See in oil or gold. Maybe things arent all that bad in the underlying real economy, particularly when it comes to china. Coming up later in the hour, we l look at out the china look at the fallout of chinau. S. Tensions. Adc drama is intensifying. Avestors weighing contentious battle over the now Vacant Supreme Court seat. We want to bring in chief austin correspondent Kevin Cirilli for more. What do investors need to watch chief washington correspondent vin cirilli for more chief washington correspondent Kevin Cirilli for more. What do investors need to watch for . Kevin this is going to take up all of the oxygen in the room before the election. Things like fiscal stimulus, continuing resolutions, other potential nonpartisan issues to likely get across the finish line before the end the month, all of the focus instead is going to be on the Supreme Court battle. Judge amyont runners, coney barrett, as well as barbara le goa barbara lagoa. He says he wants to pick within the next couple of days. Whether or not the senate would take them up before the november 3 election or in the lameduck session it is a little bit too early to tell, but weve already senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski saying they feel this vote shouldnt take place until after the november 3 election. Thank youn cirilli, very much. Ruthng us now for more on Bader Ginsburg is elizabeth prelogar, former clerk to Justice Ginsburg, now a partner with cooley. First of all, we are sorry for your loss. We want to talk about what she meant to the court, and what the . Marks what the question are now. Elizabeth it is such a tremendous loss for the court and the country, and those of us who knew the justice up close and admired her from afar. She was known really around the world for her commitment to standing up for groups that were marginalized. She was someone who gave a voice to those who lacked the power in our society to speak for themselves. She uplifted them through the law. She recognized their humanity and their dignity and their struggle. I think that part of her legacy will undoubtedly be the amazing way she was able to focus in and recognize the legal principles that help elevate them and their causes. In terms of looking forward, i think it is such a tragic loss. She was a woman who was kind of diminutive in stature, and yet completely largerthanlife. Are seeing this outpouring of grief from society is because everyone recognizes that she truly is replaceable. How does the court therefore change without her . Elizabeth the immediate thing i think of is that we are down to an eightmember court now, and with only two women on the court. Justice ginsburg always made a point of being present. I clerked for her the year that her husband marty died. It was the day before the court was handing down its last opinion, and the justice, notwithstanding this tragic personal loss, went to court the day after her husband died and sat on the bench and handed down that opinion. She says she did it because she knew marty would have wanted her to do it, and because she knew it was important for people to see women on the court. She said she likes the fact that there were three justices spread out among the seats. Is such a different dynamic now, and i cant predict what will happen. Playsregardless of how it out, what we can all agree on is that the polarization and politicization of the court is now even more intensified. I wonder if you could not above the visions of, and how that could get maybe even worse next year if the democrats push packing the court and increasing the size of the court. Elizabeth it has made this an election issue more than ever. One of the unfortunate court is that everyone focuses on the 54 decisions, the lightning rod issue that are decided every year. Of course, the docket includes a substantial number of those case , but the vast majority of the docket includes cases that dont flip along those lines, that either involve unanimous verdicts or else have a very different lineup and dynamic. I think that in these times, i am drawing comfort of the fact that when the court is sitting there resolving the bread and butter cases that come before it , politics frequently dont enter into the. Into the equation. Guy if there is a rest confirmation, will that undermine the credibility of the court . Elizabeth it is hard to even think through right now in the middle of the grief we are feeling how this is to go forward in the future. What i am focused on right now as we all come together to mourn the justice is what she meant to all of us and what she meant to our society, what her legacy will be, and how we have to find a way for that to carry on and live on. Bloomberg, so we cover the markets. We had a downgrade of Certain Health care stocks from jp morgan due to the democratic momentum that this could rejuvenate and what that means for obamacare, etc. Would you be able to pick out for us the areas of the Supreme Court that we might see changes if we do get a different makeup in terms of a more conservative judge versus liberal judges . What are the key fire points that investors need to watch out for . Elizabeth i think you identified the very first one that comes to my mind, which is with the Affordable Care act. As im sure you know, the court will be hearing a case in november, shortly after the election, that involves a challenge, kind of an existential threat to the Affordable Care act, where the argument is that the entire act should be invalidated, which would of course up end expectations and strip insurance from millions of american. I think that is the case i am most focused on and watching right now. Guy mentioned rushing through the confirmation process. Can you help us understand what the process actually looks like . Whichuld talk about how, he was trying to get approved, people did not like their views but begrudgingly had to approve her. What is the process now . Elizabeth the process now, the senate provides advice and consent. What that ordinarily means is that each senator who meets with the nominee talks about judicial philosophy, talks about the nominees views, and tries to take a measure of the person. I think that, of course, we have seen ever more contentious confirmation hearings in recent years. I cant protect what will happen with this one, but i think the senate obviously has its role to play here. Such a surprising turn in time for this to occur. Guy we really appreciate your time at such a difficult time. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. Gar, partner at cooley. Still ahead, the covid crisis continues across the globe, but will we see another round of stimulus in the United States . Peter huber, bochy bank global head of economic research, will be joining us next peter bank globalsche head of economic research, will be joining us next. Plenty more still to come. This is bloomberg. I think in my forecast for this year, i think some additional fiscal stimulus is part of that. One of the unusual features of this downturn is Consumer Spending has been strong despite the elevated unemployment rate. That usually doesnt happen in a downturn. It is happening because of strong fiscal support. I am still hopeful for it, and i think it is still important to this recovery. Alix that was robert kaplan, dallas had president , speaking earlier about the need for stimulus. Federal reserve chairman jay powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin will be testifying before lawmakers on the issue tomorrow. Joining us is peter huber, Deutsche Bank is peter hooper, Deutsche Bank global head of economic research. Because the focus is turning so much now to the Supreme Court and so much divide between republicans and democrats in the senate, fiscal stimulus is definitely not going to happen. Without it, what happens to the economy . Peter we sharpened our pencils recently to see what that assumption is going to do. I agree with you, it looks like we are not going to get it. We previously had some thing close to 6 growth in the fourth quarter. That is coming down at this point very close to zero. We think the absence of further support to households its going to take some thing like 5 , 6 out of the annual rate of growth in the fourth quarter. We do think we will get something in the new year, and that will begin to give things a bit of a lift. But the months ahead are not looking good. We are starting to see the strength in Consumer Spending rollover. The latest retail numbers come as a mother indicators of Consumer Spending coming off, mobility indicators coming off. Our highfrequency indicators suggesting the economy is starting to slow. Powell, and his postdecision News Conference lest week, talked heavily about the need for stimulus. If we are not going to get stimulus, how does powell react . We will hear from him three times this week. What does he say . Peter a few hopes were may be that the fed would give us a Little Something in their Balance Sheet policy, may be starting to increase the maturity of their purchases. That does add some stimulus and put some further downward pressure on longerterm rates. Fed has been holding that in the wing in reserve, and if the numbers do begin to slow, i think we going to the next couple of meetings and we could well get a shift in that direction to offset some of the weakness. But certainly if it looks like the economy is slowing to zero growth, i would expect them to step in and do a little more. Alix kaplan was one of the dissenters last week, and said he believes strongly that the fed could have kept its rate, and that he wants to keep the flexibility and doesnt want to tie policymakers hands too much. Are the feds hands tied too much . Peter we are looking down the road here at a time eventually where the fed might have to reverse. We are a long way for that. Inflation is not coming away anytime soon. I understand the desire not to make a commitment. Term, i dont see this having much impact. This is when we get to the point where inflation does the get to does begin to rise, and we committed to rates low into 2023, etc. I can understand that discomfort. Probably just as well that at least one person register some dissent on that. Guy in your note on the 20th, you talk about an increasing risk of financial disruption down the road stemming from the growing overvaluation of asset and mounting debt levels driven by the necessity of necessary monetaryto which policy is moved. If we were to see a downturn in equity markets, is that something the fed would lean into, try and stop . Or do you think the fed is getting concerned about the levels at which some assets are now priced . Peter let me just say first that that comment about risk was really a longerterm phenomenon, looking at a point way down the road when the fed does begin to turn. Typically in the past, we have seen financial crises arise when the fed begins to tighten. Nearterm, is the fed going to tighten just because the equity market is softening . Broaderused on financial conditions. Yes, the stock market is important there. But i think the general and patient is the general expectation is the stock it has done very well this year. Valuations have risen substantially. Maybe they are overvalued, so the recent correction is not a bad at all. Our own you is we are probably coming down more to get to our year end target. I dont see that in itself is a factor that is going to cause the fed to move, but if we get a substantial negative reaction of stock, credit markets and so on is a clear slowing of the think that is a picture where financial conditions are really beginning to logan steve beginning to go against you in the fed will have to do something. Alix one thing we havent really broken down is the virus. We are moving out of Technology Stocks into more cyclical stocks, and that is causing churn in the markets. The other thing is youre getting potential lockdown point lock down to point out 2 in the u. K. 0 lockdown 2. 