Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. job market remains a long way from a full recovery, noting that employment last month was almost 10 million jobs short of last February’s level. “Achieving and sustaining maximum employment will require more than supportive monetary policy.” While echoing President Joe Biden’s arguments in support of his $1.9 trillion Covid bailout bill, Powell also delivered a nuanced rebuttal to some Democrats (like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers) who view that relief proposal as too large. —David E. Rovella Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic globally and across America. Here are today’s top stories Supporters of Donald Trump sought to get to Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and would have killed them if they could, House impeachment managers said during the former president’s impeachment trial on Wednesday. Senators were shown graphic video, some not previously seen, of Trump supporters attacking police as they breached the Capitol. At the start of the insurrection, audio of police radio calls captured officers citing “multiple law enforcement injuries” and saying “they’re throwing metal poles at us.” Then came this message: “1349 hours. Declaring it a riot.” Here is the latest on the impeachment. Video footage from the Jan. 6 attack on Congress plays on a screen near the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 10. House impeachment managers used searing images from the deadly rampage to make their case against Donald Trump. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg One of the big questions looming over the U.S. economy is how soon the recovery from the coronavirus slump will generate inflation. In a recent Bloomberg Opinion column, Bill Dudley offered five reasons to be worried about inflation returning faster than expected. Now he sees four more. U.S. stocks notched a second straight small decline on Wednesday as investors assessed what the latest inflation fears mean for coronavirus aid. The 10-year Treasury yield fell back below 1.15% after the core consumer price index was unchanged last month. Here is your markets wrap. How much did hedge fund managers on Bloomberg’s annual list of the top 15 earners collectively make in 2020? A lot. Jim Simons added $2.6 billion to his vast wealth in 2020. His clients weren’t so fortunate. Investors in three hedge funds run by his Renaissance Technologies lost billions of dollars as the firm’s computer models were flummoxed by the market’s gyrations. Meanwhile, Simons ranked second on Bloomberg’s list of the highest-paid managers, and was the only one in the top 15 whose clients didn’t make money last year. A World Health Organization panel recommended AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for all adults over 18, paving the way to speed up inoculations in developing countries. A coronavirus variant first found in the U.K. is infecting Americans at a pace that far outstrips the original strain, which arrived last spring. Here is the latest on the pandemic. The numbers are simply astounding. Governments, corporations and other groups raised a record $490 billion last year selling green, social and sustainability bonds. A further $347 billion poured into ESG-focused investment funds—an all-time high—and more than 700 new funds were launched globally to capture the deluge of inflows. And 2021 is shaping up to be just as frothy. What you’ll need to know tomorrow Bitcoin may be hot, but can it ever be green? Biden and China President Xi Jinping have a lot to talk about. Georgia opens a criminal probe that could include Trump. The U.S. budget deficit quintupled in just one month. Citadel’s Ken Griffin is expected to testify at the GameStop hearing. Saudi Arabia freed a women’s rights activist amid U.S. scrutiny. Where’s Jack Ma? Working on his golf game at this resort.What you’ll want to read tonight in BusinessweekThink of Dr. Matt Nejad as the mouth’s Mr. Fixit. The cosmetic dentist, based in Beverly Hills, estimates 90% of his patients come to him to undo or redo another’s work—so-called revision dentistry. The problem isn’t shoddy veneers or implants, though, but cosmetic work that’s a little too evident: teeth so perfect, in other words, they don’t look natural. Photographer: Viktoria Ovcharenko/iStockphoto Photographer: Viktoria Ovcharenko/iStockphoto Like getting the Evening Briefing? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters. The Road to Net Zero: Many corporations and investors are seeking to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Join us Feb. 16 as we examine the major industries taking action, how they will finance the transition and how we can work together to achieve net zero. Sponsored by TD Bank. Register here. Download the Bloomberg app: It’s available for iOS and Android. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. Learn more. |