hello. welcome to today's "worldwide exchange." >> italy and spain trade higher. investors wait to find out if weak economic data will force mario on draghi. >> the new japanese governor boosts the bank of japan asset purchases and is government bond buying to over 7 trillion a month. allegations hit up to $12 billion in losses are wholly unfounded as reports say the bundes bank has launched an

investigation. and tensions in korea remain high. but the north has ordered the withdraw of the south korean staff from its key industrial zone. you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> we're back. >> i'm back. >> two hours, two people. >> and we've had the latest. >> these are not like the good old times, by the way, at least not in the case of france. >> the pmi lower again. so eurozone services pmi right now, down to 46.4 in march, 47.9 in february. >> which means deeper --

>> 46.9. >> so we're down almost a point and a half. that is not a good sign for growth if you consider how much these act for a leading indicator of growth and even for stock performance. >> yeah. i was looking for the actual composite. i haven't got the composite number yet. have we got that up? we'll look for that. i'll bring that to you in just a moment. >> i'm going to guess it's below 50. >> the flash is 51.51. >> interesting the italian one showed a couple of signs of perking up and the specation index was up. so we are definitely seeing some pressure. mario draghi, we'll look at the reaction, not liking the pmi data. under 28 now, it's important to watch that one this morning. >> meanwhile, the back drop is the ecb delivers its policy decision today against the back

drop of news of the eurozone. jules is in frankfurt. jules, how much discussion today on the economy? as we see that pmi data, how much is the fallout on cypress and what it means for the banking sector? >> ross, i think it's fair to assume he will be grilled on cyprus. given what we've seen this morning, what we've already seen, the softening of inflation, whether there's some acknowledgement of the language that he uses. he expected q1 to be weak. a lot of this news is what was also predicted. the question is, does he open the door for further rate cuts down the road. the consensus overwhelmingly is no change for interest rates. investors are concerned about the possibility of their flight. but as we just said, cyprus is

overwhelmingly going to be the key. i just spoke to the key international economist of deutsche bank. he said draghi is going to do the best to distance himself from that cypriot bailout deal. it's going to be very interesting to see how he deals with this and is separate himself from the comments made by the euro chief. the other thing he'll be asked is about cypress being a template for future bailout deals, expecting to reiterate what we've heard from the ecb. i don't think we can spicket him to deviate much on that. the other thing, of course, capital controls. what is he going to say about capital controls? have to assume he'll say it's down to a sovereign and he'll stand with the ela liquidity. it's going to be an interesting

q&a session when we get knit a few hours time. >> we'll keep an eye out for you. get warm and we'll be back out to you. in the meantime, we want to ask viewers, wa do you think about the ecb cutting rates? head to our website, tweet us, @cnbcworld. let's hear from stephane deo, from ubs. welcome. >> good morning. >> let's start out with the ecb. to ross' point, do you think this is more about macro weakness, more about cyprus? >> i think it will be a lot about cyprus. what we have in cyprus is a precedent and the question is whether this is the template -- well, we don't know precisely. and if you look at the market reaction, what is very interesting is the spreads have not widened. the market is very relaxed from the cyprus deal.

>> relaxed? >> i would say so. basically, the market is telling you you're cutting the link between the band and government. so you don't protect the government, but you're much more worried about banks. that's the topic for the ecb i think because that means that the financing of the bank will be much more difficult because markets are pricing the risk now. >> and that in itself is going to hurt performance in terms of the broader economy going forward. >> definitely. and i think that to think about all the countries in southern europe. there is a lot of funding to do. if you put more rates into the funding, obviously, the rates will be higher and etcetera, etcetera. that, again, will move into the credit crunch in southern europe. >> where does that leave us with the deficit plan? are you saying economic growth

will be weaker than expected? >> in spain, yes. you know there's a negotiation going on right now between spain and the european commission. and the commission wants the 5.5%. the point is simply when you do a fiscal tightening, which is being done in spain which is very risky, and you have a credit crunch at the same time, your economy is affected very badly and then the impact of your fiscal tightening is not that big. >> everybody has come out and acknowledged that the supply is wrong and we have no way of adjusting it. they come out and acknowledge this and can then keep piling on the same medicine. i don't understand. >> no, i agree with that. and i think what you would like

to do is extend it at the end of the day so that the gpd doesn't collapse. if you have at the same time the fiscal tightening -- >> banking group. >> or growth. growth would be great right now. >> not just the ecb, the bank of england is expected to hold back today when it holds its meeting on expanding qe. despite the fears britain may be headed for double dip recession, the central bank was given leeway to ignore targets or massage them slightly. the current bank of england's governor mervyn king boasted at the meeting, but some expect no change in policy until mark carney takes over. we have services pmi coming out, as well, in about 20 minutes, stephane. what do you expect from the bank

of england? >> we expect nothing. i think the jury is out. we'll see. it's very difficult to forecast, as you know, because each one is independent. so it's very easy to imagine the situation where they do boost qe today. >> just briefly, how are you allocating assets? are you recommending uk versus european assets? are you avoiding the region entirely? >> we're still long risk for the time being. we're overweight essentially in the u.s. we're still overweight europe and uk to the extent. we are short treasury because we think there will be a sell-off which has worked reasonably well at the end of the last year. >> i'm going to jokingly start to call that the widowmaker's trip. stephane will stay with us. speaking of the bank of japan,

the new boj chief has stuck to his word and delivered strong stimulus action. chairing his first policy meeting, he pledged double government bond holdings in the next few years. it try toes stimulate growth and increase inflation to its 2% target within two years. we will head live to tokyo to bring you the latest on kuroda's first policy meeting. you can see the nikkei adding more than 2% and this follows 3% yesterday and frankly a run of 40% since abe came into power last fall. >> in the meantime, kuroda has come out with a big bank. which central banker is the better man for the job? let us snow. e-mail us, tweet us, too. >> the battle of the central bankers. coming up on the program, all eyes on madrid as spain looks to raise 4 million euros.

we'll bring you breaking analysis around 10:40 cet. and we'll be in facebook in palo alto where the new facebook operating system is set to be unveiled for android mobile devices. >> and we will go live eoul. >> now, north korea, as we said, has blocked workers from a jointly run park. meanwhile, they're ramping up their own defenses in the pacific. chery, maybe you can help us sort out these conflicting reports. >> yes. those conflicting reports actually show how sense ifrly we

are reacting. north korea maintained the entry ban for workers wanting to go into the industrial park for days now. this is not the first time that the inter-korean joint venture was held hostage by the strained relations between the two koreas. coming amid all these series of harsh rhetoric and threats of violence and partially making good on this warning to shut down the complex is enough to rattle investors trading south korea and reporters who are covering the story as well as those workers at the park and government officials here in seoul. so basically, many north korean watchers are saying the regime is making all these threats to get to more recessions and more money. back to you.

>> thank you very much for that. the korean market is down more than 1%, ross. meanwhile, let's show you where we are on the european equity markets. pretty even stevens between advancers and decliners. decliners have it round about five to four. the cac cac down 1.3%. the dax 1.8%. the ftse 1100 at the moment, down 0.2%. and the ftse mib is down a peripheral, up overall 1 is%. alcatel, you can see it's up 7%. this after deutsche bank upgraded the company to a buy. it says it sees a turn around for the future of the company after recent financing and the appointment of a new ceo.

bank of america is downgrading the stock from a buy to a neutral, saying it now appears full. we've talked about the bond auctions in spain. just to see where we stand at the moment, spanish yields, still below 5%. relatively contained ranges. 10-year gilt, 1.74%. we were up about 2.2% at the time we lost the aaa rating in the uk. on the currency markets, we saw euro/dollar down to session lows. 1.2791 is where we stand at the moment. dollar/yen is the one we've been watching post the bank of japan. here we go, dollar up against the yen, 95.47 is where where he stand.

sterling seems to have a lot of support around the 1.50 mark. that's where we stand right now in europe. let's get the latest, all the update on the trading day in asia. li sixuan joins us from singapore. >> thank you, ross. nice to see you. the nikkei yet again stole the show here in asia. after the boj announced a fresh easing, japanese stocks paired down early weakness to finish higher by 2.2%. the japanese yen, as you just mentioned, weakened sharply against the greenback, now trading above the 95 handle. exporters turned into positive territory in the afternoon session. financial stocks, mizuho financial rallied today. and the realistic counter among the best performers with its subindex boosted by reflationary policies while the country ames to meet its 2% inflation target in two years.

elsewhere, south korea extended a four-day losing streak as chery mentioned amid escalating tensions with the north. automakers under pressure given the relative strength to the yen. hyundai motor tumbled 5% and over the% respectively after announcing carbon calls in the u.s. in australia, the asx 200 ended at a two-month low. resources continued to lose their sheen on weaker commodity prices. banks were broadly weaker. india's sensex now on the move trading lower by 1.3%. elsewhere, volume pretty thin as china markets closed for a public holiday. back to you. >> sixuan, thank you very much for that. we're going to take a quick break. in the meantime, check out a couple of stories online. including this one, online currency has surged. the virtual currency has surged over 300% in value over the past

several months. but not everything that glitters is gold. one currency analyst warns of its unstable nature. no surprise, read more at cnbc.com. if you want to have how big coin trading started, read more about that on the website. there's a special report on the bitcoin bubble. follow us on twitter, @cnbcwex. the boj chief came out pulling punches in his first policy meeting. what is the plan of attack in order to boost inflation? anyway, stay tuned to find out. we'll cross like out to tokyo. welcome to the new new york state. what's the "new" in the new new york? a new property tax cap... and the lowest middle class income tax rate in 60 years... and a billion dollars in tax breaks and incentives.

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the bank of japan has met expectations. it's announced it will stunned the duration of government bonds it buys for monetary easing. kaori enjoji joins us now on the line. kaori, tell us the extent of the plans which kuroda has announced

here. >> this is the most aggressive stimulus plan that the bank of japan has announced in recent memory. it goes beyond the scope of what the market has rang in. not only does it embark on an open ended asset purchase program a lot earlier, so not waiting until 2014, but starting now. and not only does it buy longer dated maturities, it completely changes the framework that it operates under. the overnight call rate is no longer going to be the measure for monetary easing. there is no longer a cap on the absolute amount of jgb, japanese government bonds that the central bank combines. so basically it combines two old operations, puts it under one and opens up the balance sheet that the bank of japan uses to conduct these operations. so there's going to be a lot more transparency, too, going forward. so on this is a radical overhaul

in the framework that it operates. the decision to change the framework was a unanimous decision by the nine board members which included the new governor. so if anyone was expecting some kind of dissent within the board, there was absolutely none. the only person who objected, and it was only one, and they didn't object to the framework itself is just how long that they're going to continue to do these open ended jgb purchases. eight of the nine said they should keep at it. most of the economists we've been speaking to say this could take two years. this is a considerable change that is going to be in place for a considerable time. >> we'll leave it there. thank you so much for your time. yoshita, with the amount that

the uk bid up going into this, the amount that the yen has weakened, kuroda still manages to come out and keep risk on in these japanese markets. the real question now becomes is it going to matter? are they actually going to be able to reach that 2% target? >> well, i guess what is important is the commitment of the boj that they're trying to achieve and whatever it takes, you know, boj will do the policy. this is sort of in line with what bernanke is doing in the fed and to keep market expecting more if it doesn't achieve the goal. so i think it's an ongoing process to do this. >> how significant was it that there was a sort of unanimous vote on changing, you know, the structure?

>> well, i guess the fact that the decision was unanimous increases the confidence of the market. the outcome of the policy, the announcement was very clear, easy to understand, clear in terms of the policy, what the boj is trying to do and what the boj is trying to achieve. so i guess, you know, markets will move with this going forward. that's quite important. >> i think we're looking at a ten-year yield of 0.44%. that's extraordinary, common, yushito. >> yeah, it is. holding on to jgb yielding 0.4% around there, nominal terms, it's a big question for investors. so whether investors will react to the fact that it's so much

depressed, it's a difficult question. but expectations of the monetary policy is that they're going to continue to hold down interest rates until the goal is achieved. so i guess it is a combination of continuing low interest rates and the downward pressure on the yen. those two combined is likely to lead to high equity price peps. >> stephane, we've got a 40% rally in the nikkei in the last six months. we have 0.4 4% on the japanese ten-year. what allocations are you making to japanese markets? >> we're flat on japanese markets, but what we see today i think is very important. for me, that's potentially a game changer. we are talking about the ecb, the boj, i don't expect anything dramatic. what we're seeing with the boj is really, as you say, is dramatic. and dshg. >> it's like the effect -- >> it's five, six times what the fed is seeing? >> well, yeah, it's that. and the boj is the first

building block. we have the second building block which is lowering some investor funds etcetera which could weaken the yen further. and then you obviously have the presentation in a few weeks' time. if you have this three building block at the same time, it's potentially something really big happening in japan right now. and, again, i'm not totally sure, but you see the decision today, something which is very important. >> the bank of japan actually is only one part of the leg, right? we have to get the other side, fiscal stimulus and government action. >> yeah, indeed. the combination of the three arrows of gold, monetary, fiscal and growth strategies are important. so i guess the market focus is going to move towards the policy, you know, concrete policy proposals on other two areas in budget and reports of the, you know, industry competitiveness counsel and regulatory reform counsels.

and if the contents meets expectations, you know, to improve on the outlook, then i think that the market reaction would be even strengthened by that. >> all right. good to see you. executive director for investment research, jpmorgan asset management. stephane, stay a little bit longer, if you will. kuroda came out a big bang while investors are wondering what draghi will deliver. which central bank head do you think is the better one? tweet us, e-mail or facebook us. deutsche hank has responded to a report in the ft that the bundes bank made claims it lost out to half a billion. allegations that -- more

swroefr, the investigation revealed that the investment stemmed from people without key facts of information. we have and will continue to react with our regulators fully on this matter. that's a deutsche statement. can we look at shares of the company today. we'll try to get this he for you in a second if we can. up 0.7% in frankfurt. and i think we've got some data out. >> we have. i might be relying on the producer here to tell us what we've got. >> we're waiting on the march services -- >> it's just did gone down here on the desk. 52.4, which is okay. a high since august. and that suggests we might just about skirt a triple dip recession in the uk. it's been a little bit touch ask go. >> and that leaves us above 50. yeah. and i think it's a little bit better than potentially what we were expecting. maybe we can put a sterling chart up. >> the euro/dollar is broadly

weak on the fact that the services pmi data is extremely weak. by comparison, as well, sterling give a little bit of a lift there. it's not hard to beat the data we got out of europe this morning, that's for sure. >> no. but that is essentially very good news. and it may be the difference between -- if anybody was thinking about wavering to have more qe or not, i don't know, stephane, that may just -- >> the composite 54.9 versus 50.9 in february. >> that means you're not in a recession, indeed. that could tip the balance on our expectation which is no further qe. but, again, i think it was very close. >> if there was a four or six-member of the club, that bit of data may have just -- say where i was. >> exactly. right. okay. we'll get more reaction on that. meanwhile, kel. >> the u.s. is putting the ball in iran's court ahead of crucial nuclear talks for friday saying the outcome of negotiations will

depend on tehran's ability to compromise. back in february, the group agreed to ease tensions if iran scaled back investments. >> the president of the one of the middle east's biggest hotel chains believes there are investment possibilities in the country. yusef sat down with him and he joins us now. good to see you. >> good to see you, ross. let me give you some perspective. this company has been around for 20 years. they started off with their first hotel in abu dhabi. today they operate in some of the world's most dangerous place webs including iraq and syria to mention a few. they have quite a few developments in the pipeline. of course, that includes those in iran that you mentioned and one, as well, which will be the first hotel in the country. in my conversation with the president of rotana, he told me investors are being distracted too much by what the mainstream

media is saying. he said the country is beautiful, and there's a lot of untapped potential. so i also asked him, then, is this part of a strategy to get in early and reap the rewards later? here is what he had to say. >> we invest now in time and energy and forces and then we -- yes, yes, we take advantage of that being the first in the market. >> but you also run the risk of tarnishing the reputation of r to ana. because now you're an entity doing business in iran. especially in this part of tthe world, there's a lot of unease when it comes to doing business in iran. are you concerned about that? >> not really. some people put their head in the stand and they say no, we're not. well, we know. how is this country surviving? they are doing business. today is more difficult than yesterday and it's going to be more and more difficult with the sanction. but we are a management company. we do not sell, you know,

technology. we are ideas. like an architect, we are a management company. so there's no -- >> yes. >> we are not really breaching world consensus about iran. >> meanwhile, salim told me when it came to syria, they would not close down their hotels. they owe it to their owners to keep things running and going as smoothly as possible. when it comes to the best performing conflict zone hotel, there is such a thing. for rotana, it's a hotel in the city in the kurdistan region. he does not consider baghdad as a conflict zone to begin with because he's saying it's a big city and a lot of the violence happens away from the important areas where government officials meet. make sure you tune in tonight.

we'll talk about the construction boom in qatar and what that means for the hotel industry. are we going to run there into a problem with oversupply and the potential and opportunities in countries like india and can china. so i'm guessing i'll see you tonight, ross. you will, indeed. thanks, yusef. >> it's going to be a packed program. yusef, thanks very much. still ahead on the show, italy disappointments after its highly anticipated debut. could the lackluster ipo be a sign of things to come? we'll ask alistair warren when we come back.

these are the headlines around the globe. another set of weak data in europe as the private sector more than fears. this and the cypress bailout will force mario draghi to act. the new bank of japan governor ka rode ya ushers in a new policy of easing. deutsche bank tells cnbc that allegations hit up to 12 billion in losses during the financial crisis are wholly

unfounded as reports say the bundes bank have launched an investigation. the north has ordered the withdraw of south korean staff from a key industrial zone. european equity markets didn't necessarily like eurozone pmis. we just had a good figure out of the uk. services pmi are coming in at 52.4, 51.5 was the consensus. >> and look at this. britain's equity market is down and the rest of the europe -- >> the ftse 100 is not indicative of the british economy, actually. >> interesting that an interesting statement, as well. but it's not. but the key thing is it means you can probably avoid a recession. >> a third one this time around. for another quarter, anyway. should we look at the bond space? >> yes. >> there's been a lot of focus

on the fact that spain and italy haven't been worse. across the board, we're seeing yields come down. a strange thing to see both spain and italy rallied on a day when the bund yield is dropping to 1.28. the gilt yield, 1.75%. shrugging off that stronger data. >> if you bought gilt on the downgrade, you've done extremely well. >> i think that's the case for all developed nations. in fact, you should start buying -- >> that's the buying strategy. wait for the downgrade and pile in. >> forex, should we do that? did we check the euro/dollar? weaker, no surprise the data has been weaker opinion the question is whether the ecb will act. and shares in malkin, trading higher today. this is after a concern that the european ipo won't make a solid comeback some are helping for this year. still, the ipo has been improving.

successful deals including uk state agency countrywide. the newspaper says the top ten deals this year are now up an average of 20%. outperforming the ftse all world index up 5% year-to-date. will ongoing head winds keep the region lagging behind in the global io race? let's ask alistair ward. welcome. >> good morning. >> why hasn't mulskin done better? >> look, i think it was a tough day in the markets yesterday. the overall italian index was down 1.5% to 2%. i think that's a tough day for any stock. in addition, notwithstanding the fact that the deal ended up very well subscribed and was allocated largely to investors, inevitably, you get some initial turn in the first few days of trading. we've seen that in other situations. >> why in milan do you think it's going to discourage others who might have followed had mulskin followed in i its debut

here? >> you can't judge an ipo by its trading. the first couple of days or the first week you might see some weakness and the stock performs. so i think that the choice of milan was a choice because that's where the company is headquartered. it's a natural place .it's the european center of gravity for stocks. and personally, i don't think it -- you can read too much through to what this will mean for other ipos. let's see how it looks in a week or two and make that judgment. >> the full upscale brand in the last few years. >> but they've done so well. well, actually, i'm just -- i want to say luxury still, if you can look at sectors right now. >> yeah. >> i think luxury -- where does luxury sit among everything else? >> i think luxury is interesting because luxury appeals to a global market. it's not a european phenomenon. and is certainly that's what

mulskin is. it's a global brand as well as being based in europe. and the secular growth trends within luxury are very strong. very similar to many of those other brands that you mentioned. and that's the attraction and the continued attraction for investors to participate in these types of deals. >> and i guess the question now turns to the ipo outlook. we've been waiting for more activity. i guess if you look at the numbers, we're still doing better than last year. but what is your take on how the rest of the year bans out? >> i think a lot of issuers have been quite nervous to approach the market. given the last two or three years are challenging markets. so a number of them were looking at the five or six, you know, big deals that were coming in the first quarter to see how they went, how well subscribed they were, where they trading, where they praised within the range. i think the general conclusion was that was quite encouraging. >> what were some examples, then? >> countrywide in the uk, traded

up in the range. even something in the uk, a more mainstream industrial midcap stock, still priced at a reasonable multiple and trade about 5%. there's a broad range of deals at work. i think as a result you're going to see more deals that come in the second quarter. >> stephane, a comment here? >> i think i would agree. if you look at market condition, the credit market is very tight. so you can finance your deal easily. the back stop is a little challenging and the valuation are probably close to fair value mow. it's a condition which is much more friendly for ipos. there's been not much in the past two or three years in the pipe line. >> if we're going to have a quiet period for the next couple of weeks, what is going to be the next big one to watch from your point of view? >> well, look, i think if the first quarter was all about ipos largely from the uk, notwithstanding mulskin, i think

the second quarter will be largely about deals substantially from germany. without mentioning names, i think we'll see a number of significant ones there. >> why? >> there's no specific reason. but if you think about it, given everything that's going on in europe and the underlying economic performance, there's more likely to be more issuance from northern europe than southern europe. germany was obviously a relatively strong market last year, as well. we've seen this morning the announcement that the rcl transaction, which while it is not taekly an ipo, it's a sizable re-ipo. i think that's the first of a few things to come. >> is this private equity driven or is that just one piece of the -- >> look, a lot of the deals in the first quarter were private equity driven. and i think, again, that's encouraging because there's been a difficult relationship if i might call it between private equity and institutional money managers. and the fact that these deals work and the fact that, you know, as you mentioned on average the transactions are

right performing, the underlying market. >> relations are mending? >> i think what it does is it encourages people to go for the next deal. if they trade up, it's the opposite direction. >> we will have to leave it there. alistair warren, thank you so much for coming by. appreciate it. stephane, stay right there. we want to bring the results from spain's debt action. >> 3 billion in the 2016 bond auction, a new three-year, 59 0 million in 2018, which means, on my rough math, that they've raised a little bit more than the 4 billion -- >> 4.1, 4 had.2, it looks like. >> yeah. nearly 4.3, actually. i think. is that right? >> it's still coming in across the curve. now 4.89% on that ten-year. interesting stuff. 5.5% on the 30. >> the yield for the three-year,

3.045% is what we've got there. and the bid to cover ratio -- >> 4.11% for that five-year. that's compared with 2.5% the last time. >> what do you think of that? let's bring in valentine vanyoyan. raising a little bit more than allocated than they were looking for. what do you think? >> well, i think it r689s a surprisingly resilient spanish bond market in recent days. we're seeing the yields dropping below 5% again. apparently more liquidity in the market. apparently enough willingness of investors to pick up new paper. and we've seen in recent weeks despite a surrounding cyprus and lingering uncertainty in italy that flows into bund market have more significant. i think overall, it's a confirmation of a somewhat

surprising resilient stance in general peripheral bull markets. >> yes. we've been through cyprus. what's behind this resilience? and the main component is the success of the ecb. apparently draghi's words are more convincing, more credible than we all thought when he mentioned them for the first time in last year in the summer and even when we saw the details of the omt program because at that point, a lot of people still were thinking that the ecb had to show its cards before the market would be comforted. and so far, they have not been forced to do so. and still it continues to be a very powerful force despite all this political uncertainty in europe that has reemerged. so i think that is really the

major driver. although probably in the back drop also recovery in the global economy plays a role. but given the recent signs of weakness in europe, that strength is clearly coming down. >> hello. i agree with you just one data point which i found interesting. if you look at the holding of spanish bond by spanish bank, it will be going down since march last year, which was is a surprise for me. that means the issuance in spain is not bought by spanish bank, but by foreigners. >> yeah, i think you see that more generally. but specifically, in spain, and i think that is also part of a while long known occurrence in financial markets that is still there, which is a search for yields. institutional investors are still, in a way b incentivized

to move into government bond space because they get a very low or zero capital charge on that. despite the obvious risks maybe in that area and obviously, spain and the rest of the peripheral markets are offering very attractive yield pick up compared to what you are earning on let's say g-3, government bond yields. so i think that is an important sector there, as well. as long as you think that we will not break up in europe, as long as you think the ecb is a credible lender of last resort to sovereign in the eurozone, the temptation at some point 1i678ly becomes too big for institutional investors to shy away from bonds. >> is there any potential for a cyprus exit? the program is so severe they're now going to go into depression. >> yeah, i agree and i think the risk is clearly there. but it's a bit more medium to long-term risk. we all know how short-term

focused markets are. maybe we all are. and in the short-term, i think that risk is pretty -- but in one or two years' time, i think the conditions could well be such that the temptation for cyprus to voluntarily move out of the eurozone becomes high. and that is the first time i would argue in this euro crisis that you would have such a situation. even for greece, i don't think the benefit of moving out of the eurozone were really big. but at some point, if we really get a depression in cyprus, which is more likely even than in greece, that could happen to cyprus. you about it will want happen tomorrow. >> valentine, thanks for that. stephane, you wanted to pick up on one point. >> just one thing on the cyprus deal. what has happened is the bailin from critters of the banking system in cyprus. if you ex extrapolate that to

spain, it might include some bailing of critters. that means that the government would have to put less money. so in a sense, you're saying to investors that the risky shifting from the government into the bank sector. so that is also is a little bit bizarre. but that is -- and because ultimately -- because you're saying that the government has allowed external liability. >> which is fine, but ultimately, if the banks need a back up, it has to come from the sovereign. still it's a legitimate point we're seeing that play out. >> it's from a collected sovereign of the eurozone. >> something like the esm, maybe. >> maybe something like shared neutral -- >> political unions. >> yeah. >> all eyes have been on the new bank of japan chief kuroda today. but the japanese banks management to steal some of the lime line with their 2012 profits. now this story is live from

tokyo. it sounds like we should keep an eye on these banks this morning, as well. >> yes. pushed by rising stock and bond prices, japan's three major banks are to close higher than expected profits for the fiscal year that ended march 31st. the nikkei reports that the combined net profit of the banks is set to reach $21 billion. net profits at mitsubishi is expected to be the largest at around $8.4 billion. mizuho financial group's profits grew to between 5.2 and $5.7 billion. the noishls 225 has climbed some 2,000 points in the month through march and this narrowed the bank's impairment losses. sales of trust funds have recovered, too. the fall in the nation's long-term rates has played a role, too. japanese banks are now earning largely from jgb trading as

their main businesses weakened. bank of japan's decision to step up monetary easing and expand jgb purchases will mean a lot to their current fiscal year earnings. given the boj decision today, japan's long-term interest rates dropped to a record low of 0.425%. that's all from nikkei business report. back to you, kelly. >> thanks very much for that. we just want to show people, as well, what the yen is doing. it's up about 2.5% today. so a big move on top of the weakness that we've seen. i thank stephane for being here this morning for sharing all of his thoughts from ubs. looking at that dollar/yen chart going, uh-huh, something big happening here. we'll be right back. stay with us. welcome to the new new york state. what's the "new" in the new new york? a new property tax cap... and the lowest middle class income tax rate in 60 years...

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welcome back to the program. these are some of your top stories. a court has named princess christina as a suspect in a corruption case against her husband. they produced documents stating the 47-year-old princess was aware her husband used her name and status in his dealings.

the prince so far hasn't been charged with any specific offense. 11.3 billion assets seized by authorities. 47-year-old vitro castri is also known for his holdings in wind farms and solar energy companies. italian police say the seizures includes 66 bank accounts as well as credit cards and investment funds. mr. nicastri has denied the allegations. for you to gal's government has supplied their no confidence vote in parliament as political opposition grows against the austerity drive. the prime minister warned the move has now created political instability. the country is waiting on a court ruling on the legality of the government budget plan under its international bailout. and in our view exchange of the morning, occur rode da came

out with a investment of the on day. which central banker is the better man for the job? that's the question we're asking. answer by e-mailing us, worldwide@cnbc.com. or you can tweet us. still to come on the show, all eyes are on mario draghi. we're waiting for the ecb's rate decision later today. don't expect him to do whatever it takes when it comes to interest rates. that's at least what our next guest has to say. we'll tell you what it means when we come back.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just joining us, i'm kelly evans. >> and i'm ross westgate. here are your headlines from around the world. >> the new boj governor ushers in a new era of monetary easing boosting the bank's asset purchases and doubling the bond buying to over 7 trillion. the private sector contracted more than feared as investor wait to find out if the figures and cyprus bailout will farce margo draghi to act. deutsche bank says allegations that led up to losses of $12 million are wholly

unfounded. tension necessary korea remain high, but seoul plays down the reports the north has pulled a withdrawal from key industrial zones. we have a nice rally shaping up in u.s. futures this morning. the dow trying to add about 65 points at the open. the nasdaq and s&p are pointed higher. again, this does follow a weak trading session yesterday where we started off with a weak note out of europe. it was u.s. data that accelerated the losses. it wasn't just stocks. it was a lot of medals, commodities taking it on the chin today. a little better tone shaping up in markets. if we look at the cnbc ftse global 300, the nikkei performance had a lot to do with the fact that we're only down 0.2%. japan's market adding more than 2% after that new bank of japan governor came in with measures that met and exceeded

expectations. here is a look at european markets. we're seeing the ftse in the red, but giving up some of its weaker moves. the xetra dax, the cac 40 in paris and ibex are all higher. the ibex adding better than 1%. we're seeing strength in these peripheral markets. >> it follows, again, pretty supportive demand that the spanish auction ten minutes or so ago raising more than the 4 billion targeted. most of that came in the three year. spanish banks yield lower on the back of 4.86%. four times oversubscribed on the 2018 bond we were, as well. as we wait for the bank of england to deliver, just a reminder, services pmi coming in stronger than expected, a 52.4. expected around about 51.5. that probably means the uk has escaped a triple dip. the recession probably means we won't get any more qe at 12:00

london time. about two hours from now. just show you where we stand with sterling/dollar, sterling/dollar off the low, 1.5062. we have got a lot ooh support around 11.54, cable. dollar/yen we've been looking at. yen weakening on the back of the bank of japan. occur row da coming out and can doing more than expected.kuroda more than expected. ur roar/dollar, has been down around 1.27. weaker in france are the composite figures. let's recap that asia session. sixuan rejoins us. >> indeed. thank you, ross. with china market out for a public holiday, the stunning outperformer today was japan, up 227% following yesterday's 3% surge. tin decks, in fact, opened lower, dipping as much as 1.7% before turn into positive tear. the turn around was triggered by, of course, the boj's fresh

easing steps while the japanese yen weakened sharply against the greenback after kuroda kept his prompts. afternoon stocks rallied some 5% to 6% for financials. look at the real estate counter. the subindex jumped more than 7% bolstered by reflationary policies. but elsewhere, south korea kospi lost ground for the fourth straight session due to escalating tensions for the north. major exporters such as automakers and technology shares came under pressure given the weaker yen. hyundai and kia motor tumbled after reports say they recalled vehicles for brake lights. miners and bank ended weaker, but some analysts say that the

boj's easing steps could support global equities and commodities, so possibly given the aussie markets a lift tomorrow. india's sensex now in action trading lower by 1.3%. back to you. >> sixuan, thanks very much for that. we want to turn our attention to europe where we've gotten data this morning continuing to tell us about the health of the economy in that it's not strong. the north is holding in better than the south. nevertheless, coming in slightly better than expected. that is keeping a floor under market performance. but it was the index in particular where we saw a weakness, as well. >> 47.7 from 48 was the flash. >> yeah. the german index is holding just above 50. the french figures, though, really weak. italy's sector is showing some strength. >> the french numbers. and i think there's a valid point in that. if we look, for example, what we're seeing, the composite pmi, that's something we would expect greece to be saying, not france.

49.6 is extremely weak. we know it's more than a four-year low. >> that's the back drop for margo draghi as he steps to lead his team into the interest rate decision today. jules is in frankfurt. i know there's so much cater about cyprus. when you look at the composite level in france, that very low 40 level, one would think the ecb meet feel it has a responsibility towards what is, you know, the second biggest member of the eurozone. >> of course. but i think the ecb would argue, ross, that as much as they have a responsibility, so do the individual countries, the politicians in those countries. and i think it's difficult for the ecb having to proper up the eurozone when the politicians themselves aren't necessarily galvanizing enough policy to combat this. but i think there's a huge dichotomy here, just in what we've seen in the data in france, in particular as you

mentioned, the equity and is manufacturing data we got and the spanish auction. because the omt that the ecb are promising to keep rates down no matter what and the other side grows the real issue here. the question is does mario draghi expect this situation? he always expected q1 is, remember. is this the outlook in the medium term and opening the door lower for rates? that's the key question here. to try and temper some of these concerns about the deposit risk following what we've seen from si cyprus. cyprus will be the keep issue in the q&a today. where was at the cb? obviously, they were party to the initial idea of ever hitting the insured depositors, of course, in that bailout deal. also key questions aside on these capital controls the. what does that mean for the single currency right now? i think the ecb press conference

will be telling this afternoon, ross. >> yeah. stay there, jules. we're going to bring in peter dixon, as well. peter, on that final point jules makes about the single currency, if you have capital controls in, presumably, does that mean a -- are we in danger on of a cypriot euro now being worth let's than other forms of euros? is there a danger that traders won't accept the cypriot euro? >> yeah. basically, a rather awkward precedent has been set here. the last thing you want in a monetary union are capital controls. it's now no longer a monetary union and cyprus is no longer a part of it. and i think that the that the real issue is not so much cyprus, but the bigger question is wa does it mean for other countries in a similar position going forward? and, of course, all eyes are on spain and italy and god forbid

the banks there ever had some dramatic problems that we would end it with some capital controls, either. you can only extrapolate it from whatever is given. >> jules mentioned that the spanish debt auction. spanish debt and italian paper for that matter continue to confound the skeptics. this can't just be because of the omt, can it? >> no. i expect not. there's obviously a lot of domestic buying going on there. after all, if you're a foreign investor, do you really want to load up to a significant degree on peripheral paper? having said that, we have heard, i think, rumors that some investors are beginning to get into these peripheral markets for the central reason that they're relatively cheap. i haven't seen any evidence to support that yet. that's what we're hearing. certainly i would not be key to buying it. it's supported, as i said, by the local banks.

>> can i just jump in there and ask you about ecb policy? they're getting a lot of criticism, raperhaps, for not doing anything to step up and encourage growth. is actually anything going to work here? >> well, you know, i can only echo your comments from earlier when you said the ecb has done a lot and it is down to governments to step up to the plate. i think that is the nub of the problem. i think the ecb has done a lot of heavy lifting. it doesn't get enough credit for what it has done. and that compares to about 17% in the fed's case. that's an awful lot of activity for what is going on. banks don't want to lend. consumers don't want to borrow. i think under those

circumstances, monetary policy is appreciating the limits of what it can do to get growth back on track. >> we'll leave it there for the moment. we get to that ecb rate decision at 1:45 cet, 12:45. >> now don't change the clocks back -- five hours. >> do you like the four hours? >> no, no, no. >> do you feel closer to the folks back home? >> i found it too close. too close for comfort. it's a big ocean between us. there should be a big time difference and the four hours just felt a little -- >> i sound kind of more european. >> by the day. you haven't heard enough of my pronunciations lately. i'm not sounding very european there. we want to know if the ecb should cut rates. we have a poll on the website going if you want to put on your central banking hat and pass your vote. >> how about your central bank

beard. >> i think we should sell those. i'm going start wearing one of those on the first thursdays of the month. meanwhile, the bank of england is expected to hold back on expanding its qe program when it delivers its policy decision this morning. policymakers are under less pressure than they were. they've had more leeway, as well, on the inflation targets. this is march pmi figures out this morning. the best growth britain's service sector in seven months. also, investors keeping an eye on what's happening in tokyo as the new boj governor kuroda delivered strong equity measures. he doubled bond holdings for the next two years. it's boosting its asset purchase program as it's trying to hit its 2% inflation target within two years' time. what's interesting here, peter, is that the boj is focused on

expanding its balance sheet. is that going to directly impact the economy? >> i doubt it, to be honest. i think one of the things the boj is clearly trying to do is to stimulate inflation. well, that may or may not work. it doesn't have a greater effect when the boj did it the last time out. and i think that in an economy which is struggling with an aging population and indeed a declining population, it's going to be very difficult to get growth going. i think the monetary transmission mechanism in japan and indeed another industrial economies clearly isn't working properly and i'm therefore very skeptical that expanding the balance is sheet will do an awful lot other than to perhaps push up asset prices and weakening the yen which is the key element of the boj policy which is not able to talk about it sxlit explicitly. >> and, peter, you basically have people around the world bidding up the nikkei, pushing down the yen, just for the stake of pushing the momentum as much as they can and waiting to jump

on the first sign it's not having the economic impact you're talking about? >> i think that's a fairly good representation of what may happen. i think the question is how long can the boj continue to ramp up the nikkei. certainly past efforts to push asset prices higher failed dismally after a two or three months. this time around, given the extent of the tough talking for the boj, you might expect that this rally could last a little bit longer than usual. so i'd be tempted toith into the nikkei, hold it for maybe six months and see where we are at that point. inge ultimately it's not going to have much of an impact on pushing prices higher if there's no real -- to back it up. >> all right. peter dixon from commerzbank, thanks very much. kuroda has come out with his big bang. we're waiting to see what draghi will do. which man is the better man -- i think draghi has done a pretty

good job. >> he was man of the year after his whatever it takes pledge last july. if anything, it's -- who is undone. >> it's a good debate. it's a good debate, kuroda or drag draghi. e-mail us or tweet us. kuroda is just doing what he's been brought in to do. >> exactly. which is why the question is does mark carney do what he'll ultimately being brought in to do in britain, as well? would you just be a yes man or is a yes man showing some sign? anyway, a good data opponent out later today to keep an eye out for. weekly jobless claims will be released in the u.s. today. they're expecting a relatively small low level release today charles evans, dennis lockhart and esther george will be

speaking today. still to come on this program, we get the latest on hsbc's big announcement. is a facebook phone in the works? arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

welcome back to the program. these are your headlines. europe's private sector contracts more than expected as investors wait too much out if

the ecb president draghi will be forced to act. new bank of japan governor ushers in a new era of bank of easing. and a fresh warning from the u.n. about north korea's ban on south korean workers as tensions remain high in the region. now, facebook is eyeing a bigger piece of the mobile market with a big announcement later today. cnbc's julia borstin has been previewing what we might expect. facebook's hosting an event at its headquarters thursday, inviting reporters to, quote, come and see our home on android. we expect facebook to unveil a new mobile operating system built on top of google's android and to showcase it on a htc hand set. mark zuckerberg says he's not interesting in building their own hand set. she expect to give users the

option of making facebook their home screen, including texting, voice calling ask eventually search. the more time facebook can get people to spend on its mobile devices, the higher its potential revenue. 6/80 million people also use facebook on their mobile devices every month. we'll see how many people will want facebook software to run their phones. the company doesn't yet make as much money from people using facebook on mobile devices as it does when they're on computers and this is part of facebook's ongoing push to generate higher revenues. we'll be at the announcement and have all of the news on cnbc and cnbc.com. back to you. >> what a wait. it will be interesting, kelly, whether there could launch a -- an htc phone and on that phone, on the facebook page, they could have the pain results. >> or, no, the htc results. >> yeah. >> exactly, now that it's fully

sanctioned and i guess we would have to tell investors that's how it's happening, but it could be a slap in the face this they tweeted it, wouldn't they sthp. >> i'm expecting the results to be on facebook. why wouldn't you? >> i know. fair point. best buy, meanwhile, is going to furniture over some of the space in its stores to samsung. each samsung experience shop will showcase smartphones, tablets, cameras, laptops, tvs and accessories. they'll include customer support similar to the genius bars at apple stores. samsung says the move isn't about competing with apple. i'm sure it's not. but offering consumers -- what do they mean it's not about competeding with apple? >> because they're so good, they don't have to compete. >> there is no competition

between samsung and apple. yeah, right. >> we're going to take a quick break. straight ahead on the program, tensions are wrapping up between north korea and south korea as tensions at the industrial park rachet up by the day. the new blackberry z10 with time shift and blackberry balance. built to keep you moving. see it in action at blackberry.com/z10

the u.n. has urged north

korea to lift restrictions on an industrial complex shared with the south. its ban on workers enters its second day. meanwhile, the u.s. is ramping up its own defenses in the pacific. jim meseda is live in seoul. jim, what is the latest you can tell us? >> hi, kelly. more threats and more tension, that's for sure. in the latest message that was clearly meant for u.s. consumption, the north korean military spoke of deploying a number of mobile nuclear devices to strike the united states. once again, this latest threat was conditional, however, this time, unstopping what north korea calls, quote, an aggressive war games or a number of war games next to its territory which, of course, it sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. this comes an kim jong unreactivated a north blah tone

yumm reactor. meanwhile, intelligence suggests that the north has moved a medium range what they call musudan missile towards a launch site east of us. this kind of missile has yet to be tested, but could prove to be potentially dangerous and hit united states targets as far away as guam, an important base in the pacific. in reaction to that, the u.s. is, as you mentioned in your lead, i believe, beefing up its anti-missile defenses on guam now saying that it's taking the threats from north korea very seriously. meanwhile, here in soeoul, students are more concerned about exams than threats of a war. people here say kim is too weak or too broke to launch an all-out war, but when pressed,

they say they worry about an sxent or miscalculation of some kind triggering something very nasty. and that's the real worry. jim, thanks very much. >> interesting. and jim says right now they're more worried about their exams than they are about -- i don't know whether that's reassuring or makes you wonder if no one -- the south korean market is at least showing some weakness. people have generally shrugged this one off. >> but they've lived with them, though, for 50 years. >> absolutely. still to come, mario draghi is likely to be facing questions today regarding the cyprus bailout. and here is a look at how futures are trading. the dow looking for a strong rebound today on the open. can we hold these levels?

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm kelly evans. >> and i'm ross westgate. >> the boj governor ushers in a period of mon taerz easing. investors wait to find out if the figures and the cyprus bailout will force the ecb president mario draghi to act. and tensions in korea remain high, but seoul plays down reports that north korea has ordered the withdrawal of staff from a key industrial zone.

stocks open after their worst days in a month on the back of disappointing data. is a rebound in store? >> we are looking to add nearly 75 points for the dow today. this follows the session yesterday spurred by trade activity and weak data out of the u.s. in particular. weak job numbers on the adp report. relative to the expectations, the report itself wasn't terrible. ahead of the jobs report tomorrow that will set the tone for trading for the rest of the month. overnight, the cnbc ftse global 300 is down nearly 0.2%. it was the nikkei in japan that was helping to keep the floor under stocks,ed adding another 2% today after the bank of japan governor met and surpassed

expectations. the ftse is still the underperformer. the xetra dax is firmer, the cac 40 adding 0.75%. and the ibex up almost 1.5% in spain. this despite the fact that we continue to be reminded of how weak the ecb economy is. the ecb is preparing to release its statement in just a couple hours time. how do you make money in these markets? >> we see dollar/yen at 100. i know a lot of people are looking for that big finger symbolology. i don't think it happens. i think the only reason we would get to there would be foreign bond buying to push it up to those levels. i think we start to see the yen more as a safe haven in eurozone q2 as issues start to pick up. >> in the world of commodities, effectively in the bear market,

it's like growth assets per expected. it's been one of the worst quarters for the ecb in more than ten years. base metal res pretty much in free fall, going down every day item at the moment. they're painting a picture of the global economy. >> vietnam, indonesia, these are the countries that are up and coming. they have strong domestic demand stories. and they're good export units, as well. you've got southeast asia will be the first beneficiary. then you might see flowing out further. definitely the first port of call would be southeast asia. >> all right. we have to talk to some of the guests already today. meanwhile, the ecb is delivering its policy decision against the back drop of renewed fears of the eurozone. the central bank president mario draghi could face a grilling about the state of european banks in the wake of the cyprus bailout. joining us for more, david

einrich from the "wall street journal." thanks very much, indeed. if you had to put one question to mr. draghi today, what would you want to ask sthp. >> well, as a curious journalist, my question would be why? why was it handled this way? why was it not apparent at the time that this decision to haircut ensure depositors was going to cause panic in cyprus and beyond? why was that not fought out in a way that a day or two later wouldn't have to be reversed or shut down. >> do you think that it took the ecb by surprise at all? has it seemed to you that the central bank has been sidelined throughout this process? >> no, i don't think it was. draghi obviously has a seat at the table in all of this. i don't think it was draghi's fault that this is the way it was handled. you're the head of the central bank. you bear some responsibility. and if they had come in saying, no, we're not going to do this, we prefer to bear losses ourselves, then have insured

depositors taking a hit, for instance, that wouldn't have happened. >> this is going to be the sort of thing that is exactly going to be their responsibility. >> yeah. and it didn't take a rocket scientist that there is going to be a severe, immediate adverse reaction, not just in cyprus, but beyond. and there are insured deposits saying the entire foundation of the modern banking system and that was -- >> i'm sympathetic with the people coming out and saying, no, the average guy needs to be reminded of the fact that his money isn't sack row sangt. but it isn't as though cyprus happened in a vacuum. it happened at a time when they're trying to figure out how to handle the banking system going forward and when there's concern about people removing their money from peripheral markets. >> i have very little sympathy for the argument that normal people need to be reminded that all banks are not safe.

if you have more than the deposit limit, that's a valuable lesson to learn and maybe you should be smarter. it was fairly obvious that the cypriot banks were deeply troubled. but for a normal person, no. deposits have been leaking out at a fairly rapid pace out of the cypriot banks. especially laiki for years, really. >> do you think that people have -- the wealthy, some of these big companies got their money out? >> no. and you can see in the depositit outflows, the vast majority of money remained in the banking system and certainly in the period in the week or so following the initial announcement that there would be hair cuts, there were outputs, but as a percentage basis of the total cypriot deposits, they were fought minor, but most people got their -- >> whether this is a template or not, what is clear is this is a move to in the future bailin. when it's deposit orders or

investors in banks, it's kind of interesting, those two things. it suggests that sovereign is going to be less on the hook, potentially, for bailing out their banks. but it means the investment banks are much more on the hook. i'm just wondering whether that leaves the banks. >> in certain countries like spain and ireland, a bailout requires the sovereigns to get bailed out itself, i think in other countries where the goal is to have the banking system self-sustaining and if there are problems, the banks don't rely on the governments or taxpayers to get bailed out. and i think the immediate effect of that is that it makes it more expensive for banks to borrow money. whether that's on the bond market or from depositors. you're going to need -- the risks are higher, so you'll need to pay to compensate people for those risks. those costs ultimately could get passed on to borrowers because the banks need to earn a spread

on their lending. so if they're paying more to borrow, they're going to charge more to borrow. >> it's not as if it solves all problems. we want to turn our attention to the u.s. because jpmorgan and wells will kick off u.s. bank earnings next friday, followed by citigroup next monday. we're starting to get into the thick of earnings season. we'll find out what the first quarter is like. what do you expect? >> it's a little unclear. on the u.s. domestic side, there's been a huge mortgage refinancing boom going on because of low interest banks. the banks are making a lot of money on that. the capital market side, which is what really drives the bank earnings and equity markets have been doing reasonably well. but that hasn't been mapped as much as people have expected in some of the other markets, like m&a has been -- >> it's been weak. >> but by and large, there has not been the volume that people would have liked. so it's -- you know, the interesting thing will be to see and goldman and morgan stanley, i think, when they report, it will be interesting. they've got entirely capital

markets business, whereas jpmorgan, citi, bank of america at least have some retail stuff around the world to balance that out. >> yeah. although interesting to see goldman trying to do more than just the corporate lending. >> that's true. >> so a sign of how things are shifting. david enrich, thank you very much. still to come, do you have a yen for yields? you won't get much in the ten-year jgb. we'll look at some of the top dividend paying companies on the s&p 500. they're not exactly the names you might expect. >> we'll be right back. with the spark cash card from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? thank you. that's three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put 'em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris' small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase every day. great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. read back the chicken's testimony, please. "buk, buk, bukka!" [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards.

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we've been in a search for a yield, of course. the good news is, more and more companies are offering that to attract more capital. with more, jackie deangelis joins us from cnbc over in the states. good to see you early morning hours. what's going on with dividends? >> r kelly, good morning. it's an interesting story. aggregate dividends per share for s&p 500 companies grew nearly 16% year over year at the end of the last year. and the number of companies paying a dividend over the trailing month period hit a new 13-year high of 405 or roughly 81% of the s&p 500. that's according to fact set. now, fact set points out that in terms of sectors, we're talking

about technology. financials, consumer discretionary. they were the top three leaders in the year over year growth on a per share basis. now, the s&p 500 aggregate payout ratio was 30% as of the forty quarter last year. that's about 2.4% higher than the previous year. and the aggregate dividend yield is slightly more than 2% in line with the daily average. the top ten companies by common and preferred dividends paid on a trailing 12-month basis. at&t, exxon, ge, microsoft, chevron, j&j, pfizer, p&g, wells fargo and philip morris. those names are not that surprising, but the top ten companies by dividend yield on a trailing 12-month basis were. ell brands, pitny bows, wynn resortses, garmin, entergy, altria and is abbot labs. this show opportunities exist in

a range of sectors. some are likely to continue paying actidividends. interesting the fact set notes that since the dotcom bubble, the highest yielding stocks have outperformed the s&p 500. but the lowest yielding stocks have exhibited negative returns. and even more interesting is that low dividend yielding equities perform worse than those that don't pay a dividend at all. so when you're picking your dividend players, really important to be careful here, guys. >> yeah. it's interesting stuff, jackie. thanks for that. and the other thing is, what we need to do is compare that, kelly, with dividend payers versus those companies in the league of buying back their stocks. >> because that's another option. and we know buybacks have been so strong and at what point has brian reynolds been making all along? this is a buy back driven market. everyone keeps saying, where is the retail investors? it's companies. they're borrowing to do it because they can take advantage of low yields. the stock market, if you think

about it, universal stocks is shrinking that's helping to support e is s, start to go shaurt share prices. should i get off any soap box now? >> no. i think you did that very well. let's recap the headlines. >> if you're just joining us today, new governor boj kuroda is ushering in a new era of monetarying easing by boosting the bank of gentleman pans's asset buying program. investors wait to find out if ecb president draghi will be forced to act. >> and a fresh warning from the u.n. about north korea's ban on workers as tensions remain high in the region. and here is a look at today's other top stories. facebook's ceo mark zuckerberg has long said the company doesn't have to build its own phone, but the social networking site continues to dip its toes into the market. facebook is expected to unveil a new android smartphone made by htc. this device has reportly been tweeted so that your news will be the first thing you see when

it's turned on. facebook shares -- let's see how they're responding to the news. >> look at that. up better than 2% because you automatically go to a facebook page when you turn on your phone. do they need a whole big event to make that announcement? could you change it so you don't get to facebook? >> isn't this how microsoft got in trouble, anyway, by automatically making you go to their browsers and software? i realize this mobile market is different. nevertheless, do people want to be trapped? >> presumably, people go, what is the special feature on this phone? it goes straight to your facebook page. >> it really gets to me. what happens if you want to make a call? >> you can't. >> okay. >> you have to make it through facebook. >> the chief product officer, meanwhile, is leaving the company in the wake of last month's see-through pants blunder. >> love that you got this read. >> the yoga wear brand made with

its signature lieuan fabric because they were too sheer, warn ago move could lead to shortages and is hurt profits. sherry walston, a particulars temperature of the company's conference calls has been with lululemon says 2008. it's stationing employees at its supply factory to test and monitor its product. frankly, the writing there is a little too opaque for me to read. >> and i'm surprised you didn't change the terminology because i know we need to go with trousers when we're on this side of the atlantic. >> well, yes, because sheer pants are sheer underwear. >> learned that one the hard way, as well. trouble seems to keep on finding carnival cruise lines. high winds have caused the crippled triumph carnival ship to break free yesterday morning. the ship was brought there after

a fire. it has since been moved to a terminal, but more troubles for the company. >> not great. u.s. futures are point to go a rebound a day after stocks suffer their worst hit in a month. we'll preview when we come back.

the ecb delivers its policy decision today against a back drop of renewed fierce in the eurozone. jules is at the station in frankfurt. jules, take the french composite pmi today, jurp just under 42. clearly major economic weakness in the core of the eurozone. what's going to dominate that or cyprus?

>> very good question. i think you have to assume that cyprus is going to be the key issue. but, of course, the european -- the eurozone continues to fight with weak growth. the question is, will that actually be influencing the statement he puts out today? will he acknowledge this downward trajectory that we continue to see in the growth in the eurozone? if he doesn't, at least that will open the door to perhaps further rate cuts. on the other side, he's going to talk about the liquidity that remains out there and that he will provide a temper about his concern about possible deposit flights and back where we started, cyprus will be the key thing. just what happens with that initial bailout deal, obviously, mario draghi was very much part of that original deal that did look to hit insured deposits. what on earth happened there? will he acknowledge that there is no temporary plate? cyprus isn't a temporary plate for future bailoutes and what is he going to say about capital controls and the single european currency right now? so lots of questions to ask mario draghi coming up in a few

hours. >> absolutely. jules, thanks for that. we'll have it here on cnbc world. >> you're going to stick around for that, aren't you? >> yep. >> you and louisa. >> yep. >> don't want to miss that. here is a look at what's going on in the u.s. european markets are higher. so, too, are u.s. futures and weekly jobless claims out at 8:30 eastern. also we hear from a trio of fed presidents, charles evans, dennis lockhart, and esther george. for more on what to expect in markets today, ken cayman joins us. now, jobless numbers are important because adp wasn't quite strong enough yesterday for people to think that perhaps the job data can continue to surprise to the up side. >> yeah. listen, i think we're starting to see things really thaw out. i mean, i'm seeing it anecdotally on an annual basis talking to bankers and attorneys

that are involved with business and capital formation. and, you know, it's a choppy road up, but i think we're starting to see things thaw out a little bit. we're seeing housing numbers and we're certainly seeing it in market sentiment. >> ken, what's interesting, though, it's not as if these figures are coming in themselves exemptionally weak. a couple of months ago, that would have been enough to spur a rally. so what's really going on here? >> listen, i think the market is obviously in a very good bull phase. and we are a lot of people ringing their hands on whether, you know, it's going to go back down the other way. and while the correction is certainly, you know, possible here, this doesn't really feel like it. you know, tops of markets are associated euphoria, people getting giddy and throwing money at everything. that's not what we're out of here at all. we have a lot of angsp, we have a lot of people waiting for that shoe to drop. we have so much money fueled on the sidelines. and that is a -- the bond market

is a huge store house of money waiting to come into the markets basically when interest rates start going the other way. so i actually think that things look very good. i guess i'm joining the optimistic camp that i think the rest of the year and going forward we could see some very good markets. and i actually think we're at the beginning of a sea change. people are starting to talk differently and that's huge. >> kep, in the last three years, we've had the first half high in end of march or april. right? and then we've seen the biggest correction of the year post that. and why won't we get the same thing again today, this year? >> well, listen, it's hard to predict very short-term moves, but i would say if you want the case why we wouldn't have it again is for what i just said. not only are we starting to see people think differently about the markets. i would caution people to not try to trade the market if you are investing for your teacher, for your retirement. traders, it's another thing. the lesson of what you just said

is even though we've had those corrects, the markets have continued to climb the wall of worry and can we sit at new highs, basically. so, you know, the dips have been buying opportunities and companies have, especially in the united states, been doing better. in jackie's last story, she talked about how the s&p 500 dividend yields have been paying up by 16%. companies are start to go really return the store house of cash they've been sitting on to investors. so i would be looking, if we do get that dip, to use that as a new entry point. i think we're at the beginning of a much longer term bull market. >> what would you prefer to buy, ken, a bigger dividend pay or a pay in terms of the company or a company that is buying back more of its shares? >> that's a great question. i think, you know, you could use the textbook answer that in some ways they're both the same. i think, though, right now, because people are starving for cash flow, i would probably be looking at more of the dividend payers because as people are earning nothing on their savings, that seems to be the natural place money is going to come to as people say, all

right, i'm willing to take some money out of the mattress, if you will, but i don't want to do it for no yield. so i think it favors the ones paying out the dividends. >> real quick, are you getting more interest in seeing more funds coming into the u.s. as a defensive play? >> well, i don't really do a big overseas business personally. but i will say that as we start to see things like just what went on in cyprus, just even the thought that they can confiscate someone's money makes the united states, own though we're a slow grower, we're a stable grower. so i think it makes a lot of logical sense when you look around the globe, where do you want to put capital in the united states for all its woes is still one of the best place toes be. so i think that's going to continue to fuel flows. >> ken kaman, thank you. after the bank of japan's kuroda came out with big boost purchases. we've been asking which central banker is the better man for the job?

tom in seattle puts his money on draghi. >> "squawk box" is up next for the u.s. viewers.

good morning. central banks, the bank of japan unveiling aggressive monetary policy, promising to do all it can to achieve a 2% inflation target. up next, key interest rate decisions in europe, announcements from the ecb and the boe due within the next two hours. plus, here in the united states, comments from a fed president late yesterday giving investors reason for pause. it is thursday, april 4th, 2013. and "squawk box" begins right now.