Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Yellen warns Congress

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the department will begin taking special accounting maneuvers on Jan. 19 to avoid breaching the US debt limit, urging lawmakers to boost the ceiling to avert a devastating payments default.“The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty,” Yellen wrote in a letter to bipartisan congressional leaders Friday. Still, “it is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June,” she said. The letter kicks off what is likely to be a prolonged, intense political battle over US fiscal policy, a showdown that could strain financial markets and elevate dangers for an economy already facing the risk of recession. Economists expect the Treasury will run out of cash around August if the debt ceiling isn’t boosted. —Natasha Solo-Lyons

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called the firm’s botched acquisition of college financial-planning website Frank “ a huge mistake” and vowed to share takeaways at a later date. “I’ll tell you the lessons learned here when this thing is out of litigation,” Dimon said Friday on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings. 

Jamie Dimon. Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

Stocks closed at the highest in a month as data showed a decline in inflation expectations and big banks rebounded from losses driven by worrisome outlooks. Treasuries retreated. Here’s your markets wrap.

Three months after Goldman Sachs carved out a new division to house what’s left of its once-ambitious foray on Main Street, it’s giving shareholders a clearer look at those financials. The collection of businesses—including Goldman’s Apple Card—now packaged into the segment dubbed Platform Solutions racked up more than $1.2 billion in pretax losses in last year’s first nine months, with the drop accelerating every quarter. 

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces captured the salt-mining town of Soledar, northeast of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after weeks of intense fighting, even as Kyiv said its troops were still engaged in a battle there. It would be the first victory for Kremlin troops in months. A CNN team in the area witnessed Ukrainian troops withdrawing in an organized pullback. 

Former President Donald Trump’s argument that a New York law allowing older sexual-assault claims violated his constitutional rights was rejected by a judge as “absurd.” US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Friday denied Trump’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed under the new law in November by former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges Trump raped her more than two decades ago.

Donald Trump. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

In just over three weeks, seaborne deliveries of diesel from the European Union’s single biggest external supplier will be all but banned. Who will step in to plug this enormous supply gap? And, will there be enough? Is the bloc sleepwalking into a fuel crisis?

Year-end earnings reports from the biggest US banks met less-than-enthusiastic receptions on Wall Street, amid signs that a shakier economy lies ahead. Beats on revenue and profit didn’t do much to impress investors because forecasts for some key metrics came in worse than expected, and all of the lenders put aside more money to cover loans that might go bad. In most cases, the sums were more than analysts had reckoned.

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

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Welcome to tax season, TikTok edition. A viral video this week from content creator Kaeli Mae featured her aesthetically pleasing set-up for tax filing: making an iced coffee, arranging highlighters, organizing a giant pile of receipts. Captioned “prepare my 2022 taxes with me,” the video has currently been viewed 4.8 million times and has nearly 1 million likes. For a generation that uses TikTok for socializing and keeping up with news and trends, turning to the site is second nature, even for tax advice.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Evening Briefing will return on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

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