fertilizer company potash and , the largest agricultural retailer to u.s.e in talks to merge. the combination could be announced next week. no final decision has been made. potash has a market cap of $14.6 billion. bit smaller,ittle $13.2 billion. the two want to see a merger of equals. for the firstaker light of one of its recycled rockets. will berg-based ses sending its next communication satellite up on a previously flown falcon rocket. launch will take place this fall. says the global tablet slump will likely persist for the rest of the year. the firm sees numbers reaching an historic low, down 11%, but the market is expected to rebound after 2018, when the ipad makes a comeback. south africa's ruling african national congress is urging finance minister to cooperate with a police investigation. authorities are looking into allegations he set up an illicit investigative unit when he headed the national tax agency. the anc says it has full confidence in gordon and is questioning the police unit over their questioning of him. gordhan denies wrongdoing. up

we do have a bit of breaking news on the news that potash and agri-him are in talks to merge. -- potash and agrium are in talks to merge. farmers are also making less purchases. a potential merger could be announced as early as next week. now, let's take a look at apple. shares are trading lower on news the company may be -- is facing a $14.5 billion tax bill from the eu, plus interest. this after the european commission said ireland is taxple'slashe bill. gene munster thing he is unconcerned about this vonnie:. vonnie:the stop only up slightly on the year. going to be very interesting. a lot going on in the next two hours. stock only up slightly on the year. what is going on with european markets gek? toes.i am on my 90 minutes left of the tuesday's session. one industry group falling today. strong dollar. by one point 9%. check out some of the individual mergers -- movers. wasgerman payment processor upgraded to equal weight of barclays. barclays says the company has built a strong, strategic position for product in regional perspective in the past decade and said well positioned. pri

potash up 10%. agrium up 5%, 6%, those levels are solid and where they were when the halt happened, although off their best today. keep an eye on this and all the other stocks catching a bid on the ripple effect here. back to you. >> doc, thoughts on this one. you've been following it all morning long. >> trading it all day. this is, of course, based on thing a grithe ing agrium potential people rumored the first 20 minutes of the trade today, judge, there was going to about deal. they halted the stock because it jumped too much. it hit the trading curves and so forth and then they reopened it and now have admitted that there have been talks. so this huntsman mosaic all of them, on fire today, and the volumes in the options imply that somebody thought something would happen this week if not today. >> just a week ago, a week ago monday, scott, august 22nd talking at the end of the show, final trade. looking at? telling you about cf industry. aggressively buying to the upside. this name is not a part

by the samewn amount that potash is up. joe: the government bond markets quiet.irtually nothing going on. short-term rates down. long-term rates up. , that's some steepening why the financials rally. >> some action in the fx markets. a fifth dayng for of against the yen, the longest winning streak since march. this is on speculation we will get a rate hike from the fed this year. i am also keeping an eye on the brazilian currency, the best-performing against the dollar this year. lower,y, a little areulation that banks seeking to weaken it be for the central bank's determine a key rate in settling contracts. the optimism about a new government pulling the country out of a recession as the impeachment trial heads to the final stages. joe: on the commodities front, let's look at an intraday chart of oil. a got slammed early this morning, anxieties about whether we will see supply buildup. we've seen oil in this region for a while. one more commodity to keep your eye on is gold, which had a great start to the year. this chart pointing out that gold is at the bottom

potash has a valuation of about 13.6 billion, agrium about 12 point 5 billion.oth are halted at the moment. european commission has ordered apple to pay more than $14 billion plus interest in a long-running tax case. the eu concluded ireland gave illegal tax benefits to apple that helped it pay substantially less than other businesses. we spoke with the european commissioner for competition. >> the case here is specific. we have a long-standing prohibition of member states handing out benefits or advantages to specific companies. this is the case here, more than texas station. --tax cession. mark: rejecting arguments that apple is getting special treatments. >> apple has between 5000 and 6000 people employed here and have substantial economic activity and they pay full tax to the irish authorities on the profits generated by their activities in ireland. mark: in a statement, tim cook said the ruling will have a profound and harmful effect on investments and job creation in europe "apple follows the law and pays all of its taxes we go wherever we operate. we will

consider i'm just wondering, potash is talking about a maternaler. -- merger. >> let's stay with that>> caller: looking for an a little insight on incyte. >> i think i would hold off for now. i think september could be a dicey month for stocks like that. stan in florida. >> caller: jim, i have a speculative position in a small biotech. >> because you framed it like that, will i bless that idea, because that is ever speculative. let's go to mark in utah. >> caller: booyah from behind the curtain. it seems like it would be a good investment, because they're set up to export liquid natural gas. >> i can't go with it. the man who built the company is no longer there, and he's the reason we got involved in it. no go back. glen in new york, glen. >> yeah, big boo-yah to you. i wanted to ask you about a company that deals with the shortages, international so shortages of freshwater. >> don't know it. of need need to work on it. john in texas. >> caller: my stock is yelp. >> i like yelp's quarter. i think the stock delivered. when they deliver, they tend not to deliver only for one. and that

potash has seen its decline, while agrium has been hung in there. >> consolidation has been rumored forrs. >> there was a potential deal a while back, but the canadian government quashed it, but in this case you have two champions. >>> rick santelli and "the santelli exchange." hi, rick. >> hi, sara. thank you. never before have i seen 20 seconds of tv that made things so crystal clear. i'm referring to 21 seconds you'll see in a moment with the irish finance machines terr michael noonan on our own channel cnbc this morning. let's roll the tape. >> the irish revenue don't do deals. they issue opinions to verify a tax situation for individual companies, but we never do deals. they have to apply the tax law which is passed by parliament. they have to do so without fear or favor across all companies. >> now, what's interesting here is let's dissect this in two parts. the first part is basically he's talking about duly legislated laws. the irish parliament makes laws regarding taxes to implement those laws there's always the notion of clarification and interpretation, which was all done, ac

agram has the retail presence, potash is about potash. >> it would be brilliant. >> brilliant deal. >cial issues in these things. it's going to be weeks before we >> the farmers love that. fertilizer is nat gas and nat gas is cheap cheap cheap. >> you know, social issues that being who's going to run the company can become a key part of any negotiation about a merger of equals. in this case similar cultures see if they get to the finish line. we want to come back to stocks we're watching but first get to emon javers following treasury secretary jack lew made strong comments with apple's tax deese dispute with the european union. >> yeah, that's right. jack lew speaking at the brookings institution interviewed by "the wall street journal" davids weal, he asked lew if he thought u.s. companies were being unfairly targeted by the eu, in light of this $14 billion apple/eu tax bill issue that broke in the news yesterday. here's part of what jack lew had to say. >> our concern with the european commission action is that it is using state aid theory to make tax law. it is doing it in a way t

potash up nearly 11%. >>> wall street knows who the next president of the united states will be. apparently it's not a republican. according to a bank of america-merrill lynch report, the markets have decided hillary clinton is going to win in a landslide. since july 5th, the s&p gained more than 4%. based on market history, that means a presidential candidate will win more than 80% of the electoral college if you believe in such things and according to b of a, that candidate will be hillary clinton. >>> meg whitman, the republican-leaning ceo of h-p, gop i should say is on the trail fund-raising in colorado. a strange election that goes on and on. i'm joined by former democratic governor of new york, david patterson, and former republican governor from vermont, jim douglas. thank you, both for being here. jim, begin with you. market predictions aside, is it too late for donald trump to raise the kind of money needed to match hillary clinton? >> well, it is getting late. there's no question about it. the question is whether he needs to. he gets a lot of free publicity as you know

. -- potash prices have been up over the last few years, meaning companies are scrambling to ready aomentum. we will bring you more details as they cross. it could be announced as soon as next week. we will be right back. ♪ caroline: breaking news for you on the back of england, wherever how they beat -- how they struggled to be buying their long-term bonds, no more struggle. they are buying back the long-term debt from pension holders and insurance. overall, yields tracking higher -- y with the u.k. 10 year after they managed to cover the ratio 2.08. causing arallying rally all across the curve and bond markets. nonetheless, money moving into treasuries as we had stanley fischer speaking earlier today. a pretty much flat session across the board as we wait for jobs friday. the dollar, the star, at a session high. bloomberg dollar index near a three-week high. individual stocks, keep your eye on acharya mento -- -- on potash. -- agrium and ♪ >> 10:00 in new york, 3:00 in london, 10:00 p.m. in hong kong. >> this is bloomberg "markets." ♪ we will take you from washington dc to dublin a

that's why i'm skeptical about talk that bubbled up today about potash, merging with agrium. who knows if the regulators will allow it. it sure is needed in the dog eat the sector that needs takeovers to make itself investable again is the energy group with oil languishing in the 40s. we know the government nixed the merger, combination of jacked up prices for all its customers. however, the exploration production companies that are selling stock in order to acquire some of the country's lowest cost acreage, they've become red hot. you can always tell when the market values deals. it's when the inquirer's stock jumps in the news. as you'll see later in the show. too much of pretty much everything in this market. we need more last-man-standing situations. and fewer dog fights if you want stock prices to go higher. consumer may lose from these deals, but boy oh boy, do the shareholders on both sides win. joe in ohio. joe? >> caller: boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah. >> caller: thanks for taking my call. >> quite welcome. tanker. am i down too much to get out? or is the stock -- >> i th

. >>> shares of potash rising and agrium. producers would have a combined market cap of $28 billion. they're battling for crop prices amid a glut of supply. >> big moves there. >>> let's check out other movers today. abercrombie & fitch plans to close as many as 60 u.s. stores as the leases expire this fiscal year. they say flagship and tourist locations continue to account for the majority of its sales decline. those shares are down just over 20% and dsw falling today. down more than 10% despite quarterly revenue. comp sales fell 1.2% less than expected and that's the first back to back quarterly sales decline since 2009. analysts say cash reserves at the shoe retailer practically cut in half over the past year and investors clearly upset there. >> absolutely. >>> boeing today, the industrial giant skipped raising airline prices for the first time in seven years. phil lebeau has the story. hello, phil. >> reporter: mike, if you're in the market for a commercial airline, now's the time to buy. ordering one right now, you woul

fertilizer giant is in discussions with potash, no agreements have been reached. french economy minister has resigned from the government. and a tropical depression is gaining strength in the gulf of mexico. forecasters say the storm could be upgraded to a tropical storm by later today. busy two hours coming your way. we begin with the big story of the day, apple being ordered by the eu to, quote, repay $14.5 billion and what the eu says is owed back taxes to the irish government. irish government says it never owed the taxes in the first place. let's get right to josh lipton for the latest on this story. josh. >> well, michelle, the european commission might have decided that ireland gave apple a legal tax benefits, but it now has a big fight on its hands. ireland's finance minister telling cnbc that apple does not owe his country taxes. >> we think the commission is getting involved in what is the competence of sovereign governments in europe. the european treaties say that individual countries are responsible for taxation policy. and this is an approach through