Trump Defends DOJ's Powell Probe; Iran Death Toll Jumps

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 this morning with President Trump's attacks on
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The President is not letting
up despite pushback from Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, and central
bankers around the world. Let's get the update this morning
from Bloomberg's John Tucker. John, Good morning, Good morning, Nathan.
President Trump had this to say about Powell as he
left the White House yesterday.
He's billions of dollars over budget.
So he either is a competent or his crook it.
I don't know what he is, but he does it.
Certainly he doesn't do a very good job.
And Trump doesn't seem too concerned with pushback from lawmakers
like Republican Tom Tillis, who bound to oppose any Trump
nominees to the Fed after the Central Bank was subpoenaed.
Well, that's why Tom's not going to be a senator
any longer.
I guess right, But I like Tom.
Josie's a nice guy, but look, he's not going to
be a senator any longer.
Because of views like that, Trump said he would announce
his nomination to replace Powell within the next few weeks.
Despite the backlash, The President also dismissed Jamie Diamond's criticism
over the Justice Department probe into the FED. He says
the CEO of JP, Morgan Chase, is wrong to suggest
he's attacking FED independence. This all comes as the blowback
he gets more intense. Three former heads of the Federal
Reserve and four former Treasury secretaries in both Republican and
Democratic administrations issued a statement saying this type of investigation
has quote no place in the United States. It is
more characteristic of emerging markets with weak institutions. In New York.
I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio.
All right, John, thank you well. President Trump also has
ran on his mind. In his speech in Detroit, heard
alive on Bloomberg Radio, the President urged ir Radiance to
continue protesting against Supreme leader Toola, a league Howmanese regime.
I've canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials until the
senseless killing of protesters stops, and all I say to
them is help is on its way. You saw that
I put tariffs on anybody doing business with Iran.
The President says he'll act accordingly once he gets a
sense of how many demonstrators have been killed. Reuters is
reporting some personality a US air base in Qatar have
been told to leave by tonight. The US based human
rights activist news Agency reports more than twenty five hundred
people have died, making it the deadliest protest wave and
Iran in decades.
Been staying with US Foreign Policy Karen Top diplomats from
Greenland and Denmark are in Washington today. They'll meet with
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President j D Vance,
hoping to convince them to back off on demands for
the Arctic territory. The meeting comes a day after Greenland's
prime minister ruled out the possibility of becoming part of
the US.
Menie tingsk one thing that everyone must understand, and Greenland
will not be owned by the United States. Greenland will
not be governed by the United States. Greenland will not
be part of the United States. We choose the Greenland
we know today and which is part of the Kingdom
of Denmark.
Greenland's Prime Minister, Jens Frederick Nielsen spoke there through an interpreter.
President Trump has declined to rule out the use of
military force to get Greenland. He says the US needs
the island for national defense.
Well Nathan, turning back here to home, President Trump says
he'll cut off federal funding for so called sanctuary cities
at the end of the month.
It's the latest move.
To crack down on immigration, as an enforcement search continues
in Minneapolis, a week after a federal officer shot and
killed a woman there. President Trump addressed Renee Goods's death
in an interview with CBS Evening News.
You know, when you look at that tape, it could
be viewed two ways, I guess. But when you look
at the way that was that car was pulled away,
there are a couple of versions of that tape that
are very.
Very President Trump spoke with CBS News in Detroit. Meantime,
a group of anti ice protesters in Minneapolis urged a
federal judge to restrict officers use of force at a
hearing yesterday that demonstrators filed their lawsuit last month before
Rene goods death. The judge said she'll issue a ruling
by Friday.
Back in Washington, care and the Republican led House Overside
Committee is threatening to hold former President Bill Clinton in
contempt of Congress. That's after he failed to appear for
a deposition as part of the Panels probe into late
convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Here's House Oversight Chaired James Comber.
No one's accusing Bill Clinton of any wrong doing.
