Trump Visits Fed HQ, Downplays Clash With Powell; Intel Shares Slide on Turnaround Concerns

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1:41Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager.

1:51Lisa Abramowicz:And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Karen, we begin with the White House pressure campaign on the Federal Reserve coming right to its home turf. President Trump put on a hard hat to inspect the Fed headquarters that he says has gotten too expensive to renovate. The president toured the site with Fed Chair Jay Powell, and there was a tense moment when the president claimed the price tag had jumped from$2.5 to$3.1 billion. You're including the Martin renovation. That's our entire capital. You just added in a third building is what that is. That's the third building.

2:23It's a building that's being built. No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. It's part of the overall work. Despite that brief clash, President Trump says the project probably is not enough of a reason to fire the chairman. He was asked what Powell could say to make him back off his criticism. Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you? President Trump's visit was the first time in nearly two decades that a president has gone to the Fed in person. The central bank's next policy decision is this Wednesday.

2:56Lisa Abramowicz:Nathan, the Trump administration's tried to tamp down the Republican uproar over the Jeffrey Epstein case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met yesterday with Ghislaine Maxwell, who's serving a 20-year sentence in Florida for helping Epstein abuse underage girls. Maxwell's attorney, David Marcus, says the interview lasted all day. Ms. Maxwell answered every single question. She never stopped. She never invoked a privilege. She never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly, and to the best of her ability. Attorney David Marcus did not get into specifics on what Maxwell had to say.

3:32Lisa Abramowicz:It's still unclear if she has any information beyond what's in the public record. Deputy Attorney General Blanche posted on social media that he'll speak with Maxwell again today. Well, there are new developments in the Middle East, Karen. The U.S. is criticizing Emmanuel Macron after the French president said he'll recognize the state of Palestine in September. Secretary of State Marco Rubio describes Macron's decision as reckless, saying it only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. Ceasefire talks in Gaza have suffered a major setback. Both the U.S. and Israel have pulled their negotiators from the discussions in Qatar.

4:06Lisa Abramowicz:And Nathan, Bloomberg News has learned that Citigroup pushed a trading desk head to delete a social media post that criticized Israel over the situation in Gaza. And Bloomberg's UNPOTS reports from London. City's global head of short-term interest rate trading, Akshay Singhal, posted on LinkedIn that he believed Israel's actions in Gaza were, quote, horrific and unacceptable, and calling them, in his words, genocide. Before the end of the day, though, we're told the bank had asked the London-based staff member to remove the comments. Citi says the post was inconsistent with its code of conduct and its reviewing the matter.

4:40The trader did not respond to a request for comments. The move is the latest reflection of corporations' reluctance to take stances on polarizing topics. In London, I'm Ewan Potts, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Ewan, thank you. Turning to markets now, we're watching shares of Intel. They are down more than 5 % in early trading. The drop comes after CEO Lip Bhutan sparked concerns he was more focused on cost-cutting than restoring Intel's technological edge. The chipmaker will cancel some factory projects and take a more conservative approach to future spending. Jay Goldberg is an analyst at Seaport Research Partners.

5:14Are they going to try to compete with NVIDIA long-term? Are they going to just try and make the best of it? They still have a good CPU core franchise. So I want to know how that is playing out in the marketplace where you're seeing so much share, so much wallet share is going to NVIDIA. What's Intel going to do in that world where now NVIDIA is the dominant player in the data center and Intel is sort of playing second fiddle. Seaport Research Partners Jay Goldberg. Intel aims to end the year with 75 ,000 employees. That's down more than 20 % from the end of the June quarter.

5:43Lisa Abramowicz:Nathan shares of Paramount are up more than 2.5%. The FCC has approved Paramount Global's merger with Skydance Media. We get the details with Bloomberg's Monica Ricks. FCC members voted 2-1 to approve the deal after the Trump administration extracted concessions on the company's political coverage and diversity practices. The lone vote against came from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who accused Paramount of, quote, cowardly capitulation to the Trump administration. Earlier this summer, Paramount settled a lawsuit filed against CBS by President Trump, who claimed the network deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris during last year's election.

6:20Last week, Paramount said it was canceling Stephen Colbert's talk show next May because of financial decisions. Skydance Media is led by David Ellison. He agreed last July to take control of Paramount, the parent company of CBS and MTV, after months of tumultuous negotiations with Sherry Redstone, whose family had run the business for decades. Monica Ricks, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Monica, thank you. In Europe, shares of Puma are down 18 percent. The German company is slashing its profit forecast in the face of weak demand for its sports and exercise gear and growing concerns about the impact of U.S.

6:55tariffs. This is the third major route this year alone for Puma, which has issued repeated profit warnings. The stock has fallen about 55 percent this year.

7:04Lisa Abramowicz:Nathan, Volkswagen is lowering its financial outlook for the year. The escalating cost of President Trump's tariffs are weighing on earnings at the Audi and Porsche brands. We caught up with Volkswagen CFO Arno Atletz at the company Factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. We made 6 to 8 percent margin and currently we are faced with 25 percent tariffs. So this is clear we need a good solution, a solution that fits both the needs of the American administration, but also the European automakers. And Volkswagen CFO Arno Adlitz now sees flat revenue for the year from 5 % growth previously and also reduced its outlook for free cash flow.

7:41Well, Karen, the meme stock frenzy continues on Wall Street. Shares of tiny health care triangles stood out as the most actively traded on U.S. exchanges yesterday. With no apparent news, the little-known healthcare information technology company saw its stock more than double to just above five cents, with more than three billion shares changing hands. That was equivalent to about 15 % of the total shares traded on Wall Street for the day. The surge for healthcare triangle was among the latest in the meme stock mania that has sparked rallies and other speculative names, including Kohl's, GoPro, and Krispy Kreme.

8:19Lisa Abramowicz: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. It is going to be hot today. Bloomberg meteorologist Craig Allen has the latest. Searing heat once again for today. It includes 10 states in the Mississippi Valley as well as the Tennessee and Ohio Valley. It also includes the eastern seaboard up and down the I-95 corridor, where it also includes major cities like Washington, on up through Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, even into the lower sections of Maine.

8:53So we're talking about over 130 million people being affected by some kind of heat alert. The heat index could reach 100 to 110 degrees today, especially along the East Coast. And that will be followed by some strong thunderstorms during the mid and latter part of the afternoon. Thank you, Craig. Now, if you don't have an air conditioner, officials say take advantage of a cooling center to avoid the dangerous heat. President Trump selected Alina Habba to continue running the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey on a temporary basis. President Trump chose Habba, his former personal attorney, amid an eventful week in which her interim post was set to expire and federal judges had picked her top assistant to take her place.

9:36The Trump administration sued New York City over its sanctuary city policies. They're arguing they are obstructing the government from enforcing immigration law and contributed to the recent shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. Tributes have been pouring in for Hulk Hogan. The icon in the world of pro wrestling died at the age of 71. Sylvester Stallone writing online, My Heart Breaks, President Trump calling Hulk Hogan strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. And we've lost a jazz legend.

10:14Chuck Mangione has died. The man with a golden trumpet was behind songs like Feel So Good. He was born and raised in Rochester, New York. Chuck Mangione was 84. Global News, 24 hours a day and whenever you want it. With the Bloomberg News Now, I'm Michael Barr. This is Bloomberg, Karen. All right, Michael Barr, thank you.

11:01In the first half of 2026, over$28.1 billion US dollars traded on Moon ATS. Learn more about Moon ATS. Visit otcmarkets.com slash moon. Moon ATS is operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer. The thing about AI for business, it may not automatically fit the way your business works. At IBM, we've seen this firsthand. But by embedding AI across HR, IT, and procurement processes, we've reduced costs by millions, slash repetitive tasks, and freed thousands of hours for strategic work. Now we're helping companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business.

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12:40Lisa Abramowicz:Time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update. Here's John Stashhour. John, good morning. Good morning, Karen. It'll be a bit of a strange weekend for Mets fans. Presumably, they'll be rooting for the Yankees. Mets, of course, in a battle with the Phillies. Mets currently a half game ahead. The Phils are at the stadium to take on the Yanks, who in that big game Wednesday in Toronto looked especially sloppy. Four errors, throw in a completely misjudged fly ball, and another loss to the Blue Jays. The Yanks now trail by four and a half games. It left Aaron Boone having to defend his team's defensive skills.

13:11We have good defenders. It's not like we're searching for, you look around our field, we've got really good defenders. But it's also something that defense is a game of under control and calm. So it's like you want to, you know, the last thing I want us to do is get tight and stuff like that and play to not make a mistake. Can't do that. In games this season, where the Yankees have committed an error, their record is 15-24. When they haven't had one, they're 41-22. Mets tonight begin a West Coast trip in San Francisco. Red Sox home for the Dodgers. Shohei Otani comes in having Homer in each of his last five games.

13:48Jets' training camp opened up, sure enough, an injury to their new quarterback, Justin Fields. Dislocated toe, not serious, Fields' day-to-day. The Giants' starter, now Russell Wilson, but the QB of the future, Jackson Dart. Giants took him in the first round of the draft, and General Manager Joe Sheen was asked about Dart's leadership skills. It can be tough at first. We've been around some quarterbacks when you come in as a 21, 22-year-old, And, you know, now you're tough to go lead grown men that have been in the league for a long time. So it'll happen organically. But, you know, we like the personality traits, the character traits, the leadership traits that he possessed at Ole Miss.

14:23And, you know, from what we've seen so far. Giants in the offseason also added veteran QB Jameis Winston. Kansas' Hall of Fame basketball coach, 62-year-old Bill Self, hospitalized with a heart procedure. He had two stents inserted, expected to make a full recovery. John Stash, we're Bloomberg Sports. Karen 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. President Donald Trump is taking his ongoing pressure campaign against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to new heights with his visit to the Fed's building renovation.

15:03After seeing the$2.5 billion project for himself, though, the president said he's backing off the idea of firing Powell over it. This term comes up soon. I think he's going to do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is. Even people that believed in the higher rates, they're all on board. They all want to see the interest rates come down. That was President Trump speaking outside the Fed's headquarters yesterday. Joining us this morning for more on this is Bloomberg's Valerie Teitel. And Valerie, I know you've been watching this pressure campaign going on for quite some time. It's almost like he's dipping back into that old flood the zone playbook that we've seen throughout his presidency.

15:40Good morning. Good morning, Nathan. Yes, it was quite a rare spectacle to see a sitting president not only enter the Federal Reserve building, which is something that hasn't happened in around 20 years, but then pressure the Fed chair in front of media, in front of cameras to cut interest rates and then slap him on the back and walk away. So it was quite a media spectacle last night. This meeting and this visit to the Fed construction zone that President Trump has thrown so much criticism at for going over budget, now costing around$2.7 billion. There also was a tense moment, which did show a lot of amnesty between the two, when President Trump took out a letter from his pocket that stated that the total cost of the renovations have now reached$3.1 billion, leaving Powell to look almost shocked.

16:31taking out his own reading glasses to read the piece of paper and only to mention to President Trump that that included a renovation that was completed five years ago and is not part of the current renovation. So it was a spectral. I highly recommend you Google and watch the video. Yeah, you can see it on the Bloomberg terminal as well. I guess it remains to be seen, though, whether this spectacle is actually going to result in what the president has made abundantly clear that he wants to see for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates next week. Yeah, the Federal Reserve does meet next week, and it's notable that nothing is priced in for this decision, even though we are hearing more and more from the president about his desire for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

17:14But yesterday, he did mention to the cameras that he just wants to see one thing happen. It's very simple. Interest rates have to come down. So he was keeping up this pressure campaign on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, yesterday. It is noted that we are not pricing in even a Fed cut at their next decision come September after their holiday over the summer. The market, though, is pricing in a full cut when it does come to their October meeting. The Federal Reserve is waiting for more clarity when it does come to the tariff impact on CPI on the pass-through to consumers. Just what that will be and whether they'll have clarity by September or October still remains a question that the market's tussling over.

17:52But President Trump and even the Treasury Secretary Scott Besant have amped up pressure this week, saying that there's no evidence of tariff-induced inflation and the Federal Reserve should be cutting interest rates. Well, what can we say that the bond market is pricing in right now? I mean, we are seeing modest increases in the yields this morning, a lot of volatility in the bond space. What's the focus for investors right now? Well, at least for fixed income, the focus has been on the hawkish ECB decision, which took German Bund yields up nine basis points and they're rising another six today.

18:26So that is definitely dragging Treasury yields higher along with it. But another big focus, at least for those in the U.S. markets, has just been this continual record highs for the S &P 500. Every day this week, Nathan, we've reached a new record high for the S &P 500. And we're seeing this happen alongside the VIX index falling to five-month lows. And if you look at even realized vol, that is also very suppressed. The Nasdaq 10-day realized vol, Nathan, is at a four-year low. So it goes to show just how much the markets have gotten used to this kind of political headline trading. This volatility coming out of the Trump administration is just something we're taking in stride.

19:06And we're seeing new record highs being posted every session this week. And along with that Fed decision coming up on Wednesday, we've got the, I guess, the expiration of the August 1st tariff pause on Friday. What are we expecting in terms of trade deals? Got about 30 seconds left. I'll add one more to that. It is also NFP on Friday. But we did hear some notable comments from the Volkswagen CEO about the EU-US trade deal saying he expects a 15 percent tariff rate on autos. So there is a lot of positivity about the EU reaching a big deal before next Friday's deadline.

19:37Lisa Abramowicz: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.

20:18Lisa Abramowicz: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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