>> from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i'm mark crumpton. this is "bottom line." toay, crimea is scheduled vote on whether to join russia. then republican conservatives gather for their annual meeting. we will examine the high-security business of storing copper. to our viewers in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world, welcome. we have full coverage of the stocks and stories making headlines today. pure cook reports on congresses step toward a aid package for

ukraine. david tweed is in brussels for the european union held an emergency meeting. ryan chilcote is an key of where voters will decide 10 days whether to join russia. we will get to all of you in just a moment, but first, short time ago, president obama spoke from the briefing room in the white house about the situation in ukraine. several ofpoken to our closest friends around the world and i am pleased our international unity is on display at this important moment. togethere have moved to announce substantial assistance for the government in key of and today in brussels, our allies took sin of -- took similar steps. i'm confident we are moving forward together, united in our determination to oppose actions that violate international law. ryan chilcote joins us now from kiev with the late details. good evening. evening, mark.

earlier today, the crimean parliament voted to secede from ukraine and join russia. they will now put that decision to the people of crimea in a referendum scheduled to take place on the 16th of this month, and just 10 days. after that decision, the federal government, the parliament here in kiev effectively disbanded the crimean parliament and an old that decision. the question is does that matter now is crimea right occupied by several thousand the ukrainian and military there has been neutralized. , secretary kerry had said that would be an illegitimate referendum, but we've seen a pattern for these kinds of things other soviet republic is russia has effectively supported or established state lets.

the russian military moved today ,o take control of the straight a body of water about 4.5 isometers wide which strategic for it to control the area as it effectively now does. just because the people of crimea and this semi-aton a miss region vote to secede from ukraine and join russia does not mean russia would accept it. it certainly gives russia the option two. >> ryan chilcote, with the very latest from kiev. unionsia, european leaders wrapped up an emergency meeting on the crisis in ukraine a short time ago. editor, david tweed, is there with the latest. what was agreed to at the summit? response -- there were three things that were agreed to at the summit. first of all, there will be a cessation of these talks and

trade talks between the european union and russia. second, the european union has said it does not recognize the crimean referendum and it wants russia to withdraw its troops from the crimea. in order to do so, they would have to enter into negotiations. if russia does not enter into negotiations and there is no result as desired by the european union, then their asset freezes on certain russian individuals that will be put into place. the third leg decided in brussels today is if russell escalates its destabilization of the ukraine, the european union would put into place economic measures that would have severe consequences. >> do we have any indication what those sanctions might be? >> we are getting a little bit of a taste of it.

david cameron, the u.k. prime minister spoke to reporters after the summit will stop listen to what he said. asked if russia takes further steps, a statement issued today makes very clear there will be far-reaching consequences. let me read you what it says. any further steps by the russian federation to do stabilize the situation in ukraine would lead to additional and far-reaching consequences for relations between the european union and member states on one hand and the russian federation on the other. which would include a broad range of economic areas. -- ast to give you a chain taste of what those consequences would be, he said for britain, for example, you could look at financial services all stop for france, you could look at defense. these goes on to say consequences are worth it if you are going to stand up to them.

>> what comes after this meeting? to see whether russia is going to engage in any dialogue with the european union and more importantly, with the ukraine. that is one of the key things the eu set out. if russia does not do that, we will see european union leaders back here in brussels for another emergency summit to then decide if they are going to go on with the second step, which would be a decision to put into place asset freezes and travel bans. >> david tweed, joining us from brussels. thank you. in russia, president obama says the referendum vote in crimea is a violation of international law. he is also using his executive authority to take aim at russian officials taking aim at russian sovereignty. the president seems to be turning up the heat.

