Trump Visits Fed HQ, Downplays Clash With Powell; Intel Shares Slide on Turnaround Concerns

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 White House pressure campaign on
the Federal Reserve, coming right to its home turf. President
Trump put on a hard hat to inspect the FED
headquarters that he says has gotten too expensive to renovate.
The President toured the site with FED chair Jay Powell,
and there was a tense moment when the President claimed
the price tag had jumped from two and a half
to three point one billion dollars.
Are you including the Martin renovation?
You just added our retire capital?
You just you just added in a third buildings?
What that is?
That's a third building.
It's a building that's being built.
It's been it was built five years ago.
We finished Martin five.
Years lad over as part of the overall what.
New.
Despite that brief clash, President Trump says the project probably
is not enough of a reason to fire the chairman.
He was asked Pale could say to make him back
off his criticism, Well, I'd.
Love him to lower interest, Rachel. Other than that, what
can I tell.
You President Trump's visit was the first time in nearly
two decades that a president has gone to the Fed
in person. The Central Bank's next policy decision is this Wednesday, Nathan.
The Trump administrations trying to tamp down the Republican uproar
over the Jeffrey Epstein case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche
met yesterday with Delane Maxwell, who's serving a twenty year
sentence in Florida for helping Epstein abuse underage girls. Maxwell's attorney,
David Marcus says the interview lasted all day.
Miss Maxwell answered every single question.
She never stopped, she never.
Invoked the privilege, she never declined to answer.
She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly, and to the
best of her ability.
Attorney David Marcus did not get into specifics on what
Maxwell had to say. It's still unclear if she has
any information beyond what's in the public record. Deputy Attorney
General Blanche posted on social media that he'll speak with
Maxwell again today.
Are their new developments in the Middle East, care and
the US is criticizing Emmanuel Mancrun after the French president
said he'll recognize the state of Palestine in September Secretary
of State Marco Rubio describes Macron's decision as reckless, saying
it only serves hamas propaganda and sets back peace. Ceasefire
talks in Gaza have suffered a major setback. Both the
US and Israel have pulled their negotiators from the discussions.
In caught Her and Nathan, Bloomberg News has learned that
City Group pushed a trading desk head to delete a
social media post that criticized Israel over the situation in Gaza.
On Bloomberg's uwn pots reports from London.
City's global head of short term interest rate trading Actually
Single posted on LinkedIn that he believed Israel's actions in
Gaza were quote horrific and unacceptable and calling them, in
his words, genocide. Before the end of the day, though
we told the bank had asked the London based staff
member to remove the comments, City says the post was
inconsistent with its code of conduct and it's reviewing them.
The trader did not respond to requests for comments. The
move is the latest reflection of corporation's reluctance to take
stances on polarizing topics in London. I'm you in Pots
Spoonberg Radio.
All right, you and thank you. Turning to markets now,
we're watching shares of Intel. They are down more than
five percent in early trading. The drop coms after a CEO,
Lip Bhutan sparked concerns he was more focused on cost
cutting than restoring Intel's technological edge. The chip maker will
cancel some factory projects and take a more conservative approach
to future spending. Jay Goldberg is an analystic Seaport Research Partners.
Are they going to try and compete with Nvidia long term?
Are they going to just try and make the best
of it? They still have a good CPU core franchise,
So I want to know how that is playing out
in the marketplace where you're seeing so much share, so
much wallet share is going to in Nvidia. What's Intel
going to do in that world where now in Vidia
is the dominant player in the data center and Intel
is sort of playing second fiddle.
Seaport Research Partners, Jay Goldberg. Intel aims to end the
year with seventy five thousand employees. That stown more than
twenty percent from the end of the June quarter.
Nathan shares a paramount rough at more than two and
a half percent. The SEC has approved Paramount Global's merger
with Skydance Media. We get the details with Bloomberg's Monica Rix.
FCC members voted two to one to approve the deal
after the Trump administration extracted concessions on the company's political
coverage and diversity practices. The loan vote against came from
FCC Commissioner Anagomez, who accused Paramount of quote cowardly capitulation
to the Trump administration. Earlier this summer, Paramount settled a
lawsuit filed against CBS by President Trump, who claimed the
network deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris during last
year's election. Last week, Paramount said it was canceling Stephen
Colbert's talk show next May because of financial decisions. Skydance
Media is led by David Ellison. He agreed last July
to take control of Paramount, the parent company of CBS
and MTV, after months of tumultuous negotiations with Sherry Redstone,
whose family had run the business for decades. Monica Ricks,
Bloomberg Radio.
