5 things to start your day

Follow Us Get the newsletter Good morning. A stock market insurrection goes global, the EU has a falling-out with AstraZeneca and U.S. tech titans disappoint. Here's what's moving markets. 'French Revolution' As GameStop shares soared to new highs, inflicting bruising losses on hedge funds including that of New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, the phenomenon of meteoric gains in heavily-shorted stocks went global throughout Wednesday. In Europe, mall owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield finished the day up 20%, while peer Klepierre rose 22% -- the stocks' short interest stood at 14% and 15% of float, respectively. Publisher Pearson, with about 15% of short interest according to IHS Markit data, closed 14% higher. Overnight, what Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci called ``the French Revolution of finance'' spread across the world, with some of Australia's most-shorted stocks outperforming. Meanwhile, a deluge of new members forced the WallStreetBets forum to briefly shut out new users, and communications platform Discord banned the group entirely, citing its lack of action against hate speech.  EU Escalation European Union officials remain at loggerheads with AstraZeneca after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker refused to cave to demands that it take vaccine supplies from its U.K. factories to increase doses going to the bloc. The EU accuses Astra of using European funding intended for the development of manufacturing capacity to ramp up production in its U.K. plants, and now prioritizing British deliveries. The face-off could mean further delays to an already-sluggish inoculation campaign in the region. It also thrusts the maker of the life-saving shots into a political fight with 27 governments and their restive voters, desperate to pull their economies out of the steepest recession in living memory. In happier news, BioNTech and Pfizer said their jointly-developed vaccine is effective against both the U.K. and South African strains of the coronavirus. Meh Apple, Facebook and Tesla all dropped after posting quarterly earnings last night. While Apple's quarterly revenue topped $100 billion for the first time, it didn't offer a formal sales outlook and executives said sales growth from AirPods and other wearables will decelerate in the current quarter. Facebook warned of "significant uncertainty" in 2021, and said it may not be able to grow as quickly in the second half. Tesla reported a sixth straight profitable quarter in its first earnings report as an S&P 500 member, but missed analyst expectations. This comes during an earnings season where, on average, even stocks whose results beat expectations ended up underperforming the broader market.  No Taper Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made clear the U.S. central bank was nowhere near exiting massive support for the economy during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as officials left their benchmark interest rate unchanged near zero and flagged a moderating U.S. recovery. The central bank's policy-making body repeated it would maintain its bond-buying program at the current pace of $120 billion per month until "substantial further progress" toward its employment and inflation goals has been made. It made no changes to the composition of purchases. Coming Up… Chip firm STMicroelectronics just released a first-quarter forecast that beat analyst estimates, while watch maker Swatch missed expectations for the full year. Remaining earnings highlights for the morning include elevator maker Kone and distiller Diageo, where analysts will look for signs of pain as renewed lockdowns eat into Europeans' ability to have a good time. Billboard advertiser JCDecaux and furniture maker Maisons du Monde are also expected to report, but usually do so after European markets close. American behemoths await us from noon onward, with earnings due from Visa, Mastercard, Comcast and McDonald's. Weekly U.S. jobless claims, forecast to remain broadly in line with a week ago, are another fixture for the afternoon.  What We've Been Reading This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours.  Bitcoin's overnight tumble.  Billions for batteries. The NYC gentrification crash. Breathing life into NATO. Conspiracy theorist hospital invaders. 'Your tune is money.' The EU's olive branch.  And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning Reddit versus the "establishment" is dominating the news cycle but for the moment at least is more a localized issue for pockets of the stock market. But amid concern from the Federal Reserve about the pace of the economic recovery and a reassessment about the speed of the global vaccine rollout, the dollar is beginning to strengthen again, and that would have a much broader impact. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed above its 50-day moving average for the first time since November this week, breaking the ``first line'' of technical resistance for the gauge. Next up comes the downtrend from the index's March slump, a move that cemented the ``weak dollar'' as the number one consensus call for global investors. The high level of dollar short positions in the market has been much discussed and often dismissed but just ask WallStreetBets what happens when a squeeze starts. A dollar rebound would catch more than just GameStop traders off guard, just when risk assets are looking a little toppy. Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things - Europe newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022