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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am

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Speaker 1: Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: One of the top read stories on the Bloomberg Criminal

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Speaker 2: is about Morgan stanleing and cutting about three percent of

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Speaker 2: its workforce pretty much across all of its business lines.

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Speaker 2: And one question I have, I think a lot of

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Speaker 2: folks have, is this something specific to Morgan Stanley. There's

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Speaker 2: a signal weakness in the biz, but words it just

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Speaker 2: kind of the annual culling of people. So let's just

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Speaker 2: see what's happening here. Herman Chan, senior analyst for US

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Speaker 2: Banks Joints US here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio.

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Speaker 2: So what do you make of the news heerman come

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Speaker 2: out of Morgan Stanley bet laying off about three percent

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Speaker 2: of its workforce.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, three percent of its workforce, about twenty

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Speaker 3: five hundred workers. I would say that it is of

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Speaker 3: an annual culling. They did a similar workforce reduction last year.

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Speaker 3: I would also point to the fact that head count

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Speaker 3: across the big banks was pretty stable for banks like

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Speaker 3: JP Morgan, Bank of America City, whereas Morgan standly grew

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Speaker 3: their headcount three percent last year, So now they're sort

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Speaker 3: of back in the pack with this workforce reduction.

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Speaker 4: So we noticed that the cuts hit investment banking, trading

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Speaker 4: and the wealth management. You mentioned that it's annual culling,

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Speaker 4: but should we read into whether the signals a broader

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Speaker 4: shift for the bank.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting because last year when they did a

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Speaker 3: two percent reduction, they didn't really touch their financial advisor force,

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Speaker 3: whereas this year it seems like it's more broad in scope.

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Speaker 3: So I think there's just maybe some some changes in

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Speaker 3: where they think that their advisors are and maybe just

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Speaker 3: shifting geographically as well.

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Speaker 2: You know, what are the investment banks saying about AI

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Speaker 2: and as a way to make the more efficient and

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Speaker 2: maybe with less headcoun Because I think about the first

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Speaker 2: three years of my investment banking career, pretty much everything

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Speaker 2: I did, running earnings models, LBO models, pitch books, pretty

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Speaker 2: much all of my life could have been done by

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Speaker 2: any right price myself out of a job back then.

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Speaker 5: But what are they saying these days.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so AI is a big story. We just heard

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Speaker 3: JPM Morgan at the investor Day talk about the benefits

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Speaker 3: of AI in terms of personalization, pinpointing which customers would

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Speaker 3: be open to different products, and using AI to better

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Speaker 3: use their marketing dollars for that. On the other hand,

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Speaker 3: they've also talked about improving customer satisfaction with the call

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Speaker 3: centers and the like, where there's less people in the

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Speaker 3: call centers, which is expense saving for banks like jping

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Speaker 3: Morgan and b of A, but they're also improving customer satisfaction.

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Speaker 3: You can see that improving over time, so there's a

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Speaker 3: double benefit on that front.

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Speaker 4: AI accelerating structural change when it comes to these banks,

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Speaker 4: because we've heard a lot of banks and fintech firms

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Speaker 4: like Block actually citing AI as a reason why they're calling.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I wouldn't say we're going to see forty percent

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Speaker 3: job cuts from from JP Morgan and BAA at this point,

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Speaker 3: but I would say that AI is definitely reducing the

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Speaker 3: need for headcounts, and we've seen that given the fact

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Speaker 3: that JP Morgan's headcount numbers are flat year over year,

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Speaker 3: and really they've been reducing their their workforce within the

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Speaker 3: consumer bank, which which speaks to what I was just

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Speaker 3: saying before with the call center.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we were just talking earlier that twenty

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Speaker 2: six could wind up being a monster year from IPOs.

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Speaker 2: We're just talking about anthropic open AI SpaceX. What are

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Speaker 2: the banks saying about the prospects for IPOs in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty six.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that that is something that that heading into the year,

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Speaker 3: a lot of the investment banks were really we're really

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Speaker 3: in enthusiastic about to pick up in capital markets issue

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Speaker 3: once and activity specifically with IPOs and equity capital markets,

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Speaker 3: and also in M and A you talked about some

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Speaker 3: of the three headline IPOs that could potentially hit this year.

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Speaker 3: That being said, there's been some volatility in turbulence in

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Speaker 3: the market today, so maybe that pushes things back to

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Speaker 3: a little bit, but overall there is some general enthusiasm

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Speaker 3: and JP Morgan mentioned capital markets would be up fourteen

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Speaker 3: about mid teens for the first quarter, so there's hopes

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Speaker 3: that that could continue going forward.

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Speaker 4: Do you think that these layoffs will affect Morgan Stanley

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Speaker 4: and competing with top talent, because to PulsePoint, it's going

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Speaker 4: to be such a busy year or is this par

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Speaker 4: for the core in most banks.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I would say Morgan Stanley is one of the top

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Speaker 3: investment banks, particularly in technology TMT, and they're going to

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Speaker 3: get their fair share of deals and win a lot

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Speaker 3: of mandates just given the fact that they have really

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Speaker 3: strong banking presence within that industry. We'd expect to do

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Speaker 3: really well in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 2: You know, when President Trump took was elected took over

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Speaker 2: an early last year, one of the industries that was

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Speaker 2: really thought to benefit would be the financial services industry.

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Speaker 2: Much less regulation, that's rolling back some of the regulations

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Speaker 2: that came out of the Great Financial Crisis.

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Speaker 5: Have we seen that we have?

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Speaker 3: So, we've seen that directly with m and A, With

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Speaker 3: Bank m and A. There's been more deal making but

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Speaker 3: also less red tape in terms of getting deals approved

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Speaker 3: by the regulators. We've seen a few deals that just

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Speaker 3: get approved with less than one hundred days from announcement

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Speaker 3: to close, whereas during the Biden administration it took three

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Speaker 3: hundred and four hundred days for that to happen. So

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Speaker 3: much more streamlined. And you're also seeing, on the other hand,

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Speaker 3: for the big banks, less onerous capital rules, So that

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Speaker 3: means they can plow more of their capital into the

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Speaker 3: trading businesses and lending, So that's going to be an

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Speaker 3: ongoing benefit for the big banks.

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Speaker 5: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live

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Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android

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Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: Broadcom the chip maker, Broadcom reported some pretty good numbers,

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Speaker 2: better than expected numbers, some good revenue guidance. CEO's talking

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Speaker 2: about one hundred billion dollars in revenue next year. They

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Speaker 2: had about sixty eight billion dollars last year, so that's

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Speaker 2: a mega jump. Let's check in with Ku John Sobani.

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Speaker 2: He's a senior ANAOS covering the semiconductors for Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Speaker 2: He spased out there in San Francisco. Kunjohn, seems like

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Speaker 2: a good number to me. What did what did you

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Speaker 2: guys and what did the street take away?

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Speaker 6: Yeah?

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Speaker 7: It was.

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Speaker 6: It was one of the most strongest showings when it

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Speaker 6: comes to AI chip names in our sector. You know,

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Speaker 6: just for context, most of the AI chip names, despite

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Speaker 6: them giving strong numbers next day have seen their stock

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Speaker 6: down sort of met single digit. Here you're seeing the

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Speaker 6: opposite very well justified. Few things that really stood out

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Speaker 6: to investors. That one was the one hundred billion plus

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Speaker 6: line of sight of AI chip revenues in twenty twenty seven,

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Speaker 6: and to add the point that they see growth in

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Speaker 6: twenty twenty eight. Again, this is the first company calling

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Speaker 6: out growth two years out so far in our sector,

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Speaker 6: so that should ease the concerns around hyper scale spending.

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Speaker 6: There were a lot of other good points here. The

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Speaker 6: networking side of their business, which we believe continues to

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Speaker 6: be underappreciated, has been running much faster than people expect.

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Speaker 6: The gross margins, which you would think should be seeing

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Speaker 6: headwinds because of these ramp of their AI chips, are

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Speaker 6: actually going to stay stable, which in itself is a

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Speaker 6: very positive sign, which implies that a they have significantly

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Speaker 6: strong pricing power, they're not eating the rising input cost,

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Speaker 6: and that they have supply chain really optimized to get

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Speaker 6: the best feels.

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Speaker 4: They did say that AI sales chips could top one

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Speaker 4: hundred billion by twenty twenty seven. Quo Jan, how credible

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Speaker 4: is that target? I mean aar revenue more than doubled

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Speaker 4: last quarter. But is this gross sustainable?

