mark: from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i mark crumpton and this is "bottom line." the intersection of business and economics with a main street perspective. to our viewers in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world, welcome. we begin with breaking news and the release of the federal reserve's so-called beige book. the economic survey is based on reports from the 12 regional banks of the u.s. federal reserve system. our chief washington correspondent, peter cook, is standing by with details. >> another snapshot of the

economy, the february beige book suggesting an economy still growing, maybe not at the pace that it was, but the labor market continues to show some strength. if you warning signs for janet yellen and her colleagues. the beige book includes activity through february 23. economic activity continued to expand at a moderate space -- any moderate pace. activity slowed in richmond, boston said contacts were generally upbeat not withstanding the severe weather. consumer spending rose, travel and tourism increased across the board manufacturing posted gains at varying rates across the country. home sales increased but construction is mixed. the warning signs -- agricultural conditions worsened and oil and gas drilling declined, not surprising, given the gas prices.

contact in dallas and san francisco noted a stronger dollar was hurting agricultural exports will stop the dollar is a factor for the fed to consider. the beige book says chicago and san francisco district noted that portal on the west coast had a negative impact on exports will stop that has since been resolved but the port issue did come up in a couple of references. on the job and wage front -- payrolls remain stable. her were employment gains in a broad range of sectors. wage gains were remaining largely in growing sectors. businesses in new continue to increase hiring. contact in boston and cleveland reported little change in hiring. cleveland, atlanta, richmond and dallas reported increased hiring, specifically in manufacturing. not a huge change in the beige book for janet yellen and her

colleagues, the couple of nuggets in terms of overall growth and the labor market that could factor into their decision-making. mark: peter, thank you. he supreme court case against obamacare is underway. the justices are considering whether the federal government can offer insurance subsidies on the insurance exchanges it operates. greg store joins me with more on this story. there are four words at issue -- established by the state. how do the attorneys frame their arguments and do we have any sense of where the justices might be leaning? >> the challengers to obamacare or this provision say the phrase means only those 14 states that have set up their own exchange the online marketplace where people buy insurance, only those 14 states can people get the tax credit. the obama administration says

you have to look at the broader statute. tax credits are designed to go nationwide and that is critical to the whole way in which the statute works. mark: is the administration's case that a reasonable person would understand established by the state means established by the federal state as opposed to the individual state? >> it something like that. they say look at the whole statute -- the debate in congress beforehand, nobody, they said you talk about this law as if only those states who set up their own exchange would get the tax credit. that did have some residents of the court today. mark: are plaintiffs in this case entitled to sue? >> that is a question that did come up. justice ruth bader ginsburg asked questions about that. these are people who say we would be better off without the subsidies of a subsidies make it so that we have to comply with a

requirement that we buy insurance. there were some questions about that today but it did not seem like it was a critical map that said there is not standing to bring the suits. it suggests that the court will get to the merit of the question. mark: what is corporate america to take on this question mark >> the hospital and insurance industry have been wary about this case -- worried about this case. we saw hospital stocks jump up and the reason is hospitals are worried about uninsured people coming in. if the challengers prevail, we are talking about millions of people who will not have insurance anymore and hospitals might have to foot the bill for their coverage. insurance companies are worried they're going to lose coverage and the markets would potentially collapse because without the subsidies people would not be able to afford insurance and only the people who are really sick would pony up to pay the full cost. mark: i'm reminded of a couple

of years ago when chief justice roberts received a lot of criticism from republicans and conservatives because he passed -- he cast the pivotal vote. he said at the time that it was not up to the supreme court to reverse a decision that the people made when their elected officials were sent to washington and they voted on this. is he the swing vote this time or is this in justice kennedy's court? >> it is the two of them, based on what happened in court today. chief justice roberts said virtually nothing in court today . here's what justice kennedy said and it's very interesting -- he said i might agree with the challengers about the meaning of it being limited to those states, but for me, that sets up a constitutional problem that it might be coercing states into setting up their own exchanges. it is possible he will read the statute the administration

