Reports on the minimum wage. Julianna goldman is up the white house where president obama and ukraines new Prime Minister will hold talks. We will get to giuliana in just a moment. Breaking news on herbalife. The Embattled Company says it received what is called a civil investigative demand from the federal trade commission. Bloombergs Senior Market correspondent joins me now with more details. Good afternoon. A victory for the hedge fund manager. He has been pushing for regulators to investigate the company. Herbalife confirms that the at opened an investigation into the company. They welcomed the inquiry given the tremendous amount of misinformation in the market place. They say they will fully cooperate with the ftc. On the company has been unrelenting. Even as he switched most of his bets from the short sale on the stock to more of and options related that. A long run atins a highprofile. Just yesterday, he presented what he said was evidence of the companies illegal activities in china where he says it is violating multiple marketing laws there. He made similar allegations here in the nine states . In the United States. Engage with to latino groups and other Community Organizers to try to find evidence of what he says is the pyramid scheme operating at the company. Sohas not been successful far. The shares have rallied. That is put him in the red on his short bets. The stock is falling right now with the announcement of the investigation. It is not clear how long this could take if the federal trade commission is looking into herbalifes activities. When might it come out with some thisof resolution to this . Is definitely not the end of this saga. Just another development in it. Julie hyman. Thank you. To our other top story, two people are dead and dozens more have been injured and several more remain unaccounted for following an explosion that leveled to new york city buildings in upper manhattan. You are looking at a live shot there. New york city mayor bill the blodgett says build the deblasio says there was a report of a gas leak. Those heading southbound into the city will only be able to go as far as the bronx, at which point they will transfer to Subway Service into manhattan. President obama will host the ukrainian Prime Minister this afternoon in the oval office. That meeting comes just ahead of a march 16 referendum on crimea russianthe roug federation. It is being seen as the president s latest demonstration of support for ukraines new government. Julianna, why is this meeting so important . Its all about showing support with the Ukrainian Government at the highest levels of the u. S. Government. Ukraines Prime Minister and john kerry went into a meeting at the state department and they will travel over here to the white house where they will meet in the oval office with president obama and Vice President joe biden. All eyes are watching ukraine and crimea at head of this referendum on sunday. They got something today. A statement from the g7 disapproval of the upcoming referendum and saying that it would not be recognized by the International Community if they do go ahead and break off from the ukraine. This is part of the diplomatic effort of the u. S. To isolate russia and speak with one voice with the International Community. Carney was asked, what if this referendum goes forward . Putin does not move into other areas . Carney did not directly answer that. While the u. S. Was become with one voice with allies in europe ahead of the referendum, it is still going to go on. Is the Prime Minister going to go home with the usa advantagee . Tying the package of 1 billion loan guarantees with the provision with the imf to reallocate funds. Loan guarantee that was passed last week did not include the reallocation of imf funds. John baeder came out and said the two should not be tied. The action we need to watch is in the senate. Whether or not they go ahead with what the house past or whether it will have to get renegotiated. Julianna goldman with the latest on that meeting. Thank you. Coming up, the u. S. China race. Tell you about the push in africa when bottom line continues in just a moment. President obamas pick for Janet Yellens top attendant needs to maintain monetary policy. Stanley fischer testifies on thursday at his Senate Confirmation hearing but is prepared but his preparator comments of artie been released. Peter cook has more on his message. The reception is expected to get . Generally expected to be pretty warm. This is the first time fischer has faced questions since he was nominated. Ot. Re is a lot o the fed has made significant progress in recent years. He praises the feds moves as courageous and effective. Normalcy has not been restored in his words. The unemployment at 6. 7 the feds job is still not done. Requires theeserve continuation of expansionary even though the degree of expansion has been cut back. Fischer gives no indication that she does not support that scaling back of the bond buying program. Which has been called into question recently given the Economic Data. His confirmation is not in doubt in the senate. Republicans and democrats alike cap raised his record. Have praised his record. Some democrats on the panel have questioned his experience as a Bank Regulator and his past ties to wall street. He tries to address that in his testimony, saying the fed is to remain ever vigilant in regulating Financial Institutions and markets. He adds, the Great Recession has driven home that the fed has not only fulfilled its dual meant, dual mandate, but also to contribute as part of the maintenance of the stability of the financial system. But each of them must be an explicit focus of fed policy. Certainly some tough questions on his views on regulations and how tough he will be on wall street. Hes not the only one who will be on the hill. Who are the other nominees testifying . The Top International official at the Treasury Department hundred tim gardner tim gardner. Garn dont be surprised if regulatory issues dominate that hearing. Peter cook, thank you. Eight of the 20 fastestgrowing economies in the world are in africa. It is home to about one million people. The continent is on the verge of a growth spurt similar to that seen in china 30 years ago. In recent years, the u. S. Government has been making a big push for American Companies to do business there. , theore on this Campaign Ambassador joins me from washington. For your time today. During his confirmation hearings for secretary of state, john kerry said the following, with respect to china and africa, china is all over africa. There is no doubt that china has theblished what could be beachhead in africa. Why is the United States late to the game . Chinese true that the have been very active in africa during past years. Its a question that for some reason we have been a little late in turning to the potential of the research and africa. Under president obamas leadership and under secretary kerrys leadership as well, we that we a firm posture have to be more active in the continent. Just because china has been active and other european powers it does not mean there is not room for us. Even at this point, the american brand has a tremendous amount of credibility. Even though we are competing with the chinese and others, our companies have a lot to offer. To dore very wellplaced very well in africa, especially in ghana. Relationshipe between china and ghana . How is that relationship affected your ability as the top american diplomat there to convince local officials that the u. S. Could be a ready and willing Business Partner . To be honest, we have had little impact. There have been some projects that the chinese have been able to acquire in ghana. It is clear to me, and my 18 months in ghana, its the american brand able want. We have been working very hard for merit embassy from our embassy to convince American Companies that this is the time to come to ghana. The innovation and quality of American Goods and the Ethical Practices that we have and the Corporate Social Responsibility that we practice make is a very competitive make us a very competitive country. Thats in addition to the normal a sympathetic ties between ghana and the United States. One area where the u. S. Could make its presence felt in africa is in energy. What market is therefore for american businesses in the Energy Sector . This is a tremendous opportunity for american businesses. Ghanaians are coming up with a gas framework that could help lay out the plan of their economy over the next several years. This has been president obamas signature policy this past year. The clearing power africa a major initiative. The United States also has other initiatives with respect to power in ghana. The partnership for growth is a government approach to helping ghana solve its power problems. In addition, we are now negotiating with ghana for a second millennium challenge compact which will also be on power. The power sector is one of the critical areas that the president has identified. The future of africa is increasing is in increasing power. There are tremendous opportunities for that. The dollars and cents aspect of this is intriguing. Wheres the money for u. S. Backed projects in africa coming from . Has been tremendously supportive. Any company that wants to work in ghana goes to xm or opec and will find a willing ear. They are very bullish on ghana. Moving a bit away from sovereign debt. Any company that is able to from anyvate financing of our government institutions or Banking Institutions will find a very welcome reception. The u. S. Ambassador to ghana. Discussing u. S. Business in ghana. Joining us fro from our washington bureau. In ont, we will get you the markets update. Later, we meet the daredevil flier looking to conquer mount everest. Malaysian officials are investigating an unexploited radar blip detected far off the course of flight 370. S is be enemies officials vietnamese officials check on the root. As object is described potentially significant. Radar picked up the unknown 45 in the area of minutes after contact was lost with the jet whose rude to beijing win over the gulf of thailand on the other side of the country. There has been confusion and signs of tension among nations in the search. Countries including india, japan and 42 ships and aircraft are looking for the boeing 777. Better tracking information would be a big help. Bloomberg news has learned that Malaysian Airlines opted out of the service to collect realtime performance data from jets like flight 370. Megan hughes is here with more. Do we know why at this point echo the airline is not saying. What we are talking about here if the plane did have the system, it would have provided a backup to the airlines surveillance. What were talking about here is the boeing Health Management program. It pulls and performance data to help airlines spot mechanical problems early. , it taps onboard Computer Data via satellite links. About 75 of boeings 777s use the system. A maintenance and monitoring system. Really designed to be used post flight, not as inflight monitoring. This could have provided valuable information on what was when radarn board contact was lost over the weekend. We have talked so much about the search for those black boxes containing so much flight data. Why is that data stored on the plane in the first place echo why not have Live Streaming . Thats a good question. Every time there is a crash, this is brought up. The Technological Capabilities are there. The big obstacle is finances. In a conventional black box, 10,000. A onetime expense. Compare that to the hardware needed to transmit all of that information. Just a hardware come around 50,000 per plane. This is according to the new york times. Expensive. St is more the real expense comes from when you look at the volume of data. Black boxes contain 25 hours of information. One analyst estimated its a terabyte of data. The cost to send it via threeite can be dollarsfive dollars per minute. For major airlines, were talking about hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It,lators have not demanded so airlines have not made that investment. Before you go, do we have any indication of how much aid that areican Airline Officials giving to the malaysian government . So far, we know boots on the ground. I dont have any dollar figures on that. Megan hughes in washington. Thanks. We should note that the National Transportation safety board is offering its assistance in that ongoing search for Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Its 26 minutes past the hour. That means Bloomberg Television is on the markets. Sterns is standing by with the latest details. Good afternoon. Its a mixed picture on the markets right now. The dow and s p are slightly in the red. The s p off by about. 1 . A lot of action in the stock market today. Lets start with pfizer. Words are halted, but no on what is behind the slide. We will bring you the latest. The second stock we are watching is herbalife. The nutritional company that was earlier halted. The ftc has started a civil probe into its practices. They have been accused of operating an illegal pyramid scheme. Theyre claiming that herbalife has misrepresented its sales figures. Herbalife says it is complying with all laws and regulations. We are watching shares in solar city. They are teaming up with best buy to offer solar power to best buy stores. They would give a 100 best buy gift card that sign up on earth day on april 22. We will be back again in 30 minutes. Welcome back to the second halfhour of online. Im mark crumpton. Lets take a quick look at commodities closing on this wednesday. 100 atrading below barrel right now. 98. Natural gas down 2. 5 . Gold futures raising 1. 5 . Thats checksum of the top stories that we are following for you at this hour. An explosion leveled to new york city apartment buildings, killing two women and injuring more than a dozen other people. And number of people are still missing. The new york city mayor saying the explosion was caused by a gas leak that had been reported 15 mins before the blast. Firefighters continue to battle let five alarm blaze that broke out at 9 30 a. M. New york time. Host the obama will new ukrainian Prime Minister at the white house in an effort to cement the wests allegiance. We got word that secretary of state john kerry will meet with the Russian Foreign minister in london on friday. Thats a look at the top stories in the news at this hour. A group of seven World Leaders will say they will not recognize the results of a referendum for crimea for that region to split and join russia. The referendum is scheduled for this weekend. It will have no legal effect. The leaders have said they will take further action individually and collectively if russia tries to annex crimea. More and breaking news on pfizer. My colleague Olivia Sterns is standing by with more details. Pfizer is saying theyre going to appeal a Court Decision regarding the reissue of their patents for celebrex. Pfizer putting out a statement, this is why shares are currently halted pending this news that a u. S. District Court Granted them a Summary Judgment invalidating the reissue of this patent for celebrex, which is a drug that helps treat osteoporosis. Pfizer says they disagree with the ruling and will pursue all available remedies to create an immediate appeal. Pfizer saying they will appeal the courts decision on the reassuring of the patent. Olivia sterns with at breaking news. Thank you. With a population of only 8 million, the same number of people here in new york city, Israeli Companies have long looked outside the country for growth. Theyre looking at china. It has been difficult for most of them to get into the chinese market. Bloombergs middle east correspondent spoke with the founder of pto group. They help Industries Gain a foothold in china. We hope that this will be the trend for the next 510 years. The big market is over they. A lot of Big Companies that already have infrastructure globally out there. The younger, Smaller Companies lack the knowhow and the resources to go there. In china, if you come with the result, you are bound to have troubles. The idea is to bring them there before they have the support and develop them up to a level that they can understand the market locally. What is the kind of exit you will be looking for . What timescale . What kind of multiple will you be looking for . That at thearing for beginning of ipo foreign invested companies, which is very interesting news for us will we see Israeli Companies offer china more than th