Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Street Smart 20150324

This change of environment has occurred and today the United States government considers the government of afghanistan a really reliable partner. Commitments that are made are considerable. The funding proposal of supporting Afghan Security forces by 2017. It has reese for . 1 billion. It has reached for poor 1 billion. It is a significant issue. Also, there was a new framework of our Economic Corporation laid out according to h 800 million to which 800 million were made to the afghan budget. But most importantly is the flexibility that has been shown in the area of Security Cooperation. And this flexibility is going to ensure and provide confidence to our Security Forces and our people and also is going to said very strong message that this cooperation is not short term but enduring and longterm. Pres. Obama our Strategic Partnership is based on a very simple. We want the afghan, through their Security Forces directed by their president and commanderinchief, to provide for their own security. And our goal is to make sure that we are a Strong Partner in helping to build and sustain effective Afghan Security forces. So from the start, when i first came into office, we put additional u. S. Troops among Coalition Troops and resources into afghanistan to shift momentum at a time when the taliban and the enemies of peace and stability inside afghanistan were moving and had momentum. Elections took place and the Afghan National Security Forces began to build up and get trained and become more and more effective. And because of a successful election and a yet a National Unity government and the leadership of president ghani and dr. Abdulla, we are now in a position where the afghan secret he forces are not only more effective but better directed by the civilian government. We have been able to draw down and remove ourselves from a combat role, as president ghani indicated, without collapse as was indicated was predicted. There are still improvements to be made. But they are making significant progress. The Strategic Partnership involves us continuing to help support Afghan Security forces that means financially. The International Community will have to continue to provide assistance to the Afghan Government, which is carrying a significant load not only for itself and in some ways for the world. We have made a commitment to do that. We will continue to provide the kind of Security Cooperation and support that is required, training, assisting, advising, helping a logistics, helping on developing and enabling capacity, all the things they go into a modern military a professional military, a professional police force that can provide security on afghan soil by afghans. Any cooperation and the Strategic Partnership involves building up the prosperity and opportunities for the Afghan People through the economic element that was mentioned by the president. So we intend to be working with the Afghan Government and the Afghan People for a long time. In many ways, our troop presence, our military assistance, is just one component of what is a much larger process. The more successful we are at building afghan capacity and strengthening the afghan economy the more the Strategic Partnership that we have will be like the partnership that we have with many countries around the world and it will be based on mutual interest and scientific and educational exchanges and Business Opportunities in commerce and trade. And that i think is the goal that we are all looking for. Josh letterman. Reporter you made very clear that you are not buying Prime Minister netanyahus comments and you are reassessing your approach. What could Prime Minister netanyahu do if anything in the shortterm, to persuade you that he is serious about israelipalestinian peace and that he is someone you can work with . Is there any truth to allegations that israel was spying on the iran talks . You have been working very hard to pursue reconciliation talks with the taliban but there is indication that that mean i be going so well and they are not willing to sit down with you. What makes you will all that you can get those talks off the ground . And a you want the u. S. To be involved in those talks . Pres. Obama let me first of all address your second question about spying allegations. As a general rule, i dont comment on Intelligence Matters in a big room full of reporters. And i think i will continue that tradition. But with respect to the possibility of an agreement that insures that iran doesnt get a Nuclear Weapon, we have not just briefed congress about the progress or lack thereof that is being made, but we also briefed the israelis and our other partners in the region and around the world. And if in fact an agreement is arrived at that we feel confident will prevent iran from obtaining a Nuclear Weapon its going to be there for everybody to see. People are going to be able to lift up the hood and see what is in there. I have confidence that, if there is an agreement, is when to be a good agreement that is good for American Security and Israeli Security and the regions security. And if it isnt, then theyre probably wont be an agreement. Then there probably wont be an agreement. With respect to israels relations with palestinians i think its important to understand the issue here is not what i believe, but its what the palestinians and the parties in the negotiations, and the israeli people believe is possible. That is the most important issue. Ive said before and i will simply repeat. Prime minister netanyahu, in the election runup, stated that a palestinian state would not occur while he was premised to while he was Prime Minister. And i took him at his word that that is what he meant. I think a lot of voters inside of israel understood him to be saying that fairly unequivocally. Afterwards, he pointed out that he didnt say never, but there would be a series of conditions in which a palestinian state could potentially be created. Of course, the conditions were such that they would be impossible to meet anytime soon. So even if you accept it am a i think the it accepted, there still does not appear to be a prospect for a meaningful framework established that would lead to a palestinian state even if there were a whole range of conditions and security requirements that might be phased in over a long period of time, which was always the presumption. I dont think anybody ever envisioned in any peace agreement, certainly not one that netanyahu or the israeli people would agree to, that overnight you all of a sudden have a palestinian state right next to jerusalem and that israel would not have a whole range of security conditions that had to be made and that it would be phased in in a long period of time. So the issue has never been do you create a palestinian state overnight . The question is do you create a framework that gives palestinians hope, the possibility that down the road they have a secure state of their own, standing sidebyside with a secure and fully recognized jewish state of israel. Its not just my estimation. Its hard to envision how that happens. Based on the Prime Ministers statements. So when i said that we now have to do an evaluation of where we are, its not in reference to our commitment to israels military edge in the region israels security our intelligence cooperation, our military cooperation. That continues unabated. And i will continue to do whatever i