possibly to avoid having that major constitutional problem. >> president obama sign the affordable care act into law in 2010. one -- not one republican vote in favor. why is the partisan divide as wide as ever? i believe justice kagan addressed this with something like here we are again? >> like so many things in this town, it affects the court because there are five republican supported -- appointed members and four democrats and they often divide along those lines. not on obamacare last time, but potentially not if the chief justice and justice kennedy go with the administration. mark: when are we likely to hear a ruling on this? >> this would likely come at the end of the court's term, which would likely be the end of june. mark: thank you so much. oil is trading at $50 a barrel

but exxon still plans to increase production. the company held at analyst meeting today at the you -- at the new york stock exchange. alix steel was there and jointly in the studio. how can they grow production cut costs at the same time? >> they are becoming more efficient and getting more out of what they are doing. they are cutting by 12% -- they are cutting -- capx by 12%. the next two following years, they would grow by about 3% will stop -- about 3%. but they are not issuing guidance past 2017. the ceo says that's where we will see the impact of these lower oil prices. they are not willing to make commitments that far in the future. the promises coming this year

are already paid for. he's very clear that the first thing they are going to do with the money is pay the dividend and then invest it. that comes first. raymond james does point out exxon cannot cover its budget and dividends with its current operating cash flow. he says that cash flow is not a limiting factor and my interpretation is their balance sheet is strong enough to support them while they bridge the gap will stop they also raised about eight ilion dollars in the bond market that exxon says that is going to be for investment, not by backs. mark: any update on the shale projects? >> they say they will double it over time. they have 1.5 million acres in texas and is going to be a big growth driver for them, adding about $150,000 -- 150,000 barrels a day. mark: how important is shale to

them? >> it is the huge projects that wind up being profitable and that is not shale. on an incremental basis to keep steady production growth, shale can be important. they don't have that much compared to other companies, and that's what they see some cost reductions, down about 20% to 25%, which is helping their overall operating cash basis. mark: what are they going to do with all of that money? >> i asked and he would not tell me. he said that they had been approached by companies asking to buy some of their assets. they are not looking for just production growth. he did say he expected oil prices to be here for a long time which leads me to believe we would be in this empty environment and perhaps more projects would become interesting overtime.

no rush is what i got from him. mark: alix steel joining me in the studio. thank you so much. no rush is what iremember the flu? we will bring and shall be holiday for a look at what could be the flu shot of the future. "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. let's get you to some of the top stories we are following. dzhokhar tsarnaev went on trial today for the boston marathon bombing. the lawyer told the jury that her client and brother carry out the deadly attack. by admitting he took part in the attack, the defense is setting the stage for the second phase of the trial, where a jury must determine whether tsarnaev should be executed. president vladimir putin is warning against extremist he says are trying to destroy the russian state. one example is that is the murder of a prominent anti-putin politician. >> the most serious attention must be paid to high-profile crimes, including those with a political motive.

we must finally rid russia of the disgrace and tragedy of the kinds of things we recently saw and experienced. the addition -- audacious murder in the center of the capital. mark: president putin's opponents have accused the president in the complicity of the death. several co-miners are missing after a blast in eastern ukraine where troops are fighting pro-russian separatists. the prime minister says rebels were blocking access to a team of 60 ukraine rescue workers in the donetsk peoples republic. a new twist on the story about hillary clinton using personal e-mail for official business when she was secretary of state. the associated press says mrs. clinton computer server was traced back to an internet service registered to her family's home in chappaqua new york. that would give her extraordinary control over

limiting access to her messages. the former secretary of set -- of state has not said yet why she is private e-mail and survey state department account. that's a look at the stories we are following on this wednesday. is this flu shot -- is the flu shot outdated? scientists are scrambling to improve the 80-year-old process that doesn't always help the public. what is wrong with the current axiom? >> this year, it just didn't really work. but in the big picture, what we have is a technology that forces us to chase the flu rather than get ahead of it like we have been able to do with other illnesses. today, doctors and scientists are meeting to make recommendations about next year's flu shot. that's about eight months, so the virus has a lot of time to mutate. the viruses based on 1930's technology and is produced in

chicken eggs. you can only produce one vaccine per egg, so it relies on a study stream of eggs and is ineffective if the virus mutates. it's like predicting the weather. if you tell people to buy budget of snow coats, if it rains, you are in trouble. mark: how can scientists make a better flu shot? back there working on better production and scaling it so they camp reduce more. there working on a number of different technologies. today, the flu shot is made in eggs and based on a specific virus. you have to forecast which viruses going to be a problem, and it is delivered with a needle. the flu shot of the future will be made in test tubes and some companies are already doing this. it will be enhanced with things that will boost the immunity and be delivered with a patch. it does not have to be transported in a cold change

storage and that means it can be transported faster. mark: so we are talking no more shots? it reminds me of the nicotine patch. >> very similar to the nicotine patch. it could be self-administered. this is a few years down the road. the holy grail is a universal flu shot that would protect against ultimate strains of the flu and you would only have to get it every five or 10 years. mark: shall be holiday, thank you so much. coming up, cheap oil and exploding oil trains. we will look at the downside of food prices when we continue in just a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back.

we have breaking news. you are looking at a live shot of the u.s. senate -- senators voting on a move to override president obama possibly two of the keystone xl pipeline. the chief sponsor is john hogan. he said last week republicans were about four votes short in the senate and need about 11 more in the house. the math does not seem to favor an override but we will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest developments as soon as we get them. the amount of oil being hauled via rail has jumped by 5000% since 2009. the rise in oil production in the united states comes with a problem -- how do you transport all of that crude safely? matthew phillips has been following that story -- you can read it on bloomberg.com. thank you for your time. last month, president obama as

expected, vetoed a bill to approve construction of the keystone pipeline. part of the debate of all -- it involved the assertion that oil trains would not be so prolific. is that comparison accurate? >> i don't think so. keystone is always about bringing crude from western canada down into the u.s. bringing it down to oklahoma and to the texas gulf. it's only going to catch a small amount of crude from north dakota at most. that might sound like a lot but keystone brings about 800,000 barrels a day and north dakota produces more than a million barrels a day. to say keystone would cut down the amount of oil trains is not a factual statement. mark: in your report, you write energy companies can choose to send a train to a refinery in philadelphia or in port arthur texas, depending on which location offers higher prices.

you continued that it great for public markets and terrible for public safety. >> these oil trains are on tracks that were never really designed to carry crude oil. they were designed to carry grain, commodities and machinery and often go through cities and towns, right past people's backyards. often you don't know these trains are going past your house. you hear from local public officials saying they had no idea these trains were carrying crude. we need to tighten up the infrastructure that exists on how we move this oil across the country if it is going to stay on the rails. mark: energy company and railroads are pointing the finger at who is to blame for explosions. what a new tank car prevent explosions from happening? >> one thing we learned from the west virginia crash a couple of weeks ago where the tank cars were some of the more modern, safer tank cars with thicker shells and stronger valves come

in better braking systems, and they exploded. the idea we are going to fix it by mandating a stronger, thicker tank car doesn't seem to be an adequate fix. we need to talk about speed limits and you see a lot of blame happening right now. the railroad companies say if they can keep the trains on the -- the oil company say they could only keep the trains on the tracks, this wouldn't happen and the railroad safety can cut down on the volatility of what is coming out of north dakota, that would keep the stuff from exploding so crazily. mark: matthew phillips, you can see his story online. his story is about oil, transport and the keystone pipeline. coming up, the fed boss 2000 nine transcripts. we will look at what it reveals about a tumultuous year for the u.s. economy and the global financial system.

stay with us. "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

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mark: welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line." i'm mark crumpton. thank you for staying with us. let's get to some of the top stories we are following. the "washington post" is reporting a house committee on benghazi plans to send subpoenas to the tape -- to the state department for e-mails from all of hillary clinton's personal e-mail accounts. ms. clinton used personal e-mails from when she was secretary of state. price of oil up about 1.8% at

