>> the gop has control of the senate for the first time in a decade. >> the one thing i take away from all of this is you want to change the direction of our country. >> saudi arabia lowering the price of its oil to the u.s. is theking now, how much weekend helping toyota and the red?

>> welcome to "countdown." >> a warm welcome to you. it's just gone 6:00 a.m. tech.ng news in partneringsoundcloud and we will speak to some of the key people in this deal. let's get back to some breaking news. we are hearing back from the forecastaising their from ¥1.7 trillion to 2 trillion yen. it means this would be a prophet record they are now forecasting. this is the highest profit they

would have ever made if they do manage to deliver on the ofl-year net income forecast 2 trillion yen. an upgrade to the full-year income forecast. we have the first half 2014 net but theoming in headline, raising the full-year benefitorecast possibly from the weakness in the japanese currency. n joins us from hong kong to put some of these numbers in respective. >> better than expected results. the positive results coming out of toyota because of cost cuts, because of a weaker yen, because of price increases. especially with bank of japan easing monetary policy. the yen has dropped to seven months -- a seven-year low

boosting the value of toyota cars especially those high profit luxury lexus models and suvs. we saw that toyota u.s. 6.9%eries rose in october topping estimates. highlander. toyota is likely to widen the gap in competitiveness against its rivals starting from the second half of this fiscal year and this is great news for toyota because they have been struggling a bit at home and in other parts of asia are actually falling behind one of its

rivals, volkswagen, in china. we're seeing that toyota has been hit by ongoing recalls as well. we saw just yesterday they announced another round of safety recalls of more than 5600 cars in the u.s. for possible loss of steering control. these figures coming in today help them a lot. >> a fascinating story. it's really interesting the way toyota may stand to benefit from weakness in the yen because they have cut so much of their production in japan which means they have had to export so many of their cars on unlike some of the automakers that have made the shift in production. it is produced all over the world but they certainly had a time when they were very must focused on japanese production. in particular the lexus brand has actually helped them

benefit. blockbuster qoa on friday, corroded this morning making qe ands -- blockbuster kuroda commenting. this is boosting the story but if you look at the oil price drop and the weakness, it is one the offsetting the other. it's good for the manufacturing, but on the cost of imports am a adding to the manufacturing but we are keeping an eye on the autos as we go through the morning. republicans securing control of the u.s. senate for the first time in a decade. six keyraces in battleground states. mia saini is putting together an all nighter election special for us. what's the latest? a lame duck president in the making? >> can you see the bags under my eyes? i'm so exhausted.

we've been monitoring all of the latest results. as you say, the heavy lifting has been done. a big night for republicans and the voteralized on anger over president obama's handling of the economy and also because the jobs just are not there. the captured control of the senate from the democrats for the very first time in almost about a decade and they also expanded their majority in the house. bloomberg politics is reporting the republicans put up a net gain of seven seats and counting. we are still watching the results trickling in. just because the polls closed don't mean we actually have the final numbers. of thed seven in terms majority but they gained seats in colorado, montana, west virginia, iowa among north

carolina, south dakota. headed to aa races runoff. mitch mcconnell of kentucky is a republican incumbent who won again in stands to become the new -- majority leader and the republican-controlled senate. he took to the stage earlier and claimed victory. >> just because we have a two party system does not mean we have to be in perpetual conflict. i think i've shown that to be true at critical times in the past. i hope the president gives me the chance to show it again. can and so much that we should do for the good of all americans. >> democrats defended one seats, jeanne shaheen. president obama has invited congressional leaders to the white house meeting on friday afternoon.

this in context for us in terms of the international or for those who live overseas. we see a shift in terms of republicans. they have raised funds. what does this actually mean for the international stage? and half yearse in hong kong and i tried to explain earlier what this means. i was talking to many analysts here in the bloomberg headquarters and they said having two legislative chambers that are republican means it will be harder for president obama just to get things done domestically or internationally see you could be looking at a legislative stalemate. among the republican party, there are also two parties, the establishment and the up-and-coming tea party. they may prioritize overseas

concerns so that could be an issue for those investors overseas and those who are watching what's happening in the u.s. because he just got two years left in with a focus on domestic and international issues that could put some pressure overseas in your parts of the world. go get some sleep and look after yourself. >> i will be here all night. minutes past 6:00 a.m. in london and the largest tech conference continues in dublin. businesshide our correspondent is there. tell us who view been meeting. -- who you have been meeting. >> a crazy night. we raced off over to the facebook arty where people were swigging beer and dancing to electric music through the night. shakers inmovers and quickly turn around to a dinner

with one of the biggest investors in this space, index ventures bringing an eclectic mix of people. you have achieved executive of the sky be talking about the structure and in the media industry. you had eva longoria, libby cole, the developer, the founder of one of the big success stories, oculus sitting there talking about where the industry is moving. clearly there is so much vibrancy here so this place will be a little quiet for the next few hours while people sleep off some of the heavy heads potentially. ist was also so interesting i managed to catch up with drop rocks. drew houston has been really interesting in developing where drop boxes going -- where dropbox is going in the cloud.

he spoke to us about how important europe has been. of our usersercent are outside of the u.s. one of the reasons dublin was the first outside office we open was because we have more users in europe. this is a really important market for us. a lot of users and we want to get looser to our customers. pool is an amazing talent here. everything has been growing like crazy. he's talking actually about how many more users they had in europe and why they are expanding in ireland at the moment. they're focused on the developed world rather than the developing world. before i spoke to drew, we had a lot of fun using the oculus. it's all about virtual reality. that is where he thinks the excitement is in the industry. everything is far more exciting

than it was on "star trek." we caught up with the founder of oculus group, one of the guys everyone looks up to. when will we get our hands on the virtual reality headset? have a listen. >> where very close to day one which will be the consumer launch. across the bay, we had been talking about oculus connected to meet thatrting quality bar that needs to be there. now we are going to be moving on today and talking to some brilliant founders because in just a few moments, some breaking news surrounding sound cloud today and we will talk to the cofounder. sharingud is a music company.

