Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets podcasted
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and at
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com Slash podcast. Let's talk Apple right now, Matt.
Speaker 1: The company yesterday unveiled an updated iPad pro with a
Speaker 1: faster processor, by G connectivity, upgraded screen, and new cameras.
Speaker 1: Question is do investors care? Let's bring it on Treney
Speaker 1: of Boston. He's a senior technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Speaker 1: So on, And as we think about the Apple story here,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the stock, it's you know, flat year
Speaker 1: to date, you know, really underperforming the market here. What's
Speaker 1: the story here for Apple right now? Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: that's a great question, Paul. Look, I mean we have
Speaker 1: maintained that Apple works on two prime vectors, right The
Speaker 1: stock and the company works on two primary vectors. One
Speaker 1: is iPhone, iPhone shipments, and I think they're set up
Speaker 1: really well in that regard, and the other is the
Speaker 1: Juggernaut services franchise, where this is going to be a
Speaker 1: sixty five billion dollar year just the services franchise. In so,
Speaker 1: I think that the iPad and the Max are very
Speaker 1: nice products, and in any other company they were moved
Speaker 1: the needles substantially and then some. But in the Apple's
Speaker 1: scope of you know, three d and thirty and forty
Speaker 1: billion dollars of revenue with the just Go, you're it doesn't. Um,
Speaker 1: It's it's intrictive, it's additive, but in it of itself,
Speaker 1: it's not a stand alone vector of leadership. Yeah, about
Speaker 1: my Mac, I think two thousand or so. I love it,
Speaker 1: but I don't have any reason to replace it. Like
Speaker 1: it does everything I needed to perfectly well. Um. But
Speaker 1: in terms of the services, when you talk about services,
Speaker 1: I assume you're including, um, you know, the Apple Music, um,
Speaker 1: the Apple TV content, the podcast that they announced yesterday.
Speaker 1: What what's the big driver with their services? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's a that's a great question, Matt. Look, the services
Speaker 1: business has at least eleven subsegments, and we've tried to
Speaker 1: sort of parse that out. At the Apple Music, Apple
Speaker 1: TV TV, plus the Arcade business. Um, all of those
Speaker 1: are smaller portions of the services franchise. So in in
Speaker 1: their updates yesterday they didn't really even Apple Card doesn't
Speaker 1: move the needle at all for them. The biggest is
Speaker 1: the download of apps, both the paid as well as
Speaker 1: the free apps. Um, So that's a big portion of
Speaker 1: the business. Apple care is it is a very profitable business.
Speaker 1: The iCloud business is very profitable, and um, the licensing
Speaker 1: the business. So Google pays Apple for to be the
Speaker 1: default search engine on the iPhone and that is a
Speaker 1: pretty big deal. That is a very lucrative, high margin
Speaker 1: payment that Apple gets. Those are the big pieces of
Speaker 1: the pie. Um. Apple Music is nice. It's still smaller
Speaker 1: than Spotify from a revenue perspective. Apple pay is is nice. Again,
Speaker 1: it's a very cohesive driver of all the different products
Speaker 1: and services with the Apple platform. But in and of itself, Um,
Speaker 1: the people Apple Care as a driver, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is like they seem like good people right at first clients,
Speaker 1: but then they're making you pay extra to guarantee that
Speaker 1: your product doesn't break in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1: I mean, shouldn't that come for free? Well, look, I
Speaker 1: mean there's a replacement value, and the one of the
Speaker 1: things that these are expensive components to make, an expensive
Speaker 1: components to assemble. Um, there has to be there's a
Speaker 1: minimum amount of guarantee that comes with the product. But
Speaker 1: it's only to the degree that it's a manufacturing issue. Right,
Speaker 1: If I stomp on my iPhone, I don't expect Aple
Speaker 1: to pick up the tab for that. Alright, alright, if
Speaker 1: I wreck my car, I don't expect you know, Mercedes
Speaker 1: to pick up the tab. But if it just stops working,
Speaker 1: you know, or even the manufacturing issue, you can certainly
Speaker 1: take it in. But otherways you pay in shorts. Oh,
Speaker 1: they have the nice people help borrow whatever it is. Now,
Speaker 1: you can just take it into the store. I'm sure
Speaker 1: they'll they'll take care of you. Sorry, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the balance sheet here, I'm looking at the financials for
Speaker 1: this company. You know, almost two hundred billion dollars in cash,
Speaker 1: eighty billion dollars of free cash flow every single year.
