coming on bloomberg best, the stories that shaped the weekend business around the world. drama deepens on trade as the chinese president prepares summit.at the g20 >> which version of trump will show up remains to be seen. >> the eu signs off on brexit plan, but that is just the first step for theresa may. the fed releases minutes and takes heat from the white house. >> they're trying to create a little more wiggle room. >> for president is not happy

with anyone who does not do what he wants to do. holidaygth as the season gets underway. gm announces cutbacks. >> the focus is on his on business as usual. oilespite fears of a global glut, the ceo of saudi aramco sees opportunities. >> we are looking at gas. energy. chemicals. >> as investors navigate the little markets, they tell us what they see on the horizon. >> the inflation rate is going to be where it is today. around, i don't know what i am rooting for every day. >> in the straight ahead on "bloomberg best." -- it is straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ >> hello and welcome.

best, youromberg review of the most important business news and analysis from bloomberg television. let's start with a day by day look at the top headlines. the u.k. and the european union agreed to terms of separation but persuading parliament remains a challenge. >> theresa may is urging lawmakers to embrace her brexit plan. the prime minister announced parliament will hold a vote on whether to accept or reject the deal before christmas. this after leaders signed off on the agreement over weekend. but challenges lie ahead. cannot see any way she gets this deal through parliament. people who have committed to roughly.er are 230, she is not even in the

neighborhood of being close. winning grudging admiration from the public. if that indoors, her ability to hang on through this process starts to be a grudging acceptance of the deal. a bit of pressure from their constituency. i don't see it anymore than rob does. announcementor from general motors, the automaker saying they will close seven arteries worldwide including five in north america. this means 14,000 jobs will be cut. >> they have a problem, far too build sedans.to they make things like the apollo and the chevy cruz.

they don't want these. the ceo is saying, if there is a problem, fix it now. she is trying to get out in front rather than letting it fester. trump saying he is pushing forward with plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion with of goods. -- if theyies produce to create a trade deal. >> do you think this is going to impact talks? topresident trump wants inject an air of uncertainty. helikes to take the approach is unpredictable. he is going to keep his chinese adversaries guessing. this is the way he operates. when you have the president of the u.s. saying he is prepared to slap 25% tariffs on chinese

imports, you would think markets would be in a meltdown and they are not. they are beginning to discount this rhetoric. shares moved down after president trump said he might include iphones in the next round of tariffs on chinese imports. >> there are a lot of things the president had said about chinese imports prorate i don't think we have to rush out and think there is going to be a 10% tariff on iphones. the tea leaves appearing, i'm not sure that there is going to be a new tariff on the iphone. xi havedent trump and agreed to meet over dinner in a pivotal moment in the tariff war. we are going to wonder what is on the menu for this dinner date. >> no lowering of expectations

at the white house. the chief economic adviser larry was ansaid this important meeting with high-stakes. that monday,act trump was setting a pessimistic tone, saying he was unlikely to tebow was saying it is a good possibility for a deal. upch version will show remains to be seen. andresident trump dave interview with the washington post. he said, i am not even a little bit happy with my selection of jay. i am not blaming anybody but if think the fed is often base -- off-base. dog. is not a

we did not think he was when he was nominated. the fact that the president is unhappy with him is not a surprise. the president is not happy with anyone who does not do exactly what he wants to do. i think he is going to exert the feds independence. we don't have politicians making monetary policy for the country. >> a solid game day for u.s. stocks. to havey powell seemed walked back some of this is a early comments and suggested we neutral rate. >> there is no preset policy path. took away from i the remarks. most strikingly, the idea rates are not that far from neutral. , we need to wait and see what the impact of rate hikes is going to be.

see that coming through over a time of the year. the idea there is no preset path for policy could be obvious is he ision -- idea trying to create wiggle room for the fed. as the market interpretation suggests, that is most likely to be used to put a shallower path for rate hikes into place. reserve officials have signaled a more flexible approach and interest rate increases. >> they are definitely sink elaine -- signaling a rate hike is imminent. they are going to make meeting by meeting decisions. let's start with one of the key phrases, off the list. suggested annts increase was likely to be warranted soon. december.

if inflation information and labor market information was in line. some upcoming meetings could be appropriate to transition to policy statement language that places greater emphasis on the evaluation of incoming data. such a change would help make the committee more flexible. summit and bouygues ra's, world leaders have touched down. by theng to be dominated escalating trade war. it all comes down to those over there. complex the focus is back on the strong man. president trump. .resident xi president putin, and mohammad bin salman. with theent trump

mexican president as well as prime minister trudeau. what do we have coming up next? -- in terms of nafta, the u.s. to get it ratified. sayingde representative they are going to talk about that next week. have new negotiations. the tariffs remain in place. in thetrudeau, noting it signing ceremony, telling the u.s. president we need to do something about that. bar ahead ofng the the g20. a few minutes ago, markets cheered by the fact the u.s. trade representative asked about it. he expects the dinner to be a success but he did not say what that is. here is what he went on to say. the part of the quote that gets left out.

the end, there will be a positive dealing on behalf of both presidents. in terms of doing a deal, that is up to the president of the men states and the president of china. saying it is going to be a success but not saying what that is. presidents came out and said it was a success and we are going to keep talking, that may be enough to keep people happy until we see where this goes. >> still ahead, as we review the week, an exclusive interview with the saudi aramco ceo. talking trade. and thoughts on brexit. next, more of the business headlines. president trump provost to close the u.s. southern border, but markets.arely moving >> traders are taking it with a grain of salt. sophie: this is bloomberg.

♪

sophie: this is bloomberg best. let's pick up on our global tour of the top business stories. in europe, where brexit and the budgetof italy's continue to cause concern for investors. >> they have never shied away from doomsday bloomberg warnings, but the analysis has gone further than before. he says the economy could shrink 8% year and the pound could fall the dollar. i know this was sort of a doomsday scenario. >> it is pretty extreme.

the no brexit, the no deal ofxit scenario, the range outcomes is a norm us. it is hard to tell. atould put the estimates very low, the bottom and of the spectrum of outcomes. you can understand why they have done it. thepoint was to test banking sector, if it was resilient enough to resist that shock. it turns out it is. the bottom line is it is pretty extreme. underrling remains pressure as theresa may launched her tour. it will be difficult for the deal to pass in the house of commons through the prime minister is said to caved into pressure from parliament. the fact that now mps can choose whether to attach conditions or not, does it mean it is more likely be vote gets past december 11 are not? >> it gives more sway to mps on

the outcome of that vote. that point.conceded is betting there will be no majority in the house of commons for these amendments. it does open the door for something more dramatic to happen in terms of the outcome of exit. vote, theck, the big numbers are looking pretty difficult. her toive mountain for him climb. we are not hearing many mps are changing their mind, particularly on her own site. ? -- side. >> italian officials of signaling new openness for a lower 2019 budget deficit target. minister says no

one is hung up on this. it could be 2.2% or 2.6%. >> they said we are not hung up on decimals. they also said in the same breath, they are spending all the money they plan on spending. on the big things, which is what makes up the deficit. they want pension reform, to cut taxes. citizen income. what are they saying? at some point, he's going to call their bluff. >> it is the annual spending spree. black friday sales, $22 billion. was thanksgiving shopping? >> it was a good time to be a consumer. for the past year, we started trained to deals word not going to be as prolific as we had thought. they are back. or better for the

shopper, which means flat or worse for the retailers. , a lot of new data spending going on. contributed to those numbers as well. >> no doubt. what you can see is the retail industry grew happy, getting off to a quote strong start. the national retail federation saying 41 million people shopped online during that five day time. many people say that is because the deals have been spread out through the week. that may have impacted traffic. a big boost for retail stocks. >> president trump resuming his tweets on the border security today, urging mexico to deport what he calls flag-waving migrants. why is the president re-upping this rhetoric right now?

