Trump Tests Plan to Reopen Strait; GameStop's $56 Billion eBay Takeover Offer

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1:44Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. 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 standoff between the U.S. and Iran, with the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports still in effect and the Strait of Hormuz at a near standstill. President Trump says the U.S. will begin guiding some neutral ships through the straits starting today. The president announced the effort dubbed Project Freedom in a social media post. We get more from Bloomberg's Jumana Bersechi in Dubai. Certainly there is a humanitarian necessity to get some of those vessels out of the Persian Gulf.

2:27They've been stranded there since the beginning of the war. It's estimated that there are about 800 ships just sitting there, 20 ,000 seafarers, facing pretty dark conditions, extreme stress, fatigue, food and water shortages. So, yes, most certainly there is a humanitarian need to help those that are trapped there. Bloomberg's Jumana Bersetchi reports the president did not give specifics on how the U.S. would help ships through the strait, but U.S. Central Command says it will provide military support. An Iranian official posted on X that any U.S. interference in Hormuz would violate the ceasefire.

2:59Well, Nathan, President Trump is suggesting Iran's latest proposal to end the war might not be enough to satisfy him. Oxyos reports the plan would set a one-month deadline for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end both the U.S. blockade and fighting in Iran and Lebanon. After that, another month of discussions could begin on Iran's nuclear program. And we get more from Bloomberg defense reporter Jen Judson. Iran wants sanctions relief and reopening shipping first, and that is not what the U.S. wants. They want to see a resolution when it comes to nuclear concessions. So we're really in a very tough spot right now.

3:35And Bloomberg's Jen Johnson appeared on Bloomberg this weekend. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the U.S. can keep waiting Iran out. We were running a marathon over the past 12 months, and now we are sprinting towards the finish line. And I can tell you that we are suffocating the regime and they are not able to pay their soldiers. This is a real economic blockade. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson tells Fox's Sunday Morning Futures the pressure may force Iran to start shutting in oil wells in the next week as its crude storage fills up and pressure may be building in the U.S. as well. Triple A says the nationwide average for a gallon of gasoline is$4.46.

4:19That's the highest since July 2022. And Karen, another major story we're following this morning involves the health of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He is in critical but stable condition at a hospital this morning. Bloomberg's Michael Barr joins us with the latest from New York. Michael. A spokesperson for Rudy Giuliani says the former mayor remains in critical but stable condition in a Florida hospital. However, spokesman Ted Goodman did not specify why Giuliani has been hospitalized. In a social media post, President Trump called Giuliani, who will turn 82 later this month, a true warrior and the best mayor in the history of New York City by far.

4:59Giuliani became America's mayor while serving in office in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, in recent years, Giuliani served as Donald Trump's lawyer. I voted for Trump, but mostly I voted for America to save us. He also aided in efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden. In 2025, Giuliani agreed to pay two Georgia election workers$148 million in a defamation case. He was also disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. In New York, Michael Barr, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Michael, thank you. Authorities have determined that buckshot from the gun of the man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents Association dinner struck a Secret Service agent.

5:47Janine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is the federal prosecutor overseeing the case, and she spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper. We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant's Mossberg pump action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer. So it's definitively his bullet. It is definitively his bullet. He hit at that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way, on his way to the killing, the president of the United States. Federal Prosecutor Janine Pirro says a suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, has been charged with attempted assassination of the president and faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

6:34Let's turn now to the markets, Karen. Tech stocks continue to lead equities higher. NASDAQ futures are up once again after rising almost 1 % Friday. Both the NASDAQ and S &P 500 closed at record highs. Lizanne Saunders is chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. S &P is sitting at an all-time high right now, but only 7 % of the index members are at 52-week highs. And it's only 15 % of the index that's even just at a four-week high. So, again, we're developing a little bit of that concentration problem, and it would be a better backdrop for the market, medium to longer term, if we had some better breath.

7:17Not yet. Charles Schwab, Chief Investment Strategist Lizanne Saunders, notes the S &P 500 index has risen for five straight weeks. Well, Nathan, GameStop is proposing to buy eBay for about$56 billion in cash and stock. We get the story with Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett. It's a bold attempt by Ryan Cohen to take over a storied e-commerce name several times larger. The gaming retail chain offered$125 a share in cash and stock for the online retailer, or about a 20 % premium to its Friday close. GameStop has built a roughly 5 % stake in eBay and says it has secured a commitment from TD Bank to provide about$20 billion of debt financing to help bankroll the deal.

8:02In New York, Charlie Pellett, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Charlie, thank you. Shares of eBay up nine and a half percent in early trading and shares of GameStop. They're lower. They're down about eight tenths of a percent. Well, after the collapse of Spirit Aviation Holdings, Karen, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he does not think the government needs to provide financial lifelines for now to other low cost carriers. Duffy blames the Biden administration for Spirit's failure. Spirit tried to merge with JetBlue. The Joe Biden people to judge administration and DOJ tanked that deal. Immediately after that, they filed for bankruptcy.

