Whale. Buying up massive bets on tech shares as the european commissioner tells cnbc europe needs an answer. Its a major problem. Cant match this problem with a single taxation. And he is worried about talks with the u. K. Amid talks that the government could override parts of the divorce deal. Happy monday and a very warm welcome to street signs. Lets look at how the markets are doing. European markets are trading higher across the board this morning. Every major region participating in the rally the ftse rallying 1. 2 last week it underperformed relative to the rest of europe all of europe seeing a negative week last week the stoxx 600 dropping we have a bit of a rebound taking mace this morning lets take a look at the sector break down starting with the best performing parts of the market we have real estate up about 2 . Autos also performing up 1. 9 . Renault is a star performer. Industrials and basic utilities round out the topper formers lets see what the bottom looks like media oil and gas, food and bev, telecoms and banks still hovering around the flat line and the Banking Sector in focus as we have the ecb meeting coming up on thursday. That will be a focal point for investors. Its a slow start to the week with u. S. Markets closed for the labor day holiday. News over the weekend thrusting china u. S. Relations back into the spotlight. We have this is around smic, one of the chinese chip makers theres a look at the european chip makers and a bit more detail smic shares sunk over 20 on the news of potential sanctions by the Trump Administration the u. S. Defense Department Said it may add the chinese chip maker to its blacklist possibly blocking american suppliers from selling to the company chinas foreign minister said today it urges the u. S. To quote stop oppressing foreign companies. European commissioner expressed concerns that some of the larger u. S. Tech companies are not paying their fair share of taxes. Its a major problem because we all know that the giants of the digital platforms are the real winners from this crisis. Its not more possible but the idea that those giants, the winners of the prizes are not paying a fair amount of taxes in europe and we cant match this problem with a single digital taxation in india, in france, et cetera, et cetera. We need at least at the European Union level a general measure. We hope that this can reach the global level we have difficulty but we will see if something is possible. Shares are trading lower in japan weighing on the nikkei but the report names the investment giant as the nasdaq whale. Softbank made over 4 billion from a series of bets on u. S. Tech firms to help fuel the recent rally the shift in approach began in march as softbank rotated out of a slew of positions and start ups that turned sour with the worsening of the pandemic. Lets bring in our first guest this morning great to have you with us this morning. I want to kick off on the back of the story that i was reading around soft bank as one of the key reasons or the key investors behind the option buying that fuelled part of the tech rally we saw in august what do you make of playing a huge role in the rally that we saw tech shares in august. Its been quite interesting looking at the option market and wondering what has been going on as markets have been rising in august and volatility rising as well so softbank made this very big purchase the interesting thing is going to be what do they do with them now . If we see a further set back are they going to try to close the positions and if they do close the positions are we going to see further unwinding . And perhaps its slightly reminiscent to going back to 1998 is that going to lead to a dislocation in markets i suspect this isnt big enough to cause that but certainly its going to be causing a few worries at softbank and thats why we have seen the share price fall. Looking at the fundamentals behind the tech sector do you think were in bubble territory where investors should be trimming their positions in the tech stocks or do you think theres reason to continue putting fresh money to work in these tech stocks . I think that were certainly in bubble territory and bubble territory, because theres so many good reasons to own these companies, if you sort of think of the big five, the alphabet, amazon, apple, microsoft, facebook, you think of those, howell they have done during the last few years and then coronavirus helped them grow even more and as a result its what everyone is talking about and the bubble is not that theyre not great businesses that are going to carry on growing but its the exuberance. They have high profit margins. Profits of 250 billion. They are already representing 20 of the u. S. Stock market and given how big the u. S. Stock market is that is 12 . 12 of the index so you have exuberance on a very small number of stocks thats certainly bubble territory. The question of course is if you go back to 1996 talking about the exuberance then and the market carried on rising for four years, i would be saying to people, this is the this a bubbletype territory but it doesnt mean that its going to deflight now that what we have seen in the last week or so is only an unwinding of the rise of the previous two weeks be really careful. Look at the percentage that youve got if youre 15 or 20 and youre overweight those then be aware of that but if you have 30 or 40 of your portfolio in there thats a really big risk that youre taking. Where should investors be recycling that money if youre one of the Investors Holding 30 or 40 in the tech stocks and you want to start trimming positions . Where should you be looking . Regionally or sectorwise . Regionally asian emerging markets are an interesting area. Valuations arent as rich as they are in the west growth is certainly going to come back overtime and continue to be