more than 40 migrants arrested along the u.s. mexico border over the weekend. more than the 8000 that are part of the so-called caravan. the 1954 border, a small portion was closed. control agents using tear gas. >> when he threatened to close the entire border, it registered more as a blip for the peso. >> they are taking this with a grain of salt. they don't expect the full border to be closed. even the area they were promised over the weekend, closings in the ascendancy drove entry point ecidro intrigue

point, things coming back to normal. >> president trump looking for ways to cut subsidies to general motors. the president said earlier on twitter, the reason the small trucks business is a go to favorite is for many years terrorists have been put onto small trucks. if we did that with cars coming in, many more would be told here. how much does gm have to worry about tariff action in the wake of production changes? too much tot have worry about. the first thing he threatened, cutting credit. trump has made his case. going to change the

tariffs all that much. gm doesn't bring in much from other countries. there is not much you can do there. >> a surprise turn in the mue ller investigation. n pleading guilty to a new charge. >> the new charge, different from the charge three months ago. it pertains to russia. all the allegations and the reason he was appointed special counsel, to look at ties between the trump campaign and russia. there was a real estate development project but ited in 20165, stopped before the iowa caucuses. the plea is that it was false.

continued into june, after he had secured the nomination. this is a significant development. >> he is trying to get a reduced sentence. he is lying about a project everybody knew about it. we were very open and we were thinking about building a building. i don't knowion, what you would call it. i dissent ultimately not to do it. there would have been nothing -- decided not to do it. there would have been nothing wrong if i did do it. ♪

♪ >> you are watching bloomberg best. oil prices fell more than 20% in the month of november, and rising output has raised concerns about this of like glut.

we sat down with a few with sser. aramco ceo na >> there is a lot of healthy demand in our industry. we are not looking only at oil, we are looking at gas, energy. chemicals. potential.lot of growth potential. >> there is a bit of skepticism among investors about your ipo ambitions. it has been delayed a couple times. 2021, is that date firm? could it happen sooner? royal highness, the crown committed.are we are committed to the

ipo. the government is committed for sure. it is about timing. the talk before the discussion, the ipo would have happened. second half of 2018. the first half, we talked about acquisitions of a major stake. gose two cannot concurrently. the acquisition makes a lot of sense for us and we have do it right now. we have a strategy of committing 3 millionbarrels to barrels. >> the recent murder of jamal

khasshoggi has dampened investment sentiment. what is your message to foreign investors? >> there is a lot of investment coming into the kingdom. intendingyou will be a program, a forum. than 30igning more $27 billion. if you put these together, agreement and investment signed. >> coming up, we will look at more of the top is the stories including some rare setbacks for apple. we will revisit compelling conversations. is eu regulator says it

essential not to get into the crossfire of trade wars. x we cannot let ourselves be kidnapped by one side of the aisle or the other. >> us is bloomberg. -- this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ welcome back to "bloomberg best." this week, news regarding the automobile industry. among the many hot topics, general motors -- higher tariffs, and the ongoing investigation of carlos ghosn and. weinst this backdrop, interviewed a number of executives at the los angeles auto show, beginning with the bmw ceo, who spoke exclusively with bloomberg about whether his company may need to follow gm's past and call some of its less profitable models. ♪ >> no, because if you are thinking for the next

generation, showing it to the public at the l.a. motor show, it's always a very successful car in the united states. we already invested heavily into suv's, and that is why we are seeing more of these products. our product offensive was one big prospect is on electric. if you think about products like the eight series convertible, we are working on the super luxury segment, like the coupe and convertible, and on the electrification. but for sure, you need heavy investment in the future. on the other side, we are always looking for efficiency, the complexity of the products, saving costs to invest more. ♪ opening au consider

production plant in the united states of america? have you looked at that option, all over? -- oliver? >> we didn't think about it, u.s.se production in the depends on the volume. it is at 60,000 per year in the u.s., and profitable production in the u.s., you need normally around about 50,000 units. the 60,000 we do with all motors, it is definitely difficult to talk about production in the u.s. bigger volume manufacture, it is much easier to do that. ♪ footprintlook at our with our plant in mexico and the big client in tennessee, which we have been expanding, if you at least look at the initial

feedback from what we've got going, we feel we are in a good position. the overwhelming majority of the cars we sell of the north american market are made in the north american market, so we are in a pretty decent position. we have to get into the fine details of the agreement and local content, but we feel we are in a decent position. the truth is it makes sense to sell the cars and make the cars in the same marketplace. for the most part, that is what we do. >> does that mean if president trump proposed tariffs on autos imported from europe, it would not materially affect your business in the u.s., provided nafta goes through? >> as of right now, for volkswagen, 95% plus of our sales come from the nafta marketplace. that would not have a direct, big impact. but let's go back to the top of the question. we think even the conversation of tariffs and trade wars and all these debates ring

instability and unknowns, and i think the lack of stability is not a good thing for business. we believe in free trade, we believe in fair trade, we believe in an open marketplace. that's what we need. we made investment that are 15, twenty-year cycles, as you know. you can't have the chess pieces moving all the time. do i feel we are in a good position to navigate what's happening? yes. but more importantly, our point of view was quite clear. free, open trade, transparency, and a must on stability. ♪ >> the focus right now is business as usual. the alliance is intact, in direction from japan and the direction we are giving to our dealers and employees here in the united states, stay focused on the business at hand, selling cars in taking care of consumers. >> how important are subsidies? this is something we hear being fired at gm in terms of electric subsidies. is this something you need as

part of the industry? is it something you depend on? >> it is not something we depend on. it is clearly something consumers depend on, and makes the vehicles much more intriguing. with the synergies we have, as we continue to make more vehicles that can bring the cost down, we will be able to get the manufacturing cost to a point where we might be able to operate without these subsidies, where the consumers won't need these subsidies. they are important as electrification become something consumers are more and more comfortable with, avoiding any of the range anxiety issues that are quickly becoming not an issue anymore. i think we are in good shape going forward. ♪ >> the eu commissioner for competition, marguerite messinger, joined bloomberg to discuss trade and regulation. she told guy johnson she shares some of the frustration linked to global trade tensions. ♪ >> we have been proposing

reforms to the system, because we share the view that it is not working well enough . we work with our u.s. counterpart, chinese counterpart, and we see many countries are coming on board, to see if we can make our multilateral system work better. that for us is a key priority. tariffs,ill increasing which makes businesses in a very difficult position. see whatnteresting to is transpiring here. increasingly, antitrust authorities -- we certainly see this in the united states and to a certain extent in europe -- are being used as weapons in this global trade war. is that a situation you are comfortable with? >> well, that cannot be the case. antitrust is about the evidence of the case, the fact of the

case, the behavior of the company, whether it is illegal due to competition or not. for us, the standard of proof is always that our cases will have to stand up in court. we cannot let ourselves be kidnapped by one course or another course, by one side of the aisle or another. we serve the european consumers so they have the benefit of free unfair competition. this is very important to us for any business, no matter the flag they are flying they do business in europe. ♪ >> it is now december, and wall street leanings are developing economic forecast and investment strategies for 2019. withoke exclusively several prominent asset managers about their outlook, as we did with jpmorgan's chief global strategist, who set down with vonnie quinn. ♪ >> throughout this long economic expansion described as a healthy

tortoise, the idea for 2018 was a tortoise on sugar. the image for 2019 is a marathon tortoise. it is going to slow down to about 2% growth again, but we think it will keep going. if this expansion makes a pass next july, it will be all the u.s. economic expansion going to the civil war. a record long expansion, that we think is sustained. but downshift to 2% growth has interesting implications. >> if it begins to happen the way you are forecasting that it will, wouldn't we get a response from the fed? so long as we have a slowdown in the economy rather than the stall, i think the fed will still raise thei rates in december, but also in march and june. that takes us up to 3%. at that point, i think they will stall -- they will suspend

