it should be trading a little bit to the upside at this point in time. let's wait for the charts to change. it is coming, i'm sure. we just have to wait a little bit more. well, maybe not. ross, one of those days. what can i say? >> i'm told the rest of the show will go smoothly, though, christine. stock markets are one hour into the trading day. fairly lackluster. the chip designer doing well after a good earnings note. the sectors that are firmer today, it is travel and leisure rebounding. we have flights now back in europe, although they've just come out and said the cost of that is around $400 million a day. individual stocks, bsaf, with ericsson, tesco doing fairly well. nicole, good morning to you. >> and a very good morning to

you, ross. it's 4:00 in the morning in new york and we're expecting markets here to open higher across the board, feeling some of your momentum. dow futures are up about 12 above fair value. nasdaq futures up, as well, about 12, and s&p 500 futures up about 3. of course, this is coming ahead, as you were mentioning, of apple's fiscal second quarter earningseses. but it's coming at the same time as we're getting more news out of paulson. the hedge fund is trying to head off investor concerns about its role in a so-called abicus ceo deal. in a letter from investors obtained by cnbc, paulson says everything was appropriate and conducted in good faith. paulson says before 2007, the firm wasn't known as an experienced mortgage investor.

it was open about the views on subprime mortgages and many sophisticated investors were willing to bet against them. no clients have reportedly asked to withdraw their money from paulson. a top republican lawmaker is questioning the timing of charges against paulson. darrel issa sent a letter to the s.e.c. saying that the case raises serious concerns about the agency's independence. in frankfurt, goldman is trading slightly lower, about 0.75%. christine. >> hey, nicole, joining us as our guest host for the next hour is roman scott, managing director of calaman capital. roman, good to have you with us. thank you. >> do you think tech is going to

lead us out into the recovery here? >> i don't think so. tech is not apple. we are seeing a broad consumer spend recovery, so the consumer electronics cycle is doing better. if you look at what's going on in south korea, the semi conductors are at the center of this. those numbers have been going up. so that is now flowing into tech stocks. and what you see with apple will not necessarily come through with all the others. >> but looking at this tech rally, do you think this rally is sustainable as far as the tech sector is concerned? >> certainly given its base effects. it's coming off a very low base and therefore, the rally is playing catch up and that way it's sustainable. but i do not think that the tech stocks and the overae all spend is going to get back to anywhere near what it was before the crisis. i still think there's a suppression in consumer expenditure, housing worries me, levels of company expenditure on things like tech budgets will be

lower than it was, so you're going to get a nice bounce recovery and then it will settle down and flat line. >> roman, nicole lapin in the united states. you talk about the apple effect. is the apple effect broader than just the tech sector, the maker of all things i, iphone, ipad these days? isn't that a broader barometer of the u.s. economy? >> certainly it's a broad indication that consumer expenditure is starting to recovery. so i certainly think people are getting back to the shorts. if you look at some of the broader careers i mentioned and lcds in particular, sales are picking up again, inventories are being built up again. so as i said, is there a recovery? yes, there is. are you going to see a recovery all the way back to what we saw before the crisis and the same level of expenditure? i can it will be muted once you have the base effect over. >> so just before i get around

to talking about debt, are you then fairly neutral on further stock gains from here? generally? >> i think so, yes. generally, it's nice to see a recovery. but once you start seeing the valuation getting to the kind of levels that we're seeing, which is exactly what happened with the earlier recoveries in, says, the financial sector, stocks then start looking overextended relative to the underlying macroeconomic picture of whether recovery is the same as getting back to the kind of level of demand we saw before. and that's why i think that, you know, you get a nice bounce recovery. if you don't participate in the bounce, i wouldn't be aggressive buyers of valuation once they start reaching the top. >> let's get a view of this story in just a second. greek borrowing costs have hit a 12-year high with the spread twend the 10-year bund yield

reaching five basis points. they're going to discuss the technical details of this proposed $60 bailout package. the greek finance minister says the government will decide whether to draw down the aid depending on the progress of the negotiations. roman, on the one hand, you're fairly neutral in stocks, as you were just saying. how much deficit issues are going to come back and present a problem for the board? >> well, i remain very nervous on the eu in general, both on my continual concern of always looking at consumer fundamentals, consumer spending, the unemployment figures, the return of shoppers to the store because don't forget the eu, like the u.s., is essentially a consumer driven economy, not an industrial-driven economy. so it hasn't been great or the

consumer and the return of employment. you layer on top of that the greek crisis, and remember sitting in the shadows, there's ireland, spain, portugal and the fudged effects before that was largely german political pressure not really tackling this and fixing it once and for all. i believe this will continue to be an overhang on the euro, an overhang on the european economy. then it doesn't help if you suddenly have travel going up and the airline sector going down, as well. so i remain nervous. the market is telling us something with the continual large spread between bunds and greek bunds reason to continue to be cautious. >> all right the. roman scott stays with us as our guest host for the hour. roman, thanks so much. let's get some big stories we're following for you around the world today. we've talked about it before, we'll talk about it again, apple sold more than 8.7 million

iphones with strong demand in europe and in asia, especially in china. as for the ipad, apple says initial demand was shocking, but didn't update sales. a rebound in display ads helped yahoo! eek out its first revenue ad increase in two years. apple is up 5 about 5% and yahoo! down about 2.75%. morgan stanley reports at 8:00 new york time. last week, ceo james goreman said the company's head winds were mostly behind them. at 8:00 in the morning, forecast to earn 42 cents a share. investors will look for signs that the economy is slowing, but

steadily improving. in frankfurt, morgan is trading up 5.75% and wells fargo is up about 1%, ross. >> nicole, the imf has urged g-20 nations to implement two taxes, a tax on balance sheet profits will help cover costs of any future bailout. the proposal for those who believe any changes will damage the competitiveness and wants them implemented as soon as possible. as we said, we have a listing today of the no fly ban in europe's air space has reopened after five days of virtual plain free skies. in britain, the restrictions were lifted and flights have begun to land at london major airports late last night. within the past hour, officials say that the intensity of the

volcanic eruptions has fallen by 80%, perhaps a further sign that things are returning to normal. although it may take a while to repatriate everybody who has en dislocated by the no fly zone, christine. >> right, ross. thailand's central bank has left its rate unchanged at 1.25%, a move that was largely expected. they are waiting until the country's ongoing unrest has tapered off. the unrest has had an impact on tourism and investor confidence. in a bid to help the economy out of a recession. let's check how the thai baht is doing at this point, 32.12 to the dollar, falling just a little bit. meantime, the thai minister says

he will willing to hold dialogue with red shirt protesters, but only if they agree not to increase tensions. the protesters said today they are open to talks, but through a third party. many are still occupying an upscale shopping center in the capital bangkok. >> still to come on today's program, 2010 strategic plans later today. will it put the automaker in the fast lane? we'll be back with the latest. more to come in a few minutes.

