howard schurlt for inviting us here. i hope you saw why it's still worth investing in america. there's also a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer and i'll see you tomorrow. hello, everybody. good morning. i'm louisa bojesen. you're now watching "worldwide exchange." these are headlines frarnd the world. european stocks are attempting to recover from the yellen effect after a hint was a rate hike could be coming sooner than anticipated. german chancellor angela merkel threatens tougher sanctions for russia. australia releases images of objects believed to be the first credible evidence of flight mh will have 370 as the search in

the indian ocean intensifies. investors are cheering the head of the luxury fashion group mulberry this morning. it's down after a major profit warning. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> hi, everybody. if you're just tuning in, thanks for joining us on the show. you can see how the u.s. indications are for what we're going to be seeing this afternoon when the u.s. markets open. remember that the yellen effect took hold of u.s. markets yesterday. we're just seeing markets being called a couple of points lower, if anything, not by many much. we're really interested to see whether this will last or whether it's a temporary bleep in the markets, as it were. our european markets, though, this morning, we were called

quite a bit lower. we're hanging on to these losses by a bit. the ftse 100, 6523, off by 0.7%. yesterday, you and i on the close were looking at markets that were slightly mixed and cautious trade, as well, ahead of the fomc decision. and we've got some data out later today, which could be tradeable, as well. the weekly jobless data, the february existing home sales data, but in the meantime, our european markets are just treading water and taking a few more points off by the looks of things. when it comes to what we're seeing in the fixed income markets, you're seeing back into the u.s. ten-year treasury, we saw yields flying yesterday as bonds and equities were sold off, again, off the back of the yellen comments. the ten-year bund right now, yielding 1.6 and a bit percentage of the ten-year italian and the ten-year fwilt. seeing a little bit of selling, too, with those yeelsdz being

pushed a tad higher, as well. we saw dollar buying off the back of yellen's comments that we could see rates coming sooner than anticipated. the euro/dollar right now, 1.38 and a bit more hanging on to that 38 level. we've been flirting somewhere in the region of '38 to 1.39 in the last couple of sessions. the dollar/yen, flat and the pound against the greenback, 1.65 and a bit. but it really helps when we're still in the early stages of trade here in europe this morning to talk to li sixuan in singapore and figure out what's been going on in the asian markets. sixuan, take it away. >> thank you, louisa. asian markets lower today following fed chairs. the shanghai composite ended below the key 2,000 mark after more reports of defaults. the japanese market retreated from its one-week highs and

south korea continued to see foreign selling ending down by about 1%. mean tile, australia lost 4.2% today. chinese developers rebounded into mainland hong kong as signs that it's easing its grip on developer's ability to raise funds. the developer said they've got the green light for plant private placement. but the gold miner lost their sheen after the fed announced wednesday a further reduction of its bond buying program as expected. china mobile's q4 profit fell 5.9%, missing estimates and contributed to its first profit decline in 14 years. the company -- pressure from other free messaging services. and china mobile shares lost 0.6% today in hong kong. meanwhile, with as the market closed yesterday, warren buffett chinese carmaker byd reported a

largely expected full price in its 2013 earnings, but shares tanked 14% after the company expected a 90% profit plunge in the first quarter. so that is a look out of asian markets. back to you. >> sixuan, good seeing you. thank you very much for that. as mentioned, janet yellen says the fed will be likely ending its bond buying program this fall. it could start raising rates as soon as next spring. those comments said chair rattled the markets signaling an aggressive move towards higher rates than most had anticipated. the fed wrapped up its meeting by tapering bond purchases by another 10 billion, as anticipated. it released methods to help the public determine when they would raise rates. yellen hesitated when asked what exactly that meant. >> the language that we used in

this statement is considerable period. so i -- you know, this term is hard to define, but, you know, probably means on the order of around six months to that type of thing. but it depends what the statement is saying. it depends what conditions are like. >> now, she also gave details on the plans to scrap the unemployment targets. >> the committee is further revised its forward guidance to better reflect conditions as they now stand and are likely to evolve over the coming quarters. in short, the larger the shortfall with employment or inflation from the respective objectives set by the fomc and the longer any such shortfall was expected to persist, the

