♪ rishaad: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. an investigation with global implications. the fate of a missing journalist raising questions and tightening tensions. >> this is the first sign the saudi leadership is starting to cave in front of international pressure. rishaad: china shows the trade war is taking a toll. the u.s. treasury holds its fire in a currency report. >> that report stopped short of labeling china a currency manipulator. rishaad: the latest fed minutes show a trend towards tightening in the latest fed minutes, and some big beats from big banks. >> morgan stanley's numbers are

really good. >> bank of america and all the banks, solid quarter. rishaad: cannabis legal in canada. a top ceo sees a huge potential in pot. >> it will be a $200 billion opportunity over the long term. rishaad: and bitcoin has been beaten up lately, but some are still betting on a comeback for crypto. >> we have seen an acceleration in demand. >> q1, q2, if the institution starts coming in it will put in new highs. rishaad: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ rishaad: hello and welcome. i am rishaad's element -- -- salamat.mat it this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review from bloomberg television. let's start with a look at the

top headlines. questions continue to swirl around the disappearance of the journalist who had then an outspoken critic of saudi arabia's government. the u.s. reaction drew particular attention. david king salman of saudi ordered an internal investigation into the disappearance of a prominent journalist and could hold people accountable if the situation warrants it. president trump says there will be severe punishment for those found to be behind the disappearance. >> we will get to the bottom of it. there will be severe punishment. >> this is the first sign the saudi leadership is starting to cave in front of international pressure. they may come back and say, we investigated and found nothing, but this is a stark difference from what they announced yesterday where there was insinuation they may use oil and their position in the markets as a bargaining chip if they were sanctioned by the u.s.

jonathan president trump just : spoke to the king of saudi arabia, who denies knowledge and says they are working with turkey to find an answer. i am immediately sending our secretary of state to meet with kim. kevin he also said there could : be "rogue actors" that acted independently of the saudis. now all talk turns to whether this davos in the desert will continue. there have been a host of companies that have pulled out from uber, cnn, forward, bloomberg, the new york times as well. vonnie bank of america reporting : results. the company beat on earnings. fixed trading in line with estimates, net income rose 6%. bank of america, for all intents and purposes looked pretty healthy. where does growth come from from here? >> that is the key question. for bank of america and all the

banks, a solid quarter on interest income, interest margins holding up pretty well. for bank of america the 3% core , loan growth caught our eye. what you need next year to continue that interest income growth is loan growth. scarlett: goldman sachs and morgan stanley wrapping up bank earnings with better than expected numbers. both avoided the slump that weighed on rivals. goldman steelmakers coming through in a big way for the new ceo who the helm on october 1, the group posting an unexpected 10% gain. what kind of honeymoon period does this management get from investors? >> i think people are excited about solomon coming in, the direction they will go in. we have an entirely different approach, the desire to build out corporate lending, corporate relationships, relationship banking. while solomon comes from within, he clearly has his own ideas.

>> morgan stanley's numbers are really good on their investment banking side. their management side is a little weaker, surprisingly. i guess people are overlooking that. it is still up. it is steadily up over the years. it has been one of their strengths after the crisis. the investment banking side, trading revenues are up on fixed income and equities, which many have struggled to do. also, their advice revenues, m&a, everything is good. they are all positive numbers. welle federal reserve publish the minutes for the september meeting in moments. officials raised rates for a third time this year. >> the big news is all about the rate hiking path ahead. a few participants in these minutes favor moderately restrictive rate policies going forward and the numbers say they

could see rates above the estimate temporarily and only a , couple said they would not favor restrictive policy unless they see an overheating of inflation and the economy. that comes as the fed continues to deemphasize the neutral rate as a guide for policy. they said it was only one among many factors they consult when setting rates. >> i did not see anything in those minutes that sounded different than what we were expecting already, slightly more hawkish tone, continuing to say there will be gradual increases, targets are the same nothing new , that would shock the markets. ♪ francine the u.s. treasury has : stopped short of calling china currency manipulator. confession, the yuan remains on the administration's watch list. it fell to its lowest level since january 2017 after the release of the report. the trade war has turned to mail.

