Based on the risk off the further markets. It is time now for global exchange. We will bring you todays market moving news from all around the world. Our bloomberg voices are on the ground with this mornings top stories. Where to begin in asia, the coronavirus continues to spread in china, with the number of confirmed cases climbing above 75,000. Engle. Me is Stephen Stephen for the second time in about a week, china has rejigged its methodology for how to classify confirmed cases of the coronavirus in china, that has led to this now becoming a bit of a global crisis. We are seeing more speculation that the data we are getting is we necessarily reliable, or are seeing a significant dropoff in the number of confirmed cases. In hubei province, just 349 new cases reported overnight. Is that because of the new methodology, or do they have the containment efforts under control . That is raising a lot of confusion and questions. Also, it adds to suspicion that officials in china may be prematurely promoting a narrative that they have the situation under control. This is we have gotten in south korea the first death, as well as a surge in new cases. Some 31 confirmed cases in south that ran through a religious sect, and in japan, two more deaths were reported. Onare also seeing the impact the prolonged epidemic on businesses. A couple of airlines putting out guidance. Air france klm saying they could take a hit on this next report million, and 216 pontus saying they are cutting a lot of their capacity into asian markets and qantas saying they are cutting a lot of their capacity into asian markets. Beijingis comes after slashed policy rates this month to blunt the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Joining me from hong kong is rishaad salamat. Walk us through what they did and what they said they will continue to do. It is essentially the battle for the economy. It is what happens after this virus, this pathogen disappears, and we can get back to some degree of normality. On the 20th have ever month, they decide on the loan prime rate. This is on top of a raft of other measures out there at the moment. We can expect perhaps more rrr side for bad news, andt of reduce that amount to get more expect more of that. Ystem. Perhaps more lpr cuts as well. The pboc has already said that the coronavirus is going to be a shortlived phenomenon. People are suggesting it could be a vshaped recovery. But what is at stake is perhaps something greater because the end of this year would mark the 10 year span in which the communist party promised they would double capital incomes without making debt get out of control. The thing is, maybe one of those has to go, probably the debt side of things. Just last week, Bloomberg Economics suggesting the economy was perhaps reduced by about 40 to 50 in terms of capacity. It is a big challenge here. They are even talking about getting people out, get them back to work, get them planting rice. Youve got to see 1. 4 billion people youve got to feed 1. 4 million people, and rice is the main bowl on the table. Alix thank you. Eu leaders are gearing up for discussion over the 1 trillion budget for the next seven years. Joining me is maria tadeo. Obviously this is all complicated by brexit. What do we know so far . Maria it is very complicated as a result of brexit. Keep in mind, this is the first on the European Union will meet as the eu 27 without the united kingdom, and it is not just a u. K. Missing at the table. It is the money they would put forward. European officials estimate they have a gap of 60 billion euros to 75 billion euros, which is problematic because you either cut spending or put more money on the table, and that is the disagreement we are seeing between european leaders today. Theres going to be a very long summit, very intense. It is a question of money that could go on for days. Again, this is europe. Negotiations need to be tough. European leaders want to be seen as fighting hard for their taxpayer money. Alix we just saw Emmanuel Macron walking behind you. What kind of role is he playing in these negotiations . Maria we just saw him walk into the building before this summit gets started, and this is the situation. You have europe divided between the north end the south, the west and the east. For them, Climate Change could be a problem because they feel they could lose economically on that. It is interesting to see what macron says and does. You also need to keep in mind, he says he is not going to redo a budget that is not ambitious enough, and it is not just money. European leaders will have to ask just how much money are we willing to put to work and commit because investors would like to see big aspirations, but also funding to back it up. If you dont have the money, theres a question as to whether or not you can carry it out. Alix thank you so much. Now we want to turn to ubs. The bank has named ings ralph hammer as successor to Sergio Ermotti. Bloomberg spoke to the chairman moments ago. A hes a experienced ceo. He has been leading one of those banks for seven years successfully. It is a very difficult and Challenging Market environment. He knows how to interact with regulators globally. As a ceo, he knows banking strategy. He knows digital. I think he brings a lot to the table. Alix 20 from london, phillip rick joining me from london, philip richards. How much of a surprise was it . What was your take away . Philip i think it is a big surprise. At ing, there was scale back after the financial crisis. There has really been focus on Retail Banking in complete contrast to ubs. He does have ample banking experience, but also, hes really been at the heart of the. Igitization of ing maybe that aspect as well is what they are looking for. Alix thank you for that analysis. Now we want to turn to commodities. Take a look at gold, nearing a sevenyear high, unconcerned that the coronavirus will hurt Global Growth. Going me with more is bloombergs dani burger. Can you give me more on the move we have seen in gold . Dani the move is pretty clear, just a factor of the weird everything rally we live in where we have stocks trading at alltime highs and gold at a 2013 hi. It is just a mixture of foam a but many of the Global Growth concerns coming on because of coronavirus fears. How much longer can these gains continue . Haven of choice amid the coronavirus fears. They have long positions, saying within an get to few years. A vshaped recovery would put pressure on gold, but for now the relic continues, and we see base metals like copper come under pressure, it still, oil on the back of a sevenday rally. It is going to be the longest rally in quite some time. Some of the supply concerns abating, as well as the time you stimulus the china stimulus. Gold obviously a very popular buy right now. Alix thank you for that perspective. Finally, Michael Bloomberg coming under sustained attack in the debate last night in vegas. Most americans dont see where they fit if theyve got to choose between a socialist who thinks capitalism is the root of all people and a billionaire who thinks money ought to be the root of all power. Lets put forward somebody who actually lives and works in a middleclass neighborhood in an industrial midwestern city. Lets forward somebody was actually a democrat. Alix joining me from las vegas is kevin cirilli. Aside from all the hand rising the hand raising, what were your biggest takeaways . Kevin first and foremost, the dynamics of the race did not significant change last night. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent senator who caucuses with the democrats, still the and he isr, anticipated to win saturdays nevada caucus. That would give him another political victory heading into next weeks South Carolina debate ahead of the South Carolina primary. Third, the Bloomberg Campaign suggested this is a twoperson race. I spoke with countless sources and strategists within the last 24 hours, all of whom suggested that the idea of any significant number of candidates dropping out before to produce a before super tuesday is not likely. That would mean the saints is going to likely the Sanders Campaign is going to likely start laying the groundwork that if they are not able to specifically reach the number of delegates that would automatically give them the nomination, that they would still have a plurality of delegates. If that is the case, it is going to be quite an interesting next couple of months as we head forward into the democratic nomination. Alix no kidding. Thanks a lot. Michael bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of bloomberg lp, the Parent Company of Bloomberg News. One other story we are following is the worlds biggest shipping Container Company saying we should see a peak in the impact of the coronavirus. The Company Admits it is seeing a weak start to the year. That vshaped recovery is still the rhetoric for companies. One stock we want to Pay Attention to is no region cruise lines, popping in premarket is norwegian cruise lines, popping in premarket. Guidance for the First Quarter missing by a wider margin. Part of that is the coronavirus, which the company says will have impact. Per share the question is, is it the trough, and do we see a pickup in the back half of the year . Coming up, more of your morning and analysis of the markets in todays first take. This is bloomberg. Alix time now for bloomberg first take. We are going to give you the news. You get the trade and analysis of the markets. Joining me is Vincent Cignarella , voice of bloombergs macro squawk. Also with us, rob waldner, invesco fixed income chief fixed income strategist, and Julian Emanuel, btig chief equity and derivatives strategist. We are a little more scared of the coronavirus today, or is it about u. S. Politics . What would you choose for the markets . Vincent i think markets are coming back to basics. You saw that in dollaryen yesterday, and looking at the fundamentals of what is going on in japan, moving away from coronavirus. If you are really worried about the virus, you look at yen as a safe haven. Itterday the markets fundamentals are really what is driving this. I am seeing in chats, saying it is still bid. Dollar is going. 112. 40. P is this was everyday stuff in the old days. We havent seen this in five or move in, where a big dollaryen was the talk of the town. I think the virus is slowly moving away from where you look at the fundamentals of certain places. It is still out there, but when it comes to dollaryen and the japanese economy, reality had home yesterday. I agree. What has been remarkable is that volatility in currency didnt pick up, even the rates in equity markets did. Now we are suddenly getting some moves in the currency. This dollar bid, we are watching that very carefully. I think it reflects stronger u. S. Growth in the distance from the virus, but if this builds momentum, i think it might start to tell us something about financial conditions. Julian what is interesting to us, you look at dollaryen yesterday and it really does dramatize the fact that asset volatility is incredibly low worldwide. A to figure moveand, the trend l hop on. We continue to expect them to hop on the next couple of days, but volatility everywhere is so incredibly muted. Alix but then today, what happened . Thats the move yesterday. You are all nerding out in the corner. [laughter] alix then what . Vincent the virus isnt going anywhere. We are starting to see what the coronavirus is showing us is the real shortcomings of chinas economy and their ability to deal with it. Some really small cuts in Interest Rates overnight in an attempt to shore up their economy. 10 basis points doesnt buy anything. They cant go at this to aggressively. The currency will weaken. It undermines their domestic eck we are really starting to see the second largest economy in the world is lost. It really doesnt have the tools to fix this. To your point, we were talking about how any people were caught off guard with the dollar. All three of us going, theres a chance the dollar could come off this year. It really looks like its got legs and is going to go farther, and that is really going to help a lot of positions. Wronge hope we are about this, but we have been perturbed about how markets have digested the coronavirus in the last several weeks. You really are looking through and making the assumption that second quarter, certainly Third Quarter at the latest, youre going to have a snapback, but there is an argument to be made when you essentially shut down a majority of a country that the thatare perhaps laggier expected. We dont think markets are evaluating it correctly from a risk reward perspective in the nearterm. Rob lets talk about the positives. Theres housing, they labor market still relatively strong. The u. S. Economy still looks like it is in the extended cycle. We will get some drag from the virus, but in the meantime, with the treasury market is telling you is that the debt is biased to ease. The fed is going to provide stimulus to the market, so you have overall stimulus still quite supportive for the market. The underlying economy is not too bad in the u. S. That is why i think you have valuations where they are. Julian we certainly agree with that. What is interesting to us is the disconnect between where yields are, and then yesterday you had a very hot ppi number. You think about it, you look at that debate stage last night, i think one of the conclusions you can draw is that we are going to do a ton of deficit spending if one of those people becomes the president of the united states. In that environment, yields in our view are too low. Need to seee inflation. That is the piece missing for that argument. If you see inflation pick up, we would agree that yields will go up quite substantially. Alix another question, wrapping in the fed and the pboc, bank of america came out with a fascinating note yesterday to say i everything to say buy everything because of the expectation for cuts this year. We see emerging markets what to come in. Vincent you look at the disconnect that julian mentioned, the disconnect is Asset Classes. Equity markets are turning a complete blind eyes who the potential troubles down the road. You have shut down 750 million people, double the population of the united states. Alix the equity market isnt dissipating vshaped and every other asset class is not. Market istly anticipating vshaped and every other Asset Classes not. Vincent exactly. You need to look at the Asset Classes you think are going to survive. If this does last longer, and it does appear it will from an economic drag, the equity markets have gotten this so badly wrong. Rob from our point of view, the julian from our point of view, the differentiator is that if you look at the flow data, the public is in the process of returning to the equity market, essentially for the first time into years, and for the most part, this entire bull market cycle. That has been part of the reason that the equity markets are trying to look through this. Our question is if the news flow turns more cautious over the coming weeks, will the public continue to be a buyer . I think that the rate point. Last year, investors were all position for the late cycle. They sold equities as a result. This year we see some signs of that coming back. That is very supportive for markets. The other thing is the u. S. Equity market is one of the few places you can get growth in this global economy. So investors were looking for growth. They are looking to the u. S. , looking to the u. S. Equity market in our view. Alix youre looking at dollaryen, looking at the dollar. What do you do . Vincent i think you have to fade around 112. 5. We are not going to wake up andw and see 120yen see 120 dollaryen. I would still happily sell cable for a long time. The other place i would be looking is the u. K. And europe. Euro is a tough sell because it is being propped up with crosses. Sterling doesnt have a lot going for it in the short term. Alix really fun conversation. Defense in cignarella, thank you. Julian emanuel of btig and rob waldner of invesco be sticking with me. For any charts over the next two hours, go to gtv on your terminal. Browse the features, check it out. This is bloomberg. Alix huge news for you. Morgan stanley said to be buying e trade for 13 billion according to dow jones. E trade stock is halted. Morgan stanley stock down by about 3. 6 . 13 billion for e trade, Morgan Stanley will pay, according to dow jones. Julian emanuel of btig, what do you make of this deal . Julian this really plays into forwardlooking, longterm vision. Boomers the oldest baby turned 75, and the actuarial tables are starting to catch up with that. That generation is about to make the greatest wealth transfer in the Human History to millennials. The oldest millennial is 40 years old, chronically under invested in stocks, and has 40 more years to live, and is looking at fixed income, where yields are by and large lower than the expected rate of inflation. This is a bit in the public, which is one of our thesises for materializing. Alix meaning that as you have millennials getting that money and putting it to work, they are going to put it to work in e trade . Alix nope julian no, that they are going to buy stocks. They are comfortable with online trading, and they are going to buy stocks. Alix do you feel like the big banks would, without this big deal, be competitive in that kind of world . Julian what the decision has been is that certainly in light of the other major merger of the two large online brokers, the decision here is it is easier to buy than to build. It is very difficult to build something. This gets you to scale very quickly. Alix i wonder what that winds up meaning for the other banks. Again, the headline, Morgan Stanley is buying e trade for 13 billion, and all stock deal, according to dow jones. Morgan stanley stock down by over 5 . E trade at one point did jump 24 , but now is halted in premarket. A huge deal in the Banking Industry and the retail trading industry world. Heres a random question for you. What happens if they dont get it to work . What if this is a different type of investor . Julian then we are probably going to go to a lower multiple the idear longer, and that you can sustain at 20 times is not going to materialize. Alix sonali basak of Bloomberg News is joining us now. What do you make of this deal . Sonali a very interesting day for news like this. 3 trillion in assets this would create for Morgan Stanleys Wealth Management unit, at a time when ubs is naming a new ceo for their 2. 5 trillion dollar Wealth Management business. Known stanley is really for its attention to more highend customers, the wealthy and ultrawealthy. Buying e trade, reportedly they would also add a lot of smaller customers as well. It is an interesting business to buy with fee pressure in the industry, but we have seen deals in the e trade industry pickup. Their asset managers, focus onow higher fee businesses, and this is definitely a commitment to growing their wealth manager, which they are known for, in a business facing fee pressure. Alix when you have charles ameritradeng td , how does this help e trade . Sonali lending. Something interesting about this also, you have Morgan Stanley trying to boost their lending business, e trade as well. That is where a lot of money is being made. So trading of stocks and bonds is one thing. Morgan stanley is also the number one stock trading firm in the world, so this adds scale to that business as well. It is very interesting to see those synergies flow through in two different ways. Alix i should say it is now confirmed. The press release coming out now. It is creating this big wealth manager. Million. Ome with 4. 6 plan participants. Going to be any regulatory issue with this . How many of these players are going to have now . Sonali the Federal Reserve will look at this. Last year, i wrote a story about goldman and Morgan Stanley, regulators in the u. S. Taking a big look. The thing they may like is that Morgan Stanley is not buying a big u. S. Bank. This is a different business. But Morgan Stanley is the 1 trillion pound gorilla is the gorilla in the room. Alix walk me through what you know in who are the players in this field. Organ stanley plus e trade sonali ubs is the one to watch. What will be there move . They just got a new ceo. Can they and will they do a big deal to counter this move . Ubs into u. S. Has been trying to grow. They have been trying to boost their lending book. What they do a similar move . Remember, james gorman, ceo of Morgan Stanley, this is his second big deal in about a year. They just bought solely him to also it they just bought solely on to expand this is this. Alix like i said, it is confirmed now that Morgan Stanley will buy e trade at 58. 74 a share. How money trillions in assets . 4. 3 trillion in client assets. Four point 6 million stock plan participants. What would ubs buy . What would be left for them to ramp it up . Sonali it is very interesting to see them bet more on the retail customer than the institutional investor, per se. You were watching all of these firms and wondering whether they would buy smaller Wealth Managers rather than brokerages. Another thing to watch for both Morgan Stanley and ubs, as well as bank of america and j. P. Morgan, which has a new head of Wealth Management, will they buy Something Digital . What does this mean for thousands of Wealth Managers in america . Does this mean everybody is going to go digital and push their products more online . Will people have jobs at Morgan Stanley for the future . They are going to be wanting to focus on synergies. This is a big deal. They are going to want to cut costs at the margins. Julian theres no question, this is always an element in this day and age of creative thinktion, but i management will try to explain how that transition occurs. One, theyou, Number Online technology in online investing is only gaining more prominence, and number two, both Wealth Management and the retail investor, 11 years into a bull market with this Millennial Wealth transfer, is probably going to become even more important as well. Alix so heres a recap for you. 13 billion deal, Morgan Stanley is buying e trade. E trade is halted, but was up at 1. 24 . Down, and Td Ameritrade down. Those are paring up as well. It is a pretty surprising move hereby Morgan Stanley. We will continue to talk about this throughout the next couple of hours. Sonali, really great reporting. Thank you for joining us. Julian emanuel of btig sticking with me. Lets take a look at where we are in the equity markets. S p futures down by about 0. 2 . European stocks down by 0. 4 . The mood, if we switch of the board, is really what is happening with the dollar. We talked about it in terms of the again, the euro in terms of the yen, the euro, the yuan. The dollar index nearing 100. What happens if we continue having a breakout . The curve in the u. S. Continues to flatten. Ive got to talk about gold. Gold is moving higher as well. If you dont get that vshaped recovery, if you have more stimulus out of Central Banks, that is the golden recipe to buy gold. Also what we are seeing in the markets, that is earnings. Afterrn company dropping fourthquarter earnings missed analyst estimates. 20 me from the headquarters in atlanta is thomas fanning, Southern Company joining me from the headquarters in atlanta is thomas fanning, Southern Company ceo. What happened . Homas we sold some assets at a tremendous price. That speaks to most of our revenue difference. We had really cheap fuel costs. We dont make any money on fuel in our energy sales to customers. Because fuel prices were lower, we pass that along to customers. That is great stuff. Great for shareholders, great for customers. Alix what do you think the market is reacting to negatively . Why arent they getting that right now . Tom they probably just need to read through the details. Once they see that, it will be fine. If you think about last year, we were by far the number one stock in our industry. We essentially doubled the utility index last year. We have been quite a run, and i think we have quite a run to go. Tsr last year, over 50 . Alix obviously, going forward, a big part of that is going to be the Nuclear Facility you are building. Prices have doubled. It is behind schedule. Into areive me insight in going to really go november . Tom the cost borne by our customers will be less than what was originally projected when the unit was ordered by the Georgia Public Service commission. Westinghouse took a great deal of those losses. Toshiba paid 3. 7 billion because westinghouse went bankrupt. When you add those things up, other people absorbed the Cost Increases associated with schedule delays, not our customers. Customers will benefit from years to come. So with respect to the schedule going forward, we have a regulatory commitment to finish and three by november 2021, we are very confident about that , and unit four by november of 2022, and we are very confident about that. And we are confident we will meet the rest of the construction within our budget. Alix what are the key steps that investors can key in on as they look forward to those dates . Tom i think we are going to lay that out in our Earnings Call at 1 00 today. We have several key milestones during this year. Culminatingis year, by if you will open in the end of the year. But let me assure everybody, the key date is november. I think we will deliver it by then. Alix one question for you as we go forward. When you see Natural Gas Prices in the u. S. Under two dollars, is that going to cannibalize demand for wind and solar . How are you seeing the Market Dynamics play out . Tom it is not an or proposition. We need the whole portfolio. We have been deleting spokespeople for this idea of all of the arrows in the quiver. We need the full portfolio. The fact that Natural Gas Prices are so cheap and the supply of gas is so plentiful, i think it remains a dominant part of the portfolio for years to come. Certainly as technologies advance and prices continue to drop, renewables will only grow in importance. You got to think about these things together. Natural gas, renewables, and nuclear. Alix i really appreciate you keeping up. Staying with commodities, dont today to tune in later to commodities edge. Still with me on set, rob waldner of invesco fixed income and Julian Emanuel of btig. Do you buy utilities now . Julian no. Utilities are trading at an absolute premium. Anyway, this is a victim of its own success because these stocks have been so incredibly on fire, and they are priced for a world where the 10 year yield is likely to go to 1 rather than 2 in terms of the next 50 basis points. We dont agree that that is the case. We are underweight the sector. Rob i think the trade last year was to buy duration focused assets that would do well in a light cycle environment. Utilities are one of those assets. Seen tremendous performance from those assets over the last 18 months or so. We think that is not what you go with going forward. Alix would you see more 2 or 1 . Rob if we get through the coronavirus, i think all the indicators are that the u. S. Economy can be in this extended cycle. With a couple more years in the cycle, that means rates more likely go up to 2. 1 . 2 than 1 . We need to see inflation. Alix we saw a little bit yesterday. Julian we did, but if you look at the news this week, one asset manager buying another, one broker buying an online broker. It is telling you that the perceived value is probably more in an economically since of area like financials ash economically sensitive area like financials economically sensitive area like financials. Because the economy looks like it might be able to look through the coronavirus to get us to 2 or so growth for this year and next, you want to be in these more procyclical areas. Alix jp morgan is saying the same thing, the value is where it is going to be at. How do you explain the record low we are seeing in Corporate Credit . We also had yields on european junk breaking through yet again. Does that get shaken out as julian sees this playing out . The reason credit is doing well i think comes back to the fact that the economy is doing relatively well in the west. Alix can it continue if the value trade picks up . Rob the spreads will remain well contained, but overall, you might see overall yield levels rise if the level of treasuries goes up. But we think there are some opportunities in some of the other credit assets, whether it be bank loans or some other areas of highyield would you could see performance going up this year. Alix help me understand how complacent the market is, how you manage that, and how you wrap in the election. Julian from our point of view, in the near term, we do think we are a little bit uncomfortable with how far the market has run, but the beauty of it is that actually come up options continue to be very attractively priced. What we are advising clients to do is stay invested, but be prepared. Once the market gets as overbought as it has become in the last month or so, you likely have a lot more upside. ,t could be doubledigit upside as much as 15 , but you also increase the probability of a 10 correction along the way. What we have said this entire bull cycle is that you have to envision yourself as a buyer, down 10 , not protecting once the horse is out of the barn. Alix so now what are you doing . You want to be buying vol, put options on s p . Julian we think the china exposed names, a lot of which are in the technology and pull back and allow the investor to spend a portion of those outsized gains and not worry about any shortterm volatility. Alix wrapping in the fed to this conversation, we obviously heard a pretty laidback fed yesterday, although they seemed to not understand what to do with inflation. That seemed relatively clear during their current options. When you take a look within the treasury market, how do we ever get higher yield, even if we get a bit of inflation . Do you feel like they are ever going to hike in the future at all . Is right now, the market giving a higher probability of cutting then raising, so what we need to see to reverset s viralk and allow the u. S. Growth to continue to move forward, and see inflation stabilize and maybe start to creep higher. But this is a global phenomenon. Every central bank has moved to ease, easy stance in the face of uncertainty. But if we flip it around, obviously the debates last night, we are talking about Political Risk, but weve got trade, usmca, the u. S. China trade deal which actually has something to it. Alix lets talk about that because it ties into the election as well. The administration yesterday saying growth would have been a little bit higher if it wasnt for the trade war, yet you still have all of the uncertainty in any kind of stimulus after the election. How do you see it . Rob it is interesting that they acknowledge that overnight. Alix literally overnight. [laughter] rob it seems pretty obvious, but we got through that, so we did actually get a trade deal. You can talk about enforceability, but it does address a range of issues in the trade agreement. Ifchina does live to it, and we do make progress, if we assume that both parties came to ,hat with the right intentions that could reverse some of the drag we saw. Alix do you hedge election risk at all . Julian the first thing we have to say is at alltime highs with an exhaustion us with an exogenous variable being the coronavirus, and hopefully it will subside as expected, and this election risk, what we have been recommending people to do actually what happened was at the end of the year, the perceived election risk was higher than it is now. You saw a lot of hedging. We were saying in order to express a positive market view, take the other side of that hedging. Our concern is that with the runup over the last several weeks, there is a little bit of complacency going out past november 3. Protection isrm what we think makes sense now. Could it make sense if the market goes higher . You end up rolling out longerterm, and the fact is that for the most part, investors have a lot of gains they are sitting on, and this is one of these times. The old saying, bulls make bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered. Dont be greedy. Alix coming up, we are going to get back to the breaking news of the morning. Morgan stanley buying e trade for 13 million in an all trade deal. This is bloomberg. Viviana you are watching bloomberg daybreak. Shares of zillow surging in premarket trading. The company posting fourthquarter revenue that beat estimates. That was fueled by zillows core business of selling leads to real estate agents. With Ilya Nair Elon musk. Last friday, with billionaire elon musk. He bought tesla stocks that closed at a record 900 70. Mr. Musk now holds 18. 5 stake in the electric carmaker. Under the on a hurtado im Viviana Hurtado. That is your Bloomberg Business flash. Alix we turn now to wall street beat. Today we are doing Morgan Stanley buying e trade. They are going to purchase the Trading Platform for 13 billion. Sonali basak joins me again. Walk us through what we know so far. Sonali this could create a wealth manager with more than 3 trillion under management. That is humongous. Ubs is at 2. 5 trillion dollars. It is also interesting because where does that leave the discount brokers . We have seen the schwab deal already. Their assets pushed to a record for trillion dollars. There push for zero fees a trillion. Push for zero fees paid off, but how do you make money with zero fees . We see james gorman, a former consultant, come out as a rainmaker. Alix why do investors not seem to like the deal . Sonali the shares are down a little bit, and that is because i think they may be worried about what this means for any potential buybacks, capital return in the shorterterm. This is a very big deal. Is there regulatory overhang, integration questions . Be . Costly will that in the shortterm, that might be tougher for shareholders. On the other hand, what does this mean for rival banks . What does it mean for Goldman Sachs, also trying to expand their Wealth Management business . Now we have a different firm than what we knew about Morgan Stanley before. Alix so what do the other banks do . Sonali out of the discount brokers, there is still interact brokers out there. What do they do . And the other banks can buy other things. Morgan stanley will be occupied with this, but will Goldman Sachs make a big acquisition when it comes to another lender, or another Wealth Management firm to expand their Wealth Management unit . Alix really awesome reporting. I know you are going to be in and out with me for the next hour. Coming up, more indications to help trade on the dollar as it continues to grind its way higher. The dollar index flirting with the 100 level. If you are jumping into your car, tune into Bloomberg Radio on sirius xm china 119 sirius xm channel 119. This is bloomberg. Alix time now for traders take. Vincent cignarella going to me now. Listen to vincent, squa on the terminal. More about the dollar. Vincent so many people caught off base this year. Everyone wanted to sell the dollar. It was a nice trade the beginning of the new year. In that white line, dollar bears, hello. Very painful. They were expecting emerging Market Growth to pick up. Obviously, the virus sat on that. The other, people look at Interest Rates and differentials between Interest Rates and the dollar, and the basement is littered with the bones of people who trade in Foreign Exchange that only look at Interest Rates and differentials. So many things going to this. Not going to stop anytime soon. Alix really appreciate it. Coming up on the program, kathy jones, Charles Schwab fixed income strategist, and David Bahnsen of the Bahnsen Group will join us. This is bloomberg. Alix welcome to bloomberg daybreak on this thursday, february 20. Im alix steel. Lets take it from the top. Language]ng foreign says the impact for the virus will be shortlived and will continue to prop up domestic demand. It is essentially the battle for the economy. It is what happens after this virus come this pathogen disappears, and we can get back to some degree of normality. Every month, they decide on the loan prime rate. This is on top of the raft of other measures at the moment. Alix the central bank also says it has room to maneuver within conventional monetary policy, signaling the chance of aggressive easing. Is a prime league of banks, and he has been leading one of those banks for seven years successfully. It is a very difficult and Challenging Market environment. Hammer will succeed Sergio Ermotti as head of ubs. Got years of ample banking experience, but hes also been at the heart of ing, really bringing the platform back to the top for european banks. Alix the move comes as as a prize, as he was caught up any Money Laundering scandal involving russian dirty money. Morgan stanley buys e trade in a 13 billion deal, and all stock takeover and the largest since the financial crisis. The move cements its position in managing money of retail investors. Mr. Buttigieg most americans dont see where they fit if they have to choose between a socialist who thinks capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks money ought to be the root of all power. Lets put forward somebody who actually lives and works in a middleclass neighborhood in an industrial midwestern city. Lets put forward somebody whos actually a democrat. Alix the clause came out in the ninth democratic the claws came out in the ninth democratic is initial debate ahead of super tuesday in march. Lets take a look at where we are at. A little bit of risk off, down by 0. 1 . Is it just a pause in the by everything rally, or are we reversing steam as the dollar is the story of the week . As thellar now 1. 07 dollar index kisses the 100 level. Joining for the hour, kathy jones, Charles Schwab chief fixed income strategist. Also with us, David Bahnsen of , cio anden Group Managing partner. We have this big deal, Morgan Stanley buying e trade. What you make of this . David it is a bit of a surprise. I think gorman is quite a like citigroup at the bottom of the financial crisis, they spent 7 billion for that unbelievably robust franchise, and now they are spending five or six times that on e trade, which used to run baby bowl commercials with throwing money around. It is so offbrand for Morgan Stanley. Im just stunned. And zero fees in the race to the bottom. David what i would speak to, im highly confident in my view here, is the cultural problem. The clients of e trade are not looking for advice. Even apart from the fact they dont pay for trades, they are not looking to have intermediaries that are there to provide Wealth Management. The spectrum of the marketplace that is willing to pay for a more private level of Asset Management and Financial Planning is at a higher net worth level than where e trade is. I think this is going to be a very difficult culture murder for them. Alix obviously, Charles Schwab is buying Td Ameritrade, so i dont want to put you in a tough spot with that, but what are your thoughts as we see banks trying to be different . Kathy it is a really competitive market place right now. Everyone is trying very hard to get assets, get clients, and a lot of consolidation, especially with zero fees. It doesnt surprise me that this is taking place, and we will probably see more of this. Alix joining us with more on the details is allison williams, bloomberg senior bank analyst. What do you think . Alison a pretty hefty price. Never a dull moment in financials. The second big deal we have seen this week. Alix what does it mean for goldman . Who is really hurt on this . Who is left out in the cold that is trying to expand in this business, but are late . This isdefinitely consistent with Morgan Stanleys strategy. They said on the last Earnings Call that the next leg of their fortegy was to go affluence. Smith barney took them in one direction, and now they are going even further. Goldman, if you look at the long term, they have always preferred to build versus buy. However, and Asset Management, they have been a little more inquisitive. I think that is more consistent with goldmans strategy. But to your point, i think they are also looking to expand. Alix i was always under the impression that ubs and Morgan Stanley are for the high, ultrarich. Do they need to expand their base because millennials are going to come in and buy stock . Alison i think it is that. Ubs, especially, is focused on ultrahigh net worth. They are the Largest Global throughout. Er Morgan Stanley, their strength is really the u. S. Retail franchise. They have really built on that. This is just sort of moving a little more downscale in that direction. Theres another element i dont think people are talking about. We are not running out of wealthy people. That market is huge. You see things like the schwab td trade. There are hundreds of billions of dollars leaving the ubs, Morgan Stanley to go to fiduciary firms. Theres no money going from fiduciary firms into the Morgan Stanleys and merrill lynchs. Putting their team billion dollars into an entity like e trade putting 13 billion into an entity like e trade i think is a very bold statement that they are willing to go very downstream and it will require a complete business reinvention in terms of the culture. When they bought smith barney, the smith barney folks thought they were going downstream. So now youre talking e trade. I would imagine their average is thousands. Onhy im not an expert everybodys technology, but more and more automated trading, if you are going to acquire somebody who is online, you want to make sure they have that robust technology, and that may be a quick way to acquire that. Alison i think both of those points are the leading question. What do they do with e trade from your . Do they integrate it . Is there a different way they serve these customers . One reason why i think the Franklin Legg mason deal has reduced execution risk is they said legg mason affiliates, we are going to leave those autonomous. We are going to leave that model in place. That reduces the risk of outflows, which we saw with the oppenheimer deal. Is a very different culture, i very different customer. Is it more of a Technology Oriented strategy . Thats what a lot of the bigger brokers have talked about doing. Theyve talked about this hybrid model of advice and technology, but how is Morgan Stanley going to serve them . The big question for me, how do we get to this price . Alix how did we get to this price . Alison we are waiting to see the slide presentation. We havent seen it yet. Alix can we imply that there were other bidders . Alison that could be the case. Who knows what we will find out there . It is still a pretty rich price. Alix if there were other bidders, where were those bidders then go . Where else in the space can you get Something Like e trade . Alison i think the big players have now partnered. We had schwab ameritrade, and that left e trade as the remaining big target out there. By the way, people knew. Morgan stanley is paying a 31 premium after the stock moved, even after the pricing announcement that happened in september. David this deal could have been done five or six years ago at less than half the price, so that is the question, what else is to be done. I would argue this is sort of the end. There are some smaller, fragmented players, but certainly with Charles Schwab buying Td Ameritrade, ameritrade before, ittrade think that right now, the next big moves for consolidation will take place in Asset Management like we saw with the legg mason deal, and continued deals around the ira space, the private Wealth Management arena. That is largely not in Public Markets yet. Alix is that what goldman buys . David well, theyve already bought. They were the first to come in and by United Capital. It was a big premium, but not a significant amount of money for goldman. They certainly have the treasury to go invest meaningfully in the space. If they believe they want to be in the higher end of the pool with customers that have a more complex need in Financial Planning and Estate Planning and more deep end of the pool as far as Asset Management, certainly that is where they would go next. Alix are buybacks and dividends at risk here for Morgan Stanley . Alison one would think so. It is a pretty big use of capital. The other question that has to be resolved is that on certain measures, they