The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at their highest levels in a month on Friday, with shares of JPMorgan Chase and other banks rising following their quarterly results, which kicked off the earnings season.

All three major indexes also registered strong gains for the week, leaving the S&P 500 up 4.2% so far in 2023, and the Cboe Volatility index (.VIX) – Wall Street’s fear gauge – closed at a one-year low.

On Friday, financials (.SPSY) were among sectors that gave the S&P 500 the most support.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) beat quarterly earnings estimates, while Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) fell short of quarterly profit estimates.

But shares of all four firms rose, along with the S&P 500 banks index (.SPXBK), which ended up 1.6%. JPMorgan shares climbed 2.5%.

Still, Wall Street’s biggest banks stockpiled more rainy-day funds to prepare for a possible recession and reported weak investment banking results while showing caution about forecasting income growth. They said higher rates helped to boost profits.

Strategists said investors will be watching for further guidance from company executives in the coming weeks.

“This has shifted the focus back to earnings,” said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Even though the earnings were basically OK, people are just kind of stepping back, and you’re going to see a wait-and-see attitude with stocks” as investors hear more from company executives.

Year-over-year earnings from S&P 500 companies are expected to have declined 2.2% for the quarter, according to Refinitiv data.

Also giving some support to the market Friday, the University of Michigan’s survey showed an improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment, with the one-year inflation outlook falling in January to the lowest level since the spring of 2021.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 112.64 points, or 0.33%, to 34,302.61, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 15.92 points, or 0.40%, to 3,999.09 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 78.05 points, or 0.71%, to 11,079.16.

The S&P 500 closed at its highest level since Dec. 13, while the Nasdaq closed at its highest level since Dec. 14.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.7% and the Dow rose 2%. The Nasdaq increased 4.8% in its biggest weekly percentage gain since Nov. 11.

The U.S. stock market will be closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Thursday’s Consumer Price Index and other recent data have bolstered hopes that a sustained downward trend in inflation could give the Federal Reserve room to dial back on its interest rate hikes.

Money market participants now see a 91.6% chance the Fed will hike the benchmark rate by 25 basis points in February.

Among the day’s decliners, Tesla (TSLA.O) shares fell 0.9% after it slashed prices on its electric vehicles in the United States and Europe by as much as 20% after missing 2022 deliveries estimates.

In other earnings news, UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) shares rose after it beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit but the stock ended down on the day.

Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) dropped 3.5% as the company forecast first-quarter profit below expectations.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.77 billion shares, compared with the 10.81 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.79-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.78-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 8 new lows.

President Joe Biden told Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday the United States was “fully, thoroughly, completely” committed Japan’s defense and praised Tokyo’s security build up, saying the nations had never been closer.

Kishida is in Washington on the last stop in a tour of the G7 industrial powers and has been seeking to bolster long-standing alliances amid rising concern in Japan, and the United States, about mounting regional security threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

In a meeting at the White House, Biden called it a “remarkable moment” in the U.S.-Japan alliance. He said the two countries had never been closer.

“Let me be crystal clear: The United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance, and importantly … to the defense of Japan,” he said, while also thanking Kishida for strong leadership in working closely on technology and economic issues.

“We are modernizing our military alliances, building on Japan’s historic increase in defense spending, and new national security strategy,” Biden said.

Kishida thanked Biden for U.S. work on regional security and said: “Japan and the United States are currently facing the most challenging and complex security environment in recent history.” He said Tokyo had formulated its new defense strategy released last month “to ensure peace and prosperity in the region.”

He said the two countries shared fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law “and the role that we are to play is becoming even greater.”

Kishida said he looked forward to a “candid” exchange of views on issues including “a free and open Indo-Pacific” – language the two sides use to describe efforts to push back against China – the G7, which Japan’s currently chairs, and climate change.

In a later speech at Washington’s Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Kishida called China the “central challenge” for both Japan and the United States and said they and Europe must act in unison in dealing with the country.

Japan last month announced its biggest military build-up since World War Two – a dramatic departure from seven decades of pacifism, largely fueled by concerns about Chinese actions in the region.

“Biden commended Japan’s bold leadership in fundamentally reinforcing its defense capabilities and strengthening diplomatic efforts,” according to a joint U.S.-Japan statement issued after the meeting.

U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers met on Wednesday and announced increased security cooperation following nearly two years of talks and the U.S. officials praised Tokyo’s military buildup plans.

Japan’s military reform plan will see it double defense spending to 2% of GDP and procure missiles that can strike ships or land-based targets 1,000 km (600 miles) away.

