It was a dramatic ended to a hostage situation in sydney, australia. Australian Police Confirmed that three are dead and 4 injured after the 16hour siege in downtown sydney. The victims included 2 hostages, 38yearold man in a 38yearold woman. And the gun man, a 50yearold man. In a News Conference that 17 hostages total had been accounted for. We found out that a Police Officer suffered a nonlifethreatening loan to the face wounded to the face that we dont have information on his injury at this point. How did the situation unfold . The crisis came to an end after heavily armed police lint chocolate cafe good gunfire rang out for about 30 seconds after several hostages escaped with their hands up. Not seenn who was leaving the building, the suspected gunman, identified as s. N haron moni he is a selfprofessed muslim cleric with a long criminal record. He was connected to the murder of his wife and charged with more than 50 counts of sexual assault. Prior to the hostage situation, monis was out on bail. What about ties to extremists, to terrorist . Is an ongoing investigation. We dont know yet. He is believed to be acting on his own. He did when he entered the cafe and took the hostages at forced people to hold the islamic flag in the window. It was reported that he was asking for an Islamic State flag, and on a website believe to be his that has been taken down, he was pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. This has heightened fears that it was tied to a broader terrorist attack. At this point officials believe it is it will it is a lone wolf attack. Shelby holliday with the details of the unfolding of the hostage crisis. Im joined by the Vice President of intelligence at stratford global intelligence, a firm based in austin, texas. He is a former counterterrorism agent for the state department. Thanks for joining us. What do you think about the possibility of this as a errorist act . Doesnt look like the act of a lone gun man, someone with issues, with mental problems, which is it look like an act of terrorism or does it look like an active terrorism . 24, 36 hours we will have a better handle as to the motive. That is the challenge, to identify the individuals predisposed towards this activity before they strike. Once the attack takes place from all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. But identifying these people ahead of time, i can tell you from a firsthand account it is very difficult to do. What about the issue in australia, someone accused of murdering his wife, accused of sexual assault, Walking Around on bail . This this kind of thing is this kind of thing normal in that country . Not really. The challenge for the Security Services is he very well may have been commonly known with a had crossedtory but the transom into the intelligence case meaning was he visiting jihadi websites . Did he download materials that it would indicate he was heading down this path . That becomes a problem from an investigative perspective, trying to identify these folks before they strike. The sky apparently had a website local this guy really had a website and local reporters knew by name and face. Clearly he should have been scooped up for this happen. What about the u. S. . Are we better prepared here . Terrorism task forces across the United States are doing a good job neutralizing these attacks with a strike before they start. We have strike in astoria, the beheading of the soldier in the u. K. , the recent attack with the lone wolf in canada. If you think about that, the fbi has been doing a good job in identifying those persons predisposed towards that activity, introducing an undercover agent, trying to score the plot is trying to thwart the plot before it trying totive to thwart the plot before becomes active. Is the type to islam if this had been a nonmuslim person, it may have been just a local news story, but the fact that he was holding up an islamic flag made it a global news story. Do you see that disparity . There is that component to the next that would have to be evaluated by the forensic psychologists that examine his motives. Lone wolves have been around for a long period of time. You can think of serum on hur you can think of sirhan si rhan, kuchar rfk, and even of hinckley, who shot ronald reagan. I guess there is no way to put it but as an act of terror. What do you think of australias groups . Larger extremist they dont seem to have a funnel into isis, but other extremist groups . They have been worried about this kind of activity for some time and lets face it, australia along with the u. K. And canada, has been helping the u. S. With counterterrorism mission, and the Australian Security Service is one of the finest in the world. If you want back the clock 24 hours before the attack, the Australian Federal police were sitting around wondering when we were going to get it. As you have pointed out, weve seen the lone wolf attacks going back decades. How are we doing collectively fighting against terror . How are we doing in the fight isis and what was formerly al qaeda . For the most part we are wearing those battles in afghanistan and iraq and locations where we are taking the fight to the enemy. But if you look at the long will threat in general, there are so many soft targets. Look around new york city and just kick your venues for these attacks to take place. For the most part, the nypd Counterterrorism Division and ei new york has done a great job thwarting plots before they unfold. You will never be able to eliminate the software in threat. Soft target threat. An intelligence perspective you need to identify these folks predisposed towards this activity, and therein lies the rub. That is the challenge. That is the modern challenge for sure. Thanks for joining us. Amazon and walmart to get out. Duke it out. We want you to know that bloomberg is the only Business News service being offered on amazon fire tv. If you missed any of our enemies, you can watch them on apple tv. Any of our interviews, you can watch them on apple tv. Stocks falling after the worst week in more than two years for the s p 500. Take a look at the chart here. We were up 120 points this morning and then we took a huge and dies in 30 minutes huge dive in 30 minutes. We bottomed out right around noon. The Dow Jones Industrial average the dow jones was up 120 points and then fell to a loss in 30 minutes. 17,188 is the level. As we mentioned this morning on in the loop with betty liu, strongly affected by moves in apple. Importantly,e most though tom keene may disagree and interject that the ruble is important new york crude is down 3 . 56. 07 a barrel. Amazing to watch the cascading prices for oil, regardless of where you look. Here you see new york coming down well below 60 a barrel. Here and now falling even further today at 55. 99. The National Association of homebuilders, wells fargo Builder Sentiment index, lifted 257, up one point from 58 in november. Sales conditions good rather than poor. The view of current Sales Conditions decline slightly. Better than a stick in the eye, but not getting any better from there. Adrian peterson and the Nfl Players Association are challenging and arbitration decision upholding his indefinite suspension. The suspension came after peterson issued a no contest plea to reckless assault. He was accused of striking his fouryearold son with a switch. Lawyers for the player and the associations in a filing in the federal court in minnesota, peterson suffers irreparable harm each day that the suspension is in effect. A group led by the british firm bc partners has agreed to buy petsmart good the deal is valued at 8. 3 billion. They beat out kkr and leon black. Petsmart has been hurt by competition from amazon as well as other retailers. It is the busiest mailing day of the year. The Postal Service says it will handle 640 million packages, letters, and cards today, ups says it will be the busiest day in its entire history. The company is estimating that 585 million packages will flow through its facility. Ups says it is ready for the big surge after failing to deliver thousands of packages last year from disappointing, doubtless, countless children. As we enter the home stretch to christmas, retailer discounting is getting more cutthroat than ever. At the forefront, likely for parents from amazon, whose toy prices are nearly 5 below those of walmarts. Julie hyman has more. Bloomberg intelligence has been tracking toy prices throughout the holiday for the past week amazon getting more aggressive. Amazon took leadership in the last week. Every wednesday they are looking at a basket of different toys online. Not in stores, online, important to distinguish. Over the past several weeks, amazon and walmart have been a good have been an active this is the stuff that amazon sells itself, not including third party sellers. Thann is 4. 5 cheaper walmart if you look at that basket of toys good what we have seen over the rest of the holiday season. Walmart still has price leadership versus a lot of its competitors. It is cheaper than target and kmart, particularly toys r us, which tends to be at the top of the toy pricing scale. Amazon has come out during this last stretch to christmas trying to undercut walmart. Toys r us is more of a premium player as far as Pricing Strategy is concerned . It seems to be. Toys r us has been more troubled the other retailers do lots of other stuff. Toys r us is sort of the last pure play toy retailer of its size. It is also privately held. Parents still go to toys r us for the whole experience. Kids love to go to toys r us. They may not all love to go to walmart. Dont love toinly go to amazon because you cant really do that. Where is amazon getting the most aggressive . Youll like this video games, matt. This is your area. If you look at all of the areas, this is where amazon is the cheapest. Walmart is more expensive than amazon, including an excluding. Hirdparty sellers walmart is still cheaper than all the other guys target, kmart, toys r us. But that is the area amazon has been focusing on. One of the having trouble keeping in stock this year what are they having trouble keeping in stock this year . A broad swath of stuff. I tried to get you the snow globe elsa doll. And you failed. Have you looked in other outlets . Surely there is a snow globe elsa doll out there. Snow glow. Get is running the highest target. Com is out of stock. We will keep back in touch with you as far as the hottest toys, the new elmo. Does that date me . No, elmos still hot. Anjulie will be back with on the markets update and president obamas relationship with his own party. Meanwhile, more reaction coming in on the release of the Senate Report on the cia interrogation program. Arizona senator john mccain spoke with charlie rose. Somebodyou waterboard 183 times, is that a way to really get useful information . There is a lot of back and forth as to whether there are allegations that we found out about osama bin ladin and then there is other evidence that says we found out that information before they employ f eits. It is not about interrogation and what they got, not about the nature of our enemy. It is about us and what kind of country we were, what we will be. You can see the entire interview with john mccain tonight on charlie rose at 7 00 p. M. And 10 00 p. M. Eastern. And al hunt speaks to senator tim kaine. He has been the driving force behind the congressional authorization for the war state. Islamic president obamas relationship or lack thereof with Congressional Republicans has long been the dominant story out of washington. But what about his own party . The last week, cracks have laid bare in the unified Democratic Front, something with major implications for the president 2015 agenda. Phil mattingly joins me with more on the story. In the last week, as you noted, the splits in the party have been laid bare in ways i dont think anybody expected to see. These have existed for a long period of time. The democrats have been able to paper over them as long as they held the majority in the senate. After the midterm sweet, not so much anymore. President obama has laid out a series of issues where he thinks he can Reach Agreement with republicans and that includes tax reform, infrastructure spending, and a trade deals. These things will require some democratic help if he wants them to move forward but they are problem areas. Trade deals have major, major democratic opposition that the president will need to overcome. And do other things he would have to trade to make deals on the other areas. In the past the white house has been willing to put up entitlement reform as a possibility. Democrats feel silly democrats fiercely opposed to that. Also the possibility that there will be spending bills and things of that nature. As long as the white house puts that on the table they will have problems with the democratic caucus, matt. No shortage of areas where the president disagrees with the democrats in congress. We shouldnt lose sight of the fact that the president is a democrat himself. How much do those matter . The president , if you wants to block what the unified Republican Congress will be sending his way, needs help from the democrats. That is where the frustration from democrats on the hill comes from, that they dont feel that the white house pays enough attention to them, and that they do matter. If you listened to nancy pelosi last week, her key point is that House Democrats have leverage and can create problems for house republicans. The white house can use that to their advantage or they can spurn it. That is the key thing people will need to watch for when Congress Comes back in january. She is the minority leader and out. Democrats have been relegated to relegated tohat the minority. Basically not matter anymore . If Senate Democrats feel often work with senate republicans, giving them the 60vote social they need, or if the white house decides they can work with john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell and those who move over. That is why you see a Democratic Front on the hill pushing back against where the white house is going on this. It regrets are known to peel off and help republicans could historic democrats are known to peel off and help republicans. Historically it is something they are known to do. The hour. Tes past bloomberg is on the markets. Here is julie hyman. Lets look at where stocks are trading. We started the day higher, particularly for the dow, and then off on all major averages. The s p down about half a percent. Oil continues its slide. Energy stocks have been doing a little bit better today. Take a look at riverbed technology. Shares of the networking comedy are surging after agreeing to be acquired for 3. 2 billion dollars. Hiredmpany said it had advisers to review strategic alternatives. Welcome back to bottom line. I am matt miller come in for mark crumpton. Time for the commodities report. Su keenan is in the newsroom. It started as a rebound for energy but the turnaround was shortlived. Looking at almost the low of the session, down about two dollars. The story here is a lot of news, and again, and overall dynamic has been changed. The latest news behind the drop is that opec is standing strong cutts decision not to output, according to the united arab emirates. Even if prices fall as low as 40 a barrel, the uae minister says the oil trouble not cause opec to make a move oil drop will not cause opec to make a move. At this point it will not be another meeting that would address output or potential cuts for at least three more months. Ulls did not see this coming. Gold is heading in the same direction, at least for now. Longest slump in five weeks on concerns the fed is coming close to raising interest rates. This is all about the meeting by fed policymakers and one strategist one at that a lot of investors are waiting on the sidelines until they get a clearer picture of what the fed is going to do. Tough time for the oil bulls you talk to. A lot of the funds mustve gotten hurt because the data shows that a lot of speculators added to their bullish bets taking the selloff was over, and you can check out the chart, especially in the past month, that has proved them wrong. All about the timing, Michael Lynch says, and he says it is normally difficult to get that right, especially so here. Gas prices around the country are dropping to the lowest october 10 october 2009. The average is 2. 56. Some gasoline bulls are starting to get to the drop will even out. 0 su keenan with the commodities report. Another day, another deadline with obamacare. Americans have until midnight to sign up if they want coverage january 1. Healthcare. Gov appears to be working fine, as planned. It iscook has the latest last years launch disaster a distant memory now . Is adont know if it complete distant memory, but things are working much better this time around as we have obamacare 2. 0. The president himself in a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest this morning said that the website was working flawlessly. Itbe that is a stretch, but is certainly working better than last year. Longer than normal weight times at call centers with 14,000 operators standing by waiting for calls. This is not the final deadline for enrolling for 2015, but the divide to have coverage effective on january 1 the first few weeks we have not had any major problems since the iod opened on the 15th. As of december 5, aged just reported that enrollment for this year standard 1. 4 million , and people are doing their plans, 52 . Plans,le renewing their 52 . That matters, because people who shop around, they come back and look for a new plant are likely to find the same coverage for cheaper prices. But they have to shop around. If they dont, they could get a writ surprise in january when they are when all, when the government does it for them. President has a target for 1. 9 9. 1 million for 2015. It shouldnt be a big problem, according to outside groups. People sign up last year, signi