caroline hyde? caroline: first, a weekly drop. currently we are opening up flat in the u.k.. greece reeling front and center. taking profit for the last couple of days. 2% across germany. locking in those profits. up 20%. as we get into this, the area of volatility. greece potentially not making the debt repayment. maybe a little bit of nerves creeping in. we wait for germany's open. italy down by 2%'s -- 2/10 of a percent. that is check-in on how the foreign costs are going. rising today. currently up. 12 point 25%. -- 12.75%. more than 28%. remember the short-term debt is what shows up. the fear factor building in. to your debt, more than 28%. the height of concerns of the debt crisis. clearly, people getting worried about what is happening in greece. money going into u.s. debt. money going into germany. just seven points from the critical zero level. will germany go negative. u.k., we have got the data coming out of the united kingdom. unemployment, 5.6%. will we see jobless claims. 29,000 is the estimate. let us have a look at what we are seeing on the dollar. we are seei

here with more is caroline hyde. dig into the numbers for us. : much better than had been expected. we were expecting things to stabilize when it came down to the nonfood sales. they did better than stabilize. they grew for the first time in 14 straight quarters of declines. light at the end of the tunnel. 0.7% growth in general merchandise. clothing up 0.6%. we are starting to see a turnaround. we are starting to see belinda earl work her magic. it is all about a suede skirt that got particularly good reviews from the fashion press. this is area where they are posting much better progress. the chief executive called it strong progress focusing on quality and styling. that area is doing well, as is the food area. they have been doing much better than tesco and sainsbury's. they do have a higher price point, a higher quality. that hasn't been hit by the pricing pressure. sales once again rising. we are seeing marks & spencer's protect its profitability. they are on track to meet their targets growing their gross margin in merchandise. food will be

caroline hyde has details. caroline: this is the number. 15.6 billion euros is what is being valued and it is a share deal: away and the options are not what is expected. we just heard michelle take to the stage and say this is the right combination at the right time and he wants to build the european champion for telecoms equipment with shares capping at less than expected. already, they sound effusive about the deal and are keeping personnel and. they go as far as setting up a startup fund to get the internet of rains in france. the company is going to be called no kia m based in finland. this is why they are acquiring it. it is not just doing a share. it is acquiring and you can see that it is oprah sing and on finland and remember this will leapfrog the mobile network equipment and the number one player when it comes to mobile. it is not just europe and the united states. this is all of the innovation and this is what they want to create. this is about the internet of things and about us not becoming complet

caroline hyde has the details. caroline: check this out.ver the course of a year this is the number you want. 43%. this is how much it has risen in market value. netflix, if it holds on to that surge after hours, will be worth $32 billion. that will be more than rival media company cbs which is worth about $30 billion. less tv, more about online streaming. it is all about subscriptions. they now have 62 million subscribers worldwide. they added 2.6 million internationally. they now have almost 21 million subscribers internationally. u.s., they added 2.3 million. there is much more to go in terms of international growth. 20 million, just one third of their overall numbers. this is where they can ramp up. australia, new zealand, japan, that is where they are looking to open for the first time in asia. we are looking to offer worldwide by the end of 2016. we don't know if that includes china as yet. ubs say this number could become $87 million outside the u.s. -- 87 million outside the u.s. by 2020. we are expecting slightly slower additions.

let's check in with caroline hyde.ine: interesting effect the currency is happening particular the strength of the dollar. that is helping. interestingly, one of the key performers is a swiss drugmaker. they beat with profitability and they update the forecast for the full year. so does the ship design. fighting strength is really showing through there. the scales of the chips are in the billions. they beat the estimates across the board and they are saying the pound is playing into that a little bit. and the chip designer is with the samsung portfolio and more cap -- more powerful chips and royalties. this is a company being hurt by foreign-currency. they report in pounds and a lot of sales come in euros. retail sales are up and sugar is always a bit of a concern. it is the worst performer on the stoxx 600. they say there will be a modest decline. >> thanks. let's get to another one beating estimates. manus cranny spoke to the outgoing ceo, brady dougan. manis began talking about the biggest risks he faced. let's in t

