it can clearly change what's going on. caroline: a little bit of height to close the trading day. we lost some of our gains. ringing the bell right >> looking forward to that. the indexes are up. higher.ere we drift we have a three day weekend to consider. the data out of china this week has been strong. joe: decent data in the u.s. benign inflation, some improvement in china. we are near all-time highs. into thedive deeper action with our reporters. >> we have a record close for the nasdaq 100. this is going back five years.

we see the beautiful uptrend starting to reverse last year on that volatility. we have arranged in the battle between the bulls and the bears. this range could suggest the bears could take back over. lynchf america merrill called an all-time high in the nasdaq 100. it will be interesting to watch. >> also going higher is american express after earnings. the estimates.gs the company reaffirmed its profit outlook. shares up 1.7% today. earnings are expected to be share, $7.85 and $8.35 a coming after renewed talks for

partnership with delta. more thanenses are $200 million, but the company is betting that it will lead to higher rewards. >> why don't we look at the brazilian fin tech company backed by ant financial, falling 24%, the first most since it wet public. these are payment processing companies. to company will apply prepayment. stoneco gets half its revenue. it will create pricing pressure and force some to reduce fees or stand its ground and lose business potentially. that is why shares are down 24%. 1.3%. down

still with us is sean matthews and luke. you mention the nasdaq 100 at a record high, and closing higher again today. the s&p 500 can't get there. what is holding it back? >> this is part of tech having been the leader for this market and rally. think health care is the second biggest sector. ,hen it takes it on the chin that is more or less what you are seeing. the big battle will be how much tech can continue to do this. it is the highest it has been com bubble.ot how much longer can it extend?

marketsyou look at the isht now, the smart money that it will continue to rally hard into a china deal. people will have to position a quarterly. -- accordingly. there is a little chase going on here. look at the bounce from an economic standpoint. as strong ase anticipated, nor what the market is telling you, but it is about momentum to the upside. mo,oline: this is foa ultimately. what about ipo's? is that fomo? >> when you have a lot of ipos at the same time, you should be afraid. that is assigned the top of the

market is near. that is a catalyst making people dive into the market because of the performance. you have a pipeline that is significant over the next two or three months, but the big theern will be what does economic balance look like. i don't think we go back to 3% growth. october, 3% plus growth, nirvana, everything was great, and we are nowhere near that now. we are near the same levels in october, but the global economy is clearly slower with a lot more issues. i would be concerned scarlet:. it is -- concerned about that. scarlet: it is not reflected in volatility. there is up lack of volatility across fx. >> implied volatility should be

low. goldman sachs on the broader , it is theility smallest trading range that is the condition of a global economy and your is the weak spot, that should tell you about what global asset volatility should be. >> you can also sell volatility. you have participants who are doing that as well. scarlet: it is an asset class of its own. joe: massive week for earnings next week. the big theme will be what people say about earnings over all and whether there will be a rebound in the second half and how ceos feel about the economy. themes forme other performance for specific sectors? numbers were wee

ak. europe is going in a recession. .he dax is up .5% that is an interesting environment. when you look at earnings, you only have to look at the outlook . it hasn't been negative, but people have not been talking about things are great and we are going back to where we were, some people are still cautious. caroline: you set up the hedge fund to capitalize on market turmoil. how frustrating is it when market turmoil won't show up? you always have to be a patient investor or trader. there are opportunities out there. ,f you look at the environment you have to let the market tell you what is going on as opposed

to fighting the marketplace. in theow it is just fomo equity markets. be a real challenge to see higher returns. , i believe inflation has actually been misunderstood for a long time the codes it familyt reflect a median and what their purchasing is at this point in time. if you are talking about health up 7%health care is going year, housing goes higher, food continues to go i. -- go higher. there is inflation in the system. i think were looking at 1960's data in terms of how inflation is calculated. here and00 families

they would say there is inflation out there. thank you. scarlet: thank you. that does it for the closing bell. up next, "what'd you miss?" this is bloomberg. ♪

♪

caroline: the mueller report is out and raising more questions. why thereexplains might be a cover-up. plus, blackstone exceeding $500 billion for the first time and plans to convert itself into a corporation. the mueller report into the 2016 presidential election has been released. , elitheir key takeaways and jonathan bernstein. jonathan, you were not impressed by the performance from attorney

general barr. what is it that was so inappropriate? he had no business making a statement characterizing the report before releasing it. did spend for the administration. should not be doing that kind of work for the president. >> his job was to communicate the process of what happened. do you think he stepped outside of those bounds? >> absolutely. he didn't do that. he came out and said no collusion several times. thateport certainly says

they did not find evidence for criminal conspiracy, but they found context between the trump .ampaign and russian actors he said there was no of obstruction of justice, but there was tons of obstruction of justice. that was inappropriate to comment at all and inappropriate to incorrectly summarize the report. there were 10 instances of obstruction of justice from your perspective. what is next. >> we will see reactions from democrats in congress, but i doubt a call for impeachment. the big difference is that in the case of watergate, it was obstruction into an actual crime.

in this case the underlying crime of a criminal conspiracy , the u.s.campaign individuals and russia to influence the election was not proven. there is damaging information. inot of things are known public, but there are interesting nuggets about conversations the president had with his subordinates and efforts to get subordinates to do things that would have been in many cases corrupt acts. it does not show in my view a devious president threatening the rule of law. more clever, he would have fired james comey on his first day in office, which many advisors wanted him to do.

it shows a president out of his depth, resorting to the type of behavior when he was a private all theand finding that things he tried to do to make this investigation go away made it far worse for himself. joe: this seems to be one of the central points of dispute, this idea that william barr did not see any reason ultimately to see obstruction, whereas mueller cited reasons to think a of structure in case could be made. jonathan thought it was completely inappropriate. >> i understand why democrats are upset. if you want to talk about getting ahead of narratives, which seems to be the big concern, the other side of the aisle has legitimate concern that for nearly two years you had a lot of allegations that

were treated as true. thisd all excitement about mueller and that. where you moment would call for some sort of reassessment. there is probably a concern there. i don't think it rises to the level of a five-alarm fire. romaine: there is so much focus on trump, the man, but there was a theme in this report that russia did interfere in our elections. what is your take away with regards to how the u.s. will address the element of the report? >> that is one thing that congress needs to take up, along with the rest of it. we have had investigations in the senate which seem to have been on point. there wasn't anything in the previous republican run house,

but democrats in the house would be well advised to look into not just a partisan investigation of trump, but a laying out of what happened here on the brush aside and what should be done about it. foreign policy is your bread and butter. the foreignke on policy ramifications. what could be the effect from a regulatory point of view? >> we have seen a new, more aggressive cyber posture that the executive branch has taken. there is evidence it appears to have dissuaded or deterred or in some cases prevented similar interference in the midterm elections. the big test will be 2020. american advantage the

electoral system has is that it is so diffuse and run by various states, and in some cases different localities, so it is difficult to hack the mainframe and change the results of the election. i think it will be a fact of life living in an be allworld, there will kinds of bad actors online that will try to attract clicks and eyeballs. the real solution is more media and political literacy of the population, which is a less sexy thing, but it will be a proper you have to deal with if you want to have social media and the internet as we know it. you for: we thank bringing your text today. first up, nasdaq gets its

u.s.-based pop ipo. -- pot ipo. we will talk with the ceo next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

caroline: greenlane goes public. today.surged 70% is the ceo from the nasdaq. soared totion has $870 million. the amount you raised, what will you do with it? >> thank you. the use of proceeds in addition to general corporate purposes

and working capital is to accelerate on our m&a strategy going forward. joe: specifically, what will you buy? at a look at our m&a horizontal perspective, meaning from a geographical perspective, so we are closely watching europe, south america, and australia. vertical expansion as well. one example, we acquired our largest supplier of child packaging, and will look to acquire additional brands in areas that don't compete going forward. romaine: there is a lot of enthusiasm for a legal cannabis market. we have seen pushes in new york state, new jersey that have fallen apart or been delayed. are you worried that regulatory changes might not, or may come to slow?

>> we sit and a prime position to take advantage of the 150 billion dollar estimated cannabis industry, but the bdquid nicotine and c industry, so our future isn't necessarily predicated on how anyone regulation or law comes into play, because of the unique position we are in. joe: you mentioned cbd, that is exploding. it does still exist in a regulatory ambiguity, and there is difficult access to banking for some players in the industry. how important is that some of those issues get resolved? taken a conservative approach to our legal and regulatory compliance. it is why we selected very carefully which cbd products we

would continue selling, which partners we wanted to partner with, and the same thing on the banking side. we don't accept hard currency from our customers, but the safe ranking act -- banking act opens new doors to access new customers that we otherwise can't do business with. one way is going online, e-commerce. you're looking to combine two companies in a unique e-commerce platform. why will it be unique? leveraging ourto distribution footprint and having the portfolio product we the, we feel confident in five letter proper domain name and the presence that gives.

we will also be taking that off-line in terms of our marketing spend. there are unique opportunities going forward with that as a brand. romaine: are you looking to be a direct seller to the consumer, or a more retail strategy? >> predominantly a distribution company. the vast majority of revenues are from b2b customers, but we were born in e-commerce and it remains an important part of our story. we recently opened a couple of brick-and-mortar locations, one in new york city. and in addition to being an innovative retail concept, we use that platform for test marketing new products before we distribute the more broadly across our distribution footprint. joe: senator mitch mcconnell today calling for all tobacco and nicotine products to have a minimum 21 plus age requirement.

would you support legislation like that? >> we are supporters over all of sensible regulation. another piece of legislation proposed was restriction of the flavored products to age-gated environments, and any regulation that would protect minors well giving adult users access to the , which adult users have shown a strong affinity from making the change from traditional products to vape, we will support. romaine: thank you very much. potentially ton raise the tobacco age. joe: i wonder how much of this is boosting kentucky tobacco farmers. i don't know. maybe i am paranoid. romaine: coming up, blackstone

and kkr. this is bloomberg. ♪ . ♪ so with xfinity mobile

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>> let's get the first word. mueller report reveals how president trump repeatedly tried to take control of the pressure probe. include thedes firing of james comey, the directive to subordinates to have robert mueller fired, and efforts to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. said hisdent's lawyers conduct felt within his constitutional powers. now that the report has been released from a more details are coming to light.

the most redacted part appears to be the first section covers russia's meddling in the 2016 election and examines contacts between russian representatives on the trump campaign. the report concludes there was no criminal culpability. several pages in that first section were almost entirely blacked out. the second section examining possible obstruction appears more likely redacted. in france, a daylong tribute was held today to honor the firefighters who saved notre dame. they rescued many of its treasures. construction workers are still securing key sections of the cathedral, including an area above one of its windows. fire officials warn that the landmark is still fragile. a coalition of opposition political parties is calling on egyptian voters to reject proposed constitutional amendments that would allow the president to stay in power until

2030. the civil democratic movement calls the amendment the fall of democracy. a nationwide referendum on the changes begin saturday and is expected to easily win approval. global news 24 hours a day on air and on tictoc on twitter powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. joe: blackstone is converting itself into a corporation from a publicly traded partnership. it follows in the footsteps of kkr that have benefited from a similar move. blackstone's ceo spoke about the conversion plans earlier. >> we have handicapped ourselves with our corporate form. by changing just the form, we will pick up another $4.5 trillion, doubling the amount of money that can by our stock.

joe: joining us now is the chief investment officer of family management corporation, which owns blackstone shares. the change here is in corporate structure allows blackstone to be included in , money that could theoretically go into blackstone stock. what does that say about the power of indices and their roles right now in terms of everything? you think an average investor dumping money into the s&p 500, he or she has no idea that a company like blackstone would not be included. long-only mutual funds are not able to buy limited partnership such as blackstone, so there is a limited segment for them. they think their stock does not reflect their underlying performance, and this move will

correct the valuation. romaine: we got some indication when kkr did this. >> blackstone has been performing well post-crisis. if you look at it compared to goldman sachs, they have struggled, whereas blackstone has turned it on. their earnings have grown 19% compounded annually since 2009. caroline: is that sustainable. rates,ra of low interest alternative reach for yields, but would this be something they continue the momentum of? >> i think it is. they are moving into the registered investment advisors and high worth, which is a segment they had not been focused on. they are now going down market. there is a push for private assets.

we saw the man they go further into private equity. raise the largest real estate investment fund $20 billion, so it is a hot time for them. joe: what about this theory that people by private equity because they don't have the market to market and they essentially can create the appearance of a high return investment that is also low volatility and that explains part of the appeal? you also heard schwarzman talk about how the fundraising went so well that it felt like an out of body experience. i don't know that made me a little nervous hearing that, but what do think of this rush into the space? >> they need to act with reality. just because it is privately traded, it is still the same risk inherent. investors going into a private equity fund because they perceive it to have lower

volatility, i think they need to reevaluate the investment. nonetheless, private equity and real estate, a lot of people don't know real estate is a forer segment of assets blackstone the private equity. romaine: i want to turn the conversation to fin tech, an area where we saw a lot of promise, or at least that was the hope. we have also seen it run into trouble as well, right? >> early on, there was a lot of excitement. a lot of these companies that promise to revolutionize lending , revolutionize banking, and that hasn't come true. the exciting narratives are not there like they used to be. i come from london's tech scene. it became the number an area to

build it. there is a company called resolute that is very well known. pr disaster.f a how much do think catching up with regulation and growing sustainably is an issue for fin tech? >> it is. they have to prove their worth. a lot of them have been. there is a lot of money from venture capital and private equity and a lot of promise early on, but a lot of them have not borne fruit yet. joe: why didn't it work? in theory these marketplace and dataan use quant stuff and cut out the middleman and what ever it is. it is a nice sounding story, so what is the flaw of the model? >> some original naïveté in this phase. s lot of the earlier fin tech

thought they would replace banks. caroline: then goldman just copied them. >> you still need cheap, low-cost funding, a credit culture that knows how to fund the right loans. you still need to know how to operate within the regulatory bounds. a lot of them have proven not to do it. ironically, the big banks of the ones that will adopt and bolt on a lot of the fin tech. caroline: we will see how the m&a unfolds. thank you very much. biotechp, shares of one firm are surging. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: shares of mustang bio surged.- the atulations on a ramifications of this. how many people can the street going forward? >> in the u.s., 20 patients a year are diagnosed with the disease. screening.born this is covered by newborn screening. outside the u.s., another 55 patients. what is important to know is that there is a large cohort of patients that have been treated with stem cell transplant. it remains the standard of care.

there are patients that today need therapy or may eventually deteriorated to the point where they need additional therapy. romaine: what is the process? how do we know this is not a one time, you got lucky, or is this a viable treatment that will treat all these folks? >> time will tell. if you look at the paper for these babies, 16.4 months is the median. that is relatively short. we expect them to live normal, healthy lives, so it will be sometime before we know whether they have the long-term durability that we think they have today. joe: the manufacturing process for a therapy like this is difficult. what is your capacity currently once it is ready to go to market and treat patients? >> we built the facility in massachusetts. that facility was built to patients for the

therapies. relative to the incidence of malignancies we are prepared to increments is a small of what we are prepared to manufacture, both for clinical trials and commercially. caroline: a lot of this is post-regulatory approval. how do you envision approval going forward? wind you think it will be available to children? anticipating they will approve this with a relatively small number of patients from the high medical need in the newborns, but also patients that have received stem cell transplant and are deteriorating coming getting sick, and in some cases dying. the nih has a separate trial with the same director from saint jude in patients who have been previously treated. that trial now has a waiting list. romaine: one issue with

treatments like this is they can be incredibly expensive. ,f you do bring this to market how will you address the cost factor for families that were not have the millions to deal with this? >> one of the most important aspects of reimbursement thinking is paying out over time so there is not a single upfront payment like there would be pharmacy andpolic picking up the pills. if you're thinking about a child being born and living for decades, there could be a payout over 10 years or more as long as the therapy is successful. is: your firm mustang bio primarily associated with pursuing their fees for cancer. why this, which seems peripheral from your main focus? do you have other products which may come to market sooner? >> this is our lead product. we had hired an experienced team

from the space that understands gene cell therapy, processing body outside the patient's , and has worked in facilities like this in the past, and the process is analogous to the cycle from cancer patients, the cells that are transducer different, the gene is different , but fundamentally the process is the same, so there were great synergies between this program and our existing program. can be replicated for other rare issues. are there any other diseases this could help with that aren't related to cancer? are many rare diseases being investigated with gene therapies. there are others. our technology addresses the

most common form of severe combined immunodeficiency, but there are numerous other rare diseases that could be addressed, different genes, but the same process. othere: i assume pharmaceutical companies will take notice of this, so what is the goal for mustang? you will try to ride this out as a standalone company, do something else? ,> our goal for this program obviously we are open to entertaining potential licensing opportunities, but we have built the facility, hired personnel to market this ourselves. we are thrilled with the relationship we have with st. jude's. the goal is to bring it to market ourselves. the facility is capable of doing that, the people are capable of doing that. these are folks who have worked in commercial programs as well. caroline: it is nice to have a

list of 100% when it is helping individual children as well also a great outcome. we thank you. >> thank you. caroline: now a quick check of the business flash headlines. company wants to boost consumer interest in dna tests. investors are hungry for new stocks. the ipo could take place in the second half of the year. general motors board of directors will be made up of malewomen than men, two directors retire this year. the board will be comprised of members including ceo mary barra and five men. companies will now let video services appear on the respective platforms.

amazon and google have feuded before when it comes to business as they operate. the feuded before about speakers, the connected devices. they would not sell them on each other's products. joe: all of these companies have to be friend in east -- frien inies. i hope they integrate more. it would be nice if they all played a little bit. talk withoming up, we the woman who made history at 22, one of the youngest only full-time equity traders on the new york stock exchange. she is up next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

romaine: limit the six largest u.s. banks has ever had a female ceo. now there are two being

discussed. conversationgoing about the impact of diversity, where talking with one person who is familiar with breaking glass ceilings. at 22 years old, she became one of the youngest full-time equity traders on the new york stock exchange. you are a true unicorn. i wish to find out you are only the second african-american woman to be on the floor. 2018, so fewill in women in those roles? i think it is a problem on both sides. job told not know the apply for. if you are a white man, you would not know how to reach out to people that don't look like

you, so we need to come together and there needs to be more of a conversation, but as young men are taught in school about finance, i think there should be a push for women to learn about the world of finance and the opportunities out there. caroline: paint a picture of how you became interested in network. >> i went to school and got a degree in genetics, a minor in statistics. york.d to new leveraged my statistics, talking about saidrs and language, so i what does that look like for me. i met a guy who knew a guy on the trading floor and the rest is history. if you talk to ceos, they tend to say a lot of nice things

about diversity, it is important, various initiatives. between the disconnect positive statements and putting them into action to find a different pool of candidates than that would typically recruit? >> you said it asked. it is one thing to have a hot topic word or statement, but another thing to take the initiative, going out there, going to campuses, talking to people, making them aware of the opportunities that are out there , but you have to want to do it. there are certain companies where they talk about diversity and inclusion and their numbers have been going down, and that is the reality and why that is is probably because the people at the top, it is a trickle-down effect. who is sitting at the top? if it doesn't look like the people you're trying to hire, then you're probably not wanting to hire people. romaine: you have moved on at

this point in your career. why didn't you stick with finance in that role you were in? was there a reason why you left? >> no. if my career had not taken me where i am now, i would have stayed in finance. why? anyone under the age of 30 use it as a platform to learn about the world of finance, then go on and do other amazing things within finance. they stay 1.5 years to two years. caroline: you decided to go in creech, really, talking to people -- preach, talking to people. you can't get the job you don't see. you would naturally people you

are doing woman of color doing a job on the stock exchange. it got picked up by film studios. >> i am so excited. reached of studios have out to me. now we have our first rough draft. , so i ame soon excited. i am excited a producer. caroline: do you think it will entice people in? [laughter] aroline: will it paint difficult picture for working on the new york stock exchange? >> it will be my authentic story. being the other person in the room does not have to be a bad thing. make that an asset. people will stare at you for

being the only woman. using that as an asset and do something amazing in your role. romaine: having to choose between a tv series and the movie, isn't it great? joe: one day everyone should aspire to have to make such a difficult decision. >> it is surreal. romaine: what you looking to do? of my own company, probably within finance. reaching out to that demographic that has not been heavily populated with in the world of finance and having them infiltrate the world of finance. that is my ultimate message. caroline: it is a great message. thank you for making the time for us. that is all for "what'd you miss?"

romaine: bloomberg technology is next. joe: have a great evening. this is bloomberg. ♪ moving is hard.

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♪ emily: i am emily chang in san francisco and this is "bloomberg technology." u.s. attorney general william barr has released robert partially redacted report on russian interference in 2016 elections. social media is one of the biggest losers. we will tell you why. , more unicorns ride into the public market.