On today's podcast:
1) Democrats win New York's special election to replace George Santos.
2) The House votes to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
3) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is released from the hospital
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Amy Morris. Here are the stories we're following today.
Let's start with politics and results from the special election in New York. Tom Swazi and Mozzi Pillup squared off in a race for the seat left open by former Representative George Santos, and Democrats came out victorious in New York's third district. Tom Swazi won the contest with fifty four percent of the vote. Bloomberg'slaura Namias says the race was viewed as a bellweather for November's election.
We did talk to some voters out in the district who said that they were casting their ballots for Swazi because they wanted Democrats to retake control of the House, less because of any personal attachment to Tom Swazi than because they wanted control of the House of Representatives to switch back to Democrats. They were concerned about abortion rights, the future of democracy. They were concerned about some of the things that had happened during the Trump presidency, and about whether or not Democrats could keep democracy afloat.
Bloomberg's Law Anamius notes Tom Swazi had represented New York's third for three terms until George Santos claimed his seat. The victory for Democrats narrows Republicans' thin majority in the House. The GOP now has just a six member advantage in the chamber.
The special election came on the same day the House impeach Tallejandrei. New Yorkis Republicans voted by the narrowest possible margin to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary after failing in their first attempt last week. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the final tally.
On this vote, the Yaser two fourteen and the NASER two thirteen.
The resolution is adopted, New.
Yorcus becomes the second cabinet member in US history to be impeached. The first came nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. The effort is likely to die in the Senate, where a two thirds majority is needed to remove may Orcus from office.
Man staying in Washington, Amy Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is back on the job. He was released from the hospital last night. He underwent a procedure for a bladder problem. Bloomberg Zed Baxter has the details.
The doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center say they identified what was causing him pain and the bladder issue related to his prostate surgery was rectified in a non surgical procedure. They say the prognosis from his prostate cancer surgery is still good. Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh says he will participate in the Virtual Ukraine Defense Contact Group because of its importance.
If US support waivers, we know Putin is not going to stop in his war in Ukraine.
Austin is expected to host the meeting today about fifty countries. Ed Baxter Bloomberg Radio.
All right, thank you, Ed. Turning now to the markets. We start overseas, where an inflation surprise in the UK is giving a boost to British docks. Data show UK consumer prizes rose less than expected in January, largely due to downward trends in the cost of food and household goods. We get more from Bloomberg's Lizzie Burden.
In London, inflation has unexpectedly held steady at four percent when economists thought it would rise. Core inflation was lower than economist's thought five point one percent, and even the monthly number for inflation came in at zero point six percent, so double the expected drop. So I can hear the relief from the Bank of England and I can hear it on Downing Street as well.
Bloomberg's Lizzie Burden notes the data has traders moving up bets for a rate cut from the Bank of England. The pound weakened on the news, currently trading at one point two five thirty nine against the dollar.
And back here in the US, Amy, we are coming off a tough day for stocks. The S and P five hundred fell one point three percent after hot US inflation data pushed back bets for a FED rate cut. Now the question is will the sell off continue. Jean Bouvaugh is head of black Rock Investment Institute.
The market is overreacting. That has been the story for the last eighteen months. We've seen that in December with the shocker FMC massive rally right and now that was overextended. I think that's getting corrected as we speak. But I think the broader story will be one where in fish is going to continue to trend down over the next few months.
We're going to see CODs.
Jehan Bovana brought black Rock Investment Institute still sees a soft landing insight. This morning, US futures are signaling a rebound from yesterday's losses.
Now some stots on the move.
This morning.
Shares of Airbnb are down about five percent in early trading. Earnings from the company initially came in strong, but Airbnb says overall demand is coming down in the current quarter. It notes this quarter last year was especially strong thanks to revenge travel coming off the pandemic. Now, Airbnb says demand is starting to normalize.
And shares of Lift are living up to their name. This morning, amy they're up about fifteen and a half percent in the pre market. The right hailing company posted earnings in line with estimates and issued a forecast that was better than expected. Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett has the details.
