a very warm welcome to worldwide exchange. i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm seema mody. >> standard chartered announces a successor. former jp morgan executive will put the bank back on track. >> rbs racks up a 3.5 billion pound loss on shares of its u.s. business. but shares in the green as the ceo hands back a chunk of his bonus. >> trading lower after the german insurer disappoints on the dividend.

the company is cutting exposure to russia. >> we do not see any reason to write it down but we are reducing our russian activities in the retail space substantially. >> central bankers under fire. janet yellen and mario draghi on the defense as lawmakers on both sides of the pond demand answers over recent actions. >> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> welcome to the show. we had german jobless data about three minutes ago. it stayed at a record low in february. the adjusted rate of 6.5% has come in at the same level it was in january. the unadusted rate down fractionally from 7% to 6.9 and the jobless number was 3.017 million.

no significant improvement from the already impressive level it was at. the euro not moving too much off the back of that. >> let's take a look at stocks on the move. standard chartered trading higher this morning after the bank announced it is replacing it's ceo with ex jp morgan executive. shares are down around 20% since peter sands took the helm in november of 2006 this is a well respected banker taking the helm here. >> we all know that peter sands has been under pressure. a lot of investors unhappy with the management of the company. there's issues about the developed world where they have strong assets. well how about businesses doing -- he was the main man at jp morgan in europe.

he left that business mostly because people thought he was a rival to jamie diamond. he was then out theed as a potential boss for barclays. that didn't happen. apparently he declined that offer and set up this alternative asset management so the fact that he is going back into traditional banking very interesting. amazingly good for shareholders. just in terms of market cap you've seen a couple of hundred million pounds being added to the value but he's not the only one. there's a massive shake up going on all across the board. you have the chief executive of save the children on the board. huge grandee used to be of the fsa. was at barclay's. very respected woman. one of the best bankers in london certainly in terms of female representation. so huge overhaul. >> definitely a big move. it's up about 1% off of its

highs. but still a move to the upside. thank you for now. we cannot forget this story. do you remember when some of london's top bankers took their clothes off for charity hast year? bill winters was among them. head to our website. we have you covered on that story. >> meanwhile the bank of scotland has posted it's 7th consecutive net loss. he has sent some instructions as to how he wants the bank to go moving forward. >> don't pay. get the taxpayer money back and don't pay all of these bonuses. you have the chief executive that's waved his 1 million announce for the second year going. if you look at the bonus pool that's come down from about 500 million pounds thank you very much and the bank is in much

better state than it was. last year at this time they reported a 9 billion pound loss so we have an attributed loss at the moment but operating profits of 3.5 billion. they took the massive write down on citizens. this is the biggest bank ipo. they still own 70% of that but we'll see more of that being disposed of but on the core he's saying look there's still a lot more left to do. we are retrenching. we are leaving about 35 countries. we are going to be focused on the u.k. it's going to mean more job losses. it's going to mean more impairment charges potentially but essentially there's a good business there and just on those impairment charges a lot of the positive numbers that we saw today is because you have a whole lot of write backs. all of the things that he we saw hugely benefitted.

go back to 2013 fourth quarter and take an impairment charge. so a lot of those assets are looking healthier. >> thank you for that recap for now. joining us is john stubbs. let us continue quickly on the u.k. banks because you're very positive on the u.k. equity market in general. are the banks included in that. >> yeah. we talk about restructuring. banks are restructuring. have been for some time. you have recovery. the second half. and then you have capital return. so you have banks. u.k. banks as well as european banks beginning during a long period of capital repair and are now starting to return capital to investors and capital returns being one of the most powerful share price themes in markets so those banks that can

restructure, can repair can benefit from recovery and can return capital should do well in share price. >> but he was saying we're going to look at potentially returning to a dividend structure. and have that discussion with them. when you think he's expected to have the dividend all the same. >> but banks are now dealing with loan demand which still remains elusive and a lack of credit demand. we'll look at the health of the banking sector to give us an idea of where the economy is in their economic cycle. what would you say about the u.k.? >> from an economic perspective? >> yes. >> well we have been through this multiyear repair on the banking side. it's still going on. you're seeing individuals changing chairs because of individuals at banks. that's happening.

that's part of the repair process. the underlying u.k. economy has been strong as you know for the last 12 to 18 months. a release of pent up demand and a big reason for that and capital return is so important. it's the cost of money and the level of interest rates. when interest rates are close to zero the world over or negative in some countries. investors are crying out for a yield pick up on that sub zero negative interest rate. >> look at rbs. this is a bank that would benefit the most from any return to normalize interest rates because at the moment at those record lows it's difficult for banks to earn margin. so i think when you see interest rates start to pick up as well they'll be main beneficiaries of that. >> when we're talking about being positive overall on u.k. he equities the ftse 100 is not that u.k. focused. most of these big u.k. banks aren't either.

what's the best way for you to play that you have on the u.k.? >> we have a target on the ftse 100 which is 7,000,700. that hasn't changed and it's based on a belief that we get modest earnings kbroeth overgrowth over the next couple of years. they look incredibly cheap related to all the asset classes. so our positive view is based on a very strong relative story and a modest improvement in term of the ability of companies broadly to deliver on earnings and tif dends. dend -- dividends. >> we have been talking about the record highs. the dow closed at a record high yesterday. the nasdaq getting close to breaking 5,000 but here in europe we're seeing new highs in germany as well as the ftse 100 breaking it's 1999 high.

do these milestones mean anything to you? >> i don't have medals or trophies at home when you get to these milestones but despite hitting index level highs, equities have never ever been cheap cheaper. it is relative to other asset classes. u.k. equities recently hit a 100 year valuation high or low. so attractive relative to guilt yields. so u.k. equities have never on a dividend yield basis, have never looked this cheap relative to bonds. and that is forcing more and more investors every day to think about whether they should have exposure to fixed income and cash earning them pretty much nothing or shift some exposure toward equity. >> why don't you look for

dividend rich companies. >> interesting if you're pointing out valuations in the u. k. that's one of the reasons u.s. investors are looking to diverse identify their portfolios. valuation itself looks very attractive. now you also have central bank policy providing the stim you -- stimulant markets are looking for. >> you have qe with what are already improving trends from an earnings perspective and flow perspective and economic perspective. it's very important to align with liquidity. one way of doing that if you're an international investor is to own european shares especially continental ones. >> let's hit the pause button on

this debate. thank you for now. he sticks with us. as we were just telling you with the nasdaq striking distance of 5,000, is this really a milestone? does it mean anything to you? join the conversation on worldwide exchange. twitter and cnbcwx. but before we discuss this into further length let's get a market update. >> it's been quite strong already. looks like we were continuing that pause for breath today but we have had a little bit of a jump in the last 16 minutes or so since we got that jobless number coming in at 6.5%. same as for january but a record low it's maintaining so that lack of it falling is taken positively by markets so the stock 600 is up about a quarter

of a percent. let's have a look now at each european market. as you can see we're basically just above flat for each of them but nothing too significant. we did erase those earlier fractional losses we were looking at. athens is down about 6%. that's been rallying since the four month bailout extension was agreed. the u.s. ten year treasury didn't move too much further yesterday after janet yellen's second day of testimony in front of congress. the net result has been a dovish interpretation of what she said by the bond market. we were above 2% and we're now about 1.95%. even though many are still interpreting it as leading to a june rate hike as the most likely, the bond market interpretation has been more dovish with yields coming back. further bond buying today.