president trump plans to pull out of the treaty to gives companies discounted shipping rights and packages sent to american consumers. what has been the response from the treasury department report? >> the report basically stopped just short of labeling china a currency manipulator and said it did not meet the requirements to be called a manipulator, but it was not a favorable report otherwise and said the u.s. was going to be keeping a particular eye on the currency. david british prime minister may : raise the possibility of extending the brexit transition period to avoid an impasse with her european counterparts. >> what has emerged is the option to extend the implementation could be a further solution to this issue of a backstop in northern ireland. >> how much progress has been made? maria: the answer is very simple -- none. that is what we heard from eu

leaders yesterday. they said the tone had improved. we do have sources inside the room who said the tone was not that great and at this point it is clear no one has a solution to the irish border, and it might be an issue that cannot be solved. i think her thinking is the longer this goes on, the less needed or less necessary a backstop will be, but when we talk to european officials, they tell us a backstop has got to be there. ♪ vonnie stocks at session lows : after we got word that steven mnuchin has officially decided with donald trump and mike pompeo he will not attend the saudi arabia future investment initiative next week. shortly after, a news conference given by mike pompeo following his trip to saudi arabia, he said we need to give saudi arabia a couple of days to figure out what happened to jamal khashoggi.

it is interesting to see the market reacts to this. clearly, the market expected the treasury secretary would go to saudi arabia and there would be some way to sweep this under a rug. it is not going away, is it? >> no. the evidence continues to mount that the saudi government may have in involved in some way in jamal khashoggi's death. what you are seeing essentially is a cost-free way for the u.s. to express disappointment or concern with saudi officials. this may be less an action that demonstrates saudi arabia will consequences, and more and awareness of the optics of looking too chummy with the regime at this point. >> we are bracing for china gdp numbers. any minute now. we are expecting a moderate slowdown at explain 6%. looks like 6.5%.

this is after that print in the second quarter. your initial take so far? what is the read through? >> it is worse than the market expected. it will probably weigh on sentiment a bit. if you look at the details, some of the numbers people are expecting quite a lot of pressure improved. for instance, retail sales has improved. if you look at some of the demand, domestic demand indicators, at least at the margin, there are signs that some of the policy support measures are starting to filter through. >> the biggest slide for china's hasks since the 2013 rout persuaded officials to reassure investors they can keep risks under control. rishaad: what do they do to try and engender calm? >> it is already an indication of coordination at the highest level. on specifics, there is a large focus on pledge shares.

for example, the banking regulators said they will allow insurance firms to sell some products to address liquidity risks associated specifically with pledge shares. they are urging banks to deal with pledge shares where the collateral has hit a for-sale level. ♪ rishaad: still ahead as we review the week on "bloomberg best," conversations about cannabis and cryptocurrency, two alternative investments stepping towards the mainstream. director managing christine lagarde and haruhiko kuroda with insight from the imf meeting in bali. up next, more from a big week in corporate earnings reports. johnson and johnson among the companies quite happy with the result. >> we saw strength across all three of our segments. rishaad: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ this is "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat. let's continue with more earnings reports from prominent companies, starting with a blowout set of numbers from netflix. >> netflix one of the least loved faang stocks after posting third-quarter earnings and subscriber growth numbers well above expectations, and a good fourth quarter forecasts for subscriber growth as well. >> the forecast for the fourth quarter was the one that surprised me because it is the only time i have seen a nine in the subscriber addition for them. the more i dug into the international numbers, even if they had missed their forecast this year they are posting , growth quarter after quarter after quarter, which suggests it

will slowly build in other markets whether it is europe, asia, latin america, continues to be true. david johnson & johnson reported : third-quarter results that beat estimates and raised its full year earnings forecast. you beat topline, eps, what is the news? >> another good quarter from johnson & johnson. we saw strength across all three segments. our consumer business, we relaunched our baby franchise to make it more responsive to millennial moms and dads and the needs and wants they have. that complements the strength in over-the-counter medicines and beauty and skin care. in medical devices, we broaden -- we continue to broaden our portfolio. we had improved some areas that were weaker in prior quarters. oncology, neuroscience, we have transformational medicines that translates to good business. >> intensifying its push to

