mark: european stocks slumping to a two-month low. next week's federal reserve meeting looming. the european close starts right now. ♪ betty: we will be taking you from new york to london in the next half hour. mark kicks things off for us. in what is been a pretty selloff mark: a two-month low for the stoxx 600, the biggest weekly drop. following for eight days. every industry group on the stoxx 600 fell today, fell this week led by basic resources and energy companies. the index down by 8%. the most in two months. bring on the fed. betty: bring on the fed indeed.

also outside of the fed we've seen lots of action going on in other markets, including south africa. mark: the rand is down to another record low. there was a big rattling yesterday after the president sacked his finance minister. i'm looking at the spillover into the u.k. market. this is the u.k. insurer old mutual. it found itself in 1845 in south africa and moved to london in 1999. 70% of its revenues are based in south africa. in today's this year has fallen by 21%. this is the biggest drop in six years. -- 21% fall. the biggest two-day decline ever. all you have got to look at is all mutual -- old mutual to see that as evidence. betty: we will be back with you. i want to check in on the

bloomberg first word news. a lot of action happening in europe. courtney has more. courtney: we had to california first. and the i.t. has searched a link an fbihern california -- team has searched a lake in southern california. they have recovered a computer hard drive that might have been dumped by the shooters. they believe the two were at the lake around the time of the attack. authorities are trying to determine what signs they miss that may have prevented the attack. they said the couple that went on the rampage discussed martyrdom and jihad online as early as 2013 but they never surfaced on law-enforcement's radar. bad news for fantasy sports fan in new york. a judge ruling that draft king and fan dual have to close down while the shade is trying to shut them down for good. the york's attorney general says the fantasy sports sites break state gambling laws. womenarabia tomorrow,

will be a will to vote and run in a national election for the first time. about 1000 women are running for council seats. almost 300 municipalities. male voters outnumber female voters in saudi arabia by 10-1. lawmakers in ukraine are pushing for their policies and shoving. a scuffle breaking out in parliament. a thaksin backing the president wants to vote the prime minister's governor -- government out. at the first word news right now. you can get more on these breaking stories 24 hours a day at the new bloomberg.com. on courtney donohoe. betty: incredible footage. i want to turn to the world of currencies. the yen is tumbling in offshore trading. the dollar is strengthening as china unveils a new index that values the yuan against a broad range of currencies. --culation that china was to

let it weaken further. mark, you are keeping your eye on this and also the euro and it gains after the ecb. mark: it is rising for the second executive week, gaining about 30% versus the dollar since mario draghi unveiled the rebooted stimulus package that fell short of many expectations. jeremy french is here. meeting chickset -- fed meeting change the euro-dollar dynamic since last thursday? it is rising for two weeks. it has not done that since october. how does wednesday change the dynamic when it comes to euro-dollar? jeremy: the assumption initially that the federal reserve will hike rate. we are seeing a degree of volatility this afternoon. maybe people will become a little reticent pricing that to

the same degree come wednesday. assuming they do raise, where do we go from here? how far do we go for tightening in 2016? if the markets anticipate the fed is going to be more aggressive in discounting currently, that might encourage a little bit of a pullback. we are in a new trading range for euro-dollar. we will not see pullbacks below this level we were trading at immediately ahead of the ecb. i think we seen the trough as far as the dollar is concerned. when we look forward over 12 months i would not be surprised if we see a reasonably firm euro-dollar. cheap euro on a longer term perspective. mark: the danish central baird was spank -- bank was spared. to do those currencies react the situation which you just described post next wednesday?

--y have all essentially cap cap to their power ahead of the fed. jeremy: they were disappointed by the action taken by dragi. there were people that were quite relieved. probably the riksbank. these central banks have relatively limited -- in certain instances. we know we can move further into negative territory and further bond buying. one expect because the ecb has not unleashed rules in excess of what the markets are anticipated, those central banks will be able to hold the line at this juncture. leaving what is relatively modest policy options on the table for future reference if they are needed. given all of, these central bank moves we have seen and that surprised by the ecb, is he getting harder to predict currency moves?

is that going to get worse and 2016 as we see more central banks act? if you look back at 2015 to the prism of history, you will probably characterize it as the year that global central banks created their own volatility. we go all the way back to the any of the year, we started off of the snb. we saw the changes in china over the summer and never have the ecb surprise last week. we could conceivably get another fed surprise before the end of the year. i think 2015 with your central-bank surprises. 2016 is going to be more itficult to read because seems likely we are seeing a divergence in monetary policy playing out with the fed headed towards derivative tightening. i wouldn't be surprised at the -- at the same time we are seeing markets pricing at additional uncertainty or potential eating capabilities of some this commodity related central banks.

even though the bank of canada will probably remain on hold, markets will continue to attempt to discount additional monetary stimulus. betty: speaking of some surprises in various moves, we get this report from the journal today that the chinese may be looking at our maybe taking some pegging froms de- the u.s. dollar. jeremy: certainly markets are reacting this afternoon. if there is a degree of credibility in this instance, you could argue that the chinese are trying to alleviate some of the pressures on their economy by allowing the currency to cheapen a little against the u.s. dollar we have seen another -- a number of other currencies weekend. they are trying to contact -- maintain competitiveness. betty: isn't that the big enough for 2016? china? jeremy: absolutely.

if you can get the china story right, you'll have a much better handle or understanding in terms of the majority of other currencies related to commodities. mark: the south african rand which is continuing to sink after the president sacks the finance minister. south african markets in a bit of a bother the last 24 hours. how load is ago? are we in panic mode? jeremy: i think we are close to it. bloodbath might not be appropriate but he characterizes what we are seeing in the market. the potential for the country to lose its investment-grade status. that seems to be the least of its problems in the current environment where we do have a political crisis effectively. investors saying we're not sure about the control. at the same time we had the central-bank hiking rates and it will probably continue to do so.

it's almost a perfect storm as far as the brand is concerned -- rand is concerned. worst if best of the you look at a gauge. it's at a record low. if he had to choose one against the dollar which will maybe outperform all the others post fed, does one stand out? jeremy: one of the currencies would be the indian rupee. i think it's probably one of the better places for emerging-market currencies. we are looking at potential action and certainly we looking at that against the chinese currency. we are having a consideration against the rand. trying to look at two differential emerging market currencies. one with structural issues looking to improve and the other in south africa which is effectively hearing -- nearing a basket case status. mark: thank you jeremy.

betty: i've never been labeled a basket case. we will talk much more about the neardities because oil is session lows as well as u.s. stocks. we will keep a close eye on the selloff shaping up on this friday. ♪

♪ >> welcome back. this is london. it's a beautiful christmasy sort of evening. on the ftse 100 only three stocks rose today. one of them was merlin entertainment, which owns metta tous -- madam

betty: i wonder where they are up. mark: 97 stocks are down today. betty: they are certainly down here today. i look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. hoping for a job at barclays? you might be waiting for a while. the ceo has extended a hiring freeze indefinitely according to people with knowledge of the matter. booste been trying to profits at barclays. firm's --- the standard chartered raise more than $5 billion in a share sales today. about 97% of shareholders exercise the right to buy stock. that is seen as a vote of confidence in the ceos plan to turn around. jobs,s is cutting 15,000 scrapping its dividend, and

exiting risky assets. ma more way alibaba's jack is following jeff bezos. they've agreed to buy south china morning post. the paper has been struggling to attract advertisers. bought thego bezos washington post. you can knows get more business news at bloomberg.com. mark, as we were talking about in our last segment, the commodities area has been extremely volatile. affecting central banks and currency markets. and oil has been the biggest mover here. mark: crew today tumbling to its lowest levels since 2008. opec's decision to scrap reduction targets causing a ripple in the market. let's bring in will kennedy at bloomberg news. surplusd the global oil

will persist into late next year as demand slows and neck -- opec maximizes production. that me low oil is here to stay? 1.5 milliongot barrels coming onto the market looking for summer to be stored in a day. that's adding to record surpluses and stockpiles. it will take a long time to exit that. mark: opec measures are having some effect. they said we've seen the biggest drop in non-opec supply since 1992. iranyou got the likes of coming back on stream. everything is against opec right now. will: signs of the saudi policy is working. the biggest oil producers have taken a big axe. conoco, chevron. in time to will mean less oil on the market that it will be a long time for the tarp -- starts

to take effect. betty: give me a sense that people are just giving up forecasting oil. will: the people we have talked to have been pretty gloomy about the oil price next year. we did a survey of analysts. -- they expected to follow in the next year. the iranian thing is already in oversupplied market and you will see after barrels next year. survey, thet bloomberg survey which was interviewing over 100 commodity players in the industry. that those that were surveyed forecast it commodities. stabilizing next year there are some which are forecasted. , natural gas.t will: i think it's a mixed picture.

some people are bullish about natural commodities because we have to deal with the effects of el niño on production. there are concerns that the wheat harvest might not be so the next year. mark: it showed overwhelming pessimism for copper, glencore came to mind. linked torrevocably copper. will: this is the other big story of the week. anglo american earlier this week. glencore saying we will have to do whatever we can to/debt -- to slash debt. there is a lot of pessimism about chinese demand and that is why people are gloomy. will, great to see. betty: let's go into stocks and how u.s. stocks are trading right now. we are pretty much near lows of

the session. just a note on the s&p. we are counting 26 sessions without back-to-back gains. the record was 28 days back in 1970. it looks like we might be hitting another record, but not one that is good for the bulge. i want to get a abigail doolittle. she is live from the nasdaq. abigail: stocks are certainly lower at the nasdaq. the index is off 1.5% at this time. one winner is adobe systems. shares are higher after to the top fourth-quarter profit estimates as a sign of new customers for their cloud-based services. lots of raised price targets out there. ross mcmillan now has a street , suggesting a 112 good move higher by 17%. caution. shares are trading relatively expensive to the cost. they are priced to perfection.

turning to a stock going the other way or down is jetblue. shares her office oil falls today. the company said their fourth quarter is down 2%-3% year-over-year. this is a message of unit revenue per passenger. technically something important is happening. it has helped us one of a moving average beautifully over the last year, more than a year. currently shares are below that level of support for the first time since august. shares closed above the 100 a moving average that day. the last time we saw that was october of 2014. ofremendous period volatility for stocks in the u.s. and abroad. it will be important to see were they close at 4:00 p.m. in new york. betty: thank you abigail. coming up, a battle of the charts. mark: i'm gather you are wheeling out brendan greeley today.

balboa of the chart world. it's a u.s., greek, and south african bond markets have in common? that's coming up next. you better be ready greeley. ♪

♪ betty: you are watching "bloomberg markets." it's time for the global battle of the charts. we take a look at some of the most telling chart of the day. we are brendan greeley here and he is ready to go. african movement today. a long-term historical perspective. we're going back to 2000. this is the debt to gdp ratio. down, down, down.

up all the way to today. what is this redline? the last measurement data before jacob zuma was elected president. it's not -- you can't necessarily conclude it's completely his fault. i talked to jordan in our johannesburg bureau. they built of a bit of a grain store. this is the trough of the financial crisis. they decided to be countercyclical spending. what they spent on was government employees. they had a plan to double the number of state employees by 2015. largely successful. but he can't be countercyclical with employment. very difficult event hair back when you notice her cost of debt is going up. simplicity is the goal. betty: i love that. they tried to take this down and clearly not successful. brenen: do you believe this is a continued movement? betty: i am told mark is a big

heavy one. major development in the world has risen in 2015. that is amazing and a year when the fed was slated to raise interest rates and probably will next week. the best-performing bond market in the world this year guys is, look at the greek bond market. the white line rising by 18% after the nation was bailed out. the u.s. treasury market, the blue line rose by 1% as inflation stays low 20. the south african bond market is an emerging bond market. it's the worst-performing global bond market. emerging and developed as well. it is falling 4.7%. the decline all happening in the last 24 hours. before yesterday it was neck -- with the u.s. treasury market. will this beaver feet -- repeated next year?

every developed bond market rise in 2016? i will leave that to the fed. betty: mark, that is a great sharp at have to give to branden because of his aerobics. she felt that although she does prefer some for city. brenden " rocky balboa" greeley. a quick peek of what we are looking at next week. have a look at this. an interview with the royal bank of scotland chief executive. that's the big one on monday. see you then. ♪

tom: it is noon in new york, 5:00 p.m. in london, 1:00 in new york. welcome to bloomberg

"markets." ♪ from the bloomberg world headquarters in new york and i am scarlet fu. here's what we are watching. crude oil flirting with $36 in $36 a barrel. dow chemical and do point have terms in the largest deal ever in the chemical industry. federal regulators have to ok it. things could be facing lean years. are there should thinking they will struggle with possibility until 2020. we will tell you why. first, more on today's market activity. the latest. we had a down week prior to yesterday. we saw a little recovery in the stock indexes prior to selling.