could hurt economic progress. there was also some discussion of alternative framework on the committee. this is important because president john williams of san francisco has been pushing for consideration a price level targeting or an alternate inflation regime as the fed deals with zero lower bound policies going forward. there is some note they might drop balance sheet language in future statements. much,t: thank you so reporting from the federal reserve. joining us with more insight on austan policy is goolsbee, a hazard economics at the university of chicago business school. a former chairman of the u.s. council of economic advisers under president obama. great to speak with you again. you heard from jeanna about the highlights from the fed minutes. near-term rate hikes in december has warranted. they have reaffirmed the view a gradual approach to increasing the target range is likely to the dualbjectives, mandate of maximum employment and controlled inflation. price stability that is. when you look at what the fed is doing your concern is that policymakers have gotten ahead of themselves with this projection for three rate increases in 2018. talk a bit more about that. why are they wrong? austan: i don't know they are wrong but i'm a little nervous. i think that is right. they scaled back. people werep, saying in 2018 who have six rate increases, that have moved to four and now to sound of three. powell as the towel -- fed remains data dependent and is driven by what actually happens in the data and not with the model says will happen, i think we will be fine. my fear is we have embarked on a couple of things pretty successfully. they made the transition to starting to face down the balance sheet successfully and the fed deserves credit for that. but that is a style of a tightening environment. the economy is not so strong that we would really be off to the races raising rates in an aggressive way when all of our major trading partners are in some sense going the opposite way. that is what makes me nervous. shery: we will continue to be the challenge. tell us about what you are thinking and seeing in terms of interpreting the yield curve and the flattening we have seen. we are reiterating we are at decade-lows in terms of the 230's in the curve. what is your interpretation. if they start raising short rates and the long rate does not allow, and let's say they have an inverted yield curve, that is not a good sign that the world and the market and the forecasters believed we have actually turned a corner and we are growing fast enough. that would be assigned that people are nervous about the prospects of a recession in the coming years. i think the big thing that has been phasing the fed is them trying to distinguish -- it is clear they really want to say we are past the hardship and let's move to normalization. but i think you can't for seven years in a row every quarter say your target is 2% inflation and not hit it, and then just say again we are about ther. e. eventually it does undermine your credibility. officials were concerned a hike would undermine credibility. a few officials opposing some hikes. janet yellen did a speech last night saying the inflation outlook has been a mystery. this year the have a problem. as we look ahead to what the white house is doing or congress is doing the tax reform and the push to get it done by the end of this year, will that be enough to inflate the economy? will they get inflation going? is it sustainable? austan: i don't think that will get inflation going. most of the focus on this tax cut -- most of the money is geared towards the high end and economic analyses of the stimulus bank from the block -- banx cuts suggests b buck for tax codes is direct stimulus. thatat sense i don't think is adding as much uncertainty is maybe some people fear. scarlet: when you look around the world, i'm thinking of germany where it has been difficult for them to form a government and other is the likelihood of returning to the polls, do you see that as a watershed moment? for that change this global synchronous growth story we have been talking about and investors have been betting on? austan: you think that would make some people nervous. in the old days when times are going good the only think that scared people with geopolitical risk. or it does not seem like geo political risk registers at all. i don't quite understand that. i am certainly a little nervous about the political side of what is happening in germany, as well as the fights over brings it and -- brexit and the possibility of trade war or some real serious decline in the world trading is the agitated by the united states or in asia. i think we would probably do well to pay attention to that, but i think you are right. it does not seem like the market cares that much. julia: agitated is an interesting word. jamie dimon just said in a speech if i have the best, the u.s. will have a new president in 2020. pull together all the threads of what we are seeing, voter perceptions, the difficulties so far in this whether orsidency, not you believe in a readable be a new president in 2020. austan: i was an obama guy. i was not a supporter of president trump. it is hard for me to separate what i want and what actually will be. the economy continues to plug along in a decent pace very much like what it was under obama. historically strong economies help the incumbent. at the same time, there has never been an incumbent president at this point in the presidency to have a lower approval rating and low approval rating is usually not a good sign for the incoming -- for the incumbentresident -- president and their fate in the next election. ,onald trump won very narrowly winning by just one or 2% in several big states. though his base may still be enthusiastically for him, he really cannot afford to lose 3% to 5% of the electorate in michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. if the fall in his approval rating, which in my opinion is mostly deserved, but if the fall in the ratings applies at the state level he has got to be feeling the heat because that will make it tough to get reelected. julia: how hopeful this tax reform in your mind for the midterms? austan: it is hard to say because it depends what ends up being in tax reform. this is really a tax bill that is not tax reform of the traditional sense. they are not broadening the base and lowering the rates. it is mostly just a tax cut. if they were to do the plan that passed the house, which is an immediate cut to medicare and raises taxes on a bunch of , onle-class workers students, on teachers come on people with large medical bills, if they enacted that i think it would be pretty devastating. the republicans would be trying to run from that when it comes to 2018. if they modify the bill and passed something that is just a losesc tax-cut, nobody and the economy discontinues plugging along in a positive way. the way it has for the last three to five years. i would say is probably maybe a wash when it comes to the 2018 election. scarlet: one thing we have to say whether it is 2018, the midterms, 2020, jamie dimon followed up by saying the democrats need to come up with a better alternative and they have not done that so far. they don't really present a credible alternative. case of republicans losing or the democrats needing to come up with something to give people a person or a reasonable for their team. austan: they probably need to give a reason for them to vote for the team. for sure it is true that jamie dimon is inside. he is insightful. i think it is publicly known there are a lot of different factions in the democratic party. we are trying to sort out which of those is dominant and are their candidate second build a coalition that brings us together. it is not an easy position. it is not a slamdunk for any -- by any means. i think that is part of what will happen. if we had a very divisive primary among the democratic party, you can see that andributing to the chances the feeling of security the president had when he was running for reelection. he gets ae time if major primary challenger in the republican primary, he is going to be likely feeling the heat because in both parties if you get a major -- of the incumbent gets a major primary challenge on their own party, that is a terrible sign. scarlet: final question as we reform, ist tax very tax-cut you favor? austan: many. i proposed them and barack obama past the biggest middle-class tax cut of all time. i have been a record being for finding a way to cut the corporate rate to be more internationally competitive. i just wanted to do that within the corporate system itself, not to ask the middle class to pay more taxes in order to pay for a cut for the corporate rate. julia: still more work to be done. thank you, austan goolsbee from the university of chicago school of business. the u.s. markets close in two hours. a look at where stocks are trading the julie hyman. julie: i wanted to run through whether there is any reaction to the fed minutes that seem to be read is fairly dovish, even with the interest rate increases at the end of the year presumed by many market participants. major averages not much changed in the wake of the minutes. 500, youok at the s&p can see that as well. we did not see much movement. really coming off the lows of the session in a tight range, the tightest in about five weeks. a shortened week and volume is about 27% below the 20 day average. just to put today's trading in perspective. it would be more likely in theory to see a reaction. we see a little bit of a leg down in the 10-year, which is down by three basis points in today's session. move, foursimilar basis points. a reversal of recent movements in the two-year. finally the dollar, which was down after janet yellen's commentary late yesterday talking about inflation , anotherg persistently leg down. it has pretty much doubled his losses over the course of the session with her reaction -- with reaction to her comments. it is so close to the long weekend. let's get a check on the bloomberg first word news. incoming zimbabwe president made a triumphant return to his country today at a huge crowd came out to greet him. he says zimbabwe is witnessing a new unfolding democracy following the resident of the former president. the vice president left the country last month after the president fired him. three military personnel traveling with president to asia have been reportedly reassigned from their white house jobs. they had improper contact with foreign women during the vietnam leg of the trip. they work for the white house communications agency providing secure communications for officials. the kremlin is stepping up a push to resolve the civil war in syria. after meeting with serious'-- syria's president on monday, since russia -- intervened on their side in 2015. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. scarlet: thank you so much. of a tax bill in the senate improving. what is it mean for how she will vote in the actual bill? this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ julia: this is bloomberg markets. scarlet: the odds of passing the senate gop tax for next week are improving. lisa murkowski has a great the bill can include a provision to kill obamacare's individual mandate. she wrote, "i believe the government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid being taxed." ooining us is stephen wh covers the senate for bloomberg news. do you think she can be considered a yes vote? phen: she has knocked him out to support the bill yet but she is a likely yes. it also has a giant sweetener she anotherething alaskan seven seeking for decades which is oil drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge. andis likely to be a yes also by having that individual mandate in there that's important to the overall structure of the bill. without it they can make corporate tax cuts permanent, which is a top goal of president trump and his team, and $300 and less tax cuts to make the bill go around and element it less popular with her colleagues. this is a big step forward for the bill and changes the prospects for getting it done. how does she justify the likely rising premiums that thed follow according to suggestion of a would happen if they repealed the individual mandate? before she was concerned that the higher premiums going forward would offset some of the benefits of the lower taxes achieved as part of the overhaul. steven: i had a number of conversations with her in the senate always this year about this topic. i think what ultimately she made a decision about is that in the alaska premiums are already so high, $36,000 for a family of four before you get past your deductible. another increase on top of that probably does not matter that much if you're already hang that much. then there is a larger question, which is an ideological fundamental question for republicans right now. should the federal government be forcing you to buy something? -ed,way she put it in her op this is a question of freedom. restoring your freedom not to buy something. i think there is some sort of fundamental question a lot of republicans point out. it is not really fair for the government to charge you a penalty for not buying a really expensive on affordable product. -- unaffordable product. although not a lot of people in alaska pay that penalty, i think wonmately makowski was qib over on that point. julia: i mentioned the obamacare troubles. bob corker is concerned about the deficit. bearing in mind those names what sweeteners could be added to get them on board? its an increasingly complex tax solution to keep each one happy. steven: right. if the individual mandate is no longer something that can actually kill the bill because it takes three senators to vote you have to bill, look at the corcoran group. there are several senators led by bob corker who is not running for reelection but will need to face voters again. he has been a critic of donald trump. get a star being concerned about the deficit, and are no analyses so far that show this bill would not add to the deficit, that is where the potential for this thing to run aground is if they demand more paying in the bill to prevent a deficit increase. julia: we shall see. steven dennis joining us from washington, thank you for that. we will come back to that later on. peter thiel and friends facebook. find out why the millionaire is offloading shares in the social network. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ scarlet: this is bloomberg markets. julia: it is time for the bloomberg business flash. a look at some of the business stories in the news right now. peter thiel sold off 73% of his remaining stake in facebook. he unloaded more than 160,000 worth $29the company million. he has made several large sales of the stock in recent years. 