let's dig into these indexes and get some of the stock movers with caroline hyde. ne: leading the charge with the greens. it is all about earnings. seb is coming off of its highs now. now just up 0.5%. the nordic region's biggest foreign currency trading bank. profit fell 18%. negative central bank rates put pressure on across the nordic banks. pressure on deposit margins and earnings. the flipside of that is, consumers are more likely to pay you back. suddenly, credit losses are going down. net credit losses, 39% lower. much improved. the chief executive says we operate in exceptional times. meanwhile, electrolux up six .5%. leading the charge on the stoxx 600. number one home appliance maker. first-quarter operating profit beat analyst estimates. they are ramping up their pricing. that helped offset negative moves in foreign currency. european markets are set to expand this year. north america is where the weakness is coming in. is it all about new energy regulations? it looks pretty strong. the company continues to expand buying up general electric's home applian

caroline:-caroline hyde. : the world's largest luxury goods company lvmh has had a sales search. -- sales surge. manus: equipment makers join the end and a --m&a action. caroline: it is a deal brewing and industry rife with dealmakaking. it is a deal that has been speculated about four years. could be buying alcatel -- no kia could be buying alcatel. the deal could be announced as soon as this week. it would boost nokia's presence in china and the united states. you have 1.3 billion mobile subscribers. this is a real area of strength for alcatel. but their wireless network area would also bring to key players in the united states market verizon communications and at&t. the contract that they have bring in 25% of their overall revenue. key areas of growth. we could see them did not only for the wireless area of alcatel but also for alcatel as a whole making it the second-biggest player. it would be the second-biggest network equipment maker in the world after erickson. let's take a look at whether no kia --noki

let's get to bill with caroline hyde.a abide a hint of -- let's get to them with caroline hyde. caroline: a hint of m&a. buying base units. slightly bigger price tag than expected. people really liking the way tel enet is moving and the billionaire malone is moving. getting that the cable. 3.8% coming off of 5% higher than we saw a earlier. m&a driving some stocks on the higher side. driving down is a key project, petrofac. the reason? a particular cost they keep delaying on. now it is over running to the tune of excess of $200 million. the costs keep on climate because they have to complete quicker than they want to. june is when they said they will have the bulk of the work done. the reason it has been delayed is poor weather. and industrial has pleaded the project under the crunch. they boosted it last year to the tone of $230 million and now once again $190 million in excess. they are determined they said take get it done in time and that is why they are having this. it is taking petrofac stocks down a it is the worst

we're joined by caroline hyde michael houston, and retail analyst charles allen. i will kick it up with caroline. the biggest loss and all they century at the company. bigger than almost everyone expected. caroline: you are right. that is what is going to be dragging shares lower. phenomenal numbers when you look at them. when you look at 5.7 billion pounds, that is a net loss after-tax. a one-off charge of a cool 7 billion pounds. property is where they take the hit. goodwill is where they take their head. stock is where they take their head. restructuring costs. still it looks frustrating for the future. the market is still challenging, so says dave lewis, the chief executive. dividends have eased the situation. times very tough over a tesco. i think the real issue is what about the future? you have dave lewis trying to talk up the volumes they are selling. more people going into tesco. they have invested in prices. they are investing in front of house staff. people actually serving you. they outlined the numbers. more than 4600 customer-facing roles to be made a

here with more is caroline hyde. the usual frenzy, this is what i'm surprised about. i don't see it this time in london. what is the story? caroline: you are exactly right. there isn't much of a queue in london. there wasn't much in china. no one stood outside, maybe just 14 people lined up in beijing. in an area, a region, that apple calls its most important. tokyo got a little more excited. there are about 70 people gathered there. 100 outside the store in sydney. but there isn't a sudden race to get into the shops because they are selling them online. today, you can try it out, by appointment, you can try it on. see which one of the three variations you actually want. if you want the sports style or the more luxurious addition which of the many straps you want. this is the new way in which apple is trying to sell its new device the first new device under tim cook. it is the smart watch. it has a hefty price tag. it called -- could cost from $349 up to $17,000 if you are going for the gold version. but it doesn't have this furor, these long lines that we saw with the

