potential talks with north korea. presidentident -- the spoke in ohio today on rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. >> that is going to level the coming field on steel into this country. >> [applause] >> i may hold it up until after the deal is made with north korea. said the president u.s. military will be putting -- pulling out of syria soon to let other people take care of it. lavrov announced the expulsion of 60 u.s. diplomats, and the closing of the american consulate in st. petersburg. will retaliate in kind to other countries that expelled its envoys after the poisoning

of a former double agent in england. a former french president -- former french president nicolas sarkozy will stand charges of corruption and influence peddling. he is accused of trying to illegally get information from a judge about an investigation targeting him. he has denied the accusations. minister felipe and other senior figures of the french government visited southern france today in honor of the four victims of the extremist gun rampage last week. families. to local a private religious ceremony was also held today for a slain officer families.

who exchanged places with a female hostage. he was awarded the legion of honor posthumously. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> live from bloomberg's world headquarters in new york, i am lisa abramowicz. >> i am scarlet fail. i am joe weisenthal. >> tech is leading the gains today. nasdaq is up, but off earlier highs. joe: the question is what'd you miss? is up by almost 1%

after earlier plunging four point 6% after president trump called up the online retailer in a tweet. the russian foreign minister set of 60 u.s. diplomats will be expelled. and stealing the spotlight in crimes. crops. farmers have planted more soybeans and corn in the united states for the first time in 35 years. what'd you miss? president trump confirmed saying manys thousands of retailers are being put out of business by amazon. the president sent shares of amazon on a wild ride for two days. up by a tenseow of 1% after earlier plunging as much as 4.6% yesterday. about 4.4closed at percent.

amazon is in the hot seat, even as it recovers. we welcome our bloomberg gadfly columnist and our reporter. let's start with you. has taken a turn in the tech investor hot seat. it was facebook not so long ago. will amazon be up to testify before congress? >> i think facebook is a more hot water than amazon. i was surprised by the stock reaction. president trump made no secret on the campaign trail and as president that he is worried about amazon and it doesn't like amazon. hurting it is retailers. that amazon is not paying its fair share of taxes. tweet reiterated what he has already said about amazon multiple times. can regulators do less to undermine amazon? i suspect there is probably

less that can be done about amazon. hemp has said multiple times is thinking about amazon, is there something that can be done with a tax situation, about antitrust law? those sits very well, it is not a monopoly in any conventional definition. it is not clear what exactly with amazon and taxes. they pay sales tax on all of their merchandise it self in the -- it sells it it in states where it operates. joe: we can talk about the investor conditions upon which this news enters the market. real hard to imagine legislative, regulatory response to amazon. tell us about how jittery people

are about tech. >> 2017 was a year in which tech aquired this post-growth in great numbers, and that is very much spoiled. we are seeing a return to tech and the volatility that comes with it. at theseare looking names and watching the trade and watching them fall sharply, how can they find support?doesn't matter that amazon trades 20, 30, 40 earnings? year's do they have support on a technical level? facebook got people back into tech. shares got oversold earlier this week. people came back into the name after shares did not go any lower.

this is helped with facebook as well, solid rsi support. see thesevestors names as value names. deep value stock, given all the things it can do in the next 10 years. 42017, it was like, get all the upside was none of the volatility. now it is more like a traditional system. you can pay a lot, but you have to accept a little more volatility. there is a downside on amazon relative to the s&p 500, relative to its peer group. they are blowing up the standard deviations above the mean, above the five-year average, but not at absolute crazy, record highs. there is some sense this was never the end of the world. how much of the move has been

technical? how much of this changes the fundamental backdrop? which sort of expression of skepticism do you expect to stay with the markets? where do youla, see to keep investing? >> i don't know how much all of these controversies stick with these companies or stocks over time. particularly with facebook, there has been repeated controversies with this company about data privacy, its role in the 2016 u.s. presidential .lection literally, for a year and a half. we have seen some moments of nervousness, like we have had the past couple of weeks, but none of that has really affected the company's business or materially hurt the stock for a long time. >> would about mark zuckerberg? zuckerberg,t mark

what you expected hear from him when he testifies? do it again."'t >> they are reluctant to go that route before they have exhausted other options. >> the most exciting moment of my month will be watching mark inkerberg testifying congress. if he gets out of it not looking like a disaster, that will be a win for facebook. this is not a person comfortable when challenged, comfortable with the spotlight is on him in a way that cannot be managed or controlled. i don't know what he will say or what his demeanor will be. >> "if it is not a disaster, it will be a win." program of the day. increasinglyd bearish bond market for 20 18 and beyond. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

