Trump-Putin Meeting Countdown; Buffett Takes Stake in UnitedHealth

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Good morning.
I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the
stories we're following today.
Karen, we begin with the High Stake Summit, now just
hours away. This afternoon, President Donald Trump is set to
arrive in Anchorage, Alaska for a face to face meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The President's hoping to broker
a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but he's tamping down
expectations ahead of the meeting.
I think it's going to be a good meeting, But
the more important meeting will be the second meeting that
we're having. We're going to have a meeting with President Putin,
President Zelenski, myself, and maybe we'll bring some of the
European leaders all maybe not. It's I don't know that
it's going to be very important. We're going to see
what happens.
President Trump spoke from the Oval Office.
In an interview with Fox News, he said there's a
twenty five percent chance the summit won't be successful. As
for Putin, he's praising President Trump for his efforts to
stop the fighting and dangling the prospects of economic cooperation
and a new nuclear arms.
Treaty with the US. More on that from Bloomberg New
senior writer Stephanie Baker.
Putin is trying to appeal to Trump's instinct to cast
himself as this great peace loving leader, striking deals all
around the world, seeking a nobel peace prize, which everyone
knows he wants. I also think it's part of Putin's
strategy to try to broaden the stakes of this meeting
beyond just Ukraine.
That's Bloomberg Stephanie Baker.
The White House says President Trump will meet with Putin
at eleven am, Alaska time. That's three pm on Wall Street.
Stay with Bloomberg for complete coverage of the Trump Putin
Alaska summit throughout the day.
Nathan.
The Trump administration is considering taking a stake in Intel.
Sources say the plan stems from a meeting this week
between President Trump and Intel CEO Lit Bhutan. The government's
potential steak could support expansion of Intel's domestic manufacturing, especially
as planned factory hub in Ohio. Tom Giles is Bloomberg's
executive editor for Tech.
This is really early days, but it would be a
pretty momentous event and development in terms of new ways
that the Trump administration is inserting itself into US industries.
We saw with the steel industry previously and now with chips.
And Bloomberg's Tom Giles says Intel to kind of comment
on the discussions, Intel, which rose more than seven percent
yesterday on the news, is up another two point six
percent this morning.
Well, Karen the Oracle of Omaha is moving markets this morning.
Shares of United Health Group are up thirteen percent. Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathway bought shares of the healthcare company in
the second quarter. According to a filing, Berkshire acquired five
million shares in United Health, giving the conglomerate a stake
worth one point six billion dollars. We get more from
Bloomberg Market's reporter Christina.
Quinolasuck has gotten so much cheaper over the past. Of course,
we know a lot of the idiosyncratic issues that United
Health has encountered, a lot of terminal in their management
group following the incidents of last year, and so a
lot of kind of headwinds for the company. They missed
their earnest for the first time in more than a decade,
and that has led to a much deeper valuation for
the company. But you know, we know Berkshire really like
these blue chip companies. They like companies that can deliver stable,
long term returns, and United Health before the terminal of
last year, was one of those companies.
Bloombergs Christina Quino says Berkshire also sold at steak in
T Mobile and trimmed its holdings in Apple and Bank
of America.
So Nathan Warren Buffett is not the only one betting
on United Health. Billionaire David Tepper's Apple LUSA Management boosted
its holdings to the healthcare company by two point three
million shares that values his steak at seven hundred and
sixty four million dollars. Tepper's firm cut holdings in Chinese companies,
including Ali, Baba and JD dot Com.
Well, Karen, we're seeing a theme emerge from the latest
thirteen f regulatory filings. Hedge funds added exposure to tech giants,
including Microsoft and Netflix in the second quarter. That's during
a stretch that saw an initial surge in volatility due
to President Trump's trade policies, but ultimately ended with major
benchmarks posting significant gains. Bloomberg analyzed thirteen f's and more
than seven hundred hedge funds. Tech accounted for their biggest
ratings at twenty three percent, followed by financials at seventeen percent.
Let's look at the economy now. Nathan and Wall Street
traders are dialing back expectations for a ratecot next month.
This is after the higher than expected increase in the
producer price ind XI yesterday, which suggested companies are passing
along elevated import cost tied to tariffs. The odds of
a September cut fell to around eighty five percent from
more than one hundred percent before the PPI report.
Well, we'll see if the betting shifts today.
Karen his investors get another key economic report to close
out the week. Retail sales for the month of July.
Bloomberg's Tom Busby has more on what to expect.
Overall retail sales for July expected to rise by point
six percent, the same increase we saw on June. According
to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, lower gasoline prices likely led
to lower sales and gas stations, and that's expected to
be offset by higher sales of new and used vehicles,
while prices of newly built cars were flat. Used car
prices up half a percent in July. Now, excluding motor vehicles,
retail sales are expected to rise zero point three percent.
Tom Busby Bloomberg Radio.
