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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: This is the.

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Speaker 3: Blueberg Day BAQ podcast, available every morning on Apple, Spotify

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Speaker 3: or wherever you listen. It's Thursday, the sixth of February

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Speaker 3: in London. I'm Caroline Hepke and.

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Speaker 4: I'm Stephen Carroll.

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Speaker 1: Coming up today, the Trump administration is poised to unveil

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Speaker 1: its plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

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Speaker 3: The Bank of England is expected to reduce interest rates

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Speaker 3: and its GDP forecast in what could be a bad

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Speaker 3: day for Rachel Reeves and her growth agenda.

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Speaker 1: Plus big business does a big walk back, Google joins

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Speaker 1: other US firms and ending policies to improve diversity.

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Speaker 3: Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.

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Speaker 1: US allies expect President Trump's administration to present a long

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Speaker 1: awaited plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine next week.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg understands the proposals include freezing the conflict and leaving

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Speaker 1: territory occupied by Russian forces in Limbo, providing Ukraine with

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Speaker 1: security guarantees, and holding elections in the country after a ceasefire.

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Speaker 1: The plan comes as Ukraine's presence Zelanski has re emphasized

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Speaker 1: his belief that American troops need to be involved in

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Speaker 1: any peacekeeping force in his country.

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Speaker 4: Chiev operative does that UNI.

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Speaker 2: Is Europe enough, No, because this isn't just a matter

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Speaker 2: of numbers. It's about sharing responsibility and ensuring security guarantees.

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Speaker 2: This cannot be pursued without the involvement of the United States.

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Zelenski, speaking there through a translator to Sky News.

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Speaker 1: The blueprint is expected to pre presented at the Munich

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Speaker 1: Security Conference in Germany next week by Trump's Special representative

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Speaker 1: for Ukraine and Russia, the retired General Keith Kellogg.

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Speaker 3: President Trump's aides have sought to tone down his controversial

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Speaker 3: proposal to quote own Gaza. Trump suggested that the US

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Speaker 3: could rebuild the war ravaged territory, displacing more than two

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Speaker 3: million Garsens, even raising the possibility of deploying US troops.

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Speaker 3: The proposal was widely condemned in the Middle East and

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Speaker 3: among Washington's European allies, and welcomed in Israel as a

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Speaker 3: way to end the war with Hamas, But the message

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Speaker 3: from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt is that President

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Speaker 3: Trump was thinking creatively.

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Speaker 5: The President has not committed to putting boots on the

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Speaker 5: ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United

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Speaker 5: States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza.

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Speaker 5: His administration is going to work with our partners in

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Speaker 5: the region to reconstruct this region.

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Speaker 3: The White House pers Secretary speaking them they cease far

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Speaker 3: between Israel and hamas began last month. Talks about a

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Speaker 3: second phase got underway this week.

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Speaker 1: Google has told its employees the company will no longer

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Speaker 1: seek to improve the diversity of its workforce. An internal

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Speaker 1: memo seen by Bloomberg said the alphabet company would scrap

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Speaker 1: aspirational goals tied to representation. The change marks the latest

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Speaker 1: step in Silicon Valley's retreat from DEI initiatives, which have

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Speaker 1: been rejected by President Trump's administration. It follows seminar steps

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Speaker 1: from tech rivals like Amazon, Meta, and Walmart amid pressure

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Speaker 1: and legal challenges.

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Speaker 3: The US Treasury Secretary says that Trump's administration will focus

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Speaker 3: on bringing down ten year treasury yields and not on

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Speaker 3: the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate. Scott Bessen told Fox

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Speaker 3: Business that he believes expanding the energy supply will help

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Speaker 3: lower inflation and that reducing the budget deficit will reduce

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Speaker 3: ten year yields.

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Speaker 6: So the purpose of lowering interest rates is the lower

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Speaker 6: interest rates the Federal Reserve that and I will only

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Speaker 6: talk about what they've done, not what I think they

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Speaker 6: should do from now on. They did a jumbo rate

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Speaker 6: cut and the tenure rate went up. Now I've seen

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Speaker 6: this year, despite the growth estimates going up, tenures coming

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Speaker 6: down because I believe the bond market is recognizing energy

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Speaker 6: prices will be lower.

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Speaker 3: Treasury sectary Scott Bessen, speaking their to Fox News, the

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Speaker 3: administration's goal is to achieve non inflationary growth with best

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Speaker 3: at supporting making the twenty seventeen Tax Cuts and Jobs

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Speaker 3: Act permanent to continue US economic growth.

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Speaker 1: The Bank of England is expected to cut its base

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Speaker 1: rate to four and a half percent later today.

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Speaker 4: While the move lower will.

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Speaker 1: Be welcomed by many, the outlook that will accompany US

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Speaker 1: will not, as the Central Bank is expected to downgrade

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Speaker 1: its UK growth forecasts and warrant of higher inflation for

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Speaker 1: the year ahead. As You and Parts in Now reports,

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Speaker 1: the bank's latest projections may make for uncomfortable reading for

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Speaker 1: the Chancellor.

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Speaker 4: Rachel reeves there's.

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Speaker 7: Likely to be good news and bad for the Chancellor today.

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Speaker 7: Economists and traders are all but certain the Bank of

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Speaker 7: England will cut UK interest rates by a quarter point

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Speaker 7: at the NBC meeting today, but much of the focus

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Speaker 7: will be on the bank's growth forecasts, and this is

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Speaker 7: where things could get ugly, with downgrades expected to the

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Speaker 7: estimates for this year, next year and for twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 7: Economist survey by Bloomberg also expect the inflation forecast to

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Speaker 7: move in the wrong direction, with food and energy prices

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Speaker 7: proving sticky, little to no growth and inflation above target

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Speaker 7: means the UK economy is sailing dangerously close to stagflation

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Speaker 7: territory and that's definitely not the growth narrative. The government

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Speaker 7: is so keen to promote ew and pots Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: And we'll have live coverage out of the Bank of

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Speaker 1: England decision at midday London time on Bloomberg Radio, including

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Speaker 1: the press conference by Governor Andrew Bailey.

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Speaker 3: Now to the latest earnings. Socity General has announced a

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Speaker 3: one point seven billion euro investor payout for last year

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Speaker 3: as fourth quarter profits beat expectations. The French bank said

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Speaker 3: that net income more than doubled from a year earlier

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Speaker 3: to one point zero four billion euros and its set

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Speaker 3: a target for revenue growth for this year of three percent.

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Speaker 3: The lender also says that it is beginning to see

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Speaker 3: the benefit of the earlier period of rate hikes in

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Speaker 3: the French retail business.

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Speaker 1: France's Prime Minister Froansalbairoux has survived two no confidence motions

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Speaker 1: in Parliament, assuring the passage of his twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: budget following months of political turmoil. The new budget includes

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Speaker 1: concessions to the Socialist Party with fifty two billion euros

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Speaker 1: worth of savings to reach a deficit of five point

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Speaker 1: four percent of GDP next year. Our Paris or chief

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Speaker 1: Allan Katz says voters have grown tired of delays.

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Speaker 8: The French public was not in the mood for months

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Speaker 8: more of this political and financial turmoil. It really had

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Speaker 8: slowed down investment in any sort of decision making with businesses,

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Speaker 8: and so these political groups that pushed out the former

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Speaker 8: prime minister really sort of, I think felt under the

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Speaker 8: gun not to prolong any sort of additional uncertainty or

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Speaker 8: turmoil in France.

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Speaker 1: Plimberg's Allen Katz speaking there, French bonds rallied this week,

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Speaker 1: although BYU has described the budget bill as imperfect countries

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Speaker 1: on its third government since President Emmanuel Macron called snap

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Speaker 1: elections last summer, in which no party cured a majority

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Speaker 1: in the National Assembly.

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Speaker 3: Those are our top stories for you this morning. Let's

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Speaker 3: have a look at the market's Asian equities are advancing.

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Speaker 3: You got the mscihed Specific Index up by two tenths

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Speaker 3: of one percent and quite a significant surge with the

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Speaker 3: CSI three hundred in China at one point one percent.

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Speaker 3: European stop futures also looking at positive this morning. Your

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Speaker 3: SOX fifty futures are up by half of one percent.

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Speaker 3: This is the yen outperforms policymaker Tamura flagging the need

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Speaker 3: for two or more Japanese rate hikes early next year.

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Speaker 3: The Blue Big Dollar Spot Index up two tents of

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Speaker 3: one percent, all prices fairly calm w CICUD futures up

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Speaker 3: four tens, seventy one dollars thirty four and tenure US

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Speaker 3: yields moving a basis high at four forty three.

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Speaker 4: Those the markets in the moment.

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Speaker 1: We'll bring you more on the US plan to and

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Speaker 1: the war in Ukraine, plus Google landing its workforce diversity programs.

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Speaker 1: But another story that caught my eye this morning, New Carlina.

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Speaker 1: I know that you're not a coffee drinker, and I wondered, thus,

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Speaker 1: how baffling you find people's very complicated coffee orders. I

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Speaker 1: do drink coffee, and I still can't believe how long

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Speaker 1: it could take some people to order a coffee.

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Speaker 3: I can never remember what coffee you drink, but I

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Speaker 3: do get you on in the morning.

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Speaker 9: Sometimes.

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Speaker 3: This is all about Starbucks, and apparently you can order

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Speaker 3: all your drinks on the app and you have them

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Speaker 3: there ready. Although I noticed that Starbucks actually knows how

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Speaker 3: long it takes you to pick up your coffee from

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Speaker 3: the end of the counter.

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Speaker 4: This is the data powers everything else.

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Speaker 3: They have a metric for that. But yes, they want

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Speaker 3: to make it easier for the baristas. They are cutting

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Speaker 3: the number of drinks you can order online and they

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Speaker 3: want you to make them.

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Speaker 9: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sure, there will be fewer options for people to take

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Speaker 1: as well. They're going to try and simplify the whole process.

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Speaker 1: This is all part of the CEO's efforts as part

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Speaker 1: of the turnaround that he's driving at the company as

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Speaker 1: well to cut waiting times. His whole broader goal is

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Speaker 1: to make ordering and working at Starbucks less chaotic four

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Speaker 1: minutes is what he says. People should have to wait

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Speaker 1: in person for drinks when they walk in as well.

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Speaker 4: There are still plenty of options available.

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Speaker 1: People will still be listing off six ingredients to you, Caroline,

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Speaker 1: if they're giving you their coffee or or, but there

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Speaker 1: will be fewer options than they had before, which is

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Speaker 1: all part of this effort.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I wonder how much the writer on this

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Speaker 3: story has John in terms of coffee. Daniella sity it's

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Speaker 3: her story today on the Blueberg terminal.

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Speaker 4: Let's bring you up to our top story now.

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Speaker 1: And President Trump's blueprint to end the war in Ukraine

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Speaker 1: may be delivered at the Munich Security Conference next week.

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Speaker 1: Our EMEA ands director Rozma Mathson is with us for more.

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Speaker 1: Raz Good morning. What are the outlines of this plan

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Speaker 1: for Ukraine after three years since Russia's full scale invasion.

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Speaker 9: Well, a lot of it is still actually not that clear.

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Speaker 10: But what seems to be within the parameters of it,

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Speaker 10: and it might come from Keith Kellogg, who's the key

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Speaker 10: aid for Trump on Ukraine, is a plan to essentially

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Speaker 10: freeze the conflict, and that means that the land that

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Speaker 10: Russia is occupying you know, doesn't really revert to Ukraine,

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Speaker 10: it just gets frozen and Russian troops may end up

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Speaker 10: staying there and occupying. And obviously the longer you just

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Speaker 10: occupy land, the it is to evict you in general.

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Speaker 10: So that may not be a bad result for Russia

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Speaker 10: to be able to freeze the conflict in place, but

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Speaker 10: what you're doing is trying to prevent them going any further.

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Speaker 10: And so you offer Ukraine some sort of security guarantees.

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Speaker 10: We don't know again what those would look like. We

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Speaker 10: know there's been a concern from some quarters about any

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Speaker 10: kind of move to bring Ukraine into NATO, and that

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Speaker 10: doesn't seem to be on the table in the short term.

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Speaker 10: But what kind of security guarantees does that include? So

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Speaker 10: you've got those two parameters, which essentially stops the fighting

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Speaker 10: or slows it down. You can't imagine it would stop entirely.

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Speaker 10: And that may pave the way, then, for example, for

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Speaker 10: elections to happen in Ukraine and for martial law to

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Speaker 10: be lifted.

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Speaker 3: Although Ukraine does have troops on Russian Turtin has done

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Speaker 3: for six months, So that's also an interesting angle. What

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Speaker 3: do you think would there be talks between Putin and Zelensky,

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Speaker 3: might we see that well?

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Speaker 10: To your point, absolutely, Ukraine is occupying. It's a very

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Speaker 10: small part of Russian territory and curse, but they've got

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Speaker 10: it and they've stayed there for months, and that's that's

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Speaker 10: possibly quite a good bargaining chip for Ukraine because it's

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Speaker 10: just constantly frustrating and embarrassing, no doubt for Vladimir Putin

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Speaker 10: to have them there.

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Speaker 9: So they've obviously decided.

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Speaker 10: To hold on to that land no matter what, to

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Speaker 10: use it in any negotiation. I mean, we are seeing

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Speaker 10: signs that vod Mislinsky would be willing to sit down

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Speaker 10: with Vladimir Putin and try and talk through some sort

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Speaker 10: of solution to this. The question is in what order

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Speaker 10: would any of those conversations happen, And would Vladimir Putin

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Speaker 10: no doubt prefer to talk first with Donald Trump and

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Speaker 10: try and channel and negotiation in a way directly through

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Speaker 10: the US. And that's Ukraine's concern, is that things kind

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Speaker 10: of get agreed between Russia and the US and perhaps

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Speaker 10: others before there's actually a conversation directly between Ukraine and Russia.

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Speaker 1: What about China's role in all of this as well?

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Speaker 1: Do we know how Beijing are likely to approach this.

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Speaker 10: Well, we know that Beijing has been generally favoring some

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Speaker 10: kind of solution to this, and something that just freezes

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Speaker 10: the conflict and allows people to say that the war

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Speaker 10: has come to a halt at least for now. It

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Speaker 10: might be something that China would support. You know, there's

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Speaker 10: been a lot of talk about China's view on this,

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Speaker 10: whether they are overtly or tacitly supporting Russia by continuing

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Speaker 10: to deal with them economically, by giving them cover diplomatically

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Speaker 10: and so on, providing the essential tools for technology that

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Speaker 10: find their way into weapons.

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Speaker 9: And that's all probably true.

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Speaker 10: But China equally does seem to want this war at

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Speaker 10: least to come to some kind of resolution, so you

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Speaker 10: can imagine they'd be encouraging of that process.

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for being with us this

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Speaker 3: morning on that our top story around this blueprint and

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Speaker 3: the war in Ukraine. Bloomberg's EMEA News director Rosly Matheson.

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Speaker 1: Now Google is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion goals

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Speaker 1: for its workforce, dropping the commitment to improve diversity after

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Speaker 1: a similar decision from Amazon, Meta and Walmart. Brigs two

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Speaker 1: had bios here with more on this story, Tia, What

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Speaker 1: were Google's aims and what have they changed?

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Speaker 11: Well, the real crux of this story is that Google

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Speaker 11: is no longer formally seeking to improve diversity in its workforce.

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Speaker 11: So the company put out an internal memo to employees

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Speaker 11: and it said that it's dropping what it's referring to

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Speaker 11: as aspirational goals tied to representation. And that also comes

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Speaker 11: as this week, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, filed

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Speaker 11: and annual filing with the SEC, which emitted a line

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Speaker 11: saying that it was committed to making diversity, equity, and

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Speaker 11: inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a

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Speaker 11: representative workforce. That statement words that effect had appeared in

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Speaker 11: its annual reports from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 11: so a significant emission there.

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Speaker 4: But what does this look like in practice?

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Speaker 11: Well, previously the company had ambitions to hire more employees

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Speaker 11: from historically underrepresented groups and that's what they're scrapping. So,

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Speaker 11: just to give you an example, in the memo that

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Speaker 11: was sent to the employees, their head of HR said

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Speaker 11: that they set in twenty twenty aspirational hiring goals focused

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Speaker 11: on growing their offices outside of California and New York,

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Speaker 11: for example, to improve representation, and they say in the future,

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Speaker 11: we will no longer have aspirational goals like that. So

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Speaker 11: it's important to remember that these changes won't just affect

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Speaker 11: underrepresented ethnic groups, for example. It covers the full spectrum

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Speaker 11: of representation, including other metrics like geographic location. But it's

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Speaker 11: worth also mentioning Google's explanation about all of this. The

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Speaker 11: company has said in a statement after that news broke

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Speaker 11: that they're committed to creating a workplace where all employees

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Speaker 11: can succeed and have equal opportunities, and they've added that

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Speaker 11: they're just reviewing the programs that they have that are

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Speaker 11: designed to help them reach that tar.

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Speaker 3: How much pressure is there from the top administration to

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Speaker 3: reverse DEI.

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Speaker 11: What we've heard from Google itself actually that some of

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Speaker 11: these changes are being driven, at least in part by

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Speaker 11: directives from the Trump administration. So the company says that

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Speaker 11: it's evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive

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Speaker 11: orders from the President on DEI, and that's because it

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Speaker 11: has status as a federal contractor, and actually Alphabet is

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Speaker 11: already facing legal challenges to do a DEI. There's an

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Speaker 11: anti DEI shareholder proposal from the state of Oklahoma, which

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Speaker 11: is trying to use its influence as an investor to

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Speaker 11: end DEI in corporate America. So they're already having some

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Speaker 11: issues there and actually zooming out for a minute to

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Speaker 11: the wider Silicon Valley landscape. Google isn't alone in this shift.

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Speaker 11: We've seen similar from peers, including Amazon and Meta. They've

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Speaker 11: also retrieved from deipolicies in recent months following the pressure.

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Speaker 11: It's interesting to note that the CEOs of both Meta

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Speaker 11: and Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, both attended Donald

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Speaker 11: Trump's inauguration last month, so it's definitely a sort of

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Speaker 11: change in climate for the sector. Previously, Silicon Valley companies

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Speaker 11: had been viewed as this sort of bastion of liberal ideals,

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Speaker 11: but they're having to adjust now to a new reality

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Speaker 11: and a new president.

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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the

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Speaker 1: stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.

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Speaker 3: I'm Caroline Hipka and.

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Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Carroll. Join us again tomorrow morning for all

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Speaker 5: Mm hmm