Alibaba, china, and the issue of censorship. Phil mattingly reports on u. S. Secretary of state john kerrys role in the war on terror. We begin with alix steel at the implications of expanded sanctions against russian companies. Lets dig deeper and find out which companies will be impacted. The real issue will be for the big Oil Companies. Previously, the u. S. Said you cannot sell advanced technology to russian companies, but now you can sell services. That is cannot sell services. That is people, people going over there and helping them drilled. Bp is by far the most exposed. Rosneft. 20 of the rest of the Oil Companies dont have a lot of exposure to russia. It is interesting. If you look at exxon, they have eftoint venture with rosn what it is only 2 of their overall production. Shell, 5 . Impacting immediate production for the companies is not a big deal. It will impact future growth. Speaking of impact, talk to us about u. S. Reaction and how that will impact investors. Reaction to the sanctions . Yes. They want to put pressure on russia to roll back what they have done, which means removing troops from ukraine and removing supplies from ukraine. Once they do that, they say that we can roll these sanctions back anytime, guys. The impact comes in the oil services companies, as well. They stand to lose a lot more money. Look at the big guys like schlumberger, they stand to lose up to 2 billion. Share and deepwater are pretty small portion of the revenue. Schlumberger has given up about three cents. What about the Defense Sector . That is a little unclear. We have about five Companies Added to the sector that have been sanctioned. Someone andg to Bloomberg Intelligence and he said that the u. S. Buys little from russia and russia buys little from us. It really is about commercial airplanes and what that might mean about what that might mean for airbus or boeing. Russia might be reticent to do that because they dont have the technology to fill that hole. Alix steel, my hero and mom to be. Best of luck on maternity leave. See you in january. One of the toughest challenges with americas escalated offensive will be getting regional allies on board. The man tasked with matchup, u. S. Secretary of state john kerry. Phil mattingly joins me now with the latest. How is secretary kerry doing so far . There is no more central component or complex one to achieve that trying to secure those regional allies. He stopped yesterday in saudi arabia, where he was able to spin the commitment of 10 secure the commitment of 10 original nations. There is a tepid response in the region, one that the secretary is trying to overcome in the underscore the reasons why yesterday. This meeting cannot happen at a more important time. And frankly, it cannot include a more Important Group of partners. Every single country represented here today, including, especially, iraq, would be a critical part of the effort to destroy isils ability to terrorize. Is a mark of what the secretary is dealing with as he works to bring these nations on board, a credibility issue. The president has long been wary of extending force options in syria. Many were encouraging him to do so, including last year when he went right up to the line of bombing bashar alassads government but decided to pull away. The single most important country in that region when it comes to cooperation . Every country is getting a focus for their is 2 you can pick up that u. S. Officials are picking on. One is saudi arabia. They received a very, very important commitment from the saudis in training and equipping Syrian Rebels in the country. Secretary of state john kerry was there yesterday. On the other side of things is turkey. Secretary of state john kerry landing in on, to meet with landing and ankara to meet with turkish officials. One of the key reasons, according to u. S. Officials from more than 40 turkish government officials are being held by the Islamic State. Until that changes, there is going to be some where in some wariness. Coming up, americans are spending money again. We will tell you what that says about the overall u. S. Economic recovery. Onk and Michael Mckee join me. Year, chinaspast internet has become even more control. It comes with pressure on Chinese Companies like dalai lama, which is going public next week like alibaba, which is going public next week. If you look in the filing, obliged to, it is the chinese government, which they can step in and censor content on the web. I spoke to potential investors who told me that china and alibaba have a longstanding relationship that goes back to 1999, and specifically that dalai lama and china alibaba and china sets the rules. Dont really expect the company to get on the wrong side of the chinese government. Thata, is there a sense american investors should be concerned about alibaba possibility to become a Global Player . What im hearing from investors and potential investors is yes. Anytime you have a chinese abroad, you have to think about whether or not beijing is going to interfere in operations or in terms of financials. Nyuoke to an investor at who teaches a class on doing business in china and he told me that the expansion upwards in the u. S. Specifically because beijing monitors social media content. Theyre looking to grow sales as well as specific social media platforms. Those other platforms where people can go on and what the content out to the masses. Theyre not really worried about peertopeer, but they are worried about a type of post that goes to the masses. Mia, thank you. Retail sales in august rose at the fastest pace in four months. Could this be seen as a sign that the economy is getting stronger . Lets turn to our roundtable. From chicago, i am joined by diane swonk, chief economist at mesirow financial. Here in the studio, economics editor Michael Mckee. Todays Sales Numbers, what do they tell us about the American Consumer and what do they tell us last month and when the data last months Employment Data . Not only were sales very good, but we saw upward revisions to the month of july, which flatlined on the initial port. It affirms that what we saw was more of a fluke than a trend. Consumers that dont have jobs dont spend money, and they were spending more money in the month of august. For megabitrospects and this is important it doesnt mean everything is well, but it seems we have seen an improvement in employment and last months jobs number was more of a fluke that a trend. American wages are still flat but it seems like they are still willing to part with money. Up aey are starting to go little bit and more people are confident that their incomes will be rising in the future but why havent they so far . That is the 95 chile dollar question 95 chile dollar question for janet yellen. We are starting to see some wage pressure building. It can only be good news for the economy. But as diane points out, we have had job growth. Why havent the additional people coming into the labor market contributed to more spending . We are starting to see that, maybe. Sluggishane swonk, wage growth, is that the american economys achilles heel . Is the achilles heel. The bottom 50 of americans are still losing ground relative to where they were prior to the recession. That is very important. The bottom 50 is not a small minority. It is half the american public. The effectsto see of recovery in home prices. Materialsing building and modeling, repairing, rating, buying furniture and appliances. Financingssive incentives. It is much easier to afford a sevenyear loan at a fiveyear loan. There is some accommodation in the few places we have seen loan growth. Areas where it is easier to get a loan relative to other parts of the economy. I would put out one other thing. We did see gas prices fell. You do not see it show up at the counters and much on back to school july clothinge store sales were rise significantly so maybe we will see that. Back to school was captured early in the numbers. I have a question for you, though, diane. We saw a big rise in retail sales for the decline in the number of retail employees in the month of august. What is going on there . That was kind of a weird thing where we had Grocery Store employees in england who went on in new england who went on strike. As he get into the month of september, 8000 casino workers city. Ff in atlantic this will be a moving target. Even though we have been generating jobs and there is a little more meat on the bone on some of those jobs come in general the volume of jobs has been large for the quality has not been terrific. That is one of the issues, two. Lets talk car sales. Sales of cars and trucks rose to the highest level according to wards automotive. Is this about Consumer Confidence or gas prices . It is about a lot of things. Tradein values, financing on a sevenyear loan, and boy, that was a bad winter. If you look at the entrance numbers, we destroyed a lot of vehicles and created more pentup demand. I think a lot of factors came together in the month of august, including the growth of financing. It is not necessarily a sign of underlying strength could the auto market is one of the bright spots, but sevenyear loans on a car . Wow. I have a question for both of you as we come to our final minute and a half. U. S. Federal reserve policy makers are going to meet next week. What will it take from the retail Sales Numbers . You. El, let me start with yes, that is what theyre looking for, the economy to begin picking up steam so that when the fed is not supporting the economy they can stand on its own. We are seeing signs of that particularly with gdp picking up. Revision by the Commerce Department to Service Industry spending in the Second Quarter. A big increase suggesting that growth was faster in the Second Quarter and will be faster going through the Third Quarter than we had anticipated. Diane, let me let you get the last word in. Say thate and i will janet yellen will do all she can to make sure she is paving the way for a smooth transition. End with a superstitious no, october 29 is the anniversary of the stock in 1929. Ash out. [laughter] on that note, diane swonk, Michael Mckee, thank you both so much. What is surprising in the latest u. S. News world report rankings of top universities, a big name is out of the top 10. Bottom line continues in a moment. The u. S. News world report annual list of Top National Universities is out. While princeton tops the list again, dartmouth is getting attention after the Ivy League School fell from the top 10 to number 11. Our Higher Education reporter joins me in studio. Why do the rankings matter . Thank you for having me, mark. When you are doing the College Search there is so much information to go through and where do you start . A lot of families rely on these guys to get information and help in a really daunting process. I i was interested because interviewed David Beckham this weekend we talked about soccer teams and there is something called promotion and relegation where if you dont get x amount of points, you get bumped down to the lower division. What does it mean to get into the top 10 of these rankings and what does it mean to get kicked out . If you are a rockstar kid and you are thinking, gosh, where should i apply, who has the best academic, who should i be applying to, the top 10 may make a difference to you. Ofs. News uses lots different types of criteria to get into that top 10. 2. 5 of that is reputation it is what other people are saying about you. If you are being talked about a lot in the national press, maybe not the best of light for example, dartmouth is almost the entire cover story this week must this weeks newsweek, on the fraternity and dragging problem. Thats drinking problem. Is that when it dropped out . No, it also needs to be a topless ash also used to be a top it also used to be a top school in teaching. Janet, what is the best source for parents is not a place like u. S. News in their annual survey . What i rely on is a place called college navigator, and you have to google it. It is a government website, schools who report to the Education Department. They have a very good data based on default rates, Graduation Rates, crime on campus, lots of information that may not be as sophisticated as the u. S. Rankings. Comparatively speaking, is there a big difference . Canf you can find ways to compare schools but it is just crunching numbers. Procedure,e rankings you mentioned that some of it is about reputation. Is it more often than not a popularity contest . There are metrics messages Graduation Rate that our firm numbers. There is a ranking that is partially based on the number of applications you get versus the number of kids you take. You talk about schools sending out one million applications to kids to improve acceptance rate. Of higher. Department education is scheduled to release its own rankings in the next couple months and how will they differ from the rankings in os news and world report . The Education Department is very focused on outcomes could for example, the Graduation Rate. Average student debt at graduation. For lowerincome students, affordability. That will be a key difference, not just what you are getting at college, but how to decide value for when you get out. What is the name of that other website . College navigator. How did you find it . It is from the Education Department and they dont have a Marketing Campaign to let people know about it. Have never heard about it. Janet lorin with great advice. Thanks so much. Bloomberg television is on the senior markets correspondent julie hyman is standing by with details. Lets get a check on where stop trading right now. Two three two thirds of 1 . Retail sales data came out better than economists had estimated. Stocks are lower on speculation that the fed will perhaps raise stairs er than the then investors are anticipating. In this 2. 2 billion deal would give alliance the ability to advertise across the web and measure the effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns. Conversant, by the way, used to be known as value click. We are watching shares of lululemon as well. Up stock is getting pushed after the Company Raised its fullyear forecast top and top profit estimates. That is something further its gain. We will be back on the markets in 30 minutes. Welcome back to the second halfhour of bottom line on bloomberg television. I am mark crumpton. We are only a few weeks away from the view of our new Bloomberg Politics broadcast, with all due respect. It will launch on monday, october 6, 5 00 p. M. New york time only on bloomberg. Small Biotech Companies have a challenge holding onto funding while developing a drug that can take years to go to market. One Company Develops drugs for inflammatory diseases and cancer. The ceo recently spoke from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on his strategy to bring the pipeline of drugs to the market. Bringing any drug to the market, it will be a collaboration with big pharmacies because we have enough money until the and. Nfite trades on the new york stock exchange. Since elevator footage of ray rice hitting his fiance surfaced, there have been concerns over Domestic Violence, but will the nfl but will they stand behind the nfl if it turns out commissioner roger people about his knowledge of the matter . Trish regan, what is at stake for the sponsors . So far they have said they will stick by the nfl, but if it turns out that Roger Goodell did know what was on the tape, it will start to shift. People will say that this commissioner is not doing right by the organization because he just went on National Television and lied to the public. The oldody on espn is howard baker term but watergate what did commissioner know and when did he know it . Espn reported that ray rice reportedly told Roger Goodell that he did in fact hit his thenfiance, now wife. If that is the case, why is it that Roger Goodell didnt actually try to seek a bigger punishment or make a bigger deal about this earlier on . The other thing, i got to say, mark, that is surprising to me is that a number of these companies, run by women, like soup,ary barra, campbell pepsi why arent we seeing more of a proactive response from these sponsors . Yesterday afternoon our Sports Reporter was reporting that pepsi has said no comment on this issue. One of the guests on the show said, look, there is no place for no comment right now. ,hey are a sponsor of the nfl an organization run by a woman at that, and then he really would think that pepsi would have more of a response. We have started to see just in the last 24 hours some sponsors come out and be a little more proactive. They have been saying, well, we do not condone Domestic Violence of any kind, but we are going to continue our advertising relationship. Symmetry could remember was going on with the olympics and russia and gay rights advocates calling on sponsors not to sponsor the olympics because of