February 5, 2025: Bessent & Trump Focus on Yields, After the Bell Earnings, More

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
News when you wanted with Bloomberg News Now I'm Doug Chrisner.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besson discussed interest rates today. He told
Fox Business the Trump administration is focused on the tenure
treasury yield instead of the Fed's benchmark interest rate. And
he said the President is not calling for the FED
to lower interest rates right now, here's besant.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
So the purpose of lowering interest rates is the lower
interest rates the Federal Reserve. That and I will only
talk about what they've done, not what I think they
should do from now on. They did a jumbo rate
cut and the tenure rate went up. Now I've seen
this year, despite the growth estimates going up, tenures coming
down because I believe the bond market is recognizing energy

(00:46):
prices will be lower.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
That was Treasury Secretary Scott Besson speaking earlier to Fox Business.
He went on to repeat his view on energy, saying
that expanding supply will bring down inflation. He also said
he supports making the twenty seventeen Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act permanent. Those cuts are set to expire at the
end of the year. We heard from the British chip

(01:08):
designer arm Holdings after the Bell and the company gave
a tip at forecast for revenue in the current quarter.
This is only fueling concern over a slowdown in spending
on artificial intelligence computing, especially in light of last week's
breakthrough on the computer efficiency from the Chinese AI startup
Deep Seek. Here is Tom Giles, Bloomberg, Senior executive editor

(01:31):
for Global Tech.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
There's a lot of questions about how much people are
going to need to spend on AI related infrastructure, particularly chips,
particularly chips designed by ARM. If deep Seek is as
efficient as they say they are, if they can do
as much as they say they can at a fraction
of the price, do the metas and Microsofts and open

(01:55):
aiyes of the world need to spend as much as
they are projecting?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is Bloomberg's Tom Giles. Shares in ARM were down
four percent in late New York trading. Separately, Arms majority
owner that would be soft Bank. That company is in
advanced talks to acquire the chip designer and Peer Computing.
We are told a deal could be valued at around
six and a half billion dollars that would include debt.
We also heard after the bell from Qualcomm, and the

(02:20):
company gave a sales forecast for the current quarter above estimates.
The upbeat outlook indicates demand for those high end handsets
remained strong, even so Qualcom shares were down more than
four percent. In late New York trading, we heard from
Ford Motor. The company is saying that profit may fall
by two billion dollars or more this year. Ford is

(02:41):
expecting vehicle prices to fall two percent industry wide. The
company is also expecting to incur cost tie to the
launch of the new Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition SUV,
and they will result in a break even first quarter.
And on top of that, Ford is facing questions over
the market for evs. Here's Ford CEO Jim Farley.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
There are optionality that we can make. And look, we've
localized a lot of battery plants and EV production in
Tennessee and Kentucky because the production tax credit is there.
So we're really asking administration please preserve the production tax credit.
Let's have a reasons tearff approach, and most of all,
let's have reasonable co two targets that are in line

(03:22):
with what customers are actually buying.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
That is Ford CEO Jim Farley speaking to Bloomberg earlier.
Right now, shares in Fororder, down about five percent in
late US trading. We go to Washington next. President Trump
signed and executive action banning transgender women from participating in
female sports, and this measure will allow the Department of
Education to investigate schools and possibly withhold their federal funding.

(03:47):
Here's Trump speaking earlier at the White House.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
With my action this afternoon, we're putting every school receiving
taxpayer dollars or notice that if you let men take
over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you
will be investigated for violations of Title nine and risk
your federal funding. There will be no federal harba.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
That is President Trump speaking there now. Critics of the
policy have said it unfairly targets transgender students who want
to participate in normal high school activities. Tomorrow, after the bell,
we'll get earnings from Amazon, and we have a preview
from Bloomberg's Tom Busby.

Speaker 6 (04:26):
Forecast call for a ten percent revenue serge last quarter,
fuel by strong holiday sales on its Signature online shopping site,
strong advertising businesses, and growth in its AWS cloud computing unit.
Now Rivals Alphabet and Microsoft both reported slowing growth in
their respective cloud operations, so results in AWS will be
key for investors. Bloomberg consensus calls for total revenue of

(04:48):
one hundred and eighty seven point three two billion dollars
earnings per share of a dollar fifty. Tom Busby Bloomberg.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Radio partners at the consulting giant McKenzie have been questioning
the firm presence in China. We're told their worried that
doing business there may not be worth the risk given
China's increasingly volatile relationship with the US. And that is
news when you wanted with Bloomberg News. Now, I'm Doug
Krisner and this is Bloomberg