tv Worldwide Exchange CNBC March 18, 2015 5:00am-6:01am EDT
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and welcome everyone. you are watching worldwide exchange. i'm seema mody. >> i'm wilfred frost. here are your headlines from around the world. >> global markets tread water with investors expecting the central bank to drop the word patience from its statement indicating the first rate hike in a decade is on the way. >> benjamin netanyahu is set to become israel's longest serving prime minister after his party is victorious in the election. >> alibaba on edge after a lockup period expires allowing
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shareholders to sell more than 300 million shares. >> oracle profits drop but shares rise after hours after the data-based if i recall hikes it's dividend by 25%. welcome to the show. we're just getting some breaking news on 10 cents earnings. of course this is the chinese internet social media company. it says market competition has remained intense over the full year. the net profit has come in at 23.8 billion rmb versus 15.5 billion a year ago so a significant growth level there. rev muy was 78.9 billion cut last year. it was 60.44 there. recommended final dividend payment has come in at .3 hong
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kong dollars. chinese markets have closed. tencent up 1.6% already in today's trade. over the days it's basically flat. >> let's take a look at u.s. futures. it is a big day on wall street. the federal reserve monetary policy decision will come out at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the groundwork will be laid as to whether the fed plans to raise rates in the near term. we're looking at u.s. futures higher across the board despite the sell off in the dow. dow up 20 points in premarket trades. the po cuss has been on the currency market. weaker euro expected to have a boost here in europe. perhaps profit booking given the rallies we have seen the past couple of months. look at the stoxx 600 vastly out
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performing it. right across the screen the dax down about 47 points. cac 40 the french markets down about 7 points and take a look at the ftse 100 the u.k. budget unveiled today. the index seeing some green up about 22 points but of course the focus as i said before on the currency market and what that has done to the equity displacement. >> that's been most clearly highlighted by the euro dollar. the euro slid significantly and broader dollar strength had been the trend of the last pufew weeks. the euro did bounce back earlier in the week and it's just above flat again. 1.06 clearly a lot weaker than it was a couple of weeks ago. we now had a week and a half of the bond buying program and a lot of that pushed the euro
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weaker. the broader strength has paused for breath. basically flat after. there was no change in japanese policy today. just softening a little bit and sterling in focus today. we'll get mpc minutes in half an hour's time and we'll get the budget decision at around lunchtime here in london. a lot of focus for sterling which sits today at 1.47. let's have a quick look at commodity rates because the oil prices at a six week low. we thought we found a little bit of a bottom of r50 for wti and $60 for brent. it looks like we might test those but $10 for each. 53.3 for brent. as i said six year lows. gold is also soft at the moment. that's around 3 month lows 1147. back to you. >> wilfred the big story of the day will be on the fed.
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imf managing director warned emerging markets must be prepared for a rise in u.s. interest rates saying the move could be a surprise with regards to its pace and tiling. now speaking in india, lagarde struck a warning over the impact it could have. >> just as quickly as it's built up can unwind suddenly when such policy is reversed creating as a result significant market volatility. >> in the past when there have been worries that janet yellen would be more hawkish than dovish we did see volatility in emerging market currencies so these markets are vulnerable to any type of fed rate hike given that we have seen the surge in dollar denominated debt. >> they'll be a bit under pressure when we see rates go up but i'm surprised to see the
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softness over the last few weeks. they got through that. we had a bit of softness in those currencies back in december because the russian rouble was having issue and we came through that again. i'm a little bit surprised but i do think that we'll see the fed remove the word patient today. >> do you, wilfred? >> they're set to raise rates, they want to raise rates by june or september and they don't want that to be a surprise when it comes and the rate rise will be a bigger issue than the removal of the word patient. they're happy to take soft term volatility when rates do go up. >> many banks forecasting the removal of statements. one yesterday said yellen could take patient out and replace it with a similar word like tolerant. cautious moderation. we'll see what kind of verbage she uses. >> they might do that.
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considerable time came out replaced by patience. >> it's a seven letter word that's going to move markets today. >> it's a sensible thing to do. >> the fed at the situation comes at 2:00 p.m. eastern along with latest economic projections. that's followed by the news conference at 2:30 p.m.. cnbc will have full coverage today on power lunch. let's get you a run down of what to watch this trading day. the government reports weekly oil data at 10:30 a.m. that will be interesting. fed ex reports earnings before the opening bell as does general mills. after the close he we hear from williams-sonoma. >> let's hook at today's top stories. oracle's 3rd quarter profits fell. revenue was flat. it would have risen 6%. revenue for computing and platformer is services rose 30%.
