Credit spreads really came in a lot. Basically, this tugofwar. Do you look at nearterm challenges or 2021 . Jonathan looking forward to this conversation. Gershon distenfeld is with us. Good practice social distancing. You can take it off for the interview. Great to catch up. The shortterm risk versus the longterm risk. That is a part of the conversation at the moment. One thing that you said that is important, you cannot draw a hard distinction between the shortterm and longterm. Shortterm can actually shape the long term. Can you walk me through your thinking at the moment . Gershon absolutely. The mask is not what you think. It is a plea for you to come home. Know howuse we dont to run elections here doesnt mean that you cannot come home. You may have voted for brexit over there, but you dont really know what you are doing over there. Jonathan i dont think you want me to weigh in on the election right now. You dont need the view from london. I will come home soon. Can we start with the question . Toshon its very important separate out the long from the shortterm. In the shortterm, we got great news on the virus. Obviously great news. It remains to be seen the details i met the vaccine, not the virus. The vaccine does not put anyone back to work today. We are still going to need fiscal support. The monetary authorities, the fed has done everything they can do. We will need more fiscal support. Even if we get the vaccine and everything is rosy, there is a longterm picture here. We have been in this rut for more than a decade of low growth, low inflation. In order to get out, people need the fiscal authorities, stimulus to play a big role. Government is unlikely to provide that. I know the conventional wisdom is divided government is good, but when you need government to actually help you get the economy back on track, it is not necessarily so good. Jonathan we came into this pandemic with quite low trend growth, a hope that the Trump Administration could get us out of that. Are you saying that even if we have a vaccine in the longterm, the decisions that are made now, into the mediumterm and next year, we could end up where we were last time . Growth, the same as before . Gershon i think its possible. Whether you like or dislike what the Trump Administration did, he did a lot of the things that he said he would do. One thing he did not do is spend a lot on infrastructure. That will be key going forward. Certainly, the Biden Administration will be willing to do that. , will theon is Republican Senate assuming they hold georgia are they going to go along with it . Are the republicans going to gion infound reli terms of the debt and deficit . Will they have the ability to do what they need to do to keep the economy going . I feel like you have to bet against that at the moment. Jonathan lets talk about the markets. High yield. An area of fixed income that you are constructive on. Yield near lows that we have seen in a long time, if ever, or you could look at the spread and say we have 100 basis points still to go for the year. What is the best way to invest right now . Gershon the positive way to look at it, you can compare it to what happen when europe got to these levels. We still had a long way to go in terms of price appreciation because spreads were tighter, and underlying yields cap going lower. That is unlikely to happen in the u. S. The fed has been clear they will not go negative interest rates. You have a huge money market market here. The fed will do more qe, yield curve control, Forward Guidance before they go negative rates. It is not likely that youll get the same outcome over here. Yield does become more important here in the United States. In order to get what i would call a clean portfolio, where you dont buy the things that are trading at levels that may have a 50 yield but you dont really believe because they will have to restructure, you are looking at closer to 4 . It is priced kind of to perfection. Investors need yield, income, and there are better alternatives to high yield. Jonathan one of those alternatives is the yen. Many people believe this credit market is insulating the United States because of the role the federal reserve. Do you not like the yield for the risk you have to assume in the United States, or are you worried about spreads gapping wider with the fed having a presence in the market in the United States . Gershon i am always reluctant to answer about risk because it means Different Things for different people. You are a longterm holder lets say yields are at 4. 5 today, they should be at 6 . As long as you dont have massive defaults, you will learn less than otherwise. You will not lose your shirt. You are priced for perfection today, not price for a lot of bad things to happen. On the other hand, it is important to note, unlike the equity markets, where multiples would suggest you need to have a decent amount of growth in order to justify the valuations of today, the credit markets are somewhat bifurcated. You have companies that, frankly, retail, e p, they were in trouble and would have to restructure even without covid. Most companies have had years of ample liquidity, access to lower rates, have been able to term out their maturities, so theyll be ok. I dont think there is disaster coming down the road. I dont think we will have massive defaults. There is not a lot of upside either. Jonathan final question on diversifying. You have said diversify by going abroad and dont be afraid of emerging markets. Walk me through the thinking of em right now. People want to diversify by going abroad. It is something different. They are worried about the risks in the United States, more compelled by the