cuts its annual earnings forecast as the world's biggest retailer feels the effect of current see fluctuations, but it is a different story for home depot, benefiting from the rise in home prices. pimm: hillary clinton makes a new effort to reach voters in iowa and shrug off criticism she's been to distant and unrelated ball in order to win the election. but will this strategy work? betty: and we will find out why oil companies are taking aim at tom stier -- the billionaire hedge fund starter turned climate change ambassador. pimm: good afternoon. i'm pimm fox. betty: i'm betty liu. let's look at how markets are trading. we are losing some steam with stocks fluctuating in the downng and now pretty much

at their lows of the session. we are talking about a fall of .1% right now. huge drop, but the dow jones is down about that amount, down about 17 points. let's move over to the oil markets. we have seen this all week long for the last several days, oil trading at a six year low. oil prices as you can see since the beginning of 2010, a drop here of about 5%. gold prices, watching gold -- fell to a five-year low in july. that put the central bank closer to raising interest rates. a little bit of a selloff

in the bond market. the 30 year, 284, a little selling going on, but not much action. maybe because of the housing starts. i think it was a six year high or eight year high. it was under what economists estimated. 1.21 annual units and then they revised the june figures up. a look at what is going on in major currencies. the dollar versus the euro basically stable. let's look at the turkish lira. a record low. years.0 years is 40

the turkish euro is losing ground against the dollar as well as other emerging market economies. get right to our top stories. there has been a settlement in the big data breach at target. during the 2013 holiday season, hackers sold of it and credit card information from as many as 110 million target customers. the company has agreed to paid issuers of credit cards up to $67 million. target says the costs were accounted for in previous years. pimm: greece is selling the rights to operate 14 airports to a german company. it's the first of many privatizations the country has to make to qualify for bailout money. it hands over several airports, including many popular tourist destinations to the company that runs the frankfurt airport. the concession is worth $1.4 billion.

betty: german chancellor angela merkel is meeting with her party to shore up support for another bailout package for greece. this comes ahead of the vote in parliament on wednesday. they are lobbying lawmakers to support the aid package even know the imf has yet to commit to footing part of the bill. the parliament in spain approved part of the bailout deal. investors in china may be betting the government is cutting back its stocks. we talked about the situation in china. if you look at who is most high to the china commodity lay, it is latin american companies. you probably talked about how the fragile five has fallen to the troubled 10 because companies like colombia and peru have everything to do with the china commodity trade. they are now in the troubled 10 bucket. betty: the shenzhen index fell

by 10%, the latest move in what has been a roller coaster ride. the chinese regulator in charge of supporting share prices said it would reduce pricing has volatility fails. pimm: it looks as if the housing industry is picking up strength. new home construction rose to the highest level seen in six years. buyers are being attracted by low mortgage rates. meanwhile, a lack of homes on the market is forcing many to start new developments. the united kingdom is announcing it will run trials on an electric road that will charge cars as they are driven. the cars will be equipped with technology that wirelessly connects with underground cables and that connection will generate electromagnetic fields and power the automobile. the government has pledged millions of pounds to develop electric energy over the next five years.

those are your top stories at noon. let's talk a little bit about walmart. the world's biggest retailer reporting earnings this morning that came with a warning -- expect lower profits for the remainder of the year because of a stronger u.s. dollar and an increase in the amount of money set aside to pay employees higher wages. it is a double-edged sword. walmart sales did exceed estimates. is thewith us now founder and ceo of staples. , thank you sog much for joining us. walmart did warn those higher wages were going to hit the bottom line, but their sales still beat wall street estimates, up about 1.5%. is that the case that retailers

across the industry and in particular walmart need to keep those wages level? tom: i think what walmart did was a lot of smart rings. positive.or they are investing in their salary anderms of training. those are differentiated over time and positive things for the long-term. sometimes you have to bite the bullet in the short-term, particularly in an environment as good as this one. pimm: i wonder if you can talk about pricing and discounters and whether they should lower prices even more? tom: you have an awful lot of pressure on prices. driving down prices, you have a andof targeted discounters

walmart has a big battle for them. betty: there seems to be a race to the bottom in terms of currencies. is this something walmart and other retailers need to worry about? tom: walmart does not make a lot of its money overseas. canada and mexico are exceptions that the rest of the world is not that profitable for walmart. it's not going to affect walmart the way it would procter & gamble. the issue of wages, we have seen several measures and certainly a movement across the country to get wages up, but have further disclosure among ceos. there was a rule out that said companies need to come out with ratios between how much the ceo makes to their average worker

salaries. really something that is going to hit retailers. are you for something like this? tom: i think it's a waste of time. if you look at a goldman sachs are prettytaries low. the ratio is going to look worse, so i think it's a leading statistic rot on by the unions. strategic way to which you change the structure at walmart? what would you do to reinvigorate the retailer? tom: i think home depot is a good example of doing it the right way. as opposed to getting a lot of different companies and businesses, they focus on providing great service am a great selection, and driving the

productivity of their box. there role model is what everyone should be trying to do. betty: how about amazon and all the pressure on jeff asus -- terrible work the culture he has allegedly created by this article. is that going to put any pressure on amazon? tom: amazon has three kinds of pressures that are going to hit it. one is the kind of sweatshop they run. second, they are pricing at levels that are not sustainable over time. they really don't make money in their retail business. over time, wall street will demand profitability. dodgey, they manage to collecting sales taxes and many states and it's the third

headwind that will hit amazon. what about whole foods? should whole foods lower its prices in order to compete? tom: the answer to that question is quite simply yes. they are the only guys in town offering a broad range of natural and organic products and they can get away with premium pricing. kroger toveryone from cost go to walmart is extending their offerings and you have some legitimate chains like sprouts out there, i don't inc. opening one little chain is going to do it. i think they're going to have to lower their price humble overall. betty: thank you so much. thomas stemberg, founder and former ceo of staples. the fda is set to vote on a drug being called the female viagra.

it has beenhy causing so much controversy. clinton as shery tries to relate to the average voter. is this new hillary going to win the hearts and minds of voters?

pimm: welcome back to the bloomberg market day. i'm pimm fox. i'm betty liu. another gorgeous day as we are getting to the end of summer. pimm: a shot there from the top of our headquarters they are looking into lower manhattan. plenty of action in

walmart and home depot. julie hyman has the rundown of some other retailers starting with tjx. julie: the owner of t.j. maxx and marshalls up after each reported earnings and they beat analyst estimates. it still gets about three quarters of its sales with outlets in canada as well. comparable sales rising twice as much as estimated, an increase of 6% and performing very well. the company also benefited from something that hurt a lot of other retailers -- west coast port shutdown. it got more inventory at a better price. coach today,at jefferies adding it to its list today. jefferies points out there is an inverse coalition between

handbags and shoes sales. if women want to spend on accessories, they pick one or the other. pimm fox looks skeptical on that item. coach should benefit as it remodels or of its stores. also looking at dick's sporting goods. this company came out with earnings that beat estimates. we have seen athletic apparel and goods performing quite well. shares giving up a little bit of their gains. i was thinking about retail and looking at performance year to date. the 10 to look at industry groups but you can precisely slice them into 24 groups. the best performer year to date is retail. consumer discretionary has done well but within the retail, best performing group is up by nearly 22%. but it does not have to do with traditional retail. within the index, you have think you don't inc. of as retail.

you have netflix, which is up more than 150% and amazon which is not a store you go into. you have expedia, which you would not think of as retail. even gamestop is not a traditional retailer where you are buying apparel are -- apparel or other types of goods. it is interesting when you hear talk about consumer discretionary and retail stocks doing well, be aware it's not what you tend to think of. betty: and there's a tractor supply company. julie: tractor supply has done very well. pimm: they sell more than tractors. betty: handbags? [laughter] that what do you make of -- that it's either a handbag or shoes. that hesitation tells me. [laughter] she wants it all.

take a look at some of the top stories crossing the bloomberg at this moment. in bangkok, a suspect in a deadly explosion was seen on security camera footage. they're looking for a man seen taking off a backpack and walking away. othersle were killed and -- 100 others were wounded. wildfires are threatening a resort town in washington state. several fires are burning near washington and have destroyed 75 homes and businesses. so many fires are burning across the west that 200 active military troops have been called in for assistance. the force will be with you on japan is largest airline paintedwill fly a 787 with a famous robot from "star

-- r2-d2. two other airplanes will be "started in an "-- in a wars" motif. this just can't come too soon for some people. pimm: there will be a moment you are watching the star wars movie while you are flying in that 787. maybe even wearing some star wars paraphernalia. you who arehose of diehard fans, that is a reality. there are fans who have lobbied to be the first ones on the dreamliner. betty: there you go. coming up, the fight against flagging female libido. is a female viagra about to the market? ♪

betty: another look outside -- i've just been told by our producers that it's going to rain for the next eight days. our last glimpse before we take out the umbrellas. pill move over little blue -- viagra for women may be about to hit the marketplace. could get fda approval today, making it the first libido boosting drug for women for hypo sexual desire disorder. pharmaceuticals began developing the drug. it's a problem a phil -- a pill cannot fix and others say it's using a feminist agenda in the name of profits. but why has this kind of drug

taken so long to get to market? here to help us assess this out is drew armstrong. this is basically the female viagra, right? drew: i would say it's anything but. there are a couple of important differences. viagra -- when you think about men and women's sexuality, viagra is a case of if the mind is willing, the body is weak. female sexuality, women -- it's a much more complex process. this drug is not something that messes around with one flow. it is in the brain. andm of the same drugs targets involved with antidepressants come a going after serotonin transmitters. it has to be taken every single day at bedtime and has some real side effects. betty: like what? drew: low load pressure, can't have alcohol, you might pass out

the next day. it can cause low blood pressure, so you get up and fall over. is the other thing effectiveness is not that great. in some cases, the trial data we have seen, these women start at a baseline of two or three what they call satisfying sexual offense a month and they get half to one more when they are on the drug. it's not a huge difference maker for a drug people have to take every single day and we really don't know what the fda is going to do when this decision is revealed. any idea of the kind of money involved in this? are millions of women who do suffer from this. theo way should we conflate effectiveness in this drug or the side effects -- this is a real disorder. sex is something that is

fundamental to our human existence and to not be able to have it for reasons either physical, mental or chemical is something you would hope one day pharmaceutical companies would find a solution for for women. so there is a real market here. they are talking about pricing this drug around the wholesale cost of viagra in terms of monthly use. saying we think there should be some parity in how these things are. so something like this was rejected twice before. and there's something like 25 different types of treatment for erectile dysfunction. ton of treatment out there for men and none for women. part of that is that the science just does not have the understanding of female sexuality and what drives desire . you take viagra, it messes with blood flow and increases stuff down there. four hours later, all done.

it's a different process for women and a have not cracked this entirely and it is unclear that they will. they are talking about an as needed pill. betty: can this be covered by insurance? drew: i suspect that will be a huge issue. there's going to be a lot of controversy. aey are also rising it at level -- viagra was not covered by insurance in many cases. they treated as you want to have sex, you are going to pay $10 a pill for the privilege. drew armstrong from bloomberg news. thank you so much. we will be right back on the bloomberg market day. ♪

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i did not see that coming. don't deal with disruptions. get better internet installed on your schedule. comcast business. built for business. tand that's what we're doings to chat xfinity.rself, we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. betty: there we are looking at capitol hill in d.c. -- still

under construction. welcome back to the bloomberg market day. let's look at the top stories making headlines at this hour. the largest auto retailer in the country is getting bigger -- autonation has agreed to buy 16 located in georgia, alabama, tennessee and maryland. autonation's operating income has risen by double digits in each of the last five years. softbank has increased its stake in sprint for a second time this month, acquiring $73 million for 16.8 million shares. an earlier $87 million investment in sprint. billionaire founder reiterated his commitment to sprint as it shows signs of recovery after reporting his third consecutive gain in subscribers. that with thet sprint ceo earlier on bloomberg. >> he is going to continue to invest in sprint and continue to

provide the support he has provided. verge of a massive turnaround and we feel very good about the prospects and about the future and that's why i believe softbank continues to invest in sprint. he has said he already sees light at the end of the tunnel for sprint which put losses in six out of the last seven quarters, but again, they are adding subscribers. and other chinese company has agreed to make smart phones in india -- lenovo plans to make 6 million phones a year at a factory in southern india. xiaomi is already making smartphones there. india is a booming market for smart phone makers and the government has offered tax breaks to companies. , twoe pacific ocean typhoons are gaining strength. one could become a super typhoon and landon taiwan later this week. to hiter is projected

close to japan. if they hit landfall, meteorologists are worried about torrential rain falls. that's a look at the top stories this hour. coming up in the next hour of the bloomberg market day, we will look at what hillary clinton may have learned from her 2008 presidential bid and what she's doing differently this time around. new research says hedge fund returns are only half as strong as they appeared to be. this report -- we have the study on why the numbers are skewed. billionaireaking on investor tom stier. californians for energy independence, whose contribute include chevron, occidental petroleum and exxon have been probing conflicts between his businesses and legislative advocacy. he was the top individual donor in the u.s. last year, giving $75 million to candidates and causes supporting policies to

curb climate change. ofa special 2014 edition "titans at the table" i had a chance to speak with him about america's energy future. tom: i believe the solution for our energy problem is going to be corporate america and private enterprise america. when we get the policy framework spherethe people in that will come up with creative, imaginative, innovative solutions that will blow our minds. battle,or more on the james nash joins us now from l.a.. when we were with him last year, this was before he was going to make those big donations. but we knew he was going to get some blowback some of the investments he made in energy. what is this new attack on him

really about? james: some of that is going back to his time where he did invest in old fossil fuel energy companies and he is basically reinventing himself as an environmentalist. there's a charge that is hypocritical or he made money when it was convenient and now he is rebranding himself as an environmentalist and it's a false front he is putting on. also since he has become an environmentalist, he has that investing in green energy companies and those companies may benefit from some of the legislation he's been advocating. betty: he's just out to make another profit for himself. tell us about the fracking bill at the center of this. james: it is a three-pronged energy efficiency bill that deals with reducing motor fuel use by half by 2030 and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient.

he has a company that has been in the business of providing efficiency for these products, but he says he will not benefit from this registration because all that investment profit he made is going into a terrible trust that he himself is not profiting from. trust run byitable his people? james: it is the tomkat charitable trust -- tom from his name and cat from his wife's name. any money he makes from his energy investments, if he profits or his companies profit, he will not see a penny of that. it will all go to the charity. california for energy independence which is the oil and gas funded committee trying

to criticize him is saying that he still controls the charity and when you get down to it, the empires fungible and instead of him giving $10 million, the charity would give that money and he would pocket the difference. if he is doing this, it is a conflict of interest. does theyt exactly california partners for energy independence want to achieve as this is going through? what do they want to do here? james: they have said they are in favor of greenhouse gas hesages and they are saying and his friends in the andslature are going to far reducing motor fuel use by half maybe in realist take or some of

is measures he's advocating too much, too soon. they are not saying that he doesn't support some of those principles, just that he's pushing too hard. driving up our cost to your homes and businesses. just ae flexible, it's matter of being in opposition. sires'shat is tom position on this? -- tom stier's position on this? james: they did expect some pushback because they will continue to profit on fossil fuels. this is a buggy whip holding onto its own interests and does recognize the future lies in renewable energy. you heard him say on the snippet you showed before i came on that

he believes once policymakers advocate for and mandate some of these green energy policies, that private industry will fall into lockstep with that and find ways to make money. those private and its trees may not be occidental or chevron, they may be industries that don't exist yet or companies that are more nimble than some of these old oil companies that may be have not moved quickly enough into the green energy sphere. betty: when we had gone to his ranch in california and i sat down with him, i was interested and surprised by -- despite being an environmentalist, he's a capitalist. one of the comments he made was i understand why exxon wants to protect themselves. their duty is to their own shareholders and that is their fiduciary duty. i understand why they would do at some point, when it

becomes more possible for private enterprise, he believes companies like exxon or chevron would find the solutions he would like. but it is interesting because you know he has gone head-to-head with some of these oil companies. didn't he challenge the ceo of chevron to a debate? james: the irony is he wants to debate chevron about gas prices and californians for energy independence has pointed out that if this is mr. green energy, he should not want people to be buying gas. he should want people to be in electric cars or using public transportation or anything other than driving traditional gas powered vehicles. so what is he doing castigating chevron and other companies over high gas prices? he should want people to pay six dollars or seven dollars a gallon. but he has found a lot of

different avenues for criticizing oil companies and he's not backing down. it seems like they are locked into a conflict mode and tom stier was considering running for the united date senate until early this year. he understands politics and the theatrical aspects of trying to call out a ceo on a public debate even if that ceo is never going to appear. now he gets headlines are going tit for tat with head of the largest companies around. who is winning in the court of public opinion? james: it's hard to say. he's had some mixed luck. he's out there in iowa and ohio tried to raise the profile of energy and greece -- and greenhouse issues. so far, polls have shown it's not that high on voters agendas, but he will point out that he has made a difference and it has helped steer the public conversation more into greenhouse gases.

he was not in the vatican with jerry brown when the governor of california went to appear with buthope, but the pope -- the pope has made a big deal of protecting the environment and tom stier is catholic. necessarilys influencing vatican opinion, but it may just be that there's a convergence here of the pope and the governor of california, the president of the united dates, and tom stier and they are reading from the same playbook. he does have influence and he's having this conversation at a time when the economy is doing that are and people are receptive to that message. if the economy were in a bad state, all you would hear about is jobs, jobs, jobs. now people have the luxury to think about the planet. betty: has tom stier's been more effective than the koch brothers?

james: hard to say. i think they have a better developed political arm. i think they have had most of the presidential candidates appear at one of their retreats here in california and tom stier has not tried to be quite as influential on the national stage, though he knows hillary clinton and bernie sanders is certainly speaking much of tom stier's message. but he's less involved at the presidential level whereas the koch brothers are seen as kingmakers. betty: thank you so much. james nash out in l.a. coming up next, want to work part-time? you're not alone. so you 6 million americans. we are to tell you why that number is rising. ♪

they: welcome back to bloomberg market day. i'm betty liu. let's get to julie hyman is looking at the big stories -- we are kind of coming back from those lows of the session. julie: it is a tight range we are seeing today. volume is not as lackluster as yesterday. we are running about 18% below the s&p 500. definitely feel a shrink and volume. dell -- and dow jones down. if you take a look at my bloomberg terminal, the various sectors, we see more red than earlier.

energy is the worst performing group and tech is also lower. energy, as the worst performer reflecting what we were seeing in oil prices. earlier, we had oil trading lower and it's still near a six-year low, so it looks like ast waiting on energy stocks oil prices have turned higher. we get the weekly inventory report tomorrow and that could potentially affect things one way or another, but if you talk to most traders and analysts, the outlook is not strong as supplies remain ample and there's not a forecast the cup in demand. on one side of the commodity picture -- take a look at the metals. we see a significant pullback in copper and aluminum, both of which are trading at their lowest levels 2009. in part, the continued selloff in china overnight causing more

selling in metals as well with a commodities selloff that has been continuing and continuing, intertwined with a selloff in many emerging markets, many of whom are dependent on these commodities. finally, we want to look at the 10 year -- a rise in yields of 2.81%. we have pared some of the advances in yields, but we got new home construction numbers at the highest in almost eight years. contrast with concerns about emerging markets growth and commodities related growth, we still see some relatively strong numbers in the united states. our senior markets correspondent, julie hyman. here is some interesting data on the labor market -- more and more americans are choosing to work part-time, less than 35 to the week according bureau of labour statistics.

over 20 million workers are working part-time but this is by choice. two thirds of the 20 million are working part-time because they have family obligations or are attending school or are semiretired. the 6 million people that would rather work part-time because they basically don't want to commit to one full-time job or one company. with me now is my colleague, mark crumpton. this is the trend these days among the millenial's. mark: it's interesting because it puts them in a position to pick or choose where they want to work. do you want to be a contract player or do you want to be summit he who is independent? -- be somebody who is independent? for the younger generation, they are always looking for a better opportunity, so they don't want to lock themselves into working for one company are one job. the concept of loyalty is probably out the window, but at

some point, look at it as a free agent athlete. you are going to go to the highest bidder for your talents and services. betty: i thought what was fascinating were some of the quote they gathered from people who chose this path. they set i saw my parents get let go from companies, saw my companiesho worked at for 20 or 30 year -- i saw my parents who worked at companies for 20 or 30 years. i would rather create my own job than work at one company for the rest of my life. among my peers, that was starting to happen and now millenials have that flexibility. mark: when we look at these numbers from the bureau of labor statistics, one of the things we always look at is the labor force participation rate. we want to see him in people are actually working. as our michael mckee has told us

more than once, you have to read between the lines. what you see is there are a lot of people out there who are working part-time who do in fact want full-time work. but i imagine if you work part-time for two or three years because you cannot find a full-time job, it might start to appeal to you because you can pick and choose. a lot of folks don't want to be board -- they may work at one job and decide monday, tuesday, wednesday i will work here, thursday, friday i will work here. bloomberg profiled a graphic designer who worked part-time and then is working part-time at his own wooden toy business. these are budding entrepreneurs. mark: you have a chance to look out for yourself. ofing up, a university massachusetts story -- an interesting story here -- sometimes hedge fund eight isn't what we think it is and we will

be exploring that as well. betty: i'm looking forward to that. coming up on the bloomberg market day, hillary clinton is trying hard to shake off first if image as she tries to shake off questions about using her private e-mail address. here she is making a joke at the wingding. : you may have seen i recently launched a snapchat account. i love it. those messages disappear all by themselves. ♪

in democratic presidential politics, hillary clinton will speak today at the afl-cio convention. clinton has had a rocky relationship with the union. unions worked hard for barack obama back in 2008. joining us from washington is

.loomberg's josh eidelson tell us about the relationship between ms. clinton and the unions. it she going to get more endorsements? josh: it's fair to expect we will see several more big union endorsements for secretary clinton over the next few months. others a lot of consternation over union leaders and activists over clinton. some of the key issues unions are mobilizing around like opposition to the transpacific partnership, she has been quiet on. from thehe frustration unions that worked hard to elect and reelect barack obama feel disappointed or even burned about some of what has happened under his presidency, leaving some unions to hold off or take more of a look at ernie sanders. betty: are you talking at the cadillac tax? nevada, thein biggest union in the audience at the nevada afl-cio meeting is

unite here. their top issue is the cadillac tax inthe excise obamacare that has caused a great deal of frustration for union to believe when it goes into effect in 2018, he could have a terrible impact on existing unions health care plans. that's one area where unions are trying to figure out how they can get a better reception from clinton or whoever becomes the democratic nominee than they have under obama. a are hoping to use the leverage they have now to get her to take a firmer position on it. betty: they were at war with her in 2008. how are both sides going to get past that time around? a nationalone has edges here. unite here wants to look forward. they are not eager to relitigate

. even the radio ad called her shameless when there's a controversy about the location of caucus sites in nevada. clinton has made a big point in this campaign trying to make criticism about going after the big vote. there's no reason to think those votes are off limits in those elections where she's the overwhelming front runner. betty: thank you very much. josh eidelson in washington. coming up on the bloomberg market day, the former wife of gaston block gets some powerful new ammunition for her racketeering lawsuit against her ex-husband. we will have the latest on the block family feud. -- the glock family feud. ♪

mark: this is the bloomberg market day. mania --try returns

may not be what they seem. betty: protests show no signs of slowing down of brazil as the company gets inch closer to a bear market print we will get the latest on the tense situation. mark: there is no ammunition on the war among members of the involvesily that secret allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars were hidden. betty: good afternoon. mark: thank you for joining us on this tuesday. let's begin with a look at the markets. stocks are fluctuating today. down near0 is still session lows and the broader market is falling about 1/3 of 1%.