lisa: what'd you miss? all signs are pointing to an increasingly bearish bond market for 2018 and beyond. our guest says the recent drop in yields will be followed by a surge in borrowing ended increase in the deficit. he thinks what we are seeing right now is the blip before the storm. >> this has been a bear market for six months now. until this week, it really was relentless. if you look at the five-year part of the treasury yield curve, yields went up 105 basis

points in almost a straight lines in september. the bear market is fully in place, that a lot of people only focus on longer maturities. for the last two months, these have just gone sideways. joe: why have we seen this bear market? hast: the federal reserve tightened six times and they control the front end of the treasury. going are saying there is to be bear market bonds, completely isolated to the front end. >> from 0-5 years. lisa: does that matter? when people talk about bear market bonds, they are talking about a rapid rise, particularly in the long end. scott: what that does is flattened the yield curve. that will eventually trigger a response from your central bank. you probably do not want to send a signal of an inverted yield curve, which is generally a recession signal.

the fed governors was discussing it today, which they don't often bill. treasurysible the could move their schedule farther out, it is very much front loaded now, which is how they are addressing these huge deficits. pastet: you are looking the latest retail sales numbers, and some of the data that might suggest the u.s. economic picture is a little bit more loudly than what we have given it credit for. we could not expect this to last into 2018. quarter hasirst drifted off from the early estimates, but that is something we have seen four out of the l ast five years, only to see it rebound. in a lot of estimates for second-quarter growth are at

3.9%. >> a payback to first quarter weakness. you out inuld leave average of about three, substantially stronger it has been since the crisis. a 3% growth rate with an inflation rate that is moving very close to 2% now and is more than likely to go over 2% over the next 10 months is a nominal gdp of over 5%, not an environment at which these shore rates will have much of an impact. joe: i have been hearing about national borrowing into the debt. why does this matter now? hadt: we have never deficits during a growth period. debts are countercyclical. it makes you wonder how big the debt is going to get. in terms of the size of the

defecit and the marketability of it long-term, particularly given in certain foreign buyers, they may be disinclined at some point, given current foreign-policy trends. they may be disinclined to buy as many treasuries. we have never tested the market with the size. people have arich tax cut, so they have money to buy. >> i don't know what they will be investing in treasuries, though. i want to bring you down on a couple of things. how many times will be fed hike rates this year? >> 16 times in 18-19. the market agrees they will move twice more in 2019, but there is a resistance to giving the fed what they want passed this year. given all this equity volatility, the market has taken

another full tightening back. is that the pattern will be similar to what it has been over the past few years, where a skeptical market waits until we are much closer to the actual hikes to price those in. joe: where could be long -- the long end go? the 3 we could move into three and a quarter area over the next nine months. over 2%e going to be and they have step with their program religiously. into that did move up arrieta -- into that area, how much would you attribute to fed tightening, and issuance? scott: it is very hard to cut the pie up in terms of head impact on short maturities.

it is dramatic. will make impact itself felt the most in the intermediate, the 5-10 year treasuries. its ownet follows -- pension the man's out there have still occurred to a reoccurring degree in the long end. scarlet: thank you so much for joining us. to read his column, it is the bloomberg. now, our stock of the hour has quite a buzz today following its earnings. constellation brands is trading on the strength of its mexican beer. julie hyman has the details. is all about mexican beer and american appetite for it, which is apparently enormous.

this owns corona. it is going to be rolling out a new brand called corona premier, a lower carb beer, to compete with michelob. fromu look at the numbers mexico, the imports from mexican gallons is howon much beer we imported from far otherst year, nations -- outpacing other nations. beer comesimported from mexico, followed by the netherlands, belgium, germany, and canada. mexico dominates. is one of the most popular mexican brands, along with does act he's and takata a froms equis and tekate,

heineken. >> do they expect this to continue? >> the sheriffs -- shares forecast for the year is above estimates. earnings beat estimates, sales beat estimates. weyou look at the bloomberg, have a look at its be are versus wine and spirits shipments. spirits shipments sales rose, but unit shipments fell. it is a higher price point. bloomberg intelligence is looking at the numbers, saying we are still going to see gains in sales of wine and spirits this year driven more by innovation. market share gains will drive the business in mexican beer plans. this company has made a lot of acquisitions. lot of the it got a

growth. that is how it got the corona brand in the first place. it has been buying smaller brands as well. we have a look at the acquisitions that a company has made on the bloomberg. list got atop of the lot of attention. canopy growth box 9.9% of that -- it's bought 9.9% of that canadian marijuana company. if this company used its vast that wouldn network, be quite a powerful tool, especially when marijuana was legalized in the united states. for a thursdayk afternoon before a long weekend. >> thank you so much. coming up, a great day for the soft commodities.

