dani: this is "bloomberg daybreak: europe," i am dani burger in london. sealing the deal, elon musk wins twitter for $44 billion. the social network shares a jump. european banks kick off reporting season with hsbc and ubs leading on profit. plus, the pboc pledges to boost support for china's economy and text oxley the rally. happy turnaround tuesday.

yesterday was a story of a distinct made in china flavor in the wreckage of equity markets, anza reacting as well, but with the pboc pledging support and cutting the reserve ratio, the are seeing a better performance today than yesterday's ugliness. u.s. stocks ended yesterday higher, but let's look at european futures, playing a game of catch up after falling nearly 2% yesterday. ftse futures up nearly 1.5%. a little stronger in tech as well. across the asset picture, it's been about weakness in the yuan, locked concerns abound, but support from the pboc, perhaps not comfortable with the pace of declines means you are seeing some action. we will get into that and a little bit. looking at stronger commodities again, crude bumping up against $100 a barrel.

u.s. 10 year yields higher again, but will they be able to act again with the concern when it comes to the chinese economy? let's get breaking numbers for you. novartis earnings coming in, first quarter core eps online, in line rather, $1.46. novartis basically exactly where analysts had expected it would be. $1.46. their new drug line will be really important for them going forward. their net sales for the first quarter coming in at $12.5 billion. basically in line with what analysts saw. we will speak with the novartis to ceo at 7:30 a.m. u.k. time. let's get our top stories this morning, tom metcalf has the details on european bank earnings, laura wright with all of the latest drama when it comes to elon musk's deal with twitter.

juliette saly has a wrap of markets in asia, and russ matheson with the latest on ukraine. earnings fast and thick. in just the past hour we had hsbc, ubs and santander. tom, i know over the past 15 minutes you have been poring through results. what have we learned? tom: ubs and hsbc comfortably eat -- beat expectations bid there was a big beat on net profit but also the provisions hsbc makes for loans. pretty comfortable and that was driving results. dani: thank you very much, tom metcalf. in about 30 minutes we will have a conversation with the cfo of santander. onto the big story, twitter and elon musk, agreeing to buy the company for $44 billion. it would be one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history, taking the 16-year-old

social networking platform private. joining us as a laura wright, who i am sure has not slept in 24 hours. laura: the deal represents $52.24 a share for shareholders, a 30 8% premium from the social media platform's closing price on april 1, which was the last session before we learned elon musk had become the platform's largest shareholder. twitter's board had to sit up and listen when it became clear last thursday that elon musk had secured $46.5 billion of financing. a mixture of investment banks and an equity commitment from elon musk to sell. why does he want to take over twitter? a number of reasons. he values free speech and he thinks the platform, they need more transparency over censorship, polarization is another part of twitter he thinks should be utilized.

that people on the right and left should be equally unhappy. he wants to restore the platform to its former glory. he has been critical of accounts dormant, and if they do tweak, is not really those individuals who tweet themselves. you could argue that elon musk is a pragmatist. he has 80 3 million followers and he saw when former president donald trump tried to launch a social media platform, it wasn't so easy. dani: certainly not, although donald trump has said he will not rejoin twitter even if he is let in the door. laura wright will stay on top of the twitter story, i am sure it is far from over. now to china, which promised monetary support for the economy and that has given asian stocks a leg up. juliette saly is in sydney. you look at today's price action, is it reminiscent of a

bounce of the c line variety or if this is enough for a stable rally. juliette: is this verbal intervention going to be backed up with concrete action? certainly a big turnaround, as you say, perhaps a dead cat bounce. yesterday, the csi 300 had the worst day since february 2020. you mentioned the pboc cutting the fx reserve requirements. effectively boosting the domestic supply of dollars, giving a boost to the offshore yuan, snapping five sessions of declines. tech players leading the rally, the likes of alibaba and tencent lifting the hang seng tech index. let's have a look at my chart, we know these concerns, particularly about lockdowns in china and the impact economic growth has seen markets underperform global peers. the equity index down about 1% this year.

the red circle is when shanghai went into lockdown. you can see how much weakness we have had since then. perhaps the bad news has been price down and this will be a sustainable rebound, but you also have concerns about what if beijing goes into lockdown, what it does for the global economy. morgan stanley has cut china's 2022 gdp growth forecast to 4.2%. that is the second cut in a month. dani: great roundup. juliette saly back home in sydney. let's get the latest on the war in ukraine and the russian foreign minister sergei lagger off has warned of serious danger of nuclear conflict as the u.s. defense secretary said they want moscow to be weakened so they cannot repeat this war. ross, how seriously should we take these comments from sergei lavrov?

ros: sergei lavrov is a player in russia but he doesn't make decisions on the military front, and in fact, just a week ago, sergei lavrov said russia doesn't want nuclear conflict with the west or to use nuclear weapons in ukraine. the reality is in the early days of the war, the russian president put his nuclear forces on higher alert, a warning that if the war doesn't go his way in ukraine, he may be prepared to use a tactical nuclear weapon, and that is the concern of the west. that if things continue to go against his forces, he might be desperate enough that he decides to do so. also it is a warning to nato as we see finland and sweeting considering joining nato, that he does not want that military alliance standing on his doorstep. there has been no sign that he is moving nuclear forces anywhere near ukraine, but it is

something we need to pay close attention to, especially how the war plays out on the ground for him. dani: thank you very much, ros matheson with the latest in ukraine. let's look at some of the key things market participants will be watching out for today. we are expecting hungary's rate decision, and the central bank is likely to raise the benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point that will put it at 4.5%. we will get the latest figures on a new home sales in the u.s., and alphabet is due to report first-quarter earnings, that's after the u.s. close, so around 10:00 p.m. u.k. time. big tech earnings will continue shortly thereafter, microsoft will have results at about 10:30 p.m. coming up, we take a deeper dive in the outlook for markets with china promising to support its covid hit economy. we will speak with the global head of credit at royal london asset management. plus, more on earnings from

santander. we will speak with the ceo -- cfo, jose garcia cantera. this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: welcome back to "bloomberg daybreak: europe," i am dani burger in london. china central bank has pledged to increase support for the economy, seeking to reassure investors as financial markets take a hammering from a worsening growth outlook and threats of widespread covid lockdowns. joining us is our guest, global head of credit at royal london asset management. thank you for joining us this morning. yesterday's market action had a very distinct made in china flavor. many assets were hit. we are looking at a bit of a comeback today. how much credence do you give the narrative of china fueling a wider global growth scare?

>> i think in a way it is something that -- we've been looking at china for the last six or nine months, already an issue there with the hang seng sector slowing down. this really, the lockdowns compound that problem. i think it will be challenging for china with the growth expectations anyway. in a way, the depreciation of the yuan has been somewhat inevitable, certainly from my seat. it is really the only route out for china. dani: china trying to step in, cutting the reserve ratio, that only does so much when you are looking at a world where china is set to ease with other global central banks looking at tightening policy. in a world where the yuan continues to weaken and fall of

around 2015 devaluation type levels, what would the global ramifications of specifically the currency weakness be in your world? azhar: well, funnily enough, it might help in the medium-term in terms of the concerns about inflation. that will be probably a little more like 12 months out that it could be a benefit. short-term, the big issue is it makes that data a lot worse. we've got hugest supply shortages again, and supply chains are still very connected to china. i think in the short-term it means inflation gets worse and in the medium-term, that devaluation should be a benefit overall. i think the important thing is, it is controlled, and clearly with the level of china's

reserves, this is going to be something we are managing very carefully. you have just shown a chart, we are quite away from where we have been. they have rallied quite a bit. there is still room for china to get out of trouble. dani: i guess when you compare it to 2015 we are at very different levels. when the currency dropped then, you were at weaker levels. when you look at the run-on effects to u.s. treasuries, yet coming from china or japan, weaker currencies, rbc the are huge buyers of u.s. treasuries. -- obviously there are huge buyers of u.s. treasuries. do you see a run-on impact? azhar: the yuan probably will have a larger impact. it certainly gives a technical

lack of support for the longer end of the treasury curve. in a way, that is probably something the fed wants. even just over the last month when you see how much nominal yields have moved. in a way, policy, whether it is accidental or a couple of derivatives off, it is working the way it should at the moment. dani: hmm. when we look at u.s. credit, i know you say markets are still overly relaxed as recession is far out, but is it right that markets are so relaxed about a recession? we are seeing some spreads start to widen, perhaps as a result of central banks during to tighten, but should the growth be more priced into the market? azhar: we have never seen this

level of potential tightening to come, especially from this starting point. it is a little bit strange for credit markets to be so relaxed because we have seen a huge spike in funding costs, we have already seen a huge spike in funding costs. the market has gone from -- gone to a two thirds increase. mortgage rates also. consumer and corporate, they both have already had, been impacted. we are not sure what it will mean. it is a bit unnerving that credit markets are so relaxed at this juncture. dani: speaking of corporate credit, we have to talk about twitter, by far the most read

story on the bloomberg terminal, i'm sure the most talked about this morning. when you look at this really aggressive lvl, the amount of debt. if this company is going to be issuing junk bonds, do you think there are people willing to buy to take the credit risk associated with a private twitter with elon musk at the helm? azhar: i think credit markets are clearly healthy at the moment, that there will be a demand to take any issuance that came out of this lba. on the flipside, this is not a rational leveraged buyout to make capital. you got to add that caveat. from an economic perspective, it

doesn't make a lot of sense other than what the value of this town square is. i think when we look back, this might not look the most astute of elon's investment, but the banks feel comfortable there is enough attrition to get their capital back. it is a starting point for leverage, and the cash flow metrics don't make a lot of sense in terms of investing in any of my stakeholders's cash into twitter. overall, the debt takes out all of twitter's cash flow. dani: yeah, it does.

really fine margins if you're looking at a billion in debt servicing a year and $1.4 billion in either the -- ebita. you've been very diplomatic into thinking this deal doesn't make sense, i have seen harsher words. does it say anything to you about the health of the credit market as a whole if you step back and say this is purely an elon musk thing and about him, the fact that banks are willie -- are willing to take on this risk? azhar: it says something about the health overall of banks and credit markets generally. they have grown usually -- hugely. the big banks, their exposures to credit markets are much smaller. they generally have been a lot more cautious, which allows them to extend this sort of financing

in this market. i think also private equity just generally has raised so much capital that there is still plenty of capital to put to work. i know valuations are still healthy -- perhaps not twitter levels, but still healthy. dani: thank you for playing ball, everything from china to twitter. i appreciate your thoughts, azhar hussain. coming up, hsbc first-quarter earnings beat estimates. don't miss our interview with ewan stephenson, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: welcome backdani: to "bloomberg daybreak: europe."

hsbc has reported adjusted pretax earnings for the first quarter. we spoke to ewen stevenson. ewen: we took some provisions against the balance sheet we have. we took additional provisions for russia exposures and we think that is a fairly complete provision for everything we can see at the moment. i think we are continuing with our long-term plans to low -- to grow our wealth franchise there and we see no reason to slow down despite some short-term dislocation because of the omicron variant. overall we remain big china bulls. when we talk about a china's slowdown, we are still expecting to see growth rates of around 5% this year and next year and it is very healthy compared to expectations and the west. yousef: are you making any additional provisions at this point or at least preparing to

make any further provisions and is the conversation underway within hsbc at the top level about pulling back out of russia given other banks have done that for reasons of protecting reputation? ewen: overall we have a relatively small business in russia, mainly there to support multinational corporate's. we are in dialogue with those corporates at the moment about what they want to do and we are working with them largely to manage their own franchises. for the time being, we are closed for new business but working with existing customers to manage what is a difficult situation for them and their russian businesses. we did take some additional provisions in the quarter against the balance sheet we have their, around --there, around $250 million of additional provisions for russian exposures and we think that is a fairly complete provision for everything we can see at the moment.

yousef: and now, talking about multiple 50 bit moves, how is that likely to give your bottom line a boost especially since hsbc is more rate sensitive than some of your other banks? ewen: we think it will be a massive benefit to returns, our p&l distribution capacity over the next 12 to 18 months. our net interest margin in this quarter was up seven basis points, the first time it is up since 2020. our net interest margin has not been at this level since the first half of 2020. that is just at the very start of what we see is a very firm set of rate rises coming through. we have said we want to get back to double-digit returns next year. we are very confident on getting back there and i think that will be turbocharged by rate rises. we are very optimistic about the outlook for the next 12 to 18

months. dani: the hsbc cfo ewen stevenson there. a busy day for bank earnings, ubs as well and santander, which outperformed earnings. the global macro story is one of china, and concerns about the lockdown weakening markets yesterday. we are seeing a turnaround today. stocks trading higher today, the pboc talking about policy support, traders seem to some extent tired of talk. can this sustain a bounce? u.s. bonds inc. sold off again, yields pushing higher. the inverse yesterday. also looking at commodities coming back. this china story, the growth is really important. coming up, santander with first

quarter earnings that beat estimates put we will speak with cfo jose garcia cantera next. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is xfinity rewards. our way of saying thanks, with rewards for the whole family! from epic trips... to the original jurassic park... on us. join over 3 million members and start enjoying rewards like these, and so much more in the xfinity app! and check out jurassic world: dominion, - [announcer] imagine. having fuller, thicker, more voluminous hair instantly. all it takes is just one session at hairclub. introducing xtrands. xtrands adds hundreds or even thousands of hair strands to your existing hair at the root. they're personalized to match your own natural hair color

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dani: this is "bloomberg daybreak: europe," i am dani burger in london and these are the stories that set your agenda. elon musk wins twitter for $44 billion, the social network shares a jump. european banks kickoff reporting season with hsbc and ubs beating on profit. plus, the pboc pledges to support china's economy and tech stocks leading the rally.

it is a turnaround tuesday, but yesterday we saw the first inkling of what we have seen of an equity market crack starting to show, be it from higher rates or growth concerns emanating from china. u.s. stocks turned around by the end of the day and yes i europe is playing catch-up now, but under the surface there is bearishness, at least investors hedging and preparing for bearishness. let me show you some charts, put volume has been soaring. bearish options compared to the more bullish ones currently at highest in terms of volume since march 2020, which was the start of the pandemic. does this last? does this signal a bottom of the contrarian signal that the worst in the equity market is over? only time will tell, but the worst in yesterday's losses is over for the futures market this morning. european stocks, ftse futures up more than one and a half percent.

europe had an ugly session yesterday. the u.s. considering it did at her, hanging onto gains, up about 1/10 of 1% for s&p and nasdaq futures. you look at the yuan reversing, a lot of weakness yesterday, the worst five-day losses since 2015, and that is undoing itself with the pboc pledging more support and allowing a rrr cut. you are looking at will coming up 1% and u.s. 10 year yields higher with australian bonds, lots of concerns in australia, lower by about four basis points. we have the european private equity giant, total investments coming through at 3 billion euros. total growth, 2 billion euros as well, a healthy market. those are some numbers from each ut.

-- eqt. santander in the first quarter beat estimates. joining us is the chief financial officer. really impressive set of results. we were talking how this lends itself to the geographic reach of santander. of course the natural question that comes with that, when you look at our performance in latin america and the brazilian riyal, they were hit with growth concerns from china in the picture. are you confident the good times especially in latin america can last? jose: good morning and thank you for having us on the program again. we had earnings for santander at 2.5 billion euros, 14% tangible equity, and the key drivers for that is we are a customer based bank. like you said, geographic

diversification. obviously latin america, especially brazil, bitter thing -- benefiting from the currency situation. with these very strong numbers, we feel quite confident about our package for the year. we have interest rates going up, we are a commercial bank, gerd toward higher rates. we are optimistic even beyond 22, 23, 24 on the back of much higher rates. dani: do you think some of this commodity fueled trade, the commodity field benefit latin america is seeing, you think it is -- for now? jose: probably in some cases yes, but right now brazil is probably the only large emerging-market in the world that is very attractive for investing.

the market remains very confident about the brazilian economy the next couple of years. ups and downs in the commodities market might affect a little bit in the short-term, that medium to long-term, brazil is clearly one of the most attractive larger economies in the world right now. dani: when it comes to domestic exposure, as you said, very exposed to the retail story, i find an interesting case study, the divergencies between the u.k. in spain, given u.k. rate rises have begun but there are concerns of stagnation, versus spain, the ecb a little behind. when you look at these regions, how do they differ in terms of how santander approaches them in your growth outlook? jose: we had a very strong first quarter in the u.k., record mortgage production of close to 10 billion in the quarter, and year on year, loans at 2%. a strong mortgage market in the

u.k. and we think it will continue in the coming quarters. in spain, also a strong mortgage market and strong consumer market. that is sustained at 6%. we are highly positioned, in the u.k. we are seeing the benefits of a higher rates we have seen u.k. we saw that in the first quarter. spain and the rest of europe will, mostly next year. in that sense, strong volumes in both countries and positive momentum coming from higher rates in the u.k. now and spain and the rest of europe in the next couple of quarters. dani: i'm going to ask you to play economist a little bit. what are you betting for ecb raising rates? jose: the market is estimating rates around 0% by year-end, which is reasonable, but clearly

inflation will remain high. inflation in the second half will go down here on year -- year on year because of the base effect, but structural issues will keep inflation high and therefore central banks will need to keep rates increasing a while. i don't think it is that important we see rates at zero, .25 or .75 by next year, but clearly the trend is for higher rates. dani: when it comes back to the idea of your geographical spread , we had someone on about two month ago saying santander expected to be part of the process when it comes to offloading a business, and of course there has been some slow-moving when it comes to

citi's mexico operations. what does that look like so far? jose: we are doing well. we don't need to buy panamax. the process has not started yet and we think it will take a while. we don't think the process will be closed before the end of next year most likely. we are still waiting for the process to start. dani: so perhaps a little premature to be asking these things, but i wonder over the past few years, when it comes to the americas, we've seen some of your peers and perhaps rivals exit u.s. businesses, be it hsbc last year, would you be looking to follow them and perhaps offload or completely exit some u.s. retail operations? jose: we want to be in the u.s.. the businesses we have in the u.s. are businesses we want to have. when we look at our returns last year and first quarter this

year, we are earning more than 20% on equity in the u.s.. we want to refocus our bank in the u.s. to consumer lending, cib. we are reorganizing activities to focus on those three key areas. we are very comfortable with our business in the u.s. and confident we will be able to earn more in the next few years. we have a target of at least 10% equity return in the u.s. in the coming years and we feel very confident we will be able to do it. dani: i'm afraid we have to leave it there. great catching up with you. jose garcia cantera, santander cfo. let's get to the first word news and juliette saly in singapore. juliette: charter expanding its covid-19 -- china expanding his

covid-19 testing to most of beijing. nearly 20 million people will undergo three rounds of testing in the next three weeks or so. there are concerns about further restrictions. currently more than 50 million people in china are under lockdown. president biden has named a career diplomat to be his new ambassador to ukraine as the u.s. ramps up military aid and diplomatic presence in the country. the russian foreign minister told a local tv there is a serious danger of nuclear conflict that should not be underestimated. in mariupol, attacks continued sweden and finland have reportedly agreed to discuss entering nato in mid-may. the two governments plan to publish their applications to join the defense bloc at the same time. russia's attack on ukraine has led to a radical rethinking of

the security environment in those countries bit barclays saw a surge in emerging markets last quarter with revenues climbing to around 500 million pounds amid volatility from the war in ukraine. sources say the increase came as the bank's traders surged on turbulent currency markets and big moves in credit default swaps. 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. dani? dani: juliette saly in sydney, not singapore. close but knows -- no cigar. . yuan has snapped a five day losing streak. we will get into that next. this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: welcome back to "bloomberg daybreak: europe." the offshore yuan has snapped a five day losing streak after the central bank promised to increase monetary policy support. china's economy has been dragged down by lockdowns. joining me is our guest. you in the studio. when you are looking at a yuan on pace or at least posted its worst decline since 2015 when the currency was devalued, what are the ramifications of that, the global ramifications? >> it depends on how far it goes. the yuan is very controlled. i would say it is at least in the top three global currencies, it has a huge share of everybody else's basket. that gives it the effect to have snowballing effects where if the

euro weakens and the chinese weaken the yuan and you can accelerate the dollar higher for quite a long time, which is what we saw in 2018, the most recent time we saw that. you can overshoot. that doesn't have to be what happens if the chinese decide has it strengthened too much in lockdowns when they had massive current accounts and no capital outflows, and then some people took their longs off, got excited about the dollar losing reserve status. shorting the yuan in excitement and it has biked out of control. it may be that what they want to do here is can we just calm down? dani: that's what i wanted to ask basically, what is china's aim? they cut the reserve ratio to offer some relief, but they are still in the mode of supporting

the economy. can the yuan continue to fall to the extent and speed it had been? kit: i don't think it can without some sort of willingness to tolerate it. we are in a position where chinese people cannot travel, capital outflows from china are significantly weaker than they were before, tourist outflows, buying properties abroad, that kind of thing. while you don't have a capital inflows, they are still running accounts. that is the source of its strength. the inability to export anything in a weaker economy makes a difference, differentials have moved dramatically that makes a difference. i think they are still in control of the situation and that is a difficult it -- bit. this is a more controllable currency than most. if they decide it is enough, it is enough, if they decide he would like this to go to seven,

frankly they can let that happen. i suspect at the bare minimum that there is a desire in beijing not to have disorderly moves and they will pause from here. dani: you say seven is possible -- is it likely? kit: our team in asia who are much closer than i and would say this is not what they are trying to do at the moment, but if you wanted to let your currency adjust and get some economic competitive benefit from it, a 10% move is more sensible than a 3% move or 5% move. the yen has weakened by more than 10%, the euro has weakened by more than 10%. why would it be impossible for the yuan? the only thing that stops it is they don't see the benefits, they are more interested in easy monetary policy through lower

rates and other means to boost the economy. we are still trading that desire to help the economy with that desire for financial market stability from the authorities in beijing. i think the next week or so is quite interesting. dani: two-year point about interest rate differential, we have our question today, essentially a survey that mliv is positing every week. when will the peak in u.s. 10 year yields come this year and what will it be? i know this is a difficult question but is there a level you have in mind? kit: will the peak be this year? dani: that is also the question. kit: i think we will get 325 in this cycle, with a possible overshoot. my first guess would be, emphasis on gas, we will see -- on guess, we will see yields

peak as the same as last time. i kind of think, i will think hard on whether 325 is the peak when i see what that looks like. i don't think we are at the peak yet because we are still in a period at the moment where the fed talks hawkish lead, yields move up, equities fall, yields move down, equities recover... we haven't backed off in the market and seen any proper capitulation yet. dani: it is unfortunate because it seems like a lot of investors have said bonds have sold off so much, valuations are attractive, it is time to jump in. then another fed member comes out with a hawkish statement and all of a sudden it is are 75 basis points on the table? kit: there is a sense that some of the first people to come in and say this is cheap enough, i

am buying duration, some have to feel some pain. in three years time, they were probably right, but these things overshoot. the extent to which the market is designed to overshoot the likely peak in fed funds is huge. where we are at the moment, more inflation coming, the u.s. economy still performing strongly. we are still pricing in -- you would have said a while ago, would they have raised rates 50 basis points? apparently they can do it every week. we are not done with this phase of the bond market selloff. that is why to my mind, 3% is a point to think deep thoughts, and there will be people who bu y. i would be surprised if that is

the end of it because there is too much momentum, the equity markets wobbly but nothing more. dani: i wonder, quickly, if the u.k. can be used as a foreshadowing for the u.s. when you look at an interest rate cycle that has already begun, when you look at weakening data and a currency that has been weakening -- is that a useful role model? kit: we have other things that have hit the economy here in particular, but yes. it will be a country that i think ultimately in the cycle where the market prices and a lot more rate hikes and drawnout economic cycle. the odds are, this cycle is ending sooner than we think. under the rate rises for being fast, and coming to an end sooner than we thought. exactly when that is gets messy. i would be astonished, given the nature of this cycle with this kind of huge stop, massive

reopening and huge inflation pressure, how could any central bank in the world, however gifted, manage to anything like soft land this plane? dani: great perspective as always, kit juckes. coming up, we talked twitter with elon musk winning the $44 billion bid. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: this is "bloomberg daybreak: europe." elon musk has agreed to buy twitter for $44 billion, one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history to take the 16-year-old social network platform private. on top of this story the past week has been a laura wright, i can't believe it has only been a week or so.

bring us up to speed. laura: the magic number, $54.20 per share. that is what they will receive after this leveraged buyout deal. that is almost a 38 percent gain from the social media platforms's closing price on april 1, the last trading session before we learned the world's richest person was going to become at that point the largest shareholder on the platform. the board had to set up and listen when it became clear on thursday that in fact elon musk had stuffed -- had secured the financing behind the deal, $46.5 million, a mixture of financing from banks and an equity commitment from himself. twitter reporting earnings before the bell, but there will not be a call. dani: what is elon musk's motivation? laura: it is complex and there

are a number of motivations in play. firstly, free speech. he sees this as a bedrock of democracy. he has been critical of censorship on the platform and thinks there should be more transparency around this, and a lot of engaged users on twitter are angry that someone like former president donald trump was censored whereas the taliban could still post freely. he likes that twitter is a polarizing platform and he wants those on the most left and right of the spectrum to be equally unhappy. i think this next week will be telling. essentially elon musk once a twitter to go back to its heyday. he is critical of accounts like barack obama and katy perry that have far more followers than elon musk but barely post content. if you were born before 1970, it is essentially a troll. dani: i feel like you were just

trolling the boomers, i like it. laura wright will be on the program throughout the next few hours, keeping us on top of the twitter story. next is bloomberg markets: europe. this is bloomberg. ♪

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to "bloomberg markets: europe." i'm anna edwards. mark cudmore joins us from singapore to take us through the market action. the cash trade is less than one hour away. sealing the deal, elon musk winds twitter for $44 billion. european banks kickoff reporting season as hsbc and ubs beat on profits despite market