
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily: Musk Ally Out At NASA
President Donald Trump said he would name a new nominee for NASA administrator, just days before billionaire Jared Isaacman, the current pick and a close ally of Elon Musk, was to face his planned Senate confirmation vote. It wasn't immediately clear why Trump was dropping the nomination of Isaacman, who had already been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee. Trump posted on Truth Social that he made the decision after a 'thorough review of prior associations.' Bloomberg News Space Reporter Loren Grush details the fallout from Trump's decision and discusses what comes next for the space agency.
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29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Treasury Yields Slide as ADP Data Flash Signs of Softening Jobs
(Bloomberg) -- Treasury yields slid on Wednesday as a fresh dose of data on the health of the US labor market signaled more softening, emboldening traders' view that the Federal Reserve will resume cutting interest rates later this year. The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract NYC Residents Want Safer Streets, Cheaper Housing, Survey Says ADP Research data showed hiring decelerated to the slowest pace in two years in May, putting traders on alert that Friday's key non-farm payrolls figures could also show labor conditions weakening. The data drew a swift response from US President Donald Trump, stating in a social media post that the Fed needs to cut interest rates, a demand he's made before. The two-year Treasury yield — most sensitive to changes in Fed policy — fell as much as four basis points to a low of 3.91%. Rates on long-maturity US government debt saw the biggest declines, with the 30-year bond rate down six basis points at 4.92%. Swaps traders are pricing in two quarter-point interest rate reductions before the end of 2025, with the first move seen most likely coming in October. 'This is a leading indicator into what we think is going to happen in Friday payrolls,' Jim Caron, a chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said on Bloomberg Television. 'It does make the Fed probably have to step up and look. The thing they are worried about the most is a softening in the jobs market.' Ahead of the Wednesday data, traders were ramping up bets that hedged against dramatic shifts in the Fed's rate path as questions about the economic impact of the Trump administration's evolving policies persist. Friday's figures are forecast to show employers added 130,000 new workers in May, a stepdown from the prior-month increase of 177,000. The unemployment rate is predicted to remain steady at 4.2%, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. 'We are looking at the unemployment rate given it's more of a clear signal,' Molly Brooks McGown, US rates strategist TD Securities, said on Bloomberg Television. An upward move in the unemployment rate to 4.5% — from the current 4.2% — would see the 'Fed get more concerned,' Brooks McGown said. That would 'probably' make most investors more comfortable with the Fed stepping in, she said. --With assistance from Edward Bolingbroke and Michael Mackenzie. YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Germans Are Buying More Electric Cars, but Not Teslas
Tesla sales in Germany dropped in May for the fifth month in a row, as demand for the electric vehicle maker continued to slide across much of Europe, despite Elon Musk's efforts to turn his focus away from his U.S. government activities and back to his companies. Registrations of new Tesla cars in Germany, Europe's largest car market, dropped more than a third compared with the same month last year, data released from the country's Federal Motor Transport Authority, K.B.A., showed on Tuesday. Tesla sales in other European countries have also remained depressed, falling more than 67 percent in France and 29 percent in Spain in May. Only Norway stood out as an exception, with Tesla selling 2,600 cars in May, more than triple the number sold in the same month last year. Sales were led by deliveries of Tesla's newly revamped version of its most popular vehicle, the Model Y. In neighboring Sweden, Volkswagen sold nearly twice as many of its latest electric model, the ID.7, as the new Model Y from Tesla, whose overall sales in the country dropped 53 percent. Mr. Musk has tried to downplay the extent of Tesla's losses in Europe, telling Bloomberg News in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum that although it was the region where the brand faces its greatest challenges, 'The European car market is quite weak.' But data from European markets does not support that claim. In Germany, sales of battery-powered cars grew nearly 45 percent in May, compared with the year prior. In Spain, overall sales of electric cars grew 72 percent, while Tesla sales slid 19 percent. In Germany, demand for BYD, Tesla's main E.V. rival, rose ninefold, the strongest showing of an electric vehicle producer from China. The company, which overtook Tesla as the world's top seller of electric cars earlier this year, has been making inroads in Europe, despite facing tariffs of 17 percent imposed by the European Union in 2024. Although Mr. Musk has left his role at the White House, Tesla sales have been affected by his foray into politics. In April, the company reported that its vehicle sales fell 13 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, as profit plunged to its lowest level in four years. The company has been hurt by protests against Mr. Musk's support for President Trump and several far-right parties in France, Germany and Italy.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Huge planet discovered orbiting tiny star puzzles scientists
Astronomers announced Wednesday they have discovered a massive planet orbiting a tiny star, a bizarre pairing that has stumped scientists. Most of the stars across the Milky Way are small red dwarfs like TOI-6894, which has only 20 percent the mass of our Sun. It had not been thought possible that such puny, weak stars could provide the conditions needed to form and host huge planets. But an international team of astronomers have detected the unmistakable signature of a gas giant planet orbiting the undersized TOI-6894, according to a study in the journal Nature Astronomy. This makes the star the smallest star yet known to host a gas giant. The planet has a slightly larger radius than Saturn, but only half its mass. It orbits its star in a little over three days. The astronomers discovered the planet when searching through more than 91,000 low-mass red dwarfs observed by NASA's TESS space telescope. Its existence was then confirmed by ground-based telescopes, including Chile's Very Large Telescope. "The fact that this star hosts a giant planet has big implications for the total number of giant planets we estimate exist in our galaxy," study co-author Daniel Bayliss of the UK's Warwick University said in a statement. Another co-author, Vincent Van Eylen, of University College London, said it was an "intriguing discovery". "We don't really understand how a star with so little mass can form such a massive planet!" he said. "This is one of the goals of the search for more exoplanets. By finding planetary systems different from our solar system, we can test our models and better understand how our own solar system formed." - How do you make a planet? - The most prominent theory for how planets form is called core accretion. The process begins when a ring of gas and dust -- called a protoplanetary disc -- which surrounds a newly formed star builds up into a planetary core. This core attracts more gas that forms an atmosphere, eventually snowballing into a gas giant. Under this theory, it is difficult for low-mass stars to host giant planets because there is not enough gas and dust to begin building a core in the first place. A rival theory proposes that these planets instead form when their protoplanetary disc becomes gravitationally unstable and breaks up, with the collapsing gas and dust forming a planet. However neither theory seems to explain the existence of the newly discovered planet, TOI-6894b, the researchers said. The planet also interests scientists because it is strangely cold. Most of the gas giants discovered outside our Solar System so far have been what are known as "hot Jupiters", where temperatures soar well over 1,000 degrees Celsius. But the newly discovered planet appears to be under 150C, the researchers said. "Temperatures are low enough that atmospheric observations could even show us ammonia, which would be the first time it is found in an exoplanet atmosphere," said study co-author Amaury Triaud of Birmingham University. The James Webb space telescope is scheduled to turn its powerful gaze towards the planet in the next year, which could help uncover some more mysteries of this strange planet. ber-dl/srg/phz