i always like to say, there is a bull market somewhere. i promise to find it just for you. right here, on "mad money." thank you for nine great years, cramerica. here's to many more. i'm jim cramer and i'll see you again. hello. you're watching "world wild exchange." the headlines from around the globe, crimea formally applies to join russia after a landslide vote. european foreign ministers in brussels condemn the referendum and vow to agree on sanctions. >> well, the united kingdom in common with the rest of the european union will not recognize the crimea referendum that took place yesterday as legal or meaningful. ali babba picks new york over hong kong for its listing which is said to be the biggest ipo since facebook. and the vodafone giant deal

will list in madrid. plus, the biggest search for a missing aircraft intensifies as the pilots of the plane are now being investigated. malaysian authorities are due to hold their latest press conference in 30 minutes. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. and a very good morning in north america. welcome to the start of the global trading day here on cnbc's "worldwide exchange." we saw the first loss for the dow since may 2012, down 2.3%. this morning, futures are indicating higher, up by about 105 points. the s&p was down just under t2% over the course of next week.

they are now trading 28 points above fair value. and the s&p is trading about 12 points above fair value. the nasdaq is 27 points above fair value having the worst week since last week down 2.1%. the ftse global 300 is just up six points at the moment. the ftse was down .75%. despite the vote in crimea, it is now in russia's hands about what they do. for a while they could do nothing. house builders doing very well this morning. we got a budget coming out in the u.k. on wednesday with george osborne suggesting yesterday to extend his help to buy plans, which is going to fuel the market right move saying asking prices for homes up 1.6% in the last month, now up 7% from a year ago. so up 6.47%.

barclays is up 3. dollar/yen, a little higher using a little bit of ground on the safehaven. 101.80 is where we stand from the two-and-a-half month high. sterling, still at 1.66. let's go to li sixuan in singapore. >> reporter: thank you, ross. investigators are still fretting over china's economy and the quality of corporate debt, but as china markets are concerned, the shanghai composite consolidated just above the key 2000 level ending higher by 1%. and the shenzhen gained a stronger 2% today. the hang seng index in hong kong ended lower by just modest .3%. concerns over the ukraine crisis

continue to way on sentiment. and the nikkei slipped to a six-week closing low. and australia also ended near its one-month lows. but south korea's kospi saw bargain hunting after last week's steep loss ending .10%. as for solid winners, the chinese cement makers outperformed on support of policies and urbanization reforms. they totally surged up by 10%. and on to some individual movers jar japan's soft bank soared after ali babba decided to list the long-awaited ipo in the u.s. softbank earns a 37% stake in ali babba, but this headed further south ending lower for tencent at 3%. and that's a look at the asian markets. back to you, ross.

>> li sixuan, thank you for that. we'll catch you later. meanwhile, more on the ukraine in crisis. steve is there in kiev post this referendum which has crimea wishing to succeed to russia. steve, what happens now? i presume russia can take their time. >> reporter: yes, i think you're right, ross. i think everything has been moving at a break-neck speed ever since the fall of yanukovych in kiev, but we are expecting things to carry on at that speed. and now that we have had the crim crimean region reacting to the vote, nearly 97% of people, whatever you think about poll, whether in the west or russia, agree they want to become part of the russian federation. now mr. putin can afford to potentially take his time as well, but no doubt about it, the putin reaction, which is key, yes, we know the eu and the u.s. will bring limited sanctions.

yes, we know the kiev government doesn't agree with that poll result although the government has been telling me they do agree with more autonomy for crimea. the fact is it depends on mr. putin, whether mr. putin, a, agrees to an excrimea to the russian federation or b, reacts strongly to the european sanctions. and most importantly, is the expansion of russian military presence in this region going to happen, and i'm talking primarily about eastern ukraine as well because there's enormous military build-up going on on the border between russia and ukraine. and the fear is that provocations, incidents, violence and elsewhere could lead to further military action. of course, for all intensive purposes, many people believe the kiev government is powerless to present a russian invasion should that be the case. now, the reaction has been pretty forthright on both sides. mr. putin says it was legitimate and abated national law and u.n.

charter. the americans and the west are adamant that's not the case. i've been speaking to a lot of politicians both domestic and international here in kiev. i spoke to half a dozen u.s. senators who came here to show support for the kiev government, including the incredibly hulkish john mccain. he's the former presidential candidate and republican senator for arizona. he's very aggressive in his language to mr. putin. listen in. >> this referendum on sunday will be a facade, a joke, although a sick one. so now we have to realize that that's happened and our long-term goal is to remain or regain crimea for crimea for ukraine and take a broad range of steps. range from helping the ukraine build up their military to renewing the defense missile defense system in the she can republic and poland that barack

obama canceled, to military exercises, to moving georgia and ukraine into nato if they want to be, and hard, tough sanctions, but most of all, begin to realize that vladimir putin is what he is. and old kgb colonel that wants to restore the russian empire. >> reporter: we'll bring you more of that later on the show because he, dick durbin, rick johnson, a whole host of u.s. senators were very hulkish speaking in a bipartisan matter. this failed to get through the senate on friday. we also have been speaking to domestic key politicians as well including the foreign minister. and i asked him about diplomacy and what ukraine does next. >> we still believe there's a chance because there is a very big wide support of the ukrainian position on international arena of our

partners in the eu or the united states and nato. so we do believe that with such an effort, we would be able to convince russia not to go to real war but to stop at this point and to settle all the issues around the table. >> reporter: one of the big problems, of course, is that kiev and the kremlin are not speaking. the kremlin has issues with legitimacy of the government in kiev, but we do have coming up the may 25th elections coming up in just under two months' time. so there's a hope, though, that when we have the presidential elections, this government will gain the international legitimacy and be able to start reasonable dialogue with the russians. the question is, who will be the president? i can tell you, the man who is the frontrunner in the presidential polls at the moment is an olygarch who will be

coming up in 15 minutes' time. >> thank you for that. meanwhile, they continue to arrive in brussels to discuss their reaction. go to a live blog on cnbc.com. we have realtime updates with the latest news and the market moves as well. besides ukraine, more to come, could this be the biggest ipo sis facebook? alibaba has chosen new york. we'll bring you all the details.

you're watching "worldwide exchange." >> a recap of the headlines, sanctions expected for russia as the west refuses to accept the crimea referendum result. alibaba picks new york for the million dollar listing. and the background of the pilots of the missing malaysian airliner are now being investigated. as far as the agenda stateside today, we have a february industrial production out at 9:15 eastern. look for the march sentiment survey from the national association of home builders. that's it. not much. other stories we are following today, call it the

alibaba effect. stocks with china's commerce are gaping. alibaba is now electing to launch its $15 billion ipo in the u.s. instead. analysts suggest the listing could value alibaba around $140 billion in what could be the most anticipated ipo since facebook. it is working with six banks to lead the deal and plans to split fees roughly equally between them. meanwhile, weibo is planning to list in the u.s. market looking to raise $500 million in the share sale. the social networker says they have half as many users at twitter. the ceo makes his first visit to china. he'll meet academic students on his visit to signal the interest in entering the chinese market. twitter is being blocked by chinese since 2009. and vodafone is confirming

to buy ono for nearly $3 billion. and many retailers are urged to stop selling tobacco products if they have a pharmacy. "the new york times" suggests letters from 28 states have gone out to rite aid, walgreens, kroeger, safeway and walmart. they also don't mention sales of e-cigarettes which the fda is also considering whether to regulate. and hertz is close to a spinoff of its equipment rental business.

this deal could be valued near $4.5 billion. the split is the focus of investor questions for several years. reports say hertz has been exploring either spinoff or a so-called reverse morris trust. the separation combines a spinoff with a merger. hertz stock flat in frankfurt. all right. plenty more news surrounding crimea as the head military units in the region will be disbanded. this is according to ifx news world. we'll keep an eye on that. meanwhile, equities unpretesched this morning. with the fact, equities are higher, 8-1, advances leading current decliners. we'll have more right after this. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in.

cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances.

what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything. then a little time to kick back. earn double hilton honors points with the 2x points package

and be one step closer to a weekend break. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. u.s. features suggest that the dow is down 2 1/3%. nasdaq having the worst week since april. the s&p is up 11.5 points and the nasdaq is up nearly 30. pending focus of course on the ukraine after crimea voted to secede and to try to join russia.

the ukrainian parliament is trying to help with mobilization to call up 40,000 reservists. this as vladimir putin says he'll respect the wishes of the crimean people as they voted overwhelmingly to join russia. both the eu and the united states rejected the outcome of the ballot. william hague outlined potential sanctions that the russians can expect. >> well, the united kingdom in common with the rest of the european union will not recognize the crimea referendum that took place yesterday as legal or legitimate or meaningful. we propose to move to a further stage of the european response today with travel bans and asset freezes on individuals. that's one of the things we will be discussing today. i'm confident we'll reach agreement on that. at the same time, every diplomatic channel remains open

to russia. and we continue to be in communication with russia about creating a diplomatic framework, about finding ways to de-escalate this crisis. >> and from crisis continuing to arise in brussels, this is the latest from the managing director at citi, tina, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> after an awful lot has happened in a short period of time, i wonder now if we'll enter a phase where a lot doesn't happen because clearly russia can take its time. >> right, there's no rush to act. and i think for that reason markets will also have a pause and see what happens. we tend to imagine there's some kind of a chess game going on when it's probably more like billiards. >> yeah, how is your billiards? it depends on how big the size of the pockets are. and what is russia? there's two things, what is russia now way up?

>> well, i think russia can keep its options open, right? it's had a strong result in the crimean referendum contested as it was. it's still got troops in crimea which have a legal the right be there, plus the troops mast on the you crepan border. meanwhile, there are a number of meetings happening, but one of the challenges for russia is going to be what does it do with crimea, right? because there have been other cases of partition or other bits of former soviet satellite states, but they haven't formally joined russia. they have some kind of special status. >> could crimea sort of end up like that? >> that's part of the decision that will be taken. the russian dooma will meet this week. if one is created and you see the annexation, you will see it

ratchet up. >> it could take a very long time. >> that's right. that's the key variable right now. is it annexation or some kind of loose as yet undetermined special status? >> the same time, violent pro-russian protests in demanding help from russia n the eastern part of the country, the eastern border, that's where putin says we need to go to protect russia. that seems the potential flare-up area. >> it's an open option. and that's why in my conversations with investors i've been talking about how this is a much longer time horizon where we could still see periodic upticks in ethnic clashes as you mentioned and ukrainian presidential elections on may 25th will be another sign post. but the ability for the ukraine yap authorities to maintain stability on the ground in the face of these challenges and

such high tensions, plus the presence of troops not far away, is significant. >> what do we expect the west to do? besides sanctions on individuals. if there's no need to react from the russian government, if they take their time, what will happen? what will the reaction be? >> there are a few moving pieces here, right? so at the moment, if russian military intervention doesn't extend beyond crimea, then i wouldn't expect to see a response beyond this targeted sanctions, but you can also have a wider pool of individual who is are swept up into that group whom targeted sanctions are passed. we have seen real caution about economic sanctions. and the reason for that is obvious. russian retaliation could hurt u.s. and european companies. >> in that place, germany is the key player here. >> germany is also being prevailed upon by the polls and the baltic states to wave more

than purely commercial interests. here is where market participants tend to overfocus on gas this year and there's a wider burden of history at work. >> the -- it would seem to me that the economics are against russia. yes, they could -- they have the security energy issue, but then there's a massive outflow, they need money. and if investors pull money out or not give them money, they have a much deeper problem than the west. it seems to be russia in a much weaker position than everybody else. >> in a globalized world, russia needs customers for its gas. and we have seen in the past putin is willing to take an economic hit in the short-term in order to maintain the long-term. >> the west is far more capable of taking a hit than russia is. >> i think there's caution on

economic sanctions, but what i've said many times before is that the focus is on stabling ukraine, but that, too, bears risks of keeping tensions high with russia because it doesn't regard the government in kiev as a legal entity. >> yes. well, maybe it's not. i mean, this is a -- it wasn't elected government that had been -- they talk about we don't recognize crimea, they have not recognized the yanukovych government. in fact, there was a coup there. >> we have multiple interpretations of international law going on at the moment. >> one way of puting it. tina, stick around. she is from citi. plenty more on ukraine. get the latest realtime updates and we'll bring you the latest information on missing malaysian flight 370 as authorities gear up to hold their press conference in kuala lumpur. that's in a moment. power consumption in china,nn

impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

the headlines, crimea formally applies to join russia after a landslide vote. the european officials condemn the referendum and vow to agree on sanctions. >> well, the united kingdom in common with the rest of the european union will not recognize the crimea referendum that took place yesterday as legal or legitimate or

meaningful. >> alibaba chooses new york over hong kong for its listing, said to be the biggest ipo since facebook. vodafone trades higher after selling the deal for $7 billion euros. and the biggest ever search for a missing aircraft intensifies. the pilots of malaysian 370 are now being investigated. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. good morning to you. just joining us in north america, the latest press conference on missing malaysian flight 370 is due to start shortly in kuala lumpur. we'll bring you news on that as soon as it begins. meanwhile, after what we saw last week, the dow is down 1.3%.

the dow at the moment, the futures are down 98 points above fair value. the nasdaq is 26 points above fair value. and the s&p is 11 points above fair value. the ftse is doing better up .1% as are european markets weighing heavily to the upside. nevertheless, ftse down 2.3% last year. here's where we stand. thank you. just up nearly half of 1% with two-thirds in the cac and the ftse up 8% at the moment. so, the start of this new week with ge,political issues in the area. here are thoughts on the channel already. >> we have been wrong so far on

the short dollar call but it is still contingent on what the ecb does. if the fed continues to bond, like we think should be confirmed with this week. >> i'm not a big fan of common bonds. i think they are overvalued at this point. most of the markets are overvalue long-term. i'm in favor of risky assets or government bonds. >> what kind of risky assets? >> we are continuing to be in the position and credit risk is still favorable, credit in the u.k. is still good where some are quite up reasonably priced. >> i just haven't risen because of the activity and obviously the next stage is -- in terms of

whether this value of selling off like last year, they have more to buy. i'm just reminded the latest press conference for the missing malaysian flight 370 is about to start. we'll bring you the beginning of that. >> during the last 24 hours, the prime minister has spoken to the prime minister of australia and the people of china. the minute industry of foreign affairs has sent diplomatic notes to all countries involved in the search and rescue operation. this includes two groups. first, countries in the search corridors and second countries from which we are seeking assistance and expertise. for countries in the search corridors, we are requesting

radar and satellite information as well as specific assets for the search and rescue operation. he will do an aerial search and rescue action plans with the rescue coordination here in asia to coordinate the search effort. we have asked for regular updates including daily reports on both such activities and details of any information required from malaysia. we are not at liberty to reveal information from specific countries as the coordinating authority we are gathering all the information as part of the ongoing search and rescue operation. ladies and gentlemen, over the past 48 hours malaysia was working on the diplomatic, technical and logistical requirements. the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased to 26.

they continue to lead the overall coordination of the effort. the southern corridor has been divided into two sections according to the international civil liberty organization demarcation. these demarcations work by the ic or by which russia is a council member. australia is agreeing to lead rescue operations in their suspected regions. today i can confirm that search and rescue efficiency that has already gun. countries including malaysia, china, indonesia, kazakhstan already initiated rescue and search operations. the royal mission air force and the royal mission navy have deployed assets to the southern corridor. two mission ships have been

deployed. this also includes a helicopter which can hop from either ship. we have removed a p3 held chapter from the islands. and today the prime minister was an additional two or three. an aircraft will travel today to the site to help in the search. mission investigators have been working since day one. yesterday experts from civil administration with china join the investigation team. today officials from the french office of investigations and analysis for the liberty of civil aviation also joined the team. these authorities are working with refining it with top search. on saturday, april, march, the

royal investigation is going to start into all crew members on board and the 317, including the pilot and co-pilot as well as all ground stops handling the aircraft. on sunday's march 27th, visit the homes of the pilot and co-pilot. we also spoke to members of the pilot and co-pilot. police visited the homes of the pilot and co-pilot on saturday, the 15th of march. the pilots simulator was taken from his house with the asis the answer of his family. the simulator was reassembled in police headquarters. at this point i would like to stress that malaysia has been working with many international authorities since day one. i would also liking to address the speck tlags she holds no matter what. for the families, i understand that every day belongs and ambushes your anguish. malaysia is missing its sons and

daughters. there were 15 malaysians on board the plane. our party has always been to find the aircraft. we will not withhold any information that could help, but we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by international relationships. this is not only to the families and the investigation but also to the search and rescue operations. it would be irresponsible to deploy substantial assets nearly on the basis of i'm verified and can get cooperative information. as soon as she this acquisition was given by the mission authorities, the u.s. team was of the view that there were reasonable grounds for the malaysian authorities to deploy

resources to conduct search on the west/east side of the peninsula of asia. we sent new satellite information as to the possible last known whereabouts of the aircraft. we recalibrate to the northern and southern corridors as the prime minister. after my statement, we'll release a moment of that. so the corridor looks something like this. the malitia -- >> we'll get more on the press conference. they are just going to give us more details. the police believe the plane could have flown into the northern or southern corridor. basically a little into the ocean as far as they were concerned. they will give you more details and they have not finishing the

press conference. both the eu and the u.s. have rejected the outcome of the crimean ballot. steve is in kiev with the latest. steve, do we enter a quieter period in some ways now? last week we wait to see what russia does. >> reporter: maybe, ross, maybe. just not yet. that could come over the next couple of days. the douma is born as one of the next things to decide on whether to accept that from the crimean region. does he extend military activity to you crain and to the east? there's enormous russian military build-up on the other side of the border and a lot of trouble in the ooemp part of this country. which also has a lrnlg russian

speak speaker medication. they are going to bring crimea into russia. and three, how does he react to the international sanctions. putin -- for the government here in kiev, i can tell you i was about to speak to one lawmaker 30 minutes ago. he rushed off to parliament because they just voted in the mobilization to partial mobilization of 40,000 reservists. so you can see this town, this country, remains on edged, the eu and the west have reaction. it is going to be limited in terms of asset breeze as well. we are expecting you out of the united states and in the eu foreign minister's meeting as well. i'll be speaking to senator john mccain. hulk has been strident in his criticism of russia and i asked him a whole lot of questions this weekend. i asked him, you were going to

cooperate with putin but he said that failed. and it's a rivalry now. is it a cold war? that's the question i asked him and now we'll listen to his answer. >> how far away is that robbery between the u.s. and the west and russia. i do believe it is long overdo we accept him as he is and for who he is. >> reporter: i told the senate democrat from nebraska as well, dick durbin, the energy is massive today. tell us what your interpretation of this is. >> there's no question that natural gas has been the truck or play-by-play in recent history. he extorts from various countries, political favors and

political decisions based on the price and availability of natural gas. we need to confront him once and for all as he tries to put pressure on the eu. secondly, we need to talk about the long-term energy survival of the european union and others that are nearby. there are ways and new approaches of energy. there's the possibility of liquefied natural gas which may come from the united states in some part and other parts of the world, but we'll welcome the story. vladimir due tin pushed you into this position. >> so no doubt the u.s. has invested more energy into europe. prop began da wars on both sides ofds the equation, but how do ukrainians believe you can put them away. in the next 20 minutes, we'll speak to the woman in the polls

to. why irish eyes may not be smiling on new york city's st. patrick's day celebrations today. one sponsor synonymous with the holiday says it's not taking part.

save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.ould yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake? uh-oh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. a recap of the headlines,

sanctions as the west rejects the crimea referendum. and alibaba picks new york for the $15 billion listing. and homes of the two pilots from the missing malaysian airlines have been searched. senate lawmakers have unveiled their draft bill to wind down fannie mae and freddie mac which they first proposed last week. the more than 400-page measure aims to eliminate the more game finance jobs within five years, though both would continue to pay all profits to the u.s. government under terms of their 2008 bailout. at the same time, banks must radically up no vat to get ahead of the challenges they face. that's the conclusion of a new bwc survey claiming retail banking will be transformed by 2020. joining us from new york is john

garvey, thank you for joining us. what's the biggest challenge or the biggest change we are likely to see in retail banking then by 2020? >> well, the biggest change is probably not the change from dominance into a branch-based model to one of mobile and advertising being the driver of a footprint of a bank versus a physical branch. >> yeah, so you sort of -- if you are wearing your google glasses, whatever headset you have, you speak to your bank on the move and you fix up your lens while driving, that sort of thing, you mean? >> that's right. and the information that you'll have at your finger tips in terms of comparing offers from different financial institutions will be amazing compared to what you have today. >> are individuals, though, what seems key to me, actually, if you are going to have more than

a functional online retail bank, at the end of the day you still want somebody to speak to, you want somebody that knows you, knows what you want. and is there on the end on the phone to speak to you. >> absolutely. look, everybody skypes with their relatives and their children and everybody else they are close to these dies, why not skype with their banker, right? >> it will be delivered in a slightly different way. the banks, they are not brilliant at sort of radical change. they are slow institutions, so how are they going to face up to this? >> one of the ways we talk about in the report is through partnerships and perhaps even acquisitions of third party. so if you look at what silicon valley is funding these days in terms of start-ups and innovation, i think a lot of that innovation is going to come from outside the banks, though the banks themselves are going

to have to do some of it internally as well, but i think as we have seen in other industries like technology, for example, start-ups and acquiring them, you know, the banks are going to do the same thing. >> and how many bank execs are prepared for the future, john, and how many non-traditional elements are come pettive rather that helping? >> well, here's an interesting thing in our survey, first of all, about 90% believe they need to get a grip on what 2020 is going to look at, look like, i mean, but only 20% are feeling they are prepared. in terms of the rise of kind of non-traditional competitors, it is interesting. in the emerging markets, you know, most people view the competitors as potential partners and sources of innovation whereas in traditional markets like the u.s. and europe, the non-traditional entrance, if you will, are viewing more as

threats. so i think that really reflects an attitude difference between emerging in development markets. >> john, thank you for shedding a little light on this report. i'm sure there's an awful lot more in it. thank you, john garvey, capital market euc. guinness is pulling sponsorship from new york city's annual st. patrick's day parade. they say the move is because organizers are refusing to let gays and lesbians march. on friday heineken boss, boston beer and others pulled their sponsorship after not reaching a deal to let gays to join. we'll look ahead to the trading day right after this. ♪

[ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

♪ everything looking good. ♪ velocity 1,200 feet per second. [ man #2 ] you're looking great to us, eagle. ♪ 2,000 feet. ♪ still looking very good. 1,400 feet. [ male announcer ] a funny thing happens when you shoot for the moon. ahh, that's affirmative. [ male announcer ] you get there. you're a go for landing, over. [ male announcer ] the all new cadillac cts, the 2014 motor trend car of the year.

on the agenda today stateside, february industrial production out at 9:15 eastern. the march sentiment survey from the national association of home builders coming after u.s. markets down 2% last week. the dow having its first monday to friday since may 2012. the senior vice president at trade is joining us from the cme. scott, good morning to you. after the falls last week, futures are indicating a bounce higher today. how do you see this week panning out? >> well, i think it's really going to be a lot about the u.s. data. a little bit about the ukraine and a lot about china. i think that last week we had kind of a one-two punch with ukraine getting us nervous for the u.s. market.

at the same time, we are hearing a softening in the china economy. with the ukraine crisis and china, we need to see good u.s. data. and ultimately it's all about the u.s. market data. if the market goes higher, then we'll take off again and erase last week's losses. >> we did see falling costs but there doesn't seem to be any real kind of up nation problem here. will that keep treasuries -- they obviously come down on risk aversion, will that help out? >> well, i think that really is a bigger question about whether the taper was working or the qe is working and that's why we are tapering. we are tapering not because the u.s. economy is doing very well, but i say we are tapering with a failed economic policy. we have a record number of people on food stamps. the economy here is hanging on by its finger nails. we need to see wall street or main street catch up with wall street here. and i think that janet yellin has a difficult job in front of her. so our yields will stay

relatively low until we see some sort of growth and u.s. data is coming through kind of tend and we are not seeing things get really heated up. so it's all going to be about our data this week again and maybe see if this china situation is softening or not is going to affect the equity market. >> absolutely. very quickly, gold is up to six-month highs. still see support for that? >> probably up to the 1400 level, maybe a bit more, but i still think the world can't afford $100 oil and can't afford $1400 gold. i think that slowly but surely we'll see the pressures ease out of the commodities. >> scott, thank you for that. have a good week. don't forget, "squawk box" is coming up next. meanwhile, for viewers in europe, vodafone is ringing in a new deal buying spain's ono. we'll dig deeper into that.

good monday morning. crimea voted to secede from ukraine. vladimir putin is told they are rejecting the results and warning of sanctions. and alibaba picking new york for the destination and it could be a huge deal for underwriters. we'll talk about it. and it is time to fill the brackets. florida, wichita state and arizona all get number one seeds. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everybody.

welcome to squawk box on cnbc. happy st. patrick's day to you. i'm becky quick along with brian sorkin. i reminded the kids to wear green and went upstairs and forgot. brian has a good excuse for why he's not. >> yeah, because i do this thing on cnbc digital which uses a green screen, so i can't wear green. then i become invisible. if i wore a green shirt, i would have no torso. that said, sullivan, i think it stands to reason that i'm irish enough. >> we already had this conversation this morning. yeah. >> brian, welcome. andrew, welcome back. >> thank you. i missed you guys. you did a lot last week. you had buffett last week, a huge show. and march madness and these brackets, we'll talk about what these seeds may mean for the