brought to you live from london, singapore, and around the world, this is "worldwide exchange." welcome to the program. the headlines today from around the globe, greece says it's happy with the rate of response to its bond offer. this as reports athens has secured more than 50% of participation ahead of this evening's deadline. japan's current account swings to a record deficit. the country is relying on pricey crude imports to make up for its nuclear power shortfall. >> all eyes on mario draghi. the ecb president expected to say he's done enough to help

europe's ailing economies after pumping ltro money in a the financial system. and we'll speak to the ceo of standard bank first on cnbc as africa's biggest lender by assets sees four-year profits rise by 23%. that's coming up in 30 minutes. a very good morning. you are watching cnbc's "worldwide exchange" with christine tan. i'm ross westgate. jackie will join us later from the united states. greece has seen a strong take-up of its bond swap offer. according to a greek government official speaking to reuters, the pace has been pretty good and the percentage of bondholders agreeing is what they describe as very high. private bondholders have until 2100 cet tonight to sign up for the debt swap that aims to wipe around 75% of the value of their holdings. reports suggest that so is far half of the country's creditors have agreed to participate.

the government has 75% of bondholders to take part. it will announce the results at 7:00 cet tomorrow morning, that's 6:00 gmt. the commission has urged private bo bondholders warning the alternative would be much worse. olli rehn says it's an init dispensable element to assure the future stability of greece and the euro area as a whole. julian, chief u.s. economist at barclays capital, joins us are for the first hour of the program. there's sort of an expectation in the markets right now, a higher expectation we'll get over sort of the minimum thresholds and then it will be down to whether we sort of are going to have a collective action clause and whether that attracts cbs. how do you think it will play out? >> it doesn't look like a cac will be triggered and that will constitute a credit event, so that will be a whole new territory that we'll be in because to avoid that really you

are talking about more than 90% participation which doesn't seem so is likely. it does seem likely we'll get to the 66% tlsh hold which is really crucial for giving the greek government any opportunity to deploy collective action clauses and, therefore, compel any investors not subscribing into the terms of the arrangement. >> should we fear a trigger or not? it's a question i've spent a long time wondering whether that's a good or a bad thing. >> that's right. well, the c it ds market exists. it's a big market. why not use it actually? if you try to avoid it in some te technical way, that actually could be very damaging for the market and that, in turn, can have other consequences because people will then try to find ways of increasing their insurance throughout the he

mechanism. if that's being determined by the relevant committee, so be it. at least in terms of net exposure, the numbers don't seem to be so high. we'll see some higher growth numbers around there. a lot of people shouldn't hedge really. and what's more i think the markets had ample time really to anticipate and to discount this really. but, i mean, you're right. it is something we haven't had before, a developed market, sovereign cds credit event. so if it were to happen here, we just have is to be careful. it's certainly a reason for markets right now and of course many other factors. >> julian, high, this is christine. if we get a good result today, what's there to tell us there won't be a third bailout for greece? >> i think a third bailout for greece is actually going to have

to be the case really. of course we're only just discuss i discussing here the second bailout but, you know, when you look at those projections that the troika has come up with, it's really on quite optimistic grounds they get to be government debt to gdp ratio declining 120% by the year 2020 and then by the year 2030 stalling to around 100%. but, you know, these were enormous numbers and i know a lot of investors out there wouldn't really want to put their toes back in a market unless that ratio is more than 50% or 60%. so that implies this is going to be a many year process. it's going to take a very long time. much longer, really, than just the second is program is going to be capable for and probably, i think, as well it's likely the public sector is going to have to have write-downs on its debt because the numbers are just so vast and when you consider that we're talking here about a

haircut of 53% applied 0 to the 200 billion euros of debt that is is held by the private sector, despite that, still we're talking about very adverse projections for greek public debt to g dp over the course of the years because of the economic weakness it can still only get the ratio down from last year where it was probably about 170% or close to 170% down to 120% by the year 2020. >> yeah. christine, how has asia performed today? >> well, asian markets, of course, watching what's happening over in greece, optimistic we will get some is support from private equity, private creditors, that's lifting sentiment across the region higher. the shanghai composite is up 1.1%. the hang seng up 1.3%.

overall what we're thtsing is there's a rumor apparently in the market today that the pboc might actually cut its rrr. it's a rumor, by the way, i must stress, that's lifting hashgts in greater china higher because of that. taiwan weighted index is up 1%. the kospi up 0.9%. the bok kept rates unchanged 3.25%. this particular market pushing higher and botch the key 2000 level. risk appetite coming back into this market in a big way. we have data, though, the economy shrank less than expected. data showed a larger than expected deficit. markets largely ignoring the weak data. australian market up 0.7%. in line with increased risk appetite. marginal gains there, 0.3% higher. ross, what does your heat map say? is it following ours? >> it is. mostly green. one hour into trade here in

europe so after three days of losseses with stocks yesterday we continue with a slightly more upward tone today for european stocks. we're down about 1.3% before the play for the ftse 100. today we're up two-thirds. xetra dax up three-quarters. the ftse mib up over half a percent. a solid outperform er in paris n the back of their reports, so the stock is currently up over 9%. as far as bond markets are concerned, there's plenty to focus on. no change really expected. ten-year bund yields, we keep our eye on italy. a key test of the metrics. 4.8%. bank of england not expected to do very much today. more quantitative easing until may. ten-year gilt and treasuries as we look ahead to the employment report currently trading down below 2%. we'll keep our eyes on the

sterling dollar. we had seen the yen weaker after that record current account deficit. dollar yen up to 81.44. the yen weak across the board. euro/dollar still in the range today with 1.3171 handle and brent still above $124 a barrel. nymex is $106.63. of course besides greece we're keeping our eyes, again, on the ecb and its monthly meeting. mario draghi expect ed to downplay any notions of a third bounce of liquidity as well as a signal the current interest rate of 1% is appropriate for now. they may not think so in countries like spain, portugal and italy. the second ltro, of course, all banks take up just under 530 billion yeuros in cheap loans. the result has been, as you might expect, a significant rise in overnight deposits which hit a record $827 billion on monday. still over $800 billion this morning so as yet those funds

aren't being used for anything. meanwhile, the bank's balance sheet at the ecb has ballooned to over 3 trillion euros. silvia is at her post outside ecb headquarters in frankfurt. silvia, that balance sheet is a greater proportion of yeurozone gdp than the balance sheet of either the fed or the japanese central bank. how worried are people like mr. weidman about that? >> reporter: one could say why is the ecb still being criticized for not qe. they've qe'd enough as far as their own style of qe is concerned. and we all know what the position of weidman from the bank but from other brick countries like brazil with all of this mopey in the markets. that's a dangerous game indeed and what weidman has said is we have to be careful. we have to worry about how we get this money out of the market

again. and i don't think he's very alone in that. he's maybe more outspoken. he plays the usual role. but i think the ecb is well aware of that, too. i'm very surprised that the markets are expecting another three-year ltro and another and another. the ecb made it quite clear from the word go, these are the two, three-year ltros you're going to see. that doesn't mean we're going to see another one but not anytime in the near future. and that's what politicians acknowledge, too. the german finance minister only said yesterday at a conference in italy they've bought us time, the ecb has bought us time, now it's time for us to do our job. >> silvia, stay with us. let's bring julian back in. what is the job thousand? you look at m-1 data in the last six months in greece down nearly 13%. 9% portugal, 8% in it lay.