lower costs as the price of raw materials soars. aiming to say 200 million euros by 2020. analysts have described that target as ambitious. you have a goal of 15% profit margins by 2020. after the numbers today, do you still feel confident about that? >> i think the third quarter is showing we are definitely moving in the right direction. we added two percentage points, return on sales from last year, so now 12.2%, depending on the businesses. we took a big step. it will not be linear. it is a seasonable business, but on the medium-term and 2020, we feel more encouraged getting to those targets, specifically because the third quarter has had a significant amount of headwinds we were able to overcome and deliver stronger results than last year.

matt: s.a.p. has raised its outlook for the full year again on accelerating momentum for its cloud business. europe's biggest technology company said new bookings rose 37% in the quarter, while cloud sales grew 41%. is this where you see the strongest growth and where you are also putting your strongest investment? >> we see great momentum across all pillars of our cloud business. there is particularly strong growth across our cloud solutions, our customer experience management suites in the cloud, but the rest of the portfolio like our business networks have marched strongly ahead, and we are gaining efficiency in the cloud. our cloud growth margins have been trending up, so we are confident this momentum will carry us into q4 and next year. that is why we have raised our cloud outlook and the rest of our guidance metrics for the year.

alix: alcoa surprises with third-quarter earnings, posting double its estimate. also announcing a $200 million share buyback, the first since 2007. thank you, higher aluminum prices. what did they say about china trade and tariffs? , >> they put in the forefront, china overcapacity is still the problem. china is overproducing, spreading aluminum throughout the world, and that is making 50% of smelters around the world unprofitable or cash negative. level, more plants will have to shut down. they are pointing at donald trump's tariffs on imports in the united states don't address this issue. now they just put it up front in their earnings report.

shery: the world's biggest miner, bhp billiton, released data which cut its full-year forecast for copper output. what is going on at bhp? >> it cut its forecast by 3%, certainly a disappointment for the company. what it actually saw was a rise in production from the world's biggest copper mine, so good performance there, but those gains were offset by issues at other operations. there was a fire at a second mine, also an outage in australia, and the overall effect will be production lower this year. vonnie: sears-- shutting down potentially. the retailer has filed for bankruptcy protection after too much debt. the retailer's largest shareholder, eddie lampert, will step down as ceo. he still wants to restructure

around the smaller number of stores. is it possible for him to restructure? >> i would not be optimistic about that. the logic behind that idea is he will shrink to profitability, but the sad reality is he has been trying to shrink sears to profitability for a decade and it hasn't worked yet. he has cut costs to the bone. last year, their comparable sales were down 13.5%. it is hard to envision meaningful progress on the top line either. vonnie invesco agreeing to buy : oppenheimer funds, $246 billion in assets. asset management deals like this, they have improved the shares of the companies. what happens here? does it do the same? >> those deals have struggled a bit. when you are trying to build scale, there can be hiccups in terms of adding companies together and forming them together. invesco thinks this will be different. part of that is the structure of the deal.

in terms of the deal, mass mutual will become a shareholder in invesco, and invesco were adamant that this is a partnership and they will work together. they want mass mutual to still sort of be a partner with them. activist investor carl icahn is agitating against the plan to return to the public markets, arguing the transaction undervalues shares that track at stake in the vmware. >> what he is doing is coming out against this plan to go public, saying the price that dell is offering to buy these shares in which he holds an 8.3 percent stake, the price is undervaluing the true value of these dvmt shares. also, he is saying as well that the threat of doing an ipo as well is part of the scaremongering in order to get people to vote for the transaction.

