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 latest on the deadly plane crash in Washington, d C. There are no survivors in the collision between American Eagle Flight fifty three forty two and an Army Blackhawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport. Todd Inman with the National Transportation Safety Board says crews are still pulling victims from the Potomac River.
We're still in a recovery mode, first and foremost to get the perishable evidence and specifically the bodies out. Once we get a little bit closer into that, we'll be able to better understand the dynamics of what may have happened upon impact.
Todd Inman with the NTSB says both black boxes from the American Eagle flight have now been recovered. Bloomberg's Danny Lee reports those have been sent to labs for evaluation.
This will be crucial because they can potentially start to find out in the minutes before the lead up to and also the seconds before, what were the conversations the cockpit between the pilots, particularly with the air traffic control which is under scrutiny, and also were there any warnings particulars his plane would have been traveling down in the dark through the very busy piece of s space.
Bloomberg's Danny Lee reports the NTSB could put out a preliminary report on the crash within thirty days, but the agency says it won't speculate about possible causes well Nathan.
President Trump says he does not know exactly what caused the crash, but he does say he has opinions. At a White House news conference, the President said diversity, equity and inclusion programs may have played a role in the disaster.
It just could have been.
We have a high standard. We've had a much higher standard than anybody else, and there are things where you have to go by brain power, you have to go by psychological equality.
The President also says there may have been a pilot problem with a helicopter in that he didn't necessarily know if it was the controller's fault. Leader President Trump signed an executive order for the FAA and the Transportation Department to review its hiring and safety decisions over the last four years. Under the Biden administration.
Well, meanwhile, Karen, President Trump is poised to impose twenty five percent tariffs on nine hundred billion dollars worth of goods from Canada and Mexico starting tomorrow.
The President spoke from the Oval Office.
Mexico and Canada have never been good to us on trade. They've treated us very unfairly on trade, and we will be able to make that up very quickly because we don't need the products that they have.
We have all the oil you need.
We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories.
And Americans love of guacamole is about to be put to the test. Mexico supplies upward of ninety percent of the avocados Americans eat, and President Donald Trump is likely to make them more expensive with this gland to slap twenty five percent tariffs on Mexican imports beginning on Saturday. Prices for avocados are already up fourteen percent from a year ago. More pressure is coming with the Super Bowl, which is my far the biggest day of the year for eating avocados in the US.
Well, it's been a big couple of days for President Trump's cabinet picks. Karen Tulcy Gabbard, the president's choice to be Director of National Intelligence. She faced questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee. Many of those centered on what critics see is her shifting positions on intelligence collection and statement sympathetic to Russia.
Bloomberg Zamy Morris reports from Washington.
Several lawmakers focused on gabbard support for NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents then fled to Russia, where he's now a citizen. Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado.
Is Edward Snowden a trader to the United States of America.
As someone who has to go on in combat, I understand how critical our national security.
Farely you don't.
Gabbard's nomination is not certain, with many Republicans declining to declare their support and Democrats criticizing her for appearing sympathetic toward authoritarians like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Syria's Bashar al Asad. In Washington, Amy Morris Bloomberg Radio.
All right, Amy, thank you about cash battel President Trump's picctilly. The FBI also had his confirmation. Hearing, Battel insisted that he did not have an enemy's list. He also said he would not seek retribution against the president's adversaries or launch investigations for political reasons.
The only thing that will matter if I'm confirmed as a director of the FBI is a de weaponized, depoliticized system of law enforcement, completely devoted to rigorous obedience of the Constitution and a singular standard of justice.
Patel sought on multiple occasions to reassure Democrats that his FBI would be independent from the White House. He would not acknowledge that Trump had lost the twenty twenty election, conceding only that Joe Biden was sworn in as president.
During the markets now, Karen, futures are higher. We close out the trading week, thanks in part to big tech earnings. Shares of Apple are hired by more than three percent. The iPhone maker gave a reassuring revenue forecast for the current quarter, offsetting holiday results which showed jarring declines for China and the iPhone. Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke on the earnings call.
If you look at our Greater China revenue for the quarter, we were down eleven percent year over year, and over half of the decline that we experienced was driven by a change in channel inventory.
Apple CEO Tim Cook says sales this quarter will grow by a percentage in the low two mid single digits, and.