Speaker 1: Then they got a dividend yield of zero points six
Speaker 1: what's up with that? Why don't they raise their dividend,
Speaker 1: buy back more stock? This is just craziness. Yeah, so look,
Speaker 1: they're they have accelerated share, They have accelerated share. We
Speaker 1: purchase programs. They have a big buy back up re
Speaker 1: up potentially coming in the next quarter. UM. All of
Speaker 1: those have to happen. But when you have again the
Speaker 1: size of cash flow generation that this company has, particularly
Speaker 1: this year, UM, when they've done really, really well with
Speaker 1: the launch of their new iPhone, it's it's um. It's
Speaker 1: staggeringly big, and it's it's a it's a problem that
Speaker 1: needs to be overcome. It is genuinely a problem of
Speaker 1: how fast they can deploy that cash UM, either in
Speaker 1: stock buy backs or dividends or internal r and D,
Speaker 1: which is not going to move the needle from a
Speaker 1: cash balance perspective. So it's an absolute problem. You're right.
Speaker 1: The air tags such a great idea. I was hopeful
Speaker 1: when other companies came out with similar products. Um, is
Speaker 1: this going to be something that we all have our
Speaker 1: key chains in the next couple of years. Absolutely? I
Speaker 1: think you know, I see the AirPod. The air Tags
Speaker 1: is very similar to the the air Pods franchise that
Speaker 1: was a sleeper hit and continues to be a really
Speaker 1: good product of them. UM. And I think it sort
Speaker 1: of again adds to the platform effect that Apple has UM.
Speaker 1: And the security is robust, so I can definitely see
Speaker 1: this product taking off and being a noticeable de line item.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll I'm excited to see the reviews of
Speaker 1: that on. Thanks so much for joining us on a
Speaker 1: Trini vass on their senior semiconductor and hardware analyst for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence. This is Bloomberg. We were talking precious medals.
Speaker 1: I want to bring it every moment right now, practious
Speaker 1: medals specialist at Gainesville Coins. Um. I mean gold is
Speaker 1: probably the focus of most of our listeners in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, precious metals that individuals hold. Everett, we
Speaker 1: haven't really seen gold, you know, in the face of
Speaker 1: inflation expectations, we haven't really seen gold move to really
Speaker 1: impressive levels. All oh, it's had a good run the
Speaker 1: last few days right now at sevent troy ounce. Where's
Speaker 1: it headed. Well, that recent rally you mentioned has pulled
Speaker 1: gold back to essentially as December loads, and it seems
Speaker 1: poised to retest those levels in the short term. It
Speaker 1: certainly helps that the dollar has pulled back a bit. Um,
Speaker 1: but really the gold trade has been pretty boring, right Um,
Speaker 1: We've seen some subdued trading in the West. But when
Speaker 1: I look internationally, UM, there's some key developments that I
Speaker 1: think are rather favorable for gold and could pretty swiftly
Speaker 1: push us back above that eighteen hundred announced level. UM.
Speaker 1: China's relaxed it's pretty strict rules on who can import gold,
Speaker 1: so several billion dollars of gold are expected to flow
Speaker 1: into Beijing in the next couple of months. And similarly,
Speaker 1: in India UM they have ease their rather high import
Speaker 1: duties on gold and as a result we saw record
Speaker 1: high first quarter imports into India year over year UM.
Speaker 1: And and and even in South Korea, the gold trade trading
Speaker 1: volumes have been running pretty hot and their own pace
Speaker 1: for about a fifty increase year on year. So these
Speaker 1: strong sources of demand should at least put a floor
Speaker 1: below the gold price, perhaps around seventeen fifty ounce for
Speaker 1: the time being. But I do agree that overall in
Speaker 1: the West, UH had the gold trade has been pretty subdued.
