it's the auction we've all been waiting for. spain is set to sell two and ten year bonds. analysts warn it's not yet time to celebrate. china central bank promises a series of stech steps to boos liquidity trying to steer the economy towards a soft landing. >> and another repsol asset and

reportedly seeks another international partner for ypf. >> and in the u.s., two major banks are in focus today as bank of america and morgan stanley get set to report first quarter results. >> you're watching worldwi"worl exchang exchange". coming up, find out about dunzy holds the answer to the the presidential election. at 11:40, we'll talk to a man who is rolling with the stones. and we break nokia's highly anticipated first quarter results at 12:00 cet. instant analysis who says the mobile maker is on the brink of failure. christine. >> bourse here looking a bit mixed today, a bit uncertain given we have the spanish bond

auction coming up, so that's a key test of risk appetite. it's a mixed session across the region. take a look at what's happening in the greater china markets. pboc has pledged to inject liquidity into the market if it came up to the crunch to easily liquidity. nikkei 225, shanghai composite is down, pretty much flat. financials got a boost on the report by the liquidity in-jek, so helping to take away some of the down side in this particular chinese market. the hang seng is up 1%. we had of course some of the insurers leading the way stabilizing premium gains. gains capped ahead of the spanish bond auction. nikkei 225 is down 0.8%. the weak yen helping to reduce some of the losses. kospi town 0.2%. australian market is up 0.3%.

hopes coming from stimulus coming are from australia and china help to go support this particular market and the sensex continuing gains after the cut of 50 basis points. still trading this particular market. how does your heat map in europe look today? >> equity markets are higher. plenty of green behind me. if we look at a regional basis, it shows that we're higher by about two-thirds of a% right now. that's on a regional basis. on an individual market basis, it's quite variable really. the equity markets here in the uk, ftse up by 0.6%. the dax higher by nearly 0.6%, the cac has been stronger, while the equity markets pretty flat so far. of course all the focus if spain will be on the pond markets and we have the auction of two and ten year debt. we'll be all over this as we go through the show. a couple guests coming up to

give us a preview of what we should expect and what the numbers will mean. but the equity markets in spain pretty flat. also keeping a close eye on the shares of nokia, as well. the stock has fallen hard recently, particularly when the company warned just the other day that they are going to report a loss the first quarter figures due out a little bit later this morning, we will have extended programming so we can bring those numbers straight to you. but now we know that the figures will look pretty bad. lots of focus will be on what the ceo believes will be the turn around -- results of the turn around strategy, how quickly we can expect the company to come out with positive numbers. so do watch out for these shares as we get a bit further into the trading day. but back to the bond markets, that auction of spanish two and ten year debt will be very much will in focus through the morning. ahead of that, the ten year debt in germany is about 174 right now. in spain, while we were looking at levels of over 6.1% for the

yield on the ten year, currently trading at 5.78% ahead of that debt auction a little bit later on, so watch very closely what happens to this number. the 12 and 18 month t-bill auction was deemed to be a success. the yields certainly weren't a good deal higher, but the demand was strong so aen in a positive light. in italy, the ten year 5.44%. and in the uk, ten year guilt is at 2.15% around that level. the euro against the dollar still trading in this very narrow change in the low 30s. euro just edging higher against the dollar. dollar yen, dollar adding 0.3%. 81.48. the aussie dollar, 1.0371. we had a peaspeech from prime

minister to position abothink a on rates. and sterling back over 1.60. now, as i mentioned, that key auction of spanish debt expected to rise today amid the ongoing concerns about that country's ability to honor it financial obligations. treasury issuing up to 2.5 billion euros in two and ten year pondbonds. the results will be published around 10:40 cet. julia has a look ahead. >> well, the auction is going to set the tone of the markets. with a we heard on tuesday was far more about domestic banks. so this is a far better gauge of what the sentiment is surrounding spain right now. we'll be watching the bid to

cover, the level of demand, just whether they get the full amount away and of course the yield. judging by what's going on, it's expected to be far higher than the 5.4% that we've seen at the past two auctions. but we're 30 basis points off the wides that we've seen earlier in the week and i don't think we should did it is count that. citigroup pointed out that it is relatively small size, so it shouldn't be too hard for the markets to tie gues s tto diges. does give them a little bit of flexibility. one trader i spoke to earlier today pointed out that he believes the ecb will have made a few phone calls over the last few days to ensure we get the demand that we need at this auction. compare that to the head of the bundesbank yesterday reiterating that it's not the ecb's job to get involved in individual bond markets. i think that makes accepts. we're not seeing widespread risk aversion and funding markets have improved here. ultimately it feels like we have to wait for the data and this is just one risk event.

maybe seeing yields at 5.5%, even 6% is just part of the premium we have to pay while we wait for that data to come through. beccy, back to you. >> so let's give it more color on what we're looking at came. senior market consultant joining us and also our guest host. thank you gentlemen both for coming to speak to us. what do you believe is the situation in spain, the 12 and 18 month earlier this week seemed to be taken positively. what will the ten year tell us? >> different matters entirely really, the2 and 18 month cash management instruments. but i think as julia suggested, the auction will go okay today. set up for success. relatively small size, prices more attractive, enormous political pressure i'm sure, let alone the ecb as you suggest,

and also special factors in paver. these bonds are required for the repo markets, as well. so i think it's set up as success today, but i don't think it tells us as much about the medium term. >> what is the reality of the medium term? >> the spanish government hasn't used its first hundred days a terribly fruitfully. one of the main headlines has been the performance shortly after the fiscal target immediately, 5.3% deficit tar get. it will being ticket to rein in the regions. so those are the the challenges. and massive private debt problem in the financial and nonfinancial secretator. >> mark, would you be so

pessimistic about the situation in spain? >> i think the interesting thing is that what happened last year was that all the northern europeans who have been putting their excess savings into the southern european bond markets called out and they basically recognized that they would get paid back by the spanish government but not in euros. it was a currency panic. i'm just interested to the extent that we have he's auctions what we've seen for the last six in months is effectively the ecb has been giving money to spanish banks who obviously don't have a currency risk to buy spanish bonds. i'm interested to the sent anybody outside of spain is going to participate in these auctions now and going forward. so that's a liquidity issue. and we shouldn't overlook the fact that there is a private

sector solvency city. so we shouldn't think that solvency is a problem for the government nor the fact that there's a sole venks civency pr the private sector or banks. and first off is this just still on sort of emergency drip feed where spanish are just recycling money themselves and we shouldn't confuse the fact that there is a longer erm privager sector. >> the bulk will be domestic. but you summarized it perfectly. it will move towards we think a meeting of the cardinals as you might describe it that we've seen so much of the european eu

ministers. and whether more supply of long terminally liquidity, it's clear where the bundesbank stands and the ecb is now saying it's over to you governments and you better get your act together. so don't expect any help there in the near future. >> i'm wondering as we talk more about these bad loans that you talk about in the banking sector, is there a distinction to be made between the regional banks and community banks? >> that is where the problem lies probably more so than the national banks. we saw this morning that spanish property prices fell 7.2% year on year and that gets straight to the problem in debt and bad debt's increased by over 8%.

