European equities are trading, 30 minutes until the end of the friday session. Little changed on the day for the stoxx 600, which means its touch and go whether we will rise over the week. We are on track to gain for the third week, which is the best run since january 13, all these currencies are rising against the dollar today. Yields declining across europe today. It busy day for earnings. Lets get on with it, the biggest steelmaker in germany falling as much as 5. 5 earlier. The most since july. It now expects Free Cash Flow in the year through september to be negative, and earlier projection was for slightly positive figure in the current fiscal year. Shares falling despite the announcement for the fiscal profit forecast after including its operating performance and agreeing to sell its brazilian steel plant. On the matter of steel, shares the worlds steer made her steelmaker down 7. 5 after it posted firstquarter profit that double beating estimates amid a rally in steel demand. We see steel prices recover across the globe, the rally has been spurred by a curb in record exports from china, which had previously dented prices. Growthany, economic accelerated to the strongest pace in the year. Last quarter, mild weather boosting consumption, excellent benefiting from recovery, about. 6 in line with estimates,. 4 was the four quarter figure, 1. 7 was the year on your figure. The Strong Performance of the regions biggest economy is adding to signs of a farming recovery across the eurozone as a whole, leading to much debate over whether the ecb will tweak its Forward Guidance in june. The debates will continue. 90 minutes into the trading day in the u. S. , julie, what it looking like . Julie the debate for jim is whether the fed is going to raise rates and Economic Data today is calling that somewhat into question. Retail sales and Consumer Prices coming in lower than estimated. Lets talk about the Ripple Effect in stocks. Down,ree major averages the biggest drag is coming from financials as a result of that Economic Data, we are seeing yields pullback in the treasury market. We take a look at the 10year note and we are seeing yields fall very weve got some buying going on that taking down the 10 year by five basis points. And then the banks as a Ripple Effect, financials are seeing declines today, so thats the biggest drag. We also got a tale of two cities when it comes to analyst calls. On the plus side, we have apple, apple shares getting upgraded and the share price target getting updated and at Goldman Sachs and bank of america the shares are once again trading at a record. The analyst at goldman says that outside for the stock would be driven by apples first 1000 iphone and on the flipside, we have General Electric and Deutsche Bank rep recommending selling the shares. Only the second sell recommendations on analyst among analysts. There are concerns about cash flow. We are looking at some accounting issues and reports from a couple of companies, Dicks Sporting Goods saying it is restating its Fourth Quarter ,nd fiscal 2017 adjusted because it overstated them due to what it calls a conversational error. Its out with whole earnings on tuesday, but shares are down 5. 5 . Celestial says it is now nearing completion and analysts at jefferies said this announcement provides greater certainty on the potential timing of the completion of this and it lowers the probability or risk of a potential the listing delisting for that company. A tale of two cities when it comes to accounting. Mark lets turn back to europe, finance ministers and Central Bank Governors from g7 nations gathering in italy. Its their first meeting since the g20 in germany, there was much disagreement over trade. Joining us is matt miller. Charming fede been chair janet yellen. I just saw janet yellen lockout, they are getting her car ready for now. We have a number of other important people walking out as well, the french finance ministers, and we have seen Steve Mnuchins car. Very interesting to me as a car guy, he has a Toyota Land Cruiser and a chevy tahoe here. He rides in the toyota, not in the chevy, which i thought was very touching. There comes the treasury i thought that was very interesting. There comes a treasury secretary now. Very interesting today. He has been meeting with the german finance minister, he has been meeting the chancellor of the us check or the chancellor of the exchequer. We have a bloomberg reporter down there to talk to him as well, and we have doubleteamed the g7 meeting here in bari, italy. Here,s a lot going on talking trade, which initially was supposed to be off the agenda, they werent supposed to focus on that. But also talking a lot about greece and intraeuropean issues as well as global growth, very important all these finance ministers here. Mark only matt miller could get cars and toyota into a g7 conversation. As you say, many have addressed trade. Part of it is so tricky because greases and they are. In the subject of greece, what has been said . An interesting solution floated by some of the ministers , the possibility of a debt swap. The imf has to be on board for a debt deal to be done with greece , and the european commissioner with whom i spoke last night says he is optimistic they will have a deal by may 22, the eurogroup meeting in brussels. The imf is very much a stickler for things like repayment schedules and budget forecasts. When some people are thinking about doing is swapping out eu debt from the esm for imf debt. Its lower Interest Rate and also making the imf feel a little lighter as far as their debt load is concerned. Maybe with that, they can get on board. We need the imf on board, we want the imf on board and the imf is involved. It includes all institutions, meaning as well ourselves the commission, the ecb, the central and of course, the imf. The imf is a partner that is trusted. Todayhe also tells us that the ministers here have been encouraged by treasury s optimism onhin global trade. The u. S. Just got its trade deal with china, which secretary mnuchin told us this morning theyre very excited about. Vonnie what is the thinking on the strength of europe right now following the election of macron . The french finance minister may not be the french finance minister within a couple of weeks. Is the sense that europe is strengthening or weakening . Something thatis everyone here is very optimistic about, because whether or not the ministers still has this role a couple of weeks, macron is very proeuropean. This is another thing i spoke to moscovici about. We have other elections coming up, notably, the german election. I asked him what the election of macron means the possibility of Martin Schulz or Angela Merkel sitting in the chancellery this september. Lucky andmans are this is not a source of concern, because whoever is the next german chancellor will be a strong leader, dedicated for europe. He is a frenchman also, so he is very happy for this election. He was concerned initially about the popularity of le pen, because of his proeuropean stance and he expects either choice for germany will be a good one. Vonnie how has the reception been for the u. S. Finance minister, as far as you can tell . Matt yesterday he had a oneonone meeting with the italian finance minister, janet yellen was in there with them as well. Today, he didnt show up to the meeting until about two hours after most of the other ministers did. So everyone else was here from 8 00, 8 30, and secretary mnuchin didnt get here until 10 30. No word on whether he was jet lag or he had other meetings or you didnt want to go to that particular panel discussion. Or haveis a technical you seen before a Federal Reserve chair at these meetings . They are typically at the fiscal policy level, right . Matt we do. On the fiscal track you do see the Central Bank Heads here as well. So mario draghi is here as well as all of the other central bankers. They come with their treasury secretaries or ministers. Thank you, matt miller in bari, italy. Lets check in on first word news. Lawyers say trumps he doesnt get any income from russia, plus they say you doesnt go any money to russian lenders. The lawyers say that comes from a review of the president s tax returns for the last 10 years, they did not release copies of those returns. Attorney general Jeff Sessions is instituting a new policy that is certain to send more people to prison for longer terms. Sessions has told federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible against most suspect, a reversal of obama era policy that aim to to ease overcrowding and federal prisons. Preparing to cement ties with President Trump by making unprecedented investment in the u. S. According to people familiar with the matter, the saudis will announce plans to invest as much as 40 billion in u. S. Of, and that may happen next week to coincide with President Trumps visit to the country. The pentagon is reassuring turkey of american support after agreeing to arm kurdish fighters that the turks consider terrorists. Defense secretary james mattis met with turkeys Prime Minister, the first facetoface contact since the u. S. Said it would supply weapons to kurds fighting Islamic State in syria. Global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im courtney donohoe, this is bloomberg. Mark coming up, global m a deals are picking up. We take a closer look at the french advertising firm, and reports that sprint started talks with tmobile. This is bloomberg. Bloombergve from World Headquarters in new york, im vonnie quinn. Mark live from london, im mark barton, counting down to the european close. Lets turn to m a, the latest on big potential deals in the works today, a busy day. Vivendis offer for a french advertising firm, sprint said to have started talks with tmobile. David, us is ruth everything you needed to know in a function about m a. Lets get specific. And we will talk more generalities. It was always on the cards, vivendi . It was just a matter of time. Ruth they had indicated that this combination would make sense. Some analysts are calling it a lefthanded, right hand kind of deal. In the French Market a few weeks ago, there was a similar thing. You are kind of sitting back and wondering if this is the market where the friendly deal where you have billionaires consolidating their holdings and some other different companies, because even todays deal will raise takes in both of them. Those are the ones that might be the new trend where things can get done. Mark is there a conflict of interest here . Ruth yes. And that is something that analysts have spoken about. Havas is buying advertising from companies owned by vivendi. I guess regulators will have to wait and see. Vonnie how other Companies Finding financing for all these deals . A lot of 11 ruth the deals we are seeing right now are ones for you have both cash and stocks. Just do these big cash deals, so they are trying to see how much of that they can get done through stocks. We are seeing this in europe as well as the u. S. , that shareholders are really open to m a. You saw the stock of vivendi today was up 5 , earlier in the week when you head coach by kate had coachedn you buying kate spade, investors are they were getting into deal. Theres a good appetite for m a, but we have to see how the regulatory hurdles are passed. If you look at the m a function and you see there are 700 billion in pending deals and only 200 billion of deals that have actually gotten done, you can imagine how much needs to go through regulatory oks for those deals to get completed. Vonnie tell us about the sprint offer. Why now . Ruth for one year, the Telecom Players were not allowed to talk to each other. And that ended april 27. So now, you are seeing these softbank owns that stake in sprint, he cannot and said he would like the talks to begin. You have the Deutsche Telekom ceo, say that. And once this happened, sprint tmobile is one combination. You can imagine it will have a domino effect on other players. This is an interesting time for them to be doing it, because you have the Trump Administration already looking at time warner and at t, thats getting cleared. You will be a good test what they think about consolidation in the telecoms days. Mark two major assets is what the head called tmobile. Willy wonka part with it we know he wants to part with it . 