On today's podcast:
1) US regulators for the first time approved exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Bitcoin, a move heralded as a landmark event for the roughly $1.7 trillion digital-asset sector that will broaden access to the largest cryptocurrency on Wall Street and beyond.
2) A monthly report on US consumer prices due Thursday will probably show another soft inflation reading thanks in part to more declines in the goods sector, according to Bloomberg Economics.
3) Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis immediately went on the attack in the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses, relentlessly accusing each other of lying and flip-flopping on issues.
4) The judge overseeing New York’s $370 million civil fraud trial against Donald Trump derailed the former president’s plan to make a statement during closing arguments in the case Thursday, citing Trump’s refusal to agree to standard court rules about what he can and cannot say.
Full transcript:
Good morning. I'm John Tucker and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Bitcoin is trading up seven tenths of a percent to around forty six two hundred and forty dollars. This comes after US regulators for the first time approved exchange traded funds that invest directly in bitcoin. It's a move heralded as a landmark event for the roughly one point seven trillion dollar asset sector, and Bloomberg Crypto editor Anna Aurera says it will broaden access to the largest cryptocurrency the hope. Bitcoin proponents and sort of crypto proponents think it's a big deal because it sort of gives easier access to mainstream investors to investing in crypto. One of the big issues with cryptocurrencies is that you need to self custody it, and that that's exposed is used to hacks and people just stealing your asset. In this case, you would have a custodian like coinbase sort of people that do it professionally holding the underlying bitcoin, and you're just buying shares in it. Bloomberg Santa Rara says the sec authorized funds from industry heavyweights black Rock and Vasco and Fidelity to smaller competitors including Valkyrie, to begin trading today. Well, John, reaction is pouring in after the approval of the bitcoin ETF and we come up with SEC Commissioner hester Purse. I'm delighted that we're at the end of this saga. I know there's still there's still u there's still pieces of it to go, but I think this is a big milestone. The decision by hester Perse and the SEC comes a day after a false post on the SEC's x account claiming that the agency had approved the ETFs. The regulator subsequently said that the account had been compromised and OARC Investment Management. Kathy Woods says the approval of the spot bitcoin ETF will be a price moving event long term. She spoke with Bloomberg's Carol Masser after the SEC decision. I was speaking to Eric belchunis her colleague, and according to his estimates, there's there's four billion dollars waiting, you know, in the wings. And I said to him, well, from your lips to God's ears, that would be amazing. Kathy would also slam the SEC Cherry Gary Gensler. She says Gensler denigrated the whole cryptospace by reiterating the agency does not endorse digital assets. Well, we want to turn to the economy now, John, and Wall Street is bracing for the latest inflation report. Economists are forecasting consumer prices rose two tenths of a percent in December. Let me get a preview from Bloomberg's Michael McKee. The question going into the CPI report is who will care? The Fed is already locked into no change at the January thirty first meeting, so and as expected number won't affect the Central Bank's decision. It's the bond market that matters, at least in the short run. Headline inflation is expected to rise a base effect because inflation printed negative in December of twenty twenty two, but core inflation is forecast to keep falling. That's what the Fed wants to see. Michael McKee, Bloomberg Radio. All right, thanks Mike. The ahead of the New York Federal reserves as the interustrates are now high enough to bring down inflation. But John Williams also suggest that policy makers need more evidence that price rises are slowing before they start easing. My base case is that the current restrictor stance in Monte policy will continue to restore balance and bring inflation back to our two percent longer run goal. I'll expect that we will need to maintain a restricted stance of policy for some time to fully achieve our goals, and it will only be appropriate to dial back the degree of policy restraint when we're confident that inflation is moving towards toward two percent on a sustained basis, as New York Fed President John Williams, adding that any rate cuts would be dependent on the path of inflation and the economy. Turning to politics, the gloves were off during last night's Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, between Nicky Haley and Ronda Santis. During the debate on CNN, Hailey accused of Santus of mismanaging his campaign. He has blown through one hundred and fifty million dollars. I do know how you do that through his campaign. He has nothing to show for it. He spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get islands to vote for him. If you can't manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country? Disantus accused Haley of making misleading statements about her record as governor. That word salad is the problem. Governor says he's always supported school choice and she failed to deliver. She blames other people. Leadership is about getting things done, stop making expect disantisin. Haley also talked about the border Ukraine, aid