All Right, Monica, thank You. In Europe, shares of Puma
are down eighteen percent, the German company slashing its profit
forecast In the way a face of weak demand for
its sports and exercise gear and growing concerns about the
impact of US tariffs. This is the third major route
this year alone for Puma, which has issued repeated profit warnings.
The stock has fallen about fifty five percent this year.
Nathan, Volkswagen is lowering its financial outlook for the year
the escalating cost of President Trump's tariff surweying on earnings
at the Audi and Porsche brands. We caught up with
Volkswagen cfo ar no atlets at the company factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.
We made six to eight percent marchin and currently were
face we've twenty five percent teriffs.
Yeah, so this is clear.
We need a good solution and a solution that fits
both the needs of the American administration but also the
European automakers.
In Volkswagen cfo are no Adlets now sees flat revenue
for the year from five percent growth previously, and also
reduced its outlook for a free cash flow.
Well Karen, The memestock frenzy continues on Wall Street. Shares
of tiny healthcare Triangle stood out as the most actively
traded on US exchanges yesterday, with no apparent News, The
little known healthcare information technology company saw its stock more
than double to just above five cents, with more than
three billion shares changing hands. That was equivalent to about
fifteen percent of the total shares traded on Wall Street
for the day. The surge for Healthcare Triangle was among
the latest in the memestock mania that has sparked rallies
and other speculative names, including Cole's, GoPro and Krispy Kreme.
Time now for look at some of the other stories
making news in New York and around the world, and
for that were joined by Bloomberg's Michael bar Muggle.
Good morning, Good morning, Karen. It is going to be
hot today. Bloomberg meteorologist Craig Allen has the.
Latest searing heat once again for today. It includes ten
states in the Mississippi Valley as well as the ten
c and Ohio Valley. It also includes the Eastern Seaboard
up and down the I ninety five corridor, where it
also includes major cities like Washington on up through Philadelphia,
New York City, Boston, even into the lower sections of Maine.
So we're talking about over one hundred and thirty million
people being affected by some kind of heat alert. The
heat index could reach one hundred to one hundred ten
degrees today, especially along the East coast, and that will
be followed by some strong thunderstorms during the mid and
latter part of the afternoon.
Thank you, Craig. Now, if you don't have an air conditioner,
officials say, take advantage of a cooling center to avoid
the dangerous heat. President Trump selected Alina Habba to continue
running the US Attorney's office in New Jersey on a
temporary basis. President Trump chose Habba, his former personal attorney
a mid and eventful week in which your interim post
was set to expire and federal judges had picked her
top assistant to take her place. The Trump administration sued
New York City over its sanctuary city policies. They are
arguing they are obstructing the government from enforcing immigration law
and contributed to the recent shooting of an off duty
US Customs and Border Protection officer. Tributes have been poring
in for Hulk Hogan, the icon in the world of
pro wrestling, died at the age of seventy one. Sylvester
Sloan writing online, my heart breaks President Trump, calling Hulk
Hogan strong tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. And
we've lost a jazz legend. Chuck Mangeon has died. The
man with a Golden trumpet was behind songs like feel
So Good. He was born and raised in Rochester, New York.
Chuck Mangeon. It was eighty four Global news, twenty four
hours a day and whenever you want it with the
Bloomberg News. Now, I'm Michael Barr, and this is Bloomberg Karen.
All right, Michael Barr, thank you time now for the
bloombergs Board.
Some update.
Here's John stash Hour, John, Good.
Morning, Mornie.
Care.
Will be a bit of a strange weekend for Mets fans.
Presumably they'll be rooting for the Yankees Mets, of course,
in the battle at the Phillies. Mets currently half game ahead.
The Phills are at the stadium to take on the Yanks,
who in that big game Wednesday in Toronto looked especially sloppy.
Four errors, throwing a completely misjudged fly ball and another
loss to the Blue Jays or the Yanks now trail
by four and a half games. It left Aaron Boone
having to defend his team's defensive skills.
We have good defenders. It's not like we're searching for
you look around our field. We've got really good defenders.
So but it's also something that you know, defense is
a game of under control and calm. So it's like
you want to you know, last thing I want us
to do is get tight and stuff like that and
play to not make a mistake. Can't do that.
In games this season where the Yankees have committed an error,
their record is fifteen and twenty four. When they haven't
had one, they're forty one and twenty two. Mets Tonight
begin at West Coast Trip in San Francis, Go Red
Sox home for the Dodgers show. Hey O, Tommy comes in,
heaving homer in each of his last five games. Jess
training camp opened up sure enough another an injury to
their new quarterback justin Field dislocated toe. Not serious fields
as day to day. The Giants starter now Russell Wilson,
but the QB of the future, Jackson Dart. Giants took
him at the first round of the draft, and the
gentlem manager Joe Sheen was asked about Dart's leadership skills.
I mean tough at first. You know, we've been around
some quarterbacks when you come in as a twenty one,
twenty two year old and you know, now you're just
tough to go lead grown men that have been in
the league for a long time. So it'll happen organically,
but you know, we like the personality traits, the character traits,
the leadership traits that he possessed Ole Miss and you know,
from what we've seen so.
Far, Giants in the offseason also added veteran QB Jamis Winston,
Kansas's Hall.
Of Fame basketball coach.
Sixty two year old Bill self hospitalized with a hard procedure.
He had two stints inserted, expected to make a full recovery.
Johns Stashie. We're Bloomberg Sports Karen Nathan.
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 taking his ongoing
pressure campaign against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to New
Heights with his visit to the Fed's building renovation after
seeing the two and a half billion dollar project for himself.
Though the President said he's backing off the idea of
firing Powell over.
It term comes up soon. I think he's going to
do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is.
Even people that believed in the higher rates, they're all
on board. They all want to see the interest rates
come down.
That was President Trump speaking outside the Fed's headquarters yesterday.
Joining us this morning for more on this is Bloomberg's
Valerie Titel and Valerie, I know you've been watching this
pressure campaign going on for quite some time. It's almost
like he's dipping back into that old flood the zone
playbook that we've seen throughout his presidency. Good morning, Good morning, Nathan.
Yes, it was quite a rare spectacle to see a
sitting president not only enter the Federal Reserve building, which
is something that hasn't happened in around twenty years, but
then pressure the FED chair in front of media, in
front of cameras to cut interest rates and then slap
him on the back and watch walk away.
So it was quite a media.
Spectacle last night, this meeting and this visit to the
FED construction zone that President Trump has thrown so much
criticism at for going over budget now costing around two
point seven billion dollars. There also was a tense moment
which did show a lot of amnosity between the two,
when President Trump took out a letter from his pocket
that stated that the total costs of the renovations have
now reached three point one billion dollars, leaving Powell to
look almost shocked, taking out his own reading glasses to
read the piece of paper, and only to mention to
President Trump that that included a renovation that was completed
five years ago and is not part of the current renovation.
So it was a spectral. I highly recommend you google
and watch the video.
Yeah, you can see it on the Bloomberg terminal as well.
I guess it remains to be seen, though, whether this
spectacle is actually going to result in what the President
has made abundantly clear that he wants to see for
the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Next week.
Yeah, the Federal Reserve does meet next week, and it's
notable that nothing is priced in for this decision, even
though we are hearing more and more from the President
about his desire for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
But yesterday he did mention to the cameras that he
just wants to see one thing happen. It's very simple.
Interest rates have to come down. So he was keeping
up this pressure campaign on the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Yesterday,
it has noted that we are not pricing in even
a FED cut at their next decision com September after
their holiday over the summer. The market, though, is pricing
in a full cut when it does come to their
October meeting. The Federal Reserve is waiting for more clarity
when it does come to the tariff ms packed on
CPI on the pass through to consumers. Just what that
will be and whether they'll have clarity by September or
October still remains a question that the market's tussling over.
But President Trump and even the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen
have amped up pressure this week, saying that there's no
evidence of tariff induced inflation and the Federal Reserve should
be cutting interest rates.
Well, what can we say that the bond market is
pricing in right now? I mean, we are seeing modest
increases in the yields this morning, a lot of volatility
in the bond space. What's the focus for investors right now, well.
At least for fixed income, the focus has been on
the hawkish ECB decision, which took German bun yields up
nine basis points and they're rising another six today, so
that is definitely dragging treasury yields higher along with it.
But another big focus, at least for those in the
US markets, has just been this continual record highs for
the S and P five hundred every day. This week, Nathan,
we've reached a new record high for the S and
P five hundred, and we're seeing this happen alongside the
VIX index falling to five month lows, and if you
look at even realized vall, that is also very suppressed.
The Nasdaq ten day realized VAAL, Nathan, is at a
four year low. So it goes to show just how
much the markets have gotten used to this kind of
political headline trading. This volatility coming out of the Trump
administration is just something we're taking in stride, and we're
seeing new record highs being posted every session this week.
Yeah, and along with that FED decision coming up on Wednesday,
we've got the I guess the expiration of the August
first tariff pause on Friday. What are we expecting in
terms of trade deal? It's got about thirty seconds last I'll.
Add one more to that. It is also NFP on Friday,
but we did hear some notable comments from the Volkswagen
CEO about the EU US trade deal, saying he expects
a fifteen percent tariff rate on autos. So there is
a lot of positivity about the EU reaching a big
deal before next Friday's deadline.
This is Bloomberry day Break, your morning podcast on the
stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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