has grain traders feeling bullish. this is bloomberg. ♪

lisa: what'd you miss? more acres of soybeans will be planted in the united states this year than corn, a first and 35 years. corn and soybeans saw significant gains. corn is at its highest since december of 2015 and soybeans at the highest since last october. let's bring in our guest for all things far more related. this is such an interesting story. talk about why stockpiles got so high and how that leads to the lower crop expectancy. alan: you have a lot of things going on with the report from the usda. soybeans are going to be topping

corn acres for the first time since 1983. but corn and soybeans are pulling back on acreage. below market were expectations. you have the prospect of lower supply. this is important, because the usda reported record stockpiles of corn and soybeans as of march 1. there is a big supply overhang on this markets, but farmers are working through it. that is why use are the markets do what they did today -- you saw the markets do what they did today. joe: what are the secular stories that explain the shift in this historic move toward more soy acreage? a government program in 1983 was paying farmers not to grow corn. they switched to soybeans.

if you are in illinois in lost -- and locked in the corn-soybean rotation, you will plant one of the two crops. when you see more of a soybean bias in those places, it will be less expensive to grow. when you get more toward the fringes of the corn belt, into oklahoma, for example, you see crops like wheat and cotton going upward. -in some parts of teh country -- the country, you either group soybeans, or nothing. imposes termsina on u.s. soybeans, how quickly will farmers react? alan: all bets are off. this report has to do with intentions. soybeans can be planted into june. corn will be going into the soil in april or may. numbers can shift unusually more

than what you would see in a typical factor. scarlet: alan, thank you, on all things soft commodities. the markets close is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ lisa: major averages are in the

green in the final trading date of the first quarter. tech leading gains and 10-year gilts at 2.73%. i am alisa and for julia chatterley. joe: and if you are tuning in live locking you to coverage. we begin the market minutes. we got last-minute gyrations with the indexes picking around 3 p.m. before pairing their advance. the nasdaq closing up 1.6% remains the best performer for the day and the quarter as well. we should mention it again as much as 2% earlier. the dow up at 1.3%. joe: i love how we are talking about how awful things are for tech. and we are up on gains and

outpacing the dow and s&p. disaster for silicon valley. scarlet: and you are referring to the day-to-day performance and not the corner, and if we can pull that up for the year to nasdaq up have the 2.3%, and at one point it was up as much as 10% on march 12. those gains have been reduced considerably. the s&p and now watching their first down quarter september of 2015. pretty notable there. if you look at the best and worst performers for the quarter, netflix and amazon way up there, even as they reduced gains. advance for the first three months, 54%. amazon today was lower as much as 4% and has rebounded.

for the quarter it notched a 24% advance. but look at general electric. ouch. lisa: they enter the distress category and there's indication warren buffett may come in and consider a steak. ake. he hasn't commented on that. let's go back today because i want to highlight what julie hyman was saying about the stock of the hour. beer issales of mexican looking at a low-carb version of the corona as well. tesla also came under pressure in recent days and mounted a bit of a comeback. first factory workers to disprove haters betting against the company and joined the effort to wrap up output of the crucial model three line. dallek depends on what happens with the model three and if it can maintain and keep its production target on track. microsoft is up by 2%.

the ceo unveiling the biggest we organization in years, combining with the vision on devices and software will moving the windows operating system unit into cloud operation. shareholders with the reorganization of their. re. joe: let's look at the government bond market, investors winning on all sides of their portfolio with two-year 2.7%, so more flattening because we see more declines at the long end. if you look at the first quarter ratee year can see, significantly higher across the board. at one point it was steepening, but to year yield is up 37 basis points. lisa: it wasn't so long ago people were talking about 10-year gilts, and the dollar weakening against the canadian

loonie and the japanese yen. a little bit of a greenback strength, and let's like at your today on two particular currencies. the japanese yen has been on a tear -- this wasn't fully expected. the japanese yen has gained 6% against the dollar for the quarter. you can see how the dollar has declined dramatically against the yen. people thought the haven and japan they weren't able to find in the u.s. the but he fully understands -- but if you look at the board, take a look at the mexican peso, a big winner versus the dollar. up 8%. perhaps people not taking the wall talk at its face some picking nafta -- but the mexican peso is doing well. joe: and on the commodities

