Evening Briefing: Americas

America is in the midst of a record-breaking bird flu outbreak that’s affected dozens of cattle herds along with poultry flocks nationwide. While human cases have been rare, the virus has caused deaths in the past, and experts are concerned it could become more transmissible and dangerous. Some recent developments do not bode well.

But on Wednesday, it was revealed that the Trump administration has decided to reevaluate a $590 million contract for bird flu shots the Biden administration awarded to Moderna, known for its highly successful Covid-19 shot. Moderna said last month it was gearing up for a big, final-stage trial of its new vaccine, having successfully completed an early-stage trial last year. But without funding, that trial may not happen.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now President Donald Trump’s top health official, has been a vaccine skeptic and openly criticized Covid-19 shots. In 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Kennedy called them “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” According to the US National Institutes of Health, which now answers to Kennedy, Covid vaccines saved tens of millions of lives during the pandemic. —David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

Japanese economic data is gaining importance among yen traders for the first time in almost a decade as expectations grow of further interest-rate hikes by the central bank. That marks a change in thinking since the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rates policy last March. After it started radical monetary easing in early 2016, traders thought stimulus would continue regardless of what economic indicators showed. But recent currency swings show that’s no longer the case. Although the moves are still modest, they indicate an attitude change among market participants, who have historically been used to dollar-yen being primarily driven by US bond yields and data from the world’s largest economy.

Starboard Value underperformed its peers in 2024, the year in which Jeff Smith’s activist firm was frustrated with large campaigns at the likes of News Corp. and Pfizer. New York-based Starboard is said to have returned less than 5% for investors in its main fund. The disappointing performance came during a year in which activist investors flexed their muscles like never before, leading to heavy churn in boardrooms as they pushed for change. Starboard is among the world’s biggest and most influential activist investors, known for having agitated in the boardrooms of companies such as search engine Yahoo! Inc. and software provider Salesforce. But last year, Starboard found the going tough with some of its high-profile campaigns.

DeepSeek’s success is intensifying pressure on China’s quantitative hedge funds to embrace artificial intelligence or risk becoming obsolete, according to one of the most aggressive users of AI in the industry. “In three years, quants that don’t use AI will inevitably be eliminated,” said Feng Ji, chief executive of Baiont Quant, which uses machine learning to trade without human intervention. “DeepSeek is a final call to those who still don’t believe in the power of AI.” China’s financial and asset management industries are already rushing to leverage DeepSeek’s R1, with dozens having integrated the reasoning model into their own systems. For quants, the ability to better tap AI is critical for survival as the industry faces cut-throat competition, the rapid decay of factors that trading models rely on to generate returns—and a regulatory clampdown aimed at protecting retail investors.

Bloomberg Opinion

Measles Is Killing Americans Again

Low vaccination rates contributed to the re-emergence of a disease that just 25 years ago was declared eradicated in the US.

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When President Joe Biden put $42 billion behind making high-speed internet accessible across the US, he committed to doing it with miles upon miles of fiber-optic lines. A frustrated Elon Musk protested, claiming his Starlink satellite-internet business could get rural areas online faster and at lower cost. Miffed, the world’s richest person eventually turned on the Democratic president, switched party allegiance and used a massive chunk of his wealth to help put Trump back in the White House. Now, some Republicans are looking to return the favor, hoping to open the floodgates for Starlink. It would be a potential multibillion-dollar gift to Musk, whose companies are already reaping benefits from his new government role.

Brookfield Asset Management’s decision to move its head office to New York from Toronto is making waves in Canada where Mark Carney is running for prime minister. Vying to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader, the former Brookfield chair has found himself in a tough spot given how Trump recently made an enemy of America’s closest friend. The rival Conservative Party has been using Brookfield’s departure from Canada in attack ads against Carney, with an Ontario lawmaker on Wednesday accused him of being dishonest about his role.