from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i'm carol massar. stocks are mixed today but on track to post their best week of the year. energy stocks tumbling with crude oil but technology squeezing out gains. -- prices rising by the most in four years. in the standoff, the justice department following a new request to force apple to crack into an iphone belonging to the san bernardino shooter. for the wii, let's head to the

markets desk where julie hyman and has the latest. julie: a stumbling end for a strong week for stocks. the nasdaq has been the outperform performer today, very little change. this is over the course of the day. you will see a very tight range here in trading. dipping at the open. the range mostly throughout the day. the other thing we are watching is we continue to see low volume. these of various groups on the s&p 500.

not a lot ofl sharp catalysts and news out there trapping trading. carol: once going on in terms of other asset classes? julie: it depends on what you're looking at. it has than pushing down energy stocks in we have seen directionally, the correlation today. we have oil down 4%. still trading. we saw it actually shrinking. we saw a little bit of an improvement in oil there but it was not sustained.

not seeing much action in the tenure. finally, gold prices. bit catching a little today, up about .5%. it depends where your looking. but really, in stocks and treasuries, there's not a lot of movement. carol: thank you so much. and weheck the headlines have more from the news desk. >> we had over to apple. the u.s. has filed a new motion to comply with a warrant to .nlock an iphone it was filed in riverside, california. as theion comes committee wants apple officials to testify march 1.

that is according to people familiar with planning. the highest-ranking african-american in congress is endorsing hillary clinton. democrats hold their primary in the state. they will be the featured guest with all due respect. vice president joe biden says he between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. he speaks with both candidates and will ultimately support whoever wins the nomination. he does not regret opting out of the race for the white house. including an islamic state

training camp. did week, president obama direct his national security team to bolster counterterrorism efforts in libya. harper lee, the author of "to kill a mockingbird" has died. she was 89. there were more than 10 million copies in 50 years. published, butas it was shrouded in controversy. some people doubted the author gave her consent. global news powered by 2400 journalists. carol: our next guest says,

investor beware. the worst may not be over. a strategist joins us from newton, massachusetts. good to have you with us. a different tone to the market the last couple of days. investors beware? why. >> unconcerned of areas outside of the stock market. actually are quite ordinary. we see with going on in the bond market in the credit market. the credit spread has tightened a little bit, but not that much. assee the high-yield market the stock market is retraced. it is still below $30 and still 70% below the highs.

even the high-grade ore investment-grade bond market has not bounced at all and that is particularly concerning to me. notes fromooked at you. what happened? wax everyone is focused on the high-yield market. they have been a good leading indicator. the high-grade bond, the investment-grade bond etf bottomed in october of 2008. happened this year, only on the other side. the old cutie topped out in january of 2015 and we didn't get the pop in the stock market until may or july.

the ltd has not been able to rally with it. they tell me things are not that cute. we've got to line, see some kind of rally in the investment-grade part of the market and may be the equities that have bottomed out? >> the banks earn a lot better shape than they were in 2008. 26% is bank paper. we want to see those bounceback to really get a feel of the stock market. carol: you are cautious here. >> no question. was aeek and this week very important moment for the stock market on a technical basis.

we talked about the 1810 level. bounced strongly off that. this week, we bounced sharply above that. we're going to hold that level. to regain rather quickly, it's a positive sign. at least on a short-term basis. we have seen a lot of investors moving into defensive names. what you think of that move? >> you had utilities bouncing strongly.

things are getting stretched. sometimes it is better in some of those defensive areas that it is still the right place to be. it's not only in the financial world but in the political world as well. we appreciate it. came back, equity strategist from massachusetts. tumbling crude prices are weighing down energy stocks. and yahoo! taking more steps toward a possible sale. what is marissa mayer's best move. boeing, chevron, intel some of the biggest drags.

the top gainers in the dow on friday. back in a moment. ♪

carol: welcome back to bloomberg markets. let's check out where the markets stand. we begin with the s&p 500 down about .1%. we are seeing a similar trade just a little bit lower. down 44 points, .3%. because on the nasdaq you see the average bucking the trend today. those are your games on this friday.

minister in mexico telling investors to expect the unexpected when it comes to boosting the peso. policymakers raised interest rates and cut government spending. and the u.s.eek dollar against the peso in the finance minister telling bloomberg that such surprise moves are a key element to countering speculators. isabella cowrote that story. it is fascinating to hear this in an era where there is so much transparency out there. achieve? he hoping to hashe mexican central bank been known to be very transparent and open. , in the interview today with the finance minister that is part of the currency commission along with central bank, what he is basically telling us is that they are

ready to act with the tools that they have. he mentioned both currency and molly -- monetary policy. and it is precisely because they want to keep this element of surprise. to get the markets to stop speculating as it is used as one of the biggest proxy hedge currencies in the world. we are watching emerging markets and all markets exposed to oil. talk about why this has become such a priority for mexico. it's become the hardest hit currency among emerging markets, and even the world's most traded currencies. it is down about 6%, down 30% in the last 18 months. in a particular situation because the fundamentals of its economy has been looked at very positive. we have a booming manufacturing industry.

it didn't really make a lot of sense. the mexican peso is so liquid and so open that it is traded across the world 24 hours a day and five days a week. the mexican government and the central bank are looking to stop that and contain that now. our bloomberg news reporter in mexico city. let's take a look at the energy market. oil tumbling today. slipping below $30 a barrel again. to sustain a rally in holding on to gains about 30 bucks a barrel. >>n does it mean for stocks? the stock market has been trading and i think it should because at $31, they put out a

report that said maybe up to a third of the oil companies would go bankrupt. and that sounds right to me. stays at these levels, even if it doesn't go down anymore, and get closer to $45. the market is worried that we're going to see a rash of default and a rash of bankruptcies because of these very low levels. and it doesn't look like we're going to correct that anytime soon. predict 25% or 30%. when are these going to happen? is there an event that will stop these from happening? what is been happening in the energy space is they've been trying to pick a bottom for 18 months. whether they have been investing in bonds, turnarounds, energy. these companies are pumping.

but theylosing money, are still getting funding to stay alive. i think we are getting closer to the point where investors pull the plug on them and say, no more. and we will start to see the whole cascade. it is probably within the next six to nine months. if we get these closer to 45, then we get a reprieve. >> you talked about investors funding these companies but also the banks. how worried should bank investors be about this? >> at one extreme, there will not be a tarp 2.0. it can definitely be an earnings event. the number of bankruptcies you can be looking at, the low residual values will be significant.

if it metastasizes into the larger area of metals and industrial companies that are closely related to the energy companies, a lot of industrials make stuff to the energy space. they can be looking at larger losses. up having a nice long run here and maybe a bad long run here of lousy earnings. that is what has everybody worried right now. last few days of correlation, oil and stocks below .8. is that good news? are we getting away from this extremely high correlation? and i reading too much into .14%? >> i think you are reading too much into it. it is still very high. the reason we saw that praying on the hope that the squeeze from the saudis would maybe

boost the price of oil. get the price up around $45, i think the correlation goes away. when we're down here, it becomes a credit event. it becomes a problem for the financial sector. those two combined are almost a quarter of the stock market. that will be a problem as we move forward. stayorrelation should under $30. carol: still ahead, today's options in sight. and a look at the individual gainers on the week. like priceline and nvidia. the market close is 40 minutes away. ♪

carol: welcome back to bloomberg markets. it stocks are mixed today with nasdaq showing a little bit of again right now. julie: joining me for the option inside is managing partner at options. out in chicago, good to see you. we have modeled along the last couple of days and we are seeing this overall rebound from where we were last thursday. was going to be the next catalyst here? >> where the end of the chinese could beand and it very telling as to whether the last couple of days was consolidation and we move higher work if we still move in this range.

you see the vicks coming into the weekend threatening 20. it has been the bottom of the range. i am interested in what happens monday or tuesday. and over where things are for the rest of the month. the fact thatout they remained pretty benign here? >> it has been a relatively low-tech. it is near 21, up 1.5%. though we are down, the last couple days were down 13 points. it's not a sizable move given what the last month has been like. bit if we are awful little the next couple of weeks, we could still see them creep lower.

>> we have seen this column notng to the s&p and it has necessarily happen with oil. volatility and the big one day swing here. etf.s to go with an oil >> last week we saw the vicks of oil hit over 80. the last time we saw an index over 80 was 2008. that is the type of goal we have last week. it typically means a top and volatility which means we are in the top of the night or bottom of the eighth of this whole oil selloff. i wanted to move lower, but slower. selling two of the 7.5 against it.

doing that for credit. how does this work? if it moves down slowly, and steadily, i can do very well. we see it in the vault space. >> appreciated. have a great weekend. mark sebastian of options hit. we will be back in just a moment with bloomberg markets, next. ♪

carol: live from bloomberg's world headquarters, you are watching bloomberg markets.

the close of trading for the week about 30 minutes away. abigail doolittle with the latest. benchmark trying to eke out gains compared to the other two major averages. : what an exciting week it has been. two big rally days on tuesday and wednesday. the nasdaq leading on pace to have the best week since july of last year. one of the big performers today, raisingmaterials earnings and revenue forecast for the current quarter. the ceo said the strength is being driven by demand for new technology from the company's customers. it is the other equipment makers trading up and sympathy. applied materials itself has largely recovered the losses it

had earlier this year. one of the worst performers on the week, this is after booking for the fourth quarter missed forecast. reaction was somewhat mixed. piper jaffray and rbc all said the stock should be bought on weakness. one of the worst performers, the worst performer down 6%. >> negative trading today, abigail. >> it has been a great week for tech stocks. rebound fora real apple and amazon and facebook. we have the biggest percentage performance including priceline and nvidia.

on strong fourth quarter reports. down on a negative research report. abigail, thank you so much. let's get a check of the headlines. >> we had some tea stalks that won't resolve the crisis in syria. comes as turkey intensified cross-border artillery showings in areas dominated by mostly kurdish militia. ted cruz is facing legal challenge. it is not coming from donald trump.

cruises attorneys want the lawsuit tossed. received ary-general military funeral with top honors in cairo. ofdied tuesday at the age 93. he clashed repeatedly with the u.s. clinton administration. a tourist taking photos of pearl harbor spotted a helicopter when it suddenly lost altitude. the tourist jumped in to help. a record number of people want to work in space. applications, more than double. mediaays utilizing social and getting pictures slam.

carol: off the highs of the session, still gaining ground. forming a committee to explore strategic options. return now to paul sweeney. none of this is unexpected. up? she kind of wrap this >> with the activist investors are pushing for is some breakup of this company.

separating alibaba and yahoo! japan so that they can be maximized. i don't see where there is a future former assistant. goal is toone maximize shareholder value. can verizon come in here? >> a reverse spin out in the standalone company that would thee the asian assets with new code. they can try to operate separate from asian assets. then there is an outright sale of the company. there have been some indications of interest. little will have to see which way the board and the advisors go.

investors would say time is of the essence. >> we have been talking about yahoo! for some time. hasyahoo! core business been troubled for some time. they could argue it's beyond fixing. >> it is a traditional internet portal. the business has really passed them by. they do not really participate in search or social media. and so the business has been atrophying. his or even ability to turn this around? most observers will claim at this point, no. the director of north american research. join us to break down what this

means a little bit more for yahoo!. the professor of marketing at nyu's stern school of business. it down perfectly in laying out the scenario in terms of yahoo! at this point. what is it investors need to understand about this news today? >> it's exactly right. tv series, it's gone on a couple seasons too long. conglomerate a where the whole is trading for a some less than its parts, i think you will see a couple dozen companies bid for this. placed in the wrong hands. she has effectively already been fired. you have the chairman of the company issuing press releases

and talking about how they have formed a special committee of the board. this is pretty much game over. >> the core business of yahoo!, they have users that can be >> whether it can be fixed or not, i'm not convinced it can be fixed. i believe that there is someone out there that believes they can fix it. the asset here is that you have either the second or third most trafficked site in the world. attentionty where becomes a very valuable resource, somebody is going to have a large checkbook for this thing. it will go for more than people think. you have the u.s. government firing back at apple today.

bertie think this is going? >> the pope calls it the idolatry of money. we have the idolatry of innovators. they are now more powerful than the government. beene shooter's phone had a blackberry, we would not be discussing this. presidential candidates would not say they see both sides of the issue. we would tell blackberry to fall in line. and we have companies that have the gdp of finland and seen as our heroes. no congressman wants to line up against the cool kid. apple is waving their middle finger in the face of the government and frankly, the

government is in a showdown they are losing. it is a very interesting point in time around who gets to make the rules. >> very broad implications. scott galloway joining us on the phone. arriving at the supreme court to pay their respects to justice scalia. his body lying in repose at the court great hall. funeral at the national shrine of the immaculate conception. we will be right back. ♪

>> welcome back to bloomberg markets. it get a quick check. 18 minutes away from the closing bell. stocks are off the worst levels of the session. this would be slightly lower. down .2%. little bit higher. collett unchanged. percentage,ormer on just about .5%. it is time for the bloomberg business line. it $2 billion counter bid for britain's home retail group in a direct challenge for control of the owner. deadlineys before the to make a formal bid. acquiring home retail group

further increase the presence in europe. billion in the8 u.k., france, and germany. it plays a key role in policing trade barriers. they have already ordered 118 jetliners. billionaire investor carl icahn's publicly traded company may be cut to junk. standard and poor saying icon enterprises have been losing a significant amount of value in the last several months. minusced a triple b rating and put the company on credit watch negative. and that is your business flash update. u.s.ost of living in the

getting a little bit more expensive. forecast and than the most since august of 2011. and global economics executive dan moss. numbers crossed. >> a little bit of inflation. >> they've kept talking about gradual rate increases. >> my first thought was that

maybe janet yellen isn't the idiot everyone said. people have been hammering the fed. not hyperinflation, nothing to be terrified. for court excluding households. there are real signs of an ongoing goal. the numbers show they have been -- >> they have been under pressure from not hitting the inflation targets. >> we don't expect to see anything. we watch what happened in the treasury trade because there was movement. maybe they are not buying it completely.

>> people thought the world was going to end. it might've just been a little bit of pullback on that. the market was pricing in a 9% chance of any hike. a lot of zeros. between the market rally in the decent inflation data, it starts to look a little more normal. carol: you look at that line and it does look like a trend line. upwe see if it continues higher? >> the key to the context is the very interesting which numbers. that it is a jobless recovery to a weightless recovery. i don't know that march is back in play for the fed.

this whole idea they don't do anything and even reverse course, that has probably been kicked to the long grass. >> there is time to wait. seeing the trends we are are not just things that sprung up this month. they have core services, and building. this is not something a bunch of depressed numbers. >> trading just about 12 minutes away. best.the

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carol: welcome back to bloomberg markets. market closing in just about 10 minutes as stocks bounce today. julie hyman has your market check. julie: at the high of the session such as they are. take a look at the major averages. wait for it. we are seeing the nasdaq extended gains. it closes out what has been a very strong albeit low-volume week. if you look at the weekly performance, we have seen the best week thus far this year. especially when you take into

account a holiday shortened week and that makes it interesting here. down 2.6%. this doesn't seem to be the laggard this year. so it's been driving here? iran ran the numbers for the groups on the week. all of them are. last friday.ed the balance from the bottom for stocks. as yieldsiscretionary have gone higher. in terms of the index points, they are being contributed by individual movers. it is big cap tech.

also, exxon mobil up during that time. a lot of it has to do with big cap technology coming back and financials being the other piece of it. i also want to point out what oil has done. there have been all of these questions being asked. has oil put in a bottom. if you look at 14%, that is a pretty substantial thing. >> thank you so much. as we head to the close, the strongest weekly advance this year. here to talk more about the week that was, our fast commentary section. what do you make of this week? >> both happened earlier in the

week. russia and saudi arabia agreed to free imports. obviously, we are given some of that back. they are talking at the holding level. >> everyone is wondering where that level is. people making that bet that the bottom could be in. the other thing that has been talked about is china was on holiday. sincecy was up the most the peg was removed in 2005. removing a lot of the worry here. those are two good developments. news is that we the big question i have is that we'll get stuck

into another one of these trading ranges we have seen. >> are things settling down a little bit? theeople complained about trading range. failedound kind of around that level. this 1950 to 1810 range? basically, we need to figure out who the leadership is going to be for the stock market. >> you see market rotation. consumer discretionary and information technology being the leaders. >> a lot of defensive stocks and consumer staples really holding up the best this year. stocks like kellogg,

colgate-palmolive, heinz. they came out today talking about they are very high now. how long will they continue to lead us? side of at the other the evaluation. who knows if that will happen? for more commentary, go to gadf.com. markets coming your way in just a moment. here's a look at trading. ♪

joe: we are moments away from the closing bell. i am joe weisenthal. "what'd you miss?" alix: i am alix steel. scarlet fu is off today. ♪

alix: u.s. stocks closing mixed. oil falling for the first time in three days. joe: the question is "what'd you miss?" ,lix: inflation creeps higher consumer prices rise the most in four years. ecb -- says the next guest rally might have more legs. we begin with our market minutes. we are looking at the best week , so fars&p, the dow, a this year. the best day for the nasdaq since july. joe: now positive since november. tuesday wednesday, extraordinary rallies, much quieter in the second half of the week.