hi, everybody. good morning. it's friday. you're watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> and i'm nancy hulgrave. these are your headlines. >> dividend delays. rbs shares plunging 10% after the u.k. bank tells investors to be patient on a payout as it logs its eighth annual loss in a row. >> exchanging vows. the london stock exchange lays out a potential merger. >> battle lines are drawn over stimulus at the g-20 in shanghai. the german finance minister

saying easy money could cause the next crisis, while the ecb board member telling cnbc that concerns are overblown. >> there are no signs whatsoever for the time being that there are unintended consequences, that these are surprises. it is not there. >> violating the constitution. apple unveils its stinging response to a u.s. court order saying the fbi is seeking a, quote, dangerous power in its request to unlock the iphone. hi, everybody. good morning officially. how are you? >> very well. >> end of the week, right? >> and markets here trying to strike out on a good note. >> looking at our european markets, that indeed seems to be the case.

we're higher by just over 1.5%. we closed in positive territory yesterday. quite strongly for some of these markets in yesterday's session. you have a lot of people looking closely at what's going on out at g-20 and whether or not we're going to get coordinated efforts, or talk about coordinated efforts. no one is expecting anything concrete out of this meeting. brief glance shows an all-green screen. there's a little bit of a steaming ahead taking place. the dax up by more than 2%. same goes for the french markets. >> but not all stocks are sharing in this move to the upside. we have individual earnings movers in focus, rbs among them. they've reported a full-year loss of 1.97 billion pounds. this its eighth straight year in the red. the bank has warned that costs are likely to remain high in 2016, as it deals with uncertainties such as the brexit question. joining us now for more on the results is senior analyst at

axium alternative investments. pleasure to have you with us around the desk. obviously investors are disappointed with what they see. we have a profit disappointment on the one hand, but i'm wondering if the bigger deal has to do with the dividend and a delaying of the payout to investors. >> yes, indeed. compared to lloyds yesterday, it's a tale of two halves in the u.k. banking sector. there are sharp moves this morning in rbs stock. it's a token of investor disappointment when it comes to capital distribution. when we look at banks, we tend to see rbs as just lagging. rbs is actually stepping into the steps of lloyds, but with a lag. investors are just realizing this morning. >> and how crucial was the

impact we saw from the cib, being the investment banking side. we know this is an area rbs has been trying to restructure. does this suggest the changes are not going far enough? >> yes, if you look at what management says, they're talking about repositioning the investment bank. indeed, it comes at a cost. there's a significant drag. if you add on to that some costs related to litigation and conduct to the tone of 3 billion pounds last year, it indeed makes a very sticky base for rbs to play with. >> this week we've been looking at all sorts of banks. rsbc, standard chartered, lloyds. what's the banking model that delivers value out there? are there some where you think they're heading in the right direction and there are other banks that are way behind, or is everyone where they more or less

should be given all the regulatory measures they've had to go through? >> when you look at the macro environment, it's uncertain. when you look at the regulatory viernlt, it's even more complex. so banks have no choice but to change into a simple model. that's exactly what we've seen this week, where lloyds, focusing on u.k., concentrating on retail and smes, is actually delivering as opposed to rbs this morning, hsbc earlier this week, where those banks still have international operations to deal with and have to adjust their balance sheets.

>> but surely they're not going to change or scale back completely from international operations. that's also a big livelihood for many of the really big heavy weighters like hsbc or like standard chartered. how do they continue to be profitable from here if thept to continue to be a global player but not get cut by all the tape? >> indeed, talking about hsbc, it's not a method of their operations, so they try to trim, to prune the balance sheet. typically they've been looking at brazil. they're also facing challenges there, particularly in turkey. chartered as well is looking at indonesia and korea. those big banks are looking at specific countries while they probably need to look at the overall balance sheet in general. in particular, with those

ever-changing regulations. hsbc is one of the largest balance sheets in europe together with jpmorgan. it could potentially release some value. >> so we have these lingering regulatory risks that seem to be affecting all banks within the sect sector. when we talk about domestic banks, we have to bring up the subject of brexit. which lender do you think is most at risk? >> to a limited extent. banks have had national discretions in terms of regulations to face with in their business model. when it comes to national

