Telis Demos

Maybe we're just all looking at different pieces of data, right?

And I suspect...

that there is sometimes pieces missing because there are certain kinds of lending where you don't see how people are doing.

You don't see how much debt they might have, or at least we can't see it in the places we normally look.

I think there's definitely a risk for investors because you might think that, oh, okay, I own shares of consumer companies.

I think they're going to do pretty well in 2026.

Well, that might not be the case if it turns out that a big segment of their customers are struggling and aren't able to spend as much.

I think that there's a risk for policymakers.

The Federal Reserve has to make decisions about how the economy is doing, about whether it wants to cut rates or not.

If they don't really have the right handle on how consumers are doing –

they might make the wrong decision.

It's just much harder for investors and people in business to make decisions about how to get ready for 2026 if they don't have the right information about the state of the U.S.

consumer.

Hey, listeners.

It's Saturday, November 22nd.

I'm Telus Demos for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Francesca Fontana.

And this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.

So let's get to it.

This week in markets, investors, they just wanted out.

They wanted out of AI stocks, fearing inflated valuations and overly aggressive spending.