sebastian: coming up on "bloomberg best," stories that shaped the world. the u.s. and china make progress on trade, but details are tricky to nail down. >> china wanted some commitment from the u.s. the tariffs are going to be rolled back. >> the longer this drags outcome of the more opportunities for things to fall apart. >> they want to deal a lot more than i do. >> saudi aramco is go on its ipo. >> the train has left the station. >> it is not sexy by any stretch. host: the boe holds rates steady but it is not unanimous. two members decided they need to

vote for a cut now. host: another cluster of companies bring out earnings reports. >> they are going to write down wework that severely. >> we can adjust our set up to manage the situation. >> everyone is getting a little more scared by the quarter. sebastian: the ceo of goldman sachs speaks exclusively to bloomberg. >> when we look back on negative rates, it is not going to look like a great experiment. sebastian: the current state of u.s. monetary policy. >> i would say that policy is not that far off neutral. it is accommodative. >> we are slightly accommodative. i worry about the policy space we have. sebastian: that is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ sebastian: 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 look at the top headlines. sunday, saudi aramco announced plans for an initial public offering. on monday, there was speculation about the valuation of the company. ♪ >> saudi aramco finally launches its ipo, the $2 trillion valuation, potentially not likely. big banks estimate the company is worth far last, one point $2 trillion coming from bernstein overnight. >> saudi aramco announced its intentions after building up for two years. so the train has left the station now, i guess. all we know is there is going to be a listing on the saudi stock

exchange, so the international listing that had been talked about isn't in the cards immediately. there is no sign of how big a stake in the company the saudi government plans to float. the government is not talking about what sort of valuation it hopes to achieve, and we don't have any firm date on the timeline, beyond the fact we are expecting the prospectus coming out on november 9 or 10. so investors have still got a lot of things, questions they are going to be asking around this offering, and how big the stake is going to be, and the valuations. ♪ >> uber is out with earnings, not a pretty picture for the stock, shares falling in after hours trading monday after a third-quarter loss per share, and bookings that missed analyst estimates. also, uber eats bookings and monthly active platform consumers down. >> the revenue number was really strong, and what the takeaway

tells you is that uber is cutting down on subsidies and that is coming in rides and eats. revenue growth all being aligned as a sign the company is curtailing subsidies and focusing on profitable revenue growth. ♪ >> a wave of trade optimism is a sweeping markets again as china is said to be reviewing locations in the u.s. were president xi would be willing to meet donald trump to sign the first phase of a trade deal. >> it seems to underscore determination by the chinese to think this first phase of the trade deal, but we are still looking for a location and the date as well. it has yet to be fully confirmed, but the fact chinese officials are looking at it is significant. potential states include iowa, alaska and hawaii as well. >> president xi jinping says china will give imports more

importance. >> we will continue to lower tariffs. >> you didn't hear xi mentioned donald trump, but he emphasized the importance of global trade order and multilateral institutions, and said countries shouldn't put their interests above those of other nations. he talked about enhancing trade frameworks in china and said he is interested in signing more free trade agreements with other countries around the world. xi's speech is meant to emphasize the fact china is ready to open its economy further, more than just rhetoric and promises. i want to point out as well that amid the trade war, according to official reports, u.s. companies actually occupy the most exhibition space here, showing that despite trade tensions between the two economies, they

are still here looking to enter the chinese market. >> we do hit new record highs for the dow jones and the nasdaq. joe: a selloff across global bond markets deepening amid optimism on u.s.-china trade, better-than-expected data in the u.s. services sector, denting investor appetite for safe haven investors. -- assets. >> 10 year yields are up eight basis points on the day, a big move, but not 2015 temper levels. it is really just the global nature of the move that has investors rattled. ♪ >> china is setting its sights for any interim trade deal with the u.s., drop the tariffs. beijing has reportedly asked the white house to rollback duties imposed in september and withdraw the threat of any new tariffs. what exactly is china pushing for when it comes to tariff removal? >> china has made sure that from

the very beginning, what it sees as the ultimate goal of negotiating the trade talks is to get all punitive tariffs remove. both familiar with the negotiations have told us is that for right now for the phase one trade deal, china is trying to get the u.s. to drop the ones imposed in september, and also want the other to raise 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 trade deal with president trump. >> trade uncertainties back. possible signing locations have been ruled out in iowa and alaska. >> the longest that the longer -- the longer this drags outcome -- out, the more opportunities there are for things to fall apart. if they can get this done in a quick manner, it would have been ideal for both sides to sort of just really take a good well -- goodwill they have and that

momentum, and just run with it. but now things are starting to deteriorate. even something as simple as not agreeing on the location, it sours the mood, you could say. trump himself said he wants the signing in the u.s. and some may raise the question, why does it matter? it is symbolic. it might indicate an upper hand if the deal is being signed in the u.s. the trump administration can take the lead in saying that they were the big winners out of this deal. china perhaps doesn't want that, and right now, iscussions are moving towards the idea that this would happen on neutral territory, perhaps sweden, perhaps switzerland, details are still being worked out. ♪ >> the bank of england rate decision is out, no surprise, they don't change benchmark rate, coming in at 75 basis points, but you had two dissenters voting to cut rates by 25 basis points. >> over the past 18 months, global growth has slowed and investment has been weakened trade has contracted.

>> we are seeing a global economic slowdown in that, plus -- in that, plus brexit uncertainty, seems to have put the bank of england in position where two members need to vote for a rate cut now. the rest of the mpc certainly seems to be moving in that direction. the governor talks about the fact we have this global uncertainty, and he talks about the entrenched frexit -- brexit uncertainty as well. if 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 trade deal progresses, according to a chinese official. they say if china and the u.s. reach a phase one deal, both sides should roll back existing tariffs simultaneously, an important condition to get it done. >> the development and talks did come from china earlier today. we did have a u.s. official confirming there is talk of rolling back tariffs. if this deal can be reached,

these are a lot of ifs, but it is a significant comment for the sides to make. i think a lot of people are 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 for existing ones to be repealed. it would be significant and suggest the fact that this is going to potentially keep china at the table, to wrap up the these -- these talks. ♪ >> trade data has bright spots, exports declining less than expected in october but rising on trade optimism. but imports did contract for the sixth straight month as weak demand continues to bite. >> the emphasis on getting a deal remains. larry kudlow confirmed with the -- what the chinese were saying earlier in the day yesterday, that may rollback tariffs. here is what larry had to say, "if there is a phase-one trade deal, there are going to be agreements and concessions."

peter navarro followed it up and people are taking this as him disputing it with kudlow, saying "there is no agreement, we will remove any existing tariffs as a condition of the phase i deal. the only person who can make that decision is president trump, it is as simple as that." peter navarro may be wrong about a lot of things, but he is right about the decider in this case, and that is the president and we need to hear from him before markets can price and what is likely to happen. -- price in what is likely to happen. ♪ >> i haven't agreed to anything. china would like to get somewhat of a rollback, not a complete rollback because they know i won't do it. but we are getting along very well china. they want to make a deal. they want to deal a lot more than i do. ♪ >> i am tired of the tweet policies we have from president donald trump. so much seems to hinge on a little issue about whether we get a deal or not at this stage. this is the fundamental direction of trade between

america and china, it is not a positive one and i am reluctant to think trump is about to reverse his position fundamentally. ♪ sebastian: still ahead as we review the week on "bloomberg best," a conversation with the south african president and interviews with fed president as well. david solomon speaks exclusively about european banking. up next, a busy week of earnings reports. >> we are profitable in our u.s. business. it is not an either or for this. sebastian: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ sebastian: this is "bloomberg best." earnings are in the spotlight. let's round up the results from a highly anticipated set of numbers from softbank. ♪ >> finally disclosing the damage

