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Hello and welcome to market domination over time stocks closing mostly lower here after initially rising on that January inflation print They're very own Jared blickery has all the headlines Jared. Thank you, Josh Pretty low volatility today, and we are looking at some losses for the week. I'll show you the five-day totals here Here's a Dow actually closed up almost 50 points today. Not a huge amount, but for the week We are down one point two three percent Here's a Nasdaq down fractionally on the day down 2% for all the heavy tech selling we saw in software earlier Could have been a lot worse and the S&P 500 barely closed in the green down about one point four percent for the week And I do like to get a look of the Russell 2000 the small caps underwater for the week down 1% Although they were up 1% today and taking a look at the large cap sector action It was a story of utilities and I got to show you utilities closed at the first record high This is a one-year chart since October of last year Excuse me first record high since October of last year also had consumer staples closing at a record high that is right here I'm circling that but one of the other leaders was real estate. The other was health care so a lot of defensive action towards the top what didn't work today communication services and Financials and if we take a look at the five-day totals It was the same leadership that we saw today utilities and real estate in that order seven and three point five percent Respectively then we got materials and energy staples industrials and rounding out the bottom here We got financials and consumer discretionary underperforming the S&P 500 I'm going to take this back to a day look and here's what happened in the Nasdaq 100 a lot of negative action in the Mega caps Tesla just barely green there I'm circling that to the downside or at the bottom of the heat map Walmart also up and we had some outsize outperformers in the chip stocks applied materials up eight percent Although you can see there's a lot of red especially in some of the bigger names on this board yet in software Which had a kind of a lousy week kind of a lousy year pretty good today excluding Microsoft Which is taking up a lot of real estate So I'll change this to an equal way to view and you can see on the top line everything up from seven to three percent including Teladoc CrowdStrike Snowflake and a few others HubSpot as well So let's finish here on the Dow and aside from the mega caps that we've covered looks like Visa ending the day down three percent United Health was up three percent Nike up three percent Disney right there with it and Salesforce coming back. That was up two percent Caterpillar Caterpillar the industrial name the leader of the Dow over the last year that also closed in the green for about two percent Josh All right. Thank you Jared Well, it's been a busy week for economic data getting both CPI and the jobs report And my next guest says on the labor front. The economy is just starting to find its footing join me now We've got Nicole Bichot zip recruiter labor economist Nicole. It is good to see you So let's dig into what you're seeing Nicole on that Zip recruiter platform because you will have such unique line assigned to the labor market in terms of job postings and employer behavior One trend you point out here Nicole you say Jobs are landing faster, but you say expectations are lower What what do you mean by that walk me through that trend? Yeah, you know, we've we've seen workers really finding their footing and finding roles that fit their skill sets better So in our recent survey of new hires We found that the majority over 50% of new hires are finding their job within a month But we're seeing fewer people end up in quote-unquote dream job positioning So while we're seeing workers kind of moving quicker They're focusing more on what's realistic versus holding out for maybe what what's more idealistic for them Given the challenges in the market right now interesting. What are you seeing a call in terms of pay pressure incentives? So pay has been actually really interesting We just got the the January BLS data earlier this week and there's still strong pay growth of 3.7 percent annually in January which is Still good news given the the drop in CPI as we've seen Wages kind of outpacing inflation for the past two to three years That is really helpful for workers to kind of maintain their footing and find some some sort of negotiating power within their positioning Definitely a good news for for the continued, you know Budgetary pressures that a lot of households are facing right now that we're still seeing some elevation in wage growth I always think it's interesting Nicola get your take when when the new hires Get that offer. All right now it's time to negotiate right? What are you seeing there in terms of trends? So Negotiating is a really really important strategy for workers as they're looking at, you know different offers and trying to figure out what to accept Fewer people are negotiating in this market likely just driven by the challenge of getting to the offer stage in the first In the first place But the majority of those who do negotiate get a better outcome whether that's an increased base salary or better benefits So negotiating is still a really powerful tool that workers and new hires are still Applying just at a little bit of a lower rate given a lot of the the turmoil and the challenge to finding a job You know, we used to talk about the great