francine: president trump urges georgia election officials to find thousands of votes and flip the state to him, and an effort to change results. out the rolls astrazeneca shot, plus bitcoin rally continues. it tops $34,000 for the first

time. good morning, everyone and welcome to jean: -- welcome to "bloomberg: surveillance." i'm francine lacqua in london. a lot of news to get through, the implications of the phone call with president trump and what that could mean before the senate runoff in georgia tomorrow. the markets, not underestimating what that could mean, but record highs not only across a lot of indices, but looking at bitcoin. gold is advancing. it is clear european stocks are advancing, minors among the biggest gainers. look athave a currencies, and i'm also looking at a couple other things, including gold rising after posting the biggest annual advance in decades. we will look at historic values. let's get to the bloomberg first word news. in london is leigh-ann gerrans. opec-plus is warning of risks to the oil market from

a resurgent coronavirus. the alliance of producers is meeting today to decide whether it can continue to restore crude supplies without hitting the price recovery. at a late meeting yesterday, several countries including saudi arabia sounded cautious about increasing production. schools in england may need to stay close longer than planned. boris johnson says tougher restrictions will probably be needed to come back -- combat the pandemic. the u.s. government's top infectious disease experts as a rollout of vaccines is now picking up steam and could be fully on track within a week or so. anthony fauci told abc's this week that over the past few days, about 1.5 million vaccine doses have been given in the u.s. at a rate of half a million a day. the u.k. judge will rule today founder julian

assange to be extradited to face charges in the u.s. amid speculations president trump will pardon him. they say his odds of going higher in the u.s. legal system. exile for almost a decade. global news 24 hours a day, on-air and quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm leigh-ann gerrans. this is bloomberg. francine? francine: thank you so much. let's get to one of our top stories and president trump, pleading with drug election officials to find thousands of votes and change the election results. that comes from a recording of an extra ordinary phone call thought to take place over the weekend. ranged fromt flattery to threats during the conversation. georgia officials did not back down. >> so look, all i want to do is

this. 11,780want to find votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. joining us for more is rosalyn matheson from our government team. thank you for joining us this morning. how are these comments from trump playing out? imagine, the recording has caused uproar among democrat reporters -- supporters claiming his actions border on the illegal, some likening it to a watergate. put a problem in the works for republicans who worry it could affect the runoffs in georgia. georgia has been a key target for donald trump as he advances claims voter fraud cost him the

election. some republicans are trying to pretend the tape doesn't exist, saying they haven't listened to it and so on but some worry it could tear the party apart. it will probably make them nervous about what donald trump may say or do on the ground today campaigning. francine: the georgia runoff tomorrow, does it change who goes out to vote? does it change the outcome? the key: that's question really and it is a crucial vote either way, because if either of their republicans prevail, republicans will have 51 seats in the chamber, giving them control of the legislative agenda under a biden presidency. if the two democratic candidates win, it swings the other way. the results could take days or weeks to be known as they tallied the vote. it is expected to be incredibly close but what republicans need to do is boost turnout, so

the senators can defend their seats. could it be defining on turnout? it would be interesting if trump's efforts on his own behalf costs republicans control of the senate but given it could be close, the timeline for the result could be after inauguration day. it could be very close, but it could take weeks before we know for sure. are there any legal implications for president trump after the phone call? that's what some people are saying, that in a way it is even worse than watergate and under certain sections of the constitution and other laws in the u.s., dated donald trump break the law by saying to the leaders of the state that he needed them to "find him votes," particularly "find him" some votes.

others say it is unclear. it is questionable what he said but whether it is legally so is another matter entirely. for now, the key focus seems to be on what it might do in terms of the impact on republicans and whether they turnout tomorrow. it is a tricky week for donald trump in general, because on wednesday, congress meets to certify the results of the november election. tot is his last ditch effort try and stall things in terms of joe biden's election win. the question on the legal side might be for more donald trump after he leaves office than in the next couple of weeks. once he's out of office or the white house, there might be some moves against him legally. too earlyage, it is to say if this might play into that. francine: thank you so much. rosalind mathieson, our overseas -- who oversees our government reporting.

