LA Faces High Winds as Fire Battle Continues; SEC Sues Elon Musk

Published Jan 15, 2025, 10:30 AM

On today's podcast:

1) LA Faces High Winds and No Sign of Rain After Week of Flames

2) Musk Accused by SEC of Cheating Twitter Holders Out of Millions

3) Big Bank Earnings Begin

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 the latest on the Los Angeles wildfires. Crews from as far away as Canada are still struggling to contain the massive blazes that broke out eight days ago. Now the same combination of high winds and low humidity that set them off in the first place is threatening the region again. LA Mayor Karen Bass says the next twenty four to forty eight hours will be critical.

If you are told that you are in a warning zone.

It would be advised that you actually take that opportunity to leave, get packed, get everything ready.

Mayor Karen Bass says she's issued directives to help fast track the rebuilding, but first conditions on the ground need to improve. Palisades Fire incident meteorologist Rich Thompson says they're getting there.

Critical fire re conditions, red flag warnings in effect untils six pm Wednesday evening. Now by Wednesday evening Wednesday night, I expect the critical conditions to diminish, and then for Thursday into the weekend, we're actually get back to a more normal weather powder here for this part of the country.

As it stands now, the biggest fire in the Palisades is eighteen percent contained. The Eton Fire, which destroyed much of Altadena, is under thirty five percent containment. The death toll remains at twenty four Estimates of insured losses running as high as forty billion dollars well Nathan.

The fires are also threatening to make the Los Angeles housing crisis even worse. Before the fires, only about five percent of LA apartments were vacant, with the median rent of twenty two hundred ninety nine dollars. Now more than twelve thousand buildings have been destroyed, many of them homes. One rental company that manages some of LA's priciest neighborhood says it's getting more than ten times as many calls as it did before the fires. The firm recently arranged a twelve month lease for one tenant in Beverly Hills for thirty five thousand dollars. A month after the fires, the owner raised the rent to forty thousand.

Now to the latest on efforts for a truce in the Middle East, Israel and Hamas are now accusing one another of delaying a Gaza ceasefire aimed at exchanging hostages for prisoners and sending aid to the beleaguered Palestinian territory. While officials say an agreement for a six week pause in fighting is still likely soon, frequent failures to get a deal finalized have left everyone saying nothing is being taken for granted. CBS News previously reported that Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to a ceasefire at.

The Atlantic Council.

Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln said he thinks they're close.

I believe we will get a ceasefire, and whether we get there in the remaining days of our administration or after January twentieth, I believe the deal will follow closely the terms of the agreement that President Biden put forward last May, and our administration rallied the world behind.

Secretary Blincoln added, the sides are discussing a pause to allow for the exchange of hostages and a boost in aid. During the truce, Israel and Hamas will start a second, more serious round of indirect negotiations about ending the war and rebuilding the territory.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Washington President elect Donald Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hankseth, appears on course to win confirmation after a half day Senate hearing. Bloomberg's Amy Morris is in Washington and has more on the heated hearing.

New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand questioned hag Seth's position on women in the military.

You will have to change how you see women to do this job well, and I don't know if you are capable of that.

And Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Caine questioned hag Seth's character.

You had just fathered a child two months before by a woman that was not your wife.

Senat Armed Services Committee chair, Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi showed his support for the nominee.

I'm confident that mister Hegseth, supported by a team of experienced top officials, will get the job done.

Hag Seth himself laid out his objective for the Pentagon if he's confirmed. When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. Hag Seth does not need Democrats to win confirmation. But he can't lose more than three Republicans in Washington. Amy Moore as Bloomberg Radio.

Amy, thanks. Turning to the economy now, A day after we learned US wholesale inflation unexpectedly cooled in December, we get another reading this morning. Consumer prices are forecasts to have risen four tenths of one percent last month. Let's get a preview from Bloomberg's Michael McKee.

The change in the consumer price index usually doesn't match the change in producer prices, so yesterday's surprisingly tame PPI report probably tells us very little about what we'll see today. Investors and Fed officials will be watching housing costs, in particular, after housing inflation finally appeared to start cooling in November. If that continues, it's good news for the inflation outlook. Also under scrutiny used cars, food and energy, and airline fares. Nothing but a huge miss high or low would get Fed officials to consider changing their plan to hold rate steady at their January meeting. Michael McKee, Bloomberg Radio.