>> he is certainly trying to turn up the heat while allowing somediplomatic room for sort of peaceful resolution of what is taking place. specifically, you touched on it, the president stepping into the briefing room and making comments, sending his own actions to turn up the heat, specifically the sub bans on individuals. possibility of sanctions on individuals and entities seen as undermining ukraine. he talked directly about the crimea referendum and the united states sees it as a violation of international law. rex the proposed referendum on the future of crimea would violate the ukrainian constitution and violate international law. about the future of ukraine must include the legitimate government of ukraine. in 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn

over the heads of democratic leaders. >> in terms of the stick the president is choosing to wield at this point, the administration announced this morning, visa bans put in place for certain individuals. they will not name exactly who. and the possibility of the authority for the president to impose financial sanctions on individuals and entities seen as undermining the ukrainian government at this point. the stick starting to be employed by the president, but some thing held in reserve as well. rex talk to us about this bead with which this seems to be taking place. as you know from being on the hill most of the time, not a lot of bipartisanship in russia, but this one seems to have both sides of the aisle in agreement. >> to some extent. thehould point out president is acting on his own before congress does anything. what we do see is some bipartisanship over this.

the houses voting as we speak to extend loan guarantees and they are talking about sanctions similar to what the president authorized already. houseeaker of the expressing support for the ukrainian position at the white house. take a listen. >> i support limited sanctions outlined by the president to freeze some assets and block u.s. visas. committed to working with the administration to give president obama as needed to put president putin in check and prevent russia from infringing on the sovereignty of any of its neighbors. bipartisan tone from the speaker of the house when it comes to ukraine. still criticism of the president. we will get into this with the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. we will get into that shortly here in "bottom line."

>> peter, thank you. peter, letting us know he will be interviewing congressman royce a little later on in this broadcast. the new we will look at russian elite president putin is surrounding himself with and what that may tell us about the kremlin's next move. "bottom line" continues the moment. ♪

>> mr. bruton, tear down this wall, the wall intimidation, the wall of military aggression, and let's build up new type of relations between ukraine and russia. we are ready for cooperation, but we are not ready to surrender and be the subordinate of russia. >> the ukrainian prime minister they're echoing former u.s. president ronald reagan as he aimed comment at vladimir putin

today in a news conference in brussels. that's continue our coverage of the crisis in ukraine. our bloomberg correspondent is traveling with secretary of state, john kerry, and joins me on the phone from rome. what happened in the meetings with foreign ministers? >> this is the third day of intense diplomacy by the secretary of state hopping across europe. tuesday we were in ukraine, thursday in rome, the purpose of all this travel is for kerry to get a chance to have face time first with the ukrainian foreign minister, then with the russian toeign minister in an effort bring about some sort of depomed resolution. what we have seen is today is the second day in a row of meetings and they have not yet come to an agreement. both sides insisted there have been progress and may have something to take back to their president, but let's keep in mind russia is sticking by its guns and the united states is

sticking with its position that it isn't. we do have a situation with john kerry, they once had a sort of romance going and now they are sort of for enemies. we will have to see whether this diplomacy actually met tony things. the chances of diplomacy resolving this? >> it was interesting because commenting tonight on those sanctions which peter spoke about earlier, laying the groundwork, terry tonight wanted to make the specific point of saying although we have laid the legal groundwork, we have not actually sanctioned anyone yet. that was specifically opening the door to a diplomatic solution and trying to say we can resolve this and don't need to escalate it, if you de-escalate, we can have a happy conclusion. the threat of u.s. sanctions

would not have the kind of punishing affect european sanctions would. about 2% of trade from russia versus a huge amount of and europethe u.k. writ large. i don't know how much we are scaring them, but he is trying to leave the door open for a diplomatic solution and not have to act on it. >> where you headed next? >> i can't tell you. been publicly announced. but maybe i will talk with you tomorrow. >> under a veil of secrecy, joining us from italy. think you very much. let's get a deeper understanding of the crisis in ukraine and next.utin may do i'm joined by an authority on the post-soviet transition, the director of russian studies at the american enterprise institute. thank you for your time today. >> pleasure. did vladimir putin risk

