Evening Briefing: Americas

US President Donald Trump fired at least 40% of workers at the Federal Housing Administration, which provides mortgage insurance on loans for people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for one. One of the largest mortgage insurers in the world, the FHA helps American homebuyers secure a loan if they can’t afford a down payment or have below-average credit scores.

It was the latest in a series of mass firings of federal employees by Trump and comes just days after the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FHA’s parent organization, announced it would terminate half of its workers at Trump’s direction.

Over the weekend, amid Presidents’ Day protests against the administration across the country, the Department of Health and Human Services began jettisoning employees in some of its biggest agencies—the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those fired Saturday included employees who evaluate the safety of medical devices and conduct oversight of Affordable Care Act exchanges. (Congress meanwhile is considering major reductions to Medicaid in order to pay for the renewal of 2017 tax cuts).

And on Monday, the National Science Foundation fired 11% of its staff while, despite recent plane crashes that have killed scores of Americans, hundreds of employees were being dismissed by the Federal Aviation Administration. —Jordan Parker Erb

What You Need to Know Today

The Trump administration and Russia ended more than four hours of negotiations in Riyadh today with a pledge to appoint high-level teams to work toward ending the Kremlin’s 11-year war on Ukraine. Ukraine (which Russia first attacked in 2014) and other European nations which supply it arms were not, however, on board. Trump has been looking to lift US sanctions that were imposed on Russia in the hopes of forcing an end to its aggression. Although today’s talks were preliminary and any deal wouldn’t necessarily bind Ukraine (President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wasn’t invited), the posture of the negotiations suggest the 78-year-old Trump is looking toward his desire for friendlier ties with Vladimir Putin. The US approach to the Russian president, who is wanted by the Hague for alleged war crimes, has provoked deep alarm among European nations.

JPMorgan executives are expected to take the stand this week to testify about how the lender was allegedly defrauded out of $175 million by a 29-year-old entrepreneur. Federal prosecutors will seek to prove that Charlie Javice, founder of college financial-planning startup Frank, and chief growth officer Olivier Amar committed fraud in order to get JPMorgan to go through with the 2021 acquisition. According to the government, the pair hired a data scientist to create fake accounts showing 4.25 million customers even though they knew it had fewer than 300,000. The implication for investors, whether the trial results in a conviction or acquittal, is how the massive Wall Street firm could have missed such warning signs.

Charlie Javice arrives at federal court in New York on Tuesday Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Intel gained as much as 11% on speculation that the iconic chipmaker could be broken up in a deal involving TSMC and Broadcom. TSMC has discussed the idea of operating Intel’s US factories and owning a controlling stake in the venture, Bloomberg News reported last week. Broadcom meanwhile has reportedly held informal talks with advisers about making a bid for Intel’s chip-design and marketing business. Intel was up a whopping $3.79 to $27.39 at 5:20 p.m. in New York. The stock was up 18% this year through the end of last week, fueled by the deal speculation.

Three of the US’s four largest IPOs this year have traded below their offer price in their first session—a black mark on any deal regardless of equity market gyrations. Just two of the initial public offerings raising more than $300 million have seen shares rise more than 15% from the offer price. Single-digit returns over a span of days and weeks are well short of what investors expect from IPOs—which are typically sold at a discount to already public peers given their inherent risks. So what’s happening? It has to do with valuation.

Germany’s election is set to shrink the world’s largest parliament. With 735 seats, the Bundestag will get significantly smaller after Sunday’s election thanks to a voting system overhaul. Difficulties in reaching consensus on the reform however are a glimpse of possible discord facing the next government as it tries to revive Europe’s largest economy. Here’s the latest on the vote, which could see big gains by a far-right party seeking friendly relations with the Kremlin and which includes officials fined by courts for using Nazi slogans.

Argentine President Javier Milei’s attempt to downplay his role in a crypto scandal is crumbling. His problems started Friday when he directed millions of social media followers to the Libra token, sending its value soaring. Within hours, the coin’s value more than quadrupled, making the total outstanding amount worth $4 billion. It then crashed, handing speculators large losses. On Monday, Milei tried to contain the effects of the debacle in a television interview. But that effort backfired when parts that weren’t broadcast were accidentally uploaded to YouTube and subsequently deleted.