Good morning.
I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Amy Morris. Here are the stories we're following today.
We begin with the devastation in Hawaii. The death toll from the Maui firestorm is now up to at least fifty five. As Bloomberg's Ed Baxter reports, the crews are calling it search, rescue and recovery.
As crews go through the burn zone, they still hope to find survivors, but it's definitely a grim task. Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke says. The state is trying to get food to the west side of the island, which is still without power, and then the state has to look into the future.
Damage to the infrastructure.
It's not just buildings. I mean, these were small.
Businesses that invested in Maui.
These were local residents.
President Biden is promising a relief package, but this is going to be a massive rebuild in San Francisco. I'm at Baxter, Bloomberg Daybreak.
Thank you, Ed. We're also tracking the political turmoil in Ecuador. Six Colombians under arrest in the esse fascination of presidential candidate Fernando via Visencio. Officials say the suspects are part of a drug trafficking organization. Outgoing President gier Mo Lasso says the election will go on as scheduled a week from Sunday eighth.
The momental, this moment, before the gravity of the facts that shocks Ecuador, I will proceed to sign two decrees, the first one declaring the three days of national mourning the memory of patriot Fernando Rilo Vicencio Valencio.
Speaking through an interpreter, Ecuador's president also declared a sixty day state of emergency.
Amy Tensions between the US and China may be on the rise again this morning. That is following comments from Joe Biden. The president says China's economic problems are a quote ticking time bomb, and he referred to Communist party leaders as bad folks. Bloomberg. Stephen Engel is in Hong Kong. He says the president's comments will have an impact.
He is speaking to potential donors in Park City. Utah is not going to help the narrative that the White House is trying to do, and that is we want to repair relations with China at a time. Just twenty four hours after he signed his executive order limiting investment by American companies. You know, I understand this is a comment to donors in a politically charged environment, but the world is small now. Comments like this go far. China will latch onto this and use it to their advantage.
In Bloomberg, Steven Engel notes it's not the first time Biden's made off the Kaffer marks on China. Back in June, he like in Chinese president shi Jinping to a dictator.
Turmoil in China's property market also making news today. Once the country's largest developer, Country Garden has now become a penny stock. Growing debt concerns have seen Country Garden lose ninety three percent of its value, down from a market peak of fifty billion dollars in twenty eighteen. Bloomberg's at Jil Disis says its fall from Grace could have major shock waves.
We've heard from a few analysts that have worn this could be a bigger problem than Evergrand was. We got a sense of how bad the depth of the funding challenges are at this company yesterday when they said that they expected to post a net loss of as much as fifty five billion you on for the first half of the year. That's like seven point six billion US dollars. This is a company that may need to restructure. So yes, the problems here are quite sizable.
Bloomberg'sjaill Lisis says the property crisis is stoking fears of financial contagion in Beijing.
I'm back here in the US. Amy, The latest inflation data are in focus. We'll get another read this morning with producer prices for July. The report comes after core consumer prices posted their smallest consecutive increases in two years. Even so, San Francisco FED president Mary Daily tells Yahoo Finance the central Bank is still not done fighting inflation.
It is not a data point that says victory is ours. There's still more work to do, and the FED is fully committed to resolutely bringing inflation back down to its two percent target.
San Francisco FED chief Daily also says she's not ready to project the central Bank's next.
Move the economy, and Focus oversees a surprise reading on growth out of the UK.
This morning.
We get details with Bloomberg's uew in pots in London. Good morning Ewan, Good.
Morning Amy and Nathan. The UK's weather was exceptionally hot in June, and data out today shows that the economy was also much more more than forecasts. Monthly GDP jumped zero point five percent, more than double the zero point two percent expected by economists. That helped quarterly GDP to its biggest increase since the start of last year. Though that is a pretty low bar to clear digging into the data and manufacturing, construction and consumer spending all outperformed.
The bunch of eatings will mean the Bank of England will be weighing another rate rise in September. In London, I'm you in pots Bloomberg daybreak, are you?
And thankstaying in Europe? Shares of ubs are hired by more than four and a half percent this morning. The bank has ended a ten billion dollar agreement with the Swiss government to cover lasses tied to its takeover of Credit sueez and we get more from Bloomberg. For the D Senator Tom Metcalf.
