WSJ What’s News - UnitedHealth Executive Brian Thompson Gunned Down in New York City

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

P.M. Edition for Dec. 4. The New York Police Department is on the hunt for the suspect who shot and killed the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit. WSJ reporter Anna Wilde Mathews discusses who Thompson was and his impact on the company. And the French government of Emmanuel Macron has collapsed after a no-confidence vote. Plus, Heard on the Street columnist Jonathan Weil on whether President-elect Donald Trump would bail out banks were they to fail during his next term. Tracie Hunte hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon Q Business is the generative AI assistant from AWS because business can be slow, like wading through mud. But Amazon Q helps streamline work. So tasks like summarizing monthly results can be done in no time. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you at AWS.com slash learn more. Police say they're still searching for the suspect who gunned down a United Health executive today in Midtown Manhattan. And the incoming Trump administration could bring looser regulations for banks and high tariffs. We don't necessarily know that tariff hikes are going to lead to higher rates or the tariffs will end up getting put through, but there are scenarios in

which higher interest rates down the road could lead to problems for banks. Plus, the French government collapsed after losing a vote of confidence for the first time in more than half a century. It's Wednesday, December 4th. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is a PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. and business stories that move the world today. We begin today with a developing story. The CEO of United Health Group's insurance unit, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed this morning in New York.

Here's the city's police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. In midtown Manhattan early this morning, 50-year-old Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care, was shot and killed in what appears, at this early stage of our investigation, to be a brazen targeted attack. This does not appear to be a random act of violence. Police are still searching for the suspect, who remained unidentified, but said they didn't believe there was a threat to the public. Thompson was in New York to attend UnitedHealth's annual investor meeting.

He was on his way to attend the event when police say the suspect approached Thompson and shot him in his back and leg before fleeing on foot. Thompson was later declared dead at a local hospital. Police said they were searching Thompson's hotel room and interviewing his colleagues and family members to see if he had received any threats. Thompson's wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that her husband had received threats but did not know details. The company appeared to remove profiles of its executives from its website following the attack. In a statement, United Health expressed shock over Thompson's shooting and said the company was working with the

NYPD. Anna Willde Matthews covers health insurance for the Wall Street Journal's Health and Science team. She says Thompson was well liked among his colleagues. Anna Willde Matthews, NYPD Director, The New York Times Bryan Thompson was the chief executive of United Health Care, which is the largest health insurer in the United States and part of the parent company United Health Group. He'd been with the company since 2004. He became the CEO of United Health Care in 2021.

He rose through the ranks. He had originally come in with more of a finance background, but again, obviously moved into bigger and bigger roles. He was a long time leader in the company. Obviously many, many people knew him. It's been reported that the chief executive of United Health Group, Andrew Witte, choked up in speaking about the death

in a session with employees. In terms of the success of the business, United Health is likely to be fine. The perception among investors and analysts is that they have a deep bench of excellent executives, but that said, the emotional impact is very meaningful. For more on this developing story, go to WSJ.com. The French government of President Emmanuel Macron has collapsed.

In a vote of no confidence, the country's National Assembly forced the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, to resign. It's the first time in more than 60 years that French lawmakers have ousted a prime minister. The move is a sign of the political gridlock that has paralyzed the country and left its public finances in limbo. Macron's attempt to ward off the rise of Marine Le Pen's far-right national rally by calling snap elections this summer instead saddled the country with a hung parliament. The National Assembly, which is divided between Macron loyalists, Le Pen's ranks, and an unruly alliance of leftist parties, splintered over its first order of business, approving the government's budget for 2025.

President-elect Donald Trump today picked conservative lawyer Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, who has a reputation as a regulatory skeptic, will be expected to cut red tape and rein in the agency's enforcement division. Atkins, well known in Congress and on Wall Street, served as a Republican member of the SEC during the Bush administration. WSJ reporter Dave Michaels covers corporate law enforcement and says Atkins has also questioned the SEC's crackdown on cryptocurrency firms. Paul Atkins has been a proponent of the SEC trying to be more welcoming of cryptocurrency,

not trying to put up barriers to the market. It's been a huge fight between the cryptocurrency market and the SEC for several years. And the crypto market now expects that Atkins is going to find some way to create a truce. Paul Atkins is an institution in the world of financial regulation. He has been around it for probably 30 years. He has led kind of the conservative wing of the financial regulation world for the last couple of decades. He's not someone that you see in the news a lot, but he has been very influential behind the scenes for many years. All three major US stock indexes closed at record highs today after a batch of better-than-expected tech earnings bolstered investor confidence. The Dow rose 0.7%, closing above $45,000 for the first time, a milestone that appeared implausible a little more than two years ago.

The S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.3 percent. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell today said the economy looks better now than it did when the central bank began cutting interest rates in September, which means the Fed can move more slowly in reducing borrowing costs. Speaking at a moderated question and answer session hosted by the New York Times, Powell said the Fed's independence is vital to its interest rate decisions. That gives us the ability to make these decisions for the benefit of all Americans at all times, not for any particular political party or political outcome.

We're supposed to achieve maximum employment and price stability for the benefit of all Americans and keep out of politics completely. The Fed's next meeting is December 17th and 18th. Investors in interest rate futures markets expect the central bank to lower rates by a quarter point at that meeting and then to slow down the pace of cuts after that. Meanwhile, according to the Institute for Supply Management, the U.S. services sector continued to expand last month, though its growth was slower than economists expected.

And the Commerce Department said U.S. factory orders increased in October, bucking two months of declines. Coming up, how Trump's proposed tariff hikes could affect smaller regional banks and what that could mean for your deposits. That's after the break. Sure, I could tell you winter's coming or that it brings cold, dry air, but you already knew that.

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But the aggressive tariff hikes floated by Trump would be inflationary and could lead to higher interest rates and bond yields. Jonathan Weil is a columnist with WSJ's Heard on the Street. Jonathan, what would that mean for banks, particularly the smaller regional ones? The reason that Silicon Valley Bank failed was because it was too invested in government-backed mortgage bonds that had very low interest rates. When interest rates suddenly spiked during 2022, the value of those plummeted. Once depositors figured this out, there was a run on the bank.

That all happened because of the types of bonds that they owned and the amount that interest rates went up. We don't necessarily know that tariff hikes are going to lead to higher rates or the tariffs will end up getting put through. But there are scenarios in which higher interest rates down the road could lead to problems for banks. Now, Trump said that he wouldn't have bailed out Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank, which failed a few days later back in 2023.

Is that his rule about all banks? How much does that tell us about his thinking? We really don't know how he would react if faced with the exact same situation himself. But we do know what he said immediately after Silicon Valley Bank failed, and that is that he didn't approve of them getting bailed out. He called the executives at Silicon Valley Bank stupid for the way that they were investing. And he said the bank would have to fend for itself. Again, how would he react in the exact same situation if you're a president as opposed

to just being an ex-president? We don't know. He doesn't know. So what would that mean for depositors? The way the FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, is that, as a general rule, depositors are insured $250,000 per person, per bank, with some exceptions. The vast majority of people, as long as they don't have a single account with more than $250,000, they're not impacted. But if you're over $250,000 or if you're a business that has more than $250,000 in a

given bank, and it goes bust, and there's no too big to fail bailout from the government. You're going to lose that money. In fact, First National Bank of Lindsay, Oklahoma failed in October. It was the first time in five years that you had uninsured depositors lose money. It's a reminder that it is possible to lose money if your bank goes bust if you are keeping too much there. That was Heard on the Street columnist, Jonathan Wilde. Thank you so much, Jonathan.

Thank you for having me. OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChattGBT, is getting into the business of war. The world's most valuable AI company has agreed to work with Andrel Industries, a leading defense tech startup, to add his technology to systems the U.S. military uses to counter drone attacks. Our reporter Deepa Sitaraman told our tech news briefing podcast that it's the latest example of Silicon Valley's dramatic turn from shunning the Pentagon a few years ago

to now forging deeper ties with the national security complex. One of the things that's really picked up over the last year is this discussion broadly in the AI industry about AI companies serving as a strategic asset for the United States and bolstering national security at a time when there is rising competition in AI between the US and countries like China. So the companies are trying to portray themselves as essential to the security

backbone of the country. Besides OpenAI, we've seen its big partner Microsoft doing a lot of deals with the military. And then also Meta is now allowing the US military to use its AI models. And Anthropic, which is another big AI startup that was founded by a number of OpenAI co-founders and senior executives, that company is also embracing the military and allowing its AI tools to be used through a partnership with Palantir. And you can hear more about this story in tomorrow's Tech News Briefing podcast. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon.

Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienneme, Anthony Bansi, and Alex Osala with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. Additional sound courtesy of the New York Times. I'm Tracy Hunt for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.