Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Street Smart 20150424

Street smart starts now. There are the top stories ahead of the closing bell. Mylan made a hostile bid the perrigo deal would be my lens biggest yet mylans biggest yet. The real fraud and markets can be found in the pool of debt from europe to japan. The bubble is not sustainable. The statue of liberty on Liberty Island evacuated this afternoon after police receiver sports reports of a suspicious package. Police patrolling picked up the scent of a suspicious package charlie before 1 00 p. M. Lets go to the breaking news desk. After a 15 year drought, the nasdaq closed at a record high yesterday. Clearly the performer among these three major indexes. Volume and nasdaq stocks is 15 above the 10 day average. Google, microsoft and amazon those earnings those come from three Nasdaq Companies that Strategic Research group calls tax staples. They have matured into these cash generating behemoths with all of the above strategy for growth. That is helping to propel the nasdaq and leading to what some more people say is a sustainable rally this time around. As prices go higher, we are seeing the fix continue to drift lower. It is now at 12, 12. 5. You can see the unexciting moves there, the complacency starting to build. The average for the past year, 14 and a half. We are well below the levels of 19. 8. Here is where your seeing volatility, in the euro. The euro gained as much as 7 10 of 1 . Greece and its creditors continue to negotiate on its debt and whether it gets any payment. Almost 1 , down to 57. 19 a barrel. Alix scarlet fu, thank you so much. The latest twist in the Time Warner Cable saga, bloomberg reporting Charter Communications advisers have reached out to Time Warner Cable after comcast dropped its bid for Time Warner Cable today. This would be charters first moved to restart talks to buy Time Warner Cable after its attempts last january. Both charter and Time Warner Cable at one point to jump on on the news. Joining us is reporter alex sherman who broke the story for us. Alex, just killing it on the comcast time warner charter. Alex from one person i spoke to, it will be higher than what comcast agreed to pay for Time Warner Cable. That was about 159 dollars per share. Lets start there, and you can look at Time Warner Cable already today on our news. Theres going to be a premium on top of that. They werent able to reach an agreement, charter offered 132. 50 a share. Time warner cable well above that level now. So is charter. Charter as this deal with bright house they have agreed to. This person told me that the idea might be to keep bright house and add Time Warner Cable and that way you would have an extended Balance Sheet since that would be a larger company. Alix what you think about what alex just said in terms of price . Amy alex is right. There is an embedded m a premium in all of these stocks right now. I think charter will have to pay a premium where the stock is currently trading. If Time Warner Cable wants to stand alone by crying bright house buying white house. Brighthouse. It is one of the few names in tmt with very corporate clean governance. Shareholders can take an activist position. Alix meaning that . Amy they can go to the board and say, lets think about options. Alix rather than a takeover. You think time warner will go alone at this point . Alex amys point is that so many of these companies have a controlling shareholder, they are familyowned. Time warner cable isnt. Because of that, activists could force a deal to happen, but its not that. Its also i think all of Time Warner Cables management and employees have expected they will be sold to comcast. A lot of them planned out another future. If youre able to get a deal done with charter quickly, you can still pay out those people. The people who were spending the money they thought they would get through severance packages and now are not getting them maybe those things can be replenished by a deal with charter. I would think there would be incentive for Time Warner Cable to get a friendly deal done with charter as soon as possible if charter is willing to pay a price that is high enough. Alix will regulators go for it . People thought this would go through and they were betting as if comcast time warner was going to happen. I we going to see it blocked by regulators . Amy that charter has a very different deal than Time Warner Cable. Charter is only up 5 million 5 million, 6 million subscribers. Contrast comcast owns nbc. Alix what does comcast do now . How much of a black eye is this for Brian Roberts Going Forward . Amy focus on fundamentals, shareholders are happy this is a point in time where they can think about the core business and you dont have to think about too much m a speculation. Down the road it would not make sense for comcast to look at wireless assets, perhaps expand internationally or maybe bolster their nbc assets. Alex they are in m a target. They have been for years. Its not really new news, but i would say comcast becomes a more likely buyer for cablevision. They were going to get new york through this Time Warner Cable deal. Cablevision is another way for them to get new york because cablevision and Time Warner Cables. I would say immediately comcast becomes a likely buyer for cablevision, but cablevision is one of those companies amy mentioned where there is a controlling share shareho lder. Alix do you agree that comcast might be a good buyer for cablevision . Amy i think alex is right. New york is one of these weird markets where there are two operators in the city of manhattan which doesnt make any sense. Some of the reasons why comcast and Time Warner Cable were trying to merge was to make the footprint more continuous. Who whoever ends up in new york should acquire cablevision. Alex you have got this other competitor there that has a huge overlap, and they are going to compete with you on price and for customers and everything. Cablevisions footprint is not as desirable as others. Alix you have been doing such great work for us alex. Amy, thank you for coming in. Coming up not so much for a greek deal. The greek finance minister the target of frustration. It is finally that time, after months of apple watches available for pickup today, was it worth the wait . Alix german chancellor Angela Merkel calling for calm after the European Finance ministers meeting increased descended into namecalling. Bloomberg International Correspondent hans nichols filed this report from regard, latvia. Hans frustrations boiled over in this meeting in riga, latvia among finance ministers trying to get a status update from the greek government on where they are in committing to that february 20 agreement where they said they would commit certain reforms. In some ways, the biggest casualty is time lost. We have heard that again and again from finance ministers coming out. It was a critical conversation taking place. Listen to how the head of the eurogroup couch the talks. It was a critical discussion. We came to an agreement two months ago. We had hopes to hear a result and agreement