the latest data out of the likes of spain shows there will be contractions, 2.2% in spain. should the ecb be doing more for those countries? >> well, my view all along is they have to cut interest rates so why not cut interest rates at this stage? it might just take a little bit of the pressure off the euro which is still on the overvalued side and really the way out for the peripheral countries is clearly here really by exports. now that's already happening. the export growth has been quite good out of spain and, in fact, out of portugal as well as we've seen some recovery in greece exports here. but you really need, i think, to supercharge the export sectors in southern europe to enable them. the kind of fiscal consolidation you are talking about in these countries is still extreme and intense. for example, in italy 3% gdp

fiscal consolidation is what the government plans just for this year. in spain not exactly clear after friday's announcement what it plans. probably something still of the order of 4% gdp, fiscal c consolidation. these are very, very large numbers. portugal about 5% of gdp. to help the countries get through this when their unemployment rates are surging, they really need, i think, to have a weaker euro. they can cut rates more. as well the ecb has to be ready to react to the program. really it isn't doing -- of course, at the moment, there's still the impact of the ltros really to be fact touring in here. clearly if you look it at the impact of the ltros, spanish banks bought 23 billion euros of debt in december and negating january. now the total financing needs of the spanish software for this year about 90 billion euros. so already just within two

months -- and the italian banks bought over 20 billion euros in january. so this has certainly helped a lot, and i think you need to see interest the ecb perspective what's going to be happening as we go further forward. there probably will be more to come from this. >> silvia? >> reporter: well, julian, can the ecb do something to make sure that some of this money ends up in the so-called real economy? at the moment we clearly have a situation where the banks still sit on the money. either park it as the ecb or themselves but don't get it out into the economy and to some extent don't even get it out to each other that can become a problem with the economy stabilizing and fuel needed for mid-sized companies. >> this is, of course, the key question, silvia. the ecb wants that to happen. it wants had money to go out there and be used by banks to lend to corporations. but let's face it, if the banks are borrowing from the ecb

they're borrowing at a variable interest rate and having to submit collateral from the ecb and there's a significant haircut being applied. so it's not so obvious that banks are going to take that money and then lend it out for five-year loans to the nonfinancial corporate sector. there's a much more important sector here, i think. a lot of the contraction in bank lending is really, i think, still being driven by demand and concern about the economic environment coming from the nonfinancial corporate sector. if you look even at spain now but particularly if you look at the uk and you look at germany, as i'm sure you are aware that there were huge surpluses now developing particularly this the uk, nonfinancial corporate sector. so they have the cash but they're not actually investing it right now because of the uncertain economic outlook. >> you talk about the bank of england. with the ecb, the ecb press conference we'll take and you talk about the bank of england expected to keep rates steady today at half a percent. there will still be questions

about whether it will expand its asset purchase program in may qe, in other words. this week we had extraordinary news that halifax and other mortgage lend eers, as the bankf england extends its qe program, mortgage rates are going up. we have record petrol prices. we still have very high energy prices generally, food prices. the bank is hoping that the pressure will ease on the consumer. it's not going to happen if mortgage rates are going up, variable rates. >> it's a good argument, isn't it, for the bank of england keeping rates low for a very long time. it's been very interesting how so far in the uk though you have international standards at very high levels of household debt. at the same time the npo rates for households have been nonperforming loan rates have been quite low and that's been because, of course, most mortgages are based on short side interest rates and those interest rates are extremely low. so if they do start to rise, the

gearing impact can really be quite significant. so the bank of england has to do all it can to keep interest rates low for a very long period of time. >> that's what banks are saying is since that went, the cost of funding has gone up regardless and why they're putting up mortgage rates. >> well, i mean, suddenly if the process were to continue, the bank might have to start contemplating additional measures, yes. but at the same time a lot will depend on the general financial environment where, of course, generally confidence has been improving. >> julian, stick around. christine, what's coming up? plenty, ross. you and i know coming up next we have shares of deutsche post watching their shares closely. they see sales and operating profit edging up this year. details after the break.

welcome back. well, japan's increasing dependency on crude imports has swung its current account to a record $5.4 billion deficit this january. the world's third largest economy has been relying on overseas energy supplies because of nuclear power shut down following last year's quake and tsunami. japan has revised its fourth

quarter upwards as companies ramp up spending thanks to a reconstruction lead surge in demand. julian, let me get your take on this. what's your outlook on japan? this is coming at a bad time, of course. crude prices are up at a time when the economy is trying to recover. >> well, that's right. i don't think it's all bad news, you though, for japan. if you look at some of the recent survey indications, particularly the ones that the government publishes, it looks like production in japan will be growing around 5.5% not annualized just in the first quarter of this year. so i think what we've seen in japan, of course, was the enormous impact of the earthquake but then there was a secondary hit to the economy that came about from the thai floods which dampened down things in q4 and in q1 quite a strong rebound coming through particularly in the auto sector as production gets back after the thai floods. things are looking more positive on the economic side. indeed, our own economists in

tokyo have just today revised up their forecasts for g itgdp. although, you're right, it was a large deficit we had, remember, this is not an adjusted number. clearly japan is actually getting some growth still coming through on the export side and particularly the industrial sector recovers and this should come through into some stronger consumer sentiment data. >> julian, it's interesting because we have the strong yen still in play. so hopefully that would kind of offset the high energy costs. is that the right thinking here? >> yeah, that's right. although japan is still effectively in a deflationary environment here and there will be a lot of pressure, i think, on the bank of japan to be doing more. i would have thought it could

well be in a position to be intervening further in foreign exchange markets but it doesn't really have a lot of appetite to be doing that right now. overall, i think, as i say, the economy is in a gradual recovery phase here, but suddenly what is going to matter a lot for japan is what happens in china going further forward and there, of course, are more uncertainties around. on balance it looks like there will be a gradual slowdown, a rebalancing of the economy more towards consumption away from investment. that in turn will have implications for which companies are poised to do relatively better as we go forward in the next few years. >> interesting to know. jew julian, thank you. the eads one of the top performers upbeat after strong

demand are for jetliners. the aerodefense giant saw profits up 612 million euros which beat expectations. the firm has tubled its dividend and expects growth in sales and profits this year. up 8.5%. deutsche post sees sales in profits edging up. that as the group saw full-year figures fall short of expectations. patricia has the market reaction in frankfurt. hi, patricia. >> reporter: hi, ross. the market is at the moment focusing on the positive part of the message, i.e., raising dividends above that expectation. the outlook for 2012 was more in line with what the market did look for. so despite the stock rising about 20% over the last three months is still up about 3%, 3.2% round about for the shares. so we have the ceo mr. apple on the show earlier on deutsche post and i asked him about the challenges going forward in 2012. this was his answer.

>> what is important is that we remain focused on helping our customers to improve their supply chain and then we see plenty of opportunities to grow our business. as i said there are no signals of a recession. >> reporter: well, we asked him also about the gdp down grade in terms of the forecast by china. he isn't worried about that whatsoever. so all in all they seem to be very good positioned to struggle with any kind of head winds going toward. the market is convinced about that one. and if you look, also, at what analysts had to say. raising price target to 17 euros a share, keeping a buy rating and also credit suisse of over 15 euros, 65, rate that go as outperform, trading at 1332. so as far as those two broker comments are concerned we still have upside moment for deutsche post. >> all right. thanks for that, patricia.

more to come from frankfurt later. julian, we were going to talk about this later, but brazil cut rates more than most expected, 75 basis points. what does that tell us about the global economy which has weighed on investor fears this week. >> in a way i would view this as a bit of a positive. brazil does have a lot of scope to be lowering rates. they are still very, very high. at the same time i think we need more stimulus in the global economy really as growth transitions. china is going to be slowing down a little bit this year and is rebalancing more to foe can cuss on domestic consumption and that means things like education and health care. so it's going to be harder for some global exporters in that environment, ones producing commodities. demand growth from china is likely to be slowing in this situation. so it's important that other countries where they have room can generate demand and, by the way, germany should be in a position to be cutting taxes.

it should really cut taxes significantly next year to boost consumes. they have to make up for the weakness elsewhere in europe and for somebody like brazil and other countries, they have to be cutting rates. we shouldn't be surprise d to se this. in a way it's a good thing. it reminds us that there is actually more easing out there in the global economy. >> christine? >> more julian later. up next on "worldwide exchange," we it continue to delve into the issues of japan a year after one of the worst nuclear disasters. the country is forced to reconsider its energy policy. a look at what's next for the power sector. plus, a view of what's going on in africa and africa's financial center joined first on cnbc by the ceo of africa's largest bank, jac can ko maree. where will it send me... one call to hoveround and you'll be singing too! pick up the phone and call hoveround, the premier

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this is "worldwide exchange." the headlines from around the globe, greece says it's happy with the rate of response to its bond offer as athens has already secured more than 50% participation ahead of tonight's deadline. japan's current account swings to a record deficit. the country relying on pricey crude imports to make up for its nuclear power shortfall. and all eyes on mario draghi, the ecb president, expected to say he's done enough

to help economies after pumping 1 trillion of ecb money into the system. in the u.s. while investors await word on the greek bond swap, they will focus attention on jobs and the jobless ahead of friday's payroll report. south africa's standard bank, has increased dividend to shareholders by 10%. the group anticipates subdued revenue growth this year. joining us for more is jacko maree, ceo of standard bank, first here on cnbc. jacko, good to see you again. came up 5% last year. credit impairments reduced. how would you describe 2012? >> well, it's been a much better year, but coming off the highs for us of 2008, earnings had been down around 20%. now we've bounced back by 20%.

so in that sense it's been a good year. we were involved in quite extensive retrenchments a year ago so we managed to keep costs flat. so as you said correctly the revenues were only up 5% and it was the cost line that helped us achieve the earnings growth. >> okay. so what about the outlook this year? >> well, i think it still is a relatively subdued outlook but coming from the african continent primarily where our business is located it is nothing like the environment that banks in developed markets are experiencing. so we would see higher single digit revenue growth. so it's still reasonably positive outlook, i would say. having said that, we're going to have to manage our business very tightly to produce another year of respectable profit growth ahead. >> you are in a different market. is there any spillover from what's going on at the moment with eurozone it debt crisis, with eurozone banks going

through deleveraging? everybody is looking at regulations down the road. what impact, if any, is there on your business in africa? >> the impact is indirect not direct because we don't really have exposure to the european economies, although we have operational platforms in london to trade and to distribute risk and so forth. but we don't really have is a banking business there so it's indirect. of course the spillover of regulations -- regulations are being tightened and increased capital requirements and liqu liquidity requirements. that's happening everywhere including here. but, of course, the long-term effect will be as europe being a very significant trading partner of many african countries slows down we will have, you know, a bit of a headwind for a number of the african economies. >> mr. mario, hi, this is christine here in asia. i understand generally as a whole you will focus on organic

growth. under what circumstances would you consider acquisitions and in which markets? >> the standard bank has been fairly inquisitive if you take a ten-year view, we have acquired many banks in different parts of the world from russia to argentina to brazil and so forth. so we are but our view at the moment is that the main focus has got to be on building our platforms whether they are branches, whether they are mobile platforms for our customers and so on. and, of course, we're building a lot of links with china in our share holding relationship there. so acquisitions will not be a prime concern but we obviously look if the right opportunity arises but we have nothing in prospect as we speak. >> what are you doing to get more business from china? >> well, in this regard i think

they have been a fantastic partner. we've been working together now on this since early 2008. so we've had a good few years and icb has been referring a lot of businesses as their customers move to africa, embark on major infrastructure, mining, oil/gas projects and so on. so that is something we're doing, we're obviously building systems to link our banks to icbc so that customs in china can get a view of their operations or their operations banking business on the african continent. so that's happening naturally. of course we have to build up our own particular sets of skills which we are quite good at already in mining and infrastructure and oil and gas and the like. >> jackie, you mentioned one area i have a personal interest in, mobile banking.

we know how important the mobile system is. are we going to see here a big development of mobile money? mobile money payments, banking system? is this the country who will develop more than elsewhere? >> it's been very interesting actually because if you look at kenya, an example i think is quite well known, there was, you know, relatively deficient infrastructure and the mobile phone company stepped into the space. so that is dependent on local laws and regulations. nevertheless, we've seen all significant after rican countri that is a big surge in mobile banking of some shape or form. often it is merely to be able to move money seamlessly rather than to open an account on the phone but they depend on the different laws. i think because south africa has

an infrastructure deficit it has been a godsend. >> jacko, good to talk to you. jacko maree, the ceo at standard bank. we have a few things coming out on the wire that's worth recapping. italian government will review its special powers in state companies that protect strategic national interests. it's on the debt as well. the italian banks boosted loans by 1.6% year on year in january. deposits down 0.8%. we're going to be looking first whether ltro, are as julian was talking about, unlike most of it, we'll be looking at stats like that. also worth pointing out, we'll talk about the crimp on consumers in europe or brent has hit a new record high in euro terms and in sterling as well. so i'm afraid that pressure will continue on the consumers this europe. christine? >> well, here in asia markets are moving higher.

invest issors are betting that greece will get the support from private creditors so that is increasing risk appetite across the region. we have some bargain hunting going on. the shanghai composite up 1.1%. hang seng up 1.3%. also a rumor, i stress a rumor, in the market the pboc was going to do something to cut its rrr. that seems to be rumor, and that pushed equities in greater china markets higher. taiwan-weighted index is up 1.1%. supplies are getting a lift because of the launch of the ipad. kospi over in south korea, the bok kept rates on 3.25%. financials moved higher. this market ending botch the key 2000 level as you can see. the nikkei 225 a strong finish there. 2%. the topix is up. we had some data coming out today, gdp data showed less of a contraction than expected while trading showed japan larger than

expected deficit. that kind of was ignored in the markets today. this particular market moving higher as a result. ending a three-day losing streak. financials and real estate were pushed higher. the financial market up. we had energy stocks moving higher and new zealand 50 up 0.3%. so overall a pretty good session. ross? we had a session high here in europe, an hour and a half into the trading session. advancers outpaced decliners now by more than 9 to 1. after snapping a three-day losing streak yesterday trying to build on the gains now for european indices, the ftse 100 down on the year before the start of play today. now we're up 1.75. the ftse mib up 1% as well. just remind you eads pretty solid forecasts in profit numbers. the stock up nearly 9% in paris. as far as the bond markets are concerned, we've seen btps continuing to fall this morning. 4.74%. the spread over bunds for the

first time since september. te ten-year gilt just nudging up a little bit. ten-year treasury yields below 2% and bund yields nudged up but are still low 1.8%. euro/dollar slightly stronger on the session now. 1.32 is the marker. 1.3214. yen has been sold off because of that record current account deficit. euro/nen 107.66. sterling slightly higher as we wait for the npc. we're not due any statement today so we'll have to wait two weeks for the minutes to be released. sterling/dollar 1.5820. brent, as i've just said, record highs in both sterling and euro terms and it's back over $125. christine? ross, well, the bank of korea, the bok, held interest rates steady for a ninth consecutive month. it's not a surprise. in fact, many economists are

betting the central bank will stand pat for some time to come. to tell us more, rhie-young lim. >> reporter: the general consensus is the interest rate will hold at 3.25% for the rest of the year because there are so many contradictory factors at pl play. we see signs of imrochlt of later inflation easing this year, staying within the bok's target range at 3% for both january and february trade has swung back into the black and industrial activity posted a surprise jump last month. we expect lower growth in the second quarter and oil is going to be tricky to deal with. gasoline prices have shot to record highs keeping up some intlagsary pressure but energy costs could be a drag on the economy. raising costs for exporters. so, again, as a tug of war between inflation is likely to see the central bank play it safe for the rest of the year.

