attacks young, undocumented immigrants from deportation was lawful. two judges question the president's decision. end up before the supreme court. a federal watchdog says white house aide kellyanne conway violated the federal law that prohibits government officials from using their decisions. the office of special counsel which is unrelated to robert mueller's office says conway violated the hatch act last year when she advocated for republican roy moore in alabama's senate race. the white house says conway did not advocate for or against any particular candidate, she simply expressed the president's obvious position that he had people in the house and senate that support his agenda. house speaker paul ryan today called on the president to back away from his plan for broad international tariffs. the speakers at a different solution should be found to help

prevent a potentially dangerous trade war. >> there is clearly abuse occurring. overcapacity.ly to goesthe smarter way to make it more surgical and more targeted. >> his administration was not backing down on the plans to impose tariffs on still and aluminum imports. the president also reiterated that canada and mexico would not be spared. from ferguson, missouri, and the justice department are in federal court to give the judge an update on how a st. louis suburb is addressing concerns about the mistreatment of black residents by ferguson's police and court system. teenager wased shot and killed by a white ferguson police officer.

powered by 2700 journalists in over 120 countries. julia: live from bloomberg world headquarters, i'm julia chatterley. scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. joe: i'm joe weisenthal. julia: stocks clinging to small gains joe:. joe:-- small gains. joe: president trump set to hold a joint news conference in just minutes. calling the relationship strong, but will they see eye to eye on trade. will they be willing to give up nuclear weapons? the president expect -- expressed guarded optimism.

the corporate bond market. julia: president trump and the swedish prime minister will hold a press conference against the backdrop of trade threats. talk to through what we expect from this press conference. >> earlier today, paul ryan urging president trump to reconsider, calling for a more surgical approach, as he put it.

joe: is it for softening, loopholes, something? or is the blanket tariffs that president trump initially announced still where they are headed. >> calling on the president for certain companies that will not be able to qualify for what the president is talking about. president trump sets the visit for southwest pennsylvania. we see south korea threatened to shift business to southeast asia. i'm sorry, to russia. the president is

justifying the tariffs, which has caused some concern from the likes of mexico and canada. sarah, let's bring you into this conversation because president trump has turned the fuel tariffs from its will for protecting national security into a bargaining chip when it comes to discussions with canada and mexico over nafta. >> the whole grounds is a study by the commerce department. the imports pose a national security risk. think about the defense industry. the concern is, is trump holding where they are negotiating a free trade pact. it might open up questions were there is challenge of the wto where it can be. can that be defense of the u.s. for imposing these tariffs?

joe: what is your sense of how this plays. like it is going to harm the negotiation? allcounterparties have it hold it in? >> this was the bombshell in the middle of the nafta talks. canada and mexico are not going to play ball. these are two different issues. negotiating a free trade deal to reduce barriers and duties on goods. and i think if trump wants to play that game, he's probably not going to find active partners in canada and mexico. is lookingeveryone for trump politically and local industry. julia: where watching the front row being seated here so he may have to quickly wrap this up any second that kevin, what is the

path here to allow the president to backtrack or loosen this? near trying to gather some of the key players to try to talk them into some pushback. is the part of the solution here? >> he would double down on the trade policy, but i'm still waiting to see what that would be. andr folks are suggesting we see cabinet officials like secretary of state rex tillerson. other folks would hope that it would help ease back off of this policy. >> we see trump officials walking into the room as well. the battle between economic , and what the president calls globalism.

how much of the tariffs is really about the president taking care of his base versus a follow-through on what has been a pretty consistent theme for him since the campaign, making better trade deals. actually, we are going to take you to the ease true where the president and the prime minister of sweden have now arrived at the podium. president trump: i am honored to be joined by prime minister of sweden at the first meeting in the white house. sweden is one of our oldest and closest partners. the first european nations to offer the u.s. and unsolicited treaty of friendship. in 1783.signed my daughter ivanka had a wonderful time watching america and swedish athletes compete in the recent men's curling final

at the olympics. it wasn't expected, but that's ok. athletes should be immensely proud of the great job they did. the prime minister and i have just concluded a series of very productive meetings. the relationship between the united states and sweden is one based on shared values. opportunities to increase security. we encourage responsibility for our common defense. we appreciate sweden's leadership on the united states security council and look forward to working together in the coming months.

the united states is also grateful to sweden for advocating for americans detained in north korea. we continue to pay for -- pray for auto's parents, to terrific to maintain denuclearization of the korean peninsula. it is positive and will lead to a very positive result. in economic matters, we're striving for a relationship grounded in fairness. one of the largest investors in sweden and the swedish investments in the united states and some of the greatest

in the world, where are you, folks? some of the great executives in the world. people i have known for a long time. certainly know of. they have invested in the u.s. and supporting vocational training for american workers. we are grateful for those investments and committed to working with sweden to pursue greater economic cooperation. and we're continuing to pursue bilateral agreements to advance mutual prosperity. the patriot air and missile defense system. over $3 billion. the system of increased stability and security in the baltic sea region. a strong and balanced economic relationship strength security and prosperity in both of our

