It was inappropriate having that kind of conversation . [inaudible] i think that is probably one of the many factors. It you cant deny somebody thats that wasnt the problem and i think that was one of the many reasons but he didnt have the competence of the president or the rest of the fbi. Can we expect more binaries for the Justice Department more firings from the Justice Department . Not that im aware of today. Theoes the president Want Department of justice to shut down what they call he has encouraged the house and Senate Committees to continue any ongoing investigations. The bottom line is any investigation that was happening on monday, is it still happening today. And wesnt changed encouraged them to complete the investigation so we can put it behind us and continue to see what we have been saying for a year, there is no coalition between the Trump Campaign and russia so that we can all move on. Wasten if they want to taxpayer money, do you think they should continue . Noted wants to waste taxpayer will, but i know you all not let this go until it does, so we would love for that to be completed. Us, moveon, and focus on what we need to do to turn our country around. Aware ofe white house the decision an announcement that the grand jury had just gone out . No, nor should we have been. Do you know anything about the process . Now i do not. If the fbi investigations are going to proceed in the by the going to support funding and support who to lead the investigation . Who is going to lead the investigation . Now, i believe that would fall to the Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein, and we are incredibly confident in his abilities. Thats given the fact he was confirmed 94 to six and had overwhelming praise from both sides of the aisle. I think there is complete confidence in him. Another reason, frankly for director comey to be out of the to for them to have somebody lead the effort to that everybody across the board has respect and confidence in. Nobody wants this to be finished and completed more than us so that we can focus on what we need to do here. Sean spicer said a week ago today, the president has confidence in the director. Again, what has happened in the last seven days to shake the confidence . Or did something change . I think one of the big things that took place was the process in the hearing on wednesday where, again, not to summit a sounded like a broken record, but you have the director of the fbi who reports to the Deputy Attorney general going around the chain of command. That is not ok, not something that is allowed in the Justice System, nor should it be. That is huge problem. That, along with the corrections that had to take place over the last 48 hours, those are big problems and another final piece that pushed the president to make the decision that he did. Does he regret not doing it earlier like on january 20 or 21st . I think the president wanted to give director call me a chance, but he feels he made the right decision. Have one of his longtime security advisers and deliver a letter to the fbi when the fbi director was in los angeles . Didnt he deserve a phone call or a facetoface conversation . He followed the proper protocol in that process which is a hand written notification. At the same time, no matter how you fire someone, it is never an so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. Was the president aware that james comey asked for more resources and the Russian Investigation and does that factor into his decision to get rid of mr. Comey as the director . Not that im aware of. He criticized the department of justice on not being partial on the economy. How is he moved by a letter that [inaudible] the president was wearing a different hat at the time. The circumstances change when you become a president. Around the you go chain of command in the department of justice, like a said before, when you throw a stick of dynamite into the department of justice, that is a big problem and one that cant be ignored. We already knew that, though, didnt we . Wednesday was the first time the director had openly and publicly made the statement and made it clear. [inaudible] is there reason why that wasnt included on the readout . Im sorry, could you speak up a little bit . Is there reason why that wasnt included on the readout . A lot of times, there are parts of the conversation that are not specifically included in a readout, but im not aware, i have not had that conversation, and i was not a part of that meeting, so i cant speak to every meeting and i will have to refer you to the readout on the specifics of what i know was discussed. You said you would want the investigation to continue, but is the white house opposed to getting a special prosecutor to continue to look at the investigation . Dont think it is necessary. Give a house committee, senate committee, and the department of justice working on this. I dont think there is a necessary need to add that. If the Deputy Attorney general, who i would say is as independent as a comes, due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support. Confidenceave such that they lost confidence in the fbi director, they said the vast majority are in favor of director comey, this is a total shock, this is not supposed to happen. The losers are 20,000 people in the organization because they lost the only guy in the past 15 years working here that cared about them. So what are your response to these fbi agents who disagree with your statements of losing faith in him . Whitford from countless members of the fbi that satan very different things. We have heard from countless members of the fbi that say a very different things. The president will be meeting with members of the fbi and will provide further information on that meeting. Theyre asking for a voice in the selection process. Havent had that conversation, but i know the department of justice is running through it and i would refer you to them. Who to the president consult before making the final decision to fire james comey . The president spoke with a number of individuals, but at the end of the day, it was the president decision resident president s decision. Did he speak again with the Deputy Attorney general or attorney general . Monday,w they spoke