s me. and there are over 20 exercises to choose from. get gym results at home. no expensive machines, no expensive memberships. go to aerotrainer.com to get yours now. ♪ >> good morning from bloomberg's middle east headquarters in dubai. annmarie hordern alongside me in london hq. these are your top stories for daybreak europe. equities move higher as jay powell pushes back on the inflation concerns. he says there's a long way to recovery. sentiment further boosted as u.s. regulators say the johnson

& johnson single shot vaccine is safe. very positive from -- studies from pfizer. the pandemic will weigh on the results this year as it returns to the dividend payout and announces a buyback. the cfo joins us this hour. good to see you this morning. good news coming from standard chartered. it's about the outlook and the flatness of the outlook that has grabbed the market attention. hong kong, we get a bit of value back. first half income will be lower than earlier presumed. guidance on impairment is that pressure on 2021 credit impairments will reduce. you will get a huge uplift

from 2022. yes, restructuring charges. we will put these questions to the cfo very shortly. and the buyback, is this a more progressive dividend policy? today, a raft of interviews to go through. this is the lineup we've got. i hope you did your homework last night. andy will join us in just under 30 minutes. that's the lineup for the day. did you do all your homework? annmarie: i did. good morning. standard chartered with the dividend. all the british banks are back to resuming their dividend. let's look at where we trade this morning. equities are flying higher. complete green on the screen. the benchmark up more than 6/10 of 1%. we are holding on on the pound. 10 year yield, just below 1.4%. we are seeing in a breakdown in yields across the globe. i put the 10 year australian yield there because we are up 12

basis points. the s trillion several bank had to step in again, the second time this week. the 10 year post for the highest close at that yield since 20 -- 2009. this is coming from comforting news on the vaccine front. it all comes down to jay powell. he had his second day of testimony. he's emphasizing that the economy has a long way to go to recover. he says it will take more than three years to reach the fed's inflation goal and said that signs of prices rising won't necessarily lead to persistently high inflation. he touched on asset prices as well, saying they are elevated by some measures. that was day two. a dovish tone yet again. let's look at the recap. >> we would like to see incoming actual data that shows us moving closer to our goals. the most important policy to getting to those sectors reopened and getting people back to work is bringing the pandemic to a decisive end as soon as possible.

we are on the path to that but we haven't done it yet. there's a lot of slack in the labor market and a long way to go to maximum employment. we want to inflation expectations to be anchored at 2% and not below 2%. we believe we can do it. it may take more than three years. we are committed to news our tools to achieve that. purchasing assets at least at the current pace until we see substantial further progress towards our goals. manus: that's the outcome of day two of jay powell. kiran ganesh. here's the conundrum. who's afraid of a rising bond yield? not the equity boys and girls. here's this duality. rising bond yields, rising equities. one of these markets is ultimately testing the metal of jay powell. the bond market does not believe the slack theory at the moment.

what's your take away? kiran: i think it's really on the relationship between the bond market in the equity market. it will come down to three things. one is the level. two is the speed of increase. three is the components and what's happening with inflation. if we look at the level, bond yields are perfectly fine for equities. it is below where we were prior to the pandemic. we think the valuations for equities can still be supported when the 10 year yield is only get 1.4%. when we look at the components, there's been sign so far. inflation expectations, bond yields going up. that tends not to be as troubling for equities as real rates. the speed is what we need to watch. typically, if bond yields rise by more than 50 basis point over the course of the month, we see that having a negative effect on equities. that's why we started to see wobbles and nervousness in recent days prior to the comments. i think that's the main thing to

watch for equities. we think that generally, higher bond yields can be consistent with rising markets as long as it's coming with expectations of higher growth. annmarie: the market is starting to behave like this is taper tantrum 2.0. why? why don't they believe what jay powell continuously says? kiran: it's that nervousness about the speed of adjustment that's really the key thing. the key difference to what we had in 2013 is that component. inflation versus real rates. in 2013, almost all of the increase we saw in bond yields came from real rates. that's much more troubling for equities. this time, the majority has been higher inflation expectations. we seen an increase in real rates in the last few days. maybe that is causing the wobbles. the market should be reassured by what powell is saying. central banks are going to keep rates at low levels even if we see this temporary spike in inflation over the course of the