the condemnation of the community by taking military action in crimea? because you have to step back and see how to frame the ukrainian crisis even before it became a revolution. it was immediately framed by him as will the west versus russia. is perennially plotting west trying to impinge on russian security and destroy putin's dream of the eurasian union. successful, he painted himself into the corner and could not back out of this narrative. domestically, he had to do something for his domestic audience and recover initiative and stanch the wound before he starts leading politically. that is why he reacted the way he did. >> sounds like what we do here

in the united states. if you are a politician, you throw med -- you throw red meat to your audience. you believe that there is a time when passed history shows prologue. 's and napoleon's tactics similar? >> first of all, they are very similar in being lucky. remember that napoleon always promoted generals based not on their education or credentials, but his first question he would ask is are they lucky? putin has been very lucky. russia, oil over was 18 dollars a barrel. he adopted the polian's tactics. i don't know if you read you get into the haven't been lucky until this major blunder of his career. getting doing it now,

into a fight and then he stops and looks around and sees what to do next. >> afterwards, therefore because of. >> exactly. many western leaders, including some here have likened russia's crimea of hitler's annexation of student land. is he playing ethnic politics and will he move the bridge is the country? >> very much so. issue of russia versus the west came out, put them thought there would be another triumph. he will save the regime but he went town to defeat it had to switch the narrative. the narrative now is to detect our compatriots from nonexistent threats to their lives or harassment or anything of that kind.

yes as in sudetenland, as naked germans in what used to be czechoslovakia, there was the pretext hitler used to seize that part of czechoslovakia. we ares now saying protecting ethnic russians against all kinds of indignities by ethnic ukrainians. >> what should the west do for ukraine? what heavy weapon is in the arsenal to show moscow's actions cannot and will not be tolerated? the actions announced today by president obama, whose attention putin has finally gotten, that the good stuff. it's a good step. -- he fellch fell when individual sanctions were put in place and they started

jumping ship. he will have to test his elites, but he ought to know their devotion to him may not be stronger than their devotion to their accounts in swiss banks or their wife's shopping trips to london come in new york and paris. the elites inned our last 30 seconds. they are not oligarchs will stop today have any influence over vladimir putin and his policies? >> they are not oligarchs. they are government officials promoted by putin based on either his childhood friendships or college friendships or his judo partners. they have their own business going, but there is also majority state-owned corporations. they are very rich people and they do owe him their fortune,

but they also want to keep some of it. >> the director of russian studies at the american enterprise institute, and joining us this afternoon. i hope we can call on you again. some fascinating dialogue here. thank you for your time. >> thank you. check thet, we will latest on thursday's equity market movers and later, we go behind closed doors of one of the world's most secretive markets -- $30 million worth of copper in a giant warehouse. ♪

>> welcome back. it is 26 and is past the hour, that means bloomberg television is on the markets. julie hyman joins me now with the latest. >> we have a rally going on

today in stocks. not a big one, but enough to push the s&p 500 to another record. we actually have the nasdaq turning lower, so we will see if the s&p can hang onto that record by the end of trading. we did have a jobless claims number coming in better than estimated, so that has been helping stocks. in terms of individual movers, sodastream international they are getting a boost from a hedge fund manager who announced a long position in sodastream international does not think it is a fat and has an arm is global market potential. we are also looking at pandora -- the online company reported toruary listing hours rose 1.5 billion hours. that actually missed some estimates and it was the slowest growth pandora has ever posted. market in back on the 30 minutes and you will get more

