tv Worldwide Exchange CNBC March 13, 2013 5:00am-6:00am EDT
5:02 am
notice the location. i always like to say there is a bull market somewhere, i promise to try to find it for you here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. i will see you tomorrow! welcome to today's "worldwide exchange." i'm kelly evans. a touch disappointing. that's the word on the street after sales growth slow in the fourth quarter. shares are lower. and prudential stock is on the rise after the insurance giant raises the dividend by 16% on the back of better than expected full-year profits. plus a battle of the u.s. budget plans. senate democrats are set to unveil the answer to republican paul ryan's deficit cutting proposal today. >> announcer: you're watching
5:03 am
"worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. it looks like a touch weaker for u.s. futures. look at the action. the dow did manage just at the end of the day to eke out small gains yesterday and that means it's been eight straight days of gains for this index. can it be nine? unusual. that would be the first time in 16 years in fact. meanwhile, perhaps some cautionary signs in the nasdaq which has had a weak couple of days stretch over here. s&p 500 also ended lower and looks to give up a point or two this morning as well. 1,545 is the level there. we're down 0.2 in the ftse global 300. a lot of action in the last half hour. we're seeing the euro weakening and general sense of risk coming off the table as we head closer to the weekend. key bond auctions today as well.
5:04 am
italy going to market and we see italian stocks giving up .75 of 1%. spain down by two-thirds of 1%. ftse 100 message is consistent and there's been a lot of earnings driven disappointments this morning as well. i mentioned bond space. here's what's happening. we've been watching the difference between spain and italy. italy a rare red spot today selling ahead of the auction. one thing interesting to see is whether this differential inches closer together. the u.s. ten-year still sitting just over 2%. there will be an auction, a big u.s. auction later this afternoon to keep an eye on. let's flip over and switch on -- here's the italian curve ahead of that debt auction. 4.63% down at the far end. three-year which is often a key one to watch given what we heard with various measures taken to support shorter term debt, 2.6%.
5:05 am
now a quick check of 4x rates. it is sitting still just about above that $130 level. dollar/yen seeing heavy trading. and over here the sterling/dollar is moving higher. still below that 1.50 level. the question is after the significant weakness over the last several sessions whether we are now starting to form a bottom. for more with the japanese/yen trade and more from across asia, let's go to singapore. there's been red arrows across the board in europe. it looks like that's been the case in asia as well. >> you're right, kelly. a lot of red arrows in asia after the dow extended the winning streak they continued to lose ground as investors found no positive drivers to keep it going. sentiment remained weak after a moderation in the economic recovery while renewed
5:06 am
inflationary pressure dampened hopes. property counters and financials extend losses. railway stocks took a beating on concerns that the rail system reforms may bring in more competition. the massive debt under the old ministry of railways could be passed to public. hong hong shares drug it lower today. the sell-off was prompted by a squeeze on housing prices for the year. exporter stocks came under pressure. but shares of minikon gained toy and samsung electronic shares
5:07 am
jumped 2% ahead of the launch of galaxy s4 smartphone later this week. shares of national australia bank lost 2% today after cost cutting plan undershot expectations and india is trading lower by almost 1%. back to you, kelly. >> thanks for that. interesting to see samsung shares bid up ahead of the launch event next week and extent to which samsung replaced apple to some extent when it comes to market excitement. i digress. flashes out of the iea which in the latest oil market report is talking about how the death of venezuelan leader hugo chavez may post challenges for chinese oil interests. we have seen oil prices roughly unchanged this morning. we're seeing a bid on light crude up a quarter of 1%. brent selling off a tenth of one percent sitting at 1.09 a
5:08 am
barrel. the point here saying venezuela's oil industry faces enormous challenges from underinvestment and an oil policy that kept foreign partners waiting in the wings for serious reorganization. agreements for loans between china and venezuela provided a windfall for chavez initially but it's been disappointing for beijing. your corporate news this morning. shares are trading lower of inditex. some analysts warn of slowing growth for the world's largest fashion group. sales jumped 16% last year with strong growth in asia. the company plans to open more than 440 new stores and launch its online shopping website in russia later this year. the group also posed a 22%
5:09 am