it is about streaming but it's always been a very much about the collaboration of artists if you are doing some electric music in one room and you can send it to a friend and share your music creation. it has always slightly annoyed the big music companies because they have not paid any royalties even though they are up against the likes of spotify. now warner bros. music has signed a deal the sound cloud and they're using advertising as well. what does this mean for sony, universal music? will they be striking more deals? desperation for revenue or the new way of working with the music industry? taylor swift recently removed her music from spotify said they were not getting enough from streaming. give backising to another key area that has been deflected by technology?

we will be debating all of that but do stay tuned for that brilliant interview we have managed to line up this morning. to exploringrward that latest development. thank you very much, caroline. >> stay tuned to bloomberg this morning. we will talk to virgin atlantic ceo live on "the pulse." >> join in on our conversations on twitter. @manuscranny.nd japanese, thethe bank of japan? from the rbc head of global effects on "countdown" after the break. -- from rbc head of global fx. ♪

a brent crude hitting four-year low overnight. saudi arabia cutting the cost of its supplies to the u.s. what do the commodity moves mean in the oil market? adam cole joins us live from london, rbc head of global fx.

the norwegian krone is dropping. the dollar a stronger but likewise the canadian dollar is strong in. who will weather this better? the dollar overall is probably the winner on the other side of the commodity currency losses. the other less directive is wasng in the bank of japan tied directly to the inflationary impact of lower oil prices. we now seem to be an environment where the bank of japan is responding to relatively short-term developments raising the prospect of further boj easing at upcoming meetings. i think there's a secondary effect elsewhere where the policy response will induce a currency move and that's why you see the yen weakening so much today. saying 115 sort of

is not a consensus on dollar-yen. bank of japan is moving ahead without consensus supporting additional qe. what will that do to the currency? is theknee-jerk reaction currency lower of of course. much lower term we have thoughts about what it could do long term. the knee-jerk reaction is clearly to take the currency lower. what it did was leave open the threat of qe at any time. to not move policy in the ty pe of piecemeal way. that now appears to have changed and we do see these incremental changes in policy in response to

relatively short-term developments. issue inthis ongoing this is an easy target. long-term, 120-125 is likely. morning to you. what is the rbc view with the results of the midterms. matter for your dollar forecast, the way the u.s. economy goes as we look ahead to payroll on friday? policy is monetary much higher on the market agenda as far as the dollar is generally concerned. u.s., you simply don't have the pressing policy issues that we have elsewhere. policy is clearly on the agenda in europe because of the need for structural reform. it will certainly be on the agenda in the u.k. because of the need for fiscal consolidation. in the u.s., those issues are generally less pressing and as we get closer and closer to the delivering the first

tightening, it's the central bank monetary policy dominating rather than fiscal policy. briefly on the european agenda, what do you think has more chance of happening? significant fiscal stimulus in germany were the ecb starting full-blown qe buying sovereign bonds? which do you think has more chance of becoming a reality? than there less likely markets perceive. there is evidence the markets have something close to a 50% probability attached to out right sovereign bond qe which is a lot less likely than that. the ecb will continue to focus on fixing the transmission mechanism rather than easing the policy. that reason, we are a lot less negative on the euro than the consensus. going lower from here, we see it as a dollar strength phenomenon and we do not expect any element

of an independent euro weakness going forward. >> an interesting response there, adam call head of global fx strategy at rbc global markets. >> come shopping with us. we're going to fifth avenue. a company you might heard of, top shop. ♪

>> welcome back to "countdown>>

." time for today's company news. pimco return fund suffered its worst month of redemptions ever following the departure of bill gross. they withdrew an estimated $27.5 billion on the world's largest bond fund. half of the withdrawals took in the first five trading ays of october. it now has a total of 170 .9 billion dollars in assets down from the peak of $293 billion -- billion. in a partnership, they are offering according to a person with direct knowledge of the offer. hoping theid to be portuguese government will be favoring its proposal. they are waiting for more offers before deciding what to do according to people familiar with the situation.

top shop is opening the doors to its brand-new fifth avenue flagship store in new york. as of the first time the fashion retailer has opened a store in manhattan, but it's of the biggest. it coincides with a partnership deal with beyoncé to create a line of stylish sportswear. catching up with ceo philip green, he's optimistic about their future in the united states. >> i think that year-over-year is tilting a lot better so we are pleased with that. i think just generally, we see this as a market that we should will they big is this. up, saudi arabia cutting oil prices for the u.s., and impact on the markets coming up after the break. stay with us. ♪

