welcome to worldwide exchange. i'm carolyn and these are your headlines from around the world. growing pains, weaker than expected german pmi weighs on sentiment ahead of the composite data out any minute after manufacturing pmi falls to a one year low in april. >> ericsson results fall short of forecasts hit by weakness in north america. we speak to the ceo first on cnbc next in the hour.

>> shares of bilfinger in the red after delivering it's fifth profit warning while tapping a new ceo. >> facebook fails to find a friend and the stronger dollar as it posts the slowest revenue growth in two years and warns from a hit from the green back in the second quarter. >> let's get to the pmi data for april right away. came in at 53.5 versus 54 the month of march and versus 54.4 in the forecast so this is slightly below expectations and this follows the french and the german numbers which were also a little bit disappointing. growth seems to be losing some steam in the euro zone. if we take a look at the manufacturing pmi for the month of april, the flash number 51.9 versus 52.2 in the month of

march. now that is also below forecast. we're looking for a print of 52.6. last but not least i do want to bring you the services pmi. the flash for the month of april, 53.7. once again, that is below forecast. let's get some instant reaction to these numbers with the chief european economist. are these numbers that we should be worried about or might it just be a temporary slow down of the euro zone? >> it's probably temporary. there may have been an impact for less optimistic news from greece. the markets moving a bit sideways. maybe that effected expectations but overall the number is a bit weaker from the previous month but not dramatically so. it's a bit higher given what you would expect in france and germany and that probably suggests spain and italy might

have been doing better. >> but still if not now when should the euro zone be growing because now we have the perfect conditions in place. we have the weaker euro weaker oil prices, record low interest rates. >> absolutely. i continue to look for a slow recovery. we still seeing very cautious firms in europe. particularly in germany. they have had quite a pick up in private consumption and exports are doing okay and we don't see a pick up in investment. so it's really the copper sector that's very cautious but there are reasons to think in the second half of the year obviously if we don't have a major accident along the way investment spending will pick up. >> i know you're an economist and not an equity analyst but i still wonder if we're seeing a little weakening in the european recovery might be good for sentiment overall given that it might be less likely for the ecb

to pull back their stimulus prematurely. >> as long as they don't point to a major weakening which is not the case at the moment i would agree with that. clearly the biggest drivers of the rally in equities the ecb policy the euro which boosted the profitability of the companies. whether it's 53 or 54 doesn't make a difference in my opinion. in any case i have been looking for a slow recovery. the numbers are not surprising. >> you'll stick around and we'll talk more about greece but first up let's talk china. china's factory activity was a one year low in april. underscoring persistent weakness in the world's second largest economy. let's see how the markets in asia responded to that and we're seeing a muted reaction to no reaction really sri. >> well it was a seven year high

actually for the mainland china stock markets. what they are doing by interpreting these numbers is pricing in yet more stimulus. yet more monetary easing to really keep growth consolidated around 7% carolyn. hsbc produced this set of numbers and he says this this is striking i thought, the numbers we have been seeing over the past quarter and these numbers in particular are consistent with deflationary pressures in the chinese economy and they warrant more forceful monetary easing and what they have pencilled in is a basis point cut to the policy rates in the coming weeks. what does it mean for the stock market? it's positive. the liquidity band wagon continues to roll on and that's what the markets are pricing in. just a couple of days ago we did see the more aggressive than

expected cut in the rrr by hundred basis points and the terms of liquidity in the system we're talking about 1.2 trillion. a lot of that is drip feeding it's way into the stock market. interesting to see that rotation and money is favoring mainland equities over the hang seng where the medium term the momentum is going to favor 8 shares given the valuation gap. it outperforms by 1.4%. we're hearing the china stock buying is spilling over into the market. they were big force in the market this month as they have been in the past two months as well. so that's an interesting footnote there. also we did see stronger than expected economic numbers coming out from korea although i think the bank of korea is still going to be very much in play in terms of further stimulus measures to

really consolidate the economy over there so that's the positive factors that the korean market is responding to carolyn today. back to you now. >> thank you so much for that. let's show you what european markets are doing. the stoxx europe 600 is close to session lows on the back of the slightly disappointing flash pmi numbers for the month of april. also we have a whole thing period of numbers out this morning. ericsson down 8% at the start of the trading sector. let's show you the markets one by one. we're seeing the dax is trading like this. off by more than 1% actually. they came out with another profit warning and we'll get to that story in a second. the ftse 100 off by 12 points. the cac 40 down by shy of 1%. in the bond markets we saw yields really spiking in yesterday's trading session but today we are seeing that bond

prices are reversing. we're seeing them rising today given that sentiment has taken a hit a little bit and we're seeing the ten year yield off it's highs at 1.8% yesterday down at 1.96% yesterday. we saw the biggest one day jump in about a month yesterday on the back of the better than expected housing data. u.k. yields 1.7% and ten year german yields off recent record lows at 14 basis points and the currency markets, sterling that was the big story yesterday but today it is losing against the greenback. back below the 150 level. that was on the back of minutes that were slightly more hawkish than expected. the aussie dollar not reacting to the chinese pmi and we're seeing a little bit of dollar strength against the euro. 10701 here. it's playing a crucial role in

first quarter earnings season on both sides of the atlantic. speaking to cnbc in houston, he said the company was benefitting from a strong u.s. dollar. take a listen. >> it's marginally upset but we have some -- last year we lost $5 billion because of price but we had some hundred million compensation because of the exchange rate. the drop in price is so strong it's not possible with the same rate. >> we have to compensate it with a different way. increased efficiency. the time to market and use more technology. >> meantime the ecb increased the amount of money greek banks can borrow under it's emergency lending program. the lending limit has risen to 75.7 billion euros up by 1.5 billion euros from last week

banking sources told cnbc. this comes as greece tries to haerm hammer out a debt deal. still with us is the chief european economist. expectations for the meeting are very low. no one thinks the two sides can find a debt deal. time is running out. do you think default by greece is now inevitable? >> no. it's not inevitable but the probability has risen because of the lack of time to come to a technical agreement. my view is the point where greece risks running out of money is june if not the july the latest. so there has to be a deal by the end of may. so then european parliaments will have to ratify the deal for example, in germany. so there is a need for some time before the money can be

dispersed. >> right now what we're seeing is the central government in athens is trying to round up the cash from municipalities and it's seeing a lot of backlash and if you look at the popularity numbers they have seen quite a big decline from last month. i believe they're around 45% now. do you think that with increasing pressure from its own people greece will cave in to the euro zone demands? >> it's a greater incentive to come to a compromise. when you start scooping up all the remaining funds around the local governments, especially the ones that are politically not aligned with this new government would be optimized and, you know public opinion can turn very quickly and i think the government is aware of it. >> there's been a lot of debate the last couple of weeks about whether a greek default can happen without a grexit or whether it has to go hand in

hand. some analysts are saying a greek default is dangerous. >> they would have to be better organized which they're not. many talk about ious in which the government would keep running but that requires a system of payment. it requires alternatively the government being able to print checks or payment and the impression is that the government is disorganized and so is the civil service. i don't see them doing that any time soon. at least not in an organized fashion. >> certainly not. it will go down to the wire. >> it will go down to the wire. a compromise is what is desired alt the political level.

the difficulty is to make it happen. >> thank you for joing us thising us this morning. facebook reporting the slowest revenue growth. the strong dollar will likely cut stronger second quarter revenue. active monthly users rose 14% to 1.44 billion. facebook shares did fall some 2% in after hours trading. facebook also announced its ruling out a new app called hello for android phones. it brings information about users friends into their phone and lets them make free calls over wifi. it comes as they seek to dominate the smartphone operating system. let's cross to seema who is at the next web conference where thousands of start ups are

learning how to be the next facebook. why amsterdam? >> listen this is a lot of excitement behind me. a lot of start ups presenting their business models and ideas to range of investors but i want to pick up on facebook. a big thing was the 80% rise in rnd. that's a type of investment needed in order to stay competitive and continue to innovate and stay on the top. interestingly enough they have been allocating a lot of capital into tech start ups. about 5 billion in 2014. that's double of what we saw end of the year prior. the reason they want to find the next facebook. perhaps the facebook of europe. we have been seeing a steady rise in foreign direct investment into the netherlands and there's a lot of fast growing companies that call the dutch capital their european

headquaters like netflix, tesla, uber among others. some say it's due to tax incentives but others folks hearsay it's more about that. why are you here? >> music, talent. >> space cakes. >> embracing the liberal and laid back culture of amsterdam. one of the reasons they're calling it their destination for their tech company. throughout the show we'll be speaking to a variety of start ups including two disrupters. you'll be speaking to the ceo of verify. that's coming up after this break trying to revolutionize the drone industry. also the leading player in the car pool industry. worldwide exchange is back in two minutes.

>> this caused by weakness in it's u.s. oil and gas business and lower demand for power plants. meanwhile the german building services firm is shaking up management naming the chief executive as it's new ceo.

let's see if they can manage the turn around there reporting an 18% drive in first quarter operating profit. they benefitted from hedging activities. i'll be speaking to the company's ceo. they expected a slow down to drag on but sees continued growth in china. we'll be speaking to the ceo in a first on interview coming up on the show at 11:15 cet. they're outperforming today. reaping benefits from a weaker

euro but the london listed group managed to post an 8.3% rise boosted by currency moves and growth outside of europe. we spoke to the wpp ceo earlier. >> february and march were not as good as january but overall it was a strong quarter and as you see the margins in the first quarter were strong. very strong too. so i think we had a very good start to the year. we remain cautious about the rest of the year. we haven't upped our guidance for the year. we have said revenue, we looked at our quarter one revised forecast. we haven't finalized them. we'll be going through them in the next couple of weeks but top line-up by over 3% in terms of net sales and well over that in term of revenues and we're

looking forward to margins more than meeting our start of the year. geographically asia. latin america not so much. europe, u.k. u.s. africa and the middle east all contributing functionally advertising media and digital contributing heavily too. >> shares off by 2% today. amazon is among a host of shipping and tech firms experimenting with drone technology but some critics worry that regulations are not keeping pace with innovation. a small drone was founded on shinzo abe's roof of his office this week. police are investigating the possibility it had crashed during a flight. there's no restrictions for flying unmanned equipment at or below 820 feet above ground. our next guest is setting out to improve regulations of drones

aiming to bring order to the chaos. i'm joined by the ceo and standing by in amsterdam is seema mody. great to have you on the show today. what exactly does verifly want to do? >> we want to solve problems like you outlined just like with the unexpected visit of the japanese prime minister. they're like the internet in the early 1990s. we put trust into drones through identification technology that identify the pilot and the drone and also very specialized activity management technologies that can tell drones where they should and should not go and can and cannot go. >> you're saying the operation of drones should be regulated by an institution but it should be

regulated by a software but for that to actually work you need a lot of data. this is a big data experiment, isn't it? >> there's a lot of data. we have a team in ireland that are looking at that problem. everything from 0 to 500 feet in the entire world. we're meeting with regulators. we are meeting with regulators in the u.k. in a few hours. we met with metropolitan police last night. everybody is excited about somebody trying to put this problem together so they can prevent an incident and that's what we're all about. >> seema, come in here. >> yeah, jay, you know drones sound exciting but from investors that i speak to here there seems to be still some questions as to the commercial use of drones going forward. sure it can speed up the delivery process for a lot of the big retail and e-commerce firms but help us understand the commercial use and opportunity there five or ten years from now. >> asking that question is a lot like asking what's the internet

going to really do for us in 1992. you would say selling books but i like bookstores. what else can it really do for me and the answer is its a platform. you don't know until you see it's full potential. they can transport small items over large distances autonomously. they're very easy to fly and they can image like nothing else. they can provide imagery that would cost throughs in a helicopter through a dgi phantom that's several hundred dollars. that's a difference. we're only beginning to see the dawn of what this stuff can do. >> i just wonder given the regulatory head winds with the faa in the u.s. is that pushing you to test out your technology overseas and other countries. >> not to test so much because we are not, you know as operational but certainly in terms of investment it's easier

outside of the united states than inside. we recently announced a round exceeding $2 million for a seed round that had names involved in the creation of the largest airline in europe as well as probably the uber investors of europe who see the potential of this technology. the fact is that the regulators in europe have been much more business friendly when it comes to allowing the deployment and experimentation of this technology. that probably explains the difference. >> all right. let's talk about the other big trends. you say drones could be as big as the revolution brought about by the internet. what about cars what about smart cities? what are the other big trends in tech you're seeing? >> so we see autonomous vehicles

as an extension of drones actually. you know, drones are an autonomous flying object and cars are, connected cars or self-driving cars are really autonomous we also think about what it can do to prevent you getting into a self-driving car. >> very briefly you're also the co-founder of halo but recently pulling out of the north american market. it doesn't promise a valuation as high as uber. do you think halo lost out to the likes of uber. >> no. i don't think many company of the world public or private have valuations, you know? i would be very happy and i'm sure any investor would be to have fractions of a private valuation like that. whether that comes to be true in the public markets, one only

knows but, you know i'm extremely happy with a business that has, you know almost 200 employees and i used to get here with a cabby fabulously happy to have another trip. >> thank you for your time. best of luck. founder and ceo of verifly. seema thank you for that. seema has a lot more updates for us from amsterdam. still to come on the show wilfred joins us with the latest on the u.k. elections. exactly two weeks to go to polling day. where are you? >> that's right carolyn and after the break we will be asking the question what does this election mean for u.k. financial markets and how best to trade it with an expert panel here in london. stay with us on worldwide exchange.

r china's manufacturing pmi falls to a 1 year low in april. eric is on slides after results fall shy of forecasts and weakness in north america. we speak to the equipment maker ceo first on cnbc in the next

hour. shares also deeply in the red as the german engineering firm delivers it's 5th profit warning in less than a year while finally tapping a new ceo. facebook fails to find a friend in the stronger dollar. the social network posts it's slowest revenue growth in two years and warns of a hit from the green back in the second quarter. >> we're seeing u.k. retail shares with a surprise fall in the month of march. that's on the back of a dip in fuel sales. the monthly number down 0.5%. we were expecting an increase month on month. year on year the number is below expectations. 4.2% versus expectations of 5.4%. we're seeing sterling dipping after the u.k. retail sales data. 14962 even though it was down

back below the 150 level. once again we're seeing retail sales slightly disappointing in the month of march. this data tends to be quite volatile. maybe we'll see volatility in the next couple of months and maybe revisions as well. also want to bring you u.k. march public sector net debt 6.7 billion sterling. a little bit lower than forecast and that is also down slightly from a year ago. now reduction has been a big, big priority for the current government and for the conservatives with their minority partner so we're seeing u.k. public finances have improved in february but also seems to have improved in the month of march. let's have a look at european markets. we're seeing a lot of red on the charts today. this is in part because we saw

the pmi numbers for germany and france and the euro zone as a whole. some what disappointing. ftse 100 off. dax lower now and well below that 12,000 handle. the cac 40 also off by 1.2%. we also had a number of earnings reports out and they were mixed as well. the tech sector leading the decliners down by 8% at the start of the trading session. the euro stox 50 is looking like this. we're close to the session lows. in the bond markets we saw that big move to the downside yesterday. big sell off and yields jumping in part because of the better home sales data out of the u.s. but also the hawkish minutes we saw out of the boe. the ten year treasury note is now dipping again. 1.9.5%. the ten year bund yield down to 13.9 basis points and the 10

year yield also some what lower compared to yesterday 1.68%. the u.k. election is exactly two weeks away. the economy is center stage and in the next few hours an independent think tank releases it's assessment of the manifesto pledges made by the companies. they already commented that the differences between conservative and labor tax and spending were pretty stark. wilf has ventured out to east london today and a lot of people there where you are would be afraid of a labor government. >> well carolyn that's certainly one of the questions on the agenda in terms of what this election means in terms of the economy and business. this is our final panel of the morning but such is the caliber of our guests in a we decided to split them up. they're too expert to share the same stage. the first of our guests peter, thank you for joining us. let's touch on the headline issue. is sterling already pricing in

all the risk of this election? >> there's some evidence of that coming through. we have to look at the broader global context. there's other things going on as well. the impact on current sys and that's the case for sterling. >> let's have a link about the physical plans of these two main parties. if we rely on the year we would have thought that u.k. politics is more polarized than ever is that the message coming through with their plans for the economy? >> that's what they want us to believe but in the broader picture there's much less between the two parties. government spending will amount to 3.5 billion bounds. it isn't a great deal of

difference. >> she's talking to me about the fact that labor in some people's eyes are bad for business and bad for the economy. is that not a view you hold then? >> there will be issues for particular sectors to deal with. that's true of every political change and there's certainly some industries perhaps that will place greater change under a labor administration. we have to see what it is and it looks close and no one party will be able to fully implemented the agenda they're talking about. >> we're going to need a coalition of sorts. are there certain types better for markets than others? >> the issue you brought up around a labor led coalition the perhaps the one with the greatest uncertainty over the agenda for markets but again a certain amount of that is in the price. we have to look at the u.k.

assets as global assets. so it's not just about u.k. politics. >> were you able to trade u.k.plc perfectly? i get that the ftse 100 is international. would that be somewhere you want to be placed? regardless of the outcome of this election we're still face a challenging outlook. >> we think there's challenges for the economy and that's one of our concerns about all parties projections it seems we're already six years from the recession. that would be a long period of economic expansion but we do think there are businesses set up for these challenges even with a difficult u.k. economic backdrop. there are opportunities within the market that we think over that time frame will continue to work. >> and you're one that likes to focus on tail risks for the economy as a whole. as we head into the election and

uncertainty that might follow it are there trades you might recommend in terms of how to get protection, gold perhaps, azarenka opposed to equities? >> absolutely. we think gold is a reasonable place to be. not just from a u.k. perspective but a global basis. we're after all now only seeing the european central bank introduce qe. really extreme policies. we have negative interest rates so despite all the relatively positive sentiment that we're seeing in markets about a positive outlook we still play some fairly extraordinary times and so some of those risk hedges to us and remain very relevant against a fairly uncertain backdrop. >> always a pleasure to see you. for now carolyn back to you. >> thank you so much for that. what a beautiful shot you've got. let's hope you ever want to come back to the studio. but thank you so much for your coverage this morning. moving on u.s. and u.k. authorities are preparing to announce a settlement as early

as today over rigging claims. they're very late in settling those claims with u.s. authorities. is that why we're expecting the fine to be higher than for competitors? >> well, actually i don't think that was their rational. they are very late in settling all of these claims compared to u.k. and also u.s. competitors. i think their rational was to negotiate a little bit more with the authorities hoping that the deal could be cheaper but now the fine is 1.5 billion euros or two u.s. dollars according to sources just for the settlement. that's the biggest -- yeah the biggest claim actually for a single bank ever since that scandal came up that's only one of many legal cases we're

waiting to be settled. it's good news that they're actually really starting to do so but the positive surprise is not so much the settlement but what they also said yesterday evening and in a statement that despite that 1.5 billion euro charge in the first quarter for the legal settlement they are still profitable and they are also saying that they had recorded close to record revenues in the first quarter and that was helping the sales in early trading here in germany and now they're also in the -- yeah, they're also negative territory with the general market but i guess the biggest news will be next week when they will be announcing most likely their new strategy carolyn with that back to you. >> thank you so much for that. still a relative outperformer on the dax today. still to come on the show

profiting from uncertainty. the swedish lender benefits from market volatility as it posts a 19% gain and first quarter operating profit. we speak to the company's cfo after the short break. don't go away.