dividend hike. for mo are you surprised by the share reaction or what is it about these results that isn't going over well with investors today? >> not that surprised. they missed slightly on fourth quarter numbers. given the share price performed well and valuation is looking relatively rich at 35% premium relative to historic averages, there had to be an upgrade on the back of where shares were already. not surprised to see shares come off a bit to reflect slowing growth. >> you said 30%, 35% valuation above historical norm would be justified by the fact you see double digit earnings growth in this group over the long-term. has any of that fundamentally changed after results and what it says today? >> nothing has changed. this is a company which has revolutionized clothing retail. model is strong. big competitive advantage which gets bigger with very high
5:10 am
barriers to entry. within the last three years we have seen growth 20%. going forward it will be 15%. that's understandable considering the kind of base of comparison becomes bigger and bigger. 6% is above their own long-term projections. that level of growth was going to be unsustainable over the longer term. that said, you are still looking at a solid growth of 15% earnings for the next few years. >> you talked about retail becoming polarized and there have been -- it matters greatly whose horse you have been on. if you had bought and sold in the last couple years you would have done great. is it time for rotation? h & m has come forward with the line in london that's more upscale. new line and other stores they are launched. massive investment. are they starting to get it? any reason why them being cheaper and underperformed investors may want to rotate?
5:11 am
>> a lot of reasons for the underperformance. it's been justified. there's a question of difference of supply chains and that goes to the heart of why they have been successful. they are close to the consumer. they leave a bigger portion of their budget buying in season to follow recent trends and keep up with where consumer demand is going. it's locked in its budget from the beginning of the season giving it less flexibility. the other point is around positioning. 5% to 10% of the product is really basic on the other hand h & m is more basic. at the beginning of the 2000s, that was a better place to be and i think the move offshore of production and deflation of input costs really helped allowed that positioning as a value retailer was cemented. we've seen inflation from input costs and the consumer is
5:12 am
looking to spend less on clothing and buy fewer items and go more into fashion. as a result i think there are some structural challenges that h and m faces as far as positioning which may prove difficult going forward and growth will be less certain. >> all that said and relative advantages that they have, it does look like they are having to do more to try to protect gross margins and coming under pressure. what is it you think that's going on here? >> i think -- of course when you've had so many years of growth and expansion, it just gets harder to grow on top of that. i think there's a lot of opportunities. if you look at the market share they have in spain of 12% -- >> it's amazing. the whole market only 12%. is that high by retail standards? it seems pretty low. >> i think it's still a fragmented market. they have been growing in spain despite economic downturn there. some other key growth markets like the u.s., china, brazil, russia. i estimate they have low single
5:13 am
digit market share. a lot of opportunities considering this is a very global product with global appeal, why can't they replicate success they've had in their own market. a lot of opportunity going forward. we are growing on a much bigger base so it will be increasingly more difficult to have the growth we've had in the last few years. >> we'll see if that keeps the floor. thanks very much. shares and staffing company adecco are trading lower. 3.4% you can see in that trade. not a good sign in terms of what it indicates for staffing across some of europe. uk insurer prudential recorded a profit outperforming forecasts. results boosted by a strong rise in the asia business which
5:14 am
helped the group increase the dividend by more than expected 16%. also a sharp contrast with the rival which cut dividend and saw shares punished. look at the reaction to prudential shares today. we'll bring it to you when we can show you. there you go. up 2% or thereabout. the ceo of prudential explained why the company continues to see strong demand in asia. >> it's about customers. we are selling products for which there is strong demand and providing for the asian middle class. you can take any statistics, 28% of the world middle class is in asia. 90% increasing middle class between now and 2014 will be in asia. so to be number one in seven asian countries where that middle class is emerging is a fantastic position to be in. >> security solutions providing
5:15 am
g4s has reported a profit drawing a line under a year they rather forget. headlights last summer after bundling a contract with providing london olympics with security staff. in an interview earlier, they thanked shareholders for their support during these troubling times. >> shareholders were supporter of the company and me in particular last year and i'm very grateful for that. businesses continue to perform well in a tough year. >> and also feeling the heat over sponsorship back to 2008 beijing olympic games. they are complying with an investigation into anti-corruption laws. earlier the u.s. justice department and australian federal police are looking into allegations that bhp provided inducements, gifts and hospitality to officials. the company says they believe they complied with all laws.