Tom, thank you, and we will have complete analysis of
the retail sales report at eight thirty am Wall Street Time,
and we invite you to join us next week for
Bloomberg's live coverage at Jackson Hole. We will be on
the ground in Wyoming to cover the Kansas City Fed
To annual meeting and remarks from Chair J.
Powell.
It all begins Wednesday and finishes up with a special
edition of Bloomberg Surveillance. Tom Keen, Lisa Abramowitz, and Michael
McKee will all be part of that special beginning at
nine am Eastern on Friday. Plus watch for special episodes
of the Odd Lots podcast Joe Riisenthal and Tracy Alloway.
They'll be taping several conversations from the event as well. Well.
Let's to look forward to next week, but this morning, Karen,
the economy is also in focus in Asia. China's economy
slowed across the board in July, with factory activity, investment,
and retail sales disappointing analysts say the disruption from President
Trump's tariffs is.
Beginning to ripple through the wider Chinese economy.
Well, Nathan, we might be seeing an impact on President
Trump's tariffs on its chocolate market. Switch Chocolate heer Lynt
says it may shift production of its world famous gold
wrapped Easter Bunnies to the US to sidestep impoor tariffs.
Sources say the plan would involve spending as much as
ten million dollars to also make bunnies, Santas, and other
hollow chocolate figures in the US, and they are currently
all made in Germany.
And a sad note this morning, Karen, the woman who
helped make one of the world's richest men into who
he is today, has died. Bloomberg's Gina Cervetti has more
on the life of Jackie Bezos, the mother of Amazon
founder Jeff Bezos.
Jackie Bezos and her husband Mike were the first to
invest in their son's startup that became an e commerce juggernaut.
Those first two checks of about two hundred and forty
five thousand dollars have netted them a fortune worth about
thirty billion dollars as of twenty eighteen. They poured much
of it into educational programs through the Bezos Family Foundation.
Its largest gift came last year nearly one hundred and
eighty six million dollars to fund a center for young
people at the Aspen Institute. Jeff Bezos says his mother
died at her home in Miami after a long fight
with louis body dementia. She was seventy eight years old.
Gina Cervetti Bloomberg Radio.
Time Now for look at some of their stories making
news in New York and around the world, and for
that were joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr Michael, Good Morning.
Good Morning Karen. Police and New York werecalled to a
federal building after envelopes containing an unidentified white powder were discovered.
It forced the evacuation of twenty six Federal Plaza in
Manhattan that houses an ICE office and processing center for
detained migrants. The suspicious letters were found in a mail
room used by ICE. The FBI's Christopher Raya the letters.
Will be sent to the FBI lab in Quantico for
additional testing. We have opened up an investigation and will
provide additional details as soon as we can.
There are no known injuries. A rally was held Thursday
in New York City for a twenty year old student
who's been detained by immigration authorities. Mamadou Diallo was detained
following a routine court appearance in Manhattan earlier this month.
The West African native was seeking a special immigration juvenile
disgust status when he was detained. One of the protesters
says she fears what's happening to immigrants is becoming normalized.
People should be very, very alarmed about what's going on
in this country right now.
Homeland Security defends the detention, saying Diallo was released into
the country by the Biden administration and will remain in
ice custody. Oppical Storm Aarin will likely become the first
official hurricane of the twenty twenty five Atlantic season today.
The storm is slowly gaining strength east of Puerto Rico.
Bloomberg Meeting relogius Craig Allen has the.
Latest maximum sustained winds will increase to about eighty miles
per hour by the end of today and could very
well become a major Category three with winds over one
hundred and fifteen miles per hour as it goes into
hotter waters over the weekend.
Bloomberg Meeting religius, Craig Allen says, for now, the track
of the storm appears to take it north of the
Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. Global News twenty four hours
a day and whenever you want it with the Bloomberg News.
Now.
I'm Michael Barran. This is Bloomberg Herron.
All right, Michael Barr, thank you time now for the
Bloomberg Sports Update. It's brount to you by Flushing Bank
and here's John stash Hour. John, good morning, Good.
Morning, Karen.
The Mets have historically struggled against division rival Atlanta, and
even this season with the Braves having a very down year,
Met's got swept in Atlanta and failed the in either
of the series at City Field. They won the opener easily,
but Blue leads in the last two games. They were
up three two eighth inning, Atlanta tied it and on
Michael Harris double, the next batter was longtime Met nemesis.
Ozzie Albe's one O.
Pitch and he swings and it's one deep down the
right field line, towards the corner and that is off
of the wall. On the fly that's gonna give the
Braves the lead. It's a double by an Ozzie. That's
his third Big Bays hit tonight and it gives the
Braves a lead. Here in the eighth inning has its
four to three Atlanta, and at.
The final Braves Radio had it you could hear the
booz Alby's eighty one career RBIs against the Mets cub
the losing pitcher, New Met reliever Ryan Helsley. He also
couldn't hold an eighth inning lead. Last Sunday, the Phillies
lost three two in Washington. The Mets remained five games
behind the Fields, but the Mets lead over the Reds
the last wildcard spot only half a game. Yankee start
a road tript tonight in Saint Louis Paul Goldsmith against
his old team, and he's gonna.
Knee injury, could miss some time.
BMW Golf in Maryland and one at opening round for
Robert and McIntyre and eight under sixty two. He needed
only seventeen shots to play the last six holes. Leeds
by three over Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie shefferd Trails by four.
Tennis and Cincinnati a quarterfinal win for Jonnick Sinner. He
lost only two games. American Ben Shelton has reached the quarterfinals,
and so.
Has Coco Goff.
John Stashawa, Bloomberg Sports, Karen on Navin. Stay with us.
More from Bloomberg day Break coming up after this.
Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius XM,
and around the world on Bloomberg dot Com and the
Bloomberg Business app. This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager.
President Donald Trump is setting expectations ahead of his Alaska
summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, now just hours away.
I think President Putin will make peace. I think President
Zelenski will make peace. We'll see if they can get along.
The President spoke from the Oval Office the day before
he departs the White House for Anchorage. At the same time,
he is saying today's meeting won't be as important as
the second meeting he helps to set up between Putin
and Zelenski. For more, we're joined by Terry Haynes, founder
of Pangaea Policy. Terry, Good morning. We've heard the President
say there's a twenty five percent chance his meeting with
Putin doesn't go well. From what I read, you're putting
the chances of success at sixty percent.
Why, Good morning, Hi, Good morning, Nathan. Yeah. I wrote
yesterday morning that I thought the chances of success on
establishing a process for negotiating peace was about sixty forty
the president's advent seventy five twenty five. I take that
two ways. One is that if I were the president,
I'd be a little more optimistic than I am about
going in and trying to get something done. But at
the same time, I think it's an affirmation of my
view that there's a non trivial chance that what ends
up happening is not agreeing even on the process. It
is in the president's to the president's credit that he's
trying to establish a process. Putin probably needs a process,
whether he's sincere, whether he's rope doping. So I'll give
it a positive chance of that. But beyond that, that's
where things get tricky.
Well, where do you see it?
And as far as where Putin is coming into this,
is he stringing the president along with what he's been
saying about boosting economic cooperation, bringing in an arms treaty,
talk that sort of thing.
No one can know. I think we will after We'll
have some idea certainly after this meeting, and in about
you know, in the days and weeks to come, you know,
But Russia is you know, this is a short answer
to a very long the litany. But you know, Russia's
got a great deal of problems. Is running out of economic,
economic time and money. The more the President impresses that
upon him, and impresses upon him that the United States
and in the broader West are are committed to pressing
that advantage, the more likely the president is to have
some success. Number one. Number two, I think the arms
control agreements, the rar Earth, the things that are mooted around,
I think are diversions. Frankly, I would I would urge
markets not to not to think of them as any
more than conditional candy. At this point, you know, there's
there's a broader lens here where the United States and
the West want to wo Russia back into the Community
of Nations more fully instead of being a satellite country
a client state of China. And I think that's what's
going on here. But we're a very long way from
making any of that sort of thing a reality.
Now we know that the President is putting himself at
the center of this conflict now going into this meeting
with Putin. Does he need to bring Europe more directly
into this They had the call earlier this week, but
it seems as though the Europeans are somewhat sidelined.
Well, he absolutely does, and he has said a couple
of times this week that he intends to do that.
One thing I met I said to markets yesterday was
that initial success on establishing a process is up to Trump,
is up to Russia. But if there's going to be
peace in Ukraine that sticks, it's much more up to
the European Union, and it's much more up to China
than it is to Trump and Russia. The European Union
countries have to be willing to do two things. One,
they have to be willing to squeeze Russia much harder
than they have if this meeting does not succeed, and
if it does succeed, they have to be willing to
step up in terms of defending Ukraine and providing a
first line of defense. So they're going to have to
get a whole lot more serious than they have been.
And that's something that Secretary Besnt mentioned specifically on your
interview with him on Wednesday, where he said when he
put that to the Europeans not long ago, they started
looking at their shoes, so that's not positive, but they
need to change that around.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories
making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
Look for us on your podcast feed by six am
Eastern each morning, on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen.
You can also listen live each morning starting at five
am Wall Street Time on Bloomberg eleven three to zero
in New York, Bloomberg in ninety nine to one in Washington,
Bloomberg ninety two nine in Boston, and nationwide on serious
XM Channel one twenty one.
Plus listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app
now with Apple CarPlay and Android Atuto interfaces.
And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's
the latest news whenever you want it in five minutes
or less. Search Bloomberg News Now and your favorite podcast
platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow.
And I'm Nathan Hager.
Join us at and tomorrow morning for all the news
you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg
day Break, h