caroline: and i am caroline hyde. manus: and i am manus cranny. mark: pensioners and civil servants. manus: and it equity target of 10%. of course, it abandoned its original target of a return on equity a number of years ago, so return on equity their of 12%. that was with the corporate bank side of the business. this is the strategy for deutsche bank. focusing on investment. this after they delivered their first-quarter numbers, the second-best revenue on record driven by the investment bank it should be said. a post-tax return of 10%, with planned growth leverage reductions, so this is reducing the amount of weighted assets on its balance sheet, which carry big capital requirements. the target there, 200 billion euros worth. everyone is in the same game here. barclays, ubs, credit suisse. all of the major banks are in exactly the same game of trying to do lever their balance sheet to stabilize what is called their buffer of tier one ratio at about 11%. that slipped ever so slightly in the first-quarter numbers. let's cross over to hans nichols,

caroline hyde joins us at the touchscreen. caroline: a cool 47 billion pounds. a cool 50% premium on bg's share price. this is record data in terms of size of move, but if you go back, it is only since july 2014 when we last saw this price on bg group. that was the amount that the oil prices plummeted dragging down the price of oil stocks. suddenly, everything looks a little bit fairer valued. that is what has capitalized this deal to spark the biggest energy deal in a decade. suddenly, assets look well priced. creating the second-biggest energy company in the world this would be the biggest player in the ftse 100. it will have sheer size and scale. interestingly, shell saying, we will build a company with three pillars. they are going to reorient themselves. why are they getting into this? why go big on gas? they are betting on energy betting on gas and the reserves. they are going to boost their overall reserves by 20%. we have seen shell production at the lowest in 17 years. reserves have fallen two of the three years. bg was on the up. they boosted than six

caroline hyde is setting up tesco for us. francine: look at the loss and it is gigantic. the share price is going up. the analysts are giving this time to work. >> absolutely. that is the interesting story. it is making headlines. what are they going to do? that is the interesting thing. his focus on the u.k. is the most fascinating story. everyone is talking about what he is going to do with the business. he is really going to grow it. he is focusing enormously on stores and customers. we have already seen his upward turns and the reason that is happening is because of the focus on the customer. he is starting to reduce prices and about 49 p prevents trouble -- per vegetable. he is consolidating the brands and making some suppliers unhappy. he may be does not have 10 choices on bread. he has three and it offers clarity. >> that is what we need. guy: what is the tesco brand synonymous with? >> used to be synonymous with value. it is a business that knows what it means to offer a brand that consumers can trust. they have started to do interesting things and have reduced th

let's get to stocks on the move with caroline hyde. caroline: i've got one big faller for you.%. a steel maker of alloyed tubing as well. it clearly is showing the pain. 2,000 jobs to go. 75% of those 2,000 will come out of europe. earnings missed in the first quarter. earnings just 53 million euros. estimated to be three times that. the biggest faller on the stoxx 600. another key faller is nokia showing why they want to do that deal with alcatel-lucent. profit missing analyst estimates in their network business. this is all about phone equipment as the mobile companies beef up their infrastructure. these are the companies that supply them. yahweh. revenue rose but profitability is under stress. this is why they want to hook up with alcatel-lucent and why they agreed to buy them this month. they are trying to curve costs and overall look to expand and take on that competition. let's look on the bright side. that is portuguese food company. first quarter beat analyst estimates. jonathan: there we go. thank you very much, caroline. let's talk banking now. b.n.p. paribas reported

so let's check in with caroline hyde. caroline: it is all about tomorrow and the payroll.e closed. it will be easter holiday for many across europe and asia. there will be some notable openings. today is pretty flat ahead of the data. when a disappointing u.s. data yesterday from a manufacturing point of view and the employment point of view. the ftse 100 moving up. dax open down .1%. flat when looking at the equity market. news out of greece, the lifeline

. >> i;m caroline hyde. -- i'm caroline hyde.e take a look at the policy in asia's two biggest economies. >> wolfgang schaeuble doesn't see a deal with greece on the new bailout. dozens and -- that doesn't mean they may have to leave the euro. it is up to the greek government to commit to save rather than give full hope to the people. >> greece remains part of europe in any case. it ever happens in greece greece remains part of europe. if greece stays in the euro zone, it must create the conditions for it. what the greece has the money to meet its obligations is primarily a decision of the greek government. if greece one support, we will give the support. of course, within the framework of what we agreed. >> shoretel rolled out further concessions, sing another -- sch aruble. >> good morning. is offering a dose of reality or pessimism and perhaps both p a is clear is the idea of having a deal at that summit is a nonstarter. no one expects that to happen. he spoken german. you could almost hear his frustration and the words he is

caroline: i'm caroline hyde.up, we'll talk about the business over the environment. 43 major companies are calling for swift action in climate change. that story sa little bit later. mark: christine lagarde warning she would not let greece skip a payment. >> we never had an advanced economy asking for that kind of thing. delayed payment. i very much hope this is not the case the greece. i would not support it. caroline: greece made a payment to the i.m.f. earlier this month. it must now pay about $1 billion in may. it is locked to its creditors. their finance minister said he was willing to compromise but he would stand firm on not crossing the government's red line. >> we're not going sign up to what we know our economy cannot meet. our partners should not wish to impose upon us, not just for our sake but for the common european and global interest. caroline: he is stance comes as greece's anti- austerity government faces its first protest rally as it came into office four months ago. mark: let's get to our repo

let's get the details with caroline hyde. caroline: up goes the share price 31%. offer is 33% to be precise. 1/3 premiere. this time being offered by fedex. just two years ago, it was indeed ups that wanted its hands on it. quite amazing, points of view by the management. saying it is a much made in heaven, but the deal is eight euros a share it is all about fedex. wanted to grow itself within europe. a key pillar to their growth plan by the chief executive of that expert he was saying i want to boost profits by $1.7 billion. that was back in 2012. how would he do it? he would look into europe. they said buying this asset make sense. they do not have that many overlapping synergies so they are over to reduce overall jobs they have to cut and focus on gaining scale. they said the deal would close by the first half of 2016. an interesting aspect to this is antitrust. and tnt's turnaround. back in 2013 is when the deal with ups unraveled. that is when the american company wanted to get its hands on tnt express offering 9.5 euros per share, even more than fedex curren

caroline hyde has been following the story and talking to a senior executive. let's head straight to the details. caroline: david being is who we spoke to and he was really talking about how they are bringing together two very strong brands that do not actually overlap too much. they are not worried about regulatory approval. you have the united states on one side fedex is very strong in air cargo. on the other side you have the european band, very strong on the ground. they say this is complementary. they are not worried about regulatory approval. this is where it breaks down, eight euros a share is a one third premium. expect shares to jump about 30% on the open. expanding into europe has been a key pillar of growth. he said in 2012 they wanted to boost profit by $1.7 billion. cast your mind back to two years ago, january 2013. the last time tnt express was under the m&a microscope the deal unraveled. it was under the ups looking to buy tnt express and regulators didn't like it or it they thought it would be anticompetitive that there would be too little open

caroline hyde has been crunching the numbers and has alls details. line: this 12% surge we've seen will be worth $32 billion. for the interperspective, sky, worth $26 billion and is in excess of sky's value and could leapfrog the media company it competes so hard against, cbs worth $30.6 billion. what a volatile trading period but still, up more than 40% over the past 1 months, fourth fastest performer in the s&p. and of course it's all about less tv, more streaming, less cable subscriptions and more streaming subscriptions and where the numbers are phenomenal. they now have 62 million subscribers worldwide and added more than was expected last quarter. u.s. up 2.3 million international overtaking that, up $2.6 million and rose and added australia and new zealand coming online in march and japan, they'll open the first asian market in september. u.b.s. says eventually they see international numbers above all of that, $87 million by 2020. guy: $200 trading range in three months. i guess the question is are these numbers a blip and will next quarter's n

caroline hyde: home retail is up , coming off of highs. this is the units in the united kingdom.y much an evolution, focusing on how it grows and getting more savvy. sales are responding, up with both of the brands. earnings are climbing. they are cutting the costs and saying that it enables in the rapidly changing retail markets. there are signs of improvement. the market seems to like but they here. it is up 2.3%. the retail stocks, it is a first quarter beat. the warm weather, it would seem. suddenly, a dose of warm weather and everybody goes wild for shorts. all of the analysts are saying healthy, strong, these are the things we are hearing. on the downside, down almost 7%. a net loss in the first quarter underlies the earnings. back to you. jonathan ferro: volkswagen reported earnings and shares are up. what is behind the beat? >> you have seen remarkable sales figures and what the branch does is 9.7% profitability. it makes 1.4 billion in profit. you have 165 million in profit and it came in with the estimates. it comes from porsche and audi. the brands are bringing in new

