mark: from bloomberg headquarters in new york, i'm mark crumpton. this is "bottom line." to our viewers in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world welcome. we have full coverage of the stocks in stories making headlines on this friday. julie hyman has details on the u.s. dollars affect on profits at tiffany. ryan chilcote will have a first-hand report from donetsk as the conflict in ukraine hits the one-year mark.

let's get you to the top stories we are following at this hour. we are in rally mode in the equity market. the dow jones up 227 points right now. the s&p 500 is up just over 1%. a 22 point gain for the s&p. the nasdaq composite index jumped to the highest level in 15 years moving towards widening out it's losses. we are seeing a big jump in crude oil on this friday. crude is up over 4.5%. american airlines is flying high today. the company will be added to the s&p 500. a little more than a year ago, american was in bankruptcy. matt miller asked the ceo white to be part of the index.

>> we are the largest airline in the world. those are metrics that get us well into the s&p 500. this is an airline that was in bankruptcy 50 months ago before the merger. -- 15 months ago before the merger. to be in the s&p 500 15 months later shows the strength of the merger. mark: a group says it carried out a string of suicide bombings in yemen. the attacks happened at mosques during friday prayers. there were reports that as many as 137 people were killed and 345 injured. the mosques are controlled by the shiite group that seized the capital in september after consolidating its grip on the northern part of the country. iranian envoys are sent to lead nuclear negotiations in switzerland after a final consultation with john kerry.

officials say progress has been made but significant technicals still separate both sides. talks will resume next week. diplomats have until the end of this month to reach an agreement. a message from european leaders to greece -- pick up the pace. they have told the prime minister that greece must submit a more concrete reform plan so that bailout talks can speed up. greece is quickly running out of money. after four hours of talks in brussels the prime minister put a positive spin on the issue. >> we are open in the sense of this the liberation. all sides try to do their best to overcome the difficulties. mark: there is no firm deadline for when greece will run out of money.

eurozone officials have said it is a matter of weeks. shares of biogenic are surging. the company's extremity drug for alzheimer's slowed progression of the disease. it reduces the protein that causes plaque in the brain and reduced cognitive decline. the results are positive enough that biogen is escaping mid-stage testing and will move into final stage trials. one year into the conflict in eastern ukraine and the sihgns of war are everywhere. ryan chilcote visited donetsk inside separatist territory where he witnessed how a fragile cease-fire failed to lift the fog of war. ryan: the fast-moving cars should have been a clue. >> small arms fire there.

he don't have to go far to find the fighting. there is a battle going on. ryan: we came to this bridge to film the destruction caused by the war. what we didn't realize was we are not entirely outside of the battle zone. [speaking russian] turns out i'm standing on top of a tank. he tells me not to move. he wants to check our documents. satisfied with our papers, he relaxes and we are free. next day, we were turned better prepared. -- return better prepared. last but not least, fresh batteries.

[speaking russian] we are being driven to the donetsk international airport. by a pro-russian fighter. two truces have collapsed already. crimea thinks this one will, too. he says a ukrainian militia is shooting at the right now. keep a low profile.

[speaking russian] a series of strange -- it is international women's day. a big holiday here. the fighters have come with gives for another battalion -- gifts for members of another battalion. ukraine spent hundreds of billions of dollars building the airport -- hundreds of millions of dollars building the airport. the country wanted to show the world it too could have a first class airport. it is now a wasteland. its only value is that of a

buffer. this is utter destruction. i have been in demolition sites, war zones, i've never seen anything quite like this. it is not everyday you see an armed personnel carrier in an airport terminal. it is more than clear, no one is going to fly here for a very long time. the apocalyptic scenes go on and on and we cannot even see all of it. half of the airport is guarded by another battalion with its own chain of command. just like the ukrainian side the fighters over here are not always on the same page. mark: ryan joins me here in new york. did you think that i was going to shoot you? ryan: i was a little anxious but then we started conversing.

mark: how fragile is the truce? ryan: very. it felt very fragile when i was there a week ago and everything i see since then is very ominous. just today, the commander of that brigade told us that they are preparing to attack. in addition to that yesterday the ukrainians were prepared complaining that the rebels have started using heavy artillery again. finally, neither the rebels nor the russians nor moscow appeared to be happy with the plan for economy that kiev has arranged. mark: we have heard russian officials say that the russian people have been so -- these sanctions are just not going to

have any impact. they will dust them off and get back on their feet and everything will be fine. is the kremlin afraid of these sanctions? ryan: they are afraid of a specific kind of sanctions. the individual sanctions. the travel bans and asset freezes. they don't want to not be able to travel. it affects the way they approach used in ukraine. test eastern ukraine. if the rebels were to attack the city a couple miles from there , that would bring more sanctions. that does give the kremlin's. economic sanctions shutting down the banking system is a different matter because those affect the russian people. mark: is the russian economy becoming sanctions prove? ryan: to a certain extent, it is. the decline in the price of oil has been much more devastating to the russian economy than the sanctions.

russians are used to hardship. they like the foreign policy. they object and resent the fact that they are being punished by the west for doing that. mark: i have to ask you, those it seems -- that is an apocalyptic landscape. what is it like being on the ground in a war zone and seeing that type of destruction firsthand? ryan: my only thought was if this is a cease-fire, what does it look like when they start shooting again? mark: thank you so much. you can watch the special report on tuesday, march 24 at 9:00 p.m. eastern here in the united states. the ukraine conflict. a special with ryan chilcote coming up next week.

a look at what is next for the experiment will drug that slowed the progression of alzheimer's. "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. nike posted third-quarter profits that the estimates. one reason, his performance in north america. sales rose 6% and orders for delivery are likely to rise 15% between now and july. first-quarter sales beat estimates at one of the nation's biggest homebuilders. rose profit margins fell because of higher land and construction costs. the average price of a house rose 8%. shares of kb home's have been up as much as 6%. simon property group is making its best and final offer for macerich.

the price, $23 billion. macerich said the earlier offer seriously undervalued the company. coming up at 2:24 p.m. tiffany's profits and the surging u.s. dollar. focus on the future of luxury and labor. shares of biogen sword into a record high today after the copy reported that an early-stage trial showed positive reports test results for its experimental -- positive results for its experimental alzheimer's drug. good to have you on. is this a potential game changer? >> i think so. right now alzheimer's has been treated by molecules that hit

the symptoms. this is part of a new wave of drugs that are actually looking like they could change the way the disease is treated. part of a new wave. mark: is that is what is done differently? it is targeting the protein? >> both drugs target the protein. what biogen did differently, it selected -- the patients getting the drug have this in their brain. until now the trials were run by doctors who had an idea that the patients had alzheimer's. mark: does this prove that so-called hypothesis? >> it as a lot of rationale to

it. it has to be tested in larger studies but is a hypothesis. and valid hypothesis. this data as more -- as more rationale to the argument. mark: what does the drug due to locate where in the brain it is made? >> these antibodies are amazingly selective. it's like a homing missile. less of where in the brain, more about clearing the amyloid's deposited in the brain. when there is build up, that is one of the reasons it could because he alzheimer's -- could be causing alzheimer's. mark: the german psychiatrist is the one who at least put out the theory that maybe it had to do with proteins in the brain. >> there have been lots of theories like that.

the deposit of -- amyloid is one of the more developed theories. you have two or three drugs going after amyloids. we only see early-stage drugs. mark: what does this mean for other drugs in development? >> if this helps give us more treatments, other drugs that target amyloids this might be something positive for them. mark: do we have any idea what the global cost is? >> we don't know what the global cost is. nih estimated $50,000 per case. put that in the context that we have an aging population that is a lot more than $50,000. that is just the financial cost. alzheimer's the biggest burden is to the caregiver.

this is good news today. mark: this is good news, but we are not talking about a cure. we are talking about locating this protein and slowing down the deterioration of cognitive function. >> we saw in some of the arms of the data packet, a reversal. the mini mental state exams become better than what it was. this reverses -- we want to prove this in a larger study with more patience. it is a very small number of patients. i would like to see this go into phase three. mark: in one month. >> right. we are looking for the final data readout in late spring. biogen have accelerated already. they are going straight to phase three.

mark: a pleasure to meet you. thank you so much. coming up, the strong dollar takes its toll on one of the largest luxury jewelry chains. ♪

mark: tiffany's shares are looking rather tarnished today. the world's second-largest books read rulers said -- luxury jeweler's profits were hit by the strong dollar. how dependent is tiffany on overseas sales? >> independent spirit awards than half of its sales come from outside the americas.

48% of its sales from the americas 23% from asia-pacific regions, 14% is japan specifically and 12% from europe. what does that mean? if you look at its sales in japan last quarter, up 1%. once you translate them back into u.s. dollars, you get a decrease of 13%. in europe sales rose by 9% but if you translate those back into dollars, you get unchanged. the rise in dollar wiped out the gains in sales that the company had in these various regions. it has been an issue for them. this quarter profits will decline 30%. it will continue to be a problem for another couple quarters.

tiffany is being heard by the u.s. dollar even here in the united states. at least some of tiffany's business in the u.s. is from foreign tourists. in some cases, they are not making us money trips. even if they come, they are not going to shell out as much money because the value of their local currencies have followed. tiffany's has rolled out this line of t jewelry which is a bit of a lower price point and it seems like that line has been selling relatively well. the higher price stuff has not -- that is starting to happen. but not meaningfully enough yet. there's some optimism that over the longer term, it might pay off. mark: thank you so much.

coming up, more on tiffany's sales and profit outlook. why the luxury retailer expects currency headwinds and sluggish sales hampering this quarter's results. ♪

mark: welcome back to the second half hour of "bottom line." thanks for staying with us. let's get you some of the top stories we are following at this hour. crude is up about 4.3%, trading at $45.87. crude is up 1.5 -- 2.3% at 4572 -- $45.72. kuwait's oil ministers says opec needs to keep pumping oil in order to maintain its market

share. the obama administration has released the long-awaited regulations on fracking. the rules cover the process of injecting water and chemicals to tap into oil gas reserves. they will only apply to oil fields on federal land. welcome please have used fracking for decades. the first major eclipse of the solar age. the moon block 80% of the sun's light across europe for three hours. in germany, that briefly halted output from thousands of solar panels. they provide 40% of the country's power on most sunny days. the grid operators switched to natural gas and coal plants to make up for the lost solar palled -- solar power. more now on tiffany's sales and profit outlook, i'm joined by deborah aiken.

thanks for your time. what is tiffany's doing to combat currency fluctuations? deborah: if we look ahead, they have a lot of new innovations. maybe that was not advertised in the correct areas. . trying hard with the locals -- elsewhere, there is a strong growth. 9% growth in europe. as we had through this quarter we saw 30% growth last you. it is doing more of the same but across more of the categories focusing on the under $500.

mark: the americas make up half of tiffany's sales. the slowdown in the region is going to lead to a 10% decline in worldwide sales in the first quarter. why are the america such a drag on sales? deborah: the dollar. the risk coming in. if we look at the last two quarters, we saw 7% growth in quarter to and quarter three. the americas were flat overall. the 10% decline in top line will be very much related to japan. when we look at the q1 hike japan is almost 40% of sales. a very high comparable. -- 14% of sales. mark: where is the strength of the rebound coming from? deborah: if we are talking about

share appreciation, it is the euro-based companies. in the last three months 4% share price appreciation. we have seen that range -- across seven or eight of the major italian companies and a couple of french mixed in, too bad. we are expecting about 5% growth. -- french mixed in, too. with the currency impact, that will be more difficult. mark: are there specific luxury brands at this point that would do better because of the euro weakness? deborah: yes. most of the euro-based -- the way to think about it, made in italy.

companies have 25-30% of their sales in europe, most of their costs and in euro. if they have 60% of their sales elsewhere, translation is positive for them. you can carry that down to the bottom line. it will be most of the european players. mark: you and your team did some research on the expansion of international tourism this year and how it will impact the sales of luxury items. what did your data show? deborah: we can link this back to today and what has happened to tiffany and the report they gave about tourists being reluctant to spend. 1.1 8 billion global travelers in 2015 with a 4.5% growth rate. if we look at the chinese, 10%

of the market overall and 10% of luxury good purchasers -- they transfer their spending away from mainline china, away from hong kong. even in the last quarter, we saw chinese visitors enter japan. they are following currency. mark: what about global internet penetration? how are these stores expected to drive luxury sales? deborah: it's about working in local language about looking at penetration across the board. supply chain distribution. all very much interlinked and very much behind the curve. mark: deborah aiken joining us

from london. thank you so much. enjoy your weekend. march madness is in full swing. so is the bloomberg backward -- racket. -- the bloomberg bracket. ♪

mark: remember, you can watch us live wherever you are on bloomberg tv on roku players and android tv streaming for free. march madness is upon us, along with the short-lived hope of filling out that perfect bracket. we brought together a group of

titans from finance to take their best shot at our bloomberg bracket. each participant has donated -- has donated $10,000 with the pot going to the winner's charity of choice. you can follow along on bloomberg.com/charitybracket. it is time for today's latin america report. berg weiss air force says -- uruguay's air force says an argentine airplane -- it had taken off from the airport which served the two worst city of -- tourist city. up next encore.

your guide to the biggest newsmakers of this past week on "bottom line." ♪

mark: welcome back to let's get you the top stories we are following on this friday. greece is running out of cash. the country wants more bailout money. germany wants a list of greek economic reforms. eu leaders met late into the night in brussels, world -- warning the prime and esther that he is running out of time. >> we agreed on the fact that we need to speed up the process. we should not lose any more time. we discussed speeding up the process.

it was done in mutual trust. mark: the eu wants greece to submit a list of economic reforms as it promised to do last month. there is no firm deadline but estimates are that greece could run out of cash in a few weeks. the new alzheimer's drug showed promise in a study and that has shares of biogen surging today. the drug reduced cognitive decline and reduced the protein that is blamed for causing plaque in the brain. results were so successful it is skipping mid-stage testing and going on to the final stage. regulators have given amazon the ok to test drones for delivery. the company awarded the faa did not act quickly it would move its drone resort program to other countries. the agency says amazon contestants drones but only within 400 feet of the ground during daytime and within sight of an operator who has a pilot's

license. several big companies getting into online tv and looking to get preferential treatment. hbo, showtime and sony have talked to comcast about having their webtv traffic treated as "managed services." that would allow them to avoid the growing congestion on the internet and would get into a gray area of whether that would violate the new net neutrality rules. coming up, scarlet fu has the friday edition of off the charts and a feature on bracketology. details on the first internet music streaming service to have a rewards program. it is friday, so we bring you encore. a look back at the most notable newsmakers this week on "bottom line." >> a lot of pent-up demand. we continue to see that a lot of builders are still at the

high-end of the market. we still don't have a lot of inventory for lower-priced homes and those first time home have not come into the market. the share of first-time homebuyers is still at a low level. there is pent-up demand their but still some obstacles that we continue to see, like credit underwriting continues to be stretched. >> for the last four months we have improved the profit of the airline. november, december were good months. we have increased our revenues. we are expecting this will continue until the end of the year. >> they will be patient and they have told you they will be patient by what they tell you they are watching for. they said they will watch for

signs that fall in inflation is not transitory and watch for signs that we get continued quality of improvement. >> it all hinges on inflation at this juncture. 300,000 jobs being produced in an average month is a pretty impressive pace and a consistent one. the other side, the core inflation numbers are not playing ball. the combination of the stronger dollar and low energy prices will not be supportive in the near future. mark: tonight on charlie rose come out that you know -- al pacino. he plays an aging rock star who receives a letter from john lennon and decides to change his life. that is at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. new york time on bloomberg television. according to a baker hughes

report, drillers idled 41 oil rigs. that brings the number to a four-year low. alix steel joins me now with more of what's going on. alix: it sounds dramatic but in reality, this is much less than expected. this is the smallest drop we have seen in three weeks. twitter goes crazy. it tells us how much the u.s. is cutting back on their rigs. the more recs they cut back, the more production will fall -- we have not seen that. we still have oil production at a record high in the u.s. even though you are seeing these rig counts cut back. mark: what are the highlights of

the new rules? alix: this is the first kind of restriction on fracking we have seen. companies have to show what they are using -- it is sand and water and you pump it through. you have to describe what you are pumping through the land. domestic production accounts for 5% on federal lands and 11% for natural gas. the issue going forward will be the states will look to the u.s. government for guidance on their own regulations. that might be a bit of a change. mark: is it enough to placate and par mentalists who say they don't want fracking at all -- environmentalists who say they don't want fracking at all? alix: this probably will not stop it.

that is just an assumption on my part. mark:speaking of fracking, i will be speaking to judd gregg on this. the budget released in the house and the senate and many other issues. could the fed regulate wall street? all of these juicy topics. mark: very nice. "street smart" at the top of the hour. scarlet fu will have another edition of "off the charts." "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: unless you live under a rock you've probably noticed that march madness is well underway. last year's opening game attr viewers -- attracted 10 million viewers. people drop what they are doing to watch the games. what is the impact on trading? scarlet fu did some digging. we know what the impact is.

scarlet: you might think trading with slow down but that is not always the case. credit goes to jamie. i want to give some shout outs to joe our equity specialist to crunched the numbers and our television data group for charting it. the chart goes back to 1990 and shows the percent change on the s&p 500 on the first day of the tournament versus the average volume leading up to the game. that redline is the dividing line. anything about the redline shows what is above average. the big spike in the middle was march 2000 when volume with 29% above average. shortly after the nasdaq hit its record high in the selloff begun. since 1990, volume on the first day of the tournament, 2.3% above the average.

joe manchin or to check the average volume for everything from 30 days to one month to one year and in each case, trading on the first day was above average. mark: it is the golden age of tv. you can watch games streaming -- there was six games on yesterday. it has to be a distraction. scarlet: it is a distraction and you no longer have to depend on one tv screen. you can watch on your mobile device. the past three years, the conventional wisdom plays out. we see below average trading volume. in 2013, down 5%. 2014, dowmark: could that be indicative of a good market? scarlet: maybe. probably indicative of a volatile market.

i spoke with michael block. there are a lot of mitigating factors at play here. the third week of march is a very busy time for investors. you have the fomc meetings held around then and options expire on the third friday of every march. lots of program trading. all of that needs to be factored in. if you look at how it breaks down during the trading day the next chart makes that clear. the white bar tracking trading volume in the s&p 500 in 10 minute intervals. the yellow dash is the five-day average. the first game, you see how the white bars are way below the yellow dashes. that is people being distracted and watching the games. this march, we have the fomc.

a lot of the trading volume took place the day before. mark: who will win? scarlet: i have no idea. i have to root for the badgers. ultimately, i'm watching hockey. as are you. mark: yes, i am. thank you so much. get the latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio and streaming on your tablet and bloomberg.com. this does it -- that is it for this edition of "bottom line." ♪ . .

alix: welcome to the most important hour of the session. 60 minutes until the closing bell. in alix steel. energy shares. a global rally. the dow at the highest level in 15 years. plus, the white house issues the first federal regulations for fracking. i will get reaction from former senator judd gregg. plus, hoping for an infusion but will essence hold up its side of the bargain? "street smart"