rubble of a partial apartment building collapse in surfside. that brings the official number of people who died to 16. the collapse happened a week ago. >> when we got the news on thursday morning, i had a couple of messages from people from argentina saying how can we help ? so we started helping. we brought some water and gatorade and we started with that and people started coming in helping. this renews hope in humanity, when you see people and people who have no idea who they are, they show up and say how can i help? mark: president and misses biden are set to schedule -- are scheduled to travel to surfside. kim jong-un has hinted that a coronavirus risk could affect his rule and the regime has long

denied that north korea has had any infections. state run media is not providing any details. north korea has taken drastic quarantine steps that made its economic prices -- crisis work. as david westin told us moments ago, pennsylvania's highest court overturned bill cosby sexual assault convict men after finding that the previous prosecutor prevented him from in charge. he has served more than two years of his 10 year sentence in a state prison in philadelphia. he would rather -- he has expressed that he would serve all 10 years than expressed remorse. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries.

i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. >> x 1:00 p.m. in new york, 7:00 in berlin and 1:00 a.m. in hong kong. i am matt miller, welcome to bloomberg markets. here's what we are following. wall street returned to office. why some firms are choosing to keep flexible work options for employees while others are requiring employees to come back for the whole week. and we will discuss the latest on the u.s. housing market and real estate tech. the founder of modern venture will have the latest on covid with dr. howard who is now working on the phase two trial for the covid-19 treatment in brazil, but also looking at treatments for alzheimer's disease. let's take a quick check out what's going on in the markets. we do see the s&p 500 rising as

we close. it's 1/10 of a percent higher. not even. but it would be another all-time record. the u.s. 10 year yield is coming down below 145, trading at 144. the chart of the yen is shocking. the u.s. dollar is now more than ¥111, just jumping up. the dollar is up against most currencies. but it's more dramatic against the yen. bitcoin is coming down. the trading is still at $34,188. another billionaire cofounder of thoma bravo's started -- striking a different tone when it comes to wall street employees returning to work. he tells eric that he is relishing the new reality of flexible work, less travel, and

dealmaking by noon. >> individuals proved that companies together collaborating have proved that you can work from home very well. giving colleagues more choices to improve their work life and their personal life is here to stay. matt: citigroup also announcing that it's joining rivals like ubs in allowing flexible work policies. for the return to office debate we have sally. what are we seeing, two sides? one side likes city -- one side says flexible is the way to do it and then goldman sachs says you have to come back. sally: yes and there's an interesting divide opening up. and what's more interesting i think of the consequences of this divide. as we saw, those who take the more flexible approach, will

they gain an edge in retaining talent? because people have proven they can work flexibly and are hoping to. that could be an actual hiring tool for those who can offer that. all bank ceos tend to agree that working in an office is important for competitiveness and measure touring younger employees and collaboration and working from home is good for performance. but they are also coming down in these two different camps on how they react and whether to bring people back. with citigroup the plan is to open their offices to as much as 30% of staff with the majority being invited to work. matt: if i can work from home, my home would probably in the british virgin islands that that's not the kind of situation we are talking about for citigroup and others who have chosen this flexible model. you do occasionally pop into the

office and probably one of the urban financial centers. sally: i think so. as you said, we do have goldman sachs which is taking a much more hard-line approach, requiring almost all u.s. employees to be back as well as jp morgan and morgan stanley has mandated vaccines because it wants staff back in september. but you also have synchrony financial which says he cannot come and work five days a week. you can find a virtual hub or work from home but you are not allowed in the office five days a week. matt: does it seem like employees want -- would prefer the flexible solution? the covid lockdown situation was very stressful for a lot of people will. especially people with children and lower income people. but bankers probably found life less stressful with fewer trips to the airport and a much nicer

office located a lot closer to their own kitchen. sally: for they found themselves working longer hours because that line at work from home is blurred. i think we all found that. it would be interesting to see whether companies that can offer more flexible work and up having more leverage when it comes to hiring people and if we see in september when a lot of banks are convalescing around wanting people to come back around that time, whether there would be some sort of attrition away from those who have taken a hard line towards those with a more flexible style. matt: thank you, that's bloomberg's sally bakewell talking about the office -- the debate on return to the office are more flexible future. coming up, home sales jumped. a lot of people wanted to upgrade their offices and prices are higher and you can discuss