front we have oil and gold corn and soy also searching after the usda report. which rechecked checked every day, not a lot of action. for the quarter, a good start for oil and it will be interesting to see if it takes up further. and gold, i know people get excited, but come on, 1.5%, that is not that exciting. [laughter] lisa: real talk by joe weisenthal. scarlet: let's go back to stocks. the s&p 500 and he gets straight of nine straight quarters of gains. here with more is being laidler -- ben laidler. you wouldn't know it would yet the major indexes, what does this make you assess more or

less attractive volatility? i'm 100's more uncertainty, but that creates a by opportunity for people who missed the way up. this is back to reality. the last year has been unreal narrative of volatility. the fact bonds have repriced and volatility has repriced and earnings remain strong, i think the risk reward the u.s. equities is better than it was three months ago. or: going into this year january, if you want to outperform you had to own tech. the beauty of tech stocks for a long time is they went up with little volatility, but i think people right now are probably -- this is going to be one of the big calls if they win or lose for the rest of the year. how much to allocate to tech. what is the answer there?

what i was going to say -- that is a big that would be services,n software you will see most of volatility now, and as the most expensive. overweight with the rest of tech. tech hardware and semis is under owned and cheap and has decent growth. tech is a big space. scarlet: where does microsoft fit in with that because they are a old company that has count exposure but you can say it is the same run-up or euphoria as other software names. ben: that would definitely be more of a hardware and old tech, but these are still companies with the highest dollars out there.

a lot of levers they can pull if they have to. scarlet: what about nvidia? ben: if you believe in the long-term exhilarated tech cycle like we do, what does it get powered by? it gets powered by semis. the amount of profitability and lack of leverage best you relatively get low multiples. i was talking about amazon earlier, that is the best on stock globally, but the most under owned stock is apple. wouldn't pick just one sector, there is a lot going on there. lisa: i was looking at quarterly returns and was surprised by how will japanese assets did. one of your calls was to underweight japan. that is actually controversial right now. people are saying be overweight. why are you seeing be underweight? -- japan is jump in

facing two big headwinds by it part of the reason japanese equities had done so well is because it has been stable and allowed japanese margins to recover. i think there is some pressure coming in on japanese margins. the other is the japanese gdp recovery. if you put those two together i think you'll be set up for a big negative earnings surprise from japan. joe: one of the big anxieties has been the degree to which canng rate environments -- the degree stocks can withstand the environment. money inflating at all and the fed taking volatility out of the market expansion of the balance sheet, how do you see that tension playing out or is it overblown? ben: we think it is a tailwind

for equities and the reason why we have more upside from here, i also think it means a lot for types of equities that you on. aggressive -- lisa: you are talking about the u.s.? yields are going to go down? two or three, it will be material from here, there is a ball flattening -- bull flattening. there is a question as to how muchthat are high -- how debt or how high yields will go, the level of yields that the economy can take his lower than it has been historically. laidler, thank you so much. coming up will dive into fresh

eco-data on three must-see charts. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i am mark crumpton with first world news. president trump says the u.s. military will be out of syria in the near future and the president made his comments today in ohio. hell out knocking the of isis, we are coming out of syria soon. let other people take care of it now. we are going to have 100% of the caliphate, we are taking it all back quickly.

we are going to come out of there soon. mark: the president also says he may delay signing off on the revamped trade agreement has administration finalized with south korea in an effort to use it as leverage in potential talks with north korea. thousands are pushing back against a new defense cooperation deal with the u.s., with the african parliament ratified let's week expressing increasing concerns that military presence will attract extremists. opposition groups from the ghana first economic front marched today. ambassador to israel says he was misquoted in comments this week that suggested the u.s. would bypassed palestinian president if he refused to engage with the trump administration. senior officials in the region the size the ambassador, with

the media reported as saying if a boss is not interested in " i am sure, somebody else will." health officials in the u.k. say the doctor of a former russian agent was poisoned along with her father is improving rapidly. she has been in critical healthcondition since the marchr attack. authorities also say the spy remains in critical but stable condition and the police are treating the case as attempted murder and safety first came in contact with the soviet nerve agent while he was at home in salisbury. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. crumpton. this is bloomberg. a bevy of fresh eco-data today and dive through the numbers with charts is matt

boeser. pce is what we want to focus on here because the fed paste so much attention to it. >> we are obsessing over the inflation data for a wild, and is interesting what is going on in inflation data because you have two big things moving in opposite directions underneath the surface, which is leading corenged overall inflation. those are the things we're talking about for a few months, the white line shows the process vehicle inflation. the key about this is it is the components of the basket that the san francisco fed identified as being sensitive to labor market conditions. this is what the fed can control and it is coming down quickly. inflationcyclical unrelated to market conditions has been surging in the past few months and is leading to unchanged core inflation rate.

