Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Markets 20160229

Can they win in the courtroom and in the court of public appeals . Lets head to the markets desk, first off. Julie down off the highs for the day, we initially saw not with the change peoples reserve of china trying to add stimulus there. Not seeing much reaction in the United States. Moved higher with oil prices on the day. The lowvolume situation continues. Not only lower volume today, but a very tight range for the s p 500. This index looks at the daily spread in the s p and it looks like it will be at its lowest this year unless something changes, of course, in the next couple of hours of trading. You have seen not a lot of movement in this session today. That has been more true over the past several weeks. Matt we have seen some interesting moves in the currency market, right . Julie we have. We have seen more of an appetite for safety, as evidenced by the continued demand for the japanese yen and the dollar falling against it. Here is the movement besought overnight, falling versus the thear, strengthening versus yen as well, the yen strengthening against the euro. We also have euro area inflation data continuing to show that there is not much sign of it in the eurozone. A look att to take something that was talked about over the weekend at the g20 meeting. This is the yuan versus a basket of currencies. The peoples bank of china and chinese authorities have said that really they want their currency to be valued versus a basket of other currencies. There has been controversy that the dollar is an important part of that, but just a part. Indexerg has created this against the basket and you can see that it has showed commensurate weakness versus that as well. Also wanted to bring up the continued strength we are seeing for the yen. Matt is that the yuan versus the basket of currencies that can be accessed with the chart . Chart question mark julie chart . Julie yes. Matt viewers sometimes ask. Julie its right on the bottom of the screen, but its good to say it out loud. Here we have not only the yen going up, the japanese yen, but it will continue to go up and rise. Thats the yellow here on the continued strength. Here it is, rising versus the dollar. Not only do you have it rising because of its perceived haven status, right . But there is this perception that it will continue to do so. Thank you for a much, julie hyman. Now, Mark Crumpton joins us from the news desk. Mark there and are now at least there are now 38 dead and more wounded in a suicide bombing north of baghdad. The Islamic State is claiming responsibilities for the twin bombing in the city that left 73 people dead. Over 100 remain hospitalized. Front runners donald trump and Hillary Clinton have widened their lead. Trump leads his rivals by 49 according to a cnn orc survey. Marco in ted cruz, virtually tied. As for the democrats, mrs. Leadseads standards Bernie Sanders. The money keeps pouring in percent under sanders. He raced 36 million this month and a shooting to make it 40 million by midnight. He raised 21. 3 Million Dollars in january. Mrs. Clinton picked up 14 point 9 million. The leading republican fundraiser in january, ted cruz, took in 7. 6 million. President obama awarded the nations highest military honor to a navy seal today. Edward byers junior is the first living active duty member of the navy is the first person to receive it in 40 years. Am not sure how this will change my life. I plan on taking it one step at a time. Im going to continue doing my job in the navy, continue being a seal and doing the thing that i love ever since i was a child. He was part of a daring 2012 raid that rescued an american hostage in afghanistan. Global news, 24 hours per day, powered by our journalists in 150 news bureaus around the world. Back to you. Matt thanks very much. February jobs report dominates the data docket. Other reports enabling economists and investors to finetune their projections for the next loop. After all, they are data dependent. The chicago area pmi rating showed that civic significant headwinds remain in the pmi sector. Sprinkled throughout the day along with manufacturing data. Wednesday we got the adp employment report and the feds beige book. Easeany of this help recession concerns . The chief Market Strategist from foia Investment Managers management is your with us. Doug, thanks for joining us. Doug my pleasure. Mark and julie have been talking about, turmoil around the world, but you think that the u. S. Economy itself is a relative safe haven . Is. it if you compare the u. S. Economy, driven by a strong consumer with strong housing and strong auto sales with manufacturing, its interesting, it hasnt gotten a lot of news, but the first ever export of liquid natural gas went to brazil for the first time in 40 years. Low Natural Gas Prices are on the benefits side of manufacturing, even though the glut of crude oil is hurting manufacturing in the u. S. But compared to look at japan. A negative reading of gdp. Look at europe. You had deflation numbers today. Bright spot, but corporate earnings really feed off the Global Economy. Corporate earnings have been negative for the Fourth Quarter. Matt even if you take out , we are still seeing so far this earnings season that its almost finished a drop of 3. 6 . Doug thats why we need china and the developing economies to grow. Really these corporate earnings, half the revenues are from overseas. If we dont get back on it, dont get the Global Economy growing the way to do it is really reform. Enough of this monetary stimulus. Its really been overdone with negative Interest Rates. Matt you mean around the globe, negative Interest Rates like were seeing in japan. Possibly going even more negative now to be seen the no Inflation Numbers coming out this morning. Stimulusctual fiscal doesnt seem to be forthcoming. Neither is the policy shift. So, what are the chances . Pretty low. You would probably need a new administration. But the key thing is, do we really want the government involved in fiscal stimulus or infrastructure . Really, its a private economy play. That would be helpful. The thing that i think we need to focus on is to continue the Corporate Tax rate policy and lower regulation to help the economy out. I think that that would ultimately flow into corporate earnings. The key thing, as you said, is that right now its about jobs. Fridays number is critically important. What do you expect to see on friday and as a result . If we see a strong number for that in the fed, does that give them more reason to raise rates . In a Perfect World we are in the normalization process, but we want the fed to raise rates. The market might not like it in the short term but it is a signal that we are coming out. We dont want to be in this stimulusional monetary forever. Raising Interest Rates is a good sign for the u. S. Economy. We are seeing jobs added, wages starting to rise. How does an investor deal with the situation where the rest of the world the struggling with maybe negative Interest Rates or extreme monetary policy, and we are finally starting to see an albeit tepid recovery in the u. S. . Matt certainly doug certainly in the u. S. You got largecap with midcap and smallcap. In the bonds i think you need to be in that diversified portfolio. Matt corporate debt. Doug even long treasuries have done well this year. But 11 valuations overseas is really low. Theres good value. Check out international. We think you should be internationally diversified. I think that would begin for the overall portfolio. Overall the economy will get going and some of these markets have really been beaten up. I think its a good opportunity. Ive been noticing on the stoxx 50 index, theyre sort of more concentrated stocks index, dividends at 6 . You are getting a lot more yield their than you are in bonds. The safety play in there is the stock paying dividends that have really done well in a portfolio this year. I think it is a good place to be. Matt thank you so much for joining us, doug. Coming up in the next 20 minutes of bloomberg markets, is it too soon for investors to wade back into energy and highyield debt . Analyst says dont do it yet. More pain is coming. Also, mike pearsons back as the ceo of valeant, but for how long as the company grapples with continuing plunging stock and questions about its Business Practices . Plus, crude is on pace for its best close in eight weeks. Some of that gain is from hedge funds, betting that supply will tighten. Are they right . Or is it a misplaced that . Here you see markets in the u. S. Turning down, although you could really say definitely unchanged on the nasdaq. On the s p. Ed the dow down only 11 points. Matt welcome back to bloomberg markets. Stocks have turned down, julie hyman will get us a look at the market movers. And the s p have turned negative. The nasdaq, i should say. Hanging onto a gain of one quarter of one point. Bitnitely seeing a little of a downturn here as we head into the later hours of the session. I want to talk about these movers. Potash is an dish interesting. The companys fourthquarter loss, 518 million, it is in talks with creditors to avoid a breach with his loans because of weaker commodity prices. We have talked a lot about oil, copper, gold. We do not talk so much about potash, which goes into fertilizer. The company says that its net sales for the Fourth Quarter was 277. One year it earlier it had been 348 dollars because of oversold imports that were aggressively priced. All of that weighing on the company. Looking at number liquidators, they continue to struggle. Not down in percentage terms as much today, nonetheless trading at a multiyear low. The company said fourthquarter revenue was down by 14 and missing analysts estimates at . 70 per share, though it is not clear if that is a comparable number. Number liquidators, we know, has been struggling ever since last year 60 minutes in the springtime talked about potential issues with the floorings and contaminants, high levels of formaldehyde in the flooring. They discovered a Material Weakness in internal controls over financial reporting, saying that that doesnt change the previously recorded results. Finally, looking at federal mobile holdings, this stock is ,ctually going higher considerably with carl icahn remaining to buy the remaining 18 on this auto parts maker that he doesnt already own. Hes offering seven dollars per 212. 8 Million Dollars here. Above seven dollars. Some analysts saying that there is an expectation that he will perhaps have two raises price. This would allow him to consolidate the auto parts and auto parts related companies that he recently bought. There was a bit of a question as to why he was buying pep boys at the time, but when you look at this consolidation not a parts, pep boys, this, hes getting it together. I should talk to him. I should talk to carl. I shop at all these businesses. Julie you have some input . Matt i do. Showing signs with the exception of what were seeing today, investors are still leery of getting back into energy and highyield debt, obviously. At least thats according to jack sherman at double line. He gave his outlook for the oil market and its affect on highyield earlier this morning on bloomberg. You dont hold physical oil, you have to go by these contracts. It says that if the spot price for oil or the delivery doesnt change in price, you enter the contract at 3525 and when you sell it it will be at 33, 38, realtime on the screen. With an investor that has a negative carry, you have to overcome this amount to just break even. Call me old school, but i dont like buying things with negative yields, right . This is an oversupplied market, a market where people have been taught through Central Bank Policies to buy the debt. A lot of people have been burned on this trade for many months now. [indiscernible] are trying to make a call, make a view. If you follow the energy for spread, as we discussed, the bond market doesnt believe that we are getting out of this kind of low 30 to 40 type of range. Ago was had a few weeks the fed coming out and saying well, the inflation market is wrong. Real money is being put to work on the inflation spread. They are saying that the inflation market implies that he goes to zero over the next two years. There is a little bit of hubris in that. There will be no other source of inflation if only oil is driving it in if we are going to get these core numbers up to target, oil has to go to zero. Maybe core inflation has to go down as well. Maybe the bond market is signaling something different. Lower for longer, thats what we believe, and we think its too early to be buying these names. You are painting a picture of very slow growth, if growth at all. In that environment, what is the most essential thing to do . Put it in your mattress . Jeff the mattress portfolio always has arose and it. Assuming no bedbugs. You are finding is that sometimes risk is not what you want to buy. Sometimes you have to play will a it. With a little bit of defense. We will see if there is a spike. 2 talking about going from to 2. 2 percent. Nothing insignificant. But maybe we are on the cusp of generating some inflation. Earnings growth in the u. S. With these lower quality names, looking to be negative after energy. There are some decent spots in the risk market, places that you can be careful. But again, for broadbased kind of market exposure, i think the highyield market has more pain in the in the near term. Earlier thiss morning. Still ahead on bloomberg markets, valiant pharmaceuticals is withdrawing its forecast in shares plunge as the ceo returns to the drugmaker from what twomonth medical leave. We will look at the challenges he is facing. Matt welcome back to bloomberg markets. I matt miller. Shares about and pharmaceutical plunging after the return of shares of valeant pharmaceutical plunging after the return of the ceo. Joining me is cynthia tunes, bloombergs health care reporter. First, what do we know about the decision to come back and lead this company . So much of its value was lost under his leadership before he went on leave. Cynthia we dont know a whole lot right now. Today was supposed to be in earnings update that instead late last night they said he was coming back and they werent going to give us any numbers. Presumably this says that the ad hoc committee, which was investigating the way they had operated with their mail order pharmacy had not found anything that would get him into serious trouble. Thats what it looks like from the outside in, for that reason he can come back and start to essentially pick up the pieces. Matt so, he didnt break the law, so he can come back, but it has lost two thirds of its value since the scandal kicked off. What can he do to rebuild Investor Confidence . That he the main thing has to do now is deliver. He has to bring results and i think it will take a little while for investors to get comfortable. They dont have the Growth Drivers that they had before. They cannot do deals very quickly now. They have to pay down debt instead of take on more debt. They said they werent going to do that anymore in congress. What they have to do is show that they can do the organic growth that most companies rely on and through that pay down the debt. He has to do both of those things and make up substantial debt. A lot of these companies do their own r d. They come up with drugs that people need and sell them. Does valeant do that . They would dosaid more r d, but its still a very small percentage. Its hard to build it up would you have a reputation of not being interested in. You do have other ways that they can deliver value. To haveoducts indications on the label and they can work to get more indications. Thats what some of the Branded Companies do, build out the labels on existing drugs. One day, if everything works out in the nearterm they will be back to doing deals again, but really what they need to do now is get their debt in order. Im seeing headlines just coming across a terminal. Moodys is reviewing their three rings for downgrade. You are probably going to want to get back to your desk and figure out whats going on here, but it looks like movies is taking a tough look at valeants ratings, which are already kind of not exactly investmentgrade. Thank you. Still ahead, oil climbs, saudi arabia works with producers to stabilize the market. Matt matt from the bloomberg World Headquarters in new york, i matt miller. Lets start with the headlines on the first word news afternoon. Mark crumpton has more. In ohio Authorities Say the two students were shot when a 14yearold pulled out a gun at therted firing cafeteria. Two other students may have been hit by shrapnel or trying to get out of the way. None of the injuries are serious, the suspect is in custody. Clarence thomas did something today he hasnt done in 10 years , he asked questions from the bench. By one count he asked at least seven about a case on gun ownership for Domestic Violence offenders. It is the second week the court has heard arguments since the death of justice antonin scalia. President obama meets with Senate Leaders tomorrow to discuss the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Mr. Obama has cap to Senior Adviser to lead efforts to replace justice scalia. Republic republicans are promising to block any efforts from the president during his last months in office. The Supreme Court has hunted on an appeal from former nfl players challenging a settlement with the league over the use of player images. The settlement covers nearly 25,000 players. Global news powered by her 2400 journalists in 150 news p rose around the world. Back to you. Matt Commodity Markets are settling. Lets take a look at some of the days greatest unit greatest movers. Aluminum, its widest spread since november of 2014. Inventories are down 4. 7 this year. Gold advanced today, demand for haven assets spurring buying gold backed funds. You can see the gains today at more than 1 . The price right now is that 123640 per troy ounce. Settling at its highest close since january of this year, prices settling just under 34 to 33 per barrel. So a good day, for commodities. As our next guest is reporting, oil prices has have seen a since saudi arabia, venezuela, russia, and qatar tentatively agreed to cap levels. Crude output drop for a fifth week. Does this mean that we can expect oil to rebound . Lets bring in mark, who covers the commodity for us. I kind of chuckled when they agreed to halt out put at the highest levels theyve ever been able to produce. Does it really make that much of a difference if it is halted that high . Have they really agreed to all halt . March they havent really agreed to do that. They have said that it is conditional on other people joining them. We have not seen any signs especially that enron will take part. See. A kind of wait and it does seem that enough Market Makers are paying attention. Matt iran has said that its a great idea for other people to halt oil production, but they dont plan on doing it themselves . They just got back. Yes, the sanctions were lifted in january. They feel that they are owed an opportunity to regain some of their market share before they would take part in anything. So we have seen a drop in the supply in the u. S. , right . Is that because production here is too expensive to continue . Or is that just because we are not tapping new wells and oil old ones are running out . More of the second. As the price has fallen people thought that the Shale Oil Revolution would cut out peter, but we have been waiting for quite a while and there is now finally evidence that u. S. Oil production is responding. Matt so, the deal has been that supply is growing faster than demand. Is that still the case . Is supply still steeper than demand . Yeah. Globally this year, if you listen to opec, the Energy Information administration, they all think that its going to , butce supply and demand that the situation with improve as the year goes on. See a big going to draw. The u. S. , that is a good sign. People that we speak to, investors or analysts, will say that they cannot forecast the price out, but they can say that in two years they will be much higher. Is that because people expect supply to eventually start to come down as prices hover around this level . Yes, they think they are going to cross at some point in the future and there seems to be an agreement that things will start to rebalance on a global basis. Much more if the saudis, for example, say that they agree to halt reduction, how close are they to full capacity . Could they produce a lot more anyways . Could, butaudis nobody else. Theyre the only people with spare capacity. Bloomberg just came out with its february opec production numbers today. It showed that saudi was stable. Maybe its a sign that they want to follow through and see if they can get anyone else to, you know matt , freeze production of january levels. T do you rely on opec go matt do you rely on opec go . Mark yes, i do. Matt it really gives you a nice, clean snapshot. Thank you so much for joining us, mark. Of minutes a couple away from the next fomc meeting and the likelihood that the central bank will go through with its forecast in multiple hikes in 2016 is smaller and smaller. Bond markets are forecasting a much slower rate hike half that goes did i say a couple of minutes away, by the way . Julie a little bit. Matt not a couple of minutes, couple of weeks. Alexandra skaggs joins us now. March 16 . Alexandra yes. Matt lets talk about the expectations. P,t looking at w. A. R. Anotherreat wirp, great function here. Are low, but we finally have 50 expectations for next year. Alexandra its funny, when you think about that its just a coin flip. Year, maybeill this they wont. When you look at the market prices and overnight index swaps, the full price isnt in until the second half of next year. Matt how much bearing does this Market Production have . Janet yellen will say that she is data dependent, but she clearly the fed clearly plans to hike at least one or two more times this year, right . They were thinking about four just a few weeks ago. Which is interesting, because a gets to the question of what happened with markets in general, markets being so far down. Ithasnt been great, but hasnt been falling apart. Clearly we are not in a recession right now. Thats something the market is trying to grapple with. The negative inflation data from europe. The fed has obviously done much better there. Cpi was 2. 2 . Getting closeras and closer to the fed target. Is that as important as the jobs data . Or does the labor market still eclipse that issue . Theandra im not sure that labor market still eclipse is that issue. If you look at it, the labor market has been doing well for a long time. Looking at our get reaction and what traders are talking about, they sort of assumed that the labor market is just going to be good. With inflation its a big question and thats how this International Pressure translates through into the u. S. The reason im wondering is we have this big jobs number on friday. How key is this in determining what the fed is going to do . It will bei think pretty important, but the most important thing will be the wage growth. Matt we have started to see that pickup. Alexandra absolutely. If you see wage growth followed part or Service Sector row fall apart, people are going to start to get worried. I do think that from the perspective of an economist, which is not the same as a market perspective, the u. S. Economy has been surprisingly resilient. Matt from a domestic point of view, i dont know if great is the right word, but its not incredibly unhealthy. Is it not increasingly important for the fed to look at economies overseas and currency fluctuations . These are things that were previously on the periphery but have to be part of the main equation now, you think . Exactly, the u. S. Dollar has been affecting oil. Thats how everything might i mentioned before, the International Weakness is coming into the United States into really is the inflation part of the equation that has everyone worried. Matt you guys both cover such fascinating topics right now. Alexandra, thank you for joining us. Coming up in the next 20 minutes, the latest polls show donald trump, widening his lead among republicans. The key super tuesday battleground is quickly approaching. Much more quickly than the next fed meeting. Are any attempts to slow him down going to work at all . Or is it too little too late . Apple prepares to defend its privacy stance tomorrow. Its top lawyer may have some advice for lawmakers themselves. You know how keen congress is on taking advice from lawyers. Coming up in the next hour, ussident duchenne ski joins for more on the rise in the precious metal, gold. Good news for donald trump and Hillary Clinton. The new cnn poll shows trump with a commanding lead, pulling and 49 . Marco rubio in a distant second. Ted cruz at 15. For the democrats, Hillary Clinton has 55 to Bernie Sanders 58 . Voters in the 11 states for cast ballots tomorrow in what amounts to the biggest primary day of the election cycle so far. Here to help us sort this out, murphy, ourin Megan Washington bureau chief. Megan, thanks for joining us again today. What do you think about the chances for donald trump clinching the nomination by, say, like wednesday morning . Megan look, that poll out this morning was stunning, the biggest lead that hes had in a national poll. A bit wonky,ays but that was 33 points over marco rubio. He didnt take the posted late hit that people thought he would last week. He may run the table tomorrow. No question about it. Texas is maybe the biggest obstacle, they are still hoping to fend them off, but there are no delusions about what the reality of tomorrow is likely to be. Hes got doubledigit leads in a lot of the states going in and we would be surprised if we see marco rubio snatch more than one state. It will be a big win for ted cruz if he runs texas. If trump runs the table it will be difficult for a can for an establishment candidate. As an observer, the real question for me is can donald trump be ted cruz in texas . I think that that would be the biggest shock. Not if he just happens to win the others. I think that texas will be a huge battleground. But even if he blows texas, his pathway remains pretty challenged. In the winner take all states, thats more favorable to marco rubio and even the dynamics of john kasich in ohio. For ted cruz it really is the last stand. Can play this out throughout the campaign, but if trump tomorrowto its game over for the campaign and he has said as much. How about Bernie Sanders . Why is no one feeling the burn anymore . Megan its really interesting, he won in new hampshire, but what you did was interesting, she went back to states in focused on what they are great at. In nevada she went to shift workers, casino workers, unions. Africanamerican voters, making sure that their turnout beside. She has also won big among women. Has she sewn up the nomination . Perhaps she has. Sayhe has stumbled lets she wins massachusetts and he wins vermont. Obviously his home state. Remember, hes got a huge amount of money. Million this36 month so far, outpacing even her. Matt rank the, she wants to have a few stumbles, right . It would not have looked good if she ran against no one. She had to have some kind of challenger in the primaries. Thats a good point, but i think that they are worried about the unexpected strength of telegraphing weakness on wall street in some of the mother she gave an excepted. He didnt want to hear about the 33,000 emails she deleted and had no interest on what was in them, so he gave her a pass. Not on wall street and donald trump wont do that on either. For sure. Matt later on with all due respect will have a full preview of tomorrows action. Among our guests, the former governor of mississippi, if i can get this out julie . Having problems speaking. Haley barbour. It is time for a look at the biggest business stories in the news right now. They may cuthat Valeant Pharmaceuticals longterm debt rating. They said the companys operating performance may be weaker than expected and impede the leveraging plan. This comes after a valiant. Hrough its forecast the drugmaker has been questioned about his business strategies, and accounting. Ofentina and a Group Prisoners have decided to pay a 4. 6 millionigants dollars, for about 75 of their full judgment, including principal and interest. The deal is subject to congressional appear approval and the repeal of several debt laws. Problems for lumbar liquidators, battling allegations that they sold flooring with unhealthy amounts of formaldehyde. Last month they last month they were accused of selling the tainted flooring. This month official said the from the flooring is three times higher than first estimated. To the markets desk, where julie hyman has the latest. Julie you got through that smoothly, pleased to say. Lets talk about the month of the s p 500. Today we are seeing it give up gains. It is still hanging onto a slender margin, breaking his losing streak. If you look at what gained the most in the month of february, free forresting to me, mac moran, copper and gold, had been doing so poorly, and the magnitude of the bounceback is so good after what had been a terrible year. Michael kors showing a big bounce back on the strength of its earnings. Adt agreeing to a buyout, helping those shares. On the downside its pretty much all commodity related. Not just commodity related. Its the companies matt matt apple takes its fight with the fbi to congress tomorrow. In the general counsel are set to square off before the house judiciary committee. In testimonies committed for the that the fbi is asking apple to weaken the security of our products. Hackers and cyber criminals to use this to be cap on our personal safety and privacy. It would set a dangerous precedent. Preview on what else we might hear, lets bring in tim higgins. Tim, he put out a statement today. I couldnt find anything new. They are basically saying the same thing that everyone on the apple site has been saying all along. Tim we will be looking for a couple of things. They want to frame the debate on , which is do we want to limit the protection of data, that sort of thing. Should the fbi be able to and it is of the point it currently says that it does not make. Is there a case law where one another grouped to do extra orders to develop a product . That is the court debate that we will see in march. Apple is trying to create a new National Debate with a commission perhaps formed and a broader discussion about the balance between privacy and security in this country. Matt i guess what youre saying is congress could say that the idea that we have devices that are totally encrypted and cannot be broken into, thats a communications device. Have seen it we were those companies have been buted to work with them, the technology is changing. You used to plug your phone into the wall. The conversations used to travel on wires. In the grand idea of liberty versus security. They dont build a fully and someonevice else is surely going to, right and they are concerned about what would happen outside the states and were a them one of megan whats the mood that it comes to one of the keys. Tim what is the mood there . Its a republican issue that the folks who oppose apple withgh fighting this independence uncertain about what they want and perhaps more willing to support apple in this. That leaves lawmakers on the hill searching for a answers and ways to navigate the situation. There are of course concerns among lawmakers on the grassroots ability of Tech Companies to rise up quickly on an issue such as this. Really appreciate it, tim higgins. Dont forget, you can watch the fbi director and apple general counsel testify tomorrow right here at 1 p. M. , wall street bloomberg. Com bloomberg television. You can see it on and on your terminal as well. On bloomberg. Com and on your terminal as well. Matt it is 3 00 p. M. In new york. Welcome to bloomberg market. Matt from bloombergs World Headquarters in new york, good afternoon. I am matt miller, in for betty liu. Stocks are down today but are on pace to close down february, actually just slightly in the green. The nasdaq lacks behind. Financials are the worst performing sector in the s p 500 this year. With uncertainty surrounding rate hikes and low inflation, is the row poised to get any worse or could it possibly get any better . Can gold continue to keep soaring this year . It is the years bestperforming asset. It just had its best month in two years, and we have got