We are waiting for a 10 45 press meeting with the signatory of state the secretary of state. Guy that is going to be fascinating. We have an emergency meeting of european Foreign Ministers as well today, but that story in washington is one to watch. Im sure the crude market will be. European stocks up a little bit today. We saw a little bit of action around the payrolls number, but not much. Saw our way back from earlier highs. The dollar continues to push on up. I am going to show you some charts later on talking about some of the Technical Levels the. Ollar is facing now to the upside. 1. 11 now. A little bit of movement in the bond market. We are looking for next weekend the signing of the phase one trade deal. How good could that be for europe, and what is already priced in . Vonnie sticking with jobs, the u. S. Labor market closed the year with a little less momentum. Nonfarm payrolls rising hundred 45,000, compared with a median estimate higher than that. Unemployment held steady at a 50 year low. Average Hourly Earnings climbed below average as well. We are joined by Tiffany Wilding, pimco chief u. S. Economist, from newport beach, california. I am curious as to how you characterize this jobs report. It would seem to be that depending on your view of Monetary Policy, this was either a fine report, or showing some danger signals. Tiffany thanks for having me, vonnie. I agree with your characterization that this report was mixed. Ou know, i think the 145,000 total payrolls gained was a little weaker than consensus, but there are probably some quirks with the data because of how the thanksgiving l on the calendar this year. We are more focus how thanksgiving fell on the calendar this year. We are more focused on the aggregate numbers this report, and they looked quite a bit weaker than they did in november. You had some weakness there, and in addition, you had some downward revisions. Aggregate hours growth now looks like it is running at below 1 , versus november when it was at 1. 5 . This report suggests that u. S. Growth is slowing, and it does continue to slow. Aggregate hours growth is a Building Block of broader gdp growth because it is really about how many hours we work as an economy and how productive we are. Vonnie something this morning it is the perfect employment report for the fed to continue to run hot. Do you agree . Tiffany yeah, you are also looking at the wage growth. Average Hourly Earnings growth on a yearbyyear basis peaked earlier in 2019, and now it is down to 2. 9 . I think what is happening here is as you have Profit Growth that is decelerating, corporates are cutting back on investment, but they are also cutting back on labor costs. They are not necessarily pushing the brakes on the pace of hiring, but they are cutting back hours and holding back on wage increases. I think we are seeing that in average Hourly Earnings. That gives the fed more runway. Certainly, the argument for hiking rates because of inflationary pressures just isnt there right now. Vonnie what are the arguments guy one of the argument ahead of the earnings season was we could see margins coming under pressure because of input costs, particularly wages. Is todays report good news for Corporate America on that front . Tiffany it does look like ultimately, at least from this one report, it does look like that. But that is something that ultimately will be focused on because what we call labor input costs, they had been rising earlier this year, and that had been an important part on why margins were declining. Going forward, but you would expect to see is as Profit Growth decelerates with a lag, that does affect the labor and the labor costs in aggregate Income Growth that corporations are paying out. Guy if the fed cant encourage wages to go higher, does it react with further cuts . Tiffany i think ultimately, the bar for Interest Rate cuts is higher at the moment then the bar for hikes. That is the result of, as we mentioned before, the fact that we are not seeing a lot of inflationary pressures. Wages, outside of goods, i would actually say theres a lot of global deflationary pressures for goods. We could also see tariffs drop, etc. , which is also disinflationary in the near term if that happens, although probably good news for the broader economy. Lack ofof the inflationary pressures, what you have to think about is growth and the distribution of risks around growth. They say risks to the downside. A Material Change in gross, they will cut the outlook again. A steady funds rate throughout this year, we think the risks to cut our maybe a little higher now relative to the risks of hikes. Vonnie if we get negotiations rolling over in a phase two china trade talk happening, and the market continues to be volatile around that, and companies are then beginning to be uncertain again, does that change the picture of what we saw today for the u. S. Economy . Tiffany i think it absolutely does. One of the things that could cause the phase two negotiations to fall apart is really what larry kudlow mentioned earlier on your program. A phase one agreement isnt really being lived up to, so there are various things under that agreement. I think the clearest thing in terms of Economic Impact is the fact that china has agreed to purchase 200 billion dollars additional u. S. Exports over the next couple of years. We think that could add to growth if they do live up to that. Not very much. Maybe Something Like 0. 