joe: this chart is controversial because every time you break inflation into different parts -- you are cherry picking -- why do you like looking at this chart? looking at it not because it tells us too much were inflation is going to go, but if you buy the fed story of how monetary policy can influence inflation -- that is the logic of the story and it means you should focus on the white line, the process google inflation. -- the prois right cyclical inflation. lisa: i want to bring up another one of your charts the deep into components driving increase and pce. you can see the yellow line is u.s. core pce, and then broken out the blue line's financial services. and you also have the pink line, which is health care and hospital services.

we are paying more for health care, and then there is a big related to financial services that is extra cost. it. does this -- explain matt: that rebound in the yellow line, you can see 60 basis points is accounted by these two categories, more than all of that is accounted for. some are saying don't look at these your to your inflation rates because that bad march is about to drop out of next month's inflation number and core pce is going to automatically jump up. the problem is all of the strength we had has come from these two categories over the last year or so. lisa: which makes it is getting more expensive to be sick and they are essentially getting ripped off by the banks. matt: the financial services component -- what is going on is banks aren't raising deposit rates even though the fed is

going up, and it shows inflation for deposit services. it is not a real price consumers paid by it is boosting the index. on the health care side it is interesting to because we see a surge in hospital services inflation. you can see on the chart we are at 2006 levels, so there is not a lot of conviction if that is going to continue given how insane was moved saban. -- those moves have been. joe: it shows people are complaining about inflation -- and it is interesting that it is during a crisis when inflation collapsed. one they seew that inflation something that is going on? matt: we are assessing over inflation numbers but the chart shows only 5% say they are in the worst situation because prices are rising and that is almost a record low. the point is their job growth we are seeing is outweighing whatever inflation we are seeing in the minds of consumers.

and that is a good thing and augers for the continued pace of job creation. scarlet: they are not paying for teenagers, that is all i can say. [applause] joe: university of michigan, call up scarlet. atrlet: coming up let's look what we have, or than sets his sights on a newspaper empire. how one hedge fund started buying up papers. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

joe: the rise of it unlikely

newspaper baron. the pivot from distressed that into distressed newsrooms, and the hedge fund has grown into an empire of 97 papers, but not of the newsrooms are happy with it. here with the story is joe nocera. titled what ifry gordon gekko owned newspapers. tell me about the strategy of this company. joe: it is a rape and pillage strategy, to be blunt. problems and they had to have cutbacks and intact advertising they did. a lot don't have circulation that they did, and what this hedge fund has done is they -- when they take a newspaper they don't just cut to break even or make a small profit. they could to keep a 20% margin. they pulled that money out

instead of reinvesting in the newspaper, and they have been using it to invest in other things. joe: here we have the staff productions and names. herald,ost, boston these are gigantic cuts. joe: the denver post was before the hedge fund alden global audit. now they are at 66. joe: to cover? joe: 2 million people. and it used to be a two newspaper town, now it is a one newspaper town. one went from 73 newspapers to 19. the idea of these newsrooms being guided is awful. the devils advocate would say all of these are terminal businesses in decline and there is no saving them, so for many businesses you run for as much

cash flow as you can. what is wrong with that argument? joe: two thanks, one is are they really terminal? boston globe,he and the l.a. times was spot by a billionaire. thanks started to stabilize quite a bit -- things started to stabilize. they are part of the foundation of democracy. they hold officials accountable. you need that stuff in our society. the idea that denver may not have a newspaper or reporter is a terrible thing. of forom the perspective investors, has was been a successful strategy? joe: no. joe: how do you measure that? joe: that the millions of dollars invested in a pharmacy chain them and when they make the investment the stock shot up

to $20, and now it is a two dollars stock. -- he hasf the firm made himself the chairman, and he owns another stock called parkervision, a a sent stock, and he owns general electric. those are the three stocks in the hedge fund. theysetting aside whether are good stock selections according to the three examples you gave, from a pure capitalist standpoint, is the idea of going into newspapers and running them betterh flows directly -- theoretically better? -- i can'tnot sound help it, i care about that stuff. is: from all indications, the strategy still continuing as this? must -- theyy

bought the boston herald and cut journalist, and it is widely expected they will be cutting more. joe: you expect to see more as we saw in los angeles with more billionaires? joe: yes, it is happening, it is not just was angeles. the washington post is owned by jeff bezos. there is a high likelihood the tribune company will be owned by a philanthropic billionaire, for the lack of a better word. window has bought a newspaper. joe, thank you so much. the countdown is on for the u.k. brexit from the eu and what public opinion looks like now that people have had it. time to think about from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ retail.