0 in the u. K. Peter you have seen pretty substantial acceleration of cases in spain, france, and now u. K. It is not going to be a good picture through the winter. We have been saying things are going to be slowing into the fourth quarter, first quarter, even Second Quarter as the virus picks up more. But then the good news, of course, as we have had a bit of on the vaccine front. Of the nine vaccine candidates that are now in phase three testing, we think we will get a number of these going and generally available sometime around the middle of next year, giving a lift down the road. So it is a bifurcated picture. Nearterm not so good, but be on the nearterm, things should begin to improve. Guy europe at least is delivering stimulus. Europe looks like in some ways, it has a longer term fiscal plan. The ecb looks like it will be delivering on the monetary side as well. Whether or not the ecb is in a liquidity trap is another question. We will have to wrap it up there. Thank you, peter hooper, Deutsche Bank global head of research here with global head of economic research. Here at the first word news is ritika gupta. Ritika President Trump says he plans to pick the replacement on the Supreme Court for ruth Bader Ginsburg by friday. He says he wants to see a vote for confirmation before november 3. He says he will likely pick a woman. The United States is about to reach a grim milestone. The number of covid19 related deaths is approaching 200,000. Former fda commissioner Scott Gottlieb says he expects the u. S. To experience at least one more cycle of the virus in the fall and winter. More than 906 to 1000 people around the world have died from coronavirus. Health Officials Say the u. K. Is on course for 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day by midoctober if urgent measures arent taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Prime minister Boris Johnson is widely expected to set out for the restrictions tuesday, although Health Secretary matt hancock says the government wants to avoid a Second National lockdown. The Health Secretary also says johnson has fully recovered from the virus, which put him in intensive care back in april. A slowmoving Tropical Storm bringeing will drenching rains to texas and louisiana. Tropical storm beta could dump up to 20 inches of rain on some parts of the region, though it is no longer at expected to strengthen into a hurricane. 23rdis the atlantics storm for 2020 so far, the secondmost active season on record going back to the one on record, going back to 1851. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im ritika gupta. This is bloomberg. Guy thank you very much, indeed. The german dax is now down by four point 2 . The ftse 100 is down by 3. 5 . European equities generally under pressure. Youve got a curve flattening. Rade the u. S. 30 year down by 5. 8 basis points. The u. K. 30 year down by 4. 4 basis points. By 4 . De is down it is a risk off monday. This is bloomberg. Guy live from london, im guy johnson, with alix steel in new york. This is bloomberg markets. Tumble. Nikola scarlet fu has more of the details. Much as shares fell as. It surged almost 80 after setting a reservation date for its electric truck. Trevor milton is leading the startup he founded, a week after the sec began investigating hindenburg researchs claim that nikola misled investors over its technology. A former gm executive will replace milton. He already sits on the board and has been with the Company Since it combined with his. Many investors who helped drive the stock higher, seen as the next tesla because milton is big and personality, likes to sound off on twitter. Unlike tesla, nikola has actually yet to make a vehicle, and has therefore not generated any meaningful revenue. Cowen says the optics on this are terrible, but it is the best us of outcome for nikola. The company has a strong bench and can now make good on its pact with general motors, which took a 12 stake. Shares of gmr down. Gm says it will continue to work on hoping to bring the companys vehicle to market. We are also seeing fallout in a Green Energy Company that was counting on supplying nikola with its technology to create hydrogen, so the story continues. Alix buying remorse for gm . I dont know. Thanks for that. Coming up, a battle for the senate. How replacing Justice Ginsburg is affecting markets. Dean curnutt, Macro Risk Advisors ceo, joins us next as the selloff picks up steam. This is bloomberg. Alix live from new york, im alix steel, with guy johnson in london. Bloomberg markets this is this is bloomberg markets. An ugly market monday developing. You have a bid really coming into the bond market, over in germany and here in the u. S. 30 year yield falling as much as six basis points to 1. 