Kingsview CIO Scott Martin On News Nation – with Connell McShane – 7.25.25
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CONNELL MCSHANE: Investors keeping an eye on President Trump’s trade deals. He was just talking about some of this, as well as the Fed’s next interest rate meeting. The White House continues to put pressure on the Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates. Trump’s, though, saying this during his visit yesterday—which was quite a visit—to Fed headquarters.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I’d love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you? We’re going to see how the board rules on that soon. I’d love to see them come down a lot.
CONNELL MCSHANE: What a dynamic. Is this insistence, though, from the President actually discouraging the Fed from lowering rates? See the article in The Wall Street Journal saying a rate change at the behest of President Trump could break the Fed’s independence. So maybe the more he pushes, the less likely he is to get it. On that note, let’s bring in Scott Martin, Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Wealth Management. Good to see you, buddy. What do you think of that? Is that true—that the harder Trump pushes, the more Powell and company dig in and say, “No, no, no, we’re not giving in to you”?
SCOTT MARTIN: So far. But then if you keep smacking him on the back and almost knocking the guy over in front of the cameras—I mean, did you see how hard he hit Jerome Powell? I mean, Powell almost jerked it forward, almost looked like he was going to fall over and hit his head. And then he didn’t have to be racing.
CONNELL MCSHANE: That was actually the least awkward part of that encounter yesterday. The best was when they were going back and forth…
SCOTT MARTIN: How about the negative nodding that Powell had with regards to the cost? And so you’re right—I think Powell and Trump actually have this weird kind of affinity maybe coming for each other or formulating… forming. So maybe that will lower rates. But here’s the weirdest thing, Connell, for me: the President—I like his style, I do like a lot of his policies—but he comes out and says how great the economy is, how well the consumer is doing, how well everything is. Why do you lower interest rates in an environment where the economy is so good and growth is so amazing? You keep rates high—or at, let’s say, level policy rate—because then you use it when things slow down, when you need it. We don’t need it right now, so leave ’em in the jar and take ’em out when you need ’em—when the economy does slow down—because we got over 3% growth again.
CONNELL MCSHANE: He says, “Oh, we’d be doing even better, though, if the rates was low.” That’s what he argues.
SCOTT MARTIN: More increase.
CONNELL MCSHANE: I guess his substantive argument, though, really is, “Well, other countries are doing it. They’ve been doing it more. Why are we not doing it?”
So why would you say—why are other countries cutting rates, then? Can you explain that—and we’re not? How would you explain that?
SCOTT MARTIN: Yeah, because their economies or their consumers stink. I mean, if you want to look at Europe, that’s cut interest rates what—13 times? 14 times? Countless times. Their economy’s not the United States. Canada, Mexico also have—struggling with exports and things like that. So that’s been a problem for them. Japan—I mean, had anybody looked at the yen last year? I believe they had to do some interest rate fluctuating because the yen got smashed. So there were things going on currency-wise and economy-wise for those other countries. And we don’t want to be like them. I mean, the greatest thing about the United States, besides our consumer, is the fact that we did have a very experienced, independent Federal Reserve—at least until maybe yesterday.
CONNELL MCSHANE: What about the stock market? Does it scare you at all—the gains—or are you fine with it? You think you’ll keep riding the wave here? Record highs the other day—we started the beginning of the conversation about bubbles and valuations and all the rest. Is this too much, or are we all right?
SCOTT MARTIN: It feels a little bit like too much—which means maybe we’ll go a little bit further. I mean, I’m scared about the way I tied my tie today. I did take my vitamins.
CONNELL MCSHANE: It’s also crooked.
SCOTT MARTIN: I like the Hulkster told me to do when I was 13 years old.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Rest in peace.
SCOTT MARTIN: I’ll just say—rest in peace. I’ll just say though, Connell, it’s getting frothy. But the time that really—you can tell—is when folks that you would talk to that were so bearish and so negative and so scared start buying in. Even people like my mother, for example, starts to call me up and says, “Hey, give me another five shares in Nvidia.” That’s a sign that we’re probably at the top.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Did you get them when you wait for that period? Did you buy Nvidia for your mom?
SCOTT MARTIN: Less enough. Lower your expectations to get back in when everybody’s panicking.
CONNELL MCSHANE: You bought it for your mom—N-V-D-A?
SCOTT MARTIN: Today.
CONNELL MCSHANE: By the way—is everything all right? You seem like you’re having trouble sitting still. You very excited today?
SCOTT MARTIN: My chair is a little bit wobbly, and Donald Trump is standing outside the door asking me to help him lower interest rates. And I don’t want to get in the back and knock over and then have everybody see that and watch me just lay on the floor.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Thank you, Scott. Perfect timing. Look at that. See—closing was menu. Look at that—Man U fans, remember they’re publicly traded. Forgot about that. I love…
SCOTT MARTIN: …was fullback. So it could be a Man pullback if I was not moving so much. Maybe we got to move out there on the soccer field.
CONNELL MCSHANE: Pitch. I put you a little transfer.