software start ups attracted 42% of the investment while one third was stage funding in unicorns. how does europe stack up? seema is at the next web conference in amsterdam. >> thank you. we're seeing not just the public market heating up but the private market as well here in europe. we saw about $5 billion in european venture capital money going to tech start ups last year. that's a 50% rise from what we saw in 2013. we're also seeing more deal activity in the technology space. the 160% rise in tech exit. let's talk more about the

european tech landscape and where investors are looking for opportunity we van of mosaic investors. thank you for joining us. we were putting together the great stats about the type of deal in investor interest we're seeing in europe. give us the top three reasons people are putting money to work in the private market. >> sure there's several great reasons for investment flowing into europe right now. first off, the opportunity for tech companies to disrupt different industries throughout the world has grown over the past couple of years. so several industries that have not been disrupted such as financial services. there's been an enormous opportunity to tap into those markets and as a result you're seeing disruption from areas that are financial centers such as london. you're seeing a lot of the companies in the worldcoming out of europe and others. >> does part of it have to do with uber at $40 billion and

snapchat at $19 billion that that in itself is sending investors looto look for opportunity elsewhere? perhaps here in europe. >> sure. it's less investors coming to europe and a lot more european capital flowing into european businesses. for example, there have been several corporate investors and also several new venture investors. for example, mosaic my firm got launched in september with largely u.s. capital but to invest in start ups because as valuations have risen in the u.s. people are saying that the talent in several areas is actually superior in europe and the valuations are actually significantly lower. >> does the economic data scare you though? deflation? a lack of manufacturing activity does that concern you as an investor looking for it here in europe. >> sure. if you're investing in capital or you raise from a certain country or locale and denomination and you're investing in a different area

that's an added risk. a lot of those that raised their funds in jurors rows it's been much more difficult to produce returns over the last year simply because they also have to deal with the issues as well as the result of their investments. >> if i'm an entrepreneur and looking to raise money, why should i pick mosaic ventures versus a more established investor like perhaps excel or index ventures. >> what's interesting about us is we're younger than any of the investments that we made so far. we made five investments. we disclosed three of them so far but because we're a young firm we have much fewer obligations. most firms you go to each of the partners will have six, seven, eight, nine ten board obligations. we have three obligations right now. we're able to work harder for our company especially over the next five years or so. in addition to that come and meet us. we try to be a smart, thoughtful and kind to our entrepreneurs as possible. we have a very entrepreneur

friendly mentality. we don't come with the baggage and we're trying to be as scrap pianoscrapy as possible. >> is it mobile? software? hardware? drones? >> funds of funds, hedge funds so we can commit capital for 8 to 10 years so we're looking for companies that can grow over the next 6 to 10 years and aren't necessarily looking for the next five. that is application software. consumer businesses. we have looked at drone companies. >> any companies here in amsterdam. >> several really interesting companies here in amsterdam. >> you make that investment you bring it to us here at cnbc. a pleasure talking to you. >> very nice meeting you, seema. >> there you go guys. a look at how investors are putting money to work here in europe and coming up we'll be speaking to one of the leading disrupters in the travel

industry. we'll be speaking to a french start up seen as one of the facebooks of europe. that's going to be coming up late owner worldwide exchange. >> blablacars. don't you love that name seema. >> sorry. it's so loud here. go ahead carolyn. >> no worries. i was just talking about the name blablacar. don't we all just love the name of that company. >> exactly. so catchy right. >> thank you so much. let's move on and talk about earnings. swedish lender scb reported an 18% rise in first quarter operating profit beating forecasts. they benefitted from hedging activities tied to market volatility over the period. let's catch up with the cfo of this firm. the cfo joins us on the phone from stockholm. always a pleasure speaking to you. we're a couple of weeks into the second quarter. do you see any indication that the good trend from the first quarter when it comes to trading and clients wishing to hedge out

some of the volatility, is that continuing into the second quarter? >> well maybe i shouldn't comment on the second quarter but i will say we have been working well in the bank when we have periods like in q-1 with higher volatility our customers seek advice on hedging strategies so the trading line works. it's all sort of customer flow driven business. volatility is less aannounced than mna transaction. so i think the important take away from this quarter is that there's good diversification in the bank. >> so you can't tell us what the kurn trends are. does that tell us you don't have much visibility? >> no it's in plain sight for all of us. volatility is still high. so you can draw your conclusions from that i suppose.

>> draw my conclusions then. denmark and sweden two of your key markets imposed negative deposit rates. how difficult is it for you and for your clients? >> it is unchartered territory and i think it's -- we charge for deposits and that's common practice in this market today. i think alel banks i imagine will try not to have that spread into the retail segments to let's hope we can stay away from that. >> we'll have to leave it here. thank you for your time. back at the cfo of seb.

the ftse 100 following a surprise fall in retail sales. sales fell 0.5% on the month but rose 4.6% for march. the fall was due to a dip in fuel sales. the ftse 100 off session lows off by a quarter of 1%. sterling also heading lower following the figures currently changing hands at 14987 against the dollar. back below the 150 level we hit yesterday and the u.s. election is exactly two weeks away. let's get back to wilfred on the road in london covering the latest. where are you today wilf? >> we're in london's canary wharf where we have been asking guests what this election means for u.k. financial assets. i'm delighted to have with me now the ceo of del mar asset management. lead up to this election people are getting very nervous.

the result will be close should we be selling u.k. assets? >> there's been an underperformance over the last 6 to 12 months. soem people calculate the stocks are as cheap as they have been. there's also some figures that say there's been selling of u.k. which doesn't denote a great deal of confidence in what's coming forward. we think there will be a coalition obviously and we survived in the past. we had one for five years. it was a difficult start but once it got settled in they were okay. they were in the 1970s and further back in the century they're also coalition governments so i don't think it's something to be absolutely terrified of.

what is not yet worrying the markets is you might have a coalition between the labor party and the snp and if that happens then the program is scotland first, everybody else good luck and so on and that will be bad for markets because it will also be a very left leaning coalition. the s&p are very left wing and the labor party under milliband has left wing policies we haven't seen for sometime. >> okay i have to pick you up a little bit on that. the conservatives have been pushing that story hard themselves. yes the s&p plan to increase spending every year but labour is a far cry from the likes of them. their spending plans aren't wholly different despite underlying policies. they still plan to reduce spending every year. just at a slightly slower pace. >> i don't know what the program is. they haven't shared the program with us. there will be a much high level

of tax. some of the labor ideas are realistic in terms of the way the market has moved and everybody is going to them whether it's the conservatives or the labor party but the basic shift in terms of labor party is to more governance and regulation and also higher taxization and it doesn't always work and i believe that it won't work. >> let's talk about trades ahead of the election. which sectors are you overweight? which underweight? >> we're overweight the international stocks because we think that's a good place to be but in london that's a difficult thing because there's so many minors and oil stocks and everyone knows they're going through a very difficult time but a lot of the international brands like unilever are looking quite good particularly for u.k. based investors.

where you want to be as internationally spread as possible. >> does sterling you bounce after the election. >> i'm not sure that will happen. one of the things we find strange is the pound has done so well against the euro. there's the income differential and higher interest rates we have but it does mean that there will be more uncertainty here where as possibly in europe they will kick the can down the road for another two or three months. the euro might be stronger against the pound. >> thank you for joining us. carolyn, back to you. >> thank you so much for that and it is april 23rd. the day scholars acknowledge as william shakespeare's birthday though no one knows which day he was born but in honor of shakespiershakes shakespears birthday we're asking how will he decline the

climate. join the conversation here on worldwide exchange. send us your favorite shakespeare quotes. the one i like go wisely and slowly. those that rush stumble and fall. that is from romeo and juliet by the way. still to come on the show it's super thursday for q-1 earnings state side with 50 firms set to report. we discuss after this short break. we'll be back in two.

u.s. few turs pointing to a lower open ahead of the busiest day for first quarter earnings season with 50 firms reporting. facebook fails to find a friend in the strong dollar. it warns of a hit from the green back in q-2. global growing pains. european pmis surprised on the down side after china's manufacturing pmi falls to a one

year low in april. >> and i'm seema mody live in amsterdam where the tech earnings continues. we're going to find out and talk to one of the major disrupters in the travel industry. the ceo and co-founder of blablacar joins us in a couple of minutes. plus why the eu's crack down on google won't stop money flowing into european tech. >> let's get straight back to facebook. they beat forecasts but revenues were shy. the company reporting the slowest revenue growth in two years as higher spending on rnd cut into profits. it also says the strong dollar will cut second quarter revenue.

facebook says active monthly users rose 13% to 1.44 billion and 87% of them acts as the site on mobile devices. facebook shares down 2% in after hours trading. in germany off by 1.6%. facebook also announcing it's rolling out a new app called hello for android phones. the android app brings information about users friends into their phone and lets them make free calls over wifi. it comes as the social media site seeks to dominate the smartphone operating system. let's cross over to seema where thousands of european start ups are gathering in the hopes of learning how to be the next facebook. seema. >> absolutely. the big question is given the growth that we're seeing with companies like facebook will europe ever see a success story like facebook? well our next guest many investors say could be the next big success story of europe. let's bring in the co-founder of

blablacar. thanks for joining us today. your company has been on the acquisition hunt making key strategic acquisitions in mexico germany and other places. is this the way you'll find your way to the top by making acquisitions? >> it's one of the ways. we started that about three years ago. we have done the first acquisition in italy and we found that was a great way to expand in europe because you get this very passionate team that do exactly what we do in another country and instead of competing and ending up in a very competition mode we decided to acquire the company and we found that it works really well and we expanded that strategy into germany and poland and russia and recently we announced three acquisitions another one in germany. one in mexico. that's how we wasn't into latin america and one in eastern europe. >> how do you scale at such a fast pace without losing your core strategy? >> the key is not so much the strategy because we keep the same strategy across the

country. that's one thing you manage to do by doing early acquisitions. we acquire companies when they're still early and it's easy to integrate them into the culture or vision. >> there's a need for funding. help us understand where you are in terms of your fund-raising. >> we have excel and index. we raised $100 million last summer. part of that was expansion and acquisition and there's news in the last week of acquisition also came from the fund-raising. in terms of more fund-raising essentially as long as we can grow faster that's going to be the focus. not the turn the company profitable as soon as possible but how do we grow the company even more? can we create more value in more markets? if we need to fund raise more to do that we will. >> help us understand your

strategy in india. uber had a challenging time. it has had challenges when it comes to safety with women in india. >> yeah so india is very different from europe. it's an obvious thing to say. we have been focus on europe initially and then move outside with russia and turkey and india. what's fascinating about india is the transport network is completely packed. you have travel between systems than the train or bus system can sustain. so essentially what we do is create more supply for indian people to travel between cities. the key is how do we tackle that safety issue? we have done more and more trust features and safety features to do that but one of the key points is you choose your co-travellers. so it's different than you click on a button and we send you a driver, here you make a choice.

as a woman passenger you can pick a woman driver and pick who you're going to travel with. we leave people the choice to choose their driver or passenger. >> india russia germany. what's the next country you're going to? what about the u.s. >> we just opened mexico so it's like the first step into central america and we're going to expand into latin america. the two places we're looking at for 2015 and probably for next year are going to be latin america and asia. the u.s. is further down the road. so we look at the u.s. at some point. it's not like we don't want to go into the u.s. but it's not the priority for us. >> good luck on the expansion plans and keep us updated as you continue to grow and expand around the world. that's the co-founder of blablacar headquatered in france. >> that's right. >> wonderful. coming up on the show we'll be speaking to one of the investors of blablacar which has $4 billion in investment in asset management. one of the early investors in

facebook. they'll be speaking to us about the opportunity in amsterdam as they try to position themselves as a destination for tech start ups. that will be coming up later in the day. back to you. >> seema thank you for that. meantime let's check in on the markets and futures pointing to a softer start to the trading session. the s&p 500 seen off by 7.5 points. the dow jones by 80 points and the nasdaq set to fall by 21 points. this is after stocks closed by session highs after erasing early losses. the nasdaq was up for a third straight day closing at a 50 year high. just a few points away from the record close we saw in march 2000. stronger than expected housing data and positioning in tech stocks ahead of the earnings also helping. let's also show you how we're doing in europe. we're weaker across the board today and this is because of two things. first of all, weaker than expected pmi data for the euro zone this morning. particularly also for germany. that's a little bit of a disappointment and then softer than forecast retail sales for

the u.k. economy. the ftse 100 close to the flat line off at session lows. the xetra dax down by 0.9%. also earnings out today from the likes of eric is onsson but tech shares are underperforming today. bonds are reversing some of yesterday's steep losses. that's when we saw the ten year treasure yield at 1.98%. now we're at 1.95%. that's in response to the housing data. the biggest one year rise in a month. the ten year german yield is back at 14 basis points. the ten year u.k. yield at 1.69. in the currency markets the dollar is holing on to the back of the better than expected data yesterday. the euro now flat against the u.s. dollar 10727 and the aussie dollar taking a hit on the back of the chinese pmi data. the pound sterling against the

green back off by 0.2% in response to the u.k. retail sales data as well. let's come back to the chinese pmi numbers. sri, how are the asian markets reacting to that? >> well the paradigm continues doesn't it carolyn for the china markets? you get worsening macro data and the market pushes higher and it continues on the shanghai come composite despite the flash manufacturing pmi for the month of april showed -- well it was a very poor set of numbers. a 12 month low. 49.2 at hsb saying that these are numbers that are consistent with deflation nary pressures in the system that do warrant a more forceful policy response and they are pencilling in a 25 basis point cut to the policy rate in the coming week. so the market is trying to front run that pushing higher to fresh 7 year highs as i said for mainland equities.

different story for hang seng. but in the medium term the momentum is going to remain on the hong kong stock connect because of the evaluation gap there. one of our outperformers up by 1.4%. we saw stronger economic data for the first quarter but i think that the bank is still going to be in the game delivering stimulus to try to sure up the recovery in south korea. we're also hearing that we are getting a spill over effect from china and that stock buying frenzy into it. we see inflows for the last three months including this month. so overall, reasonably solid day. a day of consolidation and the shanghai composite continues to push higher despite the fact that we're seeing weakening

macro. back to you. >> same story over and over again. sri thank you for that. let's give you a run down of what to watch this trading day. weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. at 10:00 a.m. we get march new home sales which is expected to show they fell from a 7 year high in february. today is the biggest day of earnings season. weekend numbers from gm pepsico and procter & gamble. after the close we hear from amazon google microsoft and starbucks. and just after his company reports earnings starbucks ceo howard schultz will be on closing bell. >> the first quarter profit beat forecasts as revenues surge from payment business including paypal which will be spun off in

the first quarter: the second quarter and outlook is below analyst estimates. shares did rise after hours though. in germany higher by .3. the giant says fewer wireless customers switched to them during the quarter but the average revenue fell. they expect $2.5 billion in cost savings from its pending take over of activity after the third year after the deal closing. rising 1% in after hours. kurnly higher in frankfurt trading as well. it's below analyst estimates. the loss of a key customer samsung and delays of product

launches by smartphone makers will hurt sales of its flag ship snap dragon chip. they're cutting it for the third time. shares down 2% in after hours off by 4.3 in frankfurt trading. calling on asia for growth. eric is on suffers a drop in first quarter profits but will emerging markets come to the rescue for the swedish telecom company? we speak to hans vestberg after the break. that's first on cnbc. don't want to miss it. (under loud music) this is the place. ♪ ♪ ♪ their beard salve is made from ♪ ♪ ♪ sustainable tea tree oil and kale... you, my friend, recognize when a trend has reached critical mass. yes, when others focus on one thing you see what's coming next. you see opportunity. that's what a type e* does. and so it begins. with e*trade's investing insights center, you can spot trends before they become trendy. e*trade. opportunity is everywhere.

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this after facebook posts it's slowest revenue growth in two years. >> let's continue with earnings but on this side of the pond ericsson shares falling after reporting a drop in operating profit falling shy of forecasts. shares down 8.4%. the swedish telecoms equipment maker expects a slow down to drag on. we're joined by the ceo that joins us first on cnbc.

always a great pleasure speaking with you. do you think the market is overreacting to those earnings or are you just as disappointed? >> no i think that what is happening is things that we have seen before so we're not surprised. we knew that we have had this mixed shift between sort of capacity in north america where it's slower now. we'll have that in a second and that we're rolling out much more on coverage in china. so that is known. i think the big swings in currencies of course one complicating factor. we have never seen such a big swing between the swedish crown and u.s. dollars which makes it harder to predict where we are but clearly where the weak swedish crona is now that's overtime. we have edge losses as we are sort of securing part of our

portfolio. so that's where we are but also we saw good bright points where asia is growing well for us. we probably had the best quarter in many many years. so there were also highlights. it's a little bit of mixed shift to north america in china that is impacting the first quarter. >> as you're talking about this shift in the mix, u.s. networking companies are spending less. is this a temporary phenomenon or do you think that could be reversed in the coming quarters? >> what we're seeing is a lot of things happening at the same time. as we have said our customers in north america are doing a lot of things at the same time. spectrum auctions and mergers, et cetera. so for some reason they need to focus on those activities rather than spending at the moment and still north america is the largest market in the world and

the innovation is very high there and our position in north america is very strong. so that of course is coming through in the report but you see in all other ratings coming up for us india was growing 10% for us year over year in the first quarter. so sometimes you don't see all of that as to our good progress in other areas and it's according to plan or transformation into new areas is going well so we're growing well in those areas. it is according to plan. of course a little bit lower margin in this quarter but we are progressing and executing. >> a lot happening in your space. a tie between and that company will be on par with your company in terms of revenue. what will your response be? >> first of all it's logical. everybody is searching for their strategy to be successful and

they decided to go together. we decided our strategy already in 2010. we have taken a lot of positions like leaving hand sets and we are executing what we have and that's how we're going to fight them. we're still number one in mobile infrastructure. services building system and media and that's the areas that we're really focussing on and we're determined to keep those number one positions even if they're conservation and think about their industry. ten years ago it was 15 telecom equipment vendors in the world. it's a brutal world that's come into it. they're still there and we're going to execute on our strategy. >> but is there a fence that you too will have to bulk up? >> i think that for me organic growth is the best way to succeed.

we can build system that hangs together. they can hang together. that is still intact and we're not planning to change it at the moment. i'll also follow what's happening at the moment. we carry on with our strategy. >> all right. appreciate your time this morning morning. >> still to come on the show, paying the price. they report the biggest ever loss on the back of the corruption scandal but vows to return to normality. we bring you the details in two.

happy birthday william shakespeare. april 23rd is the day scholars acknowledge as the great playwrights birthday. now we're asking viewers how would the legendary playwright describe the market climate and global economy. >> we have good tweets in. for greece to leave or not to leave, that is the right question. to be or not to be. i have a couple of really good tweets. everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct. i don't know which play that's from to be honest. i'm not an expert on shakespeare

although i read a couple of plays in high school and college and then he says foul and congregations of vapors. really sri? is that how you see the market participants. let us know how you think and how shakespeare would be describing the markets as a global economy right now. do get in touch on our twitter page at wex cnbc or through e-mail. >> moving on after months of delays and major corruption scandal petrobras reported it's fourth quarter results which are a wash with red ink. we're covering the long awaited numbers and filed this report. >> investors are waiting to hear how big of a charge petrobras would take. the number $2 billion. on top of that another $15 billion in impairments due to delayed projects and the decline in the oil price.

that lead to an overall loss for the quarter of $7 billion. still now that the company has gotten through this hurdle of reporting earnings they still face other huge challenges such as making it cash flow positive. that means they'll probably have to sell off assets and also reduce capital expenditures. we wait to see how the markets react to this earnings report and whether or not investors find it credible. back to you. >> meanwhile, the ceo of italian oil producer eni says the industry needs to create a balance between supply and demand speaking to cnbc at a conference in houston she was asked about the ideal price of crude for consumers and businesses. >> what we are to create is a guidance where we have supply and demand. there's no imbalance. they're well balanced. that's the perfect price. nowadays with the margin of projects that the industry has,

its a regional price but we need a balance between supply and deman. otherwise, we have control and that's not good. >> 75 u.s. dollars would be -- sounds like you're saying a good spot. it's profitable enough to encourage new production newells but it doesn't cutoff demand. >> no. i think that this kind of price can also have the demand growing. in europe and in china because we need to know china and europe can recover. >> let me know if you agree. let me know where you think the ideal price is for crude. still to come facebook adds users but spends big on rnd and fails to find a friend in the strong dollar. we'll break down the social network's earnings after this short break and i'll leave you with a look at how the futures are trading ahead of the open on wall street. we'll be back in two.

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>> welcome to worldwide exchange. these are your headlines from around the world. u.s. futures pointing lower ahead of the busiest day of first quarter earnings season. tech giants google and amazon both report after the bell. amazon breaking out it's cloud revenue for the first time today. this after facebook fails to find a firemen in the strong

dollar. the social network posts it's slowest revenue growth in two years and warns of a hit from the green back in the second quarter. global growing pains. european pmi surprises to the down side after china's manufacturing pmi falls to a one year low in april. good morning everyone. if you're joousust tuning in thank you for joining us on the show. futures pointing to a lower start to the session for the s&p 500. the dow jones seen off by 60 points even and the nasdaq is seen off by 17 points. this is after stocks close near session highs yesterday. the nasdaq was up for the third straight day closing at a 15 year high. just a few points away from that record close and today it's going to be all about earnings. in europe we're looking at a mixed picture right now. the ftse 100 off it's session

lows now back in positive territory but only barely so. we saw some u.k. retail sales numbers for the month of march which were low expectations and the euro zone pmi numbers were disappointing as well. we're seeing some taking on the xetra dax up by a little more than 1%. facebook's first quarter earnings excluding items beat forecasts but revenue was shy. the company reporting the slowest revenue growth as higher spending on rnd cut into profits. it also says the strong dollar will likely cut second quarter revenue. facebook says active monthly users rose 13% to 1.44 billion and 87% of them now access the site on mobile devices. facebook fell 2% in after hours. currently germany off by 1.5%. i'm now joined by the investment director. seema is still with us at the next web conference. if we take a look at the rnd

spending 30% of sales on rnd in the first quarter at facebook. that's twice as much as google. ten times as much as apple. i know this company is trying to invest in growth but are these numbers justifiable to you? >> they are at this point in facebook's evolution. they're very keen to ensure they're developing their business for the future. it was over two years agatha they started with mobile revenues and they managed to generate a dominant position in mobile. that's a direct result of the money they invest in rnd. they need to invest aggressively and they're making the returns to justify it i think. >> the underlying numbers are good. revenues higher more users, increased ad revenues now that shares at 73%. on an underlying basis are you happy with the report? >> i'm extremely happy. we can quibble about how they

did on the top line. but the really critical number for me is user growth and user engagement and those numbers were very very strong. over 50% of the u.s. population use facebook every single day and if you dropped out the category in the 65-year-old and above it would turn into a 100% number using it monthly. there's no social network like facebook and it's going to be hard for them to be succeeded in that respect. >> you know facebook clearly putting a lot of money toward research and development but it's arguably it's inorganic growth strategy really captivating the attention of wall street over the past couple of years. you think back to the acquisition of instagram and how that's a key part of their mobile strategy. what's app last year. they're slowly integrating into

their overall strategy but then the virtual reality software company they acquired last year. we still haven't really understood how they're going to incorporate virtual reality into the social media experience. what are your thoughts there. >> it just adds to the experience. if you think we have gone from a world where we used to use predominantly e-mail and now we're using more messaging and applications moving forward we'll see that extend into a more immersive environment and that could include virtual reality. they already announced the launch of videos when you watch a video on facebook by using your mouse click you'll be able to change the angle at which you look at that video to create a more immersive experience and that's another step toward what ultimately could be great virtual reality opportunities. >> certainly interesting to see what the reception will be from customers and consumers once they use virtual reality as part

of the facebook experience. i also want to talk about the competitive landscape because here at amsterdam there are a number of start ups we have been speaking to here. some of which in the social media space saying we can be the next facebook of europe. tell us about that. do you think these companies and start ups can one day see the growth and sale that facebook has right now when looking at social media? >> i think my basic view on that would be dream on frankly. i think it's quite possible that some of these companies can create niche opportunities. there will be plenty of opportunities to be a niche social provider in a specialist area. the chances of being the next facebook is extremely unlikely. >> do you think facebook shares are expensive right now? >> i don't think they're particularly expensive. they're about 33 times next year's earnings. if you drop out they fall below 30 times. you'll have slow growth this year driven partly by the additional amount of rnd and also by the fx effect. going next year for the next three or four years we severe

30% earnings growth. i don't think 30 times is an unfair valuation as all. >> for disclosure reasons you own facebook too. >> we do. >> we're going to leave it here as far as facebook is concern but we'll talk much more tech later on in the show. investment director at gam. here's a look at the other big earnings mover. ebay beat forecasts as revenues surge from payments business including paypal which will be spun off in the third quarter. payment revenue arose 13% accounting for half of the company's total but shares rose 5% in after hours. in germany higher than 5%. at&t topping forecasts but revenue missed. the giant says fewer wireless customers to switch to other networks in the quarter. at&t rising by 1.8% in frank further. last but not at least qualcomm fell 46%.

results beat forecasts though but the chip maker's second quarter outlook is below analyst estimates. the loss of a key customer samsung and delays by product launchers will hurt sales of snap dragon chip. shares off 2% in after hours. still coming up on the show if you ordered an apple watch, you may not get it when the device officially goes on sale tomorrow but apple has good news for some customers. details, next. new york state is reinventing how we do business by leading the way on tax cuts. we cut the rates on personal income taxes. we enacted the lowest corporate tax rate since 1968. we eliminated the income tax on manufacturers altogether. with startup-ny, qualified businesses that start, expand or relocate to new york state pay no taxes for 10 years. all to grow our economy and create jobs. see how new york can give your business the opportunity to grow at ny.gov/business

the apple watch goes on sale tomorrow in several countries and there's good news for people trying to get their hands on the new device. what's the good news landon. >> well carolyn, some consumers that thought they'd have to wait weeks or months to get their hands on an apple watch will get them sooner rather than later. when online preorders for did device began on april 10th many customers were surprised to see the delivery dates as far out as june. but apple has told some buyers they won't have to wait as long after all. the company says it's working to fill orders as quickly as possible based on supply and the order in which they were received. apple won't say how soon it will ship the watches or how many

people are effected. demand would succeed supply at the launch but won't say how much have been preordered and the analyst raised his forecast for shipments by 18% to 20 million. he estimates more than 2 million units have been preordered and could account for 8% of total sales. they report second quarter results after the closing bell on monday with analysts predicting watch sales of $714 million. apple rose more than 1% on wednesday and the stock is up more than 16% this year versus a 2% gain through the s&p 500. carolyn over to you. >> landon thank you so much for that. mark how do you feel about the apple watch? you were telling me off camera that you still think this will always be a niche product. >> i don't see it being mainstream. largely because of the price point. it's an expensive item. there will be a huge surge of interest initially but then it will calm down to a steady flow.

if you look at samsung as a bench they have sold about 2 million of their watches. i can see apple selling 8, 10 15 million of their watch but i don't see the 20 to 30 million unit forecast we're seeing from some analysts and delivery will be slower as well. >> do you think the price point could be too high even for apple. >> i think if you have an iphone you're getting subsidized. you don't pay for the phone. you get it subsidized by your operator where as the watch you're going to have to stomp up the cash. >> that's a good point. i've never heard that point before but it will be more difficult. what's the minimum prize? $350 versus if you get a phone and if you just pay for the contract it is seemingly a lot less because you just pay a small sum. >> exactly. >> we'll talk more about tech later on in the show including amazon and google but here's a look at the other top stories.

the comcast-time warner cable merger may have hit a road block. fcc staffers recommended the $45 billion deal be designated for hearing. that would put the merger in the hands of an administrative law judge. the fcc doesn't believe the deal is in the public's best interest. a hearing would be a drawn out process and some experts describe it as a deal killer. comcast argued the deal will bring faster internet speeds and better video services to more consumers. >> the atlanta hawks are being sold to a group for $850 million. he was one of the three finals in the l.a. clippers sale last year. he lost out to steve balmer who made $2 billion for that team. it includes former nba star.

