♪ guy: friday the 14th. 30 minutes into the trading day stateside. from london, i'm guy johnson. alix steel is over in. new york -- over in new york. welcome to "bloomberg markets." mask on or mask off? alix: i usually do two masks. i'm down to one, which feels like a big deal. the s&p up 1%. you have industrials, financials, energy leading the way for the cyclical trade. dollar broadly weaker. euro-dollar sitting at that key level, one dollar 20 one cents. 10 year yield, a little bit of buying, but nothing to write home about. you are seeing bonds and stocks moving together. we will try to talk about that

later on in the show as well. the bloomberg commodity index i about to end, helped in part -- index up by around 1%, helped in part by oil. we had the worst day for commodities yesterday in about two months, so definitely seeing that rebound as we head into the weekend. guy: we've got data, more data. the data is really confusing at the moment, but the university of michigan sentiment index comes through at a headline miss. we are expecting 90. we got 82.8. that is current conditions. expectations dipping and missing as well, 77.6. the main event is the inflation outlook, 4.6%. wow, that is a strong number, up from 3.4%, and it's got a 3.5% expectation, some economists once again are not having a good few days, are they? alix: no.

the question is it is easy for us to talk about core inflation, but the expectation is if prices are rising for you, that is going to affect how you buy stuff and prices you vifor pharma, -- prices you buy for. so it does have a circular thing. guy: it is really important. if people are expecting inflation, that is going to change their behavior. we also had that retail sales number, but that is unsurprising given the fact that the stimmy checks faded out of the system. mike mckee is here with us. michael: what a week we have had. loretta mester, the cleveland fed president, said earlier today that it is going to be rocky coming out of the shutdowns. we are going to have a lot of volatility in the data. that's what we got in the retail sales numbers. the appear disappointing on the face of it because they didn't change at all. they were flat on the month. but the march number was revised up from 9.8% to 10.7%, so that

takes out almost all of what was missing in april. take a look at what happened in terms of dollars spent, which is the way retail sales are reported. we had a big month in april and a big month in march, both about the same. no change in spending level. but look at what happened in february, and both march and april were up big from those months. so people are still getting stimulus checks. they are just spending them for had -- spending them perhaps at the same rate instead of spending more. take a look at what happened with eating and drinking places, up 3%. people are going out. when we get the pce numbers for april at the end of the month, we will probably see a big gain in services spending, so it may look bad on the surface, but it isn't a bad reported all. alix: i stopped buying furniture and i am now buying services.

ike, really appreciate that -- mike, really appreciate that. president biden had talks with republican senators. we want to bring in bloomberg government reporter emily wilkins from capitol hill. the number i am hearing at the top of the range is $900 billion, a lot lower than what we are expecting. maria: it is --emily: it is, but in biden's plan, there's a lot of different components there. the component republicans are talking about is just what you would consider what we are now talking about as traditional infrastructure. roads, highways, bridges, that sort of thing. president biden has indicated he is interested in a bipartisan deal. the republican senators we spoke to say they feel there has been a lot of progress made in the meeting, that negotiations were still going on with the administration, so it

seems like there could be a path forward here. at the same time, you are hearing calls from more progressive democrats saying we have the votes, we shouldn't have to negotiate down with republicans. we should be able to pass a strong package for the american people. that is how we can win again in the midterms, and that is how we can deliver on the election promises we made in 2020. guy: bipartisan on infrastructure, then maybe we got reconciliation on the next bill. thank you very much indeed, emily wilkins, joining us from d.c.. can elon musk make up his mind? let's talk cryptocurrency. alix: no. [laughter] guy: deutsche going -- dogecoin jumping, adding onto a volatile week for digital currencies. musk talking about working with dogecoin developers to improve system transaction efficiency. wow, what a week. abigail doolittle, walk us through the action.

