Good morning.
I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Amy Morris. Here are the stories we're following today.
We begin this morning with earnings for an entertainment giant. We're watching shares of Disney this morning. They're hired by about one percent in early trading. Cost cuts and the Hollywood strikes are boosting Disney's bottom line, and the company expects content spending to be about three billion dollars less than usual. Disney's also boosting the price of its premium subscription for streaming by twenty seven percent. Geeta Ronganathan covers Disney for Bloomberg Intelligence.
They have pricing power and they're going to exercise it. And this is what it's really coming down to now in the streaming wars, the subscriber hyper focus is over and done with. Now it's all about our pool growing revenue per user, and that's exactly what Disney is doing. This should pad not only the top line, but also the bottom line.
Geita Ronganathan with Bloomberg Intelligence notes it's the second price increase for Disney plus in less than a year.
Well, we see Disney shares on the rise. Today's big market moving event will likely be the latest reading on inflation, We get the consumer price index for July at eight thirty am Wall Street time, and economists anticipate a tame reading and increase of just two tenths of a percent. Bloomberg's Michael McKee has details.
This may be the least important, most important economic indicator in a long time. It's important because, of course, the level of interest rates going forward will depend on whether inflation is coming down. FED officials have suggested one more rate increase going forward, but they also say they are data dependent. The data suggests a decent progress report. Slowing housing inflation will be the main driver of that. Used car, travel and apparel price gains have also slowed, while energy
prices are up. Will it matter not a lot. FED officials have two more inflation reports to see before their next meeting. These data will be interesting, but not definitive. Michael McKee, Bloomberg Daybreak.
Okay, Mike, thanks, turning away from marks now, we have breaking news out of South America. A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador after the assassination of a presidential candidate. The country's current president is calling the killing of Fernando Via Vissentsio an assault on democracy. Bloomberg Stefan Kufner has more from Ecuador's capital, Quito.
He was someone who was known nationally kind of the Navamni of Ecuador, who uncovered a lot of corruption in previous administrations, and he who was threatened by alleged drug traffickers during the campaign trail.
Bloomberg Stephan Kufner says Via Vesensio was running second in the polls and could have qualified for a runoff election. Ecuador is now under a sixty day state of emergency and the country's presidential vote is still set for ten days from now.
Another major story we're following this morning brings us to Hawaii, devastating wildfires on the west side of Maui, claiming at least three dozen lives so far. We get that story from Bloomberg's Ed Baxter.
Lahaina Town was Hawaii's for first capital. It turned into a place natives and tourists loved to visit. Helicopter pilot Richard Olston says it has gone.
It looked like.
An area that had been bombed in a war.
Owners of businesses on Front Street shutting down their websites, out of business power will be a problem for days. Resorts are telling people the reservations up to two weeks out to cancel. Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Lukes as a process is going to take a long time.
It's going to take weeks and maybe months to assess the food damage.
She says. Aloha is being shown though in relief efforts of the island's Ohana family in San Francisco. I'm at Baxter Bloomberg Daybreak.
All right, thanks for that.
ED.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing are also in focus this morning. The White House has officially announced limits on US investments in China. Dan Flatley has more from our Bloomberg ninety nine one newsroom in Washington.
Biden signed an executive order which gives a year for industry to weigh in on how these restrictions will actually work. But the intent is to restrict the knowledge that comes with venture capital and private equity investment into sensitive areas of the Chinese economy, including advanced semiconductors, microelectronics, quantum computing which think code breaking, and potentially artificial intelligence.
Bloomberg. Dan Flatley reports the order won't go into effect.
Until next year, and it won't be retroactive presidential politics. Also in focus this morning, Donald Trump says he's still unsure if he'll participate in the first GOP debate. The former president also tells newsmax he will not sign a required pledge to support the Republican nominee.
Why would I sign a pleasure of people on there that I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have certain people, as you know, somebody that I'd endorse. So they want you to sign a pledge. But I can name three or four people that I wouldn't support for president.
The former president currently enjoys a wide lead over the rest of the field. The first GOP debate is set for August twenty third in Milwaukee.
Turning for politics to space, we're learning Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is poised to launch its first private space tourists today. The journey allows Virgin Galactic to begin clearing a backlog of ticket holders waiting for rides to space. Virgin Galactic's main competition comes from Blue Origin, the commercial space company founded by Jeff Bezos.
New numbers this morning paint a bleak picture of diversity in corporate America. The number of black people appointed as company directors has fallen dramatically. Fifteen percent of board members appointed this year at S and P five hundred companies were black. That's down from twenty six percent the year before. According to executive recruiter Spencer Stewart, the number of black directors rose in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, but now it's fallen back too roughly where it was
five years ago. Time now for a look at some of the other stories making news around the world. For that, we're joined by Bloomberg's John Tucker.
Good morning, John.
Hey, Good morning Amy. An armed Utah man accused of making violent thrats again President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president landed in that state. As Good Moore in this report from Bloomberg'sjeff Bellinger.
Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City when the shooting happened. Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard President Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and begin cleaning the dust off the M twenty four sniper rifle. Robertson referred to himself as a mega Trumper. He had also posted threats against top law enforcement officials overseeing court
cases against Trump. The President flew to Utah yesterday ahead of a visit to a veteran's affairs hospital in Salt Lake City. Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg Radio.
At a time of rising tensions, China has lifted a ban on group tours to a slew of countries, including the US. Group tours will start immediately. Theasing applies to all travel agencies and online platforms across that country. The relaxation may set the stage for an acceleration of the global tourism industries rebound from COVID. The top state prosecutor in Orlando, Florida, who was elected to her position, remains defiant and to being suspended by Governor Ron De Santis.
This is an outrage.