countries. nning. we're working on them really hard. mr. prime minister, i want to thank you again for joining us. i want to thank your great staff and the great business leaders. it was a very interesting and productive meeting. the long-standing friendship between our people and our shared values has greatly enriched both of our countries. this is just the beginning. our relationship has never been better. i am are to have you here. inc. you. >> thank you, mr. president, for a warm and generous welcome. it is a pleasure to be here at the white house. we celebrate 200 years of diplomatic relations. reaffirms theng

strength of our relations. it shares fundamental values and interests such as democracy and human rights. we also share the strong partnership that continues to evolve. it continues to strengthen the prosperity and security. the largest investors in the united eight, our country may not be big but we support directly and indirectly almost one million jobs in the united states. the key executives in companies that provide jobs are also with me. isthe same time, the u.s. our most important foreign employer and u.s. companies play a vital role in providing investment jobs in sweden. president trump and i have discussed how the nations can

support jobs and growth. it means embracing new whichnable technologies permit our economy to grow and at the same time, reducing emissions. and how we can secure jobs in the labor market, constantly changing due to automation and .igitalization we see great opportunities ahead. i'm convinced increase tariffs will hurt us in the long run. we support the efforts of the european union to achieve trade with as few as possible. turning to security, the president and i have discussed some key regional and global security challenges, such as the

situation on the korean peninsula. it remains crucial to responding to global security challenges. we greatly value the broad security and cooperation with the united states. joint efforts between us and the united states. and the resolution support mission in afghanistan. and these vital military efforts must go hand-in-hand with strong

lian support to create sustainable results. they celebrate 200 years of diplomatic relationships. i thank you, mr. president, for constructive and a successful meeting. and for the very warm welcome that the delegation and i have received. thank you so much. trump: john? thank you, mr. president. you spoke about north korea in the oval office. i like to turn to trade.

are you planning on going ahead even though there are those in your party that has suggested it's not a good idea? and what message did you complete -- convey to the president? trump: the united states has been taken advantage of by other countries both friendly and not so friendly for many decades. and we have a trade deficit of $800 billion a year. and that is not going to happen with me. there are very few instances that has taken place. countries, i blame the leadership for allowing it to happen. xi in was with president china, we lose $500 billion of

a year on trade. and we are doing things with china which are very strong, but they understand it. i say are not blaming you. i blame our people for not doing a better job and allowing this to happen. it's like that with many countries. the european union has been particularly tough on the united states. they make it impossible for us to do business with them and yet, they send their cars in everything else back into the united states. , we put a bigt tax of 25% on their cars. and the european union has not treated us well. it is a very unfair trade situation. i am protecting our workers. i am protecting our companies.

i'm not going to let that happen. we cannot lose our steal industry. it is a fraction of what it once was. aluminum industry is also a fraction of what it once was. and the countries are doing well. all theive tax cuts and deregulation has really kicked us into gear. i have to work on trade deals. if we are able to make a deal with canada and mexico in that dark, there will be no reason to do the tariffs with canada and mexico. other countries, we won't have that choice unless they can do something for us. if the european union takes off some of the horrible barriers that make it impossible for our re, wet to go into the will start talking.

it is not going to happen any longer. when we are down by 30 billion dollars, $60 billion, $100 billion, the trade war hurts them. we will see what happens. two countries have said that we

cannot believe, to be honest with you, we've gotten away with this so long. one of the myth that statement before i got elected. he said i can't believe i made that statement before i got elected. but it's one of those things. >> will will the consequences be if he goes ahead with tariffs? >> we are a member of the european union. issues.e the trade as a member of the european union, i think it is important for us to try to find a way to cooperate between the european union and the united states. i fully understand and respect the president's view that we have to look after his own country.

depending on open trade, it equals 50% of gdp. , it is important that we have this open. trade is very complicated to see. i know, for example, when we sell the fighter aircraft, it is a good aircraft. the content is perhaps 50% american. resolved.is to be and when it comes to steal, we haven't overcapacity in the world. and at the same time, it is china producing about 50% of the steal in the world.

and the european union, perhaps 10%. summarize, i think it was a pity. again, it was a european union and the negotiations ended because perhaps with the negotiations in talks, we can come into a situation or the european union and the united states can cooperate. i think it will be a very good solution. president trump: to take it a little bit further, i watched where the reporters have been writing 2% of the steal comes from china. that's not right. you will see that a country that doesn't even have a steal no listening a 3% steal. many countries are doing it. but it comes from china. china doesn't send us 2%.

it puts the steal mills out of business. our aluminum mills are going out of business. and we need steal and we need aluminum. there is a theory that if a country doesn't have steal, it doesn't have a country. and it's true. this is more than just pure economics. it's about defense. itself.ut the country we lose $800 billion a year in trade. i think i was elected at least partially on this issue. our country has been taken advantage of by everybody. and i can't let that happen any longer. country --

companies, and most of all, for our workers. >> mr. president, thank you for hosting us. you mentioned that sweden has helped the united states with north korea. how do you see your collaboration in the future to create a peaceful korean peninsula? how do you see it low their? how do you view the collaboration. not to spend some time with the prime minister, what is your take? president trump: i was one of

the first ones to say it. i took a little heat but i proved to be right. i know the problem will slowly disappear, hopefully rapidly disappear. the eighth largest investment in believesd states sweetness the eighth largest investor in the united states. and that is quite an achievement. >> and north korea? president trump: we have been working with north korea. otto was really brought home in

very poor condition. they are terrific. theye from sweden, and have many friends in new york. they are fantastic people. swedenhow do you view and north korea in the u.s.? dialogue --efined a to find a dialogue. it is a very dangerous situation and we ought to be very concerned. obviously theors, united states and other big countries, they are the key actors. we have said that we can provide

and be a channel. to seewhatever we can the dialogue is smooth. it's not being naive. our presence, in the peninsula both on south and north. so with that relationship, i believe that they trust us. if the president decides that they want us to help out, we will be there. president trump: the daily caller, please? >> since my first time before, i

thought you might indulge me with two questions. do you believe north korea's recent willingness to talk his sincere or in an effort to buy time for the nuclear program and to what do you go this recent openness to talk? president trump: me. no. nobody got that. think they are sincere. but i think they are sincere these sanctions and what we're doing with respect to north korea, including the great help we have been given from china. they can do more. they can do more than they've ever done for our country before. so china has been a big help. i think that has been a factor. these sanctions have been very strong and i don't want that to happen.

>> does this include your attorney general jeff sessions? or your cabinet secretary? >> i don't really want to talk about that. i just said that the white house has tremendous energy, tremendous spirit. it is a great place to be working. many people want every single job. maybe people don't want to work for trump? but believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. they want a piece of the oval office and the west wing. work.ust a great place to it has tremendous energy. it's tough. i like conflict, people with different point -- points of view, and i certainly have that, and then i make a decision. i like watching it, i like seeing it, it's the best way to go. the white house has a tremendous energy and tremendous talent. be people, i will won't be specific, but there

will be people the change. they always change. sometimes they want to go out and do something else, but they want to go to the white house. i have my choice of anybody. i could take any position in the white house and i will have the choice of the 10 top people wanting to do that position. everybody wants to be there. and they love this white house, because we have energy like rarely before. ok? thank you very much. >> mr. prime minister, last year you criticized the president for drawing a link between immigrant crime and the recent arrivals of refugees. "the new york times" profile the link between hand grenade violence and immigrant gangs in your country. do you stand by your criticism of the president? >> in sweden we had our share of domestic challenges, no doubt about that. we inherited a legislation that was not sustainable, a legislation on migration. that in 2015, we

received 163,000 refugees seeking refuge. bear in mind, we are a country of 10 million inhabitants. it was a dramatic increase. we changed the legislation and have decreased the number of refugees entering sweden and we have put pressure on the other european union countries to take their share of the responsibility. this is not a responsibility for 1, 2, 3, or four countries. it is a shared responsibility that we are working on within the european union. so, we of course, we also have problems with crime, organized crime, in sweden. shootings. but it's not like you have these no go zones. we have dealt with it. i'm dealing with it every day, advocating more resources to the police. more policemen trained.

more resources to secure the police. tougher laws on crime and terrorism, supporting terrorism, we do a lot to combat that. we can see some results in our three major cities, decreased shootings because we are attacking organized crime very tough and we will keep on doing that, because there isin sweden for organized crime, because they decrease freedom for ordinary people. at the same time, sweden has high-growth. unemployment is going down. employment is going up. we have high investment rates. we are allocating resources to welfare. we have a strong, strong economy , with a huge surplus that we to develop our society with, for example, the welfare that we want. the picture in sweden needs to

be two pictures. yes, we have our share of domestic problems and challenges, no doubt, but we are dealing with them. we also have a good, good foundation for dealing with them. not least of which with the strong economy and the shrinking unemployment. ok, [indiscernible] , swedish radio. >> thank you. this is an election year for both of our countries. i want to ask you, mr. trump, what should sweden learn from how the russian influence campaign affected the presidential election in the u.s.? >> the russians had the no impact on our votes whatsoever. meddlinginly there was . probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals. i think you have to be really watching very closely. you don't want your system of

votes to be compromised in any way. we won't allow that to happen. we are doing a very deep study and coming out with i think some very strong suggestions on the 18 election. we will do very well in the 18 election. although historically those in the white house have a little bit of a debt, but i think we will do well because the economy is so good and we are protecting our job like our jobs are being protected, finally, like what we are doing with the tariffs, but the big thing would be the tax cut and the regulation cuts. also, the judges. we have outstanding judges. judge gorsuch, in the supreme court, and many judges going onto the bench around the country. i think we will do very well and i think it will be a tremendous surprise to people. the economy is so good, jobs are so good. black unemployment, hispanic unemployment, at all-time lows. we are really doing well.

based on that, i guess we should do pretty well. i hope so. you have to be very vigilant. one of the things we are learning is that it is always good -- is old-fashioned, but it's alwaysave a paper backup system of voting. it's called paper, not highly complex computers. a lot of states are doing that, going to a paper backup, and i think that's a great idea. we are studying it closely and various agencies, including homeland security, are studying it very carefully. >> are you worried about russia trying to metal in the midterm elections? >> no, because we will counteract whatever they do very strongly. we have strong backup systems. we haven't been given credit for this, but we have been working very hard on the 18 and 20 election coming up. thank you very much. pagee you guys on the same when it comes to the threat from

russia in the elections? >> we both agree that the election in the country, the results of the election should be decided by nobody else but the voters in the country. that is a clear stance and it is why our intelligence agencies have increased their own capacity to detect and counter, whether it is accurate text, financing, producing, or spreading propaganda, whatever it is, we are increasing our capacity to handle that and cooperating with other european countries. some agencies have cooperated with american counterparts. this we will continue to do. any foreign power that believes they can interfere with our election, we will find out and we will call them out very clearly, loud. the -- that time

you two meet, where did you find the most common ground and where did you differ most? >> first, we -- >> almost everything? we -- i, first we, we, mean, we both come from outside politics into politics. for 30 years in the industry i spent, as a welder, but also a straight -- a trade union leader. 75% 85% of my time was spent cooperating with company leaders and employers in an effort to strengthen the industry. that is perhaps a similar background. not similar, because it's different, but we come from outside politics. of course, friends differ from time to time. the paris agreement, the importance on the paris agreement, we stand by that and we think it is important to

implement and fulfill the paris agreement because of the climate issue. on that we might differ. tariffs as well. having said that, still, we know that the relationship is good. we can take that we differ as well, because the values are there and we cooperate very, very good on the economic issues , making sure that we create jobs and growth, on security issues when it comes to combating terrorism and when it comes to, to defend ourselves. >> to finally follow up for mr. trump, do you think that trade is where sweden and the u.s. get the most right now? >> i think we- have good relationships on trade . we are constantly in touch. on the military we have great cooperation, including the design of various components of aircraft, etc.. we were discussing that we have some of the great makers of these components in the room with us today.

we have a great relationship on trade. sweden is a great country. it is small, but it is very sharp. i will tell you. they are very sharp. thank you very much, everybody. i appreciate it. thank you. julia: that wraps up the joint news conference between president trump and the swedish prime minister. sarah macgregor is still with us . let's take you to the headlines. the point here of agreement is the fact that the countries stood shoulder to shoulder on .ecurity matters when a comments were made about trade, it was a tough one, the swedish prime minister looking a bit uncomfortable there, offset from the broader european union to tackle the disagreements between the united states and europe, saying that we are a country that exports 50% equipment on gdp, so we must be open as a small economy.

the president unrepentant, saying that trade wars don't hurt, we will do it with love when the deficit is on our side, effectively. china andlked about said that the trend shifts to other countries, so as not just 2% of the steel coming into the united states, that it's far more. an interesting point on that in particular. did we learn anything from you hear about the president's stance? perhaps softening his stance? >> the big word that stuck out to me was reciprocity. the word bandied about by the trump administration. broadly, it's the idea that the trump spent a long time as a loser in trade, it had such a large deficit with the rest of the world. what i learned from this, but i took note of, i could say, is that trump sort of again dangled

the idea. his words were that unless you help us out, the european union will be subject to these tariffs , which is the same sort of incentive, he would call it, or ultimatum that he gave to mexico and canada as well. seems like you might be in a bid to level the playing field. he might be sort of dangling these as a way to get a little back from partners. scarlet: that's a good point. something else that both leaders mentioned is that china is a source for the oversupply of of thementioning that 2% steel nominally comes from china, but because they ship all around the world, the percentage that they provide is higher than 2%. the swedish prime minister reference that china is producing 75% and then he mentioned that it was a pity ,hat the negotiations ended

saying that we could have had a situation where we had worked together on this. there had been some discussion from steve mnuchin that maybe the u.s. would look into gdp again. is there any new development on that front? europeanke with the union ambassador in our office the other week. the swedish pm also brought up the importance of the paris climate change agreement to the europeans. what the ambassador told us when he was here is that it was so important to some european leaders that they might think about that when they are thinking about trade with the u.s. and that, to them, that's a bit of a leverage point. i thought it was interesting that the swedish prime minister brought that up. the european union has said that it is the u.s. the sort of put these talks on ice. but in a trade document, the trade enforcement agenda that the u.s. but out best week, they actually said it was europe who

put the talks on ice. i think that right now there is a bit of confusion as to why the trade investment agreement has been stalled and who wants to see it go forward and if it is possible if the u.s. pulls out of the kevin, i want to ask you about a question that was interesting to me. a swedish reporter asked the president about lessons learned from russian interference. i looked down for a second and the next thing i knew he was answering about neil gorsuch and record low levels of black and hispanic unemployment in this country. what did the answer tell you about his thinking on what is clearly a sensitive issue for the white house? >> with a headline is trump saying he wants a paper backup on midterm elections. he then said that he is hoping to bolster security systems. he didn't go into great detail. as you mentioned, he pivoted to have he feels the republican party will fare in the midterm elections.

that was the type of question that he wasn't necessarily anticipating, but it was one avoid, asok steps to he does time and again. he also reiterated that he feels great energy in the white house that comes at this time of controversy over the last 24 hours. but on the issue of trade and tariffs, president trump suggesting that he would continue with these policies, despite intense criticism within the republican party. julia: that was on the key. -- that was the key. always on the ball there, kevin and sara, thank you both. scarlet: all right, let's bring in someone to discuss the markets with us. the market closed about 50 minutes ago. and we had a mixed read on how the major indexes ended. the dow, fairly higher, up 41

hundredths of 1%. 500,asdaq in the s&p building on advances from yesterday. it seems to be that trade tensions might be easing a bit, insofar as the president is still assessing how to go about with these tariffs that he announced last week. there's no new development on that front and we heard from paul ryan, urging the president to perhaps take a more surgical approach. the president of the steelworkers union telling us that there is still time, saying that estoril you canada, u.k., should not be penalized. scarlet: helping to lift stocks just a tad. joe: for all the talk, still not much evidence of market anxiety over this. scarlet: all right, let's bring in ashwin alankar, of janice investors. great to speak with you, ash. talk a little bit here about how

trade tensions are playing into what has already been a kind of nervous equity market, given the selloff we saw in said -- february. and traderade tension talk is more rhetoric than anything else. as you mentioned early on, the anxiety over embarking on a trade war has alleviated and mitigated. president trump has made it very clear, a couple of days ago, that theentioned trade, the tariffs on aluminum and steel, they are all part of his plan to negotiate better, better nafta treaty. ,he worst fears around nafta those worst fears are unlikely to be realized. it's more about renegotiating nafta. , president trump and his team, they know a zero-sum game, it is a negative

sum game. everyone loses. it's a benefit for the entire world to have access to that competitive advantage. it something that we personally are not too concerned with. joe: let's talk about the volatility regime. seems to be in a sort of pre-february spiked and out, and a hot -- higher volatility regime. in terms of the acute risks driven by short volatility trade , has a lot of that washed out of the market, or is it still there and could it rear its ugly head again? think it's washed out of the market. there was one structural difference between the short trader 2018, 2017, 2016, as opposed to the short volatility trade of 2008, and that structural difference is the short volatility trades of today were not in the hands of banks.

banks were not short volatility. whereas in 2008, they were short volatility or correlation. if a crowded trade suffers large losses and they are concentrated within the banking sector, the middleman is gone. credit cannot flow anymore. that poses a systemic risk. if mark to market losses are suffered by the nonbanking community, it's not that systemic. it doesn't really have a very large chance of being contagious . so, we are not, once again, so worried about the spike in volatility, or subsequent spikes, as long as those short traits are not in the hands of the banking community. what is the option market telling you about the potential upside or downside potential? you are noticing anomalies in the expectations as far as the

u.s. markets are concerned, while europe has been favored. ash: one of the most interesting things that we are seeing is coming out of the option market, where the option market is pricing very good attractiveness for u.s. equities in terms of potential upside as opposed to the potential downside, but is telling us something completely toosite when it comes european and japanese equities, emerging market equities. this type of dichotomy is in fact very, very rare. going back the past 15 years, this type of discrepancy has only come about a handful of times. somethingelling us very interesting and it is something we should pay attention to. if you look at fiscal

policy on relative basis, to what extent do you have to watch the signal and then react to it? ash: one major difference between what's happening in the u.s. versus what's happening outside the u.s. is the u.s. is talking about fiscal stimulus. the u.s. is talking about fiscal spending. that will offset what everyone else is talking about, and what the u.s. has embarked on, which is monetary tightening. it is only in the u.s. that monetary tightening is being offset, potentially, by fiscal stimulus. that's not happening in europe, japan, or the emerging markets. you are exactly right. that's why the markets are telling us this. scarlet: certainly something we pick -- we will pick up with robin brooks, shortly. i know that you were saying that these were catalyzed by a structural risk, the faster than expected rise in real wages.

we are going to get a sense of what wage inflation looks like on friday. what would be a game changer for this kind of market that would prompt them to price in something different? the wage numbers at this point are more important than the payroll numbers acceleratiod last month, you could really start see the markets pricing in a fed that is going to move a bit faster. the fed that moves a bit faster is automatically going to apply real rates moving a bit faster upwards. the real rate is what you have to pay attention to. not really the inflation number, but the real rate and how the real rates move. that's what's important when it comes to the stability and fragility of the economy. julia: we are going to pick up this conversation regarding the security market. , at janicekar henderson investments, thank you so much for joining us.

sweet, saying that her group is now pulling out of the deal to buy the weinstein company, after they examined the books. the examination raised questions about its viability. the group that she was leaving, she said she would consider acquiring the assets if they become available in bankruptcy. this is according to a statement released by her. once again, the buyers of weinstein have pulled out of the purchase, after taking a look at the different numbers and are concerned about financial liability. " the: "what'd you miss? dollar has been surprisingly weak, given the whole host of factors that would traditionally strengthen the greenback. , rising tightening interest rates, increasing protectionism and tax reform.

the chief economist is there at the institute of international finance. great to have you with us, robin. you are talking about other currencies strengthening relative to the u.s. dollar, not so much dollar weakness. robin: absolutely. the dollar rose tremendously in 2014, 2015. at the time the fed was doing very little. the big picture in the story is that at the time, people were thinking maybe it was like any other central bank and would you forceful qe -- would do forceful qe. german versus french, italian interests. joe: is this just sort of compensation for that 2015 period when expectations got to wide? robin: so, yes and no. in the scheme of things, this is

in that much about the dollar. if you look at japan and the eurozone, these guys have big deflation problems. julia: we just heard from mario draghi. core inflation, those numbers are something that happening. 4 his big -- robin: his problem is how do i balance the unpopularity of these with continued inflation in the eurozone. it has been flat as a pancake, at 1%. scarlet: if it is more about the ecb and how they perceive less -- next, what does that say about the bearishness on the itlar question mark is extended? -- dollar? is it extended? overdone? where things get

interesting. markets, as you all know, are very psychological. if you had a bad run with a trade, you really don't want to do that particular trade. dollar bullishness is not in high repute. where it matters is -- we have an economyo record lows. we have a fiscal stimulus on top of that that is potentially very positive relative to the economy. and we have these trade things going on that can push inflation higher, even with all that other stuff going on. you are asking about inverse products and all that stuff, we have had years of low interest rates. there are probably all kinds of skeletons in the closet. we had one average hourly earnings print with things going haywire on month ago. joe: what does the fed do with

response to tariff induced inflation? at the moment the economic consensus is kind of small. what we are all time to grapple with is, is this the beginning of something big? or just a one-off? the jury is out on that. the chairman is trying to figure that out as much as anyone else. all right, robert brooks. julia: did we say who he is on television? [laughter] scarlet: president trump, kim jong-un, both saying they are open to discussion. the question is, how much is either side willing to concede? we look at that, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

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[ whirring sound ] you want a cookie? it's a drone! i know. find your phone easily with the xfinity voice remote. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. mark: i am mark crumpton with first word news. treasury secretary steven mnuchin said president trump's proposed tariffs would not apply to mexico or canada if nafta talks are successful. he spoke today before a house appropriations subcommittee. >> we are not looking to get into trade wars. we are looking to make sure u.s. companies can compete fairly around the world. mark: after announcing the steel and aluminum tariffs, president trump tweeted friday, trade war's are good and easy to win. secretary of state rex tillerson says china's approach to development in africa

"encourages dependency that undermines its sovereignty." 's comments came at george mason university as he prepared for his first official trip to africa. tillerson added that the united states sees a bright future on the continent. >> we have an opportunity to be part of africa's journey to a stable, prosperous journey for its people. trade and investment, good governance, respect for human rights, combating terrorism and instability, have the same guiding principle in mind. mark: that guiding principle according to secretary tillerson is to help african nations build the capacity to take care of their own people. the trump administration has decided once again to allow americans to import the body parts of african elephants shot for sport. president trump intervened in november when the u.s. fish and wildlife service said it would lift an obama era ban on

elephants imported from zimbabwe and zambia. at the time, the president called the practice "horror show." they say that the import of african elephant trophies will be approved on a case-by-case basis. the presidents of serbia, croatia, and bosnia met today to discuss the resolution of various issues between the three former yugoslav countries. last week a visit to the balkans by european commission chief john kline juncker put pressure on the leaders to resolve border issues and territorial disputes. cker said no new members would be accepted into the eu until border disputes were over. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of today's market action. u.s. stocks ending modestly

higher, in the case of the dow industrials, barely higher. i suppose we could credit some of this to the fact that trade tensions did not worsen. that might be positive for investors worried about a trade war. robin: or maybe investors don't care. scarlet: that is possible as well. julia: possible thaw intentions on the korean peninsula. president trump indicating he is open to talks after kim jong-un told south korea they are willing to give up nuclear weapons. but not everyone is convinced with the breakthrough, director of national intelligence testifying -- >> all efforts in the past have failed and have simply bought north korea time to achieve what they want to achieve. so i am quite skeptical about all of this. julia: we welcome stephen northrup, senior director

of the korea society and associate professor at columbia. that this is buying time rather than anything else. you think this is different, why? steve: north korea is going through south korea to get to the united states. before, >> what does that symbolize? steve: it brokers the alliance, a the united states has relationship with south korea, and it is the south korean president leading the process, kim jong-un relaying through him to donald trump. that may have a different impact. we'll have to wait and see. scarlet: more things have to be seen through the south korean filter. are the u.s. and south korea interests aligned? stephen: certainly north korea and south korea have vast differences, but they appear to be talking. with the united states, strong

fundamental differences. this is a step forward, but a tentative step, which explains washington's caution. julia: the timing to me feels critical. you have the united states in the last month really stepping up sanctions. they have adjusted on north korea. we then got on the other hand, in november last year the north korean leader announced their program is complete, so you have these two forces pushing the north korean leader. i guess you feel you have the negotiating position you tried to achieve, but on the other hand, very little choice. stephen: sanctions do seem to be having a bite. all early indicators are in that direction. north korea is concerned about the buildup of u.s. military hardware in the region, and the proximity to the korean peninsula, so this maximum pressure campaign seems to have had effect. whether that's the driving force, maybe kim jong-un's eagerness to get to economic modernization. >> from the d.c. perspective, in the past washington laid out

