Channel Capital's Roberts: Markets will stay happy with even a hint at rate cuts

Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research Institute and the author of "Follow the Fed to Investment Success," says that it doesn't matter much to the stock market when a rate cut happens, so long as investors can expect decline and believe the central bank will step in with one if employment numbers change significantly. Roberts says that the market wants to know that "the Fed has your back," and he expects new chairman Kevin Warsh to signal that, even if it is not accompanied immediately by rate cuts. Roberts also says that current conditions and the Fed's outlook should be leading investors to domestic stocks and particularly to small- and mid-cap names.  Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses why the market liked Alphabet's earnings results last week but hated Meta Platform's numbers, and what that says about each company moving forward, discusses the disappointing crash landing of Spirit Airlines, and delves into the curious story of Jane Street Capital, the little-known Wall Street market maker that made headlines when it was revealed that its average compensation per employee last year was roughly $2.7 million, more than seven times higher than the average staffer at Goldman Sachs. As the latest earnings season starts to wind down, David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that companies with core earnings lower than their reported net income — a status that gets names kicked out of the Bloomberg New Constructs Core Earnings Leaders Index — are in the Danger Zone, largely because they are less profitable than Wall Street thinks they are. He singles out two companies, Boeing and Broadridge Financial Solutions, as examples of stocks where the true profitability is obscured. Plus, Lester Jones, chief economist for National Beer Wholesalers Association, discusses the latest Beer Purchasers' Index, where the April numbers suggest that a "beer recession" looks to be over, with purchases strongly on the rise in preparation for the summer season, a result that is somewhat surprising because economic conditions suggest that consumers may be cutting back on spending. He says shifting consumption patterns are boosting sales, but he also expects inflation impacts to be more muted than many observers expect.