i always say you got to listen to the conference call. i always like to say there is a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. headlines from around the globe, surprise contraction in german and french manufacturing rattles markets in europe. on the euro, a new session low. >> in asia, chinese manufacturing slows for the fifth consecutive month. hsbc flash pmi drops more than expected as new orders hit a four month low. >> in the u.s., the labor market is in focus as keenums on unemployment could shed some light on what we could see in the march jobs report.

>> just getting in of the pmi figures out. euro's march composite pmi that flash at 48.7 is the figure that we're getting look you here. it was less than forecast and it represents a decline from last time around, as well. we see a reaction in the euro, fresh session lows coming lieu there. let's get a bill of colt of col williamson is with us, chris, run us through what it is that has sent will figure lower. lower than expected, as well. >> yeah, it's a real disappointme disappointment. so it's not signaling the rate of contraction that we had late last year before the ltros have been in place, but there's been

a broad based weakening. a steep race of decline still in the periphery. perhaps more worrying than that, germany, the rate of growth is creeping closer towards stag thags. so it looks like the problems in periphery are continuing to affect the two largest economies. importantly, this is march, so end of the first quarter and what the data is signaling is for the eurozone as a local, another quarter of contraction on part of the 4.3% decline that we saw which is obviously a technical recession. so even though the rate of decline is only modest, the meg different surrounding that fact of the double digit session could down consumer confidence going forward. >> there are various sectors. the services figure the march services pmi figure seems to

come out at 48.about 7, and the manufacturing 47.abo7. walk us through each part. >> manufacturing was a key area of weakness here. it looks like global trade is closing and we can see that with the other pmi numbers that came out for china. now, where there's austerity especially in the periphery, which is damaging domestic demand, the hope was the export markets would drive growth. but take's not happening. so you have the combination that will keep the eurozone very subdued level in terms of growth. >> let's go to chinese manufacturing also dropping fueling fears of slowing demand. hsbc's latest estimates show

that china manufacturing pmi falling to 48.1 points in march, lower than the previous reading of 49.6. to tell us more, tracey chang has the details. >> the cause for concern here, really the rate of contraction as well as the sharp decline in orders. this is particularly surprising since analysts were looking for a rebound activity after two months of distorted data. on the other hand, investors were expecting weakness and for the most part have shrugged off weak data so far as they wait for the official pmi reading from beijing. hong kong, shares apparent gains, while the hain land markets closed just about flat. and traders i spoke to would actually think the weak data might have market up side as investors put more bets on more monetary loosening are beijing. but a manufacturing sector recovering will depend on

whether corporate earnings picks up or even demand picks up in the second quarter. >> let's talk more about that piece of day it with stewart oakley. and chris is still with us. chris, let me first ask you, how pervasive is the survey, what does it say about whether china can achieve a soft landing? >> it is difficult to know exactly what's going on at the start of 2012of the lunar new year. so look at the first lemonts as a whole. it was the weakest quarter for three years and we also saw reducing the head counts.

this translates to year on year five consecutive quarters of slower growth now, so china is really coming off -- soft or hand landing is 00 early to say, but certainly sounds very clear slower growth in that. >> stewart, what do you think? the official survey is coming out from the government, as well. which one do you place more emphasis on? >> i think the market would still look to the official survey and that was still in expansion territory, it was above 50, significantly run from the lows of the last quarter. the thing we always immediate to remember, they have the fiscal and monetary capacity to speed up and slow down their economy at will. that's something that europe and the rest of the world doesn't have. if they want toend the year with an 8% growth number, they will do it. >> a lot of people speaking of

7.5% growth, and a lot of people are saying with this data, could actually mean more policy easing. what's your gut pefeel on that interest. >> china has a history of underprime ministering and overachieving. i believe they will target really a growth rate of over 8% at the end of the year and i think they will achieve that. so they will take their foot on and off the gas at will when they need to. >> we've heard this conversation this morning already on cnbc about the shift in china away from industrializing economy towards a consumer driven economy. we look at the data that we've had out of these pmis. any indication about how quickly or slowly for that matter that process is going? >> there are certainly signs that it is happening, as well as a manufacturing survey, we also conduct the service sector survey and that in recent months has been holding up better than

manufacturing. and we see from survey respondents that domestic demand is proving to an driving factor behind keeping the economy on its legs it at the moment. so i think there are signs. it will take a long time, but moving in the right direction. >> following on that out as china rebalances are going towards domestic consumption, what does it mean for its foreign exchange policy? >> last year they appreciated yuan around 5.5% and this year they've kept it flat, but introduced a lot more volatility in to that market. in a nutshell, i would say there's just no trade there this year. it's something we're telling investors to not waste their energy on. >> okay. no trade. you heard it are here from stewart oakley. and chris williams is also with us. >> quick check before we go to

the break on what's it going on in the markets and the reaction that we're seeing to these figures. we are looking at declines for the ftse 100 of 0.8%, lows right around the equity markets dax down by just over 1.25%, while the swiss equity markets holding unreasonably well, but still down by 0.6%. so, jackie, we are looking at a negative session after a flat day of trade yesterday. >> absolutely. and in in terms of what you're seeing, it seems like it's impacting us here. when i first got in, we were trading higher and now we're looking at a down picture. dow 48, nasdaq 9 and s&p 500 lower by nearly 7. interesting to note that the volumes still incredibly low. about i imagine these number has

we're seeing out of europe and asia going to impact us, as well, here in the united states. still to come, shoppers are still slashing their cash on luxury. hermes says it will warn its investors. we have more live from paris next. choose control.

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equity markets are new lows for the day. very few managing to gain. overall the stoxx 600 is down by 1%. a fresh low of the day just as we come to that chart. on to the individual markets which are down across the board, the ftse 100 moving lower by 0.9%. the biggest decliner on the stoxx 600 is and gold resources. this is all because of the military coup oig that's taken place in marley. the reason that's having such an impact on this stock this particular is 70% of randgold resources are in that country. so keeping a look on that situation. and the dabs dox down by 1.3%, 1.2%. so let's take a look at the euro

rates, as well. declines for the euro against the dollar and against the yen for that matter, too, 131.58. euro-yen down by 1%. we've had disappointing pmi figures out this morning on the part of france and germany, two big eurozone economies. in contraction territory, we just heard chris williamson saying this indicates we are looking at another quarter of contraction for europe that is having an impact to the down side. sterling at 158.31 against the dollar, with sterling moving down by 1.2%. they say that news is also havingingen impact on the bond markets and individual eurozone stories impacting here, too. 192 is the yield on the ten year bund, but a safe haven buying coming through will. in spain, we've even yields pushing back up again, certainly off the record highs that we had a few months ago, but nonetheless spanish yields currently standing at 5.5%.

so the spread over the italian yields continuing to widen over that period. in portugal, we have new strikes taking place over these planned austerity measures. the yields at 12.6%. and the threat of strikes in italy, too, lots of on opposition from unions which they're struggling to resolve. so just over 5% for the italian ten year debt. in the oil markets, we have seen a steady run up in recent weeks on brent. over the past three months, that adds up to gains of 14% p but that trend has just switched around in the past few sessions, currently trading down by 0.6%. so brent is at $123.14. >> here in asia, of course china pmi day it take was front and

center. but somehow the japanese market shrugged off the weak pmi data, up 0.4%. a the nikkei up some 20% it this year, all in line with the policy easing coming from central banks. over in china, the falls were kind of limited because people were starting to say that maybe pmi data is starting, won't help to spur more policy easing and that could be a positive sign for the market. the hang seng a lot of people don't want to push this market too high. aware of the china risk, up 0.2%. he is where, the taiwan weighted index. aussie dollar is in focus, china pmi data drove the aussie dollar to a two month low and that in ht end was positive for the equity markets because people are saying it could mean it could be good for earnings. and the sensex down 1.9%.

