Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Whatd You Miss 20170518

Office is trying to control the press, trying to designate specific journalistic cover his visit to mali tomorrow. Navy vet withu. S. Two prior arrests for driving while intoxicated has been taken into custody after his car plowed into 23 pedestrians in times square this afternoon, killing one of them. Witnesses say Richard Rojas appeared to be intoxicated. Witnesses also reported that he drove the wrong way and on a sidewalk for at least three blocks, mowing down pedestrians. Global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. Julia live from bloombergs World Headquarters in your, im julia chatterley. The we are 30 minutes from close of trading here in the u. S. Julia u. S. Stocks rebounding from the worst daily say law of the year. Scarlet newfound credibility for the russian inquiry. Significant new phase in the investigation that has already roiled the white house. In about 50 minutes, President Trump answer questions at a joint News Conference with the colombian president following a chaotic week and one day before he takes off for his First International trip. At the same time, different political crisis unfolding in brazil, where markets are getting rocked reports that the president was involved in alleged coverup scheme. Lets head back to the conference in las vegas where Erik Schatzker is standing by with a feigned short seller. Julia, thank you very much. I love seeing jim at the conference because you always come with a new idea. You just presented it to the crowd and i would like to get into a little more detail. A short clear, is this thesis on both stocks . Reason weand the talked about both companies in my presentation, we think they underscore the problem with pharmaceutical pricing in the United States. The overpricing. The fact that there is a linkage between the two made it and theing to us location, st. Louis. Drug that is over 100 there operating profitability right since 1952. Around efficacious studies for one indication out of the many it gets used for. The fact of the matter is, the drug has gone from 40 to 35,000 over the past 15 years. That is outrageous, in our opinion. Grips like express scripps, they have actually accelerated the cost. That is the issue. Look they are supposed to negotiate lower drug rates on behalf of their clients. Right, but in fact, they benefit from rising drug prices. That is the paradox. We want people to understand eric you believe they are guilty of drug price inflation. Im not the only one. Their biggest customer, anthem, sue them over this. Eric you mention something in your presentation that is very intriguing. You accuse these two companies of having a philidor like relationship. Theres three companies that are subsidiaries of express scripts, united bioscience and to others. We go into it in our presentation, just how these subsidiaries are used to control distribution of this very overpriced drug. And again, in our view, a company like this should be working to eradicate the use of expensive drugs with questionable efficacies. Eric so how does this play out . Is it what is the catalyst . We would love senator mccaskill or anybody else to take a look at it. Taxpayers are paying for this. This is now predominantly taxpayer reimburse drug. Its not just the private profit motive, we are all paying for this. In an environment where the government cannot negotiate drug prices, were seen a situation where factors are coming to inflate them. Forlinkage is a good Place Congress to start. Eric the one problem some people may site is that you are counting on either a politician or a regulator to take action. If that were the case, people could drop parallels to herbal life. Herbalife is not being paid for by the taxpayers, thats a private deal. Is facing profit pressure anyway. They have seen problems well before me highlighting this relationship. Eric what is it worth . Theres a billion dollars of debt here. The operating income over the most recent quarter annualized is under 300 million. Eric so put a value on it. Is zero. Nk it if it goes the way we think it will, then the stock will be worth nothing. Model. E Business Value stock mavens on this one because it appears cheap. Again, we question the business model. In an environment where index servlet, the public is focusing on cost. Years ago when the aca was being crafted, obamacare, i remember speaking to one of the staffers who helped write the bill. She told the Something Interesting when i asked why there is no singlepayer option. She said there will be in five or 10 years. Because of the way obamacare has been crafted, everybody is going to be paying higher copays ended up than they are now. This was back in 2010. When the public realizes how much this stuff costs, because they start paying for themselves , there will be singlepayer. I have never forgotten that discussion, and i think actually we may be heading that way. Eric speak in of obamacare, is there a trump trade for you in the unwind of obamacare . One of the factors that want to happen if the aca is repealed , along the lines of the current house bill, which will be water down i suspect in the senate, theres a whole raft of Companies Providing what is called essential health benefits. , druge psychiatric addiction centers, all these things were mandated to be in everybodys policies and their now looking to water that down as a major step to cost savings. A number of these companies saw their profits explode in 2010 and on. Those companies will be in a lot of the trouble. Some of the leverage hospital a return toll see people using services and not being able to pay for them. So bad debt expenses will go up just like the bad old days. Eric there are a couple of other things that i see out there that make me think it might interest a short seller like you. Subprime model homes. Model loans. Theres increasing evidence that consumers are stretching and Mortgage Loans are beginning to lie about their income to qualify for auto loans. On top of that, used car prices have begun to decline precipitously, which has a real impact on lots of things in the auto chain. Residual values on leases and the value of stuff on the lot. I think autos have seen their peak for the cycle. Theres a number of companies, look at a company like carmax which has one stop shopping and also provides financing for its customers. In many cases the finance arms are separate. You have companies that do auto loans. They trade at low multiples, as they should. But a company like carmax, it trades at a very high multiple relative to both standalone auto dealers and standalone finance companies. Lets just say we are a potential purchaser. Eric i see. What about retail . We are only in a few outlets and not as big as we should have been, is i guess the way to put it. Second, youn a didnt see the collapse of traditional retail . Unfortunately, we were not as short as we shouldve been. That happens. But we have a few. There are a few that it had a new lease on life for the stocks are hitting new highs. Theyre every bit as impacted by the online phenomena. I cannot talk about those names yet, but we are redoubling our efforts, lets just say that. Eric lets forget from all of those stocks that are hitting new highs. There are retailers set of artie taken a drubbing. Is it too late for you . Onwe have to make judgments the portfolio at all times, and some of them do have value. , theery best retailers negative rebates for prohibitive. Although the stocks went down, you are paying 20 or 30 per year for the pleasure of barring from someone like sears. It was obvious what was going to happen five years ago. Stock price was going to go down and they would get in financial trouble. The negative rebate was anywhere from 20 40 per year. In my world you have to factor a negative is borrow. Is sears going bankrupt . I dont know, but it doesnt matter from our perspective. Curious d it described that had a negative rebate phenomena, the demand to shore up the stock, and its not only shortsellers, it could be trade creditors or bondholders who are hedging their exposure. Eric what about retailers it dont suffer from some of the problems that sears does or j. Crew, these are highly leveraged companies. There are some other retailers that are clearly having some issues, like macy, which are relatively on leverage. There a lot of Financial Leverage is that management can use. Also companies that have benefited from those going out of business. They may be subject to the same longterm digital disruption that others are. Its a mixed bag, a big area. Once we thought were most attractive unfortunately were not really actionable. Eric youve never been short of words on tesla. Tesla is trading at 312 today. What is it worth . I dont think the equity is worth a whole lot. Resigning,quietly musks relative. They took that off the markets hands. Tesla will be depending on the model three. All of the other nonsense notwithstanding, at the end of the day, the company is not worth what it is trading at today, and if you dont believe muskust look at what elon was quoted in the papers today saying. He himself said the stock is not worth 50 million. Eric i think he said the market was being generous. He said a little bit more. He pled poverty in response to worker safety issues, but it was a very eyeopening quote. At the end of the day, they must succeed in making a masked reduction car, the model three. Eric and if the model three is successful its moving in on bmws market cap. Bmw this year will do 100,000 hybrid vehicles, the same as tesla. Think about that for a second. And they still have the rest of the businesses too. This is one of the poster boys for this market. A lot of the valuation of a tesla is based on all the stuff that will happen between 20202025 that people get excited about. In an environment where people expand their horizons, you can get a automation like this. But in an environment where people get scared are the Capital Needs overwhelm the company, Something Else happens. Eric last year when you were here, we talked about lending clubs. Sun edison having been a successful short review. What has been successful recently . Some of the Specialty Drug areas that we mentioned we were from early 2014 on. Weve had some success in some other areas that we havent talked about publicly. Eric now is your opportunity. Case,ts ok, but in any the opportunities in the u. S. In particular are expanding. E are finding a lot to do here previously we had been in asia and other places. We are still way over rate in china. Call on china being any less of a disaster, it is, but were actually seeing interesting axonal ideas in the u. S. And we would rather do those given the chance. Chanos, youas jim know him as perhaps what do we call you, the bestknown short seller of our age . That to you in new york. Schatzker live from the salt conference in las vegas. In just a few moments, President Trump and the colombian president will be holding a joint News Conference at the white house. We will bring you there when it happens. Earlier they were speaking and President Trump did indicate formere lieberman, the democrat turned independent senator from connecticut is a top pick for the fbi job. We will get more expansion of those answers along with his comments on russia as well. This is bloomberg. Scarlet we are awaiting a joint News Conference between President Trump and the colombian president. It will be the first time the two leaders have met race to face in the first time the president will be speaking since those reports i dont even know how to say it. Joe i dont even know which reports you are referring to now because there has been so much news over the last several days. Scarlet the first time hes facing the music since the snowballing events. Here is craig gordon, bloombergs executive editor in washington. Obviously they will discuss a little bit about relations with colombia, but what is the number one question reporters will be asking that the president will be dodging . How concerned is he that the special Counsel Robert Mueller will actually find some wrongdoing inside his own white house and perhaps inside the oval office by trump himself. He put out a Statement Last night that seemed to welcome the investigation and as often happens with this president , 12 hours later he was tweeting this morning that it was essentially a witchhunt. Televisione it makes us look bad. Hes on about to get on a plane to sicily. Joe President Trump expressing dismay over this appointment. Makes it easier for republicans to say there is a credible investigation and move on. Do you see some upside here . Keep in mind, even though donald trump is a republican, you have to talk in different terms about donald trump and the rest of the Republican Party. Its great news for the Republican Party because it gives people like all right and Mitch Mcconnell a way to say Robert Mueller is a very we need tondividual, let the investigation run its course, and i have no further comment at this time. There is one republican its very bad for, and thats donald trump. To findings tend something wrong, they tend to find charges. People do tend to get indicted and sent off to jail. Im not suggesting any of that is a foregone conclusion in this investigation, but that is the history of it. It has an enormous burden of uncertainty for the white house here it they are now operating with this as a backdrop to every single thing they do. Your great to get perspective there, craig gordon, bloomberg executive editor. We are still waiting for that press conference to begin. Just a few individuals now coming in and sitting in their seat, but we seem to be waiting on that. We will bring you that the moment it happens. This is bloomberg. Julia we are still awaiting a joint News Conference any moment with President Trump and the colombian president. Its the two leaders to meet facetoface. This will most likely be overshadowed, given the week we have had. Joe i have a feeling the presses not going to be asking a lot of colombia centric questions today. We have this graphic showing just what weve seen in the last three days. What an incredible week. The thing about director call me director comey. Fuel to and hes added that fire by a first saying he welcomed it, and now saying it is a witchhunt. Julia hes saying it looks like the country is not united when it is had a partisan support, so once again, conflict here. We are still awaiting that press conference and we will take you there the moment both president s begins speaking. Happening inlose just a few minutes time. Plenty going on. This is bloomberg. We are still room for waiting remarks from President Trump. We will bring you that live when it happens. Stocks came back from the worst daily selloff of the year. If you are tuning in live on twitter we want to welcome you to our closing bell coverage every weekday. Julie we begin with our market minute. The decline, the worst since september, the dow adding 66 points. It was a bit of a relief given how exaggerated it was. Joe it was pretty remarkable. No followthrough whatsoever on what was not intense selling but 2017, it was pretty big. Julie we did see a bit of followthrough in europe. Down between half of 1 acrosstheboard. I wonder if there was a safety selloff. Just a thought. Scarlet that is a good point. If you look at how u. S. Stocks fared, nine out of the 11 groups finished higher. The only group to decline was energy, off by a 10th of 1 . Materials, telecoms and consumer discretionary. Hey did fairly well in terms of individual names, im looking at cisco. The biggest drop since 2013. They gave a disappointing forecast yesterday. Those headlines, you can see the gap lower at the open. Walmart also worth mentioning. The online sales soared. Walmart coming out with results. Not everything is terrible in retail land. And the etf that tracks brazil, ofn the most since october 2008. Off by 16 . Times the daily average. I included a couple of names here, companies that rely on brazil for a big chunk of revenue. For example. Mosaic had been lower earlier. It managed to close. Getting at least 2838 of revenue from brazil. Startingrnment bonds, with u. S. Not a ton of action. 10year was lower. Well to 2. 20. We are seeing a jump up in brazil. People not wanting to touch that brazilian credit. People are dumping everything in brazil today. Look at the brazilian currency. Off more than 7 in the session today since brazil is losing ground against the dollar. To give you a sense of the rally the we have seen, and height of the crisis that we saw with the former president , and the impeachment process. We saw brazil back above for at the back end of 2016. Just to give you perspective, a corruption probe coming. He will not resign. Made that statement pretty clear over the past hour. On commodities, some interesting action today. Oil and gold, if we can go to that. Gold down a little bit. The real action was in agriculture commodities. This has to do with the bombshell out of brazil. Over 3 . And copy those are todays market minutes. We see people filing into the east room of the white house where President Trump will be holding a News Conference. The first time the two leaders have met facetoface. They have already had a private meeting during which President Trump was barraged with questions regarding the Russian Investigation and appointment of a special counsel. We want to bring in craig gordon. He joins us from washington. Water the two leaders likely to say in terms of formalities before the the press is able to ask questions . To get help trying in the spiraling out of control cocaine problem in his country and get u. S. Support for the Peace Process. Hes trying to work with the cocaine cocaine growers pray that will take a short amount of this News Conference as reporters have their crack at the president. With all the news that has that will dominate the u. S. Side of the press conference. So many headlines have emerged about President Trump in the last week. What is the number one thing on the agenda . What is the most important thing . Erases alltion that the previous questions is did director to shut down the investigation into Michael Flynn . Anyone with a passing history knows that is what Richard Nixon impeached for. That is exactly what donald trump asked him to do. This is where you hear words like obstruction of justice and impeachment start to creep then to the conversation. That is the big one. We have heard from donald trump suggesting this special counsel hurts the country. We have seen bipartisan support for it, for someone who can be independent. What do you think those around donald trump have said to him in light of this press conference . What do you think he is going to do . Donald trump put out a Statement Last night, which we understand, donald trump dictated to his staff in the oval office which said we need to the investigation to get the bottom of this. Lets let the process move forward. Lets get this behind us. That is the tony needs to strike today. His twitter feed is striking a theerent tone with talk of country being damaged by this investigation. Trump is often not good at doing himself good in these situations and seems to choose the opposite course. We will have to see what the president says. We wonder where his surrogates have been. President trump and the colombian president are now coming out and taking the lead turn. Lets turn to washington dc where they will address the public. Lets listen in. President trump thank you very much. It is a pleasure to welcome president santos to the white house. Columbia is one of our closest allies in the hemisphere. Weve reaffirmed partnership between our great nations. President santos and i had a productive meeting and we will continue to work very closely together to bring peace, safety and prosperity to the hemisphere. Moreps no area is really important in terms of cooperation been our joint effort to end the terrible drug crimes that plague both of our countries. Recently we have seen and alarmed, a highly alarmed and alarming trend. Cultivation and cocaine production reached a record high. Which hopefully will be remedied very quickly by the president. We have to confront this dangerous threat to our societies together. Today i affirm the United States willingness to assist colombias strategy to target and eliminate drug traffic networks, illicit financing, cocoa cultivation and cothey cocaine production of which there is far too much. The drug epidemic is poisoning too Many American lives and we are going to stop it. Many different ways. One of them will be the wall. My administration is committed to keeping gangs from pouring into our country. Border crossings are down 73 . Secretary kelly is with us. He is doing a fantastic job. Thank you mr. Secretary. Tremendouse have a group of people working with us in terms of ice. The ice patrol and border patrol. They have done a fantastic job. I would like you to give them my highest compliments. Horrible large a group of gangs that have been let into our country over a decimated are being by the border patrol, by ice, and our incredible local police forces. They are getting out of our country. Or going directly into prisons throughout our country. But they have literally taken over towns and cities of the United States. They will be gone. Very quickly. I look forward to working with president santos as we target Drug Trafficking. The United States and colombia have strong lawenforcement and security relationship. Especially over the last short time. Together we will continue to fight criminal networks responsible for the deadly corrupt trade that our people have a strong commitment to getting rid of because they want a much brighter future. President santos and i also discussed the deteriorating situation in venezuela. It is a very bad state. As we all see. Through the media. The stable and peaceful venezuela is in the best interest of the entire hemisphere in america stands with all of the people in our great hemisphere yearning to be free. We will be working with columbia and other countries on the venezuelan problem. It is a very horrible problem and from a humanitarian standpoint it is like nothing we have seen in quite a long time. The United States and colombia are strong Economic Partners and we will pursue trade policies that benefit both of our peoples. The nations common goals of protecting our citizens, expanding opportunity and confronting the drug crisis will improve the lives of our people and many throughout the region. So many people are being horribly affected by what is going on in terms of violence and in terms of drugs. Were going to take care of the situation. We both agreed to take care of it, strongly and quickly. President santos, it was an honor to meet with you and your group of representatives. Very talented people who have been working with us and my representatives. I look forward to many more productive meetings such as the one we just had. You forlike to thank being at the white house, being our guest. I would like to congratulate you on winning the nobel peace prize. That is a great achievement. Thank you very much. Mr. President. I want to thank you personally for this warm and productive visit. And for the strong support yourbia has received from administration, from congress, and from the american people. Our nations have had for a long time in strategic alliance, and extraordinary friendship. We believe in the same principles of democracy, freedom, and rule of law. We work so that the western hemisphere can be more prosperous and safe. Colombia, states and both democracies of longstanding in the hemisphere. We have supported each other. Our soldiers fought soldier shoulder to shoulder in the korean war. Today colombia and the United States are working together to support Central America in their fight against drug cartels and violence of organized crime. President , based on our conversation this afternoon i have no doubt that the United States and colombia continued to be today more than support of one for the other. Our alliance was strong. Our most valuable cooperation has been from columbia. Which i can sum up in simple terms. When colombians were fighting to , faced for our democracy with the threat of terrorism and Drug Trafficking, the United States stretched out a hand and helped us win that battle. We will never forget it. Today we live in a different country. Columbia is a more peaceful society. In more modern and fair society. In november last year we entered the ended the longest conflict is a extinct in our hemisphere. The guerrilla is putting down weapons at this time. Insecurity has gone down significantly. Today we have the lowest levels of violence of the last 40 years. Hadhe same time, we have significant progress for our citizens on issues such as health andhousing, social services. Millions of colombians have been lifted out of poverty. Today we continue next to you as partners in a piece columbia. With a robust support of your government we are removing thousands of antipersonnel mines that murdered and mutilated children, women, and soldiers. We are healing the wounds of our victims and we are embarking on a social development program. Such as we said today, we are working with your administration to take advantage of the unique , so wenity piece offers can reduce permanently the production of coca leaf and colombia. Thefight more effectively links and Drug Trafficking including consumption. We must continue and deepen the fight against organized crime, transnational crime. Responsible not just for Drug Trafficking but also Human Trafficking and illegal mining. Withhared agenda, framed that a highlevel dialogue we value so much includes cooperation. We have to have unprecedented progress towards quality education for everyone. This is a priority in the policies of my government. We wish to do more with regards to innovation and technology. Ofh the active participation the private sector we have reached trade agreements, investment agreements with which are mutually beneficial. This morning we established the council between United States and colombia. We are and wish to continue to be the best destination and latin america for american businesses. Continue to be anddly a close friend strategic ally of the United States. Send soou can visit us that you can personally witness the transformation underway in our country. Youpe to be able to welcome. O a columbia in peace a better educated columbia, that you have contributed two. Thank you so much. You. Dent trump thank does anybody have questions . [laughter] shocked. John, go ahead. Mr. President , i would like to get your reaction to rod rosensteins decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the russian interference in the campaign. Was this the right move or is this part of a witchhunt . I respect the move but the entire thing has been a witchhunt. There is no collusion between myself and my campaign. Myself ands be for the russians, zero. It divides the country. I think we have a divided country because of that and many other things. I can tell you that we want to bring this great country of ours together and i will also say strongly weve had tremendous success. Look at our job numbers and what is going on as the border. You look at what will be happening. You will see some incredible numbers with respect to success othersral mattis and with the isis situation. The numbers are staggering how successful they have been. Tomorrow im going to study arabia and israel. We have the g7. We have a lot great things going on. I hate to see anything that divides. Im fine with whatever people want to do but we have to get back to running this country really well. We have made tremendous progress in the last 100 days. You see job numbers. You see all of the production that is starting. Plants starting to open again. That is what i want to be focused on. There is no collusion. Rush is fine. Whether it is rush or anyone believetotal priority, me, is the United States of america. Thank you very much. President trump the president santos, can we say that today we are setting a new roadmap and the relationship between columbia and the United States, . You were talking about the conflict. Many funds are needed for that. Human rights violations. Many deaths. Theres plenty to be done. President trump as well as a serious problem, we havent really seen a problem like that in decades in terms of the kind of violence that we are witnessing. The president was telling me, venezuela was a very wealthy country. Just about the wealthiest in your neck of the woods. Tremendous strength in so many different ways and now it is povertystricken. People dont have enough to eat. There is great violence. We will do what is necessary and we will Work Together to do whatever is necessary to help with fixing that. Im really talking on a humanitarian level. When you look at the oil reserves that they have, the potential wealth, you have to wonder why is that happening . Poorlybeen unbelievably run for a long time and hopefully that will change and they can use those assets to take care of their people. Right now what is happening is a disgrace to humanity. I think you had a question for the president. Does he have another one . A question about the commitment, the commitment on President Trump side in his administration was shown through the approval of the budget. For columbia it means an increase in support. Last night we received from a very important organization, a report which includes both parties presided by the republican senator and a democrat senator. With a roadmap recommending the government of the United States and colombia. The morning we established council United States columbia so that the private sector can have a voice in that roadmap. This means we are working on every front that can be convenience to. For growth countries to Work Together, we have ratified that commitment today during our conversation. We have the best of relations with the United States. We are strategic allies in the region and will continue to be so. Thank you mr. President. You heard President Trump say that its critical to stopping the flow of drugs into the United States, the wall that he wants to build on the american order. Do you agree with him, with that be a positive step towards reducing the flow of drugs . President santos i believe the best way to fight the Drug Trafficking is by collaborating. This is not a problem of columbia only or the United States only. It is a world problem. Together. All work we declare the war on drugs 40 years ago. It is a war that has not been one. We must be more effective and more efficient. Effortdoing very big because of the Peace Process to have a new strategy. We have already eradicated this year only 15,000, the whole volume that we eradicated last year. Eradicate, tog to substitute voluntarily through a program where we have 80,000 families already in the program, that they are going to substitute for legal crops. This is the first time this could be done because of the piece. Before the conflict did not allow us to build roads and to give an alternative. Now we have one. We have to take advantage of the opportunity and continue reducing the production of cocoa. We will Work Together, the u. S. And colombia with other countries to fight the links of the chain. We have destroyed 22,000 laboratories, seizing cocaine in the transit. We have seized record amounts. We are doing even better than last year. By working together we can be much more effective. That is the commitment we just made or ratified this afternoon. President trump that was a long and diplomatic answer to your weston. I will say it shorter. Walls work. Just ask