abigail: you're right about that, elon musk, in terms of the whipsawing on the crypto space, sending bitcoin to record highs. this week, not so much, going back below $50,000, on that tweet that elon musk saying tesla is no longer accepting bitcoin as a payment. we see this massive plunge again , going below $50,000 per bitcoin and musk talking up the fact that crypto takes up so much energy that it is staggering, and that is the reason behind the suspension. so a complete u-turn from tesla investing in bitcoin and the accepting of bitcoin gets on the week, we can see that bitcoin is down. if the area -- ethereum is higher. up about 16%. but going down 12 ash ethereum -- bitcoin down 12%.

in fact, take a look at this. bitcoin almost at $1 trillion market cap. that is the number of coins trading times the price. so bitcoin, where apple and microsoft and apple were a couple of years ago, that major milestone behind it, and then there is that $69 million joke of dogecoin. pretty interesting, this crypto space. lots of money that would otherwise be going to gold. alix: that's the question for sure. ask a lot. so mask on, mask off. companies and schools are rushing to reevaluate policies following the announcement that the cdc has relaxed mask guidance for vaccinated americans. pres. biden: this recommendation holds true whether you are inside or outside. i think it is a great milestone, a great day. it has been made possible by the extraordinary success we have

had in vaccinating so many americans so quickly. alix: joining us now is senior bloomberg health care editor drew armstrong. how does this evolve over the next few days? drew: one of the things worth keeping in mind here is it is actually pretty simple. to go back to what you are doing prepayment -- doing pre-pandemic if you have been vaccinated. there's a couple of exceptions to that. crowded travel situations, buses, planes. by and large, i think this is an important symbolic step, even if it has a degree of whipsaw from the cdc cdc about where things have been heading over the last several weeks. guy: we are going to leave it there. we will look forward to hearing about how that flight went and seeing how this ultimately

evolves. some companies taking a much more cautious stance to what is happening here. drew armstrong, thank you very much. we are going to go back to the markets next. more on the biggest stories on the day. we will figure out how it fits into the market narrative area we will do all of that with catherine simmon eddie -- with rena seaman eddie -- with katerina simonetti of morgan stanley. this is bloomberg. ♪

ritika: let's check in on the bloomberg first word news. the fighting between israel and the palestinians has taken a do to her and -- has taken a new turn. ground forces are now firing at militants in the gaza strip. meanwhile, hamas militants are

still firing rockets into israel. more than 100 palestinians and seven israelis have been killed. republican senators say they are encouraged about the chances for a deal on infrastructure after meeting with president biden. one of the six republicans who went to the white house, shelley moore capito of west virginia, called the discussions very productive. she said the president told them to come with their own proposal so he can react to it. gasoline shortage in the southeastern u.s. could drag on for a week or so, according to one of north america's biggest distributors. now that the colonial pipeline is back in business, the problem is a lack of trucks and drivers. they are needed to take acellena from distribution hubs to gas stations. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm ritika gupta. this is bloomberg. guy: thanks, rick.

-- thanks, ritika. market data underscoring the case for that value rotation. >> the runway is there from an economic perspective from this -- perspective for this rotation to keep going. >> we see more opportunities being created by this big rotation. >> the market is very clearly rotating and has been a rotational market the entire year. >> where we see opportunity in the market is in global value. >> i think you want to be on the value part of the market if those inflation prints run hot. >> in this reflationary environment, it is really the cyclical sectors that are going to benefit the most, and of course, value trades. >> you are right to push more towards those countries and sectors that are going to benefit from nominal gdp growth and not be so long duration. >> it is time to go back in real earnings, real value, low multiples. >> be very wary of the stocks that have benefited from massive liquidity and have very long duration cash flows. >> the next couple of months

will inevitably be quite challenging for tech. >> i think more regional economy, less tech. >> katerina simonetti, morgan stanley private wealth management senior advisor joining us now. the narrative for this week has been once again about inflation. in fact, it has accelerated. you guys have been talking for a while about the fact that this cycle is going to be accelerated one. what has this week done to that thinking? has accelerated even further -- has it accelerated it even further? katerina: thanks for having me on. it is hard to not agree with this narrative. we have been saying all along that the optics in this market and this recovery in the market performance we have been seeing over the last six months plus has been higher than expected this environment, it is very