and abortion, and two people absent from the debate, Donald Trump and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey given or Chris Christie suspending his Republican presidential bid yesterday. From the moment I got into the race, the decision that I made was really simple. I would rather lose by telling the truth then lie in order to win. Christy also said he was going to make sure that he does not enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the U the United States again. Meanwhile, John Trump did not appear at the debate because he was at a nearby town hall. Today, the GOP front runner set to make an appearance in New York at the civil far on trial against him and Bloomberg's Amy Morris hands the latest. Today's hearing will cap a eleven week long trial in which New York Attorney General Letitia James seeks to ban Trump from the real estate industry within the state. Trump wants to deliver a personal statement while in court his own closing argument, but would not agree to the limits the judge said on what he could say, so he won't be allowed, just as Arthur Engern had already held Trump liable for fraud and is expected to deliver a verdict in coming weeks now. In addition to this case, Trump also faces five other trials, including a defamation suit in less than a week. Amy Morris Bloomberg Radio Time Now for a look at some of the other stories making news around the world, and for that were joined by Bloomberg's Amy Morris Amy Good Morning, Good Morning. Care and Transportation Secretary Pete Buddhajet says Boeing's tax nine airplanes airplanes rather, will remain grounded until regulators say that they are safe to fly. That dashes hopes for a quick return to the skies. Our concern and our fidelity is not to the success of any company. It is to the safety of the traveling public. Secretary Buddha judge did not specify how long it could take, but says the process will not be rushed. He adds Boeing has to demonstrate that every planet delivers to airlines is one hundred percent safe. President Biden's son is scheduled to appear in federal court today in Los Angeles on tax charges. Today's hearing will be an arraignment for Hunter Biden, who was accused of choosing not to pay more than a million dollars in taxes and evading other taxes. House Republicans yesterday conducted a hearing to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to sit for a closed door deposition, but Hunter Biden made a surprise visit and said he would only testify in a public forum. Biden's attorney, Abby Lowell Hunter chows a hearing we're Republicans or could not distort, manipulate, or misuse that testimony. And Republicans have tried to tie Hunter Biden's business dealings to his father, but acknowledge they have found no concrete evidence of wrongdoing. And former President Donald Trump is staying quiet on who his choice for a vice president might be. Well, I can't tell you that, really, I mean, I know who it's going to be. Give us a hint. I'll give you. We'll do another show sometime. During last night's Fox Newstown Hall event, Trump said he's open to his vice presidential choice being someone who's currently competing against him for the GOP nomination. Experts who identify and manage global risks say there is a high chance of a global catastrophe happening within a decade. The World Economic Forum survey shows nearly two thirds of respondents expect the higher chance of disaster in the next ten years. About thirty percent expect the same in the next two years. The report sites risks from misinformation, a potential recession, and extreme weather events, and a record number of Americans are signed up for the Affordable Care Act. This year, the Biden administration announced more than twenty million people signed up for health insurance plans under ACA, beating last year's record of sixteen million, and that number is likely to increase as Americans have until January seventeenth to enroll Global News twenty four hours a day and whenever you want with Bloomberg News. Now I may me Morris and this is Bloomberg Karen we Amy. Thank you what we do bring you news throughout the day here on Bloomberg Radio. But now you can get the latest news on demand, and that means whenever you want it. You can just subscribe to Bloomberg and News Now to get the latest headline to the click of a button. You can get informed on your schedule. You can listen and subscribe to Bloomberg and News Now on the Bloomberg Business Now, Bloomberg dot com plus Apples, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. And it's time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update. Here's John stash Hour John Ken. To truly appreciate what Nick Saban accomplished as the football coach at Alabama, you have to look at where the program was before he got there. They had a couple of seasons with only four wins, another with three, and he only won seven in his first season on the job. But in his next sixteen years, Saban won one hundred and ninety nine games and lost only twenty three. He won six national championships in a twelve year span, and when you throw in that he also won one at LSU. Saban has to be considered one of the greatest coaches, if not the greatest, in college football history. He's retiring at the age of seventy two. Still at the top of his game. Alabama nearly beat the eventual national champion Michigan in the College Football Playoffs semifinals. Pete Carroll also seventy two years old. He's no longer the coach of the Seahawks. He was great at USC went to Seattle and in fourteen years got the Seahawks to the playoffs nine times, won a Super Bowl. He won fifty one more games than any other coach that