more interested in protecting the rights of "law-abiding citizens." majority whip a victim of gun violence focused on the lack of preemptive action against the alleged florida school shooter nicolas cruz. most important thing we can look at is about what are all the laws on the books that were not enforced or not properly implemented? when angered me the most is when i see break downs with law enforcement. the fbi had this guys name on a silver platter. they proposed modest fixes to the background check system but the package stalled in the senate because it also it bans other gun owner rights. other gun owner rights. the country's response to russian meddling and disinformation campaigns hasn't been strong enough.

the senate armed services committee mike rogers says russian president vladimir putin sees little price to pay for such actions. and only president trump and defense secretary james mattis have the day-to-day authority to respond to russian activities at their source. humanitarian convoys are ready to move into war-ravaged syria, waiting for the cease-fire to take effect. >> it is immediate and given the situation on the ground, we can't wait any longer. they fail to stop the

carnage in the eastern region that killed more than 500 people since last week. naples, italy, was hit by heavy snowfall today as cold weather gripped parts of europe. the siberian weather fronts nicknamed the beast from the east is causing the drop in temperature and producing rare snowfall all over italy. the unusual weather has caused school closings and disruptions to public transportation. by mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. ♪ julia: live from bloomberg world headquarters in new york. stocks selling off for the first

time in three sessions after fed chair powell's first appearance in front of congress. but the question is, what did you miss? his optimistic view of growth and inflation opens a door to a faster rate hike. company making a surprise offer for sky which is the crown jewel of fox. company.estone for the it chairman and ceo joins us in the next hour. former fed chair janet yellen a ben bernanke wrapped up their remarks in the brookings institution. bloomberg's,,

we're joined from the event. the first time janet yellen has been free and easy and off-the-cuff, leaving the post of fed chair. about how calibrated was that relative to what we got earlier? >> two former fed chair's speaking on the same day the new fed chair makes his debut on capitol hill. they did not argue with the thatt interpretation higher rates sooner would be important. it isyellen in particular no mystery why inflation has been so low for so long. a lot of slack in the labor market and declining oil prices and a number of idiosyncratic factors. she expects inflation to get closer to 2%.

she and bernanke agreed that maybe the 2% target was too low. it is time to think about a , may be usingcy price level targeting, trying to bring up the overall inflation expectations. give the fed more room to cut rates during the next downturn. they're both very critical of fiscal policy suggesting that tax cuts in government spending were ill-timed because the economy is now at full employment. the fed has to really guard against it overheating. the fiscal side will be able to participate in trying to bring the economy out of recession. sometimes when officials are no longer in their official capacity, it frees them to save things.

did you hear anything from yellen that was like, this is something fresh that sounds like someone who is liberated from the burdens of her office? she did talk at length about the idea that fiscal policy was not going to be helpful going forward. the inflation target put into place, it was too low at the time. giving jay powell a break. scarlet: i know they are paid by the think tank, but what do they do for the most cardiac and to go speak on behalf of brookings? are they thought leaders? posting events?

michael: policy leaders is more like it. more questions on the central bank does. should they change the 2% target regime. ben bernanke has posted on the idea of a temporary increase in targeting inflation, moving up for a little while. great to talk to you, michael mckee, bloomberg's international economics and policy correspondent. comcast just throw a wrench and disney's planned to take over 21st century fox's media business. they may surprise $31 billion offer the disney ceo bob iger called the crown jewel of the package he seeking to buy from fox. manager.s is portfolio , but it startses

with bob iger, that he called this the crown jewel. >> you have to control the cash flow. owning 39% is really like owning nothing. so you have this in norm is free cash flow and notice the word free here. they fill the satellites. it is profitable if they hook someone else up in addition. the free cash flow. it is a very contentious and long battle. scarlet: this is considerably higher, you can basically expect a counter offer here. >> i can't imagine an asset that is this unique in an environment where interest rates were the slow and there is this much free

cash flow is to stay at this level. i find it hard to believe. he's not afraid of it. >> will they have to pay? >> i think the shareholders would probably be happy with 15% or 20% of both. this will take a long time. it is torturous. you have 14, 15 months. you're not talking about a final bid anywhere. think this is not bad for the shareholders. the real flying the real fly me ointment is that interest rates go up too fast.

