mark: deferral over the -- lagarde warns she won't let greece see a penny of the payment. anna: a physician opinion. the u.k. election debate. media mogul donating another million pounds to the independent party. mark: the sony hack redux. 200,000 internal documents, opening a new chapter in the saga.

hello and welcome to "countdown." caroline: coming up we will talk about the business of the environment. 43 major companies, including hsbc and ikea are called to action over climate change. mark: no reprieve for greece. christine lagarde's warning she wouldn't let greece's get a debt payment. christine lagarde: we have never had an advanced economy ask for that kind of thing, delayed payment, and i very much hope that this is not the case with greece. caroline: greece made a payment to the imf earlier this month and must now pay the group $1 billion in may. the company is still locked in talks with its creditors. the finance minister unisphere ficus was insistent that he was

willing to compromise, and would stand firm on not towing the red line. youngest there are factors -- >> we know the government -- that our partners should not wish to impose upon us, not just for our sake but for the global interest. caroline: var this comes as the government faces its first protest rally. 4000 protestants defended on the main square in athens in a sign of brewing domestic discontent. mark: greece took center stage ahead of the meetings in washington today. christine lagarde outlined other risks, what she called the new mediocre. christine lagarde: the new

reality could be the new mediocre. policymakers, finance ministers do not actually address the risks that we have on the horizon. but that new reality could look a lot better both today and tomorrow if they address those risks. let me explain what i mean by today and tomorrow. today we are seeing recovery coming along, 3.5% this year. but it is not strong enough, and it is very uneven. you mentioned a china slowing down you could have mentioned russia being in negative territory as well. we have a very diverse picture at the moment, the economy is doing better. the u.s. is strong and we see good things. the u.k. is doing quite well. the euro area at last is picking up some growth. but we are also seeing in this emerging market world very slow

movers, which is unusual because a were very fast and they still make up 70% of the growth we are expecting. it is critical that they all work together. >> i can go right to howard university -- the argument over the so-called secular stagnation, identifying the work you have done, are you towards optimism, or is there something about secular stagnation? christine lagarde: what i resent about secular stagnation is that it gives the impression that you are stuck, and you are not going to get yourself out of the whole. my new mediocre is the risk that it is one that we can get out of together, if we take the right measures, if we really adopted the

policymakers. what we have today is where we don't have all the advanced economies in the same boat. it is going to type them gradually in the u.s. nicely expanding and being very accommodating in japan and europe. completely specific in that category. monetary policy has to be specific. fiscal policy has to be smart. it cannot be tightened or expanded, adjusted to the characteristics of the country. >> is greece removed from getting a free pass from the imf or is greece going to go the other way and just say no? which is it going to be with greece when they come calling? christine lagarde: you are very well-informed. those two countries that have the benefit of delays were back 30 years ago. they were developing countries. we never had an advanced economy

asking for that kind of thing, delayed payments and i very much hope that this is not the case with greece. i would call myself not supportive. caroline: breaking news on that -- expected merger between the world's biggest cement maker. some of the shareholders are not liking the agreement. euro cement wants a board membership seat, but that has been put to the back burner because they came out this morning saying what they see as the future -- disposing of assets. lafarge will let go of seven terminals and a plant, disposing of assets in $450 million. they include divestment from holcim. this is all to try and get the ftc approval for their m&a.

they say they are subject to ftc approval but so far they sound pretty optimistic, saying they hope the merger will be due to close in july. they still need shareholder signoff. the agenda, they say, will not include the euro cement putting forward that they want a membership on the board. many feel that would be the linchpin to this deal, if euro cement kicked it off and got the membership, but as we know, it won't be part of the general meeting. notably, they are saying the merger will be due to close in july. mark: we are 20 days from the general election. the bbc hosted in opposition leaders debate last night. party leaders questioned on tv without the presence of david cameron. and ana has the story. anna: the standout moment had to

come between the smp and ed miliband -- that was a relationship to watch going into the debate, the key relationship. labor has ruled out any full coalition, that everybody wants to know just how closely the parties would be able to work together. this is the exchange we picked out. >> is that the key that you would rather see david cameron go back then work with the smp? [applause] >> the differences -- i voted tory all my life. unlike your leader, who said vote lib dem i went with a tory coalition. you fought labor all your life.

>> protecting david cameron out of downing street -- anna: heated! caroline: i love their exchanges keeping david cameron out of downing street. what other areas? anna: they cover government spending, social housing, immigration, and what would happen in the event of a hung parliament? these were things we had heard earlier in the week talking about a housing shortage led to the first mention of immigration of the night, 27 minutes into the debate. this plays into some of the commentary we have heard from nigel farish. he talked about how social housing should only be for an u.k. nationals and that did not get any reaction, for no positive reaction. that angle nigel berridge. they were criticizing their

left-leaning selection of audience members and the bbc was quick to point out that was not how the audience had been picked. mark:>> there seems to be a total lack of comprehension on this panel and in this audience even by the left-wing standards of the bbc. >> nigel, this is an audience that has been carefully chosen by the bbc, by an independent polling organization to represent the balance between all parties. [applause] >> i think it is very interesting. you cannot discuss -- caroline:anna: he was clearly here to win friends and influence people.

we had a snap poll, it said that ed miliband had come out best, for nicola sturgeon didn't do too badly. there was a fascinating dynamic taking place. there was this expected rounding on ed miliband on a number of occasions where parties were turning toward him and saying -- what will you do, challenging him because he was the only person in the room who had the chance to be prime minister. there was no david cameron something that was commented on by these leaders, #wheresdave #noshow. what was interesting is that the three parties in the middle, but left-leaning they all made it crystal clear that they would be very willing to work with the labor government. mark: 6:11 here in london. let's get to north korea.

