good morning and welcome to worldwide exchange. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> the ecb denies policy makers capital controls for greece as athens appears confident a deal can be made with the euro group. >> the dollar loses steam as they voice concerns about raising rates too soon. policy makers are concerned about low inflation and problems abroad. >> oil back on the slide amid expectations. meanwhile shares slump and hurts

profits. >> nestle hits the sweet spot. despite a slow down in emerging markets. coming up we speak to the ceo of the swiss consumer giant. >> you're watching worldwide exchange bringing you business news from around the globe. >> straight to our top story this morning, in the last ten minutes the ecb has denied or thes that policy makers have discussed capital controls from greece. the report came from a german newspaper citing bank sources. anneta let's start with you. >> we're just hearing from the ecb that the governing counsel has not passed capital controls for greece. that refers to the report we had this morning in which they were quoting ecb officials saying that it would be a good idea for

greece to install capital controls looking at the outflow of deposits which we're currently seeing. of course the ecb is saying that has not been dispatched from the governing council but putting that official opinion aside, looking at the rational behind spreading such rumor at that point in time could lead to further destabilization of greece and the banking sector because if you put the topic of capitol controls on the agenda it itself could trigger their deposits from the banks and that in itself could trigger a bank branch. that of course is not in the interest of the ecb itself because the ecb just yesterday increased at least raised the caps for emergency liquidity assistance for greek banks to

68.3 billion wrur 68.3 billion euros. that was less than the bank of greece actually hoped for. that also tells us a story. greek banks are losing deposits by the minutes. and as high of the pace of them losing deposits the higher likelihood as well that they need more money from the ecb and the likelihood then is that the ecb at one point in time i say you don't have a liquidity problem, you have a solvency problem. back to you. >> thank you. julia what are you having if the ecb were discussing capital controls for greece it would highlight the ecb was very concerned about the unfolding situation. >> i think as far as greece is concerned i agree with annetta it's completely unacceptful but if it helps to focus minds about how important a deal is then we can say there's a use in that at

least. from what i'm hearing from sources in athens a hot of progress has been made over the last 24 hours. the greek officials here working closely with the euro group. not the commission we heard reports of on monday to try to thrash out a proposal acceptable to both sides of this stage and hopeful that what they have come up with will be acceptable at this stage. high hopes as far as the greeks are concerned. we have heard reports yesterday of the euro group meeting on friday or perhaps a teleconference. so that fits it too. but a teleconference more likely than getting all the finance ministers over here but in terms of broader details we have to wait and see. there's been reports that it follows closely to what we proposals are concerned. i look at the details o on this and my own personal opinion as far as the difficulty in

predicting just what the economy is going to look like going forwar. particularly what we have seen. i wonder if we get an extension in place right now and thrash out the details afterwards. he said let's get an extension in place and talk about the details. we have to wait and see. we of course haven't even had a formal announcement of a proposal placed at this stage but from what i'm hearing in athens hope we reach a deal in the next couple of days. >> back to you. thank you very much for your report. edmond would you value a euro and a greek bank the same as you would a euro in a german bank this morning? >> ultimately yes. ultimately yes because i think that we are just playing right

now. greece is going to have to come for a deal. they're pushing for the best deal they can get. who wouldn't and they're pushing back saying basically, tough. you have to accept some conditions. we'll loosen but we're not going to give you everything you want but if we do that now how is it going to look for us. >> but if you had big savings of euros in a greek bank surely you would want to move some of it elsewhere, wouldn't you? >> depends. if you were nongreek you wouldn't have any savings in a greek bank would you? frankly the capital flows out of greece have been monumental already. who's left? the only people that have money there are the middle class that don't have quite enough money to be worth moving outside of greece. >> let's talk about the developing story about the ecb denying that they're suggesting the greeks to introduce capital controls but maybe that's not such a bad idea. there has been a massive

withdrawal of deposits from greek banks. greek banks are losing around 2 billion jurors rows of deposits a week. >> of course they are but this is what we have seen in other countries like russia. people want to get their money out and get it safe. i understand that perfectly but capital controls are not helpful. they are very much a last resort -- i think -- if you want to be a conspiracy theorists you can say they're heaping more pressure on the greek governments by incorrectly leak leaking this idea to make it more difficult for the finance minister. >> help our audience understand what that means. >> economics 101 is you want free trade. you want move to be able to move boarders because that encourages investment. capital controls what hope is there ever for greek to atrack investment from board. zero. >> but the concern is about

protecting their banks seeing an acceleration of the withdrawals. >> but if the greek government came to an agreement, that would solve the problem, wouldn't it now? >> let's move the debate on from greece and over the last week or two we had descent data out of europe and perhaps europe some of the economies have turned the corner even before it started. >> that's crazy, the euro zone where's the growth, why would i bother? let's turn it around the other way. the u.s. market is super expensive. you look at the u.k. and of course we have may election general elections which will introduce a lot of political uncertainty, particularly in a certain number of banks and utilities. so maybe the u.k. is not the place to be. the euro zone everyone loves to hate. everyone is underinvested and some numbers start to look good

in germany. >> breaking news. i want to bring you up to date. greece has requested -- there's speculation this would take place but according to a greek government official greece has requested an extension of that agreement. there was talk last night that finance minister would request a loan extension and greece has requested that extension from the euro zone for six months as the market has been speculating. i would love to get your quick reaction to this news because we're seeing the euro dollar move on this. >> we all knew it was going to happen. >> more excited edmund. >> no, i love the greeks but don't get me wrong. to me i think people are blowing it out of all proportion. we know they're going to come to a deal and both sides are going to introduce a little bit of

volatility. i'm quite surprised just to look at the reaction of equity and bond markets. they don't care. >> some of the market cares. we have been looking at yields. >> it's moving quite significantly off the news in the last two minutes. >> are we going o toto talk about two minute trading. >> but if we get a resolution to the greek issue and the euros move that's a good positive step. >> i think you're right. we're moving closer to the resolution and compromise which will allow the greek finance minister to present the deal as some sort of win for the greek people and for the european union you'd say we didn't give in completely. so we will eventually get to that win-win situation. >> edmund does not care about greece. that's the headline there. we'll continue discussion around greece and the euro as well and the fed minutes that did move

markets last night. >> now it was a strong day in continental europe yesterday. less so for the ftse and that meant we opened quite significantly down yesterday. we opened down .7% in the stoxx 600. you can see a rally. seeing us down .3%. edmund doesn't think that's because we're getting better news out of the greece concern. but yoyoing either way. we're down only .3%. having rallied in the last 20 minutes. let's look at the individual markets, the ftse 100 is down down .2%. that doesn't help energy sectors. the dax just below. like wise france and athens is rallying a little bit today. a sub 1% move in the athens

index. nothing too significant for greece. let's look at bond rates. the u.s. ten year did move yesterday. nonetheless, let's put that in perspective. we have yields higher than we were a week ago and then a month ago. we just came back from being above 2.1%. a little bit of a move there. in italy 1.65 and even if we have had some kind of agreement coming out of greece or request for extension of that bailout term we're still at 10.26%. the range bound for the ten year in greece is between 10.5 and 9.5 so we're still at elevated status. a quick look and the euro rallied a little bit in the last 20 minutes. it's 1.143 as we look at things at the moment. the most significant mover today is the rouble which slid about

half a percent. worth pointing out, sterling was particularly strong yesterday after wage growth came at 2.1% significantly ahead of where core inflation is of course and that's saw the pound climb over half a percent. we're at just above flat today, 1546. commodities, oil slid late in trade yesterday, particularly in the u.s. hours and we're catching up with that today. it did go below 50 earlyier today. brent has fallen over the last 24 hours. 58.8 down to 2.84%. what's coming up? >> coming up on worldwide exchange las vegas impose dark. yes, that's right. find out why sin city turned off it's lights for only the 7th time in history and as a west coast port standoff continues we ask if the dispute will hurt retailers like walmart that does report earnings today. and first snap chat now

pinterest. how much it could value the tech start up.

they do confirm a very challenging market for 2015 according to an analyst but the good news is the capital levels are still very strong and the company did pay another special dividend plus it announced a $1 billion share buy back program and we're hired by 0.4% here. the key metric is 4.5%. that was in line with expectations but keep in mind this is the second year in a row they missed the organic growth

model of 5.6% but they're expecting to return to the 5% growth target. also when we do speak to the ceo later on this morning at worldwide exchange i will want to know from him how he is dealing with the inflationary environment. how much conversation power do they have? that's coming up in 45 minutes time. >> we're looking forward to it. we'll keep an eye on nestle. the fed may not be in any rush to raise interest rates. minutes from last months meeting show more officials lean to it keeping them at 0 longer than wanting a move. a hike could hurt the u.s. economic recovery while only several thought a later move could result in higher inflation. here we go. another fed minute coming in which does tell us perhaps a june rate hike not on the table.

>> i'm not surprised at all. i have been having this argument time and time again. labor participation still at record lows. interestingly if you look at some of the last numbers while they're being fantastic in payrolls. what is going on? and the answer is people are not counter in the labor force statistics. they are coming back possibly. >> you've seen the u.s. ten year yield push above 10%. it did move yesterday but people are pretty positive. >> yeah they're still saying second half. people are very fluid. personally i'd say second half. >> it was interesting when reading the fed minutes the fed did reference the stronger

dollar. it called it a persistent source of restraint. could that be a reason they keep rates lower for a longer period of time? >> obviously. >> they said it was a bigger concern. >> they've had a weaker dollar for a long time. they wouldn't reference it because the long-term is a weaker dollar that causes inflation. it inflates the costs of imports. for the first time the boot is on the other foot. now just as the euro the ecb used to refer to the bank of england, now the fed is starting. what they should say is its a form of monetary tightening. we're doing nothing but the currency is doing the job for us and we don't need to do anymore. >> we know earlier you really like european equities but there's certain types of u.s. equities you like. are valuations justified at the

moment. >> it's a weird market in the u.s. in many areas the answer is no. i would say health care and biotech an excellent value. >> biotech come on. >> toe to toe, seema, 5,000. where was the nasdaq last at 500? >> march of 2000. >> how many years ago? >> 15 years. >> have earnings gone up. >> it's all relative. year over year yes earnings are up. >> yes earns are exploded for the nasdaq. >> draw the chart. >> old tech names are still seeing stagnant growth. not like facebook and twitter. >> what is stagnant growth. >> you're not seeing an incremental increase in growth as we typically saw in the 1990s. >> but mathematically that's the first derivative. the first is the growth rate

itself. are they exhibiting positive earnings growth? yes or no. >> depends on who you ask. >> microsoft, apple, cisco. >> apple for sure. >> is it trading at a pe of something like 10 or 11 times right now, maybe 12. >> isn't it 13. >> extra cash pile. >> around apple it's 13 right now. >> what's it for the s&p. >> 16. it's higher. >> so you take all of those names you mentioned, sis coe, microsoft and apple all trading at massive discounts. >> what about the facebook and go pros shouldn't be we worry about that? >> don't care about them. it's means a small portion of the market which is massively overvalued i won't go near. >> what's your top picks. >> gilead sciences biotech company, hepatitis c, number one

job rate. 11. >> despite the run up we've seen in that stock. it's a big mover. >> it's going to show us great move this time. it's still going to take jumbo market share. it's still going to be the number one player for the next few years. >> quallcomm? >> i like quallcomm but i like a chip equipment maker. cheap, blowout recent results and i'm thinking it's cheap, they're breaking new highs i'm having some. >> did you ever want a job in journalism? because you do a great job of animating. >> i couldn't do this day after day. the getting up early is not for me. >> the energy sector you happen to be dipping a toe in? >> yes but -- yes but i would say when you look at the economics of the oil sector

it's nonsense u.s. production is back where it was in the 70s. so they're up between 60 and $80 barrel all in price. wti is still under 60. rig counts are collapsing. that tells me the oil price isn't going to go back down to 50 40 50. you're going to have to trade it because it's been massive volatility. >> and inventories yesterday came in five times higher than we expected. so will you see today's fall back in the oil price and yesterday's fall back was justified? >> i think we have bottomed. i think we have bottomed but the process can be volatile and take a number of months. with these statistics you get one good one and one bad one. the market reacts one way one

day and another way the next. we will see a slow gradual climb in the oil price. >> does the nasdaq break 5000 this year? >> of course it does. >> should investors stay to the sidelines? >> no but they shown buy stuff like facebook or go near the new ipos because they're ridiculously overpriced and they should stick to apple and microsoft that generates good earnings. >> doesn't that worry you that that's a pretty consensus trade? >> yes. which is why i like oil. most people are scared to go for oil. go for yield. one area in energy fracking sand producers. the sand used high crush, go for those. >> going for yield, those three probably would be. thank you for joining us. a great half an hour with you. >> and let's talk more about

tech. yahoo! will be courting atpp makers in san francisco today. ceo marissa myer gives a speech at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. they have been holding similar events for more than five years. they expect yahoo! to pass twitter in mobile ad revenue for the first time this year. shares of yahoo! down 1% in today's trade. but keep in mind over the past 12 months up about 36%. >> samsung may be looking to challenge apple pay. they're booking loop pay for an undisclosed amount. it can turn a card reader into a touch less receiver. unlike apple pay it works in about 90% of existing point of sale retail terminals. samsung was an investor in the company already. >> pinterest is in talks to raise $500 million in a new round of funding. that could value the social

media cite at $11 billion. if that's not a sign we're in a tech bubble i don't know what is. that's double it's current valuation. pinterest plans to raise the money in the coming weeks. the news comes days after reports that snap chat was looking to raise money to value it. i'm sure you're a big fan of snapchat. >> yes valuation inside. >> are you a snapchat user? >> it took up too much time. the ecb releases minutes for the first time. we'll look at the impact of the qe program on poland and hungary coming up next.

the greek government asked for a six month extension of its facility agreement. this as they deny policy makers discuss capital controls for athens. >> they voice concerns about raising rates too soon. policy makers are concerned about low inflation and problems abroad. >> oil back on the slide amid expectations of record u.s. inventories. shares of u.s. utilities as the slump in energy prices hurts profits. >> keep an eye on nestle it's

getting the sweet spot earnings in line with expectation. coming up the ceo comes on cnbc's worldwide exchange. take a look at european markets. of course news of the bailout extension by six months not impacting markets right now. perhaps that's already priced in. ftse 100 down. the cac 40 seeing green but the italian markets trading slightly in negative territory. how do bonds look? >> we have the greek ten year still in around 10.2%. we're looking at things in the u.s. we saw a little pull back of the greek yield. a little bit more bond buying. we're still above 2%. we're higher in yield terms than a week ago or month ago which highlights some of the more positive sentiment out of the u.s. over those two time

periods. germany .37%. now straight to our top story this morning. the greek government asked for a six month extension of its, quote, master financial facilities agreement. let's bring you a flash relating to the capital controls that we heard the story developing this morning or earlier today the ecb denied they would even discuss that and a greek government spokesperson has come out to say speculation of capital controls has no bearing on reality. let's get out to julia in brussels. julia. >> actually i want to deal wilfred with the capital controls right now and reiterate what annetta has been saying all morning. how unhelpful this and how dangerous regarding capital controls is for a country. especially when we heard from the ecb and they weren't discussed on wednesday and the dangers of the situation as far as banks are concerned by speculation. so drawing a line into that

incredibly important at this stage. but as you quite rightly said a proposal to extend the master financial agreement, under the eff is what the greeks have asked for. we have been talking about this all morning of course and this is what we were expecting after sources in athens suggested similar to me. this has been talked about within the euro group. i want to make that clear at this stage too. the hope from the greeks is this will likely be agreed over the next couple of days. i'm also hearing it's likely to be a conference call with the euro group held tomorrow rather than actually a meeting in person. we'll have to wait and see but that ties with what i'm hearing right now as well in terms of potential detail. we have to wait for that but i wonder from my own personal

conversations here given the difficulties in predicting what's going on with the greek economy, particularly over the last couple of months whether or not we wait and after we get this deal as far as negotiations and discussions as far as potential reforms going forward. obviously we heard from him the last couple of days and as far as labor is concerned they're firm right now but we have to see what happens with this negotiations. the working group here going to discuss this today. we've seen what comes out of that meeting before we hear any formal announcement. guys, back to you. >> thank you very much. we want to get you up to speed on a developing story when it comes to adidas. the german based athletic maker. adidas says their board launched a formal search to find a successor to the long serving

ceo. interestingly enough the ceo of adidas did tell a german newspaper he had no intention of stepping down but their board has launched a formal search to find a successor to the current ceo. as you can see adidas shares popping on the back of the news about 1.3%. we'll keep you up to date on that story. meanwhile, the european central bank will for the first time publish the meaninutes from one of the last meetings today. what do you think these meeting minutes will highlight for investors? >> well actually it will be interesting to see the rational behind their discussion. what we're probably getting is the rational behind the pros and cons of quantitative easing. we already know there was a big majority behind implementing qe

as soon as january 22nd when mario draghi announced it but probably will get more of the thinking of the ecb and also could be interesting to see why they decided on the amount of pay. perhaps we get some insight on that. to bring you perhaps a little bit of insight, this whole publication of the public accounts as the ecb is calling it, has very long history. i think it was 2012 when they first started to think about it. they were misread by analysts. so it took a long time. of course they were afraid that if you publish minutes with the names and decisions like the fed

is doing that could read to the central bank policies in the euro zone. they all come from different nations with different problems and we already have the central bankers in the euro zone and probably they would try to not have that propelled by the minutes. >> thank you. make sure to stay on cnbc. we will be breaking into u.s. programming at 13k:30 cet. plus analysis of what it means for investors. >> what funds are they going to use? it will be interesting to see. >> maybe janet yellen will talk about how to release these minutes. >> we'll bring you that at 12:30 london time.

the next guest is the emerging market economist. thank you for joining us. of course the on going debate good deflation versus bad deflation. in general, you think they're facing the good kind. >> exactly. it's disinflation caused by oil prices. food as well in eastern europe. partly by the sanctions that russia put in place preventing imports. we're not really seeing proper deflation in terms of core inflation and negative territory. durable goods purchases being delayed and central banks in the region are aware of this but equally aware of the wall of money they're about to face coming through into march as and they're focused more on that as opposed to inflation itself. >> what do we need to see that makes you convinced it maintains

in the good camp and not the bad camp. because good deflation can cause bad deflation. >> what we're looking at is consumer sentiment. we're looking at consumption data in gdp and real wage growth as well. at the moment it's about 5%. that's a huge boost to household balance sheets going on. so those data should give us an indication of what's going on. in the euro zone they're upside down. >> come aresome are calling this the year of central bank activism. yesterday hungary announcing a quantitative easing program. is this the new normal? should we be expecting a more pivotal role as they deal with more slushish growth here in europe but they're dealing with declining business because of russia. >> exactly. well it was the extension of a different program to boost growth. it's quite political but shows the need to keep conditions

very very loose in the face of what the ecb will be doing. in czech republic the market is humming about the 27 euro check flaw in place. we think that will stick in place. there's a long euro check to take a bet on that at the moment. poland is having the most difficult time. very split. it's worried about needing to keep hold of a certain amount of ammo in case of a more severe deterioration in case of greece but likely to see a lot of capital in flow. poland is an interesting place. investors in europe will see all of their bonds bought up by the ecb. polands looks like a semideveloped marketplace and that play force it. >> we can see them develop out of the economies and look to these markets plus the search

for yield given the relatively low yields across the euro zone? >> exactly. south africa as well even where you see the policy talking about keeping rates unchanged for a couple of months not even cutting rates but really it's a matter of timing we have a lot of excess buying going on and bonds. there's probably three to six months where the ecb will be buying out their excess demand before people start looking elsewhere. it's going to be very supportive for particularly external debt and euro denominated external debt for places like hungary, romania and places like that and local markets as well to a degree. >> somewhere like poland you think might benefit but other countries might not. >> well czech republic is probably the most activist. it has a currency intervention policy with the flaw and might raise that flaw to weaken it further. hun fwrks

hungary and poland are unlikely to take them. >> russia there's not even a debate about good or bad inflation. it's the opposite. very serious inflation. what's your view on that? >> it should probably peak around 20%. caused by sanctions and supply difficulties. for us actually the real sort of impact on the economy is only coming through the end of this year when you see it drag particularly around lack of oil investment, sanctions, industries that aren't investing. you start getting the economic impact into employment. you can make a case about greater pressure on putin. at the moment that real shock isn't coming through into the economy so it's not really possible to say there's as much dissatisfaction against what's going on there as there might be through into next year. it's a long wait given what's happening in ukraine. a lot of events can happen between now and there. >> something we'll continue to watch but you write that quantitative easing will be beneficial for a lot of these emerging european economies. if you had to pick one, what's

the one our viewers should know about or be watching as a break out over the next couple of months? >> in terms of markets, probably poland. >> poland is your pick. >> that's the one that looks most likely like a developed market people can rotate into. >> we'll see if you're right. emerging market economist, pleasure to have you on thank you. and one of the largest schemes in history could be headed for the small screen. we have more on who could play bernie madolf in a reported miniseries after the break.

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as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. put the odds on your side. visit botoxchronicmigraine.com to learn how to save on your treatment. talk to a headache specialist today about botox®. strong demand for japanese export and low oil prices. let's get the latest from the nikkei live in tokyo. >> yes, the trade deficit stood at roughly $10 billion which was much smaller than the forecast by economists. government figures showed exports grew 17% in value last month up for the 5th month in a row. demand increased in the u.s. and europe while shipments of semi-conductors and electronic

come poenlts were up in components in other countries. it gave an addition until boost to exports. imports were down around $61 billion and the decline was due to plunging oil prices whose cost was 40% lower from the year before. even so, january marked the 31st straight month of trade deficit from japan which is the longest period since comparable data became available more than 35 years ago. that's all from the nikkei. back to you. >> thank you very much. >> a couple of flashes coming out that we want to bring you up to speed on. france's president has spoken with merkel putin, poroshenko today and the flashes are that he says there is a break of ceasefire condemned in that telephone call and leaders have agreed to implemented minsk accord. the outcome of that meeting

taking place between merkel putin, as well as poroshenko. the ukrainian president. he called on the u.n. to send peace keepers to enforce a ceasefire with russia. his comments come after they sent orders to the town for ukraine's troops to with draw following intense fighting there. meantime, the german chancellor says europe must continue to act to protect ukraine's boarders. >> translator: your european peace order and the fact that we have been living in peace for the last 70 years is based on one principle. boarders which have been agreed upon must not be breached. this has to be respected, dear friends, as anything else will destroy peace in europe. >> oil futures plunged overnight after data revealed a surprise search in u.s. crude inventories. as you can see today reacting in european trade. we're just below about 50 in wti. it did fall earlier.

brent at 58.9, down 2.66%. those reports are early reports. we get the government figures today which is worth look out for. an explosion at an exxon refinery pushed up local gasoline prices yesterday as investors worried about how long the facility will be off line. joe freyer has the story. >> the explosion was so strong. >> my house shook, the windows shook. >> many thought they were in an earthquake. >> you could feel the vibration. it felt like just a pulse going through your body. >> the blast ripped apart buildings and damaged cars under refinery grounds. four workers received minor injuries. >> it was a processing unit where the explosion occurred. >> exxon mobil says we will have a thorough investigation of the event.

>> after the explosion a giant flame burned atop the refinery's flair stack. it's like a safety valve relieving pressure when there's a problem. neighbors see them on occasion but say this was bigger than normal. >> i saw the flames and then ash starting to drop. >> many noticed the ash falling from the sky. this car coated was 2.5 miles from the refinery. no armful air emissions have been detected but officials did issue a smoke advisory. >> i could see the big cloud in the air and i thought this is a good time to come in and close the doors and windows. >> students in 13 schools were told to stay inside but that order was lifted within three hours of the blast. >> now lower oil prices a big boom for the indian consumer and, in fact the sensex approaching record levels with stocks rallying for seven consecutive full sectionssions. investors are hoping for

business friendly measures to boost growth. let's talk more about the indian opportunity. we're joined here in studio. it's been fascinating just to watch the sustained rally in indian stocks. even preprime minister modhi becoming prime minister. does it have more room to run? are investigators overly optimistic of what he can achieve. >> clearly there's a lot of optimism in the price of most indian financial assets we inquirity markets. i'm a bond investor and we actually still think there's room in the bond markets but you're right. a lot of this is local investors but also foreign investors. i noted research yesterday shows foreign ownership is at an all time high. it reflects the optimism about this revolution. >> and at the moment the performance we have seen is many more based on the hope he can execute reforms rather than

initial examples of execution? there's still a long way to go? >> absolutely. that's an accurate characterization. he doesn't have a majority in the upper house as we have to rely on the ordinances where he is doing this by executive degree if you want to do an anlage with what obama is doing in the u.s. but he does have this wave of popularity. so there's very limited opposition opposition. and the ordinances are meaningful and good ones. investors have been waiting for them for quite a long time. >> but the economy still has some signs in improvement. it's rivaling china in terms of growth for this year and a narrowing of the current account deficits so there are fundamental reasons to be bullish on india, would you say? >> absolutely. they just did this revision of historical gdp and there's still a lot of head scratching. india looks like it has grown 7.5% in the last year.

a lot of people have difficulty with what they see on the ground and high frequency data but there's a rebound and inflation on the down side because of the oil story which has been very powerful. we could be looking at a balance this upcoming year. >> mind blowing. >> extremely powerful. >> and overall for india when we look at the overall attractiveness, the dem fwrafographics still powerful? >> yeah we have been discussing how the economy can deal with a slow down in china. we believe it's a structural phenomenon. it's still going to grow at a healthy rate. just not the rate it used to go. can india take the baton and play the role china served over the past decade. it probably cannot completely mitigate the full impact of a china slow down but we think it

can help definitely smooth over this. >> given the low rate environment the yields on indian bonds quite attractive but the big question is what happens when the u.s. does raise rates? will some of the foreign investors pull money and invest it back in the u.s.? >> india is a market where we're probably less concerned because the indian bond market is the one market that doesn't have unfettered access. it restricts the ability to invest in india. when you look at foreign investor exposure it's rather low compared to some regional peers so when the day of reckoning come when the u.s. starts tightening policy india will be one of the less susceptible markets to that tightening. >> less vulnerable. interesting. thank you for joining us. >> now let's focus in on some of today's individual movers. air france sharply lower after

it announced plans to curb investment. this comes after 2014 earnings missed expectations. stefen joins us from paris with the latest. >> they reported a significant reduction of its net loss for the last year. it's due to exceptional items so it's not the most relevant indicator. it was almost unchanged and broadly in line with expectations and the gross operating profit was a bit weaker than expected. the disappointment comes in terms of out look. first of all, they have not been able to capitalize and benefit on the lower price of oil because of its aging policy. it's still paying the oil at twice the market price. >> mainly you know we have a strong policy of hedging. carry about 70% of opposition.

so we had a little help given the hedging and the very complex relationship between brent and fuel price. it has an adverse effect on the heading. >> they also warn that currency swings will probably offset most of the gain from ois pricesl prices this year. that explains partly the disappointment for investors. the stock is down almost 5% on the french market. >> stefen thank you very much. >> and let's get out to other news. don't adjust your television set. this is not a major power outage. casinos on the strip turned their lights off early this morning to honor the former luv basketball coach that died later

last week. las vegas has only gone dark seven times before. following jfk's assassination, elvis pressley's death and president reagan and passing of frank sinatra, sammy davis jr., and dean martin. he lead them to a national title in 1990. >> have you been to vegas? >> that must be a long flight. >> it is good to tag on to an end of a trip to the states. >> those nights are worth it. >> absolutely worth it. we'll take a quick break and check in on the price of gas in california as a fire rips through an exxon refinery in los angeles after the short break.

welcome everyone to worldwide exchange. our second hour. i'm seema mody. >> i'm wilfred frost. here's the headlines from around the world. >> u.s. futures calling for a lower open with officials warning about raising rates too soon. >> the greek government asked for a six month extension of its facility agreement. this as the ecb announced policy makers discuss capital controls for athens. >> we get a check on the u. s. consumer when walmart reports 4th quarter results before the opening bell. we have an exclusive interview with the ceo coming up later today. >> fuel prices surge following

an explosion at a major refinery but it's not felt in the oil markets. >> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> it was a choppy session on wall street but once we got the dovish minutes it was higher and the focus will remain on the nasdaq closing above 4900 which means it's 100 points away from breaking 5000. a level it hasn't traded at in 15 years. >> of course risk off sentiment we saw yields come back a little bit but they to remain higher than they have been for the last week or month and still above 2% which highlights a bit of positivity remains despite the occasional segment. >> look at the euro zone yields.

some are having to go overseas in order to find some type of yield. >> absolutely. relative to u.s. history. they look low but of course relative to developed markets across the world today they look very attractive. >> let's not get started on the negative yielding bonds. u.s. pu tours, here we go. dow jones down about 14 points in remarket trade. the nasdaq a 6 consecutive gain. will the rally continue? pointing to a lower open. we'll have to see how trade pans out on this thursday morning. a good gauge of stocks across the world. we should point out japanese stocks closing at a 15 year high today. a lot of optimism around what the bank of japan is doing and here in europe the focus on earnings and the other focus on greece. requesting the six month extension of its loan contract that was seen as a good sign in

terms of the right step for greece because now it gives them more time to negotiate with european leaders. the big question is will they actually be able to see eye to eye with the euro group and european central bank? of course yesterday this comes after the ecb last night approved that 3.3 billion euro extension of liquidity for the country's banks. the dax seeing a little bit of green and athens is seeing a gain of 1.2% but despite talks about this loan agreement they're still not able to see eye to eye so are markets overly optimistic of what this will achieve? >> still a long way to go and markets muted today because they were quite strong yesterday in continental europe. let's also look in at the bond market and kick in with the u.s. just come off the highs it saw a day or so ago because of the dovish comments from the fed but we're still above 2% and higher than a week ago and than where

we were about a month ago which has been really off those better than expected job numbers we've had over the last few weeks. german yields .37%. still low. u.k. 1.81. we have seen yields kicking up in the u.k. yesterday we saw a very strong wage growth number which meant sterling rallied over half a percent. ranges between 9.5 and 10.5. highlighting that we're not out of the woods and focused on the necessary developments that still need to come. let's look at currencies as well. i'll start with the pound as i said. strong day yesterday. at 154. it had a stelthalth rally last january. so sterling doing well over the last few weeks.

particularly yesterday up .5%%. let's look at the euro. it was up about .4%. it's pulled back all of those gains today. it's just below the 114 handle to volatile day for the euro. let's have a quick look at commodities and oil prices have been weak over the last 24 hours. wti did fall below 50 a couple of hours ago. brent is is below 60. that's down 2.3% today. >> just when we thought oil prices were moving higher. the fed may not be in any rush to raise interest rates. minutes from last month's meeting showed they were keeping numbers at zero longer than those wanting a premature move. some said it could hurt the economic recovery while several thought a later move could result in higher inflation. joining us is the chief

investment officer and portfolio manager. a pleasure to have you on this morning. >> good to be here. >> there is an incredible sensitivity when it comes to when and if the fed will raise rates but given the dovish tone used or seen in the meeting minutes yesterday does it tell us that a june rate hike is off the table now? >> it's anyone's guess as to whether they're going to slightly raise interest rates in june or not. the more relevant thing is really the bigger message. the bigger message is we're in this era of cheap money. this liquidity that's been induced to fight inflation. that trend is not going away. my view is in terms of interest rates we're not going to see anything really dramatic or meaningful for quite sometime. >> and yesterday's minutes

aside, has the data coming out of the u.s. thus far in 2015 been better or worse? >> fundamental data releases we've had? wages, drops, productivity those sorts of things. >> well it's all consistent with an economy that's healing. that's improving. the headline numbers in terms of the s&p 500 earnings in the most recent earnings system if you look at the overall number they were disappointing. year on year earnings were down something like 5.6% but if you strip out the effects of lower oil prices which were brutal in terms of the drop as well as the fact that low interest rates make long-term liabilities for some companies much more expensive so there were some write offs there, if you strip those things out, actually earnings are up around 5.7%

which is robust and very attractive. >> i know you focus more on the u.s. margins but here in europe there's lingering concerns about greece and the prospect of the country exiting the euro zone. how worried are you about that happening? >> well a lot of it is baked into security prices in europe. certainly the domestically focused european union companies are very cheap right now. more of the international, the glamour stocks, the loreals of the world are just as expensive as their american counter parts. they seem to be a bit oblivious but from what i have read and it seems if you look at the european history, the tea leaves looks like the germans are probably going to come to some sort of an accommodation and greece will muddle along.

>> but margin quickly, going forward, where would you put your money in european equities or u.s. stocks? >> well there's been sort of a stealth correction going on in the u.s. last year more stocks were down by more than 30% than were up by greater than 30%. so in the u.s. there are opportunities, particularly in the asset managers and some of the industrials, some of the high quality blue chip industrials which have had nice pull backs. in europe i think that the opportunities are really with the domestically focused companies. you can find any number of companies selling at 12 times earnings and yielding at 4 or 5% and that's a very attractive market now. primarily in the mid cap space. >> we'll catch and the mid caps

did hit recently an all time high. we'll continue to watch that space. thank you so much. let's also get you a rundown of what to watch on the trading day. weekly jobless claims out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. expected to fall below 300,000 mark following a jump in filings the previous week. at 10:00 a.m. we get the philly fed survey and january leading indicators. walmart reports 4th quarter results before the opening bell. we're talking about the world's largest retailer. price line t-mobile u.s. and newmont, and nordstrom. coming up an exclusive interview with doug mcmillon at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> don't miss that one. greece asked for an extension of its agreement. and reuters is reporting the

euro group will meet on friday to discuss that request. let's get to julia with the latest in brussels. >> thanks so much. as you quite rightly said, formal request today to extend their master financial assistant facility agreement. we have been talking about this all morning. this process has been very well negotiated with the euro group. that's rather than the european commission which is what happened on monday according to reports and the deal was rejected. that could be crucial. i know the greek government is very hopeful that they have come up with something that will be signed off by the euro zone finance ministers. expected to talk about this on friday. the working group behind the scenes expected to talk through some of the details today. we have to understand what's in the details but judging by what i heard the question is whether or not details like the reforms

that greece goes forward with gets discussed after we have an extension in place and that fits with what the president of the euro group said to me earlier this week. get an extension in place and then we negotiate details afterward but for now we have to see a final point on all the speculation as far as capital controls on greece is concerned. the ecb said that wasn't discussed at the governing council. very important to draw a line and very dangerous to speculate as far as the greek banks are concerned and the most important point is to extend the deal for greece and sure up the country and discuss what's next. back to you. >> thank you. progress but still a long way to go. let's take a look at today's other top stories. investigators are trying to determine the cause of an exxon mobil refinery in california. the blast ripped through the processing unit at the plant. state officials ordered exxon not to operate the unit until their investigation is complete and the shutdown could last for

six months. gas prices surged to the highest level on fears that local supplies would be tight. >> u.s. commerce secretary joined the talks with shippers and dock workers at the west coast ports. they're urging the two sides to settle their contract dispute which has lead to major back ups of cargo at 29 ports. several republicans who chair congressional committees are urging president obama to become more involved. so a developing story, indeed. >> nestle reports sweet sales. we'll talk to them after the short break.

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welcome back. let's give you headlines. u.s. futures trade low off the back of falling crude prices. greece seeks a six month extension of its facility as the ecb denies discussing capital controls and the world's largest retailer walmart is set to report earnings with analysts predicting a slump in sales. >> shares in the world's biggest food company nestle are trading

higher after they reported earnings in line with expectations. the organic growth number came in at 4.5%. joining us now is paul the ceo of nestle. always a pleasure speaking with you. thank you for taking the time. in the fourth quarter we saw a further deceleration of emerging market growth but pick up in developed markets. has that continued into 2015? >> good morning, first. we have indeed a soft trading environment that has given us so much growth in the past. it's softer but still there is growth. what we saw is a little bit of a pick up for us at least in europe in our sales and that's good and because of innovation. so it has been involved for quite a while. for two or three years now but we have been able to grow inspite of all of that. >> every time i talk to you, you seem pretty relaxed about not

reaching that 5 to 6% nestle growth model. organic growth of 5 to 6%. but for two years in a row you have underdelivered on that front. now for 2015 you say you can get back to the lower end. to 5%. what makes you so optimistic? >> because i feel and see the 4.5 of last year the quality of it. which is linked to our people and how they are aligned and committed and you feel the strength. when you go to even syria where we have people. that's our strength. but then it is also built upon last year's growth. so it is consistent and thanks to our global presence and strong portfolio and that combination gives me optimism. growth is not going to be for free. we're going to have to go after it but we out perform and that's what motivates me. 5 to 6% is a line and 4.5% last

year is one of these fundamental blocks. we have overdelivered over so many years. sometimes you're over it. sometimes you're under it. you have to have growth every year. that is what we deliver. >> i know that your paul is very very well diversified company but you report in swiss francs. your divy is in swiss francs. 20% of your debt is in swiss franc. how worried are you about the appreciation of the swiss franc? are there any measures to offset that? >> first of all, this is not new. in the last six years the franc has strengthened over the others have weakened 40%. so what happened a few weeks ago is not new. we have an actual hedge. we produce and sell in the

countries normally where we are active but we do have ten factories exporting and we have our rnt and we have to look like we did in the past on productive gains and see how we can make and compensate for strongest swiss franc. we have to continue doing that. it has an impact plus less than you would expect but still we have to cope with a small impact. >> i want to talk about the pricing environment in the euro zone. in many parts of the world there's disinflationary pressures. how tiff cut is it to keep prices stable let alone raise prices? >> first of all it's easy to say but we're not in a price value. we create new offerings and new value for the consumer so that pricing is not the same product during the whole cycle. then again you have deflation

nary environment in europe and other pars. and that's where that irons itself out over time. but these are basically that we are not taking too much into our daily decision making. pricing is also done locally. we don't have a pricing policy worldwide because that's where the appropriate sense and amount of pricing can be done. >> paul always great to speak with you. thank you for your time. the ceo of nestle and as i have been saying before shares are among the topper formers on the smi. we're high by two-thirds of 1%. >> thank you for that interview. now i want to get you up to speed over greece. dprees has request greece has requested a extension of its contract. will they give up on appeals -- there's a couple of flashes right now. greece is committed to fiscal

balance during this interim period under request -- under the requested loan agreement extension. the six month extension will give the government room to proceed with negotiations for a new government deal in line with a 2012 agreement. the new deal will include agreement on debt reduction and it looks like a meeting will be held on friday to discuss further around the prospect of the greek bailout extension. >> exactly. you can see it was up best part of half a percent earlier. now still to come here on the show the home of country music is frozen over. we're live as an arctic chill grips the nation. we're back in a couple of minutes.

>> record low temperatures are expected from northern michigan to the deep south as an arctic chill greets a fair amount of the u.s. we have jay gray live in nashville tennessee, seen as the capitol of u.s. country music. what's the scene like over there in nashville. how much is it snowing over

there, jay? >> good morning, seema. brutally cold here. they're used to records but not the kind of records we have been seeing here lately. record lows. minus 14 celsius right now. it's been so cold for so long. you see the fountain here. it's turning into an ice statue. just a representation of what they are dealing with. we have a dusting of snow on the ground. ice as well. this is the type of situation and type of conditions people are dealing with across the country right now. millions of people suffering through another arctic blast. here they're still working on power lines that were downed by the last system that came through just a few days ago. heavy snow and ice causing those problems. we could see a bit of a warm up tomorrow maybe even 10 to 20 degrees and the concern is more snow in the forecast here and in other parts of the country. so it's going to be a tough go

for quite sometime as this cold air continues to have a grip on so many seema, wilfred. >> stay warm out there, thank you for getting us a look at how the weather of course continues to persist but it's not as cold as where i was over the past weekend. >> iceland. >> it was extremely cold. 0 degrees celsius. >> he said it was minus 14. >> he's a trooper. let's talk about tech. first snap chat now pinterest. we reveal how much the latest round of funding could value the obstetrics start up at. that's coming up. plus take a look at futures after a positive day for wall street. futures indicating a lower open. all eyes on the nasdaq getting close to breaking 5,000. about 100 points away and free market trade down about 5 points. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks

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30 minutes to go until we hit 6:00 a.m. eastern. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> got to start with markets. u.s. futures calling for a lower open with officials warning about the impact of raising rates too soon. >> the greek government asked for six month extension. the financial assistance facility agreement. they have discussed capital con

rolls for roll trolls for athens. >> walmart reports fourth quarter results before the opening bell. we have an exclusive interview with the ceo coming up later today. >> nestle suggests a dividend hike. the ceo tells nbc that he's optimistic on growth prospects. >> we're going to have to go after it but we outperformed the others and that is what motivates me. and at 4.5% last year it's one of these fundamental building blocks. >> and fuel prices in california surge following an explosion at a major refinery but that's not felt in the oil markets. crude prices are down today on reports of u.s. inventories. a choppy day of trade on

wall street following that dovish fed meeting minutes. right now arrows pointing to the downside. the dow indicating a lower open by 29 points. the nasdaq that was able to rise for the 6th consecutive day which does mean it's 100 points away from breaking 5,000. a milestone for the has the tack. it's pointing to a lower open down about 5 points. here in wrurpeurope, the focus continues to be on greece. another crucial day. they have requested a six month extension of its loan contract. athens says it will honor it's financial obligations to all creditors. some say this is a step in the right direction and it gives greece more time to find a negotiation or solution when it comes to its discussion with european policy makers. in the meantime let's get back to u.s. markets. the nasdaq continues to move higher 6th consecutive day of

gains. is the nasdaq approaching this bubble territory? let's get out to chad who is portfolio manager, a pleasure have to you. let's talk more about the nasdaq out performance. does the recent price action tell you that it can continue to move higher? >> we would take a more cautious tone for the overall markets at this inflection point with a forward looking pe multiple of 17 times we think that earnings as well as growth rates are going to be come what more decelerating over the course of 2015. within the nasdaq there are certain seems of opportunity, old world technology but we do believe there will be a reversal from the high momentum stocks to more low momentum. >> i remember reporting on the nasdaq when it broke 4,000. now we're getting closer to 5,000. does that scare you that we're getting close to the tech bubble that ended up popping back in

march of 2000? >> without a doubt it doesn't scare us at all. valuations are high but not in bubble territory. we would be more cautious again but at this inflection point when we look at the global background of a decelerating global growth and earnings in the s&p that are going to grow about 3% with revenue growth of 2% we would take more of a cautious tone. >> i want to talk about one of the reasons you listed that may make you want to trim equity positions. why is that happening while equities are still able to push higher? >> we just believe that what happens within the credit markets is that you start to see a widening of the spread when you see growth rates within cash flows as well as perhaps

political instability. the greek issue starts to occur. we decided to go from a neutral weight to more of a modest underweight. that doesn't mean we're looking for a massive correction but if you see a 10 to 15% correction over the next six months we would not be shocked. >> wow, that's a big call. let's also talk about the fed's latest meeting minutes. they did reference oil prices. lower oil prices could slow economic growth which, chad that caught some market par gattis panlt -- participants by surprise. >> lower oil tells you a couple of things. one is supply issues but also potential demand issues. you can see the demand curve go a little bit lower. it doesn't mean demand for oil is going to go negative. squus means some what more muted.

backdrop for that is the euro zone. we're expecting growth within the euro zone to be about half a percent this year and within asia, in particular china, we think that gdp growth is going to be about 6.5%. hence the reason why oil prices will be in a trading range of about $55 barrel to about 40 tlrs dollars barrel. let's talk about a couple of your top picks. you like ebay. why is that. >> well for full disclosure i own it personally as well as we own it for our fund. we think that the value of the company is roughly about 65 to $70. that's our price target. the sum of the parts analysis is some what more exciting for us. we think, though that this is an earnings play. our expectation for eps for 2016 is roughly $3.50. so you're getting a value stock

as a value investor at appropriate growth rate. you're getting paid well for taking on the risk. so we would be a buyer of ebay. >> and the stock up about 6% over the past two weeks. we'll leave it there. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> let's take a look at some of today's other top stories. shares trading higher after it formally launched a search for successor to the current ceo. his current contract runs until 2017 but he has been under pressure as rivals like nike gain big ground. they say it will have sufficient time for a smooth transition. it's up 6% today on the news. >> all right. let's talk about apple. it is being sued by a maker of batteries for electric cars. a-123 systems alleges apple has been poaching engineers since last summer to build a large scale battery division. apple has not responded to the lawsuit. last week apple was talking with

industry experts with the aim of learning how to make its own electric cars. we've been having an active discussion around the role apple is playing in the auto space. it will be interesting to see if they decide to launch this icar. >> absolutely. >> they've had the same success as the iphone and ipad. >> it's a very different kettle of fish. they want all of those devices to be synced in terms of the ecosystem but a car is a different one. we'll see. >> absolutely. >> yahoo! will be courting app makers when it's holds it's first ever developers conference in san francisco today. marissa myer gives a speech at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. google and facebook have held similar events for more than five years. they expect them to pass ad revenue for the first time this year. it's down 1.2% today. >> the competition is heating up between samsung and apple. samsung may be looking to challenge apple pay.

they're buying loop pay for an undisclosed amount. unlike apple pay, loop pay works in about 90% of exiting point of sales retail terminals. samsung was already an investor in the company taking a look at shares of samsung, they were down last time i checked. >> now pinterest is reportedly in talks to raise $500 million in a new round of funding that could value the social media site at $11 billion. that's double the current valuation. they plan to raise the money in the coming weeks. the news comes a day after reports that said snap chat was looking to raise money that would value it at $19 billion. >> we look at some of the old tech companies and valuations in the late 1990s and saying we're not seeing the same valuations today. yahoo! was at 1,000 times earnings from the late 1990s. today it's at 6 times the private market you're seeing the mega valuations.

uber at $40 billion. >> i think the case for buying traditional tech is it increases when you start seeing the ones when they increase dividends as well. >> yeah, growth as value. coming up, residents in southern california are bracing for pain at the gas pump following an explosion at a major refinery near los angeles. we're getting you those details coming up after this break.

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welcome back. the nasdaq is in striking distance of breaking 5,000. let's take a look at some of the big winners so far. there are 14 nasdaq 100 stocks up more than 1,000 percent since the market bottom in 2009. here's some of the big names, sirius xm. they're the topper performing stocks. netflix on a tear. chinese social media company bidu and starbucks as well. apple has played a significant role in pushing the nasdaq higher but apple only up about 980% since the market hit a low in 2009. >> some of those best

performers small stocks not like apple. one of the best performing is the energy sector which has been lagging and investigators in california are trying to determine the cause of an explosion at a major refinery on wednesday. an incident that could have a real impact on gasoline prices in the states. let's have a look at this story with landon. >> the blast that happened wednesday morning local time felt like a small earthquake. it registered 1.7-on-the rictor scale. it was about 30 miles from downtown los angeles. four contract workers were hurt. they're prohibiting exxon from operating the unit which produces 100,000 barrels per day until their investigation is complete. the shutdown could last six months. trade publication opis reports

the unit exploded as the contract workers were doing maintenance and sources say the unit could take up to a year to replace. it produces 155,000 barrels of gasper day and accounts for 50% of all gas sold in california. gas prices surged to the highest level on wednesday on fears local supplies will be tighter on the coming weeks. it rose as high as 40% above prices. the highest prices in the country for their gas. the state uses it's own solution fighting gasoline. blends not found in other states. as a result the majority of gas sold there comes from the 14 refineries which don't keep much fuel in storage. so prices can spike. they close down % on wednesday and analysts say it could

benefit from the exxon shutdown. >> we're going to switch focus and talk about vegas. i love vegas. here is a picture of las vegas but don't adjust your tv sets because it's not a major power out outage. they turned off their lights earlier this morning to honor the unlv basketball coach that died last week. vegas has only gone dark seven times before including jfk's assassination. i think we should do an episode of worldwide exchange from vegas. >> what do you do? i spend times going to shows and museums and getting food. >> go to a party. enjoy a show or two. >> anything you want to tell us? what happens in vegas -- >> goes on instagram. >> stays in vegas. here's headlines at this hour. u.s. futures trade lower off the

back of the fed and falling crude prices. greece seeking a six month extension as the ecb denies discussing capital controls and the world's largest retailer walmart, is set to report earnings with analysts predicting a slump in profitability. we'll get you the latest on that. introducing preferred rewards from bank of america the new banking rewards program that rewards our customers, every day. you'll get things like rewards bonuses on credit cards... extra interest on a savings account... preferred pricing on merrill edge online trades and more... across your banking and investing get used to getting more. that's the power of more rewarding connections. that's preferred rewards from bank of america.

>> let's get back to our top story right now. greece will work with the euro zone over the next six months to end it's bailout after proposing a new deal. now this request for a six month extension to its financial assistance facility, that's what they're calling it includes a proposal for humanitarian measures and should also allow the ecb to return to accepting greek government debt as

collateral so the market seeing this as a positive development. take us through what the bond market is telling us. >> a little bit of a positive move. nothing too dramatic. it tells the story the best. the ten year has shortened from about 10.2% earlier to 10%. so not a massive move but a bit of a move in that 9.5 to 10.5 area. so we're right in the middle. a sense of improvement but not out of the woods yet. as we look at the shorter end of the curve, elevated yields at 18.2% on the greek three year. let's look in at markets on the whole. yesterday was a strong day and today was weaker. but we have strengthened throughout the at a. the ftse 100 is below flat. of course energy stocks weighing today on that index as the oil prices declined over the last 24 hours. germany is about flat. france is up .3% and athens is now up about 2.5%. of course these types of moves,

2% is not rare in the stock index at the moment. >> let's take a look at premarket trade. right now suggesting a lower open on walmart following a mixed day of trade after we got that fed statement. interestingly enough the nasdaq and nasdaq 100 were able to close at their highest levels in 15 years. the nasdaq now above 4900. so less than 100 points away from breaking 5,000 which is being seen as a major milestone for that index. right now the nasdaq indicating a lower open to around 3 points. >> walmart reports 4th quarter results in about an hour. 7:00 a.m. eastern time. the world's largest retailer is forecast to earn $1.53 a share down from last year on revenue of $134 billion. it is following a long stretch of flat or negative results. cnbc has an exclusive interview

with walmart's ceo after the company reports earnings. that's today at 11:00 a.m. eastern on squawk alley. one not to miss. let's preview you the earnings numbers though. joining us is the managing director at strategic resource group. thank you for joining us. what are you expecting from these numbers? we're expecting a positive continuation after last quarter's results were pretty good. >> wilfred, it's definitely stabilizing the same sales numbers for the first time in five years. we expect walmart to beat the $1.53 on earnings per share. we expect a miss on revenue related to it. >> from looking at previous results walmart has been dealing with disappointing same store sales. customers have been complaining about the retail experience. this is the world's largest

retailer. what else does doug mcmillian have to do? >> what you referenced seema is the board of directors at at walmart has to give doug more budgets for more staffing to put sufficient number of team members in the store and inventory to restock the shelves. they can increase by a factor of plus three to plus four percent. they'll be one of the biggest beneficiary when the west coast stocks shutdown and settle. walmart has very actively redirected product better than it's competitors to gulf coast ports and east coast ports and worldwide walmart is turning around and still has a number of challenges in latin america as well as asia. but mcmillan is probably the best leader walmart had for 15 years so you should see a turn around. >> the stronger dollar has been

a big concern this earnings season but given that walmart has high domestic exposure 4,000 stores in the u.s. does the stronger dollar work as a tail wind versus a head wind for walmart? >> you're raising a really pressing point. with 59% of the total worldwide revenue based in the u.s. and significant amount based in canada and the u.s. walmart's north american operations are a real tail wind for the company which will help relative to international competitors. that said walmart still has a long way to catch up versus it's best international competitor which is costco. >> let's talk about e-commerce. they're doing better than other bricks and mortar retailers but is it still a margin killer for them? >> it is both a margin killer and walmart invested in e-commerce five times in the last 15 years. walmart is starting to succeed

this time but what we're seeing in our store checks worldwide and particularly walmart in america is with e-commerce walmart is short staffed and customer service so it doesn't have the people to do the collecting in the stores. we're also picking up there's some credit card fraud not related to the company but we lated to the credit card companies with walmart.com. but there's some issues but to the company's credit on the fifth time in it's initiatives they're doing better this time than the previous times. >> how much are retailers going to be negatively impacted by the long standing labor unrest that effected many west coast ports? do you expect walmart to comment on this in today's earnings report? >> we're expecting walmart to comment. it's effecting 30% of shipments overall but because walmart has done such a good job redirecting it's logistics we expected west

coast shipment slow down to effect walmart by about 2%. the currency headwinds by 3 to 5%. so better than it's competitors and as you referenced tail winds, more of these work for walmart, the results will get better as we get into the next calendar year. >> thank you for joining us today. much appreciated. the managing director at strategic resource group. don't forget cnbc has an exclusive interview with the walmart ceo after the company reports earnings today at 11:00 a.m. eastern on squawk alley. >> following the ceasefire between russia and ukraine, i want to get you caught up on headlines coming out. pro-russian separatists launched an attack on a village near the russian town. assets already trading lower given that wti crude and brent are both lower. >> that's all we've got time for here on worldwide exchange. we enjoyed it. i hope you did as well. >> next up is squawk box. have a great day.

>> call it progress. breaking overnight, greece's new government applying for an extension to its loan and asking to renegotiate some terms. oil prices plummeting right now on a rise in u.s. inventories and renewed fears about oversupply. the siberian express. temperatures running 30 to 40 degrees below average today because of all the warming from the mississippi river to the east coast. it's thursday february 19th 2015 and squawk box begins right now. >> live from new york where business never sleeps this is

squawk box. >> good morning everybody and welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. i'm becky quick with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. welcome to the year of the sheep. most major markets in asia are closed for celebrations today and here's one piece of trivia for you. the lunar new year falls on february 19th in japan and china but it's the year of the goat in japan this year. >> we have a couple of top stories to follow this morning. greece desperately tried to avoid running out of cash so athens asked for a six month extension today to its euro zone loan agreement. it's boosting hopes for a last minute compromise. we'll see where that all goes. unlikely, i think at the moment at least. in the meantime corporate news walmart is set