5:16 am
5:17 am
5:19 am
vigilant to keep a hand on inflati inflation. great to see you. any time a central bank talks tough on inflation, the market can read between the lines here. does this mean more tightening is on the way? >> that's what a lot of people have been talking about whether it does is anyone's guess at this point because just to put it all in context, china's central bank isn't like other central banks in the industrialized world. for example, ben bernanke can make his own call but here in china mr. zhou can advise the state council and they are in power. in china there's a push and pull within the government where you have very powerful factions who are incentivized to deliver on growth and you have people like mr. zhou and his gang who are
5:20 am
really concerned about inflation and we heard that again today at the press conference those concerns about being vigilant about inflation and he said that monetary policy needed to no longer be loose but neutral. >> what about these comments he's making about property as well. now people are starting to look and say if china is shifting its position, what matters isn't just the fact that it may be on net moving from loose to neutral or maybe to tighter monetary policy but how it chooses to do so. what does the initial reaction seem to be to the property measures announced and do you expect them to go more down that route or toward raising interest rates? >> well, at this stage a lot of people are talking about how he is talking about targeted measures again to try to rein in property prices. no matter how many measures we have seen the government slap on housing prices, people love to
5:21 am
buy new houses because they don't have anywhere else to invest. a lot of people are trying to find ways around these new measures. you probably have heard that there have been couples who have been getting divorced in order to try to evade this 24% capital gains tax on second houses. >> a great point and one that reminds you of bubbly periods from other markets around the world like the u.s. maybe within the last couple of years and demand is usually a sign that the market is off kilter. thanks very much this morning. and market reaction to that was broadly a sell-off across asia and now turning to russia, president vladimir putin has chosen a woman to be head of the national bank. she served as economy minister
5:22 am
from 2008 to 2009 and the first female central banker for a g-8 country. she'll take over from an inflation fighter. it should happen in june. the appointment raised questions about the central bank's independence and concerns kremlin will push for looser policy. we want to know what you think of the measure. is it a significant one for females, for the g-8 or for russia's monetary policy. send us your thoughts here. if you are just joining us, these are your headlines. italy prepares to test bond markets with its first long-term auction since a rating downgrade from fitch. spanish retail giant sees shares dip despite reporting solid profits and senate democrats tee up to reveal their own budget plan. straight ahead on the program, can the dow close at a high for a record ninth day? we'll preview the u.s. trading session when we come back.
5:24 am
today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities.
5:25 am
5:26 am
winning streak in 16 years. what does it all mean? chad, will it happen and does it matter? >> well, in the short run we could run a little bit further. our s&p target for the time being is about 1,575 based off a liquidity drive and economic numbers that have been coming out that have been somewhat better than expected. >> it's interesting that you are actually cautious here. you say there's $113 per share built in for this year and not necessarily achievable and that market have overrun and you mentioned the dan greenhouse point that we're well above moving averages on all of the indexes ripe for a pullback. >> right. i mean, look, we've had a very nice run within the financial markets. the problem is that the baton has to be passed from the liquidity run rally to an
5:27 am
economic and earnings story. s&p earnings expectations are 105 which is well below s&p earnings estimates for the street of about 113. now, we are seeing the global growth story that is hampered by the european slowdown with our expectations for gdp to actually contract in europe by a half percent or even more. there is some -- >> i was going to say the dow and s&p are all global indexes at this point at 40% of sales coming from overseas but i wonder given what you're saying, we've seen the nasdaq sit out of the rally the last couple days and signs this is getting tired. what's an investor to do. you don't want to buy in at the top. are there ways to play this market where you don't necessarily have to sit in cash? >> as a value driven equity
5:28 am
investor and that's the portfolio that we manage, i would like to the tech names, technology names, tech sector is somewhat undervalued and you can find many companies that will consistently grow and be well capitalized. one to name is cisco systems. below ten when you net out cash and it's consistently growing and profitable and if you get better than expected earnings there and a little bit of a drift on economic growth over 2013 and 2014, you could do quite well. >> we'll leave it right there. chad, really appreciate your time. now, of course we're waiting on the papal vote. we may find out if the next pope has been elected. looking in the corner there, forget the market levels. we want to look at the sistine chapel at this point waiting to
5:29 am
5:32 am
exchange." i'm kelly evans. european stocks dropping with all eyes on italy as it looks to sell up to 7.25 euros in debt in the first long-term bond auction since a fitch downgrade. a touch disappointing after sales growth slow in the fourth quarter and a battle of u.s. budget plans. senate democrats are set to unveil their answer to republican paul ryan's deficit cutting proposal today. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. usually we wait on the market open. today we're waiting on the smoke coming out of the chimney over the sistine chapel as you can see there is it going to be white or black? white smoke is a sign that the next pope has been chosen. last night after the first day in which the cardinals gathered,
5:33 am
the smoke was black. by all accounts it would seem more likely we would get more black than white smoke otherwise it would be a quick decision in a race without heavy favorites. i can't believe i'm putting a papal selection in those terms. as soon as we see smoke one way or another, we'll bring that to you and see what happens this morning. the next vote may be in 90 minutes time. first time that we're watching the sistine chapel today but not the last. let's look at what's happening in markets. u.s. futures are pointed to open lower. just barely. we're a touch in the red. 14,372 for the dow. nasdaq has been underperforming the last couple days. the question is whether the dow will make it nine straight. s&p 500 still just below those nominal highs. today could have trouble trying to reach them. so how do you make money in these markets? here's what some of the experts have been telling us on the program this morning. >> the short to medium term you
5:34 am
could say maybe something below 144 and then after that technical analysis is after that you'll look at lows of 2009 which is sub-140. nobody wants it to go sub-140. >> as far as brent is concerned, it will hover around $112 a barrel level for much of 2013 and it has gone up above 110 where it was recently but it has come back down again and the reason for that is demand growth is fairly okay. it's not terribly exciting. it's slightly less according to opec but higher according to iea. >> you need to lower down the capital structure. financials remain compelling.
5:35 am
it's going to be more and more difficult to find catchup names but at the same time the bond markets have rallied. >> in u.s. news, president obama will be back on capitol hill today meeting with house republicans behind closed doors. he met with senate democrats tuesday and following the meeting house speaker john boehner will hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m. eastern. the charm offensive comes as the new poll shows americans are taking a dimmer view of president obama's policies. holds just a 4% edge over republicans on who the public believes will handle the economy. senate democrats will unveil the budget plan at 2:00 p.m. eastern. first proposal since 2009. senate budget committee chairwoman patty murray authored the plan which cuts the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next
5:36 am
12 years. the plan is the democrats answer to paul ryan's proposal which claims to balance the budget without tax hikes. >> balancing the budget is not an end. it's a means to the end. the means we're trying to get to is a pro-growth economy and reviving growth and opportunity in this country and this economy. >> will there be a budget or no budget? joining us with more from washington is managing director at hamilton place strategies and former white house deputy press secretary and ben white, joining us from new york. good morning to you both. ben, first to you there in new york. look, is this all posturing? are we going to get a budget deal out of these two parties? >> no, we're not. there's not going to be any white smoke out of washington on the budget any time soon. they are very, very far apart. these are opening bids that you could have seen two years ago. you've got paul ryan who wants
5:37 am
to balance the budget in ten years. 4 trillion in cuts. and the democrats budget today is going to have a trillion dollars in new tax revenue and republicans will accept zero at this point. i think there is such a dikconoy that we'll make deals until the next general election. >> is the whole budget making process dead? if we have been making legislation on a piecemeal basis since 2009, any hope of going back to something more normal? >> i don't think so. i have been saying we need to go back and check some of the founding fathers notes. maybe hamilton and madison have a lost federalist paper that could help us out. we have a structural problem where they can't produce a budget when congress is
5:38 am
controlled by two different parties. there's nothing to compel them to produce a budget. it's nice that republicans will have a budget for a couple years now. democrats will probably be able to get something through the senate. that doesn't force them to do something together. there's no way to lock them in the sistine chapel. i think we'll continue to lurch in our budgeting at these events where we either run out of money, run out of the ability, that's just where we are. >> both sides here are pretty much sticking to the narrative that we heard from the last couple years. we're seeing approval ratings fall for the president but we're also seeing approval ratings fall for the gop led congress. who do you think has more leverage and how do we get to an agreement here where we come up with a budget that's passed and implemented? >> you know, i think leverage
5:39 am
doesn't exist anymore. ben put out this morning a story on politico talking about how the components of getting a grand bargain and getting budgeting done are gone. i think that's right. i think that's the way a lot of us felt at the end of the fiscal cliff when republicans accepted tax increases on 400,000 and above earners. the ingredients to find an opportunity to get together are gone. it's hard to see how they're going to do this. i really don't see it. i don't see the components of it. i don't see republicans accepting a tax increase. democrats are going to insist on a tax increase. and so we're really not going to get there. i think we'll do it in piecemeal form with continuing resolutions but any big efforts are really just not able to happen. >> it sounds like if that's the
5:40 am
case, forget the last couple of months of coverage of these rolling fiscal cliffs. sounds like that's what we're in for from here on out. >> i'm not sure. i agree with tony that essentially republicans gave a tax increase to the president as part of the fiscal cliff deal at the end of the year. $600 billion tax hikes on the wealthiest. they view that as over. they've done their tax increase. they're not going to do another one. democrats absolutely refuse now to do any serious entitlement reforms. i don't think there's an appetite for brinkmanship we saw in the past. both sides want a continuing resolution done that keeps the government open starting at the end of march. we get to debt ceiling during the summertime and republicans won't raise the death ceiling unless we have cuts and democrats will revolt at that. i don't think that will happen. i think they'll find some way to raise it for another year or so in a way that's not terribly
5:41 am
damaging to the economy because while republicans don't want tax increases, they also know they got decimated the last time we had a debt ceiling crisis and didn't look good coming out of the fiscal cliff and they nevada look good coming out of budget fights. it's not worst case scenario to kick the can down the road. that's what we'll do. >> you can look at this and shake your head at where we have come to without this normal budget making process, whatever normal used to be. markets continue to be at multiyear highs. we're not necessarily getting any cuts that are significant enough to derail growth in the long-term but at the same time we're not getting reform to encourage people about the budget and a balanced budget longer term but the market doesn't really seem to care completely shaking it off. >> right. which doesn't put pressure on washington to make any of these deals. that's part of the issue is that you don't get a big sell-off. you don't get a lot of fear in the market that tends to drive washington's hand. at this point d.c. doesn't do anything without a gun to its
5:42 am
head. market is not holding a gun to its head. thinks 85 billion in sequester cuts, fine. not a big deal and we're not going to have a huge train wreck down the road. it may take that big market forcing event to get washington to make a bigger deal. i don't see that happening any time soon. >> tony, maybe that's what's happened. the new sheriff is share price reaction on wall street. i wonder what at that means. if with don't expect a budget this time around, does it matter? >> look, it does matter if we care about the -- this is a $3.6 trillion government that we're trying to run here. this is no way to run a big modern economy and there are costs to it. a lot of costs are long-term. the economy is getting better. i think we have good traction in the economy right now. we'll see better economic growth than we have seen in the past. the market is reacting to some of that and not without risk
5:43 am
from what's going to happen with monetary policy going forward and other concerns. but to run a government like this of $3.6 trillion that many depend on and look to for direction, this isn't the way to do it. we need to find a way to fix it and i'm just not optimistic that we can do that in the very near term. i think it's going to take, you know, two, four, six years to get to a point where we can clear up some of the issues that we're dealing with on tax policy and on our long-term spending priorities. >> even as those long-term issues worsen during that period of time. we'll have to leave it there. gentlemen, thank you both. great to see you both this morning. president obama will meet with a group of ceos at the white house today to discuss ways to improve cybersecurity. the president will solicit input on how the government and private sector can best work together. earlier this week it was said
5:44 am
companies are increasingly concerned about cyberattacks originating from china and jpmorgan is the latest victim of cyberattacks. chase.com was unable to users on tuesday hit by a denial of service attack. the hacker activist group is claiming responsibility. it has pledged to hit several u.s. banking websites. the faa cleared boeing's battery fix perhaps setting the stage for 787 to once again take flight. we'll tell you more when we come back on "worldwide exchange." [ female announcer ] what if the next big thing, isn't a thing at all? it's lots of things. all waking up. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide,
5:46 am
departure. hertz gold plus rewards also offers ereturn-- our fastest way to return your car. just note your mileage and zap ! you're outta there ! we'll e-mail your receipt in a flash, too. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say?
5:47 am
♪ welcome back welcome back to the program. we're still waiting for the smoke over the sistine chapel to see the latest result from the cardinals gathered there to elect the next pope. last night it was black smoke meaning no decision had been reached. if it is black smoke again this morning, there will be another vote in 90 minutes time. it's not unusual or it would be unusual to get a result this early into the process. it's expected to play out over several days and they're a good 15 minutes past schedule at this point. we'll keep an eye on it. here's a look at today's other top stories. returning to profit in the
5:48 am
second half of the year for cathay pacific. shares down about 0.4% there. standard charter is keeping headquarters in london despite concerns of the eu bonus cap and how it will impact the competitiveness in recruiting and keeping talent. they prefer to stay in the u.k. here's what he said to reporters in hong kong earlier. >> remains the case that we have no plans to move from the u.k. obviously as we have said before we have an obligation because we get asked this question by investors to review and understand the tradeoffs of being in the u.k. and we keep doing that. we keep reviewing it but our preference is to stay in the u.k. and we have no plans to do
5:49 am
otherwise. >> we heard the same on the program earlier this morning. if you're just joining us, these are headlines. italy planning to test bond markets. and senate democrats tee up to unveil their own budget plan a day after republicans pledge to balance the budget in ten years. coming up, it's a big u.s. treasury auction in focus later today. we'll check out what to expect from that and other things happening in the market. what about the retail sales report? we'll be right back.