DeSantis removed Monique Warrel for what he calls neglect of duty. She faced criticism this week after two police officers were shot allegedly by a man with a long criminal history who've been released on bond. Guarrel is the second Democratic state attorney removed by DeSantis and the US National Security Council says Guatemala's lawlessness is fueling waves of desperate immigrants, but many of the guns in Guatemala are being legally
imported from the US. American gun makers have been the leading supplier firearms to Guatemala for years, but following a regulatory change in twenty twenty, shipments at more than doubled. And he helped shape the sound of the nineteen seventies with a group simply known as The Band. Robbie Robertson, the songwriter and lead guitarist to the band, has died.
He was eighty years old. Global News twenty four hours a day, power by more than twenty seven hundred journalist and analysts in more than one hundred and twenty countries. I'm John Tucker. This is Bloomberg. Amy.
All right, thank you, John. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports update. For that, we bring in John's Dash hour Amy.
The Phillies made a trade just before the deadline to acquire thirty one year old pitcher Michael Lorenzen from Detroit. He had been the Tigers All Star representative. Last night in Philly, crowd of thirty thousand He made just his second start with his new team, his first at home.
Three to two pitch, swinging a high fly ball center field, coming in his Rojas, He's calling, he has got it. Lorenzen leaps into the arms of real new two and the Phillies pile out of the dugout in front of the man. They celebrate a no hitter tonight by Mike in his second start as a Philly.
If do Ipy had the call, it was seven nothing over Washington, the fourth no hitter thrown in baseball this season, the fourteenth in Phillies history, the first ins Cole handles in twenty fifteen. Lorenzen wopped for struck out five one hundred and twenty four pitches, which is the most thrown in a Major League game this season. The Red Sox
at Fenway top the Royals four to three. The Orioles at Camden Yards lost to the Astros eight to two, a rare win for the Age to nothing over Texas, and Shohey Otani pitched the Angels to a four to one win over the Giants in Memphis. Today, they'll tee off for the Saint June Classic, which starts the FedEx Cup playoffs. Rory McElroy won those playoffs last year and he's in third place going in this year. And McElroy has finished in the top ten in each of his
last seven tournaments. John Rohm currently a top the standings. The winner gets two thousand FedEx Cup points. Johns Stash Edward Bloomberg Sports.
From coast to coast, from New York, Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on Syria's exam the Bloomberg Business Appen Bloomberg dot Com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hagar.
The South American nation of Ecuador is under a state of emergency this morning. An upcoming presidential election has been thrown into some doubt now with one of the leading candidates in the race, Fernando via Vissentsio, assassinated following a campaign rally last night. It is an act the outgoing president of Ecuador, Giomo Lasso, is calling an assault on
his country's democracy. Bloomberg News Senior editor Bill Ferries is following the latest developments out of Ecuador and joins me, now, good to speak with you, Bill, Thanks for being with us. Can you just give us an update on what happened why Fernando via Vissensio may have been a target of assassins here well.
Via Visensio has a long history as a journalist going after corruption in Ecuador, particularly during the two thousand and seven to sevenen era of President Raphael Coorea. He was often on the run hiding at that time. More recently, he was a member of the Congress and was now
running for president. Had been very outspoken in his criticism of some of the big contracts awarded to natural resource companies, but also in particular, like all the candidates in this race in Ecuador, had been very focused on worsening crime in the country and had been going after or saying he would be going after some of the drug cartels that have increasingly used Ecuador's ports to export cocaine to the rest of the world. He said he had received
threats during the campaign. He did have a security detail, but he had also refused to back down, saying that he would never try to reach a deal reach a deal with the cartels. We don't know who assassinated him. The details we have from the government are that he was shot and then a gun battle erupted between his security detail and the assassins. Six people have been arrested. One suspect died apparently from the wounds sustained, But we don't know yet any of the names of these people.
We don't know who was behind it.
It sounds as though stability in Ecuador has been in question for some time. Here emerging market investors might have a better idea of just what the situation is like in Ecuador right now. But can you describe for a broader audience what things are like in Ecuador right now, what the level of stability is in the country.
Well, you got to remember Ecuador's sandwich between Peru and Colombia, and those are two countries that have historically had a lot of issues with violent crime drug related crime. They're the two biggest producers of cocaine in the world. Ecuador had a history of being a more peaceful place, although it has had its own share of political turmoil, that
hadn't spilled off over into violence quite as much. But the last several years, violent crime has become increasingly endemic as some of the cartels based in the neighboring countries have moved to ship their products through Ecuador, and it's become just a bigger issue for the society in this presidential race. Of the eight candidates who were going into the August twentieth election, all of them were basically focused
on the issue of how to deal with violence. And the real question now will be where do voters turn. With Via Vicencio no longer a part of this race, do they look to a more hardline candidate. How does the government in place try to address this. The president has said he's going to deploy the military across the country to try to ensure more safety, but it's not clear whether that kind of measure will really have a lot long term impact.
Yeah.
To say that something like this has an impact on a presidential races extreme understatement here in our last minute bill, How could a state of emergency, a sixty day state of emergency affect a presidential election that, as far as we know, is still scheduled for ten days from now.
Yeah, I think it's very much going to be seen as a temporary measure. I think Ecuador is really quite a turning point here in terms of whether the cartels and organized crime gained the upper hand over the ability of the government to provide any security for its people. So I think the government's focus now is getting to that August twentieth date without any more major episodes of violence.
This is not the first political attack even in recent weeks in Ecuadora, a mayor of the southern port city of Manta was recently killed. So the challenge is on for the government to try to just get to that August twentieth date, hand over to a new president and descent, and see if that new leader can can improve the country security situation.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Today, your morning brief on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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And I'm Abe Morris. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak