-- hospital risk for the variant is two thirds below delta. the u.s. approves pfizer's covid pill. the first of its kind. risk on. asia stocks followed the u.s. higher on hopes a recovery can

weather omicron. oil extends gains. energy crisis. european gas prices hold near highs as russia keeps exports tapped. awaiting vladimir putin's conference for news. . we might get the santa claus rally. stocks powering higher again yesterday. positive news on the omicron front. at least on a headline level. you had better than expected u.s. gdp. that meant a rally. that is continuing on. perhaps stronger asia-pacific index up .8%. we see higher gains when it comes to the more value type indices. stocks in europe doing better. nasdaq futures up. less than the others. a gained the most yesterday. we did have some tech scrutiny. antitrust scrutiny from the ftc being pushed forward when it comes to amazon cloud unit. despite the scrutiny from the

ftc, we were able to see a rally in tech. i should say meta, facebook's new name, did fall. but the renewed antitrust scrutiny coming to the forefront yesterday. along with equities, we had oil moving higher. a lot of the other risk assets. at the same time, dollars sharply fell yesterday. the euro outperforming versus the dollar. a tenure -- the 10 year has been little moved for the past week. despite volatility otherwise in markets. aluminum is interesting. currently trading at a two month high. this is due to the energy crisis europe is experiencing. we see demand destruction trickling through due to the prohibitively high energy costs. europe's largest aluminum factories trimming its output after the spike in energy prices. that means aluminum is pushing higher this morning.

let's get back to the virus. the omicron variant appears less likely to land patients in the hospital than the delta strain. that is according to preliminary data. let's get to michelle cortez. what do we know at this point about the contagious -- how contagious this virus is, and how vera lent it is? >> there is good news and bad news. the good news is very good news. the omicron variant is about half to 80 percent less likely to land people in the hospital than the delta variant, or earlier strains of coronavirus. on the flipside, it is also tenfold more likely to infect you, even if you have been previously infected with the virus or have been fully vaccinated. what is the takeaway? that means this wave we see across the world will get much steeper, much more significant, land a lot of people with

positive infection in the days and weeks to come. on the other hand, we will have fewer of them in the hospital much less likely to die from it. when you do the math, that is what the modelers are doing. at this point, we don't know exactly how it will play out. they say that the high denominator, these large number of people who will get infected, could overwhelm health care systems, even though the virus will be less severe. good news personally, especially if you are vaccinated. bad news perhaps for the world. >> definitely a double-edged sword. thank you so much. michelle cortez, our senior medical reporter. european gas at power prices eased after surging to a fresh record on tuesday. even as russia keeps shipments to europe tapped. for more, let's bring in greg white. our ego and government team leader. we had putin's address today. what political position does

russia stand in, given the geopolitical tensions, but also the influence they carry, given the energy crisis in europe? >> it is a very tense moment with the russian troops on the border with ukraine. the u.s. and its allies are worried they might invade. that hasn't reassured a lot of people. there is a lot of tension. the u.s. and allies have been threatening sanctions against russia. mario draghi said there isn't a lot of leverage from europe because it is so dependent on russian gas. and is not certainly ready to impose economic sanctions that are vital to the market. >> thank you for the update. let's get a look at the biggest risks for markets in 2022. we surveyed more than 700 respondents. inflation, covid, and geopolitical inflation topped the list. joining us now is eddie van der walt. thank you so much for waking up.

it is interesting some of the risks we have in the survey. we have spent the past months, even year talking about them between geopolitics and the virus. did anything stand out to you as a surprise? >> i think you absolutely nailed it. we asked markets live readers open ended question. what are your biggest fears? we collected all of those. we did a word count. what showed up more often than anything else was inflation. 50% of the people who replied. these are people that all have terminal access most of them either are traders or portfolio managers. 30% mentioned inflation. 25% mentioning covid or some variant thereof. and geopolitical risk is the other big one. but you are right. this is what we have been

thinking about. just behaviorally, people came to worry about the things that are right in front of them. i think that is the risk. as we go into the season of making forecasts, that is -- people think the future is going to be like the past. next year is probably going to bring many of its own risks. >> the risk of the unknown unknowns. let's say that your mliv team put together a word cloud with inflation in the center. if covid is the second risk, i wonder how we interpret things like yesterday, where we see a rally -- despite the fact covid has not gone away, and we had a study that was a positive headline when it came to the likelihood you would end up in the hospital, but because it is so contagious, you will have more people in the hospital. yet stocks rally.

>> absolutely. markets have scrambled this year. traders have struggled to be virologists when their specialism is economics. you are trying to guess what can happen in all of these different spheres in markets. but at the same time, the reason why stocks rallied, or started to turn around, is simply because we have seen so much of a drawdown. traders have been conditioned to buy the dip. we are coming to the end of the year, there will be rebalancing, but we are conditioned to get the rally. why bet against it in a year when every opportunity to dip has been an opportunity to buy? >> also getting your take on commodities. europe has skyhigh natural gas prices. filtering through energy intensive industries, aluminum plants, what sort of impact should we be looking forward to

in 2022 in the wider commodities space due to the energy crisis? >> if you ask me my biggest fear in 2022, it is absolutely the risk that this crisis in commodities spills over. what we are seeing at the moment with natural gas prices, we've never seen gas storage this low at this point in the winter. if we get a real cold snap in winter, there is a risk europe runs out of gas. but long before that happens, indices like aluminum smelters start to shut down. a couple of years back when the river went dry, that had a negative impact on gdp in germany. but this is a europewide event. this can be a drag on europe gdp across the board just at the time they want to come out of the coronavirus crisis. dani: thank you so much. you and the mliv team are

looking at the risks for next year. that is eddie van der walt. check out his work and the team's work on your terminal. let's get to the first word news with angel feliciano. angel: the chinese city of xian has imposed a lockdown on its 13 million residents after mass testing identified 127 covid infections. residents have been told to remain in their homes and designate one person to go out every other day for necessities. china's biggest such move since the pandemic started in wuhan approximately two years ago. pfizer's covid pill has gained clearance for emergency use in the u.s., delivering more convenient option for at risk patients. it is the first at home medication authorized for covid-19. a large clinical trial, it was shown to reduce hospitalizations by 89% when given to high-risk unvaccinated patients within three days of symptoms.

chinese president xi jinping told hong kong leader carrie lam the city is developing in a good direction. it was their first face-to-face meeting in two years coming after an election in hong kong that installed communist party loyalists. local media reported xi praised changes made to the electoral system. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and at quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. dani: thank you so much. angel feliciano in london. pandemic optimism. stocks rally after studies or hopes the global recovery can weather the flareup. and europe's energy crunch continues in 2022. we continue the conversation. it may not be the white christmas, but it may be a cold winter. we will bring you the latest. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> maybe i'm just in the festive spirit, but i think we will be in a sweet spot. >> it might seem strange now. just when inflation is really taking off as an investor. but we have decided to call time on that view and decided to move back to a neutral view. >> no one really understands what drives cpr. >> we are very mindful of potentially a fed policy mistake. it is a bigger policy than the omicron. >> i can see more of the coronavirus and the pandemic in these disruptions is absolutely critical. and probably not emphasized sufficiently. >> a lot of supply chain issues

beginning to resolve themselves by the natural functioning of the market. >> 2022 as a year of volatility. >> it is always challenging. >> i believe that investors should really look through the noise to identify where the long-term growth areas are. >> the environment for staying overweight. >> our guests on the market risks as we enter 2022. global stocks are rallying after the latest cove study stirred hopes a global recovery can weather the omicron flareup. joining us is the policy research head at algiers investment. omicron certainly has meant a very volatile period for stocks. how much of a risk in your mind is it for markets, or can we look past it? >> i think we are at a point where we're getting very

conflicting information and views on this bill. it seems to point in the direction of the omicron variant producing a minor disease compared to previous waves. now we have more consistent data. as we were discussing in the first part of this program, the fact it is way more contagious somehow creates a downside to this view. we are in a position where we don't really know what is going to happen. but if you look at the reaction the market is having, it seems to be focusing on the good news part of the story, not on the bad news part of the story. >> you do mention in your notes ahead of this show many reopening sectors are stuck around the prevaccination levels. how undervalued are they. we have more treatments, vaccines, we have more covid pills, that can alleviate these

concerns. >> this is a point where we see a mismatch between what the data is telling us and the news we are getting in terms of new treatments being spaced in. and the fact we see the reopening sector at predestination levels. this is especially the case in european travel and leisure. i think their valuations are -- compared to the data we are observing and information we are getting. and i think somehow, due to the fact we are seeing some reaction, countries being locked down. so uncertainty and what the policy reaction will be to this new information we are getting. dani: global inflation also continues to be your biggest threat for 2022. is the threat so much inflation

