Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the long-term financial outlook with broadcast journalist Jane King.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Jane King, and she’s joining us from the New York Stock Exchange. Jane, good morning. Good to see you.
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Hi, Jeffrey. Yes, good to see you too.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
It’s a happy April to you. There’s a lot going on in the market. First let me just, let’s do a baseline.
You cover this each and every day. I mean, you are a, no offense, but you’re a veteran of the broadcast journalism trade and the markets. What’s your take on everything that’s going on right now?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Well, it’s exhausting and it’s constantly moving. You have to really stay on top of information because things happen, there’s a surprise. One thing I’ve certainly noticed is nobody wants to go into a weekend with a position or at least a very large one, or maybe there might be some people, but it seems like on Fridays, they’re kind of quiet.
People are kind of wrapping things up because, you know, we had talks over the weekend that could have gone in a number of different directions and nobody wants to be exposed when those markets reopened on Sunday night.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. I just, out of, off the cuff, Jane, do you think we’ll ever get to a point where there’s trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we’ve got artificial intelligence? I know the traders probably won’t be there, but couldn’t trading happen all the time?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
I do. I think, and in fact, if you look at like hyper liquid, like some of these smaller exchanges, I mean, that’s how, you know, on Saturday we could check oil prices before they opened at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Now it’s not as, you know, it’s more thinly traded, but it was the only indication we have.
But yeah, I think the markets are going to go through a lot of changes over the next few years. 24-7 trading is going to be one. We’re going to see tokenized assets.
I mean, it’s a subject for another day maybe, but the markets are changing. We’re going to see some big changes.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. I think it’s, you know, just for people like me that are maybe on the outside, it’s uncomfortable. And Jane, affordability continues to be a concern.
I know you track the CPI numbers. This shoot up in oil prices doesn’t help, but CPI is definitely backward looking. What’s your take on the latest numbers?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Well, we certainly saw, and that was not a surprise, that the CPI was going to be up. And it was, when you took out food and energy, it was kind of a normal number. So very clearly this is a direct impact of the oil increase that we have seen.
So we’ve got West Texas Intermediate, you know, $100 or more, probably never going back down to that 67, at least not for a while, until things are really behind us with Iran that we saw before all of this happened. But it’s not just, it’s not just oil, it’s housing is still high. And cars, the average new car price, according to Kelly Blublick, is right around $50,000.
And so there’s all these things that are still costing more money. That inflation is very stubborn.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
It is very stubborn. And I know people, all of us feel it. And it’s a big concern.
Jane, you know, we’re doing this before the naval blockade, whatever that looks like, goes into place. So we don’t have the benefit of knowing what’s going to happen. But I guess an off-the-cuff question I have for you is, typically during times of conflict, and I, you know, just for the audience’s and Jane’s benefit, I don’t share my questions with her in advance.
She’s a gem in that respect. She’s very good off the cuff. But how historically does the market do during conflicts, Gulf War, last year’s bombing of Iran, World War II, Korea, Vietnam?
How does the market typically do?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
It feels like initially the markets freak out, and particularly if it involves some kind of natural resource like oil. And then things kind of settle down, even, you know, with this blockade. You know, we’re looking at some steep losses, and oil is up, but it’s not out of control.
And we’re not at record highs with oil. And it’s almost like there’s a price in of some kind of… I think the thinking is, we’re going to resolve this.
Iran’s being stubborn. You know, they are, you know, holding in there, and Trump is being stubborn. But I think that they think there’s just too much pain, globally, too much pressure.
There’s going to be something that will happen with this latest move. So I feel like they’re pricing in some problems, but I think the overall sense is this will get resolved. We just don’t know when, and exactly how.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let’s just talk longer term, because retirement investors, most investors are long-term investors. And you and I have talked over the years about volatility. We’re certainly seeing that today.
And, you know, taking into account what Jerome Powell is saying, industry leaders like Jamie Dimon, is the economy in a good fundamental position? When you take into account CPI, the volatility in the market, looking at things like AI and the business environment, long-term, when I say long-term, Jane, I’m talking like 12, 24, 36 months, are we in a good position economically?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Well, it does feel like there’s a lot of uncertainty, to be honest. So now you look at the stock market. So we crossed 50,000 in February or late January, I can’t remember.
And right now the Dow is, you know, right around 47. So we haven’t collapsed. So the stock market’s holding up.
So if you’ve got money in the stock market for a 401k plan, let’s hang it in there. You know, but I do worry about the job market. We’re hearing some terrifying predictions, 40% unemployment.
I mean, I heard, I think that probably is wrong. I hope.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I hope that’s wrong.
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Yeah. But, you know, there have been some people who just think, you know, AI is just going to take over so much. I have a son in college.
I wonder, you know, what he’s going to do. All of our friends in business say, make sure he studies AI and knows how it works. So I would advise that for anybody that’s in the workforce, really, to kind of learn how to do it because it’s coming fast and it’s very efficient.
It’s very good and it can take the job of some places. And then you’ve got this inflation lurking out there too. So I think for the consumer and just the average American, it’s kind of a scary economic time right now.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. I’m, I personally feel anxiety each and every morning I get up and when I go to bed. Yeah.
Well, you’ve got college. I mean, people have bills to pay for. I know.
It’s no laughing matter. You know, a topic, Jane, that we haven’t seen in the news because of what’s going on with Iran and some of the other events is the tariff conversation. We talked about that earlier last year.
That hasn’t seemed to resolve itself, but it’s still having an impact on small businesses and Jane, you know, small businesses are the lifeblood of an economy.
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Yeah. It was about this time last year that we were going through all the tariff turmoil. It was April.
So, but yeah, that’s certainly taken a backseat. I did see the president said any country who helps Iran providing weapons or whatever was going to be slapped with a 50 percent tariff. That didn’t seem to really bother the market too much.
I think the main concern now is oil and what’s that going to do to inflation and then what is that going to do to interest rates? So and we know interest rates are really kind of the, you know, the guiding principle for the stock market.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Jane, last question, I promise I’ll let you go because you do for the audience’s benefit. You’re doing hits all day, hits, TV hits all day about the market. So I appreciate you spending a couple minutes with us.
Let’s talk about the midterms. I don’t care about the politics, but how much does that frame? Those are in November.
It’s currently April. Well, the day this will air is April 14th. So the question is, how is that going to frame the markets?
Does it frame the markets? Does the market build potentially a shift in Congress, a shift in the Senate?
Jane King, Broadcast Journalist
Well, I think, you know, there is some time and we tend to kind of focus on, you know, the near term for our concerns. So maybe if this thing gets resolved and gas prices go back down, you know, people might feel a little better. I mean, I honestly just kind of get the sense that many Americans are just sick of both parties.
You know, they’re sick of, you know, the inflation that we’re seeing now. They’re tired of some of the Democrat policies. They don’t really want to do those again.
So, you know, it’s kind of like the economy. We’re just kind of stuck and not overly happy with it.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. Well, we’re going to have to see how things go. Jane King, thanks for making a few minutes from us.
Really appreciate it. And look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.