States. Here. L doolittle is treasuries having a massive impact on equities today. Abigail we have declines. We have a sea of red on the screen. On pace for their worst day since the end of 2017. Earlier at the lows on pace for the worst day since the middle of november. Right now this trading action does not have the feeling of turning green by the end of the day. Charttake a look at a that may suggest that we could see some sort of pullback. Its the spread between the s p 500 and its moving average well above. Conditions could be overbought. Its about 10 above since 2013. That may suggest we are going to go back down. It could be bearish. Take a look at the stocks down 1. 6 after yesterdays big incline. Could be worrying to investors. The stock has not put in an alltime high since 2000. Weekly intel on whats ahead. Hell tell on whats ahead. This is a five day chart of the 10 year yield. Had a big backup in rates over the last five days of about 14 basis points. We saw a similar fiveday move of last year. It will be interesting to see how this happens. Saying theyr china may in fact pullback their position. Interestingly as well bill gross theing about the idea that bond bull market could be over or even saying a bear market has been confirmed. It is the longterm trend for and as long asld it stays within that trend thats how the bond market is on. Start to go above the trend line. We probably want to see the 10 year yield above 3 for some kind of real confirmation breaking out of that trend. The longterm downtrend for the tenyear yield in place. Whatsave a look at happening to european stocks today. Down for the first day in six after the best run since november the first. Banksiveday winning run and insurers benefiting from the upward move in the yield curve. Yesterday the stoxx 600 rose to the august 2015 hi. We had that rally and auto related stocks boosting the dax by 3. 6 in 2018. The dax is down by 1 today. Todays decline on the stoxx 600 is the biggest all of the year down by the biggest amount since december. Appreciation against the dollar last year may not continue as last years gains largely reflect weakness in the greenback and investors being wrongfooted by the boes hawkish turn. With u. K. Inflation expected to slow brexit concerns coming to the fore sterling is unlikely to break much higher this year. Analysts forecast sterling will slip to 132 this quarter from its current level of roughly 130 five before rebounding to 136 at the end of the year. Thats the postbrexit high for sterling. Yet asnt broken as of you can see by that round annotation. Manufacturers posting a seven consecutive month of an expansion. By 4 . Output up. 4 . Manufacturers are enjoying the longest run of uninterrupted growth since 1997. Thats the wide box right there next to a broadbased global upswing particularly in the newer area. Lets get to the german tenyear. Can see the yield up by three basis points today. Highest level since july last year following the u. S. And japanese counterparts. As the central bank enters 2018 the debate over its stimulus plans as been dominated by policymakers warning against policy staying to lose for too long. Too loose for too long. Our story, ecb hawks take the lead on qe debate as doves stay quiet for now. We havent heard from draghi. From theater hear hawks on the ecb. The pbochen theres which is going to dominate market discussion this year as well and speaking of china another market bombshell. Officials in beijing are said to have recommended slowing or halting purchases of u. S. Treasuries. While the news is certainly adding to bond market jitters when investor argues this move by china is not our Worst Nightmare. Joining us is chief strategist at silver crest asset management. Why is this not potentially our Worst Nightmare . Because authority been happening. China has been drawing down its reserves and holdings with treasuries for a couple of years u. S. Nd during that period treasury yields actually fell to their lowest point in history. Cellse china effect treasuries or refrains from buying more than dollars it placed in treasuries dont disappear. They go somewhere. Either china spends that to buy u. S. Goods or they seldom to someone who will do the same. Andrecipient has gone socked them right back into treasuries and if thats not and its being invested in more productive things thats actually a positive thing. Vonnie theres a lot to unpack. I want to point viewers to this chart. It shows China BuildingTreasury Holdings for most of my 17 indeed for most of the last five years. Yellow line is u. S. Treasury major foreign holders total. There are other foreign holders. Let me caution that the holdings of treasurys the china holds in its own name many economists suspect that thats only part of chinas holdings. China holds other treasuries through proxies probably in belgium. A lot of what you see in belgium is probably china. China has actually been drawing down on its reserves for quite some time. That if chinaid does get rid of this is just an official saying it so far. It has not become policy. But it will put its dollars to work somewhere else. What if it put its dollars to work in saudi arabia . Why should it be in the u. S. . What happens is the saudis been have those dollars they have to do something with for the europeans. If they dont want those dollars the price of the dollar would fall. It could put downward pressure on the u. S. Dollar. Thats not necessarily a bad thing seeing as we are only 7 below a 14 year high in the dollar that was crimping u. S. Growth. It important to realize over the past 10 years part of it when i lived in beijing i saw the u. S. Treasury come to china and i can assure you they did not come to beg the chinese to buy more treasuries. What they said was please do something other than buying treasuries with your dollars. Spend them. Invest them. What they are doing is not contrary to what we want them to do. Lets get to the question of the day following those comments from bill gross that the bond bull market is over and the bear market is upon us. Has it happened . Does it matter . There are a lot of reasons why u. S. Treasury yields are rising and perhaps should rise further. They dont have that much to do with china for the reasons i described. It has to do with the fact that you are right now seeing a big pour into a u. S. Economy that a lot of people increasingly feel is either at or approaching full employment. We dont see much price pressure right now. It is certainly something logical to look for in something one might expect to start to see. That would logically translate into an expectation that the fed might start to raise rates. At least more aggressively than they have already. That i think is really the driver behind rising u. S. Treasury yields not necessarily what china is doing. China takes place within the context of what are people going to do when those dollars go from china to wherever else where people inclined to do . Sock them back into u. S. Treasuries . Or are they going to look at other u. S. Dollar assets instead . Yesterdays nervousness was triggered in part by the boj news that its going to buy fewer long and bonds. Ome shrugging that off does it show how nervous the market is and how careful Central Banks have to be in their communication process as they unwind these massive programs of bond buying . Yes. We are at alltime lows in not just the u. S. But many markets. In terms of Interest Rates. For a variety of reasons you expect Interest Rates to go higher. Its not necessarily bad the Interest Rates should go higher as long as its reflective of more productive investment and greater demand. Oft has been the goal Monetary Policy all along. Not to maintain low rates forever but to get it so the economy can justify higher rates. Vonnie what about the contagion effect of this china move . Clearly we have seen an effect on the treasury market. Could it be the thing that tips the equity market over . Now the equityt markets have really been driven by higher earnings and as long as earnings continue to grow and a long as the Economic Data that weve got continues to look very good and it has been very good in the u. S. I think that the winds behind equities will remain and i think that hiccups that come from concern about higher rates whether based on good reasons are bad reasons, the economy can grow into higher rates as long as there is actual growth momentum. I would be looking more towards what would derail that growth momentum. Inflation if it does occur could do that. That would require the fed to start raising rates beyond where maybe the market would be supportive of the market. Vonnie youre not a little concerned that the idea that an official said this might be theng talked about has sent 10 year up to 2. 58 and has widened the curve to 60 basis points . Not a massiveis moves but given the moves we have been seeing it is. It takes place within the context of rising rates. People are thinking in that direction and along comes the story which has caused jitters for some time. I have been having conversations with Bond Investors for the last several years about what happened if china starts selling treasuries and i have had this conversation many times about the money doesnt disappear. It has ended up going right back into the bond market. Remain and inions ofs concept context people thinking about rising rates it is likely to trigger even more nervousness. Patrick chovanec, thank you. You have lived in beijing for many years. Time to check in on the first word news. Heres emma chandra. The white house is calling a federal judges decision outrageous. The judge temporarily blocked President Trumps decision to scrap the socalled Dreamer Program for young undocumented immigrants. The courts move would protect hundreds of people facing deportation. The ruling came just hours after the president said he was willing to negotiate a deal that might eventually provide a document immigrants with a path to citizenship. In Southern California deadly mudslides have killed at least 15 people. More than two dozen others were injured. Heavy rain turned hills that were stripped of vegetation by last months wildfires into rivers of mud. South koreas president says hes willing to meet north Koreas Kim Jongun under the right circumstances. He vows to never accept north Koreas Nuclear weapons program. Aftermments come a day the first highlevel talks between the koreas in more than two years. Trump toldresident trump told moon the u. S. Is open to talks with north korea when its appropriate. The group says wildcards could drive oil to 80 a barrel this year. Says wildcards could drive oil to 80 a barrel this year. Iran and north korea could have significant consequences for the oil market. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im emma chandra. This is bloomberg. Mark coming up on bloomberg markets, we are awaiting the weekly data. Crude gaining ahead of the release that more than three year high. Vonnie ceos at ces. We speak with Tim Armstrong about the shifting media landscape. This is bloomberg. Mark im mark barton. Vonnie im vonnie quinn. This is bloomberg markets. Lets turn to u. S. Politics and the intense fights over immigration policy. The white house reacting to an order from a federal judge to continue the daca program. Sanderscretary sarah saying we find this decision to be outrageous especially like the president s successful bipartisan meeting with house and Senate Members at the white house on the same day. Join us for context from washington is bloombergs white house reporter. Where does this might go next . It really will depend on what the white house in the present legal team decide about how to challenge this. You can be assured that they will not just take this ruling from the ninth Circuit Court. I have tried to attack that andt is being leftleaning not in line with the rest of the country. They have appealed previous decisions from that court up to the supreme court. Right now the white house and members of congress are saying they can find a permanent solution so they dont have to fight this through the courts. That seems to be something that is going on behind the scenes with republicans and democrats trying to find a solution to the issue of the dreamers. That can also include Border Security funds and money for a wall. If they are able to come to an agreement maybe the court ruling will be moot. Now on twitter President Trump saying the ninth Circuit Court is always routinely sort of overturned by higher courts. Team reallynt legal pushing back very hard against this ruling thing thats not in line with the constitution. Vonnie maybe this is what yesterdays bipartisan meeting which also featured the news media in the room for the entire meeting was about. To stem off some further problems in the courts. How has the president outlined a deal that both republicans and democrats could get behind . The president hasnt specifically outlined a deal. They sort of put together the contours of the deal and one of the most significant things he said yesterday as if the republicans and democrats can come up with a solution that he would sign it. He would not veto a deal they come up with. Right now theyre working on trying to find that deal. It would include potentially some money for Border Security whether or not that includes a wall on the southern border is something that needs to be hashed out. It would also include some sort of legal status for 800,000 of the daca recipients. There are the contours of a deal. They have taken out some of the other extraneous to mans and requests from the white house and narrowed it down to a handful of different things. And democrats are speaking very positively about the idea that they can come up with a deal and because the president said he would not veto such a deal it looks like they are closer than they were a couple of days ago towards actually having a solution to this issue. Mark trump post the norwegian Prime Minister a little later. With the top of the agenda in their discussions . They are going to be talking about a number of different things. Nato is going to be important in that relationship. The ongoing relationship with russia between the u. S. And russia and norway and russia will be important. Another issue that likely to come up is the president s recent decision to open up some of the coastal areas of the u. S. To drilling. Something Norwegian Companies may be very interested in. I am sure the norwegian Prime Minister abe interested in hearing more from the president about what exactly is going to and part of that decision whether or not Norwegian Companies can take it vantage of some of those drilling opportunities off the coast of the u. S. We will be checking back in with you again later. Straight ahead, using sports to build scale. We will be speaking with Tim Armstrong. His latest strategy to draw viewers. Mark also coming up from ces, shares of kodak starting after the once prominent camera maker said it would launch a photo centric cryptocurrency. Withg up, we will speak chief executive jeff clark. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is bloomberg. Im vonnie quinn in new york. Mark from london, im mark barton good time for the Bloomberg Business flash. Sachs in the skeptical category when it comes to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The cochief executive for germany spoke to Bloomberg Television at the firms global strategy conference. A lot of people are looking and evaluating and doing the it. Work on maybe in the future it could become something bigger. I would think for the moment for the Institutional Investor base its an interesting story but its far from being a really investable asset class. Mark he also said london will remain the center for goldmans activities even after brexit. Alabama has one bearing a multistate competition for a car factory. Won a multistate competition for a car factory. North carolina was the runnerup. The factory is scheduled to open in 2021. Thats the latest. Ahead, timaight armstrong talks about whether the verizon venture can challenge facebook and google for ad dominance. This is bloomberg. Mark live from london, im mark barton. From new york, im vonnie quinn. This is bloomberg markets. We are moments away from the release of weekly u. S. Oil inventories. Crude Oil Trading Higher above 63 a barrel. This after a massive drawdown last week of nearly 7. 5 Million Barrels. Looking for a drawdown of nearly 3. 5 million. Abigail numbers are out and it does appear to be bullish relative to oil. Was almost 5awdown Million Barrels relative to the expectation of 3. 4 million and this follows a massive drawdown last week. This is similar to the trend we have seen more recently. Lots of drawdown cutting into supply. Relative to gasoline inventories a slightly bigger build than expected. 4. 1 Million Barrels relative to the survey of 3 Million Barrels. Last week 4. 8 Million Barrels. Overall the effect we are seeing a bearisha bit of reaction probably because of the gasoline inventory number. A bigger advent expected. Oil this isok at not entirely inconsistent with what we would have expected despite another drawdown for oil. This shows a moving range on oil that centers around various moving averages and we are getting to the top of the range if we takeper barrel a look at the commercial shorting activity its very high suggesting we may see the price of oil dipped down towards 60 a barrel or even lower. The bottom of that range closer to 53. Vonnie im sure theres a lot of companies quite happy with oil where it is. Turning to the media landscape. Fascinating be a landscape it has been in 2017 and it looks to be that for 2018 as well. We are delighted to have join us from ces in las vegas for a conversation about the landscape, Tim Armstrong, ceo of oath. You Just Announced a deal to stream nfl playoffs and also the super bowl on yahoo sports. It sports the next way to gain eyeballs . Is sports the next way to gain eyeballs . Thanks for having me on. I couldnt be more excited for the future of what we are seeing for technology and consumer. Economy inof our technology is mobile. Ourle is the oil of structure and what we are seeing at ces. Verizon is one of the worlds leading companies. Oath is a company where we have a billion users and the nfl deal we are announcing brings one of the best brands in the world for directly to the billion oath consumers and verizon subscribers in the u. S. You have seen a lot of content announcements but the content announcements to be aimed at one Consumer Trend which is mobile. We feel like its an exciting week for us to announce the nfl playoffs. The only place in the world you can get the games this weekend in one place is our mobile app on yahoo sports. We are really excited to kickoff the future of verizon. Vonnie do you feel like you need more content . Will you be making acquisitions in the mobile space in some way . I think what you are seeing is from our standpoint we know the mobile consumer really well. We have a lot of data and information on what they want. Content is one major piece. The people that we see at a high end of the content range consuming on mobile are on four hours a day. See us do more content smart deals that we already have a tremendous amount of compton as a company and verizon is one of the biggest buyers of content in the United States right now. I think the nfl deal is one example of one piece of great content that is musthave content for consumers. We are at ces where the official media partner was engadget. If you go through all of the other properties that we have from yahoo sports to huffington post, we are in a good position to bring a lot of content with verizon to the market for mobile. We have unbelievably great partnerships. Verizon is a company that has partnerships and almost the entire content industry so we feel good about where we are right now and you will see as pioneer the things were doing today also in the future. Be very exciting being under the verizon umbrella. The only thing is the cto did be there wasnt going to capex. You that affect particularly seeing as verizon is not a National Broadband player and you just talked about mobile being extremely important . I would think about it slightly differently. Announceds over time basically a 10 billion capital reduction expense reduction. I think thats different than what verizon has been doing in five j. 5g. I think you basically is doing an amazing job leading where the next generation of broadband and 5g are going. Verizon has does coming paths. The buildout of 5g and the future of connectivity. Hard to argue they are not the leader in that space right now. Two is how do you bring services to the auto industry, to media. You have seen verizon consistently follow through on the 5g announcements. The announcements of how those services will benefit consumers in cities and the infrastructure. I think thats totally consistent. How the company is getting managed financially. The bigger story is the strategy around 5g and the future of is reallyhich exciting. I have been in 30 meetings yesterday at ces. Thats what our customers and partners want to talk about and i think thats where the world is going. Vonnie i want to ask you about the advertising space as well. You have a strategy that you are going to be putting in place to try and dent the duopoly of facebook and google. Can you share some of that strategy with us . How are you going to get those advertisers to get those online revenue . The good news for us is digital and mobile economy for advertising is at 39 of global spend. Than you higher basically see the money following the consumers. Google and facebook are doing a great job. Very good job. A we have a very differentiated approach. We have a platform level scale with random differentiation and one of the things we have been hearing from partners his partners appreciate all the big platforms in the world for advertising. They realize they have to differentiate their brand and we have some of the best content that rides across everyones platforms. We can put brands next to great content on many platforms. I think customers see us as a very differentiated approach. Platformhe scalable but the differentiation of some of the best content brands. I think we are a major player in advertising in the future. Vonnie facebook is also getting in on the videogame and so is amazon. Facebook just did that deal with sony for music videos. How can you differentiate yourself even more on the content side to gain those advertisers . Isi think the biggest thing the those platforms have been very focused on other aspects whether it is social or search. We have been in the content business and mixing with verizon we are one of the largest people in the mobile content space also. When you take a giant step back from the landscape we have one giant attribute which is really important which is mobile. In q4 we had the fastest growth videoe ever had in mobile consumption. Theres a space where theres 3 billion people connected to mobile. Theres going to be another 3 billion theres not going to be three successful companies, there will be more than that and we will be one of them. Q4 if we doints in in a greatwe will be position. The other thing i would point out is we did one of the largest deals in the industry last year in terms of merging with yahoo and im not on bloomberg today talking about integration issues or how we are going to follow through on those. We integrated really quickly. Got to our synergy numbers and now we are often and the off in the landscape announcing nfl deals. We are going to compete in the future and we are partners with all of companies and we have a pathway for success. I wanted to ask you that question. Very quickly what device or innovation have you seen at ces that you might take home with you . Saw some Bluetooth Speakers here. I have three teenage kids and they have custom bluetooth that will keep the sound contained to a room. Im looking to sound contain my house and i saw a very Interesting Technology for teenagers. Vonnie that sounds great. Tim armstrong, thank you for joining us from ces. , emma chandrap has more from new york. In china officials reviewing the countrys Foreign Exchange holdings have recommended slowing or halting purchases of u. S. Treasuries. Authorities believe the markets for u. S. Government bonds is less attractive relative to other assets. China is the Worlds Largest foreign holder of treasuries. Vice president mike pence and his wife karen will leave the u. S. Delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in south korea. He will stop in alaska on the way to review Intercontinental Ballistic Missile defense systems. North korea has agreed to send a delegation to the games which begin on february 9. Germany is maintaining a hardline stance on brexit. Angela merkels government will demand that the u. K. They for the privilege of its banks having access to the eu market after it leaves the bloc. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im emma chandra. This is bloomberg. Mark coming up on bloomberg markets, the worlds Biggest Food Companies looking to take a 5 billion in the Consumer Health market. More on the story next. This is bloomberg. Mark live from london, im mark barton. Vonnie in new york, im vonnie quinn. Time for our stock of the hour. United continental was upgraded pushing shares higher this morning. Pricing trends are beginning to outperform domestic trends. Joining us with more is taylor riggs. Citi really highlighted the pricing pressures in europe, the caribbean markets in the latin markets. And some sector pricing pressures coming from the west coast to hawaii and within california. We have a chart showing sort of the Atlantic Region versus the pacific or the latin region and those have already started to improve a little bit. We are looking at revenue passenger miles. Thats the number of passengers multiplied by the distance. The Atlantic Region has been gaining along the last few quarters at about 20 . Some of the other regions decline. It seems to be the trend. We are also looking at pretax margins because that is something the company has come out and said they are boosting their forecast. They said they are looking at their fourthquarter pretax margin anywhere from 6 to 7 . That was above their previous assessment of 3 to 5 . Chartuld note not on this are four fourth quarters of negative the note was saying pricing favors east coast airlines. Are there other airlines it might be excited about . There seems to be an industrywide been going on. Bank of america had upgraded. And allegiant to a buy. There are also really excited about american airlines. American airlines came out this morning and also talked about those fourthquarter pretax margins that are now expected to come and really align with united. That was above their previous estimates. It feels like an industrywide theme going on. Vonnie taylor riggs, thank you. Italy has emerged as the frontrunner to buy mark nestle has emerged as the frontrunner to buy mercks Consumer Health business. Now is bloomberg deals reporter who is having a busy week. Why does nestle need this Consumer Health business . The maker of supplements. Marke under the new ceo schneider and it has been just over a year since he took over. They have been shifting focus on putting more into health care and he is a German HealthCare Industry man. Been looking at these spaces that natalie hadnt spent much time on earlier. In december over the Christmas Period they did their biggest deal in 11 years when they bought a littleknown supplement maker and now the price tag that we are talking about will be almost double what they paid on their last deal. Is this less exciting than the similar assets that have been sold by pfizer . Assets have much more revenue and they are being valued at 15 to 20 billion. In terms of the competition for them these names like j j, all of them lining up. One would imagine that if nestle thoughts deal as we nestle was looking at both of them we are not so sure what that would mean for their interest in pfizer. Both sales are being run almost parallel. Its difficult to see who is ahead. Much bigger numbers. Mark what does merck do with the money . With a look at more acquisitions in the space it is their core focus remains to be seen. Mark anymore deals in this industry . Absolutely. You saw the approach for the Belgian Company which was rejected. And it seems like theres a lot going on. And it seems like theres a lot going on. The Health Care Conference happening in San Francisco right now. One would imagine more deals coming out of that. Companies looking at their portfolio and deciding what they want to get rid of. Thanks for filling us in in whats going on on m a today. Still ahead, u. K. Administers are making the case for a Financial Services deal to a skeptical germany. With the berlin latest. This is bloomberg. Mark im mark barton. This is bloomberg markets. Vonnie live from new york, im vonnie quinn. Time for a look at the Bloomberg Business flash. Archer hathaway has named two potential successors to see a Warren Buffett as directors. Berkshire hathaway has named two potential successors to ceo Warren Buffett. He has said he wants the successor to be drawn from berkshires ranks. China about to finalize order for orders for 184 planes. Emmanuel macron met with chinas president xi jinping. China accounts for almost a quarter of airbuss sales. Deepwater driller ocean rate is working with Credit Suisse to explore strategic options. One of those options could be a separate ocean rate has been struggling because of curtailed offshore trading. Lets talk about brexit and the latest news. The eu risks opening the door to a Global Financial crisis if it refuses to give londons bankers a good trade deal. June nt article for a thenewspaper ministers are in germany today meeting with business groups. Joining us from berlin is alan crawford. Weve got this story that the germans are insisting that the u. K. Pay for this post brexit bank access. What do the germans want in return . Its quite simple. The germans want the u. K. To it the rulese rules and state that if you want to have any kind of access for Financial Services you effectively have to remain part of the single market. And while the u. K. Government is implies thatut they may have to enter into some kind of separate deal. Indicatesially it first of all that the plea by these ministers in theresa mays government is not being heard but it also shows there is a live look disconnect between the governments in london and berlin. What about regulatory equivalents . Barnier gave some hope yesterday. We might get equivalents but probably not as much as the u. K. Wants. Certainly the information that we had from here in berlin didnt go into that kind of level of detail. Appreciate thed German Government the parties in the German Government are busy trying to form a new government but what was very clear was that berlin is backing Michel Barnier quite strongly. While they are looking to try and guide his approach on brexit ahead of this crucial eu summit of leaders in march there behind them as are the french. That is quite strong support. Is this all games ahead of the serious stuff when the trade talks begin . That seems to be the belief here in london. Thatrtainly we have seen the German Government in particular has been pretty consistent all the way along and have not really been playing games at all. They are quite literal when it comes to these kinds of negotiations. Not said i think there is doubt that there has to be some kind of compromise all around. We have heard from other governments, i was in rome earlier this week and they were holding out some kind of olive branch if you like to the u. K. Government in terms of the brexit deal but they were also saying that they want to hear more about concessions from the u. K. Government. I think theres room for movement on all sides. Mark thanks a lot. The latest in the brexit machinations. Coming up on the european close, we are following stocks. Less than 35 minutes until the end of the wednesday session. Gains in london. Up 5. 1 . This is bloomberg. Mark it is 11 00 a. M. In new york and midnight in hong kong. There is 30 minutes left in the trading day in europe. From london, i am mark barton. Vonnie from new york, i am vonnie quinn. Close fore european bloomberg markets. Here are some of the stories were covering. Amids and bonds falling words that china may halt its purchases of the u. S. Treasury. What is Mario Draghis next move . You hawks are increasing their calls to pull back on stimulus. This could be the crucial year for President Trumps trade policies, with a key decision on nafta. How it could impact the markets. Have a look at what is happening with european equities, we are 30 minutes away from the end of the wednesday session