mark: from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i mark crumpton and this is "auto mind." the intersection of economics and business with a main street perspective. to our viewers here 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 on this monday. shelby holiday tells us how something called one and done may affect the popularity of march madness. matt miller has details on general motors and ford's

different approaches to return cash to shareholders. and phil mattingly explains why presidential candidates are loving super pac's stop first, let's get you right to the top stories we are following this hour. for the first time in 11 days, vladimir has been seen in public. the russian president met with his partner from jirga stan will stop he has not been seen in public since march 5, and that led to speculation about his health and even his grip on power. >> the president of russia is not only walking, he drives his guest's around. even drives free fast, so as they say in russian, don't get ahead of yourself will stop >> it would be boring without gossip. just boring. mark: the united states has resumed talks with iran over that country's nuclear program. secretary of state john kerry flow to meet with the prime

minister. important gaps remain with the side -- with the two sides, he said. he warned a clock is ticking toward the deadline at the end of march and the u.s. may have to ultimately walk away. oil resumed its slide today hitting a fresh six-year low after falling 10% last week. there is speculation the oil glut may force the u.s. to run out of storage capacity and that would put more crude on the market. valiant has won the battle for sale x pharmaceuticals. they accepted the $11.1 billion all-cash offer, so and no international has withdrawn its rival bid. there has been an increase in deal making among pharmaceutical companies because they are all trying to find new drugs. u.s. health and human services secretary, sylvia burwell, says 16.4 million people gained insurance coverage due to the affordable health care laws. the latest estimates, as the white house prepares to

commemorate the fifth anniversary of the law's signing on march 23. that's a look at the top stories we are following at this hour. israeli voters head to the polls on tuesday. the opposition zionist union party is poised to upset prime minister benjamin netanyahu. my middle east editor joins me on the phone now from tel aviv. the prime minister's hardy is running second and the polls going into tomorrow's vote will stop what is he doing to turn things around? >> he's doing everything he can. he spoke at a rally late last night along with other parties, trying to rally the cause to say yes, there's a chance they may lose this vote, but they will close the gap. he's also talking about international conspiracies, how millions of dollars in funding has been bundled -- has been funneled from scandinavia and the united states.

anyone trying to usher in a left of center government that would make concessions to the palestinians. we are just a few hours away from the polls opening, 11 hours away from the polls opening tomorrow morning. the final opinion polls came out on friday and they show a widening gap between his likud hardly -- likud party and the opposition party. if it translates into results 26 seats for the zionist union. mark: was the prime minister playing to his base? use talking about the possibility of a palestinian state and said if he is reelected that will not happen. >> it's interesting because that would represent an about turns from a speech he gave five years or so ago when he famously accepted the idea of a two state solution. but then a newspaper in israel

not necessarily friendly toward netanyahu said he had reservations about territorial concessions to the palestinians. that would play well to his right wing base will stop so he immediately distanced himself from those comments and said it is irrelevant now, given what happened with islamic state in the region and when israel evacuated the gaza strip hamas took control and there have been several wars between israel and hamas since then. mark: what will things look like on wednesday if the opposition wins? >> confused, and a word. they may well win the battle of the election, but they can lose out in the head to have your party form the next government. benjamin netanyahu himself came second a few years back to the could deem a party -- she won the election, could not form a

coalition and netanyahu became a prime minister. even though the zionist union seems to have a lead in the polls published friday, the natural allies of regimen netanyahu from the right wing still add up to more seat in government than the zionist union and its natural allies. there are one or two in particular led by a former minister that could be the kingmaker. the israelis will not know is going to form the next government even once we get the exit polls. it's not very simple, it's quite confusing and it will be quite complicated. as history shows, it could take a month or sometimes two months before we actually get the government forming. mark: thank you. let's shift years to the u.s. housing market. confidence among american homebuilders fell unexpectedly

in march 2 and eight month low. the national association of home builders index dropped to 53 from 55 in february, falling short of estimates will stop my guest is a senior economist from wells cargo -- from wells fargo. welcome back. it's good to see you again. the u.s. economy is showing signs of strength. mortgage rates are near historic lows. why the dip in homebuilders sentiment? >> if we pull back and look at the level, it's very much in expansion territory. we continue to see it is above the key threshold of 50, but it did come down just a bit. the weather is likely heart of that. mark: builder confidence: three of four regions. the west was hit the hardest, with a drop of 11 points. why is that region struggling?

>> overall, if we look at just one month, it does not tell us the entire story of what's happening on a regional basis. the bigger story when we pull back is the low level of inventory we continue to see, especially on the west coast. even if we look at the northeast, we've seen the level drop to a very low level. if we look at the northeast, there are a gratian issues that continue to point to issues in that part of the country. mark: is there pent-up demand to give the housing market which has admittedly been sluggish this year, can it get a tail going into the spring buying season going forward? >> yes all stop there is a lot of pent-up demand. we continue to see a lot of builders are at the very high end of the market all stop we still don't have a lot of

inventory for lower-priced homes and those first-time homebuyers have not largely come into the market. we continue to see the share of first-time home time -- first-time homebuyers is still at a very low level. there is ill some pent-up demand but there are still obstacles we continue to see like credit underwriting continues to be very stretched. mark: the unemployment rate in the united states is at 5.5% and that's the lowest level in almost seven years. will americans earning a paycheck necessarily mean home sales will pick up, especially giving -- given the tougher mortgage lending standards we are seeing? >> very good question. you're pointing to the labor market. the labor market improvement is essentially what wages and salaries can do two professions. wages and salaries is of course a lagging indicator. as we continue to see the labor market increase, we could see a

pickup. it is all very much focused on the first time homebuyer and whether we are seeing some increase. we are very optimistic about 2015. we expect household formations to pick up and we continue to expect the labor market to show strength. mark: federal reserve policymakers meet this week. if they drop or alter their stance of being what they term patient about when and how or by how much they will raise interest rates, how might the housing market react? what about homebuilders and perspective buyers? will it boost confidence for builders and get perspective buyers off the sidelines? >> all of those are important questions and all eyes are looking at what the fomc is going to do and whether or not they're going to drop that patient language and the impact

on housing market in general. if they move in june or september -- our call is june -- it will likely be a 25 basis point increase and we don't think it will move the margin on the headlines that much. however, for a first-time homebuyer, it could have a larger impact, especially with many of them still on the sidelines. however, the low level of the mortgage rate, still below 4%, is not the only issue causing first-time homebuyers to be on the sidelines. mark: february housing starts numbers are out tomorrow. what are you expecting? >> we are expecting somewhere just above a million. we've seen a long run of these starts above the one million mark, but the weather is going to play a role and it's going to be a little bit lower than the trend. it's still going to show an improvement overall, so overall, we are looking for a housing

market that picks up its pace of momentum in 2015. mark: thank you so much. , we will talk presidential politics and the rise of the super pac. once candidates were tentative to embrace them, but not anymore. phil mattingly will have the particulars when "bottom line" on bloomberg television continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. let's get you some of the top stories we are following at this hour. an unusual twist in the shooting of two police officers in ferguson, missouri. authorities are holding a suspect to admit he pulled the trigger, but he says he was aiming at someone else, not the officers. one prosecutor says police aren't completely buying that part of the story. the officers were shot last week during a protest at the ferguson police station. there is a new ceo at 70's will

stop the auction house has been under pressure by a billionaire activist investor will stop madison square garden ceo, tad smith will take over at the end of the month. so was increased by dan loeb to increase its values. proctor and gamble is exploring a sale or initial public offering of some of its beauty brands in a single below -- single deal according to people with knowledge of the matter. it would accelerate plans to drop up to 100 lines. the company's beauty unit includes cover girl makeup and herbal essence shampoos. that's a look at the top stories we are following at this hour. money has always been central to political campaigns, but this year, one thing seems to be missing -- fear. essential candidates are lining up fundraising organizations with little fear of ending up on the wrong side of the law. phil mattingly joins me from

washington with a look at why. good afternoon. phil: the rules are for the most part the same as they were in 2012, but potential candidates this time around are playing a completely different game. it not that president obama and mitt romney did not have super packs of their own, romney actually brought in more than $150 million. one supporting obama rod and another $70 million. but both were very careful about how they interacted with the groups which are supposed to have a wall between the campaign and a super pac. things are markedly different this time around. even though nobody has declared themselves as a 2016 candidate. so long as jet push, chris christie or scott walker have not officially entered the race they and their top advisers can legally play a central role in the fundraising for these super pacs.

that is kick these campaigns into overdrive and will likely not slow down anytime soon. mark: how are republican candidates courting donors now? phil: aggressively and on many fronts. as many as eight candidates have those super packs working for them right now. they also have their own political action committee. while top advisers to chris christie have set up their super pac christie's political activities are mostly run through his own pac. for rick perry, rickpac runs his activities. and then, there is jeb push, who did not even go through the trouble of trying to find two different names for these organizations. both his pac and super pac are named "right to rise." mark: with potential candidates numbering in the double digits is there enough me to go around? phil: you talk about less

learned from a 2012. it only takes one major donor to keep a potential candidate in the race. that was true with newt gingrich, former speaker of the house funded almost entirely by sheldon adelson. it was also true for rick santorum the former pennsylvania senator who was funded almost entirely by foster freeze. everybody is keeping a close eye on the biggest of donors knowing only one could potentially finance a legitimate run through a republican primary. mark: phil mattingly running us from washington. thank you. tonight on charlie rose, john brunner, director of the central intelligence agency. that's tonight -- john brenner director of the central intelligence agency.

that's tonight at 7:00. gm and ford are taking different ways getting money back to shareholders. matt miller will have the details when "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. this is "bottom line" on bloomberg television streaming on your tablet, phone and bloomberg.com. general motors agreed to buy back $5 billion worth of shares in exchange for harry wilson giving -- harry wilson giving up his battle for or deceit. it leaves gm at the bottom engine it's stated cash range with $20 billion in reserve. that has prompted some to question the company's so-called fortress balance sheet. >> general motors is certainly

not out of the woods in terms of fixing the business, bringing the pensions into fully funded status, dealing with the global picture. we have brands globally that need some investment. there's still work to do and there certainly not a lack of needs in terms of cash. mark: let's bring in matt miller. he's taken a look at what is going on with gm versus ford by the numbers. how does gm compared to the other automakers have cash on hand? matt: general motors is obviously a bigger automakers in for some a chrysler or any other automaker besides toyota. it's interesting to take a look at their cash reserves when his announcement was made that they would buy back $20 billion week as they said they always wanted to keep a between $25 billion --

$20 billion and $25 billion on reserve. if you look at ford versus general motors, gm has about $25.2 billion, but after this payout, gm will have less money in cash then ford does. in fact, although ford has slightly more debt has more unfunded pension liabilities. this is the second slide, if you will. you will see those numbers compared. ford only has $6 million -- 6 million cars in global production and gm has 10 million. i thought maybe gm didn't have that many. mark: what does gm need to spend money on? matt: they need to spend money

on things like buick and cadillac and boost these brands will stop if there's any new technology they need to invest in like electric cars are self driving cars, i would think they need more money but brian says they've got that taken care of. >> in terms of the capex, if they are running $9 billion a year they are guiding to that range going forward. we think especially if they begin to dress -- to address some of the inefficiencies in their capital spend, redundant amounts in different regions on similar projects, that even with driverless cars, we are huge fans of that and electric vehicles, gm appears to be ahead of everyone arguably other than tesla or maybe nissan. mark: gm is perfectly capitalized. maybe for has too much in reserves? matt: that is what it led me to believe. brian says more tilted toward paying dividends because they have a much longer term shareholder in the ford family. mark: matt miller, joining the

on set. thank you very much. another asian airline joins the travel market. we will look at how philippine airlines lands to compete with its competitors. "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

>> welcome back to the second half hour of "bottom line." i am mark crumpton in new york. the top stories we are following at this hour. beginning with the check right at the -- check in with the price of crude oil. intraday crude down 2.25% of 33.85. it is official, the snow we as winter ever in boston through last night. 109 inches have fallen. or than half that amount well in february.

the new mark breaks the record that 19 years ago. the president of the south pacific island nation said everything must be rebuilt. cyclone pam destroyed or damaged 90% of the country's building. killing at least eight people and injuring many others. it is one of the poorest countries in the world. the president is pleading for a. elon musk wants to end one of the biggest problems facing electric car drivers range anxiety, the fear you will run out of power. there is a he will announce plans to update off for on the tesla model s. the goal is to sue driver concerns -- soothes driver concerns. " cinderella" was the fairest of them all at the box office this weekend. it took in $70 million.

it also does not hurt a seven minute short based on the disney hit "frozen" was shown. that is a look at the top stories the following. after a 17 year absence, philippines airline as resumed the manila to new york light. the to expand rights to the u.s. comes up to the federal aviation administration clear the airline and granted if the soap all category one brady. the president, jaime bautista jointly and studio. thank you for your time. how big of a market is manila to new york? how big is it for the airline and are you looking at any new route? jaime: it is a very important route for the airline. looking at 250,000 filipino passengers leaving in new york.

