From a done deal to dead. Comcast is planning to walk away from the proposed 45 billion dollars merger with Time Warner Cable as soon as today. The deal was announced 14 months ago, opposition took shape and that left consecutives executive to conclude the merger would not fly. A former fcc commissioner praised the move. Comcast is making a smart decision. It benefits consumers. Olivia on wednesday fcc officials told both companies they were opposed. Saying the deal did not help consumers. They planned to call a hearing which would drag out the classes the process. Reviewing the drone strike in pakistan that killed two hostages. President obama issued a rare public policy. The president calls for drone strikes to be authorized only when it can be concluded to near certainty that there will not be civilian casualties. Brendan the nasdaq picking up where it left off. Technology stocks brought the nasdaq to a record high yesterday, beating the mark set in march 2000 before the bust. Amazon and google are higher in premarket trading. Tickets went on sale to the public for next weeks big fight between Floyd Mayweather and mary pacquiao. They sold out in a minute. You will have to go to the secondary market. Average price is about 11,000. Slightly more than the average price of super bowl tickets this year. The bout will be held at the mgm grand casino. Tom i know there is a big thing at Madison Square garden. Is boxing back. Olivia i dont know. These are the old stars. Brendan they are not heavyweights. They just pound each other. I am not a fan that it is amazing to watch them move. Olivia i know how to punch. Brendan show us. Olivia with a twist. Brendan youve got to snap it. Tom very good. Thats what he teaches you. A data check. Morning brief first, excuse me. Brendan 8 30 a. M. , durable goods orders and American Airlines will report. Tom durable goods is interesting. Futures churn euro advances with riga. 1. 0854. Oil a 60 on west texas intermediate would be something. Vix showing complacency, under 13. Dow turning back over 18,000. Brent crude. To the bloomberg terminal, this is durable goods, capital goods i should say. Exboeing exaircraft on a yearoveryear basis. Things are ok but not great. Great is a one year moving average here. Were nowhere near great. Brendan here is my question. You showed this to me half an hour ago. Does this capture Secular Movement we are not so much a country that makes stuff, we are a country that does stuff . Tom a little bit of that. Mostly what it is is what is the umph to get us back to the good feelings. Brendan umph is a technical term. Olivia cheap power. Tom lets look at our International Relations today. That means latvia. Meeting in riga. Boring from the usual suspects. Hans nichols is in riga. One big yawn. What do you want to glean on friday . Hans it was a headline until the headline crossed moments ago on the bloomberg terminal that said Yanis Varoufakis took a hammering inside the meeting. According to three people familiar with the talks. Some complaints, accusations against varoufakis was that he was an immature, a gambler, a time waster. Intense comments directed at Yanis Varoufakis. Its breaking up shortly and we expect everyone to go to the cameras. For a sense of how frustrating finance ministers were have a look at what mr. Dijsselbloem the your Group President said. Mr. Dijsselbloem its a matter of urgency for the greek side to get the deal to make sure there is enough money available to keep the government running. Hans the expectation heading in is that we would not have a of progress. Weve actually gone backwards. At the beginning, Wolfgang Schaeuble the german finance minister, he said what is everyone doing in riga . He encouraged us to go see the city. We had a blowup inside the meeting and we have to wait for what the Market Reaction is going to be. Tom varoufakis said to take hammering from frustrated eu ministers, we have seen this headline. Brendan this does seem to be of a different quality. I have a longrunning bet with michael here that Yanis Varoufakis will still be finance minister of greece this summer michael believes he will not. Who will win the bet . Hans if you are betting in dollars, you should that in bet in euros or drachmas. Varoufakis if his base support is in the syriza party that is a better question for our athens reporter. If his ability to do his job is contingent on the trust and likability is contingent on the fellow euro finance ministers, you will lose. We are trying to figure out what is going on inside the room and it is full of platitudes. Usual diplospeak. The fact that people are using irresponsible, gambler amateur, we have not gotten comment from mr. Varoufakis that marks a deterioration. Tom hans nichols in riga. Ed has pasted together charts into a 15 page note. There has been no greater copyright theft than the stealing of isi daily notes. Ed hyman has tried to go further than guess the fed. It has influenced a generation of wall street strategists. When you were at austin or nit, negative Interest Rates were not in the textbook, where they . Ed hyman on greece riga and the absurdity of the times we live in with negative rates. Ed im not sure they are absurd. You see the nasdaq is making a new high. The msci world stock index probably made a new high today. The weakness in the economy is causing central bankers to be very easy. That is creating a favorable environment for financial assets. Tom do you have confidence to be in the markets given the economic set ever core isi. Ed i look at central bank policies, the economy is growing some. You talked about ticket prices for boxing. People are still pretty skeptical. I think that, nation gives you worthwhile footing to be in the market olivia that to greece for a second. Do you think markets are underestimating the fallout of a grexit . Ed i think there will be some resolution of it. If greece does pull out, that will be a negative for the markets. Usually when the markets are focused on something as intently as this, is not the thing to focus on. Brendan i am looking at your note and it is almost as if you wrote it to make tom keene happy. Boj ecb in power plays. Is that the underlying dynamic that matters . Everything else is just noise . Ed that is the most important backdrop. That you have china, japan and ecb all easing. The fed is still ultra stimulative. So with that backdrop, and an economy that is not that strong you end up with a pretty good back drop for financial markets. Tom your a claim is inherent optimism. How do you respond to Larry Summers stagnation or the idea of new low terminal rates or terminal values america gloom. Ed my view is we will look back at this period five years from now and we will be in an expansion. We will say this has been the best environment. Slow and steady. We are having a favorable pattern. Larry sees it as a stagnation, i see it as slow and steady progress. Tom you printed no recession until out there. Very good. Ed hyman. A ofdoozy a doozy of a chart. Olivia much more to come on bloomberg surveillance. Comcasts bid to take over Time Warner Cable is dead. What it means for the future of the industry. Our twitter question of the day, what should comcast do with its 45 billion . Tweet us bsurveillance. We are streaming on your tablet your phone, and bloomberg. Com. Good morning. Tom good morning, everyone. These are the leaders at the finance ministers meeting. Mr. Dijsselbloem getting the festivities started. Mr. Regling. And mr. Draghi. Well get to those headlines. Brendan the one thing that has meaning is what hans nichols just told us. There was a departure from the normal diplomatic language. Reports by ian of bloomberg saying varoufakis was called in the meeting gambler and of a good time waster. Tom the heavyweights in latvia. Mr. Dragi speaks. Olivia the dl, it seems, the deal, it seems, ids dead. Comcast dropping its bid to take over Time Warner Cable. Official word could come as soon as today. Craig moffett says the future is clear as mud. He joins us by phone. Thank you for joining us. So many different directions. We are trying to figure out what the fallout is. Why do you say a charter bid for twc might be most likely . Craig charter was the one that cake this off in june 2013 when kicked this off in june 2013 when they made clear their intent to acquire Time Warner Cable. Charter has the inside track to try it again and i think it is almost certain they will give it a shot. Olivia what is next for Brian Roberts . Does he start from scratch . What his plan b. Craig comcast will have to spend time licking its wou nds. It would be provocative for comcast to propose another transaction in the u. S. That is not just cable systems, it would also mean content. Trying to buy a content company right now what probably be seen as problematic in washington. For the time being, i think they are probably out of this race for m a. When they come back, they are likely to look overseas instead of trying to test the waters in washington. Brendan lets talk about what the waters are like in washington. The head of the fcc used to be the head lobbyist for the cable association, tom wheeler. A comedian calls him a dingo trying to guard your baby. What do you see the waters being like in washington for the next two years . Craig you say, wait a second, we have had two of the most important regulatory decisions in media and telecom in a generation comes just within the last few months. One, obviously, is the rejection of the comcast deal. Thats in the context of the fccs decision to reclassify the broadband business as a title to service. You have really had a complete aboutface in the Regulatory Environment. If there is one caution i would give to investors in this space, i think everybody is looking carefully at the relative values of the individual cable companies. And convincing themselves of this and that. It is time to step back and say what is this new Regulatory Environment mean to the warranted values of this set of assets . Olivia it does look like a new Regulatory Environment. Craig moffett, we could keep you but we have to let you go. Craig moffett of moffett nathanson. Tom riga latvia. Waiting for mr. Draghis comm ents. Mr. Dijsselbloem speaks, some tough talk regarding greece. I will call them expected headlines. There is a more than firm tone. Ed hyman of evercore isi with us. We will talk about the fed and the equity markets. Futures flat for the morning. Stay with us worldwide. This is bloomberg surveillance, good morning. Tom good morning, everyone. It is gorgeousity in washington. The capitol scaffolding up as they work on a wonderful building from 1864. Our morning mustread on washington. Olivia my morning mustread is a mustlisten. John boehner was on with all due respect last night. Heres what he had to say about Hillary Clinton. John boehner she violated the law. And the idea that she was going to use her own server and do official business on it it goes against every transparency issue that the president likes to tout. Olivia boehner was asked whether he thinks Hillary Clinton is morally and ethically fit to be a leader he said yes. Tom ed hyman with evercore isi. And got to ask you about religion and timing of the elections effecting the stock market. You have done a lot of research. Is there any validity linking our National Politics with the ebb and flow of the markets . Ed the economic forces are so unusual and so dominant that i do not look at the election right now. Tom will you in a year . Ed maybe. But right now the economic backdrop, whether it is china or europe or what is going on here central banking it is so much more dominant than the political backdrop. Brendan we talk about politics what we mean is fiscal policy. Have you given up thinking that fiscal policy might change in the u. S. . Ed occasionally i visit that it might. I think it would be a positive. If we could get into some infrastructure building. I think that might happen in the next three or four years. Brendan this is something the administration has made a push on. Can you handicap that . Ed i cannot. You can feel it would be favorable. Olivia maybe we will actually build a highway. Brendan economists say that is what makes sense and yet politically we are unable to do it. Ed there may be some of that going on with publicprivate combinations. They are raising money at very low Interest Rates and building some roads here and there. I would guess that if the expansion keeps going like i think it well, you could get into, as the budget gets better and better there is a feeling that we could do something tom without getting into politics, do you care who becomes president . Is that jermaine anymore . Germane anymore . Ed theres a feeling that whether it is jeb bush or Hillary Clinton, either one would be acceptable to both liberals and conservatives. Maybe not the choice of each one but i get the feeling you could get a coming together. Tom i will rip up the script. How do we get the rest of america hooked, relinked with ed hymans manhattan and wall street . Ed you do not want to do that. I travel around a lot. Every place i go is doing well. Every place i go is doing well whether it is seattle or charleston, miami or austin, San Francisco is booming. Boston is pretty good. Tom ed hyman, we will come back on the federal reserve. Very importantly. In our next hour, we bring you Shannon Oneil of the council on foreign relations. On brazil and cuba. Stay with us, bloomberg surveillance. Tom good morning, everyone. Brendan greeley and olivia sterns. Ed hyman with us on the fed. Lets go to our top headlines. Olivia greeces finance minister insists that disagreements can be resolved. Hes not expected to present a reform plan at todays meeting in riga. The eu has refused to unlock more money for greece until the country agrees to reforms. Greece need 7 billion so it can pay upcoming debt. Greece had an april date to agreed to reforms. Mr. Dijsselbloem the deadline is more important to the greek side than the eurogroup. Its in matter of urgency to make sure theres enough money available to keep the government running. Olivia the talk is that the end of june is a more likely deadline. Comcast could not overcome objections from federal regulators. Bloomberg is reporting the company will walk away from the 45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable. The two companies had been waiting for government approval for 14 months. Antitrust lawyers at the Justice Department and Staff Members at the fcc indicated they were going to oppose the deal. They did not think the merger would help consumers. Comcasts formal decision may come later today. The british trader blamed in part for the 2000 flash crash spent another night in london. Navinder singh sarao has not come up with bail. What the future holds for sarao. It can go one of two ways. If he is found innocent, he will be the worlds superstar trader. The most famous trader in the world. If hes found guilty he will become another infamous trader. Olivia weve been learning about sarao. In an email last year to british regulators, he defended his success as the benefit of a quick mind. Brendan another ice cream maker recalling its products after potentially deadly listeria was discovered. Jennys ice cream is closing its shops. The columbus, ohiobased firm sells ice cream in whole foods and target. Blue bell recalled products three people died after eating bluebell ice cream contaminated with listeria. A struggling teen retailer, abercrombie and fitch saying byebye beefcake. Olivia quite a video clip. Brendan no longer featuring male models with ripped ads. Doing away with the policy for employees. You do not have to be goodlooking to work there. Rules on makeup and jewelry have been eased. Getting rid of the legacy of mike jeffries, the ceo who left last december. Olivia the pan down on that photo is suggestive. Brendan in better days. A turn good luck with this. Years biggest europes biggest bank,hsbc, considering moving its base away from the u. K. Francine lacqua joins us from london. According to the chairman of hsbc, work is underway. What are we talking about . Are they thinking about this or are they sending a signal to the election underway in the u. K. . Francine i think they are thinking about this. Last time they did this was in 2010. They have come under pressure from investors. The chairman was at an investor meeting in hong kong monday. They are getting pressure to move because they are paying so much tax. The reason he is giving for the review, which could take a year or two or three years, is that they are paying too much tax and this is likely to go up. And also regulatory concerns in the u. K. If you look at the political parties, it has become a hot potato because we are two weeks from the elections. Parties are saying thanks will have to pay more. Something hsbc objects to. Brendan what is the bigger risk, increased Regulatory Oversight from the ecb or an exit from the european union, period . Francine a little bit of both. When we caught up or listened to the conference call, one of the things they were saying was also the u. K. Possible exit from the eu. This is a major concern to any bank. If you look at hsbc, it is not only regulation and that they are paying more taxes this is a bank that has come under scrutiny. There is also a threat of breaking up this bank. Maybe this is a way of getting around. Tom ed hyman is with us from evercore isi. Your glenn follows the banks. Ed hyman, hsbc is clearly a formal bank. Is this a good way for American Banking to go . Are those days is the romance gone . Ed pretty much gone. Were in what ken rogoff called a past financial crisis environment. After a financial crisis theres a tendency for people and politics to go against the banks. That is what is happening. Tom what you advocate a study to break up jp morgan or other big banks . Ed no. Tom are they too big . Ed it is not my favorite way. I do think that the banks, you sought in the paper today that Deutsche Bank is paying a 2. 5 million fine. Olivia we have a few more headlines coming out of mario draghi, who is speaking about greece. Do you want to dip in . Hes saying that progress has been achieved on greece in the last few days. Perhaps playing a little bit of good cop, varoufakis has been called a gambler and the tone has been critical. Mario draghi is saying ela assistance will continue as long as greek banks are solvent but they may examine haircuts. Tom ive will go with haircuts. I love your haircut. Francine, this is the same thing as the previous 19 meetings for americans. For francine lacqua, what is different . Francine you see the finance ministers being a little bit mad. This is the diplomatic way of putting it. To hans point, for the first time we understand that eu ministers are calling greece. They are saying this is not fair. You are not negotiating so we cannot give you anything. Is nothing different apart from the fact that nothing is different. Youve had 22 or 23 meetings and we still do not have an agreement. It seems at this point nobody wants to have the legacy of kicking greece out of the euro. Not a legacy that Angela Merkel wants yet we do not have an agreement. Brendan im looking at a headline from draghi. He says Emergency Lending Authority will continue as long as greek banks are solvent. Seems like circular logic, they are not solvent unless they have ela. Francine we had an accomplice we had an economist and he was saying this is the problem. The emergency liquidity assistance is what is keeping greek banks alive. Draghi says we have to put pressure on greece but he does not want to be the one pulling back. As soon as he does not get back, the lights go off in greece in the banking system. Olivia is the eurogroup still relevant . Does it matter what the other finance ministers are saying about varoufakis . Is this a conversation between Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel . Francine the finance ministers have an impact on Angela Merkels thinking. It is not a matter of germany versus greece. We understand from insiders that countries such as portugal and italy are putting extra pressure on greece. Let me remind you, the problem with leaving greece to either default or giving them better conditions is that then the people that had tough austerity measures say i want a better deal as well and that is when the project unravels. Tom france in the clock, thank you. Some francine lacqua, thank you. Drama in riga. Ed hyman is with us. We will look at the markets and the fed. A classic chart. This is the ibbotson chart. It is logarithmic, the slope matters. The decline on the left, the carter malaise, in the 1970s. You look at the equivalent decline, which has never happened. We have become so defensive, we do not know what a bear market is. We do not even know what a correction is. We have forgotten about the volatility of our history. Ed . Thing about this is while the market has been going up people are still very skeptical. So far this year, individuals have taken about 35 billion out of equities and put 55 billion into bonds. We survey hedge funds every week. Theyre slightly defensive. Your chart is right, we are climbing a wall of worry. At some point that will change. When it does change, that is when we will be set for a correction. Tom is dividend yield growth an equivalent . Financial repression, you have talked about this. Old people, retirees have gotten crushed. Is a Dividend Growth equivalent to a yield . Ed Dividend Growth people do not look at. Dividends cannot immediately after the quarter. Dividends after the First Quarter work up at a 30 annual rate quarter to quarter and 15 year every year. As part of the saga of deals going on. We talked about the comcast deal. There has been almost 1000 deals in the past 13 months. A little over 5 trillion. You have a surge in dividends. Ed are you smarter because you get to talk to roger altman and Ralph SchlossRalph Schlosstein every day . Olivia are they a product of Financial Engineering . Ed we are on a slow road. People are not into building new factories so they do deals and buybacks. In the future when people are more confident about the outlook, they will go to building instead of buying. Brendan we look at volatility and it is not that much different than 30 or 40 years ago. The one thing that has changed is that there has been an underlying credit crisis. Doesnt that change the way we look at that chart . Ed absolutely. It goes back to the financial crisis, ken rogoffs this time is different. It is pervasive and people have a strong muscle memory about what happened. There is Still Holding back. Tom ed hyman with us. We will talk about Stanley Fishel and Stanley Fischer and janet yellen. We have some good photos. Brendan the nasdaq closed at an alltime high. We are doing a throwback. That is amazing. When we see the mascot, the pet Food Supply Chain known for the bubble burst. An indicator of a pending dotcom bubble. Olivia a fall from grace and a symbol of the tech boom. Ed hyman, Tech Companies leading the nasdaq are older and more profitable. Wathat is the most important difference between nasdaq in 2000 versus today . Ed the number of people on the internet has exploded. A couple million back then. Now it is a zillion. A huge difference. Olivia they are not just buying pet food. Ed back then, companies had concepts and now they are huge businesses. Brendan the puppet survived. As a celebrity after pets. Com went bust. In chile, the calbuco volcano. Ash was shot six miles into the sky. A huge respiratory problem for the locals. Its contaminating the water and a lot of flights in and out of chile halted as well. Number one, wait look at that. Ash six miles into the sky. That is incredible. Ok. Number one photo, especially for tom. 25 years since the Hubble Telescope was launched into space. Nasa has released a 3d simulation of the nebula. The cluster contains some of the largest and brightest star clusters ever. The hubble changed the way we think about it. Tom go to the smithsonian air and space museum. Nasa has done a class act. It is really cool. Hubble turns 25. Riga is 25 minutes into a discussion. We await varoufakis. Tie or no tie . He will speak in riga. We will have the headlines. Back in two minutes with ed hyman of evercore isi. Good morning from new york city. Tom what a wonderful morning. Ed hyman with us of evercore isi. We await mr. Varoufakis comments in riga. Brendan lawyers for joe harz and i have lawyers for Dzhokar Tsarnaev will ask jurors to spare his life. Loretta lynch will be the first black female attorney general. Her aides asay she wants to find Common Ground and improve cooperation between communities and law enforcement. Apple stores will not have apple watches. Those ordered today might not be shipped until july. Tom the drummer from riga th e drama from riga. Leaders speak. Dijsselbloem regling. Shannon oneil is here. We tilted to cuba. Olivia sterns will lead us off with the mayor of athens greece. Really looking forward to that. I want to ask about rem. Thats a joke. Call it the evercore isi wall of worry. The dollar is too strong, capex is too weak, Christine Lagardes new mediocre. Janet yellen has to get to september or december and miracles will happen. Ed hyman is the founder of isi and chart paragraph. This is what janet yellen reads every morning. This is from my childhood. This is classic do you still do this with scissors . Ed no, electronic. Tom iconic isi. He cuts out the headlines from the newspapers. How has your business changed in the last 20 years . What is different . Given the speed. Ed it is just that. This used to be mailed out, then fax. The difference between male and fax is they are both expensive. Then you have email, the internet and electronic, it explodes. Brendan olivia, faxing is a way of sending a document. Olivia glad we are having nostalgia. Tom a fed discussion, are we getting too much information from janet yellen . Is there too much information . Ed i dont think so. The markets are trying to slowly approached the fed tightening. And the risk is that when the fed titans once the markets assumes they will go immediately to the terminal rate. The markets discount that. You could have a spasm in the market where bond yields go up 100 basis points and tight when they tighten 25 because of the market discount. The fed is trying to talk about it so when they tighten it is not a surprise. Brendan are you a dot watcher. Ed i am not. I watched them, but i watch the weight they the the way they move. Tom Stanley Fischers speech ultra extension. What does he mean . Ed if they tighten 25 basis points, they go from altra to extremely. Trying to lay the groundwork. Olivia it is still an extraordinary environment. To what extent does the strength of the dollar delay the rate hike or make the slope or trajectory of the rate increases . Ed it slows it down. As i go through any business cycle, one of the things that happens as a marker is the fed titans. Fed tightens. When the fed tightens, that sets the clock. Typically the recession starts five years later. Olivia a tightening cycle is not negative for equities. Tom this is the heart of an ed hyman report. This is the famous ed hyman black market with arrow. People pay thousands just to have this. Do you do that still . Ed electronic. Tom it is all electronic. The truth is out. Olivia oil is bottomed . Why . Ed first, it collapsed. Second, the rig count collapsed. Oil has been unchanged for over two months. That is the trifecta. Tom what did analysts get wrong as they look for 25 a barrel . Ed oil stabilized for two months, rate count rig count collapsed that leads to an upturn in oil. Brendan we have got Shannon Oneil to talk about latin america. Are developing markets insulated from a fed rate hike this time . Ed no. Brendan what kind of chaos do you expect . Ed i do not expect chaos but it is negative for the emerging markets. All else equal. When the fed tightens you will have another spike in the dollar. Brendan is there a difference between negative and catastrophic . Will it be negative or catastrophic . Ed negative. Tom ed hyman, great to have you. Please come back. Ed hyman with evercore isi. Mr. Varoufakis speaks in riga. Its predictable stuff. Olivia hes saying that he predicts greece will reach an aid accord with partners as soon as possible. His oped today, the final sentence is their task, speaking of the troika, is to let go of an approach that has failed. Brendan he is not just talking about the troikas agreement with greece hes talking about the way the imf has approached lending. Olivia he is saying i want new terms. Tom where are we on monday with the soap opera . Brendan i dont know that we learned anything new. Everybody was clear that nothing was going to come out of riga. Riga has happened, nothing has happened. Tom futures up two. A forex report. The dollar has a bit of an impact on the american economy. The euro 1. 0678. Yen 119. 48. Shannon oneil on brazil and cuba, next. This is bloomberg surveillance. Tom the mystery is how much cash does greece have left. The answer is not enough. Eu finance ministers gather in riga latvia. We consider the future of cuba amidst a complex latin american calculus. Shannon oneil joins us from the council on foreign relations. Now what for Brian Roberts and comcast . This is bloomberg surveillance, live from our world headquarters. Friday, a pattani for. A pattani for. April 24. I am tom keene. Top headlines. Heres olivia. Olivia this was supposed to be the crucial meeting for greece and European Countries who hold the purse strings. Meeting in riga and growing more frustrated with greek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras. Tsipras was supposed to come up with Economic Reforms needed to unlock 7 billion in bailout money. Minister say they are still wide differences. The eu economic commissioner talked about what he hopes to hear. The overall issue is about the review of the present program. Reforms that can change the face of the greek economy