>> we have to say good-bye to you unfortunately, but thanks for coming on. for more on the spanish bank auction and what it could mean, do head to our website. jim cramer's written a piece with worth a read there. in its new global financial stability report, the imf says european authorities must take steps to avoid an uncontrolled sale of bank assets that could do serious damage to asset prices, credit fly and economic activity in europe and beyond. that's a quote there from that report. is this one of your concerns,

mark, that the imf has highlighted about its deleveraging that could get out of control? >> i think that was the story the last five years, wasn't? it's been taking place since 2008 and last year we had will this sovereign debt crisis, but it wasn't really. it was the fact in my rue that the european banks came off the life support. the europeans moved into the slot to take a long term u.s. assets. whether aircraft releasing or property, et cetera, and they funded it with very short term borrowings, which is fine. the u.s. money markets were supplying short term borrowings for long term. this time a year ago, it was actually the at the time were lending almost all of the money to fund the u.s. operations. when qe-2 stopped, they needed

to find that soft term funding. and that's what happened last sift, they had to find liquidity somewhere else. and that called the ripple effect in wider european markets. the european banks have been selling off those assets. and that does call disrupts in markets. it's not something that's may just about to happen. it's been the situation that we're living lieu. one thing i would say, though, is that the imf and many other people, regulators, the worst thing that happens is when they suddenly discover moral hazard and say you've got to cut your -- and then they create forced selling. >> we'll leave the topic there, but plenty more to talk about. imp says it's managed to secure around $320 billion of funding commitments to help fight the eurozone crisis. poland, switzerland and a number

of other countries have pledged financing following similar moves by japan, sweden and denmark. the fund targeting at least $400 billion in commitments. >> and on the subject ofly quisity and more money over in china, we got another signal that the central bank is ready and willing to help out the liquidity challenges. >> that's right, quoted an unnamed central bank official as saying the pop's bank will cut the reserve requirement ratio to boost liquidity. he said it was all in the name of searing the economy toward a soft landing, but that moves would only be made at an appropriate time. data shows that china'sbank left lending surged in march. the stronger than expected

credit data has led some analysts to wonder whether the pboc will ease lending. they outperformed ending the trading day in green, but mainland listed counterparts edged lower since the timing of the rrr cut remains grag and ruled out near term interest rate cuts. >> is it just a matter of time before more liquid tid is iity injected? >> i think what the pboc are trying to do is planning their banking system. remember, their banking system suddenly got thus into the spotlight three or four years ago when the western banking system blew itself up and they suddenly had to inject lots of liquidity in to their economy in

order to keep the ball rolling if you like. now that obviously leaked out in areas particularly the profit sector and all the statements has been to say we do not want a bubble appearing in the property sector. they're trying to keep the system working, but not allow -- this is really what they're doing with the rrr. trying to manage the situation. and somebody pointed out to me -- >> can will they strike that right balance? because you can't ensure that all the liquidity they inject don't end up in the property market. >> they're moving effectively liquidity on one hand and really having to impose semiquantitative restrictions on areas where they don't want to go. so almost capital controls. somebody pointed out to me that the two numbers to worry about

are five and seven. they want inflation below five and growth above accept. if they worry about either of those, then they'll have to act and raeld pot the just the monetary levers, but quantitative restrictions and maybe even price controls in our areas. we will have a soft landing in china i believe, but a soft landing in china isn't necessarily good news for the people who used to be selling into the old china. that's the most important this for me, china is changing and actually just because it doesn't have a hard landing doesn't mean that the previous people that were selling into that old export model are going to prosper. >> okay. keep on to that thought, mark. we'll come back to you in a little bit. we have breaking news from the

philippine central bank. interest rates holding steady at 4%. benchmark lending rate is at 6%, but the bench a mark borrowing rate is at 4%. so keeping that steady. the balance of risk to inflation is leaning toward the up side. philippine central bank says inflation expected to remain lower. half of the target range. and it also says the are prospects for domestic economy gradually strengthening. so this is some of the suv coming out from the philippine central bank right now. >> also comments about the impact of the ypf issue. we've been interested to know what bit leasers think about the moves by the argentinean government to take control away

from repsol. saying this issue doesn't affect the company's latin american plans and it would take some time to resolve. we'll talk lots more on the show about this issue. and if you look for a bait on who will win in france's presidential election, look no further than the town of dunzy for the likely outcome.

a poll indicates that president sarkozy could be on his way out. survey shows the socialist candidate hollande beating sarkozy in the first and second rounds of the upcoming election. village of dunzy has a reputation in france for mirroring national voting habits, having not only backed the correct winner in every election since 1981, but also the runners up. so what's the mood in dunzy? stefane joins us.

>> only 11670 residents, but it has a big reputation for each of the presidential leaks in the last 30 years, voted exactly hike the rest of the country, pave years ago sarkozy won the election, but also the 12 candidates in the first round came out in exactly the same order as they were at national level except for one of them, that's enough to build a solid reputation and why all the media are looking at this very small village of dunzy located south of paur ris. i caught up with the mayor of the city and the question of course is to know who he thinks will be the winner on sunday. >> translator: i have the feeling they will vote like the majority of france, which are will are probably be for fran swa 4hollande. opinion polls are roughly locating the same thing.

>> obviously the population of this very small village is not an exact copy. but it's not totally disconnected from the economic reality. the crisis is of dunzy, also. two companies working for large groups, one producing it for coca-cola and mcdonald's and another manufacturing umbrellas. they have been hit by the economic crisis. with that, i send it back to you. >> let's get into this topic more with mark. what doesn't does it make if we an the leadership in perhaps? >> this is a year where potential shifts in many

countries. raising taxes, et cetera, will change if he does get elected and he does deliver on that. because remember, there's a lot of campaign rhetoric and a lot of actual reality. if he does deliver on that, then there will be a number of pekts on french companies and individuals. and we've seen what's happened in argentina and the whole globalization where everybody was assumed to be in favor of free markets and return on capital, et cetera. equity in-veft tors aren't having to take a reality check on that. so, yes,s potentially quite shig, but it isn't just when he win, it's whether he follows through on the rhetoric.

because there is the economic really i. >> we'll take a quick break. still to come, though, we'll get into the story around brazil, which is slashed interest rates and bringing them close to an all-time low as it tries to vee v revive an ailing xi.

headlines came the auction we've all been waiting for, spain set to sell two and ten year bonds. analysts expect solid demand but warn it's not yet i'm to celebrate. >> in asia, a series of steps to boost liquidity part of a coordinated effort to steer the economy towards a soft landing. >> brazil's central bank slashes interest rates and signals further easing may be on the way as it tries to revive growth. and in the u.s., two major banks are on n. focus today as bank of america and morgan stanley get set to report first quarter reports. argentina looking for a partner for ypf.

the looking for a $10 billion investment. paper suggests china's sinopec and see mook anook are the prim candidates. reports that madrid tomorrow will impose imports. joining us to discuss the issues, chief emerging markets economist at capital economics. and neal, what do you make of these moves? seems to be driven by political motivation, domestic political motivations. what does it mean for international investors some. >> the broader context is that the model that has served argentina so well since 2001 is starting to unravel.

in the immediate wake of the devaluation, argentina benefited from massive improvements. price of its exports rose. government able to run loose policies. and doesn't really matter that the economy was generating inflation was the currency was still cheap. that's all changed now. the currency is expensive, the government still can't borrow any great quantity from abroad. so the economy started to sit the buffers and that praems the whole context for the ypf dispute. the question going into elections at the end of last year was whether or not the government would change tact, move toward orthodox policies. there was a growing sense that they might. obviously recent events have

born that out. >> should we expect more of the sa same. >> ypf was always a special case. they've been very vocal and critical for a number of months. i think ypf is probably a special case. and more generally, argentina is a special case and i don't really see this as any kind of broader move. >> brazil has slashed its benchmark interest rate to 9%, sixth straight cut by the central bank.

reading some of the the capital economi economics, particularly focused on the property mar chet which i believe you feel is overvalued by as much as 50%, there are problems being stored up. >> it's quite remarkable. brazil was the darling of the markets and suddenly the economy hit the buffers in the second half of last year, stagnated. and i think the broader problem again, problems in the growth model. they've had a consumption that's been driven by commodity prices, very easy credit. and they've had to supply side the economy to basically stagnate. we think the property market could be overvalued by as much

as 50%. credit growth looks too strong and the economy very vulnerable. >> this is christine. coming from asia, of course we have the big emerging markets here like china and india, as well, india a couple of days ago go cut interest rates by 50 basis point, china saying it will boost liquidity into the markets if the need rose. what can emerging markets in latin america learn about emerging markets here in asia about conducting policy? >> i think comparisons es with asia, brazil is almost the mirror image of the problem in the asian economies. so we have in china the economy is based on price savings and p

investments. in brazil, low savings and high levels of consumption. and really china could do -- raising investment and rebalancing the economy away from excessive levels of consumption. >> and we have another part of the region we want to get in to. the head of the central bank is likely to raise rates. i started by asking him whether he's concerned about accelerating inflation. >> expectation for the year is 2%, 2.8. and we expect to finish the year with 2 about.5%.

demand and growth are will be below that potential with the potential 6.4%. >> what kind of level of growth would cause an inflation headache for you? >> the gap is now pretty narrow, so growth of more than 7% would probably be of a concern. >> rates have been on hold for some time now. just looking a bit further ahead and thinking the fed and the us, for instance, are giving many more indications on their long term strategy, how do you see rates in the long term? >> a reduction in the general

rate, expecting 50 basis points of action. now they're expecting more to remain on hold this year. next year we're expecting growth of 6.3%. so hard to say. but of course we're mandate to keep price stability. in that sense, we see signs of inflati inflation. >> let's get back to neal for his thoughts on peru, as well. speaking to, they were talking about the importance of maintaining growth, but not letting inflation take hold in that country. wig commodity story. but what do you think the e headwinds across the rest ofth

the region? >> the interests hinge about peru and bazzal is the tabout b which they've benefited from the china economy. if they matching to engineer a soft landing, i expect growth will slow over the course of the next 12, 18 months or so. but it would be a moderate slow down and there's plenty of scope for policymakers to adjust. >> we have to leave it there i'm afraid. thanks very much for sharing those thoughts with us. we do have the results of the spanish bond auction it willing t hitting the wireses. results coming through with bid to cover ratio at 3.3. last auction, it was bid to cover of 2. so the longer dated bond, as well, the ten year, which is where a great deal of the attention was set, the bid on

cover ratio was also increased by a smaller margin, 2.4 is the bid to cover. the last auction, it was 2.2. so they managed to sell 1.42 billion euros of the 2022 bond, that ten year. and 1.12 billion euros on the two year roughly speaking. well proceed the 6.1 we were looking at earlier in the week. so selling -- total quantity of bonds just beyond the upper end of the upper end. let's get a quick comment from our guest host on this. how do the figures hook to you.

>> they look pretty positive to be honest. as we were decidings, this is effectively domestic recycling of the ltro phone. spanish banks are playing a nice spread, buying the spanish government bonds. is will there enough liquidity, yes. is there appetite, yes. so it will be the noise that rumbles in the background, but it doesn't hook might look anyt the prices that we saw last year and ultimately is the spanish government going to be able to fund its borrowing problems for the year. i think clearly yet. whether it's 10 or 20 basis points is really not a big deal inside -- it's important for the bond trader, but for the wider

world, there isn't an issue before it's well covered. it can and will continue to be funded, but doesn't get away from the fact that the span, economy is a mess. policies in place in order to try to get spain to con porm to essential essentially the way the bundesbank wants it to be run will only make things worse and of course what we're now seeing is a lot of the spanish banks are selling off their pride assets in lat ten america in order to fill the hole. >> we're getting the average yield coming lieu now for the 2014 bond. average yield at 3.46% which is actually below last time. last auction was 3.49%. the ten year bond, average yield

is at 5.74%. so ticking up, but not by a huge amount. so the markets are reacting pretty polly to this news. the bid to cover was stronger than last time around. average yield on the two and ten has -- sorry, on the ten year has ticked up to 5.47%, but only from 5.4% on the two year to 3.46%. which dropped from the last auction, as well. >> ought to be good news for asian markets tomorrow hopefully. we're focusing in asia on january piece exports. expensive few imports have knocked the trade balance back

into definite sis. >> you can trace the deficit back to the twin disasters a year ago which was more expensive energy sources. march imports were up more than 10% thanks to fuel shipments. in fact for the fiscal year 2011, imports jumped 50% to a record high $66 billion. and while good ports also staged a surprise gain, figures were less glowing for the fiscal year. china's exports to debt trouble to european countries fell. this year the trade deficit is expected to shrink, but the strong yen remain as challenge for exporters. in other news, bank of japan vice president is hinting that the central bank may move toward additional easing at its coming policy meeting next week.

says growth stimulus and financial support is needed to defeat deflation. that's all from the nikkei business report. back to you. >> for more on japan's challenges, we're join theed by martin schultz. martin, always good to have you on the show. what do you make of this pick up in exprts, while at the same time imports picking up, as well, because of this surging crude prices? >> the important point is of course the k3 port side. exports have basically stabilized and picking up toward asiand at u.s. in the u.s., machinery from japan were needed. asia is following on that with the u.s. being the engine here. china is more or less, investment demand, still very strong which will is helpful, but they're affected by the southern part of the european crisis, exare the fors, northern

europe is much less affected. so the picture is pretty good from the exports side. imports of course are terrible. >> if crude price as continue to go up, to what extent will that kill off any pick up on the export side? >> it's not killing the export side so par in asia. this really depends on how overall inflation trends are going, how the central banks are reacting. they're not going up overall, it depends on the investment figures. this is good for parts suppliers, overall the trend is not too bad. japan has to import so much energy because the nuclear power reactor is off the grid. >> we have expected taations of boj easing any time soon or does

this delay any sort of easing? >> oversea, meaning out of japan, there have been high expectations on the bank of japan going more into inflation arrest getting, the bank of japan is clearly under high pressure from the government side, also has to do something on the the economy. but as always, it will do this accept by step. it skipped another expansionary step between the last meeting. this meeting might do something again. but as long as the japanese yen is not strengthening again way beyond 80 to the dollar, i woopts expect too much coming from this side. >> what are the chances of that happening? we had a guest yesterday who said he saw dollar yen at 85. what's your outlook? >> i'm more on the opposite side. when you look at yield gaps in particular towards the euro area right now, where much of the shift globally are, we had for

the first time, well, as long as i can remember now, two year bonds in germany yielding less than in japan. this is a strong indicator that the euro might be weaker this year towards the yen again. this hurts profits of course of japanese companies. andle also push the yen potentially quite a bit higher. >> martin, thank you very much for your thoughts. always good to have you on. martin schultz, senior economist talking to us live in tokyo. coming up, 11:40, we'll talk to a man who rolled with the stones and we break nokia's highly anticipated first quarter results. instant analysis with one expert who says the mobile maker is on the brink of failure.

third debt auction of the fiscal year will be held tomorrow. analysts say the government's goal to raise well over $70 billion for the first half of the year depends on how well these auctions perform. more live from mumbai. >> it is going to be the third bond auction in the third successive week for the first half of the borrowing program, a

front loaded program where like you mentioned around $71 billion it is possibly, 60 to 65% in the first half of the fiscal. two bond auctions have been completed already. the first bond auction which was over $3 billion, nearly $4 billion, there was a slight bit down to where yields on the ten year spiked up quite considerably on the back of that. however, it was the second auction up around $3 billion which was completed successfully and yesterday -- or tomorrow, rather, there is another auction which is around $3 billion which is going to come up for sale for government paper. now what basically stands out for this auction is the the fact that this is the first time that the government is going to sell paper of around 50 basis points, so all eyes will be on the yield. on the ten year, however, for today, it's a bit of -- we've

seen apup trend on the ten year since yesterday. there was the cpi consumer price index numbers or inflation numbers which have come in at over 9%, so that basically helped in hardening the yields and currently the ten year is sitting at around 8.36. so it's going to be a big day for the bond markets tomorrow. let's see what we did with the $3 billion debt auction. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. with north korea still stinging from criticisms over its botched rocket launch, india has successfully tested a new long range missile of its own. it's nuclear capable with a reported range of more than 3,000 miles. only israel and permanent urn security council member hes are believed to have such long distance weapons. but india's test has attracted little criticism from the west. chinese leaders however have

voiced their disapproval. bid to cover pretty strong, but the yield had to increase is the basic outcome of that. the spread is what we're looking at here between the spanish and the german ten year debt, it has been widening as we can see, 5.8% roughly for the spanish ten year right now in germany yields edging lower. impact on equities in spain, ibex touched three elowers. i know that you believe as an equity investor that it's wrong for people to seem that what's going on in the bond markets is the ultimate indication of how the underlying economy looks. what's your approach, what's the opportunity you see as a result of that mismatch? >> one of the things that we have to say is that the bond

mark market, this idea that the bond market is smarter and the equity market is stupid. the bond market is all about the technicalities of the bond market, it's not about inflation, it's not about what's going to happen short term interest rates because they are being moved to set their policy. you're not buying bonds to expect a return, you're buying bonds to avoid a risk. so what equities have to do is take a step back and look at the world and what i would say is we see china is slowing but not crashing, but it's changing massively. the u.s. is a surprise on the up side and we shouldn't overlook the area of growth. if i'm an equity guy, i've got very different moving parts of where people are buying and selling stuff that i want to be

exposed to. but as an equity investor, i have to remember that the discount rate, not what it's going to earn, but what i'm going to pay for it, they're an important factor, but not for my earnings, but how i'm going to pay for those earnings. so a different dimension there. >> we still have a whole hour of program to go go and jackie is here from the states. >> good morning. top of the agenda here in the states are bank of america and morgan stanley's results. we also get earnings before the bell from three dow componentses. so we'll be watching that closely.

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welcome to the show. headlines from around the globe this morning, here in the united states, two major banks in focus today, they get set to report first quality results. >> spain sees it borrowing costs go up. trades at three elows after those results. >> and in asia, china central back promises a series of steps to boost liquidity. part of a coordinated effort to steer the economy toward a soft landing. >> and argentinaed adds insult to injury as it takes hold of

another repsol asset and reportedly seeks another international part per for ypf. so now we're looking at the french debt auction. they have sold at 7.97 billion euros of bonds, that was towards the top end of the range. the yield on the 2014, average yield was 0.85%. 2015 debt, 1.06 debt. 2017 debt, hooking at 1.83%. but it really was the spanish debt auctions which grabbed the attention today. yields creeping up withere. the auction in spain with a pretty good bid to cover ratio. yields on the ten year debt in france, 3.03%.

1.73% is the yield in germany. ftse 100 is up by 0.5%, similar moves to the up side for the dax, 0.4% and 0.5%, cac up by 0.7%, while in spain, we have seen fresh three year lows since we got the results of the debt auction there. down by 0.2% right now. jackie. >> looking he u.s. futures here, we are seeing some positive momentum in our markets, as well, seeing the markets looking like they'll open higher at will point, the dow could be higher by 51, the nasdaq just slightly lower by one point, and the s&p 500 up by just about five, will this after we saw a selloff yesterday, some profit taking. so see something risk on back in the market. investors getting back in and

looking to buy u.s. equities today. meantime, bank of america reports first quarter results at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. the company is broadcast to earn 12 cents a share on $22.5 billion in revenue. bank of america has seen improving credit trends which should also be reflected in mortgages. but weak trading could hurt b of a's invest the banking business. also would impact morgan stanley, as well, which reports at 7:15 a.m. analysts expecting earnings of 42 cents a share there on revenues of 7.3 billion. investors have been lowering expectations. let's take a look at how he's banks are trading right it now. we're seeing that we're slightly higher on b of a, about 0.8%. morgan stanley lower by about 0.6%. >> so while morgan is stanley's stock may have dropped in recent weeks, bank earnings so far have been pretty strong. jpmorgan has beaten

expectations, first quarter coming in at $1.31. dividend announcing a share buy back of $15 billion, as well. citi also beating expectations. the epf for the q1 coming in at 0.95. citi, you may remember meredith whitney was pretty down beat about citi. said that she was very unlikely to change her view on this company. the earnings came caused her to reverse her call upping citi after its result. pandit, as well, warning about macro uncertainty. this keeps cropping up even when companies are beating. goldman sachs, as well, $3.92. boosted by investment banking. so three strong sets of banking earnings so far. but just to reiterate the numbers that we're looking out for as we get further into the week, morgan is anly, bank of america, also the blackstone group coming out with its figures, as well.

>> ellen, let's talk about some bank numbers. your thoughts on the banking sector. >> i think earnings season has come in better than expected overall. and sometimes i wonder is it because expectations were lowered enough and that's why we're surprising. but first quarter was good. it was strong. we had a rise in equities. global financial conditions did ease and that is always very supportive especially in banking financials. and then you mentioned earlier about boa seeing better credit conditions. default rates have come up especially in the household sector and that will help businesses like bank of america. and so clearly we're past the time of the jobs losses in the

financial sector, at least the significance job losses. it appears because we did create jobs in financial sector in march, i believe about 8,000 jobs or so. and so things do seem to be a little bit brighter for the the banking sector. probably tied again to the gist just the fact that global financial conditions are not as roiled as her last year around the summer months. we still have hiccups here and there as european debt crisis is still sort of a cloud out there. >> and that's what i was going to ask you about. so appears the u.s. fundamentals are getting better and that's definitely a positive sign, but certainly in the last few weeks, the concerns over the eurozone crisis popping back in to the market. so do you worry about how that could potentially impact the banks throughout the rest of the year? >> i think that goes back to the guidance. so getting earnings that are better than expected, but the guidance doesn't seem to be brighter. and i think that's because as you point out, the european debt crisis has not gone away, shows that conditions can ease and

then suddenly flare up again at any moment. so i think it will keep execs on their toes especially in financial institutions about being cautious on the outlook going forward. >> this is christine here in asia. i'm wondering for the banks, when european banks are scaling back, is there room for american banks to pick up some of the slack? >> there's always that opportunity. just djust depends on how much they want to take advantage of that, how much confidence do they have in the economic outlook here in the u.s. growth has been coming in better than expected in the u.s. the first quarter probably grew around 2.5%. that's much greater than the beginning of the year, economists were expecting around 2% or less. but again, the outlook going forward is a little tenuous especially with the election this year and later this year

with the fiscal cliff looming for the u.s. we may not get, you know, such an upbeat assessment there u.s. banks on the outside, as well. >> a great point. ellen, we'll leave it there, but she'll stay with us and offer more insight throughout the show. meantime, still to come, a programming note. morgan stanley ceo james gorman will be on squawk on the street at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. and if you want to know who are about what to expect from the big banks ahead of the earnings reports today, head to our website and you'll find out why hedge funds love to hate morgan stanley. meantime, black rock ceo larry fink says the company may be forced to move business if moody's follows through with its threat next month to downgrade big u.s. banks. telling the "new york times" that black rock customer contracts require a minimum credit rating level for counterparties. moodys says that it could cut the bank's rating three notches

to two levels above bank status. fink doesn't understand the motive behind the actions. and american express profits rose 7% as customers spent more on their credit cards. am ex-says card delinquencies or late payments fell as did the percentage of bad loans written off, but the company is still setting aside large cash reserves to cover loan losses four times more than did a year ago. american express slipped in after hours and frankfurt right now, we're watching just above the flat line right now at 44.39. >> let's turn back to what's going on in spain where we had the auction earlier this morning. we brought you the yields there which have crept up. we're looking at 5.84% now on the ten year yield. the fwoid cover was pretty strong, though, but of course they're having to pay the price on this. lots of discussion over how stage managed will has been.

nick earlier said he didn't think this was indicative of the true situation in spain at the moment. plenty of you agree with that, as well, just looking at some of the comments coming new on twitter. you can follow me on twitter at beccy meehan and let me know exactly what you think. peter says this is the usual european fiddle and fudge and we also have a xlepts coming through as well saying this is stage managed as a broadway production of the lion king. just adding to this view that we can't just look at the results of this auction and draw any further conclusions on what this means. but let pea know what you make of all of this. follow me @beccymeehan. julia is in madrid and is taking the pulse of what on this means. >> thanks, beccy. as understand, the bid to cover looks good, the amount was in line. in fact the ten year yield at 5.74% tighter than where the secondary market is trading. i think that he's an important

point as as you said, there's a lot of suggestion that this was stage managed. you remember earlier i said that traders i've spoken on said that they thought the ecb would be ringing around to make sure the demand was there. i do want to point out that they were 30 basis points off the wides that we saw in ten year yields on monday. and while that tighten has been going on, we have had a number of information out of spain. imf didn't expect spain to meet deficit target for next year until at least 2018. we've had the central bank confirming that spain is back in recession and that bad loans among the banks are now at 17 year highs. so the bond markets at least have dealt with that really well. i think we have to look at where some of the news has been taken more badly is in the equity markets. we're making fresh three year lows and i do think that's something that immediates to be considered. ultimately, though, there's a lot of data and a lot of information that we still have to get from spain and that's just into going to take team to feed through. ultimately where the bond markets are concerned, i think

maybe we have to accept that the new trading raenk ofnge is what premium that has to be paid while we wait for that data to come new. for now, though, in spain, it's back to jackie. >> thanks so much. i want to bring ellen back in and get her reaction to the bond auction in spain. it does sound like there was good demand, but below 6%. so it doesn't sound too bad at least for the moment. >> no, doesn't sound too bad. certainly that's not a worst case scenario, but as julia mentioned, yields for spain have been in a tight range holding higher. maybe that's just what they'll be saddled with for a while. but of course that spells trouble down the line as debt comes due and the government has to pay those high rates. i would say any estimates that come out of spain, push it out. i always am kaept cal when governments release including our own estimates of when we'll

be fiscally in better shape because you usually they're made on lofty projections. it's difficult for spain to get out of the hole and grow especially with so much fiscal consolidation. >> ellen, how much pain do you think there is still to work through the system in spain? we've been talking about the extent to which they still have loaded bank debts on the books, 17 year highs. it seems that until that works through the system, there's still going to be lots more trouble in the fundamentals of the spanish economy. >> i think that if you expect spain to be weak for quite some time being then you're probably getting in the ballpark of a correct forecast or assumption, if you will. unemployment rate is so high in spain. and really when you have a pull back in government spending, government investment, that miss

cal consolidation, it just adds to the drag. and if we were to draw a parallel to here in the u.s., or really any developed nation growing out of financial crisis, you have the first few years of public -- or, sorry, private sector debt pay downs. so balance sheet repair for households and businesses. and then after the first few years, inevitably the government kicks in. you have to have a balance sheet correction for the public sector. and so that then picks up where businesses and households left off and further depresses growth out into the horizon. so you're talking about a good ten years or more of balance sheet repair typically following financial crisis for these developed nations. >> all right. thanks so much for that, ellen. ellen will stick around with us. utive director and senior economist for the u.s. for now chris setine over to yo. find out how the chinese central bank is planning on boosting liquidity.

let's's gee heed and start here in the united states. see how the futures are shaping up as we set up for trade on wall street. looking like a higher open at the moment, dow could be higher by 48, nasdaq slightly lower by

2 and the s&p 500 up by 4. will of course after we saw selling pressure yesterday, profit taking. the dow down nearly 83 points. of course the u.s. markets reacting to the tech earnings. off the highs of the sessions for sure. in spain, the ibex moving down by merely half of a percent. that after we had the spanish debt auction. they got as much debt away as they wanted, yields can creep up.

focus for you is on the outlook for business and what he has to say about how long he believes it will take to turn around the company. the stock has really collapsed. down about 50% or so since february of last year. quick check on the bond markets. there's also a french auction, as well, which got away okay, but we were looking very closely to see how the spread was shaping up between the spanish and the french debt compared to the german debt. we have seen those spreads narrowing since we saw spanish debt over 6.1% in the past few days. the ten year in germany is at 1.73%. spain, 5.85 right now.

5.53 for the italian debt. uk, gilt is at just shy of 2.2%. we saw a bit of an impact on euro as a result of that spanish debt. euro ticked higher initially. currently coming off those levels 1 about.30, 1.37. euro has icontinued to stay in narr narrow trading band. dollar-yen at 81.45. aussie dollar 1.0373. the prime minister in australia appears to be in a speech today giving a nudge to the rba on start thinking about moving the rates. and sterling at 1.6049. christine. >> all eyes are looking at spanish bond auction today especially ear in asia and ahead of that auction of course, markets closed pretty mixed.

so we will get some reaction in the bond auction tomorrow from asia, but in the meantime, this is how the picture is looking. the big story coming out of china was a report apparently that the pboc has pledged to inject liquidity in to the market if the need arises nap gave some support to the financial sector help to go cap some of the losseses in this particular market which was down on profit taking. remember we had stellar gains yesterday from the chinese market. the hang seng up 1%. we had strong apitem this of course, nikkei 225 down 0.8%, weak yen pushing some of the falls. bond auction caused jitteriness in the japanese market. kospi off 0.2%, hopes some of sort of stimulus coming from china and domestic economy. the rba giving a little lift to the australian market and the sensex continuing to put out gains. remember, two days ago we had the rba cutting base points. still continuing those gains. speaking of china, over in the country, we've got the another signal of course as i mentioned

from the central bank that is ready and willing to help out italy liquidity challenge economy. tracey chang has more details for us. >> quoted an unnamed central bank official saying the people's bank of china will step up repo operations and cut the bank's reserve requirement raesh i don't to boost liquidity. he said it was all in the maim of steering the economy toward a soft landing. but these moves will only be made at the appropriate time. data shows that chinese bank lending surged $160 billion in march. the biggest credit extension since january of 2011. the stronger than expected credit data has led some analysts to wonder whether the pboc might actually slow the pace of easing. now let's take a look at how banking shares reacted to the news. they outperformed in in hong kong ending the trading day in the green, however, their mainland listed counterparts inched lower since the timing of the rrr cut remains vague and

the news report also basically ruled out mere term interest rate cuts in the near put. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. well, that's it for me. i'll be back tomorrow with news moving markets here in asia. >> hang thanks, christine. still to come, u.s. investors eyeing existing home sales numbers. we'll talk trends with a top realtor in one of the hardest hit markets. [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network. a living, breathing intelligence helping business, do more business. in here, opportunities are created and protected. gonna need more wool! demand is instantly recognized and securely acted on across the company. around the world. turning a new trend, into a global phenomenon. it's the at&t network --

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sglin investors get fresh data on the housing market today and how the spring selling season is shaping up. forecast to rise 0.4% to an annual rate of 4.61 million. joining us from phoenix is president of team investment thes. tonya, i want to get your take on the numbers before we get them this morning. you do see a little bit of an uptick here and this is an encouraging sign, correct? >> it is. anything in the housing market that is encouraging is good and, yes, i did did expect the numbers to be up a bit. investors are diving head first into the markets. they see the opportunity. i read a statistic the other day

which i really liked, 73% of americans believe now is the time to buy a house and eefr 50% think that rents are going to continue to increase. so this really is the it time for an investor to get into this market and make some money. the conditions are just right. so i think now is really the time. i read another statistic that in march, prices were up 5.8%. so we are seeing up trends in this housing market. >> we've also seen mixed data coming out, as well. this is a major head wind to the u.s. economy. going to be important what happens with housing. when you look at the sector jfrn generally speaking, many expecting this year will be the bottom, do you take that stance? >> i think we're bouncing on the bottom. i do think that we'll see

another wave of foreclosures and short sales. what i think will even that out is that we have so many investors in this market coming in that the demand is greater. so i don't think we'll see a dip in prices. what i do think is we'll see more homes being sold. which is a great thing. what we need to take into consideration is we are in a global economy. so what happens in spain really affects us. we have loads of investors coming in from across the world to play in this market, so we need to understand that we are no longer just a small market. this is a global economy and a housing market is a big part of that. i wanted to ask you a quick question. what is the difference to you, the main difference between existing home sales and new home sales. new home sales seem to still have trouble competing. is it just the lack of that

investor component in the new home sales market? >> we have to look at the overall picture. builders were hurt because they were not land baking. they have numbers that they have to meet for their investors. and they really couldn't land bake with that money, so they don't have the land to build the product that they were once building. the other thing that we have to look at is we have so many homes on the market, we need to rid ourselves of this inventory first. but i did read a statistic that new home sales are projected to be up to 324,000, which they were at 303,000 last year. so new home sales are will rise a little bit if these numbers are correct. but it won't be to levels that we've seen in the past. so i think that will be a trend that we will see maybe in 2013 and 2014 where builders are starting to be able to get that land again and build and get permits. but permits are very stagnant and the product that the the

builders do have at least here in arizona is really moving quickly because people want these houses, people want this product, they see the opportunity. it's a nicer product than it's been in the past because the older homes have been fixed up and are being resold. and the current homes really are not old. so it's a great product to get in and buy right now to buy and hold. flipping is not the game right now. >> all right. thank you so much, tonya. a lot to watch out for when comes to the housing sector. coming up on the show, ban k of america and morgan stanley results both due today.

welcome to the show. headlines from around the globe today, here in the united states, two major banks are in focus as bank of america and morgan stanley get set to report first quarter results. >> spain sees solid demand on its longer term bond auction, trades near a three year low. >> and in asia, china central bank promises a series of accepts to boost liquidity, all

part of a coordinated effort to steer the economy towards a soft landing. 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. does look like it will be a higher open at this point. in fact if you look he dow jones, it could be higher by nearly 46 points. nasdaq slightly lower by about 2 1/2, s&p 500 higher by 3 1/2. this after a selloff yesterday of nearly 83 on the dow. we did see selling pressure, some profit taking after those results from ibm and intel. that's sort of what triggered it. s&p sectors, financials hits the hardest, consumer discretionaries the only sector to close higher. beccy, how is it in europe? >> boarses oig off the highs of earlier in the session. we did see also in spain after the bond auction, the equity

markets new three year lows. 0.3% higher for the dax. smi managing to add about half of 1%. it was in the bond markets where we had action this morning, too, during the show where we had results of the spanish bond auction. actually get away the two and ten year bonds that they had hoped to and bid to cover looked pretty strong, but we did see yields on the ten year higher than last time around, looking at 5.82 right now for the yield. so certainly below the 6.1% or so just it in the past few kay, but certainly elevated nonetheless. compare that to the bund in germany, the yield on the ten year debt is standing at 1.73. pushing 1.74. so very significant spread there between the german and spanish ten year debt.

>> meantime, we still have ellen here with us, executive director. i want to get a quick read on how the markets are trading. one day risk on, one day risk off. investors get profits and then they pull back a little bit. do you expect to see that trend continue as we move forward or do you think we've corrected enough and will may still be a rally ahead? >> we've been seeing an increase in volatility, some of that coming in european debt concerns that have risen to the forefront again, higher oil and gas prices are sort of once again taking a little bit of a back seat to europe as a risk concern for the u.s. i think during any earnings seasons, markets tend to get ricked around because you don't have uniform good or bad earnings across the board. and also the u.s. data has been coming in mixed. we get good data points and one that just really disappoints and surprises like earlier this week, housing starts data was a

surprise to the down side. so i think it just creates a little bit of volatility. but fundamentally speaking, the u.s. economy is on firmer footing. we talked earlier in the show about how much will just the u.s. outlook drive equities and how much will europe debt concerns still continue to impact. if it were just about the u.s., then fundamentally stronger growth in the u.s. might tell us equities will do well this year. but i hesitate to make that judgment, one, because thankfully i'm not paid to be an equities analyst. i would hate to have that job. but, two -- >> it is a thankless job. >> could i probably say that about being an economist and forecaster, as well. but you still have europe, china, world economy means we can't just concentrate on u.s. growth to drive equity markets. >> and it absolutely a great point. our next guest will be with us, he says that he's overweight equities especially in the financial space. joining us thousand in fact is rob morgan, the chief investment

strategist at fulchum securities. you heard what ellen said in terms of her take on the markets. we've seen good results coming out from the financials. you are still a bull in terms of the equity situation here in the united states. and you're overweight in the financials. so break down for me a little bit. >> i heard some of ellen's comments. i would agree with what she's saying. i think the fundamental u.s. economic backdrop is good. that's going to be good for stocks here. and this year as opposed to last year, i think investors are realizing that you're exposure to europe, even if the european economy just falls off a cliff, our trade with europe is about 1% of gdp. so ultimately that's not going to move the needle here. strong earnings are going to drive us here. and in the short run for u.s. stocks, i do think we're will in a bit of a consolidation phase. we could be in a sideways market for a bit, but that will just be set the stage for healthier

latter part of 2012. >> but in your opinion, biggest headwind right now for the u.s. economy still europe, you're still worried about it? >> of all the global concerns, jackie, yes. i mean, we've got to keep an eye on it. but for the most part, i think we're through quite a bit of the worst of that. an as i said before, investors in the u.s. are beginning to realize that even if bad things continue to happen in europe as far as the debt crisis goes, it's not having a huge himpact n u.s. earnings. >> all right, rob, we'll leave it there but rob will stick around and give us more of his insight. and of course ellen will stick with us, as well. mean sometime lots coming up on "worldwide exchange." how mother nature influenced our next guest to make a major career change. this award winning musician who has played with the likes of the rolling stones decided to put his life long obsession for all

things green to good use. how chuck lavelle turned that passion into a real and transformative cause. 

this sunday marks the 42nd

anniversary of earth day. it was created to promote global awareness in response to environmental issues. this year the movement says it's talking about sustainability, it's not just that anymore, it's no longer an option. and they aim to mobilize people around the world to pressure governments to take strong action to protect and conserve our environment. and joining us now is chuck lavelle, co-founder of the mother nature network, grammy-award winning artist. his latest book is called growing a better america. chuck, great to have you with us. fantastic work you're doing with your website. you're focusing on environmental news and also information. and bringing it in a way to the consumer where it's engaging. but you also have a lot of corporate sponsorship behind you and you're looking at corporate issues on how these companies can be more sustainable. let's dig into that a bit. >> sure. it's going beyond just environmental concerns into social responsibility, personal

responsibility, corporate responsibility. and i think it's notable that so many companies these days are making and have made major changes in their actions and improving the way that they're using energy and so forth. so i think we're seeing some better times. >> and obviously over the course of your career and your interest in it this subject, you've followed a lot of these companies along the way. how much have you seen that change say in the the last ten years where companies are really focusing on incorporating these initiatives in to their business practices? >> quite a lot. i think it was former president clinton that said we'll tackle these problems when it's good business to do so. and it is becoming and has become good business to do so. these companies can save energy, they can save money by saving that energy. and they can change these behaviors in a way that helps hair bottom line. >> and are they doing, though, just to help will the bottom line and to get consumers to buy into their cause or because they do really believe in it in. >> it's absolutely both.

>> chuck, do companies make real changes or do you think there's an incentive really for companies to do kind of a pr exercise around being green without making any fundamental changes to how they run the business? >> we know that green washing is the term that's used for what you're talking about. but i think for the most part, at least the companies that are working with us are sincere and they are absolutely making changes for the better because they want to. but also again because of the bottom line. >> this year we have the political election and voters decide who they want to be president and they pretty much dictate things. have we seen that at the company level, that this is really shareholders have become more green and so they're demanding that of their companies? >> it's an interesting question and i think will is to a degree some pressure from the shareholders for companies to be

more responsible. but it's also the executives and people at the top of the ladder that are making he's changes. again because it does affect the bottom line in a positive way. fortunately i think it's escalating and it's accelerating to where these changes are being made more and more and faster and faster and that's a good thing. i suppose it does help to have some notoriety as you suggest, but i like to keep these things separate. i'm not a fan of entertainer takes get up on a season box when they're supposed to be acting or when they're supposed to be playing music. i think entertainment should be entertainment. but to come on this show, which

is a great livaeat privilege, tr having me, is a great opportunity to talk with these issues and to celebrate earth day. >> thank you so much for coming on the program. he's the co-founder of mother nature network, grammy-award winning artist and touring member of the rolling stones for 30 years and of course his latest book out growing a better america. spain has seen its borrowing costs rise. julia chatterly joins us from madrid. >> thanks, beccy. the bid to cover looks good, the amount was about in line with what we were expecting. the yields were higher than what we've seen in previous auctions. but that was expected. and actually on the ten year, the yield we got of 5.7% was lower than where they were trading in the secondary market. so it was a solid result, perhaps a better or at least a different signal of the sentiment right here going on in the equity markets, though,

where we're at fresh three year lows and in particular the banking stocks down by around half a percent there, what's weighing on the index. and of course it follows 4% losses in the ibex index yesterday. certainly skepticism but who is getting involved. just what impact that has on the banks and valuation ultimately, though, this is just one auction and we do have to remember that. a lot who are going on here in spain and still to come, beck you can oig, back to you. >> thanks very much, julia. so argentine in a reportedly looking for a partner as it looks to nationalize the ypf company. bay sinopec is one of the prime candidates. spain expected to ask the eu to register a complaint to the wto over the plan.

madrid will tomorrow impose limits on imports of arregentin began goods. and preparing to seize a gas company opened by ypf. designed to expand the object. coming up next, the trading day ahead on wall street. plus nokia reports qe 1 earns. can they convince investors it is capable of a turnaway. we'll get a first look at those numbers and instant analysis. don't go away.

we've got weekly jobless claims out at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. forecast for drop by 5,000 to a total of 375,000. then at 10:00 a.m., we get march existing home sales expected to rise 0.4% to an annual rate of 4.61 million. also at 10:00 a.m., the philly fed survey is out as well as march leading indicators can will are forecast to rise. in addition bank of america and morgan stanley reporting earnings. and also from three dow component, dupont, travelers and verizon. others include blackstone, southwest airlines and union pacific. after the close, we'll hear from microsoft and amd. and we'll be speaking to james gorman about the bank's results at 11:00 a.m. so make sure you tune in for that. five minutes later we'll hear from john donahoe after ebay beat expectations last night. but before that, we have former

ecb member to discuss the eurozone crisis. so a great guest lineup here today. and still with us is rob morgan, chief investment strategist at fulcrum securities. i want to talk to you about the day ahead. a lot of data points coming out, jobless claims, a lot of earnings. so your expectations today, futures obviously pointing to a higher open. >> i'll certainly be looking at weekly initial jobless claims. those tend to be market moving. and then of course the two big banks, bank of america, morgan stanley. and bank earnings have been pretty good. wells fargo, jpmorgan, goldman sachs all beat. citigroup disappointed, but i think those may be issues specific to citigroup. so we don't have actually estimates for bank of america and morgan stanley, but the trend has been pretty good here. so hopefully those two will continue to deliver on that. >> and i just want to bring in

ellen, as well, and talk about the jobless claims today. what are you expecting to here, any positive signs in terms of the picture as we move forward? >> i think it's pretty easy to get a drop in claims today. they have been very volatile. every year around the easter holiday. today's numbers will be especially closely watched because they do cover the same week that the bls surveys for april payrolls. so lots of times investors will take that as an indication if claims dropped during that week, then it means a strong payroll report. but going nord, clamts have been dropping their at their low he is since early 2008. and that he will its us at least that layoffs in the economy are running at very low rates. it doesn't always tell us a whole lot about how much jobs we created, but it does tell us that at least companies feel comfortable with their level of payrolls and they're not laying off more. >> so potentially some positive signs there. rob, i just want to bring you back in and shift back to equities for a second. obviously some disappointments on the tech side of things.

we've seen tech being strong this year. your it tatake on that sector. >> we're neutral on the sector. i'd like to see it get cheaper before i went to an overweight on it. but our favorite name is apple. and there are some shorts starting to develop there. i think that's actually a positive development. but overall, tech tesector neutral. >> all right. thanks so much to rob morgan and also to ellen settner. nokia due to report its first quarter hours. its share price has fallen by more than 80%. that followed procht warnings. joining us is telecom analyst. peter, we'll get more from you you after those numbers come out, but just quickly, what are you expecting from the company this time around? >> i don't know if you're aware, but nokia have already released

a limited amount of their results. they've already admitted that shipments are down 23% in the last quarter and issued a profit warn which go they said that their margins will be down 3%. so they're already warning us that it might be bad news. but we'll wait for the results to see how bad it is. >> and that's it for today's show at least here in the united states. i'm jackie deangelis. >> we do have more coming up for our european viewers. do stay with us because after the break here in europe, we'll bring you those nokia results live.

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good more than. the letter of the day is e for earnings. and the economy also europe, three main themes driving the global markets. we have them all covered, it's thursday, april 19th, 2012, "squawk box" begins right now. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. earnings dominating the markets and it will be a busy day. i hope you guys are ready. a lot of numbers cg