# Shein's Unfashionable IPO, Bond Yields Hit 2008 Highs, Lionel Messi Retires

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863397), 1 Sep 2026, 17 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c1b39a51-1327-40f8-ae83-af80014e0b5c/0fc1b825-8554-4b7d-80d3-b4b8005ad659/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=8a433f03-1a96-430e-a3d0-af80014e0b7d

Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day. On today's podcast: (1) US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after repeated clashes with his boss, Pete Hegseth, leaving the service without several top leaders even as the conflict with Iran continues. (2) Shein struggled in its Hong Kong debut after a years-long process to an initial public offering that eventually valued the company at a fraction of what it was once worth and still left investors questioning its value as consumer play. (3) US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda that the Asian country’s next step should be to raise interest rates, NHK reports, citing an interview with a US official. (4) Anthropic agreed to a $35 billion computing deal with Lambda, a cloud provider backed by Nvidia , part of an effort to quickly expand its AI capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. (5) Superstar Lionel Messi announced his retirement from Argentina’s national team after more than two decades, marking the end of an era for the football-obsessed South American nation. Podcast Conversation: US Economy Needs Clusters Like Silicon Valley: Allison Schrager See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts.
[0:05] Speaker 2: Radio. News.
[0:09] Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast. Good morning. It's Tuesday,
[0:12] Speaker 1: the 1st of September. I'm Stephen Carroll in London. Coming
[0:16] Speaker 1: up today, shares in Shein tumble on their first day's
[0:20] Speaker 1: trading in Hong Kong, a sign of the fast fashion
[0:22] Speaker 1: giant's fall from grace. Global bond yields returned to highs
[0:26] Speaker 1: not seen since 2008 as markets fret over higher inflation
[0:31] Speaker 1: and bigger deficits. Plus, hanging up the golden boots, Lionel
[0:35] Speaker 1: Messi announces his retirement from international football after more than
[0:39] Speaker 1: two decades. Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
[0:42] Speaker 1: Shares in Shein, one of the world's largest fashion retailers,
[0:46] Speaker 1: are plunging on their first day of trading. The stock
[0:48] Speaker 1: has fallen by as much as 10% from its IPO
[0:51] Speaker 1: price at its debut, with investors questioning its value today.
[0:54] Speaker 1: In a world of trade tensions, Bloomberg's Asia Equities reporter,
[0:57] Speaker 1: Winnie Su, is at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
[1:00] Speaker 3: The IPO raised $ 1. 7 billion, taking its valuation to about
[1:05] Speaker 3: $ 26 billion. And that is just a fraction, and in fact, 70%
[1:11] Speaker 3: lower than what it used to worth.
[1:12] Speaker 4: Back in 2022, which was at about $ 100 billion. And
[1:17] Speaker 4: this is coming as the company faces lots of challenges,
[1:20] Speaker 4: whether it's the impact from US tariffs, some of the
[1:23] Speaker 4: regulatory changes in the US, in Europe, and also questions
[1:27] Speaker 4: about the sustainability of the business.
[1:32] Speaker 1: Now, Sue says that if the stock were to close
[1:34] Speaker 1: near its session low, it would be the worst debut
[1:36] Speaker 1: for a Hong Kong listing of its size in more
[1:38] Speaker 1: than six years. We have seen Sheehan shares bounce off
[1:42] Speaker 1: that low, but still lower on the day. Sheehan was
[1:44] Speaker 1: once talked up as a major prospect for London's stock market,
[1:47] Speaker 1: but its attempts to list here and in New York
[1:49] Speaker 1: ran into regulatory and political hurdles. Global bond yields are
[1:54] Speaker 1: continuing to climb as investors fear higher inflation ahead of
[1:57] Speaker 1: a series of key central bank meetings this month. In
[2:00] Speaker 1: the US, the 30-year Treasury is on its worst stretch
[2:02] Speaker 1: since 2006. Bloomberg data shows the 30-year yield has settled
[2:07] Speaker 1: above 5% on 55 days since the start of this year.
[2:11] Speaker 1: US Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told CNBC that he and
[2:14] Speaker 1: Fed Chair Kevin Warsh agree on the outlook for US debt.
[2:18] Speaker 2: Of course we're on the same page. And what does
[2:21] Speaker 2: that mean? Well, we both believe that the U.S. bond
[2:27] Speaker 2: market is the most resilient in the world. And let's
[2:30] Speaker 2: just level set here for a minute, Sarah. Everyone's talking
[2:33] Speaker 2: about the U.S. bond market.
