Uncertainty that farmers are facing in the midwest. Kailey cbs and viacom finally reunite. Wework unveils its plan to go public. Chinese tech leads another parade of earnings and ad revenue. The focus is on the decline in online ad revenues. Kailey the weeks important perspective. You look around the world, not a lot of great news lately. Baseline does not suggest a. A recession, but these factors, keep an eye on them. Kailey it is ahead on bloomberg best. Hello and welcome. I am kailey leinz. This is bloomberg best, your weekly review of the most interviews, Business News, and analysis from Bloomberg Television around the world. Lets look at the top headlines. We begin with investors jolted by political shocks. Hong kong protesters forced the citys airport to shut down, canceling hundreds of flights. And in argentina, a surprising result in primary reactions a set off a chaotic election. Francine argentina is at the crossroads. While the president is looking to us second term, his path to the presidency just hit a massive roadblock. At the moment, his main rival , the opposition candidate to grab the momentum and came in 15 Percentage Points ahead in the nationwide poll. This was a massive surprise in argentina, the 15 point difference between the two candidates. Many analysts would say it is all but insurmountable. They like his policies. They are marketoriented. Fernandez, it is not clear, and he would probably be more interventionist, it is not clear what he would do with the imf. It is pretty sure is today could be carnage in the argentine markets. The peso has plunged to a record low against the u. S. Dollar. What happens in these next two months in a half . That is the big question. And today we have not seen the , opposition candidate. It seems like they are both comfortable in the situation where, you know, maybe a little bit of chaos can help them toward the election. So that is a dangerous game. We could be in a fullon crisis if we dont have reassurances of what a government will look like under fernandez. There you have it. You can close the book on another day of losses, so the s p 500 hits the second day of declines. The second day of declines for the dow and the nasdaq. New walls of worry, the new bricks in the wall. Argentina added. Hong kong added to it. Not to mention the saga of italy, trade, brexit. We think it is slowing growth that is winning the battle now. Tense standoff at hong kongs airport, where protesters are forcing a Major Service outage for a second day running. This comes as the citys leader, carrie lam, says the city is in danger of sliding into chaos. They continue to grow this they were climbing up the walls here. They were using umbrellas. They were security cameras so airport staff would not see what was going on. Police officers arrived here. They tried to dispel these crowds. They were able to retrieve the man protesters had tied down earlier. This man, the protesters alleged was a mainland Public Security officer. They tied him down. He was beaten up. Until finally, please showed up. There were clashes between some tourists, as well, trying to climb over these protesters and get through and make it to their flight. So it is getting a bit heated here as well. We have heard from president trump, tweeting china is mobilizing its troops to the hong kong border. What do we know about beijings response . Well, certainly we have seen a sharpening, a hardening of the rhetoric out of beijing. We have heard from officials in on hong kong in the Macau Affairs office, saying they are seeing signs of terrorism. The question is whether this is an intimidation tactic by beijing or whether they are now laying the groundwork for some sort of intervention in hong kong. Scarlet u. S. Tariffs planned on some Chinese Consumer goods as of september 1 have been postponed until middecember. This grace period appears to be to avoid price increases for the holiday pricing season. It happened after the u. S. Stock market opened. And it opened down, in fact, for the Third Straight day. Today looked like we were set for another down day. U. S. Trade representatives did something rare. They announced just after the market open, in a move designed to try and cheer the market up a little bit. They announced that they would be separating september 1 tariff increases into two separate legs, with the biggest hit being moved to december 15. That, as you mentioned, was for toys, laptops, smartphones. Things like that. We know there are more talks happening in two weeks. At this point, the fact that they are talking is good news. But, they still have some enormous issues that they have to sort out. And the fact is they could not sort them out a couple of weeks ago when they met in shanghai. I am not sure they are all going to be resolved in a couple weeks. Vonnie chinas july industrial output posted the weakest growth in 17 years, amid pressures from trade tensions. It is clear now that we have a slowdown in germany, u. K. , and for