the Seahawks have ever had. And now seven NFL teams are looking for a new coach, so that doesn't count. In New England, where seventy one year old Bill Belichick is expected to de park Kawhi Leonard a new deal with the Clippers. He would have been a free agent after the season. It's a three year extension. Ought to make a little under the Supermax Clippers. One last night so to the Celtics in overtime over Minnesota. Boston now eighteen and zero at home, the Wizards dropped to six and thirty one. They lost that Indiana. John stash Aller Bloomberg Sports from coast to coast, from New York to San Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on sirisxam the Bloomberg Business app in Bloomberg dot com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm John Tucker. We want to continue our coverage of the SEC authorization of bitcoin spot ETFs and what the breakthrough means for the broader crypto space. Yesterday, Archie Investment CEO Kathy Wood, longtime Bitchi Bull, joined Bloomberg BusinessWeek host Carol for a conversation on Bloomberg Radio and the platform X discussing the SEC decision and what it means for bitcoin and other digital assets, and the statement afterwards from the SEC Commissioner, Gary Gensler. Let's bring you part of that discussion right now. When you're talking about institutions that you know have been very fearful of this space because of Gary Gensler, and you know all of the drama, I think they're going to tread lightly. I don't know if you saw, but Gary Gensler put out a piece today right as we're about to go effective, and I'm sure we all went effective roughly around the same time, and he just denigrated the whole crypto space, and I was just like, I couldn't believe it. So anyway, it's with that kind of trepidation that institutions are going to have to you know, work through and do all of their due diligence. However, I do think that a lot of investors have considered, you know, have been curious. And you'll see we've been from a marketing campaign. We've been using this tagline, aren't you a bit curious? There are so many people who are curious out there. Of course, a lot of our existing clients know all about bitcoin because we have owned it since twenty fifteen, but there are a lot of people who really have a hunger to know, and we can see that as more and more people read our research, tune into our Bitcoin Brainstorm that we do with Rod and Bitcoin Park in Nashville, Tennessee, read our bitcoin monthlies and you know, read all we have to say about crypto and blogs and in our brainstorm summary. So you know, we are getting all the curiosity. I think that's why we started. So we know a lot of people are waiting and believe it or not, Carol, the curious extend to state pension funds and state treasurers we're talking to, So it's a really broad swap. Well, catch people and I do wonder what you think success will be out of the gate in terms of investment flows. What's your hope, what's your goal or estimate in terms of bringing investors into the fund. Well, it's very interesting. I was we were I was speaking to Eric Beltunis, her colleague, and according to his estimates, there's there's four billion dollars waiting, you know, in the wings. And I said to him, well, from your lips to God's ears, that would be amazing. And you know, we hope we get our fair share of it. I mean, we've certainly, we've certainly done a lot to educate the community, and we experience a lot of gratitude for that too, from from from the innovation communities, including the bitcoin community, but also from the financial community, those who really are trying to find the next big idea. And can I ask you, as you mentioned SEC chair Gary Gensler at the top, and as the headlines crossed the Bloomberg that he the SEC approved all of those proposals for the spoppy coin ets yours included, along with everyone else the eleven. He also said investors should be cautious on crypto. He said SEC's action doesn't imply approval of crypto exchanges. And if you look at all the SEC filings yours included, there's a long list of concerns that there's This is still kind of a new concept and new idea. The old guard, you know, basically throw out there all kinds of risks and you know, some people call it fear uncertainty and doubt. It happens every time, Carol, And I'm not saying it's a bad thing for people to really do their homework. They should do their homework, they should understand the risks. But this is par for the course in disruptive innovation, you know, Everett. And thank you, Carol. You gave us our first interview twenty fifteen when we were barely off the ground. You believed in us back then. And at the time, you remember, we were talking about Tesla, So fear uncertainty and doubt, not even about autonomous which is the next set of fears, but about evs and wouldn't traditional auto manufacturers absolutely choked them to death. This is completely new DNA, and so it's the old DNA as the old car companies were the old DNA, you know, basically bashing the old new DNA. That was Arnick Advesce with Kathy Wood speaking with our Carol Master on Bloomberg Radio and the social media platform x and we continue our coverage of the approval of the Bitcoin ETF with the SEC Commissioner Hester perse Jones are Kelly Lines and Joe Matthew on Bloomberg's Balance of Power to discuss the implications of the SEC's approval of the exchange traded funds that invests directly in bitcoin, as well as the future of crypto regulation and the sec x account hack. Let's go to part of that discussion. I'm delighted that we're at the end of this saga. I know there's still pieces of it to go, but I think this is a big milestone. Well