continues high, or he hawkish -- or he hawkish central bank tightening amid a weakening economy? >> i would say both. so we have this view, it used to be a contrarian view when we got into it. not much more now. i was say also the interviews and the survey clearly shows we continue to see inflation remaining the most in part of economic risks for 2022. and i think part of that risk is inflation per se, the functioning of our economies for a very long time as we have seen these kind of inflation rates. but i was see how the reaction function will be affected, and we think central banks, we will continue to be on the hawkish side. this is true for the european central bank to come to term

with inflation and that reaction. dani: what do you make of a u.s. treasury market, u.s. bond market that has priced in a less hawkish fed than powell and team themselves have broadcast? >> once again, we have factors that go in different directions. when you look at inflation with omicron, tried to face-off acknowledging the issues insisting it would be transitory to what transitory means to an extreme level. to now realizing it is an issue -- but at the same time, it is not that mention of the economic implications for the central bank statement. i think markets are wondering how central banks will strike a balance. it will be tricky between these

two issues. so inflation is clearly becoming a dominant driver. but economic concerns and potential implications of the omicron wave, which we don't yet know the severity. it is still there. and balancing those things is going to be complicated for central banks and interesting to watch. i think this is what it is saying. dani: thank you so much. you will stick around with us. sylvia merlin. coming up, europe's energy trying -- energy crunch continues. may not be a white christmas for much of the continent, but it certainly will be cold. we discuss the latest. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> we know jeff bezos, compared to elon musk, he's not very active in the crypto industry. but i believe it might be a good opportunity. because we have way more -- with markets. dani: the founder of the tron blockchain platform. he was the one who had won the bid for a seat on jeff bezos' blue origin rocket, and had to reschedule because of a scheduling conflict. let's switch gears to europe. gas prices retreated, remaining close to record high seen on tuesday as russia keeps shipment in europe tapped. they are expected to end the heating segment at low level, extending this year's energy crunch. still with us is slivia merler.

sylvia, how much of a threat is this energy crisis to the european economy? >> i think it is a very significant threat. the position is very encouraging going into 2022. as we are at the moment for this time of year, the lowest level seen in five years. increased demand in the first part of the year. the situation with russia contributing to this, as well. the bottom line is if we are getting into winter that might be colder than usual, it might wind up less. you might end up scraping the bottom of the barrel. dani: what do spillover effects

look like, especially in the energy intensive industry? not just them, but consumers, as well? >> we are looking at very high prices. if that's an area to materialize, it would be very low, even negative. we would see very high prices. that will have an effect on the industries in the first place. then trickling down to consumers. particularly at the final consumer level. significant income on the purchasing powers, especially for the lower income part of distribution, which is to increase the support and already given across countries to consumers. dani: let's talk about some of

that fiscal support. europe finds itself post-covid in a precarious situation. our fantastic markets editor put it together for us. the european commission expecting italy debt loads as a percentage of gdp to reach 155. spain and france not far behind. at the same time, you have this divergence where germany and austria remain below 80%. what does this divergence mean for eurozone fiscal policy? >> that is attractive -- that is the key issue. we are in a position where before the pandemic, there has been an economic convergence. and covid is basically bringing us back to a situation where, especially in terms of accumulating public debt loads, we will be in a position with very different leverage across

the euro zone. this is tricky, because now europe enters a discussion on what to do with the european framework. at the moment, european fiscal moves are suspended. they will be suspended until 2023. 2022 will be dominated in europe at the policy level from a discussion on how to change the framework. the framework will have to be changed in light of the higher debt level. but there is no agreement or understanding what direction the change will go. dani: sylvia, thank you for joining us. enjoy the holiday season. silvia merler. just to close out the half-hour. i want to give you a check on the lira. it has been volatile. we are looking for the fourth consecutive day of gains. you can see it hasn't been consistent through the entirety of this morning.

we will monitor it for you. we will discuss the latest on omicron and the new pfizer treatment cleared by the u.s. fda. certainly sent markets higher yesterday. what does it mean for the rest of the world? this is bloomberg. ♪ every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.

dani: good morning from bloomberg's european headquarters. just gone 6:30 a.m. in london. i'm dani burger. this is daybreak europe. omicron optimism. studies show rural hospital risk is lower than delta. the covid pill, the first of its kind. risk on. asia stocks follow the u.s. higher on hopes the recovery can weather omicron.

extending gains from a four-week high. energy crisis. european gas prices hold near highs as russia keeps exports tapped. investors away president putin's annual press conference for clues. it is a santa claus rally reinvigorated, despite low volume we have seen markets rally. but it has been extremely volatile. will we have a more calm today? the session pointing to that. gains of .8% in asia. you have underperformance. not just for u.s. futures, but nasdaq futures specifically. the ftc increasing their scrutiny, at least continuing to scrutinize amazon in their cloud unit. sources telling bloomberg yesterday. looking across markets. we still have an optimism mood music when it comes to the other riskier assets. the four-week high continuing to climb from that spot.

