a surprise development involving t boone pickens.n's, he writes, "trading oil is not as intriguing to me as it once was." he also says he's recovering from a stroke and a major fall. the parent of gucci has said the expertise does not extend to sports shoemakers. they will give up control of panama and that sent shares tumbling. the company will now distribute 70% of its prima shares to investors. credit trail projections in december while money growth posted the slowing pace on record. last year china was on track for its. first full-year acceleration growth since 2010, but measures to rein in risk may slow that down. that is your bloomberg business flash. alix: thank you so much, emma. china added the equivalent of u.k. gdp in new credit last year. it could be a slowdown to a touch. david: by the way, they still increased credit by 12% and are growing at 6.9% so they are still borrowing faster than they are growing, which is not where they want to be. alix: it also explained why the market did not really respond to that. we would'v

t. boone pickens closing his energy-focused hedge fund, citing deteriorating health and poor returns. pickens started out as a geologist, eventua founding mesa petroleum. he made a name for himself as a wildcatter corpo raider, then a successful investor in oil, natural gas, and clean energy. the decision to close his fund brings an end to a nearly seven-decade career. >>> a new passenger rail service is open for business in florida. but what makes this one different is that it's the nation's first privately funded passenger train. morgan brenn >> reporter: it's taken seven years, but bright line's fleet of colorful trains are finally barreling full steam ahead, carrying passenger along florida's east coast, starting this weekend. >> so far in this first phase of our business, which is between downtown miami and downtown west palm beach, we've invest 1.8 about this total in trains, stations, infra upgrades, everything that was necessary in r for us to launch this new private business. >> bright line is the first and so far only passenger-fund it's owned by fortress investment group. i

t. boone pickens, once america's big oil man, stepping down for good from his energy focused hedge fundd says his health is not been good. but he says his fund is not performing well. does his bet on natural gas still worth it? he likes one name in oil. first, natural gas world, look at markets right now. we're seeing record once again. >> it is exciting. liz: a lot of compelling factors. cold winters matter. that drives prices higher. look at oil market, we're at new high levels. almost $65 a barrel on oil, haven't seen that in a long, long time. liz: 70 for brent. >> new highs for oil and new highs for gnat gas. we're rapidly becoming a energy producer exporter, the idea of liquified national gas coming online is massive. liz: what name do you like. >> i think the stock is a great parent company. pays a 7% dividend. don't find many big dividend, folly covered dividend. the stock was covered with shares. liz: wef tick can he symbol. -- ticker symbol. another five day record day. would you take money off the table yet? >> not yet. there is too much euphoria. starting to see hiccup in in

t. boone pickens and he said that 89 years old come anything with the word crept into is a real turnoffor me. >> as far as whether it will be a drag on the market, the fact that we have a spike in stocks meanwhile simultaneously the drop in the crypto currency you think on right now seems isolated and will not have a larger impact on fundamentals. i don't think it is fundamentals. >> sometimes when you lose money in one area so whatever you can sell. sometimes that triggers the selloff because you try to make up your gains in another area and so what you can file. >> the great recession started with a problem in subprime and now was the nature of the beast. you can make the argument that it's the canary in the coal mine. the liquidity indicator. they would've never existed in 2008 and 2009. ultimately have another lake. very bearish on bitcoin right now. >> but it is an integrated two-way subprime mortgages were. on these other layers on top of it. does the systemic risk. >> one thing integrated as inflation. up 31%. china imported deflation a long time. now looks like they are exportin

stuart: t boone pickens is 89 years old, closing his energy focused hedge fund citing his health andrmance, recovering from a series of strokes, managed to billion dollars at one point, trading oil, not is intriguing as it once was and keep going sideways. here is what is coming up, two months since overstock got into the blocked changes is at the stock is up 30% since then. ceo patrick byrne is coming up next. is he getting out of the retail business entirely? you could call it a mass exodus out of congress, 46 house members not running for reelection. most of them are republicans. you are watching the second hour of "varney and company". building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral... ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. stuart: we are still way up there, gain of 140 points for the dow industrials well above 25,700. look at walmart, they hide the minimum wage with new hires, new workers from $9 to $11

t. boone pickens, he says he is not buying into cryptocurrencies., at 89, anything with the word crypt in it is a real turn-off for me. that's funny. that was really good. very, very good. by the way he announced last week he was ending his energy-focused hedge fund citing his age. he doesn't like the word crypt. i'm with you t. boone. i'm with you. >>> mick mulvaney will tell us what kind of compromise can keep the government open. that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-weekly, truly easy-to-use pen. the pen where you don't have to see or handle a needle. and it works 24/7. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you have a p

t, comerica and others hitting highs. as michelle noted first ipo of the year liberty oil field services on the day boon pickens hanging it up, they have a pretty strong debut after having priced well above the range at $17 a share. back to you. >> all right thank you very much, bertha. earnings contributing to the economy, are there dark clouds on the horizon strong economic numbers forced fed to raise rates faster than expected steve liesman joins us now wow, that good. >> it could, but markets not seeing it much as a dark cloud, more of a whisp of cumulus all of that has dallas fed president robert kaplan thinking about ratethree rate hikes this year, maybe more. >> my base case is still that we should increase rates three times this year. i probably have a little more stronger conviction the three times, not less than three times is appropriate it's possible it could be more than three times, but that's still the base case. >> for mark chance of more rate hikes looks to be eclipsed by strong retail spending in fact, the national retail federation says this was the best holiday spending season since 2010 with a 5.5% ga