Trump Halts Hormuz Effort, Anthropic Targets Wall St, Germany’s Power Struggle | Bloomberg...

0:02 Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news.

0:09 This is the Bloomberg Daybreer podcast.

0:11 Good morning.

0:12 It's Wednesday the 6th of May.

0:13 I'm Caroline Hka in London

0:15 and I'm Steven Carol in Brussels.

0:17 Coming up today, pressing pause again.

0:20 President Trump puts US efforts to guide ships through the Straight

0:24 of Hormuz on hold in a bid to secure a deal with Iran.

0:28 Anthropic takes aim at Wall Street and the city

0:31 of London with new AI tools for the financial industry.

0:35 Plus, guilty displeasure.

0:37 UK bond yields hit their highest level since

0:39 1998 as markets fret over the outlook for Britain.

0:44 Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.

0:47 48 hours after Donald Trump announced a plan

0:49 to loosen Iran's chokeold on the Straight of Hormuz,

0:52 the US president is reversing course.

0:54 Writing on social media,

0:55 Trump said he is pausing the operation dubbed Project Freedom to see

1:00 whether the US can reach an agreement with Iran to end the war.

1:04 The president cited great progress toward a deal,

1:06 but did not provide details on what, if any, negotiations are underway.

1:11 Bloomberg's senior editor Derek Walbank says it's

1:13 hard to assess where things go from here.

1:16 Even though the US is pausing on this idea

1:19 of running ships through the straight of Hormuz,

1:21 they are saying that the blockade against ships that are going to Iranian

1:26 ports is going to be maintained while we look for this deal.

1:30 Now, are we anywhere closer to a deal?

1:33 That's much harder to say.

1:34 Remember, we've seen comments from Iran that say that the United

1:38 States's asks are well beyond its own red lines.

1:42 uh as well as the United States sticking to red

1:44 lines that Iran has previously not been willing to reach.

1:49 Jerbank was speaking after the US military said it

1:51 helped two vessels exit the straight of Hormuz on Monday,

1:54 repelling multiple attacks by Iran.

1:57 The move also came just hours after US Secretary of State

2:00 Marco Rubio told reporters that offensive operations against Iran have ended.

2:06 The operation is over.

2:07 uh epic fury is the president notified Congress,

2:10 we're done with that stage of it.

2:11 Okay, we're now on to this project of freedom.

2:14 As far as a negotiation is concerned,

2:16 I think the president's been clear that part

2:17 of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment,

2:20 but what happens to this material that's buried deep somewhere that they

2:24 have still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out.

2:26 That has to be addressed.

2:28 Those comments from America's chief diplomat came

2:31 as Iran's semi-official fires news agency said

2:34 the country's president Bassud Peskin had dismissed

2:37 American demands to resume talks as impossible.

2:41 Yesterday, Anthropic unveiled new AI agents

2:45 specifically designed to handle financial services tasks.

2:49 The new tools are part of the company's push to win over Wall Street.

2:53 Bloom's TA Adabio has more.

2:55 drafting pitch decks, reviewing financial statements,

2:58 and escalating cases to compliance.

3:01 All hallmarks of a junior financial career.

3:04 But could AI be about to change that?

3:06 Claude maker Anthropic is releasing 10 tools which it says can

3:11 do all those things and more aimed at professionals across banking,

3:15 insurance, asset management, and financial technology.

3:18 The news comes as the firm competes against rival Open AI to prove

3:22 its technology can handle a wide range of valuable tasks in other industries.

3:27 Yesterday, CEO Dario Amadei proved

3:30 that commitment speaking at an anthropic event

3:33 in New York attended by banking leaders including JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond.

3:38 There he said anthropics technology is moving

3:41 faster than the businesses it seeks to transform.

3:44 The firm is set to deepen its ties in the financial industry through a new

3:48 joint venture with firms including Blackstone

3:51 and Goldman Sachs to deploy its software further.

3:54 In London, Taabio, Bloomberg Radio,

3:58 British government bond yields reached a 28-year

4:00 high as concerns about political stability step up.

4:05 The combination of globally high interest rates, stagnant growth,

4:08 and a weak prime minister has pushed the yield on 30-year guilts to 5.78%.

4:14 The Black Rockck Investment Institute's chief

4:16 UK investment strategist Vivc Paul says

4:18 markets are bracing for labor to do poorly in local elections tomorrow.

4:23 If those losses are perceived as kind of worse than expectations,

4:27 and remember, like you say, the expectations are already pretty bad.

4:29 So if they're perceived as worse,

4:31 then that ramps up the pressure on the prime minister and his core team.

4:35 So it's not to do with the local elections itself.

4:37 It's to do with whether or not the market perceives the UK is going

4:40 to go down a different path in terms of its fiscal sort of sustainability etc.

4:44 That will be the thing to to watch.

4:46 VC Paul adds that he sees the moves and guilt so

4:49 far as being due to interest rate expectations, not political ones.

4:52 Bloomberg's M Live strategist think the market may be overpricing the risk

4:56 of Bank of England rate hikes given the UK's weaker labor market.

5:00 Well, the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey

5:02 has issued warnings on the private credit sector.

5:07 Writing in the FT says it raises potential

5:10 financial stability risks even as it supports economic growth.

5:14 Bloomberg's Freddy Fulston has more.

5:16 In an op-ed for the paper,

5:18 Bailey says private credit remains quote untested

5:21 in a severe or prolonged economic downturn.

5:25 He cites rising geopolitical risks,

5:27 a weaker growth outlook, and higher debt servicing costs.

5:31 He adds that valuation challenges and redemption

5:34 risks could trigger broader losses of confidence,

5:37 and that regulators and market participants need greater transparency.

5:42 In London, Freddy Fston, Bloomberg Radio.

5:45 Germany's government is facing questions about its political stability.

5:49 Chancellor Friedick Mertz has ruled out forming a minority government or calling

5:53 fresh elections after reports of divisions

5:55 in his coalition with the Social Democrats.

5:59 A year after taking office,

6:00 Mertz's plans to kickstart Germany's economy have been upended by the Iran war.

6:04 The chancellor recently said the US was being humiliated by Iranian negotiators,

6:09 sparking a high-profile feud with President Trump.

6:13 French President Emanuel Mau has nominated his former chief of staff,

6:17 Emanuel Müller, as head of the country's central bank.

6:21 Müller left his job at the Elise on Monday.

6:24 He'd previously served in top positions,

6:26 including head of the French Treasury and chief

6:29 of staff to the prime minister and finance minister.

6:32 His appointment, still subject to parliamentary approval,

6:36 has been criticized by opposition groups accusing MRO of placing

6:40 loyalists in top jobs before next year's presidential election.

6:45 The European Union says it wants the key parts of its

6:47 trade deal with the United States to be in forced by July.

6:50 At a meeting in Paris, the EU's trade commissioner, Maros Schvchovich,

6:53 urged his US counterpart, GS Greer, to honor Washington's side of the pact.

6:58 It comes after President Trump threatened

7:00 to slap 25% tariffs on cars and trucks.

7:03 That's a marked increase in the 15%

7:05 rate agreed between the two sides last summer.

7:08 Here's EU Commission President Urslandline.

7:11 A deal is a deal and we have a deal.

7:14 And the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules and reliability.

7:22 Now we are both implementing this deal while respecting

7:28 the different democratic procedures we have on both sides.

7:34 Very went on to say that the EU is prepared for every scenario.

7:38 Trump is frustrated the EU is taking months to formally

7:41 ratify a trade deal the two sides initially reached last July,

7:44 but the EU insists it's simply going through its

7:46 legislative process and aims to approve the agreement next month.

7:51 And those are our top stories for you this morning.

7:54 Looking at the markets, Bren crude futures falling by 1.6%.

7:58 We now trade at $10810.

8:00 That cooling of oil prices has helped to support stocks.

8:03 The S&P 500 hit a record yesterday.

8:06 The Msei World Index has hit a record high.

8:09 So has the Msei Asia-Pacific index which is up 2 and a half% this morning.

8:13 And look at the Cosby up 6% bodding well also for European tech.

8:17 US stocks 50 futures are up 1%.

8:19 We have had some earnings out from Deutsche Lufansa.

8:23 A narrower loss uh in the first quarter for that airline.

8:27 They've uh also talked about their fullear

8:30 outlook being significantly above last year's figure.

8:33 They've hedged 80% of their fuel needs for 2026,

8:37 but that is a risk factor in terms of uh fuel.

8:41 As for the rest of the market, so bond yields,

8:43 a holiday in Japan means no cash treasuries trading,

8:47 but the US 30-year went below 5% yesterday.

8:50 Even as we uh see the pain in the UK,

8:52 the 30-year yield will begin trading at 5.74% today.

8:56 The dollar weakens and the yen jumps as much as 1.1% today.

9:01 In a moment, we'll bring you more on the prospects for ending the Iran war.

9:05 Plus, what Anthropic's new AI tool means for the financial industry.

9:08 But another story I've been reading this morning

9:10 on public art installations and their temporary nature.

9:14 Finn Jennings has been writing about this for Bloomberg

9:17 Pursuits about plans for the Pont in Paris.

9:19 So the French artist JR is going

9:20 to unveil his work next month which will transform

9:23 the bridge into a rocky cave using an inflatable

9:26 structure that's 17 m tall at its highest point.

9:29 It'll be in place for 3 weeks and it's a tribute

9:32 to the 1985 installation Pont wrapped which

9:35 saw the same bridge wrapped in golden

9:37 fabric that only lasted for 2 weeks but I can promise you Carl

9:40 people are still talking about it uh 40 more than 40 years later.

9:44 Now Phil writes this has become a blueprint for public art.

9:48 It wasn't funded by public money and the fact that it's temporary

9:51 is something that perhaps is means it lasts longer in people's consciousness.

9:55 Do you walk past a statue every day that's been there forever and you don't take

9:59 any notice of it or are you more

10:00 likely to take notice of something that's short term?

10:03 Yeah, I think that uh it does attract visitors, doesn't it?

10:07 It's meant to kind of revitalize areas, maybe areas that are not so well known.

10:12 I mean, obviously Banks is putting up, you know,

10:13 temporary art installations all over London all the time.

10:17 But to me, it also does feel a bit like, you know, the Instagram age.

10:22 It's the opposite, isn't it, of a kind of Vanitas painting.

10:25 You know, the ones with the spoiled fruit meant

10:27 to remind you of like the brevity of life.

10:30 It It's just so ephemeral.

10:32 It's It passes so quickly.

10:34 This too will pass as we're all thinking at certain hours of the morning.

10:39 We'll put a link to that piece in our podcast show notes.

10:42 Let's bring you up to date then on events in the Iran war.

10:45 Donald Trump says that he's paused efforts to get ships through

10:47 the Straight of Hormuz while he pursues efforts to end the war.

10:51 Stuart Livingston Wallace runs our coverage of the Middle East,

10:54 North Africa, and Russia.

10:55 He joins us now for more.

10:57 Stuart, Donald Trump says great progress is being made.

11:00 What more do we know about these diplomatic efforts?

11:03 Yeah, good morning.

11:03 I mean, it continues to be uh operating in obscurity.

11:06 So, we know, look, the the the Pakistan is the lead mediator,

11:09 it would seem, on this.

11:10 We know it's been working hard.

11:12 We're also pretty certain that lots of other countries are involved just

11:15 simply because of the global uh economic impact that this is having.

11:20 However, in terms of tangible progress that we can actually point to and say,

11:23 "Here are the two three key points where they seem to be moving closer together,

11:27 there's a total absence of information." And again,

11:30 it's it's revolving around the same things

11:32 that have been on the agenda now for months,

11:35 if not years, which is the nuclear file,

11:38 uh the missile program, support for proxies, and now of course,

11:42 you know, since the war started, the reopening of Hormuz,

11:44 and I would argue that reopening of Hormuz is probably

11:47 preeminent amongst them just in terms of again global interest,

11:50 global impact, and the effects that this will have

11:54 on every country on the planet going forward presumably for months.

11:58 Well, what is the latest on the straight of Hormuz now?

12:01 Should we be surprised that the US isn't pursuing

12:04 this project to try to reopen the waterway for now?

12:08 I mean, I think the surprise was how fast they turned on it.

12:11 I mean, this was announced on Monday, withdrawn on Tuesday.

12:16 um you can understand the the the motivation behind it because you've

12:20 got something like 1,500 plus commercial ships that is you know tankers,

12:24 caros, dry barkers and so on stuck in the Persian Gulf.

12:27 That's a huge part of the global shipping fleet.

12:30 On top of that you've got a very serious

12:31 humanitarian issue because those ships have something like 22,000 crew

12:36 members on them that have been stuck there for weeks

12:38 and that's an awful situation for anyone to be in.

12:41 But beyond that, this is crippling the economies of lots of exporters,

12:45 lots of importers, lots of industries.

12:48 Um, so I think it was surprising that uh

12:51 the decision was taken so rapidly that it wasn't necessarily working.

12:55 I think largely what drove it was uh a surprise

12:59 at the scale of the response that you had from Iran.

13:02 I mean, Monday was a very jumpy day.

13:04 You know, we had our first missile alerts here for the better part of a month.

13:08 Uh you had several ships attacked.

13:10 uh and I think it was clear that Iran was prepared to escalate pretty

13:14 much to any point uh that it fancied in order to counteract this project.

13:18 So, you know, it's disappointing for sure, but as things stand this morning,

13:22 it's the same phrase we've been using for weeks now.

13:25 The the straight of Hormuz is effectively shot.

13:28 Okay, Stuart, thank you very much.

13:29 Stuart Livingston Wallace there running our coverage of the Middle East,

13:32 North Africa and Russia.

13:34 Stay with us.

13:35 More from Bloomberg Dayb coming up after this.

13:38 Now the financial services industry is set for further

13:41 disruption from artificial intelligence as Anthropic has unveiled

13:45 this set of new AI agents targeting the common

13:49 tasks that that are undertaken in the sector.

13:52 The announcement sparked a selloff in shares

13:55 of companies that provide financial research and data.

13:57 Tom McKenzie who hosts Bloomberg Tech Europe

14:00 on Bloomberg TV joins us now for more.

14:02 Good to speak to you Tom.

14:03 What are these new agents doing and how much of an advance is it?

14:09 Well, it isn't an advance and it's worth pointing out

14:11 that it is an advance on previous plugins that Anthropic

14:14 announced and released in around February of this year that also

14:17 led to a selloff for some of those software names.

14:19 So, it's building on that.

14:20 These are 10 additional tool tools now with agentic capabilities

14:24 that anthropic is releasing specifically

14:26 as you say targeting the financial industry.

14:28 So, asset management, insurance, and of course,

14:30 banking uh and financial services as well.

14:33 These tools can do things like put together a pitch deck for you.

14:36 They can alert compliance around certain risks.

14:39 They can do and read financial

14:41 statements and do analysis on financial statements.

14:43 Those are the kind of things that these tools

14:45 will allow financial professionals uh to do.

14:49 And it's a reminder that Anthropic is

14:51 pushing very deeply into enterprise and into business.

14:54 And they are laser focused specifically on on financial services.

14:58 they clearly see uh potentially significant gains

15:01 from financial services if financial services is

15:03 asset asset management if uh the insurance

15:06 industries adopt these tools at a rapid pace

15:09 because anthropics been working with financial firms on these tools though

15:12 I suppose on a question of disruption how disruptive could they be

15:16 well that really depends on how quickly and how

15:19 willing those financial services companies and institutions are to adopt

15:23 these tools and of course this is a space

15:25 that is highly regulated and to which of Of course,

15:27 data and privacy and cyber security are absolutely top of mind for executives.

15:32 But look, this is a company.

15:34 You're nodding to this, which is that this is a company,

15:36 Anthropic, that is working very closely.

15:38 Now, you we saw Dario Amodi,

15:40 who's the the head of Anthropic, on stage with Jamie Diamond,

15:42 of course, the CEO of JP Morgan

15:43 at an event that Anthropic hosted in New York yesterday.

15:46 Bloomberg has reported that Ananthropic is working

15:49 with the likes uh of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs

15:52 on a joint venture specifically aimed at encouraging

15:55 and working with the financial industry to adopt these tools.

15:59 So it will come down to adoption and and how

16:02 widely these tools are diffused but they appear

16:05 to be making progress and appear to be winning

16:07 over at least some key executives in that space.

16:09 Hm.

16:09 Well, doesn't that image uh of Amade and Diamond speak volumes,

16:15 you know, on the stage together?

16:17 What does it mean for Anthropic, though, and its rivalry with Open AI?

16:21 Well, that rivalry is redot in a year

16:23 when both of these companies could be listing, could be going for those IPOs.

16:27 Current reporting suggests Anthropic could be valued at around

16:30 $900 billion US as of as of today.

16:34 We could be looking at a trillion dollar IPO potentially for Anthropic.

16:38 Anthropic is seen as winning in the enterprise space.

16:40 That is offering tools specifically for businesses and enterprises

16:44 whereas OpenAI has won over the general consumer.

16:46 It's worth noting OpenAI have come through with updates in recent days

16:49 and weeks that position it much better in the enterprise space as well.

16:52 They are not giving up that market certainly,

16:55 but Anthropic has about 300,000 300,000 corporate customers right now,

16:59 enterprise customers uh right now and and they clearly want to drive revenue

17:03 streams and they see finance as one area to do that before that IPO.

17:08 Okay, Tom McKenzie, thank you very much for joining us.

17:10 Uh, anchor of Bloomberg Tech Europe and the next episode

17:13 of Bloomberg Tech Europe is on air this Friday with Tom McKenzie,

17:16 the race for driverless cars and the rivalry between Whimo and Wave.

17:21 You can watch it uh on Friday morning on Bloomberg television,

17:24 but also at bloomberg.com/video.

17:29 This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the stories making

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