matt: live from new york, i am matt miller. kailey: looking at what is shaping the world of decentralized finance. matt: blackrock fund on a delaware state website gives a brief boost to the cryptocurrency. kailey: we will speak to the ceo of the firm that will be providing the pricing for a lot of spot products if approved. matt: we catch up with the cofounder and ceo of digital asset custodian bitgo.

kailey: all of that is ahead, let us get a snapshot of the market, the best way to do that is bloomberg terminal, i will start with the bottom of my board for something i do not usually do. i point out what is going on with the token tied to avalanche up 19% on the day. this will be the best day for the digital asset on the record and this is on news that apollo global management, jp morgan's as it is part of a big group, an effort called project guardian that is being spearheaded by the monetary authority in singapore, testing out blockchain technology for financial institutions and avalanche is one of the blockchain's taking part in that project. forcing a massive move, x rp we get into, up by 1% rate volatility earlier this week on the fake etf filing. bitcoin and either positive on the day. we are back north of $36,000.

matt: the tokenization story is an exciting one, you may have noticed although that relations have turned around as of late. during the pandemic whenever we would report on rises in the price of bitcoin it was also tied to rises in stocks. that is no longer the case. see the correlation is negative. when stocks are down we see bitcoin up, it is the biggest or most negative correlation going back to the beginning of the pandemic. going back to march of 2020. it has been a long time since we have seen these correlations break. we will see if they hold. kailey: always interesting to get a correlation chart map, i want to talk about not bitcoin but x rp and turned back to the false alarm that triggered a double-digit rally in that token in particular. joining us is vildana. what happened here?

this filing showed up on the state website? >> you have a lot of companies filing for trusts, for example, a lot of it actually did look legitimate. except for that it was for x rp and blackrock very very quickly said that the filing had been paul's. we are still trying to figure out what exactly happened, the state of delaware did tell us that they did defer the issue to their state justice department. they're trying to figure out what happened here because we did have the big as you mentioned run up in x rp, gave back the gains almost immediately after blackrock proceeded that. another instance of a baby you call it a hoax or fake news, traveling through the crypto world, especially on twitter where things just spread like wildfire so quickly, prices tend to move and it is the latest example of that, it is not

exactly the very best look because we do have regulators looking at potentially approving spot bitcoin etf's and we know that in the past they have mentioned market manipulation and fraud as some of the reasons that they did not want to be approving them in the past. kailey: very creative. matt: decent hoax there. in terms of filing that blackrock actually confirms, they have bitcoin etf, spot bitcoin etf filing, i guess, what nasdaq filed for a blackrock either fund as well --ether fund as well? how much closer we to be able to tell what bitcoins are going to launch? you are tired of me asking you this question! >> it is the big question right now, it is the point of most interest for the crypto community right now, especially on twitter where people are sort of hanging onto every single little incremental development.

when we have news like the x rp or the fakes x rp filing, everybody gets so excited to see the price move, we are trying to figure out what exactly happens with the spot bitcoin etf filings are blackrock, they have a strong track record in terms of launching etf's. when they put out filings, their etf do tend to launch. that is giving comfort to people who are thinking this is a positive sign for the eventual launch of the spot bitcoin etf. we really have to wait and see what happens as regulators continue to look at some of these hoax-y events. matt: etf speculation, thank you so much for joining us, talking about that. joining us now is the ceo of cf benchmarks, thank you for your time. when do you think we will see an etf?

what is more important is how much institutional or even retail interest is this going to bring into the crypto world? will there be an important milestone? >> thank you for having me. i think you just hit that is the key question, it is not so much the data, when exactly the etf will go on, what will the impact be? you touched on it at the top of the show with the correlation chart, that is really the key reason for allocation to bitcoin for most investors. it is the mark of relaunch that bitcoin provides because of the diversification, over the long run, then uncorrelated to most of the major asset classes, low correlation exhibited over the past 10 years that have had

periods for the correlation has gone up. but this year, most of this year, the correlation is in the negative. if there has been any correlation at all. the diversification area effect that it can give and impute to portfolios of stocks, bonds, and cash will drive the conversation, that will drive the inflows. the question is what is that allocation? the quantitative evidence, the empirical evidence tells us it should not be zero. kailey: it should not be zero, i have heard often in conversations about the idea that really at this point you should not be putting anything into crypto you are not willing to use. i would suggest it should not be super heavily weighted in a portfolio in terms of the asset allocation breakup. we also have to keep in mind it comes against a backdrop of the have been a lot of the participation to your point about a spot etf being approved eventually, maybe it is a question of when, not if. i wonder how much of the

anticipation already is baked into what we are seeing in prices? maybe a little bit more institutional attraction, a bit more volume in terms of flows? pricing does not change that much? what do you think? >> that is a really interesting question, i think it -- people have been talking about it is baked into the price, authorization, approval is baked into the price. as you point out, it is not the approval, it is how much inflow of these products if they are approved when they are approved, how much inflow will they see? that is, what is the market pricing in this? $5 billion of inflow? $10 billion? we do not really know. most investors will look at this cautiously. i do not think any institutional investors are going to be thinking about timing the

market, timing the bump, what most institutional investors will be looking at is a long-term and the diversification effect that bitcoin can have in portfolios and add more resilience to the returns that they will see from their portfolios. matt: are there any pricing problems today? this is one of the things that the scc as death is a risk with bitcoin? the markets are not as transparent, not as liquid? not as regulated as other commodities? you see any issues now? that is the main work that you do. >> that is quite right. i think that it is important to understand that yes, bitcoin is traded in a disputed manner on different markets, those markets operated by cryptocurrency exchanges predominantly very quite significantly in quality.

there are some markets that have very limited requirements that have limited market protection measures, thinker protection, etc., uc the wild price swings -- you see the wild price swings. these indices and data from the six most transparent, most conformant to our criteria which covers those requirements, regulatory concerns, market surveillance and market monitoring measures, we certainly, we at benchmarks have been producing our bitcoin reference rate and real-time index, we do not see those huge swings, we are able to protect ourselves from that, the data that may lack integrity.

we take pricing from those reputable strong exchanges that have the track record and the regulatory oversight. kailey: as we said you are providing that pricing to a lot of these products assuming that they are indeed approved at some point. my question to you is have you had direct interface with the fcc about that? a lot of these issuers are interacting with regulators as they try to sort out these filings whether or not they will be approved. have regulators had questions for you? >> we do not comment on our interactions with regulators, whether we had them or what transpires, but i can say is in the public record is if those who are interested take a look at the s-1 filings and the amendments to those filings, that have been filed with the fcc, you will see evermore content, evermore disclosure around the manner in which we

calculate the indexes to the proposed products. i think from that you can infer the type of disclosures that issuers feel the market need for a public market product. some of which have been driven by suggestions from regulators. matt: it will be great to get some time with you, we appreciate the context, talking about the possibility of an etf and the pricing climate in the industry. a ceo discusses regulatory the bitcoin landscape and revelatory outlook. kailey: that feeds into what we are seeing in terms of pricing, take a look at the price action, bitcoin will be even higher, up more than 4%, 47,000, ether down by dashed up by 2.2%, we heard more pricing from the founder of

skybridge recently, anthony scaramucci says this trend will persist amid the etf optimism. >> the deadline for the application was january 10, it appears likely that these things will get approved if that happens, i think there is an induction of a tremendous amount of demand for bitcoin and of course you have a happening in bitcoin which means the supply will get cut in half in april. they have been lowering supply and more demand, we think prices are going to trend higher for bitcoin, ethereum, and a few other currencies. we will stay long in the portfolio. ♪

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regulatory framework because other jurisdictions are kailey: how the markets are should look or the fcc should be in charge of, monikers are pressing to address other prevalent technologies as well like artificial intelligence, less discussed -- let us discuss it with the ceo , ceo, mike.

you may see a little bit more regulatory clarity to delve deeper into the digital asset space. what else do they need to see? >> thank you for having me here. they're looking for strength in the markets, looking to de-risk the activity that they will take and with so much constant noise from relators all over the world, they do not want to be on the wrong side of any of them, they are looking for folks who are pioneering that and how the market should be. we do not have clear definitions in the u.s. but it is getting better. the etf that is pending, people are excited about it, optimism around it, that is in part because we are sorting to see these pieces fall over the place? matt: you have 1500 institutional clients across 50 countries for whom you are the custodian. how much in terms of total

crypto and dollars are you actually managing, would you expect that number to do after the etf is approved and you start trading? >> we operate four press companies across the planet. i think the only kind of multijurisdictional custodian we will start to see some new products and services we can offer, we care about making sure that we do not centralize the custody of these assets, we hold a fair amount of these total supply -- the total supply of bitcoin at bitgo. with what is going on in the price setting, an uptick in new clients, 20% growth in the asset stakes, there is a lot of confidence there is a participation of future growth, bitcoin in particular does have this scarcity element to it. there is a fixed supply, that

should drive real price. matt: do you expect the approval of etf's to drive the number up? >> we did not disclose or full amount that we have had, 68 billion of assets under custody that i can -- it is down a little bit now, based on prices being down, you can see our rapid break when we offer which is all public and on chain. it is a significant number. the etf is definitely going to drive more, there has been a number of estimates a couple of weeks ago, anticipating somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion of new asset coming into the new purchasing of the asset class. kailey: there waiting to see when that approval happens, every single day, you saw how pricing was watching the

collapse of fdr's last year and a is something we think about institutions in the space that may be led to a little bit more trepidation in the immediate aftermath, i wonder how much that is fading now, especially given that i am reading through the note you sent across to us and you are talking about the network possibly preventing the next -- talking about the bitgo network possibly fronting the next fdx? >> we are seeing the singles' day applicants are having with the ftc, working with these guys as well. i am optimistic. i think it is quite likely we have another round of etf rejections before we get the positive news. it comes back down to market structure, gary gensler has made no secret you have to separate exchanges from custody. the market structure is already

this way, equity markets are this way as well. 15 months ago we had sam bankman-fried marching all over washington dc advocating his seven key points of regulation where he basically said let me take on all functions it will be great! it will be efficient. we will do that. we have a different thought process. a lot of these applications are with coinbase custody. coinbase, they are taking on also the same playbook in addition to being an exchange and a custodian. they got a broker-dealer, a lot of risks in the entity that are not fully understood, they come back, separate out these things going forward. custodians like to focus on that, we did not do trading and exchange work, we can fill that void. matt: i want to point out, if brian armstrong were here he

would push back against having coinbase in the same sentence as fdx. tx. >> it is the same model! matt: i am sure he would have a multipoint rebuttal, that is the ceo of bitgo talking about custody of the asset scaling and it is very interesting and important issue post ftx. kailey: taking a quick look at prices, bitcoin clients throughout the session, we are up 5%, we see the equity markets rolling over, the nasdaq 100 is no negative on the date. coming up, a few more stories to run through including the fcc collecting a record amount of fines from crypto businesses. moorehead, this is bloomberg. -- more ahead, this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ to help you see untapped possibilities

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giving our clients an exclusive advantage. principal asset management. actively invested. thanks to avalara, we can calculate sales tax automatically. avalarahhhhhh what if tax rates change? ahhhhhh filing sales tax returns? ahhhhhh business license guidance? ahhhhhh -cross-border sales? -ahhhhhh -item classification? -ahhhhhh does it connect with acc...? ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh matt: let us get some crypto

stories that caught our attention, a consortium of 17 companies including apollo and jp morgan are testing blockchain's impact on financial institutions. the goal is to record funds onto an asset manager's choice of blockchain, tokenization. the proof of concept could generate up to $400 billion in revenue according to christine, the head of digital assets at apollo. kailey: the fcc says it has collected nearly $5 billion in fines and returns from businesses during the fiscal year ending in september the regulator highlighted actions involving digital asset and employees using unapproved communications to conduct business. the focus was on crypto and prevalent throughout the year which included against fdx, and others -- ftx and others.

from the entire team this is likely our last show with you for a while, you have another baby on the way, we will miss you very much, we are happy for you and your wife and matthew will be a big sister! matt: very much looking forward to the arrival of lola. when she does come, i will be there for some skin to skin and father daughter bonding. i am looking forward to it. i will even shave the beard for that so that i can give the baby's mother kisses! kailey: that is a good dad right there! we will miss you very much but we look forward to your return! matt: fcc commissioner joins the show and may be by then we will have a bitcoin etf approval as we speak. the price rising to 37,289

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matt: i will say in bitcoin terms the dollar is weaker because the cryptocurrency has risen over $37,000.

nymex krudys down $1.28. what are you watching? amber: it is my favorite time of the corridor. these fund managers have to reveal holdings. i am nosy so i like to know what they are up to. what is berkshire hathaway up to? a new position in sirius xm radio and punting gm from the portfolio. matt: in today's economic data releases, u.s. producer prices came out and dropped by the most since the onset of the pandemic. that adds to evidence that inflation is at least slowing down. reade pickert joins us from washington, d.c. what drove the drop in producer

prices? reade: it is important to remember these numbers came on the heels of a better-than-expected cpi. what we saw was that producer prices were driven mainly down by sharp decline in gasoline prices, which helped pull down the headline by as much as it did. you also saw some other things that were pretty inspiring. for instance, we saw the services measure was flat for the month after months and months of increasing, which is the type of thing the federal reserve is concerned about. it really likes to see that. one of the main things that we care about from this particular report is a lot of the inputs paired with the stuff from the cpi yesterday flows into the fed's preferred inflation measure, which is that pce price index. right now, it is looking like that number is going to comment in pretty modest. amber: i guess that helps

explain why we are seeing the market increasingly bet that the fed is done. reade: yes. the producer price data adds to the distal inflationary picture. retail sales data was also important for the soft lending narrative. retail sales slowed but not as much as folks feared. you saw a consumer that is still spending and is resilient, but is cooling down in the type of thing the fed wants to see. but it will be interesting as we move through the rest of the year that data can be quite choppy. we will see if this is the start of a more pronounced cooling. matt: thank you so much for joining us. reade pickert out of washington, d.c. coming up, we turn to the retail sector as target soars even

though sales continue to fall for the second quarter. details, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

amber: time for stock of the hour. target shares are surging after the retailer reported third-quarter adjusted earnings-per-share that beat expectations, even amidst a soft decline in comparable same-store sales. bloomberg intelligence says the results mark a pivot point for the company with efforts to

regain supply chain efficiencies aiding margins. what is interesting is this is a stock that has barely any short position. the buying we are seeing not necessarily short covering. matt: that is interesting, especially with the huge jump you are seeing. 17% for a company that has had sales dropped for two quarters in a row, and when prices are rising. the sales drop is worse than it looks. let's bring in john edwards, he covers target at bloomberg. the sales drop was better than expected. that is part of the story. john: exactly. better than expectations overall and one thing i think the market is liking is evidence of operational competence which had been lacking. they really seem like they have their inventory situation under control. it is now coming down several quarters in a row. it came down 14% this last

quarter. that, i think, is part of what is reassuring the market that they are not just making the numbers for the financial fiddling. they are actually operating better and that bodes well going forward. amber: you look at the area of the store that performed really well. it was those beauty products. that is lending itself to a rally. some of the other stocks like ulta. how sustainable is that for target, which has struggled because it did not have something like grocery? john: they did cite while they are seeing a pullback in discretionary spending on bigger ticket items they are seeing those frequency items, as they call them, the repeat purchases like beauty are helping support their sales. we did see same-store sales were down again. better-than-expected but still

declining. but target feels they are seeing a bit of consumer resilience in some of those frequency categories and that should help put a floor under the declines. matt: we got target today, walmart tomorrow. last quarter there was a big story about shrink, which is theft. we watch people steal stuff all the time. [laughter] is that as much of a problem as it was then? john: it does not look like it. they referred to it as eating into the margin improvement, but it turned out the cfo said shrink was actually better this past quarter they on the previous two. it seems they are getting a handle on it. it is also important to note shrink includes things that are lost or misplaced. matt: fell off the truck. john: exactly. but that might be improving for them. amber: how did target lose its

way relative to, say, walmart or tjx, both which have reached all-time highs at a time when target is hitting multiyear lows? john: the inventory situation was a big part of it. all retailers went through a big buildup in inventory with the supply chain problems. some did better than others at working through them. i think target in that regard in the past over promised and under delivered. now you are seeing them actually work through those inventories steadily and that is what has restored optimism in the market for them. amber: thank you for your insight. bloomberg's john edwards joining us on target. we are going to take a quick break. when we come back, president biden and president xi jinping are about to meet.