joining us, the chief executive of investment managers. thank you for joining us. it is a big day when you look at markets that seem to be on a record high. for is your main concern 2021? i think about the markets, i see a fair bit of good news priced in. we have the stimulus plan in the , the breads it behind us geopolitical environment which is perceived to be somewhat more positive going forward so a fair bit of news is priced in, so -- and it leads to a strong consensus view that markets will be supportive and constructive for the next several months. if i want to be a big contrarian, that strong consensus worries me as opposed

to the individual facts we see , thene thing is for sure vaccine will remain part of the narrative over the past couple of -- the next couple of months and if there is another element that could worry me, if the vaccination process is not as smooth as people would like it to be, or even if the virus takes a different tack or whatever. view that consensus everything will go smooth going forward and a pickup on vaccination. we do haveven if hiccups with vaccinations, and looking at the numbers, certain countries it would take two years for the population to be vaccinated if we don't pick up the speed, but does it make a difference to what markets look at, or do they not care what happens to the real economy? jean: right now, markets are looking through the transition

period, herd immunity through the vaccination. beenly that is what has the approach of the markets for a few months already and that can continue. at the end of the day, it is also a question of confidence. confidence in the stimulus that will remain calm -- strong, central banks being supportive. duehat confidence erodes, to many factors, then you could see markets taking a negative turn, but for the time being, everyone wants to be constructive. everyone wants to be bullish and that's the reality on the market sentiment today, and we see it this morning as the first trading day and risk sentiment is on. when will central banks actually start normalizing? is it two years away or could it be the biggest surprise of 2021? jean: i don't want to speculate on that.

i think right now, central banks have given a fair bit of visibility over the next several months. maybe 2022, maybe 2023, i don't know if that will happen. may happen sooner than later, but i don't want to speculate on that. i will look to signs that confidence that support can continue or erode and those signs may be related to currencies. they may be related to secondary markets, they may also be related, but could be seen as tools or diversification like gold or even crypto assets or cryptocurrencies. francine: quickly, and i want to ask about bitcoin, what do you do with bitcoin? is there worry some things are in bubble territory and would

you consider investing in bitcoin? far as i am concerned, i call them crypto assets more than cryptocurrencies. through that group, we are not heavily invested. , do note as an asset manager and that is part of the financial industry as a whole, we are very much asked to continue to provide significant transparency in the way we manage funds, where funds are coming from and if you want to take a contrarian view to crypto assets, crypto assets are running contrarian so the trend we see from the regulators and what i can't imagine is that set -- can imagine is at some point, central bank governments will put forward crypto assets that become cryptocurrencies with the attributes of transparency that we see elsewhere in the

financial services industry, so i remain personally quite cautious on the attractiveness of bitcoin or cryptocurrencies as they are currently being traded in the marketplace. francine: thank you so much, jean raby from natixis withtment managers stays us. we will talk about maybe some m&a opportunities out there. we will have special coverage of the georgia runoff election tuesday, january 5, starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern, midnight in london. the stakes have been up after president trump's telephone call. this is bloomberg. ♪ save hundreds on your wireless bill without even leaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you'll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines.

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francine: economics, finance, and politics. this is "bloomberg: surveillance ." i'm francine lacqua in london. there is a lot going on in markets and it is day one, the first working day of 2021. still with us, jean raby, natixis investment managers. with us. for staying we were talking about cryptocurrencies and whether there is anything out there you feel nervous is bubble territory, that could burst this year. jean: there is no question there are parts of the marketplace that are seeing elevated valuations. i've heard many commentators drawing comparisons to 1999. i believe we are in a different framework. in 1999, you had nascent business models that were highly valued. today, we are seeing the market is valuing a lot certain parts of the industry or market participants which have real

business models, in a way that basically the market is saying winner takes all. we've seen it in the past several months, what we call the stay-at-home stocks. they are also now part of our everyday lives, like what we are using right now and they have strong balance sheet, strong cash flows, so maybe the valuation is elevated. is it bubble territory like in 1999? i don't believe so. we may see a correction, but could this be such a market downturn like we saw 20 years ago? i don't think so. francine: do you think we go back to normal? once people have vaccine, what changes in the way we live and work, and what does that mean for where you want to be invested now? jean: first, i think a lot has been said on the new normal being quite different than prior

to covid. i think that really is not going to be the case. human nature doesn't really change that much, so i think there will be a lot of return to old habits, old ways of doing learned at we have few things from this event, i would hope, and i think that will modify a little bit, provide an opportunity for new relationships between employers and employees, new relationships with our clients that will include presumably a fair bit more of digitalization, interactions, but also perhaps put at the forefront what we saw as an underlying trend before covid and has accelerated over the past several months, the importance investors attached to non-financial criteria, commonly criteria that esg will continue to be part of the

narrative with clients and investors, and the financial markets as a whole. littlee: talk to me a about h20 asset management. the you have interest in the state you put up for sale? jean: we did not put it up for sale. we agreed with management we would part amicably in total agreement, buying our stake in the country -- company subject to regulatory, and we are doing this in an ordinary manner in a transition at the interest of our clients -- in the interest of our clients. we have 23 different investment companies, each with its own style, brand. leave us, but others will join us like the past few years on key trends in the

marketplace like habit that. francine: have -- debt. francine: do you have any interest? jean: it is an agreement with management. management is buying back our stick. -- stake. we are not seeking third-party -- francine: would you be cor?rested in buying lick >> we consider ourselves a consolidator. we look at different opportunities. i will not comment on any specific ones. we have the luxury of being patient and of being financially strong shareholder that is supportive so we look at different opportunities and i'm convinced in 2021, 20 22, there will be further opportunities for consolidation in the asset management space like we saw in 2020 on the larger scale and

smaller scale, on both sides of the equation, on our side, we continue to look for asset management things that want to join us and contribute to the geographicallype and from a product standpoint. francine: thank you so much for joining us today. jean raby, the chief executive officer of natixis investment managers. always generous with his time. coming up, the outlook for the new year with the chief executive of legal and general 20 minutes from now and this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: this is "bloomberg: surveillance." i'm francine lacqua in london. let's cut to the bloomberg business flash with leigh-ann gerrans. leigh-anne: fiat chrysler and psa groups merger is finishing the finish line. the two are poised to get shareholders to sign off on the deal which would create the world's fourth-largest automaker. executives thinks they will be able to boost returns and have greater resources to compete in electric cars. of its 2020hort target, missing its goal for delivering half a million vehicles by 450. it cap say year in which tesla joins the s&p 500 with shares rallying over 700 are sent in 12 -- percent in 12 months. in 2021, the firm is expanding in china and opening new

factories in texas and germany. that is your bloomberg business flash. francine: thank you so much. coming up, the u.k. is going it alone after the departure from the eu was sealed in the new year. we take a look at what happens next and what it means for both sides. i want to focus time on equivalency and what it means for the financial services, when we will have a lot more clarity on that. in the meantime, if you look at the main market moves, i would suggest it is dollar lower, gold up, and bitcoin near record high. this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: economics, finance, politics. this is "bloomberg surveillance."

i'm francine lacqua, here in london. to the bloomberg first word news with leigh-ann gerrans. hi, leann. leigh-ann: president donald trump urged the georgia election officials to find thousands of votes to flip the state in his favor. in a 62 minute call obtained by bloomberg, he pressed fellow republicans to take action. it is the president's it is effort to overturn the election just days before congress is set to certify the results. no comments on the white house or the trump campaign. the oil market from the resurgent coronavirus. the allies produces its meeting today to decide whether it can continue to restore current supplies without hitting the price recovery. at a late meeting yesterday, several countries including saudi arabia sounded cautious about increasing production. nancy pelosi has been reelected speaker of the house of representatives. the only woman to hold the speaker's place. pelosi was selected with 216

votes. than theo more majority she needed, despite warnings from the democratic party calling for a new generation of leadership. global news 24 hours a day, on air and at bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more i'm 120 countries, leigh-ann gerrans. this is bloomberg. francine? you so much,nk leann. let's get the latest on the u.k., the rector transition period has expired with britain and the e.u. having finalized their divorce with a hard-fought deal. there are still many unknowns yet to resolve. delighted to be joined today to talk about brexit and beyond by the director at brooke -- ed bruegel. are we going to talk about brexit? politicians will talk about what kind of relationships they want.

will this still dominate? the -- it overall will be less on the front line news than it used to be because the real big issue was the divorce, and then the future relation which is now settled him some sort of an agreement. that settled in some sort of an agreement. -- settled in some sort of an agreement. dealow the u.k. has to with newly achieved freedoms and there will bend further discussions in the coming months on the future relation in specific areas, which are not yet fully covered by this agreement, so there is room for discussion, but it seems to me the broad parameters of the relation are the asset already. do you do with

financial services he aga this is something that we have spoken -- how wouldpast that change? how will europe deal with that? guntram: my gut feeling is that the principalmain economic center, the financial sector of europe. disappear.ill not firms in europe will continue to go to london for big listings, so derivatives, so on and forth. there will be some shifting of activities and there was some shifting of activities to the continent, but it is still relatively minor. day, london'sthe advantage is just too big. if london plays it well, they

will keep this role as the financial center of europe and probably of the world. so i don't think this is really the issue. this is one area with green financing and sort of green bonds where europe really wants to take the lead and arguably in some segments europe really has the lead already, including on green sovereign bonds. overall, i think the city of london's position is secured. francine: how big a year is this for europe? with german elections later this year, you have a lot of countries choosing what they do with e.u. recovery funds and looking at italy, we have a lot of countries also going through a vaccine rollout. what does 2021 bring for the europe continent? mentioned think you

the big topic. the key first issue will be the rollout where europe has done ary well so far, and there is big political debate now on why inope has been so slow buying but also rolling out the vaccination, especially france lagging behind. politicalmajor implications because frankly speaking it is not good enough is --so late, even if it i think these numbers matter a lot, and so a lot of emphasis should be put on that. as you say, the german election is the big political issue this year. we will see the first really important political decision in 16, where on january the main german party in power will be elected, and that will be really interim mental -- that

will be really instrumental for the german chancellor a. this is the most important the 16th ofte, january and of course the german election in september. francine: who do you think we'll get that, and with it be someone who can hold the alliance with france, that franco german alliance, or will that waiver and change? this, i think there are two serious candidates in the run. my understanding is that the third candidate, who is the biggestading state of germany, he apparently has less of a chance. otherl i would say the two will try to have an alliance

with france, but frankly he is -- my feeling is that he would be the candidate that is perhaps most visionary and most pro-european, thehe would certainly be one to reinforce relations across the atlantic. so overall i think -- could be quite an interesting choice, even though than it is not clear whether he will also want to be the chancellor, or whether that will be given to the bavarian prime minister. ask you alsoant to about donald trump and that phone call, which is probably our top story today. do you think that has an impact

on future diplomacy relationships, or do you just put it down to something that president trump would have done, and then the world moves on from it? me itm: look, i think for is just another sign of how outrageous the trump presidency and the trump president has been , and frankly speaking, many in europe look at this with a lot of worry. the election in the u.s. has not exactly been reassuring. on the contrary, it has been son that this kind of -- a sign that this president -- he still got more votes than any president in history except for mr. biden himself. it is kind of incredible that you have that kind of leader and that leader gets so many votes. though i think that these times

when we could unconditionally trust and sort of rely and look furredhe united states liberal democracy -- for liberal democracy and rule of law, these times are over. so many think of europe as a standalone power. they think about how to engage with china, and so on and so forth. at the end of the day, this last decision by donald trump and this call by donald trump is just an end of an outrageous presidency. francine: thank you so much, guntram wolff, director there at bruegel joining us today. we are getting confirmation that a vote amongst shareholders have approved the merger with fiat chrysler. i am not sure we will move the share price, but it is certainly

something that has been signed off on, a green light, stamp of approval, and that merger can go ahead as planned. coming up, expectations and risks for the coming year. that is coming up next, and this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: this is "bloomberg surveillance." as we getalk about into 2021. 2020 has been one of the most tumultuous years in history, with precipitous pledges, rebounds, and of course tragedy. with the start of the new year, what can we expect for the next 12 months. by delighted to be joined

nigel wilson, chief executive officer of legal & general. thank you so much for coming on bloomberg surveillance. we spent the last four years talking to you about regeneration of the north of england, about what brexit will bring. now that it is done. what do you see for the future of the u.k.? nigel: the themes that we talked past, theye line up with government policy. we are super excited about climate change andy privilege of hosting in the u.k. we have to make sure that everybody is not too tired out -- tired out. to get this initiative to happen in 2021. francine: talk to me a little bit about -- nigel: we have had an investment

challenge which has led to a productivity challenge for a long period of time. we have to change that in 2021 or start to change it and really step up in terms of investment. we know what we need to do. we have got to get out and do it. and we have talked about it a lot over the last four or five years, and during the brexit period, the last four or five years, we have seen part of the brexit effect is a decrease in investment, relatively compared to america and most of our european competitors. we have under invested again in the u.k., and that is really the big challenge, investment and productivity. francine: post-brexit, what does industryance want, and what do you think it will end up with? nigel: there are two things we would like to see happen. we need modification of u.k. rules to make them more u.k. centric and more rational.

we all recognize there are some changes that need to be made, and some improvement on the way that we think about assets. that is .1. so we can invest in a group of assets. we would also like to see the d.c. pension rule. it has changed so that firms like ours, we have a hundred investing d.c. money, in a wider range of assets. we have seen private markets do incredibly well, pension funds not having sufficient access to those opportunities. particularly esg and climate assets or adventure capital, that is what we would like to see happen. i think again we need greater freedom from the regulators, but also the trustees. there is a wider group of assets that they want to invest in. the world from an investment point of view, the most exciting it has ever been. we have seen how quickly we can adapt technology come how

quickly we can share markets over the last year. we should take those lessons and apply them and therefore encourage those institutions like ours, who look after vast amounts of money, to get the opportunity to invest in a wider range of assets. francine: do you think you will be able to do that? nigel: yes. i'm pretty confident that the regulators and the government will make the appropriate changes to allow firms like ours to play a bigger role in investment. withve done a great job investments in regions which you have talked about beginning there, and there is a lot more work to do. but there are a lot more people willing to do that work right now, and we have a government that is pretty supportive with all sorts of initiatives and a chancellor that is p particularly supportive. francine: talk to me about the opportunities that you see for 2021. you mentioned climate change.

do we need to go much faster in dealing with it? with everything with the pandemic, is there anything we have learned about climate change? nigel: there is a huge opportunity to use more technology for climate change. whether that is charging infrastructure that needs putting in place, the energy system which needs a radical transformation. but that transformation has started already. offshore wind, onshore wind, solar. it is all accessible and incredibly cheap. oil, butffended from we now have offshore wind. off-seasonct in the because it is shallow and a predictable wind. the offshore energy wind is there. and how do we make london the green economy, the green

financial leader in the world? because again, we have to innovate. as i look out of my office we need to get those people back working on some of the huge problems that we face as a society from a financial point of view. the good news is interest rates are still very low, and therefore the cost of doing all these things is very low right now. we should really start to turbocharge that. it is another thing that we have talked about a lot. universities that are at the leading edge of many parts of science and technology just never commercialized at the right level, and that has got to be the next challenge for us over the next five years. interest rates or even negative interest rates. what are the chances that the bank of england will have to go into negative territory?

and for investments at legal & general. nigel: i don't know whether we will go into negative. enough.ot investing whether the interest rates are higher or lower doesn't make any difference to the cost of investing. in a macro sense. we simply haven't taken on enough of the investment challenge and the productivity challenge that we have in the u.k., and the result of those issues -- they have been around for 30 or 40 years. we have tolevel up, level up, and there are great opportunities. in edinburgh and bristol to do that. there are real political leaders in those areas who are feeling good about the longer-term prospects of the cities that they represent. and the science and technology that has been produced by

universities. if we don't do this, we will fall behind in the u.k. because of the rest of the world will not stand still. america and china and other places really recognize these amazing opportunities that are coming out of technological -- which iscreating getting bigger. we have fallen behind and we have to catch up. nigel, thank you so much. we will continue this conversation with nigel wilson from legal in general. -- legal and general. i also want to bring you another headline. we understand -- this is a correction from what i told you earlier, that the double voting right holders have approved the fee at merger. we are hearing -- we are nearing a finish line. i'm not sure it has been 100% approved. close, to be very

nearing the finishing line for this fiat and -- this merger. the u.k. has given the first shot of the vaccine from astrazeneca and oxford university. that is coming up shortly, and this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: economics, finance, politics. this is "bloomberg surveillance." i'm francine lacqua, here in london. there is a lot going on today and this week, but first let's get final thoughts from nigel wilson, chief executive of legal and general. what is the one thing that you would change post pandemic to make sure that europe and the u.k. creates these world-class companies you were talking about? of europe hasle fallen behind, and we have to recognize that is because of underinvestment and under scaling our people. -- under scaling our people. we need much greater freedom to invest, and that requires record changes and political changes, ownthat is within our self-examination. we need to make this happen because that has been a problem

for the u.k. for the last 30 or 40 years, too little investment, too little productivity. we have to make a massive effort. we know have -- we know we have been able to upscale people with technology skills. it can be done, we just have to do it on a much bigger scale, much faster than we have been doing. francine: does that have to come from the private sector, or is it the government's job? nigel: i think it is a combination. constructive collaboration is what we have done for the last 10 years. it has to stop her -- to stop to operate -- it has to start your operate much more successfully than it has. to engage astrying they should be in how we can really drive economic growth in the future. and we are only going to do that if we get collaboration between local government, central government, the regulators, and

firms like ours, to really make a difference and get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy that we have. get rid of all the rigid rules that we have talked about in the past. and billy turned u.k. into a dynamic growth economy, which it isn't right now. we need to recognize that we have under invested. we have to step up. firms like ours and many other firms, we need to recognize that this is a world of wonderful opportunities, and we really have to invest in them, and even ourselves with outcomes. francine: nigel, thank you so much. thel wilson get there, chief executive officer of legal & general. coming up, eurasia risks. we have a special edition of bloomberg surveillance. i will be joined by tom, but we will also look at bitcoin and the markets. this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: a new year, a new order. our12 months, our lives and economies were suspended by the pandemic that would come to define 2020. we begin a new year taking stock. as developed and emerging nations look to rebuild the path forward is not without its challenges. and under the weight of strained alliances and divided agendas, globalization and space hang in the balance. in 2021, across america, there is a fractured political divide, a political depression. the honeymoon is over. america movil -- america will exit. vaccines will arrive, but with them, the frustration of a long pandemic recovery. good morning, everyone. this is