Bloomberg News Now
White House May Open Homebuilders Probe, Benghazi Suspect Arrested, More
06 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morris. Trump administration officials are exploring opening an antitrust investigation into U.S. homebuilders to tackle the country's housing affordability crisis. The Department of Justice could open the probe in the coming weeks with a potential focus on how information is shared through the leading Builders of America trade group.
The administration's interest in homebuilders comes as the cost of buying a home is at its most expensive in decades, with the industry facing high levels of unsold homes. Right now, shares of D.R. Horton are down more than 2%. Lennar shares are down about 2%. Attorney General Pam Bondi says a suspect in the September 2012 terrorist attack on U.S.
diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, has been arrested and is in U.S. custody. FBI Director Kash Patel. Our Special Flight Operations Unit and countless others, along with the agents in the New York field office who never forgot Benghazi and never let the world forget it, Patel says foreign partners aided in the arrest. He did not give any more details.
Attorney General Bondi says Zubair al-Bukhsh has been extradited to the U.S. and will face murder, arson and terrorism-related charges. Iran says it has agreed with the U.S. to continue indirect talks to de-escalate tensions. Iran's foreign minister says discussions were limited to nuclear issues, while U.S.
officials say they should include Iran's missiles and Tehran's support for regional militias. Will Todman is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
They have sent signals that they're prepared to make some concessions on the nuclear file, but they do not want to broaden the talks to other issues.
Tehran described the first day of talks as positive. We're watching a rally in tech stocks after a drawdown all week as stock buyers go bargain hunting.
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Chapter 2: What are the current challenges in the U.S. housing market?
Let's check the markets. We do it for you all day long here at Bloomberg. The S&P 500 up 1.6%. NASDAQ up 1.8%. The Dow up more than 2% now. The 10-year Treasury yield at 4.21%, the 2-year yield at 3.49%. Bitcoin a little more than 10% higher now, reclaiming almost all of yesterday's losses. It's now up to $69,000.
Amazon shares are nearly 7% lower after the e-commerce and cloud computing companies much higher than expected $200 billion annual capital spending forecast. Underlined concerns about how much big tech companies are spending on AI-related investments. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America all boosted their bonus pools for bankers and traders by at least 10%.
The payouts reflect a strong year for the nation's largest banks, which collectively posted their largest annual profit since 2021. Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has improved to its highest level in six months. The University of Michigan survey shows a bump to 57.3%. That's up from 56.4%.
Survey director Joanne Xu tells Bloomberg TV those numbers are still too low, reminding everyone that before the pandemic, those survey numbers were in the 90s.
Overall, we're still actually in the bottom decile of readings, historically speaking. So this is still very, very low levels of sentiment. Consumers are very much worried about weakening labor markets as well as the percentage of the high prices.
Consumers did have less concern about the short-term inflation outlook. BlackRock CIO of Global Fixed Income Rick Reeder says the government shutdown delayed jobs numbers. That created something of a muddy picture. But he says some things are still crazy.
crystal clear. Look at the JOLTS report. Look at the Challenger job cuts. You look at the claims data. You look at the ISM services in terms of jobs. There's no ambiguity around where we are in the job market. We're having a really tough time. We're watching productivity explode higher in terms of growth being really good. But a job market, that's really tricky.
Reeder was on Bloomberg Open Interest.
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Chapter 3: Who has been arrested in connection with the Benghazi attack?
Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic says it's important to keep interest rates at a level that returns inflation to 2%.
Once inflation gets entrenched in people's minds, it changes how the economy evolves. And it's one of the reasons why I think that we need to keep our policy in a restrictive posture so that we get inflation back to 2%. That's paramount. High prices and the prospect of rising prices really do have a lot of families on the edge.
Bostick, who is set to step down from his role at the end of the month, spoke to Bloomberg TV's Mike McKee in an exclusive interview. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson says he's cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the economy.
I expect the disinflationary process to resume this year. once increased tariffs pass through more fully to prices. In addition, projected strong productivity growth may be a source of further help in bringing inflation down to our 2% target.
Jefferson told an event in Washington that with the Fed strongly committed to returning inflation to its target, the risk of a one-time shift leading to sustained inflation is likely to be low. A racist post on President Trump's social media account depicting former President Obama and his wife Michelle as primates in a jungle has been taken down.
The White House initially defended the post, but it was deleted after widespread backlash. Black and white Republicans joined civil rights advocates in criticizing the post as racist. Savannah Guthrie's brother has renewed the family's plea for their mother's kidnapper to contact them, saying, quote, we want to hear from you and they need proof that she's alive.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says the FBI is helping and she's asked for prayers.
Breaks my heart for Savannah and for her family. I know she's asked for all of our prayers. So please pray for her. Pray for her beautiful mom. Pray for her family. that she's returned home.
Authorities have not identified any suspects or persons of interest in the kidnapping of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. The FBI is offering up to $50,000 for information. That's news when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morris and this is Bloomberg.
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