Welcome to countdown. It is 6 00 in london this friday morning. Bloomberg reporters are standing by across the world, ready to deliver the stories that will drive the day. We have the latest in hong kong on the tension in thailand. Ryan chilcote is live in saint it is berg at russias biggest business summit. And hans nichols has the latest on ges bit. First, live to saint petersburg. Dont miss our interview with the ceo. ,n thailand, schools are closed tv stations are under the command of the military, and International Broadcasters including bloomberg are off the air. The military seized control following a sixmonth political stalemate and Economic Growth in the country. For the latest, lets go to hong kong. Zeb, this has been boiling for a while . It certainly has, but it took the military just minutes to accomplish with the protesters have been trying to copley four months, which was to dissolve the government and seize control. That is exactly what we saw yesterday after several hours between the rival lyrical factions. Chief, rful military the general coming on National Television and say that he was seizing power, staging a military coup. In somethe 12th coup in time. Announcing the military takeover on television. Military units and armored sweeping intoiers bangkok, surrounding certain key areas, including the army base where the talks were taking place. Obeys,a bloodless coup, no shots fired. Coup, noas a bloodless injuries, no shots fired. Today it is a quiet scene. The stock market is open, business functioning. Schools are closed, but the government is functioning. Civil servants were told to report to work. At this hour, the thai army has ordered 114 more people to report to the government headquarters. A list of names shown on militarycontrolled television stations. Broadcasters,onal all International Broadcasters including bloomberg are off the air. The only thing on the air in thailand is the military channel , the military making its own announcements. Foreign diplomats are said to be briefed later today in bangkok by the military on what happens next. It is a volatile situation indeed. We will keep an i on that and as news breaks, we will bring you that. Decrying whats happened in thailand and are deeply concerned over night. Ok, from the east, lets turn our attention to a man, president put in addressing Business Leaders later fed a in st. Petersburg at the International Economic form. Ryan chilcote joins us from there. The past couple days, those who have shown up in st. Petersburg, what do they want to hear from putin . Would likewhat they to hear is some conciliatory language, accommodating comments , suggestions from the russian president he will play ball, in ukraine. Yesterday, in the east of the country, it is not bode well for the elections. Soldiersf ukrainian were attacked at a checkpoint in the east of the country, 16 killed, the single biggest loss of life since the conflict began for ukrainian servicemen. Atsian president speaks 11 30 london time, that is to 30 here. It has been a couple of day since he spoke about the ukrainian crisis. People looking for any handset as to how the russians will handle the selection are looking for any hints as to how the russians will handle this election. Germany, andates, the European Union have all said if russia disrupts the selection, there will be more sanctions. Will meetat the e. U. Tuesday. The u. S. Has moved quickly on this. The last thing people want to see are more sanctions. Manus . Ryan, aside from the big address, a great deal will be focused perhaps on the position in ukraine, what else is on the agenda today . We will try to look at is this in russia from a couple different angles. We will be talking to jc deco. They have been in this country 20 years. How they are negotiating the crisis, why they are here, why does french inc. Have so much here in russia when the u. S. And western europe has stayed away. We will also be talking to the Russian Finance Ministry just after their meeting with visa and mastercard full stop the russian government and visa and mastercard are involved in a fierce conflict because visa and mastercard declined to service some russian credit cards on the back of sanctions a couple months ago. It was a temporary suspension, but it led to the russian government demanding very large collateral from visa and mastercard that the company say they will not pay and they may exit the country. Those are important talks. There has been some accommodating linkage from the russian government, but a lot depends on the meeting that will happen just before i sit down with the deputy finance minister. Manus . Forward to, we look that later on from st. Petersburg. General electric has agreed to give more time to consider it 17 billion bid. Hans nichols has this story from berlin. Weeksthis is a matter of they have been granted, yes . Three weeks is the deadline. It puts this to june 23, when alstoms board has to make a formal decision on what they will do with this bit from general electric, 17 billion. Its the latest number we have. Has alreadyrd signaled they are for it. They have not formally approved a takeover. Aat this extension does is gift bit more breathing room to work out the details with the french state. It also gives siemens, who has made a rival bid, a chance to have more time to go over the books and make their bid formal. Right now it is just an expression of interest. Ge has some work to do with the french state. The industry minister earlier basically gave the french state more stay in blocking these deals. Confident,ge is blustery as always. Here is what he said about Investor Confidence wednesday you have to trust us a little bit that we know what we are doing. Ge has sweetened their offer. What they are talking about is having a swap for the rail signal business. They are not that interested in the local motive side of things. They have indicated that is something they could live without. The Sensitive Energy business side of things, they are working to work with the french stake am especially Nuclear Power reactors that are so crucial to the economy and security. Hans, there will be debate over whether this time is squeezing the price, as you have touched upon, or giving siemens the opportunity to rehash their bid, rehashed their offer. Is that something that we think is a possibility . Absolutely. There are risks in whatever ge does. If this goes through, he will be seen as brilliant and a lot of talks about how he massaged the French Public and made assurances on jobs, how he convinced the french government this was a good deal. If it doesnt go through, everyone will say, why did he give so much time, why didnt he involve the french government earlier, why the secret negotiations with alstom before informing the french government . Then Business Schools will be studying this as a case of how not to do a takeover in france. We will have to see how this goes. It looks like june 23 we will have certainty, two days after the longest day of the year. It is a story about how the deal went through, would it say they worked for a night that was not dark. Manus . Very good, hans nichols on the latest with ge and alstom. Up next, germanys top measure of Business Confidence. We will see what investors are watching as the gdp numbers come in. First. Bloomberg. Time for todays company news. Hewlettpackard is cutting more than jobs. In addition to the 34,000 positions already eliminated, they will be cutting between 11,000 and 16,000 more. They report a secondquarter sales that fell short of estimates and gave a disappointing profits forecast. A single model as part of its bid to and losses in europe. The car will be sold only in italy by 2016, consisting of one vehicle for fiat. Wants toian brand produce the spider, featured alongside bridget ardo. Sold 5 billion of bonds in the first offering since the bank unit pled guilty to helping americans cheat on their taxes. The sale show that Credit Suisse is not being punished at the moment by the bond market, even after moodys downgraded them. Welcome back to countdown. Im manus cranny. Germanys most watched business measure of Business Confidence comes out today. David tweed is in berlin ahead of the release. David, everybody is looking at this measure. We know there are a little bit of tremors about europe. What is going to hit this number . What is the top of the agenda . I think the key thing here, thes, is to see whether impact of russia and ukraine, whether there are slowdowns in china, whether the slow growth is undermining german Business Confidence. If its beginning to do that, we could see german businesses to delaying investment decisions, delaying decisions to hire, maybe even shedding staff, and that is what we look for in those figures. We expect to see a little weakness in the figures. But remember they are coming from a very elevated position. The German Economy has been doing ok. And about an hour, we will get the final gdp numbers. That will be interesting because we will get the breakdown and see how strong Consumer Spending is. That is what i will be looking at. There was Something Interesting that came out of the pmi numbers yesterday. We saw a slight slowdown in the expansion of manufacturing in pmi, still well above the 60 number, but the key number i thought was interesting was what was going on in the service industries. Is that an indication that we are seeing a rebounding taking place inside the German Economy, away from exports, more towards consumer and domestic demand . If that is true, it will be interesting because think about it the imf, the oecd, even the United States has been on onncellor earned shall go chancellor Angela Merkel saying that we need a rebalancing of the economy. If that is taking place, we may get another clue later this morning, manus. Ok, david tweed for us in berlin. A slightly different depth view at this mark with jeremy stretch , the head of fx strategy. Good morning, manus. We just heard david talking about a whole host of issues , the eversia, ukraine present threat. As david said, is very rebalancing in germany. What is your view . Absolutely, it is one of the integral Business Indicators for the eurozone. Clearly the German Economy remains the bellwether. Its the lead economy within the eurozone. If you look at the gdp numbers and q1, it is the only economy is the eurozone debt growing, dragging everybody else in the slipstream. The question is, are we going to see a rebalancing, which david touched upon. I think we also need to look at the expectations. The comparative survey saw a big fallback and expectation. You can argue that may be influenced by events in ukraine or something similar. If we were to see expectations come back this morning, i think that just underline some of the pressures structurally that are very large in germany and europe for the ecb. That brings me to my next question, which is the german data, the one big break in the data wall that almost pushes the ecb to have to take a significant action . The french pmi was not good at all. Is that the best we can say in terms of forcing the ecbs hand . The ecb will say that the primary risk remains inflation, and that forecast will be pivotal to the decision process. If the cpi numbers are down below three percent target threshold, that will be the final justifier. If you add to that some question about the german economic recovery, i think that just pushes the ecb very much in that direction. We have to see what the interpretation of that will be from the bundesbank. A number of comments yesterday from the italian finance ministry, nothing new there. What would be a bit of a shock for you in terms of they might possibly expected in june . I think we will see measures in june. The story has been clear and consistent. A negative have deposit rate. We possibly have a targeted ltro, which is microphone and. Funding. Is mike rowe the first aware linking other in terms of the rights and looking at the deposit rates. I think the target is entirely possible. You could perhaps add to that the nonsterile is asian of the s p. I think that is the range of measures. If we still had deflationary tendency, there would be questions about the Banking Sector into q4, perhaps you move into more unconventional measures that could be a oxymoron that gets back into the qe type of policies we have seen in the western central banks. The euro has traded lower this week. Are you a believer in that . We have been a believer for some considerable time. One of the reasons we are using as a catalyst is the divergent weakness in the Central Bank Balance sheets over the course of the last couple years. Stilld is expanding, expended cant even though they are tapering, the ecb is contracting. I think that the virgins i think that the virgins is likely to compress. I just adds to the justification to say that cyclically it may well be a question, but from a shorterterm perspective, i think it will go lower. Your, we will get perspective after the break. We will also talk about the upcoming ukrainian elections and what that means for global markets. For a little more about germany after the break. Welcome back to countdown. With the head of fx strategy, jeremy stretch. Jeremy, we have the elections this weekend in ukraine. All the rhetoric movements is to try to carry on favor with the west. Is it a risk for the Foreign Exchange markets . I dont think ford Exchange Markets are looking at is a primary risk. I think it will be fascinating to see what mr. Putin has to say about that at the summit today. That will be pivotal to see how he addresses this situation, if he does, and whether he is somewhat conciliatory towards the west. I think the markets are probably looking through this and really seeing how the process will evolve over time and whether we see a further escalation of what is still a nation of a military skirmish in the eastern part of the country. We have heard minutes from a variety of central banks. As a head of strategy, you look at where the fed is, the bank of england, the debate, and the bank of japan, some say it is only a matter of time in term of the matters. When you look at the sweep of giving you the best direction in terms of how to look at the markets . A you are right, we have seen number of chemo vacation strategies from the central banks. I think the fed, in part in the road minutes, looking at the rome communication strategy, that is the hugely relevant point. We go to this crisis and think about the exit strategy. I think that will be the pivotal factor. Were still very much reliant on the data. Clearly the minutes told us the greatest risk in terms of action comes from the bank of england, despite what we heard last week with the quarterly Inflation Report press briefing. I think there will be an the u. K. G body within that wants to see some degree of modest normalization and policy. From the japanese perspective, its fascinating. If you exclude the comments, look at them in isolation, you could argue he is more hawkish than the markets. Saying our actions are having an effect, the desired effect . Is, weink the question can all draw parallels in 1997, what happened back in, stymieing the economic recovery. You could argue the external factors of the asian crisis that came in, but the question is how much of a correction are we going to see in q2 . It wasthe q1 gdp data, not just consumption that was relevant, it was also the boost in capex. Sign the japanese economy is better than perhaps perceived. Perhaps the reality check we may be expecting from the japanese aid and q2 is not as extreme as we would have thought. Translate that into the yen trading . We have seen investors running short of yen for considerable time. Some of the weakest orders have been cleared. We have not gone down through 160. I think there may be a fall down, but there may be a modest progression back to the top side. Jeremy, thank you for being with us. Thank you to jeremy stretch, cibc. Coming up, as ukraine prepares for its president ial election sunday, violence in Eastern Ukraine escalates. More on the latest development after the short greg. Stay with bloomberg. Welcome back. I managed cranny. Lets go back to i manus cranny. Lets go back to jonathan. Thehe slow grind lower for u. S. Dollar, pmi data from france, concert of contraction. They have work to do. Today, it is about german Business Confidence. Ro, medium forecast, 1. 32, ubs calling for 1. 25. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. InterNational Television stations are off the air in thailand a day after the military coup. Retainedcurrency lay regained most of its value. Violence in ukraine is casting a shadow in the president ial elections this weekend. Suffered theires worst losses in the east since the conflict began with prorussian separatist. Voters go to the polls sunday. Two troubled eurozone countries have been upgraded as their economies begin to improve. Greeces longterm debt will be increased one level, and Standard Poors raised spains Credit Rating one level. Ukraines elections this sunday should herald a fresh start after the last few troubled months, but the violence is racking most of the east of the country. For some citizens, it could be a dangerous endeavor. Regions, noatist turnout may undermine the democratic process. We have this report from the separatist city of donetsk on the barriers to braving the ballot. Supervised has voting stations from this small office in two Previous National elections, but this weekends voting will be different. Im not scared, she told us. My life is not in danger. Nobody threatens me here or at home. Im just doing m