[2:35] Speaker 5: U.S.
[2:35] Speaker 2: Bond market this month will have been the best performing
[2:38] Speaker 2: bond market. The third year, the yield is down. The 10-year,
[2:42] Speaker 2: the yield is flat. No other major bond market can
[2:45] Speaker 2: say that.
[2:47] Speaker 1: Scott Passant was speaking to CNBC at the G20 gathering
[2:49] Speaker 1: of finance ministers in North Carolina. Worries over inflation, elevated
[2:54] Speaker 1: government spending and AI debt are pushing investors in the US,
[2:57] Speaker 1: Britain and Japan to seek more compensation for debt. In Japan,
[3:02] Speaker 1: the 10-year yield touched 3% for the first time in
[3:05] Speaker 1: 30 years. As investors ramp up bets, the BOJ will
[3:08] Speaker 1: raise interest rates again soon, potentially this month or next.
[3:12] Speaker 1: It also comes after Scott Besant reportedly told Japan's finance
[3:15] Speaker 1: minister and central bank governor that the country should raise
[3:18] Speaker 1: interest rates and communicate its path towards more sustainable finances.
[3:23] Speaker 1: That's according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, which cites an
[3:25] Speaker 1: interview with a US Treasury official. The comments are likely
[3:31] Speaker 1: to fuel further expectations that the Bank of Japan will
[3:34] Speaker 1: raise rates at this month's meeting. US President Donald Trump
[3:39] Speaker 1: has dismissed concerns that the Iran war was draining America's
[3:43] Speaker 1: firepower as both sides restart hostilities. The US President says
[3:47] Speaker 1: he intends the conflict to be a limited war. and
[3:50] Speaker 1: denies that it has burned through U.S. munitions.
[3:54] Speaker 6: This is a relatively little war for us. This is
[3:56] Speaker 6: not a big war. You know, where the money went
[3:58] Speaker 6: was Ukraine. The money was really taken out, the ammunition,
[4:03] Speaker 6: if you talk about low. We have tremendous amounts, unlimited
[4:06] Speaker 6: amounts of mid-grade and older stuff that's also very powerful.
[4:13] Speaker 1: Trump's comments come as the two sides exchange strikes. For
[4:15] Speaker 1: the first time in about a month, US Army Secretary
[4:18] Speaker 1: Dan Driscoll became the latest senior military figure to step
[4:22] Speaker 1: down during the conflict. His departure leaves the army with
[4:24] Speaker 1: no Senate-confirmed leadership. NATO and European Union countries are pressuring
[4:31] Speaker 1: Spain and Greece to give Ukraine Patriot interceptor missiles to
[4:35] Speaker 1: The news comes as Kiev says it's struggling to repel
[4:37] Speaker 1: Russia's mounting airstrikes. Bloomberg understands the requests were made over
[4:41] Speaker 1: the summer and could include the possibility that Norway could
[4:44] Speaker 1: buy the missiles before donating them to Ukraine. According to
[4:47] Speaker 1: an EU official, the issue will be on the agenda
[4:49] Speaker 1: this week when EU defence and foreign ministers meet in Dublin.
[4:54] Speaker 1: And after more than two decades playing for Argentina's national team,
[4:57] Speaker 1: football legend Lionel Messi is hanging up his international boots.
[5:01] Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Tiwa Adebayo has more.
[5:03] Speaker 7: Just over a month ago, a 39-year-old Lionel Messi led
[5:07] Speaker 7: his country to the World Cup final, narrowly losing to
[5:10] Speaker 7: Spain in extra time. He did so as one of
[5:14] Speaker 7: the most decorated players in international history, scoring 121 goals
[5:19] Speaker 7: and recording 66 assists for Argentina whilst winning six titles.
[5:24] Speaker 7: Over the weekend, Messi called time on his career with
[5:27] Speaker 7: the national team, concluding a summer which saw him become
[5:30] Speaker 7: the oldest outfield player ever to start a World Cup final.
[5:34] Speaker 7: In a handwritten letter posted on social media, the forward
[5:38] Speaker 7: said that the decision hurts a lot, but said that
[5:40] Speaker 7: he has nothing left to give. The news comes after
[5:44] Speaker 7: his father and longtime business manager passed away earlier this month.
[5:48] Speaker 7: Messi said at the time he didn't know how to
[5:51] Speaker 7: go on. Messi will continue to play club football for
[5:55] Speaker 7: Major League Soccer's Inter Miami. In London, Tiwa Adebayo, Bloomberg Radio.
[6:00] Speaker 1: And those are your top stories on the markets this morning.