longer the target federal funds rate is likely to remain in the present to 1.25% range. >> david is with me for the first half of the show. welcome, david. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you for being with us. it's interesting to look at what yellen said yesterday. i look at it and i can't really understand it. i'm not sure whether a slight mistake happened in terms of communication or maybe we're looking at too much. the actual statement was dovish and then on the other hand she indicates that rates could have higher sooner than anticipated. >> one of the things to keep in mind was the statement was very dovish. and it was yellen's first press conference. she may have been a little bit excited. and i think that the six-month comment was a little bit off-the-cuff. i think xhen taters are reading into it a little whit too much. i think the key take away from all of this is the fed is

abandoning its quantitative thresholds and it's focused much more on the qualitative in terms of the direction of monetary policy going forward. i would expect more focus on inflation, less focus on the unemployment rate given the speed at which it's come down. frankly, the fed is going to wait and see. they're going to play it by ear. >> again, we're moving that threshold to 6.5%. that would indicate that rates could stay lower for longer. again, it wouldn't make sense to say, well, rates are going to be heading higher six months after we stop the tapering process. exactly. and i think another important things to keep in mind is monetary policy rates lag. when you look at the fed's forecast and you see us reaching about 2% inflation and full employment by 2016, and then you look at their interest rate forecast, they're down at 2% versus where they want to be, which is 4%. to me, what all that means is that the fed is willing to undershoot on unemployment and overshoot on inflation. they're willing to take a little bit more risk in terms of upward

pressure on prices if it helps the recovery going forward. >> so i guess we're looking at it thinking, well, was this an outright change in their guidance? i guess we have to take it at face value, what was said and what was presented to us. >> yes. i think this is quite similar to what happened with the bank of england back in february. i think these central banks were trying to telegraph where interest rates were headed and frankly the economy was moving a little bit faster than anybody anticipated. now they've been to transition again to this more qualitative guidance which frankly gives them a little bit more wiggle room in terms of going for it and determining exactly what the economy needed at any given point in time. >> this is a first for you and i together on set. >> yes. >> so i'm very glad that you're with us and enjoying your company already. get involved and get your e-mail questions. worldwide@cnbc.com. find us on twitter, of course. and i'm happy to pose your questions to david directly in

the studio or any of any other guests, as well. a possible lead has emerged in the search for the missing malaysian airlines. australia is saying their satellite has picked up images off the country's west coast that could be linked to flight mh-370. matt taylor is in sydney. matt, give us the latest on this. >> well, the latest is aircraft have been redirected as to this possible sighting of debris from malaysia airlines flight 370. it's just south of the corridor that australian authorities were searching for. because, remember, australia did take over the search and rescue operation in the indian ocean at the request of the malaysians a little bit earlier this week. that plane could have been in either two corridors, one that th towards nd stretched over kazakhstan. the other was this lower arc off

the west coast of australia and in the indian ocean. they say they have found two objects, they are indistinct but they are credible sightings and warranted moving planes to that object in the country. one is quite large, it's 24 meters in length. we have had some satellite ims released by australian authorities this evening showing you those images. the other one is about five meters long and they're apparently awash in the indian ocean. its location is very far off the australian coast, some 2,500 kilometers and it is acceptable by aircraft four hours flying time. take a listen to some of what the australian prime minister tony abbott had to say as he announced there could be a potential break through a little earlier today in parliament. >> i would like to inform the house that new and credible information has come to light in the search for malaysian

airlines flight 370 in the southern indian ocean. the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified. i can inform the house that a australian air force orien has been diverted to attempt to locate the objects. >> the australian prime minister, tony abbott, speaking a little bit earlier on the four aircraft that has been redeployed or redirected to that area would now be in the search zone. so, louisa, we'll wait and see if there are any sightings of these objects and any confirmation as to whether or not it is debris. >> matthew, thank you very much for that. now, on a programming note, coming up, problem solved.

hp is now saying that it's figured out the -- blocks on the road to 3d printing. it says expect a big announcement this summer. details on that coming up next. you're watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s.,

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welcome back. you're watching "worldwide exchange." these are headlines this morning. janet yellen suggests earlier than expected rate rises in the u.s. germ yanl chancellor angela merkel threatens stronger sanctions for russia if the situation worsens. and debris in the indian osha could belong to the missing malaysian 370 plane. hi, everybody. welcome back. let's give you a look at what's on today's agenda. in the u.s., we have a busy agenda. weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 eastern time, forecast to rise by 5,000 to a total of 370,000. then at 10:00 a.m., we get february existing home sales expected to hold steady at an annual rate just above 4.6

million and attend, look out for the march philly fed survey and the february leading indicators. conagri foods and homeowner lennar are out before the opening bell. nike is out after the close. german chancellor angela merkel says economic sanctions could be brought against russia and eu leaders will agree on further sanctions at today's summit. this after the u.s. president barack obama says there would be no military involvement in ukraine. russia's deputy foreign minister warned it could impose tit for tat sanctions on u.s. officials. meanwhile, pro russian forces have been advancing again in crimea taking an additional two ukrainian bases. julia chatterley is in brussels where the ukraine situation is set to dominate the agenda for today's meeting of the eu leaders. as mentioned, nbc's jim maceda is with us out of moscow. julia, let's head to you first with the eu minister's meeting

and at the same time you have russia moving ahead to further absorb crimea. what can the eu leaders actually do? >> well, louise, i think it's interesting the comments of lang la merkel suggesting they're going to show they're ready to step up the sanctions should the situation worsen. as it stands right now, it looks like they're going to give up the situation with crimea and stick with the sanctions that they have. yes, they could add more people to the list of 21 names right now for travel visa bans and asset freezes. but all that is going from russia's research ridicule them and they're trying to name the people closer to putin. perhaps that will have more effect. right now, it seems there's very little conviction here to step up those sanctions unless the situation worsens right now. on an association agreement as far as the situation is concerned. but little else out, louisa.

back to you. >> julia, thank you very much. jim, let's get your perspective on what's taking place from moscow. >> hi, louisa. we're seeing history being made at warp speed from this perspective. an annexation that should have taken weeks, even months, took only a few days. by tomorrow, crimea will officially legal by being russian. the fact that it already is has thousands of humiliated ukrainian sailors and soldiers finally gave up their bases at the headquarters to the russian forces, the new owners. the government in kiev fearing a military confrontation between so many ukrainian and russian service men on the same base gave the order to pull back, as painful as that military surrender, really is what it is, for ukraine. it should certainly help de-escalate the conflict. washington, obviously, watching all of this unfold, frustrated,

as well. president obama repeating yesterday that the u.s. and its allies will not get involved in a war with russia, not that anyone ever thought that was an option. so instead, the u.s. is focusing on expanding its list of individuals targeted for asset bans and freezes, very much like the eu, and to include russian oligarchs and cronies, the people in putin's inner circles that grew up with him who are all very rich, but are completely loyal to putin. back to you. >> jim, thank you very much. we'll see you again, jim maceda, live out of moscow. david levowitz is still with us here in the studios. given that you are a global market strategist, david, the ukraine situation, did that change the way of your positioning, of your way of thinking about europe? and will it continue to influence you now if it has at

all inspect. >> i think when you think about what's going on in the ukraine from an investment standpoint, it was certainly a shock that wasn't needed to emerging markets after what cm has gone through over the past six to nine months, it's been a bumpy ride. this is one of those shocks that nobody saw coming that affected the market. but when you think about emerging markets, these shocks are always the things that catch you off guard. so from an investment standpoint, i think the surge to remind us that not all emerging markets are created equal and it's important to pick and choose whether investing over whether whether it's investing in debt. >> how about getting into russia? >> it's very cheap. but when you look at the competition, it's over 50% in equity and commodities. for investors who want to say you buy the index, you're buying commodity and energy exposure. you need somebody on the ground

picking and choosing companies, not just going all in to the index. >> we'll talk more about this and get some more picks on from one of our futures guests here, as well. for more to come from david, keep your e-mail coming coming through. still to come, forget credit crunches and poor economic data. could smog be the most worrying factor for foreign business looking at china? find out if that's the case in a moment. we'll leave you with a view of the heat map to see how the european markets are trading at the moment. the moment. in the new new york, we don't back down. we only know one direction: up so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan.

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don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who? seriously, you met her like three times. who? geico. hi, everyone. good morning, good morning, good morning. welcome back. this is when we're looking at with fair value on the implied open in the u.s. markets this afternoon. yesterday, we saul markets selling off after the yellen comments indicating that the fed could be hiking rates sooner than anticipated. whether or not we're overanalyzing that or misinterpreting, this is what the markets are doing in terms of values today. goldman sachs has slashed its growth outlook for china citing

disappointing trade. it now expects 7.3% growth this year. david is still with me, david levowitz from jpmorgan asset management. the china downgrades, kind of across the board now. we're looking at chinese growth somewhere in the region of 7.5%. are you worried about that or is that factored in at the moment? >> i think everybody agrees growth in china is going to slow down. the question i ask myself is really about the composition of that growth. when we think back ten, five years ago when china was growing quickly precrisis, it was driven by investment. now they're transitioning from an investment driven economy to a consumption driven economy, that's a sign they're becoming more developed and similar to places like the u.s., europe, the uk, developed countries tend to grow slower than emerging markets. >> the emerging marke ining mare there certain companies that

stand out as being good value? >> in aggregate, emerging markets are good value. but the situation in ukraine and what's happened over the past few months should remind us that it's not about specific companies or specific sectors. it's about specific companies. as emerging markets have become more volatile, we've realized that the fundamental dose, in fact, matter. so the question is, can i find a company with, for example, exposure to the rising consumer, to the trend that people are moving in the cities, consuming more things like meat? can i find a company that has exposure to that or can i find a technology company which is driving growth? >> david, we'll chat a bit more in a couple of moments. but smoke gets in your eyes or at least it appears to be getting in the eyes of executives who are offered jobs in china. take a look at this. according to the american chamber of commerce, the country's smolg is making it harder to convince the country's top employees to take roles in -- that looks terrible. for 48% of the businesses

surveyed, they said the pollution and air quality was making recruitment harder. still to come here on the show, the battle of video game consoles heating up. that's as sony unveils a virtual reality headset. stay tuned for more on that. and more conversation here on cnbc's "worldwide exchange."

hi, everyone. welcome back. i'm louisa bojesen. european stocks following asia why and wall street lower as fed chair janet yellen rattles markets with a hint that a rate hike could be coming sooner than anticipated. german chancellor angela merkel threatening russia with economic sanctions, saying eu leaders will agree tougher measures as they meet in brussels. australia releasing images now of evidence thought to be the first crediblecation of flight 370. investors are cheering the ceo step down from mulberry just two months after a major profit warning. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. hi, everybody. thank you for tuning in.

if you're just joining the show, as you can see, the press conference in kuala lumpur on the latest with regards to the missing malaysian airlines mh-370 is just about to start. we've been getting details on the daily basis on what has been taking place. australian authorities have said now that they have identified satellite images of what could be debris from the missing plain in the indian ocean. we'll cross out live to that briefing as soon as it officially fwins, which is now. so let's just lisp in. >> two possible objects were located in the search for mh-370 have been identified in the indian ocean. the australian authorities and kuala lumpur are -- on the situation and the australian foreign minister has spoken to

the former minister of malaysia. the -- continues coordinating the search of the missing airline aircraft within australia's search and rescue area. with assistance from australian defense force, the new zealand air force and the u.s. navy. rescue coordination center are cc. australia has satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for 370. australia received an expert assessment of commercial satellite imagery today. the images were captured by satellite. they may not be related to the aircraft. the assessment of these images was provided by australian intelligence organization as a possible indication of deadly southwest -- as a result of this information, four aircraft have

been re-oriented to an area 2,500 kilometers southwest. the hawaiian aircraft arrived in the area at about 10:50 a.m. another three aircraft have been passed to the area, including rass orien. the new zealand air force orien and a u.s. navy p8 poseidon. the poseidon was expected to arrive early this afternoon. orien was expected to depart -- this afternoon. the new zealand orien will gear to the part this afternoon. an raffc-130 has been tasked to drop a -- to assist in drift modeling. they will provide an ongoing resting point if the new objects

becomes -- they responded to a shipping boat issue on monday. it's also expected to arrive in the area this afternoon. the royal navy ship hms-success is en route to the area by sunday at 3:00. the ship will quickly recover any objects located and proven to be from nh-370. but the effort has been made to -- in the satellite imagery, it must be stressed that these sightings, while credible, are still to be confirmed. the search for mh-370 is a multi national effort. i will now give you an update on the assetses each that have been deployed. the chief of the defense force has spoken with his counterparts, countries including australia, china, indonesia, japan, new zealand,

singapore, and the usa. all were very supportive and all offered their assistance. as the focus of the search has moved from the south china sea and to the northern and southern corridors, international efforts have continued to provide whatever support they can. a number of assets have been discovered at different paces in the rescue operation and currently there are 18 ships, 29 aircraft and sixship-born helicopters across the northern and southern corridors as follows. in the lower quadrant, four akraift, two from malaysia, one from japan and one from the u.s. in the southern corridor, there are 55 aircraft, two from malaysia, five from australia, three from china, four from indonesia, two from india, four from japan, two from south korea, one from the uae and one

from the usa. all 18 ships are in the southern corridor, six from malaysia, one from australia, five from china and six from indonesia. six helicopters, three from malaysia and three from china. search and rescue operations will continue in both corridors. i can confirm that two aircraft are headed to kazakhstan and the u.s. navy is sending one ship to the southern corridor. a number of countries in the northern corridor are carrying out search and rescue operations. china is using everybody possible, including 21 satellites to search the area in its boarders and is ready to send more aircraft wherever it is needed. in cambodia, operations are being carried out.

the laos operations are carrying out search efforts in laos. the thai authorities are conducting searches in thailand in all territory using an unspecified number of aircraft. together, this represents a significant international deployment and i can thankful for the cooperation of our -- to continue to focus on finding mh-370. timely, the high level team i announced yesterday is leaving for beijing this evening. i would like to confirm that representatives -- to the families who were present here yesterday. in addition, the chinese ambassador to malaysia will leave today for the chinese

families who are here in kuala lump lumpur. also in attendance will be the department of civil aviation, the armed forces, the military of foreign affairs and -- ladies and gentlemen, for the families around the world, the one piece of information that you want most, that they want most, is the information we just don't have, the location of mh-370. our primary goal is to find the aircraft and with every passing day our efforts from intensified. we now have a credible lead that remains much work to be done to deploy these assets and this will continue overnight. thank you.

[ inaudible question ]. >> all right. the malaysian authorities just giving this live press conference on the latest on the missing of malaysian airlines flight. that is out of kuala lumpur. back to business now and how the markets are faring ahead of the u.s. open. these are the fair value indications of a projected open on the on u.s. markets. we're looking at a slight negative call for the early morning indications at least. we've got a couple of hours to go before the u.s. markets come under tap and just following that up with a glance, european markets, trading in positive territory is the ftse mib. the ftse 100, cac and xetra dax are continuing a little lower. the ftse up 6526 at the moment.

our european markets were closed yesterday when those yellen comments came through. we're seeing a bit of that reaction coming through in this morning's trade. janet yellen stated that the fed would likely end its bond buying program this fall and it could start raising taxes as soon as next spring. those comments in our first news conference as fed chair rattled markets signaling a more aggressive push towards higher rates than anticipated. the fed wrapped up its meeting by tapering monthly bond push chass by another $10 billion. and it dropped the unemployment threshold used to help the public determine when they would finally raise rates. it would still wait a considerable amount of time after ending quantitative easing before the first rate hike. yellen hesitated when asked exactly what that meant. >> which we use in this statement is considerable period, so i -- either this is the -- it's hard to define, but,

you know, probably means six months to that type of thing. but, you know, it depends what the statement is saying. it depends what conditions are like. >> now, to get an extra view on why investors received comments, head to cnbc.com where the former pimco ceo mohamed el-erian has written a guest blog. coming up, don't get stressed out. everything is fine. yes, the fed releases these results of their latest stress tests later on today. will any bank get us feeling great? details of what goes into the fed's report card, straight ahead. keep your tweets coming through. ? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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that's not much, you think except it's 2 percent every year. go to e*trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert. it's low. it's guidance on your terms not ours. e*trade. less for us, more for you. hi, everyone. yes, you are, indeed. these are your headlines today, markets slipping as janet yellen hints at earlier than expected rate rises in the u.s. german chancellor angela merkel threatens russia with tougher than expected economic sanctions if the situation worsens and ships rates to an area off the australian coast for a possible debris of a missing air malaysia plane has been cited. . now, jpmorgan, citi,

goldman, other big u.s. banks will find out today if the fed thinks they can with stand the next financial crisis when they release the results of their latest stress tests. hampton pearson joins us more from washington with more. what are we going to learn? >> good day, louisa. the fed will publish results of those stress tests. this afternoon, most likely after the closing bell on wall street. here is the way it works. a group of 30 banks are taking part in this year's test, up from 18 last year. they've become increasingly important tool for regulators to ensure that the banks aren't eating too much into their capital cushions, examining how they would weather a major potential market shock. now, the tests determine how much captain banks can return to investors through dividends and share buybacks and whether they can ramp up their profit targets if the fed fientsdz any of the 30 banks are at risk, they'll have a few days to change their capital plans. analysts expect more banks to pass, but last year american

express had to lower its capital distribution plans. the first chunk is designed to show bank's relative strength if each bank made the same competitive move. last year, only allied financial failed to meet that minimum 5% capital buffer in the first rounds of those tests. now, there is a new requirement this year underwhich the eight largest banks must consider what would happen to their business fess their largest trading counterparties were to default. the fed wou make its own projections for a bank's balance sheet this year. if they disagree, firms may release results internal stress tests. the bigger news may come next week with when the fed will decide whether to approve or reject each of those banks' capital plans. so very, very important to the banks and the markets

themselves. back to you. >> thank you very much, hampton pearson joining us live out of washington. essentially what we're seeing, the ukrainian ambassador to the u.n. is stating that there are indications that russia is preparing military intervention in the east and in the southern parts of ukraine. this is coming through on our wires now. we continue to watch the ukraine story closely and we'll keep you up to date on that. other stories we're watching today, the ceo of the luxury fashion intrup mulberry has stepped down. this comes after investors are shocked by its latest profit warning. he'd been in the position for just over two years during which he liked prices considerably at the firm. current chairman david will be taking on the position. he'll be the executive chairman unless a replacement is found. higher by 1.25%.

spring officially begins today and it's typically the biggest time of year for home improvement chains. walmart is making an aggressive play for outdoor gardening business for the first time this year, offering black friday like prices on more than 60 items, including barbecue grills, patio furniture, things like that. the sale is on for a week and it starts tomorrow. hp's ceo meg whitman is saying the company will be outlining plans that enter the commercial 3d printing market in june. speaking at hp's annual meeting they say they've solved a broader manufacturing process including the speed at which things print. and the battle of the console sess heating things up after the company unveiled a new headset designed for its play station4. >> sony now wants to make your

experience more life-like. sony has entered the world of virtual raemt at the game developer's conference in san francisco. here is how it works. you own the play station 4, you slip on the headset and you feel like you just stepped inside a video game as if you are in that shoot-out or high speed car chase. when i tried it out, as advertised, it felt like i was in a totally sub-americansive 320 degree virtual world. this is just a prototype. the final sergz is not out. sony now needs developers to test the technology. there's oggulate, which has attracted about $90 million in funding. its virtual reality headset offers that same experience. there's the grip, which could be used for virtual technology. the company raised $1.5 million in just 30 days and there's

reports that microsoft is developing its first virtual reality technology that could work with its xbox 1 console. if this market picks up, microsoft will be all over this technology. now, the video game industry is a $100 billion. but even if virtual reality technology took just a small slice, this could be a very compelling business. josh lipton, cnbc, san francisco, california. now, starbucks is getting an extra shot of star power. it's adding a celebrity blend to its cushion in the tea business now when it debuts the oprah chai. could it possibly have been done any differently? the oprah chai, a drink created by oprah winfrey. she and the ceo clinked cups on stage. the new brew goes on sale april 29th on starbucks and teavana stores in the u.s. and canada. apparently it's a bland of tea

infused with cinnamon, ginger, cardamon and cloves. so kind of like liquid cake, huh? coffee generated more than $75 billion. my producer said she had a chai tea this morning and it was delicious. something new for you to try. but it is kind of like liquid cake, isn't it? coming up, is the u.s. weather giving the winter housing market a chill? we'll preview the housing data more to come here on "worldwide exchange." exchange." ♪ ♪

hi, everyone. welcome back. a glance at our u.s. futures will tell us that our u.s. markets are due to open slightly

negative here this afternoon. when they open our time, it's just a couple of hours away. let's give you a look at what's on today's u.s. agenda. weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 eastern, forecast to rise by a total of 330,000. at 10:00 a.m., we get february existing home sales, expected to be steady at just above 4.6 million. the ceo of the carnegie group joins us now. what are you anticipating out of the data, first and foremost? >> well, certainly we're going to see an impact of seasonal weather. but the other pattern we're seeing is a decrease in sales in an area known for distress inventory, which indicates a potential withdraw of investors from the market. what we're not seeing, though, is a significant increase in first time buyers, which is something we really want to see. for the market to finally overcome that, and truly stabilize, we've got to have

real owners of investors buying to rent them out. this is similar to what we've seen in new construction numbers earlier this week with an increase in construction, but a decrease in the permits for single family construction. so what's increasing is that multi-family apartment building style, again, renters, which is actually at a 40-year high. again, ultimately what we're looking for is owners occupying these homes and not investors. >> yeah, i did note that this point that the new rental unit construction is at a 40-year high, as you pointed out. does that mean that there's a shift in the market taking place? >> well, we're seeing more .more people elect to rent in this country, which is an issue. most of financial safety net comes from home equities. so we're really looking for that first savings that home ownership offers to people. >> yeah. >> part of the problem with that is tight financing. but also, we've had an issue with inventives.

just earlier this week -- >> we've got to go. thank you so much. so sorry. we'll see you soon again. that's it for viewers in the u.s. and asia. be back in a moment.

good morning. australian satellites finding debris that could be from missing malaysian airlines 370. also, fed chair janet yellen rattling the markets with some comments about the future of interest rates. we're going to talk about it this morning. and ukraine troops pulling now out of crimea. it's thursday, march 20th, 2014. the first day of spring. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box" here on

cnbc. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin and brian sullivan. joe is off this morning. our top story today, australia is now sending aircraft to an area of the southern indian ocean after satellites discovered two objects that could be part of a possible debris field of missing malaysian airlines flight 370. matt taylor joins us right now from sydney. matt. >> becky, thanks very much. the latest information that we're getting out of australia, authorities here on the east coast of australia is that one royal australian air force jet has been unable to locate any debris associated with these two satellite images that were released a little earlier on today by the australian government and australian officials. they say that two satellite images showing two objects which may or may not be pieces of da prefrom that missing malaysian airlines flight