Speaker 1: Global business news twenty four hours a day. If Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot Com, the radio plus mobile lab and on your radio.
Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business flight from Bloomberg World Headquarters.
Speaker 1: I'm Charlie Pellott. A mixed picture for equities right now.
Speaker 1: The downin s MPR lower nestack is Hilt's head. Right
Speaker 1: over to the first word, breaking news deaths for today's
Speaker 1: afternoon call. And here he is Bill Maloney, Good afternoon, Charlie.
Speaker 1: Manus averages are quiet today, with the Dow currently down
Speaker 1: thirteen and a half points, sysipes down one and then
Speaker 1: NAZAC is higher by nine. The small cap six hundred
Speaker 1: is little changed and the US ten yield at one
Speaker 1: point five four percent. Five out of ten sub sectors
Speaker 1: are high, led by gains in healthcare, technology and consumer staples.
Speaker 1: Energy and materials led to the downside down Transports fall
Speaker 1: thirty and as a biotechs gain four. Utilities are a
Speaker 1: little changed and the VIX is up by three percent.
Speaker 1: Down Leaders to the downside included American Express, DuPont and Caterpillar.
Speaker 1: Leaders included Fiser, Disney and Goldman Sachs. Noegia cruise lines
Speaker 1: fell as much as ten point eight percent after its results,
Speaker 1: while Endyo International gain as much as twenty eight percent
Speaker 1: after its earnings, and Walt Disney reports after the belt
Speaker 1: tonight Esmates are for at dollar sixty one on revenues
Speaker 1: of fourteen point one six billion, Live on the first
Speaker 1: year Baking News. Ask on Bill Maloney chili alright, thank
Speaker 1: you very much, and to hear live breaking news over
Speaker 1: your Bloomberg Time squawk s q U a w K
Speaker 1: on your terminal. We are brought to you by Marx
Speaker 1: Penneth l LP, ranked among the top three for rensic
Speaker 1: accounting firms in New York by the New York Law
Speaker 1: Journal for the six year in a row. Visit Mars
Speaker 1: Penneth dot com. I'm Charlie Pellett and that's a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: business flash. You're listening to taking Stock with Kathleen and
Speaker 1: Pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio. According to Texas public health officials,
Speaker 1: the death of a new born in the Houston area
Speaker 1: has been linked to the Zeka virus, and today Governor
Speaker 1: Rick Scott of Florida said that the federal government must
Speaker 1: stop playing politics and Congress needs to immediately come back
Speaker 1: to session to resolve the dispute over funding for ZEKA.
Speaker 1: Here to tell us more is Brian Ry. He is
Speaker 1: senior healthcare policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence Government Team. He
Speaker 1: joins us from Washington, d C, home to Bloomberg FM
Speaker 1: and one oh five point seven h D two. Brian,
Speaker 1: this new bit of news is not really new, It's
Speaker 1: only new in its specifics. Why is it taking this
Speaker 1: kind of news item to get people's attention about the
Speaker 1: seriousness of the Zeke virus. Well, Pam, first of all,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. And it's a great question because,
Speaker 1: as you sort of pointed out, a lot of things
Speaker 1: are going on right now and none of them are
Speaker 1: very good. Governor Scott dan in Florida also announced and
Speaker 1: I think they've identified four more cases, bringing the total
Speaker 1: up to twenty one. The CDC has issued the first ever,
Speaker 1: as far as we can tell, first ever domestic travel
Speaker 1: advisory for a neighborhood in Miami. And the Olympics are
Speaker 1: in an area of the world that's also been ravaged
Speaker 1: um by the virus, and you know, has the potential
Speaker 1: to have some not so good news coming out of
Speaker 1: the Olympics. UM. Now, the problem for Congress is twofold.
Speaker 1: Number one, Republicans and Democrats have had a hard time
Speaker 1: coming together on the right level of funding and legislation
Speaker 1: to to help address this. And the second problem is,
Speaker 1: even if they could come to an agreement, they're not
Speaker 1: in session right now. They're out on their summer recess
Speaker 1: until until Labor Day. Uh. And so it's one of
Speaker 1: those things that we're going to continue to have this
Speaker 1: slow drip of news news news, and oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: we're now less than three months away from the election.
Speaker 1: That sort of helps to harden those political stances even more.
Speaker 1: What was the political atmosphere in June when Senate Democrats
Speaker 1: blocked a compromise bill. You know, the the attitude at
Speaker 1: first earlier in the year was actually okay, you know,
Speaker 1: certainly President Obama had wanted more money one point nine billion.
Speaker 1: They felt like they had had a compromise between Senate
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans at one point one billion. The Conference
Speaker 1: Committee had worked that out. Uh. Senate Democrats, as you
Speaker 1: pointed out, blocked a legislation over concerns about some some
Speaker 1: provisions in the bill didn't specify some additional funding for
Speaker 1: planned parenthood. For example, that's a lightning rod for both sides,
Speaker 1: and they sort of drew a line in the sand
Speaker 1: there and they adjourned for their summer recess without having
Speaker 1: come to an agreement. Now, again, we don't know what
Speaker 1: sort of mood they'll be in. You know that the
Speaker 1: expression is absence makes the heart grow funder. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that's the case for Republicans and Democrats coming off
Speaker 1: their their recess. But if this sort of thing it
Speaker 1: changed to happen, my guess is we'll see them come
Speaker 1: to some sort of an agreement uh in September. But again,
Speaker 1: with an election three months away, neither side feels really
Speaker 1: compelled to be the one that gives in. First we
Speaker 1: mentioned Texas, also Florida. I want you to tell us
Speaker 1: about what's going on in Puerto Rico. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's really bad uh there. And you know, a big
Speaker 1: chunk of the funding that was certainly requested by President
Speaker 1: Obama was to increase funding both for medicaid and additional
Speaker 1: grants to help treat to help combat the population there.
Speaker 1: And certainly, not only is it a problem for the
Speaker 1: people within Puerto Rico, but because it's US territory, you know,
Speaker 1: there's easy transit between the islands, um and and the
Speaker 1: rest of the continent of the United States. And so
Speaker 1: you've seen concerns. Certainly in Florida bipartisan both senators Republican
Speaker 1: Marco Rubio Democrat Bill Nelson certainly want them to come
Speaker 1: back and address this. And I think Rubio would even
Speaker 1: be fine with the president's higher request. But certainly both
Speaker 1: parties there want to get this fixed. You know. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for them so far, the rest of the country isn't
Speaker 1: impacted by that. And you know the expression all politics
Speaker 1: are local and right now it's it's something that's in
Speaker 1: the news but hasn't really touched home for I guess
Speaker 1: a sufficient number of Americans, well, Brian Uh to reconvene Congress.
Speaker 1: Forty seven Senate Democrats have already asked the Senate Majority Leader,
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, as well as Paul Ryan House Leader, to
Speaker 1: go ahead and reconvene Congress immediately. You know they could
Speaker 1: I think, um, you know, Senator McConnell's answer would probably well,
Speaker 1: why should we reconvene for you so you can say
Speaker 1: no again. You know, you had a bill we had
Speaker 1: to compromise, uh there on the desk that you rejected
Speaker 1: in June, and I think they feel comfortable that that's
Speaker 1: the bill they want to move forward. Now. Again, events
Speaker 1: can change very quickly, but I don't think that they're
Speaker 1: necessarily going to heed the call of Democrats and Secretary
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to come back and
Speaker 1: be seen as doing their bidding to just have this
Speaker 1: become more and more of an argument over, for example,
Speaker 1: planned parenthood instead of trying to address address the issue now. Again,
Speaker 1: Republicans may decide that that's not something they want to
Speaker 1: draw a line in the sand on either, But I
Speaker 1: don't think that's the cases we sit here on August nine.
Speaker 1: As we sit here, there are companies such as in Novio, Snofi,
Speaker 1: and Glaxo smith Klein. They are working to develop a
Speaker 1: Zeka vaccine. Did they rely on this kind of government
Speaker 1: funding as well? Well, it certainly helps. And you know
Speaker 1: two of the ones you mentioned U you know, Santa
Speaker 1: Fee and Glaxo smith Klein are in fact working in
Speaker 1: sort of these private public partnership. Santa Fe is in
Speaker 1: the deal with the U. S. Army to try and
Speaker 1: work on a vaccine. Glad So Smith Klient is working
Speaker 1: separately with the n i H, and so these grant
Speaker 1: funds you know, are coming in not only for the
Speaker 1: vaccines but also for diagnostic agents and tests to help
Speaker 1: people to at least identify what this is, because this
Speaker 1: is one of the tough things about ZEKA is it's
Speaker 1: not readily apparent that that you might have. The symptoms
Speaker 1: are tough, tough to deal with, tough to identify, and
Speaker 1: and so yes, absolutely this is something where they would
Speaker 1: rely on some government funding to help move that process along.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for enlightening us. Brian Ry is
Speaker 1: our senior healthcare policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, the government
Speaker 1: team of course, Bloomberg Intelligence providing real and unique research
Speaker 1: and context on a variety of industries, all markets, and
Speaker 1: government factors that affect business. This is Bloomberg. Bloomberg taking
Speaker 1: Stock is brought to by Instinct Equities from Bank of
Speaker 1: America Merrill Lynch. Your access to inform insights, market color
Speaker 1: and unique liquidity Instinct Equities. That's the power of global connections.