from softbank's bet on wework and uber. the japanese investment powerhouse reports its first quarterly operating loss in 14 $6.5 billion after writing down a string of marquee investments. how much of a surprise? >> we knew the losses were going to be substantial, but nobody predicted it would be this large. i certainly didn't, and i ran the numbers. i knew they were going to make a $4 billion to $5 billion loss on publicly-traded shares. i didn't know there were going to write down wework that severely, so it is well above my expectations and most were taken by surprise. >> a steep decline in equity trading revenues, sliding 20% in the third quarter from a year earlier. the french investment bank is grappling with negative interest rates adverse market conditions in august and weak demand for products. >> we are getting an impact on

revenue next year, slightly, and saying that, we think that we can adjust our set up to manage the situation. ♪ >> commerzbank has downgraded its outlook as the chief executive officer grapples with rock-bottom interest rates and increased competition. >> we are all still sitting here and believing we would have rate hikes by the ecb throughout 2019 and none of that has happened. that is obviously one part. everybody's getting a little more scared by the quarter, because it is unclear how to reverse the situation to something that allows interest rates, at the end of the day, to do what they are supposed to do, which is steering capital to the economy. a negative interest rate doesn't do that properly. that is clear. ♪ >> westpac caps a rough year for

australian banks, worst earnings since the global financial crisis per the country's second largest lender will raise $2.5 billion australian. >> what we have just seen is a lot of the current trends we have seen coming through, it has been battered from all sides, the cost of misconduct, low interest rates crimping margins and finding it harder and harder to recap against an environment where regulators want us to hold more capital. we have grown accustomed to earnings just keeping growing among all the big lenders. now this year westpac has seen its first drop since 2009 when it was struggling with the aftermath of the crisis. ♪ >> sao paulo relied on trade income to post a profit above analyst expectations as a sluggish italian economy weighed on income from lending.

>> showed some pretty resilient results, growth net income, 42% coming from wealth management. is this your better area for the future, wealth management? >> yes, absolutely. and in this negative interest rate environment, we will have the speed of wealth management areas because we have a lot of italian clients, italian families coming back to wealth management. at we are in the unique position where we have this opportunity, our wealth management assets by 52 billion euros. so very good opportunities for us. ♪ >> german industrial giant siemens expects a decline in market volume for some sectors next year, highlighting weakness in software and automation divisions. the group warned in august downturn would weigh on its forward earnings goals.

questions are being asked about whether we have found a bottom in global manufacturing. do you think we had a bottom in the manufacturing sector in germany? >> the big question is, is that going to be a solution to trade war activities, how well brexit turns out eventually, but there are uncertainties. on the other hand we believe there is enough strength in the economy to get this right, especially on the export factor. the economy is still growing, we see china with some uptick, we must not forget about india. and the companies that are strong and competitive will be separated from the ones that are weak, and we will see consolidation challenges. ♪ >> shares of peloton are falling.

>> we are profitable in our u.s. business. we have probability, now we are investing in new growth. we are investing in new growth in the u.k., canada, germany next month, we are investing in digital, content in new york and london. we feel great about not just prioritization of growth, for us it is also prioritizing profitability. it is not an either or for this business because the fundamental model is gorgeous. ♪ >> refining guidance at ryanair to 900 million euros, 737 max 8 deliveries is on record. second quarter profit rose 8% as revenue was boosted. speedy boring -- boarding and reserved seats outweighing the impact of lower fares. how do you see the road ahead into early 2020?