It shows efforts to boost ridership are paying off. The company said gross bookings, which represent the total value of transactions invoice to writers, will be about three and a half to three point six billion dollars in the first three months of the year. Analysts we're expecting three point four to eight billion on average. Lift has struggled to compete with large arrival Uber, and the two have spent fiercely to recruit and retain enough drivers to meet demand, which has bounced back after a plunge during the pandemic in New York. Charlie Pellet Bloomberg Radio.
Thank you, Charlie. We also have news on the world's second richest man. We are learning Jeff Bezo sold another two billion dollars of Amazon shares on top of the two billion dollars of chares he sold last week. Regulatory filings show the sales took place over just four trading days. Shares of Amazon are up eleven percent so far this year.
Now, let's get a look at some of the stories making news in New York and around the world with Bloomberg'smichael bar Good morning, Michael.
Good morning, Nathan. The cleanup continues from yesterday snowstorm that hit the Tri State area. People have been out shoveling heavy snow. The New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tish had a message for residents in a news conference last night.
The temperatures are going to go down below freezing and we could have flash freezes on the sidewalks. We want those sidewalks safe.
Audio courtesy of ABC seven New York City schools put about a million school kids on remote learning, but there were technical issues throughout the day. This woman had trouble getting her sons online.
If you weren't logged into your account by the time that they started having problems, you couldn't get in.
Central Park officially recorded three point two inches of snowfall In upstate New York, Warwick got thirteen point four. More than three thousand flights were canceled or delayed at Northeast Airports. In Brooklyn, a seventy four year old woman died after she was struck by falling bricks from a brownstone a thirty c A large chunk of the decorative brick facade above the entrance door fell from the three story building at sixth Avenue and fifty fourth Street. The woman was clearing snow from the steps when the facade collapsed. Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln says efforts are continuing the free Americans detained in Russia. Bloomberg's Nancy Lyons has an update.
Secretary Blincoln says he's spoken with Paul Wheelan this week. He's the former marine who is detained in Russia on charges of espionage charges that he and the US deny are intensive.
Efforts to bring Paul home continue every single day, and they will until he and Evan Gerskovitch and every other American wrongfully detained.
It's back with their loved ones.
Avan Gershkovitch is a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal who is arrested for spying. Blincoln was speaking on hostage diplomacy at the Wilson Center, a think tank for global affairs in Washington. Nancy Lyons, Bloomberg, Radio.
Tesla, and newscarp faced some of the earliest regulatory enforcement actions under New York City's closely watch pay transparency law. The city alleges the businesses ignored the rec requirement to include salary ranges in job ads or posted such wide salary bands that they did not qualify as good faith estimates. Global News twenty four hours a day and whenever you want it with the Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr. This is Bloomberg. Nathan.
Okay, Michael, thank you. Time out for the Bloomberg Sports update, brought to you by Tri State out Here's John stash Out.
Thanks Nathan. Best team in the NBA was in Brooklyn. The Celtics forty two and twelve. They got forty one points from Jason Tatum. They beat the Nets one eighteen to one.
Ten.
Seeing two teams play tonight in Boston, Knicks play tonight in Orlando. The Nick injuries continue there without their top two centers, their entire starting front court is injured, and how Dante Divincenzo's played so well if late has an injured hamstring questionable for tonight.
Nicks come off the.
Heartbreaker in Houston when the foul that the NBA admits should not have been called was called at the end of the game. The Knicks app filed the protest, but protests can't be upheld based on a miss only the misapplication of a rule on the ice Devils with three and the third one four to two at Nashville Islanders one scoreless of the shootout and lost at home to Seattle two to one. Saint John's lost that Providence seventy five seventy two. Red Storm have now dropped seven of the last nine. They stormed the court at Syracuse after an upset win over seventh rank North Carolina. In Fort Saint Lucie today, met pitchers and catchers report the big met change. A new manager at buckshow Walter Out replaced by former Yankee bench coach Carlos Mendoza. Here he was at his presser last fall.
I'm not just creating a new goalship.
People need to understand that this is a team that won one Hungred games nuts Lonigal and they started to create something special.
And I'm coming in to continue to.
Out to dot Coulture.
Nets did win one hundred and one games in twenty twenty two, but only seventy five wins last season, and they were relatively quiet in the offseason. Yankee pitchers and catchers report tomorrow and Tampa. A lot of free agents have yet to sign, but after the Joorge, Solare did sign with the Giants. He had thirty six homers last year in Miami. Johns Stanshaward Bloomberg Sports.