summer. manus: so let's -- don't worry at is the basic tape away. -- worry yet is the basic take away. let's talk about pimco and what they are saying about inflation. take a listen to this. real gpd -- gdp in the united states has oak -- only break in 7% five times since the 1950's. that's during a great reflationary episode or afterwards. you are nowhere near the 1970's inflation spiral. my question is on asset allocation. with an excess of 70 -- 7%, do you want to skew more to the united states or the em beyond u.s. borders on a global recovery trade? are you forced into a u.s. exceptionalism trade? kiran: i think that's the interesting question for investors at the moment. em looks attractive generally.

it dealt with the pandemic better than other markets, particularly asia. the valuations are lower than what you have in developed markets. em looks attractive. europe is lagging behind in terms of the vaccination program. doesn't have such a big stimulus as we will get in the u.s.. that's the laggard. the positioning of the u.s. is interesting. that's where we have the most you asian concerns. that's also where we will have fiscal stimulus packages coming through. at the moment, we rank it in the middle between em and europe. certainly as we get closer to that physical stimulus, it is looking to look like a more attractive market. annmarie: i want to ask you a question. you have a lot of thoughts on commodities. you say there's a dislocation. which ones are going to win and which ones are going to be the losers in the super cycle? kiran: a lot of people are talking about the super cycle. i think it will be different to what we saw in the 2000s when we had that huge demand growth from

china which was really lifting all boats, causing demand for all kinds of commodities. this time, there's potential for a cyclical dance and commodities as we come out of the pandemic. in terms of super cycle, there will bit -- be more differentiation. where we get sustained demand is going to be coming from those metals and those commodities exposed to decarbonization trade. things that are necessary for electric vehicles and decarbonization. it won't be such a broad increase in commodity prices. when people think about super cycle, it won't be the same as 2000. we might see a super cycle and some of the individual commodities which are more exposed to decarbonization. manus: yeah. i think that whole concept that china will deliver the same as it did in the early 2000's isn't there. one thing that caught my eye, when we talk about cyclicality, banks are at the highest level

as a sector since 2007. a number of people come on the show. one of our favorite lines is, you have to pay her to buy the banks. how do you want to take exposure to the repricing of the curve? are you tempted in any way to the banking or financial sector? kiran: yes. this is a very interesting place at the moment. going back to one of the main concerns for equities being rising yields, if you look at the banking sector, that's typically a beneficiary of rising yields. that's why it's getting a lot of interest. so far, we've been primarily playing and things like industrials, materials, some of the more cyclical sectors to play this reflation trade. we think the banks are looking more interesting today as well. particularly in that portfolio context. if you are trying to find a way of hedging higher bond yields in

your equity portfolio, tilting more towards financials is a good way to do that. annmarie: kiran ganesh. ubs wealth management, multi-asset strategist. let's get a recap of first word news with laura wright. laura: richie sue not urged to deliver a 100 pound fiscal boost last that -- next week. the think tank is calling for targeted stimulus on top of existing support. bloomberg sources say the u.k. also plans to keep corporation tech competitive. that -- the u.k. has the lowest rate in the g7. performing the wto. the body will be a key priority for the incoming director general. he says the process will be easy. it has been hobbled since 2019 after the trump administration vetoed any new appointments. >> a very great desire to reform

the dispute settlement with the appellate poly -- body. i know the biden administration still has issues with it. as previous administrations. there are some valid criticisms of the way that the body functions. laura: warren buffett's right-hand man thinks brokers like robin hood who attract and experience retail investors are essentially offering gimli services. the 97-year-old says commission free trading is a lie in the platform found a dirty way to make money. no response to the comments from robinhood. global news 24 hours a day on air and at bloomberg quicktake, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in 120 countries. this is bloomberg. manus: thank you very much. coming up, what will happen to the glut of consumer savings as the u.k. economy reopens this year? the bank of england officials

