you're watching today's "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. a recap of the headlines, european stocks struggling to stay in the green. the s&p and dow now hitting fresh record highs. now weekly jobless claims in the united states. firearm ma giant roach warns tamiflu not doing as well. automakers recall 4 million

vehicles worldwide because of air bag problems. and it's a meeting of the mind. president obama will sit down with the heads of several banks today at the white house to discuss everything from the economy to cyber security. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. all right. welcome to today's program. we kick off with a little bit of data out of the international energy agency, saying oil futures price he declined in march on the way to renewed pessimism on the way to global outlook. the forecast for global demand is little changed at 90en 6 million barrels a day. supply fell on lower opec output and opec oil supplies turned lower in the wake of disruptions in nigeria, libya and iraq. they will remain subdued in

april, as well, and industry stocks declined to stand at 2.664 million or 2.6 billion by the end of february. in other words, we've seen oil prices take something of a preview of about $118 a barrel on brent in february. so the ia saying the price of oil remaining under pressure because of pessimism. still to come on today's program, we'll get a preview of prices at 11:00 cet. we'll be at the headquarters of roach as the form ceuticals group sticks to its full year guidance. and in around 15 minutes, we'll speak to the man who is leading renewed criticism over economic data out of china. this follows yesterday's unexpected trade deficit. plus, the ground breaking release of unangled is being

pulled. meanwhile, goldman sachs, wells fargo and citi were among those who received the fed march minutes a day early. it's not clear yet if anyone traded on the information. the minutes revealed while policymakers were still deeply divided over the central bank aes security program, they happen near a division to start winding it down with several wanting to end the bond buying by the end of the year. in an interview with maria

bartiromo, the imf chief legarde suggested central banks around the world must do more to boost growth since governments have limited fiscal impact. >> we are in a low interest environment and more needs to be done. at the moment, government with their fiscal policies have limited space. and yet growth has to pick up. who bears the burden? central bankers with monetary , whether it's quantiteasie, ful this n the japanese authorities. doing what they can to encourage growth, toth when thee for a long time like in japan and to make sure that credit flows into the real economy so that investment can start again.

>> there's so much debate about this subject. and today we're hearing all different commentary about when the federal reserve should ease back on its stimulus. do you think there are damages to this plan longer term? i know you said in your speech inflation is okay now, but what are the downside risks? continuing this until 2015 versus stopping this summer? >> first of all, the fed has indicated that they would do so with two compasses, if you will. one, inflation and they're keeping an eye to inflation. second, employment. and they want to, you know, be driven by these two compasses. what we said at the moment is inflation under control. inflation clearly under 2%. and what we've observed lately

is that the usually sort of buy naer relationship between unemployment and inflation has faded, in a way. so the risk, naturally, traditionally, would be accommodation economic policy. there is probably less of that and core inflation anticipate are clearly anchored down. as long as that is the case, and given that the fiscal tool is not available at the moment, then the monetary policy should continue as it does and the path out of it should be gradual, should be traut through, should be adequately communicated. it's for central bankers to died do how they're going to go about it, but those would be necessary. >> it's hard because once the market figures out that the stimulus will end, the market

may sell off creating a problem so you never know how these things will go until in place. >> any good unnecessary things convey with it consequences, some intended and some unintended. >> legarde weighed in on the state of global banking. she highlighted confirms of the eurozone periphery saying more must be done to tackle bad loans. >> the natural temptation for very, very large banks is to hedge some businesses against the others. those others being clearly riskier in order to balance out and provide proper return on equity. so our suggestion is that i'll give you the example of some banks in the periphery of the eurozone. they're where credit has slupg, where the banking sector is undercapitalized with some serious nonperforming loans on

their books, not necessarily properly accounted for. work has to be done there, no doubt about it. >> let's get more on that. ollie, nice to see you. christine legarde saying an awful lot more needs to be done. the world's biggest lenders are more dangerous than ever. >> this is, i suppose, an unintended consequence. for years, we've been told there are too many banks and what you need are fewer banks. i'm not sure that's right. too big to fail has become the problem that a lot of people have found. let's take the example of spain where you had lots of small -- and they decided what they needed to steer banks and they say eventually merging several banks into -- >> into one very bad bank. >> exactly, which is difficult to resolve. there's not one size fits all.

>> there is still the point, though, we have this overhang that we haven't really got to grips with in the eurozone particularly. the state of the bad banks. we haven't incurred the losses, we haven't recapitalized. >> definitely, banks still need time. the economic back drop is not exactly sunny, most of the eurozone. and banks need time to work through the bad loans that they have and generally banks will provision what they can afford to do and at any particular time. these things blow off as the attention of markets turn to specific countries. was anyone concerned about the cypriot banking system up until a couple of weeks ago or had even heard of any of the banks in cyprus or slovenia? these things are not an issue -- >> how big an issue is slovenia, do you think, now you that mention it? >> whoops. we're going to be told that it's

unique. there was already a press conference the other day telling us that it was completely different from cyprus, which i don't think gives anybody any kind of comfort. its banks have a large amount of nonperforming loans, as we know, equivalent to about 19% of their gdp. slovenia itself is very small in terms of the european context and population and impact, etcetera. will it be next? i don't know. i don't think anyone actually cares. the question is how is that sort of dealt with? what will happen to the banks? or bailins or not. >> i think it's probable that there will be more bailins. i think bailin is now here to stay. it's very much a condition of any countries that get into difficulties because of problems in the banking system. it's not just the bailouts any more. the banks themselves and the country ves to find other ways to resolve the banks without

putting their hands into the pockets of taxpayers the. weeks after germany's biggest lender revised its 2012 mortgage low due to mortgage litigation, do you think the focus should be on the structuraling plan? >> definitely deutsche bank is an investment bank, has a lot to do, a lot to change in terms of the regulation as to many banks, particularly the large investment banks. the question is not whether it can do this if it wants to or what business it wants to be in and what banks of that nature undergoing that existential debate, if you like. in the uk, for example, rbs is being mandated by its majority owner, the government, to move move away from its international banking investments and providing credit to the real economy. and deutsche bank, you know, can restructure and alive its

strategy to take advantage of those that steps out of the market. but the regulatory costs are going to be huge and not obvious that these lines of businesses are profitable in the long run. >> good to see you. thanks very much for joining us, ollie. now to russia has reported a better than expected 5% jump in its quarter sales. it's maintained its forecast for higher profits this year. this as the swiss pharmaceutical giant enjoyed strong demand for its drugs including tamiflu pp. >> the only fly in the ointment was the diagnostics business, can sut saw a bit of a disappointment. but clearly, what investors are focusing on today is the very strong outperformance in its pharma business. now, pharma revenues are growing 7% if the first quarter, once again, driven by a strong ecology business.

we're talking avastin growing low double digits. but also, we saw very strong t in iflu sales. take a listen to what daniel oh day said just a short while ago. >> so we saw 13% growth in the north american business on the pharma side, 11% in the emerging markets, 20% in china. that was driven by our oncology portfolio and tamiflu was one factorer of that in the united states due to the large flu season. tamiflu sales were up 80% in the first quarter. but after that, they had a pharma at roach. in the next hour, we will tell you what daniel oh day thinks about india's recent supreme court ruling against novartis,

what it means for roach and what it means in the emerging markets. back over to you guys. >> karen, thanks very much indeed for that. let's bring you up to speed with where we stand right now in the global markets, what, an hour and 30 minutes into trade. we're just weighted to the upside 6 to 4 on the dow jones stocks 400. about the biggest daily rise for three months on wednesday following the record closes on the s&p and the dow, as well. right now, the ftse 100 pretty flat, pretty flat for the xetra dax. the ibex is down and the ftse mib is fairly flat, as well.

spanish y50e8dz, 4.3%. we have seen the lows since 2010. there will be a question of how much more we can get with spanish debt. dollar/yen, 99.88 on late wednesday trade right now 99.6 2. there seems to be a lot of options barriers. and sixuan rejoins us today with a recap of what happens in asia. hi, sixuan. >> thank you, ross. the boj's big bazooka rally continued in japan with another sign of confidence.

over in china, a surge in march credit data helped lift banks. automakers drove higher with faw surging limit up as much as 10% after forecasts swing to profit in the first quarter. the losses and commodity plays in liquor producers distracted the shanghai composite lower a modest 0.3%. most other asian markets were higher from momentum of wall street's gains. sigh want's thai air gained 1 is.4% today with chipmakers leading the way after strong sales numbers. elsewhere, the bank of korea failed to develop a rate cut

amid attentions with pyongyang. and a rebound in financials helped australia's asx 200 up 0.8%, despite the weaker than expected jobs number. india's sensex now still on the move trading in the area up 0.4%. back to you. >> all right, sixuan, thanks for that. we'll catch you a little later. let's get to the numbers story trending on our web page today. the dollar/yen could spike to 125. also, a poll by the cnbc "wall street journal" shows the sequester is hurting the nation's economy. although the majority have seen no direct impact on their lives. the capitol hill stalemate has reflected negative, too, on the president with less than half of americans approving of the job that barack obama is doing.

and find out why financial aanalysis as china's march trades numbers have not instill any more confidence in either the quality of the country's data or the strength of its economic recovery. alistair thorton is calling the trade data absurd. that's on the web. and he'll be joining us here on the program within the next half appear hour. plenty more to come on "worldwide exchange." welcnew york state, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years, and we're creating tax free zones for business startups. the new new york is working creating tens of thousands of new businesses, and we're just getting started. to grow or start your business

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amid new credit in china boltstered the case for a stronger recovery. total financing more than doubled from february and end to money supplies beat estimates. it suggests that beijing is taking advantage of lower inflation, seeing money flow freely to support growth. defining the market forecast, china posted a trade deficit for march of around $884

million. imports surged, exports grew year on year. analysts have been questioning the accuracy of the data. one is expert went as far as calling the data absurd. thanks very much indeed for joining us. what makes this data absurd? >> ross, fences were meant for sitting on, were they? what we've seen is relatively strong numbers from china over the first three months. march we saw a 10% gain. and that doesn't really marry at first glance with our view of the global economy. we know there's weakness in the u.s., we know there's weakness in the eurozone. dig into these export numbers,

there's quite a large disparity going on. during march, export growth from china to hopping congress surged over 90%. 90% in march. but at the same time, export growth declined by 7 erts. given that a lot of exports from china are reexported to the eu and the u.s. as final destinations, this is in congress, to say the least. what we've seeing is that we think these export numbers are inflated and that the real trade picture in china is a lot weaker than what the numbers would suggest. >> a huge amount of volatility, as well. some have suggested we have overinvoicing by chinese exporters, that the export subsidies aren't helping, as well. >> yes, exactly.

they were concerned raised by the exports around the world. at the moment, they're just partnershiping it on statistical differents, which doesn't really make sense to be perfectly honest. so there is a problem here. that marries with we've seen a surge in reserve numbers this first quarter. liquidity is fairly loose in the banking sector. there's a lot of -- there's a lot of capital coming into the country chasing this cyclical upturn and the property boom we've got going on here.

>> if you take hong kong out of the picture completely, what does it look like? >> less good is the short answer. if you take that 90% growth out and say let's trust the numbers, the china to eu and china to u.s. export numbers, it's negative, more realistically. given that we know there's more problems in the eurozone and little wobbles, that once again makes sense to us. but i think going forward in the first quarter and net exports aren't going to be that large contribution to gdp growth in china. i think the risk is the down side risk and over the next couple of quarters we might see it play out in the data. >> yeah. which is the key point, right, as we're trying to work out what's really going on.

what's happening in terms of the rebalancing and the domestic economy providing more of a growth engine. >> yeah. over the last couple of years, china has been export exposed, but not export dependent. what would he have l we've seen is the sharply decreasing credit efficiency. in 2012, you had to have three renminbi of credit to equal one renminbi of nominal growth. that's a sharp decline in credit efficiency. i'd imagine given the fact we've had a huge surge in financing,

up 60% in the first quarter year on year and we've got, obviously, capital inflows, their are rumors flying around beijing that march rail freight growth is negative. recovery is not secure. i'd say that that declining efficiency of credit has continued. so the up shot of that is you're having to throw more and more money to keep growth going. as you start to try and wind back financing because of inflation concerns and the property market, etcetera, then that's going to take a chunk out of growth and that's why we think there's some downside risk the second half of the year. >> thanks very much, indeed, for that, alistair. good to speak to you today. the portugal finance minister says we need a regimen that reduces debt. they need investment to pick up. still to come on the show, we'll be in hong kong for an

update as yumm brands and other businesses begin to break for the pullout.

urman stocks struggling to stay in the green. the s&p and the dow hit fresh

record highs. now in focus, italy and weekly jobless claims in the u.s. first quarter sales are boosted by tamiflu. but the pharma giant says the sales are tapering off. toyota recalled 3.4 million vehicles worldwide over air bag problems. and it's a meeting of the minds. president obama will sit down with ceos of several big banks in the white house today to discuss everything from the economy to cyber security. the best day for european stocks yesterday in around three months. right now, fairly flat, really. xetra dax up marginally, ftse 100 fairly flat. and the bond market, yields, as you were, as well.

ten-year japanese yield is 0.56%. a little lower, but steady for bunch, btps. dollar/yen, currently at 99.55. euro/dollar is at 1.3088. we've seen sterling up to about a seven-week high against the dollar at 1.5361. now, we hear more from the bank of japan. kuroda says the inflation target is flexible. we'll be talking about the prospects of the yen breaching through 100 fairly shortly in the program, as well, and what the target might indeed be. staying in japan, a massive frl might be issued by four of the country's takeovers. toyota, mazda and nissan are reallying over 4 million

vehicles worldwide over the concern that front passenger air bags may not deploy correctly. it will replace the faulty devices with new ones. the air bags were all made by taka, which says no one has been injured by the problem. takata shares are down 9% today. take take up 5.8%. fast retailing is standing pat on its full year profit forecast despite a double digit jump in its sales last month. the operator says it's still expected to post record earnings this year. 17% higher from a year ago. asia's biggest clothing company said earlier its december quarterly profit slipped around 8% to 400 million dollars. which missed analyst forecasts. and kfc sales in china have not been finger licking, apparently growing bird flu fears are compounding the

problem. yum brands said the outbreak in china hit significantly in the last week after the retailer struggles to rebuild its reputation after high hormone levels in young chickens. and joining us from hong kong for more, peter from reuters breaking views. peter, nice to see you. bird flu is sort of a growing worry in china. is that having any impact on people eating chickens and hurting yum brands? >> well, i think we have to take yum brand's word for it that it is. and definitely the anecdotal evidence is that people are worried about chicken, worried about bird flu and, therefore, not eating chicken, even though actually there's really no

reason to be worried about cooked chicken. it's the live ones that really are the trouble here. but if there's one thing after another for them and they clearly are still recovering to a certain extent or trying to recover from this hormone problem they had earlier in the year. so, you know, they say people were suspect about kfc and going and eating chicken there, this certainly won't help and it hasn't helped. >> what do you make about the -- i mean, how worried about people are bird flu at the moment? how much of this is scaling up? >> well, i think, you know, the numbers keep rising. so, you know, we've had i think sort of 30 odd confirmed cases now. i think it's the latest probably is nine people have died from it. we're still not at the stage where actually it's mutated to the point where it can be passed from person to person which is a thing obviously that people on

are worrying about and is drawing a lot of the comparisons with episodes like the sars outbreak. but it's sort of in the back of people's minds and they're worrying about it and it's clearly in investors' minds. you've seen clearly that not just yum brands, but, for example, some of the airlines stocks in china took a bit of a tumble because people were worried that an outbreak of bird flu or something like it would have an impact on the concerns about people traveling in airplanes. people are definitely worried and definitely nervous. >> will people stop -- you know, are people getting to the stage where they think about maybe i won't take and do business trips or stop flying? >> i don't think we've seen any hard evidence of that yet. i mean, i think the sort of anecdotal evidence. i don't think the passenger

numbers suggest a major change in behavior. but it's one of those things, obviously, that can change quite quickly. and everybody here has that memory of the sars episode, which is basically almost exactly ten years ago and the impact that that had. now, the system for dealing with these things have gotten better. the chinese authorities have gotten better about spreading information about what is going on. there are many differences, people people still have that episode to compare it to and people are worrying that, you know, it could go in that direction. but at the moment, he think it's more worry than a reality. >> meanwhile, peter, look, there's more change at the top for ali baba. the company has announced maggie wu sa taking over as cfo. she'll replace joe tsi who will become management. are they gearing up for an ipo?

>> well, i think it's pretty clear that ali baba is going to do an ipo within years. you could look at this and say a new ceo pointing to a new cfo, the old ceo is staying around and it's all pretty orderly. if you're alibaba, you want to make sure you have the new cfo in place when you're on the road show for that ibo. the only thing is, she was cfo of alibaba.com which is their previous listed entity. >> all right. it's good to see you. thanks very much indeed for that.

some other stories we're following, windows 8 has helped slow down demand for pcs. its latest figures show computership plunging 13.9% if the first quarter. ibc estimates of only 76.3 million units were shipped in the first quarter, a sign that the tablet and smartphone revolution is taking hold. the firm used the windows 8 operating system as the challenges, saying that the system had confused consumers with features that compromise the traditional pc experience. there is also a boost in global advertising spending last year, according to the latest reports from nielsen. from 2% user on year to nearly $560 billion. deep cuts and budget continues in the continent, resulting in an annual decrease of 4.2%. and south korea's central bank surprised the market by

keeping rates on hold for six months in a row, defying the publish pressure to ease. for more on that, we are joined by cheyy in seoul. >> hi, ross. this was quite a surprise to the market given that a cut was widely expected this much as the new government, the finance ministry has been calling for a policy mix of fiscal and monetary measures to perk up the slowing economy. and yes, it's slowing. the bank of korea lowered its own growth forecast to date from 4.8% to 2.6% today, as well. but the central bank thinking seems to be that, one, things are not that bad, despite a moderate recovery in the u.s. and china we are seeing. and with korean exports, so the backbone of the economy in the trend of recovery.

two, we have a fiscal measure coming our way with the announcement of an extra budget that's estimated at around 17 trillion now and we have barclay's for one saying that this fiscal impulse from this expected is expected to have a similar affect of three 25 basis point rate cuts. and three, it's expectations of consumer prices picking up in the second half of this year. now, looking ahead, rod ross, with the central bank holding steady this month despite all this political pressure, the market seems pretty divided now on how the central banks policy rate will go down the road this year. now back to you. >> chery, thanks for that. let's remind you what's also on the agenda tomorrow. u.s. secretary of state john kerry will make a key visit with very much in focus.

singapore is expected to release slower gtp growth. in india, we'll get march cpi data and many will be focused on the tech giant's emphasis. meanwhile, the man who traded on inside information passed by former kpmg senior partner has been identified. brian shore who runs a wholesale jeweler after being approached by the fbi. he met london at a golf club. he was fired last friday after admitting that he passed tips and in exchange shore gave him cash and gifts. he reportedly ran into trouble when his brokerage account was frozen for suspicious trade. in a statement he says i expect my actions will result in significant civil and criminal consequences, but i realize this is the painful price i will pay for my transgressions.

activist investors told women's wear daily, we're not going anywhere. ackman is jcpenney's biggest sharehold shareholder. the chief operating officer, chief craven officers and chief talent. jcpenney is up 3%. chevron says it produced 2.63 million barrels a day of oil and natural gas in january and february. that's flat from year ago levels. chevron experience experienced a major cut in its fuel production business because of planned maintenance at a refinery in mississippi and repairs at its richmond, california, facility damaged by fire last year. chevron reports its full q1 results in two weeks. and carmaker opal is to receive a multibillion dollar

cash injection from general motors. $5.2 billion will be invested to support new launches at the struggling european brand, 23 revised models and 13 new engines are scheduled for release by tend of 2016. last year, opel's revenue was hurt from car sales across europe. and it's my favorite time of year mainly because of this, the first major golf tournament, the masters, gets under way in augusta. tiger woods is seen as a favorite to win his fifth green jacket. this is video from the conference yet. the players let family members and friends hit a few shots. there is a superstition -- there that is a great hole in one, by the way. there is a superstition that no

one who has ever won the event has gone on to win the masters. what we're asking is who is your favorite to win the tournament? send us an e-mail, worldwide@cnbc.com. @ross westgate. what we want to see is tiger, rory and mickelson coming down the stretch on sunday night. still to come, we'll look at the odds of tiger taking the green jacket for a fifth time. plus, dollar/yen hit a fresh record after the bank of mitsubishi will join us and give us his for the cross rate.

more stuff comment out of portugal. the portugal finance minister wants to create space to issue 10-year bonds. we'll see how that plan goes down. but that's one of the opportunities they're looking at. meanwhile, gold scored its biggest decline in nearly two months on the news that cyprus is looking to sell the majority of its reserves to help finance

its part of the bailout. the first significant sale in the eurozone since back in 2009. at the same time, goldman sachs has become the latest big hitter to become bearish on gold. that's down from its previous forecast to $1600. they say not even the recent 2e7kzs on the peninsula are turning investors to gold as the safe haven play. the central bank might begin to taper its easing program by mid year. the imf chief christine legarde admitted there was some risk to ongoing easing, but she admitted that the fed and other central bankers were taking the right course of action. >> it's unconventional monetary policy because we are in ra low interest environment and more needs to be done. at the moment, government with

their fiscal policies have limited space and, yet, growth has to pick up. so who bears the burden? central bankers with monetary policies that are, you know, unconventional, whether it's quantitative easing in the u.s. or outright monetary transaction program or funding for lending, all of this new program that has been announced by the japanese authorities. they're doing what they can to encourage growth, to kick start growth when there has been none for a long time, like in japan, and to make sure that credit flows into the real economy so that investment can start again. >> there's so many debate about this subject. and today we're hearing all different commentary about when the federal reserve should ease back on its stimulus. do you think there are damages to this plan longer term? i know you said in your speech

inflation is okay now, but what are the downside risks to the federal reserve continuing this until 2015 versus stopping this summer, which is, of course, what some people are calling for? >> first of all, i would observe that the fed has indicated that they would do so with two compasses, if you will, one, inflation and they're keeping a very attentive eye to inflation. and second, unemployment. and they want to, you know, be driven by these two compasses. what we see at the moment is inflation under control. inflation clearly under 2%. and wa we've observed laitly is the usual binary relationship between unemployment and inflation has faded in a way. so the risk, naturally, traditionally, would be accommodative monetary policy,

massive liquidity, risk of inflation picking up. there is probably less of that that. and core inflation anticipation are clearly anchored down. as long as that is the case, and given that the fiscal tool is not available at the moment, then the monetary policy should continue as it does and the path out of it should be gradual, should be thought through, should be adequately communicated. it's for central bankers to decide how they're going to go about it. >> meanwhile, the bank of japan's new governor appears to be taking a page out of the play book by saying the fed's 2% inflation goal is flexible. says it will look at other factors when forming policy. the comments -- and as far as the yen is concerned today, dollar/yen currently at 99.59. we got as high at 99.58.

euro/yen is up at 130.36. sterling/yen, 153.10. joining us now from bank of tokyo mitsubishi, jay. good to see you. we've run up the. how hard is it going to pe to push through 100? >> obviously, 100 is very big. it is a crucial level. given the momentum in the market over recent days and given how close we are, i think there is a very high chance that the market is going to give it a go is try to push us through that level. obviously, if we did get through there, there could be one figure significant push as stops are triggered and option related flows come into play on the break of 100, as well. >> you made 1100 what would be sort of a jump point from 100 to what? >> well, it's difficult to say. but certainly i can envision 103

very, very quickly. i would expect we remain below 105 and then we would stabilize and that's our view. we've sernd changed our forecast in the aftermath of the boj announcement which was much more aggressive than we had thought. we do think dollar/yen is higher over 12 months, but given the scale of the move since the central banks meeting, i think if we did reach 100 we would see some reversal and -- >> yeah. there's a lot of question about whether after the initial yen weakness whether this action can have a sustained impact. people look at the fed's qe program, the qe program in the uk and saying there was the initial impact, but then, actually, things are fairly muted. >> yeah. i think the big issue is the japanese investor base. and, of course, the policy that's in place is going to ultimately, if successful, drive real yields down into japan into negative territory, hopefully. that's the plan.

if that is to materialize, then you could see a dramatic rebalancing of portfolios, domestically into japan and foreign markets. >> external. >> yeah. now, what i think is happening at the moment is way too premature. this idea of a wall of capital returning to japan, just going through the global markets right now as we speak. to me, that's more speculative from where they think the money might come eventually. i don't think that's materializing at the moment. certainly from our evidence, the behavior of domestic investors hasn't changed dramatically yet. we think it probably will eventually. >> what would need to happen for them -- i mean, i understand they're not going to turn around just because the bank of japan is not going to turn around and change the behavior. what would have to happen for them, for the penny to drop if things were different? >> first wlb that the boj is being successful and there is evidence of rising price pressures and inflation moving higher in japan.

ultimately driving real yields lower. then secondly, there would have to be more compelling evidence of a global story being sustained in terms of growth. that's what happens when we had the last qe between 2001 and 2006. since three, four years, nothing happened. but once there was compelling evidence of the u.s. and europe, we had the carry takeoff, flows leave japan. and '05, '06, '07 -- >> just the fact that you could get 4.5% yield on spanish or italian debt wouldn't be enough for investors to take it? >> no way. i don't think so at this stage. what the boj has done doesn't raise risk appetite, so to speak. they need to see -- they need to be encouraged into doing that. >> and i mean, it's only one part of the three-prong strategy, right? you have to see delivery, as well, on the other side wab on the government side, have they? >> absolutely.

there's been quite a little focus on that. we're supposed to have this economic plan being announced in june. there needs to be policies to address the labor market, which is in a steady decline, trying to boost the labor market through, i think, what they need is a degree of immigration into the country. the migration laws are incredibly strict. and also boosting female participation in the labor market, as well. so there's lots of structural things that need to take place that the government needs to address. >> derek hallpenny, thanks very much for that. beijing still pulled today's premier of jango. wa do they need to do to crack the world's second biggest market? te, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years,

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you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. a recap of the headlines, european equities struggle to stay in the green after the nasdaq hits a 12-year high while the s&p and dow hit fresh records. now in focus, long-term sales in italy and weekly jobless claims in the united states. governor kuroda danced himself from a hard line stance of the 2% level saying the bank will adjust its policy if necessary. and russia's first quarter sales are boosted by strength of sales of tamiflu. but the drug giant warnings the

drug's run is tapering off. president obama will sit down with several big u.s. banks at the white house today to discuss everything from the economy to cyber security. very good morning to you. welcome to the start of your global trading day. will the rally continue today? right now, the dow is trading some 30 points above fair value. the nasdaq at the moment is about 0.75 of a point above fair value. the nasdaq up 1.8% in yesterday's session.

as fas as the ftse global 300 is concerned, we're up right now at 0.3%. the ftse 1 00 at the moment, up 0.5%. the ftse mib up 0.5%. pretty good t-bill auction yesterday. we've got the b to b auction today. we're expecting demand to remain fairly solid. italian yield, 4.3%. we have been down at the best yields since july 2000. treasury yields were perking up a little bit, 1 .8%. as far as the currency markets are concerned, still eyes on the dollar/yen. 99.64. we got to 99.88 late trade wednesday.

there's a big fight around 100. i think most analysts will suggest we get through that. 102, 103 would be a target to hit fairly quickly after we get through 1100. euro/dollar, 1.3081, up near its best levels of the session, as well. to recap the asian session, here is sixuan. >> the euphoria over the bank of jap japan's easing is not going away quickly. and sharp's machinery orders up as the factory profits picture improved. electronics pushed the index higher. takata slumped 9% on news of a 3.4 million vehicle recall. and over in china, a surge in march credit data helped to

lift mainland banks and cyclical stocks. the numbers came in above forecasts through ample credit of china's recovery. the shanghai composite finished lower. shares in hong kong gained for the third straight session helped by blue chips in stocks. elsewhere, technology shares pushed the kospi higher, despite the fact that the bank of korea failed to deliver a widely expected rate cut and a rebound of australian financials helped the asx 200 gain 0.8% today. india's sensex also in the green now trading higher by 0.5%. back to you. >> sixuan, thank you very much,

indeed. that's the latest out of asia. meanwhile, we've got greek january unemployment rate at 27.2%. another tick higher from the 25.7% in december. in the u.s. today, weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 eastern, getting a big focus following last week's employment report. they're forecast to drop by 25,000 to a total of 260,000. at 8:30, we'll get march input prices, expected to fall by 1.6%. the philly fed president charles plosser is speaking at 6:00 p.m. in hong kong followed by st. louis fed president james bullard at 8:30. retailers report march same-store sales throughout the

morning. the consensus forecast is for a 1.6% drop in sales industrywide and that's due partly to the early easter holiday and as cold weather last month hurt stores still trying to move spring merchandise. meanwhile, the iaa has cut its overall demand forecast to 2013 and predicted the lowest consumption in europe in more than 30 years. the downward revision comes amid slumps. demand will rise in emerging economies. joining us for more, jason gimmel. jason, thanks very much, indeed, for joining us. >> happy to be here. >> the ia, we've looked at brent, were up about 118 in february, somewhere around there. what are your thoughts wind that? >> i think the iaa is correct. you're seeing a surge in production in nonopec countries like the united states and

canada. so you're seeing a squeeze. inventories are building. a lot of it has to do with hit ago seasonally weak spot on the calendar. >> is it fair to call it a bear market? will this be short or long lived, do you think? >> we think it will probably be short lived. we expect prices will recover back above 110 in the fourth quarter. but in the near term, the dynamics are not good. >> europe has clearly been a major impact. what else is driving it? >> i think it comes back to just through the chinese new year, there's turn around necessary china. the chinese apparent demand is quite weak right now. we think it's going to take demand coming in from places like vietnam, indonesia, the philippines to offset the weakness we see in china. >> looking at the u.s., is more of that going to come back on

stream? >> yeah. the u.s. is coming through earnings season. >> what happens on the supply side? >> well, i think the u.s. keeps growing. and i think canada keeps growing and brazil keeps growing. there is a lot of pressure right now. you have exports out of japan helping to alleviate the situation. >> what is it they're going to try to do? i mean, what would be good for them as far as they're concerned? >> it is a balancing act. they've cut their output from 10 million barrels a day down to 9.3. i don't think they want to go much below 9. they're going to have to encourage countries to -- >> that's going to be hard. >> very difficult. that's why we'll see further down side to the oil price in the near term. >> we have seen narrowing of spreads between brent and the nymex contract. people have expected these will widen again because we get shale and oil. what are your thoughts? >> you've got a race going on in

the united states between growing production and lack of transportation capacity. you've had more transportation capacity come on in the near term. that's lowered the spread. i agree with you, it's going to widen back out again as production continues to grow. >> when do we really start to feel the impact, meaningfully feel the impact of such an increase in shale oil? >> i think we're already seeing it, $105 brand. but this is something that's going to be a multi year effect. i think it's going to be a continuum of increased oil production in the near term. >> right now, how are you investing on the back of the -- you know, whatever your basic oil forecast, the way that you're playing your thoughts. >> we're turn to go position conservatively within the integrated oil space. we like royal dutch in europe. i think the service space is probably the best position right now because these companies are spending a lot of money. we like technique in europe and in the united states, we would

be looking at names like schlumberger and hughes. >> what is going to happen in production and oil and exploration? >> the exploration spin is going up significantly. the majors aren't necessarily growing production, but when you look at production growth coming from nonopec countries, that's a good thing for western service providers. >> and there are more companies that shell is looking at trying to do a deal with russia, as well, getting into the russian arctic. the nature of the oil business is you have to deal with difficult partners in difficult places. are we going to see more coming out of there? >> the arctic is potentially huge, but it's a post 2020 event by the time you see oil production there. you see a lot of investment put up there by not only shell, but exxon ask stat oil to name a couple of others. but that's spinning today. >> jason, thanks very much. >> thank you.

>> now, this has to be one of my favorite times of year, the first major golf tournament of the year, the masters, gets under way at 8:00 a.m. eastern. tiger woods is back in the favorite tent. he's dubbed to win his fifth green jacket. this is a video you're watching from the par 3 contest last year, where the players let family members and friends hit a few shots. pretty cool hole in one, as well. nick watney getting very excited about that. >> meanwhile, rory mcilroy's girlfriend took her turn at trying to hit the odd shot. there is a superstition sociologied with the par 3 that no one that has ever won that event has gone on to win the masters. if you're winning it, a few people decided to miss a couple of putts at the end. would is your favorite quite simply to win the masters? send us an e-mail, get in touch

via twitter or direct to me. i don't mind who wins as long as we get tiger, rory, phil coming down the stretch together. that would be good enough. we'll find out what chances tiger has or what odds you can get in that take for a green jacket for the fifth time. also still to come, roche says it will seek to expand in emerging markets and that one in particular. find out more after this. welcome to the new new york state, where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years, and we're creating tax free zones for business startups. the new new york is working creating tens of thousands of new businesses,

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the boj says a 2% inflation target is flexible. roche gets a boost from tamiflu sales. and wall street's biggest players head to washington to talk about ways to improve the economy. ahead of the u.s. open, european stocks are currently at their best levels of the day. roche has had a 5% jump in first quarter sales and maintained high profits this year. this as the swiss pharmaceutical

demand enjoyed receipt good demand for its tamiflu. carolin is joining us for more. >> good morning to you, ross. we're talking low double digit growth for the blockbuster drugs. tamiflu sales were very strong, up 84%, much better than expected because that harsher than expected flu season in the u.s. the emerging market growth up 11%. speaking of emerging markets, there have been many concerns as to whether india's recent supreme court rulings for novartis would have a negative impact for roach's growth joutd

look in the company. but the head here told me they're still banking on growth in india. >> we really have to separate the issue of patent protection and access in the emerging markets. we'll continue to defend patent protection. in fact, without patent protection, we wouldn't have many of the generic drugs that we have today that are widely available throughout the emerging markets. but relative to access, we take a personalized approach to our markets around the world and in india in particular we look for ways to work with local manufacturers to increase the access of our products in india. >> ross, it's worth pointing out that india is, in fact, the least important of all emerging markets. the biggest one, of course, being china where growth was 20%. back over to you. >> all right, carolin, thanks very much indeed for that. we've got the latest italian auction results out. let's bring those to you.

they've raised the new three-year bond auction. they've sold 4 million of that. three to four billion was planned. the yield, 2.29%. which i think is a -- again, a decline in yields on the three year. they also sold 1.669 billion of 2028 btp. 1.5 too 2 billion was planned on that. the 2028 btp yield 4.68%. it was 4.9% on march 13th. we also had some floating rates notes, as well. they've sold 1.5 billion as of june 2017 floating rate note, 1.5 billion was the maximum planned for the yield. the 2015 yield, 2.48%.

bid to cover was 1.28 on march 13th. anyway, the yield is down again for the three year. so it looks like another solid auction for italy. no one seems to be worried that there's still no government and the appetite to buy remains strong. still to come on the show, release in china of django unchained was canceled today. why wasn't the film costume change enough? we'll talk about it when we come back. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses

to read and consider carefully before investing.

scheduled for the release in china if a today the oscar winning django unchained. but it was still pulled from the big screen. clarence, thanks for joining us. this is a film that underwent a lot of -- a few changes and then we understand this morning that chinese cinemas canceled all screenings of django unchained. we understand the official like is for technical reasons, but it's been stopped from being

shown nationwide for the first time. now, i know you've only just -- you haven't been able to confirm that yourself, but it highlights just how difficult it is, doesn't it, for the a hollywood film to get a major release. why is that? >> i think it came as a very big surprise that terrentino's film was pulled from the cinemas because actually terrentino had done quite a bit in order to appease the mainland chinese sensors by toning down the bloodshed in order to accommodate the film in china. and also -- it is always quite arbitrary, the decisions being made by the mavenland chinese officials in terms of wa gets shown to the mainland chinese audiences. remember, earlier this year, the film skyfall, basically one of the scenes that was removed from the mainland chinese copy was a

scene of the mainland chinese doorman being shot and murdered by a french hitman. but all the death, they were very much left intact, but only this particular scene was cut out. so i think hollywood producers, they are still grappling with what is allowed and what is not. >> yeah. there's obviously a test here because there's an official prerelease censorship. but that clearly -- clearly you have to meet that, but even if it makes the prerelease, it doesn't mean you'll make the final showing. actually, in china, sometimes these decisions can be very last minute. well, we can cast our eyes back

likes six years ago. the film was -- it went past precensorship, it was all ready for general release and basically it was pulled from cinemas. so basically these decisions were made on a very last-minute basis. and you can really be sure -- i mean, producers can really be sure that the films are going to make a killing. metaphorically. unless, i mean, the film res already in cinemas for weeks and when the money came in and that's when they could be sure that the films are saved, that they could actually get some traction in the mainland chinese market. >> is it -- can you actually make a movie, and how easy is it to make a movie for a u.s. audience and then change it to make it for a chinese audience? is the answer that you still have to make movies purely for sort of a chinese audience and a chinese censorship?

>> tarantino's django unchained is an example of how films were changed. the content was toned down in order to gain the approval of mainland chinese sensors. but i think the recent trend is to -- things rather than take things out of a film. it started with lupa last year. the mainland's chinese release of lupa was longer than the version seen by international audiences because the mainland chinese producers or officials did demand producers to put in more shanghai set scenes in order for the film to be more chinese. that was the case for iron man 3, the film which the marvel franchise which is going to be released soon in china and the u.s. there will be two versions. in the chinese version there

will be more rather than less compared to the u.s. cut because they actually will have more china oriented scenes. and, actually, one of the a-listers will feature only in the chinese cuts and is not actually in the u.s. cuts. and the same goes for the next "transformers" installment. paramount has announced that the version released in china will, again, be longer than the version released internationally in the u.s. >> we'll see what happens. it's clearly a big challenge. clarence, thanks very much, indeed, for joining us. and one of our viewers exchange questions of the day is who is your favorite, as well, away from movies? although sometimes it plays out like movie scripts, the masters. keep your responses coming. send us an e-mail, get in touch via twitter.

jason gammel earlier said he was backing tiger the. still to come on the program, u.s. stocks have risen for a third straight day. the dow and s&p have had their best session in six straight weeks. it's the tech sector, as well, that's helping power this rally. we'll take a look at which stocks are leading the way when we come back.

european equities in the green. sentiment boosted after italy sells three-year bonds at the lowest yield level since january. it's a meeting of the minds, president obama will sit down with several ceos at the white house today to discuss everything from the economy to cyber security. and t bank of japan's inflation target is flexible. saying the bank will adjust its policy if necessary. roche's sales have been boosted by tamiflu. but the pharma giant warnings its run is tapering off. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. all right.

if you're just joining us, warm welcome to you stateside. fresh record closes highs on both the s&p and the dow. the best week since january the 2nd for equities the.right now, as far as futures are concerned, light pick up at the start. 2.5 points above fair value. the nasdaq at the moment is not quite above fair value. it was tech stocks yesterday that did particularly well. and the dow at the moment is called from 25 points above fair value, as well. up about 10% u.s. stocks for the best part of the year on average. ftse cnbc global 300, we hit the session highs a short while ago. 17 points higher. about .5% gain for some of these european indices. take a look at the ftse 1100, for example. up 0.5% for the xetra dax, 0.6% higher for the cac 40. in spain, we're fairly flat. just had a bond auction out of italy. yields on the three-year once

again. no signs of a reduction in appetite for italian debt despite the fact we don't necessarily have a government. wall street seems to have forgotten about last week's u.s. jobs report since hitting that interday low on friday, we've had a strong comeback. one sector in particular hoping to lead the way higher, as i mentioned. seema has more for us in this space. sfwlas of late, the technology sector has been showing strength and that's what's been powering the nasdaq. just yet, the composite closing 1 is.8% to close at a new intraday high. the nasdaq 100 is up 1.4% since friday's low point and it's been the old school tech names that are leading the way. micron is up 9% this week. intel up 6% and oracle up 5%.

traders are wondering if this is a turn around in tech. it's the tech names that have defensive qualities that have been moving higher. those are high dividend and stable earnings growth are leading the nasdaq higher. gloeshl shrimps fell 14 mers in the first quarter, the worst quarterly drop since it started tracking the industry in 1994. sales have now dropped for four straight quarters. consumers continue to more popular tablets and iphones and are avoiding the new windows 8 systems. you can see they are all significantly lower. back over to you. >> thanks for that, seema. that's the latest on the tech rally. some of the other stories, as well, president obama is meeting with ceos of several u.s. banks

at the white house. the bank includes swrammy dimon, michael korbett and moynahan. this is a trade group that represents 19 of the biggest u.s. financial terms. they're likely to discuss the u.s. budget, job creation, immigration reform as well as cyber security. and most americans believe the so-called sequester budget cuts hurt the u.s. economy. in the latest nbc "wall street journal" poll, 47% say so nearly three times the number who say they help. but around 60% suggest the cuts have had little impact on their own families. president obama's approval rating has dropped since the white house and congress failed to reach a deal last month to avoid the sequester. it's now at 47%. it was 50 in february, 53% in december after the election. the man who traded on inside information passed by former

kpmg's senior partner has been identified. brian shore, who run aes wholesale jeweler and diamond broker led investigations to scott london after being approached by the fbi. he met london at a golf club. london was fired by kpmg last friday after admitting he passed tips regarding herbalife and sketchers. he ran into trouble when his brokerage account was frozen for potentially dangerous trades. in a statement shaw says, i expect my actions will result in significant civil and criminal consequences, but i realize this is the painful price i will pay for any transgression peps. and big ackman is giving a nod to jcpenney. the activist investor told women's wear daily we're fought going anywhere. the new york post reports three more executives have left the department store. the chief operating officer, chief talent and chief creative

officers at jcpenney's stock in frankfurt up 3%. still to come, the world's best golfers are vying for the masters green jacket. who is the front runtory be in the final group on sunday? tiger, rory, phil, bubba? we'll handicap the field when we come back. acceler-rental.

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if you're just joining us, the bank of japan's kuroda makes an about fatesing saying the 2% inflation target is flexible. swiss drug giant roche gets a boost from tamiflu sales. plus, wall street's biggest players head to washington for dinner with the president. talk about ways to boost the economy. far more important than any of that, ladies and gentlemen, is the first major golf tournament of the year. the masters kicks off today. the first round gets under way from augusta, georgia, at 8:00 a.m. eastern. tiger woods is the favorite to win his fifth green jacket, but it's been quite a while since he won the last one. this is the video from the par 3 contest on wednesday. a pretty relaxed event.

family members and friends his a few shots. this is a hole in one we got from nick watney. rory mcilroy's tennis star played the role of caddie and had a go at hitting the odd shot. one of nine. joining us for more, nigel sealy at bette butler. tiger is back. he's won three tournaments already this year. but he hasn't won a major for five years. he wasn't won a masters, unbelievably, since '88. >> he's been consistent about winning. a few seconds, if you back him each way, you'll get a quarter to the first six. if you look over the fifty six, what are the likelihood of tiger woods not being a six is very, very slim. you would look at a field like this of great, great players and think, six to one, it's a little

short for me. but compared with three years ago, he was starting off the events at 2 to 1. >> it used to be tiger for the field, right? >> exactly. and some are saying he's better than in his heyday. if he gets off to a good start, there's no doubt about it, i think he would -- it's all about that. the weather forecast today and tomorrow, if you start off earlier, you have the better conditions. today i think he's a later started today. but tomorrow will be suited to him. he's the one the bookies fear. he's back to fearing tiger woods. if tiger woods wins golf tournaments, bookers lose money. right now, he is looking good. the money is down. he's around about 9 to 2 to win it, which is 4 1/2 to one. we hope he has a shot like wozniaki's there. but he's the man to beat.

>> where does this leave rory? rory was out of it. he won the pga in the last major by eight shots. then change of class, he walked off the course a month or so ago and said his head wasn't in the right place. all of a sudden, he plays the extra tournament, comes in second. shoots the last round 66. how much does that change his prospect? >> it changes it massively. one thing about rory mcilroy, he's always a very popular person. i still think he has a long way to go. these are the top, top goalers. he's lights the grand national. he has the game to win this, but has he got the form? he comes in at a little bit of form, but his concern with the club would be a big concern for me with the money down. >> distance controls everything.

i think it's going to go to the winner. my money is on keegan bradley. >> keegan bradley? >> i think he's the man to beat. he's a very popular choice among other people out there. he's had four top ten finishes in the last four events. if you look at the last round he played in the texas open, he's won four major birdies. he's had one round at the masters, finished 27th. >> there you go. so it all kicks off today. and it's a great -- you know, i don't really care who wins, it's just so great. probably the world's best golf watching tournament. >> just a beautiful place. tiger woods, if he wins, bookmakers are in big trouble. >> i have no doubt what i am doing for the thx four nights. nigel, thank you so much. who is your favorite to win the tournament? let us know.

john has written to me and said ross, i believe tiger will win the masters this year. he's playing much better this year so he's going with the market. nothing wrong with that. meanwhile, there was a boost in appetizing spending this morning. an uptick of 3.2% year on year to nearly $560 billion. unsurprisingly, europe was the only region not to add to that spending. u.s. authorities elsewhere reportedly revived a probe into how media outlets handled the release of economic data toen vesters. they're concerned some information may have leaked early to the financial markets. reports suggest thompson reuters, dow jones and bloomberg are among the companies in the probe. "the wall street journal" says the fbi was frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the

cftc. and the struggling pc market takes another glow. global shipments fell 14% in fact first quarter. sales have now dropped for four straight quarters. consumers are continuing to flock to the in you tablets and smartphones markets. dell, lenovo all in focus. a time of tech stocks up yesterday. it seems like at the moment in frankfurt, they're coming back after that performance. now, still to come, the u.s. oil giant chevron see aes drop in production amid refinery woes. more to come on "worldwide exchange" approximately.

the cac 40 and xetra dax up 0.5 prpd. the ftse up 0.3%. it follows the record closes last nigh on the s&p in the states. the ftse euro first 300 up 1.8%. so what are you supposed to do after those record closes? a swoon we had last week, but the rally again this week. this is what some of the experts on cnbc have told us today. >> again, crosses are moving quite better at the moment. i think you have to be patient. at the moment, it's a done risky to be you up there. euro/yen i think is the one that could essentially see 1.42 in the long-term.

get long. >> i think the good idea is to buy fiscal -- because the copper premium is high in recent weeks. and he might be higher in second quarter at least to april or pay because of the high season for proper usage. >> i would also want to own general companies where we can focus on prukts and products long-term. excillion is one we would want to put our money on. as towards the end of the year, it's expected to see an approval. meanwhile, look at what's on the agenda in the united states. weekless jobless claims are forecast to drop by 250,000. also at 8:30, we get march

import prices. they're expected to fall by 0.6%. the philly fed president charles plosser speaks at 6:00 a.m. eastern. he's in hong kong followed by james bullard in 8:30. although you would have heard a lot from him on cnbc. and commerzbank reports earnings today. we get figures from pier 1 im important, right aide and jb hunt. the consensus forecast is varied. it's due partly to the early easter holiday. will the also we have trying to mo move. dollar/yen, 99.56.

euro/dollar, steady at 1.3090. sterling is up to seven-week highs at 1.5368. in an interview with cnbc, the imf chief christine insisted that the fed and other central blankers around the world would take action. >> it's unconventional. we are in a low interest environment. more needs to be done. governments with tr fiscal lz have elemented space. who bears the burden? central bankers. whether it's monetary transaction program or funding for lending, all of this new

program that has been announced by the japanese authorities. they're doing what they can to encourage growth, to kick start growth when there has been none for a long time, like in japan, and to make sure that credit flows into the real economy so that investment can start again. >> today, we're hearing commentary about when the federal reserve should ease back on its stimulus. do you think there are damages to this plan longer term? i said in your speech there are down side risks now. >> first of all, i would obvious that the fed has indicated that they would do so with two compasses, if you will.

one, inflation and they're keeping an eye to inflation. second, employment. and they want to, you know, be driven by these two compasses. what we said at the moment is inflation under control. inflation clearly under 2%. and what we've observed lately is that the usually sort of binary relationship between unemployment and inflation has faded, in a way. so the risk, naturally, traditionally, would be accommodation economic policy. there is probably less of that and core inflation anticipate are clearly anchored down. as long as that is the case, and given that the fiscal tool is not available at the moment, then the monetary policy should

continue as it does and the path out of it should be gradual, should be thought through, should be adequately communicated. >> the central bank's 2% inflation goal for the boj is now flexible. credit suggests the start is in line with other central banks now such as the federal reserve. he stressed, however, that the bank of japan will be able to reach the 2% target in two years. we've seen where dollar/yen has been earlier on that. let's remind you where we stand right now with u.s. futures. so we have the close. there we go. the dow is currently 23 points above fair value. the fass dak is just 0.5 points below fair value.

the s&p 500 is 2 1/2, 3 points above fair value. it follows a record close yesterday. the other thing that was worth pointing out in that rally yesterday, volumes were higher he, as well. the best volume since january the 2nd. just a reminder, president obama is meeting with several bank ceos at the white house. they're in washington for a regular meeting of the financial services forum. this is a trade group that represents 19 of the biggest u.s. financial firms. the president and ceos are likely to discuss the u.s. bumt, job creation, immigration reform and cyber security. and that's it for today's program. coming up next, of course, "squawk box" with a countdown to the opening of markets stateside. whatever happens, we hope you have a profitable day. don't forget, it's all taking place, as well, today in

augusta. bye for now. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses

good morning. today's top stories, stocks are in rally mode. all three major averages coming off their best rally of the year for new highs and they're now in the black for this month. it's thursday, april 11th, 2013 and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew ross sorkin is off this