prevention. the agency now says students can safely sit three feet apart in the classroom rather than six. previous recommendations for installing physical barriers in classrooms has been removed. the cdc is suggesting teachers and staff still maintain six feet of distance from everyone. countries across europe resume vaccinations with the astrazeneca shot today. leaders trying to reassure their populations it is safe following brief suspension over concerns of blood clots. the eu drug regulators assert it is safe and effective and it fell flat in the nordic region. sweden, denmark, norway will not use the astrazeneca shot until local authorities complete their own reviews. germany warning the country is in the grip of what it calls a third wave of rising rotavirus cases as europe tries to get the stalled vaccine program on track. the health minister warning

there will be challenging weeks ahead and there aren't enough supplies in your to hold the surge. the number of covid-19 cases in germany rose by the most in two months. top-level talks between the biden administration and china were bound to be confrontational. can the two sides find a way to cooperate? diplomats from the largest economies sized each other over everything from human rights to trade. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken accused china of undermining mobile stability. global news 24 hours a day, online and at quicktake on bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg.

amanda: welcome to bloomberg markets. matt kohler i'm matt miller -- matt: i'm matt miller. here are the top stories we are following. the spac boom has hit markets over the last year, but not many have been led by women. phyllis newhouse is looking to change that. she joins us to talk about her own spac that she launched this week. plus, my conversation with the ceo of porsche who tells me how the semi dr. shortage -- how the semiconductor shortage is affecting his company. bitcoin rising. we will speak with the ceo of where the largest and oldest bitcoin minors. amanda: that is one place we

have seen continued interest, even as bitcoin sells off. we do have support out there. the s&p 500 and positive territory. judging from the nasdaq, it is bouncing that tech is doing ok today. it is not the leading group. energy is strong, communication strong. the weakest spot our financials, would you might expect after a change from the federal reserve and jay powell's signal he would announce the change to the supplementary ratio. they were hoping for an extension on that. we are seeing some reaction, perhaps even though the steepness of the curve remains supportive of financials. we look at the sl of and it remains high eared a mixed -- sl f and it remains high. a mixed bag.

it is a correction that some might welcome, including those on the hunt for acquisitions, although spacs are looking for companies to acquire. phyllis newhouse is at the head of one of them and has raised $250 million for the purposes of cyber security. right to have you with us. phyllis: thank you for having me. amanda: let's just start with the opportunity you see out there and how quickly you feel compelled to move. what is your timeframe on identifying potential candidates? phyllis: we wanted to be prepared day one. we thought about this from a strategic point of view, how could we leverage the market and leverage our experience. so from day one we have targeted

looking across the industry and focus on fintech, and a focus on cybersecurity. when we decided on the team we wanted to come to market, we looked at the expertise in the industries that we focused on. we intend day one to hit the ground running and we hope we can make that great commendation happen soon. matt: i wonder what your experience has been like. you are also an army veteran, 22 years in the armed forces. how has that helped you in this space where really there are many women and there are no women of color. phyllis: having 22 years in the military, that experience paid off. in the military you learn to build things, organizations,

develop teams, mission focus. when i decided to do this spec, --spac, we had to be laser focused. over 22 years, you don't get out of the military after 22 years and be able to leverage that and have the opportunity to lead this. it is a tremendous opportunity for a lot of women coming on board and a lot are excited about this opportunity, because they have done these things in their perspective industries -- in their respective industries and now they are getting the chance to bring in a great company to market. amanda: you also have direct experience in the space. you know what kind of technologies you want and look for, but do you worry about valuation with what the market

has done in the past few months? phyllis: i don't worry about valuation, because there are a lot of companies out there that the spac is an alternative opportunity. i didn't really understand the nuances that were involved with the spac and the more that people are familiar with how this vehicle works, i think you are going to get some great companies that would be on anyone's radar. i think the valuations, you are going to see a lot, especially in technology and cyberspace, understanding that landscape create great opportunities that are not on other radars. matt: thanks so much for joining us phyllis newhouse, the ceo of athena technology acquisition corporation coming from the

floor of the new york stock exchange on the launch of her new blank check acquisition company. coming up, switching gears. the chip shortage making it difficult for everyone in the auto industry. the ceo of porsche will tell us how his company plans to troubleshoot this issue. i want to show you something we were talking about yesterday, the value of volkswagen which owns porsche ag, the carmaker shot of over this week. the value of the porsche family 's lynn company, did not rise with the volkswagen shares. yesterday we saw this huge premium and it has been coming back down. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is "bloomberg markets." the chip shortage forcing automakers to make changes. i spoke exclusively to aco today. >> -- two a ceo. >> capacity is to low for automotive and consumer electronics. it is troubleshooting day by day. we were able to be flexible but it is too early to predict. we have two have a plan day

today but we have to prepare for the future and have a clear idea of where the weak points are and the supply chain. matt: how many car sales have you missed out on because of the chip shortage? >> we haven't missed sales because of our flexibility. we can produce in the second half of the year and where we have to prioritize. the 9/11 which has held out -- the 911, which has held out, but we can switch. it is daily work. matt: the margins were amazing in the fourth quarter. what led to such high margins and what can you keep from that this year? >> in 2020, we were having an

innovative product portfolio and crisis management we started from the first day on when coronavirus came up with all the financial issues, costs, and liquidity. we are able to obtain a profit margin of 50%, over 4 billion euros. for this year we started perfectly in intake and deliveries. we are very optimistic what could happen this year. i think it could be possible to achieve 15% -- 50% profitability again. we have to watch deeply what is happening on the semiconductor

shortages and the coronavirus situation and the different regions of the world. matt: porsche has historically had high margins, even before becoming part of volkswagen. you are the most profitable carmaker in the world and then you worked with volkswagen at arms length, contracts on the chassis, body panels. why can't you work as an independent company, continue to earn margins like that begin evaluation that is more like a furry or tesla valuation? oliver: the work together with volkswagen is a win-win situation. porsche helps the volkswagen group by its very positive results and we have advantages of the scale effects.

i think besides the ipo, it doesn't have to be decided by the volkswagen group. it is not a topic for porsche. matt: that was my exclusive conversation with the ceo of porsche, oliver blume. amanda, i noticed aoc and elizabeth warren were proposing legislation to spend $500 billion of taxpayer money on clean public transportation, green public has rotation. i was thinking instead they could buy 5 million porsche 911s and create a lottery of sorts for every taxpayer, 140 million taxpayers in the u.s. and you have a chance to submit your filing to win a 911 and your

chance would be 120 hp what do you think of that idea? amanda: whenever anybody says taxpayer money they are telling you what they think about descending. what about all of those americans who don't want a porsche? in all seriousness, and by the way, matt, i think you like porsche and you are familiar with them, i think if you did all of your shows standing next to a car it would include the visual. that was a great shot of the ceo. are you on board with the electrification of that brand? it will have to be in their future, so get on board. matt: to be honest, i am on board with the electrification. i would get the station wagon

version, but it was interesting that he told me they want to be making an electric 911. it is not possible for that platform and it will state internal combustion. the next model, the generation, will come with a hybrid. i highly recommend you get one of those. coming up, institutional along retail investors have proven demand for bitcoin is still alive and well. how long will it last? we discussed with jaime leverton , the ceo of hut 8 mining corp. this is bloomberg. ♪

amanda: this is "bloomberg markets." another hit up of the bond market. at&t with another hit up in

three tranches. this is like the one that verizon did to finance a cushion to 5g. we have been watching the debt market being quite willing to swallow this up. also willing to swallow up bitcoin. i think you actually do and you are bitcoin believer. i don't own any bitcoin. i will confess that. here is a chart that shows just having 1% of your portfolio in btc. i just missed out. matt: that is if you just mix it in with a 60/40 portfolio. i love this chart. on the bloomberg terminal, i will say it is xbt, i will

say. i have not been able to find my password since i bought it back in 2013. i could definitely buy another porsche if i could find it. joining us to discuss bitcoin and mining is jaime leverton , she is the ceo hut 8 mining of hut 8 mining corporation. the first thing i want to ask is about the energy use. this is lately the number one complaint about bitcoin. they say the network has a huge carbon footprint. i was countered that the u.s. dollar has a big carbon footprint as well. how do you deal with it? jaime: it is such an interesting topic of conversation right now. i have been in the technology industry for over 20 years. this wasn't a conversation we had around cloud computing or

traditional data centers or managed services, all of which have a similar use of power. so i find it fascinating this conversation keeps coming around to bitcoin. bitcoin minors use whatever power is available in the focus is on the lowest cost power possible. in canada we have a ton of options for energy. our mining operations are loaded in alberta where we use a mix of natural gas and wind and the province of quebec is prominently hydropower. i think it is a conversation that certainly needs to evolve over time and doesn't accurately reflect how we talk about energy and other tech sectors. amanda: you are one of the

biggest minors of bitcoin. flesh out the future potential to run what analysts will say is that one of your challenges will be adding. how do you do that? jaime: it is done by bringing on more and more of the latest generation of equipment as well as building out your power infrastructure. we have a 109 megawatt actively in production today, and incredibly profitable time for bitcoin minors that have that kind of skill and capacity in production. we are proud to be one of the largest publicly traded minors with that kind of capacity today and always looking for new opportunities for expansion. matt: what kind of new opportunities for expansion? are you looking to set up more mining infrastructure or maybe

m&a? jaime: i am looking at all opportunities for expansion and when i finalized you will be able to read about it. matt: or you could just tell us. jaime: you know i cannot tell you and i will not tell you no matter how polite you are in asking. amanda: tell me this, because matt jokes about it but makes you want to cry that he has a bitcoin account and he can't unlock it and it is just rising in the value. that is one of the weaknesses is that is -- it is still a strange part of the world. btc has taken off and others have done well. how do you make them part of the regular banks or idiot proof, no offense matt. jaime: we are publicly traded.

we also trade over-the-counter in the united states. we were the 11th most actively traded stock otc last year. we trade as a normal equity and we give that exposure to bitcoin as a normal equity. bitcoin mining stocks such as ours are a great way to get exposure to bitcoin but as a traditional equity. the other comments i wanted to make amanda, you said you have fomo, but we are in the first inning of where bitcoin will be. both put yourself in a situation where you missed the whole ride. matt: there is still time. jaime: exactly. it is still early. matt: what is your target? do you think end of 2021, 2022?

where do you think it is going? jaime: i think certainly 100 k is the minimum i think it is going to, but that is my personal view. matt: in the 2021. we will have you back again. for amanda lang, i met miller. -- i am matt miller. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: a dozen u.s. dates are

expanding access to code vaccinations earlier than planned for every adult. that will speed up the rollout and makes -- strides toward the deadline for eligibility. the united states will pass a 100 million vaccine does today, six weeks ahead of schedule. white house says the president plans to nominate senator bill nason -- nelson to lead nasa. he was defeated in 2018 by former governor rick scott. if confirmed, he would take over nasa as it prepares for a series of missions that aim to return american astronauts to the moon. a move in texas to wipe out or than $4 billion worth of electricity overcharges from last month blackouts appears to be dead in the water after deeply divided lawmakers left town without taking final action on the proposal. it is a blow to retail

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