Bessent ups the pressure

Good morning. Scott Bessent ups the pressure on Jerome Powell. There are more signs of frothiness in the stock market. And why one billionaire is leaving the Golden State. Listen to the day's top stories.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a review of the Federal Reserve's $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters. It's the latest salvo in the Trump administration's campaign against Fed boss Jerome Powell, who has so far defied the president's calls to cut interest rates.

The meme stock frenzy is still alive and kicking. Opendoor jumped as much as 121% yesterday, as investors piled in after its sudden fandom among retail traders. And it's not just the small guys betting they've got diamond hands. Some of the world's largest asset managers are leaning harder into the rally in risk assets as stocks push to fresh highs. Still, the rally faces a key test this week with earnings from companies including Alphabet and Tesla.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise lost around $985 million after it bought Mike Lynch's firm Autonomy, a London judge ruled. The decision suggests it'll get only a fraction of the $4 billion it wants from the tycoon's estate after his death in a yacht sinking last year. Elsewhere on the corporate front, gene therapy firm Sarepta temporarily paused shipments of its treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy after a backlash over its earlier refusal. And the LA Times' owner plans to take the newspaper public.

Cryptomania. Trump Media acquired about $2 billion in Bitcoin and related securities as part of its plan to become a crypto treasury company. To the moon? Well, Trump ally and crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun will join five others on Blue Origin's next space tourism flight anyway. And JPMorgan, whose boss Jamie Dimon once called crypto a "scam," may start lending against clients' crypto assets, according to the FT.

AI will be able to make real investment decisions on behalf of clients within five years, according to MIT finance professor Andrew Lo. All this technology will take some serious power, so OpenAI and Oracle said they'll expand their partnership to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional US data center capacity.

Bloomberg Power Players New York: Set against the backdrop of the US Open Tennis Championships, we'll bring together influential voices from the business of sports to identify the next wave of disruption that could hit this multitrillion-dollar global industry. Join us on Sept. 4. Learn more.

Deep Dive: China Travel Jitters

Beijing Capital International Airport. Photographer: Na Bian/Bloomberg

BlackRock told staff traveling to China for business trips to use temporary loaner phones and not to take company laptops, underscoring growing concern among some global firms about employees working there.

Wells Fargo recently stopped staffers from traveling to China after one of its top trade financing bankers was blocked from leaving the country. Beijing says the case is related to a criminal matter.
China also blocked a US citizen who works for the Commerce Department from leaving the nation for several months, according to media reports.
Tensions between the US-China have increasingly weighed on the global financial industry in recent years, and the recent trade dispute isn't helping. Bloomberg Economics estimates that Trump's effort to target China through its trading partners threatens 70% of its exports to the US.

The Big Take

Wealthy investors are using a clever ETF trick to sidestep US capital gains taxes—and it's completely legal. So-called 351 conversions are one of a plethora of strategies that form Wall Street's flourishing tax-optimization complex. Here's how they work.

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Opinion

Demonstrators hold signs in support of the National Institutes of Health during a rally in Washington on March 7. Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg

What sort of administration aspires to shrink its budget for scientific discovery by 40%, Bloomberg's editors ask. RFK Jr.'s proposed cuts at the National Institutes of Health jeopardize the government's stated goals of improving public health, maintaining global leadership in science and staying ahead of China.

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Before You Go

Lynsi Snyder outside the Colorado Springs In-N-Out restaurant in 2020. Photographer: Christian Murdock/The Gazette

In-N-Out of California. The fast food chain's billionaire owner Lynsi Snyder is leaving the Golden State for Tennessee, saying it's not easy to raise a family or do business. Currently worth $7.3 billion, she'll be the richest woman in Tennessee once she relocates, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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