Solid ground. Vonnie lets get back to the storm and controversy over trumps abrupt firing of james comey. Mike pence just telling reporters the firing was the right decision at the right time. We also follow swift reaction from both sides of the aisle. Absolutely laughable. Fails to pass any smell test. Both parties, at different times, have called for the mr. Comey. F this is not watergate. No one is happy with this performance. I think it is time to take a new direction at the fbi. The timing raises some questions. Because of the interference by the russians in our election. The idea that you take the person with every other spots ability, including the budget of the department, and somehow it all falls apart, that is not how organizations work. I do not believe the system has been compromised, but i believe at different times at different reasons, people ask for a new fbi director. Now they will get one. There needs to be a special, independent prosecutor who can be insulated and protected from politics. Vonnie joining us from our bureau is marty schenker. The next step is crucial. In whose court is the ball . Is a republicans . Mitch mcconnell just said democrats are getting what they have wanted for a wild. But on the democratic side, we saw calls for action. Chuck schumer wanting a special Senate Hearing and a special counsel. Marty the most important thing this admission needs to do Administration Needs to do is find a successor to james comey and do it quickly. There is some talk that donald trump would not interview any candidates until after his european trip. I think everybody, and you heard Lindsey Graham before, talk about they need to appoint someone who clearly has the confidence of the senate on both sides of the i o. Democrats and republicans. Frankly, donald has shown the capacity to do that on some critical appointments. Not eliminates the questions on timing. Vonnie right. For now, the acting fbi director, andrew mccabe, is taking over. Say it is him or anyone else. What kind of grief do they get landed with . Do they continue with the staff they have, do they clean house . Marty that is a critical question. This unprecedented firing had only happened once before. That was for cause, in terms of inappropriate expenditures by fbi director sessions by bill clinton. This has the change of politics behind it because of the obvious questions about russia. The one great thing about being fbi director was the assurance that you are protected from political influence. The question is now has donald trump or this administration and those to come taken away that independence . Mark lets talk about timing. Is there any way the white house rand paul defended the timing earlier to kevin cirilli, to be fair. Is there any way the white house can defend the timing of this . Marty of course pay they are defending it as we speak. They said that they received the report from Deputy Attorney yesterday, and donald trump took that decision. The question really is since he cited the handling of the Clinton Emails as the reason behind it, that has not changed since inauguration day. So the questions democrats have is why now . Trump people are basically saying we are following a process, due process, and when he got the recommendation, he acted on it. Point a moment ago, we want to bring a quotes from our Bloomberg View columnist who really wrote a fantastic oped about this, saying that the erosion of the independence of Law Enforcement is a blow to the on cause the unwritten constitutional norm of political neutrality. It does not violate the butration of powers violates the norm. Marty i do not think you can overstate the significance of what donald trump did in terms of what it means for the independence of the fbi. Cannot proceedu with investigations that go all the way to the white house or you risk losing your job, then it becomes a much more political position. And frankly, a position that some highly qualified individuals will not be interested in doing. Food donald trump picks for this job, it will be very fascinating to see who that is and who is willing to take it under these circumstances. Projectiont is your you have covered if you have covered a few of these events in washington over the years due conspiracy theories proliferate now . Yes. this is great fodder. It is a pants on fire morning ine in dce, not Just Congress but for the media. Everyone is speculating on the timing. The thing that gets me is what have we learned about donald ismp in the first 107 days he is completely unpredictable, marches to his own drummer, sometimes uses conventional methods, sometimes not. So expect the unexpected. That is what happened yesterday. Everyone will have to deal with it, because it will continue. Vonnie marty schenker, thank you. Mark lets get back to barclays, because the Shareholder Meeting took place today. Agm coming under fire. And there is a call for investors to vote against the reelection of glass senior. About youk would have seen the result of almost 98 were for the appointment. All ballots were prostaley. Is that enough of a stamp of approval for staley or not . I think that is enough for now. There has obviously been some serious discontent registered. I think he will have to continue to respond to allegations about whistleblowing and respond to shareholder concerns in the coming months, especially as the investigations are wrapped up pending the outcome. Mark are you guessing or projecting that staley will remain . Andrew for now, it seems he is safe. Who can say what will happen in the future. We were not calling for him to be ousted from the board or from his role as ceo. In fact, he seems to have brought support from shareholders from a strategic threshold. The concerns about his the concerns are about his judgment and the was a blowing under investigation. Did not call for shareholders to abstain. Why not . Andrew we thought the strategic rationale for leading the leadership are barclays is sound. There has been an error of judgment, or there seems they may have been an error of judgment in the whistleblowing incident. But from our perspective, getting rid of the Company Leadership as a result of that would be a strong and divisive move that may go against what he has been doing the past nearly two years in restructuring the bank. Our perspective is it is better to take a more strategically cautious approach to this at this time. On ianou were firmer cheshire, the former king sister kingfisher ceo. You voted against his reelection. I have not seen anything yet, but why is that . We recommended voting against him initially as a result of his significant external commitments. He served on five boards, including three of those as chairman, which is a very substantial Time Commitment. We are talking about a director who is tasked with being the chairman of the new u. K. Barclays bank while also serving on the global board. It is a very substantial Time Commitment and a huge risk to shareholders if a director cannot respond to things like we are seeing right now with the investigation into the whistleblowing of event. Or brexit. There is a number of things coming up that may demand substantial attention from the board. We think shareholders deserve better than having someone who may not be able to devote the time. I would also say that barclays has said he will scale back his workflow by september of this year. Are you satisfied with that answer . Andrew we are somewhat santos satisfied. We still need to see what happens in reality. We actually changed our advice following the board statement that he would reduce his commitments. But just over 10 of shareholders continue to oppose his election, because the details are not yet there. It is a difficult situation for shareholders to be put in when they have to decide yes or no in there we have half the picture. For now, we are satisfied that the board will take some action. It remains to be seen whether that will be enough. Is a commonplace, is this a real issue in the u. K. . , butw it is commonplace something boards are now aware of. It is actually quite surprising to see directors nominated for aection who serve on significant number of boards without the board actually addressing that, because it is unknown concern an issue. It has increasingly been addressed by boards who are looking outside the pool of their existing pool of directors to find people who have more time to devote to their commitments and who may be people who would not have been considered before. It is an issue that is on the decline and is increasingly a real red flag for when we see that directors have too many boards. A real red flag for shareholders. Mark andrew gebelin, glass senior director of research in dublin. Thanks for joining us. Chief executive, jes staley do not miss that interview. Vonnie it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. Lets check in on the first word news. Here is courtney donohoe. Courtney the Senate Rejecting an attempt to break from obama era rules targeting admissions favor republicans joined democrats in opposing the measure. Energy firms made that legislation a top priority. Turkey has objected strongly to armeds decision to Kurdish Forces in syria. The pentagon says that force can is the only one that can seize the rebel held capital. Secretarygeneral Antonio Perez is in london, where he is stressing the needs to the united nations. He says the changes are necessary to overcome the lack of confidence expressed by the general public. It was his first major public speech in the u. K. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im courtney donohoe. This is bloomberg. Mark a quick check of oil. It moved following that data. Wti having its biggest oneyear gain. Inventories fell the fifth straight week. 50. Re on 47 this is bloomberg. Live from bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, i am vonnie quinn. Mark live from london, i am bark mark barton. Counting down to the european close. Focusing on europe after the victory of emmanuel macron. Joining us now is stephen isaacs, chair of the investment alvine capital. Why should we worry about cheese . Andrew well, Charles De Gaulle stephen Charles De Gaulle asked how can you manage a country with more than 400 different cheeses. Mark i think we are around 1000 now. Willen i think macron find his program was lovely and uplifting, but it was not particularly clear as to what he wished to do. As it happened, if you look at the first round, macron with 24 philehe only art in euro candidate. The next three, in varying are euroskeptic. And we had an ardently euro phile president. Someone who will great with the electorate. He will try to use momentum he has some of the socialist to come with him. Canoptimists will say he sleep through to power and have the majority. Can i be off ticket optimist and devils advocate one of our stories, macron was 4 over the term. How fortunate could he be given the high pmi . How fortunate may he be by the economic backdrop . Stephen good point. Some of the reforms in the 1980s were much easier to manage, because the economy was booming. It is possible, if he really doubles down and creates a proper reform program. My worry is parliamentary elections will show that there is not really a program except for a few nice slogans. The backdrop economically was good, but where the electorate really giving him or was he the governing party . No. He ran as an outside party. So it seems the people of france are still angry. My concern is parliamentary election will not deliver him at majority a majority and we could have a cohabitation or split french politics. And disappointment will come in quickly. Moving onto markets is what we really care about. Vonnie yes. If i can jump in and ask from a markets point of view, since the extreme outcome has been avoided marsh may not gain every parliamentary seat, but at least macron is president. Can we now step back from the ginal independent individual country and look at europe as a whole again until the italian elections . Stephen yes. Draghi gave a disposition to the Dutch Parliament. Y gave him a to look as a a solarpowered tulip as a reminder of what can happen with bubbles. The agreement made between Northern Europe and southern europe, particularly france in 2012, when things were looking ofperate, was we will kind live with negative rates and qe, because we need to save france. And france has been saved from the worst. It may be messy Going Forward, but we do not fear a National Front government. Now that is in the bag. 1. 5 . Ion right up to with german elections and merkel having pressures of her own, even though she is ahead in the polls, surely the pressure the dutch gave to mr. Draghi is this has to stop. The fed tightening, the bank of england for sure, is not doing more qe. Whatasset prices, that is we lived off of in europe for five years. There has been a little bit of growth recently. We have lift off there is no alternative. So interesting question. Mark so what do we buy . S p records 21 month high in europe. The euro had a great round. What do we buy . Stephen i think one still needs to look at some sort of diversification. Active management is the story. Trying to make big macro calls , but there are no easy ones. I want to bring attention to what happened to etf flows. More than three times the First Quarter of 2016. Say retail money is flooding into and chasing etfs and chasing a few big stocks. We know who they are. Apple, facebook, amazon, etc. They are very expensive. Sell those stocks now and look to get proper value active management. Mark great to see you. Stephen isaacs, chairman of the Investment Committee at alvine capital. Vonnie still ahead, we look inside Monetary Policy with alice rivlin, the former Federal Reserve vice chair. This is bloomberg. This hour, we are awaiting a News Conference from Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. He will speak soon from the Russian Embassy in washington, d. C. This after meeting with donald trump and Rex Tillerson today. Live whening you that it begins. It will be interesting, to say the least. Events ofs, given the the last one he four hours. Look at where european markets are trading as we head for the close. Range today, but stocks are grinding higher after the results of the French Elections sunday. This is bloomberg. These days families want to be connected 24 7. Thats why at comcast, were always working to make our services more reliable. With technology that can update itself. And advanced Fiber Network infrastructure. New, more Reliable Equipment for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. Mark this is the european close. The wednesday session high led by oil and gas. Putting a rocket under oil and a big boost to oil and gas company. We are once again at a 21 month the european earnings season continues. I want to tell about the operator of food alliance, said food lion, seeing deflation in better. And it expects Pricing Power in the second half to bolster growth and they reported firstquarter earnings that beat estimates, the merger between the netherlands and belgium competition from walmart and a little car which is expanding. Weighing on retailers abilities whichse, food lion brand is in the south east has been struggling the most. Rising further today. 1. 30, we havearly not been there since september last year. The best currency this year even as we have seen the fallout out from brexit, the boe will released is growth and Interest Rate decision probably, economists we have spoken to said it will cut its growth forecast to raise inflation projection. Willow more in pc members abstain . We had Tristan Forbes last month. A strategist said if sterling breaks through 1. 30, it will probably trigger a sharper move up and also supporting the currency. The big piece of data was inflation data in china. More than expected in april adding two signs to potential easing of global reflation fueled by the worlds second largest economy. Cpi, 1. 2 , prices helping fuel is easing. What does it mean for the reflation trade Going Forward and that is one the Big Questions out of china today. What a President Trump making a brief comments facing a meeting , ah russian Sergey Lavrov day after fbi director james comey was fired. President trump said he was not doing a good job, reporting to comey. And with a meeting with lavrov, he said it was very, very good. He said as they are talking about russia and assyria. We are waiting a News Conference from Sergey Lavrov and he will be speaking from the russian andssy in washington, d. C. We will bring did to you. Lets look at the dollar. Abigail doolittle is with us. Abigail one of the big stories is the dollar. The bloomberg dollar index more down more than 3 , the worst year since 2009. Longerterm chart of the bloomberg dollar index and we see around 2015, the bloomberg dollar in text started to go to the pattern of uncertainty and congestion. Debte congestion, too many crisis. It crosses below the 200 moving and the gainers are gaining momentum. The last one took it to the bottom of the range and the near in the newest one is nearing it. , theis entire range broadening formation, dropped down, it could be a 20 drop. We have had the president Trump Administration reiterating or suggesting they like a weak dollar and perhaps that is behind some of the bearish we are seeing. It could be a pretty big decline on the dollar index and that would equal about an 80. We have the euro higher on the year. Another charge, mario draghi, the ecb president , said ecb stimulus is not entirely working. The ecbs Balance Sheet and close to the fed Balance Sheet. This has weighed on the euro all the way back to the time when we had the crisis with ireland and greece and portugal. And in a blue, the dax. The ecbs policy may not helping the economy entirely is helping the dax as risk assets climb. Mark abigail, thank you. A big week for central banks. Rank of englands rate decision. Some speculated the boe will not make moves until after brexit talks have concluded. President mario draghi spoke in front of the Dutch Parliament and was cautiously upbeat. Lets bring in former vice chair of the Federal Reserve board, alice rivlin, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution joining us from washington. Thank you for joining us. As you heard in the introduction, mario draghi address the Dutch Parliament and said the stimulus has not finished the job yet but he does acknowledge the economy is getting stronger. Closer to the ecb changing its Forward Guidance possibly in june ahead of probable some say tweaking to the outlook of tapering for the qe program in september . Maybe, but i think it is too soon to say. Things are looking up a bit in europe and that was true before the French Election. I think the outcome of the French Election is positive for european growth. We have moved a bit of certainty that may have been there given macron take that a governing coalition which he does not have at the moment. He does not even have a real party. Theres a lot of uncertainty about friends. France ban. Could and should contribute to be settlement of the most urgent issues in international affairs. We discussed syria and quite a detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forth regarding the deescalation areas the regarding the facts if that should be that would contribute to the cessation of the violence throughout the territory of syria to contribute to the humanitarian problems that would form a framework. To achieve political sediment ed on the resolution settlement based on the resolution and we are working together where we appreciate the constructive contribute contribution of the u. S. The geneva process which is. Uppose resume next week we hope that all of the participants of the talks will be constructive, both the government and the position troops. We also discussed many other issues and challenges facing the communities with the u. S. And whichther stakeholders could turn the tide and improve the situation. We mentioned the issue of the israel settlement, afghanistan and as well as the compliance with the domestic agreements involving the ukrainian. We have agreed to continue our work in context to a sure to ensure all of the parties on board. The reason of the duration of the relationship is with the Previous Administration and took us backwards to undermine the full foundation of our elections and right now, we have to start from a very low level of elections. Want to livepeople ourrd and be able task is to remove all of the barriers, along with Rex Tillerson, we discussed the upcoming meeting that took place in new york where they reviewed the state of our relations. Have notf the problems been were solved, but the pace, but will agreed to the teaching use of the channel to a dress address the artificially introduced into our relations. We will not be able to address all of the problems overnight. The desire to move from indirection, President Trump clearly stated his interest to russiaelations with which is truly important that both president troop and president putin are willing to resolve. It would help in removing problems from the International Arena and that is what i want to start with. Any questions . Please use the microphone. Have you discussed the issues of sanctions and restoring access to seized property in new york . Is, whatcond question would be the retaliation from the russian side . It is not our problem. It is through actions taken against us. Regarding our property, well, that isthat is an issue a priority in our talks because it is our diplomatic property recognized as such by legal documents given to us. It is our property and no one denies that. They have not denied it is our property. It is clear that the Outgoing Obama Administration undertook tricks because our diplomats and our property. Our diplomats were ordered to get out of the country and as ever given 24 hours. Meetingt affect your a with the russians today . Thank you. Thank you. President trump thank you, everybody. As of now, we decided not to be hasty with retaliation because president putin doesnt want to follow the lead of those who are trying to poison our relations to the point of no return. All of our partners are aware of our position and no of our rights to retaliate and reciprocate. We wouldnt want to use at this right and we hope will be able to here in the United States with so much focus on contact that Trump Campaign people may have had with russia, do you see that affecting the relationship much Going Forward . Regarding the noise about our information toke which we are in control of, well, yes, it is a normal background for our relations. For the American People to realize the Russian Federation is controlling the situation in america, how could it be possible for such a great power and a great country, i believe, that politicians are damaging the political system and trying to pretend. Vonnie you have been listening to Sergey Lavrov and a News Conference talking about what he and President Trump spoke about in their meeting. He said the Obama Administration used the dirty tricks of this russian diplomat saying president putin does not want to poison relationships with the United States and did not discuss sanctions. He said President Trump mentioned wanting a better relationship with russia. And playback with President Trump telling the press what happened in the meeting with Sergey Lavrov. On his side was here recanted her and trump to Henry Kissinger and trump saying they discussed russia. Director James Company james comey did not do a good job. Lets bring in alice rivlin senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. What do you make off all of this in all of these political imaginations, investigations . Are gettinge things more complicated, how will it impact the economy . Alice rivlin we dont know. Of great a time uncertainty. Fortunately for President Trump, he inherited an economy that is doing quite well. Andave had good job numbers a very good stop market for quite a long time. Good earnings numbers. A bit of chaos can be tolerated. We dont know what will happen over the next few weeks and isther this comey bombshell the beginning of something bigger or whether it will pass. I do not think it is any basis for making the notification. Were still at the fed and still vicechairman, wouldnt you back an Interest Rate increase next month or is the environment too fragile . Alice rivlin the environment changes daily as we have seen in the last 24 hours. The economy has been marching pretty steadily despite that. And i think the fed is likely to stay on the track they thought they were on, namely to raise couple morees a times this year. June would be a logical time to do it. If they still see the economy strengthening, able to take a inll increase in the rates stride, the main reason they want to do this is to get back in some normal situation where they have some tools of Monetary Policy to use if they need one. Recession,e another if theyre looking at a weak economy and that is something they can do is Interest Rates are in a normal range. They will want to stay on that track, if they can. ,ark as of the fed hikes rate is that the ecb moving toward a left loose policy . well, possibly. That would be a logical thing to do is the european economy continues to strengthen and it does look a bit encouraging. And i think the French Elections certainly helped at that. Brexit it didnt, but now we are in for a long, flawed negotiations and i do not think for anything definitive will happen quickly on brexit. There is still weaker economies in europe and a difficult situation for the central bank where the main economies are doing pretty well, not extraordinarily well, but well. And some of the weaker economies are not yet. ,ark on the subject of brexit the bank of england holds the meeting tomorrow, it is super thursday, quarterly inflation report. The National Institute of social and economic research, they raisest the boe wouldnt rates until after the brexit negotiations conclude. Do you go with that . Alice rivlin i dont necessarily inc. They will do anything frighten now but the brexit negotiations will take a long time. As they will have to rethink their policy a couple of times before frexit is entirely behind us. Brexit is entirely behind us. Vonnie alice rivlin, thank you greatly for your time. More headlines to do with the work fbie replacing james comey, he was fired by President Trump yesterday. We are told there could be an interim director named today and some in consideration, special agent in charge of the richmond field office, Michael Anderson in charge of the chicago field and the fbi executive assistant william division and from pennsylvania, counterintelligence executive at the office of director of national intelligence. This is bloomberg. Mark i am mark barton with vonnie quinn. This is european close on bloomberg. Vonnie the magical world of disney is losing the magic. It fell short on revenue largely contributed to a fall off of subscribers for espn channel. Bob iger said he is not worried. Franklin, more is being made than it deserves. Espn is a very, very healthy and very, very profitable business double one of our more profitable businesses. It has a stable of live sports that are licensed or a long period of time that will serve it well and is serving it will today on the traditional platform and starting to serve it well on new platforms and for the foreseeable future. A product that is in demand and the fact there is a lot of competition for live sports rights only points out just how valuable this product is a nobody has more of it than espn. What is happening is what we thought would happen and that is there is a decrease in the number of traditional platforms and that has happened for a few reason. The expanded basic product is relatively, certainly, more expensive than some other part of the launched on new platforms and have more channels. It still dominates the business. More people expanded basic subs that anything goes. It is decreasing and we are starting to see some share shift from that. The larger bundles we should call it, a price that is typically in excess of 100 to smaller bundles on mostly new platforms, overthetop, digital only platforms and sometimes platforms very mobile friendly and very userfriendly. Youngerattractive to people not only because of the cost but usability factor. That bodes well for us. We are seeing nice growth. Youtuber Just Launched theres last month and who this week. When still too soon to say that will pick up the slack of that has been created a by sub losses on the other side. We are encouraged by the signed we see and we believe would have a great product to offer and live sports is imperative to succeed in that space. That is why they are negotiating deals and espn is on all the subs. Frankly, we are feeling very optimistic about it. The reaction suggests otherwise at that is not the case with us and we have taken steps to the tend what we are seeing. Not something we are just getting too, something with the working on for a few years. People should look at espn in a positive way and not a negative way and think about how mobile devices are being used and what for . That sports window live sports window or player is very valuable when you are sitting with a smart phone or tablet or laptop weather in your office or on a bus or wherever. I think the pessimism about espn is highly exaggerated. Iger onsney ceo bob espn. Kicking things off. Alexandra . Alexandra this chart poses a simple question, are there too many buyers in europe . Percentage of stocks is hundred near a record high and we reached a record last year and about 40 and you can see that in blue and in white the firms trading as oversold and how few there are, why is it important . Analysis, a pullback from these levels could signal a decline. Vonnie this is something that alice rivlin was just speaking golf, speaking of. Look at how Inflation Expectations in terms of wages have affected us stocks. The stock were in look like workers made needed a raise to continue in their jobs, they are outperforming those where there may not be so much wage inflation. It is an important chart and you can go back. Mark both excellent chart. Both delivered under 30 seconds. It is a tie. It is a tie. Well done, vonnie and aleksandra. This is bloomberg. It is noon in new york, welcome to bloomberg markets. Vonnie of the World Headquarters in new york, the top stories we are following. Politics, President Donald Trump firing of fbi director james comey under intense scrutiny from democrats and republicans. The decision setting the stage for a losing battle. Some of comeys assessors. Successors. Markets shrugging off the drama in washington or waiting. You as stocks near record highs with treasuries gaming in oil is climbing after a report shows stockpiles declining. Bell,fore returning the investors will be watching for any details about user growth which is the top