china, that means they are going to have to drill off some of their domestic demand. Numbers pointing to an ongoing slow down. Retail sales was a big mess. A part of that is slowing car sales. All that means china is going to have to come to support its own economy. The world will not rescue it. Matt the German Economy shrank in the three months to june. Trade tensions between the u. S. And china could have weighed on its exportheavy manufacturing sector. That is what we saw. This sharpened pressure on politicians in berlin to loosen the fiscal purse strings. The numbers today, they came in as expected. They have shown the export a crucialnys element part of the German Economy, has suffered in the Second Quarter. That is definitely piling on more pressure on the German Government to do something in terms of a fiscal stimulus. Taylor another u. S. Recession warning is glaring. It is all about the twoten spread, the yield curve inverting for the First Time Since 2007. This as the yield plunged to a record low as well. When you break through levels that have never been rogan broken before, that is an indicator there is a reach for you globally, and we might not see yields this high anytime soon. When i came in, and i saw that twoten inversion hit the level it did in 2007, there was a chill going up up my spine. Senior investors i have this , reaction. I am sure a lot of the reaction today is emotional. The market believes the fed is no longer preemptive. This midcycle adjustment is not enough. Therefore, the question is the fed will only cut two or more more times. Three what is ahead for the u. S. Economy . They are signaling a recession, i kinda believe it. David Chinas State Council responded today to president trumps plan to impose more tariffs on imports, saying the u. S. Action would violate and with china, and they had no choice but to take necessary measures. Then the ministry of Foreign Affairs said talks were ongoing between xi and trump, and they hoped for a negotiated resolution. We have heard contradictions from the trump administration. But china usually has a clear message. Today was a little bit different. I think it is no surprise that china will move forward with retaliation in these 10 tariffs on the goods that are going to be hit in september and december, even though there has been a bit of a delay for some of those. China saying, we are going ahead and retaliate. We dont know what the targets are. In the past, they have hit things like farming goods and some lowerlevel plane models. We will have to see what they come up with this time. But at the same time, they have indicated that they might be able to meet the Administration Part of the way in a deal. Anna trade concerns driving the 10year treasury below 1. 5 since august. 30year yields, record low, below 2 . How much further can we go with the 10year . That is a great question. Especially because now, at a record low, we are literally in uncharted territory. There has been some Technical Analysis tried to be applied, and right now we are looking at 1. 9 . Because trendlines suggest that is a line in the sand. We will see if we get there. Markets aree anxious right now. It may not take a lot. China is vowing to retaliate to looming tariffs. Beijing also pushing back on u. S. Efforts to link the trade war with the terminal in hong kong. That, as trump says, he is said to talk to xi soon. I dont think they will retaliate. But if they did, we have the ultimate form of retaliation. I think they have very few jobs left in china. Mixed signals. You are hearing from trump china is desperate to get a deal, that hes going to have a phone call nonetheless. You are hearing from the chinese side, despite retaliating, they are planning to send negotiators to washington in september to continue those talks, so very mixed messages from both sides. The messages by trump, linking hong kong and trade, suggesting maybe president xi go and with involve himself by meeting with protesters, definitely not welcome messages in beijing. Chinese officials have said this is an internal affair, and china has said repeatedly it thinks the u. S. Is helping to ferment the unrest in hong kong. There is a lot going on. He thinks hes going to have a call with president xi. It seems china is digging in for the long haul. Kailey still ahead as we review the week on bloomberg best, former cisco ceo John Chambers talks about the latest twists and turns in global trade. Mohamed elerian assessing recession risks. Plus, david westin gets exclusive insight from the bank of america ceo brian moynahan. Brian so we have nothing to fear except the fear of recession. Kailey the focus shifts to earnings. We also read the papers and hear the news. There is lots of uncertainty. Kailey this is bloomberg. Kailey this is bloomberg best. Lets continue our global tour of the weeks top business stories with a deep dive into a flood of earnings reports, starting with chinese ecommerce giant alibaba. Paul alibaba surged in new york after posting better than expected revenue. And that is despite geopolitical headwinds. Quarterly revenue rose 42 . More than 16 billion. The secular drivers are actually well understood. Rising incomes in tier one cities, tier two cities, increasing digitization in lower tier cities. That drives the core business. They grow at 26 , 27 , their commerce businesses grows at 30 . The Company Guided for 33 growth for the year. But what really drove the growth over the top are the investments in local services. These things are growing at more than 100 . They have been spending a lot of money on these investments. Now i think it is coming together and bringing returns for them. Tencent reported second alix tencent reported Second Quarter revenue that missed analyst estimates, while the chinese social media and Gaming Company beat expectations, online ad revenue grew worse than expected, 16 . What are investors focused on here . It seems to be a mixed bag. Even though those profit numbers beat expectations, the focus was really on decline around online ad revenue. It is a promising area that starting to see it get hit by broader Economic Issues in china as well as competition. What was interesting on the call was where the company pointed out the slowdown in advertising ad sales buys. This is from the automobile sector, the real estate sector, the Financial Sector which is really not a surprise, given a the string of weak Economic Data that we have seen come out of china. The Worlds Largest crude oil producer will soon donate part of the Worlds Biggest Oil refinery. Saudi aramco will buy a stake in what is estimated to be a 15 billion deal. I can attest the company is ready for an ipo. The timing of the ipo will be determined by our shareholders or the owner of the company. Francine if you look at the earnings and you think of investing in the ipo, do you worry about the fact it is not diversified enough or some of the oil reserves, or you just wait to see how they price the ipo . Clearly from the perspective of the companys ability to generate cash, obviously it throws off a huge amount of cash from oil production. I suppose the bigger question for the Equity Investors is how much can it produce in terms of a dividend for Equity Investors. We saw in the Financial Statements they just put out for the first time, there is this 20 billion special dividend that they just paid paid to the government. So the question will be, you know, in a postipo environment, will it still be paying out that sort of money in a special dividend to investors, or is this just a oneoff that has gone into the saudi budget to help prop up the saudi economy at a time when they are trying have been trying to boost spending to grow the saudi economy . Caroline macys big miss. It is the worst performer on the s p 500, in fact, the lowest we have seen the shares since 2010. They have plunged after a worse than expected Second Quarter. What is worrying is that 10 tariffs that have been delayed, they are not in the future forecast of macys that they already downgraded. Thats right. This is based on the fact they were struggling to sell clothes in the Second Quarter. Caroline wow. Sarah yeah. The tariffs, we have other discouraging signals today. They said on a previous batch of tariffs that affected houseware, furnishings, they tried selectively raising prices and it did not work. What the ceo said is that consumers do not have the appetite for these price increases. That looks worrisome is more tariffs are set to go into effect later this year. Vonnie walmart setting a high bar for other u. S. Retailers. It raised its fullyear outlook. That may sidestep concerns about the trump administrations tariffs. It is up more than 4 . Mark are people trading down to walmart, because they cannot shop at other stores . People worry about this. We saw it in 2008. Are we starting to see a repetition of that . Sarah no, i think it is a little early to say we are seeing a repetition of that. What we saw from walmart today, broadbased strength. In traffic and basket. We saw an increase that is part of what was driving the growth. That means essentially people were buying more things per order, or were buying pricier things per order. That is a good sign this is just folks out there spending and enthusiastically as opposed to trading down. That is something we have to watch for us these tariffs kick in. The worlds biggest shipping group mollermaersk has been estimates, but set the Global Outlook remains uncertain. The group stuck to its outlook and said they realized a billion dollars in synergies faster than expected. Could you take us behind the numbers and give us a sense of how concerned you are about global uncertainty for the rest of the year . Soren first, i would like to say that the trade tensions have been manageable for us so far. Global demand grew 2 in the Second Quarter. The u. S. Imports grew 2. 5 . They are way down, around 7 from china. But goods are coming to the u. S. From many other places. And that has allowed us to manage the situation quite well. Of course looking forward, we also read the papers and hear the news. And there are lots of uncertainties, especially to have the trade tensions between china and the u. S. Will be eventually resolved or not. So that is why we believe it is right to reiterate our guidance for the year. David deere was out with its earnings, and it missed estimates. They missed for the last quarter. They took it down and said they got a look at fundamental restructuring. John the results today reflect the high degree of uncertainty farmers are facing in the midwest. It has really been a challenging time with the trade uncertainty, which has been report we got compounded by the disastrous this week, where we saw higher than expected acreage planted, yields, production, which are going to weigh in corn prices in the near to midterm. Really just makes it a challenging backdrop for the year moving into 2020. Kailey you are watching bloomberg best. I am kailey leinz. Week in the turbulent the global market, david westin discusses what is next to come in an exclusive interview with ceo brianerica moynihan. Brian you have the yield curves causedding, s in birding, so wt this . Brian it is largely the concerns around trade and manufacturing. Whether the brexit situation, which does not seem to settle down, europe slowing down, and Central Banks saying we need to slow down, china slowing down, the need for companies to restructure the supply chains to avoid the tariffs, which means they are moving money, not producing new products, capability. So that debate, and they debate about the debate. The old saying we have nothing to fear but fear itself, we have nothing to fear right now but the fear of recession. O the trade war continueif, if this is not get solved or that is not get all, it will have an impact on consumer confidence. The Business Confidence as come down a little bit here to small and mediumsized businesses are fine, they are just worried about what is going on around the world. David there is no shortage of advice for jay powell right now. Why dont you join that chorus . Brian one thing jay powell does not need as one more piece of advice on this area they are thinking about this in the growth periods of the 1990s, when there was a need to go in and make financial conditions a bit more accommodative to help prolong this longest in history growth period. In a statement to the press, they do not see anything we dont see, which is the economy is fine, and u. S. Consumers are fine. They will continue to watch the data, and they will make choices, but i think people are over reading the negative side of what they see. They need to help the long and create accommodation, so this will continue. This is the longest recovery ever. Keeping it going in this size economy takes some help. Kailey coming up, more of the weeks compelling conversations. Remarks on the chinese trade war from one of the most respected voices. And bloomberg opinions Mohamed Elerian has blunt words for the fed. Mohamed we no longer have anything anchoring the market. Kailey this is bloomberg. Kailey welcome back to bloomberg best. I am kailey leinz. The push and pull on trade between the u. S. And china continues this week, with tweets and headlines driving Market Sentiment up and down on a nearly daily basis. Meanwhile, businesses are trying to set longterm plans and maintain their equilibrium in an uncertain environment. John chambers, the former chairman and ceo of cisco, shared his perspective on the situation. John what i tried to do is not look at the individual moves in the chess game from both sides but look at the big picture. The big picture is the relationship between the u. S. And china, and i have been in china over 40 years. It used to be a winwin. It has developed into winlose with the u. S. Losing. There is not a level Playing Field in terms of how Chinese Companies are treated in the u. S. Versus how American Companies are treated in china. The industrial espionage is at an unacceptable level, and we have to get back to a better balance in terms of trade. So i do agree that the u. S. Had to address this. Secondly, however, it is in both countries best interest that we get a resolution here. So im more optimistic than others that the resolution will occur, but the question you ask is the right way to ask it. It is not about delaying tariffs. Tariffs are the transactional these. Piece. It is can we get the resolution on the intellectual property protection, a level Playing Field between the businesses and the countries, and do it in a way both countries win . It is in both countrys best interest. I am probably more optimistic this will be resolved over the next three to four months versus many of my counterparts. Paul one of those stories connected to this is supply chain diversification, how hp equipment is shipping all of its operations back to taiwan. One of its competitors is doing Something Different something similar. So in that environment that you described, the winlose, the ongoing battle with no end in sight if you are diversifying your supply chain, doesnt make sense to go back to china . John well, it will always make sense to be in china as long as it is a reasonably level Playing Field. They will be the second largest economy in the world and have a good shot at becoming number one, so it will be the u. S. , china, and india, in my opinion. On that i think it creates opportunities for other countries throughout asia, such as india, such as vietnam, etc. , to benefit from the changes. I look at who it might indirectly benefit. But to the endgame, in the end, it is in chinas best interest , in the u. S. s best interest to have free trade on a global basis. I think we will move back toward that. Unfortunately, i think the Current Issues were necessary, and hopefully we will arrive at a true winwin solution. Kailey another perspective on the trade war came from the philippines. A Southeast Asian nation that found itself caught in escalated tensions between the worlds two largest economies. In an exclusive interview, Vice President leni robredo told the bloombergs Haslinda Amin the country was told it didnt need to pick sides even as the current u. S. Administration feuds with beijing. Vp robredo i dont believe that the philippines is going to choose between the u. S. And china, in the sense that friendships with both countries would be beneficial to the philippines. I understand why the new administration has chosen to be more friendly with china. What i dont understand is why there is no clear line between giving up our sovereignty. Because we can maintain economic relations with them, but there should be a very clear line. Clean and clear line. As far as protecting our territory is concerned and preserving our sovereignty. Haslinda some critics say this has been a lack of pushback when it comes to china in the south china sea. Why do you think that is the case . Some others went as far as saying that perhaps the philippines is selling itself to china. Do you agree with that comment . Vp robredo yes. Yes, because of the way our administration now is responding to threats to our territory. And perhaps our sovereignty. Kailey what will negative rates and an inverted yield curve mean for global banks . And with negative debt piling up around the world, are bonds in a bubble . With that piling up, these were among the topics Francine Lacqua tackled on thursday in an exclusive interview with blackrocks vice chairman, philipp hildebrand. Philipp the yield curve metals matters a great deal for banking , no matter how you look at it. Wealth management can be a way to diversify away from some of the risks of having a flat or inverted curve, but it is difficult. We are not going to see booming banks in an environment where we have the yield curve the way we have it today. Francine i have this amazing chart, which i have to say, i look at it almost weekly, but it just keeps on going up. This is the value of negative yield in bonds, topping 16 trillion. Are bonds in a bubble overall . Philip again, there are reasons why the market is, in an extreme way, seeking safe haven, and bonds is where you go. I wouldnt say this is a bubble. This is a consequence of, on the one hand, a cyclical slowdown, which we are now in the late part of the cycle. So risks of recession are increasing. But most importantly, it is also a consequence of the governmental policies, particularly the populist policies that we have seen in so many countries over the last year. The notion that this will not harm the Global Economy is simply a fallacy that is now revealing itself. Populist economic policies lead will lead to bad economic outcomes, and markets are reflecting that. Kailey as global stocks plunged and yield curves inverted on wednesday, allianzs chief Economic Advisor and bloomberg s opinion columnist Mohamed Elerian spoke with david weston about the big economic picture behind the turmoil in the market. Elerian said the Federal Reserve rate hike in december was a policy mistake that will have longterm implications. Mohamed the fed has lost credibility in the last nine months. It had to do a massive uturn, and the market is both holding the fed hostage, asking for more and more, and at the same time not believing that the fed can make much difference. So you no longer have anything anchoring market, you no longer have the feds ability to repress financial volatility, which leads to the third issue of what is next. The answer to all this is not the fed reducing interest rates,. That is not going to help Economic Growth in europe. That is not going to help Economic Growth in china. The answer is more progrowth policies to lift structural impediments. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to materialize, and thats the big concern looking forward. David how worried are you about a recession . I will put a graph up from the new york fed. They are showing now the likelihood at greater than 30 , the highest it has been since 2007. In fact, since 1967, every time that number has done over 30 , we have had a recession. How worried should we be . Mohamed first, i have been warning about a recession in europe for months. And then i am really worried. I think europe is approaching stall speed in which growth of just under 1 isnt enough. And they have to be very careful. Here, it is hard to trigger a recession based on how strong the household sector is. So if you get a recession, it is because of one of three things. One is a selffulfilling issue. We worry about the inversion of the curve, we dont realize it has to do with distortions, particularly coming from europe and policy, and then we get ourselves in a selffulfilling cycle. That is the first risk. The second risk is a policy mistake. And the third risk is a market accident. These are risk factors its not the baseline. The baseline doesnt suggest recession. But these risk factors, keep an eye on them, because they are becoming more important. Kailey this is bloomberg best. I am kailey leinz. Lets resume our roundup of the weeks top stories in business, finance, and politics. Italy seems to be getting closer to an early election that could reshape the countrys governing coalition. Matt Matteo Salvinis bid for full control of italy has started on the beach. The League Leader and deputy Prime Minister is on the campaign trail after pulling the plug on the Coalition Government last week. He is calling for swift elections that would likely hand him a majority in parliament. Is he ready for an election . What strategy has he got planned . Maria he is 100 ready for those elections and is in full campaign mode. That was a marathon day for salvini in sicily. He was talking to people, shaking hands, taking pictures, he wants to present himself as the man of the people. He wants this election to take place quickly. I spoke to him at the beach, and he told me hopefully we get an election in october, and then he said investors have nothing to worry from a salvini government. There is no secret plan to leave the euro. We are not going to leave the euro. Mr. Salvini [speaking italian] translator what we are discussing about, find wrong, and want to change are rules on immigration and taxes. There is absolutely no plan to exit europe or the euro. Matteoeputy premier salvini will likely have to wait weeks in order to get a power grab in italy. Senate leaders failed to agree on a date for a confidence vote that could bring down the populist coalition. Maria yesterday, italian lawmakers were supposed to come up with a date for a confidence vote. That is the first step to officially bringing an end to this coalition and then trigger an election, but they cannot agree on it. It is looking like it will be august 20. After that, it comes down to the president of the Italian Republic to decide whether he wants to trigger an early election, which salvini would of course love, or actually try to find another majority seat in the italian parliament. Everyone here, except salvini, has an incentive to delay the is vote. The opposition is very divided. The only person, frankly, at this point that wants an early election is matteo salvini. Paul in longawaited deal news, cbs has agreed to merge with viacom in an 11. 7 billion transaction. The all stock deal unites the mostwatched u. S. Broadcast network with the parent of paramount pictures. Bridgestone first proposed this combination back in 2016. What took it so long . Chris management. Who is going to run . Terry redstone, who is running had aow these days, couple of strong ceos, they had their own agendas and visions, it took a while to work that out. Both of them are now gone. Then it was what is the price of this and who was better off. There are people they dont think cbs should be tied in with the slower growing cable tv channels. Vonnie you ended up striking a deal. Did you come down to meet cbs . Negotiation was conducted by two special committees and independent directors. What you need to focus on is the Value Creation potential. We will be a very significant partner with ads and distributors and huge content suppliers. Very exciting Growth StrategyGoing Forward and people see the material value that is here. Shery wework has filed for an initial public offering, revealing a net loss of 690 million in the First Six Months of this year and testing investors appetite as it moves to the fall listing. What are they thinking in this market environment . Arent they afraid they will end up like uber back in may . Ellen they might be afraid. That is potentially why they rushed out this ipo. This was something people knew was coming, but it seems like the date has been getting closer and closer. Wework is an example of a company that loses a lot of money while having really fast growth. It has been growing quickly and expanding overseas, and yet its expenses are growing almost as quickly. So it is just one of these companies where it is not turning a profit and wont for the foreseeable future. It is warning investors thats that is what they should expect. Guy hong kongs government announcing a stimulus package worth 2. 4 billion. They say this economy will struggle to grow at all this year. 10 weeks of political protests taking a toll on the economy, putting the squeeze on businesses and tourism. Yvonne Hong Kong Financial secretary paul chan announcing a 2. 5 billion fiscal stimulus to package to try to boost the economy. This after they cut their growth forecast for hong kong from 0 to 1 growth. A city still struggling to grow amid political unrest. Chan saying these measures are not related to the protest. This is what we are learning. The city waiving fees for small and mediumsized companies, also giving kindergarten and secondary School Students handouts of 300 usd, and giving oneoff electricity subsidies for households. The key question is, are these measures going to be enough to prevent hong kong from entering to a technical recession as these protests continue for an 11th straight week, and continuing to squeeze the business and tourism sectors . Haslinda it is not just hong kongs economy that is in the doldrums. Rival singapore is not faring much better. The city state is cutting its growth forecast this year to almost zero as the escalating trade war dampens the outlook. This is the second downgrade in terms of gdp projections for the year. Joyce there has been a slew of bad news out of singapore in the last few months. All exports have plunged for the First Time Since 2016. For now, they are not pressing the panic button, and they are not considering a off policy meeting. They will meet in october next, and their Monetary Policy remains unchanged, for now. We have the trade and Energy Minister telling us that he is quietly confident, and they are not expecting recession for now. Last week come up Prime Minister loong said that the government will be prepared to step in to stimulate the economy, if need be. He warned that the economy is facing a different future and called on the citizens to prepare for that. Caroline a key measure of u. S. Consumer prices unexpectedly accelerated in july, in a broadbased response, signaling that perhaps inflation could be firming. Is it reaffirming . Does the fed care much for cpi . Peter it is not the measure of inflation the fed focuses on. They focus on personal consumption expenditures. The fed tends to track together, so it comes in higher. We had 2. 2 yearoveryear change in the core cpi, and that is above 2 . We want to see what happens with the feds measure, but it does tell you that inflation is maybe a little stronger. It means that the elusive 2 target that the fed has been going for, for like a decade now, seems to be finally in sight. Vonnie u. S. Retail sales widened by the most in four months this morning, offering some comfort for the Economic Growth. On the one hand, we are seeing Department Stores fall out on earnings reports, and yet we can see in the data that consumers are spending. Where are they spending . Sarah yeah, so, the gain was really across a lot of different sectors. The only one that didnt look good was sporting, hobbies, and books. I think that is more about structural trends and buying booksonline, buying online, more that than the state of the consumer. And we saw particular strength in nonstores, particularly in ecommerce, which makes a lot of sense. We had the amazon prime day sale took place in july and a lot of retails held rival sales, which became a rising tide that lifted all boats. Caroline mexicos central bank is going to be cutting the rate to 8 . The bank cites slowing inflation and increasing economic slack. Inflation is still above target at 3. 8 , but it has been coming down, and clearly they are more worried about the Global Growth story here. Carlos exactly. Mexico is finally joining a global trend. The reality is even with these cuts, the rates remain very high, and now the question is will the economy feel the benefit of these cuts . And the central bank plans to do further cuts for the rest of the year. I think a lot of that depends on how the peso performs in the coming days, and the central bank may get a little bit more worried if the peso start falling too much. Caroline ge plunged the most in 11 years. An accounting expert who blew n bernietle on bernie mad madoffs ponzi scam is taking aim at the company. He says the situation is far worse than described, and now chair and Ceo Larry Culp has responding in a statement. Ge will always take any allegation of financial misconduct seriously. But this is market manipulation, pure and simple. Brooke they are working with a hedge fund that is betting on ge shares to slide, so he clearly has the motivation, but he has a been up front that he has a financial interest at stake. The issues he raised are not particularly new if youve been paying close attention to the company. There are three key points. The first is that they are under reserving for longterm care, and they are not properly accounting for their stake in baker hughes, and that they are just generally ok with the way they report their finances and are not giving enough detail, that there is some gap between how they get from one number to the next. Matt the numbers are mindboggling. 74,000 a minute, 4. 5 million an hour, 107 million a day. That is how quickly the fortune of the walton family, the family that owns walmart, has been growing in the past year. What is fueling the rich getting richer this year . Tom well, the most important thing is basically right now, it is just a great environment to be rich. You have low interest rates, the stock markets are booming. What we have been seeing on this list, as you say, is a quarter of trillion dollars of gains. So if you are already rich, its a very good time to be rich, and you are likely to get richer. Kailey this is the g. R. R. Function in the bloomberg. And if we come in close here, you can see it is evenly split. Six sectors higher, utility and real estate, defensive sectors doing the best. I would like to point out that energy on bottom at 28 , one sector in a bear market which is typically a worrisome signal. Kailey there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you are our favorites on Bloomberg Television. Maybe they will become your favorites. Heres another function you will find useful, quic. It will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and vast insight into timely topics. Heres a quick take from this week. Sen. Sanders income and wealth inequality. Income inequality. Ms. Yellen there is a very disturbing rise toward income inequality. Income inequality. Over the last decade, every region in the world has seen the income gap grow, which has helped fuel populace clinical populist political movements in places like italy, mexico, and the u. S. And while wider inequality is generally seen as a bad thing, there are debates about whether equalizing incomes actually helps the poor. This is your bloomberg quick take on bloomberg inequality. Income inequality is often incorrectly used as a catchall description for related ills like poverty and class division. While the issues are undoubtedly intertwined, the term simply measures the gap between the rich and poor. After the great depression, the share of National Wealth held by the richest citizens in many developed nations fell, but since the 1970s, it has been growing. Take the u. S. , for example. The average income for the poorest household grew 12 from 2007 to 2016. Meanwhile the wealthiest 5 saw their average income increase 31 , to 375,088 per year. The u. S. Ranks 39th most unequal among 157 nations. China has an even wider gap, ranking at number 29. President xi jinping has dedicated billions of dollars to tackling the disparity, though it continues to be caused by countrys rapid urbanization. Rural chinese earn just onethird of their counterparts living in cities. Researchers have been able to the link rising inequalities to some of those negative outcomes, which are are greater political instability, sluggish wage growth, low productivity gains. It has even been thought to create longer commutes and a divorce rates, but narrowing the gap does not necessarily help the poor. Esme one thing we point out is inequality is not necessarily a zerosum game. For example, after the 2009 recession, that really shrunk the stock portfolios of wealthy americans, which reduced inequality, but in that time period, the poorer did not get richer. Which is why some state inequality is not the best measure. Esme people who say the worries about rising inequality are overblown, they will argue and equality can act as an incentive to innovate and take risks and produce and create wealth. There is cause for optimism. Since 1990, despite widening inequality, more than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. Kailey that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. You can also find them at bloomberg. Com, along with all the latest Business News and analysis 24 hours a day. That will be all for bloomberg best this week. Thanks for watching. I am kailey leinz. This is bloomberg. From the couldnt be prouders to the wait did we just winners. Everyone uses their phone differently. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. Now you can share it between lines. Mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. Its a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you preorder a new samsung note. Click, call or visit a store today. Jason welcome to bloomberg businessweek. Im jason kelly here at bloomberg headquarters in new york. This week, hong kongs unrest to understand the chaotic and violent protests, we look all the way to 2047. It is this weeks global cover story. Plus, as the 2020 election nears here in the united states, its democracy versus the hackers. How vulnerable are states to outside attacks