More state money for schools in the coming year. According to the teachers union, about half of the states nearly 300 School Districts will be close while teachers attend todays rally on the day legislators gather for organizational meetings ahead of the 2020 session that starts in january. Global news 24 hours a day, onair, and tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im Mark Crumpton. This is bloomberg. Live from bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, im vonnie quinn. Live in toronto, i am amber kanwar. Welcome to bloomberg markets. Stories thatre the we are following from around the world. Home depot woes. Missing thirdquarter sales and trimming its annual Growth Outlook for the second time in three months. Protests continue in hong kong. Stories that we are following from around the world. Officials say the chaos is putting sundays election at risk. And almost showtime. Saudi aramco bankers say there is enough interest to pull off the reduced ipo. Lets get a check on the Market Action midway through the trading day. Major averages are putting in a mixed performance. Tech is the only one flexing their muscles and the nasdaq. Poised to snapks a fivesession winning streak. Home depot is the big laggard. Vonnie i am looking at consumer strength. We have been talking about home , and thehls Department Stores today. Home depot is a slightly idiosyncratic case. We will talk about that. But we can see Consumer Confidence and Consumer Spending has not been keeping up with the rest of the economy. Wirelessn see, waning those are the subscriber numbers. Just in case you want to see those. Just in case you want to see those. Matt is going to tell us why the home depot story is idiosyncratic, and what it tells us about the consumer. Today, home depot missed estimates for the Third Quarter in a row. They dialed back on their guidance for the rest of the year. The company is saying we are not worried about the consumer, Home Improvement, this is just a case of investments that we thought would boost our sales, pushing those more into next year. If you look at the trend, three quarters in a row they have missed estimates. There is growing concern that maybe next year Home Improvement will not be as robust as this year. Has benefitedwes from this surge in home prices, getting people to invest in their homes. Amber despite all of those mornings, home depot yesterday closed at an alltime high, to e home depot story is idiosyncratic, so investors were able to look through that to get to the alltime high. I wonder if that is part of the action today . It is easy to sell on some disappointing news. Some of the analyst commentary we saw this morning, analysts defending the stock, saying its a buying opportunity, the premier retailer in its space, one of the premier retailers in the world. If you look at whats happening with housing, maybe there are some tailwinds there. The reduction in Interest Rates will get more people in housing, more turnover, thus more renovation. The Third Quarter, home price gains were pretty solid. Pros for home depot Going Forward into the Fourth Quarter in new year. Vonnie definitely a mixed picture, but when it comes to Department Stores, it is just a bad picture. Is a longterm trend we have seen for a few years. Kohls was one of the bright spots for most of the year, they did some interesting things that they brought in any partnership with amazon to get people in the stores, returning products, buying amazon products. The ceo was seen as innovative, bringing to the brand. So it is disappointing. But the big idea is that most Department Stores come even the really good ones, will feel this pain of consumers shying away from the shopping behavior, not winning over new customers. It is sort of an industrywide problem. Contrasting Department Stores with home depot and it seems the world, easier to order a dress online, as opposed to ordering a bunch s, which is where you would go. Are they not insulated from that big ecommerce push we have been seeing for years . They are. Both companies have robust online divisions, but like you said, amazon doesnt really play in this space. There are other competitors that compete with home depot and lowes but they dont have as much scale. Around them a moat in terms of online competition. Of course, home depot knows that they are pushing to deal more with contractors, and services, which you cannot do online either. Amber thank you so much to Matt Townsend for breaking down the real estate story. New york state joining california in suing juul for targeting teenagers in ads for ecigarettes. The attorney general also accused jewel of making misleading statements about nicotine content in vaping products. No comment from the company itself. Joining us for the latest is jeff on the phone from delaware. How surprising is it that you are seeing this kind of action from new york and california, given it seems like the pressure was dialing up on these ecigarette makers . No surprise at all. On, is a logical follow they are using the same arguments that they use with opioids. Is in serious trouble. Vonnie are they taking a different tack . It seems each attorney general is attacking them from a different side. Here we have Letitia James talking about the marketing. In california, its talking about marketing to children and the flavors. The Common Thread is marketing, as it is with most of the cases. The idea is this marketing to children, obviously, is illegal. It creates, in effect, an epidemic, Public Health crisis. The company is responsible for it. The only way to hold them accountable is money. Accusationsf the was that these ecigarette makers were taking right from the playbook of big tobacco. Taking a look at altria which has a big stake in juul. I wonder how much of the playbook of going after big tobacco is also being used by these attorneys general . Jef this litigation against juul is referred to as tobacco 2. 0. There was the same marketing public nuisance made against the makers. Cigarette some trial from the opioid litigations, we are starting to see how makers. None of it got to trial. This theory works. To get it is not pretty. When it works, it is very expensive for the defendants. Vonnie what will the defense be on the part of juul labs . Jef again, out of the playbook we marketed responsibly, we did not break any laws, we did not target people under 18. We are not the bad guys. We are not tobacco. Vonnie thank you. Fantastic summary of whats been happening. Two attorney generals, california and new york, attempting to stop juul labs from selling and marketing vaping products. Amber coming up, we have protests in hong kong that we are continuing to monitor. Despite calls for peace from the citys leader carrie lam, the protests rages on. The latest on the city unrest from a Global Security analyst. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is bloomberg markets. Im vonnie quinn in new york. Amber im amber kanwar in toronto. Protesters in hong kong called for further demonstrations, as the citys leader, carrie lam, urges for a peaceful and orprotd for further the showdown between demonstrators and police on the university campus. Joining us from washington for the latest is ben west, Global Security analyst at strikeforce stratfor. There are supposed to be elections on sunday. What are the chances that happens . Ben that is up in the air right now. So far the Hong Kong Government has indicated they want to hold elections. Recent veileden threats, that if the violence does not abate, if the protesters dont calm down, the government will have no choice but to delay elections. That is only going to add fuel to the fire. If we see any delay or disruption to the plant election, we would expect to see intensive densification of violence in hong kong in response. Where is there a a good way out for the protesters . They will not leave unless they all leave. It has beenconsider quite understanding of these protests, and at some point, that will not be the case anymore. What is a good way out . Ben unfortunately, there is no good way out. Both sides are eliminating options here. Talks do not appear to be anywhere close, concessions are nowhere close. We dont even have a cohesive protestip behind the that the government could talk to. Even if the government were able to strike a deal with some protest protest that the government could talk to. Leaders, that would not mean that the protests are over by any means. We are seeing basically constraints here to the point where the only way forward is more violence. We saw threats of that today with indication that police may start to use live fire on only,ters, which would again, lead to more violence in the future. That is the near future. What is a longterm damage of that . What do you have as the prospect or hong kong remaining the Financial Center of asia . Ben it is in jeopardy right now, for sure. Its important to remember the history. The protesters are protesting the same issues from 2014, 2017. The same grievances, just more intense, longerlasting. That will continue. This round of protests we are 2019these 29 team protest that we saw in june, there is no end. Even if you saw a deal and arrangement in the mediumterm, this issue is not going away. The ultimate conflict is between what is hong kong status within china. What are hong kong laws, identity, economic rights within Greater China . That is the 50your process being worked out. That will not be solved anytime soon. Is a longterm, generational issue were in the middle of. Vonnie does the u. S. Have any role to play . We know the senate is planning a prodemocracy vote, but will that impact the situation on the hong kong side, never mind the china side . Ben it could apply some pressure to hong kong officials. There is language in the bill that would allow the u. S. Government to sanctions on hong kong officials seen as offending human rights. I see those as marginal, though. The bigger risks there, honestly, are to u. S. Foreign companies doing business in hong kong. A city are dealing with under u. S. Sanction, that creates a lot of liabilities. Getting back to your previous question, kind of undermines hong kong status as a Financial Center. Amber how does the u. S. China trade dispute complicate the beingstance on this and more vocal on what they would like to see happen . Is a longterm, generationalben it definitely s the picture. Congress has gone full speed ahead on human rights and democracy bill. The senate will hope to pass any day now. It is less clear what president intends to do with that bill. It is looking at a vetoproof majority, if it holds up in congress. I dont think trump has much of a choice here. Will pass, andl it will be another layer within that complicated trade negotiation. Vonnie no doubt, we will continue to monitor. That is ben west of str atfor. Saudi authorities have been trying to boost demand for the local aramco ipo. Are the efforts paying off . We will have a look. This is bloomberg. This is bloomberg. Amber this is bloomberg markets. Im amber kanwar in toronto. Vonnie im vonnie quinn in new york. Saudi aramco bankers are seeing sufficient really demand to pull off the oil giants ipo just three days after launching. Joining us is our guest to covers oil covered for the americas. Does this suggest there was a lot of pressure or demand . A little of both. There has been pressure on the government to make sure this goes through well. There is some actual good news, or once. Of howdo we have a sense interested, if at all, any Foreign Investors are in this early read on demand . There was not a ,ot of foreign investor demand as they basically pulled back from showing it to investors in new york and london, really rely more on local, deeppocketed demands to get this through. Vonnie will it be a one. 7 chilean dollar valuation . Will there be other conditions attached . There could be. Too early to tell. Still a couple of weeks. See some of the details coming out. To letve already offered people borrow more money. There could be some lockups attached to the other side of that. Amber how crucial is opecs next decision with respect to oil production, do you think, to the success of the initial launch of the saudi aramco . Opec and the saudis will be particularly aware of not doing anything that will cause prices to drop significantly. Now, there is concern there is growing production, not just in the u. S. , but in the north sea, guyana, brazil. While no one has expressed additional cuts, there may not be additional cuts, there certainly is not going to be any pullback of the supply cuts. Vonnie we have been waiting for this to happen for so long. When it happens, given how is happening, does it change anything about geopolitics, oil pricing . On this has done is show that there is a reluctance to invest at a high price in oil companies. It was a relatively expensive offering, dividend yield is lower than exxon, other similar competitors. At a price people will invest, but not as high as we all thought it was, or as saudi arabia thought it would be. Amber thank you for those insights, david. Iscking with energy, there an ongoing tugofwar between u. S. Republicans and democrats about the governments role in addressing climate change. One former epa official says bipartisan support for Environmental Protection is not only possible but its been done before. The epa was started 50 years ago by president richard nixon. I sat down with him earlier today. At that time, environmental issues, broadly, were bipartisan. A clean airpassed act, 1972 of the clean water act. Legislation went through on broadly bipartisan majorities. The truth is, environment, at one point, was an issue that republicans were deeply committed to alongside democrats. Its only been in the last 20 years that its become a partisan issue and really a wedge issue, with each shied side pushing to the extreme side in manyits only been in the la0 conditions, to motivate their base, and in doing so, undermined the potential for people to Work Together on critical issues, including climate change. Amber does the liberal position have some culpability here because of their views of being so extreme in the other direction, making it difficult to find consensus . I think the truth is, to bring people together transformative change, the kind that we need to address climate change, to decarbonized the Energy Foundation of society requires broad support from democrats and republicans. One thing we have learned is you cannot make that kind of change on a oneparty basis. From the democratic side, Environmental Community that is often with them, there has been a set of policy proposals that have left others were read. Attention ton in the opportunities for technology breakthroughs, innovation, and frankly, a shift from command and control mandates for protection, toward more market mechanisms, in trying to ensure we can reach a new energy protection, toward future in ways that are more carefully directed and do not involve government mandates and dictates in ways that distress a significant part of the american political spectrum, and a large part of the republican party. Amber that was my interview with the former epa official under george h. W. Bush. An enjoyable interview. Bloomberg users, you can interact with the charts shown using gtv. Browse recent charts featured on bloomberg tv, catch up on key analysis, and even save charts for future reference. That is gtv on your bloomberg. This is bloomberg. Mark i am Mark Crumpton was first word news. National security official Alexander Vindman is on capitol hill today fourweek two of the impeachment inquiry. In testimony he said he viewed President Trumps request for an investigation into political rivals as a demand. Lt. Col. Vindman the culture i come from, military culture, when a senior asks you to do something, it is not to be taken as a request. It is to be taken as an order. In this case the power disparity between the two leaders, my impression was that in order to get the white house meeting, would haveelenskiy to deliver these investigations. Mark vindman said he reported his concerns about the infamous july 23 phone call between President Trump president zelenskiy of ukraine to upper authorities in the chain of command. The president continues to slam the impeachment hearings. Prior to a cabinet meeting, mr. Trump called House Speaker nancy lizzie grossly incompetent nancy pelosi