have tons of capital, but we have rules coming down the road that could make that access look a lot slimmer, so we are going to want to hear about those. Obviously,ink this is a pretty big use of their capital. One other thing i would add because we are talking about goldman and United Capital, when goldman bought United Capital, and i think that was part of a transaction that United Capital they had bought some smaller players, and we would leave that as an entity and not try to absorb it into goldman. Think that is helpful from a cultural perspective. Alix i wonder, when we talk about e trade david and the day will come up later. Alix sure. Whats in a name . Alison williams, thank you. Kathy jones and David Bahnsen be sticking with me. As we had to break, some more breaking news. El brands says that Leslie Buckner will be stepping down as thatman l brands says les wexner will be stepping down as chairman and ceo. Than 11 is down more in premarket. This is bloomberg. Viviana this is bloomberg daybreak. Is goings secret private. Brand andill sell the keep a 45 stake, but billionaire ceo and chairman Leslie Wexner will step down. Now to the japanese parent of 7eleven stores. It is in talks to acquire Marathon Speedway gas stations for 22 billion. A deal could be announced as soon as next week. We end in the u. K. , where Lloyd Banking Group is out with a bullish forecast. Writtens largest Mortgage Lender says the bank will target britains largest word lender britains largest Mortgage Lender says the bank will target rates of 12 . T is here alix thank you. In terms of the market, we have been talking about the everything rally the last couple of days. Cummins had the bloomberg and take a look at the msci come inside the bloomberg and take a look at the msci. You can throw in dollar, throw in gold, and it is the by everything rally. It . Y, what do you make of kathy i think this is driven by the notion that Central Banks can cure everything. They can throw liquidity in the markets, and therefore you should buy everything. Alix junk bonds in europe are low. Kathy exactly. The problem i have with this is not just evaluation issue, which is pretty extreme, but also Central Banks can provide liquidity. They cannot cure disease. They cannot stop the coronavirus from spreading. They cant reopen these businesses. At some point, you have to look at what you are paying for these assets relative to what the cure actually is for this. That seems to be time. David i would argue that the issues in credit markets and the transitory and shortterm issues around coronavirus are completely separate conversations. I think there is an overvaluation issue in the credit market, and not just reliance, but fullblown that isn to liquidity requiring additional priming of the pump to maintain this healthy credit environment. All good as long as they keep providing liquidity. Once they dont, it falls apart. On the coronavirus side, it is perfectly sensible to me that the markets, having gone through this over and over again for generations, would say we are not going to go blow up asset location over something that maybe four months, may the four days. Isaac it will end up being somewhere between. Kathy but the issue is what price do you pay for those assets . It is ok if you maintain your allocation, but if you are putting new money to work, at alltime highs where valuations are stretched, your perspective returns are not going to be terribly attractive. David but they were right alltime highs before coronavirus. Kathy and now they are higher even though we have a supply and demand shock out of the worlds second largest economy. This is somewhat different than sars and ebola and some of the other things because of the centrality of china to the economy, because it is both a supply and demand shock at the same time. It is going to take more time. It is going to have more economic impact. The market is priced at higher valuations because of her but he wants to be in on it. It strikes me that certainly in highyield and some of these other markets, it doesnt make a lot of sense to be buying here. David if i thought there was going to be actual defaults coming as a result of coronavirus, i would agree, but i dont. I think the multiple between 18 and 19 of s p is expensive, regardless of what the headline is. 18 to 19 is still too expensive on a forward basis for the s p 500, whether it is coronavirus or the next trade flareup or whatever the case may be. Risk investors have said with a 10 year around 1. 5 , and the fed and every other central bank around the planet telling you we are going to do anything we can to prime the pump, risk Asset Investors are saying we are willing to pay up for it. Our belief is you should look harder and find value. That is what we do, but i am not confused as to why markets have shrugged off coronavirus. Alix thats where i feel like your points intersect. Bank of america kind of spoke about that and said there were 13 rate cuts by Central Banks across the globe, emerging markets will have to continue to do that because of coronavirus, etc. Where is the value . How do you not pay too much, but also take advantage of the liquidity and buy everything mentality . Kathy one of the things you can do is barbell your positions. You can have some risk on assets and some treasuries to go with it. By the way, treasuries are rallying a lot, too. Our argument is this is not an opportune time to jump in active positions on the risk side. David it sounds as if that is sort of an implied hold cash. The timing of things has not gone very well, but on barbelling, if one wants to make an argument 18 or 19 times is too extensive the s p i would i dont know how 1. 5 on the tenure is not equally overvalued. I would not view treasuries as any less overvalued than the s p. Kathy i would argue they are a lot safer. You hold treasuries to maturity and you will get your money back. It is not true if you hold in overvalued asset. You may not get your money back. David right. If someone is content to hold a treasury for 10 years at 1. 5 , and there spending mandate and total return objective is ok , they can do that. We have to deliver a premium above that. I think that is the energy sector. You have this story that cant seem to find oxygen, cant seem to find any sentiment, and yet, you asked about where the value is. Theres no question that the fundamentals are disconnected from the pricing. That can go on for a long time, just like overvaluation can go on for a long time. But do i believe that in the s p, there are names on a highquality Balance Sheet at a deep discount to real Intrinsic Value . Yes, i do. Theres not a lot else on the s p i could say that about. Kathy my concern is, certainly in the energy sector, this is affecting energy quite directly. , the oil prices collapsing supply demand shock happening in impact, along with the secular trend in the highyield space, which is where we look. Energy is about 12 of the index, so it is actually an area of heightened concern for us because of the longterm and shortterm effects. Prices re or your where oil prices are there now, they were there for about 30 to 40 of last year. Has been for for five years without these transitory things. Coronavirus will go away, and it will be something of that puts oil at that level. Alix are you talking about big enps . Sus u. S. David im with kathy entirely. We dont touch the enp in highyield. Exxons of thend world are a completely different story. By the way, youre getting a higher yield from exxon then from owning highyield bonds in the energy space. Alix huh. I got to think about that. More coming up next. This is bloomberg. Alix i want to check on some movers of the morning. Morgan stanley lower in premarket, andriy into by e trade for 13 billion premarket, agreeing to buy e trade for 13 billion. Les wexner stepping down, also selling victorias secret. Zillow also getting a nice boost. Coming up on the program, senator Bernie Sanders gets through last nights democratic debate largely unscathed as frontrunner. More on that and how to hedge Political Risk next. Alix this is bloomberg daybreak. I am alix steel. Markets. Heck on the downside for the s p futures, off. 2 . Trading in europe heavy. The real action will be other Asset Classes. A risk off feel. Dollar index 99. 