Crypto News: A deal in Gaza?

Israel and Hamas have agreed "in principle" to a ceasefire, CBS has reported. According to the network, which cited unidentified Arab, US and Israeli officials, the deal could be finalized as early as this week. If its final details are approved, and if Israel's government votes to approve it, the ceasefire could be implemented starting this weekend, just in time for Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington. In a speech at the Atlantic Council today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that, in the absence of a deal ending a conflict that began 15 months ago and which has killed close to 50,000 people, Hamas has continued to replenish its troops, having recruited almost as many militants as it's lost. —Jordan Erb

What You Need to Know Today

Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, was excoriated by Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing for, among other things, a deep lack of experience needed to run one of the most powerful militaries in the world. A former cable television host who served in the National Guard, Hegseth is one of the president-elect's most controversial choices to run a major federal department. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Senate Armed Services Committee's Republican chairman, called him an "unconventional" nominee. Hegseth has faced—and denied—allegations of sexual assault, public intoxication and financial mismanagement at a veterans' group. Democrats also targeted the FBI for performing what they called an inadequate background check amid an all-out GOP pressure campaign to push through Hegseth's nomination. During the hearing, Republicans echoed the former Fox personality's defense that he'd be a Pentagon "change agent." Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the committee's lead Democrat, had a different view, saying Hegseth lacks "the character and the competence" to lead the Defense Department, and that his confirmation would be an "an insult to the men and women who have sworn to uphold their own apolitical duty to the Constitution."

Pete Hegseth Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

Los Angeles's housing affordability crisis is only getting worse. With fires destroying more than 12,000 structures, many of them homes, residents across the income spectrum are suddenly searching for a new place to live. Heightened demand from evacuees has sent prices soaring; one home in Beverly Hills saw its price jump to $40,000 per month after fires broke out. And the fires are still burning. Here's the latest.

Special Counsel Jack Smith argued in a final report released early today that had Trump been tried for allegedly trying to block the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden in 2020, and in doing so fraudulently depriving American voters of the president they elected, he would have been convicted. But that federal indictment, conviction under which could have earned Trump decades in prison, was at first undercut by a sweeping Supreme Court ruling and then dropped once Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5. Read the full report here.

Special Counsel Jack Smith at an August 2023 press conference regarding Donald Trump's indictment tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America

Meta plans to fire 5% of its staff—specifically targeting what the company said are its lowest performers—and hire new people to take their jobs, according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg. The mass termination by Mark Zuckerberg's company will only affect staff who've been there long enough to have a performance review, Meta said. Dismissed US-based employees are expected to be notified on Feb. 10. The firings are the latest in a series of changes announced by Zuckerberg, including disbanding US-based fact-checking and ending many of its diversity and inclusion efforts. Those moves coincide with his efforts to improve relations with Trump, whose forthcoming inauguration he plans to attend and to which Meta provided $1 million.

More Bad News for an Embattled Boeing

The crises just keep on coming. This time, its deliveries. The planemaker last year sent off the fewest new jets since the pandemic after a turbulent year that included a two-month long strike and production curbs following a near-catastrophe.

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Argentina's monthly inflation continued to run near a four-year low in December, opening the door for President Javier Milei to make his first change to currency policy in more than a year. Prices rose 2.7% in December from November, the third straight month below 3% and in line with the median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. From a year ago, inflation slowed to 117.8%, according to government data published Tuesday. Poverty however remains crushing for much of the country. And while many Argentines appear positive about the economy going forward, any currency policy changes risk stoking inflation.

JPMorgan named Jenn Piepszak its new chief operating officer, as the bank shuffles its top management for the second time in a year. While Piepszak, 54, takes the No. 2 role from Daniel Pinto, who's retiring at the end of next year, she's ruling herself out as a possible successor to Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon. Piepszak's decision is the latest twist in the long-running question of who will succeed Dimon, the longest-serving major US bank CEO.