>> from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i'm mark crumpton, this is "bottom line." a main street perspective. mel: -- mark: welcome, we have stories in the stocks. scarlet fu is following lundberg liquidaters. the company is reporting lower sales as its company takes a hit. and a confirmation of bird flu

in arkansas. and peter cook is on capitol hill monitoring a senate plan to fight cybersecurity breeches. first in ferguson, mizuho two police officers are recovering from gunshot wounds. it took place during protests following the resignation of the city police chief. no one is in custody yet. it appears the officers were targeted. >> this evening the only shots we were aware of were the shots taken from across the street. the police officers were standing there and were shot just because they were police officers. in a tweet president obama said violence is unacceptable against police. -foot justice is one all of us must travel together.

last summer riots broke out in a town after police fatally shot an unarmed teenager. the police chief is the latest to leave after an investigation showed problems in the system. and customers bank will pay the bank was ordered to fire four executives as part of the deferred prosecution agreement. we heard from iran's supreme leader after the letter written by u.s. senators. the ayatollah said division makes iranians question whether america can follow through with any deal. >> these gentlemen, the

senators have openly announced that when the current administration is no longer in office the deal america is agreeing with you and commitments made will be ultimate and devoid. >> those talks are set to resume on sunday. he would have final say in any decision on the iranian side. homeland security investigating two agents accused of crashing a car into a white house barrier. the incidents occurred after a night of drinking and president obama appointed a new head of security after security breeches. retailer lumber liquidaters reports soaring stock prices.

>> the company is really feeling the fallout from that "60 minutes" story that accused it of selling flooring. it did offer through third parties, testing in order to show its products are safe. so it has reassured investors for now. if you look at the stock today it opened at almost 6% and was halted during a conference call. when it resumed trading it got a leg. we want to show you how it traded over the past 2 1/2 weeks this is going all the way back to february 24th, the day before the company warned it was going to be a going to be the subject of a story on "60

minutes" and the day after it aired it opened down about 28% as well. so we started at about $70 a share in late february and right now we are at about $37. we hit a low of $28. that is a huge dropoff. here's another way of showing you how vol tile the swings have been in the company. this is the distribution of moves in lumber liquidaters stock. since then it's fallen twice and rallied on the other end by more than 11% two times as well. the most common moves for lumber lick we dators is -- let's compare that with a period that goes back to january the 25th. the average move for this stock was about 1.4%. down 1%. so it's really been a vol tile period for lumber lick we dator

-- liquidaters and its stock holders. mark:we are joined by one invest gating liquid -- lumber liquidaters. i sent the letter to them asking a series of questions about their testing methodology and results and we hope to hear from them. mark: sir, you have not heard from them as of yet? >> no. i don't mean to be critical of them for not responding yet. we gave them about 10 days with which to provide us with a response.

mark: mr. jepsen, did you watch the "60 minutes" piece? >> not the whole thing. i've watched parts of it. mark: sir, what did you learn about the method of testing? because the folks at lumber liquidaters said that method was flawed. >> i commend them for third party testing but the problem is how much of the core is infused with that. we're getting answers to see two things, one, are there health issues? and if they represented that the laminate net california standards, which they have done and it does not feet in effect of california standard, that's -- that can be an unfair

trade practice. mark: sir, have you contacted california testing standards? >> no. mark:what power do you have? >> if they don't meet the standards of testing we have clear authority. mark: sir, what have consumers been telling your office and have other lumber suppliers been expressing concern? >> i'm not aware of any others contacting our office. we have had many complaints and -- mark: what are you telling

them? >> that they should take up lumber liquidaters up on their free testing. mark: have you spoken to other attorneys general about this issue? >> i have not. i know my contemporary in new york has initiated a similar inquiry. this one's pretty brand-new. these things have just come up in the last few weeks. and the state attorneys general do a pretty good job of working on a bipartisanship basis to get through these investigations and wouldn't surprise me if my office teams up with other state torns general as they have on other issues. mark: you said you are not accusing lumber liquidaters of any wrong doing. you just want to question them.

but in the court of public opinion it is making it seem they have done something wrong? >> my job is to protect the people of the state of connecticut. there are six and they make accurate ninth only 6% of their product is laminate and of that only a small percentage comes from china. we don't do politics here in connecticut. we just want to find out exactly what is happening and hear lumber liquidater's side of the story. mark: if you will bear with me for a second. lumber liquidaters do say they

are confident but if -- how do they get back their reputation and good name? >> good question. i have gone out of my way in previous investigations when someone is cleared of wrong doing to make public. we will not hesitate tight state that that is the case if it is. mark: mr. attorney general, thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thank you. mark: up next, the u.s. senate intelligence committee is working on a bill to battle cyberattacks. those when we continue in a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. let's get you some of the top stories we're following on this thursday. headlines coming out of the disney shareholders meeting. the company says there will be three "star wars" films between now and 2017. "rogue one" and the trailer for episode 7 the force awakens has been viewed over 150 million times, that film is set for release in december. shoppers are keeping their money in their wallets. retail sales unexpectedly fell in february for third month in a row. bad weather and cheaper wages

appear to be the problem. shake shack out with its first earnings, the burger chain failed to live up to expectations. third quarter did beatest mats but they predict same-store sales will grow only in the single digits. that's a look at the top stories we're following at this hour. the u.s. congress is finally moving on cybersecurity legislation. today the senate intelligence committee will vote on a plan that would shield companies from lawsuits when they share cyberinformation with each other and the government. not everyone is in favor of the bill. peter cook is on capitol hill with more. peter, is this a first test or closely-watched piece of legislation? peter: it is a major test. the issue of cybersecurity and

what the government can do to bolster has been a big topic but there's not been any progress the sony hacker situation thought they would allow for the greater sharing of information between the private sector and the government on a voluntary basis. it would also protect companies in the event they did share information with the government that customers and clients couldn't go after them for sharing that information with the government. this legislation also in a bid to try to address privacy concerns would limit how much personal information could be included in what was shared with the government and how law enforcement could use this information. but there's still concerns on the part of privacy advocates as far as how far this privacy

goes. republican from north carolina and dianne feinstein will be voting on it. we will be talking with them about what's in this legislation and how effective he thinks it might be. mark: what's the biggest problem with the bill? peter: that once again it goes too far and when you have the private sector shared with the government there will be information privacy advocates are worried about after edward snowden that they are worried this bill doesn't protect privacy enough. we hope the bill will be -- whether or not their criticisms are valid or some of their concerns have been addressed. mark: peter cook joining us from capitol hill. thank you. coming up, no room for more

oil, he said. we will check out how oil production could become a problem. "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. the united states is producing too much oil, and we're running out of storage room for it. bloomberg's business week matthew phipps joins me from washington. crude is increasing by almost 1 million barrels a day. why is that? >> as prices have fallen from over $100 to below $50 a barrel, big trading companies rather than trading it are sitting on it. they are putting it on big tank

farms hoping prices will rise in the next couple months and be able to sell it for $60 or $70 down the road. the problem is production hasn't slowed down so of those 9 million barrels a day about 1 million get stuck in tanks. we're running out of space and that's got many worried we're headed for a crash in the oil prices again. mark: to be clear are we really going to run out of room in storage zangse this is more of a theoretical issue. we are higher in terms of tightness on storage capacity than we have been perhaps ever. so what that is going to do is kind of lead to even more dislocations in the oil market.

and we have a lot of analysts thinking we could be in for another crash in the price for oil. smoip continuing along with this theoretical exercise what happens if we do run out of room? >> well, one, we back out more imports. importing 6.9 million barrels a day of fortune crude. that will probably be decreased more than it has been and we will finally start to slow down the pace of crude production and three, prices will probably collapse. if you can't stick it in the storage tank you then have to sell it to a refinery at a price that you don't want to and those refiners will be happy to take that oil at those prices. mark: matthew what's going on in cushing oklahoma? that's the biggest storage in the united states. >> the amount has almost tripled since october.

we're above 50 million barrels again. we have room working capacity for about 70 million barrels. so we were at 18 million in october. we are now at above 50 million. the prices at that the tank owners are chorging for that storage space are going up considerably. i had one guy tell me several months ago on the spot market you were paying dimes on the barrel now it's over $1. as that tightens up you have less incentive for tradeers to push their crude into cushing. the not building anymore storage capacity at the moment so at some point we are going start maxing out on that and some think that could happen by the end of may. mark: despite prices being cut in half why have oil companies continued producing oil that the record-setting pace? and at what point do they start

to slow down? >> many companies hedged in the fall and took out futures contracts that guaranteed them higher prices when we were crashing and depending on how savvy you were you locked in a price of $70 or $80, probably where we are right now or above. so a lot of companies are still being able to sell their oil at a price above where we are today. that keeps them profitable. as long as they are buying and sticking it in storage space, they will continue to produce it until the edges roll over which will probably happen later this summer. once that happens they will start selling for lower prices and finally back up that glut to the well and convince these guys to cool off a little bit. mark: matthew phipps joining me from washington. always a pleasure. coming up the secretary of the department of interior sally jewel will discuss her plan to increase the number of

volunteers at america's national parks and public lands. stay with us. bloomberg "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line" on bloomberg television. i'm mark crumpton in new york. thank you for staying with us. let's start with the price of crude oil and the close of floor trading here in new york. on your screen you see it's down about 2%. trading at $47.16. lumber liquidaters is struggling in the wake of that devastating "60 minutes" report. it couldn't provide a sales or earnings forecast for the entire year.

"60 minutes" report the laminate flooring made in china contains high levels of cancer-causing form and hide. intel says the demand for business desk top computers is weaker than expected and there's lower than expected inventory across the pc supply chain and microsoft and hewlett-packard are also down. those are the stories we're following. the u.s. department of interior announced a new plan to increase volunteering at national parks. it plans to use a $5 million grant from american express to build volunteer coalitions that will help preserve and sustain those. sally joins us. madam secretary thank you for

joining us on "bottom line." >> thank you. >> how did the partnership with american express come about? >> they got -- american express has stepped up to help our effort. mark: you talked about american eagle outfitters are enlightened. are others not so enlightened? >> well, to give back to the community to have a strong community and in this case american eagle stepped up and inspired american express to do the same. both are businesses that recognize giving back to the community is good for business. mark: how would you describe the state of our lands right now? >> we are america's story teller and charged with taking care of the most special places for our future and struggling

without having sufficient resources to do job we are entering our centennial year and we will be welcoming new visitors and want to make sure everything will be working for them. so this will help engage volunteers in taking care of our parks and improving the park experience and giving our future the connection. mark: you said deferred maintenance. are the lands in a state of disrepair? >> well, the lands and buildings we have have insufficient resources to take care of them. we had here in new york hurricane sandy, that was devastating to the statue of liberty and ellis island. we got money to do the repairs from the hurricane sandy funding. but a lot of our facilities are lacking.

they are tired and old. we have not been investing because the budget hasn't included for that. we have the statue of liberty at ellis island foundation but we have needs all over the country. so yes, this is an opportunity for us to partner with the private sector to do a better job. mark: madam secretary, how do you explain to those who say volunteering is something to be done in spare time and what we need is paying jobs. >> to get kids playing paying and serving on public land. we have young people, especially young people from urban areas that need a job opportunity, let's find jobs for them and part of the money

from american eagle and american express will go to supporting jobs for young people that will be leveraged through the work of volunteers. so you're right we need jobs but we also need volunteers. mark: madam secretary. to switch topics. there are environmental concerns and concerns expressed by landowners and by the tribal county criticals of native americans and the concern of loss of jobs that could be create thed by the keystone pipeline. you were trained as part of the oil pipelines. is there no middle ground on this issue? is this an all of nothing proposition, keystone? >> well, i will say the decision making on keystone rests with the state department and my job in the department of the interior is making sure we

stride input the state department needs to make a sound decision. the president believes there's a thoughtful process in place and that process needs to continue and that's what he has said. we played a role and we have said to the state department it's important that they consult with tribes and we have also said that any information they need from us as they mike make their decision we will be happy to provide but the decision does not rest with us. mark: you were president and c.e.o. of -- and "fortune" magazine ranked it one of the best 100 companies to work for. that being said, why has there been so much tension between corporate community and the obama administration on things like taxes and jobs and sneak and is that something that can be bridged and as someone with expertise has the administration listened to any of your insnut >> there's no question the

administration listens to business input. my first opportunity to meet president obama was as c.e.o. of rei to make sure all our employees had health insurance coverage of some sort no matter how many hours they worked and in a business that employed more than half the employees as part-timers, that was important to us. he wanted to know why so the white house reaches out to a lot of businesses and what people talk about versus what i hear from businesses is very, very different. i think the door has been open to the white house and businesses have been walking through since day one. mark: i have to ask madam secretary, how did the previous life if you will in the corporate sector prepare you to be department of the interior? >> as someone who started in natural resources and moved into banking and was involved

with companies involved and with public lands, it set me up very well for this job. mark: sally jewel the secretary of the interior thank you for your time. still ahead today's latin america report and a sticky situations for politicians in brazil. that is next.

mark: be sure to check out the latest edition of "bloomberg businessweek" and the cover story on howard stern and sirius satellite radio. it hits newsstands. you can read it on the go with our new business week app. it is time now for today's "latin america" report. brazil is experiencing an historic drought and that could spell problems for politicians if they start to put regulations.

they take an avepl of 12 showers a week. the co-author of the pook "the bath" says not being able to shower in a country as hot as brazil would be enough to cause a revolt. that's your latin america report. coming up the bird flu spreads to the heart of the poultry industry. more on that when we return.

mark: welcome back. let's get you some of the top stories we're following at this hour. first-time claims for jobless benefits in the u.s. fell more than expected last week. they are now under 300,000, a level that's consistent with an improving labor market. higher claims in the past two weeks were probably caused by customers temporarily dismissing workers due winter weather. economic data comes in worst than expected and bad weather gets the blame.

that's what's happening with retail sales which unexpectedly fell in february for the third straight month. bad weather and lower wages are being blame. full-year profit was higher than expected at b.m.w. b.m.w. said earnings rose 1% in 2014 on record sales. among the big sellers, the two series compact van and s 5. b.m.w. wants to deep momentum going by introducing 15 new or revamped models, their brands also include rolls-royce and the mini. the u.s. government has confirmed a case of bird flu in arkansas. alan bjerga joins me more with -- joins me with more. what's the significance of this and how are the markets reacting?

alan: it's very significant, mark. southern states are dominant. georgia, alabama, the carolinas and you see bird flu moving this way. we had our first reports of highly pathogenic finds which had little bit of retaliation from china shortly thereafter. since then we've seen avian influenza in the turkey groums and now arkansas, it's the number three producer in chickens. not as dominant turkeys. minnesota is higher than that. but as the disease moves into these flocks and gets closer to the big producing states, that's something that could have an impact on corporate earnings. mark: the u.s. is trying to contain the damage. >> you've already seen china react and mexico has been banning poultry state-by-state

from the u.s. as the high strain of influenza rises. also the u.s. department of agriculture yesterday when they put out their press release about arkansas said remember, guys, we follow the world of animal health standards and we need sound science to have trade bans but tell that to consumers in countries afraid of u.s. imports. they have motivation to cut off imports and whenever people hear about bird flu, they get concerned. mark: so how is this going to affect food prices? should consumers be concerned? alan: right now arkansas' poultry flock which will be liquidated is only about 40,000 birds. we're talking about a moorkt where there are literally 10s of millions of broilers being produced every year so you

might not see a real impact unless the bird flu spreads largey. mark: they are in harvest season. how is that affecting commodity prices? alan: that's another big thing to talk about. u.s. farm rers looking at the planting season for themselves and in south america we're seeing harvest which is pushing down commodity prices. there was concern about rainfall in argentina and brazil this year. a little more rainfall seems to be helping their harvest driving down prices of soybeans. but you saw the u.s. department of agriculture cut their forecast for south african production because of a drought going on over there. they are a big supplier to the middle east. it pushed corn prices up a bit. mark: bloomberg's alan bjerga.

