to first word get news. president trump has signed into law a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul package. he touted the size of the cut declaring to reporters that the numbers will speak. the measure cuts the cut gas tax rate to 21% and cuts individual tax rates area and analysts say most of the benefit will go to those at the top of the income scale. and he signed a bill that keeps throughrnment running january 19. vladimir putin said the u.s. has finally to the cold war era nuclear arms pact. today, he accused the u.s. of housing certain banned weaponry. washington denied the claims saying russia is developing a cruise missile that will break the 1987 treaty. israel has announced [inaudible] the move comes in the wake of

yesterday's vote to reject the u.s. recognition of jerusalem as the israeli capital. press reports that israel will leave unesco at the end of 2018. the u.s. said it will drop the agency at that time. the worst appears to be over for a massive wildfire that plagued a wide section of the california coast for more than two weeks. evacuationndatory orders have been called off. the fire drove 100,000 people from their homes in ventura county. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am jessica summers. this is bloomberg. julie: i am in for julia chatterley.

scarlet fu.m plunges taking the spotlight. "what'd youion is miss?" bitcoin plunges as much as 30% today. christmas coming a few day earlier -- earlier for lawmakers. they will come back to a messy agenda. rhee will tell us how he tabbed into the company ideals to bring them back from the brink of bankruptcy. julie: the u.s. has a new federal tax code and it changes the economic situation for every individual and company in the

country? here with more details is craig gordon. about thisn talking for a while and now that it is signed into law we figure out what is in it and what effect it will have on us as individuals, on corporations, how long does accountants to dig through these things and figure out the real-world effects? craig: that will be in two steps. tax preparers are talking to clients about seeing if they can sneak in property tax payment for 2018 this year. ine they did actions go away 2018 you will not get hit with that tax. you will see a lot of fancy footwork heading into the end of the year. in 2018, around february, their publicans and congress have said look at your paycheck and you will see payroll deductions go down. for a lot of people that could

be double digits. it is not chicken feed but it is not going to blow your doors off when you see it. closely.to look at it republicans are counting on it as we heard in the opener. donald trump saying look at the numbers, the numbers do not like. you got a tax break. for a lot of voters they have to look hard and maybe disappointed it was not bigger than they are going to get actually. ofrlet: that will take a bit time before we see the effects. republicans will continue to sell the tax plan is something that is positive for individuals and the economy. we know that congress has passed a stopgap funding so we are not getting a government shutdown at the end of today. they have kicked the can down the road. they need to sort it out and mid-to-late january. as they do that they will be sorting out through other issues as well in terms of the republican agenda. we have been hearing that

because of the tax cuts widening the deficit, republicans might start looking at reforming welfare. what have you heard? >> absolutely. house speakering paul ryan talked about a couple of days ago. he likes to call it welfare to work. if you are getting welfare and if it's too get to a tough time you have to group you're looking for work in getting job training. bill clinton did that in the 1990's with some affect -- success. this issue has put some of the republican divisions on display as mitch mcconnell says he has no interest in doing welfare reform because he does not think democrats in the senate will have any interest in doing welfare reform so you could have another series of messy partisan fights. mitch mcconnell has talked about doing infrastructure. getting money for roads and people have talked about

-- and people have talked about getting money for that. that is something where democrats could get on board. a lot of unions like the idea because it means jobs for their members. it means an opportunity for bipartisanship. if they go welfare reform it is another year of scorched-earth partisan fighting. >> is that something that you and mitch mcconnell will win out on? is paul ryan going to have to wait on welfare reform knowing that mitch mcconnell is a pragmatic politician? >> i have a feeling that we will win this one. donald trump is the referee and he has talked about both things. during the campaign in 2016 donald trump talked about infrastructure quite a lot, almost ran on it as a job creation machine. he never talked about welfare

reform. it is a pillar of republicanism. mightme -- surprised they talk about it. my money is on infrastructure. there is a lot of logic to it maywe expect the plan generate where he will lay out his priorities for an infrastructure bill. he does not have any money to pay for it but he will kick off the conversation. i think infrastructure will dominate the early part of 2018. >> this is a great story that caught my eye. it's mcconnell is leaving steve bannon for the republicans losing the senate seat in alabama. steve bannon has been in the mix lately. i was reading he gave vanity fair where he suggested himself as a future presidential candidate for the republican party. craig: if you were to make a list of people who cannot stand each other, it's mcconnell and

steve bannon would be a top of the list. steve bannon has said he wants to remake the u.s. senate with candidates more in his image, populist, small government and steve bannon thinks mitch mcconnell is part of the problem. that when you talk about draining the swamp that mitch mcconnell is the mayor of the swamp. it is a fair statement to say run if republicans have someone other than roy moore in alabama, there is a good chance he would have held that seat by running a person accused of improprieties with younger women. was steve bannon's candidate. mcconnell is saying he -- he used the word genius. it was not such a genius move to run roy moore in alabama. ben and is good at getting headlines. reporterse me and love to hear from him. will thenestion is

and have staying power? -- he needs to get to other candidates and put some w's on the board in 2018. >> mitch mcconnell is pretty old at this point, 75 years old, older than donald trump. would he, could he be a viable candidate that way? mitch mcconnell. craig: heading into 2018 there is a better chance of republicans hanging onto the u.s. senate control. democrats have a decent shot to take over the house. mitch mcconnell has been the republican leader for many years. he had a rough year when they lost the obamacare vote. wins cure all ills.

we are heading into the christmas holiday with that in the books and they get to take a victory lap and very well deserved. scarlet: craig gordon, thank you so much. storchup, jerry talks about the state of retail into 2018. interestingbe an conversation. this is bloomberg. ♪ is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: it has been a year of advance for amazon and bad news for traditional retailers. well the same hold in 2018? storch spoke with bloomberg earlier this morning to discuss. jerry: amazon was a pioneering what you see in the stock price is forward-looking because they are not making money today. it is a belief that the 20% compound andill they will keep gobbling up more of the retail market. walmart was late to the game and got a slow and i would say poor start on the internet. more recently they have said we are not going to lose to these guys, amazon. they are pouring tons of money and that is their primary focus. , heg they bought mark moore guy on the internet

and they are driving forward. they have substantial resources and when i was at target for years the first time they do something you walk in and say that is not impressive but by the time they work on it and get it right they will scare the heck out of you. walmart is the only one most people think who has the money and the wherewithal to stand toe to toe with amazon and they are making than investment on the internet. >> explain something to me. market cap,t revenue, same-store sales, and we have to worry about margin? >> i had a conversation with a potential client. know, they are not making any money and if you do it they do you will not make any money either. you have to do it anyway. i promise you you are not doing enough. so when you take a look at walmart, most people applauded them and said they were good.

you saw significant growth on the internet and significant positive beach versus expectations. their margins were down year-over-year. they are less profitable. that is what the internet is going to do, it will change the profit and loss for all retailers, going to squeeze margins and only the biggest and the best have the scale and the ability to innovate at the pace of amazon. walmart is the only one who are succeeding. people are will -- lining up. you see an alliance with one of the other or with both of them. they may be as dominant as microsoft and apple. >> what about tax overhaul? retailers will be able to appreciate capital. >> it will allow them to invest more. amazon invests billions of years -- dollars a year in technology.

this will enable you to spend more. also retailers are heavily taxed. most retailers are the ones -- they pay close to the stat -- the statutory rate. makehave more time to investments and get through the transition and be survivors. >> there is a reduction on the business induction. most -- don't they pay a lot of interest? are makingilers who money will not get any benefit. no way the tax bill will make any difference one way or another. when it will do for all retailers whether you have a high tax rate or low tax rate it will put money in pockets. it will drive customer spending. you are talking about inflation, if this is not an inflationary tax bill i do not know what is.

anyone who took economics 10 knows this is inflation so it should drive through inflation which is fantastic. prices tend to rise immediately but your costs are sticking downward. >> we were talking about how 2017 is so difficult, something you have not seen before. our we going to go back to normal in 2018? >> it is a great fourth quarter based on the numbers you see. there are winners and losers in this numbers. anyone who thinks they can relax, they will be out of business in two years. everybody has to continue to investing to at least be close to where amazon is. stores have to get better than they ever were because no one wants to go to a rundown store with fewer employees. backpartment stores coming ever?

>> good department stores are great. people loved the experience, programs, yourty salesperson knows you, every morning i ask is this tie or that one, great to wear, it would be great if someone did that for stores. nordstrom is the gold standard. among retailers and they tend to perform better than others do and they have a very bright future. the high-end guys have the margin structure. in order to afford the salespeople and do that very well. the value is so high, places who is worth more than the entire department sector, i like to point that out. costco, they have the lowest prices and the customers are higher-end than the customers at walmart, target, or a lot of these companies. they do an amazing job overall. scarlet: that was a very fired up jerry storch.

julie: it is time for the bloomberg business flash. split in the white has kept president trump from carrying out a campaign pledge in closing the loophole that benefits fund managers. gary cohn wanted to close the loophole but treasury secretary steven mnuchin urge keeping carried interest with new limits. world wrestling entertainment chief vince mcmahon has sold $100 million in stock. he is using the cash to fund a alphatity called entertainment. he is considering a relaunch of his alternative professional football league, the xfl. is puttingvogratz aan to -- a plan to start hedge fund for cryptocurrency on hold.

to plunge could extend $8,000 after clearing a record high of 19,500 on monday. in a phone interview, he said "i look pretty smart pressing the pot is button right now." new-in-the-box will test munch emails for california pot enthusiasts. it is partnering with a digital company backed by rapper snoop dogg. the move will make jack-in-the-box the most -- first national chain to embrace the drug at least in name. that is your bloomberg business flash. you have other companies that are they companies that have talked around it, offered special things, but this is very direct. wonder if snoop dogg ever thought when he got started that he would be doing this in 2017. supposeman kendrys, i

-- a man can dream i suppose. a few months ago it the spanish minister had time to when he called for regional elections. the vote has taken place and a situation has changed. we report from barcelona. maria: after a disastrous election night the spanish prime minister vows to fight on. it was a bad night for the spanish prime minister. he was hoping the battle would reset the clock on politics. it went back to square one. also his party was wiped out, getting an awful result. -- he will serve as promised her and complete his term and hopes he can reach a solution. the winner of the night, the

ousted president who came in second but scored a victory, he did pull a come back and is saying he wants to meet rajoy. th spanish prime minister sayse no, he wants dialogue but it has to do -- be done and the constitutional order of the country. it is a difficult situation. the question is when is he getting back to spain and how do you solve the issue when the catalan people have rejected the offer. scarlet: still need to think of a gift for your one true love? 12 days of the christmas with a chart you cannot miss next. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: "what'd you miss?" bitcoins move this week. it is in bear market mode by conventional standards. take a look at the far right corner. it is down 38%. conventional standards do not apply to bitcoin and the bubble we have seen. in previous pullbacks or retrenchments, you can see bitcoin in 2011 retrenched by is and then in 2013, there that other decline, 70% lower. all of 2014 was a drop lower and that was off by 86%. this week's move or the latest move rarely registers when you look at the history of bitcoin crashes. there is a lot more going on, it has reached a new frenzy with institutional money coming in. we will this guess all of this later on and dig into the moves especially with some of those exchanges like coin base. >> i do not have a crash but

something may be poised to change. this chart.g at looking at corporate spread on the investment u.s. credit market. what we are looking at, what we had in 2008, you're seeing the there and conversely at the end of the year is the lowest now at they have been since 2008. seeing is the be corporate credit binge crashing out of the water. we have the easy money policies that have been flowing and as we expect the central banks to tighten next year. we may see the end of that easy money. are too serious. we have to talk about the 12 days of christmas. i will spare you my singing. this is our index that looks at all the costs to buy the various things involved in the 12 days of christmas.

34,500 $58. if you buy the number of things that it says to buy in the song 158,000set you back dollars. i will bring it back to something serious for a second. the year-over-year change only .6 of 1%. that is all about these low-inflation that we have seen even for seven swans a swimming. great chart. ♪ . .

>> stocks ending the day in the red on the final session before christmas, the penultimate friday of the year. gold is rising for a third straight day. nice, big workout. >> if you are tuning in on twitter life, we want to welcome you to our closing bell coverage every weekday, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. eastern. on this penultimate friday of 2017, we begin with market minutes. at s&p basically unchanged this point, the dow losing 26 points. there's not a whole lot to draw from this movement because trading was fairly light.

was a ton of economic data . >> there was a lot of economic data. new home sales, which we will talk about in just a little bit. we saw some bouncing back. then, of course, i know you're watching some individual stocks. as always, there is some good fundamental news. there are fundamentally driven maneuvers. a bunch of decliners because the indexes close down. suffering the biggest drop in four months. sales dropped for nike. lymphoma studya failed. wwe.is come back.xfl funding a new entity, also citigroup downgrading the company to a neutral as well. ,nd papa johns, this is a story the founder quit the ceo role

following some comments he made about the player protests. he blamed declining sales on the fact that they were the player protests. >> the point is they were declining sales. that could be something to do with it. >> a little change there as well. in the bond market. it was a notable week for bonds. getting to its highest since march in the wake of the tax bill being passed. ,ou saw some sideways movement that does mask the activity we aw and a little bit of loosening or steepening of that yield curve that has been flattening. julie: futures market for fx closed at 1 p.m. so we did see a move higher in the dollar overall. the euro weaker after the

catalan elections in which separatist parties one back control. predicting the fallout will be limited because [indiscernible] i want to bring in the lenny. ooney. unchangedr gdp was that missed an estimate of a .2 of 1% gain. accepted better than cpi and retail sales lifting the canadian dollar and sent the u.s. dollar lower versus the canadian dollar and it raised expectations for january interest rate increase. the south african rand, the biggest gain and -- among major markets and currencies. seen dropping. and this is one for you, julie. you pointed this out. bitcoin, whether you believe it is a currency or something else,

this is the five-day move in this cryptocurrency. it was as high as $19,000 in change. from peak to trough there is an 81% swing. julie: what it never was was boring. laura: i have a little bit on commodities. -- just keeping this short. oil,ve been looking at that has been rising. and for the last penultimate week of the air it should be very high. we are seeing a leveling off this week compared to what we have seen earlier in terms of the trajectory. on gold, futures are creeping up here toward the end of the year. we know that central banks are poised to keep interest rates, they are going to race them next year. >> it looks that way. scarlet: following president

trump's signing of the tax bill and of -- a deeper look at the year. percentage gains? michael: quite a year. when you look at the outlook coming into this year especially before the election. here we were in the middle of this earnings recession and the projections were that for turning around for earnings growth to resume. i am not sure how much confidence there was at the time. we have seen these estimates get ratcheted down from previous years. year in at is the nutshell. we return earnings growth and then we have this confidence boost layered on top that you see in the valuations. much of that tax reform regulation rollback. a pretty fascinating year all told. nasdaq was leading the way.

julie: there has been concern about the reliance of the market on tech and -- in particular. when you look at a percentage basis and look at the bloomberg, euro for year the percentage gain does not compare that crazily. michael: the nasdaq beats the s&p. julie: this is the gap between the two. michael: you can see the dot-com bubble sticks out. what is interesting is the nasdaq and the s&p have become a lot more similar. if you look at the s&p now, it is 25% tech. the nasdaq is 40 and change, 42% tech. >> the dow is in its own land. michael: that has shifted completely. remember what we think of as the biggest tech stocks are not classified as tech. priceline is not, amazon is not. s&p for what must was think as

tech stocks is even more tech than 25%. of funds are a lot overweight tech. the biggest group in the index. great year for them, we lose as the nasdaqon is the tech index and the s&p is everything else. they are converging. tech gained about 40% as a group and the s&p 500, its gain was double the s&p 500. arenasdaq, the weightings catching up. scarlet: there is performance and valuation. if we see that they are that distinct, if you overlay valuation of the tech stocks versus the s&p 500, we get something that shows it is not all that concerning. techel: you look at the valuation, nothing to fret about.

if i were to extend that i would say nothing to fred about more than fretting about the overall market. -- both veryth richly valued. on a relative basis -- simply because especially looking forward, tech is projected to have the strongest earnings growth going forward. is regulations. everyone assumes the regulatory rollback is a great thing that lifts all boats. not so sure about tech. if you think about net neutrality, there is a question about how the band with hog stocks, how will that have an impact? donald trump has made it clear --is not a fan of just i

jeff bezos. his tweets have made it clear. a expect interest rates to rise, much bigger beneficiaries of the tax cuts. there is this step back from tech but if you look at the earnings growth, the long-term earnings growth, the valuations look very reasonable. maybe not cheap but not really out in the stratosphere. taxa: when we look at the implications, financials come to mind in getting those benefits. tech not so much but are there any others that will benefit? michael: the big question with tax reform is everyone expects a lot of buyback announcements and a lot of defending increase announcements. -- theree they are out is 100 press releases. i am curious as how quickly we start to see these announcements. if they are frontloaded toward the front of the year which is

what i would expect after looking, once you get the green light, you want to be out ahead of your competitors and say we stocks andback dividends. i could see a strong start to the year if there is a rush and then what is next? and we will have to see if the economic data starts reflecting everything. the consumer spending numbers ratcheted up? the other thing to watch out is is that going to give us the lift in inflation everyone has been wondering about and will that result in the corresponding lifting yields. goldman sachs had an interesting note out. lowering the unemployment forecasts, but also projecting a gdpet deficit that is 5% of in 2019. that is a high beds it -- budget

deficit. exit for coming in the middle of a deep recession or coming out of it. the case is therefore higher interest rates. we are going to start to hear a lot of people talk about what is that magic level in yields we have to worry about the stock market. julie: that was something to watch especially the second half of next year. thank you so much. coming up, a gift heading into the holiday weekend. positive u.s. economic data. new home sales rise to precrisis levels as consumer spending surprises to the upside. we will discuss. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

jessica: let's get to first word news this afternoon. president trump stepped off air force one to a trump chant started by his supporters. he gave a thumbs-up as he walked to meet the crowd. president trump signed the tax cuts job act before leaving for the holidays. the bill was a win for the administration, the first -- as his first year comes to a close. more than 44 u.s. attorneys and republican officials believe robert mueller should be allowed to continue his investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. the groups urged him to refrain from firing or trying to discover -- discredit the special counsel. reports surfaced that to teams -- team members had exchanged derogatory text about donald trump last year. and in response to the latest ballistic missile, can it reach

that u.s.? as the fourth resolution passed, the new restrictions target north korean economy. federal investigators say video aboard the amtrak train that derailed in washington state monday shows the crews were not using personal electronic devices. shows the engineer remarked on the speed six seconds before the train went off the tracks. the train was reported at 78 miles per hour, more than double the posted speed limit. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am jessica summers. this is bloomberg. julie: "what'd you miss?" fresh data out today. ouring us now to discuss is economist. thanks for joining us.

if you look at the bloomberg terminal, we have a chart of the ,onth over month change, 17.5% the biggest since january 1992. how much of that was the post-hurricane bounceback, is there a way of stripping that out? >> absolutely. the census bureau releases the data and they show it to us by regions. a lot of this coming from the south so there is part of the story. ofcould be a little bit demand ahead of time, a head of the tax overhaul. so that people were thinking, maybe my deductions are going to be lower and i will not be able to take advantage of homeownership in 2018 and i need to close the deal in 2017. that could be pulling demand from next year. when you look at the housing market there is demand and then supply. the supply is fairly limited.

at shows chart here housing inventory and that number of existing homes for sale and these are homes that are constructed. resales of homes. it is the second lowest on record. the previous low was 2017. we have not seen a comeback. yelena: absolutely. i look at housing completions at four new home sales and that is showing slow growth in the number of houses. it is tight supply existing and new home sales and this is what is going to limit the pace of home sales going into 2018. until we see a significant pickup in housing starts, we will not see much of a -- the same kind of number we saw today. onra: if we look at more with all these houses whether you are buying are not, we can go into consumer spending and we

see a little bit of change. a little bit better than expected on the rise in november. .6% after 2.2% gain previously. that was more than people were expecting. what do you make of that, is the consumer healthy? this was strong given the pace of income growth is picking up. if you have spending and people reaching intoor their savings, that is one thing , but when income is picking up, that is a different story. that tells you that such a pickup up in consumer spending will continue to grow and that goingctly what we expect into 2018. we expect wages to be -- pick up more appreciably than this year. and we expect that to materialize into stronger pickup in income growth and eventually

in consumer spending. consumers will remain the driving force behind economic growth in the next year. julie: we have been expecting way just to rise. are we seeing more real signs that it is finally happening? yelena: they are rising. it is gradual. julie: is there any sign the pace will pick up? yelena: yes. the unemployment rate is falling below 4%. that is clearly below the natural rate of unemployment which will lead to higher growth rate in wages. this is something that might be happening next year. scarlet: do people think that? we had the sentiment survey and when you're inflation rate that people gave is their answer as 2.7%, that is lower than it was the previous month. then below what it was previous month. we are not seeing that

reflected. would be careful to look at the one year in inflation expectations in that survey. it is volatile and driven by gasoline fluctuations. we saw some fluctuations in gasoline prices after the hurricanes. is feds preferred measure five times longer than expectations and that has been stable. benign inflation environment and higher wages, which is reflected in the same survey and the university of michigan survey. it is a positive thing for consumers and they are out there loosing their purse strings. scarlet: thanks for joining us. analysts are left crunching numbers in the last few days before christmas in the wake of the tax overhaul.

we round up the winners and the losers when it comes to industries that. -- next. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: president trump left the white house to start the holidays at mar-a-lago. wall street analysts are staying late at the office toiling into the night to figure out what the rewrite of the tax code will mean for corporate america. more to talk about who wins and loses is matt townsend. we were joking that h&r block stands to win because people need help in figuring out what this it in the -- means. matt: no turbotax this year. torlet: retail is sure benefit because they did not get the adjustment tax they feared.

about target, the department stores that are u.s. based, they pay 35% tax, that is back to 21. these companies have a lot of need for investment to invest in their online capabilities, maybe pay workers more. industries that need to buy a lot of expensive things to replenish them like airlines. not do a lot of spent on infrastructure but on networks. they will benefit. there is not a whole lot of losers but if you look at industries that it is not as beneficial, health care my health insurance because of the change to obamacare, any of the homebuilders because of what could happen to home prices and a slowdown in housing. that industry says it will happen. mostly winners. mostly at christmas for these companies. we did not find many examples , groups are saying

this is bad in any way. we found one company called taxns, they might hey no because they can count their inventory as capital expenditures. news was not a lot of bad for corporate america as far as the tax overhaul. laura: it sounds like you have done as much work as the analysts you talk to two. beenmayo says he has working longer in the holidays than the past 20 years. matt: we knew this was coming but the final details were in flux until the last minute. big ballparkcan do figures and analysis like that younow you have the text, can update your earnings guide or the next quarter and so we we are doingsaying this 20 years, i have never

worked this far into december on my vacation. that is the idea of delaying the ski trip or the trip to the islands. these people have such tough lined -- lives. julie: we have talked a lot about people trying to prepay property taxes, so individual accountants and i imagine corporate accountants as well even if it is beneficial, they still must be burning the midnight oil to figure out how to maximize this as they get the details. matt: if you are working at a cfos office, i am sure you are trying to nail down some specifics on how this will materially affect your company and we expect that some of these announcements, disclosure will be coming before the end of the year and we will see a flood of them here is companies report the fourth quarter and the first quarter. companies are raising prices or have room to raise prices as well. i am thinking about comcast

wages raising prices for some of its service packages in the miami-dade area as they have publicized that there giving their employees a $1000 bonus. question, is the big the corporate tax cut can go to shareholders or customers or employees. what do they do with that? comcast and some of the other companies like at&t came out and they are saying we are doing a $1000 bonus for our employees and raising wages but there is a still -- there is a question and it makes it harder to do an analysis. how do they spend the money? matt: there is still a lot of guesswork going on. julie: we will be looking for those announcements in the next

couple of weeks. matt townsend has been on top of the tax situation. we will speak with james rhee, the key to the clothing lines come back after filing for bankruptcy twice. this is bloomberg. ♪

jessica: let's get to first word news this afternoon. dozens of president trump's nominees for key positions of federal agencies will remain in limbo until after the new year with senate business having concluded for 2017. the nominations will return to the white house. the president will have to nominatere----- wantsinate anyone he

installed. the trump administration today recognized the result of honduras' disputed presidential election despite opposition complaints irregularities found by poll observers -- the state congratulated hernandez on his victory but urged the electoral commission to fully review any challenges to the results. refrained all sides to from violence. a hall of fame sports broadcaster has died. the associated press reports his family believes he died of a heart attack but is awaiting official word. he called thousands of professional and amateur sporting events.

he was 82 years old. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists in more than 120 countries. i'm jessica summers. this is bloomberg. not much action if you look at the major indexes and where they closed. given was pretty thin that it was the last trading day before the long weekend. i suspect that will be the trend next week as well. julie: that is a pretty good supposition. "what'd you miss?" plus size clothing retailer ashley stewart has made a serious come back. after filing for bankruptcy twice, it has become one of the fastest-growing plus size fashion brands. joining us now from boston is ashley stewart ceo james rhee. thank you for joining us. this was a great story about the company in "bloomberg

businessweek." it is a tough landscape, not just the plus size apparel industry but retail overall. you have been through a tough road. tell us about it and what you think has been key in turning around the brand. james: i think on the surface of it, it is a plus size retail brand, but if you dig deeper, ashley stewart has always been a way of life. it is one of the largest and oldest businesses of scale that originated within the african-american community. for many, many years -- 26 years now -- it has been a place for a lot of these women who bear a lot burden and do a lot of good for their families, communities, and this country -- it was a place where they could be pampered a little bit and seek some friendship and get some strength. julie: you talk about --scarlet:

you talk about this community, and it's clear you feel a connection with the customer. toley stewart does not refer one single person. it is a mashup of laura asked and martha stewart. ashley and martha stewart. as a korean-american, how do you make this rant relatable -- this brand relatable to your customer when you do not fit that demographic? it is an interesting gap you are filling here. james: one of the things janet wrote so well in the article was it actually reminds me of my mother. this was a woman who did a lot for me and my family. she immigrated here, and it was not easy for her. i think she overcame a lot of barriers. one of the best parts of our story is we focus in our business on transcendent values.

teacher,er high school it is about kindness and friendship and loyalty. from my experience as a retail consumer and a human being, when you can combine those together and have them functioning at the same time, you generally have good results. what about your strategy, if we can talk about that a ittle more? you never decided to go off-line. you still have 89 stores. so many retailers that have had issues, they're just online at this point. james: one of the things as an investor that i often say, the margins on the econ business are incredibly thin. there are a lot of companies out there that have a tremendous amount of scale, so my investment philosophy is that the businesses and brands that survive will be niche brands

that provide something other than transactional comfort two different sorts of communities. the best place to convey human personalization is in stores. this obviously talks about appealing to that core consumer, that niche consumer for you all, but i'm also curious operationally what you have learned from this process. you are a private equity guide by background -- private equity guy by- private equity background. what lessons have you taken away with the running of inventory and how you keep the stores with this process? james: one of the best parts of life is learning a different -- learning a lot of different things, and is the difference between a mathematician in applied math or physics or applied physics. running an inventory in my mind is not that different from running a portfolio bond.

were gross margin is replaced by yield and duration is the equivalent of turning your inventory -- where gross margin is replaced by yield. we have been applying equity type on math to inventory flow -- bond math to inventory flow. we have applied a lot of different things in an incredibly transformative environment. a lot of things we're doing these days and what you have to do, there's no textbook for. the world is changing so fast. scarlet: there is also no textbook for building up the .rand the way you have you are building up your brand as well because you want it to be a hub of activity. you have a youtube channel, a national pageant, and you are building brand awareness at black colleges. talk about that effort and what kind of reception you are getting. james: my goal, our goal, and the if those -- the ease oh's --

entire grandthe is to treat a group of women that do so much respectfully. we are building our business. when you have a collection of when and as we speak to close to 3 million, 3.5 million women a day. when you can amalgamate these united voices into a voice, you have a tremendous amount of influence, and we are to invest in that sons and daughters are colleges, provide entertainment at events, and over time -- it has started in the last six months -- selling things other than apparel. selling third party goods such as cosmetics and things like that. she looks to us to have influence on her life. it is a fascinating

combination of community outreach. the way you talk about a sounds like a nonprofit in many ways, and you are also aiming for profit in the business. what is next for ashley stewart? opening more stores? having more evidence that scarlet was just talking about -- having more events? james: we will open more stores. impact investing to me fundamentally is creating jobs. that is one. check. to continueill be to unify and amalgamate voice and show our customer base, and really our friendship base, that influence. increasingly a lot of influential type people realize we are trying to do much more than sell close. we are trying to invest in this community and this woman's self-esteem and give her voice. -- we are trying to do much more

than sell clothes. scarlet: thank you so much. fantastic story. i encourage everyone to read it on the "bloomberg businessweek" website or james: thank you for allowing me to tell the story. coming up, with bitcoin's plunge, some analysts say the time to purchase is now. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: "what'd you miss?" losing streak, plunging for a fourth straight day, as much as 30% earlier. one investor now is betting it will not be bouncing back. tosees bitcoin dropping $8,000. joining us now to discuss this rob urban.g's

full disclosure, he had at one point predicted it would go to 40,000 dollars. rob: that was a long time ago, about a week. therein lies the bitcoin story --scarlet: therein lies the bitcoin story. rob: who knows? i cannot really predict. upth noting that it is almost 1500% for the year. if you go back just a few years ago, it is still up millions of percent. it's ridiculous. laura: volatility today on this was crazy. asone point, it was as low $11,000. rob: just a few days ago, we thought it was going to hit $20,000. it was when they launched the

cme futures. it was a tough week. there were a lot of things. there was an insider trading investigation that coinbase. , which i lightcoin think is kind of amazing. the guy created this thing and sold it. -- litecoin, which i think is kind of amazing. another player in the cryptocurrency world. it is probably going to continue to be that way, but i think there's an expectation that as wall street comes in, volatility will maybe decrease a little bit. >> as happens when banks come in, yes. bottom of all of it are the actual bitcoin

exchanges. you cannot by bitcoin -- buy bitcoin except from the bitcoin exchanges, or that is the easiest way. a relatively small number of people can play in all those markets. also, margin requirements are extremely high, which makes it expensive to do that. efficiency mechanisms are not really working. more of a momentum player in this market seemingly pulling back, when you look at novogr atz. is there any indication that the volatility we have seen this week has dissuaded other wall street banks from being perhaps as assertive following goldman's laid? rob: my favorite part of the there's only two sides

-- it's either the biggest scam in history or the greatest thing in the world. i am a journalist, so i try to pick the middle. but wall street remains quite divided. volatility is an attractive thing if you are a traitor. marketespecially in this where there is none anywhere else. rob: exactly. this is kind of the year were wall street discovered cryptocurrency. it was individuals, family offices, that kind of thing, and you now have more and more hedge funds, wall street firms like goldman. when goldman gets involved, it is a different level. to continues going to grow. i think if it was a bubble , we willby individuals just wait until we have professionals getting into it. that bubbleee what looks like. we have quite a tame here at here atg -- a team

bloomberg covering the topic. next, we look at businesses trying to make a positive impact in the world. this is bloomberg. ♪

ulie: "what'd you miss?" the most recent issue of "bloomberg is in this week" focuses on companies pursuing profits and ethical ends -- "bloomberg businessweek" focuses. >> just about anything could constitute good business when you actually sit and look at what a lot of companies are

there are a lot of companies doing things like helping people get more fit in india -- this is one of the things i wrote about -- or you look at academia and higher education, which is not generally a place where a lot of innovation is going on. we spent the year really trying to scour for stories like that. >> i feel like there is a theme crossing all for stories, and that is someone going above and beyond the call of duty in many ways because they are passionate about something, they want to disrupt, they want to change, they want to bring greater awareness. bret: that is very right. kind of a fascinating story, india, as recently as the 1970's, had instituted caloric minimums. people were so underweight that

the government said you had to eat this many calories. economic boom happens, and now they have all the problems we have in the west of obesity, diabetes, and of all the people that have heart attacks in india, a quarter of them are younger than 40, which is insane. >> i found this shocking. when i think of india, i think of people who do yoga. it's not a big deal. it's not. something like 97% of people in india do not do yoga or anything like that. a gym chain recently opened something like 20 locations in bangalore, and they are really trying to bring witness to -- fitness to india. >> as you say, they do not have phys ed for kids, and he is trying to reeducate society, and

it is working, right tackle -- right? bret: exactly. and it is not just reeducate. it is educate. a lot of people in india have never seen fitness before. the idea of western fitness is brand-new. this is all private, not to the government. >> speaking of education, let's .alk about mitch daniels he is a man also making a difference, radical in the education sphere. bret: higher education is not a sphere where there is a ton of innovation. it moves very, very slowly. blade for his the zeal in cutting budgets and ands over at purdue immediately does things that colleges do not do. .irst, he froze tuition

this is at a time when a lot of competitors to purdue are seeing tuition rise and rise and rise, primarily because of a lack of state funding. he is doing other innovative things. he is offering something called degree in three. if you're willing to stay on campus for two summers and take a higher courseload, you can graduate in three years. to us about another interesting character who wants to change the world. guy, and fascinating a reallym is fascinating company. you might think that two 2014 when there were a lot of boycotts -- think back to 2014. his whole thing -- you can call htick or not -- you look

at the gaza strip and you cannot have peace in the middle east until you have economic equality, and his argument is he has a way in. palestinians working next to israelis. it is really this melting pot. >> egyptian jews, russian jews. exactly. getting along. his argument is if everyone did what he was doing, all the attention would go away because instead of treating people like the other, people would be like, "i know this guy. he works with me. great." ong that is what he is selling. if he can bring peace or not remains to be seen.

it's time now for a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. leaders around the world scrambling to finish up lori of deals before the holidays -- a flurry of deals before the holidays. companies have announced about $361 billion in mergers and acquisitions this month alone according to data compiled by bloomberg. bank of america has joined the list of companies doling out additional bonuses as a result of the tax overhaul. about 140 5000 employees making $150,000 or less will receive $1000 by the end of the year -- about 145,000 employees. at&t and comcast also handed out bonuses tied to that tax plan. a california judge has sanctioned apple in the federal trade commission's lawsuit. apple has been withholding documents related to the case since december, resulting in

fines of $25,000 a day until it turns over that evidence. apple is not a party in the ftc sued, but it has its own legal action pending against qualcomm. elon musk's spacex will cap a record year with the launch of a satellites ong california's central coast. it will be their 18th mission this year, more than any competitor and more than twice as many as last year. that is your business flash update. what you needup, to know to gear up for next week. this is bloomberg. ♪

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let's start with first word news. president trump will spend christmas at his florida estate. legislativejor victory, tax reform. desantisndorsed ron calling him a brilliant young leader. dozens of nominees for key positions in federal agencies will remain in limbo until after the new year. who includes jerome powell was not confirmed to before the senate adjourned. those nominations will return to the white house. the president will have to renominate anyone he wants install. bannon and corey lewandowski have been asked to testify in front of the house committee. neither one has responded.