caroline hyde joins us for more. it seems that the strong dollar had a very big impact on sales. ne: this is facebook, the company that does most of its business internationally. these falling dollar signs some of the dragging effect that it had on its sales. let's dig into the numbers. for the first time since 2012 and as i mentioned, the strength of the u.s. dollar is what pulled it down, you can see they had 49% growth in sales. that is a phenomenal figure. it was only 42% when you factor in the drag of the u.s. dollar. underlying this business, some phenomenal statistics. this company is gaining in terms of users and ad sales. we are now up to 1.4 4 billion users per month. every single day, they are getting more addicted. almost one billion people checking in every single day. mobile is where they are at. we are seeing them up in the 50% range because about three quarters of their business is done on mobile. they are becoming a platform for mobile apps. crazy stats in terms of how much they are hiring as well. 48% increase year on year. they now have 10,000 people working for

caroline hyde has everything you need to know on the twitter rap. hashtag, off you go. tanks manus. this was a fail as you say. it was trending for all the wrong reasons. look at that sudden dive in the share price that happened yesterday as we had the earnings leaked actually before they were meant to be put out after the trading bell had closed trade. this company i might remind you, has never made a profit, is suddenly no longer showing the growth that is necessary. when you a company with a evaluation in excess of $20 billion you need to prove this company is growing when it is not boasting a profit. the growth is not living up to expectations. third quarter sales missed. it is still big, though. 74% higher. they wanted to see a double. 82% in terms of estimated growth. it fails in terms of first quarter sales. second quarter forecast also missed analyst estimates. they say we're going to grow about 55%. analysts wanted 72% growth. numbers bigger than the 485 million that they are looking to bring in. meanwhile, the full-year forecast was reigned back by twitter. th

caroline hyde on the latest on the iphone and ipad and apple.appen to have any of those devices and you're interested on an update on what is happening in business, we have something for you. we are launching bloomberg business europe, the website today. we want to know as a result in one word and the one word is critical -- what business means to you. tweet us. ♪ francine: welcome back to "the pulse" live on bloomberg tv and streaming on the ipad and bloomberg.com. guy: let's talk about standard charter's numbers missing this one. first quarter profits not what they could event -- the numbers did not live up to expectations. bloomberg news reporter stephen morris joins us now with more. let's talk about the numbers first of all. we have a good man -- a new management team. to what extent are these numbers irrelevant? stephen: a lot of people have said this is a holding pattern. until bill winters come in in june. it highlights the scale of the task ahead for the new ceo. pre tax profit was down 22%. francine: did they say anything about finding

i'm sure caroline hyde will be looking at those energy stocks. let's go across to her. roline: all three stocks i'm completely focusing in on this industry group. oil and gas is the best-performing industry group today. the sector is rising the most since march 2009. the energy stocks in the stoxx 600 currently trading up 5.4%. this stock leads the charge 37.5%. the reason is, shell are looking to buy bg group for a cool 47 billion pounds. this is a record move for bg group in its history, but if you look at where we last hit this sort of number, the last time that we saw these share prices at this level, only july 2014. six months ago. it takes a 40% surge to get back to the levels we saw before the oil price started to sink. in 2014, we saw the sudden capitulation in the oil price, the downward trend in wti crude and brent crude prices. this is why these assets are so rich for the picking. this is why tulloqw is being driven up almost 12% this morning. this one is particularly focused in africa. maybe its assets look appetizing to the likes of the oil majors out there.

caroline: i'm caroline hyde. manus: one system is testing to eliminate all traffic accidents. we take a sneak peek at the driverless cars. stick around for that. caroline: breaking news -- it is a deal. express will be offered by fedex. it is offering a third premium at 3.3% in terms of the premium of the sharepoint which is six euros. they are offering eight euros per ordinary share. it is a really interesting deal because it is over two years ago we saw that are for -- that offer trying to snap up tnt express. that deal unraveled because regulators got involved. they felt they would not be enough competition in next day delivery because it would be owned by ups and dhl. seemingly, maybe fedex will be able to increase its prevalence in europe. it is a key area of growth for them. they say profitability, they want to boosted by $1.7 billion. it is part of fred smith's plan to boost profits. expansion in europe. by buying up tnt express, table be able to do -- they will be able to do that. an agreement on a recommended all caps off are. implied the value is 4.4 billion euros for

caroline hyde is waiting through the numbers. 1.4 billion pounds. ng in line with analyst and their own estimates says tesco. they are looking for like for like volume sales rising for the first time in four years. the pricing is trying to show that some of the changing's -- some of the changes are taking place. volume is not sales, and like for like sales have fallen 1% in the fourth quarter. we have a 7 billion pound one off charge. that is phenomenally large. many had expected to see a write-down of 5 billion, but 7 billion is larger than analysts expected. they say it is predominantly non-cash and includes 47 pounds -- 47 billion pounds of fixed asset impairment. that will likely be real estate. it reflects challenging industry conditions and the profit decline. the pension deficit is another thing we are watching. the funding plan has agreed with the trustees. there is a cash contribution in excess of 270 million pounds per year. that is how they are going to shrink the deficit, something they have been wrapping up -- ramping up. pension deficit

caroline hyde is that the touchscreen. caroline: another day, another deal.is alcatel and nokia driving down no key or share prices. it will be the purchaser. some of that cash nokia sold is handset unit and got 7.5 billion dollars. about 5 billion euros in cash and walked to pay more to get its hands on alcatel. we saw the shares spike higher up almost 20% in trading at the highest point since 2008. people are wondering if this deal will get it done. the french government have to sign off. the french government in previous time has been reticent to let these big deal to go through and maybe they feel it is a strategic move. it is about network equipment for he it is about your play stations antenna -- it is about the stations and antenna from one computer to another. everybody digesting mobile and looking at netflix. this why would need heavy-duty equipment. we have seen a little bit of reticence from companies out there. the mobile operators to increase the infrastructure. that is why we consolidation within europe and combined. it would be the second-bigge

caroline: i'm caroline hyde. we are waiting on breaking news. getting across the terminals now with skye coming out with the results. 242,000 new customer additions in the third quarter. just managing to keep increasing. they added some 493,000 in their second quarter. it is a slow down from the previous quarter, but we are looking out to sea how they are improving, whether there will be any buildup in the united kingdom and ireland. we sought at a decade low last year, but the revenue for the first nine-month -- last nine months has risen. his rupert murdoch's broadcasting company for all intensive purposes. they have five european companies because they bought sky italian, guy deutsch land -- sky deutschland. we have in the third quarter 242,000 new customer additions, almost 70% more than the previous time last year, over one mile in -- over one million new paid subscriptions. +++ and austria. germany is doing particularly well and revenue is up 5%, 28% increase in operating profit. they are ramping up prices because they spent so much on foo

caroline hyde has these and here she is. ne: let's look at what is tugging down the stoxx 600. the worst performer, tgf, a seismic survey are in norway. revenues aren't looking quite so pretty for those oil related stocks. first-quarter revenue/my a quarter. -- revenue slashed by a quarter. they are cutting their 2015 forecast. they are also cutting 10% of their workforce. another key father is volkswagen. drama brewing at this german carmaker. we are seeing arguments being pitted. chairman versus chief executive. it seems the rest of the power players are rallying behind the chief executive, instead of ferdinand pierce who is finding himself more and more isolated even by his own cousin. clearly some concerns brewing at the helm of volkswagen. that sent that stock lower by 1.3%. smurfit kappa continuing to drive higher, all about the m&a story when it comes to this company. i wish company going into the press saying, we are frustrated by these reports, speculation that an international company is buying us up. it was reporte

jonathan: caroline hyde, thank you very much. let's keep the conversation on pharma.novartis this morning. roche beat sales estimates yesterday. we are joined now by an analyst from geneva. great to have you with us this morning. the numbers from novartis great. let's skip all that and talk about how busy this company has been in the last 12 months. they wrap up a deal with glaxo. they bought the glaxo cancer drugs as well. they formed a joint venture for their consumer health care products. how long does it take to shake this out and carry on delivering? >> you are right. the last year has been a transformational year for novartis. i would say they started the year very strongly, especially on the productivity side beating estimates by some 12% encore operating profit. as you said, glaxo oncology business only contributed one month, but we've seen now a big contribution from this business which is around $2 billion. as you said they've invested on the vaccine business. that will also help on the margin. i would say that they are really improving. they have created no

caroline hyde has the details. we spoke to the ceo of alcatel lucent. 's pretty sure that there is not going to be any regulatory hurdles. caroline: the officials were talking to the government on all of this. they need the french government to sign off. they seem to be making a few pr stunts themselves, telling the government they will make a startup fund to look into the internet of things in france. they are dedicated to the hiring practices alcatel lucent signed up for. the french are worried they will see the employees moved to finland. this is where the entire company is going. they are going to be nokia as a huge entirety. the chief executive is taking the helm. he's going to be leading this particular company. for 15.6 billion euros this is the number that is being paid up. it seems that the all share offer is not sitting well with investors. the share price was down about 11% having rallied 16% yesterday. some investors and analysts are saying, the ratio looks pretty good. analysts saying that share transaction ratio is reasonable. they are gett

let's check in with caroline hyde at the touchscreen. caroline: they are opening as we speak.e a bit of a down day. there is no joke about that despite the fact that it is april fools' day. best quarter in europe since 2009. the longest stretch of quarterly gains in the united states back to 1998. we've had nine straight quarters of gains on the s&p 500. global stocks touched record highs. we are seeing the ftse opening basically flat, but france off by 0.4%. we are looking for germany to spring into action as well as spain. there is a little bit of mixed

i am caroline hyde. and i am man us. th a hotelier to talk business, currency swings and the u.k. election. caroline: oil giant shell is announcing earnings, a whopping $70 billion acquisition of b.g. >> the earnings was $3.2 billion, a solid beat. what i am not seeing here is anything more about cost cutting. that was the other thing investors were looking to hear. last quarter they announced they were going to cut $is a billion of costs over the next three years. nothing here about that but a solid beat. you can only expect it was coming. the dividend, and this is key, coming in at 47 cents a share. that is 5.8% dividend yield. the commitment is huge for investors. shell says asset sales total over $2 billion so far this year. they are on track with asset sales. cost cutting, no information about that just yet. again, it looks like trading and refining has saved their bacon. we knew that obviously with oil price half of what it was last year, that was going to be under pressure. but clearly a strong performance from ref

i'm caroline hyde. mark: i'm mark barton. coming up, the $20 billion drug deal. ou the latest on the pharma mega m&a. caroline: let's head out to hong kong where stocks are surging. we're seeing really big moves in the hong kong market, following on from the rally we have seen in chinese mainland stocks. >> exactly. basically people are speculating that at some point or another, shanghai's hang seng hong kong stock also catch up to the shanghai composite. today another rally for the hang seng. one point in today's trading. it surges 6.5%. currently trading up 3.4%. investors are thinking that it may catch one the shanghai composite. of course today falling 1.3%, but remember in the past three weeks, the shanghai composite closed lower only two times. in the past 12 months, it surged 90%. in the past 14 months it doubled. mainland investors are now asking -- are now getting these stocks or buying hong kong stocks through the hong kong shanghai stock connect. we saw yesterday the turnover was at a record especially after mainland authorities made it easier for domes

with more is bloomberg's caroline hyde. it's now standing bullish on the numbers. more than $10 billion to bring in the italian and the german unit and now we are seeing sky shares trading at the highest level since 2001. clearly the number seven press. -- have impressed. they are starting to hike up the amount they charge the customers, but they have also been splashing their cash i knew football right. they are going to be spending 1.4 billion pounds puryear for the next season of football because it is all about content. they are managing to reduce churn. their customers very impressive. 242,000 avid. they now have an excess of 20 million users. they say the growth is far exceeding where was this time last year. they seem to be on a bit of a roll. . francine: the uk is an area of growth. is it surprising given that we have so much competition? caroline: we have virgin media owned by the competitor that is liberty global john malone. they do fight it every font when it comes to your. uber murdoch -- rupert murdoch the controlling owner of sky. they are getting in

caroline is at caroline hyde tv. there is manus, back from paris after no sleep.anus: coming up bloomberg sits down with the british indian billionaire. he tells us what he would do to strengthen the u.k. relationship. manus: top stories this hour foreign ministers from russia, ukraine france and germany meet in berlin to distrust the fragile cease-fire agreement as both the ukraine and russia accused each other of violating the accords. u.k. leaders say easing economic sanctions depends on full compliance. george osborne laid out the conservative party's plan to ease the tax threshold. >> the basic human instinct to some -- provide for your children and we believe that the home that you paid for should belong to you and your family so we will take family homes out of inheritance tax. so that only millionaires pay inheritance tax. manus: on the same program the deputy leader criticized the conservative plan. >> we don't think it is a priority to give tax relief on inheritance tax, we think if your home is worth more than 2 million pounds you should start to pay a

caroline hyde, arotech who rue, has the details. -- our tech guru, has the details.aroline: if you bought the nasdaq in 1971, you would be over 3000% higher. finally we are back above the dot-com boom. three tech titans have come out after the bell, kicking off with the biggest by terms of sales. that is amazon. this company pulls in a cool $22.7 billion and first-quarter sales. phenomenal amount of money. sales up 15%, a boost. this is a company that is also making inroads in computing. it is not just about selling goods, they really show growth when it comes to amazon web services. now we are seeing them offering cloud computing. when that does well, so does amazon because they offer data storage, the computing power with aws, sales up 49%, an area of growth. of course, this company continues to splash the cash. they love to plow money into future investment, getting products to you quicker, investing and content so you become addicted to the amazon kindle fire so you get all of the prime video and content and that makes you purchase more detergent when you need it

caroline hyde. that sets up our next conversation very nicely.conversation on the housing market and the general election. jeremy, thanks very much for coming in. this buy-to-leave phenomenon. 460,000 properties stand empty in the u.k. is that the magnitude of the problem? jeremy: it is a big number and it is growing. you can see how many building projects are going on in london. it is getting worse. we've got this problem, this contrast in london, this oversupply. anna: do we need legislation? do we need the government or local councils to step in and stop people from buying houses if they are not going to live in them? i know that takes us into the realm of politics. is that a likely progression? jeremy: it is certainly possible. there are already tools in the bag that the council can use. the point that is messed is that -- missed is that the investors buying these properties are often underpinning these developments anyway. the foreign investors are taking the units. anna: the problem remains that a lot of people are looking for homes in the

caroline hyde is always trending. there i am ♪ ♪ mark: you are watching countdown. foreign-exchange checkup. the dollar is down today after the boj and all the economists that we said at bloomberg said there will be no change in policy. year to date, the dollar is flat against the yen. it is stuck in this trading range of 116 21 21. -- 116-121. as i said, that was forecast by all 34 economists in the bloomberg survey. government corrode or is what -- he is praying for inflation to reach his target but he is facing a test because of cheaper oil and the weakness in japan's recovery. most economists forecast another boost in stimulus by october. policymakers are confident for now that a cycle of writing profits, wages, and expectations of price gain will lift inflation to their goal. many economists are certain hence they are forecasting that the the oj will loosen policy once again by october. strategists surveyed by bloomberg expect the dollar to strengthen to ¥128 this quarter 100 and ¥35 in the fourth quarter. the most bullish on the yen is hundred ¥15 called for t

caroline: i'm caroline hyde. mark: we look ahead to the last u.k.dp release ahead of next week's general election. manus: we are waiting for numbers which is going to be health care and consumer business. there radically -- they radically changed the shape and focus on the $25 million health market. we are waiting for those numbers to come through. organic revenue, we are waiting for, but expecting just over 5 billion euros. let's keep an eye out for those numbers. meantime, there is only one corporate story and that is apple. barn storming numbers all due to the iphone 6 and 6 plus sales. caroline has the breakdown. caroline: it was a blowout in the second quarter, fiscal second-quarter. they have yet more cash to splash. $70 billion. let's look into the stellar report because profit really did escalate. we saw profit jumped some 33% bringing in $13.6 billion. that beat analyst estimates. sales went up 27%. it would have been even higher if it was not for the strength of the dollar. what a phenomenal amount of money. you break that down that means

let's go to caroline hyde.estminster where the bank is holding its -- he said he would wait to have more clarity. in terms of timing the review starts today and can go on for how long? caroline: exactly just behind me we will see the general meeting starting here live in westminster. in a statement put out today, it was yesterday the board decided for the first time since 2010 to investigate whether they should be headquartered in the u.k. or somewhere else. we have that statement earlier saying that the board has asked management to commence work looking at the best place for hsbc in this current environment. they said we're not going to get an answer very quickly. they said the question is a complex one and it is too soon to say how long it will take and the work is underway. the it was one shareholderer in particular who said, who pushed him to move from the united kingdom because they feel levies are too high, both the conservative party and the labour party. they have already done it eight times already, f