8:37Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appeared on ABC's This Week, heard every Sunday on Bloomberg Radio. Spirit CEO Dave Davis says the low-cost carriers succumbed to crushing fuel prices. Well, we have new developments, Nathan, on the global trade front. China has ordered its companies to ignore U.S. sanctions. Beijing has now directed companies not to abide by U.S. sanctions on private refiners linked to the Iranian oil trade. China's move will test the U.S. sanctions system and comes ahead of a planned meeting between President Trump and China's Xi Jinping.

9:11Time 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. A United Airlines flight landing at Newark on Sunday struck a light pole on the New Jersey turnpike. The plane, en route from Venice, Italy, was carrying 221 passengers and 10 crew. Officials said no one on the airplane was hurt, but the light pole struck a truck, injuring the driver. Officials say he'll be okay. After the plane landed, air traffic controllers on ATC.com sent a ground vehicle to inspect the runway.

9:46They felt something over the threshold and there's a hole in the side of the airplane. Retired Marine Corps pilot Steve Ganyard says everyone on board the plane was fortunate. This aircraft was literally inches from disaster. United says its maintenance team is now evaluating the plane. The first of 1 ,500 beagles being removed from a Wisconsin dog breeding and research business are adjusting to their new lives as animal welfare groups move them to shelters to prepare them for adoption. Ridgeland Farms in rural Blue Mounds was the site of a violent clash last month between activists trying to break in.

10:24But the Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy had already been working for months to purchase the animals and find them better homes. Also, Paul Chicago took in 25 of them. The shelter's chief program officer, Celine Mulkeric. Many of them have never been outside. They've never felt grass under their paws or experienced real kindness from humans. And now they finally have a warm bed and a quiet place to rest and to decompress. The beagles will go to foster homes after they are examined by a vet. There are calls to protest the Met Gala tonight in New York City over the event's ties this year to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

11:06The critics call the Galatonda for its lavishness during a time of economic uncertainty for many. Global News, 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg Karen. Thanks Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update and for that we bring in John Stashauer. Thanks Karen. A pair of Game 7s in the NBA's Eastern Conference and wins by the home team. Detroit came back from three games to one and beat Orlando in game seven, 116-94. Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris combined for 62 points. Cleveland beat Toronto 114-102. The home team won every game.

11:43The Pistons will now play the Cavs in round two. Game seven, the Stanley Cup playoffs in a series where all seven games were decided by one goal. Montreal, with only nine shots on goal, still won a Tampa Bay 2-1. In the west, Colorado beat Minnesota 9-6. That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this.

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13:38Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. 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. Nearly a month into the ceasefire with Iran.

14:09President Trump says the U.S. will kick off a humanitarian effort today to guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz. That's as he suggests, Iran's latest proposal to end the war might not be enough. Joining us from Tel Aviv this morning is Bloomberg News Israel Bureau Chief Ethan Brawner. Ethan, good to have you with us. What do we know about the U.S. plan to guide ships through the strait at this point? Good morning. Good morning, Nathan. Well, we don't know a lot. We know pretty much what you just said, which is that there is this plan. He's calling it an enhanced security area. It's not at all clear.

14:43It doesn't seem like the U.S. ships are going to actually accompany anybody. Seems to be a matter of coordination. It's really not very clear. But that is what he has announced. OK, so what could a potential Iranian response to something like this be when we've heard from a number of Iranian officials over the last few weeks that interference in the strait could constitute a ceasefire violation? Indeed. So in theory, we could certainly see drones being shot at tankers by Iran. I mean, you know, it's certainly possible. You know, Dave, there's been a fairly muted response so far from Iran. I mean, as you said, they did say such a thing would be a violation.

15:26We really, I don't think, have any clarity about what either side is about to do. You know, and meanwhile, in theory, there's a great distinction, difference of opinion about how it's going for Iran, whether they can last for many weeks or not. You know, the broad consensus abroad is that Iran can last a long time. I mean, Israel, there is a more hawkish view, which is that Iran is in trouble. And if the United States can hold on for six or 10 weeks, Iran will be in deeper trouble. Well, we've heard from Treasury Secretary Scott Besant as well that the naval blockade that's in place against Iranian ports is strangling the Iranian economy.

16:08Are we seeing evidence of that? And how would Iran be able to respond militarily if its economy is being choked off? So I think it's difficult for really for me to speak with any clarity about whether they're being choked off or not. There is that sense that they really do need the income that's not going to come in. But I don't think these drones are very expensive. I do think they've been able to continue to produce them. So it is possible, it seems to me, that they could still challenge the great American military behemoth with these thousand dollar drones. I mean, I think that is what we're what could happen.

16:46But we really don't know. And, you know, I mean, either side, it is it's a game of chicken and we don't know where it's going. As I mentioned, President Trump has been suggesting that the latest Iranian offer to end the war outright might not be enough to meet his parameters. What is the sense of what the Iranian offer is now and where does it leave things in our last minute? So we only have some elements in public about what that offer is. They're asking for a month to to sort of stop it, then a month of negotiation. And there's some talk of some years of no enrichment, uranium enrichment, and then to a low percentage.

17:30I mean, it doesn't seem like it would have made the war worth it from the American's perspective, in the sense that the goal was zero enrichment and removing those 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium. So I still see a very, very strong confrontation, at least political, and I don't know where it's going militarily. 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.

18:09Wall 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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