need to do to make sure that our friends in israel are safe. That is what i have done since i have been president to and that is not going to stop. So the israeli people need to know that. But i am required to evaluate honestly how we manage israelipalestinian relations over the next several years. Up until this point, the premise has been, both under republican and democrat administrations, as difficult as it was, as challenging as it was, the possibility of such of two states living side by side in peace and Security Code marginalize more extreme elementss, bring together folks at the center with some common sense, and we could resolve what has been a vexing issue and one that is ultimately a threat to israel as well. And that possibility seems very dim. That may trigger reactions by palestinians that in turn illicit counter actions by the israelis and that could and up leading to a downward spiral of relations that will be dangerous for everybody and that for everybody. So bottom line, just to summarize, number one, our military intelligence cooperation with israel will continue unabated, unaffected and we are absolutely committed to making sure the israeli people are safe, particularly from rocket attacks and terrorist attacks aimed on civilians. Number two, the evaluation that is taking place is specific to what happens between israelis and palestinians Going Forward. We will continue to engage the Israeli Government as well as the palestinians and ask them where they are interested in going and how they see this issue being resolved. But what we can to do is pretend that there is the possibility of something that is not there. And we cannot continue to premise our Public Diplomacy based on something that Everybody Knows is not going to happen at least in this at least in the next several years. That is something that for the sake of our own credibility i think we have to be honest about that. One last point about this, now that i have heard a lot of the commentary, there is a tendency i think in reporting here to frame this somehow as a personal issue between myself and Prime Minister netanyahu. I understand why that is done. When you frame it in those terms, the notion is that we all just get along and everybody close down and somehow the problem goes away. I have a very businesslike relationship with the Prime Minister. I have met with him more than any other world leader. I talked to him all the time. He is representing his countrys interests the way he thinks he needs to and im doing the same. So the issue is not a matter of relations between leaders. The issue is a very clear substantive challenge. We believe that two states is the best path forward for israels security for a palestinian aspirations and for regional stability. That is our view and that continues to be our view. And Prime Minister netanyahu has a different approach. So this cant be reduced to a matter of somehow lets all hold hands and sing cu buyout. This is a matter of how do we get through a real knotty policy difference that has consequences for both countries and for the region. [indiscernible] pres. Obama we are going to do that evaluation. We will wait for an actual Israeli Government to form. Pres. Ghani dont make premature judgment. What we have asked, president obama has graciously supported it, an afghanled and afghanformed Peace Process. And this will happen in time. Peace is always difficult and requires focus, attention, and sacrifice. And that is what we are willing to do to bring this about. Reporter i have a question for mr. Obama. You just mentioned that afghanistan is still a dangerous place. While it is a dangerous place, is it the right decision to draw down forces at a time that it is a dangerous place . And while forces are less equipped and cannot fight truly . Reporter the Peace Process, what was your initial or your request from the United States president . Pres. Ghani the United States has agreed with us that the Peace Process would be led by afghans. And afghans will be will continue this process. And it will be led by afghans. This is obvious to us. We are thankful for their support. Pres. Obama afghanistan is still a dangerous place. The way it is going to become less dangerous is by Afghan Security forces and Afghan Police being capable of keeping law and order and security in the country. And that is not going to happen if Foreign Forces are continually relied upon. So they are going to be specialized areas where we can cooperate, dealing with some of the most vicious terrorist networks. There is going to be intelligence cooperation and counterterrorism cooperation. And there are going to be specialized areas where we can provide Logistical Support and training and enabling support. But the fact is unless Afghan Soldiers and Afghan Police are able to maintain security, at some point someday, the United States and other Coalition Forces would leave. The good news is what weve seen, as we have removed ourselves from the combat roles Afghan Security forces have stepped up. Although they are certainly not as well he whipped wellequipped as Coalition Forces, they are better equipped than the taliban. They are better equipped than the haqqani network. And so, with the kind of leadership that president ghani is showing as commanderinchief with the leadership that is being shown by a growing cadre of military officers up and down the military chain, Afghan Forces are proving themselves in finding, when the fight, they can be successful and we want to stand with them in that process because we are very much invested in their success. Mr. President , thank you for an sanding visit. Pres. Ghani thank you. Trish you have just been watching president obama speaking with afghan president ashraf ghani at the white house. President obama says that the drawdown remains the same for 2016 and the transition out of a combat role in afghanistan has not changed. For more reaction, i want to bring in phil mattingly. President ghani was there looking for flexibility when you are talking about a timeline for u. S. Troop withdrawal. Did he get what he wanted . Phil he got exactly what he wanted. You heard president obama say this over and over again. It is very dangerous still on the ground in afghanistan. There is a very intense spring fighting season coming with the talib zanna there is also best the taliban. There is also a very real threat of recruitment by the islamic state. There is a very implicit view that what happened in iraq with the decision to pull out u. S. Troops in total was, if not a mistake, something they wish they had not done entirely. What you are seeing now is more stability on the u. S. Side to the numbers were supposed to began to 5500 by the end of this year. It will stay at 9800 with 2016 levels to be decided. You wont see a lot of people complaining about this. I think there is more concern on the congressional side particularly now that there are republican majorities in the house and the senate that there would be premature withdrawals. There are some who are concerned , knowing that there is a vacuum that could be filled by islamic state. We have seen them in the last six months in syria and iraq. It has raised a lot of concern on capitol hill. Alex good to talk to you to break this down. President obama saying the u. S. Must honestly reevaluate israelipalestinian relations and it is hard to see a two state solution following netanyahus comments. Join amy to discuss is lisa goldman. Lisa what