Silver Steadies After Plunge, China’s Shadow LNG Fleet, Idras Elba Knighted

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) Silver recovered some losses after its biggest one-day drop in more than five years, with a lingering supply shortage keeping the metal on track for a monthly gain of about a third.

(2) President Donald Trump’s campaign to end the war in Ukraine faced new complications on Monday when Vladimir Putin said he would revise his country’s negotiating position after the Russian leader claimed Ukrainian drones targeted his residence.

(3) President Donald Trump expressed concern that Iran is moving to rebuild its nuclear capabilities and bolster its ballistic missile program after strikes by the US and Israel earlier this year, and threatened to target the country again to prevent Tehran from stockpiling weapons.

(4) Pockets of London’s so-called stockbroker belt suffered the biggest house price declines in 2025, as the South East of England and the capital fell behind regions in the north.

(5) The UK knighted its new envoy to the US alongside The Wire actor Idris Elba and a former Tory donor who pulled his support for the opposition party earlier this year in a New Year’s honors list that also recognizes Britain’s victorious sportswomen in 2025.

Podcast Conversation: Your Mum and Dad Are Influencers Now, Too: Andreea Papuc

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is the Bloomberg
Daybreak EUROP podcast. Good morning, It's Tuesday, the thirtieth of December.
I'm Stephen Carolyn London. Coming up today. The price of
silver rebounds after plunging by the most in years as
traders booked profits. We have a special report on how

(00:25):
China's shadow lng fleet is offering a lifeline to Putin
plus Arise Sir Idris. The UK's new year's honors list
is revealed, including knighthoods for the actor as well as
for the new ambassador to the US. Let's start with
a roundup of our top stories. The price of silver
is rebounding after its biggest one day drop and more

(00:45):
than five years. The white metal is trading around seventy
four dollars announce, following a nine percent slide in the
previous session as traders booked profits following a powerful year
end rally. Mike mcglow has senior Commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
The narratives that they're using now for pulling up silver
have been around for years. We've all known about the
demand from soul and everything, But to me now it's
in that speculative excesses stage. I think people are realizing
it's much more beneficial maybe to allocates to some precious
metals where there's only four versus cryptocurrencies where there's.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Twenty eight million, Mike McGowan speaking there as Gold also
regained its footing and trading today following its steepest drop
in two months. Despite the sudden pullback this week, both
precious metals are still on track for their best annual
performances since.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Nineteen seventy nine.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will revise his country's
negotiating position after claiming Ukrainian drones targeted his residence. According
to the Kremlin, Putin told you US President Trump of
his decision in a call on Monday. Kiev has cast
the Russian claims as fabrication aimed at derailing the peace process,
his Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose words are spoken

(01:55):
by a translator.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Much on the night from the twenty eighth to the
twenty ninth through Decent twenty twenty five, the Kiev regime
carried out a terrorist attack using ninety one long range
attacking drones against the State residents of the Russian President
in the Novgorod region. All drones were destroyed by the
air defense system of the Russian Armed Forces. No information
has been received for regarding casualties or damage caused by

(02:18):
the drone debris.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Lavrov adda that Russia will retaliate and that targets had
already been selected. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski dismissed the Russian
claims as a new lie and warned that Moscow could
be using it as an excuse to prepare an attack
on government buildings in Kiev. However, President Trump appeared to
side with Putin while speaking with reporters.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
So one thing to be offensive because they are offensive,
it's another day to attack his house. It's not the
right time to do any of that, and can't do it.
And I learned about it from President Bonde was very.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Angry about it, as when Trump was speaking.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
As one Kremlin advisor told Russian media that while Moscow
intends to work closely with it's the US on peace efforts,
it will reconsider a number of previously reached agreements. The
US president meanwhile, it's threatened to strike Iran again if
the country rebuilds its nuclear capacities. Speaking as he met
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neettan Yahoo, Donald Trump expressed concern

(03:18):
that Iran is seeking to revive the program.

Speaker 6 (03:21):
Now.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,
and if they are, we're going to have to knock
him down.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
We'll knock him down. We'll knock the hell out of them.
But hopefully that's not happening.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
I heard Iran.

Speaker 7 (03:31):
Wants to make a deal.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
If they want to make a deal, that's much smarter.
You know, they could have made a deal the less
time before we went through, you know, the big attack
on them.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
The US President also said he would support Israel and
striking Iran if it continued with its ballistic missile program.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
The comments comments.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Tehran has seen a wave of protests after the local
currency slumped to a record low, pushing up food prices
and deepening an economic crisis in the sanctions hit country.
Pockets of London, so called Stockbroker Belt, suffered as the
biggest house price declines in twenty twenty five, as the
southeast of England and the capital fell behind other regions
with more Here's Bloomberg's Crispit.

Speaker 7 (04:10):
The figures from Lloyd's Bank reveal a chasm in house
price growth between areas in and around the capital, the
most expensive in the UK, and the rest of the country.
The West Sussex town of Crawley and high Wickham saw
the biggest falls of any UK town or city, with
prices there falling by eight point nine percent and seven

(04:31):
point four percent respectively. The figures are in stark contrast
to large swedes of the rest of the UK, with
Plymouth and the southwest of Stafford in the West Midlands
topping the list for house price growth in twenty twenty five,
with both areas enjoying increases of more than twelve percent.
In London, Chrispit, Bloomberg.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Radio and more than one thousand people have been recognized
in the UK's New Year Honors list. Actress Idris Elber
as being whilst reh Aviigman has been made an honorary
Dame after leading England's women's football team to back to
back victories at the Euro's Former Olympic Ice dancers Jane
Torvill and Christopher Dean are also being honored. They say

(05:13):
they're thrilled with the accolade.

Speaker 8 (05:15):
It looks like a.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Little kid jumping up and down. It can sit still.

Speaker 8 (05:18):
I mean, it's such an amazing award to honor and
we're really humbled by it. We've been together for fifty
years and skated and performed and entertained over all that time.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Jane Torville and Christopher Dean speaking there. The UK's new
ambassador to the US, Christian Turner, is also being knighted
for services to foreign policy, alongside Barbara Woodward, a diplomat
who will be named Deputy National Security Advisor and is
set to become a dame with Those are your top
stories on the markets. The MSCIS Pacific Index flat this morning,
the NICKA in Tokyo down three tenths of one percent.

(05:54):
The Hangkstang in Hong Kong, though up by one percent.
Eurostocks fifty features are just slightly lower this morning, as
our SMPM and e's on Wall Street. The tenure treasury
yield is up a basis point to four point one
two percent in a moment more on the volatility in
gold and silver prices, plus a Bloomberg investigation takes you
inside China's shadow LNG fleet that's offering a lifeline to

(06:19):
Vladimir Putin.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Another story that I've been reading this morning about.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
The rise of the silver content creator Bloomberg Opinions, Andrea
Papuk has been writing about the wave of influencers who
are gaining followers into their sixties and beyond. Take for example,
Aki and Kochi, who are a couple from California in
their seventies or a huge hit on social media showcasing
their daily outfits. Andrea writes this is both the reflection

(06:44):
of how wealthy this generation is, but also how it
particularly provides a voice for older women to reclaim their
voice and visibility.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
She says it'll.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Take more than a bunch of influencers to dismantle unconscious
bias in the workplace that limits's career progression, But she
says we shouldn't dismiss the impact of the rise of
these older influencers either. As populations age and people delay
their retirement, these third age influencers are restoring some relevance
and legitimacy to age groups which are sidelined in many professions,

(07:17):
and it signals to those born after nineteen eighty that's
shaping tastes, sparking trends, and driving product interest online doesn't
have to fizzle out as the years pass, and you
can still have digital clout for decades to come. Perhaps
some comfort to those of us who are thinking ahead
into the future. You can read Andre's peach a Bloomberg
dot com forwards Lash opinion, and we'll put a link

(07:38):
to it in our podcast show notes as well. Let's
turn back to what's been happening on markets as well,
as well as that plunge that we've seen in silver
and goal prices, some rebound in trading today, our market's
live stretch. As Mark Cranfield is with us now for
more and more. Good to talk to you. So pretty
dramatic drops in silver in particular down nine percent yesterday,
Goal down as much as five percent. Talk us through

(07:59):
where things are trading today and what we should be
reading into this volatility.

Speaker 9 (08:03):
Both a little bit higher today. In fact, it is
platting on which is helping out quite a bit. That's
helping to push silver higher. Goal is higher, but it's
lugging behind the other two. Quite a bit of it though,
has got to do with the weakness in the US dollar,
and some of that is because of the Chinese currency.
As you were saying earlier it's gone below dollar yu one.
That's gone below seven for the first time in a

(08:25):
couple of years for the onshore market, so that's generally
helping currencies. Australian dollars one of the best performance today
and that's typically what happens when the yue is also
performing well. As far as silver is concerned, though it's
rebounding slightly today, it probably isn't going to last because
the way in which it reversed after the cash market

(08:45):
reached about eighty four at one stage yesterday, we're trading
down to seventy four now, but during that reversal it
was on huge trading volumes. People talk about this time
of year being quiet, thin liquidity, there is no indication
at all that they were seeing liquidity in the precious metals.
In fact, if you look at the futures market, the
combined volumes for Friday and Monday were the two biggest

(09:08):
days of the year in twenty twenty five, even though
it's December, so it shows you there's still a lot
of people involved in the market and the speed of
liter reverse suggests that silver will probably have a soft
start to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
I mean the year today figures are incredible for silver
a nearly one hundred and sixty percent higher, gold up
some sixty seven percent. Should we expect to see as
much of a focus on these precious metals into twenty
twenty six as we have this year.

Speaker 9 (09:35):
Well, it's an unusual set of conditions which have come
together to make precious metals in demand, and for the moment,
those things are very much in place. So you have
falling interest rates in the United States. We still expect
for the Reserve to lower interest rates a couple more
times next year. You have a relatively weak US dollar.
Chances are that the dollar will stay under pressure next year.

(09:55):
That's all supportive of precious metals. In addition to that,
you have a lot of geopolitical tension around the world,
whether it's UK and Russia, whether it's China, Taiwan, whether
it's other parts of the Middle East as well, all
of those things. In fact, some people describe twenty twenty
five as are on the busiest year for geopolitics for
a decade now. Obviously, silver gold are places that people

(10:18):
tend to go to as a hedge against that. So
you have this unusual situation where it's both being used
as a hedge and as a play on what's happening
in the monetary policy situation as well. It doesn't often
come together at the same time. So all of those
things that are very much in place, and they will
probably continue to support the precious metals into the early
part of the year at least.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
We've spoken many times over the past year on days
when we've seen big market movements, But I wonder when
you look back as the year as a whole, I mean,
is it the geopolitics that characterize the moves we've seen
on markets? Is twenty twenty five going to be remembered
as an exceptional year on markets?

Speaker 9 (10:54):
I think what we've learned this year is the influence
of governments is probably greater on financial markets, and it's
been for a very long time. So typically, if you're
a trader, you look at what central banks are doing,
You look at where they're positioned in terms of hiring,
whether raising or lowering interest rates, what that means for
various financial markets, and then governments are somewhere down the

(11:16):
list that has gone completely the other way around. Now
clearly what's happening and we see it particularly United States,
in China and Japan, the moves by governments, whether it's
to influence fiscal policy, whether it's to influence geopolitics, is
having a much greater weight on the thinking in financial
markets even than what central banks are doing. So that
is a change which has really taken place this year

(11:37):
and may well continue through into next year as well.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Okay, Mark, thanks so much for joining us for your analysis.
As always our market's live strategist, Mark Cranfield, stay with us.
More from Bloomberg Daybreak Europe coming up after this.

Speaker 6 (11:53):
Now.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
A shipping network designed to circumvent restrictions on sanctioned Russian
gas has been quietly growing thanks to cooperation between Beijing
and Moscow. Russia has been working with China to create
a parallel system similar to the one it uses for
oil that's less vulnerable to Western intervention. Bloomberg has been
investigating the extent of this network, and Steven Stopchinski, who
leads our team covering energy and as it, joins us

(12:15):
now for more.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Stephen, good to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
How big is this network of shadow vessels that's moving
Russian LNG.

Speaker 10 (12:22):
So we've been able to identify fifteen vessels that are
in the shadow fleet, linking either to Russia or to China.
Now this is relatively small in the grand scheme of things.
The Shadow oil fleet has over one thousand vessels. But
I think what's interesting here is this is just the beginning.
There are more vessels that could potentially be added as

(12:45):
they get older. Generally, the shadow fleet operates on older vessels,
and there are now ten percent of the global LNG
fleet that are over twenty years old. That is potentially,
you know, going to be scrapped. They're seen as dinosaurs.
They're too old to continue operating. And that's where the

(13:06):
shadow fleet kind of operates in that realm where the
people behind the scenes could potentially decide to buy these
vessels instead of going to the scrapyard. They offer a
little bit more money to get them, turn them dark
and start delivering this sanctioned fuel from Russia to China.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Talk to us about the role that China is playing
and I suppose creating this fleece.

Speaker 10 (13:29):
So what's interesting is it's not just helping to create
the fleet, but they're also the buyer.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
Right, you can't have a shadow fleet.

Speaker 10 (13:35):
If you just have people selling the energy and putting
it on the water in going places. That's what happened
in twenty twenty four. The US had slaped the Biden
administration slab sanctions on Russia's Arctic energy to facility in
northern Russia in twenty twenty three. When it began producing,
they just couldn't find any buyers.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
No one wanted to touch it.

Speaker 10 (13:53):
The Biden administration sanctioned all the energy vessels that went
to the facility, the shadow fleet ships, and no one
wanted it. But now in twenty twenty five, the Chinese
have basically designated one energy import terminal in southern China
called Behai, to just only take sanctioned energy from Russia.
That's likely to help insulate their other companies which buy

(14:16):
energy from the United States and other Western nations that
have slap sanctions on Russia. And so one they're a buyer.
Two they're helping to start to collect some vessels. Two
ships have been identified that have not been sanctioned yet
by the United States or Western authorities that are helping
to ferry fuel from sanctioned Russian plants or Russian ships. Now,

(14:41):
all of this together is creating sort of this network
that is allowing Russia to export the sanctioned fuel and
again sort of mimic that peril network that we saw
built for oil.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
This is a fascinating piece of reporting. Stephen.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Can you talk us a little bit through how you
and the team managed to track these ships?

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (15:02):
I mean, first off, there is a lot of these
ships have AI S tracking systems in them, so we're
able to see where they're going and when they pick
up sanctioned fuel. Now the Chinese ships are a bit
trickier we have to look at. Basically, we talked to
brokers to figure out how these ships are are are

(15:23):
being purchased or sold. When an old ship is purchased
by an unknown company, that kind of puts off an
alarm bell within the industry that says, hey, maybe this
ship is trying to go dark. Now, there was one
ship called CCH Gas that did a ship to ship
transfer with a sanctioned Russian vessel. We were able to
track it from the very beginning with satellites. When when
the ship docked next to the sanctioned vessel we got

(15:45):
a tip off, we were able to take satellite pictures.
I've also been able to track what's happening on the
CCCH Gas and other other ships because of social media
posts by the recruiters that have helped recruit crew for
the ship, All's Safairs who have posted pictures on Instagram,
which is very interesting the age of social media as

(16:07):
well giving transparency two things that probably these ship owners
and operators don't want transparency for.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
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Speaker 6 (16:22):
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Speaker 1 (16:43):
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