"bottom line" after the break. ♪

>> welcome back to the second half-hour of "online." i'm mark crumpton. let's check some of the top stories we are following at this hour. lawmakers in crimea declared their intention to split from ukraine and join russia. they also scheduled a referendum in 10 days. voters will decide the fate of the disputed peninsula. slappeda administration new visa restrictions against pro-russian opponents to the new ukrainian government in kiev and cleared the way for upcoming financial sanctions. first-time jobless claims in the

united states fell to their lowest level in three months last week. there was concern the nasty winter weather may lead to more job cuts. the government's february employment tomorrow. our survey is looking for a rise of 149,000 nonfarm payrolls and an unemployment rate of 6.6%. coming at office supply chain, staples. the company plans to close two hundred 25 stores in north america and cut costs by half $1 million. in firstorecast a drop quarter sales, facing challenges from low-cost retailers like amazon. that's a look at the top stories in the news this hour. all day, bloomberg television is taking you inside the complicated as ms. of metal warehousing. it's often looked at as an opaque industry because people are rarely allowed inside a facility to see how it really works. it cloaks the business in a veil of secrecy. but alix steel was offered a rare look inside one.

desert,in the arizona find this chain-link fence some past those cardtronics, tv cameras, and motion detectors lies a mother load of one of the world's hottest commodities. >> how much is this all worth customer >> that's about $100,000. rexam standing next to $100,000 worth of copper? >> yes. x diag smith is the operative in charge of her $30 million worth of copper in this massive and well secured warehouse. is used inetal almost everything we use in modern society today. your telephone, your computer, your car, pots and pans -- it is literally the most useful metal man has ever discovered. rex why is copper such a hot item? >> because it useful and recycled regularly. copper that gets stolen can be reused anywhere.

rex in fact, copper theft is a big business. 15ween 2006 and 2012, million dollars of copper was sold -- was stolen from under his own mind. warehouses almost never let cameras inside, but doug smith let us have a look around. the metal arrives at the warehouse directly from nearby mines. the copper is held until someone wanted. forklift a 6000 pound to move the copper around the warehouse. we can load copper into the >> copperl stop producers are charge eight dollars per ton per month to hold their product. ironically, the recession is good for him. copper sales slowed to a trickle, leaving him with slow sales and a fat wallet. but times are changing. >> as production and manufacturing ramp up, there will be more of a need for copper. that's good for the economy, but it's tough on us as we've seen copper go from 30,000 tons of

may to about 5000 tons now. we are watching money walkout door. >> my colleague, alix steel, joins us on the set. >> it comes down to lack of trust. comes down to trucks. sometimes it gets backed up because of that the reason i bring it up is because with the london metal exchange based overseas with 700 warehouses around the world, there are a lot of lines there. lines as long as 410 days long. the of that is because metal isn't available. i'm talking specifically about aluminum. it is wrapped up in financing. the other part is we are looking -- the cme does not take a cut of the warehouse he comes with a different

motivation. >> how much was in that warehouse? >> that warehouse is dirty million dollars. it was 30,000 tons of you go back a year ago. imagine -- i can't even imagine it so big. coming up, this year's see pack meeting got underway in washington. we will look at what was on the agenda and explore whether republicans can retake the senate in november. ♪

>> on friday morning, bloomberg television will be celebrating international women's day with a special edition of market makers. erik schatzker and stephanie ceoe interviewed a jpmorgan and iconic editor, tina brown. be sure to watch on friday, only on bloomberg. the top are public and politicians from around the united states are making their way to the premier conservative local conference today.

each looking to secure the favor of the more than 10,000 attendees at seatback. phil mattingly has been watching nowthings are in p joins us >> good afternoon, mark. the stars are out for the republican party when it comes to see pack. on the senator side, you've got marco rubio, ted cruz and rand paul, you had governors like chris christie and bobby jindal. the point right now is to try to prove their conservative credibility. marco rubio gave a very in-depth foreign-policy speech and ted cruz talked about repealing obamacare and dodd frank. at the future of the republican party -- see pack is a purity platform, something ted cruz made very clear today. >> all of us remember president dole. and president mccain. and president romney. man, decent man,