israel. They work. Believe me. We have no choice. Peter baker. Thank you mr. President. A lot if you would like to get to the bottom of a couple of things can get a chance for you to go on record. Did you earn james comey in any way, shape or form to back down the investigation into Michael Flynn . President trump no. , have youlook back had any recollection where you have wondered if anything you have done has been something that might be worthy of criminal charges . I think it is totally ridiculous. Workingto get back to our country properly so that we can take care of the problems. We have plenty of problems. We have done a fantastic job. We have a tremendous group of people looking at what you just said and said what are they doing . Director comey was very unpopular with most people. I thought when i made that decision, and i got a strong recommendation as you know from the Deputy Attorney general, rod rosenstein. When i made that decision i thought that it would be a bipartisan decision. You look at all of the people on the democratic side, not only the republican side saying terrible things about director comey. He had performance. Believe,n fact that i that is why the Deputy Attorney general went out and wrote his very strong letter and then on top of that after the wednesday performance by director comey you had a person come and have to readjust the record, which many have never seen before because there were misstatements made. I thought that was terrible. We need a great director of the fbi. I cherish the fbi. It is special. All over the world. The fbi is special. It has not had that special reputation with what happened in the campaign, what happened with respect to the clinton campaign, and even you could say with respect to the more successful trump campaign. We are going to have a director that will be outstanding. I will be announcing that director soon. Im going to announce that director very soon, and i think the people will be very, very thrilled. In just concluding, we look forward to getting this whole situation behind us so that when , when we goe jobs for the strong military, when we go for all of the things we have been pushing for so hard and so successfully including health care because obamacare is collapsing. Its dead. Its gone. Theres nothing to compare anything to because we dont have health care in this country. Ook at what is happening we dont have health care. Obamacare is a fallacy. Its gone. We need to cut taxes. The biggest tax cut in the history of our nation, and thats what i want. Its going to bring back companies. Its going to bring that jobs. Jobs toso Many Companies that are not so far from you, mr. President , and in many other places throughout the world. We are going to change that. Were going to have expansion. We already do. You look what is happening with ford and general motors. You look at the tremendous number of jobs being announced in so many different fields, that is what im proud of and what we want to focus our energy on. There was no collusion, and everybody, even my enemies, have said there is no collusion. Want to get back and keep on the track that we are on because the track we is recordsetting, and that is what we want to do we want to break very positive records. Thank you. My question is, as someone who led a nation that has really done a lot of rebuilding, had to rebound from an epidemic of crime and drugs over quite a number of years, what do you make of mr. Trumps America First policy . Further, you have had a tough time with conservative radio, sometimes being called a punching bag, and you said sometimes you have to persevere. I wonder if you have given any on howon President Trump to do so. President sanchez i dont think i am in a position to give any advice to President Trump. He can take care of himself. You did in columbia quite rightly mentioned it is persevere. When you know your port of the station and you know youre doing the correct name, have to persevere. That is what we have done in columbia, and thats why we were on the verge of dna ailed states some years ago, and now we are one of the stars of the region. That is through hard work, perseverance, and clarity of objectives. That is what we have done, and we have to continue because the trip is not over. Mr. President , i would like to ask you about trade. You are about to start the renegotiation of nafta, and colombia, like many other nations in the hemisphere, has a large trade deficit the United States. Are you worried that could contribute to increasing that trade deficit that the President Trump well, it has been a long process, and it has been a great ring to watch in the sense that the president did a fantastic job. Thats not easy after so many years of war. I am very, very proud to get to know you, and i really congratulate you. Theres nothing cover than peace , and we want to make peace all over the world, and you are really a great example of somebody that started it. Had a long, tough situation, as you know very well, coming in the country, but i think the president has done a magnificent job. At easy, but he has done magnificent job. Translator on the trade issue, our deficit with the United States is not so large. Which, moderate deficit, of course, both countries will try to increase the volume of trade in both directions. And investments also in both directions. Has become colombia an important investor in the United States, and this is something that many people know, but we have considerable investment in the United States. Attempted to increase these flows of trade, of investment, getting together those main players who are investors in the private sector. I believe the foundation has been laid. Of colombian thenesses exporting to United States today has grown, and we both believe we can take greater advantage of those agreements in order to increase flows in both directions, for the benefit both of the and american people. President trump thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. that was President Trump and colombias president wrapping up press conference. Also quite a number of questions on the probe into ties with russia, to which the president kind of gave a summary of every answer he has given over the last couple of days, right cap one question was reaction to the special counsel, was in the witchhunt. Rt of a joe and of course, he was asked about if he had any one urged fbi director comey to end the flynn investigation. That was perhaps his most of that answer, saying no, no, no, and urging the reporter to ask another question. That the fbi needed a reboot to get back to it statute does the line he does sticking with. Julia we did get comments from donald trump, a very strong letter about comey apparently from the Deputy Attorney general. We will see what mr. Rosen and comes back with, but the plot continues, and i did appreciate the colombian press trying to wrestle the conversation back, and venezuela, of course, which is very important. To the you listen entire News Conference and the q a. What was your biggest take away . The biggest take away is that donald trump has denied laterally all to see that he urged james comey to end his investigation of fired National Security adviser michael lynn. You have now a direct contradiction between the president of the United States and the man who was his f dei director. Trump says he did not ask comey to end the investigation. Comey is telling people to the memo that he wrote that that is exactly what donald trump asked him to do, to essentially squash that investigation into Michael Flynn. Cannot get more directly contradictory than that. One man is right, what is wrong, and Robert Mueller plus job, as the new special counsel in charge of the entire probe, is to get to the bottom of that. Julia the critical thing now is when does james comey speak that the absolutely. Is a question we have been talking about a lot today, will testify before congress, publicly, privately, or will he wait to get his answers and his side of the story to Robert Mueller care to remember, he was anddirector for george bush barack obama. The seat of men have worked closely together, know each other well, and i suspect that comey is weighing a certain death rinse to a certain deference to mueller and may offer to speak to him in private before he goes public with the story, so that the delay is hearing from comey perhaps indefinitely. It is not really clear at all. Several committees have invited comey to testify. He has so far not said he will come up there. That is a big to watch. Joe another big player in this, Michael Flynn himself. What is the status of when he will be testifying in these hearings that the cliff he has so far not really given an answer to the senate and house intelligence committees that have asked him to provide documents. There is a standing subpoena for the documents related to the russia probe. I think there has been a lot of speculation. Cut ae may be trying to deal with prosecutors to tell his side of the story in exchange for some kind of lighter sentence or lighter treatment. We do not know if that is what is happening, but right now, his status as a little bit of midair. There is a subpoena. He has requested to talk to the committees. It is not clear he is and he will do that or not. Here as we were just discussing, firm denial from donald trump on if he asked. Ames comey to let it go what we have not been hearing from the white house, which i have been asking, is if you did not discuss that, what did you discuss with comey. Gov thathere a meeting at all took place . If you did not discuss flynn, what did you discuss . Is there some reason he is saying this and you are saying that . That is a question they still refuse to answer at this. Scarlet as the president gets ready to embark on this trip to five cities halfway across the world, has he put to rest all these questions that reporters theasking now until we get next piece of information related to the next investigation . I guess, to quote the , as he said about the flynn investigation. Not at all. It will be the question everyone asks every time someone gets a chance to ask a question, and will really be a theme for this entire trip, i think, unless, of course, Something Else happens, so who knows . Scarlet as mentioned, something usually does happen around five 5 40 p. M. Every night. From new york, this is bloomberg. Bloomberg wests Erik Schatzker last hour sat down with jim chanos in vegas and updated him on his short positions. Hes back with the founder of halflight capital management. hes a long short guy, but today, we are talking something long. You are bullish on nike. . Ats your thesis nike stumbled over the past couple of years, and the company is working aggressively to tackle those issues. It is a 36 billion Revenue Company twice the size of adidas and under armour. Second, nike is 2 3 footwear, and this is significant because issues have a lot of ip and technology and creating a supply chain is a huge barrier to entry. Third thing i would say is nike is really a global company. Caught upnvestors are on wins and losses in north america, but thats half of their sales, and they are number one in asia and the market is growing at a significantly faster rate and Profit Margins are 1000 basis points wider. When i look at this market that nike and adidas compete in, it is a huge and attractive market. And apparelootwear market, 1. 6 trillion. This subsector, athletic, has been growing at 5. 5 , and that subsector is 27 of the north american market, but only 15 in europe, the middle east, and africa and 10 in asia, and sales in china are growing close to 20 , and i think there is even focus on the part of the Chinese Government into fitness, health, and athletics, and i think that will be a great tailwind for years to come. And this is not a market that is fragmenting that we see in a lot of other markets. It is consolidating behind nike and adidas. The state of our 25 Global Market share, and this is a virtuous cycle. They have all the money to spend and branding. They create Innovative New products. And athletesrstars to wear their product, and they get us to buy. This is a great dynamic. You are investing in the Market Leader in a really attractive space. it is not like under armour has not been successful. They were an incredible story until they hit a big speed bump a couple of quarters ago, but they have done some really smart things. Steph curry, right, is a spokesman for their shoes. Kanye has gone from nike over to adidas. Nike would love to have yeezy, but sorry. Over the last couple of years, nike nikes p e there was a shift away from a strong basketball trend to running and casual. Their stanunched smith in 2014. They came in with a boost in 2015 and nike was caught flatfooted. They have not had any new, innovative platforms the next couple the last couple of years. Under armour got behind basketball in a big way and pressed their product at a discount. The third thing, again, you touched on kanye. Nike dominates performance sports, and it was a little bit of a shift, a renewed focus with kanye and for realm with adidas, anna with whom a desperate with puma. I think it is a good thing for the category. spokesman are not everything, clearly, but if there were one spokesperson who you would like to see nike sign up, who is implemented of nikes . Ture that is a tough question. Erik intentionally so. I guess the newest upandcoming athlete that i think would be great, and i do if he is endorsing is prescott at dallas. Even a grown up in chicago, i am a bears fan who used to root against the cowboys, i could be convinced that as a team to get behind. Being a football player, i would migrate towards football. Erik how big a position is nike . Of our is in the top 10 positions. The perfect storm hit. Nike is working to address that, and over these last two of years, they have been taking the burden of excess inventory because they lost shares. That has already flown through their p l, and they have been to react in facilities more quickly to changing marketplace trends, but the biggest shift i think people are not paying attention to is this shift from wholesale to retail at a nike store or to nike. Com. direct to consumer. direct to consumer. Revenue dollars are one. 7 times greater if they do not have to fortitude dollars in gross margin, and the unit profit economics before overhead advertising i think are almost in retails greater and close to six times greater in ecommerce, so nike has been investing at a time with a have lost share in the u. S. To facilitate these changes, and i think this transition is incredibly powerful. Erik turning the death of the mall into a tailwind. He wanted to show up with a pair of those nike vapor max shoes, but he could not find them in size 15. Scarlet thanks so much. Great job at the conference in vegas. Joe breaking news longtime Hedge Fund Manager Leo Cooperman has agreed to settle a civil. Nsider trading charge that settlement is for 4. 9 million. From new york, this is bloomberg. Oe whatd you miss . Brazils president says he will not resign despite pressure to do. Sending hushof money to a jailed extent beating. We saw brazilian stocks and the real absolutely getting crushed today. Hes accused of sending hush money to a jailed exdeputy. Big does this incident said the country back in terms of credibility in the market, the economy, all that stuff you can incredibly. We had just seen brazils numbers start to get better. Economic growth have finally turned positive. They were getting traction, and suddenly, this clinical crisis and this really is a step up from those before throws it all into question this political crisis. We have seen some of the plea name him, but those beforer alleged crimes he became president , but these allegations have been a few months ago, so they were allegations he took while president. He will not have immunity. Those are actions he can be tried on. . Lia what happens now the suggestion that the former House Speaker has provided evidence to the Supreme Court, how do they now act this three ways this go, and most of these end up with temer out. As fast, slow, and slower. One is he resigns. He has said he will not today, but he could be pressured to. Two is he is impeached. We have seen that happen before with rousseff. Third is the Supreme Court takes on this case, but that is a much longer process. Joe i was reading a note from talking about the chain of succession from brazil, and it pointed out that some of the other people in the line have their own political issues hanging over them. Is there a deeper wrought a deeper rot that removing one person will not really address . We have seen there really is a rot in the question of the petrobras scandals. Resilience will be looking they already are but even more so for some sort of outsider to come in in the next elections. Julia will early elections happen if the president s call to step down or does someone in in the meantime . Congress gets to choose. The rules right now say congress its to choose their person. Scarlet what happens to all the reform he was supposed to lead in the meantime . Congress was supposed to vote on a long anticipated, controversial issue. That is all dead. If he stays, he has no Political Support and will. I do not think they will attach themselves to someone who before this happened had less than a 10 approval rate, and they are worried about their own skin. If there is an interim president , that person has no political capital. Julia i have heard it could benefit the former president. What is the likelihood of that . If you look at opinion polls, he is the most popular politician in brazil today. He is going through his own process, but he has not yet been banned from politics. This could strengthen him. Scarlet do you think this could lead to social unrest . I think we will see tonight in brazil. Joe what is the next key thing you will be watching for . I would watch what protests look like and if and when people release the actual audio, and people saying those keywords can he hold on . Skied there might be more downside for those assets. Thank you so much. That does it for whatd you miss . Julia Bloomberg Technology is next. Joe have a great evening. This is bloomberg. You are watching Bloomberg Technology. President trump well welcome the cocolombia president to the white house today. Mbia once u. S. Support with a peace accord they sign last year with fark. And the russian interference thattigation it is said it is a negative thing that shows the u. S. Is divided. And the doj granted Robert Mueller sweeping powers to investigate potential collusion. Mr. Trump could be on the verge of naming a new fbi director. He said he will make an announcement very soon, and he confirmed Joe Lieberman is a candidate for the job. One person is dead and more than 20 wounded after a honda plowed into pedestrians in times square. The 26 year old driver was taken into custody and is being tested to alcohol. They do not suspect terrorism. A former u. S. President ial advisor and fox news