• Our next guest says the backdrop for stocks looks quote amazing. the CNBC Contributor, David Zervos, is a chief market strategist at Jefferies. David's always good to see you. Thanks for joining us here on set. So nothing has changed. I mean, the last time we saw you thought it was amazing too, nothing has changed in terms of the impact of the government shutdown. That's what we're having about the AI trade. everything status quo amazing.
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  • David Zervos
    I even tried to say it was pretty good back in April, I think, which was the hardest one of the year. So I think I've stayed pretty steadfast. I think the outlook for earnings returns on capital growth all look amazing. For the capital side of the equation, it's looking incredible. What I have a little worry about is labor and I'm seeing cracks. I think we're all seeing some cracks, the challenger data, but also just the confidence people are getting inundated with statements every day about AI taking jobs. People are looking at that and getting a little nervous. And I don't know when that feeds into the consumer, the consumer's been okay. But I think, you know, I really hope the Fed takes notice of that and starts to put a little bit more weight on what's happening in these labor markets that have been weaker and got revised in the last two or three months, significantly weaker. Remember, we've revised away almost a million and a half jobs that we thought were created in 2024 and the beginning of 2025. This is not a strong labor market driven growth. This is a productivity story. That's the thing that's getting me a little nervous. And I said it in a piece today Melissa I said maybe that's even a little bit about the politics of what we saw on Tuesday that there's a little bit of a shift and a little nervousness in the voting public that I'm sure this administration is watching pretty closely.
  • If people like Guy Adommy, third person, by the way, they're hair on fire, market breath, declineers, winners, you pointed out that's been a red flag for years. Jeff Richers, I don't know if Jeff, yeah, notable capital, he did the same thing in a tweet today. Why should I not make a big deal out of the fact that the markets continue to be driven by 15 or 20 names?
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  • David Zervos
    I love the idea of leaders. I don't think we want an S&P that has 500 stocks that are all up 14% on the year. That's like the participation trophy we hand out at the kindergarten soccer game. I want some 100s and some 200s and I want some bankruptcies. That means we're growing. That's an economy that is fortified with technological advance. I love it. So I'm all about that. I think where it gets me nervous is when we start to see that not being something that everybody's participating in the labor market and we have huge technological advances that sort of creatively destruct a bunch of labor. That's a dangerous story.
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