you're watching cnbc's "worldwide exchange." it's just gone 60 minutes past 8:00 in london. as far as the bund markets are concerned, bunch are very much focused on those negotiations that will kick off today in greece around any possible battle. the 10-year bund yield is pretty flat, really. this week, 3.8%, nudging up a little bit. keeping their eyes on what's going on on the stock markets. what about the currency markets, christine? >> this is how the picture is looking as far as risk aversion is concerned.

reduction to risk aversion means the dollar is a little stronger. yesterday wab 92. dollar/yen, 93. right now, euro/dollar is flat against the dollar. watching the greece situation very closely. 1.3443. sterling, 1.5389. euro/sterling, 0.87 3. nicole. >> christine, alternatings parade has turned the corner and is marching down a little block today. at&t, boeing, mcdonald's and united technology report today. we also hear from american airlines. after the close, e-trade, amgen and ebay report numbers. the senator will be looking at a big regulating derivatives. and one benjamin will be on hand to unveil a new look for another

benjamin. fed chairman ben, benjamin bernanke joins treasury secretary timothy geithner at 10:00 in the morning to show off theed 100 resigned bill, which prominently showed benjamin franklin on one tooip side. >> john elkin has been named as fiat's unit. the we're joined now by claudia. claudia, this is a pretty major restructuring. is he the right man to do it? >> certainly he has demonstrated in the last year that he is certainly -- if anybody can do it, he's the one that can. he said if you're going to consolidate in this market to find some big players, you have

to sell about 6 million cars. that's the objective he's working to. and it looks as though the rest of the negotiation market has taken on that strategy. so mr. elkann is taking that on. another person is codera was put into that place six years ago in order to help the family. it was coming at a time when the old generation had passed away and there was nobody designated to take that role. the natural heir is john elkann. he's going to take on this position, but the family is also probably ready to make another big step, which is the potential spin-off of the auto division. 60% of revenues of fiat are from the auto division. the rest and the healthier so to

speak are the trucks, the agriculture, the tractors and the commercial vehicles. and that is a business that would then remain within fiat and the rest would be eventually spun off and the family would potentially need to dilute themselves. and so the chairmanship of elkann somehow confirms the picture of fiat. meanwhile, we're waiting for the figures to come out, claudia. what are we expecting? >> yeah. the first two nebs are expected to come out soon. we are expecting numbers in terms of trading profit, 345 million for group. that is up from the loss of 48 million for the auto division. 110 million in profits, begin, trading profits from the loss of 30 in the same period of 2009. in terms of net profit, 40 million is the number that the consensus here is showing us from a loss of 411. the debt number is very important as part of the

potential spin-off of the auto division. 4.75 billion. twiet quite a big debt there. these numbers, we're keeping an eye on to see what happens in the next few minutes. overall, they are expected to be good numbers, so bodes well for that meeting that will begin here at 12:00 cet. we will get that industrial plan for fiat and chrysler. >> looking forward to it. thanks very much indeed for that, claudia. as far as the european stock markets are concerned, lackluster, really. the ftse 100 pretty flat as well as the xetra dax and cac 40. smi is up 0.3%. for more, we're joined by menosha in london. are holdings doing fairly well? >> absolutely. the market is looking a little tight this morning, ross. i think the volcano effect is likely to effect q2 numbers. but speaking about the holdings, they talk about apple could be interested, a four pound bid is

the rumor doing the round. 60% of the chips that our producers have provided to apple and if apple wants to take out arm sxvnt have them provide the rest of the chips to rival countries, they could well do it and take up that surprise. so that's one of the rumors doing the rounds today. also xstrata, as well. vale could be interested there. this is a rumor that's been doing the rounds for a little while now. it seems to come and go every now and then. >> what's the investor's view on the level we have on the ftse and whether we can continue to stay on any more gains? >> 5,100 looks like a bit of a series for the time being. that doesn't seem to be the interest at the moment, especially given that we're seeing more and more interest in and out of the u.s. the market looks like it wants

to pull back a bit before it starts to resume the move higher. there's a few interesting bits of food out today. the retail sector has been covered extensively by a number of brokers. tesco is doing particularly well, but that at the expense of some of its rivals, mining stocks down there today. copper prices start to come back up and hence the fall in the miners. >> patricia is in frankfurt and we've got more takeover speculation there boosting a stock. >> absolutely. and speculation it is. so far, the company doesn't want to comment on it. we're talking about infineon, ross. i spoke to the company earlier on. my personal comment is, of course, that this is not the first time this is hitting the wires. both of them are great companies, of course, and with a great prospect. and with the dram prices going to the up side, it is a play

that a lot of people maybe want to see. however, no comments so far out of that company. ip finnon is being pushed ahead because of the numbers. they are one of the big climbs of all the chip companies. apple, by the way, trading up nicely, about 5% in germany. interesting news coming through on the airline sector. lufthansa, the ceo just talking about it. they are fought looking for any kind of bailout money from the government at the moment. however, they actually say that the measurements were unrealistic, with and our german air space is going to be open as of 9:00 gmp, that is 11:00 cet, stephane. and air flan klm is trading higher as the traffic is gradually coming back to normal. the transport member sister will be back to normal before the weekend. yesterday, the tourism minister

didn't rule out financial supportport airline secretary also trading higher, peugeot citron, the largest carmaker in france posted a 28% increase for the first quarter. the company says it will be significantly higher in the first year, which is higher than the original forecast. however, peugeot citron is bearish for the second half of this year. akor beat expect ages. it's the top gainer in paris. 0.6% in sales in the first kwrter of this year saying that the recovery in the hotel sector surround way with a above trend in april. up 2.6%. very briefly, we've got eads trading lower. the company is back into the race for the refueling air tankers contract and according to the french newspapers, they

could team up with general electric. general electric is the owner of this channel. >> okay. stephane, thank you. >> coming up next on "worldwide exchange" with, we continue to look at the goldman saga. it continues with the lawmaker implying the timing of the s.e.c.'s suit was politically motivated. we'll look at the latest developments and implications later on in the show. >> and we're about to get unemployment data in the latest minutes out from the bank of england meeting right after this.

welcome to "worldwide exchange." the headlines we're watching here today, here in asia, thailand's central bank keeps interest rates unchange as the country's political tension raises doubts about the country's outlook. >> in europe, we're waiting for british unemployment data minutes from the bank of england. >> in the united states, the hedge fund manager at the center of the goldman sachs case speaks up, telling investors the fund was open and honest about its role. >> you're watching cnbc's "worldwide exchange" with christine tan, nicole lapin and myself, ross westgate. we're just about to get minutes out of the bank of england's

meeting, in which there was no change to the rates. the bank of england voted 9-0 to keep rates steady, kept 200 billion pounds of qe in april. the bank of england said that the minutes basically said while the mpc agreed, they did not justify a significant change in their view on the outlook of the economy. some differences appear to be emerging as a range of view about how the committee members have altered over the past few months. some were concerned that inflation expectations were drifting at a time when further inflation was likely and lifting up at a time when higher oil prices -- sorry, at a time when oil prices were exceptionatly lose. as far as the unemployment data is concerned, claimant count is much better than expected. claimant count down 32,000.

the unemployment rate at 3.02%. the wider jobless figure, though, up 43,000 in three months to february. the unemployment rate up to 8%. the highest race since september, november, 1996. once again, we have this dichotomy with a number of people closing, unemployment falling while a wider measure of unemployment is actually rising and the rate going up 20%. let's get more on that, joining us now is ken watrik. ken, people will look at this and say how can the number of people claiming unemployment be falling while the unemployment rate is going up? >> well, it's a question of measure, isn't it? the two are die verging. i guess in terms of what the government will focus on ahead of the election will be the fact that the claimant count is going down. i think in terms of what the market is focusing on, it's probably the same. what we see now is a run of positive surprises. we saw a fall of about 30,000 a month ago.

that was explained away due to a weather related effect. now we've seen another fall of the same magnitude this month. so i think what it's telling us in line with some of the leading indicators, the pmi and so on is that the economy is doing better in the first half of this year than people had anticipated. we had a lackluster second half of last year. it looks as if the reliable indicators of economic growth are improving significantly now. >> if that turns out to be the case and you look at the inflation figure yesterday and you then read these minutes where some members are worrying more about the balance of risk to inflation and activity altering, what do you do with sort of the idea of whether there's no qe and they start pulling back this emerging liquidi liquidity? >> well, i guess the focus at the moment is for a few mpc members to discuss this problem. we have a similar debate going on in the u.s. with regard to inflationary risk there. the collective view there still

remains that that is the appropriate policy and i think the bank of england is probably the same. it's worth focusing, though, on the inflation expectation data. the bank of england was very clear. it expected that inflation would be well above the target for the next several months and, therefore, the focus was on whether that was filtering through in inflation expect ages in any way and it seems there are some on the committee who are more concerned with that. the bottom line is that the view they've taken is it will be the balance of supply and demand in the economy. in that respect, they probably still build confidence over the thought inflation will go down. the longer inflation stays high, the greater the risk of inflation expectations and the greater the bank of england's potential is comfortable with near zero rates. >> ken, switching the conversation over to the bank of canada right now, they're signaling they're going to hike rates.

how significant is that that that would be the first g-7 country to do that? >> it's significant psychologically and it's for their exchange rates. the economic situation has been improving. now, though, given the economic fundamental, they need to make that move, irrespective for the expenses of the exchange rate. you're hearing very different noises from the people at the fed. that's the obvious question. if the bank of canada is doing this, will the central bank in the u.s. follow? and the message we're hearing is very much different, they're willing to tolerate this level of interest rates for a longer period because they think the underlying trend in inflation is going downwards. if you listen to what's being said in various speeches and the fed page book, there is a strong belief in the u.s. that strong core pressures are going to remain very low for a considerable period of time.

i can understand why people can put two and two together and make five and say this is a big signal for other central banks. but i think in the case of canada and the u.s. relationship, this time it's probably different. where my concerns would really focus would be on central banks in asia, where we do see strong growth and we see evidence that inflation pressures are beginning to build. >> ken, stay with us. we'll bring roman in in just a second. we have numbers out of fiat. fiat group trading profit, with just beating expectations. 52 million euros. the average consensess was 345. they said the group trading profit will be 1.1 and 172 billion ur rows for the whole year. so we'll continue to see if we get any news out from fiat, as well, on this restructuring that we're expecting. let's bring in roman scott who is with us, as well. you heard what robert was

discussing. we saw india raise rates. the focus is very much on korea and indonesia, as well. what is this going to do for the investor in the region? >> well, i certainly think that there is a mounting inflation problem across all of asia. we've seen industrial production figures, pmi, every survey that you want to look at and very strong quarterly gdp numbers, particularly in the exporting nations. so korea, taiwan, china, of course, which is an overheating position, india where underlying inflation is running close to 10% and even thailand, actually, they're well above their targets. inflation in thailand is running above 3%. so there is an inflation issue. the problem is, the easy monetary policies is very necessary coming out of the fed in the u.s. what do you do? you go slow on tightening and you say more accommodative than you should be leading to the

risk of asset and property price bubbles you're getting in asia. i think that the bank of thailand's decision not to raise rates was a bit of a mistake. what india has done is absolutely correct. there will be consistent and further tightening across the board sooner rather than later in every major asian economy. >> let me pick up on that. you think the bank of thailand should actually raise rates? >> absolutely. >> even despite the political situation going on right now? >> yes. this is a think we call the sri lanka ifphenomenon. short of an all out war, and i call it that because during the last six years of terrorist war in sri lanka, it grew at 6.5% and had underlying inflation varying from 15% to 25%. what goes on is people still shop, they eat, consume, buy stuff, send their kids to school despite the noise going on in the political arena. the israeli economy has been running like that for years. so you have mounting inflation

pressures with very good last quarter numbers. 5.8% gdp for thailand. do you, then, err on the side of cautioned inflation or do you focus on the politics? they've chosen to focus on the politics. i as a monetary guy always focus on inflation. >> we've got more on come on thailand. ken, we'll let you go. thank you so much for joining us. >> as far as european stock markets are concerned, it's been a fairly lackluster performance in europe despite the tech guys arm and infineon doing quite well, the chip boys doing very well on the back of speculation numbers. the ftse 100 down 0.17%. xetra dax up 0.1%. cac 40 is fairly flat and the smi is up 0.4% at the moment. fiat is down at the moment. there may have been a speculation or some hope that

they would have got more than we're seeing at the moment, although they are better than the consensus forecast, christine. >> hey, ross. tech shares really leading asian markets higher today. most of the markets broadly higher. check out some of the tech stocks in the nikkei 225 in japan. the chip related stocks rising 1.7%. we're seeing the biggest percentage gain in more than a month. shanghai composite up 1.8%. over in hong kong, one of the few markets to end of the downside, down 0.5%. but check out south korea. this particular market posting 22-month closing highs led by large cap technology issues. shanghai market up. bombay sensex mutual at this point in time flat and the aussie market up 0.6%. as for the set in sighland, we continue to watch the situation there. we are told that the bank of thailand has kept interest rates understanding changed because of the political situation. we will talk more about that

with our next guest, nicole. >> more about that, let me show you how futures are expected to open in the united states. dow futures are up about 12 above fair value. this is after the dow closed up 25 points yesterday for its eighth gain in nine days. broader indexes did have bigger percentage gains. nasdaq, as you're mentioning, we are looking ahead to apple to juice things up today. >> nicole, coming up next on "worldwide exchange," we talked about thailand. no surprise been the bank of tie legion holds interest rates unchanged. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange" been you're looking at hopping congress right now. a little dark and dreary right now. temperaturewise, 29 degrees. mostly cloudy, as you can see. winds blowing at the south 27 kilometers per hour and humidity is about -- what, about 87? around there. let's take a look at the temperature in thailand. very hot right now. the central bank has left its policy rate unchanged at a

record low 1.25%, a move that was largely expecting. the bank of thailand says it plans on waiting until the political unrest has tapered off before considering any tightening. joining us now, kim jonk and our guest host continues to be with us. you heard roland saying just a while ago the bank of thailand should have ignored the political situation and gone ahead and hiked rates. your opinion differs, right sfp. >> right now, we have core inflation growing at the rain of 3725%. >> so you're saying the bank of thailand made the right move?

