Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Best 20240714

Taylor italy avoiding elections as a new coalition coming together. He was given up as dead politically just a week ago, and all of a sudden we are looking at conte 2. 0. Taylor the 1mdb scandal sends a former malaysian leader back to court. Opioid crisis hits the bottom line for some toptier companies. A lot of questions remain and no opioid maker is out of the woods. Taylor a longtime Federal Reserve leader claims the banks should play a political role. This is going to give ammunition to trump. Taylor and San Francisco fed president mary daly with exclusive thoughts on policy for a fed leader. Ms. Daly i supported the change to put the economy back in a good position. Taylor it is all straight ahead on bloomberg best. Hello and welcome. I am taylor riggs. This is bloomberg best, your weekly review of the most important news, analysis, and interviews from Bloomberg Television around the world. Lets start with the daybyday look at the top headlines. After last week closed with a flurry of tariff threats between the u. S. And china, President Trump delivered positive news in a press conference at the g7 summit. Matt s p futures have turned positive after President Trump said that china wants to restart trade talks. Pres. Trump china called last night, our top trade people, and said, lets get back to the table, so we will be getting back to the table. And i think they want to do something. Matt the president s earlier comments that he has the power to force American Companies to leave china roiled u. S. Companies, sending yields sinking into a threeyear low. Today it is a different world, a different trump. He said it was china that called him. They called twice. Now they are serious about this deal, and they want to engage in the negotiations. The key, of course, will be the reaction from the chinese now. President trump says china called and asked to restart trade talks. Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson says he was unaware of these calls, also echoed by the global times. What actually happened . The Foreign Ministry in beijing werent immediately able to confirm the calls President Trump referred to. Then we had the signal from the editor of the global times, which is an important mouthpiece here for the communist party. He made the point that whatever calls did make place were not at the level of significance President Trump thought they were. Pres. Trump i think they want to make a deal. I do not think they have a choice, and im not saying that as a threat. It is very clear that his leaders were whispering in his ear all weekend. Someone showed President Trump a speech the vice premier made last night in china. Trump saw the word calm in there and thought that was some sort of concession from the chinese, that they would not escalate further. He is taking that as a positive and he is running with it and sending out some more hopeful messages to markets today. Shery former new york fed president bill dudley called President Trumps trade war with china a manufactured disaster in the making. In a Bloomberg Opinion piece, saying the accommodation encourages the president will escalate the trade war further, increasing the risk of recession. Officials could state explicitly that the central bank wont bailout and administration that keeps making bad choices on trade. Michael bill dudley has an understandable position, most of the people at jackson hole this past weekend argued the World Economy is going into a slump. Many countries close to recession. And the u. S. May be slowing down as well because of the president s trade policies, but the fed is not going to get involved in the politics of making trade decisions. The fed said today that they rejected the dudley doctrine, that they are not going along with dudley. However, what is worth noting is this column is going to give ammunition to trump and critics of the fed who say, here is evidence there is a deep state. This is going to be a real distraction that powell does not need or want to deal with. Anna Boris Johnson asking the queen to suspend u. K. Parliament from the week of september 9 until october 14. Politicians are due to return from recess next week. This would significantly squeeze the amount of time that lawmakers have to block a nodeal brexit. Boris johnson says he is not seeking reelection. Mr. Johnson has thrown this spanner into the plans to prevent his idea of taking britain out, do or die, by the end of october. Now, it is not unusual to suspend parliament before a new agenda is announced. Normally, two or three days, it is announced, so five weeks, it is fairly extraordinary. What is it going to end in . Maybe we are more likely to get this vote of noconfidence. And then we are in the grounds of a new general election. Vonnie Prime Minister Boris Johnson sparking a controversy with plans to suspend parliament for nearly five weeks. The queen has approved this suspension. Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn is vowing to fight. The speaker is calling this, a constitutional outrage. What is the likelihood this gets stopped, the suspension of our limit. There are people calling this a constitutional outrage, but the real question is what is anyone going to do about it . Jeremy corbyn and some other mps who have opposed a nodeal have talked about setting up their own parliament in another building and continuing to hold it elsewhere, to the extent that they see this to be an antidemocratic move. David Giuseppe Conte is set to return as italys Prime Minister after a mandate to form a coalition government. It is really quite a striking turn of events here, because Giuseppe Conte was given up as dead politically just a week ago, and all of a sudden we are looking at conte 2. 0. He will have a week to put together a program to name ministers and to iron out a deal over difficulties between the parliament. They are going to back this di maio, particularly the leader of the fivestar movement. He is Still Holding out on his desire to remain deputy premier, which may be a dealbreaker for the other side of a coalition, the democrats. Alix china now indicating it will not immediately retaliate against the latest round of tariffs. The ministry of commerce spokesman told reporters in beijing that the means for retaliation, but thanks the question is now about removing the new tariffs to prevent escalation of the trade war. With the Commerce Ministry said was they would not retaliate against americas retaliation against chinas retaliation of last week. It can be spinning, but that is where we are. He also rolled out a request that existing tariffs be rolled back. That sounds like a tall order given the trajectory of these trade negotiations. He said also those talks may still go ahead in september. He did not confirm they would, but he said there is some background work going on in terms of trying to keep that on track. You could take it as a conciliatory message. On the other hand, he is making it clear china does have the option to strike back if it wants to. Paul President Trump says the u. S. And china are going to renew trade calls, although he offered no timeline or other details. What can you tell us about these talks . So we havent heard anything more today than trump saying there was a call planned between chinese and u. S. Officials. He did not indicate the level of the officials involved, whether it was top negotiators he said there was a talk, a conversation planned. The fact of the matter is that if they did speak, it was only two days before the u. S. Was expected to increase 15 tariffs on about 110 billion of chinese goods additional. It is just hard to imagine where they are going to find some Common Ground 48 hours before these tariffs hit. Vonnie the euro down half a percent. That alters happen in the last few minutes. 109. 99. It is also a record versus the yen. Very definitely weaker euro. Do we see the euro plunge and then equities or the other way around . I think they euro was the driver. The london fix at 4 00 p. M. London, 11 00 a. M. , new york, in that the month, you typically see a lot of hedges readjusted from international investors. You break some Technical Support at the lows of the year, just above 110. It is a perfect storm. A pretty liquid environment to break to new lows. Vonnie lets get the latest on dorian. The National Hurricane center says it is concerned by dorians slow motion as it approaches floridas coast. That could put the state at risk of a prolonged, drawn out event. Why is it concerning that dorian is slowing . Um, when they slow down, it gives it a lot more time to drop instance. Ce an for so if you remember Hurricane Harvey a few years ago, it slowed down over texas and dropped record amounts of rain. And something similar could happen with dorian. As it comes in, you can get 10 maybe 20 inches of rain over two to three days. It could hit between port st. Lucie and fort lauderdale, with which would bring a large amount of expensive real estate in the path of a very destructive storm. Taylor still ahead, as we review the week on bloomberg best, much more on the u. S. China trade war with perspective from chinas largest sportswear manufacturer. Plus, an exclusive conversation with San Francisco fed chief mary daly. And Mario Gabelli explains why he is bullish on the cbsviacom merger. Mario it is a good deal. The stock is a buy. Cbsviacom. Taylor up next, more of the weeks top business headlines. Indias government has promised fiscal stimulus. And the central bank is helping provide the cash. Interest rates and given a it t rates and given a record amount of dividends to the government. Taylor this is bloomberg. Taylor this is bloomberg best. I am taylor riggs. Lets continue our global tour of the top business stories with more from the g7 summit. Discussion about iran was the top of the agenda. But there was an unexpected twist when a top iranian official came at the invitation of french president emmanuel macron. Irans foreign minister visited france for six hours. Bilateral talks near the g7 summit. Zarif had a