12 18, we are 10 minutes ahead of the end of the session. Confirming with pimco. This is bloomberg. Vonnie a gorgeous day in midtown manhattan. I bet it is in london. Live from bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, im vonnie quinn. Mark we may agree to disagree. I mark barton with the european close just minutes away. Vonnie elians is confirming its commitment to pimco, saying it has no plans to put its u. S. Moneymanagement business for sale. Bloomberg talked to their ceo, dieter wemmer, about performance. We are 200 million ahead of our outlook for the year. Insurance is always a volatile business. Its too early to address the outlook. Is really that pimco great term for recovery. We had already a great last quarter in q4 and now q1 continues and i think q2 will also continue with the Success Story of pimco. How sustainable do you see that success at pimco . Clients flocking twoyear pimco income funds. How sustainable are the inflows . What do you see in the crystal ball . Mr. Wemmer the crystal ball is that pimco is really doing nicely and is recovering. I think we should also understand that we are in a very volatile world and i think we enjoy the quarters as they come and we hope we can surprise more often in the coming quarters. We will take the surprises as they come. Tell us about your appetite for m a. You spoke to my colleague earlier on this year and said is not on the immediate list, but the opportunities would be evaluated. Given the strength of the performance right now, do you have more appetite to do m a . And if so, with that come in the United States . Would that come in the United States . Mr. Wemmer with 2. 9 billion in spoiled areofits party to reach for the first times. We have a lot of organic potential in the company to produce profit. If there comes an opportunity, we take it. But then its really opportunistically we are executing strikes on our 3 billion Share Buyback, we have various capital positions, so we can really move in all sit andns and we can wait and look for good opportunities. You announced the big Share Buyback and i know you have talked in the past about having the infrastructure in place to do more if you decide to. Is there any interest in doing further Share Buybacks in the future . We dont expect the many quarter every quarter, but any insight . Mr. Wemmer let us first execute the 3 billion, at the end of march, we had executed roughly or close to 1 billion. Since the shareholder meeting, we continue to execute because we have to stop from a legal point of view before the shareholder meeting. First finish the 3 billion and we talk about next steps. Are we through the worst of the impact . Give us an update on how that is impacting your company . You seem a little disappointed in the impact it had. Mr. Wemmer it is not a top line ,mpact, its a reserve strength which last year cost us roughly a percentage point in our combined ratio. Its truly a oneoff, i think the u. K. Market has certainly a good recovery in rates. Rate of translate the 75 basis points in the macro outlook for the u. K. Economy, i think its a very grim outlook for the u. K. Economy, and thats why i was really surprised that somebody would have a longterm so negative view on its own country. Ceo dieterianz wemmer earlier on bloomberg. Mark we are five minutes away from the end of the friday session, and stocks are higher over the day, over the week getting a little bit of a push at the end of the friday session. A critique of the currency board today, the big data points in germany was gdp. Look at that, the euro is up against the dollar and the pound today. How long is it going to take before we cross 1. 10 . ,ields down in the u. K. Germany, spain, and italy. The week was dominated by the end of the French Election campaign and Mario Draghis comments yesterday, all of which we will discuss with richard jones, who is eagerly sitting in the wings. This is bloomberg. And newve from london york, this is the european close. We close up for the first for the third consecutive week. Telecom stocks, the big merger that took place in merger germany today. Pimco sawood out and the biggest thirdparty inflows pimcosst quarter income fund is boosting revenue allianz. S little changed for them today. Thee is one piece of m a plans to take over. It is a 3. 9 billion euro deal. Warm a pretentious it faces the potential for conflict of interest. Vivendi up by 4 today. Equities havent raised in china since april about half 1 trillion because of this crackdown on leverage, falling for a fifth week outside of china. The rsi is below 30 for the index and the rsi the main gauge is down by 7 . Global stocks are 2. 8 high. Look at the disparity between the shanghai confidence. It is the lowest going back to 2014. How is it looking there . Vonnie fascinating. We are off the extremes of the week. I do not want to say high or low. We start with the vix and we are well above 10 again. It doesnt sound like a lot, but when you consider we had been below 10 over the weekend, that is quite the move. 10year yield was above 241 yesterday and now at 2. 33. The korean ye