October 8, 2025 • 24 mins
Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
(1) Spot gold smashed through $4,000 an ounce for the first time, as concerns over the US economy and a government shutdown added fresh momentum to a scorching rally.
(2) From across the political spectrum, Emmanuel Macron’s rivals are turning up the pressure on the French president, demanding their choice of prime minister, snap elections and even his resignation.
(3) Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, tapping backers including Nvidia Corp. to lift its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
(4) Teams from the US, Qatar, Israel and other nations are headed to Egypt as part of a final push for a deal with Hamas aimed at ending the two-year war that’s devastated Gaza and destabilized much of the Middle East.
(5) Saving a lifetime’s worth of earnings still wouldn’t be enough for the average British worker to reach the ranks of the wealthy, according to a new report revealing that economic inequality in the country has dramatically worsened over the last 15 years.
(6) Cristiano Ronaldo’s football career has been a series of glittering firsts, from a record transfer to Real Madrid to scoring more competition goals than any man in history. He’s now notched up another huge win off the pitch: becoming the first billionaire player.
Podcast Conversation: Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Media-Blitz Had a Downfall
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is the Bloomberg Day ba Q podcast. Good morning,
It's Wednesday, the eighth of October. I'm Caroline, hepkat in
London and.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm Stephen Caroline Paris. Coming up today. The price of
gold smashes through four thousand dollars announce for the first
time as US government shutdown fears fueled as safe haven rally.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
With just hours to go until Immanuel Macron's self imposed deadline,
French opposition parties show little appetite for a deal.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Plus scoring big Ronaldo becomes the world's first football billionaire
following a huge Saudi deal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The price of gold has topped four thousand dollars, announced
for the first time in history, as concerns over the
US economy and the government shutdown added fresh momentum to
a scorching rally. Uncertainties over global trade, geopolitical tensions, concerns
about Fed independence and to move away from the dollar
have also helped to fuel the rise in bullion, which
(01:06):
traded it less than half its current value just two
years ago. Angelina Li, chief Investment Officer for Asia, in
the Middle East at Saint James's place, what we are.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Really seeing is a flight to safety. What we tend
to talk about gold as a board indicator for the
fear and greed index, actually because there is no cash
flow attached to gold, and for a organization sash Asas
that believes in valuation and fundamentals as the basis, it's
extremely difficult to value something like a gold which does
(01:37):
not have cash flows attached.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
To that's Angela Lai speaking there. Jumps in the price
of gold typically track broader economic and political stress. The
metal climbed above one thousand dollars an ounce in the
aftermath of the global financial crisis, two thousand dollars during
the COVID pandemic, and three thousand dollars as the Trump
administration's taroff plans ripples through global markets. In March, in.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
France, there are just hours to go until Emmanuel Macon's
deadline for parties to agree to work together on a budget.
Opposition parties are making demands, including their choice for prime minister,
fresh elections, and in some cases, the president's own resignation.
The outgoing Prime Minister Sebastia Lecornu will continue meetings with
(02:20):
political leaders. Today, Olivier four of the Socialist Party told
France Too television that their party wants the prime minister
from their ranks and not new elections.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I want the left to governor. I don't just want
to be obsessed with what now. Also obsesses the right,
that is presidential election, as if there were nothing else.
And the French people who see this shadow play, this
street leader day after day, are saying to themselves, are
you finally going to talk about us left?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Socialist Party leader Olivier four, speaking there via a trans Later,
President macarl gave Sebastian Lacorner until this evening to form
an agreement with other parties. The left and the center
right have ruled out joining forces in a unity cabinet,
but sources have told Bloomberg that the Republican Party might
be willing to refrain from toppling a Socialist led government
(03:19):
if the far left is kept out of power.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup XAI, is increasing its ongoing
funding round to twenty billion dollars in the latest leg
of the AI spending boom. Bloomberg has learned that XAI
is accessing more financing than initially planned, including two billion
dollars from Nvidia to finance chips for its Colossus two project.
(03:43):
It comes despite billionaire Elon Musk posting on X in
September that he was not raising any capital right now.
The massive financing is just the latest for the tech
sector this year. Something JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond compared
to the dot com bubble, it's all.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Our shows, all ever going to be totally spent. I
think when you look at big tech, like tech that
happens like this, and you're going to look at cars,
you look at television, you click at Internet, big money's
got spent. There were a lot of losers, a lot
of winners. In total. It was productive. So take the
even take the Internet bubble and remember that blew up
and matter p I can united by the name one
hundred companies that were worth fifty billion dollars and disappeared.
(04:24):
But out of it came a Facebook, YouTube, Google.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
So there will be some real big companies with real
big success. It will work despite the fact that not
everyone invested is going to have a great investment return.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Jamie Diamond was speaking to Bloomberg at JP Morgan's Tech
Stars conference. Despite the optimism many you're looking at the
trillions of dollars pledged to AI infrastructure and asking relationships
are too circular. Today's Bloomberg Big Take looks at the
AI race, with one analyst telling them Sam Altman has
the power to crash the global economy for a decade
(04:56):
or take us all to the Promised Land.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Our teams form the US Cutter and Israel are set
together in Egypt for final negotiations to end the war
in Gaza. Bloomberg understands that officials including close Netanyahu advisor
Ron Dermer.