From coast to coast, from New York to San Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on Syrias, Exam the Bloomberg Business app in Bloomberg dot com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. The special election results are in and the margins and the House are about to get even thinner. Democrat Tom Swazi has prevailed over Republican Mazi Melissa Phillip in New York's third congressional district and the race to move past a disgraced Republican former Congressman George Santos. Bloomberg Politics contributor Geenie she Sheenzano joins us early this morning after election night in the New York Third. But I'm guessing, Genie that you weren't staying up too late to watch the results come in. Even with the polls pretty tight, it seems like it didn't take a whole lot of time for the Associated Press to call this race. So what was the decisive factor here for Tom Swase?
You know, I think the decisive factor for Suase was there were a few things. Number one is that he was able to counter this race in terms of immigration, and so much of this race focused on immigration. He was able to say to his opponent, and he was able to say to Republicans at voters that he is a moderate and that he wants to work across the aisle to deal with the issue of immigration, which, let's face it, for New Yorkers is a very big issue. One hundred and seventy thousand migrants in the city now, and so he was able to contest that. But the other thing he was able to do is he was able to say that he is somebody who they know. He's a known quality quantity rather for people on Long Island and in this New York Third District, And of course they are just out of having been served by George Santos, and so would they really want to take a chance on somebody unknown like Mazi Philip Pillup.
And of course the answer turned out to be no.
So he was also helped by the fact that he is a known quantity in that district.
When it comes to the immigration issue, Genie, I mean, it's got to resonate differently in a place like New York or the New York suburbs, like the Third District, that it does in a lot of other districts across the country. Right, So can we see this as a bell weather for the rest of the country, given how immigration might play differently in different parts of the country.
Yeah, I don't know if we can see it as a bell weather, but it does give democrats in districts like this, and there are a lot of them across the country, a map and a way forward as they contest in November, and that is not to shy away from this issue. And this was one thing Swazi did very well is he did not say, you know, oh, I'm going to give this issue to the Republicans.
He took it on. He said, close the border.
He said, due to the violence that has occurred in New York City at the hands of migrants, they should be deported. He said he would have supported that bill that came up just the other week in Congress that the Republicans shot down. And I think that is a big issue for voters, is the fact that there was a solution, and by all sort of accounts, it was everything Republicans had asked for, a really tough bipartisan immigration security bill, and they didn't go for it because it would have hurt Donald Trump at the ballot in November. And that's something Swazi raised over and over again. So those factors, I think are things that other Democrats running in purple districts can look at and use as they try to handle what's going to be a tough issue for them going forward in November.
It was interesting to hear from some voters that we spoke to saying or suggesting that they were voting for Swazi, not necessarily for him, but against Republicans the idea that they could affect abortion rights, that they could undermine democracy the way that democratic voters are seeing it. What could that say about races going forward into November.
Yeah, and that was the other thing, is this issue of abortion and democracy. You know, there was one debate in this campaign, and Mazzi Phillips struggled a bit on the issue of abortion. She was pinned down on whether she was pro choice. She is clearly personally pro life, but she was unable or unwilling to say that she disagreed with the decision. And Dobbs she did say that it is a woman's choice, but it was hard to pin down where.
She was on that issue.
And that's something that we've seen in the special elections that have occurred since Dobbs across the country has played well for Democrats. So between that and concerns about January sixth and the future of democracy, it's something that Democrats are going to be talking about. And you know who wasn't raised a lot in this race was Donald Trump, So he didn't become much of an issue, and of course neither did Joe Biden, who neither campaigned for Tom swase.
And who Tom Swasee even called old. So he did.
Distance himself from the unpopular president, and Donald Trump was not as much of a factor, which made this erase about what's impacting the people in New York three and the voters had a chance to think about that. Of course, we also have to say Tom Swasee may have been.
Helped by the snowstorm.
Early voting tends to help Democrats in the storm yesterday made it hard for Republicans to get out in as many numbers as they may have otherwise.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Today, your morning brief on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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I'm Nathan Hager.
And I'm Abe Morris. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak