Democrats Face GOP Resistance on Reining In ICE

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:22)

Another big tech sell-off on Wall Street brings the NASDAQ down with it. Plus, Republicans push back on Democrat efforts to rein in ICE.

Siobhan Hughes (0:31)

So, Congressional Republicans have said some things are reasonable, the big one being the body cameras, but there are big fissures outside of that.

Alex Ossola (0:40)

And when it comes to diplomacy with the US., Iran is playing hardball. It's Wednesday, February 4th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Another day, another tech sell-off. While the Dow finished up half a percent today, the Nasdaq closed down one and a half percent, its fourth down session in the past five trading days. The S&P fell too. Markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang says the declines reflect the influence the big tech companies have on the indexes.

Hannah Erin Lang (1:17)

This is once again really concentrated in the tech sector. Where most S&P 500 sectors are up today, that's basically telling us that these big tech stocks that have such a huge impact on the index overall, because they're enormous companies, weighing on the index names like AMD, which is a chip maker, Palantir. And it seems like investors are reconsidering the AI trade. I had a source tell me today that investors for a while have been willing to kind of hold their breath and go with this momentum. But once that momentum starts to break, there's not a lot to hold on to. There have been these kind of long-standing fears about the artificial intelligence trade. If these stocks are overvalued, you're seeing a lot of those concerns come to the forefront again this week, but they aren't necessarily new. Another thing that we've seen recently is this rotation out of some of the biggest names in the AI trade into these less crowded bets like blue chips or even international equities.

So, you're seeing that dynamic take shape again today.

Alex Ossola (2:19)

In earnings news, Google Parent Alphabet said its profit grew 30% in the fourth quarter. Revenue rose too, thanks to growth in its digital advertising and cloud computing units, even as the company ramped up spending on artificial intelligence. Eli Lilly's latest quarterly profit and revenue grew and topped Wall Street expectations today, thanks to big demand for its GLP-1 weight loss drugs. Sales of ZetBound and Mount Jaro more than doubled in the fourth quarter. The company is also preparing to launch a new weight loss pill that analysts say could be a hit since some patients prefer pills to injections. Shares jumped more than 10%. Federal regulators are investigating Nike for allegedly discriminating against white workers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking into whether Nike's DEI objectives resulted in quote, a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white employees. It's seeking information on how Nike selects workers for layoffs and how it tracks workers' race and ethnicity. Nike didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. And in media, The Washington Post is cutting one-third of its staff across the newsroom and in other departments. The newspaper says it's a strategic reset that will mean less coverage of sports and international news with a focus on national news and features, investigations and advice on health and wellness topics.

In Minnesota, the Trump administration is pulling 700 of the approximately 3,000 federal officers and agents out of the state. Border czar Tom Homan announced the drawdown today, but he made it clear that the administration plans to continue large-scale immigration operations in Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_5 (3:58)

My goal with the support of President Trump is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge as soon as we can, but that is largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we're seeing in the community.

Alex Ossola (4:19)

About 2,000 officers will stay to carry out immigration enforcement in the state. In Washington, Congress yesterday ended a partial government shutdown and narrowly approved a $1.2 trillion spending package. Turns out that might have been the easy part. As part of that deal, Republicans and Democrats now have less than 2 weeks to negotiate legislation that would place new restrictions on immigration enforcement, one of the nation's thorniest policy debates, before the temporary funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out on February 13th. For more on where the negotiations go from here, I'm joined by congressional reporter Siobhan Hughes from the Senate Press Gallery. Siobhan, we got here because after the shooting of Alex Predde in Minneapolis, Democrats are asking for changes to how immigration officials operate. What are Democrats asking for?