FBI Investigates Links in New Orleans Attack; Biden to Block Nippon Steel Deal
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Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Karen, we begin with the latest on the deadly New Year's Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas. The FBI has found no evidence linking the attacks. It says the New Orleans attacker appeared to have drawn his inspiration from Islamic State. Christopher Raya is assistant deputy director for the FBI. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act.

At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. Still, FBI Assistant Deputy Director Christopher Reyes says there were similarities. Both suspects had military backgrounds and they rented their vehicles through the same car-sharing app, Turo. Investigators do, though, believe that both men acted alone.

Well, Nathan, President Biden addressed the incidents yesterday, saying he stands with the people of New Orleans. People of New Orleans are sending an unmistakable message. They will not let this attack or the attackers' deluded ideology overcome us.

President Biden says he's directing the FBI to continue looking for any link to foreign terrorism. President-elect Donald Trump sought to draw links between the attacks and border policy under Biden in a post on social media, despite the suspects being U.S. citizens.

lawmakers are gearing up for a big vote on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives names a new speaker today as the new Congress gets underway. And President-elect Trump says he's going to lobby Republicans to back the current speaker, Mike Johnson. Let's get more from Bloomberg's Amy Morris in Washington. The message from Speaker Johnson? We need to stay unified so we can save the country. And I think that's an important message. Well, Trump acknowledges some lawmakers in the party have reservations about allowing Johnson to retain the gavel.

I think it will support Speaker Johnson. Almost everybody likes him. Others are very good, too, but they have 30 or 40 people that don't like him. So that's pretty tough. The party will hold a narrow majority in the incoming House, and Johnson is facing criticism from ultra-conservative lawmakers after backing a temporary spending bill that failed to include the president-elect's demands for lifting the debt ceiling. Some Republicans are worried that a clash could hamper efforts to enact Trump's agenda.

In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Amy, thank you. We do have another major political note this morning. Sources tell Bloomberg News that President Biden will block the sale of U.S. steel to Japanese-owned Nippon Steel. And Bloomberg's John Tucker joins us with the details. John, what's the reasoning behind this? Good morning, Karen. The president has argued U.S. steel should remain American-owned and operated. He's never said outright that he would block the deal. The White House planning to announce the decision today and...

And now, ironically, the future of U.S. Steel is actually in question. The company may have to restart the sale process, and they could struggle to find a buyer for the entire company. Cleveland Cliffs, which is based in neighboring Ohio, they pursued U.S. Steel before Nippon Steel won the bidding, but it has since bought a Canadian producer.

So they're probably out of the picture. The acquisition first announced 12 months ago. That became a political flashpoint during the election. Some worry the sale of the American company to a foreign entity would amount to a national security risk. The $14.1 billion deal may now wind up in court. At U.S. Steel shares this morning pre-market, they are down over 8%.

In New York, I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio. All right, John, thank you. Meanwhile, back in Washington, we're learning more about reports of a hack at the U.S. Treasury Department. Sources tell Bloomberg News Chinese state-sponsored hackers broke into the computers of senior Treasury leaders accessing unclassified material stored locally on their computers.

Hackers were said to have accessed drafts and notes for policy decisions, itineraries and travel planning documents, but did not compromise Treasury's email system or classified systems. Well, we're turning now to the markets. Nathan and U.S. Stock Index futures are higher as the S&P looks to snap a five-day losing streak.

Investors get some hints on the economy today with figures on U.S. manufacturing due out and longer term traders are searching for policy clarity from a second Trump administration. Ed Yardeni, president at Yardeni Research, tells us despite political instability, he remains optimistic about U.S. equities. I've been in the stay home camp recently.

versus go global since 2010. In other words, from a U.S. perspective, I've been recommending that U.S. investors overweight the U.S. relative to the global economy. And oh, by the way, for global investors, I've been basically saying the same thing. You want to overweight the United States relatively

Ed Yardeni with Yardeni Research says the strength and resilience of the U.S. economy gives him optimism about stocks in the coming years. Meanwhile, the market's overseas, Karen, and China's onshore yuan has weakened past 7.3 per dollar. That's a level China had been defending since late last year. The breach reflects concerns over China's economic struggles and a widening bond yield discount to the U.S. It could signal the People's Bank of China is looking to accommodate mounting growth pressures through a weaker currency.