brief sit down with the french president emmanuel macron. Officials said they gave the u. S. Delegation a heads up about the surprise arrival. But macron did face allegations he blindsided some of his allies. President rouhani said he was prepared to meet any political leader in the interest of his country. Pres. Trump if the circumstances were correct, were right, i would certainly agree with that. A completely different donald trump we just heard, actually making big news in iran and china. He was asked if he would consider meeting with rouhani, and he said he would. He also appeared to suggest he would be in favor of extending what is known as a letter of credit back by oil to meet their financial obligations. Until now, the strategy of the u. S. Was to apply maximum pressure on iran. Vonnie president Hassan Rouhani says he is not interested in just a photo opportunity with president donald trump. And the iranian president insists that sanctions be lifted before any negotiations. The last thing they want politically is to have some event where they shake hands and pictures are taken, but the iranian economy does not get any relief. I think that is what they are hedging their bets on. President trump has said he is waiting by the phone for them to call, that he wants to strike a deal. One of the issues is he is surrounded by advisers who have built their careers, frankly, on drawing a hard line against iran and opposing these kinds of talks. Shery the protests in hong kong taking an ominous turn. Please drew their guns and fired shots at demonstrators who were turning violent again, and beijing gives, perhaps, the strongest signal that it may have to intervene. It is a standoff right now, because we thought that there respites a bit of a last weekend, and there was. There were no arrests or tear gas last weekend. Saturday, it was a different story, another 29 arrests, teargas, fire. The police and the protesters, hardline protesters, at least, clashing with with metal poles. Protesters coming at the police with metal poles, and also bricks and also throwing bombs. The Police Responding with the most force they have used with Six Police Officers pulling their sidearms. One officer actually discharging a round into the sky, and also, the water cannon trucks were brought out the first time on sunday. The Hong Kong Government putting out a statement saying the violent acts put hong kong on a dangerous edge. Matt unrest in hong kong continues. Authorities are clamping down on demonstrations and have arrested at least three prominent protest leaders. So what is the latest with these arrests . What is the tally . It seems that Hong Kong Police have arrested seven people. There are quite a few prominent people among them, including joshua wong, who is the subject of a netflix documentary. Vs. Ed teenager superpower. For weeks, police have been banning the right to march, not approving certain rallies that have been happening in the city. There is a big one planned for tomorrow. We have numerous arrests today, so the city is on edge. Jonathan german Business Confidence falling to its lowest level in almost seven years. The president of the institute that collects the data says this drop in confidence reflects deep ening problems in the german economy. I do think the situation is coming increasingly dire. We see the weakness focused on manufacturing is spreading to other sectors. So far, the argument has been that obviously the fact the situation we are seeing in manufacturing is not affecting the domestic economy, retail sales, low in employment, and domestic demand is holding up. In that sense, the signal this is spreading could be a sign for the ecb to do more. Now the question is, obviously, is whether there is enough support for our action. I would guess at this point, finding consensus might be quite difficult. Argentina is pushing creditors for more time to pay back its debt. The country is hemmed into a worsening crisis. President macri laid out a series of Desperate Measures to try and lighten the debt load. They will force investors into shortterm loans in the local market into accepting longer maturities. Your take on this maneuver by macri. I think the timing was surprising. Everyone knew things were bad in argentina. They are burning through reserves very quickly. That they were having increased difficulty in rolling over shortterm debt. But i dont think anyone thought was going to happen quite so soon. Maybe what tipped the scales was the extraordinary low level of their ability to roll over this shortterm debt. They probably thought, well, with the election, the real election coming up, macri thought, i better act sooner rather than later. He, i think, is widely considered a lameduck president. It is perhaps a final throw of the dice. The reserve bank of india approved a record payout of more than 24 billion of the federal government, boosting the coffers as the economy slows. It comes on top of new measures from the finance ministry to bolster the economy. Finally, it seems, the government is going to ease fiscal policy. Well, that is the expectation, but one never knows. We have this government which has been running a pretty tight fiscal ship, which leaves the doer of the bank of india to heavy lifting, and what heavy lifting it has done. It is actually cut Interest Rates and now given a record amount of dividends to the government. Not only dividend but part of its surplus, which is very controversial. This will add pressure onto the finance minister to ease some of the fiscal levers. While this comes at a good time for the reserve bank of india, whether the finance minister will bite the fiscal bullet or not, we will watch for that. Paul treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has told bloomberg to the possibility of ultra long bonds is under consideration. Very serious consideration. In an exclusive interview, he says he anticipates taking advantage of favorable conditions to borrow long term. Now, his comments moved the bond market with the spread between the five and 30year treasuries widening. It is not a new idea. It dates back as far as 2009 that the u. S. Has considered doing this. This administration has sort of rekindled the idea. It is hard to know how serious the administration is about this. They said they are very seriously considering it, but at the same time, they have talked about this in the past and gotten a very tepid response from investors, so the last thing they want to do is make an offering that nobody wants to buy. So we will have to see whether or not they actually follow through. Vonnie lets turn to the u. S. Economic data. Growth decelerating in the Second Quarter by more than initially reported. The Commerce Department revised gdp growth down to 2 from 2. 1 . Consumers remained a bright spot with spending topping off forecasts. I think we are in a slower but steadier footing. A 1 10 downward revision is not particularly consequential, but what we can see is that the primary pillars of Economic Growth look wellpositioned to continue driving the expansion in the back half of the year. So consumer spending, Even Stronger than first reported. Government spending, basically running at the strongest pace in this cycle. Taylor welcome back to bloomberg best. I am taylor riggs. The Federal Reserve was again a central topic of discussion this week, with the focus not just on its policy path, but also its political role. On wednesday, San Francisco fed president mary daly spoke exclusively with bloomberg. She is not a Voting Member that the fomc, but she explained why she backed the committees july rate cuts. Ms. Daly global slowing, the headwinds from uncertainty. Those things weigh on the economy. The neutral rate of interest has been coming down a little bit, and so to recalibrate policy, that is why i supported the july 25 basis point cut, to recalibrate the economy and put to put the economy back in a good position. If the ecb recalibrated and decides to reenter quantitative easing, what do you take away from that . And what is your reaction to it . Ms. Daly so all Central Banks are responding to the fact they have Economic Conditions that are changing. In the european union, Economic Conditions have slowed quite a bit. Inflation is under the target. That requires Central Banks to take action and they are doing that. In the united states, we also look at our economy and see how Global Factors affect us. And we have to take our Interest Rate decisions based on what we see for the domestic economy. There is a sense that Central Banks are being held hostage by the markets. The more Central Banks do, the more the markets want. Is this the new normal . Are you comfortable with how it is panning out . Ms. Daly well, markets are moved day to day. They fluctuate, they are finding their own footing. Some of that is based on the outlook they have for the economy. And some of it is based on trying to figure out whats coming next from Central Banks. And what i do is i take market information, financial conditions more generally, as an input. Financial conditions being tighter or softer or easier would influence how stimulative the economy is, how well supported growth is. I think it is an input, but not a determining factor in my decisionmaking. Taylor more compelling conversations coming up on bloomberg best. Mario gabelli shares perspective on the streaming wars that have. Media Companies Spending cash on content. Plus, exclusive interviews from china on the impact of trade wars. A top Drug Enforcement official says the u. S. Is wrong to blame beijing for not cracking down on narcotics. So what is supposed to be a simple problem became complicated, and clean water is muddied. Taylor this is bloomberg. At comcast, we didnt build the nations largest gigspeed network just to make businesses run faster. We built it to help them go beyond. Because beyond risk. Welcome to the neighborhood, guys. There is reward. Beyond work and life. Who else could he be . There is the moment. Beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. Feel like theyre part of a team. My name is timothy