brought to you live from n london, singapore, and around the world, this is "worldwide exchange." welcome to the program. the headlines today from around the globe, angela amerimerkel i forced to cancel her meeting with monti as a crisis looms. the press conferences are due in the next hour and a half. tokyo stocks sprint to another six-month high as the yen drops on hopes of a recovery in the u.s., and a bailout in greece. the boj also hints it will keep policy ultra loose for some time to come. we've been hit before. a deal for greece by monday looks increasingly likely as reports swell that athens will be given even more breathing room by germany and the ecb. plus, lehman brothers

subpoenas as activities continue of jpmorgan in the days before lehman collapsed. hello. welcome to the program. a looming political crisis for germany is going to be the subject of our talking point this morning. christine is with us as well for two hours today. jim rogers will be joining us a witt later. german chancellor angela merkel called off her trip to rome, forced to cancel a scheduled meeting with mario monti in the wake of a scandal involving the german president christian wolfe. patricia is in frankfurt with the details. just to explain the background story here and what we're now expecting over the next hour and a half. >> reporter: the speculation, of course, is that christian wolfe, our german president, may athouns his resignation as early as today, half an hour after he will make his announcement we

have angela amerimerkel also spg to the public, to the press, exactly about that. the reason why he would do such a thing is, of course, the pressure has started from the middle of last december. there are allegations about taking, accepting improper privileges such as cheaper loans, as luxurious gifts, such as trips to various islands by people that are business people during his reign as governor and so this is a conflict of interest. it's all about governance, it's all about confidence in the german president that is the issue here. yesterday we heard from the prosecutors of lower saxony that they want to launch an investigation into wulff and asked parliament to lift the political immunity on him in order that they can go ahead. now this needs to be voted in the parliament, spd, the opposition party, said they would vote in favor of this

immunity being lifted. there's a lot of pressure on him to resign. at the moment angela merkel is still backing him, so it seems, so we'll have to see whatever the parliament may decide or not decide. it's going to depend mostly on her. >> we'll be hearing from her in under an hour and a half. we'll wonder whether she has decided to lift the immunity that he's had which may be the reason he might have to step down. this couldn't come at a worst time. here we are trying to still stitch a deal together over greece and mario monti has been the man that's been trying to soothe relations within the eurozone. things got very heated between greek and german politicians. so how important is it, do you think, this meeting has been canceled couldn't come at a worst time. >> reporter: yeah, but this is what happens. on the national grounds you have a crisis you have to deal with. apparently she called him directly, said, listen, mario, i can't make it. let's postpone it. it's nothing to do with the two

of us, nothing to do 0 with what we have to discuss, however, i need to do what i need to do on national ground first. and i think it's as simple as that, and i hope the market is not going to interpret it in any other way. so because we do have a burning crisis here that has been actually on the board for quite some time is perhaps coming to a resolution as early as today and it is understandable for everybody who has been following that story that she will need to be here to make announcements at 11:30. i don't think it should be interpr interpreted any other way by anybody looking and watching. >> no. it's just that conversation with monti, of course, is very important, and it's being delayed. >> reporter: it is. >> i suppose that's the issue. patricia, thanks for that. we'll keep in touch with you. meanwhile, long overdue progress on greece is being given a bast to markets this morning. athens has managed to reach a deal apparently on how to retuesday its budget by the extra it's been asked.

it's a crucial requirement for the release of the second bailout package all of which greece needs to avoid defaulting. a payment is due in march. they suggest finance ministers will approve the deal on monday. it's friday and they're going to approve the deal. for some reason i feel like i've said that before. apparently a key shift in stocks is behind optimism. ecb is reportedly set to swap its holdings of greek sovereign bonds for new dwrek debt in a way that paves a deal that would exempt the central bank from taking forced losses. according to a number of media reports officials have the idea to withhold part of the new bailout package, a measure meant to force greek politicians to stick to the required austerity me measures. that's the idea of the escrow account. but nothing here is concrete is worth pointing out, christine. these are all reports and

speculations and i think is this the fifth friday when -- it might be at least the fifth try day when we said there's a deal expected on monday. >> yeah, monday seems to be the word these days. a lot of things can happen monday. some things simply don't happen on monday, but this friday, let me tell you what the picture is looking like here in asia, ross. take a look at the screens. optimism creeping back. risk appetite is picking up again. all across the region, better than expected u.s. economic data. we had hopes of a deal in it greece edging closer to it. investors optimistic here. the nikkei 225 is up 1.6% today. the rally, of course, of financials are higher because all of a sudden this default in greece is being thrown faded in the background. probably shares surging on expectation that is this secoto will be the first to benefit from the boj's additional easing measures which happened earlier in the week. tth

topix is up. beijing raised its resources tax to conservative resources and, of course, that's weighing on the resource sector. this market upside limited today. 2,357. the hang seng still at 21,000 level. 21,491. we had the property sector doing very well on hopes of a recovery in the sector. el elsewhere, taiwan weighted indexes up 0.3%. one market doing very well. the kospi above the key 2,000 level, 1.3% with foreign buyers getting into this particular market in a big way. we had the technology sector outperforming as well. the usaustralian market up in modest gains and india up 0.8% so overall a sea of green. but today is friday. anything could happen on monday, ross. >> yeah. there's always the weekend, right? we never know. thanks for that, christine. we are weighted to the upside, the dow jones stoxx 600. another fairly flat close last

night with the european stocks. as far as the indices are concerned, ftse 100, we've been track i tracking around these levels at 5900 is where we stand at the moment. xetra dax up. the ftse mib up 0.6%. plenty of focus, of course, on the currency markets. euro dollar, first of all, just nudged up higher. hit 1.33 earlier on in the month. the yen again seeing weakness at euro yen down -- sorry, strong to 103.78. dollar/yen at the moment 78.99. we've got to a high of over 79 earlier this morning. and the yen has also been down at 6 1/2 month lows. rise on 0 sterling, the latest snapshot of retail sales in the uk. sterling/dollar steady at above 1.58. as far as the bond markets are today, yields generally up just a little bit. ten-year gilt yields off.

ten-year treasuries below the 2% mark. pretty good jobless claims numbers yesterday. ten-year btps steady around the 5.6% yield, either side of that for the last few weeks. but being steady is a good thing. we look at the political situation in germany, 1.9%. brent will be one cause of concern. we heard this from the bank of england. a real wild card this year in terms of what happens to their inflation forecast. brent right now up over $120 a barrel. real supply constraints out of the middle east, when you take into account seyria, sudan and yemen. nymex also ticking higher above 102.67. christine? hey, ross, over in japan the cabinet has apparently author e authoriz authorized the prime minister's plans to double the sales tax by 2015. the tax height is part of noda's

fiscal reform meant to fund growing social welfare spending. for the passage to parliament will face opposition from lawmakers many including members of his ruling party are determined to choke off the prime minister's moves and force an early election. japan's finance chief says the government plans to submit the bill next month. well, still in japan, b 0 oj chief is now saying it's going to take a while before japan can reach its 1% consumer inflation target. his comments suggest the central bank could keep monetary conditions ultra loose for a protracted period. the boj has released minutes of its january meeting which showed some board members blaming europe's debt problems. others said monetary easing from various countries contributed to the local currency's highs. still to come, we'll be joined by our guest host for the first hour today plus french cement maker says profits slumped because of greek-related write-downs.

[ male announcer ] succeeding in today's market requires more than wishful thinking. it requires determination and decisive action. i go to e-trade and get unbiased analyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life. i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps. to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. [ birds chirping ]

just reminding a big day. angela merkel has canceled her trip to italy to meet with mario monti because of speculation

that the german president will resign over a scandal surrounding lower saxony where he may be using immunity and may have to resign. at the same time, guess what, it's friday, and the speculation is we'll have agreement on greece on monday. we've been here before. chief investment offer and asset management joins us now. i don't know how many times, how many fridays i said we'll have an agreement on greece on monday. anyway, i'm saying it again because that's what it is. you never know, david. we have jim rogers going on later. his view is actually no one will be leaving the eurozone. >> i think the eurozone is a failed enterprise. i've been say iing it for month now. the politicianses have been resolute in holding it together but the reality is there's no real growth in the zone. we don't have the demographics to support growth and so you're fighting against the natural forces that allow small entities

to join into bigger entities. so i don't see that europe is having a future. and until they can create p positive growth and pay for its debt, the whole dynamics will continue until some exterior element on some exterior force just reminds people they can't hold it together. >> in the process of trying to hold it together, they can probably hold it together a lot lo longer than the skeptics can cling to their own views. >> they certainly have been holding it together than i ever thought. all these things are interesting in that, yes, you hold it together for longer than people expect. the skeptics expect, and then one day you do end up with an event that changes the paradigm and i don't think it's founded on the appropriate foundations of economic growth and demographics and, therefore, it's flawed and the power shifts from west to east. it will be even harder for that whole illusion to be cast and some of the issues going on around iran may well be one of those ex tterior catalysts that

change everything. for the british empire, it would change the perception of our empire. it took a failed external event before we realized that we were flush. and it'll be the same for europe in the end. >> david, this is christine here. who do you see as the first country to leave the eurozone? >> leaving is an interesting concept. look, it's always going to be the southern countries that have the weakest economies that are the most vulnerable. the only one that really works is germany and it's founded on the economy of export into china. so the rest of the european systems are deeply -- look at britain. we're hardly sitting on a bed of roses now and we're real, we're better off as a singular entity than part of a larger entity. >> david, i'm usually a bear on the eurozone, but isn't there an argument to be made that as long as germany can continues to do well it will be intact? >> do you think germany is prepared to pay for everyone else unable to do well? there's a limit for that. they've had massive indigestion

with east germany and the same value system and the same economic support system and i think they are going to become resentful toward this whole e idea. >> that's the flavor this week is the internal debate in europe, in germany itself seems to be heating up. and you saw the clash this week from german finance minister schaeuble and the greek president weighing in and monti has been trying to keep a lid on the divisive politics, increasingly did i sunrivisive . is that where we need to focus, keep your eye on the politics. >> i think it's both. as the economics worsen, then it's harder for a given to be ma maintained. you always get fractured perceptions as in the case of germany. a whole element that says, no, we shouldn't support the eurozone and the other says if we don't it will be disastrous

and one had will win over the other. i suspect actually -- >> do we know, though, which is right? if if you try to crunch -- on a single simple number crunching it's been assumed it's more expensive to let the zone go than far more expensive and dangerous to actually pay to keep it together. that's just from a practical point of view, why we do whatever we can. >> i think there are a number of views. let's see what drives people to keep europe together. it's that german/french position, please don't let the germans go to war with us again, which is a legacy intwined in that process, this idea you have to be really big to compete with the other bigger entities, for example, america and china and other large trading blocks. if you're not big, you don't get a seat at the table. so those are strong drivers. but against that, for something to work, it has to be founded on the appropriate principles and everything that i did in studies of the book that we've often talked about is demographics drive economies to expand and

they allow smaller entities to become bigger entities. when you have negative demographics, you can't do it. you have to be realistic about where you are in that cycle. at the moment the way that europe is constructed is it's actually, to me, goes against the laws of construction of empire and an empire is about conglomeration of small into big which is really the story of europe and why i think it's fundamentally flawed. >> okay. thanks for that, david. stick around. plenty more to come from you. a number of corporate results today that we're looking at. the worst of the european crisis is over says aegon. says after taking one of several charges in the last months of 2011. and cost cutting a bit after a report of 28% slide in profits for last year by lafarge. they say it was due to greek

related write wrofs. stephane is in paris with more. stephane, what's the market reaction? >> reporter: it's really focused on the outlook for 2012 because the numbers for the last year were below expectations. 28% decline for the net profit. as you mention, that was impacted by a special item, a write-down on greece. 285 million euros and also the impact of the divestment program, lafar dw e ge is focus the debt reduction and some assets in europe and a soft america. the company will continue in that direction in 2012. it says that it's going to sell for this year 1 billion euro worth of asset planning to targeting new debt reduction even if there is no precise target. last year lafarge made a significant effort, 2 billion euro less on its debt level.

the company gave quite a positive outlook for 2012, targeting an increase in the global demand for cement and it believes that pricing conditions will improve, the company will be able to raise its prices while the costs should decline to inflation was at a high level last year on raw material. it should ease in 2012 and that's the reason why there is such a positive reaction, ross. >> thanks very much for that, stephane. timothy geithner is facing a subpoena from bankruptcy laws at lehman brothers. they want to question transactions made before 2008. it suggests that jpmorgan chase used information to siphon billions of dollars during lehman brothers final days. he brokered meetings between bank executives. lawyers in the suit want to force geithner to give a deposition by the march 16th deadline. and president obama is set to make a speech today focused

on bringing jobs back it to the u.s. he'll announce new financing rules that will make it easier for u.s. businesses to export their goods. a new trade assistance plan to a boeing plant in washington state. obama said within the past they face unfair advantages when trying to export products overseas. this all comes as the chinese vice president xi jinping wraps up a u.s. visit. david, at the same time, of course, we've heard mitt romney come out as well and say trade over china is the last thing i want but i cannot tolerate our current trade surrender. what is going to happen between trade tensions and relations between the u.s. and china as we go through u.s. election and we get a change of chinese leadership? >> well, i think you say a change in chinese leadership, look at who really leads china and i've been of the opinion it's led by the pla and the politicians up front to make it

acceptable to the outside world. so don't expect a change of leadership to change any of the policies that we are now seeing in china. relative to those policies are much more aggressive, expansive mechanism in the south china sea, in an arms race, which is really heating up in a big way a and, therefore, a challenge to america. if you look at america, it's completely reorientated. it's moved away from the taliban and has moved to containment of china. so now there's a head-to-head going on in terms of who the enemy is as far as america is concerned, redeployment of forces and that's just part of the manifestation of trade. and trade competition will only increase, and so the friction has only increased and i'm sure the americans will be the first to be defensive and in the next regime will probably not be an obama. i really don't want to but some mechanism of trade protection. david, this is christine. the and on the topic of trade, a

lot of people are saying china will rebalance the economy. are you of the opinion that china can avoid a hard landing this year? >> i think even if it did have a hard landing, it'll still bounce off the hard landing and recover like a cat. so the issue is the hard landing, does it stop the march of china and, no, i don't think it does. nations in this particular phase are incredibly resilient. i suspect they will avoid a hard landing, as it happens. even if they do, i don't think that changes their growth and their challenge. it has a huge momentum to it and we wish to project our western failures and our inability to make our economy grow into their situation. it's a different paradigm and we're the last people to make effective commentary on their potential growth. >> david, there's one thing a lot of people are not talking about in china and it's local government, chinese exposure to debt and we've seen the banks being taught to roll over the local government debt. how big do you see that risk? >> look, it's interesting. if you look at all of the empirs

that have expanded, britain or america, you borrow from your own population to invest and that creates the first phase of expansion so you end up with a high borrowing rate but it's not for the rest of the world. it's domestic levels and those levels have a different impact and not the same ones you see in the western world where we have a cross debt dynamic which makes it susceptible to a larger default mechanism. >> the china population will peak. >> i'm not too worried -- we have to get to 2025, ross, in my opinion. it's what happened in the next 17 years towards that peak because china becomes increasingly aggressive, increasingly competitive and able to project its power and resourcing of trade and raw resources and that's the challenge we face t. if we make it through 2025, it's downhill, the pressures are different. they're very immediate right now and never in society have 60

million men more than you've had the appropriate women in this society and that means hugely aggressive mechanism and if you lack at africa that's manifested in the idea of migration and so you see a huge number of chinese people moving in a africa and as a result -- >> african resources, isn't it? >> it is. >> and that's where maybe you will have conflict on 0 the african continent. david, good to have you on. stick around. we're now hearing as we suspect german president could be resigning over the personal financial scandal. that press conference is coming up in just over half an hour. chr christine, what else is coming up? well, plenty more coming up, ross. guess what, we have the legendary jim rogers joining us as guest host in around 30 minutes to talk stocks, currency, and his outlook for china. the dow edges ever closer to the key 13,000 level. will today be the day it crosses the line? we'll talk strategy and fashion week rolls into london but how can a business grab a piece of the glitz and glamour?

we'll talk investing in media and entertainment later on in the show.

welcome to cnbc's "worldwide exchange." angela merkel has canceled her meeting with mario monti. christian wulff is going to resign over a financial scandal.

press conferences are due in the next hour. tokyo stocks sprint to another high as the yen drops on hopes of a recovery in the u.s. and bailout in greece. the boj also hints it will keep policy ultra loose for some time to come. and the deal for greece by monday. i've said that before. looks increasingly likely as reports athens will be given more breathing room by germany and the ecb. plus, lehman brothers subpoenas geithner as questions continue to be asked about the activities at jpmorgan in the days before lehman collapsed. and we have data out of the uk. january retail sales include 9% on the month, better than the consensus forecast of minus 0.42%, looking for a number, the highest increase since april last year in 2011 excluding the

month. a bit of consensus minus 0.4. the sales deflator was 2 1/2. the latest since 2009. retail sales including sales at 1.2% on the three-month. the point is it's better than people were expecting. sterling has spiked higher on the news already this week with the inflationary report a suspicion that the bank had sharply changed its inflation forecast. it wasn't going to be as big a drop as they thought which doused the thoughts we might get more qe and maybe the retail sale numbers supports that. david is still with us. your view on 0 the uk economy and the government's austerity mixed in with it, with the sort of qe. the banks are going to zigzag away this year and it's sort of in and out of negative growth and into positive growth. is that a pretty accurate

forecast? >> i think any positive growth is an optimistic forecast. i think the zigzagging is appropriate because you've got governments that are hamstrung by the whole coalition dynamic and it might have been perhaps a little bit bolder in some of the strategies it's employed. i personally don't favor cutting. you need to make your spending appropriate and you need to make it more efficient than is represented, which has been a huge letdown. you also need to stimulate your economy by motivating the appropriate people and i favor a tax cut rather than one of increasing -- if you look at the 50%, it doesn't work. >> is the coalition in a sense harming more supply side reforms is this. >> the coalition is hardly bold as a result of the compromise -- because of the compromise it has to make. i think we're in a situation where you are either very bold or you're in trouble, you're in deep trouble, and at the moment we just continue to be in deep trouble and every day you are in trouble it increases the

likelihood you're going to be in trouble the next day because of the compounding effect and i think the only conclusion that i can come to, which i've been very radical in speaking, you can't sustain this it debt burden and it's the only way out of it. i advocate more radical processes than probably most people in how you restructure your debt. britain does have the opportunity to go first. the whole of the western world will have to do that at some stage and who goes first will benefit. >> you think restructured debt? >> i do. >> okay. that's an enormous can of worms which i can't get into. >> on a friday. >> yeah, you are just throwing it out there and shares in anglo american after the company saw 2011 results come in line with analyst expectations. they posted a 14% rise in fully operating profit. iron 0 ore helping to offset

revenue. speaking earlier the ceo cynthia carroll talked about the growth pipeline. >> 0 our focus is on driving our growth pipeline which is massive not just for the near term but the long term. we have about a $98 billion pipeline. only looking at tier one assets. >> volatile for the year for metals prices. what happens next? >> i think you have to look at the macro situation david has been mentioning the debt burden and the problems with the eurozone. eurozone does seem to be in a death spiral and the markets are fixated on that before they start to look at the fundamentals. i think you have to look at when we start to get some sort of stability before the markets particularly with metals, industrials start to focus on

the underlying supply and demand drivers. >> yeah, so look, the thing is about the macros, of course, does it matter what's happening to european growth when china is in a swing factor, the market doesn't seem to care really. weak growth in europe, doesn't impact at all. >> no, it doesn't. when you lack at metals like copper and aluminum when you have 40% of global consumption coming out of china, there is going to be a focus on china with the debate between a hard and soft landing. personally i don't think it matters because you're quibbling over the 29% growth and 77.5% growth when the chinese authorities have intimated in their five-year plan that they actually want 7.5% growth over a five-year period. >> 7%, 8% output in 2012 is the same as 10% or 11% output three years ago, right? so, you know -- >> yeah, and you're still seeing very strong growth and strong

consumption and when you are seeing that divergence between the u.s. and europe you're going to start seeing the good housing numbers. that's only going to be a positive thing in the medium term for industrial metals. >> hey, martin, this is christine here in asia, what about the outlook for gold. since you're on the topic of china, china, when it comes to gold, i was told as long as china and india keep buying, this yellow metal will continue to be well supported. >> well, i think china is a bit of -- gold is a slow burner, christine. we have seen some increased volatility in a very narrow range being traded but when you talk about china's consumption we saw the increase in jewelry demand up 20% in china contrasting the weaker demand from india. and i think if you progress those trends this year you see china is becoming the biggest jewelry market in the world and

you are increasingly seeing central banks, particularly emerging markets, diversifying the holdings out of euro, out of the u.s. into commodities and i think that means more solid growth for gold demand as well. >> so does that mean, martin, you see value in buying into gold miners? >> i think when you are looking at gold mining stock if you start to see some stability across the equity space, gold miners are looking like there is some pretty good value there. you see increasing margins because they weigh hedge books. so you are seeing some pretty solid fundamentals. >> i'm bullish on gold. i think the central banks in the western world manipulate equity markets and they try to lower volatility. the real reflection of where do you go in a world that isn't the same as it was and it's going to go through great turbulence is

gold. if you look at the price patterns, it looks bullish. it's going sideways. didn't have another thrust. it will break its highs and it's one of the most obvious investments i can see around right now. >> etf, buy direct? >> i would buy it direct because i think the equity culture is associate associated with western capitalism and as we go through a whole shake the tree, you may not get the same value as you will through the pure physical holdings of the metal. >> martin, thanks for that. good to see you, from etf securities. christine? back to the wall. back to the wall and this friday, ross, markets are doing very well on hopes the u.s. economy will pull through and hopes that greece is edging ever closer to the bailout. so hopefully something will come up on monday, but let's not talk about that right now. financials, of course, higher across the region as hopes of disorderly default kind of fade into the background. the nikkei 225 is up.

property counters soaring on the hope this sector will benefit from the boj's additional easing measures. the it topix is up 1.3%. the shanghai composite mixed. raising the resources to curb pollution and to save the resources sector and that seems to be weighing on the retail stocks right now. this particular market is up to the upside. the hang seng up 1%. we had the property counters here also rallying on hopes of a recovery in this particular sector. taiwan weighted index up. kospi, technology stocks leading higher. foreign investors also coming back into the market in a big way. australian market up 0.3%. sensex over in india up 0.7%. so, ross, this friday looking pretty good. >> here in europe right now, just over an hour and a half into the trading session, advancers outpace decliners by more than that, 8-2. so the ftse 100 over the 5900 level. 5907, up about a third of a

percent. xetra dax up nearly a percent. the cac 40 and ftse mib up 0.8%. we're still firmly in the boundaries. euro/yen up at the two-month high. we're just on that level. 104 104.01. dollar/yen up to a 3 1/2 month high. 79.02. the yen has been weak across-the-board. it's been down against the us assy dollar and the retail sales for january out of the uk, remember, volumes has boosted sterling up against the dollar to $1.5816. gilt after that retail sales number has put more of a damper on expectations. gilt yield is up. tr treasuries just now over 2%. we were below it earlier on. ten-year btp 6.5%. that's he nudged higher.

ten-year bund yield is where we stand. oil prices key. you heard david talking about he thinks the big shock, if there will be one, will be 0 out out middle east. brent trading firmer again today and real supply situation going on when you add up what's going on. nymex is up 102.84. christine? ross, we'll talk about u.s. tech darling apple. now the company may post an unblemished reputation anywhere in the world but possibly china. tracey chang has been following the story and joins us now with more. tracey, what can you tell us? that's right. doing business in china hasn't been exactly easy for apple. apple shares of the smartphone market has narrowed yet again in october to december period in 2001. this is due to heated competition with local vendors, plus a delayed sale of the iphone 4s.

they are in a legal tussle with a display manufacturer proview. they say it needs to offer proper compensation for the ipad name in china. it claimed to have exclusive rights to sell the ipad in china. but according to documents reviewed by dow jones apple had already agreed to pay more than $55,000 for the ipad trademark back in 2009. the case will go to court in china within weeks. back to you, christine. >> sounds like it's going to be a prolonged affair. tra tracey, thank you for that. tracey chang. well, south korean carmakers have seen strong sales in the european market. rhie young lim, i wonder what this company is. >> reporter: christine, well, hyundai and kia saw sales jump 20% on the year while rivals like toyota declined 8%. price competition and more production capacity. south korea's free trade agreement has helped import

tariffs boosting margins and production in laces like slovakia and the czech republic has wrapped up a multifold so debt problems aside and those analysts i've spoken to believe they will continue to post strong european sales for this ye year. think about it this way. while 2010 may be about emerging china, 2011 about u.s. revival, 2012 is all about europe. >> rhie, it's ross here in london. i'm interested in why europe has obviously got a debt crisis. the economy is slow. how hyundai, why they wanted to focus more on this market and how they're trying -- how they're succeeding in a market that is still grossly oversupplied. >> reporter: that's true, ross, but there are mainly two factors here. first hyundai and kia are already doing well in china and the u.s. where they've managed d

to grab a 9% market share last year. production also fully up and running. but that's looking a little static in the u.s. given fierce competition but there's more ram to expand in europe. hyundai and kia's market share is currently touted at 5.1% and they're now targeting a minimum 6%. bear in mind hyundai and kia are the best-selling cars with models like the i-series and specifically made are for the european customers, craft ed by star designers like peter and they have separate design and technology centers based in europe not to mention a direct dealership in france and germany. >> all right, rhie. interesting. rhie-young lim. today still a long way to go before the goal of a 1%% inflation is achieved. the target was said of the board meet last week where it said members will remain. let's find out more with nikkei's makiko utsuda from the

uk. >> reporter: hi, christine. boj chief signaled they are to maintain its loose monetary conditions for an extended period. he stressed that the surprise decision was not due to political pressure and is not intended to finance government deficits. but minutes of boj's january board meeting indicated that the central bank was under pressure to take action after the fed set inflation target at 2%. board members were also concerned about the impact of europe's debt crisis on the financial system is. some said the yen's strength was also because of other countries' easing policies. on the political front, prime minister noda and his cabinet approved a package of social security and tax reforms today which includes a controversial consumption tax hike. under the plan the tax rate would be raised to double the current 5% by 2015. the reform is considered crucial to restoring japan's fiscal

health. the boost in tax revenue would be used to pay for social security costs. noda plans to submit the proposal to the parliament next month but faces an uphill task to win approval from the opposition parties. and that's all from the nikkei business report. back to you, christine. >> have a good weekend. thank you very much for that, makiko utsuda, from the uk. ross? british prime minister david cameron says businesses are holding back the economic recovery by not hiring enough women to sit on their board. sitting at a summit in stock holm he warned it firms may have to face quotas if they do not start in even ysenior positions. offer of the book sharpen your heels, this is money penny's career advice for women and good to see you. the interesting thing is your book, i have this one, but in the uk -- >> in the uk it looks like this. >> career advice for ambitious women. >> the word ambitious is

excluded from the title in the united states because they believe every woman in the united states is ambitious. >> and we have three ftse 100 companies run by women, american women. >> but three of them are american so we have to import our women at the top. >> is there a -- here is the first thing. that suggests there's -- david cameron's speech suggests there's a glass ceiling. >> there's no glass ceiling. >> what is preventing women -- is it women themselves? >> first of all, the way we destroy the myth of the glass ceiling is to destroy the myth that women can have it all. once they realize they have to make choices -- we have the olympics this year. olympic athletes are training for it. if they want to get to the top they have to make sacrifices and the same with your career. >> so that means if if you want to have a career, that comes first, family -- you can't juggle career and family -- >> you can juggle but you can juggle as many things as you want but the more things you try and do, if you try and excel at

all of them you will be immediamediocre in all of them. my children are all earning -- i challenge anybody not to say that their earnings are diluting. >> the point is actually, you have to put your career first and explain to your family -- >> there are times in your life you have to put your career first. >> this is the thing for women because you say in your book women are conditioned to please and, therefore, they have a big problem saying no. no to i'm not going to go to the prep school briefing or say no in certain parts of their jobs when they need to. >> absolutely. as you can see i've broken my arm, and i broke my arm in davos because i said -- i didn't say no, actually. i accepted too many parties in one evening and running interest one party to the next on ice i went straight over. and if i'd learned to say no more i would still have my arm in one piece and the thing -- people want to agree to everything, you want to do is go

to all of your children's parents evenings. even if you're stay at home you won't be able to go to everything. learning no is a life skill for everybody. >> thanks for that advice, heather. this is christine, by the way. i find it useful. i might say no to my boss the next time he asks me to do something. what you're saying, does that apply to asia as well? i'm talking about -- i'm looking at women in china or 0 india. does that cut across here in asia as well? >> the thing about saying no does cross in asia as well and particularly in china they have slightly smaller families on the whole and so women, those children are very precious and they want to do everything for them. but what i love about china there are many more women at the top in china because they have a totally different approach to child care. they really understand if you want to get on at work you need to delegate the looking after your children to somebody else. and actually, by the way, it's made very straightforward for them. >> who pays for the network you have to create to run your

business life? >> a network is two totally different things. i think a network is people who support and help regardless of whether you pay them or not and that's something everybody should invest their time in. you don't get to run a big company if you haven't along the way built a number of people who support you. >> who should be paying for the child care? >> i don't go into this -- i would love to see tax breaks for child care. there are already some and i would like to see more. i think there are bigger priorities for the government. >> right. okay. fair enough. and, by the way, quotas? >> quotas are terrible. we see women on boards and people will say they are only there because david cameron insisted. we have terrible, terrible people quoting and saying i would like more women because they're more decorative in the boardroom. there are enough women out there to get it on merit and chairmen need to look harder.

>> thank you very much indeed for that. the book "sharpen your heels" career advice. that's the title of the book in the u.s. and over here it's ambition. >> career advice for ambitious women. >> you can probably go onis line and buy either. the content is probably the same. >> it is exactly the same. we'll take a short break. still to come we're going to get a statement from german president very shortly. he's been mired in controversy over personal loans. we'll expect him to resign. we'll be joined by jim rogers. send in your questions and e-mails and a few final thoughts from david murrin.

let's get some final thoughts from our guest host, tafd murrin. that's your final thoughts as we head into the weekend, into monday as we are expect iing to get a bailout for greece. >> i really like gold. gold is a good launching point. i think whether greece gets a bailout or not the issue of the eurozone's viability will remain and it will keep remaining until it either grows or doesn't grow.

but, most importantly, particularly well educated about the world and i think we have the capability to see further ahead because that's what they're trying to do. and so considering what's done now is a legacy we leave our children. as i've gotten older and grayer, which is happening very quickly these days, i keep thinking about how can we use, what areas can we invest in and educate other people for that gives our children a better legacy. and that's something i feel very strongly about. >> what's the one thing right now you would focus on more than anything else in terms of risk or an opportunity? >> in the next few months? i think what's going on in iran deserves close scrutiny and the escalation between a shadow war. i think america's involvement and the desire for iran to gain nuclear weapons is a huge potential catalyst in the coming

months. >> david, good to have you on. and you mentioned it's important about creating a future for our children. you've brought your children in today. it's also -- it's also our producer's last day. she has brought her children in and mine are coming in later. let's just go and say hello very quickly. this is fiona who will be leaving. thank you very much. put a mike on you. i can't speak to you which is a bit useless. what's your name? >> madeline. >> you are? >> ali sha. >> and the big guy here? >> winston. >> this is sophie and, matt, who i have interviewed -- james, sorry. matt is your husband. where are you going? >> new zealand. >> which is a long way away. fiona is leaving us. i have to bring in brian now, i fiona, before i start welling up. thank my executive producer for eight years.

it seems longer. five, eight, who is counting? brian, you've known fiona for a long time which is why you are joining us. what's coming up? >> we have the band back together, fiona. lovely to see you and your beautiful children and we will miss you greatly. you and ross are like an old married couple. >> does he want me to respond to that? >> we'll talk germany and everything else but we'll get the show back together right after this break. wñwñwñwñwñwñwñwñwñososososvycyíy

[singing] hoveround takes me where i wanna go... where will it send me... one call to hoveround and you'll be singing too! pick up the phone and call hoveround, the premier power chair. hoveround makes it easier than any other power chair. hoveround is more maneuverable to get you through the tightest doors and hallways. more reliable. hoveround employees build your chair, deliver your chair, and will service your chair for as long as you own your chair. most importantly, 9 out of 10 people got their hoveround for little or no cost.

call now for your free dvd and information kit. you don't really have to give up living, because you don't have your legs. hoveround replaced the legs. and now every hoveround comes with this handy tote bag and cup holder for access to your favorite items. and right now, get this limited edition hoveround america travel mug free with your hoveround delivery. [singing] hoveround takes me where i wanna go. call or log on to hoveround.com to find out where a hoveround can take you!

welcome to the show. here are your headlines from across the world on this friday. lehman brothers, yes, lehman brothers, subpoenas secretary geithner as questions continue about activities of jpmorgan in the days before lehman collapsed. here in europe german chancellor angela merkel cancels is her meeting with mario monti on 0 reports christian wulff is about to resign over a personal financial scandal. she is due to hold a press conference in the next few minutes. here in asia focusing on japan. tokyo stocks sprint to another six-month high as the yen drops on hopes of a recovery in the u.s. and a bailout in greece. the boj also hinting it will keep policy ultra loose for some time to come.

well, good friday to you and we have christine tan, of course, the lovely christine tan in asia and ross west dwat gate london. i'm brian shactman. a very interesting show. we have u.s. equities, the dow heading to 13,000. the nasdaq heading to 3,000. jim rogers is going to come on and we're going to ask him about his take on u.s. equities because he is not bullish. in fact, he is bearish. we'll ask him why. in terms of stock futures we are looking at a positive open this hour. futures trading will pick up as we progress to a "squawk box" show here in the u.s. at 6:00. 32 points against fair value and flat on the nasdaq and three points to the good in the s&p. ross, food d ross, good day to you, sir. ahead of the u.s. open, european stocks are firmer. up a third of a percent on the

ftse 100. brian, christine, i don't know how many times we've said this but apparently here we are on a friday, we're going to get an agreement on monday over greece. apparently they've managed to get a deal with the international lenders about how they're going to reduce the budget by 125 million euros. i reckon this is like the fifth friday that we've said there is an agreement. i'm trying not to be skeptical. maybe this one -- they appear to have more elements in place. >> how can you not be skeptical, though is this it's impossible not to be. >> and it's all reports, nothing concrete. the ecb is taking agreement on not going to take a profit on its greek debt and they get the benefit from that. potentially we've moved away from the idea of the escrow account, right, and that's not

going to happen. and merkel is stamping -- but it's nothing con crease. it's all reports. >> i reckon it's going to be tuesday. tuesday is going to be the word. >> well, that would be better if we just said on friday it will happen on tuesday, wouldn't it? so, anyway, while that's going on, there was a key meeting due to happen today on the basis g angela merkel will speak to mario monti. she has canceled that because of a press conference taking place with the german president. we're waiting for him to speak. the press conference is in german. so we'll have to wait to see if we get a translation but we expect that to happen. patricia, i hope, is going to translate for us over the top of this if patricia is there. >> reporter: well, i will try to

do my best. he just said hello and greeted everybody and he said he gladly accepted his post as president of germany. i am absolutely convinced that germany can display and develop its economic potential and that germany needs a president that can absolutely focus without any exception on his job as german president. a president that has the trust of most of the population. the development as of late that

the trust in me, in my position, has eroded. because of this i cannot do my position -- continue my position as german president and this is why i resign as of today as german president. to open this position for the next person taking over. angela merkel will take over one appointment where i was supposed to go next thursday. i am absolutely convinced that the prosecution of me, of the position, will be resolved in a positive way. i made mistakes but i was always

fair. what we have seen over the last two months has hurt very much myself and my wife, but i do say thank you 0 to my team and all the other official posts and official -- i do thank my family and i thank my wife as well. my wife has always, especially over the last few months, gave me a lot of support. i wish for our country a political culture.

a culture where everybody is very much for supporting democracy. and i wish you all the best. thank you. >> okay. there we go. the german president, as we thought, has announced his resignation, that takes effect immediately. the german chancellor, angela merkel -- remember, the president in germany is a sort of -- it's actually the chancellor, angela merkel, who runs the country. she will give a press conference now in the next 25 minutes or so. patric patricia, doing very well on the translation, by the way, i thought, thank you very much for that. what happens now? do you know the process for putting a new president in place? >> reporter: well, i do not know the actual process, but one

thing for sure, in about 20 minutes we'll have angela merkel making a statement and our sources are already talking that the coalition is going to huddle up and sit together tomorrow to think about who could be the next german president. the coalition -- the question is whether they will bring people onboard from spd because that was one of the major critical points that basically wulff was appoint appointed if not forced into his position by angela merkel against strong opposition back in 2010. she put her foot down. she put christian wulff into that position. now, of course, this has repercussions on her image in choosing people because it's not now the first german president that under her reign is leaving. it's the second. she chose wulff. wulff now stepped down, again, so i think a lot of the 0 opposition parties want to get involved in a coalition driven

and consensus driven president in the picking. we have prosecutors going after a german president. that's unique in the history of germany. >> yeah, and prosecutors are asking for immunity to be lifted that has forced that resignation for the time that he was in charge of that state. patricia, thank you very much indeed for that. stopped discussions on the eurozone. angela merkel is supposed to meet with the italian premier mario monti. she may still get on a plane this afternoon and go and talk to him. this comes as athens has reached a deal in its next 325 million euros to secure the next bailout money. jim rogers is ceo and chairman of rogers holdings. he is with us in singapore where he is with christine. jim, okay, i don't really know what to say about greece, frankly. just give me your own view here. >> ross, the reason you don't

have anything to say about greece is because you've been saying it for two years. ybody, not just you, everybody has been talking about greece. you said next monday it's all going to be okay. we've been hearing that monthly, weekly, for over two years now. and greece may be okay on monday, but it's going to come back. we have many more problems facing the world, and i hope we can paper over it this time and start over. what i'd rather do, as i've said here many times, is let greece go bankrupt. let all the people who are bankrupt go bankrupt and then you can start over. you reorganize the assets and start over. until that happens, this is going to be an ongoing endless discussion. it gives nbc something to report but it's not good for the world. >> and, jim, it's brian shactman in the states. obviously the kicking the can down the road culture is frustrating for a lot of people. we're pushing out some new highs in the states 13,000 in the dow and the nasdaq toward 3,000 and

yet you're bearish on u.s. equities and you're bearish on u.s. treasuries. can you just sort of justify the position especially in the near term? >> sure, brian. i guess you perhaps don't remember, the last two or three times i've been here i've explained to you all that 2013 is going to feel and sound and look good because 40 elections in 2013 including in the united states and you have governments everywhere -- not everywhere but many governments pumping money into the economy, printing money and spending money especially in the united states. so it's 2013, brian, you have to worry about. 2014. 2013 and '14 are probably going to be big, big messes. they're probably going to try to make us feel good and they've been doing so for a while. >> just to sum it up, them, you think there could be a good run in 2012 just long term you're

bearish. do you own u.s. equities at all at this point right now? >> no, no, i don't own any u.s. equities. no, that's a correct statement. i own -- my way of playing all of this is to own real assets, commodities. brian, you now have the bank of japan printing money. you have the bank of england. you have the european central bank, you have the federal reserve. everybody is having a wonderful time running the printing presses. the way to protect yourself in a time like that historically anyway has been to own real assets. and that's where those are my longs and currencies, of course. >> jim, i'm glad you mentioned japan because, of course, earlier this week the boj surprised everyone by offering additional easing, additional liquidity in the market. the yen got lower as a result. but deflation is still a big problem in japan. do you ever see a period, a scenario where japan recovers from this? >> there is no -- yes, the government reports deflation but that's not what happens. come with me on my next trip and

i'll show you the prices of everything are up in japan. what's happened is two things. one, they've opened up the economy to some extent, so imports come in and those are cheaper. but the price of a melon goes from $50 to $40. that's not inflation. that's just reality. and of course you've had a strong yen. so everything that's imported goes down in price and the government reports that as deflation. the prices you and i -- the people in japan are paying are up except for imports. those are down. >> to clarify, do you own any japanese equities? >> i do. we talked about that before that i own -- back when the tsunami hit i bought the index and i bought an agricultural oriented company, i bought more of the index recently. i own the japanese index because i was thinking of buying it before the tsunami. the tsunami hit so i stepped in and bought. i bought and it went down again. it didn't matter. it went down again. now somehow or another i'm making money. >> ross? >> jim, you mentioned

currencies. a lot of people that printing press sort of view that you have would say we don't want -- that's their view because it's -- currencies are paper money. so are you avoiding the currencies where the bank presses, as you put it, are on, and if you are, what are the currencies you own? >> well, that's a good question. probably none of us will own any paper money at all, ultimately. that's later in the decade. paper money is becoming suspect everywhere in the world. i do own gold. i do own silver. i do own precious metals. i'm not thinking about selling them. gold has been up 11 years in a row. that's very unusual for any asset. it's been consolidating for several is months. it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't continue to consolidate. that's the way markets normally work. but i own the euro. i own the u.s. dollar. i own various currencies hoping to get through all of this.

but some day none of us will own paper money anymore. >> it will be a chip in my watch or something. i don't know -- we could do space currency or something, jim. >> one thing, ross, i don't own the pound sterling. if it you're sitting there in london, i don't own everything. one i don't own is the pound sterling. >> you're not trying to rub it in. >> i love the uk a great deal. >> you have your choice, you can come over for either or come in the middle actually is probably the best thing to do, come in the middle of the jubilee. there's a the lot going on. jim, stick around. plenty more to come. if you have any questions for jim, e-mail us or you can tweet. brian, i forgot the twitter handle for brian.

angela merkel will hold a press conference in around 15 minutes in berlin. this is after the german president has resigned. it's distracted her from her negotiations on the eurozone debt crisis. still to come, eurozone problems taking their toll on the earnings of companies like cement producer lafarge and aegon. i'm freaking out man. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing for his little girl. hey don't worry. e-trade's got a totally new investing dashboard. everything is on one page, your investments, quotes, research... it's like the buffet last night. whatever helps you understand man. i'm watching you. oh yeah? well i'm watching you, watching him. [ male announcer ] try the new 360 investing dashboard at e-trade.

♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." time for the global markets report. let's start with u.s. futures. of course we had a strong rally in the markets. we want ed to peek to see if th news has had any impact. half a point in the s&p. a couple points on the dow and fractional on the nasdaq. if you are listening on satellite radio an open to the upside on the dow, the s&p, and flat in the nasdaq. ross? i'm sorry about that. we have ross not with us for the moment. we have leading indicators that might move markets in terms of data but it's a pretty quiet day so we'll wait to see if the sentiment on greece continues.

over to asia to see how things fared there in the last trading day of the week. >> you know, i had to dash and just got here to save ross', you know, mike -- let's fix the mike, ross. here in asia this is how the equity markets are looking now. we had hopes of greece coming out of a bailout monday. that's the key word. that's lifting risk sentiment. we had the property counters surging on hopes that this particular secotor would benefi the most from the boj's additional easing. the topics ix is up. we raised resources tax and that weighed on the resources tax -- the resources second is tore. the hang seng is up 1%. property counters benefiting on

hopes of a recovery in this particular sector. elsewhere the taiwan weighted index is up marginally. kospi foreign investors dashing into the market once again 1.3% higher. outperforming in this particular market. the australian market 0.3%. sensex up 0.8% and, ross, hopefully we can hear you this time. >> i hope you can. the german president is the figure head of the company, not the man or the position with power. that is with the german chancellor, angela merkel. so sort of a figure head president the same as you would get in ireland, for example. so not that important in terms of the actual impact on power. as far as stocks are concerned, ahead of the u.s. open, weighted to the upside. ftse 100 is up over 5900. the dexetra dax is up. we've been focusing in on the currency markets, of course,

euro/dollar has been firmer. the yen weaker across-the-board against the dollar and both the euro as well this morning so we've hit, what, 3 1/2 month highs currently at 79.05 is where we stand. 103.98. that's about a two and a half month high against the yep as well. a quick check on the bond market. retail sales in the uk much stronger than expected. ten-year gilt sold off on that yielding 2.17% and ten-year btp steady. ten-year bunds unchanged. keep your eye on the oil prices. this is a real outlier, a real threat. brent was above 120. just dipped below that 119.87. we do have real supply outputs when you add in sudan, syria and yemen, they're all starting to weigh -- of course there are tensions surrounding the oil price as well. we'll take a short break.

still to come, fashion week has kicked off in the british capital. just how can investors get involved? we'll talk about investing in media and entertainment. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

glitz and glamour of fashion week has hit london but how can

people get involved? our next guest says there are some opportunities especially in the uk from film to live entertainment and social networking. joining us is the ceo of ingenious ventures which runs media related funds. patrick, how do you invest? what are you investing in exactly? >> we're investing across the creative industries, one of the uk's great success stories. at the moment it accounts for 59 billion pounds worth. and that's right across all of the subsectors including television, film, computer gaming, designer fashion. >> is this -- are you taking stakes in private companies and public companies? what's the deal? >> these are all unquoted small to medium sized enterprises which are at the heart in the uk. so these are the businesses such as managing "american idol" and pop idol. >> is this important to you as

the rates a lot of these companies, the rights of the products and contents that they own as much as people running them? >> it's all about the people. it's all about the people who can innovate the rights to new programming and new designs and that is what we want to see. we want to see their ability to translate that into international ip being shown on television across the world. >> christine has a question for you. >> patrick, as you put your ear piece in, i want to say that beth me and jim have a question. patrick, what sort of returns are you looking at? >> what we're looking at is a three to five times cash on cash return because where we're really aiming ourselves is post startup, so businesses that have already gotten a proven business model and are establishing their revenue, so we're not going for pure startup. we're into business that is are out through the gate and

beginning to generate revenue. >> patrick, hi, this is jim rogers here. you said you do private companies but what about fox? i don't own fox, i don't have a position but i know that everything is raging around fox again there in the uk. should one buy it or should one sell it? >> i'm really the wrong person to ask about that because we see fox as the ultimate buys of the sort of companies we are investing in because we are investing in the smaller creative businesses that ultimately would be bought by the microsoft. >> is that the ultimate out? is that how you get your investment back? >> it's uncorrelated to the public market. >> sort of small scale pe? >> yeah. well, it's small scale in terms of the size of the companies but the returns are not small scale. >> jim? >> i was going to say if fox is not around there won't be -- who is going to be the buyer. i guess you can find other buyers as well. >> well, if fox isn't around there are many buyers.

they keep coming through. there's google, they're all coming into the picture now as potential. >> we have been bought by a few companies in the uk. >> absolutely, yes. >> okay. so that's it -- christine? >> patrick, out of curiosity is there anything in asia that interests you? >> it interests us as a market because what we're finding is that our companies are generating either fashion or television or music that is being bought by consumers in the developing economies including the far east. so we're always interested in talking to potential partners out of those locationses particularly in terms of live events where we have shows like taste of london which are basically exporting themselves into those territories. >> all right. patrick, good to talk to you. thank you very much indeed for talking to us, the ceo of ingenious ventures.

don't forget, of course, we're waiting for this press conference from angela merkel after the german president has resigned, slightly delayed. i think we're safe in trying to squeeze in a quick break, brian. >> i think so. merkel has a lot on her plate. she has political scandal to deal with and saving the eurozone. i don't envy her position. coming up on "worldwide exchange," the dow quickly approaching the 13,000 level. will the index hit that today? and can the upper momentum continue? we'll find out after the break. uh oh. should we be letting him p-l-a-y with our t-a-b-l-e-t? [ mom ] i think it's fine. it's the new element from at&t so it's w-a-t-e-r proof. cool. what else does it d-o? it's fast. it's 4g lte. 4-g-l-t-e? mhhmm. i think it's time to stop spelling? ok. a-y.

[ male announcer ] introducing the waterproof pantech element. buy one for $249.99 and get a 4g burst smartphone free. only from at&t.

german chancellor angela merkel has just started speaking. let's listen in. >> reporter: angela merkel is now talking about the coalition together. and debate who would take up the next position and they will have a look who is going to be the next candidate to represent germany as the president.

thank you. perhaps we can come over to me and i can sum up what angela merkel said. >> do that, patricia. do that. >> reporter: basically she arrived while we were in the break and expressed her regret that christian wulff, the former president of germany, did hand in his resignation. she said she thought that him and his wife did a good job in representing germany on an international level. she wants to thank them, and we wants everybody in germany to thank him for his job there as well. he said he could not do his position anymore. he is resigning and she said that it was the strength of the german -- of germany and the way germany is structured that every single person no matter what his or her position is within the government should be treated on an equal level. the bottom line is she accepts the resignation and then she said they are going to meet as early as tomorrow. this is not what she said but

they are going to meet in the coalition to debate about the next candidate coming up. here i already have a little bit of market talk, what people think the next names in the hat could be. one is an environment minister who could pop up. and another was running against christian wulff in 2010 and lost. he's a human rights activist. very much backed by the opposition parties. he lost out. he lost out in the third round. so he could come back in the game. the labor minister here in germany did come up in some conversations. however, until that happens, hofer is stepping in. he's the bavarian prime minister and head of the csu party. >> patricia, thank you very much indeed for that. because of that press conference angela merkel had to cancel her meeting with mario monti today to try and eke out an agreement on greece. we think now greece, just to

remind everybody, if you've just woken up state side this morning, european stocks are higher ahead of the u.s. open. there is the next friday, we have another friday we think there's going to be an agreement in greece, you a parentally they detail how to get the extra $225 billion in changes. it looks like the ecb is coming to an agreement on not making a profit on greek debt and obviously it looks like some of the germans have dropped demand. if we get a closer start today in the united states, where might that take the dow? >> we might get to 13,000, ross. we had a triple digit gain yesterday. 12,90 had 4 now. to put it into context, the last close for the dow above 13,000 was may 19th of '08 and the last time it crossed above 13,000 was may 20th of 2008. i want to talk about this with the ceo of bull and bear

partners. still with us jim rogers. jack, thanks for being on. before we gained 120 on the dow, jack, people -- we had the econ data. does it feel topee or are we going to burst beyond 13,000 and beyond? >> we've digested this move. this has been a strong move, the first couple of months of the year so far. people misinterpreted what we saw monday. people didn't realize that was because of the indexation process. when a stock reaches 20% of an index which is what apple did did the other day, it has to be readjusted. we have to see a rebalancing of that index. so everybody that owned apple on an adjusted basis had to start thinking about making a rebalancing in their portfolios. that's really what turned the market. i don't think it's acting as if it's ready to turn around.

remember, there is some force fed inflation not only with asset prices but also with commodity prices and jim could probably talk a lot about that. i don't think he's as bullish stocks as i am but bullish commodities, still. all of that tells me there is still a little upside and primarily because money is cheap, there's no way you can really compare and fight against the 2% yield when the fed is doing what they are doing and when you are force feeding inflation you have to be long dollar denominated assets and that's what we're talking about. >> you know, when it comes to the equity markets you say it is more to the upside, jim rogers talked about how 2012 might go well but 2013 and beyond he's skeptical. so you feel comfortable -- we have retail investors starting to look at the market and wonder if they're going to get burned again. you feel comfortable putting new money to work, jack? >> brian, i like this multiple. i like that we are trading down with historically low multiple of 12 or 13 in the s&p.

when it gets to those levels, especially when we still have this global growth story going on -- wer, look at the numbers that some of these companies are posting and listen to what they're saying, their customer base of caterpillar, of deere is all over the world. they are off the shores of the u.s. had a story will not change. those numbers will continue to be there. it's a question whether we see a multiple expansion and i think we will. i am comfortable putting money to work here. i think 1,500 s&p is achievable. >> this is jim rogers. we are at an all-time high. the multiples are low it may be because the profits have gone up. >> that's a good question. i think right now what we're looking at is a continued expansion in earnings. what i'm looking at is a lack of

confidence, of leadership both here and abroad. we've got what i call this policy of tax relationism, higher taxes, more regulation, protectionism creeping in and that's been driving our fiscal policy here and then, of course, you have this political battle that looks like germany is winning out in europe. leadership is the reason why we're trading with such a cheap multiple. if we get that expansion, jim, then i think we see what happened to gold, what happened to sugar, what happened to copper also happened to equities. and that is that we end up seeing these things go up because of the debasement of global currencies. >> certainly the currencies are being debased everywhere. an option expiration day. what about the option that is have expired, are they going to cool off for the next month or so? >> well, one of the reasons we've been going sideways for the last couple of weeks is because of exploration. when i talked to the market makers here in chicago, those

that are actually very deep in those markets, they'll tell me that they haven't seen people this long going into an expiration for quite a while. so that usually tells me the market needs to digest that move. the move that we've seen go sideways these last couple of weeks is absolutely perfect on what you want if you're a bull. this market seems to be just climbing that wall of worry and it's doing it, if you think about it, jim, with a lot of nonbelievers on the sideline, a lot of cash parked in the government sponsored mattress i call the ten-year bond. it's amazing to me. and what happens is any buying coming in by these portfolio managers is reluctant buying. and as long as it stays that y way, there probably is a lot more to the upside. >> jack and jim will be sticking with us. we have a lot of viewer questions for mr. rogers. we will try to get to as many as we can in a little bit but still to come on "worldwide exchange," u.s. treasury secretary tim gooet ne geithner facing a subpoena. we'll have the full story after the break.

welcome back to wo"worldwid exchange." treasury secretary tim geithner facing a subpoena from bankruptcy lawyers at lehman brothe brothers. they want to question him about transactions made just before the collapse in 2008 that suggested jpmorgan chase used

inside information to illegally siphon billions of dollars during the final days. treasury secretary geithner was head of the new york fed at the time and brokered meetings between bank executives, lawyers in the civil suit want to force geithner to give a deposition by the march 16th deadline. let's get back to our guest host jim rogers. jim, we have a slew of questions here. what's your forecast for the renminbi and other currencies but specifically the chinese. >> well, i own the renminbi. every time i can i buy more. you can't just pick up the phone, ross, and buy a lot, although it is becoming more and more of an open currency is. i expect the rin minimum by to double or triple over the next decade or two as the japanese yen went up a whole lot. i'm not selling at all.

there will be fluctuations, i hope. i hope i'm smart enough to buy more. don't sell your renminbi. >> we have a question coming from leslie windham who wants to know your thoughts on commodities for 2012-'13. can you see during that year a severe currency fluctuation between the major trading nations? >> if we have major currency fluctuations that will hurt everything and i do expect more turmoil somewhere along the line watching cnbc and they will be talking about the currency turmoil making all markets go down. but you should buy commodities because they're debasing currencies everywhere as we discussed before. there's little question everybody is printing money, christine, and that's all they know to do. >> the soft or the hard? >> i would rather buy agriculture than anything. depressed on a historic basis. the average age of farmers in america is 58 years old 0. we're running out of farmer

around the world. you should become a farmer. that's what you should do. >> maybe i should change tack. >> i have so many questions here. i'm just trying for jim. soft commodities, corn, soybean, wheat stock, jim. i used to tashg to farber and he would buy in ar jgentina. what's your idea of the softs? >> well, i'm keen on agriculture. the one question that christine gave me, there is some controversy right now about the u.s. government's reporting of agricultural inventories, stocks, and many people are skeptical because the government is trying to manipulate the prices according to the skeptics. i, for one, don't pay too much attention to government numbers because i've learned, ross, over

the years, if you listen to governments you are not going to make a lot of money. governments lie, distort, make mistakes. that's not a good source of information. you are better off watching cnbc than watching the government if you want to get -- if you want to make money. >> jim, we've had some specific questions about silver. can you talk about the prospects of silver especially in relation ship to maybe gold and copper? >> i would rather own silver than gold. silver is certainly historically che cheaper than gold. silver has industrial uses and with all the money printing some industrial companies will be doing better. so of the two i'd rather buy silver than gold. i'm not buying either at the moment but if it came to it i would buy silver. >> thanks, jim. we'll talk more about the market and what we can ex inspepect frl street. we have earnings from campbell's and heinz. coming up, reid hoffman, the

founder of linkedin. we'll talk about his new book and the business and obviously those guys do a great job of interviewing the biggest guests.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange" on this friday. it is about ten minutes before 6:00 a.m. on the east coast of the united states. a quick look at futures. we've dipped a little bit although there is a disparity between what's being shown on the u.s. ticker and what we see here. according to this we're minus a point and a half on the nasdaq and up 26 on the dow and up two s&p. the u.s. ticker shows slightly down on the s&p. we'll try to clarify that for

you in a little bit. let's get you updated on what's on the economic calendar for the u.s. today. investors are waiting the price index figures as well as january's leading indicators. market is keeping an eye on earnin earnings. campbell's soup and heinz announced their results before the opening bell and tim goo geithner testifying on the new budget. let's talk about the marketplace with jack. do you think we cross 13,000 today, jack? >> you know what, i think we'll have to wait until next week. what will happen today is more than likely if the market settles where it opens, technically it's breaking out to the upside so you have a lot of what i call the crayola traders, those who take their charts and run a crayon looking for lines. they'll get squeezed. they'll see the resistance taken out. they'll probably come in and buy it next week. that is probably when we're going to want to think about lighten i

lightening up a little bit when we get the nice big kick and run up to the 1400 level. that could take another week or two, the quadruple expiration which is the third friday of march. >> jack, i'm here on another friday saying there will be an agreement, about the fifth time in six weeks that i've said that and how is europe's news going to impact or not impact as the case may be? >> you know what, i think we've moved beyond that, ross. it's starting to feel as if we've accepted everything that's going on in greece. if you notice the markets are not moving on those headlines out of europe like they were once before so i call this immune to any of the poison that's been dropped on it from europe and i think that over the course of the next couple of weeks we'll see serious resolution. the political bickering might be behind us. it's a question whether greece decides to quit playing russian roulette with their own economy. >> it's funny. i almost feel uncomfortable using the word decoupling after all the conversations we had leading into the financial crisis. i'll put it to you first. there's a lot of conversation in

the states that at least economically the u.s. has decoupled from europe and we can still grow contagion if there were a default might be an issue. do you subscribe to the feeling the u.s. economy is sort of growing on its own regardless of what goes on in europe? >> brian, that's impossible. europe as a whole is the largest economy in the world, as a whole it's the largest economy. if europe has problems, we in america will feel those probl s problems. but, brian, both entities are printing a lot of money and spending a lot of money right now. greece is getting headlines but there's a lot of money around, sloshing around. it has to go somewhere. >> yeah, and, jim and jack, i'm sitting here with brent at $120 a barrel this morning. during the uk session. what price do they start to get people worried again? jack? >> if you're asking me anywhere -- >> go ahead, jack. >> go ahead, jim.

you know what, i think if we get near $110 a barrel in west texas or maybe up over $125 or $130 in brent, then i'd worry. but copper is really what i'm worried about. look, it's the velocity of inflation that concerns everybody. if it you talk to jim, if you talk to everybody else, that's what everyone is concerned about. if we miscalculate the velocity of inflation and everything that the central banks are doing will come back to haunt us quickly as opposed to something that might happen down the road. >> jim? >> jack, we know what the central banks are doing. they're printing money. we should all be worried about inflation. his t historically it always works that way. >> i thought jack was going to come back on that. >> you know what, the real itits right.

what he talks about, his mantra, is to have food, fiber, fuel in your portfolio. you absolutely need it but especially in this day and age. there is no decoupling, let's face it. all these governments are working together. this is more of a global economy than we've ever seen before and there's a concerted effort. >> and jack in chicago has said everything mr. jim rogers says in singapore is right. there you go. i'm going to leave it there because i like to finish on a nice bit of harmony. jack, good to see you. jim rogers, also, as a guest on with christine in singapore. and that only leaves myself, brian, and christine to say one thing and that's to producer fiona who is going back to new zealand. she comes from a land, a strange land, called new zealand. thank you, fiona. >> i could never understand half.

good morning. multiyear highs. the dow chosing at its best level in nearly four years. hope out of europe. investors betting that a greek deal could get done after another week of, what do you call it, deadlock, moving around, moving parts. it's friday, february 17th. i think i'll say 2012 instead. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ here comes the weekend here comes the weekend here comes the weekend ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. happy friday. our top story, the markets. the dow within 100 points of that 13,000 level. yesterday the blue chip index sprinted to its highest close