2 percent, but it would certainly help the Manufacturing Sector somewhat, which has been weak over the past year or so. If they are not living up to those purchases, that certainly could reduce growth expectations just because you are not seeing those additional exports. But i think overall, higher business uncertainty, the question is also what the u. S. Administration does if china is not living up to those phase one deal agreements. Do we raise tariffs further . Obviously that has created a lot of uncertainty in the past. We see the direct cost of that also bearing on corporate margins. , youf those things obviously create some damage for the u. S. Economy. Vonnie Tiffany Wilding stays with us. She is pimcos chief u. S. Economist. First, lets check on the bloomberg first word news with ritika gupta. Ritika this flash of light is adding to evidence about the final moments of that ukrainian jetline in iran. The New York Times says the video shows an antiaircraft missile hitting the plane. Bloomberg has learned that two surface to air missile launches were detected by u. S. Spy satellite. They were said to have come from navy airport moments after the plane debarked. Iran says it is one big lie. Iraq is moving forward with demands for u. S. Troops to leave, asking the state department to decide the mechanism for American Forces to leave. Iraqi lawmakers called for u. S. Soldiers to leave after a u. S. Air strike killed a top iranian general. The u. S. Army plans to expand its cyber effort in china to counter china. A specialized unit will be deployed to the pacific, capable of conducting information, electronic, and cyber missile operations against beijing. The army will outline its plans today. And a happy birthday to kim jongun from President Trump. The president asked south korea to deliver the message to kim. His birthday was wednesday. It is the latest exchanges of personal greetings between the leaders of two countries that have been adversaries for decades. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im ritika gupta. This is bloomberg. Guy thank you very much indeed. Still ahead this hour, u. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin expect it to hold a press briefing around 10 45 eastern, 3 45 gmt. We are anticipating this relates to further sanctions when it comes to iran. Full coverage coming up. This is bloomberg. Vonnie live from new york, im vonnie quinn. Guy from london, im guy johnson. This is bloomberg markets. Lets check in with Abigail Doolittle and find out what is going on with those markets. Abigail very small moved to the upside post the nonfarm payrolls report. A bit disappointing, but some may say its goldilocks. The s p 500 up 0. 2 . Crossingmoments ago above the 29,000 mark for the first time, now retreating slightly below it. It will be interesting to see what happens as friday progresses. In the u. K. And europe, we also have small gains at this point. The ftse 100 and the stoxx 600 up marginally. This comes on a below average time for the s p 500. We see it is below the 20 Day Moving Average at this point by about wealth percent, so we have these very small gains here in the u. S. On below average volume. Where we have more action for the health care sector, if you take a look at the s p 500 health index, it is up 18 points over the last year. , starting out with shares of their nejra of lilly. On a buy from Eli Eli Lilly making a bid for the skin drug company. That stock already up 83 this year. Shareholders will receive up to 93 per share in cash. Received a bid from a nonprivate equity firm. Finally, take a look at Portola Pharmaceuticals come up plunging 43 . They put in a bearish renouncement to the downside. Lots of targets on the street cut those plunging. Guy guy thank you very much indeed. We are back with Tiffany Wilding come up cochief u. S. Economist, joining us from new beach, california Tiffany Wilding, pimco chief u. S. Economist, joining us from new beach, california. Can this number goes ken lay lower . If it does go significantly lower . If it does, is that a point where the phillips curve finally starts to work . Tiffany i think that is the billiondollar question we have seen in the cycle. How many can we draw back to the labor market with tight conditions . What we have seen over the last several years is that prime age folks, and in particular women come i have come back to the labor market in full force. That was definitely the case in todays labor market, and we saw that was some of the broader indices. Prime age men have also come back, but not as strongly. I think there is a question around how much more Participation Rate improvement or improvement of some of these other marginal areas of the labor market can happen, to your point, before we start seeing more material wage inflation. I think that is some thing we are going to have to continue, and the Federal Reserve has said they will have to continue to probe. Lets see how money people can come back to the labor market. We are not seeing any, or we are seeing very little evidence of a wage inflationary pressure. On the aggregate level, average Hourly Earnings growth actually appears to have peaked in 2019 and is now down to 2. 9 . Even if you look in the details of the data where we were seeing the phillips curve affect, looking at local areas with even tighter labor Market Conditions where inflation was rising a little bit faster, we are not seeing a huge pickup there, and we think ultimately, if you get inflation picking up, we will see indications of that in the details of the data, so the fed will have time to react to it. But right now, we are not really seeing it. Guy ok. Manufacturing transport. We saw jobs lost their. Retail, health care, leisure. That is where the jobs were created. The retail story is probably to do with thanksgiving, but lets focus on the other side. Do you have any anticipation that we are stabilizing when it comes to the industrial side of the economy . Is there any expectation that we start to see jobs picking back up again in that sector . Tiffany i thing more broadly, the industrial and manufacturing side of the u. S. Economy follows global trends. Weve found that it follows with a bit of a lag, which is why we have said in our outlook more broadly that u. S. Growth, which has lagged global cycle, will probably lag a bit in the rebound that we see in 2020. We have already seen some stabilization in measures of industrial output and pmis, but that has not been the case yet in the u. S. We think u. S. Industrial production may slow a little bit more. In the first quarter, you are also going to have idiosyncratic issues around the boeing production. That is also going to make that look very weak. We think that bounces back. But outside those issues, Industrial Production can decline a bit more before it really starts to get a floor and rebound because it has lagged the global cycle. Again, global Industrial Production does look like there are tentative signs of stabilization, so we think it rebounds in the second half of 2020, but that rebound is not going to be like what we saw in 20, where in 2017, where we saw a synchronized move in global measures. Vonnie does the fed come up with something midyear that changes the dynamics in terms of Monetary Policy . Tiffany i think that is a really good question. The fed is doing a review of Monetary Policy. The catalyst to that review had been the fact that the realization that the real neutral Interest Rate is low. Theres some indication may be that Inflation Expectations are slipping somewhat because we had another year basically below trend or below target inflation for the fed. I think the fed has realized that they need to do something. There needs to be some tweaks around their Monetary Policy framework. I think the real question there tweaks for the Monetary Policy framework when we run into the session, at the fed has and what the fed will do . They have promised they will wait to raise Interest Rates until we get a period of inflation, but in the current environment before a recession, we are willing to rent inflation run a little bit higher here. We think Interest Rates are slightly accommodative now, so is the fed really going to hold off for quite a while in any sort of hiking absent a recession to really let the economy run hot . I think that is going to be something we are looking for when that comes out. We think they certainly will strengthen the language around the inflation target in that it is asymmetric and they are willing to let some above target inflation happen. Vonnie thank you. We have to leave it there. That is Tiffany Wilding, pimco chief u. S. Economist. If you have a bloomberg terminal, check out tv. You can watch online, check out charts, graphics, even interact with us. This is bloomberg. Guy from london, im guy johnson. Vonnie from new york, im vonnie quinn. This is bloomberg markets. In a world shifting towards passive investing, one active manager is thriving. They beat the s p for the Third Straight year. Here with more is at the not his here withhat is psarofagis. Anasios tell us a little about what is going on. Athanasios really why it is done so well is its performance. It has beaten s p for the Third Straight year. Well,is fund has done so it is very High Conviction fund. The fund manager has been really good at picking this names, but also she is really big on transparency. All her research is posted on twitter. She uses a lot of crowdsourcing to get her research. It has just been doing really well. Guy talk to me about the names that are being looked at here and the timing around them. Athanasios the big name is tesla. If you look throughout the whole year, shes gotten a lot of scrutiny on her calls. She put a price target a while at 4000, but it actually nailed tesla before the pop in october, and that has been the main driver for its performance. But it is not just tesla. It is a very high concentrated portfolio, but a good chunk of 100 . Ave been up over her stockpicking abilities have been really good this year. Vonnie is this proof that there is some faith in active management . Athanasios i think it does. Next year will be really big for active, i think. You have active nontransparent etfs. If i was an active manager, i would be happy you are seeing an active etf getting positive light and showing that there are some spaces in equities. I would be glad that there is some positive news on etfs. Vonnie thank you. Psarogais ofasios bloomberg intelligence. Guy lets kick things off. A boeing pilot said the 737 max was designed by clowns who were monkeys. By that was one of the very negative comment in a batch of internal messages boeing has released. The Company Employees discussed their deep unease with the plane and the flight simulators that were being used to train pilots. Shares of six flags have fallen as much as 19 , the worst loss ever. The company says troubles with will her theme parks revenues and could lead to a number of projects being canceled. Chinese develop men partner has defaulted on payments. That is your Bloomberg Business flash. Still ahead, is the usa for after the killing of irans soleimani . The former u. S. Undersecretary of defense policy looking to enter that on tonights debut of wall street week, 6 00 p. M. In new york. We will have a sneak preview. And of course, we are awaiting that briefing from the white house on iran. That is coming up as well. Those are live pictures. This is bloomberg. Vonnie live from new york, im vonnie quinn. Guy from london, im guy johnson. This is bloomberg markets. Vonnie giant tech ruled the best