Episode summary
Stocks Fall at End of Bruising Week for AI | Bloomberg Surveillance
Bloomberg Surveillance
· · 29 min · Hosts: Tom Keene, Paul Sweeney, Lisa Mateo, Michael Barr · Guests: Nancy Tengler, Diane Swonk, Kristen Bitterly, Robert Schiffman
Summary
The discussion centered on how AI is reshaping equity leadership, margins, and capital spending after a bruising week for the theme. A guest argued that the market is already rewarding old-economy companies that successfully pivot to new technologies, citing firms such as Walmart and L3 Harris, while saying the current weakness in technology is likely a chance to add selectively. The same guest also said Microsoft remains a holding, but questioned its communication around AI monetization and wanted stronger clarity on profit allocation.
Economics took a more cautious turn. An analyst said underlying service inflation remains too high, with the K-shaped economy, aging demographics, and rising AI-related costs keeping price pressures sticky even as energy prices fall. The analyst also argued that the labor market is resilient on the surface but weaker underneath, with higher underemployment, longer unemployment durations, and falling quit rates pointing to uncertainty.
The final segment focused on the flood of capital into AI-related credit. The analyst said investment-grade tech debt is generally holding up, but names with massive negative free cash flow, like SpaceX and Oracle, are weaker in the aftermarket. Still, the view was that demand is outrunning supply and that more AI-related issuance is likely, even if second-half supply slows.
Key takeaways
- A guest said investors should favor old-economy companies that are using AI to improve productivity and margins, not just pure-play tech names.
- The guest said Microsoft is still a core holding, but its AI story depends on better communication and clearer monetization.
- An analyst said service-sector inflation remains too high and AI costs are arriving before AI productivity gains are fully scaled.
- The analyst said the labor market is still resilient, but rising underemployment and longer unemployment durations point to hidden weakness.
- On credit, the analyst said demand for AI-related debt still exceeds supply, even as weaker issuers such as SpaceX and Oracle trade poorly in the aftermarket.
Notable quotes
“AI productivity really is impacting margins and impacting cost savings and growth across the the economic sectors”
“We may be adding to it here soon. We own it across all of our large cap strategies. It's one of our 12 best ideas”
“We think that underlying inflation in the service sectors remain too high”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. — This is the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 7:00 a.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay or Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
Somer, you know, our guests are smarter than we are. — Yeah. — It's 98° high in Paris today. — Yep. — Which is not quite like Phoenix, where it's 108° high today. — Lake Tahoe, which is where Nancy Tengler hangs. Lake Tahoe's 55°.
She's got it all figured out. — Like she's got the heat on. She's smarter than we are. — Nancy Tengler, thank you so much for joining today with Laffer Tengler Investments. How do you approach your portfolios given the end June 30 and earnings and revenue season beginning July 14th?
Yeah. Good morning, Tom. Good morning, Paul.
Well, it's it's always tricky, isn't it? I mean, we we have had a very good year, so you know, we're well ahead of the benchmarks. And that's because we rotated early out of some of trim trimming back some of the tech names, though we're still overweight technology and adding to some of the infrastructure names.
And then across sectors, what what we're seeing is that AI productivity really is impacting margins and impacting cost savings and growth across the the economic sectors. So, we are selectively adding and this this weakness, what we call the summer swoon in technology, is likely a time when we'll be adding to some names.
In your notes, which are just great, Nancy, thank you. You've got some commentary from the CEO of Uber who says 95% of our engineers now use AI coding tools monthly and more than 10% of code is now written autonomously by AI coding agents.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai stocks
- weekly market selloff
- economic outlook
- wealth management
- tech credit
Companies and tickers mentioned
- C
- Laffer Tengler investments
- KPMG
- Citi
- Bloomberg Intelligence
Watch the episode
Watch “Stocks Fall at End of Bruising Week for AI | Bloomberg Surveillance” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Bloomberg Surveillance
-
Stocks Rise as Inflation Data Ease Fed-Hike Worry | Bloomberg Surveillance -
Bloomberg Surveillance TV: November 13th, 2026 | Bloomberg Surveillance -
Bloomberg Surveillance TV: November 12th, 2026 | Bloomberg Surveillance -
Jensen Huang Ousted by Nvidia Board as CEO | Bloomberg Surveillance -
Bloomberg Surveillance TV: November 11th, 2026 | Bloomberg Surveillance -
AI Stocks Rebound as Fed Hike Bets Return | Bloomberg Surveillance
Bloomberg Surveillance, this episode and its artwork belong to Bloomberg. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
