Day two ofcovers Janet Yellens congressional testimony. And recovers silvio burwells nomination hearing. And we have an update on the crisis in ukraine. But first, the president says Vladimir Putin plans to go to for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of dday. If president putin makes the trip, it will be his first meeting with president obama and other western leaders since the start of the ukraine crisis, which has longed relationship relations between russia and the u. S. To its worst since the start of the cold war. Of president putins inner circle have been slapped with travel bans and freezes. Said he wastin pulling back troops from the border and today he says he is testing his armys combat readiness. What is he really up to . It is clearly a skin of fred six message. I would love to be a fly on the wall with that dday celebration and prudent having to sit next to all of the other leaders. Putin having to sit next to all of the other leaders. Back, Vladimir Putin came and said, actually, im testing the readiness of my eye my entire armed forces, including a nuclear deterrent. And there were reports that two Nuclear Submarines had actually tested Ballistic Missiles and that the Airspace Defense of russia had repelled a mock nuclear strike. At the same time, we have russias foreign minister, sergei lavrov, contradicting what his boss said yesterday, saying any elections on may 25 would be premature and the country is not ready for them. And we saw the separatists saying they would go forward with the referendum on may 11, yesterday, attin least publicly, urged them to pull back on those. And how are governments and investors responding to that mixed message . Message frome investors already today, that some of the perhaps misplaced euphoria that we saw yesterday has the rally of the micex been tempered today. We saw the ruble dropping today for the first time in four days and the ukrainian currency also going down. And in the same way that investors are not so sure what prudent is top putin is talking about, we have seen some wariness on the half on the part of western governments. Before putin said he was going to be testing his military forces, he had a german envoy saying, yesterdays message was great and maybe we dont have to go forward with sanctions. But after what he said today, i think governments are really deeds, whoa, lets match with words before we pull back on our sanctions or any other policies. You covered the congressional hearing this morning with the Senior State Department officials and the treasury. What was their message . That was their main message in the beginning. We have the secretary of state and other saying that what he is saying is fine, but we will judge him by his actions. And there was more talk about electoral sanctions. Sectoral sanctions. It is harder to get the europeans on board when you have a big group trying to do sanctions together, and the u. S. Assistant secretary explained it is also because of the legal constraints that europeans are under. The u. S. Can move more quickly with it sanctions than europeans can. At the same time, both officials said that the u. S. Is trying to work like a score out a scalpel and not like a sledgehammer with the sanctions. And that is really important because they are trying to get the message to american and european businesses that this is not directed at them and that they are trying to and minimize to minimize the impact and this would be on investment going forward, not those already in place. Thank you. We will have more on sanctions and the ukraine crisis coming up. Gary hofbauer,th senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He will be my guest and about 25 minutes. With al hunt, treasury secretary jack lew will join him to discuss the russian sanctions and the u. S. Economy. That is friday night at 9 p. M. Right here on Bloomberg Television. Billionngton, the 40 comcastTime Warner Cable deal once again came under scrutiny. Americas number one and number two cable providers made bigger case for thetheir merger. Yang yang joins us from capitol hill with a recap. That afternoon. Comcast executives and Time Warner Cable executives were quite literally in the hot seat is afternoon and this morning. There were air conditioning issues in the hearing room. Senator baucus, chairman of the antitrust subcommittee of the house judiciary committee, actually took a moment tos the hearing and explained that if you saw any sweat on any of the that if you saw any sweat on any of the four heads of any of the witnesses, it was because of the airconditioning problem. That was theh, but only one. But it was not that tough of a grilling as far as hill hearings go. Lawmakers made clear that they are not in the position to judge the deal. That decision rests with the fcc and doj regulators. They said that their goal today was to get to the bottom of whether the merger is good for customers. , executive Vice President of comcast made his case that the answer is yes. Beneficiary of service andd investment is the american consumer. Specifically, it will bring customers faster internet speeds, more programming choices, more robust wifi, and our best in class xone operating system. And business consumers will benefit as well. Another point that we heard comcast making is that there is no overlapping coverage between Time Warner Cables network and the comcast network. At, however, was an argument that the opponents would not buy. Antitrustormer doj official saying that was bogus. Take a listen. The fact is, comcast and Time Warner Cable do compete. The two Companies Compete in a number of ways. For instance, they compete to carry local and Regional Sports teams and they compete for advertising dollars. Other opponents were well represented at the hearing as well. Other arguments that they were making is that it gives comcast anticompetitive leverage them and that comcast could become both judge and jury in this hearing where congress has no say. This is really up to the fcc and the doj. Thank you. Ing up, beating animals zillow beats analyst estimates in the first quarter. And we will talk about the recovery of the economy in the united states. Federal reserve Board Chairman janet yellen spent a second day on capitol hill spelling out her latest views on the u. S. Economy and defending the Central Banks actions. Bloombergs chief washington correspondent peter cook has more on her testimony. Stray fromlen wednesdays message . She didnt stray too far, especially when it came to the economy. She reiterated many of the things she said to the joint Economic Committee on wednesday, but she did get dragged into some other areas during the q a session with the committee. But to the larger question, the economy, she says is doing better after the slowdown we saw in the first quarter. It is doing well enough that the tapering of the Bond Buying Program can continue, but not well enough for the fed to Start Talking about raising interest rates. In life, there is a considerable degree of slack that remains in the labor markets in light of the considerable degree of slack that remains in the labor markets, a high degree of accommodation remains warranted. Senators today were pressing yellen on the fed exs strategies. Specifically, she ignores, that it could take five years to reduce the numbers to precrisis levels of 800 billion. Interest inno returning to that of the 1970s. Fedon the broader issue of policy in general, she pushed back at the criticism that it is creating uncertainty in the economy and doing more harm than good. I think there are a number of sectors of the economy that have responded favorably to a policy of low interest rates. It has helped stimulate demand and job growth. It has been one factor that has been helpful. Again, i would not say it is a panacea. Senators tried to drag her into the budget debate at on capitol hill. She largely steered clear of that, as did her predecessor, ben bernanke. And one piece of news that will cheer up folks in the banking community, she said she supports on the the position board of governors with someone from the banking community. Taxpayers will get billions in profits from fannie mae and freddie mac, the government owned mortgage companies. They will pay the treasury more than 10 billion. The two companies are required to give the government all their profits. Fannie and freddie received 187 billion in taxpayer aid. Staying on the housing front, the zillow reported earnings after the close. It eat estimates and raised its fullyear guidance for 2014. The founder and ceo of zillow joins me now from seattle. Welcome back. Great to be here. The results exceeded even your expectations. What is attracting users to mobile . What ise is definitely driving our growth. This little thing has been a godsend to our business. 178 homes are viewed every second on zillow on mobile now. We went public three years ago and it was 21 homes per second. There is massive mobile growth. And the reason why is that real estate is the ultimate mobile experience. When you are driving around looking for homes in the neighborhood, that is when you want to have the power of zillow in your hand. That is what is propelling our audience, and then in turn, advertisers follow audience. That is why revenue and profits have followed. Your premier agent sales saw a big increase as well, mainly due to agents buying more advertising. How does that translate to monthly revenue per subscriber . Bighis quarter was a quarter in terms of new subscriber ads. We now have about 53,000 Real Estate Agents that advertise on zillow. Also, our revenue per real estate advertiser grew to a record as well. And the reason is that more and more advertisers are buying more inventory from us. 60 of our bookings this quarter were existing advertising advertisers choosing to buy more inventory. And the reason is the cause it is working. It is working for them, and they on theirng a great roi investment. Im speaking with the cofounder and cto of zillow. Spencer, talk to me about the forecast and how it is changing the way homes are valued. This is an exciting feature that weve just launched. We have known been known as estimates,y with z which shows how much each house is worth. You can go and see what we say it will be worth in 12 months. And for a homeowner looking to list their home, this is important information. For a homebuyer considering buying, this is very important information. The good news is that 96 of people at their own home will find that their forecast is estimated to increase the next 12 months. It is mostly good news to comedic eight. It is an exciting feature weve just rolled out. It is mostly good news to communicate. It is an exciting feature weve rolled out. He said in his words that only homes are overrated. He added that young people are settled with more debt and less likely to enter the Housing Market. What is your reaction to those comments . Housing is cooling somewhat. Yearoveryear, sales are about six percent and we project an increase yearoveryear of about three percent. The rate of increase is slowing, but i would reject the peopleent that the way value perceived real estate or that we have shifted to a renters society, our data does not prove that out. Colleague wrote a fascinating story on bloomberg. Com. It says that the socalled trophy home market is shattering price records this year and that an increasing number of Residential Properties change hands for more than 100 million. What does that tell you about the luxury home market . And what does it say about the amount of money that is still on the sidelines . Home market is on fire, particularly in the new york area. It is being fueled by financial buyers, people from the financial community. But increasingly, by foreign buyers, russia, middle eastern buyers. It ofhas plenty of challenges to our economy, but it is still a stable place for foreign assets. That has generated a lot of foreign buyer interest in owning u. S. Real estate. That is what you see with the super highend, the 150 million part of the Housing Market. Ceohe cofounder and cto of zillow. Thank you. Ofing up, more excerpts betty lius exclusive interview with sheldon adelson. This reminder, there are multiple ways to watch bloomberg tv. We are on the web on bloomberg. Com, on your mobile device, apple tv, and amazon fire tv. Allisonagnate Sheldon Sheldon abelson is one of the architects of sin citys famous strip. In this excerpt of betty lius exclusive interview among mr. Abelson talks about being such an outspoken man. You ask me a question and i try to be honest. Maybe i flunked diplomacy 101. I could never be a liar. I can only tell the truth. I could be would be a very bad liar. Mr. Adelson also says he knows it takes more than gambling to draw his customers to his hotel. I look at las vegas, and my first time here and i see that its the capital of adult entertainment. That is right. There are shows, restaurants, all forms of entertainment. Theres a big ferris wheel i see dotting the skyline. By the way, i dont think the ferris wheel is going to do very much. There are ferris wheels all over the world. Have you been on that . No. Do you ever plan on it . No. We have a ferris wheel, the singapore flyer, right next our property in singapore. Its for the kids. To go was a kid, i love on the ferris wheel. Im still a kid, but a little bit older. What im driving at, though, is that there is this need among casino operators to try to diversify, to try to get people into their resorts. Outside of gambling. I did it. But why would you do it . Because im competitive. To be competitive is to do things differently. Stay with Bloomberg Television throughout the day for more highlights of betty lius exclusive interview with it vegas sands ceo Sheldon Sheldon adelson. We are coming up on 26 minutes past the hour. That means Bloomberg Television is on the market. Alix steel is standing by with details. Lets get you caught up on where markets are trading. Are seeing stocks pulling back from their earlier rally. The Dow Jones Industrial at one point actually hit an alltime record high, but now only 0. 2 . Driven by a reversal in tech stocks into negative territory. A couple of actions we want to highlight. The first is, discovery a 5050 joint venture with libya media to buy all thee medias, which produces tv programming. It has a deal valued at 900 million. Both companies are contributing 150 million and will continue to operate under its current name and executive team. Tesla also watching today, because shares of the electric car are tumbling after firstquarter deliveries trailed estimates. Tesla has delivered nearly 6500 cars, but a constraint on battery supplies actually prevented it from shipping more. We are watching the markets rolling over, and the s p up by almost one point. We are back on the market in 30 minutes. Welcome back to the second halfhour of bottom line on Bloomberg Television. Im mark crumpton. Thanks for joining us. Alex steele joined me again with some breaking news on time warner. Time warner is actually spinning off Time Incorporated on may the may 23. It will be listed under the eie. R time what does this leave time warner with . Media division, cable tv, network, Movie Division and of course, your member the lego movie came out and helped to boost was quarter earnings for time warner. Shareholders will get shares of the new company as of may 23. We will continue to follow this story throughout the day here on Bloomberg Television. Lets check some of the top stories we are following for you at this hour. The number of americans seeking Unemployment Benefits fell by 26,000 last week to 319,000. Its latest sign that the job market is slowly improvement in improving. It looks like mostly temporary lay offs around the east are holiday. Allocations are a proxy for laos, so the klein suggests companies are cutting fewer jobs. The abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories by the Islamist Militant Group boko garneringbeen attention. Protests were held across nigeria. And here at home, First Lady Michelle Obama joined a viral Media Campaign under the bringbackourgirls. Syrian state television said an explosion struck a hotel in the an edgent owned area of of the contested neighborhood in the old part of aleppo. There were injuries. The biggest Rebel Alliance claimed responsibility for that attack. Top is a look at the stories this hour. Lets turn back to the crisis in ukraine and sanctions against russia. Haltdent obama plans to russias eligibility for trade benefits under a program that assists developing nations. Gary hoffpauir is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a sanctions specialist. He joins me from washington. Mr. Hofbauer, welcome to bottom line and thank you for your time. Thanks. When do sanctions work and when dont they work . This is the case i would categorize as a military venture. We have looked at some major cases in the last 100 years involving military ventures where a big target country was the attempt was to deter a big target country. There are very few successes in this category. To bout the u. S. Trying one was the u. S. Trying to deter britain and france from bidding did in 1966, and that succeed. There are a few other cases of note that are successful. I suppose the big re