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Speaker 1: Daybreak Asia podcast. I'm Doug Krisner. You can join Brian
Speaker 1: Curtis and myself for the stories making news and moving
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Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Our Kago's Capital management founder Bill Huong has been found
Speaker 3: guilty of criminal charges stemming from his firm's collapse in.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: Joining us now is our reporter on this story, Chris Dolmetz,
Speaker 3: who's a Bloomberg US legal reporter. So, Chris, what were
Speaker 3: the key factors here in the prosecution's case that led
Speaker 3: to this conviction? Do they go mainly by the name
Speaker 3: of William Tomita and Scott Becker?
Speaker 5: Yeah, pretty much, And you can you can say that
Speaker 5: Tomito was pretty much the nail and the coffin for
Speaker 5: Phil Uh. He testified over more than two weeks. He
Speaker 5: kind of laid out a real pattern and how they
Speaker 5: would manipulate the stocks and buying auctions before the before
Speaker 5: the market opening, and well that that you could buy
Speaker 5: before the market open and close to the clothes in
Speaker 5: order to douce the stocks and push the empire and
Speaker 5: you know, try to increase the valuation in stocks so
Speaker 5: that their their portfolio got bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: What about the counter parties, Chris firms like Credit Suite
Speaker 1: and and UBS Group.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so those were you know, there were multiple witnesses
Speaker 5: from the counter party to laid out and kind of
Speaker 5: detail how you know, what they told them that final
Speaker 5: week and leading up to that final week, about their investments,
Speaker 5: about how much credit they had at other counterparties, and
Speaker 5: really you know, how spread thin they were during that time,
Speaker 5: which really the government laid out. Their theory was that
Speaker 5: that Quong and these and the CFO lied to the
Speaker 5: bank to get more credit in order to trade more
Speaker 5: and that was kind of key to the marketing opulation
Speaker 5: because they wouldn't have been able to trade in those
Speaker 5: sides had they not told the banks Bibbs about you know,
Speaker 5: how much investments they had, where those investments were, how
Speaker 5: liquid those investments were, and how much credit they had
Speaker 5: at the other bank.
Speaker 3: It's astonishing the demise of our Chagos ultimately fueling the
Speaker 3: demise of credit sueeze to think that one trader, one
Speaker 3: bad apple, whoever it is, could bring down a legendary
Speaker 3: Swiss bank. It really just seems to suggest that the
Speaker 3: regulators were asleep at the wheel or something like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there is definitely that fun of that. I mean,
Speaker 5: obviously there are many other factors and we didn't mind
Speaker 5: in credit sweep, but this is kind of one of
Speaker 5: the big dominoes that that started to change, that led
Speaker 5: those down call and you know, it kind of probably
Speaker 5: led regulators to trying to take a boat to look
Speaker 5: at some of these family offices and you know how
Speaker 5: they were investing. Really the way that was investing through
Speaker 5: these block transactions kind of concealed what he was actually doing.
Speaker 5: And that's kind of seemed to the whole scheam is
Speaker 5: that if he was training of you know many do
Speaker 5: by buying securities, and his defense alleged that, you know,
Speaker 5: they argued that he was you know, he was long
Speaker 5: in these because he believed in these companies. He wasn't
Speaker 5: just trading to get the places higher. He thought these
Speaker 5: was a good investment. But in the end, you know,
Speaker 5: there were they were not that liquid and that was
Speaker 5: the problem because when when the margin call team during
Speaker 5: that last week he wasn't able to settle, and then
Speaker 5: that ultimately went denied. So if the regulators had been
Speaker 5: able to see that he was trading in regular styt
Speaker 5: of like a robo bog investor would do where they would,
Speaker 5: they would buy the shares and therefore have voting likes. Instead,
Speaker 5: the banks were the ones signing the shared All right.
Speaker 1: Chris, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much here
Speaker 1: for joining us. Chris Dolmach Bloomberg US legal reporter on
Speaker 1: the line.
Speaker 3: We're joined now by Eddie Lowe, chief investment officer of
Speaker 3: Maybank Group Wealth Management. Eddie, we can talk about j
Speaker 3: Powell and the Fed, but I wanted to talk about
Speaker 3: earnings for a moment.