much stronger than its been in the west so thats one area worth looking at the other reason to bear in mind a cyclical recovery in the moment and there are areas to look at. Im not telling people to sell out entirely but if you have 30 or 40 then start looking at going into those sorts of areas. Lastly, how do you factor this into your view of expectations around the upcoming elections. How are you positioning ahead of november it now seems really close between biden and trump. I think the markets would prefer a trump reelection. The market would be concerned that bide b will biden will increase Corporation Tax it also depends on the senate and the house of representatives. We remain invested in risk assets the increase in money supply in the u. S. And what Central Banks are doing globally is pushing up asset prices thank you so much for joining us this morning. Lets get out to steve now who joins us following his return from northern italy this weekend. It looked beautiful on friday and you were busy over the weekend. Talk us through the key themes at this years forum. No bones about it it was a thoroughly interesting debate i got involved in some speeches. Some moderating and the stuff that you saw on camera as well theres so much going on at the moment and europe feels quite confident of having the fact that it has a 750 billion euro Recovery Plan in that pocket it has a trillion euro budget as well they feel that those two cornerstones plus the support from the ecb can really give the continent a big leap forward theres enormous challenging now. Theres a big dispute between the u. S. And china as well how does europe find its way through. And the pandemic has strengthened the multilateral relations and i spoke to him at the forum and asked him about how alliances have changed over the past six months. Its important to me that i mention that we receive supplies from all over the world. We bought from china like everyone else and other also countries so the issue is not in discussion its in the Euro Atlantic Alliance and ally and friend of the u. S. The purchases during the pandemic does not change their relationships and alliances. In fact, it reinforces our friendship with the u. S. I thank President Trump for having approved 100 million in aid for italy during the pandemic. In terms of the very difficult relationship with both of the parties, lets concentrate if we can on china countries all over the world are making decisions on chinese equipment in infrastructure going forward. In 5g and the role of huawei. When will you and the government have made your decisions on huawei there have been reports that huawei will be excluded from 5g development in italy i fully agree with our alabama lice allies italy with our three regulatory measures understands the u. S. Concerns on the safety of Cyber Networks and infrastructures theres a lot going on between italy and china at the moment the foreign minister of china actually stopped first because of the close link between the two economies as well so its very difficult for them to find their way through on this key issue. Again, all kinds of people crop up john bolton tells cnbc that President Trumps failure to strategically think worsened the impact of coronavirus in the United States. Now he served as Trumps National security adviser. And he published a book criticizing trump now i caught up with him over zoom where i asked him about the rising tension between the u. S. And china. I think china is the question for the west as a whole in the 20th century its not pursuing a western approach to economics or politics domestically or internationally. I think its trying to expand its power in its region and in some respects globally huawei is not a commercial Telecommunications Company its an arm of the chinese state. They demonstrated the ca capabilites in the south china sea. Theres been an armed clash with india so this is a very, very serious issue and were all waking up a little bit late to the chinese threat but its real and i think that it is worth discussing among the industrial democracy. And where have been the policy mistakes so far from the administration regarding china he played very strongly on his personal relationship with mr. Xi as well but would you say that hasnt gone far enough in creating the atmosphere between the two countries. Personal relationships are fine but nobody should think that xi jingping or Vladimir Putin let a personal relationship interfere with their pursuit of National Interest the way we deal with china would be much enhanced if we had better europeanamerican cooperation. We would be more powerful in dealing with some of the chinese abuses in International Trade and stealing intellectual property the way china handled the coronavirus pandemic they engaged in a Disinformation Campaign continuing to this very day. That was john bolton, an extraordinary fascinating and smart man. I have listened to the book. I dont know if you heard it as well and read it as well but made some extraordinary comments and claims against mr. Trump as well coming up on the show, saudi aramco cuts it crude oil prices after a down beat forecast more when we come back this follows fridays appointment of the chief turnaround officer he has been tasked with bringing the company back to satisfactory levels of probability by 2022. Daimler will not expand production any further the auto maker will instead focus on expanding in china and elsewhere overseas to keep the balance of trying to produce where you sell shifting gears to the emergency market, crude prices are lower after saudi aramco slashed the price of oil it will sell to the u. S. And asia in october amid expectations of weaker demand. Lets get to hadley. You conducted an exclusive interview with one of the most prominent voices in the Energy Market what can you tell us about