did you make of his comments . Lisa it is obvious that he is very angry at netanyahu. Netanyahu burned a letter bridges during his recent campaign, starting with speaker boehners invitation to address congress and then his jim crowlike race baiting. And he also, two days before the election, told a news magazine that he would never allow a palestinian state to be established on his watch. Those three things are crucial for the Obama Administration and that was an absolute slap in the face for them. Alex he specifically address the facts and, basically, the news media is making this about netanyahu versus president obama and that is not the case. They are still united but they do not agree on this one thing. . Do you buy that lisa do you buy that . Lisa not at all. For years, they have had a rocky personal relationship but they also have they view things very differently. Netanyahu has never wanted a two state solution. President obama, during his trendsetting speech that he gave at Cairo University in 2009 very specifically said that the administration did not view jewish settlement did not view in favor jewish settlement in the west bank. Alex what does president obama do Going Forward when you have him committing to security and intelligence and military in rizzuto, but he says there doesnt seem to be their prospect for any meaningful framework for the u. S. And israel to agree on this . Lisa i dont think the president has that many options. He can expresses displeasure in many different ways express his displeasure in many different ways. He can tell officials to stop protecting not to veto antiisrael resolutions, not to put europe on a short leash when it comes to putting sanctions on israel but can it actually cut the relationship with israel . I think it is a way to big relationship. Alex on what part of this changes alex what part of this changes when president Obama Leaves Office . Lisa that is too early to predict. My impression is that the americans and israelis want to keep windowdressing looking pretty. They dont want any substance and any substantive up the of domestic concerns. Alex you give so much. Coming up next ted cruz prepares to sit down with bloomberg television. We are going to get a review right after the break. Just because im away from my desk doesnt mean im not working. Comcast business understands that. Their wifi isnt just fast near the router. Its fast in the break room. Fast in the conference room. Fast in toms office. Fast in other toms office. Fast in the foyer [pronounced foyyer] or is it foyer [pronounced foyyay] . Fast in the hallway. I feel like ive been here before. Switch now and get the fastest wifi everywhere. Comcast business. Built for business. Alex here are the top stories we are watching ahead of the closing bell. George soros says the chances of greece leaving the euro area is 50 fit you. He says 50 50. He says athens can go down the greendrain. Doing what they are doing, they are hurting themselves. Europe also pushes greece out of the euro would hurt itself. Is it a 50 50 possibility . I think so. Alex u. S. Job growth has been running too hot relative to Overall Economic growth. Tiger shark, one of the original hedge funds is closing after 14 years. Tiger sharks demise shows how hard it is for Market Neutral funds to survive in a roaring bull market. We have 30 minutes late to the close of trading. Scarlet fu is looking at all the action on wall street. What are you looking at . Scarlett the action has tapered off throughout the day. We had a late bout of selling yesterday that has carried over into todays session. The nasdaq has held up a little bit better in that it was positive. It got within 17 points of matching and topping its record high but right now down at her 1 to nothing wishywashy about the move and homebuilders. All 11 builders rose after Government Data showed new home sales rose unexpectedly to a sevenyear high. This is in contrast to other data that show that bad weather got into activity. The question is whether this paves the way for a Strong Spring selling season. Alex thank you so much. President obama and afghan president ashraf ghani agreed to keep troop levels through the end of the year and then consider whether to continue drawing forces to meet president obamas original timetable. Peter, what kind of decision was this for president obama . Was it tough . Peter i think it was. This is a president to promise to wind down the operations. It reflects to some extent the confidence he has in the new president ashraf ghani and the relationship they have compared to his press his predecessor. Alex what did you make of president obamas response to u. S. And israeli ties . Peter you can still feel the chill in the air here at the white house. That relationship you can tell there is real tension between u. S. Israeli relationship Going Forward. He promised to stand with israel but he will have to conduct an evaluation the whole push for the middle east peace. If there is not a two state solution, then what is the alternative . Alex he said no prospect for a meaningful framework when talking about that relationship. Thanks so much. Continuing our political coverage, republican texas senator ted cruz to the stage to announce his bid for president in 2016. Tonight, he will sit down with with all due respect. John, what are you going to ask them, your first question . John i dont want to give that away. It is supposed to be a surprise. We are going to talk about the day yesterday and what he might do as president and a few other fun things. He made quite a splash yesterday with that announcement. We are happy to have him here on set with us in just a little more than an hour. Alex something that was striking was ted cruz talking about his wifes Bakery Business but ignoring the fact that she worked at Goldman Sachs for 10 years and is on leave right now. What did you make of that . John outside of the confines of manhattan, Goldman Sachs is not the most popular institution in the world and not one that is wildly popular with the republican base. Ted cruz has a lot of conservative followers who are leaning in the direction of the tea party and they are suspicious of or hostile of big financial institutions. He portrayed his wife as a Business Leader but did not give any specifics. Its possible that we might ask them about that tonight. Alex what about rick perry . What is the theme . John Mark Halperin was done in houston this morning for an event with rick harry, the former governor of texas. We dont know if he is going to run in 2016. Mark talked to him about what it means to be a next governor, no longer the governor of texas, and about how he is going through the process over whether to get into this race this time around. Alex definitely tune in for senator ted cruz and rick perry on all due respect. Coming up, the most powerful woman on wall street is going west. You may soon be able to get your news on facebook without ever leaving the app or website so publishers be afraid. Alex the swiss franc strengthening against the euro today. Snb president signaled last week that the central bank is in wait. Waitandsee mode. Production for xfiles will begin this summer. According to a new report, google is working on a new bill payment dubbed pony express. It allows customers to pay their bill without going to a telecom or utility website. Morgan stanley cfo ruth porat is heading west. Google is hiring her as their next finance chief. Porat says she is delighted to return to her california rich. Her california roots. Is this purely a numbers game . Maybe google will pay more than Morgan Stanley for her . Michael i think it is more like something you. She has been at this job for five years. This has not been an easy five years to be a cfo, particularly at Morgan Stanley who went through the crisis and really had to convince investors that it was more stable and safer than before the crisis. Its been a grand. Alex did this announcement surprise you . Michael it came out of nowhere seemingly. But it is not surprisingly, with the opportunity to go to google that she took it. Alex corey, what does this say to you that google wants to do . Cory ruth has a long have long ties ruth has long ties with the tech community. One would expect that the cash horde that google has which is more cash than Morgan Stanley has by 40 , that there are more deals to come. Its an interesting time for google. There is the pile of cash. There is also the interesting times. Google is going through a massive transition, from a desktoporiented model to a mobilebased model. But the company is going through some tremendous changes. I dont think the ftc story that has come out in the last few days is a small thing with eu continuing to investigate antitrust allegations that could change the way google does business. Alex is part of this trying to change the perception of cap on wall street, trying to will over different types of people to woo over different types of people . Cory youve got to people, like anthony noto at twitter, before he was the nfl chief Financial Officer and before he was at Goldman Sachs. The same thing with ruth porat. It is the job of the chief Financial Officer, two people that have played that game at the very highest level. Alex where what does this say about Morgan Stanley . Michael they named jim crews the new cfo. They are in a much more stable spot. They are better able to handle the transition at this point. They have kind of got their strategy. They are steady and moving toward that 10 that investors want to see some progress. Alex to your point, we are done. The worst is over. We are going to move on. Is it a kind of Tipping Point . With that michael it does Tipping Point without . Michael it does kind of they have reached a lot of their targets in terms of funding, in terms of building up the capital. I think on that point, it does kind of close the book a little bit. Alex cory, you mentioned all that cash that google might have to spend. But a lot of that money could be overseas. What might porat be able to do to get that money back and use it here in the u. S. . Cory it might not be used in the u. S. It might be used for acquisitions overseas or pay freak and taxes. That is always an option out there. [laughter] or maybe the laws will change. Who knows . I think the concern for google is finding a new way in the changing world of business. The business they build, go to your desktop computer and do a search, is not going to be the growth for this company in the future. She will have to oversee that and manage that with enormous flux ability because of that cash but that is her job number one at google. Alex google is not a startup and larry page is not a kid. It feels like the adults are coming back in charge. Cory it is a globally dominant monopoly more than anything else. And i think managing that is a tough trick. They have created tremendous they have created fantastic growth from that another businesses. They have dumb they have done that by keeping businesses out of Google Search results, putting sometimes inferior search results on top of and in favor positions over other businesses and they cannot be doing that. Alex thank you for joining us. Coming up next facebook wants to being you your daily news without ever leaving facebook. Alix facebook is in talks with the times, national geographic, and does feed. Facebook gets to have more glued eyes on its site. It basically means i never have to lead the facebook ecosystem. Joe there is this nervousness what if Facebook Changes their algorithm . Facebook is taking it to the next level. Why not just put your articles right here where they are in the environment, where everyone is all the time. That is potentially exciting to publishers because it puts their stories in this environment where people are going to share them and get seen by tens of people. The scary part is they lose control of them. They could get share of the ads. Facebook will have data on what is being read. A lot of nervousness today in the Publishing Industry on this news. Alix facebook gets the data on what i am reading and the New York Times would not. And that is a subscriptionmade product and they would be getting content away for free. Joe there might be something where there is a revenue share or create something where there is an ad that goes with these stories or even the New York Times could create ads for its clients that are designed for facebook. There are ways to deal with the revenue split. Publishers have been getting all of this essentially free traffic from facebook for years which they used to sell ads against. And now facebook to say we want to keep it. Alix who is this bad for . Joe i think the really high quality publishers who have a devoted audience will still be fine. I think there is this class of publishers that are basically nothing more than viral engines designed to gain facebook for clicks. The content isnt very good. Facebook has been trying to crack down on them for a while. I think those companies, the future isnt very good. Facebook will continue doing things to turn the screws on them. Alix who . Joe i do want to defend myself from all of that. [laughter] alix who knows if we are going to see other social media sites do the same thing. Joe the future is for a lot of content to be distributed across social media sites. It is probably the beginning of a trend. Alix coming up in the next hour, i will be speaking with mr. Barnes about measuring the online audience. And the close is coming up on street smart. Alix welcome to our viewers around the globe. We are moments away from the closing bell. The nasdaq at one point trying to rise to an alltime high but now kerry back those gains. We want to get to scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. It seemed like a market looking for direction all day. Scarlet and looking for volume as well. S p 500 index stocks off by 11 even in the nasdaq which is trying to match the record high. It sought by 10 from the 10day average. There were a couple of data plans, inflation showing some signs of growth. Cpi grew for the first time in months but not enough for the fed to act. Home sales push homebuilders higher. We had an unexpected sevenyear high in new home sales. You can see lenore up by 2 . This is in contrast to other data that got in the way of normal activity. But Michael Rachel says that the month over month french was probably overstated. He said it is likely to be downgraded next month. Although he does ca Housing Market recovery that will unfold over the next 12 to 18 months. Still slow going but alix we just heard scarlet talking about Consumer Prices falling short of inflation targets. What is really going to be the catalyst to move this market . This was a really bumpy day. Tulio inflation is somewhat difficult to read because of everything is transitory. Probably the main thing right now to look at continues to be the labor market and probably the next big moment is going to be big farm payroll at the beginning of next month. Mike the obvious catalysts are earnings. We are in this trough now where there are hardly any earnings right now. The earnings picture is a little weak, especially because of the energy companies. It has people nervous. But any fed speech or earnings [indiscernible] alix the bond market, there is definitely a consensus. Basically people are saying, look, you are probably going to hike rates. Its probably not want to matter that much. They will probably not move again for however much longer. It sort of waiting for something to disrupt that, whether it is a current a story, an oil story. But in the bond market, people are getting comfortable. Alix you mean getting Comfortable Holding those treasuries . Lisa exactly. I think people are wondering, in that kind of world, how does that translate over to the equity world . Does that mean you can have incredible exponential growth in stocks when you have this low yield growth in the world . Alix we are just a few seconds away from the closing bell but we have seen some seen the dow deteriorate into the closing bell. The nasdaq off by alix a very orderly selloff. There did not to see panic on the streets. The u. S. Yields seems to be where money is going. They continue to fall. For a look at the biggest equity movers lets get to scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. What stood out to you . Scarlett i wanted to discuss the it is part of a broader effort to cut capital expenses. Petroleum, biggest plunge in four months. They are tapping the market to clean up the balance sheet, selling 1. 9 billion in debt and 35 million shares at 30 million apiece. Diamond offshore i want to mention them here, off by 5 . The company is most at risk to cut its dividend but will not likely do so. Bloomberg intelligence crunched the numbers. It is 650 million short of the consensus sales estimate. That is going to be a gap that is hard to close. Alix you did that just for me. Thank you so much. Im here with lisa, mike reagan and tulio. We did have a lot of data out today. In particular the cost of living excluding food and fuel rising more than forecast. Is this what the fed needed to see . You dismiss it, and say no. But to be honest, 1. 7 year on year tulio it is absolutely important. It is difficult to read at the moment. It is good that we have a number that doesnt show inflation is cracking. It is steady and inching up towards 2 that the fed is targeting. Alix do you buy the argument that the fed is going to be behind the curve. Alix jumping the gun. Lisa im sorry. I could not resist. Im going to be penalized. Alix we actually have sound from him speaking today. Lets get to that. He did sound relatively optimistic. He spoke at a panel in london. Unemployment will go below 5 by the Third Quarter of this year. I think that is going to be relatively speaking boom times for the u. S. Economy compared to where we have been over the last five years. Alix to your point, boom time. Lisa it flies in the face of what we are seeing in the market. Consumer price data, they are just like it is not doing it for the market. What do you think . Mike the fed told us we are going to wait a little bit. They dont seem like it is imminent. The fact that moved to now being more aligned with september, it is going to go back and forth. Tulio that is not necessarily true. Im just in with the Market Reaction was. We are going to go back between june and september. The fed told us guys, it is going to be data dependent. They are not going to tell us so much what they are going to do as they were before which is important because it brings volatility back into the equation. Mike one thing i am fascinated by, the 0. 625 by the end of the year. That is one rate increase or to rate increases. With the undershoot that . Tulio that is hard to say. That is an average. We are a little bit slower. It is going to be lower than what we had before. I wouldnt read that much into it. The next data, it is going to be about the data and how that evolves. Alix he also offered a warning. According to the Financial Times he said u. S. Risk is creating devastating asset bubbles if rates are left so low. Where may they be . Tulio if we knew when an asset bubble look like we would all be in better shape. I think that is an interesting comment. And the temper tantrum, that is a difficult thing to swallow at this point. We dont know yet. So far the emerging markets, they reacted and defined the temper tantrum. They are not reacting so well to a fed approaching us getting closer to the rate hike. Lisa that is probably to do with the dollar. It could be a negative factor. Tulio it is in part related to the dollar and what is going on in oil, and commodities in general. It is in part but the history of the emerging markets and reaction to fed rate kayaking cycles is a checkered history. There havent been pretty moments. Alix is in currency that stocks and bonds tulio it has been more and bonds. But since the previous crisis a lot of the companies have countries have moved to new exchange rates. This is the first line of defense. Alix in the dollar regaining some momentum today. Approaching the 50 day moving averages. The currency is returning to its longerterm uptrend. This isnt great for everyone. The wall street journal reporting the strong dollar has u. S. Pension funds looking for ways to protect investments overseas. This is striking to me. Does this make it a risky bet . Mike i think lisa should answer that. [indiscernible] lisa i have a lot to say. As per always. I think it is risky people are leveraging up or hedging and using levered hedges. You have to wonder,s love these Pension Plans are engaging active managers to go out there and actively manage attentional currency risk. We found out how difficult it is to be active and ahead of the ball when he National Banks that are ready to pull the plug. It does raise questions. Alix the National Bank came out of left field when they unpack the frame to the euro. The fed has been clear to not do Something Like that to the market. Tulio the swishds National Bank was different. It is a different situation. Having said that, we think that the fed, the dollar is on a multiyear strengthening cycle. Recently, in the last 23 months, it has been fast. It has been the speed. Mike they didnt do anything to change. We had some weakness in the dollar. Tulio it didnt. The fed, the idea the dollar is consolidating a little bit here. The next big leg up for the dollar will be when we get clarity on when the fed is going to move. That is going to move up and strength. Alix speaking of the dollar, the fed will be watching reports on orders for durable goods. These orders probably increased thanks to demand for business equipment. If you look in the middle of the numbers you have to look for the factory sector and what the dollar is doing for the factory seller and demand. Mike exports are the biggest concern. I think durable goods reports often are not the biggest deal to the stock market but this is going to be a bigger deal than usual. Tulio the fed told us they are data dependent. Every big number is going have a market react. It is really the labor market that is going to drive things a bit more with what the fed does. Alix we cant ignore the other clouds. Greece. Theres a good rendition 50 chance they leave the euro. If it pushes greece out of the euro francine 5050 shot . Alix 5050 . Tulio the market is not doing that. What george shaw is reacting to is this frustration that things are not moving forward. We had this agreement in quotation marks for them to get their acts together and move forward about a month ago. Nothing much has happened. There is frustration nothing gets done. That is in part what he is alluding to. Lisa which market is most sanguine about the potential of a greek exit . Tulio i think all of the markets are relatively complacent. Probably where you see the most is in the spread market in terms of periphery sovereign spreads. Lisa like italian and french. Tulio that is where you see it. That would be the first line of impact if things deteriorate. Alix thank you so much everyone for joining me. Coming up next, why investors are betting we will see a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the oil industry. The companies being speculated about. Dont miss to begin her views coming up at 5 00 eastern, it is all about the republican president ial hopefuls. Senator ted cruz and former Texas Governor rick perry. We will see you. Alix here of the top stories we are watching after the closing bell. President at the white house. He wants to slow down u. S. Troops ref can a stay in. President obama he has required flexibility on our drawdown in afghanistan. I have decided we will maintain our current posture of 9800 troops through the end of this year. Alix the ukraine finance minister urging bondholders to negotiate a debt Restructuring Agreement now or risk facing bigger losses. We dont have the ability to meet all of the payments coming due. We dont have the ability to move forward without an imf program. Alix investors will be eagle to hear about how the firm plans to recover from setbacks. Amex said it is parting ways from costco. Investors are betting if Oil Prices Continue to fall we may see mergers and acquisitions pick up within the industry. Some consultants say oil and Gas Companies will spend 450 billion buying each other this year. Where will this energy be focused . Thank you for being here. What kind of activity do you expect . Asmar good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Given the downturn the oil and gas industry went through, i think it is going to take time to begin in earnest. The Industry Needs to reset to a new base. The bid asks for delta between buyers and sellers become narrow. A number like that is certainly possible. The question would be and how many deals and over what time. That is a number that could occur. Alix what do you think . Guests i think what osmar is saying is correct. Potential buyers want a low amount. Until volatility lessons, which the people i am speaking with our hoping happens, in the second or Third Quarter that is going to be too wide. Alix oil prices need to fall more to take mna. Who were going to be the buyers, who are going to be the sellers . I was the oil drillers. They are expected to generate 30 billion in sales but has 20 billion and backlog. Transocean is the worst offender of that group followed by seed drill. Osmar i want to make one clarification. Oil prices dont have to go down further to stimulate m a. Mna activity could happen at a meaningful level and stay there for some time. We need stability more than we need oil prices to go up or down a lot. I cant comment on specific names that may be in the deals but in terms of potential buyers they could involve large and Midcap Companies and all the very us oil and gas various oil and gas. Those are all there is lots of him and day discussions going on but as i said, it is early on yet before we are going to start reading about too many of them. Alix and the transfer companies. Is there an area you feel like they are most interested in . Devin what they would like to do is real buyouts of enp companies. Some are tell me upward of 20 . What they are doing our Credit Investments when they can rescue financing, things like that. They are targeting lower, around 15 . They want that 20 plus percent. What we need is some time. I dont think prices need to decline further. We need to wait a little bit. Revolvers will reset. Cash flows will decline. If that were all to happen sellers may give in and allow buyouts to occur. Alix stability is what we need. Thank you. Great to have you on. Thanks for coming. Next, the campus rape debate heads to capitol hill next month. Several fraternities want to make it harder for universities to investigate assault allegations. We will be back. Alix this morning german wings flight 9525 crashed en route to dusseldorf. Investigators are racing to find out what caused it to go down. Mark dean is nearby the crash site with the latest. It looks like the french authorities have called off the search for the night. Is that what you are seeing . Mark they have just told us that. Im in a town 10 minutes from the crash site. This is the center of operations for the military police. They have been ferrying bodies here from the crash site all afternoon. They are stopping operation because it is the middle of the night and it is raining. They will start again at daybreak. That is essentially what is happening now. Alix any more news on what caused the plane to go down . Mark no. There is no news on what caused the plane to go down. Theyve recovered one black box but not the second one. The authorities are hoping that the keys to the mystery of this crash lie within those black boxes. The second one has yet to be found. The hope is it will be found tomorrow. Alix any word on where the second box may be . Mark the debris is over a large and mountainous area. Very much wilderness. They know where the crash site is. It is on land. So, provided the box is intact you would think they would be able to find it eventually. There is no more precision at that than this stage. Alix thank you. College fraternities and sororities are heading to capitol hill next month to Push Congress to make it harder for universities to investigate rape allegations. The group wants lawmakers to stop colleagues from suspending all fraternities on a campus because of a serious incident at a single house. Joining me to discuss is john allen. Does this push by these packs have any legs . John i dont think it has any chance. This is not a time in which we have a societal ill on campuses. It has been over the course of time allegations that have not had evidence behind them over the course of years, but some allegations that have a lot of people have been sexy assaulted having come forward so this is going to be difficult time for the frat pack to get its case on the hill. Not much legislation gets passed. It will be difficult to find people who want to cosponsor these things. Alix frat pack is 10 years old, has 2. 1 million in donations for congressional candidates. Do they have some years . Ears . John i think very politically risky for most members of congress to get on board. Particularly in recent elections. We have a discussion of a war on women. It is bad politics. Alix do you think we will see any kind of conversation between universities and the federal government on how to please these issues . John that conversation exist because so many universities get federal funding through a variety of means. Whether that means legislation or simply hearings and discussions, the universities themselves within their own communities have to do a better job of protecting students from assault. Alix thank you for joining me on this. We will see how that plays out. We have much more at street smart coming up next. Stay with us. Alix welcome back. Im alix steel. Here of the stories we are watching. George soros says the chances of the greece using the leaving the euro are 5050. George if it pushes greece out of the euro it will hurt itself. Scarlett is it a 5050 processability possibility . George yes. Alix the president says the u. S. Must evaluate is really palestinian relations. President obama we believe a tuesday solution is the best way forward for regional stability that is our view and that continues to be our view. Prime minister netanyahu has a different approach. Alix according to a new report google is working on a new bill payment project dubbed pony express to allow users to pay bills within gmail without having to go to a Utility Company website. Stocks finishing for in the red for a second day. We picked up some downside into the close. Scarlett it was a lackluster day overall. Lets begin with netflix. The best performer. Cantor fitzgerald and barclays raising their target. The stock has more room to run. Cantor says netflix can reach 500 following a pickup and momentum around tv unbundling, which pulls for migration to internet tv, and that puts will benefit from that. And in negative preannouncement the stock having his worst decline since 2001, off by 40 for the Company Makes products that carry internet voice and data. It is sensitive to plans. They will begin cutting costs. Details to come when they announce results in late april. This is something you have been discussing with cory johnson. Google up 2 after with became the latest executive to leave a big bank to take over cfo at google. Some of her challenge will be to manage expenses. 35 to almost 7 billion last quarter. And oversee a boatload of cash. 60 billion worth. Speaking of money, looking through bloomberg, she is due for a big raise in her job. 85 million from 20102013. Ruth was calm about 40 million. Alix that is one use should say boatload of cash. We are a few hours away from asias market open. Chinas economy showing more weakness. And ayou continue to have chinese stocks geeking out their longest winning streak in 23 years setting of this dichotomy, how should investors look at china . Joining me now is the senior fellow of the Atlantic Council on the u. S. National security council. Thank you for being here. Why do we have chinese stocks at a 23 year high . Jamie that is the incredible dichotomy of china. Things are not looking great with the economy. There is oversupply and imbalances. On the other hand there is a lot of hype inside of china. Domestic chinese buyers. In the United States when we were having our internet bubble you would get in a taxicab and every cab driver would say i am betting on this, this. That is happening in china. There is this domestic push to buy stocks. It is conflicting with a lot of the negative news. Alix do you see a big collapse in the stock market, not to mention you can make the Argument Companies have a lot of dollars in debt. Jamie i dont nail if it will be a big crash but there is going to be a correction. The chinese stock market has gone up too much and rapidly. There is too much froth in there. Investors arent experienced investors, they are not institutional investors. There will be a correction. Trees dont grow to the sky. This increase cant increase for too long. Alix the backdrop of this is continued intervention by the central bank to help steam like growth while trying to maintain reform. Barclays had interesting note saying by 2020 income per capita is forecast to be around 20,000. Do you see that as a reality when you are on the ground . Jamie there is this incredible push and pull. The Chinese Government needs to have her Structural Reforms to address these imbalances. They will over time sink the chinese economy or stop its growth in its tracks. On the other hand this requires a story of continued Economic Growth, not just to maintain legitimacy but to create the space to push forward these politically difficult economic reforms. They are stimulating on one hand but they need to have these reforms. That is the push and pull. I am concerned because they need this Economic Growth but if they dont really take economic reform head on now theyre going have bigger problems down the line. Alix the new chinese lead Development Fun Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is hoping to use 50 billion to finance infrastructure and asia and asian developing countries and u. S. Allies are split. You have germany and france on board but japan and south korea are on the fence. What is the biggest problem . Jamie right now, this is a major flux point in the world. Since the end of the Second World War the United States has been at the center of the multilateral institutions like the world bank and the imf. China is making a play for a more sino centric world. The United States has been against it and we have been encouraging our allies to not join on. Now the u. K. Is on board, france germany, canada australia. Likely south korea will join before the march 31 deadline. That leaves the United States and japan on the side. There is a push and pull happening because on one hand the United States and others have been calling on china to play a greater role in a more responsible world, and it is good they are stepping up to fund infrastructure. At the same time the world and imf have high standards, and we dont want to have a much lower standard introduced through this chinese bank. With the chinese are saying is we have these postwar institutions. Five years ago the g20 said we should have imf reform to give china a greater say in the world institutions. The United States congress has been blocking that. If youre not giving us an onramp into the existing institutions how can you blame us for trying to create parallel institutions . Alix you are traveling to china tomorrow. What are you going to do there . Jamie im going for a trek to conference focusing on cyber security. Cyber issues are an enormous issue for china and United States prefer the Chinese Government there are three big areas where they are focusing on china. Domestic control and flow of information, the Chinese Government spends more on domestic security than they spend on international security. They are very concerned about their own population getting free information. They spend resources trying to suppress that. The second thing is national competitiveness. The government requires Economic Growth to maintain legitimacy. Right now the massive cyber spying of Chinese Government entities and others the theft of intellectual property is helping their economy. It is harming us. Alix got to leave it there. When you come back, you can tell me all about it. Thank you for joining us. Coming up, i will speak with nelson ceo mitch barnes about where he sees the future of television. We will find out. Stay with me. Alix facebook could be cooking up a new way for users to get the news. They are in talks with news outlets like time, buzz the, and national geographic. My next guest knows a thing about nature measuring online audiences. Mitch barns joins me. What you think about this . Facebook may be having the times and other websites on facebook. You will never leave the site. Who mitch is this good and bad for . It makes a lot of sense. Among their strengths, the mobile strengths have been strong. Accounting for a large and growing portion of advertising revenue. News content owners see that and see the opportunity to deliver content to the younger consumer. The millenials in particular you are getting a growing news content for mobile devices. Alix it feels like the publishers lose a lot. They dont have someone going to their ecosystem. They dont click to their site. You might lose at revenue. You are also losing data. Mitch it might be the reason why they havent gotten there sooner. They look at the future and how younger consumers rely on mobile platforms consume news content, and theyre are making a judgment that this is the best way to grow their brand and their audience with the younger consumer. Alix if facebook has more data on customers if they wind up pairing with publishers do they reinvent their tools to track that . Mitch the already have great tools. Nielsen works closely with facebook. One of the strengths is the way they share a lot of that data to the publishers and with advertisers. People no how to use their platform which encourages them to spend more on that platform. Alix what kind of revenuesharing opportunities will they see . Do you think that is a viable model for facebook . Mitch it could be. The nfl had an announcement about putting some live content on the web, which was especially interesting. They are a cornerstone. For them to be innovating, ahead of the curve it is a credit to them. Whether the best platform is facebook, i will be interested to see. Alix facebook video, it is huge. Video is where a lot of advertising dollars continue to flow. How easy is it to tell how valuable videos can be for advertisers . If it is a real click versus autoplay . How do you determine that . Mitch independent thirdparty measurement like the kind my Company Provides is an important place to start. You understand the reach of that advertising. How many people see the ad and who are they . Are the outside of the target market . You begin there. Secondly you can judge the money not only how many people you reached but how it resonates. Alix you can tell that . Mitch you can tell that. We do have some methodology where we can assess how it changes people and how they think. What advertisers want to know is does it change the way you behave . What impact does it have on your buying behavior. Increasingly, we are able to know more and more about the impact of advertising on subsequent purchase behavior. Alix you can string that a long that cap video i watched . Mitch not so much the cap videos, with the premium longform content. That is where people are interested in doing this. We measure what people are watching and then we look at what those things consumers buy only connect those things, and we help advertisers and media content owners improve the value of the advertising that supports that. Alix we are going to continue this conversation into the streaming world. Coming up, you do not want to miss with all due respect. Senator ted cruz and rick perry. Well be right back. Alix were talking football. The nfl blackout news yesterday and the league is making another decision to stream on the web exclusively. Would you watch that . Mitch of course. Alix what does that say about the industry . Mitch it is impressive. It starts with what our consumers doing. Media fragmentation or audience fragmentation. More and more different devices screen platforms to find the content they want. Credit to the nfl to innovate in this way, to learn from it and figure out where to go next. Alix where do people watch shows the most . Mitch traditional television, the way we thought about it, Live Television and timeshift. The growing portion is through mobile devices and connected devices. Alix talk about over the top streaming. We keep hearing about how will people cut the cord. Is that a legitimate question to be asking . Mitch it is a legitimate question but not the only question. People who are watching over the top content, using netflix, most are still with cable subscription. It is a matter of using both. It is about the cannibalization of time. I think about more that way right now. That is where it is for most people. Alix at what point will they be able to compare streaming . Mitch this year. That will roll out in the middle to later part of this year. That will be the last significant portion of Overall Television portion of your we dont already measure. We really have a full set of capabilities to measure the total audience across all screens. Alix i would like to see how those pan out. It was great to have you here. Thank you so much. Speaking of, winter is coming. Season five of game of thrones we talked to cory johnson at the red carpet premiere. Alix this is street smart. Here are the top stories we are watching. The ecb banning great tanks from increasing holdings of government debt. The move coming over concerns over the states solvency grow. Finance officials will hold a call to discuss progress. There is concern athens will run out of money by early april. Google turning to wall street for its next cfo. Google has been facing rising costs and a pile of cash increase physical complexities. 2. 6 billion raised according to an email to investors. It would be the firms biggest yet. San francisco became the city of ice and fire as game of thrones hosted its fifth season premiere. Cory johnson not only took his place you set on the throne. Forget it. I am so bummed. You met with the stars and executives behind the show. Cory johnson us from san francisco. What was it like . Cory it was a brief moment before my friend tried to stab me. It is a fun show. It is a really popular show with the nerds, geeks, do, whatever we call ourselves. Alix my people. Cory yes. And one of the reasons, i talked to many members of the cast, George R R Martin and there seems to be two things. Many people they describe themselves as luddites, people who stumble with their smartphones and cant use technology. They really think that in an error where everyone is so turned on if you will, they have their devices all the time, they are getting texts all the time, the show were that is not a possibility somehow connects with them on a way because it is what they dont have. Dragons. Alix i have read all the books. I have seen the series. Im totally into it. We are missing books six and seven. The author has taken years in between books. Was there talk about that . Cory briefly. He said he is working on it. It is the meanest thing you can ask, are you done yet . But he did volunteer he was busy on the book and it is going to be great. Alix the problem is were on season five. They are not going to want to stop the series to wait for him to finish. I wonder how that is going to play out. Any word on that . Alix he is suggesting he will have the books done in time. He must be working fervently. I wouldnt be surprised if it is time with the end of this season. Alix exciting. The coolest thing . Cory i dont want to ruin it. Dragons. The dragons look really ticked off. Things are falling apart across the kingdom. Alix i cant wait. Im so excited, im so jealous. Thank you so much. That wraps it up for street smart. Tomorrow, coming up after this we have a good show. Ted cruz and rick perry on with all due respect. Dont miss it. Have a good night. John coyotes you are on notice. I have four dogs now and i will shoot you. John ted cruz scrambles to make Hillary Clinton walk on eggshells. Israel spied on United States during the Iran Nuclear Talks and use that information to sway members of