so a mixed picture. and global market report. >> hermes shares are going higher. stefane has been looking through the mumnumbers. >> still no sign of crisis. hermes posted a 33% rise in operating profit, baern expected. driven by a strong demand in asia up 29%, in mort america, up 26%, and if europe, also hermes was resilient to the economy slow down with a 16% increase in sales. margins 31.2% up from nearly 28% a year ago. the company say it will pay a dividends of two euros per share plus a special dividend of five

euros just as a reminder other french luxury group also posted a strong mc. 22% for the operating profit, all good in the luxury sector. >> thank you so much, stefane. coming up on the show, portugal is in the grip of a 24 horse general strike. we'll talk to an expert who says lisbon may be forced to ask for another bailout later this year. another bailout later this year. .

labor reform talks between italian government and unions have failed to produce a deal. the largest it alan trade union has called an eight hour strike against the measure which is would make it easier for companies to layoff employees. mario monti has signaled that he will pass the measures new parliament with or without their support. portuguese workers have kicked off a strike against the plan to cut austerity measures.

concerns that it may not meet its budget goals. portugal may have to ask for more aid. is there anything they can do about it, is that a foregone conclusion? >> nothing's ever a foregone conclusion, but i think the markets are beginning to indicate that that's the way they think. if you look at what happened after the last ltro, portugal is one of the pew markets that really didn't participate in the nice rally in bonds that you saw in some other countries, italy and spain, for example, suggesting markets isn't actually going to be 00 relevant for you. it does look as if people are pushing towards the idea of a bail out, maybe the third quarter. >> and how about ireland? they seem to a gotten reasonably likely. >> they inchlimented a lot of

reforms pretty aggressively and the irish resolve, it's been a great party, but let's endure the hangover. i think it's helped politicians to do what's mess. there are issues going on, ireland trying to renegotiate better financing deals for some of the underpinning of the banks that's been going on, but we haven't really seen the sort of strike action public general strikes that we're seeing in portugal and italy. but i think you'd have to put yourself in the shoes of, say, an imf greek and portugal and lisb lisbon. >> just to jump in on the subject of portugal, in terms of the bailout, is this pretty much priced into the markets? >> yeah, i don't think anybody would be at all surprised about this right now. people have had a long time to respond to what's been unraveling this portugal.

so people don't really want to see another public sector might be will difference. and that really revolves around whether or not the imf and others deem portugal to be solvent towards the end of this year. >> against this backdrop, i'm wondering with the ecb 1 trillion of cheap loan, when will that start to filter through into the real economy and help out? >> it may never is the simple answer. let's look for comparison to something like quantitative easing. in the united states, can temperature actually filter through in to the real economy. it's hard to say. you have asset price effects, you have confidence effects, a greater appreciation of risk assets while you're flooding the market with liquidity. was any of that a factor behind will improvements in the labor market? very tangentially.

what's really going on is a huge a austerity in europe and it's difficult to see where the next bout of growth is coming from. >> so you said we did get some of the peripheral european markets as a result, but not pore you chew gallon. so does that mean we'll have to get another three year to keep it going? >> again nothing is inevitable, but all policies whether mond monetary or fiscal, the difficulty comes when you try to stop them. it's a bad thing generally to snatch a sweetie away from a child. you wean them off generally. so i think that's the more likely way that it will happen. so not permanent, but

semipermanent some of these measures. >> do you see the euro drifting much lower from here? >> conventional economic wisdom says it should definitely lower, but it doesn't go down. i think the key hinge on recognize is the tail risk is gone. despite portuguese government bond yields rising, the systemic risk courtesy of european institutions, systemic risk is gone. so i don't see a wholesale selloff in the euro or the majority of european assets, be they equities or bonds happening at all. >> we'll come back to you in a little bit. stewart oakley our guest host. rob, thank you very much for your thoughts today. good talking to you. jackie. >> we're getting flashes here.

african nations denominate a my gearian finance minister for the world bank post. we're seeing that come across the wires now and we'll be following that story for you. still coming up on the show, we have goldman sachs making a once in a lifetime call on equities. but is now really the time to pile into stocks? we'll talk strategy. >

headlines this morning, here in the united states, the labor market is in focus as keenums oun employment could shed light on what we could see in the march jobs report. >> eurozone manufacturing contracts more than expected in march sending stocks and the euro sharply lower in early trade. >> and in asia, china manufacturing slows in march for the fifth consecutive month. hsbc flash pmi drops more than expected as new orders hit a four month low. >> let's look at the futures. does look like it will be a lower open. the dow could be down by as much as 70, the nasdaq by 13 1/2 and

the s&p 500 by 9. this this of course after seeing a little pressure on the markets in europe. yesterday uneventful trade, but there was a very slow volume there to note. the leaders and consumer stocks the laggards yesterday, energy, financials and utilities. how does it look in europe? >> we have seen a real pull back in the european markets today. the market actually really being affected by these pm chlt figures. march pmi worse than expected. a bigger decline than we had anticipat anticipated. the march composite figure came in reading at 48.7. also the lowest in three months, as well. plus we're getting some retail sales data out here in the uk. uk sales falling more than expected in february. the biggest fall in pact since may of 2011 for uk retail sales just to get some of those figures. and from the office of national

statistics here in the uk, suggesting that uk retail sales including fuel down by 0.8% month on month. and that was worse than had been expected. including the newell figure where the forecast had been for it a decline of 0.4%. impact on sterling, as well, which is fresh session lows down by nearly 0.5% against the dollar. >> here in the states, golded man sacks is making a major call to buy stocks. in a note to clients, the firm says it's a once in a generation opportunity fto snap up equitie. goldman says it's time to say a long good by to bonds and embrace the long good buy for stocks. but albert edwards says gold man is wrong. joining us to talk about it more

is advisers asset management and also stewart oakley is with us. stewart, nothing new here. xwld man has been bullish on equities since the beginning of the year. but do you agree with the call or do you take the bear side and say we will see a correction? >> i generally agree. it's been a very unusual market for the breadth and diversity of the leadership that has been continuing throughout except for of course the 2007, 2008 downturn. but even after that bear market, many sectors also drove the market out of the pot. it's a powerful cycle because it's not depend end on any

micro these matt tick event. all those are doing well. so it still has more to into on the up side. >> what continues to go on with the eurozone debt crisis and here domestically in the states, there are headwinds, as well. unemployment, the housing market. how do you deal about some of these issues and their impact? >> i let the market it telegraph to us where the concerns are and i would certainly make the case that we've come a long way just from the october 3rd lows that we saw. so the market is due for what i would call a normal correction that could mean a pull back to the mid to lower 12,000 area of the dow. but i think any such retreat would be relatively brief and shallow. when we look at the behavior typically of plane stocks individually and the leadership sectors, there's been good self

police of the sectors. so the need for or the likelihood of a steep and sustained decline from here i think is quite small. >> two days ago there was concern about growth in will china. we're looking at a contraction potentially 7.5%. are you worried about the global markets and their impact? >> i think a lot of the bad news is already baked in to the market in the u.s. many of the international companies are among the leadership in this market. so the market seems to be telegraphing that looking toward the horizon, which is better news ahead, better data ahead. >> some picture abouts i want to show you of the situations developing in toulouse in

frachb france. they've been trying on catch the perpetrator of the shootings, several people killed in two sets of shootings in france. and the french police have been at a property trying to capture the man accused of those crimes. the pictures are live pictures of the property where the event has been unfolding. there has been three blasts in the vicinity of that suspect's building and an ambulance has arrived. earlier this morning helped there had been no contact with this suspect since late last night at the french interior minister also told us the suspect had told us that he wanted to die arms in hand. these were the last comments we had from him while he was still in his apartment holding out

against the french authorities. so we're just waiting for more developments there, but these are live pictures in the aftermath of those three blasts that we heard in the vicinity of the suspect's apartment block. >> let's get back to what gold man is saying. we know goldman is kind of late to the party. do you think they're trying to talk up their own book? >> i think the first thing to mention, as a trader, timing is everything. and it's fairly questionable to just jump wholesale in to stocks right now. if you look at some of the technical indicators, stocks do look a little bit overbought. if you lookity vix, the underlying volatility on the s&p, that's trading at around 15. over the last couple of years, that's been a real base on the vix which means it will probably pop up again, which will company

exi coa co-1k3is wi c co-exist with stocks driven off. enjoy the party while it's there. >> okay. thanks to both. they'll stay with us. and still to come, another day, another deal in the tech start up space as zynga snaps up a rival games maker. but how did m&a hold up? find out next. carfirmation. only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey, this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

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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. companies are still putting their money to work with several targeting aovers. watson pharmaceuticals is reportedly close to buying swiss drug maker to $7 billion, this would be watson's biggest acquisition since it bought aero group for $1.7 million. meantime zynga adds more games buying omg pop. it makes the game draw something which has been downloadeded 35 million times since being launched two months ago. zi

joining us to talk more about m&a is vp at intra links. matt, let's talk about it as an indicator for the economy. what does it tell us about the markets? >> as you know, intra links sees thousands of deals out there in the market where people look on leverage our technology to execute due diligence and m&a transactions. and those deals are on our system typically three to six months before they're announced or closed out there in the market, so it gives us a nice early view in to what is going on. and in our most recent deal flow indicator report, we showed a 1.5% sequential increase from the previous quarter in deal activity across the globe and that's on on that of 20% year over year growth. so it's really a sorry of two markets. early 2011, we saw a lot of deal activity and we've seen a leveling off period which i think will continue. >> so what's driving the m&a

story right now, what's making it attractive for the companies to come together? >> there's three key trends. there are regional differences. different markets are taking the lead. and there's a bit of a sector shift going on. we're seeing the back to basics and core industrial deals getting done, consumer staples, energy utilities. still tech deals getting done obviously, but they send top of the small are nature. and then the third key factor we're seeing in the market is really just deals are taking longer in the market. there's more scrutiny, there's an intensification of the deal due diligence process. >> and so we've seen volume studying, but how are values changing? >> from a value standpoint, like i mentioned tech sector, we are

seeing the piddle market deals get done who are, but in general, we're seeing just a heavier load of due diligence on these deals. there's the valuation gap that people are trying to narrow, but they really have to dig deeper in to the information on each deal to make that decision and really understand what they're going to pay and are they going to achieve value and deliver that to shareholders. >> when it comes to m&a, just how active is asia and which countries are the most active? >> terms of asia pacific, activity last quarter was actually down, but the trend for the last year and a half has been increasing asian deal activity. certainly in the more emerging markets, we see more activity. a lot of cross border deals. we even see deals within the region between mace places lik indiand indonesia. australia tending to be strong

in the core and key sectors like mining an metals where we still see chinese buyers and asian buyers in to that market. but overall, asia is a pretty volatile market around what we're seeing in deal activity, one quarter will be up significantly, and then there's sort of a restocking of the pipeline of deals and sometimes a quarter that will go down from there. >> this is stewart here in asia. in the next year or two, we are going to get the first signs of withdrawal of monetary stimulus. how much do you expect this will impact the volume of these deals? >> so again, what we're seeing in the data that we report is that deal activity has been essentially flat in regions like europe. and the united states, we've seen a quarter halves down followed by a quarter that was

up. i think the overall activity in the economy and the stimulation that's attempting to occur will have an effect over time, but right now it's a pretty sag innocent deal market. there's a lot more work being done, a lot more scrutiny, really driven by shareholders, but then boards are holding accountable more and a lot more information required and requested on these deals to get them done. so i think overall that weighs on the deal market. >> that's interest being the appetite something to follow. i want to move on to some of the other stories we're following. jim skinner is retiring after more than seven years at the helm and 41 years overall he fast food giant. he will be replayed by don thompson.

mcdonald's add healthier items while attracting cash strapped kir consumers during the recession. since skinner became ceo, mcdonald's stock is up 231%. quite a staggering about figure there. meantime, goldman sachs is going muppet hunting. lloyd blankfein has ordered a company wide review looking for any derogatory terms that employees used when referring to clients. last week greg smith wrote a scathing "new york times" op-ed and resignation letter which he says five goldman managing directors called clients muppets. in the uk, that term is slang for a stupid person. >> i would never obviously use that in a work e-mail. deutsche bank has changed the legal status so can avoid new

rules. reports say deutsche restructured the unit in february, so it's no long area bank holding company. it would require u.s. arms of foreign banks to meet the same levels as american banks. reports say the change could have forced deutsche bank to inject up to $20 billion. >> president obama will continue to defend its energy policies today. he speaks in curbing, oklahoma, home to the big crude storage facility just before noon eastern. the president is expected to announce plans to expedite permits to build the southern leg of the controversial keystone pipeline. that would alleviate choke points from refines along the u.s. gulf coast. >> and coming up next, fedex is due to post earnings before the bell. can it deliver a strong profit? we'll preview the trading day on wall street.

fairly junior soldiers are adding a new layer of insecurity to the country which is one of

the african nations. and this having an impact on randgold because the company has about 07% abo70% of its operatip part of the world and a growth program, as well. so really relying it on future growth. randgold says they're keeping a close watch on developments in marley as relates to that coup attempt and they believe the current state of affairs is calm as they describe it. the operations in the country are running normally and that they will continue to take a check on what goes on, but certainly having a negative impact on the stock. >> china's factor activity dropping off fueling once again ongoing pierce of slowing demand. manufacturing pmi falling to

48.1 points lower than its previous reading of 49.6. of note was a drop in new orders down to a reading of 46.2. the march estimate is the first real monthly data free of disportions from the chinese lieu nor near e. >> manufacturing and services activity in the region shrunk at a faster pace suggesting that the region has dipped back into recession. servi service sector also saw business go down. declines of almost 1.7% for the french market. foot city in italy down 1.5%. >> and that is impacting us in the united states, too. a quick look at the futures.

the dow by nearly 62 points, the nasdaq by 13 and the s&p by nearly 9. meantime, job last claims forecast to rise to 4,000. at 10:00, we get february leading kaindicators. fedex will result reports. we're also going to get numbers there retailers like there are general and lululemon. after the close, nike and accenture. and still with us to talk more about it, gene peroni. let's talk about fedex because people will be watching these numbers very closely for those economic indicators. what's your take? >> fedex has been looking good technically. transports have been lagging the industrials for some time now, so that's a little bit of a concern.

fedex could be somewhat pivotal. if the earnings come in well, pushing transports up so we get an improvement versus the relative behavior of the industrials, i think that would all work will this well. also, it would play positively to the outlook of the economy. so i think -- >> let's get stewart in here really quickly. weekly jobless numbers will also be in focus as we look to the march unemployment number. what's your a on that? >> the drop in unemployment from 10% or whatever the high was going back to last year, 9.3, is great. but let's remember we're still a long way off the 4% or 5% we enjoyed for taken years before the global financial crisis. i guess the point here is there's going to be a quite a think lo time before monetary stimulus can be withdrawn. >> you said something

interesting did your the break. when you look at dollar crosses, you don't trade them any more. >> absolutely. the u.s. dollar has become an impossible currency to navigate. on the dxy, there's no trends, just very random. we choose to own currencies with strong balance of payments, fult als, currencies like malaysia or career or mexico or rue ruble and we india is a classic example. and of course the yen. we take the dollar out completely. >> we're running out of time, but you are making some fantastic points. we want to thank gene who dropped off the line before and stewart as well for joining us. and that wraps it up for "worldwide exchange." thanks for watching. "squawk box" sun next.

lloyd blankfein wants answers. goldman sachs reportedly launching a company wide e-mail investigation or review following la week's scathing op-ed by a former executive. would you like a new ceo with that? that's the question. mcdonald's announcing a change at the top. we'll talk about it. plus trouble in china. weak manufacturing data giving investors reason for pause. it's thursday, march 22nd, 2012. and "squawk box" begins right now.