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Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Lisa Matteo. Here are the top stories we're following today.
Lisa, we begin with new developments this morning on Warner Brothers Discovery. President Trump is flagging concerns over Netflix, has planned seventy two billion dollar acquisition of the company. The deal is still in its early stages, but it would bring together the world's dominant streaming service with the iconic
Hollywood movie studio. Praising Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, whom he met with recently, President Trump, though, is hinting to reporters that regulators could take issue with the size of the combined entity.
And he's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things that He's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you're talking about. But it is a big market channel, there's no question about it.
It could be a problem.
President Trump hosted Serrandos at the White House in mid November, when the pair discussed the deal and checking shares of Warner Brothers Discovery in the pre market, they are down two percent.
Well. Staying in Washington, Nathan.
Later today, President Trump he plans to unveil a long awaited aid package for farmers, a White House official tells Bloomberg. The twelve billion dollar package includes eleven billion dollars in one time payments under the Agriculture Department's farmer Bridge Assistance program.
The move comes with farmers getting more frustrated about China's slow pace of resuming soybean and other agricultural purchases, but US Trade Representative Jamison Greer says China is holding up its end to the trade agreement with the US.
The commitments are quite specific. They're about purchasing a certain amount of soybeans, for example, through the rest of this growing season and then each of the next years. These are things that are quantifiable. The data are clear. We've already seen that the Chinese are getting to about a third of the way through their purchase commitment for this growing season.
US Trade Representative Jamison Greer appeared on Fox News. President Trump is scheduled to unveil the farm aid this afternoon at two pm Wall Street time, and an event with crop farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins.
Ahead of that event Lisa.
Treasury Secretary Besson says the Trump administration is focused on affordability.
He spoke yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation.
Democrats created scarcity, whether it's an energy or over regulation, that we are now seeing the suffordability problem, and I think next year we're going to move on to prosperity.
The Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says he expects the US economy to end the year with three percent GDP growth. And you can catch CBS's face the Nation Sunday afternoons on Bloomberg Radio.
Turning now to geopolitics, Nathan Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth he's doubling down on deadly air strikes on suspected drug running boats off the Venezuelan coast. At the Reagan Defense Forum in California over the weekend, Hegseth defended Admiral Frank Bradley for ordering a second strike that killed survivors aboard one vessel on September second.
From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon is reviewing video of the attack. He's declining to say whether it will be released to the public. Jim Hins is a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
He says a video should come to light.
I think it's really important that people see what it looks like when the full force of the United States military has turned on two guys who are clinging to a piece of wood and about to go under, just so that they have sort of a visceral feel for what it is that we're doing.
Democratic Congressman Jim Hines appeared on CBS's Face a Nation Heard every Sunday on Bloomberg Radio.
Let's turn now, Lisa to the latest developments on ending the war in Ukraine. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to host Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski in London today. The leaders of France and Germany will join the meeting as well. Tony Halpin leads Bloomberg's Economic and government coverage of Russia.
The Europeans are trying to bolster the Ukraine's leverage at this time because they themselves are not there, but at the same time they want to help Ukraine maintain its positions in the face of what is fairly considerable pressure to agree to a deal. And the US has been in direct negotiations with Ukraine and has been direct negotiations
with Russia. The peace plan that they are talking about originated as a joint US Russia peace plan, and so the European leaders are trying to ensure that Zelensky isn't pushed into a corner and agrees to a deal that doesn't secure Ukraine's long term security.
That's Bloomberg's Tony Halpin.
President Trump says he's disappointed in Zelenski's handling of the US proposal to.
End the war well staying in Europe. Nathan JP.
Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond says bureaucracy is having a significant impact on the continent's growth prospects. In an interview over the weekend with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde, Diamond also said a fracturing of the continent could become a major problem for the US.
If they fragment, you know, then you could say that you know that America First will not will not be around anymore. We It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important. So therefore I think we should be using our American capabilities trained coercion, democracy, trade, investment to urge them to do it in their own self interest.
Diamond's comments come at a difficult moment for US European relations, as the two sides find themselves increasingly at odds on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade and regulation. For the full conversation, head over to the Bloomberg podcast channel on YouTube.
Turning the Market's Now, Lisa, Futures are mixed this morning ahead of Wednesday's rate decision from the Federal Reserve, and we have a couple of big market calls this morning. Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson says US equities face a quote bullish setup given expectations of great cuts and the outlook
for improving earnings. John Staltzfis, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer Asset Management, says the S and P five hundred will surge eighteen percent in twenty twenty six as earnings per share continue to rise in double digits, and Wall Street Research veteran ed Yard Denny is now recommending underweighting the magnificent seven megacap tech stocks versus the rest of the s and P five hundred.
It's hard to recommend overweighting something that's already quite overweight. I mean, if you just told people just to maintain the current weight of the index, that would still be an overweight position relative to what most people will think would be a diversified portfolio.
And your Denny of Yard Denny Research instead recommends investing in financials, industrials, and healthcare.
In company news, Nathan the Wall Street Journal reporting IBM is in advanced negotiations to acquire data infrastructure firm Confluent for about eleven billion dollars. The paper says a deal, which would mark one of IBM's biggest acquisitions in recent years, could be announced as early as today. Chairs of Confluent are thirty one percent in early trading.
Time.
Now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world that we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael bar Good morning, Michael.
