welcome to the program. the euro hits a new week high. a loan deal is finally on the table for greece. and nissan rivals japan's number two automaker reports a gain of third quarter profit and keeps its full year forecast at levels well ahead of the rest of the pack. and in the u.s., the ceo of sanofi says he's worried about

lowered government spending in health care. >> we have been able to compensate by growth particularly in emerging markets, but it is a concern and i wouldn't expect to see any improvement this year in 2012. >> bib billy top says commodity prices will stay volatile in the short-term. and in the u.s., disney profits rise, but revenues miss forecasts. the ceo bob iger says he's encouraged by spending and the economy. hello. we're halfway through to the week here on "worldwide exchange." today chloe is standing in for christine. chloe, there's a little bit of an improvement going on. >> absolutely. if you take a look at the wall next to me, we continual to see

a sign of asia, as well. there continues to be fatigue over deadlines. soover all, investors are probably thinking, now it's time to get in and the volumes aren't looking all that great. some suggest it could be a technical down. so quite a bit of leadership came from china as you can see there. reports suggesting that chinese officials are urging banks to step up, fast track lending, especially for first time home buyers. that's one thing. number two, they've raised diesel and gasoline prices by 3% to 4% ultimately taking gasoline prices in china to a record high. ultimately, we're looking add somewhere around $4 per gallon. you can't compare the same metrics with what consumers pay in the u.s. given the exorbitant toll fees in china and you need to remember ta the per capital ya income is quite a bit higher.

after two pretty flat sessions, advancers outpacing decliners on the stoxx 600. in the last few days, we've been talking about it pretty much on individual corporate news. not so different today. the ftse 100 up 0.3%. xetra dax currently up nearly 0.6%. the ftse mib up 1.78%. we're seeing euro/dollar up to two month highs. 1.3271. euro/yen has been up to a seven-week high, 102.26 is where we stand. euro/sterling, pretty flat,

0.8336. we are pricing in sterling that we might get some more qe. what's been a key sign on the peripheral, bunds this morning want to stay back over 2% for the first time in a while. the spreads on those two have been the narrowest that they've been since the beginning of october. there's a big ten-year auction coming out of the usa today and it will be a key indicator of maybe how it will go tomorrow. we've got an auction out of germany, as well. helping to narrow those spreads, i hope that there may be an imminent deal propping up the markets this morning. investors are looking at austerity that need to secure a

new rescue packet. that's despite negotiations being delayed yet again in athens because they have not received details of the bailout plan. cnbc has learned a draft document has finally been delivered to the main greek party. julia is there with us once again after looking at that national strike yesterday, julia. so are the bits of the jigsaw coming into play? we have the ecb essentially partaking in an official sector participation. >> yeah. it seems like all the pieces are coming together at least. the reports on the ecb's possible involvement and now the fact that we have confirmed that at least this agreement is in the hands of the coalition. although the greek media is reporting now that it's at least 50 pages long with the report. so given that what we've heard this morning was we're expecting the meeting between the loaders

to take place after mid day today, given that we're talking that is around an hour away, it's not going to be enough time to work through the pieces. sources close to the deal, though, telling us that they are cautiously optimistic that we get a solution today, but, of course, we've heard that once or twice before. as much as the international le lenders are concerned about the delays, there's a sense of anger. you mentioned the strike. they finished at midnight last night. in a protest yesterday, we saw that german flag being burnt as if to suggest the anger about the demands being made here. i want toç highlight a couple practicals. an online website called stocks the bailout and it mentioned the idea of a greek default and talked about the prospect of ecb

participation in the bond write-down because that brings me on to the "wall street journal" article that you mentioned, too. it apparently cited sources close to the negotiations is the ecb effectively offsetting some of their greek bonds with esfs bonds? key point there, too, no participation expected from the eurozone central bank. they will be expected to get their notion back. we'll be talking about this in more detail in around 30 minutes time. i'll be speaking to michael masarati. >> also in an interview with the "wall street journal," the italian prime minister, mario monte says they must focus on measures. speaking just ahead of a visit to washington, he's set to meet

with president obama, they want to grow domestically as well as in the entire eurozone. >> and let's bring in richard jerun. julia was just talking about what appears to be some consentons for the ecb. >> i think you want to see all sides making concessions. and it doesn't make any sense if the ecb doesn't flock to appeal and on the other hand is trying to make such an effort to save -- through the financial system. >> the ecb is making concessions, but julia was saying it appears that other national central banks in europe might not do so. can we have this kind of discrepancy at a time when it seems to be crunch time? >> i think you can, because it does come down to the idea that

essentially you're moving to a fiscal union and in the fiscal union the sense it's going to take a lot amount of the responsibility on the ecb is a part of that. you could say, well, it's not that different from monetizing the debt, but ultimately it makes sense to make the concession. >> richard, this comes out today we saw data from germany and we're seeing peripheral spreads narrow. we have another ltro coming up. there is a feeling here that whatever happens, we've saved off a bank collapse. my sense of question is, how do you balance out the optimism that we're not going to get a complete bank cleps collapse with the fact that whatever happens, we're going to have pretty poor growth here. what is an investor to do with that? >> i think actually we're taking a different view at the moment. certainly the market is much less worried about systemic

collapse. so i think the real surprise in the past couple of months is that the data has been fairly solid. you're talking about tpmis in particular. so, you know, sure, there's probably a mild recession, but it looks as if some of the nasty minus 2% growth numbers we were talking about three or four months back, they now look too pessimistic. >> we'll talk more. great to have you on the program. richard jerram. after reporting fourth quarter results, investors were disappointed with sanofi's outlook for 2012. ste fap was speaking with the ceo and joins us first with that interview. stephane. >> sanofi will lose two of its key patented in 012.

i caught up with the ceo of sap know fee. he said sanofi was target ago 12% to 15% decline of its earnings per share in 2012. >> that, of course, is no surprise. 2012 has been circled on my calendar for about throw years. but equally, we set out three years ago to seek sustainable growth and animal health and consumer health, our diabetes franchise, our vaccine franchise. we are unbelievably strong in emerging markets. all of those sectors are growing in double digits this year. as we sit here today, i'm very confident we'll come through as

a growing company. >> do you believe that the growth will remain at the same level and that is going to help you offset ee mermging markets? i think emerging markets are the key for all emerge iing compani. with a product portfolio adapted to those markets, i think we'll do well. we already showed more than 10 billion growth in emerging markets. 30% is our biggest to this point today. >> there is some national budget and could hurt spending in health care. can you worried that it could hurt the pharmaceutical industry? >> we've seen that to a degree in 2011. clearly, most health care expenses are reimbursed by government, so that's an ongoing

situation. i think we have been able to compensate by growth particularly in emerging markets, but it is a concern and i wouldn't expect to see any improvement this year in 2012. >> how do you see the economy in 2012? are you worried about the debt crisis in europe? >> i do believe that people underestimate europe's ability to get through things. i do worry about the banking sector. there are signs of capital flows freezing up. and, obviously, if that occurs, then we're going to have a severe impact on economic growth. so, you know, i think the risk of a major economic downturn is not negligible for this coming year. >> on the stock exchange, the worst performer on the markets, clearly the weak outlook for 2012 has offset the 13% increase of the profit/loss which was in

line with expectations. ross, i'll send it back to you. >> thanks for that. good to get that interview first here on krn. still to come on "worldwide exchange," we'll hear from the of syngenta. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader? it's this... the etrade pro platform. fast. beautiful. totally customizable. finds top performing stocks -- in three clicks. quickly scans the market for new trading ideas. it can even match options strategies to your goals and lets you see the potential risk and reward. and, it also comes with a dedicated elite service team. got it? get it. good. introducing new etrade pro elite. ♪

