Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Lisa Matteo. Here
Speaker 2: are the top stories we're following today.
Speaker 3: Lisa, we begin with new developments this morning on Warner
Speaker 3: Brothers Discovery. President Trump is flagging concerns over Netflix, has
Speaker 3: planned seventy two billion dollar acquisition of the company. The
Speaker 3: deal is still in its early stages, but it would
Speaker 3: bring together the world's dominant streaming service with the iconic
Speaker 3: Hollywood movie studio. Praising Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, whom he
Speaker 3: met with recently, President Trump, though, is hinting to reporters
Speaker 3: that regulators could take issue with the size of the
Speaker 3: combined entity.
Speaker 4: And he's done one of the greatest jobs in the
Speaker 4: history of movies and other things that He's got a
Speaker 4: lot of interesting things happening aside from what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: But it is a big market channel, there's no question
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 5: It could be a problem.
Speaker 3: President Trump hosted Serrandos at the White House in mid November,
Speaker 3: when the pair discussed the deal and checking shares of
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers Discovery in the pre market, they are down
Speaker 3: two percent.
Speaker 6: Well. Staying in Washington, Nathan.
Speaker 2: Later today, President Trump he plans to unveil a long
Speaker 2: awaited aid package for farmers, a White House official tells Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: The twelve billion dollar package includes eleven billion dollars in
Speaker 2: one time payments under the Agriculture Department's farmer Bridge Assistance program.
Speaker 2: The move comes with farmers getting more frustrated about China's
Speaker 2: slow pace of resuming soybean and other agricultural purchases, but
Speaker 2: US Trade Representative Jamison Greer says China is holding up
Speaker 2: its end to the trade agreement with the US.
Speaker 7: The commitments are quite specific. They're about purchasing a certain
Speaker 7: amount of soybeans, for example, through the rest of this
Speaker 7: growing season and then each of the next years. These
Speaker 7: are things that are quantifiable. The data are clear. We've
Speaker 7: already seen that the Chinese are getting to about a
Speaker 7: third of the way through their purchase commitment for this
Speaker 7: growing season.
Speaker 2: US Trade Representative Jamison Greer appeared on Fox News. President
Speaker 2: Trump is scheduled to unveil the farm aid this afternoon
Speaker 2: at two pm Wall Street time, and an event with
Speaker 2: crop farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins.
Speaker 5: Ahead of that event Lisa.
Speaker 3: Treasury Secretary Besson says the Trump administration is focused on affordability.
Speaker 5: He spoke yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation.
Speaker 8: Democrats created scarcity, whether it's an energy or over regulation,
Speaker 8: that we are now seeing the suffordability problem, and I
Speaker 8: think next year we're going to move on to prosperity.
Speaker 3: The Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says he expects the US
Speaker 3: economy to end the year with three percent GDP growth.
Speaker 3: And you can catch CBS's face the Nation Sunday afternoons
Speaker 3: on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Turning now to geopolitics, Nathan Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth he's
Speaker 2: doubling down on deadly air strikes on suspected drug running
Speaker 2: boats off the Venezuelan coast. At the Reagan Defense Forum
Speaker 2: in California over the weekend, Hegseth defended Admiral Frank Bradley
Speaker 2: for ordering a second strike that killed survivors aboard one
Speaker 2: vessel on September second.
Speaker 5: From what I understood then and what I understand now,
Speaker 5: I fully support that strike. I would have made the
Speaker 5: same call myself.
Speaker 2: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon is reviewing video
Speaker 2: of the attack. He's declining to say whether it will
Speaker 2: be released to the public. Jim Hins is a top
Speaker 2: Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Speaker 6: He says a video should come to light.
Speaker 9: I think it's really important that people see what it
Speaker 9: looks like when the full force of the United States
Speaker 9: military has turned on two guys who are clinging to
Speaker 9: a piece of wood and about to go under, just
Speaker 9: so that they have sort of a visceral feel for
Speaker 9: what it is that we're doing.
Speaker 2: Democratic Congressman Jim Hines appeared on CBS's Face a Nation
Speaker 2: Heard every Sunday on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3: Let's turn now, Lisa to the latest developments on ending
Speaker 3: the war in Ukraine. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is
Speaker 3: set to host Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski in London today.