further yield compression in germany today. significantly lower yields again. in the u.k. 1.69% and the ten year in greece which has been range bound around the 8.5% is sitting around 9% today. quick look because we have seen the u.s. dollar come off as the yields have come down. we've seen the u. s. dollar give up a little bit of ground particularly against the likes of sterling yen and aussie dollar. we're looking at 11344 at the moment. the rouble gained about a perkrebt today. let's get let's get a check in on markets in asia. >> dear oh dear what happened to the mighty gunners against monaco? should we press on swiftly and talk about the markets? the positive leadership is

coming from north asia. the nikkei 225 at fresh 15 year highs for the index. remember the markets liked what they saw with the u. s. data overnight. they also liked what they heard from janet yellen imlying she is in no rush to raise the fed. >> there were buying off the stocks and they got a lift that a major public pension fund said they would increase to equities. from 25% to 8% prior. incidentally goldman had a bullish call. 21,700 for the index by the end of the year. elsewhere, china stocks another big out performer up by almost 2.2% at the end of the trading day. so the best percentage rise in three weeks. insurance, banking and the real estate sectors provided positive

leadership. on that note back to you in london. >> thank you. just checking in on what the latest results were. they lost to sheffield united. >> you have to follow the local side mate. >> thank you very much for that update. the less we say about football the better this morning. >> agreed. >> seema, what's up next. >> all right. settle down. coming up on this show auto makers are moving full speed ahead toward high-tech cars but is the push for con neck activity -- connectivity there. and who is the latest victim of a cyberattack? and could this be as useful as a chocolate teapot. we'll be getting to the bottom of that one later on in the show. stick with us.

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he's out there. there's a guy out there whose making a name for himself in a sport where your name and maybe a number are what define you. somewhere in that pack is a driver that can intimidate the intimidator. a guy that can take the king 7 and make it 8. heck. maybe even 9. make no mistake about it. they're out there. i guarantee it. welcome to the nascar xfinity series. . a series of tough questions from republican lawmakers that accuse her of pushing the democrats agenda on issues like income inequality. >> was there one party pushing

the idea of income inequality over the last party in the last election. >> i believe it is a problem -- >> that's not my question. >> everyone in this room should be concerned about. >> but was one party pushing that idea over the other party. >> i have heard politicians on both sides of the aisle lement rising income inequality. >> she wasn't the only central banker under fire yesterday. mario draghi had to explain the ecb decision to stop accepting greek bonds as collateral. >> no, no agree to transfer the income made by the euro system on the s&p portfolio to greece as long as greece complies with the program. so -- no no. >> please sir.

excuse me please. please respect the chair mr. draghi. please. please. could i ask you please -- mr. draghi please may i just say something. i would ask you to show respect for the chair. i gave you a little extra time. you are disrespectful to mr. draghi however you disagree with him, let him finish the point -- please let him finish the point. there are many mr. speakers to come. >> let's get out to julia who is live in athens with all the latest on that situation and the reaction to the heckling in the european parliament yesterday. >> that was probably a first for him right now but it gives you a sense of the urgency of the greek people. they have their extension but they have 6 billion euros worth

of debt repayments and t bills over the next month. that's the urgency for the government. the press picked it up and the two side of the debate are coined well. the leftest side is saying the rush is on as far as concerns for the greek government. he's addressing the parliament ten hours he was speaking to the parliament to explain the situation right now and then we've got the most leftest paper or rightest paper saying asphyxiation in 34 days underscoring the need for refinancing. he is under pressure as far as accepting greek bonds into the debate overnight tuesday. they think the more likely scenario is greece is allowed to save on the issues. they have to please the lenders as far as reforms and

implementation is concerned. they want to see some sort of humanitarian reform measures put in too. this will allow them to distinguish themselves from the previous government. we have to expect fast action to implemented things that will please the lenders as far as tax evasion and smuggling we heard talked about over the last week or so nothing will upset them as far as it's concerned. they realize it. ignore the noise as far as the party is concerned. he he seemed to pull them into line yesterday and we have to accept fast action on reforms. >> i'm very impressed as you hold up the newspapers. you've been in athens so long you can now read greek as well. >> i have friends that help me with that wilfred. i have to say. but i'm working on it. >> thank you as ever for that report from athens. >> now let's focus in on the auto sector.

in car connectivity is all the rage but a new study from jd power suggests some high-tech features are failing. especially three years after installation. our auto reporter takes a closer look. >> the latest vehicle depend blt study is out and looks at the dependability of 3-year-old models. it has staggering issues when it comes to in car connectivity. it doesn't work that well for people using their bluetooth. 55% say they have no phone recognition in their vehicle even though they have software designs in the vehicle that should recognize the phone. 31% say they cannot get an automatic connection with their phone as soon as they enter the vehicle. overall, 2012 molds anddels registered

problems in the vehicles. 60% were design related. we're not talking about manufacturing issues as much as design problems in the eyes of consumers. the five most dependable brands according to j.d. power, lexus followed by buick and a tie between honda and porsche. there's a real opportunity not only for tech companies but the auto makers if they can get it right in terms of connectivity within the vehicle there's a chance to win over customers because every time they have a car that's not working property in terms of phone connectivity they run a real risk of losing that customer. >> so city's autos team have written extensively about the positive impact of technology in the sector. joining us is jonathan the european equity strategist at city group. talk to us about the opportunity you see in the connected car. the integration of technology in the auto sector. is that one reason to get

bullish on some of these nails? they have written about what they call the car of the future. we're hearing about the risks involved but we think the opportunities, the growth opportunities, especially for the supplier companies outweigh some of the emerging risks. it's very powerful support of growth coming out over the next few years but there's also traditional support for the investment case for autos that shouldn't be overlooked. it's not just about technology. what's happening in the real economy and in terms of policy and liquidity. >> qe. >> qe. so autos have been one of the most consistent and strongest performing sectors. that's also the case this time around. in fact in japan where we have seen two qe periods there's only

been three sectors that out performed the markets in both of them. autos is one of them. so they should have this growth boost from technology but also the improvement of the european economy we have also seen the currencies weaken already and they're at highs for, you know they last much longer. aren't we already at a peak? >> well you know the fleet in europe is relatively old. we're coming off a very low level. we're starting to see the pick up. you look at year on year sales in spain. it's running close to 30% year on year. that's the first time we've seen this in some of the economies. the currency and euro has weakened significantly but we're heading against the dollar by the end of this year. there's more support to come

there. it's also one of four sectors that saw double digits earnings growth and is expected to have double digit earnings growth this year and next year. we think the sector looks pretty well underpinned however you look at it. >> valuation wise it still looks attractive. >> it looks very attractive as it usually does on a yield basis. it's yielding in line with the markets. but it has dividend growth as well. in this 0% interest rate world that becomes very attractive. >> that's city central forecast that it hits pairdy by the end of the year. >> yes. >> great stuff. thank you very much. >> all right. coming up, you can read more about the car owners that are fed up with failing technologies on our website. you can head to cnbc.com. still to come on the show nevermind greek instability. europe is ripe with opportunities if you know where to look. that's according to the co-ceo of the private equity titan. we bring you that interview after this break.

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much as 5% as bill winters will put the bank back on track. >> rbs racks up a $3.5 billion loss on its u.s. business. it resumes it's dividend and the ceo hands back a chunk of his bonus. >> allianz trading lower after a smaller than expected profit and disappoints on the dividend. the company is kuth exposure to russia. >> we do not see any reason to write it down but we are reducing our russian activities in the retail space substantially. >> central bankers under fire. on the defense as lawmakers on both side of the pond demand answers over recent actions. >> we just had the second rating

of q-4. that's 2.7% year on year. there were fractional revisions to the third quarter gdp but nothing significant. the headline has been no changes. you can see sterling is near session lows but hasn't been much movement. it's flat. 15523. >> a lot has to do with lower oil prices. lest look at european markets right now. allianz is down 2.6%. ftse 100 sticking flat. dax up about .2%. it's been trading in record high territory over the past couple of days thanks to upbeat german

data. >> that's just above flat up up .2%. utilities buying holdings for around $3 billion. the deal will create a new power and electric utility firm listed in the u.s. now germany's biggest pharmaceutical company despite a drop in earnings. germany's largest drug maker sounded confident. shares reacting positively up 1.3% coming up just after the end of worldwide exchange we'll be speaking to the ceo first on interview at 12:05 for viewers here in europe. now they're off 2.3%. it's announced a $1 billion share buy back and large dividend hike that topped forecasts. still 6% earnings increased missed forecasts in the fourth

quarter partly due to weakness in china and mexico. now that is sliding 2.5% because full year net and operating profit fell short of forecasts. the german insurer announced a smaller than expected dividend increase. >> despite a mixed performance in today's trade private equity players continue to seek out opportunities in europe as instability in greece and a sluggish recovery prompted bargain hunting across the continent. some indexes are trading at multiyear highs. annetta spoke to the co-ceo at the conference in berlin and asked where the firm was investing in europe. >> we obviously tend to prefer the northern as well. we would be quite hesitant in greece but we did look at opportunities in portugal for example and over a year ago we did something in italy which may

not be geographically we're talking about but is more volatile. we're able to find something at a more attractive value queue wags which is priced for the risk and we're getting a very good return. i think you have to pick your spots but there's deals to do all over. it's hard with supreme volatility. >> do you think that this exist tendency is here to stay? so more and more we are going to see more and more exits or will we see a reversal of the trend. >> you're going to continue to see exits because these are favorable markets and all of us are working hard at the close we're all paid to invest as well. we're looking for new

opportunities. i think probably 2014 was an extraordinary year because there was still a lot of different interpretation of how the bank rules, the debt rules were enforced in the u.s. and so you saw leverage packages that were more consistent with traditional levels in the last several years. so 7.5 and 8 times in the last assets and those have been clawed back in closer to six times and obviously that will mean you won't make as much on an exit as in 2014 so people will hold their asset longer and things like that but the markets are still good and people take advantage of them. >> where else does private equity see opportunity in europe. let's get out to annetta live from that conference. >> well that's a perfect question. i put that question to my guest. thank you very much for joining us.

so where does private equity like to put the money my colleague was just asking me. >> from a fund-raising perspective the world over the last few years has been very differentiated between the united states which untook qe much earlier than europe and that economy has really prospered because of it and from a private equity investor standpoint there's much greater opportunity in the u.s. over the last few years than here in europe and many managers portfolios improved since the crisis immeasureably and they have invested a huge amount of capital and that's drawn further capital into the u.s. market because as money is distributed they have looked at their portfolio and seen it really delivered.

they want more of it and that's gone back to the u. s. here in europe the recovery beginning to take root is that much further behind and many european managers don't yet have the performance pattern in the u.s. so here it's much more discriminating. it's good to see more and more are now beginning to prosper in terms of the return profile on their portfolio so i think you will see europe which has been pretty out of favor for some years now. the fund-raising market now will begin to pick up. it did last year. the trend will continue this year. >> that's reflected in the opinions of people we spoke to.

they all see europe as the big opportunity if they had one dollar to place into either the u.s. or euro. but let me also ask you because a lot of money is raised for private equity. do you see that as a problem? >> i would say it's a minority sport. too many people show up then the opportunity gets away. but to a good extent private equity has been a victim of success. if you are an investor and you look back over the last 10 or 20 years the one asset class head and shoulders above everything else without exception is private equity. it has proven to be the best way to undertake company ownership. and as investors struggle to

find returns and match their assets and liabilities they're being forced up the risk curve into asset classes which have delivered and private equity is the recipient of that. when you look at fund-raising globally what are the four things that drive it? you have new programs coming on stream investing in the asset class for the first time. that's happening. you've got existing programs increasing their allocation most will have a percentage based on the asset base and those grow in real and nominal terms and finally you have distributions and the industry has returned record levels of capital back to investors from precrisis investments in 2013 14, and

2012 as well. you have all of that pressure building back into the industry. capital is building. it's going into the hands of the smartest investors and smartest funds because i don't see irrational behavior. the best funds are getting through the market pretty quickly. the remainder are getting through the market in a much more deliberate way. it's still taking a lot of time and many funds aren't getting support at all. the market is quite efficient. why is that the case? our industry is maturing. we have many more years of data from data providers. who is delivering? who has struggled? who isn't delivering good risk adjusted returns? who is. and everybody knows because they have all been educated in this

asset class which is this is a fantastic place to invest capital. if you invest with the best and you leave the rest. >> thank you. >> thank you very much for your insight. so with that i'm sending it back to you. you see, people are still optimistic here on the ground but of course 2015 will be a challenging year to find attractive investments. >> thank you. the nikkei closed at a fresh 15 year high boosted by an investment pledge from japan's national pension fund. let's get the latest from the nikkei live in tokyo. >> thank you wilfred. the nikkei 225 rose 200 points closing at 18,785 today. what kept the bullish momentum in the market is the expectation that japanese pension funds will be investing more in domestic stocks and one of them that manages japan's national civil service pensions just announced reshuffling it's asset allocation target. it's raising from 8% to 25% and

considering the funds total assets are roughly $65 billion this means that an additional $10 billion or so will be poured into the market. this follows the path of the gpif. japan's public pension fund because the civil service pension fund is expected to yield the same return as the gpif. this means a shift away from heavy investment in bonds. they expected returns set by the welfare ministry is 1.7%. other funds are expected to adopt similar asset allocations plans and a total of $43 billion worth of additional domestic equities will be bought and this is of a scale the market cannot ignore. >> thank you. lenovo website was hacked on wednesday. it comes just a week after another security breach at the

chinese computer and smartphone if i recall. hacking group lizard squad claimed responsibility. >> the chinese government dropped some of the world's leading technology brands from its approved state purchase list. cisco, apple, and citrix have all been removed. cisco had 60 products on the list but this has been reduced to zero. >> now still to come here on worldwide exchange lloyds is next in line to report earnings after rbs posts it's 7th straight loss but our next guest says brighter times are ahead thanks to the improving economy. we'll discuss after this short break.