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they try to shift it to the cloud. the company is also boosting it's dividend by 25%. oracle rose clearly reacting to that dividend increase. it's up only 1.3% today in frankfurt. >> it's a big day for alibaba as the lockup period expires allowing them to sell about 100 million shares owned by employees barred from selling until the company reports earnings in may. look at the stock. alibaba shares up about 10% below the opening price on its first day of trading last september although shares are still 24% above the ipo price. >> benjamin netanyahu's party emerged victorious in the election. he won 30 out of the seats available in parliament. his main rival called the prime minister to congratulate him on his victory. let's get to hadley live with
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all the latest on the story. >> so a surprise victory for benjamin netanyahu. this was fought on security and economic issues as well. he pulled out all the stops in the last 48 hours of the campaign. he said he does not believe in the two state solution going forward. he came out saying very inflammatory remarks. you better get out and vote now for me. he was playing to his right wing base and that will play into the coalition in the coming days. also you have to remember there's outstanding issues not just with the palestinians but iranian nuclear decisions as well. it played well here in israel but raised serious questions particularly within the business community. i heard privately within several business leaders worried about the perception of israel abroad
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and the isolation and what that could mean for the country that's a start up nation. it has major multinational corporations based here and you have major ipos going to new york. something like $3.5 billion of ipos in new york alone. they're watching to see if the prime minister's policy going forward becomes a liability. >> thank you for that. we look forward to hear more from you in the next half an hour. >> facebook is adding a new feature to its messenger app allowing you to send and receive money from friends. you can link a master or visa card issued to their accounts. the free feature will be rolled out only in the u.s. for now. it was one of the bright spots on the nasdaq yesterday up about
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1% but simplifying the payment structure here. this does heighten the competition with paypal. >> and snap chat that set up their sending money device. >> snap cash. >> one hopes that the cash doesn't disappear once it's been sent like the photos but this is a really interesting development and facebook has access to so many users. what you do need to do is give them access to your credit card and bank details. that would be a mass i development for them and they would be able to monetize people's accounts down the line. >> no longer just for smiley faces and photos. now payments as well. >> it's just 50 days until one of the closest u.k. elections in living memory. later osbourne will layout his budget but what will the opposition have to say? we'll find out after this short break.
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allowing early investors to sell more than 300 million shares. the u.k. finance minister will deliver the final budget before the country heads to the polls in 50 days time but he says there will be no preelection gimmicks in that budget. let's get out to westminster with more. >> good morning. he might say there's no gimmicks of give aways but this is going to be political grand standing at its most extreme but don't forget we have an election just weeks away and it gives the chancellor an opportunity to talk about the fact that you're going to see the growth in the u.k. revised upwards from 2.4% to 2.7%. jobs have ill proved a deficit has improved but to discuss what labor might respond to is the --
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i'm changing your job now. what's going to happen? we're going to hear the chancellor say the long-term economic plan is working. he's going to talk about the fact that over the five years in this government unemployment has dpon down from 7.9% to 5.7%. exports are up 15%. the deficit has gone down from 141 billion to 93 billion. hasn't that plan worked? >> let's judge the chancellor by the yardsticks he set himself in 2010. the two fiscal mandates was to eliminate the deficit and get it on a downward trajectory. if you read the autumn forecast and outlook they published at the end of the last year they were very clear for the reason for that which is that people's wages stagnated. people are earning on average 1,600 pounds less now than in
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2010. what i want to see in this budget are pressures that actually help get people's wages up. we're committing to strengthening the national minimum wage. helping employers get to a living wage. you mention exports. the target of the government was to double exports to 1 trillion pounds in value. but also let's be absolutely clear about this. if we end up leaving the european union as a result of this government's policy and taking us to the exit door that's going to do more to compromise our export capacity than any other thing on the horizon. >> you're right. business doesn't like the prospect of leaving europe. you're right on exports. it stands at only 500 billion.
