Jim Chanos, Live From Miami, and Has the Crypto Winter Thawed? 1/30/23

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Melissa Lee (1:01)

Fast Money is on the road in Miami. A city that's a lot more than palm trees, beaches and after hours fun. We're here for the iConnections Global Alt Investment Conference. Our headliners tonight, legendary investor and short seller Jim Chanos. Plus a venture capitalist who left the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley for the sun, sand and business vibe of South Florida. And later, the crypto winter seems to be thawing, but will that reignite Miami's Bitcoin dreams? Fast Money starts right now.

Welcome to Fast Money, I'm Melissa Lee live from Miami Beach, Florida from the iconic Fontainebleau Hotel. We're at the iConnections Global Alt Conference, a sprawling event that brings together titans from the investment, finance, economics and crypto world. Joining me on the desk tonight is Dan Nathan and Guy Adami, who apparently drew the short straw tonight. What does that even mean?

Guy Adami (1:52)

Why? Short straw?

Melissa Lee (1:53)

No, this is fun. I'm saying that this is amazing.

Guy Adami (1:55)

Oh, I see. It was sarcasm.

Melissa Lee (1:57)

Exactly.

Guy Adami (1:58)

By the way, this is the place that like Sinatra would hang out at with Dean Martin. You know, like I'm partial to those guys as you know.

Melissa Lee (2:04)

But I mean, this is really, I mean, for all the talk of a looming recession, it doesn't feel like that here.

Dan Nathan (2:10)

It doesn't feel like it here. If you walk this resort here and you see all the people here just to be at a resort, and then you look at the thousands of people are here to do business and be at an event like this, it doesn't feel, I haven't felt this way since before the pandemic, to be very honest with you.

Melissa Lee (2:24)

Meantime, a different story in the markets today. So let's get to that. Let's turn to the market. Stocks kicking off the week with broad losses. The NASDAQ dropping nearly 2%.

It's biggest loss of the year so far. The S&P down more than a percent. 10 of 11 sectors losing ground. The Dow shedding 260 points. The sell off comes as we get ready for a very big week of market moving events. The Fed decision on Wednesday. Earnings from Meta, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon. And the January jobs report all on the calendar. So could this week's news accelerate today's losses? It felt like we were a little bit long overdue for this considering the slate of things that we're having to speak.

Guy Adami (2:58)

Look, the last week and a half has surprised me for sure. I can only speak about myself. But the rally we've seen over the last 10 or so trading days has been really interesting. I'm not sure what it's been predicated upon, but can this basically accelerate the losses to the downside? Absolutely. But can it also accelerate the move to the upside? I mean, if you get some sort of dovish fed talk, or if you get a soft number, or if Apple doesn't disappoint, I mean, today can be reversed in a heartbeat. So what I said last week on the show, and I'll reiterate, it sounds somewhat glib. It's not meant to be. It's going to move one way or another. And you're not fading either side. I happen to think the move is going to be significantly lower. But if this thing goes through 4100, we're going to see the August highs without question.

Melissa Lee (3:36)

It is a possibility, too, that big tech disappoints. I mean, look at what we had with Microsoft. We're back at pre-earnings levels at this point.

Dan Nathan (3:44)

Yeah, and I think the Microsoft is really an interesting example where the estimates had come down, expectations had come down, the dollar, which we know was a big headwind last year, should be a tailwind now. If you think about where the US dollar index is, they warned on the headwind of the dollar. Remember that back in June of 2022? And I guess the thing I just say is this, with rates lower, with a lot of these inflationary inputs, the last piece of the puzzle, I hate to skip ahead to Friday, is going to be jobs. It's going to be what we think is happening in the labor market, what we think is happening to that wage inflation that we know is really sticky. So to me, I think there's a little something for everybody right now. I just don't think we're going to come out of this earning season on a big up note about the optimism, about some sort of earnings guidance bottoming out in Q1 or Q2. I think it's going to take more than a few quarters to get that done with.