Speaker 1: Really isn't moving anywhere yet ever? Is that reflecting the
Speaker 1: rise in the ownership of bitcoin and people viewing bitcoin
Speaker 1: as a perhaps a comparable store of value to golds,
Speaker 1: and they're saying, hey, maybe i'll take a little bit
Speaker 1: off my you know, my gold column put it into bitcoin. Sure,
Speaker 1: I do think that you know there is this clear
Speaker 1: rivalry between the two groups of investors UM. But somewhat interestingly,
Speaker 1: survey data gathered between two thousand seventeen and two thousand
Speaker 1: twenty by a British firm called Global web Index show
Speaker 1: that there is had a bit of crossover between the
Speaker 1: demographics who are interested in cryptocurrencies and those who are
Speaker 1: interested in gold. UM. It is a bit surprising because
Speaker 1: we tend to associate gold with the older investing crowd
Speaker 1: and cryptocurrencies with younger investors and people who are just
Speaker 1: getting into the markets, but in fact there is this overlap.
Speaker 1: So with the rise and interest in cryptos and n
Speaker 1: f t s non fungible tokens, we are seeing that
Speaker 1: sife and off some investment dollars away from the precious metals.
Speaker 1: Just as cryptos rallied to start the second quarter, open
Speaker 1: interest in COMEX gold futures hit it two year low.
Speaker 1: So I do believe there is a correlation between the
Speaker 1: two UM. But as there are some an emergence of
Speaker 1: some gold backed cryptocurrencies, perhaps we could see some further
Speaker 1: merging between those two asset classics classes in between the
Speaker 1: types of investors who are interested in them. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that would be interesting. Although UM hasn't yet become really
Speaker 1: popular the idea of UM gold backed crypto, but it
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense if we were willing to
Speaker 1: trade goldbacked FIAT for so long. I wonder about UM palladium.
Speaker 1: As the headlines just crossed the terminal, we hit an
Speaker 1: all time high. Does this rally continue or is this
Speaker 1: just part of the auto sales bottleneck due to the
Speaker 1: ship shortage. Well, certainly the the semiconductor and chips shortage
Speaker 1: is affecting the auto industry, which has that direct effect
Speaker 1: on palladium. But even outside of automobiles, the energy transition
Speaker 1: to cleaner fuels could palladium could figure importantly into that.
Speaker 1: Both platinum and palladium UM are involved in fuel emerging
Speaker 1: fuel cell technology and other hydrogen based fuels. And we
Speaker 1: also have to remember on the supply side that the
Speaker 1: majority of the world's palladium supply comes from Russia. So
Speaker 1: these reciprocal UM tensions and sanctions between the United States
Speaker 1: and Russia could perhaps put a barrier on a lot
Speaker 1: of that palladium getting out of Russia. So I do
Speaker 1: think that the trend is still going to be upward
Speaker 1: for palladium, even though we're at the peak of what
Speaker 1: is a multi year rally in hitting those all time
Speaker 1: highs because of the supply concerns and because palladium does
Speaker 1: figure into the potential green future for our our energy sources.
Speaker 1: All right, great, great intel there, and we're so glad
Speaker 1: to get you on. Everett Millman, Precious metals specialists from
Speaker 1: Gainesville coins UH coming to us obviously out of Gainesville, Florida,
Speaker 1: talking us through what's going on in in gold, what's
Speaker 1: going on in UH and and really in the kind
Speaker 1: of cross currents between the metal and the crypto sector
Speaker 1: as well, and um, what what is in which which
Speaker 1: university is in Gainesville? Is that university's okay? So, so
Speaker 1: Jacksonville is Florida? You those are the Gators and Gainsville, Florida.
Speaker 1: Tallahassee's Florida state. Oh Tallahassa, right right, cool, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks for setting me straight. Our university specialist, this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: Now let's bring in David Coudla. He's the CEO and
Speaker 1: chief investment strategist Mainstay Capital Management is here to talk
Speaker 1: to us about his investment strategy in the current market environment. David,
Speaker 1: I guess the first thing we have to know, um,
Speaker 1: is your forecast for growth and inflation. Well, uh, first,
Speaker 1: we think that we're going to have an amazing first
Speaker 1: quarter for growth, both in terms of what we're seeing
Speaker 1: in terms of GDP for the economy and what we see,
Speaker 1: you know, coming out of this uh uh impact of
Speaker 1: the COVID and the lockdowns on the economy from last year.
