welcome to bloomberg commodities edge. let's get right to the data dig. just today, opec and their allies sticking to their slow pace of production increases, disregarding president biden's plea. the u.s. is considering a response. what is interesting is this next chart. the group's output has fallen behind its own target as more members struggle to add supply. they are pumping about 700,000 barrels less than promised in september. today, opec said they would not make up the short calls in december production. wheat hit the highest price in nine years today.

a pretty mixed back on planting conditions north of the equator. your breakfast is definitely costing more. one more thing to keep your eyes on. short-term contracts on copper trading at a premium in london. future prices treating heavier on weaker demand and china worries. spot prices rallying. that backwardation is looking pretty sticky. you have the world versus methane. president biden spoke about the importance of limiting methane leaks at cop26. resident biden: this is an enormous opportunity -- president biden: this is an enormous opportunity to create jobs and make economic recovery of core part of our plan. alix: there was the global methane pledge, to limit methane

by 30%. this all brings us to commodity in chief, where we talk to one executive in the commodity world, venture global ceo. natural gas is playing a key role in the energy transition. now, countries are starting to sign up again to long-term lng contracts. sinopec is buying from louisiana after buying 400 million tons a year from its facility in louisiana as well. how did this deal come about? >> it is the end of a long effort by the team to really deliver great value to the customer which generally in the commodity market is a great

price. it is a competitive landscape out there. for the 20-year contracts, it is what we focus on, delivering great risk-adjusted price. the customer being confident he will get it done on time. alix: 20 years, i'm surprised. do you think the energy crisis played a role? >> may be a little bit but not really. we have been focused on the 20-year contract part of the market. there is a segment of the market that wants those contracts. the rest of the market has moved away from us as we have been waiting on price. for the last five years or so, venture global has won 90% market share on 20-year contracts coming out of the u.s. alix: where are you looking at next? michael: we are confident that

we are finishing up sales on black and men's on them sippy river. two other projects, delta on the mississippi, cp2, and expansion next to this facility you are looking at right now in the video. cp2 and delta are coming next. alix: talk about plaquemine's. what percentage do you have now, what can you so? michael: this is a 20-time facility that we will build in two phases. 9 million tons sold there. plaquemines is in the next few months. in the second phase, we will be probably midyear. we will be in contraction for all 20 million tons in 2022. alix: what about delta lng?

there was hurricane ida. i wonder how you were impacted their. re. michael: minimal impact at our plaquemines facility, some localized flooding but nothing that will impact our schedule. alix: those are all the areas you are looking at, hoping to build. you have that agreement. i wonder when you might actually start shipping. the market is so thirsty for this tonnage. michael: that is the billion dollar question. very recently, and it was disclosed earlier this morning, ferc gave us authorization to commission our first project. we are very proud of this because of how we uniquely configure and execute our

facilities. even with the global pandemic, the hurricane strikes, we are on our original schedule. that is because we manufacture so much of our process system in our factories in a way that no one has ever done before. alix: it is a modular situation, you bring them over and plop them down in louisiana. michael: baker hughes has done an amazing job for us, delivering on all of their schedules and budgets. alix: when are you going to start shipping? before the end of the year? michael: i am being a little bit careful because we have $2.5 billion in public securities here. we are very close. i am not allowed to break news on what the specific schedule is. i can say we are just a few months away. alix: really exciting. more specifically, how many modular trains do you have

installed, how many more do you need to go? michael: we have 18 liquefaction trains. 16 of the 18 are -- the 17th and 18th are on the ship, about to be rolled onto the padds. mechanically complete for our first eight liquefaction trains. we are in a very good position on our delivery schedule. alix: most everyone i talked to in the energy world is looking at rising labor costs, raw material costs, shipping costs. have you had any of that or have you mitigated it? michael: a little bit, but we fabricate and manufacture our process system largely in factories. we have much of that under long-term contracts. it also reduces the amount of labor, so instead of 13,000 to

15,000 workers custom building our projects, we will average around 2000 people over the life of our construction. we have much less labor exposure. we have some long-term contract protection related to some of our commodity exposure on inflation for steel, aluminum, copper, other materials. alix: without giving away the farm, can you give me insight into what other countries you are in talks with now? the focus has been on the u.k. and europe. are you sticking more to southeast asia, asia, are you having conversations? michael: it is a fascinating question. we are doing well, both in asia and europe. we continue to have some nice surprises in demand in europe. very recently, just in the last couple of months, we announced a major expansion in a deal with poland.

venture global, when we are complete with construction, will be supplying about 30% of the gas supply to the country of poland. poland has done an amazing job of preparing to pivot away from coal. just as we announced with sinopec in china, they are following a similar path, a balanced approach to mitigating co2 emissions but reliable base flows, secure, low-cost energy supply. alix: congratulations. i know it's been a long time coming. good to see you. mcrib lovers, brace yourself. the sandwich is back on the menu, and this year, it can stick around in more than just your arteries. they have created a digital mcrib in the form of a nft. 10 will be randomly raffled off

to those who take part in the contest. make sure you come prepared with your crypto wallet. i don't get that one. that does it for bloomberg's commodities edge. catch us every thursday at 1:00. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome to bloomberg markets. we will speak to the cars.com ceo on the back of the company's earnings results and supply chain woes. later in the hour, i will talk to the ceo of -- as opec-plus rejects president biden's plea

for supply increases. and the ceo of vici properties talked about the changing las vegas strip. let's talk about what is going on in the markets. another all-time high on the s&p 500, gaining a quarter of a percent. it has been up higher today. the u.s. 10-year yield coming down as investors by government bonds. 1.5297, a day after the federal reserve. that is interesting. the dollar index up about half a percent. brent crude down $.37. that is a small luke considering is big news we have from opec-plus. we will get to that. i want to get to something that caught my eye, and that is the bank of england, the market

expectations by keeping rates on hold. that is what you saw moments ago. policymakers led by andrew bailey voted to keep the benchmark rate at 0.1%, prioritizing concerns about slowing growth more than inflation. officials also pushed back against the market price for a series of hikes all the way to 100 basis points next year. the pound weakened after that decision, hitting its lowest level since the end of september. cable trading at 1.3487. moving to europe, credit suisse was the biggest european player in the prime brokerage industry, until a series of risk-management failings led to a $5.5 billion loss. now it says it will largely exit that business. as you can see here, that opened the door for more heavyweights

like goldman sachs, morgan stanley to take market share away. francine lacqua had an exclusive interview with the ceo of credit suisse. as well as the chairman. they spoke about leaving the business. >> we have made some tough choices like exiting prime, but we have strong business is in m&a capital markets, credit, other areas. as you also saw in the third quarter results, we have strong increase in revenues in these areas, including in equity derivatives. our plan is to have an investment bank which has less capital, which is much more connected also with wealth management area and also has continued strong global franchise. that is why we have also decided

to have one global investment bank, including not only asia but also other banks. this is important for us. as part of our strategy to have strengthening -- to strengthen the bank, simplify our areas but also invest in growth. we want to invest in capital markets, m&a, other core areas. >> how do you avoid taxes getting smaller? >> this is something that we have balanced well. if you look at our nine month numbers, despite having done already a significant reduction in capital in the second quarter, we are up significantly in terms of revenue. that continued in the third quarter. it is clear that will have a short term restructuring effect, but the areas where we want to

focus on our growth areas. where we see competitive advantages where we have strong positions. we will continue to invest. together this connects with the wealth management areas, whether in trading, m&a capital markets, we have significant upside. matt: that was francine lacqua speaking with the ceo of credit suisse. cars.com is set to acquire credit iq for at least $30 million. we will discuss the deal with ceo alex vetter, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. cars.com today released earnings in line with analyst estimates

as the supply chain woes smash into the car industry, making used car purchases much higher in price. let's bring in ceo alex vetter to talk about a really insane time for buying and selling cars, used in new. i should not make it specific to use because dealers can charge 50% above markup. what is it like operating in this? -- 15% above markup. alex: it is incredible. despite the headlines and challenges being written about the auto market, it's a really healthy market, including for platforms like ours, where consumers can look nationwide. with technology, consumers can see the market wide view on their phone, see who has what inventory in stock. matt: to me, coming from

germany, where i spent most of my time, it seems like there is so much opportunity here. in germany, there is one platform that pretty much everyone uses. here you have got such fragmentation. there is a huge prize out there for the winter. how do you get that? alex: there are 40,000 dealers in the u.s.. we have just under 20,000 as customers, so we have a long way to go to win the rest of the dealers on our network. make no mistake, every dealership, as a result of covid, is trying to adopt digital platforms, services and solutions, mimic what carvana has done, but we are trying to arm the fleet. be able to compete using tech. matt: you want consumers, when they think about selling a car or shop for a car like zillow, to go directly to cars.com and

think about nothing else. how do you do that, a marketing budget, the way you operate, apps? alex: when your name is synonymous with car shopping, it's pretty easy. the number of people that download our app or type our name into a browser is significantly higher than our peer group. we can spend less in marketing and more in product development, supporting our customers. matt: what do you expect in terms of the car market right now? supply chain woes -- i have been talking to the ceo of volkswagen, bmw, daimler about these things. when will we see that start to fix itself? alex: production in q3 was a low point. we are already seeing a rebound in q4. there is a bit of a global game happening. domestic automakers are bringing cars back at a faster level.

they are doing a good job getting trucks back onto lots, but inventories are way down. about 30% down on cars.com, but across every lot it is the same story. used car sales are keeping the industry afloat. dealers are reporting record profits because prices are up. new cars are up about 20%, used cars about 40%. dealerships are having a record profit year, investing more in technology to accelerate their growth heading into 2022. matt: what about the demand side of the equation? that clearly got big during covid. a lot of the kids who thought they would never need a car wanted one to get out of the city and into the country. now i am sure they have become addicted to it. at what point do those comps get

normal again? alex: we are seeing the average age for registering a driver's license has been getting younger. it had been getting into the 17-year-olds, but now we are seeing them come down sooner. consumers are wed to their cars. because of covid, people view it as the safest way to get around. ev sales are not bringing a whole new segment of the population into the market. ev searches are up almost 50% on our platform, particularly in markets like seattle, denver, san francisco. cities that were not booming car markets before the rise of ev's. matt: in new york, with federal and state, you can get about $9,500 back when you buy a new ev. are those kinds of incentives really helping the industry, pushing people toward an e v purchase?

alex: across all makes and models, ev's are less than 5% of the total. that said, as this administration rolls out more incentives, talks about more stimulus for ev adoption, we are seeing consumer demand rise. searches are up 50%, relatively small but fast-growing, particularly in key markets. matt: in america, everyone is waiting for these pickup trucks. riveon is making their first delivery, cyber truck is being pushed back, everyone is waiting for f-150 lightning. who will be the king of electric pickups? alex: it is something that our team covers every day. we are driving them, posting ratings and reviews in our expert opinion. consumers are overwhelmed with ev choices heading into next year.

our experts here are curating the market on their behalf. we hope to have new reports coming out every week. porsche is coming out, hyundai is coming out with one, the mustang. our editors are busy driving these in writing about them on the platform. matt: let's not forget about the ballinger. thank, alex. the ceo of cars.com. shares of moderna are falling about 20%. we will discuss why in our stock of the hour with kriti gupta. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton with bloomberg first word news. the united states has issued a federal rule mandating covid

vaccinations or at least weekly testing for workers at companies with 100 or more employees. it's the latest step in president biden's push to use employer mandates to drive up vaccination totals nationally. the new requirement takes effect friday. workers must be fully vaccinated by january 4 or submit to testing. about 80% of u.s. adults have received at least one vaccine dose. if you are unruly and disrupted on a u.s. flight, you may face not only finds but federal criminal charges as well. the federal is referring dozens of investigations into disruptive passengers to the justice department. total reports of unruly passengers have surged to unprecedented levels in 2021. the faa says almost 75% of the cases involve passengers objecting to the federal requirement that they wear masks. a chemical that causes cancer

have been found in antiperspirant and uterine body sprays. an independent testing lab is asking the food and drug administration to recall all the products with elevated levels of the carcinogen benzene. products from proctor and ga mble brand secret and old spice contain the highest concentrations of the chemical. china is dismissing a pentagon report that says china is expanding its nuclear weapons capability faster than previously thought. the pentagon estimated wednesday's report that china would have at least 1000 nuclear warheads by 2030, including 700 so-called deliverable ones by 2027, that could be mounted immediately on missiles. china says the report has a disregard of the facts.

global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ amanda: i'm amanda lang. welcome to bloomberg markets. matt: i'm matt miller. we welcome our bloomberg and bnn bloomberg audiences. here are the top stories we are following for you from around the world. as opec-plus rejects president biden's request for a bigger oil supply increase, we will speak to the ovintiv ceo brendan mccracken on how the company plans to maintain production next year. remaking the las vegas strip. mgm put the mirage for sale. we will speak to the vici properties ceo.

and moderna is tumbling. the fall comes after it cut its covid 19 vaccine forecast. the stock having its worst day since 2018. we will dig into the details with kriti gupta. amanda: moderna, one reason why the health care subgroup in the s&p 500, is among the worst performing today. we are seeing a move back into the high-growth names that brought the market to its height, tech, communications, consumer discretionary higher today. weakness in financials, as interest rate increases are maybe delayed. interest net margins very much in focus. take a look at nvidia. we are watching chips as a group. a number of them are powering higher today. 12% increase on nvidia around optimism about how it will

benefit from the so-called metaverse. it will generate a lot of the activity in that world. qualcomm also getting a similar double-digit advance. chips remain a big focus. of course, bottlenecks. we have talked a lot about pricing but we are waiting for jobs data tomorrow. today, a read on the economy that is telling. productivity in the u.s. falling by the most since 1981 in the third quarter. that is reflecting a few things, not least wage growth. nonfarm productivity fell. the expected decline -- part of that is because productivity is output per worker. if your workers cost more, there productivity technically falls. matt: i don't think the meta-verse is up and running yet. i called a number of people, wanted to get some economists on

the air. throughout europe, every economist i know is working from home still. it is much more difficult to get a hold of people at home. as the i.t. infrastructure increases, as the meta-verse gets easier to use and work from, that productivity may come back up. i will not wait for your reply. let's get to the stock of the hour. moderna will not meet the lofty expectations it had anticipated, and shares are being punished because maybe you don't need to get a vaccine if you live and work in the meta-verse. kriti gupta is with us. kriti: this has everything to do with the guidance. $20 billion is what moderna said, they came out with 15 billion dollars to $18 billion. we know that modernity so get that big boost to going to be able to sustain some of that

momentum it has had this year. i want to talk about cash positions. some of the supply chain issues that we've been talking about with other companies, shipping delays, modernity is kind of insulated from it. when they talked about it on the earnings call, they said it was a minimal impact. when you have these orders, these logistics are already worked out. for that reason, they have these massive cash positions. amanda: what about other vaccine makers? i saw that pfizer was weak. is moderna's shortfall being felt by them? kriti: absolutely. other shares are down substantially. this comes on the back of some pretty good earnings from pfizer, but the theme is that ultimately these huge gains will trickle down into 2022. pfizer came out and said that they were coming out with 36

billion in 2021, 29 billion in 2022. i don't want to use the word tapering, but there is some of that vaccine demand. in the second quarter, two thirds of their vaccine supply went to the u.s.. in the third quarter, 96% went abroad. matt: thank you for joining us, kriti gupta. still ahead, will domestic oil producers step up their production after opec-plus rejects president biden's call to increase output? we will talk to brendan mccracken, president and ceo of ovintiv. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets.