>> i think at the end of the day, brian wins. when comcast walks away from a deal. >> there was a line in the report, talk about the technology of sky and how that was a very exciting thing. they went to the store in london and they checked out the cable box. view, a in your plausible explanation for the interest or was it just like that is a nice cherry on top? >> he probably did not know when he walked over there, which is kind of interesting because comcast is the lead-in for technology here in the united dave. here isthe situation is probably the best

shape they've been in 20 years. flow is comingh out like niagara falls. toia: is the sensitive dragging around for a long time? >> the comcast company has to control shareholders. the roberts family doesn't walk away from many confrontations. >> there is somebody that gets control. >> how is that as a consolation prize? >> i am interested in knowing the answer to that question and i don't know because these nice people won't let me look at the numbers.

>> they are trading at compelling valuations. why do you think there is investor discount. >> i been watching this for more than a couple decades. the investment business is always undervalued. it can only do certain things and along comes the cable modem. now we call it data. the options have exploded. >> this is between comcast, fox, or disney.

>> apple, amazon, google. i don't think facebook. but clearly, they are interested in the content business, the distribution business. apple and amazon would not. want theou really b-sky-b management which, in my opinion, has done a spectacular job for 15 or 20 years anyway. you want them in place and you don't want any disruptions. >> the shareholders, you break it down the individual components here. will it be a win for them because of the higher price or do they want a quicker solution? what is the tipping point?

>> at the have a better idea of that. >> i think we will be talking about this probably in december. by the time to deal finally consummates. it would be of the early end. my bet would be on that. multimedia trust associate portfolio manager larry haverty, thank you for your perspective. weight such report is fourth-quarter earnings. and the efforts to woo a younger generation. there is oprah, dj khaled. julia: it's all about oprah. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

julia: it's time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now. jamie dimon the jeff bezos treatment. whicheverployees, amazon chooses for the headquarters, they want to demand the same -- same benefits. the marketing campaign to with the e-commerce giant.

that is the fallout from the florida high school shooting that continues. we do not expect to keep the company for long. sick to solid hole in part to bankruptcy court. millionaires from russia, norway, and the united states are making a beeline to cash in on the low tax rate for the rich. meister, allowing all to rich people to take up residency for the $123,000 a year. wealthy foreigners for new investments and fresh capital. james, and it will open the first overseas shop next month in kuwait. pizza sales surged last year.

>> and we have breaking news. jared kushner, the presidential son-in-law and senior adviser has seen his security clearance downgraded. this is according to politico. he now has a secret level access rather than top-secret level. and the fact that he did not have permanent clearance to top-secret documents. temporary provisioning thereafter. jared kushner not getting top-secret clearance. let's get to the stock of the hour right now. we're talking about weight watchers, losing a couple percent.

>> weight watchers is actually expected to do pretty well when the numbers come out after the bell. it would be 12% for 2.3 billion dollars looking for 5% earnings per share. there are a couple things that go into this. there is the oprah effect, the , we that the talkshow titan can call her the legend. in invested in the company back in 2015. it is partly the oprah effect but shares muddle along for a while. taking over coo of weight watchers. dj khaled also came on as the social media sort of ambassador. who could forget?

someone not as social media savvy as yourself. >> a whopping great performance. it shows the holders and i have sort of this to look at the latest change. the 13f filings. asset management added the most in the latest filing. park west also has the biggest position relative holding. the total equity investment. the company has one of the largest concentrations in weight watchers with 10% of the disclosed equity holdings.

>> if you watch fox news or cnn come as diet ads, particularly in january. and basically, nutrisystem miscalculated the ratings bump that many of these various networks saw during the election would be sustained. they buy ads in advance and it's our rating's. that is what it is blaming.

scarlet: from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: everybody talks about going to europe instead of the u.s. but if you look at the market, it favors u.s. equities. they feature the market in the live blog. the top panel shows the percentage in the trendline, the 200 day moving average. the bottom channel shows the same. the percentage of the s&p 500 stocks trading above the moving average is recovering and moving up prior to the selloff earlier this month. it shows a steady erosion.