fragmentation following a potential brexit, the banks will adapt. it's not a risk to their operations. it's a risk related to the overall macro environment. it's a risk for banks, but it's also a risk for corporates as well as households. the banks are likely to adapt probably even quicker than anyone else. >> thank you very much. we've got you in still relatively early here in europe. now you can go to work and you know everything going on in the markets, having seen all these moves in here. now, the london stock exchange and deutsche boerse have agreed on a potential merger. both trading higher. it would see the lse chief executive stepping down and the german exchange's boss taking

over at the helm. there would be two separate headquarters in london and in frankfu frankfurt. we've been speculating about this for quite some time. in the past it seems there was this massive wave or there was a massive wave of tie-ups between all the various exchanges. i want to say about starting ten years ago, ten to seven years ago -- >> they've tried it before. >> exactly. and what you end up seeing through all this consolidation, the argument goes, is easier business being done, easier access to different markets. >> and when we talk about the geographical relationship, one of the first questions brought up is what if we do get a brexit. lse came out this morning and said this does not have any effect on the potential merger. that's the line for now. but you wonder what the split headquarters would mean if we got to that point. of course, that's a great

uncertainty. >> it might actually help them. from an international perspective, people think it's kind of -- they might feel more comfortable doing trade. i don't think people are going to stop trading london markets. but it might be easier beforehand. e-mail the show if you want to get involved. the e-mail address on screen. streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. always nice to hear from you, otherwise we just sit and talk to ourselves. >> you can get us on twitter. @streetsignscnbc. or tweet us directly. i'm @nancycnbc. >> i'm @louisa bojesen. >> of course, we've been talking the big g-20 meeting all morning. we'll cross out to shanghai just

after this short break. >> the biggest risk for china, and by extension the rest of the world, are still in the future. and they can be avoided if china does the right things now and also speeds up the economic reform.

hi, everybody. welcome back. sri standing by waiting for us out of singapore. >> hi, lou. we're running off the week on a fairly positive note here in asia. we have recouped some but not all of the losses we saw yesterday. remember, it was a very rough day yesterday on thursday. the volatility is back. it never really went away. laying dormant. still getting a lot of mixed

policy signals. down 6% yesterday, the worst daily loss in almost a month. it's not particularly your best foot forward when you have the g-20 summit down the road. i would suspect that the national team were very much in the market today, especially in the afternoon session, bidding things up a little bit towards the close. anyway, just my opinion. so it's really down to the external factors in many ways. the u.s. session was stronger. oil is a little better around the edges. i think that is really going to be the dominant theme. over the weekend, we do have more g-20 meetings. the big question there is whether there's going to be anything really substantive from the great and good g-20 to draw a line. my opinion, don't hold your breath. anyway, u.s., we have some important data. we have q-4 gdp, the second

estimate. and we have the pce deflay to be, which is the fed's preferred gauge of deflation. that will probably all set the tone. back to you now. >> sri, thank you very much. have a good weekend. >> he said that china's economy remains on a sound footing and the pboc has the tools to deal with any downside risks. well, german finance minister on the other hand has warned against more policy. opposing the g-20 stimulus package, he said fiscal and monetary policies had reached their limits and are failing to promote growth. speaking out in shanghai, he argued that the debt financed model is causing new problems

and, quote, zombifying the economy. we've just heard the finance minister's words there. really not mincing how he feels over additional stimulus coming out of the g-20 meeting. but a lot of doubts about whether we're get any substantive agreement, or is this just an effort to correct a crisis in confidence? >> that's right. i think historically there have been many people who have doubted that you would see any substantive agreements coming out of these g-20 meetings. however, there's definitely a big push to have substantive discussions about the global economy because many here do fear that we will see stagnating global growth. as you were saying, there is concern that central banks are running out of options. today as well as yesterday, most of the discussions have been about how there's an urgent need

for fiscal stimulus as well as for structural reforms. earlier today, i was speaking with the italian central bank governor about some of the challenges that g-20 nations face. this is what he had to say. >> actually, there are no signs whatsoever for the time being that there are unintended consequences that these asset prices may increase dramatically. it's not there. we're in a state of downward risks on the real activity side. obviously, we have to be very careful, but we have the tools also to counter unintended consequences. we have specific policies. we call them in general macro prudential policies. they're either in real estate or particular sectors in the asset portfolios that may show some tension. >> over the past two days, there

seems to be a lot of emphasis on fiscal policy, on structural reforms. just this morning there was a panel discussion about it, and the oecd was calling for all g-20 nations to speed up their structural reform effort. that in theory would help top alleviate some of the pressure on the central banks. how do you see these efforts all working in tandem. >> first of all, i have been the chief economist of the ecb about 15 years ago, so i have to sponsor that. i agree, i think that structural reforms are very important. but structural reforms is a catch-all word. so you have to have specific structural reforms for each country or each area in the world. i think we are all engaged in that. the big issue is whether this is going to work in the long run or whether these can already have important effects in the short run. and it depends on how the

confidence that is attached to these reforms is going to somehow take place. >> that's the italian central bank governor looking ahead to some very tough discussions over the next couple days. nancy, over to you. >> thanks, eunice. also speaking at the summit, christine lagarde said china has contributed to the recent market jitters. >> growth in advanced economies remains modest and some large emerging markets are showi inin signs of distress. on top of this, china's necessary transition to a more balanced growth model has added to market volatility. and all of this has unsettled financial markets, which in turn

depresses consumer and investor sentiment. >> will ballard is with us. so lagarde speaking as many leaders have done over the last couple months saying china's definitely a part of why we've seen all this volatility out there. do you think g-20, they're going to be talking more about stabilizing china or focusing on potential coordinated efforts to try and maintain some type of stability or equilibrium. >> when you look at the g-20, look at this meeting taking place right now, i don't think i should expect a huge concerted, sort of global decision or global action to come out of it. this isn't 2009. it isn't the april 2009 meeting where you saw an agreement to try and rescue the global economy. we're going through a period of heightened volatility, a slowdown in growth, a slowdown in global trade. but it isn't of the scale where

it requires that sort of reaction. >> how about china itself? in china, you still have them putting a lot of measures in place to try and stabilize their economy. are they going to have to continue down that path? >> yes, i think that comes to the crux of the issue. when you look at what's happened in china, they've used credit to stimulate the growth in the economy ever since 2009. what you can see now is the total debt to gdp has grown very, very dramatically. now, the comments coming out of the pboc seem to suggest that they have more room to provide additional monetary stimulus. now, for me that, would be a worry. i believe we are getting to the limits where the actual credit which you put into the economy has as much of an effect to stimulate growth. so what you need is what everyone is talking about, which is structural reform and fiscal

stimulus. a more concerted, more targeted stimulus, rather than stimply providing cheap capital. >> how do these potential measures play out in the equity space? we were just talking to sri, who seems to think it's possible the national team is stepping in to prop up the shanghai composite after the sharp drop we saw yesterday. >> i think when you look at the shanghai composite, it's trading on about 14, 15 times earnings. it certainly isn't cheap when you look at the difficult path that china has ahead to try and rebalance its economy. when you drill a little further down, you start to look at smaller companies. when you look at the shenzhen index, for example, it's trading on 30, 40 times earnings. what worries me even more is expectations for the earnings growth there are, you know, well above 50%, 60%, 70%. i think the expectations for it, if they can deliver, are not in line with what can necessarily be achieved against the backdrop of a slowing economy.

>> of course, the shenzhen underperforming. overall, are there any sectors you do like in china? >> when you look at china, there are always opportunities. if they push through structural reform, effectively you should be able to find attractive opportunities there. you'll clearly have a growing middle class. you have increasing domestic wealth as well. areas such as education, health care, you know, they're very, very attractive as well. you can also drill down and look into the retail space as well and find companies when are much more exposed to the low-end consumer. >> we've heard several analysts making this health care call for quite some time. do you fear the valuations are already too high? >> it's interesting. it depends on your view on the stability of the earnings. and also your view on the demand over the long term. if you listen to what's coming out of the g-20, not just this meeting but the other meetings as well, a lot of the focus is within china on improving the

health care service. these are huge structural changes. simply assessing these companies based on this year's earnings is not necessarily the right approach in any view. >> while we have you here and putting china to one side, outside of china, you like indonesia and mexico. why? >> i think that's right. when you look at indonesia, for example, they've taken a lot of their medicine already. you can see their currency depreciated significantly. in the past, i tried to defend that. they realized that wasn't necessarily the best thing to do. you can now see that he's gathering momentum. >> will, good to see you. thank you very much. >> taking a closer look at china's tech sectors, shares in

baidu rallied after a 33% rise in fourth quarter revenue, which came in ahead of forecasts. however, the company sometimes called china's google, saw sales growth slow. >> unhappy gaming for nintendo, which has slashed its full-year profit forecast. poorer than anticipated sales of its 3ds hand held console. a stronger yen saw the japanese game maker lowering its operating profit expectations for 2016 to 33 billion yen. that's down from 50 billion initially. >> and shares in sharp tumbled in today's trade amid concerns that foxconn may drop its bid to acquire the troubled japanese electronics firm. within the last few hours, sharp rebuffed its claims had been mistating its liabilities. the ceos of both companies are planning to hold further talks today. this story really shocked me when we got the breaking news yesterday that suddenly the

final deal was not going to be signed. happened here on our show after we'd heard about the 5 billion acquisition taking place. reuters suggesting it comes down to that contingent liability that sharp has, that perhaps the due diligence foxconn foxconn carried out were in question. how could they not know about this discrepancy? we're talking about -- some say that foxconn viewed about 100 billion yen when in reality they're closer to 300 billion yen. so that the deal that we're now questioning the deal s that the reason, or is there something bigger here. >> and are investors going to hang on to the hope the deal still will continue. for how long do you continue to invest in the shares if everything that you just stated is happening. >> and over the two days, we're talking about a 20% dip. if you have any hope that we could get these talks revived, to me it looks like a buying opportunity. but there was an analyst

speaking to cnbc earlier who said this could still have been, however there are other bidders in discussion with sharp as well. meanwhile, erste trading higher after beating net profits of 204 million euros in the fourth quarter. that was thanks to a drop in nonperforming loans. this as the austrian lender proposes a dividend at the top end of its guidance despite weaker revenues. >> eni has been in the green after announcing plans to cut investment by 20% in 2016. this after the italian energy group reported the 200 million euro net loss in the fourth quarter due to write downs linked to the outlook for crude prices. >> and oil prices also harming ba basf. the company warning of an earnings fall this year after net income dropped to its lowest level in seven years. results were hit by the lower energy prices and the deceleration in china's growth. >> now, iag's full-year profit rose by 65% that that's at the top end of guidance. the british airways owner saw

earnings boosted by demand for summer vacations and cheaper fuel, and it's forecasting more growth this year. >> we are also of course live in dublin for the general election. we don't need that music, guys. let's get rid of that. some real key issues here. a lot of them we can't discuss because there are very important broadcasting rules, but we'll be back after a short break with patricia king, who's the director general of irish congress.

welcome to "street signs," everybody. a very happy friday. i'm nancy hulgrave. >> i'm louisa bojesen. let's get you those headlines. >> dividend delayed. rbs shares plunge 10% after the u.k. bank tells investors to be

patient on a pay yoult as it logs its eighth annual loss in a row. >> exchanging vows. the london stock exchange is laying out a road map for a potential merger. >> battle lines drawn over stimulus at the g-20 in shanghai. >> there are no signs whatsoever for the time being that there are unintended consequences that these asset prices may increase dramatically. >> and apple unveils a stingi i response to a u.s. court order saying the government is seeking a dangerous court order to unlock the iphone. >> good morning and welcome back to "street signs." anything but a quiet, sleepy

friday here. we have a lot of earnings in focus, elections in iran and ireland. >> tons coming up this next half hour, especially interesting the iranian elections as well as the irish elections. we'll go out to steve in a second. >> can't ignore the politics here. and let's give a look at how u.s. markets are set to open after the strong gains we saw yesterday. green arrows across the board with the dow jones called higher by 100 points. the s&p 500 implied to open 14. nasdaq higher by about 40. we did see gains around 2% yesterday, which is inspiring investors going into the weekend. those gains really carrying out into the global market picture as well. here in europe, we're seeing strength across the board, particularly for the main german market. a lot of focus on the ftse 100 with earnings.

the french main market up about 2%. let's also get a view of commodities. the oil price continues to play a major role in the direction of equities. two days ago when we had that strong rally in wti of about 4%, that's what really brought up u.s. markets. wti crude up about 1.5%. somewhat different story from brent, trailing, but higher by about 0.8%. we have spot gold off by about 0.2%. gold had been benefitting earlier in the month on the safe haven trade. and copper up about 1.5%. louisa? >> well, as said, irish voters go to the polls today in the latest test for a european government, which embarked on a sweeping austerity program not all that long ago. steve joins us via dublin. it wasn't all that long ago we were thinking, oh, my goodness, but we've turned the corner.

>> reporter: yeah, i've been coming to this country in a professional capacity for ten years. i've been coming here in a personal capacity for longer than that. i don't think i've seen any nation have such oscillation from the stunning boom we saw in 2006, 2007. the depths of despair we saw at the same time, to what seems externally looking in to be a stunning recovery. 6.5%, 7% growth with unemployment almost half. it seems outside looking in like a stunning recovery. but is it the same way seen internally. we have a great guest to debate that, patricia king. we had a quick chat about this earlier. we're not going to talk about parties and individual policies due to broadcasting rules, but a lot of people who feel the

recovery has bypassed them, is that your understanding? >> well, i think that's a fair reflection. during the course of the recession, workers actually suffered hugely in this country. thousands lost their jobs. hundreds of thousands had their pay cut. from that perspective, the restoration of all of that has not happened. what you have now is an economy that has the average. that's a big gap in terms of getting back to where people are in terms of income. we have a low pay issue in this country. one in five workers earns below the average median wage. so that leaves us actually second to the united states in regard to low pay. so we have a long way to go in terms of trying to replenish the income of workers. so from our perspective, a

wage-led growth scenario is where we will seek to go. >> you have some absolutely top-drawer united states companies and others that have come here. american companies like ororacl facebook. there's a lot of things that look quite well for the irish economy. >> yes, indeed. and ireland has had high dependency on fdis. indeed throughout the recession, actually, one of our saving graces was the export industry. it performed relatively well considering the strong depression, economic depression that we had. but in fairness, while those companies have good terms and conditions, there's another side to the irish economy,

particularly in the domestic led side of the economy. now in the public services, public servants took massive hits. if you look at it, the companies that are in the american fdi zone, to some degree the depression was felt less in those, whereas in the domestic side of the economy, there has been huge depletion of people's incomes. >> what are the problems coming from external factors within the eurozone? immigration, low growth, what have you, that you worry about the most in terms of how it's going to affect the irish economy. >> as you know, the european union has really economically traveled well in the last number of years. you have a near deflationary situation there, which would have effect in ireland. clearly there will be very strong concerns here, even about the influence of a brexit because of our close links with the u.k. economically. so there are fears here for the

economy. our judgment is that unless you sustain the growth level that has happened in ireland in the last two years, you could, we could be heading into further turbulence economically. our own judgment is to sustain that growth, you need it done on a wage growth basis. >> we're going to stay a-political on this and not mention anything about individual parties. do you feel the recovery we have now is built on firmer footing than the factors that built the boom times of the celtic tiger in the early 2000s. >> i think there's relief that, we are on a positive growth trajectory. i don't think anybody would brave enough to say that it's all firmed down now and we're all going in the one direction. there are a lot, as you say, there's a lot of turbulence around economically, worldwide. this turbulence even with our next door neighbors.

>> you're talking about turbulence over a certain election on june 23rd? >> well, we'll get over tomorrow's turbulence first. from our perspective, i think it would be foolish to say it's betted down and it's any way secure, but at least we're going in the right direction. >> patricia, lovely to see you. thank you for joining us. i've got to say, the most humorous thing i've heard in my ear all morning, oh, by the way, our producers have an umbrella if you need it. this isn't rain by irish standards. this is a slight mist. >> a nice soft day in ireland. >> i don't think we'd call this rain. anyway, my producer is standing here with a cnbc umbrella. back to you, nancy. >> that's right, steve. you almost need your shades and a bottle of spf. great to see you. for a complete rundown of what you need to know about the irish elections, head to our website for a full rundown there. we've been taking a look at the issues here. just what's driving the polls.