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

mark: i am mark crumpton with first world news. british prime minister theresa may is spending the day on the road to gauge the mood across the country with brexit now officially a year away. may visited a textile factory where she assured lawmakers in scotland, wales, and northern ireland that the brexit will not result in a power grab. >> when we see powers returned in brussels will be absolving more powers to the insertion for the scottish government and others, and we want to ensure we maintain that u.k.'s internal market. scotland can continue producing

and the rest of the united kingdom as easily as they do today. a bloomberg investigation that included 133 interviews of britons found since the brexit referendum, divisions within the u.k. have hardened to the point with those who want to stay in new york and union and those who voted to leave. we'll have more on the story coming up. the u.n. envoy to syria met with russia's foreign minister in moscow to discuss the humanitarian situation in syria. he says the talks are critical to ensure the safety of civilians being evacuated. >> the u.n. is ready and prepared. we are actually preparing all of our capacity and damascus and elsewhere to reach the civilian population, and do as much as possible. media in cereal reports the government has given a final three-day ultimatum to the largest rebel group in

ghouta to leave. -- noble peace prize winner says she is excited to be back in pakistan since the first time -- for the first and since he was shot by her championing education for girls. during a meeting with the prime minister, she said she will continue her campaign. she was only 14 years old and known for her activism when she was shot. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of today's market action. u.s. stocks closing higher with the nasdaq the best performer up 1.6%. ride,of a roller coaster we used the term a lot, but it was all over the place and can say that pretty much for the

quarter with the nasdaq closing higher, but the dow and s&p losing ground. correction in early february, the nasdaq actually went back to new highs, which the other indices didn't, and then it slumped. scarlet: the nasdaq at one point was up as much as 10% on march 12 and then give back those gains. lisa: all about tech stocks and how volatile day have been. brexit,tdown is on for one year from today the u.k. is scheduled to leave the european union and a bags transition deal is due to start. here is what is next. rasmussen global director of what dealndon, nina, are we talking about now? nina: we actually don't know what the final deal looks like. when the u.k. leaves it is

leaving, and that would have been decided is the exit deal. as we know the future deal is going to take so much time to negotiate wk has asked for a transition period. it is about the status quo, all of those red lines that many ministers in the reason may's -- all of thatnt is going to continue for two more years and the u.k. will remain a role take her and not have anything on what that is going to look like. where the final destination is we are going to get into those negotiations after the u.k. has left on march of 2019. is it safe to say that a year and they haven't made as much progress as they would like to? to say that and let's not forget a lot of the ministers in the supporting brexit at the time of the referendum this would be the easiest deal in the history of deals and we can do this over a cup of tea and perhaps of the eu

wanted a transition, the u.k. would give it one be generous. but what has been quite clear in the past year is 27 countries with the market of 450 million consumers has far more cap wk alone. what we see -- in the u.k. alone. it is a similar power level to negotiations with britain and greece in 2015. that is going to be the trend going forward. scarlet: part of the problem is the u.k. government never articulated what they wanted post-brexit to look like. you could make the argument a haven't done that even to today. did eventually get a speech where she gave more details. issue going to see this whole thing through? nina: i think theresa may will have more longevity than we predicted for her because the reason is that you laid out is exactly why.

there is no turkey of what the and deal looks like -- and deal looks like. of course the eu turnaround and said you are not going to have that deal because what you are essentially doing is cherry picking and picking out the bits of single market membership. and negotiations you want without having all the bits you don't want to have -- so what the eu has been clear about since the beginning is that it has said you can have a norway style deal where the u.k. remains in a market and has to accept things that are toxic. may's vision is to leave the customs union, the best starting point is a free trading arrangement similar to the one canada has with the eu. of course that doesn't cover enough axis for services, and financial services are vital to london and the u.k.. lisa: how much work have you

done on the popular perception of brexit at this point? if they were to hold another referendum today, how different will the results be? nina: i think what you see is this event within the country, and the country has become more divided on this. post-brexit people are thinking that everything that happened -- everyyour shows step of the way they see almost saboteurs or construe securities the them to believe every politician and the u.k.'s on institution are try to sabotage brexit. you have a divided country. i am not looking at the data but i don't think there will be a massive swing one way or the other if referendum was held today. we haven't seen as much economic forecasted, and those on the brexit side say this was all

fairytale. perspectiveomic this is damage control and why i think some cabinet ministers have come to that view, which is why every part of the brexit negotiations as far recently capitulated to the east position. joe: what is going on in the irish border issue? are there any closer to figuring that without? nina: they haven't. it might all come unraveled. we saw the transition agreement in march that the eu has put in that legal text as a backstop that northern ireland has to stay in the eu customs union because they want to avoid a hard border. this is the only way to avoid a hard border. the conservative party is saying we don't want that, but failing a new solution for northern ireland, is going to be the fallback position.

see thet actually reason may outmaneuver by the vote toarty -- syriz keep britain in the customs union and that won't go o down well. there's a lot at play domestically where they u.k. and's up in its final position. a lot of businesses is also backing those plans and the labour party as well. speaking of businesses, where do they stand? we heard so much of how businesses will move workers to europe in the wake of exit -- brexit. what kind of momentum have you seen? nina: when i talked to businesses i hear a 50/50 split. in march 2019, the transition has been a great but the entire package has to be

ratified by the european parliament and the british parliament as well. businesses have been asking for certainty and what has been a great is a political agreement and not eagle certainty. for some businesses they can't wait until october or early next year before they have to act out our contingency plans, and they are acting on those plans now where as other businesses are think we are going to take this political agreement don't think the toxic or nuclear option is and that isl out, britain leaving with no deal at all. thatst case scenario is once it unraveling and there will be a transition and a political agreement at the end of this year, talking about the direction of future travel. that is going to be hashed out after we leave. scarlet: very well said. thank you so much for joining us from london. crossingreaking news

the bloomberg, under armour says there is an issue with data security that affected 150 million users. an unauthorized party using my fitness user accounts and company became aware of the issue on march 25. you can see the stock is down 2.4%. lisa: my fitness pal is a fitness app on their phone to track calories and exercise. havene the data people gotten could be anything from locations to anything else. it is hard to know what the potential breach is but highlights what a clothing store and retailer also is subject to data breaches. scarlet: we should mention it to not include government identifiers such as driver's license or social security. you have to worry about location being an issue. lisa: what you eat. scarlet: what axis of has to your phone.

coming up, russia response to the expulsion of diplomats. this is bloomberg. ♪

lisa: russia retaliates in the country says it is expelling 60 u.s. diplomats including the american public in st. petersburg, this is a tit-for-tat move after many countries, including the u.s. and the u.k. ousted russian envoys after the posting of a former double agent the u.k. depomedus, but the explosion the perspective or us. was it more than expected, what is the word? >> this is about what we

expected in terms of retaliation from russia. they said they will have a proportional response, using the exact same number the americans used when we expelled 60 russian is that isor spies, what the u.s. government is calling them. this could lead to further escalation and we heard from the state department spokeswoman earlier today saying the u.s. reserves the right to retaliate or take further actions against russia. this might not be the end of it, but this was russia punching back against the u.s. and other western countries after this mass expulsion of so many russian agents and officials from various consulates and embassies across the west. 60 from the u.s. -- this could be the next round in what could be a long-running fight between u.s. and russia. question, so i'm going to ask you now, when they do explosions today have a list

-- you have to go, and you have to go, or do they say 60 of you have to go, you guys pick them? how this worked in moscow is the u.s. ambassador was summoned to meet with russian officials and was given a list of specific people who had to leave within seven days. there is a list of 60 american opponents who have to leave. there are various post within russia, and within seven days -- you have to remember the russians decided to close down a consulate in st. petersburg, which was in response to the u.s. closing a consulate in seattle. trying to have this tit-for-tat that is proportional and a mirror image of what the u.s. is doing. there will be several dozen american officials that have to leave within seven days and come back to the u.s. manyet: do we know how u.s. employees are there on behalf of the government in russia?