it's a milestone certainly for these bitcoin products, but it also raises a question of what sort of precedent this sets. If you look at the statement from the chairman, Gary Ginsler, he was very specific that this is specific to these bitcoin products, which are non security commodities, and there's a question of what this could mean in the future for essentially everything else. Is that door completely closed? The chair is right to point out that this is specific to a particular set of products. But obviously precedent matters, and so you look at the reasoning and people will do this. They'll look at the reasoning in the in the order, and they'll seek to apply it to other facts and circumstances as appropriate. So I think the only thing I will say is that one of my complaints in this area has been that we haven't always stuck with precedent when when it comes to these kinds of exchange traded products. We haven't necessarily applied the same standards that we do with respect to to other kinds of exchange traded products. But it is a precedent people will point to. That's the question. Of course, we're all asking whether it opens the door for other ETFs backed by other cryptocurrencies. Commissioner, is that in our near future? Again, you know, every application has to be considered on its facts and circumstances. But I one of the things that I think that we have to acknowledge is that when we when we apply a particular rationale to one particular product, people will ask us to apply it to other products as well. What kind of fiduciary responsibilities are there for investment advisors for their clients before allowing them to put money into these products. It's like anything else. A fiduciary is supposed to look out for the interests of the investors that she's working with, and that means taking into account the specific circumstances of that investor, the risk tolerance, the other elements of that investor's portfolio, and so it's not a cookie cutter answer one way or the other. Fiduciaries are paid to make good decisions that are appropriate for that particular investor. There were a few moments yesterday when we thought this had been approved a day earlier Commissioner, as you well know, everything worked out with the Twitter account at the SEC. Well it is, I mean, as there was a statement I think that came out saying that we are going to be looking into this and working with law enforcement at the WORD to figure out how this happened, how yesterday's event happened, and I hope that we get to the bottom of it, and I hope that we're as transparent when we explain what happened as we expect the companies that we regulate to be when they experience a similar event. Well, that certainly has gotten the attention of many on Capitol Hill. Commissioner, there have been many Congressional Republicans who have made their opinions known about the SEC under this chair for some time now. I'd also point to a statement that we got out from that House Financial Services Committee after this. They maintain that will legislatition to provide clarity and certainty for digital assets remain necessary. The steps taken today are a significant improvement over what they call the SEC's track record of regulation by enforcement until that legislation exists. Even with these approvals aside, should we expect that regulation by enforcement to continue? Well, I haven't seen much progress on US as a regulator setting out clear rules of the road when it comes to crypto products and services, and I think that that's been a complaint that I've had, It's been a complaint that others have had. We could just as we changed our tune here, we could change our tune on that, and so I remain hopeful that we will. That said, Congress has expressed an interest in legislating in this area, and I look forward to seeing their work in this area. And they have a clear interest in figuring out which regulatory which regulators should have authority in this area, and I look forward to seeing what comes of that. There are also just questions around fraud and manipulation. The argument initially about what Chairgainstler was so concerned with about these products in the first place. Spot products specifically compared to futures. Obviously, a court has ruled that that distinction was arbitrary and capricious. But do you share any concern if people put out false information about a traditional security, a traditional company, the stock of that company can also the price can also move. So this is not unique to bitcoin or bitcoin exchange traded products. Obviously, we will continue to look at the markets and at the markets for these bitcoin exchange traded products specifically, and if there is bad activity and it's it's within the ETP marketplace, we have authority there to investigate and bring enforcement actions as needed. You're listening to Bloomberg Daybreak today, your morning brief the story's making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast beet at six am Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also listen live each morning starting at five am Wall Street time on Bloomberg eleven three to zero in New York, Bloomberg ninety nine to one in Washington, Bloomberg one O six one in Boston, and Bloomberg nine sixty in San Francisco. Our flagship New York station is also available on your Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven thirty plus. Listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app, serious XMVI iHeartRadio app, and on Bloomberg dot Com. I'm John Tucker and I'm Karen Moscow. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak
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