:10] Speaker 2: Is the Fed chair's wish coming true? Sarah, it seems like the market is actually waiting on each next incremental piece of data and then reacting to it, which is what the Fed chair said he wanted to happen. [00:25:20] Speaker 9: Well, markets are becoming much more data dependent than dependent on the Fed. Every one of these data points ranging from CPI to PCE to payrolls data is going to be highly scrutinized for the markets. I think what the Fed and Warsh is also getting is tamer inflation. Perhaps that is due to some productivity gains that we're seeing from artificial intelligence. So that I think that trend is what the Fed wants to continue to see because it allows them to remain on hold with interest rates. And also, you know, yields should back off today. But we had seen some tightening already happening in the markets because of higher Treasury yields. So markets were kind of doing its job with tightening already. But now we're going to see all of that back off as we should be in a camp where the Fed stays on hold with interest rates for the time being. [00:26:03] Speaker 1: So let me stick with that, that relationship between AI and productivity gains. And, you know, you keep hearing from economists, it's still too early to kind of divine what this is going to mean for the economy more broadly. But it's even going through earnings over the course of this season. Are you seeing sure signs of the fact that this is having an increase or a productivity boost here for some companies? [00:26:21] Speaker 9: We're still seeing earnings growth driven by artificial intelligence and spending on hyperscalers and CapEx in that area. In 2026, we expect to see about 750 billion spent on hyperscaler CapEx. That's all continued. Now, the question for the markets has been, when are we going to see the return from all of the spending? We're not seeing significant gains from the spending yet. We're hearing companies talking about it. I can't say that there's huge quantifiable gains across corporates in terms of what we're seeing. But eventually, what we hope to see is a more of a productivity boom from all of the spending on AI. The good news is, though, earnings is what drives stock markets higher. And technology stocks and AI-driven earnings are still continuing to be the leader in terms of growth. But what we also expect is markets to broaden, because if you look after technology earnings growth, you're seeing growth in other areas like materials and industrials. All that's very positive for the markets to broaden, which would lead to a healthier market. [00:27:16] Speaker 2: Well, that's what I was just going to say, Sarah, with all these AI headlines, you know, basically taking over the narrative, right? What are we missing about the rotation trade that could be very consequential, given that we literally yesterday just hit another record on the S&P equal-weighted index? [00:27:32] Speaker 9: I think that's because of the earnings growth we're seeing in other sectors. So as inflation pressures ease, that's positive for materials companies. As the economy continues to remain pretty strong, it's good for industrial companies. You know, interest rates can be, movements can be positive for financials, and regulations are getting easier for financial companies. All of that's positive for the non-tech trade. So while tech had a very strong first half, took a bit of a breather after that, and has been reasonably strong recently, I think what you're going to see in the second half is more broader market participation. So if I'm looking at equities, it's not just about owning U.S. growth stocks. Global equities look more attractive to us, because that lets you keep one foot in the ground and one foot in the tech side of the trade, but also get to benefit from the rest of the world, international developed markets, emerging markets, which are also performing quite strong year-to-date. [00:28:22] Speaker 1: On the subject of circular financing, I'm curious if you breathed any kind of sigh of relief when that news release landed a couple of days ago about that NVIDIA deal, if it had the kind of desired effect, you think, on the market here of persuasion investors who might have been worried about that, to see these six major firms lining up with NVIDIA on that financing agreement. [00:28:39] Speaker 9: Most positive for NVIDIA, which has been kind of a laggard recently, circular financing in terms of these tech stocks is definitely a concern. You're seeing a lot of companies do deals with each other, sort of funding each other's deals, and that's becoming a bit of a concern. So it is promising to see less of that and more of companies definitely broadening the economic growth for technology and the sector, and not so much relying on each other for their growth. [00:29:04] Speaker 2: Sarah, you mentioned international opportunities. Where would you be looking, given that we've seen such volatility in Korea, though that seems now to have settled? Or would you be looking to some of the underloved plays, maybe India or somewhere else? [00:29:17] Speaker 9: Well, Korea is definitely more of a tech trade. It had such a strong year last year that I'm not surprised to see it give some of that back, and it can be very dependent on what technology is doing in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. So if you're looking for areas that are more cyclical, you'd be looking at more European sectors, European material stocks, European industrials. Those are the areas that we'd be playing off a global cyclical recovery, playing off perhaps rates that aren't increasing as strong as people expected. European financials can be very strong. Those are areas that we'd be looking to get more of a cyclical flavor to our portfolios, rather than being so dependent on tech, which the U.S. and parts of Asia, like Korea, are. [00:29:55] Speaker 2: All right. Nuveen Chief Investment Officer Sarah Malik, thank you so much for joining us today. All right, let's get a check on the stock market now. We were anticipating an upmarket, and indeed, we're getting about 212 stocks higher, 289, though, still lower. As you can imagine, it is the optical plays, it is the chip plays, it is basically all of the AI stocks that are leading us higher today, and that's why we're getting sort of a more of a movement to the upside than the downside, in spite of fewer stocks being higher. Obviously, NVIDIA, one of the best performers in terms of weighting, but you have all the chip stocks, Broadcom, Micron. You've also the optical stocks that are doing extraordinarily well, although you're not seeing them on this immediate board. And obviously, the memory stocks. On the downside, then, some of the ones that have been doing well up to now, so some of the pharmaceutical stocks, for example, they had their day a couple of days ago. Apple continues to decline, just by gradual increments, day after day. It was at a record, though, so don't think stockholders are too worried. Same with Berkshire, after the earnings. And meta platforms also continuing to decline there. So some of the underloved stocks continuing to be underloved. Tesla, as well, still at 3.30. Let's take a look at the sectors. That might give us a little bit of a better picture. As you can see, it's Infotech that is leading all the way up more than 1%. And energy, which was one of the leaders yesterday, on the decline, thanks to oil prices being a little bit lower, though that could change on a dime as well. Real estate suffered yesterday, up a little bit today. Perhaps that's off the back of the potential or the less potential for a September rate hike. That could be helping real estate stocks and utilities as well, of course, if rates don't actually move higher. [00:31:32] Speaker 1: We're going to talk about consumer real estate here in a little bit as well. Coming up, the AI trade gets fresh momentum as sustained demand overshadows circular financing fears. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. Stay with us. [00:31:53] Speaker 2: Time now for our top calls. Here's Bloomberg's Hema Parmer with some of the analysts' action in focus this morning. Hema. [00:31:58] Speaker 6: Thanks, Vani. First up, William Blair is downgrading sneaker maker on holding. They're worried about rising inflation and heavier promotions and that it could eat into sales and earnings over the next year. Next up, we have Barclays downgrading Gap. They're pointing to a crowded apparel market and pressure on lower-income shoppers. And they say the delayed turnaround of its Athleta brand isn't helping matters either. But finally, some good news to wrap things up. Analysts are bullish on CoreWeave. Remember, this is a bellwether for the whole AI data center boom. Citi points to strong demand and improving margins. And J.P. Morgan says the real excitement is in the company's long-term outlook. Those are your top calls. Vani? [00:32:46] Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Hema. Well, those upbeat results from CoreWeave and also Supermicro reviving the AI trade following concerns of circular financing from that platform that NVIDIA put together with several Wall Street firms. Let's discuss now with Bloomberg Equities reporter Carmen Reinecke. So CoreWeave has some advantages in that it has NVIDIA-powered servers at the ready, right? And it also seems to be just having its fundamentals improve. What else is happening with CoreWeave? [00:33:12] Speaker 10: Yeah, this was really the quarter that investors were waiting for. I mean, we talked about it yesterday. The stock had fallen after each of the last five earnings reports. And this one, we're finally seeing the stock jump. It's up more than 20%. It's a really great day. Some green on the screen for CoreWeave. What investors are really looking for was that all of this demand that we're seeing for compute here would be moving into revenue. And CoreWeave delivered. They had solid revenue in the quarter. They have a solid backlog. They also showed that they're expanding their margins, which is something that investors were really looking at. And on top of it, they said they're seeing even more demand than previously thought. So a lot going in this company's lane right now. [00:33:52] Speaker 1: I look at the sales projections. I look at the backlog that you mentioned a moment ago, $104 billion at the end of the quarter. How should we look at this? Is that the most important metric here when you think about the health of this company, that the level of demand is manifest in that? [00:34:05] Speaker 10: That's a great question. I think that there are a few really important things here. So the level of demand, I think people actually, it's just assumed at this point. We know there's so much demand here. I think what's more important is really the revenue and then the margin. So the profitability of these companies, you know, they know, we know that there's demand. Can you get it online? Can you actually make money from it? I think it's also important to point out that Nebius, one of the other new clouds, is also up. It had reported its own earnings today. Shares are up today, also on a solid revenue. [00:34:35] Speaker 2: Yeah, but it wasn't just the Neo clouds, right? It was also the optical companies, Lumentum, and that has an effect on Coherent and several other optical companies today. And also Supermicro, which not that long ago had a lot of accounting problems that sent that stock into the basement. [00:34:50] Speaker 10: It did. It's been all over the place. That company is such an interesting story. It was an early AI winner, right? Also tied to NVIDIA, using their GPUs and its servers. But what we're seeing, again, is that the revenue is good. People are paying for these products. So we're seeing sort of the pendulum swing back to these AI infrastructure names, which even just a few weeks ago, we were getting a little bit of rotation out of. So the earnings here are solid. Investors know this is the place that they want to be. And so we're seeing these stocks get more shine. [00:35:19] Speaker 1: Let me return to a word that Hema used. That's bellwether. And I'm curious about the bellwetherness of all of these companies. Should we be looking at them in that way? I mean, we see other stocks rising in concert with them. Are we kind of seeing investors just kind of grab for any positive indication that they can get here of the AI trade? [00:35:34] Speaker 10: I mean, there are so many different pockets of the trade. I think if you're thinking about NeoCloud, like CoreWeave is really the one that people are looking at. It was sort of first to market and is sort of considered ahead of its peers in the space. But then looking at the entire ecosystem, it's so large and there are so many little pockets that there are a lot of choices. And I think that's a good thing. [00:35:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we're even seeing just the regular old chip makers hire today, right? And NVIDIA, you know, among them. NVIDIA, I guess, is still the poster child for AI, right? [00:36:02] Speaker 10: I would say so. I mean, nothing has really come to sort of take that crown away. It's obviously in such a different space than a lot of these other companies, right? I mean, it's three years into a major expansion. Those results coming up next, I think that's the one I'm turning my focus to. That might be the next catalyst for this market. [00:36:19] Speaker 1: There you go. Carmen, thank you very much. Great to see you. That's Carmen Reinecke joining us here on set in New York. Coming up, Bank of America putting $250 billion behind AI, energy, and U.S. infrastructure. We have more on that story next. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. I'm David Gura. Take a quick check of stocks here. A few minutes into the start of trading, starting with the S&P 500 up about four-tenths a percent. The Nasdaq up 1.1 percent. Markets breathing a sigh of relief after that report. The CPI report that we got this morning showing inflation was in line with expectations, giving the Fed a bit of breathing room here going into the Jackson Hole speech at the end of the month. The next meeting, which takes place in September. We want to look at oil here, if we could. Brent, down slightly. This has been wavering over the course of the morning as we continue to follow the story about whether or not there's any progress toward a deal that would open the Strait of Hormuz. The president had previously been optimistic that that was going to happen. Oman was in talks with Iran. The latest indication is that Iran is kind of consolidating its leadership, raising a lot of pessimism among those who are watching this conflict. There's going to be a deal anytime soon. We were talking about this just a moment ago, Supermicro and CoreWeave, looking at these neo-clouds, as the neo-logism is, performing much better than expected. Those earnings reports from both those companies coming in right much more positively than a lot of folks expected here. As Carmen Reinecke said a moment ago, there had been such expectation in light of past earnings from CoreWeave in particular that have been kind of disappointing that we might see that once again. In fact, that is not the case. And we see CoreWeave up here 17% here. And I want to go to Goldman Sachs, lastly, here, that major bank, which was involved in that financing deal that we've been talking about over the course of the week with NVIDIA. Goldman Sachs entering into a deal here with Neos, the ETF provider, a $2.3 billion deal, expanding Goldman Sachs asset managers' reach in the actively managed ETF market. Now, I think, worth $130 billion volume. [00:38:18] Speaker 2: Yeah. Fascinating. And for more on that Goldman deal, David, we're joined by Bloomberg Finance reporter Catherine Dougherty. Is this considered a win for Goldman or is Goldman just putting itself out there with potential risk and riskier products just coming to market now as well? [00:38:33] Speaker 11: So, I actually think that this product is intentionally meant to manage the risk. It's giving some upside, but it is capping at the downside. So, this acquisition is giving them access to options-based ETFs. This has grown organically. Neos is one of the biggest providers of such product. So, for Goldman, they have the choice of either to build their own in-house organically or do what they did today, which is acquire an established player and add into their now expanding offering within their asset management