>> i am matt miller in for mark crumpton. this is "bottom line." ♪ to our viewers here in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world will welcome. full coverage of the stocks and stories making headlines. hill.cook is on capitol julie hyman looks at retailer efforts to attract shoppers heading to the holiday season. shelby holliday has the latest

to fight ebola. first, i want to get to you -- get you to the top stories of today. her greenhouse gases, the chinese resident wrote ranks with india, brazil, and that the, setting its target for the first time to reduce fossil fuel emissions by 2030. president obama pledged to double carbine -- carbon dioxide to 2020. >> this is a major milestone in the u.s. china relationship and shows what is possible when we work together on urgent, global challenge. by making the announcement today, together, we hope to encourage all major economies to be ambitious. all countries, developing and developed, to work across some of the old divides so we can include a strong climate agreement next year. createthanks agreed to 4.3 oh in dollars to settle a

key foreign exchange last year. the hardest hit is citigroup and j.p. morgan. the banks will pay over $1 billion each to regulators in the u.s. and the u.k.. >> i do not want to sit here in two years time with another press conference with another major failing of the market. industry needs to get it right and quickly. banks find, ubs, the royal bank of scotland, and bank of america. shares slide after third-quarter results fell more than estimated. ravens were hurt by shrinking attendance. seaworld has been criticized by animal rights use over its use of killer whales. stocks plunged after the company produced -- lower sales and the impact of those. and a program on the rosetta spacecraft makes a historic landing on a comment.

this is a culmination of a decade-long mission to reach a comment currently between march and jupiter. it allows scientists to write it for the first time in history as a gets closer and closer to the sun. that is a look at the top stories of the day. let's get to the new congress. let's get to the senate and capitol hill for mutation today. congress needs to wrap up the instance in a lame-duck session. peter cook is on capitol hill. tell us about republicans. why would they do this before they have full control in january? >> the assurances that they have to drag some because some items have to get done before the end of the year. the other reason is because they want to clear the slate and open the pathway next year for

dealing with some of the bigger issues. they have got to do with a spending deal on december 11. there is that fight over funding. be a vote on the authorization to use force against the islamic state in syria. tryspace lawmakers want to if they can before the session comes to a close. is that theicture lame-duck session provides is a picture of whether democrats and republicans will be able to work together next year. mitch mcconnell meeting today with one of the newly elected leaders. now, the feud with china over climate. >> i would welcome the president moving to the middle. i hope he can do business on trade and maybe test reform. the first indications of not been very helpful. helpful, the words

of mitch mcconnell. a cloud hanging over the session executive order. republicans insist if he goes ahead with it, it will poison not only the lame-duck session but perhaps the next few years to come. there could also be a vote on the keystone pipeline. why would they do that now? is an interesting development but it is democrats talking about bringing this to the floor now. republicans plan to have a vote next year in congress. agreement -- the reason maryrats have it now is landers is running for reelection and perhaps get some credit for this vote. she is the chairman of the senate energy committee for the moment. if they have a vote on the floor, maybe mary can get some credit for it down in louisiana. still a hard sell. hard to imagine it will pass with 60 votes. the president will likely threaten a veto. so far, he says he will not back the project until the full environmental review of legal issues is resolved.

committee chairman, who are the major players we should be watching? maybe theportant, most intriguing, the climate deal with china. james imhoff is the senator from oklahoma, arguably the biggest skeptic of climate change in the u.s. he has written a book called "the greatest hoax" talking about climate change. he is one to watch for the business community. the banking community, richard shelby is back in charge of that community. he has been a critic of credit policy and a big critic of dodd-frank. some policy changes there. and then the budget committee of alabama as well. he could be a big thorn to president obama moving forward. jt party favorite and someone who death really -- desperately wants to cut. >> our chief washington correspondent on the lame-duck session for congress. we are 70 days from black friday. retailers appear to be aiming

for a black thing skimming week tom or even a black november. they're already announcing big deals. julie hyman covers retail for us and she has been looking into the sales push. what are you seeing there? walmart is apparently one of the retailers doing something to extend this little window to a big one. >> yes. most of retailers websites today , you will see they're doing a jumpy to black friday. they say it is early black friday. walmart is saying it is not just about black friday anymore. it is a family shopping event. walmart stores will not close. there 24 hours. they will sign post the weekend if you will. and 80 5 p.m.. during the day. there offers waves of deals and

people can see him get -- people guarantee getting those at different times. best buy offering a chain of meals leading up to and after that time, just to stretch it at and get as much from holiday as they can by offering these deals. >> maisie's reporting earnings today. -- macy's reporting earnings today. >> sales fell. that is partly because it held the line on prices. it did not do that much discounting. quarter, it says comparable sales will rise 2-3%. there was hopefulness expressed inay about a sales pickup the fourth quarter, particularly as we see gas prices. isthe same time, it

knowledge is the stuff we are by now is not stuff sold at macy's. electronics, health care, other things consumers are spending a lot of money on. as they said, we will try to control what we can. ourrest is somewhat out of hands. a lot of retailers are acknowledging the economic environment is still tough. >> thank you very much. covering the retail beat for us. a quick break. we continue a weeklong look at risk. a look at the challenges and benefits for corporations as they seek to reduce their impact on the environment. stay with us. ♪

>> i want to quickly update you on what is going on with the world trade center. a live shot of a window watching fromld that has come loose at least part of its safety lines and is hanging almost completely vertically at this

point with two window washers trapped on board. theed back to the cap -- top of one world trade center after completing part of the building and looking to get off, when son of the lines snapped. rescuers are currently working to go down in another window watching -- window washing scaffold. the rescue scaffold just came back up and it looks like they have broken the glass of the window and are pulling those window washers back in through a broken piece of glass. it is a story a lot of people on wall street are watching very closely. all week on bottom line, we have been looking at the theme of risk, not on the world trade center, but the economy. we take a look at risk to the economy. strategic environmental and energy consulting firm based in washington. he joins us now. thank you for coming.

let me ask you about something a lot of people have not been terribly clear about. until recently. business tocial to try to curb their risk to the environment? >> you are seeing the answer to that question is yes. . rephrase it a little bit is not just about companies reducing the risk they pose to the environment. it is the other way around. it is business risks opposed to companies by both environmental factors, changes in the climate, revelatory responses to those types of factors. the risk goes both ways. there benefits beyond financial? i can understand it increases the strength of your branded customers care about it. i can understand it decreases inefficiently -- inefficiency,

that you are not as wasteful as you have been in the past. are there benefits beyond that? it depends ont, the sector. by and large, what we see with companies that go beyond compliance, traditionally, the relationship between corporations and the environment was one where by the corporations just try to make sure they composite the law, did not get in trouble, and then did not think about it again. what you're seeing now is companies finding several opportunities in various forms and value creation, going beyond compliance levels, and reducing their footprint on the environment. you identified a common, hard return, which is what i would call it. investments in and fit -- inefficiency that reduce spend on energy, water, waste, those types of things, they are softer returns. and you identified one of them. brand. it matters for some consumers. there are other types of concerns as well that we have

seen increasingly. a lot of business to business pressure is being applied. walmart is a great example. it is demanding performance and you have a competitive advantage and other complier's doing with walmart if you have taken those steps, as well as garnering some of the other returns in terms of mitigating risk, reducing heart costs, and building your brand, attracting better employees. with the regulatory framework, it behooves you as a corporate leader to keep up with those regulations. what can leaders do to get the on and get ahead of the curve, so to speak? >> one of the ways to look at this, and i think this is significantly a way the capital markets and some analysts look at this is, dealing with complex environmental problems like crime and change is a real challenge. management, the leaders, the

ceo's, that have figured this out and plotted strategies and begun to build value around their brand and their company, just tends to be the best managers, which as most people know quite well, is probably the single best indicator of corporate value management talent. ist the leaders are doing trying things. they are setting goals and goal settings is an important thing. goals are being sent by companies, with a set various ambitious goals around getting houseguests and increasing efficiency. at the time they were set, they did not know how to meet them. what that does is spur innovation and creativity. what ends up happening is, when you start looking at your company through the additional lens of what i will call you start seeing opportunities for efficiencies and opportunities for competitive advantage that are not there. in terms of your question of how the leaders do this, by reading

is the best way to do it and to point the company in that direction encounter people to do it. >> got it. thank you for joining us. we will take a quick break and when we come back, the ceo of bb&t. acquisition --is he talks about his acquisition for $2000.

a part of this, financing about $750 million of the transaction with cash. it is a very efficient utilization of capital. it is a really good deal for the shareholders, i think. >> the price tag, 13.5 per share, it seems to sum to be a little bit on the full side. median in terms of deals with the size. it is about 1.69 times tangible. is about 17 times earnings. that is medium. it is not on the cheap side. should not be. but it is not on the high side either. before youou've said only make acquisitions when it makes sense and you are not with

me being a big acquire all over the country. what is it about susquehanna tragedy on wider take you a few months to get this together? is aat we like is good-sized company and an old company. it has been around for a couple hundred years. it has market share. all the markets, when combined and so, we have deep long-term relationships with clients. the markets are really good and diverse for us. it is part of our strategy to really build diversification throughout business into our products and services and markets. what i like about this is you get large market types, some sides of the markets like lancaster, you get the smaller markets in the rural parts of pennsylvania. it is a good and diverse market and we like it a lot.

>> do you want to expand up the east coast? >> i think for now, you would expect to see a still stay in the defined footprint. i would not expect us now to be heading straight all the way up to the east coast in the new england area. but what i would think you'd see, as we arty said, just trying to continue to always fill in where we can through in market acquisitions and then slowly expand our footprint. have expanded into texas and we have more work to do there. we expanded into florida and we have more work to do there. this gives us an expansion into them slovenia, southern new jersey area. there is a lot of work to do there. by see us to fill in close where we are. that is where the economics make no sense. >> you mentioned the climate is

changing a little bit here toward making acquisitions and being friendlier toward acquisitions. regulatoryabout the and economic environment, what is changing now? >> from an economic point of that is have an economy slowly growing, more positively 200,000, its, plus has begun to be slow in europe and china. iscan just say the market steady and growing. the regulatory front is becoming clearer. by that, i mean we now have at least two thirds that are required under dodd-frank -- we have a big picture now of what capital and liquidity markets are. a good picture of what the governor's requirements are coming out of dodd-frank. we have a much better feel for what the new world looks like

post dodd-frank. i think the regulators are more comfortable with no account of what the rules are. all of that together is reasonable time to prove acquisitions. >> what would make your life so much easier? i think one of the most important improvements coming begin todd-frank is to develop some clarity around the size expectations. dodd-frank pulled an arbitrary what made0 billion as organizations systemically important. there is a lot of agreement on both sides that that number is probably too low. there is a lot of potential change. that, some clarity about -- >> welcome back. a quick look at the u.s. markets here as we head into break. mixed,seeing a very almost completely unchanged trade on the dow and the s&p. the nasdaq 3/10 of 1%.

we will be back on the other side of this break. ♪

>> welcome back to "bottom line ." i'm matt miller, and for mark crumpton. a happy end into a story we've been covering for you. the window washers dangling from one world trade center have been saved. emergency rescue workers broke the glass and pulled each of the two window washers to safety. they were hanging for an hour and a half. hoping forw york was their safety.

is ebola free after dr. craig spencer was released from bellevue hospital. the virus continues to devastate west africa. today, the senate appropriations committee is discussing a $6.2 billion proposal from president obama to fund the fight against ebola. shelby holidays here with the details. what exactly is the president hoping for? says he has two big goals. protect americans and stop the spread of ebola at the source. , theding to new numbers death toll has passed buys thousand -- 5000. they are surging in sierra leone. the president is asking congress for $6 billion. most of that will go to immediate response efforts. building clinics, boosting he alth infrastructure and funding the race for a cure. it there are a lot of companies

working on finding a cure for ebola. they could benefit from this money. they could get contracts. johnson and try merrick's -- >> how long will this take to get approved? >> this is one of the issues that both republicans and democrats are expected to agree on. today, they're just talking about it. we won't see any sort of action until mid-december. eight organizations say once funding is approved, it can take weeks if not months to make a difference on the ground. thanks very much. we could get some of that money from the six major banks that finesying $4.3 billion in for rigging the foreign-exchange benchmarks.

i'm joined by trish regan who is following that story on her show today. >> fine after fine after fine after fine. they will never quite get through 2008. in this particular case, some of the banks did get burned. if you look at the numbers, bank of america, $250 million. not so bad when you consider they had the highest fine in the world for their mortgage fee issues. rbs at $634 million. jpm over $1 billion. some of the taxes they were able to find. >> i thought that was the most compelling read as well. >> it was a compelling read. it's shocking that people put all of this right there in writing. trader of an unnamed

bank saying i prefer we join forces. let's double-team them. the other trader saying "yesssssssss." >> i'm guessing they were british traders. >> it was an international issue. >> i thought that was great stuff. they sound like real bros. let the student. >> somewhat cartelish. choreographing these moves back and forth. that is price-fixing. we will have more on this story. and oil prices. the head of global commodities research. tother $80 a barrel is going be the new normal here. could it mean better things for

the u.s. economy? should translate into better consumer spending. we will see what he thinks. the look forward to program. thank you for the invitation. i will join you if you like. the keystone xl pipeline debate. why senate democrats are considering a vote to force approval of the pipeline. you heard me correctly. they want it now. stay with us on "bottom line." ♪

>> it's time for today's latin america report. gains onequities index expectations that a former banker will be chosen as brazil's next finance minister. central banke chief from 2003-2010 under the former president. expectations of the appointments

also boosted the brazilian rail. 72,004 -- 172,000 jobs. that is your latin america report. senate democrats are considering a vote to force the approval of the $8 billion keystone xl pipeline. the managing director of research and a policy analyst at clearview energy partners in washington. welcome to "bottom line." thank you so much for joining us. let me ask first about what is going on -- what steps need to be cleared. what hurdles need to be cleared to get this thing through. it starts in north dakota. >> it's the supreme court in nebraska. a question over whether or not the law used by the nebraska thernment to approve

pipeline through the state is constitutional. the state department took some additional time and is waiting to issue a natural interest determination in favor of the pipeline while it waits for this state-level issue to resolve itself. >> what does it look like in nebraska? how is the mood? which way are they leaning? >> courts are unpredictable. it's difficult to say -- if the supreme court overturns the ruling, you'd be back to the assumption that we have been authorized route through nebraska. and a great deal of work done by the nebraska department of environment and quality. presumably, we could see the administration me forward rather quickly. that decision from the nebraska supreme court could come out very soon. maybe as early as friday. in which case, the state department could issue a natural

-- national interest determination. if the nebraska supreme court upholds the lower court ruling, we would need to do more citing approval work in nebraska. that would take another seven months or so. then we start looking at a situation where the u.s. congress would have to contemplate pushing the admin straight and forward. -- administration forward. >> before even the president would direct the state department to do anything about it, the democrats in congress are pushing for this. mary landrieu is pushing on the floor for debate tonight. and a vote tomorrow on the keystone pipeline. is understandable. it would be interesting if the democrats in a lame-duck congress push this thing through. >> the logic behind supporting senator landrieu at this juncture would be to preserve her seat.

even though the democrats have now lost the majority going into , it would begress one less seat to have to make up if they were able to push her over the line in the runoff. the question is whether or not that works. the washington post today was talking about, yet, you can make that happen. she may still not prevail. be accomplished by giving the republican something they have wanted all along? it illustrates her seniority. perhaps it can carry her over the line. the question is whether or not the 12% of the electorate that supported cassidy would change their mind. that is a stretch. >> the pre-midterm administration has been so against this. it seems as though, if we don't coming down the

pipeline, the canadians are in anto send it around even more environmentally damaging way with trucks and rail. a lot of it won't end up here in america but go elsewhere. >> we are also seeing increasing volumes over the pipeline reversed from pushing last year and the southern leg from -- oil is moving. there is talk of perhaps taking it to the canadian coast and bringing it on my boat the gulf of mexico. there is no guarantee that it will go offshore. why did the administration tickets time? -- take its time? because they could. this is the second time they that led toissue the administration said on its hands. and let the situation play out. that has been consistent with their rhetoric.

we are just letting the process play out. if the nebraska supreme court overturns the lower court decision, the administration has less -- left the door open. >> i'm wondering -- i would assume most of the concerns are environmental. you want to protect the land that the pipeline is running over. on the other hand, doesn't it seem safer and cleaner and more efficient to send it through a pipeline than to ship it by these big, wasteful votes in the sea? >> from an environmental perspective, the real issue is, if you don't build a pipeline, some people believe the oil does not come out of the ground altogether. that is their objective. they would like to see our nation and other nations move away from fossil fuels altogether. the issue was really an attack

on infrastructure in an effort to keep the oil in the ground. that is one way of protecting the environment across a number of mediums. it'sssue is whether or not in the nation's national interest. this is something to consider for the administration. our largest trading partner. a big contributor to energy security. the heavy oil that comes out of canada can be refined in u.s. refineries. for all ofs product us to use and product that can be exported. the pipeline industry, for all of the -- has a pretty good safety record. given the concerns on the east coast and throughout the nation about the increasing volume of oil that is being transported

through the rail systems instead of to the pipeline system, there continues to be this debate about if the oil is going to move anyway, are we cutting her face?ff despite our >> one final question on a point you made as far as exporting it. are we going to see any action by the congress as far as allowing more oil exports? >> that is the $64,000 question and i'm glad republicans take that one most of the time. the republicans are not completely of one mind when it comes to oil exports. one of the benefits from having a lot of oil in north america is the fact that it helps keep our prices low. we were talking about exporting natural gas. we will see it again in oil. when you start talking about something that could change the price at the pump, politicians are going to be very sensitive.

it does not look like an easy debate. >> thank you so much for joining us. i want to remind our viewers that the aaa regular unleaded gasoline price right now is $2.92. not so bad. coming up, the world's most accurate watch. you can own one for $24,000. plus tax. we have the details, next. ♪

>> if you want to own the most accurate watch in the world, a london watchmaker has several pieces on offer. there is one catch you have to have a background check before you can buy one. tom gibson has more. . >> it contains an oven, and core, laser developed by the u.s. department of defense. this is no ordinary timepiece.

this is the world's first commercially available atomic watch. it's atomic for a reason. >> it's the most accurate watch in the world. they won't be selling it to just anyone. they have taken apart the number vetted.yers have to be inside, you won't find anything nuclear. a gas chamber heated to 130 degrees and a laser to excite the atoms and a microwave resonator to measure time. said thatheard it it's a microwave oven. the oven is to keep a constant temperature. >> to wrap around a large atomic chip, jeweled dials also display

moon phases, sunrise and equation of time and five other complications. isthe technology inside quite amazing. >> atomic time is limited. only 100 are being produced. a 15,000 pound price tag for the gold version. >> i would buy one. the accuracy built into this watch goes into the other watches. he has made some of the most accurate sports watches around. the only way to calibrate those watches is the atomic one. have caught time -- >> stay with us. another check of the market movers is on the other side of this break. "bottom line" returns in two

minutes time. ♪

latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio and streaming on your tablet and on bloomberg.com. that does it for this edition of "bottom line." mark will be back tomorrow. on the markets is next. ♪ the hour. a bloomberg television is on the markets. let's get you caught up on where stocks are currently training. the s&p 500 after seeing five straight days of gains, seeing some pullback. the dow off by about close to that same amount.

all of this as better than estimated corporate earnings boosted investors outlook. did you know that more than 90% of s&p 500 companies have reported their quarterly results and 80% of them beat analyst estimates? joining me today take on how this earnings season is stacking up is doug. 80%? that is high. >> kind of a foregone conclusion at this point that the majority of the companies in the s&p 500 are going to be to their analyst estimates. we see a time and time again. 80% is very high. the highest percentage since the second quarter of 2010. the percentage of companies beating on earnings are much higher than their shorter-term averages over the past few years. you really have to ask yourself, what is causing this? a number of factors at play

right now. the biggest one of which is the amount of cash. you see this at apple. a bunch of other tech stocks. how much cash these copies are returning to investors. 95% of corporate earnings. >> dividends are going out and buying back shares. >> exactly. especially buybacks because profits have not been as good as companies would like them to be. the key point here is 95% of corporate profits are going back in the form of stock buybacks and cash returns to investors. propping upbably these earnings. >> to investors care when somebody beats their earnings anymore? they are so managed to begin with. people already raising the bets or lowering the bets so they can manage the outcome. >> absolutely. you can see this manage.

it's a foregone conclusion. although some investors watch this religiously, there are a number of indications at showing it is managed. if you look at the sales growth compared to the earnings growth, every quarter over the past five quarters, the earnings growth has almost doubled the sales growth >> it's amazing that we don't see 100%. what are the sectors that are seeing the best earnings? >> right now, industrials. i need to percent of them have beat the s&p 500. -- 92% of them have beat the s&p 500. with all the chatter going on with the affordable care act, more upside and more profit as they take advantage of having -- they start taking advantage of volatility.

especially with information technology -- all you have to do is look at apple. look at the activist investor activity. >> good stuff. thank you so much. the earnings season thankfully almost over. next.t smart" is up ♪ >> welcome to the most important hour of the session. this is "street smart." stocks looking for direction as investors may -- remain concerned about european growth. earnings out of jcpenney and cisco. and a possible dangerous phase in the combat between russia and nato -- russia and ukraine. we will get some insight to what it means from mobile investors. "street smart" starts now.