shery: here are the top stories we're covering. the traders are keeping a close afterafter apple shares forecast for the iphone x are cut by analysts and bloomberg "surveillance is rebounding today -- and bitcoin is rebounding today. what will come for the headscarf -- hedge fund industry, major reshuffling. with christmas in the books, was it a merry holiday for retailers, the early read on how retailers did this holiday season. 90 minutes into the trading day. emma chandra with the latest. a little bit lower for stocks. >> not too much this first day of trading after christmas. they are going nowhere, volume

is down by about 46%. if anything is dragging things down, in the nasdaq, tech. apple analysts have been lowering projections for the iphone x shipments in the first quarter of next year. what apple is doing, it is falling today. another report by another aalysts saying there could be misunderstanding about whether or not some of these reports about demand for the iphone x relate to the iphone 8 or the iphone x, both came out in the same cycle. heat suppliers feeling the microtechnology down 20%. on the flipside, retail doing very well.

upy's, nordstrom, up, kohl's most 5%. of the most since june after a report in the wall street which mastercard stated holiday sales had risen by 4.9% between november 1 and christmas whicheve, the best day since 2. analysts saying that strong sales momentum. under christmas trees compared to one year ago. some of those may be jewelry. the price of gold approaching the highest close since november of 29th. the safe haven more to do with how investors wait unresolved political concerns into 2018. what is going on in catalonia, and spain, and north korea. shery: thank you.

bitcoin bounce, after a five-day slot, bitcoin about 15,000 don't abovee, -- slump, $15,000, the how el-erian -- will it be what market participants referred to as healthy. let's get to julie. when it comes to asset classes, bitcoin, it has been less than 10 years, when can we get price stability on the horizon? >> when there is a lot of questions that we have right now that are answered, what does regulation look like in the future? how did things go with the trading exchanges? both recent things. what does institutional involvement look like? it is a small subset of the population trading these things. before they were on regulated

exchanges, places like goldman sachs, etc. could not trade bitcoin ongoing base. it had to be a regulator platform -- ongoing base. base here -- coin base. it had to be a regulated platform. laura: do you think that when these institutional measures come in, well that give you more of the stability? >> i would think so because you have more volume if someone makes a big trade, it will not cause massive fluctuations and he will not come into one day with it at $50,000 and the next day at $10,000 and the next day at $20,000. it will be a more stable price. shery: bitcoin, other rival tokens have outperformed bitcoin in trading the past 10 days. the chart showing you that, bitcoin is the line in white.

could any of these challenge bitcoin's dominance in the market? >> one eventually could but they have a long way to go to catch up. they have been outperforming recently without as much media attention as bitcoin. laura: right now, it is all about retail investors putting their money into bitcoin. are there things from the institutional side that view the -- have impact on the retail side? a prolific trader who pulled back plans on his funds to invest in bitcoin. does that show the retail guide it is difficult to make money? >> it shows there is a lack of stability if he does not want to jump in and make a massive bet on bitcoin and other crypto assets until there is a path to value where it will go in the future. shery: great to have you with us. , and stay on the subject

october the blackrock chairman and ceo talk to our erik schatzker about cryptocurrencies. >> i am a big believer in the potential of what a cryptocurrency can do. you see huge opportunities appeared but we are talking about today is much more of a speculative -- people are speculating on it. when i think about most of these cryptocurrencies, it identifies how much money laundering there is in the world. how much people are tried to move currencies from one place to the other. i believe you are seeing demand for it. if we created a global -- a true global digital currency, a digitized currency, everybody would not have money laundering anymore. everything would be understood and flowing through.

you would see all the application. how do we preserve this system from cyber problems? because the whole world is using this one network for financial transactions. at present a lot of systemic risk. fink: blackrock's larry with erik schatzker in october. laura: let's get to the first word news. trump sayst bipartisan plans for health care will eventually be developed as a result of the tax overhaul. he said that based on the fact that the individual mandate had been terminated, republicans and democrats will come together to prep a new health care law. the gop tax bill signed last week eliminate a mandate but leaves other essential parts of the law intact. president trump is set to be the first chief executive and nearly a century not to post at least

one state dinner during the first year in office. the white house offered no reason and donald trump had yet to extend an invitation for a state visit but expect one early in the new year. russia's top election and -- election official has stopped the top candidate. the candidate who is an anti--- he is part after being convicted by fraud and calling on supporters to stay away from the voting protest -- in protest. syrian rebels and opposition groups rejecting peace talks proposed by russia's, accusing moscow a failing to pressure its ally in -- its allies in the conflict. conflict. the

the united nations let process has -- the rebel group says moscow -- voters at the polls in liberia today where a former international soccer star is reportedly a solid favorite to become the country's next president. he is a 1995 world soccer player of the year and he defeated the vice president in the first round of voting on october 10. they are battling to succeed the income of president and a former banker. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalist and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. laura: coming up, how are the nation's biggest banks prepared for tax reform? we hear from the citigroup ceo. from new york, this is bloomberg.

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♪ i am laura keller. shery: i am shery ahn. tax reform is a done deal and how have the big banks never appearing, the citigroup ceo michael corbat joined us in november before the bill passed and here are his thoughts on the potential economic impact of the changes. michael: let's start with u.s. economy. you look at what is going on, what tax reform in many ways is about is trying to spur incremental growth. we have an economy this year probably slated to come in in the low twos. below where we have been historically and where we would

like the economy to be feared what can tax reform do? on the corporate side, u.s. companies are among the higher taxpayers in the world and if we get a reduction, maybe it will be the catalyst that changes the psychology that is there. maybe that as opposed to a topline growth, expense discipline, stingy in terms of. --.ee -- and terms of what is being proposed, we have to see the math and that is not done. it is making u.s. companies competitive and moving somewhere near the global average. u.s. companies today are paying above, in tax rate, foreign competitors and it creates competitiveness. on the consumer side, we have a consumer that is in relatively good shape. but, we look at unemployment, 4.1% and can argue storm

effects. if we look at credit and savings and spending, what is it that can act as a catalyst? from the u.s. perspective, two thirds of the u.s. economy driven by the consumer. if we can get more engagement out of the consumer, we can shake this investment lose from the corporate side and maybe we have this chance of pushing the economy near 3% growth. >> on the corporate side, investments, that would drive productivity, if it happens. consumer side, higher wages, more money in the pocket. investments, companies can borrow at very low rates, is that constraining people and have a taken the money instead to pay dividends and bought back shares? michael: you have to look at what growth looks and feels like. if you are barely getting low single-digit topline growth, how excited are you at a big

project? -- tried to grow your revenue better than expenses which does not give you much room for that investment. as i travel, not just around the united states but around the world, conversation is similar in terms of people staying pretty close to home and not wanting to get to extended -- too extended in terms of getting out with big investments that have certain returns. >> you had the advantage of talking to real businesses, making the decisions across the country and around the world. economist raise questions about do weparticularly, believe companies will pay their workers with this more money? well it driveways pressure? a lack of ways pressure giving the situation with employment -- wage pressure in the situation with employment. michael: what quantitative easing and stimulus and all the

things have done, been very effective in housing and in the jobs front. it is very challenging in terms of wage. a 4.1% unemployment rate, a real lack of wage growth. potentially, what happens as part of this, i am not saying everybody grants their workers and increase the next day but it can, one, tighten the labor market as people try to get laborers to do certain things which creates that at some wage inflation, which would be nice. second, when we look at the 4.1% unemployment, we still have 95 million people who are choosing not to be in the workforce for whatever reason. if we can get them engaged, and get them earning, and get them as part of the workforce,

growing the base. that is powerful. >> let's take the general discussion of the economy and bring it back to citigroup. how do we connect, if you

>> talking with our viewers economics course audit to says the consumer into 2018 said to be strong. u.s. economic data stronger on the upside was gives more momentum to consumer spending which is expected to be the backbone of the economic

recovery. not to mention that an extra weekend day does not hurt. >> always good news for retailers because online shopping is growing at a faster pace and overall retail spending. most of us are procrastinators and we have to get to the store. they have to go out and they did. laura: last year, a lot of stores opening on christmas day and christmas eve, did that happen again? >> a lot of christmas eve openings, yes, most of the goodlers are open for a chunk of the they are christmas eve. 24 is a regular other years and for them to close earlier than usual would have been foolish. laura: thank you for bringing us that update.

crude, wpis check on rising to a session high after pipeline oil terminal suffered an explosion, the pipeline operated by wahaha oil. production dropped 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day after the explosion according to a person with knowledge. , rising almost close to $60 a barrel. wti again resuming its upward trend after the christmas holiday, not to mention data showing the rig steady for a second week. the broader market, we are ,eeing the dow not doing much round 24,756 what s&p 500 a little bit of down. energy leading the gains but the industrials are what is gaining

ground. the dollar unchanged at the moment and run member of many major markets shut flows related to position and -- these japanese yen unchanged but pretty weak. 113.21. coming up, analysts cut iphone shipment forecast over lackluster demand. more on apple not so merry christmas. ♪ retail.

under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered.

leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. laura: this is bloomberg markets. i am laura keller. shery: i am shery ahn.

apple -- and was cutting the apple iphone x shipping forecast based on lackluster demand. cory johnson joining us from san francisco. there are conflicting reports. an analyst referring to the fact that it may not be order cuts for iphone x units. that is confusing the market and it could be iphone 8 production cuts. we are a little bit confused. >> we will see what the numbers are, analysts trying to get ahead of trends about how much of it -- availability and incorporate it into the article is. -- theignificant jim iphone x is the big deal, the bigger and more expensive phone but a device that has the most cutting edge technology. who wants to pay for that technology and is the demand fundamentally there in big numbers? -- demand cycle is such was that apple was set up to sell a lot of phones right away. the question was, how much good

they deliver? the -- gene munster did a great job monitoring over half , he foundpple stores the availability and over 75% of the stores of the iphone x feared -- iphone x. the rising availability suggests better supply and lack of demand perhaps. is there enough demand for apple to hit wall street analyst numbers if hitting numbers is important to you. laura: can you talk about when we will figure out what the shipment numbers will be and does apple give any guidance to some analysts? shipments are better or worse, wink. >> they used to pick up the phone of and analysts and say, where did you come up with a number? interesting. not telling you if it was right or wrong. do not know if they are still doing that.

that wink guidance is harder to come by. the only day we know what the numbers are is when they reported earnings. it is why we look for availability. up to 75% during the week of christmas, 97% availability on christmas day to the end of the holiday. that suggests there are enough phones to buy. his suggestion is pushing the march numbers out of december. the demand is still there. we will find out when the numbers come out. this is an analyst game and fundamentals are what matters. it matters how big of a business can they grow and apple has done technological with this phone, the iphone x come interest a lot of new features, visual regiment -- artificial intelligence -- visual recognition, a bigger market when new games come out. using this artificial intelligence.

that is what drives the market. apple's high price of the phone, the billion dollars in putting up the phone will see the market over the long term say, quarter by quarter, a game of analysts versus expectations and their own self-importance. shery: i am excited about a new pokémon game. how problematic has it been that $999 price tag on the iphone x been so far? >> i think it is a great advantage for them. it will mean a lot of revenue and profit into apple. the high-priced gear some people away, and markets where they said people would not pay up, india and china, apple brings big expensive phones, people flock to this brand as a luxury item and love it. the notion that china will not pay is not true. laura: bitcoin, you do follow that as well.

a high of $60,000 on the day so far. -- $16,000 on the day so far, anything you are paying attention to, what the consumer wants? , one it iss surprising that we have seen this volatility of bitcoin after the futures contracts are available, the futures contracts look like they may dampen the volatility by allowing people to short and long the underlying and have duration on the short-long bet but volatility is so high and spreads are so wide, the volatility continues. the equities that claim to have a relationship with bitcoin, many will be proven to be scams. they are easier to trade. , we will, this week see a lot of volatility next week from those stocks and picking up phones old-fashioned cold calling with widows and

orphans involved in stealing their money. shery: china is now buying middle east oil blockchain for the first time. exciting times. benchmark,the crypto what could take its place as number two or perhaps beat bitcoin at one point? >> i am suspicious of headlines around bitcoin. everyone should be, especially this week. going forward, you need more fustanella the in bitcoin and transaction time needs to come down. ripple have the ceo of on bloomberg technology about the issues of functionality of crypto cap -- cryptocurrency. shery: thank you, cory johnson from san francisco. let's get to the first word news . >> president trump says a

bipartisan plan for health care will eventually be developed as a result of the tax proposal -- tax reform. he said based on the fact that the individual mandate has been terminated, republicans and democrats will come together to craft new health care law. the gop tax bill signed into law last week a lemonade a mandate but leaves other essential parts of the law intact. north korea says the latest round of sanctions come close by pyongyang by the united nations is an act of war. measures aimed to cut fuel imports by almost 90% and expand previous restrictions on shipping. south korea is on watch for a long-range missile test. these guys said the satellite waiting in ansia u.s. and north korea need to talk without preconditions and ones that additional sanctions could pose bigger dangers to the deteriorating state of relations between both nations. the spokesman for the russian the kremlinys that

is concerned about the possibility the u.s. may further expand sanctions on russia. in august took effect calls for the treasury to compile a list of business tycoons and companies seen as close to the kremlin. bet is that they would essential targets for new sanctions and the u.s. added the names of several prominent russians to the list. china posted top diplomats from afghanistan and pakistan to mediate a long conflict between the countries. the first trilateral dialogue in beijing comes as china spends its economic interest in pakistan. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalist and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. tradercoming up, a star will no longer get the firm top spot, more on the trouble with secession planning at hedge funds. shery: watching oil, olivia

pipeline set to experience an explosion and wti at the highest level since june of 2016, the pipeline operated by one oil and production said to have dropped 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day after these boys and. debbie dei right now

laura: this is bloomberg markets. i am laura keller. the big news and hedge funds, jim 11, the star trader and heir apparent to -- he will not get

the top job. we broke the news. jimmy levin will not take the top spot. do we know anything about why they change their mind as he was the heir apparent? >> we do not. he days before christmas, sent a letter to investors in which he said there is a group of directors who have said jimmy would be the next ceo and i have decided it is not the right time and they are in agreement with me. we have no idea why this happened at the and of the year. it is where to do it on the weekend before a long holiday weekend. shery: this is not the only hedge fund that has had problems in this secession strategy.

bridgewater, millennium management with issues when it comes to the next heir. >> it is hard to work is great this and the people who have been successful have taken a long time, maybe five years planning it out. and letting investors now. a lot of times it does not work as there is tension between the lieutenant while waiting to take the reins. you end up leaving and you have to start all over again. is that because of money or do these being discussed. -- duties being discussed. what is the conflict usually over? >> a lot of times it is over money, power, because the younger people want more power, they want it sooner. they say, i can do this myself. shery: aside from just secession plans, also seeing distress in

hedge funds. in trouble. what is the problem when we talk about all of these investments having to shut their doors? >> across the industry, we have seen a lot of people closing down this year. thereird year in a row has been more closures and people starting firms. the reason for that is that the markets have been -- not a lot of volatility, everything going in one direction. it has been hard to make money if you hedge. you mentioned aren't you, one of you, they were not able to get over the $1 -- archview,and they were not able to get over the $1 billion mark. you are so much lower than the index. people keep their money. laura: the billion dollar

overt, archview was never -- able to get over the $900 million mark, and then that makes it harder for you to get more money coming in. >> exactly come into the $500 million is maybe the level -- exactly,, it may be the $590 mark is maybe the level. archview will close and give money to investors. do we know why they were so bent out of shape other than reaching -- not reaching the $1 billion mark? >> they were around 5% this year which is not bad but compared to indices, it is not -- it is very low. they were trying to be conservative. they did not make money on any shorts. shery: their assets peaking at a little under 900 and they in dollars.

-- $900 million. more of our best conversations from 2017, david rubenstein spoke with the fidelity chairman to discuss the changing investing landscape. >> let's talk about your role as ceo, 45,000 employees, the travel the world to see them? >> i spend a lot of time traveling because we have major campuses all around the country. we have our international company with different locations all around the world. i tried to make sure i get a balanced between being in front of employees and customers. almost every time i visit a major location around the u.s., i do a town hall meeting, i get to as many declined events as i can. that is a great opportunity to see a group of clients in an efficient way. >> you have a preference for flying commercial.

>> i am traipsing through airports and getting on airplanes all of the time. >> do people recognize you and say give me money advice? >> the people who recognize me usually our employees and if i am in a city where we have a big base of employees, i am more likely to be recognized but occasionally clients recognize me but not generally. >> after this show, they will. >> absolutely. >> do you feel pressure to recruit other women and be a role model for women? >> i think this is a terrific business for women, asset management in particular is a great career for women feared the idea you come in and are responsible for covering a bunch of securities and making recommendations. it is your responsibility to do that work. you get to structure your time. and build your own personal

franchise. being good at that. that is a great opportunity for women. in our organization, we have some very senior women come in addition to myself and we have a real need in our business right now to recruit more women because, when women come -- when customers come into our ranches, very often the first thing they say when we are trying to get them paired up with a rep is, i would like to work with a women. we do not have enough women who our customer -- you are customer facing wreps to serve all the women customers who come in. >> they say that because they assume women are better money managers? >> they may be thinking that but they may be thinking, i am just more comfortable talking to a woman. we have studied women as customers, compared to men as customers, and they are quite

different. women tend to underrate their ability as investors and the financial stewards of their own financial situation. they tend to describe themselves as beginners, even though they actually really no more than they give themselves credit for. they tend to be more methodical die andears -- stu learners of financial informationrs. they often believe a woman would be easier to talk to about andthing as personal potentially complicated as their financial situation. -- the fidelity ceo abigail johnson speaking to david rubenstein. time for the bloomberg business flash, the biggest business

stories in the news right now, housing prices and 20 u.s. cities celebrated more than forecast as smp core -- as data shows prices rose 6.4%, the most since midpoint 14 as lean inventory continue to prop up values amid steady demand. japanese inflation unexpectedly take that in november but prices still rising at less than half the rate targeted by the central bank. core consumer price which exclude -- increased for naprosyn in november from a year earlier and the unavoidable rate fell to 2.7% -- unemployment rate fell to 2.7%. billionaireed by a has export options for a stake in hollywood production house studio eight. --t includes a sale

the force still with star wars, the last jedi once again led the box office topping 100 million dollars in revenue for the second weekend in a row but revenue did drop 54% from the previous weekend because of five new releases over the christmas holiday including a remake of jumanji. coming up, battle of the tracks featuring low volatility etf and bitcoin. checking on the market, the u.s. stock market which are trending a little bit lower with the dow losing ground. we are seeing telecom and energy leading gains but also other sectors leading declines as the s&p 500 is now losing momentum. we did see it barely move on friday. at the moment, 2681. but major markets shut down

we have seen adjustments as the dollar index of 93.26 after two weeks of declines but seeing growing optimism over the u.s. economy. roller ---year yield narrower. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: time for our global battle of the church where we look at the most telling chart of the day and what they mean for investors. access these on the bloomberg by running the function feature at the bottom of your screen. kicking things off is alix steel. >> not commodity related. the top panel is the cumulative low volatility etf flows, very robust. the white line has declined around 10 is where it is now. the bottom panel is realized correlation, the idea is the weaker the correlation among equities it means individual stocks outperform on a micro basis because they are not moved as much by the macro. in theory, this should be good for active managers as they can take advantage of stocks. i find these two panels counterintuitive and wonder how it will shake out and in talking to people in the industry, a fear they have that will cause the next crisis is the outflows of passive etf. if we see a huge move south,

what does it do to the overall market? that has not been tested in a crisis. i find this dichotomy super fascinating. shery: good news for active managers. >> you would think but that is not how the market is reacting and you look at etf flows, that is not panning out. laura: i have, sticking with retail, dealing with bitcoin. the white line is bitcoin from 2012 until 2014 and the blue line is on a normalized basis through 2012 -- from 2016 to now. the bottom is the white line retaining to that. this shows, looking at this on a normalized basis, mathematical, during late 2013 when you see the big bump up in bitcoin, people thought it was a bubble.

in the end, you had the run-up continue and maybe deflate a little bit but really continue on. looking at the bottom with the blue line, that could be something for bitcoin that continued up. shery: do i get to judge, i love the bitcoin story but i am scared of what you mentioned alix, i will give it to you. not commodities. well done. up, a global strategist look at the impact of tax reform on the market and for opportunities. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: it is noon in new york, 5:00 in london, 1:00 in hong kong. i'm shery ahn. laura: i'm laura keller. welcome to "bloomberg markets."

from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, here are the top stories around the world that we are following. shery: running the bitcoins roller coaster year the cryptocurrency rally past 50,000 after last week selloff, but what does it mean for heirs of a bubble? saudi arabia pinning its hopes on oil, the kingdom expecting a major boost in oil revenue to the first budget surplus in a decade. has call it it's talking this christmas. analysts lowered iphone x lacking projections, holiday demand. halfway into the trading day. let's take a look at where the markets are trading. markets are feeling a little bit of downward pressure at the moment. the dow trading at