a warm welcome to worldwide exchange. i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm seema mody. here are your headlines from around the world. >> unconfirmed reports say ukrainian troops are pulling out of the strategic town after they were called on to surrender. >> they will ask for a bailout extension but call it a loan. meanwhile they're to continue to tap emergency funding. >> sony steps up it's game. they'll focus on the entertainment business to drive

up profits and promised to resume dividend payments this year. >> carl sberg cuts cost in russia. shares are trading lower in denmark. >> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> and in the last hour a number of media reports suggest ukrainian troops are pulling out of a town in the east of the country. this after an assault by pro-russian separatists that refuse the peace agreement. this was echoed by the leader of the self-proclaimed dontesk's people republic. >> personally guarentee life to every army soldier, lay down

arms step out from your positions. sur remembereder and you will live. no one will touch you. >> let's have a look in on the russian markets this morning. first up the micex index is up 1%. it has been volatile. not reacting immediately to the news. this is a look at the rouble which is basically flat on the day. 62.45 in and around where it's been. joining us now is richard kelly, head of global strategies. since the ceasefire agreement was announced we had skepticism and continued fighting. we may have troops surrendering in the key area where fight as good continued. but if we take a step back since the most important development that we have putin and poroshenko in a room together and agreeing on something. >> it's at least a start. we're not going to stop on a dime and they even negotiated that the ceasefire would stop later. they're still trying to

deescalate the situation. the problem is what is the next step. >> but do you think we can trust vladimir putin to abide by the ceasefire agreement struck last week? >> i think at least for now it's in everyone's best interest to try and abide by that. but it's all still about games manship. >> is it enough to get bullish on russian equities at this point? >> no. if you have a lasting ceasefire that starts to take sanctions off the board. there's a tremendous amount of upside in russian assets. but you cannot trust that. >> how many impressive was the gdp last week given it's been heavily effected by lack of trade with russia? >> as a number it was a nice number. the issue is you look through a lot of the fundamentals and the driving factors in there it was

flattered by some things. >> the other question is when will western sanctions will lifted? but the other part of the story is the declining oil prices. we have seen a rebound by about 25% but have we found a bottom and if so how much of a positive impact will have that on russia's economy. >> we don't think we have found the bottom. you're still likely to see oil prices lower. something in the 30 to $40 range is more likely to be supported and the biggest thing to scratch your head is why we're not seeing consumer spending around the world. >> you would think consumer prices would be moving -- consumers will be spending more given oil prices seen as a gift for them. >> it usually takes about six months to see that peak impact from the collapse in oil prices to where it comes through. we haven't seen it yet. >> let's hit the pause button for a second but richard kelly

please stay with us. >> let's have a look at markets, seema. we're in the green today. we did finish yesterday basically flat on the stoxx 600 despite on going issues rounding the potential compromise of the situation. we bounce back. we're up .6%. we have strengthened throughout the first hour of today's trade. yesterday the ftse 100 was quite strong and the dax was quite weak but all are up. dax is up .6. france is up a nice amount. up .9 while russia is up 1.2%. the news we've just been discussing that ukrainian troops may well be surrendering in that crucial town. you may see the bulk of the fighting that's continued since the ceasefire agreement. the treasury .12% ticked up over

the last week or so. that's showing a bit of a risk on sentiment that pushed equity markets up and seeing a little bit of profit taking in the bond market. yields ticking up. the same of course can't be said in europe where we have seen yields remain low. they're not quite as low to be fair as yesterday and the day before. .37%. in the u.k. we see them tick up a little bit. 1.78% and of course yields on the greek ten year 10.1% as we look at things. they have been moving around. 9.5 to 10.5 on the ten year. that's an indication that we're in the middle of the range at the moment. let's look at the euro which had a soft day on monday. bounced back yesterday. it's basically flat today. 114. aussie dollar is look closed at

the moment. and sterling which has had a little bit of a stelth rally of course since late squan when it hit it's bottom following a long decline against the u.s. dollar and it's flat today. a quick look at commodities. we'll have a look at the oil price. what is that doing? it started in the last few weeks. wti finding a bottom today. and brent finding a bottom about 61.8. both are off about a percent today. have is standing by in asia. over to you. >> thank you for that session out here. helped by the mild bounce you're referring to in wall street overnight. and optimism in these markets that we should see a speedy resolution to the greek debt talks and one of the highlights of the nikkei 225, fresh 8 year closing high there for japanese equities and the market didn't

really react to the bank of japan this week. on hold as expected. there is talk in the market that we could see it as early as april because the risks seem to be skewed to the side. elsewhere i want to talk about one of the big stories today and that involved the holdings the stock was up by well over 40%. it's the subject of the take over by japan post. 5.1 billion u.s. dollar proposed deal. it has to go through the regulatory ringer but that story really boyd australian equities and dollar as well. but overall it will start dropping off over the course of the next week or so. they're on holiday and will be closed for about a week. markets in china will reopen february 25th. so volumes are going to be on

the thin side in this region for the next week or so. back to you, now. >> have, thank you so much. now let's get everyone up to speed on what's happening with greece because greece is set to ask for a loan extension. that according to a government spokesperson. the spokesperson made comments when speaking to greek television. this as cnbc confirmed reports that the ecb will continue to allow greek banks to tap emergency funds via the ela. they're due to announce the decision later today. two potentially significant developments when it comes to greece. julia is following this story closely to brussels. what do you think the six month extension will achieve? can leaders find a common ground or will they fail to see eye to eye? >> that's the ultimate question seema, because obviously what we're looking at now it seems is a proposal coming from the greeks that fits what was rejected in monday's euro group so the question is have we

managed to reach a compromise? what the suggestion from the government source is they're not going to compromise on the red lines. they didn't want to follow any of the conditionality attached to the old program. that's what they were fighting for on monday. particularly on the german side are they going to give ground here and concede. what he said out of the meeting yesterday was as far as they were concerned the greeks weren't giving the euro zone finance ministers any indication that they're willing to fulfill their promises. so it's also being complicated by the comments back in athens yesterday. he was talking about tabling bills this week to try to help the people in trouble with their debt repayments to pay them over a longer time period. we know they didn't want to do that. he's also talking about tabling collective wage bargaining. even if we look at the softer program on monday this is going against some of the terms they agreed to in that also.

so right now as far as i'm concerned even if we get some kind of proposal from the greeks today i'm going to wait and see if the euro zone finance ministers call the euro group this week because only then will we know there's something in this plan worth discussing. that's what we wait and see, whether we get that for now. back to you. >> markets are responding positively. we're looking at the athens ase up about 2%. bond yields coming off the highs of the day. richard kelly still with us. so is this enough to keep markets, i guess, on the sidelines and not concerned as much when it comes to greece's situation? >> you need to see that friday meeting schedule. that's the only hurdle for markets today is does this greek request go far enough to get that friday meeting scheduled? if that's enough we move to the friday deadline and if not the markets get much more disappointed. the greeks are trying to request the money without the conditionality and that's not acceptable. and whether you get no program

or not, if there's no funding going along with it it doesn't matter. >> is it right that greece's creditors are playing hard ball given there seems to be so little fear of contagion or is there more of a moral argument that they need to be looking at the humanitarian crisis that we hear. is there a moral argument that should be hooking at it more closely? >> both sides are in the right to some degree here and the program is not appropriate and is not in the best interest of greece. we want to renegotiate something. some of the positions can go to some of those entrenched special interests that have been untouchable up until now. they do not have time because they will run out of cash whether the governments or the greek banks at some point in march. even if i think we can get to the right thing in six months how much leeway do i want to give over the next six weeks.

>> more and more investors are recognizing if greece does leave the euro zone it wouldn't be the end of the world. that could be seen if you're looking at u.s. market which is are trading in high territory, do you agree? >> initially and in terms of the immediate aftermath now is night and day in term of the impact. the issue for me is if greece leaves the euro zone i don't think they will survive. i think overtime once you have opened pandora's box and showed it's possible to leave it creates that for someone else and the marks will come at that in the future. >> are you slightly surprised this discussion is happening between him and the finance minister and political leaders? because this is a political debate and not a financial one, isn't it? >> i think it was basically a collective of the far left party so it wasn't cohesive party and one cohesive strategy. there's some segments that think it would be acceptable to leave

the euro zone so they're still seeing a battle for the heart and soul of where their red lines are because there's different red lines depending on who you talk to. >> richard kelly head of global strategy at td securities. >> coming up here on worldwide exchange, where should you be putting your money? goldman sachs chief equity strategist tells us why he think europe will out perform the u.s. significantly. >> how about advice from warren buffet? which stocks he has been buying and dumping. and as china prepares to celebrate it's lunar new year we reveal the superstitions around the year of the sheep.

let's look at today's biggest individual movers. carlsberg up after falling profits. there were changes, the ceo announced his retirement

effective from june. down 2%. they're up 6% after fourth quarter net profit beat expectations. due to lower costs and reduction in bad loan provisions. the company's new ceo will be named by the end of next week. accor is up after a fall in net profit. this thanks to the cost cutting and restructuring plan. let's get more on that story from stefen in paris. there you are. >> good morning, wilfred. well the operating profit beat a record level last year driven by the recovering demand in europe. but the cost reduction measures also had a positive impact on the balance sheet. gross operating profit grew by almost 12% and the net profit that you mentioned was up 77% last year. in terms of outlook, it wants to accelerate it's transformation this year after missing almost 1

billion euros last year in it's property portfolio and some partnerships. they declined to give a specific financial target for this year. they remain cautious because of the weak economic growth in france but also concern about the potential impact of the terrorist attacks. >> we operate in 94 countries so we have the benefit of being well diversified. we're going to have up and downs depending on regions and countries. we're looking forward to another goodyear for 2015. >> accor shares are up 2.3% on the french market right now. the company will pay a dividend of 90 cents per share. that's a 19% increase from a year ago. over to you. >> thank you very much. >> another big story we're watching is sony. it has announced plans to spin

off it's video and sound bisby october -- business by october. they'll focus on games and entertainment. let's learn more about the story. we're joined with more from tokyo. >> thanks seema. well this is the first time in a long time that sony has come out with an offensive strategy rather than a defensive one. certainly the first time that the ceo has been able to talk about profitability. you're looking at sony that's gone through a lot of restructuring but it's still set to post it's 6th straight loss in years. in three years time its going to be posting an operating profit of 500 billion yen, it's going to raise a little bit of eyebrows because that's 25 times larger than what the company is

forecasting this year the roe target of 10% is ambitious when you consider this year it's minus 7.4% but it's fairly clear. the company is focussing on key areas like image sensors. they're the sensors that are equipped in all mobile phones. they corner that market with the apple iphone and playstation networks so these are two areas where they will continue to invest. the problem areas are the smartphone business and tv business. this section needs to regain profitability and analyze the question whether they could turn around that business without an outright sale. so when the ceo said today he's going to start spinning off some of the subsidiaries starting with the video and imaging business from october later on this year analysts are saying does that mean some of the other problematic units could be spun off as well including

smartphones? here's what the ceo had to say. >> i'm not ruling out the possibility for an exit strategy. we need to be dynamic and flexible and take those things into consideration. >> certainly analysts seem very positive and upbeat about the prospect of getting more autonomy and flexibility to some of their units. we're seeing the reaction in sony's share price when they came out with their numbers. the shares shot up to the best levels in nine years. they have risen about 80% over the last year. this new offensive strategy and headline figures for the next three years might be a little bit of a stretch right now. this willingness to even consider spin off of some of these unprofitable businesses might be interpreted fairly positively when the markets reopen tomorrow. >> thank you very much. now the fed will relief the minutes from last months meeting

this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. the central bank said it would be patient about hiking interest rates but economists will be looking to see if any officials wanted to drop that phrase. that could signal the fed is likely to cut the language out of the next meeting in march putting a rate hike back at the table. richard as well as the crucial word of patience in this meeting, what else are you looking for? is it focused on the international scene or domestic scene? >> there's three areas. the fact that they injected international. you want to see how much patience the international environment is giving them. whether it's the low oil prices or lack of growth. and the other issue is they upgraded the domestic activity figures in terms of how they're viewing that and downgraded their view on inflation and are trying to get this balance of how much are we focussing more on the upside with growth and down side on inflation and

international factors going in. at the end of the day they bent over backwards with a language in january trying to start to get these things in. you came into the next meeting and they finally dropped them in there. i don't think they're going to want to give any. >> just taking a look at what some of the various fed presidents have been saying over the past month, they're all endorsing the idea of a mid year rate hike but can this market endure a rate hike? >> at some point this year it can. we're not done trying to price in the middle of the year for the markets. there is still better data coming through. at the end of the day with how soft inflation is and how long i think it's going to take the global environment to improve that a rate hike in the fall is much more likely than a rate hike in the middle of the year. >> they had the dual mandate and we're seeing an inflation in the jobs growth. it's still below 2%. interesting to see if they plan to raise rates despite not reaching the 2% level which seems like it will take some

time. >> the optics for me is you waited so long to get to something where you can say this is the exit. we're declaring victory on recession from 2007 to 2008. >> head of global strategies at td securities thank you for your time. >> the snp&p closing at another record high. it's now just over 100 points away from 5,000. we want to hear from you on this, are we in a tech bubble? we have been getting your tweets in. allen says yes but we will challenge the dot com levels on stocks first. he says greek leaving the euro could cause the tech bubble to burst. >> i wonder the differences between start ups and valuations different from the big tech companies which have also done well and very different valuations. so do get in touch with us.

e-mail us at worldwide at cnbc.com or via twitter at cnbcwex and our personal handles on the screen. also here trouble on the high streak. we hear from the ceo of marks and spencer on the challenges facing u.k. retail. we'll be back in a couple of minutes.

you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> reports from russian news agencies say ukrainian troops are pulling out of the strategic town. >> the greek market rallies as the government confirms it will ask for a bailout extension but call it a loan. meanwhile the ecb is expected to continue to allow the country's banks to tap emergency funds. >> sony will step up it's game. it will focus on entertainment business to drive up profits and will use dividend payments this year. >> let's get stock specific.

carlsberg ceo says he will streamline business to cut costs in russia. they're trading lower in today's trade. >> and we're waiting some economic data here in the u.k. let's take a look at european markets. positive developments coming out of greece. bailout suspension in six months. we're looking at the ftse 100 up fractionally. keep in mind the german index did hit a record high in last week's trade. u.k. data is out, i believe. >> we had the mpc minutes. the vote for keeping rate where is they were was 9-0. that was as we expected of course. they had been the two voting against keeping rates at the same point and have been voting in line with the rest for the last couple of times. sterling is usually at 154 raising pretty sharply.

>> the unemployment rate falling to 5.7% which is in line with the expectation. this is the lowest level in more than six years when looking at britain's unemployment rate so an acceleration in job growth. markets should be happy about this. >> yeah, i think it's what we were expecting. jobless claims have probably come down by about 25,000 people but overall that unemployment figure has come down very rapidly actually. the question as always is about wage inflation and whether that is growing. you've actually got a prediction of wages growing by 4% over the next two years. they say there's risks both upwards and downwards in true bank of england style but i think the facts are that at the moment we have slightly seen an increase in wage inflation but probably nothing like that 4% level that we had before the crisis. >> and of course wage inflation

versions core inflation debate at the moment in the u.k. we're on the right side of that. >> we are. yes we are. but still off by a considerable amount. i think what we have is a very benign environment for household incomes and the inflation report pointed to this with the bank of england last week. they were saying actually household incomes are going to reach levels they haven't seen in a decade. that is incredible if you think about it when we have been discussing on the political side the cost of living crisis. what the bank is saying is we won't have a consist of living crisis. in fact people will have more money than years and years and years and this is all because as you said inflation is at such low levels thanks to the falling oil price and other commodities. >> sterling strengthening off the back of it. .4%. 1542 at the moment. and do stick with us because we'll talk retail in just a second. after four months of searching

tess tesco found a new chairman. they'll join the market on the first of march but reaction to the pick hasn't been entirely positive. some analysts were hoping norman would take the top job as someone with more recent food retail experience. >> meanwhile, they have been speaking to the former chief executive of another u.k. retailer marks and spencer. what did he have to say during the interview? >> he was very interesting about both the prospects. they posted their profits, a very poor amount in comparison to their revenues but it's a long time coming but he was looking at against the big shake up that we're seeing evidence in the retail market. whether that's the difference between online and your bricks and mortar star whether that's did difference between those massive tesco big supermarket stores it's quite interesting about it.

also talks about the big interest in how the retailers have taken advantage of that. >> we're going through a generational change nobody had seen. it's amazing what's going on. you have this amazing seismic change which is the push and pull between small in town stores. you have the push and pull between clicks and bricks. you have the push and pull between having too much capacity out there in the market and not enough demand. then you have the interlopers. if i can do my add vert this morning for people coming in because behavioral change is also a significant part of what's going on. nobody predicted it. nobody can understand what's going on. i don't think we yet know how it's going to end. but there will be winners and losers obviously. >> he also talked about politics a bit. he has obviously done that very famous nhs report that the speculation that the government is suppressing ahead of the he election because it might have bad news but he was really challenging the government --

well he was challenging, i guess what we're going to have saying this is going to be the most important election in 40 years. >> indeed he skillfully dodged your specific well placed questions in the nhs. thank you very much for joining us. now. >> of course following the developments out of russia and ukraine, we're just learning that the deputy head of ukrainian regional police say that fighting continues between government troops and separatists separatists. so we're still seeing fighting taking place between the two sides. we'll keep you up to date and in response markets have been moving right now. we're looking at the russian rouble moving ever so strongly but by a fractional amount. a number of russian media reports suggest ukrainian troops are pulling out of the town in the east of the country this after a continued assault by

pro-russian separatists that refused to acknowledge the peace agreement. russian president vladimir putin advised kiev to let troops surrender the strategic town in order to safe their lives. >> greece is set to ask for a extension according to a government spokesperson. cnbc confirmed reports that the ecb will allow them to tap emergency funds. the central bank is due to announce it's decision later today to discuss russia and greece and other factors and their impact on european markets. joining us is the co-founder and chief economist. good morning. thank you very much for joining us. let's kick off with the greek story. he is a game theory expert. is he playing games at the moment? >> i think he is. but i don't think he's playing them very skillfully. i think that he gave in too

early on the big question which is whether greece wanted a hair cut reduction in the nominal value of the debt. that was really the strongest card which i think he should have kept over the last moment in this negotiation. on the other hand he is unaccounted and sticking firmly this morning to the strange concept that they don't want an extension beyond february 28th of their existing loan arrangement which as far as one can tell eu was willing to grant them more or less unconditionally. eu was not insisting they continue to follow the program. they wanted to extend this loan for a few months to give time for talks and he said i don't want the talks so he was essentially holding a gun to his own head and saying pay me a ransom for not pulling the trigger. >> what happens next?

the most likely outcome is much worse for greece than competitors. >> it's not worse for greece than the current situation but a agree with them that the present program was not working and it caused a catastrophic decline in the greek economy and whatever happens will be better than in the past. but the situation is not going to improve as much as it could have done. they won't be able to get as many concessions as they would otherwise have done because of this negotiating strategy of refusing the loan extension which is on offer and the other thing is saying we're not going to talk to them when actually they were in a sense, the friendliest, the people they really don't want to talk to are the german government and they created a situation where the

germans do almost have the power of veto over it. >> the germans continue to play hard ball with greece. do you think there's something that greece can learn from mario draghi as he was able to outmaneuver some of the germans when it came to the quantitative easing program? >> absolutely. my view a week or so ago when i wrote about this was exactly that. they should have followed what draghi did skillfully with the qe program. now on the qe program there was a big issue of principle which was the so-called risk sharing, whether the risk of a default by sovereign state would be shared among the governments or would be confined to the central bank of that particular country. draghi argued with the germans for several months over that and at the last moment he said okay there won't be any risk sharing. what he got in exchange was the largest qe program attempted by

any central bank. what the ecb is going to do starting in march is actually going to be relevant to the size of the european bond market. about twice as big as what the qe in the u.s. so by conceding at the last moment on this relevant point of principle he got an enormous win really on the key economic issue was the size of qe. >> and we have already seen some european fundamental indicators start to turn around as well. gdp particularly in germany last week was strong. so given that qe hasn't started yet is that a bullish outlook for european equities? >> the outlook is pretty bullish. if you take the combination of this huge qe program which is just going to start, the likelihood obviously not the certainty but the likelihood that there will be some settlement with greece at least deferring the problem for a few months and thirdly the story you just mentioned, the ceasefire in

ukraine which i think is holding. there's only one place where it isn't holding which is the town that you mentioned and even there it does now look as if the government troops are retreating and that situation is going to stabilize. it was always that little spot was always highlighted even by angela merkel as the key problem and result in establishing at least a temporary truce between the two sides and it was never going to be resolved really without the ukrainian troops with drawing which they now are. >> another big story in europe has been what some people are calling central bank activism. the swiss, the danes and the swedes imposed negative yielding rates. what do you think this tells us about the potential currency war brewing in europe? >> it tells us that the european economy is not just the euro zone economy but the european economies more generally are

still pretty weak. it is a bizare situation. i don't know how to analyze nor does anyone elsewhere we're moving into a world of negative interest rates. it's like a peril universe with a sort of negativity. how far can this go without causing much more serious market distortions remains to be scene but i think there's a descent chance now that with the qe beginning in the euro zone the negative rates we're seeing with switzerland, denmark and sweden which are still fairly modest levels are going to be the limit of this kind of bizarrely unconventional monetary policy and, you know with luck we will move toward a some what more stable monetary environment. >> some say there's a large risk that this will lead to some investors, institutions, hedge funds to pull their money out of these countries and put it in a

country where they're getting a descent interest rate. wouldn't that actually have a negative impact on the respective economies? >> that's partially what's driving or what has been driving the strength of the dollar because obviously the dollar you know with ten year treasuries yielding almost 2% that seems like a fantastically devalued proposition. so i think it is partly behind the strength of the dollar but in my view actually the relative strength of the dollar and the weakness of the euro is actually now a stabilizing effect on the world economy because the u.s. economy can tolerate a stronger dollar that would defer the fed tightening as your earlier guest said. and meanwhile, the euro zone is getting the benefit of a weaker ix change rate. perhaps the one exception is right here in the united kingdom

where as you said it has depreciated again despite widespread expectations and i must say i think the strength of sterling is a problem for britain. >> so you think sterling should be weaker than it is? political risk perhaps a factor? >> particularly because of the political situation. i think investors at least outside britain still haven't focused on the absolutely extraordinary uncertainty -- political uncertainty that is going to come into play after may 7th the elections here in britain. there's not going to be a strong government. there's not going to be a majority government. >> but a coalition worked quite well. >> certainly it has worked surprisingly well. i didn't predict it would last for five years and nor did anyone else and what we're moving into now almost certainly is not even a coalition but a coalition which will itself be a minority government. so even if there's a coalition of two parties it probably won't

be able to have a majority in parliament so there will be constant uncertainty about when the next budget whether the next budget can pass. when the next piece of major legislation can pass. for example if it's a coalition they will be very strongly committed on a referendum on leaving the eu but they may be unable to pass a referendum built through parliament which would call for another general election. there's a high probability there will be another general election within a year. >> thank you for joining us. we covered the globe. a pleasure as always. co-founder and chief economist. >> and still to come on the show tunnels in the fast lane. find out what our next guest thinks are the best auto stocks for 2015. stick with us.

the bank of japan decided to keep it's monetary easing measures unchanged saying the japanese economy continues to show signs of a gradual recovery. we have the story live from tokyo. >> the central bank finished it's two day policy meeting today and members agree that

japan's industry production bounced back from last year and that exports are on the rise thanks to recovering markets overseas as well as the weaker yen. the bank maintained it's view that the economy continues to recover at a moderate pace and the bank decided to carry on with it's massive easing program. one concern is consumer prices which is currently moving away from the bank's inflation target of 2%. the consumer price index rose a mere half a percentage point from the year before. the main cause was the plun fwrks e in oil prices and said negative effect had disappeared. he was comfortable it will be met during fiscal 2015. he also stressed the banks stood ready to take action should there be an unwanted change in price movements. they encouraged investors as it

surged ward the trading day hitting the highest in seven years and seven months. that's all from the nikkei. back to you. >> thank you. the latest flash out of ukraine is that the ukrainian president is scheduled to shortly make a statement. that's coming from a presidential spokesperson. when we see that starting we'll bring you the latest. >> we also want to point your attention to the move we're seeing in the sterling pound after that better than expected jobs report. unemployment falling to 5.7% which was in line with expectations. still holding ground saying 9-0 when it comes to raising rates and of course average hourly earnings growth is also a big point of interest here for investors and wage growth. another interesting point to be made. a meaningful rise in wage growth. >> higher than 2% for the first time in three years beating market expectations quite significantly. >> yes, absolutely. now let's get stock specific because the french auto maker

impressed investors with the latest set of results. the firm reported a narrow loss for 2014 after a big jump in chinese sales. cost cutting also helped to improve results. the auto maker has now hiked a key cash flow target on the back of the stronger results. so let's talk more about the trade in autos. we have analyst at barclays. before we talk about some of the german auto makers what's your thought on peugoet. >> i think the numbers did surprise to the upside in terms of cash. there was a surprising call from the new ceo. he is doing a lot of the right things to turn the business around and cut costs. i guess the worry from the markets point of view and our point of view looking forward is how much of those costs have been front end loaded and therefore how much have we already seen in 14 and how much can continue going forward? especially in terms of the cash that was generated in 14 was largely working capital driven.

a draw down of inventory. it seems that's a one time effect and cannot be repeated so the next level for the company is definitely to start generating profit on a more sustainable basis. they're not spending as much money as their competitors are on product and that's setting them up for the future to be struggling in terms of market share. so we still worry that the long-term effects could come back to haunt them if they don't start spending money now let's talk ability the exposure. you're not as concerned about the market is that right? >> we're concerned about he emergencying markets for companies that don't have much localization. for reno as a competitor in russia which has a much bigger market share they're at least 70% localized across the entire chain. they are about 30% localized in russia. they're a lot more exposed to

foreign exchange movements. any further deval you wags in the currency and that does give them room for worry going forward. the market is going to be tough in russia. the companies are predicting down 20 to down 30% but companies that are much more localized can react to that much faster. can raise prices when competitors are having to import and are struggling against the devaled currency. >> let's move on from the french awe toes and talk about the german manufactures. volkswagen the cheapest at the moment but not the top pick. >> no there have been a lot of consensus downgrades coming through for the last 18 months. we think we might be through the end of the town grades but we're struggling to see what the company can come out with to get investors more excited by the stock there's a lot of potential, particularly in terms

of cost health which is over and above volume growth but for now there's other german names we think offer a lot more upside potential. there's a very exciting product momentum still at mercedes. we do see that continuing to play out in the near term. bmw probably a little less exciting in terms of catalysts but expectations are low. consensus estimates are for zero earnings growth in 15. it's a year when fx is in their favor. they still have a lot of product coming and when we are seeing some recovery in european markets so i think flat earnings growth is underestimating a potential at that business. so we do see considerable upside in 2015. >> and i want to broaden up the discussion a little bit about hah we're seeing in the auto industry. the cross section between technology and autos. there's been errors about an apple icar. ford teaming up with a chinese

social media company, we chat is this the future? are we living in a time when consumers want to stay digitally connected while they're driving their car? >> absolutely. there's a lot ready for the con neck activity at least. and in terms of in car entertainment and information coming from the car for safety purposes with the next leg of that moving to fully autonomous driving. the technology is there but the infrastructure and regulations in terms of the insurance side of things there's a lot of things that need to come together. i think apple's announcement over the weekend and their intent to look at the electric vehicle market is not a near term goal. there's a lot they need to do. in the near term what they're trying to do is to make sure that they're not pushed out of

the in car connectivity entirely and that google mapping is becoming the one system. apple wants to be there. they have the brand presence to enable them to be there. it's a very exciting time. there's worries for the car industry about the changes but there are companies out there that are at the forefront of those changes and trying to be on the front foot as the consumer taste is certainly less towards the younger generation in particular less inclined to purchasing car. they just want the convenience of a car that can drive them from a to b. we're not there yet but there is a gradual shift happening. >> one trader calling it the potential apple car, the iphone of the future. so it will be interesting to see what takes place in the auto industry. especially with the entrance of some of the tech giants. we'll leave it there. thank you for your time. >> meanwhile, diamler reported the chief executive earned 14

million euros last year. shares up over 160% since he took the helm in 2006. it's up about 1% today. >> yeah. going forward we'll look at u.s. pu tours after what was a record setting day for the s&p 500. right now premarket trade suggesting a mixed open. s&p 500 down about 1 point. dow jones up fractionally and the nasdaq of course getting closer to breaking 5,000. will it do that and does that mean we're in a tech bubble? something we'll discuss over the next one hour. stick with us here on worldwide exchange. more coming up.

welcome everyone to the second hour of worldwide exchange. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> the nasdaq has the 5,000 level in view after hitting highs not seen since the year 2000 but futures indicate a flat open for other major indices. >> petro poroshenko is set to talk shortly after troops are pulling out of their strategic town. >> we go whale watching. warren buffet and other big name investors have been busy buying and selling oil and tech stocks. >> sony steps up it's game.

the electronics giant will focus on its entertainment business to drive up profit with the aim of resuming it's dividend this year. >> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> the resilience in the u.s. market cannot be ignored. the s&p 500 despite concerns around greece closing at a record high. the dow is in record high territory but it's not just the large caps. the small caps and mid caps also trading in record high territory. >> one thing to temper that is quite low volumes yesterday but having said that i completely agree. it does come though i think interesting noah long side a point where we have seen profit taking in the bond market in the u.s. the ten year yield above 2.1%. it moved over the last two or three weeks. >> that's a psychological level for traders. >> absolutely. that does suggest there's positive sentiment about the

outlook for u.s. economy. it's not just people putting money into equities because it's the best across the globe. >> one eye on greece and the other eye on the fed. of course those meeting minutes due today. take a look at u.s. futures pointing to a mixed open. the nasdaq up about one point in premarket trade. let's see if we see action over the next one hour. pointing to a mixed open after stocks did end higher in yesterday's trade. interestingly enough markets were lower about 12:00 p.m. eastern, if you will but then there were reports that greece was of course looking at a bailout extension. markets moved higher. global 300 a good gauge of stocks around the world right now trading higher but just by around 11 points. when we dive into the european markets the focus is on the u.k. unemployment at 5.7% in line with expectations. a meaningful rise in wage growth. that's what traders are talking

about. the real focus has been in the currency space. the pound right now strengthening against the u.s. dollar. let's look at how european markets are trading. the xetra dax and cac 40 trading higher and the bailout extension sending the greek index higher by 1.3%. how are bonds looking today. >> before i go on to bonds interesting to see how much green we've had here given that we haven't had any significant progress in greece. maybe a little bit out of ukraine and russia today. that has been moving markets much than greece has. highlights the lack of fear of contagion from the greek issue that still remains in european markets. wick look at the ten year in the u.s. nicely up over the last week or two. positivity particularly coming out of the jobs area in the u.s. economy and expectations around

june. mid year for rate hikes. we'll look at the minutes from the fed later to see if that gives us any clear indication. germany .37% remains low and the u.k. 1.8%. we had the tick up over the last week. similar vain to the u.s. move as we have had mark carney making it clear that the next rate move is most likely to be up and not down. the ten year in greece at 10.0%. it's been between 9.5 and 10.5 over the last week or two of course. quick look. the euro moved up and down today. it's just below the 114 handle at the moment. the yen is flat 119.1. aussie dollar similarly flat and strengthened quite significantly. 1542 at the moment up half a percent after we had unemployment and wage inflation above 2% for the first time in three years.

that particular positive factor of the data we had earlier. let's check in on markets in asia where we had a strong session. have has the sri has the details. >> we have optimism that the greek debt talks are going to find some kind of resolution suring up confidence in these markets. the nikkei 225 is an out per former today. fresh 8 year closing highs and the bank of japan, not a great deal of reaction there. the central bank in japan keeping rates steady and staying on course in terms of bond buying program although some do believe the risks are skewed and we could see some action before the first half of the year is done. the story involving japan involveing australia as well.

they soared by more than 40%. that's on the $5.1 billion proposed take over offer from japan post. that's the deal that still has to go through the regulatory ringer but the markets like it. the australian index and aussie dollar as well. it will start dropping off. chinese markets will be closed for the chinese lunar new year over the course of the week. they will reopen on february 25th. so we're going to see quite a drop off in trading activity volumes wilfred and seema over the course of the next seven days. back to you. >> sri, thank you so much. we are keeping an eye on the situation between russia and ukraine despite conflicting reports about whether fighting is taking place in the region. we have just heard that ukraine's president poroshenko has flown to the front and he's telling journalists before leaving that ukrainian forces

are being withdrawn. according to ukrainian television the president of ukraine, petro poroshenko flying to the front line and telling journalists that ukraine forces have been retreating from that region. >> let's bring the debate back. they out performed the s&p 500 in local currency terms. this is set to continue over the next 12 months amid declining earnings expectations in the u.s. as the strong dollar weighs on domestic corporates. good morning to you. thank you for being with us this morning. let's talk about that call you made for european equities and kick off with the overall economic environment and european growth is lower than u.s. growth but it's the rate at which it's changing that you're really focused on. >> yeah absolutely right. i think that you have seen a strong period of economic growth in the u.s. for a long time and that really bodyyd the u.s. market

last year. it's a slower rate than we're seeing in europe. economic activity is weak. there were a lot of concerns last year particularly in the second half that we were moving into a potentially deflationary phase but qe started to come through and those fears are fading a little bit. >> when you look at european equities or the european market some investors say europe is the new japan trade. you go short the euro the currency and long the equity market. do you think that will be a winning trade going into this new year? >> that was our recommendation at the end of last year. we expect it to weaken. it's weakened a lot already and that's beginning to have some positive effects on the momentum of sentiment relative to the u.s. we expect the euro to fall further. eventually below in the next couple of years but in local currency terms i think the benefit of a weaker currency

also slightly improved momentum of growth and also the benefits from low oil prices will start to push the local he i wasty market higher. >> you mentioned earnings sentiment. now we have a chart of yours we'll bring up as we look at this. it does show the earnings sentiment has spiked but it's a pretty volatile looking chart. what gives you confidence that this current spike will maintain. >> it's clear. the earnings expectations are still coming down in europe. we were well below forecasts this coming year. the consensus has come down from well under 10% to around 6% in europe for this year. a lot of that relates to the commodity sectors, oil in particular. when we're looking at sentiment we're looking at the numbers of upgrades versus downgrades. that's still negative but becoming much less negative at a time when the reverse is happen aing in the

ing in the u.s. and it's these changes the market is sensitive too. >> the outperformance has been notable despite the rebound over the past couple of weeks but if you want to invest in an economy seeing an acceleration in jobs growth and gdp wouldn't you want to put your money in the u.s. where they're dealing with a much better economic situation? >> firstly we're quite positive about equities in general. this is a more relative view but a lot of european companies are levered into the markets in the u. sflt u.s. and elsewhere. a lot of stocks in europe in particular will benefit from stronger purchasing power and u.s. consumers benefit from stronger oil prices and the stronger dollar. a lot of european companies are well positioned to benefit from that particularly because of that. >> some of that being seen in the auto sector.

we'll discuss more about europe as well as the fed meeting minutes coming up. let's take a look at the other top stories at this hour. ukraine's president petro poroshenko is giving a statement to the media now. forces are being withdrawn in the east of the country. yesterday russian president vladimir putin advised kiev to let it's troops surrender the town in order to save their lives. >> the spokesperson made comments when speaking to greek television. this as cnbc confirmed reports that the ecb will continue to allow greek banks to tap emergency funds via the ela. they're due to announce the decision later today. speaking to germany's television, the finance minister said any deal made will be to help greece to help itself. >> translator: it is a program for greece and this is the key,

short-term aid program. we would like to keep on receiving loans. greece wants the condition that are necessary in order for greece to recover economically. this is what matters. it's not about putting conditions on greece. it's about filling the principle so that greece will find creditors again who trust in greece. this is not currently the case. and this is why. it's not about prologueing the program. it's about fulfillment of the program. >> coming up next on worldwide exchange, the nasdaq takes aim at 5,000. does that mean we're getting into tech bubble territory? we'll discuss after the short break.

welcome back. the nasdaq takes aim at 5,000 after hitting highs not seen since march 2000. billionaire warren buffet dumped oil stocks in the 4th quarter and ukraine's president confirms troops are being withdrawn from the strategic town. >> another big day on wall street, the s&p 500 closing at another record high while the nasdaq hit it's highest level since march of 2000. it's now just about 100 points

away from breaking 5,000. so we want to hear from you on this. are we in a tech bubble? something similar to what we saw in the late 1990s? we have been getting your tweets over the past hour. yes but we will challenge the.com levels on stocks first. he tweets in and says that greece leaving the euro could cause a tech bubble to burst. i'm not sure if i see the correlation there but interesting comment to say the least and let's get your e-mails as well worldwide at cnbc.com. you can tweet us. our handles are on the bottom of the screen. the nature of bubbles, no one can tell you when they will pop. >> although rather than me giving my view on this let's bring in peter. i know it's not your specific area of expertise but tech stocks have done well. are they in bubble territory? >> i don't think they are. the first definition of a bubble are valuations completely out of kilter with financial reality and that clearly was the case back in the late 90s and in 200

when the bubble burst. many of the companies were based on hope springs eternal. there was no profit. valuations were extraordinarily high. that's not the case now for most of the technology sector and most of the companies are profitable. margins are around 17%, much higher than the rest of the market. so these are generally very profitable high margin high return on equity type businesses and the valuations are much lower. they have gone up a lot. >> the nasdaq it was trading at 67 times earnings back then. the late 1990s. now the nasdaq trading at around 17 to 18 times forward looking earnings. clearly valuation not as high or out of reach as it was then. >> let's stick with the meeting at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. the central bank said it would be patient about hiking interest rates but economists will be looking to see whether any officials are actually impatient and wanted to drop that phrase. that could signal the fed is

likely to cut that language out of the next meeting in march putting a june rate hike back on the table. let's talk about what we're expecting. in particular the differential in finance conditions between the u.s. and europe. we looked at markets for the last five or six years and betting against central banks has been fool hardy but as we see it tighten can loosening policy in particularly smaller regions still have an effect? >> it can. financial conditions as we measure them in europe are at a record level of looseness which should be very supportive. in the u.s. they have been extraordinarily loose for many years and it's starting to tighten although most of this reflects a shift in relative currency. once you start to get a rise in u.s. rates it probably will cause some indigestion in market because we haven't seen a rate rise in nine years so the uncertainty about what would

follow will create volatility but rates are likely to stay still very low globally for a long time and that will be supportive. >> traders always get scared we'll see a rise in volatility as rates normalize. i was just looking at research. since 1946 the s&p 500 rose 8.2% and 3.9% in the six and three months leading up to the first rate hike. perhaps investors shouldn't be so worried about a potential rate hike. >> there's different things going on and growth is accelerating from a weak base and the strength in activity offsets the rise in rates. i think getting used to the idea of rates rising after such a long period of having rates fall and from such a low level, at least initially, may well cause some higher volatility. >> peter, we just had a plashflash

out of greece where it says we're at crucial point for they gauche -- negotiations. you're still positive on european equities. >> we're still positive. if there were an accident and greece were to leave that would create more uncertainty and volatility for a period. i think markets are expecting some kind of deal. that would be our expectation as well but remember ultimately the risk premium in europe is very high. it's very high because the market requires a higher return. the uncertainty of where growth goes to in europe as well. it's the valuation that will drive the longer term terms. >> you were pointing out that clients are not as concerned about greece? >> yes i think people are generally taking one of two

queues. either it's more likely there is a deal done and does stay. still it's the most likely outcome or if it were not to stay you get a real ring fencing and acceleration of institutional frame works that really bring the rest of europe together much more quickly and that, in a sense, would be quite supportive as well. >> always great to get your perspective. thank you so much for joining us. and we want to get you up to speed on what's been happening on the front line between ukraine and russia. reports indicate that ukrainian president petro poroshenko left by plane from kiev to the front line and poroshenko told journalists that ukrainian forces were leaving the town. ukrainian press service confirms that poroshenko has flown to the front line. he has also been saying that fighting has been coming to a

halt. we've been seeing a little volatility in the russian rouble slightly weakening against the u.s. dollar. all right. still to come on the show sony unveiling it's claim plan. we get an update from the electronic giant as the ceo attempts to reboot profits. that's coming up next. 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.

welcome back. let's talk about sony. it has announced plans to spin off it's video and sound bisby october as part of the continuing restructuring efforts. they'll now focus on devices as well as games and entertainment. so for more on that story, we're joined live from tokyo. >> thanks seema. well this announcement of a blueprint for sony is a vindication and validation of what analysts have been saying over the last two weeks. they will be focussing on areas they're good at right now. the image sensors, the pictures division and they'll be keeping a steady hand on some of the other brands. for example, the walkman brand and high end cameras they're well-known for but by announcing a spin off of some of their

subsidiaries starting off with the video and sound business october 1st it raises the possibility of a similar move for struggling operations like mobile phones and televisions. here's what the ceo had to say. >> i'm not ruling out the possibility of an exit strategy like an alliance or a sale but we need to be dynamic and flexible and take those things into consideration. >> the targets themselves for the next three years are fairly ambitious. you're looking at a 500 billion yen operating profit which is larger than what they're forecasting this year and they're roe target is 10% coming off minus 7.4% right now. the potential spin off of the unprofitable business is what's going to get probably a fairly positive read from analysts out there. >> thank you so much. >> and still to come here on worldwide exchange it's still a standoff in the ports of the u.s. west coast. we get the full details as the us. labor secretary tries to

broker a deal between shippers and dock workers. >> in the meantime take a look at u.s. futures. the nasdaq about 100 points away from breaking 5,000. dow jones industrial down about 17. nasdaq down 1 in premarket trade. more when we come right back.

it's 5:30 a.m. in new york. welcome to worldwide exchange. >> i'm wilfred frost. here are your headlines from around the world. >> ukraine's president confirms he is surrendering troops. they're ready to take appropriate action if the peace plan is not implemented. the nasdaq hits the 5,000 level very close to it at least after hitting highs not seen since 2000. but futures indicate a negative open. >> we'll go whale watching. new filings show warren buffet and other big name investors have been busy buying and selling oil and tech stocks. plus brian will be taking home a smaller paycheck as bank of america cuts his compensation following a drop in profits last year.

>> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> just going to recap the flashes coming out of the situation in ukraine. the president poroshenko said that the planned withdrawal is nearly complete. he said about 80% of ukrainian troops have pulled out of that crucial town. ukraine's forces are reportedly completing a plan that organize withdrawal and we have had come mens coming out of ukraine. from the eu the head of foreign affairs and securities says action by russian backed separatists is in violation of the agreements if it continues. it's good news of course that we had this withdrawal of fighting from the ukrainian side. we also have a comment from russia's foreign minister that says that ceasefire is in place in almost all front line areas in east of ukraine. poroshenko saying 80% of

ukrainian troop versus been pulled out of that region. genuine progress being made this morning. >> arrows pointing to the down side after what was a rally on wall street. the s&p 500 managed to close at a record high with help from a last minute surge that sent the s&p 500 above 2100. the nasdaq in focus. the nasdaq composite and the nasdaq 100 trading at their highest level since march of 2000. much of that having to do with the outperformance of apple as of late. they set an all time high up about 20% over the past one month. what's happening here in europe? investors keeping an eye on russia and ukraine. of course greece getting that bailout extension. that adding a little bit of positivity here when looking at european markets. also want to keep your attention too for the ftse 100. we did get the stronger than expected u.s. jobs report falling to 5.7% in line with

expectations. inflation similar to what we're seeing in the u.s. still well below the target of 2%. markets trading flat here up about 3 points but we're seeing a bigger move in the currency space. the sterling pound has been strengthening against the euro. the xetra dax up about 56 points and cac 40 seeing a gain of 40 points and relatively good news out of greece is sending some investors into the greek equity market, the athens ase up about 1.5%. >> greece is set to ask for a loan extension according to a government spokesperson. they made the comments when speaking to greek television. this as cnbc confirmed the ecb will allow them to continue to tack emergency funds. they'll set to announce the decision later today. let's get out to julia with the latest. >> thanks so much. well even a request from the greeks at this stage would be a

concession on their part. the suggest is this will be more like what's presented on monday. at that point it was a four month extension to the program. they keep paying their debts but ultimately they wouldn't follow through on any of the conditionality in the old bailout program. that might be bargaining tactic but we have to see if they're willing to compromise as far as a potential deal is concerned right now. as far as i'm concerned until we get an announcement of a euro group meeting when the finance ministers will come together and propose this there isn't a viable proposal on the table right now. that's what we have to wait for. we heard what the german finance minister said yesterday, as far as he was concerned they're not giving any signs they're willing to follow through on the proposals and what we heard from the prime minister followed up on that with promises of repealing some of the forms. so they're not making their

lives easier as far as negotiating is concerned. but we have to wait for that request if and when it comes. back to you. >> thank you. investors with one eye on greece and the other eye on spain. because he left his ally in spain continues to grow in popularity as greece's euro zone negotiations intensify. the group is ahead of the people's party and the socialists. speaking exclusively to michelle he said he hoped to become spain's next leader but remained committed to the single currency. >> i think spain should be real. >> why. >> because the euro is now the reality for europeans. i think that the euro could be made better but now we have to assume the euro as a reality. we have to work inside it. >> joining us now to discuss more is darren head of fixed

interest at investment limited. thank you for joining us. if the market was really concerned about the rise and popularity of this party in spain that would be reflected in the bond market but we're not seeing yields rising. >> i think markets are pretty much signed up to the fact that a deal will be done on greece and as regard to that the leftest party, have markets that take that view. in europe what they'd like to do is put greece to bed and stop the rise of these antiausterity parties rising in recent months. >> when it comes to the six month extension that greece is talking about, what will this achieve? will they be able to find common ground? will they see eye to eye? that's clearly not the case. >> let's think what's the worst case scenario? a deal can't be done and that means greece leaving the euro. it means we have the first eu euro country in euro area so i

think both sides realize what's at stake so i think a deal will be done and that's what markets are essentially telling you. i think european bonds are looking much higher than where they are today. >> i mentioned what you said earlier. you don't think there's that much risk of these other parties gaining traction but while i would agree the financial contagin is minimal and surprisingly so the political contagion is large. not just to the left. anti anti-eu sentiment is coming from the right as well. >> i guess what's going on is its been so strong and parties on the right assume this is a chance to really push forward but i think politically countries in places like spain and portugal they have done the right thing so economically the results have been very good and i don't think that hopefully the

people of those countries don't want to step away from that. >> is one of the big reasons why there hasn't been contagion in some of the bond markets because the ecb announced the eu program. is it ultimately protected and otherwise a very risky situation. >> wonderful backstop. a time of probably one of the greatest risks we had in two years in the euro zone. you have them coming in and buying government bonds in large scale. the backdrop at the moment is very conducive. >> thank you for now. we'll be back for another chat in just a couple of minutes. >> in the meantime let's get you caught up on today's top stories. we'll start with bank of america. they cut the ceo's baby 7% from 2014 to 13 murder in the second degree. a filing shows he will receive a $1.5 million based salary in line for 2013 and most of the rest is in the form of restricted stock. he hasn't received a cash bonus since becoming ceo.

he added the title in 2014. bank of america's profits fell 58% last year and partly due to higher legal settlements. let's take a look at how they're trading. bank of america up 1.4% in frankfurt. >> he's doing all right. >> he's been fine. bank of new york melon is being sued for not delivering the best market price. the bank expects the settlement to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. it's taking a charge in the fourth quarter. banks were down .65%. >> u.s. labor secretary tom perez is urging shippers and the union to settle their contract dispute. that lead to months of slow downs at west coast ports. perez met with both sides separately and together on

tuesday and more sessions are expected today. >> now coming up we may have just found out what apple's next big thing will be. details on the possible new virtual venture after the short break.

the tech sector hitting an all time high in yesterday's trade and one of the big movers

was go pro gaining better than 12.5% despite a share lockup that allows insiders to sharapovas post ipo. analyst coverage was one of the reasons the stocks did move to the upside. they believe the stock is a buy and they have slapped a $70 price target on the stock. they believe this could be an attractive interest point for investors. keep in mind over the past month we have been seeing shares gain about 7%. >> seema, you quite enjoy talking about gopro but there's only one stock you enjoy talking about more that's apple. but that is on landon today. apple has a new venture. it's nots a a phone or tablet. it could raise the stakes for them. >> good morning. apple has been granted a u.s. patent for a wireless head

mounted display that incorporates the iphone. that sparks ideas that they want to get into the virtual market. it regularly explores new technologies that don't always result in new products. this shows how you would slide your iphone into a cradle on the head set in front of your eyes. apple is also putting out the help wanted adds and job listings posted in recent months. the company is seeking software engineers to create apps that work with virtual reality technology and candidates with a proven track record in virtual and augmented reality. apple is one of the few smartphone makers that hasn't launched or tested a virtual reality product. they gained traction since facebook bought occulus last year. google showed off it's head set at its developer conference and plans to release a version later

this year. meanwhile, snap chat is looking to raise $500 million in new funding. that could value the mobile messaging company at up to $19 billion if it secures that money. snapchat will have nearly double the value since last year. snapchat has never said how many users it has but it says they send 700 million snaps a day last year. snapchat could also be one of the highest valued private companies in silicon valley. uber was valued at $40 billion and snap chat would be on par with what's app. back to you. >> is this a sign that we are, in fact in a tech bubble? snap chat a valuation of $19 billion. uber 40 beside$40 billion. >> i think it's very interesting. it's different the kind of investments the private equity companies and market are make

compared to what they're at. those types of valuations we'd touch on there, far, far, far higher than apple and microsoft. >> you look at the nasdaq composite back then the late 1990s it's price to earnings ratio was 67 times forward looking earnings. today it's around 17 to 18 times so valuation wise you would say we're not in a tech bubble but a big move in the nasdaq. a lot of that having to do with apple and now about 100 points away from breaking 5,000. something we'll be watching closely. more on stocks big name investors are letting the public know what stocks they're buying and selling. sec filings show warren buffet's berk berkshire hathaway sold and also raised it's stakes in deere and imb and took a new position in 21st century fox. another very well watched investor took new stakes in

transocean but did dump google apple, intel, walmart and netflix. the total value of his stock holdings fell. take a look at how some of the stocks are trading. let's take a look at apple. it hit an all time high yesterday. up about 20% and that rally could continue. it's trading higher in frankfurt by 1%. >> let's remind you of the headlines. the nasdaq takes aim at 5k. the latest sec filings show warren buffet dumped oil stocks in the 4th quarter and ukraine's president confirms that troops are being withdrawn from the strategic town. we'll be back in a couple of minutes.

ukraine's president is

currently with drawing troops from the strategic town in the east of the country. speaking with reporters it's already 80% complete. the russian foreign minister says they agreed ceasefire is currently being reserved in all front line areas. >> now actions by russian backed separatists are being condemned. the eu's foreign policy chief says they stand ready to take appropriate action if fighting in the region continues. the german government says the deal has been damaged by recent developments but should still be implemented but the russian foreign minister defended the current unrest saying the ceasefire is being observed in almost all front line areas. >> let's see what this means for european markets and they are trading up today and descent day of returns. it's up over half a percent. you can see the ftse 100 is

fractionally below flat. france up .7% and italy up .3. germany .6% into the green. >> the s&p 500 did manage to close at a record high but the rally did not continue at least in premarket trade suggesting a lower open. the s&p 500 down. and dow jones down about 18 points in pretrade and nasdaq down slightly. the fed will release the minutes from last months meeting this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. eastern. at the time the central bank said it would still be patient about hiking interest rates but economists will be looking to see whether any officials are actually impatient and wanted to drop that phrase. that could signal the fed is likely to cut that language out at its next meeting in march putting a june rate hike on the table. so the big debate continues. will the fed raise rates in june? let's discuss more with a couple of experts. the chief economic commentator at the wall street journal.

still with us is darren head of fixed interest at investment wealth and investment limited. let's kick it off with you. do you think they'll shed light on the timing debate of whether the fed is going to raise rates in june? >> well i think so. i mean whether or not that stays in the statement really is the crucial communications question facing the fed in the next few months. we have had in the last few weeks a bunch of beneficials on this issue and what's interesting is they talked about dropping that word not necessarily to raising rates in june but to give them the option to do so because remember according to janet yellen as long as that word is in there they won't raise rates for the next two meetings. so they have to get rid of it. that's what i'll be looking for this afternoon. any light on that issue. >> there's a lot of focus on the word international in the situation. of course what are we expecting to hear on that front? >> that's the second thing

people will focus on and good news as you look outside of the u.s., europe germany particularly have had economic data so maybe that will be acknowledged but there's no doubt that the fed will be concerned about a slow down outside of the u.s. >> what do you think? how concerned will the fed be about the global economy and then of course a prospect of further disinflation? >> well they will of course be concerned about that and like dan that's something i'll be looking for. will they elaborate on which international developments they're most worried about but since that meeting we got the blockbuster jobs report for the united states with such strong job growth in the last few months. that swamps any growth out of europe on the question of dollar and oil prices. so if we do hear concerns i would say the jobs have gone up because of the jobs report a couple of weeks ago. >> is it the jobs report that

pushed the yield above 2.1%? >> yes it has. it's also dragged the market a little bit closer to the fed's median view on when they'll start moving. that said, there's still a big gap between when the market thinks the fed will tighten which is quite a bit later in the year and when fed officials have been talking which is around june. so again another key issue with the minutes. will we see discussion about concern that there's a big gap between their view and the market view on timing and will they do anything to try to eliminate the fwap. >> the u.s. ten year yield above 2% that's a psychological level for traders. can this rotation continue and if so what's driving this? the better than expected jobs report? >> that's the key thing there isn't much return here. many people think the u.s. bond yields are going to move higher. at the same time they're much

more attractive to that fits into the rotation. but at last we seem to see this division for european bond yields moving sideways or down because of negative interest rates and inflation and the u.s. now really taking hold in u.s. shields. >> is that a sign of desperation from central banks trying to ward off the threat of deflation. >> in some cases it's about central bank trying to defend currency. so for example the swiss and the danish, negative interest rates there. there's a lot of about that. it's also about low inflation as well. >> would you say that relative to the rest of the developed world, despite the factors when you talk about the u.s. bond market is an attractive purchase at the moment? >> i don't know. that's kind of a tough one. i mean if the fed is determined to go ahead and move in jub, it seems to be that that is incompatible with being bullish on bonds. what would be interesting to see

is if we continue to see this inversion of the two to ten year section of the curve with the two year moving up as markets start to adjust their expectations to an earlier move by the fed but the ten year hanging in around 2% perhaps moving lower, reflecting both the on set of quantitative easing in europe and lingering concerns about the global economy. if i were the fed i wouldn't worry about that situation. i would worry about being determined to move ahead with tightening monetary policy at a time when the longer term bond market is still flashing these warning signs. >> greg, thank you for joining us. chief economic at wall street journal. also thank you to darren. the head of fixed interest at investor wealth. that is all we have time for today on worldwide exchange. it's been a fun show. i hope you enjoyed it as well. >> next up is squawk box. have a great day everyone.

good morning, the global market focus is back on greece. country expected to extend a rescue loan deal today. also a very big buy for buffet. berk shire hathaway and a new buy in deere. and best in show. it's wednesday, february 18th 2015. squawk box begins right now. ♪ >> live from the beating heart of business new york city this is squawk box. >> good morning, everybody.

welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin and brian sullivan. joe will be back tomorrow. the s&p hitting all time highs yesterday. in fact this was a very broad rally. you had 12% of the components setting new 52 week highs of their own. the dow is now within .3% away from its record high in december. disney united technology and boeing all trading at 52 week highs. the nasdaq targeting return to 5,000. among the biggest drivers you have apple clearly heating things up but the nasdaq composite at 4899. shares of apple up 20% in the last month alone. check the futures and get a read on where things stand. at this point things have barely changed. dow futures down by 12.5 points but the nasdaq is