very as conditions under which they would be willing to talk, including giving up your nuclear arsenal first, then we will talk, which seems like a nonstarter. is there a way to thread the needle so the administration can sort of urge the talks along without having gone back on any of its previous commitments? stephen: great question. they are trying to drive the agenda in such a way that, if the united states accepts and moves forward with them on the denuclearization front, what the u.s. is insisting, then they managed to get the north koreans to the table to trade. the north koreans promised to freeze if this takes place, but what can washington due to really seal the threat? send a special are presented of. what is in the secret letter to donald trump? probably more than the promise to denuclearization, but probably a desire for normal relations. scarlet: is that something the

u.s. would be able to concede or consider? stephen: it was part of the 1994 agreed framework. there were supposed to be steps toward trade and diplomatic normalization. possibly we could go in that direction. that's what they may ask for, and it really depends on what the south korean administration would like to see. for washington and seoul to align to get the right pacing, see the right perspective together on how to move forward julia: for north koreans, they want stability, want to ensure the future of the regime in particular. so will the north korean leader be willing to denuclearize at least on some level to ensure in whatever capacity that is the future of the regime? a statement from the news agency, the korean news agency, ng the idea of denuclearization is more than ridiculous. stephen: they seem to be saying to the south koreans, we are willing to go to the table with

denuclearization in mind. however, we will have to wait and see. scarlet: senior director of the korea society, associate professor at columbia. thank you so much. we get a take on the steel and aluminum tariffs. why our guests as it could hurt america's energy industry. >> and a reminder to subscribe to our new weekly podcast on itunes, called "what did you miss this week?" you will find the best content each friday to enjoy over the weekend. we picked some of our favorites. you can listen to the audio. the perfect way, the only way to spend your weekend. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: despite its eye-popping

valuation, uber has a big problem, its cash burn. since its founding, the ride-hailing giant has plowed through $10.7 billion. where is all the money going? joining us to discuss, bloomberg head of global technology, brad stone. one big answer is that it goes to the drivers who drive the vehicles. but i suppose the way we should start, how do we get a good read when it isinancials not publicly traded and does not disclose financials in a consistent fashion? brad: it is sort of a pseudo-public company. still private, has not gone public, but it has been divulging financials, at least for two years. the picture is interesting. the reason we did this story, these charts, is it is sort of a unique thing in business history. a company with extraordinary topline growth, revenue growing 90% 2017.

60% fourth-quarter year-over-year. yet the losses are historic. $4.5 billion last year. we compared it to other companies with similar valuations, and there's no record for these kinds of losses. certainly in silicon valley history. when the r.o.k. if, business matures, the things they build are profitable and sustainable, in which case you want to ramp up losses to grow that crazy. what do we know about places where uber is mature, where the business is not growing much further, and whether they are seeing what looks like it will be a sustainable business? brad: they had said in the past their north american business is profitable, but they have not said that in a while, and the reasons are clear. you have new competition in the u.s. with lyft, an all around the world, companies in india, southeast asia. so uber, it seems not only is the core business unprofitable,

even though it is growing quite nicely. when the new ceo took over last year, he was talking about profitability, and we have not heard about that recently. he was talking about uber elevate, freight, so he has kind of falling into the same role travis kalanick had, being so optimistic that he's making these long-term, very expensive things. julia: 90% annual revenue growth in 2017 relative to 2016, so look at the growth potential here. but is it a good investment? brad: i am not sure anyone will have to make that decision for a long time. but i guess it depends is softbank negotiated a very good deal with a valuation of $64 billion, down from 70 billion dollars the previous round. if they go public, we will have a fresh set of numbers. investors want to see a move

toward profitability, and a much narrower gap between revenues and costs than we are seeing today. scarlet: brad stone giving us some much-needed context here on uber. thank you so much for joining us. what you miss -- did you miss? tim dove spoke to alix steel earlier today in houston. alix began by asking with the main theme was at this year's gathering. tim: there has been a thematic change from investors about their willingness to still invest in our space. with the background being a combination of not just return on capital, but return of capital. we have seen a lot of peer companies and ourselves do just that. we increased dividends, in some cases increased stock repurchase plans to begin the process of returning capital. alix: can you still do that at $70 oil? tim: the numbers are changed a lot when you consider numbers

for cost of gone way down. our average cost was $19 a barrel. finding development, offering costs and taxes to produce the interest.d gna and alix: that is $19 average per well, not like your best well. tim: the entire program average of all horizontal drilling. that means we embark upon this drilling, of shale thousands more to drill, we will not be in as much of a boom investment tally, more of a bustacturing -- boom and mentality, more of a manufacturing mode. going to $60, $70 is just increasing our margins. forward at is moving constant or increasing rpm's. alix: even with a tariff? tim: i think everyone in the

industry -- the president and the administration have done somebody good things for focusing toward energy dominance, for our business in the form of opening new areas for drilling, reducing some of the onerous environmental legislation. that said, this is i hope not going to be what it appears, isp backward in that regard, because the oil and gas industry has been the goose that lays the golden egg, i don't know why you would want to reduce that. steel is a big part of our business. the pipelines, tank batteries, all constructed out of steel, so this is a concern. i hope they will be thoughtful in this regard. alix: if we do have some tariff going and, a hypothetical, how does that increase your costs? tim: what it will add at the margin is an incremental amount of inflation to steel.

it would theoretically increase well costs, because there are steel tubulars in the wells. margins,ally at the this will have several percentage growth in are costs. not a good thing. alix: overall industry costs, up 10% to 15% this year, what could you look at in a tariff world? tim: first of all as it relates to 10% to 15% overall increase, we to so much of the work ourselves internally. -- we are a vertically integrated model. our cost increase is 5%, and we can offset that with productivity, but there could be an increase to our cost coming out of steel. alix: last night you had dinner with your peers and opec. walk me through the conversation. tim: very cordial, delightful

evening. quite a few of the opec ministers there, including the general secretary, and the conversation was really a for for one in the sense he was hearing from the shale players about where we think the growth and they supply side, were very thoughtful about looking at long-term demand. they are very bullish on long-term demand, and it relates to factoring in pretty high gdp growth, especially in some of the areas where oil consumption is going up. so the messaging kind of comes out of the meeting, we are all in the same boat, all need to put barrels on the table to fuel the growth of oil demand, and there is space for everybody. alix: what did you tell them about what you see for shale supply? permian specifically, there are a third more rigs than a year ago.

you know the industry will be trying to reduce the number of wells sitting waiting, so we told them we should see substantial growth at of the united states this year, some people calling for 1.1 to 1.3 million barrels per day increasing over the year. does not sound wrong to me when you consider last year's growth was more significant. tack on 33% more rigs in the permian basin, and you can do the math, we will have a lot of growth. julia: that was alix steel with tim dove, pioneer natural resources president. bond saleking off a to fund their acquisition of aetna. more on that deal next. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: cvs kicking off the third-biggest corporate bond sale on record to fund its $67.5 billion acquisition of aetna. the move tests the appetite of the corporate bond market, off to its worst annual start in decades. joining us is molly smith to discuss. what is interesting is cvs has looked into selling $45 billion of debt, and instead will only sell $40 billion. molly: i would not take that as a sign the deal did not do well, because it definitely did. we saw orders of three times what cvs was offering, so the demand was there for a deal like this, but it was really important to get the pricing solid on such a massive deal, especially when investment-grade debt markets have been off to a horrible start this year. julia: the longest term was 30 year. what was the pickup over treasuries? molly: a little under 2%. julia: i look at the debt of these two companies and look at this walking load of debt to finance this deal, and i get

nervous. molly: you are not alone in that. [laughter] it did draw a downgrade today, expecting the same from moody's once the regulatory approval comes through on the deal, but it is not expected to be a longer-term leverage consideration. cvs is still pretty solidly investment-grade, as of right now two levels above junk, so we are not for seeing a movement to high-yield. they should be able to pay down this debt and delever overtime. >> explain the dichotomy of how we are setting up. talking about the rough start to the year for corporate credit, but on the other hand talking about voracious demand for this deal. how do those two things fit together? molly: it shows the demand is still out there. a lot of this money is on the sidelines. we have seen choppy markets in equities and rates, spilling over to credit, and that has really made investors wary on getting an. but today kind of reset the tone, so that's a positive going forward. >> you said it spilled over to

credit. for a while, in the initial bout of volatility we saw at the beginning of february, credit is holding up very well. but you say it is starting to crack a little bit? molly: you definitely see that. the yields on investment-grade debt have risen 0.5% since the start of the year, so for cvs to get the deal done today was huge, especially as the fed continues to hike rates. you want to lock in what is now a relatively still low borrowing cost. julia: investors also knew this was coming, so there's a lot of investors who have held back, we will invest in this, we will perhaps pass another potential investment to wait for this one. molly: we saw the spreads widening a little last week on investment-grade debt as investors were clearing their books to get ready for a massive deal. we have a huge month ahead in march, probably another $100 billion over the rest of the month, so this is just getting things started. scarlet: to what extent does

this open the floodgates for other companies to test the market as well? molly: definitely a positive sign. this was as close to a green light if you were a little hesitant, seeing the success of a $40 billion deal. i don't think we will get anything nearly that massive for the rest of the month. we have seen broadcom lineup that financing, so who knows where the deal with qualcomm is right now, but it shows it is possible for sure. julia: bloomberg's molly smith. thank you so much for joining us, giving us your perspective. joe: coming up, what you need to know for tomorrow's trading day. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: u.s. stocks finishing in the green, the dow just barely positive, but positive nonetheless. lots coming up in this coming day. the fed beige book comes out at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. julia: and adp employment report for february, out at it: 15 a.m.

eastern. don't miss this, the euro area reporting numbers for their gdp tomorrow. scarlet: that does it for "what it you miss -- what'd you mess." joe: have a great evening. this is bloomberg. ♪

alisa: you are watching bloomberg technology and here is a check of first world news. president trump says his plan to impose new tariffs -- other

countries have more to lose. he joined a press conference with sweden's prime minister. >> we are behind with every single country, and trade wars are not bad, do you understand what i mean by that? million, the trade war hurts them, not us. million, the trade war hurts them, not us. alisa: robert ashley is wary of dope north korean claim that it is ready to renegotiate its north korean program. north korea will agree to stop testing weapons if the u.s. holds talks about denuclearization. kellyannee aide conway is accused of violating law that prevents government officials from using their position to influence political campaign. the office of special counsel says conway violated the hatch act last