despite this economic success, some frustration with what austerity has meant to certain people's pockets there, as steve was just outlining. meanwhile, fifa will get its first new president since 1998 today when its 207 delegates elect a successor to former president sepp blatter. however, the delegates may require several rounds of voting to select a winner. and the united states has put forward a draft security council resolution that seeks to significantly tighten existing restrictions on north korea, this according to a reuters report. the resolution processes the toughest u.n. sanctions in over two decades. and u.s. president barack obama emphasized the cease-fire in syria would not include isis, saying he had directed his national security team to accelerate the u.s.-led international campaign on, quote, all fronts. and speaking after eu ministers met in brussels to discuss the migrant crisis, the european union migration chief warned the

possibility of a humanitarian crisis was, quote, very real and very near. now, we added that member nations needed to act in unity on the crisis as soon as possible. >> now, iran is also holding elections today with reformist candidates hoping to take back some of the power from the hardline conservatives. as well as a parliamentary vote, iranians will be casting their ballots for the assembly of experts, which is an 88-member body, which may be called to choose the next supreme leader. if people are just joining us, just waking up in the states, set the scene for us. >> reporter: well, louisa, it's parliamentary elections today. as you mentioned, assembly of experts. the ballot boxes are open. iranians now have an opportunity to go and vote. elections with more at stake than usual. candidates are competing for seats in parliament as well as the asimilar bli of experts. the all-male council that may

decide the successor to the supreme leader, the most powerful man in the land. the vote is also seen as a key test of the reform igs poist po of president rouhani, who negotiated a nuclear deal very successfully with the united states. now people here want social reform, economic change, and better ties with the global community. iran has moved closer to the west with a nuclear deal inked in july, aimed at keeping the country from building a nuclear bomb, in exchange for the lifting of harsh economic sanctions. but reformists who support these moves are facing tough challenges from conservative hardliners with many moderate candidates banned from running in these e ex-will so it is such a critical juncture for iran. the votes are very important.

one that could alter the course of the country for the next generation to come. now, the votes are expected to be counted over the weekend. by monday, we should have a better idea of what the political landscape is going to look like in iran. back to you. >> thank you very much. very clearly laid out, as usual. let's continue the conversation. let's bring another voice into the the mix. the deputy director of the washington office of the national council of resistance of iran. he's joining us live out of washington, d.c. good to have you with us this morning. first of all, what would you like to see happen? >> well, i think what certainly the people of iron would liking to see happen, and i would agree with that, is to see a real representative form of elections, which this one is not and the previous ones have not

been because there's a very powerful guardian council controlled entirely by the supreme leader that this qualifies candidates, all of which by the way have total allegiance to the clerical system and the supreme leader. about half of the 12,000 candidates were disqualified already. so there's really not a real choice before the people of iran to decide. at the end of the day, it wouldn't really matter much which cleric or which person among the candidates gets to the parliament or assembly of experts. because none of which are going to defend the rights of the people. rather, they're more interested in gaining the upper hand, whether it's the parliament or the assembly of experts. >> let me also bring in a little bit of background on the organization that you're representing. the national council of resistance of iran. from what i understand, you're a broad group of democratic iranian organizations.

you're a parliament in exile as well. you have a very, very wide group you represent. your aim is for secular democratic republic in a separate region in iran, or separating the state versus religion. don't you think, though, that what president rouhani has done so far is a step in the right direction and he might be able to continue to push through reforms? >> well, unfortunately, that hasn't been the case because rouhani himself, he's a cleric. and look at his record. since he became president, there have been 2200 executions, some of which were public, which is a higher rate than it was under ahmadinejad, his predecessor. in terms of political freedoms in the country, more people have been thrown in jail. journalists have been banned, and newspapers have been closed.

lujs minorities have been attacked and kilted. in terms of the economy, there has been no improvement whatsoever to the country. you see now the economy entirely run by the revolutionary guards. over 50% of the iranian economy is run by the iranian revolutionary guards and their institutions. there's widespread corruption going on. these are the revolutionary guards who are interested in filling their own pockets rather than, you know, improving the economy. so i don't see how the outcome of this election could really change the situation in the country when you're basically going to have pretty much the same players who have been running the show in the past years based on the same platforms and the same clerical system. >> if the moderates are set to be sidelined here, as you suggest, what that that mean for rouhani's next re-election effort?