on which we could take a decision. Were still far from that. Hans according to some people in the meeting varoufakis received quote, a hammering. Coming out of the meeting mr. Varoufakis said they had made some progress, they had constructive talks. He was the only finance minister to make those comments. Time is running short. Back to you. Alix hans nichols reporting from riga latvia. Im joined by the chairman and ceo of greylock capital, which owns greek debt. What are you doing with that debt right now . Its incredibly cheap. We are looking at yields of 13 compared to the other opportunities in the market is pretty attractive if you dont see there will be a default in the private sector bonds, which is almost impossible. My reaction to that is amusing that they spent whole imf meetings issuing statements to dampen expectations around this meeting in latvia, and then they turn around and say they are disappointed in the content. We knew there wasnt going to be any content, and probably what came to the surface here is some of the personal tension. It doesnt take a lot to make some of these finance ministers look drab. Yanis varoufakis certainly does that. He is an academic coming into a politicians finance minister enclave, and he doesnt have the background to present the kind of things they are used to seeing. Alix if the greek debt is only a risk if you expect catastrophe, would you be buying it here . Guest i think if you have more of a risk appetite, you can look at the equities. Probably the hottest spot to go after is the bank stocks. You can easily construct a scenario where they are Servicing Private sector bonds. The bank stocks you could see de facto nationalization of the banks and still servicing of the bonds. On the other hand, given how intertwined the solution needs to be helping the banks out, allowing the banks to survive in our view. Any of your viewers have risk appetite, that is the place to look. Alix is there a rollover risk . We have that money do the imf in a few weeks. Is there risk with that debt and the debt eight it it owes the ecb . Guest these maturities were never meant to be actual repayments. It was part and parcel of the program and rolling it over. The difficulty here is the imf never wanted to be in the greek saga. They were looking for the europeans to manage their own problems and take these loans off the Balance Sheet. There is supposed to be a rollover to the ecb. Now youre looking at the ecb having a lot of debt. The role of the imf and ecb in the sff which might be more manageable. The structure with a potential greek default the ecb would have to do a capital call. The Member States somebody would be knocking on doors. Structural problems with the ecb and imf, you are looking at rolling it over into another entity. Alix you sent us an interesting chart. We talk about how huge greek debt is. Servicing of this debt is much lower than the peripheral countries like portugal and italy. Are we overestimating that debt risk . Guest if you look at maturities as being a rollover, every time i see somebody go up and say greece is insolvent, they are bankrupt, these people are silly. The amount it takes to manage the Interest Payments is actually lower than italy portugal, and ireland. But then take a look at it from another way. If you look at the Greek Economy , precrisis, just when were starting to negotiate the psi, the debt to gdp with that size economy is within the imf target. This 170 percentage, which is not that difficult to service if it works for the austerity programs, would also be a manageable debt load. The people who are saying that greece is insolvent are missing the point. This is rollover risk, not solvency risk. Alix you had said there is an easy deal to be done. Saying, our task is to convince our partners that are undertaking our strategic, and our logic is sound. That sounds like an easy deal you would talk about great how do you do it . Guest theres a lack of organization on both sides of the table. On the greek side you have very little real Market Experience or experience in interacting with different finance ministers and governments. You have academics coming to the table with studies, not data. On the other side and one of the frustrations we had when negotiating with the psi the different governments tied them up at the wrong points. If you look at the reforms that need to be tackled, theyre probably 3 or 4 where there is Common Ground. If theres leadership on both sides trickling down, directing their people to focus on whether is Common Ground and then go for the difficult ones, you can start bringing things together. What i have heard is that the greeks will get sideswiped i the most politically sensitive reform at the start of the meetings. Focus on the Common Ground, the 3,4 reforms where there is something there, then push out to the more difficult [inaudible] and hash it out. They dont have to pay a lot out on an ongoing basis. You have something that is manageable. Alix thanks so much. I am making you stick with me for a few more minutes. Coming up next, the petrobras Corruption Scandal finally has a rice of 2. 1 billion price of 2. 1 billion. The apple watch arrives in stores today, but you still not be able to buy it. What do consumers and tech geeks think of the new retail strategy . Alix petrobras is hurting. The state run oil company last 7 billion last year and 2 billion because of a Corruption Scandal. Petrobras dropped 15 in the last year. What happens now . With me is the ceo and chairman of greylock capital. At what point does petrobras get access to the public debt market . Guest it will be tricky. They are the most highly leveraged company in the world at this point. There was one downgrade. Two more, three of the rating agencies have them on negative watch. If they get another downgrade, theyre out of the two indices. Its not a very Good Environment to issue debt. I would think theyre going to have trouble accessing the markets in the next little while. Alix does this continue the black eye for Dilma Rousseff . Guest it does not help. The beginning of the week they disclosed the end results of the corruption. The markets seem to think it is explained enough. My concern and a place like brazil is that might be beyond scratching the surface but not really digging into the messiness. Youre looking at a highly leveraged company in an inefficiently run country, and there are political ramifications. Petrobras is trading on the debt side. Its about 400 over. It is trading like a highyield pond and will continue to be one. Bond and will continue to be one. Alix coming up, will heard of texas joins me to talk about two Cyber Security bills. Alix it is the end of an era at abercrombie fitch. The retailer is getting rid of the appearance and sense of style hiring rule that stipulated attractiveness. It is the last of the legacy of former ceo Mike Jeffries who left in september. Abercrombie is also easing rules on makeup, jewelry, and mustaches to ford is a limiting a ship. The move will result in 700 layoffs and automakers are blaming a decline in sales of small cars, hybrids, electric vehicles. Samsung expanding production of exit galaxy s6 edge. By adding production at a third factory, the company can more than double its monthly output great samsung is predicting record sales for the s6 line. 30 minutes until the close of trading. Scarlet fu is looking at some of the notable movers of the session on a prettys newsy day. Sclaearlet generic drug maker mylan has gone ahead with the hostile bid for perry go. Perrigo. 