closely,e watching it blackstone is rumored to be in talks to get back into the waldorf-astoria. it sold it off for about $2 billion in 2014-2015. when you have a motivated seller and a number of buyers with significant levels of dry powder, it can create a heavy mix and it could happen quickly. a lot to digest in terms of the speed with which the assets will be sold off. vonnie: a great story on anbang. thank you for talking to us about this private equity breaking news. u.s.: breaking news on the , counts against rick gates in a new filing, the u.s. has final conspiracy counts against rick gates and a new filing, he is the trump campaign aid. we are hearing from media reports he may plead guilty in the investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 election. rick gates was the advisor, the longtime political consultant who once served under president trump's deputy campaign german -- chairman. the u.s. is filing a conspiracy and lying count against rick gates and the criminal information filed is in federal court in washington. more details as we get them. vonnie: coming

astoria hotel. let's go to our asia business hub where tim mcdonald is following the story. that is a pretty big step. it certainly is. a very unusual step. they have announced they will take over this company of 360 billion in assets, many overseas. like a number of other high—profile chinese conglomerates there is concern they have gone on this huge buying spree. as you have mentioned, if you have not heard of anbang insurance, you are probably know some of the assets, the waldorf astoria hotel. and they also put in a bid for more hotels. the chinese authorities are not terribly impressed by all of this. the company is in the hands of chinese regulators for the next year. theirformer chinese regulators for the next year. their former chairman has chinese regulators for the next year. theirformer chairman has been charged with economic crimes. the concern is that all these foreign purchases by late insurance and it impairs its ability to attract it. the chinese government is worried more generall

has been ordered to sell off its overseas assets we're not sure whether the waldorf astoria is going to be one of them or not . this one you know takeover is going to rattle some nerves for a lot of these foreign acquisitions it will have to leave a downgrading for us in singapore thank you. today is the final competition day at the berlin international film festival and my colleagues are charlier to tell some pill and scott roxboro are still down at the carpet you can't beat them away from that car great get to see you guys or fails in competition are from women directors are they likely to win an award. we are very hopeful this. woman will win the award the golden bad one if i film is the film that i have my money on it's a film called daughter of mine and mia is an italian film by europe is very and things are really complex very rule picture motherhood and womanhood as i was extremely moved by the film i have to say yeah i think that's of those four of the four films directed by women in competition i think that's probably the strongest but there are two others that could could p

nancy mentioned anbang's purchase of the waldorf astoria in new york. that's interesting when you look at u.s. regulators blocking the sale of an american company selling semiconductors to a chinese firm the committee on foreign investment in the united states refused to grant permission for the purchase citing concerns that xcerra sells things to chip manufacturers that supplies the u.s. government. after the u.s. government stopped the sale of monogram to ant financial also >>> the u.s. defense department is weighing in on the issue of global trade saying it would prefer targeted tariffs on steel and aluminum instead of blanket in a memo mattis said he would recommend the u.s. government pause before taking further steps on aluminum. the u.s. commerce department sittinged new limits on chinese steel, but president trump said he has not yet made a decision on the matter. >>> the u.s. commerce secretary yesterday said that the u.s. president is focused on finding a favorable trade balance between america and the european union. >> the u.s. is the least

for anbang, one of their biggest purchases was the iconic new york waldorf astoria hotel, which they paid $2 billion for and they did a deal worth 6$6.5 billion with blackstone group for properties based around the world. they were one of the private companies at the forefront of china's global expansion they have been under pressure for the last year as the chinese government has tried to crack down on capital flight and also risky financing which was a particular problem for anbang. >> tom, of course mr. -- president xi jinping was well known in his first term in office for cracking down on corruption it took a pause as he rolled into his second term, which is well under way is this a sign that crackdown on corruption will continue mr. wu is very well connected politically or thought to be >> yes well he was formerly married to the grand daughter of one of the most important communist leaders in chinese history, though it seems they have been divorced according to news reports, so he lost some of that political protection the fact that mr. wu was detained last year in the summer, i

the company owns waldorf-astoria. global news 24 hours a day, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries around the world. riggs and this is bloomberg. check nowe do a data -- equities, bonds, currencies and commodities. i want to touch on the eu news. dow futures up 115 now. oil i note, really quite stable. as get through this quick and look through the eu numbers. the vix, 15.50. ld, 3.18%.yie francine: i see a market that has not decided where it wants to go next. the bond yields are dropping and that sums it up. if you look at the european 600, they were down one hour ago and now they are up, gaining some 2%. my also see a little bit of economic data with rising consumer prices. it is not really raising currency because it is in line with what was expected. weinberg will join us for a global view on inflation. francine mentioned the bond market. i have not looked at this chart in a couple days. this is the price of the 30 year bond with some real stability over the last eight months. down

. >>> china government seized control of a firm that owns the waldorf astoria in amg. they have taken control of anbang insurance saying it was in illegal operations that could endanger the company's chances of staying in buness. >> volkswagen saw its profits double despite the fallout from ssions scl e the automaker benefitted from strong sales and cost cutting at its flagship vw brand. the ceo did warn of challenges, including more competition and big bets on electric vehicles and self drivingrs >>> speaking of which, ever since the jetsons were on televisionn the 1960s, people thought it would be cool to some day zpip around in a flying car. now some companies and tech firms are racing to make that a reality. how close are they to talking off? phil lebeau takes a look for us tonight. >> reporter: this is the vahana air taxi a prototype built by airbus which made a bef b successful first flight last month in oregon. after years of building traditional planes airbus is exploring the idea s ofll aircraft carrying one or two people short di iances. boei doing the same t

joe: in addition to the waldorf-astoria, what else has anbang most notably been active in? jason: active across the world in commercial and hospitality. there is not much they have not touched and have not looked at. one of the most interesting deals they almost did but did not do was starwood. they were involved in the beginning and ultimately pulled out of that. again, it had such a market of fact on driving the price of. lisa: are there other chinese conglomerates that have been leveraging up and purchasing property that people are targeting as the likely next subject? jason: hna is really the one everybody is keeping an eye on most notably. not only in real estate, but also a big holder of deutsche bank. that obviously has the attention of wall street in a totally different way, especially given the issues that deutsche bank has been under. lisa: so this can set a precedent as far as what china wants to do with potential liquidity concerns. are we going to see fire sales, or is this going to be a behind-the-scenes change in ownership and leadership? jason: absolutely. a

they are the private company that owns the waldorf aft -- waldorf astoria. they said that they had violated laws and regulations which may seriously endanger the solvency of the company the ceo was arrested in june as troubles mounted and np indication of how the chinese justice system works, his movement through the court system was -- and we didn't know he had been tried until this announcement melissa. >> chinese corporations have spent a record amount of money in the united states over of the past few years and snapping up business and real estate we have more on what is being bought and how much they are spending. >> this was an epic shopping spree by these three companies they have spent more than $50 billion in the u.s. and now as for t-- the fortunes turn, ao the big property is waldorf astoria. the most expensive hotel ever sold in the u.s. it is closed for renovations they won't comment on the future but industry experts tell me they wouldn't be surprised if it comes back on the market probably for a lower price now they also bought the hotels and

astoria hotel in new york now if the company crumbled it would have meant that the thousands of ordinary people would park their cash would have lost their money and many of them there and her savings well china's insurance regulatory agency said the action is needed to avoid a collapse of the firm following suspected illegal activity bank had set the tone for many chinese conglomerates which have snapped up major assets around the world at exorbitant prices and this is one of the biggest concerns for the chinese government the growth of debt in chinese companies is one of the biggest challenges for president xi jinping so this move is seen as preempting what could lead to a lehman brothers tile type of financial crisis but there are concerns about where the line should be drawn when it comes to regulation and those who call this chinese style capitalism where the government is still the guardian of the markets while it's unclear whether this will set a precedent what is clear is that many companies in china which have been going on international buying sprees amassing debt will start ta

i heard when they bought the waldorf-astoria. this shows some of the places where they made investments around the world. this came from nowhere, for me, and grew really big. now the chinese government is saying, not so fast. so manyis raises issues, especially after what we have seen with hna, another glom dutch conglomerate -- conglomerate. you can see a $2 billion investment in the waldorf-astoria and other huge property investment. will they have to divest? which chinese conglomerate is next to be targeted? what does that mean about thernational purchases and real estate market, as well as the chinese economy is xi jinping is serious about cracking down on leverage? david: they are not nationalizing it, it will still be private. they say they will just run it for a year or so and they will charge the former leader with financial crimes, and recapitalize. michael: you have to look at the way they put this together. to -- are going to try try to d erisk the economy. mismatch raised a lot of concerns. they used that money to buy

astoria hotel in new york and so what's happened is this company has just grown and it's grown on the back of a lot of debt to the chinese government has basically stepped in before that could in a fact collapse and which all part of the reason they're doing that is because this company so closely linked are so intrinsically linked to china's economy and financial system so a collapse would mean greening down a lot of china's financial system so in essence this is chinese style capitalism a preemptive move a preemptive move to stop a for a possible company collapsing all right to live in hong kong for us thank you. now an australian company is turning a lake into one of the world's biggest sources of energy the system of lakes turbines and tunnels will move water around in a way that guarantees electricity is always on top supporters of the scheme hopeful it will reduce australia's dependence on coal andrew thomas reports from tel bingo in australia's snowy mountains the plan is to turn this reservoir into a giant rich chargeable battery the hills would be its casing the water itself

astoria hotel in new york now if the company crumbles it would have meant that thousands of ordinary people could park their cash on buying would have lost their money and many of them there and sars savings a collapse of the old so impact china's financial system after the whole buying had set the tone for many chinese conglomerates or just snapped up major assets around the world at exorbitant prices and this is a huge concern for the government the grows in debt in chinese companies is one of the biggest challenges for president xi jinping but there are concerns about whether where the line should be drawn when it comes to regulation and there are those who call this intervention chinese style capitalism where the government is still the government guardian of the markets while it is still unclear whether this will set a president analysts say this serves as a warning and many companies in china now which have been going on international buying sprees amassing debts will start being more cautious. now from the war in syria to the plight of myanmar the past year has been dominated

chinese government in control of the conglomerate with more than $300 billion in assets, including waldorf-astoria and strategic hotels and resorts. withoute toxic finances triggering systemic risks, and maybe political fallout. the company was also once in talks to invest in a key new york real estate project owned by the family company that president trump's son-in-law owns. next, more on china. live from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. david: this is "balance of power". shery: let's get a quick check of major averages with the dow up 6/10 of 1% and all sectors in the green led by energy and tech. u.s. stocks rising with the 10 year yield even though all the increases.

they own the waldorf astoria. this is pretty big news. >> maria: when anbang first acquired the waldorf astoria, a lot of people said this is where heads of states stay, this is where president obama stays. he he actually changed where he stays. it's the chinese government owning the waldorf astoria, they're probably listening in on everybody's conversations. >> we'll see what happens to them. they were trying to overhaul it, turn some into condos. we'll have to he see what happens. >> maria: the insurance regulator is taking over anbang. >> they took over anbang because the chairman was arrested and detained back in june. >> different topic. the black rock comment, what do these gun manufacturers do right now? what are they expected to do? >> maria: black rock is saying they're putting gun makers on notice. what are they on notice for? they sell guns. what are they going to do? >> or do differently, right? >> maria: black rock has been very clear that they want to tell the company leadership teams that they own,n

they also owned the waldorf astoria in manhattan. there were discussions with them about potentially investing in the 666 property. they pulled out surprisingly at the last minute. there was always qatari investor who was going to invest in the building. that person pulled out as well. >> the whole notion of what mueller might be up to right now, it raises lots of questions. based on what we're hearing, what is he trying to figure out as far as the overall russia probe is concerned? >> that's not entirely clear. we know that investigators have been looking at this. and one person cautioned us to say. perhaps investigators are exploring. nonetheless it is significant that these kinds of questions have been posed to people have appeared before the special counsel. and it is not the just about financial dealings. it is also in general about kushner's contacts with foreigners with. foreign nationals during the transition. >> what have we heard from the company involved? the chinese company involved? >> we've reached out to both. we never

they own the waldorf-astoria, former president obama no longer stayed at that hotel because there was concern the chinese could be spying on the president so certainly all those concerns have been with the u.s. government, have been with the fbi, they've been asking questions of other people who appear there before mueller about other countries and it's not necessarily as we now know that he has done anything wrong. it appears they're focusing on counterintelligence, how these countries were trying to influence jared kushner and were they trying to in a way hold something over him in their future so that in the white house or future dealings just to hold something over them with their offers of help. >> that's one of the reasons individuals don't get security clearances, if a foreign company could manipulate them they had that could undermine that person's ability. >> exactly. jared kushner is the definition of a security risk. his family, his family business owns this building 666 fifth avenue. it's in desperatable e financia trouble. he needs investors. he has gone to apparently the

blackstone sold waldorf-astoria hotel for a record price, and now the firm may get the chance to on the landmark once again. blackstone has held talks about bidding for the waldorf among other assets, and the cell is being overseen by the chinese government. --tacart not rolling over the san francisco start up tells bloomberg today it raised $200 million in a new funding round and the money will help defend against programs like amazon's to our delivery from customers. whole foods is a shareholder of instacart nato that was signed before it was acquired by amazon. studios "blackle panther" superhero movie which features a majority of black cast is estimated to really and at least $155 million in the u.s. when it opens this friday on presidents' day weekend. and that is your business flash update. i didn't even know what it was. joe: i knew what was. what you need to know about mars trading day. this is bloomberg. scarlet: u.s. stocks closing higher and we should mention the dow and s&p closing higher and staying in the green all day long for the first time since january 26. coming up, t

robert frank has been following this story for us because they own the waldorf astoria here in new york so, on one day when the chinese government was tracking down on a big chinese government, same day they're allowing big chinese billionaire to invest in a car company. >> it's a government that picks the winners and losers. >> exactly >> and you know that when a company is making an investment, it's really the chinese government at that moment making the investment we have to know about anbang and geely, for years these companies, insurance companies, they spent more than $50 billion shopping around the world for trophy assets. they bought the waldorf astoria hotel, the hotel coronado in san diego, they bought a lot of commercial buildings in chicago, new york, los angeles. and these were companies that gr grew from very small insurance companies to these massive conglomerates, at least with a company like geely you're making a strategic investment in another carmaker these companies that are now sort of in sales mode, i.e., the waldorf is probably going to come back on the market. it

the new york times," kushner met with this insurance company out of china that also plans to own the waldorf-astoria in new york. they were close to getting the company to invest in the 666 fifth avenue property. talks between the two collapsed. there was also a potential deal with qataris also investing in the company and that also fell through. some of this happened during transition, so mueller would likely want to know what the hell was going on here, what kind of conversations were they having here? >> let's talk more about mueller, what is he seeking to figure out by asking these questions? >> what we believe is we don't think that kushner is a target of this investigation or perhaps, you know, is the target or is someone who is centered around. this could be more of mueller trying to explore what was happening here and what was happening during the transition. investigators could be looking into whether kushner was mixing his personal business with his work. he was coming into an administration, and officials could be questioning that, could be questioning whether or not there was any kind of

including those not just the flagship ones, the waldorf-astoria in new york, but strategic hotels and resorts, and also insurance companies in countries ranging from the netherlands to korea. and they paid in many cases, for many people, skyhigh valuations and skyhigh prices for some of their assets as well. so, it will be a long process of trying to unwind some of these problematic purchases for the regulators. you have regulators and officials from the pboc, the foreign exchange commission, and securities and banking, all trying to pick apart this problem. shery: still ahead, as we review the week on "bloomberg best," neel kashkari says market blips should not knock the fed off course. a ceo sees a bank consolidation coming in europe. plus, we sort through a heaping helping of reports. up next, more of the week's top business stories, bloomberg reports that deutsche bank plans to cut hundreds of jobs, but how does that square with the promise to grow revenue? >> the challenge is to increase topline while cutting costs at the same time. obviously, it is a big conundrum. shery: this i

bloomberg has made reports, speculating around the waldorf astoria. for is the crown jewel $1.85 billion, one of the biggest sales ever. this is part of the hilton worldwide company blackstone owned. deals the private equity do they are quite familiar with some of these assets. blackstone has been known to buy things again, extended-stay being an example of that. this is under the auspices of the newly appointed president and chief operating officer. julia: the perfect introduction. you talk to them about succession plans. >> it has been a busy week for him as well. gray, thison of john morning was well planned and well executed. and seamless as these things go. schwartz and has a long career on wall street. he worked for lehman brothers. he learned what not to do. he hired pointed out, when he was 22 years old, now he has risen in the firm. >> he recognizes the market environment and recognizes changes. what did he say about the market environment? >> i think the technical term was -- eh. in terms of volatility. he said it feels pretty normal. one of

astoria hotel in new york now if the company crumbles it would have meant that thousands of ordinary people who had parked their caches and buying would have lost their money and many of them there and sars savings a collapse of the old so impact china's financial system after the whole buying had set the tone for many chinese conglomerates that just snapped up major assets around the world at exorbitant prices and this is a huge concern for the government the grows in debt in chinese companies is one of the biggest challenges for president xi jinping but there are concerns about whether where the line should be drawn when it comes to regulation and there are those who call this intervention chinese style capitalism where the government is still the government guardian of the markets while it is still unclear whether this will set a president analysts say this serves as a warning and many companies in china now which have been going on international buying sprees amassing debts will start being more cautious. russia is marking its annual holiday dedicated to honoring its military vet

they gained national recognition with the $2 billion purchase at the waldorf astoria and 6 5i7b$.5 billion with another group. 2018 looks like another big year for merger activity. the top fees earned on big ticket deals have increasingly gone to independent advisers and boutique firms joined by two of the top groups. blaire efron and ralph schlosstein is president of evercore and one of the co-founders of blackrock let's start with something that i saw, and becky will be talking to this gentleman on monday, but i saw an article and the headline was warren has $100 billion with nothing to buy. now i don't know whether -- >> such problems. >> yeah, such problems no, but i think that highlights that, you know, he only highlights things that are going to be a great return do you have empathy for that headline, blaire, at this point or -- >> joe, valuations are expensive. that said, what we're seeing a lot of is strategic combinations so because you have a strong tail wind in the economy, ceos, business leaders look at the next 18 months and say if i do something now, the beginning of the tran

astoria hotel in new york. the breaking news we have had over the last hour, a cluster of chinese regulators will take over for one year. it does not look good when it comes to the chairman's fortunes. this is the regulator, operations may seriously in danger the solvency and the statement going on to say the operations remain stable. that's what we have from the see , a shot across the bow for some of these other companies of spending profitably. let's kick it out to sophie kamaruddin. there we have it. sophie: asian stocks set to end the week on a positive note. we had some jitters in chinese markets following lines around an bang. we are seeing them reverse losses, the shanghai composite up .5%. for the hang seng and h-share index. energy stocks leading gains in hong kong and korea, where the kospi is one of the best performers today. in tokyo, gains across the board for the nikkei 225 and the topix , following the latest inflation data. quickly at the currency space. the korean won rising for the first time

he actually has now been indicted it would seem by the chinese government enbond which owns the waldorf s astoria, for example, was funding long-term assets such as real estate with short duration instruments it created some are great names looking en bond sure win number one premiums enormously, these are well it management products, very short in duration funding long-term assets a lot of people wondered how long can you continue to do that the chinese say they may hold it for a year, maybe it will be two years, but this was -- is a big story certainly and a very big acquirer for a period of time here in the u.s. >> let's get to bob with the dow up 126 good morning, bob. >> good morning. nice open once again this happened a lot this week, big opens and we fade away going into the close, seven-to-one advancing declining stocks we are waiting for j. powell's testimony to be released this will be his monetary policy report that his actual testimony will be based on, just to clarify. take a look at the secretators, looks a lot like january leadership group, banks better today. consumer st