Lets look where european equities are trading. Just under 30 minutes to the close of equity trading. This is the stoxx 600 and different industry groups. We are off by 1 10 of a percent. Mixed picture Energy Stocks outperforming. We are seeing a spike in wti and. Rent Consumer Staples underperforming down. 8 . Financials also lower, perhaps some of the low yields in the core tech stocks also not doing too well. It is the commodities outperforming. Commodity stock, energy stock, and commodity producers within the materials. The ftse 100, a little weaker,. 1 . Have been seeing cable spiking, i have a chart later showing the correlation between the ftse 100 and the pound, the ftse 100 falling below the 200 Day Moving Average for the First Time Since the brexit vote. It is still below the 200 Day Moving Average. It hasnt managed to break above it yet. Volatility on the ftse 100, volatility wages, we are looking at implied volatility, have been climbing relative to the euro st ocks. If we look at the ftse 100 vs euro stocks 150, look at the line. The highest since 2013. A lot of it is no doubt down to what has been happening with the pound is we have seen it spike in recent days. Turning to the 10 year bund yields, i showed you the gilt yields earlier. The trajectory has been higher for a lot of this month. That means the spread has been blowing out. The bund yield coming down, two basis points in this session. We are at almost 44 basis points on the 10 year bond yield. Julie not Much Movement in the United States. The dow, if it does rise today it will be the ninth straight session that the index is higher. Another record. The s p 500 not making it there and the nasdaq in the red as investors await more commentary and direction from the fed. The dow has been relatively consistent out performer since the election. Especially impressive in point terms. More than 4000 point 18 in the Dow Jones Industrial average since november. Hitting multiple records along the way. Something else that has been rallying recently, not that kind of trend since the election, of course, is oil. Contract. E december you have rollover of the september contract. The december contract continuing to go higher. It went lower after the spikingies report, now higher. We had a larger than estimated those in crude inventories but a decline in gasoline and distillate inventories. That continues to be bullish for oil. Especially relative to gold it can tell us about risk appetite,. Oil ratio. Gold gold popularity with traders oil has been waning as the s p 500 has been rising. A risk proxy we have been looking at as we go into this fed meeting. I have to touch on the Home Furnishings market. Camebath and beyond tumbling last quarter. They said the recent hurricanes will take a toll. Downs 14 , pulling competitors like pier 1 imports and williamssonoma as well. Nejra growing tensions with north korea taking the spotlight spotlight. Global leaders are also contending with the european landscape in the wake of brexit. President macron spoke about his vision for france and the eu earlier this morning. Ini am a Firm Believer europe. In my Election Campaign a lot of people told me you are crazy. You are proeuropean and you france . Can win in i did think it was feasible. People do understand that we need europe. In this current environment. We have european values. Now the challenge is how europe can be with the United States and china. Europe iseakness in the lack of ambition. We had a daily business approach, trying to fix crises at the last minute without perspective on any project. Scale. Is the relevant energy, to deal with and i do promote European Single Energy Market we have french leaders, european leaders, and europe has to be stronger. A simple Digital Security defense. Investment and economy. What does it mean . We have to fix the 10year objective for europe. We have to decide some convergences and Investment Decisions in order to reach this objectives. We need new ambitions. From my generation there is one alternative. Do we want the dismantling of europe, and it is an ongoing process. Now it is all about brexit and border tension regarding flow in europe. In a few months or years you will have all of the countries suddenly raising and say im not comfortable with this bureaucracy and europe without vision, just constraints. We need more vision, less bureaucracy, tenure objectives, and a natural process. That next week. We need to see ambition. For me that is the best way to address brexit. Refusal ofll about middle classes against a dysfunction in europe. This new europe has to provide a place, be fair and efficient, and provide a place for our middle classes. There is no more perspective for middle classes in europe. When is no way to progress middle classes dont have any perspective and something to get in this environment. In order to do so, and push with germany some of this new europe, i need a strong france. In that context i want to promote this new agenda of france. In aut that, i will not be situation to push europe into reform. In france im passing labor reform with the government in order to promote security and fix past situations. Destroyed tooe many jobs and is no longer adaptive to a short cycle economy and economy of innovation where you have to destroy some jobs, but create new jobs very rapidly. Second, we will launch a big reform of Vocational Training and a reform of education. It is all about education in this environment. You need qualified and skilled people. Education very rapidly and aggressively in order to train our young people. Second, we invest 15 billion or retrain people in one of the main challenges of my country is 2 Million People adaptivehe qualifications for this chance. We will destroy a lot of classical sectors, but create ,ore jobs in digital, energy and in new sector. We have to retrain people in this environment. Our system was not adapted to do so. What we will push in coming months. Third, a reform of public spending. If you want to do so you have to reduce your Current Expenditure in order to reduce the level of public spending in france, which is too high, and to reinvest in your Top Priorities for the future. Is climateority change, artificial intelligence, as i told you, and education and training. Nejra that was the president of france, Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the Bloomberg Global business form. For more on president macrons vision for france and the european union, caroline, it is good to see you. He is saying i need a strong france to boost european performance. I want to know what his obstacles are. Is it challenges at home with his Approval Ratings continuing to fall, risks from the german election, or Something Else . The main challenges for Emmanuel Macron for the next couple of months. The credibility, in new york he knows he has to pass the reforms at home. The labor reform is expected to be approved this friday. Of coarse Emmanuel Macron has to reforme world his agenda at home is credible enough. The immediate challenge to do a deeper transformation at the eurozone level is the german election. Reelected,erkel is the reforms in europe will depend on what kind of coalition is formed after the election. Areexample, the liberals not all in for Emmanuel Macrons reform agenda. Told bloomberg a few weeks ago that there should be no new money for Emmanuel Macron. He has been dubbed the expensive friend in the german press. Reforming the eurozone means more investment, a bigger role for the middle classes, but it means more control over the budget of weaker countries, such as greece. Nejra thank you. Vonnie of the Atlanta Hawks, he joins Erik Schatzker in an exclusive interview. K tony, it is good of you to be here. Thank you for taking time out to chat. I think the most sensible place for us to begin is going back to what you said a year ago. That there would be market volatility if thencandidate donald trump were elected president. There has been a lot of political volatility, not a lot of market volatility. Why do you think . Tony if i had that answer i would be better off. I do believe that candidate , President Trump, interacts with his constituents way,he population in a particularly using twitter, that should add volatility to the marketplace. It hasnt. The only conclusion i can come up with is maybe what the president does is not as critically important to the market as many of us thought. Aroundmuch of the noise certain aspects of the presidency are not as relative to the marketplace as many of us in the marketplace thought. Erik does that realization surprise you . Tony it does. As a great prognosticator, i would not get high marks. I thought volatility would get higher, Interest Rates would be higher. We have been wrong on both. The good news about being wrong is it forces you and us at our firm to try to buy higherquality assets and Better Companies that can withstand higher levels of volatility or Interest Rates. In a strange way, we have been wrong and it has generally helped our investment focus and strategy. Erik is the volatility coming at some point . Tony i said a year ago it would go up at some point. I believe today it will go up. Back to my earlier point, may be the markets know something that many of us in the markets didnt see or dont know. Erik i dont think anyone would as to say thefar white house and administration are irrelevant, but there has to be a reason why they are less relevant to the market, valuations, and asset prices than we thought or they were in the past. Have you come to any conclusions . Tony i am not suggesting, nor you, that the white house is irrelevant. May be what the white house from an Economic Perspective has been , like lowering tax rates, implement a meaningful Infrastructure Spending bill, reducing regulation in the marketplace and a meaningful way , those are things that the economy and marketplace is rallying around. Much of the issues that are more , aroundted, certainly immigration and health care, the market might be suggesting what the administration has been trying to do is not going to happen as advertised. Lets focus on what can get done where there is bipartisan support and discount what we think cannot get done. The market might be smarter than many of us are playing it. Erik you are in the business of making smart Investment Decisions. In the environment you describe, where do you see opportunity . Tony we are in 3 alternative Asset Classes. Credit, private equity whether it be in corporate, real estate, special situations, or infrastructure, and real estate. We are seeing real opportunities in credit. Self originated predominately. Self originated credit, private abs structured credit. Under the simplest areas, or descriptions, we are going to where it used to be. Those Asset Classes in self originated credit and informed assetbackeds of security, we are finding that attractive. If you look at from a private Equity Perspective we have been active in energy and health care, particularly healthcare services. Under the category of trying to andhigherquality assets at with appropriate valuations of volatility and Interest Rates both going up, and businesses that can withstand those changes, not an enormous coincidence that energy and health care have been two areas of interest for us. Erik you have done a couple of deals in retail that havent worked out so well. Would you ever do another . Tony sure. With given the experience Neiman Marcus and . 99 you would consider another deal . View, we have a view, that the lower more costeffective value oriented retailers like . 99 and floor and decor, and the higher and like Neiman Marcus, we thought would be more insulated. We have clearly been right on floor and decor and have challenges in neiman. We still believe in highend retailers that stand for something have a future in this world. There is a lot of transition in the retail industry, but we think that with a little bit of the abilityrd work to be an effective retailer with bricks and mortar and online takes time. It is a retailer that not every Company Makes overnight. We are moving into that effectively. Rome was not built in a day. We might need a little time and patience from investors and partners, but we arent giving up. Erik lets take consolidation. To make a success out of Neiman Marcus . Tony i dont think that is required. Neiman marcus knows what they have to do. Retail stores, which anime and and bergdorf already do, having an enormous online business, which it already has, but becoming more valuable to its customers online and in the store through service and many other variables, including relationships with special brands we know what we need to do. Erik operations are critical. Financing is important. How much of that rests on your shoulders. Figuring out what to do with the debt and relieving some of the pressure from the leverage . Tony our job is to make businesses better and that Capital Structures can survive bumps in the road. We are doing everything our investors and our employees would hope us to be doing. Ares itself is often thought of as a potential consolidator. You had in mind at one point Jane Anderson cain anderson. Have you looked at anything since then, and do you feel is important for your firm to expand in that fashion . Tony we are managing 108 billion in ares do we think we will get larger . Yes. Do we think we can grow organically to get where we need to be . The answer is also yes. Do we think there are other Asset Managers that dont have the same runway we do over the next 10 years where we can add or acquire in some form to make ourselves better at what we do, the answer is also yes. We would argue the alternative management of assets that we perform. We think there is huge opportunity. Alternative assets are undoubtedly becoming a larger piece of the tight in the larger flows of capital. That is to us an obvious statement. Erik did you look at fortress and would you have bought it if softbank did not pick it up . Of softbank. Ig fan im a bigger fan of west end p. They had their choice of where to go and what to do. We like to do business with them in any way we can. They know how to make money and invest successfully. We are big fans. We would have loved to look at what they had. I think they found a perfect home for what they are trying to do. They earned it. Erik thank you. Vonnie, that is tony ressler, chairman and ceo of Ares Management. Vonnie fantastic interview. That is our own Erik Schatzker with an exclusive interview with the Ares Management and Atlanta Hawks owner tony ressler. The Global Business form continues. The gathering of the most influential World Leaders in government and business in new york city. We have a panel discussing why. N. Sustainable business goals are good for business. You can see the ceos of mastercard and unilever speaking with francine lacqua. An ocean of turbulence. What we are seeing is frothy water. More people come together and understand it is only when we work in alignment with each other with a stakeholder approach, not just the idea of making money. You need to go more towards the longterm. You need to focus on what people like paul are practicing in Public Markets bravely saying we will change the way things are done. All of us need to focus. It is not business as usual. We need to redefine the paradigm we will be facing. It is going to be a different world. Technology will disrupt the world the way politics disrupt it anyway. We need to think outofthebox. Since everyone is giving examples from their businesses, we launched a business two years ago around the health care space. We put together a fund with the gate foundation, phillips, it was not about my firm. It was the totality of all of the players. What we have managed to create our solutions that will affect 300 Million People across africa. That is called result. At the same time, you make money. I might leave behind an impression that i am completely mercenary looking only for returns. To be honest, i am through with taking the boxes in the corporate sphere. In my personal philanthropy i can take a longterm view. Foundation,he dell i dont look for return. Talk about stakeholders, and they say i am not making more money and in the longterm nothing will change, im saying my only income is look there is money in this. When businessmen see money in this, you will see change. At the risk of sounding mercenary. My business and i will take a very long term. It is increasingly accessible to everyone. In energy, you can see at the country, regional, city, or state level you can get green energy and be cheaper. All of our energy in the u. S. And europe to green energy, i never had a payou