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Speaker 6: I mean, look, what Hawkden says in our sector is

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Speaker 6: not taken lightly. It's sort of a line in the stone.

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Speaker 6: So I wouldn't think they would be throwing out numbers

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Speaker 6: will nearly if they didn't have to. Also, there was

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Speaker 6: there is no need for them to throw out that

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Speaker 6: long outward number. So you know, most of the street

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Speaker 6: and the south side does give a lot of credence

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Speaker 6: to that number now that it's coming out from hawk

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Speaker 6: AND's mouth. And look when we look at the gigaboard

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Speaker 6: and the unit volume projections which are there on the

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Speaker 6: street even before that hundred billion number came out, it

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Speaker 6: doesn't seem drastically aggressive or ambitious. I mean, we have

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Speaker 6: heard Google's higher capex, the entropic dealer and the open

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Speaker 6: Ai deal layout, the timing and toropic. Again to remind everyone,

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Speaker 6: is will be on the all the TPUs that Broadcom

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Speaker 6: creates through Google. So when you add up most of

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Speaker 6: the unit volume which is expected, this does seem reasonable

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Speaker 6: that they can easily achieve that hundred billion target.

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Speaker 2: Kun John, where does Broadcom fit into the world of

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Speaker 2: the semiconductor chip makers. I'm thinking, you know, versus the

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Speaker 2: NVIDIAs of the world, the a m ds of the world,

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Speaker 2: what does Broadcom kind of fit in there?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so, you know, the AMDs and and media sell

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Speaker 6: what we call GPUs. Think of them as AI accelerator

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Speaker 6: chips use for everything AI. But that is something that

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Speaker 6: off the shelf chips. Anyone can go by the GPU

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Speaker 6: and use it the way, use it the way it's

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Speaker 6: supposed to use. Broadcom sells a similar chip that is

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Speaker 6: used for the same AI training, AI influence AGENTIC AI

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Speaker 6: use cases, but are a six. What it just means

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Speaker 6: is big companies like Google, Meta Amazons and Microsoft go

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Speaker 6: and sort of design their own aigpus if I may

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Speaker 6: working with a company like Broadcom, because they want to modify,

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Speaker 6: they want to customize, they want to optimize it to

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Speaker 6: their own needs. So essentially you have the NVIDIAs, the AMDs,

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Speaker 6: the Broadcom, and the Marvels all selling AI excelator chips.

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Speaker 6: Is just the end use cases the same as just

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Speaker 6: the mode of execution is slightly bit different.

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Speaker 4: Broadcom also announced a ten billion dollars buyback. What does

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Speaker 4: that signal to investors right now?

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Speaker 6: In your opinion, It's definitely a positive signal. I mean,

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Speaker 6: any buyback is a positive signal, but it is not

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Speaker 6: that huge enough to really raise eyebrows. Broadcom historically has

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Speaker 6: been a great dividend pair. They have sustained records of

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Speaker 6: growing their dividends, so that is what their sort of

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Speaker 6: long term capital return shareholders really care about, which they

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Speaker 6: continue to still do. This is just a cherry on

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Speaker 6: the top.

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Speaker 2: So in Vidia, they have an investor Day coming up,

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Speaker 2: I believe on Saint Patrick's Day.

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Speaker 5: What do you expect to see there that that could

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Speaker 5: be a big data point.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that usually is a huge data point for them.

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Speaker 6: It is the three day conference. Look, we expect a

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Speaker 6: couple of things here. We expect the new sort of

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Speaker 6: a lot more details when it comes to the VERA

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Speaker 6: rubin which is supposed to come in second half of

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Speaker 6: twenty six, and more than that, we expect a lot

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Speaker 6: more details on that twenty twenty seven road map. All

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Speaker 6: eyeser from investor perspective now that what we have heard

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Speaker 6: from Nvidia Broadcome in every hyperscale is really to figure

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Speaker 6: out the twenty seven numbers. So the focus really will

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Speaker 6: be the chips that are coming out in twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 6: The new innovation that they will be doing. What will

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Speaker 6: be the memory, whether it will have silicon photonics CPO.

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Speaker 6: I know I'm rambling some technical terms, but this is

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Speaker 6: what will really help investors to shape twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 6: Will twenty twenty seven be an up year for chip makers?

