Episode summary
BI Weekend: GM, Starbucks, UPS Earnings (Podcast) | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Scarlet Fu · Guests: Steve Man, Sid Philip, Anurag Rana, Michael Halen, John Butler, Thomas Black, Janet Lorin
Summary
General Motors’ quarter beat expectations and management guided to as much as $2 billion in profit growth this year, with Steve Man arguing the company is still overwhelmingly an internal-combustion story, at roughly 85% to 90% ICE versus 10% to 15% EV. He said looser mileage rules and lower EV-credit costs help the Detroit automakers, while higher gasoline prices would favor hybrids from Toyota and Honda more than pure EV plays like Tesla.
In airlines, Sid Phillip said the industry remains split between premium winners and pressured discount carriers. American Airlines is leaning into premium traffic, JetBlue is targeting profitability and free cash flow by the end of 2027, and smaller low-cost carriers are being squeezed by higher labor costs and a K-shaped recovery in demand. Boeing also showed progress, with cash flow improving as production rises under Kelly Ortberg.
The tech and consumer segments were more constructive. Anurag Rana said Nvidia’s extra $2 billion investment in CoreWeave is about reinforcing the Nvidia ecosystem, while Michael Halen said Starbucks’ turnaround is taking hold through better operations, faster service and product innovation. John Butler argued AT&T is well positioned in fiber and converged bundles, and Thomas Black said UPS is shrinking its Amazon exposure and leaning harder on automation to raise margins. Janet Lorin closed with Yale’s endowment model, which is under pressure as higher rates, illiquidity and new taxes make private equity less attractive.
Key takeaways
- Steve Man said GM is still 85% to 90% internal-combustion vehicles, so the near-term story is profits from ICE, not a full EV pivot.
- Sid Phillip said airlines are increasingly a premium-vs-discount market, with American, Delta and United targeting high-end customers while Spirit and Frontier face margin pressure.
- Anurag Rana said CoreWeave’s $50 billion backlog still depends on land, power and capital to convert contracted demand into data centers.
- Michael Halen said Starbucks is seeing 4% same-store sales growth as better operations and marketing improve traffic, but it still faces $2 billion of annual cost work.
- John Butler said AT&T’s fiber build and pending Lumen fiber purchase strengthen its ability to sell converged wireless-broadband bundles.
- Thomas Black said UPS expects to cut another 30,000 jobs and use automation to build a leaner, more profitable network.
Notable quotes
“GM's earnings for 2026 is probably a little bit light. Uh, there's probably some more upside on the shift mix for more ice”
“the airline industry is actually in a sort of bit of a flux at the moment. I mean, you've obviously had the impact of all these storms”
“Nvidia is creating the chips and core is helping them sell the computing using those chips to different uh public that's out there”
“The turnaround plans are are starting to to really uh take a hold right now and and um results really improved rising you know 4%”
“UPS continues to shrink to become [snorts] more profitable. That's the big takeaway there”
How the episode opens
This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Scarlett Fu and Paul Sweeney. — How do you think the Fed is looking at tariffs, the uncertainty of tariffs? — Let's take a look at the sectors and how they perform. — A lot of investors getting whipsawed every day by news events.
Breaking market headlines — And corporate news from across the globe. — Could we see a market disruption, a market event? — Are people just too exuberant out there? — You see some so-called lowquality stocks driving this short-term rally? Bloomberg Intelligence — With Scarlett Fu and Paul Sweeney
On Bloomberg Radio, YouTube, and Bloomberg Originals. — On today's Bloomberg Intelligence Show, we dig inside the big business stories impacting Wall Street in the global markets. — Each and every week, we provide in-depth research and data on some of the 2,000 companies and 130 industries our analysts cover worldwide.
Today, we'll look at why the chip giant Nvidia invested $2 billion more in the AI cloud computing startup Core Week. Plus, a look at why a turnaround plan at the coffee giant Starbucks is starting to take hold. — But first, we begin in the auto sector. This week, General Motors released earnings that beat analysts expectations.
The company also said it expects profits to grow as much as $2 billion this year and plans to return more of that money to shareholders with a higher dividend and buybacks. — For more, we're joined by Steve Man, Bloomberg Intelligence, Global Autos, and Industrials analyst.
We began by asking Steve to break down GM's EV versus gas engine portfolio. — Oh, it's actually engines much greater. Uh, I know they have a full portfolio of EVs, but you're talking about like 85 90% ICE versus 10 to 15% EVs.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- gm earnings
- starbucks earnings
- ups earnings
- at&t earnings
- ai capex coreweave
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GM
- SBUX
- UPS
- NVDA
- T
- General Motors
- Starbucks
- United Parcel Service
- Nvidia
- CoreWeave
- AT&T
- Bloomberg L.P.
Watch the episode
Watch “BI Weekend: GM, Starbucks, UPS Earnings (Podcast) | Bloomberg Intelligence” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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