Of evidence. The comments come after u. S. Satellites allegedly spotted chinese ships on the lets see around 30 times since october. In liberias National Election commission, expected to release provisional approvals today. More than 2 million voters are the soccer star and the countrys vice president. He led the first round of voting on october 10 but did not get enough votes to win outright. Ellen johnson steps down in january. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Julie live from bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, im julia julie hyman. We are 30 minutes from the close of trading in the u. S. The dollar weakened against most peers. What taxwe are 30 minutes from e of trading in the u. S. Reform could mean for private equity firm, we look at a question of how leon black post and how it could alter the wall street model. Plus, betting against boredom, 2017 going down is the least exciting year for stocks collectively on record. What to expect with volatility next year. Loans taking on big tech by trying to lower top tech from detroit, facebook and google. We bring you those details. What did you miss . The new u. S. Tax regime is a boom for private equity firms that may now consider changing to a fully fledged Corporation Thanks to a lower Corporate Tax rate. It could alter the model on wall street but what are the tradeoffs . Bloombergs team leader for u. S. Investing investing has some details. Walk us through this. Companies work out before . It is competition but they were structured for partnerships. People talk about them and you ,ill hear this word a lot passthroughs. The tax overhaul change the taxation of partnerships and if you are structured as one of those as many hedge funds are structured as, you are taking income in and passing it through and the owners were paying the individual income rate. If youre adding a number of different things, including the interest rate, taxing the they wereins rate, getting a better deal as a partnership overall. Top all the way down to 21 , the calculus is much closer and there are tradeoffs but it is simple more simple. Youre trying to balance how taxed and trying to see which is actually better for you. It seems clear that in theory with the corporate rate coming down and the advantage of having it being taxed at the individual level, it disappears. What is the other consideration to make . Essentially,ration your attacks to two times in some cases. Also when youre paying out owners, private equity players to see their taxes go up in some ways. Do we become a corporation because as a corporation, we could be more easily added into index funds, which are in many 401 k plans . Joe to be clear, the way the tracks the tax treatment works, there is just no way to do that. That is right. Tooas essentially complicated for many to do. This combo kit tax filing partners share with their shareholders, is february and some people send out in march, it is a headache for accountants. Essentially why a lot of Asset Managers said we would not deal with this in terms of index funds. Essentially why a lot now restructured as a corporation, that would make it a lot simpler and it would add to the index which could be a expose them to a lot more shareholders. I am glad i am not an accountant. It is not the year. Pain curious where the private equity lobbying was pushing. As you say, it could sort of go either way. Im curious what they wanted to tax policy to look like. A lot of people i think were more focused on the lobbying rate. N keeping the tax that essentially did maintain itself, a surprise for a lot of people because trump campaigned against it. It is still there. For private Equity Fund Managers and some hedge fund managers, it because they get preferred tax treatment on their profits. Individual profits and not corporate profits. Going back to calculus on which Corporate Structure they might want to take, for a companys whose Shareholder Base is heavy with retirees and people do not typically have a highlevel of income and mostly , with thoseds companies be more inclined to keep current structures, and the tax rate might be higher than the income tax rate of the shareholders . Interesting question people are probably asking but i do think so going back to calculusn which Corporate Structure they might want to take, for a because that has in a lot ofuch, cases, the individual tax rates, the percentage of change is a lot smaller. Smaller, where a lot of people would say, it is not different. At thetions may win out end of the day. A lot of accountants will work a lot. That is what it was supposed to be. A think we all knew it was not true. New jersey had ordered local government to accept the 2018 properties taxes repayment. Because there was a question of whether it would be kosher. Are we still not sure . Here is situation with what people call state and local taxes. You can only deduct property taxes up to 10,000 now starting in 2018. A lot of accountants have been saying to people to bring you ct property that into income into 2017. A lot of people can pay 2018 taxes in some states, into 2017 into 2017 and use tht deduction. Another interesting thing that may not be apparent is the 10,000 cap is for married couples or for single people people. You get the same cap a single people as a married person. That is different than the usual tax code. You get 10,000, not 20,000. A lot of people are not are rushing to get it in in december. If you bring it this year, remember you do not bump yourself to the higher tax rate. Payee, thank you so much. Coming up, bitcoin has resumed a downward trajectory. Bitcoin on the stunning december. Ceo ofoyd blankfein, Goldman Sachs, sat down without steel to discuss whether coin was on its way to being mainstream. For Small Businesses and businesses in general, when do they need a Bitcoin Strategy . Lifetime. Our whether forget about you think it is a fraud or a game or not. To businesses have worry about how the two attract to produce a product and how to sell it and keep the door open and cleanup at the end of the day. Small businesses are aware that rubber meets the road. They are not dealing an extensive Financial Transactions but trying to create radix that people want to buy. It is one person selling to one person much more so than all the things we are talking about. Blend is goldman have to have a Bitcoin Strategy . Not today. I would say life must be really rosie if this is what we are talking about. I was talking to jeff curry he said the only people who are asking him you are a Huge Investment bank, you have to think about this. Im thinking about it because i get asked about it. It is not for me but there are a lot of things that were not for me in the past thatit is not foy but based on everything i know, i will not guess that it will work out. But i will not stand there and be strident and say it is not going to work or it cant because it might. Wherere is a technology you can have different different accesses that people can control it and you can see whos doing what and that sort of thing and there are places where that is you where that is a useful thing. The bloomberg system is a blockchain. Instead of having users control it, we do. But it has all of the attributes of that. Bitcoin is very different and there is a whole bunch of crib go currency and every day you have a new one. That is something very different. Whether or not the governments of the world will lose control of monitor policy, i am skeptical. They will just not let that happen and they should not. It does not feel like a store. Sure. Maybe not currency but the commodity. It goes to your expertise. You grew up in the commodity business. Where is the fraud going to come . The whole concept, i dont know. First of all is it buyer or seller price discovery . Where is the risk. A vehicle to perp or it perpetrate fraud. But it is hard to accumulate cash. The world is going in a different direction if you think about it here look at china where they are basically getting rid of cash. Everyone is paying with smartphones. People begging in the street have a little signed next to them, they are sitting there begging for money and they have a sign with a qr code. If you want to give them money, you put yourself on at the code and hit a button and they have a bank account and that is how they are getting their money. That is heading in direction and they have gone a large way. One reason is you can then stop the black market and the junk dealers and stop where it is all going. Ready to gonot be there. It is a much more efficient way to pay for goods and services. Google already knows. And that raises the question that you have to be thinking about banking strategy with it coin. I cannot believe that you are not. We will see. If it works out and trades like a store value and does not move up and there is liquidity and it, we will go put the original question was, when to Small Business people have to think of the Bitcoin Strategy . People want to buy business planning. That was Mike Bloomberg and lloyd blankfein. Bitcoin went on a wild ride after that conversation before plunging below 11,000. It fell again today in trading. The currency dropped about 100 for the open. Lets check in with lloyd saying saying Goldman Sachs itself is now a market in Bitcoin Futures and the saying Goldman Sachs itself is now a market in Bitcoin Futures and the underlying bitcoin as well. Obviously, goldman had a bit of an interest there. What has been driving trade in the past few days . Low volume there is not a lot of liquidity around and minor traits can cause a bit of a move. Of people were relieved to see the big selloff we had up 22nd, coming to a little bit of a stop around 11,000. A few days earlier, kicking off 28,000, that was a most in half in a matter of a few days. We have seen the rally fizzle out in the last couple of weeks. The crypto related equity, should put that in quotes, it unabated. Ontinue you are being generous by saying just some of them. There seems to be a new one every day. Even with the selloff, pretty modest all things considered, people are betting on it. Same thing like stocks and cryptocurrencies. Whereas it or 20 coin looks like it is below 15,000 again. Other Crypto Assets are doing fairly well but it coin is finding a bottom here around 15,000. Joe it was last thursday our headline, putting to have ahe plan crypto dedicated hedge fund. The story is still, you heard now, just aation few weeks ago. The increased interest among institutional money and there is a fundamental steam for 2018 . It still is as long as it finds some stability. It is hard to try to find out where bitcoin is going next you do not know which direction it will go. Once people feel more confident they can trade it, i would think Goldman Sachs was start to dive in a little more. Cory johnsony really dug into, a great piece on bloomberg. Com and i encourage everyone to read it. This is a company where, it has not developed anything at. His executives interested in an technology,ing 15,000 in cash on hand. And the stock surged because just in the. Com days, if related wouldething internet be there, stocks would surge. Lied to people keep falling for it . It is day trading, people can get out and call it a day. I do not think there is a fundamental trader deciding to buy these types of names. At least i hope not. The penny stocks out there are very busy these days. Thank you. We appreciate it. Time for a look at one of the biggest business stories in the news right now. A lawsuit against kkr and their founders could produce new legal challenges. The Group Accuses them of not delivering Hedge Fund Returns as advertised. The investments left the system virtually insolvent. Ups and fedex report they deliver nearly everyones package in time to be of an on Christmas Morning to 99. 1 of ground deliveries were on time. Fedex, 98. 7. Ups was overwhelmed over after black friday, sparking fears of a backlog and was able to catch up and have a successful season. Astakeholder in supposing takeover deal for the company for capital management, the nine dollar a share offer, they say is too low. Humana made that offer last week. That is your bloomberg is this flash. Did you get your packages on time joe . Joe i did. I am hanukkah but i did get everything on time. Up, find out who could be thrown the online dethroned the Online Shopping king with a chart next. Julie with all the talk of not theit is actually best performer in the s p 500 this year. Buy to bestst buy. He see the share price in blue and amazon and white. They have outperformed retail and the s p 500 overall. It was november that you started to see best buy take a sharp wink upward as amazon went more or less sideways. Thus by had been in the mists of a multiyear turnaround and that is what was driving the stock prices. It is the second year in a row that rest by shares had outdone amazon shares in terms of performance. It is not something you would know if you listened to us all day. We talk about amazon day in and day out. Joe if you said best buy beat amazon one year, ok, but two isrs in a row, that impressive. Another trend to watch, the big rally in copper and other Industrial Metals lately. When youre trying to figure out what is going on, one of my favorite charts is the white line here, the ratio of Industrial Metals relative to gold. In make sense when things are looking up, you buy Industrial Metals and you sell gold and vice versa. The feline is a 10 year yield. The lens moves move together. They do not go together lately, you see a pullback in the longterm range. Gold ntinued rally to industrial metal to gold ratio. One saying perhaps just inflationary trend, warning that growth, yield curve, another indicator saying people are optimistic about growth, not as eager to hold out on sick havens. Wins out there. Interesting pair the market closes next. Eager to hold out on sick havens. Interesting to pay some attention to. We will see if theyve reconversion whohere are major s than four minutes until the close. Little changed for the major averages. From new york, this is bloomberg. Julie whatd you miss . Closing slightly higher this afternoon, amid it like trading on the holidayshortened week. I am julie hyman. Joe i am joe weisenthal. Scarlet fu and julia chatterley are off today. If you are tuning in live on twitter, we welcome you to our closing bell coverage every weekday from 4 00 to 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Julie we begin with market minutes, with stocks limping along, but limping higher. S p 500, 41 below the moving day average. Not surprising the tally for the year for the s p remains 20 . 20 5 , and the nasdaq, 9 higher on the year, as we have seen the push ever higher for the major averages. Individual stocks we are watching, we were watching tesla today. That is going down 2 after brad erickson, an analyst at keybank said fourthquarter checks indicate model 3 deliveries are tracking 500 units below the estimate. Although as joe highlighted, it is still accepted on the buy side, which bid up the tesla shares. And were watching energous. Wireless charging Technology Gives them a first mover advantage. Interest inso short the stock, back at help account for the pop. Canopy growth corporation, a canadian marijuana stock. Stocks seen wed weed rally ahead of the january 1 legalization policy. Looks like some traders setting up for that. Joe lets take a look at the Government Bond market. Two year yield, i think it hit 1. 92 . The highest since late september, 2008. The big move at the long end, substantial downward move. We did not have a real risk off of vibe in the market. Not much in terms of data. Nonetheless, here is a look at the flattening curve. This is one month of the twoyear and 10 year spread. It shot back up close to 64 basis points on the spread and back down to these lows. We are firmly back and keeping an eye on the possible inversion at some point. Julie it was interesting, some of the Economic Data was mixed. Consumer expectations in home sales were positive. The dollar follow the yield curve and the yield on the 10 year. On thelook at wcrs bloomberg, it shows the dollar versus a wide basket of currencies. Versusere trading lower the u. S. Dollar, but Everything Else was rising versus the dollar. The South African rand doing the best, continuing to rally. That is been happening since the recent election. And we have been talking bitcoin, happening over the past several days, not just today. Over the past week, the coin was down 9 . We saw the big rally up and the come down, as it continues volatility. Joe nothing quiet there yet. On commodities, oil and gold. Not much, crude. We had the surge on the libyan pipeline explosion yesterday. Some concerns dissipating a bit today. But still elevated compared to where we have been. Just under 60 a barrel on west texas. This move, it will be one of the stories we talked about in 2018. Stillup a little bit but below that rotation of bitcoin into gold. Julie whatd you miss . Christmas has come and gone, but where is the santa claus rally . Stocks changed most of the day, not hitting the fiscal highs we see during the holidays. Here to break down what is Holding Investors back, michael block from Rhino Trading partners. Maybe they are on the couch instead of at the office. Of the quietest postchristmas weeks i can remember. Not a lot going on. The s p 500, even of the tax bill passed, there is supposed to be A Santa Claus rally, markup that the year end, but it not it has not had a high s