-- and you can find fewer of them. we are talking real estate tech with our founder it -- with a founder. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

matt: this is bloomberg: markets. i am matt miller. home sales increased by the most in nearly a year, coming after data showing housing prices jumped by the most in 30 years, more than. for more on housing and real estate tech companies that are driving the industry, we welcome constance freeman. focused on investing in to knology companies in and around the multitrillion dollar industry of real estate, mortgage, finance.

what an unbelievable situation. not just in the u.s.. but also the u.k. and canada. we are seeing prices i rocket in the inventory not keeping up. why is this happening? is this due to the pandemic? >> it's crazy. if you asked me year ago i don't know if my crystal ball would've chosen this. but there is a lot to be said about the pandemic. a lot of the economists expected that this might have been more pre-pandemic, quote unquote normal. and last year it went crazy because people realized they did not want to be stay-at-home in their 2 x 2 apartments with all four family members at home. they wanted bigger spaces. they wanted to have more outdoor

spaces that's not including that trend. that also created a catalyst for the millennials. people have said that millennials will never buy a home, they will rent forever. i always said that until they have kids. and when that happens they will. that was cataloged by the pandemic as well. we are seeing it grow. and not stop anytime soon. matt: 20 started to have kids, living in your mom's garage makes less sense. what are the companies that you are investing in that could make this crunch a little easier for americans, earthlings that are facing this global issue. -- issue? constance: there's a number of

them. we are invested in about a hundred companies. one of them that i will talk about now, it's funny you said earthlings because they are helping martians as well. it's a company called icon, a 3d printing company. one of the other trends is that there's about 6 million homes with 10 years of demand that has not been met by new construction. this has included those issues we have had with supplies and other things. what i'd conned as a 3d print homes at scale. it's about 60% lower, 40% to 60% lower than a traditional home build. they can build in about 24 hours. it's pretty revolutionary for new homebuilding. they are not only printing here on earth, but they are doing simulated habitats on the moon and mars. it's a very interesting company to watch.

matt: nasa give them a contract for a lunar base, right? constance: that's right. terrestrial and extraterrestrial. but also here on earth, we also have better mortgage which helps makes the mortgage process easier and helps people obtain great rates. as well as homeowners insurance there's a company called super. the mantra is to make homeownership as easy as renting . we think about this when we go buy a home in the technologies that do at. and once they live in the home, one of the companies making that easier? that's everything from -- which is helping to get new furniture, anything to the supply chain issues we have had, this is the way of finding -- and getting

hadn't -- furniture and getting it immediately. this is -- and companies that provide the ability to purchase new homes. we have a company called easy map which is providing liquidity to homeowners without requiring them to move out of their homes to get it. there's a lot of tools and technologies out there that can help in every step of that process. matt: i imagine on the shadow banking side there's a lot to be done. mortgages and such. do you see a lot of growth? constance: we sure do. this is certainly one of those. the other thing we think a lot about us once you're in a home, what about financial help of making sure that she could be able to continue to afford that home? we recently brought in a company and folio called moto refi. it's digitizing auto refinancing the same way that -- did with

mortgage. it has allowed consumers to save $100 a month in their auto loans. that makes more disposable income and a lot of people are getting stretched in the homes they are buying. this helps alleviate that financial stress people have as well. matt: the issue of working from home has been a big one. lots of people are going to continue that. and we hear they work, work, work all the time when they are home area have you invested in companies that help will for example find a nanny, a cleaning service, that butler you always wanted? i imagine that the gig economy will help provide a lot of that? constance: a couple of things. we had a company that does exactly what you just said. they provide hospitality