Speaker 1: So a year over year, you know, we're going to
Speaker 1: see amazing growth in the economy. We're also going to see, uh,
Speaker 1: the earnings are going to be tremendous. We're expecting the
Speaker 1: best earnings since uh in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: And we're seeing inflation that is just you know, incredible,
Speaker 1: not necessarily the inflation that the Federal Reserve monitors, although
Speaker 1: that did come in at high level year over year
Speaker 1: headline inflation highest in many years. But when we look
Speaker 1: at some of the other commodity prices, you know, we've
Speaker 1: got iron ore trading in a three year high, nearly
Speaker 1: triple since last year, lumber more than five times from
Speaker 1: this you know, from this time last year. So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're really seeing, Uh, inflation in many
Speaker 1: sectors of the economy has run has run at a
Speaker 1: very very high level. Do you consider that inflation transitory,
Speaker 1: which is what I've the FED is suggesting, or is
Speaker 1: this something that maybe we need to worry about. Well, um,
Speaker 1: I know that there are a lot of people to
Speaker 1: take objection with this and take objection with the FED
Speaker 1: stating this, but we do see it as transitory. We
Speaker 1: think that a lot of this, especially what I just
Speaker 1: talked about in some of these commodities. And although we
Speaker 1: may be in the beginning of a commodity supercycle, the
Speaker 1: levels that we've seen are a result of a couple
Speaker 1: of things. The COVID the pandemic had impacted the ability
Speaker 1: to produce some of these commodities. But also, um, the
Speaker 1: construction sector, both a commercial and residential and especially residential
Speaker 1: never really slowed down during COVID. Housing has done very
Speaker 1: very well. Uh, just you know, incredible pace all the
Speaker 1: way through the pandemic, and the supplier didn't expect that,
Speaker 1: and so there's just incredible pent up demand for those
Speaker 1: raw materials, those those supplies for housing in particular and
Speaker 1: building in general, and so you know that will be
Speaker 1: met and I think we'll see those prices come back
Speaker 1: down by as early as the end of the year.
Speaker 1: So so that that those type of inflationary forces I
Speaker 1: think our transitory uh and ultimately if inflation in general,
Speaker 1: the long term secontary forces for deflation come back in.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, So does how does that affect the stocks
Speaker 1: you want to buy? And can you give us some picks? Well,
Speaker 1: so we you know, in we were with the stay
Speaker 1: at home trades, a lot of the technology uh you
Speaker 1: know a lot of the e commerce trades and uh
Speaker 1: internet e commerce I T technology, we moved to the
Speaker 1: consumer recyclical small caps. Now we're moving out back into
Speaker 1: some of the growth her names. So we still you know,
Speaker 1: some of the areas like the global x US infrastructure
Speaker 1: development et F, PAVES, P a V. Hence the name
Speaker 1: holds companies like Deer Vulcan Materials, Emerson Electric. We think
Speaker 1: they have further to go as the economy reopens um
Speaker 1: and we're still looking at and still holding some of
Speaker 1: the value names that in E T F s that
Speaker 1: will uh we think continue to do. There's been a
Speaker 1: setback in value here the past couple of days that
Speaker 1: passed month, but we think value has further to go
Speaker 1: with the fiscal stimulus that's in the system and coming.
Speaker 1: But we're looking at at some of the some of
Speaker 1: the ets like mote Van Vector's morning Star, wide Moat,
Speaker 1: et F holds names like Google and Tell, young brands,
Speaker 1: general dynamics. These are the brands that have a wide
Speaker 1: defensible mode around their business model and and UH and
Speaker 1: then a guard BTF growth at a reasonable price and
Speaker 1: and these are another growthier type e t flds like Facebook,
Speaker 1: wholety homes. We still think the home builders have further
Speaker 1: to go, United Reynolds, Adobe, and these are just some
Speaker 1: of these, a mix of still some cyclicals with some
Speaker 1: growth names that we think can do well as we
Speaker 1: continue to move through the reopening the economy. David, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. We always appreciate getting
Speaker 1: your thoughts and perspective on these markets. David Coudla, CEO
Speaker 1: and chief investment strategist for Mainstay Capital. Again still constructive
Speaker 1: on this market map, but you know, kind of rotating
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit back into some of those growth names.
