david love on starwood -- loeb on starwood. mitt romney writing that he will vote for senator ted cruz in the utah caucus. the only way to stop donald trump is with the contested convention. a lot happening in politics. we will be right back. ♪ betty: this is "bloomberg markets." i am. markets are closing in 10 minutes time. ramy has the market check. ramy: the markets are pretty much at session highs. been agot to say, it has climb the whole entire day and week. take a look at these numbers. s&p 500 up by half a percent and the dow jones of 5.7. .7.he dow jones up they are seeing their longest winning streak since october. at the end of today, it will be in the seventh day of gains. let's take a look at how this is having an effect on your today. the s&p 500 is on track for positive. up one third of percent yesterday and it did hit into positive territory and then pulled back. they're up by about 1%. from slipping into positive territory, up 4.2% down for the year. betty: thank you. do not let the strength for you. -- fool y

starwood is up nearly 5% on this

starwood hotels will manage three hotels in cuba. one american welcomed them, sort of. >> american level like service or professionalism to the hotel industry here but also i'm ambivalent about that is you're missing all that. >> reporter: ceo of marriott hotel is part of the delegation traveling with the president. he said the cubans are struggling to decide how much american investment they want. >> i'm not sure any of us know how fast they will move and come to rest. there is an interest in both sides and greater engagement between the united states and cuba. greater economic growth. we know american travelers wants to come to cuba. >> reporter: there are many laws and regulation fls cuba that make investment unattractive. >> it has to be lifted for us to be have more access to the market. it's also infrastructure elements here that absolutely need to be improved. there are currency rules that have to be improved. there are worker rules that have to be improved. there's so much that has to be done to have full bilateral trade happ

value starwood at $21 billion. it is pulling some of the other hotel shares as well, even marriott. the fresh market also being bought by apollo for $1.4 billion. apollo has been busy. it's the third acquisition since the start of february for more than $1 billion. the stock price. mark: take a look at what is happening in europe today. the post mario draghi rally is still in place. this is the column you want to be looking at today. the stoxx 600 rising for a second day at the highest level since january 7. we have risen for four weeks. it's the longest winning stretch since march last year. how is the bond market? here's the spread between the german and the spanish bond market. the mario draghi peripherys drawing bonds. it's up 1.6% from 1.2% today. the yield differential is 1.2%. the euro-dollar -- what a three days it's them. 1.6% and we were down by 1.6%. is ahree-day performance 1% decline -- 1% gain should i say for the euro. mario draghi was not working on the fx channel. he was working on the credit chann

for starwood shareholders. we want to get moving forward. >> anbang seems to have a lot of money available to them what if they come back? at what point do you walk away. >> we'll take things as they develop. for now we can look at what we can control, the steps we can take. and again we're really excited about what lies ahead. >> simon. >> arne, good morning. congratulations on trying to -- >> hello, simon. >> the analyst call from cuba, not without its technical difficulties this morning. you battled through bravely. the offer on the table is 22% higher than what you came up with before. i understand that you've got $50 million of extra cost savings in there. but to listen to you, it seems like there's a fundamental reassessment of the value of the business. i want to see if you could run us through what you found during these additional months. >> right. there are a couple things that happened. we think our bid is about 15% higher than the last one. but there are different ways to calculate this based on whe

the plan here is that they would buy starwood and allow management of starwood to continue to run that company. though many of those managers have probably been looking for other jobs given the prospect of the marriott deal. >> yes, absolutely. it's also important to understand the difference you have here in the approaches of the two sides. the chinese are structurally at a one-time opportunity to move into this country. as you have been doing work on the chinese ability to say, yes, you can go ahead and use your money to buy those strategic assets around the world. those luxury hotels. it pushes up pri price force th sector. bear this in mind when you hear analysis on the television today. overlaid on this there is a huge concern that the lodging industry is essentially in its last throes of the cycle. when at the end of january you had the big industry meeting at alice in l.a., some of those stocks were down 40%, 50% from 12 months before, or at least the spring before. when people say look at the stock of marriott. wow, it's not working. own the deal front actually there's a huge i

the high of starwood last june was 85 the combined offer takes you to back to where starwood was when they were trying to sell the business in the summer of last year. to the point that you're making what can marriott do with the brands that the chinese can't? >> they haven't made a great case to the shareholders of starwood and marriott that would allow marriott to have a higher price right now. marriott needs to make that case and has not done a great job of it perhaps, or at least -- >> it didn't need to, did it? there were not so many buyers at the time. >> they always needed to. if you looked at the background of the merger. there were plenty of potential buyers. the hyatt was close to a deal. the chinese were hanging around, never put in a normal offer. marriott should have known they needed to do the best to get the stock up they did not do that. they will suffer the consequences and now have the opportunity to compete for a higher bid to trump the 78 from anbang. if they do that, they will be deemed superior to anbang. >> will they bid for the splpla? the intercontinental? the

starwood hotels just below that. on this idea that the chinese firm will take it, and starwood will not shell out -- >> that's the way marriott will trade. if it is less likely the deal is happening. that 88 amount is notional if they spin it off. we'll be looking at 82.75, so maybe that's not cash in hand. >> interesting. in this case it will be some average of what people think is likely between the actual deal and the spinoff happening. marriott shares up 2.7%. >> gamestop getting crushed, missing on revenue. this came out after the bell on thursday. ugly quarter, ugly guidance. this one continues to suffer. on a day, by the way, where facebook's oculus is set to hit the market. virtual reality. >> gamestop trying to say we have a couple billion startups within our own company. they have a string of stores aimed at servicing apple computers. >> gamestop has been running fast to get away from the idea of just console sales. they did the used game exchange. all of it has worked on some level. they kept going a lot l

rishaad: battle has broken out over starwood hotels traded -- starwood hotels. the bid could potentially derail marriott efforts to create biggest hotel operator. we have details on this. said to have offered $76 cash per share for the starwood hotel group. and the unsolicited bid. that buys the hotel group at $12.9 billion. based on estimate of 170 million shares. marriott has said that it will continue with its own bid for the hotel group, which owns brands such as weston, w, and regis. shares rallied, the most since late october in new york. analysts a that it is a surprising development considering they thought the marriott it was a done deal. question for the board now is will they take the $76 cash right now or the option for marriott which of course has the potential to see its return grow in the future in the form of its own share price? this is not the first time that they have done this. $6.59 foreed to pay 16 u.s. luxury resorts and hotels. from blackstone group, it is one of the most visible of the chinese companies embarking on a property spending s

starwood is the first one. >> what did starwood have to give them? >> reporter: that's a very good question. we don't know how much money. we know very few details about the actual deal at this point. i do know that was a deal done with the cuban government by default. like i said, they control everything here. that's going to be controversial. there are people who argue that is a violation of the u.s. embargo. you saw marco rubio, the senator from florida, over the weekend calling president obama's trip the most disgraceful that a u.s. president -- one of the most disgraceful ever made. this event, as you know is controversial. and that deal very well could be controversial. >> is it the chinese starwood that is managing the hotel? >> reporter: that's a very good point. starwood gets bought by the chinese, it will no longer be an american deal. it will be a chinese deal. >> you don't know, you haven't done any -- i mean, is mary rio going to come back. >> a lot of people telling marriott not to. >> i think they had plans. michelle, thank you. by the

they had agreed to a deal with starwood, worth about $69.31 a share. that was a cash and stock offer. marriott says they are reconsidering and may come back with a counter offer, but it would have created the largest hotel company in the world. if starwood decides to go ahead with the anbang, it would have to pay a breakup fee of $400 million. all this news did left hotel stocks on friday, closing higher, and the bloomberg index of hotel real estate investment trusts rose 1.2%. angie: this could shake up the industry. whoever gets the deal, they also get cuba. >> yes, starwood has signed some agreements in cuba. it has authorization from the u.s. treasury department to operate hotels & with two hotels to manage them. these hotels will be renovated before reopening later this year. it also signed a letter of intent with another hotel, a historic hotel in cuba, and that will also be added to its luxury collection as well. the first u.s. hotel company to sign a deal in cuba just as president obama makes his trip there. angie: thank you for that. investiga

the starwood story is not over yeyot. chinese conglomerate which owns the waldorf astoria has made another offer topping marriott's bid for a second time. th is time roughly 15 billion in cash for starwood. so the question now becomes will marriott come back with a third bid. they thought they had a deal twice for starwood. marriott said its most recent offer of just over $14 billion was its best and final offer. we'll see. >>> meantime, the "wall street jetblue and alaska air are preparing takeover offers for virgin america. it said last week it was exploring a sale of the whole company. there are reports also that some asian airlines might also be getting ready to submit bids. they hope to have a deal in place as early as next week. so that is going to happen very quickly. this starwood story is crazy. marriott last november thought it had a deal. marriott struck a second deal. now they're back. we'll see what happens. >> indeed we will. bill, thank you, as always. >>> the city of yonkers testing the drinking water in t

starwood and now marriott right now. starwood is up it percent at $76 a share. it says it has another offer led by an unnamed group and that marriott came out and said companyis led by chinese interested in acquisitions lately. says starwood still supports the offer. maybe marriott is going cap come up and match that price. let's go to abigail doolittle live at the nasdaq, . abigail: we do have a stock that has doubled. gw pharma is trading back above $80 after the biotech company met a primary endpoint at a study showing that a drug reduced convulsive seizures in children. newsarma is now on this trading back toward its highs. another stocks sewing is fresh mark, after apollo global says it is buying fresh market for on $1 billion in cash. itsapollo global, this is third greater than $1 billion deal this year. vonnie: thanks, abigail doolittle. tech shares have been hit harder and it is holding steadily higher than other industries. it is hedging the s&p 500 and it has reached a six-month high level. it is only hit twice before in this old market. mehta looks f

starwood earlier said it would convert three hotels in cuba into starwood branded properties. that is your bloomberg business flash. jonathan: just breaking news. ceo,elecom italia suspicion over the weekend that he would be stepping down. he is. there was back and forth with their biggest invensy investor. ceo ofs the italian telecom italia is stepping down. he has resigned. that does not get to the top of corporate news. valeant. shares of valeant halted in early trading. the company searching for a new ceo as mike pearson, who just got back into the seat a little over two weeks ago, stepping down. zack tracer is with us this morning. david and slum, senior research analyst at piper david, i said earlier it was bill ackman who said -- i believe he was saying a portion of that maybe should ipo. the question is, where is the value in this company? not like pearson who built it who led the structure. , wheres not still adore is the real value here? it is hard to know because there have been such deficiencies in the company's financial reporting and internal controls. they have

starwood could be buying three of them. cuba opening up as well, a lot of opportunities, but not as straightforward as all that. >> it is interesting because starwood has the bigger international footprint than a lot of globalize brands. no doubt that cuba is an market andped hotel the developing tourism market. it is a foot in the door, and starwood, given their international predilections, is a natural fit to do that. it is interesting. there are 63,000 hotel rooms in cuba right now, none of them what you think of as five-star appeal. that is an opportunity. rishaad: thank you very much. a new problem in china, unpaid have seenment delays account receivables swell by more than 20%, $590 billion. we have the latest from the bloomberg. problems fore china, $590 billion worth. this is a story on the bloomberg. story is thethe fourth one down out of the top china stories we have this morning. we have seen some big falls in terms of -- actually, i have pulled the wrong one up. my apologies. it is now the fifth story down on th

anbang and starwood. anbang walking way from its proposed bid for starwood, an all carin deal at nearly $14 billion. dow jones siting sources says starwood will revert back to marriott. thanks to marriott's most recent offer of $79.53 a share or nearly $13.6 billion. reuters says anbang never followed through to make the deal binding and never give a reason for walking away. starwood shareholders are scheduled to vote on this april 8th. still both down by more than 4%, marriott nearly 5. now we're going to switch gears over to urban outfitters. they have good news. they're giving good guidance on comp net sells in the low single digits. this is in their filing. the street had been looking for a decline of nearly half a percent. urban is up by nearly 3% in after hours trade, back to you over to you. >> thank you. guys, just briefly, on both of these stories or either one, you know, now we've heard from anbang. we've heard from starwood. well need to hear from marriott. >> starwood never recommended the anb

hotel chain starwood signed a multimillion dollar deal to renovate and run three hotels in cuba. since all major hotels in the country are state owned, it puts a major american corporation directly in business with the communist government for the first time since the revolution in 1959. the agreement stipulates employees will be mainly cuban citizens with a small number of ex-pats in key management positions. latinad of starwood's american operations says that with a growing number of tourist in the country, his chain wants to be ready to accommodate them. take a listen. >> we are going to elevate the quality of the properties to achieve the standards that we have established for those brands. receive more than 4 million tourists per year. this year is going to be much more. there may be more than 100 daily flights from the u.s. the amount of travelers will skyrocket. we want to make sure we are ready to welcome them. >> staying with starwood, the company's board is backing a $13.6 billion revised bid from marriott. the merger was placed on ice days ago after a chinese insurer s

china is offering for starwood hotel to about $14 billion. that would be the largest ever by a chinese company in the u.s. it threatens offer for the hotel chain. in statement marriott said it is near the deal with starwood. what do you make of this story and what could those regulatory concerns be? >> i think what they are talking about is an entity here in washington that most people have never heard of. it's the committee on foreign investment in the united states. it reviews large transactions when overseas entities want to buy american companies. they want to make sure this is an okay thing for that foreign entity to buy. i've been talking to some experts on the process here in washington today about exactly what they might look at in this potential acquisition of starwood. how close are starwood hotels to sense tifr itive installations united states that they want to protect. that might be one to pay close attention to. also, protection of customer data. how much e-mails and credit card numbers would the buyer be getting of americans ar

there were a lot of things we did that was great news for starwood. we also said at the time we would look at any and all options. what we concluded was the smartest thing to do for starwood shareholders, was to help in the creation of the large largest hotel company in the world in a transaction with marriott which i thought was superb for starwood holders. now fast forward to amc, we are creating something special here at amc. in this case, we're the buyer. we've got lots of pro-consumer initiatives here as we take things that amc does very well and project them on to a larger network. like reclining chairs, dine-in theaters. and also something we like a lot, big movie screen houses, the growth of imax in a larger amc. >> don't be a stranger, come back soon. adam aron joining us from amc as he does another deal. >>> still ahead on the program, the battle over the supreme court. republicans vowing to block any nomination that the president makes. but is that really the best strategy for the gop? jim stewart, pulitzer prize winner from the "new york t

but there's other news this morning, that starwood -- not starwood, blackstone, has agreed to sell its strategic hotels and resorts company to a chinese insurance company. so you wonder if this is literally a wave of china-based buyers coming in to take out u.s. hotel properties. i don't know. >> looks that way. >> why wouldn't they mention who's in the consortium, is my point. unless it's companying that would have a meaning to u.s. investors. >> i'm going to hit the phones and hopefully we'll get some answers. >> don't hit them. use them to make calls. >> when we come back, some great expectations. what markets want to hear from the fed. and gop front-runner donald trump taking heat after a string of violence at his rallies. steve forbes on the race and the high stakes for the republican party. we have more squawk, right after this. the e-class has 11 intelligent driver-assist systems. it recognizes pedestrians and alerts you. warns you about incoming cross-traffic. cameras and radar detect dangers you don't. and it can even stop by itself. so in this crash test, one thing's missing:

up next, the starwood bid battle. we will bring you the details next. ♪ francine: let's get to bloomberg's first word news with nejra cehic. nejra: a hijacker who claims he was wearing explosive belts flight to- and egypt land in cyprus. the passengers and crew have been released. -- the u.s. has dropped its privacy case against apple after successfully hacking into the iphone used by one of the san bernardino terrorists. the justice department says it unlocked the phone with the help of an unnamed third party and without optimizing data. apple says the court case should've never been brought. police shot a man after he pulled a weapon at a u.s. capitol checkpoint. officials have identified him as larry dawson of tennessee. they say he was previously known to police who in october arrested dawson for disrupting proceedings and yelling he was a prophet of god did -- of god. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. you can find more stories on the bloombe

last week, a chinese insurance marriotte a bid to top for starwood hotels. this week, marriott raised the stakes. todayrwood shares soaring . are we in the middle of a takeover battle here? >> very much so. it is a classic takeover battle. marriott has come back to match it. they have gone slightly over it. what is interesting here is the door has clearly the must open. i think it's very likely that we see them come back to the table on this one. >> is there a game changing price? what is the feeling here? how high can both companies go? >> we think that marriott would have put more on the table if they really wanted to put the knockout bid out there. clearly, by bumping it just a small amount, it suggests that maybe the chinese come in, and there will be another bump by marriott. the chinese have shown themselves to be strategic buyers. be one this is going to that runs for a while, and we will see another bump. the first chinese company signs up to be a major fifa partner. what is behind this move? madest year, the president football and national priority.

marriott's shares rising at starwood get this higher bid. starwood is rising above that $82 75 -- $82.70 price. -- of in the wake of its the opening of its new thing park in shanghai -- it sold out in just hours. went on till at midnight on monday. it is the sixth of disney's parks worldwide and three times the size of its park in hong kong. those shares gaining. time warner also rising in the week "batman versus superman: dawn of justice." biggest easter opening ever, for fourthgest opening -- largest opening globally. shares gaining speed. then we are looking at the drugmakers. recently, merck won a court victory in its quest against gilead saying its research was the foundation of the creation of gilead's top hepatitis c drug. we are seeing a reversal today. it's partner -- it's silly it's partner after an investor said the launch of merck's now new hepatitis c drug is at a 40% discard -- discount is not been able to didn't the company's dominance. it is a smaller company, more reliant on a single drug. gilead getting more than 2%, guys.

another deal were starwood last week and again today. we know johnson controls and tyco are emerge ing. data analytics company ihs is buying market. that's really a sensational market data company based in london. third, it seems there could be more to the bid. ppg, sherwin's competitor could be interested. maybe they like to look at rpm, one of our favorites. that's a $6 billion power house that frank mitch said could be under valued. if you like rustoleum you might agree and this is a reminder of the intrinsic worth of companies in mundane businesses nobody seems to care about. the paint company stock was downgraded last week by the research department of key bank stating profits have been challenged and it has little upside. the operative term was it had little upside because now the upside is terrific. or i should say it was terrific to all that were in it. as gratifying as watching the wild cats win over iowa, on the way to houston by way of louisville. stick with cramer. my staff could use your help staying in touch with customers.

>> i think you also have to question how much is marriott paying for starwood? and were they forced into the deal because of survival of the fittest and consolidation of an industry that is getting very, very tight? i would be wary on the marriott side here. ultimately starwood has shown enormous growth. i think the sector has outperformed. we're at valuations that may be getting tougher to jestify. this isn't a place i think these things should trade at massive premiums. >> starwood mentioned survival of the fittest. charles darwin had a righteous beard. not a steven grasso beard. >> does that mean his beard is not righteous? >> keep it up. >> do you think darwin should use a little just for men? and then the next question -- >> a little dab will do you. >> that's brillo cream. still ahead, anyway, missed the rally? the traders tell you the four names that are about to break thought if the second quarter to help you play catch-up. that's next. >>> plus, where is the hype? apple fans didn't come streaming into stores for the newles and ipads. are the new product

the starwood hotel bedding has escalated. expecting in and around take over from marriott valued at 30 point billion dollars. that beats an offer made last week. we will speak with the marriott ceo arnie's works in. that is coming up at the top of the hour. three american companies have cuba just asls in president obama was arriving on the island. airbnb says the u.s. government has approved the u.s. government has approved application to do business there. earlier starwood said it would convert three hotels to properties. the supreme court has sacked electronic arts in a lawsuit pro football players. justices turned down an appeal. that means they face claims that they own money to former football players who use their images and the popular madden football game. mark: a quick peek of what is happening to the european equity market. we have been up and down, we are lower now. the euro stoxx 600 or stoxx 600 down pro football players. justices turned down an appeal. that means they face claims that they own money by .4. decli

looking at the after our trading of starwood and marriott. stocks falling in after hours. ♪ alix: i am alix steel -- a look at the biggest stories in the news. walking away from the proposed takeover of starwood hotels/they recently made a bid in a bidding war with marriott. shares of starwood are falling in after hours trading on the news. tracy: daily sports fantasy operators draft kings and fan dual are suspending their college contest. the suspension is indefinite in austin, part a video deal with the ncaa that follows months of discussion. the move takes place after monday night's ncaa men's championship game. supplierle is doing a shuffle. royal philips is in -- the revision and a boon to phillips, the world's biggest lighting bone --boon to building; thirst to make leds. tonight, the tankan survey is released. companiesthousands of asked about current conditions. we're going to look at three charts that are really important in this report. the reason we care so much about this -- the bank of japan uses this data to help formulate mor

good news for starwood, this comes after starwood announced that it is going to manage two properties, in havana cuba signed letter of intent to operate a third in that country, so much for spirit of the easter holiday violence breaking out last night, at new jersey mall after a man in easter bunny costume got involved in a fight that is what do you when you are easter bunny mixing up with customers, waiting to get picture taken with him, we don't know owe how this started we really don't, but security guards had to break the whole thing up we had to dreet to some colorful language in that a driver in the australian grand prix lucky to be alive, formula one driver's car are clipped wheels of another car betfying off the track, after tires clipped the car hit a wall into a dirt area car flipped, all as you can see rolling over and over, the car went airborne for a significant distancing before tumbling as to top against safety wall maefl part driver walked away barely a scratch on him he is fine. maria: amazing thank you, zootopia first place in the box office in theatres disney film e

a chinese company has offered $14 billion to buy all of starwood. the problem is, farwood already has a deal in place to be pfrped marriott for $13.2 million. angbang insurance is no stranger to the properties. 2014. no word on what they're going do about all this. a badding war is underway. >>> speaking of bidding wars, fresh market has been sold to apollo management, an investment firm, for $1.4 billion. fresh market put itself up for sale earlier this year. a number of companies made bids. apollo management is the winner for $1.4 billion. and shareholders are also the winner. the stock up now 24%. it's going out in style. a lot of organic tomatoes. >> a lot of tomatoes, bill. >> yes, indeed. >> pretty expensive tomatoes. >> yeah. >> see you tomorrow. >> all right. >>> a nasty day out there. >> it is. but think of it this way, could have been over the weekend. instead, we had a great weekend. now it's lousy for monday. >> yeah. >> timing is everything, guys. we have the rain to deal with today. and also a big drop in temperatures, of course. weeke

real estate and it's going after starwood and made an unsolicited offer threatening a pending deal with marriott which sent shares higher. as susan lee reports, this bid is part of a bigger wave of chinese companies acquiring u.s. assets. >> reporter: not one but two multibillion dollar hotel deals led by the same chinese company, fresh off the 2014 purchase of the historic waldorf astoria hotel, they now have their group on the operator of w hotels, westin's and sheratons. now, back in november, marriott had agreed to buy starwood for close to $11 billion to build the world's largest hotel operator but now they are leading a counter bid along with primavera offering more money for starwood. that's on top of a separate deal being negotiated with onbong for close to $6.5 billion. this includes the famous essex hotel here in new york. the current trend of chinese money buying into u.s. real estate is an encouraging sign. >> given the volatility that we see in the global markets and in china in the last couple of months, some commercial real estate investors had a loss of confidence of chi

starwood plans to open three hotels by the end of 2016. marriott beat out a competitor to buy the come -- to buy the hotels by beefing up its bid to $13.6 million. starwood will move forward and the acquisition will create the world's largest hotel business. >>> apple's product launch started with pledge from company ceo tim cook to continue to defy the u.s. government's demand to help unlock an ente bernardino. with that, he unveiled the 4- inch iphone se that has similar features of the iphone 6s but cost $399 for 16 gigabytes. apple cut the price of the smart watch and displayed new bands for the wrist device. >>> retailers are ready to rake in the dough this easter. a service that americans will spend about $17.3 billion for their easter egg hunt baskets and more. that is about $146 per person, the highest spending and the 13 years that survey has been conducted. they said most of the money will go to food and easter close and lots of chocolate if you are a child of my house. >>> congratulations to sophomore akilah johnson. >> she won

another deal were starwood last week and again today. we know johnson controls and tyco are emerging. data analytics company ihs is buying market. that's really a sensational market data company based in london. third, it seems there could be more to the bid. g, sherwin's competitor could be interested. maybe they like to look at rpm, one of our favorites. that frank mitch said could be under valued. if you like rustoleum you might agree and this is a reminder of the intrinsic worth of companies in mundane businesses nobody seems to care about. the paint company stock was downgraded last week by the research department of key bank stating profits have been challenged and it has little upside. the operative term was it had little upside because now the upside is terrific. or i should say it was terrific to all that were in it. as gratifying as watching the way to houston by way of louisville. stick with cramer. (ugh.) does your carpet ever feel rough and dirty? don't avoid it, resolve it. our formula with a special conditioning ingredient

of course, the starwood ceo -- starwood just signed an agreement, making it the first major corporation since 1959 to have an agreement in cuba to manage and invest in several hotels in the coming years here. so that is what obama wants -- i think president obama feels opening the doors of commerce in cuba and the united states is going to help a transition, and economic transition that raul castro himself has initiated to move cuba into a mixed economy from a strict socialist economy to a mixed economy. of course, for that to happen, you have to have a private sector. that is what those business leaders and business thinkers are doing here in cuba with the president of the united states today. amy: might it also be -- might it also be with republicans wanting to turn back whatever obama does this year investmentorporate and stake in cuba, it will be harder for the republicans to reverse the opening with cuba, leader? -- peter? amy.u're absolutely right, i'm negligent for not mentioning that from the outset. president obama has this super interesting strategy, ringing business leaders d

last week, a chinese insurance giant made a surprise bid to top marriott's offer for starwood hotels. this week, marriott raised the stakes. mark: starwood shares of the hotel company soaring today after it accepted in improved takeover bid from marriott. valued at $13.6 billion. are we in the middle of a takeover battle here? ed: very much so. this is a classic takeover where we saw them coming with this improved offer last week. obviously marriott has just come back to match it. they've gone slightly over it. i think what is interesting is the door has clearly been left open for starwood should they choose to come back. i think it is very likely that we will see anbang come back to the table on this one. mark: is there a game changing price, ed? what is the ceiling here? how high can both companies go? ed: it is a really good question. i think from our point of view, we think that marriott would have put more money on the table if they really wanted to put this knockout bid on there. clearly by just bumping this a small amount, it suggests maybe they have some more room to go, but m

patrick, i'm on the starwood website. i can't see that they still come through recommending this offer from the chinese. in other words, they still have not been able to satisfy themselves on the due diligence, on a day when the papers are full of articles questioning the voracity of anbang's bid. is this significant that they've still not been able to recommend is officially as a superior proposal? >> absolutely. if you're a starwood shareholder you want assurance that the mof money you're going to get will be there at the end of the day. that's a gray area. on top of that there's both u.s. and possibly chinese regulations that this has to pass through. again, that creates a higher degree of risk that if you go with anbang you may not get paid at the end of the day. >>> david, marriott yesterday released a statement in which they said look, is the funding there? shareholders be careful. at the same time talked about, as patrick suggested, problems getting regulatory review from china, and in this country and on this prox

i think what is interesting is starwood has clearly been left open for they come back. i think it is very likely that we will see anbang come back to the table on this one. mark: is there a game changing price, ed? what is the ceiling here? how high can both companies go? ed: it is a really good question. i think from our point of view, we think that marriott would have put more money on the table if they really wanted to put this knockout bid on there. clearly by just bumping this a small amount, it suggests maybe they have some more room to go, but maybe the chinese come back in first and there is more of a bump for marriott. the chinese have shown themselves to be incredibly ambitious buyers in the space. they have done the strategic hotel deal with blackstone. i think this is going to be one that will run for a while, and i think we are going to see another bump for sure from anbang. rishaad: the first chinese company to sign up as a major fee for partner and also has been a major theme of the football body since the corruption scandal. roz has got more in put. roz:

and starwood signs the first u.s.-cuba hotel deal in more than 50 years, and announcing a big merger with marriott. we'll hear from them in cuba with michigan he caruso braer, next. they may want the latest products and services, but they demand the best shopping experiences. they're your customers. and by blending physical with digital, cognizant is helping 8 of the 10 largest u.s. retailers meet their demands with more responsive retail models... ones that transcend channels and locations, anticipate expectations... creating new ways to engage at every imaginable touch-point. it's a new day in retail, and together, we're building the store of the future. digital works for retail. let's talk about how digital works for your business. >>> back on the "halftime report" with our trader blitz. four trades making news today. sherwin williams announcing it's going to buy valspar in cash. >> the stock is only $18 off its high. i like what they're doing with the acquisition. this gets them -- diversification it needs, beyond

starwood is up nearly 5% on this news. david faber has been watching this story, following it, joins us with the latest. it seems like the ball is in marriott's court at this point? >> it is. big developments this morning, anbang insurance and partners, prima sierra, a chinese equity firm and chris flowers have succeeded in getting starwood board to agree. $78, $2 higher than the initial expression of interest about a week ago, $78 a share in cash is a superior offer to that of marriott. marriott now, though, still is the merger partner of starwood because while they have reached a definitive agreement with the chinese, they have not signed that agreement at this point. they need to give marriott five full business days, until the end of march 28th, in which it can respond to the bid with a bid of its own. as i reported this morning, people involved in the situation expect that marriott will try to counter bid, at least communicating that in the roughly week since we first learned of anbang's interest in acquiring starwood

obviously, you've got this offer from the chinese for starwood here. if you remember back two years, it was the combination of these two, starwood and intercontinental that got everybody talking. and we thought maybe fritz was trying to do that deal there, so maybe the chinese will come for ihg into continental, as well. or at least the mere fact you've got a bid raises those asset prices more broadly in the key international capitals. back to you. >> simon hobbs, thanks so much. land of the rising trade with a chance for more stimulus in the boj. is the japan trade back on? >>> melissaotto of tiaa will join us. >>> and chipotle saying it will tie its ceo combination to its stock price. we'll debate that key question just ahead. woman: is that a newspaper? man: yes. woman: it's quaint. man: did you read about this latest cyber attack? woman: yeah, i read it on my watch. man: funny. woman: they took out the whole network. man: they had to hand out pens and paper. woman: yeah. man: could it happen to us? woman: no. we're okay. man: we are? woman: yeah, w

jonathan: marriott will not get a piece of starwood. they were outbid. starwood calling off $12 billion buy-out agreement at the last minute. instead a group led by chinese insurance company will get starwood upping the offer to more than $14 billion for the purchase. starwood, which owns the sheraton and the westin brands is paying marriott $400 million just to go away. all right. time now for a check of the traffic situation. jamie, it's friday. everybody is in a rush to get home and start the weekend. that looks nice. it is moving. the traffic heading in. you can see volume. we don't have accidents or anything on 66. this stretch i would call a major slowdown. there are no major accidents either. as we move to talk about how slow you are there, 15 miles per hour. short stretch just before that point. then, of course, as you saw you loosen up. the northwest corner of the inner loop is heavy from tysons to 270. continuing through montgomery county. you get a break after silver spring. 95 in maryland heading south from cherry hill road to the capital bel

it's a fully financed offer to acquire starwood at $78 cash. starwood hasn't signed it because they have to give marriott five days by business days in which to respond to this higher off per. marriott deal is for 4.92 shares of marriott and dollars 2 a share. its value is certainly well below that of the anbang deal at this point. sources familiar with the situation say there's an expectation based on conversations that have already taken place that marriott will counter bid to try to maintain its current deal to acquire starwood. and so that five day clock will begin very shortly and marriott will have that time in which it will try to construct a deal to meet or exceed the value that's being presented to starwood and it's board of directors from anbang. they are not expected in any way be able to compete cash to cash. marriott's deal was a lot of stock. expectation is they will put in more cash. but the board may take into overall question as to whether that will create more value. so it looks to be ongoing here but right now starwood shareh

starwood had agreed to and acquisition and trip advisor, there is some speculation there. international getting an i should mention that one caveat for the gains we are seeing across the board is that it is on very low volume. .ere are the groups on the s&p you can see a drop in volume on telecom, energy and industrials below there than 25% average. so we are not seeing as much action today. oil capping the gains today? >> we are seeing a selloff in oil today -- let's take a look at oil prices. a decrease up off the lows a little bit but a report saying iran is not ready to freeze reduction. damper ontting a things in recent weeks. now a look at the bloomberg we've got the uti in yellow in the s&p 500 and white and we've got this bounce for both over the past leaks and now a little stabilization, particularly for oil prices after that big lift. let's talk about rates and the safety trade. and these in gold today 10 year yield going down going into the fed meeting this week. towardld see rates low years and then we are not going to get many rate increases this year. maybe o