i'm matt miller. opec and its allies say they will stick to their slow pace of production increases relative to what president biden wants and they are rejecting his demands to increase production. the group approved a 400,000 barrel action a day, a pace that consumers say is too slow to sustain the economic recovery. i will repeat again, it's really interesting to me that we see the leaders of the biggest countries of the world gathered at cop26 trying to fight climate change, and at the same time, asking opec-plus to please pull more oil out of the earth so that we can burn it. it doesn't really jive. as someone who regularly buys gas for seven dollars or eight dollars a gallon here in berlin, they don't seem that high to me,

but everything is relative. amanda: you are highlighting detention at opec. world leaders are saying we will try to do without your product as soon as we can, but as we transition, we want you to make less on. opec would say forget about it. if you are telling us we are a sunset industry, we plan to sell as high as we can while we can. it creates a problem that is both political and related to the climate because we are still consuming a lot of his oil, and now more expensively. matt: i want to talk to brendan mccracken about it. he is the president and ceo of ovintiv, which owns a portfolio of oil and natural gas producing assets. thank you so much for joining us. i know that you are based in denver right now. but i will guess you are canadian? brendan: i am.

great to be here today. matt: if president biden asked you to increase oil production, what would you say? brendan: we have been really clear about how we are creating value with our business. we don't see a call on growth today. we have always got to take into account a multitude of factors, making a risk decision there. we are also clear we are delivering on debt reduction. our business strategy today is free cash flow and generating returns on capital we are invested in. we are set up to generate $15 billion to $20 billion of the cash flow over the next gate at modest prices compared to where we are today. that is how we have been running the business. most recently, we announced a new capital allocation framework. that framework, we are already in action on.

we are paying a 6% cash yield on our equity today with a combined basic dividend, share buybacks. we think that is the right value proposition for the business. that cash yield is set to go up as we reduce debt, but we need to do that debt reduction before we consider other capital allocation options. amanda: few in the energy sector expected oil prices to be where they are. the assumptions for many have been to operate and right sides your own cost. as you look down the road, what is that price? what price oil can you still be profitable so that any upside is good for you and your investors? brendan: our company has been at the forefront of the industry transformation, where the industry switched from being a value creation industry through growth, to an industry that

creates value through cash returns, return of cash to shareholders. we have been at the front end of that, this is our fourth consecutive year of generating free cash flow. even in 2020, which was a tough year. we have driven our breakeven wti costs down into the low 30's. that has been the result of a real innovation by our team to drive capital efficiency into our business. we have a really resilient business today. we think about running the business at midcycle levels, which for us is around 50, 55 level on wti. matt: i cannot let up on questions about the administration, because i find it interesting, and the president really want to do what he can to make life a little bit easier for the average american at the pump. has the biden administration reached out to you, is someone at the administration speaking to you about production?

brendan: we have dialogue with the governments we work with. you mentioned at the outset, we are in many places. myself and my team do dialogue with policymakers. what we need to see is better collaboration between policymakers and industry, to find solutions that enable responsible producers to invest and drive down emissions. for us, that is encouraging innovative solutions that are enabling technology. i would be happy to talk about a number of the milestones that we have recently delivered on around emissions reductions, some fantastic performance drops, methane admissions by 33% this year, year-over-year. what we want to see are those regulations and policies that avoid punitive policy and regulations, that encourage those emission reductions, but

still encourages investments and meets the world's energy needs, which is the point you are pushing on. amanda: of course, it is an important point, a political one. i guess i would ask if you think the political atmosphere in the u.s. right now is pro production for you. the biden administration asking opec to produce more oil. you could argue there are regulatory environments, certainly infrastructure pushback on pipelines, saying that it is harder to ship oil in the u.s. today. brendan: it is a complex space and every company is navigating those hurdles you talked about. one of the first steps that policymakers should consider in the u.s. is moving away from the methane tax proposed in the reconciliation package, and instead using the regulatory process through the epa, which we saw in some early drafts, as a policy tool to drive emissions

down. responsible producers, like our company, would welcome that dialogue and discussion, to encourage that innovation, meet that tough compromise between the energy needs that the economy has and the emissions reduction we need to achieve. matt: great to get some time with you, appreciate your time. brendan mccracken, president and ceo of ovintiv. coming out of denver. everyone is jealous when we hear someone has a job in denver. back in new york, we are getting some breaking news. new york city mayor elect eric adams says that he will take his paycheck in bitcoin. i don't know if anybody expected this. we recently heard from aaron rogers who said he would take his paycheck in bitcoin. he is not working right now because apparently he did not get a vaccine.

but this is absolutely fascinating. mayors historically do fun things, you have had some in toronto, for sure, but this is pretty unbelievable. only the first three paychecks, but he wants to make new york city a crypto hub. this could be a step in the right direction. amanda: it will also highlight some of the complications of trying to pay someone in a constant way with a fluctuating asset price. it may expose the soft underbelly of bitcoin. we will have more, next. stay with us. ♪

amanda: this is bloomberg markets. i'm amanda lang. alongside matt miller. las vegas has been fetching record prices for real estate, which has led to the mgm to be

put up for sale. group properties that own the mirage are being acquired by vici properties. we have with us the vici properties ceo. let's talk about what you are getting for $17.2 billion. we have seen some strong prices. what is your vision for this? >> good to see you, amanda, matt. for $17.2 billion, we are getting seven assets along the las vegas strip, as well as other assets in the regional giving markets in the u.s. this is a tremendous portfolio in scale and quality, occupied by an operator, mgm, which we believe is one of the greatest leisure hospitality operators on earth. this will give us an overall portfolio across the u.s. from lake tahoe to atlantic city and

massachusetts. that gives us unrivaled access to what is one of the most dynamic consumer discretionary sectors in america right now, which is gaining. -- gaming. matt: you own a total of 10 properties now on the strip. what are your economic expectations? las vegas is very dependent on the u.s. economy. we are seeing a big rebound right now. how are you expecting that to carry on? edward: the way that we think about the las vegas strip is that it is, we believe, the most economically productive street in america, frankly, if not the world. it is proving that in the recovery from covid, but it proved it before covid. we believe there are a number of trends in place that will

continue to make las vegas one of the most vital and vibrant tourism, leisure, and business destinations in the world. as an example, we announced we were buying the venetian, the biggest asset on the las vegas strip, on march 3. 7000 hotel rooms, the largest hotel in america, the biggest privately owned convention space in america, and the most important customer at that asset is not a gambler, it is america's largest corporations. that corporation uses the venetian to carry on critical elements of its business model in terms of its engagement with its customers. that is where a tremendous amount of its engagement with customers takes place, at the venetian. we think the prospects for vegas are tremendous. you are right, matt. we will have a very strong

position along been very productive street. amanda: you have made a series of sizable acquisitions. in terms of the ability to finance all of that while continuing to pay out investors, just reassure on the balance sheet, on your capital structure, that you feel comfortable going forward, if there was a downturn, that you would still be ok. edward: since we started four years ago, we have done $30 billion in transactions. to carry out those transactions, we will have used about $20 billion of equity, $10 billion of debt. we have raised all the equity we need to close on both the venetian and the mgp transactions. we will be raising debt further down the road. in terms of the quality of the balance sheet, we have steadily migrated upward in quality, to the point that wherein we announced the mgp transaction,

both s&p and fitch said that if vici can get leverage by late 2022, we will move vici to investment grade. with the equity we raised in september, that equity raise in september helps to pay for mgp, ensures that we will be below the leverage level that we need to get to investment grade. amanda: great to have you with us. that is the vici properties ceo. for matt miller, i'm amanda lang. stay with us. ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton with bloomberg's first word news. house speaker is sounding

optimistic that the chamber will approve president biden's social spending agenda and his infrastructure built. infrastructure bill -- infrastructure bill. speaker pelosi shined away from giving exact timing for the votes, although much of the bill has been written, there was last-minute wrangling over a plan to raise the limit on deductions for state and local taxes and on immigration. shares of moderna are falling. the company lowered its estimate for the 2021 coronavirus vaccine sales. moderna is vying with pfizer and biontech in a race to lock in orders for booster shots for next year. the logjam of u.s. airports -- imports stacked on ships off the coast of los angeles is not just getting longer, it is getting

wider.