The security situation inside myanmar must be improved before people had back. More than 680,000 people have fled myanmar since august to escape the escalating violence. In the philippines, expert experts are warning a volcano has been a rocking for almost two weeks and stills up still appears to be swelling with magma under the surface. Tens of thousands of people are staying in emergency shelters as a volcano continues to release lob and as high as 1600 feet. Officials are worried the eruption may last for months, affecting the education, health, and livelihood for people in the region. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. It is noon in new york. I am shery ahn. Vonnie welcome to Bloomberg Markets. From bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, here are top stories from bloomberg and around the world that we are following. President trump steals the show on day three ahead of his highly anticipated speech on friday, he has already met with theresa may and the israeli Prime Minister netanyahu. Also, brazils finance minister and his take on the former president s corruption charges and whyanimously upheld his absence will make more room for candidates. Apple says it is ready to take on amazon again. This time in the digital bookmark. Hour. T this lets go to Abigail Doolittle for a check on the market. Gains fore have solid the s p 500 and the nasdaq. Another alltime high for the s p 500 on pace for a record closing high after a little intraday volatility earlier as part of the nasdaq, slightly lower following what we saw yesterday. Having its worst day of the year. Gains today but the dow transports once again underperforming one port down 1. 2 . The worst three days of the dow transports since july of last year. Take a look at american airlines, and delta. American airlines today reported the stock down 2. 6 . Are raised the forecast and also talking about the idea that they will be able to boost fares. Yesterday, United Continental said they were willing to match fares. A little bit of a diversions between the views of the two airlines but nonetheless, investors not liking the possibility that fares overall may not rise. We could see another price war similar to what we saw last summer. Helping the dow outperform, take up 2 or 50 ing gain on the year. This of course follows President Trump of u. K. Prime minister theresa may today in devils talking about boeing, maybe investors thinking those two leaders will help with the trade dispute. Finally, cross asset , asset class, a little more risk off. The yen and gold trading higher gaugee vix, the fear spiking a little higher. Maybe a slight risk here but stocks are trading nicely higher. Vonnie thank you for the roundup. Billionaires, World Leaders, and investors have gathered gathered for the Economic Forum annual meeting. President trump arrived today to sell his America First policies to may be skeptical audiences of world first a agenda. Heres talk about how that pitch is going is the Bloomberg White house editor alix who is in davos. Any positive reaction at all to the u. S. Delegation . Quite setting the ceos here are happy to see trump and they are happy with the tax cuts, he lowered u. S. Corporate tax rates to 21 of course. He is getting a favorable review from ceos. From World Leaders, it is a little different story. He had a good meeting today with theresa may apparently, and Prime Minister netanyahu of israel, but other leaders have come to the conference, Justin Trudeau and Angela Merkel in particular from canada and german germany and they have made a point to draw a contrast with the president. He arrived in a very donald trump fashion. He and his it ministration and delegation flying on four or five helicopters through through the swiss outs, his press secretary tweeting pictures and when he came in to the convention site, it was quite a scene. Press andbed by participants. Of course the american president in 18 years to address the meeting, highly anticipated. What do we expect from the speech . Thing, he will tell some of them that they were wrong last year when they predicted his election would lead to an economic slump in the u. S. That did not happen. He has a leg to stand on. Also coming to pitch them on his America First agenda. Just because he looking out for americans, it does not mean hes not concerned about the world. He also believes strongly if he can raise wages for the middle class in america, he will create whichd for imports, will help the economy. He will try to persuade the. Olks here vonnie how to share what has become a fractured world is really the theme. Mightof leaders actually be a little more sharing of what donald trump is saying then leaders that arent, and thinking about easter and so forth, and theresa may herself, it is not everybody against donald trump, right . No, it is not. His friends are trying to sell America First as simply the way that any good leader should regard the world. You should look out for your the citizens of other countries. Trump is big on borders for example and sovereignty. He believes strongly that those are ok positions to hold, that nations should have borders and be able to essentially do what they want inside of them. Anyy ahn are we getting pushback on secretary mnuchins comments on a weaker dollar benefiting the United States, and rosss comments on trade . Kind of walk that back today. Steve mnuchin said he did not think he was saying anything differently than what he said before. He said he is not concerned about the shortterm fluctuation of the dollar. Were meant comments to only express a view of the longterm position of the dollar. As for the trade war remarks, he said he is not proposing or advocating for a trade war. He is just observing that he believes a lot of Foreign Countries treat the u. S. Unfairly in trade deals. In washington,le the russian investigations continue in the president is getting away for a couple of days but there must be many and i wonder if it is coming up at . Ll . I have not heard of anyone talk about the rush investigation in the context of the president s vision here but there are a number of russians he could encounter when he is here. One of them is not Vladimir Putin for what that is worth. Despite how the president arrived, what is the reaction among Global Leaders . Has his status been diminished because of what is happening domestically . It is a good question but i have not seen evidence of that. Fewerect he is Holding Meetings with foreign leaders, and he is only doing i think three, the two he did today and then meeting with the president tomorrow, in union which will be an interesting meeting after his remarks about african countries a couple of weeks ago. I do not sense he is a diminished figure here. It is still quite an event when the president of united dates comes here. Looking forward to the next few days, alix, a White House Correspondent for bloomberg. Coming up, stocks are in the green as corporate earnings drive big gains. Rallies are a reason to free up cash on the sidelines. How long could optimism last . This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is Bloomberg Markets. Shery ahn stocks are edging higher today as markets hit one record high after the next. To free a growing push up cash on the sidelines. Larry fink is joining cautioning against Investors Holding high levels of cash. It is one of the reasons i believe we have more momentum, because the pool of money sitting around. For more on what investors bringing theching president and ceo, it is great to have you with us. I went through your notes and you say cash is getting to be interesting why . It is solely a matter of volatility and yield. So, fixed income, you can see what the fed has done and what they seem to be likely to do in the next year or so, so youre getting a real yield where you have not for quite a number of years. Cash is getting more attractive and not less. It is a different scenario than it was two or three years ago was very negative real yields. Vonnie what does that mean concretely for the rest of us . It simply means shortterm fixed income, which used to be something you are almost guaranteed to lose money on, it is something you will make money on a real basis after inflation. The indicators i look at say the prettyning in stocks is strong and everyone is kind of short bonds and does not have a lot of cash. There is a lot of cash on the sidelines and i am not sure i agree with mr. Fink. This week, we saw movement in that sense. Demand very strong, we saw the twoyear option on tuesday, covering more than two years, this is a price action you are talking about. Yes. It starts to actually be a viable asset class, or a viable investment position. Before it was negative real yields. Now, you are seeing it above 2 with inflation below. It is a positive differential which does not sound attractive. Stocks have been fantastic. But it is actually positive, different than the last five plus years. But youre not recommending that investors or anything like that, right . So what are you recommending . Prettyink folks are excited about Equity Securities globally. I think the u. S. Is seeking a tremendous rally, well over and above what you are seeing for earnings progression which shows up. The longterm would tell you that will be a strict constrained and return environment. In some portfolios i run, i actually am increasing cash levels. Again because it is viable before it was not. Very interesting in a notes, you say it is more interesting to see what tim cook and jeff bezos are saying today than gorman why is that . Seeing a lot of talking heads and before, you could see a lot of financial folks say, for example in 2006 and 2007, who talk about everything is aret, now you guys reporting that financial folks are sounding a caution alarm. That little sympathetic to. That said, the folks moving the market today are the tim cooks and the jeff bezoss of the world. And rightly, may, they are taking a backseat to that. That is really moving the market as opposed to certainly me but folks like lloyd blankfein. Where are you looking in the world or the United States to dip into more of the cash you have been allocating to the sidelines . Where might it he an opportunity for 2018 . Taking a step back and looking at fundamentals and putting it in the context of the ofbe, theres a lot enthusiasm for highgrowth stories. That can be a part of your portfolio. What is left behind is the steady cash flow generation. Are you trying, to get rich quickly or are you ok getting rich slowly and dialing back volatility . That is what were looking at. Nice places, financials have been terrific that they are benefiting from this type of environment. Other steady Asset Classes that look interesting to us and where we are allocating more capital versus chasing the latest growth story. Have gdp numbers out tomorrow, the expectation that it would be a third second of consecutive quarter. A weak could push out inflation. Are you expecting jay powell to move faster than expected given the background in this environment . Yes i am. I suspect the fed raising rates or at least continue on the path where they are on, especially given financial conditions overall which, remember, that was something the fed president deadly worked on. Was instrumental like Goldman Sachs thinking about financial conditions. With are accommodated even the fed raising. I expect them to stay on that pathway which i think will cause some vote kill volatility in the market overall. Vonnie great to talk to you. Jason brady, the president and ceo of thornburg investment. Shery ahn time for a look at the biggest stories in the news right now at monsantos of on Artificial Intelligence to make seeds. Their chief scientist says the key learning is to help refine, making the process faster and cheaper. Its a technology singer similar to face recognition would help identify plant and crop diseases. The gender pay gap in retail is widening. Data shows workers at mens stores earned 56 more per hour than in womens apparel as of november. Two years ago, the gap was 10 , theening partly in shift to highend boutiques and personalized service. The institutional womens policy Research Found across retailers, women still learn earn about 74 of mens pay. Is Real Estate Market getting a boost from the rising stock market. , fourthg to reports quarter home sales jumped 34 from a year ago there were 756 homes from the market at the end of september down 43 . The drop is the biggest since the First Quarter of 2008. That is your business flash update. Still ahead, ge provides 15 billion shortfalls. We will bring you details on the genesis of the industrial giants woes decades in the making. This is bloomberg. Shery ahn this is Bloomberg Markets. Vonnie the recent trouble at ge that led to an sec investigation and push down the share price, well, it turns out it is not all that recent. This was in fact 14 years in the making and started inside the ge financial unit. Us with the details is rick. Negligence and maybe even criminal behavior . Fcc is looking into the circumstances that led to this situation. Last week, ge disclosed they would take a 6. 2 billion and this in this insurance portfolio. It is something that has happened for a long time in the making. Business ino the the late 1980s and 1990s. They actually got out of it completely more than a decade ago. By 2006, they were out of the business but had to hang on to the portfolio. The problem was not so much the policies of the whole market. In the late 1990s in early 2000s, they had issues with those portfolios. It was really a surprise, the magnitude of the charge taken. Why didnt anybody get ahead of these liabilities . It was spun out and had a lot of longterm care liabilities and they had been taking additional charges to add reserves and reevaluate their assumptions. Ge does at least an annual review of this portfolio but there is not a lot of evidence that there have been fundamental changes in how they viewed it for a long time. It is only in this view thattaken in the past year they finally knowledge the extent of the issues. He is gone now and to a certain extent, it is just a matter of curiosity. It is probably one of the things investigators will look into. He was the ceo. In some sense, the buck stops with him. There were regulators, committees, the board, and in that way, it is really surprising that this could have gone seemingly unnoticed for. His long who or what are they blaming this on . Market largely. These are liabilities that are going to become an issue. There were certain trait use triggers over the past year or terms of the policyholders making claims which led them to reevaluate assumptions. Them, it waso something that was going to happen and they evaluate regularly and it is all clear. Thank you for that. Coming up, we bring you a conversation with the finance minister, his thoughts on domestic consumption. This is bloomberg. Vonnie from new york, im vonnie quinn. Shery im shery ahn. This is Bloomberg Markets. U. S. Stocks at record highs. Investors very much focused on the result. The dow is up point 7 . Industrials and materials leading the gains. 20 percent of s p 500 companies have already reported earnings. 80 have beaten estimates. Up. 3 . Aq is take a look at what the dollar is doing because it continues to lose ground. Headed for the biggest weekly decline in 18 months. Secretary mnuchin still in davos expanding on his weak greenback views saying there are pros and cons to the Exchange Rate. Emergingmarket stocks are also rallying for 10th consecutive session. Vonnie lets get to the first word news. Will delivertrump the keynote address at the world Economic Forum in davos, switzerland tomorrow. He says he plans to tell the world how Great America is. Our economy is booming and now that i am doing better we will only get better. He is the first u. S. Chief executive to attend the summit since bill clinton in 2000. China is promising to take action against u. S. Sanctioned companies if it sees solid evidence they illegally help north korea. It also cautioned against imposing foreign laws on chinese citizens. The Trump Administration announced sanctions on wednesday on north korean Business Networks in china and russia as a push to cut off revenues are the Nations Nuclear program. Deadast three people are and several more in serious condition after a commuter train en route to milan derailed in northern italy. Climbed through the crushed sides of the cars trying to get to trapped passengers. The cause of the derailment has not been determined. Believesetarygeneral a return of oil markets to balance this year is a foregone conclusion and the cartel is already looking ahead. He spoke to bloomberg tv at the world Economic Forum in davos. I have just told you that we are looking beyond the market. In the fullness of time sometime this year will return to balance. How are step would be we going to continue this operation and partnership between opec and nonopec. He may have a bit of a challenge convincing nonopec nations like russia to extend existing production cuts with crude rallying above 60 a barrel. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. We continue our coverage from the world Economic Forum in davos. Earlier Erik Schatzker caught up with the brazil minister of finance. He started by asking about his fight to keep brazils credit from getting downgraded and why it failed. Agency has stated very clearly what the reasons are. Erik s p. Postponement of defaulting on Social Security and other measures and thats very clear. And more important from my Vantage Point is that they indicated what is going to be necessary for the upgrade and that is the faulting of Social Security which i think is going to happen now in february number one. 2003d that brazil grows in to 2018. Thats a given. Because brazil is already growing. Third the results it remained to be seen. Erik we have been talking about pension reform for two years. What gives you confidence that this is going to happen in february and if it doesnt happen in february how much of a window do you have to get it done before it becomes a matter for the next president . And i at this point am networking with plan b or alternatives. Erik i dont believe that for a moment. Youve always got a plan b. Thats your opinion. B thatalk about plan gives people ideas about other options. Is the goodbrazil and i thinknow there is a more understanding a better understanding in the country and at the congress of the proposed reform. Its very clear that its a fair system. The one which is proposed. And actually it will benefit the lower level income people. Because of the way it is structured the system. In summary i think now chances are much better. Sudden thanks or perhaps no thanks to secretary mnuchin the reality is trading at its strongest level since october. Its quite a reevaluation. Yes. Erik currency strength has a way of sabotaging growth. Are you worried about the real at this level . Statements influence currency but for a short period. I dont think only statements will keep currencies at some level. These tend to normalize. Erik so you think its going to go back . I dont know. We are talking about the dollar. Erik it translates into every other currency in the world. Exactly. I mean this is what its going to influence. The dollar at the end of the day is the fundamental. Erik you have to worry about the Exchange Rate for the real. And it is stronger. Is the current level problematic . No, its not problematic. Erik what would be problematic . Levels tot set consider problematic. When i took over central bank several years ago the real was almost 4. 1. 56. Point it was what i am saying is indeed its an important element but thats not the only one. The good element is that conception is going and the brazilian economy is driven mostly by domestic market. They are not the main driver for the growth and brazil. The imf says brazils economy is going to grow one point 9 this year. The government says its going to grow 3 . Are you more bullish than that . I think 3 is a good number. I think this number is being including the analysts of the finance ministry. Erik what about the analyst sitting in the chair across from me . Getting betteris and better. The numbers increased by the second half of last year because the market was becoming stronger. The economy was giving signals. Now 3 is a solid number. Erik is it more likely to surprise on the upside than the downside . I think so. Erik Getting Better and better. s growth accelerates will the government consider raising taxes to compensate for the fiscal adjustment that congress did not pass . We are not considering raising taxes now. We are considering other kinds of expense control and one important point to take into consideration as well as we are making our calculations is wasuse the gdp growth higher than expectedwe are befod the correlation between tax revenues and gdp growth rates is higher than tax revenues grow more than gdp normally. When gdp is on the way up. That means that tax revenues are also going to surprise on the upside. Vonnie that was brazils minister of finance speaking with Erik Schatzker. Sticking with brazil, the conviction of the president upheld his prison sentence. Even lengthened in that decision by an Appeals Court yesterday. Market had priced in that outcome but whats next for brazil . , bruce from the capital douglas. Partys accepted his nomination to run for the october president ial election. Whats the likelihood that lula makes a comeback . At this stage it is really a symbolic candidacy. Just hours after his conviction he addressed the crowd of andorters in sao paulo compared himself to Nelson Mandela saying that he faced an unjust prison sentence and vowing to fight to this injustice. The fact is his Legal Options are narrowing. Team have said they are going to pursue all possible challenges to the verdict yesterday. And there are higher courts where he can take the appeal. Time is not necessarily on his side. The elections are in october. There is a significant possibility that he will be barred from standing. There is still a Second Degree of legal wiggle room so we are not at the end of the saga just yet. Shery Party Members may want to keep some distance from lula after this conviction was upheld. How will this fragment the left . I think thats very true. Members are very much behind the former president. One of the founders of the project and instrumental to its successes. Other members of the party that started to coalesce around his candidacy will now be starting to take their distance because it does appear like his bid for power is increasingly forlorn and therefore his hopes of writing his coattails to some significant positions in his next administration dont look like theyre happening. Move towardst to other candidates and we have a very wide open field for the 2018 election. Vonnie we are up 20 less. The real has been strengthening. Markets arent worried. Is there any reason for markets to just be a little less complacent . I think thats a good point. I think there is still somewhere to run with this saga. Its looking pretty grim for former president lula at the moment. The Eurasia Group put his chances at becoming a candidate 30 now. That is not nothing and there is still a chance he could somehow string out his appeal to allow himself to run as a candidate and he has been taking an increasingly strident tone against the market. In a speech to supporters the day before thecandidate trial he doesnt need the Financial Markets you just needs the people on his side to as there is still a possibility however small of him coming back to power i think it would be a little bit early to write him off completely. There is still the possibility that we may see a third term of office. Vonnie why is the former president so popular . Many brazilians see him as a champion of the poor. It is true that during his terms of Office Brazil read the commodities boom successfully and he is credited with hauling millions of brazilians out of poverty and therefore he holds a very special place in the hearts of many brazilians. He is possibly the only brazilian president to come from a very humble background. Most brazilian president s come from the elite. His life story attracted many millions of resilience. They have a fantastic rhetoric as well. He is able to connect with people on a direct level. Given some of the other candidates we have in this election and the other many of whom have also been tainted with corruption allegations lula stands head and shoulders above many. Shery thank you, Bruce Douglas joining us from brasilia. Many of whom have also been tainted with corruption allegationscoming up. Apple is throwing down the gauntlet on amazon with the revamped ebooks push. We will bring you the details next. This is bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Markets. Im shery ahn. Vonnie im vonnie quinn. Apple is ready to take on amazon in the digital book market again. Working on at is redesigned version of its ebook reading application for iphones and ipads and has hired an executive from amazon to help. Years afteres regulators forced the iphone maker to back down from an earlier effort to challenge the ecommerce giants lead. Joining us from San FranciscoBloomberg Technology reporter mark gurman. Its fascinating. Apple tends to do things after everybody else and perhaps maybe a little better or more stylishly. What will this effort look like . Its interesting because when steve jobs unveils the first ipad in 2010 thats eight years ago now. One of the key features was the color screen that you could read books on. Taking on the amazon kindle. In between there were a few redesigns to the app. Of the appleersion tv now for kids. It has sort of been forgotten about. They have hired a new executive. He was senior vp at amazon for their audible books division. Now apple is doing their new thing. Its a redesigned books app. Its just called books. Probably to match apple music. There will be a new section called reading now. A redesigned to store to match the design of the new app store from ios 11 last year as well as a few new tabs for audiobooks. A new focus as amazon and google for its part both of their efforts in the ebook game. When it used ibook first came out and i switched to the kindle because of the ease of use. Will i and others be compelled to switch back . I think so. Starting a couple years ago apple started preinstalling the ibooks app on iphones and ipads that were bought new from apple. Where is on the kindle app have to the app store and download it. Tores many people who went download the kindle app specifically because of the way it synchronizes amazons system and also because its quite a bit that are in terms of functionality. Now apple is stepping back and saying we want to play back in this game and this app is quite a bit nicer in terms of its design and functionality. I think it will definitely get more people to use the app. In the worst case it shows the companys continued dedication to the platform. So apple will definitely try to attract people back to the platform in the first case. What about the danger of apple obstructing amazon making its apps better . Absolutely not. Its two different playing field. Amazon will continue to update their app on a regular basis. Google is doing so as well. They announced a new audiobook feature just a few days ago. Apple will continue updating theirs. I dont think apple would have itseason or even away, not even something on the table for them to obstruct amazon or anyone else. Shery when it comes to the ebook industry whats the picture like in terms of market share right now . Amazon is way ahead here they have the best majority of the market. Around 80 . Google has a very small slice and apple a very small slices think apples percentage of the market is so slim at this point because they really forgot about it. When you want to download a book the kindle application on mobile devices or the standalone the readers have become basically synonymous with the concept of digital book reading. Apple wanted to go into that market. It was a big component of the ipad and first announced in 2010. Now they are going back and making a big push around it and we are going to see people referring to the new apple book service as one of the main players in digital book reading next year or so. Shery i totally forgot about ibooks. Thank you for the scoop. Great story, mark gurman. Vonnie time for our latest Bloomberg Business flash. Can count ons higher airfares. American Airlines Says it expects a key metric of Pricing Power to rise 4 this quarter over last year. One of americans biggest competitors, United Airlines may be setting the stage for a re ware. Is giving bonuses to employees because of the tax cuts. The chain will pay hourly workers a onetime bonus of 1000. An undisclosed amount paid for in Machine Learning start a. They will use the Image Recognition technology to match buyers tastes with available art. The startup founders previously worked at spotify. They helped design the technology that makes music recommendations. Up, new will is having a very bad day and may need to drop some of those familiar names. We will tell you about it in our stock of the hour. This is bloomberg. Having a very bad day and may need to drop some of vonnie this is Bloomberg Markets. Im vonnie quinn. Shery im shery ahn. That ownsnds household names such as rubbermaid and sharpie is off as much as 20 this morning. More than 20 . They areands said selling off a swath of businesses that could cut its Customer Base and half. Joining us with more is taylor riggs. Breaking up the empire. Its gotten so complex. The big miss today was their culinary twice 17 earnings per share. They lowered that from the previous guidance and its also lower than what the average Bloomberg Analyst had estimated. Going forward it doesnt look like it gets a lot better. Their 2018 earningspershare guidance also down a little bit from the average analyst estimate. Ceo is saying at least in the ecommerce business things look good. They are able to grow double digits. Its just complex. Look at this chart. They have a product mix from all different sectors all over the place. In reaction the company said they are looking at nonstrategic assets to reduce some of this complexity. Some of these are the smaller consumer businesses like rubbermaid. On the commercial side of things looking to exit out of the rubbermaid commercial. Wasnt long ago when they made an acquisition that doubled their revenue. Now all about simplification. Vonnie what is the street saying . Two different takes. Some very negative. Barclays analysts lowered the price target. They said simply put we have sort of given up hope. Lost confidence. On the other hand suntrust said after the shakeout today things look pretty good. We have repriced at a lower put. It depends on what side trade you are on. The stock has made up its mind. More than 20 . Tothe next hour we will talk a former top investigator during the whitewater probe of president bill clinton. Well talk about the risks President Trump could face if he sits down for an interview with special Counsel Robert Mueller which President Trump has said he is looking forward to. Vonnie a quick reminder, you can catch all of our interviews. Just type in tv on your bloomberg. You can watch the davos interviews and much more. Tv on your bloomberg. Some interactive features as well for you to have fun with. Balance of power is next. This is bloomberg. Scarlet its 1 00 in washington. From bloombergs World Headquarters in new york, im shery ahn. David and im david westin. Welcome to Bloomberg Markets allens of power Bloomberg Markets balance of power. Shery President Trump is in davos. He has met with theresa may and benjamin netanyahu. How Global Leaders are taking his America First message. Back in washington the Mueller Probe is said to be taking up the pace as one part of the investigation heads towards its conclusion. Will President Trump talking with the molar team . Chuck says republicans should feel pressure to come to an agreement on immigration. Do republicans actually feel the feelko we will ask the heat . We will ask john hogan. David President Trump aims to bring his America First message to davos trying to persuade World Leaders that a stronger United States will benefit them as well. He started this mo w