Speaker 3: The leaders of France and Germany will join the meeting
Speaker 3: as well. Tony Halpin leads Bloomberg's Economic and government coverage
Speaker 3: of Russia.
Speaker 10: The Europeans are trying to bolster the Ukraine's leverage at
Speaker 10: this time because they themselves are not there, but at
Speaker 10: the same time they want to help Ukraine maintain its
Speaker 10: positions in the face of what is fairly considerable pressure
Speaker 10: to agree to a deal. And the US has been
Speaker 10: in direct negotiations with Ukraine and has been direct negotiations
Speaker 10: with Russia. The peace plan that they are talking about
Speaker 10: originated as a joint US Russia peace plan, and so
Speaker 10: the European leaders are trying to ensure that Zelensky isn't
Speaker 10: pushed into a corner and agrees to a deal that
Speaker 10: doesn't secure Ukraine's long term security.
Speaker 5: That's Bloomberg's Tony Halpin.
Speaker 3: President Trump says he's disappointed in Zelenski's handling of the
Speaker 3: US proposal to.
Speaker 6: End the war well staying in Europe. Nathan JP.
Speaker 2: Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond says bureaucracy is having a significant
Speaker 2: impact on the continent's growth prospects. In an interview over
Speaker 2: the weekend with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde, Diamond also said a
Speaker 2: fracturing of the continent could become a major problem for
Speaker 2: the US.
Speaker 11: If they fragment, you know, then you could say that
Speaker 11: you know that America First will not will not be
Speaker 11: around anymore. We It will hurt us more than anybody
Speaker 11: else because they are a major ally in every single way,
Speaker 11: including common values, which are really important. So therefore I
Speaker 11: think we should be using our American capabilities trained coercion, democracy, trade,
Speaker 11: investment to urge them to do it in their own
Speaker 11: self interest.
Speaker 2: Diamond's comments come at a difficult moment for US European relations,
Speaker 2: as the two sides find themselves increasingly at odds on
Speaker 2: issues ranging from Ukraine to trade and regulation. For the
Speaker 2: full conversation, head over to the Bloomberg podcast channel on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Turning the Market's Now, Lisa, Futures are mixed this morning
Speaker 3: ahead of Wednesday's rate decision from the Federal Reserve, and
Speaker 3: we have a couple of big market calls this morning.
Speaker 3: Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson says US equities face a quote
Speaker 3: bullish setup given expectations of great cuts and the outlook
Speaker 3: for improving earnings. John Staltzfis, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer
Speaker 3: Asset Management, says the S and P five hundred will
Speaker 3: surge eighteen percent in twenty twenty six as earnings per
Speaker 3: share continue to rise in double digits, and Wall Street
Speaker 3: Research veteran ed Yard Denny is now recommending underweighting the
Speaker 3: magnificent seven megacap tech stocks versus the rest of the
Speaker 3: s and P five hundred.
Speaker 12: It's hard to recommend overweighting something that's already quite overweight.
Speaker 12: I mean, if you just told people just to maintain
Speaker 12: the current weight of the index, that would still be
Speaker 12: an overweight position relative to what most people will think
Speaker 12: would be a diversified portfolio.
Speaker 3: And your Denny of Yard Denny Research instead recommends investing
Speaker 3: in financials, industrials, and healthcare.
Speaker 2: In company news, Nathan the Wall Street Journal reporting IBM
Speaker 2: is in advanced negotiations to acquire data infrastructure firm Confluent
Speaker 2: for about eleven billion dollars. The paper says a deal,
Speaker 2: which would mark one of IBM's biggest acquisitions in recent years,
Speaker 2: could be announced as early as today. Chairs of Confluent
Speaker 2: are thirty one percent in early trading.
Speaker 13: Time.
Speaker 2: Now for a look at some of the other stories
Speaker 2: making news in New York and around the world that
Speaker 2: we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael bar Good morning, Michael.