Speaker 4: We got the sales.
Speaker 3: Numbers from TSMC yesterday, a second quarter of sales at
Speaker 3: the fastest pace since twenty twenty two. Now we will
Speaker 3: get the earnings next week, but at least this is
Speaker 3: an indication at some of the gains that we've seen
Speaker 3: in TSMC stock, you know, could be justified your thoughts
Speaker 3: on some of these leading players in the AI sphere.
Speaker 6: All right, well, if you look at the global equities
Speaker 6: performances year. It has been a stellar first half, and
Speaker 6: a lot of this is actually driven by earnings growth
Speaker 6: from the tech and AI related stocks, so the likes
Speaker 6: of TSMC and Video for example, And for US coming quarter,
Speaker 6: we do expect earnings growth to accelerate, especially for the
Speaker 6: SMP five hundred versus the first quarter. But we do
Speaker 6: highlight to our investors and clients that, hey, well, I
Speaker 6: think there are merits to focus on the tech sector,
Speaker 6: but let's not ignore the non tech sectors, because there
Speaker 6: are beneficiaries from the non tech sector from the progress
Speaker 6: and technology, and we are seeing signs of earnings growth
Speaker 6: broadening out beyond the tech sector. So given the fact
Speaker 6: that SMP five hundred equal weighted in terms of valuation
Speaker 6: is much more lower than SMB five hundred on a
Speaker 6: market cap data basis, we think their merits to look
Speaker 6: beyond the tech sector into other sectors including financials, energy,
Speaker 6: and industrials.
Speaker 1: So, as I understand what you're saying, I mean these
Speaker 1: other industries would be big beneficiaries of the adoption of
Speaker 1: AI in their business models.
Speaker 6: Is that right, Well, we've believed that the adoption of
Speaker 6: AI could actually benefit a range of industries. Yes, so
Speaker 6: I think some of the sectors that mentioned just now,
Speaker 6: financial industrials, they are definitely prime beneficiaries.
Speaker 3: So financial is about the only sector really that has
Speaker 3: kind of matched tech in the S and P five
Speaker 3: hundred so far this year. The rest of the area's
Speaker 3: materials and industrials we've had some rallies, particularly in the
Speaker 3: first quarter, but it sort of died in the second quarter.
Speaker 4: Do you expect that to pick up anytime soon?
Speaker 6: Well, we are actually seeing a very interesting phenomenon acting
Speaker 6: in the first half performance of S and B five hundred,
Speaker 6: where no doubt, you know, the tech and air related
Speaker 6: sectors are the UH performers, But if you actually apply
Speaker 6: sector types from a month to month basics, we actually
Speaker 6: see variation in monthly leadership. For example, I think sometime
Speaker 6: in the earlier part of us QB we were actually
Speaker 6: advocating overweight in materials and energy sectors and that played
Speaker 6: out well. So at this juncture we thought that energy
Speaker 6: socks could be an interesting option because of the fact
Speaker 6: that it has actually somewhat like recently, plus the fact
Speaker 6: that it could serve as an interesting hatchickens lingering geoe
Speaker 6: political risks being in the Middle East or in Russia, Ukraine.
Speaker 1: How much of your thesis is predicated on the notion
Speaker 1: that we're going to get two FED rate cuts this year.
Speaker 6: We are actually off the view that we are going
Speaker 6: to get two weight cuts from the FAT this year.
Speaker 6: That is our base view. If you look at what
Speaker 6: Powell has said, he acknowledged progress and inflation, although still
Speaker 6: waiting for more evidence, but he did say that the
Speaker 6: FAT does not need to wait for CPI to hit
Speaker 6: two percent before the FAT will start cutting rates. And
Speaker 6: I think one thing to notice is that there are
Speaker 6: mountain signs of calling jobs market. Employment is taken higher
Speaker 6: to four point one percent, while due nonvoune pay rolls
Speaker 6: were slightly better than expected, but may pay rolls were
Speaker 6: actually significantly revised lower. So barring any significant upside surprises
Speaker 6: and inflation, we think that, you know, the soft job
Speaker 6: market could actually give FAT another reason to start cutting
Speaker 6: rates this year.
Speaker 3: So it seems like there are a couple of reasons
Speaker 3: why you see huge out performance of some of those
Speaker 3: top tech names that you say, you know, we should
Speaker 3: we should acknowledge, but we should look elsewhere as well.
Speaker 3: The two areas would be that until you get rate cuts,
Speaker 3: you're probably not going to see small caps and some
Speaker 3: of the mid caps perform. Well, you probably need to
Speaker 3: see growth, you know, which is trending lower now stabilized,
Speaker 3: and then start to kick back up.
Speaker 4: That's when you'd see those rally. And then you know,
Speaker 4: if you look at.
Speaker 3: The earnings from you just can't compare the earnings from
Speaker 3: average companies with what you see in tech. So you
Speaker 3: know they don't give trophies to everyone for a reason.
Speaker 3: The winners and get the trophies.
Speaker 6: Well, indeed, I think that is actually I would say
Speaker 6: I wouldn't. I hesitate that used to work hut mentality,
Speaker 6: But indeed there is actually a chase after the trophy
Speaker 6: companies because they have been delivering, That's no doubt about it.
Speaker 6: But I totally agree with you in the sense that
Speaker 6: mid cap space is actually looking increasingly attractive, especially if
Speaker 6: the big cup do materialize, which will help to stabilized
Speaker 6: the economy and also then helped to propel the earnings
Speaker 6: of such companies.
Speaker 1: Eddie, what are you hearing from clients right now, particularly
Speaker 1: those in Singapore about the risk that may be overhanging
Speaker 1: markets in the Asia Pacific right now?
Speaker 6: Well, we are, apart from you inflation, corporate earnings. One
Speaker 6: question we are getting quite faded is what happens if
Speaker 6: Trump were to win the election, the president election this
Speaker 6: time around? What happens if there's Trump two point zero?
Speaker 6: So because we did actually we certainly publish a note
Speaker 6: to talk about the potential implications of a Trump presidential win,
Speaker 6: especially when we's talking about imposing sixty percent terrorists on
Speaker 6: China and ten percent terrorists on the rest of the world.
Speaker 6: So I think that increased uncertainty could actually tenpen sentiment
Speaker 6: on Asia really assets. Now, having said that, this time
Speaker 6: round could be different, and we must note that Trump
Speaker 6: this is the second election. I mean, if Trumble the
Speaker 6: windows will be the second term, that would be a
Speaker 6: next election. So maybe perhaps he will be more willing
Speaker 6: to cut deals as a businessman with China and the
Speaker 6: other countries if it does serve the interest of the US.
Speaker 3: Eddie we talked about an opinion piece by Mentioning Pay,
Speaker 3: one of our columnists about how the US China relationship
Speaker 3: is probably worse than the Cold War. Never mind what
Speaker 3: he's getting at, but I'm curious, in your mind, do
Speaker 3: you see it as a competition If I'm in a
Speaker 3: race with someone or playing golf against somebody. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's life and death. I just want
Speaker 3: to win. Is that what's happening between the US and
Speaker 3: China or is it sort of deadly survival type of stuff.
Speaker 6: Well, I would describe it as a strategic competition between
Speaker 6: the two superpowers on several fronts. I mean, on the
Speaker 6: military front, I think that's that's really something they are
Speaker 6: actually walking a lot on. But on the technology front,
Speaker 6: especially if you can see what the US has done
Speaker 6: in terms of trying to block the export of technology
Speaker 6: or semiconductor equipment to China to impede the progress in
Speaker 6: terms of semiconductor for China.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Eddie, thank you very much for taking the time
Speaker 3: to be with us. Eddie Low, CIO of Maybank Group
Speaker 3: Wealth Management. John Davey, founder and CEO and CIO a
Speaker 3: lot of hats there, had his story of portfolio advisors,
Speaker 3: So John, you better be good. That sounds like you've
Speaker 3: got a lot of responsibility there. Great to have you
Speaker 3: on the program, by the way. So look, people are
Speaker 3: still looking at this market for a broadening out of
Speaker 3: gains to kind of of declare it to be healthy,
Speaker 3: the rally healthy. So let's consider where we are. The
Speaker 3: S and P five hundred is up eighteen percent year
Speaker 3: to date. The equal weight is now up five percent.
Speaker 3: Now five percent halfway through the year is a pretty
Speaker 3: good gain. The eighteen percent is great, but that's mainly
Speaker 3: because of a secular growth story.
Speaker 4: AI. So is the market doing what it should be
Speaker 4: doing well?
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a good question. I mean everyone's trying
Speaker 2: to decipher, you know, what that you know, if that,
Speaker 2: if that is you know, the correct path for both
Speaker 2: those different sectors. I think the reality is that the
Speaker 2: economy is normalize and after pretty strong, you know, a
Speaker 2: couple of quarters. So we had a pretty good earning
Speaker 2: season here in Q you know, earlier this past quarter,
Speaker 2: earning's work up about nine percent. You know, I think
Speaker 2: what the market is looking for is a rate cut
Speaker 2: or two and here in the US at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, I think that's what it's going to enable,
Speaker 2: like the S and P four to eighty three, which
Speaker 2: is the non magt the non magnet seven stocks, in
Speaker 2: order for a to rally because as you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 2: the equoid S ANDP just hasn't really moved as much
Speaker 2: as the produ market, so you know, the markets are employing,
Speaker 2: you know, rate cut and step in December north of
Speaker 2: seventy percent probabilities. I think that's what we're going to
Speaker 2: need for the market to prod now because after last
Speaker 2: quarter strong earning season, that really didn't provide any sort
Speaker 2: of tailwind to the market.
Speaker 1: So the rate cut obviously would be predicated on the
Speaker 1: notion that there is a slower growth going on. Earning
Speaker 1: start tomorrow will hear from pepsi UH one of the names,
Speaker 1: Delta Airlines another, and then the big banks on Friday.
Speaker 1: Obviously that will be key. Is there the risk as
Speaker 1: these companies begin to report and then offer guidance on
Speaker 1: the future, that the street is going to have to
Speaker 1: adjust expectations of future earnings growth given a slower growth
Speaker 1: rate for the overall onomy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the bar was set pretty low. So
Speaker 2: if you beat you know, last quarter, I think you
Speaker 2: were rewarded. So the expected you know, growth rate of
Speaker 2: this SMP, you know, per Bloomberg, you know your firm
Speaker 2: is you know eight and a half percent, So that's
Speaker 2: the highest since you know twenty twenty one. I think, look,
Speaker 2: I I you know, I'm in the States, and there's
Speaker 2: two things that really kind of kept the economy together.
Speaker 2: One you had a pretty good labor market and you
Speaker 2: had a very strong US consumer. The labor market is
Speaker 2: starting to, you know, weaken on the margin, and the consumer,
Speaker 2: I think after like four years of above elevated inflation
Speaker 2: is starting to get tapped out. So those two I
Speaker 2: think held the economy together, and those two things weakened
Speaker 2: on the margin is what you know, in the end
Speaker 2: of the day, is going to cause the FED. I
Speaker 2: think the cut rates. We have some pretty decent commercial
Speaker 2: real estate issues here in the US. You know, regional
Speaker 2: banks have lunt that a lot of money. So I
Speaker 2: wouldn't say even though the Max seven keeps going up
Speaker 2: and drives S and P, that isn't represent of the
Speaker 2: broader economy. So I do think that a lot of
Speaker 2: these indicties we look at are showing signs of softening,
Speaker 2: and you know, we're at the point in the cycle
Speaker 2: where the FED you know, needs to cut and would
Speaker 2: have cut in pro cycles.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to get a good strong read on
Speaker 3: this because you have a number of companies, a lot
Speaker 3: of companies that have vastly underperformed, and these are big
Speaker 3: name companies like Home Depot and PepsiCo and McDonald's. They're
Speaker 3: down here today some you know, either flat to down
Speaker 3: sixteen eighteen, twenty percent. Then you have other consumer facing
Speaker 3: companies like Apple, like Walmart, like Costco that are at
Speaker 3: all time highs. So I guess in the way there
Speaker 3: are some idiosyncratic stories and it's a stock pickers market.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's that's all, you know, very valid point.
Speaker 2: You know, our point at a story advisors. You know,
Speaker 2: we're global investors, will multi asset. You know, we think
Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunities. You know, emerging markets. Nobody
Speaker 2: talks about it. It's like people forgot about you know, China, India,
Speaker 2: you know em the MSAI Emerging market ETF is at
Speaker 2: a fifty two week high. It's up ten percent.
Speaker 4: Year to date.
Speaker 2: You know, you get that valuation buffer, right because these
Speaker 2: things traded much lower multiple compared to the SMP, which
Speaker 2: is at you know, twenty and a half forward earnings.
Speaker 2: So you know, we're just telling investors like look abroad,
Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of interesting opportunities in Japan.
Speaker 2: Nobody you know, again, everyone wants to be infactuated at
Speaker 2: the max seven, but there's a lot of opportunities even
Speaker 2: in the you know, commodities market. You know, we're big
Speaker 2: proponents of real assets. If you look at silver, it's
Speaker 2: up twenty nine percent year to date, gold is up
Speaker 2: fourteen percent. You wouldn't think that precious metals would be
Speaker 2: doing good, you know, when the SMP is up so much.
Speaker 2: But I think you know, investors see that there is
Speaker 2: a week in an economy and that's typically when you know,
Speaker 2: precious metals would do well, along with the fact that
Speaker 2: they're inflation hedges.
Speaker 1: So it seems as though a story of portfolio advisors
Speaker 1: uses a lot of quantitative rest. Can we get away
Speaker 1: from that for a moment and talk about the election
Speaker 1: and whether this, with all the uncertainty that we've been
Speaker 1: dealing with as a part of the current news cycle,
Speaker 1: that there is a risk of a lot more in
Speaker 1: the way of volatility between now and November.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Elections, you know typically result in higher volatility. You know,
Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, the kind of the
Speaker 2: Republican winners stocks, right, there's baskets of stocks that kind
Speaker 2: of benefit from you know, Republican victory. You know, they've
Speaker 2: been rallying, you know significantly. You know, if you look
Speaker 2: at Mexico, how Mexico's doing. I think our conclusion, our
Speaker 2: story is regardless of who wins, I think we're going
Speaker 2: to still be having like deficit issues. So we do
Speaker 2: like owning real assets. We do like continue to own
Speaker 2: gold because I don't see that I see higher inflation
Speaker 2: regardless of who wins. But you certainly expect higher volatility.
Speaker 2: You know that's going to start to pick up in
Speaker 2: September October. I think there's some you know, lower volatility
Speaker 2: here in the States because of like the Gamma profiles,
Speaker 2: which is keeping realized volatility low. So implied volatility has
Speaker 2: to track realized volatility. So you know, that's kind of
Speaker 2: you know, a technical issue, but no doubt if you
Speaker 2: start seeing you know, if there's a change in a republic,
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party, that will lead to more and certanty.
Speaker 2: More in Certanty will lead to higher volatility.
Speaker 3: I'm hearing from a lot of guests that you know,
Speaker 3: doesn't really matter too much that money is chasing equities
Speaker 3: here because of earnings, upward revisions and such. Are there
Speaker 3: some themes somewhere in there other than the ones you mentioned,
Speaker 3: particularly in the high tech area, that you like, where
Speaker 3: you're seeing companies raise their earnings projections.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the funny thing is that if you look,
Speaker 2: I mean, we've had a pretty strong broaden out of
Speaker 2: this earnings recovery. And usually when you've got an earnings recovery,
Speaker 2: that usually leads to you know, investors kind of rotating
Speaker 2: away from defensives. So I look at like the MAC
Speaker 2: seven as a very defense to play. You know, these
Speaker 2: are like high cash flow producing companies, but if you
Speaker 2: have more earnings growth, you know, there's a lot more opportunities.
Speaker 2: There's something like one hundred and sixty companies in SMP
Speaker 2: that have had twenty five percent earnings growth, so you
Speaker 2: should be brought in out of your portfolio. You know,
Speaker 2: the ECO way to SMP is you know, fifteen sixteen
Speaker 2: p racial seventeen p racial, so you get a little
Speaker 2: bit of like a discount compared to like the broader SMP.
Speaker 2: And then if you go into like you know, things
Speaker 2: like Japan emerge market, so you can lower it pretty significantly.
Speaker 2: But you know, I would definitely be rotating out of
Speaker 2: you know, those heavy Max seven stocks. They've had a
Speaker 2: tremendous run, and you know, these things never stay at
Speaker 2: the top of the dux forever John.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: John Davey, founder CEO CIO at Estorio Portfolio Advisories. Joining
Speaker 3: us in our studio is far some discussion of tech
Speaker 3: is Lad Savov, Bloomberg Tech Editor to field questions from
Speaker 3: dug and myself. Lad, thank you very much for coming in.
Speaker 3: So a couple of stories here, definitely getting some attention.
Speaker 3: Apple looking to ship some ninety million iPhone sixteen devices
Speaker 3: in the latter half of this year, that said to
Speaker 3: be a ten percent pickup on some of the previous models.
Speaker 3: And then TSMC's second quarter sales up forty percent. Forty percent, Lad,
Speaker 3: that was the fastest patience twenty twenty two. Now a
Speaker 3: lot of investors are worried that we might see a slowdown.
Speaker 3: Here you have an example from TSMC that sales are
Speaker 3: actually going up. Still, what do you make of it?
Speaker 7: Well, that's right, Brian, for TSMC is kind of the
Speaker 7: bottom of the funnel when it comes to ODAI excitement
Speaker 7: and AI boom. When you think about Nvidia and is
Speaker 7: skyrocketing shape price, Well, Nvidio only has one supplier and
Speaker 7: that's TSMC. Nobody makes the Nvidia AI accelerates. Is that
Speaker 7: are the vang god of the aiboom other than TSMC.
Speaker 7: That's a great position to be in. And when you
Speaker 7: look at people signally some quotion about Nvidia and about
Speaker 7: its future growth prospects, Well, I don't see the same
Speaker 7: thing with TSMC, because whoever succeeds in Vidia is most
Speaker 7: likely to go and be TSMC's customer. Again, so it's
Speaker 7: just an ongoing thing. And to the point with Apple
Speaker 7: and it's rising prospects for an next generation of iPhone.
Speaker 7: Guess who makes Apple chips?
Speaker 1: I guess that's TSMC, same company. Yeah, So the commonality
Speaker 1: here is the AI trade and Apple has been very
Speaker 1: ambitious in designing a program that would be compatible with
Speaker 1: only Apple devices. Do you think Apple is going to
Speaker 1: really stand apart? One of the things about this company
Speaker 1: that may be late to the game when certain trends
Speaker 1: establish themselves, but they have a real good track record
Speaker 1: at perfecting technology, especially for the consumer. Do you think
Speaker 1: that will hold up with the iPhone six?
Speaker 7: That's right, and honestly, we're going to have to wait
Speaker 7: and see. One of the ways that I think about
Speaker 7: this is whether Apple would be introducing a features today
Speaker 7: if it wasn't for chat GPT and the entire wave
Speaker 7: that chat GPT kickstarted. Frankly, if you're Apple, just as
Speaker 7: a business, you don't have the option to come up
Speaker 7: to the tail end of this year. And think about it,
Speaker 7: the fhlone sixteen means all of twenty twenty five. Essentially,
Speaker 7: you don't have the option to go into twenty twenty
Speaker 7: five without AI features. So think about this question, which
Speaker 7: I don't have a clear answer to. Would Apple be
Speaker 7: introducing all these AF features this year if it had
Speaker 7: its own way, Probably not, because when you look across
Speaker 7: the spectrum of what services are actually being released and
Speaker 7: unveiled under this AI label, they're very disparate. There isn't
Speaker 7: a clear through line of what consumers really want and
Speaker 7: demand as far as AI goes.
Speaker 3: And also Samsung is another key story today that we've
Speaker 3: talked about a little bit. Samsung is raising prices, so
Speaker 3: that's one thing, and then also betting more on artificial intelligence,
Speaker 3: particularly on you know, advancing its foldable phone. So what
Speaker 3: do you make of those developments?
Speaker 7: That's right well sitting here and just waiting for our conversation, Brian,
Speaker 7: I thought of this. There is no plan B. They
Speaker 7: just plan AI. As far as the entire tech industry.
Speaker 4: That's a good one. Okay, we'll give you credit.
Speaker 1: I was inspired by you, Bran Sitting.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you wrote that because you don't steal.
Speaker 7: Well, think about it. Microsoft is making a huge push
Speaker 7: with its co Pilot software for Windows in the autumn
Speaker 7: and into the winter, into the holiday season. Apple with
Speaker 7: Apple Intelligence with the iPhone sixteen we just discussed, and
Speaker 7: then Samsung likewise. Because when it comes to hardware, these devices,
Speaker 7: whether it's laptops or smartphones, even photo smartphones, are largely
Speaker 7: mature or you can do is make them a little
Speaker 7: bit thinner, a little bit lighter. And the way that
Speaker 7: you can really spark more interest from consumers is to
Speaker 7: say we have these unique new features, these AI features
Speaker 7: that you're really going to want, your friends are going
Speaker 7: to have, and you are really going.
Speaker 4: To talk quickly. Is a smart ring going too far?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 7: Smart rings have been around for a while. And the
Speaker 7: interesting thing with Samson is because of its scale and
Speaker 7: it's rich, it can popularize it. It can make them
Speaker 7: a genuine category. And again, much like the AI features,
Speaker 7: that kind of needs to prove itself over the course
Speaker 7: of time.
Speaker 1: I think that the wearable market, particularly where telemedicine is involved,
Speaker 1: is in the early stages here. I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot to be gleaned as we look at what Apple
Speaker 1: is doing in terms of medtech.
Speaker 7: Sure, and Samsung's advantage is the fact that Apple doesn't
Speaker 7: have a product there. Samsung wants to be in these
Speaker 7: spaces that Apple doesn't yet occupy.
Speaker 1: Well, you could make the case that the watch, I
Speaker 1: mean it is basically a wearable device. I mean, whether
Speaker 1: it's a ring or a watch, you're monitoring, you know,
Speaker 1: skin temperature, You're you're monitoring a person's sleep cycle, You're monitoring.
Speaker 1: It's a sensor basically on the human body. In what
Speaker 1: form we can debate, but I think that Apple re
Speaker 1: the potency of the watch as something that could be
Speaker 1: a bridge to telemedicine.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, And I think the big test with samsung new products,
Speaker 7: whether it's the Galaxy Ring or is new six hundred
Speaker 7: and fifty dollars Galaxy Watch Ultra, which goes up against
Speaker 7: the eight hundred dollars Apple Watch Ultra, is to test
Speaker 7: how much consumers are going to be willing to spend
Speaker 7: for these things. We know that people like health tracking,
Speaker 7: we know that they like health metrics, But how far
Speaker 7: is that budget going to stretch for those devices.
Speaker 3: We started off by talking about TSMC, and you correctly
Speaker 3: pointed out that it's really at the center of a
Speaker 3: lot of things, particularly with semiconductors, and that's fast becoming,
Speaker 3: if it isn't already the most important industry in the world.
Speaker 3: The tricky part is it's in Taiwan, very close a
Speaker 3: stone's throw from China. Have you been monitoring that relationship.
Speaker 3: We just had ed talking about how some ships and
Speaker 3: planes have entered the airspace of Taiwan.
Speaker 4: What do you make of that?
Speaker 7: Well, that's been an open question. The really striking thing
Speaker 7: to me, I like to think of Taiwan as like
Speaker 7: a seven trillion dollar island, because I just mentioned it.
Speaker 7: Without Taiwan and without CSMC specifically and its production in Taiwan,
Speaker 7: there is no Nvidia Ai chips, there is no iPhone,
Speaker 7: so there's a lot of stake. But all these companies
Speaker 7: seem to be investing both their businesses and money and
Speaker 7: faith in Taiwan going forward.
Speaker 3: Excellent, Glad, Thank you so much for joining us here
Speaker 3: in our studios.
Speaker 4: It's always interesting. Glad Salvov bloom Chech.
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