you're watching "worldwide exchange." syrian rebels reject russia's plan to face the assad regime's chemical arsenal. will this skifl talks between u.s. secretary of state kerry and his counterpart? >> analysts calling a split for vivendi very positive. weaker demand in china causes the luxury giant sales in the five months up from august

to miss expect ages. and concern over emerging market volatility takes center sage at the world economic forum in dalia. philippines looks poised to ride out the storm for now. a very good morning to you. we kick off with the ia global report for august. global supply down by 570,000 barrels a day because of rising tension over syria and a mere total cut in libyan production which sent oil futures higher. global supply, they say, is estimated to just over $91 million barrels a day. with both opec and nonopec nations registering declines.

the russian proposal on syria tries to gain traction. the agency, a little bit more positive about supply increases in the fourth quarter. antwaan house, the editor of the world market report will be on european closing bell tonight at 7:35 cet. brent currently trading at $111.67. we did briefly spark up to $116 a barrel when we thought a strike was imminent. so more on that during the program and later today. as the eu announces new plans to scrap cross border roaming charges, we'll investigate the potential impacts on the telecom sector with the president of the european commission. plus, could germany's so-called -- we'll sit down with the teddy bearmaker.

and we'll bell at the world economic forum to find out if the asian coffee business is heating up. next week anticipated fed meeting, we will be joined in the studio by gold man sax. and is dunkin donuts ceo will be with us at 1215 cet. meanwhile, 7.25% is the new rate. they've been trying to deal with a sharply weaker rupee here. another hike in rates after the emergency meeting two weeks ago. indonesia, another high. the bnks rates down by 7.25%. we'll keep our eyes on reaction for that. right now, just pulling out, gold just hit a four-week low on hopes that a syria strike will be averted. this as the leadership of the syrian rebels rejected a russian

offer to end the crisis in the country by ending the crisis on its weapons arsenal. this all comes as u.n. inspectors report will be published on monday. diplomate believe it is unlikely fault will be attributed to either side. mean wile, u.s. secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart plan to meet in geneva over the crisis. all the members of the security council is due to meet. it all comes as a plea on for caution has been issued. the russian president warning about the dangers of the opposition. he wrote there are few champions in syria, but there are more than enough al qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. he went on to say he no one

doubts that poison gas was used in syria, but there is every reason to believe it was used not by the syrian army, but by patriots. carrie, that is a step change, right? >> exactly. they were expecting cautious optimism on what they can actually achieve, secretary of state john kerry making several trips across the atlantic trying to get something done in terms of removing those chemical weapons from syria. the russians reportedly have already submitted their plan to the u.s., so i'm sure they'll be discussing that in geneva today. but i do want to mention basically the syrian leadership, they're raising the red flag here and saying, hey, wait a minute, what about us? they're rejecting this idea of taking chemical weapons out because that doesn't do anything for them in terms of the situation on the ground. then you have the political situation in the united states, president putin, if you look at

what happened at the g-20 last week, it's president putin two, president obama zero. i think president putin has managed to do that and he's managed to do that in the "new york times." he's one upped the president once again, it seems. >> he's clearly setting the agenda. >> exactly. >> on a political basis. the question is, is it the right agenda? >> that's the bigger question. president obama is working on capitol hill. we won't hear from them until monday. this is an ongoing fluid story. >> hadley, for now, thanks very much, indeed, hadley gamble, our middle east correspondent.

>> this is where we stand with global equities right now. six to four vapsers outpacing decliners. i'm sorry, three to two is what i should say. pretty flaft right now, the ftse 100 was up from four points yesterday. this morning, gains despite the fact that we had triple digit gains for the dow jones industrial average. up 0.2% for the german and uk markets. the cac 40 is flat. the ftse mib is fairly flat, as well. it's still expecting improvement in the second half of the year. stocks up nearly 5%. we have ricardo group at 1.85%. so i think it's encouraging

growth in both autos and basket size, as well. next, up 0.3%, 8.2 % rise for next. and finally, home retail group up around 4% e at the moment, confirming its full year profit guidance after like-for-like sales increased 2.7% over the last year with those comparable sales at its home based stores jumped around about 11%. a couple of other stocks, as well, richemont down 2.72% after luxury groups reporting a 9% sales growth for the first five months of the year. the group blaming weaker than expected demand from china. let's get a little bit more. karen is looking at this stock for us. >> analysts were expecting a

slowdown partly because of that crackdown on corruption. having said that, the slowdown was more pronounced than many analysts were participating. sales in asia overail, this is compared with 12 percent in the seam period last year. if you look at the other regions, we have pretty good growth in europe and the middle east, up by 10% in the first five months of the year. having said that, a lot of it is because many tourists are going and spending on luxury items there. we've got japan and america's holding up extremely well, both showing growth rates of around 17%. that is the abe-nomics effect. some of the underperformance today is also based on some profit taking shares and the company are up some 31% year-to-date. >> carolin, thanks very much, indeed. that's the latest on richemont. let's take a look at vivendi.

it will decide on a spin-off of its business by 2014. stephane has an update on this out of paris. >> hey, ross. it's another big surprise, to be honest. they have been wondering what dodd with its telephone business which is capital intensive. they need to invest massively to build its 4g network at the time. its revenues are declining. in the second quarterer, revenues dropped by 17.5%. the average user is declining. and as a result, the group is trying to reduce its cost base at the end of last year. this you a announced 850 drop cuts. so the plan is to space vivendi apart. on the on other side, the

telecom business. it's not clear exactly what would be the plan for sfr. would it be listed separately or would we indeed try to sell it to another major player in europe. that's all the speculation that we are seeing this morning. we knew for sure that vodafone will look closely at the story. vodafone, nearly 40% of sfr for a lot of the years. at the time, va lendy was not selling and things have changed with the financial resources to buy. potentially since the recent deal with verizon in the united states. so plenty of speculations on the sfr, which at home in france is facing difficult market conditions. over to you. >> stephane, for now, thanks. how much has new low cost competitors caused for established getters like sfr.

the vice president of the european commission should join us in a first on cnbc interview. meanwhile, let's check in on what's going on with bond rates today, as well. 2.89. gilt yields have come back from that 3% mark. 3.04%, the highest in two years. yesterday posted strong employment numbers. we had just come down below that 3% level, as well. on the currency markets this morning, the dollar index struggling. aussie/dollar up to 92.52. sterling on a 1.58 track at the moment. dollar/yen, back below that 100 mark, as well. this time yesterday around 1.3260. now we understand the central bank has kept things unchanged. on that note, let's bring you up

to speed with everything in asia. sixuan has the details. hi, sixuan. >> thank you, ross. china markets outperformed yet again led by financials and some shipping counters while costs continued to rise on a brighter economic outlook. but the nikkei 225 lost a model 3%. shinoah levels came in better than expected. mitsubishi motors and sharp both tanked. sharp tanked 6% to a 2 1/2 month low as it may rise up to $1.5 billion in a public share offering. mitsubishi motor tumbled 8% after it was reported the automaker plans to offer $2 billion for shares to the public. in china, coal is under pressure after basing announced measures

to reduce coal risk consumption and shut down old plighting facilities. meanwhile, apple suppliers continue to trek lower finding apple's tumble overnight. and the market connected the latest iphone is available. down another 6% today. back to you. goldman sakes says it's time to play the country's rebound. there's a special report on cnbc.com. but the banking firm has pointed to the positive industrial outpoints data which emerged last month. follow cnbc, as well, on twitter@cnbc world. and at the world economic forum in china, the health of emerging markets is not surprisingly a major key firm.

some are questioning whether fears of fete tight.ing is still a bull. >> i don't think the fundamental attractions to the emerging markets have changed overnight. if you looked at the financial markets, you would think everything changed in sort of june/july. i think that's overblown. it has more to do with the dynamics of dollar flows in the context of ben bernanke's move tapering and so on. which is to say that emerging markets don't have challenges, by utz just that the underlying dem dprafices, process of elimination and industrialization are still driving impressive rates for pdg growth. >> the deputy managing director told cnbc that unlike the last asian financial crisis when economies were in trouble, the region now suffers more from a

perception problem. >> the key issue is looking for the transparency, looking for the clarity for policy framework, looking for the proper communication, and looking for the xag capacity being able to react. at that time, it's very much macro driven now. because of the level, more are looking for more. i think those are the challenges for the emerging market today. >> and we'll have more for the world economic forum in dalia. joining us from singapore now is collide mcdonald. clive, good to see you. it's been a while. look, two voices there. your boss and two men saying, look, it's not as bad as the markets are pointing out, except that indonesia has just come out and surprised us with another rate hike after an emergency move two weeks ago.

>> yeah. well, i think for indonesia specifically, there's an ongoing inflation issue. we ourselves didn't expect a 25-basis point hike today. but i think that peter hit the nail on the head when he referred to flows have changed. we've seen a big reversal in terms of flows. if we look at the evolution of portfolio flows, it peaked at about $34 in inflows during early march. until last week, we had govern negative, negative 2 billion is the year to days number now. so between march and last week, we've seen 36 billion outflow. >> do you think that outflow is going to slow up? is it going to stop? what's your view?

>> june was the worst point. and then in august, the early part of august, we certainly did see a pick up again. frankly speaking, we look at the data over the last two weeks. we'll be losing about 2 billion or $3 billion a week. no sign of any letup. given what's happened in india and the better economic data we've seen in china, i think that will help flows a little bit for the most recent period. >> okay. clive, stick around. we'll come back to you fairly shortly. thanks for joining us. more to come from you. now indonesia are catching

markets surprised with that high. clive comes back with views on shine na, as well, after this. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪ you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect. what if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you? ♪ when you think about it, isn't that what retirement should be,

paying ourselves to do what we love? ♪

so we've had a surprise

central bank hike from indonesia. most had expected to stand pat after the emergency meeting just two weeks ago where they hiked rates to try and curb inflation and also, of course, to defend the rupee. we've had a decision from the philippines central bank there at no move in rates. central government says no need to move rates giving steady prices. at the same time, bank of korea held firm. the governor said they face ongoing risks, but the domestic economy is improving. so clive, we're just talking about all these outflows and there are signs of it flowing. away from the impact on indonesia, who is fairing best at the moment in the region? who is dealing with this the best? >> well, i think the stand out in my mind is china and korea. china is very much insulated

from the significant tightening and significant changes across the reasons. korea has increased its links with the china market. while it's had problems of its own in terms of indebtedness, these are not new factors. these are well known. after its shock in june, the data starts to get better. the mood music from policymakers is a bit better and i think korea is clearly benefitting from that in my mind. >> clearly, we weren't going to get hard landing people were fearing. does this data, which supports claims from the government, can they get a bigger claim on financials and state run institutions as well as individual local governments? >> well, there's nothing in the data that would suggest that

there's any willingness to recognize the npl, levels of npls in china. in fact, if we look at the most recent data, a surprise on the upside. although here at standard chartered, we do highlight that the data in june is very, very weak, so a rebound in july and august is not a surprise. beyond the improvement in the economic data, there's a moore fundamental factor at work. that is in contrast to the rest of the region, corporate earnings have very much surprised you on the up side. >> yeah. is that going to be affected at all by equity prices? >> goodness, if we look at some of the key cyclical sectors, is the wanks, they have seen a significant rally amongst some of the names. what we need to differentiate is where are we seeing a rebound from the june low, which is argued by about banks, and we're seeing a ban from those or on

normalization. but. >> some of the key cyclical sectors where you're seeing more discipline in terms of supply, i think that the rebound in earnings we're seeing there has legs and could run for a number of quarters. >> clive, good to see you. thanks for that. joining us from singapore. e-mail us, worldwide@cnbc.com. also the italian prime minister has blamed political infighting for a recent run up in bond yields. speaking before parliament wednesday, he warned lawmakers risk unwinding the progress already made to restore market confidence. those comments come as a cross party committee still debating whether sylvia berlusconi should be involved in the senate following his tax fraud conviction. the initial hearing concluded on wednesday without a vote. talks resume at 1500 cet. italy will be testing the main markets for the first time with a debt auction later today. we'll have those results with a

analysis. and also in italy, the broader itali italian met yesterday with the restructuring plan as it seems to get approval for the bailout from the state. that new plan will be submitted on september 24th. it should include a capital increase to be complemented by 2014. the original idea was for $1 billion capital increase, but the european commission would like more. shares in bmts has been down 7% over the last 24r50e months. today, down another percent. and joseph ackerman is considering stepping down from the board of another major european company. the former cfo of deutsche bank will give up his seat on the board of siemens. this follows the suicide of the company's cfo which he said the

family held him partly responsible for. still to come, the vice president of the european commission joins us for a first on cnbc. find out how she plans to break up the telecoms market.

these are the headlines. syrian rebels reject russia's plan. >> rising tensions over syria sent futures for oil higher. concern over emerging market volatility take place in dalia. this as the indonesian central bank raises rates again. philippines stays on hold. and shares of vivendi rises on hopes the french conglomerate will spin-off. pretty positive for the group's valuation. as far as european equities are concerned today, a little flat considering the third triple digit move we had in the

dow in a row. ftse and the xetra dax going nowhere. the cac 40 down about 0.1%. we'll have sent for the italian markets. bond yields have come lower in the last 24 hours. treshy yields below 2.9% for the ten-year and ten-year gilt back below 3%, as well. remember, we hit 3.04% on gilt yields yesterday after we had had that strong employment better than expected employment report, as well. take a look at currency markets. dollar has seen a little bit of weakness today. dollar index, a lot of recalculation of what may happen with fed tapering. dollar/yen, back below 1100. sterling/dollar has been up over 1.58 this morning, just coming back from an earlier high. the u.s. federal trade commission is probing whether facebook violated users' privacy rights when it changed its policies last month. august the 29th, the company

announced an update on its privacy company, taking out language to allow users determine how their names and pictures can be used in marketing. facebook says it's only clarifying existing policies and it hasn't violated any law is. at the same time, they say going public wasn't all that bad. spooking of the at the lunch conference, he says while he once advocated the company stay private for as long as possible, now they make 40% of its revenue from mobile. >> we have three pillars of the platform strategy, which are, you know, build, grow, and monetize. if we can help make it so that the industry overall can build better social apps that are more human by helping them build, grow and monetize, then i feel really good. >> zuckerberg shared his annual

goal, which in part has been to learn mandarin or only eat things he kills. this year he says it's trying to meet someone outside of facebook each day. i'm free. marissa mayer says yahoo! is getting nearly 800 million monthly active users. >> we have one of the most sophisticated personalization algorithms that i've seen to date. and i'm really proud of what the team has done there and i think that we're just getting started. i think as core, yahoo! is obviously an advertising driven company, but we're a personalization company and we're about organizing the right content and the right advertising for each of our users. >> meanwhile, yahoo! is key for yahoo!. the stock up around 0.7% in

frankfurt. carl icahn buys more shares of apple. he told cnbc the purchase was a no-brainer the. >> we bought quite a bit today in the 4.65, 4 had.67 range, 4.66. that's not to say it won't go lower. i don't really look at it from day-to-day and we don't try to fix what the market is going to do. but i think if they do a big buyback, that's going to be a major plus. but i also think the products were pretty good and i think they're going to get a lot of business from china. >> and dell shareholders will once again gather at the company's headquarters to vote on the buyout offer from founder michael dell and partners. the vote takes place at 10:00 a.m. eastern. it's been suspended three times. last month, dell raised their

bit to $13.55 a share. the buyout had been approached by call eye khan who made an certain offer. eye khan did try to block the bid in court but dropped earlier this week. >> hi, ross. mitsubishi motors shares fell more than 8% and sharp slid nearly 6% as investors cautious of a stock dilution sold off shares. according to the nikkei, mitsubishi motors is so raise its capital by $2 billion. this will be the nation's second largest public offering in fiscal 2013. mitsubishi motors is seeking funding to buy back preferred shares for mitsubishi companies

such as mitsubishi heavy industries and corporations which has stepped in to rescue the carmaker from a management crisis in 2004. but now, after ten years, mitsubishi motors has got back into shape and is preparing to pull out from control of the companies. funds will be spent to build plants in indonesia and the philippines. sharp, mean wile, is considering a public offering and a third party allocation of around $200 million. the struggling electronicsmaker wants to pay back interest rates that have inflated to more than $10 billion. looking into the future, it hopes investing growing businesses such as medium and small size liquid crystal panels. that's all for the nikkei business report. back to you, ross. >> thanks for that, yukako. now, the eu has unveiled a new

plan to get the block back to the telecom sector. a new proposal aims to scrap cross border roaming charges and give european regulators veto powers over the sale of mobile spectrum. joining us for more is neelie kroes. thanks so much, indeed, for joining us. i think most people understand capping roaming charges would be fairly good for business and individuals, as well. do you think you're actually going to get government agreement on you having veto power -- or the eu having veto power over satisfaction? because this is where quite a lot of governments make money. >> that's true and, therefore, we are proposing harm monzation and kword flagz. it's a bit silly to imagine that we have single markets. by the way, not yet for telcos

and that is one of the parts of the proposal, to get rid of all those barriers, artificial barriers, but also talking about the sky. so it's not a proposal about taking money out of the pockets of the national governments. it is about harmonizing and corporation. for it is silly when the auctions are not at the same time, that there is no transparency about the requirements, that every national member state can do whatever when they are interested in this amount of money. so we need and i sincerely hope that my arguments are making sense for them. we need to have a harmonized spectrum policy. >> yeah. look, at the end of the day, we want to get on the road to a single market, as you say. is it going to be easier after these proposals for operators to enter other countries? >> absolutely. for them, it is so to say a

one-stop shop. so you have an eu passport. for now, when you are a incumbent, then when you are planning to offer your services in another country, you will have to stop everything again. new regulations, requirements, new payments and so on and so forth. so this is for the incumbents for making their new business models, new business models. on the other hand, the roaming income streams will be cut off for that is also old fashioned. so there is sour and sweet for everything, so to say, but we are vastly needing this type of approach because it is a global thing. we need to be aware that we don't have a situation for europe, that we are not any more in the drivers' seat. it is connected with the manufacturing industry, it is

connected with all the other economic activities and combined with the jobs. so we have to act now that our qualities are doing the job and are having a competitive advantage when we are comparing it in the global theme. >> now, i spoke to, as well, commissioner, to your colleague, jacob malmunia over the weekend. this is what he had to say about getting competition into the sector. >> if we want a single market for telecoms, that's one of the important parts of a single market for the words, we need to eliminate internal barriers. we have not yet an internal market for telecoms. we need to advance as quickly as possible to this objective. >> so the question is, is how quickly can we advance? he thinks the plans you have at the moment are a bit too unambitious. he thinks clearly we could go quicker.

>> well, you are aware that i was his predecessor, that i'm completely on the same page talking about competitiveness and talking about speeding up the position of a, indeed, single market for telcos because it's so important in a digital age and because it is connected with all the competitiveness sites of other industries, too. i do agree with joaquin, but we should be aware that we have to make steps forward. and, therefore, i think this is a main step forward in just breaking through the circle. if we stick to the situation of today, then we are losing the game and losing the game not only means an attack on the telco industry, but it means an attack on the european economy. and, therefore, i'm grateful that all my colleagues and the commission are backing me, that

joaquin is stimulating, that we should hurry up. i'm aware of that and that is the next challenge with the european council in october and that will be the next challenge in the discussions with parliament, too. >> clearly, there's fete feedback from the industry, as well. hutchinson wins three, attacks your plans because it allows operators to join alliances with other firms, as well. they don't think that's fair. they think that you shouldn't manipulate the structure of the market to the dentment of on others. >> i'm a bit surprised about their reaction. to put it in a nice way, i think that we also have listened to them as an important party in the total playing field. and that we have partly taken their business model in this proposal, too. so we have to rock the boat.

and if everybody is complaining, then i think i have a right for it would be very, very varying if some would say this is great and others not. the consumer, by the way, i'm absolutely certain is full hearted and faithful for this. less roaming costs, more transparency, more flexibility. if they are not delivering to the consumer what they promised, then you can move and quickly and you can take and keep your number and whatever and taking your bundles with you when you are going to another part of the european union. and open internet. very important issue. not any more blocked or throttled and is we all have that experience. and getting the guarantee for quality. that is at stake. and all those who are players in the field, well, a bit sorry, but a lot of sleep 37. >> commissioner, always good to

speak to you. thank you very much indeed for joining us. we appreciate your time this morning. the vice president of the european commission. still to come, emerging markets, how might it affect companies with a heavy presence in those regions? eunice yoon will be talking to the ceo of illycaffe. that's still to come. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪

with my united mileageplus explorer card. i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. [ delavane ] priority boarding is really important to us. you can just get on the plane and relax. [ julian ] having a card that doesn't charge you foreign transaction fees saves me a ton of money. [ delavane ] we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the u.s. when i spend money on this card, i can see brazil in my future. [ anthony ] i use the explorer card to earn miles in order to go visit my family, which means a lot to me. ♪

now, the world economic forum in dalia, health of emerging markets are at issue. eunice is at the forum and joins us now. hi, eunice. >> hi, that is a topic that a lot of people have been discussing. but i am not going to pose that question to my next guest, who happens to be the head of probably one of the on most best known coffee and italian brands that you would ever know. his name is andrea illy. he's the ceo of illyicaffe. a lot of people are concerned about the outlook of the economic. do you think the economic crisis is over? >> economic crisis. i think we are going to hit the

bottom, but then there will be a gradual recovery. because there are no, i would say, booming sectors now which can let's say generate high growth. so we need something new to build a new technology, new market, something replacing the consolidating information age. i'm a believer in the health age, which we bring new paradigms, but we need a few more years, at least ten years before it is targeting flow again, in my opinion. >> do you feel that the italian government is bringing something new? >> the italian government is struggling because we still have a political instability in italy. which is hard to overcome. until we do serious reform in the low. and now there is a lot of fight

between the different political parties with big issues like legal problems from the premier. no, in this moment, it's very hard to be effective at the political level in italy. unfortunately. they are doing what they can in order to stabilize the economy, in order to prevent the risk of failure by introducing new taxes and new rules. which unfortunately is also impacting on the competitiveness of the country, but at least is let's say preventing a systemic risk with a default like it could have happened last year. >> so then how is that affecting your global strategy? are you starting to turn your eyes towards asia, perhaps? >> yeah. the illycaffe in general is following a global strategy. we are present in 140 countries with the same marketing mix

everywhere in many years. so china, asia altogether is definitely part of our world. it's a very interesting opportunity because it is a growing market. even though the per capita consumption is still small, there is this cross -- in terms of consumption style, which brings more asian products in europe in the western world and more western products in the asian world including china. >> how investment douveng the consumer market is here? do you think the government is doing enough to try to stimulate it? >> well, just to give you an example, if you take the overall luxury goods market, so the high end altogether, china with the purchase which is done in other

countries is becoming quickly the first market in the world. so i see really the chinese market becoming more an opportunity for consumption, internal consumption rather than what used to be the low cost, elusive product export. and this is managing it in a way which i think is very wise. what i've heard also in terms of economic policy by the premier tends to be the perfect application of the free economy. >> and that's a lot of what people have been talking about here, as well, ross. really about how these reforms are happening in china and that's something that remere lee was talking about. >> all right. good stuff. thanks for that, eunice. plenty more online, as well, from the world economic forum. going to the polls in a regional election, it could give

angela merkel a boost ahead of the general election. the christian social union is set to win at least 47% of the vote. bavaria is home to 12.5 million people and prides itself on its laptop and economy. they employ over half of the overall workforce. anette is looking ahead to this and joins us from frankfurt for more. annettea, how are they all feeling at the moment? what i was surprised about, what hasn't come um in the election and affects all these guys so much is that the high costs of energy in germany is directly down to angela merkel's green policies. >> well, actually, it's because the current government couldn't agree on a reform on the renewable energy law and that is actually criticized here on the domestic level in germany. and one of angela merkel's

priority toes tackle it right after the election, she promised all over and over. again, and, of course, it's very dear to the heart of a little of middle stone companies who are partly at least high on the energy consumption side as they're looking at car parts suppliers. i traveled down to southern germany in the heartland on the german mittelstand company. they are a teddy bearmaker. take a listen to what they said about the rage of the company. >> it's been in existence for over 130 years. so we're certainly a company that's here for the long haul and you are always very much conscious of what's gone before and wa you want to leave as a legacy going forward. we always believe that a teddy bear or any animal that we make,

any child will keep it for a lifetime. given the aim of all of us, we want to see people enjoy their teddy bears for as long as they're in the world. >> talking about growth, here we have a very difficult environment. how was that affected by the crisis? >> i think we were also clearly affected by it. it certainly presented challenges. but the upside from that is we've seen a lot of consumers want to concentrate on buying quality products. so they've turned to steiff to see that something they bought from us for many, many years. so the investment in quality in our traditions has played to the strength, really, of the economic climate. but, of course, it's challenging right now. >> what are your growth plans in general? >> well, we see growth within the major markets that we already traded in. so certainly trying to diversify what we already have whether

into associated products such as children's clothing or more gift articles. but other countries in emerging markets continue to be of interest to us and of great excitement. we are continuing to grow in china and asia, as we said earlier, and russia continues to be something we're looking at strongly and we have big plans to grow there. but also our existing markets, we feel there is more potential there, as well. for the united states and in the uk, we are positioned much more as a collectible brand by adults, but our heartbeat still remains to be a children's toy. and i think there is great potential for us to move the country more to the foundations of what we're caught up on. >> talking to you about china, a lot of companies had copyright problems in that country. what is your experience there? >> so far, so good from our point of view. because everything has controlled is and made here in germany, we're in a great situation and all of our products have a button in the air which is the iconic symbol. the machinery that we use to do

that is made here in germany. it's made by a sister company. so from a copyright point of view, we don't really have any problems in that effect. >> one of the big stoppics in germany is labor. is that, as well, an issue for you? because of the type of company we are, it's the culture that comes into it. many people who work here and their grandparents worked with margaret and richard steiff in the years gone by. it's been a family tradition that the workers passed down the skills. everyone in the company looked around and realized that, actually, we didn't know how to make this because the people that had left hadn't passed that skill on. many of the skills are inherent in culture. if we we know outside and had to bring that skill in, it's very difficult. it's a balance between the two streams. >> steiff is one example of the

mittlestand companies. more than 99% of the german companies are belonging to those mittelstand companies. they are accounting for more than 50% of the gdp produced in that company and, of course, they're highly innovative. more than 50% of r&d expenses were done by those mittelstand companies. one of the recipes for their success. back to you, ross. >> thanks very much b, indeed, for that. we'll take a short break. dunkin donuts has announced they're preparing to come back to the uk. how is it going the work this time? we'll have a first on cnbc interview with the dunkin donuts ceo nigel travis, right after this.

welcome back to was wgs. i'm ross westgate. syrian rebels reject russia's plan the. the world oil supply falls. that sends futures higher. and concern over emerging market volume on tilt takes center stage in dalia. this as the indonesia central bank surprises by raising rates

again. the philippines stays on hold. shares of vivendi are up on hopes the french conglomerate will spin off sfr. the group is called positive for the group's evaluation. all right. a very good welcome to you. welcome to the start he your global trading day. you can see at the moment we're pretty flat on futures, just on fair value for the dow. this is after three consecutive days of triple digit gains. the nasdaq yesterday was down for the first time in seven sessions, six sessions. right now that's on fair value. the s&p is on fair value. it's been up for seven days in a row. as far as european equities are concerned, fairly flat going through the session this

morning. and we're just off six points for the ftse from yesterday. the xetra dax down 0.3% as well as the cac 40. mark garnny is giving testimony with members of his other colleagues to the treasury select committee. so we'll get some comments out of that. we'll wrap that up in a few moments' time, as well. gilt yields just below 3% yesterday after the stronger than expected employment figures. it's okay, up to 3.04%, which is about a two-year high on the spread between gilt and bunds also over 100 basis points, as well, which you haven't seen for some time. a quick look at currency markets for you, the dollar has been under pressure into european trade today. we've come off the lows for the dollar. nevertheless, dollar/yen, still below 99.49.

euro/dollar, just below 1.33. that's where we stand in european trade. let's update the asian session today. we have that surprise, another rate hike by the indonesian central bank among other things. sixuan has the details for us. >> thank you, ross. also a pretty flat session in asia. no traffic for these major bourses. china markets outperformed yet again with the shanghai composite, higher by 0.6% led by financials and shipping counters while freight costs continue to rise on a bright honor global outlook. the nikkei 225 in japan pulled back modest 0.3%. in japan's corporate shareholders came in weaker than expected. meanwhile, shares took a toll on sharp and mitsubishi motors. sharp tumbled 6% today to a 2.5 month low as it raised up to

$2.5 billion in an offer. mitsubishi motors tanked after it was reported the automaker plans to offer $2 billion of shares to the company. in china, we see banking shares, media stocks and some of the shipping companies had a strong rally on hopes that they will benefit from the free trade zone program. but coal miners capped the up side on beth sides of hong kong and mingling forces to reduce coal consumption and shut down old polluting facilities. apple suppliers extended yesterday's losses following apple's south as the latest market concluded the iphone 5c was too expensive for china. back to you. >> thanks very much, indeed, for that, sixuan. as you can see at the moment, governor mark carney is giving testimony at the treasury select committee on the inflation report. we've already heard from some of his colleagues who say if the recent restoration in business

can be maintained, recovery is likely to prove sustainable. mr. fisher says the economy appears to be looking at modest growth, although below the historic trend, as well. mr. fisher says unemployment is likely to fall back only gradually. improvements will be accompanied by increased productivity. and david miles saying that signs of the recovery is taking hold in the uk but not enough to make it materially into the margins are slack in the economy. that's the latest comments out. let's bring in now my guest. thanks very much, indeed. >> good morning. >> unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked down yesterday, which is now a key

sort of knockout for the governor's forward guidance. how much pressure do you think this forward guidance is gomg going to come under? >> i think still a lot, frankly. i think the central banks have used the unemployment rate now as a way of communicating that they are intending to stay on hold for longer. and the market is just veered its focus completely on these indicators. what we know is that labor market of growth comes out, people revise their expect ages quite rapidly as to when that forward point of tightening will come. and so i think there's now too much volatility and too much emphasis on these indicators. >> yeah. as you say, they're meeting stronger growth in your notes. the key thing is, if the bank insists on saying, look, listen, listen, listen, rates are staying low and the markets decide we don't believe you, banks have to do something else,

don't they? if it doesn't believe what the markets are telling you, do you have to do something else? will we go back voting for more qe? >> i think that's the problem of having these very narrow thresholds and the knockouts. and i think what the market is trying to do now is say let's assume that you're not going to hike for the next year, year and a half, doesn't that mean that you'll have to make up for that later on? so what you don't give me now, you're going to take back later. and that's why recently yield curves have moved mostly from the three, four-year maturities onward. the way out of this, i think it would be easier maybe for the communication and a way to deflect attention just from that single indicator just to give us a path, a profile for the policy rate. lo look, i am in the business of forecasting, as well.

there's a lot of complexities, it's not just down to numbers. and you can qualify your reasoning more and more as time goes on, but then you crazy more confusion. >> and at the end of the day, markets are pretty binary, right? you can't get away from that. >> absolutely. and it has to be. what's your up side? rates are at zero. so you're going to either lose money or make very little. >> having said that, let's push higher. we've had in yields across the boards, but is that move -- are we at the upper end of that move higher or not? >> i think so. if you look at bonds in relation to what people expect for the business cycle, you look at yield curves, you look at real rates, they have normalized quite a big deal. so i think the bearish case for fixed income generally rests on two things. one is we thinking about central banks are wrong and they're

going to hike within the next month. or thinking inflation risks are underpriced so expecting the next move up in yields will come from break even inflationary or inflationary expectations. so i think you have to have one of those two shields to drop. >> the one thing about the employment side, just to go back to the uk, clearly there's no wage pressure at the moment, despite the fact the economy is improving. we'll see whether that changes. indeed, the employment indices are components of the pmis were slowing. and a lot of job creation is temporary. one wonders if we don't get wage inflation, maybe for the bank we might be in a good spot. we get growth, but without any wage inflation. they take that, right? >> yeah. although i've never seen wages leading a business cycle. it's still ahead of us. and, you know, the big discussion out there is how much slack there is, which is another way of saying how much of this recession has been cyclical or structural? and i think the jury is still

out. and inflation tends to be the bellwether. >> it's good to have you on. we're waiting for an italian auction, so we'll keep an eye on that. we'll keep our eyes on mr. carney, as well. he says the markets aren't listening. but tease what he's reckoning his message is for. it's for uk firmes and households expected the yield curve would steepen after the instruction of forward guidance. let's remind you what's on the agenda in the united states today. weekly jobless claims are due out at 8:30 eastern, forecast to rise by 7,230. also we get august import prices. new york fed president bill dudley speaks in new york at 9:00 iron. the syrian rebels have rejected

an offer by russia to end the crisis. it comes after long awaited findings of u.n. inspectors investigating chemical weapons in syria will be published on monday. diplomates believe the reports are unlikely to specify either side responsible for the attacks. mean wheel, u.s. secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart are scheduled to meet in the u.n. today after the crisis. all the permanent members of the security council will meet. it comes as putin has reiterated his plea for caution. in an op-ed in the "new york times," the u.s. president barnd about the dangers of impairing the opposition. he says there are more than enough al qaeda strikers and extremists have fought battling the government. he then went on to say no one doubts poisoned gas wab used,

but he says used by syrian forces by what is described as powerful foreign patrons. meanwhile, as italy's prime minister sounds alarm bells and the risk of bond markets, we'll have the latest results from that auction. we've got a new three-year and 15-year auction. we'll get those right after this.

attention - americans living with limited mobility. what do you do when you can no longer get around like you used to? when you fear losing your independence? who do you call? call hoveround now, to see if you qualify for

america's premier power chair. hi, i'm tom kruse, inventor and founder of hoveround. now you can do more, see more, enjoy life more. here's why hoveround makes it easier than any other power chair. hoveround is more maneuverable to get you through the tightest doors and hallways. more reliable. hoveround employees build your chair, deliver your chair, and will service your chair for as long as you own your chair. and most importantly, 9 out of 10 people got their hoveround for little or no cost. call now for your free dvd and information kit. and now every hoveround comes with this tote bag and cup holder for handy access to your favorite items. you don't really have to give up living because you don't have your legs. call now for your free consultation. and right now, get this limited edition hoveround america travel mug free with your hoveround delivery. call or log onto hoveround.com right now!

if you're just joining us this morning, syrian rebels said no to russia's plan to safeguard chemical weapons arsenal. tensions add world oil supply falls in august. indonesia brings another surprise interest rate raise. the eye stallan senate committee still debating or will resume its debate about whether mr. berlusconi can stay in parliament or not. if he's kicked out, they threaten to draw support from the government and this comes as we get the latest auction results. italy has sold 4 billion, the new 16 btp at the top ends of

the range. it was looking 3 to 4 billion. the yield, 2.7%. the previous three-year yield was 2.33%. so we've jumped from 2.33% in juvenile to 2.72%. they've solved the 2028 which is a 15-year. the bit to cover on that, 1 is.36 versus 1.73. the yield's 4.88 again a jump up in 4.67%. that was on june the 13th. they sold 1.5 billion of that which is, again, sort of the top amount that was planned. so yields undoubtedly higher. let's get a view with francesco who is with me, as well, in the studios. italian yields, as well, back above spanish yields, as well. what are investors thinking at the moment about italian debt? >> i think spain is still in people's favor much more than

italy. and the reason for that is they can really understand the political risk and the challenges that the government falls and this precipitations, of course, sets the economy back, etcetera. i think the credit component in these yields is still out there. they're one of the cheapest out there in europe. so we're recommending declines. >> yeah, but how do you get around the political risk, though? do you just accept it? >> i think it's discounted. it is there, but i think the incentives on both sides of the aisle are to keep the government alive and to carry through some reforms and one of the crucial ones is the electoral law. >> that's another big fight. >> yeah, that's a big fight. and then get the budget passed. i think the window for elections this side of year-end is closing rapidly.

and so our central case is that they run elections in the spring of 2014. the government says they want to carry on until 2015 in order to carry out some more institutional reforms, which would involve constitutional changes. we'll see. if that comes, it will be, i think, a bonus. >> okay. and just a quick word. we're a week out from the fed. what do you think is going to happen? and will that add to the pressure on treasury yields or take some pressure away? >> i think take some pressure away. i think the fed has talked about tapering. and has a full year guidance out there. but they left the judgment as to what they're going to do complete in the hands in the market. and they have thun employment rate threshold that is creating a lot of volatility as we were commenting earlier. so i think their best contribution to the marketplace at this point in time is to provide clarifications and they could do that by announcing, for instance, how much they're going

to taper by and what is their expected end to the purchases. we'll work out what the basis point effect of that will be. and secondly, maybe clarify for us what their central expectation is at the time of the first hike or how they manage the exit. i think the easiest way, really, to do this is to project a profile, a path for policy rates, like the scandinavian banks do. and then there will be arguments around that. but where they stand. >> it would be nice to get it out of the way and start dealing, you know, as you say earlier, we can calculate the numbers and work out what it all means. good to see you today. thank you very much indeed for joining us. right. we'll take a short break. still to come, after pulling out in the mid 90s, dunkin donuts has announced they're prepare to come back to the uk. we'll have are a full interview

with nigel travis right after this. i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. [ delavane ] priority boarding is really important to us. you can just get on the plane and relax. [ julian ] having a card that doesn't charge you foreign transaction fees saves me a ton of money. [ delavane ] we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the u.s. when i spend money on this card, i can see brazil in my future. [ anthony ] i use the explorer card to earn miles in order to go visit my family, which means a lot to me. ♪ [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing.

like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪

dunkin donuts has pledged to open restaurants in the uk in the next several years. it pulled out of the uk in the 90s. they're now hoping the second for yeah into the market will see their planes come full

circle. nigel travis is ceo of did you thinkin brands. nigel, nice to see you over there. >> good to see you, ross. >> why is now the right time? why is it going to be different this time? >> well, i think there's several reasons, ross. firstly, i think we're fortunate that the uk economy seems to be picking up at the right time by those unemployment numbers. secondly, we feel that we are a very changed company from the early 90s. and actually, i remember dunkin donuts from the early 90s when i was with burger king right now. we've got a very extensive product range in bakery and, obviously, our sandwiches, which have fwm become huge here in the states. then, obviously, our global icon, our beverages and our coffee. so we feel we're a much better product range, we're a much more disciplined company and i think this is exactly the right time

to go to the uk. >> you've done this with two agreements. you've sort of got a greater london franchise agreement and then one for the rest of the country. is that -- which one goes first? do they go at the same time or does greater london roll out first? >> well, it's slightly more complicated than that, ross. we've signed two agreements. one effectively for the east of london and secondly from the north of london and then we've got another couple of areas around london. then we're hoping to open up several other franchises in the rest of the country. but we're focused on the growth of london area. we think that's the area of wealth. we think that's an area where people compute. they're on the go, which really, i think, epitomizes our brand. we're always looking for people who are busy and on the go. and we are confident that greater london is the place to start. >> yeah. your partner over here is the chairman of kroger.

i know him because he was chairman of the football club which is what i grew up supporting. but, anyway, that's a by the by moment. look, why is he the right partner for you? >> well, we put all our franchisees through a very strong selection process these days, which is a big difference from 20 years ago. and he has a group and a number of operators that we feel very confident in. the key isn't just money. it's having the right operators to run the brand. our brand is a little bit difficult because we have day parts. we're all about speed. we're all about the product diversity. so he's clearly gone for those criteria. he's been selected. the other group actually is an interesting mix of local people and some of our american franchisees. we think that's a great mix because the american discipline is going to help bring the

heritage of our on iconic brand here in the state back to the uk. >> yeah. what's happening at the moment in terms of margins for you guys and cost pressures, you know, from increases in raw materials food prices? >> well, actually, our margins for our franchisees in the u.s. are at record levels. we've actually seen commodities continue to go down. actually, i was listening to a program on your station yesterday about coffee beans. it may well have hit a low. commodities have been very helpful. we work really hard as helping our franchises grow their margins by growing their top line and our second quarter was excellent. a number of people's expectations were beat in terms of comps. we work very hard as making our franchisees much more efficient through the back office.

but our dcp, which is our franchisee owned distribution and purchasing co-op in the states has been working very hard to bring down the overall cost of goods and is doing a terrific job. >> nigel, we'll see what happens. but thanks for joining us as ever. nigel travis from dunkin donuts. >> see you. still to come, the fourth time may be the charm. this is after several delays. dell shareholders are expected to vote today in favor of a buyout. we'll look at the winners and losers of the deal to take the pcmaker private. as we do so, we'll remind you where futures are trading. triple digit gains to the dow. right now, slightly down 8 points. but it is still early in the day.

you're watching "worldwide exchange." recap of the headlines from around the globe, syrian rebels reject russia's plan regarding chemical weapons. supply fell by nearly 100,000 barrels a day in august as rising tensions in syria send futures higher. and concern over emerging market volume tills sense of stage t world economic forum in china as the indonesian central bank

raises rates with another surprise move. if you've just joined us in america, a very good morning to you. we've had three days of triple digit gains fout dow right now. it is some, what, 11 points below fair value. the nasdaq got dragged down by apple yesterday. nevertheless, we have seven straight days of gain in the s&p at the moment. that is now 2 points below fair value. european equities have been mixed this morning. weighted to the downside. you can see at the moment we're at the session low on the ftse cnbc global 300. the stocks yesterday were just up 4 points, it's currently down 24. the cac 40 down 0.5%. the italian ftse is down 1%.

we have had an auction out in italy, a three-year borrowing cost in august, the highest since 2012. so, as always, we find out what investors are to do on a day like this. here is a recap of some of the thoughts we've had in today's trade of the day. >> over the past seven areas, korea has increased its links with the china market. and while it certainly has problems of its own in terms of indebtedness, amongst the household sector particularly, these are well known. in china, after 80s shock in june, the data started to get better. the mood music from policymakers get better and i think korea is clearly benefitting from that in my mind. >> if you look to the high economy, i remain convinced about the future profits and the

future potential the economies are providing. and even we can reduce growth rate in india, china and brazil. i think it will soon remain a high growth economy. >> the construction industry decidedly first. the coalition has been very strident in their plans for infrastructure investment. they know they need to improve the infrastructure. they've pinned their hopes on 2015 is when those times are going to start. so the infrastructure market, i think, is going to be very attractive in 2015 and beyond. >> all right. that's some of the thoughts we've had. we have had comments out, as well, from the treasury select committee. we saw strong employment numbers yesterday which pushed gilt yields up to two-year highs. he expects the yield curve would steepen after the introduction

of forward guidance and long dated bond yields. not the most important in the uk. he says that's all off the bank rate and he expects that forward guidance will fight stimulus through greater certainty and the message has been understood by households and business. and the central bank has not dropped a 2% medium term inflation targets. david mars was saying without knockout, there was a risk banks would be seen as not focusing enough on inflation. we'll keep those comments coming out. this is where we stand with ten-year gilt yields just on that 3% mark at the moment. just nudging back up to 3% on the comments that we're getting. at the same time, joseph ackerman who, of course, stepped down as chairman of zurich a couple of weeks ago in relation to the suicide of the cfo has decided to step down as siemens supervisory board, as well.

siemens stock off around 0.75% at the moment. i'm not sure if that's related. turning our attention to american corporate news, dell shareholders are going to gather today to finally vote in the buyout offer with silver lake partners. it's been postponed already three times. last month, dell raised the bid from $13.65 a share to $13.75 a share. the buyout had been opposed by carl icahn who made an alternative offer. icahn tried to block the bid in court, but has dropped his opposition. that happened earlier this week. stan from "fortune" joins on us now. dan, is that it? we're going to go private? how does this all play out? >> yeah. it looks like this thing is finally over. look, this has gone on for a long time. michael dell and silver lake first started talking about this buyout in july 2012. the original bids were late last year. so this has been a very long

saga. icahn made it longer by about a month or two by his trying to block it. but yeah, this should end today. >> how positive was icahn for dell shareholders? he got some extra value for them? >> he did get a little bit of extra value. he got that 10 cent per share bump and there's a 13 cent per share special dividend. so he basically increased the offer effectively from 1365 to 1388, made some money for himself, as well. for dell shareholders, it was beneficial. to the company, it's probably a broader question. there was a lot of reports even a month on or two ago that all the uncertainty was causing clients for futures orders and procedure ral for the company. maybe that's something michael dell will address for himself today. icahn got them a little bit of extra money. what's interesting about that, though, is he didn't necessarily get money for southeastern management who is his partner on

this. they sold about half their stake back to icahn in july. if you do the math, with the extra icahn helped them get, southeastern ends up getting about the same amount it would have gotten under the original buyout plan. >> yeah. so -- yeah. do you think silver lake is that happy? >> well, i'm sure they're happy that this thing is about to be over and they're going to win. you know, the problem with dell from a private equity perspective or the perspective of any buyer who is not the guy who founded the company is that the company's fortune, it's been a rough year. they first put in their bid in january. since then, dell has been troubled in the pc market. that's been a broader macro issue, not just a dell specific issue and they've ended up having to pay more than they originally thought. although a lot of that has been financed by michael himself. i think in silver lake, there's some people that are happy,

there's some people who wouldn't have necessarily minded. there's some people who probably wouldn't have minded if icahn had wandered, the deal fell apart and icahn could have taken a couple hundred million and walk away and now they have to do the hard work, which is to turn dell around. >> what does he need to do to do that? >> for a long time, for years, really, michael dell and the company have been trying to really turn this away from pc focused and really into an enterprised solutions company beyond just the devices, servers, etcetera, they made some large acquisitions to do that. it wasn't completely worked and they have to really complete that transformation. it's not exactly clear to me why it's going to be easier to do so as a private company. obviously, you won't have hedge fund pressures, you won't have to be coming on cnbc every quarter to talk about your earnings most likely. but look, it's still going to be very difficult. michael dell and silver lake

believe utah of the public eye it will be easier. there's possible acquisitions moving forward tone able that. i think it's a big question mark whether this company can succeed long-term. we'll have to see how it plays out. still to come, we'll talk more tech as facebook, google and apple have been heading to headlines. building animatronics

is all about getting things to work together. the timing, the actions,

the reactions. everything has to synch up. my expenses are no different. receipt match from american express synchronizes your business expenses. just shoot your business card receipts and they're automatically matched up with the charges on your online statement. i'm john kaplan and i'm a member of a synchronized world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪

the u.s. trade commission is probing whether facebook violated rights whether it changes i said policies last month. the company announced an update to its privacy policy, taking out language to explicitly allow users to determine how their names and pictures can be used in marketing. user are giving facebook right to use their personal data. facebook says it's violating personal data and hasn't violated any laws. at the same time, ceo mark zuckerberg says going public wasn't all that bad. zuckerberg said while he once advocated companies stay private as long as possible, he doesn't feel that way now. surprisingly, zuckerberg says now growth of facebook makes 40%

of its revenue from mobile. >> we have three pillars of the platform strategy, which are, you know, build, grow and monetize. if we can help make it so that the industry overall can build better social apps that are more human by helping them build, grow and monetize, then i feel central good. >> zuckerberg shared his annual goal, which in part has been to learn mandarin or only eat things he killed, this year he said it's trying to meet someone outside of facebook each day. give me a call. ma ris ka mayer says yahoo! is getting 800 million monthly active users. she says most is coming from yahoo!'s home page, mail, search and other core properties. >> we have one of the most sophisticated personalization algorithms that i've seen to date. and i think that, you know, i'm really proud of what the team has done there and i think we're

just getting started. i think yahoo! is an advertising company. we're a personalization company and we're about organizing the right content and the right advertising for each of our users. >> mobile growth is key for yahoo! as well. the stock up around $ .25%, as well. carl icahn says he bought more shares of apple on wednesday even as other investors were selling. last month, icahn tweeted he had taken a large position in apple and the company was extremely undervalued. while he didn't say how many additional shares he was buying, he did say it was a bit of a no-brainer. >> we bought several in the 465, 467 range, 466. that's not to say it won't go over well. i don't really look at it from day-to-day and we don't try to fix what the market is going to do. but i think if they do a big buyback, that's going to be a

major plus. but i also think the rukts were pretty good and i think they're going to get@of bit from china. >> apple shares fell yesterday down about 0.25% right now in frankfurt. and the european union has unveiled a new plan for the battered telecom sector in a boo boot to break down national suppliers. they're giving european regulators over the sale of mobile spectrum. earlier, i spoke to neelie kroes who is introducing these plans and asked her about the potential benefits. >> less roaming costs, more transparency, and more flexibility if they are not delivering to the consumer what they promised. then you can move and quickly and you can take and keep your number and whatever and taking your bunds with you when you go to another part of the european union and open internet. a very important issue.

we all have that experience. and getting a guarantee for quality, that is at stake. all those who are players in the field, well, a bit sour, but a lot of sweet. mean wile, joseph ackerman is now stepping down from siemens board. he recently stepped down as cfo of zurich issue. tensions in the countries oil supply helped oil fall in august. and bank of england governor mark carney promised more stimulus as the british economy falters. this is the u.s. secretary of

state john kerry will meet with his russian counterpart today. is a peace agreement still on the cards? join us after the break.

. now, the world economic forum in china, the health of emerging markets not surprisingly has been a major concern. but some key voices have been questioning whether fears over tapering are overblown. bernie lowe spoke with peater sands. their asian focus bank does expect volatility, but it's still pretty bullish on the future. >> i don't think the fundamental attraction to the emerging markets have changed overnight. you know, i mean, if you looked just at financial markets, you would think everything changed in sort of june and july.

i think that's overblown. it has more to do with the dynamics of dollar flows and the context of ben bernanke's moves tapering and so on. which will say that emerging markets don't have challenges. it's just that the underlying demographics, processes of urbanization and industrialization are still driving pretty impressive rates of gdp growth. >> and peter stands knot alone in that view. they've been watching for stress signals. the region now suffers more from a perception problem. >> i see the key issues looking for the transparency, looking for the clarity for policy framework, looking for the proper communication. and looking for the compassion being able to act. this is very much macro driven now. so because of globalization,

looking for more, i think those are the challenges for the emerging market today. >> and mean while, european equities right now, we're down on the session lows a short while ago. just off a third of a percent for the ftse. right now, cac 40 off 0.4%. the ftse mig down 0.6%. we had an auction in italy where we saw funding costs for the three-year, the highest since october 2012. 2.72% was the yield. they raised the money they wanted, but it's a 50 basis point ride in 2.33% that we had for the six weeks before when we last had a three-year auction. there is concern about the political risk at the moment. the senate committee reconvened this afternoon. if mr. berlusconi is kicked out, certain members of his party said they would withdraw support

from the coalition government which means it would potentially collapse. that's the latest on italy. meanwhile, let's give you a look at what's on today's agenda in the united states, weekly jobless claims are due out at 8:30 eastern. they're forecast to rise by 7,000 to a total of 330,000. also at 8:30, we have august import prices. they're expected to rise 0.5%. and the new york fed president bill dudley is speaking at a conference in paris at 9:00 eastern. the september federal budgets statements out at 2:00. as for earnings, look for results from super market kroger and lululemon. u.s. futures, meanwhile, have been softer today. we've had three days of triple digit gains so far. the nasdaq was down yesterday by apple. the s&p yesterday completed seven days of gains in a row. it currently cut the points below fair value. global oil supplies fell by 770,000 barrels last month on

the back of rising syrian tensions with both opec and nonopec nations registering declines. in its monthly report, the ia said a possible russian proposal and sending the supply in syria could be possible for supply increases in the fourth quarter. and the long awaited report by u.n. weapons inspectors will probably by published on momd. this was according to the u.s. state foreign officer. kerry will meet with the french foreign minister. at the same time, the turkish says he believes syrian's assad is buying time on chemical weapons. joining us now, hadley gamble. that's a really concern, isn't it, the one that the turkish prime minister has expressed there. >> absolutely. and i think that's why the obama administration is being

cautiously optimistic about these talks. they're expected to sit for about two days to talk about this. what they're looking for from assad is how much he has and where he's holding them in syria. also, you've got in the "new york times" editorial from president putin putting the pressure once again on president obama. basically he's sort of lost the ability to shape events. he's basically at this point, president obama seems like he's playing catchup. so in terms of how that's paying with the american people. >> yes. but we believe there will away meeting today. there's no reason to -- >> no, absolutely there is going to be a meeting. >> that's a decisive shift, right? because we had the g-20 just the end of the last week and -- >> no international consensus whatsoever in terms of what to do. >> exactly. so at this point, you're going to have to days of talks. the americans want that information about the chemical weapons. they're taking people from the state department, from the state

department, and they're taking, as well, people from the intelligence community with them. they want to know if this is a good idea and they want to have a better idea of this. >> the practical elements of this seem to be enormous. and, it's one of those. sometimes countries will see people in, but won't always let everyone have access. >> and now they're coming out and saying putin is buying for time. you have the gulf arab allies saying they're looking for decisive action on what's been taking place in syria. so conflicting opinions and world view about what should happen in syria. but what the obama folks want, they want to be able to at least come out of these next two days with a blueprint of what they would take to the u.n. for a resolution on syria. >> and. >> yeah. and the key thing on this union is whether it's an et vacation

session seven. one implies if sxwo do this, we have the ability to take action. >> and the french has come out and said we should have a backup plan. which is what the russians don't want. >> exactly. and you still have president obama, hardly any support on capitol hill for doing anything in syria. and it's within everyone's interest, or at least within the president of the united states' interest to wait a little bit. i think everything at this point is buying time. >> all right. hadley, for now, thanks very much indeed for that. hadley gamble. if you want to know more, log on to cnbc.com. that's just about it for today's edition of "worldwide exchange." features are soft at the moment, but could all. whatever happens, we hope to have a profitable day. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing.

like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪

good morning. secretary of state john kerry arriving in geneva to meet with his russian counterpart. they'll see if a diplomatic solution will work for syria. meantime, in a rare move, russian president putin has penned an op-ed in today's "new york times." on wall street news, facebook shares have brokenen $45 for the first time and we're hearing

from the oeshl giant ceo. and then marissa mayer is speaking out. it's thursday, august 12th, 2013 and "squawk box" begins now. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we're going to talk about the latest on syria and putin's op-ed this morning in just a few minutes. but first, let's set today's market agenda. first up, we have data points of note. weekly jobless claims and import price res going to be released at 8:30 eastern time. also this afternoon, the treasury will auction $13 billion in 30-year bonds. you have the record $49 billion debt offering by verizon. stocks, they have been on a nice rally. thw