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." a couple of top stories for you. a turbo charged nissan said it has managed to offset the pain thanks to brisk worldwide sales. they reported a 3.2% spike to roughly $1 billion in line with expectations. nissan said it's keeping its full year forecast which is the highest among japanese top automakers there. disney's first quarter profits rising 12% thanks to its broadcast network and theme park attendance, but revenues missed forecasts due to flat ad sales at espn and showing by its movie studios, as well. getting back into disney. the revenue missed forecasts due to flat sales at espn and disney had one modest box office hit

with the muppets. but overall tough comparisons with last year when tangled and tron legacy were in theaters. but still, the ceo says he's encouraged. >> numbers at our parks are encouragel. we've had increased spending and increase increased when people come. i think that says a lot about the american consumer. it wouldn't be right if i didn't say it says a lot about the experience that we offer in the strength of our brand. >> and he would not comment on reports that disney is in talks with univision to create an english cable news channel aimed at the hispanic market. vestas wind says its ceo has

resigned. the firm issued a profit warning in january saying it expected profits to be flat for the year. it blamed the operating loss on later than expected delivery. bhp billiton has reported a rare drop in earnings for the first half. australian miner still made more in profits in six months than a combined xstrata would have made with glenncore in a year. and syngenta says it expects sales to improve further this year on the back of price rises and cost cuts. that's after the world's biggest agri company saw profits up to 1.599 billion, a little above analyst forecasts. carolyn has been looking at the

numbers. hi, carolyn. >> hey, ross. and sales for the full year were slightly better than expect, up 14% to $13.3 billion. now, looking at the share price reaction, shares in syngenta were down by 0.4%. let me quickly explain why. first of all, going into these numbers, expectations were extremely high. and given that this was only a modesty, maybe we're seeing a little bit of profit taking. keep in mind the shares in this company have had a good run over the last couple of months. but overall, the results were very good, very solid. investors cheering the higher than expected dividend. syngenta gave us a stronger than expected bullish outlook for 2012. he explained why. >> crop prices came off the bubble, but let's face it, they are still sfushtly high to have

farmers make a full complement of investment in their crops. so we've got the benefit of that. here we are, 2012, early days, of course, but the weather counts for a lot. but the prices are still high enough. rice, corn, soybean, farmers will make investments. >> that was mike mac speaking to me earlier. what's quite interesting, ross, is that the emerging markets, specifically latin america now accounts for almost half of syngenta's full year results. in littin america, we're seeing growth rates of almost 19%. >> carolin, thanks for that. what's going on, patricia? >> sentiment has definitely changed and it has been changing for quite some time. this is when we saw the entire sector change. but today, commerzbank up about 8.9%. i expected this a little bit on the back of greece being

resolved and the ecb will make part of that resolution very soon. apart from that, of course, we also have press reports coming up over and over again. we talked to commerzbank, how they're going to plug their capital debt identified by the ecb. the press reports now specifically talk about this profits in mortgage companies. now we have the possibility of reports talking about this part of the business could not be sold, but it could be wound down with, meaning part of the business would be moved into the internal bad bank and could be period on commerzbank balance sheets. the commercial real estate value, as well. they have distressed assets up about 757 billion euros. that could be put up for sale, repackaged, resold into the market especially in the first probably year. of course, potentially that

would be very good news. good news apart from that sentiment, as well, is that we heard from the chief of funding that the environment releasing, for example, commercial bonds and corporate bonds into the environment is also getting better. so all in all, commerzbank flying. >> thanks so much for that, patricia czar advice there. if you take a look at what's been happening pretty much around the world, the key take away is china is, indeed, slowing. the pace of growth is not as quick as what we saw in the previous quarter and the u.s. economy seems to be picking up and the euro situation doesn't look so bad. so what is your key take on how things will pan out as we move forward? >> the risk of u.s. recession has pretty much gone. gone? >> the risk of hard landing in china, i don't think it's gone, but it's moderated a lot.

inflation has come down off 4% as the numbers show tomorrow. the key really is europe with the lehman style complete disaster in the financial system. that's gone, as well, with the ecb and the program putting out huge amounts of liquidity in the market. >> so do you think that the problem, a lot of the downside risk, that's pretty much out the door and if the ecb pumps in more ltros, then what happens next? >> it looks pretty positive for risk assets. a lot of these problems haven't been fixed. >> do they end up sitting on the problems, but you continue to move along, albeit not in a coma state like we were last year. >> i can it's a bit like when the fed came out with the quantitative easing program. it turned out to be very

positive and after the six months, you realized most of the problems haven't gone away. you don't want to fall in love with this rally. a lot of macro risks have faded. >> it's a trading rally, richard. what are you supposed to do later in the year? >> i think it's fairly fundamental in the sense you can probably run it for six months. by the time you get into late into the year, again, you'll be worrying about european problems haven't really resolved the underlying fiscal problems. but i think the chinese cycle is fundamentally unstable and so you're never going to be that far away, worrying about it being either too hot or too cold. but for the next six months, it looks decent. probably the second half of the year, you start worrying about fiscal policy. so i think it's more than just a trading rally.

but that's not the case. >> actually, i mean, it's working out like sort of a classical investment year. the s&p 500, i was looking at this earlier, is up 22% since october. you're talking about this being maintained until the summer and then in the summer we traditionally should sell, anyway, and wait until the autumn. so i mean, it's looking like a -- if you followed the classical investment calendar, it's panning out that way. >> well, yeah, i guess they always say sell and then go away. so it's going to be another year like that that you can enjoy it for six months and start to be a bit more cautious. >> it almost seems to be a repetition of a citigroup, when it's time to get up and down, you have to do it. i guess we're sort of in that mentality up until may. >> and i think it's very sdrus. after a while, people seem to get drawn into it. so i think at the moment,

valuations still are really quite cheap. so your down side risk doesn't look that bad buying at these historically depressed levels. >> yeah. we didn't know what happened with the values today in asia and things started rallying near the end of the program. coming up on "worldwide exchange," we're going to speak to an analyst who says 2012 reveals a rare opportunity to invest in chinese steel stocks. find out why. >> it looks like things are heating up again after rick santorum won three state contests yesterday. should mitt romney be worried? we'll talk to specialists on both sides of the aisle. 

this is "worldwide exchange." cnbc has learned a draft document in the greek loan deal is finally on the table. >> nissan goes full throttle. japan's number two automaker keeps levels well ahead of the rest of the pack. shares in sanofi are lower. the chairman confirmed they'll see lower profits this year.