$51.46. the world's biggest energy company is feeling the pinch from a collapse in oil prices. exxon mobil plans to count capital's -- to cut capital spending to $34 billion. that number will be lower in 2016 and 2017. shares of exxon are down more than 5% this year. it dolls says it plans to use chicken rays without antibiotics and milk from cows not treated with the artificial growth hormone. the company says the change will take place within the next two years. the milk change will take place later this year. citigroup has agreed to issue most of its data cards on the mastercard network. the arrangement will last 10 years. it will start by shifting more of their consumer business to mastercard and continue to issue cobra and in cards on other networks. they announced a deal with lisa

and cosco. federal reserve chair janet yellen is answering critics in congress who say the fed is too cozy with the banks it regulates. in a speech in new york she said the fed works hard to avoid what she called regulatory capture. >> we enforce strict ethics rules and promote strong values among our employees. among them, a commitment to public service. it is important anyone serving the fed starts speaking up when they have concerns about pius and that those concerns be addressed. mark: massachusetts senator elizabeth war and has been one of the biggest critics. she says the fed is too deferential to large banks. that is a look at the top stories we are following on this wednesday. more on the fed -- newly released transcripts from its 2009 meetings revealed how much that official struggled to contain the worst financial crisis in seven decades.

my guest is a bloomberg intelligence economist and joins me here in the studio. six years ago this month kevin morris was a set of the board -- a member of the fed board of governors and said the only thing worse than buying treasuries is to i them in such a tepid way that we don't have any effect. was this one of the openings the fed needed to begin quantitative easing? >> it was certainly one of the steps. they were coming out of an economy that attracted about 8% or 9% in the preceding quarter. they were just getting wind of that. the isn series was running in the low 30 range. unemployment was moving sharply higher, so they were to some degree panicked about how to stop the hemorrhaging in the economy. they had already decided to initiate quantitative easing but

it was basically their knowledge meant to either go big or go home. they couldn't go home, so they had to dramatically expand qe. mark: they had to stem the bleeding any way they could, but how concerned were policymakers about setting a precedent? >> the minutes of the meeting show they were concerned with the president of too big to fail and the unconventional policy they were well aware something had to be done in the economy. even hawks like dallas fed president fisher were concerned and some other hawks highlighted those concerned. janet yellen, who is at the san francisco fed at the time gave a very pessimistic forecast that was more pessimistic than the baseline scenario presented by the staff. mark: you mentioned too big to fail -- was this on chairman

bernanke's radar or did he get lost in the smoke and hayes? >> he was very sensitive to the too big to fail issue. however, he realized we had to first stop the bleeding in the economy and be a little more thoughtful dealing with the too big to fail issue. seeing what happened with lehman brothers and the ripple effects they were realizing some institutions are too big to fail. mark: one of them was rank. he said we cannot read tank of america fail. >> there was a discussion going on about what action had to be taken. we had president lacher very tuned into the goings-on in his district as well. bernanke realized you had to stop the credit contraction happening at these banks. mark: the transcripts -- how did they characterize that internal debate? was it chairman bernanke trying to build consensus?

was he listening to opinions from all sides? x bernanke had the consensus -- was a consensus builder and that's evident in the way he goes with the opinions from the extreme doves to the extreme hawks. i think everyone was scared straight, so maybe there was less need for consensus building. mark: you talked about the current fed chair. she was president of the san francisco fed. what do the transcripts tell us about her decision-making process? >> she was very dovish. she was looking for the unemployment rate to increase to 9.6%. it actually topped out at 10% so she was spot on. she was concerned -- a lot of people look at janet yellen and say she is a dove and had a very negative economic outlook that year, but she was not totally comfortable with the balance sheet expansion.

she endorsed about was concerned about what the exit policy would ultimately look like. >> what did we learn from the transcripts that is relevant to near-term policy outlook? >> one of the striking things i noticed in the transcript at the time i was working on a wall street trading for an bernanke gave a calm, cool, collected public persona that there was an easy transition from cutting rates to zero and the logical extension was expanding the balance sheet. behind the scenes come easy policymakers scratching their heads, wondering if it will work. there was a lot of uncertainty not conveyed in the public opinion of the chairman. mark: i would imagine you're reading is not done. >> that's right. about 80 to 90 pages.

mark: we will see you in 2016 when you are finished. up next, the latin america report and the date on the argentine bond dispute. ♪

mark: it is time now for today's latin america report. citibank is seeking a u.s. judge's permission to process payments on a group of argentine bonds for march 31. the bank says it's not subject to a 2012 court ruling that blocks the country from paying its forming that. argentina defaulted on $95 billion worth of debt in 2001. owners of about 92% of the debt agreed to take new bonds at a discount of about 70% in restructuring in 2005 and 2010. some individual investors and hedge funds sued for full

payment in the u.s.. that is your latin america report for this wednesday. the u.s. senate does have the votes to -- does not come excuse me, have the votes to override president obama possibly a keystone. we will have enough eight on that story. -- an update on that story. ♪

mark: welcome back. let's get you some of the top stories we are following this hour. supreme court justices pelting opponents of president obama's health care law. activists on both sides were in place outside the courthouse by 5:30 washington time. some held placards showing how many people would lose insurance of the court ruled the law does not allow subsidies everywhere. only 16 states built their own insurance exchanges. the rest used the federal health care system. opponents say those in the

states without their own exchanges are not eligible for subsidies because of a quirk in the law. the washington post is reporting the house select committee on benghazi plans to send subpoenas later today to the state department for e-mails for all of hillary clinton's personal e-mail accounts. mrs. clinton used personal e-mail for official business when she was secretary of state. let's look at the top story -- that's a look at the top stories we are following this hour. mitch mcconnell holding a vote trying to override president obama's veto of the bill that approved the keystone pipeline. peter cook joins me with the latest. we are receiving word the vote to override did fail in the senate. >> the final tally was 62-37. they needed two thirds majority to override the veto. there were a handful of democrats that voted in favor of overriding the president's veto but not enough to get to that magic number.

this is the most significant veto from this president since he took office and probably not the last with republicans in control. it's also not the final chapter for the keystone xl pipeline. he said he vetoed it because it bypassed the process for reviewing projects of this kind. we are still waiting for a final recommendation as to whether this project should be approved. the president said that decision would come within weeks or months and would certainly come before the end of his administration. transcanada is among those hoping it comes sooner than that. >> let's talk about canada. what does it to two u.s.-canada relations? >> the canadians have been very aggressive coming to washington, making the case for the benefits not only to canada but the united states as well. this is a big issue in canada and they are waiting to see how

the president response. is it going to be a breach in the relationship, for the moment, it doesn't look like it but this is a sensitive topic in canada. arguably more sensitive than it is the united states. >> we are receiving word the president has signed the bill for full funding of the department of homeland security. >> he signed it on a wednesday. the funding would have ended on friday. this is a victory for the president. weeks ago and months ago, we cap asking republicans are you going to accept a clean bill in the end. they did have to. the politics were playing against republicans and house speaker john boehner, so he threw in the towel yesterday. funding for the homeland security department will continue through the end of september, but this is just a taste of things to come when it

comes to the debt ceiling the budget and a whole host of other issues. tough votes still to come for republicans to try to deal with. >> we are talking about keystone and funding for dhs. where does it leave the republican caucus? >> that's a good question because there's a whole host of tension right now. john boehner has had to deal with the 25 or so rebels within his conference who did not support him as speaker. there were 52 republicans who opposed his three-week extension. this time around, we had about 167 republicans oppose even this measure. the speaker is going to have to consider how often he goes to nancy and democrats to get things past. mark: do nancy pelosi and the democrats want to work with the speaker? >> it depends what is on the table.

every single democrat supported this funding measure giving funding to the end of september, but they will pick and choose their opportunities to cooperate with the speaker. it depends how often he comes calling but it's hard to see how we will reach a resolution on the debt ceiling without speaker boehner appealing to democrats to support him or doing something that wins the support of conservatives and leads to a showdown with president obama. mark: peter cook, thank you so much. that vote was 62-37, two thirds majority was needed. it's time now for the commodities report. su keenan is here with the details. >> another day, another big volume swing -- a big lose for oil, coffee and/or shoes. oil is back above 50 for the second day. we got the latest numbers on oil

surprised -- oil supplies and it's another decade high. we are starting to see it bill because refineries are slowing down and that is what played out in today's trade. according to one industry veteran we are just weeks away from the height of inventory season. data going back to 1920's shows supplies and not been this high since 1931. so where do you put it? a lot of people out there starting to call, saying we've seen the worst of the price drop but this report says did in these people get it wrong last time? >> myself included saw this market raking $70, no one saw this. i find it really interesting no one who saw the crash -- now everyone is telling us the bottom is in. >> he thinks you've got a building supply short-term and that will outstrip demand.

but let's get to the orange juice story. what is that about? >> we've seen an end of the rebound but it's the second day lower. we see orange juice prices at the lowest since january of 2013. normally you would say it is the frigid cold driving prices but we see a demand story. you see a rebound at the end of the day but yesterday, it was down some 7%. coffee is also coming back from what was a big plunge. part of it is brazil's currency and that's a bit weak, but a lot of the soft drinks out there are reducing demand and a lot of bad news associated with high sugar content hurting orange juice. we are still one of the biggest countries that consume or she is but the trend is down. mark: su keenan with the commodities report. stay tuned. scarlet fu has other addition of "off chart was quote on the

other side of the break. ♪

mark: the largest source of new cash in united states and equities is not coming from exchange traded funds or speculation companies repurchasing their own stocks. scarlet fu joins me from the breaking news desk with a deeper dive on one of the biggest drivers of this bull market. scarlet: a huge driver when you

consider how much participation from segments like individual investors hasn't kept pace with share prices. credit goes to dr. edward denny. what you'll see is not just buybacks, but dividends in yellow. buybacks certainly slowed down in the wake of the financial crisis but recovered with a vengeance. for dividends, you will see less noticeable drop off the payments have slowed considerably in the last three years. since many investors reinvest in the stock market, he says it's no surprise to see the s&p 500 highly correlated with the some of these two cash flows. all of this speaks to a couple of rob themes in the market. the first is the push by activist investors to get the 1.75 trillion dollars of cash off the balance sheets and back -- back to shareholders pockets. then record low insurance rates

not to mention the fact you've got a need to pad out earnings goods. there's a fairly tepid pace in its middle stages. >> carl icahn is not the only one who benefits from companies repurchasing their own shares. those companies tend to outperform. scarlet: since the bottom of the market in march of 2009, the s&p 500 by back index which measures the 100 companies with the highest repurchase ratio has eaten the broader market. it has beaten 215% the buybacks returns 308%. there is a lot of criticism that companies are not using the cash to grow their business or by equipment or even look at potential m&a targets. that ceos are undisputedly the against beneficiary because so

many have their compensation tied to earnings per share which is used by buybacks. mark: the numbers on buybacks are pretty staggering, given we just closed out a recent month which was a record for buyback authorizations. what are the contrary and saying? scarlet: they would say perhaps signals weakness and a turn in the market. the numbers are incredible. ceos announced 100 $3.4 million in planned purchases. the amount of money outnumbered by 621 the amount of net deposits by net deposits and etf's. the argument here is companies don't historically get it right and it comes to buying back stock. they don't have a great track record because they tend to buy when prices are high. remember that buybacks holster earnings-per-share. so they have to avoid the first back to back profit contractions since 2009.

we have seen how that is playing out in the latest earnings reports. so many companies miss on either the top line or bottom line or outlook but then announce a share buyback program which softens the blow. >> --mark: 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." i'm mark crumpton. "street smart" is next. ♪

trish: hello and welcome everybody to the most important hour of the session. i'm trish regan and this is "street smart." we've got stocks falling for the second day and we're going to look at wh