from bloomberg headquarters new york, good afternoon. here is what we are watching this hour. u.s. stocks on track for the worst week in a month and oil falling for a sixth straight day trading at its lowest level in seven years. braced for next week's bed beating after which jenny owen is expected to announce the first rate hike in nearly a decade. -- janet yellen. we will hear from the ceos of dupont and dow chemicals. a year and a half after the company bought its smaller rival, scherzer poland their lowest level in more than six years. for anzimmer joins us exclusive interview. let's head over to the markets desk. right now, we are seeing our

worst day since late september. .arkets just off session lows the s&p 500 down 1.6%, the dow down 1.5%. the nasdaq down 1.7%. a big factor is the falling price of oil. that is bringing down energy stocks. nine out of every 10 stocks on the s&p are down right now. i want to show you the seasonality function. seag.-- we are down 3% for the month of december. so much for the so-called santa rally. the biggest monthly decline since august. we were down by as much as 6.25%. that 8% gain in october right here, that is a thing of the past. lows&p is now near such a this session lows.

now down by 3.5%. we saw a leg up when the consumer sentiment data came out. david: today, the story is about oil. >> the story has not changed. the main and oil is reason for the route inequities. down by 3%. the six day in a row that it's been falling. its lowest since february of 2009. down by nearly 11%. the worst week since this time last year. much of this has to do with opec setting aside that output quota last week. but let should continue through late 2016. should continue. natural gas also falling, below the two dollar mark today. effect see the knock on

on the natural gas stock. energy down 50%. range resources down 10%. 15%.ergy down david: let's get to the bloomberg first word news. mark crumpton has more. climate paris, the change conference has been extended by at least one more day. the talks have been set to end france's foreign minister says he will propose a final draft of the agreement saturday instead. there are a number of issues to be resolved. among them, how to get deeper cuts in fossil fuel pollution and how rich nations will pay poorer wants to help clean up their air. inthe i-19 searching a lake san bernardino, california. team searching a lake. the fbi says it had evidence

been at theple had lake around the time of the attack and possibly right after. republicans discussing the possibility of contested presidential convention next summer. memories of the republican establishment say they would be forced to contest donald trump's nomination on the floor if he gets the number of delegates to become the parties -- party's nominee. close encounters between drones and pilots -- 90 involve drones and commercial jets. that's according to a report leaked today is released today. and dramatic scene in the czech republic. surveillance camera caught a passenger train smashing into a truck that jumped the flashing red lights at a crossing. the driver of the truck was able

to escape with minor injuries. no one on the train was hurt. you can get more on these and other breaking stories 24 hours a day at the new bloomberg.com. let's get back to the markets. turning gloomy ahead of next week's been meeting. that fed meeting. u.s. stocks tumbled to a two-month low. headed for the biggest weekly decline since march amid speculation that opec will keep the market oversupplied. joining us from st. louis is paul christopher, head of global investment strategies at wells fargo. sincethe biggest selloff september 20. brent at a seven-year low. folks must be calling you with trepidation about all this volatility we've seen. >> there is some trepidation,

bit of nervousness. if you look back a couple of months, people are still very sensitive to news about oil. very sensitive to news about china's economy. we had news out that loans had failed to reach expected levels in november. there is still worried that the global economy will slow and it will slow as an excel rating rate. supplyk oil's problem is and china is stable. u.s. growth will be good next year. we are treating this as one of those offense that is not really related to fundamentals. bondsll like stocks over and the u.s. over the rest of the world. we've seen china in a few fed statements, concern about the global economy. how great a concern is that for you? >> something definitely to

watch. slow down in china's manufacturing and materials processing effects countries around the world. that definitely spills over into the u.s. and europe. the question is whether or not those economies have enough momentum to continue to grow and generate earnings and even earnings at a stronger rate. we think the u.s. will do that next year. we are expecting that out of europe. even with china's slowdown, as long as it remains stable, we think it will be the buying opportunity that investors are waiting for to move money from bonds into stocks and from international to the u.s. david: your focus is going to be more on domestic stocks then a national ones. -- than international once. >> we like europe, developed markets. we prefer the u.s. and we like

sectors here in the u.s. that are leveraged to the cycle. mainly consumer discretionary, information technology and industrials. david: when you look at currency, so much of the story this last year has been about the strengthening dollar. you expect that to continue into 2016? >> most of the move is in place. we are looking for the europe between one dollar and $1.24. we are waiting to hear what janet yellen has to say next week. consensus seems to be that she will announce a rate increase. using the market has that priced in? >> are fixed income strategy team thinks the 25 basis point hike is priced in but it remains to be seen how dovish or how accommodative the fed will be regarding future data reports. if they say we are still watching the data come a report,

the market can take that badly. if they say we will hike will be patient for a while, the market will respond favorably. we talked about oil and china has been drivers of the market. there could be uncertainty about how that fed language will be spelled out in a statement stay. on wednesday. david: is there opportunity in energy? --re-think energy stocks energy commodities will bottom this year. it is in the bottoming process this year. before a long way to go it can mount a sustainable rally. you may see some spikes next year. or probably has another year two to finish bottoming and make a sustainable move higher. energy stocks will need that sustainable rally before they

can make a recovery. david: thank you so much, paul christopher. minutesp in the next 20 , dow chemical and dupont make it official, announcing plans for a colossal chemicals deal. will regulators give them the green light? the founder ofth men's wearhouse about what went wrong. oil falling for the third straight day. what is driving down the market and how low i did go? ♪

david: [bloomberg markets. time for the bloomberg business

flash. inflation at the wholesale level rose in november by the most in five months. producer prices -- rising profit margins upset the cheaper prices of goods. -- offset the cheaper prices of goods. americans starting to use that money the receiving -- they are saving from cheap gas. eight of 13 major categories showed improvement, leading the way were internet retailers comest in goods stores and apparel shops. federal regulators taking a closer look at walgreens plan to buy righite aid. experts say that suggests there are serious concerns about competition. both companies say they expect the request. you can always get more business news at bloomberg.com.

remy has a look at some company news. >> looking at health care, some of the biotech stocks. i want to take a look at the nasdaq biotech index which is hitting a one-month low right now. , comingwn by nearly 2% off its session lows that we saw around the 1:00 p.m. mark or so. the worst performers on the market today. i want to show you verizon -- horizon pharma. office lows we saw in the 11:00 a.m. hour. it makes therapies for pain and inflammation. area pharma also down today. this ferment makes therapies for cancer patients. this low not seen since december 7. pharma makes therapies for cancer patients. shire downby 1.7% --

by 1.7%. they are in takeover talks with axalta.-time -- acceb the chemicals megamerger announced this morning between dow and dupont -- the company's ceo's senate they're not worried about regulators holding up the deal. >> as big as our two companies are, there is to minimize overlap. -- the into the sand same and markets. the actual products do not overlap at all. except the act side. ag side. the minimus overlap.

>> the beauty of these companies is wildly broadly play within more the specialty side, they don't go head to head. the synergy potential is there. with very little concern -- thed: he was praising construction of this deal, the novelty of merging them and splitting into three companies. >> that is an ongoing thing. mr. green is a phenomenal architect. he used to be the ceo of tyco where they carried that strategy out. it will be a repetition of that. , thea chemical market chemicals been is that you consolidate within agriculture, agriculture equities and commodity prices have come under pressure lately. you consolidate, get the pricing power, so that checks the box on

appeared on the specialty side, you bring a novel products that you create and do some cuts in r&d. this merger is a story of activist investors, nelson peltz involved. he was brought in to work out a deal. you attribute this to him? >> certainly. management teams on both sides felt some degree of pressure with the activists. if you take a look at the direction this deal is taking from both company perspectives, when dan came in, he was looking for a breakup as well. as was nelson else. here we are. talk about how long this has been in the works. close to a decade. >> yes. andrew became ceo of dow chemical back in 2005.

as he did, in one of the annual reports, tucked away in page 170 or whatever it was was a little talked abouthe had merging the company's. he's been thinking about this for a while. david: thank you very much. wearhouse ismen's starting to unravel after the break, and exclusive interview with the founder and former chairman, george zimmer. ♪

david: welcome back to bloomberg markets. less than two years after by joseph a bank, men's wearhouse is fighting to show it can survive as the market cap has fallen to billion dollars since june of 2014. -- $2 billion. the problems game fresh urgency yesterday after the company warned that the struggling joseph a bank unit could cause it to miss a forecast. joining us is george zimmer, the founder of men's wearhouse. is this a company still own stock in? george: it is. yes. what you make of what you've seen over the last 18 months? george: i'm disappointed that i've lost millions of dollars. on the other hand, it indicates what happened to me. company you would think about trying to regain control of? george: i have not.

anybody can call me. i'm not hard to find. david: when you look back at that transaction, by joseph a bank, did it make sense at the time? i thought it was ill-fated pa competed against bank from 1973 until 2013 when i was fired. over 40 years if i thought there was no opportunity, i would have moved on it. somebody who sees these two stores as complementry, what is the greatest distinction between men's wearhouse and joseph a bank? george: the culture of men's washouse when i ran it markedly different than at bank. men's wearhouse developed a fantastic tux rental business north of $400 million.

over that same time, bank's business can only grow to $20 million in tux rental. that is because of the cultural difference. david: you are still a shareholder. i imagine you are still in touch with people there. what do they tell you about what's going on? george: i only speak to people at the store level. i don't speak to any executives. there's been no contact for 2.5 years with anybody other than a store personnel. people in the stores are upset. they are not just upset about this, they were upset that men's made a deal with macy's to get involved in tux rental with macy's. there is a lot that is going awry. david: we are familiar with the history of discounts and joseph a bank. this at joseph a bank.

by one soon and get three or four. one suit and get three or four. david: bank had damaged their brand over a number of years by soning incessant promotions that nobody wanted to go there and pay regular price. why was one of the reasons i recommended they not make the acquisition. george: you have not heard from any executors. he would take her call. what would you advise them to do at this point? -- you would take their call. george: with all due respect, i cannot tell you that. david: we ask you about what you've been up to. you partnered with espn recently. george: i started to do some commercials for espn on their digital network, promoting the college football playoffs, which

will be new year's eve and in my own business, online taxi to ,ental called generation tux i've made arrangements to be a times square new year's eve marrying america's first couple of 2016. i will officiate it. david: your first time? george: not my first time. i've done others. david: i know you were also working on a new tailoring model as well. you were trying to put that on to tailoring. george: it is great. it is called ztaylor. -- ztailor. they are sister companies. tuxedo rental is mostly a wedding business. having the ability to send taylor's to the groomsmen --

tailors to the groomsmen makes the bride feel much more comfortable. david: george zimmer, the founder of men's wearhouse. , we will be talking commodities, oil prices. we've seen the volatility in the market continue that is coming up on bloomberg markets. ♪ sure, tv has evolved over the years.

it's gotten squarer. brighter. bigger. it's gotten thinner. even curvier. but what's next?

for all binge watchers. movie geeks. sports freaks. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. 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. david: this is bloomberg markets. let's get to bloomberg's first word news this afternoon. congress has sent

president obama a short-term spending bill to keep the government open through next wednesday. this has lawmakers and the white house rush to finalize the $1.1 trillion governmentwide spending bill and tax package. the measure was approved by a vote just hours ahead of a midnight deadline. >> anytime you have bipartisan negotiation like this, an agreement is only produced with both sides that can compromise. there will be things in this bill that we don't enthusiastically support. david: kevin mccarthy says the vote on the omnibus spending bill will take place no earlier than tuesday. the house is approved legislation that would block u.s. negotiators from using trade agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions. parise as negotiators in

are working to finalize a global agreement to address climate change. russian president vladimir putin says his country has provided air cover, weapons and supplies to an opposition group in syria. president putin told the meeting that while he supports the , russiaresident forces has also given assistance to some units of the free syrian army. if confirmed, it will represent a major policy shift for moscow which has been accused by the west of helping president assad. ben carson threatening to leave the republican party over the possibility of a brokered convention. the presidential hopeful became angry after leaving an account of top party leaders meeting to discuss an alternative to donald trump. he said "if this was the beginning of a plan to summer -- subvert the will of the voters

come i sure you donald trump will not be the only one leaving the party." you can get more on these and other breaking stories 24 hours a day at bloomberg.com. commodities markets are closing in new york. copper pricing for a fourth day after a 2% move after producers announced cuts. hopper is headed for its biggest gain in two weeks. gasoline futures rising for the third straight day. -- copper is added for its biggest gain in two weeks. oil declined to the lowest level since 2008. brent futures fell as much as 6% , closing at 38. in kevin want to bring brooks joining us from washington, d.c. let's start with that forecast. we will have this club continue

through next year. >> there is no way around it. you will have a net surplus being produced relative to consumption next year. you've got 3 million barrels of petroleum sitting there in storage tanks. it is not hard to see what would burn it away. you can stop all production and all refining in the world for 2.5 days and that is what it would take to bring you back to the five-year average. david: that is astonishing. let me ask you about that opec meeting in vienna. taking?ped see opec kevin: opec has no reason to cut right now. inventories, there is no point. that would be like pushing a string. geopolitics is moving parties. to timeerally tried their customer when markets are training.

cuts for when markets are tightening. there is no reason to stop right now. if you look at the world, it has not rebalanced. opec's role is not very prominent or meaningful right now. if confirmed to all the traders that have been hoping for an open miracle that magic thinking does not work david: will we look less at opec as a monolith in the future? 11-1 float,ve an saudi wins ties. the producers group will come back into prominence for a number of reasons. the market will rebalance and opec will have some market power if they want to use it. there is a long-term expectation of growth. as long as that is true, you will have the lowest cost reduction on the marginal barrel

basis, especially saudi arabia, kuwait and iraq. david: an energy analyst with credit squeeze was talking about uti -- credit suisse talking about a wti brent conversion. >> it has been driven by other things -- if you have refinery capacity utilization running at all-time highs in the u.s. and weak demand for refining elsewhere in the world, there's no reason why the global benchmark might not be couple from his premium trend and come in underneath wti. david: i want to ask you about the state of play when it comes to lifting the crude oil export ban. we have congress hashing out a budget deal, tax deal. this could be a component. what effect would that have on the market? >> this is not what everyone

wants to hear on capitol hill right now, but not much of any right now. u.s. barrels would have to compete at a discount. narrowerrent spread is than the transportation cost of that crew. we are optimistic because of the politics. if it did happen, the real reason to do this for the long-term would be long-term benefits to u.s. producers. david: kevin book with clearview partners. for the investing $4.5 billion in electric vehicles. the auto giant monster at 13 electric cars and hybrid models by 2020. fields why asked he's making this investment now. to have 13 electric cars and hybrid models by 2020. >> right now, from a cost standpoint with gas prices

below, it might not be as compelling. they really like it. the regulatory requirements, both of those are driving this investment. it is around building electric leadership -- we are the second largest seller of electrified vehicles in the u.s. and the leading provider and seller of plug-in hybrids in the country. >> you've been leaders in technology mobility front. you opened a big office in silicon valley, even experimenting around the world with different forms of mobility and you have this dynamic shovel test shuttle service. -- dynamic shuttle service. we are looking at her business as a core business, designing, developing and manufacturing and marketing terrific cars, utilities and trucks. bute emerging opportunities when you look at customer requirements, particularly in

urban areas and for young people, a lot of them want access versus ownership. we are looking at this holistic lee and saying how can we satisfy customers by getting around? it comes back to thinking like a mobility company and auto company. >> he said a 20 by the time fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road. has said that someday they will not need drivers. by 2020. don't you win that battle? >> it comes down to we are a greatcturing marketer of cars and trucks. opportunitya lot of for us going forward. there is the number -- ubers and about but it is thinking

being a mobility company that is furnace on to do a lot of innovation in the company look for ways to satisfy customers and create a good business opportunity for us. >> the industry is on fire right now. does not show any signs of abating. your finance unit is doing great. shares are down for the year. why isn't wall street valuing way a lehmanthe brothers would see it from the outside? >> we are focusing on those things that drive value. which is really around growing our use, expanding our operating margins and making sure we have a healthy dividend. we are not running the business just to juice the stock price. we are running a healthy growing enterprise and over time, we will get recognized for that. see more dividend going forward?

? are you expecting to do that again this coming year we raised our dividend. our approach is to make sure we have a dividend that is sustainable through the economic and business cycle. >> you've met with federal reserve governors. what is the sense you get as far as how we will see the lid coming in 2016? and interest rate rises an indicator of a very healthy economy. that is good news for the auto business. we expect going forward that the rates will rise gradually. we don't see a huge impact. when you look at the auto industry and look at the age of the vehicles out there and combine that with the state of the labor market, we think that is a great recipe for continuing to support healthy industry level cells. -- sales. david: stay tuned. an exclusive interview with canada's largest bank coming up.

♪

>> welcome back to bloomberg markets. time for the bloomberg business flash. shire in takeover talks with baxalta, making progress towards a deal. shire said to be improving and offered that would include a significant cash component. sales were 2.4% lower in november. by paula fromit the mission's cheating scandal that are up in mid-september.

fallout from the emissions cheating scandal. overmillion bonus, just $11 million in stock options, performance shares and he alsoed stock unit -- collected a $1 million salary. you can get more bloomberg business news at bloomberg.com. stocks moving on analyst recommendations. >> micron technology shares down today. down about 3.5%. off their session lows because analysts lowered their profit estimates because of continued oversupply in semiconductors. year-to-date shares have already fallen 60%. today, they touched their lowest level since 2013. over in retail, the container store also having a bad day right now. down by about 19.25%. similar to micron, down 57% this

year. bank of america lowering micron to underperform from buy. current sales incentives are not enough to make a dent in weak sales. let's end on a positive here. up 7%, yourmarket session highs today because itg says sales trends are tracking above expectations. third consecutive rise. as high-end grocery surging we go into the holiday season. speculation of some consolidation among organic food sellers. thank you very much. canada is clamping down on runaway prices in the country's two most expensive housing markets. toronto and vancouver. in a coordinated effort, authorities said today they would raise down payment requirements for homes in those

-- what did he have to say about the effort to cool the real estate market in canada? it bests -- thee do get a feeling prices have elevated quite a lot recent -- at some point, rates will go up. , our own financing regime is so much more resilient. it will happen impact, but i don't see it as a major headwind for my bank or generally speaking. anything we can do to have more moderate growth in this market -- david: he is talking about resiliency in the financing market. what about liquidity in the bond

market? thee started out saying world's banks are safer for the financial recession and for the regulations that have ensued and that banks have had to adhere to. he does say the bond market is a place where we are still seeing any adjustments. that's many adjustments. rules, you come up with there are going to be consequences. unintended consequences down the road. liquidity dried up because of rules. required toare now hold a large portion of the capital structure, high-quality liquid assets. these are government bonds or the like. these are held now to manage our own capital position whereas before -- without a doubt, there has been some impact. over time, that will get resolved as well.

>> we will put up a chart here of td bank. the bank has had incredible performance if you look at it over a 10 year period. it has been a rough year for canadian banks generally over the course of last year. this has to do with the economy and the adjustments it is going through. we are seeing bankshares down for td, but all the canadian banks. let me ask you something based on anecdotal here walking around new york can i see a lot of td banks coul. does he want that expansion to continue? i put that exactly to him and he seemed to be a bit more in favor of organic growth.

in the cities they are already in combating branches sequentially there -- adding sequentially there. maybe say that acquisitions would be useful to get into those markets. he sees growth in the markets they are already in. perhaps more branches in new york and miami. you can see more of her exclusive interview with the ceo of td bank at bloomberg.com. coming up, alibaba gets into the newspaper business. we will bring you that story, next. ♪

david: a shot at sunny san francisco. welcome back to bloomberg markets. alibaba has officially entered mediaeement to acquire group. rumors of the acquisition have been swirling for months. emily chang addressed those with ink ma in an interview beijing last month. --we need leaders to promote our advertisement dollars are

huge. it can help media. , using our data, can tell the economy enough. >> lee by the south china morning post? >> i did not say that. david: emily joins us now from san francisco. he talked about the way the south china morning post could help alibaba. is this a symbiotic relationship? will be really interesting to watch this play out. it seems to be a potential play to reshape media coverage of china. they are saying they will get rid of the pay wall and make the content available for free. they will hire more editors, give the paper more resources. that sounds great. on the other hand, the cofounder and vice-chairman of alibaba said there is an attempt here to change western perception of china.

take a listen to the statement he released to us saying "in reporting the news, it will be objective, accurate and fair. having the courage to go against conventional wisdom and taking care to verify stories, check sources. these decisions will be driven by editors in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom." he says we will not get involved into day-to-day operations, we will not prevent certain stories from being published. but, listen to what he told the new york times. "our business is so rooted in china and touches so many aspects of the chinese economy, when people don't understand china and have the run perception about china, they have a lot of misconceptions about alibaba. what is good for china is also good for alibaba." it is unclear -- how canwo visions

they maintain the independence of the paper but also do something that is good for china? david: speaking to the growing let me askibaba -- you about this company. this is a media company that includes other companies as well. the newspaper is a flagship product. they have another -- a number of other publications. this is the most influential english-language newspaper in the region. they've been aggressive about reporting on the chinese government. they have not been afraid to tackle political scandals or human rights issues. it will be interesting to see how this actually plays out. there is an interesting story -- eight years ago, jack ma gave an interview in which he defended thing shopping -- thing shopping

-- the actions in tiananmen square. it is very unclear what exactly happened there. just an example of where this paper could run into potential editorial issues is being run by olli maatta. -- by olli maatta. alibaba.l david: emily will continue to bring you the latest on alibaba tonight 96 clock p.m. eastern, 3:00 pm pacific right here on bloomberg television. -- tonight at six clock p.m. eastern. we will get a wrap of the week. ♪ sure, tv has evolved over the years.

it's gotten squarer. brighter. bigger. it's gotten thinner. even curvier. but what's next?

for all binge watchers. movie geeks. sports freaks. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. 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. >> it is 3 p.m. in new york. welcome to bloomberg markets. ♪

bloomberg headquarters. the market selloff well underway. investors rush out of riskier assets ahead of the fed decision . the hits keep on coming for crude oil. hitting its lowest level in seven years posting its biggest weekly decline since march. can anything stop the slide? sizing of the market for m&a. downed upon our combining in a megamerger. it has been a big story today. can the deal when anti-trust approval? we are an hour away from the close of trade today as we close out the day. not just the day but the week. the major averages are having one of the worst days since september and we are off of the lows of the session. we had to the market desk