further rate hikes. we are told they might come back in december. what's going to happen is we will not see inflation takeover. i think it will be exactly where it is today. id without higher inflation, think the federal reserve may stop. to some extent, yes, it is a power-play. they will stop at neutral and won't go beyond neutral anyway, and if the economy were to weaken, you can take those march and june rate hikes out. but the base case is rate hikes in march and june, and the economy slows to 2% and holds. ♪ >> we start of year with global synchronized growth, the tailwind of tax cuts, n.l. global synchronized growth has been sold and tax cuts were spent. but in europe, some of the capital goods companies are getting hurt, some of the chemical companies getting hurt. we are spending a lot of our wish more people

have lost money but we think there is an interesting opportunity today and that german banks in particular because it is closer to maturity and we think it's an opportunity to take the collateral or work it out. there are real estate opportunities in spain, which has been doing reasonably well. italy is still challenged and there is some selective opportunity, but that script is being written. >> what about across the channel? what is theresa may can't get a brexit deal done? think that would be to me an event that would cause although if you look at all the dislocating events over the last decade, people ended up buying the market rallied back -- look, i

think the market by and large still expects there would be a deal and if there truly was a that was devastating i think the markets would react negatively. i joke around internally and externally, i don't know what i'm rooting for every day. ♪

♪ this is "bloomberg best." let's resume our round up of the week's top business stories with a focus on company is. facebook is facing hearings before european lawmakers as it turns into another pr debacle.

♪ where is mark zuckerberg? that's the question that lawmakers in the u k and other nations asked today in various parliaments. the u k this version of an empty chair after facebook failed to show up for an international hearing on fake news and privacy concerns. there was a certain amount of theater around all of this so how seriously should we take what is happening? >> there is no chance of zuckerberg was ever going to turn up. it was jointly chaired by select committees and the u.k. parliament but we also had representatives from belgium, france, argentina, brazil, singapore -- they claimed they represented the interests the 400 million people. the format is such that you can really be held accountable. ♪ apple, it isook at

giving up its crown as the world's most valuable company and after a steep decline microsoft took the top spot for the first time in eight years. microsoft is kind of back in favor among investors, seen a safer and more insulated from -- is that justified or is that a knee-jerk reaction? >> it is also focused on the cloud. microsoft is well-positioned as any company. surelye slowly but building this behemoth and we are seeing tech investors giving away -- >> apple is also facing an antitrust case in the supreme court which could have wide-ranging applications for the entire industry. they accuse apple of maintaining a monopoly and jacking up

prices. the u.s. supreme court justices allow the lawsuit to continue. what did the supreme court justices signal about their position on this case? >> the general sense was that they would let the lawsuit against apple go forward. the only real vote was justice john roberts and as many as seven justices are taking their perspectives might be inclined to let the lawsuit go forward. that's bad news for apple obviously, it as a source of pressure on them to reduce the 30% conditions they charged app store developers. ♪ >> deutsche bank is said to be considering a major shakeup in its ranks, this is regulators are expressing frustration with efforts to prevent financial crime. bloomberg has learned that the bank's chief regulatory officer may leave the company but any

final decision has yet to be made. do regulators felix deutsche bank is not on top of the issues? >> i think so, and this is serving as the second ceo that had previously been associated with the associations of the bank and still have struggled to regain the confidence of regulators, they are still not making significant progress in tackling the prevention of it has been reprimanded for its failings and preventing money laundering, for example, both by u.s. regulators and german regulators. germany haves in rated deutsche bank's offices in a money laundering investigation . the bank headquarters in frankfurt has been searched today -- what, do we know about this investigation the scale of it, and how serious it could be for deutsche bank? >> what we know is that police officers were deployed, about