natural to see the pullback. as a matter of fact, we are seeing this midcycle transition happening well ahead of schedule. in a normal bull market, it would take a couple of years to get there, but we are seeing it now. all this means is the rotation to quality, rotation to value, and some volatility in the market that is very much expected, and definitely something we anticipate. alix: doesn't it also depend on growth continuing to hold up higher? that brings us to that inflation number as well. could inflation scare turn into a growth scare? katerina: inflation is absolutely the data point to watch because it is a major data point for the federal reserve. the question is, is the inflation we are seeing right now, is this number temporary in nature? that has been the narrator from the fed, that this is something we should be watching. or is it here to stay? because growth is a natural part

of the covid recovery, but this inflation, we will have to see if it comes down a little bit or continues higher because there are certainly a number of issues companies are dealing with. you have labor shortages, you have supply chain interruptions, you have a number of different things affecting it. so probably the most important data point to watch for sure. guy: a narrative i hear time and time again, and seems to have been a narrative this week, is if you want to go to the value trade, you go to europe. is that correct? katerina: katerina: -- katerina: partially. we still think there are amazing quality opportunities in the u.s. whether you go to europe or the u.s., the key to portfolios here is individual stock selection and diversification. so investors who haven't take some risk off the table yet, definitely something they should be considering. alix: bank of america every

friday has their flow data, and in that this week, they talked about certain trades, and that the longer we talk about peak profits, the early cyclicals at the semis, homebuilders, industrials are going to falter, and it is time to maybe switch from a goldilocks to a stagflation scenario with some defensives. what do you think? katerina: we really like the opportunity in materials, financials, commodities. because the story there is far more reaching than just the story of the post-covid recovery. we also like defensive plays here. we love health care. there are a whole bunch of opportunities in this market. but it is all about rotation to quality at the moment. guy: how carefully do i need to segment the tech trade? we have seen plenty of ipos, specs, all kinds of aspects of this that are relying on their valuations with these low interest rates for the future

trajectory. then you look at the big tech names, and they are awash with cash. amazon just raised a huge amount of money in the bond market because it can. we are likely to see that flow back. we will see dividends from these kind of companies. how careful do i need to be to not throughout the good companies with the bad in my tech portfolio? sam: -- katerina: to your point, technology is here to stay. we can't just lump all tech together. our lives got changed. the way we do our daily activities, the way our kids go to school are done through technologies, and these technological solutions are going to stay. so we have to separate good tech companies that have long-term opportunity and that are not going anywhere, and are going to continue to be profitable.

we just achieve the valuations that are not necessarily supported by earnings. so we have to be very selective in our tech trade, but tax is here to stay -- but tech is here to stay. alix: thank you very much. put breaking news for you, the coast guard says they are reopening the mississippi river to barge traffic. this is huge because there was a crack in a bridge that halted traffic for things like soybeans, corn, some steel products as well. guy: this is kind of a the suez canal. i know it is less dramatic, you've got a crack in a girder on a bridge, but nevertheless, this is a huge piece of infrastructure that has been missing over the last few days for the united states that comes back. maybe this is why potentially there is an easier path when it comes to getting bipartisan support on infrastructure, classic infrastructure. alix: and there's going to be more of this.

it is not the only bridge that has problems. we are going to discuss this later on in the show and dig a little deeper into what it means for the ag market. next, looking into how etf investors are buying the debt. this is -- the dip. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ ritika: time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. kansas city southern will accept a revised 33 point $6 billion takeover from canadian national railway. still, the railroad will give its other suitor time for another bid. the worldwide shortage of semiconductors has gotten worse for the auto industry, according to the consulting firm alix partners. it will cost automakers $110 billion in lost sales, up from previous estimates of $61

billion. almost 4 million fewer cars will be built this year. shares of disney are lower today. the world's largest entertainment company attracted fewer streaming customers than expected last quarter. that raised fears that a key engine of the company's transformation may be losing some momentum. a lack of new programming on disney+ made it harder to attract viewers. that is the latest business flash. alix: thanks so much. i am curious, when "black widow" comes out, will that change? because i am seriously pumped for that. guy: that's the problem, that netflix is about to come out with a whole load of content, and disney is basically being valued on the disney+ metrics in the same way that netflix is right now. netflix is a tough act to follow, to be honest. the rpu is much more varied around the world than it is for