>> you are welcome back to "countdown." looking at how the foreign exchange market is moving especially on dollar-yen. at the bottom of your screen, 114 .27. the bank of japan governor seeing no limit to the steps the central bank may take. we just had a conversation with adam cole from rbc. visit my twitter account. he says at 115 is consensus that we could get to 120-125 on

dollar-yen. there are moves here on the euro-yen. the yen heading a seven-month low. these are numbers we have not seen in six years. the challenge between mario draghi and the boj governor stepping up the pace. try to trump that if you think this will promote growth in the euro zone. i quite like this story. the say 2015 is the year of this morning.ove this currency delivered over 9% return so far in 2014 and it will again. they said this is the currency that you want to buy. it could hit 59 point five by next year. it will react well despite the and the potential

movement from the federal reserve on rates. that is your fx check. tophese are the bloomberg headlines. republicans of captured control of the senate from the democrats. which mcconnell of kentucky stands to be the new senate majority leader beating his democratic rival in the state, allison lundgren-grimes. not bring us the result that we had hoped for. this journey, the fight for you, it was worth it. for theontinue to fight commonwealth of kentucky each and every day. >> bank of england governor mark carney inherited a bureaucratic numbering institution according to the bank's own internal survey. the bank employees used keywords like hierarchical and slow-moving. he hired them to do the first acts.

the rebel held eastern region is illegal, merkel says. she said she sees no reason to lift economic sanctions against russia after hearing that they are amassing military vehicles in the region. >> oil prices continued to concerns.er over saudi arabia has reduced the cost of crude and the u.s. increasing supplies heading shale production. joining us now to discuss the oil market is our opec man, ryan chilcote. all the time.nd it's important for these members, isn't it? >> if you want to figure out where oil is going to go, you have to not just watch the actions that follow their movement. the oil minister is on his way island, venezuela. he will be there tomorrow. from there he will go on to

mexico continuing his tour of nice resorts going to acapulco earlier. >> let's hope is not having any margaritas on the island. >> i don't think that will happen. he's a speed walker. he does not drink at all. saudi's, mexicans and the cooperated actually to prop up the oil prices. it went as low as $10 per barrel. , that'sng that $82.50 obviously a big gap but it's an interesting dynamic to watch how they cooperate or don't cooperate. the other thing that might be interesting when we watch 9 naimi is we might hear from the man. we have heard of the saudi cut

in prices to the u.s. but we have not heard for a month and a half and is going to two conferences. he might just say a few words. is unlikely we get them to cooperate? are we going to see any movement? >> none of the shale producers will take oil off the table unless they have to and i don't think that will happen before bucks per barrel. venezuela is an interesting one. they are part of opec and they have already called for an emergency meeting in that request was not granted. it will go forward on the 27th of september. they would very much like to see a higher oil price. it's thehen opec cuts saudi's that have to do the cuts and everyone gets to enjoy the gain in price if there is one.

the mexicans are not in opec so not clear if they would be interested in cutting to support the price. and the saudi's, as we begin this conversation, just cut prices which suggests something else. all three of these are among the top five suppliers to the united states. while they want to cooperate perhaps in theory to prop up the price of oil, they are also battling for market share and they are up against the shale producers there. what we see this time versus 1998 might be much different. >> and they might be exporting and they are very much locked in. in some ways it's a bit of give and take looking to america for market share. on the other hand they have demand from asia. >> we talked about cutting the cost to the united states, but one of the lace is where this

all began was concerned about weakness in the global economy and faltering demand from asia. if we did not see faltering growth in china, we would not have this precipitous drop in the price of oil. ryan.will leave it there, enjoy that, opec minister. europe's largest tech conference continues in dublin. caroline hyde catching up with the ceo of oculus. they spoke by the virtual-reality headset maker for $2 billion in july. let's hear now what they had to say. long-term, we still don't know what the application is. we don't know what market it will be. we do believe it will be centered largely around the power of presence, really believing you are in the space, the physical environment but virtually and very much the space.

being able to be in this virtual place with other people that you believe are really right in front of you. the ceo of oculus. caroline will be back with us later. stay tuned because we will be back in dublin. will nearing a deal with sound cloud and we speak to the ceo and cofounder coming up next. ♪

>> time for today's company news. u.k. competition regulators may open an investigation of small and medium-sized businesses. they will announce its decision on an inquiry tomorrow. in july, they said consumers lacked effective options. hsbc, lloyds, and rbs control more than 90% of the market. it's a growth story at alibaba. sales jumping 54% as increase shopping and mobile spending boosting ad revenue. shares up at the new york close adding to a 56% surge in alibaba 20ck price since the record $5 billion ipo in september. bayern munich chief executive

telling bloomberg he is aiming to emulate the success of the manchester united and real madrid teams. the striker says a six-year establishp deal will a new e-commerce network for fans worldwide. >> we speak about football and the motion. the most important thing in football is a motion. that's the reason why friends go to the stadium, to have a nice game, to have a nice saturday or sunday attending a game. >> renovation is brimming in ireland this morning. let's head straight to dublin to the web summit where caroline hyde has a very special guest as sound cloud announces their new deal. take it away. >> what a great time to be after theysoundcloud announced a deal. i'm joined by the cofounder. not the swedish pronunciation, i'm sorry.

first of all, tell us about this deal with warner bros.. while in the making? >> we are super excited. we find a licensing agreement -- we signed with warner publishing that means all artists on warners will benefit from this. they are joining the soundcloud program which is our revenue sharing program. we're looking forward to becoming a very significant revenue generator for warner in the near future. industry, whatc incentivize this deal? was it the need by artist's to feel that they were seeing some monetary benefit from the fact that their music is now available online, being streamed? as yet they have not seen the royalties coming? >> we have very much been on a

journey from starting by creating a tool for artists that artists love. i'm an artist myself so i tried to solve my own problem and then realizing what artists are really looking for is connecting with sounds and building to a larger audience. so then we moved into the second phase which was all about holding large scale to audience so we got to over 175 million unique listeners every month coming to the platform. now we are entering phase three which we launched in august which is essentially about revenue sharing, earning a living with eating on soundcloud. that is kind of the phase we are in now and now warner is part of that program. we launched with about 20 partners or so. over 40.e are ready we are very quickly expanding

our range of partners which is really spanning the whole range. we have the emerging artists so someone like big gigantic just coming on the platform. they may have the non-music die, the like funnyor comedy podcast network. .e also have the aggregators of the biggerot indie labels and now we also have major labels. we are very excited to have the full range of our owners onboard out. this was the key building over time. >> what about the next big label? >> i think we have a lot of these talks and negotiations that are constantly building. it's twow over 40 and

months and so we're very excited for bringing more people on board as we go. >> can you give us a timeframe? on timenot comment frames regarding the deals, but there will be more and more rolling in over the next couple of months. >> you say it's about helping the artists make a living. for sound cloud revenues? they look at earlier numbers felt you were making a loss. will it help boost your revenues? like you arebut saying, we are doing this for the artist, for the people who are earning a living with what they are doing, creating music and audio. the way it works is we essentially have advertising partners and for now we are available only in the u.s. we are working with large brands like jaguar, red bull, something like that and we are essentially

having a range of advertising products that are available on the platform. the first half of next year we will also bring in a subscription components or you andget additional features differences on the platform as well. disruptor ineen a the music business and the fact he were not paying royalties at -- aggravated the old guard. eventney is made doing and live shows and not for the individual tracks. >> i think the future is superbright for the industry. we are very early in terms of where the web is at. we have 175 unique -- million unique users but there's the reason i cannot grow to one billion. we are in a kind of expansionary phase and there's a lot of to earn opportunities

revenues online as well as off-line. i have a very positive view on this and it's all about embracing the new technologies and looking at what works and what does not work for you as a creator. >> what about regions where you are looking to grow soundcloud as far as your unique users? >> we see ourselves as a global platform. in the last hour, it was listened to in 200 countries. we are a global platform and we want to help creators around the globe to ultimately earn revenue so we have large ambitions for the project. large ambitions sometimes means funding. are you looking for more funding? what is it like out there as the mature startuite up now? are you feeling investors are shying away from getting involved this valuations are too high? >> we are growing along and

growing very quickly. any company that's growing a lot will have a lot of inbound interest. we do have interest so i think we are not particularly worried about that. we are not fund raising at the moment. we are looking to build a very sustainable business here. we think the potential of something like this is a nor ms.. we are super excited about where we are going. >> one piece of advice for anyone about to strike a deal with sony, universal, warner is? >> these things take time. it's the nature of the conversations that they are very complicated. take your time and make sure that you do the right thing for you. >> and we will look out for any more deals you will be signing. eric wahlforss, the cofounder of soundcloud. just raking that deal with warner to start revenue-sharing in terms of music.

back to you in london. >> well-done. great to have that interview first on bloomberg, the founder of soundcloud. have a good day. >> châteaux and bordeaux are attractive assets to wealthy chinese assets. we've seen them crackdown on corruption, but what has been the impact on the chinese châteaux donors? we traveled to bordeaux to find out. he was earning $80,000 per year at the state owned car importer when he decided to quit in 2007 2 study western humor full-time. his interests range from mark twain -- >> jon stuart, stephen colbert. i even translate jon stewart's show.

the chinese subtitles and the chinese audiences like it. chinesee of the regular standup comedians, the pioneers of a middle-class breed. >> i was like, i know. i'm from china. [laughter] >> china is opening up more and more. they are pretty much shaped by also the american movies, that makeserything the globe even smaller than ever before. >> western-style comedy is finding popularity here now. there was a letter that says you don't need a democracy but spreadingu do end up democratic ideas. ripe for comedy.

-- humor isus news used as a coping mechanism but sometes it's just about meeting people and having a good time. be verythink you might muted but in a room like this, in a room like the others, it's relatively under the radar and you can be open and free enough to speak your mind. small,hina, it is quite but you cannot touch. it's no problem. >> some say such freedom in a controlled society cannot help but prosper freer ways of thought as well. >> watching more and more american comedy.

[laughter] has -- right? where were chinese? >> perhaps sitting in the audience laughing. >> fascinating as that was, it was clearly about chinese comedy and not chinese ownership of french château's. electronic readers have been focusing in on graphic growth. we will look at that and more in the countdown to newspapers. ♪

welcome back. let's get straight to the newspapers. ryan joins us on set. >> the guardian taking a look at alibaba. pointing out that jack ma is wo the thebillion, up, biggest gainer this year. he has seen his salary grow by $22 billion and that's only the half of it. on the terminal, you can watch their wealth rise moment by moment and he gained another $700 million yesterday on the back of that 4% rise in shares. >> billy give half of it away -- will he give it away? >> you know how you have a book in you underloine your

favorite quote? a truth universally knowledge that a single man in good fortune must be in want of a wife." stay tuned to countdown. ♪

when a senate majority for the first time in nearly a decade. >> the one thing that i take away from all of this is that you want to change the direction of our country. [applause] get to a four-year low after saudi arabia lowers the price of its oil supply to the u.s.? >> earnings from marks and spencer. what impact has the warm weather had on street sales? a warm welcome to "countdown

." i am manus cranny. >> i am anna edwards. we are just getting numbers breaking from marks and spencer's. >> we are indeed. let's see where the numbers stuck up. first half sales, 4.9 billion pounds. the estimate was 4.92 billion pounds. that is the first half in terms of gross numbers. operating profits for the first half of the your kimmitt 318.6 million pounds. let's open up the statements for mark and spencer. we're looking at non-fashion. group sales come in at 4.9 billion. rises 2.2% to 268 million pounds. merchandise, sales

declined by 2.3%. bye for like sales followed 2.9%. clothing down by 1.6%. general merchandise, first half sales down by 2.2%. unseasonable conditions in september. this is what they were telling us, that what warm weather was preventing us from buying winter coats. affectedt adversely sales by approximately 1.3%. sales are down by 6.3% online and improving trends. that is crucial because they revamped the website and that is something that caused them to stumble a little bit. that is something you have talked about in the past, the performance there. dot calm, they have done a lot.

they have a dedicated warehouse. they should be doing better. it is a big growth area. people like shopping in this way. >> general merchandise, and this is what we are focused on, second quarter general merchandise is a little bit worse than the market had estimated. that declined by 3.6%. i gave you the first half on the headline. this is mark bolin torture, isn't it? the 13th consecutive straight decline of nonfood sales in this comes at 3.6%. they have not got it right, has he? >> is difficult. realistically as well. theirave to remember that quarter, it only included september. october, which we know is difficult, comes into their fourth quarter. august generally was reckoned it to be good. where the points fall may become a and we have to probably get into the nitty-gritty of the

amnesty meeting, but there is the question of how much stock back in julyake and did they sell more at full price and rather have less going into clearance? thatis one of the things is a good thing for a negative like for like. it gets out justice much. looking at the pretax number, and looks as if it came in towards the top end of the range and maybe implies they did a little bit that are on the profitability. that is one of the things we have seen a lot in clothing retailers. we know we have well disciplined people like next who do not go constantly into discounts. m and s is trying to get towards that. have toer you did discount as much, or will they have a november black friday event running up to christmas? gross margin was when hundred 50 basis points as it is referred to.

generalin merchandise. >> they say they're happy. they said they are pleased with the progress they have made with key priorities for the year. , gross margin, improving women's wear. we have not seen anything specific on a but primark's this week predicting they had a magnificent period. you have to wonder where the , sorry,ers in the food in the clothing area, maybe they are benefiting the same way that the discounters in the industry are. >> primark said that their sales period 10% over the since year-and. -- year-end. they had a difficult last week in september. for means like flat

primark. it was a brilliant number, but it was not a negative number. >> we will leave it there. let's see with a market makes on tuesday when they get into the depths of the report. we will see how the market takes it. >> we are getting numbers from old mutual, the insurance business. six minutes past 7:00 in london. up by 5% at old mutual at 307.6 billion pounds. the gross sales, 6.2 billion pounds. that economicg activity remains subdued in south africa. growth remains elsewhere robust in africa and on the u.k. retail services market is developing fast. who better to speak to about these numbers than the group finance director of old mutual, ingrid johnson who joins us onset this morning. sittingu very much for to our conversation about coats

and whether. let's talk about your business. paint the picture were the strengths and weaknesses have been. quarters been a busy and it has been exciting. it does not matter where you spend your money, but we hope you invest it with us. we have seen quite robust performance underneath. we have more volatile performance on the institutional side, as well as the foreign exchange, given the diversity of the earnings and operations. very important corporate activities, the less quarter, many things we have been working on. >> how do we look at old mutual? businessu have the management, the quilt, you have solidified your position. you have gone after 20% holdings in eco-bank. how do we look at you? are you an asset manager, insurance company? clients servicing our

through the product and that is why looks complex. someone was to put us in different boxes. from a client's perspective, the strength of our brand is being trusted to buy a range of products. >> the demand is not reflecting that. if you look at your performance on the 5350 insurers, they are storming ahead. you look at your performance, it is up 16%. you are trading behind that. you are the third worst in the bottom. 4%.are up what are they doing right that you are not? >> we can't control the share price. what we need to make sure is billed brilliant businesses for our clients and that is exactly what we have been doing. we look at the underline investment in products, it is really doing well. from a shareholder perspective, that is a challenge because people do not know what is the comparative. when you look at the underlying performance relative to appear group in the underlying markets, we are actually doing very -- reasonably well. >> let's talk about your south african business.

net bank is a bank you control. is there any interest in selling net bank if you are offered the right price? >> coming from that break with 21 years -- [laughter] i think i am a test. again, if you look at opportunities to invest in the rest of africa, we need to do it on an integrated basis. we need to tackle a challenging market. we have a strong, wonderful bank to be able to lead the charge. eco-bank and ah pan african bank in 36 countries. >> did they happen to talk about whether a national bank might buy that bank? >> no. >> where does eco-bank fit in? mutual, you see in part and emerging markets business and imparts a developed markets business. why not extract value and split the business up? would you discuss that? >> there are many different views.

importantly for us, we have to figure out what benefits our clients. how do we create value? by having a vision of where want to keep the company, you may find those ways to not diminish. that is the responsibility of leadership, to develop an amazing firm. >> break of is really not on the table. >> no. >> talking about the geography, you have a significant presence in other parts of africa as well as south africa. tell me about your expansion plans. the focus in east africa, it is very much about ebola and though that might not be the focus for your growth, you may or may be focused on the west. whether ebola is distracting and investment opportunity in africa. >> ebola is a tragedy and it is wonderful to see the world try to address it. it is great to see nigerians are ebola-free. from our perspective, we want to and haven east africa

strong presence in markets like kenya. and then go to western african partnership with eco-bank. we would see direct distribution agreements with eco-bank. there is lots of opportunity. there is risk and we need to be careful in how we measure capital investments. >> there's a lot of risk. he bowled him one portion of the public perception of what is one portionla of the public perception of what happened in africa. we have crime coming to the forefront of the national papers. did those issues make it more difficult to market south africa? her country is amazing. it has gone to an extraordinary transformation. we have been called the young democracy. it is like a teenager. you're going to have challenging times but you will emerge. there is a polished than -- a

policy statement that was recently announced. it is a deep commitment to bring our country's resources together to build a great future. renewable energy is important. actually, we use our resources together to build a great future. >> how much of your time to use managing the current seat? have been on a bit of a roller coaster in recent years, haven't you? the lows against the u.s. dollar. how much of a headache for you is it? it is 65% of our earnings. it has an impact. 80 strong bit -- we are building a strong business in the u.k.. linkages >> between customers. >> to close, when you do

acquisitions, what does it mean for the dividend policy? is a strategy to disband and growth through acquisition rather than a return of equity to shareholders? given the amount of activity, we are poising for a wild. we have done a lot. it is not about delivering returns. from a capital perspective, we are at 154%. we are those comfortable with our capital levels. -- we're comfortable with our capital levels. >> we wish you the best. ingrid johnson, group finance director of old mutual. >> you can join our conversations on twitter. tell also have stored to hear about. >> republicans in the united

states have taken the senate for the first time in almost a decade. reacting on the news. we'll be live from new york with a very reporter. ♪

>> time for today's company news. the pimco total return fund suffered its worst month of redemptions ever in september following the departure of bill gross. 27 point $5thdrew billion in the first of four months since he resigned. tookof the withdrawal place in the first five drays of october. a peak of from $293,000 in 2013. aipac's partners is plan to offer 7 billion euros for an asset company in portugal. that is according to a person when direct knowledge. is betting the portuguese government will favor its

proposal. that is according to people familiar with the situation. the doors topening his brand-new 5th avenue flagship store in new york. it is not the first time the british fashion retailer has opened a store in manhattan, but it is the biggest. they signed a partnership do with beyoncé to create a stylish line of wear. >> we've had a good quarter. nostrum is working well. you're on your got better. we are pleased with that. we see this as a market where we should be able to do good business. republican secure control of the u.s. senate for the first time in nearly a decade after winning races in several battleground states.

mia, are you still alive? what is happening? what is happening in terms of this shift in the polls? send me aou should coffee because i could use the caffeine. it is just after 2:00 in the morning new york time and what is not foggy are these results that we have been watching across the bloomberg terminal. republicans now holding both houses of congress. the senate and the house. they capitalized on voter anger over president obama and the still fragile economy. ofublicans put up a net gain seven seats and still counting because even though the polls are closed across america, there are still those votes that are being tallied. they need a net gain of six and got a net gain of seven. they gained seats in colorado, arkansas, iowa, north carolina, montana, and south dakota. the louisiana races headed for a runoff in december because

neither candidate won more than 50% then you needed. mitch mcconnell of kentucky is a republican incumbent who won again and stands to become the new majority leader in the republican-controlled senate. earlier, he claimed victory in his race. >> friends, this experiment in big government has lasted long enough. [applause] it is time to go in a new direction. [applause] it is time to turn this country around. [cheers and applause] and i will not let you down. thank you so much.

>> give me a sense of what this means internationally in terms of markets. positive for a international markets because republicans may push ahead on efforts to repatriate some $2 trillion in corporate earnings abroad. we may see a larger overhaul in the tax code. that could help investors overseas as well and the fed may face it intensified republican efforts to curtail its powers to make monetary policy. the world watches what the fed debt. desmond child at cmc markets said the republican new majority of the senate should sustain the rally we are seeing in american stocks. if you look at treasury yields, they are trading higher. expectation is when future start trading, you'll see a pop as well. i have not forgotten that london fog. please send it my way. >> i will send you a little bit of london fog. >> i need something. >> good old election.

great for the stock market. thank you very much for staying up all night. mia in new york. was rubbish. it was raining. you are missing nothing, mia. saudi arabia cuts oil's price for america. ♪

>> welcome back to "countdown."

oil prices continue to be in focus. saudi arabia has reduced the cost of crude as the u.s. increases supplies from shell production. joining us to discuss that and breaking news on russia, ryan chilcote. story,est on the russia the bank of russia says they are ready to carry out additional intervention. put this into perspective. >> the ruble in trouble again. the ruble-dollar getting very close to 45 rubles to the dollar. almost got to 45 then we saw the intervention by the bank of russia, saying they're ready to carry out additional intervention, saying they are going to do a repo operation, which will extend into next year. they will keep the limit at $50 billion. that had been announced. oil is part of the problem. >> they raced rates last friday.

>> 150 basis points. >> what is stopping the currency? >> nothing. we saw a little bit of a correction. it went all the way to 45 and now down to 44.5. it is down on the day and it is extraordinaire. oil is only part of the story. oil has been falling. capital flight and other things. dollar strength is another issue. sanctions is a third issue. oil is certainly a big issue and shows how just befallen oil prices that affects countries that are produces. >> talk about whether opec and other countries will cooperate. >> it was the saudi's cutting price of oil to the u.s. market that started befallen oil the day before yesterday. then we got the inventories number. watch notg to just the saudis and what they do, but the minister. he is on his way to venezuela.

then he is going to mexico. we will leave it there. >>.gov very much. you very much. >> technology. that is what we're going to focus on. ♪

welcome back to "countdown." it is 7:30. we just heard from ryan on the ruble falling. let's look at the yen. the dollar-yen. looking at a seven-year low. yen generally lower this morning. the dollar is higher. talked to rbc this morning. 116 is achievable. 120 is more likely.

125 is even a possibility. the bank of japan not having to do more quantitative easing. horns, marioocking draghi said this morning that there is nothing really to stop them from doing more to defend the target, to get themselves into an inflation spiral. seven-monthing a high. that is not good for mario draghi. the euro-yen level could go to 142 by the end of the year. that is the yen story. the dollar is strong on the back of the senate results. the yen is lower. have a look at the rupee. this is an interesting one. if you go into 2015 come you see momentum in the emerging market currencies. who will be the winners and losers? great report across the bloomberg channel this morning. they said by the rupee.

this is one of the currencies in asia that will do five the fed's fed's move. the return,see a reasonable outperforming the indonesian rupee. delivered a return of over 9% this year and there is another 8% left for next year if you go with that. 59.5 is achievable. >> innovation is brimming in ireland this morning. let's head to dublin were caroline hyde is joined by a guest. innovation is brimming. this whole event is about startups about funding and ways industries are being disrupted. joined by a startup, alex. thank you for coming so early. idea of what is being

offered this difference. >> we are a marketplace for local cleaners in your neighborhood. you type your area code in the website. we show you the six closest cleaners that have been vetted by us and within about 60 seconds, you will have invented cleaner arriving at your house whenever you have chosen. >> this is about efficiency, making my life easier. what have been the challenge is growing this company? initially you are wider than that. we thinking more than cleaning? >> this originally started from jill trying to find a piano teacher. she got frustrated because she did not know what the going rate was. we were thinking about booking platforms. our point of differentiation is if you always focus on supply, you focus on making a product that does not just deliver value and ease for a customer, it very much helps enhance the supplier's offering. we look at a broad range of categories. we were doing gardening, mobile

hairdressing, and we even had chess on their one point. ist we actually realized that simplicity and focus when you're getting started are probably the two greatest traits you can have as a company. after about nine or 10 weeks, we narrow the focus down to cleaning. when we saw that so many people were searching for domestic cleaners. problem, servicing good-quality, trusted cleaners in the area you live. >> what do you do now? you build presence in the u k, you see your offering is working. you have lots of people on hassle.com. offeringroad or start piano teachers and hairdressers? >> that is a great question and it is one we have internally struggled with for the last 12 months. it is not a struggle, it is just that on her doors like to do everything. we like risk and we like new things.

it is really tempting to try and do everything. you have to do one thing at a time. for us, it was proof that the market exists beyond london. dublin, an island where we are now, and recently it has been paris. it isinteresting because a fragmented and opaque market. we found a characteristically to be the same. the challenge for us depends on how you look at the market. the way you perceive it is that these are localized players where debt is very important. that is what we have been going for. the biggest u.k. player. where the biggest and only one in ireland. we are right at the front of the market in paris. it is now about digging deep, hitting a good, trusted brand. that is a strategy for the next six months. the product -- believe me, my

cofounder is anxious to experiment. there are definitely other trusted categories like elderly care or babysitting or tutoring, those types of things. those a repeatable, in-home activities that are the direction we're heading in. >> alex, it has been great speaking to you. thank you so much for coming in. all the networking goes very well for the rest of dublin. thank you very much. speakingm ceo alex about the trials interview asians and opportunities being the founder of a startup in dublin. back to you in london. >> thank you very much, caroline hyde. they're going to get a new costumer. i think she is doing very well, getting everyone up bright and early in dublin. after presumably a rampage >>.

>> we can confirm that. >> the most popular football team is germany's bundesliga. bayern munich wants to expand. it enjoys lucrative sponsorships from the like of dhl, audi, volkswagen. caught up with the ceo and he joins us from berlin. have to bayern munich go about extending its global commercial reach? i thought it was well underway. it has done exceptionally well compared to the rest of the bundesliga, that it remains substantially behind the likes of manchester united, real madrid, barcelona in selling shirts and merchandise in asia and the u.s.. what it is doing is using german companies, the likes of on's and itnd ollie is using their expertise to access these markets.

how is bayern munich using german's, using the brand, the corporate acumen, to translate into commercial reality? us that in theng summer of 2012 when they went on to her in china, they first thing they did when they got on the ground in beijing was that they sat down with the manager, a chinese manager at the volkswagen unit of audi and he said this is how you do business in a country like china. this is how you reputation. they took that on board and they managed to get a chinese sponsor panels.kes solar about setting up a very successful to her. tour >>.sful

>> you have to think carefully here. who you support? fan and heston villa was going, we have to catch up with the british close. i said, aston villa. he sort of grimaced. webb, thank you so much. barcelona's mayor is defending himself against allegations that he had a secret swiss bank account. the mayor since the spanish government urged him to publish the allegations. he said he has no money and switzerland. >> it is not true. nothing about the situation. i have no money and switzerland. honduras.money in it is all a big mistake. >> joining us now in bloomberg newsroom, ben stills. affect theis episode

cattle on independence vote which is taking place as weekend? >> i think is going to change the perception of the catelan political class some what. was -- the former president of the region admitted to having offshore bank accounts. when the story broke last week, there was a sense of, here is another one who has been caught hiding money from the tax man. actually, by turning this around, the story turns on its head. the cataland -- leaders can enter with their heads held high. catalans will be more motivated to vote for independence with a sense that the madrid government perhaps has not been playing cleanly in the battle of hearts

and minds. >> how to set threaten to play out longer-term as we look ahead to this vote over the weekend? vote, thisyond the vote is not quite a referendum. the catalans wanted to hold a referendum. it was blocked. they come back with plan b, which involves ballot boxes and voting. there is none of the legal guarantees which would give this proper democratic legitimacy. they are aiming to negotiate a common platform. hoping to win a more legitimate democratic mandate for independence. they have to say, this is what the people want. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> we have futures.

sevenicans have won senate seats. they're going to take control of congress. u.s. equity futures are higher. look at the s&p. breaking 2000 again. up one third of 1%. we will look at tractor investments. an a few minutes. ♪

the bank of england is reporting the rate decision tomorrow. the u.s. numbers are due on friday and the race for who is going to win the race between the ecb and the bank of japan and the overnight news in regard to the u.s. elections. hermes investment management is with us now. great to have you with us. where do we start, politics or markets? >> start with the senate. the senate has been

screen. the republicans control both. it is interesting one because people say the economy is stupid. the economy in the states is doing better than anywhere else in the world. president obama has not taken credit for that. the micah slurped -- the markets like the result. they have been spending less on social issues and more austerity outlook. the other element, if you look to the voters speaking, the element of national security, the esident obama was not strong enough on the world. it might lead to gridlock. america remains attractive. theuestions about how government being funded up to december. before we got those results, you were talking about liking u.s. assets. it does not give you reason to revisit that. >> i think yesterday, most people were discounting that six seats would be wrestled from the democrats anyway. it last time on basic, old-fashioned fundamentals. employment data is much better.

is running in the rich 225,000. this is -- the difference between the united states and here is employment is strengthening and we think we're going to see wage growth. that will permeate further down the change. to the unitedst kingdom's where you are not seeing wage growth. it is not permeating down the scale. that is one difference between the two cooper -- the two. >> you actually say you're watching financials. to see if they are investable. i was covering a story yesterday. litigation, litigation. jpmorgan having to up their mind. be brave? >> it is the stage where you have to watch. there are two elements. the regulators are taking a stance.

it is a very swedish way of doing things, which means you have to be careful. on the other hand, it has been eight years. some of the big financials have sorted all of the problems -- some of the problems, not all of them. if it is worthok getting back in again. >> some of things you're investing in at the moment, because earlier you talked about how hermes is exiting from commodities amid challenges delivering returns in that space. tell us why you are moving away from that. is that cyclical with what we are seeing at the moment? let's talk about what hermes is. -- weign ourselves as a define ourselves a high alpha house. the commodities we have is excellent, but they have the edge plus a little bit. it is great business, but not permit business. we tend to be strategic assets. we tend to be in assets for a long time. hermes is not in the game.

corroborative's fit within that. is coincidental. we have clients who still want to come to our team. a high alpha house. discussve a lot more to only get back. stay with us. ♪

." welcome back to "countdown eight minutes until the european equity markets open up. let's talk a little bit about global growth because we were talking about some of your views earlier and i thought it was very interesting, a line from secretary larry summers. yesterday into a doomsday sayer on china in particular. he said that china could eventually revert to the global growth trend levels of growth. don't panic yet, because he says xt sees something or the nec decade like 5%. that byr man it's like the chinese government or other forces? >> when people were super bowl

it -- super bullish, we thought it was silly. when people are super bearish, we thought it was a bit silly. it cannot be like defra are buried in a growth is all right. spending that money in asia is a interesting one. they realize they cannot do the transformation to a consumer-based society as analystss western think because they know their country and they're smart and there are lots of people involved. this could grow their country and infrastructure for time to come. >> this at open of avenues in conversations? you say you are a longer-term investor. tell me about how those macro vents -- >> what we tend to do is look to 10 years. you recognize strengths and then

trends. greenberg was on it and talking about. when people give up on the united states, we recognized it and reap the benefits of it. we step back from the day today. people get obsessed with the takers. >> obsessed with 7%. and longack at look transit historical trends. >> we see a report over the night which sees a in a fit from immigration. is that something you are focused on? >> it is interesting. growth equals economic growth. immigration is how populations grow. that is one of the reasons that u.k. has benefited versus the eu. 20 billion pounds after all costs. that is one of the reasons we think the u.k. is more interesting than europe. the problem you have with integration is productivity.

what does that mean? if a polish worker will do the job for less money than a wish worker, and that leads to bifurcation of the results and people finding out -- and you understand right. wasou said when everyone there is about amerco, -- america, you got it. where are we with angela merkel and david cameron? >> that is hard to call. one of the things hermes is said three years ago is that local politics in europe were a lot more important than people think for fundamentals. there is a fear among politicians that they are losing the popular base. you see this in the u.k. in europe itself, they have a problem, which is now they are worried about deflation, the downgrading of economic growth. down toning, europe less than 1% this year. it is difficult. >> great to have you with us.

chief executive of a hermes investment management. morning,cks open this they reported a worsening drop in non-food sale. we will see later this morning and tomorrow. ♪

." welcome to "on the move i'm jonathan ferro. moments away from the start of european trading. draghi's new fight. a showdownset for with colleagues as reports swirl that national central bankers in the eurozone are set to challenge his management style when the ecb meets. corrode up as a draghi moment. the bank of japan governor says the bank of japan will do whatever it canst to overcome the affliction. the yen hits a november 2007 low. against the dollar. who is reaping the rewards? toyota. the biggest automaker delivers

record profit for a second year as the bottom line is it boosted by a weaker currency. they are the three big things we will watch to the morning. futures are indeed higher. 5100, futures up 35 points. dax futures of 60 points. after two days of losses, we could be on the rebound. >> the whole conflict between that man there, between draghi and kuroda is who is going to the mandate that the bank of japan has is resolute. it is very exacting and going to get bigger according to rdc. we had confirmation that it would be higher. there is dollar-yen. we are hitting levels we have not seen in seven years. the momentum behind the currency, rbc. tsa