Before the meeting, a senior U.S. official said Biden and Kishida were expected to discuss security issues and the global economy and that their talks are likely to include control of semiconductor-related exports to China after Washington announced strict curbs last year.

The joint statement said the United States and Japan “will sharpen our shared edge on economic security, including protection and promotion of critical and emerging technologies, including semiconductors.”

Kishida, Japan’s Foreign Minister Hayashi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later signed an agreement on peaceful space exploration at NASA’s headquarters in Washington.

Blinken said this would take space cooperation “to new heights” and strengthen the partnership in areas including research into space technology and transportation, robotic lunar surface missions, climate-related missions, and “our shared ambition to see a Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface.”

At the ceremony, Kishida said the U.S.-Japan alliance was “stronger than ever.”

As well as chairing the G7, Japan took up a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 1 and holds the rotating monthly presidency of the 15-member body for January.

Kishida has said he backs Biden’s attempt to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors with export restrictions. Still, he has not agreed to match sweeping curbs on exports of chip-manufacturing equipment that Washington imposed in October.

The U.S. official said Washington was working closely with Japan on the issue and believes they share a similar vision even if their legal structures are different. He said the more countries and significant players that backed the controls, the more effective they would be.

A Japanese official said economic security, including semiconductors, was likely to be discussed, but that no announcement was expected on that from the meeting.

Biden and Kishida committed to “strengthening vital trilateral cooperation” among the United States, Japan and South Korea, said the joint statement, which follows North Korea’s decision to exponentially increase its nuclear force and codify its right to a first strike.

Kishida’s visit follows one by Biden to Tokyo in May and a meeting between the two at a November regional summit in Cambodia.

(This story has been refiled to delete the extra word ‘defense’ in paragraph 1)

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Gen Digital, formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock, warns that hackers breached Norton Password Manager accounts.

Gen Digital, formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock, informed its customers that threat actors have breached Norton Password Manager accounts in credential-stuffing attacks. The company detected an unusually large volume of failed logins to customer accounts on December 12, 2022, and launched an investigation to determine what has happened.

“We quickly took steps to investigate,and on around December 22, 2022, we determined that, beginning around December 1, 2022, an unauthorized third party had used a list of usernames and passwords obtained from another source, such as the dark web, to attempt to log into Norton customer accounts.” reads the data breach notice sent to the customers. “Our own systems were not compromised. However, we strongly believe that an unauthorized third party knows and has utilized your username and password for your account. This username and password combination may potentially also be known to others.”

The company pointed out that its systems were not compromised, the credentials used in the attack may have been obtained from another source. NortonLifeLock has yet to disclose the number of impacted customers.

Threat actors had access to Password Manager accounts and may have viewed account info, including first name, last name, phone number, and mailing address.

“Our records indicate that you utilize our Norton Password Manager feature and, we cannot rule out that the unauthorized third party also obtained details stored there especially if your Password Manager key is identicaI or very similar to your Norton account password.” continues the notice.

Accounts with similar Norton account passwords and Password Manager master keys are very exposed.

In response to the incident, NortonLifeLock has reset Norton passwords on impacted accounts and announced the implementation of additional measures to secure the accounts.

NortonLifeLock recommends customers enable 2FA for their accounts, it is also offering a free credit monitoring service.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Password Manager)

The post NortonLifeLock: threat actors breached Norton Password Manager accounts appeared first on Security Affairs.

The Wagner Group seeks new ways to expand its footprint in Africa. The Kremlin’s quasilegal troops have engaged in a dialogue with Denis Sassou Nguesso, the president of oil-producing Congo, who has been in power since 1979, with a five-year gap from 1992 to 1997. Congo’s key port of Pointe-Noire near the Gulf of Guinea is not far from Nigeria’s deep-sea hydrocarbon development.

The M23 rebels claimed the Wagner mercenaries were present in North Kivu in the east of the DR Congo. With the Command of the Congolese Army denying this statement, the probability assessment for Russia’s Wagner mercenaries being present in this country is almost 100%.

Unconfirmed member of Wagner PMC killed in the East DRC.

Kinshasa denies this fact, as it is afraid of worsening relations with the West over the ties to a terrorist group associated with numerous war crimes. The fact that Wagner Group is recruiting prisoners with outstanding convictions in Russia makes it possible to equate Wagner to an organized crime group. We believe they are present in the DR Congo to:

• Gain shadow access to natural minerals, as their selling provides shadow income for Russia’s top leaders and funding for military operations abroad.
• Make African leaders more dependent on Russia and involve them into Russian sphere of influence.
• expand Russia’s geostrategic influence in Africa.
• Strengthen Russia’s geopolitical hand in Africa by ousting France and discrediting Paris over the charges of colonialism. The best proof of this are anti-French rallies in Mali organized by the Russians.
• Launch Russian information and psychological operation to increase the number of those supporting Russia, as opposed to the West, with speculation on colonial legacy, and populist rhetoric, as the Kremlin is unable to promote constructive projects in the region.

The U.S. government has sanctioned some of Prigozhin’s companies for what it calls “malign political and economic influence around the globe, including sponsoring phony election monitoring missions in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to the Department of State, Facebook in 2022 removed Prigozhin-linked accounts in DRC that attempted to trick local journalists into writing favorable stories about Russia.

Prigozhin’s efforts to reach out Sassou Nguesso made President Emmanuel Macron of France arrange a meeting with Sassou at the end of December 2022. The outcome of the meeting was to postpone the decision to bring Wagner mercenaries to Pointe-Noire.

The President of France pays particular attention to expanding presence of the Wagner Group in African nations that are of geopolitical interest to France. That obviously confirms and results from assessments by the RLI on Moscow’s policy of ousting France from Africa.

The DRC Army and M23 rebels currently keep small intensity fighting in the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu.

Read also: M23 withdraw: the conflict in DRC is far from over

Hostilities resumed with the start of 2022, but the parties were able to agree on a ceasefire in November last year.

Seven East African Community national leaders at the meeting in Nairobi in the summer of 2022 decided to send a peacekeeping mission to the east of the DRC to de-escalate the situation there and stop hostilities.

Wagner’s subsidiaries get the right to use mineral and natural resources in these countries, buy weapons, technologies and military services.

That way, Prigozhin’s entities affiliated with the Wagner Group replace Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Development, with power monopolized in Prigozhin’s hands, making him vital for President Putin. Amid expanding Wagner presence in Africa, Russian Foreign Ministry’s policy seems ineffective, as it lacks tools and tactical maneuvers, while Prigozhin strengthens his hand and enters big political stage in Russia.

Read also: Russia on track to becoming military junta

Read also: DRC on the verge of a crisis

Read also: Controversial Congolese nationality law debate starts ahead of the 2023 elections

Ukraine is struggling to keep its bombarded electricity system alive as Russia’s energy infrastructure airstrike campaign enters its fifth month. Despite undiminished Western goodwill and considerable support, Kyiv’s pleas for the electricity grid transformers that Ukraine desperately requires have yet to produce enough of the actual equipment most needed to keep the lights on across the country.  

Vladimir Putin’s decision to target Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure has been one of the few effective strategies adopted during his otherwise disastrous invasion. Since September 2022, Russia has been systematically destroying Ukraine’s power infrastructure with regular waves of missiles and drones aimed at power stations, transmission lines, and other key infrastructure objects. The results have been devastating. Millions of Ukrainian civilians have been left without electricity, heating, or water for extended periods amid freezing winter conditions.

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Ukraine’s leadership and power sector companies have pledged to keep fixing the grid, even as Russia continues to attack it. Hundreds of technicians from Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electrical grid operator, and DTEK, the country’s largest private power company, have been working around the clock since September to repair substations and transmission lines.

They face an uphill battle. Most of Ukraine’s power plants and substations have been attacked by Russia, sometimes more than once. In total, over 40% of Ukraine’s power system has been damaged. Despite electricity consumption being down by an average of 35% since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion due to the refugee exodus and massive destruction caused by Putin’s troops, Ukraine is unable to meet around 30% of current domestic demand.

The most pressing problem is damage to large, high-power transformers, a critical part of any power substation. A transformer is a machine that regulates the voltage of the electricity passing through transmission lines, and an autotransformer does so automatically. This is important because electricity is converted from high voltage during transmission to low voltage when it is distributed to consumers. Without transformers, the grid doesn’t function to supply households and other retail consumers of electricity.

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Ukraine needs thousands of small and mid-sized transformers to replace those destroyed or damaged by Russian attacks. So far, Ukraine’s Western partners have done a decent job of scouring warehouses and inventories to find them. Over 1000 small transformers had been sent to Ukraine by the end of 2022, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of which about 100 were automatic.

The real problem is the absence of large, high-power transformers. According to Ukrenergo, as of January 11, 2023, Ukraine needs 59 of these giant units that automatically step down high voltage transmission at substations. New transformers cost about $2 million and weigh hundreds of tons.

Lithuania is sending one. Other Western countries are looking into the issue. The US government has a task force focused on finding transformers and getting them to Ukraine. But the problems are myriad.

First, there is a major supply chain crunch and resulting shortage of large transformers globally, which has been true for a decade. The equipment is critical and expensive, so grid operators need to keep their own supplies in case of emergencies. In the US at least, attacks and unexplained “incidents” at substations are on the rise, making it more important to keep spares in reserve. It can take up to two years to purchase and receive a new unit.

Second, not all equipment is compatible with Ukraine’s Soviet era hardware. Exactly what is or is not compatible is a matter of contention. The US Department of Energy (DOE), which is nominally responsible for the US government’s effort on transformers for Ukraine, has been accused of inconsistency on the key issue of whether US transformers are compatible with the Ukrainian grid.

Ukrenergo and some US grid engineers insist US transformers could work with minor adaptations and have been urging the US to send even just one already retired unit so Ukraine can test it. Some involved in the effort claim DOE officals have not followed up on leads. Likewise, Ukrenergo claims its efforts to contact US and Canadian grid companies directly have gone unanswered. At this stage, there appears to be a lack of clarity and coordination.  

Procuring and sending the transformers is another problem. Although the US Department of Defense is said to be ready and willing to cover logistics, these massive and extremely heavy machines are unlikely to fit in any available cargo aircraft. That leaves shipping by sea, which takes several months.

The effort to find replacement high-power autotransformers for Ukraine is dedicated and broad. The Ukrainian executives and technicians responsible for keeping their grid alive are valiantly struggling to do so. The US government officials trying to help are hardworking and sincere in their desire to support Ukraine. The EU and countries neighboring Ukraine are stakeholders in the safety and security of Ukraine’s energy and power situation, and are also clearly committed to helping. 

Despite these advantages, problems remain. Obstacles include post-COVID supply chain bottlenecks, a global energy crisis, sanctions that hurt Russia but also make doing business difficult, bureaucratic processes, and the fog of war. As a consequence, it may yet be some time before current efforts pay off for Ukraine. While the authorities in Kyiv wait for the transformers they so desperately need, the Russian military will continue to destroy the country’s energy infrastructure in a bid to freeze Ukrainians into submission.   

Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Further reading

UkraineAlert
Dec 26, 2022

Eight reasons for Ukrainian optimism in 2023

By
Brian Mefford

Ukrainians have experienced an incredibly traumatic year but the country enters 2023 with reason for cautious optimism that Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion can be decisively defeated, writes Brian Mefford.

European Union
NATO

UkraineAlert
Dec 25, 2022

Bakhmut: Fortress of freedom

By
Andriy Yermak

Western support for Ukraine must remain strong in 2023 to prevent a Russian victory that would fuel a global authoritarian revival, warns the head of Ukraine’s Office of the President, Andriy Yermak.

Conflict
European Union

UkraineAlert
Dec 22, 2022

Russia’s defeat is the top global priority for 2023

By
Oleksii Reznikov

Ensuring that the Russian invasion of Ukraine ends in defeat is vital for the international security system and must be the strategic priority for 2023, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Conflict
European Union

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Ukraine struggles to repair power grid as Russian airstrikes continue appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have made its first big battlefield gain after half a year of military setbacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said later that the fighting for Soledar and other eastern towns and cities was continuing.

Ukraine’s eastern military command had denied Russia controlled Soledar.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation in the town, which has become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the 10-month war.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured Soledar on Thursday evening, allowing them potentially to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the city of Bakhmut, southwest of Soledar, and trap remaining Ukrainian forces there.

In its statement, the ministry credited the town’s seizure to Russian troops and aviation without mentioning the role of the Wagner mercenary group.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has harshly criticized the failings of the regular army, issued a premature claim earlier this week that Soledar had fallen, and said the fighting there was exclusively being waged by his men.

In comments issued through his press service on Friday, and apparently aimed at Russia’s defence establishment, Prigozhin complained about “infighting, corruption, bureaucracy and officials who want to stay in their positions,” as well as what he called constant attempts to “steal victory” from Wagner.

In response, Russia’s defence ministry late on Friday issued a second statement seeking “to clarify” the situation and acknowledging the role of Wagner Group fighters in Soledar.

“As for the direct storming of Soledar’s city quarters occupied by the armed forces of Ukraine, this combat task was successfully accomplished by the courageous and selfless actions of volunteers from the Wagner assault detachments,” the ministry said.

Zelenskiy mocked the statement as “a clear sign of failure for the enemy” and said it should serve as an incentive to put more pressure on Moscow’s forces.

“They are already fighting among themselves over who should be credited with some tactical advance,” he said in a late-night video address.

