Kingsview CIO Scott Martin On News Nation – with Connell McShane – 4.21.25

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CONNELL MCSHANE:  The stock market today — we’ve been talking about this a little bit on and off — it’s been a mess. President Trump once again went after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on social media earlier, calling him a “major loser,” saying he’s been too slow to lower interest rates, and demanding he cut them now.

Alright, Scott Martin joins us now. He’s the Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Wealth Management. It was one of those days with everything going on. Obviously, we’ve been talking so much about remembering Pope Francis that I didn’t even really look at the stock market when it opened. Then it started going down a bit, and Trump made those comments. We didn’t have trading on Friday, but it’s been a rough day. What’s going on in the market?

SCOTT MARTIN:  I’ll tell you, Connell — don’t look now. What an amazing time. We’ve got the Pope passing, Trump calling the Fed Chairman a loser, and Kristi Noem just lost her purse with $3,000 cash in it — which is odd, because you’d think she’d be carrying gold at this point.

It’s kind of frightening. I mean, I’m freaking out just sitting here. I’ve got a great jacket on, and even that’s not doing for me what I thought it would.

But seriously, this is a wicked time of uncertainty — almost complete unpredictability.

Here’s the beauty of it, though: I still believe in the whole “don’t sell America” idea. This market, this economy — and everything Trump is doing or not doing — is like a coiled spring. If we get a chance to clear the fog, this thing is going to pop.

CONNELL MCSHANE:  So what gets us out of it? Because things don’t seem to be going well with Japan. We’re supposed to be cutting these deals one by one. And to your point — the “Sell America” thing — that’s been real in the short term. People are selling our stocks, the dollar is going down, they’re selling our debt. So what turns it around?

SCOTT MARTIN:  We need some white smoke, frankly. And by that I mean, it has to come from President Trump — and maybe from his team or his advisers — stepping up and saying, “We made a few mistakes. We’re going to change course.”

They have to come out and say, “We get it. We’re adjusting. We’re heading in a new direction.”

CONNELL MCSHANE:  Well, they sort of did that. They paused the tariffs — but it takes two to tango, or maybe 20, depending on which deals you’re talking about. So they did pause, but we haven’t seen any real movement. At some point, you have to show something.

SCOTT MARTIN:  Exactly — and there may be retaliation coming from some countries. I mean, Canada and Mexico still love us. I believe India wants to work with us. Germany and the EU definitely do. China — maybe not so much.

But you’re right — no one’s come out and said, “Alright, we’re good to go. Let’s get a joint session going in D.C., or maybe hold a big trade summit in Geneva.” Something where everyone comes together, shakes hands, kisses babies — the whole thing.

CONNELL MCSHANE:  What’s your take on tech, if you can? We saw the story earlier — we covered the Easter Egg Roll at the White House, of course.

SCOTT MARTIN:  Beautiful — you were great in that.

CONNELL MCSHANE:  Thanks — did you see this? I’m not sure if they always do this, but this year a lot of big tech companies were lined up as corporate sponsors: YouTube, Amazon, Meta.

It seems like they really want to make friends at the White House, right? Especially with everything going on.

SCOTT MARTIN:  They do — and they know where their croissant is buttered, frankly.

Events like the Egg Roll are opportunities for them to show up — for the government, for the American people.

You can’t tell me there isn’t some kind of back-end benefit coming out of that for these companies, especially if Trump gets a little more… sane, let’s say.

If we can move forward and stop the name-calling and the stone-throwing — especially from within our own glass house — then you’ve got these companies, ready to step up for the country.

CONNELL MCSHANE:  And what about the American consumer?

Because people see all these headlines — and sometimes, in this kind of economy, the headlines become self-fulfilling prophecies. People start slowing down, they stop spending.

They’re watching what’s happening with China, and then they hold back. We’re told the President is supposed to meet with some retail executives today. But what happens to the American consumer as we work through this over the next few weeks or months?

SCOTT MARTIN:  They’re going to be frightened — honestly.

If you look at the consumer data, it’s really interesting. A lot of the numbers are driven by higher-end consumers — their purchases carry the most weight in the data.

But after Biden basically gutted the middle class, we’ve been left with two extremes — higher and lower-income consumers. That middle ground has been decimated.

Right now, the high-income group is still holding things up. But the low- and middle-income consumers are getting crushed — by prices, by economic pressures.

And if that weakness starts creeping into the higher-end group — which it eventually will if this continues — that’s going to be a big problem for the consumer data overall.

I’ve defended the strength of the American consumer for years — and I still believe in them — but we’re nearing a breaking point.

CONNELL MCSHANE:  Got it. We’ve got to show something with one of these deals in the not-so-distant future.

Thank you, Scott. We’ll talk again soon. Scott Martin with us from Chicago.