All right, Michael, thank you.

Well.

On Wall Street, big bank earnings begin with Goldman Sachs City Group JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. This morning, we get more on what to expect from Goldman with Bloomberg Intelligence senior Global Banks analyst Allison Williams.

Ohman sachs they may post the strongest EPs growth compared to a year ago, as well as Morgan Stanley. Both of the banks are focused on the capital markets business, but Goldman is also benefiting from a honed focus. Much of the changes that they made last year have helped them sort of return to their core institutional strength, and we expect that they're going to show benefit from those trends as well as momentum into the first quarter, especially for their leading equities trading revenue as well as the M and A business.

Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Global Banks analyst Allison Williams expects Goldman earnings at seven thirty am Wall Street Time.

Well Karen Elon Musk is being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency is accusing Musk of failing to timely disclose a major purchase of Twitter shares before he took over the social media platform. We get more from Bloomberg's Megan Howard.

The agency is alleging that Musk waited to disclose his acquisition of Twitter shares in order to build his position at lower prices. They are also saying that must deliberately ignored a deadline to publicly disclose that he acquired more than a five percent stake in the company early in twenty twenty two, and this is actually something that he had previewed in a letter last month. So the agency has officially filed that lawsuit in federal court as of today.

And Bloomberg's Megan Howard says the SEC is seeking a civil penalty and for Musk to return profits made from his stock purchases.

Well. Nathan Elon musk Space company SpaceX has had another landmark launch three two one Dignition and John go Hi Bay, a Falcon nine rocket with a pair of commercial satellites on board, took off from the Kennedy Space Center overnight. Both the satellites are carrying lunar rovers heading into the private sector moon race. One from Texas based Firefly Aerospace is named Blue Ghost. It'll attempt at moon landing in forty five days. The other is owned by Tokyo's Eye Space. The Hakuto R probe will try for its second trip to the Moon after a field attempt last April. 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 John Tucker. John, Good morning, Yeah, Good.

Morning, Karen. New York Governor Kathy Hochel proposing a middle class tax cut. Let's get more in the story. This morning from Bloomberg's Charlie pellan.

Word came in her State of the State address, focusing on pocketbook concerns.

First, I'm calling for a sweeping middle class tax cut.

Benefiting eight point three million.

Taxpayers making less than three d and twenty three two thousand dollars.

The speech outlined a range of proposals aimed at reducing the cost of living in one of the most expensive states while expanding social services and reducing crime in New York, Charlie Bloomberg radios.

Were this morning that Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine. The AP reports that force Ukraine to introduce preventative power cuts in the middle of winter. South Korean investigators arrested President yunsukiel today after launching a pre dawn operation to bring the impeached leader in for questioning. This comes over his short lived martial law declaration, and TikTok reportedly plans has shut off its app for US users on Sunday. That's the day it'll be banned unless the Supreme Court intervenes. Where the enormity of the destruction in southern California has quickly snuffed out all festiveness in the movie industry's high season of celebration. The Oscars remain as scheduled, but it's certain they'll be transformed due to the wildfires. Some telethon like element also seems sure to accompany the Oscars In recent days, many throughout the industry a voice suggestions for how that broadcast could be reconsidered. Global news twenty four hours a day, whenever you want it with Bloomberg News.

Now.

I'm John Tucker and this is Bloomberg.

Karen.

All right, John Tucker, thank you time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update, brought to you by Tri State Outie. Here's John Stashaur, John, Good morning.

Good morning, Karen.

It was forty years ago that Saint John's and Georgetown played at the Garden, one of the most hyped college basketball games ever. They were ranked one two in the country. The Hoyas won that game. They'd hardly won the previous three seasons, a Big East record of four and fifty eight, but they're much better this season and at MSG Georgetown had a fourteen point lead early in the second half, Saint John's responded a nineteen to two run to win sixty three point fifty eight. Coach of the Red Storm, Rick Patino was on NBC for you.

Don't have a great night, they come back and win. It tells you who you are and what you're all about. And these guys were about winning and that's all that counts. They came out and said, don't worry about it. We're gonna get a single digits, will win this game.

