and qualcomm are the best ways to play apple other than the apple, which is to invest in apple. like i always say, there's always a bull market somewhere.r you. meeting. greece's finance minister venizelos. >> it's not something important for us as a real economy and international economy but, of course, this is nothing for the size of the eurozone. and here in asia the pboc signals it is ready to loosen its grip on the yuan after china

reports a shocking plunge in its february trade figures. good morning. you're watching "worldwide exchange" with chloe cho in asia, beccy meehan, and i'm jackie deangelis. daylight saving time has kicked in which means we have a one-hour show for you today. meantime let's start by taking a look at futures and how we're shaping up on trade on wall street no clear direction just yet if the markets were to open now the dow higher by two points. the nasdaq lower by about five and the s&p 500 higher by two points as well and, of course, this was after a higher day of u.s. equities, beccq, on friday. boosting some sentiment to the u.s. markets but then that was tempered by the isda ruling that a credit event happened in greece so it will be interesting to see how the undertones of the global market impact us today. >> indeed. we'll be analyzing all of that throughout the show, of course,

here on cnbc so do stay tuned over the next hour for all of that. a quick check on how the european markets are shaping up as we start off the new trading week and although last week was a negative overall, there are three strong sessions to finish off last week, certainly on the equity markets and today we're starting mixed. the ftse and the cac are both slightly lower. we're talking a few points in each direction while the dax is moving higher. ftse may be more convincing up by 0.2%. moody's has warned the risk of a greek default is apparently set to remain very high after the bond swap. however in an exclusive interview with cnbcevangelos venizel venizelos played down the decision to class fly the plan as a credit event. silvia wadhwa joins us now. silvia? >> reporter: beccy, among other

things, one of the first things is how disappointed are you that this -- the restructuring, the psi was ultimately called a credit event? he said not at all but here in his own words. >> the so-called credit event is legal event is. not something -- and also legal within the frame of the private platform because, as you know very well, the international association, the isda, is the association for banks and other entities of the market and the credit event and the triggering of cds is something internal. this is a kind of dealing between banks and financial entities. it's not something important for us as real economy and international economy. of course this is nothing for

the size of the eurozone. >> reporter: now the ink on the second bailout package for greece isn't quite dry. when the doomsday profits are saying, yeah, but we needed a third bailout package for greece. >> we have a very clear political declaration from our partners. we have a very clear statement from the part of the euro group. we have the support of the sector and greece and the market. and for now we can persuade the market because we have a new, very important argument, the ability of the public debt after the psi. >> reporter: there was a bit of discussion in the german press about how schaeuble, our german finance minister and you and even your predecessor whether greece should stay in the

eurozone, should not stay in the eurozone, what would be better for you. everyone agrees greece should stay in the eurozone. was there ever a discussion for y you? >> wolfgang schaeuble is a great personality, excellent colleague and friend. we have important discussions on the euro group but our position is a public one. greece is and remains always member of the eurozone. >> reporter: a great sigh of relief are from the political scene, not only the parties this power but the real test in the upcoming elections. after the game is before the game, at the end of april/early may, we'll have elections in greece and i think mr. venizelos appointed the candidate for

pasok for his party. he will have to prove to his electorate that they believe greece can turn the corner and that he can help greece to turn the corner from predictions. pasok will get a hammering in the elections but you never know. coalitions will have to be sought and the biggest test for whoever comes into power because the public sector needs to be reformed. hundreds of thousands and, of course, cuts of 18, 17, 16% and that's the big doubt that the greeks here have on 0 the ground. >> silvia, thank you very much for that, silvia wadhwa joining us with the latest from the greek finance minister. it's a rather stormy day in athens. perhaps when we speak to her we'll have better sound quality for you. in the meantime let's send it back to jackie. thanks for that, beccy. we are joined by our guest host, ellen, and andrew joins us as

well. good morning, ellen, to you. >> good morning. >> a lot to chew on in terms of that interview with the finance minister in greece. i want to start with the credit default swaps and the triggering of cds. he said in terms of the eurozone economies it's really a small event. what's your take on that? >> well, he is correct when he characterizes it as if you look at the overall dollar amount that it represents in terms of the size of the eurozone. yes, it's a small event but that's not what concerns markets. what concerns markets is investor sentiment surrounding this and what it means for portugal. what it means for spain. do they start to look outside of greece and maybe there's not just a technical default there but something that starts to look more disorderly there and elsewhere as it spreads and, of course, that's what the markets care about. not necessarily is the greece default tiny or large in terms of the size of the european union. >> that's an excellent point. when we look at the eurozone as a whole, what's the next event or the next country that you're looking at in terms of if there is another shoe to drop or a

