welcome to the program. the headlines today from around the globe. the ecb opens up around the world. ultra cheap euro loans. just an hour and 15 minutes until the results come out. 500 billion euros to be taken up. in the u.s. ben bernanke updates congress on the economy today with investors wondering whether he'll stick to the fed script to keep rates low until

2014. and the economic growth slows more than expected in two years. rise in inflation and european demand takes a toll on the quarter gdp. warm welcome to you. the start of "worldwide exchange" as we start down to the latest offering of ecb cheap liquidities. as you can see, the dow jones stoxx 600, by around 603, something of that mag in i attitude. we had employment numbers out as well. the jobless rate was zero it says here. the adjusted jobless was down 26,000 in jan. they saw the adjusted jobless rate falling by 5,000. so once again german employment going a little bit better. jobless rate 6.8% as expected although some saw the february

jobless rate at 6.7. so maybe not quite the fall we expected. a lot is going to depend. let's take the euro down to the session lows. you can see it at 1.3457. a lot, of course, depends what happens with the ltfr. banks this morning have been one of the better performers. there we are one hour into the trading sessions. banks up 1.2%. as far as the bund markets are concerned, we'll see if we can keep it down. after a pretty good auction yesterday, yields down at 5.3%. bund's 1.8%. still substantially low levels. will the results of the ltro have any impact?

nymex after big falls. trying to claw back. we have been over 124. so quite high levels. christine's got the wrap for us in asia. >> i do, indeed, ross. it's rising by, of course, the ecb. that helped on some of the risks and driving some of the commodity currency high. data coming from japan and south korea. if we take a look at japan right now ahead of the ltr operation, investments kind of took profits, so markets ending a little flat today, failing to hold on to the 9800 level. we have shanghai market up 1%. we had, of course, property counters weighing on the market and the hong kong market helped to underpin.

australian market up 0.8%. gdp data coming in at 6.1%, much lower than expected. everybody was expected 6.4%. slowest pace in more than two years, so that seems to be some of the stories driving asian markets today, ross. big day. >> an hour and 15 minutes they're going to release the results of their second refinance operation. it's offering unlimited funds to the area's banks at the rate of around 1%. it comes, of course, two months after ltro won which is the biggest lending operation in the bank's 13-year history. julia is looking at that and what it might mean today. julia. >> thanks, ross. i should point out that the ecb justs a lot of these ltro's on a much shorter term. it's relatively chief, 1% per

annum. now, obviously estimates have varied around the amounts we expect to see drawn down. in fact, i've given you 1 trillion euros. the median has centered around 500 billion euros, around what we saw the last time, 489 billion euros. if it comes in around that, it will become a nonevent for the market. it's based not just on the refinancing needs of the european banks but also might grade that. we need to defined what the met demand might be. it's expected to be slightly higher, around 300 billion euros this time around. i want to reference the xetra cac briefly. that might boost demand this time around too. talking positive aspects, i'll

take you through some of those too. obviously there's been an undeniable boost. it's lowered the borrowing rates. we've also seen a significant rally in the equity markets since december 21st when we got that original ltro done. i'm showing you the stoxx 600 here. 15% rally. it's not just in the equity markets. in the credit markets, too, the financials, 100 basis points tighter since that december 21st date and we've also seen spreads tightening in the debt markets too. now italy and spain have been the key beneficially. we've seen the yield curves steepen dramatically. i'm showing you the tenure here. it's not about the short-term debt. we've also seen ten-year yields come in around 250 basis points. of course, the italian auction

yesterday told the positive benefits too. before i get carried away, i'll put forth some of the cons, too, of that. obviously it's scaled up since that. i can show you quick charts of that too. obviously some concern about how much of this cash is being put to work. the ec b argued that it's not necessarily the ltro. the bank does tend to support that reputational risk. some of the stronger banks concerned about looking at requiring too much ecb liquidity but also their investors all angry investors with the fact that they come subordinated to the claims of the ecb. saying yesterday they're not going to access this ltro. longer term, is inflation going to be an issue? possibly, but for now the key is anchored. is the cash actually flowing out

to people that actually need credit like corporates and to individuals? now, obviously we saw a lot pick up. but analysts point out to me it's going to take several quarters to impact the data. all talk about the fact that the ecb lending survey in january of this year showed that despite the fact that banks were aware that this ltro, second ltro was going to take place, they were still anticipating tightening lending conditions. certainly a condition there. i want to show you just where the demand was in the last ltro, according to expectations. italy and spain take 50% according to ing's estimates. again, we'll watch. 523 banks last time. keep to see how many access the ltro this time around. now we're going to head over to frankfurt and talk to silvia who has the latest.

silv silvia. >> reporter: at the moment we're in the realm of speculation. as you said before, speculation and what mario draghi said, basically around the same level we were last time. somewhere between 400 billion and 500 billion. that's, of course, the topline figu figure we're looking for. what does that mean. if we have a higher expected volume, does that bode good news? does that mean the banks are ready to pass on liquidity to the so-called real economy at a time when, of course, the ecb sees and many other indicators poichblt in that direction that the eurozone economies are stabilizing, maybe even cautiously picking up in some countries? so there could be a demand for credit there, and that's indeed what we hear, at least from the smes, from the mid size and small companies that do not have direct access to the capital markets in the eurozone and

unlike other regions in the u.s., to some extenlts in tt in. some of the smaller companies depend on borrowing banking, and if these credit lines dry up and that has been an indication over the past few months or so, half a year or so, then, of course, there's a fee credit crunch. that's the last thing they want. does it mean good news or does it mean bad news? does it mean the banks still need more liquidity and continue to sit on it? i thing the interpretation of the numbers is going to mean more than the actual number in the end. >> at that point, we'll bring in our guest. thanks, silvia. let's pick up on that last point, alberto. if we get the consensus number, how do you define that as, you know, will people want to trade

on that? is that a good number? >> i thing to have a positive knee-jerk reaction, we need 500 billion. it's been slightly above other surveys. i do think it will take time before it gets passed on to small businesses. european banks are very large. they're more than 300% of gdp unlike in other countries. so for this monetary policy action to work it will take several quarters. it works as a carry trade. that helps. but it doesn't necessarily filter through the economy immediately through smaller firms like we were mentioning before. >> it will take a while. is this a bit like qe -- you know, the more you do it, the sort of less impact it has? >> i don't think so this time

around. the first one was used a little for refinancing but this is definitely a big qe and i hope it's a big fwhum ber. it onto take one or two or three years of doing that to recapitalize your balance sheet, build that to the one capital that will help build healthy banks like we're seeing in the u.s. now. so i'm very optimistic. >> you want as big a number as possible. i think so. so does mario draghi. this is a time for the banks. >> christine? >> hi, this is christine. just to follow up, what rate do you expect this ltro -- which banks do you think will take up this? >> our estimation is 400 billion to 500 billion. there are some collateral effect, however, and we receive some division across the banks who say, no, we're not going do