[6:02] Speaker 1: We're watching the 10-year Treasury yield up another three basis
[6:05] Speaker 1: points at 4.78%. Japan's 10-year yield after brushing 3% for
[6:10] Speaker 1: the first time since 1996, currently just below that level,
[6:14] Speaker 1: but up six basis points on the day after the
[6:17] Speaker 1: auction today came in largely with demand in line with
[6:20] Speaker 1: the one-year average. average. But that pressure on global bonds continues.
[6:23] Speaker 1: The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is a touch stronger this morning.
[6:26] Speaker 1: Brent crude oil up another 1.2% at $ 91.
[6:27] Speaker 4: 54.
[6:27] Speaker 1: Eurostoxx 50 futures are down by two-tenths of 1% this morning.
[6:35] Speaker 1: In a moment, we'll bring you more on Sheehan's first
[6:38] Speaker 1: day on the stock market, plus the latest on the
[6:40] Speaker 1: Iran war. But I just wanted to mention another story
[6:42] Speaker 1: that I've been reading this morning. On the need for
[6:44] Speaker 1: cluster cities, this is where a place becomes synonymous for
[6:48] Speaker 1: an industry. Think of the City of London for finance,
[6:50] Speaker 1: maybe Paris for luxury goods, or even Dublin for the
[6:52] Speaker 1: tech industry. Bloomberg opinion columnist Alison Schrager has been writing
[6:56] Speaker 1: about this. In the context of the United States and
[6:58] Speaker 1: the challenges that Los Angeles' film industry faces, with more
[7:03] Speaker 1: production being lowered elsewhere by tax incentives or lower costs,
[7:07] Speaker 1: Alison talks about success for these kind of cities didn't
[7:11] Speaker 1: necessarily require living there, but it did make it more likely,
[7:14] Speaker 1: which draws more people there and thus more companies set
[7:17] Speaker 1: up there, and it creates an ecosystem that can sustain
[7:20] Speaker 1: itself and provide further success in a particular industry. But
[7:24] Speaker 1: she points to the central lesson from economics, that behaviour
[7:27] Speaker 1: on the margins is often revealing about what's happening in
[7:29] Speaker 1: an economy. So, there's still value to living in a
[7:32] Speaker 1: cluster city. But if costs rise and the benefits diminish,
[7:36] Speaker 1: that calculation can change. And we know the pandemic and
[7:38] Speaker 1: the rise of remote work has meant that for many
[7:41] Speaker 1: industries as well. Now, Alison says this is a big
[7:43] Speaker 1: risk to innovation in the US, but it's an interesting
[7:45] Speaker 1: thing to think about in a European context as well.
[7:48] Speaker 1: Populations might be, if we think about the continent as
[7:51] Speaker 1: a whole, less mobile across borders due to language and
[7:54] Speaker 1: cultural difficulty differences. But can you break down the barriers
[7:58] Speaker 1: between these smaller clusters that they can add up to
[8:01] Speaker 1: more than the sum of their parts? I mean, it's
[8:02] Speaker 1: part of the ambition of the European Union as a project,
[8:05] Speaker 1: but whether or not that can be overcome in terms
[8:09] Speaker 1: of barriers to create the kind of clusters that can
[8:12] Speaker 1: provide the economic growth and innovation that the likes of
[8:15] Speaker 1: Silicon Valley has had in the tech industry. An interesting
[8:18] Speaker 1: thing to think about. So a piece that we'd recommend
[8:20] Speaker 1: reading this morning, we'll put a link to it in
[8:21] Speaker 1: our podcast show notes. Let's bring you more now, though,
[8:25] Speaker 1: on that first day of trading for the Chinese fast
[8:27] Speaker 1: fashion giant. Shein shares in the company dropping by as
[8:30] Speaker 1: much as 10%. Our managing editor for Asia Equities, Lianting Tu,
[8:33] Speaker 1: joins us now for more. Lianting, great to have you
[8:36] Speaker 1: with us. How is the first day of trading going
[8:38] Speaker 1: then for Shein?
[8:40] Speaker 8: I think it's fair to say it's been a quite
[8:43] Speaker 8: weak debut. Shares, as you said, were down as much
[8:46] Speaker 8: as 10%. It has recovered some of the losses ever since.
[8:50] Speaker 8: But at the beginning hours of trading, we saw a
[8:54] Speaker 8: lot more sell orders than buy orders. That definitely shows
[8:57] Speaker 8: you that it has not been a very popular IPO.
