Greetings from the Beverly Hills Hilton, home of the Milken Conference.
It's 3:24 a.m. PT here and the hotel is empty, a different scene from the packed house at lunchtime Monday. You're probably wondering why I'm here right now? Well, we're recording an interview with Disney's (DIS) Hugh Johnston shortly after the earnings were announced. I've known Hugh for a decade, dating back to his long stint as CFO of PepsiCo (PEP).
Considering that and my natural tendency to be awake, why not start early? (Our live coverage of Milken's second day begins at 9 a.m. ET on our station, a more normal time)
A few random thoughts that came to mind during the inflationary Uber ride to the hotel:
1. I spoke to a source I've known for years who knows about the relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Or should I say no relationship – the two apparently haven't spoken in years because Steve is a “family man” and doesn't agree with some of Gates' life decisions in recent years.
2. If Kevin Hassett was chosen as the next Fed chief in the second round of the Trump presidency, as the WSJ recently speculated, he didn't show it in an interview with Akiko Fujita and you yesterday afternoon. In fact, he downplayed what happened off camera even further. On the other hand, anyone in Trump's inner circle who wants to speak out against him in any way – don't bite the hand that feeds you, I suppose.
3. Below are some thoughts from Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management (APO), on the protests on college campuses. Rowan has been very vocal on this issue. (Note: Apollo is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.)
4. Yahoo Finance senior reporter Yasmin Khorram was in the room with Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk last night for a highly anticipated keynote interview at Milken. According to Khorram, people left early during the sneaky conversation.
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