60 a share in cash. Perrigo has turned this down saying it sounds better than it is. The long in the short of this is tebow once to buy mylan before mylan buys perrigo. Mylan once to buy perrigo so it does not get taken over by teva. Everyone claims they dont want to be taken over at the prices being offered. Mylan is a generic drugmaker, as is teva. Perrigo sells storebrand versions of overthecounter medications. None of this is a tax inversion deal because theyre all incorporated outside the u. S. Saving on taxes is not part of the motivation here. Alix thank you. To house passing two Cyber Security bills this week, and the bills will encourage companies to share cyber threat information with each other and the government. Critics say they are quote surveillance bills in disguise. Joining me to discuss is a republican congressman. He is a former undercover officer in the cia and Senior Advisor to a Cyber Security firm. Thank you for joining us. Guest thanks for having me. Alix how do you convince companies to share data with each other and the government . Guest the key is liability protection. Companies need to make sure theres a framework in which they can share this information with the federal government, and that will not cause undue pressure on their bottom line or their stock price. These two bills that we passed out of the house today are good bills that provide that type of protection. We can begin having a conversation about sharing information between the federal government and the private sector, something that needs to be done. I think the federal government should be sharing as much information on these bad actors as we can so the private sector can protect themselves. Alix what about the response of critics hussein say these are surveillance bills in disguise, companies can look at what i do and use that information . Guest weve heard those concerns but weve address them. A lot of those concerns in these bills its very clear there was an amendment that was added in the Homeland Security bill during the process of creating saying none of this information can be used for surveillance. It is very clear and explicit in the language of the bill. Alix isnt that a fine line . Guest it depends what kind of information that you are sharing. For us, this is about sharing threat indicators. Usually it is bad ip addresses or bad email addresses. You are not sharing the underlying communications. This is really about making sure people are protecting their networks the dhs has the authority to defend all the civilian networks and civilian agencies. Alix outside of the u. S. , what does this do to Impact Companies businesses that are working say, in germany or china . Guest this bill allows under u. S. Subsidiaries to share with other partners here. This doesnt impact or Foreign Networks their Foreign Networks. This doesnt address or get into the unique laws that are overseas. This is for protecting infrastructure here for companies in the united states. Alix the other concern i read about the bill is perhaps this will incentivize bad actors in the environment. Bad Cyber Security behavior. Companies do have that liability protection. Guest no, i dont think thats the case. If you are doing this and you are negligent, there is language in this for that copy to be prosecuted, trying to use this as cover for that type of activity. This is one of the reasons that we had over 300 folks support both of these bills. Very good Bipartisan Legislation that addresses those challenges. Alix thank you for the perspective. Coming up, the debut of apple watch marks a whole new retail strategy for tim cook and the company. For tim cook and the company. Can apples hype machine generate record sales without the long lines of Facebook Ajit lovers gadget lovers . Alix the apple watch officially went on sale today. You will need to have some time on your hands. There is been confusion about how customers can actually get their hands on the smart watch. You will not be available at retail stores. The company is only accepting online sales at this time. Give me your impressions after being at the Flagship Store all day. It was a good start. In terms of our survey work, 20 of consumers were coming in there to demo the watch. If you think about expectations, it looks like a lot of strong interest. You cant order the watch if you get into the store. It is still presale. Shipments look like they could be into june. I think we are seeing a lot of interest around not just the actual watch, but specifically around fashion in terms of swapping out the bands. This has really caught the street by surprise, going into 600 to 700 k. Alix two million watches on preorder for apple. Thats huge. At the 5th avenue store today, we were there all day. We saw crowds around the demos customers coming in. There was confusion. We saw customers looking to buy the watch while they were there. Apple has to in a great job, and we saw it in the store in terms of handholding customers on the watch, really been trained significantly on this. This will be a front and center area. Its not just a watch, it opens up the Wearable Technology which we have used we view as a 20 billion opportunity. From there they will do augment reality. You can do apple pay by your phone and your watch. Alix can we break down the winners and losers here, if we do sue these see these 2 million . We have 3000 apps for the watch. That is the golden goose. When you think about apps, when we look at it from a gross margin, that could add that services piece of apple. That combined with wearables, up to two dollars in earnings in 2017. Apple we will continue to see that he front and center. The losers, any other company right now selling a wearable or smart watch. In some ways it is competitive and in other ways it does give credence to the industry. You will see microsoft and others getting in. If apple starts selling yogurt they would compete with pink berry for yogurt. Alix is this sucking customers from somewhere else, or creating a new market . Apple we view them as a modernday right brothers. Wearable technology with the apple brand behind it. We view this as opening up a whole another revenue stream for apple. Right now, going into monday night, it is about iphone sales and that technology. As you go forward, it is apple pay, wearables china, development platform. We come out of the apple store today feeling incrementally more positive about the watch. We get more details in that monday night. Alix we have apple reporting on the bell on monday. We want to hear that presales number. It is really trying to understand these supply strategies here, when can customers go into the stores. It is a soft launch. Apple has to in a great job creating buzz. Now it is better understanding presales and what the growth trajectory could look like. We believe 20 million, it could be 10 of revenues by 2017. Skeptics out there are saying the apple watch will not be successful. I suggest them to go to the apple store today and find out for themselves. Alix thanks so much dan. Another day and it looks like another record nasdaq level. It only took 13 years to get there. Alix here are the top stories ahead of the closing bell. Oracle plans to make almost all its Services Available on the internet by midoctober. 