Speaker 1: We heard from David that cyclical trade had worked so
Speaker 1: well released since September of last year. As you know,
Speaker 1: we started to get the some positive vaccine UH data
Speaker 1: points out there. Then we saw a rotation of the rotation,
Speaker 1: a rotation of the rotation, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we're starting to see U some folks take a look
Speaker 1: at some of those growthier names as well. So lots
Speaker 1: of ways to play this market. Bloomberg Opinion every day
Speaker 1: at this hour we get a columnist from our opinion
Speaker 1: UM our opinion group to talk about a column he
Speaker 1: or she has written. Sarah Hallzac joins US now retail
Speaker 1: columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. You've written about inflation a very
Speaker 1: timely moment, saying that not everyone can copy Procter and
Speaker 1: Gambles price hikes. You talk about, um, the ease with
Speaker 1: which PNG raises prices on diapers as well as tampons,
Speaker 1: but said, UM say that it's difficult for everybody, UM,
Speaker 1: including competitors to raise prices for the same reasons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, And I think part of that is because
Speaker 1: we've actually seen consumer brands flexing pricing power throughout the
Speaker 1: pandemic in ways that are starting to pressure consumers wallets, right, UM,
Speaker 1: I've written about that, everyone from Crux to Crux clogs
Speaker 1: to just peanut butter to Whirlpool appliances have seen the
Speaker 1: benefit of pricing actions during this time. UM. One way
Speaker 1: is by cutting promotions. We've seen a lot of that
Speaker 1: over the last year, not offering that coupon that may
Speaker 1: have been table stakes before the pandemic. UM, and also
Speaker 1: through lift pricing increases and for a variety of consumer
Speaker 1: psychology reasons. Consumers have largely put up with it. But
Speaker 1: I think we are getting to a point where it's
Speaker 1: fair to ask how much more of this can consumers
Speaker 1: see before they bulk? All right, So sir, what are
Speaker 1: we seeing in terms of maybe some of the you know,
Speaker 1: the bigger players of practics and gambles of the world
Speaker 1: versus maybe some of the smaller brands. Do they have
Speaker 1: similar pricing power or do you have is it really select? Uh?
Speaker 1: They do not have similar pricing power. I think we've
Speaker 1: see these big brands UM are able to do this. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know one thing P ANDNG has talked about that
Speaker 1: the pandemic really did was kind of bring people back
Speaker 1: to big, national, trusted brands in a big way. UM.
Speaker 1: I think when you're in this time of crisis, you
Speaker 1: maybe don't feel as comfortable trying something new. You just
Speaker 1: want the thing that you know works, especially in the
Speaker 1: categories that P ANDNG is in, like household cleaning products.
Speaker 1: UM thinks that would you know, contribute to your safety
Speaker 1: during this time. UM So, I do think the big
Speaker 1: national brands have particular pricing power. And so you know
Speaker 1: what P and G is committed to doing. Is it
Speaker 1: said in its BabyCare, feminine care, and adult and Continent's division.
Speaker 1: Um By September, you're going to see a mid to
Speaker 1: high single digit price increases on products in those categories.
Speaker 1: And that follows a similar announcement from kimber Kimberly Clark,
Speaker 1: that's the company that makes Huggy diapers and Scott toilet paper.
Speaker 1: They may would do price hypes of a similar magnitude.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you would be a blessing for the earth.
Speaker 1: People would stop using disposable diapers and start using cloth
Speaker 1: diapers instead. Unlikely as that is to happen. Where where
Speaker 1: is it difficult to hike prices? Sarah? I think in
Speaker 1: the most discretionary categories, And I think you know one
Speaker 1: thing that happened uh during the pandemic was that uh
Speaker 1: safety and convenience really Trump's value and consumers buying decisions. Right,
Speaker 1: So in order to only have to go to one store,
Speaker 1: you just thought whatever was available even if it wasn't
Speaker 1: on sale, or you just sucked up that the prices
Speaker 1: were higher online for the safety of having it delivered
Speaker 1: to your doorstep. And I think now that consumers are
Speaker 1: more mobile again, they're going to feel comfortable hitting more stores.
Speaker 1: They're going to feel comfortable, you know, doing more price
Speaker 1: comparison and engaging in that activity again. And so uh,
Speaker 1: that is that is going to make them more conscious
Speaker 1: of price tags. And so I think these really discretionary
Speaker 1: items like do you really need need a new piece
Speaker 1: of clothing? Do you really need a new handbag? Um?
Speaker 1: Do you really need more sports equipment after all of
Speaker 1: the camping year you bought last summer when being outdoors
Speaker 1: was the only thing you could do? Um? I think
Speaker 1: all of those are going to be areas where raising
Speaker 1: prices is just more difficult than it is on something
Speaker 1: as essential ast diapers, which is a purchase you just
Speaker 1: can't put off all right, So, Sarah, are we seeing
Speaker 1: consumer shifting maybe from name brands to store brands to
Speaker 1: try and to find value. So that is definitely something
Speaker 1: we have often seen during a recession. UM, I don't
Speaker 1: think we've seen a lot of clear evidence of that yet.
Speaker 1: I think some of what that play is what I
Speaker 1: was describing earlier about this flight to really trusted brands
Speaker 1: UM and really wanting to make sure, especially with things
Speaker 1: like household cleaners or laundry detergent, that you're really getting
Speaker 1: something that's going to perform, that you're going to get
Speaker 1: bang for your buck. So I don't think we've seen
Speaker 1: that migration to store brands yet, and specifically with this
Speaker 1: diaper issue. UM. Often if you saw the big brands
Speaker 1: like Pampers or Huggies raising prices, that could be an
Speaker 1: advantage for store brands. But because this is a commodity
Speaker 1: driven issue, UM that's affecting the whole industry. It's because
Speaker 1: the price of pulpe is really straining their margins. I
Speaker 1: don't think you're going to see that flight to store
Speaker 1: brands because I think everyone across the board is going
Speaker 1: to be having to make pricing adjustments to shoulder these costs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see if any of this of
Speaker 1: these price pricing issues go away. Right because UM, we're
Speaker 1: assured by Jerome Powell that this is transitory, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like, at least in the cases that we're
Speaker 1: talking about from P and G or Kimberly Clark, that
Speaker 1: that it is going to go away very quickly. Right,
Speaker 1: These commodity costs issues might take a little while to
Speaker 1: work out. And look, when you talk about you know,
Speaker 1: the consumer sector overall, UH, there's much more baked into this. There's, yes, UM,
Speaker 1: the port congestion and the global shortage of shipping containers.
Speaker 1: All of that is impacting their logistics costs. But they're
Speaker 1: also dealing with another issue, which is that e commerce
Speaker 1: as a percentage of their sales likely skyrocketed last year.
Speaker 1: And I expect that people start moving around more UM
Speaker 1: that will retreat a little bit and people will go
Speaker 1: back to doing some in store purchasing. But you have
Speaker 1: to remember that the rise of e commerce UM is
Speaker 1: often harmful to the profit margins of retailers because they
Speaker 1: have to foot that bill for last miles delivery UM
Speaker 1: and in some cases have to pay for return delivery
Speaker 1: if you decide you don't like the items. That's really
Speaker 1: expensive for them, and it's a real change in their
Speaker 1: cost structure. As more and more of their business moves online,
Speaker 1: and so that's just one more thing, uh, they're dealing
Speaker 1: with that is not going to go away, and that's
Speaker 1: going to shape their pricing decisions. Does just does practical
Speaker 1: gamble care whether they're product gets purchased, you know, on
Speaker 1: in a brick and mortar store or online. No, I
Speaker 1: don't think so at this point. I think you know,
Speaker 1: ultimately their direct customers are the retailers themselves, not the
Speaker 1: shopper um and so I think you know their focus
Speaker 1: is just on supplying those retailers with product that they
Speaker 1: can sell and whatever channel the customer most wants to
Speaker 1: spend their money. Sarah Halzac, thank you so much. We
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Sarah halls like she's a retail columnist for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Opinion. You can read all of her work and
Speaker 1: that of our good folks at Bloomberg Opinion, at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Opinion, or on the Bloomberg terminal by
Speaker 1: typing O P I N go. We have some fantastic
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Opinion columnists and they really put out some really
Speaker 1: thought provoking pieces. Sarah really focuses on all things in
Speaker 1: the retail space, and we are seeing commodity prices. We
Speaker 1: have seen commodity prices increase pretty much across the board,
Speaker 1: and again the question is how much will manufacturers, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, eat those cost increases or pass them along
Speaker 1: to consumers. And in terms of products, we're seeing it
Speaker 1: on the consumer side, prices going up this boom. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe
Speaker 1: and listen to interviews of Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast
Speaker 1: platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Matt Miller three. On Fall Sweeney, I'm on Twitter at
Speaker 1: pt Sweeney before the podcast. You can always catch us
Speaker 1: worldwide at Bloomberg Radio