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Speaker 6: And does that mean the hyperscales will still keep spending

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Speaker 6: more in twenty seven than they are spending in twenty

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Speaker 6: twenty six, which would be impressive feed So that is

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Speaker 6: what really the focus will be. From NY Media's.

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Speaker 2: GDC couljoh thirty seconds left here. How often do I

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Speaker 2: have to replace a chip? Is that something that I

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Speaker 2: have to do every year? Every time they update?

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Speaker 5: How's that work?

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Speaker 6: Yeah? These are fairly new chips. So when you think

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Speaker 6: of we have not seen a full life cycle of

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Speaker 6: these new GPUs in Essex, right, we really started seeing

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Speaker 6: them deploying in volume in twenty twenty three. Now, based

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Speaker 6: on the deprecious schedules right now that are put in place,

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Speaker 6: we're talking about five to six years before you really

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Speaker 6: have to crank out a chip and put a new

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Speaker 6: one in its place, So we are not there yet. However,

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Speaker 6: there's another business case where you have a limited power,

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Speaker 6: you have limited data center footprint, so if a new

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Speaker 6: or more efficient chips comes in, there might be a

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Speaker 6: business case to justify ripping out an old chip even

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Speaker 6: though it's working correctly, so that you are running on

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Speaker 6: the latest and greatest chip.

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Speaker 5: Stay with us more from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after.

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Speaker 1: This to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays

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Speaker 1: at ten am Eastern on Applecarplay and Android Auto with

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: One of the themes, or one of the storylines around

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Speaker 2: AI has been the use in the government, particularly the

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Speaker 2: Department of Defense.

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Speaker 5: A lot of these AI.

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Speaker 2: Folks are having discussions with the Department of Defense about

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Speaker 2: how the technology will be used. One of those as

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Speaker 2: anthropic and anthropic the news today at of Bloomberg News

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Speaker 2: has resumed discussions with the Pentagon about the use of

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Speaker 2: AI models in the US military. It's checking with Man

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Speaker 2: Deep seeing here he runs a tech research for Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Speaker 2: Joins us live here in our Bloomberg arrective broker studio.

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Speaker 2: So anthropic back into discussions with the government.

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Speaker 5: How is this going to play out.

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Speaker 2: Do you think with these AI agents and the level

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Speaker 2: of control they may or may not have about how

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Speaker 2: their technology is used by their customers in this case

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Speaker 2: of the US government.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I was very surprising is that they

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Speaker 7: didn't come to an agreement before, and you know, they

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Speaker 7: were designated as a supply chain risk, which is a

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Speaker 7: big deal for any entity, any company preating here in

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Speaker 7: the US. So from that perspective, it's good that you know,

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Speaker 7: they are back to negotiating with the government and trying

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Speaker 7: to figure out a solution so that they don't end

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Speaker 7: up losing any business. I mean, Anthropic just doubled their

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Speaker 7: revenue in the past three months, so they ended the

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Speaker 7: year at ten billion. Now they are at twenty billion

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Speaker 7: dollar rund rate within three months. So this is one

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Speaker 7: of the fastest growing US companies ever and they've been

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Speaker 7: designated as a supply chain risk, so clearly, you know,

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Speaker 7: they have a lot to lose in terms of momentum

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Speaker 7: if this carries on for a long time. And from

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Speaker 7: that perspective, I do think, you know, the management, especially

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Speaker 7: the CEO, has been on various podcasts talking about, you know,

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Speaker 7: the whole guardrails and the points of disagreements. I do

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Speaker 7: think that they'll find a solution and that should somewhat

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Speaker 7: insulate them from losing any business.

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Speaker 4: So Anthropic reportedly wants limit on surveillance and autonomous weapons.

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Speaker 4: Do those guardrails become the industry standard or if they

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Speaker 4: keep pushing for that, will they be at a competitive

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Speaker 4: disadvantage because to your point, they have a lot to lose,

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Speaker 4: and not only them, possibly most of the companies who

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Speaker 4: are wanting to deal with the US government.

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Speaker 7: Well opening I stepped in right away as soon as

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Speaker 7: they had a fallout, So I don't know if you know,

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Speaker 7: other companies believe in the same philosophy here, and Anthropic

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Speaker 7: has you know, being a big promo proponent of guardrails

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Speaker 7: and you know, safety more so than the other frontier

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Speaker 7: model players. So from that perspective that has helped them,

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Speaker 7: you know with enterprise adoption. But in this case it's

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Speaker 7: the US government and you know, you go back in

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Speaker 7: the history of software companies. I mean Apple has had

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Speaker 7: some disagreements with the government where they were asked to

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Speaker 7: open the platform. Same thing with Microsoft when it comes

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Speaker 7: to a national security and they've found a way to

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Speaker 7: you know, just make sure that the government has a

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Speaker 7: good workaround. So in this case, that's what they have

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Speaker 7: to compromise or you know, come up with a workaround.

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Speaker 7: It doesn't mean you have to open your platform, but

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Speaker 7: just kind of make sure that you know, the government

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Speaker 7: doesn't label you as a supply to address.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Anthropic Open AI. Are these companies going to come public?

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Speaker 2: Do you think at some point?

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Speaker 7: I mean they are getting ready. In fact, I won't

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Speaker 7: be surprised if it's not this year. Like really everything

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Speaker 7: points to them going public in the second half, given

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Speaker 7: you know how focused they are on that ramp up

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Speaker 7: and what they are doing in terms of just the

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Speaker 7: cost structure side, because one of the criticisms is how

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Speaker 7: much cash they're burning and the training. It also require

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Speaker 7: a lot of upfront cash. But in this case, now

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Speaker 7: that they have doubled their revenue in the past three

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Speaker 7: months and they are I can sell that and so

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Speaker 7: that's where I think it's a perfect set to.

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Speaker 2: Your twenty six may have open AI and SpaceX.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's going to be an exciting.

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Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, that could be an extraordinary some of

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Speaker 7: the biggest IPOs. I mean, these are not early stage

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Speaker 7: companies anymore. You know, so think of how much money

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Speaker 7: they may end up raising in the public markets.

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Speaker 5: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up there for.

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Speaker 1: This, you're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us

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Speaker 1: live weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Corplay and

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Speaker 1: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: We got an artings coming out some of the retailers.

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Speaker 2: As you know, they kind of report towards the end

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Speaker 2: of the season. Given the holiday, they like to push

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Speaker 2: the reportings back a month versus most other companies. Uh, Kroger,

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Speaker 2: we had some numbers out BJ's wholesale warehouse. Jen Bartashee

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Speaker 2: covers this part of the retail space. Jen, let's start

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Speaker 2: with Kroger is the biggest supermarket chain other than Walmart.

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Speaker 5: How do they do?

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Speaker 7: You know?

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Speaker 8: Kruger had a pretty solid quarter, you know, and I

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Speaker 8: think investors are very encouraged by the early signs of

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Speaker 8: what their new CEO, Greg Forren, is bringing to bear.

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Speaker 8: The last year, Kruger's really focused on streamlining the business.

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Speaker 8: They've dispersed, they've they've gotten rid of some assets, they've

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Speaker 8: streamlined their e commerce operations and now they seem to

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Speaker 8: be better positioned for growth. And one of the things

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Speaker 8: he's known for is execution, and so there's some some

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Speaker 8: optimism with regards to how Kroger you could perform this year.

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Speaker 4: We're also seeing shoppers trade down to private label and

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Speaker 4: hunt for discounts. Is this trend accelerating across the space

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Speaker 4: or is this specific to Kroger's.

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Speaker 8: No, it's it's accelerating across the space. And when we

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Speaker 8: look at a US all goods that are sold private

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Speaker 8: label sales are still growing at a faster rate than

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Speaker 8: national brands. The pace of that growth is a little

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Speaker 8: bit slower than it had been, but it's still edging

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Speaker 8: out national brands. And so when you have retailers like

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Speaker 8: Kroger who have a long standing program around private label,

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Speaker 8: that really bodes well for them with regards to their

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Speaker 8: product mix and their ability to offer value as well

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Speaker 8: as innovation to their customers.

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Speaker 2: So tell to us just broadly, how the trends have

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Speaker 2: been with some of these private labels visa vi the

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Speaker 2: established brands. Just maybe like in shelf placement, it used

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Speaker 2: to be the private labels would be on the you know,

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Speaker 2: the bottom rung of the shelf near the floor. Are

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Speaker 2: they getting better positioning, because I know that's important when

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Speaker 2: you're walking down the aisle, it is.