2016 huckabee security exchange commission likely involve eastern european criminals. familiar, inpeople traders may have that access to that house database information not for public release. he could have led to the illegal trading. more optimism on bitcoin. thomas lee doubled his price target to $11,500 by the middle of 2018. a 40% gain from current levels. the strategist had a fullback earlier this month that set the stage for the surge. a hedge fund manager says it will end the year at $10,000. that is the business flash update. scarlet: will be at&t lawsuit put other mega-media deals on hold? co-chief investment officer joins us to discuss. this is bloomberg. ♪ is this a phone? or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. scarlet: from bloomberg world headquarters in midtown manhattan, this is bloomberg markets. commodity markets are closing in new york. staying near a two-year high, 58 and change after u.s. inventories fell last week. transcanada's keystone pipeline. this is bullish for oil prices. coffee fell to its lowest in more than three months in london as suppliers from vietnam started gaining pace. robusta, off by 2.4% for the day. the glut of u.s. cranberry supply has gotten so large that it could be headed to the compost. the government is awaiting approval that would allow them to turn excess cranberries into fertilizer. julia: i don't like them with meat. scarlet: bizarre. julia: as president trump white house yesterday for his thanksgiving, he did tell reporters that the at&t merger with time warner would be not good for the country. that is raising fresh questions about trump's dealmaking. joining us is co-chief of gaveli funds. this is about politics or economics dots it changes the game, depending on the direction. quack -- if this is -- if this is , thentrump not liking cnn maybe we have a problem. >> given what we can define, what are you thinking is going to be the official reason, and how will companies respond? christopher: the doj antitrust chief, the obama professional team seems to have think they made a mistake in improving the comcast-nbc deal. he has put himself in a box. we don't know what the outcome of the case would be. julia: there is a pretty high bar when you are talking about the number of cases, the ones that were dropped. christopher: the record for the government is not very good. they do face a very high bar. rlet: talk about the other deals that have percolated, but haven't come to anything at. i was consistent -- consistently surprised by the fact that 20th century fox is up for sale. christopher: the murdochs were buyers, not sellers. that has been turned on its head. they are for sale, part of fox is for sale. and prices have started at the bottom for media assets. the bankers and lawyers will be watching the outcome of this case. julia: time warner has all sorts of content assets. all of these guys will be quite interested. disney. scarlet: -- christopher: if at&t can't buy time warner, does that mean verizon will not allow -- will not be allowed to buy fox? there might be other ways they can do this deal. not fox combination might run afoul of antitrust regulations. julia: getting back to the chilling effect. do you think while we wait and see how this goes, the chilling effect is happening your perspective of economics? christopher: everyone will wait until we get clarity on the steel. -- on this deal. i want to bring this back to the fcc. of the neutrality rollback. it generated a bot of headlines, but we knew it was coming. what does this mean for investors? the internet has been regulated with a light touch, with the understanding the internet service providers would not block, throttle, or charge preferred access. 2015, under the obama administration, when they changed the regulation to a firmer touch under title ii of the communications act of 1934. roles,ing back these going back to the light touch , this removes the s,lease hanging over the isp and opens the door for them to experiment with new business models. they know the relevant -- regulation can come back. julia: it should be good for the consumer. what about pricing? christopher: the argument for rolling back these regulations would allow new business models to be experimented with. charging netflix more as opposed to the consumer, to the consumer experience we the get is subsidized by larger internet. because therepen has been a prohibition against it. i don't see that happening. providingnterested in speed and capacity to consumers at a good price. they realized the regulatory changes could happen quickly if they do something to harm consumers. julia: they know it could change swiftly under a new administration. christopher: we need congress to update the telecom law from 1996. julia: how high on the list is this for this administration? christopher: probably not. scarlet: talk a little bit about the cable bundle. it has been talked about, cord nevers.-- cord christopher: cord shavers. scarlet: people are dropping but we haven't seen people abandon their cable package either. christopher: the notion of people abandoning the , there isl television an annualized rate of about 3% in the united states. accelerateontinue to , or be at that level as new packages become available, youtube and others. for the isps, the cable companies, it underscores their value as big broadband providers. no matter what package of video you get, you need fast broadband to do it, and in most of the country, it is provided by the cable companies. >> the investigation now going the at&t andu see time warner consolidation from a content angle? how does that play out? christopher: nothing happens before we get clarity. as we talk about horizontal orgers, charter and comcast, charter, one of the many combinations -- they would probably the less impacted by what is going on. julia: charter, does the pressue discussed remain? is there does reason to seek further consolidation? christopher: the cable companies, charter and -- in particular are pursuing a partnership with verizon. this seems to be working so far. i don't think there is any need for doing anything. marangi christopher senior officer at gabelli funds, thank you. let's get a check on the headlines with bloomberg first word news. >> north korea said president trump's decision amounts to serious provocation. the official korean central news agency says the designation justifies the country's continued development of nuclear weapons. may have runway afoul of government ethics rules again. she all but endorsed alabama moore,candidate, roy possibly violating the rules preventing officials from engaging in government politics. a judge in oakland has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against androids eavesdropping app. tailors ads and content based on the user's location. and in the u k, prime minister theresa may's government says the economic outlook is getting worse. the chancellor gave his budget speech in parliament today and cut the forecast to economic growth next year to 1.4%. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. this is bloomberg. up, why the black friday stakes are that much higher for retailers this holiday weekend. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ julia: this is "bloomberg markets." what should we expect for black friday? us fromer joins jcpenney at the queens center mall. how does it look there? >> you might call it the calm before the storm. begin from 2sales p.m. tomorrow at jcpenney. online, withun deals going from sunday -- you could shop online. there seems to be a fair amount of options among analysts, pointing to strong economic growth, high consumer confidence. they are saying stores are better prepared this year, saying they have their inventories under control, online and in-store. they have gotten in early with promotions. in terms of the specific challenges for department stores, you are standing in jcpenney. bigger question about what these department stores due to change what they offer first -- this season, versus a customer -- company more focused on certain products or is customer based. >> we hear about this a lot. it is evidence of the way that investors have reacted to department stores. showspartment store index investors have been deserting them over the course of the year. if you look at them year to date -- department stores are fighting a difficult battle, having to be online and in-store to serve their customers. that can be very difficult for them, by chasing online sales, you can be categorizing in-store sales. -- be promotional to environment, the customer now expects emotions, deals, free shipping. -- promotions, deals, free shipping. when it comes to online sales, they are offering the opportunity to pick up in-store to drive customers back in-store and customers will make additional purchases. -- the focusl's is on clothes, toys, appliances, and tech to appeal to the changing case of consumers. jcpenney has had a toward performance in terms of the stock price. they warned about third-quarter results and surprised the market. questions of communication as well, questions they are not doing enough. through what specifically jcpenney is doing to tackle this tough environment. emma: they have been closing stores throughout the year. they have closed the most to stores. they are trying to make sure they are streamlining their inventory. they had a huge sale in the third quarter with a number of apparel items. they sought to bring in line's they are to appeal to a younger consumer -- they sought to appealn new lines to a younger consumer. also things like beauty, and easy sale, something that can drive traffic into the store. julia: thank you for keeping us updated. it is time for the stock of the hour. the official start of the haveay shopping season, we shares of macy's popping higher along the other retailers. abigail doolittle is joining us to talk about the top year for macy's. >> very tough. julia: what are they doing to help themselves? are down 40%. pretty incredible. the numbers are going in the wrong direction. let's get a visual with the bloomberg. 2015,s back in 2014 and jumping between losses and gains and try to run the fourth quarter of this year, truly ugly. the pressure from e-commerce not helping. off to as think it is good start relative to the holiday season, which could meet the goal of no more than a 3% sales drop. they do have a northern exposure. the first data points of sales figures show a nice acceleration from the third quarter. and they are offering free items, plus rebates. it is interesting that is the case. considered to be the higher end department store when i was a kid, not offering rebates, but i suppose that is where we are at. maybe that isod, why shares are popping higher. whatever theysaid need to to get people and. once you get them in, they can spend more. julia: getting them off the couch in the first place. attracted by be the variety of products, along with the discounting. let's get a visual to the e-commerce issue. this is a longer-term chart. in white, we have the retail sales versus automobiles. in blue, we have the online retail index. this year has been popping higher. department stores were doing fine right up until 2014-2015, now, a plunge. acy's announced their closing jobsed stores and have cut for two years. they are focusing on herald square. around $400ere billion, the same as the market cap. are trying to rip themselves up as one of the top tourist destinations in new york. ramp themselves up as one of the top purchased -- top tourist destinations in new york. abigail: and they are looking into bergfeldabigail: -- brookfield property management. they had a discount store that opened in 2015. there will be 45 at the end of this year. they are trying to take a play out of the t.j. maxx book. scarlet: everyone seems to be opening an off-price chain. julia: everyone seems to be tried to get into the brick and mortar. scarlet: are you talking about amazon? julia: thanks so much, abigail. this is bloomberg. ♪ julia: welcome back. u.k. charts released the annual budget. we were warned about weakness in the u k economy, but there is solutions. >> we will not build it overnight, not in this budget -- but in this budget today, we will lay the foundation. allocateeady to further funds if and when needed. no one should doubt the results. they revised the outlook down for productivity growth and gdp growth across the forecast. one of the best ways as we build the future is to make early progress in delivering the visions. gdp growth is now expected to in 2018, 1.3%1.4% in 2019 and 2020. 1.5% in 2021, 1.6% in 2022. the government will make progress the top priority. scarlet: 1.6% it is now time foe bloomberg business flash. proctor and gamble is being criticized after the billionaire when a board seat by a fraction of one percentage last week. trian said the consumer giant soft -- suffered from a suffocating democracy. suspending flights to north korea through the month of june. saysovernor -- government the decision is business-related with no political motive. china canceled flights to the country and able -- in april due to low customer demand, but resumed flights soon thereafter. jamie dimon spoke to become club of chicago, discussing the tax oftem -- the econ club chicago, discussing the tax system. >> we should get rid of the hedge funds and state tax deductions. do not have an uncompetitive tax system. that is a mistake for america. retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. 12:00 p.m. p.m. in san francisco. 8:00 p.m. in london. scarlet: welcome to bloomberg markets. ♪ julia: we are live at bloomberg rolled headquarters in new york over the next hour. here are the top stories. black friday blues. we speak about the retail landscape and the struggling stores. uberver conceals -- conceals a massive data breach, paying hackers to delete the information and keep quiet. says the strategist gop tax overhaul is bad for growth. let's get a check on markets with julie hyman, counting down to tax day. are -- turkey day. dow and s&p 500 slightly lower today. the russell 2000 is trading at a record, so is the dow. i want to talk about what we are seeing in the wake of the fed minutes and janet yellen's comments last night, in which she expressed concern inflation is remaining loan. this is a dovish read on the fed minutes. the dollar is trading lower. the 10 year yield and two year yield are falling as well. extending earlier declines, as -- as we see buying in the bond market. there are technical indicators for the end -- for the yen, dollar falling below those levels. there are technical indicators for thefolks are watching this s we have a thinly traded market. i want to point out the movers we are watching. cerner is signing some sort of deal with the amazon web service's platform. analysts said this could be a hosting deal, to host cerner services on awf. investors might be hoping for something bigger. analystyst said -- an said there could be a bigger signal going forward. hpe, the company replacing meg whitman as the ceo, going to antonio nearing -- antonio neri to replace her. margins.aker salesforce.com came out with these numbers. revenue, but the company's forecast for earnings in the quarter was below estimates. you.et: thank foreclosures, rising bankruptcies, falling stock prices, part of the grim reality facing retail. how do you survive the so-called retailpocalypse? joining us is louis conforti from washington prime group. to talk about how uniform mrs. across the many properties in your portfolio. are the troubles that you might see in grand junction the same as what you might see at the jefferson valley mall? it is a great question. the troubles that have beset is aindustry, concentration of obvious retail categories, junior fashion and accessories. there are idiosyncratic differences, whether in johnson city or coral springs. -- if we were a hedge fund, your risk manager why are you 43d, some on percent long? what would people think? you wouldn't be in business for long. it is imperative to diversify. julia: i read your third quarter results. "no-nonsense."m you alluded to it. that retailers got into the situation with the complete lack of diversification. to diversify the tenant pool, talking about lifestyle tenants. talk about what you are doing and how it helps the survival and profitability of these malls? louis: it is crucial. we think about lifestyle, whether it is food and beverage, entertainment -- what we have model, home a theishings and home goods, are going out and grabbing those kinds of tenants. they want to come, but we are doing it in a way where the idea of four walls defining your bull.is all -- is we are utilizing common areas, doing pop-ups, highlighting certain segments of a retailer. we are adamant we're going to optimize and diversify. lypseet: we say retailpoca because we published a story about it looking at the debt going to come to these retail companies in the next five years. companies are struggling and you wonder how they will get the cash flow. julia: rates have been going up so much. talk about that. what we have seen are a lot of companies behind this, they are very leveraged. there is private equity involvement, banks have let -- lent the money in the good times , and they are struggling. i did a little report for the board. think about a venn diagram. you captured the nexus between private equity sponsors, and junior fashion and accessories. watchlist,l a tenant retailers we are keeping an eye on. factors,red those equity sponsors and junior fashion. the results -- they offer insipid products, and people have to make decisions as partners with those tenants, we want to forge long-standing relationships, leasing for the sake of filling space. there are a lot of companies here that are going to survive this. investors coming in and trying to salvage the situation. is there a significant consolidation inevitable in this industry? >> yes. as i tell shareholders, i am not we will be the aggregate or for aggregate tea -- aggregator or aggregatee. we need to be focused on , thetional and financial balance sheet. from anngs we have done advocacy standpoint. we're focusing on optimizing assets, creating connecticut, dynamic energy. julia: you have to be ruthless. scarlet: ruthless and experiential, getting people excited. does that model work? have you seen it in the numbers? do stores get more sales as a result? louis: a lot of my landlord askance looked at me when we forged an alliance with amazon lockers. we were the largest landlord with respect to them, and they bought us out. visitor,00th primarily an incremental visitor . two thirds of them spend time within the asset itself. we need to have events, goods and services. as long as their costs are contained, as long as we are trying new things, whether it be the proprietary e-commerce we have thengibles, ability to make costs contain failures. louis conforti ceo of washington prime group. thank you. go to the bloomberg first word news. a two-part tweet fool forall a downplaying the president's role in china. firstump said in his tweet in part, it wasn't the white house, or state department that caught his son out of a long-term business sentence. it was me. a second judge has blocked track -- president trump's proposed ban of transgender's serving in the military, calling it arbitrary. it said the administration cannot provide the proposal. a general was convicted today of genocide and war crimes for his actions during the balkan war of the 1990's. hader ejected from the counsel after yelling at judges everything he said was a lie. he was sentenced to life in prison. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. back to you. uber,t: more trouble for as a hacker affecting 57 million people comes to light. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ scarlet: this is "burke markets." -- "bloomberg markets." after boycotts, lawsuits, and criminal probes, uber has to deal with a cyber attack in field for a year back in 2016. we go to bloomberg's emily chang -- emily chiang. emily: the story is astonishing. this hack happened over a year ago. the head of security, as well as travis kalanick, kept this covered for more than a year. $100,000 the hackers to delete the information and took those hackers at their word they did indeed delete that information. we are talking about the information of 50 million writers, 7 million -- 50 million riders, 7 million drivers. names, emailer tresses, phone numbers, but the company said they didn't get credit cards. now you have multiple agencies across the country and around the world looking into this. ftc, the new york attorney general's office has opened a settled a new york ag privacy situation with uber last year. regulators opening investigations. uber is on the chopping block in the u.k., they have had their licenses revoked. "none ofnt ceo said, this should have happened. i will not make excuses. we are changing the way we do business." the head of security was fired. travis kalanick is still on the board. this is something he will have to answer to. julia: do you think this changes anything for softbank? this is another issue to layer upon other issues the company has been tackling. you can look at this and go, do we need to rethink our investment? emily: sources on both sides of the table, softbank and uber said the deal. go through. -- will still go through. about $10ill invest billion in uber, which could work in the softbank's favor. they could say, he will pay a lower price at this point. the company is dealing with yet another headache. this is definitely raising a lot of questions. as far as of the deal will go through, both sides are telling us this hack does not change anything. scarlet: we will wait to see how that shakes out. another bigas far as of the deao story is the asignation of meg whitman the ceo of hp enterprises. quickly,aving fairly the first of 2018. what is the buzz in silicon valley? emily: when meg whitman took over, hp was a company that was struggling. she took on a massive challenge, she split up a company into hpe nad hp -- and hp inch. inc.e and hp she is running hpe. to navigate the world of cloud computing and competitors like amazon. i don't think anyone expected meg whitman to do this job forever. you have a longtime engineer, antonio neri, who will be taking over the company. his name had been floated for a long time as a successor. i interviewed him earlier this year and asked him about the rumors of taking over, what he his name being floated as a successor. listen to what he told me. >> i have been at this company for 22 years. i am very excited about the future of this company. mily: he didn't confirm or deny. tenure,last part of his he has been running the biggest business unit at hpe, which accounts for servers and storage. are of the areas where hp going to be struggling are these. he said their servers are going to see declines next year. he is coming on with quite a challenge and it will be interesting to see what meg whitman does next. she says she will not work for a competitor. she says she was up for the top job at uber and didn't get it. julia: she is probably more relieved now. emily, thank you for joining us. it is time for the bloomberg business flash. hedge funds are showing confidence in stocks and the u.s. economy. firms are borrowing more money to buy equities. they include facebook, amazon, and alibaba. fund managers are the most highly leveraged since the bull market began. president trump was asked if he knew how big of an impact alibaba has had on the u.s. stock market. billion in trading with china has gone to one chinese company. there has been no response from the president. businesses are seeing stronger growth in national stores, despite higher prices. for therd reports sales last two years accounting for 37% of total spending from small businesses outpacing big chains. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ julie: it is time for today's options insight. we have a thanksgiving special to talk about today, greg. you have been watching small caps today. we have a chart on the bloomberg that shows the returns for the russell versus the other major averages. the russell had that big surge after the election. it is less than the other majors. what trading are we seeing around it? greg: the vessel has underperformed the other major russell has underperformed the other major indices. weightap -- the largest is its financials. there is not a lot of large cap tech. russellcipation of the may be playing a little bit to catch up on the year-end. pretty significant january call spread yesterday go 46,000 call spreads, were bought. they bought the 154 call and sold the 160 call. expectedn't a return from 3% to 9%. ie: a rise of certain caps with particular rates. a limited rise, 15%-20% year to date. these expire mid-january, so someone was playing for the but not necessarily an explosion through the other three indices. about ahen you talk 46,000 trade block, is that sizable? greg: to give you some contractors,,000 the equivalent of 4.6 million shares. julie: pretty significant. $154 notional amount, amounting to a $700 million trade. julie: thank you so much, number derivatives strategist. we will be back. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> let's get to first word at news. eight people have been rescued from the crash of a u.s. navy plane in the pacific ocean. 11 plane was carrying passengers and crew. it was on its way to the uss ronald reagan in the philippine sea. nato forces are looking for the other three people on board. the u.s. has declared the wright ingya crimes -- roh to be ethnic cleansing. have been accused of attacking villagers. more than 600,000 have fled to neighboring bangladesh. the chances that the senate republican tax bill will pass next week have gotten better. senator lisa murkowski of alaska says she agrees with the decision to kill the obamacare mandate, which is now part of the legislation. earlier, murkowski said she did taxes ando mix health care. researchers out of her lynn have found light pollution is increasing at at the rate of 2% a year. and he could beor