>> coming up, the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. the u.s. and china make progress toward a trade over the final details are proving the trickiest to nail down. >> china want some commitment from the u.s. that tariffs are going to be rolled back. >> the longer this strikes out, the more opportunity for things to fall apart. >> they want to make a deal a lot more than i do. >> saudi aramco presses go on the ipo. >> the train has left the station. >> hp. >> it is not sexy by any stretch. >> a decision is not unanimous. >> have decided they need to

vote for -- >> another cluster of companies bring out earnings reports. >> i did not know they were going to write down we were that severely -- >> we can adjust to manage the situation. >> everybody is getting a little bit more scared by the quarter. >> the ceo of goldman sachs sticks exclusively with bloomberg. he has nothing to say about negative rates. >> i think when we look back on negative rates, i think when the book is written, it would not look like a great experiment. >> fed presidents share their views. >> i would say policy is not that far off neutral. i would say it is accommodative to stop >> we are slightly accommodative. i worry a lot about the policy space that we have. clubs that a straight ahead on "bloomberg best."

hello and welcome. this is "bloomberg best." your weekly review of the most important business news, analysis, and interviews from bloomberg television around the world. let's start with a day like a look at the top headlines. on sunday, oil giant saudi aramco announced plans for initial public offering more than three years after first floating the concept. there was plenty of speculation on the company's valuation. saudi aramco finally launches its long-awaited ipo at two trade dollar valuation potentially -- but the you trillion dollar valuation is potentially not likely. -- but the $2 trillion valuation is potentially not likely. >> saudi aramco announced what has been building up the last three years. the train has left the station now, i guess. all we really know is the rigors going to be a lifting on the -- a listing on the saudi stoppage change.

-- a listing on the saudi stock exchange. there is no sign of how big a stake in the company the saudi government plans to float. the government is not talking about was sort of evaluation it hopes to achieve. we don't really have any firm dates of a timeline beyond the fact we are expecting to see the prospectus coming out on the ninth or 10th of november. investors still have a lot of things, the questions they're going to be asking around this offering and how big this steak is going to be and the valuation. is that with earnings and it is not a pretty picture. shares are falling after posting a third-quarter loss per share and gross bookings that missed analyst estimates. also uber eats. >> when you look at the top line numbers, the revenue number was really strong.

is rates tell you that uber cutting down on subsidies and showing the take rates rise. to me, ride growth and bookings growth and revenue growth all being in line is a sign that the company is curtailing subsidies and focusing more on profitable revenue growth. a wave of trade optimism is sweeping through again as china's had to be reviewing locations in the u.s. president xi would be willing to meet with president trump to sign this first phase of a trade deal. >> this seems to underscore the chinese determination to nail down the phase one part of this trade deal with the u.s. we're still waiting to find out exactly what location is going to be chosen upon and the date as well is yet to be fully confirmed. the fact that chinese officials are looking at it is a significance. we are prodigiously looking at iowa, alaska, and hawaii as well. , part ofnt xi jinping

a keynote at the international import expo in shanghai. >> china will give greater importance to import. we will continue to lower tariffs. >> you did not hear xi mention specifically the u.s. or trump, but upholding global trade order , multilateral institutions is saying that countries should not put the unilateral interest above those of other nations. he also spoke about enhancing the legal frameworks and china to even out to the intellectual property here. he also said he is interested in signing or free trade agreements with other countries around the world. his speeches meant to rip a size the fact that china is here to open up his -- his speech is meant to emphasize that china is here to open up. i want to point out that emmett's trade war, according to the official report, -- amid the trade war, according to the official report, showing despite the trade tensions between the two economies, they are still

here looking to age the chinese market. >> there we have it. we do hit new record highs. marketsff across global deepening amid optimism on u.s.-china trade, some better-than-expected data in your services sector. it is all denting investor appetite for safe haven assets. >> 10-year gilts up eight basis points on the day -- yields up eight basis points on the day. natureeally the global of this movement has investors rattled. china is setting its price for any interim trade deal with the u.s., drop the tariffs. beijing reportedly has asked the u.s. to roll back and withdraw the threat of any new tariffs. what exactly is china pushing for when it comes to tariff removal? china has been clear

what it sees is to get all of the punitive tariffs removed. people familiar with the negotiations have told us right now for the phase one trade deal, china is trying to get the u.s. to drop the ones that were imposed in september and then also lower the rate on the tariffs imposed last year. china wants some commitment from the u.s. that tariffs are going to be rolled back before president xi jinping gets on a plane to the u.s. to sign a deal with donald trump. >> trade uncertainty is back as a potential u.s.-china summit is now seen slipping into december at best. with possible signing locations being rolled out and iowa and alaska. >> the more opportunities for things to fall apart the longer this drags out. if they can get this tent in a quick manner, it probably would have been ideal for both sides. take the goodwill they have and that momentum and run with it.

reratething started to income even something as simple as not being able to agree on the location, is sort of sours the mood. trump himself is that he wants to have the signing summit in the u.s. some may raise the question, why does it matter? it is symbolic. hand.ht indicate an upper if this is being signed in the u.s., the trumpet administration could take the lead in saying they were the big winners out of this deal. china perhaps does not want that and right now the discussions are moving toward the idea that this happened on neutral territory. someplace in europe, perhaps sweden or switzerland, the details are still being worked out. england decision is out. no surprise they do not change the benchmark rate. unexpectedly, did have two dissenters go to cut by 25 basis points. >> over 18 months, global growth has slowed. trade has contracted.

>> we're seeing a global economic slowdown. that plus the brexit uncertainty seems to be putting the bank of england and a position where two members have decided they need to vote for a cut now and the rest of the npc certainly seems to be moving in that direction. the governor talked about the fact we do have this global uncertainty and he talks about the entrenched brexit uncertainty as well. if both of those two factors get worse, the bank could be looking at rate cuts to support the british economy. >> china and the u.s. agreed to lift tariffs in phases as the deal progresses according to a chinese official. they say if china, u.s. reach a phase one deal, both sides should rollback existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously based on the content of the agreement, which is an important condition for reaching the agreement. >> this development in the talks came from china earlier today. we did have u.s. official also confirming there is talk of rolling back the tariffs. these are a lot of if's.

it is really a significant comment for the sides to make because i think a lot of people were asking, what is china going to get out of any phase one deal? china's number one demand is for the tariffs to be rolled back. no new ones to be put in place, but also the existing ones to be repealed. it would be pretty significant and suggest the fact this is what is potentially going to keep china at the table to wrap up these talks. some bright spots come exports declining less than expected in october but rising on some trade optimism. imports did not contract for the sixth straight month. >> the emphasis on getting a deal remains. we did have a quote yesterday who confirmed what the chinese were saying earlier in the day that they may rollback tariffs. here's what larry had to say. "if there's a phase one trade deal, they're going to be tariff agreement and concessions." ofer followed up, and a lot

people are taking it is him disputing saying "there is no agreement at this time to remove any of the existing tariffs as a condition of the phase one deal. the only person he can make that decision is president donald trump. it is as simple as that." whor navarro is right about the decider is in this case, and that is the president. we need to hear from him before markets can really price in what is likely to happen. anything wet agreed are getting along very well with china. they want to make a deal a lot more than i do. >> i'm a little bit tired of this tweet policies we have with donald trump. so much seems to hinge on that one little issue, whether we get a deal or not at this stage. this is the fundamental direction between trade and china is not an important one. i'm very reluctant to think that trump is about to reverse his

position fundamentally. still ahead, the conversation was south africa's president and interviews with a couple of fed presidents as well. plus, goldman sachs ceo david solomon speaks about the european banking landscape. , more highlights from a busy week of earnings reports. >> we are profitable. it is not an either/or because the fundamental model is so gorgeous. this is "bloomberg." ♪

sebastian: this is "bloomberg best." earnings were in the spotlight this week. let's start around up with a highly anticipated set of numbers from softbank. finally disclosing the damage

on -- firstk's bet incorporating -- loss after writing down the value of a string of mark investments. how much of a surprise was this? >> we knew there were going to be losses. we knew they would be substantial. to be frank, nobody predicted would be this large. i certainly did not run the numbers. we'll make about a $4 billion loss on the publicly traded shares of uber and so forth but i did not know they were going to write down we were that severely. so it is well above my expectations and probably most people were taken by surprise. a steep decline in equity trading revenues leading 20% in the third quarter from a year earlier. the french investment bank which is grappling with negative interest rates blamed adverse market conditions in august and winning decline demand for product. haven't impact on the

revenue next ash will have an impact on the revenue next year slightly. think weid that, we can adjust to manage the situation. it marks the second chief executive officer is a graph owes with interest rates -- grapples with interest rates. >> flip one year back when we are sitting here and believing we would have rate hikes but the ecb throughout 2019. none of that has happened, so that is one part. everybody is getting a little bit more scared by the quarter because it is unclear how to reverse the situation to something that allows interest rate at the end of the day to do what it is supposed to do, which is steering capital flows in the economy and a negative interest rate does not do that properly.

i think that is pretty clear. francine: a rough year for australian banks. worst earnings since the global financial crash. -- profit plunge 50%. >> we see a culmination of a lot of the trends we've seen coming through. it is being battered from all sides. low interest rates are cribbing margins. this finding harder to eat out profitability against in environment where regulators wanted to hold more capital. we have grown accustomed to earnings just keeping growing from all of the big lenders. this year we've had the westpac commits first drop since 2009. relied on trading income and lower provisions for bad loans. negative interest rates and a sluggish italian economy weighed

on income from lending. >> pretty resilient results. if you look at growth net income, 42% coming from wealth management. is this your better area for the future? >> absolutely. we will have an increase in the speed of what management areas because -- we have a lot of italian claimants -- clients. with --pportunity very good job. very good opportunities for us. >> german industrial expects a decline in market next year. weakness in his software and automation division. the group had previously warned in august a downturn in some markets would weigh on its

full-year goals. questions are starting to be asked whether we are finding a bottom in the global manufacturing cycle. do you think we have hit a bottom in the manufacturing sector in germany? >> the big question will be, is there going to be a solution on the trade war activities. how will the rugs turn out eventually. on the other hand, we believe there is enough strength in the german economy to get this one right, especially on the export factor. we see economies growing, china with some uptick going into -- we must not forget about india. temperatenly, it will the strong and competitive companies from the others who are weak and we will see some conciliation challenges. fallings of palatine

post earnings after the fitness platform seem to prioritize growth for now over profitability. >> we are profitable in our u.s. by business. we got to profitability. we are so profitable without business. now we are investing a new future growth drivers for international, the u.k., canada, germany next month. we are investing in new categories with the treadmill and our digital business, new content facilities here in new york and london. we are feeling great about not just the prioritization of growth, but for us it is also prioritizing profitability. it is not an either/or for this business because the fundamental model is so gorgeous. >> refined its guidance to arrange of 800 to 900 million euros. of 800 million to 900 million euros. second quarter profit rose percent.

how do you see the road here in the next dish road ahead in the next quarter and 2020? >> they will be challenging. we have seen the consolidation and europe and the failure of thomas cook and other airlines have all gone bust. delay in the max aircraft, now looking at taking getting 20 of those aircraft, if any, for next summer means there will be a lot less capacity in the marketplace next summer. we are on the back of lower oil prices. i would be more optimistic next year but the next two quarters through the winter will be tough. shares are trading of reporting fourth-quarter earnings. performancesfice for films like "the lion king" and gains from theme parks.

reflecting cost for the disney plus streaming service which lunches on tuesday. >> disney is always able to pull a rabbit out of a hat or a mouse in this case. earnings overall were down, but they beat wall street expectations. if you look at some of the drivers in the past, espn profits were down, tv overall was down profit-wise. once again, it is the film division soaring, the theme parks consumer products saving the day. people are going to look at these numbers and sheer. -- cheer.

>> german finance minister outlined a four step plan. shield his proposals to

depositors when bags collapse. >> building the banking union is key for growth in europe. becausethe banking unit we want to have more growth, more drops. >> the proposals is a very positive step. we know the german position has now they reluctant and can see we should move in that direction, so that is very positive. in any case, very long and difficult decision, but the willingness that there is a deadlock that needs to be overcome i think is very positive. >> the debate continues on european financial integration. goldman sachs chairman and ceo david solomon was in berlin this week. he had plenty to say about the banking and investment climates. he spoke exclusively with

bloomberg's matt miller about the consolidation for european banks. >> there are a lot of compelling reasons why some consolidation here would benefit the strength of the european market. but i think it is hard and it is not clear it will happen. i do think it would be good for the european market, the european capital markets region, if you had more of european leader, a consolidated european leader in some way. whether or not the local politics were the business rationale allows a tap in, i'm not sure but i watch it as you i'm- allows it to happen, not sure, but i watch it is you do. is hard, not happen. >> mario draghi i was at his final ecb press conference. he said, we are very happy with our negative rates experience. christine lagarde taking over and expected to show the same line. our negative rates do you think

helping the economy in general, helping to boost inflation and bring growth back? >> i think when we look back on negative rates, i think when the book is written, it is not going to look like a great experiment. i don't think negative rates are bringing the benefit we would like to see. there is no question that growth in this part of the world has been lagging and negative rates have not allowed an acceleration of that growth in my opinion. i don't think negative rates are really constructive. we will have to wait and see how this all plays out. i worry when we look back on this experiment of negative rates, we're not going to like what we see. you can find much more of matt miller's exclusive interview at bloomberg.com. still to come, more compelling conversations, fed officials discussed the outlook for interest rates. just exactly where is neutral? to sellack get licenses huawei per when is that?

>> it is shortly. it is less than longly. sebastian: this is "bloomberg." ♪

♪ sebastian: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i'm sebastian salek. south africa is pushing ahead as the president seeks $100 billion in new funding, moody's giving south africa three months to preserve its investment rating. manus cranny sat down in johannesburg and asked how he plans to address the credit agency. >> moody's wants to see a deal with ascom, they want us to deal with the debt with ascom, they also want us to do with expenditure. now, we have already committed to reducing expenditure on a

number of platforms, but at the same time, we are focusing now, as i said in my main speech come on the debt, on how we will be able to deal with the debt. we will be able to deal with the debt by improving operations at ascom, because they were broken. manus: are you preparing to take on debt from the government balance sheet? it would be cheaper, that is what we are told, take the debt, sticking on the government balance sheet, and move on. >> we have already taken quite a bit of debt by giving them bailouts. and the minister said we are no longer going to give you bailouts, we are going to give you loans. and they are loans that yes, over time you will have to pay back, and that is a very important step. in the end, the government has to stand because signed -- the government has to stand behind ascom because ascom is too big to fail and is too big a part of our economy to fail, so we are committed to supporting ascom going forward. ♪

sebastian: while the u.s. and china struggle to get a phase-one trade deal across the finish line, details affecting global business remain unresolved. for instance, when will u.s. companies big permitted once again to sell the chinese tech giant huawei. haslinda emin got up with commerce secretary scott up -- haslinda amin caught up with commerce secretary wilbur ross. >> huawei is not part of the trade negotiations. the way the entity list works, you need a license to sell any controlled product to them.

that is a lot of applications, frankly more than we would have thought, but remember, with entity lists is a presumption of denial. so the safe think for these companies -- thing for these companies would be to presume denial, even though we will approve quite a few of them. haslinda: special licenses for huawei suppliers based in the u.s. which are not dealing with security-length components, when do you expect the trump administration to issue those licenses. >> that should become -- that should be coming shortly. haslinda: when is shortly? can you quantify? >> it is shortly, that is less than longly. sebastian: the fcc is set to vote on a proposal to stop government subsidies from spending on gifts from the chinese supplier, the agency also considering forcing american companies to remove already installed performance.

ajit pai told shery ahn why he is backing the measures. >> when it comes to the security of america's communication networks, we can't take a risk and hope for the best. we need to get a write a right right.it something asth transformative as 5g. when we rolled out the proposal, we made it clear we don't want federal funds from the fcc to be spent on non-trusted vendors, wherever or whoever they might be. and in this case we have serious concerns the chinese national intelligence law requires companies like huawei to comply with requests from intelligence services and not to disclose that to customers. >> the law you are alluding to his defense event does not authorize preemptive spying. why are you not convinced? >> in part because the chinese government has made clear they want to leverage their influence in any particular area.

when it comes to telecom networks, that is a risk we can't take. i mentioned evidence involving t-mobile earlier this year, that that vendor engaged in certain practices we find problematic. we want to make sure equipment and services going to american networks is secure. that is a baselevel expectation every american regulator and consumer should have. ♪ sebastian: paris fed officials discussed their outlook on policy with bloomberg this week. fed president of chicago charles evans said even if the fed take s a break from rate cuts, it is still on and accommodative path. >> long-run my assessment is neutral, two and three quarters percent. we were still below that when we paused. now we are at 1.5 to 1.75. we are definitely accommodative. but i am not entirely sure the short run neutral funds right isn't a lot closer to two.

>> i want to get that in a moment. you mentioned the foreground right now, there are times when the central bank can afford the luxury of not being in the foreground. is the central bank of the u.s. too much in the foreground? are we asking too much? >> no. at this point in the cycle, as we made that judgment to move toward something neutral, in the short run neutral was moving up during that time read in 2014 we still had a lot of work to do, even though we started thinking about raising rates. but i would say that policy is not that far off neutral. i would say it is accommodative. that is a point where there are other factors working, there are businesses working hard to take advantage of the tax reform that they enjoy now, to focus business investment. of course, business investment has been falling a little, and that is a weakness, as are other factors, weak foreign growth,

trade policy and certainly -- trade policy uncertainty. so there is a variety of factors and it makes sense for us to reset that in a risk management setting, but i would say we are not in the foreground. ♪ >> you said yesterday you would probably have dissented and voted against interest rate cuts at the last fomc meeting. why? >> one thing we try to do in the sixth district is get a sense of the trajectory of the economy, and how much risks are being taken on by investors and consumers. -- businesses and consumers. in my canvassing of the district and hearing from directors, we just were not hearing that in a material way. we had already done a fair amount of accommodation, we moved twice already, and it was my view we should really just let that go and see how it plays out. and we see -- endif we see there

-- and if we see there is more need for accommodation, we could act. we have already done a lot and i was willing to see how that plays in the economy. >> are you concerned rates are too low, that there is an issue of where rates are with inflation? what would be the problem? >> first of all, we are slightly accommodative. and that is fine. i don't think our position now is likely to spark the economy into an overheated mode, where we might expect weakening in response to that. i worry a lot about the policy space that we have. we are at 1.5 1.75. that is not a lot of space, when you think about a response to a recession, we don't have that much space. so i want to make sure when we do deploy our tools, they are deployed to a maximum of fact in a way that leaves us with policy options going forward. ♪

♪ sebastian: you are watching "bloomberg best." i am sebastian salek. let's resume our roundup of business and politics. ♪ >> mcdonald's has fired the chief executive steve easterbrook for having a consensual relationship with an employee. the relationship violates policy. easterbrook will be replaced by the company's head of operations.

>> clearly mcdonald's is taking a zero-tolerance approach to any relationship with an employee. they say it was consensual, but they had allegations on questions earlier this year about sexual harassment within the company. they changed the code of conduct. they had to act to the letter of the law and move quickly to oust him. the question now is, what happens next with this company? easterbrook really turned it around. now the successor has to carry that forward. we will have to see how that turns out. in the meantime, they are without a ceo who lifted the shares 90% in his tenure, so it affected a key performer for this company who is gone. ♪ >> bloomberg has learned walgreens alliance had to explore a potential deal to go private.

>> stefano casino worked with kkr in 2007 to form an alliance to buy walgreens. he is familiar with a private equity buy out situation. he wants to take the company private. they are in a sector that is challenged at the moment, margins are strong -- are not strong, they are under pressure, we are not sure what is going to happen with the new government that comes in, so it is that retail health care next asked -- retail health care nexus and there is competition from amazon as well. you can see what he would want to take the company private. ♪ >> a merger of office giants. xerox is said to have lined up financing from citigroup as it weighs a cash and stock bid for hp, huge game -- huge names from a bygone era. does it make sense for them to come together now? >> this is mostly an engineering driven transaction. xerox can raise about $50

and even with a slightly higher cost of capital, we think potentially that they can swallow the hp deal. when you put them together, you get a printer giant and more importantly, a supplies giant that can tell you up in a long-term sales contract when they sell you a printer. the pc business is a castle generator that augments that business. it is not sexy by any stretch, but potentially slows things down for both companies. ♪ >> saudi aramco got a potential boost in its ipo with news china is at least contemplating buying between $5 million and $10 million of its stock, a big leg and $10 billion of its stock, a big leg up for an ipo that was may troubled because valuations were coming down. >> this is indeed a big boost for saudi arabia if indeed the chinese pickup $10 billion of the aramco ipo.

this comes not just as a commercial kind of decision for either party. it is also quite political. china is trying to build inroads into the middle east and saudi arabia is considered a key partner to double up its relations in the middle east. four aramco, asia -- for aramco, asia is a key market, so this -- so if they can convince big customers to put money into the ipo, it would be a big win. >> under armour shares plunge athletic apparel maker disclosed that federal officials are investigating practices for two plus years. a fresh headache for investors as the company prepares for a ceo transition. >> what a messy week for under armour, the ceo change, the announcement the sec and feds are probing past accounting practices, and earnings today presenting a mixed view of where the company is in its multiyear transition.

they have been saying so far, we have been helping for two and a half years and we think we did nothing wrong. the stock price plummet exit -- makes it clear this is a problem that will move forward probably. >> the u.s. service industry rebounding in october from a three year low. measures of employment orders and business activity improving. are we out of the woods? >> well, we have probably never been in the woods in that sector. if you look at the index for nonmanufacturing, it has never crossed that 50, breakeven threshold for the services sector. so there has never been a recession in that sector. the manufacturing sector is in contraction now. but it seems like worries in the manufacturing sector are not spilling over, at least to a critical degree, into the service sector. so it is doing ok. but if you look at the chart again, you will see there has

been a consistent slow down in the trend. so that is a concern, because it usually coincides with a slowdown in income and -- income growth. it bodes ill for consumers, an important sector of the economy right now. ♪ >> the worst may still be ahead for the european economy. the european commission cutting its growth and inflation outlook for the euro area, for stat -- forecasting expansion of 1.2% for 2021. 1.3 percent for inflation that year. >> what accounts for the slowdown is primarily the trade war. bloomberg economics has created a gauge of uncertainty, and you can see it has been very elevated this year and had a negative impact on the economy. the good news is that that is starting to come down, so people are starting to think, ahead of the presidential election that we have coming up in the u.s., that the united states will

decide not to impose tariffs on european autos, and that will reduce uncertainty at provide a boost for the european economy next year. ♪ >> china cut pricing on its forest euro bond offerings since 2004 after pulling in enthusiastic bids. how is investor demand for china's for billion euro bond offering? -- 4 billion euro bond offering? >> it has attracted 20 billion euros of investors, and demand -- from investors, and demand has come from not only emerging-market investors, but also european hedge funds and insurance companies. ♪ mark: u.s. regulators giving

wall street a break. the sec says american securities firms can adhere to european research investment rules until 2023 and in return the agency promises not to sue them. the sec says it needs more time to evaluate changes affecting the brokerage industry. >> basically, those two are not very familiar, it is hugely important to wall street. it is a european rule that banned brokerage firms from splitting out the cost of everything they do, trading services from research services, and this is a huge existential threat to the analysis business, as u.s. rules are in conflict with european rules. so the sec had given the industry this three-year reprieve until 2020. it now will be kicked out three more years until 2023, so wall street has three more years to not have to worry about all the headaches that it might cause on

this side of the atlantic. ♪ >> let's turn to the opioid crisis, a serious issue, major problem, president trump has wanted to tackle since he came into office. he has now asked the chinese president to help the administration's efforts. how is the opioid crisis factoring into trade negotiations? what is the connection? >> the opioid crisis has been part of negotiations with china from day one. the issue is that fentanyl, one of the drugs which is a central problem in the opioid crisis, is produced very substantially in china. and cooperation between chinese and u.s. law enforcement is urgently required to stem the flow of drugs into the united states. as the u.s. and china approach that phase one trade deal, if they got the i's and cross the t's on that, fentanyl has risen

as one of the most eye-catching components of that deal. clearly this is going to be a problem that is easier to deal with with china on side, then without. ♪ >> alibaba moves ahead with plans to raise as much as $15 billion in a hong kong sale ahead of the company's most important event of the year, single day. what was your take on a potential listing in hong kong, despite protests and a weaker global economy? >> it really is some relief for hong kong. this is a sale in the works for some time. the initial target was over the summer, and colleagues in hong kong were reporting that they are targeting a $15 billion lifting in hong kong to raise more capital. that is an endorsement of the market there. it represents the biggest lifting of the year so far. that is of course before we know what happens with saudi aramco and the exact timing of that.

and this is coming off the news, the listing itself comes just ahead of singles' day, november 11, and it provides a lot of oxygen for alibaba as it moves toward that listing. ♪

♪ >> still the number one benchmark. do we know who is getting out? >> our hdl functions will be tested in coming weeks -- h go functions wile tesd in coming weeks. it is hard to keep up. >> there are 30,000 functions on bloomberg and we enjoy showing

you our favorites, they may become your favorites. here is another function you will find useful. quic go will lead you to quick takes, timely insight into topics. this week the u.s. officially submitted its request to withdraw from the paris climate accord, making this quick take relevant. it examines the global threat of air pollution. ♪ >> air pollution has become such a menace that they had of the -- that the head of the world health organization calls at the new tobacco. according to the who, outdoor air pollution kills four point 2 million people a year. the economic toll is also rising, billions of dollars spent on medical care and missed work. but some countries are fighting back. take china, where a rare social media outcry in 2013 pushed authorities to tighten environmental regulations, scrap polluting power plants and switch millions of homes and businesses from coal to natural gas.

's biggestla emitter of greenhouse gases is spending $20 billion in 2018 on green energy, even while building power plants that burn coal. the campaign is having an effect. in 2013, beijing experienced unhealthy air on a majority of days. five years on, the share fell to less than 25%. india, home to seven of the world's 10 most polluted cities, can only dream of such improvement. industrial and vehicle emissions combined with the illegal burning of farm stubble to shroud cities such as new delhi in hazardous smog. unlike china were a powerful -- where a powerful central government can enforce rapid change, india's complicated blend of local and national government agendas has loaded efforts to clean the air. fumes from diesel vehicles are in increasing concern, as recent studies link them to infant mortality and heart disease.

european capitals such as paris and madrid, many cities holding car free days and public transport is slowly shifting to electric power. the fight against smog has also turned legal, as a new generation of activists pushes governments to take action. giant leaps in sensing technologies which track air pollution in real-time can help pinpoint industries, companies and countries that flout rules, helping to build a solid case in court. following legal action by the environmental charity client earth, the european court of justice issued final warnings to improve air pollution or face fines to the u.k., france, germany, hungary, italy and romania. ♪ sebastian: that is one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them on

bloomberg.com. along with business news and analysis .4 hours a day. that is all for "bloomberg best." thanks for watching. i'm sebastian salek and this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ joel: gingko bioworks is a boston-based biotech company founded by five m.i.t. scientists in 2008. they call it the organism company. jason: what it is is programming cells like we program computers by changing the dna code. joel: the cofounder and ceo , jason kelly, wants to change the way the worldviews biology. jason: we're sort of like cell programmers for hire. joel: he sees biology at the core of how all things will be created. jason: it's going to surprise you. it's going to be like the advanced manufacturing stuff. in addition to making food efficiently, it will be everything. joel: creating the future in a lab in our conversation with