business of ETF products. So, that's what you're seeing with this $2.25 billion acquisition. [00:39:14] Speaker 1: Sizable, no doubt. Let's step back here. What does it say kind of directionally about the tack that Goldman is taking right now? [00:39:19] Speaker 11: I do think that there has been a shift, especially that Goldman has shown with its pocketbook, to ETF products. So, again, we have a lot of asset managers, even outside of Goldman, that are looking at ETFs as an attractive product, because you can get substantial upside, but also with certain products like this one, you can manage the risks of the downside. So, you get exposure, but it's not just direct exposure to stocks or to indexes and major fluctuation that could occur if you are in individual performers. So, today, when you are announcing a big acquisition like this, Goldman is just adding into what it can offer to both its clients and institutional partners. [00:40:10] Speaker 2: So, what does NIO specialize in? Why did Goldman go for this particular ETF provider? Was it the only one for sale? I mean, I'm sure not, right? [00:40:17] Speaker 11: So, they are specializing in options based ETFs and this has some yield that they can take advantage of and they're bringing in their team. The executives at this company are going to join Goldman's partnership and they're going to remain on. So, presumably, their leadership and their advice is sought after. The Goldman is not just acquiring this to add in the assets. They also really want to have the expertise from the leadership as well. [00:40:50] Speaker 1: I remember reading Lloyd Blankfein's memoir. He talked about how he was a J.R. and it was brought into Goldman. And it was an uncomfortable and uneasy integration of that company into Goldman. Has it gotten better at this acquiring companies and kind of finding a kind of cultural unanimity that works? [00:41:04] Speaker 11: I do think so. Late last year, they acquired another ETF provider. So, this is not the first time that they have done this. It seems like in naming, again, their leadership to Goldman's partner list. They are embracing the outside, you could say. So, I think that that does signal, at least from an outside observer's perspective, an embrace rather than resistance to change. [00:41:33] Speaker 2: A word on this bank of America, $250 billion initiative on infrastructure, obviously, something JP Morgan had also done a little while back. Is it infrastructure week again? [00:41:42] Speaker 11: Yes. So, we have seen Bank of America today with their $250 billion pledge. That's through July 4th of next year. J.P. Morgan, you brought up. Morgan Stanley, similarly, have a $1.5 trillion pledge. That's over a decade. So, a 10-year period. Across the board, all of these banks are signaling that they want to be supportive of the build out of data centers of products that are going to really improve the infrastructure of the United States moving forward. So, they're doing this by both financing using their own capital. But in many ways, it's also advisory and other ways that they can, as a bank, support the growth without just pledging their own capital. But they're still putting money and having their own clients put money to work as well. [00:42:37] Speaker 1: The symbolism very apparent there, $250 billion on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Very quickly here, is this done in concert with the government in any way? Or they're kind of making, they're prioritizing these investments that are kind of in [00:42:47] Speaker 11: line with general domestic priorities as well? They are prioritizing. I will also say that the banks, in many ways, have been doing this already. So, this is a pledge. It's a commitment. It's a verbal commitment that they are making. And it is around the 250 birthday. But they're saying that this is about the country and putting politics aside. Yeah, Brian, we're not completely in President Trump's favor, right? This might change things a little bit. I think that they're all just there to support the growth of the country. And this is their way of putting their dollar signs out there. [00:43:23] Speaker 1: Diplomatically put. Catherine Geordie, thank you very much for joining us here in New York. Coming up in the next hour, Diane Swank of KPMG and her reaction to those CPI data. That's coming up. 30 minutes into the trading day. Welcome to Bloomberg Open Interest. I'm David Gura. [00:43:44] Speaker 2: And I'm Bonnie Quinn. Matt Miller and Danny Berger are off. [00:43:47] Speaker 1: Coming up, a tame inflation report gives the Fed Reserve some breathing room on interest rates. [00:43:52] Speaker 2: Upbeat earnings from CoreWeave and Supermicro reigniting the AI trade. [00:43:55] Speaker 1: And oil waivers as President Trump once again escalates his rhetoric over the Strait of Hormuz. We begin with that inflation print, though, in line with expectations. Michael McKee, Bloomberg's international economics and policy correspondent, joins us here at the desk. It's been about, what, more than an hour now. You've been combing through this from chart to chart in more and more granular detail. What stands out to you, Mike? What should we take away from this? [00:44:17] Michael McKee: Well, you take away the headline numbers, as you mentioned, being in line with what economists expected. The question is, is that going to be enough for the hawks or for the doves to push the Fed one way or another? And my bet is kind of not. It's just a tenth of a percent gain in the headline and two tenths for the core. But there are some categories underneath all of those that move that will have an impact on Fed thinking. When you look at what the price moves were, airfares, medical services, used cars, computers, some of those, particularly airfares and also hotel rates, they moved because of the either World Cup or the jet fuel prices. And it's telling you that there is still some inflation in there. Gasoline, we knew that went down. But for right now, the month of August, gasoline prices are up. And that would add to future inflation. Appliances were down. Maybe that's because tariffs were running out. Although I was going to mention, David, you might appreciate this, that whiskey prices were up almost a full percentage point, nine-tenths of a percent. And that's largely probably due to tariffs. So if you want to look at what the Fed is going to do, I don't pay any attention to Fed fund futures this far out because they move on every headline. But if you want to look at where we are right now, you go back to the CPI headline number. And we are basically where we were before the war started. Now, the question is, is that good enough for the Hawks? Because they didn't like it when we were there before the war started. So we're going to have to watch and see if we get the same kind of results in August enough for them to call it a trend and say, let's stay on hold or whether we go up a little bit [00:46:03] Speaker 1: and they decide maybe we need to act. Good news for bourbon drinkers, I suppose, not for scotch drinkers. [00:46:08] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, whiskey price is very concerning. But a couple of other things that I saw that were maybe a little concerning is that owner's equivalent rent is maybe not decreasing as fast as we'd like it to. And also wages. [00:46:20] Michael McKee: So we saw wages down point two percent. Yeah. It's not been a surprise to anyone out there that their wages are not keeping up with inflation. It's good news because it's not putting inflationary upward pressure on prices. But it is something that is going to be have some political implications. And then as far as the other categories that have gone up owners equivalent rent. We have been seeing a decline in home price inflation, which is what it measures didn't decline in the in the rate of increase. Put it that way for quite some time. And if that's over, that's going to add upward pressure to inflation in the future [00:46:56] Speaker 2: because housing is such a big part of the CPI. Right. Michael McKee. Thank you so much for taking us through all the entanglements there in the CPI data. For more on this now, we have KPMG chief economist Diane Swank. Was there anything that was comforting, let's say, about today's CPI data, Diane? [00:47:18] Speaker 12: Comforting. It was comforting just that it was flat. But I think the most important issue out there is that the service sector inflation bounced back a bit and the dispersion of service sector prices, as Mike noted, actually was broader than we've seen, even though the overall dispersion of price increases was not. That's something that is really going to worry and stick in the craw of hawks because that is something they've been watching. And service sector inflation is where we've seen the hottest and stickiest inflation. The PPI numbers that feed into the Fed's PCE index come out tomorrow and they could be even hotter in some of those categories. And I think that's important as well. The increase in energy prices, too, that we've seen the U-turn that we saw during the month of July showing up in August. But also, most importantly, diesel prices have been picking up and picked up much more rapidly during the month. That wouldn't be reflected in the CPI yet, but it will show up in August because that filters through into all kinds of costs out there. The only sort of break consumers really got was in food prices at home. And we know that big box discounters and major grocery store chains actually did some discounting. And they said they do that through the summer to eat to bring back low and middle income households and also what they've lost to the cuts in snap funding. I think that's important. GLP ones have also played a role. Really watching, though, computers and electronics prices really went up. We saw computer prices go up at their fastest rate on record for the month, 3.5 percent alone. And smartphones went up over 1 percent, also their fastest pace on record. That's the fact of the AI spillover effect showing up in terms of chip prices. And we know the administration has now levied new tariffs on inputs into chips. So many of the lower scale chips that go into other kinds of consumer goods are also going to be going up in price very soon. Diana, if you'll indulge me, [00:49:22] Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to psychoanalyze this growing flock of hawks that we have on the Federal Reserve. You've written here, the burden of proof lands on those arguing for patients. What are the likes of Neil Kashkari thinking as they see these numbers come across? How does it change their perspective on on the inflation picture more broadly? Well, the hawks certainly haven't changed [00:49:42] Speaker 12: their picture their view on inflation at all. You saw Beth Hammack, who had their numbers. This came in line with their numbers at the Cleveland Fed. The Nowcast, which is showing a hotter number for the month of August and doubled down on her view that we need to hike rates. And it's two factors. One is the persistence of service sector inflation and just the persistence of inflation in general. The over five years of missing the target and the fear that they're losing their inflation fighting credibility. They don't want to make the mistakes of the 1970s and sort of look through these shocks that are persistence and they keep coming. And I think that's what's important as well. Yeah. [00:50:23] Speaker 2: Diane, you say that the chair, Fed Chair Warsh, really must step up by or at Jackson Hole because if he leads with clarity, he can steady the institution, anchor the long end of the yield curve and preserve the expansion. Does he [00:50:36] Speaker 12: feel that urgency? Well, we heard him say actually there's been reports that he does want to reset at Jackson Hole. So I think he will try to do a reset at Jackson Hole. And that's very important in this particular moment where, you know, it's not easy for a new Fed chair at any time. This is the largest transition in Fed chairs for financial markets since Alan Greenspan became chair in 1987. Of course, he hiked rates in September and we had that October market crash in 1987, which was stunning over a 20 percent day crash in one day on October 19th, 1987. And we don't want the markets to have to test Chairman Warsh in any way near that. Neither does Chairman Warsh. So I think we will see a reset. He doesn't have to make his speech long. He has to be show resolve in his inflation fighting credibility and the independence of the Fed at this really politically charged time in history. Dan, I want to ask you lastly about immigration. We focused on it a lot after that jobs [00:51:40] Speaker 1: report last week. The way that the size of the labor market has diminished as a result of immigration policies that we've seen put in place here in recent months. And I'm curious for your thoughts on sort of how that immigration story compliments or impacts inflation in this country. Again, I think we've brought a lot about it on it in the context of the labor market. How about inflation? [00:52:01] Speaker 12: You know, in terms of inflation, we're going to see pockets of labor market shortages, most notably in the service sector, where many of the foreign born workers are now leaving jobs have been punted out of jobs due to the expiration of their temporary protective status. About 200,000 Haitians fell off the payrolls at the end of July, which we'll see in August. But they do not show up in the unemployment rate. That is a blow to demand in the local communities unless they go underground. And on the other side of it, we've got another cliff in October, October 2nd, when over 200,000, well, over 300,000 Venezuelan TPS recipients, but almost 200,000 workers will hit another cliff. And I think those are important because they shave payrolls, but also lower the unemployment rate. And that's important. That sort of duality out there. And it's important to also remember that the cooling and wages that we saw last month were largely because benefit costs have gone up, which is part of what's buoying service sector inflation. So now you're either going to have rationing in service sector where Medicaid cuts, for instance, make it hard to rehire workers that have been lost, lost, and you can't bid wages up and have native born replace those workers in those jobs 100 percent. And that's one of the challenges facing many of these service providers. And it really is a challenge for elder care in particular. We know that unpaid elder care by workers that are doing work every day in every single sector of the economy. They're increasing the number that are doing unpaid elder care at home oftentimes that their employers are not even aware of, which is an enormous stress. And not only their [00:53:43] Speaker 2: emotional stress at work, but also their finances. That's for sure. Diane, thank you. It is always such a pleasure to have you on. That is Diane Swank of KPMG. Let's get a check on these markets now after that inflation print came in on consensus. We are seeing stocks off their session highs nevertheless higher with core weave and other AI plays really powering things higher. The Nasdaq 100 up 1 percent at the moment. And we have the S&P 500 up about a quarter of 1 percent. The equal weight S&P was at a record yesterday. A little bit of relief potentially in bond markets. Not too much movement. The 10-year yield there down two basis points. We're looking at an auction in just under three hours. $42 billion worth of 10-year treasuries. We'll see how demand is after a pretty healthy three-year note auction yesterday. And crude is lower. It is wavering, though, and we're still above $88 a barrel on Brent. All right. [00:54:34] Speaker 6: Let's get a look at some other movers on our radar with Bloomberg's Hema Parmer. Hema. Thanks, Vani. Yes, as you mentioned, AI, the story of the day. First up, core weave getting a really nice pop this morning after posting faster than expected sales growth and his fifth straight quarter of record revenue. Shares are up more than 19 percent this morning. Remember, this is a bellwether for the whole AI data center boom. And investors are especially excited about the sales backlog of $104 billion. And it's a similar story over at Supermicrocomputer. The company has also been winning on the back of surging demand for AI hardware. It just delivered a record revenue forecast that beats Wall Street estimates up more than 14 percent this morning. And finally, we'll pivot to food. Kava just saw a 9 percent jump in second quarter sales. It's fueled by stronger customer traffic and diners shelling out on higher priced proteins and add-ons like pita chips. The stock up significantly this morning. And don't miss our interview with Kava CEO Brett Shulman. That's at 3:30 p.m. New York time on the close. And those are your morning movers. David. Hema, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Well, coming up here, we're going to speak with the [00:55:49] Speaker 1: CEO of Link Logistics about how AI is fueling a new wave of warehouse demand. That's coming up on Bloomberg Open Interest. Now to high interest to look at what's making headlines around the world. Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper turning podcast fame into a major media valuation. Her company called Unwell has raised money from Hollywood power broker Patrick Whites sell at a $500 million valuation. The investment will help Unwell expand in video and consumer products with ambitions to build a billion dollar media business. Whoop is doubling down on Boston as it prepares for an IPO. The wearable fitness company plans to nearly double its headquarters, adding space for up to a thousand employees. Whoop was recently valued at just over $10 billion. The company says it plans to hire 600 people this year and says it's on track to go public in roughly a year and a half. Norway's $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund just posted its best quarterly return in six years. The fund gained 11.5 percent in the second quarter powered by global technology and AI investments. Its CEO spoke to Bloomberg surveillance about the quarter and why he is taking a more guarded view of what comes [00:57:07] Speaker 13: next. I mean the fund has had extraordinary an extraordinary backdrop for the last 30 years since it was set up. It's doubled over the last four years. Right. So these are just incredible return numbers. And we are seeing a lot of reasons to be really cautious. We are seeing you know AI valuations. We are seeing job politics. You know I think there are a lot of I think there are a lot of [00:57:29] Speaker 2: reasons to be to be cautious going forward. AI driving demand well beyond data centers. Link Logistics estimates every gigawatt of data center construction can generate roughly two million square feet of additional industrial demand. Let's bring in Luke Petherbridge CEO of Link Logistics. Luke explain that to us. How does one contribute to the other. Yeah well thank you for having me [00:57:53] Speaker 14: again. And it's you know this transformational investment that's happening all around the country really is flowing into just not just the data center. But just think of all the component parts cooling towers generators the actual manufacturing itself servers and racks. And all of that sits in warehouses. And over the last 12 months about 15 percent of our new leasing is actually derived from data center or data center adjacent demand. So we're really seeing that across the entire industrial complex at our firm. Across the complex across the [00:58:25] Speaker 1: country as well. I wonder if you could talk a bit about that sort of where you're seeing pockets of growth and sort of what this looks [00:58:30] Speaker 14: like in real terms geographically as we see the search. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great point. It really started if you think about it in the sort of those manufacturing belts the Midwest the southeast and Texas. But I would say that's proliferating even further. And you look at Phoenix what's happening there with TSMC and the and they have chip manufacturing plant. All the additional demand that's in Deer Valley and down this the western corridor of Phoenix. But it is going further afield and it's finding places almost in most markets where this [00:59:00] Speaker 2: manufacturing renaissance is starting to happen. You have about half a billion square feet of real estate I guess. right. Is it difficult to find fresh new real estate that doesn't come with community problems let's say. Do you know you're [00:59:14] Speaker 14: right. So we are a very large owner. We have 8000 customers. So if you think about just the economic impact to local communities that our customers have in our buildings it's vast and wide. You know there are you know sort of pushback in certain markets. But we do find our ability to add new stock into those growing corridors whether it's the northeast corridor of Atlanta the northern part of Dallas. The southern part of Dallas is still there. But we're very mindful. We love to be a great community partner. We think there's a huge economic input or outcome of all these buildings and all these businesses growing around the country. [00:59:47] Speaker 1: Talking a lot about the backlog in the context of these neocloud companies certainly the demand for chips. We've seen that as well. Talk a bit about in the context of the work that you do. I imagine there is such demand for these facilities. How long does it take to build them. How much kind of unrealized demand is there at this point in time when it comes to these structures [01:00:03] Speaker 14: themselves. Yeah. I mean to build a warehouse is you know a year year and a half. So they're not they're nowhere near the length of other sort of large infrastructure build outs. But you're right. The demand what we're seeing actually more from our customers. You know we had one customer was taking cooling towers. They took 200000 feet. By the time we actually finished the leaks they grew to 700000 feet. Their businesses are growing at such a rapid speed. We're trying to keep up with that. There is reasonable availability in the market at the moment. But that is coming down. So the the setup is you know data center adjacent demand growing. We've also got e-commerce growing continues to grow as generationals change. You know we've got this new consumer coming. That's very digitally native. You also had just general infrastructure build out. Think of everything that's going on around the country. And at that exact same time new supply is off 50 percent from the high. What are the pricing [01:00:54] Speaker 2: trends like and who has the pricing power in this market. Is it the less or is or the less ease. Do you know it depends by market and [01:01:01] Speaker 14: depends by size. I would say that pendulum is probably fairly balanced at the moment. And as to as availability continues to come down. I think there'll be more pricing power coming to the landlords. We do try to make sure we have great buildings for our customers. We work with our customers as they continue to grow all around the country. But is very much a market by market [01:01:21] Speaker 1: specific question. Can you talk a bit about your approach to the portfolio. So I imagine you're kind of cycling through certain properties offloading some and adding more to it. How do you think about that the way that you're [01:01:30] Speaker 14: keeping kind of a nimbleness to the portfolio. Yeah I mean we're always looking to make sure we deploy our investors capital into the markets we think has the highest growth or the building. So I think some of that is owning newer buildings buildings buildings that have better access to power better access to labor growing in the markets that we really deploy capital in Texas in the southeast in Florida. It makes sense. That's where population growth is coming. Consumption growth labor is moving. So we really tried to think not just what's happening over the next one to two quarters. But where are these trends these mega trends moving over the next three to five years. Have you managed to solve the power [01:02:07] Speaker 2: problem. Now I'm sure you need some power in warehouses right. But in data center is that problem is exponentially greater. I'm sure. [01:02:15] Speaker 14: What do you do about that. Joe it's a great question. I think it's a question that nearly every in every real estate sector is grappling with. You know we're working with local utilities. But also just I'd start with industrial buildings are a really low user of power. Like if you really think about a traditional industrial building has racking. It has gas