delivery day as airbus hands over its first a350 to qatar airways. we will be speaking to the ceo's of both companies about what the aircraft means for the industry. oil is up for a second day. saudi arabia's energy minister predicting a rebound in demand. and, a greek bargain. prime minister samaras offers the possibility of early thetions in exchange for backing of his presidential candidate. the markets up this morning. european markets generally a little higher. you are watching "the pulse." we are here in london. i'm guy johnson.

francine lacqua is off today. she will be back in the new year. lithuaniahave we got, preparing to join the euro. we are going to speak to the lithuanian finance minister. is his country ready for the move? we are going to find out. over theing to talk next few minutes about the a350. what is the a350? compositee new have aluminum aircraft from airbus. with designed to compete the 787. it is super efficient compared with its predecessors. qatar airways is the launch customer. i was talking to fabrice bregier about this airplane. he has high hopes for it. this aircraft is sold out. despite the fact that oil prices are lower, airlines still very much want this airplane.

it makes a big difference. oil prices are down but if you can still fly the most efficient airplane, you can offer the cheapest tickets. in a few minutes, we are going to speak to the boss of qatar airways. looking forward to that conversation. let me update you on the markets. it is monday morning in the week before christmas. you are going to be seeing very light volumes. we are reasonably well did this morning. equity markets coming out of last week very strong. asia overnight, very strong as well. the shanghai market hitting a four-year high. we will see whether or not we continue with the rally we have seen. oil, looks like it has found a floor. we will keep an eye on that very carefully as well.

as i say, very light volumes. a lot of people have taken this week off. markets could get pushed around more than you would normally anticipate. greece is still very much a story. the greek equity market is up this morning as is euro-dollar. significant news out over the weekend. ras, the prime minister, in an address to the nation, talking about the possibility of early elections for the country and what that will mean is that -- judging by the current polling, you could see a significant change in government. if he can't get his vote through, we get another one tomorrow and a third one. we do get general elections at the front end of next year. let's talk about oil. showing you what is happening, we have seen a little bit of a pickup in the price of crude.

medium-term, the story tells you something that is very different. we've seen five-year lows. yet we are finding a floor in the short-term. nevertheless, we are starting to rally. let's get to our next guest with insight on what happens next. oil analyst at barclays joins us now. in the short-term, have markets found a floor austin mark -- floor? >> going into the next week or bounce.ill see a short fundamentals, we are still fairly bearish at the moment. it is supposed to be getting a lot worse in the first half of next year. >> where do prices go next year? theyuch further south do go from where we are now and when do we get the rebound? tothe surplus is doubling 1.5 million barrels per day.

from the comments we are seeing from the uae oil minister, the saudi oil minister, they are increasingly of the view that even if non-opec were to adjust, they would not be cutting back production. that is important. it almost looks like they are trying to pull the rug away from them quickly. rather than allow for prices to grind slowly. if prices were to grind slowly or stay where they are, you won't see a supply-sider adjustment. you just see lower prices for bear budgets. it is in their interest to see a sharp swift fall in prices which would essentially make those non-opec supply cuts come quickly. that is possibly the reason we are seeing the opec producers more active now. >> stay with me. i'm going to get your take on our next guest. we're going to talk about one of

the companies that uses that product. we are going to tell loose now -- toulouse now to talk to the person who has just acquired a very smart new airplane from airbus. let's talk to mr. akbar al baker. he is the ceo of qatar airways. good morning to you. always a pleasure. thank you very much indeed for taking the time to speak with us. are you happy with the airplane behind you? >> i'm very delighted. shiny toy forery qatar airways. i'm extremely pleased because this is a really next generation aircraft. emissions,ent, nice and profit making for qatar airways. >> why the delay in assuming control of the airplane? everybody was speculating.

i would be interested to get your take on why we didn't have this handed over a few days back. >> i knew this question would be asked. it was issues with the suppliers and the quality of the buyer-furnished equipment that we have on board the airplanes. nothing to do with airbus. qatar airways always takes cabin interiors to the highest standards. we had a small issue which was resolved. now we are here to take the airplane. you mentioned the fact that this is a super efficient airplane. aren age where oil prices coming under pressure a little bit, do you need to have such super efficient airplanes? some airlines may take the view that they don't. believe that is right. as you know, the airlines have very small margins. very small up evils in economic

climate around the world affect the travel business. we have been under a lot of pressure recently with the high oil prices. it was eating into our margins. always, as an airline, to maximize profitability, we need to invest in fuel-efficient modern airplanes. this is what qatar airways does. >> you have 80 of these airplanes on order. 900 and 37 of the 1000. have you had any discussions about the possibility of some expedited delivery slots? we did see emirates cancels some of its aircraft. are you going to get some of these airplanes earlier than anticipated? >> actually, it is the other way around. we have a higher number of the 1000 and a lower number of the 900. we would like to expedite aircraft delivery.

we want our aircraft as soon as possible. we have a fleet investment program. 's need to get out of service and we need aircraft to fly to new destinations. >> how much earlier do you think you will be getting them? if i can get it yesterday, i would be delighted. d i'm sure they would be elighted to hear you say that. what are the other routes we can expect to see you flying the 350 on? >> we will be operating the 350 on the eastern seaboard of the united states. we will be operating them to asia, to japan. this will form the backbone of qatar airways' long-term fleet

together with the 777. >> out of curiosity, do you think airbus should build a 350-1000, a stretched version of that? is their opportunity to build a bigger 350? i'm not the one to decide this for airbus. it is for them to decide. the a380 is a fine airplane. qatar airways has already received three. the fourth one, we are receiving today. fantasticbsolute machine. so with the communications, i think i probably mispronounced what i was saying. do you think we could see a bigger version of the 350? even bigger than the 1000? >> no, i don't think so. i think the 1000 is absolute

perfect size for our fleet. i don't know about other airlines. i don't think that we need bigger than this airplane in this family of aircraft. >> ok, back to the 380. you've already taken delivery of the first ones. would it be a disappointment if airbus decided to do a neo version of the 380? allt would not be at detriment to us. as a matter of fact, if they do a neo, qatar airways be interested in buying them. >> would you like to see them doing that sooner rather than later? do you think they should be deferring that decision? you said you would like to get more 300 50's tomorrow. would you like to have a 380 neo tomorrow? not be, we would

interested in a380 neo tomorrow. we have already received our aircraft. they have a lifespan in the fleet that will stay with us. i think we will wait until they decide if they want to launch. that is when we will decide what we want to do. ask can i ask you some more general comments about your business? there is quite a lot of interest in whether or not qatar is going to pick up the fifa slot that emirates has vacated. you have indicated that probably is not going to happen. i'm curious as to why given the fact that qatar is going to be a big feature of football going forward. >> at the moment, i'm not interested to take anybody's slots. i'm more interested in how to make money from my airline, not spending money.

there is obviously going to be a big push by qatar as we build up to the world cup. you don't see yourself being part of that? you have to do further down the road? i appreciate your focus on making money now. qatar airways is part of qatar inc. and whatever decision is made collectively, qatar airways will be part of it. >> ok, congratulations on the new plane. it looks very shiny and it looks fantastic in your livery. we are looking forward to seeing it flying very soon. baker, the chief executive officer of qatar airways. now, coming up, taking one for the team. opec won't budge on cutting oil output.

how long can the wealthy members survive with the rock-bottom prices? the winners and the losers and how long the waiting game less. all that when we come back. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." we are back with the oil analyst at barclays to discuss the price of late. the oil price clearly is going

to have an impact across a range of industries. i'm interested to hear what qatar airways wants talking about. they still see a long-term story which requires more efficiency. at the moment, we've seen a significant collapse in oil prices. do we get back, and when do we get back, to the prices that existed before then? >> i agree with a long-term view that qatar airways mentioned. area, we cannot have $60 barrel for oil. the supply side cannot sustain demand growth at that point. that is where we could possibly see an undershooting of below $60 a barrel in the first half of next year. >> it is interesting that all the gcc guys are talking.

normally, they are shaking. >> before the opec meeting, it was fairly difficult to get a lengthy comment. now, it has become very vocal. this is what is so interesting. if they really wanted to support prices at these levels, they have to communicate to the market that they are not going to intervene. the market assumed they would intervene. by repeatedly saying that come what may, we are not going to go back on that decision, and even if we are, we would call a meeting, they are probably reemphasizing the fact that the burden sharing is almost entirely up to non-opec. that is worrying. we are not seeing big adjustments taking place in the supply side yet. at these prices, you don't see any significant changes to current production --

>> let's game this out for a minute and figure out what the motivation is here. if you had a slow grind lower, you would see adjustment in the supply that would be slow. if you crash the price in the near term, it is still going to take quite a while for some sort of adjustment to occur. how does -- if you look at the two different ways of pursuing this, they've brought the price down quite sharply and they want to see a more swift response. how long is the lag between lower prices in the near term and supply-side reform around the world? >> it could take three to six months. in the u.s., you are seeing some of the rate data showing a decline. that could be for a number of reasons. it could be the cause of shifting rates from less profitable areas, more profitable areas, etc. psol has consolidation

taking place. if consolidation was to come with the, that would take us to orritories where bond yields high-yield producers come into context. what would be the repercussion on the macro side of things? that is where it gets interesting. six days ago, when we had the ruble go close to 80 against the dollar, you saw the repercussions across macro markets. i wouldn't rule that out again if we saw a swift lower lag in prices. >> a bunch of guys over the the moreho work in speculative end of production were all telling me that they -- that what we are going to see in 2015 is the lower roll up's. smaller companies being aggregated. it is the roll up of the really small guys where this is going

to start. what impact will that have and how much will that muddy the waters? >> a lot. the datastart to see not correlated with production in a way. we will see a lot of consolidation within the smaller up by theing bought ones that have a lot of cash. the northit will make american oil sector more efficient. the net result of this i thought would be a more efficient sector which could bear a lower price. this could be even longer. >> absolutely. the other thing which opec producers are possibly if they curtail u.s. shale production, it is not switching them off forever. they willdo rally, come back. >> and it is a nimble sector. >> exactly.

it is not as easy as saying, we are going to drive down prices, make them hurt, and they are not going to be gone, they will be coming back to about $80 a barrel. >> thank you very much indeed. have a great new year. coming up, the year of the hackers. north korea's alleged ability to attack sony pictures extends its reach. we are going to break down the biggest hack of 2014 and what 2015 is going to look like. ♪

good morning. welcome back. you are watching "the pulse their co some company news for you now. cashing in on china's stock market boom. the plan for a $3.9 billion selloff. that is in a statement from the company. the proceeds will be used to develop financial business as it anticipates a golden period for chinese brokerages in the next 10 years. we have seen what the chinese market continues to do. staying with china, the country's largest smartphone maker, xiaomi, has been valued at $45 billion. that is according to people familiar with the matter. revenue of the world's third-largest smartphone vendor is set to double this year.