65 of oracles products are available on the cloud today. Comcast Time Warner Cable joined the list of telecom megamergers blocked by regulators. The four largest deals have involved telecom companies. The largest deal to fall apart was worldcom and sprint 129 billion merger in 2000. The comcasttime warner deal fell apart, jpmorgan, city and Morgan Stanley are among the banks that advised on the deal. The nasdaq took 31 months to plunge 80 18 , climbing out of the whole took 13 years. For the second day in a row the nasdaq is poised to close at a record. Julie hyman joins me now to give me some more color on how we got here and how this is different than 2000. Julie i love that mention of worldcom and sprint. Indeed, a lot of folks are saying this time is different. We have taken longer than it has taken for the sp s p and out dow. The other major averages are up less than 200 from that time. It has been this cloying back. One of the ways you can figure out the differences between then and now is to look at the largest stocks in the nasdaq in 2000 and now. You see changing of the guard, old tech and new tech. The largest stock in the nasdaq was microsoft. Now it is apple which was a glimmer in the eye. Google which wasnt really around. Microsoft facebook, which was not in existence. It has changed towards more of an internetbased technology area. Not necessarily the biggest companies, but a lot of the highfliers at that point in time did not make money. With the exception of amazon depending on the quarter, they all make money. Alix they are not just pure Tech Companies. Microsoft now has products we still use as well. Julie the valuations are much different and much lower at this point in time than they were at that point in time. One of the other interesting things he looked at was in terms of percentage gains we have seen , what stocks have done the best , i was struck by the fact that many of them are companies that make something. Monster beverage is up 55,000 . In some of these cases youre coming from conception. Green mountain coffee. You have Tractor Supply company, a retailer. Netflix is on their too. Alix now they make original programming. The of flechette and inflationadjusted nasdaq is still below the high it hit in 2000. How significant is that . There we see that big spite adjusted spike adjusted for inflation. Julie we do have a ways to go. It depends who you talk to. It is a way to benchmark, a way to measure. What we can take away from it is as we know stocks have been very popular, whether its because of the fed and quantitative easing the recovery from the financial crisis and now Retail Investors coming back in more meaningful ways. Is the benchmark and in all of itself as the record important, or is it important because we considered them read underneath, that the demand is very present for stocks right now . Alix thanks very much. The close is coming up on street smart. The nasdaq up 35 points. Alix welcome to our viewers around the globe, youre watching bloomberg television. I alix steel. This is street smart. The nasdaq extending its record run for a second day and stocks look poised to end the week higher. We will get right to scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. Scarlet the unexpected drop in durable goods orders this morning does not seem to have much of an effect or it u. S. Stocks continue to drift higher. We have not had a big substantial move, and its been steady going according to the bloomberg terminal for most of the afternoon. The s p 500 will probably eat out a record high of 2117 eke out a record high of 2117. Up to 3. 3 at last check. It gained every single day this week on the strength of earnings. Of the companies that have reported this earnings season earnings per share have beat analysts estimates by 6. 6 . When earnings Beat Estimates as they do 70 of the time, thats not a huge surprise. Sales had trailed analysts estimates by 1. 1 . Companies are reporting growth for the top line and bottom line. 6. 5 on the eps side. Even though thats a positive number for topline and bottom line, its the biggest spread in a year. Only 40 of the s p 500 have reported. There are still 300 companies that had yet to announce their results. Alix and we get apple on monday. Joining me now is the president and founder of j2z. And bloomberg stocks reporter, all of her renick. Happy friday oliver renick. Happy friday. Do you care about the nasdaq hitting a record high . No. Why not . The durable goods order was much more important. It tells you that bad Economic News is good news for stocks. That has been the driver for the last year to two years. Alix what we have for Tech Companies is the stronger dollar creating earnings. Oliver why did we have this euphoria with the nasdaq and tech stocks when we have underlying fundamentals relatively weak . Oliver these companies are different than the companies from the 2000 era. When you look at it, these are Companies Reporting very positive earnings. A lot of these companies are disruptive, they are changing industries. We are in an environment where a lot of these companies go through a pretty long incubation period before coming to an ipo. Theres more of a bottomline growth situation in the companies. Alix better stock market, weaker data . I subscribed to the data but markets are forwardlooking. There are lots of headwinds in the economy weighing down activity. The progress will continue forward, probably at a slower pace than most forecasters are anticipating. As we highlight these down drafts in the economy, its not that we are bracing for the next recession to unfold. Alix are you positive on stocks . The u. S. Has been a big laggard. This year has been about markets outside the u. S. Some dollar weakness, i think that helps stocks. Alix it looks like nasdaq is closing, and it has a record, and another record for s p, so we have seen that a rally for the second day, so not really seen any kind of rush for safety to get that protection as equities continue permit and for todays biggest movers, lets go to bloombergs scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. Scarlet we are still waiting for the numbers to settle out here, but it is interesting to see the nasdaq index has climbed higher than the day, and within the dow industrial and the s p, we can credit some sizable gains to some heavily weighted companies. Google, microsoft, and amazon are among them. So these are a different subset within the Technology Industry they are not old tech or new tech, but they are not the high fliers, but they are kind of yesteryear and they have all been having a Growth Strategy that kind of propels them and investors do like them for now. Google was rising as well as a relatively tame 3. 