Speaker 1: News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now, I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Morris. Trump administration officials are exploring opening an anti
Speaker 1: trust investigation into US homebuilders to tackle the country's housing
Speaker 1: affordability crisis. Bloomberg Real Estate reporter pack Clark says the
Speaker 1: administration's interest in homebuilders comes as the cost of buying
Speaker 1: a home is at its most expensive in decades, with
Speaker 1: the industry facing high levels of unsold homes.
Speaker 2: All this goes back to October, when the President put
Speaker 2: out on a social media post that homebuilders are I mean.
Speaker 2: He likened them to OPEC and complained that builders are
Speaker 2: sitting on more lots than ever.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Real Estate reporter pack Clark tells Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: Daily the Department of Justice could open the probe in
Speaker 1: the coming weeks. Homebuilders shares are about one percent lower,
Speaker 1: and The Wall Street Journal reports the Justice Department is
Speaker 1: investigating whether Netflix has engaged in anti competitive tactics as
Speaker 1: it probes the streaming giants proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: Discovery Studios, and HBO Max streaming service. A racist post
Speaker 1: on President Trump's social media account depicting former President Obama
Speaker 1: and his wife Michelle Obama as Primates in a Jungle
Speaker 1: has been taken down. The White House initially defended the post,
Speaker 1: accusing critics of false outrage, but that post was deleted
Speaker 1: after widespread backlash. Black and white Republicans joined civil rights
Speaker 1: advocates in criticizing the post as racist. The Dow has
Speaker 1: surged eleven hundred points topping fifty thousand for the first time,
Speaker 1: as the stock market stormed back to recover much of
Speaker 1: its losses from earlier this week. We do check markets
Speaker 1: for you all day long here at Bloomberg. The S
Speaker 1: and P five hundred up one point eight percent, Nasdaq
Speaker 1: up one point nine percent, the Dow up two and
Speaker 1: a quarter percent, the ten year treasury yield at four
Speaker 1: point two percent, the two year yield at three point
Speaker 1: four to nine percent. Bitcoin more than twelve percent higher,
Speaker 1: reclaiming almost all of yesterday's losses, now up to seventy
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Amazon shares down more than seven percent after
Speaker 1: it's much higher than expected two hundred billion dollars annual
Speaker 1: capital spending forecast underline concerns on how much big tech
Speaker 1: companies are spending on AI related investments. Black Rock CIO
Speaker 1: of global fixed income. Rick Reader says AI is having
Speaker 1: an impact on markets and is the way for companies
Speaker 1: to protect themselves.
Speaker 3: You hear the discussion about capex and the capax was
Speaker 3: too high, and you know, I would argue, there's some
Speaker 3: other things that play there. Cap X is your moat.
Speaker 3: CAPEX and R and d SPAN are the way companies
Speaker 3: can build their moat. And it's actually data utilization and
Speaker 3: the companies that are exploiting data effectively that are building
Speaker 3: bigger moats. That is at the core of what is happening.
Speaker 1: Reader was on Bloomberg Open Interest, JP, Morgan Chase, Goldman, Sachs,
Speaker 1: and Bank of America all boosting their bonus pools for
Speaker 1: bankers and traders by at least ten percent. The payouts
Speaker 1: reflect a strong year for the nation's largest banks, collectively
Speaker 1: posting their largest annual profit since twenty twenty one. Consumer
Speaker 1: sentiment in the US has improved to its highest level
Speaker 1: in six months. The University of Michigan survey shows a
Speaker 1: bump to fifty seven point three. That's up from fifty
Speaker 1: six point four. Survey director Joanne Chu tells Bloomberg that's
Speaker 1: really not a lot.
Speaker 4: So this improvement is very very small.
Speaker 5: It's less than one index point.
Speaker 1: It's well within the.
Speaker 2: Margin of error that should be interpreted as a no change.
Speaker 1: Concerns persist about the job market and the impact of
Speaker 1: inflation on personal finances. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostik says
Speaker 1: it's important to keep interest rates at a level that
Speaker 1: returns inflation to two percent.
Speaker 4: Once inflation gets entrantion people's minds, it changes how the
Speaker 4: economy evolves, and it's one of the reasons why I
Speaker 4: think that we need to keep our policy in a
Speaker 4: restrictive posture so that we get inflation back to two percent.
Speaker 4: That's paramount.
Speaker 1: Bostik, who is to step down from his role at
Speaker 1: the end of this month, spoke to Bloomberg TV's Mike
Speaker 1: McKee in an exclusive interview. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip
Speaker 1: Jefferson says he's cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the economy.
Speaker 5: I expect the disinflationary process to resume this year once
Speaker 5: increaseds passed through more fully to prices. In addition, projected
Speaker 5: strong productivity growth may be a source of further help
Speaker 5: in bringing inflation down to our two percent targets.
Speaker 1: Jefferson told an event in Washington that with the FED
Speaker 1: strongly committed to returning inflation to its target, the risk
Speaker 1: of a one time shift leading to sustained inflation is low.
Speaker 1: President Trump is reportedly expected to sign an executive order
Speaker 1: today that will quadruple the amount of Argentine beef purchased
Speaker 1: by the US. CBS quotes an unnamed senior administration official
Speaker 1: who says the plan will lower beef costs for consumers.
Speaker 1: The deal would allow Argentina to export one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: tons of beef to the US. Iran says it has
Speaker 1: agreed with the US to continue indirect talks to de
Speaker 1: escalate tensions. Iran's foreign minister says discussions were limited to
Speaker 1: nuclear issues. US officials say they should include Iran's missiles
Speaker 1: and tehran support for regional militias. Tehran described the first
Speaker 1: day of those times positive. Attorney General Pam Bondi says
Speaker 1: a suspect in the September twenty twelve terrorist attack on
Speaker 1: US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya has been arrested and
Speaker 1: is now in US custody. FBI Director Cash Patel.
Speaker 6: Our Special Flight Operations Unit, and countless others, along with
Speaker 6: the agents in the New York Field Office who never
Speaker 6: forgot Benghazi and never let the world forget it, endured
Speaker 6: over a decade to bring yet another terrorist who killed
Speaker 6: four Americans to justice.
Speaker 1: Hottel says foreign partners aided in the arrest, but he
Speaker 1: did not give any more details. Savannah Guthrie's brother has
Speaker 1: renewed the family's plea for their mother's kidnapper to contact them,
Speaker 1: saying that they want to hear from her and they
Speaker 1: need proof she's alive. Authorities have not identified any suspects
Speaker 1: or persons of interest in the kidnapping of eighty four
Speaker 1: year old Nancy Guthrie. The FBI is offering up to
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars for information. That's news when you want
Speaker 1: it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morris, and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg