On today's podcast:
1) American Airlines Plane Collides With Helicopter Near DC Airport
2) Meta Shares Gain on Mark Zuckerberg’s Positive AI Comments
3) Microsoft Cloud Growth Constrained by Data Center Shortage
Bloomberg 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 a deadly plane crash involving a commercial airliner and an army helicopter at Reagan National Airport near Washington, d C. Let's get the very latest now with Bloomberg's John Tucker, John and Nathan.
American Airlines Flight fifty three forty two from Wichita, Kansas, was on an approach for landing at Reagan when it collided with a Zikorski H sixty helicopter around nine pm Eastern. Ary Schulman was driving home when he saw the plane falling from the sky. It was illuminated bright yellow underneath, and there was a spray of sparks on the underside of the plane. The JED was carrying sixty passengers and four crew members. Three soldiers were on board the helicopter. The first priority has been looking for survivors, however remote the chance of finding anybody alive at this point. DC Fire and Rescue Chief John Donnelly.
The water that we're operating into about eight feet deep.
There is wind, there is pieces of ice out there, so it's just dangerous and hard.
To work in.
The Bombardier CRIJ seven oh one twin engine jet manufactured in two thousand and four, was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about four hundred feet at a speed of about one hundred forty miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River. A few minutes before the landing, air traffic controllers did ask the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter runway three to three. Less than thirty seconds before the crash, air traffic controllers asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later. Seconds after that, the two collided Members of the US figure skating team are on board American Airlines Flight fifty three forty two. There were athletes, coaches, and family members who'd been taking part to the UN Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. We have not had an airline crash more than fifteen years in this country, a major one like this. I'm John Tucker Bloomberg Radio.
All right, John, Thank you well.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the airline is working with emergency responders.
He issued this video statement.
First, and most importantly, I'd like to express our deep sorrow about these events.
This is a difficult day.
For all of us at American Airlines, and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders, along with their families and loved ones.
That was American Airline CEO Robert Isom last night. Shares of American are down about three percent in early trading. The National Transportation Safety Board says they have sent a rapid response air accident investigation team to the site. President Trump criticized events in the run up to the collision in a truth social post, calling it a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.
And we will have much.
More on the plane crash throughout the program. But we now switch to the markets as investors react to the beginning of Magnificent seven earnings. Shares of Meta Platforms are up two percent in early trading. The stock originally fell after hours after the Facebook owner forecast disappointing sales for the current quarter, but Meta gained after CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comments about artificial intelligence on the company conference call.
This is going to be a really big year.
Most of our long term initiatives is going to be a lot clearer by the end of this year. In AI, I expect that this is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than one billion people, and I expect Metaai to be that leading AI assistant.
Mark Zuckerberg told investors he thinks Meta will eventually spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure.
Well.
Nathan cherzah Tesla also on the rise. They're up two point six percent this morning. The company revealed plans to begin robotaxi operations and forecast as sales recovery this year, feeling what Elon Musk predicted be an epic period of growth for the electric vehicle maker. The comments largely sidestep the actual sales and profit results, which missed to well Street estimates, and on.
The flip side, care and shares of Microsoft are down nearly four percent. The company says growth in its cloud computing business slow during the last three months of twenty twenty four. Microsoft is also ramping up spending on infrastructure for its AI products.
Well Tech earnings continue today, Nathan, with first quarter results from Apple out after the closing, Bell and Bloomberg's Tom Busby has a preview.
Despite a real slump and iPhone sales in China and being way behind other tech giants and rolling out AI products, Apple still forecast to post record results with strong sales of the AI capable iPhone sixteen here in the US, as well as continued strong demand for services like Apple Music and the App Store. Bloomberg is expecting revenues to rise three point eight percent. Consensus calls for total revenue of one hundred and twenty four point one billion, earnings per share of two dollars thirty five cents.
Tom Buzzby Bloomberg Radio, All right, Tom, thank you.
Keeping eye on shares of IBM, they are higher by about seven percent. Big Blue projected strong revenue growth in the new fiscal year and a jump in AI related bookings.
And turning to earnings overseas. Nathan.
Shares at Deutsche Bank are down three and a half percent. The bank's expenses rose fourteen percent from a year ago. That's overshadowing a better than expected performance in its investment bank.
Turning to the economy, now Karen, the Federal Reserve voted unanimously to keep its benchmark rate on hold.
Chair J.
Powell says the Fed will wait for further evidence of cooling inflation before adjusting interest rates again. With our policy stance significantly less restrictive than it had been, in the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance. Chairman Powell's press conference was followed by President Trump posting online that the Fed share had, in his words, done a terrible job on banking regulation and inflation.
Well Nathan Less turned to politics in Washington and a major reversal in the early days of President Trump's second term. The President has rescinded his order to freeze a wide array of federal grants, loans, and financial assistants, just days after his White House Budget Office announced it. Trump defended the order at his first bill signing yesterday.
We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse.
And President Trump's order had already been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, but this might not be the end of it. A document seen by Bloomberg News as the White House is considering dozens of ways for the President to take greater control of the federal bureaucracy. They include challenging a fifty year old law that limits the president's control of federal spending, making it easier to fire civil servants, kent pay and reign, and independent agencies.
Well.
Karen, President Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, faced opposition from Democrats at the first of two confirmation hearings this week. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington.
Robert F.
Kennedy Junior repeatedly insisted to Lawmays that he is not against vaccine.
I support the measles vaccine.
I support the polio vaccine.
But the Finance Committee's Democrats, led by Ron Wyden of Oregon, were not convinced.
Anybody who believes that on a look at the measles book, you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles.
Is the deadly disease. That's not true.
Kennedy, who had supported abortion rights while he was running for president, promised to back all the administration's positions on abortion. The hearing featured repeated interruptions from protesters.
I am pro safety, but.
The room was also filled with several Kennedy supporters in Washington. Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio.
All right, Amy, thank you well.
Two more key Trump nominees will have confirmation hearings today, Telsea Gabber, the President's choice to be the Director of National Intelligence, and Cash Battell, who is nominated to.
Have the FBI.
Will bring you live coverage of Gabbert's hearing at ten am Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio and the Bloomberg podcast page on YouTube. Time Now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world, and for that were joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr Michael, Good Morning, Good.
Morning, Karen. The Justice Department is said to be in talks about dropping the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. So far, no final decision has been made. Reports say talks between the DOJ and prosecutors with the Southern District of New York had been preliminary last month, Presidents said that Adams had been treated pretty unfairly by prosecutors and suggested he was considering issuing a pardon. Former US Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for his conviction for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. Before sentencing, the New Jersey Democrat tearfully addressed the judge, saying he had lost everything he cared about except family. Outside the New York courthouse, though, a defiant Menendez aligned himself with President Donald Trump. Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the wild West of political prosecutions.
President Trump is right.
This process is political, and it's corrupted to the core. Two people convicted of bribing Menendez were sentenced to seven and eight years behind bars. Israel Defense Force soldier a Gomberger, abducted by Hamas in October of twenty twenty three and held in Gaza since then, has been released and is back in Israel. According to the IDF, Burger is on her way to an initial reception point in southern Israel where she will be reunited with the parents. Earlier, she was handed over to the Red Cross and Gaza, who transferred her to Israeli forces in the Gaza. Script Defense Secretary Pete Hexath says the US had the right to do what is necessary to ensure access to the Pentama Canal, adding to President Donald Trump's threats around the crucial trade waterway. Hexath, speaking to Fox News last night, also says he is a establishing a task force to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the US military.
I think President Trump said it perfect in his inaugural address, which is what we're reinforcing in our directive as well.
DoD will be color.
Blind and merit based, color blind as it has been, and merit based as it should be. Because, as you know better than anybody, DEI sends the opposite signals.
Global news twenty four 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.
Time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update, brought to you by Tri State Audi.
Here's John stash Hour, John, good morning.
Good morning, Terry Nixon. Nuggets at the Guard to the next got an early break when Denver star Nicola Jochu has picked up his second found just ninety seconds in. He only played nine minutes of the first half. Though Denver in the third quarter went from down six to up eight. Nicks rally they won one twenty two to one twelve. Jalen brun Than thirty points, fifteen assists, Ogionanoby scored twenty three. Four other Knicks also in double figures. It's five wins in a row for coach Tom Thibodeaux.
Love the unselfishness. I think thirty three assists, guys making plays, jailing, you know, fifteen assists, and when you play like that, that gives you your team like a really strong spirit and togetherness. And I thought we were really connected and that's important to get those shots.
Now, look to keep it going.
Saturday night at the Garden against Lebron James and the Lakers, Nicks remained game behind the Celtics for second in the East. In Boston, christms Perzinga scored thirty four and are out of Chicago. Rare wind for the Nets, just their third of twenty twenty five, one oh four to eighty three at Charlotte. Cleveland won by twenty at Miami and Newark Devils with a five nothings blanking of the Flyers Jake Allen twenty four saves, so they split a home at home with Philly College. Hoops top rank Auburn one at LSU yukon beat to Paul Rutgers one at Northwestern. New Jets coach Aaron Glenn, who coach the defense that Detroit has hired as his defensive coordinator Steve Wilkes, who didn't coach anywhere this past season, but Wilkes has coached sixteen years for six NFL teams, including two short stints as a head coach. Giants offensive cornator Mike Kafka, seen as one of two finalists to be the new head coach in New Orleans. His interview with the Saints lasted nine hours, but the favorite to get the Saints job is Eagles assistant Kellen Moore. Tommy Kinley leaving the Yankee bullpen to Pitchford Detroit. The Mets re signed relievera Ryan Stanek. They start playing today at Pebble Beach. The season debuts for Scotti, Scheffler, and Rory McElroy. John stashanaware of Bloomberg Sport.
Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio nationwide on Serious Exam and around the world on Bloomberg dot Com and the Bloomberg Business app.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. We returned to the breaking news from overnight. A regional jet flown for American Airlines crashed with a military helicopter last night on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, d C.
It was on its way from Wichita, Kansas.
It has sparked an all out search and rescue effort in the Potomac River nearby. Sixty four people were on that American Airlines flight. Joining us now is Benedict Camel, who heads up Bloomberg's global aviation coverage.
Benedict, good morning.
What is the latest that we know about this crash?
Good morning.
So the latest is that were still very much in the sort of salvage part of the operation, and this is a difficult exercise. We heard a couple of hours ago from some officials who had gathered at the airport and gave an update that there were members from the fire Service, there was the mayor, the senator from Kansas where that plane originated. As you said, he was also there, and there's about three hundred people on the ground, boats involved, ambulances, fire engines and so on. What we know at this point is that the incoming regional jet collided with the helicopter that approached the runway. We don't know why that happened. We don't know who is to blame, so that's too early to say. The other thing, crucially that we don't know at this point is whether there are survivors. The head of the fire brigade gave a fairly grim assessment of the scene. He said, this is very difficult to operate in. It's cold, it's icy, the water is murky, the plane has broken up. So it would really come down to a miracle if you find many, if any survivors in this tragedy.
And it has to be said that this is some of the most closely monitored and secure air space in the United States, just across from the Pentagon, only a few miles from the White House and Capitol Hill. It has to raise a lot of questions now about how something like this could have happened so close to the seats of power in the United States.
Yes, we're absolutely right.
I mean, it's not unusual for helicopters to be operating in this area.
Clearly one of the aircraft was out of position. President Donald Trump.
Weighed in a couple of hours with a message on his social media platform saying, this is an occurrence that should not have happened. He should we say blame or at least he pointed to the tower as being an area that should be should be investigated. But again we are not in that phase of the investigation yet. The NTSB, the FAA, they're all on site. They have teams deployed that are there that will try and retrieve whatever they can. Be at the black boxes, be at footage. As you said, this is a very heavily surveyed part of the country. There is somewhat murky but still footage of the mid air collision, so that might provide some clues as to who was out of position. There's the radio back and forth between air traffic control and the aircraft in the sky. So all of those clues will help paint a picture and provide better clues as to who is to blame and what can be done.
That's going forward, Benedict's stay with us.
We want to bring in Bloomberg's chief Washington, our chief political correspondent Anne Marie Hordern, who is with us now from Reagan National Airport as I understand it.
And Marie, good morning. What can you tell us.
Now about this search and rescue effort that, as I understand it has been going on since last night when this crash first happened.
Yes, more than three hundred individuals, one hundreds really part of the search and rescue team. What we know according to CBS that eighteen bodies have been recovered after this fatal, deadly crash around nine pm last night. What I could tell you is that now that we move into this rescue mission, a lot of questions are being asked. The National Transportation Safety Board will leave this investigation, of course, will be aided by the SAA. Last night, we did hear from a number of officials, including the just born in Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Mayor of DC, Mriol Bowser is saying that they're going to provide another briefing this morning at seven thirty am at DCA, So we will get another update from officials from local authorities this morning at DCA the airport at the moment is closed till eleven am. Potentially that can change, but that is the latest we have right now. As of course, the nation is waking up to this heartbreaking news.
It's going to be a crucial update coming up in just the next couple of hours here. But as you know, Anne, Marie, the Potomac River is murky, it is cold, this is going to be a very difficult search and rescue operation. Raises a lot of questions about just what kind of survivability we could see following an incident like this, Absolutely, which.
Is why this is so devastating to the entire nation, to everyone involved. Families that were coming here last night with tons of questions wanted to know weather, Luvembre, as anyone says the divers and reverse responders that are out a part of his rescue mission or operating under extremely difficult conditions. It's obviously dark, it's very cold, the water's very muddy. It's incredibly icy to the frigid temperatures that DC had last week. We remember last week the inauguration had to be moved inside because of those weather conditions. So it's incredibly, incredibly difficult right now, and there's just so many questions and just not enough answers.
And for a long time Washingtonians, this is going to raise memories of the Air Florida crash into the fourteenth Street Bridge that happened in nineteen eighty two, more than forty years ago. But Anne Marie, in this case, it doesn't look as though the weather, the ice on the wings back then, was the culprit in this situation when we have a regional jet crashing into a military helicopter apparently on a routine test flight. But obviously this anything but routine.
No, not anything but routine. I mean, this is Washington, d C. So you do have tons of military aircraft. We are just south of DCA from the Pentagon, across the river from the nation's capital, and there is training that go on and go on at night, and that seems to be what this Black Hall helicopter was doing. With three US military personnel on board, this was training. But even the President of the United States, after the White House put out a statement last night that he was briefed on the matter, May God bless their souls, he talked about the individuals involved. He then took the truth social later in the evening and really You can tell his frustration about how he's asking the question the President. I say, don Trump, why didn't the helicopter go up or down our turn? Why didn't the control tell tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane?
You know?
And he sangs the bad situation and feels like it could have been prevented, which is why there's going to be a ton of questions on what kind of radio frequency channels are these two individuals, for these two the helicopter and the passenger plane, on what was the air traffic control telling them at this time? You would think that this could never happen, But obviously devastating tragedy did just nine pm.
Last night, and certainly a huge test for this young Trump administration, not just for the brand new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, but for Pete Haig Seth, who's in charge of that Sikorsky helicopter that's involved in this.
Absolutely, this is Sean Duffy was just born in yesterday. He had been on the job for not even twenty four hours. He was here at DCA last night, three free reporters. When it comes to Pete Haig Seth, he's only been on the job for a few days, so of course this is a huge test for this incoming administration. And we also know a number of individual is not in place yet because this is a transition, So they're dealing with a crisis when a lot of members of their teams are just not yet in place, because we are second week into a new administration.
Bloomber chief political correspondent and Marie Hordron with us this morning from Reagan National Airport, now the scene of a search and rescue operation following that deadly plane crash between the flight out of Wichita and the military helicopter out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Thanks for keeping us updated on that. We'll be looking to more of your reporting throughout the day. But now we want to bring back in Benedict Cammell, who leads our global aviation coverage for Bloomberg News, raising so many of the questions now, Benedict, for officials, for rescuers as far as how something like this could have happened, What are you looking for in terms of.
What could be gleaned out of this?
Well, to Anne Marie's point that she raised just now, I think a lot of The focus will be on those fateful last moments and the sort of intercom between the tower and the aircraft. You know, what was said to whom, who was potentially out of position. That will potentially provide an early clue as to who's to blame for this. The aircraft is equipped with what's commonly referred to black boxes. Those are two devices, one that records anything that said in the cockpit as well as noises, and the other one is for sort of flight data metrics, and those.
Will be very closely.
Scrutinized to any clues in terms of who might have been out of position.
We do have a little bit of footage from the grounds.
It's blurry somewhat, but again that might be pulled in. We've seen in the past that you have all these different metrics that you can draw on, and the NTSB is obviously a very professional body, knows how to deal with these these kinds of incidents. As Anne Marie said, as huge amount of political press on this. The President has weighed in. It essentially happened, you know, Dari say in his backyard. This is a test case for the new administration, for Pete Hexith's for Sean Duffy, who spoke last night at the press conference and who said himself, look, I've been in the job for a day, so this is really going to be a test case for him and how they handle this. The truth will come out, but I think everyone was very clear at this point that we're not in that phase at the moment. This is about trying to find potential survivors, trying to race against time, essentially because the cold water will be a very difficult environment for anyone to survive. And so that's sort of where the focus is right now, and then throughout the next day, maybe even at that seven thirty press conference there and Marie mentioned we will get a little bit more.
And it has to be said that this is the first time that we've seen regional jet crash like this in just about fifteen years. It speaks to the rarity of something like this. And when it comes to Reagan Now National Airport, the flight patterns the pretty much follow the Potomac River, whether you're coming in from the north or the south, and that raises a question, doesn't it, benedict about how something like this could have happened when we have such routine flight patterns in and out of Reagan National Airport.
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and you know, to widen the lens a little bit. We are coming out of a phase of extreme safety in terms of airspace. Might not feel that way off the back of a tragedy like this, and we've had a couple of similar tragedies in the last couple of weeks even and throughout the last year, but longer term, aviation safety has improved tremendously. If you look at twenty twenty three, there was not a single civil aviation accident throughout the entire year. You had thirty seven million movements and not a single loss of life. So that gives you a sense of where we're coming from. So obviously every after that really puts the spotlight on safety. We had that incident about a year ago that people might remember about the collision in Japan a Tokyo. There was a large aircraft that plowed into a stationary plane. Miraculously, everybody survived on that aircraft, on the large plane. The people on the small plane died tragically. And then we had the incident in South Korea a couple of weeks ago where the plane attempted an emergency landing and then plowed into a concrete wall, and tragically everybody died on that. So I'm raising these incidents because they are rare. They don't happen often, thankfully, but there's an eerie similarity because they're all somehow involved in collisions, in approach.
And so on. So this is something that will be very much watched.
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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 day Break