The view of this economy from the boardroom
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What recent trends are affecting oil markets?
Oil and markets are recovering some, for now, from Marketplace. I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio. Good morning, everybody. If you are wondering where on the market rollercoaster today has brought us, let me bring you up to speed. The price of oil, after soaring early Monday morning, has come back down some. Brent crude is still 30% more expensive than it was before the war, though. Markets, after dropping sharply, have come back up. With us to sort through it all is Ben Kumar. He's head of equity strategy at Seven Investment Management. Hi, Ben. Hello. So, oil and markets have been on a very wild ride. Yesterday, they opened. Things were looking very grim. Oil was well over $100. Now, oil's back down around $90 or less.
Markets have recovered. Why? I think there's definitely a case of no news is always taken as bad news. So over the course of the weekend, it was just enough time, a couple of days to see this isn't de-escalating. There is no quick solution to ensuring ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. And Asian markets opened and the oil price spiked and Asian markets tanked. And, you know, I get why if you're Taiwan or South Korea or China, most of your oil or your gas comes through those straits. And, you know, the Strait of Hormuz is a difficult place to transit. You can't get insurance if you're an oil tanker.
How are CEOs responding to AI in their businesses?
And that is an important economic choke point in the world. President Trump has said he's considering waiving some oil sanctions on oil producers to keep energy prices down. Do you think that's a significant move? I don't think it's going to be a very popular move other than in Russia, perhaps. The thing that I think is actually interesting is a lot of the byproducts of oil that do come through the Middle East, whether it's sulfur, whether it's some of the other fertilizers and minerals, you know, Those are much more difficult to find replacements for. Therefore, the potential for, I don't know, longer lasting economic effects actually, I think, comes in the food space, not in the can you drive your car to work space.
Explain that a little further. Sure. So it's something like. 50% of the world's sulfur and something like 30% or 40% of the world's ammonia used in fertilizer is produced, refined in the Middle East, used as a byproduct of refining oil. And if you are countries where you rely very, very heavily on fertilizer to make sure that your ground can produce food for your nation, whether it's Dubai and the UAE who either import it or have to use fertilizer to grow it, or whether it's countries in Asia where you need to add nutrients to the soil in order to be able to grow everything you want. That is a problem because if you don't get fertilizer at the right time of the year when you're planting your crops, you end up with disruption a year down the line.
Now, I don't think we're at that stage yet, but that's the sort of thing where you see how long-lasting the ripples can be. Ben Kumar, Head of Equity Strategy at Seven Investment Management. Thank you so much. Thank you.
We like to take the pulse of the American economy on this show by talking to all the different kinds of people living it. And today we talk to CEOs. Audit tax and advisory firm KPMG is out with its latest survey of CEOs. Tim Walsh is KPMG's U.S. 's CEO. And he joins us. Hey, Tim. Good morning.
What are CEOs' biggest concerns regarding tariffs and policy uncertainty?
So you've surveyed 100 CEOs at large companies. What is at the top of their minds right now? There are a number of things. I would say the number one topic that CEOs are thinking about is the acceleration of AI in their businesses. And this concept that it's not really a discretionary optional spend anymore, that it's an absolute must-have. And it's about adopting. And if you're not doing it, then you're being left behind your competitor's With AI, the major concern is, is it going to take over people's jobs? Is that what CEOs are thinking when they think about AI right now? I don't think CEOs are automatically going to – how many jobs I'm going to displace. But since we've not seen this happen before, it is an unknown.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What recent trends are affecting oil markets?
0:01–1:30
2
How are CEOs responding to AI in their businesses?
1:30–3:39
3
What are CEOs' biggest concerns regarding tariffs and policy uncertainty?
3:39–5:29
4
How is the U.S. economy perceived by CEOs?
5:29–6:00
5
What impact does oil price fluctuation have on global markets?
6:00–6:24