opportunities in emerging markets. I think there are some things that are misunderstood by emerging markets. People are citing the high defaults in argentina, lebanon, ecuador. Remember, those were all headed for restructuring sometime in 2021. It just got moved up from the covid crisis. You dont have a lot of problem areas elsewhere. You think about, lockdowns have been much less severe in most economies. A vaccine should be more positive for most emerging economies that are reliant much more on tourism. A lot of good things to the extent we get growth, a lot of good things going on in the markets, and a lot of yield. One has to be careful. Anyuld not say go buy emerging market economy. But in general, we are finding more value in emerging markets then we are in Domestic Corporate highyield. Jonathan great to catch up payment we will have to continue the conversation. Stay safe, wear a mask i know that you will. Coming up in the final spread, the week ahead. Another five days jampacked with fed speak. Richard clarida kicking things off on monday. All speaking throughout the week david the data point of the week. Retail sales on tuesday. And then another round of jobless claims on thursday. That does it for us. See you next week. Stay safe. This was bloomberg wheel yield. This is bloomberg tv. Vonnie welcome to bloomberg markets. Im vonnie quinn. Lasry will be speaking to us on the election, credit markets, and the nba. The man representing 46,000 president loyees, the of Services Trades Council union, matt hollis joins us. We are midway through the sion more than midway and the s p is up 1 . Below 24. The dollar index below 93. The b bankruptcies, and ucks. Lets get to marc lasry. Billion under asset management. I know that the economy was fundamentally sound before, but is that still your thinking . There are parts of the economy doing well, part that are not. The parts that are are on the leisure side. But you know there will be another stimulus bill. If there was a democratic senate, there would have been around 2 trillion or 3 trillion. With a Republican Senate, probably around 2 trillion. For the u. S. Economy, we are doing ok. Vonnie you mentioned the senate, you are a biden supporter. Told there be any attempts fund some of the efforts in georgia to overturn those seats . Marc i think it will be what it is. I think democrats will spend a huge amount of money to windows thoserepublicans when two seats, republicans will as well. I think what you will probably find is there will be one of each, democrat and a republican. It will be a close senate. At the end of the day, i think what will end up happening it seems that wall street would rather have a divided government as opposed to a government that is all democratic. Vonnie what would that mean for bidens tax plans, specifically for capital gains, dividends . When they get enacted, would wall street see a hit . Marc i dont know. If you have a Republican Senate, it will be hard. At the end of the day, taxes will probably go up a little bit. It will be a question of what is the deal that biden and mcconnell can cut. I think you will see taxes go up, maybe not as much as people had thought before. Vonnie so some kind of a brokered plan . Marc i think so. I think it will go up a little bit. Our deficit is going up. Ultimately, the government will need more revenue. Doingk people will end up what makes the most economic sense, but you will need to have a little higher taxes because we have borrowed a huge amount of money. Those dollars are continuing to grow. Streetshat would wall preference be, that there is extra payroll taxes or extra taxes across the board . Probably payroll but i have not looked at any of the plans. I would have to do some work on it. I just think that you will need extra revenue. The benefit for the u. S. Government today is that rates are very low. As you stated earlier, the 10year is around 89 bps. Hopefully that stays there. If it starts moving up, the cost of servicing this debt will keep growing. Right now, we have an opportunity where rates are low, to try and pay off some of that debt. Vonnie lets talk about the pandemic and the markets. The vaccine rolled, does it come in time to save these companies that are desperately holding on . Will we see a wave of bankruptcies . Marc i think what you will see is a wave of lending. The reason for that, what wall street was worried about, nobody knew how long everything would take. If you were say, optimistic, six months, pessimistic, two or three years. Now, if you are optimistic, its three months. If you are pessimistic, a year. Ultimately, that means that you will be willing to lend to companies because you know that things will work out sooner. You will have some company that will be filing, but the opportunity to rescue lending, lend money, that will grow exponentially over the next year. Vonnie early on in the pandemic, you invested in Companies Like macys, frontier communications, who will be coming out of bankruptcy next year. What were the changes to your positions that you can tell us about . Those bonds have gone from 30 to 45, so they have gone up about 50 . We try to keep the same percentage, but because of the price of how high they have gone, we have had to sell a bunch of bonds. , we have continued our position. Diamond offshore, we increased our position. For the majority of the positions we had revlon would be another one. Over the last three to six months, things have been working out. We have been taking some profits and investing in new situations. Vonnie new situations . Do tell. Marc i would rather wait. We are trying to build positions there. Happy to do with the next time. Vonnie i know that you were looking at amc entertainments last time. Do theaters survive, when do we see them with audiences . Marc i think they survive. I think people will go back to movies. I think that is a pretty good situation. You are creating that company around a two or three multiple. Unless you are telling me that people dont go back to movies they will. You may not have the same number going back, but it will still be a pretty good amount. Amc, a bunch of the Theater Companies will survive and do fine. Vonnie and airlines . Marc airlines we are continuing to invest. Believere were a big that people were going to fly back again over the next couple of years. I think that amount of time has gotten reduced. On the airlines side, you will see that this summer as more people have gotten the vaccine, and things will start getting back to normal. Vonnie you mentioned you had to sell off some of your positions because things got expensive. Where is the opportunity now that you see . Is anything cheap anymore, what is the pandemic discount . Marc things are still cheap. There is a lot of specialty lending. , i think wea deal closed on a week ago in the u. K. Where we are investing around 14 , 15 . You are lending money anywhere between 10 and 15 . The reason you are doing that is because people need that capital. An increaseg to see in that specialty lending. You will still find special situations. There is this belief that because things are working out with the vaccine, everything is back to normal. It isnt. It is getting back to normal but you still have hundreds of billions of dollars of opportunities out there on the leisure assigned, energy side, special situations. Vonnie hospitality . Marc that is another one, absolutely. Vonnie the nba has obviously suffered 10 lower revenue, which is actually good when you think about the expenses you had to put in the bubble, all of the revenue lost. Can it survive another year of bubbles, lost revenue, how do you manage that . Marc i think it can. The really hard part is and it is for all sports teams. At the end of the day, you need fans. Players want to play in front of fans, people want to go to games. For us, we will start the season december 22, and then we will work with the local authorities. The focus will be the health and safety of the players, the employees at the arena, and of the fans. The question will be how many fans can we let in at the beginning . Ultimately as the vaccine takes effect, the question is how long does it take to get back to normal . It will definitely be back to normal by the next season, the following season. This year, i think you will see starting in january, february, march, june, each month you will have more fans. It will be slow but it will get back to normal. Vonnie can you do it without having to make major adjustments structure . Ry do you have plans to talk about that with the rest of the league . Marc its pretty simple. We are partners with the players. At the end of the day, the players end up having 50 of our revenue. If our revenue is down 10 , players will be paid 10 less. If it is down 40 , 40 less. It is a partnership. Obviously, but we would like to do is have the revenue be as low as possible, which is what the players want. Isare all aligned to do what best for the league and our fans. Annis has been tweeting in the last day or two, speculation about where he will be. What happened with him . What have you offered him . Marc i have not offered him anything. I do offer him my love. [laughter] day, i think the it is november 18 or 20 where we can Start Talking to players. As soon as we are able to do that, he will be the first one. We will be speaking to giannis to get everything done. Vonnie would you be ok if he went somewhere else, is Russell Westbrook someone that you would be interested in as a consolation prize . Marc i would not be ok. [laughter] i love giannis, i think he is acceptable exceptional individual. He has been not only the best player on our team but in the league. Especially for the bucks, we will need giannis. Fully things will work out. Vonnie i have to ask about the Miami Marlins hiring kim ng today. You are very progressive that way, you have female assistant gms. Its a big day for the major leagues. Marc its absolutely fabulous. Always hard to be the first person, so i want to congratulate her. What we will find over the course of the next couple of years is she will not be the only person. There are a lot of exceptionally talented women. Sooner or later youll find within the nba, football, everywhere else, that that will not be the exception. Cohen buyinge the mets. Im sure he would love any advice from you. Any advice for him . Marc my advice to steve would be do what you think is right. He has been a huge fan of the mets. I am sure he has thought of things that he could do. I would say, leadership matters. It matters on the field, as an owner. Try to always do the right thing and dont let money be an issue. Vonnie i like that. Spend the bucks and get the players. Marc lasry, appreciate your time. Coming up, we will talk about china with the man responsible for 46,000 disney workers. The head of that union. Kenneth frankel will also join us from the Canadian Council of the americas. This is bloomberg. Lets get to the first word news. President trumps lawyers have added their effort to dispute some Election Results in arizona. The campaign has dropped the lawsuit alleging widespread irregularities on the Voting Machines after hearing that fewer than 200 ballots were affected. Have calla outlets the state of arizona for joe biden. More than 130 secret Service Offices who help protect the white house and the president when he travels have tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected coworkers, according to the washington post, who says the outbreak is believed to be related to Campaign Rallies that president held before the election. Several allies and white house officials have fallen ill in the wake of campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks. Microsoft says russian and north korean hackers have been trying to steal valuable data from leading pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers. They say most of the attacks have been unsuccessful. Microsoft did not say how many did succeed or how serious the breaches were. The u. S. Government said that chinese hackers were also targeting vaccine makers. In new york city are being told to prepare for schools to and in Person Learning as soon as monday. Mayor bill de blasio said schools would go remote if the test rate hit 3 . The Positivity Rate over the past several days is 2. 3 . He says parents should have a plan for the rest of november. New York City Schools began reopening in september with a blend of remote and in person education. Most opted to keep their kids at home. Global news 24 hours a day, onair, and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Amanda live from toronto, im amanda lang. Welcome to bloomberg markets. Vonnie im vonnie quinn in new york. We are joined by our bloomberg and Bnn Bloomberg audiences. Here are the top stories we are following from around the world. World leaders congratulating joe biden. China is the latest to congratulate him, but one holdout is mexico. We will discuss this with Kenneth Frankel with the Canadian Council of the americas. And we will speak with matt hollis, the president of the Services Trades Council union. He represents 43,000 disney workers. We will discuss the Companies Plan to cut jobs and what can be done to help those workers. Doordashsa look at public ipo filing. Amanda we are seeing markets move higher today. The s p 500 closer to the highs of the session than the lows. Energy is the group that is powering us higher. Tech in positive territory but not the real powerhouse of the market today. ,ne of those days where you see although there is buying in the tech space, rotation into other names. Real estate, industrials both strong. In toronto, also moving higher. Here, energy is not playing a big role. Materials stronger. Gold stocks in favor. Investors making their bets amid increasing cases of covid19. Worries about schools shutting down, new restrictions in cities across america. Meanwhile, the market still digesting joe biden and World Leaders congratulating him. He has heard from any of them. China did send salutations, but we have yet to hear from mexicos Lopez Obrador. An important relationship, a gateway to a series of relationships across latin america. Kenneth frankel is with us now, president of the Canadian Council of the americas. Lets start with that mexican relationship. A bunch of important ones, and they will have different views of a biden presidency, but what is the silence signifying . Kenneth first of all, its great to be back with you. Before i answer the question, amanda, let me add to the list. F the ignominy brazil, as far as i know, gyre bolsonaro, has also not sent his congratulations to president elect biden. That is another major country that we need to talk about. The feeling all along has been that lopez over door may be more comfortable with a Trump Administration that a Biden Administration. There are some that dispute that, but certainly the trip to thelo made last month white house, praising president trump, even though president trumps words and actions against mexico would seem to prohibit any sort of support from a mexican president there is always the feeling, what does he really want out of it . My feeling is he would rather because trump does not really care about mexico. Biden does. Biden is the kind of person, has been throughout his political career, certainly as Vice President , who would get involved in some of the Domestic Affairs of what is going on in the countries like mexicos environmental policy, its increasingly dirty grid, human rights policies, corruption. Those are things trump would not care about, but joe biden would. I think that may account for what you are seeing coming out of mexico right now. Benie obviously, trade will a huge issue with china, but mexico, too. There are so many things over the next six months that both leaders will have to handle and cooperate on. When do you think they will meet first . Kenneth im sorry, you said when do i think they will meet . [laughter] first meeting the would be between the president elect and the canadian prime minister, if im not mistaken. That has been a tradition for a while. Trump broke it. I would think president elect biden would want to meet Lopez Obrador as soon as possible. It is pretty hard to meet with somebody will not recognize the legitimacy of your victory. That will be a bit of a waiting game to see how that relationship evolves, but the countries need each other very much. Obviously, they will meet and develop a relationship. Below the president ial level, there will be many ties at the government have, interagency entanglement. Those meetings will come around, a relationship will be developed. The question is with what emphasis, with what rough patches to follow. Brazilsou mentioned jair bolsonaro. But also important, the china factor. What can and should biden do about bolsonaro . There is a legitimate argument to be made that without trump coming to power, the premature political behavior, populism, that bolsonaro may not have ever won the election in brazil. May, it was not terribly complicated between trump and bolsonaro. Over president d trump, and trump gave him permission to do what he wanted. Bolsonaro can do what he wants with amazon, pretty much anything, say what he wants to say about minorities in his country, etc. , and trump does not care. In fact, probably cheers it on. But that is not the case anymore. It is clear that they have to work out a relationship. It is clear that they will. The problem is that bolsonaro has not recognized biden yet. The problem is he haswhipped up his base, they buy into the trump narrative of the election and politics. So now to a certain extent bolsonaro has to walk back what think got his base to because he has to realize that there is a relationship it has to be developed. While there will be themes heard throughout democracy, climate change, human rights, good governance, corruption you could go down the list. Immigration in mexico and the northern triangle. The emphasis on each country will be different. The first conversation with bolsonaro, i imagine, will be the climate and amazon. The amazon. In many parts of latin america, they have been trying to pursue sound environmental and climate policy. The emphasis will depend on the country with whom he is dealing. Vonnie we have to leave it there but looking forward to having you on again soon. Kenneth frankel, the president of the Canadian Council of the americas. Not the happiest place on earth these days as the pandemic continues to hurt disney parks. We will speak to the Services Trades CouncilUnion President matt hollis. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is bloomberg markets. Im vonnie quinn in new york. Disneydemic has left Parks Division in a dark place, but the ceo bob jpeg still has hope. Despite the challenges and hardships, we have been steadfast in managing our businesses under enormously difficult circumstances. We have not just persevered during these tough times, we have also taken a number of deliberate steps and smart risks and positioned our company for greater longterm growth. From the Earnings Call last evening. Disney plans on cutting 28,000 jobs in california and florida, leaving employees feeling less optimistic. Joining us now is matt hollis, president of the Service Trades council union, representing 43,000 disney workers. Its a difficult time for everybody. Toney will does not want let people go, it is being forced to do so. What is the situation for employees, cast members, at the restaurants, in orlando and beyond. Matt thank you for the opportunity to comment. Times are tough, for sure. When you look at the landscape of Central Florida, disney leads the way in tourism. With disney having to take such a huge step back, drastic cuts that are being taken, it is impacting the entire region. Disney leads the way there. The cast members that have found themselves on furlough, a lot of them had been furloughed since march or april. So times are tough. Without the Tourism Industry in Central Florida, it will be tough for a while. Amanda when you say furloughed, that is important. Isart of your negotiations that disney has promised to rehire a number of these workers if and when the businesses reopened. How hard was that to get as a concession, how firm is that commitment, depending on how long the pandemic lasts. Matt we were able to secure the recall rights for employees to avoid what is being seen in some of the other parks in Central Florida that dont have union representation. Before disney would be hiring the members we represent under the Services Trade council, they would have the opportunity to return to work. As far as the makeup of the negotiations, there is always a giveandtake, back and forth. Disney certainly recognizes the value that their cast members bring, the experience they have. That toproud to deliver the members working under our agreement. Vonnie it is so tough. We see stories about People Living in motels for short amounts of time because they cannot have people for longer than two weeks or eviction proceedings have to start. It is so difficult. Aremany of your members really suffering, whether it is lack of stimulus money or the fact they are facing eviction, or literally cannot eat . Matt there is still about 18,500 cast members that we represent that remain on furlough at this time. Florida, youk of have to understand, its unemployment system was one of the worst in the country. Thesey into the pandemic, cast members had exhausted unemployment resources. That remains the case for those that remained out of work. Back to the comments i made earlier, the Tourism Industry in Central Florida makes up the bulk of the business. Tragedy for a thousands of workers, floridians who are in desperate need of help, and are unable to find work. Hopefully, a vaccine is rolled out and hopefully the traveling public can pick up, business can resume to a normal level at disney world. Until then, there are tens of thousands of workers in Central Florida that are being very drastically impacted by the current pandemic. Of course, that is in the context of no stimulus package. Government support that had been available to americans not available at the moment. Businesses seeking support not getting it now. Lawmakers are still presumably going to wrestle through something. How important is it for the folks that you represent that some form fiscal stimulus is brought about . Matt not just workers in florida, but you can see a real impact in a concentrated area, but you dont have to look at just florida to see that. It is impacting every state in our country. There is one thing every state has in common right now, and workers are hurting. Workers need help. We have had people out of work since march, april, and they dont see any relief as far as recall insight in the near future, until there is an increase in the traveling public. The union i work for does not just represent disney workers. We have other workers in different industries. Commuter railroads, amtrak. Those industries are likewise being impacted in a great way. Relief is needed, but not just relief or business. We need meaningful relief that finds its way into helping the working families in america that are being impacted today and for the foreseeable future. Vonnie obviously, tourism around the orlando, Florida Region is huge. Health care is another thing that orlando is famous for. How many of the people furloughed or laid off will be able to switch industries or move to another state for work . Is that possible, do they have the means . Matt as far as the possibility of that, that is not something that i or my staff have had conversations around. We are not familiar with a ton of opportunities presenting themselves to furloughed, laid off disney cast members across state lines to find work. I suspect there may be some instances of that but that is not the most practical given the current economic status of these people. Amanda not a lot of time. We have a president elect, he will form a cabinet. Bernie sanders has been floated as a potential labor secretary. Direction ofhe this next government when it comes to labor . Say i think it is safe to that most all of labor in this country is sharing optimism that president elect biden will implement worker friendly platforms, policies, and he will appoint worker conscious people in positions of leadership that are directly involved with the jobs, the members we represent every day in this country. We are hopeful for the best and we wish him the best as he builds that transition. Matt hollis, president of the Service Trades council union, thank you for being with us. Important perspective on the tens of thousands of workers across the u. S. Coming up, despite a volatile market, we are seeing businesses willing to take the plunge with an ipo. After this, our stock of the hour with a look at one of them, and some of the other names on the way. Stay with us. Amanda welcome back. Im amanda lang in toronto. Palantir report a big loss but it doesnt seem to be holding back the enthusiasm, nor are these markets holding back other businesses from seeking ipos. Abigail doolittle has more. A lot of worries for the markets and also with palantir, you would think the stock would be down but we have a rally. Its been a wild ride for them. In the after hours yesterday, reacting to that loss, the fact that the Revenue Growth forecast was less than expect it. Stock was down 5 , now up 6 . Overall, a strong First Quarter for the company to be reporting. Sales in the Third Quarter up 52 . To someo did guide Revenue Growth for the year. You can see, since this stock went public in september through direct listing, skyrocketing, up 150 . 115 . Investors really seem to be looking past that at this point, thinking the trends for the company, thats actually been around for 17 years, that perhaps more of the strength is ahead. You were mentioning this was a strong ipo year, goodyear to go public. Another announcement today that doordash plans to go public on the nyse. Look at these names that have gone public this year and the huge gains. Zoom info up 98 . Snowflake up 94 . With the pandemic and Everything Else going on, its amazing. Its expected to be the best ipo year since 1999, which really begs the question, is this the strength folks are seeing out there, or our companies being urged by bankers to go public while the window is open . Vonnie we will get to the bottom of it at some point. Looking forward to seeing the doordash financials. Going more macro, it has been a week for the markets. What stands out the most . Abigail probably the rotation that everyone is talking about out of technology into cyclicals, value. If we go into the terminal and look at a great chart, value etf is seeing inflows for the 15th get a row. This turned into value, cyclicals is not so new but is standing out this week because of the huge divergence on the week. The s p 500 is up 1. 5 . The russell 2000 up more than 5 . So you have folks going into those cyclical sectors, into value, smallcap, but look at where the money is coming out of. Big tech and bank stocks. The question is whether too far too fast. Companies trying to take advantage of a time to be public. Vonnie abigail doolittle, thank you. Economy forumw starts monday, bringing together Global Leaders from east to west. You dont want to miss it. This is bloomberg. Lets get to first word news. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for new negotiations with republicans on a fiscal stimulus package saying spiking covid19 cases is a red alert. The house returns to session next week but no. New talks are planned. Mitch mcconnell reiterated thursday his opposition to a package of the size close he wants. The white house has backed away from stimulus talks, making a deal unlikely before president elect beau biden takes office. Is Trump Administration feeding up plans speeding up plans to auction drilling rights in the Alaska National wildlife refuge. Learned thats he hopes to get that done before the inauguration. Permanentlypes to protect the refuge saying, drilling there would be a quote big disaster quote. At least two people are dead and a third missing, after an apparent steam explosion at the Veterans Affairs hospital in connecticut today. Officials say the blast happened in the Maintenance Building at the westhaven facility. No patients were affected