spirits like nothing else want to because i want to share what i think of what i know about the beautiful guy a great so one more transfer. and thanks this minute. this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. i'm bart chilton and coming up today oil prices are starting to impact companies and consumers in a negative way will ask corner of simpler trading who is getting it the hardest and

there are some numbers that really mean something related to unemployment steve malzberg fills us in on how fourteen states are pretty pleased and with an unprecedented meeting between the leaders of north and south korea alex behind all of which takes us up on the economics of the two nations getting along plus the meteor birger mania continues collin clark host of the big picture here on r t america helps us sort out the latest developments all of that coming up but first some headlines german chancellor angela merkel was here in washington d.c. today to meet with u.s. president donald trump on the heels of french president emanuel mccrone visit to the u.s. but the photo ops with party hugs and weirdly long handshakes that marked the mccrone visit were absent from today's diplomatic scenery in contrast to microphones lengthy itinerary ms merkel and mr trump only held a three hour meeting that the german delegation called

a quote unquote working session agenda items included trade most pacifically the recent round of u.s. tariffs imposed upon imported metals and tariffs as they relate to automobiles the two also discussed u.s. sanctions against russia chancellor merkel fears that those those tariffs make him . german company's president trump at a joint press conference with ms merkel criticized nato allies like germany for not contributing enough to their g.d.p. to the mutual defense he also talented what he views as positive reaction to his steel and aluminum tariffs and during the meeting chancellor merkel reportedly pressed mr trump on the six party agreement on nuclear issues with iran to which both germany and france are both parties although ms merkel acknowledged at the presser that the deal was quote anything but perfect on may twelfth president trump is widely expected to reimpose economic sanctions on iran that were lifted as part of that agreement. amazon microsoft has released their q one

earnings report posting impressive results with both companies bottom line to boosted by increased revenue from cloud computing amazon sales were up forty three percent versus q one of twenty seventeen to fifty one billion dollars their profits more than doubled over the same quarter from last year and the figure of one point six billion dollars is in profits have roughly tripled and analyst estimates amazon also announced that the annual fee for their prime service amazon prime will increase one hundred nineteen dollars per month that's up from ninety nine dollars the higher fees will hit new members on may eleventh and the renewals for others will start on june sixteenth meanwhile microsoft's profit for the first quarter of twenty eight hundred doubled for the q one of twenty seventeen at the six point five billion dollar level on a thirteen percent increase in revenues seven point four billion of that income came from cloud computing supported by

a success of cloud platform microsoft you're the company also garnered nearly twenty seven billion dollars of revenue this quarter far more than the twenty seven point seven seven billion projected. as we've reported here before or witnessing some of the highest oil prices in recent years since twenty fourteen in fact higher prices are translating to increased operating expenses for many companies and individuals who have become pretty pleased with local energy costs brant crude prices trading at ice futures europe and london were trading around seventy three dollars per barrel today and in west the west texas intermediate w t i trading in new york at nymex trading just north of sixty eight dollars per barrel regular gasoline in the u.s. was priced at two dollars and eighty cents per gallon nationwide that's actually up a nickel from last week and it's up forty cents from a year ago and here to discuss the impact of higher oil and related prices is rajeev horner of simpler trading so nice of you to join us at the end of the week

we sure appreciate it as always with w t i prices above sixty bucks a barrel for a lot of this year we are starting to see impact of higher energy prices playing out with companies yesterday american express reduced their profit forecast for the year and referenced a twelve percent increase in the average price of jet fuel over the last two weeks alone which are which companies are there out there that are being impacted the most by these higher prices. i've had my eye on the jets e.t.f. for some time now i think the airlines obviously are going to be the ones that in the front of this narrative will be sold off the sharpest but i actually see some opportunity on the weakness so i think you're really out in front of this entire narrative right now where a lot of the conversation is quite negative i think there's a lot of opportunity for investors that realize that in the near term these companies will maybe absorb this very sharp increase in oil but longer term they're

just going to pass on the costs whether that be u.p.s. whether that be un p. looking at the jets e.t.f. as i mentioned as well and there are some winners here like caterpillar i'm going to be keeping a very close eye on caterpillar as a potential winner i think that the losers here could be things like three m. i think also we're going to look at united postal service u.p.s. service as also a potential near term loser but i'm looking for the opportunity to grab a balance and we also need to think about others in the transport sector how about the railroads. railroads are again i think near term they're going to absorb it but longer term i think there's a terrific opportunity to look at where the stocks will sell off and get what will notice is that discounting is going to be probably running out ahead to negative of what has been a sharp increase the market's already priced in seventy dollars for i even think they priced in eighty dollars thanks to the saudis so really when we my experience

a bit of that panic will be north of eighty if we actually see it so railroads i think for now after this quick sell off i'm feeling pretty optimistic that the recent union pacific railroad earnings are actually quite positive they're feeling that they can absorb this near term acceleration in fuel and i think they're actually going to benefit there's just too much in their pipeline right now with all of us doing our shopping online you see what amazon did the other day i think they're going to be just fine and we did get some positive q one earnings from total and i think royal dutch shell so that that bodes well for them i'm going to ask you a little bit of a complicated question you are such an expert on futures and currencies but it surprised me maybe a dozen years ago when i realized that a lot of these large companies that i thought of as sort of oil related companies that they actually make money when prices are lower because they use oil as part of

the petrochemical businesses like dupont for example so there are some companies out there they're actually already head to buy what they produce but as a hedging ask expert we know that southwest famously does not hedge their risk in futures markets but what are hedges going to be doing now you think. i think most of the companies that have been hedging have already been looking where that huge rectory of crude oil was once we passed over fifty dollars so that psychological barrier probably already has been part of their hedging strategy i think the reason right now that so many companies are looking at the acceleration in say for example jet fuel is just how quickly we've accelerated from say mid fifty's to knocking on the door of seventy dollars so i don't think the directions been as jarring as the acceleration so i think most of the companies who have been hedging are probably

already at levels that they can absorb but if we continue past seventy and past eighty we're going to have i think at that point a lot of companies feeling they have to play catch up and at that point we're going to see the consumer pay for and we're going to see them pass the cost on i think the airlines have already been very open to it which is why i think that sold off an initially on the higher fuel prices like the jet c.t.f. will ultimately be really great buying opportunities after the markets settle down discount these higher prices and then realize we're still going to fly we're just going to pay more for it rajeev horner you are always so great a wealth of information we're really pleased that you spent time with us rosie horner futures and currency expert at simpler trading had a great weekend. thank. the

u.s. commerce department reported that the first quarter growth the g.d.p. came in at two point three percent beating some economists expectations of one point eight percent although it is down from the q four g.d.p. of two point nine percent for a recollection of what happened last year the economy grew at two point three percent for all of last year twenty seventeen which is actually a big increase over twenty sixteen of one point five percent and related to the commerce department we always report on and discuss those u.s. monthly employment numbers the unemployment numbers which are released by the department's bureau of labor statistics the b.l.s. on the first friday of the month so we'll get to those april numbers next week but something occurred to us which we thought merited more of an in-depth look at unemployment i like to say the numbers matter and they mean something and that's particularly the case in fourteen states which all have established new record low unemployment rates in the last year almost

a decade after we saw those high unemployment rates topping ten percent in the wake of the great recession where it put millions of people out of work and here to help us through some of these important numbers and the substance behind them is conservative t.v. and radio host steve malzberg thank you for joining us steve we appreciate it let's take a look at these fourteen states where are they around the country and one thing that we see is that the economic recovery is occurring in states that voted for president trump and those that did not we go from conservative texas to the more liberal california for example and what else do you see in these numbers what there are some commonality. well you know i've looked and examined and spoken to people there is no real commonality that you could you could point to as you alluded to you know texas and california have very little in common in any respect it's very n.e.o.'s and credit care what you have is various factors that affect the