after weeks of delay and confusion, there have been hopes that a deal on greece is getting closer. that's propped up to markets again this morning. investors are betting lawmakers will be able to secure a new rescue package. "the wall street journal" has written today that the ecb has made key concessions of its holdings over greek bonds. now, that's helped to boost the euro/dollar this morning. we've narrowed spreads, particularly to appear italian and spanish debt and bund. bund yields this morning got up to around about over 2%. and we've seen yield spreads narrow to the lows on ecb and

spapish debt since october. of course, we had that big blowout in november. julia is in athens. and joins us for more. julia, there's been sort of three different sets of negotiations going on here. there's the political negotiations in terms of accepting extra austerity packages. there's the psi negotiations and then, of course, most importantly, the debate, the negotiations between the imf and the ecb. the imf saying to the ecb, you've got to take a hit on your holdings of greek debt. do we now think that is likely to happen? >> well, according to this "wall street journal" article yesterday and sources close to the negotiations, it looks to be the case the ecb is now looking to make some concessions on their greek debt holdings. interesting point there, too, that it doesn't look like the eurozone national bank will have to make a write-down. it is just the ecb that we're looking at here. and it did impress the point

that the ecb wouldn't take a loss on that. we're going to talk a little bit more on that, too. michael is here with us. thanks for being here, michael. >> thank you. >> we're talking about the ecb now participating in the debt write-down. obviously, it would be a good idea for greece to try and bridge these funding gaps that we appear to be seeing. but doesn't it risk setting a precedent for other countries in the markets? >> obviously, every euro for debt relief is welcome, even comment from the ecb. but other than the, the ecb has others and one of them is to make sure that there are no precedents with respect to other countries, comments with the same predicament as this down the road. >> arguably, though, given where spreads have come back down across the countries in europe, the ecb could, in fact, be in a profit on some of these holdings. is there argument here for them

to allow transfers of this form? >> well, you know, things kind of work in the direction that you mentioned. but, again, i repeat there's an issue of credibility and transfer and policy that the ecb has to preserve. and, you know, it's very difficult to make a pronouncement on that at this point. >> if we don't get appear announcement on the reform agreement today, do you expect to hear anything tomorrow at the ecb presser? >> i don't think we will not have appear agreement tonight. i think all the parties involved are attuned to having an agreement. i think that psi has more or less is a done deal at this point. especially whether we are looking for participation from the official sector in the central ecb. and the -- my understanding about the political process is that the prime minister and the

business of the three political parties are very close to the final -- of the measures to be taken to be looked at in understanding. >> and how successful is this second bailout going to be with the further austerity measures given the trouble that they've had with the first bailout? >> well, you happen, the wind against is, of course, the success on implementation. and there we have, you know, political, you know, issues because greece is going to elections down the road. and we don't know if we're going to see a majority government coming out of the elections. and on the other hand, the recession is always a headwind because it impedes the process of implementation because you may lose revenues that you have to compensate with additional measures and this, you know, brings the economy into a vicious circle of, you know,

bigger recession and bigger deficit and then the credibility they have, they have to come up with, you happen, a new ideas and new solutions to this new cuts. so i'm confident that this time around, most of the measures for arriving at the primary surplus in 2012 have been taken. and i think i would say i'm very confident that this time around we're going to see for the first year in ten years, i think, the emergence of a primary turbulence. may be small, maybe 1, 1.5% of gdp. but this is going to be the first year we have a surplus. and i think this will go a long way in convincing the markets that things have started working after five years in the recession. >> and more confident than many others in the market. but thanks so much. we actually have to leave it there. but thank you so much. that was michael massourakis,

chief economist at alpha bank. back to you. >> thanks so ffor that. you heard michael there. would you share his optimism on that? >> no, i definitely would particularly. i think they implement these things with any sort of resolution is not at all convincing. an election is not at all fair. you can really sell it to the people to take a lot of pain by this process or even more pain via a default. but i think to a point, the markets don't really care as much any more because it's not going to bring down the whole system, whether it goes through or whether it doesn't. so i think by the actions of the ecb, i think it's a problem for greece. there's not really a problem for the european system. i think that's a big change over the past couple of months. >> is it really time to take advantage of the situation, since you say that the liquidity because next year, would it be possible for greece to return to

the markets? i think very few people actually expect that to happen. they might get through this rough patch. what are your thoughts? >> i think it's fairly up likely they'll be able to return to the market anytime soon. hopefully they're not going to need to. but realistically, whether they do or not, if you can ring sense and if you can basically make it their problem and nobody else's problem, then the rest of europe can keep on dealing with its open sort of deeper problems of fiscal discipline without the risk that a collapsing greece really has a broader financial system. and i think that's the big change we've seep over the past few months. >> richard jerron, bank of singapore. >> more to come from richard. meanwhi meanwhile, two let flat sessions monday, tuesday, and dow jones stoxx 600. the ftse 100 has been up around 0.5%. about 70 points higher at the

moment. 1% nearly for the xetra dax. the cac 40 is up 0.75%. as far as the euro goes, with we've seen bond -- euro/dollar, 1.3278. btp yielding 5.6%. spanish dead yield, 5.2%. we've narrowed those spreads to the narrowest we've seen in early october. ten-year bund yields were just over 2%. >> ultimately, what's happening in europe certainly having plenty of implications here as of now. take a look at the chart next to me. pretty much all green across the board. crossing 2,000 for the first time in two months, the nikkei crossing 9,000 for the first time in three months. over all, we're looking at highs unseen in about five months or

so. certainly this is liquidity seems to be having quite a bit of legs unless something really big unforeseen happens. take a look at the shanghai composite sending off quite a bit of leadership today. higher by 2.5%. the hang seng moving in tandem. quite a bit of support coming that the banks are fast tracking. in fact, pooeg people trying to sooem seek loans to buy first homes and also reports just -- and also we've got that inflation print coming out tomorrow, as well. so quite a bit to look out for. overall, quite a bit of green that we see here. in terms of other key stories that we have here in asia, bhp's winning streaks coming to a halt as profits slip for the first time in two years. >> there was some disappointment in the market today. bhp reported its first half year profit fall in two years. the company says it was impacted by lower commodity prices and

higher costs. we heard from the ceo who said that he expects longer term demand from china to slow. he warned that commodity markets would remain volatile until the end of the year because of weak global growth. here is a few words from the chp of bhp billiton. >> these operating constraints are temporary. particularly these last that i spoke about. there are also some other industry wide challenges that have led to margin compression in some businesses that is worth well noting. now, of course, these businesses make up a relatively small proportion of our portfolio. b but, you know, things have been quite challenging in the industries. >> on the glencore xstrata merger, he says it doesn't expect any difference in

strategy. he says bhp will continue to invest heavily in low cost assets that can be expanded. we are rating on rio tinto's results. they are out tomorrow. back over to you. >> and let's get a quick look at hour bhp shares are trading. down a touch, just under $5%. but over in europe, trading up 1% in london right now. and in terms of other big stories, chinese stocks rallying to a two-month high today, as well, thanks in part to strong gains. tracy chang has been tracking this story. tracy. >> thanks, chloe. chinese investors jumped to chinese energy sector and chinese energy stocks after beijing announced prices for gasoline and diesel by 3% to 4%

