Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe Edition

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast:(1) President Joe Biden sought to breathe new life into his reelection rematch against Donald Trump, delivering a spirited and sharply political State of the Union speech that sparred with Republicans and targeted an opponent he didn’t ever name.(2) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the central bank is getting close to the confidence it needs to start lowering interest rates.(3) Over the past decade, data enforcement has exploded in prominence. It's women who run the regulators leading the charge against Big Tech. (4)  European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde indicated policymakers may be in a position to lower interest rates in June as fresh projections showed inflation hitting the 2% target in 2025.(5) Banks and financial firms should be banned from using nondisclosure agreements in workplace sexual harassment disputes because they risk silencing victims while protecting perpetrators, British lawmakers have warned. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast:(1) Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has handed millions of British workers a £10 billion a year tax cut paid for by stealing Labour's flagship policies and squeezing public services as he drew political battle lines for the upcoming election. (2) Britain's budget watchdog said a hit to the economy from leaving the European Union is unfolding as it expected. The Office for Budget Responsibility says its long-running prediction is "broadly on track" to show a 15% fall in trade and a 4% reduction in the UK economy's potential productivity compared to if the UK had stayed in the EU. (3) Wall Street banks are on the cusp of a sweeping regulatory victory after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled officials would scale back plans to make them hold more capital.  (4) A missile strike on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden resulted in the first confirmed deaths of crew members since Houthi militants began a wave of attacks against commercial shipping in one of the world's busiest sea lanes. (5)  Deutsche Bank has cut the bonus pool at its investment banking division by more than 10% after a slump in deals and a slowdown in trading last year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.On today's podcast:(1) Jeremy Hunt plans to put personal tax cuts at the center of his annual budget on Wednesday as he navigates tight public finances to deliver on Conservative demands for a pre-election giveaway to boost the ailing governing party’s standing with voters.(2) President Joe Biden and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump are set for a rematch in a general election race that few Americans are excited about and that Wall Street donors tried in vain to avert.(3) A Citigroup reorganization aimed at streamlining the bank and making it more competitive with its peers has gone swifter than expected, Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said, as she set out positive guidance for the year ahead.(4) OpenAI fired back at a lawsuit filed against it by Elon Musk in a blog post Tuesday, using the billionaire’s own emails to show he backed the company’s plans to become a for-profit business and that he insisted it raise “billions” of dollars to be relevant compared with Google.(5) Birmingham City Council has signed off on the largest-ever package of budget cuts by a UK local authority See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.On today's podcast:(1) There’s a new sense of optimism in the UK as a global investment destination ahead of a general election later this year. A two-month investigation by Bloomberg Radio's Caroline Hepker has many of London's business elite increasingly upbeat about the future of the economy.(2) China set its annual growth target at around 5%, raising expectations for the nation’s top leaders to unleash more stimulus as they try to lift confidence in an economy hampered by a property slump and entrenched deflation.(3) JPMorgan Chase's chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic joins in a chorus of rapidly piling up warnings from Wall Street that are hearkening back to the dot-com boom of the late-1990s, or the post-pandemic mania of 2021, when stock prices quickly ballooned and then burst.(4) A bank group spearheaded by Morgan Stanley held discussions with Elon Musk and his team about refinancing a roughly $12.5 billion debt package that supported the tech billionaire’s take-private of the social media platform X, according to people with knowledge of the matter.(5) The US Supreme Court said Donald Trump can appear on presidential ballots this year, putting an end to efforts nationwide to ban him under a rarely used constitutional provision barring insurrectionists from holding office. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast:(1) UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said his budget will be "prudent" and "responsible," as he tried to temper expectations of Conservative MPs who want eye-catching tax cuts to give their party a pre-election boost. (2) Bond investors are positioning for a potential rise in inflation if Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt cedes to pressure to deliver pre-election giveaways in this week's spring budget. (3) The UK government plans to lower the threshold to qualify as a so-called angel investor in a bid to bolster funding for small- and medium-sized businesses, the Treasury said in a statement. (4) China is set to announce its 2024 growth target and outline its strategy for supporting the slowing economy at the nation's most high-profile annual political gathering this week. (5) US Vice President Kamala Harris has called for a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas as talks drag on over a deal to release hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend with Tom Busby takes a look at some of the stories we'll be tracking in the coming week. In the US - Jobs Report, Jay Powell on Capitol Hill and Target earnings In the UK -  the government is preparing to present its tax and spending plans for the coming year  In Asia -  China's top political advisory body and legislature will be gathering for their annual two sessions  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The UK’s reputation as a global investment destination hit rock bottom last April, when Microsoft President Brad Smith said The European Union was a more attractive place to start a business.Yet 10 months later, A host of FTSE100 CEOs tell us confidence is recovering. And for all the talk of British decline, official figures suggest the UK remains the top investment destination after the US, trumping even China.Our Bloomberg Radio anchor Caroline Hepker has spent the past two months talking to Britain's business elite. Here's what they told her. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast: (1) Left-wing disrupter George Galloway won a seat in the UK Parliament in a special election that underscored how the Israel-Hamas war has exacerbated community tensions and sowed division across British politics. (2) Scores of Palestinians were killed and injured on Thursday during an outbreak of violence in which Israeli troops opened fire near a convoy of food trucks attempting to deliver humanitarian aid in northern Gaza. (3) China's factory activity shrank for the fifth straight month in February, suggesting weak demand remains an obstacle for the economy. (4) The Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of underlying inflation rose in January at the fastest pace in nearly a year, helping explain policymakers' patient approach to start cutting interest rates. (5) UK retail traffic fell the most since the pandemic due to train strikes, squeezed budgets and one of the wettest Februarys on record, fueling concerns about the strength of the economy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast:(1) The Supreme Court’s decision to take up Donald Trump’s bid for immunity from criminal prosecution raises the prospect that a trial to hold him accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election could face a lengthy delay — potentially until after the November election.(2) Senate Republicans have to choose just how loyal to Donald Trump they want their next leader to be in the wake of Mitch McConnell’s bombshell decision to step aside after the November election.(3) Congressional leaders reached a last-minute deal to avoid a disruptive US government shutdown, setting up another clash with ultra-conservatives who swiftly blasted the agreement.(4) Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has considered scrapping Britain’s non-domiciled tax status as he seeks ways to fund pre-election giveaways in his budget next week.(5) Three Federal Reserve officials said the pace of interest-rate cuts will depend on incoming economic data, suggesting the path to lower borrowing costs may look different than in previous rate-cutting cycles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes. On today's podcast: (1) Wall Street's biggest banks have seen staffing levels surge in Paris despite the fact that many of those firm's top bosses feel constrained by the country's strict labor laws.  (2) Apple is cancelling a decade long effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company. (3) Central bankers around the world have traditionally been scrupulous about insisting on their independence from politics. But the rise of anti-democratic groups and populists around the world has spurred European policymakers to step into the fray. (4) The Bank of England may sell all the UK government bonds bought under quantitative easing to better prepare for a future crisis, a move that would put it at odds with the US Federal Reserve. (5) Deutsche Bank's decision to force workers into the office more frequently has met with fierce internal criticism, demonstrating the challenges in reversing a policy introduced during the Covid pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.