>> bill gates says that personal computing would not have existed without paul allen. the billionaire cofounder of microsoft died yesterday from complications of non-hodgkin's lymphoma. he was 65. allen stepped down from microsoft for health reasons. in the past three decades, he turned his microsoft stake into a fortune valued at more than $26 billion. >> he spent aliens of dollars in lost billions of dollars -- billions of dollars and lost billions of investing in cable dollars tv and other companies. his most recent huge success has been real estate in seattle. he created almost a second fortune, making billions of dollars by buying real estate , a lot of which he wound up fashioning into headquarters for amazon. he built a music museum in seattle. he is involved in environmentalism, protecting the ocean, protecting endangered species brain research, , artificial intelligence.

he had a wide array of interest and a wide array of things he invested or donated money to in a philanthropic capacity. ♪

♪ rishaad: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat it -- rishaad salamat. on wednesday, canada became the second nation in history to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. the move creates opportunities for retailers, producers, and investors throughout the cannabis industry. brendan kennedy of tilray spoke with scarlet fu on the day of pot's legal debut in canada. brendan: it is a global growth opportunity, why you are seeing alcohol companies, beverage

companies, pharmaceutical companies desire to enter this space, because they are hunting for global growth at a time when there is not a lot of global growth. it is $150 billion to $200 billion opportunity over the long-term, and i expect multiple hundred billion dollar market cap companies in this space in the coming years. scarlet: how should investors value a company like tilray, a tobacco company, health care company, consumer discretionary? brendan there are elements of : all three. they are reflected in the value. the cannabis industry is disrupting the pharmaceutical, alcohol, functional food and beverage industries, and to some extent the tobacco industry. we became the first cannabis company to ipl -- to ipo on the u.s. exchange. we were optimistic about the

investor interest, but even we have been surprised by not only interest in the u.s., but from around the world in this global growth opportunity. scarlet: we know food and beverage companies have been tripping all over themselves to get a piece of the cannabis action, constellation brands or coca-cola. what is the one risk they are underestimating when investing in the space? brendan: timing is the biggest risk. i believe we will see countries 3, 4, 5 in next couple of years. that is the big unknown. we know other countries are looking at this regulatory framework being established here in canada and looking to implement a similar system. rishaad: coming up on "bloomberg best," we shift from cannabis to cryptocurrencies. mike nova gratz thinks bitcoin will rally again and tells us when the move will happen. plus, the imf meeting in bali, christine lagarde saying banks -- central banks and governments should be on guard for more volatility. >> it is time to buckle up, improve and increase the buffers

both monetarily, as well as fiscally. ♪

♪ rishaad: this is "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat. time to revisit some of the week's most compelling conversations. the imf, world bank meeting in bali brought together the many global financial leaders, including haruhiko kuroda. kathleen hays asked him how the boj plans to signal a net it from its long-running program of monetary stimulus. >> what should the market participants be waiting for? when you are waiting to exit -- what will the signal be? thing, a change in interest rate? bond purchases? amount of bond

the monetaryo more operating target. it is cost control. it is cost control, it is current monetary easing. cost control is the main tool of current monetary easing. one way discuss exiting from the exceedingly, extremely accommodative monetary policy, when the 2% target is met or close to being met, we can change the target, monetary operating target of interest rate in due force.

but at this moment, inflation is at 1%, so we will continue the current control at the current level of interest. ♪ bali, haslindan amin sat down with the imf managing director christine lagarde. they spoke about the risks of a future financial crisis, and whether central banks still have room to respond. ♪ >> if you compare the situation today with previous crisis episodes, there is still now a limited policy space. but there a much stronger banking system. do not forget that in the meantime, there has been strengthening of the capital base of many banking institutions, better supervision, better regulations, less nonperforming loans in the system, and the leverage is still sensible. that part is much more solid. there are risks in the system, of course, and we need to be

very mindful of that, and we need to make sure that the buffers are rebuilt. while we have this 3.7% growth next year -- this year and forecast into next year as well it is time to buckle up. , it is time to improve and increase the buffers, both monetarily as well as fiscally. and there is space for that. we have seen, for instance, flexible exchange rate play a very good role as a shock absorber because of these exogenous shocks, one that is clearly needed. and those countries are doing smart growth, friendly fiscal consolidation when i have high debt. that is also a way to improve the space. haslinda: you have talked about complacency in market, and how valuations in the u.s. are stretched. after the cuts in the growth projection for the world we saw a correction. do you see that as an

anticipated reaction, or is there more to come? >> stock markets go up and down, and i'm not going to comment on any episode of up or down. i think what we are telling policymakers is just be prepared, because there will be more volatility. as the u.s. economy is improving, there will be monetary tightening going forward. everybody has to prepare for that. haslinda: are there any risks that are being underestimated by the government today? >> anybody who doesn't keep their eyes on those levers that they have, whether it is monetary, whether it is fiscal, whether it is structural reform, is taking an unnecessary risk. i think now is not the time because we have had 3.7 last year, this year, and next. relaxe time to say, let's and do a bit of fiscal tolerance

and a bit of slowing down of the reforms. it is time to continue to steer the boat and steer it decisively thoseer to deal with choppy waters. rishaad: 2018 has not been a great year for cryptocurrencies, but some investors and institutions will -- investors and institutions are betting the sector will pull out of its slump. this week, there was a new business devoted to managing digital assets. erik schatzker spoke to tom jessop, who will run this venture for fidelity. tom if you look at the existing : market infrastructure, it heavily skews toward retail investors. we saw demand for an institutional quality offering. even though people see fidelity as an asset manager, we service about 13,000 financial institutions. we have taken the learning from that client base and applied it

to crypto to give them tools they need to invest in the space. and as recently as last week, a number of big endowments, m.i.t. and harvard have allocated resources. we have seen a real acceleration in demand over the last couple of months. erik: what exactly will they be able to do thanks to what you are offering? tom institutions will be able to : securely store their crypto assets or digital assets with us. erik: custody. tom custody, that's custody. : we will provide a facility for them to trade with a number of providers. and then we are also giving them the services and tools they need to integrate these assets into their own businesses. ♪ rishaad: erik schatzker also spoke exclusively to michael digital. of galaxy it is one of the most prominent investors in cryptocurrencies.

they discussed the state of the market for such assets. michael bitcoin, just to use it : as a crypto proxy, is at $6,400 give or take. erik is this wave of : institutional buying, where will it be six months from now? michael you have to take at : $6,800 first at a technical level, and if that happens you will see people get excited and kind of front run the institutions coming in. is a big level and i see is breaking $10,000 by the end of the year. i think as the institution comes in they will put in new highs. : you trade crypto. you go long, you trade short. how are you right now? michael: we are long. bitcoin is held really well above $6200. there seems to be some support there. what's interesting is in the

last six months, people have divided the world, bitcoin and everything else, and bitcoin seems to have restored value. erik last thursday or wednesday , the market falls out of bit and bitcoin dropped 5%. michael it is not going to be : without volatility. we are still a very young asset. ♪

♪ rishaad: you are watching "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat it -- sala amet. sal let's resume our roundup of the week's top business and financial headlines. in europe, where italy's government submitted a budget, still faces pushback from brussels. francine the ruling coalition : has reached a last-minute agreement on the country's budget. it delivers on costly election

promises, but risks a confrontation with brussels over eu fiscal rules. will this be confrontational for brussels? >> it certainly is confrontational. it drastically changes the figures put in place by the previous government. the real issue here is the widening of the structural deficit. previously, that structural deficit was going to go to 0.4%, 0.9% next year, which would put it in line with the under 0.5% that brussels required, but it is actually widens now, up to 1.7%. that is what the confrontation that structural deficit has widened, and rome is essentially flouting the rules. francine european leaders are : attacking the spending plans as unprecedented, saying the draft budget deficit can stay at 2.4%. the political drama also played out in the

btpets with the 10-year bund yield spread reaching their widest level since 2013. who will give in first? the fight can't go on forever. >> no, it can't, but the european commission has been very specific with the numbers, and the italian government has been equally strong about maintaining its own position. right now, it's a bit too early to say who will blink first. ♪ francine: angela markel's sister party in bavaria -- angela merkel's sister party in bavaria has dropped to a historic low in the regional vote. it is set to lose its absolute majority as the party braces resource result since 1950. >> the far right afd did gain a lot in bavaria that the biggest winner of the day, arguably, is the green party. the greens are pretty centrist in bavaria, so with goes beyond the political margins here, but it is certainly is a rebuke to merkel. her party is going to have a state election in two weeks,

and that will be a direct test for her party and authority. the day she is looking at herself is in december, when she plans to run again as party leader with three years left to go in her term. at stake is her authority in her party, in the political system, and how much has her leadership eroded? ♪ manus: china's consumer prices rose for a fourth month in september, driven by the cost of food. producer prices slowed, but not as much as forecast. so what is the factory gate story telling us about the broader economy? that has implications in terms of profitability and corporate. >> you saw the producer price index coming in 3.6% down from 4.1% in august, despite higher oil prices. it suggests that the economy is slowing and these producers can't pass on those prices. in terms of the consumer price -- pickedt picked up

up in line with expectations, 2.5% to 2.3% in august. things like fruit and eggs -- what you did not have was pick up in terms of services, education and health care. those sectors softened a little bit. >> the white house has notified congress that it will start trading negotiations with japan, the eu, and the u.k., a procedural step before entering talks. what are we expecting? >> this is a procedural announcement they have to make. the trump administration said that they will, within three months, start negotiations with japan, the e.u., and the u.k. on trade agreements. japan and the e.u. were initially reluctant, but now because of some threats of tariffs on their autos and auto parts industries, it seems that both are more willing to move ahead. ♪ >> breaking news.

we are learning that the justice department in the u.s. has charged a russian national for interfering in the upcoming midterm election. first of all, kevin who are , these individuals, and why take these steps now? kevin: a russian national has been charged by the u.s. department of justice for election interference, not just in the 2016 election cycle but also in 2018. a woman from st. petersburg , russia allegedly served as the chief accountant for an operation known as project latkya, this from a bloomberg exclusive by chris strom. we should also note that this weeksjust two and a half before the midterm elections in which state and federal law officials are working to make sure that u.s. election systems are better protected ahead of the midterms. it also comes as tech companies are also trying to bolster their security. clearly with this new doj charge

against these russian officials, it shows that there have been attempts that u.s. officials have been able to thwart. ♪ vonnie the financial stability : oversight council decided that prudential financial is no longer a special risk for the u.s. financial system. >> the big factor was the reconsideration of the fundamental nature of insurance businesses. we back insurance policies. we don't fund assets. understanding how those insurance policies might behave under stress is a very important part of understanding what happens to prudential, and any subsequent consequences for the market or global stability. i think the reexamination of the way our policies are likely to behave in a stressful environment led to the right conclusions, which is that we are a very stable business model. ♪ >> prominent members of the wto

are calling for an investigation into u.s. metal tariffs, opening up a new front in this escalating trade war. >> china, the european union, russia, and norway saying the duties violate wto rules. they want an independent assessment. has it put them into a dammed if you do and dammed if you don't position? >> it certainly puts the wto in something of a quandary. we have seen a real escalation in the pushback against u.s. decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. that complaint from a number of countries will be heard the week after next by the wto, and they have a real conundrum to wrestle with. if they back the u.s., does that encourage other members, other countries to also look to impose protectionist trade measures, citing national security grounds? on the other hand, if they rule against the u.s., you get more scorn from the white house,

and that could be a trigger from -- for the u.s. to withdraw from the wto altogether. ♪ rishaad: in the latest installment of small to big, food for thought from a successful startup. purple carrot began selling vegan meal kits in 2014, and the timing couldn't have been better. demand for meal kits is booming, and more americans are turning to a plant based diet. the company has high profile investors and partners as it positions for further growth. the founder and ceo weighs out purple carrot's recipe for success. ♪ andy purple carrot is a plant : based meal kit, and we offer a range of plant-based dishes every week. the feature price is $72, or $12 per plate. the number of vegans out there is relatively small in this country, but i always said this will be vegan food for

non-vegans, and 82% of our subscribers today are not vegan. ♪ the: in the spring of 2012, i was diagnosed with crohn's disease, somewhat out of the blue. i found that as i ate more plant-based eating i felt so , much better in general and , gained a deeper perspective on plant-based eating. back in 2014, i started the business with $100,000, and within the first month we ship -- shipped all the boxes from my house. lo and behold, we started to catch traction. we got great word-of-mouth through facebook. in the summer of 2015, i was able to recruit a well-known cookbook author and writer for "the new york times." we raised $2.8 million in september of 2015, as markets propelled our growth. overnight, we grew our orders by five times.

