interested companies are preparing for the worst if they get the potentially lucrative job. some contractors interested in the work want to know if authorities would rush to help if workers came under what they called hostile attack. another asked if employees could carry firearms in states with strict control laws and if the government would indemnify them for using deadly force. the deadline has been extended ,o 11:59 p.m. tonight washington time. philip hammond is in india on a mission to promote bilateral trade. -- drugnt prime conference today, he discussed the british plan for a reset in trade relations with india and establishing the u.k. as us -- as a true goal player. a true relationship between equals. the largest democracy in the world and the oldest democracy in the world, coming back together to look at building a

new relationship, with the indian economy opening up and the u.k. averting its gaze from the widere towards world and both of us seeing opportunities. the chancellor says that he sees tensions ahead as brexit talks continue because people on both sides oppose any deal and what talks to fail. brexit is prompting the u.k. to boost trade efforts outside europe. liam fox tells bloomberg that 90% of global growth is being generated outside the continent. he says that asia pacific is the center of gravity of the global economy, so the u.k. must direct investment and economic activity there. 24 hours per day, powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: live, from bloomberg's world headquarters in new york, i'm scarlet fu. joe: and i'm joe weisenthal. we are 30 minutes from the close of trading in the u.s. scarlet: the dow, barely holding on to gains. joe: but the question is, "what'd you miss?" scarlet: something's wrong with the u.s., that is what jamie dimon said about the economy in his annual shareholder letter. down, jeffreyps lacher, nonvoting member of the fomc, resigning after disclosing his role in an allegedly give information in 2012. how will this disrupt the central bank? last, general motors, unfeeling a new version of the sedan today. we speak to mark royce, the executive vp, later in the hour,

on the challenges for the auto industry. -- joe: let's look at where the major averages a stand. lot happening. the dow, s&p, and nasdaq, barely changed. the s&p 500 flipping positive right now, nasdaq down ever so slightly. let's look where there is a lot of direction. details, down a little bit on the worst day since early august of last year. the reuters report said that a takeover process, the potential takeover process is slowing down and it could take a few more weeks, suggesting that a price may not be agreeable to all parties and that a lower price could be agreed on. two potential suitors, of course, are michael kors and coal -- and coach. we also have ralph lorenz on pace for its worst days since

early february after the company said that they would be closing onir flagship polo store fifth avenue and revamping their e-commerce efforts, along with cutting jobs, all of this on cutting sales. we have lots of weakness for many of the department stores, gooding kohl's, macy's, and jcpenney after the first sales data for the month of march showed that department sales are really at the bottom of the barrel, down 10.9% for the month of march, versus the overall growth of six [no audio]

we have the sp y and we see that around the time of the border proposal, retail has traded the etf has traded higher relative to the components the stocks that we have discussed today are not in there. there is a larger store. one potential influence, though, could be from e-commerce pressure. a long-term chart that goes all the way back to 1992. in blue, we have department stores, 10% of overall retail sales. now, less than 3%. bricks white, we have non- and mortar. just a fraction, 10%, it seems a lot of consumers are doing shopping online, to the expense of the department stores and some of the retailers out there. payless has filed for bankruptcy in st. louis as it tries to/debt because of

declining sales. this is a private equity owned retailer, as you known, take it private in 2012 by golden gate capital and blue capital partners. of course, this is a company that struggled with foot traffic , declining sales, employing about 22,000 people in 30 countries, joe. joe: i don't the guy realized how big of a company this was. 22,000 employees, this is quite a big company headed towards bankruptcy. written here with the -- the latest on retail, matt townsend, who is going to look at how trump policies are impacting gold business -- global business. i think it is interesting that this is a private equity owned retailer that has gone under. so many of these retailers have been taken private in the past six years. matt: it's the case of a lot of

retailers going private, it was seen as taken private, fix them up, bring them back, and what has heard that is the growing influence of e-commerce, amazon, competitors online. very competitive, slow margins, not a lot of room for error. when you are servicing a lot of that, that makes it even harder. so, payless aside, looking at the retail index, down 13%, there's just a lot of bad news for the sector. some of it is the trend towards online, others perhaps concerned taxt a border adjustment and other specific things with companies, like a urban outfitters being down 3%, the whole industry is under pressure from multiple angles, right? matt: yes. anyone based in a mall, yes, people are going to the mall's less. they are all sort of shutting

stores and struggling. with the backdrop of consumer confidence being high, the economy is growing well, so the question is, where are people spending if they are not spending at stores? it's just not a good thing at all. joe: we have seen the decline in same-store sales for these sectors and this really shows that there are some fundamental issues. of orderjust a fear adjustment tax. this is a deeply struggling industry. scarlet: absolutely. it would replace the corporate income tax with a 20% tax on domestic sales and exempt exports. this has gotten the retail industry to really gather together to fight this effort. outline for us to divide within the white house. the white house has not clarified its position. it is stephen bannon versus, what, steve mnuchin and barry column -- barry cohen?

we wrote that story last week about the paul ryan kevin brady plan in the house. looks like the white house is just getting started with regards to formulating where they are in this is after the paul ryan plan that has been out there since last summer. it is kind of wait and see now. the backdrop is that the retailers are lobbying against this. to ask, what is the lobbying effort on the part of the retailers looking like? matt: it's a coalition of and automakers. the story that we just did today basically says that if you look at this is a boxing match, the early rounds have gone to the retailers. they got out early, doing public perception in a lot of cases, doing tv ads, saturday night live, they know that the president watches "saturday

night live." it is still early and the big takeaway will be that nothing will be decided until the president comes down on tax reform. all right, matt townsend, bloomberg's reporter on how trump's policies are impacting global businesses. nation's, one of the executives invited to participate in the ceo townhall today, tom farley. we will get as thoughts on creating pro-business climate. part of his exclusive interview, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

" scarlet: "what'd you miss?

,- ceo townhall today discussing the creation of a pro-business climate. in attendance, tom farley. we spoke exclusively with him after that white house event. come downal was to and advocate on behalf of a list of companies specifically with respect -- respect to capital formation and making that easier a this country and making it more accessible tax policy. what we can do, as a society, is look at the regulations who have been -- that have been put in pay -- put in place through sarbanes-oxley and, similarly, dodd-frank. did it help or hurt capital formation? the number of public companies is down by half and that's not the america that any of us want. trying to figure out how the small and medium-size enterprises can operate in a way that isn't white so costly.

>> so great to have you on the program, tom. i want to ask you a general question, first, about london. is brexit helping you win listings at the expense of london? ipo volume in the u.k. in the first half was pretty low. tom: first of all, let me say that we hope not. a strong u.k. is important to the world and i'm conflicted because we have a good deal of business in the u.k.. certainly there is a good deal of uncertainty about the exit, that's kind of the understatement of the day, companies will take that into a listingn choosing venue, but i haven't seen a flood of companies that would have been listed that have chosen to list on the stock exchange. are in a that we fortunate spot, i can say with all due humility, but by and large great global companies do

wind up listing on the exchange. even the top companies on the london exchange, many of them have also chosen to lift -- listed there, so i don't figure will have two big of an impact. >> speaking of the london stock exchange, the minister is in saudi arabia right now. nyse if anything, is the doing different than usual to win them over? it's interesting, if you had said to me when you're ago that i would have been answering questions about oil and gas ipos, i would have been gob smacked. the oil -- oil price was down in the doldrums. now it has come ripping back. it is the hot sector. it is lots of oil and gas companies. multiples are queued up for ipo here. talkurse we are going to to a great company like that. i won't comment on the specifics

, but we are a deep liquid market here in the united dates and i take ride in the fact that we have $33 trillion in aggregate market caps. in oil and gas you have to add up, say, the next five exchanges combined to find the depth of the liquidity that we had. our first oil and gas company was 1887. scarlet: that was tom farley, speaking earlier today on "bloomberg markets." joe: let's stay on banks. released a dimon letter today. he writes "it is clear that something is wrong and it is holding us back. the lack of growth and opportunities have led to deep and understandable frustrations among so many americans. here to outline what else he highlighted in his letter is the

banking and wall street reporter, laura keller. this is probably the second most anticipated annual letter from a ceo after buffett us -- buffett's every year. what is he talking about? what does he see out there that concerns him? buffett, this is a big thing. he writes about this roughly every year. one thing that is somatic throughout his pieces is that america is a great country to be in. we have a lot of things going for us but he says it pained him to write this and that there were problems going on. he listed everything from corporate taxes to too many regulations. he spent a lot of time talking about that. even things more arcane, like how mortgages are financed in the u.s.. >> of course, he has a special vantage point and all of this. he was at the roundtable of the

people advising the president. he devoted a lot of time to public policy. does he offer specific prescriptions? >> he left one bullet point prescriptive to one overarching kind of thing. he very much echoes trump in saying that he needs to reduce the taxes for corporate america, more increasing on the investment. specifically saying that we haven't put a new airport together in 40 years in certain places, so it's kind of looking at what we have seen, but not so much exactly what we need to do. but he does have ideas on how we can very much change banking, because he wants to talk more about lending, lending more, devoting as he did last year a large chunk of the letter to how we can roll back the capital banks are required to keep. when we talk about the stuff that got trump elected, i don't think of banking

regulations as the motivator. it is, however, he said, appropriate to open up the rulebook and rework the rules and regulations that don't work well. do we have a sense -- people always talk about less regulation, good regulation. do we know, specifically, what he sees as the regulations holding back the banking sector and, therefore, the u.s. economy? dimon, we do. he has said this over and over again. his big thing is the liquidity that we have. the capital that we have got to keep in case there is a big catastrophe on the banking sector. he goes through, chart by chart, pointing out the systemically important things that we have to keep versus what they said they in thatobably lose scenario. i forget his exact numbers, but it was something like two dollar chilean that the banks were holding.

as opposed to something like $195 billion that they would lose if there was an adverse scenario happening. look, if we kept the money elsewhere, we could do other things with it and that is something i could get behind, i could lend more to the u.s. consumer if i didn't have to lock up that money. too big tos that fail is over, not a problem anymore. he says that these massive are part ofoblems the past recession. what's his argument? >> basically that we have solved it by having this money there and that we have too much of it already. that's kind of what he's saying. simple as that, in his mind. all right, laura keller, thank you very much. scarlet: verizon is expected to combine -- close is dual -- its

deal to combine with yahoo! this summer. they will be responsible for 20 brands reaching up to 100 customers, but marissa mayer will reportedly not be continuing with the new entity. >> i would repeat what marissa has said and what i said before. she will stay through the next phase of the business, which the -- which will be a mixture of the executive teams together and i would look for more information around q2. scarlet: the british chancellor of the exchequer says that he expects banks to keep the bulk of operations in britain after the brexit, but that there will be an implementation period to help smooth the process. are already said to be in talks with european capital cities. others are making contingency plans for worst-case scenarios.

major advertisers are jumping ship at fox news in the wake of a sexual assault -- of sexual harassment scandals. +++

scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. "what'd you miss?" stocks trumping bonds in a big way. shout out to david wilson, founder this chart. this is the total return on the

500 relative to the aggregate 10 year bond index. line goes up, it means that stocks are outperforming bonds. last month, as you can see in the red circle, the ratio surpassed its high, when the five-year equity bull market came to an end. to be sure, we are a long way off from where we were in late 1999, that the knowledge leader capital who published this chart in his recent note said that the recent accumulation was faster than usual and that you could see how quickly the line went up in the last two quarters or so. he said look for a reversion to the mean with further stocks trading relative to bonds being unlikely over the next several months. i love this, it's long-term but in perspective. late 90's,er the nobody wanted anything to do with bonds. we were just talking about that jamie dimon shareholder letter where he talked about the things that are ailing the u.s.

economy. i pulled out one of these charts and had it made and one of the things he spotlighted was prime age labor force participation 54,s among men, aged 25 to a big chart comparing the u.s. against other developed countries. we highlighted five others. you can see the white line here is the u.s., its way of the bottom. there has been a general downtrend across all the different developed countries in age laborale prime force participation. could have to do with more people in college or the whole world, people wanting to get more educated, but the u.s. is in the basement when it comes to this measure and their are perhaps reasons to think that it is not all good news and that there are some disturbing, cyclical things going on. this is one of the charts that has him worried. scarlet: the u.s. line drops off after the financial crisis. joe: it doesn't rebound at all. scarlet: no one else sees that

trajectory downward. joe: great point. making au.s. stocks, bit of a come back here. the s&p 500 is on the cusp of closing, little changed. as is the nasdaq. this is bloomberg. ♪

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from the closing bell. "what'd you miss?" the s&p 500, closing little changed on the date, investors taking to save haven, for the most are -- [closing bell] scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. joe: and i'm joe weisenthal. if you are tuning in live on twitter, we want to welcome you to our closing bell coverage, every weekday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. eastern. with thewe begin market minute, stocks clawing their way out of the red. we were lower earlier in the day, but it's not nothing. scarlet: we did have eco-data, but it didn't sway the market one way or the other. looking at the industry groups that have moved here, nine out of 11 are higher, although it's not large. this is the function on the bloomberg with materials and energy being the best

performers, up by one half of 1%. utility discretionary's including homebuilders and car builders were negative, though not by a lot. one group, though, within the consumer discretionary space the took a hit, were the apparel companies. this is the apparel index in the s&p 500 and this is the message ranked returns. she goes, off by 5%. in fact, there were no gainers members of the composite apparel retail index. the index is now at its lowest level since june of 2016. we had structural issues and things like the border adjustment tax hanging over the sector. if you look at individual names, one brand that is not included is ralph lorenz, down for a fourth straight day. you can see the trend for apparel companies, clearly. the counterpart to that story is .mazon's continued rise

trading at a record high, this is the seventh straight day of gains for amazon. staples is also higher, but for its own reason. the company is in takeover talks with a number of private equity firms. after pacific crest cut the stock to underweight after signs of saturation in the market for desktop graphical processing units. joe: 10 year yields, ending higher on the day. right at the bottom of that range we are always talking about, but in the end we were higher. stuck in the middle once again. german 10 year yields going a bit slower. i want to spotlight south africa, because it looks like a relief rally. they had a terrible week, but then yesterday s&p cut south africa to junk.

people were concerned about the other ratings agencies, with a bit of a relief rally for south african bonds. the dollar, weaker versus the yen, you talk about a wellf rally, extending as to a six-day selloff, but notable that it erased its gains for the year for 2017. finally, on the commodity front, west texas intermediate, catching a little bit of a bid, natural gas up by 5%. scarlet: let's take a deep dive into the bloomberg. you can find the chart using the function of the bottom of the screen. i want to stick with the carry trade for the south african rand area of the ramp dollar carry trade has become less appealing.

you borrow u.s. dollars to fund the purchase, which is higher-yielding. we set the red line at zero so these and see the return. it traded as much as 27% beforehand, which is in contrast where you suree the dollar by eight different currencies, including the usual. the mexican peso, the royale, and the turkish lira and polish zloty. it: i love this chart, really shows that markets were requiring a lot of compensation already to hold rands. if you want, you were getting paid a lot to take the risk and the events of the last week show you why. you step on a landmine if you lose your gains. looking at car sales, i wanted to follow up.

there was a great chart for together by bloomberg strategists showing the s&p 500 versus annualized car sales. yesterday when we had that missed mark number, look at 2011 and 2012. there were two times in which car sales started to weaken. the white line. weakenedeekend -- after that. this could be a harbinger. cars are an important part of the economy and they could be an economic indicator in their own right. just something to be concerned about. in the top right you see the big divergence, so keep an eye on that. another leading indicator for the economy. "what'd you miss?" part two of the health care bill, possibly. gop leaders looking to get going on the stalled effort for the affordable care act. >> these are ongoing

conversations we are having. we want to talk about how to improve the bill to get consensus. those talks are happening. we are as concept stages right now. the vice president has been instrumental in bringing different groups together to talk about concepts. right now we are at the conceptual stage, how to move forward to get everyone to two -- everyone to 216. it's important that we get the votes and the consensus of 216 members, which is where we are right now. here now with the latest, our political reporter, sahil kapur. is this going to happen again? they have been reaching out directly to the freedom caucus to see where there is room germany over and if they can tweak of these, they are looking at giving states the right if they want to. i spoke to several members of the freedom caucus this morning

and after the meeting they remain skeptical. it remains to be seen. scarlet: getting the members to yes is one challenge, they want to work with democrats as well. have any democrats and reached out to? sahil: not that i'm aware of. president and the white house want to do a health care looksement, but if it like what they are doing now, they have to do with the -- with republicans. they are not going to get democrats to repeal big chunks of the law. democrats want to fix some parts of the market that are broken, in rural areas and parts of the country where there are only one insurer in the options are limited, but they will not want to repeal big chunks and take away the tax subsidies, as the

republicans are considering. at this point the white house still seems to be going at it. their first attempt was not a popular piece of legislation. the new version of it, the talk, as you explained, would weaken the regulations that would require insurance companies to people with pre-existing conditions. which is one of the most popular aspects of obamacare, i believe. with the gop than risk losing the moderate flank if that's what goes into this version of the bill? sahil: that's exactly the fear. the freedom caucus members, the conservatives, they want to free andhe insurance mandates regulations, including the ,ssential health benefits and potentially, the community rating aspect, which is to say that they cannot charge sick

people more than healthy people. at the very least, we want to give this -- they want to give the states the ability to option out weary of the thing is, it doesn't mean much if you don't have a limit as to what companies can charge, because they can price consumers out of the market that turning them down. that is why several republicans pulled me this morning that if they add something like that in, they may lose more moderates and conservatives. it's a tricky balance. real quick, if they give the options to states to regulate themselves, the states could still give the policy, right? saying you had to keep the community writing, right? right, you will have some states doing that and someone. no one wants to vote for a bill and be the reason that their state lost of these protections if that ends up harming a lot of

their constituents and they have a competitive reelection battle, so that's one of the many balances they are trying to strike and clearly, it is not easy. we heard speaker ryan again and again trying to lower expectations this morning, saying that they are at the concept stage and having conceptual talks about this. we are only a couple of legislative days away from a recess. scarlet: thank you so much. now, to some headlines related to the unexpected departure or early retirement of jeffrey lacher. on theleased a statement government website saying that the federal reserve is committed to maintaining the security of confidential fomc information. they cooperated fully in the unauthorized disclosure in 2012 and that they appreciate the diligent efforts made to bring the matter to a conclusion. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton. time for first word news erie it rex tillerson is condemning the attack in syria and pointing the iran, at russia and saying that the two nations there are a great moral responsibility for the deaths in syria. at least 15 people were killed in today's suspected chemical attack, including 11 children. the united nations security council has scheduled an emergency meeting for tomorrow following the attack in syria. the u.s. ambassador, nikki haley, made the announcement today in response to a request from britain and france for that emergency session. debate on the trump supreme court nominee is underway.

democrats have secure the votes to block the nomination, but the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, is poised to change long-standing senate rules to confirm judge neil gorsuch. penorters of marine le would pick emmanuelle macron second in the election, even though the two of them clash on almost every issue. the survey found that among those 22 vote for marine le pen, 27% said macron would be there fallback option. bloomberg news, 24 hours a day, powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: "what'd you miss?" lacher, resigning today after he disclosed his role in a 2012 information leak related to fed deliberations. and a statement sent by a law "i regretas -- said

that in this instance i crossed the line into revealing information that should have remained confidential. it was inconsistent with those important confidentiality policies." joe: for more on this story, let's bring in dan moss and levin, who joins us from hanover, new hampshire. he was notplies that the sole actor here. is there more to come on this? the he says clearly in statement from his richmond law inm that he was presented the conversation with information and he says that it this point you should have ended the conversation or something like that, and he didn't do that

and that was why he was there. it's clear from his statement that this is an -- this is a statement of could his -- let me rephrase -- what he is essentially appearing to, choosing my words carefully. he is saying that he is not the leaker. he was presented with information by the analyst. he is saying that he should have ended the conversation then and the risk is that by not doing they inferred the information was correct. significant one. scarlet: andrew, what is your read? andrew: i agree with the economic editor. thatrucial thing here is it is absolutely essential that the public have confidence in the integrity of the fed.

this was a serious breach of information, highly valuable, sensitive information was given investment analyst on wall street who passed it on to clients who may well have made money from it. one of your questions was, is this the end? i would tell you that there is a lot more to come. i agree with your editor, the content of the newsletter goes way beyond what president lacher what heve even known or could have confirmed. part of the newsletter talks about internal analysis at the federal reserve board itself in wouldn't have been familiar to someone like the regional fed in richmond. talking about the thinking of the leadership of the fed, that generally refers to the chair and the vice chair and president of the new york fed and the very thatly held information comes from working with those leaders. someone in that small group, the

d.c. board, new york fed, or in contacthave been with this analyst and she passed that on to the client. you specialize in the monetary policy goals and communication between the fed in the public. should fed presidents even be having these conversations with these specialized research outfits to get information? even if it is not a legitimate, passing it on to highly paying clients? there is definitely urgent room for improvement here. public confidence is crucial to the fed. first, there is room for making the in strategy more transparent. it would help to make this sort of information less financially valuable if the broader strategy was more clear and concrete. the other area for improvement along the lines you are suggesting is that the fed needs

to listen to outsiders from financial markets and elsewhere. small businesses, labor unions, all sorts of people around the country, the fed needs to listen to. but the fed has to be extremely notful and committed to sharing any sensitive, valuable information from anyone who could benefit from that. should mention the standard is the architect of dots, the layer -- the way that the federal reserve communicates. jeff lacker was seen as a hawk. he was in favor of more interest rate increases than last. presumably his is somewhere appear. dan moss, with the richmond fed lacker,lacker -- jeff where does that leave them? he was never someone you look to it in terms of getting

the center of gravity. he didn't always dissent in terms of higher rates. sometimes he dissented on whether the policy should be as loose as it was. there is a tradition at the with a tradition on , this will have no impact on policy. scarlet: got it. dan: when you look at the brief statement that the board put out in response, would we be correct in saying that this has been areed and that the leakers still out there? what do you think the next step is? is there a next step? -- andrew: a critical thing

that should have happened on day one was notification of law enforcement agencies. now there are agencies involved. it was mentioned in the letter to the fbi. attorney for the southern district of new york, which you should keep in mind here is the person who, that office is responsible for enforcing trading rules and the use of internal information inappropriately. and the commodity futures trading commission is involved in the investigation because the sort of information that was valuable could be used in trading derivatives and contracts, the sort of which they are supposed to oversee. this is not just about the fed, it is about public confidence in the functioning and integrity of key financial markets. scarlet: i'm glad you bring that

up. joe, i remember something at the european central bank in which renois said something to someone that he shouldn't have. joe: the misuse of communication to be above or not the public does not seem to be confined to the fed. scarlet: is this a recurring problem, fed bank officials saying things casually without realizing that they are disseminating the treo information? after that happened, the european central bank adopted new procedures to make sure that doesn't happen again. the federal reserve has procedures and policies in place. that the policies weren't actually being followed. important for the public to have confidence. that it's not just filed away in a drawer somewhere.

something the public could count on. scarlet: all right, andrew levin, thank you for joining us. and of horse, and moss. -- dan moss. coming up, 11 french presidential candidate debates, squaring off. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: "what'd you miss? i'm scarlet fu. " -- i'm scarlet fu. "what'd you miss?" endedscal year in japan on friday and not a single one .f the ones there went bankrupt

the cost against japanese corporate debt default is a white line and is falling. the cost of corporate debt default in north america is rising. that is your blue line. some investors say that the company debt in north america has become too expensive. meantime, in japan, you have near zero interest rates and loan guarantees keeping companies in business. the last time japan saw no bankruptcies was more than one quarter of a century ago. this is always the knock on japan, these a zombie companies that will never go bankrupt so investors know not to pay too much. they are having a big debate in france. the second day televised debate. i think it is 11 candidates debating. eu go, the favorite dashboard for checking things in europe. this is french unemployment, french polls, french

presidential elections measured by the internet, brexit. here is the odds checker. what we see is that we see him being down, but he's not, the odds are coming back. he's the white line. just under 20%. under 63%.ling it's not over. even marine le pen has picked up a little bit, though she is below where she was in late february. now she is around 25%. keep your eye on france. the story is not over yet. in that second round heads up, it's still 20 points in most polls. next, wecoming up speak to one global strategist to says yes it is in brazil. this is bloomberg. ♪

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boom baby! rated pg-13. [ screams ] mark: time nowmark: for first word news. paul ryan says that republicans continue to work on health legislation, but he admits that the effort is still in what he calls the conceptual stage. at a briefing with reporters today, he said that the house appropriations committee is working on a spending bill for the 2017 fiscal year. that weood news is don't have to deal with the obama administration. we have the trump administration. you know me, i'm a regular order guy. i want the appropriations committee to write the bill, negotiate the bill. we are working hand in glove with the trump administration on

these things. that's point number one. he expects the package to be ready by the end of this month. foreign travelers to the united states may be forced to disclose their phone contacts and social media passwords, according to "the wall street journal," which cited trump administration officials. the so-called extreme vetting maia fight to travelers from 38 countries that take part in the u.s. visa waiver program. the head of ecuador possible national electoral council says incumbent party candidate marino presidentialight election according to the associated press. the challenger has been contending the results, alleging electoral fraud. he asked supporters to take to the streets in protest. news, 24 hours per day, powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in 120 countries.

i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: "what'd you miss?" mexico investors discovering that there is life in the trump era. 7%, eight percent this year. the peso, 2016 us biggest loser, staging a surprise rally. some firms saying that they are putting purchases on hold at the start of the year. for more, we want to bring in catherine rooney barra. she is responsible for the markets and fiscal policy on the region. she joins us from miami. great to see you again. you cover latin america, let's start with a comparison between brazil and mexico. the new brazil -- is mexico the new brazil?

kathryn: last year brazil turned out to be a stellar outperform or across asset classes. the same as the case for mexico. we try to look for value when the market oversold, when emotions are coming in. foundxican broker-dealer extreme levels of pessimism and even feelings on the ground in mexico after the trump administration's win. joe: how much is it about getting back to normal? people were so depressed on mexico, completely out of line with reality, how much for people not only overly pessimistic, but there was a positive upside economic story to tell? much of it is the former, i would say. pesove seen the mexican massively undervalued for some time, especially after the trump

administration came into power. a lot of it is returning to normal with regard to flow into mexico. even anecdotally i will tell you that local pension funds, big buyers of paper in mexico have been selling the mexican currency bond in a big way. but we have seen is international investors coming in and scooping them up. i would say that there is a junta for value right now. the fear is worn off. i think a lot of guys are looking for you. really, mexico, that gives you that yield. scarlet: it is higher now than the colombian 10 year yield and now you have a negative yield spread. follow on joe's question on how much business is due to the attractive fundamentals, i feel like i need to throw a monkey wrench into the works. you have political concerns to contend with.

there is a presidential election coming up in mexico where the candidate, some people compare him to a socialist. yes, he is an extreme socialist. he is definitely a concern. i would say that mexicans are very scared of that. i have heldo risks since last year. one is internal. coming into power next year, he changes the course of mexico. alluded to, mexico has strong institutions in general compared to the regional fears. as -- hugo shop chavez like person coming in, that would change. the recent poll showed him dropping and the wife of that former president, increasing in the polls. my contention, scarlet, the bottom line, it's an inverse

relationship. as trump sounded hard and rough on mexico, we get upside, but at the same time if it sounds more moderate and the execution isn't withnsurate with his tone, someone like this. joe: obviously with the strengthening of the peso, there is perhaps less pressure to continue those. where do you see monetary policy headed in the near to medium term? that was two weeks ago and i think they are doing the right thing. swaps, that's really important, taking a page out of the book of brazil, which effectively did this over the last couple of years.

mexican massive rally, at 22 we said to double down, there is value there. if inflation is going to end this year, it's above 5% in mexico. all right, thank you very much. scarlet: speaking of the fed, the fed governor is speaking right now, giving his last speech, the eve of his last day on the board. he says it might be time to get rid of one of the most feared aspects of the stressed test, the qualitative test. he says it might not be needed much longer. whether a crisis can do rendered obsolete.

we will continue to monitor these headlines and you can see the remarks on the bloomberg live go. from new york. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. "what'd you miss?" monsanto, more on the potential magic -- megamerger, creating the biggest company of pesticides and modified seeds. let's look at monsanto in the numbers don't lie. we begin with the gap between the share price and the buyers offer. --represents a 12% different difference right now, showing how investors feel about the odds of multiple companies approving the transaction. one believer is berkshire athaway, with its holding of

million shares. one prime example of the holdup is the herbicide market. the combined market share may fromre different stitchers eu regulators. the line at the top shows how a combination would create a dominant player in the space. another area that could see selling is cottonseed, they control about 58% of u.s. sales. beyond asset sales, there is no shortage of politics. both ceos promised president trump and $8 billion investment in the u.s., and they also vowed to add 3000 jobs while confirming a plan to keep headquarters in st. louis. the reminder that the catalyst for the deal was falling crop prices. they also have deals under review for dupont, dow chemical, and china national chemical. profits are down for a third straight year.

they remain confident that they can close the transaction by the end of the year. joe: time for a look at the bloomberg business flash. caterpillar, rising the most in two weeks after goldman sachs added the company to its conviction list. the illinois-based caterpillar has been struggling after a government rated their facilities and an investigation into taxes and offshore dealings. a 59.6 carat diamond, known as the pink star, sold for $71.2 million at an auction in hong kong, setting a new world record for diamonds in jules. the presale estimate set by sotheby's on the block. the gem is a flawless fancy think of vivid diamond created

by the gemological institute of america. that is your business flash update. staying on the art scene, the state of the great american banking family is falling on hard times. weather shield, created by james stillman, the onetime head of the bank that would eventually become citigroup. the foundation overseeing the estate lost $72 million from 1998 to 2015. today his heirs are putting the artwork on the auction block in order to preserve the estate. for more on this let's bring in the writer of the story. this is one of the most read stories on the bloomberg. i guess this really speaks to how people are taken by the idea that a family fortune can be squandered within a generation or two. >> it's actually devastating. the situation came to my attention in 2013, when it was unraveling. and when the daughters of chauncey stillman, those who

presided over citigroup, they saw the foundation being hijacked by the trustees, who gave away millions of dollars over the course of a decade. to their own pet charities and pet causes from their own alma mater's, to their children's school, to sometimes worthy causes that have nothing to do with the intent of chauncey stillman. they were just really greatly concerned. joe: the current situation is that they have to liquidate this giant art collection. what is it worth? board,the family is on the bad guys are gone, they have to raise $20 million to keep things afloat and keep the estate open to the public. they basically had to lift the restrictions in the will, selling a bunch of works that chauncey stillman said no, don't

sell them. it's coming up at christie's this month, upcoming sales in may as well. dega they expect to raise $12 million. s, joe: we will be watching those. you should read that story on the bloomberg and bloomberg.com. coming up, mark roos to speak to david westin live. it's a first on bloomberg interview, next.

♪ "what'd you miss?"

general motors, looking to boost of the premium auto brand of its buick. david westin is standing by to interview mark royce, the executive vp of product development, live from the product revealed in michigan. >> will come back to bloomberg tv. i know it is a good day for you. what is that behind you? >> first of all, david, nice to see you. secondly, we missed you here in detroit. you have got to come back here. >> i miss you, too. >> it's a soft spot for us. truewe've got here is a cross over here. something that is not in the market and it has got a great cargo capacity here. more than the volvo and subaru. this is a very nice, long wheelbase, elegant approach to a touring type crossover.

car, twoeat handling beautiful,, sculpture design with quiet and elegance that you get, it's all here. >> i would like to try it out. what about the sport back? >> looking at auto sales over the last month, sales figures continue to shift to the traditional crossovers and suvs and that market is growing while car market piece is beginning to stagnate a little bit and decrease. what we are doing with the sport back is taking a new approach, a white space for sedans. versatilitydible with a hatch like opening in the back.

the versatility of old down seats and an open space in the back, but it is a very cool like elegant design. we are going to keep reinventing the 300 unit market. with style, performance, value, versatility, trying clever things. that is what buick is about. yesterday it showed that gm was up, maybe less than people expected. what you really side behind them -- saw behind them was that sedans are way down. these vehicles that you are announcing, are they sedans or suvs? is a great question. they are off of a body frame integral architecture. if you are going on just roof height, this will be below the traditional crossover suv proportion on a roof height

basis. that is what makes it so beautiful. on a cargo basis, this still has an incredible amount of room. you are getting the best of both worlds. the suspension is about two inches higher. you get all of those things. it's a white space not in the market today. it's tough to classify. >> one of the things that distinguishes general motors, buick, is your presence in china. you sell a lot in china. when i look at these vehicles, to what extent are these directed specifically at the chinese market? , but theill not be sport back well. one of the two of them will be. don't forget, buick sells more cars in the united states than acura, just listen. number one in customer

sales and service satisfaction, a great brand that is really on fire. we will keep doing that, putting in different innovative portfolio entries and getting high conquest rates of non-gm customers in the buick. that's the strategy. very, very important to us, obviously, but the united states, north america, it's a big market for viewing. >> as you say, buick had a strong month is hit have substantial discounts as well him if maintain -- can buick maintain that? is productto this freshness, right? we are going to have a whole lineup here, when we introduce this in new york right in your backyard next week, the new enclave, that vehicle is one of our oldest but most successful.

when that goes on sale here, we will have the entire product line of four buick under 21 months. this'll will be the freshest product lineup in the industry. the new luxury and luxury segment. we feel really good about that. at the end of the day it's all about -- [no audio] at the two cars behind you, where are they going to be made? there was a time when we didn't think much about that. these days we do focus on where they are manufactured. where are these funds going to be manufactured? >> in germany. >> in germany. does the possibility of trade problems give you pause on that score? i tell you how we look at this, on the border tax, trade or whatever, we don't know what's going to happen or what the plan is, precisely. all we know is that we have to

be agile enough to handle whatever policies, legal policies, emerge around trade. you cannot sit around or put probabilities on anything. you have got to move forward and wheree product on places it will sell the most and satisfy customers. that's all you can do. focused on the agility piece of this. >> one of the things you have been justly proud of is the extent to which you have globalized production facilities around the world. you and i have talked about that. since we last talked, to what extent have the loss of opel interfered with your global strategy in terms of platforms? is a very capable engineering development center. but, if you look at what we have last probably the

eight years, it has really centralized the architecture development in michigan. and the application [no audio] where we are today. it wasn't like that prior to 2008. that is where we are today. we feel good about that. way, is a long-term relationship with opel and psa around electrification with some of the different components and architecture sharing continuing and we have a great relationship there. and forok at this as an all three companies. or two.us out a year how many units would you need to sell to say it was a big success? >> that's a really good

question. i don't know, we have never sold anything like this year. this is a substantial entry in the sedan market for the regal sport back, as it has been. is it a successful product for us there? it is a bit of an experiment. again, there is nothing like it on the road here. we think that this is going to be something that is very exciting, bringing in a lot of new people. i don't know. >> market, great to talk to. i promise to drive one of these cars for you -- with you. that's the vice president of general motors. joe? joe: all right, this is bloomberg. ♪

joe: that's all for "wha

anchor: you are watching "bloomberg technology." president trump blamed the obama administration for the "weakness" he said led to an

by syria. rex tillerson is condemning today's attack in syria and pointing the finger at russia and iran. nations bear great moral responsibility for the deaths in syria. at least 58 people were killed today in the second chemical attack, including 11 children. hasun security council scheduled an emergency meeting for tomorrow in the wake of the chemical attack. haley madeador nikki the announcement in response today from a request from the u.k. and france for an emergency session. falseay it is absolutely that there were political motivations behind her request to identify americans named in intelligence reports links to the trump transition. she