October 26, 2026: Lula Wins Brazil Presidential Election, Machado Venezuela Return, More

0:01 News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Doug Krisner. And we begin in Brazil, where President Lula da Silva came from behind to win a runoff election. Brazil's electoral court said Lula won with nearly 52% of the vote. Lula's re-election extends his political career with a record fourth term as president. It also delivers a blow to the movement built by former President Jair Bolsonaro. His son Flavio was Lula's opponent. Now, for investors who had been banking on Bolsonaro to fix Brazilians' fiscal account, Lula's win is a blow. Here is Bloomberg's Felipe Pacheco.

0:38 Basically, people, investors were betting that there would be more austerity under the government of Flávio Bolsonaro, even though he did not detail how he would get there. What we've seen over the past three weeks is that Lula just announced a bunch of measures that we're seeing as actually increasing Brazil's debt burden. There's been a lot of discussion that now Brazil is starting from a point when it comes to sovereign debt that is actually worse than what we saw a month ago. And assets should just reflect that.

1:11 That was Bloomberg's Felipe Pacheco. Now, the defeated Bolsonaro said that he will ask Brazil's electoral court for the annulment of this presidential runoff. He is alleging voter suppression. And Bolsonaro also accused the Supreme Court of changing the rules in the midst of voting by extending voting hours. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned to Caracas. Machado has been outside Venezuela for months. Her team thanked President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their support. Now, Machado's return could spur greater public mobilization and demands for a return to democracy. And that could complicate the Trump administration's strategy for a post-Mordoro Venezuela, which has focused on

1:56 economic stability and rebuilding the country's oil industry. President Trump says the time to decide on whether to make a deal with Iran or to resume attacks is getting close. Now, in the past, Trump has suggested U.S. strikes on Iran could resume after the midterm elections. Meantime, officials are warning the period between those midterms and the new Congress taking office could be dangerous. Here is Bloomberg Economics defense lead Becca Wasser.

2:23 No matter which option the president could choose, it wouldn't lead to ending the war in any absolute military terms, nor would it necessarily usher in peace. So we've identified several options. The first is mowing the long and straights. This is a lot of what we've seen, including that 13 days of bombing campaign back in July, where the United States continues to try and suppress maritime threats to commercial shipping, to U.S. warships. And largely, that effort focuses along the Strait of Hormuz.

2:55 That is Bloomberg's Becca Wasser. Now, Iran is bracing for possible U.S. strikes after those midterms, and we are told Tehran is preparing to retaliate across the Middle East. That would include strikes against Israel and the United Arab Emirates. France avoided a repeat of the widespread violence and looting that followed protests a week ago. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across the country. These protests were mostly peaceful, although there were some clashes with police. Officials say increased security helped prevent the looting and property damage seen last weekend. SpaceX has closed on a $ 40 billion debt deal to pay for semiconductors it needs to fuel companies'

3:38 ambitions in artificial intelligence. Today, in a post on X, CEO Elon Musk said SpaceX finalized the off-balance sheet debt raise to pay for NVIDIA's GPUs, thanks to SpaceX's investment-grade ratings and revenue from its Starlink satellite business and its rocket launches. More big tech earnings are set to happen in the week ahead on this list. Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon, they are all expected to show healthy growth, but the market will be focused on how much the companies are spending on AI and when those investments will pay off.

4:14 Drew Mattis is Chief Market Strategist at MetLife Investment Management.

4:18 Artificial intelligence is driving kind of the equity market. Artificial intelligence is driving the capex spend. The capex spend and the equity market wealth gains means the consumer spending money. But when you kind of like pull back all the parts of the onion, what you're getting back to is this belief in AI is driving the entire economic outlook.

4:40 And I think that kind of macroeconomic concentration is actually probably even more disturbing than kind of the market concentration that we're seeing in the equity space.

4:48 That is Drew Mattis of MetLife Investment Management speaking on Bloomberg this weekend. The Federal Reserve is expected to hold its policy rate steady when officials meet in the coming week. Inflation still remains a key concern. Here is Bloomberg Fed reporter Maria Eloisa Capuro.

5:05 Even though the expectations are that they're going to pause, that explanation is going to be interesting, given that this meeting comes less than a week before midterm elections, and we know that affordability is top of mind for voters, inflation as well.

5:21 That is Bloomberg's Maria Eloisa Capuro. The midterm elections are just around the corner, and much of the focus will be on races for the House and Senate, although states are also electing governors and legislatures, and these outcomes will determine rules for the next presidential election. Bloomberg's Amy Morris has more from Washington.

5:41 Daniel Squadron is a former Democratic New York state senator and co-founder of the States Project.

5:47 Whether states are controlled by people who want to have a free and fair election or not will be a big part of what starts the day after Election Day. So in Arizona, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Minnesota, in Pennsylvania, there's the possibility to have trifectas, the governor and both chambers of the legislature, controlled by folks who oppose Trump's and Republicans' attempts to undermine the election.

6:09 Daniel Squadron tells Balance of Power that while most people think the issues that impact their daily lives may be decided in Washington, most are actually decided in state legislatures. In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio.

6:21 And that is news when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Doug Krisner and this is Bloomberg.