said he is facing a new chapter in its cyberattacks tsonga after the whistleblowing -- cyber attack saga after their information was leaked. yvonne man is in hong kong. how was the market reacting to this story? yvonne: we are seeing quite a selloff of sony shells -- sony shares. we are talking more than 30,000 documents and 70,000 e-mails leaked out between thousands of sony employees. this is what you are going to find now -- everything is searchable by file, by e-mail. you just have to put a keyword in there and you can find a lot of interesting details including some e-mails from the ceo of sony pictures talking

about the relationship between north korea and japan. the attack last year was what triggered "the interview," the assassination plot against kim jong-un. this is the same material that was leaked out. that a statement, julian assange sent out something saying this should be on public domain and we are going to ensure that it stays there because this shows the working of a very influential multinational corporation. a says it is newswrorthy. sony came out and condemned it, saying it is criminal. mark: yvonne, does this new leak even matter? yvonne: if you look at the

bigger picture here, probably not. we saw the first response from the first hack late last year and we really didn't see too much financial damage when it comes to sony. image wise, embarrassing, but take a look at the early vote. the stock itself has more than doubled. over the long-term, maybe the worst may have happened already. mark: is on, thank you -- y vonne, thank you. caroline: a call to action on climate change. companies have penned an open letter imploring world leaders to take steps to curb global omissions. ikea, dow chemicals, and hsbc are among those who signed. it is a sign that businesses are prepared for participants at the united nations climate change conference to reach a universal

and legally binding agreement on reducing emissions. they meet in paris at the end of the year. greenhouse gas emissions are at record levels and are projected to raise global temperatures by 3.6 degrees celsius by the end of the century, the quickest climate shift than 10,000 years. mark: top stories on bloomberg is our. 11,000 jobs cut. the world's largest oil field announced it would count 9000 positions in oil prices. its latest announcement will shrink the workforce by 15%. a memorial service takes place in cologne to remember the 150 people who lost their lives in the german wings crash. the event marks the anniversary of the re-founding of the

lufthansa. citigroup saw a 21% rise in third-quarter profits, the highest since the onset of the crisis. goldman sachs reported its highest in five years with all of its major business areas exceeding analyst estimates. caroline: let's talk nestle -- we have the earnings breaking now. it looks as theough -- >> the expectation was 4.2% but it looks like it will be 4.5%. their long-term growth doesn't refer to organic products but that is when you strike out all the noise from currency fluctuations and acquisitions. the goal was 5% to 6% so this is a bit of a beat.

the issues with the company are well known, and part of the issue is china is slowing down their products. the united states also has issues with their frozen foods. they are trying to sell their frozen foods right now in europe as well. mark: thanks a lot. for .4% growth and nestle. -- 4.4% growth for nestle. ♪

mark: let's take a look at the u.k. election. we heard from five opposition party leaders last night as may 7 looms. that's take a look at what they are doing to affect the market. joining us now is the fx strategist. they are down by 2% in the last month -- implied volatility. give us a call on sterling versus the dollar, the euro -- depending on the outcome of the election. peter: i think sterling will weaken a little bit, because i think most of the good news in the u.k. is priced in. it is interesting what you said

about the volatility -- volatility has increased a lot. that is largely the calendar fact. what's more interesting is back and volatility -- very sanguine very relaxed. the market is not too concerned, because that is where risks would manifest, but it isn't. my interest in the market is saying -- the respective who gets into power, the kind of think that some kind of agreement with the european union. caroline: even though we have seen a weakness in the pound up, it is not filling in. do you agree that the market should be so sanguine? peter: i think it showed. one of the problems is if you look at the fx market in general , you see that we have quite a lot of them -- volatility. but equities, not there at all. what is happening in the u.k. percent is in mrs. -- u.k. per

se isn't. i think it is the case of -- within the only way you will see -- even if the u.k. were to leave the european union it won't be affected given that the ongoing hunt for yields are likely to be unaffected. mark: let's talk about the u.s. a number of fed officials spoke within the last 24 hours -- there is a divide. stanley fischer seems to be more eager to raise rates while others seem to want to take a wait and see approach. is a confusing? divergence within the u.s. central bank? peter: people can be forgiven for being confused about what is going on. i think the point the fed wants

-- the point is that the fed wants to get rates higher. they know when it returns they want to be able to cut rates. for me, the question is whether it is june or september and that is kind is irrelevant. what's more important is the patent scale of subsequent rate kites. -- rate hikes. i'm not certain what the date is however the recent q1 data has been pretty poor in general, but that is nothing spectacular. last year we also had a poor data in q1. in that context, the next print will be very important. we definitely should see no more effective the first quarter. caroline: dollar weakness this week, the euro-yen had the best month versus the dollar. should we be seeing this

continue or will we start to see clearer data? peter: i think so. it is the simple premise -- the only central-bank normalizing their monetary policy, everyone is using very aggressively. this brought a dollar trend should continue. caroline: that is painful, isn't it? you are taking a few hits. peter: you are, indeed. you would have to be decent on your entry levels. caroline: what does this portfolio --mark: what does this rebalancing tell us? peter: investors take the money and then go and buy bonds or assets elsewhere in other, higher-yielding currencies. caroline: are they? we have seen costs driven down -- it doesn't feel like everyone

is getting out. peter: it doesn't. the question is -- are some of the sovereign investors willing to buy bonds with negative yields? i would think that would be a no-no. why buy a negative yield when you can buy in another state at 1.9%? in that context you are starting to see evidence of the rebalancing.. coming up into june and july there are heavy schedules for european sovereign bonds. i wouldn't be overly surprised if we see more of that. i guess you could see towards a lot of -- these things never go in a straight line. i wouldn't be surprised. caroline: what other trade rather than the euro-dollar would you be looking at right now, if you are having a volatile roller coaster when it

comes to the dollar and other currencies? peter: a good one is to think about the yen. the main reason being -- if you look at the inflation metrics in japan they are appalling. we are looking at an underlying inflation rate of basically 0%. what that tells us is that -- the question is how. until he get further increases in the program, which is already enormous, or will they consider more unconventional measures. mark: if you were long of the dollar against the yen you would have lost -- peter: i think they have to consider more unconventional measures. it's like negative deposit rates. it will be a pretty big incentive for the japanese to cut the exposure. caroline: still to come we

take a look at those in the top pay grade -- one american is about to become the most highly paid ceo. stay tuned. ♪

mark: welcome back. time for look at the foreign exchange markets. we are set for our fourth weekly decline in five. the u.s. continuing to undermine the process. this week, we have had below are forecast readings for american housing, factories, and rep ay coupled with disappointing jobs data at the end of last month.

down by 1.5% over the last week, the dollar has fallen against all of its major peers with a 4.7% decline against the norwegian krone. the dollar spot index is now 3% below its march 13 record. that officials are divided -- fed officials are divided about the timing of the next rate hike. stanley fischer is saying they can't keep interest rates at a record low forever. the atlanta fed president said he wants to see falling unemployment and rising inflation prior to the first rate increase. the latest bloomberg survey shows a 71% participating economists expect the fed to raise rates in september, up from 32% in last month's survey.

those calling for a june move shrunk to 12%. data to watch today is the consumer prices, which rose 1.7% in march from the year earlier. if you include food and energy consumer prices year-over-year are expected to come in at 0%, a long way from a 2% inflation . caroline: let's check in on some other top stories. a new constitution designed to limit single party -- the charter proposes a new voting system and hopes to stop the over influence of certain groups and could pave the way for new elections in the country and the end of military rule which has been in place since the coup. etsy surged 88% in its trading debut.

the company which makes money by charging artisans commissions to sell their goods is the biggest success story in a day when three firms made their debut on wall street. chief executives from some of the world's leading companies have called on international leaders to take strong action on climate change. in an open letter, ikea and hsbc have pledged their commitment to aa low carbon economy. the billionaire founder of go pro is about to be the highest-paid american executive. the 39-year-old was granted 4.5 million restricted stock units valued at $280 million, leaving him at the number one spot. more on that story. mark: staying with the top pay

grade chief executives who aren't getting the races they used to. pay increases grew 1.5% last year, the slowest growth since the decline in 2008. gregory elders joins us. good morning. what is behind this trend? gregory: pay increases were practically flat. what we see is a median 4 million pounds $6 million. there are some big increases in there as well, the what has been driving this is a slowdown in share price appreciation and earnings growth which brings down the value of share awards as well as bonuses. the other thing behind this is that there have been those who are more vocal. 1/10 of companies had at least 25% of their shareholders vote against executive pay, double

the rate you have in the united states, up from only a handful in the u.k. in previous years. companies are listening. you have the issue with bg group and their new ceo -- they wanted to pay him a very large pay package and the company ended up backing down in the face of shareholder opposition. caroline: still the highest-paid energy executive in europe. mark: and he will do well out of the shell deal. $40 million or something? gregory: shareholders are going to vote against that. so we see with the energy sector that there is this breakdown between correlation between executive pay growth and earnings per share growth. that makes sense -- earning goes up, patient go up. earnings have the client as well as share prices. oil prices have fallen and costs have come up.

but you have not seen ceos of bg, shell, bp have a hit. caroline: can we extrapolate as to why? is it just because it is so sudden? shareholders understand they are fighting the market? gregory: good question -- shareholders have been asking that question and they are voting against the oil companies. yesterday was bps annual meeting and 12% of shareholders voted against perry. compared to 95% approval across the sea. last year, 16% voted against. that has gotten better but oil and gas companies traditionally have been below average approval. caroline: talk to us a little bit about why we see this. in the u.s. it is all about people being able to come up from nothing -- there isn't a

reticence to have enormous amounts of money? gregory: i think there is a cultural difference and big paychecks are ok. i think there is just more focus in this country, investors are much more aware of it. last year, the big thing with the business secretary who put in place -- shareholders did a binding of a mandatory vote on pay packages. it is really trying to align executive pay with shareholder interest. mark: thank you. caroline: let's go to new york now, where the 14th annual tribeca film festival kicks off in new york this week. terrell massar spoke with the festival founders, none other than robert deniro and jane rosenthal. the business of making movies in a very new digital age. >> i'm just curious -- what is

challenging about doing this festival? >> i enjoy it. >> i am still challenged. its extraordinary when it all comes together, when all the filmmakers coming to town, the producers and actors, all the different storytellers. it is becoming more interesting, the change in technology how we can watch stories on any screen. we have always tried to push that, whether it was our free drive-in to watch movies on the west side highway or the vine. this year we are going to do something with snapchat. we always look to try and be ahead and develop new storytellers. carol: it was hard to go

downtown after 9/11 and you guys made a difference of what you did -- what you think it is still important? in terms of the relationship with the shady. jane rosenthal: after 9/11 it took a while for people to feel like downtown was alive again. carol: what do you think about the business of making movies? there is so much emphasis on overseas distribution and you have to think about much more in terms of how it appeals overseas. is it harder to make movies? robert in nero: it is harder to make movies -- robert deniro: it is harder to make movies on one hand.

a movie like "goodfellas" would have been made differently -- marty and marion -- i hate to talk about it, but we are doing a film like "goodfellas." it will be done in the same way but differently because of the times. all this technology, it is creating movies of a different sort, becoming something else, whether they have the same impact -- i am not sure if i'm qualified to answer this. the big communal screen type situation -- carol: is that a good thing? jane rosenthal: it is generational. you ask one of our kids how they want to watch a movie i couldn't imagine watching a movie on my iphone, but our kids

do. robert deniro: there are movies that you really should watch with an audience -- a comedy for example, because the laughter becomes infectious and it is a whole other feeling. any good movie but a comedy especially. jane rosenthal: you are also creating an immersive environment. audiences have so many choices of where they want to watch what they want to watch. you are seeing a rise in short filmmakers with amazing talent. you see films -- short films and talent that is coming out youtube suddenly they are now writing books, doing series. it is a different way of having discovery, and you have far more

choices than you did 14 years ago. carol: i will get yelled at if i don't ask -- abc is working on a miniseries. are you still working with hbo? robert de niro: yeah -- i am not sure what is going to happen at this point. part of me is not sure for other reasons. the script is good. carol: it will get made one way or another. that has to be made in new york. joe baca enterprises has grown into quite an organization -- education, distribution, the festival. where else do you want to take it? jim rosenthal: just success at what we are doing. -- jane rosenthal: just success at what we are doing. robert to nero: you never know

what will happen. next week, it we might go in a new direction. but a good one. caroline: you can join the conversation on twitter. let us know what you think about the tribeca film festival and all the other movies -- "star wars" is trending today. do follow us and let us know what you think of the show. mark: i watched the trailer this morning. coming up, the annual tradition -- the snooki championship gets underway in sheffield. we will speak to the promoter, who has been a leading figure for over 30 years. ♪

mark: for this week's business segment, i spoke to a man who has been a major figure in the world of sports promotion for three decades. he made his name in the 1980's when his company managed the eight biggest names in snooka. today the timing couldn't be better with the world's news

nooka championship. will it stay in sheffield beyond 2017 at the bbc contract runs out? >> the good news is i don't think it will run out in 2017. the sheffield contract runs out in 2017. as i am getting older, i am more nostalgic about history. i would like to stay in the crucible forever, that it does rely on the support of the sheffield council and the bbc. i think i am in safe hands. we have done a very good job. mark: is it out of money? >> and sport, we have to be realistic and say everything comes down too how notes, but pound notes don't buy history.

will wimbledon leave wimbledon? i put snooka in the same category. mark: and believe the bbc in a couple years. i'm not saying it will leave the tournaments -- >> in the world we are in now in sports some discovery channel making a big push in the u.k. -- i predict in the next two or three years that this guy -- these guys will come with big money. mark: give us some idea of the money in it. >> it sounds a lot to the working man but in the world of sport it is not a lot. comparing anything with football it looks insignificant. snookia approaches 10 million

pounds of prize money, a revenue stream of approaching 5 million pounds and tv money. not even a decent midfield player -- mark: 5.1 billion. can the gap close? >> no no. the world of television is all about mopping up what's left. where the team, the team comes last, doesn't win the game and you get 100 million pounds. there is football and there are other sports and we are making very good inroads in the "other sports" department. mark: chairman for 20 years -- do you wish you had had a piece of that money? >> i'd love to throw away a billion pounds a year.

of course we want more money -- but we deserve to share in the progress of the national game, which is the issue of the premier league. it is largely owned by people who keep money to themselves or who will do anything more than just lip service to the game. that is the interesting 1 -- teams like rochdale and scarborough, they should be sharing in this pie being created. mark: is sold to a foreigner -- you are not against foreigners. >> i am not against it because i believe in free trade and i believe in the transfer -- i believe people should begin in the opportunity to live their dream. the foreigners are chasing the glory days of the premier league. even in our division, we are two

divisions away, and these guys are quite prepared to put in a hell of a lot more money, with a little bit more conservative approach to life. mark: back to this newhe snooka. give us a sense of how big it is in china. they would love it, wouldn't they? >> i think we could sell it 410 times the income if we took the world championship there. the question is does it go in my lifetime or at all? you can never say never. mark: would you like to be the man responsible? >> no, my legacy has made me. i would not want my legacy to be -- here lies the man who sold

his soul to the chinese by leaving the crucible and going to the crucible -- the chinese have built -- yeah. that is not where i am coming from but i can't speak for future generations. my purpose will be to stay where i am. but when you say -- how big is it in china? it is huge, it is bigger than formula one. it is now in the national curriculums of the majority of sports in china. where as we play football and rugby, they are playing snooka. a bad season. they seem to be coming back to form, they are headingitting the ball better. could be in danger this year. they are all good players, but

the traditionalists will tell you -- best of 19 best of 25 best player wins. i would love to tell you who will win. he is also a bit -- mark: when you took over for five years ago, he wasn't totally confident. that you won him over -- how did you win them over? people r? >> i can't say i'm the best but people see -- they know what they are doing. eventually, it proved right.

i had exactly the plan in mind, going to more countries, working them. you and i go to work every day and i've believe they should go to work every day. mark: the world snooka chairman, sponsoring a wide array of sports such as boxing, dance, fishing. did you know that? he loves fishing -- he fishes in his garden. caroline: a high-octane excitement driven sport? do you watch it? mark: i won't say anything because those who love fishing will pillar me. fascinating man, loved chatting to him. shall we talk about our picks from bloomberg.com? i watched it this morning -- i

didn't even know was happening yesterday -- it took the world by shock, the latest trailer for "star wars: the force awakens." we have a few clips of it. what is most exciting about this clip is -- it is long. you will see it in just a second -- this is a splice of the trailer. the first teaser didn't have any of the original star wars characters in it, but this -- one of our favorites. there he is! the tingles! i am getting tingly just watching it. the prequel's weren't as good as most people wanted, but this genuinely looks like it will be a good film. kudos to jj abrams who is directing it. becomes out of the end of

december. watch this trailer if you want to tingly feeling. you have mark hamill and carrie fisher who were in the original but you wouldn't have heard it -- caroline: wasn't that the original thing? mark: you didn't know who mark hamill was. you might have known if you were a bit of a nerd, but generally yes. to see harrison ford and chewbacca -- i am getting tingly. caroline: my story won't get so tingly but the money might make you raise your eyebrows. we have this really interesting index -- the bloomberg pay index. transparency awash in the united states -- who are the top pages executives? number one was the go pro chief executive. he is taking away what is equivalent to $284 million.

if you look at the index in general, number five -- paid more than tim cook but number two and number three are actually subprime consumer banking executives. mark: "countdown" continues. ♪

mark: the i.m.f. 's lagarde warns she won't let greece skip any of the payments. caroline: miliband clashes in the u.k. election debate. media mogul richard desmond donates 1.3 million pounds to tuck independent party. mark: opening a new chapter in the saga.

mark: welcome to "countdown." i'm mark barton. caroline: i'm caroline hyde. coming up, we'll talk about the business over the environment. 43 major companies are calling for swift action in climate change. that story sa little bit later. mark: christine lagarde warning she would not let greece skip a payment. >> we never had an advanced economy asking for that kind of thing. delayed payment. i very much hope this is not the case the greece. i would not support it. caroline: greece made a payment to the i.m.f. earlier this month. it must now pay about $1 billion in may. it is locked to its creditors. their finance minister said he was willing to compromise but he would stand firm on not crossing

the government's red line. >> we're not going sign up to what we know our economy cannot meet. our partners should not wish to impose upon us, not just for our sake but for the common european and global interest. caroline: he is stance comes as greece's anti- austerity government faces its first protest rally as it came into office four months ago. mark: let's get to our report. nicholas, good morning. are getting closer to an agreement between greece and its creditors? >> well, i will give you the same answer that an official gave me a couple of days ago when i'm asking the same question. the creditors say that bridging

the gap between two sides it has been negative. not positive. we're not getting closer to a deal. let me give you few examples. creditors say greece's pension system is not sustainable. it is too generous. the government in athens has decided to reinstate christmas bonus for some pensioners. creditors say greece's labor market should be liberalized and deregulated while the government in athens decided to reinstate collective bargaining. the two sides are not any closer to a deal than they were a month ago. mark: how much time does greece have before defaulting and runningout cash?+++

>> that is a tricky question to answer. in a sense, greece has already one out of cash. they are using their reserves, pension funds, universities, hospitals, state enterprises, municipalities of local governments how long can they go on with this cash recycling? most likely they will exhaust all buffers. in the beginning of may, when they have to make a repayment of 750 million euros to the i.m.f. so that should be the crumple time for greece. mark: does that mean we're getting closer to a greek kit from the euro or a -- exit from the euro or a grexit?

>> the baseline for most analysts is that an 11th hour compromise will be reached at the end of the day. before we get there, we're going to see a lot of brinksmanship and a lot of drama. mark: thank you for joining us. caroline: let's return closer to home to the u.k. where 20 days out from the general election and the bbc hosted an opposition leaders debate. it was without the presence of david cameron. standout moments? anna: the relationship between s&p and labor going into this debate was going to be focus.

the labor party said they will not go into a full. that leaves the possibility of working together. watching this debate, you really wanted to get an idea how closely together these two parties would work. >> tell me tonight is it the case that you would rather see david cameron than -- that can not be your positioning. [applause] >> i fought tmp oris all my life. we end one a tori coalition. you fought labor all your life. >> don't turn your back on it.

people will never forgive you. mark: beyond that dynamic, what topics were covered? anna: they gave us more intight into policy, government spending housing, on what they would do with a hung apartment. here we are picking up from what sturgeon was saying there. it is clear there were a number of people on the panel who could quite happily work together if they were all united together to keep the toris out of government. >> most importantly, we want to bring an end to this tori government with its ideological -- and we can work together. i will not -- prop up a conservative government but i also will not a labor government

hell bent on propping up tori policies. anna: there was a poll of viewers. 85% said miliband came off best. interesting that percentage of the population could never vote for state your legal nameon because he is only available for scottish voters. we'll leave that one aside. he was clearly angry. he was talking with people at home, not the people in the studio. the members of the various parties clearly did -- on ed miliband that that had been the fear on the left. caroline: he tried to move to foreign policy. anna: there was conversation about foreign policy.

it took him back to the same story. ed miliband tells this tale about whether the u.k. should take more foreign policy action in syria. because of the action of miliband his party would not back obama's plan, obama had to change his mind and change what he wanted to do. it left me wondering if he is going to be prime minister is if the first thing he does is book a ticket to washington so he can explain why he has been talking so much about taking on obama. caroline: dependent obama forget his name? anna: you might remember that better than me. the other story was the funding story around the parties. leading with why i'm giving 1.3 million to -- this newspaper's owner is backing nigel in what he calls the party's aims of shaking up the establishment.

desmond, who is the owner -- it just shows one week's worth of funding. we'll have to get a big picture when we get closer to funding. mark: let's get to north korea. that wikileaks story. they leaked more than 200,000 of the company's files and emails. good morning again. how has the market reacted to this? >> we have seen it pretty much the last couple of hours, here, shares falling down. more than 3% now. sony's dirty laundry out in the open. more than 30,000 files, more than 170,000 emails we're talking about leaked on the interwebs again on wikileaks. that is what you're going to

find when you go on that website there. everything is searchable by email and document. you can just click in certain key words there to find what you want including emails from the sewn c.e.o. talking about the relationship between north korea and japan. again, this hack is one that happened late last year was triggered by the film "the interview". that was some developments there in that part. people getting a chance to see it longer than they did last year before it was taken down. ? a statement julian assange said it shows the inner workings of the corporation and it deserves to be on the public domain. wikileaks is going to ensure that it stays there. he said the issue very news worthy and one at the center of geopolitical conflict. of course sony condemning this act caulko calling it a

malicious criminal act. the motion picture association also stepping in saying this is a violation of privacy for all involved. it is a new leak. the information is the same. you can take a look at what happened. the response. the reaction in the markets last year when it first happened. there really wasn't much. in fact the stock had more than doubled in the last six months. take a look at the earnings financially, the damage for sony very minimal as well. about 15 million in costs for sony. overall the revenue in that quarter surged to 741 million dollars. mark? mark: thanks a lot. caroline: a call to action from businesses on climate change. chief executives from 43 of the world's biggest companies have

penned an open letter imploring world leaders to take steps to curb fossil fuel emissions. they promised to move their own companies towards functioning in a low carbon economy. they are trying to reach a universal and legally bind agreement when they meet in paris at the end ort year. burning of fossil fuels are at record levels and are projected to raise average temperatures by 3 degrees at the end of the century. mark: finland will vote for a new government on sunday. a former engineer and businessman ho made his fortune selling engineer parts could become the next leader. he is ahead in the polls. he promised to remedy the

country's worst economic slump in two decades. schlumberger announced in january it will cut 9,000 positions in the face of falling oil prices. a memorial service takes place today to remember the 150 people who lost their lives in the germanwings crash last month. the event replaced the original plans to lufthansa. goldman sachs posted their best earnings in years. citigroup saw a rise in first quarter profit the highest since the crisis. with all of its major business areas beating analyst estimates.

caroline: of course do join us in the conversation on twitter. let us know what you think of the show. current trending bbc debate. opposition leaders discussing their various policies in the u.k. election. check out the new "star wars" trailer. mark bart op is at markbarton tv. i'm at carolinehide tv. mark: harrison ford and chewbacca makes me tingle. coming up, we'll ask our next guest how their campaign is. ♪

mark: let's turn our attention to the u.k. election. last night we heard from the five opposition party fleersd a televised debate. who is looking fit to grab seats come may 7? form. -- good morning. thanks for joining us. a poll afterwards said that miliband and sturgeon and fairage came out on top. the others lagging behind. is that a fair summary of who

won last night? >> i think that is probably a fair summary of what went on. i think -- let's take a step back. it is fascinating this debate happened. let's go back to 1951 when winston churchill won the general election. the idea that you would be having these five parties, including four smaller parties debating like this is extraordinary. in terms of how the debate played last night i think overall it was quite a good night for ed miliband. he was able to portray himself as a more moderate face of the labor party. you to remember they have been attacking him for being an extreme far left politician. so being in that situation, having three leaders of parties to the left of him it helps blur that line of attack and

helps nigel since he was the only voice from the right in the debate last night. however we have the s.n.p. trying to tie themselves very close to ed mill bant. -- you to balance those two things against each other. caroline: was it passionate enough? you said the debate had been lack luster and lacking in passion. did you feel they got some of that out there? >> i think so. the last debate two careers ago, it was extremely lackluster. there wasn't a lot of engagement with the public. so far in the campaign, we have not seen them connecting with the public and pulling ahead. caroline: is that important though? everyone wants to look to what the manifestos mean and the policies mean. it is hard to distinguish between leaders. >> in reality i think people are

looking for a strong charismatic leadership. that's why we haven't seen either of major parties pull ahead in the polls. i think it has been a bit of a surprise. the conservatives were expecting it. mark: traditionally support for the government tends to improve. caroline: unemployment playing to their hand. >> three weeks ago. john major, the polls, it showed he wasn't going to win but by election day he pulled more support. mark: why hasn't there been more debate on foreign policy? you said it played into ed miliband's hands.

why haven't we had more foreign policy debate? >> there is not massive differences between two parties. you saw ed miliband criticizing -- some of cameron's movements on syria. i would say there are not huge fundamental differences in the policies. caroline: what do you think are the key topics that are going to be driving the changes. there were a lot of topics talked about yesterday, the trident in scotland which they want to get rid of. the nuclear submarines. >> we have had -- he wanted to be this concerted heart and the labor party's head. i think that is -- i think that is a good way of frame it.

focus on child care, helping commuters. caroline: housing. >> housing. the labour party a lot of concerns about finances. they have been making claims to increase borrowing and trying to defend -- mark: the tories have more -- the labour party has more of a conservative hat on. do you think that won the -- it over or was it just appealing to their core voters? >> i think so this is just typical british elections. the conservative labor party trying to shore up the main weak points. >> so any concern about the ongoing negativity in the market

for the moment? we have all, you know, it looks as though we're all very worried about the potential. conservatives do win. people are worried about the fiscal -- we get labor in power. do you think there will become any claire toy help guide the market or do you think there will remain this ongoing basically lack of clarity? >> i think we're going to see an ongoing lack of clarity. the question of scotland. this is going really push kind of constitutional change, agenda. tory m.p.'s. labour and peace and then we have the labor european question. mark: when we had our city debate a few days ago, said

could prom it to set up shop elsewhere. we had mr. desmond, the owner of the express pumping more money into the u.k. party but you don't think businesses will be scared by a labour win. why not? >> i wouldn't go that far. business tepids to be more supportive of the conservative party. i do think there is some -- we get this in all elections. the same in the u.s. and the u.k. people say if they don't get the result they want to get, they are going to leave the country. a lot of it tepids to be -- tends to be -- caroline: give us your vie view. where do you think we will be come may 8? >> we're not going to see a majority government. i think -- the house of commons. at the moment, the conservative

or lay pour bower -- labour being the most -- party trying to form a coalition. maybe some sort of morin formal agreement with the s&p. i think there is a real chance this we can't get a stable government out of this election. mark: what percentage do you think we will really is another election? >> 20% or 25%. it is not the most likely scenario. mark: would that be more conclusive? or do we risk having the sail sort of result? >> that is a very good question. i suspect a second one would be more conclusive. ymping you would see david cameron -- if the markets respond badly, he would play very strong on the fact that he is -- will bring stability.

mark: thanks lot. caroline: coming up on "countdown," we take a look at the top -- in u.k. ♪

mark: welcome back. let's see how the dollar is fairing. the bloomberg dollar index is down for the fourth week in five. data from the u.s. continuing to undermine the prospects of an early increase in u.s. rates. this week, by the way we have had below forecast readings for american housing, factories and retailers. throw in the recent disappointing jobs report, there is reason for the dollar's decline. the dollar has fallen against

all 16 of its major trading counterparts down 1.5% on the bloomberg dollar index. the best performer against the dollar being the norwegian kronor. the bloomberg dollar spot index measures the dollar against 10 of its major trading peers is still roughly 3% below its march 30th record. fed officials are telling different stories about when the first rate hike in the u.s. is going to be. we had the vice chairman stanley fischer yesterday saying they can't keep interest rates at a record low forever. meanwhile the fed president said he wanted to see falling unemployment and rising inflation prior to the first rate increase. the latest bloomberg survey shows 71% of economists expect the first rate increase to come at its september meeting. that is up from 32% in last

month's survey. the call for a june movement sha rank. consumer price in the u.s. probably rose 1.7% in march from a year earlier. that's when you strip out food and energy. if you include them, it is forecast pob roughly zero% for the year through march. still little evidence of inflation when you include food and energy in the united states. caroline: thank you. let's have a quick check on the other stop stories. a constitution designed to limit single party power in thailand. chancellor proposes a new voting system and measures to stop the influence of certain groups. it could pave the way to new elections and the end of military rule.

kraft surge -- the company which makes money by serving good on its website was the biggest success story yesterday on a day when three firms made their debut on wall street. chief executives from some of the world's biggest companies called on international leaders to take strong action on climate change. in an open letter, companies such as ikea and hsbc pledged their commitment to a low carbon economy. the billionaire founder of camera maker go pro is about to be the highest paid american c.e.o. the 39-year-old was granted 4.5 million restrictive stock units valued at over $280 million.

giving him the number one spot on bloomberg's u.s. pay index. mark: just keeping with the top pay grades. companies are not getting the raises they used to. pay grew 1.5% last year. it puts behind the trend. break down the numbers for us gregory. what is driving this? >> what we have seen is pay has been basically flat at about 4 million pounds $$6 million for the average c.e.o. i think there were two big trends. one, we have seen a slow down increase in share price as well as earnings growth which has reduced shares and bonus payoffs and shareholders have been very active in the u.k. last year about 1/10 of ftse 100 companies saw at least 25% of shareholders vote against executive pay and that is double

the rate in the united states. an increase from only a handful in this country earlier. caroline: the energy sector pay doesn't seem to be driven down as much. >> that is right. growth in three-year earnings per share and three-year growth in c.e.o. pay. that breaks down for the energy sector. i think what we have seen is big pay increases that don't line up with the drop in earnings and share price that we have seen across the energy sector. mark: and are shareholders up in arms over this? >> yesterday was the annual meeting at b.p. shareholders were less upset than they have been historically. you still saw about 12% of them vote against executive pay there. that is better from last year when 60% voted againstette. so they are less unhappy but it

is still much below the average of around 95% approval. caroline: in the u.k. seeing shareholders stand up in arms. >> you see -- we see that the number one paid executive at go pro. last year when bloomberg uncovered the number one paid -- there were a majority of shareholders voted against that. when there is pay, you will see shareholders vote against it. it is more likely to happen in the u.k. mark: thank you for joining us. caroline: let's look at europe now where stocks are near record highs. of course we saw a drop in the stoxx 600 yesterday though, and a bit of a dig deeper into these markets. let's get out to mark. mark, talk us through what's happening in the market today. are we expecting perhaps a little bit of a reprieve in stock markets? we did see a sudden profit taking in europe yesterday. >> good morning.

pretty much flat. it has come up since then. we are expecting another weak day. we saw a very weak day yesterday. it seems we're going to follow that trend again. i think zpwreast weighing heavily on the whole of europe and until we get some resolution or agreement that they are going to repay their debt, i think these markets are going to be on a little bit of a knife edge. we are on record highs. mark: getting news the captain -- newspaper. the greek bank units have been told to exit greek debt. greek banks have fallen 49%. there you go. 49% in 2015.

exodus of big deposits did slow down. still the flight of capital from greek banks, it has been quite startling, hasn't it? >> it is scary. they are running something like -- so their debt is something like 117% of deppped. it is hardly -- of g.d.p. it is hardly surprising. this sort of compounds the situation. it doesn't bode well for greece unless they can come up with an agreement in the next few days. caroline: give us -- u.s. slowdown. some of the data not looking so pretty when it comes to the housing market. people putting off any view of rate rises. that used to be good news. hooray cheap money for longer and market also rally. i think that has stopped with china being a bit of a slowdown

as well? >> in australia, we saw it down 1%. we're expecting it to be up again today. oil prices have been hit quite hard because of the slowdown in china, as you mentioned. the miners and the oil companies have a big weighting in the ftse. the oil stocks will probably be ok. we have had a little bit of a bounce in the last few days. they are probably going to be quite reasonably strong today. it is the mining sector that i think people are keeping an eye on. mark: it is all about inflation on both side s of the atlantic. eurozone inflation. could show a decrease in .1%. u.s. inflation if you include food and energy your-on-year will be flat. if you exclude it we should see a gain of around 1.7%.

are deflationary fears subsiding? >> i think until we see the numbers, that is the big question. it is one of the reasons why we saw him take the measures he did, was to try to halted the deflation. so we'll see whether his measures have worked today. it is a concern. they do want to hold the slide. hopefully we'll see it stop a little bit. just to put a little bit of confidence back in europe which really i think people are not confidence in the eurozone economy at the moment. mark: thank you. meanwhile the stock features looking to opening downwards. we have dax off by .6%. of course you can join us in the conversation on twitter. what are you looking out for as we head towards the open? i'm at carolinehyde tv. mark: i'm looking at two words. one begins with stars and the

other with wars. up next it is greek market indicators are flashing. stay tuned for that. ♪

mark: time for today's bart chart. greek market indicators. one week to go until greece's self-imposed deadline to strike a deal.

pressure building in the market after germany's finance minister told us that greece's financing crunch is not likely to be resolved before that date. check out today's bart chart. start with the top one on thursday. greek 10-year yields rose as much as 110 basis points at one point. finishing up at 12.1. look at the top right hand portion. that is the highest since march 2013. this is a year to date chart. for the record, the yield was at 8.4%. that is the white circle in the left hand portion of your screen. there was some respite when it struck a deal in late february. the red circle right there with euro area finance ministers to extend their bailout. since then, you can see the yield has just been heading in one direction. steadily moving up from 8.3%

yesterday's 12.7% as pressure mounts on the country to secure funding or risk a possible default. on the plus side yields on the 10-year are still well below the 44% reached during the debt crisis of 2012. the middle chart is the yield on the greek three-year bond. it tells a more troubling story. not only is the yield above its 10-year equivalent as it has been for all of 2015, yesterday it rose by 231 basis points to 26.9%. that is a record high. the inverted yield curve, the three-year yield being above the 10-year yield tells us investors are worried that greece won't repay their obligations in full. they are more concerned about the short-term crisis than the long-term outlook. for the record, the yellow circle on the left hand portion

of the middle chart was when he came to power. the yield since then, we move up to above 26% the final chart, the bottom chart i want to show you is credit default swaps they used to protect investors against a bond default. although the price is not as high as it was back on the peak on april 3, the green circle right there, the trend is very clear from the end of february, as you can see right there. the trend has been moving higher. now credit default swaps suggest there is a 79% chance that the country being unable to repay its debt in five years. that is up from 67% at the start of last month. here are the dates you need to know about concern that greece

could run out of money. next friday the meeting takes lakes. also in the first two weeks of may, greece must repay payments to the i.m.f. of 200 million euros and almost 800 million euros. also today it is due to pay almost 200 million euros of interest on privately held bonds. this is a crucial period for greece and greek market indicators are flashing red. caroline: mark thank you. that is how the markets are responding to the greek situation. greece is ever more isolated. christine lagarde warned she would not let them skip a debt payment to the learned and outlined other risks to global growth and what she called the new mediocre.

>> two options, tom. the new reality could be the new mediocre. if policy makers, finance ministers and governor s of central banks do not actually address the risk that we have on the horizon it could look a lot better both today and tomorrow if they address those risks. let me explain what i mean by today and tomorrow. today we are seeing recovery coming along, forecast 3.5% this year. 3.8% next year. but it is not strong enough. and it is very uneven. you mentioned brazil. china, you could have mentioned russia being in negative territory as well. advanced economies -- some of them doing a lot better. the u.s. is strong and staying strong next year. u.k. is doing quite well. the euro area at last is picking

up some growth. but we're also seeing in this emerging market world very slow movers which is unusual because they were very fast and they still represent today 70% of the growth that we're expecting. it is critical that they all work together. that is third point. tom: the distinction i see in my interviews here has been the argument between ken and larry over the so-called secular stagnation. identify the word -- are you towards the optimism or is there some value to what professor summers says? >> what i resent about secular stagnation is it gives you the impression that you are stuck and you're not going to get yourself out of the hole. my new meet observinger is a risk but it is one that we can -- mediocre is a risk. but it is one that we can get out of together.

what we have today is a world where you don't have all the advanced economies in the same pot. look at monetary policy. it is going to probably tighten gradually soon in the u.s. whereas it might be expanding in japan and europe. completely specific in that category. monetary policy has to be specific. fiscal policy has to be smart. it cannot be tightened or expanded. it has to be adjusted to the characteristic of the country. tom: is greece removed from getting a free pass from from the i.m.f. or is greece going to go the other way and they are just going to say no? which is it going with greece when they come calling? >> those two countries have the benefit of delays. tom: we're not greece. >> it was approved by the board 30 years the ago. they were developing countries.

we never had an advanced economy, actually asking for that kind of thing, delayed payment. i very much hope this is not the case with greece i would certainly myself not support it. >> you're looking at live shot s of the city of london. futures indicating stocks could open lower today. stay with us. we'll take a look at what will be driving today's trade. ♪

mark: right as we head towards the markets opening this was released a little earlier. vine here. here is a man who knows a thing or two about food and all sorts of stuff. ryan: nestle, the important thing here is sales are growing faster than investors anticipated. 4.4 is the sales growth. the expectation was that organic sales growth that is not an organic food, when you strip out all the noise of the currency transaction and acquisitions, so 4.4 versus 4.2 but that is below their goal of around 5%. nonetheless the c.e.o. said he thinks they can still pull off around 5% and even for the year which is interesting because they expect to kind of push on margins. that is interesting. north america singled out as a

problem area and specifically, i love this, lean cuisine. caroline: do you like it? ryan: i don't like it but when the is the last time you had a lean cuisine male? caroline: all of these dieting places are doing worse. ryan: one is frozen food is not considered to be all that healthy anymore. you all of these brands particularly stateside popping in giving nestle a run for its money. you have warren buffett 3g coming in with the kraft/hinse combination which is going to be -- heinz combination which is going to be massive giving even more competition.

mark: china. ryan champion organic growth there down about .5%. the c.e.o. said by the end of year, he thinks he can sort things out. mark: see you. "on the move" is next. see you monday. ♪

jon: good morning. happy friday. i am jonathan ferro from european headquarters. in asia chinese equities headed for six weeks of gain. compare and contrast with europe. stocks in germany down almost 2%. futures here in london, lower and lower across the board in your. now, i want to get straight to your morning brief. billion euros of debt repayment, and no relief insight.

christine lagarde will not support -- payday. the final jobs report for the united kingdom ahead of election day is due. some of the things we are watching. i know some of you are screaming it to the wages. as i said, we have futures lower across the board. let us get your market open. caroline hyde? caroline: first, a weekly drop. currently we are opening up flat in the u.k.. greece reeling front and center. taking profit for the last couple of days. 2% across germany. locking in those