[9:01] Speaker 8: And there have been signs pointing to this kind of
[9:03] Speaker 8: lack of enthusiasm from investors. If you look at the pricing,
[9:07] Speaker 8: it was priced at the middle of the marketed range. Again,
[9:11] Speaker 8: lukewarm interest. And if you look at subscription, the retail
[9:14] Speaker 8: investor portion was only about six times subscribed, and the
[9:18] Speaker 8: institutional portion was about three times. And these may look
[9:22] Speaker 8: like decent numbers, but in the context of Hong Kong,
[9:25] Speaker 8: a hot IPO can easily get hundreds of times oversubscribed,
[9:29] Speaker 8: especially in.
[9:30] Speaker 1: The retail portion.
[9:31] Speaker 8: So overall, people are talking about how it has come
[9:34] Speaker 8: to the market too late, right? It has passed its
[9:36] Speaker 8: peak growth.
[9:38] Speaker 1: And it's really interesting to think about the path that's
[9:40] Speaker 1: led Shein to its IPO as well, because it was timed,
[9:44] Speaker 1: talked about as being listed in other markets as well.
[9:47] Speaker 1: But there's been so many difficulties along the way for
[9:51] Speaker 1: a company that's grown to become synonymous with fast fashion
[9:54] Speaker 1: in so many parts of the world, and the good
[9:55] Speaker 1: and the bad parts that go with that label as well.
[9:58] Speaker 1: The IPO valuation around a quarter of what it was
[10:01] Speaker 1: at its peak. Just talk us through how we ended
[10:04] Speaker 1: up where we are today.
[10:06] Speaker 8: Yeah, Xuyin was really a darling about four years ago.
[10:10] Speaker 8: It was valued at around $ 100 billion as its low-cost
[10:17] Speaker 8: business model was so powerful that it really benefited from
[10:20] Speaker 8: the pandemic e-commerce boom. And ever since, especially last year,
[10:26] Speaker 8: the turning point happened when the U.S. plugged a loophole
[10:30] Speaker 8: in its tariff policy, basically removing tariff exemptions for low-cost goods.
[10:36] Speaker 8: And soon after, the European Union also did the same
[10:39] Speaker 8: thing and introduced a tariff for small parcels. And that
[10:44] Speaker 8: has really dimmed the business prospect for Xuyin. And along
[10:48] Speaker 8: with that, there is also intensifying competition from the likes
[10:52] Speaker 8: of Taimou, which is part of PDD, and also AliExpress,
[10:56] Speaker 8: which is part of Alibaba. So intensifying competition landscape is
[11:01] Speaker 8: also not helping. And along with that, there is always
[11:04] Speaker 8: the simmering sort of scrutiny over its supply chain practices.
[11:09] Speaker 8: So all of these things meant that valuations have dropped
[11:13] Speaker 8: three quarters from its peak. And that really reflected the
[11:17] Speaker 8: kind of weaker growth business growth prospect by investors.
[11:24] Speaker 1: And indeed, it has become controversial in parts in Europe,
[11:27] Speaker 1: certainly stories like the partnership that didn't go very well
[11:30] Speaker 1: with the department store BFV in Paris, something that comes
[11:33] Speaker 1: to mind when we think about Shein now. But it's
[11:36] Speaker 1: a company that considers listing in London, in New York.
[11:40] Speaker 1: For London, you know, when we're thinking about how the
[11:43] Speaker 1: dust has settled now, was it actually damaging for the
[11:46] Speaker 1: London market to have missed out on that listing?
[11:49] Speaker 8: I would say a simple answer is yes. Shein is
[11:52] Speaker 8: a globally recognized company, a brand name, and London missed
[11:57] Speaker 8: out on that, especially when London has been trying really
[12:01] Speaker 8: hard to revive its IPO market. As you said, Shein
[12:05] Speaker 8: has spent years looking for a home for its listing.
[12:08] Speaker 8: It looked at London, New York, and eventually it couldn't
[12:12] Speaker 8: overcome the hurdles from the regulatory and geopolitical side and
[12:17] Speaker 8: settled with Hong Kong. I would say for London, the
[12:20] Speaker 8: bigger issue is really symbolic, right? She indeed is having
[12:24] Speaker 8: a weak debut. But I think people are looking at London,
[12:28] Speaker 8: seeing that an international company looked at London seriously for listing,
[12:33] Speaker 8: but eventually chose somewhere else for a debut. So definitely
[12:38] Speaker 8: not a good show for London. But on the other side,
[12:40] Speaker 8: it makes Hong Kong look pretty good. And Hong Kong's
[12:44] Speaker 8: IPO proceeds well. right now is at $ 45 billion with
[12:48] Speaker 8: Shein's $ 1. 7 billion fundraise. And that's putting Hong Kong's IPO
[12:53] Speaker 8: market on course for a record year, which it reached
[12:57] Speaker 8: in 2010 with a $ 58 billion fundraise total.