starting today. china's economic planner said it has become necessary to push through price reforms to restrict excessive consumption following sanctions on iran, of course. and china's major financials clocked gains. this came after tpoc asked banks to provide guaranteed loans to first home buyers and marks the first central bank move to support mortgage lending since they began tightening measures on china's real estate factors two years ago. but china's state owned banks may face fresh challenges as well as bad government debt. they may have to cover a reportedly $400 billion worth of ious. china's chief engineer at the ministry of industry and information technology says weak steel demand is expected to hurt over china's raw fuel markets while costs will stay high this year. back to you. >> thanks so much for that, tracy chang taking us through some of the big stories out of

china. let's get n some more stocks and insight on china's steel industry now. thanks so much for sharing with us your time. i guess what the chinese government officials did in terms of hiking diesel and gasoline prices is reflective of what's happening in china in the broader industry, ultimately margin pressures are something that companies, even steelmakers, have to contend with at a time of slowing demand. and yet you're upping the steel center to overweight from underweight when we keep on hearing about high debt to equity ratios and a lot of problems from slowing demand. why? >> okay. we think china steel sector still faces overcapacity issues and the high debt to equity ratio. but the reason we are overweight

the sector is because we see signs of demand turn around and the earnings turn around in 2012. and, actually, we think comparing to 2011, there's a signs of a demand recovery from consumption sectors such as mobile and also transgovernments efforts to continue to build affordable housing should support demand, you know, from construction sector. and also, we have already seen some -- the annual price coming down, so that is why we said the margin pressure and it's in the first and second quarter shou should -- less than last year. >> so we're looking at profit margins of somewhere around 3%, even though the demand picture may be improving in china. a lot of them are getting

squeezed because of overcapacity and volatile commodity prices that they can't pass on to the next user. how much of what's happening in the fuel sector could have implications with chinese banks given that they're already dealing with a lot of off balance sheet loans, especially from what happened with local government? >> do you mean if chinese steel mills can get financing from banks? >> yeah. ultimately, a lot of these steel mills in china are state run. so if something happens to them and they raise a lot of money on the bond markets, they need to repay. if they can't repay, ultimately, the banksing sector needs to be behind them, right? >> okay. i think that was really the concern last year. this year, we do expect to see chinese government start to ease on monetary policy. we already see restocking demand

in the fuel market showing the treaters now have been able to have more access to liquidity. and that is a good sign. because a lot of chinese steel mills sell their products to traders. so traders restocking activities is maybe a gauge to the downstream demand. so, actually, we do see, you know, this is very good development. and if new companies can access to bank lending, i think last year they already managed to borrow from banks. this year, i think with their earnings side to improve, they should be able to repay their debt from their --

>> and your favorite pick is angang steel. thank you very much for spending time with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. the. >> i wish we had a little bit more time, but we're just a little bit looking short today. and moving on to what happened to japan, sharnlgs surmging above 9,000 mark for the first time in three months, more good news just hours ago, as well, coming from nissan. let's find out more from makiko utsuda with the details. >> they have managed to offset the pain from the strong yen thanks to healthy worldwide sales. nissan reported a 3.2% rise in if fiscal third quarter profit to roughly $1 billion in line with expectations. nissan has kept its forecast for the fiscal year, which makes it the strongest full year profit outlook among japan's top car companies. and gains in the chip space

lifted tokyo markets today. investors like news that top chipmakers renesas, fujitsu and panasonic have begun production and established a new country. this move is expected to give the industry a much needed boost. on the economic front, japan has unveiled a falling current account surplus down to 15-year lows in 2011. the record fall is due to slumping ek ports amid weak foreign demand and rising fuel imports as a result of shoulders on the home front. that's all from the nikkei business report. back to you, chloe. >> thank you so much for that. have a great evening there in tokyo. >> still to come on the program, rick santorum is back in the mix as the republican primaries take yet another twist. plus, santorum says be my best and invest in me.

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all right. let's pick up the conversation with richard jerrum, our guest host. just a short time ago, helen lau was saying steel has been

through a rough patch, but they're moving ahead and the valuations are looking good. in terms of inflation, we'll get a read tomorrow. what do you think that's going to tell us? >> it's telling you that inflation is under control. it was 6.5% six months back and now it's down to 4%. so it gives them the room to ease policy if they want to. >> how can they ease when there's so much supply coming to the market? the numbers are mind boggling. next read we get and $800 million ipo. when you have this kind of supply, how can you ease? >> i think as your program suggested earlier, the bank is having -- the authority is encouraging the banks to begin to lend a bit more aggressively. we're expecting reserve requirement cuts. it hasn't happened. i think that's quite intlg, as well, to suggest the group hasn't slowed down as much as they were expecting three or four months ago. >> it should be interesting expectations somewhere around 4% for cpi and cpi, we shall see. thank you so much for sharing

with us your time. it was delightful, richard jerrum,back of singapore and do visit us again very soon. ross. >> thanks for that. it's still that time of the day when we welcome jackie from the united states. we've got a whole hour of programming to come. and look, he's alive, jackie. rick santorum lives. >> that's exactly right, ross. as a matter of fact, rick santorum gained new life in the republican presidential race as the former pennsylvania senator sweeps three contests on tuesday in missouri, minnesota and colorado. mitt romney came in second in two races, but was third in minnesota behind ron paul, raising questions about his appeal with conservatives. that is the question right now, not only is the question can romney get the gop nomination, but if he were to go up against president obama, could he take it all the way? there's a lot of questions about that right now. a lot of other candidates are front-runners at the moment. yeah. and i hear that he's trying to

raise money by selling vests jn line. $100 contribution. but actually, i hear that you can get them online or at other stores for about $50. where should the true conservative shop? >> well, it's a good question and certainly the vest is his trademark. what i really want to know is if i'm going to see ross wearing a vest or, ross, maybe you call it a jumper? >> no, no, look, a vest in the uk is an undergarment that you might wear under your shirt if you're a bit chilly in the winter. >> like a tank top. >> no. a tank top is a sleeveless sweater over here. and a vest you wear with your underpants, basically, or your pants. >> like with your nickers? >> yes, basically, that's what a vest is. >> and underpants would be underwear. >> exactly. >> oh, my gosh. >> and a tank top is a sleeveless -- could be a sleeveless sweater.

there you go. >> so a tank top would be the vest. >> yeah. >> anyway, no, i don't particularly want to invest in rick santorum's undergarments, if that's how it comes across to somebody in the uk. not that interested. >> all right. well, fair enough that you're not interested, but i'm still going to be looking for you to wear a jumper one of the days this week. >> a jumper is fine. >> okay. let's take a look at the u.s. futures as we get set for trade on wall street this morning. looks like a modestly higher open. if the markets were to open now, the dow would be higher by 23 points, the nasdaq higher by 6 and change and the s&p 500 higher by 2.3. there's no major economic data in the u.s. today to speak of, but san francisco fed president john williams, he's speaking about the economic recovery at 10:40 a.m. eastern time. meantime, drugstore change cvs care mark reports results before the opening bell. we're going to hear from

moody's, sprint nextel. we've got cisco systems reporting after the close. so a lot of big names. and mcdonald's reporting january same-store sales at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. they're forecast to rise about 6% thanks to smoothies and new menu items like chicken mcice. mcdonald's is expected to announce today that it's selling the named shamrock shake nationwide for the first time in the weeks surrounding st. patrick's day. and coming up on "worldwide exchange," we've got a lot of great guests lined up and we have a serious take on the candidates and their performances. stay with us.

good morning and welcome to the show. here in the united states, a mixed bag for mickey mouse as disney's profits rise but miss forecasts. ceo bob iger says he's encouraged by the economy. cnbc has learned a draft document in the greece loan deal is finally on the table. and nissan reports a gain of third quarter profits and keep its full year forecast well ahead of levels of the rest of

the pack. you're watching "worldwide exchange" with chloe cho in asia, ross westgate in europe and i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. great to have you with us this morning. on wall street, some of the positive momentum we're seeing out of asia today is trickling in here. this was after a modestly higher day yesterday, ross. we did see a lackluster uneventful session for low volumes. >> and it's lows yesterday for europe are a little firmer today, up about 0.25% ftse 100. and euro/dollar firmer. cnbc has learned that a draft document detailing the troika proposal has been delivered to the main greek party. julia is in athens.

i don't want to say we're near any kind of a -- what is your own assessment of exactly where we're at today? >> hi, ross. apologies. i'm having trouble hearing you. what we know so far, what we've come to here on the ground is that the coalition now have the draft agreement in their hands. we have thought that the prime minister would be meeting with this group. this agreement is around 50 pages long. that's going to push the meeting back into late this afternoon. it is going to be more of the same and a waiting game here. what we've confirmed is that if this deal does get signed on the reform or agreed on the reforms over the next couple of days, there will be an extraordinary session held in the greek parliament on sunday in order to get this thing signed.

we've literally just confirmed that, got details of that in the last few seconds. we'll try and get further confirmation of that for you, too. in the meantime, the conversation we're having with politicians is this thing is going to get signed. there isn't any negotiation on that point. at the same time, we're looking at getting this agreement, similar conversations there, these things go hand in hand. of course, we have that "wall street journal" article overnight talking about the possibility now too of ecb giving concessions on their greek government holdings. this apparently came from sources close to the psi negotiations. and it would mean the ecb handing over their greek bonds from the esfs stability funds. though shouldn't be according to the article any losses, of course, for the ecb. and one other interesting point

is that the eurozone national bank shouldn't have to see any write-downs, either. so they will get their full notional bank and, of course, there were no comments or response from the ecb. so it will be a question if we don't see anything in the meantime, tomorrow at the ecb presser, we'll continue waiting here and we'll keep you jut updated. it's back to you guys. >> joining us now is ken cayman, president of arcadia asset management. you heard everything that julia had to say. we've watched these talks drag on and drag on. where do we go from here? are our markets slugging off the greek talks and focusing on other things? >> i think we're getting to the spot where people are realizing that we're going to get some resolution. it's dragging on, dragging on, it's because human beings are human beings. no one likes to give up anything. so you wait until that last minute, it's a huge game of poker. how far could it push it before the other guy folds.

no one wants to give anything up, but we're getting the sense that it's going to happen. >> when we looked back to our own financial crisis, it was important to negotiate and have clear deals and come out with clear proposals in a timely fashion. when you compare what we saw versus what we're seeing in europe, doesn't that give investors now this time around a lack of confidence, really, anything positive change is going to take place in a timely fashion? doesn't that water you? >> does it worry me? i guess b sure, on some level. but what we've trained everyone ourselves is that it's brinksmanship. everything goes up to the brink. somehow, at the last minute, something happens. i think the things the market has to worry most about is that one event, whatever it is that goes to the brink and doesn't get solved, that changes the calculus.

we've all been conditioned that in the 11th hour something has happened happens. >> and is it possible that in the 11th hour you end up carrying something along and investors picked up on this rally? here in asia, markets are rallying even though we know things are not looking good in greece. >> well, i think it's important to look at the big picture. i mean, investing has many facets to it. one is clearly risk and trying to analyze what the risk is happening and not happening going forward. the other is that people are sitting on a lot of cash, that markets are really kind of poised to go higher because people don't want to be in cash. they're not making any real rate of return over inflation. people are starting to stick

their toe back into the water. >> the s&p has been up and the dow just hit a new 5 -week high yesterday. how much further can we run before people think they have missed the boat? >> there's an old adage saying i'd rather pay a dollar up than wait to get in and get killed. i think you'll continue to see the markets look good. headlines have been the biggest risk to investor sentiment. we're crushed with the news that was going to kill them. so just the lack of really bad headlines and this feeling that things are starting to get resolution is going to bring some money back out of the mattress and i think you're going to see that continue to trickle out as a lot of people go, okay, this is real. every day we don't get a big blowup in something, people are

going to start pulling out a little more. people are not positioned for a bull market. the number one thing investors want is preservation of lifestyle. but the average investor is saving for retirement, saving for a future and they're watching their lifestyle potentially erode away. they're potentially making no real rate of return. that's the big driver of the next year or so as people say at some point, i have to be willing to take risks again. >> and that's a different mentality that what we've seen in the past. we're going to get some more insight from ken who is going to stay with us for the rest of the hour. meantime, still to come on the show, reaping the progress of higher food prices. we're going to take a look at soft commodities, coming up next. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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good morning and welcome back. let's see how we're poised to open on wall street this morning. positive momentum from asia and europe are trickling over here. if we would get our board up, we would see it's going to be an up session. the dow would be higher by nearly 23 points. the nasdaq higher by 5.4 and the s&p 500 up by 2 and change.

and some interesting things to note, an uneventful session yesterday. the dow just under that 13,000 mark. a new 52-week high for the dow. the nasdaq doing quite well, as well. up 11.5% year-to-date and the s&p setting a new 2012 high at 1347. so well above that 1300 mark. so it does look like for the good portion of the year, ross, the bulls have been out. >> you have to remind yourself, as the journey we've been on, particularly since october, for those markets. here in europe, ahead of the u.s. open, we are trending higher. 6 to 3, advancers outpacing decliners up after two pretty flat days of trading. the ftse 100 up pretty flat. right now, the ftse up 0.2%. we're off the best levels of the day for the uk market. the xetra dax up 0.8%. the ftse mib up 1.5%.

euro/dollar, 1.3262. euro/sterling, pretty steady. sterling has been getting weak. we will get more quantitative easing out tomorrow from the bank of england. as far as bond markets are concerned, the ten-year bund did start yeed yielding over 2% since the session today. btps were yielding about 5.35 earlier today. we saw those spreads narrow to the narrowest we've seen since the beginning of october before that big november monthout in the berlusconi government. keep your eyes on the u.s. ten-year treasuries yielding below 2%.

chloe, over to you. >> those narrowing spreads that you talk about certainly have plenty of implications in asia as the higher yielding bond markets picking up momentum. and take a look at the risky equity markets. take a look at the kospi crossing 2,000 for the first time in six months. the nikkei crossing 9,000 for the first time in three months and take a look at the price here in greater china, up 1.5. the shanghai composite up close to 2.5. chinese officials raised energy, diesel and debt gasoline prices to the highest level ever. 3% to 4% ultimately per gallon. we're talking about $4 for both diesel and gasoline. but, certainly, tomorrow's inflation trend out of china. cpi and ppi, that is going to be critical in at least determining when that supposed easing is going to happen. so that is could go key for the asian session, as well. australia, we got that bhp number. the outlook, a slight bit of

disappoint, but still, all the markets are pretty much in positive territory, as you can see there. that is going to do it for me and the rest of the team here in asia. we'll be back with much more market moving stories tomorrow. have a fantastic day. >> chloe, thanks for that. some other stock news today in europe, sanofi is trading lower. investeders didn't appointed with the company's weak outlook. stephane had an interview with the ceo. >> it's a numbering issue for sanofi. last year, the company faced tough competition which cost the drugmaker $2.2 billion euros. again in 2012, some blockbusters would lose their buttons and others will be open to competition.

they're expecting a 15% decline of its earnings share in 2012. >> that, of course, is not a surprise. 2012 has been in red and circled on my calendar for about three years. equally, we set out three years ago to seek sustainable growth in animal health and consumer health, our diabetes franchise, our vaccine froits. all of those businesses are growing in double digits this year. over 20 billion euro of sales today in those businesses and that really with genzyme represents the new sanofi. >> and in 2012, they will manage to offset the competition of generic makers thanks to a strong presence on the emerging

market and the u.s. biotech company that's benefit at the meeting of last year. but, still, the negative story as they can believe and the stock is down more than % right now. ross, over to you. >> stephane, thanks for that. sen again ta says it expects sales and earnings to improve this year with both price rises and cost cuts. they reported a 14% cut to $1.5 billion. just above estimates. carolin is with the ceo mike mac and joins us withç more. >> ross, he said his numbers were better than expected. the company gave us a very promising outlook. but shares on syngenta are down. the biggest decliner is down by 1. 3%. why is that? it's because expectations going into the numbers were extremely high. and given that this was only a modesty, shares can't simply outperform. secondly, they've had a really good run over the last couple of months, so maybe there's a bit

of profit taking, as well. let's talk about m&a for a moment. what's al qaeda quite interesting, wave seen little or no m&a in the last couple of quarters. and given that syngenta has a record cash sheet of $1.5 billion, i wanted to know of mike mcafee what he was going the use that cash for, apart from using it to raise the dividends. take a listen. >> you can only buy what's for sale. and we have had some m&a over the years that tend to be a bit smaller. we have a strong balance sheet, good borrowing power and we will return cash to shareholders along the way. and we're very active in m&a. but, you know, it's been a slow book all around the world in a lot of industries, but we're ready, willing and able when the right kind of properties come along. >> so, basically, we'll see any mega mergers in the agri

business industry at least this year. but i want to come back to pricing because this is crucial in the industry, as well. not just for syngenta, but also for the likes of dupont. the kre o told me he is confident that this group can raise prices by another 2% or 3% in 2012. ross. >> thanks for that, carolin. ken is still with us. ken, we've heard from bhp today on the basic resources saying they had weaker prices in their first half profits a little bit. but here ióóe thing. if you're looking at quantity space, whether it's agri or base, would you prefer to buy the commodity direct by an etf or would you prefer to buy a company that leveraged on it? >> yeah. i tend to favor the company. these companies have the ability to manage a profit margin as prices go up and down for the commodities themselves. i think most people that kind of play the commodity market have to be a professional and understand what they're doing because of the nature of the way you have to buy those things

through forward contracts. so i'd rather by working with companies and managements that are well versed in those industries and managing a profit margin not just the commodity price. >> that's a good point, ken. we're going to have to leave it there for now. still to come on the program, mickey getting a bit of help on the muppets. we'll find out what's behind disney's set of numbers after the break. stay with us.

good morning and welcome back. it's 5:22 on the u.s. east coast as we're getting set for trade on wall street today. you're watching "worldwide exchange." we want to talk a little bit about disney. we happen to have those numbers out after the bell. fourth quarter profits rose 12% thanks to its broadcast networks and theme park attendance. those held up despite the shaky economy. revenues missed sales forecasts. disney has had one mottest box office hit with the muppets, but compared to last year when tangled and tron were still in the theaters. >> the numbers are very encouraging. we've had increased attendance at parks and we've had increased spending when people come.

ticket prices, hotels, food and beverage, for instance. i think that says a lot about the american consumer and, of course, it wouldn't be right if i didn't say it said a lot about the experience that we offer and the strength of our brand. >> let's get some comments from our guest host, ken keman. when were talking about disney, their first quarter results, we saw the earnings beat and revenues miss at the same time a little bit. what did the disneed result tell us about the broader consumer and the broader economy. >> people are starting to spend a little bit more. the whole idea that, you know, this is pent up demand not only for investment products, but for experiences is really an interesting feed because we're starting to see people say, i can't wait forever to start spending. if your kid is getting older, they might miss the disney years and parents want to give them that type of experience. so i think you're going to start seeing that not ohm with companies like disney, but with companies pent up with the need

for demand that a lot of us have been on hold for since 2008 fearing that, you know, everything is going to fall apart. so i think as investor sentiment gets better, headline risks diminish a little bit. people are start spending money not only in places like disney, but in places like home depot and the restaurant. >> people hunker down and they tightened up because they were worried about the economy. but as we start spending more, feeling that we need to have these experiences and feeling that we need to sort of have more consumer goods, etcetera, do we go back to an economy that is reliant on credit? are these consumers coming out and swiping the credit cards again? >> you touch on another point, whether people live the live they feel they can afford or the life they feel they deserve. i think that the wake-up call, that cold water in the face that we all see, is going to tamper that down quite a bit. i'm not saying that human nature isn't going to be what it's always been, but the reality of it is that the investor is

different. i see it every day in my practice. people think differently about money now. people are thinking more of i'd better make sure this lasts, i'd better think more tactically about it and i think you'll start seeing that around all sectors of the economy. >> okay. and as they're thinking more tactically about it, are they thinking about safety of investment? i mean, in terms of the amount of risks they're willing to take on board? >> well, yeah. as you talk about individual investors, you know, you have to look at are they different than professionals? professionals have to be invested. professionals have to pick whatever their benchmark is and then try to beat it or if not have a story where they didn't. individuals, on the other hand, are really just doing one thing, trying to save for their future, trying to maintain their lifestyle. and those people are kind of having to decide at some point we can't keep our money in the mattress earning nothing and they're just looking for that entry point to start feeling comfortable a little bit. and i think to the extent that they watch shows like this to

try to get an idea of when it's okay to come out and start allocating capital in a more aggressive way is going to be a continued theme for 2012. >> all right. ken, stick around. just hearing from the head of the esfs, mr. francoeur. this is the first european stability fund will probably play a significant role in private sector involvement into the greek program. we understand there is a story that the ecb may take a cut on some of its greek debt and then in exchange the esfs may play a role in that, as well. they're saying they will look to improve the flexibility and capacity for prefunding. we'll keep our eyes on that. still to come, ben bernanke has stuck to the script saying last week's strong u.s. jobs report doesn't change the central banks overall in the economy and it still stands ready to provide more easing. so will the olive branch continue?

good morning and welcome to

the show. disney's profits rise and revenues are flat. markets rise on hopes there is a greek agreement. the loan deal draft has finally got to the table. and in the u.s., cisco will be high on the agenda. the tech giant is expected to despite se in earnings uncertainties in the i.t. market. nice to have you here on the program this morning. let's take a look at the u.s. future. you see how we're setting up for trade on wall street. we've pulled back just a little bit, but it is a modestly higher open with the dow up by 11 points, the nasdaq up 2 points and the s&p just over the flat line. yesterday, we had relatively low

volumes, but we did finish up. the dow hit a new 5 -week high closing at 878. the nasdaq up 11.5% year-to-date closing at 2904 and the s&p 500 at 1307, well above that 1300 mark. so it seems, at least here in the united states, that the bulls are out. how does it look in europe? >> you might have some very good news to push it higher. european stocks have been very flat the first few trading days. we've come back off the best levels of the session. the ftse 100 is now flat. the xetra dax up 0.5%. the ftse mib having the best of it, up 1.4%. >> joining us knob with we have karl neal and still with us, of course, our guest how many host, ken keman. it sounds like ben bernanke's comments were much of the same, sounds like he's sticking to the script in terms of what the fed has been saying and it sounds like qe3 is still on the table.

how do the markets react to that? >> i think it's going to be a very positive thing for the markets. if you look over the course of the last couple of years going back to, let's say, the fall of 2010 when qe2 was announced, that was bullish for most risk assets and certainly stocks. as we saw a rise in the stock markets coming off qe2 in june of 2011, then you had a little bit of a breather. the risk assets stumbled a little bit and started to see stocks that were more dividend oriented do quite well through the fall and now ultimately here we come with the bernanke fed that without an announcement of qe3, there's almost a de facto belief that it is either coming or that the low rates are going to be supportive of asset prices, risk assets in particular. >> and when you look at your market strategy right now, we've been talking about it with ken throughout the hour, how investors are starting to come back into the game.

we've seen europe dominate a little less. investors are out. they're looking. they have risk appetite back on the table. what would be sort of your strategy going into the rest of the quarter fof 2012 for inveriers as they start to take on more risk? >> we've been focused mainly on the cyclical states. we've been focused on a lot of industrials in the energy complex which hasn't done quite as well and then in the material complex. and i think there's sort of three themes that we can look at this year that i believe will all play out reasonably well. first of all, cloud computing. i know it's been talked about a lot. the return of manufacturing to the u.s., we've seen very good numbers out of caterpillar, for example. and then lastly, i think the domestic energy production, you've got the bachen shale oil play, you've got other energy production coming out. so i thinkse are all three very investable themes for this year. >> and speaking of energy, we have had a lot of risk on the table. geopolitical risks, that is,

especially with iran and israel, the tensions in the middle east right now. what's your take on commodities and how that's goio affect oil prices, gold prices, what do you suggest? >> i think we're constructive on most commodities. i think we're not really commodity experts, but insofar as we look at the underlying equities that are involved in those commodities, whether it happens to be in the ag space or, you know, the energy complex type of names. so those are things that we're focused on that we think will do quite well this year. along those same lines, it's the cyclical space. >> i'd be curious about the conversations you're having now with clients and other professionals. are you starting to get questions in more of a tone of prospectively where we should be going or are you still hearing from people that are kind of in the bunker mentality? >> i think it's starting to emerge where people are willing to take more risk. as i heard earlier in the segment, people are very frustrated with zero percent returns on cash and very low returns in the treasury market. so i think there is a sense that

we can find ourselves in a higher stock market environment. >> do you find people asking you, should we be there? in other words, these prospective thoughts that they're pulling you there or will your conversations that there's a desire to get there or you're not seeing that quite yet? >> probably not seeing that quite yet. i would say that there are a number of investors who are comfortable with the positioning. but many investors are under invested in the stock market. and as a result, we're starting to see people put their tone more in the water and be willing to invest in equities. >> we're going to jump over to ross for a second. >> i just had a five-year auction in germany, five-year bubble, the top out auction, 5.8 billion was bid for the 3.29 that they took. the yield, .91. that's probably good enough demand, bearing in mind you're not getting an awful lot for your money on that bund yield, jackie.

you know, people are still happy to give them that, even on the yield. >> yeah, ross. as a matter of fact, our guests are still going to stay with us. we're going to get more insight from carlton and ken after the break. coming up, of course, we have a lot to come on "worldwide exchange." a good night for rick santorum as he sweeps three states to rejuvenate his bid for the white house. but is santorum's victory a minor bump in the road for mitt romney or signs of trouble in his campaign? we're going to talk presidential politics, coming up next.

i don't stand here the to claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. i he stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. >> rick santorum celebrating his victory as he sweeps the vote in missouri, minnesota and colorado. the winds inject new life into santorum's campaign for the white house. mitt romney was third in minnesota behind ron paul, raising questions about his appeal with conservatives. let's go to our guests right

now, richard boris and vince morgan. boris, i want to start quickly with you because, you know, we see that sanatorium has seen a little bit of rejuvenation here. we also see that newt gingrich has had some success. so while romney still remain aes front-runner, it doesn't seem like the race in terms of the gop nomination is clenched just yet. where do we go from here? >> these are the dog days of the republican election right now. the republican primary. much like the dog days of summer from mid-july to late august. these are the dog days until super tuesday. from now through super tuesday, things will pop up and down. tease when the republican presidential primary is decided and mitt romney will be the presidential nominee. >> and it still is very much an

ununited republican party. how much does the infighting hurt the person who is finally selected as the nominee that goes head to head with become. ? >> it's going to hurt him substantially. mitt romney is a big problem and that's mitt romney. you can't win the presidency of the united states when you're the villain. this is america and we're looking for somebody who can lead us and challenge us and the republicans just doecht have a candidate. this race is going to continue to hurt mitt romney in the general election and i think he's ultimately going to be the nominee. but he's going to be very, very wounded going into that general election. >> do you agree with that, boris? romney you think is going to get the ticket, but what is the impact going to be on his campaign against the president? >> much less than -- if you look back to 2008, barack obama and hillary clinton fought it out fist to fist right up until the convention in the democrat primary and then barack obama emerged and then, of course, won

the national election. what happens a lot in these primary eggs is that the candidates, while challenging the front-runner, in the case mitt romney to bring out a lot of the negative issues from him. those negative issues are not usable later on in the general election. i do not believe this will hurt mitt romney long-term. short-term, yes, it's a negative for him. that's where you'll see dips in the polls. but after he wins the nomination, it will not have an impact. >> boris, unfortunately, when we talk about the parallels between 2008 and 2012, we've got a person going against an incouple bept president. you have to have everything going right for you and mitt romney just doesn't have everything going right for him to challenge an incumbent president. >> not necessarily everything was going right in 1992. >> he did. he had the power of personality, though, and unfortunately mitt romney's personality isn't even carrying with his own party.

>> let me jump in here. the question of vice president, as well, right? eventually we're going to see it emerge and if mitt romney, does, ma in fact, get the nomination. gingrich doesn't seem like it would be an interesting pairup for him, but does sanatorium have any stake in the game here? >> i think to santorum's credit has gone up. his popularity is the thing that everybody cites that cared him to author victories yesterday. >> boris, what's your thought on that? >> the problem with santorum, he lost in his own state by double digits. pennsylvania is a very important swing state. look at someone like mark arubio, he would be a much more attractive candidate. he's very conservative. and, again, two points earlier, barack obama was opposed by 50% of his own party the last time

around. let's not turn a primary contest into something more than it is. to some republicans, but most republicans are going to come out, vote for mitt romney and he'll be the nominee. >> let's bring ken in and try to make up the market based discussion, as well, in terms of how this election and the gop nomination and ultimately the 2012 election impacts the market. >> i think we're in a season now where both parties are laying out their platforms. and i'm interesting in your thoughts on kind of not -- the fast middle. but i don't mean that from an independent voter point of view. i mean, the vast middle is most people trying to make ends meet and hearing these arguments on both sides that are somewhat idea logical at some stage in the game. i'm curious about your take on how people feel or should be kind of looking at this election as it comes down towards the home stretch when the demagoguery is a little less. >> well, the rhetoric around the economy is has turned to the positive for the most part. and hopefully that continues. obviously, we have a long way to go, but the economy is looking

better. polls are showing that barack obama's approval rating is up in the country, too, as people start feeling better about the economy. i think the markets are more stable when it comes to understanding sort of the devil that they know. so whether they like barack obama or not, the consistency of having a president that they are familiar with and they know what his policies are are much more satisfying and solid for the markets as opposed to somebody who is new and unseconded. >> and that's a great point because the markets don't like uncertainty. unfortunate unfortunately, we're going to have to leave the conversation here. thank you so much, vince morgan and boris epstein for giving us their insight on the elections. ross, back over to you. we've had some news out from the esfs, the eurozone's current bailout funds suggests it will play a significant role in the greek bailout program. this is according to the debt pto cristoff franco julia is in athens where we think we're inching towards some kind of deal. but you can never quite tell,

julia. >> i'm learning that some of the things about being here in ath.sis that it's a waiting game. as you said, it does look like another piece of the jigsaw puzzle starts to come together. we have been talking about the idea of the ecb involvement with the esfs in order to be involved in the right down the ideal here. so, yes, more information on that which does sound positive. at the same time, we've confirmed that this draft agreement of the bailout is now with the coalition. consumers apparently and we're hearing since 9:00 a.m. athens time, the estimated time for when the leaders are going to get together to talk about this draft is 3:00 p.m. local. as we've just said, this is all on athdens time. it's apparently 50 pages so it is going to take a while to go through. one of our other sources here on the ground saying if we get an agreement on the reforms here,

then it's likely -- in fact, they will call an extraordinary session of the parliament in order to get this signed on sunday. so that's from one of our sources here. i have heard a bit, too, about the details of this draft agreement. 22% cut minimum wage. we were discussing this earlier in the week. but also cuts to employment benefits. we were talking about this inseptemberive effect for workers. it looks like they're going to be working to take that out. apparently also regulation, the public sector involves preventing people being able to be fired, which they think it's kind of a problem to get these privatization deals done. that would maybe reduce some problems there. because they were talking about a country here with an unemployment rate pushing 20% to any cuts to unemployment benefits here or further job cuts seems to be for the population. we'll continue to keep you posted as we await that talk or the further meeting between papademos or the coalition

leaders. ross, back to you. >> thanks for that. so if they get an agreement, they have to wait for parliamentary vote which takes us into next week. we get that. jackie. >> all i know, ross, is more waiting, right? more waiting for the markets. coming up next, media, tech and fashion. we get a look at what the big earnings highlights will be later in the u.s. trading day, including cisco, time warner and ralph lauren. stay with us to talk about the trading day on wall street coming up after the break.

okay. nearly three hours into the trade dag in europe. ahead of the u.s. open, ftse 100 up .the 2%. 0.6% for the xetra dax. the best gains of the day, the ftse mib up 1.5%.

we have some spreads now we know the german ecb. how are you looking with the futures? >> well would beer looking up rite now at the moment, ross. so positive momentum you're seeing is trickling here. looks like the dow could be higher by 26 points. the nasdaq higher by almost 5 and the s&p 500 higher by almost 2. this is after an up date yesterday with fairly uneventful muted trade. there is no economic data in the u.s. today, so we are going on be taking a break from that. but san francisco fed president john williams speaks about the economic recovery at 10:40 a.m. eastern time. meantime, drugstore chain cvs caremark reports results after the opening bell. we're looking for results from moody's, sprint nextel and time warner. after the bell, we have cisco systems, groupon, news corp. and visa. meantime, mcdonald eeps is forecast to rise about 3.4%.

mcdonald's is expected to announce today that it's selling the named shamrock shake nationwide for the first time in the weeks surrounding st. patrick's day. of course, still with us, we've got our guests joining us, ken kayman and still with us, as well, is carlton neal. as we talk about u.s. strategy ahead today, what's going to dominate in terms of the hlgs? what are wall street traders going to focus he on? are they going to focus on the things that julia was talking about? are they focused on u.s. fundamentals? >> i think it will be fundamentals, for sure. whether we're seeing earnings being as robust as people hoped, we're starting to see companies beat expectations, but by not as much they hoped people would beat expectations. so i think it's quality of earnings. i think people will continue to look at the commentary that's below what management has seen going forward. >> and cisco giving us a read into the i.t. space. technology has performed pretty well this year. the nax dak is up nearly 11.5%

year-to-date. could we see a big win from cisco? >> we could. i think that pulling through with the threat overall on earnings, although it's been modestly less robust than people had hoped for, roughly 60% of companies are beating and i think that's coming off on a relatively difficult fourth quarter. the headlines in the fourth quarter were very difficult. i don't think the consumers were out there nearly to the degree other than, obviously, buying apple products, that they hoped to be. but we're coming into a new year here where there seems to be a lot of momentum going. and i think that may propel earnings going forward. >> and that's interesting that you highlight the consumer. we had those numbers out from disney yesterday, as well. the heavy knews were a little light. the consumer is out there and the consumer is spending. so that would be a positive for the first quarter of this year.

right, ken? >> yeah. and if you go back to the tech story, there are consumers of gadgets, too. there are others that feel they're missing the technology bubble or stampede that their younger relatives might be being involved with all the time. i mean, my dad is 80 years old and went out and bought a brand new laptop today for the first time in his live because he decided he needed a laptop. >> you're never too late to stay up with current trends. one final question, we started off last year with economic momentum, a little bit of investment momentum and then, of course, it all went awry. why won't that happen this year? >> well, it could happen. i think the difference is that we're starting to get up toward the highs of the range here. and if we can punch through just on a technical basis this 1363 level, there may very well be

the greed factor that kicks in with most investors. as we've been talking here with ken, there's a chance that people don't want to see others miss. if they're missing the rally, they don't want to be left behind with the market. so there could be momentum just powering through to new levels and new highs fort year. >> i think one of the biggest risks for the market in the coming year is an unexpected piece of news. if the news is around europe, it's on the election, people have made their mental betts. they've sided what they're willing to look at. it's that wacky thing that comes in, that's probably the thing that scares me the most. >> thank you so much, carlton and ken for joining us on the program. it was a great show. that's it for "worldwide exchange." i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. >> and i'm ross westgate here in europe. coming up next, "squawk box" and we continue the countdown to the opening of markets stateside. whatever happens, we have you have a profitable day.

good morning. let's try this again. greek leaders making yet another push on a debt deal today. we have another shake-up at yahoo! four members resigning from the chair. and rick santorum dealing a blow to front-runner mitt romney stealing three statewide contests. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody.