now. now it's your turn to lose weight, look great, and be healthy. get off the floor and get on the aerotrainer. go to aerotrainer.com, that's a-e-r-o-trainer.com. ♪ >> good morning. robinhood ceo tells bloomberg restricted buying of certain stocks protects its financial position. stocks bounceback after hours. e.u. is set to tighten rules on export of the coronavirus vaccine, and major war of words with astrazeneca. european growth data the next

few hours will reveal the extent of the economic damage in the fourth quarter as lockdown restrictions tighten. very good morning to you, just on 6:00 a.m. in the city of london. i'm broadcasting live from bloomberg's european headquarters. this is daybreak europe. another day on wall street with enthusiastic reddit traders taking on a massive short position from the hedge funds, all of this in after hours trading. you can see we're still fueling into some of these names like gamestop, amc, and blackberry, gamestop up more than 61% in after-hours trading. but before this search, things got dramatic when trading apps like robin hood restricted trading on their platforms. this infuriated the retail trailers. -- traders. they said this is a matter of principle and they want to hold onto their position and not sell.

we learned robin hood is drawing on its bank credit lines to make sure it has the cash on hand to clear these trades. for more on what is going on behind the scenes, dani burger is digging into this. i don't think she's slept. what exactly is happening that poses so much risk for these brokers? dani: i was in fact up on night talking to a lot of option traders, and really the scenes they describe, and subsequently these companies have, is one of mitigating counterparty risk. we learned a lot about plumbing in the recent days, especially if you and i were to make a trait on robinhood, that trade doesn't settle for two days. in the meantime, that trade is going through a clearinghouse. that will say to these brokerages hey, you need to put up collateral before this trade settles. usually the collateral is low, 1 -3%. but because these stocks have gotten so volatile, because

there's so much value, they demanded more collateral in order to avoid risk. so, all of a sudden, robinhood needs to provide billions of dollars to someone like a dtt see. they can't afford to come up with that overnight, which is part of the reason they drew down on their credit line and stop some of the trading. this is about avoiding risk, and really avoiding going bankrupt because these companies were not prepared. they were not well-capitalized enough to deal with these extra costs. annmarie: the thing is though, robinhood ceo is not just on financial news networks talking. he's out on cnn. he's talking to everyday retail investors who know completely, from what i'm hearing, lost absolute trust in some of these brokerage apps, most notably robinhood, which on twitter, you can see there's a #really robinhood hashtag. what is the permanent damage? dani: it's really hard to see

how they're going to reverse some of this reputational damage they've taken on. robinhood, they even started to restrict trading before they came out with a public statement saying they were. that's when you get these conspiracy theories starting to fly around. a lot of that exists on reddit, that may be citadel told them to stop allowing these trades. we know that's highly illegal and highly unlikely, but the fact they let it get to this point without a clear explanation is going to be troubling. it's not just a brokerages that face possible permanent changes. it's also the derivatives industry as a whole. the options traders i've been speaking with say they fear regulators are going to come in and face -- pace -- place more restrictions on them because this whole episode has made them look like an arcade, when they are provided more sophisticated products. there's a lot of fear in the industry right now. annmarie: las vegas. dani burger, thank you for that.

the retail rally sparked concern about wider implications in the broader market. take a listen. >> this looks like pockets of frothiness, some irrationality, some noun sense, undoubtedly -- nonsense, undoubtedly. >> there's a risk profile developing. >> no regulars expected. >> the oversight system is lacking behind. that's going to create volatility. >> that's one of the reasons you actually want central banks to be there. >> are there systemic risks? i don't think there are from this. >> its bubbles in the credit market we have to worry about. >> if this starts to stimulate an overall de-risking, it's a bigger problem for the market. annmarie: while this friday morning, let's look at where we trait. we are seeing asian equities moved to the downside. s&p 500 futures, as well, down

1.3%. a lot of questions on whether or not these short-sellers are able to cover their shorts and get out of the stocks they are long for. joining us is benjamin jones at state street. very good morning to you and thank you for joining us. i want to begin with whether or not you think that what is going on with some of these individual names like gamestop, amc, blackberry, nokia, is this just going to be contained into the individual names we've seen these flows go into? or is there worried that this could hit the broader market -- worry that this could hit the broader market? benjamin: good morning. for me, i'm less concerned about the broader systemic issue into the wider markets. this has obviously been a very exciting sort of few days or so. they're clearly has been some very weird and wacky moves in some of these stocks. but we've got to realize that

the stocks that are being touted are the stocks that have an enormous amount of open interest, although short interest on them, more than 100% of their float. when we look across the broader market, the stock that has been sold short, thinking about how much short-sellers are going to go to broader equities, we think that number is relatively low, lower than it's been the last five or six years or so. to think there's sort of a broader number of stocks that these companies or people can target, drive up the price, and then causes this broader deleveraging de-risking. i don't think that's necessarily going to happen. the other thing i'm thinking about is not just from the short side, which is relatively small compared to history, is we didn't really come into this with investors in a complacent state of mind. i certainly do agree there's been a lot of talk recently about bubbles, about elevated

long -- elevated multiples. but will may look at the way investors are behaving, -- when we look at the way investors are behaving, really all they've done is come from a big, cautious, defensive position at the beginning of last year, and come to more neutral positions. everyone i'm speaking to is looking for the reasons to be negative. they're looking for the reasons to be cautious. it doesn't seem like there's that sort of euphoria, complacent behavior out there at the moment. that's the time i would worry this would turn into something more systemic and cause a wider spread selloff across the market. so, in my view, this is likely to be more contained. it will be with us for a few weeks or so, but it's not something that threatens to bring down the market. annmarie: i like that you brought up the historical aspects of where we're seeing that shore interests. literally speaking, it is quite

low. we also saw yesterday that this euphoria from these retailers going into silver, do you think we're going to see more of these names come forward? benjamin: yeah, the silver one was a surprise to me because i didn't see credit shorts in that area, to be honest. but it does seem to be these investors, or speculators, whatever you want to call them, are going to target a wide range of areas. i think what's happening with some of the clamping down on trading, regulators are likely to get involved. i'm sure there's going to be news stories about that. i think that will potentially cause some people to think twice. and it might dampen down this activity. the i think we'-- but i think we're going to see these things popping up, and it's sort of

that get-rich-quick kind of scheme. people are excited you can make 100-200%, and that is going to excite some people. but i think generally, relatively well contained. even in a silver market, that's generally a very liquid market. i think you'll see some of these day-to-day moves or so. i don't think that is something that's going to be sustained. annmarie: it's interesting you brought up the regulation requirements because it's hard to think, what can they actually do? do you think the fed needs to raise margin requirements? benjamin: so yeah, that's an interesting one. the regulators make their own decisions on what to regulate, but they will be looking closely at this and thinking, does it have those extra systemic impacts i think there are perhaps a little bit overblown? and i think it will raise those margin requirements. there has been a concern in recent weeks, as well, that the

amount of stock trading on margin has been increasing, even before this all kicked off. again, when you look at the degree of margin that is being used and taken out at the moment, it has risen since the beginning of this year, but that hasn't necessarily risen to above normal levels when you start to normalize it for market caps. so, i think this will be something people will be asking questions about, whether it's in the immediate change, i'm less concerned they will be able to adjust. annmarie: what does this due to psychology of the market? there's a big question right now -- i'm talking to people on the retail side -- saying they do not trust this market. they think it's rigged. what's the broader implication for that for wall street? benjamin: i think there's a couple of reasons. i think it probably does damage a little bit of trust. i think we want people to be involved in the market.

we want people to be investing. personally, i would argue this is not necessarily investing. this is more speculative in nature. in terms of the retail view, the actions that we've seen recently, as you were describing at the top of the hour, probably does undermine some of the confidence. but it also undermines the confidence of broader institution investors. people were coming into this year still very concerned about the coronavirus, and were we going to get the recovery? were we going to get reflation trade? were we going to get high levels of inflation? this news broke on the biggest earnings season day of the year, on wednesday. and all of those big arms went unnoticed because everyone was focused on this. it also throws another area of concern in for investors to say, is there something else that can go wrong here? and it keeps investors more cautious. from an institutional

perspective, it probably undermines confidence a little bit. but i go back to this point that we didn't come into this year with investors in that euphoria stay of investment position. and if we're not there, the potential for a big selloff is probably less. annmarie: benjamin jones, that's all the time we have. thank you for joining us this friday morning. let's get your first word news with laura wright. good morning. laura: the european union is set to tighten rules on the export of covid-19 vaccines. brussels will require companies to obtain prior authorization to ship the shot outside the block. if this fails to get it off track, an official tells bloomberg the council president has raised the prospect of effectively seizing control of vaccine production. the men who triggered the collapse of italy's government is ready to support a new coalition to avoid snap elections. the former premier isn't ruling out backing the prime minister

again, but didn't specifically mention him in a meeting with the president. he said his priority is the issue -- the u.k. expects about 300,000 hong kong citizens to take advantage of new visa rules and settle in the u.k. the new route for leaving the former british colony opens on sunday, and was offered after china imposed a new national security law. u.k. says restrictions reached the terms of the handover in 1997. global news, 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. annmarie? annmarie: thanks for that recap. coming up, we speak to the ceo of a lighting company as fourth-quarter results beat estimates. she joins us next. this is bloomberg. ♪ (announcer) do you want to reduce stress? shed pounds?

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annmarie: welcome back. this is daybreak europe. i'm annmarie hordern. a quick check on were betrayed, we are seeing -- where we trade, we are seeing downside. a lot of red on the screen, but a bid into the dollar index. now, results season well underway and letting company signify reported fourth-quarter results the estimates were better than expected. the philips spinoff is still suffering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. sales in the fourth quarter were down almost 6%. signify doesn't see the industry recovering until 2023. joining us now is eric rhonda let, the ceo. good morning to you and thank you for joining us. you're not seeing this recovery that's going to happen until 2023, and therefore you are preparing for some layoffs. can you give us a sense of the overall number of job cuts and

how that's going to impact your business? eric: good morning. maybe let me talk q4 2020 before. so, despite the crisis, as you said, we've been able to deliver on our strategic objective. we've lighted 21 martin light points and connected them -- 21 more light points and connected them. we are can shipping to more than 80% of profit and cash. despite the crisis, we have also been able to improve our financial profile. i just -- margins have improved. we're closing our seventh year of consecutive improvement on our breaking margin. the cash is also strong at $817 million, the highest we've been able to deliver. but when i talk about the performance, i talked about the

past. we have to look at the future. and we see headwinds. we see the impact of the covid crisis lasting much longer than what was estimated originally. so, we have to take measures in order to adapt. and this is what we have been announcing this week. annmarie: so, how many job cuts, then, will it mean in terms of adapting to this new era as you recover from the coronavirus? what does it look like in terms of layoff? eric: so, doing this thing is always a complicated thing to do, but we are estimating to do around 600 job positions and potential layoffs worldwide. annmarie: can we get a sense from you, eric, on why you think the recovery is going to take so long? what do you think you can do between 2021 and 2023 to speed up this recovery? eric: well, we continue to

invest. also, the objective for us is not only to try to bring our costs down, but also giving us space to invest in innovation. we are involved in many different technologies, such as ubc, which is also bringing a response to the crisis. we've been in q4 bringing in new products, which affects small objects like keys or phones. we are developing solar technology because we believe this is very important for climate change on the planet, that people can benefit from renewable sources. so, we're continuing to invest in technology to try to get out of the crisis faster. but we believe this crisis is lasting much longer than what was originally estimated, and it's potentially doing more structural damage to the economy than what we thought originally.

annmarie: you're pushing for these eco-friendly products, as you mentioned there. i want to get a sense from you, what do you make of the incoming biden administration? do you think this will help your business since you are looking to be more sustainable? eric: well, we believe that the green new deal in europe and the plan in the u.s. are very conducive to improve the condition on the planet. but we're very supportive on this, not only what we do the company, but what we have developed in terms of technology. so, relies around three main angles. the first one is about climate change and clean energy. climate change because when we deliver our solution, we can commit to saving 80% of the electrical consumption. also, clean energy because of the solar solutions that we are bringing. but also, full security.

we use light to grow crops better, faster, with better yields, allowing also farmers to grow crops in cities in what we call vertical farming. and at the same time, we also developed a lot of solutions for circularity. basically, we can reuse the raw material at the end of the life of a product and reprint it. so, we're developing a lot of product that is supporting the environment and that is going to be needed for the green new deal in europe, but also for the plan that is being developed in the u.s. annmarie: all right, eric, thank you so much for giving insight on your plans for the future and your results this morning. coming up on the program, permission to export. the eu is set to tighten rules for companies shipping vaccines outside the block. the spat with astrazeneca continues. more on that next.