10 year yields, not a lot of movement. aluminum two month high. more than 2% gain. demand destruction due to the energy crisis. aluminum smelters, the longest in europe, pulling back on production because of the high prices of energy. the latest on omicron. the new hospital risk is two thirds below that of delta. the u.s. has cleared pfizer's covid pill for high-risk patients. the first treatment approved for use at home. let's bring in an epidemiologist at the italian national institute of health. thank you so much for joining us this morning. with this scottish study that is two thirds less at risk of delta , landing someone who catches it in a hospital, how should we be thinking about not just the contagiousness of this virus, but the viral and see of it? >> clinical severity is going to be a major player, in terms of

the impact the variant can have on the epidemic in our country. starting to come in, you displayed a new study being produced. and we will monitor it. on the others, we should be aware if transmission is very high and we have a lot of cases of infection, it might mean a lot of people might require hospital services. this is the main reason we are worried. we're afraid there might be a burdening. >> does feel like as a person who exists in day to day life, there is difficulty addressing personal risk. you are less likely to end in the hospital, but more likely to catch it. what does it mean that our behaviors need to look like? should it look different than previous variants when it comes to the possibility of catching omicron? >> there is no evidence this

variant is transmitting any different way compared to the previous. we still should have the same kinds of caution. especially now that we know it is more transmissible. the caution should be higher compared to previous variants. what we do not know yet is how much it is going to impact our hospital services. evidence is being produced as we speak. making that information available and making sure that globally, we have all of the data and information we need to make decisions. dani: we also heard from iota's medical advisor, the air industry body, saying passengers are two or three times more likely to catch omicron on a plane versus delta. should we feel comfortable traveling this holiday season if we are fully vaccinated and boosted, or is it something we should reconsider? >> one of the things we know is omicron can be.

vaccinations have been fantastic protecting us against severe disease. but we know it is not impossible to catch a variant, particularly the omicron variant, if you are fully vaccinated with a booster. personally, i would recommend caution and limiting aggregation and a lot of those closed setting holidays we were used to in the past. i don't think we are ready for that, yet. dani: seems like a lot of people have reevaluated holiday plans. when it comes to the antiviral treatments, we see the u.s. stockpile more of them. the fda approving pfizer's. u.k. saying it will buy more antiviral pills. clearly we have not been able to vaccinate our way out of the pandemic. but do these more convenient treatments you can have at home -- what step -- how far of a step in the direction is this to living every day with covid?

>> i think it is a huge step. it is not a competition between vaccines and antiviral pills. those things go together. the more we have apples that work, active principles that work, and it can be more conveniently administered. we will have to -- for example to get treatment. that would be a big game changer, in terms of early home treatment. however, we should be aware that the more the virus changes, the more every time we have to reassess the effectiveness of these instruments against the dominance variants at this time. it will have to monitor the mutations as we go along. and we have done this before with other viruses. it is something that is always being done. i still think the game is going to be won by having all of our

different weapons on board and using them in the best way. dani: further pill itself, how do you think it's usage will involve? is it something that should be available to basically everyone globally? or is it something -- a tool that should be reserved for those who are more vulnerable to the virus? >> it depends on lot on the availability. generally speaking, you have to choose who you will give this drug to. it will probably be the people most likely to develop severe disease and complications. when the drug will become more available and there might be multiple drugs available, if we can use the treatments to our early symptoms, you can imagine something similar to what is being done for other viruses, other pathogens for which viral pathogens which we have pills

and things we can use for minor infection. coming from the immunological background. dani: thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. happy holidays. that is dr. ricardo from the institutes of health. let's get to the first word news with angel feliciano. angel: spain introducing mandatory safe mask outdoors while ruling out lockdowns for now. a highly contagious omicron variant leaps across europe. france has reported a jump in infections with more than 84,000 yesterday, up by almost 20,000 from a week earlier. the u.k. saw more than 100,000 positive tests in a day for the first time. the chinese city of sian has imposed a lockdown for residents after mass testing identified 1027 covid infections.

-- 127 covid infections. only one person can go out every other day for necessities. it is china's biggest such move since the pandemic started in wuhan approximately two years ago. the u.s. federal trade commission pushing forward with antitrust scrutiny of amazon's cloud business. sources tell us investigators have been contacting companies in recent months to gather information related to amazon web services. the division is their most profitable business. lion air has cut its earning guidance as omicron surges across europe. the airline now it is abates a net loss of up to 450 million euros for the fiscal year after travel restrictions begin christmas bookings. they will cut january capacity by one third. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and at quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. dani: thank you so much.

it has been almost a year since the u.k. technically severed ties with the eu. we are looking at the impact on finance in the city of london. let's bring in our u.k. economy reporter. 12 months out, what has been the impact? >> it is not as bad as the doomsayers had predicted, but it has pushed some financers to move at least some of their people, assets, legal entities across the channel into the continent. finance hubs taking shape in amsterdam, dublin, frankfurt, milan. we thought it would've been worse had covid not held back relocation. probably more left in the pipeline. we are still waiting for a decision on equivalents. that would give the u.k. finance firms full access to eu's single market. talks have been glacial because of the sour relations of northern ireland.

one of the big threats is new york. and that development. so it is a big loss, the immeasurable loss really is the opportunity costs of being up in europe without brexit would have been british. dani: fantastic reporting on the offices in development. really fascinating stuff, fantastic coverage on brexit. coming up, europe's energy crisis continues into 2022. it might not be snowing here on the continent, but certainly is cold. what does it mean for energy? we discuss the latest, this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: welcome back to "daybreak: europe." i'm dani burger in london. european gas prices retreated, but are close to the record high seen on tuesday. inventories in europe are expected to end the heating season at record low levels, sending this year's energy crunch. let's go to our bloomberg executive editor for commodities and our russian government reporter. if you can set the scene for us. a few months ago, the energy crisis was front and center. it seemed to ebb a little bit. now concerns are back in the fore. to what degree is it due to the cold weather versus supply issues? >> it is very pressing. prices are slightly week, because it is winter proper, and it has been cold across large parts of europe.

that boosted demand. but we are entering winter with very low inventories, as you said. that is putting a lot of upward pressure on prices at the same time. demand is very high, and big outages are putting more gas into power stations. ratcheting up demand further. dani: obviously, this gives russia a lot of political influence by holding this over europe. if they wanted to give europe more energy supply, natural gas, do they have that ability to do so? >> that is a bit of a mystery. the russians on one hand are producing close to record level. and they have other parts of europe, they are having a record profit year. they haven't been supplying gas beyond these long-term contracts

for the bulk of the business. with the tough relation over europe and a variety of tensions, they are in the mood to be doing any favors and bailing them out in the environment. biggest issue they were pushing for is the nord stream 2 pipeline that would have carried more gas from russia directly to germany. that looks like it will be held up by regulators until the summer. dani: understanding you correctly, this is more of a political move from russia? >> certainly looks that way. they deny it. and we can't prove it. but the sense is russians can provide more gas to the market, probably not enough to stabilize the situation entirely, but enough to take the pressure off. it doesn't seem they are doing that. putin suggested there is more gas available, if only the nord stream 2 pipeline would get approval in europe. sounds like they can find the fuel if they got what they

wanted out of europe. >> this is very complicated. a lot of different factors, political or supplies. what does it mean for expectations, and how much work is the energy crunch -- how much worse can the energy crunch get? >> a lot will depend on the weather. we are very beholden to how cold january and february is any rep. if colder than average, things can get very dicey. there are reasons we may see a little bit of easing into january. there are quite a lot of lng companies on the way from asia and the u.s.. natural gas than anyone else in the world. and if -- it is forecast to get warmer. we may see easing. what the market is telling us looking at the gas contracts, supplies will remain tight next winter, as well. we will be ending winter with very low inventories. it will be hard to fill those

over the summer. this may ebb and flow for the next year until we get nord stream 2 started and other projects come online around the world. dani: i want to bring you back into the conversation. we have his presser later today. are we expecting to hear anything from him when it comes to energy? >> certainly he will be asked about gas. the big focus is indications on where things are going with tensions with the west over the russian troop buildup. we have talks with the u.s. starting next month. the biggest signals we are looking for his general geopolitical background. any sensitive geopolitical easing in tension. there will be questions about gas and whether there is more gas that russia can come up with to supply to europe, and what they would do if nord stream 2 is delayed further. the political clouds over

germany seem to be darkening. dani: thank you both very much. the presser takes place at 9:00 a.m. something we will look out for. bloomberg's executive editor for energy and commodities, and a russian government reporter. coming up, elon musk says he's almost done offloading 10% of his stake in tesla. more on that next.

