we break down the buying spree. alix: nelson peltz denied by dupont. the investor voted down on receiving a board seat. we will discuss the next move. mitch mcconnell and harry reid enough there is a deal to move for the trade deal. a vote is scheduled for tomorrow. alix: good afternoon. i am alix steel with scarlet fu. scarlet: let's look at equities right now. we are near session lows right now with the s&p and the dow now negative. there you go. the nasdaq still holding onto a gain, clinging to a gain of six points. alix: i will put gain in "quotes."

low level fora the dollar, the lowest level in four months. the weak retail sales are waiting on the dollar and this is a stronger euro conversation because we have a stronger euro gdp for the first quarter. you had france grow more than estimated. that is playing out in the currency market. scarlet: a lot of unwinding of the strong dollar trade. let's look at bonds. we have resumed selling their. the 10-year yield moving higher. the 10-year yield at 2.92% right now. let's look at german 10-year bonds as well. a similar move higher. now,are 72 basis points 72. alix: you say it all. scarlet: here are the top stories. and the philadelphia seven people are dead after the amtrak crash.

more than 200 others were injured. breakthrough for investigators trying to learn while the train -- why the train derailed. mayor nutter: what is accountable, often referred to , has been box recovered. it is now in delaware for analysis. we have no information from that particular device at all because it is currently being analyzed by the experts. alix: amtrak has suspended service between philadelphia and new york. that stretch of the northeast is part of the busiest rail corridor in the united states. alix: millions --scarlet: millions more cars are being recalled because of faulty airbags. all of the autos have airbags takata the toccata -- corporation of japan. at least six deaths and 100 injuries have been blamed on the faulty or backs. alix: president obama met with saudi arabia's crown prince

mohammed. theperson will not be at summit, the saudi king. the white house insists his absence is not a's -- not a snob and he welcomed the chance to talk with the crown prince. us adent obama: this gave chance to discuss bilateral issues including the crisis in yemen and how we can build on the cease-fire that has been established to restore a process for an inclusive, legitimate , andnment inside of yemen it will also give us a chance to discuss some of the broader issues that would be the topic of the summit tomorrow. alix: the saudis are said to be skeptical of president obama's negotiations with iran over its nuclear program. the greekarlet: economy fell into recession in the first quarter.

they are about to recommend cuts that would get them into a surplus. last year, greece emerged from its worst slump since world war ii. one in four greeks are currently without a job. alix: not a good rate. the european union is planning to go after criminal gangs blamed for smuggling migrants from africa. they are stepping up efforts one -- since last month when hundreds of migrants died. the eu also wants to improve how the contract. help -- health is going to pay to settle an investigation. stores were targeted by federal regulators for sales of powerful painkillers. two stores in the town of sanford were barred from dispensing controlled substances including oxycontin in 2012.

alix: isn't it oxycontin? scarlet: is it? alix: clearly i am the one that takes oxycontin. partner witha new "the new york times." they will publish directly to the newsfeed. facebook has been trying to the quality of news that appears on its feet. alix: prince harry -- feed. scarlet: prince harry goes native in new zealand and learned the traditional dance. [chanting] impressive considering

hairy only had 20 minutes to learn the dance. it is typically a war cry and also offered for distinct gets. it also recognizes great achievements. achievements?y's alix: that and clubbing? scarlet: 10 not getting in trouble for his halloween outfit? alix: jcpenney earnings are out after the bell. we will discuss the state of the u.s. consumer. alix: williams makes an effort to reduce taxes. it is a big day for danaher. the company making acquisition and announcing their splitting into. alix: they agreed to buy a water systems maker and the publicly traded entities will include a science and technology company that will keep the danaher name. this is just the latest in $1.9 trillion worth of deals so far this year. let'slet's dig --scarlet:

dig in deeper. we bring in jeff mccracken and the manager of sun and shine partners. jeff, how does this stack up against most of the deals announced? jeff: it makes it into the top 20, but this has been a deal -- year we have seen $10 billion deals. what was most interesting to the market, it finally allows danaher to split into two companies because people had been lobbying to take a health care company and make that a separate business from the industrials business largely because the health care side is always faster growing and gets a higher valuation. alix: marshall, something that struck my eye is the premium that we have seen quarter after quarter slowly increased. what is the big driver. why are companies paying for the

companies and what is behind it? marshall: what is behind it is a good stock market. acquirer shells -- shares are up and they feel wealthier because shares are up. if they want to, they can issue new shares. ishink the other thing that interesting about this transaction is that donna has long been thought about --danaher has been thought about specific before buying health care and medicare device companies. fewer public stocks, and now it is releasing back out by dividing itself. this is a spin on equities being up and what can you do with them. has been really loved by the investor community. they used to trade at three dollars a share 20 years ago. now they are up 29 times from that. scarlet: not a bad return. alix: one hurdle we have seen over the last few months is the doj, the department of justice,

responsible and the ftc as well. role as we see the merger of two huge companies? marshall: i do not think you will see their activity in the danaher deal. i trust -- trace the beginning of a new era in antitrust to the rejection of at&t's intended purchase of t-mobile which caused them to pay break fees that works during a. we had a rather dormant policy in the country. mna has been strategically driven to the point will we see saturation markets. i think the comcast they'll bid to take over time warner cable is another example. scarlet: b say it is more strategic, but there is a sense eaten, companies

and i want to be left behind. marshall: i would look at it as strategic still, boy you are not seeing right now is a lot a big -- but what you are not seem right now is private equity purchases. .hey have become net sellers equities are hype her have to be a public company. jeff: it is tough to compete if you are a private equity. procter & gamble is selling assets. they are looking come but they will end up losing out to companies where shares have risen and they have more money to play with. alix: one area where pe might play a big role is in the energy space. billion literally waiting on the sidelines to get into the energy space. i do not think they will

buy companies out right -- the companies that want to be sold. they will a ticket to other oil and gas companies. there are assets in larger companies that will get sold eventually. private equity funds, big guys like they and capital and -- bain capital and blackstone will make the deals. marshall, -- marshall: those are few and far between you have to be willing to make a bet on energy prices. most private equity firms accountable making bets on things that are not quite that macro. it is a big bet. i would not be surprised if that is also a strategic gain more than a financial gain. scarlet: if we take a broader look, we had $1.9 trillion of deals announced. where are we in the cycle, the third inning, the eighth inning? marshall: we are above the third inning in terms of numbers. it was notrisis

quite $4 trillion. now, to the first half of this year, we're trending back. look, this is a product of the very rich equity market and strategic's looking to dissipate as sometimes plain deep -- participate and sometimes playing defense. i'd nothing will go on forever. i think it will shift at some point. alix: what kills it? the fed raising rates? jeff: that would be one thing, but the antitrust environment. comcast was not able to get the deal done, odds are charter will be able to make a deal. people are looking at monsanto. that combined with interest rates being hyped would slow down mergers and the conditions and that could halted a bit. scarlet: what about the volatility in the dollar and bond markets question mark -- markets? jeff: i've not heard anyone

bring that up yet. marshall: you look at aol taken out by verizon, that will not get killed by interest rates. move, a very strategic but they intend to have more in the online video and add space. alix: thank you so much. marshall, good to see you. jeff, thank you as always. scarlet: coming up on the bloomberg market day, they go pro founder size fortunes drop. we will tell you why. hint -- it was voluntary. ♪

alix: welcome back to the bloomberg market day.

we have breaking news he want to share with you. it looks like amtrak service planned for may 14 are likely to be similar to today. amtrak talking about its schedule. may 14 has not been determined. we do not know how trains will be operated, but likely to be similar to today. we should point out amtrak service between new york and philadelphia was suspended today due to the train crash. we do not know the schedule yet for tomorrow, but likely to be similar to today. scarlet: which is today it will be affected. alix: very affected. scarlet: let's head to julie hyman with a look at the markets 45 minutes to go. julie: we are muddling along. the s&p, the dow, and the nasdaq, very little changed. they have been hanging onto gains. in the fact we are dipping into the red slightly. technology shares have been leading gains. utilities and consumer discretionary stocks are trending downward. that is the balancing act that we see at this point in time.

technologies being the outperform or reflected in the nasdaq as well be in the outperform or today. why we see utilities as the under-performer, utilities are on the rise. we saw a relief from that after the retail sales report came out worse than economists had estimated. we saw buying of bonds, a dip in the yield, but that was short-lived as we have seen investors get out of the market and yields are now going up once again. the utilities that i mentioned tend to be interest rate sensitive. that is why we have seen and take a hit. also looking at the dollar, we have seen declines for the dollar tied back to the retail sales report and concerns about what it means for the u.s. economy. i know we will dig more into that a little later. finally, wanted to check on oil prices. with the dollar down, you would expect oil would be up, but that is not what we are seeing today. we saw it earlier, and it was a reversal. we had an inventory report that

showed a drawdown. you would think that would be favorable for oil. we also got information that refineries reduced crude use by the most in four months. that appears to be weighing on oil futures. a good way to show how things had not --scarlet: a good way to show how things have not been moving, the dow has only swung 90 points. alix: imports increased about 4%, so we are importing more. scarlet: helpful information. alix: there are the top stories crossing the bloomberg terminal at this hour. we begin in pakistan where six gunmen jumped aboard a bus and killed 45 people. the violence occurred in the southern city court. the bus was carrying shiite muslims. the attackers escaped and motorcycles. militant groups linked to the taliban in the islamic state are cleaning response ability. scarlet: now to nepal, where many survivors of the most recent earthquake remain cut off roads and isolated

villages. rescue teams are searching for survivors after the second fatal earthquake in less than three weeks. 79 people died in the latest disaster. a u.s. military helicopter is still missing. six u.s. marines and two nepali's were aboard. korean defense minister has been reportedly executed for falling asleep during a rally last month. the defense minister is one of the most influential positions in the company. experts say the execution might hurt stability in north korea. those are some of your top stories. scarlet: billionaire nick woodman just lost a little of his fortune, returning 4.7 million shares this week, totaling $229 million to fulfill a promise he made to a college roommate more than 10 years ago. alix: why exactly did he make this deal question mark we are deal? by tom metcalfe --

we are joined by tom metcalfe from san francisco who wrote the story. what happened? tom: it dates back to the start of gopro's existence. nick woodman founded the company and tapped his college roommate to be employee number one. as part of that he said you can get 10% of any proceeds i get goshares.ng that agreement held until 2011, and then gopro said we need to cancel this agreement. as a part of that, nick woodman got 6 million options --nick gopron said i do not want take the hit, so anytime he exercises options, they can come out of my own holding. nick woodman is down about $200 million, as you say. he suffers a little

bit. who is donna? this he start his own company? it is a massive windfall. he still works at linkedin. he currently has the title of head of music and sociologist sales. he keeps a low profile even though he has about 5% of the company. scarlet: thank you so much. we had a reporter who covered this story with us. alix: why don't we get those deals from college romance. falling down on the job -- we make. falling down the job. nelson tells failed in his bid to get on the board of dupont. we discussed the proxy fight and what it means going forward. ♪

scarlet: you are watching bloomberg market day. alix: activist investor nelson battleas lost the against dupont. as soon as a result of the vote was announced, dupont's stock price fell. david has been following the story for us. he joins us now. what happens now? said: well, nelson peltz he will continue to be invested in the company. he is a constructivist investor, not like a lot of activist investors. he said he would keep his shares in the company, keep applying pressure to dupont and dupont management to see if they make changes. we will see what happens. hedid mention today, and said he met kullman before the

vote and she promised to be with him afterwards. after his speech, a lawyer came from dupont and said the meeting was off. it is still very icy. what is interesting as one-third of shareholders are employees. there is a different kind of why you on this stock. david: exactly. you see how the sides did their outreach. they. a lot of money. it seemed like it really hinged on retail investors. one. are individuals. their concerns about the stock car different. historically speaking, when there -- stock are different. historically speaking, they are likely to go with the activist investor. biglet: this seems to be a victory for the dupont ceo. would you agree? she has learned something

as well. she has maintained it is a complex comprehending and it needs to be that way to work well. scarlet: the synergy. david: exactly. she said what she wants to do going forward is make a better case behind the science behind dupont and make the case better to investors and consumers. scarlet: is like she can write a guide to how to deflect activist investors. alix: it is unlike what we have seen before. david,: david --alix: thank you. scarlet: i will take off to do have a lot coming up, including retail earnings. alix: we are 30 minutes away jcpenney release of earnings. we will talk about the state of the consumer after this break. ♪

[baseball crowd noise] ♪ ♪ [x1 chime] ♪ ♪ [crowd cheers]

oh! i can't believe it! [cheering] hi, grandma! ♪ alix: welcome back to the bloomberg market day. i am alix steel. let's look at a top stories

crossing the bloomberg terminal. in philadelphia, authorities say at least seven people are dead after last night amtrak crash. more than 200 others were injured. meanwhile, there has been a potential breakthrough for investigators trying to learn why the train derailed. mayor nutter: whatever is comparable, as we know it, often , thated to as a black box has been recovered and it is now in the amtrak operations center in delaware for analysis. we have no information from that particular device at all because it is currently being analyzed by the experts. alix: according to an official briefed on the data, the train was traveling at about 100 miles an hour, twice the speed limit. amtrak has suspended service between philadelphia and new york and service for tomorrow has not yet been determined. that stretch of the northeast as part of the busiest rail corridor for the u.s.. amtrak says service will continue to be effected by this investigation. chicago's credit rating has been slashed and that might cost the windy city more than $2 billion.

movies has lowered the credit -- moody's has lowered the credit rating to junk and triggers fees for ending swap contracts. mayor rahm emanuel plans to refinance $900 million of debt to reduce the penalties. a tv maker, visio, could be going public this year. bloomberg has learned the company is interviewing banks for the potential ipo. they are known for low price, flat-panel televisions and they have moved into consumer electronics and tablets. the companies -- the company is said to have more than $1 billion in revenue. they are manufactured abroad. those are your top stories. walmart is said to be introducing his discussion-based shipping service that will take on amazonprimer for less than $99 a year. the new service will be called how according to the tech news "the information," but will walmart be successful. we want to head out to julie

hyman. lower the $99? a little smoke came out of my ears. julie: to be clear, it likely will not offer the same things $99 gets you at amazon. it is not probably going to have free video and music streaming, although walmart does own a video streaming service , but it will not be ke.ctly like for li also keep in mind in terms of the day delivery or saint-day delivery, walmart does not offer the same -- same-day delivery, walmart does not offer the bells and whistles. it does offer some same day delivery on groceries, so there are questions about whether this new prime-like substitution service would include that sort of thing. if you take a step back and try to figure out what is amazon

ising to do versus -- what walmart trying to do versus what amazon does -- there you have some questions. walmart has not grown as rapidly despite holding a much smaller market share than does amazon of e-commerce, so this could be an attempt for it to catch up with that. it also has management departures in its silicon valley operations recently. it has commecial, couple thousand folks based out in silicon valley who try to aggressively build up the business. it has been buffeted by management changes recently. again, this is according to "the information," as well. it will be interesting to see how they proceed with all of this. indeed. if they get lower than $99, game changer. thank you, julie, our senior markets correspondent. jcpenney reports first quarter earnings and 30 minutes and we're looking to get an update on turnaround efforts. the results, the heels of macy's and ralph lauren, who this

morning were both trading lower on the news. i want to bring in retail veteran steven newman, former ceo of loman's, who also served as president of brooks brothers and eddie bauer. stephen, think of for being here. you have looked through macy's and ralph lauren. what is your biggest take away as we begin the retail earnings season? stephen: one quarter does not make a year. i think three more quarters for people to make directions -- as far as macy's, what they came out with and spoke about was that tourism was down, which it probably was a little bit. i am not a believer in the west coast port could have made the earnings lower than they would have expected. i also think that in general, and this goes to ralph lauren, too, the winners today are people that have exciting things in the stores of exciting things that consumers want to buy. if we went through an apple store today, they would be crowded and confident because

they have a product that people want. you can look at a few different brands like that who have been successful. i think macy's has to now understand why do i have to start -- shop at macy's. i can go any day of the we and get the same discounts. is it something going on in fashion or something happening that will drive the customers in their question mark i could say the same thing for ralph. he -- in their? i could to the same thing for ralph. how many polos do people need in the closet? you hear more press about his restaurant and the clothing people are wearing. alix: also, in terms of macy's, you are dealing with departments or sales falling off a cliff, down 2.2% in april. people are not shopping at the mall. is that part of the problem? steven: i do not think the mall is death. i think it will always be entertainment. the winners that are mall-based stores, have a great mobile

capacity, a great e-commerce is all totality today. it is not just going to the brick-and-mortar store. it is everything. when you look at macy's, the report total sales, not just the stores. alix: you like apple. who are the other companies doing well in the space? walmart has a great mobile business and a web business. we do not think about it that way, but they do. you think about walmart, but there is a lot of competition. there are a lot of companies that do free shipping. they're coming up with $99 shipping to go against amazon. eventually, there will be those that come up with $50 shipping. there will always be competition, and that makes youica great, but i think have to give the customers what they want when they want it. thatet: that is at --alix: is apple. wells has a best practice? is a good question.

there are so few of them. alix: i bring that up because apple is a tech company, necessarily retail. steven: i would agree and disagree. phone.ot just the you can do everything on your phone. you can run your house from your phone. it is really a product that people want to have for lots of shopping.d even yes, they are a tech company, but hasselbeck about them as a retail company as well. alix: -- think about them as a retail company as well. alix: who else has good practice? steven: some of the designer brands, they always keep changing, give great customer service. brands that are doing well. group is always evolving and trying to get something new to the consumer. it is very difficult out there. that is why you look at those numbers and some of it is not

surprising. alix: what about jcpenney reporting in 30 minutes. you try to turn loman's around. jcpenney is trying to turn itself around. what is the hardest part, and what is your advice question mark steven: -- advice? steven: the interesting thing is they have money. you need money to weather the storm into the turnaround. what jcpenney is trying to do -- how do they lower customers back in? it is not always have to be at a discount. maybe they open up outlets in their stores. no other brand has that. that is a reason for someone to go to that store. they have to have a differentiator. what is the difference between jcpenney, kohl's, target -- they have to differentiate themselves to make customers see what they are doing that adds value to whatever product and tried to sell. the customer was not that upset with jcpenney. jcpenney upset their customer. it is a big difference.

the customer is willing to go back and try them again. let me point out they have about $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, to your point. steven: i did not have anything near that. alix: jcpenney calls you up. what do you say? steven: my phone is ringing. alix: [laughter] steven: i would say stay true to the brand that you are an true to your customer and make sure you are servicing them at the price they want, the availability, and i think you can win your back -- back your customer. those are core elements to know what they are talking to to make sure they are resonating with that customer. again, i will go back and keep saying the customer did not walk away from them. they walked away from the customer and it is a big difference. macro view --n a we tell sales and flat. certain areas were disappointing. i highlighted the department store sales can what is your take on how we are doing here?

-- sales. what is your take on how we are doing? steven: in general, people are taking vacations, paying down debt -- there is nothing really besides maybe a new phone or that you really, really must have today. a red dress -- it is a red dress. a tie is a tie. people are not running out to make those new purchases if something is not telling them passion is changing. need to leaduct whatever money i have my wallet. steven: always. alix: do a stick around for the jcpenney turnaround plan. 20 minutes until jcpenney's comes out. coming up, and interesting $40 billion deal in the energy world. we'll tell you why williams is buying the 40% of williams partners they do not already own. instant topic. stay with us. ♪

alix: welcome back to the bloomberg market day. i am alix steel. time for the markets. 15 minutes before the closing bell. julie: if you look at big movers, a lot of it has to do with potential deals, done deals. one, start with the big paul and danaher -- pall corporation being bought by 13 point billion dollars. $13.8 billion. the companies will split apart. danaher will be the name of the science of technology and .ompany -- technology company

also in terms of deals we are watching, owens, illinois, the world's largest maker of glass containers will expand reach in mexico. that is not right. those owens-illinois shares are actually up today. let's do a quick check on my bloomberg,. they are of, so i do not know what is going on -- often, so i do not know what that is. that is not the right number. we also have earnings we will be watching after the bell. cisco is one of them. those shares are little changed today. the company prepares to hand over the reins from john chambers. jcpenney shares have been falling ahead of learnings and willie watching shake shack, its first report as a public company. alix: i should also point out you had williams buying williams partners as well, another merger.

for now, let's look at the top stories of the bloomberg terminal. the vatican is officially recognizing the state of palestine. officials signed a treaty that covers the activities of the catholic church and palestinian territory. it is the first legal document negotiated between the vatican and the palestinian state and it constitutes official diplomatic recognition. israel says it is disappointed by the move. a warning from iran to saudi arabia as a cease-fire begins in yemen. says military commander attempts to prevent aid from reaching the war-torn country could start an uncontrollable fire, and that is according to a local television station. the saudi led coalition against yemen's shiite rebels have a mission targeting airports. u.s. leaders mitch mcconnell and harry reid have reached a deal, grain to move forward with president obama's legislation to speed forward trade agreements. separatelywill vote

unrelated bill sought by democrats including one to prevent currency manipulation. by a will be followed measure favored by the president. there is never been a jewelry auction that brought in this much. , 70's auctioned off $161 million worth of gems. the big prize, the 25 caret will be ring. it went for 30 million. it is a record for any part -- cartier jewels. those top stories. something unusual is happening in the energy world. or master limited partnerships are reversing themselves. williams is buying the 40% of williams partners they do not own. williams partners is a pipeline company. typically, energy companies spin out the transportation arm into an mlp to unlock value.

that trend is reversing. joining me now is bloomberg intelligence's michael k. what is going on here question mark i saw the deal and not this was huge. why should the average joe care about this? when you have bellwethers in the industry consolidate and form a trend, and vessels should pay a trend -- investors should pay attention. candor started this, and now williams. alix: let's talk about kinder morgan. a big shift. they created the mlp business and then said they would spend $40 billion to buy back the mlp businesses. why does this make sense? --hael: there is a theory cost of capital is one thing. a lot of the companies need to grow upm&a in order to in the cost of capital is lower once they consolidate.

another thing is application of structure. -- simplification of structure. as well, many copies are finding they can wrote at a faster rate when they consolidate --can grow at a faster rate when they consolidate. m has tolpally, an kick back some cash, and at some point you are paying back so much you cannot grow yourself. michael: for example, a company like williams partner was at the highest tier at the intended distribution structure. alix: a fancy term. michael: that is who they pay to the general partners -- what they pay to the general partners and they were paying 37% of their cash to general partners. under this intonation there will be no more distribution. it will help the cost of capital and allow them to grow a little faster, targeting lower-cost projects with less risk. alix: basically, if you have an

mlp going on their own, paying out half what they may, how they m&a?up financing they have to issue debt, correct? michael: correct. they have less cash to cover -- ratiosoverage with are tight. they have to issue more debt and equity and that is weakening the balance sheet. that is part of the impetus for some of these deals. alix: who is next? we saw two behemoths. who will be next? when two ofhael: the behemoths go into this thing, you have to watch out for new opportunities. one company that has begun to consolidate is energy transfer. energy transfer partners bought regency partners. they still have a few other ways they can go. sunoco logistics is still under

the family tree, and that is their crude oil growth platform that is going to distribution by 20% or so. so, once you see the incentive distribution rights impede on sunoco logistics growth rate, there could be an opportunities there. -- an opportunity there. alix: thank you for the perspective. a fascinating deal. thanks for much, michael. still ahead on the bluebird markets day, a week start to the second quarter, and this time the cold weather cannot really be blamed. we will break down what it means to the economy. ♪

alix: warmer weather and lower gas prices not enough for shoppers to open their wallets. retail sales will basically flat in april as consumers held back on big-ticket items like furniture and cars, but there were some bright spots. let's bring in carl rick and donna and julie hyman.

so, the headline numbers not great. within that, we did see positive momentum. restaurant and bar sales were up. clothing and accessories were up. so, was its were up really as bad as he the -- as we thought? carl: you are naming discretionary categories and this was a conundrum. the categories that are usually the swing categories when consumers feel a page from higher gas prices are slower income growth actually performs well. it is a disappointing report to be sure. this thing has softened considerably -- the sting has softened considerably by looking at those that you highlighted an upward revisions to the march results. it is a soft trajectory, but not a complete complex -- collapse. isn't that--julie:

part of the secular change in what people are spending money on? restaurant sales have been trending up, and order thinks people in retail complain about is not the money is out there, but the people are going to restaurants, going on vacation, and not necessarily buying the stuff that they sell. ofl: looking at a couple months worth of data is a little too soon to make that assessment. certainly there are always shifts in consumer preferences and whatnot. i think we have not fully -- consumers still have this sense that the economy is moving at a slow pace, so they are airing on the side of caution because of that. expansion, but slow expansion. a big difference from last year weak q1saw the week -- and then the dramatic elevation. people say it is just like last year. q1 might be just like last year. q2 has a much more sluggish

pace. alix: how does that compare for retail stocks? julie: if you look at macy's today, that report encapsulates a lot of the challenges that retailers as a whole have been facing. shutdown isst port something they talked about, the delays in getting merchandise. the cooler weather we have been seen, until now, i guess, which retailers always blamed for some of their problems, whether it is too hot or too cold. also, the west coast port situation is abating -- the stuff is not getting through. finally, the strengthen the dollar, which is, among all of the other things we talk about, hertz ralph lauren -- ralph lauren, which gets a lot of sales abroad, but it could also becausey's international shoppers are now spending less of their money. all three of those issues are abating. the west coast port shutdown,

the weather, and the current situation. alix: what does the fed do? i saw jpmorgan downgrading the 2%.mate from 2.5% to dupont it looks like -- carl: it worse ine q1 is even the last time we updated do. look sick a deeper decline. second quarter activity is not look to be off to a good start. we are in a moment now in the economy with the gears are shifting and it is really reliant upon consumers to be the major growth engine. we are not seeing a lot of vigor on that front. julie, thank to pages in penny coming up next. ♪

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alix: it's coming up on 4:00 here in new york. this is the "bloomberg market day" and i'm alix steel.

[posing bellringing -- closing bell ringing] with thecks closing dow off by about eight points and the nasdaq is in positive up at five, the only brighter spot a mistake. i'm joined now by joe weisenthal . it was a pretty doll day in the markets, but sectors were actually moving. by .5% and utilities and consumer discretionary down, which was interesting because we had that weaker retail sales report and lots of things lower their. department store sales, car sales, furniture, electronics, that was lower, weighing down the consumer discretionary. joe: it makes