Good morning, Lisa. A pre trial hearing is schedule to resume today with the man accused of killing the CEO of United Healthcare. A New York judge is considering whether certain pieces of evidence can be used against Luigi Mangione during his state trial. Mangioni's defense attorneys said that the police did not read their client his Miranda rights. New images were released over the weekend from the day of
Mangione's arrest. Those include a USB stick that he was wearing as a necklace, a December fourth bus ticket from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and a to do list that was found folded up in his pocket. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Dettan Yaho says Israel expects to move to the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan soon. Detan Yahoo says that he would discuss opportunities for peace with President Trump when he meets him later this month. Det Yahoo also voiced opposition to a Palestinian state.
The purpose of.
A Palestinian state is to destroy the one and only Jewish date. They already had a state in Gaza, a defactive state, and it was used to try to destroy the one in only Jewish date.
The truth between Israel and Amas remains fragile, with both sides accusing the other of violations. The Trump administration has released a new calendar that changes the free entry days for national parks. It removes Martin Luther King Junior Day and June teenth, both federal holidays, and adding Flag Day, which is not a federal holiday on June fourteenth that just happens to be President Trump's birthday. Pastor activist and author Jamal Bryant, everything that.
They did in the civil rights community is trying to be erased and dismiss as if it never happened.
Pastor Jamal Bryant and other critics say no sitting president has had their birthday declared as a free day in the park. Global News twenty four hours a day and whenever you want it with the Bloomber News. Now, I'm Michael Barrn. This is Bloomberg Leaser.
Thanks Michael.
Time now for our Bloomberg Sports update, and for that we bring in John stash Hour.
There were some big games in the NFL. The Packers never trailed, but the Bears twenty eight to twenty one. The Steelers held off the Ravens in Baltimore twenty seven to twenty two. The Jadwars top the Colts thirty six to nineteen. In all three cases, the winner now in sole possession of first in their division. Last night, Euston won at Kansas City twenty to ten. Looks said the
Chiefs are gonna miss the playoffs. Jeff Kent named for induction of the Baseball Hall of Fame as the most home runs ever for a second baseman, Notre Dame got snubbed didn't make the college football playoff. That's your Bloomberg Sports update.
Stay with us.
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Good mone warning on Nathan Hager.
One of the biggest mergers in Hollywood history could be facing some pushback.
In Washington, d C.
President Trump is raising doubts about Netflix co CEO Ted Sarandos and his planned seventy two billion dollar takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery.
He's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you're talking about. But it is a big market share, There's no question about it.
Could be a problem.
President Trump spoke ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors in the Nation's capital. For more, we're joined by a Bloomberg Market's reporter, Valerie Titel, and of course, Valerie, we are very early days into this planned merger, but could we be seeing this deal stopped in its tracks out of the Nation's capital.
Good morning.
Well, well, look, if we take a look at the market reaction in pre market, we are seeing Netflix and Warner Brothers reverse some of Friday's moves. So there is a bit of skepticism on this deal now that we heard these comments from President Trump that the size of their market share combined could be a problem. We've seen also bets on the prediction marketplace polymarket, which did show a sixty percent chance of the deal closing in twenty twenty six, is now all the way down to twenty five.
So the market is showing some skepticism here that this combined unit between Netflix and Warner Brothers could be something that the regulators could declare as harmful to consumers. The combined unit would have some four hundred and fifty million users under one streaming giant, and it will face a
lengthy Justice Department review. We have heard from US lawmakers on both parties, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren already faulting the transaction as harmful to the consumer base and the European Union. Regulators are also likely to subject the Netflix proposal to an intensive review.
But it does follow some interesting Bloomberg reporting.
That the co CEO of Netflix was at the White House back in November met with President Trump for over an hour to get Trump's blessing on the proposed deal, and he did leave with the impression that Netflix wouldn't face immediate oppoiceition from the White House. Now, the other thing that could complimentate this is the other bidder for Warner Brothers Discovery that was paramounts sky Dance could perhaps
do some lobbying efforts to try to disrupt the plan. Now, Paramount Skuydance wanted to buy the whole company, and regulators are more likely to approve of a Paramount Warner Brothers a merger. So still a lot of drama in this merger to play out, But it does seem like there is a hint of skepticism now trading in the markets about this deal closing.
Yeah, interesting to hear that Paramount Skuiddance could potentially be brought back into play here given the CEO David Ellison, his fairly close ties to President Trump as well.
I mean, how.
Unusual is it to see this kind of politicization of a.
Merger like this so early in the process.
Well, at least one thing we know is that Trump has had this push of deregulation. He has a new head in the FTC, and they do have a flavor of allowing companies a more activity like this. This does perhaps pose a test to the White House whether they stand by that commitment to deregulation, whether they would let a deal like this go through. But it is very interesting to see the politics so wrapped up. But in a merger this size, Nathan, you're going to have many
regulators involved. As I mentioned, the European Union could also get involved in this discussion as well. So it goes down to the size of the merger and the massive company it would create, with over four hundred million users on one streaming giant platform if Netflix were to take Warner Brothers Discovery.
In our last minute, let's talk about the broader market here. I think a lot of the focus this morning, probably for the rest of this week, is going to be on the Federal Reserve and the final decision of twenty twenty five.
Final decision for twenty twenty five, and while the markets are wildly predicting the FED will cut interest rates by twenty five basis points, we could be in for a whopping number of descents in the voting. We've heard from a raft of more hawkish FMC officials saying they're not comfortable with cutting rates. Five of them have actually expressed
concerns in the last month. If they all dissent at something that we have not seen in FED in modern history of the Federal Reserve, a five descent decision if they go ahead and cut interest rates on Wednesday, So a fractured FED is the focus, and then the focus is on the week after that. The backlog of data the November CPI in non farm payroll reporters still do before Christmas.
This is Bloomberg day Break, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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I'm Lisa Matteo.
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