mark: from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i'm mark crumpton. this is "bottom line" the intersection of business and economics with a main street restrictive. -- perspective. to our viewers here in the u.s. and to those of you around the world, welcome. we have full coverage of the stocks and stories making headlines today. education reporter janet lohr looks at the rejection rate or admissions to ivy league schools . agriculture reporter alan bjerga detailed the latest crop report and the continuing doubt it --

drought in the state of california. manus cranny is in paris with highlights of his excuses interview with greek finance minister yanis varoufakis. first, let's get right to the top stories we are following this thursday. a number of americans filing for on a plummet benefits is that a 15-year low. claims averaged 282,000 a week over the past month, the fewest since june 2000. that raises a key question. was the worst than expected jobs report last week an anomaly? according to the labor department, the u.s. economy created 126,000 jobs in march. data out this week showed job openings at a 14-year high. consumer confidence has climbed to the highest level in almost eight years according to the bloomberg consumer comfort index. americans view the economy in a more favorable light and said it was a better time to spend. that pickup in confidence could signal a rebound in demand. mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest levels in two

months. last friday's weaker than expected jobs report get some of the lame. according to freddie mac, the average rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage was just under 3.7% the 15 year fixed is under 3%. here in new york, property prices are soaring in brooklyn. the city's most populous borough. the median home price in the first quarter rose 18% from a year ago to about $611,000. that is the sixth record in eight quarters. there is a limited supply of homes for sale in brooklyn because developers have focused on the rental market. iranian president hassan rouhani says his country will not sign up on a nuclear deal unless economic sanctions are lifted immediately. that is likely to complicate efforts to reach a final deal. the u.s. and its allies want to suspend sanctions only after international monitors verify that iran is complying. that is a look at our top stories this thursday.

greece is repaying its debt at least for now. the greeks have paid international monetary fund almost half $1 billion that was due today. now prime minister alexis tsipras wants european lenders to unlock more than $7 billion in bailout funds that greece desperately needs. but there is one problem. prime minister singh process not come up with economic reforms that the lenders want. meantime, the rupee and central bank approved a $1.3 billion increase in emergency fund managers that banks will have enough cash on hand if depositors keep withdrawing money. earlier, manus cranny spoke exclusively with the greek finance minister yanis varoufakis. manus, why did the minister stop and talk to you? >> i think he wanted to deliver a message. it was hard to get him to stand still, no doubt, but this is the oecd and has come as part of the

institute of new economic thinking. there is an issue in the title there. he has been coming here long before he became that rockstar finance minister. he wanted to get a message out. it is rough and tumble but we are moving forward. the theme in paris was [speaking french] but the reason that he spoke to bloomberg was to send a message. i said, do you trust these people that you are trying to do a deal with, and do they trust you? >> i am confident that the bonds have strengthened sufficiently to give rise to an agreement that would help stabilize the greek economy and move us to the post june period it in a way to ensure that we moved to reconstruction and development. mark: prime minister tsipras has been in russia the past few days. what did varoufakis say about a

deal without -- with anyone outside of europe? manus: this is a member of the eurozone. this problem is within europe. they are not turning to russia. >> greece is not seeking solutions for its problems in terms of its relationship with the eurozone outside of the borders of europe. manus: the point being, very clear, they are not turning to russia for cash and they are hopefully on the way to doing this deal with european creditors. it will take a lot of reform and i loved his closing line. "we would not be fit to purpose the new government in greece we would not be fit for purpose if we not were prepared for a little bit of political cost." that cost is the greek people the people that he represents that he believes he needs to do a good deal for.

mark: thank you. the president of greece's institute of economic policy and public governance a partner of one of the leading law firms in greece and is here in the studio. thank you for your time. does? greece have any other options at this point >> i do not believe we have. the only other option is to come to an agreement with creditors. this is the tough side of the exercise. what we need to do is have structural rest of -- reforms and talk about the measures which he is already proposed with the government. mark: you spoke about structural reforms. is that even possible if there is no discussion of at least dealing with labor laws and the country's pension system? >> you are right, it should be a package, but these two issues which you have mentioned, up to now, are not part of the package presented by the government. they believe there would be a danger for the troika not to

accept those reforms, the rest of the package, without even one of the three elements that we had discussed. i hope that at least the greek government will make some concessions as to the privatization issue. privatization is an exercise which would help the company and the economy to grow. mark: the finance minister yanis varoufakis spoke to us on sunday. he was in washington speaking to the imf managing director christine lagarde. they released a statement that read in part -- what should that corporation intel? -- entail? >> some concessions from greece and also from the troika. they would have to release some part of the $7 billion. i hope that we would be in a position to get around $1.9

billion after the measures proposed by the government which would pass the greek parliament. if we do that, we may get 1.9. what is crucial is that we have to pay another 19 billion by the end of the year. this is the big problem because this represents 10% of the greek gdp. so without some kind of compromise, without international assistance, i don't think we can make it. mark: the new government soften some of the pre-election promises it made. as the political reality set in, does the party possible base realize that greek creditors probably will hold firm on their demands? >> absolutely. they understand that and the greek citizens realize we are in a critical stage. however, i have to remind you, the present government does not

have a mandate for an overall confrontation with the troika. the mandate is to find a solution, the matter what solution it will be. i am convinced the government will make some compromises. already they are doing compromises and i think it is for the good of the country. mark: as manus cranny mentioned, the prime minister and the russian president vladimir putin have been holding talks in moscow. he has offered to increase president putin has -- has offered to increase corporation in terms of energy and industry. he did stop short of offering financial aid to greece. what was prime minister tsipras trying to accomplish by meeting with putin in moscow at this time? >> i'm convinced he wanted to have an alternative, but it would be a major mistake because he would have to take into account the maintenance of the geopolitical balances in the area. by doing so by having

discussions with russia and talking about the debt stream, which is the main situation, is actually in competition. this is really a very dangerous exercise, very dangerous discussion. i think we should remain only within the frame of the european union and nato. mark: there is also an issue of food exports. russia is greece's biggest trading partner. most of the trade is in oil and gas exports. russia banned european union food imports in retaliation for the sanctions that were imposed after the situation, the insurgency with ukraine. but a deal to resume greek food exports to -- to russia, what would that mean for the greek economy? >> it would mean a lot. up to now, the greek culture has suffered enormously.

people who have this problem for the future, then i believe again, the economy will be in a much worse state. i have reasons to believe president putin will keep the promise in order to leave some kind of restrictions but up to that, i do not believe that discussions will have longer consistence. mark: you have in your to the ground on the sorts of things, so what do the greek people want? >> they want to remain in europe, this is the most important thing. mark: so talk of a greek exit -- >> it is overstated. i believe we can overcome this difficulty and we will do so only if trust is built again during the discussions with the troika and the greek government. this trust is absolutely important because it will be a signal also to the international community to see greece as one more attractive investment destination. to do that, we need radical

reform. everybody has to understand, these reforms cannot take place from one moment to the other. we have all of these reforms in place. if implemented, it would be at least 10 years. this should really be part of the negotiations from now on. i don't know if the troika and the greek government would accept all this, but as an economist, i'm saying this is the only way out of the crisis. mark: the president of the greece institute of public policy and governance. thank you. it's a privilege to meet you. thank you for your time. up next, the results of the latest crop report and the outlook for the corn supply, and an update from washington with our agriculture reporter alan bjerga. ♪

mark: let's get you some of the top stories we are following on this thursday. walgreens largest drugstore

chain, is forecasting profit for the current fiscal year that missed estimates. they have been trying to revamp its stores and cut costs. profit was better than expected but sales fell short. the chain announced plans to shut 200 of its 8200 stores in the u.s. one of the biggest makers of hummus in the u.s. is recalling 30,000 cases of the appetizer. sabra initiated a nationwide recall because of concerns about a possible listeria contamination. listeria is a foodborne illness that can sometimes be fatal. there have not been any reports of illness. the recall only includes is classic flavor. the professional networking site linkedin is buying into the online learning business. it is acquiring lynda.com for about $1.5 billion. lynda.com is a suspension site selling access to online classes taught by industry experts. the classes are offered in five languages.

sling tv is going live today with hbo plus new streaming service. hbo now will cost $15 a month. or that you can watch hbo shows for the first time without a cable tv subscription. the news broke earlier today on bloomberg. >> a half hour ago we went live with hbo. >> as of this moment, they can leave luber television and start watching hbo go. >> i would never suggest somebody leave bloomberg but if they wanted to, they could already go and watch "game of thrones" and get ready for sunday night. mark: the hit series has its season fair this weekend. the service is available on apple tv and for cablevision customers with internet service only. zynga investors do not feel any better about mark pincus then when he stepped down as ceo two years ago. he announced last night that he is returning as ceo. he replaces don mattrick, a veteran of the console gaming business who is leaving the

country -- company. zynga once let the market for games on social media. last year, sales dropped 21% and the company lost more than $200 million. that is a look at our top stories this thursday. coming up, agriculture reporter alan bjerga dissects the latest crop report. at 2:30 p.m., we look at the dollars impact on tourism. and then for ivy league college applicants, the agony of defeat. ♪

mark: in be sure to check out the latest edition of "bloomberg businessweek" with a cover story on the internal revenue service. it hits newsstands and your tablet today. doesn't really say that? i have to ask -- look at this.

let's look at commodities. crop surpluses are continuing to grow according to a department of agriculture global report. our agriculture reporter alan bjerga joins me from washington. what is this doing for prices? alan: today you saw soybeans drop the most in four weeks on reports of continued overhang in global inventory. this month report did not come as a particular surprise to people but it just underscores this commodity situation we are in where, around the world, we had a supply response to the weather disruptions we have had over the past few years. as we have had fairly decent weather and large crops, we are a computing buildup of surplus that is likely to decline in world food prices, which is good for consumers, but makes it difficult for farmers who are relying on no surpluses for income. mark: how would this affect u.s. farmers who are starting their planting now?

alan: this will be a challenge. the usda released its first farmer survey of what they plan to plant this year. corn acreage is down, soybean acreage is up because farmers are seeking a better profit margin, but the problem is when you have a lot of everything there is really no place to go. you see some increases in smaller grains like boat and barley. those are less expensive to plan and still some a profitable, but when you have all these acres on the market at a certain point the only way to do with it is to reduce acres. farmers don't like to do that. they have literally sunk costs. they want to make your they get the revenue and that is from planting things. that leads to overproduction and the cycle continues. mark: not everyone is dealing with a glut. in california, there is no water. how is agriculture responding and how are they sharing water with other stakeholders like the city and environment? alan: i have been talking to a lot of farmers in california in

recent days and what you see are a lot of plans for bulldozing. when you see water allocations under their system going down to zero, you have to start bulldozing your plants to save the other ones. higher value collapse -- crops like almonds, they will attempt to preserve those, but some of the lower value crops and even some of your citrus is like lemons and oranges those are in danger because you are playing water triage in california. last year you had a bad situation but there was a certain amount of ground water supply. this year, those supplies are down as well. it will be a tough year. mark: in california, or their efforts to bring everyone together? alan: yesterday, governor brown brought together environmental and agricultural stakeholders. these groups have a history of not playing so nice together. the environmental community is suspicious of the agricultural community. in the farm groups say the environmentalists are a part of the problem right now.

carly fear rina, considered a republican presidential hopeful from california, has been leading -- blaming liberal environmentalists for the weather crisis. of course, it is not their fault that it has not rain, but at the same time, farmers will look at legislation in recent decades that they say gives the state less what's ability to deal with the situation. so governor brown is trying to bring them together at the same time that he is mandating lower water use overall. with this atmosphere of mistrust it is a really tough lift. however, it is one that a lot of people in california and across the country feel will be necessary for the state to weather the crisis. mark: how is the weather looking in the rest of the country? that will be huge for production. alan: if you have another bumper crop, you just add to the surplus, but at the same time, you want to recoup some of your investment if you are a farmer. right now, you see fairly decent

weather across a lot of the country, especially in the corn belt. moisture seems to be about normal, it is warmer, but you have from -- some problems in the great plains. mark: we have a story on the bloomberg terminal and on bloomberg.com bigger grain, oil, and seat supplies. world food costs are at their lowest since 2010. how do we turn that around? alan: some do not want to appear below put prices is good for consumers but what you will ultimately see is exactly what happened before, a supply response. you are taking acreage out of production which means less income for farmers, let's apply going forward, and a tightening and rising of those processes. mark: alan bjerga on us from washington, thank you. coming up, tourism and the dollar. we will talk to the ceo of brand usa about what he is doing to attract tourists to the united states and the impact of the strong dollar. stay with us. "bottom line" continues in just

a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back to the second half hour of "bottom line" on bloomberg television. thank you for staying with us. let's get you our top stories. let's begin as we do always at this time with a check on the price of crude oil and close-out floor trading. crude up almost a full percent this afternoon. trading at $50.90. california regulators have imposed the largest penalty in the agency's history. they are ordering pg&e corp. to pay $1.6 billion for a deadly natural gas pipeline explosion more than four years ago.

a faulty weld on the pipeline that to the september 2010 rupture that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in san bruno, california. we turn our focus down to tourism. brand usa is a public private partnership created by the 2010 u.s. travel promotion act. its mission is to encourage international tourism to the united states and to grow america's share of the global travel market. christopher thompson, president and ceo of brand usa, joins me from washington. take you for your time this afternoon. >> thank you for having me. mark: all this talk about the strong u.s. dollar, is it scaring away international tourists, are they now less likely to come to the united states? christopher: we have to become a visit of what is happening around the world but the thing about the u.s. is it is such a diverse destination. it is aspirational, even for those that have been coming for

years. people will not not come, just probably alter their trip. maybe the length, what they do to accommodate maybe the dollar not going as far as it would normally. mark: gas prices are lower in the u.s. economy is stronger by all indications. will that cover combined with more visitors from china because of a stronger visa situation help to blunt some of the dollar impact? christopher: china is an amazing market. last year we extended visa validity from one to two years. 100 million chinese visitors last year, the number one outbound source market. that is projected to quintuple in the next five years. as china opens up more and more, that country could have an amazing impact as far as the economic return on visitation to the u.s. mark: how are the airline, hotel, and retail industries being affected what is their exposure, and good overseas operations help to offset the

dollars impact? mr. thompson: particularly when you look at currency fluctuations, we are usually on the frontlines with all the products that represent the experiences that people have here. it could be in the airline industry, lodging, restaurants and retailers that understand that maybe some of the foreign visitors, the power of their dollar is not quite as strong so they can make those adjustments and hopefully continue to enjoy the same visitation. mark: i spoke about the visa situation regarding china. what is your organization doing for people who want to travel to the u.s. and get touristy visas? mr. thompson: we are not responsible for that directly. we are a public-private partnership, in partnership with the federal government. we have a national drawers and strategy -- tourism strategy. the department of state home

and security, and custom and border control are the ones responsible for processing visas. this administration and those agencies have done a tremendous job in the last five years shortening wait times to get appointments, to get to now where we are in those big countries like china where there was a bottleneck before, you can get visas within a week and sometimes in the same day. mark: 100 international tourist to the year -- -- 100 million international tourists a year in 2020. is that realistic? mr. thompson: i think it is. back when it was set in 2012, we need to have a 4.6 percentage compounded annual growth to have that. last week, we had 75 million, which was up 7%. if we continue to have years like that that are above what we needed on the annual basis, we ought to be in good shape hitting that goal by 2021. mark: aside from the strong

dollar, what is your biggest challenge right now? mr. thompson: we have to make sure we market the welcome. for lots of reasons over the last couple of years, we are still viewed around the world as maybe not being as welcoming as we should be. in partnership with our federal agencies which control the entry process and with our messaging around the world, we want to make sure the world knows that we are open for business and we want them to come and we look forward to welcoming them. mark: where does that sense that america may not be open for all visitors, where does that start? mr. thompson: it could be any number of reasons. certainly the security situation has tightened over the last decade. that probably had a lot to do with it. otherwise, i think it is just in general as any hospitality industry has to do, you have to make sure you take the time to think people for coming, welcome them when they do, and encourage them to come back. mark: what does all of this mean for americans traveling abroad how much more buying power do

they have, particularly in the eurozone? mr. thompson: those definitions are quite a bargain for us. i think we, as americans, will certainly be able to enjoy all parts of the world, particularly where the currency situation is favorable as mark: we mightmark: be contemplating trips outside the u.s. before you go, you talk about a public-private partnership. that is not always a good thing when you have that going with the federal government. how would you characterize your partnership? mr. thompson: it is like nothing i have seen a we have a national travel and tourism strategy that calls for these goals in international visitation. nine agencies focused on growing our nation's number one service export. most people do not realize the travel and tourism is an export. it is 25% of all services that the u.s. exports, 10% of all exports, $76 billion positive balance of trade last year. without it, our deficit would

have been 15% larger. it is a huge industry that pays great dividends to the country. mark: christopher thompson thank you so much for your time. i appreciate it. coming up, a report from panama city ahead of president obama's trip to the summit of the americas. the latin america report when bloomberg television continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: welcome back. it is time for today's latin america report. all eyes on panama city this week where president obama will attend the summit of the americas. he will meet with leaders from the region. cuba, venezuela, and results among others. first, the conversation is focused on business and investment. rene hernandez has more. >> hundreds of business leaders from the region are meeting here today in panama to discuss about

trade and investment opportunities here in the americas. panama's president opened things up this morning and made it clear that panama is open for business for global companies and international investors. panama is one of the fastest-growing economies with 5.8% gdp growth in 2014. growth estimates for 2015 r 6% to 7%. the economy is being boosted by a $5 billion expansion of the panama canal and a new copper mine. companies with regional headquarters procter and gamble, adidas, among others and business leaders will later today be here as the ceos of coca-cola and others come.

this is the report from panama city. back to you in new york. mark: rene hernandez reporting from panama city. he will be back with us tomorrow for another report from the summit of the americas. coming up, oil gets a boost from iranian president hassan rouhani's remarks on the pending nuclear deal. we will have the details. alix steel will join me when "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

mark: the past couple of weeks thousands of high school seniors got the dreaded rejection letters from their dream of ivy league schools. this year, the rejection rate was worse. admissions to ivy league universities are at record lows. at harvard, only five out of 100 applicants got in. our higher education reporter janet lord is with me now. why do student still apply?

to the schools >> a couple of reasons. these competitive schools offer extreme a generous financial aid. in recent years, the advent of the common application has made it much easier to apply online. i remember 25 years ago, typing essays not just just not the case anymore. colleges are encouraging kids to apply. as we talked about before, they send them lots of e-mails and marketing materials. this year we saw several schools offering extensions. in the case of duke university and chicago, multiple extensions. mark: you have these big-name universities, harvard, duke yale. are the kids sending their admission letters elsewhere, or are they just fixated on going to ivy league? janet: sure, they are brand name. you think of ivy league, you get a great job after graduation,

but they are lots of applications because there is so much uncertainty and you see these admission rates of 5% at harvard and stanford, 10% at 10 -- penn. in order to hedge your bets, kids are applying to more schools. we heard from a couple of colleges that drop their essays. if you think about the 17 euro holds out there, they might be looking at which schools do not have a supplemental essay and i will throw in a couple more applications out there. mark: let's talk about cost compared to state universities. what are we looking at at that ivy league schools, are they becoming more affordable? janet: if you don't qualify for financial aid, you will see the increase of almost 5%, but if you do qualify and you are a lower income student, if your family's income is $65,000 or less at harvard and stanford you will not pay anything. it will likely be a very good deal, better than perhaps your

state deal. but it depends on what your family's income and assets are. you really should look around. mark: students are getting information about financial aid along with their acceptance letters. what should they know? janet: you have to really study the details. are they offering you grant that do not have to be paid back, or loans? that is an important distinction. loans have to be paid back. if you are getting unsubsidized loans, the interest accrued during your college experience. parents are often suggested to take parent loans, and those are offered by the government, but those are at not so low interest rates. the biggest distinction is, look between grants that you do not have to pay back, and loans. you know, and there is more than $1.2 trillion in student loans as college costs rise, the number continues to go higher. the second-largest form of consumer credit after mortgages. mark: when i apply to colleges,

you send in the letter but you have to send in the admissions fee. janet: application fee absolutely. mark: they are not giving that back. janet: that is true but colleges will give you a fee waiver if you are low income. they do add up and you don't get it back. mark: thank you. oil rebounds from its biggest one-day decline in two months. oil futures rose after iranian president hassan rouhani said iran will sign the nuclear program deal reached last week only if all the economic sanctions are lifted immediately . u.s. and eu officials said the restrictions should be removed gradually. alix steel joins me now with more on the story. talk to us about the dynamics of this. >> at the end of the day, no sentience lifted, no oil on the market. it was not just the rhetoric about sanctions but you have the ayatollah refrain from endorsing a nuclear deal until there was a final version presumably by

june. without him there is no deal to be set. however, interesting to note, iran is preparing for sanctions to be lifted. for example, according to a news agency the country's expecting anywhere between $15 billion and $20 billion in offshore oil investment. and authorities are working to repair about 40 offshore wells and drilling of 15 others. so the rhetoric behind that is we will try to wrap up to see once those actions are lifted. mark: we have heard rhetoric from opec members calling for a cut in production to. alix: this is really interesting. you had a libyan oil ministers say that opec should cut by 800,000 barrels a day to balance the markets. 800,000 barrels a day is exactly what the iea thinks iran could increase production by within three months. but this winds up being a to saudi arabia which is currently

pumping over 10 million barrels a day. the rhetoric there has not been positive on this front. you have the oil minister come out and say we will not cut output without the cooperation of producers elsewhere. you also have one of his advisors coming out on wednesday saying the role of opec is to maintain a market balance not to keep prices high. the market needs time to rebound. reading between the lines, it seems we will preserve our market share and not worry about the price. mark: can the rally last? alix: in terms of the analysts not yet. raymond james says it is too early to tell if prices have actually turned. we had some data points here in the u.s. pointing to slowing production but it is too early to say that the worst is over. more oil is continuing to come online. bloomberg intelligence had a really fascinating writeup about the balkans yesterday saying that north dakota production

could actually increase by 10% due to three reasons. tax incentives will encourage producers. there is a state time limit on when you can drill wells. you have to keep drilling in order to keep the well. and also falling services cost. so maybe we will not see those production cuts that we had expected. not to mention, if iran comes online, you can see a decline in oil of about five dollars to $10. maybe too soon to call. mark: we will see you in about eight minutes on "street smart." what is coming up? alix: we have hans use, the ceo of greylock capital, as well as the former u.s. treasury energy policy director. we will be talking about all of the dynamics of oil, iran, and opec. mark: "street smart" coming up at the top of the hour. thanks. stay with us. scarlet fu will have a check on the market movers on the other

side of the break. "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

mark: get the latest headlines on the top of the hour on bloomberg radio and streaming on your tablet and on bloomberg.com . that does it for this edition of "bottom line." thank you for joining us. on the market with scarlet fu is next. ♪ scarlet: thank you.

it is 56 past the hour and bloomberg television's on the markets. with one hour to go in a quiet day, the dow is little changed. gain as many as six or two point before sliding to its low, a loss of 75. now we are pretty much at where we were at yesterday's close. meanwhile the dollar is stronger and treasuries are falling which means a higher yield for the 10-year. utilities is the worst performing sector so far in 2015. the xl you spider etf is down 6% this year. my next guest says the weakness will not persist because as investors begin the hunt for yield, this etf has the biggest potential upside. we are joined by the head of microstrategy and green capital. hunt for yield. towns like the last couple of years. >> everyone sounds -- got scared that the treasury we come out and that would raise rates, but that is done to repair down. we are in this very newer range on treasuries. maybe 1.8 on the one side, 2.2%

on the other. people start searching for yield again. scarlet: the utility sector has a 3.6% dividend yield. as prices go up, that goes down. >> personally to see them go up. we have seen them underperform. they are at key technical levels. where they are at right now, there is a decent bands chance. we are looking for that bounce. yields have stabilized, energy prices are at the highest end of the range. we like the technicals. scarlet: talk about the linkage between energy prices and then finding a bit of a floor here in utilities. what does that mean? >> as utilities were -- as energy prices was coming down we should of seen utilities benefit. lower cost. as oil bounced back from the low 40's too low to mid 50's, we have seen that have a toll on utilities. we believe oil has topped out here. that should benefit utilities. scarlet: what does a tiny that

everyone thought proxy, utilities, has been punished in 2015, what does that tell you about the state of the market? >> people got very excited last year about utilities, so they are performed last year, so you have some take back. that is a trend this year. following trends has not been good. you want to be contrary in. those trades have worked well. we want to buy utilities here we are less inclined on some of the u.s. domestic growth stories. we like global dividend plays. scarlet: steer clear of domestic stories. it is clear there is a lot of hot money moving on right now, whether it is u.s. cash in european stocks or cheney's mainland cash to hong kong stocks. how do stocks look relative to bonds? >> we will see as we get earnings, if they show weakness it shows that the strong dollar has had an impact and i has not been a big benefit from the low oil price, we will see pressure on u.s. stocks. it is still hard to own u.s.

stocks compared to the rest of the world which is why we like global dividend plays. that will benefit from strength in europe and the weaker euro. scarlet: included in that are european financials. >> we really like them right now. they have been on fair. we think they are due for a small pullback but we think europe is time to show signs of growth. europe likes structured credit. structuring is a hard margin business for the banks. we are starting to see this issuance of u.s. companies issuing in euros to take advantage of the low rate. scarlet: thank you so much. "street smart" is next. ♪ . .

alix: welcome to the most important hour of the session. i'm alix steel and this is street smart. stocks looking for directions as a digest earnings from alcoa and bed, bath and beyond. any dimon worried about a shortage in u.s. treasuries and is a new deal within reach for greece this month question mark "street smart" starts now. here are the top stories we are watching ahead of the closing bell -- terrell electri