{"podcast":{"title":"Thoughts on the Market","slug":"thoughts-on-the-market-980853","podcast_index_feed_id":980853,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/thoughts-on-the-market","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/thoughts-on-the-market","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/68/53/52/d0/685352d0-9248-46b0-99bc-96589e58c7da/17e395c4e66b1b71c451c38d72389ffaebc7784e20e8c3bea964dc0287434ef3475e93f6527b48a642d0d7a6a23943dcdef6c0b861481aed9ef54002b9f78b4d.jpeg","author":"Morgan Stanley","episode_count":1675,"summary":"Short, thoughtful and regular takes on recent events in the markets from a variety of perspectives and voices within Morgan Stanley.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-25T20:17:54.934994+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/thoughts-on-the-market-980853"},"episode":{"title":"What to Watch Ahead of the Midterms","slug":"what-to-watch-ahead-of-the-midterms","published_at":"2026-07-01T20:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/thoughts-on-the-market-980853/what-to-watch-ahead-of-the-midterms","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/thoughts-on-the-market-980853","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/rss.art19.com/episodes/ebb7fe6c-2581-48c7-8a76-140597b66728.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/rss.art19.com/episodes/ebb7fe6c-2581-48c7-8a76-140597b66728.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"With voters focused on prices and the economy, our Head of Public Policy Research Ariana Salvatore and U.S. Thematic Strategist Michelle Weaver discuss the consumer trends that could matter most heading into November’s elections. Read more insights from Morgan Stanley. ----- Transcript ----- Ariana Salvatore: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Ariana Salvatore, Morgan Stanley's Head of Public Policy Research.  Michelle Weaver: And I'm Michelle Weaver, Morgan Stanley's U.S. Thematic Strategist.  Ariana Salvatore: Today, we'll be talking about the consumer and what recent data could imply for the midterm elections.  It's Wednesday, July 1st at 10am in New York.  Last week, Mike Zezas and I caught up on the consumer while he was down at our Consumer Captains Conference. This week, Michelle, I want to talk to you about what your data are saying and get into the implications of all of this for the midterm elections.  So, maybe we start with the AlphaWise data. What are our surveys picking up when it comes to how the consumer feels about the outlook in the aggregate?  Michelle Weaver: We run a monthly proprietary survey of around 2,000 U.S. consumers, and it's diversified by age, gender, and region, and we ask questions around sentiment, spending plans, and other special topics. Our survey recently showed a continued gradual recovery in consumer confidence in the U.S. economic outlook.  We're not off to the races by any means, but we did see the net outlook score improve to -10 percent, up from -14 percent a month ago and a low of -18 percent two months ago, when concerns around oil prices were at their peak.  Overall, more consumers feel negatively about the economy versus positively, hence that net score is negative. But we are s…","meta_description":"With voters focused on prices and the economy, our Head of Public Policy Research Ariana Salvatore and U.S. Thematic Strategist Michelle Weaver discuss th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":437,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thoughts-on-the-market-980853/episodes/what-to-watch-ahead-of-the-midterms/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/thoughts-on-the-market-980853/what-to-watch-ahead-of-the-midterms.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}