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This is the Bloomberg Daybakute podcast available every morning on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Friday, the 22nd of November in London. I'm Caroline Heppka. And I'm Stephen Carroll coming up today. American Defence firms are warned of the threat of Russian sabotage as Moscow fires an experimental missile at Ukraine.
exit gates enter Pambondi. President-elect Trump is forced to find a new nominee for U.S. Attorney General. Plus, as the rich and famous Florida once-quiet part of Portugal, the designer Christian LeBoutin is among those fighting to save the region. Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.
U.S. intelligence agencies have warned American defense firms to be alert for Russian sabotage as Moscow seeks to undermine support for Ukraine. In a joint statement, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI and others said Russia's sabotage activities in Europe increased the risk to U.S. companies abroad and potentially at home.
Russia is so far focused mainly on European targets, including a foiled plot to assassinate the CEO of German arms maker, Ryan Mattal. President Biden's administration recently warned allies about the risk of stepped up Russian sabotage if the US and its allies allowed Kyiv to fire Western weapons deep inside Russia.
The threat of sabotage against Western businesses comes as the U.S. confirmed that Russia has fired an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine. President Putin said the attack was in retaliation for Ukraine's use of American and British-made missiles on Russian territory earlier this week. In a TV address, Vladimir Putin also raised the possibility of attacking U.K. or U.S. military facilities in response.
We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities. And in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively.
Putin, speaking of RA translator there, the Russian leader has lowered the threshold for the use of Moscow's nuclear arsenal after President Biden allowed Ukraine to use U.S. supplied takums missiles to hit Russia. Ukraine also began using UK-made storm shadow missiles against Russian targets this week.
Donald Trump has nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to run the Justice Department. The decision comes after the president-elect's previous pick, Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the role yesterday. The former congressman was facing scrutiny over allegations of sexual misconduct. Gaetz denied them, but there were questions as to if he had enough support to be confirmed. In Pam Bondi, Trump is elevating another longtime ally with Florida roots. Here's Republican strategist Tricia McLachlan.
She's the first female attorney general in Florida. She's known to be highly competent. She's been a highly effective spokesperson for Donald Trump. So, I mean, I think she's going to definitely have a pathway to confirmation. And I think she will absolutely act in a loyal way. Republican strategist Tricia McLaughlin speaking there in the first Trump administration. Bondi worked out of the White House assisting in communications related to his first impeachment trial.
After years of benign moves, volatility soared following the US presidential election. Now, currency traders are betting that Donald Trump's policy agenda will jump started again in the seven and a half trillion dollar a day foreign exchange market. Bluemix, Tiwa Adebayo has more now.
Hedge funds are scooping up options contracts that pay out of currency swings increase in anticipation of January's presidential inauguration. It's not yet clear how quickly Trump will implement policies such as trade tariffs, which could cause pain for the euro. But investors are pretty certain unpredictability will be a major feature of his term. There's also the unknown factor of how countries will respond to Trump's measures and what impact those countermeasures will have on markets.
Right now, traders are expecting a stronger dollar and greater macroeconomic divergence leading to bigger FX moves. The trend marks a sharp turnaround from the past few years when central banks raising then cutting interest rates led to a period of calm. In London, Tiwa Adebayo, Bloomberg Radio.
Ken Griffin says he would consider selling a piece of a $65 billion multi-strategy hedge fund Citadel. Speaking to Bloomberg at the Economic Club of New York, the financier added he could see working with a partner like Sequoia Capital, which invested in Citadel Securities, but ruled out an IPO for the market maker due to regulatory concerns. When asked about his expectations of a second Trump administration, Griffin, a major donor to Republican politicians, expressed significant trepidation.
I am gravely concerned that the rise of tariffs puts us on a slippery slope towards cronyism capital." Ken Griffin, now speaking to Bloomberg's Shanali Basak, he also shared worries about other expected policies from the president-elect, including mass deportations and cautioned Republicans about the impact of tax cuts on the national debt.
Here in the UK, consumer confidence rose in November after the new government's budget. GFK has put the surprise increase to minus 18 on their index down to uncertainty over Labour's tax and spending plans ending. However, overall confidence remains below August levels, which were taken before Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned of painful decisions.
those are top stories on the market. CSP 500 closed on Thursday in the green up. Half of 1% is in video shares reversed earlier losses and closed up by half of 1% as well. The dollar strength and four tents yesterday. It's a 10th stronger today on the Bloomberg dollar spot index, the Euro trading at 104 68.
against the greenback. Brent climbed 2% yesterday. It's up another 10th of 1% today at $74.31 on geopolitical tensions. Gold also rallied 7-10th of 1%. Overnight, we've seen Bitcoin hit another fresh all-time high at 99.4, $99,400, just slightly below that level at the moment in Asia. Japanese shares are higher, but China and Hong Kong are lower. The Hangsang is down by 1.8%.
Those are the markets that will discuss the latest escalatory events in Russia and Ukraine in just a moment and also a deep dive report on a really interesting topic. The ultra-rich, flooding and once-quiet part of Portugal, Christian LeBouta is among those who's fighting to save the region. But before we get into those big conversations, I was reading this on the Bloomberg terminal this morning about airline premiumization, as it's impossible to say.
Earlier this week, do you remember we were discussing how Delta was going to allow first-class passengers to be able to order a hamburger on the plane? Well, Bloomberg Business Week's been looking into this idea of premiumization, pre-pandemic, the big US airlines spent ages sort of experimenting with all those extras. You know, obviously, the front row seats that have got extra leg room and kind of slightly better snacks.
But apparently now they're switching focus. They're not looking at that part of the plane anymore. They're looking at the front of the plane, i.e. how to shift those first class tickets. And I was absolutely amazed to understand how much people are paying in cash now for first class tickets.
Yeah, well, look, but it's not just first class either. It's the premium economies. It's the business class because post pandemic when people return to travel, a lot of people realized how awful, frankly, parts of it are and being squashed into a seat of your tall person, for example, can be very uncomfortable. So the question is, if I'm going to travel because people aren't doing it, perhaps as often, am I going to pay more for the little luxuries to get on the way? And actually, some airlines are even considering redrawing their planes.
so that there are more options in terms of presumably bargain basement to ultra luxury and trying to find somewhere in between that you can afford. Yeah, it's that extra hundred dollars that passengers might pay for each additional item, hugely important. Anyway, it's a long read. It's got some really nicely drawn graphics about where you sit on the plane and what you get. And it's on the big terminal on the website and in business week.
Caroline always turns left when she gets on a plane. That's all I know. Let's bring you more, though, in our top stories this morning. And we've heard from the Russian President, Vladimir Putin speaking, on Thursday, as U.S. intelligence and national security agencies warn of Russian threats to U.S. defense companies. R.E.M.E. News Director Roslyn Malthuson joins us now for more. Ros, good morning. So this warning from the U.S. to defense firms about Russian sabotage. European firms have already seen instances of this. What is this warning about?
Well, it's in the realm of what we've seen over the past couple of years since Russia invaded Ukraine, which is this hybrid warfare that's accompanied that, you know, cyber attacks, episodes of sabotage. And so we've seen that a lot from all corners on this war. And we're seeing European nations warning
of this and increasing their drills against cyber attacks and attacks on things like electricity grids. And this shows rising concern, this particular warning that the Russian intelligence services might be using attacks to try and recruit people from defense companies, recruit people who would come and carry out things like arson attacks, cyber attacks and so on. And we know
So far, the focus has been particularly on Europe. We had that episode, of course, in July with the fold plot to assassinate the CEO of Ryan Matal. And that's the German arms maker, of course, supplying Ukraine with weapons. But now the US is in focus, especially supplying so many weapons to Ukraine.
being used on Russian soil. And this is the warning that the Russians might try to recruit people, insiders from the defence community, to carry out sort of arsenic, cyber attacks, other sabotage on these companies.
Well, Putin gave a televised speech on Thursday. He was talking about a number of issues. But this, as he and Ukraine say that Russia launched this new kind of missile this week, an experimental intermediate range ballistic missile on Denis Pro. Why is that being seen as so significant?
Vladimir Putin said that the weapon was a new intermediate range ballistic missile with carrying a conventional warhead, although they did give the US a heads up right before they launched it for safety reasons. But he said it was in retaliation for Ukraine now using US made UK made missiles.
against Russian soil, firing those weapons at Russian soil. And so it is an escalation in that regard, even though this was not the biggest missile. I think that's been fired against Ukraine so far. We've seen missiles carrying larger warheads in this conflict.
But this is a signal that they have new weapons, that they're experimenting with these weapons, and particularly that they're wanting to show they can reach deep into Ukrainian territory to send that message. So certainly it's part of what we're seeing at the moment is this idea of escalation coming with both sides positioning themselves for potential talks. I'm positioning themselves also ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump in January. This appears to have been moved into a very dangerous time in this conflict.
That's absolutely right. As you were saying, what we're seeing is Ukraine stepping things up, Russia stepping things up, both on the ground and particularly in the air. We have the Russians calling it a dangerous position, but we also know that a number of people in Donald Trump's circle are echoing that view saying that the US is antagonizing the situation under the Biden administration. And what we're seeing is this escalatory pattern.
as a result. And we do know that Donald Trump wants this war to come to a close. We do know he doesn't want to keep supporting Ukraine with aid, military aid or financial aid. So he's going to be seeking to push both Russia and Ukraine to the table pretty early on. But in the meantime, what we're doing is we're seeing them escalate to be in the best position, and that's highly dangerous.
Well, thank you so much for being with us this morning on EMEA News Director Rosalynne Malthuson. Join Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin on the Capital Ideas Podcast. Investment professionals reveal how they find their next great idea, what gives them their investment edge, and a few personal stories. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Capital Client Group Inc.
The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers. So that's why we created The Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all. Every day, in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters. You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine. A lot of this meme stock stuff is, I think, embarrassing to the SEC. Follow The Big Take Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
And then bringing us the latest when it comes to the war in Ukraine. Now we're going to take you to Portugal next. When French designer Christian Leboutin bought a secluded house in Portugal's Melides, it was a sleepy coastal area. Less than two decades later, what was once a well-kept secret was transformed into a playground of the rich and famous. And the man made famous by his red-sulled shoes, isn't happy. He's now fighting to save.
his beloved Portuguese retreat from a high-end tourism surge. Joining us now for more on this story is Bloomberg's N.E.K.L. Mater. Eric, great to have you with us on the programme. What is happening then in this small coastal town that Christian Libertans are not happy about?
Melidege was one of Portugal's best kept secrets until U.S. real estate developed the Discovery Land, opened a luxury residential community in the area and started attracting European Royals, entrepreneurs and sports stars. Now, Discovery Land belongs to real estate mogul Mike Melman, who is famous for founding tequila company Kazamigos with actor George Clooney. So, ever since this ultra luxury resort opened in this small town on the edge of Pine and Pork Forest along
untouched wild Atlantic beaches. Investor interest has increased significantly and then due to that property prices around the area have soared. Some locals are struggling to cope with the higher living costs and others like Lobota who discovered the area more than 20 years ago. Well, they're worried that the area might fall victim to overturism and they're also worried about the depletion of resources like water.
Right now, there's this tension building up in this small town of Milidish because locals aren't sure that it's able to take all the growing interests that's been taking place in recent years. Yes, and perhaps this also taps into the wider concerns about tourism in some towns and cities and tourist destinations in other beautiful parts of Europe. What is Leboutin doing then about it? I mean, is he gathering local politicians? What's he thinking about?
Lobota has a house in the Malí Liz lagoon which is one of the most protected areas of Portugal and ever since he arrived there he's been noticing that the water levels in the lagoon have been dropping and that's because of consumption related to farming there are a lot of rice fields in the area it's also related to the golf courses that have been opening in the area there are five golf courses in an area of 50 kilometers and
And so what Lobota did was he founded an association to work with farmers, to teach farmers or to help farmers cultivate rice and use less water. That association is also working with developers on ways to make tourism more sustainable in the use of water at golf courses and use of water for consumption and also with politicians on new legislation so that the area becomes more sustainable.
He's concerned about nature, but he does believe, however, that it's possible for the leaders to have high-end tourism, and at the same time, continue to be sustainable. This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe. Your morning brief on the stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed every morning on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcast. You can also listen live each morning on London DAB Radio, the Bloomberg Business App and Bloomberg.com.
Our flagship New York station is also available on your Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa played Bloomberg 1130. I'm Caroline Heppker. And I'm Stephen Carroll. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak Europe.
The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers. So that's why we created The Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all. Every day, in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters. You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine. A lot of this meme stock stuff is, I think, embarrassing to the SEC. Follow The Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