netflix. it is basically just being valued on this, which could be a mistake, but maybe it is the future. alix: you just used arpu jargon, average revenue per user? you just slipped that in their. but if you pay $30 per movie, that could definitely fix things. what we are seeing in a market is a by the dip -- is a buy the dip friday. etf's seem to be the way investors are playing. we want to bring in bloomberg's kriti gupta. what are we seeing? kriti: you're seeing the s&p 500 and nasdaq 100 up from weekly losses. take a look at the qqq which is really leading the charge here, the etf that tracks the nasdaq 100. on a weekly basis, $2.2 billion entering that. even some of the other etf that tracks the s&p 500 getting some pretty substantial phones in.

as we see the s&p 500 for some investors using a proxy for tech exposure, i want to zoom into the qqq story. really looking at how much the buy the dip mentality as they are, you can see the qqq is above that redline, which really shows profit for losses by a pretty substantial margin, but what is not doing so well? that's gonna get -- that's going to be your energy shares. still negative on the week, and that is being reflected in the weekly outflows in names like hyg, the high-yielding etf's that are very exposed what is happening in the energy space. you have xle as well. guy: thank you very much, indeed. greatly appreciated. interesting what is happening with the flows. it does seem to be there is still this narrative that the market just once to carry on with the rotation and wants to go higher. i think the latter bit is going to be where the struggle is

right now. we have kind of peeked out at the moment. there are a whole load of assets just cruising sideways at the moment. what gets the markets to go up? alix: is that a segway? that would have a -- a segue? that would've been cool. guy: cruising, that works. traffic is open on the mississippi river again. the u.s. coast guard saying it is going to be reopening that river. you are looking at pictures of what has been a really big problem for the united states over the last few days. we are going to have more details on what this means for the commodity market. this is big for grains, but steel as well. that story is next. this is bloomberg.

♪ alix: the u.s. coast guard now says it is reopening the mississippi river to barge

traffic. yesterday, over 700 urges were stranded and couldn't get through the biggest route for u.s. ag exports the goes through to the gulf of mexico. for more, sterling smith joins us, the director of ag research at consolidated grain and barge. how many of these issues do we have in the united states, and what does it mean for things like corn exports and the ag community? sterling: clearly, we need to export corn to support our farmers, that is true for soybeans. hopefully this appears to be just a one-off item come of it goes back to the subject of infrastructure. there's problems all the time on the mississippi river. things need to be dredged. ports need to be improved. a lot of this inference dr. has been in place for a long time -- this infrastructure has been in place for a long time. steel exports, items like coal,

a lot of things go through the mississippi river. it is basically the north-south superhighway. guy: in terms of how big a challenge that is, maybe this is just a one-off. but we've just had a pipeline problem. now we've got a bridge problem. i know it is not in the united states, but the other day we had a problem with the suez canal. these are critical routes that are being disrupted. how big a challenge is it to get it so that this stuff works when we need it to? sterling: it shouldn't be that big of a challenge. what we need is the effort to do it. i think the people in washington need to start answering to all of the people in the united states on basic governmental things. i'm not going to get political here because in my eyes, all politicians are equally useless. alix: that's not political. [laughter] sterling: it's bipartisan. alix: there are enough. sterling: but i do think basic

things of government, providing infrastructure is something they need to do before they do anything else. that includes ports, bridges, roads, highways. that also includes cyber infrastructure which should be viewed as just as high-value value a target is anything else. alix: all of the ags had a really strong run, then got hit a little with the supply and demand report we got earlier in the week. i'm wondering how you see the corn dynamic shaping up. sterling: we are looking at potentially a pretty solid market at least through the fall. we have a drought in northern iowa and southern minnesota. we've been flirting with drought in the eastern corn belt. the second part, the report was still a pretty bullish report. soybeans dropped a microscopic amount, and corn just a little bit.