Nathan Intel shares are up two percent. The chip maker reported better than expected fourth quarter revenue, but did warrant that it's pushed to become more competitive is still a work in progress. However, Intel did not give a status update on his search for a new CEO.
Now, Karen of Bloomberg News exclusive US officials are investigating whether Chinese AI startup Deep Seek circum dented restrictions on advanced chips from Nvidia. The Biden administration cut off China's access to a range of Nvidia's most powerful chips. Now we're told US officials are looking at whether they were acquired through third parties in Singapore. Here's Bloomberg's Senior Executive editor for Technology, Tom Giles.
This is a technology that deep Seek says is cheaper, it was less expensive to develop, and now rivals like Microsoft and Open Ai, as well as US officials including the FBI and the White House the Treasury Department are looking into where did they get this technology.
Bloomberg's Tom Giles notes President Trump's pick to lead the Commerce Department, Howard Lutnick, is suggesting deep seak evaded US export controls.
Time now for look at.
Some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world, And for that we're joined by Bloomberg's John Tucker. John, good morning, and.
Good morning, Karen.
The US figure skating community mourning the loss of fourteen members who were killed aboard the American Airlines flight the Colis with that Army helicopter over the Potomac. Sixteen year old Spencer Lane was one of the members of USA Skating who was on board. His friend and fellow skater Roan Lecoq, remembered him as an inspiration.
He had a really great future. It was really promising for him. He had a lot of potential. It's really heartbreaking just knowing that this was the outcome.
Members of USA Skating were flying back from a competition in Wichita, Kansas. The Senate has voted seventy nine to eighteen to confirm former North Dakota Governor Doug Bergham as Interior Secretary. This as President Trump moves forward with implementing his energy agenda. Berger will oversee the Interior Department, which manages more than six hundred million acres of public land at all federally owned oil, natural gas, at other minerals. Uber is alleging a fraud scheme by New York groups
faking carkrash injuries. Let's get that story this morning from Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett.
The ride sharing giant filed a racketeer ring lawsuit against a group of law firms, doctors, and pain management clinics. It claims staged fake car accidents and performed unnecessary surgeries to take advantage of New York's lucrative no fault insurance policies. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn, Uber said since at least twenty nineteen, the group has conspired quote to exploit passengers in purported or actual minor vehicle collisions in New York. Charlie Powac Bloomberg Radio.
And Vertex Pharmaceuticals has gained US approval for the first new type of painkiller in more than two decades. It pays the way for a safer alternative to addictive opioids that have been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US. Global news twenty four hours a day and whatever you want it with Bloomberg News.
Now.
I'm John Tucker, and this is Bloomberg. Karen.
All right, John, thank you.
Time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update, brought to you by Trice State Ownie. And for that we bring in John Stamshower, John, good morning.
Good morning, Care and spring training starts in less than two weeks. Still some unsigned free agents like Pete Alonzo, Alex Bregman, Max Schurzer.
Does now have his deal.
At age forty, he'll pitch an eighteenth big league season for the Toronto Blue Jays. It's his seventh different team. Scherzia has not been healthy much of the past two seasons, only made nine starts in twenty twenty.
Four for Texas.
No New York Hockey or hoop teams played tonight and only one played last night. That's the Islanders made it six wins in a row, three nothing at Philadelphia, twenty three saves for Ilias Sirroken. The Bruins lost to Winnipeg sixty two. Jets scored four in the third period. Capital's lost in overtime at Ottawa in defeat. Career goal number eight seventy six for Alex Loveski. He's nineteen away from
breaking Wayne Gretzky's record. The Lakers won by thirty eight in Washington and now Lebron in La come to the Garden to play the Red Hot Knicks tomorrow night. Good MSG doubleheader at noon tomorrow at Saint John's, also Red Hot. Taking on Providence Golf a pebble beech American Russell Henley choine eight hunder sixty. Ford's got a one shot lid. Rory McElroy trails by two. He started on the back
nine at Spyglass Hill. Here was Rory on the one hundred and nineteen yard fifteenth hole, his sixth of the day.
Who has some adult spin control here playing downhill seven, so it's one hundred and twelve yards and this looks pretty good.
Hotly fluent in Ry Mcklelroy holy.
