welcome to "worldwide exchange." in the headlines today, the u.s., a big victory for president obama. the house of representatives passes legislation overhauling the health care system. >> we proved that this government, a government of the people, and by the people, still works for the people. >> and here in europe, health care stocks drop on concerns that new reality in the u.s. will hurt their bottom lines.

>> and here in asia, rio tinto executive stern hu, and a colleague on trial in shanghai. reportedly plead guilty to alleged bribery charges. all right, welcome, nice to have you along on "worldwide exchange." i'm matt nesto. 5:00 a.m. here on the wall street side of the world. welcome to the start of our global trading day. let's take a look at the markets this monday morning. remember we closed on the down side on friday, snapping that winning streak for the dow. it looks like we're on track for another loser today if the markets were to open up. we're down 49 on the dow right now. no real giant move, ross. a little bit worse, worcester, monday morning, a little bit worse than before that vote went down in the house. we were down about 35 points and the dow futures were now down about 50. >> yeah, and in the trading session here, matt, we are down,

not huge losses as you say in terms of u.s. futures, two-thirds percent for ftse 100. cac, 0.6%. novartis down 0.6%. they're not the biggest losers in terms of sectors. the health care stocks resources, energy retail all slightly down more than that. what about the currency markets, christine? >> well, equity markets, resources like you mentioned here also weaker. in terms of the currency markets. this is how the picture is looking. dollar/yen around 90.51. euro continues to be weaker against the dollar, but getting right now slight boost, a little bit of that. 1.3543. sterling, weaker against the dollar 1.5005 and euro/sterling 0.9021. matt? >> well, clearly a victory for president obama. the house of representatives passing that historic legislative package late sunday night. the final vote tally 219-212.

not a single republican voted for the legislation. now, as for that legislation, it would extend health care coverage to 32 million americans who have no insurance right now. the president addressed the nation shortly after the vote. >> at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. we pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. we didn't give in to mistrust, or to cynicism, or to fear. instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things. >> and now the bill enters the twilight zone, better known as the reconciliation process with its senate counterpart. senate republicans already vowing to use any procedural or parliamentary method they can to block or at least delay the final bill. but democrats hope to have the process completed by the end of

this week, when they take an easter recess. russ? >> okay. so, what does it mean for investors? joins us for the next hour, sonia. health care stocks are weaker right now in europe. we'll have to see how the u.s. health care stocks trade a little bit later. what was the impact for investors? >> i think that there's two elements. for one, at least finally now we know what might be the implication for the bottom line because i think that the costs are very clear and very straightforward. i think longer-term the implications are potentially positive because you have a bigger base because now there's health care insurance, and open for a lot more americans than before. so i think it's probably half of the trading today is related to the overall market sentiment, and the other half potentially related to the health care reform. we see the uk guys down a bit more because the impact on the bottom line is a bit bigger than the swiss ones. but i think it's very modest

reaction so far. >> when do you think it will become more critical? i think one of the things that we fear in this country is the amount of entitlements, and debt. and unfunded entitlements that the nation is taking on. and we've heard some grumblings about a possible sovereign downgrade from moody's and s&p of our famed sterling aaa credit rating of the u.s. treasury. >> i think to be fair this is the far bigger story, too. i think the health care reform now, at least, removes a bit of the uncertainty for the health care sector. but if you look at the valuation and if you look at the overall picture it's one area of the market that should do reasonably well and i think you're absolutely right. and i think now with the health reform essentially passed it's back to the real issue and that obviously will be government debt, and i think the other piece of information we're looking for this week, obviously, is the greeks, and the greek situation, and i think in that context, that is far more important going forward. and obviously the credit rating

of the united states, and the uk in that context, as well. >> and sonja, this is christine, what sort of outcome do you expect on the greek situation? >> when we believe what angela merkel told german newspapers everynight, then she kind of tried to downplay any potential outcome this week. so i think it might be something really to watch out for, because she said investors shouldn't, you know -- we shouldn't build up expectations in the markets, that we will find an immediate solution this week. very interesting on a sunday night, let's see what they come up with, or whether at the end of the day it's the imf that has to come in. >> what do you, in terms of sentiment, what do you think is more important here? company earnings, liquidity or concerns over sovereign debt, wherever it may be? >> well, the overall market sentiment, i think, government debt will be the overriding issue for the whole year. but i think, you know, given that the equity market in some pockets are still very reasonably priced, you should

not ignore earnings because i think they're still decent opportunities to be made in the equity market. and i think we should not forget in this overall debt debate corporates have been the only ones that have been saving. so, you know, don't we're get that part so there is, i guess, still opportunities out there. >> we'll take a pause there, plenty more to come from you. sonja with us for the first hour on the program. some of the other stories from around the world outside of health care, landslide victory for the french socialist party. a second round in french regional elections clearly showed that president sarkozy's popularity is declining sharply. no more than three regions were won by his party the unp. that's let the country's political map in a sea of socialist pink. the prime minister francois fillon is not expected to offer his resignation. matt? >> all right, ross, thanks. today the senate banking committee is going to take up chairman chris dodd's financial regulation bill. he will be getting support from treasury secretary timothy geithner, who will make a case for the legislation during a

speech to the american enterprise institute. the bill tackles the notion of reining in too big to fail institutions. matt, the latest in the war of words about the u.n., chinese commerce minister says beijing will retaliate if washington declares china a currency manipulator, and imposes trade sanctions on chinese exports. but chen did not specify how china would respond. he again accused the u.s. of politicizing the u.n. issue, and said that washington has overstated the size of china's trade surplus with the u.s. his comments come just days before china sends its vice commerce minister to washington to try to ease trade frictions. still to come, swiss bank credit suisse has said it's restricting banker travel to germany. find out why they have to stay put after this.

and welcome back to "worldwide exchange." this monday, let's take a look at how the gold price is doing for today. it is off $19.75. 1.75%, 1106.25. let's see the pullback in oil, is also following what gold is

doing, as well. down about 3 cents. 80.30 a barrel. and brent is also trailing behind, as well. trading along the ranges of -- do we have brent? is it coming? it's not changing. there we go, $79.73 a barrel, down 15 cents. it's a monday, ross. so i guess things are a little bit slow. >> you know, they're still getting over the weekend, aren't they, on the data side. as far as stock markets are concerned, ahead of the u.s. open, european bourses are down, not by much, ftse 100, health care stocks are weaker. some of the resource stocks, down most. and i-cap down, as well. it's going to pull back on its equities cash business as well. ba still in focus as the strike continues there for a third day. but next on our european tour, i'm going to have to say patricia and carolina are both with us here in london from frankfurt and zurich

respectively. great to see you. what's happening with the german market while you're here in london? >> still keeping on eye, very, very long eye to germany. trading down around 0.4%. that is it. however, if you look at the volumes, they are actually quite low. so most of the people are really not participating in the move. there's a lot of insecurity. we had a great rally so far in march. so people really want to ascertain whether this is going to continue for the rest of the month, as heavy or weak in terms of macro economic data coming through, some of the sentiment data, business sentiment data also to hit the wires over the next few days. in terms of how the health care bill really impacts today, our health care stocks in germany doing really well. i mean, henkel for example, a chemical stock, however more or less sometimes also labeled within that sector up 0.9%. trading higher on the back of the u.s. bill. merck, at least in the green territory. only on the losing side on the other side you have thyssenkrupp

down about 2%. so here the steel stocks not doing too well. and also volkswagen disappointing a bit, having had a great rally down about 1.6%. interesting, of course, how our ipo kicked off, to the market at the lower end of the price range, kicking off trade at 22 euros, then started to trade higher up to 22 euros 50. last time it was 22.30 euros. it's an interesting one because a lot of analysts were looking at the ipo market. is it going to really be an ice break e? we have three ipos coming up over the next two weeks. one of them today, the cable company, and then we have tom taylor and also the biggest global distributor of chemicals. so it's going to be very interesting to see. however i think what we saw in terms of who is investing in

kabel, it wasn't so much the domestic investor. so it's trading at least above the issue price. it was most coming from the uk, from the u.s., the debt levels are high. one of the big focus points that analysts always were talking about. look at the debt level. that will impact the cash flow later on. if that is too high, people might not come in. also successful ipo should be supported by the domestic environment. but, what is support in general for european ipos? it hasn't been that great. we had about 10 european ipos so far this year. only three of those are trading above the actual issue price. perhaps with today's ipo it is actually the fourth one trading above. so all in all, we have to see -- >> nice to know another ipo. >> absolutely. >> all right, thanks for that. what's going on in zurich? >> it's a similar picture in switzerland. yes, down half a percent gist really we're also watching the health care stocks in switzerland. which have really big exposure to the u.s. market. novartis and roche trading down in line with the market down

0.7%. of course, the vote, the positive vote of the house for the health care bill, that is important for the fees the health care companies will have to pay. they will be delayed from this year to 2011. also insurance coverage will be wider and that means more customers for these health care firms. but we see that roche and novartis are not really affected by these positive changes right now. apart from that, we also had positive news for rach, which are unrelated to the health care vote. the company said that it has filed for a label extension for its cancer drug mitsera. they're hoping to broaden the use of this particular drug for hodgkin's lymphoma in europe. now the other top story of the day, or of the weekend, really, credit suisse is reacting to the ongoing investigations and the tax evasion practices in germany. now, they say that they're confirming they're putting even

tighter travel restrictions on their employees in germany. so it seems like, the german employees they can currently travel in germany anymore. also interesting comment from the former germ finance minister, he says in an interview that authorities should take away credit suisse's banking license. >> thanks very much, indeed for that. that's some of the stock news here in europe. we have the latest in asia. >> that's right, ross. we saw a lot of weakness in the asian markets. continued worries about greece and how those problems are going to be resolved. but also this surprise interest rate hike by the reserve bank of india seemed to take many people by surprise. and what that means in terms of demand, whether that will slow down, and also whether china will follow india, as well in the hike rates. we saw big sell-off in some of these markets, especially the resource stock. of course japan out of the picture because the markets were closed today. hong kong, the hang seng index bore the brunt of the selling. you can see the market down about 2% hitting a two-week low.

any of the interest sensitive stocks like the banking stocks, as well as property stocks were very weak. and like i mentioned, the resources as well. an exception was air china. in fact trading upwards after it said it would be raising its stake in shenzhen airlines from the current 25% to 51%. so in effect, taking control of the company. gives them a bigger footprint in the southern part of china, as well. and last but not least, south korea's kospi down about 0.8%. on that note, i will send it back to christine, i believe. >> saijal, thank you very much for that. coming up next, focus on this particular story is going to be rather interesting. will google pull out of china? the u.s. internet company will reportedly announce its next steps this week. we'll discuss what to expect later on in the show.

20 past the hour. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." and off we go on the east coast. you're looking at a picture of times square. up and at 'em, 24/7 there. same here. around the globe, covering the markets. let's take a look at some of the stories we're tracking. first notably the futures of the u.s., look for another down day on wall street. that would be two in a row after a weak close on friday.

now today in the u.s., we waiting for earnings from retailers like tiffanys and williams-sonoma. this before the start of trading. no significant economic data to speak of today. but some key fed officials will be speaking. u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner will also be speaking on the need for financial regulatory reform in washington. and we will hear from two fed presidents. atlanta fed president dennis lockhart is going to give the same speech twice. first in florida. it will focus on the outlook for the economy. on u.s. "squawk box," st. louis federal reserve president james bullard will be on set for an exclusive interview. we'll answer questions on how the fed will ultimately tighten policy and what could happen after the financial regulation bill is passed. ross? >> fair enough there, matt. i think you need to go get some free health care.

>> i do. >> don't sell yourself out. >> don't even start, my friend. >> we'll be talking about that more in-depth coming up. what happens on the political angle now with that. sonja does it change your view, health care stocks, you run a sort of income fund. does this change your view at all on buying health care stocks or not? >> no, because when you listen to the companies, as well, there was a long time to prepare ourselves to, you know, to find out about the details, what this would mean, what this wouldn't mean. and it doesn't change the attractive underlying profile. and i think we should not forget that for the majority of these companies, the u.s. market is hardly more than 15%, 20% of earnings. >> in europe? >> yeah, yeah. obviously for the u.s. companies it's a bit more. so we shouldn't forget that it's not the main and only earnings driver. and i think what it does, it relieves uncertainty. and that's good. >> you think that there's

clarity now, sonja? you should it took us a long time to find out about the details. i think we don't know the half of it yet. >> yeah, i think this is what, you know, this is the european perspective, which looks at it in -- through different -- through different eyes. and i think, you know, what we do know is at least for the european stocks, if it's passed the way it is, then the implications for earnings are pretty clear. i think the longer-term implications, you know, is guesswork anyway. and it does not or should not, you know, impact the valuation, and the outlook for these companies too much. i think when i remember correctly for the european names, the impact on earnings, on the 2010-2013 time frame is somewhere between 1% and 4%. so i think that is manageable. what it does, we know now what we're talking about and the longer-term implications. you know, i think we can try to estimate what this long -- this bigger base of patients in the united states might mean.

but i think what we have seen, particularly here in europe, is more and more companies kind of trying to make sure that investors understand that the u.s. business, and the patented drug business is not the only earnings driver, and i think this hasn't changed with the health care reform passing. and as i said, you know, for the european companies, the u.s. business is hardly more than 20% of the business. and i think that's what i meant with that. >> yeah. sonja, it was my experience when i lived abroad that there was basically two health care systems. the government system, and then for pretty much anybody of any means they had their own private insurance. and they went to the better doctors, and they had better service and shorter lines. what sort of a cottage industry do you think might be created or investment opportunity might be created, in what i think might be a parallel situation here? where we have the national system that's available to one and all, free of charge. and then what those of more means are going to go out and get?

>> yeah, i think that the likelihood is high. i mean, you know, what you can buy for money is the same here as it will be in the u.s. if you can buy yourself into better treatment, and more products, then, this is what is going to happen. but i think it's probably very early days to try to find out who might be a beneficiary or might not. i think for everyone having a broader base is actually good news. so if there's just more people having access to health care, and more products, then this is obviously good news for the pharma industry and what kind of pricing implications, whether there's kind of a double layer system or not i think is definitely too early days. >> it is worth pointing out, thanks sonja, it is worth putting out, in britain what happens all the leading consultants do offer some of their time, they get trained in the national health service, so they do offer. you get the same doctor levels, what you don't get is you don't get them when you want them.

so a lot do both national and private. the difference is going private you get to see them straight away as opposed to waiting however many months it might be in the public sector. >> right. cutting the line plp >> yeah, basically. that's what private health insurance does, it cuts the line. >> it's a beautiful thing. no one wants to wait in lines. so still to come, no line here, folks. we're going to keep banging out the news. it's been a long battle for president obama's health care bill. but, it has passed a major hurdle. no question about that. winning the vote in the house of representatives. but, the republicans still could derail the legislation in the senate. we'll talk about some of the parliamentary procedures after the break. ddddddddddd

i could do that voice open today. welcome to "worldwide exchange." in the headlines today, at this moment, in this hour, in the u.s., a victory for president obama. the house of representatives

passing legislation overhauling the health care system. here in business, pharmaceutical shares are low irover concerns the new reality of the u.s. health care could hurt their bottom lines. and here in asia, china says it will retaliate if the u.s. labels it a currency manipulator, and slaps on trade sanctions. >> all right, great to have you on board here at "worldwide exchange." we're slogging through it. tracking on the futures here this hour. looks like we're set for a slightly modestly lower open. two days in a row, though, so take note of that. did finish lower in the end on friday. ross, so, are we hitting some resistance? i don't know. the markets are certainly taking a little bit of a breather. >> and we are a little lower here. an hour and a half into the trading session ahead of the u.s. open, xetra dax down halfful one percent.

health care stocks are low but they're not the weakest sectors. the mining stocks are weaker, also energy, retail, banks, travel and leisure all performing to the downside on the health care sector. christine, how are the currency markets shaping up? >> dollar/yen hovering around the 90 level. has been around for the last couple of weeks. 90.56. euro, a little bit flat against the dollar right now. 1.3531. not a lot of movement there. sterling weaker, 1.4975. and euro stronger against the sterling 0.9035. matt? >> all right. let's get back to our top story, a victory for president obama, the house passing that historic health care legislative package late sunday night. the final vote tally 219-212. not a single republican voted for the bill. the legislation would extend health care coverage to tens of millions of americans who knew have no insurance. well, it was a victory for the president.

the house passed that legislation. we read that story. let's get on to john raines, i believe. he's our next guest here. he is the director of political risk at exclusive analysis. so, john, why don't you give us an idea about some risk? we talked about this with sonja. and her feeling, it seemed, was that we have a little bit more clarity here now. my feeling is that we have some closure, but not really even that yet. and i don't feel there's a lot of clarity at all. >> no, matt, i think that you have a solid point there. i think there's a little bit of clarity as far as now we have this bill that's actually been passed. but, you know, the details are still kind of outstanding. insurers don't really know all the regulations that are going to come down the pike to them through this new marketplace that's supposed to be enabled and all the different regulations regarding who they need to cover, who they don't need to cover. there's a little bit of uncertainty out there. the clarity comes from the fact you at least passed one hurdle so insurers and also other officials inside the companies inside the health care sector at

least know some legislation is coming down the pike. they can expect these new regulations to come out. and so therefore, at least, as far as like, you know, looking forward two to three years we have at least a general guideline of where the direction's going. >> but most of the stuff doesn't really take place for four years. i mean, there's a few provisions like including children that start off within six months. but most of it we start paying but we don't start seeing benefits, quote/unquote until the year 2014. >> no, i mean that's it. some provisions are going to be out there. i think you're going to start to see regulations coming out within the next year or so. you mentioned the thing about the children. i think pre-existing conditions is also going to be included, as well as including youngsters up to the age of 26 under their parents' health care plans. but, as far as the immediate impact, it's primarily going to be a rise in payments, or tax payments for these high-end individuals. and then, of course, as far as the long-term benefits still a

little bit far out. second term of an obama administration or if a republican then comes in. >> john, let me ask you here, a lot of this stuff has to do with transportability, so if you leave your job, you know, you can move, you'll have this safety net of government health insurance. but there's still some questionable areas in terms of once you're on that government program, can you not -- can you get off it? do you have to take it? i mean, there's all kinds of uncertainty out there in terms of what the government's role is going to be, and why the government provider will undoubtedly continue to grow and steal customers from the so-called private insurance market. >> you know, this reminds me a little bit of like when they're talking about college football and the implementation of a playoff system. and the fact that if you go down one step they know they're going to be able to get a playoff because it's just a natural continuation. now, for us, here in the europe, i think that the way we look at it is, is that certainly there's, you know, there's not that much clarity as far as

which way you're going to go, but certainly this is a step towards not necessarily socialized medicine but the government's going to play a bigger role and that's only going to continue. the thing you could see again is the republican president comes in, you have republican majorities inside the house and senate, they could start to pare away at this legislation. but it's going to be difficult to do, because some of the, you know, individual specifics of the plan are going to be relatively popular. the budgetary issues are not going away. so it looks like for the most part, the u.s. is pretty much stuck with this. >> john, can you briefly tell us, you know, ahead of these november congressional elections. how is this going to play out? what sort of outcome do you expect? >> so far it's been a boone day for republicans. if you look at the last three major contests that have happened in new jersey, virginia, and also massachusetts, republicans have swept basically without any problems whatsoever. and so, if they can mobilize their base, which it appears that they're able to do, they should do relatively well. the big question is how big. normally, the offices of party gains, in the first term,

midterm presidential for like obama, or reagan or one of those guys. but usually the numbers are around 20, 25 seats. republicans here have been talking about the possibility of 60 seats. i think that's pretty much beyond the margin. but if they can get 40 seats they could get a majority. they need a little bit more work on the senate where they need ten seats but they can certainly pare away at the democrat majority. >> john, obviously the republicans here are going to try to see what they can do on the legislation phase and see if they can hold up this bill for quite a long time. whatever happens with that, does the impact of this bill have factors on other contentious legislation like energy, cap and trade, education, financial regulation? what happens to all these other issues? >> well, i think that they're pretty much off the table. i think financial regulation you're going to start to see, you certainly need to see something from the senate. we've begun to see that. it needs to be now coalesced with the house legislation. i think that a lot of the contentious legislation at this point is pretty much off the table.

cap and trade, education is going to be difficult. additional health measures besides reconciliation going to be difficult. so the contentious stuff is pretty much off the table. because really the democrats at this point have to protect their flank, their right flank in this case, to try to protect the independent voters that they still have left. so i think what you're going to start to see is a paring down of the legislative agenda of obama. again this is going to continue in the after the november elections. he might have a small breathing room in 2011, but after that, really, you're looking more towards status quo going forward. >> john, good to see you. john raines, deputy director of critical risk and exclusive analysis. plenty more on the website, cnbc.com on all of this. you can get all the guest views, and also find out, as well, exactly how a legislation process might actually work. if you've got any questions we'd love to hear from you, e-mail address, worldwide@cnbc.com. we'd love to know your views. okay, let's get a look now where we are with some market levels. joining us is aaron smith,

director of financial markets, sonja schemann is still with us. nice to see you, aaron. from a technical point, second day of pullbacks it looks like right now for the u.s. after having sort of fairly steady or melting up process. is that over? >> i think it's actually played a trend in all the markets. gets a little bit risky. >> what do you think? >> the trend is clearly up for a moment. we've seen an annual trend about a year ago now. >> it's got pretty glacial, hasn't it? >> it has. we've seen a period of consolidation over the past couple of weeks. that doesn't mean we're not going to test higher. i think the key here is to find the key support levels. we saw quite a high velocity sell-off more recently of 12%, the ftse is 50/50. that's quite a key support area. if you see the lows in succession from the beginning of the trend upwards, there's three lows in place which by any technical analyst standards defines a trend as it were. i think next week is quite critical. if you look at the weekly, daily

and monthly pictures, certainly european markets the trend is still upwards. yl we see to the contrary, you could sell short-term levels. that's not a bad thing to do. in fact some short-term traders will be doing that. but the key trend at the moment, still up. until that changes, that's the view i think we should take. >> aron, talk to me about retracement. you know, there's a lot of work done in technical circles in terms of how much ground we recover from the previous high. here about 25% off of it as far as u.s. markets from the october '07 highs. >> yeah, retracement is important and you'll hear the term every now and again of fibonacci levels which give traders and an hiss certain key levels of support and resistance. at the moment i think there's still a lot of uncertainty around markets. whilst they've been trading more technically more recently over the last few months we still have all this business of quantity tative easing, monetary policy, et cetera, sovereign

default, sovereign debt. whilst we look at retracement levels at the moment we're in a new market. we're not entirely sure where things could go. all i could say as an analyst is we'll be looking for key areas of support, key areas of resistance. and then, of course, the benefit of looking at markets from a technical point of view is that it's easy to decipher the information that's surrounded you. fedal data is a lot more ambiguous and open to interpretation, et cetera, depending on the analyst. >> very simple barometer, at last check, something to the tune of 85% of the s&p 500 was trading above its 50-day average. historically, what happens when that effect occurs? >> well, historically, again, that's a very good point. i think we've seen this stealth rally which has actually tested the divergence from these mean averages. there is a suggestion that perhaps we could see a return to the key averages. of course, the moving average also being a key indicator. so, you know, at the moment, if we look at friday's closing

markets, today's open, it is a little bit more negative. we could have seen -- we've made a new high which i think was important to do to sustain this upward trend. the next few days, certainly towards the end of the week, will be key to assess whether or not we're going to push higher, whether we're going to see another period of retracement to test more key support levels. so traders and investors at the moment will have their eyes firmly on what's happening and what's going to pan out this week. >> you have your view of what sort of stocks have been grinding down, you don't like them? >> no, because there was yet again the low quality stocks that were leading the rally. pretty much the same story as in 2009, that we have seen in february. the risk/trade being put on the same way, exactly the same way as it was. >> you get the low quality stocks in 2009, you made money out of them. >> of course, of course, i just think that for the normal, average investor, that is something, you know, to note and to look at, because it kind of clearly points to the fact that it is the kind of excess liquidity that is chasing the weakest links in the market that probably under normal circumstances would have gone bust if we had not seen this

unanimous support from governments and central banks. and you know, we have had a very timely reminder of the greek situation, what this does to markets. we are up again this week, and with the discussion of how this is going to continue, you know, there is a kind of big question marks ahead of us. and i wouldn't be too certain that, you know, despite the technical picture. i know how it looks like, that this is going to continue, and again, you know, the quality stocks have led once again, so probably that's the area that you want to be in. >> all right. we'll talk about that a little bit later. sonja for now, thank you very much. arron we'll let you go. thank you very much. well, still to come, love your potato chips or crisps? depending on where in the world you're watching this program, if you're worried about the impact on your health, that's a universal truism. one company may have come up with a magic ingredient to make the snack more healthy. the answer after the break.

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okay, cnbc's "worldwide exchange," some of the stories from around the world. a land slide victory for the french socialist party. a second round in french regional elections shows president sarkozy's popularity is declining sharply. no more than three regions won by parts of the unp. that's left the country's political map in a sea of

socialist pink. the foreign minister fran sway filan is not expected to offer his resignation despite that result. meanwhile, much more important story. just talking about going to the break, matt what is the secret ingredient that's going to make chips healthier? >> socialist pink. no it's not, russ. pepsi is going to unveil a new ingredient to make its lay's potato chips healthier. it's said to be designer salt. i don't know what to call it. the announcement is going to come during a pepsi analyst day meeting which is being held at yankee stadium, of all places. pepsi is also expected to discuss its plan to cut levels of salt and sugar and saturated fats in its top-selling products by 25% over the next ten years. we'll have to see what they say about their secret salt. christine? >> i can't wait to hear the secret recipe, matt.

on a more serious note, as the trial of four rio tinto employees gets under way in shanghai, executive stern hu and two of his colleagues have reportedly pleaded guilty to allegations that they accepted cash bribes. this is according to reuters, citing the lawyer representing the men. but they are contesting the alleged bribery amounts. there are worries that the four accused would not get a fair trial and certain portions of the court proceedings were closed to the public. ross? >> okay, final thought from sonja who is with us. you know, you are income investor and income fund. right now, what are the key stocks to provide that for you. >> to start with, it's those stocks that i think are the most attractive right now, because they've lacked so dramatically and had investor valuation support. i think health care stocks, pharma in particular. and you know, giving that pepsi is now developing healthier snacks we probably don't need health care reform at the end of the day. you do find them in pharma and

big energy, telecoms utilities. mostly those that have the more transpair ernt earnings streams. they provide income that is superior to corporate bonds and government bonds. so you have a lot of support and a lot of very decent arguments to see these stocks move higher this year. >> okay. sonja good to see you. sonja schemman, fund manager at schroders. our viewers in asia and europe have another hour of "worldwide exchange." u.s. "squawk box" starts in just under 12 minutes. we've still got another week of the different time zones. carl is with us to tell us what's coming up today. good morning, carl. >> today from health care to financial regulatory reform. our lineup from both sides of the aisle, congressman greg meeks, scott garrett, darrell issa, debbie wasserman schultz. we'll find out why they voted for or against the bill. also kath even sebelius from health and human services. former senator and medical dr. bill frist. the ceo of cigna is going to

tell us about the impact on insurance. we'll jump on regulatory reform with bob corker as lawmakers mark up the dodd bill today. and our guest host, banking committee member senator evan bayh. finally, st. louis fed president jim bullard, a rare interview about the economy, and the power of the fed. a big session of skwk and we'll see what markets do today on this historic morning, ross. we'll see you in about 11 minutes' time. >> we look forward to it. thanks, carl. have a good day in d.c. >> okay. well, tiger woods is returning to golf circuit next month at the masters. but after the recent scandal surrounding the biggest golfer in the world he's admittedly a little nervous about getting out in front of the crowds. before we go to break have a listen to what he had to say in an interview he did with espn yesterday. >> i don't know. i don't know. i am a little nervous about that toish honest with you. >> how much do you care? >> it would be nice to hear a

couple claps here and there. but also i hope they'll also clap for birdies, too. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.

joining us now for a look ahead into the trading day is angus campbell, the head of sales at capital spread. so angus, what do you think about the trading day ahead? we're looking for a lower open, that will be two days in a row. is this the start of something big and bad? or just a little profit taking? >> probably a little bit of praft taking. we saw a good run last week. the market was up nearly 1.5%. so friday, we just saw probably a little bit of profit taking. also volatility, interestingly, has picked up a little bit. but i suppose that was probably because of quadruple witching on friday. the u.s. futures just really being dragged quite a bit lower because of weakness in europe, which we started the week on the back foot. and that, of course, means that we're calling the dow to open down some 55 points.

so back below the 10,700 mark. and the s&p down some 8 to 9 points, around 1153, 1152. so weakness to set in at the start of this week. and we're a bit thin, really, on economic data, and news flows. so, it looks like the bulls are just running out of steam around these levels. >> i'd say we've got news flow here. i don't know about clarity. but we've got lots to talk about. seems to be all about health care. is there a health trend to be looking at today? >> certainly, as benefited the health care stocks. we've seen johnson & johnson, am-jam, they've been strong in the run-up to this weekend, and possibly could continue that strength. you know, of course, as regards health care there's lots and lots to talk about. you should be happy about the fact that, obviously, it should improve your life span.

and you know, that's the focus of the moment. but that shouldn't necessarily have a huge knock-on effect of the overall market. and it's very much a question of, is the risk trade still on? are these heavyweights such as, you know, the oil stocks, the mining stocks, are they going to continue their rally? or are we going to see this profit taking drive us some 5%, possibly 10% lower and see a correction similar to the correction we saw in january? >> i don't know, somehow that happiness has escaped me so far in the aftermath of this vote, angus. i'm concerned about, you know, sort of the intermediate term in terms of where we've come from the bottom, and the anniversary of the market. i mean, months, zero through twelve of a recovery typically do very well, which we have done, and months 24 through 36 tend to be the grind, as citigroup called it earlier. what do you think about that?

>> yeah, that's right. i mean, if you look over historically how, you know, rebounds from bear markets work, that generally is the theme. and of course, if that's stuck in investors' minds, then we could possibly continue to see this grind sideways, possibly to the upside. but if you look at also the earnings, you know, we're trading around 18.6 times earnings in the last 12 months. historically around 16. so you know, there's probably just a little bit of fear that we've come a bit too far now. >> fear is good, though, in markets. no question about it. angus, thank you very much. appreciate it. have a good day and a good week. angus is the head of sales at capital spread. so take a peek at the futures before we say good-bye to our viewers in the u.s. who will be watching "squawk box." down 66. just point out, they were down 34 before the house voted. it's not a big move, but it's a move. so, as i said, good-bye, u.s.

viewers. enjoy "squawk box." for those of you around the globe staying with "worldwide exchange," we will make it worth your while. and we will be right back after this.

good morning, health care legislation is on its way to the president's desk. the house passing the senate bill on a 219-212 vote late last night. >> we believe that this act that was passed tonight is an all-american act. honoring our founders' vows to the future. and honoring our commitment to the future by making it a healthier one, and a fiscally sound one. >> we can do better. it doesn't have to be this way. this is not democracy. this is not good government. t