back to you, christine. >> rhie, thank you very much for that. rhie-young lim live from south korea. banks have hit the policy pause button. they are worried about the impact of a strong local currency while bank indonesia has flagged anxieties. shares gained more than 1% today possibly react iing to a market rumor that the pboc is mulling another bank reserve cut of 50 basis points. but not everyone was buying in on that rue are more. to tell us more, tracey chang has been making calls. i talked to various traders but most of them didn't expect anything material to actually come out. this market chatter, anything in china's banking system actually has liquidity after the last can cut we had which was last february. right thousand if you look at the benchmark seven-day in shanghai, a key gauge of interbank liquidity, it has

dipped to just below 3% to a ten-month low. most analysts i spoke to thinks beijing wants to save the cut as a weapon when liquidity tightens due to a slowdown in maturing pboc bills and repos later in the year. one said exports come in february worse than expected. there could be a rate cut. but today the central bank actually dropped the fixing of the renminbi to a four day low at 0.4%, its lowest since august of 2010. they say it could be a sign that beijing is acting on its promise to widen the u.s.'s trading range during the national people's congress but so far no one really thinks the central bank has any plans to let the u.n. depreciate any further this year. back to you, christine. >> interesting. tracey, thank you very much for that. tracey chang. well, switching gears, talking about japan now, the economy is shrinking, initially reported for the october to december period, pushed by stronger than expected capital investments. to tell us more, yukako ono.

>> reporter: the contraction was 0.7% annualized, a big improvement from the 2.3% estimate we got last month. capital spending was revised upward to 4.8% from the previous quarter, far above the initial gain of 1.9%. this was largely backed by investments to restore kuwait hit production plants and analysts expect reconstruction efforts to propel gdp back to growth in the january/march period. as you mentioned january posted a record current account deficit in january, the first deficit in three years. amounting to some $5.41 billion. the debt crisis and strong yen, a change in chinese new year date had an impact as well. imports, on the other hand, surge surged due to fuel short amgs stemming from the nuclear power plant shutdowns and that's all for the nikkei business report. christine, back to you. >> thank you very much for that. well, one year after its

nuclear disaster, only two of japan's 54 nuclear reactors are on line. this report on how japan is rethinking its energy policy. >> reporter: two islands have been in a face-off for 30 years. the controversy, the electric power's planned nuclear reactors facing the island whose residents worry their sees and livelihoods will be destroyed. the island's counselor and most vocal opponent says the disaster if you cfukushima has confirmed worst fears. here in the bay there have been violent clashes in the past between protesters and the power company trying to build a nuclear reactor. but since march of 2011 construction has stopped and no one knows when things will restart. the uncertainty is stirring anxiety where they agreed to host the plant in 1982.

>> translator: a town like ours that has no source of revenue, nuclear related funding is extremely attractive and important. >> reporter: museums, schools, and spas were built with the 4.5 billion yen in subsidies received so far. every reactor that begins construction brings an 8.6 billion yen more. some academics say such a notion is outdated especially since a new tariff law will make the power sector buy electricity from a wider range of renewable sources from april. >> contrary to arguments that, you know, japan is being who will load out by the inability to restart the reactors, actually you see a massive inflow of new innovative actors in this political economy which, you know, if one believes that

we're in the middle of an energy industrial revolution is a good sign. >> reporter: renewables generate just 1% of japan's electricity but analysts say investment opportunities abound. they dominate 25% of the global market for geo thermals and sanyo is leading. >> growth in the economy, which see jobs created. you would see the yen weaken and the whole export industry in japan really come alive again. >> reporter: a year after the fukushima accident, two of the last 54 nuclear reactors and operation are scheduled to shut down for maintenance by may. it's been a long march for the elderly women. after more than 1,100 of these protests, japan may be nuclear free if only for a few weeks.

well, quoting the japan trade minister, says the government will make the first call when it comes to restarting the country's nuclear reactors before consulting local authorities. the report helps shed some light on the still ambiguous task of restarting the offline plant. ross? it's worth pointing out we have markets hitting session highs of brent over 125. gold back over $1,700 a barrel. i don't know what you think of gold. we're in a stage where people are wondering whether price rises are as much a result of liquidity as about whether earnings will be stronger this year or growth will hold up to forecasts. >> yeah, i mean, for me the world is very indebted, right, and i think that is going to mean ultimately policymakers and interest rates will stay low and they'll tolerate inflation because inflation will tend to,

of course, weaken the debt problem that you have out there. and i think the gold crisis is going to, on balance, tend to reflect that over the next few years. of course in the short time as well we have all the political pressures which suddenly could push up the oil price further from here. i do think you know that inflation is a little bit underappreciated now in europe. i think if you look at the consensus forecast for eurozone inflation for this year it's 1.92%. our forecast is 2.4%. we think the ecb today will be raising its inflation forecast to around 2.3, 2.4. some of those inflation concerns are still going to be apparent as people factor in the impact of the higher oil curve as we go further forward. and -- >> are those inflationary forces deflationary, if you know what i mean? >> yeah, of course that's the way the fed tends to look at things, and you're right. it is going to eat into household real incomes. the only good news you've got

here is that other commodity prices are not so strong right now. it is very much, i think, phone cussed in the oil market and that's a positive. at least food price inflation hasn't been rising to the same degree. so when you do the calculations, it looks like your consumption -- >> higher oil prices are going to feed through, just the cost of making the food processing i would imagine. we'll see. take a pause. still to come on the program, just over 1,000 of them and together they're worth $4.6 trillion. say hello to the world's billionaires. we'll take a look at the latest forbes rich list. wñwñwñwñwñwñwñwñwñososososvycyíy

welcome back. let's get final thoughts from our guest, julian callow, give us your further thoughts on what to invest. give us some general market sentiment. >> well, my take would be that actually we are getting some better signs out of the u.s. economy here and that's quite interesting because for a long time i think people have been concerned about the u.s. they tended to be quite pessimistic. you look at the results of yesterday's adp survey.

you look at what's going on in the jobless claims data. you look at the business confidence meetings that we had out on monday. things are starting to look more promising and in a way it seems to me the u.s. economy is re-establishing the usual lead relationship that it's had. we've been dealing many years with the u.s. has been very weak and you've had the strength coming through in the asian economies. at the same time i think china is slowing down here. we have to be careful about how much it slows down. it at the moment our forecast would still be for china to grow around 8% this year. it will be actually quite comfortable. but you have this rebalancing process going on and europe, meanwhile, i'm afraid to say, but the aggregate -- >> we talk about the u.s. bernanke has gone about this fiscal cliff at the end of next year, are tax cuts, spending cuts coming in and the medicare taxes kick in as well. that's a big shock. how do they navigate that?

>> it depends whether some of these things will be extended or not, potentially could amount to around 1% of gdp through fiscal consolidation for next year. the u.s. hasn't really had to confront that. there's a misscal consolidation that went on last year. i think the u.s. economy can weather that provided the unemployment rate keeps trending lower here. but if you look at a chart of u.s. unemployment and you look at how it's come down, okay, it's very, very high admittedly. more rapidly, in fact, than the previous two cycles. anytime i think that will be helping to support consumer spending power. >> julian, good to have you today. julian callow of barclays capital. it's time for jackie to arrive for the next hour of the program. good morning, jackie. what's coming up? is good morning, guys. great to see you, too. well, it seems there's no stopping carlos slim when it comes to wealth, topped the forbes rich list for the third year in a row with an estimated

fortune of $69 billion. bill dwats came to a close second $61. the oracle of omaha, warren buffett had to settle for third place with $44 billion. meantime the annual compilation now in its 25th year saw 117 people drop off the list including harry potter author j.k. rowling. sarah blakely was named the youngest self-made woman with a net worth of $1 billion from her business of making slimming undergarments. >> i wish i had come up with that product. i mean, it was logical, right? women need that. even men. right, ross? >> i think it's brilliant. people aren't going to admit they're wearing spanx but we know that they are clearly. >> do you think mr. slim needs to wear spanx? >> he may -- he may use the

spanx and, christine, as you said, men are wearing them, too. we all could suck it in a bit. >> one way of saying it. >> not you, ross. not you, ross. you're perfect just the way you are. >> thank you. >> all right. and it's all eyes on apple after their latest launch. they claim no other tablets compare but can they convince consumers? that's the big question we'll discuss next. 

good morning and welcome to the show. the head lines from around the globe this morning -- greece says it's happy with the rate of response to its bond offer as reports suggest athens has secured 58% participation ahead of the deadline this evening. and in the united states while investors await word on greek bond swaps, they're going to focus attention on jobs and the jobless ahead of friday's nonforeign payroll report. and all eyes on mario draghi. the ecb president expected to say he has done enough to help

europe's ailing economies after pumping more than $1 trillion euro of ltro money into the financial system. good morning. you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm jacko. great too much you with us this morning. let's start off by checking on u.s. features and see how the markets are poised to open. it does look like global sentiment is spilling over into the futures here if the markets were to open now the dow would be higher. the nasdaq higher and the s&p 500 up by about ten points. "the wall street journal" article, of course, we may see more qe3, upbeat sentiment surrounding greece. some positive economic data out. those adp numbers were quite strong. so some positive sentiment as we head into the nonforeign payroll.

we should put up the bourses right now. if i put up the heat map you would see we're heavily weighted to australian stocks and session is highs. there's chat on twitter rumors were going up. this is where we stand on the market. well over 1% gains across the board. greece is talking about a strong take up of its bond offer. the latest is athens has seen 58% of bondholders agreed to participate in the debt swap. the deadline is 9:00 cet, that's 8:00 gmt. as i say the chatter, the online ch chatter in twitter is that it's much higher and getting over 70%. we are joined on the phone from athe athens. we'll see if you've heard thinking like that. jules? >> reporter: obviously just that one sort on twitter at the moment that is saying up to 17%. in terms of what we already know will we see that 120 billion

euros worth of bondholders saying they will participate voluntarily. within that 80 billion euros from the imf, the private bondholders. also 10 billion to 15 billion euros from greek banks. estimates are they hold around a fifth of the total debt. the question here very important this is arguably where athens can expert pressure to boost that involvement. in terms of potential holdouts for what could possibly derail the deal right now, a number of us are concerned about whether the hedge funds will decide to be voluntary and they may hold up to 25% of the debt but analysts expect them to not be concerned they will rally at this stage. they won't sign up but i need to put that in context. overall the majority here have said that they will participate. the key point here, though, is there's no indication of actually who holds either greek law bond and who holds

international law bonds and the tax we are potentially seeing invoked over the next couple of days is only applied to the greek law bonds. we are talking about 86% of the total debt in question. but overall it looks like at the moment the estimates are going to fall into participation rate of between 75% and 90% and that supports what local media are report i reporting here, too. within that range, in conjunction to voting on the cac or collective action clause on 0 the greek law bond. so that's only going to take us to a participation rate of around 86%, and if that will be enforced, if two-thirds that vote say yes to implementation and, again, that's just on the greek law bond. so if you compare that we're talk i talking about right now be it 58% or the 70% being tweeted about, it does look like the psi

deal will be done and that's what traders tell me is boosting the markets here. that is the expectation now. i want to briefly mention this gray area below 75% and whether at that point the psi will still go through or whether they'll look to do the cac or take a vote on the collective action clause. analysts point out to me there are plenty of waivers within the offered documentation that allow the greeks to adjust that minimum participation requirement so overall back to the confidence that we do get this psi deal done over the next 24 hours. ross, back to you. >> julie, thanks for that. the likelihoods are where they could ask if they want for the collective action clause to be implemented. if that happens you can be sure there will be some who will ask the question whether that constitutes a default in terms of activating credit default swap. so what happens? petition for another ruling through isda. they would then have a vote.

that goes in three different ways. if 80% say yes, we actually have had a credit default, there would be a possible bond auction payout. if 80% of that committee says no, then there is no cds payout. what happens if we don't get 80% either way? well, then we go to a three-member panel review who will then take that decision. so it's not that clear. but we are expecting, as we say, the betting man, the markets are assuming that there will be a collective action clause potentially. we'll have is enough votes to get that. if that happens, what are they going to say? still some unknowns about this, jackie. >> absolutely and the markets will be watching closely. to discuss it more as our guest host for the hour lance roberts, the ceo and chief economist at street talk advisers and silvia wadhwa joining us from frank further as well. lance, when we talk about greece, obviously we saw a major sell-off in terms of the markets

on tuesday. we saw a little bit of a rebound yesterday with some positive sentiment coming back in looking like the greek deal is going to be done. >> right. >> what are the markets going to be looking for today? obviously that 75% to 90% number is really going to be key. >> it really is. and we're looking at the whole structure here, we're not solving any long-term issues with greece. even if this goes through, you're talking about reducing the debt to gdp and the problem with that is that as we go through these austerity measures and refinancing issues here, you are going to be impacting our economy even more, slowing it down, which means the debt to gdp ratio expands. while this is a short-term hurdle, it doesn't solve the long-term issues with greece. >> what the markets want to see is not a messy default. >> well, that's right. again, the other issue that comes out of this with the cds, the collateral default swaps is if they do this, if this event does pass, and you don't trigger

cds, now all of a sudden you've got an issue with the credibility in the market who is going to buy insurance against future bonds and the issues there with that. there's a lot of things that come past this and this is one of the hurdles of the market to look at what's coming down the road. we're not solving any of the long-term problems. >> you bring up an excellent point there because when it comes to europe we have looked at these hurdles down the road and it seems like we're just trying to get through each one. i want to bring silvia in from frankfurt as well. obviously an expert on this issue. silvia, what are you expecting to see today and do you agree with lance this is just one more hurdle until we get to the next one? >> reporter: yes, and this is probably the best we can hope for. we've seen this in the two years where we practice this had crisis, if that's the right word. we're limping from summit to summit. band-aid to band-aid. one part slews to the next part solution. politicians haven't got an easy job and neither do central

bankers because they have to try to synchronize market time with political time. what we need now is a political process that has been kicked into motion, fiscal compact, et cetera. restructuring processes in terms of the macro economy. greece is a country that has to re-invent itself essentially with all its institutions with its tax collection that's nonexistent, with things like public deed offices that don't exist, with the whole structural setup with the prif vatization inefficient nationalized industries. so it's almost like germany after unification where you have a whole country that has to tray and re-invent itself. these things don't happen fast. and on the other hand you have markets kind of pulling up the reins saying this doesn't work, that doesn't work. we want something now. we want more security. we can't lend to each other. we're going to limp from hurdle to hurdle and if we're lucky we clear hurdle after hurdle. sometimes i think we're going to knock one down and then we have

to start all over again. the markets have to live with that. the big question is how much we can actually move forward. there are many who said we have seen the peak of the crisis and now we're dealing with a solution more than with the problem. let's be optimistic about it. maybe they're right. >> silvia, at the same time we have more comments from your finance minister of germany, germany's finance minister -- we lost silvia so i won't ask that question. lance, what i was going to say was wolfgang schaeuble came out again and said i've been having a discussion with mr. venizelos. you shouldn't have joined and it would be better if you left and he's out there openly saying i'm happy with these discussions and this is what i'm telling the greek finance minister. it's kind of an interesting dynamic really and i wonder how many investors think he might be

right. >> well, i think there's a very interesting point to that because, again, you have a country here, at this point one of the things that really would be in greece's best benefit is to actually extract itself from the euro so they can go back and print its own currency and start to print its way out of its debt problem. as i was saying a second is ago, just because they get this one debt deal done it doesn't solve their long -term ramifications f a very high debt to gdp ratio. they've got to start working a way to set up their position so they can start printing their way out of their problem. they can't do that as long as they're hooked up to the euro and eventually now you talk about ireland and portugal, italy and spain that are part of this, they're all in a situation of trying to cover the same hurdles and the impact to germany and france and the other countries is that potentially it drags them down as well. take a look at some of germany's recent economic numbers. it's starting to impact their economy. >> excellent point. thank you so much for that.

lance will stay with us and given us more of his insight on the program. and still to come on the program as the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq snap a three-day losing streak, the appetite for risk appears to be driving markets again but should investors stick to safer bets? choose control. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

welcome back. it's time for your global

markets report. let's start here in the united states and take a look at f futures and see how we're shaping up on wall street. it looks like the positive momentum is trickling in in the united states. if the markets were to open now the dow would be higher by over 100 points. the nasdaq by 19 and the s&p 500 over -- up by over 11 points. and this after a strong day for the markets yesterday. we saw 78-point gain on the dow. the nasdaq and s&p 500 up as well. s are, we saw a turnaround, we saw financials, consumer discreti discretionaries doing well and the laggards yesterday. >> we snapped three days of losses. we're building on those now, over two hours into the trading session. up about a percent. xetra dax up. the ftse mib up over 1%. standout stock today eads the

maker of airbus planes. solid forecasts as well. we've seen b it tps fall in yield. the spretd between btps and bunds, the first time that has happened since the beginning of september last year. gilt just nudging up. no change expected. christine will fill us in on japan. they have less nuclear power and have been having to import a lot of fuel. keep your eyes on brent.

trading above $125 and nymex up to $107. we'll keep our eyes on that. christine has the details out of china. markets ended higher on thursday. risk appetite picking up investors betting that a psi deal with greece will get done and that is lifting sentiment across the region. let's start in the shanghai market up 1.1%. we had some bargain hunting going on in this particular market, energy stocks moving higher. i stress rumor that the pboc was going to embark on a rrr hike, cut, rather, for banks. that seems to be the sentiment driving these higher. it's just a rumor the taiwan weighted index is up. we had supplies moving higher. why? we had the launch of the ipad so supplies are higher.

it tech supplies are higher on that news. the kospi is up. bok as expected kept rates on hold at 3.25% so this political market pushing higher 0.9 above the key 2000 level. the topix is up. s ross was mentions this. wider that expected because they're having to import more crude to make up for nuclear energy shortfall. elsewhere the provision of gdp showing the economy shrank less that be expected. so mixed on the economic front but this market moving higher as a result. the market up 6.7%. the industrial plays moving higher. 0.3%. so overall a pretty nice session for a thursday. that's it for me. i'll be back tomorrow with news moving markets here in asia.

thanks for that, christine. bmw talking about record profit margins. how do they compare against the competition? patricia has the breakdown in frankfurt. >> reporter: competition not only the opposition, ross. that's for sure. well, they surpassed their own targets 11.8%. their own was 10%. npw has room to grow. but one thing for sure 2011 was record breaking as were the digits for february itself and the forecast looks very positive. they think the record can be broken in 2012. that's above expectations looking at a dividend of about 223. the yield is going up to 30.7%.

in terms of the numbers they gave us today it's a mixed picture. good numbers on the revenue side. 6 68.8 billion euros is above expectations. pretax profits and net profits a little bit under expectations. the stock right as the numbers hit the wires went down about a couple of euros. this stock is up about 32% over the last six months. >> yeah, interesting whether they stop officials. official government cars, right, and they're talking about making sure they can't buy foreign-owned cars specifically -- >> not domestic. >> 6 million is a big one, isn't it? we'll iron that out carefully. thanks, patricia. jackie?

facebook is -- up next it's bigger, faster, stronger. consumers everywhere are probably falling over themselves to get the new ipad. of course i'm going to try to get my hands on one. is it a game changer or a pansy upgrade and what market is apple really aiming for? we'll put the new ipad under the lights after the break.

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welcome back. apple has lifted the curtain on the new ipad. it's going to hit stores on march 16th. but you can preorder it now. reports are saying that apple's website was jammed yesterday. the new ipad has a higher resolution screen and faster process issor. it's going to run on the faster 4g wireless network for the first time. the price for the version will stay the same as the oldest models, $499. apple is also cutting the price of the ipad 2 by $100. joining us now to talk more about apple and the new ipad is a tech expert and co-founder and coo of dynalink communications. we got some of the specs there. we know what we're going to get on the new ipad. who is apple really targeting? is it the average user? i have mine all the time with me, or is it the corporate user? >> you are going to have the regular personal consumer user

but the big game changer is the business user. you are going to see small businesses order this product in droves so they can go out now with this new product with the high resolution, the 4g, the huge game changer, and do presentations with all the apps so the whole upside here is the business community. and that's going to change the game for apple that they don't have now. they really have more of the consumer user. >> and that's a good point. people are saying, look, if i just bought the ipad2 am i going to spend the money for new it technology but corporate users might be there and they have a lot of money to spend. i was talking to someone else who said to me, are we going to look at the new ipad and see it cannibalize the pc market? ever since i got mine, i don't use my pc anymore. >> it's going to hurt the pc market. the pc hashgt -- not the apple pc market. let me explain. it was 20 to 1 on the pc to the tablet. then it changed the last year 6 to 1 on the pc to the tablet.

many analysts are saying in 2017 you're going to see more tablets than pcs which is incredible. apple has everything because even if you look at the mac book air, a good share of that business. but it's going to hurt the pc business. you see dell trying to get into a tablet to get into the microsoft 8 platform but apple does it better than anybody else and there's a reason they weren't at the show in las vegas. every channel you looked at had everything about apple. have we ever seen a product like that that it's on every single station transcending everybody. the ultimate. >> ross? >> the stats in the last quarter, apple 15.4 million ipads. packard 15.1. so they're outselling them. i would use it more if i could print off it. i'm a bit -- i have to get a special printer connection and buy an apple printer, you know what i mean?

if they made it easier for me to connect to a printer, i probably would throw away the pc completely. >> well, i think you're giving them ideas with something new to come out with, ross. they continue to innovate. it's going to be huge. it's going to be huge. the pc market will continue to go down because of this. >> let's also talk about apple's stock. now we've seen this traditionally in the past before a new product launch. the stock didn't do much yesterday, closed at 69. there was pin action off apple. >> when they have a good announcement, we see some profit taking, even when they had the great earnings, went down a little bit and then we saw it went up. when the earnings came out it was at $424. took a little pop back down. now it's up to $530. i said about six weeks ago it would be $550 one-year target stock.

i think it will go back up. $700 is not far off. >> those numbers are staggering. >> you have the upside with the business side. you have the international side now. especially with china just launched. >> the world is their oyster. >> the world is their oyster, yes. >> we'll have to leave it there. >> thank you for having me. >> larry fishelson coo of dynalink communications. coming up on the show investors have visions of qe-3 dancing in their heads after a "wall street journal" reports the door may still be open to more fed easing despite what ben bernanke did or didn't say last week. we'll discuss those prospects and get more market insight up next.

if you're just joining us, a very good morning. greece says it's happy with the rate of response for its bond offers. reports athens already secured 58% participation ahead of tonight's deadline. in the united states while investors await word on the greek bond swap they're also going to focus their attention on jobs and the jobless ahead of friday's payroll report. >> the ecb president is expected to say he's done enough to help

the economies after pumping ltro money into the system. good morning and welcome back. nice to have you here on "worldwide exchange." it's 5:32 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. let's take a look at futures and see how that's shaping up for trade. it does look like the positive sentiment is spilling here in the united states. if the markets were to open now the dow future -- the dow would be up by 100 points. the nasdaq higher by 19.4 and the s&p 500 higher by 11. the consumer discretionary stocks outperforming in terms of the laggards. it was utilities and consumer staples, some of those defensive names that were lagging yesterday. the markets are not far off the high today. snapped three days of losses yesterday. and so we're up about a percent and more of the ftse 100 is,

cac, xetra dax up a third. ftse mib up a percent. what we've done is priced out any fears of an uncontrolled default in greece and now most participants are betting on if greece wants to it can enforce a collective action clause on greek debt which is about 10% outstanding. european bond yields. that means there is a risk on appetite to put it like that. and so spreads have come in between ten-year btps, 300 basis points for the first time since september. what is now noticeable is that italian yields are below those of spain, jackie, spanish spreads have widened. italian spreads have narrowed against bunds. so we'll keep our eyes on that. absolutely. meantime, the markets perked up yesterday partly on a "wall street journal" report suggesting that the door may be open for more fed easing.

"the journal" says if the economy flags, the fed could buy more bonds to boost growth and could borrow back the money it used to buy those securities for a short period of time at low rates. joining us now to talk more about that is the president and ceo of the rdm financial group and still with us, of course, is our guest host, lance roberts, ceo and chief economist at street talk advisers. let me start with you, ron, when we talk about the potential for more qe on the table. you know, we were all focused on bernanke, what he did, what he didn't say. we had fisher coming out and saying it probably wasn't likely. now it seems like it's back on the table. >> it's a little scary because he wouldn't need to talk about that if he didn't think things were weak looking down the road. my sense is he made it pretty clear that he didn't want to see tax increases. so i think since it looks like there may be income tax increases he's worried about the effects of that and is trying to keep the economy going. i'm not sure that more debt is the way you keep it going. >> now we were discuss iing thi

during the break and you had a great analogy you have to share with the viewers. >> basically when we look at this last week, no bernanke, no qe, markets start to really struggle. yesterday a hint in "the wall street journal" and automatically the markets are rallying. over the last three years since 2009 the markets have learned they're almost like a drug addict at this point to where, you know, i need another fix and they're looking for that liqu liquidity push because they know the fed injects qe, goes directly into the financial markets. >> ron, let's bring it back to you and talk about the markets. we saw a steep drop. on tuesday we saw a bump back yesterday ahead of the greek deal potentially that we're expecting to get today. what do you expect to see for the stock market as we move forward short term? >> short term we're pretty bullish. we think the whole world is starting to work. last year was somewhat of an anomaly. the best performer, emerging markets was the worst performer. everything is flipped now. small to mid caps are catching up. that's the way it should be.

for the most part we want to be diversified in all of the areas. china is slowing down to only 7.5%. there's lots of great investment opportunities in the u.s. and in china and overseas to take advantage of 7.5% growth. i think everything will be okay for a while. europe is really the issue. i mean, if europe doesn't handle their unemployment, their debt, their experts i've heard on your show say we're immune to that. i find that hard to believe. so it's really all eyes on europe, i think. >> good point. ross? i just want to ask you whether the historical relationship between equities and bonds in the last six months is completely broken down. we've had very strong equity markets and bond yields flat the or going down. is that sustainable? either of you. >> ultimately long term if you look at the historical spread between bond yields and stocks,

we're at one of the widest dispersions between the two on record. those generally will come back togeth together. which either means that stocks continue to rally. we see a recovery in the economy, things look better and interest rates start to rise or the opposite happens. >> and, ron, your take on it? >> i have to tell you, it's hard to believe that interest rates will stay down here. we think treasuries are a bubble. we think maybe not in the next six months to a year but soon people are going to take it pretty hard in treasuries. everything else, if the economies don't pick up eventually people are not going to want to buy this debt in a bad economy. they will demand higher interest rates. i don't think the fed's policies are going to be as important as the market sentiment. we'll see higher rates, i think. >> absolutely. we'll have to leave it there. you'll both stay with us, get more insight later on in the show. still to come, brazil cuts its benchmark rates by 75 basis points amid signs the economy is starting to slow. is this just the beginning of a rate cutting signal? details on that after the break. carfirmation.

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mario draghi is expected to downplay any notions of a third liqu liquidity operation as well as signal that the current interest rate of 1% is appropriate for now in today's press meeting after the latest ecb rate decision. that ltro saw banks ticking up

just under 530 billion euros in cheap loans. a significant rise in ecb overnight deposits. they had a record 827 billion on monday. still over 800 billion today. at the same time the balance sheet of the ecb is now over 3 tr trillion euros which when you compare it with both the fed and the bank of japan in terms of gdp is a greater balance sheet. silvia is in her regular post outside the ecb headquarters for our monthly meeting, when they're in frankfurt, of course. silvia, is that billion sheet there stoking up even more of the internal divisions on the ecb particularly between the bankers and the rest? >> reporter: well, i think the concern has been there all along. the concern is i think not only with the german faction, as it

were, they are fully aware of the dangers of this. now the ecb, i must admit, is better equipped to withdraw funds to sterilize, to maybe run down their balance sheet again than other central banks because they have a little bit more sophisticated tool kit, if that's the right word for it but, yes, the concern is there. and as per his role in this scenario, the bank vez keeps writing letters, open letters, closed letters, keeps saying in interviews how concerned he is and of course he's not the only one to do so. but by the same token they do know that at the moment there was no other choice because there was nobody else who could step up to the fray. more reason for mario draghi to say exactly what you said in the introduction to say, okay, we've done our bit. we fired all our bullets for the time being. now we have to wait and see how all this settles, how the rate cuts settle, how the l it tros

settle into the market, how that filters through to the real economy, and that gives politicians time to put their measures on track and maybe give the economy a bit more breathing space so all these hopes for a third, fourth, or whatever ltro, i don't know where they're coming from. not free candy from the ecb all along. >> okay, silvia. we'll wait for that press conference to see all the interesting questions that they come up with as well. that's coming up later. jackie? >> we'll be watching for that. meantime the bank of england is expected to leave its quantitative easing program unchanged and rates steady at a three-year low of half a percent when it concludes its two-day meeting at 13:00 cet. questions whether the boe will expand its purchase program in may. and the bank of korea has kept interest rates on hold at 3.25% for the ninth con second is tiff month. many economists expect the central bank will stand pat for

some time to come. and brazil cut its benchmark interest rates to 9.75% from 10.5%, a surprisingly strong move amid signs the biggest economy is starting to slow. this is only the second time the country has cut the key rate, the selling rate, below the 10% mark. there were only three analysts in the world who thought we'd get a 75 basis point cut. one of them joins us now. an economist at capital economics. neal, you have it right. that was based on -- because i read your note, a big drop in industrial production out of brazil. >> a huge drop in industrial production in january, yes. to just over 2% on the month. the month, not the year. the month. >> what is the state of brazil's economy right now? they tried this sort of two-speed model. is it working out for them? >> brazil was the darling of the markets back in 2010. 7.5% growth in 2010. but it was highly, highly

unbalanced. demand was strong on the one hand. spending was robust but the manufacturing sector and the production side was much weaker held back by very, very strong exchange rate. while the domestic side of the economy was being pumped up by commodity prices, rapid capital inflow. now all of this looked unsustainable and, indeed it proved to be unsustainable in the second half of last year we saw the economy flat line. now growth now looks like it may be picking up on the domestic side of things but obviously last month's ip figure shows the manufacturing side is really struggling. >> yeah, and is that -- for investors here what should be the takeis away of that -- of what's going on in the numbers? should they be looking at brazil going this is just another part of the global growth story that is starting to disappoint, or is it a brazilian factor? >> well, i think there are many parallels in what's going on in brazil, elsewhere in the emerging world. in 2010 and the first half of

2011 we saw a huge influx of capital. now obvious ly brazilian policymakers have is blamed qe and so on and so forth for that. i think at heart is you have a western world that's really struggling very, very weak growth rates, weak fundamentals and an emerging world where it's in much better shape. and that pushes capital into the emerging world but that brings challenges and problems and in brazil we've seen the property market that looks like a bubble n. turkey 10% gdp. so it's not just a brazil problem. there are signs of stresses and strains elsewhere in the emerging world, too. >> all right, ron and lance, i want to get your take on this as well. in terms of what we're seeing in brazil and the interest rate decrea decrease, the rates are still relatively high. they're not doing what we're doing here in the united states and keeping them at zero. so do you really worry about this? >> first off, brazil just passed the uk as the sixth largest

economy in the world. so if you take just a little step back from today, they're doing great. their problem is labor. they can't find enough of it. last year was the first time that brazil did more trading with china than the united states. so brazil is in a good place. china courted them. did a good job of courting them. they're going to be fine. they have growing pains. we don't have an issue with that. >> and, lance, your take on brazil and when you look at the other brick economies. >> emerging markets are exporters and they are dependent upon exporting to japan, europe, and the united states. so any potential turn around in our economy here the republic we need more qe is a slowing economy here. it could hit these economies as well. they are picking up because we're seeing some growth in

china and as well as the united states turning around here but any reversion of that could impact our economy. >> the emerging markets, by the way, don't have the network, the social network costs that we do, that develop. so they could move around their issues and make it better for themselves, get out of problems better than developed markets can. >> just to come back on this point particular ly on ron and making the point, the problems are more growing pains. >> indeed. i think it's important to distinguish between growth in the u.s. and the uk and europe of 1%, 2%. and brazil was the worst year since 2003, i think, and we had growth last year of 2.7%. so there's a distinction to be made there and these things become relative. i'm less worried about the pace of growth and more worried about the balance of that growth and whether or not the constituent parts of that growth are sustainable.

and we talk about emerging markets being export dependent. they are in asia but in latin america the key drivers of growth over the past 18 months have been domestic demand, very, very rapid consumer spending growth. very, very rapid consumer credit growth. and i'm starting -- i'm skeptical as well. >> we want consumer demand in those markets. it's just the pace of the increase. you're worried we keep creating asset bubbles and credit bubbles. >> yeah. essentially yes. what we want is more consumer demand in asia, somewhat less consumer demand and more exports in latin america and, by the way, not just commodity exports. manufacturing exports. >> by the way, you think rates will still be cut lower, right? >> be cut lower to 8.75% which will be a joint record low by the middle of the year. >> take that into account. neal, thank you for joining us. jackie? i'll tell you what's coming up. fast food giant mcdonald's is amongst the big names with

numbers out today. consumers appear still to be loving it in hard times. will the latest results match?

good morning and welcome back. the u.s. treasury department plans to sell $6 billion of aig stock and expects the company to buy up to half of the offering. the sale is expected to be priced this morning. bankers have reported ly discussed $29 a share with investors. treasury has also struck a deal for aig to pay down $8.5 billion more in obligations. and facebook is boosting its ipo lineup, 25 more underwriters to the offering for a total of

31. several smaller firms including oppenheimer has a piece of the ipo. facebook plans to raise $5 billion. could value the social networking site at $100 billion. they help hefty funding tax obligations related to employee stock following the float. jack jackie? and the senate is expected to tackle 30 amendments to the long stalled federal highway bill today. the $109 billion measure is a priority for leaders in congress who see it as a way to create nearly $8 million jobs in the construction industry. funding road, rail and bridge repairs paid for by a gas tax expires at the end of the month. meantime, there's just one piece of u.s. economic data today. weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. forecast to rise by 2,000 to

353,000. and mcdonald's reports february same store sales at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. analysts expecting sales to rise. the fast food giant benefitted from an extra day because of leap year and menu items like the chicken mcbites and coffee drinks. still with us is our guest rob weiner and lance roberts. let's bring you in. when we talk about the trading day on wall street start with the unemployment numbers, a positive boost from adp yesterday. do you expect to see the same thing today? >> i think they're going to be okay. i don't think they'll be knockout numbers about but will be okay. the u.s. is proving along at a reasonably slow pace but it's working. i don't expect any market movement from those bankers. >> being 0. and these two reports the precursor for the jobs report tomorrow and that's what all investors will be watching. expectations? >> i think the two headlines are mcdonald's and unemployment claims. if you dig down behind the headline numbers of the jobs created, look at adp. if you work one hour you're

counted as an employer. a lot of the jobs created are temporary jobs. hopefully those will start to confirm the full-time jobs later on but we haven't seen that occur yet. we're still not hiring a lot of full-time employment. we still have a record number of people moving into the noncounting category. a lot of the aging baby boomers moving into full-time retirement because they can't get a job. so they're giving up looking for work. so we really have to look at the sustainability of the increase in employment and how much it will translate into income growth which is the key thing here. will disposable incomes have been flat for almost three months. >> it depends exactly how you're calculating them. at the same time if we do see a down tick, if we see it go to 8%, say, is that a boost for obama in terms of his numbers? >> absolutely. >> yeah. and, again, when you're looking at how we calculate it, a lot is a decrease in the rate is by people leaving the workforce not by jobs created. so, again, but people don't look at that.

and when he goes to the polls and to the election, the lower the unemployment rate is, the better it is. now historically speaking no president has ever been re-elected with an 8% unemployment rate or higher so it's key to get it below 8%. >> excellent point. gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us on the program this morning. we do appreciate your time. the president and ceo of the rdm financial group and lance roberts ceo and chief economist at street talk advise issors. and that just about wraps it up on "worldwide exchange" for us today. i'm jackie deangelis in the united states. >> and i'm ross westgate in europe. up next "squawk box" and the markets state side. we'll leave you with a shot of where trade is here in europe putting equities right now.

good morning. it's d-day in greece. bond hoe bondholders are having their say. central banks on center stage today. key decisions from the ecb and the boe. it's thursday, march 8, 2012. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kerr unanimous. andrew ross sore kip is in new orleans attendinco