Oil Back Above $100, Tesla’s $25B Robot Bet, Drugs Kept From Europe
4/23/202618 min
On today's podcast:
(1) Oil rose for a fourth day as the US and Iran remained locked in a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz after failing to meet for a fresh round of peace talks.
(2) Tesla anticipates billions of dollars in additional spending this year to support Elon Musk’s ambitions to transform the electric-vehicle pioneer into an AI and robotics company.
(3) The Swiss government outlined plans that would add billions of dollars to UBS' capital requirements, deepening a showdown with the lender over its proposed banking reforms.
(4) European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane said there’s a logical fiscal case for the region’s nations to issue joint bonds, though such a move would need to be underpinned by trust.
(5) UK workers were hit with the highest increase in tax rates on wages of any wealthy country last year, according to a new report, as the Labour government has come under pressure to lighten Britain’s tax burden.
Podcast Conversation: AI Is Coming for Our Aging Parents: Catherine Thorbecke
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[ on-hold music] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:07
[upbeat music] This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast. Good morning. It's Thursday, the twenty-third of April. I'm Caroline Hepker in London.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:15
And I'm Stephen Carroll in Brussels. Coming up today, the price of oil rises back above a hundred dollars a barrel as Iranian boats fire on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and talks with the US stall.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:27
Tesla announces plans to spend twenty-five billion dollars on AI and robotics as Elon Musk looks to pivot the company away from making cars.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:37
Plus, a bitter pill to swallow. Why President Trump's plan to cut drug prices in the United States is driving pharma giants to withhold new medicines from European markets.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:48
Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:51
The price of crude oil is back above a hundred dollars a barrel this morning as the US and Iran step up efforts to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, Iranian gunboats fired on commercial ships in the waterway, while the US intercepted two of the Islamic Republic's oil tankers. The latest incidents demonstrate that despite President Trump's assertion that Iran's navy has been destroyed, Tehran still retains the ability to deploy small boats to target commercial vessels. Captain Raman Kapoor is serving on a tanker that's been stranded near the vital shipping lane for more than fifty days.
Raman Kapoor· Soundbite1:25
We are not warriors. We are stuck here. We have become, uh,