>> this winter will be challenging, manus. we have seen consolidation in europe, the failure of thomas cook, other airlines have gone bust, norwegian is teetering on the edge, and also the delay in the max aircraft, we are looking at getting not getting 20 of those, if any, that means there will be less capacity next summer on the back of oil prices. the next two quarters through the winter will be tough. ♪ >> disney shares late trading after reporting fourth-quarter earnings citing strong box office performances for films like the lion king, and games. the key insight in the report, losses in the company direct to consumer unit widened to $740

million in part reflecting costs for the disney plus streaming service, which launches tuesday. >> disney is always able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, or a mouse in this case. earnings down but they beat wall street expectations, and some drivers in the past, espn profits were down. tv was down overall profit wise, but the film division is soaring, the theme park and consumer products saving the day. so people are going to look at the numbers and cheer. ♪

♪ >> writing in the financial times, the german finance minister outlined a four-step plan for the banking union. among the proposals is a mechanism to shield depositors when banks collapse.

>> building the banking union is key to growth in europe. we need the banking union because we want to have more growth, more jobs. >> the proposal is a very positive step, because we know the german position is always being very reluctant on a common post-guarantee scheme. and now they are saying we should move in that direction, so that is very positive. probably in any case where very long and difficult negotiations, the willingness to recognize there is a deadlock that needs to be accounted for is positive. ♪ >> debate continues on european financial integration. goldman sachs ceo was in berlin this week and had plenty to say about banking and investment. he spoke exclusively with bloomberg's matt miller about prospects for consolidation of

european banks. >> there are lots of compelling reasons why some consolidation here would benefit the strength of the european market. but it is hard, and not clear it would actually happen. i think it would be good for the european capital markets region if you had more of a consolidated european leader in some way. whether the local politics or the business rationale allows that to happen, i am not sure, but i watch it as you do. i do think there is certainly an opportunity to strengthen the position of one or two players through some m&a or consolidation. >> mario draghi, i was at his final ecb press conference, and he said we are happy with our negative interest rates experience. christine lagarde, taking over, expected to tell the line, are negative rates cupping the

-- helping the economy, helping to boost inflation and bring back growth? >> negative rates, when the book is written, it will not be a great experiment. negative rates are not bringing the result we would like to see. growth in this part of the world has been lagging a negative rates have not allowed an acceleration of that growth. i don't think negative rates are constructive. we will have to wait and see how this plays out over years, but i worry when we look back on negative rates, we are not going to like what we see when it is all over. ♪ sebastian: you can find much more of matt miller's exclusive interview with david solomon on bloomberg.com. still to come, fed officials discussed the outlook for interest rates, but just exactly where is neutral? and commerce secretary wilbur

ross says u.s. companies will get licenses to sell huawei. 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 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. u.s. companies be permitted once again to sell the chinese tech giant huawei. 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 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 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 it right. especially with something as 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. >> beijing argues the law you are alluding to is defensive and 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: fed officials discussed their outlook on policy with bloomberg this week. fed president of chicago charles evans said even if the fed takes 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 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 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 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. when you think about a response to a recession, we don't have that much space. i want to make sure when we do deploy our tools, they are deployed to a maximum of fact in -- affect -- maximum effect 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 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 nexus and there is competition from amazon as well. you can see what he would want -- why 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 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 $20 billion 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 tie you up in a long-term sales contract when they sell you a printer. the pc business is a castle -- cash flow 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 billion 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. for aramco, asia is a key market, so if they can convince big customers to put money into the ipo, it would be a big win. >> under armour shares plunge after the 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 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 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, forecasting expansion of 1.2% for 2021. 1.3% 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 fourth euro bond offerings since 2004 after pulling in enthusiastic bids. how is investor demand for china's 4 billion euro bond offering? >> it has attracted 20 billion euros 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. ♪

is still the number one benchmark. do we know who is getting out? >> our functions will be tested 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 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 the head of the world health organization calls it the new tobacco. according to the who, outdoor air pollution kills 4.2 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. the world's biggest 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, 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. ♪ sometimes your small screen is your big screen.

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♪ taylor: i am taylor riggs in for emily chang and this is the "best of bloomberg technology." coming up in the next hour, wilbert shares fall to a record low as the ride-hailing companies walk out period ends. plus, disney releases earnings before the disney streaming rv