powered forklifts. That is changing as we start to put LED lights into lower consumption. But then also automation. So we're working with our customers. We are looking at you know whether it's battery on site generation. But we are a low user of power in most communities. And we are able to sort of find the power that we need in most places. We focus so much here on AI which of course is sexy and very much of the moment. But last mile delivery very much your bread and butter. [01:02:58] Speaker 1: How do you balance those two things. Again kind of the enthusiasm for AI and development this point in time with what has been something that's going to go to link for so long. [01:03:06] Speaker 14: It's a great point. I would actually say that is an underappreciated growth engine of the country. If you really look at you know whether it's Walmart or Amazon or retail all these companies like e-commerce continues to grow at a pretty good pace when you compare it to other sectors. And if you then sort of fast forward in the next decade 50 percent of the U.S. workforce grew up with Amazon Prime didn't learn online. They actually grew up thinking on their phone things should be delivered in 24 hours. It is actually saying that we continue to see pretty robust strength in quite a resilient and durable demand driver for the industrial owners. And we're definitely partnering with that growth. [01:03:45] Speaker 2: How far away are we from cresting on this demand for industrial warehouses. I still think we have a bit of room to run. [01:03:52] Speaker 14: I think there's sort of three big you know multi-faceted demand drivers e-commerce. This data center spillover. Then you have all this new on-shoring and near-shoring whether it's pharmaceuticals in the Midwest. And at the exact same time we have limited new supply. And it's sort of 50 percent as I said 50 percent off the peak when we're delivering post-COVID. [01:04:11] Speaker 2: And by then we'll be ready for space. All right Luke. Thank you so much. That is Link Logistics CEO Luke Petherbridge. Still ahead Firefly Aerospace beating revenue expectations. We'll speak with CEO Jason Kim about what's driving growth there. This is Bloomberg Open Interest. [01:04:35] Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Open Interest to check check on stocks right now which are higher here on that print that CPI print that was in line with expectations. You see the S&P 500 up three tenths a percent. The Nasdaq up about one percent. Two big stories here. One has to do with AI. The other has to do with consumers. Let's start with the AI story if I could here. NVIDIA higher today. About three percent higher after results from CoreWeave and Supermicrocomputer. These NeoCloud companies reporting earnings that were better than Wall Street expected. We see CoreWeave up almost 20 percent on the heels of those earnings. I mentioned consumers looking at Cava and Brinker. I have not tried a pita chip seasoned with Sumac incredibly popular with customers apparently that up 12 percent. Coming up here shares of Firefly Aerospace are on the rise. We're going to speak with Jason Kim that's CEO of that company. Coming up next on Bloomberg. [01:05:25] Speaker 15: Right now I've never seen the rocket industry and launch so constrained. So for us you know we are extremely selective about who we we give up this very valuable capacity to on the neutron rockets. [01:05:41] Speaker 1: Constraints is the key word. That's Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck speaking to us yesterday on the state of the aerospace industry. Another company making headlines is Firefly Aerospace. Its shares are trading higher this morning after the company beat revenue expectations and announced a two-year extension of its agreement with Lockheed Martin. Joining us now is Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim. Jason great to have you with us. I think you might use that word constrained as well. Let me stick with this Lockheed Martin announcement if I could here. So the agreement is 25 launches through 2031 on the Alpha Block 2 rocket. Can you give us any more detail or color on that maybe the size of that contract or how we should think about the agreement that you signed with Lockheed. [01:06:18] Speaker 16: Well it's great to be back on the show. Thank you for having me. Yeah. The launch market is highly constrained like you heard from Peter. More constrained than ever. So the demand is very strong from existing customers like Lockheed Martin as well as new customers both domestically and internationally. We saw that at our space symposium here in the nation as well as Farmborough and UK. You know the extension the two-year extension from Lockheed Martin that just affirms their confidence in our Block 2 upgrade of our Alpha vehicle. And we're constantly working with them on new missions and we even are looking at offshore launch options working with Lockheed Martin and Seagate and Firefly on our responsive launch capabilities. So it's just reaffirming the 25 launch multi-launch service agreement as well as looking into more responsive launch capabilities in this very highly constrained launch market. [01:07:20] Speaker 2: It's just a little bit. Jason what's driving the guidance on revenue for the full year. [01:07:26] Speaker 16: You know we're confident in that range. It's the drivers are we have got three major catalysts behind us. The tailwinds behind the moon base. We just won our fifth and sixth moon base contracts. One hundred forty four million dollar near bill to print blue ghost mission lander. And that's going to launch in twenty twenty eight. And then we won the Jet Propulsion Laboratory flagship program Moonfall that's going to take JPL drones to the south while the moon deploy them. And then there's a major tailwind behind Golden Dome. Well we are working on that program as a prime contractor with our acquisition of site tech last October November timeframe and with Golden Dome. You know we're one of the 12 prime contractors as part of the space space interceptor program. So we're just focused on delivering the end to end results for that. And then another tailwind is just assurance assured access to launch. There are so many there's so much demand by all the constellation providers for dedicated launches as well as constellation launches. [01:08:41] Speaker 1: And it's just getting more and more constrained. Jason something we talked about with Peter yesterday was sort of how he has to think through who he should pick as a customer. There's such demand as we were talking about here that he's constrained by how many missions he can he can kind of sell. And I'm curious when you look at your customer base you mentioned Golden Dome is there's there's a government side to it. There's a private sector side to it as well. How do you think about the balance between those two things and how much does that matter. [01:09:05] Speaker 16: You know we've got customers that span a diverse background of national security direct to government and NASA but also international customers as well. And then in addition to that commercial customers like Lockheed Martin and others. We are trying to provide small and medium lift for the rest of the world. If you look at a lot of those super heavy launch vehicles they'll most likely service their own constellations of director device constellations as well as orbital data centers. But what about the rest of the world. That's where our alpha rocket and our eclipse rocket can get a lot of demand to service those markets. [01:09:47] Speaker 2: Jason how much are you thinking about the midterms. I think there's definitely a concern out there that if the Republican Party loses control of the house that there maybe won't be as much funding for defense tech companies and it's definitely been weighing on some stocks recently. [01:10:01] Speaker 16: You know when I look at the moon and our moon business. I testified in front of Congress last April shortly after we successfully landed on the moon with our Blue Ghost one mission. It was very much unanimous bipartisan support to the commercial lunar payload services program that we're building on for our moon landers and orbiters. So the moon mission having a human presence permanent presence on the moon. That's something that inspires the whole world and both sides of the aisle. So there's strong support for that. And then you know when you look at the executive order for space supremacy national security is something that is also has support from both sides because it's about national security. It's about defending our homeland and our allies. And so when you look at things like forge I've spoken to so many generals in the Space Force as well as congressional leaders and it's unanimous. Everybody says how important forages to process all the missile warning missile tracking data keeps just keeps us safe at night. [01:11:12] Speaker 1: Jason what's it going to take to accelerate cadence. I know you're focused on that as well to get that launch rate up. [01:11:19] Speaker 16: You know since I got here I've got to work with this. I'm fortunate to work with amazing people at Farfall. They're all bold or passionate. They have high ownership in everything they do. And what they've done is miraculous. You know when you look at the carbon composites that make up our tanks in our primary structures. They've turned the corner. We've got record production rate on the delivery of all of our tanks and structure for all of our vehicle. Flight eight is in final integration before we do acceptance testing ship to Vandenberg do the static fire test and integrate the payload and then launch and then get all that data that informs flight nine and beyond. And if you look at flight nine that's entering integration and test as well. Flight 10 all the airframes are completed. Flight 11 we're starting to work on those airframes. And then there's enough river engine chambers that the machine shop has been diligently working on for four more alphas. And so they're doing a great job of not only expanding and developing our workforce but building in the safety quality reliability processes to ensure first time quality as we automate utilize our equipment and our floor space more efficiently. It's all coming to you know it's all resulting in higher production ramp. All right Jason thank you so much. That is Jason Kim of Firefly Aerospace. [01:12:42] Speaker 2: Let's get a check on the markets now and we are seeing a little bit of a deterioration definitely off session highs for stocks and also oil is heading back towards flat. The president has been truthing. He says that the U.S. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz and also that Iran really cannot be trusted. And that seems to be having an impact on oil. As you can see we're back up to close to $89 a barrel on Brent and the Nasdaq 100 back below a gain of one percent. The S&P up about a quarter of a percent. And after the CPI data there was a little bit of a sigh of relief. We are seeing the 10 year yield at 466.59 just two and a half hours away now from the results of that 42 billion dollar 10 year Treasury auction. Let's get a look at some other movers now on our radar with Bloomberg's [01:13:27] Speaker 6: Hema Parmer. Thanks Vani. First up Home Depot CEO Ted Decker is taking a temporary medical leave of absence. He had been in the role since 2022. The stock is down as traders absorb the news. Next up consumers are hunting for bargains and Chili's is cashing in. Its owner Brinker International reported higher profit and revenue as its value meals draw more traffic nationwide. The stock up five percent this morning. And finally on over to tech shares of Lumentum up this morning on the back of stronger than expected outlook. The optical equipment maker is riding the AI infrastructure wave and leading its peers higher this morning. It's liable coherent is set to report after the close. Those are your morning movers. David. [01:14:14] Speaker 1: Thank you very much. And some breaking news here in the world of basketball. Businessman Josh Kushner, Bob Iger teaming up to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for over 12 billion dollars. Bloomberg has confirmed that news. the deal was first reported by ESPN. It's now is Randall Williams. He covers the business of sports which increasingly means he covers Josh Kushner as well. Let me start there. If I could hear Randall. We were talking a few weeks ago about Josh Kushner's involvement in this potential deal involving FIFA. Now he emerges as central to this deal for the Lakers. Explain sort of his broader objectives here when it comes to investment in the world of sports. Well the FIFA deal died really before it started. But he had an avid interest [01:14:52] Speaker 17: in basketball going back some years. He owned a piece of the Memphis Grizzlies and then he sold that to buy a piece of the Miami Heat. He had an interest in the NBA expansion team in Las Vegas or the potential NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. But of course at the Los Angeles Lakers go for sale. And then you add two billion dollars onto the valuation that was reported in the transaction a couple of years ago. Then Mark Walter [01:15:14] Speaker 2: is out and Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger are in. Yes. So Walter in fact was only really there for about a year. And you know what will he do [01:15:22] Speaker 17: next. It remains to be seen. I mean Walter himself is under a DOJ investigation. I believe he also has had a health issue as well. And so it doesn't really. You don't see franchises like this really flip from time to time especially when like the Lakers where it was sold for ten billion dollars a year later. I believe it's now twelve billion dollars is what I've been told. It's remarkable. And the question is like what does this mean for the Dodgers. Is Mark Walter looking to sell or divest from the Dodgers as well. That you know hasn't been confirmed. It hasn't been reported. Mark Walter hasn't said that. But when you're selling the Lakers you know less than two years after you bought them [01:16:02] Speaker 1: it makes you wonder. We were talking to you yesterday about this deal involving the Yankees and private equity. And Bonnie asked quite cheekily about what that meant for for the Knicks. Let me restate that question to you today. I mean you look at the size of this deal. Twelve billion dollars. What does it mean for ownership of other NBA teams. And yes for the Knicks as well. If you think about maybe the Dolan family is looking at this deal coming out from across the country. I mean whenever a team sells and it is hit with a new [01:16:27] Speaker 17: high mark it means more money for all of the other NBA owners. And of course the bigger ramification of this is the NBA expansion. That is currently you know undergoing review by PJT partners on behalf of the NBA. And of course that expansion fee is being split by all of the NBA owners. And so if this rising tide lifts all boats. That means that if the Seattle team let's say sells for nine billion dollars and now the Vegas team maybe sells for 10 because of the Lakers being at 12. Now I'm not saying that that is what they're going to sell for. But if this is the top of the market as far as a public transaction you have to imagine what the get in price for a brand new franchise is going to be now. All right. Some people have all the fun. Randall thank you so much. That [01:17:12] Speaker 2: is Bloomberg's Randall Williams there on Josh Kushner and Bob Iger buying the L.A. Lakers more than 12 billion dollars. Coming up Lightbridge is moving closer to commercializing its nuclear fuel. We speak to the company's CEO Seth Gray next. This is Bloomberg Open Open Interest. As data centers require more of the world's energy nuclear is coming to the forefront. Lightbridge has entered the state of producing and testing its nuclear fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory. The company moving closer to commercializing the fuel. Joining us now is Seth Gray Lightbridge president and CEO. So when can we look forward to commercial nuclear fuel. Seth [01:17:58] Speaker 18: will it be in this generation. Oh absolutely. It will be in this generation. We're very confident about that. Everything at Lightbridge is moving forward actually now more quickly than we had expected. This is because of actions of the Congress the administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to try to speed up