on and they may have spoken again as well but i would have to double check to make it clear. Is it accurate to polo pull away from the information about taking the recommendation as the evidence that he wanted to provide to fire james comey. My listening was the decision was made on tuesday, but the first conversation he had was on monday when there was an oral recommendation made and the president requested that he see this in writing to review it further. You say you want to move on and focus on based on tax reform to do, ascending bill, that ceiling, and infrastructure, but, what happened yesterday, you could argue, widened the divide and made the politics more toxic. How do you go about a cop watching those things with, now the heightened political environment that we are in . Im surprised that it created a divide because you had so many republicans and democrats repeatedly calling for him to be gone. Frankly, i dont think it matters what the president said because you are going to have democrats fight him every step of the way. That is one of the things wrong with washington, and i think that is one of the reasons that we have to get back to focusing on those issues, and draining the swamp a little further. Is he getting the democratic backlash that he anticipated . How could he have considering the fact that most of the people that are declaring war today were the very ones that were begging for director call me to be fired. If Hillary Clinton had won the election, which, thank god she didnt, but, if she had, and if she had been in the same position, she would have fired comey immediately. The very democrats that are criticizing the president would be dating in the streets celebrating. I think it is the purest form of the prophecy purest form of hypocrisy. [indiscernible] the president has not made a decision on that and is still reviewing. Also the president in a speech this morning warned our president about jerusalem. To those warnings play into his decision . Im not going to get into the decisionmaking process here. All i can tell you is he is reviewing it and as soon as we have a decision, we will report back to you. John . Thank you, sarah. To questions, both related the selection of a successor to call me. Comey. Clinton, obama, interviewed several candidates. Is the president going to follow the pattern or does he have some individual in mind at this point . There are several individuals being considered. The first step will be excuseg the acting me, the interim director and that is being handled through the department of justice and i would refer you to them for now. The other question i would it is the fact that the former fbi agents of the bureau generally prefer people who have been agents themselves or a background in the fbi. Only two former agents have been director in last four decades. Will the president consider current or former agents for the position . I would say he is not ruling anything out at this point. Again though, the department of justice is handling the first step in the process. The attorney general was refused information in the resting Russian Investigation, has he had any weight on deciding the new director . He told people he had director confidence in director comey. People take confidence in the president s statements later he hadeeks fired him. Of course you can. In this room, and most of the media around the world would like to think that is the buts full responsibility that is probably one of the smallest things they have going on their plate for the 20,000 employees that are working there. He should have a role in seeing who run the agency in that department. Does the president have confidence in the acting director . Yes he does. That theyned earlier are encouraging the fbi to move to a new investigation. The nature of my comment was not to direct the fbi. Theyre fully compliant with helping the process move along. We would like to see it completed. All of us can move on and focus on things that like listed earlier like tax reform, health care, infrastructure, those are big programs and priorities for the administration. Looking atke to be that as the number one thing. We dont want the main focus on the fbi investigation, but frankly it affects the American Voters everything monday. Looking into the things that affect American Voters every day. [inaudible] the department of justice officials were here for other business, not specifically to meet with the president on that. And they askedup to speak with the president and that is how it moved forward. Ofwhat about the possibility going with comey . Not that i am aware of, no. Aboutthe president talk rosenstein before then . Not that im aware of. Can you talk about why youre not going to add anymore to about who asked for that and why it was discussed . Who asked for what . Whether the president should be exonerating himself. He talked about why he wont add anymore to whats that conversation was, how that took place, what took place. Again, i wont get into specific details, i will check and see if we have followup on that, but, at this point, i want, i wont comment any further than what is on the letter. I think it is far above my pay grade to be included, and i wont get into the specifics of that. Thank you guys so much. That was Sarah Huckabee at the White House Briefing reporters. We bring kevins really from the really e kevins kevin, but we start with the comment that Sarah Huckabee said. She said if hillary were to won the election, she would have fired comey immediately. That begs the question why didnt he do it immediately . Y did we get about the decision today and not in january. None. She said this was the clearest and that theyisy would beat celebrating the firing had she won the election. She also said the decision came ofn because of any rosen confidence and erosion of confidence. Later today, President Trump will be meeting with the acting director and offered to go to the fbi in the J Edgar Hoover fbiding to meet with officials. It will make himself available, no time i on that. This is a doubling down, without specifics coming from the administration. Thats reminiscent of the first round of immigration executive orders put forth by the white house. During the briefing, i spoke with the senior aide to mark warner, a democrat from virginia, and head of the Senate Intelligencesenate committee, and im told that james comey has been invited to meet with both senator burr as the topsenator warner, of senators of the committee to have a preliminary conversation about everything that has happening and the latest developments. Let me ask you about optics. There is a question in the press abouting, people asking there is the former secretary of state, and amid this conversation, it is potentially seen as nick sony and smithsonian. The optics are bad and they continue to be bad. We had photographs released of donald trump taken by russian photographers. I want to go back to pick up some of the optics we saw there. Points,clarify a few adding more confusion as well, in saying that donald trump has not asked of the doj to look into this, that they had come to him with a recommendation. Once a that happen, what time the memo, obviously that is contrary to reports that he had been looking into this for several weeks and asked the Justice Department to come up with the rationale. That is not the story that sarah selling today. Shes putting this into a partisan bickering thing. His job was always in question, and perhaps it should have fired him. These narratives are clashing. Are getting the white house side of the story and it will be interesting to see when the fbi, the james comey side of the story, starts to come out. How much resources he asked for, how far up on the chin he went, how many conversations he had with the deputy ag, who else was weighing in with him. That side of the story is going to come out and it is not going to be under the control of the white house. They he thanked him on three occasions saying that there was no and fbi investigation into him. Where is the answer to that going to come from . We dont know the answer to that, david. If ever we are going to get it. One of the things that sarah said it was that to the investigation. It will continue on for the rest of the week, Going Forward, regardless of the fact that on the sidee that they are doing on the. Eparture of comey the question is timing. We do not have clarity on the question and i think that is why democrats are not going to be chastened in their criticism of trump. Democrats are going to want to know in demanding that the successor to comey is going to be somebody they believe in the public and trust who will be impartial in investigating the russia issue wherever it it takes them. We know the white house is emphatic in the fact that they not have any corrosion collusion with russian officials. That further instance of this have been moving forward in a way that did not look good for the trump white house. This is going to be a big issue in the confirmation hearings and process. The president fire and fbi director who is investigating some bad actions that he might have taken or his associates might have taken . , the me ask a question to you who is Rob Rosenstein . My takeaways that he is someone that the white house wants to elevate in a position at this point. There is no shortage of good words showered upon him. But he is an upstanding career prosecutor. Who is he and talk about his role. It could be the possibly unluckiest man. This is someone who was confirmed unanimously and has recently come into the role. What he is doing now, basically, the story is being peddled that he took the look at comey of his own collision and looked at his as sarah said, he asked to put the recommendation in writing. He did so, and we saw it. He is going to defend that decisionmaking. Its going to be very odd to people that he went back to the. Linton emails megan murphy, thank you very much for joining us. , g julie hyman. We are seeing shares take a sharp leg lower as the company is temporary solemnity suspending its mac aircraft saying it has an engine issue with the particular aircraft. It is unclear what to the issue involves here and the company says it will keep producing the planes and suspend flights of them. Textroneing boeing and dropping to lows. David . Julie hyman with that update. More Bloomberg Markets are coming up here. This is bloomberg. Scarlet from bloomberg World Headquarters and manhattan, this is Bloomberg Markets. Im scarlet fu along with julia chatterley, we have been following james comey and the firing of him and we will get back to markets here for now. Lets begin with oil prices. Prices are rising the most since january as eia reports that crude oil held by millions of barrels. That is the fifth straight week of declines in the large drop in the year. The client was more than the 2 billion forecasted by bloomberg. You have demand for haven assets field by north korea and the plans for nuclear test. Fbi people say as well the director james comey being fired. 8463. N see here g btv this shows why commodity investors dont need to fear the federal reserve. The white line is the federal funds rate raised by a quarter point in march. The blue mark is the steep decline over the last couple of and the latest one this year. Goldman sachs says the longterm relationships say Raw Materials worked the best as they are hiking rates. Julia . Congressional democrats have reported furiously to james comey and the firing of him. And a calm in a conversation today they said, not since president nixon have we seen such a disgraceful abuse of power and attack on our Justice System during one of the most Important National security investigations of our time. Director call me the firing is a blatant attack on the independence of the Justice Department. This behavior, firing the person investigating you, may pass him but it isssia disgracefully low the office of the president of the United States. The deputy secretary just said that the white House Democrats will be dancing in the streets had Hillary Clinton won the election and comey still been fired at that point. Is she right . I watch your coverage of the press conference and i thought what was most telling was, which he said that, she acknowledged that the president chose to fire directed comey director comey that for behavior that he praised himself and that he is a different person than that he was now. Lets be clear, the president fired the director because the fbi was investigating the connections between russia and his campaign, and the white. Ouse that is apparent. Its why this is such an abuse of power because of this. That is why there is such outrage on this. Will the president said he felt he wasnt being investigated personally on this and that there are many other people that will be investigating this very that is a lame argument at this point. That when you are, as we learned just this week, told as the president was that your National Security advisor is at risk of being blackmailed by the russians, and it takes you 18 days to fire him, when we know there are ongoing investigations into those surrounding the president , it is very clear, not just from the timing, but from the pattern, why the president did this. The president fired sally yates at an important woman in the investigation, he fired the top prosecutor in new york because he was investigating connections between the president and russia , and it now he has fired the one person who is leading the investigation in washington. That is why this is so troubling, and that is why you have seen democrats and republicans come out and express their great dismay at this decision. The white house would say that is not the only investigation underway. You also have investigations in the house and senate, and the press secretary said the white house is not a part the investigations taking place. Whatever was being taken into investigation was continuing underway right now. What is your confidence in the investigations that are currently being conducted on the Trump Campaign and the ties to russia . Do you think we will learn anything new . The investigations need to continue. If you look at the comments made by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, he is he has concerned that he is expressed concern with firing comey. If you look at others, there is other great concern as well. The senate needs to move forward quickly, and the house, unfortunately, too many of my colleagues seem to be using every effort to block of the investigation from Going Forward the way that it needs to. Those investigations are happening, but the reason we need an independent counsel now is to present the president from having one more person that he can fire. It is true there are lots of investigations, but this is the most Important National security investigation. It gets the core of the american democracy and russias attempt to interfere with it. We need to have the fbi fully and gauged fully engaged. When we learned that the fbi director in the past couple of days, asked for more resources to carry out this investigation, the response was that he was fired. That is the problem. Scarlet we also know the law for an independent investigator expired in 1999 and they did not renew it. How are these specific committees that you serve on planning to respond to the white house and the firing . In the Foreign Affairs committee, this has been a focus have been thought of a Committee Hearings. Therussian influence on usa. We have tried to get information that the white house might have on these issues in order to eight and investigation and investigation an investigation. Safeguard that they put in after watergate needs to be taken again. That you haver given a loose of the timing of that here. That is the big issue for many big reasons. Can ask you, personally, after the events of the last year and the surrounding the election in 2016, whether you personally still had faith in james comey as the director of the fbi, yes or no . Had concerns about some of the actions taken by director today,but the point is, that director comey was not even halfway into a 10 year term. It was a 10 year term that was created to avoid politics, and the moment that this investigation was really starting to heat up. I think that politics need to stay out of it. He needs to be able to, should have been able to lead the investigation to get to the core of our american democracy. Not sure you answer the question, but that is your job. They given joining us today. That is why the divisions between the democrats and republicans continue to harden. It will be interesting on who he chooses. In this investigation, if he decides that there was no collusion between the government and russia, youre going to hear cries of collusion again. Scarlet coming up, well speak onjim burns and henry mcvey where investors are putting their money. This is bloomberg. Julia this is Bloomberg Markets, im julia chastity, scarlet and im scarlet fu. Julia jason kelly is sitting down with the two top executives from kkr. Jason . Im joined by jim burns and henry mcvey from kkr. It, i have toto complement you, i dont get a lot of reports coming across to my desk starting with a quote from through the looking glass. Jim, let me ask you, what is an ultraHigh Net Worth individual . Who are we talking about . Jim if you ask 10 different people you would get 10 different definitions so it was important for us to lay out exactly how we define it. Investorst that with which we define as 10 million to 20 million in assets. Henry, when you are talking to vault, you talk to many other people of upwards of a billion dollars, right . Henry one thing we do is interact with all different types of investors, global endowments. We did a survey of 15 50 High Net Worth families and what. Truck us is the sheer size every five is one in people that we surveyed, it was an operating business, which is quite unusual, and they are focused on absolute return relative to relative return. In the pension world drive their business that way. I think they have a demand for a barbell strategy. Huge overweight toward alternatives, about 46 of the portfolio, and then a big position in cash which is about 10 . About 20 of the people we i 20 oro had cash more. What else we talking about, private equity and what else . For purposes of our report, we kept private credit. Many investors consider private credit to be alternatives as well. Jason when you look through the numbers come henry, what comes out at you that you can extrapolate to the rest of the market in terms of investing trends to predict or money is going or what where it may not be going . I put on my Financial Services had, this is a large and growing market. About a 60 trillion market. It is growing 8 per year. Unlike other constituent in the market, they are constantly thing inflows. A lot of the people we talked to an operating businesses, where they might be paying five out 5 per year, there is constant cash flow coming in. They are looking for ways to deploy the money leveraging the network and industry expertise. I think we are seeing a shift out of the core competency into more global investments, as jim said. We are a trend toward private credit when they can be a lender and get a coupon along the way. I think they are experimenting with things in growth. Private equity is a broad term. Take a are does large files as well as other things. As a firm, we have expanded into growth and other areas, and i think we are seeing the trend well beyond what we are doing within the subset of the market. Jason jim, this seems to be a group very comfortable with illiquidity, and that is fair . Jim very comfortable. We dont have the same they dont have the same spending like that foundations and endowments. Foundations have to give away 5 the year and endowments have to support the operations of the university. These individuals, especially the ones we talked to on the thosend, they dont have and they are able to take advantage of the illiquidity premium matter where it is. Henry, you spent a lot of time looking at the world from a macroeconomic and political way. That is something in the headlines in the last few days, last 300 days, is this a group more comfortable with the political volatility . We live in interesting times. We are seeing the desire to raise volatility and the group was early to the banks being reregulated and is stepping in as a regulator of choice. There is a clear desire when the markets dislocate to apply more capital into the markets. Many times, you can see investors pulling back when there is this location. There is a clear message here, we want to embrace the volatility to our advantage. I think it is important, there are a lot of good things going on. We also highlight in the note that these groups have generated incredible returns. There may be different uses of hedge funds, sourcing deals are becoming more complicated, and there is clearly, thus far, a desire to move more global. With that, you will need more currency hedging, and thinking for your business, more like a formal endowment or pension. Incredible market segment, lots of growth, and the title of the comes, comingofage, new challenges. Jason one of the challenges out there, for Institutional Investors investors investors in general, is volatility. How does that play through to this group . How are they viewing headphones hedge funds as a place to allocate money. The earliest investors to the hedge funds were very wealthy individuals and families. They were early to the space and a significant investors to the space. What you have seen is very outsides outsized allegations to hedge funds that clearly, they are reducing exposure because of the performance challenges that the Hedge Fund Industry has experienced. With seeing locations certain sub strategies that phase of structural issues, and we are seeing individuals allocate away from those toward Quantitative Strategies or absolute return strategies within the hedge fund complex. Jim i think thats henry duration can work to your a capitalfor paying tax or income tax. I think people are really, even though we may have lower taxes, this segment of the market is focused on finding tax efficiency. Jason henry, i want to ask you the last question. You work for a wellknown global asset manager and investor. What is the take away for a fund of manager given the growth of this area, the appetite it has other investment, what should they be thinking about . Just like with hedge funds, we have seen Systematic Trading with machines having a onlyund influence on long as well as hedge funds. In the private markets, there is a new force that is coming in that has critical mass, and i think how they deploy the have implications for returns and the risk that you are underwriting as this business grows during jason great. And theyurns and henry mcvey give for joining us. Scarlet a popular eu case in which change is gearing up for audio dollar and during up for this is bloomberg. Scarlet this is Bloomberg Markets trade lets get to one of the big stories of the day. Bes u. K. Copy chain may heading for a wall street ipo. Bloomberg deals reporter ed, joins us. Ed, how exciting . Is finally doing it. Julia why here rather than ideal in the u. K. . I think there is more capital here. It can do a better job of going public year. I think the other thing is that it is maxed out and u. K. Thats in the u. K. As far as growth. And will be potentially the next major market. Cf. 29 stores in the u. K. And 74 in the United States. They have plenty of room to add stores here. Are discussing in a break thats we prefer to mix and bask match. Scarlet you want to custom make your sandwich at the deli. Julia what makes it more competitive in the United States . In, pick up the sandwich, pay for it, leave. Here, you think of a segway or so, and go in and say this bread, these bellies, etc. We love that because it is a novel thing. You can literally be in and out in seconds and you dont have to make any real decisions. I think its tonight cucumber. I havent quite often. Was the advantage of ipo versus being taken over by someone . We think there has been some interest in the company. It is a wellknown brand. Potentially, they are going to run a track year so if someone comes in with a knockout offer before the ipo, that would represent a full exit and you may see that as possible. At the moment, they think they can realize more value and keep stake in the company if it takes off the way they think it were two. Scarlet what do we know about the company and the investors . This is probably the best known asset, certainly in europe. A lot has been written about to them, as owners, they speculated as exiting this. I think it has been a home run for them. In terms of growth, what they have achieved, and they are looking for high multiples in this. Theyre talking about comparing it to shake check which is about 28 times, the alltime best ipo success stories. Julia do think this is partly brexit as well . Maybe the french name will play less well in the u. K. Now that we are going to be on our own. Julia [laughter] quick, name chains name change, quickly. Ed, thank you for coming on. He will have the full report on bloomberg news. Scarlet shares of boeing falling after suspending its 737 max flight. More on that coming up. You can see there, boeing is coming back from his decline earlier. The democratic leader Chuck Schumer is speaking on the senate floor by the firing of james comey and schumer says only comey can address the many unanswered questions. I believe this rises far above party labels. I believe it rise above partisan politics. I have been hardened at several republicans that several republicans have expressed concerns. I hope and expect our republican friends will join us in these efforts to make sure the investigation is conducted in the manner it deserves. [no audio]ss julia 2 00 p. M. In new york, 12 00 in san francisco, 8 00 in london. I am julia chatterley. Scarlet i am scarlet fu. Welcome to Bloomberg Markets. Julia we are live in bloomberg World Headquarters in new york. Here are the top stories we covering on the bloomberg and around the world. In politics, President Trump is interviewing replacements for fbi director james comey, who he fired for not doing a good job. Will the latest shakeup get in the way of his economic agenda . The fed has been too easy for thelast few years so say founders of equity group investments. More of that conversation later this hour. Snap reports after the bell today. The first look at the companys financial picture since it went public. We are looking to user growth and its future strategy. We are one hour from the close of trading. Lets check on the markets with julie hyman. Hi, julie. Julia. Hi, juli mastec trading at a record again good on pace for a record close even if the doubt continues to be the lack of a moneymaker averages. One of the reasons we have this turnup is energy shares. Today, ands up by 3 that is after we saw the big drop in weekly inventories of 5 million barrels. The fifth straight weekly drop as well. That is bringing up the Oil Companies and leading energy to be the bestperforming group in the s p 500. Take a look at the bloomberg here. This looks at the crude oil supplies. The seasonally adjusted change on the bloomberg. You have the inventory in blue, compared with the past five years in the average is the light green. Yes, it is coming down to around the levels where it was last year at this point in time, but still well above the average of the past five years congestive put u. S. Supplies past five years, just to put u. S. Supplies in perspective. Boeing temporarily suspended 737 max flight because of an engine issue. The company says it came to light days before deliveries were supposed to begin to airline customers. If you look at the other plane component makers or engine makers, down as well, although not a big one. We also have this developing story having to do with whole foods, which has been under pressure from a shareholder to change things in its business and potentially to explore strategic options. Whole foods, according to an earlier dow jones store and confirmed by bloomberg reporting, is looking at replacing about half of its board can potentially even the chair man over the board, going to people familiar with the situation. Whole foods reports after the close. Shares initially took a leg up and out are down. 25 . Finally, abercrombie fitch, these shares rising 13 . The wall street journal reports that competing retailers could be interested in making a big for abercrombie. Express an American Eagle are journal. By the we have talked a lot about the troubles in retail land recently. This might be a solution in the case of abercrombie. Julia thanks, julie. Scarlet the firing of james comey adds new tension in d. C. , but as wall street has an eye on washington, investors should be underweight all the rhetoric. Can we just talk about fundamentals for once . Themes, theajor deep primary theme, vonnie, into 2017, as we try to to warn investors to overweight analysis and underweight rhetoric. We are a society, political base, and Investor Base that reacts to every single thing instead of doing the work. Doing the work, if you look at the fundamental condition of u. S. Stocks with respect to earnings and Going Forward to the next two or three quarters we look pretty good. A lot of this is noise. Scarlet how more and more investors are watching, just for more on what investors are watching, gina martin adams. You have done the work on the technical level of the s p 500 as well, and this political storm does not come at a good time. It is tricky. The s p 500 has tried and tried again to get past that critical level. Were are trying to test of the level today. We will see. At least so far, any news inhibiting risk tolerance is coming at a little bit of a tough time for that index. Scarlet strong growth in comparison to the expectations. Auto sales plummeted to a level we have not seen since 2014. They didnt turn up in april. It looks like the consumer news is week. Theres already a doubledigit decline in consumer earnings in the retail sector. Can we beat that number . Im not so sure. Julia taking into account how earnings has lifted Investor Sentiment at this point, there are a lot of points where there is concern. Sales, Commodity Markets can we argue that the market has been pretty resilient in the face of death gina that gina it has been. Granted, we got a few positive Economic Data points, to. We got a surprise on the jobs number last week. It was a pretty good jobs number. Call it neutral on the economy. The earnings season has helped us. But we cannot get beyond that big hurdle. Julia and the price and retail as well, because as everyone keeps pointing out, we are expecting this to be bad. The dont have to be too bad. It is a great point, and that is a lot of the story of the earnings season, quite frankly. Our expectations were pretty depressed relative to reality. Great news for us as retailers can no longer in leading indicator of the s p 500. It is smaller than it used to be. Bigger portions of discretionary like media and restaurants mean a lot more to the sector at large. The sector is not the biggest sector in the s p 500. It is a tiny portion, but this the talent of earnings and it julia choppiness potentially. Scarlet tina martin adams, thank you so much. Gina my pleasure. Cal time,ets look at exploring a sale, and it is attracting buyout firms, according to dow jones. You are looking at the shares, suspended from trading. 12. 5 rightabout before it had climbed about 12. 5 . Trading and it popped. In the energyins nrg Energy Moving higher as well. Julia lets get a check on the headlines on the first word news with mark crumpton. The white house is defending President Trumps firing of fbi director james comey. Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders told reporters that the president had lost confidence in comey and acted on the advice of the Deputy Attorney general and others when he dismissed comey on tuesday. Frankly, here been considering letting comey go since the day he was elected, but he did have a conversation with the Deputy Attorney general on monday where they had come to him to express their concerns. Mark Justice Department leaders are interviewing 4 veteran Law Enforcement and intelligence officials for the role of interim fbi director. The position is currently held by andrew mccabe, former director comeys top deputy. He will be in the hot seat in just his second day on the job. He will appear at a Senate IntelligenceCommittee Hearing tomorrow in place of his former boss. The hearing is about current and projected security threats facing the United States. During a speech today in london, the United Nations secretarygeneral said he wants to reform the world body to overcome what he calls the lack of confidence expressed by the general public. He also discussed globalization, saying it has had a positive impact on the wellbeing of many people around the world. Secretarygeneral gutierrez at the same time, it globalization has contributor to increase inequality, in some cases in a very dramatic way, and is left people behind. Secretary general guterres also says there needs to be start coordination between eu and and financial the u. N. And financial institutions. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. I am mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. Coming,hanks, margare snap reports after the bell. Will investors be happy with the companys First Financial figure since it went public . This is bloomberg. Scarlet this is Bloomberg Markets. I am scarlet fu with julia chatterley. Julia reporting earnings today, snap, the first report since it went public. Alex barinka has details on what investors will be watching for. Alex when snape went public, he did a lot of sharing about the past. What investors got next to nothing when it comes to forwardlooking guidance. Wall street is eagerly awaiting the companys first Earnings Report. It could set the stage for how investors see the company. When twitterverse reported earnings in 2014, its Stock Plunged more than 24 , because wall street was concerned about the companys user growth rate, and in 2012, when a star credits first Earnings Report from its stock is up one facebook had its first Earnings Report, stock fell more than 11 . They would never make money off of mobile phones, where users were migrating. Alex facebook and twitter have condition investors to focus on user growth. But that is not the snap not what this net Investment Team not what the snap Investment Team thinks wall street should judge them on. How excessive users are with the app. Sarah and they dont want investors to focus on their user growth in which has been slowing. They wanted to focus on expansion into other countries come where there is faster internet and healthier advertising markets, where they can make more money each user. Alex that might be valuable in judging snaps growth over time. The problem is, investors compare companies to their peers, and some see this as a convenient excuse for snap justifying its valuation of over 25 billion. Sarah people are worried in part because facebook keeps copying snaps most popular features. They now have a version of snapchat stories. On instagram, the future is incredibly popular, with more than 200 million daily active users. Notoriouslynaps secretive ceo and his Management Team will be forced to speak publicly about their plans to stay one step ahead. Sarah if the argument is to look away from the user growth number, what other number will the get investors to think about . Will they give us insight into their mobile tv shows that do not require as much user growth to be successful . Alex either way, investors could be in for one of the most interesting days for snap so far. Julia that was sarah frier and alex barinka covering snap earnings for us. Scarlet all foods reports earnings after the bell today, and the Company Announced a plan to change more than half the board in a bid to ward off or proxy battle with an activist investor, janice partners. This is according to an investor with knowledge of the plan. Craig, give us the backup as whole foods tries to fend off the investor. It has been a tough stretch for whole foods. Down for almost four straight quarters. Mix, janet cardiff, saying that we will push for changes coming couldnt possibly the sale of the company. Whole foods can we think, if available, for the punt with offender turn over half the port, but the investor says they wanted a twoyear standstill and they said no, we want our options on the table. It is not a good this is enough to fend them off at the moment. It appears this is not enough to fend them off at the moment i. Scarlet part of the problem is that whole foods has not changed its strategy. Craig the old moniker is whole paycheck and it has really hurt them. They have a reputation for being overpriced. Walmart and kroger watch this and set them we can sell organic stuff to an we can do it cheaper. Scarlet i have. Craig in a lot of city they have. Craig and a lot of cities there are a lot of options. Julia all foods is incredible wholeole foods is a foods is a grossly expensive, which i found coming here from the u. K. Restocking shelves, how quickly are they pushing forward on that . That is something that will help them. Craig really good point. Kroger has been working with a Data Analysis firm for years. Four years nobody paid attention. They barely have a loyalty program, they dont know a lot about who is shopping there. At kroger they know exactly who is in their store and when you bought last time and what you like to buy, they are pushing you coupons. Whole foods is giving its toe into that space. For years that didnt matter. Sales were up double digits and that didnt matter but now they are having problems. Julia we show you the stock partners since jana were involved and theyre hoping for a sale here. My question on their earnings would be what do investors want to hear on this . Is it good news or bad news . I guess if we have good news for the government in make the sale is likely, perhaps, or vice sometime buys some time, which measures would prefer. From there was no barclays saying that if the sales were about the stock would go up. Were looking for some signs of the ceo is taking control and sevenrn the sales around straight quarters of declining samestore sales is the worst slump for them in years. Whole foods is never seen a soft like this. Some sign that they are turning the corner is what investors are looking for. Scarlet we just show that the expectation is for comparable sales to drop 3 for the quarter. You mentioned the john mackey naod of the changes ja partners is looking for, does it include a change of the top, the ceo . They have not not said that specifically but they have talked about management being too thin. Book outey has a new and is on a book tour and some are wondering if that is the best thing to be doing during a crisis. Should they really be focused on this new thing or should they be trying to fix up the core business . There have been questions about john mackey. Cdo forhared the six years with a man who left the company. He saw the organic movement coming. Now he is operating a different. Ompany than the one he founded julia competition is fierce now. Scarlet craig, thank you very much. Still ahead, more on whole foods on our options insight. This is bloomberg. Julia this is Bloomberg Markets. I am julia chatterley. Scarlet i am scarlet fu. Time for options insight with julie hyman. Joining me is a Senior Market strategist at trading advantage. He is joining me from cboe in chicago. Great to see you. Once again we have the vix at very low levels. We have all this noise out of washington and it ebbs and flows. Today it is that a higher pitch. And curious if you guys are watching what is going on, paying attention to what is going on. He does not seem to be affecting what is going on in the market. No, not at all, and we are befuddled here, i have to be honest with you, and most professional traders are, why the vix is so low. We have all this news coming out of washington. Yes, the economy is moving along here. We have had great earnings for the most part it but there is always geopolitical risks and it does not seem like the vix should be at this level here. There is a lot of upside retail call buying in the vix pit we are all befuddled by the trade in Single Digits are on the 10 or around the 10 handle. Julie we were looking at strategist knows after the comey hiring and some were seeing we might see a delay of tax reform. Im curious, when you talk to guys down there, when you talk to investors, is tax reform even priced in at this point, or priced in in a timely manner at this point . I think that the start of tax reform is priced in for this year. Sometime before the end of this year, we will see the first news out of the white house as to what this thing really might look at it but if we start to get in summer months, maybe into fall, and it has been put on the back burner, there is a big part of this rally that is due to that. I think there is some risk of that and that is why im telling everybody, if you are long the market, be long the market, but by his incredibly cheap insurance you can get. Julie some people are following that advice. Lets get your trade of the day. It is on whole foods, which we have just been talking about here. It looks like it is going to be doing some board restructuring here, under pressure from jana partners. Are you still kind of cautious on the stock, given that . Scott i really am. The upside we have seen, this 30 rise, is due to this stock having a buyout. Partners going to put enough pressure to elevate the stock . As your prior just just set them the board news will probably usurp what the actual earnings are. The pressure has to be to the downside here. That being said, 33, 30 3. 5 area technically some support. I look for a downside move, but i really target that area right in their, which is right in line with the put spread we are buying here. 33. 5 put spread. Either way, you are looking for the stock to sell off a little bit. Scott i am looking for a to sell off with incredible work to risk on the put spread. Even if the stock goes up, whatever the news is my know what my missed is. Did on an earnings play like this all the interest we are seeing here, great reward to risk on this trade. Julie 13 of the outstanding shares are short right now. We are watching all about going into the earnings. Thank you so much, scott bauer. Appreciate it. Julia . Julia breaking earnings from 21st century fox, snap, and whole foods. You cant afford to miss it, or us. I will leave you with a look at the markets right now. This is bloomberg. Mark i am mark crumpton. It is time for first word news. Speaking at the white house, President Trump said there was a very simple reason he fired fbi director james comey. He was notrump doing a good job, very similar. Did it affect your meeting with the russians today . Me . Ident trump excuse rk earlier, trump tweeted comey will be replaced by someone doing a far better job, bringing back the procedure of lost to thend confidence of almost everyone in washington, republican and democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me russian president Vladimir Putin said his country had nothing to do with comeys firing. He was about to take the ice for a hockey game. Wasaid President Trump acting in accordance with the u. S. Constitution when he fired director comey. The president met with Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in the white house today