china bought 6 million tons of corn for next year in the last three days. so clearly, the china corn deal is not going away anytime soon. china will import more corn from the united states than they had imported in the last 20 years combined. that is because their needs for corn are going to change, so this info structure is good for farmers and good for all things associated with agriculture up and down the river and stretching into the heartland. guy: this is a global market, though. it is still a story down in south america as well. how is that going to feed back into what is happening with ag demand? sterling: part of the issue is they had crop problems. they did not produce as much as they thought they were going to produce. but if we don't get the covid situation under control and it becomes a port problem, it becomes a trucking problem, moving grain is not nearly as

efficient in brazil as it is in the united states, than the u.s. is going to become the supplier that is going to drive up u.s. prices and make the infrastructure situation even more important. alix: let's also go back to what you are saying about hogs in china. china is importing more corn than they ever have, and they are going to keep doing that. what about the chinese economy when it comes to agriculture? that has been changing the supply and demand dynamics. sterling: absolutely. we decimated the hog industry in china, nothing like we saw here in the late 1990's. they are going to be producing a lot more hogs. the price support eventually is going to go down in china, but you also have a great deal of demand, even though things have improved over the last 20 years. still plenty of people are going to want to eat pork, going from farms that raise a few hogs to these massive hog hotels, as they call them, were you have

thousands of thousands. you're going to have a need for feed and everything that goes along with that. guy: they are trying to rebuild their herds that have been wiped out. that's some of the imagery of these hog hotels, to give you an idea of the industrial scale this process is being done on. this is a huge part of the food conversation in china, and as a result of which, they are massively ramping up infrastructure to get those herds back, and as you say, to build them back. can i ask you about what is going to happen globally with inflation? a lot of countries really rely on food. the food basket is a big part of how people spend their money, unlike the united states and europe. how do you see what you are seeing right now six months down the road, 12 months down the road? because food prices are a pretty big predictor of geopolitical tension. sterling: absolutely. governments, first thing they

want to do is keep people fed. i see this inflation as transitory. we would probably have this without all of the monetary stimulus. it is more crop related and product related, and to a certain degree, supply chain related. those sorts of differences are different than the position we saw in the 1970's, where it was a case of too many dollars chasing too few goods over a much more extended period of time. i think for things like lumber, it is going to be transitory because you will destroy demand. but we could be looking at a period of elevated grain prices that could easily stretch 24 to 36 months. guy: we are going to leave it there. we will talk more about this in our next block as well. sterling smith, think you very much, indeed. what does this impatient story mean? mark mobius is going -- this inflation story mean? mark mobius is going to be

joining us. we will talk about what is going on in the emerging markets, what is happening with the inflation story. mark is up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

ritika: this is "bloomberg markets." coming up, an exclusive with core scientific ceo kevin turner. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> i was on the worry side about inflation, and it has all moved much faster, much sooner than i had predicted, and i think that has to make us nervous going forward. alix: larry -- guy: larry summers. he was already worried about inflation. that seems to be becoming a bigger problem for him. the fed has a different view. the fed is sticking to the

script. here is cleveland fed president loretta mester talking about inflation. >> my baseline scenario for inflation is that we are going to have higher inflation this year, above 2%, but as some of those constraints on supply ease , i think we are going to see inflation go back down, and we will have to monitor that as we go forward. guy: in some ways, that is still what the market is pricing, and it is actually what the university of michigan data also showed us. short-term inflation is going to be an issue. so you look at inflation expectations one year out, they pop higher. but they are only climbing slightly, slowly, five to 10 years out. so it is a very different narrative here and further into the future. alix: which must make it really hard to have a good call on inflation and investment thesis. p profits, stagflation, all of those just trying to percolate a little more. let's get more on that debate. joining us now is mark mobius,

mobius capital partners cofounder and partner. it is a twofold question. are you positioning for higher inflation? and how do you do that in emerging markets? mark: i am positioning for higher devaluation because inflation is a devaluation of the currencies, whether it is the u.s. dollar or any currency around the world. the amount of money being printed is incredible, and that means you are going to have higher prices, which is measured by inflation. as you know, i really think it is about money rather than prices of goods and services because the money printing is really creating this incredible rise in prices of goods and services. the good news is that technology is creating cheaper and cheaper ways to get goods and services with the money we have which is very good. that's why i think we are really

in a deflationary environment. guy: so the two factors are sort of canceling each other out at the moment. what kind of rate of deflation depreciation do we end up with? because society will be ok with 3%, 4% inflation, as long as we don't go back to the late 1960's, early 1970's. society is probably going to be ok with a little bit of inflation. central banks have been trying to engineer inflation for quite some time. mark: the good news is that wages and salaries are going up in line with the rise in prices, so you have this inflationary situation with the printing of money, and by the way, if money supply increases in the range of 20% plus, it would -- we really could expect that kind of inflation to be measured by the normal measures we are using

now. but what i am saying is the reality is that our wages and salaries are going up, and technology is bringing prices and costs of many goods and services in line with what we are earning. so it is something we have to look carefully at come up at the bottom line is that people have to be invested in equities, and companies that are going to raise their prices in line with the increase in money supply. that is very important for investors to remember, and be diversified into these set of stocks. alix: can you give some perspective on what industries and what countries you're going to be most exposed to with that thesis? mark: we are looking at companies that have a good return of capital, over 20% return on capital, and companies that are in innovative industries. so we have a heavy waiting and

technologies, both the software and the hardware sides, and we are looking at companies in the traditional industries that are not seeing technology improve their earnings. for example, mcdonald's, who is engineering a lot of new technology for their business. that is a very good sign. guy: just to be clear, are you investing in technology companies? because technology companies are being hammered. technology companies have duration risk. or are you investing in that every company these days is a technology company, using technology to improve productivity? are you investing in technology companies or those that are using technology more effectively? mark: both. but we have seen this big divide in chinese stocks because of alibaba and tencent, and companies like that that have been hit atlee. we are not investing in these companies just because of the

political risk. instead we are going to look the companies that do semiconductor design and manufacturing, but may have been hit as a result of the technology that we have seen in china. alix: they have, but don't be semis also carry the geopolitical risk because of the china-u.s. face-off with chips that then spreads to taiwan? mark: i don't see that happening. i think taiwan is safe. yes, there's the possibility of some risk, but i don't see that happening at this stage of the game because both countries need to have a healthy taiwan. of course, china would like to take over, but it is not in the cost at this stage. guy: do you worry -- the semiconductor sector has had a really good run. there was some data on the terminal a bit earlier on, trying to recall exact with the numbers look like, but the market is getting very short of the semiconductor sector at the moment.

do you want to own the semiconductor companies, or the companies that make kit for those businesses as they start to expand? i am wondering where on the value chain you want to be. do you wonder that the pure place in a stocks have gotten too pricey? mark: if you look at tsmc, the price has come down for medically because of this hit to technologies in china. but if you go down the scale, we are going into medium-sized companies that are supplying the software and design for tsmc. the people producing the actual semiconductors and chips. are the companies that are not going to be hit so badly because demand for services will continue. as you know, there's a continuing shortage of semiconductors so it is unfortunate that tsmc was hit, but because of the technology sector generally that has been hit. alix: let's go to other areas

that have pricing power. you have been bullish on india, particularly with consumer exposed stocks. andy has been getting hit very hard with a variant. how do you invest -- india has been getting hit very hard with a variant. how do you invest in india? mark: the index has held up pretty well. we are focused on the medical area. medical testing, that sort of thing, and some of the inference structure companies doing pipes and that sort of thing that are needed for infrastructure because as you know, and yet is spending a lot of money on them for sector these days. so we are pleased that india has not been hit, the stocks have not been hit as a result of this bad news about covid. guy: a lot of people are spending money on infrastructure at the moment, and one of the things we are seeing happen is that commodity prices are going through the roof. we are starting to see that may be fading a little bit today. china is starting to push back

pretty hard. do you see commodity prices topping out here? do you think they go higher? what impact do you think that will have on your investment thesis? mark: i don't think you are going to see much more because as you mentioned, there will be resistance. for example, we are very interested in copper because copper is used in semiconductors , and a lot of companies have the costs go up as a result of higher copper prices, but i think that is going to be coming to an end as suppliers are beginning to feed the demand. alix: do you buy bitcoin? mark: no, not yet. [laughter] i'm buying gold. alix: is that your inflation hedge? mark: that is my long-term hedge for everything. alix: fair enough. he's not going to rotate from gold to crypto, then. thanks a lot. coming up, it is the ultimate

bungalow starting at $5 million. more on the summer's hottest see toys -- hottest sea toys. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ ritika: it is time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. barclays has been hit by a string of departures amongst senior credit traders. they are unhappy that their bonus did not reflect the surge in profits during the pandemic. barclays has offered promotions to some employees and offered insurances over peter pae offered assurances over future pay -- offered assurances over future pay. 70% of americans believe it would be healthier if the

country ate less meat. u.s. consumption of beef has actually been slowing since 2015. still, it is all most 40% below peak levels. delta airlines will require all new employees in the u.s. to be vaccinated for coronavirus area it is one of the first major u.s. companies to do so. it's had current employees will not be required to get the shot, but future employees could be blocked from international flights, depending on overseas entry requirements. that is your latest business. alix: thanks so much. speaking of delta and travel, and mask less summer is also potentially a hot investment thesis for wall street. i cut it with katie koch about her top post pendant picks. as post-pandemic picks -- post-pandemic picks. >> we expect pools to grow by 35% compounded over the next

couple of years. we own wholesale, retail, even a company that makes fiberglass pools. alix: there's one way to play it. you can buy rv's and stocks that make swimming pools. but there's also the ultrarich, which is a whole different story. guy: you talk about a number of different ways to play it. i think play is the operative word there. you can play it in the market or just go and have some fun with it. businessweek has this great story that sea toys. they call them toys on big boats, these massive yachts, and there's somebody to look after the toys, deck handlers. this article has some great ones in it. there's some fantastic ones this year. the one in the middle looks like my kids would love the one in the middle. alix: is that of trampling? guy: a bit. i think you just jump on one end and fly off the other. apparently they came up with the idea, you've seen the huge fuel

bladders for the marines. you put one of those on a lake. they have refined it, but that looks like a real giggle, and the one on the right as well. alix: i'm really into that one. so basically, you may not be able to go to greece, but you can drop $8,000 for your got and joust -- your yacht and joust. a small cove or beach, you just kind of go at it. actually packs into the size of a carry-on bag. that's quite impressive really. guy: basically, you just put your children on it and they can whack each other and fall in. that would go on for hours. that's perfect. there's some quite practical ones on there. the floating platforms, that's a work of genius in my mind. i'm not explicitly recommending these because i'm sure there are others you can buy, but this is basically just a big paddleboard

you stick behind your boat to have more floor space. you blow it up and then swim off the back of it. that sums look up at a good idea. and then you've got these kind of floating hotel things, which i think are pretty incredible. alix: amazing. your birthday is coming. start saving now for that. guy: that's my kind of christmas. my kind of summer. check it out in "businessweek." if you want to think about your weekend, the weather in new york looks fantastic today. "businessweek" is in there somewhere. we will get the take on exact what you should be doing with your money right now. the rotation continues. the close is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> the countdown is on in europe. this is "bloomberg markets: european close," with guy

johnson and alix steel. ♪ guy: 30 minutes to the close. what do you need to know out of europe this friday? the u.k. looks to speed up second shots as the highly transmissible and the invariant spreads. boris johnson -- transmissible indian variant spreads. boris johnson will be holding a press conference. german infections drop below 100 per 100,000. stocks bouncing back, gaining traction right now. mining stocks are being hit again. china continues its assault on high commodity prices. beijing rolling out fresh measures to restrict steelmakers. let's take a look at where those markets are. we are getting a bounce back this friday.