250,000 leaving in the other cities on the east coast of the united states. mark: how have things been at the flag carrier ever since the other group thing full ownership in september against thejaime: -- since september? jaime: november and december were very good month for the airline. we have increased revenue. we aren't acting this will continue until the end of the year. can the tan group said buying back this was the right mistake -- the rate decision looking back yet? jaime: i think our chairman made

the right decision. you invest time and money. all of the investments, i think it is worth getting the airline back. mark: you just alluded to the airline financial position. will you book a conflict or a loss? jaime: we are in the process of finalizing the financials and the calendar year ending december 31. we show a little profit, and hopefully when the audit and the profit will remain, although admittedly a small profit for the last calendar year. mark: packaging room mr. chand gave an interview, saying he is in with an investor from the middle east than open to telling as much as a 40% think the airline. what is the latest on that, and how urgent is it were philippine

airlines to find a strategic investor at this point you? jaime: we have engaged with a financial advisor. we are not really hiring. we are giving ourselves to-three years to find a strategic investor. we would like to have the strategic investor assist us in managing the airline back to full profitability. mark: packaging release it philippine airlines would delay in half. jaime: we have made arrangements with airbus. they have agreed to help us restructure. this year we are taking five

airbus 321. another five next year. another 28 airbus 321's in an eight years. mark: i'm begin with jaime bautista. the strong u.s. dollar, how is that impacting your business? jaim it does not really impacted because we are a company who reports in u.s. dollars. most of our revenues are in foreign currency, even sales in the philippines. mark: the slumping oil crisis we have been seeing for the past several months, has forced airlines to adjust ticket prices to attract more customers yous?

jaime: we believe the price has help us. we were able to offer more affordable fares and this helps us to increase the load factor. mark: he will be in a big competition with cap a pacific singapore airlines for market share in the asia-pacific region. what do you have to do to stand out? jaime: we remain to be an airliner with good service. we can to the filipino market and we feel we are already -- that is why we're home in the sky. mark: jaime bautista, the president of philippine airlines. it is a pleasure. thank you so much. appreciate your time. of next the latin america report . later, match redness -- march

madness is upon us. my colleague shelby holliday will explain when we return -- when we continue in just a moment. ♪

memes welcomemark: welcome back. brazil government will present anticorruption model after more than a billion people took to the nation streets over the weekend. higher taxes and increased prices for government-regulated items like gasoline have made resilience angry so government officials and government russo -- governor riso will issue the package in a matter of days. higher prices of food and oil prices at another low. ♪ ♪

mark: welcome back. israel and by the prime minister benjamin netanyahu made a last-minute campaign cap in east jerusalem. he is seeking support to shore up his hardline faith. is running second going into tomorrow. -- he is running second going into tomorrow's vote. whichever party wins is unlikely to have the majority, so it will have to a coalition government. here is something we have not seen in a while, pictures of vladimir putin. he met today with the president of critics and. the first time seen in public since march 5. that which is regulation about his health. he shrugged off the rumors saying it would be boring without gossip. another sign general electric wants to reduce its role and consumer finance.

ge has agreed to sell the consumer lending business in australia and new zealand to an investor group that includes kkr here to the group has an enterprise value of more than billion dollars. the ceo has been reducing reliance on the ge capital unit. march madness is upon us, and that means it is time to fill out the bracket. i kentucky got the number one c as they announced the pairings for the basketball tournament. the american gambling association estimates we will bet $9 billion on the tournament. estimates say the wildcats are money favorites. the championship game of april 6 in indianapolis. speaking of college basketball, is it on a downward spiral? despite the madness type statistics show in attendance and ratings are down and goring is at historic lows.

shelby holliday as been digging into the story in jones me now -- joins me now. >> there are a lot of complaints about college basketball, the game is too long, shot clock too long. there is one big problem people attribute the other issues to is the one and done rule. it requires the players to play one year after high school and then they can go pro. check out with this has done to television rating. i broke this up into a few different era. the golden era, where you have most of the best players for 3-4 years. the huge rivalry. some of the college basketball out there. ratings were up. 1995 some of the top players heard it going high school to the pros. they skip college and rating to fall. 2005 this one and done rule. ratings are slipping.

fans are not as engaged with the teams and familiar with the players. they simply just do not have time to create the legendary basketball rivalries. not just turning television rating. i cap to some of the biggest names last week in new york. i asked them if one and done was hurting college basketball? >> is her college but the pros also. they are not ready for the nba. like the game has changed. a lot of younger players. >> if you are only playing against freshman, you're going to look at her. i used to really enjoy the college game and the pro game when there is more stability and rosters and when you got used to seeing the same team to in three years together watching the team gel. >> will the one and done rule be

reversed? the nfl -- nba has disgusted. some people think it is here tuesday. >> is something a lot of them agree something has to change. what is the impact on the business of basketball? >> turner and cbs done incredible job making them available to the public. i talked to sean mcmanus lastly. he's said the one and done rule is not a deal that plays the hand he is a. business is a whole other story. mark: chili holiday with the nba one and done. oil funds to a six year low. crude inventories rising to the highest level since 1982. markets are concerned the record supply constrained storage the plot the -- storage supply. alix steel joins us.

to get that keeps on giving. -- the gift that keeps on giving. the iran talk continued today in switzerland. >> iran saying it could raise exports by one million barrels per day if the sanctions were lifted. they want to ask for more oil because they want the revenue. the pros and analysts say it is a different. you will see some oil trickle on the market, but not in one well will. about 300 barrels per day by june as compared to february label -- february level. perhaps an increase of certain types of exports, not necessarily anything to do with the actual sanctions. >> distinction has been one of the linchpins in the nuclear

discussions. they want then lifted a lot more guarantees that the program is for peaceful purposes, and not to create a nuclear bomb. i am shocked geopolitics is playing role in all of this. >> this is where it could be a game changer. it is really about the eu and ir an. eu sanctions provide insurance of the transport to ship it. eu companies are not allowed to do that right now. they used to export to companies like italy, ain't and greece. if that party fees, there will be a flood of oil onto the market because they will get their oil from different sources. mark: are these companies just itching to get back into the game? wreck i have not spoken to any of them, but i can only and for if they had a lot of this is you want the business. a huge fire right now is india.

will they continue to be stronger buyers? we are into seasonal maintenance for refineries. they turned around the machines to process for summer usage. we may not be needing a lot of oil because there is not demand for the end product. unique demand to fill their stuff. -- you need demand to fill their stuff. >> we are going to talk about doyle a huge topic. talking about $20 oil. what happens if we hit it not only to the oil companies that alternative energy company? i will talk specifically to john hofmeister, citizens for affordable energy ceo. also, former shell oil president . what is going on behind the closed doors in the big boardroom? mark: if anyone knows, he does. stay with us for the continuing this on oil. scarlet fu will have the number

on the charts after the break. ♪ ♪

mark: crude oil hitting a fresh six-year low today. scarlet fu dickstein for to reveal what kind of stress is coughing another -- in other energy assets. she joins me here in that.

this story is one that will just not go away. scarlett: crude oil tumbled last year. it came to take everything down periods of uti -- wti now below jay ratliff. what we want to show you is the bloomberg high-heeled energy index. it tracks publicly traded noninvestment rate in the energy. the big drop in december. the thinking was the rapid drop would be production cuts, reduced income on cash flow at highly leveraged companies and therefore, an inability to service the debt. the index stabilize in january and recovered in february. crude oil has revisited the lows for the index really has not. he says this is an international export. brent crude of the global

benchmark is still about 14% below the generally low. the second reason high-heeled growths were negative at the end of last year. there was a sense of panic selling in the high-heeled. we've seen a fit of a rebound since then. a reversion to the mean at play here. turning to attract fun was once again. given that energy companies still make up the biggest portion of the market, that is helping to slow the decline in energy high-heeled. this time if you look at the drop, it is a lot more orderly and less of panic selling. mark: which face are missing the real panic and? >> energy and lp's are bearing the blunt of the slide in oil prices. if we can pull -- full the first chart backup, we have show this over it. $224 billion market cap. fairly sick african.

mlp broke below the generally low and now at the worst levels of january 2013. these became popular securities because they are tax efficient and offer payouts on oil and gas transportation and storage. a lot of energy infrastructure place here. people liked them because they offer consistent income and not correlated with energy prices necessarily. mark: both lines working in tandem. what are we to make of that? we are seeing the fallout on different ways. high yield is not as dramatic as it is in mlp. if you look and the equity world , nothing much about fallout on energy like exxon or chevron. those names are higher in trading today. one of the reasons is a macy's stress from falling oil prices,

but this is underperforming. no one is worried about that going out of business. mark: scarlet fu with off the charts segment. get the latest headlines at bloomberg.com. that does it for this edition of " bottom line." " street smart" is next. ♪ ♪

alix: welcome to the most important hour of the session. this is "street smart." betting on what we will hear from the fed this week. we grew than expected economic data fueling speculation that federal reserve may not raise interest rate as soon as the fifth. oil slumping to a six-year low. put $20 per barrel be that far off? "street smart."" starts right now. here are the top stories