a 60 a lot of all the people we have there or a little? >> the u.s. has a large presence across russia. it is a large country, and the u.s. is heavily is presented -- represented, so this is not wreps -- it is not going to necessarily crippled representation but it is a major step to expel so many american diplomats we heard from the state department spoke person earlier today -- she's that this is going to make it difficult for russian citizens who want to come to the u.s. to get those consulate services and get a visa. bute will be some impact, we still have hundreds of u.s. officials who are stationed in russia and will be continued to be stationed there even after the explosion. scarlet: including investor jon huntsman. thank you for joining us from washington. coming up next, michele roberts from that nba players

association talks about the opportunities of controlling licensing rights that there's cap market themselves directly now. this is bloomberg. ♪

nba players are more than professional athletes, they are brands and marketing themselves abruptly from the leak or team can be lucrative. this week is the boomer sports summit and i spoke to michele roberts, executive director of the nba players association. her current contract ends in september and i asked if she plans to continue in her role. michele: i plan to request the opportunity to stay and i hope i will. scarlet: what unfinished business the want to take care tenure? next 1

michele: last july we resumed control of our licensing rights. we opened for business on july 1 of last year, and we finally have our staff in place. -- i amo make sure perfectly confident we will -- but i want to make sure this thing lives up to the promise. that is probably paramount. there are up couple of other things i have on my list, but that is at the top of it. scarlet: you are talking about nba players flexing their marketing muscles, and globally as well. talk about how this differs from what used to happen. the nba is to control the licensing and marketing rights. michele: essentially what the players did his lease their group licensing rights, and delete -- in exchange for

compensation what manage our rights, a revenue split at the end of each year. it is perfectly fine and the leak was doing a great job, but we are the only players association where we didn't manage our own rights. the decision was made that would hockey, baseball, and soccer, and we manage our own rights. scarlet: talk about why this is important, not just for players but boasting about life after basketball. michele: two current players it is not to need to not only be able to enjoy revenues produced from licensing -- but one thing we want to do is to identify individual players. not the so-called marquee players doing well -- but the guy at the end of the bench. he has a brand as well, and one of the things we are able to do by managing rights is not the first to the late and how

players are promoted. our view is we want all 450 players to be able to enjoy the monetization of their individual brand and a group brand. we name of our company -- are talking about the entire group and not sibley those players who manage on their own to market their individual grants. scarlet: when you do this there are restrictions on players themselves because the the and tim's control the logos and uniforms. they can go out as themselves but not representatives of their team. michele: we can't engage in activity using their team uniform or the nba logo, the jerry west local. use the team don't marks or the leak marks can always purchase the right to use them -- we have everything else

that is available. scarlet: what do these opportunities look like? what can you do for a player who is not a marquee player? on 450 -- am focused international players who may not be the biggest names in the u.s., but at home a are rock stars. players tohelp those be able to take advantage of their celebrity at home in ways that is not available to them in the u.s. that is the international player market. also have players engaged in non-possible related activity like fashion and music that are not being promoted. individually, because they don't have the resources, we want to help them monetize. our fan base is tremendously interested in what the players do off the court, so what we are planning to do is introduce the players in a different way so

fans can get to know more about what they do away from basketball. scarlet: that was my conversation with the shell roberts, executive director of the nba players association. it is now time for the business flash and a look at the biggest business stories right now. facebook says it began fact checking political photos and videos to comment election-meddling. and they toline in a blog post protect civic engagement on its platform. the new features include verifying links and rolling up the other countries soon. dropping in and in massachusetts -- gimmick associates are part iates, and thec senior vice president says the company is open to rebranding the boston harbor casino because of concerns about the legacy of steve wynn. that is a business flash update.

joe: coming up, what you need to know for the week ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: u.s. stocks rallied on the final trading day -- i would want to say rallied in the close, but for the year to date s&p andter to date the

dow fell and the nasdaq extended its winning streak on a quarterly basis. joe: if you look at your end and in the quarter returns. up, globalming markets including the u.s. closes tomorrow for good friday and what european markets are closed easter monday along with hong kong, new zealand, and australia. i suspectmic data, president trump will be interested. lisa: and the job report comes out. scarlet: that does it for what you miss. joe: have a great evening and weekend. weekend. this is bloomber retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store

near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. you are watching "bloomberg technology." delayent trump may signing off on an agreement just finalized with south korea.

the president made his comments today in ohio. president trump: that's going to level the playing field on steel and cars and trucks coming into this country. [applause] and i may hold it up till after a deal is made with north korea. mark c.: russian foreign minister sergey lavrov says moscow will expel 60 diplomats and close the u.s. consulate in st. petersburg. russia also said the u.k. is in violation of international law for refusing to provide access to sergei srkripal and his daughter after they were poisoned. david show can is blaming his sudden removal from the trump administration -- david shulkin is blaming his sudden removal from the