Vance Says Iran Conflict Isn’t a ‘War’; August Jobs in Focus

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

**Nathan Hager** (0:09)
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager.

**Karen Moskow** (0:11)
And I'm Karen Moskow. Here are the stories we're following today.

**Nathan Hager** (0:15)
Karen, we begin with the latest from the Middle East. The war with Iran is now into its sixth month. Military strikes on both sides have intensified in recent days, but Vice President JD Vance is downplaying the scope of the conflict.

**JD Vance** (0:28)
I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no act of shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up.
Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks.

**Nathan Hager** (0:40)
Vice President JD Vance spoke at a White House press briefing. We get more from Bloomberg Middle East correspondent, Abir Abou-Omar.

**Abir Abou-Omar** (0:47)
The big question here really is, how will the American public take these comments? Because you're left with 18 service members that were killed from the United States side, and of course, hundreds of others are injured. And then you've got 3,500 casualties on the Iranian side. But then the attempts or the remarks by JD Vance, of course, were seen as an effort to mile down the situation of this war in the Middle East effectively because President Trump has been calling it a war.
And this, of course, comes ahead of those midterm elections.

**Nathan Hager** (1:22)
In the meantime, Bloomberg's Abir Abou-Omar says South Korea is reportedly preparing to send troops and a naval support ship to the Strait of Hormuz. That's according to local media reports that say President Trump is ramping up pressure on its Asian ally for not supporting the war.

**Karen Moskow** (1:36)
Well, Nathan, the economic pressure is ramping up on the White House in the form of climbing gas prices. US retail diesel rose to a record, threatening to further spike energy-driven inflation as wars in Iran and Russia roiled the market. The fuel climbed to a nationwide average of $5.85 a gallon above the former peak that was set in June 2022

**Nathan Hager** (1:58)
And also on the economic front, Karen, stocks and treasuries are steady ahead of the August jobs report that could signal the path for interest rates with odds of a September rate hike roughly even ahead of the numbers. Bloomberg's Michael McKee has a preview.

**Michael McKee** (2:12)
Absent any major surprise, the August employment report will be a predicate for next week's inflation numbers. Fed officials are fairly confident the labor market is, at worst, steady. Jobless claims are little changed, and surveys of manufacturing and service industries report companies are still hiring. While job growth is forecast to remain slow, the drop in the labor force driven by immigration policy has lowered the number of jobs that must be created to hold unemployment steady. And unemployment is forecast to have been unchanged last month. Average hourly earnings gains have slowed, and central bankers say that suggests there's no wage pressures on inflation.
Michael McKee, Bloomberg Radio.

**Nathan Hager** (2:53)
All right, Mike, thanks. We get those August jobs numbers this morning, and we will bring you those numbers live with the context behind the data on Bloomberg Surveillance Commercial for EAPS, starting at 8:30 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg Radio and the Bloomberg Podcast page on YouTube.

**Karen Moskow** (3:08)
Well, overseas, Nathan, the yen advanced to a one-month high as a rush to unwind the yen-funded carry trade signals ramped up bets on further Bank of Japan rate hikes. The move follows hawkish comments from BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda. The BOJ could raise rates at three consecutive meetings through December in an extreme scenario where yen weakness persists, according to Nomura Securities.

**Nathan Hager** (3:31)
Let's get the latest on US-China relations now, Karen. US Trade Representative Jameson Greer is striking an optimistic tone ahead of President Trump's meeting with China's Xi Jinping later this month. On Fox News, Greer pointed to a shrinking trade deficit and suggested some Chinese goods could be excluded from tariffs.

**Jameson Greer** (3:49)
We're not looking for a giant comprehensive trade agreement with China.

**JD Vance** (3:53)
We're looking to manage this relationship.

**Jameson Greer** (3:56)
Part of this is continuing to get the deficit down. The deficit hasn't been this low with China for many years.

**JD Vance** (4:02)
They're no longer our largest deficit.

**Nathan Hager** (4:04)
And US Trade Rep Jameson Greer also says he expects progress on agricultural barriers during the president's meeting with Xi while playing down prospects for a broad new trade agreement.

**Karen Moskow** (4:14)
Nathan, we turn to AI now. And sources tell Bloomberg that Anthropic is sent to finalize expanding its revolving credit facility to $15 billion, ahead of the firm's public filing for its highly anticipated IPO. Morgan Stanley is leading the process with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citi, also having prominent roles in the offering. And the credit facility would exceed the company's roughly $10 billion target.