you don't see that every day. introducing wifi pro, wifi that helps grow your business. comcast business. built for business. business around the world. iron ore businesses go absurd. toolboxreaches into its for more easing. >> they are targeting has narrow as possible. he is not the only one who should be holding the gun. >> we choose the best from a bunch of powerful conversations. ramy: reflections on progress in unfinished business.

better, but not quickly enough. >> there are mole and you getting opportunities earlier to lead. ramy: wall street mourns the loss of a foundational figure. it's all ahead on "bloomberg best." hello and welcome. best." "bloomberg our day by day look at the top headlines begins with a rally in commodities. its run ofontinuing gains with crude at its highest so far this year. that's above $39 per barrel. >> i was getting these warnings, these alerts telling me that oil prices were below $30 a barrel.

brent crude reaching that level there are a few reasons why this is happening. drillers in the united states, they have the least number of rigs out there. they are at a 60 month located you have the possibility of opec meeting with russia over this deal to freeze out the current levels. as prices have gathered momentum, some speculators are lying down in front of the oncoming train and are getting on board instead. through intoring the market. oil >>re of $20 a barrel has been banished for now. rally going onr in commodities. >> they are willing to boost

economic growth. the market has gone berserk are will the rally continue? >> we haven't seen any fundamental data to justify the price level. during the month of february, the entire china country goes on holiday. we don't have a lot of data coming out of the country. it's hard to read what's going on. i have yet to see at this that we have a hard turn it. >> they said it would cut overcapacity in steel. you would think that would lead to a curbing of demand in iron or. it jumped by 1860%. what's going on? >> it must be me being here on bloomberg. has been a disconnect in

the market between the fundamentals on the ground and the trading on a day-to-day basis. this is not an anomaly. it follows what has been several weeks of strong gains in the metals market. i think it's a lot of trading on rhetoric. reality does not justify the high prices yet. >> we had abysmal data out of china. exports fell to the lowest level since 2009. >> this latest figure out of china, there are seasonal distortions, but significant numbers are down. exports are down 25%. we were expecting 14 5% down. it is significantly worse. january was down 11%. this is the eighth consecutive month we have seen falling exports. >> we have to treat february

with caution. that applies to the export numbers. part of the issue is it's not just factories shut down for a week. holiday was at the end of february and there was a rush to get trade done. this year, it came at the start of the month. i think thereid, is a feeling the numbers feel downbeat. there is a challenge ahead. it will embolden those were calling for depreciation. this goes to show it will take significant exchange rate devaluation for china to change exports. when you consider the commentary from the authorities, look for more on the stimulus side. look for more from the central bank did look for more in terms

of bank lending to get the economy going. they are not going to get a shot in the arm from exports. >> it was a big night for bernie sanders. he scored a surprise win in michigan. he is still behind hillary clinton for delegates. on the republican side, donald trump step delegates. ted cruz data within in idaho. let's start with the bernie sanders winfred it gives him some momentum. how far will that all his campaign? what we are going to be looking at is how much he can carry this into ohio which is voting next tuesday. the demographics of michigan and ohio are very similar. he did very well with working-class voters he did well with young voters. that is key for him.

he did better with african-americans in michigan. if he forms me well with those huge leape has a could he can even rode her support in ohio, illinois, in the industrial heartland. >> donald trump one in mississippi and michigan. does this stretch the ability of him to win a cross very differentareas across demographics? >> he has one in all areas of the united states. he has both a broad coalition of support. he has brought support than people expected. he showed real resilience last night. i think the establishment will be looking at that. the ecb has cut all of its

interest rates. qe has been boosted. increased the assets available to buy to include non-bank corporate debt. in the last few months, it's been an ethics game. aboute says it's weakening the currency, this is changing. they are buying corporate's. they are going straight out and trying to help deficits. they are now making money available at zero and maybe negative rates for banks to borrow. this has changed from an external game to a domestic demand lending game. >> this is about the fundamental accounting and getting loans to individuals. >> this is not just the exports. this is what they should have done.

i think they did the right thing. they are doing everything they can and it's in a mandate. >> the biggest investment bank, deutsche bank, has rising legal expenses that hurt earnings. them talk about this again and again and again. does this come as surprise? it's 11% for the whole company. that actually is not quite a what was expected at the end of last year. they were talking about cutting it by 30%. this is not unexpected. painompany will be under relative to peers as they work through some legal issues. >> how does he think he's going to keep people in their seats there? historically they did have

the reputation of pain pretty well. there is going to be a transition there. onhink he is trying to hold and hope for things to bounce back. that tradingd revenue for the industry is probably going to be down given the rough start to the year. there are not a lot of places right now that are on big hiring sprees. you have risks. you could lose the top people on a desk. is a lot of competition out there for hiring right now. it's more keeping your job. more reactionp, to mario draghi and his latest monetary moves. we have a roundup of company news from around the world. ♪

ramy: welcome back. ecb meeting it was the centerpiece of a dramatic week in european business and politics. tom the migrant crisis draghi's latest policy plans, there was plenty to discuss and analyze on bloomberg television. mark carney's testifying

before lawmakers. boe will avoid telling people how to vote in the referendum. nothing we say should be interpreted as making any with respect to that decision. >> can the bank of england and void -- avoid swaying voters? >> he does not want to be seen would be arexit disaster. he is trying to fix the situation. he almost lost his patients a couple of minutes ago. him, you have a selective memory. there is a risk to financial stability. he is talking about brexit. >> is this just political

theater? >> it's a little bit of political theater. people want to understand the implications of what a brexit would be. >> what's the dynamic you see in london? >> you see people playing on their frustration of what's happening in individual countries and people play in it. you see what's happening here with the rise of donald trump. the same thing is happening in europe. >> free movement across borders within europe was central to the original eu. let me give you some numbers. euros a year moved across borders within europe without interference. 700,000 people a day moved across borders without interference. now just a slowdown that will happen from enforcement doesn't

just affect refugees or people like that, it affects daily commerce. it's going to take a 10th of a point off eu growth. the ecb pushed beyond expectations with its relief. is it fair to say draghi dazzled? he brought up the bazooka. >> he certainly sent every options through the market. he announced all the qe package and the rate decision. was thate key focuses comment where he said we don't see the need for any further reduction in interest rates. that signaled the floor being hit. he said things could change. >> i think it's dominated by , that phase of

negative interest rates and using that as one of the tools that will come to an end. he has given the signal that interest rates as a tool is exhausted. thehat it out -- about decision to buy noncorporate debt? it wasn't predicted by many. has that taken you are back? back? ng you >> it came a bit sooner than we thought. extension of and closing this chapter on interest rates. it opens a new chapter on creative easing. i would back a little bit on this view that monetary policy is running out of ammunition. there is a lot that can be done and the credit easing space. bonds,u start buying

it's not a far step to go into equities. is this draghi pushing a panic button? was this a carefully thought-out plan? represents not a panic button, but a tailored approach to the problems facing europe. credit tois getting the banking system to borrowers. that gets europe back on track. he has matched the negative deposit rates. to try to promote the flow through credit to the borrowers. that is what is necessary to get europe going again. we all know that he can't do it alone. he needs the fiscal policy. >> this is a quote from one of our columnists.

he is firing blanks. you don't believe that's right? >> he is not firing blanks. look at the markets. he also isn't the only one who should be holding the gun. >> are we getting closer to the point where these policies become ineffective? >> by looking at the credit channel, it was clear yesterday that he once the market focus on that. can he make that away from the credit channel? it might take a lot more time? out, the u.s. is finding while he is pressing the arelerator, the regulators also pressing the expected that's why you don't get the impact on credit that you expect. the u.s. is lucky. it has other engines of growth. >> this may be the key question

for central banks, can they affect demand? >> it's not probable. demand is being held back. we have decoupled the ability to spend from the spender. lacking a number of structural reforms and give confidence. the companies are not responding. i look at this and it's another attempt. good for him. good for the ecb. i hope behind closed doors they are making it clear that they are coming to the end of the rope. ♪

ramy: you are watching "the best." let's take a look at company news starting with the deal that links money giants. in sydney after an agreement with the biggest iron ore miner. what is behind the decision? >> this is a memorandum of understanding that lies at a platform for the companies to work together and explore opportunities to create value. blendingne of those is

for our together customers in china and provide a blend suited to minimize the cost of the supply chain. buy a stake in market. we are a minority interest. at our discretion. >> tell us about this decision and the benefits of this. a if we are able to forge long-term relationship, it provides opportunity for us to lower our costs further. it allows us to better match our products to our customers needs and china. >> dick's sporting goods timed the fitness trend better than most.

they are interested in sports authorities real estate. 140 stores they plan to close, 100 overlap of their stores. there are 40 in play. they could take over the lease or acquire the property. >> do you have any ideas? >> we've done a bunch of work. arestores that they closed -- i think it's going to be 10. they are closing for a reason. they are lousy locations and so on. i think there is more to come with sports authority. survive, they are going to close another hundred stores. if they don't figured out, it could go away completely. that's where it could get very interesting for dick's sporting goods. they are investigating the of

malaysian state investment funds. we are talking about one fund. how is goldman involved? >> they were the conduit to help this government-sponsored fund raise money. was supposed views for investment projects and infrastructure in malaysia. ony were the investment bank this. he was the banker. they raised over $6 billion. the key point is was the money going back into them or embezzled or used for illegal purposes and moved around without permission? >> what does this mean for goldman sachs? is returned to the reputational issues? >> it's something they will be a with. they hired an outside law firm

that's looking into it. you see this happen with thanks a lot. sometimes they have issues with their clients and that's it. it's not really clear at this point if goldman did anything wrong. >> the largest international airline has a jump in income of 90%. savings on lower fuel costs were partially offset by hedging losses. give me a sense of your position. >> we never hedge 100%. losses, the net fuel cost to us has gone down by $7 billion. that's 18%. the business benefited on the whole with the oil situation. the passenger market and the strong contributions by companies helped the better

result. >> you are hedging over three years. do you want to have it that makes your modeling easier? is it because the price of oil they go back up? protectve positions to the operation. earningst the stability. we take those positions. we will take hedging gains when the price is high. the business benefited from hedging losses. a showdown is underway at united continental. to investors are nominating six directors to the board. among those is the former continental airlines ceo. united'soming as current ceo returns from medical leave after undergoing a heart transplant. some investors were upset and

did not think the company was making the things it needed to do to turn around. they thought he could help shake things up. >> what goals do these funds have by bringing him back? >> they have been more talking about the problems that united has had rather than what they want to see going forward. what they said about united in the past is it had a languishing stock price. it hasn't performed -- performed as well as delta or american. they want to shake things up. they want some new blood on the board. revenue is rising 40% in the first full quarter as a public company. profitability may be the concern. what do you think about sales

growth combined with the lack of profitability? >> they grew 60% in the order. they are firing on all cylinders. they are expanding to other categories. square capital division is something investors are looking at. they have offered loans to 70,000 merchants in about $400 million of loans in the first year. that is an exciting opportunity to expand the relationships they have. >> how strong is their product pipeline? >> it's amazing for the ecosystem, it will accelerate the use of mobile payments, which the actual places you can use your apple pay or android they are quite limited. to think of them rolling it out to the 2 million merchants they use is a great development overall for consumers. bridgwater has hired john rubinstein as co-ceo.

the current co-ceo is set to turn his focus on his investing role. this comes after reports of tensions. has a culture of fighting things out internally, debating, having people vote on who is right. it is very weird to anyone outside of bridgewater, but inside, this is the norm. this is really about having jensen focused on investing, rather than running the company. , that is a more administrator role at rate water , so this is emblematic that they want him more focused on investing. jensen is known to be a very smart man and that is what they are focusing on. has an extensive career in technology. >> a strange fit, then. >> more and more, people are

describing bridgwater as a technology company. quantitative strategies to make a lot of their decisions. ramy: still to come, highlights from a week full of interviews and international women's day inspired us to ask what is the state of gender equality in business? ♪

ramy: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i'm ramy inocencio. welcome leaders in business and politics for exclusive come in depth conversation. with the chairwoman of the u.s. securities and exchange commission, mary jo white, who sat down to discuss financial regulation and reform. it's always an evolving landscape in terms of what is optimal regulation, including watching weather impacts are going forward. attention, but nobody wants to relive the financial crisis. many of those rules that the agency, that other agencies have executed on, have made a much more resilient as a market structure, as a financial system. some we were to roll back

of what the sec and other agencies have done, you believe we would be exposing financial markets to greater potential for another crisis. >> without question. recognizing all the accomplishments you have had as when you haveec, done in concert with other regulators, it's fair to say, is attempt to change the culture on wall street and financial services. to what degree have you been successful? >> i think both week, and much of wall street, has been significantly successful, but there is a distance to go. changing culture is not an overnight or even a five-your project. what you find when you try to change culture, particularly in significant ways, you change it at the top. we have been successful there. you may change it in the trenches but you have a swath of middle managers are you have to make sure the message is taken

in, absorbed, lived. n evolving responsibility. >> foreign policy will be extraordinarily important and difficult or the next president of the united states, may be more difficult than any president in our lifetime. what is the most important thing that needs to be employed the first 100 days? diplomacy, a in lot of talk in certain circles in the campaign of military force, where we would use it, what we would do. truly building these coalitions is what is required to bring about political solution. there is not one conflict on the global stage that can be simply settled by the barrel of the gun. challenge,orist building the coalition, you have to cut off financing, share

information about who is who in order to protect our people, make sure the wrong people don't come into your country. >> i feel like diplomacy is the least of what we have heard of it all of these debates and meetings. but am a diplomatic nerd, it does not make a sound bite, it does not make the bumper sticker. go listen. that will not necessarily work on the campaign, but one hopes that cooler heads will prevail. there are a lot of career foreign-policy professionals across the administration, regardless of who is in place, so we hope investing in the kinds of coalitions you need, understanding military force can be a component of dealing with violent people especially, but it has to be a part of a full strategy. because you cannot succeed otherwise, ultimately, people will come to that conclusion. >> we have dramatically had to

reduce our assets. we have taken the risk on our balance sheet down in half. faced with that headwind, from 2014 to 2015, we doubled our return on equity. we have to do a lot of managing the cost in our investment bank. we will not rest until we deliver a return on three that covers the cost of capital. >> that is an industrywide problem. wishing is not going to fix it. >> we are going to execute here at barclays to get there. fundamentally believe that if we are going to rely on the capital- e markets -- markets, i don't believe the world will feel safe if we rely on a world where the investment capital,not raise

cannot earn a fair return to their shareholders. it is not a stable platform. >> how long before a course corrects, what is the catalyst? >> i think it is happening now. all of the banks are looking at how to manage these balance sheets with far less risk on them, but in a way that delivers profitability to our shareholders. the third argument, the culture simply cannot be fixed. paying $20 billion in fines. a lot of that started here at the investment bank. >> i do believe wall street lost its way in the late 1990's. i do believe money became too much of a motivational factor. banking has to reverse back to the time when it was a profession, when being a practitioner in the profession of finance was like being a

lawyer or doctor. we have a lot to atone for, we made a lot of mistakes, but no doubt, the only existential risk to barclays is if we get it wrong in the future on conduct. >> why are you certain you can change that conduct and culture? >> i started in the banking industry that had the right culture. it is going back to something i have seen before, and everybody in this room wants to get their. -- there. ♪

ramy: you are watching "bloomberg best." i'm ramy inocencio. tuesday was international women's day. our guests was not with us to talk about gender equality, we asked many of them to reflect on their experience as women in the workplace. their answers were impassioned and illuminating. >> if there was one prescription to get more women, to get closer in the pay gap, what would it be? >> there are plenty, i wish there was one soundbite answer, but there are definitely some strides we can make. principlee, mandated leave. if you give them a break, they

are more likely to come back after. that is a study that shows that can save companies money in that first year. continued to advance women and promote them help. the one i'm focused on, the gender investment gap. hundreds of thousands, if not millions more in their career. i wish there were one answer, but there are several. >> everyone knows wall street is getting better, and in some cases women leading the way. are we just waiting for time to get us to where we have women t.e.m. caliber abilities, isn't getting better? >> it is not getting better. post the crisis, there was less diversity. i would take the opposite side, and it is costing wall street a lot of money. why? women are not investing to the

same degree that men are. mostly male financial advisors. i love every one of them, but they do a much better job for men. they lose their clients at a rate of 5% of the year. in the year after their client leaves thatouse same financial advisor at a rate of greater than 70%. i call myself an impatient optimist. the world is getting better for women, but not quickly enough. we need to do a lot to move that forward. >> we blame corporate america, it society? when it comes to take my child to the doctor, the schoolchild -- the school calls me. i consider myself the primary giver, i am the mom. is it the government or us holding us back? >> all of the above. we need to have paid family

leave work for women in this country. itwe don't have a great progra. i think it's a policy change but i also think recognizing this is work at home, and as a society, say that we want to change that. economists say you can do three things, recognize it, reduce it with innovation, and then we had to distribute it. we have to have these conversations in our homes and that role model in society. >> in terms of productivity and companies that do the best, they are here in the u.s. right message the in terms of policies, maybe they cannot afford it. the tech sector decided to be competitive, but if they want to keep their best women in the workforce, they are offering very generous paid family leave policies. not just for women, but for men, too. it is ok to take time off and

come back to your job. in california, the business community pushed back a lot when they put their paid family leave policy in place, but it did not decrease competitiveness of california companies, and david doing it for a decade. >> in this day and age, we should have more women in key leadership position. women represent 50% of the population. i am an innovation junkie, i believe diversity equals innovation. nationality,ender, but mostly innovation comes from diversity of thought. -- iu are in a board room know this. i'm on a board. you want more diverse perspectives to advise you, to represent the shareholders, because that is where the world is going. it is about more input. >> that is agreed upon in theory, but in practice, when

you see more and more proxy fights, the numbers are not there. >> at the end of the day, asking ourselves, is this person good, not, are they like me? but are they good? >> the five biggest activists have sought 174 board seats, got 108 total. they have filled them with less than 7% women. at the same time, if you look at the s&p, which has filled 446 board seats, 26% have been filled by women. first of all, those are discrete people who nearly have that absorbs all the data. the data tells you the more diverse your boards are, the better performance you will get. i have some good news on that front. there was a report yesterday that talked about the survey of

business owners and we now have 10 million businesses owned by women in this country, which is a tipping point. the rate of growth has been 2.5 times all businesses. $1.4, it represents trillion worth of revenues and 8 million jobs. owned morewomen companies, there will be greater opportunities that are not even counted when you look at the fortune 1000. there will be more opportunities, assuming we keep the pressure on access to capital. ,> small and medium enterprises which is where most of the economic growth is. >> that is because the women are doing it on their own. you have guys like carl icahn coating 35-year-old guys on seven-year-old boys dashboards. would it not help women to be on those boards? question, but as you see more

women go into senior position, that argument will become defunct. there are more women, especially among the millennials who are getting opportunities earlier to lead. as more data comes out to talk about performance -- remember, those who do not get it will have the data. the more that talks about diverse boards, the more you will see change. ♪

lost a legendeet this week when john good friend died at the age of 86 at the head of salomon brothers. he was a transracial figure. his impact can be found in the financial industry. we discussed his legacy on bloomberg television. 80's, he turned solomon into one of the most successful banking firms. a lost the job because of a trading scandal. >> i take real issue that say that john got friended this and that. he invented the modern age. wouldforesaw that people remember him with a negative taste in their mouth. >> i did a morning must-read

this morning. let's bring up this morning. he took the pulse of the place simply by wandering around and asking questions of the traders. he gave the new york times a quotation in the 1980's saying that he changed the way that the fundamental world was. >> i think that is beautifully put. he would say that what people have forgotten was a limited risk, as they invented modern wall street. they did not have the derivative trades that we had. what is so important about this is the when of it. it is when john good friend did it. >> we must not forget that he

hires and fires our very own michael bloomberg. >> i was not going to bring that up. mark, you are a brave guy. i know that michael has immense affection for him. i wish we had heard the fabric of the past from mr. staley today. i was taken about his comment today, that it was like being a doctor or lawyer. staley wants to take the modern wall street back to the fabric that henry and others know. that really struck me. he was a big part of "liar's poker." he said, it made michael lewis, but it ruined him. >> i would put that over to immense graciousness.

when i ran into him over the years, he was eventually gracious about how things had ended out in his public service, which was really the social fabric of new york city. was, tot from where he the collapse of the career, but he made something of it afterwards, which was really important. ♪ ramy: that is all for this edition of "bloomberg best." i'm ramy inocencio. thanks for watching. ♪

>> welcome to a best of "with all due respect." another big week for the presidential campaigns. trump one by a lot in michigan, bernie sanders one by a little, still enough to sting the hillary clinton campaign. we begin by dissecting that victory. how on earth did sanders pull this off? particularly, trade is an issue that has more residents in michigan that may