The messaging from the bank is very much this is how confident we are on the assets we've required. This is a sign of strength. Purely pragmatically. I'm looking at this going, why know, would you give up something you've already got. As far as they can tell from the release,
there's nothing they're getting back in return. So you know, perhaps it is all about the messaging, but you could also say, oh, does this sort of get them more kind of in a stronger position with the Swiss government will obviously be pretty happy that they can then toutless to the sort of voting population.
Bloomberg's Tom Metcalf says terminating the agreement will also save ubs millions and fees the Bank report's earnings. Later this month.
In the US, we have legal developments focused on Perdue Pharma. The Supreme Court has blocked a six billion dollar settlement with the OxyContin maker. The deal would shield members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue, from civil lawsuits over opioids. The High Court will hear arguments before the end of the year over whether they can proceed. This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
You're listening to Bloomberg. Don now bora look at some of the other stories making news around the world, and for that we're joined by Bloomberg's John Tucker.
Good morning John, and good morning Amy. Lawyers for former President of Donald Trump face off against prosecutors today or whether he should be prevented from talking about evidence in the January sixth case The hearing allows Judge Tanya chuk And to hear from both sides about whether she should impose restrictions of the former president whether he should be
barred from talking about the grand jury testimony. Earlier this week, at an event in New Hampshire, Trump was insistent he won't be silenced.
I will talk about it.
I will then not taken away my first amendment.
A Prosecutors say they worried Trump could intimidate witnesses. It's become a defining public health challenge of our time. US suicides have risen to a record high. More in this report from Bloomberg's Jeff Bellinger, A.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Reports says there were forty nine thou four hundred and forty nine suicides last year, two point six percent more than in twenty twenty one. They increased for most demographic groups. Experts have cited the possibility that rising economic and social pressures began weighing more heavily on Americans around the beginning of twenty twenty one. That's the same same time government and financial supports that
were implemented during the pandemic were stripped away. The Biden Administration last month proposed new rules to improve insurance coverage for mental health conditions. Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg Daybreak.
Hollywood studios are preparing a new offer for striking writers. The most senior officials from eight studios or holding meetings alongside smaller committees of executives who are working to settle the dispute with writers and a separate strike by actors. The writers have been on striketh since May. The Screen Actors Guild joined them in July. Tesla facing increased scrutiny after a fatal crash in Virginia involving one of the
company's SUVs that collided with a tractor trailer. The July nineteenth collision is the fifty fourth included in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's probe of advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla's autopilot, and California regulators have voted in favor of robotaxi operators expanding their paid driverles services in San Francis Leco. It's a major milestone toward commercializing the technology.
Global News twenty four hours a day, Power Buy more than twenty seven hundred journalist and the analysts had more than one hundred and twenty countries. I'm John Tucker. This is Bloomberg Amy.
All right, thank you, John. Looks time now for our Bloomberg Sports update. For that, we bring in John stash Hour Amy.
It's a full weekend of NFL preseason, but two games last night in New England, Houston gave the start to its top draft pick, quarterback CJ. Stroud. His first NFL pass was an interception. Texans did get TD passes from Davis Mills and case Keenam Mills as went to rookie whiteout Tank Dell, who made a highlight reel catch in the end zone that Texans beat the Patriots twenty nine. In Seattle, the Vikings led ten up in early Seahawks came back to win twenty four to thirteen, couple of
TD passes for Seattle's backup quarterback juw Lot. There's a book out by Billy Walters. He's a well known big time gambler, and in it he alleged that Phil Mickelson made bets totaling over a billion dollars, that losses over one hundred million, and that in twenty twelve Mickelson, while a member of the US Ryder Cup team, tried to place a four hundred thousand dollars bet on the US to win. Walters refused to place it. The US ended
up losing by one point. Mickelson denies the story. Meanwhile, playing the Saint Jude Golf in Memphis and Jordan's speed shot sixty three, no bogies, five birdies, an eagle on sixteen and he's got a one shot lead. Colin marricaw at trails by two. He's pledged one thousand dollars for every birdy to aid relief efforts. In Maui baseball, the Orioles top the Astros five to four. The Red Sox shut out the Royals two to nothing. The Phillies with two three run homers and a six to two win
over the Nationals. John stashaward Bloomberg.
Sport from coast to coast, from New York to San Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on Syrias XAM, the Bloomberg Our Business Appened Bloomberg dot Com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning.
I'm Nathan Hager. A new tension point maybe opening up in US China relations, and we may be seeing it now on the presidential campaign trail. President Biden was in Park City, Utah, meeting with potential Democratic fundraisers last night, and he had some sharp words for the Chinese economy
and leadership. The President called the slowdown in the world's second biggest economy a quote ticking time bomb, and he said China is in trouble because when it comes to China's leaders, as the President put it, when bad folks have problems, they do bad things. Bloomberg's Tom mackenzie spent years covering China from Bloomberg's Beijing bureau, so it's good to have him on with us this morning for some analysis on the president's words.
Here.
Of course, Tom, this is hardly the first time we've heard this president throw elbows around when it comes to China. Where would you say these comments stack up in terms of what we've heard from President Biden in the past.
You're right, it's not the first time, but it does leave some slightly scratching the head as to what the policy emphasis needs to be from the Biden administration, because, of course, on one front, they are sending some senior officials and have been doing that. In terms of course of the Secretary of State, of course Janet Yellen, the
treasury sector as well to China too. Beijing to have those interactions with their Chinese college to try to, if not reset the relationship, then at least find some barriers to the tensions and some pars that they can walk
down together constructive areas of engagement. At the same time, you seem to continually get almost on a monthly basis, the President himself kind of quite unquote bad mouthing China, and in this context he described the economy as being like a ticking time bomb, as you mentioned, and Chinese leaders as being bad folks. Previously, he's called choojing Ping a dictator. He's also made comments about Taiwan that has confused and muddied the picture in terms of the US
stance on that island. And we know the hot spot that Taiwan proposes or is potentially the center of when it comes to these tensions. So it's the disconnect between what we hear from the president and what we hear from the to the team, and what it tells us about the strategy of the Biden administration visa VI China.
When it comes to that disconnect tom what does the Chinese government pay more attention to? Is it the words or is it the actions that we're seeing from the US government.
When we look back at what President ben said characterizing Sujinping as a dictator, obviously that went back, that filtered back to China. They were asked about that the Foreign Ministry. They kind of brushed it off. They continued to allow the visits of Janet Yellen to Beijing. We're expecting potentially the Head of Trade of course over in the US, to be over in Beijing as well in the next few weeks. Gina Raimondo to continue conversations on the trade
front with her Chinese counterparts. So there is a potential scenario where Beijing continues to look past this, that they read into this, that this is red meat being thrown by Biden to the China hawks. He was, of course at a fundraiser that this is typical domestic politics at play where China becomes the whipping boy in the lead up to an election. So there will be some in
Beijing who look at it through that prism. The risk though, is that as this continues, and if it does continue, then it's going to lead to just continuing souring of those relations and just makes it that much more difficult to find those very small areas of compromise that the two sides might be looking for.
And in the context of red meat here we heard the President sort of overstate how things are going in terms of the Chinese economy, saying that the growth has slowed down quite a bit more than it actually is, and that there are not necessarily as many people of retirement age compared to working age. When it comes to that, does that potentially undercut the message that the President's trying to send.
Suddenly, it's worth pointing out that he was factually inaccurate when he talked about the number of retirees versus the number of people in work. Just got that dead wrong. And in terms of the economic forecasts, look, most economists think that China's economy is going to grow around five percent this year. President Biden said it was growing at around two percent. The official data suggests it's growing at a much higher level. There is, though, real skepticism about
the validity of China's data. Nonetheless, you're right he misstated and mischaracterized what's happening with the Chinese economy. The broader picture is though He's on point in terms of the fact that China is facing a number of major headwinds, a redhead crossing the Bloomberg terminal on new yuan loans in China. Now what this means is basically, far fewer people households and corporates and businesses are taking up loans because of the business uncertainty, the uncertainty the depth of
crisis within that economy. You've got the real estate crisis back on the front pages again at least of the Financial news this week with Country Garden and a reminder that that is a sector that accounts for about twenty percent of Chinese GDP. Huge problems in terms of real estate and property, huge problems in terms of deflation, the softness around China's exports and imports. And the President was right he talked about unemployment. Youth unemployment at China is
around twenty percent, at a record level. And there is a huge demographic challenge as well. Far fewer people are having children, far fewer numbers coming into the workforce. That is an issue for Beijing and officials.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak today, your morning brief on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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