If confirmed, the capture of Soledar would mark Russia’s first significant gain since July. It follows months of battlefield defeats and major retreats near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine and from Kherson in the south.

Around 100 people have been evacuated from Soledar to the Russian-held town of Shakhtarsk, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted a local official as saying. Ukraine said on Thursday more than 500 civilians including 15 children were trapped inside Soledar.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by an evangelical Christian former mail carrier in Pennsylvania who accused the U.S. Postal Service of religious bias after being reprimanded for refusing to deliver packages on Sundays.

The justices took up Gerald Groff’s case after lower courts dismissed his claim that the Postal Service violated federal anti-discrimination law by refusing to exempt him from working on Sundays, when he observes the Sabbath, finding that his demands placed too much hardship on his co-workers and employer.

The case gives the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, another opportunity to back a plaintiff who has made a claim of anti-religion discrimination.

Groff’s job as a “rural carrier associate” in Holtwood, Pennsylvania required him to fill in as needed for absent career carriers. But Groff repeatedly did not show up for Sunday shifts assigned as part of the Postal Service’s contract to deliver Amazon.com packages. Postal officials sought to accommodate Groff by attempting to facilitate Sunday shift swaps, but the effort was not always successful.

His absences caused resentment among others carriers who had to cover his shifts and ultimately led one to leave the Holtwood station and another to quit the Postal Service altogether, according to court papers. Groff received several disciplinary letters for his attendance and resigned in 2019.

The case tests the allowances companies must make for employees for religious reasons to comply with a federal anti-discrimination law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

Under the law, employers must reasonably accommodate a worker’s religious observance or practices unless that would cause the business “undue hardship” – which the Supreme Court in a 1977 case called Trans World Airlines v. Hardison determined to be anything that imposes more than a minor, or “de minimis,” cost.

In similar cases over the past three years that the court has turned away, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch have cast doubt on the 1977 ruling.

The Supreme Court has taken an expansive view of religious liberties in a number of important cases in recent years. For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court last year further reduced the separation of church and state in a ruling endorsing more public funding of religious entities in a case involving two Christian families who challenged a Maine tuition assistance program that excluded private religious schools.

Groff sued the Postal Service in 2019. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year threw out the case, finding that exempting Groff caused “undue hardship” because it strained co-workers and disrupted workflow.

Groff’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to take up the case and revisit the 1977 ruling, under which courts “virtually always side with employers whenever an accommodation would impose any burden.”

First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious rights legal organization, is part of Groff’s legal team in the case.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department’s handling of improperly stored classified documents possessed by President Joe Biden, and questioned whether his son, Hunter, had access to any.

In a Jan. 13 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said the Justice Department’s appointment of Robert Hur as special counsel for the case this week raised “fundamental oversight questions.” They demanded all relevant documents and communications between the department, the FBI, the White House and Biden’s attorneys.

The letter came a day after Biden’s legal team acknowledged it had found classified documents relating to his time as vice president in the Obama administration at his Delaware home, including some in his garage. Aides previously found another batch of classified documents at his residence, and at a Washington think tank he was associated with.

Earlier on Friday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer wrote to the White House asking whether Hunter Biden had access to classified documents found at the president’s private residence.

“It is unclear when the department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections,” House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and fellow panel Republican Mike Johnson told Garland in their letter.

“We expect your complete cooperation with our inquiry,” they wrote, setting a Jan. 27 deadline for compliance.

White House and Justice Department officials were not immediately available for comment.

The two Republican probes present a distraction for the Democratic president, who has criticized his Republican predecessor Donald Trump’s handling of classified material, and could cast a shadow over Biden as both he and Trump gear up for a possible 2024 election rematch.

It also provides fodder for House Republicans, who have pledged to focus their new majority on a number of investigations into the Biden administration.

In addition to examining Biden’s handling of classified documents, Republicans are preparing to probe Hunter Biden’s past business dealings in Ukraine.

In Comer’s letter to the White House, House Oversight Committee chairman said the home where the documents were found was listed as Hunter Biden’s address on his driver’s license as recently as 2018.

“The Committee is concerned President Biden stored classified documents at the same location his son resided while engaging in international business deals with adversaries of the United States,” the letter read.

Republicans have sought to compare the investigation of Biden’s handling of classified documents to the ongoing probe into how Trump handled classified documents after his presidency.

But their cases are not the same, legal experts say.

The White House said Biden’s attorneys found a small number of classified documents and turned them over after discovery. Trump resisted doing so until an August FBI search turned up about 100 classified documents, raising questions about whether Trump or his staff obstructed the investigation.