Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Still not enough

US President Joe Biden now finds himself waging a war for reelection on two fronts: against Donald Trump and, more immediately, some skeptics in his own party. “I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I allay fears,” the Democrat said in a news conference Thursday after a high-stakes meeting with NATO members in Washington. To the press, Biden gave a forceful take on his policies and displayed a deep command of foreign policy. But with the media klieg light focused on every slip of the tongue, two prominent gaffes that day were seized on by opponents as more evidence the 81-year-old president should step back. Biden met later that evening with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who said only that he “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward” from fellow House Democrats. 

US President Joe Biden at a news conference during the NATO Summit in Washington on Thursday Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg

So far, about 20 Democratic members of the House and one Democratic senator, Peter Welch of Vermont, have publicly called for Biden to drop out of the race against the 78-year-old Trump. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to ignore Biden’s repeated statements that he isn’t going anywhere, urging him to decide “because time is running short.” New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer meanwhile said Biden was “on good form.” A key problem for Biden is that no single “good” performance seems able to push off the unending news media focus on his disjointed debate more than two weeks ago, let alone turn it on his twice-impeached opponent, who when it comes to foreign policy, threatened to both leave NATO and urge Russia to attack members who don’t spend enough on defense. If there is to be a change for Biden, the clock is ticking on any effort—difficult by definition—to find another Democratic standard bearer in time. And of course, Biden probably knows that.

This week’s inflation print may finally be the real turning point for Wall Street’s rate-cut dreams. The so-called core consumer price index—which excludes food and energy costs—cooled broadly in June to the slowest pace since 2021 thanks in part to a long-awaited slowdown in housing costs. The data boosted bets that the Federal Reserve is about to finally kill off inflation and will be able to start lowering interest rates as soon as September. In addition to falling shelter costs, prices also decreased on airfares, cars, hotel stays and inpatient hospital care. While falling prices are a relief for consumers and were quickly hailed by the Biden administration, a potential new economic normal ushered in by the pandemic and geopolitical upheaval may mean prices won’t fall back to where they were before 2020. Meantime, the European Central Bank is expected to pause rate cuts as it tries to assess the economic pitfalls, and possible inflationary pressures, ahead for the 20-nation euro zone.

Tesla is postponing its planned robotaxi unveiling to October to allow teams working on the project more time to build additional prototypes, a blow that halted a breathless stock rally. Elon Musk’s far-right politics and the corporate culture at his companies is causing him more problems. A sexual harassment suit filed at SpaceX alleges that men at the company subjected women to crude jokes that echoed Musk’s tweets. Then, SpaceX suffered a rare failure of its Falcon 9 rocket in space, marking the first major in-flight mishap in hundreds of launches. As for Tesla, distaste for the billionaire has some EV buyers finding a Tesla alternative: Rivian, which is banking partly on anti-Musk sentiment. 

Bill Hwang was found guilty of criminal charges stemming from the 2021 collapse of his firm, Archegos Capital Management. The trial and conviction of Hwang and former Chief Financial Officer Patrick Halligan captivated Wall Street as witnesses described the chaos as Hwang’s $36 billion fortune evaporated, along with $10 billion of lenders’ money. This is what happened during the last 72 hours at Archegos. Paul J. Davies wrote in Bloomberg Opinion that the trial had two messages for banks: “Something like this should never happen again, and there’s no way to guarantee this will never happen again.”

Bill Hwang Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg

Swaths of Houston, America’s fourth-largest city, spent several sweltering days without power, and half a million people are expected to remain in the dark and without air conditioning into next week after being slammed by Hurricane Beryl. The city’s largest electric utility had no working outage map, so some residents relied on the Whataburger app to see which of the fast-food chain’s restaurants were closed during business hours—presumably due to a lack of electricity. Beryl also left a trail of destruction through the Caribbean and Mexico, and its remnants caused flooding and deaths as far north as Vermont. 

International tourists are projected to spend a record €800 billion in Europe this year—that’s a 37% increase over pre-pandemic levels. Want to get there in comfort? Airlines are making significant investments in first- and business-class cabins that focus on more space and more privacy. Here are the best new premium airplane seats to look out for in the months ahead—and details on how to find them.

Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

• England plays Spain in the European Championships.
• European Central Bank meets, expected to pause on rate cuts.
• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers “King’s Speech.”
• Trump to pick a running mate as the Republican convention starts. 
• Rwandan leader Paul Kagame faces a presidential election. 

French President Emmanuel Macron’s arguably reckless decision to call a legislative election after rival Marine Le Pen’s party made gains in European Union elections didn’t result in a new far-right government. It did, however, result in a messy hung parliament that could prove challenging for governing and financial markets. This week’s Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary, How France Plunged Into Political Uncertainty, explains what Macron’s great gamble means for Europe.

Emmanuel Macron Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg

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