Speaker 7 (05:13):
And US Special end voice.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Steve Whitkoff are expected to take part in negotiations. Israeli
opposition leader Yaala Pid says he's hoping for an end
to the conflict, a war.
Speaker 8 (05:25):
That is going nowhere, hostages that are slowly dying, and
of course the suffering Gaza that everybody in his right
mind cares about. Children should not die ins wars. So
for everybody's sake, we pray for.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
This doing yeah, Lapid. They're speaking to Sky News. Hamas,
spokesperson for Ze bar Room, said a permanency spar and
withdraw all of Israeli troops must be central to a deal.
During a televised address on Qatar based broadcast at Al Jazeera.
Qatar's Prime Minister Shake Mohammad been Abdul Rahman Altani and
(06:02):
President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner are also expected
to attend those talks.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
The gap between the wealthy and the average British worker
is too large even for a lifetime of savings to bridge.
The Resolution Foundation think tank found a typical full time
employee you would need to set aside around fifty two
years worth of pay to reach the top ten percent poombergs.
Speaker 9 (06:25):
James Wilcock has more. If you work hard, can you
get ahead? The Resolution Foundation say the answer is clear,
not any more. Their research says in Britain, since two
thousand and eight, if you owned wealth, you saw far
more gained than from a paycheck. They add, the intergenerational
wealth gap between people in their thirties and people in
(06:46):
their sixties has.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Doubled in that time period.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
Taxing that wealth has become a political issue, with those
on the left pushing chance of Rachel Reeves to do
more to bounce the scales.
Speaker 7 (06:59):
In London. James Walcock Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And those are our top stories for you this morning.
Looking at the markets, spot gold is now trading up
one percent again this morning four thousand and twenty six dollars. Stocks,
though seeing more declines, are from record high, as it
must be said MSCI Asia Pacific indexes down six tenths
of one percent. Stop futures for Europe are also just
(07:23):
flat this morning. S and P five hundred EMNI futures
edging upwards a tenth of one percent, very dally saying
the stock market feels frothy. Mainland, China and South Korean
markets closed for holidays today. The kiwis dropped. We had
a fifty basis point RBNZ, a raight cut. Ten year
treasury yields are also steady this morning, trading at four
point one two percent. Those are the markets.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
In a moment. Will bring you more on goals, Glittering
ron plus wear next for Ammanual Macro, and some reporting
from our Portugal bureau chief that you won't want to miss.
But another story we've been reading this morning. I don't
know how much time you've spent to analyzing or parsing
Taylor Swift's new album, but you'd be pleased to know
that Jason Bailey from Bloomberg Opinion has been on.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
The case as well.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
He's been looking a bit at the numbers, which are
very positive about the album drop as well, but also
the mixed reviews, so positive from some legacy publications, but
some mixed reception online as well, which is an interesting
phenomenon because of the incredibly I don't know, vociferous as
the word support of Taylor Swift that you can find
(08:30):
almost everywhere on the internet, and also the risks of
saying anything bad about Taylor Swift and the potential for
being canceled as a result.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
She's a billionaire, she's just come off the smash eras tool,
she's got her own music catalog back, just got engaged obviously,
you know, she's powering ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, I mean, look, and lots going on and plenty
of opinions to be shared apparently about it. So Jason's
been digging into sort of the release strategy and whether
it was right to put the whole album out of
the same time with the video for the Fate of
Ophelia and the launch watch party as well. Yeah, may
perhaps there was a you know, not it wasn't the
traditional playbook for how you know big new releases are
done now Courtela Swift, as we know, forges our own
(09:13):
path and so many things so great. Read this morning
bloomberg dot com for his last opinion. Then we'll put
a link to it in our podcast show notes.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay, well, let's think about what's happening in the market.
Is the spot price of gold smashing through four thousand
dollars an ounce for the very first time ever. That
is a jump of more than fifty percent this year.
Bloomberg's Market's live stash this Mark Crowndfield joins us.
Speaker 7 (09:33):
Now for more on this mark. Come on.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There are so many superlatives about this. Put it into context.
How much has gold rallied?
Speaker 10 (09:42):
Yeah, I think. Well, one of the exciting things, apart
from as you say that that fifty percent jump, is
the speed with which it covered the last one thousand
dollars in price. So between three thousand to four thousand,
you did that in around seven months, which is by
far the quickest the various stages of rarely that the
(10:03):
gold has had over its life, that is certainly the
quickest it's covered the price of one thousand dollars so
very impressive, much quicker than it was between two and
three thousand, for example. So yeah, just around a seven
month rally, and you would have earned around one thousand
dollars if you'd have been involved in gold at that time.
So that's something to take into although you would have
(10:23):
done even better if you'd have been in silver. That's
really about sixty percent this year.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Interesting, why, I mean, is the source question, why are
we under the stage.