in the spring of 2016, we were approached by whole foods to introduce the first retail product in a whole foods store. while the product was well received, it really was ahead of its time in the sense that grocers weren't quite sure where to promote the product within the store itself, and consumers were not expecting to walk into a grocery store and find a retail meal kit. at the same time, we were in discussions with tom brady and his wellnesstv12, organization and , we had to make a decision -- should we stay within whole foods and focus on retail, or should we put it on hold and focus on the commerce? we chose the latter. tom is a part-time plant-based eater, which matches up very well to the type of audience we service. he represents a great image of what someone can accomplish eating a plant based diet. arguably, the greatest football player to ever live. adding those meals doubled the size of our company overnight.

♪ andy: in may of 2018, we secured a minority investment from fresh del monte a -- fresh for over $4 million. it's a global company, may have a tremendous amount of buying power, they have access to a whole host of fresh fruits and vegetables with the farms they own. they are servicing pretty much every retailer in the country. we have three distribution centers now, las vegas, chicago, and new jersey. that allows us to reach 100% of the continental united states with one to two day ground shipping. we will probably ship 5 million meals this year to our subscribers. ♪

♪ matt: it was in black and white in the notes, but it has been green and yellow on my terminal and yours. we can see, at least, that the projection on the dot plot is for rates to peak at almost 3.5% in 2020, then come back down. rishaad: there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. we always enjoy showing you are favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your favorite. here's another function you'll find useful. go. it will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast on-site into timely topics. here's a quick take from this week. >> among the top 10 most valuable tech companies globally are two china tech giants making their presence

felt. it is set to become a serious rival to silicon valley, but there are political hurdles ahead. this is china's tech giants. early on, chinese companies like tencent had a reputation for being copycats. it's instant messaging app originally looked a lot like a messaging app used in the u.s. >> 90% of them got their original aspiration from a u.s. equivalent. the portal business was the equivalent of yahoo!, there's an equivalent of twitter. alibaba, people would say their model is a hybrid of ebay and amazon, the list goes on. >> comparisons are now harder to make. the tencent messaging app has grown from a texting application shopping,orm for dating, flirting, watching videos, playing games, and ordering food. there is no u.s. equivalent. since the introduction of the internet in china, the government has controlled the

of with a complex system .ensors -- censors this is effectively quarantining china's technology ecosystem, blocking access to the likes of facebook, twitter, and instagram. that has enabled local to develop services without competition from abroad, building platforms with the uniquely chinese flavor. the internet users are more than double the entire u.s. population, and the companies grew to be massive. they became so successful that some u.s. companies are taking note. >> a lot of people would point to facebook trying to copy the we chat model where they are allowing third parties to open e-commerce stores, third-party games being introduced. >> but there is increasing pushback. >> china, they are draining us, they are taking our money. they are rebuilding themselves. >> president donald trump says

-- has imposed tariffs. bloomberg businessweek uncovered that the chinese even plant chips in computers to potential hardware hacks. >> two years ago we were seeing a lot of m&a investment in the technology from chinese companies in silicon valley. that has all been put on the brakes ever since the trade war. >> yet chinese tech company names only recently drew blank stares outside china are becoming increasingly familiar. it reached a pinnacle and 2018, overtaking apple globally, but the chinese big tech companies keep expanding and need to convince other nations they mean no harm. ♪ rishaad: that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them at bloomberg.com, along with all the latest business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best" this week's. -- for this week. thanks for watching. i'm rishaad salamat.

this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. jason: i'm jason kelly. we're joining you from headquarters in new york. carol: this week, the future of retail. e-commerce giants amazon and walmart are after global expansion. next stop on the battleground, india. jason: plus, sears files for bankruptcy. why eddie lampert couldn't keep the retail giant afloat. carol: first, to the politics section.