effective in october. he has spent more than eight years behind bars for armed robbery and assault with a weapon after trying to take boards memorabilia from a hotel -- inn less they guess in las vegas in 2008. account hisok into 1995 acquittal on murder charges in the death of his wife, nicole brown simpson, and her friend ronald goldman, as well as a civil court decision that found him liable for those debts. president trump today announced a pharmaceutical package in the white house. the program is aimed at driving u.s. manufacturing and job growth. he was joined by the ceos of merck, corning, and pfizer. the president has declined an invitation to speak at the naacp's annual convention next week in baltimore. the nation's oldest civil rights organization responded by

questioning his commitment to his african-american constituents. the chairman called trump's decision and historic departure from past in with the association. speak lastid not year, citing scheduling conflicts with the republican national convention. in brussels, the second round of brexit talks has ended with a variety of disagreements. the two sides could not reach common ground of about the role of the court of justice, the money that u.k. must pay the eu, and the border between ireland and northern ireland. the eu says the next step is to clarify positions. global news 24 hour a day powered by over 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. julia: live from bloomberg's

world headquarters in new york, i am julia chatterley. scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. joe: and i'm joe weisenthal. we are 30 minutes from the close of trading in the u.s. the question is, what'd you miss? special counsel robert mueller's investigation widens beyond the trump campaign to examine russian purchases of apartments and the miss universe pageant. mario draghi stressed the need to be persistent and patient in winding back stimulus. slow and steady i.t. spending. that is what we are expecting from microsoft quarterly earnings. paypal and ebay also announce results after the bell. thea: let's get a look at major averages, down as we head toward the close. abigail doolittle is standing by. abigail: the moves may be small, but we are looking at records for the s&p 500, the nasdaq, and even the dow. second on pace for a

record closing high in a row. the dow transports on the bottom down at about .8%. clearly, the odd index out about four days in a row. let's take a look at the intraday chart in the bloomberg. compositethe nasdaq index, up about 1.25% over the last four days. dow transport down 2% over that time. on the dow transport, a series of disappointing earnings. yesterday it was ual and csx. today, we have the shares of union pacific weighing on the dow transport. shares are down in a big way. chp robinson put up the biggest etf in history according to steeple. and you will see those shares are lower. here they are, down about 5.4 percent, while union pacific beat. but there are lots of questions

about rail shipping costs and competitors. we do see more pressure on the dow transports once again. after the bell, ebay and microsoft, two of the big marquee earnings reports of the season. microsoft trading higher and ebay trading higher. highshares at all-time before their earnings reports. investors are looking at $.71 on adjusted earnings. in focus, the cloud unit, margins, and what will 2018 guidance look like? this is the microsoft fiscal fourth quarter. ebay looking unchanged right now. it appears the options action is a 7.8 percent move to the upside. bet analysts seem to positive, but some are on the sidelines, saying they are nervous about the competitive landscape out there. julia: what'd you miss? a very busy day in washington.

muellercounsel robert is expanding his probe to include president trump's business dealings. the cbo is out with its latest score on the senate health bill. 22 million more people learning -- losing insurance, and deductibles so high. gordon, joining us from d.c. let's begin with you. what does the expansion of this probe actually mean is being individualn terms of business dealings, and who in donald trump's inner circle is also being investigated here? >> sure, i mean, most of the probe up until now has focused on actions by donald trump's campaign, paul manafort, his campaign chairman, donald jr., his son, etc. what our story broke today is that robert mueller is looking at expanding that probe to

activities as far back as 2008. donald trump sold a mansion in palm beach, florida, for a desk to a russian oligarchs for roughly twice what he paid for it. to a russian oligarchs for roughly twice what he paid for it. mueller is taking questions about whether or trump and his campaign had improper contact with russians and looking back over more than a decade of contacts donald trump had with russian businessmen to see how that may have set up what happened in the campaign. scarlet: the timing of this is uncanny given that donald trump just spoke to the media yesterday and said look, this is about russia. finances are extremely good. my company is unbelievably successful, and when i do my filings, people's a man, i had this --how six assault how successful this is. it's a great company. he's is anything outside

of the russian investigation is off limits? do you believe that's the case? do you believe if they find something irregular beyond the russian investigation, do you think they will just ignore it and set it aside, or do you think they will continue the investigation beyond those boundaries? >> i think what we are learning on a day like today is the legal authority robert mueller has given to him by rod rosenstein, acting deputy attorney general, is very broad. language to the effect of "matters around the russia campaign collusion questions and any other matter." i think robert mueller has decided these other matters are very much in his purview. i would call him a prosecutors prosecutor. he is going to go where the facts take him. if that takes them to other places and perhaps slightly more distant history, i don't think he is going to hesitate to bring down the hammer on donald trump,

donald trump jr., anyone who might because in the crosshairs of this. his mission is to get to the bottom of this wherever it leads, and that is what we know about robert mueller. this,n the midst of all the white house and leaders in the gop not giving up on health care quite yet. is there any sign that in the wake of the lunch they help -- i think it was just yesterday -- that there is any more movement toward a deal? they met again today, and i think it is becoming more uncertain about the path ahead. what republicans considered initially was to bring up a replacement bill, the latest iteration of what senator mcconnell negotiated with his caucus. that died. then on president trump's request, he decided to move on to a repeal only bill. that didn't even make it to the lunch. after he a few hours announced it.

now the president has gone back and said let's give replace another chance. there is no clarity from the mcconnell leadership team, including from john cornyn, the number two, number three republican, as to what kind of bill they will actually bring up. no, there is no clear path as far as the replace bill. it doesn't have the votes. if they decide to bring up the repeal only bill, it doesn't have the votes. they are stuck at this moment. they are stuck at a place where the president is saying he wants to get something done. he is very eager to get this to his desk and sign it so he can claim a major college meant, his first one, but it's very murky right now. has been akowski clear hold out. she opposed the first rap, second draft, third draft, repeal only. and the replace bill,

speaking of that, the cbo scored it and found that while the health-care bill proposed by the senate proposes -- promises there,remiums, to get patients would need to spend up to $13,000 up front on deductibles. that would be illegal under the current law. apparently wasn't able to score the ted cruz amendment in this discussion either. we have several weeks to include that. , if mitch mcconnell continues to push for a vote next week, our senators going to be able to vote, and as you pointed out, what are they voting on? >> correct. usually in the senate, the tradition has been that you don't vote on bills without a cbo score for all of it. the latest draft does not

include the ted cruz language, which is important, because it is far reaching language that could meaningfully affect deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket costs, and friendly, how many people get covered because, what the ted cruz proposal would likely do is move people into skimpy plans that are a lot cheaper but don't cover a lot of services. you are on the hook if you have an emergency. on that basis, the one thing republicans are looking at is to have hhs, which clearly has a strong opinion on what should , score it. this bill it's unclear, as are many things right now. but that is one thing they are considering. scarlet: all right, so that's what happening legislatively, or not happening, in this case. craig, let me talk a little bit about the investigation. the department of justice is looking into trump's campaign ties with russia.

this falls under attorney general jeff sessions. a lot of controversy over remarks the president made. jeff sessions said he is not quitting even after the president disparaged him. >> is a pretty remarkable turn of events even in a presidency that has been pretty remarkable so far. donald trump gave an interview to "the new york times," where picked i would not have him to be attorney general if i knew he would recuse himself. keep in mind, jeff sessions was the first important elected official to come out and endorse donald trump. he gave him a lot of lift at a moment when trump was fading. now trump has repaid the favor by saying i wish i never would have picked the guy. sessions came out today and said i am going to stick with this job as long as it's appropriate. we are not clear yet if trump and session spoke before or after that interview. sessions said he is going to go to work every day and keep doing the job. we will see if donald trump has something to say about that. scarlet: some tension between

the justice department and the white house. thank you so much. , ban ki-moon tells us why he is warning central bankers to proceed with caution. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: what'd you miss? bit of as throwing a curve ball. he has previously argued for the fed to raise rates, but today gave a slow growth warning to janet yellen and others. he said central bankers and other investors should few tightening and short-term rates with caution. i asked him about this apparent change in sentiment.

bill: going back to the five years, there have been three recessions. 1990, 2000-2 thousand one, and 2001,eat recession in -- and the great recession in 2009. all were preceded by flat yield curves. three months treasuries were higher than a 10 year treasury note. currently, the spread between those two is 85 basis points with the 10 year higher than a three-month treasury. private economists and maybe fed officials assume you need a flat yield curve to produce a recession. say based on higher leverage in the private economy and what i would call proportionality in terms of an interest rate increase, that they don't need a flat yield curve to produce a recession. perhaps we have come a long way already in order to induce

growth slowdown. scarlet: right. historical models may not be the best precedent for what we are experiencing now. obviously, every economic reversal, slowdown, and financial crisis is different than the last. why are borrowers with short front end a the risk to the economy right now? bill: they always have been, going back to the subprimes when rates were increased on junk. that was it in terms of the ability of an economy to withstand higher short-term rates. it's always the higher short-term rate and the flattening of the yield curve that basically produces a slowdown, because borrowers, which are sensitive to depending ontes types of interest rates are the first ones to feel it. with longer-term rates, 30 year

mortgages, they don't feel it, basically, because the rate stays almost the same. it's the short-term rate that rises and threatens an economy, and historically, as a mentioned, flattening the three month treasury bill to the 10 year treasury has induced a recession. i don't think we need to go to flat in order to produce a growth recession simply because we are a more highly leveraged economy, not only domestically, but globally. scarlet: what would you urge the fed to do to fine tune its approach? >> i think they should begin tapering their treasury portfolio. that would produce a more steep , byd curve in my opinion not buying more ten-year treasuries, more five-year treasuries as the current portfolio matures.

ultimately, you think, that treasuries and the longer-term area would move higher by 10, 20, 30 basis points and produce a more steep curve that would allow for higher profitability in terms of banks and wouldn't threaten those with short-term interest rates in terms of their interest rate cover. you know, i think the fed is beginning to move in that direction. they are beginning to think that perhaps raising interest rates from this point forward should andone differently continuing their current portfolio would be the more logical step. was my: that conversation with bill gross of janice henderson fund management. julia: time for a look back at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. so far, the number of people who claim to be hit by the novo virus in virginia has risen to more than 130. meanwhile, customers added

dallas chipotle complained about rodents falling from the ceiling. chipotle claimed it was an isolated incident. the automaker is threatening to shut down the factory if workers don't vote in favor of joining a union. abercrombie & fitch is looking to china's alibaba to help make a comeback. it will sell a kid line on the website starting july 26. earlier this month, abercrombie abandoned acquisition talks in favor of focusing on its own turnaround plan. that's your business flash. just finishedryan speaking in massachusetts avenue balance factory. he talked about tax reform and said the republican party is onh more uniform -- unified

tax reform than health care and he is much more confident on tax reform. not the highest bar. nonetheless, expressing confidence that the members know they need to get it done. he also said a 20% corporate tax rate is "very realistic," and there are many ways to achieve it. one thing they talked about was the border adjustment tax, which was not looking good. he is expressing confidence, but then when they get into the details of where the money will be offset, assuming they do that kind of reform, it could be tough. scarlet: we shall see. coming up next, is volatility dead in the markets? not if you know where to look. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: what'd you miss? volatility in the wider stock

market might be dormant, but it is alive and well in tech stocks. here is how investors are positioned as we head into the thick of the tech earnings andon with microsoft, ebay, paypal all reporting later today. this is the spread of the one-month volatility of the nasdaq and s&p 500. the recent spike at the end of the chart really shows the expected volatility in recent weeks. as we know, technology has been on the leading edge of advancement and that consequence is a pullback in the broader market. year to date, tech is still the best-performing sector, up 23% compared to the s&p 500 plus 11% gain. a one year high as we get into the deep part of the earnings season for technology. julia: speaking of uncomfortable i am picking up on mario

draghi's lack of comments for today. thats have pointed out question of why the euro is rallying today when yields have come down. it could be positioning, but not the kind of positioning you are thinking of. what i am showing you in the blue chart is positioning as of last week. net losses climb to the highest they have been since 2011. can see this is december of last year. the white line is citigroup's pain index. this is active traders and what they infer from the relationship between exchange rates and returns. that is back to zero. very different from what the data is suggesting and perhaps argues that we saw people rather than shorts, necessarily adding to longs. know the paineven

index existed, but now i am excited. i'm going to check it out. i am looking at a chart i show maybe once every couple of months because it's so amazing. -- whitee lightning line is the nonseasonally adjusted claims. the blue line is the 52 week moving average, really smooths it all out. it is yet another post crisis level. we have a really killer initial jobless claims number today. you see at least on this one measure, chest and extraordinary steady improvement -- just an extraordinary steady improvement in the market. showet: i think you this chart about once a week. joe: about every month and a half. scarlet: not to take away from it. it tells a very good story.

the market closes next and we have record highs in the s&p 500. the nasdaq at a new record. the dow pulling back just a hair off 18 points. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> what'd you miss?

another record high for the cap tech stocks surpassing 2000 highs. if you are tuning in live on twitter, we want to welcome you to our closing bell coverage, every weekday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. eastern. scarlet: we begin with our market minutes. if the s&p 500 holds onto this advance of not even one point, it will be a record high. joe: historic rally. scarlet: the nasdaq also closing , therecord, up 1/10 of 1% dow off just a hair. there were reports that u.s. special counsel robert mueller

expanding his investigation of president donald trump to now look into his financial holdings in business transactions. we saw equities take a dip following that. they have kind of wafted throughout the day. we ended up with a session where there was little changed, the s&p 500 and nasdaq still holding at record highs. there is plenty of that. scripps networks' discovery of fire,. -- of viacom. these are said to be advanced discussions, and a deal could take place as soon as this month, according to our reporting by alex sherman. sears getting a big lift today after forging a deal to offer appliances on amazon's website. it is good news for sears's shareholders. not great news for home depot and lowe's, which sells

appliances. those stocks off by 4% or 5%. very quickly, we are looking ahead to microsoft, ebay, and visa results. the nasdaq is at yet another record high powered by big cap tech names. them.re a couple of a look atet's take government bonds around the world, kind of doing a full tour today of key ones. 10 year yield not moving much. german 10 year yield, same movement, but much more volatile intraday. there was the ecb press conference earlier in which draghi kind of tried to sound the dovish, but people were skeptical. not a huge move area a bit of a rally on ten-year yields in italy. south african rates also down

nicely on a surprise rate cut from the sarb. people were expecting no change, but there was a cut. julia: i want to give you a look at what is going on with some of the majors. obviously, the euro, the strength we are seeing in the eurozone. you can see that reflected in some of the crosses. dollar weaker as well, and that began with the molar probe story and the expansion of that probe into donald trump's business dealings. perhaps a reaction to domestic and political pressure here from the central banks. did i say that? no, i didn't. several friendly viewers asked me what we thought was going

with the dollar in mexico. our best peso forecaster, an outlier in the first quarter of this year when the rest of the world was being bearish about the wall, the negotiation, and then we saw the peso rally to become the best performer this year -- he is predicting the ofo will begin over talks nafta raising concerns, but it will rise by 2018. you can see that with the gallo line. -- the yellow line. joe: let's take a look at commodities. oil falling today. it had been down earlier by less than 1%. much, andoing soybeans -- is still going on, up 1.4% in beings.

-- beans. scarlet: for more, i want to bring in oliver renick. i thought volume would be really slow. in fact, trading in the dow and s&p is above the 20 day average. there were some gyrations and there was some training. all of her: it was right around the afternoon. -- -- y: reporter: it was right around the afternoon. had a big popwe in volume, and it kind of safed above the average. you can see in that 30 minute span, a big pop relative to the 30 day average. we had headlines coming out from us on special investigator mueller, looking into not just old surrounding donald trump, but his business ties as well. .e had a bit of a move

the magnitude was not much, but the volume did jump off. the market does watch us and the market does react. chartou brought us this that i think is really interesting. from the big s&p 500 etf. there are people pulling money out, but stocks are at record highs. how do you use that flows data? what does that tell you, because it is not linear where outflows mean down. nancy: this is a quite -- reporter: this is a question that comes up a lot. flow does not dictate direction. the direction in which

the money moves, but at the end of the day, prices will move based on the conviction behind that. we have to be careful when we think about flows. what it does tell us is a good deal about sentiment. it surprises me to see this. i looked into this because bank of america showed that their clients -- we also see numbers from ici today. this is a shift where money is coming out of u.s. stocks and moving into equities around the world. when you look at the numbers, i think we've got a board of some looking aters emerging markets, and the developed world without the u.s., and guess what? there is a beat happening right there. oliver, thank you, but let me jump in. i am looking at microsoft's

results. they beat the consensus estimate of $.71. beat the highest estimate from analysts in a bloomberg survey, so that's quite a beat. net revenue was also higher than anticipated. looking through the numbers, it would appear that less spending helped to juice that bottom line. the intelligent cloud division was a big winner here for the quarter, with revenue up $7.43 billion. analysts were looking for a to $7.4om $7.2 billion billion. joe: also good to see the workhorses of the businesses continuing to deliver personal computer revenue. productivity and business process revenue, a $.45 billion versus $8.32 billion.

it looks like this report, when you break it down, delivering across multiple is this lines -- business lines. scarlet: microsoft shares up by better than 2% in extended trading. ♪

scarlet: microsoft adjusted earnings per share $.98, higher than the most bullish estimate in our survey. revenue also better than expected, $21.7 billion. intelligent cloud, $73.4 billion, higher than anticipated . stocks rising one and a half percent in extended training.

julia: let's take a look at those numbers with cory johnson. we were just talking about how themselves are appointing to the strength they see in cloud. revenues up 97%, 98% in constant currency. maintaining that kind of growth here, too. cory: it is a fairly amazing thing, and this is a big rising business, second to only amazon in the world of cloud services. it is amazing the focus they have had on this. it also reflects to a moment like this when we look at it from a market perspective, because the cloud business is growing so fast that there is potential for unpredictability in the results. we see it with the big earnings. we also see it with the fact that revenues missed last quarter, beat this quarter. it tells us more about the analysts than the company.

microsoft has been able to use recurring revenues and unrecognized revenues. it toave been able to use try to kind of even our results and show consistent growth from results, and not a lot of surprises. because the cloud business is growing so fast, there could be surprises in the quarter. numberwth is impressive, one, but it shows you how dynamic this microsoft business is right now. joe: a lot of companies on your side of the west coast have impressive cloud businesses, but how should we think about it? i think i have a conception of what amazon's web services, this rock commodity computing that anyone can use for any it to try to kind of even our results and show consistent growth from purpose. what is microsoft's niche in cloud? where they gaining share? .ory: great question i would suggest that amazon services are more mature now.

i think the way that microsoft has been able to grow this business faster than anyone else out there, growing faster than they have on web services even though it is much smaller, is they have been able to use not just their existing corporate customer base, which is as great as in a company has ever had, but they have also made a transition to make that offer more cloudlike, to put more storage in office 365 and even the services of office 365 on the cloud. they would want to move customers and customers would say, hey, we are a fortune 500 and we want to move more of our compute to the cloud, host more of our services on the cloud, microsoft was in the right position to migrate that change. and we want to move more of our compute to the cloud, host more of our services on the customers already have logins to get into microsoft services, so they can move big existing businesses to the cloud. you might think of amazon -- and

this is a little too simplistic -- but amazon is sort of going ofer the ubers and airbnbs the world, where is microsoft might he going after s&p 500 companies, and google going after that raw computing businesses. these are kind of the ways the businesses have shaken up. julia: i hate to be the person to ask and all questions, but i do want to talk about the personal computing business as well. the revenue is nothing to sniff .hat, but it did decrease by 2% i wonder if this is a business where we look more probably and hear all the noise from the sky that this is a tricky business. how are they performing in this area? what are we going to hear on the strategizing on the priority parts of the business? 2%, as yous down

pointed out, down 1% in constant currency. my friend in the bay area likes to say it is possible to change a fan belt wells to the engine runs, but it is harder that way. doing what these guys are , cutting this a billion dollar quarterly business, trying to change their operation from selling software, selling windows, to this cloud business that is so different. they are trying to change the fan belt while the engine runs. they will take down 1%. i think that is better than when you saw pc sales down in recent years by 6%, 7%, or worse. they will take down 1% as they transition into this cloud business. scarlet: cory johnson, thank you . we also have ebay results that have just crossed. second-quarter adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations up $.45, in line with

what analysts had anticipated. revenue a hair higher than the consensus estimate. the baseboard also -- ebay's board also approved adding stock buyback authorization. the stock is currently down in extended trading, and that may be because outlook for the third quarter earnings per share on the light side, 30 -- $.46 to $.48. analysts were looking somewhere in the neighborhood of $.48. julia: breaking news, quarterly results of visa, reporting earnings per share of $.86, the estimate $.81. there is also a beach on the revenue line. just in terms of what they are seeing, atf growth around 20% on a nominal dollar basis. it is the cost for the volumes .hat look exciting, up 147%

what we get excited about with these guys is payments, e-payments, and the movement we are seeing from competitors. strong results reflect strong growth in the payments part of the business. scarlet: let's get you to first word news with mark crumpton. mark: o.j. simpson has been granted parole. the football legend served nine years in a nevada prison for his part in an armed robbery, what simpson says was an attempt to retrieve sports memorabilia that belonged to him in las vegas. when told of his parole effective in october, simpson responded by saying, "thank you, you."you, thank simpson has requested to live in florida.

simpson said, laughing, "i think i can you." easily stay in nevada, but i don't think you guys want me here." the parole commission replied to, "no comment." -- russia according to a person familiar with the matter, robert mueller is examining a broad range of president trump's businesses, as well as his associates. atestigators are looking purchases of russian apartments in trump buildings. sarah huckabee sanders was asked if the president intends to fire mr. mueller. >> is firing the special counsel something on the table for this president? >> i have answered this several times. although the president has the authority, he does not intend to. would increase the number of americans without health coverage by 22 million over the next decade. the billinds that

crafted by members of the senate gop caucus would raise costs for private insurance coverage and reduce medicaid spending. the bill cuts the deficit by $420 billion, compared with the 321 billion and deficit reduction in an earlier version. a majority of americans would pay higher gas taxes to fix crumbling roads and bridges, according to a new bloomberg national poll. 55% of those surveyed went back a tax hike. congress has not raised the .ederal gas tax since 1993 global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts, i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. you have a bloomberg terminal, check out tv . you can watch this online. interact with us directly. i am showing you this in front of me. as you can see, on the

right-hand side, you can see a minute by minute breakdown of what we have been doing. you can go back and see scarlet talking about bill gross. we also just talked about visa earnings. you can go back and have a look. joe: and you will want to go back and watch our earnings coverage from a few minutes ago. julia: there are plenty of options. or you can watch us live, or you can ask us questions. it is the future of television. just go to tv on your terminal. plenty more to come. ♪

scarlet: the major stock indexes this week all made record highs,

concerns that stocks have gone too far, too fast with red flags on valuations. here to break it down is abigail doolittle. >> thanks, scarlet. joining me is jeff weise, author of the book "relationship investing." .hank you for taking your time here's another week of record highs. what do you think is next? what does this chart tell us? chart quite a bit, but as it goes back to the .eekend of may 16 of 2008 it also connects the february 2015 weekly closing high along and around which a key reason occurred.7 in april a matter of fact, if we had a thinner yellow line, it would hit almost exactly on that april oh.

in a nutshell, where is that line at the end of next week on a friday closing basis? around 23.55, and that's where the battle for the intermediate-range term lies. ,ight now, it is with the bulls favoring them as a bullish market prop, until it is clearly violated on a weekly close. abigail: you think this is a bullish breakout. >> it is. we tested it, we went above it, and the line goes back to 2008, that's a long way, nine years or so. abigail: it is. when we take a look at another one of your charts -- >> can i give it? -- pivot. viewerse folks and your that are shorter-term-oriented, i always try to find the line

that connects the most points well spaced. this, to me, speaks the following. the shorter term trend is up. we had three points or areas tound this line going back december 30 of last year. that line is rising at approximately 1.25 points per day may close, and is presently situated in the vicinity of 2413 at the end of tomorrow's close. that favors the bulls. with advanced decline lines making new highs recently on the big order, this is still a chart that also favors the bulls. let's show a possible counter to everything we are talking about. on the bottom of the blue is the text of this year, the white the

.ix in 2007 we could see a rise in the vix later this fall. very quick, what do you think? >> all of these i don't look at as a technical analyst. this is not something i really look at. i look at structure. bull.you are a jeff weise of clear trading, thank you so much -- of clearview trading, thank you so much. scarlet: abigail, thank you. julia: up next, we speak with the bb&t chairman on the heels of the bank's earnings. we will get his take on fb trump administration is helping small banks. ♪

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crumpton. mark time now for first word news. a unanimous division has granted o.j. simpson's release from prison effective in october. the 70-year-old simpson has spent more than eight years behind bars for a robbery and assault with a weapon after trying to take back sports memorabilia in a budget hotel room in las vegas in 2008. spent nineome here, years making no excuses about anything. i am sorry that things turned out the way they did. i have no intent to commit a crime. i came here. , tell the inmates all the time

i am a convict, do your time. do not do anything to extend your time. mark: parole commissioner susan jackson said letters opposing simpson's release requested the board take into account his 1995 acquittal on murder charges in the death of his wife nicole brown simpson and her friend. attorney general jeff sessions has no plans to resign despite president trump expressing regrets about employing them as the nation's top law enforcement officer. the justice department news conference announced an new enforcement action. >> i have the honor of serving as attorney general. it is something that goes beyond any thought i would have ever had for myself. we love this job. we love this department.

i plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate. mark: president trump told "the new york times" his rec usal was extremely unfair. prayers and words of encouragement are coming in from both sides of the political aisle following senator john mccain's diagnosis of brain cancer. illinois democratic senator dick durbin said "countless democrat in john mccain's corner." david perdue said, john mccain is a friend, mentor, and to patriot. if anyone can tackle a challenge like this, it is him. mccains office says the 80-year-old former republican presidential nominee and his family are reviewing treatment options. auschwitz today, john mccain said "i greatly appreciate the outpouring of support. unfortunately for my sparring partners in congress, i will by.ack soon, so stand

global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of today's market action. it had appeared the s&p 500 closed that a record high, but shortly after, it settled. it is down barely so we did not get the record high today, but the nasdaq closed out a round number, much to joe's delight, 693390. the dow pulling back a here. after the market close, we got results for a handful of companies. microsoft, fourth quarter beating estimates by a wide margin. the consensus estimate was $.71. revenue also higher than anticipated. intelligent crowd revenue. better-than-expected. microsoft up by 1.25%. ebay. am looking at

they reported earnings after the bell. that stock is down 2.7% due to adjusted eps from continuing operations. $.45. that is right in line with the range of $.42 to $.46. billion.2.3 3 the estimate, $2.31 billion. billion.e, $2.33 the estimate, $2.31 billion. julia: the eps coming in at $.86. the estimate, $.81. $4.6 billion on the revenue. $4.36 billion expected. the year revenue growth expecting around 20% of the nominal base, so optimistic about what they are seeing in terms of revenue for the remainder of the year. obviously, the real focus for this one is on the growth in the

epayments and videos and partnerships that these companies and visa are assigning now. growthoup at 38% volume and cross-border activity also optimistic, too. "what'd you miss?" reporting beating the average estimates. up $75 million from the first quarter of 2017. joining us now from winston-salem, north carolina, to discuss the bank's record quarterly numbers is bb&t ceo and chairman. great to have you on the show. thank you for joining us. a performance you must be pleased with. i want to talk to you about your outlook. the flat interest income expected for the rest of the year. why the consciousness? what would catalyze the upgrade for both that and loan growth,

too? >> thanks for having us. it was a very good quarter. as you said, we earned $631 increasewhich is a 60% over our common quarter last year. we had really good loan growth. a core operating loans that we are trying to grow were up 7.5%. we have a portfolio we are optimizing. total growth was 3%. diduld also mention that we affirm today in our announcement that we got seek our approval $1.8 billion in stock buybacks. we have executed an asr agreement to buy back immediately $921 million, which is half of the total buyback arrangement.

that is new news i thought you might want to get that out to the public. with regard to the interest rate scenario, we do not think there will be another interest rate rise immediately. effect hasthe june already worked through the system. you do not get as much immediate impact on interest income as you might expect because it takes a while for the asset side loansrice because some reprice immediately, but a lot of loans, some are variable, but they do not reprice in six months. you have some deposit increase that affect your margin. while they would not be huge increases immediately, over time, you would expect that to continue interest income. we think there will be a rate increase at the end of the year. i know some people disagree, but

we feel there will be. we feel optimistic in terms of the long-term growth. joe: in the wake of the election, a lot of enthusiasm for regulatory rollbacks. obviously like all things, legislation is going in little bit slowly, although republicans have moved to kill a cfpb rule that makes it easy to sue banks. in general, how do you see that process going in terms of the change of regulation? are you optimistic about what you are seeing? as for this rule specifically, how might that affect bb&t? kelly: well, i am optimistic in terms of the overall movements in terms of the regulatory framework. obviously, there has not been a bill passed. everybody was focused on repeal of dodd-frank, but we never thought that would happen or frankly should happen. there are some good aspects of

dodd-frank. what really needs to happen on dodd-frank is there needs to be reasonable governance on the cfpb. we think that will still happen. we think that the biggest change with regard to regulation is actually the application of the law. so that is a matter of the people that are leading the agencies and the direction from the administration. out a goodnuchin put letter of direction to the agencies encouraging them to follow a certain set of directives or encouragements in terms of making changes in terms of how the banks are regulated so that we could encourage economic growth. what has happened over the last several years is the banks have been really micromanaged by the various agencies. now we think with the changes in washington through the administration and various agencies, we think we will see a reversion to focusing on the

banks being able to do all we do best, which is make loans and grow the economy. scarlet: i want to ask about auto loans. we had heard from wells fargo that they are seeing a pullback or reporting a pullback in auto loan origination. there is a lot of concerns about: used cars values, worsening delicacies. what do you see in the space? think the conversation about auto credit in general is overblown. there has been some deterioration in auto credit because of some decline in valuation of certain autos, and so it is a bit spotty in terms of what is going on. some of the lenders that got very aggressive in terms of the advanced race and how long the

loan was, some of those are beginning to have some challenges because the car is not worth as much. in our case, we do have a relatively small subprime portfolio that we started to years ago tightening up on the credit. we took extended terms out to 84 months. we reduced the amount we advance on the portfolios. iour portfolio is performing well. we are not concerned about it being a big issue going forward. it is a very good portfolio. you have higher delicacies. you have higher yields. the underlying risk to profit is very good. julia: thank you so much for coming on and speaking to us today. congratulations again on a solid quarter. kelly king, bb&t chairman and ceo. coming up, venezuela has been in a state of crisis for many months, but to a vote for a new later be at the end of the month and make the situation even worse? we asked a former u.s.

ambassador to venezuela for answers. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

julia: "what'd you miss?" the government of venezuela is planning to hold and a summary election on july 30. the opposition and the u.s. have condemned the potential power grab in an effort to change the constitution. earlier this week, the united states government was considering adding further sanctions on venezuela as a result of this. i talked to a former u.s. ambassador to venezuela, charles shapiro. i asked him if the vote takes place, is venezuela heading to even greater repression? listen in. charles: that is my belief is

that once they go down this path, it is a one-way street. they will not be able to go back.it is really key . everybody's focused on the united states.i think we need to focus on the international community , particularly in latin america and the caribbean, but also in europe. julia: what is the likelihood of being able to coordinate the international community to do something about the president? he has been a problem now for some time. the way he is paving, the authoritarian rule we are seeing in venezuela has not really stipulated action before now. charles: you are absolutely right. the secretary-general has been .orking like crazy who has not been working like crazy is the government of the united states, unfortunately. i would love to see the state department at the top level take role inigher profile trying to organize this, working with friends and allies and other democratic countries are

concerned about what is happening in venezuela. julia: do you think a step up of oil stations would make a difference? how long can the country last if the united states is not receiving oil imports from venezuela? charles: well, let's look at it another way. it is private companies that import oil from venezuela. it is like 790,000 barrels a day. 13 refineries in the u.s. protest venezuelan crude oil. replacing that will be tough.i am not sure the administered easily to go that far. it is 8% of u.s. consumption. it will send prices up. there are other sanctions that could work. one would be proceeding to indict people who committed crimes in venezuela that are crimes in the u.s.. targeted sanctions. pulling visas on people. one thing the u.s. could do, i

assume, that our law enforcement and intelligence community has loads of information about venezuelan government officials and their buddies. they have property in the u.s., bank accounts in the u.s., bank accounts around the world. making that public would go a long way. these sanctions themselves, we all know that sanctions take a long time to have an impact. the people who it always seems to hurt worst is not the government, but the regular people of the country. the people of venezuela are suffering right now. julia: the opposition held this unofficial and they got more than 7.2 million people voting. what happens if this vote is held on july 30 and the government has less support than the opposition? you think that gives the president any positive thought? surely it raises some credibility issues. charles: he has had serious

credibility issues for a long time now. they never held an election they were supposed to hold last year for governors and mayors all across the country. system toa fake discount the recall referendum and not hold it that should have been called for. there are presidential elections that should be held next year, and that is the whole purpose of the assembly i am sure is to avoid holding presidential elections next year. they will rewrite the constitution in a way that allows president maduro and his party to stay in power. julia: do you think this vote on the end of july is the end of democracy in venezuela? charles: i think democracy in venezuela and did a couple years ago, quite frankly. it is a tough question that political scientists can argue about at universities, but what you have a government, a system

that has the trappings of democracy, but where there is no separation of power is where the supreme court and electoral authority are in the pocket of the executive, where the executive is simply ignored the national assembly, which was elected by the people. what venezuela needs is more democracy, not less. nicholas maduro is taking the country down the path of less democracy. julia: going to be an interesting 10 days for that vote. that was my conversation with charles, former u.s. ambassador to venezuela. scarlet: coming up next, an update on the sale of the miami marlins club from baseball commissioner rob manfred. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: "what'd you miss?"

the future of the miami marlins, the team roles over potential bids. earlier today, i asked baseball commissioner rob manfred about the future of the club. >> i do not know whether it will make the august owners meeting or not. i am confident a deal will get done for the marlins. we have three groups. we are sorted in that tedious phase of the process of due diligence, making sure the financial structuring is all done, and i think the marlins will be in a position fairly soon to make a decision on which bid they are going to take. what is the biggest: obstacle, price? rob: no. it is making sure the governance documents and financial structuring comply with our rules. the marlins have to decide which group they prefer to go forward with. scarlet: perhaps it would have been smoother if the marlins hired a bank, which they did not do. rob: the normal course is for a club to hire a banker when it is up for sale.

i think the real problem with this process is it became public before it was ready to be public. scarlet: do you see a scenario in which the owner decides not to sell the team? rob: i think the club is going to sell. scarlet: you think if the club will sell and we have the three groups, derek jeter, mitt romney's son, and a local businessman. rob: that's right. the local business group is really jeb bush and an investor from florida as well. scarlet: let's move on to gambling. has beenadam silverr out front when it comes to discussing the legalization of sports gambling. he said he has stressed legalization in the next few years.the you agree with that ? rob: i think there is a real buzz about legislative change.i think the supreme court taking the new jersey case kind of attitude that was. w-- buzz. we are in the process looking at what has happened in countries

where there is legalized gambling to make sure we are in position to participate meaningfully in what i think will be a legislative debate. scarlet: you're thinking has shifted here over the years. what would it take to get the mlb to abandon its legal fight with new jersey? rob: i doubt we will abandon the fight with new jersey. we have taken the case this far. i think we will continue with the case. having said that, when you come to the realization that there may be legislation, i think it is incumbent upon us to make sure that our interests are protected, that whatever happens from a regulatory perspective is any position to preserve the integrity of our name. scarlet: let's move on to the expansion of mlb. you have talked about bringing baseball back to montréal, fielding a team perhaps in mexico city, which would give major league baseball a presence across north america. the trump is getting ready to renegotiate nafta. does that have any bearing, any play at all on mlb's decision? rob: not really.

we have a couple of issues that need to be resolved before we move on to seriously consider expansion. before we have some time we get to a real decision point on that. i think the situation with respect to nafta will be clarified by that point. scarlet: that was my conversation with mlb commissioner rob manfred. julia: now time for the bloomberg business flash. a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. elon musk has "vrable government approval" for an underground hyperlink connecting new york, philadelphia, baltimore, and washington, d.c. travel between new york and washington, d.c., would take 29 minutes. , more than 30% in the fiscal year ending june 30. the country second biggest pension fund getting a boost from a portfolio that rose 20%. gain is the highest in three

years. that is your business flash update. joe: coming up, what you need to know for tomorrow's trading day. this is bloomberg. ♪

emmanuel macron meets with the use chief brexit negotiator in paris. speaking of firing up -- scarlet: general electric and honeywell report second-quarter earnings before the bell. joe: don't miss an exclusive interview with oregon senator ron wyden, who joins bloomberg t tv tomorrow morning.

>> imo alisa parenti in washington, and you are watching "bloomberg technology." let's start with a check of your first word news. o.j. simpson will be paroled after serving nearly nine years in prison for armed robbery and assault with a weapon.

a nevada parole board decided today that the 70-year-old former football and movie star will be released in october after serving his minimum term. jeff sessions announced today he has no plans to resign his position as attorney general. that despite president trump expressing regrets about appointing him to the nation's top law enforcement job. robert mueller is expanding the probe into russia and the trump campaign. that is according to people familiar with the matter who's 80 special counsel is examining a broad range of business transactions by president trump and associates, including apartment sales to russia. the senate gop's revised health bill would increase the number of people without health coverage by 22 million over the next 10 years. the nonpartisan cbo also finds the bill will raise costs for people in private insurance coverage, reduce medicaid spending, and cut the deficit by $420 billion.