Cown straight in no bounced golf channel to call it's his third career ace in a professional tournament. Later in the day, Shane Lowry from Ireland also had a hole in one on a different hole. Chaston Eagles arrived Sunday in New Orleans, hosting it's eleven Super Bowl time with Miami for the most. NFL says all week they'll be increased security in the wake of the terror attack in
New Orleans. On New Year's John Stanshanwer Bloomberg Sports Kenry Nathan 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 Dbreak. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager.
The investigation continues into the crash of American Eagle Flight fifty three forty two of the Blackhawk helicopter outside Washington's Reagan National Airport.
The disaster left no survivors.
Investigators now have the task of determining how this could have happened in one of the most closely monitored skies in the country. Joining us now for the latest is Benedict Commell. Once again, he's head of global aviation coverage for Bloomberg News. Benedict, good morning. As we understand it now, the National Transportation Safety Board says it has recovered both black boxes from that American Eagle jet.
What can we expect to learn from that evidence? Good morning, Good morning.
Yes, indeed, those two black boxes have been recovered, and that is in any inquiry, and an important line. They contain voices from the cockpit. They also contain key metrics of the flight performance, and those will be very closely read out and then sort of analyzed. That will take time, and that is essentially one key line from the NTSB that we heard yesterday that this is not a quick turnaround,
and it never really is. If there's one thing that can be said about typical air disaster crashes, if there is such a thing, is that it takes time. They work slowly, they work methodically. These are professionals, and they want to piece all the pieces of evidence back together. So they said, give us time, don't rush to any quick conclusions. And in some ways that might have been a bit of a sort of a nod to what happened yesterday in Washington, where there were some rather swift
pronouncements of what might have happened. So the NTSB sort of trying to put a bit of a brake on it all and saying, we've got this, let us do our work. So the black boxes will be a key feature of that. Other areas that will be looked at is the communications between the tower and the helicopter and the aircraft. Might one of these aircraft have been out of position or sort of at a wrong kind of altitude?
Was that hower properly starts? So there are lots of elements to this investigation that will be monitored in the next couple of days.
And we well, Benedict, when can we expect to get firmer answers from not just the NTSB, but from so many of the other agencies involved in this investigation. The fact that we have a black Hawk helicopter involved means the Pentagon is part of this as well.
Yes, you're right, So it is a blend of organizations that are monitoring this and that are going through this. The NTSB said there will be a pullinary preliminary report in thirty days. We don't quite know at this point what the Pentagon will say, so won't there will be regular updates, but a proper report that will really establish what might have happened. That will take time. Now, you do have the political component in this, and we've got a taste of that yesterday in the press conference by
President Donald Trump. He was flanked by Sean Duffy, the new Transport Secretary, and Pete hess the new Defense Secretary, and also j Evans, the Vice President. They were all there in the same room and they all spoke, and that obviously gave that entire investigation a more sort of political tint. So those are sort of the different lines of inquiry that will happen in you know, in parallel, the NTSB, the Pentagon, and then the political dimension.
Now, in terms of the political dimension of this, Benedict as we heard from the President yesterday, seemed to really single out diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the Federal Aviation Administration.
What do we know when.
It comes to staffing at places like air traffic control.
Well, the one thing that we do know, and this is something that the head of the FAA and others in that kind of space have lamented in the past, that these are agencies that are understaffed, and it's something that has been going on for a long time. This isn't just a recent phenomenon. This is something that's gone on for a long time and has become more pronounced under COVID when a lot of people left the industry
and have not returned. So this is an industry that still struggles with chronic understaffing and as trying to get people back in. That's what we can say definitively. Now, obviously, Trump went one step further and said we have not just too few people, but the wrong types of people in these types of jobs. I mean, he said, you know, we need brilliant people doing this that those were his words, and he said, I'm not quite sure that we have
those types of people. So he tried to create a link between the DEI practices under his predecessor, under President Biden and going back as far as President Obama and what transpired over the skies of Washington, you know, less than forty eight hours ago. So you could say that's an unusual politicization of the tragedy, and that is a
narrative that will be closely watched. Obviously, there's been a lot of pushback from those targets already saying this is a brazen attempt to beat the blame on somebody else. So this back and forth will certainly be and remain a feature of this investigation.
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 Atto 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 again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Dbreak