dani: welcome back to "daybreak: europe." i'm dani burger in london. let's look at the events we are following. we will get greece's unemployment rates, and we expect brazil's latest cpi numbers. we will still leave inflation running at double digit numbers.

really a problem sweeping south america. this afternoon, canada's gdp figures due to be released. consensus forecasts see growth continuing, despite risks this winter. at 1:30 p.m. u.k. time, we expect initial jobless claims figures. that is on the latest data of new homes in the u.s. data heavy day. let's switch to elon musk. he is almost done offloading 10% of his stake in tesla after the latest sale of nearly $1 billion worth of shares. let's bring in katrina nicholas, who leads our transport coverage. it seems he is getting closer to offloading his 10% stake. how much does it seem he has left? >> it doesn't seem like he's got a lot to go. about 929 million of his shares, close to that target of reaching his -- selling the stake in the electric automaker by about 10%.

the latest sale with almost one million more shares after he wrote on twitter he's almost done trimming this stake, clarifying an earlier, and he gave that he said he already reached the target. in terms of how much he's got to go, at the moment he's sold around 14.7 million shares. and he does need about 17 million shares. so he is getting there, assuming he's hitting those kinds of options, as well. dani: i'm not really sure what to think about him giving an interview with a satirical website. someone who likes to engage in some form of satire already. tesla shares rallied yesterday the most since the start of november because there was optimism he was done almost selling his shares. i wonder what sort of tax the billionaires have to pay this year? >> last time he said in a tweet again that he will pay more than

$11 billion in taxes, that was getting market criticism from a number of lawmakers, including senator warren, who called him a freeloader on social media. her and other leading democrats claimed billionaires need to stop avoiding paying taxes. over $11 billion is an amount that can constitute a record payment to the u.s. internal revenue service. so a very large amount of attention being paid. dani: that is katrina nicholas. as the hour closes out parent i want to give you a quick check. the lira continuing to rise to a fourth consecutive day. it has been the biggest rally for the turkish currency since the 1980's after erdogan stepped in, trying to put -- talking about whether it if a city makes it pegged to the dollar. saving accounts from fluctuations in the lira. it may be a little bit of game

theory as to whether people pull out from the lira, invest in dollars. it seems to be steady at this moment. there has been skepticism from economists whether it is enough to stem the declines in the currency, given the historic amount of interest rate cuts the country has been embarking on at a time when inflation is very high. that is the story in the lira. we also look at a market that was able to rally yesterday. it really seemed to be off of the back of the headlines from the scottish and imperial college study saying you are two thirds less at risk of ending up in the hospital if you catch omicron than if you were to catch delta. to be clear, underneath the headlines, it still wasn't all positive. the sheer number of people likely to catch the virus due to how contagious it is means we will have plenty of people in the hospital. we have seen the hospitalization rate increase up by one third in london. so it clearly still is a risk.

why are markets not taking it as so? we have seen them say this morning that markets are really looking for a reason to buy the dip, so they will take it if we can get it. here is the picture across assets. the dollar also with steep declines off of the back of the headlines. some risking taking place. europe also outperform. yields have been unmoved through all of this. an interesting factor of what we have seen, whether it be the selloff or risk on when it comes to stocks. treasuries unmoved. aluminum futures up 2.3%. at the highest level in two months. we are starting to see demand destruction when it comes to the energy crisis. we have seen some aluminum factories, specifically one in france, starting to pull back on production because of the high energy costs. a lot of that has happened

through these energy intensive industries. if it continues on, can you give us any relief? we have seen some of the lng exports go from asia to europe. up next, "bloomberg markets." europe. . anna edwards will walk you through it. that is it for us. this is bloomberg. ♪

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anna: good morning. welcome to "bloomberg markets: europe." i am anna edwards. of the cash trade less than an hour away. omicron optimism. hospital risk for the variant is two thirds below delta. but european nations continue to tighten restrictions as cases surge. risk on. asian stocks follow the u.s. higher on hopes they can weather omicron. oil extends gains from a four-week i.