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Stocks Close Higher, Report: Trump to Call for New Form of Tax Cuts, More
24 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What factors are driving the growth of the UK as a business hub?
The UK stands apart as a place to do business, not because of one advantage, but many working together. Over Ā£10 trillion in capital, four of the world's top universities, a 10-year industrial strategy in action, its stability with dynamism, global reach with local depth. It all adds up to greater growth. Find out more at business.gov.uk slash growth.
News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morris. And there's your closing bell for this Tuesday on Wall Street where a rally in tech firms spurred a rebound in stocks. We bring you those closing numbers each day here at Bloomberg. The S&P 500 gained 52 points. NASDAQ up 236 points. The Dow gaining 371 points.
The 10-year Treasury yield at 4.03%, the 2-year yield at 3.46%, Bitcoin down 0.3%, around $64,000. And Stripe, a private company which helps businesses accept payments online, has reportedly expressed preliminary interest in all or parts of PayPal. Sources say these are early-stage deliberations.
Stripe announced earlier today that it had reached a $159 billion valuation in an employee tender offer. We'll get back to the markets just ahead, but first, a brief preview of tonight's State of the Union address. President Trump will reportedly call for a new form of personal and corporate tax cuts during tonight's speech.
Multiple news outlets attending today's White House luncheon say the president has an unconventional idea for tax cuts that he believes he can implement without congressional approval. The president is also weighing a pitch for an expansion of retirement savings accounts that could provide a tax break for those Americans who don't have an employer-sponsored 401k.
Our coverage of the State of the Union address and the Democratic response from Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger begins tonight at 8 Wall Street time on a special edition of Balance of Power with Joe Matthew and Kayleigh Lyons. Catch it on Bloomberg Radio and Television and at Bloomberg.com slash videos.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei until Friday evening to give the military unfettered access to its AI model or face harsh penalties. But sources tell Reuters that Anthropic has no plans to ease limits on military usage.
Former Defense Department Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Strategy and Policy Director Gregory Allen tells Bloomberg that this dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon comes at an awkward time.
The user base within the Department of Defense loves Anthropic, loves Claude, and says that their restrictions on usage, at least from the conversations that I have been having, have never been triggered. There has never been a time where Anthropic said no.
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Chapter 2: How did tech firms influence the stock market's closing numbers?
Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow, AMD shares gained 9% in regular trading. Fed Governor Lisa Cook warns the U.S. central bank may not be able to counter rising unemployment driven by adoption of AI. She noted it may take five to 10 years for AI's impact to appear in economy-wide productivity statistics. And she says the Fed is already incorporating AI into its forecast.
A rise in unemployment may not indicate increased slack. As such, our normal demand-side monetary policy may not be able to ameliorate an AI-caused unemployment spell without also increasing inflationary pressure.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook spoke at an event in Washington. Chicago Fed President Austin Goolsbee says the Supreme Court's decision to strike down many of President Trump's global tariffs may cause more uncertainty for businesses but could help cool inflation.
I think that the policy uncertainty, we're seeing more on the labor side. I think the low hiring, low firing environment is what you would expect when there's a lot of uncertainty. That's not really what the beginning of a recession looks like.
Goolsbee wants to see evidence that inflation is cooling to the Fed's 2% target before supporting further interest rate cuts. He also says the Fed could cut rates multiple times this year. Consumer confidence ticked up in February on more upbeat prospects for the economy, incomes, and job market. The conference board's gauge rose to 91.2. That beat expectations.
The conference board chief economist, Dana Peterson, tells Bloomberg this information was gathered before the Supreme Court struck down most of President Trump's global tariffs.
As soon as tariffs were announced or mentioned, we saw consumer confidence start to fall. And over the last, uh, you know 12 to 13 months we've seen a trend downward in confidence again because consumers do understand that tariffs can lead to inflation and higher prices for them.
Americans have been in general cautious about their job prospects and they're still dealing with an inflation hangover from the pandemic and that stands to be a major factor in this year's midterm elections.
Democratic Representative Robert Garcia is accusing the Department of Justice of withholding from disclosure files on Jeffrey Epstein related to a claim that President Trump sexually abused a minor. Garcia is the top-ranking Democrat on the House committee probing Epstein and how federal law enforcement handled the investigation.
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Chapter 3: What new tax cuts is President Trump proposing?
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