advanced nuclear technologies. So as you mentioned we've actually been producing samples that are in testing now with the world's most powerful test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory that belongs to the U.S. Department of Energy. So this is moving ahead actually a little a little quicker than the timelines we even had internally. So take us behind the scenes. I've driven through craters of the moon in Idaho and seen that [01:18:43] Speaker 1: facility or what you can from from the road. I know that it's immense. And you mentioned the power of that reactor that ATR. What have you done and what results are you waiting for here to kind of ascertain that the progress you've made. Yeah. Well you say that site is [01:18:57] Speaker 18: immense. That part of the site is 980 square miles where they have these reactors. So so it is enormous. And what we are doing is testing what's called thermophysical properties of the fuel. We have actually removed some of the samples from the reactor on schedule. Others are still in there. And in the fall and into a bit later this year we'll have very significant results from that testing. But so far from visual examinations from early looks. It looks very promising. And this is really the only truly new nuclear fuel out there. And it could even work in the existing reactors. Seth how are you doing for cash. You have plenty of it. No debt. But is there a path to [01:19:44] Speaker 2: continued revenue because I imagine this kind of testing burns a lot of cash. Well we have over 230 million dollars of cash. No debt. That's [01:19:55] Speaker 18: more than a couple of years of cash for what we need to do. We're advised by major utilities that are helping us keep on the track toward commercialization. So we are actually in the strongest cash position the company's ever been in our history. I'm curious sort of how U.S. [01:20:15] Speaker 1: domestic policy is shaping the trajectory of your company. So we've heard from the president in recent weeks talking about the potential of nuclear energy embracing it once again in a way that we haven't heard from politicians policymakers for a long time here. How is it animating your business and looking more more broadly here. Do you see the market as principally in the U.S. [01:20:33] Speaker 18: or is it going to be a global market for this kind of technology. Right. So the administration's help for light bridge and really for everyone in the nuclear power sector has been very meaningful. In May of last year the president signed four executive orders in terms of light bridge. One of the most meaningful ones has a call for increasing the power output of existing reactors. And that is something that light bridge fuel can do better than anything else. We expect the light bridge fuel will bring tremendous increase in power output from the existing reactors as well as new ones reducing the cost of the power. And this is very important for American energy dominance at home getting more power sooner by getting it from existing reactors before even having to build the new ones. But also for exports from the U.S. And export markets collectively will be even larger than the U.S. market. So the administration's effort specifically is called uprise for new power from existing reactors on top of their original power. And we think light bridge will end up being the greatest contributor to that effort. [01:21:46] Speaker 2: STICKING ON THE THEME TRUMP MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY ACQUIRING TECHNOLOGIES. IT'S WORKING ON NUCLEAR FUSION. BUT DOES IT FORTEND ANYTHING IN TERMS OF THE ADMINISTRATION WANTING TO TAKE INVESTMENTS IN PARTICULAR COMPANIES. HAVE YOU BEEN APPROACHED? WOULD YOU BE OPEN TO THAT IF IT WERE TO COME TO IT? [01:22:03] Speaker 18: WE'VE NOT BEEN APPROACHED FOR INVESTMENT BY THE ADMINISTRATION. WE HAVE BEEN APPROACHED FOR SUPPORT BY THE ADMINISTRATION AND BY ITS IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY. AND WE'RE WORKING ON SOME PROGRAMS IN THAT AREA. IN PARTICULAR, HAVING USE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL TEST REACTOR AND THE OTHER FACILITIES AND PERSONNEL AT IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY WORKING WITH OUR TEAMS IS JUST A TREMENDOUS BOOST FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. [01:22:35] Speaker 2: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY IN LAS VEGAS AT AN ENERGY CONFERENCE. COMING UP, PRIMARY RESULTS ARE IN WITH MIXED SIGNALS FOR BOTH PARTIES. THIS IS BLOOMBERG OPEN INTEREST. [01:23:01] Speaker 1: PRIMARY RESULTS IN ACROSS SIX STATES. NO CLEAR WINNER IN THE BATTLE OVER THE DIRECTION OF EITHER PARTY. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. [01:23:18] Speaker ?: LET'S GET THE LATEST. [01:23:19] Speaker 19: LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. [01:23:22] Speaker ?: LET'S GET THE LATEST. [01:23:22] Speaker 19: LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. LET'S GET THE LATEST. IT IS LIKELY SEEN AS SOMETHING OF A DEMOCRATIC HOLD. BUT THAT IS A PROGRESSIVE VICTORY. THAT WASN'T THE CASE ACROSS THE BOARD AS WE LOOK TO WISCONSIN. [01:24:20] Speaker 2: WHAT ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINA? IT WASN'T EXACTLY A CLEAR-CUT VICTORY FOR THE PRESIDENT TRUMP INDOORS CANDIDATE THERE EITHER. [01:24:27] Speaker ?: NO. [01:24:28] Speaker 19: IT WASN'T. IT WASN'T NECESSARILY EXPECTED TO BE BECAUSE IT WAS A CROWDED FIELD. AND IN SOUTH CAROLINA LAW YOU HAVE TO HAVE 50% OF THE VOTE TO AVOID GOING TO A RUNOFF. BUT A RUNOFF IT WILL BE AS DARLENE GRAHAM. SENATOR DARLENE GRAHAM WHO OF COURSE TOOK THE SEAT OF HER LATE BROTHER LINDSEY GRAHAM AFTER HIS DEATH LAST MONTH DID ADVANCE TO THE RUNOFF WITH ABOUT 30 SOME PERCENT OF THE VOTE. RALPH NORMAN THE CONGRESSMAN FROM SOUTH CAROLINA AS WELL DID ADVANCE TOO. HE HAD ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE VOTE. HE OF COURSE IS SOMEONE WHO ENDORSED AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP INITIALLY IN 2024. HE ENDORSED NIKKI HALEY. NIKKI HALEY IS NOW BACKING HIS SENATE RUN AND WILL BE VYING FOR HIM JUST AS PRESIDENT TRUMP IS GOING TO THROW HIS SUPPORT BEHIND DARLENE GRAHAM AS HE SAYS IS THE BEST WAY TO HONOR THE LEGACY OF LINDSEY GRAHAM. BUT IT WAS NOT A DECISIVE VICTORY FOR GRAHAM OR PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR THAT MATTER IN THE RESULTS YESTERDAY. THE RUNOFF WILL NOW TAKE PLACE ON AUGUST 25TH. SO WE'LL SEE HOW TIGHT ULTIMATELY THAT MARGIN IS. [01:25:20] Speaker 2: ALL RIGHT. KAILEY, THANK YOU SO MUCH. THAT IS KAILEY LIONES, CO-HOST OF BALANCE OF POWER. CATCHER AT 1:00 P.M. AND THEN AGAIN AT 5:00 P.M. EASTERN. WE DO HAVE SOME MORE BREAKING NEWS FOR YOU. WENDY'S HAS JUST STARTED TRADING AGAIN AFTER A HALT UP. RIGHT NOW IT IS UP BY MORE THAN 11%. THE FINANCIAL TIMES REPORTING NELSON PELSE'S TRYAND FUND MANAGEMENT LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A TAKE PRIVATE BID FOR THE U.S. FAST FOOD CHAIN WENDY'S WITH BACKING FROM A CONSORTIUM OF INVESTORS INCLUDING BUGATTI BACKER BLUE FIVE CAPITAL. SHARES OBVIOUSLY JUMPING ON THE NEWS. AS I SAID THEY WERE HALTED FOR A FEW MINUTES. IT IS NOT NELSON PELSE'S FIRST RODEO AT ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION WITH WENDY'S. HE HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH WENDY'S FOR DECADES. TOOK IT OVER IN 2008. HE HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE FIRST RODEO. HE HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE FIRST RODEO. IT SERVED A 17-YEAR RUN AS BOARD CHAIRMAN. [01:26:11] Speaker 1: HE TRIED TO TAKE IT PRIVATE BACK IN 2022 OR AT LEAST THOUGHT ABOUT IT AND THEN PUT AWAY THAT THOUGHT. BUT IT IS OBVIOUSLY RESURFACED. WE SEE WENDY'S TELLING THE FINANCIAL TIMES IT WILL REVIEW ANY PROPOSAL SUBMITTED BY TRYAND. AS YOU MENTIONED SHARES TRADING ONCE AGAIN AFTER THAT HALT ON THE WAKE OF THAT REPORT FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES. [01:26:27] Speaker 2: NELSON PELSE'S TRYAND IS TAKING INTEREST HERE. NELSON PELSE AND TRYAND STILL HAS. LET'S GET A QUICK CHECK ON THESE MARKETS AFTER THE CPI DATA AND ALL OF THOSE POSITIVE EARNINGS. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE BIT OF A LIT EARNINGS. [01:26:58] Speaker 1: STAY WITH US. [01:27:07] Speaker ?: BLOOMBERG TECH IS COMING UP NEXT ON BLOOMBERG TV.