but when you don't stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don't stand for principle, democrats celebrate. >> phil, you mentioned chris christie. he has faced for the of trouble back home. is he still a viable national candidate? >> it's interesting. see pack is not chris christie territory. he wasn't even invited last year. but we were talking about the future of the republican party, chris christie try to make the point today with plenty of conservative red meat that while that is important, what's more important is winning elections. take a listen to what he had to say. >> i will mind you of one simple truth. if we't get to govern don't win, so please, let us resolve not only to stand for our principles, but let's come out of this conference resolved to win elections again. see, plenty of stars out today in the

conversation continuing on where the republican party goes next. on the conservative local action conference meeting, i'm joined by check a braille, 30 year veteran of lyrical forecasting and the cofounder a partners, anf independent research firm. thank you for your time. movement,conservative is it divided or just in disagreement? rex it's always divided. that's a good sign of health. is whether the differing voices in the party project vibrancy or whether they project stridency. it ist regard, i think really helpful, the timing of this. this comes when the president is somewhat under the gun for what is eating billed as a feckless policy in the ukraine and i don't think you will have as much of an off adding message

about the culture wars that might have given the democrats some ammunition. >> you talked about vibrancy versus stridency. it's got to be more than just criticizing the question. chris christie addressed the gathering and said we have to decide what we are for and not what we are against. will that type of message independent voters and disaffected democrats? >> it's interesting. you will have a national discussion and state-by-state discussions. the good news with republicans with regard to the center rate -- with the senate races they only need to read a net six and only 10 or more of those will be in states where mitt romney beat barack obama back in 2012. commerce nation for voters in montana or south dakota or west virginia, and

that is fairly conservative, but otherwise, i don't think they want to send a message that's going to make this election about ideology. right now, this is a message about earning the respect of conservatives that drive the party. >> in today's "washington post" jennifer rubin wrote the most important thing to keep in mind about see pack -- the attendees are not ideologically or demographically representative the 2014, the, 2016 electrode or the gop or primary electorate. is she right? who are the attendees? >> they truly are conservatives and in many states, they will be representative of the primary electorate. i would somewhat disagree with her there but the point is a good one, that ultimately, their prospects for the senate will be in a diverse number of states.

to be honest, one of the most important passings this morning was the presentation by mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, who was in one of two states where republicans have seats at risk will stop you don't want to see any real disrespect for majority leader mcconnell because republicans are trying to project a message that we need to be pragmatic and practical and project an open tent. i think they passed that fairly well today and i think mr. rubio's speech was very positive there is going to be to be the seatback strop all. last year rand paul was the winner and the year before that, mitt romney won. there'll be 20 names on the ballot, who do you think will come out on top? >> it will be interesting. it will be interesting to see how paul ryan does. interesting to see how ted cruz does.

i think it would be problematic for the party if ted cruz were to win. i do not expect chris christie to win. and jed bush is not here. -- jeb bush is not here. i don't know. it will be interesting to see. >> chuck gabriel, a 30 year veteran of political forecasting. thank you so much for your time and perspective. we appreciate it. royce,up, congressman ed the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee lanes affairsstop -- foreign committee joins us. ♪

>> i am peter cook, here on capitol hill, where in just of -- just in a matter of moments, house will be voting to

authorize a financial lifeline to ukraine. i'm joined by one of the key players here, the chairman of the house foreign affairs and many, ed royce of california. i know you are getting set to vote here. on this issue, support for ukraine, it sounds like some criticisms of president obama, are republicans and democrats on the same page? >> i just talked with the german ambassador, and as you know, europe is moving with their proposal. we just moved a unanimous vote in order to move in unison and put pressure on russia so they are not emboldened and hopefully they will move in the direction of ratcheting down this crisis. rather than stepping it up. >> it doesn't feel like things are ratcheting down. there was a referendum in crimea -- where do you sense how dangerous this is? >> my riemer he focuses on

eastern ukraine, the eastern third of the country. onby primary focus is eastern ukraine. my worry is having russian agents put up the russian flags. consultations in that part of the country, the vote was overwhelmingly for independence in all part of ukraine. been overwhelmingly in support of the impeachment of the former president this new government. the goal is to keep ukraine together, to help it, help them isolate russia diplomatically .nd economically >> let me ask you about economic sanctions. the president but the threat on freezele this morning to the assets -- should president putin be targeted? >> senior russian officials,