Speaker 14: Good morning, Lisa. A pre trial hearing is schedule to
Speaker 14: resume today with the man accused of killing the CEO
Speaker 14: of United Healthcare. A New York judge is considering whether
Speaker 14: certain pieces of evidence can be used against Luigi Mangione
Speaker 14: during his state trial. Mangioni's defense attorneys said that the
Speaker 14: police did not read their client his Miranda rights. New
Speaker 14: images were released over the weekend from the day of
Speaker 14: Mangione's arrest. Those include a USB stick that he was
Speaker 14: wearing as a necklace, a December fourth bus ticket from
Speaker 14: Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and a to do list that was
Speaker 14: found folded up in his pocket. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Speaker 14: Dettan Yaho says Israel expects to move to the next
Speaker 14: phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan soon. Detan Yahoo says
Speaker 14: that he would discuss opportunities for peace with President Trump
Speaker 14: when he meets him later this month. Det Yahoo also
Speaker 14: voiced opposition to a Palestinian state.
Speaker 5: The purpose of.
Speaker 13: A Palestinian state is to destroy the one and only
Speaker 13: Jewish date. They already had a state in Gaza, a
Speaker 13: defactive state, and it was used to try to destroy
Speaker 13: the one in only Jewish date.
Speaker 14: The truth between Israel and Amas remains fragile, with both
Speaker 14: sides accusing the other of violations. The Trump administration has
Speaker 14: released a new calendar that changes the free entry days
Speaker 14: for national parks. It removes Martin Luther King Junior Day
Speaker 14: and June teenth, both federal holidays, and adding Flag Day,
Speaker 14: which is not a federal holiday on June fourteenth that
Speaker 14: just happens to be President Trump's birthday. Pastor activist and
Speaker 14: author Jamal Bryant, everything that.
Speaker 9: They did in the civil rights community is trying to
Speaker 9: be erased and dismiss as if it never happened.
Speaker 14: Pastor Jamal Bryant and other critics say no sitting president
Speaker 14: has had their birthday declared as a free day in
Speaker 14: the park. Global News twenty four hours a day and
Speaker 14: whenever you want it with the Bloomber News. Now, I'm
Speaker 14: Michael Barrn. This is Bloomberg Leaser.
Speaker 6: Thanks Michael.
Speaker 2: Time now for our Bloomberg Sports update, and for that
Speaker 2: we bring in John stash Hour.
Speaker 15: There were some big games in the NFL. The Packers
Speaker 15: never trailed, but the Bears twenty eight to twenty one.
Speaker 15: The Steelers held off the Ravens in Baltimore twenty seven
Speaker 15: to twenty two. The Jadwars top the Colts thirty six
Speaker 15: to nineteen. In all three cases, the winner now in
Speaker 15: sole possession of first in their division. Last night, Euston
Speaker 15: won at Kansas City twenty to ten. Looks said the
Speaker 15: Chiefs are gonna miss the playoffs. Jeff Kent named for
Speaker 15: induction of the Baseball Hall of Fame as the most
Speaker 15: home runs ever for a second baseman, Notre Dame got
Speaker 15: snubbed didn't make the college football playoff. That's your Bloomberg
Speaker 15: Sports update.
Speaker 5: Stay with us.
Speaker 16: More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this.
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Speaker 6: This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Speaker 5: Good mone warning on Nathan Hager.
Speaker 3: One of the biggest mergers in Hollywood history could be
Speaker 3: facing some pushback.
Speaker 5: In Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: President Trump is raising doubts about Netflix co CEO Ted
Speaker 3: Sarandos and his planned seventy two billion dollar takeover of
Speaker 3: Warner Brothers Discovery.
Speaker 4: He's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from
Speaker 4: what you're talking about. But it is a big market share,
Speaker 4: There's no question about it.
Speaker 5: Could be a problem.
Speaker 3: President Trump spoke ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors in
Speaker 3: the Nation's capital. For more, we're joined by a Bloomberg
Speaker 3: Market's reporter, Valerie Titel, and of course, Valerie, we are
Speaker 3: very early days into this planned merger, but could we
Speaker 3: be seeing this deal stopped in its tracks out of
Speaker 3: the Nation's capital.
Speaker 5: Good morning.
Speaker 17: Well, well, look, if we take a look at the
Speaker 17: market reaction in pre market, we are seeing Netflix and
Speaker 17: Warner Brothers reverse some of Friday's moves. So there is
Speaker 17: a bit of skepticism on this deal now that we
Speaker 17: heard these comments from President Trump that the size of
Speaker 17: their market share combined could be a problem. We've seen
Speaker 17: also bets on the prediction marketplace polymarket, which did show
Speaker 17: a sixty percent chance of the deal closing in twenty
Speaker 17: twenty six, is now all the way down to twenty five.
Speaker 17: So the market is showing some skepticism here that this
Speaker 17: combined unit between Netflix and Warner Brothers could be something
Speaker 17: that the regulators could declare as harmful to consumers. The
Speaker 17: combined unit would have some four hundred and fifty million
Speaker 17: users under one streaming giant, and it will face a
Speaker 17: lengthy Justice Department review. We have heard from US lawmakers
Speaker 17: on both parties, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren already faulting
Speaker 17: the transaction as harmful to the consumer base and the
Speaker 17: European Union. Regulators are also likely to subject the Netflix
Speaker 17: proposal to an intensive review.
Speaker 5: But it does follow some interesting Bloomberg reporting.
Speaker 17: That the co CEO of Netflix was at the White
Speaker 17: House back in November met with President Trump for over
Speaker 17: an hour to get Trump's blessing on the proposed deal,
Speaker 17: and he did leave with the impression that Netflix wouldn't
Speaker 17: face immediate oppoiceition from the White House. Now, the other
Speaker 17: thing that could complimentate this is the other bidder for
Speaker 17: Warner Brothers Discovery that was paramounts sky Dance could perhaps
Speaker 17: do some lobbying efforts to try to disrupt the plan. Now,
Speaker 17: Paramount Skuydance wanted to buy the whole company, and regulators
Speaker 17: are more likely to approve of a Paramount Warner Brothers
Speaker 17: a merger. So still a lot of drama in this
Speaker 17: merger to play out, But it does seem like there
Speaker 17: is a hint of skepticism now trading in the markets
Speaker 17: about this deal closing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting to hear that Paramount Skuiddance could potentially be
Speaker 3: brought back into play here given the CEO David Ellison,
Speaker 3: his fairly close ties to President Trump as well.
Speaker 5: I mean, how.
Speaker 3: Unusual is it to see this kind of politicization of a.
Speaker 5: Merger like this so early in the process.
Speaker 17: Well, at least one thing we know is that Trump
Speaker 17: has had this push of deregulation. He has a new
Speaker 17: head in the FTC, and they do have a flavor
Speaker 17: of allowing companies a more activity like this. This does
Speaker 17: perhaps pose a test to the White House whether they
Speaker 17: stand by that commitment to deregulation, whether they would let
Speaker 17: a deal like this go through. But it is very
Speaker 17: interesting to see the politics so wrapped up. But in
Speaker 17: a merger this size, Nathan, you're going to have many
Speaker 17: regulators involved. As I mentioned, the European Union could also
Speaker 17: get involved in this discussion as well. So it goes
Speaker 17: down to the size of the merger and the massive
Speaker 17: company it would create, with over four hundred million users
Speaker 17: on one streaming giant platform if Netflix were to take
Speaker 17: Warner Brothers Discovery.
Speaker 3: In our last minute, let's talk about the broader market here.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of the focus this morning, probably
Speaker 3: for the rest of this week, is going to be
Speaker 3: on the Federal Reserve and the final decision of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five.
Speaker 17: Final decision for twenty twenty five, and while the markets
Speaker 17: are wildly predicting the FED will cut interest rates by
Speaker 17: twenty five basis points, we could be in for a
Speaker 17: whopping number of descents in the voting. We've heard from
Speaker 17: a raft of more hawkish FMC officials saying they're not
Speaker 17: comfortable with cutting rates. Five of them have actually expressed
Speaker 17: concerns in the last month. If they all dissent at
Speaker 17: something that we have not seen in FED in modern
Speaker 17: history of the Federal Reserve, a five descent decision if
Speaker 17: they go ahead and cut interest rates on Wednesday, So
Speaker 17: a fractured FED is the focus, and then the focus
Speaker 17: is on the week after that. The backlog of data
Speaker 17: the November CPI in non farm payroll reporters still do
Speaker 17: before Christmas.
Speaker 16: This is Bloomberg day Break, your morning podcast on the
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Speaker 6: I'm Lisa Matteo.
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