stock market in six years last year, but the top stock ticker of 2019 took a little more nuanced of an approach, with select investments in Semiconductor Companies and clean energy companies. Bloomberg news emeritus matt winkler has a column out today on 2019s best performing mutual fund, and he joins us now. Who is paul wick . Matthew paul wick is someone who is very experienced, based in menlo park, california, and he has been running this fund for 30 years. As a manager. He has an extraordinary record of success, but this year really is the climax. As you said, 54 percent, and he did it with a lot of less heralded Semiconductor Companies. More than a handful of Companies Committed to a fossil free future. Is driving his thinking is value and intellectual property. Wherever he sees that combination, he gets excited. Guy that makes it sound relatively straightforward. Im sure its not. Walk me through the granularity of how he actually made that work. Matthew he looks at companies that are actually in midcap smaller,idcap being less analyst coverage, less data , and therefore valuations are much less precise. For someone is experienced as he is, he sees a lot of opportunity for growth. Theres also opportunity for what we would call takeovers, acquisitions. Smaller Companies Generally that are doing well become targets, and that is not as much the case with Big Companies like the big five you mentioned. So he goes where there is great opportunity for outsized returns. Last year was a perfect example of his hitting his stride. Vonnie and some of them are companies that a lot of people will have gamed, but there are other companies, too. Matthew what he would say is wherever memory is right in the center of it, there is a great opportunity for making gains. A lot of these Memory Companies also based in california are in his basket, his portfolio. One company he particularly likes is in what we call the clean energy category, and that is blue energy in california is bloom energy in california. Fuel cells are becoming more effective than coal and oil, and when you think about please let california, india, australia where the problem of Climate Change is increasingly difficult, this country can take people off the grid. Matt, is there some homeground advantage here . It is interesting hes based in claddagh for you in california. Clearly a lot of Tech Companies are based in california. Does geography play any part in his performance . Matthew you bet, and he would be the first to say that he likes to see, if you will, what he owns. Seeing is believing. So he generally avoids investing where he cant see what hes going to have. The closer he is to the companies hes investing in, the more confidence he has, so geography is a big part of it. Vonnie talk a little bit about the structure of mutual funds over the years, and who can get into this fund. Matthew this is actually pretty oldfashioned because mutual funds have been around for a long time. One of the reasons why we had bloomberg spent a lot of time on this category is a lot of liquidity, so we are talking , 5 billion in assets, a history of at least three years. We can take them apart on the bloomberg, so to speak, with various functions that enable us to see exactly what investors are doing. Quarter,e quarter to we can see their filings. There is so much more transparency, and the part that i should mention in the context of the previous question is that wick likes the u. S. Regulatory system, which is built around transparency. So the more you can see things, the more confidence you have making bets. Looking toif im invest money in 2020, what does this tell me about the debate i am sure im having regarding active versus passive . Anthew this is really argument for human intervention. Ifwill be the first to say you want to be the indexes, you cant look at all like. What that means is, and his case, he will do things that are a big standard deviation away from the benchmark, and do it again and again. That is part of what drives him. And by the way, he didnt invent that thinking. Howard marks famously wrote a book about this. You cant beat the market by looking like the market. You have to make choices, decisions that are different. That is an argument for active management over passive. Vonnie that with claire, it is an excellent column matt winkler, it is an excellent column. I would advise everyone to read fund the columbia seligman and the manager of it. I just want to bring you some breaking news now. We are hearing that the u. S. Is set to impose sanctions on irans metal exports and leaders of its industry. The Trump Administration is planning to impose new sanctions now following other sanctions that have been in place for a long time. We are waiting on treasury secretary steve medicine should Steve Mnuchin and secretary of state mike pompeo to announce exactly what these will be in about 10 minutes. But once again, the u. S. Set to impose sanctions on irans metal exports and leaders of that industry. Lets bring in somebody now who is wellplaced to discuss this, and also, he has a new program coming out. Theyve it weston, anchor of balance of power. Week lunches this evening at six clock at six clock new york time. Lets talk for a moment about this breaking news. We are anticipating the sanctions are going to be placed upon around. David placed upon iran. David breaking news, but not entirely surprising. The president was asked in that news conference, what more is left to sanction . We have to bear in mind the reason why the president is doing this is he once a new version of the jcpoa with the ron, something he says the europeans and russia and china should be hoping with. Understand, european Foreign Ministers our meeting right now to talk about that. Guy the iranians are planning to walk away from the jcpoa. Youve got to wonder what comes after it. My question on these sanctions is this. They were reimposed in 2018. What have they achieved thus far . What is this tactic doing for u. S. Foreign policy . David they certainly have not brought iran back to the bargaining table, which is exactly what President Trump wanted to do. He said repeatedly he wants to go back into negotiation to expand the jcpoa. He has not achieved that. The administration would say they havent achieved it yet. They have to keep it up. The pressure is mounting. As you know, there have been demonstrations in iran before all of the attacks that indicated there was some dissension with respect to the regime. Vonnie we have to wonder if the isning of the jet, which now out in the open, didnt eliminate in a goodwill out there. Sort of are were roundtrip on risk. It went around, and then came back on. One of the questions we raised in wall street week with Larry Summers is at the end of the day, are we more or less secure after all of this happened . This is what was said. Would you say that americans are more or less secure today . He had the blood of thousands of americans and many others on his hands. In that sense, he was a legitimate target. But i think other president s had the opportunity and decided not to take him out because of the second and third Order Strategic consequences. Guy that illustrates david that illustrates the problem. We are in uncharted territory. That is why President Trump would say we had to do it, but we really dont know what the consequent is might be. Guy what was the takeaway in terms of where this process goes next . The president was talking about involving nato. He talked about rolling the middle east into the nato process. Is there a desire to approach this from a multilateral point of view in the way that may this is ministers and hasnt done . David it is fascinating. He was talking about yen stoltenberg, who runs about jen stoltenberg, who runs nato, and in the past he hasnt been that close with jen stoltenberg. I dont think iran is going to be any happier with nato troops in iraq than they are with u. S. Troops as a practical matter. The big question is the important one, which is what is the endgame. What is the strategy here . I am not sure we know. Vonnie tell us a little about the show. It is a show that has a storied and extort nearly long history, and now youre taking it over and extraordinarily long history, and now youre taking it over. David and i am very honored to do that. Weekst want to have once a some very intelligent, highlevel people to talk about the stories you already know about. Pickers onve stock our cable channel all the time, so we step back and our contributors such as Larry Summers, roger ferguson, and others will contribute throughout the week with blogs and tweets and things like that. Vonnie so we should follow you on every pout form on every platform. David i should hope so. Vonnie and tune in at six clock p. M. Eastern time at 6 00 , 11 00tern time p. M. London, and 7 00 a. M. Hong kong. Guy a bit of breaking news were focusing on. We are seeing the shares of Aston Martin Le gonda spiked sharply to the upside, now up around 14 , on a Financial Times report out of london that chinas geely may be looking to invest. Theres been a lot of talk as to whether or not aston martin would have to raise money, go back to the market, figure out a way of making network, or secure another big investor into the business. This certainly would point in that direction. The share is responding quite positively, but off their earlier highs. Up at 20 at one point, now beginning to fade that spike, up around 13. 8 percent as we head towards the close this friday in europe. This is bloomberg. Guy from london, im guy johnson. Vonnie from new york, im vonnie quinn. This is bloomberg markets. We are awaiting a press conference with secretary of state mike pompeo and treasury secretary steven mnuchin. We understand they will hit the Metal Industry hard. Chief washington correspondent Kevin Cirilli has more details on what we are expecting, and joins us now. The Metal Industry and what else . Kevin the Trump Administration set to announce new sanctions against the Metal Industry, directly hitting irans economy, as well as some top military and government officials within irans regime. This according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Weve just received a twominute warning for secretary mnuchin and secretary pompeo for a joint press conference where they will formally unveil the sanctions. The president yesterday during a press conference here at the white house foreshadowing those sanctions and saying that they were being drafted virtually as he was speaking. Meanwhile, the president last night at a Campaign Rally in toledo, ohio also foreshadowing that these type of policies likely would be enacted. It also comes at a time in which the house of representatives controlled by the democrats last evening advanced a resolution that would limit the president s ability to go and take swift military action against iran without congressional approval, so again, the president earlier this week the escalating tensions with iran. However, now doubling down on sanctions as part of their maximum pressure campaign. Thatlets talk about campaign. Sanctions reimposed in 2018. What have they achieved . Why did the ad ministration think further sanctions will achieve that end . Kevin isolation from the international order. It also comes as the state department is set to send top diplomats to europe next week, where they are hopeful they will be able to rally allies to the United States to have them join in their coalition, and to potentially even get europe on board with negotiating a new denuclearization deal with iran. The u. S. Pulling out of that jcpoa. It also comes at a time when china is very much in the background here. Remember, guy kevin, we are going to leave you there. We have secretary of state pompeo and treasury secretary mnuchin speaking. Lets listen. President s the economic plans are clearly working. We are looking forward to China Signing the u. S. And two signing the usmca. We are announcing additional sanctions against the Iranian Regime as a result of the attack on u. S. And allied troops. First, the president is issuing an executive order authorizing the imposition of additional sanctions against any individual owning, operating, trading with, or assisting sectors of the includingonomy, construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining. Let me be clear, these will be both primary and secondary sanctions. It also allows us to designate other sectors in the future as secretary pompeo and me think is appropriate. Are announcing 17 specific sanctions against irans largest steel and iron shellcturers, three say sbasede seychelle industries, and one involved in the transport of iron. Third, we are taking actions against eight Senior Iranian officials who advance the regimes destabilizing activity and were involved in tuesdays Ballistic Missile strike. Secretary pompeo will comment more on this. Today sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the Iranian Regimes local terrorist activities. The president has been very clear we will continue to apply economic sanctions until iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons. I will now turn it over to secretary pompeo. Sec. Pompeo thank you. Good morning, everyone. Today, President Trump is delivering on the pledge that he made the day after iran attacked American Forces in iraq. There will be a series of new sanctions. Mentionedmnuchin eight Senior Iranian officials responsible for the regimes violence at home and abroad, striking at the heart of the iranian republics inner security apparatus. They include the regimes brute squad which has killed in the last month proximally 1500 iranians who were simple he demanding freedom. Other Senior Leaders closer to the ayatollah carry out his terrorist plots and destabilizing campaigns across the middle east and the world. They have employed soldiers across the region. They have trained militias in iraq, syria, and elsewhere in the art of domestic oppression. Campaign is to deny the regime the resource to conduct its foreign policy. We sibley want iran to behave like a normal nation. We believe the sanctions further that strategic objective. Our campaign is composed of diplomatic, economic components that deprive the regime of billions in revenue used to fuel death and distraction across the middle east and all across the world. The Previous Administration opened up Revenue Streams for iran, but under our administration, all revenues are down by 80 , and iran cannot access roughly 90 of its foreign currency reserves. Not even two weeks ago, president rouhani admitted that are sanctions have cost iran over 200 billion dollars in lost foreign income and investment. Outlaw waysrans continue, we will continue to impose sanctions. President reiterate trumps concern for americans and dual National Citizens detained within iran. We know the charges against them are fake. We will do what we can to get each of them returned home safely to the families. With that, we will take just a few questions. Yes, maam. The administration said this strike was done on an ms it was done based on an imminent threat, but you said this morning you didnt know precisely when and where. That is not the definition of imminent. The president also suggested there was an attack planned against an embassy, perhaps several embassies. Can you clarify . Did you have specific information about an imminent threat, and did they have any thing to do with our embassies . Had specificwe information about an imminent threat, and those included attacks on u. S. Embassies, period,. So you were mistaken when you said you did not know when or where . Sec. Pompeo no, those are complete and consistent thoughts. We do not know exactly what day or minute it wouldve been executed, but soleimani himself was plotting a largescale attack against american interests, and those were imminent. American facilities, including american abyss hes come a military bases, american facilities throughout american embassies, military bases, american facilities throughout the region. In the initial hours after the missile attacks on alassad airfield, it was believe that iran may have taken steps to avoid u. S. Casualties, but then the secretary of defense came out to say no, these missiles were intended to kill americans. If it was irans intent to kill americans, does that not deserve some sort of response . If somebody takes a shot at you and you dont hate you simply because you duck, does that mean they werent trying to kill you . Sec. Pompeo i will defer to the departed of defense on details, but there is no doubt in my judgment as i observed the iranian activity they had the full intention of killing u. S. Forces, whether military folks or dip a medic folks in the region, and i am confident that the response the president has taken is appropriate. The president has said we dont want more. We want iran to behave like a normal nation. The reason we are here this morning is to continue this campaign, our strategic effort to get iran to behave in a way that doesnt continue their 40 year long effort to terrorize the world. Secretary pompeo, do you believe the iranians shut down the Ukrainian InternationalAirways Plane . If the iranians shot that plane down, will there be consequent is . Sec. Pompeo we do believe it is likely that plane was shot down by an iranian missile. We are going to let the investigation play out before we make a final determination. It is important we get to the bottom of it. I was on the phone with president zelinsky just before i came here. I was on the phone with my canadian counterpart. They are working to get forces on the ground for that investigation to learn more about what happened to that aircraft. When we get the results of that investigation, i am confident we end the world will take appropriate actions in response. Will you allow the ntsb to work with iran . Sec. Pompeo sec. Mnuchin i was just going to comment on that. The treasury will issue waivers for anyone who can help facilitate the investigation. Last time you both joined us in this room was back in september, announcing additional sanctions. Secretary mnuchin, you said i think we have done more sections on iran than anybody, and it is absently working. Since then, we have seen it is absolutely working. Since then we have seen an escalation in violence. Drone strikes, u. S. Investor killed, shots at our troops. Sanctionsese economic keeping the United States and United States interests more secure . Havemnuchin i think we 100 confidence and we are consistent in our view that economic sanctions are working, that if we didnt have the sanctions in place, iran would have tens of billions of dollars they would be using for terrorist activities throughout the region and to enable them to do more bad things, and there is no question by cutting off the , we ares to the regime having an impact. As the president has said, the fact that the Obama Administration turned over 150 billion to the regime, we think we wouldnt be in this situation if that was the case. To. Pompeo it is important keep in mind what is taking place in iran today. This country has never been in the place that it is today. Big, challenging problems. Their budget, they are going to fail by tens of billions of dollars at achieving the revenue for this year. It got real challenges in figuring out how to make difficult decisions. Do you underwrite hezbollah . Do you pick hamas . Do you allow your people the opportunity to live the life they want . You can see the protests, protests that we expect will continue, that will demand from the Iranian Regime that they begin to treat the iranian people the way they deserve, and this administration will continue to support those efforts as well. You mentioned secondary sanctions. What is your message to our european allies who continue to do business with the iranians . Specifically, if you can, will this impact the barter mechanism set up by a number of European Countries to avoid u. S. Actions who continue to do business without using u. S. Dollars . Sec. Mnuchin those are both very important questions. I dont believe there has been any transactions. We are working on a swiss channel that we have approved for humanitarian transactions. We will continue to allow humanitarian transactions. We have warned that they will most likely be subject to secondary sanctions depending on how they use that. That is absolutely the case. As it relates to the europeans, both the secretary and i have spoken to our counterparts in europe several times over the last few days. We have emphasized the issue of they areng announced no longer part of the jcpoa, and we have had very direct conversations with our counterparts about that. Pompeo, what is your definition of imminent . Sec. Pompeo this was going to happen, and american lives were at risk, and we would have been negligent, as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said, had we not recommended to the president that he take out soleimani. He made the right call, and america is safer as a result of that. Secretary pompeo [indiscernible] i dont mean to cut you off, but go ahead. Ago, the president said u. S. Intelligence agencies had been running amok. He spent most of the past three years hes been in office integrating and attacking the Intelligence Community and disputing findings, whether on russia or north korea or really any area that contradicts things that he has said politically. Should americans suddenly believe your assertions that you had good intelligence on this when the head of the executive branch has been casting aspersions on the Intelligence Community for most of his time in office . Sec. Pompeo look, i served as cia director for the first year and a half of this of ministration, and i watched the president rely on the work the Intelligence Community did for the entire time i served as the head of the Central Intelligence agency. I watched him rely on the capable men and women delivering exquisite information to the big ticket of branch. The president had confidence in that information. We all challenge their work. We have to make sure they get it right. The Intelligence Committee is not flawless. In this case, the Intelligence Community got it fundamentally right. Even the reflections we have seen after the effect of this strike is demonstrated that we were quite right. There was an eminent act, there was active plotting, and we took action that we thought was likely to create less risk for the american people, and i am coveting we did that. Go ahead in the back. In the back. Thank you. Secretary pompeo, there are reports that the iraqi Prime Minister asked to start negotiating the withdrawal of u. S. Troops from iraq immediately