i want to bring in tom schonberg who joins us from washington. thanks for joining us. y does it appear the final penalty will be significantly lower than what the government had earlier been pursuing? tom: it has been a long-running case for the government -- more than five years they have been investigating allegations of , india,aid in mexico china, and other places by walmart, and as they got into this conduct, you know, a number of sources have told me throughout that they just really weren't finding, sort of, major payments, or the type of cover up by the company as initially alleged, and it want of being a more difficult case. last year there were some talks to resolve the case that one person told me they reached as high as the most $1 billion. obviously, at this point, if walmart is able to get this deal for about 300 million dollars, it is obviously a large concession by the government that the evidence wasn't really there for such a high penalty. and of course, this by thegation, it began obama administration did the change prompt a quick resolution in walmart

oliver: tom schonberg in washington. thank you for helping us on that breaking news.e: time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at some of the biggest business stories in the news right now could u.s. consumer spending stalled in march for the second month in a row to find that the biggest part of the economy may take more time to gain momentum. meanwhile, one measure of inflation fell below the federal reserve's 2% goal. a big transaction today involving two canadian pipeline companies. the outstanding shares of verisign. shareholders of warren buffett's berkshire hathaway meeting this weekend in omaha. there's no indication that a takeover is on the immediate horizon. still, the recommended cash at hand on berkshire would conceivably be enough to manage a transaction with the $100 billion price tag. bloombergr latest business flash. still ahead, an interview with treasury secretary steven mnuchin coming up. checking markets, we are not seeing too much movement. currency wise we have plenty of action. 13643,adian dollar at and the mexican peso is stronger today