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annmarie: good morning. welcome back. this is daybreak europe. i'm annmarie hordern in london. the european union is set to tighten rules on the export of covid-19 vaccines and require companies get permission before shipping doses outside the block. for more, maria tadeo joins us. are we looking at an export ban, outright? maria: well, good morning. they like to call it an export limitation system, probably only because it sounds nicer and more diplomatic, but essentially it is a ban. of sorts. if you're a company that makes the vaccine in europe and you want to export the outside the european union, you need a certificate of authorization. a company -- country may able to say no.

now, what officials say behind the scenes is that this is not owing to be a full blank. this is very tailored. it's going to be very targeted. human a terry in use may be accepted, too, -- he met and use may be accepted -- humanitarian use may be accepted, too. there has been suspicions, and it has been floated, money has gone to build facilities summer, build distribution somewhere, and the vaccine may not be ready in time. if you sign a contract with europe, you have to service your project here. annmarie: i don't want to interrupt you, but they are speaking to the german press. and to your point about the spat with astrazeneca, she said the contract should be made public. she said the contract has clear commitments. she also says we need transparency from astrazeneca as others,. so, clearly this war of words is just escalating.

it's not coming down -- calming down. what's the risk of all this? are we looking at vaccine nationalism across the supply chain? maria: that's the perception. and you could argue the european union, by taking these measures, will take a lot of pressure on the global stage, a lot of pushback for what is seen as nationalism. but again, what i would note is in the eyes of the european union, and this is perception imported for context, -- important for context, they don't look at this as a nationalistic battle. they say this is a contract problem. this is a contractual obligation problem. in their view, astrazeneca is not meeting the terms of the contract. that's why they say make it public to see if it's right. again, it's a difficult question to answer because we don't know the extent of these. we don't know whether a full band will take place -- ban will take place.

this is about respecting our contract. annmarie: maria tadeo, we're going to leave it there. coming up, more on robinhood. it raised over $100 billion from existing investors. more on that breaking news story next. ♪

♪ >> we work directed by the market make -- weren't directed by the market maker or any market disciplines. this was a technical, operational decision. annmarie: robinhood ceo tells bloomberg restricted buying of certain stocks presented -- protected its financial position. shares rallied back as they reinstated limited trade.

the eu is set to tighten rules on export of the coronavirus vaccines, a major escalation but with a war of words -- with a war of words with astrazeneca. and the extent of the economic damage in the fourth quarter is locked and restrictions tighten. -- as lockdown restrictions tighten. i'm annmarie hordern, live from bloomberg's european headquarters. we do have french gdp hitting the tape at the moment right now. what we are seeing is the french economy growing 1.3% in the fourth quarter. the median estimate was from 4%. this is certainly a lot better than what the market was expecting. you can see right now the euro-dollar, nothing really moving. we do trait at one spot 21. -- 1.21 -- trade at 1.21. we are seeing a lot of red on the screen, especially when we look at the nasdaq 100. s&p 500 futures down more than

1%. we are seeing a bit once again into the dollar -- bid once again into the dollar. another wild day on wall street with enthusiastic reddit retail investors taking on massive short positions from the hedge funds. after our trading on some of the stocks, -- hour trading on some of the stocks, tremendous gains. amc, 30%, blackberry nearly 13%. before we saw this surge, things got dramatic when trading apps like robin hood restricted trading on their platforms. this absolutely infuriated the retail traders, who as a matter of principle, many are saying they are holding onto their positions and they will not sell. we learned robinhood is drawing on its bank credit lines to make sure it has cash on hand to clear trades. we also learned in the last few minutes that robinhood also is raising over $1 billion from

existing investors. dani burger has been tracking this throughout the morning and overnight. quickly, i want to get to this redhead robinhood saying it's raising over $1 billion from existing investors. the new york times first had this. clearly there's liquidity issues at this company. dani: exactly. in a nutshell, robinhood got way in over its head. because of the way the trades work, every time there's a trade, robinhood needs to put up collateral. usually, it's only 1-2% of the trade. but because it's gotten so volatile, the entity handling the trades has been demanding more. let's say for gamestop and amc, they need to put up 5% of the cost of the trade. that's at least $5 billion that robinhood needs to cough up, essentially overnight. and these are estimates. imagine being robinhood and in the blink of an eye, you need to come up with this money and you

know that your users are going to continue to make this trade and that amount of money you need to put up is going to continue to skyrocket. they are not well-capitalized enough to do that. that's why we see them putting limits on trade, raising money, drawing down on credit lines. some of the bigger firms, they are better capitalized. but surely, there risk model alarms are going off, as well, about the money they need to put up as collateral. that's why when we see these various brokerage firms putting limits on the trades their users can make. annmarie: i don't want to get too philosophical, but there's a trust issue right now from these retail traders. there are rumors, speculation on why robinhood actually did this, which you and i both know if they were to do, would be to help their hedge fund friends, would be wildly illegal. and we would say there are definitely rumors. but what happens going forward with this trust issue right now? is there permanent damage?

dani: it really is hard to see how robinhood recovers from some of this reputational risk. there was a really long period where robinhood was very vague about why they were stopping trades, and that's where you get these rumors flying around. and keep in mind, robinhood was reported to be seeking an ipo this year. plans might start to look different because we've had so many of their customers speak -- be furious, taking to twitter, saying they're deleting robinhood, leaving bad review ratings on the app itself. now there's regulatory risk, as well. annmarie: the few people i to that were on robinhood or ditching it and trying to find other places to execute their trade. thank you for all of this and sticking with this as robinhood defends its decision, claims down on shares. -- clamps down on shares. we spoke to the ceo. he told emily chang no market participant forced the company

to make the move. vlad: there's a lot of misinformation out there, in particular there's people saying that we were forced to do this by market makers we route to, or other market participants. i just want to come out and say that's categorically false. we weren't directed by a market maker or any other market participants. this was a technical, operational decision that we made because robinhood, as a brokerage, has financial requirements, including clearinghouse deposits that we have to make to various clearinghouses. some of these requirements fluctuate based on volatility in the market. and in this current unprecedented environment, can be substantial. so, to protect the firm and protect our customers, we temporarily disabled buying in these securities. and we hope to reenable buying as soon as tomorrow morning.

annmarie: so, that said, did any of -- emily: so, that said, did any of these market makers ask you to whole trait, even if that's not the reason -- halt trade, even if that's not the market? -- not the reason? vlad: no. emily: so, why would you say you allow them to sell, but not by, if you allowed -- buy, if you allow democritus eyes -- democratize? vlad: getting out of position, getting out of the position that you're holding, and not being able to do that is painful. we stand with our customers. we want to give them the ability and the platform to invest in stocks, buying and sell, so restricting buying, obviously,

not as painful to customers as restricting all trading. emily: so, question from if you were here, if hedge funds can short 140% of its stock the retail can't go long because of volatility and free market, how does that make sense? vlad: well, i mean, look, it's nonnegotiable for us to comply with our financial requirements and our clearinghouse deposits. so, we have to do that. robinhood has always stood, and will continue to stand, with the individual investor and their ability to have access to buying and selling stocks. and i've got to say, now, i can kind of understand how clorox and lysol were feeling at the beginning of the dynamic, when there were so much demand for something. so, we're doing what we can.

we're hoping to have them enabled tomorrow morning. the team's been working incredibly hard, day in and day out, so that we're available for our customers and we operate and run a reliable service for them. emily: you're now facing scrutiny from both sides of the aisle. aoc tweeted earlier this is unacceptable. we need to know more about robinhood's decision while hedge funds are clearly able to trade as they see fit. i'd support a hearing if necessary. ted cruz we tweeted that and said fully agree. would you come to washington if necessary to testify about this? vlad: we are glad that both sides of the aisle are coming together here. obviously, under difficult circumstances that have been challenging. look, we're always open to