domino effect here? >> i think, of course, everyone has been looking at portugal and spain for quite some time. italy much larger economy. that would be, i think, the nuclear bomb if you knew something were to happen in italy but it's natural that all eyes are going to turn to portugal and spain and wonder there as they're going to end up being some type of private sector involvement. but, that being said, something that we'll talk about later in the show that the fed is going to address in its statement is how it feels about financial conditions stemming from europe and i think that boil has come back down to a simmer in erms of how the fed views the threats interest europe. and a lot of that is the success of the ltro which would go far in keeping the greek default from spreading to other countries. >> andrew, talking about how big a deal it really is to have this declared as a credit event across greece. we should expect venizelos to say it's no big deal. how important is it for the rest of europe, not just for greece

but the contagion effect? >> the comments you heard were about right. the actual dollars or euros we're talking about relatively small and i think as well that the alternative if it hadn't triggered would have been taken worse by the market in the sense it would have thrown a much larger section of the market into uncertainty over how these instruments trade and how robust they are. so i actually think the outcome we're getting is probably as good as we can expect. we've seen the outright numbers are small and has come down in terms of exposure of the market in the last, really, several months, and it seems is like we're moving towards an event that will be reasonably orderly and well played. in the scope of what's happening that's as good as we can expect. >> yeah, but andrew, how long does this feelgood factor last? we have greek elections lined up in april and, also, they are probably going to focus on the pricing of the new greek bonds. >> yeah, well, i think that's

the pricing of the securities themselves is actually giving you some pretty interesting information on really two of the market storylines. one is, you know, the likelihood that greece would have to, you know, potentially do something else down the line and, second, portugal, which is obvious ly o investors minds as well and given where these new greek bonds appeared to be pricing, the markets are signing a very high yield to them still somewhere between 15%, 16%, 17% which says that he are high yielding or the market indicates there's some risk down the line that something might happen to them. and, again, we've seen after the greek psi, the market become much more confident that the crisis is now behind us, that the ltro has had its effect. if you look at the pricing of portuguese securities, you know, 10, 15-year bonds are trading closer to 50 cents on the euro. that's still a market discounting a pretty heavy level

of concern and worry. again, i think against a broader market storyline that seems certainly more positive. >> let's leave there for a moment and come back to the conversation very shortly. we're going to take a quick break. tens of thousands of spanish workers take to the streets to protest against new labor laws. so are worries over contagion in the eurozone as we persist. we ask what's in store for distressed bank debt.

good morning and good morning and welcome back. it's time for your global markets report. let's start here in the united states and take a look at u.s. futures. see how we're poised on trade. it does look like a mixed open at this point. no clear direction just yet but the markets were to open now 0 the dow would be higher by eight points, the nasdaq lower by three and the s&p 500 higher by just about two. this after u.s. equities finished modestly higher on friday. of course we have an improving jobs picture boosting sentiment in the united states but that was tempered by the isda ruling a credit event had occurred in it greece. nine of the ten sectors were higher. the leaders, financials and consumer discretionary, that one sector lower, beccy, was energy. how are things shaping up in europe? >> we're struggling for direction here, too. this is the stoxx 600 behind me. this market in europe did open lower but has since moved back to a level we can best call

unchanged. green, just barely, no clear direction either way. let's have a look at where the individual markets are headed. the ftse is just a fraction lower. the dax is just a fraction higher. the cac is almost entirely unchanged and only the ftse mib is up by 39 points or just about a quarter of 1%. the currency markets, too, whether euro looks like this. euro dollar is trading at 1.3119. the euro has lost a bit of ground in the latter parts of last week, holding steady at these levels now. euro/yen 107.92. we have the b 0 oj meeting tomorrow, so watch out for results from that plus, of course, speaking of central bank acti action, we'll get to a bit more on the fed a little bit later in the show with our guest so stay tuned for that.

sterling is currently at 1.5683, just very slightly higher against the dollar. so on to the yields and we have had lots of attention focused on the eurozone countries and what happens next after greece falls out of the spotlight. the bund at 1.78%. we talked about these countries a moment ago with 0 our guest, and greece is resolved one direction or the other, attention is turning back to the other peripheral european countries particularly spain and portugal as well. italy under a great deal of pressure. yields continuing to dip currently sending 4.82. in spain just over 5% right now. treasuries across the state the ten year is just over 2%. on to the energy markets. anyone watching the markets last week would have seen in the last three days of the trading week

we have moved higher for equities here in europe and we also saw the markets moving in the same direction. so brent in the last three days of the year -- the last two days of last week, rather, moved higher. we can see that from the seven-day chart. downsized by half of a percent, a turnaround for three days moving convincingly to the upside last week. chloe? ref yeah, over here in asia quite a bit of negativity. the greek event really ending without a huge, major havoc boiled down to china's huge trade it deficit in the month of february. in fact, the worst in 20 years, and the sum of it was further tempered by comments by the central bank governor saying they are not going to use, resort to rrr cuts to help shape monetary policy. after february was quite weak as well.

so overall it really seems to be concerns about what this chinese slow down will mean. japan is going to be an interesting one to lack at t. keeps on testing that 10,000, a seven-month high, but couldn't hang on to it. there's a key boj meeting. there are some bets there could be another round of easing especially in terms of lending facilities is for the quake hit region. take a look at topix to the down side. the shanghai composite, really the property plays took this market down. the hang seng only managed to reverse in the end. there seems to be quite a bit of upside from china mobile. india looking interesting as well. this market had quite a lot of buying going on he especially ar that surprise 75 basis point cut in cash reserve ratio but, then again, today's industrial production number came out and makes the rbi meeting, the policy tricky moving ahead. that also cost the kospi so overall it seems to be about worries about what the chinese policy will look like.

beccy? the greek finance minister says a credit defense is not important for the country as a real economy. earlier we spoke to isd aa's german chancellor and what the event says about the cds market as a whole. >> i think originally it shouldn't be a credit event so the greeks will try to maneuver around it so that made that reflect on the product. we saw that it did and the committee -- we're just really doing what -- people haven't looked at the committee. 50 credit events or are more. we're doing what we always do in according to the process. it might be boring to people on the outside, but we just do what we do. >> andrew, what does this series of events tell us about how the

cds market works? is it functioning? >> i think the controversy we saw over the last couple of weeks, is it triggering? why isn't is triggering? it has been related to the fact restructuring hadn't yet occurred so the event proposed, people ask the committee, does that trigger cds. they said, no, because the restructuring hasn't occurred yet. what we had was once the restructuring actually did happen the cds contract was ruled to trigger and i think that although markets expected something to happen faster or more clearly i would agree with your earlier guests that isda and the contract was following the rules of what is essentially a legal contract. >> interesting to get your view as well. does how this worked out fill you with optimism about how the market works in these instances? >> well, i think since so far things haven't collapsed, at least it doesn't appear to be from makt opening today that things have collapsed after this

announcement that the psi would trigger cds, i think gives us hope that we'll continue to have a fed here in the u.s. that characterizes the problems coming out of europe as having at least receded tore a bit, something that bernanke was already alluding to in his humphrey hawkins testimony given the success of the ltro. and that's something that we think they'll characterize or possibly change the characterization of in the fmoc statement this week. but it's important we've seen just how better global markets can function when the concerns over a greece default and other problems in europe tend to go on the back burner and lots of times that's just because we've been anticipating this private sector involvement and how it would go and it's finally here. we've been anticipating it so long. we just got over the hump and things didn't seem to fall

apart. we don't know what's ahead. so far this height continue to help markets breathe a sigh of relief on the time being. >> and that's a really great point. andrew, i want to bring you in on this as well. when we talk about the domestic markets here in the united states and we see the impact that the cds trigger has had, it has been a muted impact priced in and, in fact, could be looking at this as a positive event. and then we're back to a case where we're focusing on fundamentals and growth, the improving labor picture so it actually appears that things aren't quite so bad. >> well, i think what it means is probably investors should be shifting their focus away from the cds, did it trigger, is it a bad product or good product question. if there's one thing you want to be monitoring it's the price of portuguese government bond yields because i think the storylines that seems to have taken over is that, look, the greek psi is behind us. the ltro has boosted liquidity and the crisis has been contained but i think if

investors look to the way the portuguese bond market is prici pricing, it's still pricing at a high level of stress. and the portuguese equity market hasn't really rebounded any from where it was, say, six months ago. so i think that's still a pretty key test that not all is well had in the eurozone but i completely agree that i think for investors who are worried that the actual triggering of credit default swaps was an eventual land mine are for the markets, we really don't think that's the case. >> andrew, we have to leave you here, unfortunately, but thanks for coming on and speaking to us today. andrew sheets at morgan stanley. ellen will stick around a bit longer. chloe? thanks so much for that. coming up on "worldwide exchange," china's central bank, the pboc signaling that it is willing to loosen its grip on the yuan. so how far might they go? carfirmation.

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well, well, china ran up a huge trade deficit in the month of february. far more than what anybody had expected. $31.5 billion, the biggest in two decades. some say it's not such a big deal. let's find out more from tracey chang. tracey? many analysts think that so far they shouldn't read too much

into these deficit numbers because they are saying china has seen deficits before and, also, it's the annual figure that really tell the true story. traders i've spoken to agree with that point saying the february imbalance could make a reserve requirement ratio cut for banks now more likely. remember the market rumored chatter we had last week. but that's not a bad bet considering the pboc governor came right ou and told mpc china had ample room to further cut the rrr. but he says any move will also depend on market liquidity and foreign exchange in flows and shouldn't be considered as a monetary loosening or even a way to boost the stock market. chloe, back to you. >> thank you so much for that, tracey. ellen, china running up a huge trade deficit, the biggest in 20 years can, and yet the commentary we get from the pb 0 oc is they are not going to resort to cutting rrr to help shape monetary policy. what does it mean? do you see more imbalances along

the way? >> well, i think the comment we should wait, that the annual data is more important, of course who wants to wait that long, is a valid point and, you know, i'm always skeptical of trade numbers in china around january/february because of the difficult issue with seasonal adjustment when they have a new year that is such a hugely floating holiday each year. and so you could just see in effect there was that time period where trade activity sort of stalled out and then you've got a surge back of imports simply as a payback for that cutoff period, if you will, during the new year. >> yeah, absolutely. that's a great point, ellen. we are going to have to leave it there for the conversation on china. ellen will stay with us. we'll talk all things the fed as the fmoc kicks off its meeting tomorrow. for all those apple fans out there if you preordered the new ipad you may have to wait longer to fill it with apps.

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good morning and welcome to the show. the headlines from around the globe today, here in the united states all eyes on the fed. signs of an improving economy are putting doubts on speculation of further mop tear easing ahead of tuesday's fmoc meeting. finance minister evangelos venizelos dismisses worries

about a credit event following the historic debt swap. he tells cnbc athens has a new starting point. >> the national capacity, the national capability to go ahead. here in asia the pboc signals it is ready to loosen its grip on the quu and after china reports a shocking plunge in its february trade figures. good morning. nice to have you here on "worldwide exchange." if you're just joining us, let's take a look at the u.s. futures and see how we're setting up for trade on wall street. it does look like it's going to be a higher 0 open now after a mixed picture just minutes ago. of course if the markets were to open now the dow would be higher about by nearly 19 points. the nasdaq just above the flat line and the s&p is 500 higher by two. this after u.s. equities finished slightly higher on friday. of course an improving jobs p k picture that boosted sentiment a

little bit. we saw a 14-point gain on the dow, the leaders there ibm, jpmorgan and travelers, some of the laggards. boeing, hp. >> pan regional basis have improved little since we opened up this morning, and that's certainly reflected in the individual bourses. when we last checked in a couple were down. thousand we have green across the board. marginal gains for the ftse and minimal for the cac. we do see gains of over 0.6%. from italy and the dax is up by just over 0.3% for the swiss markets, too. overall, chloe. yeah, here our handover to you not looking that great. a lot of fears about what cooling demand from china and elsewhere will mean at a time when dproet is pretty much fragile. as you can see quite a few markets in negative territory, although the hang seng did manage to tick higher. the about boj concludes its

two-day session tomorrow. it will be interesting whether they put more easing on the table especially when it comes to lending facilities with regards to the quake hit region as well. once again, china posting the biggest trade deficit in 20 years and also ensuing comments from the pboc's governor that they're not going to resort to using cuts in bank reserve requirements to help shape monetary policy is taken as a major negative because that's actually what's been fueling quite a bit of gains on the stock markets as well. so overall quite a bit of tepid performance that we saw in many other markets. take a look at korea, australia as well, also chinese bank lending figure for february was also looking a little bit down beat. the bombay sensex holding on to a small gain. production levels came out better -- actually much better than expected but that complicates policy, jackie. >> thanks for that, chloe. the fed holds a one-day meeting with most watchers expecting the central bank to keep rates on hold. signs of an improving u.s.

economy, of course, including friday's better than expected jobs report have tamm pd down expectations of any further easing. chairman ben bernanke told congress earlier this month that they don't have to launch qe3 or buy mortgage bonds and treasuries to keep rates low. now is the managing director at spectrum asset management and still with us, of course, our guest host. let's start with you. good morning and thank you for joining us on the program. when we're looking ahead to the fed meeting on tuesday it's all going to be about what bernanke says about qe3 and right now that seems to be a little murky at this point. they may take a wait and see approach. >> you just mentioned such a good recap and how asian central banks, boj and everyone globally. right now it's trying to sort out where monetary easing could come into play and how central banks are right now and i think the questions completely have stabilized themselves,

especially how greece has reacted in some of the periphery had in the bond markets, so particularly right now i'm not surprised how well that's happened. but, again, i think bernanke's speech is going to be more stabilizing because the market anticipates through commodity prices that you're going to see further easing in the pipe and, again, i think that's showing up best right now on how the dollar is trading against the euro. >> okay. and when it comes to how bernanke has handled this so far in terms of his comments and the wait and see approach on qe3, i do think the markets are respecting that and that's bringing more confidence back to a certain extent but with qe3 still on the table, do you think it's something that we're going to need to exercise? >> that's a really good question in regards to how housing comes into play here. i mean, at the end of the day, if it's congress really questioning the fed governors themselves or bernanke directly, it's really all about how do we stabilize this mortgage

scenario, where does all that fit in and, again, how does that factor in everyone's pocketbooks? runaway crude oil is a big problem for the president and most of policy players here in the united states but, again, that's a big distributor right now. that's why i think we have to keep an eye on rates right now and that's why we'll stabilize. >> so do you think the dollar could have actually taken on a totally different character especially after the payrolls before it was, you know, a risk on/risk off sort of play? now it seems there is so much momentum going into the u.s. dollar. >> if we see the euro trading at 1.28 then we're talking about a move or trend in place here. there have been so many short positions from higher levels now in the euro versus the dollar that you are start to ing to se that come into play. i wouldn't call that profit taking but a lot of the positions become successful at this area.

the dollar is clearly a player here. it's for the next 400 that will make the biggest difference where we're trading today and right now figuratively if we see the euro start to give up way and show more dollar strength as the u.s. opens this morning that could be the deciding factor when you start seeing a breach of support of the minor moving averages. >> ellen, i want to come back to you on the fed meeting of course this week. we were talking during the break and you were saying there's really no incentive at this point for bernanke to change his policy stance to potentially talk about raising rates. right now he's sort of hedged and that's a good spot to be in. that's right? >> no one expects anything at this meeting, and i would say there's zero percent chance of a change in monetary policy is. what they will do is clean up the statement. there's a lot that's happened since the january meeting. this is only a one-day meeting. any big moves now that we have the press conferences with the two-day meetings four times a

year, any big moves will probably happen, tepid to happen at those meetings when bernanke can get out in front of the press and explain everything so that helps the fact we don't expect anything at this meeting but clearly they'll have to acknowledge that current conditions are better. we've been seeing better data on the economy. i was elated to see a third month in a row of 200,000 plus job gains for theheabor market. the fed isn't going to be elated, though 0. they're not elated and that's not how they're going to characterize it in a statement. they'll acknowledge the labor market continues to improve but they'll keep the language in there that the unemployment rate remains elevated and that should be everyone's cue that, yes, qe3 is not needed now. but it's still very much on the table and it depends on how the outlook, if it worsens in the next few months, and so you could still very much see a qe3 or some other type of easing at the june or july meeting. >> and so we'll be watching for that obviously on tuesday and then on wednesday/thursday we

might get the results of the stress test which may be even more important than from the fed meeting but we are going to have to leave it there and of course we are going to take a break. coming up on the show, a shake-up is under way at pepsico's top manage. [ male announcer ] this is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence teaching data how to do more for business. [ beeping ] in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions... [ beeping ] ...to bring all the right results. it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪

back.elcome welcome back. moody's has warned the risk of a greek sovereign default remains high even after the debt exchange. the ratings agency says they have helped avert a messy but they may find it difficult to access the private market after the second bailout ends. the comments are in contrast with the views expressed by the head of the iif, charles dallara, who led the psi negotiations on behalf of graes's private creditors. he says that greece will start seeing the benefits of the bond swap sooner than expected. in an exclusive interview with cnbc evangelos venizelos has hailed the success of the country's debt exchange program. he says the government's top priority would be to implement the restructuring plan. venizelos played down the decision by isda to classify the bond swap as a credit event. >> it's not something important for us as a real economy and international economy but, of course, this is nothing for the size of the eurozone.

>> the spanish finance minister says he hopes the euro group will recognize spain's efforts to cut can down budget cuts and implement painful reforms. in an interview with the spanish newspaper he says spain has not challenged eu guidelines. thousands took to the streets of madrid yesterday in protests against austerity measures the government has planned 30 billion euros in cuts this year, threaten to plunge the economy into a deeper crisis. well, out now to carolin schober who is in brussels tracking all the latest today. a couple of different issues coming up here and moving us over further away from just always focusing on greece. >> reporter: yeah. now we're going to focus back on spain because that problem has been brushed aside in the last one or two weeks or so. spain is not officially on the agenda. i should point that out. given that the approval of the second greek bailout package is really going to be a formality,

i think this controversy about the spanish deficit miss essentially will feature very highly on the agenda the next two days. let me remind you what happened. the spanish prime minister irritated a lot of eu leaders by saying that spain will not meet the eu set target of 4.4% deficit in 2012. instead, it will come in 1.4% higher at 5.8% and he mainly blamed the socialist government, which was still in power last ye year, for the higher than expected deficit in 2012. now there's one interesting article saying spain is now the bad boy of the euro class. now these statements were then played down by the economy minister, the finance minister, as you pointed out, beccy. he said, no, we're still firmly committed to our deficit targets. we're not defying brussels but, and this is quite interesting, we do want to get some recognition from the euro group today about the budget cuts that we have fulfilled. i really don't think they're

going to get a pat on the shoulder. what they're going to get today is a slap on the wrist. having said that, though, i do not believe that the euro group, the eu, will impose sanctions on spain for missing the deficit targets because, let's be frank here, spain isn't the only country missing deficit is targets this year. netherlands is another country which will come in with a much higher than expected deficit for 2012. remember, the netherlands is one of the few remaining aaa countries in the eurozone. beccy? >> carolin, thank you for that. carolin schober reporting for us from brussels. jackie? if you preordered the new ipad, you may have is to wait a little longer to start filling it with apps. we're going to talk about the ipad in a moment. let's talk about pepsi. they are announcing major changes this upper management. "the wall street journal" reporting, in fact, in its recent story, that the former ceo of sam's club, brian cornell, will head the company's america food division while c e

compton will be named president. both men are considered likely successors to the current sceo. some shareholders are discontent over the loss in market share to coca-cola and have called on the company to be split into two segments. let's take a look at pepsi shares and see how they're raiding now. it does look like they're down about a tenth of a percent. chloe? well, jackie, you must be one of those many people out there certainly waiting for that new ipad. if you've ordered that new ipad you may have to wait longer to start filling it with apps. apple has delayed the shipping date from march 16 when the device goes on sale in stores to march 19. reports say apple has shoulder out of its preordered stock and in some countries such as france, japan and the uk, there is a two to three week delay. in the united states verizon and at&t say they'll notify customers when the ipad is available. shall we take a quick look at how apple stock fared in the friday session? it actually has been climbing

down quite a bit. this is actually in frankfurt currently trading $415.20, just off a touch. then again, jackie, the u.s. stock has been at pretty much record highs over $500 or so. can't complain really especially if you invested in apple. >> yeah, that's exactly right. apple an outperformer. the fed is expected to release the results of its latest u.s. bank stress test this week. focused on 19 banks and are expected to show them withis standing the economic slowdown with stronger balance sheets and increased liquidity. the report is likely to have positive implications with banks increasing dividends and buybacks so that could be good news for the markets. joining us now is the managing director at spectrum asset management. still can with us, ellen, our g host. it does look like we'll see some positive results after the fed meeting. we get the results of the stress test that could show that the banks are doing better than expected and with strong balance

sheets so, in fact, we could see some positive sentiment this week. >> you know what, that wouldn't hurt the market whatsoever because that's been the backbone that fueled this rally much earlier and in that regard does the market as a whole get exhaustive here. the financials have been a leader historically but in regards to where the index trades up 1370 we failed here in the past and it's a key backbone, again, to see if the financials can lead or the bank stress tests show everything is slightly in line for the next 12 months, then again that could be the fuel for it all. >> ellen, do you agree with that? ultimately financials could lead the way up? >> yeah, i think that here is a second is tore that's been beaten down and beaten down for so long that for many investors probably they think the only way is up for the banking secotor ad perhaps some of the more positive numbers we've been seeing coming out of trading in the banking sector is because

investors are anticipating that these stress tests will indeed show the u.s. banking system is on firmer footing, something that would be in line with the fed chairman's comments that the u.s. banking system is better poised now to withstand disruption in europe and certainly is these stress tests might go to bolster those comments. >> ellen, i want to shift gears and talk about growth here domestically in the united states. obviously when we're looking for unemployment report on friday, the rate didn't change. we're still at 8.3%. but to have that decline even further, which everybody is saying obviously we need, president obama needs to do that, we need to see more growth. yet the ydp targets are still rather on the conservative side, 2%, 2.5%. is that enough growth to keep that unemployment rate coming down? >> i don't think that it is, and i don't think -- i think bernan bernanke's comments that he doesn't expect much more improvement in the unemployment rate this year are very true. those are very sobering comments. and it would go far to explain why we've continually seen

bernanke acknowledge the better labor market data, the unemployment rate is still unacceptably high and why his outlook is so sour even though the data on the u.s. economy currently has been looking better. we're just not growing fast enough. >> yeah, that long-term growth story obviously very, very key. >> you're right. >> we're going to leave it there for the moment. thank you for that. of course we'll come back with more from ellen as well. coming up on the show we'll look ahead at the trading day on wall street and give you a sense where we go from here.

welcome welcome back. you're watching "worldwide exchange." it's a busy week for economic data with the fed rate decision on tuesday. we've got ppi on thursday and

both cpi and consumer sentiment coming out on friday. however, today it's looking light. just looking at the federal budget which is expected to be released at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. still with us michael gerka and ellen. i want to come to you on the data we're expecting this week. in terms of consumer sent is imt numbers, what do you think we're going to get? >> i think we're going to get literally across the board for the week as expected. i'm not look iing for any major surprises to the down side and clearly not to the up and just to highlight what we mentioned earlier it's about setting expectations and tempering them is what bernanke has to do best and that's in regards to growth and where employment is. i think it comes to baseline as expected and markets will behave favorably in that regard. >> okay. and, ellen, when we talk about the consumer obviously with oil prices rising the way they have and gas prices here in the u.s. on the climb right now, closing in on $4 a barrel, do you think we're going to see some strength

in the consumer or are we going to see an impact of a consumer pulling back a little bit? >> i think we'll talk about the gas price as lot because we have retail sales so how much did the high higher gas prices hurt retail sales? we think they looked strong in february and, of course, the inflation data we get is going to reflect the run-up in energy prices and then consumer sentiment on friday often is impacted by rising gas prices. so gas prices will be the underlying theme behind a lot of data this week. we eye it nervously because gas prices have always had the ability to sht down the consumer, shut down jobs and the u.s. economy. >> even if the numbers do seem positive and are to the upside, could that be because the impact of the gas prices hasn't quite been baked in yet and could it get worse if we do, in fact, approach $5 by the summer which is what a lot of people are expecting? >> that is possible. we're wait to go see if we hit the psychological mark for retail gas prices of $4. as you said, some people in the kun interest try are already paying $5 a gallon and it's hurting them. we have labor market gains so we

have more aggregate income in the economy which is helping households weather the higher gas prices. we have lower prices elsewhere for other energy goods that households have to consume so there's a little bit of mitigating factors there. but, ultimate ly it comes down o how the households feel and we know that on friday. >> thank you so much for joining us. a quick check on futures before we let you go and how we're setting up for trade on wall street. it does look like it's a slightly higher open. the dow would be higher by 19. the nasdaq under the flat line. the s&p 500 high er by two. and that wraps it up for today's show. from chloe, beccy and myself from the states, "squawk box" is up next. have a great trading day. choose control.

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good morning. a new day, a new chance to make some money. following four straight weeks of gains for the s&p and nasdaq, u.s. equity futures fractionally higher up 18 or so this morning. it's monday, march 12, 2012. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. we have gary with us on set. like you said, old school, gary. it's been a while since the three of us have been here together. >> a long,