how the Russian Energy minister is thinking about oil just judging from the comments volatility is here to stay my main point was to get a price call and he gave me one. Reason in. I can see that a price could be on that level an overage price but in dynamics it could be very volatile i have rather more modest forecast compared to Goldman Sachs for 2021 we could be in 50 to 55 u. S. Dollars per barrel correspondingly but the volatility might be there including the high prices and low prices in general, in overall i mean and for instance if there will be overheating and the prices might go up and we have all the tools and instruments to make sure that there is no such a situation and the market would be overheated because it is negative because it means that the next is overproduction and of course we had already seen saudi arabia making the deepest cuts of supply to asia in the last five months. Oil prices underpressure since the start of trade this morning coming off thebiggest weekly decline since june its been interesting to talk to these folks over the next several days we were actually supposed to speak to his royal highness, the saudi Energy Minister but unfortunately we couldnt make that zoom come together so hopefully well hear more from them in the coming days. We hope that you can get the technicals to work it would be great to get that as well thank you for joining us. We spoke about the worlds future energy mix and more specifically the role hydrogen has to play. I think that the race is on korea, japan, are pushing it forward. Europe will and can keep the lead because it has come out with a very explicit Hydrogen Strategy and i think technology and energy will find a way to give us a solution. And we talk aboutit before. I think that we need to first get into trades and factories. Cars will come hydrogen will become much cheaper. And then when we get more comfortable with it. Quick break and coming up on the show the u. S. Economy has more than 1. 5 million jobs in august after the break well take a look at who is behind a large portion of the hires european stocks start the week in the green as renault rallies on an upgrade. Smic plunges on news the u. S. Government is considering blacklisting the chip making giant. Soft bank sinks as the Japanese Investment giant is branded the nasdaq whale buying off massive bets on tech shares as the european commissioner tells cnbc europe needs an answer to u. S. Tech dominance it is a major problem we all know that the giants of the digital platforms are the real winners of this we cant manage this problem with a single digital taxation. He is worried about difficult talks with the u. K. Amid reports the British Government can override parts of the divorce deal lets get a check on european markets. Were about an hour and a half into the trading session and its all systems go here we have a rebound underway now about 1. 3 last week we did see it underperform broader europe. A bit of a catch up trade there. The cat 40 holding up well up about 1 well take a look at the sectors and what the break down looks like this morning. The banks are turning lower. The best performing part of the market, real estate up 2 . Strong performance there reanult getting a boost on the back of an upgrade we got the banks underperforming. Spanish banks on hopes of consolidation taking place there so with giving up a little bit of the positive momentum down by a third of a percent this morning. Outside of that every sector is trading higher lets take a look at fx markets. A bit of an action in sterling trading about. 5 off at 132 brexit coming back into focus. The latest round of negotiations takes place. He is worried that talks could be difficult with the United Kingdom so expect more headlines coming out this week the Unemployment Rate fell to the lowest level since march 300,000 new workers with retail, Business Services and hospitality also major contributors the u. S. Economy remains under pressure despite the recent job gains. 8. 4 unemployment were still at a very significant recession and that will take awhile to bring them back. Particularly if it takes awhile to get a workable and safe vaccine. Its going to take that before we see a completely normalized market one of the challenges is returning their employees back to work safely he says that theres still new hurdles and challenges ahead and he joins me now to discuss this in more detail great to have you with us. Talk us through the new hurdles that you mentioned that lie between now and getting workers back to the office safely. Thank you its great to be here. For us the number of employees at the office is possibly less than 5 so there are obviously exceptio exceptions, and theres a push to get people back to work but surprisingly we have seen a little bit of reluctance from the employer and the employees to send people back to the offices. We suspect part of this is a confidence issue so we work with our clients. Checking into your workspace helping you understand the issue around compliance. Automatic checking into the Office Electronic body temperature tracking Contact Tracing so we make this comprehensive platform and i speak to clients on a daily basis. There isnt a push to go back to work. This has been quite an experiment for some of the heavily regulated industries the Banking Sector in particular this experiment essentially of people working from home for the first time how are sectors like that adapting and do you think this is going to bring about lasting change for these heavily regulated industries it was a remarkable transition pause over a weekend in marchand at the same time it was really spiking we spoke to one u. K. Bank and went up from maybe 400 to 40,000 so really spikes in volumes but people manage very well. And i think theyre pretty comfortable that their levels are comfortable