say they are not worried about inflation anytime soon. we discussed. this is bloomberg. ♪ (announcer) do you want to reduce stress? shed pounds? do you want to flatten your stomach? do all that and more in just 10 minutes a day with aerotrainer, the total body fitness solution that uses its revolutionary ergonomic design to help you to maintain comfortable, correct form. that means better results in less time. you can do an uncomfortable, old-fashioned crunch or an aerotrainer super crunch. turn regular planks into turbo planks without getting down on the floor. and there are over 20 exercises to choose from. incredible for improving flexibility and perfect for enhancing yoga and pilates. and safe for all fitness levels. get gym results at home in just 10 minutes a day. no expensive machines, no expensive memberships.

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in the mid 30's. that recovery is being led principally by the leisure segment. we are seeing some encouraging green shoots and business transactions. i think many of us look with optimism at the way we've seen the recovery unfold in china. >> we are only talking about getting back 40% of our international capacity outside of new zealand for the financial year 2022. it's not everything back on day one. we think that's a valid and maybe even conservative assumption. if it's optimistic, we can pull out and push around. if it is conservative, we can play it forward.

we have to give ourselves some certainty. manus: the married of international ceos giving bloomberg their outlook amid the pandemic. we have another report to absorb from pfizer on the vaccine. overwhelmingly effective against the virus. two doses of the vaccine prevented 94% of covid cases according to a large study in israel. annmarie: very positive news. meanwhile, bank of england officials suggesting the u.k. economy is about to suffer from higher inflation. answering questions from lawmakers, policymakers said data monitored by the central bank doesn't show evidence of inflation overshooting its 2% target. you have powell.

our guest is still with us. governor bailey saying he's not worried about inflation. the united kingdom is going to be open for business once again. that's june funny first. we will see spikes of inflation. do you maintain that the bank of england still holds the line? kiran: yes. it is similar to what we talked about in the united states. powell framed it in a good way. there's inflation rates and then there's inflation. there's a big difference between the two. the inflation rates this year will be much higher. i would be surprised if there's not some significant inflation and restaurant booking prices on june 22, for example. whether that leads to a sustained rise in prices and that inflation wage spiral, we don't really see reason for so much concern. remember going into the

pandemic, what was happening was central banks were at full employment. the central banks were cutting rates or thinking about how they could stimulate the economy to try to generate inflation. we don't see a reason why the picture in 2022 should be significantly different to pre-pandemic, even if we see this increase in the inflation rate over the course of the summer. manus: yeah. various people described it as a catch-up effect in terms of the spike and role. to the pound now. on the show, we have very different needs and desires. they 10 of a rally on the pound. that's the strongest rally since 1998 on euro sterling. do fools rush in here? the bigger move, the much more significant move is euro sterling. do fools rush in? will sterling continue higher? kiran: it is important to

remember the starting point here which is that the pound has been very undervalued relative to our metrics pretty much ever since the 2016 referendum. the starting point is low. the u.k. is relatively advanced in their vaccination program. that has led investors into the pound. at this point, the rally against the euro is probably largely done. there's more to go against the u.s. dollar. we think both the pound and the euro have more script to rally against the dollar as we go through this year. people start to leave the u.s. dollar as a classic state-and try to find more riskier trades and catch up trades which might be more relevant in europe than in the u.s.. a bit more to go against the dollar. against the euro, we think the pound trade is largely done. manus: if you can pop off and do analysis on pound against around, that would be greatly up prescient it. -- greatly appreciated. emory is delighted.

she's getting ready to do the big fx trade. the you go. kiran ganesh. ubs wealth management, multi-asset strategist. we will talk more about the pound in just a moment. coming up on bloomberg, a raft of interviews, benchmarking the recovery across europe. this is bloomberg. ♪ when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store.

annmarie: good morning. the jobs market. adecco group has beat fourth-quarter estimates and will resume its share buybacks. they have been benefiting from the recovery after the corona drove -- coronavirus driven dent tiring. you say it's a strong close to a difficult year. what are you seeing in the first few weeks for 2021?

coram: good morning. thanks for having me on. as you say, it was a strong close for an unprecedented year in many ways. we saw a good recovery through q4. we beat on top line and bottom line expectations. i think we showed resilience and agility. as we go into the first quarter, what we've seen is that we maintained volumes that we were delivering in december. we are not seeing any further growth. i think that's really because of the strength of the restrictions that are still in place. it's great that we continue to be resilient. but we are not likely to see further growth until some of those restrictions are lifted. manus: good morning. it would be good to get your sense of confidence. which industries are your ceos that you are talking to, more

confident and chomping to get going? coram: yeah. it's a really interesting picture. you have a number of sectors which, as you would expect, have been hit quite badly by the pandemic. leisure, hotels, tourism, airlines. they aren't seeing much of a recovery. on the other hand, you then have certain sectors like e-commerce and logistics which have clearly benefited significantly and continue to benefit from the crisis. there's a middle group. manufacturing clients who in the first wave of lockdowns actually found things really difficult and ended up shutting plants. they seem to have learned how to cope and how to operate in this kind of environment. actually approving more resilient in this current wave of lockdowns. it's a different picture than

what we saw at the beginning. annmarie: a lot of companies are receiving state aid. insolvency is already specter to rise. do you expect a big adjustment in the coming months and unemployment? coram: one of the things that's interesting about this crisis is that the use of those government support schemes is obviously much more widespread than it was in the last crisis. and more extended in many ways. i think it has done what it was intended to do, protect the economy from the shock. you see unemployment is lower than we might've expected. demand is coming back more strongly. i think, provided the curve of the recovery matches the withdrawal of the support schemes, i think it's likely to be a slightly softer landing than we might've feared. that's not to say that there will be disruption. i think you are completely right on that. it does feel as if the schemes have done what they were meant to do, which is protect us from

the worst of this. manus: when the furlough ends, do you think there's a potentially hidden impact that we've yet to comprehend? lower wages, different contracts? what do you think the consequence will be? coram: i think it's too early to say what the impact is going to be in terms of wage levels, wage inflation, etc.. i do think what the pandemic has done is change the way in which we work. if you look at -- a number of us have been working from home for months. i'm here and an empty office. i walk through the corridors wearing a mask. it has had a profound impact in a short time on how people work. that will drive flexibility both for employees and employers. annmarie: where do you see the recovery taking place in terms of geographically?

how much of a dent is that going to be for the european jobs market? coram: i think europe was the territory that had the strictest lockdowns for the longest time. certainly within our figures, it was the area that was hurt the most. we have seen a recovery. we saw it at the beginning in q4, across-the-board. it was broad-based. there's no question that europe has further to come from in order to get back to precrisis levels. if you step back and look at the rest of the world, there are parts of asia that are already back to growth. we are seeing growth in our latin american business. while the recovery has been steady in europe, it is still lagging. manus: come back and speak to us soon. we did not quite get to the gig economy and how that is impacting money. we will do that the next time we have a conversation. we wish you well on the recovery

trade, getting people back to the office. the world grappling with the post-covid economy. coming up, standard charter announcing share buybacks, warning that it's flat in terms of income for 2021. that's not an outlook the market is enjoying. ♪

annmarie: good morning. from bloomberg's headquarters in the city of london, i'm annmarie hordern, with manus cranny live from dubai. jay powell pushes back on inflation concerns. he says there is a long way to the recovery. u.s. regulators say johnson & johnson's single shot vaccine is safe, amid a very positive study

of pfizer and beyond tech's jab -- biontech's jab. manus, good morning. risk on when it comes to equities, but a quick data check because we have a very important guest waiting for us. manus: let's not keep andy waiting too long. asian equities flying higher despite the rise in yields. it is all very accessible at the moment, and there is a difference between inflation spiking and rolling down. cable is killing me, up an eighth of 1%. do it inside, otherwise the bond market will have you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. the standard chartered cfo is standing by.

they have warned the pandemic and lower interest rates will weigh on earnings this year. the bank says it sees little growth before recovery in 2022. stan chart coming shy of the analyst estimates. let's get to the ceo, andy halford. pray to have you with us. the market seems to be based on your flat income guidance. you say it is because of rates. when the growth comes, will it come from china? when will be growth return to these numbers? andy: good morning to you. let me address that. what we are seeing and have seen over the last year, notwithstanding everything that has been going on in the covid space is good mounting growth.

we think we will grow this year and after 2022. the reason why 2021 will be flat is because the interest rate reductions that occurred part way through last year will have to roll through over the balance of this year. the underlying process is just a correction of interest rates that will cause top lines to be flat. we are seeing the northern asia market being strongest. we are fortunate in terms of positioning there. the african and middle eastern markets are a step behind. we are actually quite well spread across continents. interest rates will hold us back for a year, but after 21, interest rates normalize and we are back to the normal levels of growth we saw before covid. annmarie: in recent months, you

resume hundreds of job cuts. you continue to look for savings. what is going to be the cost savings narrative for 2021? where are you going to be looking? andy: as with many businesses, we are having to look closely at our efficiency. we are looking closely at areas that have been changing because of covid. a lot of digitalization and a lot of investment we have put in over the last several years to make us more technology-capable. we have set for 2021 we expect our costs to be no more than $10 billion, a level we have been at for two or three years now. 2020 was slightly below that. constantly investing in technology gets you efficiency so that when the top line does not pick up, we've got a great engine underneath it to power is forward. manus: you're going to take $500

million of a restructuring charge primarily unloaded this year. to get these cost cuts through, it is going to mean more job cuts. you've got 85,000 employees. what percentage of that are you going to have to let go? andy: we have been focused upon the progressive rescaling of the business. that is a process that is going to continue going forward. we are constantly looking at things we can do with technology that may not need so much human involvement. equally, we are looking at areas that do need more human involvement. over a period of time, we will see the headcount gently coming down.

one of the things that is part of the restructuring charges we are talking about is the use of office space. over the last 12 months, we have only averaged 75% of our people worldwide working from home. that is actually the case out of today. that is a very high percentage compared to a year ago. as with a lot of businesses, we are looking, once people come back to work, at how much we could continue with. that means the office space we need will be reduced. annmarie: andy, a lot of banks are looking at that. this week, hsbc cutting their global footprint by 40%. how much are you going to cut in real estate around the world? andy: it would not surprise me if we are a third or thereabouts over the next four years or so.

it will not happen overnight, but i think we are looking at something of that sort of order over the next three to four years. manus: does that mean that you will pivot to the bill winters, the hub and spoke model? is that going to be how you reduce 30% of your office footprint? is that the way forward? andy: i am not quite sure what the bill winters hub and spoke model is, but i am sure that -- manus: forgive me, it was a story we wrote. my apologies. i should not assume you read everything on your bloomberg terminal. basically, you trim the offices, and if i am at standard charter, i get to work at a small satellite office near me. is that part of the thinking? andy: it is. people may want to work more at home.

we have an agreement with i wg, who has office space in many locations in which to operate. people can use those. we are looking at retail branches and seeing of some of those could be our facilities as well. giving people more flexibly as to where cash flow -- flex ibility as to where they go. annmarie: now that you are restarting the dividend, you join all the other british banks. what is the size and scale that we could see an increase in the dividends? andy: as with all banks in the u.k. last year, we had to halt dividends. we were also in the middle of doing a share buyback program, which was actually unusual amongst u.k. banks. what we have said today is that we are going to complete the buyback program, about half a

billion dollars to complete that, and we are going to pay a dividend of about a quarter of a billion dollars on top of that. as of today, it is half $1 billion paid back to shareholders. as the covid situation normalizes, we are focused on getting accounts built up, and any excess b have probably not be used within the business. hopefully we are now back into a more normal situation where shareholders can refinance and we will do a mixture of buybacks when the share price is relatively low. manus: strategy going forward, restructuring a bank is never easy, does private banking still sit in the standard chartered model? i know you have let some people go here, but others are scaling up their business.

does private banking and wealth management still really fit in your business model, or would you seek to, perhaps, divest yourself of that business? andy: no, we would not divest that part of the business. we see it being integral. we are a trade bank, and part of our activity is furthering corporate's but at least a third of our business involves individuals, and we see a combination of supporting people and businesses as being integrated. the private bank area is a growth area, particularly with all the money going into asia. we've got a good reputation there. we are still relatively quite small, but we see that as an opportunity. annmarie: i want to get your sense about the geopolitical risk in hong kong. it is one of your biggest players. are you seeing clients start to withdraw from the city?

andy: we are not, actually. there has been a lot of news about the whole situation there, but on the ground, i think people are much more sort of a watching mode. being philosophical about what is happening at the moment. activity levels have remained strong, and our results are a little bit low. that is because of the interest, not because of the volume of activity. we have seen good in our business in china, so we are fortunate that we have a 160 year presence in both hong kong and china and the greater bay area, which we have invested in and put more staff into it. the overall activity levels in that part of the world are holding up, notwithstanding some of the things that are going on at a higher geopolitical level. manus: it is never a financial

interview without a little bit of bitcoin, andy. you are not going to escape. where are you and the team on bitcoin when you look at it? how will you participate in cryptocurrencies, if at all, this year? andy: we have been investing selectively in some blockchain technologies and some crypto businesses. we are clear that the technology has a really interesting future. but as we all know, there are issues to go with it in terms of trustworthiness and they sort of things that actually, when you are dealing with money, are really important to take hold. we are essentially hedging bets. we are playing in that space. we will see where it goes, and if it does take off in a big way, we are well-positioned to do that.

it is a slow burn for reasons which are pretty apparent. annmarie: andrey halford -- andy halford, standard chartered cfo, thank you for your time. coming up, axa expects earnings to rebound in the coming year after profit took a hit from covid related claims. more details next with the ceo. ♪

manus: this is daybreak: europe. the earnings from axa, expecting an earnings rebound to come this year after profit was hit from covid-related claims in 2020. in an attempt to put a lid on a rough year, the company presented a new strategic plan. the insurer is now focused on its health business. thomas buberl is the ceo.

you talk about confidence. explain to the market where that is grounded and how it will drive a rebound. good morning. thomas: good morning. we were obviously hit last year by covid, due to the fact that we had to a significant claims, $1.5 billion. it was a year of high natural catastrophe. all of this is a one-time affect since we have re-underwritten the contracts and look forward to a year that is much better where we can focus on building our business and getting back to profit levels we have seen precrisis. annmarie: what have you seen in the first two months of 2021? is it a replay of 2020, or are you starting to see some optimism? thomas: in the last quarter of

2020, we are already seeing rebound. it has been strong in our preferred segment, the commercial business, and the health and protection business. we have had increases of 20% last year, in the last quarter 22%. this journey is continuing, and that gives me a lot of confidence that we can reap the benefits from this movement alongside the fact that we have re-underwritten all of our contracts in order to be much less exposed to covid-related risks. manus: one of the themes coming out of covid is going to be our desperation, i suppose, for protecting our health. you are banking on health. is there a pricing elasticity? are we so desperate to protect ourselves that pricing will endure at a higher level in health?

thomas: it is absolutely true. we have been pushing forward on health already for a very long time. it has become apparent that this was the right choice. we have done it in health insurance, but also in health service. we performed thousands of tele-consultations during the crisis, and the need for health has increased. during the whole pandemic so far, you have seen a very strong increase in demand, not so much an increase in price, and this is very much related to the fact that the health risk is today the number one risk. annmarie: speaking of health, in france you were supposed to offer pandemic insurance to the french government and insurers. when will be see that come to fruition? thomas: during the pandemic, it

became apparent that there was a new brisk that has been emerging, which is the risk of a pandemic that has not been covered by the contract so far. this requires a new solution, which is a solution that is a public-private partnership. as you can imagine, this is not always easy because you have to really develop a new insurance scheme. we have some ideas of how this could work because a similar scheme is already in place for natural catastrophes or terrorism. these discussions are going on, and i hope this year we will come to a new solution covering this risk, because it is very important that for our customers, for the society at large, we have a solution that addresses the risk of the pandemic. manus: i have been fortunate enough to have a vaccine. i have had two shots and i will hopefully travel later this year. will the insurance industry differentiate me against somebody else that has not had a vaccine?

in other words -- annmarie: like me? manus: will there be different policies? annmarie is stronger and younger. i am older. will there be a difference in pricing between annmarie and me? i have the shots, annmarie has not. thomas: the vaccine is a question of time. we are all waiting for the vaccine. it is a question of time until we can all have it, so this is a short period in which some people have the privilege of being vaccinated and others have not. i believe we are talking about a very few months, and this should not lead to a differentiation and risk. thomas: but what -- annmarie: but what about for those who do not want to take a vaccine? will they have to have approved for things like travel insurance? thomas: we will come to a

situation where international travel will heavily rely on vaccinations, and it is the right and privilege of every individual to decide what he or she is doing, are they going for a vaccine or not, and this will most likely come with some restrictions on international travel, but that is the choice of everybody to take individually. manus: you announced your strategic plan in december. what would you say has been the biggest process in that that we need to be aware of, thomas, before we let you go? thomas: in the strategic plan, we essentially continued our focus on health, continued our focus on growing the commercial plant business and growing in asia. what we have seen so far, you mentioned earlier that health has really grown a lot, so this is a very positive developments on which we really want to capture. secondly, asia has been one of the winning geographies of this crisis.

our very strong presence in asia is very important to us, and we really want to continue to develop based on those great developments. it is proven that post-covid, our strategic choices are the right ones, so we want to continue that journey with discipline. annmarie: thank you for that wide-ranging conversation. thomas buberl, access ceo. -- axa ceo. this is bloomberg. ♪

annmarie: just over an hour away from the start of european trading. manus, this is what we need to look out for today. we have eu leaders holding a two-day video summit, the first to include mario draghi. they will discuss travel restrictions and the bloc

vaccine efforts, which we know have been sluggish. manus: 1:30 pm u.k. time, we will get an update on the world's biggest economy. and a second reading on the u.s. fourth quarter gdp. talking about 7% this year. finally, we will hear from fed speakers. the atlanta fed president and the st. louis fed president, will they join powell in really pushing back on this inflation getting out of control? recovery is coming, annmarie. we got that message from andy halford, from thomas buberl. we have had those conversations. but abm sees recovery coming near term in 2021, 1 of the world's largest brewers. they will see returns to growth and sales this year as bars open.

june 2021, i know where you will be and perhaps most of the crew on this show. profits fell a little bit, but it is all about the recovery. from a glass of wine, cheeky pinot grigio, to a little bit of -- annmarie: some other good numbers coming for s.a.p., because they are raising their dividends for the full year to 1.85 a share. that represents year-over-year increase. it is good news, what we have seen today from a number of executives and on the earnings front. these are stocks we are going to be looking out for at 8:00 a.m. manus: there is a narrative here about dividends. you've got standard charter coming back with a buyback, and handy saying to us that the recovery will come when the risk market re-prices. that's where we've got to close off -- who will test the metal of jay powell and the fed, the bond market?

everybody is afraid of the bond market. annmarie: the markets at some point are going to have to start believing. we do have risk on today, futures higher, and we will go out on a beautiful shot of london. good morning. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> good morning. welcome to bloomberg markets: european open. markets say "rally on." futures gains on the prospect of a stronger recovery and continued support from jay powell at the fed. cash trade is just an hour away. powell pushes back on inflation concerns. he says the recovery has a long way to go.