it and buy sovereign bonds. the larger banks, they're skeptic skeptical. the others, smaller banks, instead, are taking up much more, the banks in spand italy. they're increasing their southern debt. the italian banks 10% more over the same period. smaller banks have issued more than 40 billion of state-governed bonds themselves. so there's a bit of a fracture. also at the national central bank level, only national central banks are accepting loans at the collateral level i mean you mentioned the stats. have we made banks in italy and spain, have we worsened their risk profile because they've taken this money and gorged on more of their own government debt. unless you think we've cleared

it, have we made the banks worse? >> that's exactly the point. can you solve a solvency problem in the sovereign or the banks within the liquidity? if you carry trade, if you have one trillion euros at00 basis point, you make 30 billion per year, they need to get to to recapitalize is 115. it takes three or more years to get there just with a carry trade and banks are taking on more and more sovereign risk. in many cases like this chart, it's 5 or 10% of their assets, so it's higher than their equity level. so this risk, making them a levered instrument, a levered name on sovereign risk, unless you solve -- >> they're now subordinate potentially to the ecb. if the ecb starts buying

portuguese debts after what happening in greece with ecb taking up profits, i'm not sure investors would be willing to follow the ecb. the knee-jerk reaction is positive. we have been constructive since january, but now we're advising for a bit more caution. >> plenty more to come. it's not just ecb. we've got qe2 all over the place. you can head to our website to explain what an ltro is. go to cnbc.com. also ahead on our program, the countdown wraps up. we'll get to the kick start growth in the eurozone.

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exchange." focusing on india's growth, dropping to its slowest passion since 2009 in the file quarter of last year. to tell us more and give us the details shereen. >> we've seen the slowest base of growth for the gdp in the last two years. we've seen it happen on the agriculture side. in india we're dealing with high interest rates. 13 rate hikes by the reserve.

now the sense is the reserve bank may, in fact, have to move faster when it comes to monitoring easing. it will be revealed on the 15th of march just a day before the union budget is revealed. they're building around the bunt and what finance minister is going to announce by way of reform, there's a lot of emphasis on what he could do perhaps to boost infrastructure spending and once, again, get the investment cycle going. a lot of focus on what the central bank, the reserve bank is going to do by way of easing monetary rates and what the finance minister is going to do with the union budget by way of reforms and the spending acceleration. beyond that, services sector, that was the only bright spot really because the service sector growth continues to be higher than what the street had expected. once again contracting. of course, we've seen the agriculture sector also coming in with low growth. as i pointed out, the markets are not really reacting to this.

this is the number the street had factored in. we were expecting 6.2%. this is a disappointing number for the indian group story. we're hoping india will be able to do 6.9% for the full year as is the government's estimate. before now, it's back to you. >> shereen, thank you very much. can i get a reaction to this? obviously what's your outlook for emerging markets, particularly india? >> you know what we're seeing here today, it's not just an ltro program, i think the u.s. is also one of the largest providers of the liquidity. quantitative easing, we're all aware of it. there seems to intersomething happened there. frankly look at india, look at

china easing their reserve requirements. there's not a central bank in the world that i can think of that's tightening in this market. and if that's the case ultimately it's going to be -- we're going to see things happening that we didn't have last year. ultimately, i thnk 20ink 2012 w tend to be the antithesis of 2011. it will be risk on rather than risk off. with the ipo markets opening again, we'll see our secondaries or we'll see debt markets opening up again. animal spirits starting to kick in. it's people putting money back on the table. so i do think, you know, for the emerging markets, though, however, we do think that the euro and the dollar could become perceived as funding currencies. the agencies look like

currencies affecting the growth. they're certainly much less levered. your annual growth of 3% to 4%, greater than elsewhere. so we do believe that asia certainly has something to offer in these markets. >> okay. so asia looks good. but commodities today ahead of the ltro operation getting a bit of a lift. does that mean all the liquidity in the market will find its way and that's will be a good sector to buy into? >> i think it has to. we are in a -- we are in a reflagsary cycle. if we look at asia and the u.s., the banks are largely repaired compared to europe, and the velocity of money to a certain extent is starting to take off, and it's inevitable that we'll see commodities -- risk segmeas

will do well. some have broke away from their two-day moving averages. when you get that kind of change, things do well. >> in this rush of -- this sugar rush of liquidity that we've got going around the globe, is credit going -- it bounced back a little. is credit goipgt to become better or not or is bank deleveraging going to continue to outweigh the liquidity rush? >> i think the u.s. and asia have far less prominence, so i agree with robert on that. banks are still 30 plus trillion balance sheets. that's 300,000 gdp, 80% of credit is given by banks and to reactivate that, it would take several quarters, in my view. it's not like the u.s. where banks are 70% of gdp and they got recapitalized. here it would take several years. so i do think the process is a

bit slower, and at the end of the day, it is also about growth in the periphery. can you make greece or portugal or spain or italy grow at the same time as doing austerity measures. >> good to see you today. thanks for joining us. alberto gallo joining us. robert sticks around. a posted record earnings for the ninth year running. profit up 11% to just under $6.8 million. they were in line with the estimates a estimates. carolyn's got more in zur rick. >> we knew that hole sum was going to. mainly on its south ak friday can investments. now, as you say, the net loss that holeson did report for the fourth quarter, that was

slightly faller than expected. revenues were also stronger than expected at 5.3 billion swiss francs. it was surprisingly strong because the weather conditions in the fourth quarter were more favorable. in terms of the outlook, very optimist optimistic. a rise in building materials in asia, slightly more in the u.s. and stable in europe. ross. >> japan's manufacturing outlook hat jumped. plus we have the latest credit data out of the uk. 

this is "worldwide exchange." the headlines from around the globe. the ecb opens the tap once again. it's offering the eurozone bank's another unlimited round of three-year loans. just 45 minutes go until the results of the operation come out with nymex expecting around 500 billion euros to be taken up. while in the u.s., ben

bernanke, of course, updates congress on the economy today with investors wondering whether he'll stick to the fed's script to keep rates low until 2014. indian economic growth slows more than expected to its slowest rate in more than two years. rising inflation, weak european demand take a toll on december quarter gdp. well, i've got a bunch of credit data out of the uk. consumer lending up 1.1 -- sorry -- 1.8 billion. that's quite good. net mortgage lending up 1.6 billion. that's the highest since december 2010. mortgage approvals, better than the consensus of 55,000. consumer credit up 0.1 billion pretty weak.

it was forecast up 50.2. so net consumer lemding was good. consumer credit, not that great. and m-4 since it began in july of 2009, up 1.9% on the month. so on the whole, stronger -- stronger credit apart from the actual consumer credit figures. now, meanwhile we've been speaking across the banking sectors to find out whether they'll be using the next long-term repowe operation from the ecb. >> it's been key to have the market and to reassure the market, we've gathered extreme scenarios. >> we do not plan to buy a new sovereign bond. this is not a five-year

commission. the purpose of this. >> i think you have to keep using the resources to keep refinancing the customers. it is the number one lend eer, especially in france. we want to support it. that's where economic growth is in frachbs and beyond. >> the position is very good at this moment, so we'll discuss internally and decide what to do. but the bank is quite liquid. >> well, that's what some of the bank executives were saying. italian banks took the lion's share of the first three-year reasoning operation followed by french lenders. it highlights the north and

south, but will the split be the same this time around. >> we have not decided on whether we participate in the ltro or not. that's something we need to look into it. for us, we don't need the liquidity as we pointed out. so from that perspective, it doesn't make any sense. >> the swedish environment is stable. the stage is very strong. the corporate sector is very strong. and we have a reason for it as well. so for us there is no necessity to grab that money. >> yes. scandinavian banks didn't participate heavily. bridget, in the first round, the ltro was undoubtedly used to plug gaps and stave off a clachlts is there any hopes this time around the money might sort of leap into the wider economy

or will it still be part of it once again? >> my own personal view is that it's going to stay on the bank's balance sheets and replace more of the short-term funding inside. at the moment i think there's around a trillion of that being financed from the ecb. probably a similar amount is being put back. the question is this going go back into the real economy. when you look at where that's coming from, where the numbers are coming from, the barrowing tends to be from the southern countries and they probably need to borrow more and refinance themselves more and the depositing that's being done is from germany and the nordic banks. and that basically is saying -- well, some of the better banks there are saying they're not

going to use this facility because they can't even place the money at 1% somewhere safe at the moment. so i thing in order for bangs to get back into lending into the real economy, there needs to be a lot more confidence that the eurozone crisis has been resolve. i think people are still looking at that. then the borrowing demands needs to come from sound companies. going into the crisis, banks were lending to anybody at any rate. that's not going to happen anymore. but i think positively for the economy what has happened is that the ltro and the reaction of the bond markets lending going after that has meant that they don't have to delever it at quite the rate they had before, so they are getting some refinancing confidence there. so we're not looking at growth in lending so we're probably looking at the contracting that's been going on. >> i mean just -- as far as the financial institutions are

concerned, you say we have some guard. banks have bought a lot more italian debt. are we making it more risky? >> it's a good question, but what you find and we certainly saw that with greece is if sovereign is really declining, the banks go down with the sovereign. sometimes it's the banks that bring the sovereign down anyway. the two are so in ter connected anyway, if you're a bank lemding in spain, you're going go down anyway with your sovereign, so why not make this carry trade and make some money out of it. >> christine? >> hey, bridget, you mention a good point. while banks lend out there needs to be more confidence. what do policy makers need to do to restore the confidence in the euros so you feel confident about lending out again? >> i think i'd either be making a lot of money. we'd be looking at a much more stable eurozone. thing the problem is it's

agreements about how the peripheral eurozone countries are going to be from the -- >> robert, briefly? >> the only comment i made, i think our experience from the united states is that banks aren't really going to start to lend again until they start to feel more comfortable, and they'll only start to feel more comfortable when they recapitalize their balance sheets, and that's only going to happen by borrowing. so, yes, there's a temporary leverage factor. the capital gets rebuilt. look at the u.s. banks. they're lending again. >> you've got, two through it. >> but the wonderful thing about the system is the convalescence period that it's allowing. >> thanks so much for joining us. bridget gandy. so ahead of the ltro, we're weighted to the upside.

we've got a decline here by around about 6 to 4 at the moment, 3 to 2. european stoxx are a little firmer this morning. footsie 100 is pretty flat. bund yields are still on the peripheral. italian ten-year, 5.3. ten-year is the current. euro/dollar, 1.3457. dollar/yen, euro/yen, a little lower. a reminder the euro is on track for the biggest fall in 11 years. and two-year biggest fall against the dollar and we keep the dollar a little bit firmer as well, christine.

>> we saw some profit-taking today. the nikkei failed to hold on to the key 9800 level and pretty much flat. the ltro operation, keeping risk appetite buoyant across the region. the hang seng in greater china, the markets were indeed in focus. the hang seng is up 0.5% today. we had sharings of shanghai properties up. we'll talk more about this with tracy chong later. better than expected output data helping to lift it higher, 1.3%. the commodities government a lift. there was slower growth coming up for the december quarter. slower than expected. the pace more than expected. more than two-year. so that seems to be the story as the european crisis and the external factors weigh down on

the indian market. let's talk more about china, of course. the losses in the china property plays a big drag. tracy chung has more on that. >> they dumped the real estate company shares after shanghai's housing bureau came out and effectively reversed an earlier decision to let long-term residents buy a second home in the city. the journal reported last week saying there alien residents, they're the ones who are not a permanent resident, they're allowed to buy a second home if they have lived in the city for about three years and profit shares have rallied. but late tuesday the shanghai government said it will stick to earlier policies that allow only shank high permanent residents to buy second hole. it's yet another blow to the fast-growing real estate market. they say it's very likely to

stay somewhat bearish in the future as investors are increasingly getting very wary of these reports and they're very likely to take these easing reports just as a grain of salt. back do you, christine. >> tracy, thank you very much for that. singapore plays host to the global leadership summit. now, the event is joined with cnbc. ypo is made up of over 19,000 top executives from 110 countries across various sectors. let's get out to our very own brian sullivan who traveled all the way to the u.s. to be here. brian at the summit. good to see you. >> reporter: thank you, christine. i think that says a lot about the summit. that they dragged me on a steamship all the way from the united states. we're joined by the managing director of a multi-family

investment firm based in mumbai india. i think it says a lot about the conference, just the fact that it's here. it's the first time in ypo's history that the conference is in asia, and we look at the growth in the world. gdp growth, 14.5%. you say it was a disappointing 6%. in america we'd to love have 6%. why do you call that dispiemting for 6% in india? >> i think we need to grow it upwards of 8% to grow the dividend that we have. i'm sure you're aware that a large percent of our population is under 25 years old. that's great if we find jobs for them. if we don't. that's a problem. to find jobs we have to grow it upwards of 8% a year. >> what happens? why did you not get the 8% growth? >> brian, i'm not at all is surprised. in talking with my fellow colleagues at ypo, as you know,

a bunch ceos, it's not moving. many investments have been stuck for quite a while. that's a result of all the scandals that have broken out for the last couple of years, reaching out to the top government. you're probably aware of the telecom scandal that's put many ministers in jail. that's led to a parr aalysis in government. >> reporter: excuse me for interrupting. >> nobody wants to take a decision. so anything of significance is just stuck, and businesses just can't get moving. >> reporter: we've sort of had that problem in the united states. some suggest we may have a similar problem. the in-fighting of the political parties is not a political story. it's an economic story i would completely agree with that. i think there are a lot of parallels between what we see in the u.s. and what we see in india at the moment. >> what do we do about that?

>> i think it's going to change over time. some of what's happening. the supreme court taking such action on the corruption that we've seen is, i think, a good thing in the long term. so in the short term it's led to paralysis, but i think the fact that we're all focused on it now means we can't go back to business as usual, which is going to be a positive. >> reporter: it's interesting. in america the $5 gas is what they start to worry about. in india you're very exposed to higher inflation costs, import costs, crude oil costs. just as things are starting to improve worldwide, we see wti at 100 buck, brent more than that. how's that going to affect india if at all? maybe it's a positive? >> no, it's a negative. we rely heavily on imported oil. every $10 has a material impact

on our fiscal deficit and we're running a big fiscal deficit as we speak. >> reporter: so quickly before i let you go, where's the best place to invest in the world right now? don't say singapore just because we're here and christina is listening. >> i think china and india as well. >> thank you very much. it's starting to rain. good time go. look, this is singapore. i come from the united states and you don't even bring me sunshine. >> welcome to singapore. a warm welcome. so good to see you. stay dry now. stay dry. hop over to the shelter. that was brian sullivan, of course, talking to us there. i think i recognize the veeny. japan's production rose up 2% from the month before, beating a market forecast. let's hop over to tokyo. >> hi, christine.

factory output climbed for a second time in a row. the government revised its assessment saying production was showing signs of recovery, a phrase it hasn't used since february of last year. the auto industry was strong with production gains of more than 3%. and 18% more passenger cars were cranked out than last year thanks to an extra boost by subsidies and telecom output surge 12% due to an increase in systems. meanwhile electronic components slumped 1.3%. and as we near the anniversary of the march disaster, rebuilding efforts are expected to move into high gear. the manufacturers are forecasting a 1% growth in february and march which would restore production back to pre-quake levels. back to you, christine. >> thank you very much for that. over in south korea, exports

slowed in january but all eyes were firmly on the country's industrial activity. to tell us more, posting a surprise jump. >> hey, there, christine. yes. we saw some resilience. exports posting a deficit in january. industrial activity climbed 3.3% a month. it fell 3.3%. it was dragged down by weaker auto. domestic consumption shrank while inventories went up. while january was an exceptional month, there were fewer worker days because of the chinese lunar new year. exports are expected to climb. so demands on month's figures may have shown some improvement

but analysts say we're not on track for a full economic recovery yet and it's highly unlikely tr the bank of o korea to cut the interest rate any time sook. back over to you. >> rhie, thank you very much for that. good to see brian there as well. hey, if you've got time, have a cup of tea or something with him. going to the treasury committee and the latest inflation report, we've got mr. posen saying qe2 will be better than qe1. there are upside risks to inflation. we have seen the heist number of mortgage approval since december of 2009. the strongest net change since august of 2010 and the strongest month-to-month rise since october 2009. so the bank, i'm sure, would say the qe is sort of working as

that goes through. we'll take a short brachlk we'll keep our eyes on that. plus, apple has reached a new milestone. it's set to join the $500 million market cap club, but where would it rank if it were in a new country? more on that. plus in a half hour we'll get the results from the ltro. >> i think it's very important that the ecb has taken action. that has reinforced confidence and restored stability in the european banking system. this is partly explaining why we have a better system in europe.

let's get final thoughts on the market. robert, you talked about all this liquidity from the central bank should be underpinning the global stock markets but what's actually happening with the investoral indication. you have these big jump-ups in stock markets. the dax's up 17%. people missed out on that. >> i think so. people like 2008, 2009, you tend

to have this big central bank support that comes in and people remain skeptical. they remain locked in the previous year. in this case they remained locked in the dire worries of 2011 and from all the funds i speak to, the pension funds, the hedge funds, they're still more optimistic than before -- that's the wrong word -- they're less pieessimisti pessimistic. they're not leveraged and there's cash sitting on the sidelines and they're still veryware very wary of what's going on. >> is the problem for investors still that it's a political story and you can do all the analyzing of the number, the number crunching you like, but if the politician changed his mind about something -- >> that's true. but even there, we starting to see the waning of the european situation as a crisis. greece, yes, is greece going to get resolved or not, the markets didn't get the attention.

the markets went rocketing up. across the bankers and everyone i speak to now, everyone would sort of like to buy on a rebound, which tends to say there's a lot of support on these markets, yeah. although what i would say about the ltro program, europe is a hard place to buy. europe is not where you're going to see growth. >> the lastal indication -- >> you know, because of the ltro and the expansion, else where money supplies, yes, the u.s. is very interesting. the u.s. is two-part economy, housing and government which is not doing so well and the rest is popping at a 4% rate. so there's a lot to invest in in the united states and asia certainly. asia from a currency perspective, credit perspective which is growing from an equity perspective. >> good seeing you today. he'd the head of signet group. he says it's always interesting. it is interesting.

who's more interesting than courtney joining us. and we've got a new club, new member of a club as well. >> yes, yeah. and this is one of our favorite clubs to talk about and perhaps this member in particular. apple has joined the club, meaning the stock has hit 537.33. it pud it to 500 billion with a "b." apple topped $400 billion just a little over a month ago. only five other companies have ever hit $500 billion. microsoft, intel, g.e., and exxonmob exxonmobil. if apple were a country, it would have the world's 20th largest economy. this comes amid speculation that apple will unveil a new ipad next wednesday. it's unconfirmed at this point. the companies sent reporters an invitation to an event in san francisco with the mystery line,

quote, we have something you really have to see and touch. so, of course, we're anticipating it's the new ipad 3, but you never know. apple keeps all of these details very close to the vest. i'm really amazed at the influence apple has had. >> you pointed out something. you listed all theover companies that hit the 500 billion cap, none of which are there now. >> no. >> that's the time to sell. >> it could be. i'm not going to be the one to make that call on apple. that's one amazing company. >> all the ores that hit that market cap are no longer that size, right? so -- >> that's very true. i mean -- right. apple right now is worth more than google and microsoft combined. unbelievable. we're certainly going to watch that as it goes forward. the interest there is unbelievable and we'll continue to follow that. but coming up next, we count down to the release of the results of the ecb's second three-year lending operations.

so how long will banks be able to rely on cute cash. not for very long, it seems. >> we should always have in mind that once all this financing conditions and banking market will come back to normal, also our special operations will have no reason to exist.

these are the headlines around the world. another year of ultra cheap three-year loans. >> 15 minutes go before the results come out. expecting a consensus figure of 500 billion euros to be taken up. in the u.s. ben bernanke updates congress on the economy with investors wondering if he'll stick to the fed rates to keep rates low until 2014. economic groulkt slows more than expected to its lowest rate in more than two years. rising inflation, weak european

demand take a toll on december quarter gdp. you're watching "worldwide exchange" with christine tan, ross westgate, and i'm courtney reagan from the u.s. if we were to open right now, the dow jones would be adding about 22 points. the s&p 500, 2.3, and the nasdaq, 3. we made it over the 13,000 mark for the dow, hitting the highest mark since the close of 2008. the s&p up above 2.70. and the nasdaq is now just 29 points away from its december 2000 high. so this stealth rally continues. if futures hold up, we could continue to add to those gains today. we'll have to see what happens. i know we have a lot of news

between now and when the united states market opens, ross. >> of course, it's going to be that long-term refinancing operation of the ecb that's going to dominate over the next hour. so if you're just joining us in in the united states, it's going to set up your trading day for you. ahead of that, we're a little bit higher. xetra dax up, cac 40. sterling is up. we saw uk money rise, the high since october 2009. mortgage approvals also well above forecasts. and this may just add to a feeling here that perhaps we won't get more qe. remember, it was suggested there was room for more. this data may be -- this qe is working and we've got testimony from the barngs in front of the house of parliament in parliament session at the moment. we'll talk about where they see

things going for sterling. in under 15 minutes it's going to release the results of its second term refinance operation. julia is looking at what happened since the first one. julia. >> the anticipation is almost over. what we're expecting from this three-year ltro, the second time that the ecb has lent this three-year money to the market at a cheap rate relatively, 1% u, the funding co. estimates have varied on what we're expecting between 1 trillion and 200. not very different from what we got back on december 21st with that first ltro. it's based on not just the anticipated bank refinancing needs but it switched. the ecb continues to conduct. now, first ltro, as i said, 489 billion euros.

the net liquidity, given the switching i mentioned, 200 billion euros. this time around we're expecting slightly more. also it was mentioned the collateral too. that's been broadened out which should be positive for the takeout today. talking of positives, there's obviously been an undeniable boost to the confidence and the markets in the increase in liquidity. we receive that where spreads that come in dramatically. i'm showing you the stoxx 600 here, 15% rally since the end of december there. the financial sector also up 20%. i've seen nothing in the credit markets. the financials, 100 basis points tighter since back in december. and as you can see, we've also seen spreads tightening in the debt markets. we've seen it in italy and spain dramatically steeping. showing the qe2, only 2%. before i get too cared away the

positives, it's not all been that. now, the ecb deposits at the central bank have increased since the last -- increased dramatically over the last two months with some analysts concerned how much cash is being put to work. the ecb has been quick to point out that not all this money that gets dposed is from the same banks that took ltro. the data tends to support that fact. of that point to mention, too, reputational risks. analysts are angered there. investors whose papers are subordinated to the ecb's claim and we're seeing a north/south divide with some of the nordic banks saying that they won't access this ltro. looking forward, is inflation going to be a problem with all of this liquidity? and just how much of this cash is going to push through into the real economy. we have to wait before we see

that data feeding through. with all that information, ross, it's back to you. >> thanks for that. so that's at least ahead of this number. silvia is outside the ecb where they're conducting the operations. mario draghi says he hopes more of the funds get into the real economy. i wonder if that's a forlorn hope. >> reporter: as we say in germany, hope always dies last. there's hope still. the calculation was that the first ltro was largely to -- basically to cover the funding needs of the banks, capital funding, et cetera. they should suck up that kind of funds for more or less beefing up their own coffers, and the hope is and the calculation of the ecb is that has been more or less achieved because the -- the dysfunctional interbank market seems to be unclogging. it's not quite working smoothly

but there are signing that it's going more smoothly, and the hope is, of course, if the banks, inindeed, take the ecb u on the offer because there's been a lot of stigma if it should forgo this kind of opportunity and stick with the short end of the market, there's a lot of debate, but the ecb hopes enough banks and also enough liquidity-rich banks are going to pick up the funds and passion them on to the economy. that's the calculation. it hasn't worked all that well, one has to say during the development or subprime prices where we had similar developments with ddevelopment s with the dysfunctional economy. they worked themselves into exasperation mode, banging their heads basically against the wall telling them to please give the money to industry.

it didn't work then. maybe it works now. >> don't forget. if you want to know what around ltro is anyway, we do have it on the ecb -- sorry on the cnbc.com website. so what is an ltro anyway? that's there now. >> greg nielsen who is chief investment capitalist. steve, thanks for joining us. we saw yesterday the results of the one and seven-day operations suggesting that the ltro operation today means we get more net new funds than we might have expected. does that necessarily work out like that? >> not necessarily. i think the estimation yesterday is we saw more of the short-term funding being put instead of into further one -week, but one day. from that people have sort of

extrapolated for the maturing three-month and six-month operations that we'll get higher percentages of that. these are maturing from being rolled over again. it's not net new funding for the system. >> is there -- is there, greg, a bad figure here or not? people say there's a big figure, fantastic, banks are getting a lot of money. if there's a low figure, you could take the view fantastic banks don't need the money, they must be in better shape than i thought. >> yeah, interesting. i think the market is probably about right in terms of the number that's going to come out. so between 400 and 500. i think ultimately rather than the size, it's what they're going do with it. there's a lot less marginal impa impact.

you can look at the way it's turned around. i'm not sure there's that much carry available. i don't think they're going to be going into the sovereign bond market as such and they may be using the collateral or this liquidity to say, look, we are more liquid. the net impact is a lot less, irrespective of what the number is. >> i think there's room still to do the carry trade, particularly for spanish and italian banks. in january it looks at what was done but mainly by those two banks buying their own bonds because those are the ones that matter. i reckon the net injection, about 25% of that ended up in the carry trade and mainly through spain and italy, so that suggests that if we get a higher net figure this time, there could be a bit more,

particularly in spain, think, where there's room for finishing off the prefunding of the spanish government debt roll jofr throllover this year. >> we've got to squeeze in a quick break. we're only four midgets away from the results of the operations. we'll be straight back.

exchange." let's take a quick look at where the u.s. markets are expected to oh. the dow jones if we were to open, poised to open by 28 points to the upside. the s&p 500 up 3.5 and the nasdaq up 3.5 as well. we'll see if the stealth rally can continue after hitting big milestones yesterday in the u.s. ross. >> we're waiting for the upside. the european stocks, about the best levels of the day ahead of these results imminent from the ecb. bank stocks today are the best performers which is of note itself. as farr as the bund market is concerned, it's been fairly steady. just want to remind you before the last round of ltro the

spanish yield once about 10%. so we've seen a 200-basis point fall in the fields. euro/dollar pretty steady, 0.01%. the euro/yen on its worst month against the dollar for something like 11 years. it's been a bad month for the yen. christine. >> well, the asian markets rising from the frerk information coming from the ecb. commodities were higher as a result. not to mention stronger than expected industrial output data coming from japan and south korea that helped to instill confidence as well. markets here, let's take a look at the some of the boards. nikkei taking profits ahead of the injection. losing. greater china markets. property call the hang seng higher at 0.5% because of strong lending and shanghai is lower because there was all these

restrictions that people were hoping to ease the property market at shanghai. that was kind of dashed today as shanghai reaffirmed its curbs. south korea getting output data and australia moving higher as well. let's lift the chart. over in india, they saw growth. december quarter growth coming in much slower than expected. slowest pace in more than two years. that's it for me. i'll be back tomorrow with news making headlines in asia. all right. we're now in the area where at any moment we could get the latest figures on how much has been taken up from the ecb in this cheap one-year funding. i'll bring it to you as soon as possible. joining us now stateside, we receive that -- i just talked about that big drop in yields on spanish and italian debt.

i suppose the question is whether you think this next bout of money is going to pressure yields low, whether people think maybe they've hit sort of the value point. >> well, think particularly when you look at the short term euro government yield curves and the type of funding that ecb is generating here and couple that with a capital regulations on euro financial institutions which for the most part treat government debt identically across countries we create a preverse incentive to buy up a lot of three-year term european government debt. as a result it's going to yield the government to yield more short-term debt. so there could be serious problems introduced by the combination of this funding and also capital regulations. >> yeah. i mean how much have we

distorted? if this is going to be the last operation -- you've got this steep italian yield curve, we're still going to face weak growth, a state of austerity in these nations as well, how do we get ourselves out of this? >> well, think there is no easy way for sure, but the fact that this sort of short-term stimulus purchase, these two-, three-year italian/spanish government bonds has created a situation where the ecb may be forced to provide liquidity not just now but for several years to come when the ltro auctions run off. >> are we going to have -- everybody thinks this is the last one. do you think we may come back for more? >> i don't think it's necessarily the last one. i think that the ecb doesn't want to be committed to be seen as a constant provider of liquidity. the key issue is whether we see these low yields translate into a more stable environmental and

into the real economy, and if that doesn't happen or if we see a threat or a destabilization of europe again, then i think the ecb will have to come back to the table again. at the moment, they're seeing the contraction in spreads, funding rates wi below the t ten-year averages. these are encouraging signs. >> you mentioned something there. i myanmar owe drag mario draghi said it would come out with cheaper loans, more loans for the economy, but if they just started is that going to outweigh any amount of cheap funds they get from the ecb? >> i think it is for the moment. we know that the banks -- or at least the whole range of them have got to meet certain capital ratios by june, according to the european banking authority. that's going to be on their minds. the question of making sure they're funded themselves, and

therefore they're going to be looking for low risk assets, so i think we don't see much movement. when we look at the last mo moveme movements, they actually slowed down in the last compared to the previous month. so there's still no sign that this is feeding through to the real economy and i don't think we can expect that for some time ahead. >> to my mind, i don't think there's any doubt that the ecb will have to do more over time. whether it's in the form of an ltro 345 or through s&p at some point later this year. the key issues that are going on as far as europe is concerned is still too much debt, not enough growth, and a manifestation of a balance of statements crisis internally into a sovereign crisis. so you can change the curves, you can provide the leaf through liquidity, but ultimately deleveraging means you're still going to have weak economic growth.

deleveraging is good for bondholders. it's not necessarily good for equity holders and it can be good for sectors as part of deleveraging. so, you know, it means different things for different areas, and actually the diversification and divergence within europe is going to remain very, very big indeed. >> if i'm right, our panel thinks -- they're actually thinking it's going to be replaced some hohow, some way. is that part of us not being able to wean ourselves? >> we look at spain. spain is still financing a primary deficit. until you get some economic growth, you're not going to see a realistic decline in debt burdens. they're going to remain unsustainable. it's going to be the same thing. you don't have the same deficit but a very, very heavy debt

burden, high yields out in the curve as has already been pointed out. it's a good step in the right direction, but it is not the end of the problem. >> we're just looking at, you know, italian and spanish banks, of course, have been the people that have used most of the funds to buy off more of the local debt. we now know the ecb and greece is taking a seniority basis, if i can say it. the risk, of course, is if there was ever going to be any restructuring of fort gaportugad buy more of the debt. does that change the nature of the risk as well? >> a little bit. i think really focus has been for the european institutions purchasing government debt with the ltro process has been on the two nations which the markets still haven't assumed or still don't believe are going to end up in restructuring mode. so obviously it was off the tachblt portuguese debt is not a

realistic one. but at the same time, many of the problems that are facing italy and that are facing spain, they're more tractable. they can be fixed in several years whereas greece's and part gulls we -- portugal's were a little more unique. >> but i thing it shows that portugal is making best it can of trying to meet the targets, and if it does need an extra or bailout plan, it won't be on the basis of a prior sector involvement. i think that's the aim of the euro leaders and all the institutions is to make greece the one off when it comes to restructuring debt. we'll see whether they can achieve that, but that's certainly the aim. i think bond markets for the moment will believe that? >> i think the biggest issue is

portuguese government officials taking a look at what happens to greece in the wake of the restructuring. it's a problem if greece -- >> hang on. we've gottet the 91-day operation result rather than the ltro. let's bring that for you. ecb has lent 6.4 billion in the 91-day operation. does that given you any clues to the three-year operation mark? no. doesn't help us. that's what we've got. so come back to the point he was making. >> the point is, you know, greece is just the beginning of the story. portugal is not a viable investment opportunity. we think they'll certainly have to restructure their debt and as things stand there's a good chance ireland may too. whether it's a psi or isi. the big issue comes to italy and spachb spain. as i said earlier, the key is not about the key to finance government bonds.

it is about creating an environment in which the economy can grow and dealing with the structural problems. >> yeah. i think the main point here is despite the liquidity that's provided, everything is very, very growth sensitive. if you continue to get a squeeze through whether it's through high unemployment rates, negative wage, stronger yield, higher commodities, you know, growth surprises are going to start turning over again in europe. and that has very negative ramifications given that what is going on at the moment is a sort of internalization of the debt exposure. >> but we do have -- we have the number. 529 billion euros in the three-year operation, 529 billion euros is how much we've got. so slightly more than the consensus. but i would say that's pretty much in the consensus. everybody got their numbers right. it's amazing. >> you know, this is an incredibly number to predict

accurately. so many different variables. so really anything between sort of 400 and 600 was going to be in line with market expectations. >> we had 400 to 500. so you could say slightly higher than. let's just show you. euro/dollar is climbing a little bit on the back of that. what do you expect the investment to be after this? >> knee-jerk reaction. but then it will pull back. euro stocks, credits to a degree is about not wanting to be ahead short of this number. >> the dax has lost a little. your reaction? >> i think there eels 'll be a on the equity market. down the road this means that probably there's a lot more net injection available. as most eurozone banks are probably pretty well funded that gives them some spare capacity to move into the bund market. >> 800 bidders.

up sharply from the 523 at the first offer. what do you take away from that number? >> well, i think the stigma here is not using some of this problem. we're kind of coming out of the woodwork after seeing the results of the fimt round. seeing the markets not be scared off by the institutions going for that long-term three-year cash. >> banks are certainly higher. is this an ideal -- euro/dollar is now low to the session. is this an ideal number? it hasn't scared everybody. >> i don't think it's exactly what you'd want to see. to me there were truly two kind of sources of demand for these kind of operations. one, a bank can't borrow any other way. the other is various per

meations of it. if you would see a low number it would be that less numbers are out there. with higher number, there's a little more than you thought. but, you know, as we've already said, carry trades are not in any shape or form going to necessarily filter through to the economy. so it's more carry trade, think. it's a slightly larger carry trade. >> you think, though, we've filled up to capacity with the carry, don't you? >> pretty close. i think there's less around, less availability and capacity for banks to do that. and i thing ultimately that over time we're still going to go back to assessing the sovereign bond market based on liquidity

markets. >> what's your assessment of that? >> let's take a look what kind of the ecb's ultimate goal is in providing karchlt one is to shore up liquidity in the banking system, number two in the sovereign system. however, if they're looking to solve indinss this is not the successful way to go around. the ecb has taken the position that it's really about liquidity. i think in some cases that is accura accurate, particularly with the banking system. but it's not just about the liquidity. we solved tier one of the problem. we still have tier two and three. >> usually when people lending another 100 million, i would

have been able to carry on, but they don't because they know their operation has become insolvent. that's where the situation applies to greece. it has to carry through this psi and the program. and other governments, we know, had problems and that's why they're in intensive care. so the two things duo together. the ecb can't solve all the problems of that just through liquidity facilities and it will come down to the question of growth, fiscal measures by the governments involved, european support and probably at the end if we get it back into the crisis, the ecb will have to take a much more serious measure of backing up the governments in the future. >> you raised a few points. i just want to cap the market reaction. we have spanish bond yields below 0.5%. we saw bank stocks a little bit further. it sort of seems to have been a

reaction here where it was the kind of number we were settling for, you know, put the stops in, and then we sort of -- we've moved back again. >> there are major things going on in the last three to four months as well, which is a massive allocation risk. part of that is clearly what has been going on in europe. but also what's going on in terms of people's growth expectations. they have moved up. not necessarily the periphery, but in the core. so as the market has gotten slightly ahead of it it's definitely technically stretched. it needs to absorb the numbers, consolidate and wait for the economic numbers to come out. >> we've got to move back to the growth numbers. as far as the growth side was concerned, we've got the italians and spanish wants a growth agenda at the summit at the end of this week.

how much political event risk do we have? >> we do have a lot of political event risk. i think one of the important things to be clear about here is that growth is not a policy tool. you know, it's not something you can turn on and off. you know, it's something that comes about. so we have, you know, a combination of very, very difficult period of fiscal austerity to deal with, which is politically very, very tough. you have ongoing addition to the support through that period as the economy begins to recover. and, again, in parts of europe, that's very, very political too. we've got elections in greece, in france, and elsewhere as well. so politics is going to play an increasing part. >> we're going to leave this little part of the discussion.

thanks very much. mark schofield from citigroup. guy, we're going to stick around. we're going to get more value out of you. let's remind you of what's happened. a record take-up of 530 billion euros. lots moving and in the u.s. ben bernanke updates congress on the economy today with investors wondering whether he'll stick to the fed's script to keep interest rates low until 2014. and mitt romney alleviates some concerns about his push for the white house as he takes his home state of michigan. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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if you've just joined us, good morning to you. we've just had the second long-term refinancing operation from the ecb. they've offered three. the amount that's been borrowed from them is 529.5 billion euro. so essentially more banks bidding than last time around. let's see if there's any impact on the futures.

>> very, very wide. we did come in slightly above consensus. not a huge reaction in the u.s. equities market right now. we are higher, but about where we were when we checked in before we got the final number from the ecb. if we were to open, they could open higher by about 29 points adding to the 13,000 number that we finally closed above yesterday. s&p 500 could open by four points or so. the nasdaq edging higher. we'll see if momentum continues. remember, we're still about four hours away. a lot of us here in the u.s. still waking up. >> a lot more bidders just to remind you. 800 bidders. it was 523 the last time around. as far as the european reaction, wi saw it slightly. we put the gains back on. the footsie 100, up. xetra dax up. we slightly went up.

the ftse up 1.7%. what we've seen is really the reaction in the bond market. we have dragged yields lower on government debt. a couple of banks up. those banks with a large pref real debt exposure are benefiting on the back of that as are government. the ten-year spanish bond yield, it was before the announcement. now below 5%. similar with gdps. they were trading above 5.3%. you have to remember before ltro, one, they were trading at 7.3%. we're now down to 5.28. that's where we've seen most of the market reaction.

ten-year yields pretty steady. we just had another solid auction come out. zero dollar trading slightly lower. 1.3434 is where we stand. we're not far away from the highs of 1.3469. just recapping the year. capping off its worst month against the euro. steady as well at 8049. we'll see whether that's put any more risk premium into the market. courtney? >> thanks, ross. fed chairman ben bernanke on capitol hill for day one of his semiannual testimony before congress. he goes before then at 10:30 eastern time. they're looking for any signs that the feds are deviating from the promise to keep historic lows until 2014. he said recently that date isn't

set in stone. investors may look at how high the bar is for the fed loss give another kwouround of quantitati easing. let's go back to guy lebas. in the end is it what we really want? will these monetary policies do what we want them to do? banks still aren't getting mole money that they're getting. isn't that the problem? >> what's the best way to phrase it? it's very fuzzy to connect a billion dollar of bond purchases to the creation of a bond unless it's the job of a bond craeator. so when we look at the core of problems they're trying to fix, they're going about it in a very indirect kind of way. the banks aren't helping. they're taking the dollars they get from the federal resilver

and depositing it back in the feds as a reserve. >> it's sort of like filling up the gas tank that's full. they're getting this money and they're holding onto it. >> that's true. on the other side, what's the down side? is there harm from further fed lending? at least at this juncture, the markets believe there isn't a lot of long-term inflation risk right now. so these accommodative policies are not in that sense too darjs to play with a little bit further. >> very, very good points. good points. well, singapore -- well singapore is playing to a largest gathering of young presidents. the ypo consists of 19,000 ceos

and presidents. brian sullivan is at the event halfway across the world from where we like him to be here in englewood cliffs. >> reporter: they're happy to get me out of the office. he's the owner of facebook, owner of 5% of the company and we had a chance to not only do a fireside chance with him in the ypo meeting but we grabbed him afterward for his first ever tv interview. he's a very shy, very unassuming gierks very quiet, very thoughtful, has never done tv. we pulled him aside, convincehood imto do a little questioning for cnbc and the first thing i asked him is how big does he think facebook can be. here's what he said. >> if you look at the company itself and the space it's the very early beginningsful what facebook has really done today is allows us to have identity on the web.

now there's our pass pord. >> is it going to come from user growth? >> i think both will take plachls think it's going to expand in terms of user growth but one of the things that's fairly unique is we've just touched the surface in terms of what type of graphics and uses that facebook can help with. >> there you have it. a cnbc exclusive from a guy that helped build the company up. he think there's more growth. he's got a number of other investments, jumio, shop savvy app. he's betting big on the consumer. and i've got to reiterate, this is the first television interview that eduardo saverin

has given. he says a lot of growth left for the company. >> that is amazing. great get, brian. i'm really, really impressed. impressed with him. i'm just amazed. i hope we get to hear more of this. i think it's something that markets, investors, retailers or otherwise are going to be interested in his comments. wonderful, wonderful. mitt romney wins in his home state, taking over for rick santorum. romney who was born in michigde won in michigan and also in arizona. it boosts his campaign ahead of super tuesday primaries ahead of ten states. joining us now is christina grier to talk about romney.

are you impressed with what happened? how does it make you feel about romney's prospects going forward as the republican candidate? >> going forward he still has a long road. the way the republicans structured the entire process is super tuesday will not be slam dunk. states like iowa, tennessee, oklahoma, georgia, those aren't necessarily romney territory, so we're going to see beyond super tuesday possibly into april and many think at the convention. >> just because he won in michigan he's still pretty outspoken about the auto bailouts. when it comes down to the vote, it's certainly not a slam dunk either just because he won the primary. >> it's interesting. neither romney or santorum mentioned the auto bailouts last night. >> of course, they didn't. >> even santorum's concession speech was so long and felt a

little bit like a congratulatory speech for himself. you saw how he reframed himself. he mentioned his mother, his wife, and his daughter to clean up some of the gaffes he had in the past and he set the stamg where he was on the offensive talking about barack obama and himself as the conservative candidate that could win in november which is something we had. seen before. >> is there a certain problem with the way the republican primary has been unfolding as they're facing off against obama even before they decide? >> exactly. that's how the republicans structured it. i'm not sure if they're not regretting that decision. you have romney who's ignored his competitors for much of the campaign season thus far and contactually talked about barack obama and now we see santorum doing the same. i think it's really interesting because of the supreme court

case that allows super pac money sort of flooding the system, this is how we see ron paul and newt gingrich and rick santorum still alive where as in previous years they would have been gone a long time ago. >> super pacs make super candidates? >> exactly. any time you give a million dollar each week to see to your candidate stay in, it shows more promise. he's getting a few more million dollar. there are many people invested in keeping this race as ongoing as possible. if it weren't for the supreme court case, we wouldn't see this happening. >> unbelievable. this is very far from over. so thank you from your comments. christina grier, she's a professor here at fordham. the dow manages to close at 13,000. we'll be able to build on that momentum today. we look ahead to try to figure it out. that comes up straight ahead.

and coming up on "squawk box," big guest. be sure to stay tuned for that as well. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

i just want to remind you what happened with the second bout of ecb. the amount taken 529.5 billion. a little more than the consensus figure and more than the 429 which was taken in what's called ltro 1. a lot more smaller banks were able to take part because of the loser collateral rules. there will be hope on the back of that that maybe some more of that money gets into the system.

bbva saying it took a similar amount for the first time. they took a similar amount. ing coming out saying they didn't take any this time around and they didn't take any first time around either. so those individual results we'll focus on. this is what we're pointing out. the real reaction has been the eurozone bank stocks are firmer and bond yields in spain and lit i are lower across the board. we saw a big run-up in certainly the two-year, courtney, ahead of the ltro auction. it's funny how people get a feel for things. >> that's right. the psychology of the markets at work. talking about banks, we're going to move to the u.s. banks here.

goldman sachs have received wells notices from the fcc. may may file civil changes against the banks over their poor disclosure of the risks of sub prime bonds leading up to the financial crisis. jpmorgan is expecting to say it's also received a wells notice. gold marngs wells fargo and jpmorgan, let's see how they're fairing. goldman sachs down by 1.5%. well, a top manager at goldman sachs is reportedly being investigated as part of the government's insider trading probe. "wall street journal" is looking into whether he passed news about tech stocks. henry king is also under investigation. the journal says he worked closely with king.

gupta goes to trial in may on insider trading. there's a forecasted growth of 2.7% down. at 10:00 a.m. the february chicago pmi is out and they'll release the latest fed beige report. richard fisher is in mexico to talk about the economy at 10:25. at 1:00 p.m. philly fed prez charles plosser will be talking. i i want to get your reaction first to what happened with this ecb ltro. $529 billion. what does the u.s. market think about that? how do we react to that? >> we react in a positive way. it's going to be sorted out. how it shifts sentiment is what's important. thing the first round of ltro

was seen as the beginning of this rally that we experienced. it was the catalyst because it took the refinancing concerns of institutions off the table. i think this round may be a little bit more where's my carry trade. if i'm running a bank, i'm trying to find out, okay, i've got 1% money, how do i best utilize that and reflighting some of the losses i've got. i'm not sure that i'm comfortable going to the longer parts of the curve just because of the volatility risk and the pricing of the bond still exists. i mean italy is now with a five-handle but if it goes back to saechb-handle, that wipes out. further there's two other issues

that i see. one, how much gets into the private market just as opposed to just funding the solve evans in a more orderly way. and then lastly, when the stimulus go away, when these synthetic interventions go away, can the markets function normally? i would say that goegs for the u.s. as well. >> it certainly does. switching to u.s. and talking about conneequities, we were ta about it. 29 points away on the nasdaq from the december 2000 high. what happens? are we going to continue to move up or is it time for correction? >> a lot of people have been calling for a correction for a while. and that's been sup portlanded, the call for a corrected from some of the underlying technicals which have been very, very poor participation, a lot of them move averages.

we keep going. a rally into the high than we expect to be toward april. after, that however, we could see a very serious and significant correction that's sustained. >> we're almost done but i wanted to given you the last thought. >> we receive a correlation. even considering all the rally that has occurred so far in 2012, we'll still pretty bullish. when you're talking about a -- >> a quick 20 seconds. we're almost done. >> is that connection going to hold? >> it depends. bonds will follow it. >> that's the question. i'm so sorry. we have to finish. what a program. thank you, everyone, for joining us. thank you on behalf of ross and myself from wherever you are around the world.

good morning. the dow closing at about 13,000 for the first time since the financial crisis. follow the money. european banks borrowing from the ecb today and the second major liquidity. and a big night for mitt romney. the big gop candidate winning key contests in arizona and michigan. it's february 29. enjoy it. it doesn't happen often like once every what, three, five, four. it's the leap year 2012. "squawk box" begins right now.