Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - State secrets

For the second time in just over two months, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges. In April, it was in New York and tied to an alleged payoff scheme meant to coverup damaging information ahead of the 2016 election. On Tuesday in Miami, however, it dealt with state secrets—alleged crimes committed under the US Espionage Act. The twice-impeached former president and current 2024 presidential candidate is charged with more than three dozen counts over top secret classified documents found in his home and his efforts to keep them. The historic indictment by a federal grand jury alleges Trump kept the highly sensitive papers—including nuclear and other military secrets—at his Florida mansion. If convicted, Trump could face as long as 20 years in prison.

A follower of Donald Trump was among a group of supporters and protestors outside the Miami federal courthouse Tuesday afternoon. Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg

But the path to trial and verdict will largely be dictated by a 42-year-old Trump appointee who has already shown a willingness to make unorthodox rulings in his favor. Aileen Cannon, a member of the right-wing Federalist Society whose rulings in the initial stages of the investigation were sharply criticized and overturned, was selected to preside over the Republican’s prosecution. Trump still faces potential state charges in Georgia, and the possibility of an even more serious federal prosecution in Washington. Investigations in both Atlanta and Washington are continuing. In those cases, grand juries have been reviewing allegations that he sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election and cling to power in what Congress has called an attempted coup, and that he played a role in the deadly insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. But for now, Trump is using his criminal prosecutions as a fundraising tool. He returned to his home in New Jersey Tuesday afternoon where advisers hope to raise $2 million at a gathering tonight. —Margaret Sutherlin

US inflation continues to cool, giving the Federal Reserve room to take a breather from interest-rate hikes this week. Details in a new report may even signal rising prices are coming to a full stop. Consumer prices rose 4% in May from a year earlier, the smallest advance since March 2021. Signs that used car prices and rents are coming down or stabilizing are also contributing to the slowdown in prices. Stocks climbed on the report. Here’s your markets wrap.

For six straight months, more US small businesses have been raising wages than prices. The numbers suggest small businesses have returned to the pre-pandemic status quo of trying to find ways to avoid passing on higher labor costs to consumers.

Not all the inflation news is good: El Niño is set to return for the first time in four years and its extreme heat waves, drought and stronger storms will wreak havoc on inflation and supply chains. According to Bloomberg Economics modeling, previous El Niños resulted in a marked impact on global inflation, adding 3.9 percentage points to non-energy commodity prices and 3.5 points to oil.  

El Niño is set to return for the first time in four years. Its extreme heat waves can actually contribute to inflation. Photographer: Raphael Alves/AFP

Ukraine said Russian missile strikes on an apartment building in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown killed at least 11 people and wounded 34 overnight. The area has been subject to heavy fighting as Ukraine claims it is gaining ground in its counteroffensive. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin threatened again to quit the deal that allows Ukraine to ship grain exports from Black Sea ports and said he was ramping up arms production. 

In the latest sign Xi Jinping is ready to pull big levers to boost China’s sagging economy, the country’s central bank unexpectedly cut a series of different interest rates on Tuesday. Officials are also considering a broad package of stimulus proposals, including support for real estate and domestic demand. 

Another indication that investors are moving on from crypto? Despite a more-than 50% resurgence this year for Bitcoin, price are still way below their 2021 peaks. Almost $172 million exited from global exchange-traded products tracking everything from Bitcoin to Cardano in the first six months of 2023.

The Denver Nuggets are world champions after winning the NBA finals Monday night. Denver’s win also notched the fourth championship in just 18 months for their billionaire owner. Real estate developer Stan Kroenke’s racked up victories with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche and Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids.

Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke raises the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy after the team defeated the Miami Heat Monday.  Photographer: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images North America

• A lot of millionaires are leaving China.
• Disney is delaying new movies from its Star Wars and Avatar franchises. 
• President Joe Biden met the president of Uruguay in a surprise meeting.
• The company behind Instant Pot and Pyrex filed for bankruptcy. 
• The collapse of a section of I-95 will likely raise prices on the East Coast.
• Texas’s delicate power-grid faces another test with extreme weather.
• Netflix is opening a pop-up restaurant tapping into its foodie fans.

There have been many innovations in Silicon Valley over the past decade, but for people who aspire to work in the tech industry, the most transformative may be the assembly line it developed to ingest fresh-faced summer interns and spit out highly paid software engineers. But after mass terminations and the arrival of AI, the myth of the “plentiful tech job” is no longer.  

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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