hello. you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. the headlines today, european equities failing to follow record moves on wall street. but vivendi bucks the trend while confirming the spin-off of its telecom business is on track. no more -- the greek finance minister tells cnbc his country has enough as he faces pressure, more reforms from eurozone finance members meeting in

brussels. >> we cannot take more austerity measures. we cannot reduce further the lives of people willing to take structural measure wes a fiscal impact, but not austerity measures. and it's the season for whale watching on wall street as we find out what stocks warren buffett has been buying and selling. plus, the ps4 goes on sale today with sony hoping the console will generate stronger orders than microsoft's offering next week. >> all right. we are into the last hours of "worldwide exchange" for the week. the pbl may be on the verge of a

split as rumors swirl supporters of berlusconi plan to break away from the summit. next, its economy is worth an estimated $1.8 trillion, but india's attempts to boost further economic growth has so far been hampered by volatile currency. we'll look at the country's challenges at 10:30 cet. then our innovations cities week draws to a close by looking at how technology is revolutionizing urban security. we'll shine a spotlight on the gun tracking system at 10:50 cet. finally, brazil stock market and securities outperformed. at 11:20, we'll speak to an economist who believes both emerging economies are set to see a reversal of on fortune. first the s&p and down jones industrial average both closed with another record high.

janet yellen told lawmakers she didn't believe stocks or the housing market were in bubble territory. the fed chairman nominee made it clear that ultra loose monetary policy is here to stay. >> i believe supporting the recovery today is the surest path to returning to a more normal approach to monetary policy. our country has come a long way since the dark days of the financial crisis. but we have farther to go. >> can it continue indefinitely? if the labor market doesn't improve to the point that you reach your target, do you think does this continue? do you believe there has to be some point that which we have to -- >> i would agree that this program cannot continue forever, that there are costs and risks associated with the program. we're monitoring those very carefully. >> all right. that was janet yellen yesterday. joining us now is brittany jones from wrathbone.

good morning to you. >> good morning. >> quantitative easing can't continue indefinitely, but presumably it's going to continue for long enough, isn't it? >> yeah. obviously, they highlighted the -- bernanke highlighted tapering could start in september. that was taken off the table. now it's talking about more taper. but we've got to remember that for tapering doesn't necessarily mean the end of qe. they can still taper. >> this is what the fed wants to get out of the way. then start pricing in tightening because of the fed's dilemma. >> i think they're going to change some of the hurdles. we've seen it from the bank of england. we've had the unemployment rate and suddenly the bank of england's forward guidance might change. the i think the fed will do the same. so it will possibly bring the unemployment target down.

they will say they won't raise rates if inflation is below a certain level. tapering and the end of qe does not necessarily mean the end of zero rates, as well. >> does the ten-year range trade between 2.5% and 3%? are they likely to go above 3% come march? >> yeah. in the gilt market and the treasury market, we're seeing range trading. we're seeing buying of treasury and gilts when we've hit 3% as we did more recently. obviously, as we get down lower, we're seeing sellers. there is some range trade. there's a gap between the fives and tens. i think we're going to continue to see that. then we'll see the market a bit softer again in the treasury market. >> brent, stay there. eurozone finance meeting in

brussels, failing to seek extension for their plan. ireland's government says it will make a clean exit. they're out any overdraft facility and this announcement comes as wrangling continues over greece's disputed 2014 fiscal shortfall. julia has made her way to a standard perch in brussels. and you've been speaking to the greek finance minister. he's had enough, has he? >> he certainly said no more austerity. but, you know, the president of the euro group came to the meeting last night and he was very cleared. not only do they have to bridge this fiscal gap, but there's prior actions, measures they've agreed to, there's the ongoing issue of privatization. i think he shocked some of the greek journalists here that actually the gap between what the troika wants and what the greek can provide is as big as ever here. he also said that the glass is half full. but when i spoke to the green

finance minister, i said to him given the political instability that we're seeing, the growth performance of the country, just how able he is to stup up as was asked and how close are they to bridging that gap with the troika? >> we're negotiating. these are not simple matters. so they cannot close from one to the other. people have made huge sacrifices. what kind of measures we need to implement to close the fiscal gap. >> and they do keep praising your efforts, but is it enough in the pressure that they continue to apply on greece to reduce further measures? >> we're trying to convey that the adjustment up to now is so huge. i mean, if you look at the european commission forecast for

visa next year, on a fiscally adjusted basis, is almost 8% of gdp. it's unprecedented. no other country has done it in history. so we're trying to say there are measures and measures and we cannot take more austerity measures. we cannot reduce further the living standards of people. we can take structural measures. we're willing to take structural measures with a fiscal impact, but not austerity measures. and this is why we are taking now so long to conclude this current review. we're careful enough. >> there was a suggestion last week that you'd hinted that perhaps austerity may be needed again next year despite your promises. can i ask whether you'll ultimately use further austerity next year if that's needed to close a fiscal gap? >> no austerity measures are needed. they are dangerous. we should let the automatic stabilizers work approximately we are willing and we're

doing -- we're taking structural measures. we're closing down entities, we're mending entities. we do a very specific audit to those companies which violate the spending ceilings. we're very tough on that. yesterday we gave to the troika measures in the order of 27% of gdp. we think they are enough to close any fiscal gap and to make our budget credible. >> it's interesting hearing finance ministers like this talk about this surplus that they're now seeing or that they will see but at wa cost to the economy? but we also did talk about the other key issue or the country, stability. and he did say the stability of the country is without question and not going to fail at the final hurdle. we did cover the idea of asking for debt relief going forward.

but for now, ross, i'll accepted it back to you. >> julia, thanks for that. we'll be back out with you a little later in the program. right now, though, let's bring you up to speed with where we stand with global equities on the last trading day of the week. we'll start with li sixuan in singapore. thank you, ross. pretty much a risk on day for asian markets, expecting the fed to maintain a stimulus program. the nikkei 225 broke above the key 15,000 level for the first time since may, thanks to a weaker yen. heavyweight names like fast retailing and japan tobacco continued to gain traction. shares in china rallied on the host that beijing will release more detailed reform plans over the next week. stocks related to land reforms and national security are leading the gains. financials made a strong rebound. south korea's kospi ended higher by 2% and australia's asx 200

almost 1%. meanwhile, smfg clocked in strong gains. take a look at mainland insurers in hong kong. the company has the green light to issue 26 million convertible bonds in the mainland. shares rallied over 6% and other insurers gained over 3% today. back to you, ross. >> sixuan, for now, thank you. catch you later here in europe just over an hour and ten minutes into the trading day, having followed through with what's happened in the u.s. and japan, about five to four advancers outpacing decliners on the dow jones stoxx 600.

right now, we're up another 20 points. the xetra dax is fairly flat as is the cac 40. the ftse mib down 0.75% at the moment. julius baer says its undermanagement group 31% in the first ten months of the year. the zero base group added that new money came in at the low end of a 4% target range. monte pasche vienna is blaming the environment after it posted a $518 million for the first nine months of the year. that is largely in line with expectations. but it faces a challenge to convince investors to subscribe to nationalization. vivendi, up 3.3% today after it was basically suggested that

they had a positive set of results and it gave investors advice on the spin-off. speaking of france, the french government has announced it sold its 57% stake in safran capital. stephane is with us in paris. >> hey, ross. you need the french telecom unit sometime next year, probably. it's what the cfo of vivendi believed this morning. and, therefore, it will pave the way for significant hike in the price of vivendi. that upsets the announcement of the earnings for the fourth quarter. they were in line with expectations for the revenue. although we had a 23% decline

because of the french telecom unit which is facing a stuff come stigz, especially in the mobile phone segment. revenue declined by more than 10% on the quarter and vivendi believes it will continue to decline next year. it will hit a bottom before the recovery but not before 2015. and the other announcement was from the french government. the government is going to sell a part of its stake. it's the second time that it's reducing the stake in that defense company. it will be between 3.6% and 4.7% of safran depending on the market conditions, which means the government will raise between 720 and 956 million euros. the official announcement, ross, is that the finance ministry will use the profits to reinvest in the economy. we don't know exactly what's the plan. the french government is struggling to reduce its

struggling deficit. it sold some significant stakes, raised some 2 billion euros and you know what? the speculation is it will continue to do so because the french government still has significant stakes in plenty of companies including eads, the electronics producer. we can expect a similar announcement in the next couple of months. >> checking on bond rates, ten-year treasury yields are fairly volatile this week. right now, yielding 7.1%. we were at 2.69. ten-year gilt yield, just below 2.78el%. we're currently at 103.3. we're still at a two-month high. euro/dollar, 1.34 still with

that handle and sterling just above 1.60. now, months after anticipation, the console war is heating up again as sony launches its play station four in north america today. sony has predicted sales of 3 million units across 32 countries by the end of the year. the latest device is the success of the popular ps3 which sold more than 80 million units today. microsoft is waiting in the wages with its xbox 1 console set for release on november 22nd. will, good to see you. how is this going to match up to the competition? >> there's a lot of excitement about this. this is a technical sellout on day one, which is quite an achievement for sony. i think it's going to sell very well. i don't think it will be the best selling play station console ever because the market

has changed. but there's still a huge market for this. the development of games and the development of this console is eagering anticipated. this is the first new major high powered console since 2006. gamers and everyone else are looking to see what they can do with the new powerful machines. >> yeah. and is this sony going to aim for the pure gaming community? >> yeah. sony has been very clear this time. they said this is for gamers designed by gamers and they've taken a very different approach to microsoft who launched next week worldwide. microsoft has been looking at all their entertainment functions for their console. sony has been saying we've got great games, we're going to invest in some big indy developers. they're looking at bringing some different experiences in from developers that haven't had the budget. >> how important is it that

there's a discuss for season snee? >> i think this is hugely important for sony. games is always the area where there is potential to be made. for example, there's a licensing model, so sony will take revenue from each game that is sold. but the point with the console generation this time, sony have created a very interesting machine. it's a hybrid developed machine which uses traditional off the shelf computer parts. >> you keep talking about the changing market. are you into this space? >> we've got a long way from atari and commodore. looking at some of the screen shots we're seeing, it's quite amazing what they can do. how much more can they do? is there a glass ceiling of what

they can provide? and the other thing is mobile. i don't think we have much time to play. but what we do do is i sometimes play on apps, which is obviously mobile which is going to be an impact on the market. >> that's absolutely true. so play station 2 was the best selling play station console of all time. there's still a few years left selling play station 3. but it's not going to reach the heights of 150 million units. the market is changing, but there's still a great chance for game consoles to come through. you'll see more realistic visuals, better game play, and that's how games are going to develop. >> how about the wii? >> no. notice how nobody is talking about the wii. that only came out earlier this year, but it's being dismissed as not being part of the next generation because technically -- >> i'm talking about from a family perspective. >> but when was the last time you played on your wii? in the uk, we call it trivial

pursuit. you buy it, play it at christmas or easter and it goes back to the cupboard. >> is that your experience? >> no. >> there we go. as usual, i am behind the curve. nice to see you. now on this week's trader poll, we've been asking how have you been trading sony ahead of the launch? 46% said long, 24% short and 30% said hold. the big gains for october -- who called it big gains? october retail figures were boosted by the handheld console of the nintendo 2 ds. their new console, head to cnbc.com for the full story. follow us on twitter, @cnbcworld. still to come, could italy's

coalition party be split? ahead of a crucial meeting this weekend, rumors are swirling the berlusconi loyalists might break away. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

it's been a pretty hard day for cricket fans in india. tendulkar's first pitch came to an end in a packed mumbai stadium. earlier in the day, cameron played tribute to tendulkar as one of the world's best ever players. now, india gained independence and now has an estimate of around $1.8 billion. following his role as a main speaker at an indian business forum, brent is joining us.

india is quite an intriguing country for an investor. we had big reforms in the 90s brought on because of economic paralysis. are we going back somewhere near that? >> you may be right about that. the reforms in 1991 took place because of external pressure and crisis, willingness to change. in fact, available in terms of willingness to change, it forced to bring reforms at that point in time. flash forward 20 years later, you have a cushion of foreign exchange researches of free markets, of a much more global indian economy. so is there internal pressure to change? no. plus a feeling that in the long

run we'll be all right. in the long run we'll hold debt. so, you know, there are no pressures that i can see within the system. are they external pressures? yes. the global system. the fact that, you know, other countries like china and brazil are overtaking india. and plus it's a perception scape and i think india at this point in time is in danger of losing the perception scheme to her rivals. >> and the perception is the politics are stuff the country up in the sense that it's nowhere near achieving its potential and it's the politics that are blocking it. >> yes. so i'd like to -- sorry. >> is that true or not true? >> it's not -- it's absolutely true, but it's not just politics. it's really a much more wider phenomenon, which is corruption. the best of interest in the country are making this one last

d ditch land grab, grap for money, gr grab for par, grab for anything they can put their hands on. the closer your business is to the indian government, local, state or central, don't think about india. if you're in the infrastructure business where you are to cry land, if you're in the arms manufacturing business where you are to deal the government, bureaucracy and politicians, the risks of your having to be corrupt, having to greece pumps, of having to give up your value of a company are so high that my advice is it's just not -- it might be going to india or going global at all. it might be better to stay at home. we call that guarded utilization where you have these guardians

topping you and saying we want to be global, but on our terms. in india, those terms are not the most rational they can prefer to meet. >> so what happened? if companies go and start saying you know what the cost of doing business is one that we cannot live with? >> yes, i think globally the standards have gone up. although many of us are cynical about the corporate world and the scandals of the u.s. have not helped us. but post enron, post worldcomm, i think something did go -- and we have to worry about much more reinforcements in the last ten years. that's hurting india because of the fact that india is always tough.

look at what's happened. we've all been waiting to hear what they're going to see about the reforms in china and how they're going to bring about change. but a typical chinese fashion, give us one photograph and you and i are left guesting what the next step is going to be in china. does that mean china is less or more uncertain as india? >> i guess you'll end up with the businesses in china don't have to go to the government, right? nice to talk to you. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> editor of the harvard business review. still to come, we're going to talk about italy. could the pdl be about to split? there's many rumors swirling around. we'll get into that right after this. 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.

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vivendi bucks the trend after confirming that its telecom business is on track. no more austerity, the greek finance minister tells cnbc his country has had enough as he

faces pressure from more reforms from eurozone finance ministers. >> we cannot take more austerity measures. we cannot reduce further the living standards of people. we can take structural measures. we're willing to take structural measures with a fiscal impact, but not austerity measures. it's whale watching on wall street as we find out what some investors have been buying and selling. plus, the moment gamers have been waiting for. the ps4 goes on sale today, hoping to generate more sales than rival microsoft xbox. the nikkei up at fresh six-month highs and record close on wall street. the ftse 100 is up marginally, after being up 36 points

yesterday. we are flat on the german/french markets. on the bond markets, ten-year yields up to 2.7%. on the currency market, dollar/yen has been the main mover. we're up at two-month highs over -- back over 100. 100.33. euro/dollar and sterling both lower. euro/dollar, 1.34 and sterling/dollar 1.605. after berlusconi failed to defeat last month, it was thought the senate chaos would come to an end. however, he's begun a bid to relaunch his old party to

replace the pdl. berlusconi's position within the party will both be up for discussion when a pdl convention is held in rome tomorrow. joining us on the phone is lucio malan. thank you very much indeed for joining us. what is the risk of a split within the pdl, particularly after mr. alfrond and others said they were supporting the coalition government in that confidence vote rather than mr. berlusconi? >> well, the risk is indeed of a split, but a little split, i guess. because not even the democratic party who has twice as many ministers as we have who has finally on the part of the government has not for conditional support to the government. i see no reason for us to have an unconditional support for the

government that is increasing the taxes and to have any way to go around the lulls in order to pull berlusconi out of the parliament. >> do you expect mr. berlusconi to be expelled? and if he does, what then happened? >> well, i won't expect that justice would be applied and that the laws don't -- are not made to be enforced for things that happen before the law. and this is exactly what we are trying to do with berlusconi. that, by the way, is a scandal. but it's made not in the halls of the parliament. in that case, we will have still

mr. berlusconi as leader, although he will be able to be a member of parliament. >> yeah. i mean, there are those who i've spoken to in italy that say actually the law was brought in to be retrospective. so, therefore, those arguments about him not being legal don't back up. >> well, i -- we have to -- of course, we have to see things when they happen. what we cannot do is to give, as i said, an unconditional support of the government, even if our partners vote -- make a vote against all the rules against -- in order to get rid of mr. berlusconi who is, by the way, their man. >> are you going to bring back the italia brand? is the party going to be rebranded in its entirety? >> well, the blend is this, that

the bureau of the party voted in this election. now we have this convention. we call it the measure. it has to say yes or no to this position. i think that the yes will be a very large majority. so we will go back to our former name that is italia and pdl, people of freedom should be just something that is put apart and it will go to be just a name that is out of use. >> just stay there. i've got a guest with me in the studio. brent, as an investor, investors don't appear to be going on with what is going on in italy. you look at the italian spread. do you just put up with it? >> if you look at what's going on in the corporates, we've had a downgrade to telecom italia

today. obviously, the italian banks and junk. if they would spend less time on the political infighting and shenanigans that goes on, they would be able to strengthen the economy more. that's just a very generic view. >> it is a fair point, isn't it, that we could do with a lot less politics and more focus on doing what the country needs economically and in terms of regulatory reform. >> mr. malan? >> okay. well, we do need a government about the right things. we don't need to go into a recession even bigger and when you raise taxes and if we don't

do what the things that we are proposing, for instance, we have proposed a measure that would get 5 billion in order to revamp the economy. but for idealogical reasons, we are rejecting it because they call it privatization of the shore. but if it's an idealogical refusal, that's away to vamp the economy if they're doing the right things. >> all right, lucio malan, thank you so much for joining us, senator of the pdl party. now, the german economy has never experienced bubbles. this is according to dr. andreas. how big does he say the risk of bubbles are? >> well, currently, it's not a lot of risk.

they are not seeing a lot of risk for bubbles here in the german market, but they are aware and they're watching it very cautiously. and they're having a deep belief that if you keep rates at such a low level for a very long time, and we don't know how long that time will be for now, then there's an increased risk of bubbles. and they were, as well, citing the real estate market in germany because we have seen patches of three extreme price development. that is only patches. on average, it still looks pretty okayish, i would say. but i spoke with him after the press conference yesterday, which was on the financial stability and ask him what effect he sees from that low interest rate environment. >> our financial stability report comes from the finding that none of this is threatening financial stability in germany. we are observing this very, very closely and watching it closely.

but even the fact that the german real estate market has increased to residential properties, this is not yet a threat to financial stability. having said that, over time, if we were to continue this very low interest rate over a long period of time, experience other countries have shown that this may well lead to bubbles. we have never had a real estate bubble in germany. so this is why we are watching this very closely. >> one of the arguments put forward in favor of the low interest rate policy is to buy time for government and for the banking industry to clean their balance sheets. so do you think this time is used efficiently? >> let me first state that that is correct. this monetary policy is there to

buy time which has to be effectively used. and i would like to defend those exceptional measures broadly and in general because we do need to have this help in order to make progress in the euro area. the time needs to be effectively used to address the root causes of the problem. and i see a lot of progress in many program countries at the periphery of the euro area. they're making progress in order to, you know, get their economies back on track, which is very, very positive. but we should be aware, having said that, that reform could be very, very bad and very, very dangerous. so now it's about keeping the course and making sure that this positive momentum, which is leading the euro area out of recession, so now you're with a -- the small growth is continued because you're on the

right track if you continue doing what you're doing right now. >> during the press conference, they were saying the debt crisis by no means is over and they are observing very cautiously that some banks in the eurozone have even increased exposure when it comes to sovereign debt because, of course, sovereign debt is still treated by the regulator as a risk free asset. that is what the bundes bank is now start to go lobby for extensively, that this qualification has to change, that there needs to be risk raised, as well. with that, ross, back to you. >> thanks for that, annette. annette was making the point sovereign debt causes risk free assets and they're suggesting they need to change that classification. do you think that's fair? >> yeah, to some extent. it's been fairly risk free, but as soon as you take away that foundation, what is a risk free rate any more?

we've seen the u.s. treasury market being downgraded and the political shenanigans that went on there. that's quite dangerous. yeah, where -- >> you took a aaa rated corporate debt and a eurozone sovereign debt, which would you prefer to hold in terms of bond raising? >> it's a difficult question because as soon as those companies start to make huge profits, they'll get taxed by the government, anyway. that's the main thing. at the end of the day, most sovereign should be out printing money, anyway. so you're always going to be thinking that the risky -- >> but in the eurozone, you can't, can you? >> no, no. at the moment. i mean, you know, who knows what will happen to it three years down the road. maybe they'll start printing. but they've done the 25 basis point cut. they haven't got many tools left in the toolbox. maybe they will. >> okay. all right. that's the latest on europe. caroline kennedy, meanwhile, has arrived in japan to take up her

position as u.s. ambassador. we have more from tokyo. >> hi, ross. the new u.s. ambassador to japan, miss caroline kennedy, has arrived in japan. the kennedy family is very well regarded in japan. japanese officials hope to promote diplomatic agenda during her term. the current diplomatic situation in east asia is becoming more volatile than ever before, it's more important for tokyo to communicate effectively with the u.s. many say ambassador kennedy is the most important position to have right now. there will be issues to face such as negotiations on the u.s.-led tpp trade talks. tensions going between japan and the u.s. on economic issues, as well.

as japanese prime minister abe and jack lew are working to solve the budget issues. lew, on the other hand, pressed abe to deliver on the final aerial of abe-nomics. ross, back to you. >> thanks for that. have a nice weekend there in tokyo. and a reminder of what's on the agenda in asia on monday, cautious consumer spending may dampen chithailand's third quar gdp. in china, the house price index will be released. and gome reports third quarter earnings from hong kong. meanwhile, still to come now, could acoustics be the key to cutting gun crime? in the last of our innovative cities week of reports, find out how one company is using technology to pinpoint the location of gunfire and alert

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security forces say technology and cameras can help to catch criminals. we take a look at new technology designed to help make us all more secure. >> singapore is regarded as one of the safest cities in the world, but still, the government there selected a pilot scheme. >> in 2013, the federal government kicked off the safe cities initiative to work with them to use video analytics to make the city safer for all of its citizens. we're still in the early stages of our program, but we're hoping the results will show that technology can make a real difference to public safety in a

most cost-effective way and a more political way. >> it used facial recognition software to identify wanted felons, gang members and that's not all. >> now it can pick up fighting, it can pick up behavior from the shapes and movements of the people and generate an alert. >> it may seem a bit too much like big brother, but the developers say the technology is already in use around the world. >> biometric data has become a very important part of identifying people, it can be a fingerprint, it can be your iris, but it can be your face. the technology is there to uniquely identify you and other people just by the patterns and shape of our face. what many people don't realize is that they're actually ready to say. similar at the bottom here is the chip symbol on your passp t

passport. but it has your face, the biometric events. >> but it isn't just singapore that's employing innovative technology in cities to detect climbs. shot spot in the u.s. is trying to detect gunfire and authorities. >> 2011, the system that we have of integrating our public safety cameras with shot spotter were able to help us identify and catch the suspects in a homicide. we had a drive by shooting at a local convenience store. the shot spotter audio system captured the shots and our camera, which happened to be located at the corner where this incident occurred captured videotape of the vehicle doing the shooting during a drive by. >> roughly 70 current u.s. cities use the development. we make it affordable, we make it very flexible, and we make it such that all the law

enforcement agency has to do is use the data. >> don't expect this to turn police into robo cops. >> technology has its place, but it's not meant to replace police officer. but it's been proven time and time again, technology, if used appropriately, can greatly increase the effectiveness of delivering police services to the community. >> meanwhile, the future of modern metropolises is the subject of prizes, launched yesterday. that is the second biggest prize in economics after the nobel prize and offering it for a garden city which is visionary, popular and economic. i asked about his views on the controversial top to buy scheme. >> there was a risk that you

actually made the problem worse by pushing up the price of houses. i don't know if that will happen, but the one thing that's absolutely certain, is it helps a short-term renldy, not d reme long-term solution. >> we've seen a sharp pick up in loans they've made to first time buyers. it's helped fuel the uk economy. what is an investor to do with the housing situation in the -- >> yeah. it's definitely a demand supply imbalance at the moment. the demand is greater than the supply. the uk is required about 200,000 odd houses to be built to keep up with demand and we're already building about 100,000 in the bond space where we've seen some really good opportunities is in the social housing space, which they're able to offer the kind of mortgages that everybody can take. they at least help to buy shared ownership, sort of try before you buy. and what we've seen is that these companies have been

issuing bonds at very attractive yields. the other one, i suspect, was dip low plastic data and that the building market has become extremely strong over the last few months. again, getting ahold of a builder or a plumber can be quite tricky. >> there's a lot of capacity in this business, right? >> exactly. so i think what we're going to see are some of those functional link businesses maybe on the companies which have a link into this sort of growth of this market will also do better. so i think that's the way that we're looking at it at the moment from those perspectives. >> brent, good to have you on today. thank you very much indeed for joining us. big game tomorrow. i bet you'll be looking at that. nice to see you. thank you very much, brent jones from rathbones'. now, more customers are assessing banking services on smartphones or online rather than in personal branches. the union which represents some

of the barclay's staff says the lender is making a ka lowsal mistake and customer service could suffer as a result. we've been asking, who do you prefer to do your banking, man or machine? drone twitted he chooses a machine. thank you, jerome. yeah. i think it's always nice to have somebody you know at the bank, even if they're called george. still to come on the show, our next guest says fed tapering should take hold in the first quarter, putting downward pressure on brent crude. more to come, the second half of "worldwide exchange" starts right after this. [ imitating car engine ] that's mine. ♪ that's mine. that's mine. ♪ come on, kyle. ♪ [ horn honks ]

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you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. vivendi confirms the spin-off of its telecom business is on track. it's the season for whale watching on wall street. we'll find out which stocks have investors have been buying and selling. and the moment gamers have been waiting for, the ps4 goes

on sale today, sony hoping the console will generate stronger orders than rival microsoft xbox. plus, no more austerity. the greek finance minister tells cnbc his country has had enough as he faces pressure for more reforms at the eurozone's finance ministers meeting in brussels. >> we cannot reduce further the living standards of people who can take structural measures, who are willing to take structural measures with a fiscal imbalance, but not austerity measures. if you've just joined us, good morning stateside. the 37th record close yesterday for the s&p. right now, we're indicated above

fair value by some 12 points on the dow. the nasdaq up at fresh year high. that is currently 6 points above fair value and about 2 points above value for the s&p 500. the ftse global 300 is firmer, not by much, just eight points. we did see the nikkei back over 15,000 for the first time in six months, up nearly 8% on the week for the japanese market. but the ftse, we'll get more that in just a few moments. but the european equities have failed to follow on right now. the ftse 100 just up about 0.25 points. the xetra dax and cac 40 are flat. we're down 0.8% for the ftse mib. treasury yields have been up and down over the course of the last week or so. ten-year yields, 2.71%. we have been as high at 2.79% this year. and on the currency markets,

dollar/yen has been the main focus overnight for traders. we've been up to a two-month high, currently trading 100.37. euro/dollar, 1 is.34 print. cable 1.6057. let's get more on that asian session and japan in particular. sixuan joins us out of singapore. sixuan. >> thank you, ross. it's a sea of green for asian markets on hopes that the fed will maintain its stimulus program. the nikkei 225 broke above the key 15,000 level for the first time since may and has rallied nearly 8% on the week, thanks so the recent talks of domestic data. and finance minister aso's earlier comments about currency intervention. shares in china rebounded from the losses we saw earlier this week as the plenum disappoints. beijing may release more detailed reform plans over the next weeks. so stocks related to land

reform, national security and the free trade zone led the gains. financials made a strong rebound. south korea's kospi ended higher by about 2% in australia's asx 200 added nearly 1%. moving on to some individual movers in japan, mitsubishi ufj and mizuho financial both raised full year guidance as shares got a nice boost. pang an insurance one almost 4%. meanwhile, china, taiping reported that premium income for life insurance jumped 54% from a year earlier. and other insurers gained about -- over 3% in today's trade. so that's a look at the asian markets. back to you, ross. >> thanks for that, sixuan.

have a great weekend. meanwhile, what's on the agenda in the united states today? we have october import prices out at 8:30 eastern. at 9:15, we'll get october industrial production. and at 10:00, it's september business inventories forecast to rise 0.4%. volkswagen has just set the first time emerging of stabilization in europe. this is the eurozone's finance meeting in brussels have hailed positions by ireland and spain not to seek extensions to their aid plan. the irish government says it will make a clean exit from its three-year international bailout without any overdraft facility. but it comes as wrangling' continues over grease's disputed shortfall.

>> julia is standing by. >> will he be able to stick to his promise of no further austerity in 2014? i asked him whether actually he may have to increase austerity next year in order to bridge that gap. listen to what he had to say. >> no austerity measures are needed. they are dangerous. we are willing and we're doing -- we're taking structural measures. we're closing down entities, we're imagining entities. we do a very specific audit for -- to those companies which violate spending ceilings. we're very tough on that. yesterday we gave to the troika measures of the order of 0.7% of gdp. we think they are enough to close any fiscal gap and to make our budget credible. >> he said they've come up with

1.2 billion euros to try and bridge that gap. the reports have been that actually the size of it is more like 2 to 2.5 billion euros. so there is still a bit of a bridge to make it, to reach that number if, indeed, that is the number we're talking about right now. because the europeans still won't confirm that. but the key question here amongst the stability that we're seeing in the country, the competent vote that we have last week is just how stable the government is right now. and he said it's unquestionable again to continue. they're 80% of the way there now and the mps won't fail at this stage. so he seemed very positive but, ross, we know it's a long road for greece. back to you. >> julia, thanks very much indeed for that. more to come from brussels. meanwhile, the former jpmorgan executive has told a spanish court he's going to resist the extradition requests by the united states. he's been indicted by a u.s. grand jury in september in relation to the 6.2 billion

trading loss at jpmorgan. so he says he's going to resist the extradition that is plotted by that. he had been due to make a formal declaration whether he would agree to be extradited. he has decided that he didn't want to be. the spread between brent and wti has widened this week. supported by dovish comments from the expected future fed chair, janet yellen. the u.s. crude is due to close lower on the week, largely due to a larger than expected jump in stockpiles. so that means the spread between the two is at its widest for eight months. joining us is gary clark. gary, good to see you. it's all the spread this week between nymex and brent up to around $15.87. is that going to continue? >> i think the fundamentals suggest that it will continue through into q1 of next year and

possibly q2. at the moment, we're seeing wti supported a little bit by the yellen effect, that she hasn't really told us anything we don't know already. she's dovish and tapering. we're still looking at, really, tapering. and in q1, which is a negative, the wti benchmark, supply is raising, which is negative for the wti benchmark. >> and you've got to build up inventories. when does that change? >> yeah. i think we'll see a stabilization running through to december as we're finally putting picks through a little bit. but inventories will start building through seasonally as we move into q1 and through q2, as well. but we have to think about brent, as well. really, that's being supported by supply outages in the middle east at the time moment. they're likely to continue into early next year, keeping that brent/wti spread fairly wide.

>> they say end user production will ramp up, as well. there's two sides to that coin. >> fundamentally, the u.s. recovery is going to be anemic. there's been structural changes in gasoline demand, more increases in efficiency and supply is going to continue to rise. so i think the more powerful dynamic as far as the wti benchmark is concerned is the supply. >> what premium do we now certainly have in brent for middle east disruptions and politics and the aftermath of the arab spring? >> it's something difficult to measure. if you look at the back end of the futures curve, it's trading around $85, $90. so you can price in roughly around $10 still in terms of the risk premium. but, really, that risk premium should dissipate as we move through next year. we're seeing tensions dissipate a little bit with iran. unlikely that we'll see a

positive supply, yet it's coming. >> how much does that protect brent in particular from tapering? i mean, a lot of other commodities are impacted far more than the oil price, it seems. it would seem that would be the experience from the summer. >> well, absolutely. i mean, tapering has a far larger effect on the industrial metals market and especially gold. you know, tapering does have an effect on the oil price through the dollar route and also the market pricing in further rate hikes, increase in real rates and the opportunity costs of holding oil and storage costs, etcetera, rising. >> what would you forecast for an average oil price through to 2014? what are you forecasting? >> i think our prices are going to trend down. i think we're looking at a brent price of an average of around 104, 105 next year. i think it's clear spare capacity is going to rise and

that's going to provide a buffer of the supply shocks and they'll be priced in. so we should see a decline in crude oil price volatility. >> steady, though. still pretty steady, isn't it? we're 108 at the moment, you're saying 104? >> yeah. you look at the average price of crude oil. it's not really moving around that much. >> gary clark joining us from roubini global economics, thanks for joining us. russia's largest bank holds almost half the country's a deposits and employs a million people. it recently announced it's cutting another 30,000 jobs as plans to double profits by 2018. i've been speaking exclusively to the company's ceo and asks him whether increased efficiency rather than growth is the only way the bank can raise profits. >> i think that similar reforms are something the whole of the banking sector won't be able to avoid, both in russia and across the world. we're trying not just to act in

a way wsh but a very big way. so what you've just described is something that our investors described as very ambitious objective. this is a minimum and necessary thing we need to do to become effective in the market. our customers won't tolerate such levels of costs in the future. all transactional costs need to come down. we're plannin to reduce our cost to income ratio by 5%. this is ambitious. we need to maintain high capital and profitability. >> meanwhile, barclay's says it's cutting 1700 jobs in its home market of the uk. the bank says this is due to more customers using banking services online or on mobile. for today's viewer exchange, we've been asking who would you prefer to do your banking with,

man or machine? please let us know. get in touch with us, e-mail us, worldwide@cnbc.com, tweet @cnbcwex or direct to me @rosswestgate. i suppose a machine is fine until you have a problem. and then you don't want the computer to say no. so, still to come, what are the big boys up to? after the break, we'll find out what several big name oil investors are keen on as they release their latest s.e.c. filings.

sony laurchbl launches its ps4. and the greek finance minister tells cnbc the country won't accept any more austerity. other stories this morning, get out the binoculars. it's the season for whale watching. warren buffett is disclosing a new stake in exxon mobil. berkshire hathaway owns around 40 million shares in the oil giant worth $3.4 billion at the

end of september. george sore soros disclosed a new stake in chevron. he reduced stakes in jcpenney and google. take a look at those stocks. exxon mobil up 2.2% in frankfurt. microsoft up 0.5%. jcpenney up 1.5% and google up 0.5%. and dan loeb revealed earlier this week that he's investing in fedex. a piling shows a stake in the package delivery giant worth $270 million. loeb took new stakes in activision and nokia. ackman slashed his stake in procter & gamble. he bought in last year and successfully pushed for change with p&g ousting the ceo bob

donald. fedex, activision blizzard both up. nokia down. my director is teasing me for saying blizzard. still to come on the show, brazil has weathered the storm in emerging markets better than most, but is the outlook set to be better than rival mexico? we'll compare their growth stories and the investment opportunities when we come back. as we do so, you can see right now on the european equities, it's a pretty even steven session. advancers just about outpacing decliners on the dow jones stoxx 600. 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 70% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus

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now, brazil's stock market and currency has outperformed its emerging market here since september. but some believe the optimism surrounding the region may be short lived. instead, it's claimed mexico could see more momentum even though the country's output has steadily fallen. earlier this week, the central bank told cnbc he expects a pick up in gdp next year. >> it means the slowdown of the economy this year are transitory and pricing would get back to a rate of growth between 3% and 4% next year. >> joining us with thoughts, an

economist at lombard research. good to see you. >> hello. >> good to see you. let's kick off with growth exports for mexico. are we optimistic for 4014? >> well, we believe mexico will grow around trend. 2013 was way above trend. that has come down to 1.5%. but 2014 is a gradual recovery close to trend growth of 3%. consensus is slightly more optimistic, but it will come down to a relatively high growth rate. >> and the u.s. accounts 80% of mexican exports. it's a leverage of what happens with the u.s. clearly, it's just about what price am i paying for the mexican lever raej on the u.s. and what do i think will happen

to the mexican point of view. >> that's right. we believe it will have some of the best medium term recovery stories across the globe and that will affect mexico in a very good way. at the same time, we're quite bearish on china story so, you know, china has surging unit labor costs. and that in a way works in mexico's favor because china and mexico compete for u.s. export demand. >> if you're bearish china, what does that mean about your view on brazil? >> exactly. so the brazil upsurge since september is quite unfounded. i think investors will come to terms with the growth which is very much accent to china. china is in a growth position right now and brazil has benefited a lot from the chinese story. unfortunately those growth

drivers will diminish. what's worrying is that the brazilian government has fallen back, fallen behind the curve in terms of the reform agenda and that's hurting growth while for mexico, the government is pretty much ahead of the curve. >> brazil, you're saying they've fallen behind on productivity? >> yes, that's right. >> because the government has top performers. what do they need to do? what would you want them to speed things up? >> quite a few things, actually. firstly, to begin with, you would want to see a greater trust to increase investment spending. to increase investment spending, they will have to cut back on fiscal spending, particularly on populist policies, reduce pension spending, for example. they will have to pull away from crowding out private spending in the credit market space, go easy on labor regulations for that if it's less punishing for investors to invest in brazil.

you would want to see reduction in tariffs, reduction in tax rates and a better regulatory environment so that investors are more confident investing in the economy. >> yeah. the brazilian middle costs are going to keep developing? do they need to stimulate greater domestic demand, i suppose, rather than just being more resource space? >> that's right. but to generate more domestic demand, your economy needs to have the capacity to absorb that demand. and to absorb that demand, you need to increase the supply side story. you need to invest in infrastructure so that you have the capacity to make the rise in consumer demand. >> so the key take away is outperform brazil, basically? >> yes. >> good to see you. thank you very much indeed for joining us. meanwhile, presidential hopefuls in chile have held their final

campaign rallies. a recent poll suggested she could take 47% of the vote. michelle has promised after overhaul of the education sector. student groups meanwhile have continued to vow their protest against the system which they claim favors the wealthy. still to come on today's "worldwide exchange," the console world kicks off as sony launches the play station 4 one week before microsoft's xbox comes to market. we'll ask who will win the sales shoot-out? as we do so, let's remind you where futures are trading right now. it looks like we're implied higher at the moment. the s&p 500 and the dow jones currently in record territory.

hello. you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. the headlines today from around the globe, the yellen effect waned. european equities failing to follow record moves on wall street. it's the season for whale watching on wall street. we find out which stocks some investors like warren buffett and george soros have been buying and selling. the ps4 goes on sale today with sony hoping the console will generate stronger orders

than rival microsoft xbox. and no more austerity. the greek finance minister tells cnbc his country has had enough as he takes the pressure from eurozone finance ministers currently meeting in brussels. >> we cannot take more austerity measures. we cannot reduce further the living standards of people. kek take structural measures. we are willing to take structural measures with a fiscal impact. but not austerity measures. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. and if you've just joined us stateside, a very good morning to you. it looks like u.s. futures are indicating we're going to build on the record closes that we had once again for the s&p and the dow. the dow having its 37th record close, the s&p up 8 points yesterday. right now, the s&p is indicated around 2.5 points above fair

value. the nasdaq at the moment is 7.75 points above fair value and the dow is currently trending 17 points above fair value. as far as the ftse cnbc global 300 is concerned, it's firmer. european equities fail to go build on the gains we saw in asia, as well. the nikkei up at six-month highs. back over 16,000 for the first time this summer. the ftse 1100 yesterday was up 36 points. it's up another 21 this morning. we're flat for germany and france and indeed the ftse mib is down 0.75%. so at the end of this week, janet yellen comments, what are investor to do is a recap of some of the thoughts we've already had on cnbc today. >> i would argue yes, emerging markets do look interesting. and i would actually look -- i mean, let's focus in on the u.s. markets, for instance, of the capital goods. there, you've had a lot of underinvestment and anything related to investments i think

will be welcome. >> there are headwinds. would i add emerging markets starts here. well, it certainly has been quite right to stay out of it. but in the world where mrs. yellen is going to continue to do nice things for investors, i think we will probably see rotations from emerging markets. >> there are opportunities in emerging market equities. china in particular has -- is looking very attractive in terms of valuation. and potential growth and acceleration in growth, actually, in the third quarter. we expect to see that in the fourth quarter, as well. in addition to that, as you mentioned, valuations are at record lows, particularly for enterprise. in the resource sector, but even in financials, as well. in the large market sectors, brazil, china, russia. >> all right. some thoughts we've already had.

meanwhile, gamers rejoice. gentlemen, the console was about to heat up. sony is launching its play station 4 in america today. the latest device is better than the popular ps3 console. sony entertainment group ceo told cnbc he's pretty bullish on the prospects. >> we are planning on selling around 5 million units worldwide by the end of our financial year, end of march, and that is significantly ahead of where we were with the last generation play station 3. >> and microsoft xbox 1 launches next week. joining us with his thoughts, ian. thanks for joining us. there's an interesting difference in price between the xbox 1 and the ps4. does that reflect looking at two different markets? >> not really. you're absolutely right. i mean, the xbox is priced $100

more than the ps4. it's hard to see how that is sustainable, moving forward. there are pros and cons for each product, but realistically, they're aiming at the same market. >> i thought the ps4, this is a games machine for pure gamers. is the xbox 1 not more for a broader family, as well? >> you could argue this. it links in the with the wider idea that the consoles can become the gate way for the way people look at entertainment. this is something that they've been interested in. if you go back over the history, it's something they've been interested in for 15 or 116 years. for example, back in the early 2000, they were interested in cable top boxes. the problem is is that when people watch tv, it tends to be passive media and fiddling around with the console isn't necessarily for that.

there will always be a niche who may be attracted to that, but it really is going to be a niche. i think for most people, on a pure game console basis, and this is why i think it would be difficult for the price difference to be sustained over time. there's one only point, as well. it's whether both products have to come down their prices, as well. i think you would probably see that. >> what does this mean for the holiday season, the shopping that is now -- the shopping season? >> well, you always get these sort of launches around the christmas season because, of course, that's when people put their christmas wish list together. i think it's at -- i think it's a similar sort of example as what you see, for example, when you get the launch of the latest iphone. you get the hard core fans would want to be out there and buy this product immediately. but if you take these products, bear in mind there's a limited amount of games for both new

consoles. you can't use the ps2 ps3 games on ps4. >> i'm not sure why you can't. that seems to be silly, but -- >> it does seem strange. >> that would now me. if i was a former play station owner, that would annoy the hell out of me. >> i think that's exactly the point. and you always get this. there's always criticism about this. it seems as though it's been driven to encourage people to take up the ps4 and hopefully you get more .more games being developed over time. so i think you will get that interest. i suspect a lot of people, though, would way two to three years. >> there's a wider question about whether the console market is in long-term decline, right? because now, just download apps. then they're not really -- about

going to separate console to play. i get it if you're a core gamer, but i'm wondering now whether another generation don't worry. >> no. that's definitely going to be an issue. if you look at where, as it were, the main growth in games is going to come from, the idea being particularly in fast growing markets such as china, it's probably going to be around the multi gamer online playing rather than necessarily the consoles. in part because of the pirate issues. it's harder to pirate the online games. but what you seem to be getting is a wide sigh versefication in the market. for example, the maps. if you take angry birds, you have the low enpart of the market and extremely high end. what the past couple of years have shown, and particularly on the game side swb because people's bungts are tight, what they tend to do is they tend to focus their spending. so titles that have a very good track record and people feel comfortable with buying, so take

call of duty, for instance, they do very well. products which are new to the market and people don't think of them as -- do very badly. which is why you've seen some of the games companies being in difficulty. >> thank you very much, ian. the national retail federation, mean wile, expects up to 140 million u.s. consumerses to shop over the black friday weekend both in stores and online. it will be down from 147 million last year. nearly a quarter of those people plan to shop on thanksgiving day. black friday should be the busiest of the entire weekend with an estimated 97 million shoppers hitting the store. shop.org says more than half of online retailers will start their promotions at least five days before thanksgiving. still to come, president obama is trying to offer an olive branch to the millions of americans facing losing their health care plans by tend of the

year. it could be complicated. we'll look at the impact on insurance companies. which help us attract the industry's brightest minds who create powerful strategies for a country's investments which are used to build new schools to build more bright minds. invested in the world. bny mellon. i've got a nice long life ahead.

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julia is in before russels at t meeting. >> it's a great question. he immediately said no decisions today. what we're trying to work out is a narrowing of some of the differences and oh, boy, are there some differences. we've got the likes of the germans, the dutch, the austrians saying that they don't want a european wide back stop here. we've got the german saying the idea of a revolution mechanism going forward, the structural itself is illegal and no one, of course, can really decide on who can decide who winds down these banks. ultimately, the commission would like to do that. they're the only ones who seem to agree on anything right now. that's in the future. next year we have the asset quality review and the stress tests results. t the issues will be at the national government. i spoke to the swedish finance minister earlier today and asked

him whether it makes sense to do yet more stress tests without a proper back stop in place. listen to what he had to say. >> the asset quality review must be tough. this must be a thorough and transparent operation where we are clearly indicating which banks have problems in the balance sheets. that's the only way to restore credibility for these exercises. and, therefore, it's logical to build a fiscal back stop for the operation. >> but right now, it's going to be done at the national level. there isn't a eurozone wide back stop and that doesn't make sense. >> well, there has to be some sort of a eurozone back stop. otherwise, the whole operation seems pointless. >> i think dealing with the issues, we need a broader back stop in place. but quite frankly, if these finance ministers can't agree on something in the future to address future issues in the banking sector, then there's very little hope, i think, of having a back stop in place at the end of next year to address some of these issues of the asset quality review and, quite

frankly, ross, that's where we are now. but the debate will continue. back to you. >> it certainly is going to do that. jul is, for now, thank you very much indeed for that. we're going to take a short break. president oba president obama has proposed to fix one of the biggest problems of his health care, but is it actually going to work? we'll get to that when we come back on "worldwide exchange." [ horn honks ]

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president obama has proposed a fix for those getting ready to lose their health care coverage at the end of the year.

good morning, bertha. what are they planning? >> well, ross, the interesting thing, the white house did issue this administrative fix yesterday, saying that insurers could extend for another year these canceled plans. but they are saying that president obama would actually veto a republican bill that would do the same thing, except that the republican bill would go further. that bill, sponsored by congressman fred upton is up for a vote in the house today. the white house said the measure would undermine obama care because it would let insurers to sell those plans to both current and new customers, not just people who want to renew their existing policies. president obama has come under fire for the botched rollout of the health care law and his much repeated promise that if people like their insurance plan or doctor, they could keep them. over the past month, insurers have sent nearly 5 billion letters to cancel plans that

don't meet the requirements. >> i think it's legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general. and that is on me. we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. >> notwithstanding the president's mea culpa, his fix is voluntary and it may cause more headaches for insurers because now it puts the onus on companies to naul the renewed policy. the biggest issue is time. insurers would have to mail out new letters to people and then they have to get premiums back by december 15th, a tall order in 30 days here.

the insurance industry consultant robert luchesky tells cnbc it's nearly impossible. >> it took the insurance industry months to get ready for obama care. the president has put them in a hell of a box here. they either say they're going to do it and have just the technology logicistal nightmare, probably lots of customer service problems, or they say they're not going to do it and guess what, if they don't do it, who's the cancellation fault? it's the insurance company's. >> that was rob lasqewski talking to rob kudlow last night. the state of washington says they're not going to let insurers extend canceled policies. they can't do it in time. city analysts carl mcdonald says renewing plans shouldn't impact insurers revenues, although it will be a drag on the fourth quarter if they do because it's going to be an awful lot of administrative work them to do that. he says the proposed change

raises the risk of a healthy poof of buyers on the exchanges. that could impact humana, etna, some of the other countries trying to build up their business on those exchanges. ross, it has basically added more confusion to the situation and now insurers have to weigh, do they upset their policyholders or do they try to make this change and turn on a dime? >> either way, it's a hell of a mess. there will be now some people think i don't have to cancel medication policy, but its appears the ability not to do that -- >> or i heard lots of people yesterday called their insurers and said, so what are you going to do? and insurers haven't figured it out yet. >> and the way insurers work, it's a big problem. barclay's is cutting 1700 jobs in favor of automation. bertha, do you care whether there's a human being at

those -- we've had to let her go. do you care whether there's a human being at the end of the line or no? >> ultimately, i want a human being there, but to be honest, i do all of my banking electronically for the most part. >> there we go. that's bertha's answer on it. good stuff. thank you very much. we would love our viewers to e-mail us, worldwide@cnbc.com, tweet @cnbcwex or direct to me @rosswestgate. we've got news coming out of china. a policy reform document will apparently greatly improve property rights protection. and reduce government intervention in resource allegation. this reform document, this is what we thought we would get more of when the plenum concluded. we'll transfer some state asset toes a national security fund and they'll raise dividends paid by the -- 30% by 2020. and they'll let local governments broaden financing channels and let local government issues bonds, as well.

and it will scrap residence restrictions in small cities and townships. and they'll lift restrictions on resident registration in an orderly manner in mid sized cities and they'll integrate urban and rural social security systems. so basically we are now getting the details out of that plenum that we thought we would get at the beginning of the week. so keep your eyes on this. reform details coming out of china. they are starting to come through now. but basically, we are going to reform property and take a lot of government restrictions away from resource allocation. recap of the headlines, as well, european equities fail to follow in the cheering of janet yellen's comments. sony launches its latest offensive and s.e.c. filings reveal the trading activities of warren buffett, dan loeb, george soros and others. and on that story, get out

the binoculars. we have gone whale watching. several big name investors have released what companies they bought .sold during the third quarter. warn buffett disclosed a new stake in exxon mobil. berkshire hathaway owns around 40 million shares in the oil giant worth $3.4 billion at the end of september. soros is pretty active in the third quarter. he bought 12.6 million shares of microsoft and disclosed a new stake in chevron. soros reduced holdings in jcpenney and google. those stocks fall up. exxon mobil up 2% in frankfurt. and dan loeb revealed earlier this week he's investing in fedex. a piling shows the stake in the package delivery giant was worth $270 million. they took stakes in activision and nokia. he slashed his stakes in procter & gamble by 76%. joining us with hesitais wrap u

the week, todd horwitz. always good fun to see what these people have been buying. do you think it influences us? >> good morning, ross. you know, it certainly has an influence on the retail investor. i don't know if it has a real influence on professional traders, but certainly on the retail investor. if warren buffett is buying something, a lot of the guys on the street want to be in the same position that warren buffett is in. >> fresh record closer for the dow and the s&p again last night. 37 record closer for the dow. is this what's going to happen now to the end of the year, todd? >> you know, listen, we're in bubble territory. but you certainly can't get in the way. the market has higher closes on a regular basis. at some point, cooler heads are going to be veil and there's going to be some sign. but for right now, it's hard to get in the way. it's hard to tie to fight the it. you've got the fed pumping in some money.

as long as free money rolls in here, this bubble we're building keeps going higher. there's nobody else to go if you're chasing yield. there's only one place you can take your money right now. but the interesting thing is that the bond market, the interest rates are starting to rise, even though the if he will fed doesn't want to taper. interest rates are starting to rise, anyway, and we're seeing, you know, a ten year that's had a nice rally over the last couple of weeks as well as the 30. >> and it's been a volatile week for treasury yields, as well. todd, good to see you today. have a great weekend when it starts for you and a good trading day today. thank you. todd horwitz, founder of averagejoeoptions.com. we just asked bertha, do you prefer your banking by man or machine? jay tweeted he's used machines for years, there's usually no lines, no wait and there are never complaints. the thing is, it's hard to complain to a machine when something goes wrong. as computers go, you need to

speak to a human being. coming up next, "squawk box" counts us down to the opening of markets stateside for the final time this week. whatever happens, we hope you have a profitable day. bye for now.

good morning. no surprises from janet yellen. the dow and the s&p close at record highs while in japan, the nikkei falls back over 15,000. president obama's fix for the affordable care act could extend beyond 2014. i don't know if anyone really understands the implications of this thing. and then warren buffett, betting big on big oil. it's friday, november 15th, 2013 and "squawk box" begins right now.

good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we'll be looking at huge issues facing corporate newark right now. this morning, we'll be joined by the ceo of insurance provider unum, waste management's ceo david steiner. we have kimberly clark's tim falk and we'll cap off our ceo summit with fred smith from fedex. the more records from wall street as janet yellen says the central bank's current policies will continue. >> we expect to maintain a highly accommodative monetary policy for some time to come thereafter. and the message that we want to send is