VIDEO: What Investors Need to Look Out for in June

Why AI Is Bigger Than Just Nvidia and Chip Stocks

On Monday, Chris Versace joined “Taking Stock” to discuss the key market catalysts investors should be watching as June gets underway.

With a Federal Reserve meeting, critical economic data releases, inflation reports, employment numbers and Apple’s (AAPL) highly anticipated developer conference all on the calendar, Versace expects markets to remain extremely active despite the start of the summer season. He highlighted upcoming ISM manufacturing and services data, the May jobs report, and next week’s CPI and PPI releases as crucial indicators that will help investors assess the direction of inflation and the broader economy.

The discussion also focused on the Federal Reserve’s challenges as inflation remains above target while the labor market continues to show resilience. Versace noted that, while markets have been focused on potential rate cuts, persistently strong inflation data could force policymakers to consider a more hawkish stance. With attention turning to the Fed’s leadership and voting committee, investors will be closely monitoring comments from central bank officials for clues about future monetary policy decisions and the path of interest rates.

Technology and artificial intelligence remain at the center of the market narrative, with Versace arguing that the AI revolution is still in its early stages. He compared today’s AI boom to the internet expansion of the late 1990s, suggesting that the full range of AI applications has yet to be realized.

While semiconductor companies have dominated headlines, he emphasized that the AI ecosystem extends far beyond chipmakers to include data centers, energy providers, construction firms and materials suppliers that support the industry’s rapid growth.

Looking ahead, all eyes are on Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where the company is expected to unveil major AI enhancements, including a next-generation Siri that could help spark a new iPhone upgrade cycle and reignite growth for one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.

Be sure to catch Chris between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Tuesday when he visits with Charles Payne on Fox Business’s “Making Money With Charles Payne.”

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At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long AAPL shares.

Transcript

We’re going to bring Chris back in.

So what are you going to be looking forward to in June?

Oh wow.

Well, so we’ve got a Fed meeting.

We’ve got a whole swath of economic data coming this week, you know, we’ve got the the ISM manufacturing PMI today, services later in the week.

We’ll be taking a real read on inflation pressures ahead of next week’s CPI, PPI, but we’ve also got Apple’s big event next week.

So if you were thinking things were going to slow down because we’re heading into June, forget it.

It’s going to be.

Balls to the wall as we continue to chew through all these events.

We’re definitely going to see the May Dobbs report on Friday.

April came in a lot better than economists expected.

What do you think we’re going to see on Friday from the BLS?

So far indications are that the numbers should be pretty good, you know, maybe a little surprise to the upside.

We saw manufacturing employment pick up a little bit today in that ISM manufacturing report.

We’ll get another read on Wednesday, and I think expectations will start to solidify once we get 80%. take on the private sector and the ISM services BMI.

This will of course be Kevin Warsch’s first meeting as Fed chair.

What do you think he’s going to, what are his biggest challenges going to be?

Well, I guess, I guess what everybody’s wondering is how can this guy possibly talk about cutting rates given the inflation data that we have seen, you know, not just the hot stuff we saw in April, but the buildup because it actually started to tick back up earlier this year and continued to rise, and all expectations are we’re going to get some hot.

Prince next week.

So how does he rationalize this, you know, trend inflation or whatever you want to call it.

It’ll be interesting to see how he presents this.

But remember, he is the head, but it’s a committee that votes.

I think a lot of people tend to forget that, you know, a lot of spotlight on Warsh, but what is the committee going to do?

We have other Fed speakers this week who’ll want to pay attention to what they have to say.

They did say at one point that if the conflict in Iran continued, there may be a rate hike.

We’ve only really been talking about cuts lately.

Do you think we could potentially see a hike, you know, if we get another round of those really hot CPI PPI reports, I don’t see how they’re going to, how they can’t at least discuss a potential rate hike.

We have other central banks around the world that are talking about hiking rates, you know, as long as the employment market continues to hold up and all indications are that it is, as long as inflation continues to not only run hot but really stretch itself past that 2% target, at some point they’re going to have to acknowledge it.

Tech is really heating up and arguably leading the rallies that we’ve been seeing.

What is your outlook for tech right now?

Well, So if we’re we agree that uh AI is really leading this, we want to continue to file follow, excuse me, not only AI adoption right in the enterprise with the consumer and we’ll get some potentially big news on that next week coming out of Apple’s event, but we wanna follow also the expanded usage level of AI and I would argue that we’re just like we were back in um.

You know, 1999, 2000 with the internet, we didn’t really have a sense of all the things we’re going to be able to do with the internet that we do today, and I think AI is going to be the same way.

So I see AI usage being a multi-year event.

Do you think there needs to be a broadening out of the different sectors?

Do you think there’s too much of a concentration, and where do you think it’s going to go?

Well, I would push back on that, and I would say a lot of people talk about Nvidia, Marvel, and the chip companies, understandably so.

But in order to build these data centers we need power, we need construction equipment, we need materials, so it’s a lot more than just 3 or 4.

Companies that are really benefiting from this multi-year buildout.

All right.

And anything else on the horizon?

You mentioned Apple has a big conference coming up next week, WWDC 2026, baby.

This is the event where they are finally expected to take the wraps off this revamped AI-enabled Siri.

This could be the big catalyst that fosters a massive Apple iPhone upgrade cycle.

That’s what we’ll be watching.

We’ve been seeing softer iPhone sales.

How do you think that’s going to play into the Apple story?

Well, you know, look, iPhone is the biggest product that Apple has.

To the extent that they can jumpstart the re-acceleration of that upgrade cycle, that’s a big positive for them.

All right, Christoph Versace, CIO at Tomatica Research, thank you so much for joining us and for your insights on taking stock.

Thanks for having me.