resignation Nicole you remember that but I looked at your data I just wonder are we seeing that shift there because your data would seem to suggest Okay, it's kind of like what people are prioritizing is more stability over job hunting Absolutely. I'm actually working on a new survey right now that looks at the entire u.s Workforce and we're seeing this very strong positioning of stability the majority of workers claim to be staying in place due to economic conditions whether that means delaying a job search or Staying in their job and not moving somewhere else due to the stability of the paycheck They know and they have now versus going out and trying to find something else So stability is really top of mind for workers and employers But when we look to the the new BLS numbers that we we got for January There are some signs that the market might become a little bit more unstuck as we go into the spring of 2026 With job growth up and unemployment falling. Yeah in that jobs report That we got Nicole. I wanted to dig into some of the sector strength Particularly the strength we saw in health care Which got a lot of headlines? What any ideas? Nicole what explains that and whether you thought you looked at that and said, okay, that's cyclical or know that there's something structural there Absolutely. The the structural versus cyclical difference is exactly what's going on with health care compared to other industries There is always an outsized demand for health care jobs when we look at the labor economy as a whole But given the kind of slowdown we've seen in some other macro factors that are leading to you know drops in manufacturing and tech and you know business services over the last year health care has really Become more of a spotlight given the strong demand the US population is aging very Significantly over the past 20 years the share of the population. That's 65 plus is is quite quite Larger a lot larger than it was a couple of decades ago and as we see an aging population There's going to be more demand for health care jobs And so the the demand for health care is driven by demographic trends not so much by the cyclical Economic movements that are going to move other industries our construction also look to be holding up And I was curious to get your take on why that would be the sort of the relative strength Nicole you see in Skilled trades is that is that higher wages? Is that the big data center bill that we keep talking about? You know a lot of it is also going to come back to that demographic factor as we see Older people aging in place and we see younger folks getting into their prime home buying years There's a lot of demand for for a growth in housing that saw a big dip for you know About 15 years following the Great Recession, so there's a lot of demand for home construction Which is driving up you know labor growth and job growth in the construction sector as well as you know Growth in other industries like you mentioned with AI data centers You know that'll be kind of more localized to certain economies, but there's absolutely a really strong push for skilled trades right now We did see this this Temporary staffing jobs rising. I'm curious what that tells us Do you look at that as an economist is is that any kind of like leading indicator Nicole? Yeah, temporary staffing can be a leading indicator of kind of where businesses are looking ahead to as we see a rise in Temporary staffing like we have for the past couple of months Job growth in that area can signal that employers are are looking to ramp back up slowly without committing to full-time hires at this point And so that can really show us what the the next steps and the logic behind the hiring decisions For businesses where that's sitting right now and as we see that continue to increase that you know is an indicator that We could see you know continued growth in in jobs overall in the coming months and finally Nicole You did highlight here how the unemployment rate for black workers and teens improved. What do you make of those trends so? Much like staffing services is a leading indicator black unemployment rate is a leading indicator for the market health overall We saw a pretty big drop of 0.3 percentage points Drop in in black unemployment, which is a good signal for unemployment overall, which also ticked down slightly that we will see Hopefully more stabilization and a little bit better recovery and and like you said at the start of this call, you know The labor market that's really finding its footing as we're seeing these rates falling for these different populations Nicole as always great to have you on the show. Enjoy the weekend you too. Thanks Josh Coming up we get a read on the outlook for crypto regulation. That's next on market domination over time Despite bitcoins turbulent run some remain steadfast and their belief in the crypto currency Especially if the Clarity Act gets passed Yahoo Finance's executive editor Brian Sazi talked through the latest in the crypto bill with Patrick Witt executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for digital assets So the status right now the house passed the Clarity Act their version of it last year Over to the house in July, I believe and the Senate has taken it up and made its own changes to it and is Fashioning their own version. We were able to pass half of the bill out of the AG Committee that handles the CFTC portions And now we're just stuck in the Banking Committee for the SEC portions the securities portions of that bill So there was a markup that was scheduled on I believe January 18th that unfortunately got pulled down Postponed but we're working hard to address the issues that were raised that led to the postponement of that markup and hopefully get that back On the books soon And then once we pass that out of the Banking Committee the two pieces of the legislation will need to be reconciled Before a final vote on the floor so more work to be done But we're a step closer with the passage of the the AG portion of this a couple weeks ago Patrick Who has to bend a little bit ultimately to get this over the finish line? Is it the crypto community or the banking community? Not to be cliche, it's a little bit of both and and we've encouraged both parties. We've had conversations individually We've we've hosted a number of meetings here at the White House. We might host another one again next week on this issue of stable coin rewards and yield and It's unfortunate that this has become such a big issue because ultimately this is not the stable coin bill. That was the Genius Act, but We've we've heard from senators on both sides of the aisle Concerns about Potential deposit flight from from stable coins on different platforms And so what we've encouraged both sides to do is is let's find a middle ground Let's let's use a scalpel heel here to to address this narrow issue of idle yield. Let's call it But let's let's not take a chainsaw to this. Let's not let this derail the bill. There is so much goodness in this bill No matter what your perspective is the banks. There's a lot of permissible activities It allows these institutions to now play in the crypto space in a way that without that regulatory clarity They wouldn't be able to and then obviously from the the crypto side the regulatory jurisdiction the clear lines between the SEC the CFTC developer protections in the bill, there's just a litany of excellent measures in here that are critical to future-proof this industry from a future Gary Gensler or God forbid a Secretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Warren So we want to make sure that that people are approaching this the right way that they recognize The the value of this bill and we're gonna keep working to make it better But ultimately it is a good product at the end of the day in the spirit of compromise Patrick Do you think the the crypto industry? Just has to get off this view that it's going to be able to pay rewards on stable coins. Does that get it through? again, as I said There's a way to address this that doesn't disrupt a lot of the business models in the space and also addresses the bank concerns So this is a major item. It's not the only one there's still some issues on title one with tokenization the token taxonomy and the authorities between the SEC and the CFTC making sure that the SEC isn't swallowing to Too much of those the CFTC is jurisdiction and then on title three with with defy illicit finance so there are other issues that we need to work through but this is a main sticking one sticking item and We're not going to be able to get this out of the Banking Committee unless we address this issue So that's why we've taken it so seriously why we've hosted the the different interested stakeholders here at the White House And we're gonna continue to stay at the table and encourage them to find a compromise on this issue because it really is the major Gating item. We'll love to get your take on this one You know when I talk to banking executives on this particular issue They say that community banks just might struggle to lend to businesses if if These crypto players are allowed to pay these rewards. I mean, do you share those concerns? There's been a number of studies that have pointed in either direction I think ultimately our bottom line is consumers win when there's choice But we've heard from a number of senators And again, it's bipartisan on this issue that they want to make sure that the concerns of the community banks are addressed That we're not doing anything that would cause deposit flight from their platforms. They are important pillars of the various communities Around the country. And so I think we can do that I think we're fashioning a compromise last week's meeting between the banks and the crypto companies I think broke some new ground established some new common ground some areas of agreement and we'll build upon that But whether or not, you know, we agree with that view Again, I think I've seen studies that point in either direction You know ultimately this is going to be there's going to be a convergence between crypto and the banks right now It is a new product. It's somewhat threatening to the community banks and not just the community banks, but also the GSIBs the larger banks But they're ultimately going to start getting into the crypto space They can also offer stable coin products to their customers just the same as crypto This is not an unfair advantage in either way And then many of the banks are now applying for OCC bank charters themselves to start offering bank like products to their customers So in the future, I think I don't think this is going to be an issue but we're managing through an interim period where There's a lot of people on on the bank side of the table that are feel threatened by this But ultimately I think they're gonna find Opportunities to use these products and leverage them and offer new products to their customers and expand their businesses Should a Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan be threatened? I don't think so I think there's tremendous opportunity