Fed unlikely to move rates due to the 2024 presidential election: Mark Smith

My next guest doubling down on his call for no rate hikes. I’m going to bring a Wells Fargo advisor, Senior Vice President, Mark Smith. All right, Mark, a lot of folks in the street still betting on rate cuts. You know, listen, maybe if it doesn’t happen by July, it might not be able to happen because of the the election. But you say you’ve been saying no, and it looks like more and more like you’re probably right. Yeah, look at the numbers, Charles CPIPPI, core CPE inflation. None of those are telling the Fed they need to do anything. And guess what? We got an election in November and last time I checked, the Fed is a part of the government. You got to think about politics. What do you think about government? And I don’t see them going for or up or down on rates. Given November is an election. It’s going to look too preferential to one or one party or the other. I don’t know the Fed did. Did anybody tell the Fed they were part of the government? What about the. We just had this conversation with Gary. You were listening to most of it before you said your your clients are pounding you get me in those Max 7 names, get me in those Max 7 names. They still have the same sort of velocity. Do they still want to have these stocks that much? Listen, all these stocks are looking like they’re going to be generational holes, which means that if you believe in your clients believe that. Though I I think so because when I talk to them, they’re all, they’re always talking about the next thing in tech. And as if you’re thinking if all that’s all you’re talking about, you want to invest in that and you see long term growth potential. AI is giving the tech sector new life and it’s still a new story. Last time I checked, most companies right now are still just looking to implement the technology and that’s why I think they it’s such a powerful story for decades to come. Great, great point. I got Sylvia Jablonski and we’re going to dive even deeper into that, just how much quickly they’re trying to catch up almost all these companies. In the meantime, there’s some sectors you like. I want to talk about that. This is the last three months. So financials you like a lot here. You still like financials. I still like financials. Are there 2 separate those? Do you separate the like big banks from small banks? Absolutely. The the big banks have proved that they can make money in any environment. They’ve got leader and meter coming out of the pandemic and you got to you got to think about with rates this high they’re making more than ever and with net interest margin if things can settle down with with rates I think they’ll find a way to continue to make more more money with that as well. The last three months industrials up 8.1% and materials XLB up 8 1/2%. There’s only one sector. Energy is the only thing that’s outperformed that you would still buy these. I would, Charles, there are 50,000 projects around the country, infrastructure that came out of the the deal, out of Congress, bipartisan deal. And that’s all going to work. They’re buying all materials. They’re going into, they’re going into Caterpillar. They got to get these projects done and there’s a lot of excitement about it. And I would definitely be in these sectors because you need this stuff to build the country. I know you like gold. I know you like gold. Gavicoll Research, one of my favorite firms, put out this really intriguing piece about US, German, France, mostly Eurozone bonds, essentially saying that they’re worthless, that they’re certificates of confiscation to own them. You’re down here, right? You’re not making any money. And if anyone’s thinking about owning them, they should instead own gold, which is breaking out. I know you like gold. What do you think about that assessment? Listen, I like the fact that gold is a play that’s international. It’s got a track record going back 2000 plus years. And you also see that with the proliferation of Bitcoin that gold is being sought after even more because of the fact that a lot of people think Bitcoin is Fugazi. So whether you think that or not is is, is, is 1 or the other, but only like 10% of America owns Bitcoin, I think less last time I checked. And so when you think about that, I like Gold, given all the different hostilities around the world, whether it’s I’m in Ukraine or in Iran. Gold again is a hedge store value or more as not just a store value but something you can actually make some real good money on a next. It’s a store of value. I think it evens out the portfolio from some of the equity risk we’re taking, right. And it’s also great when you got potential wars on the pipe. So great stuff. Good to see you. Thanks, Mark.