>> i'm saying it's not surprising. i wouldn't say it's the right move. >> right now, they focus on the political situation. they are watching this very closely. so unless this sort of uncertainty changes, i don't think they'll move up. >> roland, your thoughts? >> i come from the school of thought that always believes central banks always tend to delay the tightening schedule. historically, if you look at major central banks around the world, they tend to leave rates over easy for too long and start causing inflation pressure, then they tighten. everyone worries about that. in this particular case, asia is the leading indicator. there is clearly a fabulous and quite robust amount of activity and consumption across most asian economists, including

thailand. 5.8% gdp growth is quite a big number. we know inflation figures are always on the low side compared to reality and you're holding rates, that is accounting effectively as a tax on asian consumers and suppressing household wealth. >> tim eng? >> well, right now, that number is pronounced. it is still the target and if they are undershooting that target, even at the low end, then really, there is no strong presence for them to move. >> so you've expressed confidence in the bank of thailand to do the right thing, then? >> they are trying to meet their target and i think by doing what they're doing, they are aiming at their target. >> let's talk about the whole world impact and what that poses for the real world economy.

you have tourism and consumer confidence getting badly hit. what are the chances that thailand could tip back into a recession? >> no matter what, given normal -- our expectations now i don't think the economy's growth will fall below 4% because the rebound of exports has been quite strong and restocking has been happening after the massive destocking last year. so these two factors are the main two driving forces that we see. until april, i think, domestic demand has been growing quite strongly. despite the latest, i think the impact could be relatively marked if the projects would go away in the near term. >> again, we're expecting a gdp figure that would be roughly equal to this quarter for the

year. what we found looking at this before in every single system has been geopolitical turmoil is that economic activity continues and the impact is on foreign direct investment because foreigners tend to be put off. they are less direct knowledge of what's going on on the ground and tourism receipts and people visiting. if you look at corporate investments and investments, that tends to hold up. consumption holds up quite well. and as a result, i think that the thai number will continue to be good and holding, not controlling inflation. >> so you would continue to -- >> i prefer indonesia snp. >> we'll leave it there for now. kim eng tan, thank you for joining us today. let's head over to chloe and

check out what's been happening in the markets today. tech stocks is the star performers today. >> and plus, elpida is coming out with really great news, swinging into a profit as opposed to what was expected to be a loss, and that's why elpida memory was one of the best performers, gaining ground of 1.4%. the spillover effect was spectacular, as well. we saw anywhere in the range about 2%, 3% and 4% for other stocks such as fujitsu up. we had the philadelphia semi conductor index gaining ground, as well. in south korea, the impact is quite seismic, i would say. the rival chipmaker such as hynix, up by 6%. we are expecting their numbers to be stellar. samsung has flagged that their earnings lr somewhere in the

range of six fold increase and another key thing to note is that the kospi is a component in apple's ipad, i should point out, christine. >> and speaking of tech stocks in particular, what is the impact on tech stocks with the fact that the europe skies are -- >> this is huge. remember, you were talking about it briefly yesterday. for instance, samsung electronics and lg, they are the world's number two and number three cell phone makers. 30,000 cell phones were pretty much stocked at airports. that was a combined loss of $30 million per day. in terms of microchip shipments, they were losing anywhere between $4 million and $5 million a day. so the fact that the air space is clearing up means this is actually good news. i think that had a trickle on effect for some of the chip stocks in south korea.

so i think they're probably breathing a sigh of relief. the tech companies really, really suffered. >> so i guess that means that new hand set you were eyeing, now you can buy it, right? >> and it's not only the hand sets. i heard sushi providers are stocking up. >> thank you for that. ayesha faridi joins us live for the indian report. >> for the better part of the trading session, it was hovering around the 52.350 odd level for the nifty, just about latching on to a 10 point gain. the margin picture is a tad bit soft.

but tech did deliver a strong set of numbers and nonetheless and the stock price has been reacting positively. so almost a 7% notch up is what the stock saw intraday. i.t. major, amongst the banking stocks, you have axis bank. they have beaten straight timts. that counter is oep holding up very strong, almost a gain of 4 odd percent there. not just that, unitech has had a demerger takes plague place, so the real estate major has been holding up very positively. the debt levels of the entity seem to be comfortable with the market watchers. ewe any tech holding up about 3 odd percent. with that, it's back to you. >> ayesha, thank you for that. we're watching a company very closely. los angeles mogul steve wynn opens its second macau property. encore opens today. this as china intensifies its watch on the local gaming

market, one that is now bigger than los angeles and atlantic city combined. the chairman and ceo was caught up with and asked about his fears of saturation in the matter. >> what matters is not how many places get built, but how good are they? the more fanciful, the more appropriate they are, they grow the market opinion. if they're just boxes of rooms and tables, they do nothing. then you get that question of saturation or the stunting of the market growth. if there's imagination and good taste in macau, the sky is the limit. it could happen here. and i think it will. all i'm saying, bernie, is taking a look at the last 48 months. forget about one season wasn't as good as the next.

hell, that's the way of life. but take a look at the 48 months as a whole, this is dizzyingly successful. >> you say chinese company, you're here, you've got chinese share holdings. it's a big proportion of your register. >> yes. you're still an american company. how are you going to morph yourself into a chinese company? >> i'm looking at moving the board. it's not unprobable or unrealistic considering so much of our revenue is from china. it only makes sense that i spend more time here. i'm seriously considering that and i'm currently weighing the implications of how i engineer that. but this is where -- this is our

major focus. mark twain said some people advocate putting a little here and putting a little there. that isn't putting all your eggs in one basket. mark twain said put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket. >> let's get a final thought now from roman scott. rowman, i know you don't like a lot of things, you don't like the auto or airline sector. but you're watching the anti-corruption probe closely and you think if bhp gets the sector, you would buy the sector. what do you like about the sector? >> this is very much dependent on asian long run demand and china and india. iron ore, the negotiation of how prices would set would change to spot and not just spot, but spot including shipping and portage and all that stuff thrown in, that is fabulous news for the

miners any way you look at it for the medium term and the short-term. if there is any opportunity that leads to a depression of price, i would be a buyer. >> but not now? >> i'd way for the corruption noise to lead to depression in the share prices because they are very, very richly valued at the moment. >> in light of what's happening with goldman, of course, you are continuing to watch the sector closely and you have a specific way of an investment approach. tell us about that. >> well, you know, the investment banking will help the global finances change fundamentally. we like the fact that it's moved to fundamental slow about it business from the old proprietary trading and this kind of stuff. therefore, this is how markets are quite attractive as global economic activity picks up and you start seeing resumption of financial activity that top three to five players. you're getting a concentration of profitability flows and money being made there, and then the rest of the market will remain

adult. we quite like the top financials, the jpmorgans, for instance. >> good talking to you, as always. roman scott, calamander capital. coming up next on "worldwide exchange," regulators are stepping up the pressure on goldman sachs. we've been talking about this. we'll talk more about it after the break. >> and we'll leave you with a good look at where the u.s. 10-year is trading at the moment.

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welcome to "worldwide exchange." in the united states, the ceo of the paulson hedge funds claims that the fund was honest and appropriate. >> here in asia, mining behemoth, bhp digs out of graft violations relating to its latest project. >> great to have you with us here on "worldwide exchange." i'm nicole lapin with christine

tan and ross westgate. it is 5:00 in the morning on wall street. you know what they say about that, the early bird catches the worm. by the juice we're expecting to get by apple's second quarter earnings after goldman sachs first quarter profit nearly doubled on higher trading revenue yesterday, s&p futures are also higher. we have seen a big percentage gains across the board all this week, ross. >> yeah. and apple is having an impact on european stocks at the moment. we're two hours into the trading session, the general level of the indices, fairly lackluster. down a third of a percent for the markets. but two chip stocks arm and infineon, one in uk and one in germany are jumping on possible futures.

so the techs are an outperformer. the nikkei 225 is up 1..%, the biggest gain in more than a month with chip related stocks powering ahead. over in shanghai, this market down 1.8%, largest percentage gain in three weeks. we had retail plays in motion because of a pick up in consumer demand. elsewhere, we have kospi posting a 22-month high. the s.e.t. market continues to drift lower. the bank of thailand keeps

interest rates unchanged because it cited the political unrest for holding rates steady. >> elsewhere, creek borrowing costs are study. it's at a new peak of around 482 basis points. that is the eu and imf delegates finally arrive to discussion the issue. they look at apple and continue worrying about debt? joining us is pierce kuran. what is winning out here? >> on the whole? >> fairly good earnings report coming out. apple fairly stellar. daimler, very good. we're still rambling around with greece debt issues. >> it's a bit of a cash 22 at the moment. on one hand, we've got some sensational fundamental view, as you say, the earnings report, we

were going into this quarter one earnings season with an optimistic outlook. but even with that outlook, everybody is surprised at just how good things are. appearing, smashing it out of the park as they always do. but then on the other hand, eve got great economic data, as well. we've got potentially job creation, it began last month in the states. can that continue? we've got great information in the manufacturing sector. good news on housing, finally, maybe in the u.s. >> this is telling us, economic recovery is healthy. but then you've got three -- well, two, but possibly three huge fatal scenarios that might blow up in the next few weeks or months. and, of course, greece being one of those, the goldman sachs issue being one and who knows what's going on with this volcano? it's very, very difficult. i think the medium and long-term outlook is very, very cloudy

because you just don't me. sgha what do you do? >> you keep things pretty tight. i think you have to bring in your horizons in terms of your investment strategies. i think you have to be nimble in these markets. i think that's been the case fort last quarter. there's always the shock. i was talking a couple of weeks back on the show about the need for some sort of hedging strategy and the vix is the classic scenario. if you saw on friday, the vix rallied on the back of the goldman news. so the vix actually now the outperformed, if you like, as a hedge against that. you need to be well placed. i think recovery is still happening. but you have to have some protection in case any of these issues ka late rapidly.

>> meanwhile, some of the other stories we're following right now, from around the globe, with airline stocks are trading higher today after most of the europe's air space has reopened. that's after five days of virtually plain skies. in northwest scotland, flights began to land, as well, as london's major airports from late last night. frankfurt airport is due to open fairly shortly. within the past half hour, people say that the intensity of the volcanic ee rupss has fallen by another 80%. it will take some time to re-pat ree ate all those passengers who have missed flights over the last five or six days, nicole. >> what a miss. and we hope it gets cleared up next week. we're also following out of the north side inside, the hedge fund linked to charges in the ceo deal.

in are a conference call on monday night, and in a letter to investors on tuesday, obtained by cnbc, paulson says everything was appropriate and conducted in good faith. the hedge fund didn't structure or create the vehicle, it just acted on the short side of the transaction. paulson says before 2007 been the firm wasn't known as an expensed mortgage investor. many sophisticated investors were willing to bet against them. no cliepts have reportedly asked to withdraw their money from paulson. >> and we were talking about this just a second ago. apple's second quarter profits soared 90%, blowing past analyst forecasts. apple sold more than 8.7 million iphones with strong demand in europe and in asia, especially in china. as for the ipad, apple says initial demand was shocking but didn't necessarily update sales. yahoo!'s first quarter profits more than doubled helped by a

any partnership by bing search engine. a new display ad helped yahoo! eek out its first revenue increase in two years but search ad sales dropped 14%. apple is trading higher about 5% and yahoo! is lower by 2.75%. pierce, let's bring you in and get your reaction to some of the tech earnings that we have been seeing lately. is apple an isolated case? >> i think in a way, yes. it's led to the country. this earnings report last night surpassed anything people could imagine. it has taken it to a new level.

and i think quarter one, you know, it's their best nonholiday quarter in their history and they've outsold all expectations across all their product range. steve jobs has hinted at some quite exciting new products coming up. maybe an apple tv will be thrown into the mix. the sales haven't really got going yesterday. it is at the head of what is the best performing sector. >> pierce, we'll continue to leave it there with you and come back in a little bit. still to come here on "worldwide exchange," italian car county fiat just posted forecasts beating first quarter earnings. but investors are still wait for a strategic overhaul to be announced later on today. dddd

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." in light of what's happening in the equity markets, commodities are doing much better today. buoyant earnings results, giving a lift to the spot gold right now, 1143.90 an ounce, up 6.30. upbeat earnings results injecting optimism into the oil market. this is how the nymex picture is looking, as well.

fiat has posted a beat in first quarter earnings. but shares are taking a beating. investors were hoping for some improved guidance. that comes as well as the industrial conglomerate is expected to announce a split in its unit. it's all part of a far reaching restructuring. claudia is in turin, where she's been poring through those figures. so better than expected, but we didn't get the guidance we wanted. >> well, the guidance maybe could be it, but it went up on the announcement that john elkann was going to take over as chairman of fiat. again, it could be profit taking, it could be that

objective for 2010 full year announced $1.1 billion is what they're expecting in terms of trading profit. that may be a little lower than what the analysts were expecting. we'll get more on that later on. let's start, though, with these numbers. top line revenues came up, growing up by 14% at 1279 billion on a group level. as far as the autos are concerned, that division rose by 22%. again, at group level, the trading profit came in at 352, so that slightly beat consensus, which is 345 million from a loss of 48 million in the same period of 2009. for the auto division, again, once again, the trading profit beat expectations 150 million from 110 there. there was a loss of 30 million in the same period. let's get now to net profit. that is another thing to watch out for because the consensus was for a gain of 40 and we got a number that posted 21 million loss for group levels. so we certainly missed there on profit. we'll get more information on how that happened. debt was in line with expectations, 4.75 billion.

liquidity expected, 11.2 billion from 12.4, which was what we saw in the same period last year. the important thing to note is that the auto sector did beat. they did come in stronger in terms of volumes. the incentives had not kicked in yet in this time last year, so the comparison is a little bit strange there. and a lighter commercial vehicle he, not the smaller cars, but those sort of small bus and minivans did better. so note lastly, cmi, the strongest healthiest part of peaat group, the tractor producer doubles its trading profits from 49 million to 100 million, so there are definitely some strong points. but we'll get more from the industrial plan later on. ross. >> claudia, for now, thanks very much. meanwhi meanwhile, the rest of the european stock markets a little bit mixed as we go ahead of the u.s. stock markets a little later. the ftse 100 is down 0.3%. the chip designer benefiting

from apple's figures. there's a bit of speculation whether apple might be interested in buying many of the chips which apple uses. infineon is one of the stocks that is up in germany. chipmakers generally all benefiting from apple and patricia has more on that in frankfurt. >> absolutely. but i did speak to the company, ross, and they did say they're not dmenting on any kind of speculation. i have to say at that point the story that they might not be interested in infineon is not that new, either. on a day like this, it's something that gets the markets excited. so you have dialok up, also doing well, with up about 1.5%. all in all, it's an interesting one. i think what is more interesting is the total result of the situation we had over the last five days in terms of the

traffic airport, traffic airline, lufthansa coming through with the announcement saying that they can't put the entire situation on yet and it is mulling some sort of option to ask the german government for some aid. >> thank you very much. we have a couple of good performers, including the car sector and also accor, the hotel group, posted a 0.6% increase revenue for the first quarter of the year, which is higher than expected. the company says that the recovery in the hotel sector is under way and also that the trends for april were rather positive. the company dropped its forecast

for the full year. that's a positive announcement and the stock is up 2.5%. as you can see, peugeot citron is a second gainer after the company posted a 28% increase in sales for the first quarter, which was way above expect ages. it said the company would be significantly profitable in the first half of the year. but that is the good news and the stock is up 274%. now, over to chloe in singapore. >> thank you so much. we want to talk about thailand, christine. you were talking about that with kim eng, as well. the thailand prime minister said he is open to talks with protesters and the protesters giving in, extending a bit of an olive branch, if you will, saying they are willing to talk to the government and they're extending their time frame. instead of calling for immediate

snap polls, immediate elections, they say they're willing to look into a three-month time frame. the thai set is down 6% since april 7th. we do see what is interesting is the thai baht is resilient. they're saying that the government is propping it up, but long-term, earlier, our guest is saying that the thai markets are holding up today. but going forward, the interesting thing about it i'd like to high lied is it's simply running out of political figures who can govern, given that the constitutional court has given so many politicians political bans. so that is something to look for, nicole. >> chloe, we're still, of course, watching the goldman story out of the united states. managing the crisis, goldman goes on the defense against the s.e.c.'s fraud charges. and with the court of public opinion not exactly on its side. how can goldman handle its pr? we'll discuss that after the break.

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welcome back to was with was. it's 5:22 on the east coast of the united states. dow futures, they've been up for the last hour and a half or so, up about 11 above fair value. this after goldman sachs

reporting first quarter profits nearly doubling on higher revenue, but the stock fell, of course, on its legal woes. goldman is stepping up its effort to defend itself against civil charges filed last week. goldman's chief council filed the call yesterday. public reaction has been pouring in this week and most of it has been negative. >> i don't know the details, but the record, if you will, of the last 18, 24 months, shows that it's basically trying to destroy the business. and i don't think that will benefit those who need the help the most. >> i think it's just part of a systemic problem that we're just going to see more and more as things unfold, as it gets uncovered, we'll see more and more of it. >> they probably should have vetted that issue in their legal department, just -- i guess stuff like that comes back at you if you don't do the right

thing. >> aaron quicken is a founder of ceo of quicken and company. it's a company that focuses on crisis management and silvia wadhwa is joining us from frankfurt. aaron, you just heard, people are mad. how does goldman get a handle on this? >> the first question is, does it matter? they've done so well with that money and have performed so well, they have to step up. i think they have to open the kimono a little bit. >> how do they do ta? >> they need to get out a little more. where is warren buffett? who can they bring in on the outside to help validate what they're doing >> in omaha. >> but who is somebody they can bring in on the outside and confirm what they're doing is not wrong. now they have a fraught complaint against them. they need to invite the media

in, create a bank of good will and stop this man behind the curtain that has been part of the reputation for so long now. >> seems like ft. knox. we just got a letter out from paulson and company out to its investors, basically outlying the entire media debacle for its investors. it's clear here, it's on the front page of the money investing second in the "wall street journal." should goldman do something similar? >> i think we've all been to this movie before. goldman will be dragged before congress before you know it primariry because they have a communications problem. they should do something similar. i think frankly, arrogance got them to where they are today. arrogance got them there. hub rans is keeping them there. i think they're lawyering too much and not leadering enough. it might mean letters, it might mean talking to more folks like

you, but fooel being far more transparent in what they're doing. >> if blankfein wants to come on set, he is invited any time. sylvia, i know you've been listening. do you have a question for aaron? >> well, i think at this stage, we get to the point where it's more than a marketing problem. if you're talking about what's happening on our side of the pond, goldman was one of the ten most important banks in the german government bond consortium last year. we're talking about refinancing something in the vicinity of 340 billion german government debt and the german government is seriously talking about that's what weir we hear on the rumor mill of excludeing goldman of the federal bond consortium until all of these allegations were sorted out. the germans were already slightly mi ffed because of their involvement in refinancing greek debt in a fancy way. do you think it's far more than a marketing problem now because it's beginning to hurt. it's beginning to filter possibility into real business.

>> well, i believe yesterday they had they spend a lot of time talking to their clients one-on-one. there's clearly some sort of substantive business issue there. that's mott my area of expertise. but it has gone beyond a marketing problem, you're right. despite earnings news, there's clearly a lingering or lagging effect based on what they're doing or not doing. but i think it koms comes down to communications and i think if they're a bit more open and more accessible to the public, that could help. >> when you say they have to open up and is bring in the public, the robe why they're so good at what they do is a lot of people don't understand what

they do. they're the head of that field. opening themselves up and explaining to people would be a disadvantage. i think the problems here is marketing and all that kind of stuff and it's too late for that. i think the real issues now are, a, are there going to be niblt bringing four charges against goalman? so at the moment, it's just the s.e.c. i mean, who else is there? is the contagious? who knows. >> they're not the only one sitting on these contracts, were they? >> no, exactly. i don't think goldman fundamentally has not done anything illegal, i don't think. i think this whole thing is hugely politically timed. >> i think the question is, as you know, pierce, is how do they get a handle and tell the public that they haven't done that?

i know aaron wants to jump in. pete pierce, of course, stays with us. coming on "worldwide exchange" with, this saga continues. we'll be digging into the goldman case more out of the break. one congressman has come out saying that the timing of the s.e.c. charges were politically motivated. we'll hear what dennis gartman has to say bit. stay tuned for more.

welcome to "worldwide exchange." the headlines making news today, out of the united states, the hedge fund manager at the center of the goldman sachs case speaks up, now telling investors that the fund was open and honest. >> meanwhile, in europe, fiat beat first quarter forecasts, although there was some disappointment the automaker didn't rev up its guidance. >> and here in asia, thailand's central bank leaves interest rates unchanged as there concerns about the economy's outlook. >> great to have you with us here on "worldwide exchange."

it's 5:30 in the united states. let's get a look at how the markets are likely to open. dow futures have been higher for the last hour and a half or so, up about 11 above fair value. nasdaq futures looking ahead to apple juicing up the market today. up about 11, as well. yesterday, ross, the dow moved higher about 25 points, ed ending at 11,117. how are you guys doing? >> we're fairly mixed today, actually. the ftse 100 has been down this morning, off 0.3%. we have upside from traffic stocks as the no travel restrictions have been lifted after some act money between regulators and airlines. there's speculation that maybe apple or intel might want to purchase two companies, which i don't think people are taking that seriously.

tech stocks are powering ahead, hot on fire here in asia because of apple. nikkei 225, chip related shares there pushing the markets higher, 177%. biggest percentage gain in more than a month. in south korea, pushing 22 month highs, large cap technology issues leading the gainers. the aussie market up 0.6%. we continue to watch the situation in thailand. the stock market there continues to drift lower. we have the bank of thailand saying it's keeping interest rates unchanged because of the political situation. in terms of dollar rates, in

terms of dollar/yen, this is how the picture is looking in the forex market. all that reduction and risk aversion sending the yen a little higher today, 93.38. it was 92 earlier. dollar/yen, 93.38. euro/dollar, 1.3437. sterling, we had some boe minutes coming out and helping to lift that, sterling/dollar, 175426. >> goldman sachs is trying thoed off investor concerns about its involvement in the conversation abacus deal. paulson says everything was appropriate and conducted in good faith. the firm, which hasn't been charged, said it didn't structure or create the deal, it was just acting on the short side of the transaction. before 2008, the firm was not known or experienced as a mortgage investor.

many sophisticated investors were, as well, they say willing to bet against them. no clients have reportedly asked to withdraw their money from paulson. joining us now is dennis gartman, the founder of the gartman letter, and still with us, with eric quicken, pierce kuran, our guest host, is still with us. so we have a big discussion going on about goldman. dennis, i want to start with you because are some come out and saying this isn't the smoking gun of the business. what do you think, smoking gun or water pivotal? >> i think what a wonderful met f metaphor that is. the public senses blood in the streets, wants to see it on the water and is after goalman sacks. it's an inopportune time to have this thing to happen. but in my mind, did goalman do

anything untoward? no. did paulson? no. paulson was looking for a way to get short. honestly, i was looking for a way to get short at the time. i wish i had had the wisdom and the ta mayorty to go to goldman and say, look, will you put together a product for me. >> you did it. you're coming out of it now and we're looking at what was 2007, of course, with paulson wasn't paulson at the. how does gold man get in front of this? >> i think managing their reputation or recovering it will be like pushing water back up hill. i think, quite frankly, they're not going anywhere soon. they're not going to die. i do think, though, that they -- and i'm not saying they need to -- i know pierce mentioned before, they don't need to expose any trade veets, but they need to talk about how their operate their business from an

ethics and value perspective and thou how they do things the right way. >> and pierce was mentioning in our last segment -- yeah, go ahead. >> yeah. i think there was an interesting comment earlier on that goldman is out there lawyering up too much when they should be having their leaders out in front. you should have lloyd blankfein on the stage the other day, not the in-house counsel for goldman sachs. it would have made a far better -- or the public would have pure received goldman far better if they had left the lawyers behind and put the leaders out front. >> you know, guys, pierce also made a great point, that it could be too late. what can we learn from lehman? dick fuld on capitol hill yesterday. let's listen to his discussion and discuss that a bit. >> i was very much aware that one day we had a firm. the next day we did not.

and a lot of people got hurt by that. and i have to live with that. >> aaron, talk about too little too late. >> what's interesting is that lehman had a very large story in the "wall street journal" before their fall, which talked about how they survived it all. maybe they declared victory too soon. i think goldman has a little bit of this don't hate me because i'm so pretty kind of thing. i think they need to lose that very quickly. i think that maybe they need to bring in a chief integrity officer, someone from the outside to help validate what they're doing. they're probably going to get dragged before congress, anyway. the question is what do they do between now and then to help recovery? right now, their mind-set is we only have to communicate four times a year as a listed company. and all we care about are a financial community. now they need to care about the larger community. >> main street. >> yes. >> i read your reaction to this

in your letter on monday. you're pretty bleak about goldman specifically and about where they go in the long material. you compared it to the cigarette industry with the legal issues that they're going to have ongoing for years now. and you're saying that goldman will not be the company it used to be. can you talk about that a little bit more? do you think goldman, this is the end for them? >> no, it's not the end for goldman at all. will goldman, a year from now, be the goldman that it was two weeks ago? absolutely not. it will be demon extrably smaller. there will be people leaving the firm, no question. they will be doing less business than they are doing now. will goldman ten years from now be the firm that it was two weeks ago? probably. i think the similarity to what happened between the tobacco companies and what's going to happen to goldman is quite clear. this is going to dral drag on for a long period of time.

their leadership is going to have to be focused with lawyers rather than with clients. it's going to have to keep their vision away if doing their business and try to focus on what's going on in the courts. it's going to be one court circumstance after another and it's just going to get to be a very old and laborious movie. >> and i think that the public perception of goldman, i think to a certain extent, isn't the most important thing here. i think it's the relationship with their clients that's key and it's the trust. i think their clients are obviously educated enough to realize what goldman is about and how they go about their business and being prepared to ignore that in favor of getting the results that goldman delivers. but i think now that's been brought out into the light. are these clients going to be accepting of these issues and will they be able to trust goldman and be confident that they're not going to get sued for it? >> right. and a lot more questions there as we balance main street and wall street. dennis gartman, founder of the

guard man letter says with us. eric quicken, we love your perspective. thank you so much for that. pierce stays with us, as well. thanks so much, guys, for the great conversation. ross. >> meanwhile, we're looking at transactions. europe has reopened for most of its skies to open. how much time do they have before a second cloud of ash?

welcome to cnbc's "worldwide exchange." let's cross live to tokyo and check in on the trading day there with ken moriyasu. moriyasu san. >> hi there, christine. tokyo stocks rebounded about the 11,000 mark gaining 189 points from the day. apple's strong earnings report and the bigger yen like mitsubishi jfg financial. a & a shares climbed 3.2% after resuming regular flights to europe. after the six-day hold caused by the volcanic ash, flights are likely to operate at full pass for several days. panasonic began sales of 3d tvs

today. rival sony plans to unveil its lineup of 3d tvs in june when many workers receive their summer bonuses. toe see back is expected to join in this summer. and in a country notorious for speaking bad english, here is another big below. geos filed for bankruptcy today satellite saddled with a debt of..5 billion yen. geos will hand over 3,500 schools and the rest will be closed. it follows another major english school which went out of business in 2007 and that was the nikkei business report. back to you, christine. thank you very much for that, ken moriyasu from the nikkei. nicole. >> and christine, general motors has repaid $8.1 billion in loans it got from u.s. and canadian governments five years ahead of schedule. ceo ed whitacre will formally

announce the payoffs today at a plant in kansas. gm still owes $45 billion in the united states and $8 billion to canada which it got in exchange for large stakes in the company. ross. >> okay. final thought from pierce can you rnan. we were talking about greece earlier. we were getting christine le guard saying they are going to pledge $6.8 billion to greece as part of the euro zone aid package. the uk would seemingly be heading much closer for a hung parliament and what that means for british debt. do investors have to fear that, or not? >> well, it's a concern. first of all, on the greece issue, we think they're going to have to trigger this aid package in the next three weeks. they've done a couple of bond auctions recently. they've gone fine, but there's not too much risk of that for

investors. >> that's right. so -- but they still need to raise more and they've been talking about this u.s. road show and the greek finance minister yesterday was saying, it's still on, but there's no date scheduled yet. well, you know, they're running out of time. if there's no date scheduled for that, it's not going to happen. the so i think they're going to trigger this aid package and then the questions are is 45 billion enough? are they going to be able to keep up with the restrictions put in place as part of this package? there are so many uncertainties. so, you know, you just have to go along with this. i think the fact that they are going to trigger the aid package is now priced in. i don't think that is going to surprise markets. it's how they deal with that money over the next sort of six months. with the uk, it was incredible. i was watching that debate last week and i -- you know, i was surprised by the outcome. but i think the elections, it's

going to be important, definitely been. >> thanks for joining us, pierce kurnan. nicole. >> ross, so much more to come on "worldwide exchange." morgan stanley, wells fargo are the last of the major financials to report earnings. at&t, boeing, and mcdonald's are set to report before the bell. we'll bring you a preview of everything to expect in today's trade. stay tuned to cnbc, first in business worldwide.

great do you see on "worldwide exchange." dennis gartman is still with us at 5:50 on this fine wednesday morning. dennis, i know you're watching the bank of canada closely hiking. is there any possibility for contagion over here for the united states with that? >> well, actually, the bank of canada yesterday said that they were going to hike, that they were -- they had told us previously that they likely wouldn't hike rates until after the turn of the mid year. now they're telling us it's probably going to be quite quick

when they move to raise rates. the question now is how much will they raise rates? the impact upon the fed is going be minimal. the fed has no intention whatsoever of tightening monetary policy here in the united states until much later this year. so the canadian dollar, it has moved rather dramatically higher in the course of the last 24 hours, nicole, and well it should. all things being equal, canada looking closer to the united states except stronger economically, now with higher rates, capital is moving to canada, that says it should be. >> the first g-7 country to do that, how significant is that? >> actually, it was more significant that australia had already moved. canada is going to follow. the rest of the g-7 will follow in line one after another. europe being far later than even we shall be. but it's going to be a long time before the fed tightens. canada and australia, the two stronger economies. the exporters of stuff to the rest of the world clearly seeing

better signs for the economy than we are. and the bank of canada said yesterday, we're ready to do it. >> so dennis, this is christine here in asia. if you like the canadian dollar, does that mean you like the aussie dollar? >> christine, good to see you. i always have, for a long period of time. i've been a strong advocate of ownering australia and canada relative to almost any other currencies in the world because there they are, the great exporters of things. they have the stuff that the world needs. they have crude oil, natural gas. they've got wheat, thooel they've got base metals, they've got precious metal pes.they have to put it in a very sophisticated economic term stuff that the world needs and can export it efficiently. so you've had to like canada and you've had to like australia. they've been long-term trends. i don't see any reason to think they're that going to change now. >> dennis, stuff and things are strong. so is gold. >> gold is very strong. gold is strong not only in u.s. dollar terms, it's actually

stronger in foreign currency terms. if you look at a chart of gold in sterling, gold in euros, gold in yen, they're making -- gold is making new highs. gold in u.s. dollar terms is well below where it was in december of last year, but gold in those foreign currency terms is much stronger. it's been a much easier trade to own gold predicated in sterling or swiss francs or euros or even yen. i don't like being bullish of gold. everybody hears me say that i'm bullish of that commodity. i'm not bullish of gold for the reason gold bugs are. i'm bullish of gold because it's a reservable asset and it's replacing the euro at the margin. >> you trade it, dennis, as a currency, do you? >> i trade it as a currency. i do look at gold as a currency, not as gold itself. i'm not a gold bug. i don't like the gold bugs. but i do believe that the margin, at the euro has

problems, the bank of china, the reserve bank of india, even the reserve bank in russia are finding themselves buyers of gold, accumulators of gold rather than accumulators of euros. >> dennis, it's nice to know you're looking at currencies in asia. what about the chinese yuan? what is your prognosis on whether the currency is going to value and will you buy it? >> well, i think if my government would keep its mouth shut, sit down, be quiet and let china do what china has said it's going to do, which is eventually move to a freely floated renminbi, it would happen much faster than it's going to happen now. it needs to happen. china understands that. it will let it happen sooner or later. but the united states, washington, needs to let china do it on its own. i'm not as bullish of the renminbi as everybody else is. it probably will rise once it's floated. but i think that really, christine, what we have to

understand is that we've had 20 years of capital flowing into china that, once it's freely floated, that capital may want to go back away. it may want to find some place to diversify to. so everybody else is phenomenally bullish of the renminbi. it may rally initially, but i would be more sog any zacogniza it could fall. >> and dennis, we're happy to hear all of your words this morning. dennis gartman, great to see you. that's going to do it for "worldwide exchange." i'm nicole lapin in the united states. >> and i'm ross westgate in europe. >> and here in asia, i'm christine tan. thank you very much for your company here on "worldwide exchange."

good morning. an an.a day keeps the bears away. the maker of the iphone and the ipod growing away expectations. the core, when you peel back the shell of the apple, it's -- can you guys think of anything else for apple? you like that? okay. we will talk apple. and a first-person defense, billionaire hedge fund manager johns paulson takes his goldman sachs story directly to his investors. and the markets at this hour, u.s. equity futures trading above fair value as "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody.

welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and carl quintanilla. let's start in earnings center central, joe's favorite story. apple of my eye today, posting blockbuster second quarter results. earnings and revenue beating expectations. the shares jumped in the news on after hours trading to an all-time high. check this out. up by 5.3%, up another almost $13. check out the market cap on that company right now. iphone sales were a key driver. the company selling nearly $9 million last quarter. it's much higher than analysts had been expecting, too. a big part of the story here was international demand, too, as new carriers were added in some of the key overseas markets. apple, as you know, is known for typically offering very conservative forecasts right now. third quarter earnings per share, it's seen somewhere between $2.39 and $2.70.

the street was already at 31. obviously, investors were not taking that to heart. >> if you add chevron and boeing together -- >> still not getting it? >> no. >> 220 some billion. >> behind exxon and microsoft, right? i think they're a third of the market cap now. >> when we had intel sitting here, i was looking at their market cap. >> jpmorgan, you can't find one. coca-cola, the dow components, apple. but this is a nonholiday quarter current quarter revenue, $13734 billion. of gadgets. >> and now the price targets of 300 aren't looking completely ridiculous any more. >> microsoft, xx