[13:02] Speaker 1: Lian Ting, thank you so much for joining us. Lian
[13:04] Speaker 1: Ting Tu, our Managing Editor for Asia Equities there, bringing
[13:06] Speaker 1: us the global story around Shein's IPO today. Stay with us.
[13:12] Speaker 1: More from Bloomberg Daybreak Europe coming up after this. after
[13:30] Speaker 1: repeated clashes with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Our Middle East
[13:33] Speaker 1: breaking news editor, Patrick Sykes, joins us now for more. Patrick,
[13:36] Speaker 1: first of all, what is happening in the Gulf today?
[13:39] Speaker 1: We had that resumption of hostilities yesterday, but what is
[13:43] Speaker 1: the latest that we're hearing today?
[13:45] Speaker 5: Yeah, the latest is that we had this tanker reported
[13:48] Speaker 5: to have been hit by three projectiles during its outbound
[13:53] Speaker 5: transit of the Strait of Hormuz. Looking at the location
[13:56] Speaker 5: that that was reported in, it puts it firmly in
[13:59] Speaker 5: this southern route, the route that sort of hugs the
[14:03] Speaker 5: Armani coast rather than the Iranian side on the opposite
[14:07] Speaker 5: side of the strait. So I think it just undermines
[14:10] Speaker 5: the sort of contested nature of control over the Strait. Obviously,
[14:15] Speaker 5: over the past few weeks, we've had Trump claiming that
[14:18] Speaker 5: the U.S. is fully in control, that the U.S. has
[14:21] Speaker 5: fully demined the area. And Iran, for its part, I
[14:27] Speaker 5: think pushing back on that narrative, on that mind status,
[14:33] Speaker 5: precisely because it knows that with every barrel of oil
[14:37] Speaker 5: that the U.S. is able to escort out safely, that
[14:41] Speaker 5: eats into Iran's leverage over the Strait, which is, of course,
[14:45] Speaker 5: its main kind of pressure point to exert pressure on
[14:49] Speaker 5: the U.S. in the war.
[14:51] Speaker 1: And Patrick, Donald Trump is downplaying this conflict as a
[14:55] Speaker 1: little war now. But I mean, it does seem to
[14:58] Speaker 1: be escalating. And we're also looking at these reports of
[15:01] Speaker 1: a shakeup in the US military leadership as well.
[15:04] Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, he's right in terms of intensity. The
[15:07] Speaker 5: sort of day-to-day baseline is that we're nowhere near the
[15:10] Speaker 5: kind of peak hostilities that we saw in March, for example.
[15:16] Speaker 5: But we have seen at the same time a return
[15:19] Speaker 5: from the near-zero occurrence of those, say, attacks on shipping
[15:24] Speaker 5: and certainly U.S. strikes on the Iranian mainland there. to
[15:28] Speaker 5: the return of that kind of attack, albeit it does
[15:33] Speaker 5: seem to be limited at the moment. So, we had
[15:36] Speaker 5: that U.S. attack overnight the night before last, and Iran
[15:41] Speaker 5: retaliated in kind, but that for now seems to have
[15:45] Speaker 5: drawn a line under it. So, I think Both sides
[15:49] Speaker 5: keen not to be seen to not respond, but they're
[15:53] Speaker 5: not rushing into a full-blown return to war either. And
[15:56] Speaker 5: on the U.S. leadership side, I think that just goes
[15:59] Speaker 5: to show, you know, it is obviously a hugely contested
[16:02] Speaker 5: time for the U.S.
[16:03] Speaker 2: Military.
[16:04] Speaker 5: They've got all these tensions over ammunition stocks. That's the
[16:09] Speaker 5: kind of thing that the Iranians will love to see
[16:11] Speaker 5: being played out in public. And the other outcome will
[16:15] Speaker 5: be that it will likely consolidate Defense Secretary Hegseth's control
[16:19] Speaker 5: over the military. He's been a key proponent of this war,
[16:23] Speaker 5: often the public face of the case for it. So
[16:26] Speaker 5: I think we can expect whoever replaces Driscoll to be
[16:30] Speaker 5: much more in line with that approach.
[16:33] Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
[16:36] Speaker 1: stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.
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