bonnie: let's check the markets now, and overall it looks like we're just getting fractional moves, but there's a lot going on, both positive and negative. if you look at the s&p 500, we're at 5741, up just less than three points. but there's about 2/3 to a half of those stocks lower in the s&p 500. nonetheless, we're still getting the positive overflow from the china news, the golden dragon index subpoena, and that's holding up the rest of the market. it's bad news out there as well, the possibility of a port strike, everything that's going on in the middle east, and lots more. the nasdaq itself is flat right now. the sox, if you were to look at it, is fully negative.

10-year yield, as we wait for jerome powell to speak later on, down by two basis points. let's look at some of the movers. particularly some of the negative movers. the carmakers are having a very difficult day. stellantis flashing its forecast, particularly for industrial-free cash flow. it's going to make 200,000 cars less than it was going to make by the end of this year. of course, it's been under huge pressure from shareholders to do this. stellantis down some%. that's having a halo effect on the likes of ford, general motors. but there's more bad news for ford. it's been put on a list of the companies that are most exposed to anything negative that should happen in china, whether tariffs or anything else. ford is down by 2.5%. bernstein last week said general motors should pull out of china completely. now let's look at some other stocks on the move today for our midday movers. c.v.s. health, "the wall street

journal" said they're getting for a push there. he has about $700 million in cvs stock. that pushed the stock up more than 3% higher earlier on. it has carried some of the gains now. echostar's dish is being bought by directv. that stock down 12% because it's going to assume some debt. and then zim integrated shipping up almost 6%. it is up 160% year to date. a lot of unknowns regarding shipping around the world and also in the united states when it comes to that port strike that could start just after midnight. so again, east coast labor strike may begin in just a few hours' time. the long shoreman's association saying, there is a quote, no room to run on the settlement. earlier in new york, the governor had set out this plan, should the strike begin as planned. >> i urge u.s., m.x., and the i.l.a. to come to an agreement

that respects workers, that ensures the flow of commerce through our ports, and the stakes are very high. the potential for disruption is significant. bonnie: for more, let's go to bloomberg news reporter dani burger live at the port in newark. just one of the many ports where walkouts are set to begin tonight. is there anything going on behind the scenes as of now everything that we have publicly is that nothing is happening, the strike is going start. dani: that's basically where we are. they're not giving a lot of details of the exact negotiations that had been happening behind closed doors, but there are no more scheduled talks. in the next 12 hours, 12:01 a.m. tuesday eastern is when the current contract runs out and the strike will be on. there's been some things in the background, like the biden administration trying to mediate, but they are saying that they will not step in. they have the option to do so under something called the

taft-hartley act where people would start working again. the white house is declining to do that. in the meantime, they are disagreeing over two main things. it is one, pay. they want a significant increase, nearly 80% over the next six years. and they want language written into the contract to stop further automation of these ports for fear of job losses. bonnie: what kind of leverage do the long shoremen have given that there is a shortage of workers right now? we know for every day where there's a work stoppage, that takes about five days to undo once the stoppage stops. dani: not only does it take nearly a week to undo, it also, by some estimates, j.p. morgan at the high end could cost $4.5 billion a day. but you were spot on when it comes to the labor situation. there is a supply-demand issue. there are not enough people who want to do these jobs. so they have the upper hand here. the other place they have the upper hand is the fact that they are dealing with one of the most

labor-friendly governments that we have had in some time. the fact that the biden administration wanted to force the hand. of course, there comes to a certain point where something needs to get done. as we get closer to the election, should it look like a trump victory, they might have a less friendly government on their side. although trump, according to the long shoreman association, has said he's in support of the strike. but it's because of those pressure points that many experts agree this will only last a few days. as you point out, even just a few days can have significant damage, because ships will build up. there will be capacity off the seas, and it will take time to unload the cargo, especially for small businesses. they could be hurt in the process. vonnie: there are not many alternatives. plus they're dealing with the aftermath and impact of helene. dani: that's exactly right. a lot of places said they're going to extend hours, try to

off load ships quicker. that's fine and when when it come to the northeast. united states. but in the southeast, lot of trucks were not running. they couldn't get to the ports to unload some of the cargo they wanted to ahead of this strike. now, you could divert that traffic to the west coast. however, the international long shoreman association has said that there will be solidarity with this strike, that the west coast workers, at least some of them, will be unwilling to off load some of the cargo. what's more, hsbc said they can only handle part of the products diverted. canada is not an option. montreal is experiencing its own strike. really the only option is to use air freight. again, that is expensive and something that a lot of small retailers won't be able to do. vonnie: exactly. dani, thank yoso much. we'll keep to keep everybody posted on this. the port strike must not just be a u.s. issue. it could have international

implications. that and the upcoming elections have the world watching over the u.s. coastally over the next few weeks. i was able to speak with the prime minister of croatia about how he views current events in the u.s. and abroad. >> it is important for the americans to decide what they want in november by strengthening american democracy, because everybody looks up at what happens in the united states. and last time we felt that the united states democracy was weakened rather than strengthened. we expect a smooth transition of whatever the transition will be upon the decision of the american people. vonnie: domestically for you, you are in your third term, where the difficult election this time around. in spite of the fact you brought croatia into the e.u., also your air, and the travel all around

europe, but you pointed that all of the successes didn't lead to an outright victory in the sense you had to make a coalition with the far right homeland movement. >> well, we always had a coalition both in first, second, and third mandate. but what we did is that we converged on the main points of our government program and the government program is predominantly the program of my party that i'm the president of. i think the croatian citizens gave us confidence for the third time. maybe it's one mandate more or less, but when i look from let's say larger perspective, the fact that we have regained confidence in such global and regional european, but also national circumstances with consequences of covid, with two devastating earthquakes, with the ramifications of the energy crisis due to the aggression against ukraine, pressures, despite that we have managed to join the eurozone, get rid of visas with the united states,

enter the global entry program. on the verge of joining it, and most of all, increase g.d.p. in last three years the g.d.p. growth in croatia was 7.6%, only two e.u. member states having a larger or i would say higher percentage. and also, of course, which is very important for us, as we are at bloomberg for the first time in our history, recently two out of three agencies put us into the aid rating, which is a recognition of the reform process, good absorption of the e.u. fund investments, and i think croatia is on the right path, especially reflected on the pensions of out of citizens. vonnie: you are referring to the upgrades to a- in your history. are you planning to use those upgrades in the primary markets, or are your needs already met? >> our needs in terms of refinancing, that's our continually, i would say, refreshed. but what is happening now, we

are, of course, having the possibility to have lower interest rates. there are immediate effects on our banking sector. a sector of loans for our citizens and the entire perception of croatia having been fully two feet in the heart of the european union with a very good reputation assessment by the credit rating agencies. it's a boost for croatian economy. most of the business sector that i've been in touch with are really excited with this development, and it's helping them to work on their productivity, helping them to work on their exports and contribute to the economy. vonnie: check out the full interview with croatia's prime minister at bloomberg.com. coming up, verizon has agreed to a $3.3 billion deal centered on leasing rights. we're seeing what the company said of taking helms of thousands of towers around the united states. this is bloomberg.

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vonnie: this is "bloomberg markets." time for our stock of the hour. we're look agent digital bridge, up 15% in the past 30 days. it is still down 18% year to date. it's part of a verizon deal to sell the rights to lease thousands of mobile phone towers to digital infrastructure firm vertical bridge. in the deal, vertical bridge will retain the rights to lease, operate and manage the portfolio of almost 6,400 towers for about $3.3 billion. for more, we're joined by the c.e.o. of digital bridge, which is the majority owner. thank you so much for coming in. explain to us why you would want to buy these towers from

verizon, only to have verizon lease them back then. it sounds like a great deal for you, but not so much for verizon. why sell them? >> it's a win-win for both of us. these are really the youngest towers that verizon had, and as they look to monetize assets, the street really doesn't give them credit for owning mobile infrastructure. we've been a teaming partner for 30 years. the first cell site i built was with the predecessor company. for us, it's full circle. we've also been in a joint venture with them for about five years, doing built to suit towers, where we build jointly together their mobile infrastructure. this is a really important customer for us and somebody that we want to continue to invest in as they build their infrastructure. vonnie: how do you price a deal like that? with interest rates where they are, what's a good value for the leasing of a tower for you? >> i think for us, we look at the relative youth of that tower. today that tower holds about 1.1

tendencies per customer. the great thing about verizon, they hold multiple customers. we really like these customers, because they hold three tenants per tower. the truant to take it to three is an opportunity to double or triple our investment. vonnie: who's responsible for that, is that verizon? >> we take on the active management of the towers for verizon. we'll handle cutting the grass, paying the radio taxes, and, of course, putting on the incremental equipment from folks like at&t and t mobile and dish. but also, our primary customer is verizon. as they continue to upgrade and denseify their equipment, we'll make it seamless for them. and as again, it's a long-term partnership, not just 10 years. vonnie: is there any time to the amount of tower deals you will do? is this a land deal like the cowboys in the old days? >> we've been doing towers for 30 years. my partner and i go back a long time building and operating mobile infrastructure. two years ago we were the partner of choice to deutsche

tell come. we did a deal in europe with them. today we have almost over 100,000 towers across nine different companies. so we're investing holistically in the future of mobile edge infrastructure. we think that's really important, particularly where applications are going in the future, the edge is actually where the device is, vonnie, and that's critical. vonnie: i'll take that ads we're interested in both towers. but i do want to ask you about outside of the u.s., because one of the previous times we spoke, you were in the u.s., and people did tell us tell us recently you were considering a sale of edge point infrastructure. can you give me more details? >> edge point was a great idea. we start there four years ago. we backed a great c.e.o. and management team, much like in vertical bridge 10 years ago. we don't have a problem investing in new ideas. with the team there, we built a

fantastic portfolio. we're in four countries. most people don't know, south east asia is the size of the southeast united states. it's over 350 million people. we own 15,000 towers there. we're committed to building another, we'll be over 22,000 towers there. it's an exciting property. investors are looking at that. vonnie: so why sell? >> look, our job at digital bridge is to build great companies, build great platforms, and ultimately in our current format, as a manager, we have to return capital and return profits back to our public shareholders. so we've had a lot of opportunities to build assets, continue to raise capital, but also as part of our infrastructure funds we have to return capital as well. so this is really the story of edge point, and we'll see how that plays out in the next year. vonnie: do you have a buyer? can you confirm you are selling? >> usually these processes start with somebody calling us. so we have a lot of interest in edge point. it's an incredibly valuable frontier business for us. it's one of the first ones to get to southeast asia and

accumulate all this ability. so we'll see. there's a price for a seller and a price where we can hold as well. vonnie: digital bridge, it is still down 18% year to date. are investors being fair? >> on some of the parts -- on a sum of the parts basis, it's not care. we've got valuable assets on our balance sheet. we're also the main investor in a lot of our funds. that balance sheet gets wildly undervalued by the street, and i think the things that investors are waking up to now is, you know, we have $33 billion of capital at work today. we own 20% of the profits that go back, a portion that goes back to our public investors. a couple of weeks ago there was a rumor about switch going public for $40 billion. that was the business we took private for 11. investors are warming up to the fact there's playoffs in what we're doing. you look at the carried interest and our management piece, today we're just valued on our management piece. nobody give us credit for the profit we're creating off the $33 billion. there's a huge opportunity there, and i think investors are

starting to explore that. we're in the second quarter as an alternative asset manager. people don't like confusion or transition stories. i think as people get comfortable with our story, and most importantly they get comfortable with the value of our platform and how we serve the a.i. greater ecosystem, it's a unique platform. nobody does what we do on a global basis, and i think we got to take that to the street. vonnie: looking forward to the next time we chat. very happy to have you in studio. that is the c.e.o. of digital bridge. coming up next hour, fed chair jay powell's first speaking event since he cut interest rates by 50 basis points. we'll count you down. this is bloomberg.

vonnie: this is bloomberg markets. traders awaiting remarks from fed chair jay powell later this

session. powell will be taking the stage at the national association for business economics at that conference. this will be power's first public remarks since' announced the fed rate cut decision. for more on what markets might be listening for, we're joined by the senior economist jennifer lee. we have heard from other speakers, but this is the first time that we'll hear from powell. what will be his main message? >> hi there, thanks for having me on the show today. i think his main message is not going to stray too much from what he said a couple of weeks ago. i think that was the equivalent of his mic drop when he had the 50 basis point rate cut, and he said all the right key phrases that you ought to expect, this type of, the size of rate cuts going forward. but they're not in a rush. they're going to take it out, and they are not on a preset course. since then, it's been interesting. we saw a few economic indicators that actually were coming in expected, like upward revisions to g.d.p., and those are actually pretty interesting.

another report that showed that consumers a bit more cautious on the spending front, but still spending on things like recreational goods and services and recreational cars, that sort of thing. so there's still some confidence. there's also mixed consumer reports as well. nothing to show that they should be perhaps going for another 50 basis point cut at the next meeting. i think he's going to play up whatever he said, again, two weeks ago, when did he the mic drop equivalent and not stray from the message. vonnie: i mean, will he give us any clarity on what kind of move we'll need between now and the end of the year? it seemed like the markets were anticipating at least 75 basis points more, but that would entail another move at some point. he'll be asked about that, right? >> correct, right, for sure. i think he's probably going to lean toward the labor market, given that is now their focus. it's interesting that the atlanta fed was out just within

the last half-hour or so, saying he fully supported the 50 because point cut, but he's going to be watching the job market closely. he actually said if they see anything below 100,000, it's going require more discussion about what is happening with the job market and whether or not they're going to have to go another 50 basis points. i think it's all about the job market, and when he is asked he'll probably point to that indicator as well. vonnie: the people he's speaking to, he's speaking to everybody, particularly to markets, but the nabe, 39% of those surveyed there this time sound excited, this is the greatest risk to the u.s. economy over the next 12 months. how does he reassure them and the markets that there won't be a monetary policy risk, even as we're seeing an election, we're seeing unrest in the middle east continue, and lots, lots more. >> right, there's so many risks out there, and i think it's his job and his duty to reassure everyone that they are not asleep at the wheel. he sort of explained that away,

but the 50 basis point cut, he said the job market and the economy as a whole is still in pretty decent shape, and they're basically trying to cut off at the pass before it gets even weaker, sort of give it more oomph. i likened it to being, you're kind of feeling sick, not feeling that great, so take your medicine now before you get even worse. i think that's what the explanation was for that larger than expected, at least for economists, cut. i think he's going to stick to that message, that it's going to have to be something pretty significant for them to actually move. but again, a 50 basis point, the size of the cut. vonnie: we'll take you through it right here on bloomberg tv. our thanks to jennifer lee. do stick around for that powell news later on. in the meantime, let's take a quick look at how markets are shaping up as we head into the 1:00 p.m. hour. the s&p really flat. the nasdaq itself up about a

tenth of 1%. i'm vonnie quinn. ♪ ♪ with so much great entertainment out there... wouldn't it be easier if you could find what you want, all in one place? my favorites. get xfinity streamsaver with netflix, apple tv+, and peacock included, for only $15 a month.

>> this is balance of power. live from washington, d.c. kailey: it is ee of the vice

presidential debate. welcome to "balance of power" on bloomberg tv and radio. i am kailey leinz in washington with joe mathieu in new york. tomorrow of course where we will see tim walz and j.d. vance. ordinarily that would dominate the news cycle. but as they get ready to debate we are dealing with a natural disaster in the united states, which of course is dominating conversation. it potential strike of dockworkers that could have impacts on the u.s. economy, with just five weeks to go until the election. and of course more escalation in the middle east between israel and hezbollah. joe: it is great to see you and i will be looking forward to you joining me in the york for the debate tomorrow. but you are right, it feels almost like this campaign is entering a new phase with what is basically our final month. we have 36 days to