Well, Nathan, turning to some individual U.S. companies now. Shares of Tesla, they're up 1.3% this morning. That's after the EV giant announced annual sales drops for the first time in more than a decade. Bloomberg's David Welch says it's a growing concern for the carmaker. Tesla has more competitors.

In the U.S. now, GM has a lot of EVs out. Hyundai and Kia do as well. And then in China, of course, they've got big competition with BYD and the other domestic players there. So Tesla no longer has this stranglehold on the market. That's been happening for a while, and I think it's gathering steam. Bloomberg's David Welch says slumping sales for Tesla come despite a year-end push that sent deliveries to a record in the fourth quarter.

Time now for a 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. If you ask the Port Authority and the MTA, it's happening. New Jersey drivers soon will pay more if they go to Manhattan.

The Port Authority announced that new congestion pricing rates will go into effect starting this Sunday. It will affect any driver entering from 60th Street in Manhattan and below all the way down to New York's Financial District. However, a judge will issue a decision today on whether to stop the tolling plan. The hearing today is at 3 p.m. and...

New Jersey lawmakers aren't giving up. Tom Bracken is with the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. The slap in the face that New York is giving us to ask us to pay for their metropolitan transit financial shortfall is absolutely disgusting. Audio courtesy of ABC7, the MTA fired back at New Jersey lawmakers saying in a statement nobody in their right mind

should take transportation advice from the New Jersey politicians who have woefully failed to manage transit in their state. Police in Southern California say two people are dead and 19 others injured after a small plane crashed through the roof of a furniture manufacturing building. The accident near the Fullerton Municipal Airport in Orange County caused a fire and prompted the evacuation of at least 200 workers.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating and say the aircraft is a four-seat single-engine aluminum airplane. The NTSB's Elliot Simpson. It's a kit-built airplane. It's a very popular airplane. There's about 1,100 of them have been built, and about 11,000 Vans aircraft have been built. So it's a pretty popular kit-built airplane. The NTSB's Elliot Simpson also says shortly after takeoff, the pilot called for an immediate return to the airport.

At the White House, President Biden presented 20 Presidential Citizens Medals. The recipients include former Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney, who served as the vice chair of the House January 6th Committee. Biden applauding the honorees and says they have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. Our democracy begins and ends with the duties of citizenship. That's our work for the ages.

That's what all of you, and I mean this, all of you embody. Also receiving the award, Democratic Representative Benny Thompson, who chaired the January 6th committee. Meanwhile, President-elect Trump says those who were on the committee should be jailed. Global News, 24 hours a day and whenever you want it, with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg, Karen. All right, Michael Barr, thank you.

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Time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update brought to you by Tri-State Audi. Here's John Stashower. John, good morning. Good morning, Karen. The expanded college football playoff now down to the field it used to be. Four teams remain and they are four of the seven winningest teams in college football history. A week from tonight in Dallas, Texas will play Ohio State the night after a semifinal game in Miami. Penn State against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish took on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and this was how the second half began. Here's a

Kick to start the half. Jaden Harrison might get a chance here. Going to bring it out from his own two-yard line. Cuts it inside. Takes it out to the far side. Across the number. Across. Twists. Jefferson. 98 yards. Notre Dame Network Irish won 23-10. Notre Dame scored 17 points in a 54-second span. The four teams that had first-round buys all lost to the teams that won in the first round. At the Garden, a win for the Rangers. A pair of first-period goals stood up. 2-1 over the Bruins.

Ends the Rangers four-game losing streak at UBS. Same score, Toronto. Topped the Islanders. Capitals lost to the Wild 4-3. Good win for the Nets. 113-110 in Milwaukee. 26 points for Cam Johnson. 33 for Jason Tatum. Celtics won at Minnesota 118-115. Golden State blew out Philly by 34. Steph Curry took eight three-pointers. Made all eight. The Thunder beat the Clippers. That's 13 wins in a row for Oklahoma City, who tonight...

will host the Knicks. They've got a nine-game winning streak of their own. This will be the second game that Knicks fans who have optimum cable will not be able to watch due to the dispute with the MSG Network. Pro Bowl rosters out. The Ravens led the way with nine selections. The Lions had seven. Washington's Jaden Daniels, only the fourth rookie quarterback to be named. Giants' Dexter Lawrence named for the third straight year. The Jets, one of only four teams without a Pro Bowler. John Stachow, Bloomberg Sports, Karen and Nathan.

Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio. Nationwide on Sirius XM. And around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. The scenes are getting back to normal, but the investigations continue into the deadly New Year's Day truck attack in New Orleans and Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas. President Biden says he has directed authorities to accelerate their probes into both attacks.

We're also continuing to investigate whether or not there's any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas. As of now, as of now.

They've just been briefed. They have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far. President Biden spoke from the White House. For more on this and all the political news this morning, we're joined by Bloomberg News senior editor Bill Ferrys. So, Bill, we just heard the president say that they've found no credible link between the attacks at this point, but these incidents do share some pretty striking similarities. Good morning.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for having me. It is a really unusual situation. Both of these attacks taking place on New Year's Day. The suspect in that New Orleans attack, an Army veteran who rented his vehicle on the app on the app.

Turo and had served at what was known as Fort Bragg at one point and had been in Afghanistan. The suspect confirmed dead in the Las Vegas attack shared basically all of those same attributes. They were both in Afghanistan in 2009. They had both passed through, he had passed through Fort Bragg and also rented the Cybertruck

on Turo and then drove it to Las Vegas. That said, at this point in an investigation, police and federal officials would have looked through phones and computers and things like that. I think ultimately what they're finding is that there was no communication between these two people. They don't seem to have anything in common besides what they did on January 1st. Just the fact that in the Cybertruck incident, the suspect in that case

was an Army green beret. That has to be sending a shudder through the Army for a situation like this to take place.

Oh, absolutely. He's Army Green Beret. He appears to have been on leave from his base in Germany. I think we still are waiting for a lot of details in terms of what his possible motivations would be. Investigators saying that he appears to have died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound seconds or just moments before that fire and explosion took place. They have not actually confirmed

concretely identified him through DNA or those things, but they did find his identification and other belongings that they linked to him in the truck. But there's going to be a deep look at sort of what was going on in his mind, what has been going on with

people he talked to in the days and weeks before this took place. And while the president has been focused, of course, on these incidents over the last couple of days, we know now that he's been focused as well on his decision over whether to allow the U.S. steel takeover by Nippon Steel to go forward. And it looks like that decision is no.

That's right. It looks like I think the president had until early next week to make a final decision after that Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States issued its report to him. But we know from our reporting that the White House is planning to announce this decision most likely today, Friday, and

and that he is going to reject it. Now, we signaled all along that he was likely opposed to this deal, this $14 billion deal. It's been hanging out there for, I think it's been more than a year now. But this will mean that he kind of puts a final nail in the coffin of it. There was an effort by the companies involved to try to make some changes at the last minute. That doesn't appear to have convinced the administration to support it.

Now, this is a victory for the United Steelworkers Union. It had been opposed to this deal going forward, but the rank and file had kind of broken with the leadership on this, right?

That's right. Local workers had signaled support for it. Local officials had signaled some support for it. The company had worked a couple times to try to revise the deal to make it more appealing. We knew before the election that it was a very difficult political decision.

It had slim chances of passing before the election, but there was some thinking that after you got past the election and people didn't have to worry about the votes so much that maybe either President Biden or President-elect Trump, who also opposed it, would change his mind. That hasn't happened.

This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m. Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen. You can also listen live each morning starting at 5 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York, Bloomberg 99.1 in Washington, Bloomberg 92.9 in Boston, and nationwide on Sirius XM Channel 121.

Plus, listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces. And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's the latest news whenever you want it, in five minutes or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow. And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak.

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There's always a benefit in talking to someone because we can all benefit from improved insight about ourselves and who we are and how we behave with other people. So if you're human, that's like a good indicator that you could benefit from talking to somebody. Find out if therapy is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com today.

That's betterhelp.com. This episode is brought to you by Intuit Enterprise Suite. As businesses grow, so do the challenges. Data gets scattered, tools struggle to keep up, and manual tasks pile up. With the all-new Intuit Enterprise Suite, you can keep expanding without the headaches. Intuit Enterprise Suite is an AI-powered solution that brings all your data together in one place, managing financials, payroll, payment processing, marketing, and more.

and more. Learn more at Intuit.com slash enterprise. Money Movement Services by Intuit Payments, Inc. Licensed by NYDFS.