close on bloomberg markets. ♪ mark: here are the top stories covering from the bloomberg around the world. stocks rise after president trump threatens military action -- tony down rhetoric. oning down rhetoric. what mike pompeo says about tensions in the middle east. we talk with the prime minister of slovakia. take on therini's challenges facing the european union and relations with russia. european equities, 30 minutes away from the end of the thursday session. stocks rising, up for the third day, highest level for benchmark

stoxx 600 since march 12. up to the third consecutive week , best run since january. austria, italy, concerns about syria dissipating. rhetoric being toned down in the last 12 hours. , bond yieldsmn rising, commodities falling -- slight to risk assets, gold down 1%. cbs is your final column. upcoming earnings season may not provide reassurance for analyst profit downgraded, outnumbering upgrades for the first time since september last week according to data from citigroup. quarter,ince first pace in the u.s., big banks reporting tomorrow. another wonderful chart, boring but beautiful is the title. from trade tensions and missiles to election-meddling.

uncertainty playing out in dizzying financial markets. emerging markets and european equities investors, unable to stomach tumultuous highflying, the least sexy stocks paying off the most in two years in europe and em. this isutperforming -- the sign fear is back in euro markets even if they recover. thank you to dani burger for that story. the tri index has an ominous message. the index down by 29% this year. that is the downtrend you see on the chart. year,g gain recorded last surprising to the upside last year. nothing like post global financial crisis, bdi falling by 94% from may 20 two december the fifth, 2008.

a gauge now at its lowest level it might be time right now to stop celebrating the present surprises of 2017. so says michelle. 90 minutes into the session in the u.s. >> hanging onto gains here but we are off the high of the session by a hair. we are seeing chinks in the armor in terms of sectors. earlier it was a broad rally. at the real estate, utilities and energy stocks are down. bond yields rise putting pressure on interest rate sensitive groups -- energy which has had a run is trading lower. the past five days on the s&p mark was justy, talking about it in europe -- it happens in the u.s. as we see this zigzag not just on a daily basis but an intraday basis.

why do point swings. not even 1/10 of a percentage change in the s&p 500. that has characterized what we have seen this year. a lot of swings without much traction up or downside over sustained basis. interesting phenomenon. let's look at today. technology, areas of strength. particularly large cap old tech. interestingly put apple in that basket. gainingur stocks alone $40 billion of stock today with gains. optimism into earnings season, affecting stocks in the early reporters. we will talk more about them in one hour time. something going on with bitcoin today, which is interesting. you saw a dramatic move in bitcoin today.

even folks who trade bitcoin are trying to figure out what is going on. there are contributing factors. the spanish bank saying they will be introducing a payment system, based on the blockchain. that is one thing affecting it. we have, coming to the end of the tax reporting season -- tom you could have ended tax related selling in bitcoin. you have a lot of short interest. camilla russo says we have record shorts of 37,000 bitcoin as of yesterday. one would think this is short covering. there is a ripple effect among stocks we tend to think of along with bitcoin. overstock.com participating in that rally. vonnie: julie, thank you. investors keeping a close watch on a bevy of political issues. the senate foreign relations

committee is questioning mike pompeo on syria and russia right now. in washington dc, trade considerations are the issue. special counsel robert mueller developments in the air. we are joined by kevin cirilli, live on capitol hill. we have great white with us, our russia economics government team leader. white with us, our russia economics government team leader. mike pompeo being drilled on whether the president is sending mixed messages on syria. what does it actually mean for the armed forces? kevin: the hearing just getting underway with mike pompeo. he testified, in his opening testimony, pushing back against labels he is a "neohawk", he said war is the last resort, i

achieve the goals through diplomacy. this comes following a tweet from president trump earlier that he has not reached a conclusion with whether or not to launch a missile strike in syria. on capitol hill i have spoken with several lawmakers, democrats and republicans, all who support president trump should he ultimately decide what lindsey graham told me is a " defining moment for his presidency." criticism tocing outlining a more concrete policy for what is objectives are with syria. asnie: this of course also the nominee is being question on russia policy. butruble is stronger today it has weakened in the last three sessions by 2% versus the u.s. dollar. greg, what are the latest

developments out of russia regarding this idea that options are on the table if russia keeps violating the pact? the russians have denied they were violating the fact and they are watching the testimony and threatened to retaliate if the u.s. pulls out. this is one of the key areas to watch, the growing tensions between washington and moscow -- whether these landmark arms agreements from the 1980's will hold as the new arms race seems to be beginning. it still seems to be posturing at this stage. hopefully everyone is watching quite closely. mark: it is encouraging that vladimir putin came with common sense in a world growing more chaotic. is there a sense in moscow, the rhetoric has been down in the last 24 hours? greg: on the russian side,

certainly. it has been called down a substantially. calm down substantiallyed. after -- they have dialed back. we heard from a kremlin spokesman saying, generals on both sides are in touch through this hotline in syria to avoid hitting each other. there were reports suggesting russians are expecting guidance from the u.s. on where strikes might come to ensure there would be no russian troops in the area. it seems like there is a sense a dialing back rhetoric -- sense that the u.s. might do this and we need to minimize risk of accidental conflict. vonnie: greg white, our thanks to you and kevin cirilli. we will no doubt be speaking to you again in a bit. mark: protests following the

murder of a reporter in slovakia have brought down a three term prime minister. now a new prime minister sits in bratislava. i am happy to be joined by the new slovak prime minister, peter pellegrini for his first international television interview from brussels. peter: good afternoon. reporter: good afternoon, this next budget, post-brexit -- do you think this will have an impact on aid to eastern europe? peter: of course i understand it will have consequences. but at the beginning of like to say, to confirm that slovakia is a member state, is prepared to contribute more to the budget. we are prepared to increase our contribution from 1%, which is

now on the table to 1.1% or 1.2% of the gdp. it depends, what will be the position of other member states. we are prepared to contribute more to eu budget. reporter: would you do that only for slovakia? peter: there must be agreement between all member states, must contribute of the gdp. on the other side i have to say, it has not impact only on eastern countries. please, we need to stop, again to start to speak about western countries or eastern countries. it is not good for your opinion union -- not good for european union. westve to come again back, against east -- this is also not of countriesm receiving money from eu budget

-- for example, a big part of newany is receiving, the lenders, money. if there will be less money, problem for germany or slovakia or poland. reporter: the core of the eu? follow, myakia will government, when i am prime minister, we will follow pro-european course in the future. we would like to sit behind the table when there will be discussion about the future of european union and our priority is to be more in the core of the european union. hungary, victor just one another election. the parliament said sanctions should be taken against hungary, possibly, removing voting rights in the eu. do you agree? peter: hungary is our neighbor country. i have to say, we should not

comment what is going on there. -- wee if we are speaking speak a lot in brussels about the rule of law and that we need to respect democracy -- in hungary, there were democratic elections last weekend. there is the decision of the hungarian people there and we have to respect the result. reporter: you don't think we should link the eu budget with the rule of law? peter: maybe we should connect the budget also with -- not only rule of law. there are also other criteria and other conditions where i see connectlly we should them with the budget, not only rule of law reporter: and slovakia, the prime minister resigned after the political crisis, after the murder of the journalist. how can you regain trust from

the public in the institutions? weer: i hope that after created the new government and we have not only a new prime minister but also new ministers, i hope we will again stabilize the situation in our country. and we will decrease tensions in society. of course, i have to say slovakia before and now has oflly high level of freedom, journalists and the press. we will continue to keep it in this way. of course it was a terrible tragedy what happened in slovakia. i can promise, to all of you, biggest investigation team in the history of slovakia is now working on this case. the biggest priority of myself and the government and the

citizens is to find the people which did this terrible act. reporter: no risk of early elections? street cannot be another chamber of parliament. we have our constitution, our law. this government has support of the majority -- has majority in parliament, this is how it should be in democratic country in european union. reporter: thank you so much, peter pellegrini, new prime minister of slovakia, live for his first international interview. mark: well done. carolyn with the news flow back prime minister. peter pellegrini. this is bloomberg. ♪

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live from new york, i'm vonnie quinn. mark: live from london, i'm mark barton, counting down to the european close in 13 minutes. vonnie: let's check in on the first world news. reporter: president trump's allies urging him to step up attempt to four the investigation of russian allegation meddling -- russian election-meddling.. he supervises special counsel robert mueller. has grown more combative since fbi agents raided the home of his lawyer on monday. rare praise from president trump for a democratic politician. californiant tweeted governor jerry brown is doing the right thing by sending 400 national guard troops to the border with mexico. president trump has frequently criticized brown for a lenient attitude toward undocumented immigrants. the u.k. won't pay the bills for

exiting the european union according to david davis. parliament has yet to sign off on any agreements. the brexit deal could require the u.k. to pay $50 billion to the eu. china conducting a naval review. president xi jinping presided over the events in the south china sea. the navy scheduled a live fire taiwane and taiwan -- in next week. they have spent the last two decades building a navy that could project force into the pacific ocean. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm courtney donohoe, this is bloomberg. mark: stocks rising on both sides of the atlantic. we are 10 minutes from the end of the session. declines in london, gains elsewhere. talk of escalating conflict in the middle east, dialing down in the last 12 hours.

benefiting equities, evidence, moving away from bonds, haven assets like gold. we are 10 minutes away from the close. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ live from new york, i'm vonnie quinn. mark: live from london, i mark barton with the european close minutes away. vonnie: geopolitics roiling oil markets, warnings from president trump an american attack on syria sending crude prices climbing. officialson spoke to at the forum in new delhi. risks beyond us, emerging from time to time.

i think it also contributed to stability in the last year or so but this premium in the market in the last couple of days is not only -- reporter: do you think they're overreacting to prices? >> traders in new york and cautious andmain optimistic that it would not disrupt this process of rebalancing. all the participating countries have done well in terms of the high level of conformity. anything that would disrupt this process, god forbid, would not be in the interest of anyone. reporter: speaking of the deal doing well, can we see an extension into 2019? >> as i've said and you have

heard from ne several speakers in new delhi, there is growing consensus that this should continue beyond immediate , for the market to come back to balance. we are working with partners led by the russian federation, to design this partnership. beyondure its longevity this period. >> i cannot forecast impact on prices but definitely this would be a reason to push prices up. reporter: is this like last year when we had a strike on syria, we saw prices jump immediately but then they slowly start to come down. how quickly do you think we could see prices down? >> it depends how tensions go ahead.

which countries and the size of the tensions. it is still the heart of global oil exports therefore tensions were definitely have impact on oil markets. reporter: we have other tensions with a central trade war. rhetoric back and forth with china and the u.s. how will this affect demand? >> trade disputes are not unusual. economic developments, this is one of them. i don't expect it will have a direct impact on oil markets for now. a 70% chance donald trump will not extend waivers on iran. we could see harsher sanctions on the country. what will we do to the global market if we see iranian oil coming off? stocks,e lots of tremendous amount of oil coming

from united states. a shale revolution taking place. markets will be well supplied for the next year. the opec secretary-general there. in new delhi. we are minutes away from the end of the session. london lower, frankfurt, paris higher. geopolitical tensions dialed down somewhat in the last 12 hours. have a look at the bond board -- currency board excuse me, as we approached the close. this is bloomberg. ♪

i am mark barton, check out what happened at the end of there is a succession.

-- the european benchmark up at 7/10, rising for the third day as geopolitical tensions depreciate. highest levels since march 12, best run since january. the european benchmark has fallen by 4%. that is interesting, and now let's move on and a chat about the big movers of the day. 47% -- norwegian error, at 47% and the biggest increase on record. helpential deal that would one british airways boost its acquired ae, and it stake in the airline and said it is considering a takeover after bloomberg news reported the

company was weighing a potential deal that could value norwegian error, which is the market value at $15 million come and 3 billion including that. that is some move, and let's talk about disney and sky. disney is going to make a mandatory takeover provided its purchase of most of 21st century fox is completed. the u.k. takeover panel says his name would have to bid 10 pounds per share if it succeeds in acquiring fox's existing stake in the broadcasting, and does the same price fox offered to shareholders in 2016. the decision may disappoint some skype shareholders, betting

disney may be forced to offer a higher price than fox. skied down by a third of 1% today. down by a third of 1% today. t weighing -- the most since the second quarter of last year. moneynvestors allocated to the hedge fund firm as volatility rose, was thing the 2.1 7 billion. that is a look at the european markets. vonnie: in the u.s. you can see the risk off trade is coming today and things are calming down. -- and the yen trading it is a heck of a lot stronger-than-expected given the

headlines the last few days. 18.14 andn peso at straightening at half a percent. dollar coming off a little bit but generally strengthening. the president is holding a cabinet meeting with secretary members andongress governors talking about agriculture and how take talks are impact agriculture and products. playbackring you the but some of the things he has said is that nafta will get done. he doesn't care went, it could be months or sooner than that, but it will be a deal for u.s. agricultural products and farmers. isn't being as fair as it should be an robert lighthizer making similar comments. and you are seeing a little bit of that today. the other headline that is interesting is that he said a date is being set for talks with north korea. will see how that develops.

in the meantime, go to trade is coming off a little bit. let's get to gmm where you see that impact of trade talks and rhetoric on syria and mike pompeo. you can see in currencies the dollar is stronger versus the majors. russia bonds are still having a very awkward time. downg the bloomberg index half a percent, and brent crude and wti, is still well above $26 $66 a barrel. mark: there is an event in london today and britain's secretaries of parliament is unlikely to agree to a agreements with up to 30 billion pounds of transfers to the eu if it didn't offer a care plan for future trade relationships.

is he destroying the cap before the pages? thisis a valid point in blueprint of a treaty? we might not even vote for it. >> it is a reminder of the one card the u.k. has. it is interesting because at the moment all the noise is from the eu and eu officials -- the statement is going to be very vague. depending on who you talk to in brussels, some officials say the u.k. actually wanted to be quite make because if it goes at the huge amounts of detail, that might not be helpful for the process of getting it through parliament and of parliament looks at the census, the applications the industry -- you could argue it would increase the chances of it being rejected. saying is as

contrast in the mood in brussels and according to some u.k. officials, that what we are going towards us something vague. -- the u.k. can still change its mind on what l relationship should look back after brexit. and enduring a transition reversed back to a close relationship with the eu. mark: does it seem that theresa may could bunch on the customs union? group -- they are saying this scenario is that the andesa may will do a u-turn remain in the customs union. there is probably a majority in parliament wants to remain in the customs union, and business

and the eu would love the u.k. to remain. it solves the irish question and a few of the problems, but an range brexit backers. one of the big advantages for them is that you break free from the shackles of eu trade and go after the world construct new trade deals around the world. that was an important part of the narrative with brexit. been hearing from theresa may's office as she feels she doesn't have a mandate for an extreme brexit. there is a shift. clearlyeason may said -- theresa may said that the u.k. is living the customs union, but it does seem like a reversal and there's increasing opinion that if one more deadline is going to go, that is the one. vonnie: you mentioned the brexit bulletin today, will it get

something done -- but if there is no will that is strong enough in either direction, you are left in a stalemate. what happens and what forces the next step? when it comes to the main issues, the main remaining issue is the irish border, and the u.k. accepts there has to be a backstop written into the treaty. there's not a huge amount that needs to be settled before the u.k. leaves. what needs to be sorted out in the next three years is what the future trading relationship is going to look like. but the u.k. could easily leave without a clear idea of what that is going to look like. we could end up leaving without having a clear idea of what the irish border will look like. you just have different options in attacking the treaty. and october is a big-time

time for them, that is when they launch their offensive. what happens around october? why is it so important? emma: that is when the theresa may will bring back when she gathers from brussels -- and it is an opportunity to mobilize to think about what their constituents want and need. and to think about the impact of industry. some of them are taking about how they engineered a second referendum, and extending article 50, the process of leaving. it is certainly going to be an interesting time. vonnie: thank you, emma. after jumping the cusp we have to jump to president trump. news.rst world trump's choice is

being questioned, and mike pompeo is apparent for the senate foreign relations committee. he says russia is a danger to the u.s. and a soft policy towards the kremlin is now over. president trump is biting off on syria. yesterday the president warned that russia should get ready on its ally in retaliation for that chemical weapons assault. today president said in the tech could come soon, or not soon at all. the krugman says both sides should avoid steps that her's chances to resolve conflict. stepis taking an unusual over an investigation of one of its vehicles. the ntsb want allowed to release information on its driver assistance autopilot program. that was used in the crash tesla was criticized for blaming the crush on the driver. fell the oil's output lowest levels in years last

month, suggesting global markets might tighten sharply later this year. the oil glut has been eliminated in the 50 months since opec and -- opec andoduction its allies curbed production. vonnie: now we can get the united states president. president trump: we will see what happens. that the world puts us in a position like that. as i said before, we have been a great job with isis. we have decimated isis, and i we have to make some decisions and it will be made soon. thank you very much. vonnie: the president's meeting with government members and

cabinet members in a meeting that has to do with agriculture. secretary perdue is there along with members connected to the agricultural community. is that other things earlier about how the deals that are in progress are going to help the agricultural community, particular the nafta. nafta is going to see a good outcome for agricultural products. it could be months or much sooner than that as robert lighthizer is there as well. president trump saying that its fair not pulling share of policies when it comes to imports and exports. larry kudlow also says chinese policies are designed to look at the end of the rainbow. aluminum is at a record since 2012.

aluminum at a record perhaps on the hawkish talk on china and trade. will bring you more in a moment. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: live from london i am mark barton and it is time for the bloomberg business flash. a look at the biggest stories in the news right now. stakee fund is taking a in a british software company. people familiar with the matter are unclear, but micro focus has been struggling for trying to integrate assets it bought from hewlett-packard. british regulators to say this they will be forced to make a

mandatory takeover of sky after they complete the takeover of most of 21st century fox. fox already owns 39% of sky. spinoff.ing towards a according to wall street journal, it isn't likely to be sold and it could be merged with a company that would give shareholders control of a new public entity. ge is trying to exit $20 billion of business. that is your latest business flash. vonnie: president trump is holding a cabinet meeting with people related to the agricultural industry in the united states. agriculture secretary robert lighthizer coming larry kudlow, headlines.some for the moment, trump is saying

agriculture will be taken care of in nafta, and at some point china must treat the u.s. early on trade, and we are renegotiating with china. is is that you is making it hard for agriculture products and will have to take down barriers on agriculture. see him move around on these comments, and he made a comment on north korea, saying right now a meeting is being set up with north korea. agricultureome in in focus in the white house today. this is bloomberg. president trump: that is what we want.

president trump: our list say that the farmers are going to be -- they will do fantastically well. they are trending downward for a long period of time because of bad trade deals. i am pleased to be joined by several of our nations governors, and members of congress, to talk about trade and agriculture. as you know, the recent investigation led by u.s. trade representative bob lighthizer is with us today. identified a pattern of chronic chinese abuses including intellectual property theft that has caused this country hundreds

of billions of dollars. and also the targeting of american technology. hundredsst us untold of billions of dollars over the years. larry kudlow is here and shaking his head approvingly of what i am saying. or disapprovingly of what they have done. as you are all aware, china has consistently treated united states agriculture unfairly. i was proud of something i did in mar-a-lago in florida. she -- who is a friend of mine and a very good man, i don't blame china, angling our representatives. our past resident and trigger executives allowed this to happen. during a brief conversation, i said president, we want to sell beef to china. they haven't sold it in 14 years.

he looked at me and said, say it again? aid i want to sell beef and china, and he said we will sell beef and china. and the thing that is interesting to the people at this table is beef. and they are selling a lot of beef in china, and they weren't allowed to sell beef in china for 14 or 15 years. we have the kind of relationship that is going to be very aggressively sustained. made aay, president xi very good speech and he said we are going to open up china and take them trade barriers, maybe all of them. taxesgoing to get rid of or tariffs they charge, because right now -- i use this example because it is easy.

if we sell a car into china, number one, they want to take the car. and if they did take the car, it was a 25% tariff. whereas we don't have a barrier. at when don't -- it is not good way to make money, check will tell you that. want to be reciprocal. 25 and we charge 25, if they charged 2.5, we charge 2.5, and maybe what happens is we both charge nothing. they would like that better than anybody in that is simpler than 25. we want more trade. we want no barriers. the only way you knock it down, you can't go in for 25 years with presidents who have been tried to negotiate and have been unsuccessful.

talk for years, and then they talk for another four y ears, and nothing would happen. we are doing the job there. with nafta, we are renegotiating nafta. it is coming along great. i have no time. i read from the fake news media that i am pushing it, i am not pushing it. you are laughing. but, i keep hearing how we are pushing nafta. that is no timeline. in the meantime, nobody is moving into mexico. nafta is in flux. build an going to automobile plant. as long as we have this negotiation going, nobody is

going to build a billion dollar plant in mexico, which is what they have been doing a lot. they have taken the auto industry by the throat, and so many jobs have been lost in so many massive plants have been built in mexico. but they are coming back, chrysler is moving back, and agriculture, which is our predominant discussion today. agriculture is ok with nafta, but we are going to make it great. we are getting close to a deal. it could be three or four weeks or two months or five months, i don't care. the note if the item pushing -- i do not push for a deal, i do not care. if everybody in this room closed that years, i rather seek out would terminate nafta and make a new deal, but i want everybody to be happy in this room. we will see how it goes, but will make a fair nafta deal and much better than it is right now.

. nafta has caused this country hundreds of billions of dollars, it has been a disaster we have lost millions of jobs. nafta has been a disaster. we are going to come up with a great nafta deal and a fair one for this country, or will do something else. agriculture will be taken care of, 100%. will have a discussion today, and will talk about agriculture as it relates to trade primarily. we are doing really well with china. i think we're having great discussions, and we will see what happens. with but a $50 billion tariff on them -- and you know at a certain point, they run out of bullets. when you are 500 billion down, you can't lose a trade war. and i want to collect a trade war, because it is really a negotiation.

but nobody ever negotiated from our site, all they did was talk. that we helped rebuild china because it took so much money to build bridges, airports, military -- everything. they took hundreds of billions of dollars, but now we are negotiating. i think they are going to treat is fairly. i don't blame my friend, president xi. i blame our representatives who did not do a damn thing. so perhaps we are in the process of doing it. the other thing is, if you look at the european union, we are talking to them. i do know if you realize it, but they have virtual are years on agriculture from going in. they sell us mercedes-benz is an bmw's and different things that we have no barriers whatsoever.

nebraska is doing a good job, he never liked me until we met. [laughter] president trump: and made a speech, and then he like me. and he called his brother and said, trump is good. open china too u.s. beef. president trump: i did that in one conversation. we are opening up the european union -- or will not be nice about it. the european union will lose $151 billion this year. with canada, windows with mexico, the european minyan -- we certainly those with china, no matter where you go. it is very rare that our country has a surplus. but we are changing it.

we want to have trade, and we want barriers taken down, because barriers are worse than tariffs. so the european union makes it hard for agricultural products, because the farmers there don't want us there, because we take all of their stuff. a lot of cars and other things. so they will have to take down barriers because we can't have it. when you think about the european friend, but they are brutal to us in terms of trade. in the end, the farmers are going to be the biggest beneficiary from what is happening. they are great people, we love our farmers. they were so good to me during the election, and they are much more than the center of the country. is a big group of people, and

center purdue came in and he said, look at this. we are going to take care of the farmers. take a look at the european union, they can't do business. look at china and so many other places. we are going to finish off these trade deals. i'm going to as the secretary of agriculture to say a couple of robertand i might ask lighthizer or larry kudlow to say a few words, and will get on our meeting. center. senator. used the word i like to use, they are patriots first, they are americans first. working ethics of the american spirit to the. fields and ranches across this country. they support you and understand what you are trying to do.

intog the courage to call question the people watching, both china and the eu. the barriers you describe punish american farmers more than a lot of other industries because american farmers and ranchers have been so productive. they are with you in that effort. from the likelihood perspective, we can understand the anxiety. theve been out last week on road, showing them what you told me. you are going to take care of the american farmers. you don't expect them to be the only soldiers in this battle, and first of all, i think your point about president xi, i think we have set the stage for a balanced appreciation can happen. that is what all of us are hoping and praying for, that we get a good, sound, fair negotiation with all of these countries. -- weplug your leadership applaud