And see John's now fifteen and three, six and one of the Big East. Auburn's ranked number one, which is the second time ever Tigers meet Mississippi State. By twenty two, they're sixteen and one. Third ranked. Duke now seventeen and two, beat Miami by thirty five the Nets, but just their fifth win since November one, thirty two to one to fourteen in Portland. Nick's play tonight in Philadelphia. They may be without Karl Anthony Towns. He hurt his thumb in the game. This past Monday, all three New York hockey teams lost. Rangers at Colorado three two in overtime. The Acid tie the game of the minute. Thirteen left Islanders got shut out by Ottawa two nothing. The Devil's lost to Florida two to one in the shootout. First place Capitals three nothing went over. Anaheim Bruins beat Tampa Bay six to two. Round to the Australian Open saw a second straight four set victory for the ten time champion Novak Djocovis. Carlos Alca has lost only five games straight set wins for the women's top seed, Arena Sablanca as well as Jess Pagoula and Coco Got. The second week of TGL That's Tomorrow's Golf League played indoors, some real, some simulated. Tiger Woods one of the founders, and he played not all that well. Tiger's team lost the fifty hole match twelve to one. Johns Dashieller, Bloomberg Sports Karen Nathan.

Coast to Coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius.

XM, and around the world on Bloomberg dot Com and the Bloomberg Business app.

This is Bloomberg Daybreak.

Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. Another morning with little led up to the dangerous weather that has fueled the Los Angeles wildfires for more than a week. Now, even more challenging conditions are in the forecast for today and the warning from La Mayor Karen Bass.

We are not out of this crisis yet.

We still have another twenty four to forty eight hours and so Angelino's please be safe.

Joining us now for the update Bloomberg News Senior editor Bill Ferries. So, Bill, where do things stand now? What kind of conditions are we expecting today?

Good morning, Good morning, Nathan.

Yeah, there's really been no reprieve for residents of Los Angeles, southern California or the firefighters out still battling these blazes. With those Santa Ana wins continuing to gust up to sixty miles an hour.

There were some.

New fires that started over the last day. Firefighters were largely able to contain or extinguish those. But when you're talking about the two main fires, they eat and fire that's only thirty five percent contained still, and the Palisades fire even in worse shape eighteen percent contained, so a lot of work still ahead. There is some hope that humidity levels at least will be picking up later in the week and maybe the winds dying down a little bit. That's important in terms of helping the vegetation not become quite as dry. But there are already some concerns about weather winds might be picking up about a week from now when the weather conditions shift again. So still very tough time. You've got eighty eighty eight thousand residents under evacuation orders and two million people in that region facing extreme fire conditions.

Wow, and it sounds as though the resources that are being put to bear against these fires are really overwhelming now firefighters from as far away as Mexico and Canada. Is there still a question about whether there's enough resources going into this.

It seems an issue of the resources than just the scale of the of what they're facing at this point. It's you know, it's really the conditions are really not favorable to the firefighters at this point. It haven't been. You have these strong winds continuing to blow. Those can really fueling those fires and keep them kind of moving along. So it's less it seems less an issue with the resources, whether it's personnel or water, than just the kind of the huge, the huge conditions that they are up against at this point.

Just as shift gears. Another major story I know you're following is this Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that Elon Musk is now facing over his disclosures ahead of the Twitter buyout. Is this the kind of case that we were expecting the SEC to make against Musk, given that he's really been under scrutiny for quite some time now.

Yeah.

I mean, Musk did provide a hint of this in December when he released a letter he had received from the SEC. It's really hard to know whether this is kind of more of a symbolic parting shot by the outgoing Bided administration and the SEC chief, or whether it will really have an impact. I mean, the crux of their argument is that Musk, when he was he passed this five percent ownership threshold in Twitter in late March twenty twenty two, that he did not let the public let investors know as quickly as he should have that he was becoming a large stakeholder in the company in that time. When that information wasn't public, he continued to buy hundreds of millions of dollars in shares. If investors had known Elon Musk was there doing that, they probably would have gotten a higher price. That's what the SEC is saying, that investors were built of about one hundred and fifty million dollars. But whether that case is something that goes forward in the next administration when you have a new SEC share, that's something we're going to have to wait and find out.

This is Bloomberg Day Break, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.

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And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg debray