unicredit has done this so far and there is a lot of demand for assets. some smaller banks are looking at that. taking assets and securitizing them to get off the balance sheet. what's the key is to separate the good from the bad assets. you havee a farmer and a landmine in the field, you are not going to step on the field. if you know with a landmine is, you can use the rest of the field. the farmer is like the investor who wants to buy a tie-in assets and does not know where the landmine is. assets and does not know where the landmine is. italy remains behind reforms. there is something moving. there is a discussion on new electoral reform. it is not passing as strong as initially planned. something is moving. on the bankside, there could be more initiatives to clarify where the loans are and sell them. i think the italian banks are still a by. we continue to be long and we would like to see more forms from renzi. we know there is a hung parliament and a lot of challenges. things are moving a bit slowly. >> they do. let us talk about the issue. we liste

let's stick with earnings because yesterday, unicredit posted a record loss.e cutting 8500 jobs. the chiefned by executive officer, federico ghizzoni. this is only life television interview. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. a sizable loss. it is one of the biggest losses ever in european corporate history. is all the bad news behind you? >> i think so. the decision was to turn the page. we have taken two big decisions. -- and the second two significantly increase our coverage. i am very confident that we can look to our future in a different way, more positively. on nonperforming loans, you -- you set aside 9 billion euros for that. we decided for further because of the impaired loans in italy. -- this'll help us to manage more effectively the stock looking forward. is a mildst for italy improvement. the economy is leaving the recession. that 2013 has been the worst year and now we can look to the future with more positivity. we want to improve the balance sheet to go for the provision, a strong. we're turning the page and focusing on profitability i

>> unicredit executive federico ghizzoni says he is ready to run the page after record losses. meets withbama ukrainian prime minister today in washington. is the latest demonstration of support for the new government. the tension with russia over crimea continues. >> we will get the latest earnings from prudential. welcome to "countdown." i am mark barton. >> and i am anna edwards. we will start by telling you about some of the big interviews that are coming up on bloomberg television. george soros will be sitting down on "on the move." >> we will talk with tony fernandez. we are expecting to get earnings any moment from prudential, the u.k.'s biggest insurer by market value. nothing coming through at the moment but the numbers are coming. this is an asian-focused business. half of its revenues come from asian markets. they got a boost from the south east asia part of their business so it will be interesting to see if any more comes through. as far as stock performing, year to date they are up 1.6%. in line with the overall european insurance market. not moving all that much.

this is very similar to what we have seen from the bigger competitor unicredit.ffice software for apple's ipad has been unveiled. manus cranny joins us for the details. manus, it is available to download now. how is it going so far. >> number one, fran. number one comes in that office. number two comes in at xl. number three comes in of powerpoint for ipad. the point want to make here is, the first is up there one billion people use office at home to execute their work business. that's if it sustains. >> is this microsoft playing catchup with the business consumer? >> is perhaps the most important point. you and i were 3.5 billion to microsoft. catch-up,out playing francine. there are lots of other apps out there you can download and right on an ipad. it is about mobile first. is about cloud first. fournadella it- was about putting the customer first. >> the position is pretty straightforward. sure that the one billion office users and growing have access to the high fidelity office experience on every device they love to use. ipad, and today's announcement marks

they are relying on unicredit. they have management with unicredit.billion -- 174 billion euros. if you take a look at icbc's net value, about 200 billion u.s. dollars. >> good to talk to you. let's turn to some of the key events we are watching out this weekend. in japan, the sales tax coming on tuesday. the first time in 17 years. ministerd be prime shinzo abe upon biggest challenge. abe's biggest challenge. the consumer market is, in the longer term, will shrink. they'ds natural that japanese companies will become the aggressive -- that japanese companies will become more aggressive. automobile companies have been very global from the beginning. now we are more ring -- moving to more pharmaceutical and others who are trying to expand their business. it has been challenging for to acquire aanies company and how to manage the post merger integration. now, they are starting to learn to do it. the japanese have become more international. they are bringing in more known japanese people on the board. the japanese companies are getting more and more globa

a bank like unicredit has a different jurisdiction. it was very difficult to manage.ow they have one jurisdiction. that that havee a competitive advantage over national banks. that could be a trigger for consolidation. the qr the adjustment to will also be a trigger. consolidation in europe has taken place at a high level and i expect more consolidation at the lower level. , we are expecting them to unveil their new plan. our italian banks stronger than investors give them credit for? >> my answer is yes to that. >> is there an italian discount? >> banks are doing what they ought to do. we will havefrom them. urprise fromave no s them. the big banks are fine. >> stay right there. we are going to switch gears. ryan chilcote is on the ground in moscow. what is the sentiment on the ground? we are still in these negotiations. sanctions and how much pain they will impose. and theow much putin kremlin are concerned about those sanctions, getting kicked out of the g-8. they are doing a good job pretending they are not. putin is meeting to discuss the far east of russia. yest

erg, beer, then known, every industry groups -- car, bank, societe generale, unicredit being hit.lsberg.sumer, whatever industry group, fears are a weakness. if you are russian you will not be able to spend quite so much on foreign products. doesn't lookally to imports for a large amount of their consumer. so, we will see that obviously there imports will be losing in terms of that respect and also interest-rate hikes. many of our desk this morning pointing a russian oligarchs could be the target of sanctions. the market we have not talked about yet, london housing market. the prime london housing market. >> could be many others looking to stop those. >> caroline hyde, i'll european business correspondence. european business correspondence. let's shift gears. geneva starts tomorrow, the motor show. we have a little warm-up. the car that drives itself. ford showcased its autonomous prototype vehicle that uses infrared light that brings us one step closer to getting rid of one of the most unpredictable elements when it comes to driving -- the driver. >> this is a ford fusion hybrid.