services in a residential space. everything from finding that nanny to cleaning up once a month or once a week to doing those chores that can give you a little time back in your life. that's a great one. we have a company called scorch which provides a lot of temporary home services. you talked about the gig economy. one of the things that we saw is that there are more people than ever that are not covered by employee benefits. so we have recently invested in a company called stride, it's an online platform that really helps gig economy workers get the health, dental, vision, life insurance, tax health -- tax help, which might be easier under an employer umbrella but harder for a contractor. matt: very informative and

fascinating. constance of modern ventures talking about her and asked in and around the housing industry. quick headlines to share, the fed reverse repo facility, we talked about these all-time records climbing and this has hit another record, $992 billion is the latest amount -- the latest count for overnight cash as the fed reverse repo facility. just unbelievable. this goes back to 2015. if you take it back as long as you like you will never see a spike -- this is like al gore's hockey stick from the old climate change movie. it's alarming. a programming note, bloomberg's annual broadcast of the boston pops and the fourth of july spectacular has an 8:00 eastern on sunday night. it's always great fun with the

boston symphony orchestra. this is bloomberg. .

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i am matt miller. something that caught my eye, bloomberg news has learned that airy management is getting into formula one. it's part of the more than $1 billion investment in sports related operating. they are making a minority investment into mclaren racing, one of the most famous team of all times. the first time the firm has invested in formula one. this is part of an array of

investments in sports where people are investing in everything from baseball to hockey to mma. and of course the billionaire chairman and cofounder is also the principal owner of the atlanta hawks. time now for our stock of the hour. virgin galactic surged after the faa approved passenger flights to space. today the space travel company got its first analyst sell rating. dave wilkins has the details. >> bank of america has decided to cut its rating on the space origin company by two notches, not just one. they have requested that -- recommended that clients by the share. but now it has an underperform rating. this has been quite the swing for the stock in the past week or so. the shares have jumped about 39% on friday. that's after the company received u.s. clearance to fly passengers and you they have

about 2% on monday, 14% yesterday. today the shares were down as 8.4% before they rebounded area they gained back all of the gains that followed these decisions by the federal aviation administration. now you have a decision by bank of america to back away from the stock. the argument is really a matter of competitive positions. the way that bma has figured it there will be more companies giving space tours and business, going public. that's going to mean that investors will not be selling on virgin galactic. so that valuation will come down. >> has it gotten a fair amount of paying customers? i know that elon musk says that starling has 69,000 420 users -- 69,000 plus users. can virgin galactic keep up if

they don't get compliance? >> that becomes a challenge. it's not like the ward jen -- blue origin, where someone pays millions of dollars already to go to space. the ideas that the founder of virgin and therefore virgin galactic will be one of the first ones up. this is a stock that investors have been betting against. if you look at the short interest, more than 22% of the share in the company bought and sold, that attracts amateur traders. and we have certainly seen virgin galactic over the past several months pop up as a meme stock. you have to figure that in. but in terms of their ability to keep going it really comes down to cash on hand. but of course that's falling, quarter by quarter, as the company spends money to get ready for its paying passengers. we have analysts estimating that it will be down about $40

million this quarter to 567. at some point they could start generating revenue and that's where things get interesting. certainly bank of america is looking at that. matt: or the reddit crew could boost the stock to unimaginable levels and hold a secondary offering. that would work out to. >> anything is possible. we saw that with amc entertainment and gamestop. it's really whether virgin galactic can keep up the support they have had with smaller traders on reddit or wherever. it could be away for the company to deal with its financing needs that they have to get to the point where they decide they want more cash. it will be something to watch. especially with analysts backing away. matt: you mentioned blue origin,

jeff bezos is going to space with his brother and some rando do they have the faa of all? >> bezos has said july 20 is when we are going up. the anniversary of the moon landing by apollo 11. that's a competitive situation that virgin galactic is in. blue origin could go public one of these days. that becomes an alternative for investors who want to bet on the business. that is something to figure into the mix. matt: the election moon landing. dave wilson. thank you. talking to us about virgin galactic. this is bloomberg. ♪