for the JP Morgan's of the world to to engage in crypto activities If you just go to the LinkedIn, there's plenty of job postings at JP Morgan Hiring people into the digital assets space. So I think they're they're indicating that they intend to get into this space in a big way They were present at last week's meeting very constructive and I think yeah on the stable coin part of this There's the consumer banking side But then there's also the institutional bank side and as more and more liquidity gets added to to Treasury markets With stable coin bat being backed by T bills. There's there's a lot of Activity and and commercial activity that the banks the larger banks that have rates trading Operations can get into so I think for for those larger banks that have those kinds of business lines and and large practices there They recognize what an opportunity this is Brian Armstrong over Clemson He sound a little more optimistic Patrick last night on his earnings call about clarity getting Passed at least compared to what we heard from him at Davos in January Do you think this ultimately gets passed in the first quarter or is this more mid-year? We're definitely on the clock there's there's a window here the window is still open, but it is rapidly Closing and so that's why we are taking it So seriously why we're encouraging folks to to cut the deals that they can to stay at the table Let's not let any mosh grow here We got to get this done because as I mentioned it's it's one step in the process if we can get this out of the Banking committee it still needs to be reconciled with the AG portion and ultimately There's gonna be a cloture vote and a passage on the floor that all takes time and The most precious real estate in Washington DC is is Senate floor time so we're in regular touch with leader Thune about that But he knows that this is a priority for the president Priority for my boss David Sachs, and I do believe we're gonna get this done. I won't necessarily put a date on it But before the midterms really start to take all the oxygen out of the room We have people engaged at the table that have invested countless hours on this bill and We're gonna get it done Lastly Patrick you're in the trenches on on the Bitcoin reserve that is being built out here in the country. Where does that stand? So with the passage of the executive order what we wanted to do with that is is get an accounting of what the government held And then also stop the bleeding so stop these agencies from willy-nilly Liquidating digital assets that they had sometimes at fire sale prices. I think by some estimates Based on the sales and the way that they were conducted under the previous administration We we the government may have lost out on you know tens of billions of dollars that could have been held on on our balance sheet So right now we've we've stopped the bleeding. We're in regular touch with the agencies Monitoring the current status of the digital assets that they hold making sure that the accounting is complete not just Bitcoin But obviously many of the wallets hold different digital assets in there that need to be appropriately accounted for and then on the hill There's the the Bitcoin Act that Senator Lummis had introduced There's going to be a new bill introduced by Representative Begich and the house That that builds upon that and and allow some of the necessary authorities to Centralize properly safeguard these assets and then explore budget neutral ways To add to that stockpile and then in the future ultimately if Congress decides to move in that direction To allow for us to to potentially add to that with with outright purchases, but that would need to be an appropriations decision Time now for to watch a quick bit of housekeeping all major US markets Remember our closed Monday in observance of President's Day. It's me another huge week of earnings though Palo Alto Networks Tollbrothers DoorDash and Klarna, they're all among the big names set to report but investors We know they'll be focused on a newly minted trillion dollar company That would be Walmart and its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday analysts expecting the retail juggernaut to deliver a solid holiday quarter with net sales rising roughly 4% and Operating income climbing as much as 11% strong pricing and digital momentum are also expected to drive results while businesses like Advertising could help support gross margins investors will be listening closely. Of course for any commentary on the health of the consumer and 2026 guidance on Wednesday We're getting the minutes from the January FOMC meeting offering more insight into how Policymakers are thinking about the path of rates after holding steady to start the year and to finish the week the Fed's preferred Inflation gauge is coming out on Friday That is personal consumption expenditures that coming after Friday's cooler than expected CPI print showing prices rising 2.4% year-over-year is the lowest since May now The question is whether PCE confirms that inflation is steadily cooling or gives the Fed reason to stay cautious Well, that's gonna do it for days of market domination over time Be sure to come back Tuesday at 3 p.m Eastern for all of your coverage leading up to and after the closing bell, but don't go anywhere on the other side that break We have our special bought and sold investing in robotics We break down everything you need to know about the robotics industry from investment ideas to Tesla's future with optimists. 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