Layoffs About To Skyrocket, Why Is Fed Ignoring Critical Data? | Danielle DiMartino Booth

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  May 10, 2025 at 00:55  |  33:48  |  The David Lin Report
Speakers
Danielle DiMartino Booth — CEO, QI Research

Summary

Danielle DiMartino Booth argues the Fed is dismissing clear labor-market and soft-data deterioration. She expects recession and disinflation, with negative payrolls, rising layoffs and bankruptcies, and a Fed eventually forced to cut rates. She favors defensive positioning, sees TLT at multi-year lows as a buying opportunity, likes high-dividend payers and short-duration bonds, and warns on banks and housing. She sees the dollar range-bound for the rest of 2025.

  • Danielle DiMartino Booth criticizes Powell for ignoring soft data and labor-market weakness.
  • She expects recession and disinflation, with negative payroll prints and rising unemployment.
  • She sees capital expenditure plans collapsing and companies drawing credit lines.
  • She views TLT at multi-year lows as a buying opportunity as the Fed is forced to cut.
  • She favors defensive equities, short-duration bonds, and high-dividend payers.
  • She warns banks face rising consumer, auto, and commercial real estate credit losses.
  • She sees housing supply rising and home prices falling, pressuring homebuilders.
  • She expects the U.S. dollar to remain range-bound for the rest of 2025.
Ideas
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 26:01
Dollar range-bound rest of 2025.
She sees the U.S. dollar as range-bound for the rest of 2025: the Fed will likely be forced to cut rates this summer, but that will be offset by weakening global economies and more aggressive easing from the ECB and Bank of Canada. She does not expect the dollar to roar back or fall much further.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 26:48
Defensive portfolio posture for 2025.
With layoffs, bankruptcies, falling capex plans and companies drawing credit lines, she says the theme for 2025 is 'your best offense is a great defense.' Investors should be defensively postured and avoid companies at risk of dividend cuts because they did not shore up cash.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 27:28
TLT buy as Fed forced to cut.
TLT at multi-year lows is a buying opportunity because the Fed will be forced to cut rates this summer as the labor market weakens, bankruptcies rise, and private-sector layoffs continue. She admits she has been early but sees the bond setup supported by recession and disinflation.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 28:24
Stay short duration in bonds.
As part of defensive fixed-income positioning, she would stay short in duration, favoring shorter-maturity bonds over longer-duration exposure while the economy and credit conditions weaken.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 28:33
High dividend payers to outperform.
She favors companies that can maintain their dividends, especially through high-dividend ETFs. These defensive high-dividend payers have underperformed while mega-cap tech led, but she expects that environment to flip as investors seek defensive income in a weakening economy.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 29:00
Banks face rising credit losses.
She warns banks are exposed to rising consumer delinquencies, auto-loan losses, personal loans and commercial real estate. Auto repo lots are refusing to take newer cars, and Jamie Dimon's large credit-card charge-off signals charge-offs will rise across other banks; banks are also tightening lending standards.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 30:04
Housing prices falling, supply rising.
The housing market is weakening: unseasonal inventory increases, homebuilders using incentives and rate buy-downs, new and existing home prices crossing due to discounting, FHA foreclosures starting, sellers rushing to market, and Zillow now sees home prices falling for the full year. Supply/demand points to lower prices.
Danielle DiMartino Booth CEO, QI Research 31:01
Homebuilders squeezed by incentives.
Homebuilders are spending increasingly on incentives and buying down mortgage rates to move product, and new-home discounting has pushed new and existing home prices to cross. That pressure on margins and pricing makes the group unattractive.
Up Next

This The David Lin Report video, published May 10, 2025, features Danielle DiMartino Booth discussing DXY, Defensive equities, TLT, SHY, High dividend ETFs, BANK, ITB, XHB. 8 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Danielle DiMartino Booth  · Tickers: DXY, Defensive equities, TLT, SHY, High dividend ETFs, BANK, ITB, XHB