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This is the Bloomberg daybreakur podcast, available every morning on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Tuesday, the twenty seventh of May. Here in London. I'm Caroline Hepka coming up today. A horrific incident, the words of Prime Minister Kiss Starmer, after a car drives into crowds at Liverpool's Premier League trophy parade. The US and EU agree to fast track trade negotiations as President Trump pauses fifty percent tariffs on
the block. And seventeen years after the bailout, nat West is preparing for life after government ownership with an Ion acquisitions and wealth management. Let's start with a roundup of our top stories. Twenty Seven people, including four children, have been injured after a car drove into crowds of people during Liverpool's Premier League victory parade. A fifty three year
old British man has been arrested. Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Simms says that they are not looking for anyone else.
I know that people will understandably be concerned by what has happened tonight. What I can tell you is that we believe this to be an isolated incident. The incident is not being treated as terrorism.
Merseyside Police, speaking there as the local FI service reported that four people, including a child, were lifted from beneath the car. In a statement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool. Liverpool Football Club says its thoughts and prayers are with those injured.
So that our top story this morning.
Now, let's think about the European Union, which says that it has agreed to accelerate negotiations with the US to avoid a transatlantic trade war. The move to fast track trade tours comes after a phone call between the EU Commissioned President Slavonteline and the US President Donald Trump. Following the call, President Trump also extended the deadline to impose fifty percent tariffs on the EU to the ninth of
July to allow more time for negotiations. While the EU has said that its priority is to find a negotiated solution with the US, it has also been preparing to retaliate with its own levees if needed. European Central Bank President Christine Leaguard says that the White House's erratic policies are an opportunity for the Euro. In a speech, the Guard suggested that America could be undermining the dollar's role
as the world's reserve currency. She says that this could be the moment the Euro goes global.
Moments of change can also be moments of opportunity. The ongoing changes create the opening for a global euro moment, and this is a prime opportunity for Europe to take greater control of its own destiny. But let's not follow ourselves. It is not the privilege that will be bestowed upon us.
The ECB president called for a closer single market and more joint EU financing to make the block more financially attractive. Currently, the dollar makes up roughly sixty percent of sovereign currency reserves around the world, compared to the euro at twenty percent. Dutch pension fund PME is issuing a blanket warning to the US financial sector about caving in to pressure from
the Trump administration to abandon basic principles. The fund, with sixty five billion dollars worth of assets under management, says that if firms stay silent on Trump's policies, they could lose the right to manage its money. Bloomberg's James Orcock has the story.
PME says there is a fundamental divide between European values and the Trump administration. The Dutch Fund is considering changing its ESG metrics to exclude money managers who don't stand up for environment and diversity goals. Put their five billion dollar mandate with black Rock under a view after the
asset manager quit a net zero coalition. More worryingly for Americans, PME and not alone state streets have already lost mandates in Scandinavia and the UK, and ali Anders, warning the US may no longer offer a reliable investment runway In London.
James Wilcock Bloomberg Radio.
NATO Secretary General says that member states are moving towards spending five percent of their GDP on defense. Speaking doing a televised question and answer session, Mark Rutter confirmed the target, which meets a demand by US President Donald Trump that was originally deemed unrealistic.
I assume that indyak we will agree on a higher defense spend target of in total five percent. Sorry I would not mention that, but at least I did it now. But let's say that it's five percent, but I will not say what is the NFL or breakup, but it will be considerably norse for three percent when it comes to the heart spent, and it will be also a target on defensely later spending. We need this because all of us we can never ever ever reach the capability targets we have to.
Reach NATO sexually. General Marco Rutter's comments his first public endorsement of the figure as a target for the Defense Alliance. It comes as German Chancellor Fredrik Mertz said that Ukraine has been given permission to use weapons from its allies
to launch strikes inside Russia with no range limits. Now to the UK, there are plans to train one hundred and twenty thousand British builders, engineers and care workers as the country tries to curb migration without worsening the skills shortage. The government plans to use three billion pounds plus higher taxes on foreign workers to fund new apprenticeships in key sectors.
The drive highlights a problem for Labor, who wants to oversee both of boom in building whilst also cutting down on migration, so a central issue for the ruling Labor party. And lastly, to King Charles. He has arrived in Canada on his first visit to the country as it's head of state. He's in Ottawa to open a new parliament. At the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney. He will read the Throne Speech setting out his government's agenda in Canada.
Bloomberg reports it's partly a move designed to send US President Donald Trump a message about Canada's sovereignty after he said that he wants it to become America's fifty first state. Prime Minister Mark Carney says that that won't happen and he is pleased to welcome the King to Canada. I asked the King when I visited the United Kingdom in March, within days of my becoming Prime Minister the first time. His Majesty was very receptive and we're honored by his visitors.
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaking there as the Monarch prepares to read the speech to Parliament for the first time. Sin's nineteen seventy seven, an honor that is normally reserved for the Governor General in Canada. So those are a few of our top stories for you this morning. Let's have a look at the markets. So European stocks jumped yesterday because of the delay in US tariffs. They were up one percent of the close Automotive and industrial goods
were amongst the leading gains. Futures, though, for European stocks are down almost two tenths of one percent this hour. S and P five hundred EMNI futures are soaring up by nine tenths of one percent. The green back this morning down for a third day on the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, and we're down something like more than seven percent for the dollar this year, So that's a major
topic we'll be thinking about today. Tenny US treasury yields dropping three basis points at four to forty eight, Japan's long end yields declining sharply after hitting a record last week. There's an important debt auction on Wednesday for forty year notes that's going to be closely watched. And then don't forget today the start of a big run of US data out, including US durable goods and consumer confidence data.
Today.
Right, those are the markets, and now in a moment, we are going to be a big you. More details on the jubilation that turned into devastation in Liverpool over the weekend, and also this warning to US asset managers about what it means if they follow Trump administration policies perhaps too closely, ones which clash maybe with European values. So we'll get into that in just a moment. But there was another story that cornhile. I don't know whether
you've managed to see it yet. This is Tom Cruise and of course his Mission Impossible movie that was a huge hit over the weekend. There's a great piece by Tony Cabatchio over the weekend. Tom Cruise really did get a US aircraft carrier for the mission. Yeah, it's completely bonkers. The US Navy and Air Force Special Operations they decided to accept the mission and to help Cruise's secret agent Ethan Huh and save the world, or at least to
make a bit of the movie about it. This is the story on the blue Egg Turtle that has kind of fascinated all of us the Final Reckoning. Of course, Paramount reported a blowout budget for this movie four hundred million dollars. Got a break though, because the carrier and crew were already on schedule training missions, so they managed to sort of get that assistance. Most if not all, of the aircraft time was logged as official training requirements
and therefore not reimbursable, according to the Pentagon. Sadly, I've not seen this movie yet, but I bet a lot of you already have. It had a massive weekend, didn't it. So one of the stories that I've been reading about this morning, and the helping hand for one of America's biggest stars. Now, let's turn back to our top story this morning, a car plowed into crowds of Liverpool fans who were celebrating their team winning the Premier League, leaving
almost fifty people injured. Join me now bergs a Tia at a bio. Good morning, Tia. This was really awful, wasn't it. It was such a celebratory weekend, a bank holiday weekend, and the open top buses and crowds were out to celebrate this victory, and then it just turned into devastation.
What do we know about what happened?
Yeah, Caroline, as you say, it was supposed to be a day's celebration for the club and also for the city. Hundreds of thousands of people had come out to celebrate the.
Team's Premier League victory.
It was a victory which had made them arguably the most successful club in England, so there was this real sense of jubilation, but that quickly did turn to terror after the incident that happened on Water Street, which is in Liverpool's city center, just after six pm on parade day.
Just moments before the incident occurred on Water Street, the Liverpool FC bus and team had actually just paraded their Premier League trophy from the top of an open top bus as you meant, and just to give you a bit of context, Water Street is just about a mile before the end of the parade's designated route, so according to Merseyside Police, a car collided with a number of
pedestrians who were celebrating the victory. The Ambulance Service says that twenty seven people were taken to hospital in the aftermath, with two including one child, seriously injured, and a further twenty people were treated for injuries at the scene and four people including a child, were lifted from beneath the car. That's according to Merseyside's Fire chief. So really tragic scenes happening on what was supposed to be a day of celebration for the city of Liverpool.
Yeah, absolutely, it had been a day of celebration and that the incident took place around six o'clock in the evening and arrest made.
What have police said so?
The Merseyside Police held a press conference yesterday evening and they also released a statement telling us that a fifty three year old white British Man has been arrested and the police do believe him to be the driver of the vehicle. There are also inquiries into the exact circumstances leading up to the collision that are underway and specialist officers have been put in place to support the injured
and their families. The police did also clarify that the incident is not currently being treated as terrorism and that's all we have from the police at this time is they continue their investigations.
But the response on the club from the Premier League, from the Prime Minister, a lot of people have made some comments already.
Yeah, we have.
Heard responses from a number of people so far. We've heard from both the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition. So Kis Starma shared his thanks to the police and the emergency services on x and he said his thoughts were with those affected and similarly, the Conservative leader Kemmy Beisenok also shared a similar sentiment on the platform. Liverpool Football Club is understood to have boned the celebrations
for its own staff due to the incident. We often forget this is not just the end of a successful season for Liverpool, but it's the end of a football season and all clubs really do tend to celebrate that point in times, the end of a lot of hard work for the staff. But those celebrations on hold for the moment. They have confirmed that they're in touch with the police as investigations continue.
They said they.
Will offer their full support and cooperation. They've also shared thoughts for the victims in a statement, and also their rivals Everton FC, who neighbor the club, have expressed their support. They're putting on a united front in the face of this incident.
Ok Ti, but thank you so much for being with me.
Yeah, we are really hoping for the swift recovery of anybody hurt in that incident. Bluebag's h at at Abio, thank you for your reporting. Now a US asset managers are coming under increasing scrutiny and losing mandates with European pension funds. Amid concerns that America's investment industry is caving into pressure from the Trump administration on basic principles, including
climate change and on diversity, equity and inclusion. Joining me now as Bloomberg Senior Editor for US Economics and Government, Derek Wallbank, Derek, good morning. So there is this Dutch pension fund huge assets under management PME, which has issued a warning to US money managers. What are they saying exactly.
Well, thank you so much and good morning. Look.
PME is basically saying, quite simply that US funds are not condemning what Trump is doing, how he's operating, how he's handling issues including climate change, the judiciary, diversity inclusion, other things of that nature. It's really a continuation of a split that we're seeing between Europe and the United States and a number of different areas.
Now.
European funds have the ability to choose who they want to manage things, you know, and to be involved in.
What the are doing.
To put real quite simply, they're taking a moment at this point, many of them. PM is by far not alone to say, hang on a second, let's just see sort of where we are, and if you are aligned with what we're looking at doing now. I should say here ESG sort of goes into three buckets.
Right.
There's offense you're trying to you're trying to gain alpha and a differential in returns.
There's also like defense.
Of trying to stop having a potential regulatory issue, and we do see some of these issues cropping up in regulation as well. And then there's also values, right, and this is where we're seeing the European funds speaking out.
Yeah, on State Street has already lost some European pension money because of this. It looks like US management managers are basically court, aren't they between the Trump administration and their goals and the Republican Party maybe more Republican leaning state And then Europe and European standards.
Yeah, well, and I mentioned the defense and regulation for precisely this point, right, because Europe in a lot of ways, and certainly I'm sitting in Singapore right now, and European regulations are really a global standard. A lot of firms have to use the European standards because they tend to be the toughest. So if you work to the European standard, you're sort of good throughout the way. The thing is though in the United States there has been a backlash
too that certainly with some states. Texas is the big one that have said, and hang on a second, we don't like the way that you're doing this. We want it done a different way, and often in polar opposition. So it is sort of taking these firms, many of which candidly would prefer to focus.
On making money, and putting.
Them a bit between a rock and a hard place regulatory wise, between Europe and some of these conservative areas.
Yeah.
Absolutely, and pme that Dutch pension fund manager says that it's reviewing and is going to make a decision sort of shortly and maybe in the next few weeks. Derek, thank you so much for being with me. We'll be continuing to track this story, of course, as you say globally. Bloomberg,
Senior editor for US Economics and Government, Derek Wallbank. Now Here in the UK, the government's expected to confirm that it has fully divested its holdings in Nowwest, meaning that the bank will chart its own course nearly twenty years since it was bailed out in the two thousand and eight financial crisis. Plyempic's finance reporter will Shaw has been reporting on this. The government finally stepping back will it has been a pretty long road though, hasn't it.
It has.
So this all goes back seventeen years to the financial crisis and the collapse of what was then known as the Royal Bank of Scotland. At the time, the bank had a two point two trillion pound balance sheet and around the world it employed nearly two hundred thousand staff. And the newest that we know today is very different firm. The balance sheet is just seven hundred and eight billion pounds and the headcount is less than a third of what it was at that time, and.
The intervening period saw huge restructuring.
In the first five years alone, the bank cut more than thirty nine thousand jobs and quit over twenty countries, and it would go on to pivot away for investment banking, which had got it into the scrape it found itself, and to focus on domestic commercial and retail banking instead.
The thing is the sale of the government stake in that west has not been without controversy. What has the bailout actually cost UK taxpayers?
So basically, after the crisis, Westminster made a series of emergency cash injections that brought the its stake up to a controlling eighty four percent, and that left UK taxpayers shouldering a bill of nearly forty six billion pounds. Now after the final sale, we calculate that the government will be out of pocket by about ten billion pounds.
Now if you compare that with Lloyd's Banking Group.
By the time and that was bailed out, and by the time it became fully private in twenty seventeen, the Treasury had actually gained eight hundred and ninety four million pounds.
So obviously there's a lot more money.
A lot of money is being lost on that West. The government would tell you it's not really the right way of looking at it, and that without the rescue, the UK's financial system might have collapsed.
Yeah, okay, so then what for what about the future of the bank. Then they've been on a bit of an acquisition spree recently. What's the shape of NatWest, which actually is last year UK focused bank, isn't it?
It's very UK focused? Yeah?
So last year they acquired the majority of banking assets from the retailer Sainsbury's and they also around the same time they picked up a mortgage portfolio from Metro Bank in a two point five billion pounds deal, and more recently it was reported that they'd shown interest in Sandander's UK Banking tail banking business, though they were ultimately rebuffed on that affront. So they are yet, like you say,
they are showing a renewed interest in acquisitions. Paul Thwaite, who's the CEO today, said at the annual general meeting earlier this year that if they have the ability to add scale and add capability, they'll have a look at it.
But he was keen to stress, as he always does, that any deals aren't likely to transform thatwere sob all direction and that the firm will remain disciplined, which is essentially it was undisciplined acquisitions that brought it to the verge of disaster back in two thousand and eight.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe. You're a morning brief on the stories making news from London to Wall Streets and beyond.
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I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm Stephen Carol. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak Europe