the hawks are up 2-0 in their playoff series versus the nets. >> and petrobras reports nearly $17 billion in charges due to losses stemming from the company's corruption scandal on write do you understand of overvalued assets. they're part of the first audited financial statements released by the state owned oil company in more than 8 months ahead of a deadline this month. michelle filed this report. >> investors are waiting to hear just how big a charge petrobras would take due to the corruption investigation under way for the last year. the number, 2 billion. on top of that another $15 billion in impairments. that lead to an overall loss for the quarter of $7 billion. still, now that the company has gotten through this hurdle of reporting earnings they still face other huge challenges such as making it cash flow positive. that means they'll have to sell

off assets and reduce capital expenditures. we wait to see how the markets react to this earnings report and whether or not investors find it credible. back to you. >> heres a reminder of the headlines this hour. it is super thursday for earnings with 50 firms in the s&p 500 set to report. google and amazon are coming out with their numbers after the bell with amazon breaking out cloud revenue for the first time. this after facebook posts it's slowest revenue growth in two years.

it is april 23rd. the day scholars acknowledge as william shakespeare birthday. no one knows what day he was born but in honor of shakespeare's birthday we're asked how would he describe the current market climate. steven says i have taken too little care of this.

if you have some really good quotes off the top of your head join the conversation here on worldwide exchange. send us your favorite shakespeare quotes get in touch with us. we have a couple of really good tweets coming in. christopher saying everyone ought to bear patiently the rights of his own conduct. i'm not very good with plays from shakespeare even though i have certainly read some of those in high school but that was a long time ago. anyways get in touch with us on twitter or through e-mail. meantime let's tune in to european markets. also a miss in terms of the u.k. retail sales for the month of march. the ftse 100 shrugging this off. higher by 0.2%. xetra dax off session lows but still off by 0.6%. in terms of u.s. futures a softer start to the session. s&p 500 seen off by a couple of

points. dow jones off by 48 points. we saw that are are at minus 8. closed at their session highs in yesterday's trading session and it's all about earnings today. today is the single busiest day for u.s.q-1 earning season with 50 s&p 500 firms reporting. blue chip such as caterpillar, pepsico, procter & gamble and amazon and google. google should post net revenue of 14 beside. a 16% increase over last year. and i want to get back out to seema who is still with us in amsterdam an even in amsterdam lots of talk about google. >> lots of talk about google. specifically on the on going developments on regulation and if regulation itself will slow down the pace of innovation. the recent antitrust targets that claim that the tech giant

is abusing it's market position is a big topic of concern among investors and entrepreneurs. one of the big questions is if we continue to see charges like this against multinationals will that result in europe becoming a less favored destination for tech companies. i posed that question to the former former european commissioner. >> we should be alert and we should be absolutely given opportunities for all of those challenges that are at stake. europe is great. europe is a heart of the global theme so it's the biggest economic market on earth and with a lot of technology development. >> and that's why it will be interesting to see if in this earnings report or during the conference call if google will address the eu antitrust charges in addition to of course advertising growth which will be the main focus for google when

it does report today. carolyn. >> thank you for that. still with us is the investment director at gam. there seems to be a lot of pessimism around googles earnings so far and pessimism about it's paid clicks. do you think there's too much pessimism there? do you think because the bar is so low numbers could surprise to the upside? >> i'm not sure they'll surprise to the upside but i think in share price terms a lot is priced in here. they're probably seen as one of the most exposed of the major tech companies and that will have an effect but they also suffered share price wise recently from all the various regulatory issues which will take years to resolve frankly. even if the initial case comes over the next nine to 12 months and they appeal any decision it could be five years before we have a final outcome. >> but even if we take a look at advertising specifically in mobile, it seems on an

operational basis facebook is claiming a lot of the market share from google. is facebook eating google's lunch here? >> to a certain degree it is. facebook has their mobile strategy better organized than google and google unfortunately does have this very monopolist approach in europe. so they're having their business model potentially played around with by the regulators and that will cause some issues i think. >> i want to jump in and talk about regulation because, you know when looking at the banking industry analysts have just had to get used to the fact that regulation is a continued or on going expense when looking at the banks. going forward do you think that will be a head wind for the tech industry? regulation and expenses around that? >> i think it's just something that will be managed. it will be evolutionary. it's something companies need to

come to terms with. the first piece of the google case is about comparison shopping. in reality, any outcome there is not going to be that difficult for google to handle and is not going to have a material impact on revenues or profits but it's going to be on going cases and issues that will have to be dealt with. they'll have to get used to dealing in a more regulated environment. >> google shares haven't done anything over the last year. they're flat. currently around 540 of the last three months. and significantly out performing other tech companies. what do you do with the shares right now? >> they're a clear core holding because of the position google holds in technology. it's clearly the market leader in search but it also owns the infrastructure behind the mobile platform. it's still growing at 15% top line. similar earnings. that will reaccelerate again after they work the way through and you're only paying 15 or 16 times earnings for it and if you

take the cash out it has almost $100 billion in cash next year. it's only 11 or 12 times. it's not expensive. >> take a look at companies like apple that offer a dividend. they have been making massive buy backs. they spent $45 billion in buy backs last year. will google ever offer a dividend to investors? >> that is a fascinating question and it's one of the areas of great interest for me when she takes over in the cfo role. she has done a great job at morgan stanley and i wonder if we'll see better use of capital in development projects and maybe better kind of capital allocation policy as well. it's quite possible going forward. >> mark it was a pleasure having you with us. thank you for your insight this morning. mark hawtin investment director at gam. what else is coming up today?

>> a busy day here at the next web conference. we'll speak to an early investor in facebook. a partner at excel partners with $4 billion in assets under management as they look for opportunities here in amsterdam which is trying to become a favorite tech destination for start ups. we'll also be speaking to the leading start up here in amsterdam. the ceo offed aen which is a company trying to disrupt the online payment space. very interesting given ebay in focus with earnings. back to you. >> thank you. let's have a look at u.s. futures. a softer start to the trading session today on this thursday. let's have a look then, the s&p 500 off by a couple of points but those futures improved over the last 35 minutes or so. the nasdaq seen off by 14 points after it closed at a 15 year high yesterday. that's it for today's show. i'm carolyn roth. next up squawk box u.s. we'll see you tomorrow. bye bye.

good morning, breaking overnight, china's factory activity drops to a one year low. investors aren't liking facebook today. the shares are down after the company posted it's slowest revenue growth in two years and good news for appleoonians. that watch could arrive earlier. it's filling orders faster than expected. it's thursday april 23rd 2015 and squawk box begins right now. ♪

>> live from new york where business never sleeps this is squawk box. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. over here. good morning. >> i would have that too. >> that's just like -- >> what is that? >> they took you. >> we were checking it out a second ago. that's probably why. but go back and bring it up again. good morning everybody. i'm becky quick with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. happy birthday to youtube. the hit made him an overnight sensation. his video holds the record as the most viewed youtube clip ever and this would make a good