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>> it's the biggest it's ever been as we're speaking right now. >> but does it matter when the cost of government borrowing is so low? you talked about the fact that people aren't feeling the growth of the economy in their pocket because wages haven't increased but under this government those that earn the least have benefitted from things like the personal allowance increasing. isn't that a benefit. >> if you factor in the tax increases, for example, the increase in vat and hike in vat, if you look at the benefit changes that have been made that's more than wiped out any benefit that's come from increasing and let's not forget going to politics to tax people. i have no problem with people making millions of pounds but i think when you're going through -- >> it sounds like new labour. >> well it's labour at the end of the day. do you prioritize giving tax cuts or do you try to help
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people at mid and low income. make sure that work pace and that they have assistance during the tough times and what they have seen is they prioritize helping people doing well actually. >> is he a lucky chancellor? thanks to low inflation. the fact that oil price has gone down? he has a bit of head room here. 6 to 10 billion pounds. what if he rose back on the program and consolidation. does that take away from the political message that he is going to be able to deliver squusjust weeks away from an election. >> we know he's planning to deliver around 23 billion pounds which would take us back to levels of spending we haven't seen since the 1930s since before the national health service existed but i don't know if lucky is the word. i prefer failing frankly. because if we look back to 2010 the words, the criticism we saw
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for daring to seek the deficit over the course of this parliament which is basically what he has done because he failed to meet the target he set himself. i'm not sure lucky is the word i'd use. failing. >> but if he can spend under labor, in 2000 spending fell to 35.9% of gdp. maybe he would be at that level. why would that be a problem? don't you believe in making sure that your prudent economically and fiscally. >> of course you have to be prudent. i'm a progressive politician. i'll not a politician of the right and there's nothing progressive in spending more on your debt interest repayments than you spend on housing and transport. the difference between me and george osborne is we need an enterprising of smart state. i don't think the state is the be all and end all but it has a role to play working in partnership in business but what george embarked upon is a hacking off of different parts
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of the state. very much a small state vision he has. if you look at the examples succeeded around the world, germany, singapore, others they have active governors working in partnership and making sure they're competitive. he wants to take us in a completely different direction. >> thank you. that's the shadow business secretary. talking about that very different vision that the two parties are providing for britain's economic future. >> thank you very much for that. still to come we're live in frankfurt as protests turn violent. this is a live shot from the city. all the details on the story coming up in a couple of minutes.
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welcome back. thousands are expected to take to the streets in moscow in support of president vladimir putin since the annexation of crimea. they ruled out any discussions on handing the region back to ukraine. instead in a show of strength russian state tv broadcast exercises taking place across the country this year. jeff cutmore is live. set the tone for us.
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what are you seeing on the ground. >> hi, seema, well preparations well underway just over my shoulder here at red square. this is going to be a major set piece event organized by the government. trying to demonstrate the feeling there is over the annexation of crimea. it's been one year now since the russians took this territory from ukraine and the kremlin continues to insist that the issue of handing it back to ukraine is not on the table and not negotiable at this point but of course as you pointed out both washington and brussels continue to insist that sanctions remain in place as long as russia continues to hold on to crimea. we're expecting thousands to attend this event today and we'll be here all day just to keep an eye on developments. back to you. >> thank you for that.
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we look forward to hearing more on the developments throughout the day. clashes erupted between antiausterity protestors and the police. this ahead of the inauguration of the new ecb headquaters. the rally is expected to attract some 10,000 people. let's get out live to annetta who joins us from frankfurt. >> thank you. those live pictures which you are seeing are actually not taken from the center of frankfurt but the violent action is concentrated around the new headquater of the european central bank. the police are saying that several police cars are actually set on fire. they are rubbish bins of course burning and also that demonstrators are throwing stones and of course also they're using tear gas in special areas to actually combat
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those demonstrators and make their way through to the ecb. i just spoke to a spokesperson at the ecb that said the area is cleared from demonstrators. he's not seeing a lot of them. the clashes are are now taking place far away from the european central bank. that also means that the speech due to happen now in half an hour's time will actually take place according to plan. with that back to you. >> thank you very much for that. >> the first pilot to fly around the world without any fuel has started the second part of his journey. the plane will fly further east via china before heading across the pacific and through the u. s., europe and north africa. coming up here on worldwide exchange we will be speaking to
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investors widely expecting the central bank to drop the word patience from a statement indicating the first rate hike in a decade is on the way. >> benjamin netanyahu is set to become israel's longest serving prime minister after his party emerging victories in the election. coalition talks are now underway. >> alibaba investors on edge as a lockup period expires allowing institutional stake holders to sell more than 300 million shares. >> oracle's profits drop as it becomes the latest company to take a hit from the strong u.s. dollar but shares rise after the firm hikes it's dividend by 25%. now we're just having the monetary policy committee minutes following the 5th of march where they were steady at .5% and kept the asset
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purchase unchanged. once again we had a 9-0 vote at keeping rates where they are at .5% and there were two members they say that saw the march decision as finally balanced although of course we have seen the result being 9-0. they're saying also that there's the potential to prolong the period for which inflation would remain below the target. that's why rates were kept on hold at .5. as you're seeing the sterling dollar 14688. up about .4%. >> let's get you a picture of the jobs of the labor market i should say. britain's unemployment rate was stable at 5.7% matching it's lowest level in almost 7 years but above a forecast to another follow to 5.6%. so a better than expected jobs
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picture but we should point out that the pace of growth in british workers pace slowed in january hit by fewer bonus payments while a percentage rose to an all time high. >> within the minutes they're saying that labor cost had grown slightly ahead of forecasts although a further rise would be needed before interest rates could come up further. we had one of the members in the last that had voted for rate rise but hasn't done that in the last two sets of votes said last week the improving wage fwroeth would build the case for a wage hike but we needed to see more of that before a rate hike could come forward. coming out in a 9-0 vote. >> and the ftse 100 higher on the back of the data. but let's look at u.s. futures. we start with the event with all of wall street talking. many are expecting the fed to remove the word patience from
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its statement paving the way for a rate hike later this year. futures indicating a higher open. nasdaq up 5 and the s&p 500 up just about one point. let's look at european markets. how are they fairing? a little bit of profit taking over the past couple of days. the rally we have been seeing is something catching the attention of investors. the euro stoxx 600 index up about 15%. as well as the benefit and positive impact of course of the weaker euro on european corporate earnings. down about a third of a percent. keeping an eye on greece and it is trading the index down about 2% but in today's trade the bright spot is the ftse 100 up about 40 points. the budget will be unveiled in today's trade. currencies, let's take a check. the fed mentioned the stronger dollar. the negative impact on multinationals.
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that's a key question we'll get the answer to at 2:00 p.m. eastern when we get the fed statement. right now the euro strengthening against the u.s. dollar. still hovering around 12 year lows but right now the euro at 106 against the u.s. dollar. >> oil continues to slide. a few weeks ago we thought we found a little bit of a bottom with wti around 50 and brent around 60 but they'll soon test levels $10 below the expected marks. wti up 2.5%. of course this comes as the eia reports weekly oil data at 10:30 eastern time today. yesterday the industry group says they rose by 10.5 million barrels in the week to march 13th. analyst hearsay been expecting a rise of just under 4 million barrels and i think this rising level of inventories has played a part in pushing oil over the last week or two. >> oversupply concerns of oil never good when it comes to the
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oil price but some traders say that the sell off in oil prices has added a certain level of volatility to the equity market. in fact one third of the dow is now down 10% or more from their 52 week highs and surprise surprise, it's the energy names again. chevron, exxon, tech has been weak as well. ibm and intel to name a few. >> a lot of the commentary has been on the fact that we see the rising dollar. but also correlated with the oil price sliding. now a texas based oil and gas producer smiled for chapter 11 bankruptcy amid the slide in energy prices and after it failed to find a buyer. they were struggling even after the fall in oil price. they abandoned a bid to go private and selling assets to get a handle on its debt. two other companies filed for bankruptcy last week. >> as we head to break we leave
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welcome back. we are getting reports unconfirmed of a fire in paris at a building in the center of the business and financial district. we will get you more on that story when we get it. just at the moment reports of a fire in the center of paris's business and financial district. now moving on benjamin netanyahu's party has emerged victories in the election. he won 30 out of the 120 seats available in parliament. his main rival called the prime minister to congratulate him on the victory. let's get out to hadley live with all the latest. >> so a surprise victory for the prime minister. i wanted to ask you, you're a big employer here in israel. what's your strategy going
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forward. >> the same strategy we had going backward. we build them from minerals into attractive markets agriculture food and materials and we build these chains up. >> one of the big questions from the business community in israel are talking to me about concerns of the prime minister's foreign policy. are you worried about that or the export chain particularly in europe? >> not yet at this point. there's a lot of discussions. we have to see what will happen. we have some trust in our government that eventually we'll find as a country arrangements with all the partners overseas and other parts of the world. >> talk to me about job cuts. there's been a contentious relationship in the past. are we going to see job cuts going forward? are you excited to work with him as prime minister? >> congratulations with him as the team and we'll work
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constructively together as always. in terms of job cuts here in israel we're in the middle of restructuring in order to streamline this that i have just explained. this unfortunately has to be done because we didn't do enough of a good job there in the past but this has nothing to do really directly with the policy of the government. in the future we are concerned about the burden and regulatory uncertainty so we'll do our best to explain it to the new government and new ministers and try to create some stability for industry because we need planning reliance for 10 or 15 or 20 years. >> the industry was a big issue in this election as well in terms of security and international security. what are your top five points you want to get out of the new government in terms of
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regulation reform. >> first of all, stable predictable, regulatory environment for the next decade or two. second, a taxation environment competitive with international countries and other places in the world so we can build up our home country here and those are really the two things we need. everything else we will handle by ourselves. >> thank you so much for joining cnbc. back to you guys. >> thank you for that. >> facebook is adding a new feature to its messenger app. that's a story we're watching today. allowing users to send and receive money from friends. users can tap on the icon after linking a visa or mastercard debit card issued by a u.s. baik to their accounts. the free feature will be rolled out only in the u.s. for now. they launched a similar service called snap cash last year. look at shares of facebook up about .8% in yesterday's trade.
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analysts say this could simplify the payment process. >> absolutely. it will be a very interesting one to keep an eye on. also a big day for alibaba as the lockup period expires allowing insiders earning the shares to sell. only 100,000 shares are owned by employees barring from selling until may. shares are down about 10% below the opening price on its first day of trading last september. >> more importantly though down about 30% over the past six months since going public. it's been a tough road over the last couple of months. >> it has, indeed. before we go to break let's remind you of the headlines. global markets in wait and see mode with the fed ex pekted to part way with patience later today. israeli prime minister declares victory as he goes to work forming a coalition and alibaba's lockup period ends allowing early investors to share more than 300 million shares. >> but coming up on worldwide exchange we're flying solar.
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we're looking at the dow up 17 points. the tech heavy nasdaq with a gain of around 16 points. >> indeed. the fed will wrap up that meeting today and is expected to start laying the ground work for the first interest rate hike in nearly a decade. the central bank is likely to drop it's pledge to remain patient before hiking rates possibly as soon as june. >> analysts remain divided over the direction the fed will take. they will scrap forward guidance
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by dropping the word patience but says such a move does not necessarily pave the way for a june rate hike. they also expect a june hike but the fed is anxious to tighten. they see a rate hike in march 2016. what do other experts think? peter a pleasure to have you on this morning. you say patience is coming out of the fed's statement despite the negative impact of the stronger dollar and of course low inflation. >> yeah, i think there's no question. i think the labor market is what the fed really is focused on and i think a lot of labor market indicators are flashing red according to the models particularly with the unemployment rate being at 5.5%. the 35 year average is 6.5% and fed has rates at zero. so i understand the concern with the rate hike. certainly with the economic data
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and u.s. missing expectations over the last few months on a pretty broad basis but i think the labor market is going to be the reason the fed is likely to move in june. we put this in perspective. rates are at zero in six years and the fed has rates at 0 and there's all of this hand ringing over a 25 basis point rate hike. >> the dilemma confronting policy makers is whether the u.s. economy can endure a rate hike. the recent economic data has not been supportive. take a look at retail sales last week manufacturing and industrial production on monday pretty disappointing. >> i completely agree. the u.s. economy is very fragile. there's no question about it but that also points a finger at monetary policy generally. six years at 0. multiple rounds of quantitative easing and this is the economy we're left with. >> six years at zero and i get the point that we had that for a
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long time and perhaps it's time to start raising rates but haven't we seen that zero isn't even the longer bounds. so zero itself isn't even that meaningful? >> that is true. but what we're seeing is this kind of policy is now the medicine that's going to cure our ills so they can push rates to negative. if they think they'll get a different economic response they're sadly mistaken. the cost of money is not on the improvement of the u.s. economy or the global economy for that matter. >> now we've seen european equities rally pretty hard since the ecb announced its own quantitative easing program and since that program started does the fact that we're coming toward patient being removed and rates going up mark the end of the u.s. equity rally? >> i think it has. the end of qe is the beginning of the end of u.s. equity market rally.
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people look at possible fed rate hike. but the end of qe was the first step. so the u.s. stock market has been churning here in months but there's no question that you combine the change in fed policy with the economic data and a potential flat year over year earnings story right now. >> one of the other big themes or trends we're seeing here in europe is negative yielding bonds which we discussed with you before. help us understand how does that impact the u.s. bond market? does it make it more attractive given that it's sitting at 10%? >> theoretically if you're an investor and a quarter of your bond choices are yielding nothing or has a negative yield anything above that is attractive but i think that european investors, or some
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european investors because we know banks and pension companies are most likely to keep their money home will say yeah that 2% u.s. treasury and ten year yield looks pretty attractive but there's still currency risk. all you need is a 2% rally in the euro and you wiped it away by trying to reach for that yield. so it's easier said than done with respect to getting that yield by going out of the euro zone. >> it's expectations of what the fed is going to do or the renewed oil prices. >> well the context in the backdrop for this change of policy and what you mention in oil is the u.s. stock market is overvalued and on a variety of metrics it's probably the second most valued market since the 1920s. only to the year 2000. so there's very little room for
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error. there's no margin of safety in markets. now that you have a change in fed policy with an end to the v-bottom and earning trajectory we have been seeing creates in my opinion a lot of risk for u.s. stocks. i have been saying that a little while but it's coming to a head with the change in the earnings story and fed policy. >> five out of the ten sectors are expected to post an earnings loss. if we do get a fed lift off what will it look like? what will the trajectory and pace be in your point of view. >> as long as they control the fed you can guarantee yourself it will be extremely slow and methodical. we have to ask ourselves are we repeating the mistakes of keeping rates too low for too long. we have already done that. six years at zero creates major distortion in terms of cost
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discovery. there's a lot of rot at having rates at zero but that said the pace of increases is going to be very slow and potentially messy. >> fed decision coming out at 2:00 p.m. eastern. thank you for giving us your perspective. 2:00 p.m. eastern we get the fed decision followed by the news conference. cnbc will have full coverage today on power lunch. >> the first pilot to attempt to fly around the world without using any fuel started the third leg of his journey. the swiss solar powered plane took off from the indian city this morning. the plane will then fly further east by china and mayanmar. he is the cofounder and ceo and pilot. he joins us live from the cockpit of the plane somewhere above india.
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good morning to you andre. thank you so much for joining us. this is an amazing journey you're attempting. how is it going so far? >> we are having some difficulty this morning to leave in india but everything is getting back on track and it's really incredible that more i fly the more i produce. now they are full they will be full when a arrive tonight in india. >> when you fly across the pacific and atlantic you will have to fly for days at a time. how long can the plane keep going without landing? >> you know what it is amazing
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to see now that the plane can fly almost forever. it can fly a week it can fly a month nonstop as long as it gets the possibility to recharge it's batteries. so it's completely sustainable in terms of energy. now the major question of course is to see how can we make the pilot sustainable as well. we will fly alone up to one week across the pacific ocean. so that's why i'm currently training. i'm trying to get used to it and do yoga do meditation to reach out to my own energy and rest for a short period of time. >> thank you so much for joining us. we wish you all the safety in the world to complete your journey. we leave you with live protests
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't they keep patient. the global markets on high alert. plus alibaba investors bracing for a session, some of the most powerful analysts slashing expectations ahead of today's lockup exploration. and is your health data at risk? another major insurer hit by a massive data breach. it's wednesday, march 18th 2015 and squawk box begins right now. >> live from new york where business never sleeps, this is squawk box.
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>> good morning and welcome to squawk box on cnbc. it is one of the most talked about fed meetings in recent memory. janet yellen and company gathering in washington for the conclusion of a two-day policy setting session. synchronize your watches everybody. we're counting down to the big decision. the statement and economic projections will be released at 2:00 p.m. eastern time and then a half hour later don't miss chair janet yellen fielding questions from reporters. it's all about patience and whether that one word will still appear in the fed statement. consensus suggests the central bank is likely to drop the pledge. that change could suggest a rate increase is coming sooner rather than later although a lot of people said even if they drop it it doesn't necessarily mean rates are rising in june. that seems to be what the market is prepped for at this
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