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Speaker 8: It's a great point, Paul. And what you're finding is

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Speaker 8: that for some retailers that private label is front and center.

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Speaker 8: And part of that is due to the fact that

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Speaker 8: in old days, the resellers were more reliant on alec

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Speaker 8: hation funds from the CpG companies that dictated where goods

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Speaker 8: were placed. But in a new age of advertising and

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Speaker 8: digital assets, the need for that in store placement is

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Speaker 8: not as big as it used to be historically, so

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Speaker 8: they've got more leeway to put the items where people

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Speaker 8: see them, you know. And at the same time, you know,

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Speaker 8: from a private label perspective, there's just greater acceptance. If

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Speaker 8: you think about you know, chains like Aldi or Legal,

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Speaker 8: you know, these chains that are almost all private label brands,

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Speaker 8: and people have really started to embrace that. And so

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Speaker 8: private label in and of itself is no longer, you know,

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Speaker 8: sort of more of a taboo category, and people are

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Speaker 8: considered themselves smart when they're buying private label because they're

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Speaker 8: saving money.

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Speaker 2: I've been seeing like a I live in down the

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Speaker 2: Jersey Shore a ton more of these al d and

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Speaker 2: legal stores.

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Speaker 5: I'm like, who are these people?

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Speaker 4: Really?

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Speaker 7: No?

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Speaker 2: I know, okay, because I mean they're not the shop

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Speaker 2: right of in Bee, So I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Let's go to BJ's. They delivered on earning speat this quarter.

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Speaker 4: Our warehouse clubs canntinuing to take share from traditional supermarkets.

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Speaker 4: Is that the trend we're seeing?

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Speaker 8: It is definitely a trend. I think what happens is consumers,

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Speaker 8: once they lock into a membership, they really look to

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Speaker 8: maximize that membership. And they've understood that that warehouse clubs

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Speaker 8: as a type of store are actually better positioned than

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Speaker 8: grocery stores or even the mass merchants to make quick

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Speaker 8: changes to their inventory. And what that means is that

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Speaker 8: they can always pivot to things that are the best

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Speaker 8: value for their customers. So even though they may not

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Speaker 8: have the exact same item every time you go in

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Speaker 8: the club, you know, they encourage that to be looked

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Speaker 8: at as a treasure hunt experience, but they can also

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Speaker 8: offer really really good value. And so we're seeing the

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Speaker 8: membership base grow and it is eking you know, sales

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Speaker 8: away from some of those more traditional formats.

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Speaker 5: So what is the story.

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Speaker 2: What is the story for Bej's Wholesale? How do you

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Speaker 2: position it? How does the street position this story.

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Speaker 8: So BJS has done a really good job in the

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Speaker 8: last two or three years of reienting to growth. They've

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Speaker 8: accelerated their historic openings, so they're entering new markets as well.

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Speaker 8: They're entering the Dallas Fort Worth area later this year,

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Speaker 8: for example, And that kind of growth and targeting high

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Speaker 8: growth markets is really a good plan because historically they've

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Speaker 8: been really constrained to the northeast, and so I think

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Speaker 8: people are looking at bjays and they've really been able

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Speaker 8: to show that those new clubs are executing well. They're

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Speaker 8: very very productive stores, and they're able to sustain a

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Speaker 8: pace of faster openings. So all of those things together

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Speaker 8: really point to a long runway for growth and a

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Speaker 8: lot of weight space to enter for new markets and

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Speaker 8: to gain share.

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Speaker 4: So, with inflation easing but consumers still cautious, what are

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Speaker 4: you on the lookout for when it comes to to

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Speaker 4: grocery earnings this year?

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Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a great question. You know, there are a

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Speaker 8: couple of things that we're really watching and when it

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Speaker 8: you know, when you're talking about food retail, price sensitivity

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Speaker 8: is there, but it's going to shift more this year

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Speaker 8: to are these retailers able to sell greater volumes of

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Speaker 8: goods and if they're achieving that through price cuts or

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00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:20,399
Speaker 8: through promotions, and then how that then translates back to

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Speaker 8: like the food manufacturing companies. It's been multiple years since

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Speaker 8: we've seen retailers have positive volume in the majority of

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Speaker 8: the store, and so that really is the focus for

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Speaker 8: this year, especially because inflation has become less of a

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Speaker 8: pressure for them to have to manage.

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Speaker 8: M