A.M. Edition for May 22. A man shouting “Free Palestine” fired shots near a Jewish museum in the U.S. capital, with President Donald Trump suggesting the killings were driven by antisemitism. Plus, WSJ’s Quentin Webb says it's a new, golden era for crypto as Bitcoin jumps to a fresh, record high. And Oasis fans look set to outspend Swifties as the British band’s summer reunion tour gears up. Azhar Sukri hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened in Washington D.C.?
In Washington, a man who shouted free Palestine has fatally shot two Israeli embassy staff members near a Jewish museum. Plus, the GOP makes last-ditch changes to the tax bill to appease conservative hardliners.
It's more important to get this right, to get it correct, than to get it fast. We are sitting at the table to do that.
And Bitcoin jumps to a new all-time high. It's Thursday, May the 22nd. I'm Azhar Sukri for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. Here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Law enforcement officials say a man shouting free Palestine has fatally shot two Israeli embassy staff in Washington.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of the shooting?
The shooting happened near a Jewish museum just after 9pm Eastern last night. Officers believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. He has been arrested. Israels Ambassador to the UN described the attack as anti-Semitic terrorism, while President Trump said radicalism has no place in the US. Here's DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.
What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city and in our country. And I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city.
Chapter 3: How is antisemitism being addressed?
A number of surveys have documented a steep rise in antisemitism around the globe that has worsened with the war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel. And according to new polling, support for the war is rapidly decreasing, with around 70% of Israelis wanting it to end in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages.
On the Hill, House Republicans have made last-minute changes to their sprawling tax and spending bill as they try to unite the party ahead of a nail-biter floor vote expected early today. Texas Representative Chip Roy and Pennsylvania's Scott Perry from the Conservative Freedom Caucus are among the holdouts.
It's more important to get this right, to get it correct, than to get it fast. We are sitting at the table to do that.
Chapter 4: What changes are being made to the tax bill?
And for the bill to move off of the floor, these issues have to be addressed.
The new language added to Reassure Conservatives includes accelerating new Medicaid work requirements and ending many energy tax credits by 2028. Coming up, Bitcoin surges to a new record high and how Oasis fans are set to outspend Swifties on the band's hotly anticipated reunion tour this summer. Those stories and more after the break.
In Markets News this morning, Bitcoin has rallied to a new record high of $111,000. The boost to the world's largest cryptocurrency comes as investors search for value amid wider market sell-offs. Deputy Finance Editor Quentin Webb spoke to our Kate Bullivant.
Chapter 5: What is driving Bitcoin's record high?
Quentin, it seems counterintuitive that a risky asset like Bitcoin would rally in a market sell-off. What's going on?
Right. Well, I think there's just sort of building optimism about the future of digital currencies. Earlier this week, we saw a stablecoin bill make a key kind of step forward in the Senate. So we're moving towards stability.
regime where the us is more kind of overtly crypto friendly and of course ever since the start of the trump administration we have seen this dramatic shift in tone in how it treats crypto this evening don't forget we have a gala dinner for the top holders recently of president trump's Trump-Coin.
Nun, man könnte argumentierend sagen, dass in einem Umfeld, in dem es Fragezeichen gibt über langfristige US-Debtsustainabilität und die Sicherheit von Inhalten wie US-Träschereien, vielleicht an der Margin, das Menschen ermöglicht, wieder zu schauen, Alternativen zu Dollar-basierten Inhalten.
Aber ich denke, das ist hier weniger ein Fahrer als nur dieser Art von Sinn, dass es eine neue Art von goldenen Ära ist, wenn du möchtest, für Krypto.
Und was erzählt uns das über den Potenzial für Kryptowährungen, um noch höher zu gehen?
Das ist eine sehr schwierige Frage, weil es keine Grundlage gibt, wenn man die Wertung von Bitcoin unterpinnt. Es gibt keinen Dividenden, den es auslöst, also kann man es nicht mit einer traditionellen Wertungsmetrik wertschätzen. Es ist oft sehr momentum-orientiert. Wir haben gesehen, dass es unter 60.000 Dollar pro Coin war, so spät wie im September. Und jetzt sind wir über 110.000 Dollar.
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Chapter 6: Why is there optimism in the crypto market?
And that momentum often has a way of sustaining itself, but it's anyone's guess really where we go from here.
That was Deputy Finance Editor Quinton Webb. Quinton, thanks so much.
Thanks very much. And while US bond yields have been hitting new highs recently, German debt yields fell this morning after surprisingly low services data raised concerns about European growth. Paul Hannan is the economics editor for Dow Jones Newswires.
The surveys are a little bit surprising in that the part of the economy where this weakness is most manifest is services. Und das ist die Part of the economy that is not directly affected by the tariffs. So what seems to be happening is that you're still seeing a lot of inventory build up around these tariff announcements. And factories are still producing at quite high levels.
But in the other parts of the economy that are less kind of directly affected by that, businesses have gotten a lot more gloomy about the kind of longer term prospects. And they're already cutting back.
Meanwhile, existing home sales for April are due out at 10 a.m. Eastern this morning. It's the second month of the crucial spring home buying season, which is shaping up to be a bit of a dud. Morgan Stanley's US housing strategist Jim Egan told WSJ's Take on the Week podcast that rising inventories and tepid demand are hurting sales.
It's not as unaffordable as it was in the fourth quarter of 2023. But we're still talking about one of the more pressured environments of the past several decades. And because of the proliferation of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, you have this lock-in effect that's been well covered in the media.
And that's keeping inventories close to, I can no longer say at historic lows, but close to historic lows. So unaffordable, and there aren't a lot of those homes to buy, which is propping up that unaffordability.
You can hear much more about the state of the US housing market on the latest episode of WSJ's Take on the Week on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And in a quick roundup of corporate news, we're exclusively reporting that popular fitness app Strava has completed a fresh round of fundraising valuing the business at $2.2 billion, including debt.
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