availability of jobs and they include natural resources of course of the state if we're talking states government policy of the state's business investment in those particular states so there isn't a common thread it's just kind of an individual basis but what there is in common here and i hate to sound like a talking point and i hate to be accused that that you would part of delivering talking points but what every one of the fourteen states and the eight of those fourteen which have reached their all time low in the month of march is the policies of the a trumpet ministration the feel good nature of them and the real effect of them whether it's the tax cuts whether it's deregulation whether it's consumer confidence business confidence a booming stock market these all play into it so i think that's the commonality as far as any state by state commonality i just couldn't find any you may be surprised but i agree with you there and there is a lot now it may be a sugar high but you know i'm not sure that sugar highs were are all bad for the

economy so i one hundred percent agree a lot of this is due to some of the things that are going on in markets and spurred by the tax cuts. who are the best performing states out there steve. yeah well how why is is that down to two point one percent in fact part you have seven states that are under three percent unemployment talking hawaii colorado iowa idaho also nebraska new hampshire so you're talking again under three percent when four percent is considered full employment so when you're under four percent you know you have a shortage of workers you have even more hiring going on so it increases the cycle to an extent. but let's not forget california which is not under under three percent but there are four point one percent and that's the lowest unemployment rate in california since they started keeping state by state statistics back in one

thousand nine hundred seventy six so again that just shows how diverse this this trend is steve we appreciate you looking at these and helping us through them and i love the fact that we ended the week on agreement on politics policy and the economy steve malzberg conservative t.v. and radio host thanks as always for your time thank you for the. time got to squeeze in a quick break but stick around because when we return alex behind will bitch gives us a look at the economics of getting along as the leaders of north and south korea have a historic meeting plus the media merger mania continues calling for most of the big picture here on r.g.p. america helps us sort out the latest developments as we go to break here the numbers at the closing bell the dow still slightly below yesterday's close in the final minutes of the trading day we back in a. spencer's

survival guide stacey news i want to start simply elisa's. the series there you go instead of. public. good susan repatriations you look at the present seven years. philip the seven times record. those the for the sins and the israelis need. to give. in the dreams of getting to the other. thing here this thing here and eventually it has to find ways of living side by side is for. you.

welcome back and auto industry news chrysler fear general motors and bolts wagon of all released their earning statements chrysler fia profits were up sixty percent to one point two four billion dollars lifted by factors including a thirty seven percent jump in sales of their jeep brand vehicles and general motors garnered a thirty six billion dollars in profit this quarter more than expected they also posted a two point six billion dollars in operating profits down twenty six percent versus the same quarter of last year weighing down the fact factory down time required for a transition toward increased truck production g.m. also announced an agreement with south korean labor unions that it expected to yield as much as five hundred million dollars in savings going forward and volkswagen posted an operating profit of four point two billion euros or five point five billion dollars that's a four percent drop from

a year ago the german car maker attributed the dip to a change in the method for evaluating derivatives and said that excluding that factor profits would have been up slightly and while it's not on the high level v.w. talking points of many of us recall last year v.w. paid the largest criminal penalty ever as part of a settlement with the us justice department the two point eight billion dollars settlement was with regard to their famous diesel emissions cheat. scandal. the wave of teacher walkouts and strikes that has touched the states of west virginia oklahoma and kentucky reached the western states of arizona and colorado this week teachers in both states walked out on thursday and marched on the capitals in phoenix and denver fifty thousand teachers and supporters wearing red for ed not ed schultz for education read for education church marched on the arizona capitol while ten thousand marched in colorado colorado teachers planned

two days of actions ending later today while their colleagues in arizona say they will strike until governor doug doocy meets their demands which include funding to bring average class sizes down to twenty three students per teacher and bring staff salaries up from forty seven thousand dollars arizona currently ranks near dead last in teacher pay only mississippi and south dakota rank lower the arizona strikers what they're paid to be at least the national average of fifty eight thousand dollars as well as a moratorium on tax cuts until the total spending on education per student reaches the national average per pupil spending in arizona is close to eighty three hundred dollars while the national average is twelve thousand five hundred dollars as reported here governor doocy of arizona previously fell short on his offer to meet p. teachers' demands and that led to the walkout. and in world news real history was made today as the leaders of north korea and south korea met for the first time

with kim jong un of the north dramatically crossing the border to meet with president moon j.n. of the south the two leaders met without aides for up to thirty minutes about thirty minutes it within the de-militarized zone the d.m.z. that has officially divided both koreas since one nine hundred fifty three the leaders also signed a declaration of peace that committed the two nations to denuclearization of their shared peninsula and the formal end to curb the. in war as well as officially designating the d.m.z. as quote the peace zone as of may first while many specifics still remain to be negotiated to say the least a decades long stalemate that seemed to be veering towards a possible war under president trump suddenly seem to yield dramatic advancements towards korean reconciliation increased ability also promises to lift or at least stabilize markets that have been somewhat roiled by the prospect of a war that could go nuclear and for more on this we bring our t.

correspondent alex mahela bitchin alex what are some of the highlights from the talks between the leaders of north and south korea. you know bards not too often in this business we get to end the week and i'm happy you know and this is a happy note these guys met nobody thought it was going to happen the way it's going to that it happened in the demilitarized zone each of them crossing over the president moon from the south korea crossing over briefly into north korea with kim jong un pulling his hand across and vice a versa it was supposedly completely unscripted he was just saying i hope to visit you one day in the north and conduct and said come on i'll take you to the north right now so it's just one of those things that it's happier than we've heard it from coming from the korean peninsula in a very long time and as you mentioned nearly seventy years of war at least on paper between the north and south and now they're saying by the end of this year they're going to end that as well as the fact that we're looking at denuclearization and you know what a lot of people don't want to hear this a lot of people do but president trump did have his role in all of this here's

a tweet from president trump himself i mean he says war to end the united states and all of its great people should be very proud of what is now taking place in korea now we know president trump i was talking the pretty harshly about north korea at times and there was an exchange between him and kim jong light late last year the but this all built up to such i guess critical because if you want to call it just built up a situation that looks pretty dangerous that it seemed the two koreas said hey we don't want any part of this and you have to give president xi of china also some credit here i'm sure he played a massive part in this as well now we're looking at president trump possibly meeting kim jong un next month as well as the north and south korean militaries meeting as well so yes this is a move forward any way that you look at it and it how would you sort of look at speaking of which how would you look at some peace some reunification of the koreas

yes a bit of a lot of people are talking reunification but i mean it's pretty interesting no let's look there's a couple of hurdles in the way and here we have a graphic for you that kind of explains why. going on it wages wages are a huge thing so south korea wages are three to thirty nine thousand four hundred we're looking at the whole area here china sixteen thousand six hundred japan forty two thousand seven hundred and then you look at the approximate per capita income in north korea it's seventeen hundred now how do you get those two things to meet has to be a slow reunification this is not something that could happen overnight that we're not talking about east and west germany here which also was a troublesome reunify reunification this is a much bigger and you have to put a couple things into play here also does kim jong un want to step down from power because that's probably the way that it would go and for him maybe it's in his best interest take a couple billion sit back relax be a billionaire for the rest of your life and you know take it easy and not have to be worried about getting killed off likes them hussein or gadhafi also the north korean people interesting early enough many that have defected to the south have

gone back to north korea just because you look at south korea some of the highest suicide rates schooling sixteen hours a day to try to get into the universities or studying all the time most of the worst work hours per day there and we're looking at the love of the strongest economy in the world compared to a grey area north korea so there's a lot of things that come into play but you know what there is one country in that part of the world that's really afraid of this that's japan because the united korea would be an economic powerhouse maybe not today but tomorrow definitely party correspondent alex my holidays thank you very much a great weekend alex you tip. and in a continuing media merger mania there is moves this week as comcast corp is bid thirty one billion dollars to buy european television operator sky p.l.c. the offer beats an earlier offer from rupert murdoch's twenty first century fox fox already owns thirty nine percent of sky but once at all but there is more to it

than meets the eye and here to discuss is veteran media consultant and more importantly the host of the big picture here on our t. america holland cook himself thank you for being here sure appreciate it the best ok so try to explain this the disney's involved somehow it's hard to figure out where all the players are you can't tell the players without a scorecard but the play book will be eerily familiar rupert murdoch owns fox which owns a chunk of sky the big pay t.v. or nine or cent and he wants to own more until comcast as in n.b.c. or perhaps your cable company stepped in and one upped his offer so rather than owning lots of sky murdoch could end up owning none of it because it is still with me so with you fox which murdoch owns and agreed to sell disney it share in sky and along with that lots of fox film and t.v. assets which makes disney now a distribution and content player in the u.k.

and will result in a bigger library of stuff they show us here at home so it's not a battle of the goliath's but they do dance around each other and one that brings up this issue we've talked about it in the past that these big sort of the old standard television networks they've got more competition now from digital for advertising so they need it totally look at things different right they do and the scariest word in their world is programatic selling meaning to me the commercial inventory is now going to be bought and sold on. online in an automated option rather than well mad men and sales reps and all of that so their commercial rates are being depressed because the seller has lost control to the buyer so they need more commercial inventory and what senate for comcast and disney in the u.k. is they also get into pay for play with a share in sky and as we see from netflix pay for play is

a pretty good business model every month they're hitting my credit card it's invisible you know it really has changed when you think about it we've talked about it before you know the old school three networks and maybe p.b.s. and then you go to fifty seven channels and there's nothing on and you go to hundreds of channels now you have digital there's lots of competition for those advertising dollars we spoke last week you were kind enough to join us last week two of we talked about that sinclair media group deal trying to buy tribune well in the mean time sinclair has agreed pursuant to the f.c.c. the federal communications commission to sell off some of their. different stations including w g any in chicago but now there is a letter from twenty two different senators saying let me quote what they say stop making further changes to the nation's broadcast landscape until the agency has conducted a complete and holistic look at the state of broadcasting the media and waiting

before waiting for a ruling what do you make of his letter translation hit the brakes i was actually going to ask you about this because you have two different camera angles on this having worked the hill for senator daschle you know what it's like when that phone starts ringing and when the e-mail comes in when the touristas pop into the office when the snail mail comes in the members of congress hear that loud and clear and having been a commissioner i thought of you when i saw this story because suppose instead of trading commissioner you were an f.c.c. commissioner would you be wary of the sinclair syndrome. ib hundred percent where i mean twenty two is a big deal with senators they can cause your problems but it's not fifty one rus non-majority so they definitely need to take it into consideration but by so i would tap the brakes maybe not hard on the brakes we thank you for being with us your show the note another new edition coming up what are we talking about tonight on the big picture we have a record number of women running for congress this time and you will be intrigued

and i predict amused by two that will introduce you to tonight and we're going to talk about boycotts economic boycotts against radio and t.v. talk host and more recently against starbucks and we have a couple of school teachers from this mammoth job action going on in arizona so that's all in the big picture tonight seven and ten thirty eastern on r t america ten eastern are around the world on r t international holon cook we thank you i am already intrigued won't miss it thank you my friend you bet commish. thanks very much for watching we'll catch you next time have a great weekend. and is getting international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos and build dismiss it to do it look like you know. this isn't like

complicity is going to sell you know maybe if you do. you tell me. the only palestinians it gets the most hopeful is to reduce one count of those things visit of those who are in the world under the vision to know who can do this . and that is all of us not just you have to this lady of the most of that you had i don't know if you competed in the doesn't seem to do more commitments last their company's own. right but. one of the. older guys are so delighted that something was going to go on that isn't really. good for the general journalism though. you know it's really children on drug smuggling are going out target children are

told are you ok. no collusion says the u.s. house intelligence committee as it delivers its final report into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election. three protesters are reported dead and almost nine hundred injured cheering clashes ingalls or on friday in the latest great much of return as palestinians protest against israeli occupation. and it's revealed the key witness in the russian doping scandal going to be rushing call failed to confirm a number of his allegations during testimony at the court of arbitration for sport .