We just have questions, and that's why the Democrats voted
along with Republicans to subpoena Bill Clinton.
House Oversight Chaired James Comber says the committee will not
attempt to compel testimony from President Trump, saying it can't
force a sitting president to testify. Bill and Hillary Clinton
are accusing the committee of mounting a bipe or a
partisan campaign to hide the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and
his powerful connections.
Let's stay in Washington, Nathan. About one point four million
fewer people have signed up for Obamacare plans so far
compared to last year, as a federal tax credit expires.
Through early January, twenty two point eight million people had
signed up for Obamacare plans. That's down about six percent
from last year's total enrollment. Eksperts more and more attrition
is likely and the coming months Esse, consumers face premiums
that are on average more than doubling. Consumers have until
tomorrow to elect new Obamacare plans for the year.
S turn of the markets now.
Karen Metals are extending their dramatic start to the year. Gold, silver, copper,
and ten are all trading at record highs this morning.
Geopolitical tensions, hopes for more FED rate cuts, and a
revival in sentiment across Chinese markets are all being credited
for the commodities surge. Looking at some company news outside
the financials, Bloomberg News has learned Netflix is working on
revised terms for its Warner Brothers Discovery acquisition. Bloomberg's Chris
Paul Mary says the streamers to discussing an all cash
offer for Warner's studios and streaming businesses.
There was a component about four dollars out of the
twenty seven seventy five that was going to be in
Netflix stock. Netflix stock has taken a beating since this
whole takeover war began, lost about quarter of its value,
and Netflix sees this as an opportunity to really just
sort of strengthen the terms because they're competing against an
all cash offer from.
Paramount then Bloomberg's Chris Paul Mary says Netflix's offer is
also faced opposition from politicians.
Along with paramount sky Dance.
Well over nine Nath and sax Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy filing from Sachs, which traces its roots back
more than one hundred and fifty years, marks a dramatic
fall for the luxury retailer that just a year ago
embarked in a major turnaround plan involving acquiring Neiman Marcus.
I'm reiterating the breaking news this morning, Karen.
Japanese Prime Minister Sona At Takaichi has told her ruling
party she will dissolve parliament for an election soon. The
co leader of the Japan Innovation Party says take and
she says she'll give more details on Monday.
Time.
Now for a look at some of the other stories
making news in New York and around the world, and
for that we joined by a Bloomberry smuggle bar Michael.
Good morning, Good morning, Karen. It's day three if a
nurse's strike in New York City. They're striking to seek
higher pay. New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagen's
with a message.
And vest a million, and to have medical benefit invest
a million, and to work by violence protection.
The union says that none of the hospitals have agreed
to additional bargaining sessions. President Trump went to the Detroit
area to tell everyone the economy is booming under his administration,
but not everyone gave him a warm welcome at the
Ford f one to fifty plant Tuesday. As he toured
the factory, President Trump was heckled by a man who
shouted pedophile protector, the President responding with what seemed to
be an exploitive and then appearing to give the man
the finger. New York Governor Kathy Hockel unveiled proposals to
tackle the state's affordability crisis during her State of the
State address yesterday. The governor also received a standing ovation
when she criticized the recent ice arrests in several cities.
We will not allow massed ICE agents to storm our schools,
our daycare centers, our hospitals, our houses of worship with
civil immigration rates unless they have a judicial warrant and
guess what that means, signed.
By a judge.
Governor Heckle's proposals also aim to address insurance and utility costs.
Global news twenty four hours a day and whenever you
want it with Bloomberg News Now, Michael Barran, this is
Bloomberg back to Karen Well. Thanks Michael.
Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update, and for that
you bring in John stash Hour.
Thanks Darren.
A crazy NFL off season coaching carousel with now nine
teams looking for a new coach after Mike Tomlin, just
fifteen hours after the Steelers season ended with that playoff
lost at Houston, resigned. He was in Pittsburgh for nineteen years.
Nolan Aronado traded by Saint Louis to arizona'spen fine season
with the Cardinals after nine with Colorado an eight time
All Star at ten time Gold Glove winning third baseman.
Good news from snowboarding Chloe Clym. Her shoulder injury will
not prevent her from competing the upcoming Olympics. She'll be
going for a third straight gold medal. That's to Bloomberg
Sports Update.
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 says he is still on track to
name a new FED chair, even with a bipartisan and
global pushback over the Justice Department's probe into current chair
Jay Powell. The President says, for him, it's very simple.
I want somebody that when the market doing great, interest
rates can go down because our country becomes stronger. See
you view it differently, Our country becomes stronger, and therefore
interest rates you go down.
Nadau And that was the President speaking at the Detroit
Economic Club this morning. We're joined once again by Bloomberg
News senior editor Alistair Ball. But despite the President's comments, Alistair,
it really does seem like there is pretty significant pressure
against the Trump administration over this prob what's the latest?
Good morning, Good.
Morning, Nathan, Thanks for having me back on. So you know,
the President is insitled to his opinion about interest rates,
but Congress designed the Federal Reserve to insulate it from
the pressure of presidents who always want lower interest rates.
And the latest is really you know what the Congress
does next. You've had significant pushback from Republican sentences. They
have agency here. They can block President Trump's nominations to
the FED board, effectively saying, you can't have the FED
you want. You cannot have a FED will just give
you the low interest rates you think the economy deserves.
And when he does name his pick for the FED chair,
that's when that shoe drops. The second thing that's going
to happen in the next few weeks is the Supreme
Court's going to begin hearing arguments in the case of
fake Governor Lisa Cook, who the President has tried to
far for cause and she's fighting that. So the FED
was designed to be independent, those guard rails, those checks
are now going to be tested.
We should say that the Justice Department DC Attorney US
Attorney Janine Piro has said this is an investigation into
Chairman Powell's comments about the FED building renovations, denying this
is an attack on FED independence. But hearing some of
the commentary surrounding this, it seems like a lot of
people disagree with that, including JP Morgan Chase or CEO
Jamie Diamond in the comments just yesterday.
No, absolutely, I mean they are siding with the FED here.
The FED came out and j Power came out and said,
this is an assault on the independence of a central bank.
Make no mistake, you know, reporting suggests that the Justice
Department send them a couple of emails over the Christmas holidays,
no suggestion of any urgencies, and then nine days later
slap them with a subpoena. There's no other way to
view that other than an assault on the independence of a
central bank. I don't blame the Justice Department wanting to
pivot the narrative that we're just asking for information, but
bringing these cases is pretty easy, Winning them and getting
a conviction is extremely hard. What's really going on is
just holding the thread of legal action, which ties up
the target in costly, expensive lawsuits. And that's a significant
peril for the institution and for US
monetary policy.
Raises The question, doesn't it, of whether the Justice Department
will continue with this investigation when we are seeing this
kind of significant pushback. Is that the next step you're
looking for here, alistair whether the Justice Department does continue
to pursue this.
Well, so, yes, we're looking for assigns of an offer amp,
but we've not seen it yet. The other facts are
here is the bomb market. Now, if the bomb market
starts to really freak out, if you see yields rising,
that's going to be an incredibly powerful test because that
will go to the core of what Trump administration is
trying to achieve, which is lowering mortgage trades, but the
mortgage market prices of the bomb market. And so far
the bomb market's been a bit mere. I mean, the
tenure treasury yield is a little bit higher, but maybe
not much. And you had a soft CPI print yesterday.
If investors start focusing on a genuine threat to the
independence of the Central Bank and the integrity of US
monetary policy, that's going to change in a hurry. Those
yields are going to rise, and that's going to undermine
the Trump administration's goals of improving housing affordability in times
for the midterm elections.
This is Bluemberry Day, your morning podcast on the stories
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