82. A huge rally, we continue to grind higher, putting pressure on things like the yen and the euro. The yield curve continuing to flatten, coming up on 13 basis points. Gold still moving higher, up eight dollars an ounce. We have vika data dropping. We have initial jobless in. Ms coming bang in line with estimates. The philly fed outlook almost triple what we thought it would come in at 11. The eco numbers in the u. S. Continuing to perform solidly. Broadening that out to the political world, a dramatic night unfolded yesterday in nevada as democratic president ial candidates took the debate stage, unleashing fierce criticism and sometimes personal attacks on each other. Risk ifrats take a huge we substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. I believe in democratic socialism for working people, not billionaires. Health care for all. The bestknown socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. I am less concerned about the lack of transparency on sanders personal health as to how to pay for his health care plans. There are 149 million americans who would learn their gesture would lose their Health Insurance who would lose their Health Insurance under sanders bill. Who am the only candidate actually got something done in health care. Huishan ive to choose between one candidate who wants to we should not have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn the party down and one candidate who wants to buy it out. Senators Alix Elizabeth warren criticism of bloomberg leaned heavily on reports of his criticism of women. Michael bloomberg is the founder of bloomberg lp and owner of Bloomberg News. Joining me as rick davis and kathy jones of Charles Schwab and David Bahnson still with me. I watch the first hour and it felt like a dogfight. What was your take away . Away at was your take it was much more entertaining than the last eight democratic debates. Night you saw a Real Campaign starting. Prior to this, you wonder did anybody want to win this election . Last night you saw people throwing themselves into each other and gliding objects in order to strip away their votes. It was not one of those things where you say you make your positive pitch and voters will rally around you. What you saw last night was candidates looking to the right and left of themselves ideologically and saying have to take your votes tonight or i lose. Alix did someone win . Rick i think donald trump won. Anyone who watch the debate had to say what a train wreck. Alix i think Michael Bloomberg did say that. Rick this is always the danger where you get into the cycle of the campaign where you have to strip away votes from other people to consolidate the field and it is a messy process. Youre making sausage. Didnt you feel that it was bizarre how no one would go after Bernie Sanders besides mayor pete . The attacking and fighting going at mayoror klobuchar pete, elizabeth fournette everybody, all of them at Michael Bloomberg elizabeth of themt everybody, all at Michael Bloomberg. I am a conservative republican and i never took advice about how we should be handling our races. I do not understand how the first place gets ignored. Alix this chart shows Bernie Sanders nominee as the next nominee. It seems there is the most extremist candidate with the least chance of defeating President Trump is the one all of them seem afraid to go after. Rick i think the Democratic Party is in turmoil. The other winner besides donald trump does the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. It was not just bernie, it was elizabeth warren. She is limping along and desperate for any kind of delicate support. States she has to get delegates or she is out of the race. Nobody piled on her. Those individuals had a chance to say socialism is better than what anybody else in the middle of our party is claiming as a positive. Alix as a market participant, how you see it . The purple line is elizabeth warren. We saw in september horizon the polls before she unveiled her health care for all plan. It coincided with a selloff in the market. There was some rhetoric that if she gains in the polls you will have to sell stock. I do not believe that correlation is causal. Knownths out the markets these things are so fluid. You have Federal Reserve activity in trade war activity, there are far more logical explanations for what the market is doing. There are forecasts for the year , i think it is almost a nonissue until late summer, and then we expect enhanced volatility in the second half of the year. Regardless of who the candidate is or who or where the polls are, i think will be a close election. It appears President Trump has more momentum than he had a few months back. I think he was the winner last night. As far as markets trying to price in not just what happens with the primary and the general, but also the senate. Lets say Bernie Sanders wins the presidency but republicans keep the senate, that is a very different market outcome. There are a lot of moving parts. Kathy i think londons, myself myself included, are trying to read too much into the political environment. Nobody expected donald trump to win, nor did they expect the outcome for the market after he won. It is way too early to try to place market bets on who will be in the white house, particularly when we do not know if the senate and congress are still divided, nothing gets done. Rick i would say last night was an interesting event, that was one of the interesting questions about whether or not you agree the convention should appoint whoever comes out in the back end, not who comes out with the most delegates if there is not a majority. The entire field said no, the convention should make its wisdom and pick the right candidate, and Bernie Sanders, completely different from four years ago when he said the convention should to sign this because the front should decide this because the front runner is hillary clinton, when he is the front runner he said whoever goes into the convention with the most delegates should win. That told me the rest of the field thanks Bernie Sanders will come into that convention with the most delegates. And his preemptive retrying to be in a position to override that. The problem for them as they could succeed and get a more electable candidate as the nominee, but have such a divided party and have alienated the bernie wing so badly that it will not matter. Alix you can make the argument bros. He bernie to switchot going their votes to buttigieg. David there is one candidate whose people will not vote for the other candidates, that is Bernie Sanders. Rick trump is a galvanizing figure. That unifies the democrats. Do not underestimate that. The real question that shouldve been asked to bernies if you do not get the nomination, do you walk out toward you join whoever is the nominee. That would have put him in a tough spot. Alix what this does do is wind up looking at where we go from growth in a growth perspective. Wematter who gets it will see stimulus, or no matter who gets it will be nazi stimulus, that helps or hurts . We will not see stimulus, and that helps or hurts . Kathy getting to 3 growth will help no matter who is in office. The math does not work. I do not know if anybody else noticed, but in the last employment report the senses adjustment showed 800,000 fewer people in the count, which means that subtracts from gdp immediately. A change in immigration policy might have the biggest impact on Economic Growth rather than anything else that happened. Issue thatbiggest will get us a three handle is a resurgence in capital expenditures, business investment. To the extent the trade war calms down and improves, what you could see happen politically, and maybe i am talking my political book, maybe Bernie Sanders becomes the candidate and there is a huge resurgence the other way where the republicans take back the house, they can get tax reform to point out done and some of 2. 0e other deregulatory done. A three handle will be extremely difficult, but i do not think you need a three handle to keep Earnings Growth going. Kathy we have had huge fiscal stimulus. Huge increases in defense spending. Huge deregulatory moves. We are still at a 1. 8 growth rate. I am not convinced more of that does anything but pile up our debt. David that is my point as an equity guy. With only 1 to 2 of gdp growth weve been getting 40 Earnings Growth over the last four years not all of that is from tax reform. Revenue growth, topline has been monumental. There are two things going on. Rick one of the thing starting to occur is when you start comparing bernies economic plans with trumps, the two have a lot of parallels. That not the traditional republicans are internationalists. Not this president. He sounds a lot like Bernie Sanders when it comes to trade. When it comes to health care, we pay our way out of this thing. Donald trump says i am not touching social security, medicare. You see a lot of parallels in their economic policies. I would not think you will have a big dislocation because of bernie. Bernie would affect the private side. Are you really going to invest a lot if you think a big tax bill will come your way, especially on the wealth class, which has promised since the day he began his campaign. Is where the senate comes in. Bernie can say all of that, but there not anyone i talked to that thanks 51 senators will vote for a wealth tax, will vote for medicare for all. Rick thats right. Mitch mcconnell has made it very clear. He was able to stop legislation during the Obama Administration when there were thinner margins and he has been able to keep the legislative Program Going even during the tumultuous trump administration. Ironically, america can depend on Mitch Mcconnell in the future. Alix fun conversation, i super appreciate that. Bloomberg contributor rick davis, good to finally meet you on set. And kathy jones and David Bahnson, thanks for the dynamic conversation. We want to update you on Morgan Stanley as we have one of our reporters speaking to james gorman on the call and here are some of the headlines that have crossed if i can pull it up. Gorman sayinges Morgan Stanley can provide expanded Banking Services and it gives Morgan Stanley an opportunity for International Platforms in relation to any trade by. Trade buy. He gives Morgan Stanley more digital assets. We will continue to update you. The analyst call underway now. Looking at about 550 million in synergy to be achieved over three years. That headline crossing as well. Well keep updating u. S. The headlines across. The 13 billiondollar deal in the update world. Lets give you an update on what is making headlines outside the business world. Viviana hurtado is here with first word news. Viviana japan confirms two passengers from the quarantined cruise ship died from the coronavirus. The victims were described as japanese citizens in their 80s. China says the death toll from the virus is now more than 2100. The total number of confirmed cases approaching 75,000 people. Now to germany where 11 people were killed in what Authorities Say may be a right wing terror attack. Police say the gunman and his mother were among those found dead in a town outside frankfurt. According to a newspaper, the suspect left behind a video and a letter that referred to the extermination of certain people. The paper says some of the victims were kurdish. Donald trump will appoint the current ambassador to germany to be the acting director of national intelligence. He tangled with german officials on a number of occasions. He has demanded German Companies leave iran. He also warned them against working on a russian gas pipeline. He will be the highest profile openly gay official in the trump administration. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Viviana Hurtado. This is bloomberg. Alix coming up, it is the Critical Role of batteries in the future of mobility. More on todays bottom line. Plus, bloomberg users interact with the chart we use throughout the show on gtv. Browse all of the features. Tech them out. Gtv this is bloomberg. Viviana youre watching bloomberg daybreak. Im Viviana Hurtado with your Bloomberg Business flash. Zillown with shares of surging in premarket trading. The company boasting fourthquarter revenues that beat estimates, fueled by zillows core business selling leads to real estate agents. Its House Flipping business lost money on every home its all. Now to british consumers. They have returned to the stores after Boris Johnson december election victory. Retail sales jumping the most in two years. Twice what economist expected. We in we end with the fund led by bill gates investing in a lithium mining startup. Increasingly turning to lithium ion batteries. They are used for powering electric vehicles and storing electric energy. I am Viviana Hurtado. That is your Bloomberg Business flash. Alix time for bottom line. Today we will focus on electric vehicles. To kick things off, we want to take a look at the dirty side of cleaner cars and lithium ion batteries, part of what bill gates wants to fix. Ofthe 20 century was the age the internal combustion energy. The 21st century will belong to the battery. By 2040 the majority of parcel around the world will be powered by batteries. In batteriesused have their own challenges. Ithium is a water guzzler his lithium prices stay low, they may not be worth the cost mind. The industry would offer the more environmentally risky method of pumping saltwater underground to extract. Nickel is used in lithium battery cathodes. Clear whether minors in indonesia can keep a steady stream coming good cobalt presents an ethics problem. It helps keep the battery cool during charging and discharging, but there are terrible conditions for miners in congo, the worlds top producers. Some of the workers are as young as four years old. A cleaner car might not be made more cleanly. Alix for a deeper dive, we are joined by craig irwin, rob Capital PartnersSenior Research analyst. I bring that up because lithium ion batteries are not the only way we will get evs on the road. What is your thesis . Fuel we are a believer in cells and batteries as a solution. These will mix in over the next several years. We are seeing evidence of it accelerating. Tesla has made it obvious that this is commercially viable and this is something we need to invest in for the future. The fuel companies are playing agohup after 20 years investing aggressively and lift fuel trucks in the field. They have demonstrated this product is reliable. Now the trucks. Today there was a press release announcing a plastic truck. Roject they are developing go d alix bloomberg nef has a great chart that shows the rise off evs. What is the difference between a tesla and a fuelcell car . Craig the availability of fuel cell is somewhat limited. There are not too many commercial options. There have been vehicles available in different markets, particular california, where the oems are looking to accumulate credits. Battery vehicles are broadly commercial. Tesla has proven this. Everybody else is working hard to catch up. Both cars are out there, and i expect vehicles for trucking to be a much more interesting product after the Industrial Opportunity has been proven out over the last several years. Alix a conversation that comes with the adoption of evs has to do with the cheaper the lithium get, the cheaper the battery gets, the cheaper the vehicles will be and i will want to buy one. What is it for fuel cells . Craig the price or the adoption driver . Aix what is the price for fuelcell battery versus a lithiumion battery and how does that feed into how fast you can make them and buy them . Craig it is dependent on the application youre looking to serve. The best application is the highvolume comparison. Lithium battery versus fuelcell and a lift truck. There you are looking at a fuelcellat is a being 20 to 25 more expensive. There offset costs. The offset is the ease of refueling and the uptime of the fleet is different. That is why in smaller installations, 50 lift trucks lithium batteries are favored, north of 50 lift trucks. Fuel cells are favored over the Legacy Technology of lead acid batteries. Consumer vehicles it is much more difficult comparisons that end up being made, but trucks, batteries are too heavy for longhaul or for inconvenient hall. Fuel cells, hydrogen is extremely light and dense. That is why you have an opportunity for superior performance versus batteries. Alix we have to leave it there. Craig irwin. Two into my bloomberg special change the brink of friday 9 00 eastern and today for commodities edge at 1 00 in new york, we will break that down as well. This is bloomberg. Alix time for technically speaking. Bill maloney, voice of bloomberg equity squad joins me now to set you up with trades. Squa to listen to bill all day. Morgan stanley down in premarket. Bill they are down around 4 in the premarket, although that is off the premarket lows. Day, which is 50 around 53, almost the retracement level. Below that youre looking at 51. Your First Support on Morgan Stanley round 53. Alix lets go to the shanghai comp. What kind of resistance did we wind up seeing . Bill shanghai rose 1. 9 overnight. It dropped 7. 7 . That might be the low after the reopen. It is up 11 since. This is not the type of price action worried about the coronavirus. Look for resistance around the 3050, then 3100. Your first resistance around 3050 in the shanghai composite. Alix thanks a lot. Bloombergs bill maloney ramping up for us. That wraps it up for me. Coming up with jonathan ferro, binky chadha will be joining him on this busy day for m a with Morgan Stanley buying e trade for 14 billion. Investors worried about buyback. This is bloomberg. Jonathan from new york city for our audience worldwide. Im jonathan ferro. The countdown to the open starts right now. Jonathan coming up, fight night in vegas. Democrats tearing into each other. The dollar breaking out of the strongest level since 2017, and goldmans Morgan Stanley buying e trade for 14 million. Good morning. Here is your thursday morning price action. Equities lower, down 9 on the s p 500, up went 5 . Eurodollar unchanged at 1. 08. Year. N the u. S. 10 lets begin with the big issue. The unstoppable u. S. Market rally good record highs. New alltime highs. They seem to be shrugging off all of the effects of the coronavirus. The market will shrug it off. The market keeps shrugging it off. We have seen this over and over again