joining us from washington, alan, thank you so much. the streets smarts alex steel has been following the investment appeal. is that eroding? >> yes. across the board this is all about the fed. gold and the dollar tend to movin' versely. if you have a rising environment that many tends to produce gold. i do want to point out part of this could also include investors. on the flip side demand for gold coins is actually holding up relatively well. the u.s. mint sold more gold coins in march than in february. so it's really in the financial markets where gold is getting fairly destroyed. mark: what's this doing to investors? alex: well it's hurting.

at the end of the day it's still all about that rate hike. and the question being of course for producers is where is cost of production? between $900 and $1,200. in oil as well as the commodity comes down they have to keep the rates flowing based on their cash flow. mark: i spoke to matthew phipps joining us from washington. he talked about the storage of oil in cushing, oklahoma. the tanks were about 3/4 empty and are filling up again. how much of a problem is it? alex: i love this story. they are getting questions from their clients. when is the last barrel going to get rolled into cushing and be turned away? we see the $1 per month versus

10 cents, the storage will then move down to the u.s. gulf coast and lit move into the gulf on storage vessels. mark: so storage will be turned away from cushing? >> it's just that it's less economical so it's less expensive to store it on the gulf coast and water both of which has historically been pricier than cushing. mark: ok one of your guests on "street smarts." >> we will talk about greece and russia and where he is seeing investment opportunity as we see the world reevaluate itself with this central bank policy. mark: always great to have him on. hans humes joining our alex. stay with us. scarlet fu will have a check of the market movers.

"bottom line" on bloomberg television continues in a moment.

mark: day after day, week after week the headlines often talk of trade friction between china and the united states. however our reporter stephen angle has been able to meet one of america's carved out highly-personal business execs with a link to china. >> american andy royer was in

his 20's in the 1990's when he started sourcing bamboo from southern china. he selected only the straightest tofkin cain for rods made and sold around the world. >> very few pieces have exactly what a rod maker needs. for me to go pick it out one piece at a time it devalues the product. 18 years thousands and thousands of sales, i've handled every piece of bamboo i've ever sold. >> now at 40 years old he still makes the rex to china and does the selecting himself. >> the other suppliers have kind of fallen off the map. i'm the only one i know of that comes and does this. >> the critically aclaimed documentary trout grass follows him accompanied by the son of the legendary musician.

andy, too, is a little bit legendary not only with fly rod makers but in the village. >> walking through the town you will they're talks. you also hear, hi andy, because this is such a small place. >> what do they mean to you? >> to me it's amazing because they are like family. >> it makes it harder to tell them he is denying. >> i have stage four colon cancer and there's no chance to get out of it. >> andy who lost his own mother to leukemia before he was even 2 faces the prospect with a baby daughter on the way. >> i was told i was sterile and now we are 6 months pregnant. one of the gifts of cancer is having that thrown in your face and -- >> you called it a gift? >> i called it a gift. i'm not afraid of dying. death is the biggest fear most

of us have. because it's the big unknown. if you can shed that fear there's a lot of freedom in that. i don't want to go, even take my family out of it i'm enjoying the life. >> never find the painful nerve damage in his hands he is going to keep coming back. >> i think it's a health benefit to come, because being with the chinese people feeds me in a lot of ways. >> bamboo after all bends but it's hard to break. mark: wow. fantastic. i would like to see it again that's it for this edition of "bottom line" i'm mark crumpton reporting from new york. "street smart" with alex smith is next. and more on chartered communications. ♪ >> it is:58 past the hour.

that means it's time for "on the markets" with scarlet fu. purchasing bright house networks owned bysi new house who also owns condi communications. it has subscribers in florida. cable vision, time warner and comcast all moving higher in the late trade now. "street smart" is up next on bloomberg television. ♪

>> welcome to the most important hour of the session. 60 minutes left until the closing bell. i am alix steel and this is "street smart. the dow up triple digits climbed back from the losses in the last two days. banks are rallying plus the details boosting regulation. plus, counting down to earnings. plus, greece's government goes on the road to convince editors that reforms are on the way. "street smart" starts right now. ♪