his family says he died today due to complications from covid-19. they also say he was being treated at walter reed national medical center. he was born in harlem to jamaican immigrants. he served in public office for four decades. he was 84 years old. more than a billion covid vaccine doses have been sent to more than 150 countries in the last 10 months. the eu and u.s. are delivering doses to low and middle income countries and will rally a group of 20 leaders around the effort later this month. the eu committed to donated 500 million doses to vulnerable countries in coming months. china is seeing a new cluster of covid cases in northwestern provinces.

eight new infections have been detected since sunday. the resurgence as in traced to retired university lecturers from shanghai. a property slump and an energy crisis have delivered a big blow to china's gdp growth. gdp expanded 4.9% from a year earlier down from 7.9% in the previous quarter. there are signs that will be more pain to come as the country heads into winter and property curbs remain. it is not rushing to stimulate the economy suggesting growth may continue to slow. global news 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg.

matt: i'm matt miller. welcome to bloomberg markets. here the top stories from around the world. we will bring you updates throughout the hour from apple's unleased event where the iphone maker is expected to reveal its long-awaited redesign of the macbook pro that uses its own in-house chip. we will go live to the health conference underway in boston and speak to the ceo of good rx about the cost of lowering prescription drugs. and we will talk to the ceo of the crypto firm going public on the new york stock exchange about the launch of the first u.s. bitcoin futures and what

this means for institutional adoption of bitcoin with the cost of crypto on the rise. you can see the s&p 500 is now up. it had been down earlier. you can also see that the u.s. 10 year yield is up. this is true at the shorter end of your curve. the sovereign bond column is packed with black boxes. they are all too years across the globe. brent was up over $86 a barrel. it's now trading down. bitcoin trading just under 62,000.

i want to get to the flattening treasury curve. the gap shrunk to as little as 84.5 basis points. it's not just movement at the lower end. playing into this equation is growing expectation that the fed will have to lift policy rates as soon as next year. scott teal says the bond market is getting it wrong on the path of rate hikes. >> we are calling for yields to continue to rise believe the hiking path will be relatively shallow all things considered. market is trying to figure out whether policymakers will lean

against. there is too much for 2022. matt: it felt real seachange in terms of yield, in terms of the curve and if the market is getting it wrong you think as well, maybe got an edge in this environment. let's turn to apple's unleased conference. the company is expected to date it's high-end macbook pro laptops the first redesign in five years. it's also going to use their own in-house apple designed chips. let's discuss with our own opinion columnists. what kind of difference is it going to make with apple using their own chips? the ceo of philips said their problems boil down to chip and ships.

does the fact that these are designed in-house make any difference in terms of supply chain? >> when you look at folks rounding out the portfolio and the reasons people are upgrading their laptop, certainly when you put this performance and place it appeals to gamers and others i would call early adopters and those willing to spend money. matt: what do you expect apple to release and how important it is the first redesign in five years? >> it is a big deal especially for creative professionals. this is the first time they're going to revamp their high-end laptops. and creative professionals have been starving to get the new

chips that apple designed in-house are much better than in-house. for the high-end professional user this is a huge event. matt: how big is that market? i am a gamer that i'm a much more normal xbox playstation kind of gamer. i'm fine with the macbook pro that i bought five or six years ago. it's good enough. how big is the market for people for whom it is not? >> it's because you are not 13 years old. i think there's a few things to look at. consumer outlook is still strong. we still have more than half of consumers that plan to keep spending at current levels and we look at the categories they are spending on it's still very strong for enhancing my life at home because most of us still

expect to be at home for a while. there is strong demand. i data shows that 19% of those who have bought a computer have bought apple. when we look at the enterprise side we are expecting to see about 1% growth in 2022. matt: a lot are theory focused which makes it immediately not that important. siri integration for apple music and a syria only apple music subscription that would be cheaper. they're talking about new-home pods as well in different colors. what should we make of these headlines? what does siri have to do with my apple music?

>> when they start off the product events they do these low hanging fruit. expect them to talk about the map pros later on. like you said, i wouldn't read too much into the siri headline. matt: tell me this, what is a touch bar? >> five years ago they put a virtual touch bar and took out the physical function keys on top of the macbook pros and according to my colleague, they are going to take the touch bar away and replace it with physical keys again. it's an innovation they put in these met pros a few years ago and they are putting back the physical function keys we are all used to. matt: i'm old enough to remember when apple was the first phone mayor kurt to take away almost all physical keys. now everyone does it that way. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

what are the new innovations that people really want to see from apple or am i wrong to ask it that way? steve jobs famously said that apple was going to tell the people themselves what they need. >> i think that is still accurate. if you ask consumers what they want their next computer or phone to do, you're going to get a lot of, but i have is pretty good. things around power and brightness and image are always going to well consumers. speed is going to always be really important to gamers. a lot of the innovation in the future is driven by machine learning and ai and there's a thousand things these laptops are going to do to make the

experience better that a consumer can't pinpoint. they're not going to say, i would like spellcheck to be a little bit better or i would like this icon to be little bit writer. i think steve jobs is right. it's all about making consumers say well, i have to have that. matt: thank you for joining us to talk about apple. we will continue to cover this event as these headlines continue to come across the bloomberg terminal. coming up, we are going to go live to the health conference in boston to speak to the co-ceo and cofounder of got rx on how his company is trying to lower drug prices. that's next. this is bloomberg.

♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. the health 2021 conference rings together senior leaders to solve health's most pressing problems especially the drug pricing issue. joining us now is doug hirsch from the conference in boston. of the big catalysts for so many industries over the last couple years has been the pandemic and i'm wondering it doesn't necessarily affect drug pricing -- as covid changed the way your

business works? >> a lot of people couldn't get to the doctor. i think it really turbocharged telehealth. they couldn't get to the pharmacy. and of course really trying to prove access. good rx has a service that really blew up over the course of the pandemic. matt: i could see him telling visits would lower cost substantially for everybody in the industry. in terms of the price of the actual pills, it doesn't seem like it would make a dent in it.

mail-order makes more sense to me. what do you see on the cusp of changing prices for drugs? >> i don't think the pandemic impacted the cost of jet -- doves. -- drugs. the full price of drugs can be hundreds of dollars for something that should cost five dollars. work good rx really exploded is that people had some sort of coverage change and they were left holding the bag. that's really where we play is either a disruption or a consumer who has insurance. their finding gaps in care and just really need help so that's what we do.

matt: what kind of growth have you made during the pandemic? you have made some acquisitions that get you into the faster growing side of the business. >> in q2 we had record revenue and record users that were 20 million people a month. we have $30 billion in savings and we are seeing growth where 19 of the top 20 drug manufacturers partner with that rx and we just launched good rx health which is an educational resource. really trying to help consumers throughout the health care journey. we are pushing on all cylinders because americans have never needed more help than now. the other huge problem in this country is unaffordable unattainable here for people

matt: our people continuing to use telehealth? are they continuing to zoom into doctors even as we see lockdowns lifted? >> telehealth exploded over the course of the pandemic. for primary care that was the only option for many months for most americans. i think we are seeing some receding of the telehealth momentum. people do like seeing doctors in person. for certain conditions we have seen a permanent change. when i can see a therapist over zoom that's a perfectly good experience. care management you're seeing a lot more permanent moves to telehealth. i think people enjoy the experience when they can see a doctor. i think the way of to some extent is receding. people do like to see providers

and have a consistent relationship with the provider in person when possible. matt: here in germany we never pay very much for the actual drugs that we get. i sometimes feel like americans are subsidizing pills for the rest of the world paying such exorbitant prices. how could that ever change? >> we are going to need wholesale change to fix the pricing max -- mess that is this country. i have a drug in my bag that cost $5,000 that is maybe five dollars in germany. the people that pay the price are the consumers who choose to simply not pick up the drug. and up in the emergency room and the downstream costs are so great. consumers need to change their behavior and do more homework.

industry as well needs to be more upcoming with more information so consumers can make those choices. we are going to be there to connect all those constituents to find the best prices and convenience for consumers. matt: doug hirsch is the cofounder and co-ceo at that rx joining us from the health 2021 conference on boston. three swedish industrial giants are coming together to solve the problem of steelmaking and global carbon emissions. it's a process that hasn't changed for like a century. we will talk about it next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. the world's steelmakers need a makeover when it comes to carbon

emission and now three swedish industrial giants are coming together to produce the world's first fossil free steel. >> steel production is one of the most polluting industries of the world. accounting for about 7% of the world's carbon emissions. now, three swedish industrial companies are joining forces for change. i'm in northern sweden close to the arctic circle. this is where three industrial giants have formed a partnership to set up the first fossil free value change to produce green steel. this site is the entrance to a hydrogen -- which will be vital in this venture.

>> we are standing in hydrogen storage. >> key part of the venture is to develop hydrogen storage for fuel for the production process. >> hydrogen if used in the process replacing coal, by using hydrogen from fossil free electricity instead of coal, we remove the source of emissions from this process. >> a couple of weeks ago we were able to produce the first fossil free steel in the world. >> a gas tank of 100 cubic meters will be built inside this rock cavern to store hydrogen. if testing is successful, they could make it a thousand times bigger on an industrial scale.

>> this is the product when you reduce it with hydrogen instead of using coal where you get water as the byproduct. this is of raw material where you're supposed to melt this. from there, you can feel that you rollout for you have an end product. >> they have already struck deals with mercedes-benz. >> behind me is a dumper to be used in minds. it is fully electric and autonomous and that is built on fossil free steel. i think the beauty now is that

from a manufacturing perspective , there's no difference between the traditional fossil-based steel and fossil free steel. if you look at a microscope, the steel is identical. >> transforming energy intensive industries like steel production will be key to combat global warming especially as energy demand is expected to continue to soar. matt: that was a very long way of saying later this week i will be speaking to the chief technology officer of volvo about those efforts. we continue to follow the apple event. apple stock has risen. we will bring you all the breaking news after this break.

♪ [ sigh ] not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. ♪ ♪ the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders.

kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call... for fifteen hundred dollars off your kohler walk-in bath. visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info.

mark: i'm mark crumpton with the first word news. the biden administration is asking the u.s. supreme court to

block the texas law raining most abortions while the fight over the measures validity plays out in the courts. the law has been in effect since september aside from a district court ordered because that lasted just 40 hours and bans abortions before most women know they are pregnant. it is the nation's strictest abortion law. chuck schumer is running out of time to break a deadlock among his fellow democrats over president biden's multitrillion dollar economic plan. he's facing major policy channels just -- challenges and hardball taxes by mitch mcconnell. if he can break the deadlock, the house could clear a bipartisan infrastructure bill. russia is keeping a tight grip on europe's energy market. that despite assurances from vladimir putin that the country was ready to consider any steps

necessary to stabilize the market. europe's bakers -- biggest supplier -- euro is already facing soaring energy costs. a big milestone for taiwan and the pandemic. the country reported zero cases of coronavirus today. that's the first time that has happened since april. taiwan is moving closer to cutting its virus alert to one. global news 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg.

amanda: i'm amanda lang. welcome to bloomberg markets. matt: i'm matt miller. here the top stories where folding from around the world. we go live to the new york stock exchange and speak to the ceo of a crypto firm which has just gone public. we also touch on the launch of the first u.s. bitcoin futures etf and that is going to be cool. amanda: we are watching markets -- go ahead. matt: apple shares also at session highs right now. tim cook announcing the long-awaited redesign of the mac pro with its in-house chip. we are also going to talk about covid booster shots. the ceo from the johns hopkins center for health security is going to talk about the tragic

breakthrough case that killed colin powell. amanda: spotify reacting on an intraday basis the word that apple is doubling down in the music space. overall a positive session and you are seeing the tech heavy consumer discretionary and tech. we are seeing oil trading at multiyear highs today. a very high level. good for those looking at oil prices coming up. bad for all the businesses for whom that is an input cost. there is your 10-year just below that level where we seem to have settled in post that roadmap from the federal reserve on tapering. bitcoin is gaining today.

you might expect that on a day when there's a fair amount of news in the bitcoin space. this comes as asset manager proshares is poised to launch the first bitcoin futures etf. it will invest primarily in coin futures contracts, not primarily in bitcoin. that is because for a little bit of controversy because that could mean -- it adds a level of complexity to this investment for the investors in the space. matt: you are almost guaranteed to find yourself trading at another level than the spot price. i just was talking to mike from bloomberg intelligence. we are over $62,000 for bitcoin

even though china has banned it for the seventh time in five years. he said anytime china comes out against bitcoin, it's guaranteed to drive the price higher. so investors piling on those contrarian indicators. amanda: one thing you would say is there has been an opportunity to see an etf act by physical bitcoin. we are kind of seeing this unregulated part of the bitcoin market and we may see discounts to the price almost by definition. the latest stock to hit the new york stock exchange is a digital asset platform. ceo gavin michael is with us now. let's start with the deal itself

and will change for you with an infusion of capital. >> really more of what we are already doing. the infusion of capital really gave us certainty of our funding. it's all about how to wait continue to enhance the platform to offer consumers, businesses and institutions great assets -- access to digital assets. finding new and different ways for people to be able to use their digital assets in their everyday life and rewarding merchants with easier customer acquisition and engagement through our platform. matt: should we be bummed about the fact that we've only got a bitcoins futures pdf -- etf or that were getting another step

closer to joe plummer embracing this digital asset? >> i think it's definitely the latter. we are just getting going with all of this. there is so much more to come. we have on our platform institutional services. we see what's happening around us as more opportunity for our platform and business quite frankly. amanda: would also appeals to you in terms of other offerings you might make? >> we have signed some great partners. choice hotels where privilege rewards members can already exchange their loyalty points for cash to buy bitcoin or gift cards or use it anywhere apple pay is accepted.

but we are a platform. so we signed an exciting deal with nestor last week which is seeing us make our crypto capabilities available through their platforms and apps to all of the credit unions and community banks they support. it's new asset classes obviously coming on but it's more opportunities for us to be able to reach our customers through partnerships like the work we are doing with starbucks. the infusion of capital is really about fully funding our product roadmap and focusing on what we've seen is great success in doing more of what we already do just a lot faster. matt: what i think is cool is that you are down there on the floor of the new york stock exchange. it's not like you are doing an

ipo with the nyse, but a lot of people might have expected a digital asset platform to be on nasdaq. are you happy with the tech and direction at the new york stock exchange? >> absolutely. what we have seen with our partnership's entry into new markets and opportunities so we are very happy with the fact that we have moved exchanges as part of this transaction. amanda: one of the big overhangs for this whole space has to be the regulatory overhang. what is your biggest fear about what might lie ahead? >> we were founded through partnership with ice and that's really where we've come from. regulation, compliance and risk are in our court. so our platform is engineered in

order to be incredibly agile. one thing you can certainly count on is that we have really focused on providing trust and transparency by taking that regulator a first approach. we don't see it as an inhibitor because of the wave of thought about the regulatory frameworks and really being prepared for the change we see. the other thing is whilst we have the crypto assets as part of the platform, our platform is broader than that. we take into account the fact that we do loyalty points, we do hotel loyalty points. we are really building that broad spectrum of assets where crypto was one of those classes we have available through the platform. matt: gavin michael, thank you for joining us. we return to apple's unleased

event and bring you the latest regarding the chip announcements and updating products as the stock rises to session highs. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller with amanda lang. we are continuing to follow this apple event getting more headlines from the company in terms of new products we are going to see from apple. new macbook pros specifically in

the increases that they've made in terms of capabilities, high-res graphics, microphones and speakers etc. etc., obviously thinness is important as well. we are talking about what we've learned. what are the most important headlines you are seeing about the macbook pro? >> millions of creative professionals are probably cheering that apple is actually listening to them. we had this trend where apple would simplify devices make them look cooler but then you had to add all these cables. now apple is adding more ports to their macbook pros. they added an st card and they got rid of the touch bar and put in the physical keys. so they're actually listening to their customers and adding

convenience back to their laptops. i'm sure tons of creative professionals are screaming with joy right now because they are adding ports back. amanda: presumably some portion of the consumer market will also be happy about that. is apple getting the balance right? is this heading that market well, to get >> i'm going to go all in and say i do believe even the enhanced performance, the speed, i do believe this is targeted primarily at a professional community, deming developers. this is all about speed. i haven't seen the price points come through yet. somewhere between $2000 and $3000 for the baseline models. i think that price is little bit

out of the consumer market. it will be interesting to see the products oriented more towards the family and the consumer at home. matt: in terms of market share, does that change very much daca i feel like you are either an apple user or you are not and in terms of desktop set ups it's about 10% ever since i started covering the company. >> what's different is 15 to 20 years ago that would have been the u.s. audience, but now whether it's china, canada, the u.k. and other markets, apple tends to grow there. apple has also done a good job at the lower-priced products. they do help to bring more consumers into the apple ecosystem so to speak.

amanda: we got those announcements from music. there was an intraday reaction of spotify stock. when you take it into the totality of what apple is saying on music, how much of a threat to its competitors is it? >> they announced a five dollar plan which is 50% off their normal plan controlled by voice. i don't think that's going to be a game changer. i also want emphasize -- it's 70% faster than last year's versions. i think apples biggest competitor is there in-house chip design capabilities and their showing that they make the best chips in the world and today's announcement shows they still have what it takes.

matt: if they are converting anybody, i'm guessing they are converting the high-end customers. otherwise either you are in the ecosystem. >> i agree. apple has always had a consumer base that can afford to do upgrades and buy more products in the ecosystem. geographically we see growth. people buying watches, smartphones, tablets for children and teenagers and so forth. amanda: thank you both. great to have you with us. coming up next, we are talking to senior scholar at the hopkins center for health security. her insight on booster shots and breakthrough cases. stay with us.

♪

amanda: this is bloomberg markets. i'm amanda lang alongside matt miller. let's turn to the debate on covid booster shots. a panel recommends boosters for recipients of moderna and pfizer vaccines. with us his senior scholar at the bloomberg school of public health. obviously this debate around boosters hasn't really taken off in the sense that we haven't seen the big ethical questions being wrestled with around global supply of vaccines. from a health point of view, current thinking on boosters? >> right now the guidance is for people who are over 65 that they should go ahead and get a booster shot if they are six months out from having a vaccine.

that goes for people who have had pfizer, moderna or j&j. the question is the mix-and-match prospects because the data is showing that people who have had j&j would benefit more from pfizer or moderna as a booster but that has not been advised yet. so i expect that guidance to change in the coming weeks. matt: is it the case that whichever strategy you choose, the benefits are going to outweigh the risk? >> yes. these are safe and effective vaccines and it's a matter of increasing your own protection. the u.s. does not have a supply issue. this pandemic is not going to go away until we can vaccinate the world. we are not doing a great job

even though there have been efforts to get vaccines around the globe. collectively we need to do a lot more. amanda: the death of colin powell will raise the question for many of when is the right time for that booster shot, what have made a difference. these are all questions that will be of concern to a whole population group in that same age range. >> for any disease, everybody needs to get vaccinated to protect those around them. not just themselves. when you are it's a little bit more challenging to keep your immune system up and ready. it's not as robust as it once was. grandparents rely on grandkids getting vaccinated for flu in the same goes for covid. we all need to be vaccinated.

if there's no transition -- transmission happening, people would not need a booster. matt: we know there are breakthrough cases and fatalities among them, but only 0.004% of fully vaccinated americans have died of covid. so the chances are incredibly low. of course they increase rapidly when you get above the age of 65 and colin powell was 84. 85% of about 7000 deaths that fully vaccinated people have suffered our people over the age of 65. it's sad obviously. but your chances are increased of dying of anything when you are 84 years old. >> absolutely. people have lots of things that they're having to deal with,

medical issues. this is why it's really important for everyone to get vaccinated. if you weren't exposed, then it's not an issue. it's because transmission is really high in the community that we are even having this conversation about boosters. we should be at a level of protection where we can talk about is it a good idea may be yearly but we can't talk about that because transmission is still too high. matt: thank you for joining us. note of course the school is supported by the founder of bloomberg lp and bloomberg philanthropies. i'm matt miller this is bloomberg. ♪

it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. this halloween,

xfinity rewards is offering up some spooky-good perks. like the chance to win a universal parks & resorts trip to hollywood or orlando to attend halloween horror nights. or xfinity rewards members, get the inside scoop on halloween kills. just say "watch with" into your voice remote for an exclusive live stream with jamie lee curtis. a q&a with me! join for free on the xfinity app. our thanks your rewards.

mark: i am mark crumpton with bloomberg's first word news the death of former secretary of

state colin powell is shining a spotlight on what has been a rare phenomenon. powell died at age 84 from covid-19 complications today despite being fully vaccinated. according to the cdc, data show that of the more than 187 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the u.s., as of october 12, about 7100 or .004% died of a breakthrough infection. the u.s. continues to battle the pandemic. the flu is also gearing up to cause problems. according to data selected by walgreens, cases of the flu are up 23% across the u.s. compared with a year ago. parts of nevada and texas top the list for the most cases.