Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Good morning. I'm Amy Morris and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today.
Karen, We begin in Washington with a major story out of the US Treasury. The Treasury Department says it was hacked earlier this month by Chinese based cyber attackers. In a letter to Congress, Treasury says the major cybersecurity incident led to unauthorized accessing of workstations and unclassified documents. Bloomberg's John Harney says the news is likely to further complicate relations between Washington and Beijing.
US China relationship whi's cover a vast bass scope for issues and agendas, etc. Has been improving somewhat, but this, as a trumpet administration is about to take office, suggests that much much remains to be resolved.
Bloomberg editor John Harney says the hackers gained access via a third party software provider, Beyond Trust, which has contracts with the Defense and Justice Departments. In a statement, the Chinese Embassy in Washington called the claims smear attacks against China without any factual basis.
Well Lamy over on Capitol Hill, the House votes Friday on the speaker of the next US Congress, but Mike
Johnson's reelection bid remains uncertain. Yesterday, President elect Donald Trump through his support behind the Republican congressman, but with a thin GOP majority and Democrats expected to vote for Hakim Jeffreys along party lines, Johnson can only afford to lose one GOP vote, and yesterday, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs told Fox News he has not publicly or privately committed to voting for Johnson, and GOP representatives Andy Harris of Maryland
and Thomas Massey at Kentucky also signaled they might not beck Johnson. Bloomberg's Joe matthew says a fight over the speakership will make it harder for a president elect Trump to govern on the mandate that got him re elected.
When it comes to the legislature, this is an incredibly eight majority for Republicans in the House, and it could get tighter. Donald Trump has actually tapped three members to join his administration. If they all join, Mike Johnson has a majority of one, and good luck renegotiating the tax code right in an environment like that. We've got some big stuff coming including the debt ceiling, that they were unable to manage it.
Bloomer's Joe Matthew shes the Republicans who have signed possible opposition to Mike Johnson, his House Speaker, are concerned about government spending.
Elsewhere in Washington, President Biden marked Thursday, January ninth as a national day of mourning for former US President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of one hundred. On Sunday, US doc markets will close in observance as part of a long standing American tradition. Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall has more on what we can expect on January ninth.
We are expecting there to be a funeral procession first, though Jimmy Carter will lie in state in Atlanta and the Georgia State capital over the weekend. His body will then be transported to Washington on Monday, where he then will lie in state at the US Capitol. I've learned that only twelve other presidents have had that honor of lying in state at the US Capitol before his funeral possession to the National Cathedral.
Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall says President Biden has also expected to deliver a eulogy for former President Carter on January ninth.
Well in politics overseas, amy German leaders are expressing anger over Elon musks repeated public support to the country's far right party AfD. In a televised New Year's Eve address, German Chancellor Oloff Schultz said German citizens alone will decide the direction of the country, not owners of social media channels. Other major parties attacked Musk after he expressed support for
the AfD party. With less than two months until the election, the conservative CDUCSU alliance has a comfortable lead in opinion polls, with the AfD in second place and Schultz's SPD party in third.
Meanwhile, over in Asia, we are seeing positive signs from China's economy to end the yearsident that Shijinping says, the Chinese economy is expected to expand around five percent for twenty twenty four, signaling that Beijing is on track to meet its official targets now. This comes as new data shows China's services activities expanding at the fastest pace in nine months, while manufacturing grew for a third month in
a row. China is expected to set a twenty twenty five growth target, similar to twenty twenty four.
Well elsewhere in Asia, amy a South Korean court as issued an arrest warrant for President yunsuk u all over insurrection allegations related to his short lived martial law declaration. If executed, Yun would be the first sitting president in South Korea's history to be arrested. It's unclear if investigators will be able to take him into custody. Yun's team is called the warrant illegal and invalid and plans to seek an injunction from the Constitutional Court.
Let's turn out to markets. On the final trading day of twenty twenty four, Global equities are on course for their first quarterly loss of the year. Meanwhile, in the US, the S and P and Nasdaq each declined more more than one percent yesterday, marking the third time the indexes dropped more than one percent over the past eight sessions. Still, the S and B has gained more than twenty percent on the year, driven by the rally in megacats tech stocks.
Anna wrathbund Cio at SEBIZ says, with the FED expected to keep monetary policy tied in twenty twenty five to bring inflation down to two percent, traders could see more choppy sessions in the new year.
Two percent.
We need to revisit that and we need to really talk about whether or not that's a realistic goal without slowing down the economy. And we think that we're in a higher for longer inflation environment, and that is that all of those things just basically mean higher tenure yield, and that's one of the reasons why we think there's going.
To be price volatility and our wrathbund Cio at Sea Biz says. Additional investor concerns in twenty twenty five range from President elect Donald Trump's protectionist policies, to the health of the European and Chinese economies.
And finally, amy as we ring in the new year, estimates from the US Census Bureaus say the world population will be almost eight point one billion people on January first. We get more on that with the Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett.
Those estimates say the global population increased by more than seventy one million people in twenty twenty four, representing a point nine percent increase, which was a slight slowdown from twenty twenty three, when the world population grew by seventy five million people. The US meanwhile expanded by two point six million people, and on New Year's Day, the population count will be three hundred and forty one million people. The nation is expected to have one berth every nine
seconds and one death every nine point four seconds. In January of twenty twenty five, in New York, Charlie Pellett Bloomberg Radio, it.
Is 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 Michael Barr Michael, good.
Morning, Good morning, Karen Sight. Securities plan for New Year's celebrations, but no specific threats. According to law enforcement, Times Square in New York City will be packed with partygoers to ring in twenty twenty five. Mayor Eric Adams vows that they're increased NYPD presence, including K nine teams, drones, boats, and helicopters will provide a safe environment for visitors and New Yorkers alike. Make sure each one of those who come here to visit and enjoyed the ball drop will
be safe. In Atlanta, large crowds are expected for the Peach Drop returning this year after a hiatus in Las Vegas. Two hundred and fifty thousand expected on the strip for the countdown to twenty twenty five. In Philadelphia, Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Cram says the city is preparing for Tomorrow's Mummers Parade.
We always take a very layered approach, right, and that's everything from law enforcement to the use of other parts of the city. As you go around, you'll see sanitation trucks that doubles walking vehicles as well to restrict access onto the parade routes, things that nature.
It's the oldest continuous Folk Day parade and a New Year's tradition since nineteen oh one. New York City's controversial pricing plan for drivers coming into parts of Manhattan is set to take effect Sunday, but a federal judge said hold on. They want more information about the effects of congestion pricing on communities in New Jersey. Lisaid Daglian is an advocate for congestion pricing in New York who says the MTA plan can still move forward.
It would be different responses that will have to happen over sometime.
It will have started.
But New Jersey lawmakers disagree. New Jersey Congressman Josh Gotdheimer.
And the way New Jersey's lawyers are responding is when you remand back for answers and further study, New York can't go ahead.
The judge set a deadline of January seventeenth for New York to respond. President elect Donald Trump lost a bid to overturn a five million dollar judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation. A federal appeals scored uphill the damages awarded to e Gene Carrell. The columnists hailed the decision in an online post, writing twenty twenty four ends with a win. Carol accused Trump of raping her in
a department store dressing room about thirty years ago. Global News twenty four hours a day and whenever you want it with the Bloomberg News. Now, I'm Michael Barn. This is Bloomberg.
Karen.
All right, Michael Barn, thank you time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update, brought to you by tries Dade Audie. We bring in Dan Schwartzman.
Dan, good morning, Good morning, Karen. The line's improving to fourteen and two as a big road win in San Francisco GoF here's a.
Little lateral to Williams saying he's down the sunline and co on for a touchdown. Almond Ross Saint Brown made the catch. He's done this before this year, Almen Ross Saint Brown, and this time the lateral for the touchdown.
That's Chrissy vspn Lines beating the forty nine Ers forty to thirty four in match of last year's NFC Championship game won by the Niners as shared goff throws for three hundred and three yards and three touchdowns. The win by the Lions setting up a week eighteen Sunday night showdown versus the fourteen to two Vikings for both the NFC North title as well as the top seat in the NFC and a first round by heading into the playoffs. The loser will become the NFL's first fourteen win wild
card team Nicks winner eighth in a row. They knock off the Wizards one twenty six to one oh six, Karl Anthony Towns leading the next for thirty points and thirteen rebounds, else Arad Nikola Jokich putting up a ridiculous thirty six points with twenty two rebounds and eleven assists and a Nuggets one thirty two to one to twenty one win over the Jazz, while the Cavaliers improved our league best twenty eight and four with a one to
thirteen to ninety five win over the Warriors. College football playoffs resuming tonight in Glendale, Arizona, with the first to four quarter final matchups as the third seed Boise State battle six seed a Penn State at the Verbo Fiesta Bowl. Kickoff is scheduled for seven thirty pm Eastern time. Light schedule on the NHL Rangers, though lose their fifteenth game in the last twenty they fall to the Florida Panthers five to three. They remain in last place in the
Metropolitan Division. That's your Bloomberg Sports update. I'm Dan Schwartzman, Karen and Amy.
Coast to Coast on Bloomberg Radio nationwide on SYRIUSXM.
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And the Treasury Department says Chinese hackers have remotely accessed several Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents. After it was able to compromise a third party software service provider. We're joined now by Bloomberg Radio and TV Markets correspondent Creedy Gupta to sort of fill us in on exactly what's going on here. Creedy, we're getting a little more information
now about the cyber incident. So Chinese hackers have accessed Treasury Department workstations, there was a third party software provider that was sort of their doorway to this. Tell us what's going on here.
Good morning, Amy. So Beyond Trust is that third party software provider basically sells access software cybersecurity products to the likes of the US Treasury and other federal government agencies as well. It's a contract that's worth more than four
million dollars. That's according to data compiled by Bloomberg. But Amy, I think what's scary here is that this is a kind of notification that Beyond Trust gave to the US Treasury Department that there was some sort of hacking tied to China, as as you had just said, but that they also Beyond Trust also does business with other departments like the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Justice, just to name a couple of other agencies.
So it's uncleared the extent to which this has been affected or the amount of customers that were really involved. But so far, all we know is that Beyond Trust had notified the Treasury that a certain amount of kind of data and contact information, et cetera from an undisclosed number of Americans was accessed by this hacker that they have now traced back to China.
Now, this is coming right after US officials dealing with the fallout of another cyber espionage campaign access in those private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Are we going to see more of this? What's going on here?
I mean, we don't know if we're going to see more of this. I mean, there seems to be a pattern developing, as you just laid out, But that's exactly the pattern that the Chinese government is trying to get ahead of, because we still don't know if this was associated with the Chinese government. At the end of the day, the embassy of the Chinese embassy over in Washington already kind of being very outspoken about this, saying, quote, spare
attacks against China without any factual basis. The US needs to stop using cybersecurity to smear and slander China and stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so called Chinese hacking throat. Those are the words of the Chinese embassy in Washington, which really speaks to this trend. Amy, as you said that this has been coming out of out of at least been associated with China lately in the campaign you were talking about, and now with this
leak as well. But again it's unclear who's actually behind it. There's just clear that the US government is exposed in a way that they may never thought they would be before and taking.
A broader look at this, as you said very rightly, So we don't really know if this is specifically associated with the Chinese government, but it's sure not going to help relations between Washington and Beijing.
They absolutely aren't at a time when we know not only Donald Trump, but even under the Biden administration have been looking at ways at the American economy in the way the American stock market, for example, in other parts of the American infrastructure are intertwined but also under threat with China. And remember this comes after not only a trade war looming between the United States and China and
perhaps even more terrift than a new administration. But the idea that we're talking about things like how much debt China buys from the United States. We're talking about how Chinese companies can or cannot be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, on the NASAC, et cetera. Not to mention some of the kind of spyware and cybersecurity threats as we were just talking about, and other alliances that
they're making internationally. Remember the partnership between China and Russia, between China and India, between China and the EU are all under the magnifying glass right now in terms of how that all affects the United States. And I think Donald Trump is going to kind of put that under an even hotter spotlight.
Absolutely, And you mentioned that other agencies that use this third party vendor maybe at risk. It isn't clear yet, but that this third party vendor also is associated with other federal agencies. Fair enough, could this put a chilling effect on using these third party type contractors for something like.
This, It absolutely could. And remember we are not only seeing this in the government space. We saw this in the corporate space as well. When the Microsoft outage with several kind of data and cybersecurity providers with CrowdStrike led to a global outage, a grounding of flights that the one in Stock exchange was affected. So this is something
that's getting a little bit scarier. And Amy are sure you'll remember on the onset of the war Ukraine, for example, cybersecurity stocks did really, really well because of this anticipation that that cybersecurity product would be needed.
You talk about AI.
This is just another element where cybersecurity has to be kind of intertwined with that story. But in terms of using the software, you also have to talk about what actions the government is going to be using. And Newburger, who's the Deputy National Security Advisor for cyber and Emerging Technologies, said that the administration has actions planned hole Beijing accountable after moving ahead with a band on Chinese telicom in the United States, so that maybe something they expand upon.
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