we will take you there live in san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is "bloomberg markets". i am matt miller with amber kanwar. quick check on the markets. you see continued gains in the s&p. all major indexes are back on the rise. the nasdaq dipped into negative territory back in the green. i think it is interesting to see the big gain in bitcoin. up more than 4.5% at $37,000 and change. everybody is waiting for an etf approval from the sec. we have not gotten one yet, but something is driving this price. we are also moments away from president biden's meeting and bilateral press conference with president xi. annmarie hordern is in san francisco. i guess we are going to see a

handshake in a moment. is the relationship expected to get better? are they going to do the work, you think, to improve bilateral relations? annmarie: it feels like the relationship the past year has been at an all-time low. especially following speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan last summer when the chinese government decided to cut off military to military comedic asian between beijing and washington. also, when the chinese alleged spy balloon was traveling over the continental u.s. that was another spanner in the works of trying to get the dialogue on track. the fact that these two leaders are meeting is the deliverable for this meeting. president biden said yesterday he wants to get to a normal place where he can pick up the phone and discuss his

counterpart anything when it comes to conflict. that is really the town that is set around this meeting. we are going to an election year. there are two conflicts internationally. they really want to put guardrails around this relationship. for xi jinping, he is dealing with issues domestically. look at the property market, look at youth unemployment. this is a moment not just to sit down with president biden but with america's biggest executives. amber: that is an important point. businesses will be watching just as keenly. boeing earlier rallying on hopes that maybe china would start buying their jets again. would that be the concrete litmus test on how much of a thaw there was? if you start to see deals and transactions taking place again? annmarie: i think for china, the united states, and the business

community, these are the kind of things. i do not know if they are the litmus test, but moving the right direction if they are getting back to more normal communication, normal progress. over the summer the commerce secretary said she told chinese officials what she hears is china is becoming uninvestable. that is quite concerning. that is why xi jinping is sitting down with executives. we saw elon musk go to china to talk about their investment in the country. i would say president biden and xi jinping will set the tone of the week. the fact they are meeting is the big win for both sides. but it will be interesting to see what comes out of these other meetings xi jinping is going to have with executives. amber: especially at a time where it seems like the administration is not super keen

on letting up on their tech restrictions. i imagine the chinese counterparts will be looking for some relief on that side. annmarie: yeah, the united states does not seem like they are going to move when it comes to export controls or penalties or sanctions on anything they deem necessary for u.s. national security. we have heard the treasury secretary say this. she was the one to greet xi jinping yesterday. we heard president biden say this yesterday. president biden talked about the economy in china yesterday saying every average chinese citizen deserves a decent paying job. it is not just good for china but the u.s. and the world. but he will not go as far as to renege on those export controls or anything they deem necessary for u.s. national security interests. matt: it is obviously not the most important question on the agenda but a lot of people are

talking about the possibility of the pandas coming back. it happened sooner than expected. any expectation on getting chinese pandas back? annmarie: i have not heard anything on the panda diplomacy. maybe that will be one of the agreements on the margins. not something that i cover closely. but this is something that the world really was so focused on. at the same time we were learning about the pandas going back to china, bloomberg had a scoop that the u.s. administration was worried about china building a military base in oman. i think that is what we are focused on. figuring out the power struggle. also, we should mention there could be an agreement when it comes to fenton all and china really going after -- fentanyl and china really going after the

producers. if you look in the polls, this is something americans are concerned about. matt: clearly, stopping fentanyl is far more important. bloomberg economics analysts wrote a story and said we could get the pandas back. he is former cia and watching as well. annmarie hordern, thank you. we look forward to catching up with you again. i want to bring in rhodium group director rava goujon and get her take on what we see happening in san francisco in terms of these relationships. rava, how do you expect these meetings to go? rava: sorry to say i do not have panda intelligence. [laughter] i agree a lot with a lot of the things annmarie said. the u.s. agenda is quite clear. as the u.s. is proceeding with

very hard-hitting tech controls -- and look at the export control package as evidence of this -- the administration wants to prevent that competition from developing into conflict. you launch a diplomatic barrage from every channel you can get. kissinger, kerry, raimondo, everyone, and now biden and xi. you avoid miss commute occasion, avoid miscalculation, and if things go south, you have a dialogue to de-escalate quickly. but i think the more compelling question is what does xi jinping get out of this, especially since china has been the one withholding military guardrails, for example, as a form of protest but also as diplomatic leverage? amber: how do you answer that question? what does china get out of this? rava: a few things.

one is optics. that uninvestable term does not sit well in beijing. she is trying to counter that narrative and trying to reclaim the narrative from last year. at this time last year, china was hitting the limits of its zero code policy. 2023 was supposed to be the year of recovery and instead it shown a spotlight on the structural weaknesses of the economy. getting that investor sentiment boosted is critical. she is not going to get much in terms of a negotiation. tech controls are off the table. the administration has been clear on that. there is low hanging fruit like the fentanyl thing. if you go back to 2018 during the trump/xi summit, there was an agreement for china to crack down. it is always the thing you reach for when you need to throw

something into the diplomatic mix to say, look, we are engaging. this is a key question of whether we see follow-through. china does not have a defense minister currently. the current one or the previous one has been removed and under investigation for corruption. also, we have seen escalated activity in the south china sea with the philippines. there is a lot of concern over what will happen post taiwan election depending on the outcome. those guardrails could be helpful even for china if it is deliberately escalated on the security front. it may want a quick means of bringing the temperature down if needed. matt: i heard an accusation yesterday from republican congressman -- it was not verified -- but he claims that china and russia are spreading misinformation about the israeli/hamas conflict.

i wonder if you think that is possible, and why would they want to be delivering fentanyl to mexico? is it their interest to have that drug wreaking havoc in this country? rava: well, distractions can play a big role in great power competition. you could argue that the opioid crisis is a big domestic distraction for the u.s. one that undermines its economic potential, its productivity, its health overall. it is a bargaining chip because there is this whole trade that occurs, illicit trade going through mexico. as the u.s. is calling on china to crack down, it is one that beijing can put on the table. in terms of the middle east, again, distraction. this is where a conflict has emerged organically between

hamas and israel. of course, there are external players involved with syrian support, iranian support, russian support, concern over chinese support. it is a thick web of relationships in the usa administration is trying to send a message that, look, we know there is a lot going on. it is tough. but our focus has not been distracted from the indo pacific. that is where you see the u.s.-japan cooperation. i would focus on the bilaterals more than these big framework agreements. amber: on those conflicts i wonder about a third emerging that is taiwan. that has always been a concern. to what extent do you expect to see that discussed and to what extent should that be on investors' radar? rava: it is a huge development that it is coming fast with the january election in taiwan.

there is a lot happening on the electoral front where the opposition may be teaming up. that is something beijing wants. it wants the chance for a more beijing friendly kmt to defeat the incumbent dpp. this could go a number of different ways and they are still in negotiations over what the coalitions are going to be in the end. but there is a question of whether this takes the temperature down on taiwan if beijing has a friendlier government in taipei. will it be as -- japanese defense support is going to taiwan. i do not see that slowing despite the electoral outcome. you can still see security flareups around the taiwan strai t regardless of the election

but there is a lot to focus on. matt: in terms of the u.s.-china relationship, who do you think has more leverage? because the chinese economy is in deeper trouble than the u.s. economy, but of course, president biden has an election coming up and that is not the thing i has to deal with -- xi has to deal with. rava: when you look at what does the ledger look like in terms of power, when it comes to u.s. origin technologies and exerting control, the u.s. has that leverage and is exercising it actively. china does not have those same capabilities. semiconductors are its achilles' heel. where does have leverage is restrictions on graphite,

germanium, which is in response to ev's. that is the best china can do, target the lower end of the supply chain. but that re-energize this this derisking momentum. china does not win when it is already facing economic ailments. matt: how strong is president xi in his leadership? obviously, it is not a democracy, but the will of the people can be felt in china. what is his position right now? rava: of course, it is hard to say but things are very centralized and they center on the personality of xi jinping. i do not see any imminent threat to his power. the key test will be how china manages its slow-moving economic crisis, especially as local government debt challenges grow.

you are going to see more instability as a result. nothing dramatic overnight but this is a slow burn. so long as beijing takes a reactive posture to those issues and tries to kick the can down the road while the u.s. is actively trying to coordinate g7 partners to build up trade defense measures against china, this is going to be a tough external and internal environment for xi to navigate. matt: thank you for joining us. rava goujon talking to us from the rhodium group. i will say thank you to amber kanwar and goodbye to the bnn audience and handed it over to romaine bostick. romaine: kicking you off to the close. romaine bostick alongside katie greifeld. there is going to be a big focus on the markets and interesting

economic data that we got this morning. we are waiting the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents of the two largest economies in the world. they are set to meet today in san francisco. i am not sure we are going to get any many full results. katie: there is a lot of hype around this. it is the symbolism of the moment that matters more than anything in terms of concrete things we can take away from it. of course, to have the face-to-face meeting is very important for optics. romaine: of course. a lot of folks beneath those two have been making the rounds trying to set the stage for this meeting. annmarie hordern took a flight out there to the sidelines of the summit where she stands right now as we await the handshake that will be heard around the world. annmarie: that's right. the president took a drive from where i am standing to 30 minutes south of the city. we are waiting this meet