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What is the goal of developing AI?

Summary: The consumer is stable and there's a lot of optimism in capital markets. Hyperscalers continue to press full speed ahead on CapEx, but will that capital spending prove to be efficient?

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Macro

The consumer is pretty stable
"I think the overall consumer environment is pretty stable in the sense that there's good economic growth on a broad-based view around the world, and that includes both the developed and the emerging markets." - Coca-Cola (KO 0.00%↑) CEO James Quincey

“We still feel that the economy is performing well. The labor market is strong. Our payment trends that we see with our clients are robust” - US Bancorp (USB 0.00%↑) CFO John Stern

Consumer spending is picking up
"We saw an uptick across income bands in the consumer space, across various industries, as well in the small business and base. So really pleased with that." - American Express (AXP 0.00%↑) CFO Christophe Le Caillec

“....as we came to last summer, the consumer started slowing dow…still 3.5%, which is fine….And so in the fall, you get a pretty good equilibrium going 4%, 4.5% growth…interesting enough, as you come through the first part of this year in the first 40 days, we're up about 6%, call it…So the consumer is in good shape and spending, which is good news for the economy” - Bank of America (BAC 0.00%↑) CEO Brian Moynihan

There's a lot of optimism
"We really see a lot of optimism, a lot of energy, a fair amount of rerisking in the client base. And I think post the US election, client sentiment is great. I think as we've climbed into 2025, there's still optimism, there's still energy. It might be a little bit more like white knuckles on the desk in terms of tense optimism, but overall, I see good momentum." - BlackRock (BLK 0.00%↑) CFO Martin Small

“I think there's certainly this optimism that the administration is going to be much more pro growth, business remove a lot of the obstacles that may get in the way of growing the economy, emerging businesses, a whole bunch of different activity. And I think that optimism it's still there. And I think you've seen it in the engagement with clients, you've seen it in the dialogue. You've seen it in a lot of clients now considering doing things that just a year ago, they probably wouldn't have done” - Wells Fargo (WFC 0.00%↑) CFO Mike Santomassimo

Post-election uncertainty remains, but activity is increasing
"Has there been a little bit more as some of the, for lack of a better term, kind of the shine of enthusiasm that came on November fourth, fifth, whatever it was. Has that waned a little bit as people are starting to understand that there are policy uncertainties? Sure. But the direction of travel is more constructive, and I think you're going to see meaningfully more activity, and there's pent-up demand for that activity." - Goldman Sachs (GS 0.00%↑) CEO David Solomon

"When it comes to our conversations with customers, sentiment has really picked up post-election. And I'd say a lot of activity had really dropped off in the second half of '24, just pending the outcome. And all of that is starting back up again. We can really see our pipelines filling up." - Citizens Financial Group (CFG 0.00%↑) CFO John Woods

“....there's still some uncertainty in terms of where a lot of the policy may go across in the near term. And so I think that is putting a little bit of caution into actually pulling the trigger in terms of doing a deal or some of the activity that's there. But I think you sort of have to look a little bit past the first couple of days, a couple of weeks and we still expect to see that momentum build throughout the year. The pipelines that we have across many of the businesses, very strong the dialogue, like I said, is very strong” - Wells Fargo (WFC 0.00%↑) CFO Mike Santomassimo

No one sees any recession risk
"And we do the survey of our portfolio company CEOs every quarter with a bunch of different questions and a grand total of 0% of them forecast recession for this year. So that's a pretty positive picture." - Blackstone (BX 0.00%↑) CFO Michael Chae

Inflation may be lower than the headlines
"If you look at CPI in January, less shelter, ex shelter, it was about [1.9%] you must carry a lot of inflation. It was 1.9% ex-shelter. Now the government's shelter component was over 4%. If you look at in our own portfolio and then an external sources and sort of market rents, real-time kind of market rent shelter cost data is running more around 1%. So when you combine those two, it's at or even arguably below target. Now the Fed has room to ease in our view, but is going to be patient and we can all speculate why [indiscernible] you would be." - Blackstone (BX 0.00%↑) CFO Michael Chae

Markets are shrugging off tariffs
"There's so little hiccups here and there with respect to tariffs, which creates some uncertainty. But I think the market is mostly shrugging that off and hopefully, this is more about just negotiations rather than anything that will be long-term negative for sentiment." - Citizens Financial Group (CFG 0.00%↑) CFO John Woods

"I do not believe that in the final version, tariffs will be as difficult as they now appear to be... I think that ultimately, the U.S. will benefit from this rather than have a disadvantage." - Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR 0.00%↑) Founder Thomas Peterffy

This isn't a normal business cycle
"But overall, I think the macro is very positive, very constructive. This isn't a normal business cycle. So, you talk about three years of a bull market. I just don't think it's a normal business cycle. I mean, we've seen inflation fall without a growth slowdown. We've seen automation technology, the promise of generative AI, I think really transforming what we think of as possible and productivity." - BlackRock (BLK 0.00%↑) CFO Martin Small

International