back and it is a sign that the latest in millis may be working its way through to the economy. they have their limits. laying the groundwork. we look ahead to the semi-annual testimony. executive grilling. the chief executive and chairman appears before lawmakers helping citizens evade taxes. if that was not enough, we would speak with the ceo of the shipping company ahead of the open. the futures are up and the dax futures are down six points. let's get back to the market open with manus cranny. >> a paz for breath. the u.k. made it through to three weeks of grinding gains together.

we managed to recoup everything it given away. the question you must ask yourself is whether the footsie is an index worthy of the record highs. the usa regains the records. the footsie is up on the year and the question is, is there more value to be had? let's look inside and see if it is anything. it is up. that is where there is a disappointment. you stay in the chain of hotels owned up and it is ahead of estimates. coffee is a rise. that is below what the market expected. is driving in earlier and what

you had was 10 year government bonds in greece. if you had stuck with the greek government bonds, you would have a positive return and if you had the greek government bonds, the 10 year is below the five-year average yesterday and it was up nearly 10%. >> thank you very much. that is the market open. we come back lower and a company and focus is the operator of the biggest shipping container line and it missed estimates this morning. a 20% stake of shareholders. i am joined by the ceo. great to have you with us. a good morning for you.

a lot of news coming. what is the strategy here? >> over the last years, we have been on a journey and tried to focus on the activities of the shipping and oil industry and related businesses. that was not a core business for us and we decided to divest it. there is a guarantee that they will take the marketplace. >> the focus is on shipping and oil. do you think oil is lower than this part of the business? what does this mean? give me a number.

>> we assume oil prices will stay under pressure this year and we do not expect a recovery anywhere above 100 or where they were before. we think we will have to adjust our business and, in the short to medium-term it will have a positive impact. being a conglomerate, we are not too worried about it. >> will you have to cut? >> we reduce jobs in the oil businesses. being a conglomerate, the investment profile can be different from our competitors and we just commissioned 1.8 billion u.s. dollars in norway

and we expect to approve the investment. being a conglomerate with a strong financial ballots, we will continue investing in the oil industry and there is a low price environment with reservations in the industry. it does not mean we cannot continue threatening our business. >> let's talk about the shipping side. there is so much noise made about the index off of the record low. the doom and gloom are's say this is a sign that we are about to have global recession. what is your interpretation? >> the business has nothing to do with the index.

having said that, the shipping rates will remain under pressure and what we are doing is trying to ensure that we are very competitive. the profits of the shipping business or up last year and there was a double-digit return on the investing capital. we like the shipping business and think it is doing very well. >> the highest ever and the underlying profit is $4.5 billion and up compared to last year. we are extremely pleased with the performance. >> let's talk about the bank. they have had a tough time

keeping the euro. >> it does not impact our business. we do not do any business of significance. we consider ourselves a dollar-denominated business and it does not impact our business. they work hard and it will be successful. it is managed as is and was part of the euro. i'm not the central bank. >> you are not. thank you for joining us. we have the shipping industry. i'm joined by jim mccormick. >> where do we start? still, the shipping business is

under a lot of pressure and a lot of people are looking at demand and china. is there a problem? ask there is probably too much negative sentiment around global growth. you look at the leading indicator and things have softened a bit. we have done work on what oil means for transportation and what it goes down, the transportation costs get lower over time. >> it helps the shipping side of business. on the other side, you look at the easing and that is not a sign that the world is in a good place right now. it is softer than what people are expecting in the big issue is that global inflation is lower. that is not necessarily a bad thing.

from a backwards looking perspective i think people are getting it. >> i have to talk you about china. what is happening in china right now? >> is hard to read the numbers. the data tends to be flaky. i do not know. i think we are in a soft patch in a secular downtrend and we have seen these things before. our view is that it will be a soft landing. we will have another soft patch. >> does it mean the people's bank of china needs to do more for the soft landing? >> we think they have cut the reserve requirement ratio. >> is that playing at the edges?

do we expect more to come? >> we are not expecting anything big. certainly, from what we seen they cannot do more. we think it is managing at the edges and that is all you're going to see. >> talk to me about the markets -- the markets and the commodities coming under pressure. this has been going on for a while in the commodity space. when did things start to pick up across the commodity spectrum? >> it has been difficult most of i would say that 2015 is not the year to get excited. we think oil will stay around $50 a barrel this year. there has been a lot of enthusiasm with the idea of oil coming down. within copper will remain well supported.

i'm not think it is a great investment. >> one of the stocks i have been looking at is oil against treasury yields. the yields following commodities closely? >> listen i think you have a drop in oil and that is the only thing a market will follow. the financial market has been stuck to what the market is doing. it looks and consistent with other large oil prices. they stabilize a go back to where they were a couple of years ago. >> we will talk treasuries and janet yellen on day you -- day two of her testimony. that is the top stock story. shipping rates remain under pressure. telefonica reported

fourth-quarter net income. a big drop with solid numbers this morning. we speak to the financial director about his view about the upcoming u.k. election. the ukraine crisis and equity markets are not blinking. the u.k. joins the s&p 500. we will have more on those after this short break.

>> let's head to the european bond market. the yield below 1% for the first time. who saw that coming a couple of years ago? the bond rally is phenomenal over the last 12 months. the record low and record highs in the equity markets. a theme we are seeing play out. take it back as far as you want and the ftse 100 grinds higher and equity markets rally and bond markets rally. the takeaway is jim mccormick. let's go to business. have you ever seen a time where there is a big bond market rally and a big equity market rally at

the same time? >> not in magnitude. you look at the last couple of years and you have significantly easy monetary policy bumping up against good earnings and decent growth. you put those together and it is fantastic for as it prices. >> talk about the record highs and trading as much as in china. the eurozone is trading off the back. >> the european equities are interesting right now. you look at 12 months forward and everybody got out at the wrong time and the earnings numbers are looking better. if you look at the growth in europe, it is at the highest level we have seen in a long time. >> the bond markets and the

yield below 1%. inflation is a big part of the rally and deflation. talk to me about demographics. what will happen to the bond market in the future? >> they are looking at global savings and for the past 30 years, you have a large proportion with the demographics and this is savings. you have people started to prepare for retirement and it is starting to shift. they are moving into the savings and retirement and there is not many filling in the gap underneath. i think that, from a global demographics point of view the support of the markets is changing. >> it is a big documents and we do not have much time.

the demographics and savings issue take me inside to financial markets. is it more bearish? >> a little bit of both. we see the biggest impact with real interest rates for lots of different reasons cyclically. the secular argument is the savings is starting to go away over the next 10 or 20 years. >> jim mccormick, we're talking about interest rates. check out the 10 year bond yield below 1% for the first time ever. who saw that coming? will talk politics in the recruiting firm this morning with a chaotic u.k. election of ahead. will the confidence last?

we will speak to the finance director after the break. stay with us.

>> welcome back. despite the confidence, they have expressed concern that the u.k. general election could slow business in the country down.

to quote an excellent earnings report, i would have to say the same thing. i have read it. >> we have talked about the growth and this is about converting into profit. the increase drops to the bottom line and there is a big increase with a cash performance. that is the excellence. >> we talked about this show and the whole world with the eurozone on the edge of the cliff. germany is up and france is up. you are not experiencing any slowdowns. >> there has been a week backdrop. it is not like there has been a strong backdrop. all of us continue in january and february. it feels like it is a stable market and it is ahead, despite

of the politics. >> ahead of the u.k. election do you see any slowdown at all or anything like that? >> they are still at the end of february and they have seen a slow down in positions with central government. it is business as usual and the private sector was delivering stronger growth. 13% is a strong performance and we started january and february strongly. we have seen nothing so far. >> do you think you will question mark a lot of people are talking about a rough second or third quarter. there is no clear victor that could go into june war july. i know it is hard to give in

outlook. >> if we give an election with no clear leader, it is the view that might stop the incremental investment. it is driven by people and they comes off of a slow watermark several years ago. we will continue to grow. i do not know if it'll be good growth. >> let's talk about the impact. the monetary policy is high on the agenda for this year. the euro against the pound has the pound at a seven-year high. >> the beauty is that we can do anything. as you saw, we delivered great profits and at a profits after the exchange. the business is impacted by 4

million and the profits will be impacted by a 11 million pounds. we will still deliver a significant increase. i am not clear if interest rates will increase. inflation is that such a low level and there will not be a lot of pressure. if you are getting the sterling over the euro at the moment -- >> real wage growth outstrips inflation. is that what you are seeing? >> it was up 3%. that is not say, we love you and we would like to give you more money, that is wage inflation. that is a positive. clearly, we talk about less wage inflation and it will be closer to 3%. with the inflation at zero

there will be confidence that can be good enough. the key is a great candidate and there will be more targeted increases in wages across the board. >> help me+++ about? >> the election is the time verizon and a clear decision. you can see a situation with

that. we come to europe and we should have the referendum and have the discussion to get it off of the table. >> let's have the debate is the number. thank you for joining us this morning. we have to take you back to greece. they buy a little more time and the risks remain in greece and france and italy. more on that after the break.

>> welcome back. 30 minutes into the training day -- trading day. the close of the all-time high yesterday. it took 15 years to break through that level. as much as we do, we came down. we thought the equity market. we will check out the bond market. but the irish on yield dropping below this morning for the first time ever. i repeat, who saw that coming? mark barton, did you see it coming? >> only when it was above 1%. no.

not when it was above that. look at that up. the highest rise since 2016. it is an oil company and a shipping company. that is why they are developing their stake in denmark and the biggest bank. it will distribute an extraordinary cash dividend to shareholders. what is astonishing is a subsidiary for oil and shipping business and the missed earnings estimates today. the shares are up by 4.5% with the highest share prices since october of 2008. that is something special today for shareholders. a 12% jump in profits and higher

earnings. net income missed estimates. they are focusing on faster growing nations like china and nigeria. the oilfield services company had shares are up by 2% today. the profit fell by 10% because of the project a lace the slumping oil prices. the earnings did detail that. we have something special of the oil company ceo. he told us that we will see 70-80 dollars more quickly than expected. that is something. the oil company executive is reluctant to put the head on the line. >> we have a number. >> releasing minutes from the

last week and cutting rates. whether it is a sign of division it is a strategy for expansionary policy. unclear how the ecb will affect sweden. the take is that it has bottomed out a bit in sweden. the takeaway is that there is division in the expansion of the monetary policy. inflation is trending lower and growth in gdp remained stable in the country. you see a stronger swedish krona off of the back of those minutes . let me take you back to athens with the stock opening up. down by a 10th of 1%. the yield on the note is 4%.

i say just because it was off 20. a little bit more time. for months. the pressure is off. the equities are higher. the yield are lower. the expansion means the funding runs out in june and the big bond expansion in july and august. for more let's check at -- >> is the first step in a long line of negotiation and it is clear the european politician wanted to have a solution and did not want a new party to allow greece to go towards the

exit. there is an issue and a conflict with the politicians. that is the european way and there is lots of meetings and compromises. the risk remains that we can be doing the same dance again. >> the big issue is the banking. does this solve anything? >> it may give them a stay of execution. as you point out, it can go fast and the europeans tend to -- once the brinksmanship is gone they will settle back and slow down and it will go fast. any conduct -- any kind of plausible be a capital positive

people will because is. >> the spanish financed or -- finance minister has this. what message has the eurogroup sent to the parties in some of these? >> i think it is right that they are trying to renegotiate and you have to stick to it. i think there is another side to it and the eu agrees to the list we received and there is room for negotiation and to some extent. how they do that and what the details are remains to be seen. the european authorities have to be mindful. they want to avoid this kind of cascade effect doing better and

better in the elections. >> it is quite remarkable. is that going to be the message from europe? is that a false sense of security? >> the market is flattered by the prospect of the next months. the message they would want to spend is, if you do what you need to do, you restructure your balance sheets and your funding costs will collapse and you will be the wonder kids of the european union. that is the message they will

send. it is the tire that floats all boats. >> it has taken a little bit over the last couple of years. the biggest risk is france and italy and the risk remains. >> france because of the superficial and they do not make france a strong economic outlook. in that point of view, france is a big concern and the lack avoiding this to reform. keeley helps along the way. the inability to put in structural reforms has plans grand and the execution is close to zero. it is. a problem for the next

6-12 months. at some point over the next years, i would not be surprised to see a real crisis point where they start to struggle. a lot of it is internal debt and that is a bigger concern. >> how you express that view in the markets? the tie-in equity market in europe and the world this year. how do you express that view? >> to get around the individual credits it is a good way to express this. as you sell with greece and the tensions it went in for did and it really takes the pain. i will be cautious about the front end of the curve and i will hold the assets against it.

the credit exposure is zero and you are looking to exploit that. it should be helped by the process. >> thank you very much for joining us this morning. we had to the break and here is a picture of the brakes in europe. let's check in with the equities. there we are. back into record-breaking equity. we are getting back as we speak and the dax has a record high of 11,000 points. remarkable move in greece and it comes off by a 10th of 1%. we are higher on greek equities and the yield is down to 12.4%. the yield is dropping below 1%. it is flat right now.

you can take a view on that and talk about that a little later on in the show. we'll bring you back to london tax scandals plaguing banks and heading to parliament to answer questions about the subject. the news out of germany is prosecutors are starting at commerzbank. we will have a look ahead after the break.

>> good morning and welcome back. let's bring up some of his stories a bloomberg. pmi came up and the manufacturing beat analyst estimates to put it back in territory. the measures were meant to counter a housing market slump with additional support. the fourth quarter net income. check it out. just over 150 million euros. the current decline is 36% and the largest investor in telecommunications is struggling. here is the four-year profit that will miss analyst estimates. the computer maker says the impact of a stronger dollar will help -- hurt results. hp shares dropped 8% following

the earnings release yesterday. we are also watching the banks this morning. germany is investigating the bank over suspicions of tax evasion in luxembourg. we thought it was a little bit messy. >> what we have is a clear indication they will cooperate with the investigation and watched an internal inquiry. it has to do with the private unit from a decade ago. the authorities raided the offices and went to the offices in frankfurt and 150 investigators went throughout the country to look at tax avoidance and not paying taxes. here is the statement commerce tank put out.

the investigation is based on old cases dating back and this is about individuals sheltering taxes. it does not have to do with the corporate tax structure. there is more private individuals shielding money and they are seeking to lower by children profits. there is a big way to bring back private taxes stashed overseas. there will be a conversation and we will be learning more about the situation. >> thank you very much. the executive grilling is coming up here. the big one will appear before the panel to answer questions about the recent tax evasion revelations.

what can we expect a day? >> they are getting the ceo with market capitalization and you have the election year. it answers questions about how the bank operated and we were asked to provide customer service to those who were not making it in a legal manner. this is something with allegations late at the bank door. the bankers said sorry and they took out advertisements. as i said, it is an election year. expect breaking executives expressing apologies once again. a lot of this will come down to

the bank account. a panamanian shell company was paying the bonuses. for privacy reasons, he is trying to stop his colleagues from trying to find out how big the bonuses were. the politicians are trying to paint this as an otherworldly cloture with the links that they will go to describe the earnings , even if it does not mean they were trying to evade tax in any way. >> there is a fine line between evasion and avoidance. it dominates things more than any accusation of breaking the law. >> he closed one and that is a

line of questioning we would hear more about. he and the bank have said they have disclosed to the u.k. authorities, in some cases voluntarily. after the election year, you can express this and politicians trying to get to the bottom of what they were doing in 2007 and how things changed since then to choose the clients and the services they provide. >> as a business, some are asking whether the bank should be split up. >> indeed. this is an issue that dominates newspaper coverage. let's not forget that this is a company in transition and he has sold 70 businesses and taking

out 50,000 jobs. he said the ongoing process is at the business model. some of the national divisions could face extreme solutions. the likes of the businesses in brazil, mexico, and turkey. he says that he still believes in the universal banking model. they are going to be held accountable for 2007 today. we could see the universal banking model be questions that question. they say the bank has reduced profit targets and it raises questions about this banking it model at this time. it has become a word for complexity and risk. that is the other story rumbling

around. >> thank you very much. if you want to catch some of the political theater being talked about, we will have live coverage and the hearing with parliament later. as we head to the break, here is the picture of the equity market. at an all-time high and disappointed as it comes down at three points. we will talk about u.k. politics and should investors be confident ahead of chaos after the next election. join us.

>> welcome. good morning to you. ftse 100 coming off of an all-time high. they comes to an election and investors are confident. are we heading towards chaos at the polls? they will talk politics. guy johnson joins us. >> many books written about the time with blair and it will be interesting to get his take on where the labour party is. they put the parties in and connect. we are heading to the point where the party plays a bigger role. david cameron and ed miliband

will be central in this. the polling has a bigger spread. he says that he is trying to move the focus off of ed miliband. there will be a take on how this is actually achieved. >> could the allegations have come at a worse time for the bank with a political football? >> you have to think about the size and scale of the institution and whether it is front and center in a story that we will ultimately see and whether investors will be better by that. if you slim this down and move the assets into different groups and several entities whether that would take the political focus away and if you would get more value. i think there will always be a

tension and you will wonder what the outcome will be. >> for me, when every single media outlet takes a different picture you did a good job saying nothing yesterday. >> if you understood what i said, you do not understand what i am saying. you wonder if there was a bit of that last night. i look at the index and i think that what she was saying was that there was a possibility of a rate hike and that we are not going to move earlier into risk and recovery. on balance, she was a bash. >> the semiannual testimony is today and we will be testimony -- previewing that in the polls. those indexes are coming off of record highs. north of 11,000 points and the ftse 100 off of an all-time high , down three points from yesterday.

the bond markets bring you a headline and the 10 year and the yield below. if you want to talk about that, i am on twitter.

>> hsbc and bank bosses are questions over the recent tax scandals. >> limits to lead fed chairman. she says she'll not risk the recovery by tightening quickly. we will look at the implications. >> insufficient. we will ask the finance minister if he thinks the proposal goes far enough.