mark: we are going to take you from new york to london in the next hour. here is what we are watching today. the bank of england expressing worries about a vote on whether britain should leave the european union and the influences on its decision on interest rates. alix: german airliner lufthansa checks in with a record loss. we will hear from the ceo. scarlet: eight us company -- a best company once to open on the east coast in the u.s. we will speak to the ceo of royal ahold. we are midway through the day.

letter sent over to markets. julie hyman has been tracking the latest. julie: i will actually start brazil because there is an interesting situation there, a political crisis essentially. yesterday we learned the former would be lula appointed to the current president's cabinet as chief of staff. a federal judge in brazil has issued an injunction to suspend his appointment. we have been seeing brazilian stocks and currency rallying. ellis like that is continuing -- it looks like that is continuing . there is optimism being priced into the market that the president will lose power and a more business reform economics reform friendly administration will come in. this is the dollar falling. theou look at the vespa, brazilian stock index, you will see it rallying with a 6% gain. we will continue to monitor the situation and its unfolding political crisis there.

back in the united states, we have been seeing stocks recover from losses earlier in the day with the exception of the nasdaq even as the s&p and dow rise to the highest of the session. we are watching the doubt closely because it is coming closely to unchanged on the year. it is down only 0.07% at this point. without about that in a second but we also will talk about volume in today's session with continues to be relatively mute. with talking about yesterday as a catalyst for stocks but it has not been that way. here is volume for groups in the s&p 500. the only substantial boost his health care -- is health care. otherwise, a 30% volume over the 20 day average. a year-to-date stats for the three major averages. the dow is now very little changed for the year-to-date. s&p down only .5% on the year.

nasdaq remains the laggard. we are watching tech again today. the contract electronics maker is out with a number and the forecast in particular that is below estimates. it is pulling down other apple suppliers. speaking of apple, we have been watching that stock as well. and looks like it was are split as to what the jabil numbers mean for apple. isn't priced into the stock that there is weakness in the supply chain? fed. a more dovish that is the take away from yesterday from the european side of the market reaction. basic resources are benefiting from the lower dollar, but as an index, the stoxx 600 down by 4/10 of a percent. .arlier it was a percent lower chief executives are leaving their roles. will take over.

interesting to see. this is being normalized by the way since the beginning of his tenure in 2013. they have all fallen, all these big mining companies. rio tinto shares have taken the lead. they have fallen by 40%. 60%.s are down by roughly anglo-american shares down by 70% during the tenure. glaxo, its chief executive plans to step down in 2017. he has been under fire for the lacking share price. this proves it because since the start of his tenure in 2008, once again this is normalized at 100. is underperforming the big three in europe. the others from 30% to 73%. i want to show you sterling.

interesting to see the pound rising. these nine are falling. the new zealand dollar is gaining. look at the dollar's move against starting today. is fell almost as much as 1.9% earlier which is the biggest intraday decline since 2009. it was probably less dovish. it did not talk about rate cuts. and many analysts went into this thinking there would be maybe a discussion of a possible rate cut. it did not happen. sterling rallying against all of its jeter appears -- its g10 peers. secretary of state john kerry has determined that islamic state has committed genocide against christians and other minorities in iraq and syria. lawmakers in faith-based groups

had pushed for the declaration. president obama's choice to fill the supreme court vacancy is on capitol hill. federal up your score judge merrick garland is speaking with democratic senators. mitch mcconnell says garland will not even get a hearing. still, some republican senators said they will speak with him.a 2009 request to issue a secure toernment smart phone the secretary of state hillary clinton was denied. that is according to newly released e-mails. a month later, to begin using private e-mail accounts, access through her blackberry to exchange messages with her top aides. weighs heavily on the world and canada is no exception. canadian prime minister justin trudeau sat down for an exclusive interview today with john. >> the oil prices are certainly number ofon a

regions in our country and contributed significantly to canada's overall economic growth in meaningful ways over the past 10 years. those areas are going to difficulty. mark: prime minister says canada is positioning itself to invest , greenastructure technology, roads, and hospitals. daymberg news five hours a powered by more than 150 news bureaus around the world. back to you in london. much.thank you very the bank of england voted unanimously to keep rates unchanged today and highlighted uncertainty surrounding its exit. here is scott hamilton who covers the boe for bloomberg news. was that the biggest take away of today's minutes, the bank referring to the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming eu referendum? scott: certainly one of the biggest of elements today was that discussion.

it is the first time we heard collectively from the mpc on the topic. we heard from the institution and from mark carney and one or two other members but this is the first time we heard collectively from them. ther increasing insurgency was the driver and it made demand and growth in the near term. that is stating the obvious because we know that increasing certainty is hitting the pound and activity at confidence in the u.k. the uniones is drag into the debate and both of the the campaign may jump on this to fuel their rhetoric. the pound is rallying. is it because people went in thinking they might discuss cutting rates and they do not do so? scott: there has been increasing

speculation he may cut interest rates -- the bank may cut interest rates. i think we are a long way from that point and maybe further even a member voting for a cut. he has commented his tolerance for downside surprises is low. i think the most people hope for today was a discussion about the news rate cut. it did not come. there was no mention whatsoever of that. that is one of the reasons we are seeing this. mark: it is very much unchanged from the february inflation reports. feds say everything is ok on the domestic front but only overseas, there is a darkening mood. scott: that's right. the decision to leave the rates on hold, which is the seventh anniversary reaching record low was not a surprise. while thes said

domestic economy remains solid, it has eased and there are increasing downside risks from the external world. a similar picture to the vet. mark: thanks joining us. next half houre of the european close today, the boe joins the fed in keeping rates on hold. could these sparked a rally in european equities? lufthansa is seeing rough skies ahead. we will ask that you executive how the airliner plans to battle competition. after norway cut rates today, we will get an update from the central bank's governor on what could be next. ♪

♪ live from london and new

york. scarlet: you are watching the european close. it is time for the bloomberg business flash looking at the biggest business stories in the news right now. intel is in talks with graphics technology from its advanced micro devices in a deal that could throw cash lifeline. it may not result in a deal according to people familiar with the negotiations. if the guppies agree to terms, intel may begin to infuse it into the chip design. alix: airbus is in talks with partso produce airplane in january, iran agreed to buy over a hundred planes from airbus after sanctions were lifted seaworld is ending his controversial color wheel shows. the company has been under fire for years for keeping or as in captivity.

that is your business flash update. alix: the bank of england is giving rates on hold, taking a page from the federal reserve. our next guest says it could spark a rally in european stocks over the coming weeks. mark: here with us to explain is the head of european equity strategies from deutsche bank. on monday, use of the market is one hawkish fed statement away from sharp repricing of fed tightening expectations. this was not that. hawkish statement. >> that's right. we are looking at a lot of things in the markets that have happened. thate plethora of factors are moving markets, we think the fed is absolutely key. weaker commodity prices, and ultimately weaker credit markets. the main problem at the beginning of the year was the deterioration in market prices so if they keep pushing on that,

but that is not what we got. >> how can a dovish fed support european equities when it weakens the u.s. dollar and pushes the euro higher? sebastian: that is an excellent a lot ofand there are factors. the stronger euro in itself is not good for european equities. that is something we are using today, but there are other factors with right now are more important than the currency game. in particular, it is the outlook for credit markets. if you get a situation where oil weakens again, it has a higher risk community credit markets. that is immediately reflected in equity markets which means equities go down. understanding, that is a more important factor for urine. equities for european right now. mark: it leads into it. norges thsebastian: the question of whether oil has

bottomed, the answer is no. they have shown to us they are not in a hurry to hike, but be hikes are still on the table. the better market will behave now and the less stress we have the stronger the case will be to hike ind tw june.if there is room for the dollar to go up, there is room. the problem remains in the background. >> the problem remains in the background in that economy. talk about how it might look. will it be a correction or a $29 oil level? sebastian: the feds yesterday clearly showing they appreciate the problem. if we have learned something about the event yesterday is the

appreciate the problem of the strong dollar and what it can do for the global economy or how it can damage the global economy. note in particular how the central bank has a domestic and talked about the global picture and getting the impact on the global picture right. usthey have also shown to they are very keenly watching the credit markets. that is a reference we never had before. to the degree to which the fed shows us where these two things deteriorate, when the dollar gets too strong and the credit markets become too weak, we will back off. that reduces the risk that you go all the way back down to the dock point we saw at the end of january. mark: why are they down today? some may have thought they don't respect means rising equities -- some dovish might mean rising equities. sebastian: we had a slightly stronger euro today, which hurts

the more currency secon sensitie areas. there is a merger that has not come through in italian banks. the worst performing sector on the day.we had a good rally and some people are taking money off the table. the more important factor is you had a significant negative risk potential on the table with the fed going in the wrong direction. that is a positive. mark: in the near term. good to see you, sebastian. still ahead on the european close, lower fuel prices helping to boost property at lufthansa. find out why the airline is still warning about both these ahead.ead -- bumpy skies ♪

♪ >> breaking news for you. the dow jones industrial average slipping into positive territory on the year, just barely. not even up by 1/10 of a percent but nonetheless flipped into positive territory. unbelievable when a month ago we were talking about a correction and potential bear market territory. scarlet: just to mention here's some of the better performers in the dow. wal-mart up by 10% and caterpillar gaining by 10%. goldman sachs, american express, and j.p. morgan down by more than 10%. mark: lufthansa seeing some rough skies ahead. the german airliners thing it's a new discount brand called your rowing. -- eu this is competition from low-cost. with bloombergke

earlier today. from thewe approached outside, we present a path that bottoms that .2. in my mind, that is close to zero. it was quite natural to discuss the rumor that we have the policy, especially on the downside. we have not gone deeply into this issue. seen experiences from other countries and concluded that zero is not a lower bond. it is a signal regarding our maneuvering. if the economy is exposed to couldr shocks, we say we exploit that opportunity. >> you said today you are

proceeding with greater caution. why? with theas to do .echanisms for monetary policy there is reason to conclude that further cuts in the interest rate, but at least i am certain regarding the stimulus to demand to investments and consumptions in this low rate scenario. in rate increases the risks terms that households could further increase the debt levels. rates and even lower rates could induce unwarranted risk-taking in the financial system. that is the background. mark: the chairman of the board

at lufthansa. should we reiterate the dow? >> yes. the dow jones giving up its losses for the year. since we last checked on it, seems like the gains are picking up and we are getting close to that gain of 1/10 of 1% for the dow. since february 11, notable that 29 out of 30 members have gained. the lone exception is pfizer, which is unchanged. ibm and boeing gained more than 20%. alix: also, have names like chevron gaining as well. a huge part of that has to be because of oil prices up 52% since that low on every 11. -- february 11. $20 a looking going to barrel oil or $15 just a few weeks ago, so the comeback has been truly amazing. scarlet: the comeback has been an amazing.

today's pick up in gains is semarkable given the fed' latest announcement that it will keep rates on hold for longer. we are seeing risky assets pick up the baton here. mark: some achievement being positive for the year. looking at the european benchmark and the only european benchmark that is sporting gains amsterdam,r is the the fact that germany, the ftse in germany. all of those are down for the year. this is what is happening today. the stoxx 600 falling. affairs butdovish investors look concern for the outlook of the global economy. gains in london, the weak dollar boosting. we have seen big gains in the mining industry. have a look at the movement in the bond space and the currency space. in the bond space, things the

client for the u.k. 10 year and the german 10 year. in the currency was some interesting moves for the pound against the dollar and it's other peers within the jeter. the bank of england did absolutely nothing today. all members voted to keep rates on hold. many wins into this meeting with the believe that the bank might discuss cutting rates. we are seeing a big rally in sterling against all of its peers except for the u.s. dollar. quick take on oil. >> above $40 a barrel for the first time since december. able to hold onto that gain. nevertheless, a huge change for oil. ♪

from london and new york, this is the european i am

mark barton, with scarlet fu and alix steel. stocks were down 1.8% after the more dovish sentiment and emerging markets. miners rallying on the back of a weaker dollar. lufthansa shares, 4.6% lower today. the german carrier says the expansion of its euro wings discount brand will come at a cost this year with a reduction in average fares eating into gains from lower oil prices. day of 2 hampstead this is the world's biggest cement maker. it says demand is expected to grow this year even as a slowdown in some emerging markets like brazil and india led profits down last year. this is the lovely morgan stanley chart, alix, that shows how many months it is until the next ray neidl.

-- the next rate hike. no change today from the bank of england, but it didn't talk about a rate cut. some economists believed it would. it didn't. a less dovish bank of england. alix: pretty great chart. i wanted to get back to the concept. we had technical difficulties in the last segment. the german airliner says its new discount brand will come at a cost this year as the reduction in average fares eats into games from lower oil prices. scarlet: the backdrop is the competition from low-cost rivals intensifying. spoke abouta ceo the competition earlier on bloomberg tv. >> competition is increasing more and more every year. i expect to see less of the fuel price decrease as we have seen in the past. yields injoy lower the year 2016. so it is good for consumers for

nuts for your shareholders? in the end, what is good for consumers is also good for lufthansa and we will try to create advantage for shareholders by offering more innovative products and growing segments and the overall increase of demand is good for europe number one. enough, thengly pressure is different in europe than it is in the u.s.? carsten: we have a much higher degree of concentration in the u.s. than we have in europe. the competition is more fierce over here. overcapacity is expected to increase. softening yields in europe for the coming year. >> delta on the pretext profit basis last year earned more than the top five european carriers combined. it looks mind-boggling at first sight but that is a consequence of the concentration in the u.s. carsten: in the u.s. we see a nice balance between capacity and demand whereas in europe,

too much in the market. one of the reasons lufthansa will reduce growth for the year we announced today. >> you had a very efficient project, expansion of long-haul routes with a low-cost offering. you ran into some trouble to begin with. have you solved them now and is everything going smoothly? , we have beend going into long-range with our and wend, eurowings, will bring the fleet up to 70 aircraft this year. very exciting project. >> there is a sidekick to that project, also long-haul, but insiders noted as jump. the rollout has been slower than you anticipated. indeed, first of all, operating high density in leisure-oriented markets is

another signal that lufthansa is getting more and more into the leisure business, a dynamic of all customer segments, and at lufthansa, quality comes first and speed comes second. we take as much time as we need. he on shorter routes, t eurowings low-cost brand, a lot of seats have been empty so far this year. how do you plan to bring utilization up? 320s,n: we are going into doubling the capacity but reducing unit costs by 50%. it will take some time to bring demand imbalance with the initial capacity but overall it is very positive and it motivates us to go further. >> is there any progress you can report at this stage regarding talks with various labor unions? carsten: it is important that we all have 2 contacts open after we close all other contracts in the last 18. i likevery constructive

with both and in one case, arbitration process. i don't see any fear of this point. we are eagerly awaiting new signings and an additional joint venture with air china. when will that come and what benefit will that bring to you? carsten: lufthansa is able to get into 4 of our 5 biggest intercontinental markets -- u.s., canada, japan, southeast asia. and i am sure we have some positive news coming this year. spohr, theen chairman of the board at lufthansa. we have been reporting today that the bank of england kept interest rates unchanged, .5 percent from marking the seventh straight year of low interest rates. on thee potential brexit horizon and the less than stellar economic outlook commoditized shifting towards further monetary easing?

let's ask alexander dryden. was interesting today is the ofk of england's mention uncertainty surrounding the referendum, the first time they've climbed off the fence is a group. no doubt they will be pilloried by the campaign. alexander: i think policymakers and the bank of england have a tough time trying to tread that line between politics and economics. brexit is a real concern for the u.k. economy and it has the potential and uncertainty it causes that is challenging. it puts a big clown -- big cloud over the bank of england forecasts. maker tod as a policy forecast a year or two in advance when you have such an uncertain brexit referendum in june looming. i think will be difficult for the bank of england to come down on one side or another. alix: and the market, alexander,

is really reflecting that. take a look at the work function in bloomberg for the u.k. it is truly an believable what we have seen. a 6% chance of a rate hate -- rate hike at the end of 2016. it is so dovish, the market, very pessimistic. do you think the pessimism is justified? alexander: i think that's what it -- that sort of pessimism could disappear if the u.k. electorate votes tuesday. my now the market has pushed out the opportunity or potential for our u.k. bank of england rate hike until the middle of next year. if you vote to stake him a lot of the political clout lifts, and that could give the green light to the bank of england to think about raising interest rates in the not-too-distant future. a lot of potential things are falling into place, and if you look at the economic hitless for the united that hit list for the u.k. economy, real wage growth is coming through, inflation is

low but starting to pick up, productivity growth is there as well, and the unemployment rate is that close to record lows. a lot of the things that the bank of england are looking for from the u.k. economic recovery are in place. it is this political clout that hovers over the u.k. economy and outlook that is the really big problem and if that clears, you could see the potential for a rate hike in the not-too-distant future. scarlet: until then there are questions about when liftoff will occur for the bank of england. given all that, what would you recommend investors to? how do you position amidst all this uncertainty? alexander: when it comes to playing the brexit and the political risk, it is a difficult one. i personally would not be playing politics with my portfolio position. but on the currency's and equities and interest-rate outlook -- on the currency outlook, it makes a lot of sense to be hedging. whether we leave or stay, there will be volatility of which is to lead from and if we choose to stay, the pound is likely to rebound and get stronger.

on the equity fund, it is very idiosyncratic. but on the interest rate expectation, this is where i see the most significant amount of divergence, the most significant amount of uncertainty for investors. if we vote to leave, the interest rate expectations are likely to come in quite sharply. if we vote to stay, it is unlikely the bank of england will be able to raise rates in such an uncertain political climate. those negotiations will go on for at least a couple of years, if not longer, and the bank of england will struggle to raise interest rates when businesses are feeling reluctant to invest. the ecb addse date stimulus, stocks fell. the next day they rose. are we going to see a different reason? are we going to see a repeat of that? might fell -- one have expected stocks to rise. are they going to rise in the next few days? alexander: i think what u.s.

seen in the last month is a strong amount of progress made by equity markets. the fact that we are flat year to date is incredible, considering we are in the middle of february. equity markets are pausing for breath today china to see how far we have come. we have broken even on the year almost in the u.s. and not far behind in european markets. i also think we have seen a lot of central-bank action over march. investors are taking a step back and having a look at what central banks have said and what they have unveiled and how much more they can potentially unveil is also up for consideration as well. a little bit of profit taking in european markets. mark: alexander, good to see. strategist aten, j.p. morgan chase. scarlet: we are looking at a market that is in positive territory. the dow complexity, and the nasdaq just reached their session highs. let's check in with abigail doolittle who is live at the

nasdaq in midtown manhattan. nasdaq: we have the tired but less so than the dow and s&p and the reason is biotech and health care sector. we have our growing divergence between the biotech sector. both traded in tandem into the february lows. not quite positive yet, but biotech is still down. down over the last four days. nasdaq biotech index is down about 7% this week. it suggests the biotech market could take another like lower. it could put bearish pressure once again on the nasdaq itself. one of the worst performers in the biotech sector -- in fact the nasdaq 100 today's and no international. the stock is plummeting once again, down more than 30% on the week. the implied guidance and the first quarter, this stock is now down more than 50% year to date with the potential turnaround

completely out of sight. scarlet: thank you so much, abigail doolittle. let's check on the first word news. mark crumpton has more from the news desk. a federal judge has suspended the nomination of lula da silva as brazilian president dilma rousseff's chief of staff. bureauomberg são paulo chief jointly with the latest. this is one that has had reverberations around the world. tell us, what happened during mr. lula's swearing-in ceremony? julia: he had a tumultuous swearing-in ceremony. a lot of people were chanting "there will be no coup." outside and all around the country you could hear people banging pots and pans, sort of a popular type of protest in brazil, protesting the nomination, continuing the protests we saw last night after

he was named. mark c.: julia, the irony here is that president lula, he was very popular when he was in office. is this latest development having some sort of effect on his legacy? julia: dilma rousseff herself called him today one of the most important political leaders -- the most important political leader of this country when she was on his swearing-in ceremony. now we are seeing all the audiotapes that leaked yesterday or were released yesterday with him criticizing the prosecutor general and just talking on the phone as a normal person. it did take a toll. we already saw it in the protests. a lot of people protesting jail"t him, "get lula in and those types of signs. mark c.: how had investors been reacting to these developments? julia: the market has been

rallying a lot over the past few weeks as things have gotten more complicated for lula and today is no different. it is a huge rally. state-run companies are searching 15, 20%. what people are pricing in is a change in government and a change in direction that will get us out of this political gridlock that we have been in for over a year now. paulo.: bloomberg's são bureau chief joining us this afternoon. global news 24 hours a day powered by a 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. mark barton, back to you in london. mark b.: the parent company of stop & shop is merging with the owner of food lion. we will talk to the chief thistive on the impact of union will have on its u.s. and european markets. ♪

scarlet: leading international retailers oil ahold and delhaize announced their intentions to merge. they will join familiar brand names such as stop & shop and food lion. alix: dick boer is the ceo of ahold and will be the ceo of the new company as well. he joins us in the studio. you are working towards for pleading this merger, and the next roadblock or potential stop is the stc. where does it stand? expecting, it to emerge in 2016 and we still have

to get the approval. that takes time in the u.s., we know that. thatxpectations we have is it will have limited impact on the social deals but we still have to wait for the final outcome of the ftc. the timing feels for us very concrete that mid-2016 closing. currently the number five willler in the u.s. and we in termination be the top three. -- in combination be the top three. strong, nation. mark b.: analysts are thinking that as a result of the ftc, negotiations, you want to divest between 5% and 15% of your total stores, roughly 200 to 300. is that a fair guesstimate, that range? for the is hard for us

number of stores. not material in the total deals but as for the divestment. i would like to refrain at this moment on numbers because there are much more numbers out also because everybody is anticipating were speculating on the number of stores. we still feel we are in the right direction, and let's say the total divestment we need to do will be enough for the total deal. scarlet: what do you expect will be the key development in terms of trends as you expand your presence in these markets? are you going to look for more price cuts? dick: no, we clearly have been investing a lot over the last couple of years already inequality and our stores. as well, our u.s. business, also food lion. the combination will make us stronger on the east coast with the competitive price position but also where ahold is strong in the u.s. already is our

online position. alix: in terms of stores, you don't have a lot of overlap with delhaize but in terms of the headcount for your head offices, you do. how many job cuts do you anticipate in that arena? dick:'we are still working on integration so we don't have the number at this moment. we'll will be the consequence of the workforce, it will be focused on headquarters and integration of headquarters. it will take us a line time because you need to have the process aligned. the basic and most important synergy we will get is from buying. synergies, that is the first and foremost we are going to grab as the company going forward. m&a?b.: more midwest expansion further west? is that the next ambition beyond this achieved take over when it is approved? dick: first of all, it is a good

question. the market on the east coast is for us the most important part now. we need first to do the integration. but clearly we continue to have a watch out, what is happening in our markets, integrating more stores. we did an acquisition in the u.s. market in new york with stores and we will continue to look at it but we first have to focus ourselves on integration of the 2 companies going forward. alix: thank you very much for coming. dick boer, ahold ceo. ahead, eu leaders tried to clinch a deal with turkey. we will head to brussels. ♪

alix scarlet: i am scarlet fu here with alix steel. mark b.: and i am mark barton.

you are watching the european close. european leaders are gathering in brussels for a two-day summit proposed to salvage the deal with turkey and curb the migration crisis. carolyn, what can we expect to that? -- what can we expect today? the second time the eu leaders in turkey are meeting in less than two weeks. last week was more the proposals from turkey. now is the tricky part, the implementation of these proposals. what turkey has put on the table, it is clear they are happy to relocate. one the syrian refugee who has already made it to the eu, to turkey, for every syrian refugee in turkey who is legally applying for asylum to the eu. however, this is not as easy as it sounds. i spoke to the estonian prime summit,, ahead of the

who told me that turkey has to do with our, and that he expects also some clarity from greece. >> we expect turkey to start quickly stunning the migratory flows, and as for eu, our main task is to help greece right now. we expect greece to tell us as quickly as possible what their exact needs are, and every eu country needs to contribute to that. we all understand that the task is herculean, but it will work if we make it work. chancellor,e german couplemerkel, said a hours ago that she was cautiously optimistic about a deal tonight, with an emphasis, she said -- [indiscernible] mark b.: no doubt we will see more of you in the next 24 hours. caroline connan on that big summit on turkey.

a more dovish fed didn't equate to higher equity, except in london. miners pushing the ftse 100 higher. elsewhere, the stoxx 600 finished the day lower today. it wasn't just about the fed today. the bank of england keeping rates unchanged. have a look at the impact on the currency's. interesting moves for sterling against the g 10 peers. every single one of them except to the kiwi, the new zealand dollar, falling against the pound today. there is the euro pound over the last year. that is it for "bloomberg markets." we will continue after the break.

1:00 p.m. in new york, 6:00 p.m. in london, 2:00 a.m. in hong kong. scarlet: welcome to "bloomberg markets."

from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, good afternoon. i am scarlet fu. alix: and i am alix steel. bloomberg news has an exclusive interview with canadian prime minister justin trudeau. hear what he says about lower oil prices and stronger relations with the u.s. scarlet: just in time for st. patrick's day, copper turns green. is it fleeting? alix: as google given up on robots? it is contemplating selling boston dynamics. could amazon be a buyer? scarlet: we want to go to the markets desk, where julie hyman is. the dow is now in green for the year. julie: erin go bragh, i guess, for the markets today. stocks rising about to the highs of the session