the former unicredit chief is linked to a blank check vehicle. we will speak about his abrupt exit from italy's second largest bank. welcome to "bloomberg surveillance." i'm francine lacqua in london. let's get straight to the markets and the unstoppable surge of bitcoin has taken a moment to pause as prices stopped below the next key level of 50,000. performance in 2020 has blown other classes away, it flew 60% this year. the check of it -- chief executive said the cryptocurrency could hit 200,000 in the near future. he sat down with bloomberg front row and talked about bitcoin becoming the de facto haven currency. >> the real question people should be asking is, bitcoin becomes a de facto reserve currency. it basically displaces gold. what replaces the u.s. dollar? francine: let's discuss this with laura cooper, bloomberg's mliv macro strategist. a bit of a funny day. good morning first of all. happy presidents' day, a funny day because volumes are lower because of president's day but how much are we focusing on record highs? the nikkei and bit

the spac revolution continues as the former unicredit ceo is heading the mix.and welcome to "bloomberg surveillance." i'm francine lacqua, tom keene with the day off. in the last couple of seconds, we had breaking news out of the u.s. this has to do with the price of oil and the price of natural gas and that arctic snap in the u.s.. just moments ago, we heard that the cold weather put

francine: i also want to ask about unicredit because there is a management reshuffle.re you expecting the strategy to change and what would it mean for intesa if unicredit were to buy monte dei paschi? carlo: it is a completely different business model in comparison with intesa sanpaolo. it is not only a matter of management team, but business model. we are a wealth management and protection company. a significant number of factories, we own 100%. unicredit is more pan-european a bank. it is difficult to change the business model of the company. if they make the acquisition, they can increase managing in the country, but the problem of the integration of a significant player in the country. in the medium-term, they increase the ability of unicredit to play a role in the country but in the short term, a merger with the monte dei paschi. that is what i think. i'm not sure they would move to make the acquisition on monte dei paschi. francine: carlo messina, do you see given where we are with the vaccine and the rollout and things may be looking a little better in the summ

the former unicredit ceo plans to raise money for a spac. firm will invest in financial services, including wealth management. he spoke exclusively with bloomberg surveillance. >> [indiscernible] leigh-ann: the company is also backed by the ceo of a luxury firm. now shares of vivendi rose the most on record. the paris-based company shares climbed as much as 24%, the biggest ever one day gain since they were listed back in 1989. shares in the majority holder of vivendi jumped as much as 80%. the company has planned to lift -- list the decision -- list the division by 2023. some changes at the top of ubs. the bank has named the soul head of its investment banking unit. the copresident is leaving to head the euronet stock exchange. the two men were put in charge as copresidents. since taking over in 2018, they have shaken up the units, splitting it into two segments, global banking and global markets. but is your bloomberg business flash. francine? francine: leigh-ann, thank you. bitcoin is sagging after hitting a record $50,000 over the weeken

erik nielsen at unicredit, you know i have called him a great euro optimist before.n ferro noted, a prescient note this weekend, on the interdependencies in the market. let me cut to the chase because i know jon has some really important questions. at what point of a euro-dollar does lagarde, lane, and the rest of the elites of europe again to sweat? is it $1.25, or is it higher? erik: i don't know the answer, but i would think that $1.25 would be a problem. it is speed as much as level. i think most people would argue that the level is $1.25, $1.30, but if they move quickly, they don't like it. in my note you talked about, i think they should focus lots more on the curve than the yield. it is much more important for financial conditions in europe than the euro-dollar. jonathan: let's talk about that. you got out in front of this in your morning note, that one central-bank's statement of confidence is another central bank's tightening of financial conditions. the ecb, the bond market, italy as well. why is what we are seeing in europe and unwarranted tightening of fi

unicredit posts a bigger than expected fourth-quarter loss. commerce bank numbers hitting the tape right now. it is a busy day. 6:00 a.m. in london. 7:00 a.m. in frankfurt. we have had the numbers. how do they look, italian style? annmarie: an unexpected loss, bigger than expected. 1.18 billion euros is a loss and that's double what analysts were expecting and it's the final days of the current ceo, and as you say, a new man back in the game in banking. the question that many are asking about what kind of bank he is going to lead is whether or not he is going to be more open to acquisitions and one name that has been floating around is commerce bank. i bring that up because those numbers i know you have now. manus: absolutely. commerce bank loan loss provisions. this is the key thing for banks during this reporting see asian. -- season. at the top of your screen. commerce bank performed in the past three months. let's get to the fourth-quarter revenue, that's light. we were looking for 2.0 a billion, but the loan loss provisions come in at 800

unicredit up nearly 4% intes and mediobanca turning up. >>> bond markets are faring this morning. we have the ten-year italian yield also moving lower once again, down around 54 basis points at the moment otherwise we're seeing a slight uptick in yields across europe >>> let's bring in our next guest, co-star from uni credit it's great to have you on the show i want to turn to the developments in italy. last week we saw a major boost on italian assets on news mario draghi would come in to lead a new unity government my question, does it matter he may not have a thumping parliament majority? are people concerned about the longevity of this potential draghi government? >> these are important topics for the long-term performance of italian assets as of now, however, it looks like the new government will enjoy very broad support in terms of starting and being available short term to implement action, that should be reassuring for markets and the issue of how long this will remain in place. as of now, the premises look good >> if you look at the performance of italian bond yields versu

this is the picture for italian banks this morning unicredit up 1.25% para bank up 1.5%. italian banks doing quite well we are getting towards the end of the banking season as far as banks are concerned, too the takeaway from some italian banks that as far as provisions ask mtls, the situation is less bad that some people thought it would be. >>> let's switch to media, big news out of vivendi, who will spin off 06% of universal music group by the end of the year they said the most profitable subsidiary, home to authors like taylor swift, lady gaga and others, will target valuation of at least 30 billion euros. huge reaction we're seeing in stocks up 17%, the picture for vivendi and driving the rest of the media sector up as well. >>> turning to the uk, starting today, nun arriving in england from 33 countries on the government red list must quarantine at appointed hotels for 14 days at their own cost. travelers who break the rules face heavy fines and up to ten years in prison after the uk hit their targeting of vaccinating 15 million people one day early. more than one a

former unicredit boss will raise money for a blank check company.invest in financial services. jp morgan is said to be advising on the venture. we will be speaking to him later this morning. that is your bloomberg business flash. anna: laura writes in london. the former european central bank president, mario draghi has stressed the need for unity after being sworn in as italy's new prime minister. he has unveiled the names of ministers joining his government including daniella franco as finance minister. raffaella tenconi is still with us. i wonder if you think mario draghi can bring a whatever it takes moment to italian politics. what would that look like? raffaella: to some extent he has done that already. if you look at his cabinet, he has mixed technocrats and politicians of the other major parties which is unheard of before. he has really created the conditions are different parties to try to give their best. the electorate is going to look at the next year and what each one has managed to receive in what are not ideal financial conditions. in

we see it in the ftse, and in unicredit, up 4.6%. coming up, hopes for a green recovery. ceo of a waste management company, renewi. this is bloomberg. ♪ matt: welcome back to "bloomberg markets: european open." 41 minutes into the session, we are looking at gains on equity indexes across europe. it is a risk on session with the broader stocks zero 600 up 0.7%. in italy, the ftse is up more than 2% on optimism mario draghi can do a better job running the country, and you can see unicredit, the italian bank helping the lenders lead the way. they are the biggest getting industry group on the stoxx 600. that's get the bloomberg business flash. laura: the end of an era for amazon, later this year jeff bezos will step down as ceo to focus on innovation. he will be replaced by the head of the company's cloud unit come along season as a potential successor. bezos founded amazon in his garage more than 25 years ago, becoming one of the world's richest men. alphabet was buoyed by digital ad spending during the busiest shopping spree of the year, beating estimates. add revenue on yo

eurozone is going to end really back into recession and it actually has been predicted specifically by unicredit the chief economist that eric nielsen he has said that he thinks that the eurozone and not think contrast to the u.s. and china and in contrast to great britain the eurozone he predicts will be the last to return to preplan demick levels the eurozone of course lags behind the chinese i mentioned china in the us a lot of this has been due to the really late delay in terms of the vaccines as you know the e.u. commission was 3 months late in terms of approving vaccines that were already approved in great britain and the us and of course that have made a huge difference to the numbers across all of europe and what they're predicting is that this will affect countries particularly those that are really susceptible in terms of tourism like greece spain and italy really devastated and much of europe of course has fos mall a midsize businesses a lot of restaurants on those businesses that cater to tourism so absolutely devastating. as filler just alluded to this isn't just about the e.u. but

unicredit posts bigger than expected fourth-quarter loss. commerce bank warrants revenue is likely to shrink this year. we will speak with thcfo shortl. i want to quickly bring you royal dutch shell earnings coming across the ticker as we speak. we are seeing the company say it expects to retain its near-term annual cash of 19 to $22 billion so the question is one that we put often to -- and they plan to maintain underlying operating expenses of no more than $35 billion as well and shell is confirming that total oil production peaked in 2019. we are going to get more from the ceo, ben van burden, in a few minutes. you don't want to miss that conversation after 8:00 a.m. london time. anna. anna: we will get to that conversation later in the program. astrazeneca numbers breaking this morning so let's get to those. in terms of the bottom line, we have q4 core eps at 1.07, one dollar and seven cents against an estimate. so it is a little bit below the estimate but there is a lot going on at astrazeneca. guidance shows continuing progress accordi

annmarie: unicredit is calling it a super mario scenario where we could see it dropping 50 basis points. what is going to be the reality check for mario draghi? sylvain: it's delivery. delivering on reforms, delivering on a unity government and agenda with a mix of reforms plus wise spending with the new grants in the country to restore growth and stability. that will be the test and what the markets will look at for the super mario trade to materialize. manus: do you think it will be a little more successful in economic delivery than some of the previous governments? sylvain: if you compare with 2011-2013, it was not the same thing for the government. it was under the pressure of the market, under the pressure of the e.u. now it's about mending political unity in the country and spending money wisely. it is much easier from a political point of view to spend money than to save money. it's an easier game for mario draghi. but we will see. manus: thank you so much. let's look into the numbers, the iconic gucci brand down in the fourth quarter, collapsing by 10.3%. the estimate was for a

and unicredit has posted an unexpectedly large loss for the fourth quarter.inal whistle found the chief executive accelerating to cleanup up the balance sheet. incoming boss andrea and harris a leaner bank that faces a slew of challenges, and that is your business flash. francine? francine: leigh-ann, thank you so much. james bevan's is with us. i have a bunch of questions. james: i still look at technology and health care, which people have had their day. i look at the resilience of the earnings numbers and the price that we should participate in those earnings numbers. i still see value, and i am not going to let go of good quality names that i think will positively deliver free cash flows just by valuation. francine: james, where do you see, as, you know, the biggest shifts, the shortage of chips in the u.s., whether the vaccine drives inflation, but is a more a technology story on independent components that we could be looking at longer-term? james: for me, the bigger story is why and how the u.s. has to reengineer its story for economic growth. the tren

on thursday, it is the turn of unicredit, commerzbank. we will be watching out for the dutch lender ing. next week, credit suisse and barclays. the following week sees numbers from hsbc and standard chartered. joining us now is the head of think research at city. great to have you this morning. how would you rate european bank earnings so far in absolute terms and versus u.s. peers? >> thank you for having me. earnings season so far has been really good. the news in the last week or so is that investors are looking at the sector again. we came into the year with a lot of investor interest there were some concerns around the economy, around the virus, and around whether the sector had run too fast in q4. political risk came down and there was a lot of interest in the sector. there were no big blowups in the earnings season so far. >> one of the things that stood out to me, there were some big standouts on our side of the pond in terms of investment banking. the french, some of the swiss. is that capturing market share inflow? what is the d

i am joined by erik nielsen, group chief economist / global head of cib research, unicredit bank mariachal donohoe, minister of finance, republic of ireland. this caught my eye, you say stimulus too quickly is more riskier than doing it too late. that sounds like you are advocating to extend deficit rules for longer and keep stimulus on the table. is that what you will tell other finance ministers? paschal: that decision will be made by our colleagues in the european commission in due time. what you saw in our of europe route meeting was consensus among all ministers regarding the continued need to supporter economies. you mentioned the recent forecast from the commission in relation to performance of the euro area. it is worth noting in the final quarter of last year, we sorry economies perform better than we would have expected, and overall we had an out turn from last year that showed less decline than we feared but significant decline and too many without a job in the euro area today. we are determined to do what we can to restore economic health and public health, and our focus wi

unicredit posted a larger than expected loss on the fourth quarter after writing down goodwill and accelerating cleanup of its balance sheet under the new ceo. the $1.4 billion shortfall was twice what analysts were expecting. as the ceo tries to reduce the debt. shery: general motors posted a stronger -- fueld by demand for suv's and trucks. the auto making giant has not been able to accept -- escape the semiconductor short is reverberating throughout the field. the ceo gave bloomberg her outlook for the year ahead. >> we're going to have a very positive year in 2021. not only from a financial perspective but also the continued acceleration of our e.v. and our a.v. business. we are excited that very shortly we will be launching a great vehicle. that's days away. you know, later this year we will be serving the market with the gmc hummer e.v., and then the cadillac lyric comes after that as well as tremendous projects -- progress from an autonomous perspective. we are excited about the growth opportunities in front of us and so the year of execution. the issues with chips is a short-term issue.

>> [indiscernible] [indiscernible] guy: former unicredit ceo jean-pierre mustier speaking exclusively -- talk early -- let's talk more about this spa s boom. jean-pierre mustier not wasting time hitching his wagon to the train. what does that tell us about this boom? what is driving this boom? >> i asked bridge point that weekend, they're managing partner told me that what is driving it is that we are at the top of the market. there is plenty of criticism going around about spacs, but it is really the right place at the right time. there is a lot of money out there searching for investments. if you look at traditional, the lifespan is 10 years, this you get a quicker turnaround for your investment. the spac has to acquire a company within two years. it is a volatile market and this offers you downside protection. you can sell your shares with the optionality to invest in the company. along with that volatile market means there are companies who want to go public but do not want to go through the expansiveness and time consumption of the ipo process. there are companies that have been