3 . Alix relatively tame, good way to put it, scarlet, great context there, and now with me is steve below scheme is jay pleelowsky and karl and oliver permit so if we look at defense orders, what is the underlying picture, is a less than rosy. Rosie . Rosy . Karl is your takeaway carl what is your takeaway . Oliver carl we have a big contraction in orders here which tells us that this slump in the Manufacturing Sector is not going away anytime soon, this is going to pervade the q2 as well, so this tells us this factory stagnation that we have been watching is going to bleed into q2 and that means that all of these forecasters that downgraded in q1 are likely to be disappointed. Alix and we are already seeing that trickle out today, Deutsche Bank taking down its forecast by 1. 4 , jp morgan was cutting its growth by three and a half percent, and what is your call . Jay that is the point, this key here is that bad news is good for sroctocks, the thing that i think is really interesting at this point is what this means for the dollar. You put up the strong dollar in manufacturing, and i think the dollar is taking aim right here. In fact, i think the dollar is going to take the summer off. Here is why, i think all major Central Banks want to see a weaker dollar at this point, the fed wants to raise rates and the dollar teen weaker helps that. The greek exit would like see like to see a weaker dollar. In japan, they have the currency minute later and highly and most importantly, we have the bank of china, and that reduces the pressure on them to revalue their currency and stabilize production size, so i think there is a want of action, and the real action is in the commodity side. Alix it is like blowing all of your profits you its like dollar, oil, here we go. Jay im so glad im here, it is friday and i have something to say. Alix there are certain parts of asia, and speaking of which, we do have that earnings season that shows that the dollar has been very prevalent, and i want to show this chart for you, it is called mentioning the word dollar and surging in the First Quarter, and many are expecting the effects of the dollar to carry into the second half and karl, does this jive with what you have heard carl, does this jive with what you have heard . Carl Procter Gamble and 3m were two of the companies that we heard that experienced this issue in the week, and we are seeing a lot of weaker earnings, and at the same time, we are getting a little bit of a relief in some sense from currencies and energy as well just because we have that kind of training trading that we have seen in the past couple of months here, and so with that kind of relief coming, i think that might start to fade in the background if these companies do have those kinds of overseas exposures. Alix carl, what do you think . Carl we are seeing this downdraft in the economy, and it is taking pressure off of the feds and maybe it is a one and done fed and perhaps maybe a nun and done fed, and alix moving in another direction . Carl and it is slowing and whatnot and so if we take the pressure off of the fed and have a couple of rate hikes this year, that takes the pressure off of the dollar and levels it and allows it to soften especially because we had that week employment margin report. Alix and another thing we have seen the has been troubling with on the market has been oil, and they are still trying to recover from that massive down draft that they have seen come and then there was that fake out and we had bloomberg crunch the numbers for us, and they found that information implies that we could see anywhere from 322,000 barrels a day to 500,000 barrels a day increase this year. There is just oil just waiting to be pumped out. Jay well, i think what is really interesting here is underneath all of this to stuck all of this discussion is the commodity sector has been red hot, and brazil is up 25 on its low, chile is up, the gulf stocks are up, there is a lot of activity, and the question is is it a head fake . Just the speed of the magnitude of the moves, but Going Forward i think you can look at certain places in the commodity sector and i a goss trillion might be interesting for any ample, and if we look at iron ore, we can see that it is hitting bottom but i would really start to dig in and look because her is so much money out there that is looking for something that is not at an alltime high, no offense to the nasdaq, but most professionals dont want to buy stocks at alltime highs, and if you can find a story and the dollar that is on hold and the u. S. Is playing catchup and commodity sectors are going to want out, that is what i would you spend my money on. Alix and of course with commodity there is always going to be demand, and we have seen that across the board. Carl right, i have seen that it is very critical, and with the oil price story, we have seen this every year when the oil prices tend to round up in the first half of the year and then go down in the back half of the year, it happened with the gasoline prices and in the oil market as well, and we have seen a pattern, and people see oil prices driving the price of cheap gas, but there is still a stimulus that is being felt by u. S. Households, and that is a sure sign that Expensive Oil is coming back rather than just the usual seasonal fluctuations. Alix right, we are going to look forward to next week, it is a very busy weekend, apple, time warner, aig, and we also have the bank of japan meeting, and in terms of Economic Data, we will get the First Quarter u. S. Gdp reading and all of her from where you sit, what is the most important on numbers that we will see in the next week . Oliver i think it is important to see whether or not these Multinational Companies that do have profits overseas really will be hit and we are seeing almost a 6 shrink in earnings and that is looking more like 3 , smaller than that decline gets, that i think that that happens with the more bullish that people are going to be. Not to harp on it but it is really about interest rates, you have lower rates of ross the globe and even if earnings come in and they are weaker and we do still see and negative number year over year, i inc. The market is going to continue to stay where it is and i would not be surprised to see it not really change. Alix and we just did not leave talking about the First Quarter gdp, this is going to be a very important leave, and all of the feds agreed to have a meeting . Jay carl this is their last glimpse of the Economic Data performing start polishing it up and that compares to 2. 2 in the prior quarter and about 5 in the prior quarter before that so a lot of folks are looking for a big rebound like we saw last year with the q1 quarter of the sharp bounce back, but now we learn that q2 will be better but not a whole lot better, so this is the last safe meeting where we have an explicit guarantee from policy makers that they will not raise rates, and this will continue with the Second Quarter data and so that june meeting will perhaps become a safe meeting as well. Alix oh boy, talk about a great meeting with great energy here on a friday afternoon jay, ol iver and carl, thank you so much for joining me here in we have so much joining me. We have so much more coming up. Alix this is street smart im alix steel, and here are the stories that we are watching after the closing bell. Mary pat christie has retired from her position with her company, and she is decided to retire to help her husband as he decides whether to run for president. And pepsi has decided to release a new diet pepsi reciept and to dump aspartame. And honeywell is considering bills for the considering offers from halliburtons Energy Assets with baker hughes. And private equity firms and hedge funds are offering lifelines with Production Companies as banks tighten their credit. Joining me now is lydia who is a partner at local hedge fund firm, and lydia, think you for joining us. Lydia most people are waiting at this point, obviously, there has been some rather significant announcements such as shell and bp group acquisitions, but by and large, most larger assets have a fairly big spread between the bid and the ask primarily because the people who are interested in buying right now are really looking for bargains i mean, there is a whole lot of private equity and private rating on the sidelines, and in addition to private equity money, you have a larger oil and gas player out there who would be potentially looking for bargains. Alix lydia, give us a perspective on how much money in big oil is sitting on the sidelines right now . Lydia i think most people would estimate in the 80 million 80 billion range or 100 begin dollar range and if you look at apollo or kkr, those are estimated to have approximately 30 billion waiting to be invested and then if you add some of the more Specialized Energy funds like bridgestone and others, the numbers go up significantly, and if you multiply this number by the amount of debt that would be following that, given that if obviously 80 billion in equity is put up, there is some of that in debt, they would be behind that and it could be used to refund acquisitions and other transactions in the sector. And so alix lydia, are we going to avoid bankruptcy isies then or are we going to see more . Lydia we have seen a few but in midmarch we have started to see a slowdown, and there will be the distress that will be prolonged because you have seen some of this money come into the sector and it is fixed at least on a shortterm basis within some of that distress, and there have been even equity issues and equity issuances that have surprised some people, but that has also met there are more debt issuances, and we have what we call one and a half lean loans in compared to comparison to first loan creditors, and it is sandwiched in between those first two debt issuances and that frees up capital for Distress Companies to prolong the pain, and it could yes alix lydia, unfortunately, we have to leave it there, but thank you so much, the use of for joining us. Coming up next, what do tendr tindr and Justin Bieber have in common . They are both bielibers. Alix this is street smart im alix steel. From periscope to other programs, there is mass consumer demand for Live Streaming videos, and now there is a new player in the marketplace, and from the creator of tind r, he has he will be joining us and congratulations on launching this, this is really great. Adam thanks alix, thank you so much for having me. Alix what makes this different first of all from your cat from meerkat . Adam livid is very different because we are platform agnostic, and you can have a twitter account or an email account or an email address so it is very important to make the experience that we are providing to our users that is easy to use and have as easy of access as possible. Alix what makes now the time that makes streaming video work . Adam that is a great question, the data marks are stronger than they have ever been and they only get stronger every day, and the hardware that we carry around in our pockets every day is also really, really strong, and social media has been out there, but they have not really leveraged those elements to their full effect, and i think that is what makes it such a timely and important ring ring up. Alix how does it feel to be a competitor with twitter that has about 300 billion dollars in cash 300 billion in cash . Adam we want to be looking up he with them in this kind of space. Alix but how are you able to compete with them in this kind of space with this market . Adam sure, we want to look at Live Streaming from a market perspective, so we are developing the absolutely best user experience, and we are trying to look at the different ways that we can deliver meaningful content and meaningful stories through that platform. Alix i would think that as anyone like merrkaterkat and periscope would want to keep your customers loyal . Adam there are of course little features that we have in the app right now with the leaderboards allows us to compete for the amount of attention allows the user to compete with you much attention that they get within the app. Alix what are your expectations and a potential exit strategy . Adam i cant really say what we are anticipating in terms of an exit strategy, but my partner and i are really excited about what we have developed and we just have her headstone right now. Alix you are the youngest executive manager for the fit fth largest satellite cable network, and you negotiated this deal with sony, so from where you sit, what does that mean if conquest comcast walks away from this time warner deal . Adam comcast and time warner are both amazing and Huge Companies and Great Company partners for us, but i think at the end of the day, i think comcast is going to do what is best for their subscribers, they are serving tens of millions of customers every day so you know, this particular timing it if it was not right or if the structure was not right, i think, i think they know if they are doing and they have very important investment strategies. Alix how do you compete with streamers, the netflix is, the amazons of the world netflixes and the amazons of the world . Adam we came in at a very opportune time and we were able to delete or unique content to very unique audiences, and to be able to be involved in a time where there were so many changes allowed us to shift on a dime and make the best of the scenario. Alix adam, thank you so much thank you for the perspective on the cable industrys and your new product, adam, the cofounder of cable industry and your new product, adam, the cofounder of livit, think you so much. And up next, the apple watch debut. Alix president or schinkel is ready to put ukraine under martial law. Poroshenko also said International Military drills in ukraine no way violates the minsk ceasefire agreement. Ukraine urged its allies to send weapons and accused dribbles of ceasefire operations. And Sheryl Sandberg said many women see themselves a gender bias case against Venture Capital firm. Sandberg says i thought it was so interesting about the trial is that so many women, not just in technology, see their own experiences there. Samberg said this in an interview. And a 4th street weekly advance. It will be tight junk Credit Rating Credit Rating. A stable outlook by standard and poors. Last year he gave the country its First Sovereign downgrade in more than a decade. Facebook gadget lovers may be excited about the debut of apple watch. Swiss watchmakers, not so much. Swatch coinventors says apple iwatch could the apple watch could hurt their industry with the lower end brand hit hardest. Apple may suit apple soon may sell as many timepieces as all of switzerland. Joining me now is founder and executive editor of the luxury watch site. He has an apple watch on his wrist. Right now i can touch it. What do you think about it . It is the first six hours of ownership and this farm work obligated but more powerful than i would have imagined. I thought it would be a peripheral for the phone. It is not as intuitive as an iphone or macbook air. You really have to go down deep into it to understand how it works pretty the how it works. Alix will it hurt the luxury watch market . Ben absolutely. It is wearable, stylish. I wore it to a nice restaurant in midtown manhattan. It fits the bill with a nice jacket. Alix do you think someone who buys rolex will think i will buy an apple watch instead . Ben i think everyone rolex and down will be impacted. There are brands like casio, nixon, swatch. These are fashion watches that so for more than the apple watch and doesnt do a fraction of what the apple watch will do. Alix will they have two diapers a fight in a smart watch universe . Ben tech lawyer is partnering with google. It will look like a traditional mechanical watch but wont to do as much. If it were up to me i would tell the switchs tell the swiss watch industry to stay out of this. You cant beat apple at its own beat apple at their own game. Focus on things that are tactful. Alix we have to import swiss watches into the u. S. Presumably not impacted by this threat. Ben it is on the rise. I dont think that the apple watch right away will take it hes out of the pie, but longterm absolutely. Alix it is going to get consumers away from other products or open them up to new ones . Ben i think no matter what, if apple sells 30 million watches this year it is going to absolutely impact the bottom line of every industry luxury wearable. With accessories, clothing, etc. Theres so much Discretionary Income pulled out of the market. There no question it will impact everybody. Alix how big of this will be as a seller . Ben it will be huge. China is the test mark for the addition. A solid gold version. For 10,000 you can buy a rolex that will last you literally for the rest of your life. In no way isnt competitive to that but china is a huge market luxury watchmakers. Alix thanks for bringing this. It is so cool to see it in person. After the break i will speak with a former u. S. Ambassador to china and his daughter about starring in a new documentary about u. S. And china relations. Lets get ready to rumble because Michael Buffer will join me. That is coming up to. Alix these themes are highlighted in the new documentary all eyes and ears by vanessa hope you she followed a former u. S. Ambassador to china, jon huntsman in his last year in his post. Joining me is vanessa hope the ambassador, as well as gracie huntsman. Vanessa, tell us about this film and why you decided to make it vanessa i started studying chinese when i was a little older than gracie. I forget east asian history class and got hooked on one to learn the language, going to china. I worked in Foreign Policy of the council of Foreign Relations and worked with the committee of chinese debt of u. S. China relations. There are Amazing Stories that have not been told. If i can show them through the world desk show them to the world through film that would be great. I felt the story was an excellent window to the relationship between the two countries. See them in action, on the ground in china. I was lucky that obama appointed governor huntsman and they allowed me in. Alix ambassador, how come you decided to participate . It has to be pretty scary to let someone into your life like that. Jon i had been reelected as governor. It is kind of a fishbowl. We were open and exposed. We believe can access the transparency. We didnt expect to go to china. We got a call by president , not by party, to go serve. We had to make a decision should we or should we not. When the president asks you something you should go. Even having been cochair of john mccains National Come National Campaign in 2008 we took the appointment and then we got a knock on the door from vanessa. She said i would like to chronicle the relationship the eyes of your family. That was an interesting concept and it needs to be something that is loose stated. It doesnt lend itself to easy political soundbites. We thought we could do some good by helping people understand the complexity, the nuances, the history the on the ground excitement. Alix you were born in china. You are the hybrid between china and the u. S. In some ways. Gracie i got to see the big cities like beijing and had the opportunity to go back to my hometown, which is also in the documentary. That in and of itself was worth it. Alix what was it like . Gracie it was overwhelming. I got to see the site where i was abandoned. That was really a great experience. Out thing what was the reception like . Gracie only positivity. Everyone welcome to with open arms. Alix what do you want to do with the movie . How do you hope this lines of explaining the relationship with people . Vanessa they are not getting the picture put together for them. They are not understanding how if you are serving as ambassador how you are tackling security rights issues and how they are intertwined and maybe what our fingerprints are on the story there. We hope people come away with a deeper understanding about how these issues are interconnected and a desire to get engaged and what to learn more and work more in the field. How do you feel the relationship s changed over the last 10 years . Jon there is more anxiety in the relationship. Our political cycles consume much of the time where there are no real openings to get things done. It is going to take some careful management going over and the ability to define and articulate the realities. Alix do you think the u. S. Has a significant grasp on the influence china is in the world . Jon we have little understanding of china. They did a good job understanding us than we did understanding them. It is going to take a new generation like gracie and others who begin to populate the positions of influence and power in the united states. Alix and there is a president ial race we will be coming up on. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring very . Jon we took third in New Hampshire and it wasnt quite good enough. You have to feel it in your bones at this time in history. The opening is consistent with what you have to offer the country. It is all about fund raising which is one of the great cancers of politics. We are going to maybe play a different kind of role. Alix what if somebody says i have a bp slot open . Jon having the best diplomatic post in the world much that would be that appealing. Right now we are enjoying private life. The father of seven kids and i want to be a good dad. I want to make sure they are off in directions that are beneficial and helpful. We will always be connected in some way to public service. We love this country, it has tremendous potential. Once you have been involved in trying to help folks in different ways as governor and in lawrence service, you want to make sure you get connected. Alix thank you for your honesty. We cant wait to see it. Thank you for your story. Thank you for joining us. The documentary, all eyes and ears are playing at the festival. I am very excited to see it. We will talk to super bowl champion. The latest addition to the fastgrowing Group Fitness market. Alix business is taking data to the next level. What makes it unique from various boot camps is it relies on a heart rate tracking keep students in their line for their workouts. The studio has converted tons of athletes to the regimen, including former Baltimore Ravens linebacker brendan he is a threetime pro nfl bowler. He joins me from los angeles along with the ceo in the studio with me, dave along. I feel very unfit compared to the two of you right now dave, how did you come up with this idea . Dave we were looking for something that could appeal to a wide audience. It wasnt just for the fitness apps for the young demographic. It was for the broad public. We came across this work our partner was doing. The first time we took it we knew this was the next text next best thing. Alix i take this strap here at rapid around my stomach . Dave over your sternum. Alix and in make sure i keep my heart rate in a certain zone . Dave for safety, for expect business for effectiveness youll get an email with all the results. Alix you are a convert, why do you like this so much . Rendon bank brendon if you are a high caliber athlete like myself and you decide you want to get into the best shape of your life we know how to get you there. When you are at 84 of your max heart rate, not only do you burn that you time you burn at into the future. We dont want to overwork them. We want to keep them right in the sweet spot where they are burning fat. Alix i work out you now and tomorrow i am still working i am still burning off the workout . Brendon we know the afterburn lasts for 26 hours. I am burning fat from yesterdays workout. I will continue to burn fat all the way through sunday, but im not going to binge eat and have any snacks. Alix you went from 100 to 200. You want to settle within the next 18 months. Dave we want to dublin quality in the next 18 months, busty mystically and internationally. We are in 30 u. S. Markets, growing heavily in canada. We are entering south america, europe, australia, and the gcc early next year. Alix what was it like for you to go from a professional athlete to basically a brand corporate guy . What was the transition like . Brendon dave made it easy. I started out in Fort Lauderdale at the number one studio. I was a Firm Believer ever since i went right upstairs. I said how do i bring this back to california . Got my mba right around the same time i retired, opened up my first studio about eight months later. And now we have five studios. We plan on doubling every year. We are going to go from five to 10 to 20 and so on and so far over the next five years. Alix you had a pretty good to three out of the nfl, but what do we need to do to protect athletes . We had that settlement over concussions that could reach 1 billion. How do we protect them better . Brendan bank you have to be on the be honest with the information. You cant do what steps for yourself as an organization, you need to be sustainable. When they received the information on how to take care of the athletes, they needed to disseminate that information all the way down through football. Outgoing alix inc. You for joining us. We will be right back. Alix since 1984 the start of any major boxing match has had five words in common, lets get ready to rumble. The man behind one of the most iconic phrases is Michael Buffer. He joins me now. Thank you for being here. I know you cant say but i want you to say. Micahel how about if i say lets get ready for street smart. Alix how did you get into this crazy career . Micahel i was always a fan of all sports and boxing. They started having fights in Atlantic City back in the late 70s and early 80s. My son at a time was 13. He saw the ring announcers take the john out of the decision. He said i could do that. Besides that, who could afford a ticket for the big fights . Alix did you have any focal or acting training that made you want to be in the limelight . Micahel i did some modeling and commercials without any real training. I can remember the first job i had in the ring. Alix you have a big fight coming up this weekend. What is it like their . Micahel i have worked in moscow. And london. Theres nothing like Madison Square garden. You have the echoes of mohammed ali and joe frazier. All these great heavyweight champions of the past. When the crowd is there it is a electric. It is the mecca of sports and entertainment, the place where every great fighter wants to fight. Alix is there something that sticks in your head as an iconic moment . Micahel it was an atlantics. Back in 1980 nine, just a great fight, went to a split decision and my microphone was dead for the pa system. It was going out over the air and i was saying some choice words to the technician at ringside. We had a lot of letters from rick from lip readers. Alix we have mayweather and hacky and pack you how. Up to 100,000. What do you make of that . Michael it shows the demand of a great sporting event. It is the super bowl of boxing. Heavyweight boxing at Madison Square garden. He will take it one week at a time and the next week we will go to another big fight. Alix you have to bring in the younger kids, the next generation, how do you feel boxing is doing that . Michael at my age and how long i have been doing this, 34 years it knocks out my stolen survey says they have been watching me as a kid. There are still great fight fans. Alix subject pleasure. Thank you so much. Michael buffer. I wish she could say it but you could hear him anytime you want. Landrys ceo will join us from the milken conference. Have a great weekend. The only hilton that matters is in washington. On the show tonight case it gets a shot and boehner calls the shot. But first we will be at the hilton hotel here in washington along with president obama and thousands of our closest friends for the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. You think about running for president in 2016 chances are you wont be there. White house wannabes will be