Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
This is the BlueBag Day Baker at podcast. Good morning, It's Wednesday, the twenty fourth of September. I'm Caroline Hepgar in London. Coming up today. President Trump says that NATO allies should shoot down Russian aircraft that enter their territory
as he backs Ukraine to win the war. Jimmy Kimmel chokes up as he says it was never his intention to make light of the murder of Charlie Kirk before calling efforts to take his program off the air on American plas the trillion dollar race, European money managers moved to consolidate as they try to head off the growing threat from Wall Street rivals. Let's start with the roundup
of our top stories. President Donald Trump is sounding a new note on Ukraine's chances of winning its war against Russia and saying that NATO itself sho take a tougher line. He says members of the Alliance should take down Russian planes that breach their airspace. That was after a series of jet and drone incursions this month on NATO's eastern flank which alarmed allies. Here is the exchange with reporters when President Trump was directly pressed on his stance, Mister Prednay, do.
You think that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace?
Donald Trump was speaking alongside Ukraine's Vladim Zelinsky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. In a subsequent social media post, Trump said he believed that with EU backing, Ukraine was positioned to reclaim all the territory taken by Russia since its invasion in twenty twenty two. Not only to fight back, President Trump wants NATO to step up and also put more pressure on Russia. Though Finnish President Alexander Stubb has been speaking to Bloomberg, all.
The conversations that I've had with my American friends and also with President Trump lead me to believe that there's a very strong commitment to nature and the alliance. Remember that a year ago, if someone would have told me in the summer, at the seventy fifth Anniversary of Nature that we will hike up our defense expenditure from JUO to five percent next summer, I would have said, you'd probably going to need to go and see a doctor.
Finished President Alexander stood there speaking to Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall. The US President meanwhile delivered his first UN speech of his second term, in which he severely criticized the UN organization and repeated his call for stronger borders.
Now.
The US's late night host Jimmy Kimmel became notably emotional as his show returned, and he railed against the threat of censorship. Disney suspended Kimmel's show last week following controversial remarks that the comedian made about the assassination of Republican activists Charlie Kirk. At the start of his ABC show, the comedian thanked both political supporters and opponents who had backed his freedom to share his views on air, before then offering this conciliatory message.
You understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.
I don't.
I don't think there's anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram of the daves killed, sending love to his family and asking him for compassion, and I meant it and I still do. Nor was in my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual.
Kimmel went on to call the push to take his show off air on American Disney reinstated kim OLL's program after reaching an agreement with the late night host about what he would say on air, following a public backlash out the decision to suspend him. Now, in a social media post, President Trump floated the prospect of unspecified future legal challenges against the company's decision to bring back the show,
calling him an arm of the Democratic Party. Now. Another news, violent wind and torrential rain super typhoon Ragasa has been pounding Hong Kong and it is expected to hit China's Guangdong province later today. Ragasa has killed at least fourteen people in Taiwan and six in the Philippines, and is
the worst cyclone worldwide this year. The storm has led to thousands of flights being canceled, school classes, train services, and business activities being suspended across major cities in southern China. Here in the UK, the government is looking at making it easier for highly skilled workers to come to Britain to take advantage of America's visa changes. The Chance of Rachel Reeves told staff at revolutes new global headquarters that the UK government is moving quickly to try to grab talent.
Here is Bloomberg's James Walcock with more.
The UK government wants your tech professionals, bankers and lawyers, but if you're coming illegally, it wants to discourage you from coming. The mixed messaging is created by two competing priorities. The UK government wants economic growth, but it's also terrified of being seen not to be in control of migration in London James Wacock, Bloomberg Radio.
Faircha Jo and Powell says that there is no risk free path for the US economy. The Central Bank chair pointed to high inflation and a fragile jobs market as pain on both sides of the monetary policy problem. Powell says that economists are also still watching for a tariff impact your term, risks.
To inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment are tilted to the downside, a challenging situation. Two sided risks mean that there is no risk free path.
Powell's comments are in stark contrast to President Trump's new appointee to the FED Board, Stephen Myron. Myron says that the threat to the labor market is the main priority, and is voting for steep cuts to the interest rate. The open divide the US Central Bank is driving big swings in trading in options markets. Traders now expect only one more twenty five basis point cut this year, and the so called neutral raids they see as higher than
current market expectations at just below three percent. Open AI is planning to invest roughly four hundred billion dollars to develop five new US data centers. The project, in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank, is the biggest push to fulfill a pledge to spend a half trillion dollars on AI infrastructure in America. J Jacobs, head of Equity ETFs at black Rock, expects even more money to flow in to the sector.
Investor enthusiasm is only growing. If you look at one of our ETFs, BAI. It's an actively managed AIETF. It's brought in over five billion dollars this year and is now the largest AIETF in the United States, and a lot of the exposure that is providing to investors is
around that digital infrastructure layer. The hardware producers in the semiconductor space, the digital infrastructure owners, some of the data owners that are becoming really valuable in this explosion of AI models, and so there's a ton of investor enthusiasm, and I think there's a lot of expectations that revenues will match the expenditures, if not exceed them, in the next several years.
Now Black Clox J Jacobs there speaking to Bloomberg. According to the firms, the new locations will be spread across Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio and eventually have a capacity of seven gigawatts, which is as much as some cities. Open AI says that the sites will also create tens of thousands of additional jobs across the US. So those are
our top stories for you this morning. Looking at the market stop future for the European market, open are quite weak, down four tenths of one percent, but we're keeping an eye on defense stocks, which have seen valleys in Asia after President Trump's un address yesterday. US STOP futures are in the green. Looking at the MSCI Asia Pacific Index that is slightly softer. The dollar is stronger a tenth
of one percent. Oil prices are also higher this morning, again on the rhetoric around Russia from President Trump, treasuries holding their gains after your own power warned about those risks in the labor market and inflation persisting in the US.
So those are the markets. In a moment, we are going to bring you a bit more then on the change in tone from President Trump and the United States on Russia, and also how Europe's fragmented asset managers are starting to consolidate in the face of big US players. So we'll get onto that in a moment. But something else has caught my eye today. How early do you get up? Do you write lists, you take a walk?
I've been thinking about these habits after reading Bloomberg's CEO diet Kate Krader, who actually sits only a few desks away from me. She's been talking to a dozen also leaders and founders about how they use their time in the office and outside, and delighted to hear lots of them get up really early, but many of them also go to bed and get up at exactly the same time. And I just thought it was really interesting conversation about productivity.
Glad to hear that actually a lot of these CEOs do balance, you know, they talk about balance even though they're high achievers. They balance their needs across the day. Yakob Arab Anderson, who's the CEO of Carlsberg, calls it FSN fitness, sleep, nutrition, and lots of others. I mean one new CEO, Rose Van Geven at the investment company Findlay Park Partners, says that she's completely ditched social media platforms because it takes up so much of her time.
But look, I thought it was a very interesting list on Yeah, I guess how to be one of those top how to get maybe to be CEO with the habits daily habits. It's in Bloomberg's CEO Diet, and I'm going to put a link to it in our show notes for you to have a read and maybe get
inspired today. Now, President Donald Trump says that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace in and addressed to the UN in which the US President was more optimistic about Ukraine's ability to regain all of its territory. Joining me now to discuss is Bloomberg's Brussels Bureau chief Suzanne Lynch. Good morning, Suzanne. How significant a shift is this by the US on support for Ukraine against Russia's putin.
I mean, I think there was a lot of relief in New York among European allies about Donald Trump's comments that really came out during the day. He struck a very combative tone during his own address to the UN Assembly. M It was an extremely negative speech where he sailed allies over issues like migration and over energy. He said, you know your countries are going to hell. And this
was the tone of his speech to the UN. But then later when he started having those bilateral meetings with leaders, when we heard from the President at those press points, and we definitely saw a different tone in terms of the specifics of the US policy visa v Russia and Ukraine, and most importantly there as he said he did say that he believed that NATO nations should shoot down Russian aircrafts that violated their airspace. Earlier we'd heard and Marco
Rubio kind of moving away from that one slightly. This followed comments by the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier in the week when he talked about shooting down Russian aircraft that came into airspace. But a very significant shift and tone there by Donald.
Trump Russia seems to have been testing you also and NATO with these airspace incursions that we've been talking about throughout this week, sasan would the aircraft be shot down in future? And also what is now the US position on that?
Yeah, it's an interesting one. Yesterday the NATO had a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which is their main decision body here in Brussels. It had been called by Estonia because of the incursions into its airspace. But while that was happening, if you like, we were getting confirmation from Denmark that Copenhagen Airport had been closed for several
hours because of drone incursions there. So Mark Ruta, the NATO Secretary General, was asked a specific question, I mean, what is the position vs. V and NATO and these drone incursions? Now, he was very careful in his wording. He said, you know, if this is intentional or not? He said a few times he said NATO is prepared to defend every inch of its territory.
Now.
He was asked as well about those comments O more belligerent to be like comments by President or Prime Minister Donald Tusker in the week, and he was keen to kind of say there was no daylight between the two saying, Look, Tusk is saying what I'm saying, if necessary, and NATO will act, and you know we're not at that point, but it is ready and that is a decision of the Supreme Allied Commander. You know, we are ready to
respond if needed. So we got the sense from the NATO Secretary General that obviously NATO, the Alliance is very much on alert here. The meeting that was called by Estonia, and indeed Estonia also spoke of the UN Security Council on Monday in New York. I mean, this was quite unusual. There's now a lot of concern about these repeated drone incursions, particularly in Copenhagen. Just next week, Caroline is going to be a big meeting of EU leaders and European leaders,
two day meeting in Copenhagen. So the timing of this incursion that closed the airport is quite interesting.
Yes, indeed, and there has been a lot going on at the UN and also on the sidelines. I mean Trump's speech. You mentioned how sort of aggressive it was, and how President Trump was touting what he sees as his big wins, ending war, wasn't doing trade deals and ending immigration into cutting immigration into America. But that very harsh criticism of Europe, also of Hamaz, also of the UN itself. I mean, the United Nations seems to be dealing with the worst crisis in its history.
Really, yes, And the United States, which is the biggest financial contributor by far to the UN, is not on board with a lot of what the UN is doing. It's already pulled out of some agencies and it effectively hasn't paid its bill for the UN since last year. So I think the UN Deecretary General has admitted that the organization has a liquidity crisis, it has a crisis of identity, and it's marking its Asian anniversary this year. But it is interesting to Donald Trump hit on some
of those points. Even he was even critical of the UK. Just after his visit. He talked about, you know, the policy on wind turbine, saying that they're ruining the Scottish and English countryside. He took us wipe at the London mayor, said he can. He also talked about climate change, which was of a big focus for the UN through its cop system, calling it a con job. So yes, a
very belligerent and kind of isolationist speech by Donald Trump. Now, I suppose the other way of looking at this is that he did hold a series of bilateral meetings during the day with European leaders in particular, also of course the Argentinian leader as well, But that I suppose to show that there was still an engagement there. He spent the day there meeting leaders, having a reception, later having
serious conversations with people like Vladimir Lensky. So for all the rhetoric brawl, the bluster in his speech, there was a lot of diplomacy that happened, and the United States was at the center of that yesterday in the UN.
Yes, that's very interesting, isn't it. Suzanne, thank you so much for your time and being with us today. That is Bloomberg's Brussels bureau chief Suzanne lynch Worth, noting also there was some pushback from the UK government on that criticism, both from the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and also from the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Stay with us more from
Bloomberg Day Bake EUOP coming up after this. Europe's money managers have done a string of high profile deals beginning to reshape the industry and push back against the large US firms like black Rock and Vanguard and JP Morgan as passive investment funds have grown in popularity and Europe's asset managers are still very fragmented. Bloomberg's asset management reporter Leo ken Scherper has penned this piece. He joins me, now, good to see you, Leo. What is the situation facing
Europe's asset managers? And so also I guess that means what is driving consolidation?
Good morning, Caroline, thank you, good to see you as well. Yeah, it's certainly not a new dynamic, but the pressure is increasing here. First of all, you've got the flight to passive products. You've had it for over a decade, which means for the asset managers lower revenue margins and at
the same time you've got rising costs. And for European asset managers in particular, they are also seeing coming more under pressure from large US firms who have been winning market share over the past decade, especially again in passive products. And in Europe a lot of asset managers are also controlled by banks and insurers, and these you know, big firms now wondering you know, actually asset management only makes up a very small part of our overall bottom line.
Should we double down or should we exit? So European asset managers overall have have long agreed that they need to merge in order to survive. And the new development that we've seen over the last twelve months is that we're now also seeing action. You know, b MP has acquired acc Investment Managers that has created a one point eight trillion dollar asset manager. And you also had Generally and Natixis agree on a deal that would create Europe's
second biggest asset manager. And of course we have reported the talks between a Mundi and Alliance Global Investors, with which are now on hold.
Okay, so one of the challenges then to get more of these deals happening. I mean, what's the kind of pipeline looking like?
Yeah, exactly. So I've just mentioned the talks between a Mundi and Alliance and this isn't a very europe specific problem, but it's always a question about who gets to take control. You know, We've had a lot of infamous co CEO structures in corporate history, and that will always be a curveball to big deals and asset manager and beyond. And the second, the second curveball is, you know, national politics
definitely gets in the way. There's a fair amount with doubt now that generally is deal with, that TIXIS will go ahead, in part because the Italian government isn't too fond of the prospect that decision makers at Generally, which is a major buyer of Italian government bonds, will slip
further away from the Italian government's influence. And then another bit quirk, slightly quirky curveball is that one of the drivers behind BMP's acquisition of XIM has been this accounting perk known as the Danish compromise, and that allows banks to buy asset managers with a preferential capital treatment. Now, the ECB has since said earlier this year, to many people's surprise, well actually we don't think it's right that banks get a better treatment for buying an asset manager.
Let's let's not do that. So that perk is now gone, and you know that is expected to at least slow down a bit of the deal making.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the stories making news from London to and beyond.
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
You can also listen live each morning on London Dab Radio, the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg dot Com.
Our flagship New York station, is also available on your Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven thirty. 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