WSJ's Take On the Week

Everyday traders have come a long way from the meme-stock frenzy of 2020. Armed with zero-commission trading apps, option contracts and dip-buying habits, retail investors have evolved into a market force. In this episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Telis Demos and Miriam Gottfried are joined by WSJ markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang and Scott Rubner, head of equity and equity derivatives s...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos dive into the shifting credit markets financing the massive artificial intelligence build-out, examining how tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet’s Google—alongside major investors like Blackstone—are funding the boom. They ask: Are sinking AI bonds and tech stock selloffs a sign that investor demand...

Could artificial intelligence surpass the internet in its transformative power? Jonathan Kanter, former assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Joe Biden, suggests it might and talks about the challenge of creating effective regulation—offering insights on shareholder value, company valuations, and overall market impact. On this week'...

It’s election season again, and affordability is on the ballot for voters. High gas prices, energy costs and persistent inflation continue to squeeze households—what does that mean for the upcoming midterm elections and the stock market? In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos break down the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, the sell-off...

Interest rates are up, and high-yield savings accounts are back— so why is so much of your cash still under-earning? In this episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, hosts Telis Demos and Miriam Gottfried explore why it’s time to rethink where your money sits and treat cash as a true asset class.  But first, Telis and Miriam explore how high interest rates are impacting the economy, from commercial...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Miriam Gottfried and Heard on the Street columnist Jonathan Weil break down why U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest levels since 2002, and how the delay of highly anticipated IPOs from AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic could reshape the market. Next, they analyze whether these postponements are solely driven by AI safety concerns or if...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Miriam Gottfried is joined by guest co-host and WSJ markets reporter Sam Goldfarb to break down the unprecedented surge in the 10-year Treasury yield. Meghan Swiber, U.S. rates strategist at Bank of America, joins the show to discuss what influences these yields, and how a 5% yield affects everyday borrowing costs including mortgage rates,...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Telis Demos and Miriam Gottfried break down the conversation around AI safety and development, and how markets have reacted. Plus, OpenAI is now expected to have its initial public offering next year instead of this year. Will Anthropic follow suit? They also analyze the Federal Reserve's recent unanimous decision to hike interest rates, t...

Despite a rough past week for the healthcare sector, pharmaceuticals and biotech stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 this year. Investors have gotten excited over cancer treatment breakthroughs for Moderna, Merck and Revolution Medicines—plus regulatory shakeups at the FDA. But is market hype running ahead of reality? Can the rally last? On this week’s episode, co-hosts Telis Demos and Miriam...

On this week’s episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Miriam Gottfried and guest host Aaron Back, editor of WSJ’s Heard on the Street, preview the upcoming employment and inflation releases in advance of the Federal Open Market Committee’s September policy meeting. They analyze why these economic indicators will draw heightened focus under Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh. Then Miriam and Aar...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos preview the upcoming Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium—one of the longest-standing central banking conferences in the world. They are joined by Columbia Business School professor and former Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin, as well as the Journal’s Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timiraos,...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, we dig into Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS! Our co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos are joined by Jill Cetina, finance professor at Texas A&M University and former official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the Treasury Department. Together, they analyze the latest inflation data and what it could mean for TIPS if Fe...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos dig into the shifting sentiment away from AI stocks and the pivot into consumer sectors. Are we heading into a new business-led economy, or will it continue to be a consumer-led economy?  Before that, the hosts analyze the fallout from SpaceX earnings report and break down the evolving appetite for potentia...

In this episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Telis Demos is joined by guest co-host and Wall Street Journal reporter David Uberti to break down the Federal Reserve’s latest moves, and what oil’s volatile pricing—exacerbated by the U.S.-Iran conflict—might mean for inflation and the Fed going forward.  Then, BCA Research’s chief commodities strategist Roukaya Ibrahim joins the show to break d...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Telis Demos and guest host Spencer Jakab, the Wall Street Journal’s investing columnist and writer of the Markets A.M. newsletter , are joined by Kaitlin Hendrix, asset allocation research director at global investment firm Dimensional Fund Advisors, to decode investors' surging interest in private markets.  They break down how investors may a...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos are joined by Brent Sullivan, founder of Tax Alpha Insider, to dive into a hot, over $150 billion investing strategy called “tax-aware long-short.” This strategy aims to help wealthy investors beat the market while lowering their tax bill by using leverage and short selling to actively harvest losses. Sulli...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos preview earnings from Taiwan’s flagship chip maker, TSMC. They also break down why this coming week’s earnings from Johnson & Johnson, UnitedHealth Group and Abbott Laboratories won’t do much to save healthcare from its negative earnings growth expectations. Then, Miriam and Telis are joined by Christine Sh...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos dig into this past week’s tech selloff and how the market’s volatility reflected serious questions about spending for the AI buildout. They also look at how semiconductor players like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are navigating the noise, and why even deep-pocketed tech titans like Meta are tapping the deb...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Telis Demos and Heard on the Street columnist Jonathan Weil sit down with Kevin Koharki, principal at CAE Consulting and professor at Purdue University, to pull back the curtain on the opaque world of tech companies’ financial statements. They dig into why the massive infrastructure spend on AI data centers might be obscuring other fundamental...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos break down the historic launch of SpaceX, the biggest initial public offering ever, which priced at $135 a share before popping 11% to open at $150 on Friday. The share price rose steadily after that, closing up 19%. Meanwhile, Tesla shares were volatile, though they ended higher on the day. Plus, the hosts...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos break down the unconventional lead-up to the SpaceX IPO. They examine the rocket maker's choice to propose a single price of $135 a share this past week, rather than a range, which set the valuation at around $1.77 trillion. The hosts also discuss the number of shares being offered to retail investors and t...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Telis Demos is joined by Heard on the Street editor Aaron Back to discuss the economy, inflation, and the appointment of the new Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh. They are joined by Joe Lavorgna, Americas chief economist at SMBC and a former counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Lavorgna argues that the Fed has an inflation pro...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos analyze the K-shaped economy, contrasting flourishing corporate capital expenditures—driven by massive AI investment from companies like Nvidia—with the struggling consumer economy. They discuss Nvidia's risks ahead of its earnings this upcoming week, including rising chip costs and the troubles of its key...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos discuss what’s beyond the surge in semiconductor companies like Broadcom and Micron. They examine economist Ed Yardeni’s "Buzz Lightyear theory"—which says that demand for compute power will increase to infinity and beyond—that has led to S&P 500 earnings growth expectations surpassing the 2000 tech bubble...

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Telis Demos and Miriam Gottfried examine the shifting power dynamics at the Federal Reserve as Kevin Warsh’s chair nomination moves toward confirmation. Then, they break down some of the biggest earnings reports from this week, including private markets giants Apollo Management, KKR, and Sixth Street Specialty Lending. Plus, they look ahea...