Kremlin Calls Russia-US Talks Constructive; Trump Sees Fed Chair Pick 'Early Next Year'

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. Let's create smarter business. IBM. Support for the show comes from public.com. If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions. Buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like, if the VIX hits 25, buy a put option on the S&P 500. Or, if my cash balance goes above $20,000, move the excess into my direct index. You approve the workflow and your agent handles the risk. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the public API. Go to public.com slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less. That's public.com slash market. Paid for by public investing. Brokred services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For mid-size and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting. risk engineering, and claims experience. Learn more at thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. Policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut. 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 push to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin held, quote, very useful talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. But once again, those discussions ended without a breakthrough to end the fighting. Tony Halpin leads Bloomberg's Russia coverage. They said there were constructive discussions, very informative. They talked about receiving more detailed documents from the US that they need to study. But there was little actual substance on which they agreed. And Kremlin policy aid, Yuri Ushikov, basically told reporters that there were crucial areas such as the territorial question on which they didn't agree and that there would be much more needed.

The administration is expected to propose standards that are less stringent than those finalized under former President Biden. The move is the latest in President Trump's push to dismantle policies he criticizes as an EV mandate. The Trump administration has argued that artificially high fuel economy requirements have pushed the price of a new car out of reach for many Americans. Still, easing fuel economy requirements is not likely to bring down car prices because carmakers plan those lineups years in advance. Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Amy, thank you. We're expecting that announcement from the president later today, but President Trump says he plans to announce his selection to lead the Federal Reserve early next year. At that cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday, the president teased White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett as his possible choice. I guess a potential Fed share is here, too. I don't know. Who is allowed to say that? Potential, he's a respected person that I can tell you. Thank you, Kevin. Now, the comments for President Trump offer a clearer timeline for that announcement, which he said would come after considering around 10 candidates. Well, Nathan, we turn to the markets where futures are higher again following yesterday's gains on Wall Street. The S&P 500 has rallied for more than a week on an expected rate cut one week from today. Laura Cooper is a global investment strategist at Newveen. Historically, we do tend to see December as a strong month of outperformance for U.S. equities. And I think we're probably in for some modest upside. But I think there's limited scope for significant gains because lot of the driver of recent price action has been that repricing of the Fed rate cuts it's expected next week. New beans Laura Cooper says the Fed's outlook on future rate cuts will be key for the markets. In some company news this morning, Karen, we're watching shares of CrowdStrike. They're down about 2% in early training. The cybersecurity provider did top earnings estimates, but its outlook disappointed some investors. CrowdStrike was up 51% this year before that earnings release. And looking at the flip side, Nathan shares of Marvell technology. They're up about 10%. The company announced plans to acquire startup Celestial AI for at least $3.5 billion. It's part of Marvell's push to capture more of the runaway spending on artificial intelligence computing. Bitcoin's trading at a two-week high this morning, Karen. Right now up about 1.6% at 93,000 cryptocurrency seeking a sustained recovery from a weeks-long sell-off that began in early October. October, days after Bitcoin hit a record of more than $126,000, since then, more than a trillion dollars in crypto market value has been wiped out. We have a warning here, Nathan, from the SEC. It has issued a flurry of letters to firms, including direction, pro shares, and title. blocking the introduction of products designed to deliver two or three times the daily returns of stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. The SEC's concern is that the fund's risk exposures may exceed the agency's limits on how much risk a fund can take on relative to its assets. The regulator has directed the fund managers to either revise their investment strategies or formally withdraw their applications. And it is an unprecedented philanthropic effort, Karen. Dell Technologies founder Michael

Dell and his wife Susan are giving 25 million American children $250 each to jumpstart investment accounts for their future. That adds up to $6.25 billion, a pledge that's part of the Invest America Initiative, better known as Trump accounts that were created earlier this year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Michael Dell discussed the pledge in a Bloomberg interview. We do think that this will be catalytic and that more philanthropists and companies will join us over time. And again, this is a platform for the future of these children. And you can watch our full interview with Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell at the Bloomberg podcast channel 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, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning. Good morning, Karen. The cleanup continues in the Midwest and northeast from a snowstorm. In Nashville, New Hampshire, the city's street department, has been working to keep the roads clear of snow. This man was out driving and found things a bit difficult. It was raining, so the roads were already wet, and then the snow just came up on top of it. So you can't really see the black ice. New York City just got rain, but the central Hudson River Valley got about nine inches of snowfall. The Pennsylvania police officer who arrested accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione appeared in a New York City court. Officer Joseph Detweiler testified on day two of Mangione's hearing to bar New York prosecutors from using evidence they say links him to the murder of United Helgiore. Health Care CEO Brian Thompson on Manhattan Street. Officer Deadweiler testified. He was skeptical about the tip, about a male who looks like the shooter. But as soon as the man pulled down his max, the officer said, I knew it was him immediately. Deadweiler said Mangione gave him a fake name, an ID, and claimed he was homeless. The Trump administration says it will withhold funds for administering SNAP food aid in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide data about those receiving the assistance. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the action is looming because those states are refusing to provide requested information about the recipients, including their names, and immigration status. But 21 states, including California, New York, and Minnesota, Blue State. continue to say no. Brooke Rollins says it's necessary that states comply to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement. 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 Stash Hour. Thanks, Karen. On Sunday, we'll find out who's going to the college football playoff. The committee says that as of now, there'll be five SEC teams, three from the Big Ten, and the buys go to Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia, and Texas Tech. Kalani Sataki decided to stay at BYU, rather than take the job at Penn State. Oklahoma City Thunder with a 124-12 win at Golden State. Shea Gilgilded's Alexander.

scored 38 points, the thunder, the defending NBA champs, off to a 21-1 star. That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this. Support for the show comes from public.com. If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions, buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like, if the VIX hits 25, buy a put option on the S&P 500. Or, if my cash balance goes above $20,000, move the excess into my direct index. You approve the workflow and your agent handles the risk. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the public API. Go to public.com slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less. That's public.com slash market. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokridge services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. 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. Let's create smarter business, IBM. Let's talk about health care for a second. It doesn't always work the way people expect it to. If you've ever waited on a prescription refill or had a hard time getting the care you needed, you know the feeling. The system should just work better for everyone. That's exactly what the people at Optum are trying to do every day. They're a health care company linking patient care and pharmacy services and using data and technology to drive the whole system. So care is connected, not complicated, for patients and providers. Things like making it easier to get care that looks at the whole person, from primary care doctors to mental health support and even in-home care, and then using technology to make sure they all work together. Technology designed to help doctors spend less time on busy work and more time with their patients. And those prescriptions? Optum is working to bring costs down, save patients' money, and make it easier to get refills. Little by little, Optum is helping make health care work as one for everyone. Head to business.optim.com to see how.

Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on SiriusXM, and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg business app. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. Very useful, very informative. Those are some of the words the Kremlin is using to describe the latest talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Envoy's Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says he's waiting to hear the results. If I feel that we can count on real. specific dialogue, not just worse, with some result we will meet. That was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking in Ireland ahead of the nearly five-hour talks in Moscow. Joining us for more is Bloomberg opinion columnist Mark Champion. Mark, good morning. Did we hear real specific action coming out of those talks? Good morning. Good morning. No. In essence, the message, all that we know about the talks that so far has come from the Russian side. One of President Vladimir Putin's advisors explained what went on. And his message essentially was, you know, this was good, we liked it. But there was no progress. We looked at the plan that the Americans had, the altered plan that's been, you know, made sense. The Russian-American plan was initially put forward. We looked at the altered plan. But we were focused really on the kind of spirit of the deal. didn't get into the nitty-gritty and there's stuff in there. Some of it we might be able to accept some of the changes, but some big key things that we are not and we see quite negatively. So, you know, it's pretty clear there won't be a big summit between Trump and Vladimir Putin to announce a deal anytime soon. Whether this can actually move forward. It really depends on how the Americans play it and whether there was any sign of real movement from the Russians because that initial deal with the 28 points that the Russians still like to sort of lean on, that one was really poison for the Ukrainian side and for their European allies. And we've heard from President Volodymyr Zelensky on X this morning saying his defense secretary, Rustam Umarov, is going to meet with national security advisors to European leaders in Brussels today following these discussions. Where is Europe in all this, Mark? Well, I mean, they are important in the sense that Ukraine, you know, they're only, Ukraine's only true allies at this point. The U.S. is, you know, posed itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, which means it's distance itself from supporting Ukraine. And it also has its own interest. So you can see that, you know, threaded through those 28 points. It's, you know, there are American profits to be made, American deals to be made. If you look at who is negotiating the deal on behalf of the Americans, it's a real estate developer, Steve Williams.

Steve Witkoff, and then Jared Kushner, who is, you know, a son-in-law to the president, but also primarily a businessman. And a lot, you know, on the other side, for the Russian side, one of the key players in negotiating key partner for Steve Witkoff has been Kirill Demetria, who runs the Russian sovereign wealth fund. So this is, you know, the Americans are trying to negotiate a deal that resets relations in a way that's economically beneficial. official to the U.S. The Ukrainian issue for them is secondary. It needs to get dealt with, but it isn't actually the primary issue for the Americans. It remains the primary issue for Europe because Ukraine is a vital security interest for the Europeans just because of geography. 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 991 in Washington, Bloomberg 929 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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