5:52 am
the faa has signed off on the battery fix for the 787 dreamliner. the new battery pack is designed to minimize the chances of a short circuit. it insulates the cells better and has a new containment and venting system and the dreamliner has been grounded worldwide since mid january costing boeing $70 million a week. shares have been resilient in light of this. the oldest u.s. consumer protection group is urging ftc to open a probe into herbalife. they concluded an investigation is the best way to determine whether the company is a legitimate business or a pyramid scheme. can't decide whether to say
5:53 am
herbalife. shares are down 2%. lost 14% of value in the past quarter. dell agreed to let southeastern asset management see a list of who else owns the pc maker stock. they've been a critic of the $24 billion buyout. it owns 8.4% of the company and last week asked for access to dell's books and records to build a case against the buyout deal. dell shares responding up about 0.4 in frankfurt trade today. the u.s. department of agriculture offering a sweetener to lift the troubled sugar industry amid a drop-off in prices. according to t"the wall street journa journal", they are considering buying 200,000 tons of sugar to halt defaults by processors. manufacturers borrowed money in october. since then sugar prices have dropped 18%. analysts say the rescue deal
5:54 am
could benefit companies that turn sugar cane into granulated sweetener. frankly the federal government doesn't have a lot of funds to spare. what do you think about the sugar bailout? e-mail us at worldwide@cnbc.com. february retail sales out at 8:30 a.m. eastern expected to rise half a percent with or without autos included. also at 8:30, february input prices and 10:00 a.m. business inventories followed by monthly budget statement at 2:00 p.m. ironic timing getting that we'll get the budget statement at the same time. a pair of retailers report results before the open. they are express and men's wearhouse. it could be one of three auctions in the last year to come in with yield above 2%. it's going to depend on what happens over the next couple of hours. we're sitting at just over 2% right now.
5:55 am
2.01 in fact. italy is expected to pay higher borrowing costs when it sells up to 7.25 billion euros and four different bonds in a couple minutes. the auction is the first long-term debt sale since a c d credit downgrade last friday. 4.65 on the ten-year yield moving higher across the curve today. we have head of fx at bank of america merrill lynch. great to see you today. we just mentioned italy. yields are moving up. euro under pressure today. how relevant is europe to the u.s. trade? >> well, i think before all is said and done it will be relevant. in the near term u.s. markets have been resilient to what's been a pretty decent turn in trend for european peripheral debt but so far u.s. equities have held their ground well in
5:56 am
fact. they have been quite strong. so as of right now, no, they are not really playing on much of an effect on u.s. markets. >> i think what a lot of people are trying to figure out is the dollar's role in this. when you look at the charts, what is it telling you? is the dollar strengthening here? a warning sign? >> the most interesting thing is we have seen a breakdown in the correlation between the dollar and the traditional risk off/risk on regimes that have been prevalent since 2007, 2008, where the dollar is moving higher very much on the background or in the backdrop of risk taking in the u.s. even though there are signs of risk off in other asset classes such as european peripheral markets. looking at the commodity markets, they have come under significant pressure over the past several months so the dollar seems to be moving more on the story of continued
5:57 am
outperformance of u.s. markets. >> speaking of that outperformance, we turn our attention to the bond space. we look for that ten-year auction today. does it go off with a 2% yield in your view? >> well, i suspect that the trend for rates is pretty decently to the top side from a yield perspective. if you look at u.s. tens, a run up to 215. notwithstanding today's auction which could put pressure on treasuries, the path is for higher yields, which is interesting because it's very, very different than what you see in europe. the trend for european yields if you look at german yields is still very much to the downside and you have seen a sizable breakout in the u.s. german ten-year spread to significant wides and a path we could expect to see u.s. yields continue to outperform their german counterparts over the medium term. >> which would suggest a better outlook for the u.s. i want to circle back to brent
5:58 am
as well which you see under pressure still oil maybe again offering some relief ultimately to the world's consumers. >> if you look at brent, it would make a push down to 104 area or $100 a barrel before all is said and done. what's interesting about brent if we widen out for a second, it's not just brent. it's a lot of industrial commodities like base metals. if you look at price action in copper, it's been horrid to say the least. you focus in on brent and people are talking about what's going on in the u.s. with respect to wti, industrial commodities don't look that constructive. >> interesting story to piece together. great to see you again. thanks for your time. we're still waiting on the smoke over the sistine chapel. for now that does it for us on "worldwide exchange." we'll send you to "squawk box"
212 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CNBC Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on