with them. I dont want to expose employees and b, more importantly, things are working so well why would i push people to get back in the office and then theyre thinking about that type of concept but i suspect maybe the First Quarter of next year, before you see greater than 50 have gone to work for banking. Wow so potentially huge changes when it comes to the Banking Sector and how they operate. This is such a tricky situation because companies are under a huge amount of pressure when it comes to revenues and profitability and at the same time theyre being forced to invest in the new set ups. What are you seeing from your clients in terms of i. T. Spend and budgeting to invest in new i. T. Processes that could enable them to adapt to this new environment. Sure. So i think its really forced companies to think very long and hard about a couple of things. One is the industrialization of the processes. Because you want to make sure that youre as industrialized as possible but theres also a feeling that at the end of the day you have to make sure from an experience perspective and data perspective and Cyber Security perspective that youre doing all that you can not just from your clients but from your employees. Its really not gone down. For the first couple of months they were focused on making sure that they actually have people working from home. Now the focus is on the experience so why, you know, obviously, across the board but technology, especially Enterprise Technology appears to be there for now because they are just making sure that business is up and running. Theyre so dependent on technology. One of the other impacts of the covid pandemic has been on Labor Mobility and you see the issue in the United States, President Trump cracking down on visas for example and groups like yours rely heavily on Labor Mobility to operate. How has this change in immigration approach effected it and how do you see it playing out in the coming quarters i think the things that youre seeing is not new and from the longest time from a technology perspective, and from a risk perspective, very large facilities and very large Operations Centers just last week, we made an announcement that we would be hiring 12 think additional workers. So we have a very large work force in the u. S we have over 20,000 people locally. So this is large hubs in india the philippines and elsewhere and its very large capacity and it means that you dont see this as a risk and also allows us pretty much across the world we appreciate you joining us this morning lets get back out to steve thats now with us after his trip to lake cuomo for the forum held in northern italy this weekend. Bring us more Key Takeaways from the interviews yeah. Look, you and i are very privileged and we get paid for it as well but we get to noah maizing people that indulge our interest and whats going on underneath the surface and sometimes you meet john bolton that has trouble with the administration at the moment after his fairly brief time as National Security adviser. But the fact is he is saying really fascinating things about the Trump Administration including that saying that President Trumps failure to think strategically worsens the impact of coronavirus in the United States. Trumps decisions could get worse, he says, if reelected in november lets listen in. One of the major difficulties that donald trump has as president is he doesnt think strategically. He doesnt have philosophy he doesnt think along policy terms and he doesnt think strategically and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic reflected the utter lack of strategy beginning in january and continuing right through until today in september. At the beginning trump didnt want to hear about a virus coming from china. He didnt want to hear bad news about xi jingping or that a pandemic could harm the economy in the u. S. That he saw as his ticket to reelection. We lost a lot of time in the beginning. Overreacted in some cases and underreacted in others all of which shows thinking that is far from trategic do you think next time its going to be much worse with a coordinated approach to the u. S. And its allies . Theres still a lot that we dont know about this particular virus. But you cant dodge a lower mortality rate theres serious ways to handle this the u. S. Government is set up and has the capability and it needs leadership if youre only concerned about a particular threats impact on your own political prospects youre not going to behave in a way necessarily that protects the greater good and if the president were to get a second determine doubt think there would be changes to that thinking or do you think it would be issue by issue in a very shortterm basis . Im worried that the second term might be worse. In the first term as i indicate in my book the president came to decisions in the National Security space that i agreed with but he did it not because of the merits of the argument but because of the fear of the political blow back he would get domestically if he went in a dicht direction. After hes reelected that political guard rail if not eliminated entirely its certainly minimized. So i think the possibility for erratic decisions centered on what he perceives increases and the political pressure to move in other directions ecreases now the president over the weekend said it was tragic theres not yet proof of who was behind this as well. So basically refusing to get involved in criticizing the kremlin and president putin over this so i asked ambassador bolton about President Trumps response. Its noteworthy that the president himself has not really spoken on the assassination attempt. Its possible that he will he is worried about the election less than two months away. I would not look for my performance by the United States during that two month period i think the europeans are going to have to look at this from a more isolated perspective. My own view and i just wrote an op ed in the Daily Telegraph in london on this is that germany should block completion of the pipeline until the russians are totally forth coming or can prove he was attacked by somebody else. Its time to get serious poison is the same poison that they used in salisbury england in 2014. Its galling to think they could get away with it like this twice and i dont look for the president to stand up to putin on this point so its up to the europeans. The president was pretty forth right there. The germans arent going to stop that production of the pipeline, are they i dont know the answer to that question. Chancellor merkel is under more pressure than she has ever been. More germans and fellow europeans this time and not the United States. Its a bad idea. Ronald reagan warned Margaret Thatcher and other europeans dont tie up to oil and natural gas supplies from the russians youll end up risking and making sure dependent on. You should have other sources and other sources are available. Its the strategic decision that really should guide here but if the murder attempt is the trigger then so much the better. He was very generous with his time and he can talk on a wide range of issues. It was tough keeping up with him at times but theres interesting points. Some interesting points and food for thought thank you steve for bringing us that interview and all the others as well coming up on the show, virus cases in france surge over the weekend raising concerns of a second wave. We have analysis after the break. You can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only Xfinity Mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. And switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. Switch and save 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus, get 400 off when you buy the new Samsung Galaxy note20 ultra 5g. Welcome back to street signs. Boris johnson will tell the eu that both sides must reach a trade agreement by october 15th or accept the prospect of no deal and move on meanwhile, london is preparing more legislation particularly on Northern Ireland and state aid rules. The eus chief negotiator said this morning that all commitments made under the withdrawal deal must be translated into legal text adding he is worried about the difficult negotiations talks on a post brexit deal will set to restart on tuesday. European economy commissioner has told cnbc that policy tools could help europe maintain its recovery despite fears of a second wave. Steve caught up with them at the forum where he shared his concerns it means not that we are in a second wave because we are not in what is classically defined as a second wave but its true that the economic rebound that we had especially in june and july is still going on but with a reduced peak and now the economy is a little bit losing momentum. We can strongly give confidence to the markets on the fact that our initiatives, our policies are there to face this crisis and try to better coordinate the National Reaction and the National Rules and the boarders and measures. The Coronavirus Vaccine will be priced at less than 10 euros according to comments by the ceo to a local french radio station. The pharmaceutical giant is developing the vaccine the price will likely be higher than astra zeneca since theyre using their own resources. More than 880,000 people worldwide from died from coronavirus as the global number of infections surpass 27 million. India reported a Record Number of cases on sunday overtaking brazil as the second worst effected country over in europe, italy reported the largest number of new cases since may. The Prime Minister promised to avoid another National Lock down but warned local restrictions may be required. Its the biggest single daily rise since the start of november if you look at that headline number its certainly very alarming when you the dig into the details, hospitalization, fatality rates, is it as worrying as the headline sugges suggests youre right. You had this number of new cases. 25,000 new covid cases. But the numbers have been going lower since the end of the lock down in may and now theyre rising and its the number of tests have been taken that can explain the higher numbers of cases. Being carried last week alone but the number of those coming back is positive and it was 4. 3 last week. Its 4. 9 . For last week now. So it is rising. The Health French minister said over the weekend during an interview that the number will be rising in the next two weeks and theres really a question of what it means also for the Overall French economy you had everybody going back to School Last Week people going back into offices and everybody is Wearing Masks and theres a concern of what it means for the Health Situation in the next coming weeks as well and theres really nervousness giving all the new cases. Thank you for the detail, the analysis of what is going on in france look forward to your continued coverage throughout the week thats it for todays show it is labor day in the United States so a nice long weekend for investors there. So we will be back tomorrow with the normal programming in the u. S. For now thats it for me, street signs will be back again tomorrow smells great. Digging ditches. Its all in a days work. When youre a millionaire. These folks invest in hedge trimmers, not hedge funds. They turn diy into roi. And thanks to hard work, incredible passion, and a whole lot of mud, sweat and tears, theyve turned their dirty jobs into filthy riches. Time to go make some money honks horn mcgraw tonight, meet a selfmade tow truck mogul who found riches by the side of the road. Were gonna eat well tonight. Mcgraw two best buds who classed up the cannabis industry and smoked the competition