Speaker 10 (10:35):
It's a lot to do with what other currencies are
doing or not doing, and also the geopolitics. Several things
have fallen into place that support gold at the moment,
so I think you must never forget though people will
describe gold as a metal, it's really a currency because
it is exchangeable. You can actually take a gold coin
and you can get cash for it at any time.
(10:55):
And so what we have at the moment is a
situation where the euro has a French problem. So it's
not so popular that the yen, as you know, has
been extremely weak. I'm sure you've been talking about that
a lot as well, and it's just got weaker with
this potential new female prime minister coming in. The Pound
is a bit underwhelming as well. It's got its own issues.
So there are several major currencies. In New Zealand currency
(11:15):
is getting battered today with the rate cut. So within
the G ten space, the competitors to gold are not
having a great time. Even the dollar is losing it.
It's still the largest currency by reserve managers, but that
share is falling, so even the dollars being undermined a bit.
So all of that supports reasons for being in gold.
Then you have the general geopolitical situation, which to a
(11:36):
lot of investors looks more unstable this year than it
has for many many years. Again that's a positive for gold,
and the low interest rate environment is another thing as well.
Gold generally does well when interest rates are on a
downtrend in major countries. So all of those things put
gold in a good position. It may well have got
(11:57):
out of control. It may be there's too much speculation
in the very short it's gone too far, but certainly
there are tangible reasons why you can see gold is
being seen as a very good haven in this environment.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, and at times of stress that is
often the case. But as you point out, where does
it go from here? And there are lots of views.
I mean, from Bridgewater's Ray Dalio to Cis Sales, Ken Griffin,
the Goldman Sachs forecast at the end of next year.
There are lots of views on the trajectory.
Speaker 10 (12:26):
The biggest risk to it in the near term is
that it's become another momentum place, something like tech stocks
in America and around the world. So if you look
at what macro traders are doing at the moment, some
of their biggest positions are likely to be long of
AI themes, long of gold. They probably were short US
(12:46):
dollar that's starting to reverse a bit now, and so
those kind of positions have probably got very large, and
when they turn, they're probably going to turn together. So
if we see a sharp correction, let's say this earning
season is not as good as expected in the United States,
the one that's just started, we got to turn in
the stock market there, you will probably see that gold
will follow because people who have similar positions will need
(13:10):
to make up piano losses because of what's happening in
a different esset class. So that's the biggest risk to
gold in the short term. The other the fact is
like geopolitical risk that's probably not going to go away
in the short term. Other currencies would need to prove
themselves to be a lot better to get people to
give up their gold too. So if there's a sudden
dramatic change in Europe where France looks a lot better place,
(13:32):
Europe's going to extact together and suddenly the euros arey strong,
that would hurt gold as well.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Very interesting. Yeah, the risks and rewards.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And Mark Cranfield, thanks for being with us Spoompeg's market's
life strategist.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Well, we'reccounting to the next political deadline. Here in France
is outgoing Prime Minister sob As Jenna Carn who tries
to build support for his budget plans. President Macron has
given him until this evening to make progress. Are Managing
editor for European Economics and Government, Band Sales joins us
now for more ban good morning to astender money meeting
the Socialist party leadership today. Are they the key to
(14:05):
his success in this mission?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:07):
They really are.
Speaker 11 (14:08):
The way the kind of complicated mathematics of the of
the French Parliament works out. Macran's weak centrist group has
got a relatively and I use that word advisedly, a
relatively stable alliance with the center right Republicans. They have
got the far right National Rally of Marine depenn in
(14:31):
fairly entrenched opposition, and the key to forming a majority
is to persuade the Socialists to break away from the
far left group and join a kind of centrist alliance.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
But so far they failed to.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do it well. Some parties are already preparing for National
Assembly elections. How likely do you think that that is
out of this point, It's pretty likely.
Speaker 11 (14:56):
The basic situation is that none of the options look
good for MACRN. To get the Socialists on board, He's
almost certainly going to have to compromise on some key
elements of his platform, whether that means raising taxes or
rolling back his pension reform something like that, which would
be a major retreat for MACRN. But if he doesn't
(15:17):
do that, calling an election for the Parliament it risks
making things worse for him. The National Rally is most
likely to gain in that situation, but he's really kind
of running out of options to try and find other
people who can put together a functioning government, just because
the parliamentary match is so complicated.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Some of Macron's close allies also appear to be keen
to distance themselves from the president. You mentioned the pension
reforms there, it's been hugely controversial, and another former prime minister,
Elizabeth Bonn, coming out saying that she's in favor of
suspending the pension reforms now, which is a certain change
in her position from when she was in the Macron
when she was prime minister. She's still a minister in
(15:57):
the outgoing cabinet now. Does all of this add to
the sense that Macron really is a lame duck president now,
even though he has eighteen months left on his term.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
By any standard measure, Macron is definitely a lame duck
and he probably has been for a year or so now,
since since the since the parliamentary elections last summer which
triggered this this gridlock. That said, Macron is an exceptional politician,
and he has been extremely active and quite effective on
(16:34):
the international stage over the last year or so, particularly
the last seven or eight months since since Trump returned
to power. He's got a relationship with Donald Trump. Relationship
with Donald Trump are one of the fundamental assets in
the world in which we live. So he's you know,
he's been effective, but his ability to shape domestic politics
is extremely limited and is extremely popular, so we're very
(16:54):
much in the countdown, like the final chapter of the
Macron presidency, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, Ben's a very interesting moment.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
Then in French politics.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Ben Sills are managing editor for European Economy and Government.