his will to the average of 76%. that indicates that the call that we hear so often may not be as solid as we think. joe: does come from bloomberg intelligence and economist michael mcdonough. market profitability and rate hikes this year up to 34%. it is sort of the consensus, but it is inching up. something that is particularly hawkish. and it has to be really

good. that is the message. scarlet: the market closes next. and we are looking at declines in u.s. stocks with less than four minutes to go before the lows. a drop of 250 points in the dow industrials. this is bloomberg. ♪

julia: stocks closing his session was in the dow down more than 200 points. 2.9%. it is in front of congress. i'm julia chatterley. if you are tuning in live on twitter, welcome to closing bell coverage every weekday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. eastern. you begin with market minutes. jay powell headed to capitol hill and offer testimony for some time as fed chairman. stocks declined. the dow off by 301 points. scarlet: and really going out -- joe: and really going out on the lows here. final hour.n ugly scarlet: sticking to close the last 10 minutes of trade. you can see the s&p 500 losing 35 points as well. for the individual movers.

different moving parts here starting with what we have just talked about. comcast making, a surprise offer of 22 billion pounds, $31 billion for sky which i go from disney called the crown jewel of the package he was seeking to buy from fox. they were told to expect a bidding war and not any kind of resolution until december of 2018. julia: the wrangling will continue. scarlet: and we see comcast beating out disney. the pullback here is seen as a buying opportunity as a possible deal with walgreens appears to be off the table. is an analyst that recommended buying the dip saying the news is not surprise -- not a surprise. let's look at macy's as well. quarter andns last

macy's also predicted the momentum would extend until 2018. as abigail doolittle reminded us, this is because the comps had been pretty easy as well. sales rose 1.4% when analysts predicted a decline. joe: take a look at the government on market and macro in focus today with those chairman powell testimony. a little bit of flattening. up 2.26%. the take away was not that he was hawkish, but not that dovish. he's pretty impressed with how the economy is doing and if that trend continues, we will take a look at the 10 year yield. you can see we got that jump in the afternoon about when he started speaking. when the testimony first came out, we saw a little drop in rates.

perhaps being a little dovish. andit was during the q&a expressing confidence and all that stuff that we saw the big jump. it was over 2.92, now 2.9%. we just keep reiterating that the markets are, quite simply, nervous today. i that has crystallized in a sense. take a look at what is going on for the dollar index before rising, most of the developed market with the euro falling to the lowest level in more than two weeks. -- nine german inflation german inflation the weakest it has been since 2016. he reiterated-- they qe can end in 2018 so a bit of dichotomy there. you can see some of the pressure that we saw a leading to the rally for the dollar index. if you want to take a look at the broader moves, you can see some of the majors here.

i want to point out with going on in the dollar canada as well. rising for the 2018 hi, trading around those levels. 1.27 64, you can see. also, the nafta that drop is adding to canadian expense. ministerve the finance announcing the budget is well at 4 p.m. eastern time. the headlines come through and continue to watch that currency. the u.k., we're going to talk more about the ongoing shenanigans in the u.k. later on in the show. things not going great in the u.k.. commodities across the board kind of with this downdraft we are seeing. crude oil is down 1.6%, gold down 1%, and we take a look at intraday action in gold. you can see it moving on a lot of that same stuff. the pile of stuff that sent everything else reeling.

as powell talked about the possibility of rate hikes, gold went down. scarlet: what did you miss? jay powell making his debut in front of congress today, telling the committee that he's committed to a clearly explaining the fed's thinking in the u.s. economy is getting better. powell: some of the headwinds the u.s. economy faced has turned into tailwinds. does the has become more stimulative and foreign demand for u.s. exports is on a firmer trajectory. >> the chief economist joins us from washington. as you just heard from the chairman of the federal reserve, he acknowledged the data and that the economy is getting better. investors are determining this is a faster pace of rate hikes. >> chairman powell said the u.s.

economy is doing well, better the he thought earlier dollar has been dropping precipitously. be rest of the world will growing faster and chairman powell said we are doing quite well because it is all including fiscal policy. it is premature because a lot of the growth is based on some imbalance that he is supposed to be writing. in particular, look at consumption. because it is so high, look what happened in the stock market. a lot of the growth that we have me not be as firm as the -- as it seems going forward. it is a percentage of disposable income, and as you can become a we don't necessarily want to see that, fueling that consumption joe.

it is unlikely he was going to say anything interesting or determinative. >> the fed really needs to have an anchor for monetary policy. he put a very positive nod toward the policy rule. and it should be governed day by day for the simplistic formula. and we need some foundation that tells the market that when we have a change in the home from , wet yellen to jay powell will have a major shift in policy because policy is grounded on those principles. joe: according to market a plug,

?hat did that square with you >> the monetary policy, let's face it. as the economy is going above potential and we don't have interest rates so low, that those rates will be zero or negative. one of the things that we need to look at is the timing of the thoughts. and it has been slow.

julia: it comes back to wage growth and it will have an end inflation. the impact oft high wages. the critical element. it will caution any wage increases that we have seen. why do you assume that would happen today? >> for reasons we don't know, the economists that miss that, the last time we had decent volatility growing at 2% to 3% is in the 90's. that is the first probability we saw coming out of the recession.

and that will give us the noninflationary wage increases that secretary mnuchin has talked about. in order for investment to give the modernizing equipment and expanding capacity, you will have to invest in a high sustained level for almost three to four years. and to be able to hold back inflation, that is there hope for that. and that is what the fiscal packages is supposed to be doing. julia: you have another question? scarlet: it is something bloomberg noticed as well. it jay powell said a couple of

times, my personal view, my personal outlook. he offered a more personal touch than we have seen from the fed chair in the past. is this a good thing? does it matter to investors? >> chair yellen, chair greenspan, they have been adamant that not going to identify where my thought is. and this is the first time that we have said my thought is starting to move a bit if the data gets a bit stronger. he's got to develop a consensus on the committee. and everyone is asking who is jay powell? he is telling everybody that i'm more optimistic, and maybe in the discussion of the next meeting, should discuss why we should be more optimistic? the bank president is doing it all the time.

>> the personal touch not having a great impact. julia: we are investigating how it is possible that we can see investment boom without inflation? amazon has agreed to buy the smart doorbell start up ring, the price tag about $1 billion according to a person for mayor with the matter. amazon expanding further into the consumer market including providing security for package deliveries. on sale, and that is according to bloomberg reporting that amazon buying the company. i have never heard of this. >> you don't live in the suburbs. >> a camera installed in the doorbells a you can see it on your app. you can also see someone stealing your amazon packages. joe: there we go.

scarlet: this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i mark crumpton with first word news. in the days following a shooting out of a florida high school, administrators turned to someone that knows all too well what they are going through. the principle of marjory stoneman douglas high school spoke with the former principal of columbine high school where two gunmen killed 13 people in 1999. he gave school administrators some advice, including making sure that there are no balloons at the schools welcome back ceremony. some balloons popped at columbine, sending students diving for cover. at the parkland florida

high school is scheduled to return to classes tomorrow. attorney general jeff sessions says justice department officials think they can ban rapidfire bump stock devices without action from congress. he believes gun accessories like the ones used in last year's las vegas massacre can be banned through the regulatory process. it comes after president trump ordered the justice department to work toward banning the devices which allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic machine guns. president trump has named digital strategist brad par scale as his campaign manager or his reelection bid in 2020. he was key to the trump campaigns digital operations in 2016. it is related to the work for mr. trump, saying the firm had not yet turned over documents related to russian contacts or ricky weeks -- wikileaks. getting disaster relief to the island put the u.s. territory

" dangerous dilemma." the letter was viewed by bloomberg news. the treasury imposed restrictions that made it difficult for puerto rico to access the funding it needs. news 24 hours a day and powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. you miss? chief economist at the milton institute is still with us. bill, we were talking earlier about investment flows and you were time that to the inflation outlook and how ultimately, one of two things will connect. talk about investment in light of what we have in terms of the tax overhaul. that. behind with the trump administration has been trying to do with the tax package is not so much stimulate the

economy -- it is the most ill-timed stimulus in the world. stimulating investment and incentivizing investment to reshape investments so that we can have a longer-based that is productivity enhancing. it will hold down inflation and be able to give us the kind of cycle that we want in terms of faster growth, higher wages, and no inflation. the key to that is to be able to invest in more productive equipment and technologies. up until now, incentives have into use debt financing. and right now, by having the tax equity,emphasize more they are saying that we should be more long-term oriented. think that is our greatest hope for expanding capacity. incentives that are put in place to bring back and retain

earnings abroad as we revert in giveon, it is supposed to some of the funds to finance some of the investments right now. most of the money that does come and everyone says, oh how terrible. that stuff is wasted. and actually, we have a closed financial system that when shareholders get their money back, what will they do with it? more cheerios and wheaties? i don't think so. it will be other high-end equipment. we can't use that capital. we can find a better use for it. owners are actually putting it to work but it takes a while for the stuff to filter through the system. it can be three to five years before it finds itself back into

the firm investment and time agreement investment that we will be enhancing. it is not necessarily a bad thing. >> very much related to the bank of america merrill lynch, a record start to the year for buyback. joe: we have. in the last segment, we really .ot a productivity boom with so wages go up and inflation be pretty mellow. what were the conditions that allowed that to happen in the 90's? and how similar is it to what we see today? bill: we saw some capacity that was there in the 90's and an economy that is coming out of a recession. words, we have reached a point where labor resources

and others are reaching their limits. the existing labor force is more productive. he became more productive and measurably more productive. it is measuring the enhancement, a lot of modernizing. the increase in productivity that allows us to have the buffer for inflation. what you see some evidence of is the fact that the amazon that you just talked about earlier, amazon is preventing a lot of firms out there even though the costs are going up. and so technological changes are allowing a lot of sustained wage increases.

sign that they should be put in place. chief economist at the milken institute, thank you so much. weight watchers reporting its fourth-quarter results and we have weight watchers fourth-quarter etf beating estimates. $312 million, analysts working for 309. and revenue is seen approaching $1.55 billion with analyst looking for $1.44 billion. no surprise the stock is up in after-hours trade. joe: very impressive. scarlet: ray dalio from bridgewater associates speaks extensively with bloomberg about the economic situation in europe and what he sees coming out from

the fed. we have highlights from that, coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: what you miss? ray dalio says google central banks need to figure out how to balance growth with inflation in the coming years. speaking is visibly to tom mackenzie in beijing, dalio pointed to the pickup of growth in europe even as his hedge fund has amassed more than $18 billion in bets against stocks in the region. ray dalio did not comment on the short position but did outline his concerns about monetary policy. ray: there is today and what it used to be. this is the debate about what the best process is.

, the italians,ue so on. and now, look at it. we have been through the worst debt crisis. we have had a beautiful deleveraging. and we are now in a situation where growth is improving. of course it can always be better. you can have more structural reforms. situation where growth is positive, the debt crises are not as difficult as they were. and were not having an inflation problem. inflation has to get it up to 2%, and that is a struggle. the issue, of course, still has to do with keeping this expansion going. if you talk about the political issue, there is a challenge between the haves and the have-nots.

economicst not have an slide, that is where the real political problems are. i'm not worried about too much inflation in europe. i'm not worried about that and i think we are on a good track. there are always the political issues to put it in perspective. scarlet: and that was ray dalio speaking to tom mackenzie in beijing. coming up next, strange may,llows against theresa the u.k. prime minister where conservative lawmakers and jeremy corbyn are finding common ground. we will go to london, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

i'm mark comes in with first word news. president pence advisor and son-in-law jared kushner -- president trump's advise and sonoma jared kushner had his downity clearance brought to what he previously had access. he will reportedly does he was reportedly not singled out. other white house aides also saw their clearance brought down. the man who leads national cyber command believes the country's response to russian meddling and disinformation campaigns has not been strong enough. speaking today to the senate armed services committee, admiral mike rogers said vladimir putin sees "little price to pay for such actions"

and not only president trump and jim mattis had the day-to-day authority to respond to russian activities at their source the russian embassy in washington has a new address at least symbolically. a portion of wisconsin avenue has been renamed after the russian opposition leader who was murdered in moscow three years ago today. inhow it feels like to be the shadow of my father's name and legacy, and i must say today that i am proud to be my father's daughter. id after his tragic death, regard it as my lifetime goal and commitment to stay true to my father's memory. mark: meantime, in moscow, people laid flowers at an improvised memorial on the bridge when he was killed. the united nations humanitarian

chief is warning that conditions in yemen are "catastrophic" after three years of war with 22 million people needing aid. yuan envoy is accusing shiite rebels and the saudi government of prolonging the conflict. famine remains a real threat. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of today's market action. we saw stocks falling to the close with the down by 300 points, retreating from the one-month high that it closed at yesterday. 35 points as jay powell made his debut testifying before congress today as fed chairman. we also have some earnings news. booking holdings, which is the company formerly known as priceline reported fourth-quarter results.

full-year earnings per share outlook or the view for the outlook for this year is beating the highest analyst estimates most of that is what is driving the stock higher by 5.25%. as for the results that have been reported for the quarter that ended, eps was $.91. analysts were looking for $.31. revenue up higher than the consensus estimates. fourth-quarter subscribers increasing 20% as well. stocks up. scarlet: "what'd you miss?" -- julia: "what'd you miss?" tensions within theresa may's conservative party continues. this time as a lawmakers back in amendment calling for the u.k. to stay in the eu customs union following brexit. this echoes a bold call made by the labour party leader jeremy corbyn. fox said he hopes

to persuade lawmakers to change their minds. anys rule takers without say in how the rules were made, we would be in the with position than we are today. it would be a complete sellout of britain's national interest and a betrayal of the voters in the referendum. the director joins us from london. just spell out what this means. my understanding is if the uk's stays within the customs union, it is less the eu, but it cannot strike its own trade deals, so to go to what liam fox was saying, does it leave the u.k. completely hamstrung? >> yes indeed. ,he latest twists and turns what has been clear so far from theresa may's position and that of the conservative party is the policy for the future trading relationship with the u.k. had left the eu was to leave the single market.

why? because it does not want free movement of people anymore. second, it wants to have the power to strike its own new free trade deal. however, there is an entire other school of thought that says we want to stay close to the eu and we want to be in the eu as a trading block because there is not much evidence to suggest that once we leave the eu and are cut off from the eu trade policies that we would be able to make up for that by striking our own free trade deals. the question that the british cabinet that's far has not been able to answer even though we are in the stage of talks around future trading relations, the cabinet was not able to decide whether or not they wanted to be closely aligned to the eu or if they wanted to diverge significantly from the eu. we kind of had progress on that last week when the cap innocent they wanted to diverge. but then jeremy corbyn, the leader of the opposition, said, no, we want to stay in the customs union.

this is significant and important for theresa may. why? you have supporting mp's in their own party. saying they want to remain closely aligned and have some sort of customs union with the eu. what you might see happening now is labor will back that so you can have an entire alliance of mps in the house of commons that put a huge banner in theresa may's vision for how brexit is to play out. all of this is ongoing domestically while negotiations are continuing on the eu level. we have seen some interventions from the eu today. let's not forget that time is running out. as far as the eu is concerned, the u.k. needs to flesh out his position soon, which is difficult to do when there is no clarity on what that is. scarlet: rebels within her own party teaming up with labor.

business obviously wants some kinds of certainty. they want to plan ahead. right now, they have nothing to work with. nina: as for as business is concerned, they want certainty. what was interesting was that after jeremy corbyn came out with his customs union intervention, the cbi, the voice of business in the u.k., the biggest business confederation in the u.k., came out in support of that. that is well and good enough, but still, jeremy corbyn's position is to do with politics and objects as well. what does really wants is certainty and substance. we cannot be in a situation where we are now where we are this deep into the negotiations, and there is still no clarity on with the u.k. government's position is going to be and once that is decided, we need to start fleshing out the details. left.is not much time

let's not forget that those talks have to wrap up in september this year because after that, you have a basic six-month period of ratification through the european parliament and the house of commons. there really is not much time yet to put flesh on the bones, and we have not decided the grand vision yet. joe: let's turn the page. we have elections this sunday in italy. my impression is that the way people are thinking about it is it will be very chaotic. we do not know. but also, nobody seems to care that much. there is not a lot of evidence of market anxiety. is the market's calm to this warranted, or can we end up monday with a big surprise that has everyone going, oh no, real european anxiety is back? nina: i think the markets may react as they do often to last-minute developments. the interesting thing from italy again is that the kind of far movements, the five-star movement will end up doing quite

well. what you'll see in italy is the , they willcrats probably not do as well. puts a banner in the reforms of the work that needs to be done. skeptic parties have been in favor of holding a referendum on italy's place in the eu and leaving the euro, they have tampered down that rhetoric a ,ot in the last year specifically after they saw what happens to marine le pen in france. i don't think there is any immediate anxiety that if these parties do well, and even if they do well, there is a question as to what coalition the ruling government will be. that might take a wild to play out. there is any real risk right now that they may actually consider leaving the hero or holding a referendum on the membership. scarlet: thank you for joining us from london. joe:; mess. difficulty -- so a big mess.

difficulty to reform. julia: images of silvio berlusconi playing football. governments since world war ii? joe: 55. scarlet: double-digit. julia: 65. carry on regardless. scarlet: coming up, a milestone for the maryland industry. the first marijuana industry listed. joe: a reminder to subscribe to our new weekly podcast on itunes called "what'd you miss? this week?" you love watching the show monday through friday. and then over the weekend, you can listen again to your favorite interviews. scarlet: our favorite interviews. joe: our favorites. scarlet: we curated it. joe: this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: we just wanted to issue with some more breaking news. bookings holdings reporting fourth-quarter earnings report. i gave you the wrong number is previously. let me correct myself and give the correct numbers here. for what i just eps outlook. the midpoint of that outlook misses the analyst estimates so the stock is declining as a result in after-hours trading or it did earlier but it is higher now. booking sees the first quarter 18.5%.% to even though the eps outlook misses the midpoint of the estimate, you can see the stock is moving higher.we would you posted on any for the development . "what'd you miss?" the nasdaq got its first pot listing today. it became the first marijuana

company on a major u.s. exchange. this is a huge milestone for a growing industry that remains illegal at the federal level and has been facing headwinds from the trump administration. michael joins us now. congratulations on the listing in the u.s. >> thank you. scarlet: what i do able to do that you were not able to do as a publicly traded company in canada? >> the main thing is being able to access u.s. capitol. there was uncertainty. because the illegalities in the u.s., there is concern from the investors. are able to invest in canada, germany, australia, israel? the answer is yes. this provides that comfort. joe: so you got approval to list in the u.s. how were you able to do that? why were you will that's why were they willing to extend that you -- why were they willing to extend that to you? michael: we do not operate in the u.s..

having strong governance controls. making sure everything is in line is a key driver. julia: you have a background what you are focused on compliance, but there is a great deal of confusion out there. jeff sessions and the announcement that they made, what is the landscape right now in terms of at what point you believe this will be federally legal in the united states? when you change where your company was located, does it uncertainty? michael:michael: i think there is a lot of different things at play. right now, one of the big issues is, is there enough data to support legalization to say, ok, there is more benefit than harm? in the u.s. at least. the problem however is there is not a law to allow that research to be done, so part of what we do is we go to countries where it is legal to collect that ensure that data. i think we will start seeing movement as we get closer to 2020. scarlet: who are you sharing that data with?

michael: we will share that data with anyone that asks. we go to governments all over the world and present that. right now, big market for us is germany. when you are comparing what you are doing here where every transaction is cash. you are not sure going into a dispensary. we have a partnership with a 183-year-old pharmaceutical company. is reimbursed by insurance. and other countries, it is treated like a real medicine. julia: what about the united states? how long does it take to seek federal legalization in the same way we have seen in other countries that you have mentioned? you believe it can ultimately be prevented? because there has been a lot of investment already. a chilling effect on the market right now. michael: the amount of enforcement dollars it would take to turn things back to state support is strong. you probably will see medical legalized first.

it is a much different argument. i still think a few years to go. joe: how much of your business in terms of the growth opportunities on the medical side versus the recreational side? michael: we think the global medical opportunity is much larger than the recreational side. right now when we think of recreational markets, it is the upcoming canadian recreational market and purely because of numbers and population what markets can access. on that basis alone, the medical cannabis business is larger, but also insurance coverage is a key driver. julia: what are the biggest concerns what investors come to you and say, what is the deal? what either concerns? -- are their concerns? michael: the biggest question they have art -- julia: are you legal? michael: people are often very surprised yet it is not what they are thinking. what do you think about

the likelihood that this opens the floodgates for other companies to do something similar? you are kind of out there in front. do you see a movement behind you ? michael: we hope it doesmichael: . we hope it does open the floodgates. i don't suspect he will see 20 or 30 cannabis companies listed. there are very few at this skill we are at. we have a presence on four confidence. we are completing the largest indoor facility in the world. raised over $100 million in equity capital. $40 million in debt. there is not as many, but the ones that achieve scale, it is a possibility. joe: legacy companies on the pharmaceutical side, the health side or the tobacco companies that might be inclined to get into it, they have been pretty timid so far. we have not seen many moves. if you envision several years down the road a world where the regulatory and legal issues are much more -- they are all cleared away and every one is comfortable, do you see a room for private operator or small independent operators?

or do you think everyone gets gobbled up? michael: i think alcohol would be a really good comparison here so you are likely to see a few large conglomerates, but there will be a room for craft. you see that in beer and food. people do want to find something that has a unique culture, something they personally identify with. so i think you will still have craft and it will develop very similar, but for the most part, i think it will be a few large. joe: local organic marijuana is standing up. julia: and is going to be an interesting path. great to chat with you. michael: thank you so much. some volatility products did not provide the credit with them of the selloff we saw in recent weeks -- cataclysm of the selloff we saw in recent weeks. we will discuss. this is bloomberg. ♪

julia: "what'd you miss?" volatility products are getting less risky. proshares trust announced it would reduce leverage on two of his etf's which track short-term vix volatility futures and the inverse. let's just digest that. changes became effective entities" requirement dilatory approval for permanence. wow. i am so glad to say we are joined by rachel, bloomberg's etf reporter, because somehow, you make what is desperately confusing make some kind of sense. having less leverage does make sense to me, though. is that what is ultimately going on here? >> yes. these funds are taking stock after the big blowup we saw in the beginning of february.

at the time, we had the collapse of an exchange traded note that a lot of people were invested lost lots ofill -- money. they will make changes so they can decide. idea is whenasic we get these spikes, it is usually the short months vince futures that surge and the outlines are not as volatile, so what they will do now is short on the out once that do not move by much, and while it makes the likelihood of a total less likely, they are probably not going to be as much of a moneymaker. >> right. there are two ways people are approaching the shift. that runs thepany short and long volatility strategy, and rather than trying to go for futures expiring under one month, they are pushing out to two to six months. the real issue is that is you don't necessarily get really great returns.

rather than 190%, you might get 80% so that it does if you might blowup. there is a second way in which they are changing the products last night, which is what they are trying to do is cutting back on the way they gain on the funds. of pushing for totally inverse, they will go for .5 inverse funds. instead of going for two times, they are going for 1.5. scarlet: the back of his there is still quite a bit of demand for these products. you would think after the blowup of x iv that people would have scurried away and will not touch that. instead, there is plenty of money coming into these products. rachel: there is no such thing as bad publicity, right? the returns on these are pretty good if you look at them, but the problem is they are not meant to be held so if you are a sophisticated investor that can move in and move out, you can

absolutely make a very decent sum of these, but if you are a detailed investor that does not have the ability or designed to look at these products on a day-to-day basis, it is still there, but it can be wiped out. joe: speaking of getting wiped out, i have a chart on the terminal, and this is far out of the money call options on the -- on this. because it no longer has the leverage user to rally like it did from 2011 to a month ago, these sell over 80% today, so it is a way of demonstrating that yes, they may be safer, but people do not see the massive long-term gains not worth big bets in the future. rachel: what is interesting is you have to rubber the whole ecosystem around them. etf, are options on the options that reference the etf, and people use them instead of options.

when you have a change in strategy like the btp's are doing, you have a real implication for the underlying markets. julia: very quickly, are the prospectus is being updated? rachel: yes. we are seeing files updated. joe: i am sure people will read into it. scarlet: page seven of 180 pages. rachel: yes. joe: coming up, what you need to know for tomorrow's trading day. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: "what'd you miss?" new chairman jay powell was optimistic on the economy. fourth-quarter results. joe: will be looking at numbers released for gdp tomorrow. julia: the eu publishing their brexit withdrawal text. scarlet: that does it for "what'd you miss?"

alisa: i'm alisa parenti in washington, and you are watching "bloomberg technology." here is a check of your first word news. president trump has named brad asstrategist his campaign manager for his reelection bid in 2020.

he was key to the come campaign's digital operations in 2016. several lawmakers last year asked for information related to his work for trump, saying his firm had not turned over documents related to russian contacts or wikileaks. president trump's advisor and son-in-law jared kushner has had his security clearance downgraded. that is according to politico. he was not singled out. other white house aides also saw their grievances downgraded. attorney general jeff sessions says doj officials believe they can ban rapidfire bump stock devices without action from congress. that comes after president trump ordered the justice department to work towards banning those devices, which allows to my automatic rifles to mimic machine guns. theto rico says delays by treasury department in getting disaster relief to the island has put the u.s. territory in a dangerous financial dilemma. the