Trump Says He’ll Ban Big Investors From Buying Single-Family Homes

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

The US says it'll control Venezuelan oil sales indefinitely and seizes two more oil tankers at sea.

Shelby Holliday (0:40)

So the US isn't just going after Venezuelan oil, it's going after all of those countries that rely on this dark fleet to carry its sanctioned oil.

Alex Ossola (0:48)

Plus why President Trump wants to ban institutional investors from buying homes. And new dietary guidelines say you should probably be eating more protein. It's Wednesday, January 7th. 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. It's a full day of news from the Trump administration. First up, we're reporting that the president says he'll be banning large investors from buying single-family homes. Wall Street firms and other institutional investors have bought up hundreds of thousands of homes in the US that they rent out. That's a tiny slice of the overall housing market. But some housing analysts say it leaves fewer homes for sale and drives up prices in some neighborhoods even as the country faces a lack of affordable housing. The president asked Congress to codify a ban. It's not clear he could ban such sales himself without congressional approval.

Turning to Venezuela, Trump is tightening his grip on the country's oil industry. This morning, you heard about the administration saying Venezuela intends to give the US up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil. That's as much as 15% of the country's output. And now the White House says the US will sell Venezuela's oil indefinitely. An administration official says the US is rolling back some sanctions so Venezuelan crude can be sold to global markets. Meanwhile, the US also seized two more oil tankers in the Atlantic and near the Caribbean as it cracks down on Venezuela's oil exports. US. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the administration is using oil to pressure Venezuela's government. In comments at a conference today filmed by CNBC.

Chris Wright (2:29)

We need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela.

Alex Ossola (2:37)

For more on the Trump administration's plans for Venezuelan oil, I'm joined now by senior video correspondent Shelby Holliday. Shelby, let's start with these oil tankers. The US has indicated that it will continue seizing vessels near Venezuela. What is the administration's goal with going after these tankers?

Shelby Holliday (2:53)

Well, before the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the US was seizing tankers and the oil that was on them to exert pressure on the Maduro regime. Now that he's out of power and there's this interim government in Caracas, the US has indicated that it's going to continue seizing tankers and continue seizing oil to exert pressure on this new leadership. Secretary Rubio said the best leverage the US has is the oil and so it will continue enforcing what it calls this quarantine of Venezuelan oil to get what the US wants.

Alex Ossola (3:21)

One of the tankers that US forces went after didn't actually hold any oil and they pursued it for like two weeks. Why did they go after something that wasn't actually holding oil?

Shelby Holliday (3:31)

That's a very good question. So, this tanker, which is formerly known as the Bella One, an analyst said it was empty. It didn't have any oil on it. The Coast Guard continued to pursue it and halfway across the Atlantic, this ship changed its registration to Russia and it claimed Russian protection. Russia asked the US to back off of the ship. The US clearly did not do that. It boarded the ship this morning with a ton of firepower and special forces.

And this rusty old oil tanker became a flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations. One of the strategies that the US has articulated is not just that it wants to control Venezuela, but it wants to get rid of Russian influence, Iranian influence, Chinese influence across the Western Hemisphere. And so that could potentially be why the US thought it was so important to seize this tanker, was just to show the Kremlin that these tankers will not be tolerated in America's backyard.