Thank you, stay with us. More from Bloomberg DAYBA Cup
coming up after this. Now, prolific goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo
has done something no other footballer has managed. He has
become a billionaire according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, thanks
(17:26):
to a new playing contract with Saudi Arabia's Al Nassa.
A little earlier, I spoke to our Portugal bureau chief,
Sofia Auta e Costa, and I began by talking to
her about Ronaldo's enormous success on and off the pitch
during a glittering career of more than twenty years, and
how he came to become football's first billionaire player.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yes, hugely successful on the pitch, I mean he has
played for Europe's biggest teams, most famously Manchester United.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
He was very happy there.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
He made his name there, work very closely with Sir
Alex Ferguson. And then his record transfer to Real Madrid
it was one of the biggest transfers in history at
the time, and then to Javentus, so a big Italian team.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
But I'm sitting here in Portugal.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I do know.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
Just for the.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
National team he's been incredibly important. He's still the captain
at forty years old, which is an incredible achievement. He's
scoring in every single game that Portugal has played recently
in qualifications for the World Cup in the US, so
he's still very much at the top of his game.
He's not won a World Cup. I think that kind
(18:37):
of hurts him a little bit. He did win the
Euros in twenty sixteen for Portugal, but if we're talking
about competition with Messi, that's one where the Argentinian player
has won up on Christiana. Ronaldo but an incredibly successful
football player, the biggest goalscorer of all time amongst male
football players.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, incredible, And so how has all of that footballing
success vaulted him well into billionaire status now?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So it's very unusual and quite remarkable the way he's
done this because unlike most athletes who get the bulk
of their wealth from endorsements or you know, in the
case of tennis star Roger Feder it came from a
stake in the footwear company on. In Ronaldo's case, it's
(19:28):
the bulk of his earnings have come from actually playing football,
and actually the majority of that came with his move
to Saudi Arabia, which at the time a lot of
people were criticizing that decision because you know, he was
going from Manchester United and playing at really top level
(19:48):
football to.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
A very unknown league.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, even in Saudi Arabia wasn't the most successful team.
But it's actually, you know, in the past two years
since he's moved there, he's really really kind of shown
what a player at the twilight of his.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
Career can do in terms of you know, gaining earning.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So it's really catapulted him into the top ranks of
the richest sports people. And he's now just renewed his
contract in June and we're hearing it's worth about four
hundred million dollars, which really kind of just redefines what
you can do as a sports player.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Absolutely, net worth estimated in total for Ronaldo one point
four billion dollars. Look, we know there's pay inflation in
the world of football. Obviously, my fellow Brits, you know,
usually pretty obsessed with football and talk a lot about
pay inflation, and so he's not the only super wealthy
(20:50):
football star.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
He's not, and I'm going to I'm going to start
with Messi because everyone just likes comparing the two. And
obviously we're trying to figure out whether, as he is
also a billionaire in terms of football earnings, Ronaldo is
still earning more than Messy. But playing in the American
League has been very fruitful for Messu as well. He
(21:14):
does also have a contract with Apple or revenue sharing deal.
We don't know how much that's worth, so that could
be quite significant for his wealth.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
But you know, Saudi, the Saudi.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
League, the American I mean, I think we can call
it soccer for talking about the US.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
It really has shown what footballers.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Who you know, maybe they want everything they could have
done in Europe and now it's time to really kind
of just play in a different league, but really make
money for what they do. Obviously, Beckham, we're talking about
one of the most marketable footballers in history. He's done
quite a lot for himself, but again most of that
(21:58):
was sponsorship and using his image, his marketing prowess for
his earnings and as you said, you know, pay inflation
has really changed since Beckham was playing. Yeah, but yeah,
Ronaldo is quite unique in that in that sense.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, And of course the football slash soccer audience is
a global one, isn't it. What do you think Ronaldo
might do next? This is the fascinating question as we
cover the the growing business of sport. I mean, is
it going to be investments or some other line of
business like we see other US sporting stars do.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So when he's asked what will he do when he retires,
he gets quite irritated that question because he says, you know,
I'm not retiring it. I'm still playing, I'm still playing
at the top of my game. I'm still a football player.
But obviously a lot of interest in around what he
will do. The Brazilian Ronaldo, the other Ronaldo. He owns
(22:57):
a Spanish football team. Some people think that Cristiano Ronaldo
might follow the same playbook. He has said that he
would like to own not one, but many football clubs
after he retires. He does have a very strong relationship
with a wealth manager based here in Portugal, So the
(23:19):
thinking is maybe there'll be a family office structure. He
has shown a preference to invest in his home country,
but so far there've been just small businesses, you know,
like paddle tennis courts and a ceramics maker.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
He does have a hotel interest here as well.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
There will be a lot of interest though, you know,
will he do He just recently launched a YouTube channel.
Is he going to move into that kind of media
like Gary Lineker did with his podcasting business Goalhanger Sports
that has been incredibly profitable for him. A lot of questions,
but Ronaldo's still very much says that.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
He's a football football.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
First, and he can speak about what comes next once
he does retire.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple,
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Speaker 3 (24:18):
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Speaker 2 (24:24):
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Speaker 7 (24:32):
I'm Caroline Hepke and.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
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
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is the Bloomberg Day ba Q podcast. Good morning,
It's Wednesday, the eighth of October. I'm Caroline, hepkat in
London and.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm Stephen Caroline Paris. Coming up today. The price of
gold smashes through four thousand dollars announce for the first
time as US government shutdown fears fueled as safe haven rally.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
With just hours to go until Immanuel Macron's self imposed deadline,
French opposition parties show little appetite for a deal.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Plus scoring big Ronaldo becomes the world's first football billionaire
following a huge Saudi deal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Let's start with the roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The price of gold has topped four thousand dollars, announced
for the first time in history, as concerns over the
US economy and the government shutdown added fresh momentum to
a scorching rally. Uncertainties over global trade, geopolitical tensions, concerns
about Fed independence and to move away from the dollar
have also helped to fuel the rise in bullion, which
(01:06):
traded it less than half its current value just two
years ago. Angelina Li, chief Investment Officer for Asia, in
the Middle East at Saint James's place, what we are.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Really seeing is a flight to safety. What we tend
to talk about gold as a board indicator for the
fear and greed index, actually because there is no cash
flow attached to gold, and for a organization sash Asas
that believes in valuation and fundamentals as the basis, it's
extremely difficult to value something like a gold which does
(01:37):
not have cash flows attached.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
To that's Angela Lai speaking there. Jumps in the price
of gold typically track broader economic and political stress. The
metal climbed above one thousand dollars an ounce in the
aftermath of the global financial crisis, two thousand dollars during
the COVID pandemic, and three thousand dollars as the Trump
administration's taroff plans ripples through global markets. In March, in.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
France, there are just hours to go until Emmanuel Macon's
deadline for parties to agree to work together on a budget.
Opposition parties are making demands, including their choice for prime minister,
fresh elections, and in some cases, the president's own resignation.
The outgoing Prime Minister Sebastia Lecornu will continue meetings with
(02:20):
political leaders. Today, Olivier four of the Socialist Party told
France Too television that their party wants the prime minister
from their ranks and not new elections.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I want the left to governor. I don't just want
to be obsessed with what now. Also obsesses the right,
that is presidential election, as if there were nothing else.
And the French people who see this shadow play, this
street leader day after day, are saying to themselves, are
you finally going to talk about us left?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Socialist Party leader Olivier four, speaking there via a trans Later,
President macarl gave Sebastian Lacorner until this evening to form
an agreement with other parties. The left and the center
right have ruled out joining forces in a unity cabinet,
but sources have told Bloomberg that the Republican Party might
be willing to refrain from toppling a Socialist led government
(03:19):
if the far left is kept out of power.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup XAI, is increasing its ongoing
funding round to twenty billion dollars in the latest leg
of the AI spending boom. Bloomberg has learned that XAI
is accessing more financing than initially planned, including two billion
dollars from Nvidia to finance chips for its Colossus two project.
(03:43):
It comes despite billionaire Elon Musk posting on X in
September that he was not raising any capital right now.
The massive financing is just the latest for the tech
sector this year. Something JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond compared
to the dot com bubble, it's all.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Our shows, all ever going to be totally spent. I
think when you look at big tech, like tech that
happens like this, and you're going to look at cars,
you look at television, you click at Internet, big money's
got spent. There were a lot of losers, a lot
of winners. In total. It was productive. So take the
even take the Internet bubble and remember that blew up
and matter p I can united by the name one
hundred companies that were worth fifty billion dollars and disappeared.
(04:24):
But out of it came a Facebook, YouTube, Google.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You know.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
So there will be some real big companies with real
big success. It will work despite the fact that not
everyone invested is going to have a great investment return.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Jamie Diamond was speaking to Bloomberg at JP Morgan's Tech
Stars conference. Despite the optimism many you're looking at the
trillions of dollars pledged to AI infrastructure and asking relationships
are too circular. Today's Bloomberg Big Take looks at the
AI race, with one analyst telling them Sam Altman has
the power to crash the global economy for a decade
(04:56):
or take us all to the Promised Land.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Our teams form the US Cutter and Israel are set
together in Egypt for final negotiations to end the war
in Gaza. Bloomberg understands that officials including close Netanyahu advisor
Ron Dermer.
Speaker 7 (05:13):
And US Special end voice.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Steve Whitkoff are expected to take part in negotiations. Israeli
opposition leader Yaala Pid says he's hoping for an end
to the conflict, a war.
Speaker 8 (05:25):
That is going nowhere, hostages that are slowly dying, and
of course the suffering Gaza that everybody in his right
mind cares about. Children should not die ins wars. So
for everybody's sake, we pray for.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
This doing yeah, Lapid. They're speaking to Sky News. Hamas,
spokesperson for Ze bar Room, said a permanency spar and
withdraw all of Israeli troops must be central to a deal.
During a televised address on Qatar based broadcast at Al Jazeera.
Qatar's Prime Minister Shake Mohammad been Abdul Rahman Altani and
(06:02):
President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner are also expected
to attend those talks.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
The gap between the wealthy and the average British worker
is too large even for a lifetime of savings to bridge.
The Resolution Foundation think tank found a typical full time
employee you would need to set aside around fifty two
years worth of pay to reach the top ten percent poombergs.
Speaker 9 (06:25):
James Wilcock has more. If you work hard, can you
get ahead? The Resolution Foundation say the answer is clear,
not any more. Their research says in Britain, since two
thousand and eight, if you owned wealth, you saw far
more gained than from a paycheck. They add, the intergenerational
wealth gap between people in their thirties and people in
(06:46):
their sixties has.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Doubled in that time period.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
Taxing that wealth has become a political issue, with those
on the left pushing chance of Rachel Reeves to do
more to bounce the scales.
Speaker 7 (06:59):
In London. James Walcock Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And those are our top stories for you this morning.
Looking at the markets, spot gold is now trading up
one percent again this morning four thousand and twenty six dollars. Stocks,
though seeing more declines, are from record high, as it
must be said MSCI Asia Pacific indexes down six tenths
of one percent. Stop futures for Europe are also just
(07:23):
flat this morning. S and P five hundred EMNI futures
edging upwards a tenth of one percent, very dally saying
the stock market feels frothy. Mainland, China and South Korean
markets closed for holidays today. The kiwis dropped. We had
a fifty basis point RBNZ, a raight cut. Ten year
treasury yields are also steady this morning, trading at four
point one two percent. Those are the markets.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
In a moment. Will bring you more on goals, Glittering
ron plus wear next for Ammanual Macro, and some reporting
from our Portugal bureau chief that you won't want to miss.
But another story we've been reading this morning. I don't
know how much time you've spent to analyzing or parsing
Taylor Swift's new album, but you'd be pleased to know
that Jason Bailey from Bloomberg Opinion has been on.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
The case as well.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
He's been looking a bit at the numbers, which are
very positive about the album drop as well, but also
the mixed reviews, so positive from some legacy publications, but
some mixed reception online as well, which is an interesting
phenomenon because of the incredibly I don't know, vociferous as
the word support of Taylor Swift that you can find
(08:30):
almost everywhere on the internet, and also the risks of
saying anything bad about Taylor Swift and the potential for
being canceled as a result.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
She's a billionaire, she's just come off the smash eras tool,
she's got her own music catalog back, just got engaged obviously,
you know, she's powering ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, I mean, look, and lots going on and plenty
of opinions to be shared apparently about it. So Jason's
been digging into sort of the release strategy and whether
it was right to put the whole album out of
the same time with the video for the Fate of
Ophelia and the launch watch party as well. Yeah, may
perhaps there was a you know, not it wasn't the
traditional playbook for how you know big new releases are
done now Courtela Swift, as we know, forges our own
(09:13):
path and so many things so great. Read this morning
bloomberg dot com for his last opinion. Then we'll put
a link to it in our podcast show notes.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay, well, let's think about what's happening in the market.
Is the spot price of gold smashing through four thousand
dollars an ounce for the very first time ever. That
is a jump of more than fifty percent this year.
Bloomberg's Market's live stash this Mark Crowndfield joins us.
Speaker 7 (09:33):
Now for more on this mark. Come on.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There are so many superlatives about this. Put it into context.
How much has gold rallied?
Speaker 10 (09:42):
Yeah, I think. Well, one of the exciting things, apart
from as you say that that fifty percent jump, is
the speed with which it covered the last one thousand
dollars in price. So between three thousand to four thousand,
you did that in around seven months, which is by
far the quickest the various stages of rarely that the
(10:03):
gold has had over its life, that is certainly the
quickest it's covered the price of one thousand dollars so
very impressive, much quicker than it was between two and
three thousand, for example. So yeah, just around a seven
month rally, and you would have earned around one thousand
dollars if you'd have been involved in gold at that time.
So that's something to take into although you would have
(10:23):
done even better if you'd have been in silver. That's
really about sixty percent this year.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Interesting, why, I mean, is the source question, why are
we under the stage.
Speaker 10 (10:35):
It's a lot to do with what other currencies are
doing or not doing, and also the geopolitics. Several things
have fallen into place that support gold at the moment,
so I think you must never forget though people will
describe gold as a metal, it's really a currency because
it is exchangeable. You can actually take a gold coin
and you can get cash for it at any time.
(10:55):
And so what we have at the moment is a
situation where the euro has a French problem. So it's
not so popular that the yen, as you know, has
been extremely weak. I'm sure you've been talking about that
a lot as well, and it's just got weaker with
this potential new female prime minister coming in. The Pound
is a bit underwhelming as well. It's got its own issues.
So there are several major currencies. In New Zealand currency
(11:15):
is getting battered today with the rate cut. So within
the G ten space, the competitors to gold are not
having a great time. Even the dollar is losing it.
It's still the largest currency by reserve managers, but that
share is falling, so even the dollars being undermined a bit.
So all of that supports reasons for being in gold.
Then you have the general geopolitical situation, which to a
(11:36):
lot of investors looks more unstable this year than it
has for many many years. Again that's a positive for gold,
and the low interest rate environment is another thing as well.
Gold generally does well when interest rates are on a
downtrend in major countries. So all of those things put
gold in a good position. It may well have got
(11:57):
out of control. It may be there's too much speculation
in the very short it's gone too far, but certainly
there are tangible reasons why you can see gold is
being seen as a very good haven in this environment.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, and at times of stress that is
often the case. But as you point out, where does
it go from here? And there are lots of views.
I mean, from Bridgewater's Ray Dalio to Cis Sales, Ken Griffin,
the Goldman Sachs forecast at the end of next year.
There are lots of views on the trajectory.
Speaker 10 (12:26):
The biggest risk to it in the near term is
that it's become another momentum place, something like tech stocks
in America and around the world. So if you look
at what macro traders are doing at the moment, some
of their biggest positions are likely to be long of
AI themes, long of gold. They probably were short US
(12:46):
dollar that's starting to reverse a bit now, and so
those kind of positions have probably got very large, and
when they turn, they're probably going to turn together. So
if we see a sharp correction, let's say this earning
season is not as good as expected in the United States,
the one that's just started, we got to turn in
the stock market there, you will probably see that gold
will follow because people who have similar positions will need
(13:10):
to make up piano losses because of what's happening in
a different esset class. So that's the biggest risk to
gold in the short term. The other the fact is
like geopolitical risk that's probably not going to go away
in the short term. Other currencies would need to prove
themselves to be a lot better to get people to
give up their gold too. So if there's a sudden
dramatic change in Europe where France looks a lot better place,
(13:32):
Europe's going to extact together and suddenly the euros arey strong,
that would hurt gold as well.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Very interesting. Yeah, the risks and rewards.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And Mark Cranfield, thanks for being with us Spoompeg's market's
life strategist.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Well, we'reccounting to the next political deadline. Here in France
is outgoing Prime Minister sob As Jenna Carn who tries
to build support for his budget plans. President Macron has
given him until this evening to make progress. Are Managing
editor for European Economics and Government, Band Sales joins us
now for more ban good morning to astender money meeting
the Socialist party leadership today. Are they the key to
(14:05):
his success in this mission?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (14:07):
They really are.
Speaker 11 (14:08):
The way the kind of complicated mathematics of the of
the French Parliament works out. Macran's weak centrist group has
got a relatively and I use that word advisedly, a
relatively stable alliance with the center right Republicans. They have
got the far right National Rally of Marine depenn in
(14:31):
fairly entrenched opposition, and the key to forming a majority
is to persuade the Socialists to break away from the
far left group and join a kind of centrist alliance.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
But so far they failed to.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do it well. Some parties are already preparing for National
Assembly elections. How likely do you think that that is
out of this point, It's pretty likely.
Speaker 11 (14:56):
The basic situation is that none of the options look
good for MACRN. To get the Socialists on board, He's
almost certainly going to have to compromise on some key
elements of his platform, whether that means raising taxes or
rolling back his pension reform something like that, which would
be a major retreat for MACRN. But if he doesn't
(15:17):
do that, calling an election for the Parliament it risks
making things worse for him. The National Rally is most
likely to gain in that situation, but he's really kind
of running out of options to try and find other
people who can put together a functioning government, just because
the parliamentary match is so complicated.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Some of Macron's close allies also appear to be keen
to distance themselves from the president. You mentioned the pension
reforms there, it's been hugely controversial, and another former prime minister,
Elizabeth Bonn, coming out saying that she's in favor of
suspending the pension reforms now, which is a certain change
in her position from when she was in the Macron
when she was prime minister. She's still a minister in
(15:57):
the outgoing cabinet now. Does all of this add to
the sense that Macron really is a lame duck president now,
even though he has eighteen months left on his term.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
By any standard measure, Macron is definitely a lame duck
and he probably has been for a year or so now,
since since the since the parliamentary elections last summer which
triggered this this gridlock. That said, Macron is an exceptional politician,
and he has been extremely active and quite effective on
(16:34):
the international stage over the last year or so, particularly
the last seven or eight months since since Trump returned
to power. He's got a relationship with Donald Trump. Relationship
with Donald Trump are one of the fundamental assets in
the world in which we live. So he's you know,
he's been effective, but his ability to shape domestic politics
is extremely limited and is extremely popular, so we're very
(16:54):
much in the countdown, like the final chapter of the
Macron presidency, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, Ben's a very interesting moment.
Speaker 7 (17:03):
Then in French politics.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Ben Sills are managing editor for European Economy and Government.
Thank you, stay with us. More from Bloomberg DAYBA Cup
coming up after this. Now, prolific goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo
has done something no other footballer has managed. He has
become a billionaire according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, thanks
(17:26):
to a new playing contract with Saudi Arabia's Al Nassa.
A little earlier, I spoke to our Portugal bureau chief,
Sofia Auta e Costa, and I began by talking to
her about Ronaldo's enormous success on and off the pitch
during a glittering career of more than twenty years, and
how he came to become football's first billionaire player.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yes, hugely successful on the pitch, I mean he has
played for Europe's biggest teams, most famously Manchester United.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
He was very happy there.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
He made his name there, work very closely with Sir
Alex Ferguson. And then his record transfer to Real Madrid
it was one of the biggest transfers in history at
the time, and then to Javentus, so a big Italian team.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
But I'm sitting here in Portugal.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I do know.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
Just for the.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
National team he's been incredibly important. He's still the captain
at forty years old, which is an incredible achievement. He's
scoring in every single game that Portugal has played recently
in qualifications for the World Cup in the US, so
he's still very much at the top of his game.
He's not won a World Cup. I think that kind
(18:37):
of hurts him a little bit. He did win the
Euros in twenty sixteen for Portugal, but if we're talking
about competition with Messi, that's one where the Argentinian player
has won up on Christiana. Ronaldo but an incredibly successful
football player, the biggest goalscorer of all time amongst male
football players.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, incredible, And so how has all of that footballing
success vaulted him well into billionaire status now?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So it's very unusual and quite remarkable the way he's
done this because unlike most athletes who get the bulk
of their wealth from endorsements or you know, in the
case of tennis star Roger Feder it came from a
stake in the footwear company on. In Ronaldo's case, it's
(19:28):
the bulk of his earnings have come from actually playing football,
and actually the majority of that came with his move
to Saudi Arabia, which at the time a lot of
people were criticizing that decision because you know, he was
going from Manchester United and playing at really top level
(19:48):
football to.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
A very unknown league.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, even in Saudi Arabia wasn't the most successful team.
But it's actually, you know, in the past two years
since he's moved there, he's really really kind of shown
what a player at the twilight of his.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
Career can do in terms of you know, gaining earning.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So it's really catapulted him into the top ranks of
the richest sports people. And he's now just renewed his
contract in June and we're hearing it's worth about four
hundred million dollars, which really kind of just redefines what
you can do as a sports player.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Absolutely, net worth estimated in total for Ronaldo one point
four billion dollars. Look, we know there's pay inflation in
the world of football. Obviously, my fellow Brits, you know,
usually pretty obsessed with football and talk a lot about
pay inflation, and so he's not the only super wealthy
(20:50):
football star.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
He's not, and I'm going to I'm going to start
with Messi because everyone just likes comparing the two. And
obviously we're trying to figure out whether, as he is
also a billionaire in terms of football earnings, Ronaldo is
still earning more than Messy. But playing in the American
League has been very fruitful for Messu as well. He
(21:14):
does also have a contract with Apple or revenue sharing deal.
We don't know how much that's worth, so that could
be quite significant for his wealth.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
But you know, Saudi, the Saudi.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
League, the American I mean, I think we can call
it soccer for talking about the US.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
It really has shown what footballers.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Who you know, maybe they want everything they could have
done in Europe and now it's time to really kind
of just play in a different league, but really make
money for what they do. Obviously, Beckham, we're talking about
one of the most marketable footballers in history. He's done
quite a lot for himself, but again most of that
(21:58):
was sponsorship and using his image, his marketing prowess for
his earnings and as you said, you know, pay inflation
has really changed since Beckham was playing. Yeah, but yeah,
Ronaldo is quite unique in that in that sense.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, And of course the football slash soccer audience is
a global one, isn't it. What do you think Ronaldo
might do next? This is the fascinating question as we
cover the the growing business of sport. I mean, is
it going to be investments or some other line of
business like we see other US sporting stars do.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So when he's asked what will he do when he retires,
he gets quite irritated that question because he says, you know,
I'm not retiring it. I'm still playing, I'm still playing
at the top of my game. I'm still a football player.
But obviously a lot of interest in around what he
will do. The Brazilian Ronaldo, the other Ronaldo. He owns
(22:57):
a Spanish football team. Some people think that Cristiano Ronaldo
might follow the same playbook. He has said that he
would like to own not one, but many football clubs
after he retires. He does have a very strong relationship
with a wealth manager based here in Portugal, So the
(23:19):
thinking is maybe there'll be a family office structure. He
has shown a preference to invest in his home country,
but so far there've been just small businesses, you know,
like paddle tennis courts and a ceramics maker.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
He does have a hotel interest here as well.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
There will be a lot of interest though, you know,
will he do He just recently launched a YouTube channel.
Is he going to move into that kind of media
like Gary Lineker did with his podcasting business Goalhanger Sports
that has been incredibly profitable for him. A lot of questions,
but Ronaldo's still very much says that.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
He's a football football.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
First, and he can speak about what comes next once
he does retire.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Look for us on your podcast feed every morning, on Apple,
Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
You can also listen live each morning on London Dab Radio,
the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Our flagship New York station is also available on your
Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
I'm Caroline Hepke and.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
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
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