chi and im the ceo of weddingwire. Were very proud customers of custom ink. We keep coming back to custom ink because of the quality of the product, the customer service, and the ease of use. That moment you walk in the office and people are wearing the same gear, you feel a sense of connectedness and belonging right away and our shirts from custom ink help bring us together. [announcer] custom ink has hundreds of products to help you look and feel like a team. Upload your logo or start your design today at customink. Com taylor you are watching bloomberg best. I am taylor riggs. Gamco chairman and ceo Mario Gabelli visited bloomberg this week for a conversation about investing. As the largest independent holder of voting stock in viacom, he recently said he was exploring Legal Options after his shares were bought for less than he perceived its market value in the companys merger with cbs. Vonnie quinn asked him if he is still considering litigation. Mario as one of our teammates would say, all our options are still on the table. We want to see how far we go into the area. It is not a big number, by the way. Theres only like 5 million to 10 million shares of the voting stock. Should they have gotten a premium since they were selling at a premium, and if they pay you x dollars it is not a lot of money. Vonnie so are they going to pay you a check, or are you actually going to them to court . Mario we will do whatever is necessary to help our clients who own the stock. Of the 615 million shares that will be outstanding, and by the way, this is a good deal. This is a buy. Cbsviacom. Tom we have and our houses, one, two, five, eight streaming services. Is Mario Gabelli bullish on streaming and is cbs behind on streaming . Mario hey, tom, the 615 million pro forma shares out, that is 25 billion we are paying 40 billion for the entire enterprise. That enterprise without a major success in streaming, but putting money into content will generate 40 billion. Tom this is a good question, should they bring back gunsmoke . [laughter] mario that brings up an important point. Dark phoenix, a product created, lost a ton of money. So you have to have good content within your library, so you want to buy cbs because it is going to work. I think they are a good team, and jerry is going to be in command. Taylor a chapter ended on wall street this week. Bennett goodman announced he will step down from blackstones credit business. , gso capital partners. Goodman was a cofounder and senior managing director of the company that blackstone acquired in 2008. He stopped by bloombergs Global Headquarters in new york to talk with erik schatzker. Bennett i believe we will have a selloff. Cycles are not extinct, although we have not seen one in quite a while, on any kind of prolonged basis. I think the next cycle will be driven more about valuation and the recalibration of how risk is priced. I dont see another 2008 recession. I think whatever kind of economic downturn we ultimately have will be relatively shortlived. I also believe that there is a lot of capital on the sidelines. We are not the only ones that have a lot of dry powder, and i think that repricing of risk will serve as an opportunity for people to want to put more capital to work. Erik so risk may be repriced at because of all the capital available at a higher level than it might have otherwise been . Bennett no. No. When things get repriced this time around, it is not going to be because of the macroeconomic factors. It will be some sort of geopolitical event. Whether thats a trade war with china, whether thats some kind of conflict in the middle east. The fundamental Economy Today as we see it is actually doing ok. Taylor chinas leading sportswear maker is feeling the heat from the trade war as it looks to boost its presence abroad. It is poised to grow the domestic market but is facing headwinds from tariffs as well as the chinese economic slowdown. Bloombergs yvonne mann spoke exclusively with antas cfo, liu yuejin. Shixian. [speaking foreign language] translator the trade war has reduced orders at chinese factories and it has impacted china as a whole. This helps Chinese Brands to have more sourcing choices. We do see more choice, but our choice of supplier is mainly based on quality, delivery time, and other metrics. So its not only a simple function of cost. Yvonne so you are considering moving production outside of china, maybe to Southeast Asia now . Lai shixian [speaking foreign language] lai shixian [speaking foreign language] translator in the past, anta has always been engaged with supply chain layout of this kind , and some of our suppliers are already in Southeast Asia. We will continue to work with our current setup. Yvonne we have seen a surge in online sales for your namesake brand as well as fila. How big of a part does online sales now play in your total sales . Lai shixian [speaking foreign language] translator now, the online sales contribute to close to 20 of the group sales. But the growth rate is relatively high. We see that the Younger Generation prefers to shop online. We will continue to strengthen our efforts in this field. Taylor a feud over americas Opioid Crisis is simmering in the shadow of the broader u. S. China trade war. President trump has accused beijing of not doing enough to curb exports of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl as u. S. Deaths from the drug skyrocketed. The white house decided this was a reason to raise tariffs on china, but chinas narcotics regulator denies the claim. Here is his exclusive conversation with tom mackenzie. [speaking chinese] some u. S. politicians out of their own political necessity disregard the facts, find fault, make small things big, and turn black into white. What is supposed to be a simple problem became complicated, and clean water is muddied. Tom the u. S. Treasury has recently sanctioned three chinese nationals and two Companies Operating in china. Will you be taking action against the companies they operate that produce, according to the u. S. , fentanyl products . Liu yuejin [speaking chinese] translator at the time that these people were making these substances, the Chinese Government had not announced wider controls. What these people were doing did not violate chinese law. But some in the u. S. Political circle take issue with this and want to implement sanctions, which is not constructive at all. It only hurts the good cooperation weve had over law enforcement. Tom there would be some who would argue that with the power that you have at your hands, a budget for domestic security of about 200 billion, if someone in the bureau turned around and said fix this now, close this down, you could do it. Liu yuejin [peaking foreign language] we do admit that a small number of unlawful people are making fentanyl substances underground in china and shipping them to the u. S. For huge profits and at the request of criminals in the u. S. We have zero tolerance for them. We will exhaust every means to find them, arrest them, and punish them. Taylor this is bloomberg best. I am taylor riggs. Lets resume a roundup of the weeks top stories in business and finance with a focus on company news, beginning with another ambitious startup announcing plans to go public. Vonnie peloton filing for an ipo that will be among the biggest this year. The home exercise startup seeking a valuation of at least 8 billion. It seems like a large valuation. It does. But this is another company that is tech enabled. Is it a gym . Company . Rue technology it is a big valuation, but we see a lot of these Companies Come to market with barely punishing valuations, and some have come out the traps and done very badly. Others, like beyond meat, have which seems like a ridiculous valuation for a company that make fake meat, have soared. It is hard to tell exactly how fair a number that is until we see this trade. Vonnie shares of drugmaker Johnson Johnson are in the green, even after the company was ordered to pay 572 million for oklahomas opioid epidemic. Oklahoma was seeking 17. 5 billion in damages, which a lot of analysts saw as a shoot for the moon kind of figure. Ultimately, that is why we are seeing Johnson Johnson in the green. Investors feared that billion dollar threshold, and it is lower than expected. But as we look at other cases going forward, for example the ohio multidistrict litigation , which will commence in october, a lot of questions remain, and no opioid maker is out of the woods. Vonnie drugmaker Purdue Pharma controls family that it. , has made an 11. 5 billion offer for all lawsuits with the Opioid Crisis. Bankruptcy. E where th declared is it a large settlement, how many cases, states, and people are we talking about . This is around 2000 cases. There are still other cases outstanding, but this has been the big bellwether case that wraps up a lot of Different Cases and puts a lot of this to rest. It is very substantial. I think the market is trying to figure out what this means because the big question is if purdue exits, does that mean bigger numbers will be extracted, particularly companies that are in a stronger financial position and can withstand a bigger number . Amgen is getting a chance to buy a blockbuster drug, just as some of its big sellers are starting to fade. It is paying 13. 4 billion for a drug ofs psoriasis otezla. They are selling the drug so it can win an antitrust approval of the 74 billion merger. It is an asset that they want to offload, it still seems not to cheap. Exactly. And that was sort of the shock today. It wasnt news that otezla was for sale, but i think analysts thought it would go from maybe 9 billion, 10 billion, but a number that raised some eyebrows on the street. It is a great drug that makes a lot of money, but 13 billion plus seemed a little expensive. Vonnie fanning the flames of m a. Phillip morris confirms talks with altria about a merger. Why would both stocks be lower if reunification is a good idea . Thats a good question. I think Phillip Morris was down. Yesterday, as the speculation started to bubble up, and it was down when this first hit. Now we are seeing altria go from way up to slightly down. These two Companies Split in 2008 and now people say that it makes sense to put them back together, but theres obviously questions about how this would all work. Theres big regulatory risks on some of the things key to this, namely cannabis and vaping. Paul fortescue reported fullyear underlying profit that beat analysts estimates. It is very much a different picture, isnt it . Well, exactly, paul. That is the question on the minds of investors. Certainly, it is where those iron ore prices are headed that is the real concern. But we do know is an extraordinary surge in iron ore prices that we saw through the first half of 2019. They have really reaped the benefits of that. But it is all about the forwardlooking case now. The majority of the market sees the iron ore prices heading lower, so what we can expect is a reduction in profits this time next year. Westpharmas say that profits surged in june. The australian conglomerate may have to thank onetime items related to asset sales and spinoffs. What i want to know is the ceo in your business two rate cuts from the rba, does it impact your business . I think you need to look at the economy beyond rate cuts. The results we reported today across a number of Retail Businesses and our Industrial Portfolio in many ways shows the australian economy isnt in too bad shape, if you can deliver that level of growth. There are clearly some levels of pressures, a bit of a slow down in Economic Growth and consumer spending, partly impacted by concerns around house prices. We are seeing the stabilization, there, and as we showed in the results, things arent too bad. Nejra tiffany sparkling today as its quarterly profit shattered estimates. But despite the good news in terms of the profitability, foreign Tourist Spending threatens to crumple the outlook for the year. Tourism has been a problem for tiffany for several quarters now. This goes back to before last years holiday season. We are seeing Foreign Tourists coming from abroad a lot less, not spending as much at these big Destination Stores that tiffany has, like their flagship in new york city. Chinese tourists in particular have been something that has been a huge boon for tiffany at all these other Luxury Companies over the years, and that has slowed down as of late. Shery apples reliance on china starting to look increasingly like its biggest handicap. The iphone maker has shed tens of billions of dollars in market value since President Trump escalated tariffs and ordered u. S. Companies to move out of china. What would it mean for apple to be able to shift supply chains away from china . I think right now the company is still hoping that a trade deal gets done, or President Trump backs off some of his rhetoric. But if indeed apple is facing these big tariffs, a bunch of which would kick in in december, if that did happen, actually moving production of the iphone out of china, they would need about 25 of that production to meet u. S. Demand. Moving that type of production out of china would be a huge lift and could take a couple years at least. Vonnie cosmetics giant revlon is said to begin to form a marketing process to secure a buyer and turnaround around the company to keep it public. Bloomberg has learned the process would begin after labor day and could see the sale of the entire company. Tell us about the amounts involved here, and where revlon would go marketing. They have said, or we have , the sources have found that they have had interested parties approach them. The formal process will begin after the Labor Day Weekend with goldman sachs. Thats their advisor on this. Right now, they are looking at all options that would basically boost a turnaround. That could be parts of the business, some of their bigger brands. Elizabeth arden is one that in the last quarter had actually been the only brand that put forth net sales, positive net sales. I think it remains to be seen , but it is basically the beginning of that process. Alix federal officials charging a former uber engineer of , ofthony lewandowski stealing Driverless Technology from alphabets waymo unit. This is one of the most intriguing recent legal battles in silicon valley. What did we learn today . This was a total surprise. Uber and google settled this a couple years ago. There had been a private arbitration, but the idea that there would be criminal charges against levandowski, it is something that people had largely given up on, this is a big deal for silicon valley. The former malaysian Prime Ministers Second Corruption trial is underway after it was delayed by a week. He is charged with graft, money laundering, and abuse of power linked to the multibilliondollar looting of state Investment Fund 1mdb. Give us some perspective. How does this trial defer from differ from the first one . The previoius trial was about local transactions, domestic transactions that originated from a 1mdb unit. This was on a much bigger scale, and it directly involves 1mdb. Specifically multibilliondollar bond sales and acquisitions. It is a more significant case, the one we should all be watching for. You have a chart of the morning, a function of the morning that we love which is gtv, you are looking at the Canadian Dollar. Why do you care about this right now . Right now, a lot of people are looking for trends in the the Canadian Dollar has weakened and the u. S. Dollar has gone up, repricing the odds that the bigger candidate is going to be forced to cut rates. Taylor there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. We always enjoy showing you are our favorites on the bloomberg. Maybe they will become your favorites. Heres another function youll find useful, quic. It will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast insight into timely topics. This weeks quick take examines the ongoing protests in hong kong. Hong kongs historic protests have been going on for months, with scenes alternating from huge, peaceful rallies to smaller but violent clashes. What began as a fight against an unpopular extradition bill has morphed into a Broader Movement against beijings tightening grip on the semiautonomous city. So where could the hong kong crisis be headed . This is your Bloomberg Business quick take on the hong kong protests. The movement erupted in opposition to a proposed law which would, for the first time, allow extraditions to Mainland China and others, possibly including taiwan. The proposal was sparked in the case of a hong kong man accused of murdering his girlfriend in taiwan. He was arrested in hong kong and convicted of money laundering, but could not be sent back to taiwan for trial, because theres no Legal Framework to do so. Hong kongs government said the new law would make sure the city does not become a haven for fugitives, but opponents are concerned that it could open the door for anyone, including political dissidents and civil rights activists, and people worry it would eradicate the key firewall that protects hong kong from china. s opaque justice system. Hong kongs chief executive carrie lam has called the extradition bill dead but refuses to completely withdraw it. Protesters are not satisfied. Their demands have grown wider, including lams resignation, more democracy, and independent inquiry from alleged use of Excessive Force by the police. , carrieitys leader lam, still hasnt met a couple key protester demands. As the summer grinds on, the rhetoric in beijing is getting harsher. A spokesman for Chinas Hong Kong Affairs Office says protesters have committed serious crimes and even showed signs of terrorism. In the past few months, protesters joined together in massive marches and rallies, staged a general strike, blocked roads, and swarmed the airport , forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Violent clashes broke out in different parts of the city, with some protesters throwing bricks and petrol bombs. Police have fired more than 2000 rounds of tear gas and hundreds of rubber bullets. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested, dozens of them are charged with rioting, which carries a term of up to 10 years in prison. There has been a seemingly unprovoked attack on protests by a mysterious assailant, which sparked fears that beijing crime gangs were attacks on mainland chinese men during a prodemocracy riot at the airport heightened tensions further. The protests have begun taking a toll on the economy, especially on tourism. More than 600 billion of stock market value has been erased since early july, and the economy contracted more than originally estimated in the Second Quarter. Beyond gdp, the worry is that this will damage hong kong reputation as a safe and reliable commercial hub in asia. China promised to allow a high degree of autonomy in Hong Hong Kong until 2047, which guarantees free speech and capitalist markets. But the protests have raised questions about whether hong kongs freedom will last that long. Karen while speculation has grown that xi jinping will mobilize troops to quell the unrest, analysts are saying it remains unlikely. He would face fallout from a military intervention that would potentially be a lot higher than the repercussions of the protests. U. S. Lawmakers, for instance, could revoke hong kongs special trading privileges, which would worsen the overall outlook for chinas economy just as the trade war with trump escalates. What might happen next depends on how many concessions and when both carrie lam and her opposition are willing to make. Taylor that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. You can also find them at bloomberg. Com, along with all the latest Business News and analysis 24 hours a day. That will be all for bloomberg best this week. Thanks for watching. Im taylor riggs. This is bloomberg. Carol welcome to Bloomberg Businessweek. I am carol massar. Jason i am jason kelly. We are here inside bloomberg headquarters in new york. Carol a special double issue, the elements. Jason on the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. Happy birthday. 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