that would include putin and the oligarchs -- those who have been involved in pushing these policies. that is in order to give second thoughts to the russians in terms of continuing to escalate the crisis and those around putin. those rats be taken? >> the way the european council proposed this today is this is the threat that hangs over russia should russian not start to the escalate the crisis. it should be used for, that type of leverage. it is in the legislation we passed out and there are a lot of state run banks in russia that would be susceptible to asset freezes on issues having to do with any investigation by the treasury department on money laundering, which is a big issue. >> how are you about retaliation

of them doing business? >> we have to have enough pressure to get russia to cease and desist before they opened a second front in eastern ukraine. the only way to do it is to have europe and the united states move in tandem and let them know there would because to doing that. if we effectively do this, we can back them down from escalating the crisis. right now, negotiations are going on and putin is talking with chancellor merkel, who speaks russian. the germans on the french are trying to figure out a way to send to him a message, here is what is on the table, let's jointly try to decrease the tensions. >> thank you for your time. affairs committee, ed royce. before this vote to throw the ukraine a financial lifeline. >> thank you so much.

stay with us, another check of the market movers on the other side of the break. ♪

>> get the latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio, streaming on your tablet, and on bloomberg.com. that does it for this edition of "bottom line." on the markets is next. past the hour, that means bloomberg television is on the markets.

let take a look at where stocks stand right now with just about an hour left in the session. we have a mixed picture, but the s&p 500 is at a record today. coming in better than expected. we want to highlight a couple of stocks. a fourth-quarter revenue that missed analyst estimates. the company also announced 125 stores in 2016. fourth-quarter results topped analyst estimates. they are said to be considering a bid to buy safeway. now it's time for today's sector report -- money has been flooding into exchange traded fund at the fastest rate in at least six years. why are we seeing such a big

influence how? >> let me put this in perspective. taking you back to 2008 through now, this year, we have had four $.5 billion flow into health care exchange traded funds will stop that is 80% of what we had in the entire year last year. what is happening is biotech and pharma are absolutely booming right now and we are seeing money come in. every investor and analyst we spoke with said analysts are looking for the returns in a really hot sector and health care is leading the rest of the in history sector will stop >> there is still a lot of concern about drugs coming off patent detection and that's going to be a challenge for drugmakers. is it that people are looking toward biotech developing the new stuff as they are toward trying to capture that etf? have really good news in a lot of pharma

companies. 2010, pfizer had revenues that were maybe around 60 billion. they've lost 20% of the revenues , but their earnings are exactly where they are. they've done that by doing share buybacks and bringing things into the pipeline. isple used to say pharma dead, the pipeline is empty, big problem. we are seeing new drugs and hepatitis and cancer and there's a lot of stuff coming down the pipeline. people have more faith in the industry. ofis there a broader appeal different kinds of investors looking at the health care etf? >> i talked to a lot of specialists on the buy side and the sell side. , people more and more going sector to sector, looking at health care. one analyst says he's done more presentations for generalist

investors then he has in several months. allow has the eba affected of us? there was some concern would be bad for the health-care industry and then it shifted to good. is that having any effect? >> look at how the sector performed in the years leading up to passage and right after, what you saw is in 2010 from april, right after the law was signed through december 31, about $944 million flat out of exchange traded funds. as money wasng out pouring in to etf's and that has turnaround. you saw the concern about how is the law going to work and who is going to get hurt by it and it seems to have mostly dissipated. you so much for talking to us about the big influence of the health care etf's. "street smart" is next. ♪

>> welcome to the most important hour of the session -- 60 minutes left until the closing bell and a beautiful shot looking out over new york city. but it is cold out there. >> i want to put a coat on and a t