100 and 70 law enforcement officials who rated six different locations, including a private home. raid felt the the scale of the operation was quite big. what it means for deutsche bank is hard to say. any small legal problem can cause nervousness among investors. but we don't know how much it will expand into a bigger problem -- there's no fine involved yet, so we will still need to figure that out. ♪ >> the board of mitsubishi motors has followed in the steps of nissan by asking -- mitsubishi cited reputational risks for following suit. >> not too surprisingly, the board of directors slate yesterday in tokyo voted unanimously -- i believe there were eight board members -- to

ask is chairman. mitsubishi motors was bailed out in 2016 after some scandals and profitability issues. they are tied to nissan and they did follow the steps, and this really does set the stage for a possible power struggle going forward. ♪ >> struggling commodity trader noble group has extended the deadline as it tries to address regulator concerns that a multiagency investigation into its accounting practices. where does this leave the restructuring now? >> it isn't going to be long enough to allow noble to satisfy all the questions -- they are quite extensive. noble has had to hire technical experts. it is hard to see that this will be resolved in two weeks.

there might be a backstop, they could go to the end of december, but it is still touch and go. we don't really know will happen to this restructuring. ♪ a three-way split at united technologies. company is streamlining on three separate businesses and spinning off the elevator in climate controlled units. it seemed like everybody from the activists to the shareholders were saying to do market isn'tthe really appreciating what has been done. unitedcally last night, technologies announced it would split into three companies and that includes that 23 billion acquisition approved last week by chinese regulators. is down as much as 6% or 7%, mostly because of the

free cash flow estimate. that is where you are seeing the negative reaction. ♪ >> the federal reserve is deepening its investigation into goldman sachs's involvement in the 1mdb scandal. give us the update. >> essentially you can add another headache into the mix. the department of justice is an advanced stages of the scandal, and malaysian authorities want their dues back. at thiswith the fed stage where they are getting to the business end of the probe, it means a whole heap of trouble for goldman sachs that doesn't look like it will be resolved. to be clear, the bank has been saying that this whole scandal is because of one or two crooked individuals at the bank and not the firm, but it remains to be seen if they will accept that defense. ♪

♪ if you look at the easy pr screen, you can choose from the drop-down box, you can choose total trade, surplus, deficit -- i have deficit and we have a massive one that the u.s. does with china. >> there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you are favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your favorites. here's another function you'll find useful, it will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast insight 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. the industry has become a serious rival to silicon valley, and there are political hurdles ahead. this is your bloomberg quick take on china's tech giants. early on, chinese companies like tencent had a reputation for being copycats. it's instant messaging app initially looked a lot like icq. 90% of them all got their original inspiration from a u.s. equivalent. wasr portal business modeled after yahoo!, alibaba -- people were saying it was a hybrid of ebay and amazon. the list goes on. >> comparisons are no harder to make. tencent's messaging at has grown from a texting at to a platform for shopping, flirting, dating, watching videos, playing games, and ordering food in taxis. there's no u.s. equivalent.

since the introduction of the internet in china, the government has controlled the web with a complex systems of sensors and gateways. it has effectively quarantined china's technology ecosystem, blocking access to the likes of facebook, twitter, and instagram. it has enabled locals to develop surfaces without competition from abroad, and build platforms with a unique flavor. due to china's large population, the companies grew to be massive. they became so successful that some u.s. companies are taking note. are think a lot of people trying to see facebook copy the we chat model, where they are allowing through parties to open e-commerce stores, through party games being introduced. >> but there's increasing push back. >> china. they are draining us, taking our money. >> president donald trump says

china has imposed tariffs. bloomberg businessweek uncovered that the chinese even implanted chips and computers for potential hardware hacks. >> two years agoe we sing a lot of investment and activity from chinese companies. that has all been put on breaks ever since the trade war. >> yet chinese tech company names that only recently drew blank stares outside china are becoming increasingly familiar. which the pinnacle in 2018 by overtaking apple globally, techhe chinese big companies keep expanding and will need to convince other nations they mean no harm, ♪ of the manyjust one 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's it for "bluebird best"

this week. thanks for watching. i'm sophie kamaruddin. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: i am emily chang in san francisco. this is "bloomberg technology." coming up in the next hour, checking out of marriott. shares plunged as the hotel chain closes one of the biggest security breaches in corporate history. personal data from hundreds of millions of guests left address. president trump and xi are set to meet for dinner at the g20. will they find a new deal? sandberg versus soros. why facebook's defense keeps changing. the detail