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mark: i am mark come to the bloomberg's first word news. pennsylvania's highest court today overturned bill cosby's conviction after finding an agreement with the previous prosecutor prevented cosby from being charged in the case. cosby has served more than two years of a three to 10 year sentence at a state prison near philadelphia. he had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser andrea. the trump and chief financial officer alan weisel berg will be indicted tomorrow. the attorney's office is to discharge the company and ceo with tax related crimes. these be the first criminal charges since an investigation began three years ago. the former president is not

expected to be charged. president biden reportedly is planning an executive order that would rein in the power of big business. according to the wall street journal, the order would write regulators to tighten up oversight of industries they think are dominated by a small number of companies. the action would most likely be challenged in court. as u.s. troops continued to withdraw from afghanistan, announcements indicate a majority of european troops have now left the country. there was no immediate update from nato on how many nations still have troops in its resolute support mission. germany has announced the end of its nearly 20 year deployment in afghanistan, three transport aircraft landed in german airbase today. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg.

>> i am amber, welcome to bloomberg markets. matt: welcome our bloomberg audiences this hour. here on the top stories we are following for you from around the world. hertz says bye-bye to bankruptcy as retail traders ring the company back from the brink. plus, expose of conversation with the foreign minister of spain. and we will have the latest on covid with dr. howard weiner of to see anna -- tiziana lifesciences. plus, working on alzheimer's treatments. amber: it ends with a whimper,

not a bang. that is the second quarter of the year. the first half of the year motes take a look at the major markets. the s&p is waffling here, but it would be a record high if it closed at these levels, even if it is by the slowest of margins. they are closing at a quarter that will see the nasdaq take back the leadership position as recently we have seen a resurgence in those texts -- tech stocks. that is what is going on right now. for what it's worth, we also developments it comes to those retail traders on the robinhood platform. robinhood being hit with a record $70 million fine by their regulator of u.s. brokerages. this is tied to a bunch of different things. a sickly, alleging that they misled millions of customers, had assets tied to the march 2020 outage and let thousands of client trade options that should not have been doing so.

when they said you can do it, all those people had to do was change a few things, lie about their experience, and lo and behold, they could trade options. matt: not everybody is allowed in the casino. $70 million fine still pales in comparison to what robinhood makes. they had three to $30 million in revenue in the first quarter alone. of course, they do not admit nor deny the allegations of the regulator. amber: absolutely. it remains to be see whether this will affect their ability to attract some of these retail investors who have come flooding into the market. we have certainly seen that in a big way with hertz. you mentioned that at the top of the show. hertz is back, emerges from bankruptcy and quickly becoming a reddit retail darling. let's bring in katherine doherty

for more on that story. katherine: said today marks a big moment for hertz. last year, we were in the peak of the pandemic when the company didn't have any other choice but to file chapter 11. they ended up having to sell off a lot of their used cars and use the cash tip back lenders and keep operating. today, over one year later, they are emerging from the process and the shares will start to trade. the investors that were betting on this company are coming out on top, which is a rarity in chapter 11. usually, debtholders are the first to get paid out in shareholders get nothing. but in this case, we have seen value that is going back to shareholders. matt: used car prices have gone up, so that helps. this is a historic company. the hertz car i think of is a 1966 mustang come in those go

for quarter of a million dollars if you can find one today. that was a rental car back then. but the real way that hurts came back from the brink was the reddit traders bidding up the shares. they wouldn't have been able to do it if you didn't have wall street bad's boosting the market cap of this company. katherine: there were a number of factors that help this company. i would say to the shareholders, sure, they were cheerleaders. they bet on the company. but there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes that actually had to do with the business and what hurts -- hertz represents to the customer that help them get their bankruptcy not only succeed, but excel. we saw the chip shortage that caused the price of used cars to go up. we also saw the rebound in travel. folks were starting to go to rentals to take vacations if

they could take a vacation. if you were just driving from one place to another, you weren't getting on planes. a lot of people were going to companies like hertz, all of these into car companies benefited from the rebound that we started to see. that was about one year ago. it continued on. i would say that these retail traders might have felt that optimism and bet on the company and its resurgence, but i wouldn't say that the reason for hertz getting to this and coming out on top is simple because of them. amber: i still can't get over the juxtaposition of the retail investors getting perhaps this trade right at a time -- around this time last year, basically called it quits on hertz and dump his entire state. katherine: there were multiple times during his bankruptcy case that the company was telling its stakeholders and shareholders you are likely to get wiped out

in this case. this is not unusual, it is the norm in bankruptcy. instead, we saw the shares continue to surge. we saw a reddit boards that were discussing the company in a very optimistic way. they refused to give up, and now you are seeing that ended up being the winning bet. these shares are going to open, we had analysts value them around $14 a share. when the shares were trading at five dollars about one year ago, that was seen as a very unusual, if not bad trade based on the fact that the chairs should have been -- shares should have been under the bankruptcy plan, valued as worthless. matt: this is why it's great to get intelligence from bloomberg reporters gathering intelligence for us. katherine doherty on hertz.

coming up, and exclusive conversation with foreign minister spain. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. travelers coming from the u.k. and going to spain laughed either certify full vaccination or provide a negative test for covid-19. that makes sense. we spoke earlier with the spanish minister of foreign affairs about the outlook for international travel, the delta variant, and more. >> the u.k. was the exception in

europe that we were not asking from the u.k. citizens but we were asking from european citizens. it was due to the fact that the incidence of cobit in the u.k. was very low. but as incidences have increased, what we are doing is aligning the u.k. citizens with the same requirements the ask from other european union citizens. full vaccination, negative test, they can enter spain. obviously, coming to spain also depends on the rules that the u.k. has. they have the green left, this means that when u.k. citizens visit the valley -- the islands, they don't need to quarantine they go back. the rest of spain is still in amber. what we hope is that the numbers and the incidences of covid in spain allow the rest of us to move into the green so that

better citizens who love spain so much, but also the spaniards who love british citizens can enjoy the experience. >> in terms of the delta variant, i guess that's the number one concern. it is a tricky balance between wanting to be careful but not be too careful to the extent that it becomes detrimental. how are you going to handle that as a government of spain? arancha: it is important to note that people who are fully vaccinated with the two doses, to are required come are well protected against the delta variant. that is the first thing to note. the most important thing is to proceed with vaccination in spain and to require vaccination from those visitors who want to enter the country. number two is to keep track and control of how the variant evolves in the country. we are sequencing variants in

order to abstain the prevalence. for now, extremely low. but we will continue to sequence and to pay a lot of attention to ensure we know and can respond. the best we have at the moment is to continue vaccinating, which is why the spanish government is putting such a premium on vaccination at the moment. let me tell you one thing. this is important for the viewers. it is bloomberg itself that put spain at number six in the world in terms of good management of the transition to normalization. number six in the world. that is on the basis of resilience, vaccination, and how we are managing mobility. it shows we are moving in the right direction, hence hope. that is the name of the game in spain. maria: in terms of vaccination, i wonder if you have new data in terms of targets.

i know you said by the end of july, we will get to herd immunity. the numbers so far have improved. when do we get to that point? arancha: that is our destination, and we want to keep to that. we want to have herd immunity by the end of july, beginning of august. with the numbers as they are moving at the moment, with the speed of vaccination in every region of spain, i'm sure we will get there. amber: that is arancha gonzalez laya, the spanish foreign minister. you heard them talking about the importance of vaccines when it comes to getting back to normal, but what about treatments? we are talking to a physician who is spearheading the development of covid-19 treatment now entering another phase of trials in brazil. join us with dr. howard weiner who will be our guest. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. shares in moderna hit a record high today after reporting its vaccine produced protective antibodies against the delta variant of covid-19. i spoke earlier with the chairman and cofounder as part of bloomberg's new economy catalyst event. >> the good news is that the technology is poised to be able to react. is some thing really bad starts appearing, it is going to take years and years to react. we were sure we could do this in

months, even again in a shorter. of time if we all stay vigilant and coordinated. matt: another company working in the fight against covid-19 and many other diseases is under dr. howard weiner. thanks for your time. let's start with the delta variant because it is so prevalent in the news and unfortunately prevalent in many countries that have done so well with vaccinations. why is it coming back to haunt the u.k., israel, in the u.s. midwest? dr. weiner: the delta variant is a different type of the coronavirus. it can start up in people in a way that the others couldn't. what we are working on is not directed specifically at the type of strain, but what happens

in the body and immune system after the strain is there. so there is a nasal spray we are working on, we work on the delta variant, we work on any type of strain of coronavirus. amber: i am going to caveat this question by saying i dropped out of sciences in the middle of high school, so my knowledge is significantly below what yours is. but i'm curious about how you tackle this problem in a disease that either has no effect or in -- on or cap all kinds of effects that we are just learning about. how do you decide how you're going to approach dealing with such a wide range of symptoms? dr. weiner: the coronavirus has two stages. one stages when the virus comes in and attacks people, the other stages when it is in the body and causing symptoms. that is the approach we take.

when it is in the body and causing symptoms, the immune system is out of control. we are attacking the immune system, modulating the immune system it is out of control to calm down the disease. matt: what can you do that is an improvement on the current treatments that are out there? dr. weiner: most of the current treatments relate to preventing the infection. we improve on it because our treatment deals with the second stage of the disease where the immune system is involved and thus our treatment could affect any person with any type of coronavirus it could also be given at home. amber: you do a lot of work in alzheimer's, and as we are beginning to understand the neurological effects of covid-19

for the so-called long-haulers, is there cross over there between some of the work you have been doing long-established how you are applying it to this treatment? dr. weiner: that is a great question, and the exciting thing is that with the treatment we are doing actually applies to alzheimer's. how in the world could apply? alzheimer's, you have a form of inflammation in the brain. that inflammation causes damage, it is a certain cell. the nasal spray that we give dampens the inflammation in the brain and alzheimer's just like it dampens the inflammation that occurs in covid. it has brought up the ability -- applicability. one of the major causes of disease is inflammation of the brain, inflammation in the lungs, inflammation in the gut. our aims at tackling -- our up

which -- our approach aims at tackling the situation. we are hoping to try it in patients with alzheimer's soon. matt: how effectively do you think will be able to treat alzheimer's disease in the next five to 10 years? dr. weiner: that's a good question. the drug was just approved, which tackles it. we are doing is tackling the cells in the brain. i think we are on the verge of breakthroughs and being able to treat alzheimer's and a better way. what i'm excited about with the nasal spray, the nasal vaccine we are developing, is it can treat different stages of alzheimer's, it can be used in combination therapy with other drugs and it attacks the brain inflammation in the brain.

amber: i'm curious about what that means when you are talking about trading it, because it is a devastating disease that affects so many. are you talking about delaying the onset of symptoms, making sure they are not as severe or perhaps reversing some of the symptoms? what constitutes success when talking about a breakthrough in the next five to 10 years? dr. weiner: i think a success -- the ultimate success is helping cognition in people. i think we could have success in two areas. one area is treating people who don't have the symptoms yet but have the amyloid in the brain and making clear that amyloid. the second is people who already have symptoms and have the disease. can slow down the disease and maybe even stop it. we have to test it, but the nasal spray we are working on

can work in more than one stage. the other thing i would say, and we talked about covid and we talked alzheimer's, is it because the immune system is so important in different diseases, we are now testing this nasal spray in patients with aggressive ms, we are treating a patient here at our hospital, it can also be used in als, crohn's disease, it has white applicability. -- wide applicable at -- up early -- applicability. matt: thank you for your time and work. dr. howard weiner of tiziana lifesciences. i am matt miller, this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: on the day before vaccine passports go live in the european union, arancha gonzalez laya spain's forest minister -- foreign minister talk with bloomberg about how food strain identified in india is affecting policy. >> let's say the u.k. was the exception in europe and that we were not asking from the u.k. citizens what we were asking for other european citizens. it was due to the fact that the incidences of covid in the u.k. was low. but as incidences in the u.k. have increased and we have seen numbers soar, what we are doing is aligning the u.k. citizens with the same requirements we ask from other european citizens. mark: