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The Capital Ideas Podcast now has a
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new monthly edition hosted by Capital Group
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CEO Mike Gitlin. Investment professionals reveal their
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best mentors, how they find their next
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great idea, and a few funny stories.
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Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. American
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Funds Distributors, Inc. This
0:17
is the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe Podcast,
0:19
available every morning on Apple, Spotify,
0:21
or wherever you listen. It's Wednesday,
0:23
the 17th of April in London.
0:25
I'm Stephen Carroll. And I'm Lizzie
0:27
Burden. Coming up today, UK inflation drops,
0:29
but not as much as expected as
0:32
traders trim their bets on BOE cuts.
0:34
The Fed's Jerome Powell concedes that rate
0:36
cuts will need to be delayed due
0:38
to persistently high inflation. And Jamie
0:40
Dimon goes all in on AI.
0:43
Speaking exclusively to Bloomberg, JP
0:45
Morgan's CEO makes the case for
0:47
it transforming banking, but admits it
0:49
will replace jobs. Let's start with
0:51
a roundup of our top stories. UK
0:54
inflation slowed less than expected last month
0:56
as falling food prices were partially offset
0:58
by the cost of fuel. CPI
1:01
rose 3.2% in
1:03
March compared with a year earlier. And
1:05
while the figure was lower than the
1:07
February reading, it was still a fraction
1:09
higher than economists had forecast. Headline inflation
1:11
has fallen sharply from a peak above
1:13
11%, with a further
1:15
fall toward the 2% expected this
1:18
month on the back of falling energy prices. Today's
1:20
data comes just hours after the Bank
1:22
of England Governor Andrew Bailey said Britain
1:25
is on a different inflation path to
1:27
the United States. The comments imply the
1:29
BOE might cut interest rates before the
1:31
Fed. Bailey says US inflation is being
1:33
led by demand, unlike the situation in
1:35
the UK. I think the dynamics of
1:38
inflation are rather different between Europe, I
1:40
mean Europe geographically now, and the
1:42
US. We're still seeing the extension
1:45
of the process of coming
1:47
out of the big supply shocks that we
1:50
had, the impact of the war, the impact of
1:52
coming out of Covid. Bailey
1:54
was speaking at the IMF Spring meetings in
1:56
Washington. In its latest economic outlook, the fund
1:58
predicted AI could... boost the size of the
2:01
UK economy by 16% in
2:03
the first 10 years of adoption higher than most
2:05
other countries. Also speaking stateside, the
2:08
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says the prospect of interest
2:10
rate cuts could lift the mood of voters,
2:12
on their view of the Conservatives, ahead of
2:14
a possible UK general election. He told Bloomberg
2:17
the economy will be in a better place
2:19
in the months ahead. That
2:21
situation we were in 18 months ago
2:24
with inflation at 11.1%, that is well and truly behind
2:28
us. We think we have very strong
2:30
growth prospects. The feel-good factor as interest
2:33
rates start to come down, as people
2:35
start to feel higher real disposable incomes,
2:38
will be stronger in people's minds come
2:41
the early autumn. Hunt's
2:43
comments back up speculation that the government is
2:46
planning to hold an election in the autumn. Markets
2:48
are currently pricing in a first reduction in the
2:50
BOE's 5.25% rate in
2:53
November. Coming
2:55
next to the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
2:58
Powell, who says policy makers will probably
3:00
have to wait longer than previously anticipated
3:02
to cut interest rates. His comments come
3:05
after three months of surprisingly high inflation
3:07
readings and jobs data that suggest the
3:09
US economy remains resilient. Speaking during a
3:11
panel discussion in Washington, Powell said rate
3:14
setters need to see more evidence that
3:16
the pace of price rises is cooling.
3:19
So we've said at the FOMC that we'll
3:21
need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably
3:24
toward 2% or it would
3:26
be appropriate to ease policy. We
3:28
took that cautious approach and sought
3:31
that greater confidence so as not to
3:33
overreact to the string of low
3:35
inflation readings that we had in the second half of
3:37
last year. Powell's
3:39
remarks represent a shift in his message.
3:42
Policy makers narrowly penciled in three interest
3:44
rate cuts in forecasts published last month,
3:46
but investors are now betting on just
3:48
one to two cuts this year. Meanwhile
3:50
the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has
3:53
doubled down on the message she gave last
3:55
week that the bank is on a firm
3:57
path to a first rate cut in June.
4:00
She told CNBC that as long as shocks
4:02
don't derail the slowdown in eurozone
4:04
inflation, it will be time to
4:06
moderate the restrictive stamps in reasonably
4:08
short order. The guard wouldn't comment
4:11
on how many cuts in borrowing costs are
4:13
likely to materialise in the coming months. Speaking
4:15
in Washington, she also highlighted that the
4:18
German economy may be starting to recover
4:20
after being rocked by a series of
4:22
shocks in recent years. The
4:24
Dutch tech firm ASML was hit by a
4:26
slump in demand for its advanced chip makers,
4:29
with the bookings missing estimates. Europe's most valuable
4:31
firm in the space reported 3.6 billion
4:34
euros worth of orders in the first quarter
4:36
of the year, shares down 3.7% this morning
4:41
just as we go into the second hour
4:43
of cash trading. The company has been hit
4:45
by weakness in demand from clients in Taiwan
4:47
and the US. ASML expects weaker than expected
4:49
sales in the second quarter before demand starts
4:52
to pick up. Jamie Dimon has
4:54
told Bloomberg that artificial intelligence will transform
4:56
banking but it will also lead to
4:58
job losses. The JP Morgan CEO's comments
5:01
come after he devoted a chunk of
5:03
his annual shareholder letter to the importance
5:05
of AI for the Wall Street Giants
5:08
business and for society at
5:10
large, likening its impact to that of
5:12
the steam engine. Here's what Dimon told Emily
5:14
Chang on the latest episode of The Circuit.
5:17
The way to think about it for us
5:20
is every single process, so errors, trading, hedging,
5:22
research, every app, every database, you're going to
5:24
be applying AI. So it might be as
5:26
a copilot, it might be to replace humans.
5:28
AI is doing all the equity hedging for
5:31
us for the most part. It's idea generation,
5:33
it's largely like as models, it's note taking
5:35
while you're talking to someone and the model's
5:37
taking notes and may actually say to you
5:39
that here's the thing of interest, decline my
5:42
business, all error, all customer service, it's a
5:44
little bit of everything. But it
5:46
is going to replace some jobs. Of course,
5:48
yeah. But folks, people have to take a
5:50
deep breath, OK? Technology's always replaced jobs. Your
5:52
children are going to live through 100 and
5:54
not have cancer because of technology. And literally,
5:56
they'll probably be working three and a half
5:58
days a week. You
6:01
can watch that full wide-ranging interview with
6:03
Jamie Dimon on the latest episode of
6:05
The Circuit with Emily Chang on Bloomberg
6:07
Originals available on the app or YouTube
6:09
or as a podcast. The US has
6:11
had to place sanctions on Iran's
6:14
drone program after the country's attack
6:16
on Israel. According to the White
6:18
House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan,
6:20
Washington is coordinating a comprehensive response
6:22
alongside G7 countries. US Treasury Secretary
6:24
Janet Yellen says the measures will
6:26
come into play shortly. I
6:29
fully expect that we will
6:31
take additional sanctions action against
6:33
Iran in the coming days.
6:37
We don't preview our
6:39
sanctions tools but
6:41
in discussions I've had all
6:44
options to disrupt terrorist
6:47
financing of Iran continue
6:49
to be on the table. Janet
6:53
Yellen speaking there. The US will also announce
6:55
sanctions against entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
6:58
Corps and Iran's defence ministry and expect allies
7:00
to follow. In that moment we'll bring you
7:02
more on the rate re-pricing after today's UK
7:04
inflation data as well as what top central
7:07
bankers have been saying at the IMF and
7:09
World Bank spring meetings in Washington. Another story
7:11
that caught a eye this morning. I don't
7:13
know if you've seen the pictures on social
7:16
media of the flooding in Dubai. Well of
7:18
course Stephen if I haven't told you already
7:20
I've been in Dubai recently and
7:22
I just didn't believe it that you
7:24
could get hailstorms there. One occurred as
7:26
I was mid camel riding lesson in
7:28
fact but it's because of this thing
7:31
called cloud seeding which honestly I thought
7:33
was a myth when they first told
7:35
me about it but it's because of
7:37
the water security issues in the region
7:39
and so whenever you have
7:41
they try to coax more
7:44
rain from clouds essentially. They
7:46
put natural salts like potassium
7:48
chloride I've been researching. And
7:52
they put it when there are clouds
7:55
to improve the rainfall and it's been
7:57
dubbed the rains of goodness by Dubai's
7:59
media. your office. But by the looks of
8:01
the videos on social media, I think you
8:03
can be the judge of that. Yeah, I
8:06
mean flights disrupted, school shafts, people told to
8:08
work from home as well, pretty dramatic rainfall
8:10
in Dubai. But really interesting to get some
8:13
of the context as to why the rain is perhaps Join
8:21
Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin for a
8:23
new monthly edition of the Capital Ideas
8:25
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develop. Learn more at meta.com/
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metaverse impact. Managing editor for FX and Rates,
8:51
Rachel Evans with us in the studio
8:53
to pass it all. Rachel,
8:55
thanks for being with us. Let's start
8:58
with the Fed. How significant is the
9:00
shift in J-PAL's language on the rate
9:02
path? I think it's pretty
9:04
significant indeed. And we obviously had
9:07
the dot plot that came out at
9:09
the Fed's meeting in March suggesting that we're
9:11
going to see three cuts by the Fed
9:13
this year, of course, subject
9:15
to the data. And Powell has basically come out
9:17
and said, yeah, that data is not looking so
9:20
good. And that really casts a
9:22
pull over that outlook for rates.
9:25
At the moment, markets are seeing about 40
9:27
basis points of cuts by year end. So
9:29
that would equate to one full
9:31
cut and maybe a chance of another.
9:33
And I think that kind of really
9:35
tells you just sort of where things
9:37
are headed. There's been a lot of
9:39
Fed speak recently away
9:42
from Powell suggesting that one,
9:44
two cuts might be more appropriate than three. So I
9:46
think that's going to be a very interesting conversation
9:48
amongst the Federal Reserve officials when
9:50
they next meet in early May. Yeah,
9:52
indeed. And of course, we're hearing plenty from those
9:54
central bankers at the IMF and World Bank spring
9:56
meetings as well. Bloomberg's Lizzie Meekins with us in
9:59
the studio this to help
10:01
us look into the UK inflation numbers, which is
10:03
another piece of this puzzle too. Lucy, good morning
10:05
to you. Just talk us through the headlines from
10:07
these inflation numbers. It does seem to
10:10
have been a bit of a surprise
10:12
on some points. It's not all
10:14
awful, but at the end of the day, in
10:17
this estimate, people are a little disappointed by
10:19
that and that's led to a fairly dramatic
10:21
re-pricing of rate cut bets. So
10:23
now people are expecting just one 25 basis
10:25
point cut this year. A few
10:28
weeks ago we were seeing two to three. A second
10:31
one is now a bit of a tointoc. Tointoc?
10:34
Tointoc. So it's
10:36
a bit of a change. People are a bit
10:39
disappointed, but as I say, it could have been
10:41
worse. Yeah. And for the
10:43
markets, Rachel, the big point here
10:45
is partly the divergence between European
10:47
interest rates and American interest rates,
10:49
the ECB and the Bank of England. What
10:51
was the big next data point to watch
10:53
in this debate? Well, I
10:55
mean, we've kind of got a bit of a
10:57
lull on the US data front. I think we
11:00
have GDP coming out Thursday, PCE Friday. Those are
11:02
going to be things that people really want
11:04
to watch as we sort of head
11:06
towards the next big line in the sound,
11:08
which is really going to be that Fed meeting
11:10
on May 1. That's going
11:12
to be the thing that people are listening
11:14
for and it's really the commentary heading into
11:17
that about exactly what that data is telling
11:19
people. We've now seen CPI in the US.
11:21
We've now seen non-farm payrolls in the US,
11:23
both showing that the economy is running really
11:26
hot than forecast. So GDP will
11:28
give us another read on that. PCE
11:31
will also give us some kind of sense of that too.
11:33
But really it's going to come down to what the
11:35
Fed says on May 1. That is really going to
11:37
be the best guide for the market on where they're headed.
11:41
Lucy, we've also been listening to the
11:43
conversation that Andrew Bailey was having while
11:45
he was in Washington about who goes
11:47
first. Is it a really big deal
11:49
that he suggested the UK could cut
11:51
before the US? Yes, I think
11:54
so. And I think where he's saying it is
11:56
important too. These big
11:58
meetings are so fascinating because they... They
12:01
are talking all the time. I don't, you
12:03
know, I've seen Central Bankers names pop up
12:05
on other Central Bankers phones. They do talk
12:07
all the time. But when they're actually in the
12:09
same room and they're talking about
12:12
divergence, I think that is so interesting. It's
12:14
a really big message from Bailey, particularly
12:17
when he's got quite a divided committee
12:19
at the moment. We've got
12:21
people like Megan Green, who will be speaking later, and
12:25
also Jonathan Haskell is speaking later. So we're gonna watch out
12:27
for those. But they've both been very recently
12:29
voting for hikes. So
12:32
yes, I think one, it's important, but two
12:34
also where wasn't really important. Yeah,
12:37
I mean, it is interesting to think about Andrew
12:40
Bailey's saying that really the BOE
12:42
has got its own mind, it could go first.
12:46
But I wonder whether that's actually going
12:48
to happen, Rachel. From what you're seeing,
12:50
from what you're hearing, is it just
12:52
that they could or that they will? I
12:55
mean, time will tell on that. I think
12:58
it's probably more likely that Europe diverges than
13:00
the UK when it comes to who
13:02
can cut first. Although Andrew Bailey was very keen
13:04
to put it out when he said Europe, he
13:07
was referring... Yeah, definitely. Yeah, he did that, which
13:09
I actually was silently applauding, frankly, because it's one
13:11
of my massive bugbears, as people suggested the UK
13:13
is somehow no longer part of Europe. Exactly, this
13:15
is floating island. But no, yes, I mean, the
13:17
prospect of the ECB cutting first, I think
13:20
is more real than the BOE managing
13:22
to do that. I mean, when you
13:24
look in the market, currently, the expectations
13:26
amongst traders for the Fed cutting and
13:28
for the Bank of England cutting, it's both
13:30
November as the first time a cut is fully
13:33
priced into the market. There is a chance they
13:35
go earlier, but that's the first time it's fully
13:37
priced. Whereas for the ECB, we're looking much earlier,
13:39
we're looking at sort of July kind of time,
13:42
June, July. So I think when
13:44
you're kind of thinking about that divergence, like, Lagarde
13:46
has been very clear that she will diverge
13:48
from the US if deemed appropriate.
13:50
Bailey is trying to follow a similar line
13:52
and flagging that there are different issues in
13:54
the UK versus in the US as it
13:56
relates to inflation. But these hotter inflation reports
13:59
have got to... give central bankers pause. It's not
14:01
long ago that we were at 11% in the UK.
14:05
Rachel, I wonder, we were talking to Mark
14:07
Cudmore earlier from our Markets Live team and
14:09
he was saying his expectation now or his
14:11
view is there won't be any cuts at
14:13
all from the Federal Reserve this year. How
14:15
much of a re-pricing could there still be
14:18
in markets if we see rate-batch shifting even
14:20
further? Yeah, I think you saw
14:22
a shift in yields even yesterday on the
14:24
Powell comments, the two year going through 5%.
14:27
That's pretty significant. It wasn't that
14:29
long ago that we were talking
14:32
about yields heading back
14:34
down, heading towards 3% and
14:36
now we're back approaching the cycle peaks
14:39
that we saw in October last year in
14:41
the 5% area. We've
14:43
still got a distance to go for the
14:47
10-year, the benchmark. I
14:49
think at the moment, given that we do have
14:51
40 basis points of cuts priced for the year,
14:54
if that were to go away, that could
14:56
really send yields significantly higher. Of course, you've
14:58
got to remember investors came into this year
15:00
expecting lots of cuts, six cuts
15:02
and yields to fall significantly.
15:05
This is a paint trade for a lot of
15:07
people at this point. Yeah, and
15:09
it was outlandish at one point that
15:11
Larry Summers was suggesting there was a
15:13
meaningful chance there would be no rate
15:15
cuts this year and now that just
15:17
seems an even more likely prospect. But
15:19
Lucy, just to end with you, where
15:21
you had Powell speaking yesterday, where you've
15:23
got this likelihood maybe of no cuts
15:25
from the Fed this year and three
15:27
hot inflation prints out of the US,
15:30
at what point is it just going to be acknowledged that
15:32
there's been a policy error? Or,
15:35
to put the other side, having already been accused
15:37
of sounding like Jeremy Hunt today, to the other side,
15:39
maybe there's a market error here. Maybe
15:41
people just went into this trade too
15:43
fast, went too far with it, got
15:46
overexcited, it always happens. But
15:48
I think actually what we've seen is that
15:51
in many ways the policy is
15:53
being fairly consistent. Maybe the communication
15:55
was a little over exuberant at
15:57
times, but in the UK at
15:59
least. We've got plenty of people. We've got
16:01
a completely divided committee. So maybe
16:03
people just went too far with their bet.
16:06
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning
16:08
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