unicredit, italy's larges, just took a $21 billion loss on its quarter as provisions and makes write-downs in preparation for the stress tests. this is the largest bank in portugal. the yields there have fallen to a four-year low. it may be able to exit the bailout package. the bank of require land, merrill lynch, says a bank of ireland is a buy and you can see the greek banks are doing really well as they seem to reach some sort of deal with the bailouts and the money they have to raise in the market. let me bottom line it for you guys. this is how you've traded on some of those peripheral markets. not so much the spain this year doing well. greece, portugal, ireland so far this year, up 17%, 16%, and 11%. trades that are working for tre of the world in europe at the moment, scott. back to you. >> thank you. >>> terrible day for copper. the metal loses more than 2% for third day of serious declines. for more, futures now host jackie deangeles. >> over the coarse of the last three days, 8% decline in copper. lowest level we've seen the metal since 2010. anthony, you and i have been talking

italy unicredit and also french bank societe generale has $11 billion worth of loans in russia alonercher daniels mid lan has a grain crushing plant in ukraine and adm is the second biggest base in eastern europe. if sanctions are imposed on russia some companies could stand to benefit, among those the big potash producers, guys. david: thank you very much. ashley. see you tomorrow. >> thanks for having me. david: absolutely. >> "willis report -- because selling thfunds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't at a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for u. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, chargesexpenses and other importt information and should be re and considered carefully befo investing. for a current prospectus visit www.etrade.com/mutualfunds. coach calls her a team player. she's kind of special. she makes the whole team better. he's th

unicredit announced a five-year plan to strengthen the company's finances that a clue did -- includedhe global leader in auction rate action auto sales. number one for nine straight years. a record to be broken. titan -- a new record release -- game released by microsoft and called exclusivelyailable to xbox one. helping to boost sales of the willum console, which rival playstation four. matt miller has been up all night testing it out. turnaround. how good is this game? >> it is insane. i have to wear these glasses because i have literally been awake all night. i'm not for an average playing this game. >> those classes are part of the game, right? >> no. i went to gamestop at midnight and waited in line for a long time out in yonkers, not the met with -- metropolitan hub of new york. it was packed. i went to best buy and picked up this game, along with a number of other contraptions that go with it. it is such a good game that this morning i gave serious thought to just quitting my job and staying home and playing the game until i was hospitalized. a lot of people i think will do tha

we have a guest host and he is eric nelson, the chief economist at unicredit. and woulde ukraine have the ecb and the bank of england. is this something that the ecb would look at? you could say that they are worried about the outcome and that they are not going to spend the money. >> i would think it is the other way around and the ukraine disturbs markets and the uncertainty has increased. up andk factor has gone the whole thing is a little bit tighter than it should be. the ecb is not spending money on the ukraine and is spending money on the european economy. >> finally consumer and a suet is happening and i get a little bit more concerned about my outlook, do they have to take more action? >> i think that is exactly right and that is exactly the point. it is for consumers and businesses, right? are you exporting in that region? are you investing in a machine that will increase production? now, your holding back a little bit and it has a deafening effect. equal,ing else being this damage is europe a little bit. if it is transitory, they should not react to

unicredit, they have about 8% exposure there.e are going to through a volatile couple of days. >> and we've seen the russian central bank putting up interest, and we're seen its worth at what it was in 2009. what does this mean for futures , where are we headed in europe? >> add that to everything else that's going on, in terms of the u.s. tapering, you are looking at the u.s. opening on trade. as well as china. there are a lot of critical issues. >> emerging markets struggling to find their feet in 2014. manus will be back at the top of the hour to take you through the trading week. mark, back to you. >> the ukraine crisis deepens, and a new round of talks later in brussels. joining us from the belgium capital, the bureau chief in brussels. what will foreign ministers be trying to accomplish then at today's emergency meeting? >> well, the main thing that they want to do, when they get together, in just a few hours here in brussels, is try to put some pressure in order to have the situation stablized over in ukraine. at this poin

looks like optimism coming from unicredit as well. >> we will keep an eye on the banking sector.ou very much, caroline. 11 minutes to go until the start of european equity trading. futures for the moment looking just a little bit positive. just ahead, the top stock picks from our next guest as we start the trading week. stay with us here on "countdown ." ♪ to "countdown." i am anna edwards. nine minutes ago until the start of european equity trading, the first russian of the week. our next guest is here with a couple of top stock picks. angus campbell, thank you for joining us. a fairly quietbe weeks in terms of earning reports. but we have got a couple of interesting companies reporting. let's start with tomorrow. we get numbers from my cap. what do we expect to see there? >> icap is a company that is very dependent on trading volumes. it has had a tough year so far. the shares have really underperformed. they have been quite volatile themselves. that is because the fourth quarter of 2013 was particularly poor. volumes were quite low. of course these regulatory risks are around