that is according to counterpoint research. catlin iniring rival the largest insurance takeover in the london market. that is according to "the sunday times." to triggers expected a wave of consolidation. let's give you a bit of a market check now. over the weekend, the greek prime minister made some interesting moves. in a speech to the nation, he talked about the fact that everybody needs to get on board with his new presidential candidate. he hinted at the possibility that maybe there would be general elections in 2015 if mp's backed his presidential candidates. generalld of art elections at the beginning of next year. initially, we saw a rally in the greek stock market. we are up by around 1%.

that rally now beginning to fade. tomorrow is the second of three votes to see if we could get samaras' candidate for president through. we will watch very carefully. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse p are co--- "the pulse." in the u.s., president obama has called the hacking of sony pictures and act of cyber vandalism. with cnn, obama stopped short of calling the cyber attack an act of war, but saidt requires the united states to respond proportionately. sony's ceo has said his studio is looking for new ways to release "the interview" which was pulled from theaters. saudi arabia's oil minister is confident that crude prices will rebound. of araba conference

oil-producing countries in a blue dobby that a glut has been created by a lack of cooperation from producers outside of opec. the uae oil minister also blames non-opec members for " irresponsible levels of output." toh the greek parliament set take it second round of voting for a new president tomorrow, the prime minister has offered to broaden his coalition government if parliament backs his presidential candidate. for more on this offer and what we got this weekend, let's go to athens, and our reporter, mark's bennison. what did we take away from the samaras address? what are people reading into it? >> there was some expectation among analysts that he would address at some point

in the presidential process. that they a position would hold elections by the end of 2015. some government position. what was kind of a surprise yesterday, it was quite sudden. it could be argued that it came a lot earlier than may have been expected. some political analysts were , he can't get 170 votes beyond. that -- sorry, carry on. >> his offer has been roundly rejected by the opposition party. some interpret this as a slight sign of panic. >> so he's gone a little earlier

than everybody anticipated on making such a representation. if he doesn't get what he wants tomorrow and we head into the final round, is there anything less on the table that he can offer? what is less in the tank for summeamaras? >> it is hard to say what there is. he will certainly get a lot closer tomorrow than he did in the first round. he got 160 votes in the first round. some independent lawmakers say they didn't back him in the first round but they will in the second round. moreately, he needs parties to get on board. they have been quite categorical in rejecting this. at the moment, 180 is looking very difficult. he's got a long way to go to get to that. it is difficult to see how he is going to get there by the third round in december.

we are probably looking at early elections next month. athenianorning, the stock market is higher. haven't seen a big reaction. perfectlybly is understandable given that we have seen the market down as much as it is. have the people that you are talking to effectively already priced in the fact that we are going to see early general elections? >> exactly. there was a big route in the week when he made the announcement. markets took a hammering. from the very beginning of this beenss, there has overtures like this. maybe he will get there. been a verylways difficult call to see how he is going to get to 180. i think markets already priced

in that we will probably go to early elections. >> in terms of the latest polling, how far ahead is syriza? syriza form a new government? if we were to hold those elections tomorrow, what would the lay of the land be? has been consistently fiveng ahead by about percentage points ahead. on how see depending the many parties get in. at the moment, the polls do not suggest they will get a majority. they would have to form a coalition with someone. it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they might improve enough to get in that right majority.

time, for an opposition party up against austerity, they are also not out of reach. it is their election to lose. they are not beyond reach. you consider that they have the advantage of opposition. some of us will play the fear of the euro exit card. that has been the plan to avoid snap elections. against myyou vote pick for president, then you are putting the greek euro exit back in the system. his plan b will probably be that same pitch to voters. >> it has been interesting to see how maybe the general public has moved. marcus, going to leave it there. thank you very much indeed.

as we head into break, quick check on oil this morning. rallying for a second day. you can see the rally there, however you need to look at the wider context. we are seeing oil companies getting a bit of a boost. a bit of a route in these key stocks. you can see, reasonably well did this morning. 1.9% to 2%. a decent bid on the back of this oil price rise. we are going to take a break. coming up, the hack. we are going to look back at the year of corporate cyber attacks. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." the fallout from the sony hack attack continues. the u.s. president re-promising retaliation. that it wasunced north korea they believed to be behind the attack. here with more is caroline hyde. the president talked about a proportional response. what can we expect? >> measured, is the phrase he used. it is going to be unlikely that we see any sort of tit-for-tat coming fromr attack

the likes of the united states versus north korea, largely because north korea which still says it had nothing to do with this attack on sony has said that if there was any sort of marked action by obama in this bring 1000ey would times greater damage to the u.s. they would target the white house, the pentagon. clearly, they don't want to escalate this any further. perhaps more likely is to try to cut off access to cash which some of the elite currently hold in macau and china. obama does seem to be talking to the chinese, talking in fact to thailand, singapore, bolivia, countries where it would seem this hack attack went via servers. they are talking to the rest of the world. the rest of the world seem to be backing this unprecedented move by the united states to support privately held companies when

cyber attacks occur. rules of thetten road that suddenly everyone is trying to navigate. you had japan supporting what the u.s. is doing, south korea which knows a thing or two about being hacked by north korea, in support of the u.s.. they are trying to figure out how to react. this is how we are finishing out the year. get to the context. what kind of year has it been? it does seem that every other week we have had a corporate hacking story. sony is probably the biggest. >> sony has been the biggest in terms of media and interest. when it comes to the amount of records that were stolen, there has been far bigger. if you are looking at the amount of data that was stolen from ony, 37,000. if you look back, there was a bigger one. home depot, 109 million data

records were taken. half of those were credit card details. half were e-mail addresses. jpmorgan, 83ther, million pieces of data. households,e were but small businesses were affected as well. ebay, 145 million. this was a huge hack attack that happened back in may. e-mails, addresses, login credentials. if we go back to 2013, target was hit in december 2013. 110 million credit card details. this has been a year where there has been some sensational cyber attacks. sincestingly, south korea 2009 claims it has been hacked no less than six times by north korea. million worth80 of damage, they claim. this is something, 2014 will be

the year that starts to focus on what politicians do to tackle this. many feel that sony did not have the right expertise, the right protection in place. file passwords according to reports over the weekend. clearly, companies need to work harder. >> caroline, thank you very much indeed. that sets up our next guest. for more on the technology story and how it is changing the face of terrorism, let's talk to charles, the global research director in control of risk. good morning. has the cyber story changed? five years ago, did it even feature on your risk map? >> it is remarkable how likely and how complexly the cyber story has evolved. the biggest cyber events a few

years ago were russian teenagers sitting in their bedrooms messing with the pentagon website. that was a major drama when that happened. hacking on anyber absolutely industrial scale. out, thene pointed economic damage, the political damage, the commercial damage, can be enormous. we have moved from something that was almost like a hobby to something that has become a major enterprise. level,t the senior within companies, are people turning to the chief technology officer and going, why aren't you doing anything about that? how should he respond? >> this community has been slow on the cyber front. these headline-grabbing incidents will move cyber up the agenda very rapidly in a meaningful way.

for a long time, the business community thought this was something that happened to somebody else, or this is a problem that the i.t. department deal with. as long as we have a good i.t. department, everything is fine. cyber security is a top to bottom universal corporate issue that starts with the ceo and ends with everybody who uses a laptop. >> absolutely. let's talk about how companies do perceive it at the moment. it should be from top to bottom. there is a sense that this is almost sort of a process story. we have to tick boxes. >> it is partly the tick boxes. it is partly having the right kit. it is really having a proper stance and corporate awareness of the level of threat. there are companies who don't really understand their footprint in the cyber world, who don't understand where they are exposed, as a result of the countries they operate in, the activities they engage in, or

how they store and process information. it is this holistic understanding, from the inside to the outside, about how big the threat is. >> do companies -- you talk about the value that you have. value changes quite differently in this kind of story. theoreticallyl doesn't hold much value until it is released to somebody else. do companies have an understanding of the value of what they've got? >> it is surprising how much damage can be done. we've seen in sony. what has been stolen or e-mails. we've seen how damaging that has been. that has been primarily to sony's reputation. talking to each other on the phone, there were business continuity issues. there is value in the fact that these e-mails were taken. even talking about

customer information, operational material. an intellectual property. whether it is e-mail or a customer's credit card information, everything has a different type of impact on the company. >> is there a knee-jerk response here? >> there is a little bit of that. get more kit and stronger passwords and don't leave your laptop on the bus. >> all sensible things to do. >> that is only part of the problem. does your company have servers in china? does your company have servers in russia? company involved in something that might be politically sensitive? sony is a japanese company. if north korea is behind the attacks, perhaps there is a geopolitical aspect to what is happening. some will be open just to commercial theft. understandingbout how you sit in this incredibly rapidly evolving complex threat environment. ask i have a couple minutes left.

i have a couple questions not related to cyber. feelsreat environment quite significant at the moment. the environment feels quite threatening. australia, just want to get your take on australia. when you look at the threats in 2015, does australia and the cafe represent something that is going to become part and parcel? >> the concern that australia raises in our minds, just as the attack in canada did, this -- and whether these are people returning from conflict, coming back to their home territories, back to other countries, and executing lone wolf threats. there is a concern with the radicalization of domestic figures, people who have no affiliation with the activities in the middle east but have become radicalized in their own

homes. this is a concern. it is easy to over blow. we don't sense that the lone wolf activity for the coming year is going to be a major focus of the threat. it is something to think about. it is hard to predict. it is out there, but it doesn't have the potential for global impact or to really change the way we think about terrorism. remains asm significant threat in 2015. given the geopolitical story coming out of the middle east, syria, northern iraq, how big a shadow is it going to cast into next year? the fact that we are all concerned about terrorism, the key to understanding the threat is separating out where the threat lies. we have seen very few attacks on the business community when it

comes to terrorism. the overwhelming majority of terrorist targets are signs and symbols of government and state authority. when you are a business looking at the terrorist threat, we are not seeing commercial installations being attacked in a significant way. you've got this lone wolf thing in a cafe in sydney, but overwhelmingly, the target of terrorism are symbols of government authority. >> charles, thank you very much indeed. now, as we head into break, i want to leave you with a live ulouse.t of touo the a350 being handed over today to qatar. that process underway. we will proceed to bring you pictures as that happens. there are little delays but nobody is making too much of that. the aircraft will be operating very shortly.

we will take a break and leave you with pictures from to loose. see you in a couple minutes. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." let's get to new energynow!. a fairly simple thing you can do this christmas is switch your old fairy lights for new fairy lights. you get to save a lot of money in the process area our next guest says we could save 1.3

million pounds of energy costs if every single household in the u.k. did that. incandescent light bulbs, l.e.d. lightbulbs, let's find out more. good morning. that simple, is it? >> it is fairly simple, yes. you can change her christmas .e.d. lighting and save money. >> they are 90% more efficient. how bad is christmas for energy use? >> it is a peak time of year. we have the lights on a lot, the tv on a lot. we get a whole lot more appliances for christmas. we use those as well. it is a peak time. but christmas is a time to/out of it. >> we are not going to be the grinch here. what are the key things we can do to save money and save the national grid a little bit of headache? what are the main things to

remember? >> the same as the key things for the rest of the year. turn things off if you are not using them. the lights, the tv, the computer, the games, the phone charger, unplug them. >> is the new kit that we get generally more efficient or less efficient? >> it tends to be more efficient. if you do leave it on standby, you are not wasting as much. the problem is -- >> should every device we buy have standard a standby setting plug? how much of a difference was that may? >> they all have standby settings, and they are more energy efficient than they were. [inaudible] little thing on the ball, turn it off. steve, thank you very much indeed.

right, that is it for this hour of "the pulse." there is another one coming up. we have plenty more still to come. see you in a few minutes time. ♪

>> delivery day. airbus will hand over the first qatar airways. we have been speaking to the ceos of the airways. confidence. oil rises after saudi arabia predicts a rebound in demand. samaras offers deep possibility -- the possibility elections ifral his presidential run is backed.

you are watching "the pulse." the delivery ceremony for the first a350 will be handed over to qatar airways. we've been speaking to the ceos about what thees aircraft means for the industry. we will be carrying on that conversation. we have had a few delays but it is finally happening. let's talk to carolyn conant, she is on the ground in toulouse . y is this so important for airbus? >> good morning. it is a very important day. the press conference as about to start. then you have the ceremony to hand over the first a350 to qatar airways in one hour. this delivery has been delayed.

it was supposed to happen 10 days ago. the abba's ceo told us it was some minor issue. the qatar airways ceo said it had to do with equipment, a small issue that is resolved. qatar airways is ready to take delivery of the airplane, which is supposed to compete with the boeing 787 dreamliner. it has engines made by rolls-royce that are supposed to save 25% of fuel. at a time of low oil prices that -- that might not be such an advantage. who knows what the oil price will be in 2020. a big milestone for airbus. they have had 18 orders from qatar airways and in total, orders from 41 different

customers including japan airlines and delta airlines. the priority now is to ramp up production in order to make these deliveries happen on time. , in many ways airbus has decided to downplay it. last time they launched a new airplane, the a380, it was a huge event. everybody got very excited then everybody got very disappointing. the a380 remains a problem for airbus. is that having an impact on the mood in toulouse? so far we do not really see the impact on the mood. it might overshadow the celebration. the delay onay, the delivery for the a350 was announced, the cfo expressed concerns about the flagship

double-decker airplane the a380. the problem is they've had no new orders from passenger airlines so far this year. they can still produce about 30 per year because they have a backup of more than 300 orders from different airlines. that's enough to break even. 2017.6 and lle problem is for 2018, wi airbus have to invest massively to develop new engines for the a380. to the airbushat ceo fabrice bregier, this morning he said he was in no hurry to upgrade the engines. he was talking to suppliers but his priority was to find new customers and he was confident he will find new customers for

the a380. >>an interesting conversation about what happens next with the 380. thank you very much indeed, carolyn congdon from toulouse. first aircraft behind her about to be handed over to qatar airways. let's shift gears. not entirely but some of the way. non-opec countries are responsible for the plunge in the oil price. they should cut output, that is the view of two of the oil reducers, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. elliott gotkine, no one seems to want to cut output unless they have to. a bit of a land grab underway. members pointing the finger at others and saying it is your responsibility. oil minister and the minister for the uae putting the blame on non-opec producers

for the plunge and prices. that is one reason why naimi, saudi minister is standing by the position of not cutting output. he believes once they global economy is firing on all cylinders that demand for oil will rise. therefore, oil prices will rise higher. non-opec oil if producers want to cut production they are welcome but we are not going to cut. >> the aim of the game is --sumably -- it seems to me what opec is doing is trying to shake out u.s. shale producers. is that the game? >> there are more polite ways of saying it. of the oils ministers at the meeting of arab oil ministers in abu dhabi, they believe it is much more efficient to produce oil from

traditional producers than from shale producers. ,here is some evidence that other producers are saying the decrease in cost of equipment from extracting oil from shale coupled with advances in technology more than offsets the decrease in oil prices. many oil producers in the u.s. have taken on a lot of debt, made a lot of investments. if prices remain low you might see a few of them going through the wall. there's less concern from the saudi's. they are one of the lower-cost producers.t they're not hurting as much as venezuela or iraq in opec or mexico outside. today and friday, a rally in oil prices. 2 days of rallies do not a

recovery make. prices almost 50% lower than in the summer. >> thank you very much indeed, elliott gotkine joining us from tel aviv. what else? barack obama has called the hacking of sony pictures an act of cyber vandalism. obama stopped short of calling the cyber attack an act of war. sony's ceo has said his studio is looking for a new way to release "the interview," pulled from theaters in response to threats. some top city workers are in a christmas mood. directors at london financial service companies are expecting a 21% increase in bonuses for 2014. the average bonus is seeing increasing almost 125,000 pounds, bringing bonuses to 60% of their average salary.

people across spain hoping for a holiday windfall. gordo, ther el christmas lottery, has just been held. these are live pictures you are seeing from spain. the estimated 2.3 billion euros jackpot makes el gordo, or the fat one, the largest lottery in the world. still ahead, the investment outlook for 2015. 's uncertaintya impact investor psychology as we begin the new year? we discussed that come in next. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." we are live from london. lots to talk about with our next guest. oil prices, russia, greece, the fed, the ecb. joining us from g plus economics. let's start with russia. market extent has the priced in the collapse of the russian economy? >> the economic costs are starting to become apparent.

we were seeing a superficial stabilization in the ruble and in oil prices. the price of achieving that has been astronomical. russian import prices have interest rates have tripled. we are getting to the perfect storm. russia's foreign exchange concerns are dwindling. -- reserves are dwindling. russia cannot rely on foreign trade and capital market to diminish that shortfall. the more russia has to step into the market to stabilize the ruble, the more it is burning the economic candle from both hands by reducing russian company's abilities and reducing the social safety net.

>> what does it mean for the european economy. >> three major channels. investor sensitivity to foreign exchange risk in their emerging-market portfolio. not just by the fed, the bank of japan, the bank of england, the swiss national bank. the markets are massively long sovereign emerging-market risk. when we have problems of peak growth and peak global average, the cost to sovereign bonds is going to rise. the macro backdrop is negative for emerging-market investors, even for emerging markets that are fairly sound. the second is geopolitical risk and the third is domestic sensitivity to oil prices. .> then we have got greece that is a more internal story. russia will have a long shadow

effect. this morning we are digesting hasfact that mr. samaras hinted at the fact that we could have general elections at the back end of 2015. it looks as if we are going to get general elections early in 2015 p how much of this is priced in and understood by the market? >> in terms of pricing the market, very artificial. we had an artificial pace based on both assumptions. the ecb wills that step in and start taking political and fiscal risk off the balance sheet of private and onto its own. that is highly unlikely. very likelyt looks is that greece will have to exit prematurely without a

credit line. that will happen if the presidential candidate does not pass the parliamentary vote and greece heads for early elections. if the far left wins, we're looking at a very binary scenario. either acid default within the eurozone -- either massive default within the eurozone or greece exiting. are in that scenario now. >> can we have full-blown sovereign qe in that environment from the ecb? it strikes me that there is a bigger risk. once you're looking at greece potentially leaving. i'm not saying we are going to spend that much time talking about it but it is a possibility. can the ecb and not full-blown -- can the ecb enact full-blown qe in that?

>> the ecb is framed by germany on one side and greece on the other. they managed to contain the euro bysis in 2011-2012 convincing investors it had the mandate to protect the union. if it was to go in the direction of sovereign purchases, it will aggravate germany and economists that are struggling to contain their fiscal deficits and are looking at a different political environment for spain, italy, france in 2015. they cannot be buying great debt -- greek debt. they cannot justify taking on more of greece's political and fiscal risk. it is unlikely that they can take that risk away from the market. >> wow. that shakes up a lot of things. expectations about what is going to be happening.

>> none of this is priced in. >> the market has got to a point where it believes qe is going to be happening at the beginning of -- at the beginning of the year. in what form will it come? the market is assuming qe is coming. it is not making the next step, take?orm will the qe do and the ecb can should be doing is looking at interim steps. end thes a means to an end is to push growth and inflation expectations higher. , the permanent injection of ecb liquidity into

a system that does not generate real yields. that is not a good scenario. it needs growth and jobs to preserve political and social integrity over the next decade. the strategy the ecb has to be pursuing. the first thing is to ensure it navigates the political minefields of a very difficult social and economic environment that will be dominated by the elections in spain, portugal, potentially italy and potentially greece in early 2015 by pursuing credit easing. the ecb has a long way in terms of buying bank bonds, corporate bonds, supporting securitization markets. the worst-case here is that massive fiscal, i am sorry, massive monetary activism. you take massive fiscal

activism undermining negotiations in the eurozone. political euro dialogue between creditors and borrowers that ultimately put a lid on investors risk in the euro breakup. at the very least, highly risky for the ecb to do anything that could undermine the integrity of that dialogue. >> interesting. very nice of you. lena komileva joining us from g plus economics. as we speak to the airbus ceo, fabrice bregier, about the handing over of his first a350 we bring youays, his thoughts from earlier when we had a conversation with him. that is some of the previous management. from airbus. the press conference handover event is underway in toulouse. than the a bigger one one in front of fabrice bregier. a key day for the company. back to the event, live in a few

minutes' time. ♪

>> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." live on bloomberg tv. let me take you back to toulouse and show you some live pictures coming from there. we are watching fabrice bregier launcher the new a350 to

customer, the ceo of qatar airways. as theng press questions event unfolds. you will see the formal handing over of the aircraft in toulouse. the first a350 going out the door for airbus. a big day for that company. former senior management down there. run it who used to before the company became integrated and not as airbus. -- known as airbus. the new wide body handed over to the customer, mr. al baker in toulouse. new energy headlines. india has said at will get as much as $158 million to state run companies building one technology solar

power products. the government will do away with projects located in remote areas where land is inexpensive. china's biggest maker of wind tobines will shift equipment a capacity of 150 megawatts. serbia.t wind farm in it will provide engineering and construction services. winds says the project is expected to be completed next year. beenurbine supplier has iberdrola'sr in thr

wind farm in germany. spain's turbine maker will also participate in the contract with areva. entergy news. initially we, saws the market rally. we've come down flat. we saw the announcement from samaras, which came earlier than anticipated. have general elections but it will happen at ratherk end of 2015 than the front end of 2016. expectations are he is going to struggle to make the 200 mps for clearance. the final vote is for 180. the sense is that he's going to struggle to make that. that is the athens composite,

flat on, that market. when we come back plenty more on "the pulse." follow me on twitter. i am @guyjohnsontv, francine is at @flacqua. see you in a moment. ♪

>> good morning. welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." i'm guy johnson and these are the top headlines. barack obama has called the hacking of sony pictures' computer system an act of cyber vandalism. obama stopped short of calling the cyber attack an act of war. but says it requires the u.s. to respond proportionately. said the studio is looking for a new way of releasing the satire "the led fromw," pul

theaters in response to hackers. saudi arabia's oil minister is confident oil prices will rebound. al-naimi told a conference in abu dhabi that a glut has been created by producers outside opec. minister energy blames non-opec producers for a responsible levels of output. prime minister antonis samaras of greece has offered to hold national elections if the parliament backs his presidential candidate. back to russia. the ruble strengthening a little. that does not mean all is well in the land of vladimir putin. that is clear when you look at the ruble long-term. hasformer finance minister

made some pretty pessimistic comments on the state of affairs. is theically, the ruble best part of the forecast he gave. saying it would stick to roughly where it is. which is way down from where it began in 2014. even though it is an improvement from where it was on tuesday, when it hit 80 rubles to the dollar. he's very concerned about inflation. saying inflation could fall to , next%, or accelerate year. a more bearish view and we've heard from the government. the government is concerned about food inflation. bread prices, for example, for the most popular form of bread. i've gone from 32 rubles for a loaf of bread. >> what is the most popular form of bread?

>> a multigrain. it is not the cheapest. >> you did not expect this question. >> everything has gone up. buckwheat is a staple of the russian diet. 50 rublesen eggs was and now 80 rubles,. what we are not going to see next year is the pensioners, doctors, the teachers and the army, that have to pay for this food, we're not want to see their salaries rise to the same extent. when you had2000's inflation you had huge disposable income growth. people shrugged it off. no big deal. a serious issues p one of the reasons we just heard the prime minister of russia saying russia is planning on imposing and export duty on grain. causing the price of wheat in chicago to go up 1% 15 minutes

ago. the other thing about what kudrin was saying. he expects imports to fall by about 40%. not good for western european companies. not good for food exporters like unilever. active for car exporters. for car exporters. we heard someone say those will fall by 50%. >> what is he think about how the government is handling the situation? >> he has been critical. he has the russian president's ear. he says they could have done more earlier. they did not use the quiet period when the price of oil was over $100 to restructure. he is also referred to as a possible replacement for the current prime minister. kudrin is someone the president could be pulling out of his hat to leave the

recovery, -- to lead the recovery. >> what is he say about sanctions?] >> he says sanctions are as responsible for where russia is .s the price of oil we've heard people say they are partially to blame. the russian president last week put most of the blame on the oil prices. but he also says is that in order for russia to pull out of this economic crisis, it has to do a deal with the west. good news potentially for ukraine. absence of ais the need to do a deal that would be a problem. n economy cannot grow, the former finance minister is saying without some kind of deal with the west, the russian president does not have any incentive at home to work with the ukrainians. >> interesting. getting some comments from a german government spokeswoman. how russiant

sanctions are not an end in themselves. howdy parse that? -- how do you parse that? >> we've heard denmark and germany say where russia is economically speaking is not what we anticipated at the beginning of the year. some western european governments are expressing concerns that he may be getting ahead of themselves. the goal was to influence decision-makers around the russian president and put pressure on him to change course in ukraine. the goal, as denmark's outcome was not to blow up the rushdie,. >> -- the russian economy. >> i wonder if oil prices are not having more of an effect. lithuania will become the 19th to adopt the euro on january 1. we sat down with the nation's finance minister for an .nterview let's talk to hans nichols. how does this work question my official switchover will

be january 1. you willt is how many need to buy a euro. bond agencies are already treating lithuania as if they are a member of the eu said it will not need to raise money on the international market. listen to his confidence. >> both euros on an international markets already cs in the club -- already see us in the club, in the eurozone. being in the same currency as estonia and latvia. all three baltic states will be using the euro. they have exposure to russia. he weighed in on the ruble

and'the effects it may have on lithuania's economy. >> a weakening of russian currency. forbjective reason difficulties in trade relations in european countries, including lithuania and russia. >> you and ryan were talking about the ruble. up on the day, almost back to levels of the december. maybe we should have a buckwheat index. one final note on the lithuanian economy, he dampened expectations. was 3.4, that was the expectation for growth. he dialed back down to about 2.7 or 2.9. table be the 19th state using

the euro. if you have any excess currency underneath europe hello, time to hand it in. your pillow,eath hand it in. going to have an impact on the way the ecb operates. >> once you get above 18 members, you have a rotating system for all the bonus banks, the regional banks on the governing council. what that means for the bundesbank in germany, 4 out of every 5 times they will have voting rights. they take the five biggest economies and they get a rotating vote. 11 bottom 14 economies get seats. you could have a case where the bond is bank does not vote and the lithuanian central bank will get a vote. it is going to dilute german

power slightly on the governing council. will have interesting implications. hans nichols, our international correspondent. some corporate stories. one is that the delay delivery of the a350 is finally happening. qatar airways taking delivery as we speak. i spoke to airbus ceo fabrice bregier. here's what he had to say about the timing of today's event. >> introducing such a new aircraft is very difficult. you said before we had some delays. this is not true, for the last 2.5 years where on-time. are on time. today we are delivering the first aircraft on-time before the end of 2014. >> there was a little bit of a delay. we were anticipating this would

happen a few days' back. us through the reasoning for the delay and whether or not there was any price negotiation's or renegotiations as a result? qatar airways is well known to be demanding. especially in the quality of the cabin. there were last-minute, very minor issues, that were fixed. this is a nonevent when we compared with seven years of .ull development the delivery of a fantastic aircraft which is behind me. >> it is interesting, the timing of what we are seeing. we are seeing you handed over a very efficient aircraft. with large parts of the aircraft made of composite. it is lighter and burns less jet fuel.

this is happening at a time when oil prices have collapsed. do you expect to see demand for the super efficient airplanes reduce+++ that it is less expensive to run older, less efficient airplanes at the moment? >> not at all. we have 780 aircrafts to deliver. my problem is to ramp up production as fast as possible. if you want to buy, i have to offer you a 2021 date for delivery. who knows the fuel price at that time. 50% of our costs are based on fuel consumption. aircrafts, which bring toy 5% 25%savings, -- which bring net savings.

.ith fuel prices getting lower i do not think it will impact us. >> the ceo of airbus, fabrice bregier talking to me earlier. standing in front of the a350 -900 that he is in the process of handing over to qatar airways. coming up. shoppers are using every device in a search for christmas deals and discounts. as smartphones turn into the ultimate shopping companion, how online retailers are harnessing the power to tailor their products. a panel discussion after the break. ♪

>> you are watching "the pulse." live from london on bloomberg. enterers struggling to the minds of online shoppers. our next guests are monitoring the devices used to shop in the times at which they are being used. let's talk about how the christmas story is changing. joining us is the founder of online shopping discovery engine startloco. and the cofounder and chief technology officer of online technology company. we've been discussing this. this christmas feels different

to previous christmases because of the black friday story. how has it changed this year? has everybody been caught by surprise about what is going on? >> consumer ship and retailer ship adopted black friday. consumers are there to get a good deal. pressure from american retailers targeting u.k. consumers started the process. cobb efficient with retailers have caused them to adopt black friday and offer great deals -- competition with retailers have caused them to adopt lack friday and offer great deals p roots some people are not ready and able to cope with demand. there were delivery issues. overall it has been successful and we've seen more shopping happening. >> we know the nation of -- we know the nature of christmas

shopping has changed because more people are shopping online. it has changed the disturbing of how people shop. -- it has changed the distribution of how people shop online. are we seeing a revolution or any solution? black friday has created more volumes and a constant pressure through the day. people are at midnight getting ready to shop on mobile. the first thing in the morning on the bus and train getting going. there's a surge through the day, using pcs.ork at 4:00 in the afternoon they are hitting tablets. keeping a really constant pressure. what was strange is that cyber very different. different shopping characteristics. it is back loaded into the evening. people are not there at 6:00 in

the morning checking things. >> are retailers catching up? how quickly do they learn during this process? >> very quickly. the reality of the situation is the demand is there. if you do not learn quickly they're not going to capitalize. updates are done quickly and als are pushed out. >> do you need to write algorithms. you talk about the distribution of events. is that something you automatically adapt to? is that something you have got to take an active approach to? differently.o look you see people who come from a regular business background and there is a certain way of developing systems. you look at people who have come scale like amazon. as long as it is architected properly eaten deal with the demand. -- you can deal with the demand.

going -- the guys with 100,000 in the queue, no one is going to stay there. are companies capable of catching up? or once you have got a lead it is easy to establish? >> more retailers are starting to invest in e-commerce. they're realizing it has to work across the platform on tablets and mobile. it has to be suitable to the platform the shopper is shopping on. >> who is executing well? net-a-porter. john lewis. a lot of retailers investing in new technology. things like image recognition

with neiman marcus. there's a lot of innovation. leading retailers are grabbing on. >> it is a dissipation story -- it is a distribution story. where do the bottlenecks lie? >> both ends. on the service side, can i get through checkout quickly. is it going to be delivered on time. some guys have got it right on both ends. the guys who will struggle are , again, who are using not investing in distribution and courier networks. people do not get things on time and will not go there. there is very little loyalty. talk about customer loyalty.

how much information do these companies provide back to the customers? speaking personally, you order something and they cannot fulfill. how quickly do they come back and tell you? how much of what we are seeing is about establishing a good relationship with the customer assuming thes consumin consumer as agnostic? how do you interact with the consumer? >> establishing a good relationship is the most important thing. the moment you disappoint the customer and their christmas presents do not get there on time, they will remember that. it is important to keep the customer informed. in some cases it might be out of their control. the courier company cannot make it on time. >> how do you deal with that? .e've been talking to airbus they spent years perfecting

their supply chain. do the retailers have time to do that? >> they have to. otherwise they're going to miss the customer next time. it is about customer service and offering refunds and offering other things in exchange for not delivering on time. there are ways to deal with it and it is about making the customer feel that they are important and at the top of mind. >> christmas is changing. thank you for your analysis. coming up, we will talk about greece. samaras' challenge. will he get the votes? if he does not, what will it mean? ♪

>> you are watching "the pulse." streaming on your ipad and bloomberg.com. a couple things. tomorrow we that get the second of the three key votes that entire samara's -- antonis samaras has called. the reason this is important is that if he fails to get the 200 this time, 180 could be a struggle. the other thing is that united at causlled off its strike

heathrow and that wick, that has been suspended. good news going into christmas. we will take a break. "surveillance" is up next. ♪

>> this is bloomberg "surveillance." markets stabilize. a liquidity and banking crisis in russia. a not so super saturday for retail america.

christmas trees 90% off on the manhattan sidewalk. sony executives are not available for "the interview." this is bloomberg "surveillance," live from new york. monday, december 22. keene.m leslie picker, lovely to have you here. >> lots of coffee. several alarms. >> 5, i set 5. >> oil higher for the second straight day. saudi arabia says it is confident of a crude rebound. west texas intermediate futures climbed 2.5% in new york, oil opec decided to maintain production targets inno