39 . Gold also selling off as well. They risk off really taking hold. Lets get more now with dean curnutt, Macro Risk Advisors ceo. What is leading the selloff in europe and here in the u. S. . Dean i think it is a common nation of things. I think it is a combination of things. It was the case that valuations were getting more and more. Tretched they say never shortly market on valuation, but it certainly didnt help that things got stretched. Thing for thern u. S. Think there is worry about what is happening on the college front. You alluded to the election that is out there. Wasink peoples base case that a tail risk might be a contested event. I think that is less of a tell risk and more of a central risk at this point. As we observe the price of volatility, what is quite interesting is if we look at the vix futures curve, 32 ago, you saw something very prominent in terms of pricing right around the election, but risk was priced relatively benignly on thatthat aspired expired before the election, and that expired in december and beyond were priced as if the election risk was going to come and go. Now you have options of all areerent expirations extremely pricey. If you look at the vix futures curve all the way up to february, you will see it is priced at a 30 vix, which is very high. If the market is moving, the realized vol is up a lot, and i think theres concerns that this uncertainty around the election is going to stay with us for a period after the election. Guy theres a bunch of weird things going on today. Dollaryen going up one of them. Yen should go up on a risk off day. We got exactly the opposite. What is going on with the dollar . Why are we seeing the moves we are seeing at the moment, and what does it tell us about how the market is set up . Dean i think a lot of things pivot around the dollar. If you look at correlations, for example, what of the things we have tracked is the correlation of gold to bitcoin. That has gotten increasingly high, around 60 or so. If you peel away the layers, you will see both of these are really good inverse proxies for the dollar. They are going up because, at least up until a couple of days ago, the dollar was weakening. I am not sure exactly what to make of the dollar rally. It could just be a countertrend. I think it is interesting that the dollar is rallying, especially against the yen come on a risk off day. This was a very big consensus trade, that the dollar is going to we can going to weaken and weaken, so it could be fairly consensus in terms of positioning, but it doesnt feel good. I go back to gold. We have seen clients use it as a diversifier. It is hard to find an asset that you can put in your portfolio that has got a reasonably positive return as gold has, and yet has almost no correlation, sometimes negative correlation to the stock market at large. What we are seeing in the last month or so is gold becoming increasingly correlated to the s p. That is a challenge from portfolio construction stand went construction standpoint. You want the assets in your portfolio to make any, but you also need them to not all move the same way to make money, but you also need them to not all move the same way. Alix talk to me about positioning. Theres been a real move into gold etfs, a diversifier. Todaq, on the flipside, seem have accumulated their largest net short position in a dozen years. You also some materials outperforming last week. Caterpillar did really well. Where are we in terms of the shift of positioning, a. K. A. What gets washed out . Dean when we look at futures positioning, i always have to take those with a grain of salt. It is very difficult to know if these are against options positions, they could be shorts against etfs. We do know that the world is long a echo a lot of tech. It is what has been working for years and years. Apple, amazon. We know that the concentration has gotten extreme has gotten increasingly topheavy. One of the issues ive had is if you look at forget tesla. That is kind of on its own. Some of the superhigh flyers. When you look at apple and amazon, in the period leading into this, the valuations of those two mega caps got as extreme as we have seen. That is not really the case historically for those two, at least in the past couple of years. That is a worry. Theseou think about stocks falling, we have to recognize just how much they have risen. It is just difficult to get is ind when the market some ways struggling psychologically, and there is no obvious valuation floor to look at, just if and how far things have run. Guy lets talk about a couple of stocks that spring to mind when you are talking about that. Tesla reversing today. It has gone up. Now it is starting to fade that pretty aggressively. Nicola one of the big stories as well. It has been a darling of the shortterm call buyers. I am wondering how the market is set up for those folks right now. We are starting to see the market turn. I am wondering if we start to see some of the call buying come out of the market, what impact that is going to have. Just look through that prism for me and tell me how the market is going to move if we do see some of these highflying stocks turning aggressively. Dean when we try to look at the tumult in the first week of september, suddenly, on september 3, they fell 5 . Took a couple of days, and there was another 5 move. These are significant moves in the context of where the volatility was leading into that in the markets. It was a bit out of nowhere. One of the things that is important to understand is the options market. You mentioned the call buyers. It is hard to get very specific showsn this, but our work that the volume and call buying on the highflying tech stocks has increasingly come from retail. The reason we assume that or can figure that out is because of the trade sizes are excessively small, and they are generally to the buy side, and they are very short dated. Think about the robinhood crew as just having this appetite for short dated call options in stocks that were only going up. The dynamic, the point i want to make is the dynamic for the street, meaning the wall street firms seeking to hedge these options, theres a lot of short volatility exposure. Everyone is short the call options to the robinhood crowd. What happens is you get kind of an amplification of moves from the hedging process, both to the upside and the downside. So you can argue that there was an overshoot because all of the professional volatility traders needed to buy stock as the market was rising, and it served to reinforce the move, and now we are seeing an unwind of that. So the selling pressure can be accentuated by the wall street crowd effectively having to reduce their hedges in a hurry. It is difficult to prove, but i think the overlay a box o overlay of option exposures is an important narrative. Alix dean curnutt of Macro Risk Advisors, thank you very much. Coming up, the other aspect to the market is in d. C. With tech. Trump blesses the tiktok deal. China says they will not approve it. We will break that down with craig allen, u. S. China Business Council president. The dow now off by about 3 . And dax have an s p really getting hard. The bid into the bond market, particularly in the long ends here. Ust want to check in on gold not your safe haven trade today. Watch that unwind as we go. This is bloomberg. Ritika this is bloomberg markets. Im ritika gupta, live in the principal room. This is bloomberg. Bloombergk on the first word news now. Im ritika gupta. President trump heads to ohio. Oday he will then head to an event in swanton. Won ohio ohio trump in 2016. In the spanish capital of madrid, police are stopping people coming in and out of some areas that have been partially locked down to stem europes coronavirus spread. Some 806 2000 residents are affected. The measure has been met with protests by people who think authorities are stigmatizing the poor. Spain is struggling to contain a second wave of covid19. The head of Irans Nuclear agency says the lynn mark 2015 deal between tehran says the landmark 2015 deal between tehran and the world the deal promises iran economic incentives in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Iran has been breaking restrictions outlined in the deal since the u. S. Pulled out of the agreement. And a woman expected ascending envelope to the white house containing the poison ricin was arrested over the weekend. Officials say she was taken into custody at the u. S. Canadian border while trying to enter the United States. Her name wasnt released, but Officials Say her arrest comes nearly a year after she was deported from the u. S. For engaging in criminal activity. The letter was intercepted last week before it reached the white house. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im ritika gupta. This is bloomberg. Much. Hank you very President Trump says the u. S. Based Tiktok Service should be fully controlled by oracle, influence tohinese be diluted. Joining us now, craigavon, u. S. China craig allen, u. S. China Business Council president. Is that what we are seeing . The chinese are not happy. How does this get resolved . Craig this is perhaps the third act of a seven or eight act play. We are seeing a coalition of American Companies have come around to a deal, but both governments have a final signoff on this. It is unclear to me that the security requirements by the u. S. Government have been fully met. Nor is it clear to me that on the chinese side, there are export control concerns that are met. What will finally be done with the source code, will that be transferred or not, seems to be an open question. I think there are a lot of issues here that are not fully resolved. Alix if you are a tech Company Operating in china or a u. S. Arm of a chinese tech Company Operating in the u. S. , how do you look at this . Do you have to rethink how you are doing your business and structuring it, or is this sort of like a oneoff tiktok retaliation, politicization for President Trump . How should companies be thinking . Craig i think companies are looking at this tactically certainly. What does it mean for them . Tech goes well beyond tech companies. There are a lot of advertisers who have been active on tiktok. Doesoreover, i think it call into question some of the bothive ease with which American Companies in china and Chinese Companies in america have been sending data back and , the over borders crossborder data flows. I think that on both sides, there are causes for concern that they will be much more ,eavily regulated in the future and that is something we will be talking more about over the next months and years. Guy id like to get your take on a comment i heard from Henrietta Treyz of veda partners. She talked about the unreliable entity listed that china uses to on Companies Operating in its jurisdiction. Theres been a lot of comments about hsbc, and the bubble times list and the global times was talking about the possibility of hsbc being placed on the unreliable entity list. Any foreign Company Operating in china that has a chinese competitor could find itself falling foul of this. Do you see that risk, and to follow up, how does a Foreign Company handle that . Craig this is a really good question. The unreliable entities list is something the Chinese Government has been working on for the last seven or eight years. It is not fully done yet either in law. However, it has been greatly accelerated over the last month or six weeks. The chinese are talking about it as a very broad, illdefined, flexible tool by which they can sanction Foreign Companies for a whole host of different reasons, including impinging upon chinas sovereignty. So while the u. S. Export control list is very much National Security oriented, the chinese unreliable entities list, which it is modeled after, seems to be a much more flexible and abroad instrument, and indeed, i think Foreign Companies are concerned. They might fall afoul of this, and if they do, what is there recourse . What Legal Options they have remains very unclear. This is an area that we will need to watch very carefully over the next weeks and months. Alix normally when this kind of stuff what happen, we might dismiss it as political rhetoric, grandstanding. But when President Trump tells fox news today that he would dealcind his blessing for a if bytedance would rescind his blessing for a deal if bytedance had control of the company, that has some real bite to it. Craig i think there are really two areas. One is in technology, and the areasnductor equipment that have been going through a difficult time over the last year or so. That soldly companies to huawei were having difficulty. What tiktok and wechat bring is focus onmuch tighter crossborder data flows. Who owns what, personally identifiable data of americans, and how do we regulate that and ensure that it is protected. So we are moving beyond Just Technology controls to data controls. That is a much broader scope, as Many Companies have a lot of identifiable information of their customers. This is the terms of the debate going forward. Guy how does this end, then . Data is the new oil. People often talk about that. If we see oil cut off from china and vice versa, what are the economic implications of that . Craig this is a really difficult question, as so much of manufacturing has become services and data. Trade and data are very closely aligned, and Companies Need to know their customers can send the data back and forth it is becoming increasingly difficult for american in Financial Services firms were chinese toancial firms in america send data back and forth between platforms and their server farms in their home countries. This is really becoming more difficult. It is becoming more difficult to live up to full compliance with both american and chinese law as you move at about over the borders. We need a really good discussion on this because it is important for the companys of countries to be able to have some degree flows, crossborder data protecting their customers and their clients private information is appropriate. We have a long way to go before we are able to get there. Alix by the way, theres an election in november, so theres that, too. Thanks so much for joining us, greg allen, u. S. China craig allen, u. S. And china Business Council president. Sub 1900. The dollar is catching a bid. European equities and u. S. Equities very much under pressure, as you can see. Eurodollar trading with a one. Dollar . 17 handle. The curve is flattening with a one dollar . 17 handle. The curve is flattening. Certainly it is a risk off monday. This is bloomberg. Alix this is bloomberg markets. , nowy futures tumbling down about 9 from recent highs. , you have alexion uncertain getting priced into the vix curve as well. Scarlet fu has more. Plus, you have election uncertain getting priced into the vix curve as well. Scarlet fu has more. And thisafter a real rally all summer long, futures have been steadily dropping this month. The passing of ruth Bader Ginsburg friday just raises the stakes of the elections. Look at the vix futures curve as well. Initially we thought the volatility with spike right after the election. Spike in the october contract, which is christ of options that include election day which is priced tough of that include election day. Now we see the november contract catching up with the october contract. What does that mean . Goldman sachs strategist says investors are adding protections beyond just election day. The concern is that there will be concern and counting that there will be delays in counting balance. Counting ballots. A key day and all of this is september 8, the takeover deadline the safe harbor deadline to report to the electoral college. U. S. Citizens vote november 3, on electors cast their votes december 8. Bush versus gore was settled on to summer 12 on december 12 in terms of actual votes. Investors seem pretty hesitant to bet on a continued decrease in volatility. Guy thank you very much, indeed. It is getting fascinating, the way this is flipping so quickly and we are completely changing the narrative. One event, and the ripple is spreading throughout this market. Lets take a look at where we sit as we approach the european close. We are now half an hour away from the end of trading in europe, and it is turning out to be a very ugly session. The dax down by four point 2 . We are seeing selloff in the United States as well. The dollar is catching a bid. This is bloomberg. Guy live from london, im guy johnson, with alix steel in york. We are counting you down to the european close on bloomberg markets. European stocks sliding sharply, the biggest drop since july. It basically has two main drivers. Firstly, covid concerns. The u. K. Says infections could climb to 50,000 today by midoctober. A perfect storm hits the sector with a human a bloomberg scandal and potential sanctions from both china and the United States. Lets talk about the markets and show you where we are as we approach the end of the day here in europe. Is probably leading the charge to the downside. The german markets down hard. The s p 500 in the United States down by 2. 5 . What is odd here is the dollar is catching a little bit of a bid. You wonder whether this is