>> shares are down around 20% since peter sands took the helm in november 2006. >> rbs posted it's 7th consecutive loss on the value of

its u.s. business citizens and charges. they also confirmed the former regulator would take over as chairman. investors get another check tomorrow when lloyds reports results. barclays wraps up results for the sector next tuesday. joining us to discuss this more is richard hunter. head of u.k. equities. pleasure to have you with us. let's kick off with rbs. as well as the earnings this morning we also hear about howard davis and the chancellor sent a letter of how he would like the bank to be run. it's wanting the bank to be run in the interest of the taxpayer. does that put them at a natural disadvantage? >> it does. it's just after the financial crisis they left themselves with a task in terms of trying to turn the business around and streamline it and reshape and

reform. there's little doubt it's making progress. it's undoing a lot of the mistakes it made. but when you have your largest shareholder trying to dictate the way you do business that is and has been a concern for many analysts. >> giving up his $1 million allowance in terms of this time around. is that a theme are they just operating with much less brilliant workers? >> well inevitably there's going to be some within the banking sector although traditionally it's been a movement of moving on shortly afterwards. so some of the guys will still be around in the banking sector. it's going to be to improve on cost savings all the way across the board.

that comes at the same time that it's going to lose some good stuff. >> tomorrow we get a look at lloyds. are you expecting the company to issue a dividend? >> we are thinking maybe something fairly token. maybe a penny a share. just to put that in context of course. lloyds is a core holding in any portfolio with an extremely high dividend yield. so a return to any dividend yield will be taken positively and lloyds someone of the more favored stocks in the sector at the moment. not least of which because it's seen as a proxy for the u.k. economy which is beginning to have it's day in the sun. so there are some fairly positive numbers to expect. >> one of the bright spots it's up about 5% this year in comparison to rbs and standard charter which are down. >> absolutely. that's again partially because it's much further down in terms of its own reorganization plans. the price is at such a level

where almost unreportedly the government sunk another 1% of its stake the other day and again in terms of prospects it's probably where rbs would like to see itself in 12 or 14 months. >> thank you for joining us. >> now to ukraine. the imf says it stands ready to assist ukraine with it's fx issues following the recent decline in hyrvnia. a currency trading suspension has been withdrawn. this is a developing story. let's get out to steve following the story and the currency in kiev steve? >> yeah thank you very much indeed. utter confusion yesterday. that's between the government and the national bank of ukraine. let alone the rest of us rying to observe.

if prime minister accused the central bank governor of banning most types of foreign trading. later on in the day the resolution 130 was replaced by 131. that's the one that cnbc confirmed. it shows you how things are on the ground. the fact that the government and the national bank don't appear to be on the same page. the company is desperately in need. it's part of a $40 billion package over four years and reports are saying that initial dispersement of that would be very heavily front loaded. but they can't do that until the reform package has gone through parliament and that won't go through until the third and then the imf may come up with their bargain on the 11th of march. other issues include the fact

that there's a lot of corruption around. it's something i talked previously about and then a presidential candidate. he's now the man in charge of cleaning up kiev. he's the mayor and we spoke extensively about the corruption problem. let's listen in. >> everybody expects the changes. everybody expect reform. we can make reform without very important point. we have to destroy corruption. without -- with corruption any reform doesn't work and that's why we present right now that corruption in 3 billion rena. it will be enough to build 5 metro station or to buy train to whole city. it's huge money and we expect from office to give short answer.

who is guilty and when we're giving the money back to our citizens. >> what is the major problem? corruption at a low level? top? throughout the whole of society in kiev and ukraine? >> actually build system. the whole system was involved in corruption down to top and right now our main change two points. how we destroy corruption. to he remove the people in second corruption like darkness. to bring everything in the light and make everything transparent. our main goal. this is how we destroyed corruption. >> the company is in a tough position financially. can you afford to fight corruption the way you want to fight it given the state of the finances of the country? the finances of kiev? >> yes of course. right now.

one way we can stabilize it is ukraine destroyed corruption. it's help of a budget. it's a shuttle. we have to take the money from the shuttle to the light and make economy work because economy doesn't work. it's our main goal. not just for ukraine. main goal for whole ukraine. >> that was the exworld champion boxer and now the man in charge of kiev on the clean up operation and he was handling a big file of who he believed were corrupt officials over to police and as he said there he believed the whole society there creates the previous president lead to corruption from top to bottom. one bit of good news i should say and it's regarding the war in the southeast, there has been no reported causalities in the last 24 hours so despite the concerns of the economy, despite concerns about corruption as

well at least one thing in the short-term appears to have just brightened maybe temporarily but for the moment better news coming out of the south and the east of the country back to you. >> that is what it seems like. thank you so much. let's switch focus to the u.s. markets. the dow did close in a record high. keeping an eye on the nasdaq it's striking distance of 2,000. we want to hear from you. is this a milestone? does it mean anything to you? you can join in on the conversation at worldwide exchange. e-mail us at worldwide at cnbc.com. twitter or tweet us. more on the march to 5000 coming up after this short break.

>> hi everyone you're watching worldwide exchange. the second hour of our show. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> u.s. futures pointing higher after key data reports fuelling hopes that the nasdaq will perhaps hit 5000. that's seen as a milestone. >> standard chartered announces a new ceo. they hope he'll put the bank back on track. >> rbs has a loss in the sale of its u.s. business but they have no plan to exit the states. >> and two big u.s. banks are

under scrutiny. morgan stanley settled under it's alleged role in the financial crisis while city group could be facing laundering charges. >> welcome everyone to the show and as we approach the end of february wilfred it has been interesting to see the rebound that we have had across multiple assets. oil is up about 2.7% in the month of february. the dow has gained over 1,000 points and the nasdaq i don't know if you knew this it's getting very close to breaking 5,000. a very different picture when we started this year. remember equities were down in the month of january but sentiment has changed over the past couple of weeks. >> absolutely and once again we're questioning whether we are due once again another correction. big correction in october. big correction in january as you say. will this be par for the course for 2015. immediately people get jittery because we're getting close to the rate rises. we're not seeing enough growth

to really justify it and we're six years into this rally. >> then you have janet yellen. a trader said janet yellen is the fair god mother of the bull market. she continues to sprinkle her fairy dust and those dovish comments helped markets move higher yesterday. >> although i have to say as we discussed yesterday i'm not sure it was that dovish. the bond market interpretation of it was dovish but most people still suggesting the most likely rate hike comes in june and that's a hawkish outcome. >> the bird fight continues. the hawks versus the doves. let's look at u. s. futures right now. arrows pointing to a higher future. the nasdaq up five points after ending lower yesterday. the s&p 500 up just about 2 points. let's look at the ftse. this is of course worldwide exchange. we're following all markets across the globe and this is the good chart i should say. it gives us a good gauge of

stocks across the world. the index is higher by .2%. if we dive into the international markets we had a mixed set of earnings this morning but the bias is to the upside. the ftse 100 up about three points. it hit a record high earlier this week and the german markets continue to rally. the french markets seeing a gain of around 10 points but continued concerns about what's happening in greece is sending some investors out of the greek equity market. we're looking at the athens ase down around 2% but the big moves not seen in the he equity market it's in the bond market. >> i'm excited to talk about it. the dax has been hitting highs. usually of course equities are going up we would expect people to be selling bonds and yields to be rising. that's not what's happening in the german ten year. it's just hit a fresh record all time low. we're below .3%.

.29%. we also have the seven year below zero this morning. it's because we're getting closer and closer to the start of quantitative easing. the start of it happens in march. that's why yields are pushing below .3% on the ten year. the ten year in the u.s. has seen movement over the last 48 hours as janet yellen is giving testimony to congress. the interpretation was of a dovish comment from janet yellen. those moves perhaps slightly overdone. the ten year in the u.k. 1.67 and in greece 9%. still elevated but a bit lower than the 10% we were seeing earlier in the week and last week as well it has meant that

the u.s. dollar has given up a little bit of ground. it's slightly less ground. we're looking at a bigger move against the rouble today. the dollar slid pretty much 60 as we look at it now and sterling which had a strong run since late january at 155-3 as we look at things today. oil has been trying to find a bottom and it's just about staying above 50 for wti. it's 50.8 and brent above 60 at the moment. so quite an interesting dissection today: seema, back to you. >> wti crude gaining about 4% in yesterday's trade. that might have been one of the reasons we saw the dow close at a record high. playing a big role in yesterday's rally. however the s&p 500 and the nasdaq did close slightly lower on the day.

pu tours pointing to a different picture. perhaps a positive day on wall street. we'll have to wait until we get that open but right now the focus will continue to be on the nasdaq. striking distance of 5,000. we want to hear from you. does the milestone matter? does it mean anything to you? we had tweets from you this morning. let's get straight to them. james thinks every thousand points is a plateau. while will believes milestones are meaningless particularly when compared to the black monday correction. i actually disagree with that. i think it's a psychological level for traders and many times traders look to levels where they're trading to give you perspective on how far the markets have come or if there is more room to go. >> i'm with @willseattle on this. >> because he has the same name? >> no because my name is wilf. not will. but it's one thing when there's a record new all time high because these arguments you're pushing into new territory but

an arbitrary numerical target is meaningful. >> now, 5,048 because that's a high for the nasdaq. >> that would be relevant because it's an all time high but just pulling an arbitrary target of 5,000. >> i think it's context. it provides perspective. but it's okay to agree to disagree. let's get a perspective from daniel morris as well. >> what do you think about the target? is it a big one? do we have to hit it? >> i'm more in the camp that generally speaking the milestones aren't necessarily all that significant. more important is to think about the drivers for hopefully continued depreciation. tech is one of the sectors we do like in the u.s. >> but dan you like tech but let's talk about the out performance we have been seeing in the tech heavy nasdaq up about 7%. does this tell you that the

sector is getting overvalued? >> not necessarily. if you look at the relative multiples tech looks better than a lot of the others. you have to take into account the very high valuations on the tech bubble but even on a relative base they look attractive. the u.s. isn't a particularly inexpensive market. but tech looks good and then as importantly if you think about the earnings prospects for tech as a whole, it's reasonably good as well because given that earnings growth is more difficult to come by companies will be looking for productivity gains and we think that will be a key way they'll go about getting that. >> did you know that 2-thirds of the nasdaq 100s out performance this year wilfred and dan is because of one stock. any idea what that stock would be? >> apple. >> apple it is wilfred you're so smart. it's already up so much this year but it just begs a question

of whether apple was not a part of this tech rally would we be seeing the nasdaq at these levels? we're looking more broadly across the sector particularly tech companies focused on business services. there's probably more potential. >> let's also talk about central banks and janet yellen. she has been taking a bit of heat from con depress from both side of the political spectrum. do you think we should be in a world where we hear from central bankers less often? is it a fact that we are just a bit silly because we're so focused on short-term dynamics? >> it's a function of what we've had to go through. it's been an vierlt where monetary policy has become so much more significant. it would be nice to give back to an environment where you can just look at studying a fed

funds target rate or rate for the ecb and then forgetting about it for six months. it will be awhile before we're back to that. communication is key. one thing that's important to recognize that janet yellen has done well is the communication trying to prepare the market for any ultimate increase in interest rates. that's coming. the idea is to lay the ground work ahead of time so it's not a surprise that we don't have to replay the temper tantrum. >> the market is hanging on any and every word of what janet yellen has to say when it comes to the prospect of a rate hike. in general we're seeing central banks play the role in the market. we have been seeing rate hikes from singapore, russia india among others. do you see central banks driving the markets higher or will it be earnings? the fundamental picture? >> it's a bit of both. what we're going to see as a result of monetary policy as much as anything else is going to be volatility at a relatively high level. it dropped a little bit

recently. but we're going to have them tightening. that's going to provoke the higher volatility we had recently and that's going to return but especially out side of the u. s. you have very supportive monetary policy and that should be good for equities. that's one of the reasons we're overweight equities. we see that in favor of stocks for the u.s. >> it's the time for central bankers to take the center stage. >> they continue to have a massive impact on equities and it will bite us at some point. >> that's a discussion for another time. daniel morris global investment strategist. thank you for joining us this morning. let's get you a run down on what to watch this trading day. january cpi and durable goods are out.

atlanta fed president dennis lockhart will be speaking about the economy and monetary policy and as for earnings kohl's amc, sears holdings gap, and jcpenney. james bullard will be the guest host on squawk box from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. eastern. you won't want to miss it. plus exclusive interview with loretta mester. >> now fed chair janet yellen fielded a series of tough questions from republican lawmakers that accused her of pushing the democrat agenda. >> was there one party pushing the idea of income inequality over the other party in the last election. >> i believe it is a problem -- >> that's not my question. >> that people in this room should be concerned about. >> i agree but was one party pushing that idea over the other party. >> i have heard politicians on

both sides of the aisle lement rising income inequality. >> got heated in there. yellen was not the only central banker under fire yesterday. that's right, ecb president draghi had to contend with this heckling as he explained the decision to stop accepting greek bonds as collateral. >> no no agreed to transfer the income made by the euro system on the s&p portfolio to greece out of their own budgets as long as greece comply with the program. no no no. >> please. please, sir. excuse me. please please. meez please respect the chair. mr. draghi please -- could i ask you please -- mr. draghi please

may i just say something. i would ask you to show respect for the chair. i gave you a little extra time. you were disrespectful to mr. draghi however you disagree with him let him finish the point -- please let him finish the point. there are many mr. speakers to come. >> the worst thing is how disgracefully empty the european parliament is but i do love draghi standing his ground. great, opinionated. >> he should be. you have to hold ground based on the decisions you make. you have to fiercely defend them. >> i enjoyed that. >> on a lighter moet if you will could this be as useful as a chocolate teapot? kfc is rolling out a new taste sensation to go with your morning cup of coffee. that's right. an edible cup. it's made from a waver wrapped in sugar paper and coated in white chocolate.

they're calling it the scoffe cup. it's set to launch in conjunction with the debut of seattle's best coffee in it's restaurants later this year but no plans for a u.s. launch at this time. are you going to buy one? >> i am. this is also a great excuse for a family bucket. have your coffee and eat it afterwards. >> what's a chocolate teapot? >> that phrase is imlying if you boil a pot of tea it's going to melt. it's totally useless but by the design we heard with the sugar paper and heat resistant white chocolate they found a winning formula to make it work. i'll try it out and bring you a result once it's here in london at kfc. down but not out rbs after it won't exit the u. s. after taking a massive hit. we'll tell you more after this short break.

welcome back. let's dpif you headlines. could today be the day the nasdaq marches closer to the crucial 5,000 mark. rbs in the red after posting a net loss but it's a different story for standard charter. shares rally as peter sands stepped down. and morgan stanley settles

charges as citi faces money laundering allegations. shares in standard charter trading higher this morning. it is replacing it's ceo with ex-jp morgan executive bill winters. shares are down about 20% since he took the helm in november of 2006. this has been a tough time for peter sands but were we expecting him to step down and what do we know about bill winters aside from being a well respected banker. >> great news for investors this morning. there's been a cloud hanging over standard chartered for the last 18 months. difficult kultd times.times. they were fined. they were seen as not being proactive enough to change their behavior, to change their banking model to fit this new kind of crack down in

regulation. a lot of pressure. bill winters, golden child of banking i'd say. in europe he headed up jp morgan. he was out theed as a successor but he left before that ever happened. he was also out theed to be the boss of barclays but apparently he turned that job down. he's somebody that knows the city inside out and also knows markets inside out and for a business like standard charter that's very international and trying to regain it's footing i think investors will see that as a real positive and it's not just peter sand. it's the chairman. it's three executives. it's really sweeping across the board. >> and the stock is responding positively. >> one of the big factors is the fact that it has fallen because u.s. has had a right down for citizens which has fallen around

3% today. a big focus on that. >> yeah we knew there was a write down coming for citizens. this was their big u. s. business they floated last year. it's still 70% so it's a big deal. the problem and the share price is reflecting that is that on the operating profit this is without all of the write downs analysts were expecting something above 4 billion and it came in shy of that. 3.1 billion. now operating costs has gone down 11%. so that's great news. they want to reduce it even more. almost a billion pounds this year. the problem is that you have to get to that number by excluding litigation and restructuring cost. if you look at the pnl again today they're taking another hit, 400 million pounds for ppi. you have costs going in for fx charges and this goes on and on and on. so yes it's a better place than it was a year ago when they took

a $9 billion loss but look at what's happening to citizens. look at what's happening. there's still a long way to go. >> thank you as ever. >> more fwan stanleygan stanley agrees to pay $2.6 billion to settle the crisis in 2008. it will resolve certain claims the justice department was expected to bring against the company. taking a look at shares, price action in morgan stanley. here it is. down just about 1.4% in frankfurt. >> citi group says authorities have begun new probes into potential money laundering valuations. they were bought by citi group in 2001. this comes a year after city revealed there was a critical probe into dealings by a federal ground jury in massachusetts. citi group is cooperating with the investigation. it's up fractionally in trade.

coming up we're going to talk oil because market versus been over barrel trying to figure out where oil prices are headed. next up we're heading back to the private equity conference to hear from some of the biggest titans on where they see oil headed.

brent crude up 1.2. price volatility one of the big topics under discussion at the world's largest private equity conference. annetta is live talking about where oil is headed. >> yeah that's one of the buzz words here at the super return which is the world's biggest gathering of the private equity industry. more than 1,500 people are attending from the industry. more than 900 on the senior level so it's the who's who of the industry and one of the biggest buzz words is oil. the majority of people i spoke to actually do see oil or the route in the oil price as one of the biggest tuns arising on the horizon. the time frame given by most of

them ranges some what between nine months and 18 months where we could see the first opportunities arising in the form of distressed assets but there's also one person a very prominent figure here who has a little bit of a contraryian view. take a listen to what he has to say. >> you see a drop of 50% in the price of oil and the effects to the valuations of a lot of companies that have been impacted so people see an opportunity to make money. if you take the high level that's true. the question is when do you engage? i think investors have a history of jumping in too soon and i think that the belief that we drop to $50 barrel is corrected back up to above 50 and suddenly it's one direction up and now is the time to buy and i think we

have to let it play out a bit longer. the intended effects of reducing things like oil production are not felt in the near term so i think we have to watch for a bit longer. i bet this will retest lower prices and probably more effects again. >> do you think also that the industry is sitting on such a lot of cash which you call dry powder in the industry. does it also make them a little bit more attractive to this kind of hurt behavior? >> i think, you know investors are opportunityists and they see an opportunity to make money and if you think about back to 2007 or 2008 a lot of people made money in buying debt that was sort of overly discounted and i think it feels similar to people so i get it. i get the excitement around it. there's a lot of uncertainty and i think as investors you'd like

to see a little more certainty. the more uncertain it is that's the trade off for people. >> today is the last day and i guess the major take away from that meeting is that the industry is probably has seen it's peak in 2014. valuations are quite high and it's a tricky issue for the players to invest their money and find the right opportunities which also will give them the right level of return. with that back to you. >> thank you. still to come google reportedly eyes a new acquisition in a bid to step up it's game in wearable tech. we'll tell you more after the short break.

5:30 a.m. in new york. 10:30 here in london. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> u.s. futures pointing higher ahead of key data reports fuelling hopes that the nasdaq will finally hit the 5,000 mark. >> standard charter taps bill winters to replace it's ceo peter sands. investors hope the former jp

morgan executive will put the bank back on track. >> rbs racks up a here 3.5 billion pound loss in the sail of its u.s. business citizens but the u.k. lender has no plans to exit the u.s. >> two big u.s. banks are under scrutiny. morgan stanley settled the financial crisis while city group could be facing new money laundering charges. >> you're watching worldwide exchange. bringing you business news from around the globe. >> and straight to the markets we go. right now futures indicating a higher open. yellen yesterday suggesting that the fed is not in any hurry to raise interest rates. now yesterday the s&p 500 did hit a new all time high. it failed to close at a record though. the small cap index did close at new highs. with all the excitement around

markets the nasdaq will it break 5,000? that has been the big question. yesterday, in fact the tech heavy index ended it's streak at 10 although it did come within 16 points of the 5,000 milestone and it's still about 1.6% away from its record close trading at 4,967. now stocks to keep an eye on names that have powered the nasdaq over the past ten years include, here's some of the big names. regeneron, price line and online travel company. netflix a big part of the nasdaq rally and apple trading at $128. keep in mind that apple has made up 2-thirds of the nasdaq 100 gains had year. so without apple the nasdaq would not be flirting with 5,000 at this point. >> thank you seema. we have flashes coming out of greece. the central bank governor is speaking at the moment. he is saying that he is urging the government to complete structural reforms to review tax

policy and complete major privatizations. the recent euro group decision to extend the four month bailout. that alleviates uncertainty and gives greece time but recovery is still fragile. no room for come complacentcy. liquidity is under pressure. lots of flashes coming out. ultimately he's saying the recovery is still fragile. there's still work to be done and no room for complacentcey. >> janet yellen fielded tough questions yesterday. she rejected suggests from representative scott garrett that the central bank should be more transparent about private meetings. >> i'm sorry we meet with a wide range of groups. i think it is a complete

mischaracterization of our meeting schedules and my meetings are entirely public. my schedule is completely in the public domain. >> that's where i'm taking this from. this was just handed to me. >> i'm sorry but if -- >> it's good this much of it is in public domain. >> these are private one-on-one meetings and i don't think it's appropriate. if i had breakfast with you would i not make a transcript of what we discussed over breakfast. >> janet yellen interpreted countless times. now housing data is painting a mixed picture of the health of the u.s. economy. existing home sales slowed to a nine month low falling 5% in january. a gain of 4.5%. the raise in home places lead by strong increases in the western half of the u.s. and yesterday data suggested new home sales dipped in january but the

decline was less than forecasted while supply rose to the highest level since 2010. so the big question is this mixed data when looking at the housing sector will that delay a rate hike even farther down the road? >> important topic. let's discuss it further. joining us in the studio is kathie director of u.s.macro investor services. also is the managing director at bk asset management. there is mixed data at the moment. for you overall the most important is household formation. is that right? >> that's right. that's the key underlying driver of housing demand and what we have seen since the end of the recession is household formation has plummeted. the research in the numbers show it's actually the younger adults and they're delaying what we

call delay ago adulthood. >> is this a long-term structural shift or is it cyclical response to the financial crisis and perhaps where crisis are relative to incomes? >> it's a great question. that's what everyone is struggling to try to figure out frankly. our view we think as the employment picture continues to brighten that younger people will get the confidence to go out and leave out of mom and dad's basement and their roommates and start a new household but it is a big question i think that we have to think about. >> let's bring in boris, the managing director of bk asset management. what we knew already, it's strong but it can improve. inflation is low but that can be a challenge going forward yet no shocker, stocks at record highs. what did you gather from what janet yellen told us yesterday over the past two days? >> i think her testimony was perfectly cautious and gave absolutely no clue as to exactly what they want to do which is

where they want to stay. they're moving away from the whole idea of forward guidance. they realize that maybe telegraphing their next move is not the wisest thing at this point. they want to keep their powder dry and react today at a as it goes by and i think they are -- like everybody else, in a quan quandry as to how strong the economy is and whether they need to go into a rate hiking mode just yet. as i said fundamentally there's no reason for them to want to hike rates at this point but they want to do it for philosophical reasons. what they want to avoid is an early cut of this growth pattern. and they're afraid if they raise rates by 25 basis points it may stifle the economy. >> despite a mixed picture when looking at the housing sector you say the fed is getting ready for a lift off but today's cpi number is expected to decline

for the first time on a year over year basis since october 2009. that could make it a more difficult conversation if inflation continues to move lower. >> they have a bit of a demri ma. you have a very strong labor market. the last three months have been the strongest in terms of job growth. on the other hand we see the headline inflation numbers going south but it's really due primarily to lower oil prices and energy prices so what the fed is telling us and yellen continues to emphasize is that they'll look past declines in inflation due to oil, maybe even the stronger dollar but at some point when oil prices settle down and energy prices settle down we could he see an increase in inflation. what they're worried about is the monetary policy is extremely accommodative as we know. and you have a huge balance sheet they haven't even begun to shrink. so we need to be proactive and forward looking and the last

thing they want to do is be behind the curve and then they have to rush and raise rates more than the markets anticipate. >> would you agree with kathie on that? we have heard they are looking at long-term inflationary expectations. so are we far too focused on little short-term comments and individual words whether she says them or not when she does speak and give testimony? >> the most bullish thing was not janet yellen but that walmart raised it's wages. now you're seeing mcdonald's and t.j. max are starting to follow. that's actually what the fed was looking for. that's what the fed is really looking for in order to give them room to tighten monetary policy. they need to see some wage growth so u.s. consumer begins to repair himself and they'll feel more confident. i do think the inflationary question is very much open but we're starting to see the right market dynamics for an inflationary push.

>> you raise an interesting point. kathie, do you agree, wage increases from wall street t.j. max, is this a turning point in the jobs market? >> i think it is. one of the indicators we look at as a small business survey is they ask companies do you plan to raise wages in the next six months? and we have seen that indicator go up consistently over the last year or so. so that's a forward looking leading indicator that suggests that wages are poised to rise in the coming year. >> thanks so much for joining us. director of u.s.macro investor services. >> let's look at the other top stories at this hour. lenovo admitted it's website was hacked on wednesday with attackers breaching the domain system and redirecting visitors to another address. it comes after another security breach at the chinese computer and smartphone firm. hacking group lizard squad

claimed responsibility according to its twitter page. >> the chinese government dropped leading technology brands from its approved state purchasers list. cisco, apple, have been removed while thousand more locally made products have been improved. in 2012 they had 60 products on the list but this is reduced to zero. >> google is reportedly investing in jawbone. talks are said to be preliminary and there's no indication they're interested in buying them out right. after the most recent round of funding they have been citing the value at upwards of $3 billion. google up fractionally in today's trade in frankfurt. >> net neutrality is a hot issue. they're set to change how they regulate the internet making it more like phone services and other utilities. they're expected to vote on net neutrality rules today. this is the idea that internet providers should give equal

treatment to all traffic on their networks. previous rules overturned in court would have allowed wireless carriers to discriminate against websites such as netflix or apps in order to limit congestion on their networks. >> we have a net neutrality guest expert on tomorrow's show as well. morgan stanley settles a multibillion dollar case as citi braces for money laundering charges. we'll discuss after this break. [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts ♪ ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪ ♪

80% of the poor in africa are rural farmers. 96% of them are doing rain-fed agriculture. they're all competing with each other; they're all making very low margins making enough to survive but not enough to get out of poverty. so kickstart designs low cost irrigation pumps enabling them to grow high value crops throughout the year so you can make a lot of money. it's all very well to have a whole lot of small innovations but unless we can scale it up enough to where we are talking about millions of farmers, we're not going to solve their biggest challenge. this is precisely where the kind of finance that citi is giving us is enabling us to scale up on a much more rapid pace. when we talk to the farmers and ask them what's the most important thing. first of all they say we can feed our families. secondly, we can send our children to school. it's really that first step that allows them to get out of poverty and most importantly have money left over to plan for the future they want.

>> now the tech sector may be at multiyear highs but there's one stock vastly out performing it's tech peers and that's ibm. it's been the worst stock on the dow for two consecutive years and today the ceo will take the stage to address shareholder concerns. watch for developments that could be market moving. the stock down about 1.2% in yesterday's trade. >> well now still managing to eke out another high yesterday. so one to continue to watch also the stocks on the nasdaq which seema likes to focus on. now it seems like a day done go by without another u.s. bank in trouble. let's get the latest on this on going story. cnbc's landon dowdy is at cnbc's washington bureau.

landon. >> good morning to you. morgan stanley is agreeing to pay $2.6 billion to settle charges with the u.s. government over it's role in the morgan crisis in 2008. the bank releasing a statement saying the payment will resolve certain claims. the justice department was expected to bring against the company. they were not disclosed but last month they increased legal reserves to cover on going legal issues. morgan stanley joins city group, and bank of america on the list of banks which paid billions over the financial crisis. trading down more than 1% in europe today. u.s. authorities have begun new probes into money laundering violations at its unit. it's an affiliate of the mexico city based bank.

>> riti group is cooperating with the investigation. it is trading flat in europe. >> just before we head to break let's remind you of the headlines. could today be the day seema is hoping it will be. the nasdaq marches closer to the crucial 5,000 mark. janet yellen and mario draghi fight back on both side of the pond and net neutrality potentially changing the way the internet is regulated. we'll be back in a couple of minutes.

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.

let's have a look at european markets. yesterday we paused for breath after what had been a strong start to the week. a strong couple of weeks for the european markets and we pause for breath again today. both germany and france only

fractionally in the green and the ftse just below flat. >> u.s. futures pointing to a higher open. the dow after closing at a record high up about 12 points in premarket trade. dovish commentary over the past two days. sending stocks higher. s&p materials industrials, health care and consumer discretionary sectors all hitting new multiyear highs but the focus will be on the nasdaq. not just for me markets in general are watching the tech heavy index. will it break 5,000? we want to hear from you. does this milestone, 5,000 mean anything to you and should we be watching it? we've been getting your tweets this morning. steven king says of course 5,000 is a big deal. all round numbers often act as support or resistance. i do agree with that. very important. >> well james thinks that 5,000 is a plateau and i agree with @will seattle he says milestones are meaningless

particularly when con mekted to the black monday correction we saw. if this was an all time high it would be over but an arbitrary numerical target doesn't mean that much. >> another level to watch when looking at the index but what we're seeing in the nasdaq this time around in 2015 different than what we saw in 2000. it's a different group of stocks. you have the likes of apple and yahoo! playing a significant role but there's new players like netflix as well. >> i'm not debating that. if you want to use 5,000 as a reason to pause and reflect on what it's doing and what it's fundamentals are i'm all for that. but crossing 5,000 itself i don't think is a big deal. boris what's your view on this. does the 5,000 milestone make a big difference or not? >> i am old enough to remember the old 5,000. i'm feeling very old today. i remember when it went 4,000

and within a couple of days when mark haynes was with us it went to 5,000. it's a completely different market. it's not the days of the internet stocks we all used to trade in those days. it's much more mature. what's interesting here is if you contrast and compare, the nasdaq to the nikkei the nasdaq has been able to recover this move in only 15 years. the nikkei has been in dull drums for 25 or 30 years. that's an interesting contrast between the two equity markets and policies between the two countries and says a lot about the u.s. economy. >> yeah take a look at the rebound we have been seeing in february. after that rough start to the year in january, the dow itself gained a thousand points in the month of february. the nasdaq is up 7.2%. japanese stocks at a 15 year high. are we in a way looking at

oversold territory? >> you mean overbought territory? yeah probably and i think -- i'm not an equity trader but a lot of my equity friends are concerned we're getting way ahead of ourselves and there's going to be a correction coming but on the flip side if you look at the global economic landscape it looks better now than it was even six months ago. one of the key factors is lower oil prices really starting to really help all the advanced countries in the world but if you look even at europe right now the european data is starting to really improve and if we get european stocks starting to perform well i think it will be acting as a support for equity rally. >> let's touch on the dollar. we've seen the dollar correct a little bit as yields on the bond market have come down. the correction is particularly marked against the yen. why against the yen? >> it's a yield issue as you said. we ran from like what 211 on the ten year and it came all the

way back down to below 2%. and we are very bullish dollar yen. we think any dip is a buy at this point because the long-term factors do favor u.s. growth and eventually a fed rate hike. so any kind of a dip at this point for us is a buy. we like that trade. >> thank you for joining us today. managing director at bk asset management. now that is all we have time for today on worldwide exchange. but european and u.k. viewers stay tuned. we'll be back after a short break with an interview with marion deckers. the ceo of bayer following it's q-4 earnings miss. >> but for u.s. viewers up next is squawk box. we'll see you same time tomorrow. james bullard will be the guest host from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. eastern on squawk box.

♪ its effects on society really came about because, not because i was selfish and wanted one for myself, which i did. its because i had, had a passion. my whole life i wanted to teach myself to build computers. i wanted to build these things for free. i just wanted to do it for the world and you know when you want something, that's what you do the best. ♪ ♪

good morning. it is decision day at the fcc regulators are ready to rule on the control of the internet. we'll talk implications once again and why companies and consumers should care. and the nasdaq takes another crack at 5,000. the index tests that key level but apple causes a drag and the nasdaq falls 16 points short of its milestone. plus a warning from united airlines. a significant one calling on its pilots to pay closer attention to the rules after several serious incidents and near misses caused by cockpit errors.

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. we're not talking about even funding homeland security. as of this morning marijuana is legal in d.c. but now there's a drug war of sorts break down between the district and some in congress. we'll have a live report in about 20 minutes. >> we'll tell you about the big stories we're watching this morning. snapshots of jobs in a big way. inflation, manufacturing and housing. also beginning weekly unemployment claims. cpi, durable goods, housing price index and fed survey. ibm is hosting an investor day