having a conversation. we think this is a great opportunity to educate the public, as well, about how some of the mechanics around settlement in the financial markets work. i think there has been a lot of misinformation out there about why robinhood did this. and we, first and foremost, did it to protect the firm and our customers. annmarie: vlad, you've been hearing a lot of his name. he's the robinhood ceo speaking to emily chang. all this week, it's the davos agenda, leaders meeting virtually. we will bring you a piece of the action. we'll be speaking to mark carney, the u.s. special envoy. you don't want to miss that interview. before we go to break, i want to bring you some breaking news. this is coming about the eu spat with astrazeneca. she is calling on astrazeneca to fulfill the vaccine contract. throughout the morning, she's

been speaking to local german press. we also heard her talking about the fact that she's talking about, as well, that she wants transparency and planning security on vaccines. we'll have a lot more on this story throughout the morning. coming up, permission to export. the eu is set to tighten rules for companies shipping vaccines outside the block. that's coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> we are going to have a recovery, but it's going to be an even recovery. >> of course it will have a direct impact on the forecast, and it will be very difficult. >> you're going to get a roaring 20's type of recovery, and a boom period. >> the rebound in the second and third quarter will be quite

strong because the expectation is that the vaccine will have cleared the way to less restrictive lockdowns. >> assuming that we can get through this pandemic and the vaccination strategies work and europe is sadly lacking behind a bit on this. >> we should not be too quick to cut back on the expansionary fiscal policy. >> the level of underlying scarring of the trade is very difficult. >> we count on developing economies for dynamic growth. if they don't grow, bad for people there. bad for the world economy. >> we'll get there. is not a question of if. it's a question of more, when. annmarie: some of the top voices from davos discussing the outlook for the european economy. the question of when, not if there's a recovery. we get some idea of how that's going with a host of data from the eurozone. we saw that out, french gdp dipping 1.3% in the fourth quarter, a lot better than the

4% contraction that was expected, and a big factor in all this is just how quickly the european economy rebound is the eu's vaccine ride, the spat with astrazeneca continuing this morning, calling on the drugmaker to fulfill its contract. also, we're seeing political reporting that she will hold a call with the vaccine ceo's on sunday. moderna, pfizer, and others expected to take part in this call. so, you do see this drive and quest for the vaccines, and the eu wants to short their position out, really ramping up going into the weekend. we're going to get more with what this means for the market with a senior currency strategist. good morning to you. thank you for joining me. there are two big stories right now. one of them is what's going on with the short squeeze. you look at the individual

companies like gamestop, blackberry, nokia. the other, of course, is the vaccine distribution. this is a huge story in europe. when you look at both of the stories that are pretty much dominating the news agenda, do you think these two agenda is white we are seeing the strength of the u.s. -- why we are seeing the strength of the u.s. dollar? >> i think you make a good point. you've got major concerns right now, with respect to the prolonged containment measures, and also the logistic issues, with respect to the vaccine distribution. this is causing some concern that we could have perhaps a longer, weaker economic drag on the economy. and that is undermining financial market sentiment and supporting the u.s. dollar. but i think outside of the short-term period of turbulence, the reflation team is intact, and largely supported by still a successful rollout of the

vaccine and an ongoing rollout of the vaccine. the prospect of more aggressive u.s. fiscal stimulus, and more importantly, is the fact that global monetary policy settings are going to remain ultra-loose for a very long time. so, it bodes well for the relation -- reflation team and this will win out over concerns, with respect to the prolonged lockdown measures and the vaccine distribution, and its logistics. annmarie: yes, everyone said that vaccine distribution, the fact that that hitting a bumpy road and the fact we do have an economy still on lockdown was going to still hurt economic growth in the first quarter. we still see it hurt france, but not as much as expected. it's not a 4% contraction. it's a one point 3% contraction for the fourth quarter. do you think -- one .3% contraction for the fourth quarter.

elias: i think you are bang on right there. a double-dip recession in the euro zone, we're going to have a contraction in q4, as well as q1. the big risk for euros on economic activity is if this contraction spills over into q2. because this would now be real the ecb's economic forecast -- derail the ecb's economic forecast. at this stage, it doesn't look like we're moving towards a significant drive in q2. they project it to recover, starting in q2, and maintain momentum in the second half of this year. that's one of the reasons you're underpinning it for the year. annmarie: on the vaccine progress, some say this has become an fx trade thing. the u.k. is so much more ahead when it comes to vaccine district vision. do you agree with this type of

premise when you look at the fx market? elias: the way i look at the fx market, i'm relative monetary policy, the relative payment structure, and valuation. these are the three major cyclical and structural drivers of currency. the relative trend in vaccine inoculation rates is more interesting, and i think it's not a significant and material driver for currencies. annmarie: ok, so probably maybe a short-term driver, short-term risk. we've heard from the ecb about wanting to look at closing -- looking closer at fed policy due to the weakness of the dollar. we also have janet yellen now, secretary of treasury of the united states, ditching that strong dollar policy, which they sometimes went for. does the ecb have the tools to fight that, to fight the strong euro? elias: certainly they have the

tools, but i don't think the verbal jawboning of the euro will turn into action. there's plenty of room for the euro to overshoot its fundamental equilibrium before it becomes a drag on eurozone economic activity. but if we do have a significant overshoot in the euro, perhaps well above 1.28 or even close to 1.30, then the best tool i would expect the euro to use to trick upset momentum would be to cut the policy rate deeper into negative territory. that would mean real rates in the euro zone would be less positive than where they are right now, and that would ultimately be a drag on the u.s. annmarie: how realistic is that, though? elias: oh, i put very limited, or very low risk for this to materialize. this is one of the big fundamental reasons behind my positive view on the euro versus the dollar this year.

it's real interest rate differential between the eurozone and the u.s. they remain positive. they remain wide. and they remain in favor of the euro. the euro is still undervalued with the interest rate differential. that's why i see more scope here for upside in the euro. and that will start to accumulate closer to 1.20. annmarie: interesting. elias, i also want to ask you something that's going on in equity markets. we saw this in the commodity markets. this is the enthusiasm and investors taking on short positions. we're furring to yesterday, some of them -- referring to yesterday, some of them decided to go after silver. do you think we could see retail investors going after some other positions outside of equities? we saw them do it with silver. do you think we could see other assets on the table? elias: well, i don't know, but i

think there's one asset we won't see them and that's the currency market. it's simply too big to be manipulated by a few investors. other markets, i'm not too worried of the volume. i wouldn't be able to comment on that. annmarie: all right, so the fx market may be one place retailers won't be able to infiltrate. elias, thank you so much for joining us and happy friday. coming up in the program, gamestop shares rally back post-market after robinhood reinstates limited trade. that's as the platform gets an emergency injection from cash from investors. liquidity concerns ahead. that's coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> so, there's a lot of misinformation out there. this was a technical, an

operational decision. >> it's a game of musical chairs, we've got too many people short. when the music stops, they have to find a seat. >> integrity of the marketplace. >> everyone's talking about rational or irrational exuberance. and what we've seen is actually some cash on the sidelines. >> the administration is taking a look. the sec is taking a look. >> it's nonnegotiable for us to comply with our financial requirements and our clearinghouse deposits, so we have to do that. >> they are so sorry they are doing -- luckily, we have an automated liquidation system. >> and it's become very clearly a deeply personal phenomenon, and i would equate it to folks voting with their dollars. in order to get back at or make a statement towards big financing. >> technology disrupts every industry. hedge funds are going to learn these retail investors are

something to look down your nose and chuckle about. >> because of the low cost of entering into stock, now you have a diversified, 14-15 millie people who are basically trading -- million people who are basically trading stock. annmarie: the voices on another wild day on wall street. or as jonathan ferro called it, las vegas. after we see some of these trading platforms not allow you to buy, we did see a massive surge in some of these companies. the broader market this morning, we are lower. the s&p 500 futures not extending losses, but not as much as earlier on the day, nasdaq futures down 1%. and we are seeing on the screen, when you look at europe, the top line coming from the robinhood saga, they are raising $1 billion in cash after these clients are revolting. some of these clients a very sophisticated. as i mentioned before, they're not just going after shorts in the equity markets. they are looking at the silver

market, as well. that's where we are after work -- after hours, gamestop up 50%. matt and an hour up next. -- and anna are up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ anna: good morning. welcome to "bloomberg markets: european open." i'm anna edwards live in london alongside matt miller in berlin. matt: good morning. today, the markets say mania contained. meme stocks soared in overnight trade but markets look set to slump ahead of gdp data from germany and spain. the cash trade is an hour away. these