>> well, i think what you're going to see -- of course in the past few weeks, there's been a lot of effort trying to disqualify the rival faction just to maintain the dominance in the parliament as well as the assembly of experts. but i think the outcome will be year in the next kip l of days. or really, which faction gains the upper hand. i think at the end of the day, when it comes to the next presidential election, if the regime survives by then, the same situation is going to exist. the main concern of the regime and the supreme leader has always been what's the outrage of the poiplation? what's going to happen in the futu future? following the elections in 2009, outrage broke out, and it expanded way beyond election issues. people were calling for regime change and death to the supreme

leader, death to the clerical system. they're afraid that the same situation would actually repeat itself. >> thank you very much for your views. deputy director of the washington office of the national council of resistance of iran. well, it's an age-old debate between privacy and security. now taking on a new dimension with newer technology. apple going head to head with the fbi once again, asking for its data demand to be thrown out of court. so who will prevail? that's the big question. we'll discuss straight after this break.

good morning and welcome back. we want to bring you breaking lines coming out of the g-20 summit in china, this time from euro group chairman. he is saying that he does not believe monetary policy has reached its limits, but any further action would need to be carefully designed in order to

be effective. now, this somewhat contradicts the comments we heard from the german finance minister. but the euro group chairman here saying that limits are still not exhausted. we could see further monastery stimulus to help the global which i. a lot of expectations for some sort of koord nation coming out of g-20. we have doubters on the other side as well. >> also just stating that the eurozone ministers and the ecb, they're not aware of the potential risks. >> a lot of these ministers are aware of the risks. they keep those in mind when they create policies. >> now, putting aside g-20 for a second, another shot across the bows from apple as the tech giant has demanded the

government throw out the case. the question to create software to unlock an iphone by one of the san bernardino shooters violates the constitution. nbc's pete williams has the details. >> reporter: apple has always made security a selling point. >> these are the new iphones. >> reporter: when it released the iphone 6, apple made a point of saying it would no longer help police get information out of the new phones when they were locked, even when served with a search warrant. now apple insiders saying they're trying to make their phones more secure, working to make an iphone that can't be unlocked by anyone but the user. it's fighting the fbi, which wants apple to modify the software in the phone to disable the security and let agents try to unlock an iphone used by one of the san bernardino attackers. the fbi director told congress today it's a lead that must be pursued. >> we must do a competent investigation following the murder of 14 people in san bernardino, and we will.

we'll use whatever lawful tools are available to us. >> reporter: but apple says the fbi is trying to force it to create a brand new version of the iphone by changing the software, and it says the government cannot do that. >> you cannot ask a private citizen to create a product for it. and it cannot ask apple to change the iphone in ways that it was never intended to be used or to be employed in. >> apple today told a judge in san bernardino that what the fbi wants would create a back door, leaving personal information vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, hostile foreign agent, and unwarranted government surveillance. next week, both apple and the fbi will face off in a hearing on capitol hill. they both say it should be up to congress, not the courts, to settle this fight. pete williams, nbc news. >> it was a night of fireworks in houston as the five remaining republican presidential hopefuls gathered for just one final debate before the crucial super tuesday showdown. let's get out to nbc's edward

lawrence, who's standing by in washington. edward, i've heard one political commentator say it was the biggest fight we've seen since muhammad ali and joe frazier. a fight here, no doubt, but who came out on top, and were these barbs thrown as donald trump too late? >> reporter: it was five people actually on stage here. it wasn't just one on one, as in that fight with muhammad ali. jabs and jokes all to get air time before super tuesday. senator ted cruz started off the attacks, attacking donald trump on his imdprags reform. he said if he truly wanted to reform immigration, he would not employ illegal immigrants at his hotels. he's referring to a case that happened 36 years ago that donald trump actually settled. senator marco rubio in a tag team then joined in against trump. rubio attacking trump on his

immigration plan, attacking trump on health care. also, on his economic philosophy. all of this set the stage for a major fight tuesday. 600 delegates are up for grabs in 12 states. needed for the republican nomination, just over 1200 delegates. almost half is what these candidates are fighting for. many experts say that senator marco rubio won the night last night. >> all right, edward. thank you for that. we will be seeing a lot of last-minute campaigning, you can bet, this weekend ahead of super tuesday. thanks for joining us. >> well, let's move on. the u.s. and the data, we're wavering. is it going to continue to get weaker? we have this gdp reading. economists are estimating the second read willing show us the u.s. gdp climbed just 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015. that's compared to 0.7% seen in the first reading. so it's significantly lower than

the 2% growth seen during the third quarter as well. analysts say they expect the downward revision to be primarily due to weaker inventory investments. >> and we did get some strong durable goods yesterday. maybe that will provide some optimism. >> we did. u.s. futures being called a little higher. still 4 1/2 hours away from the open. but that's what we're looking at the last day of the week. pretty green. >> positive for the month in most major markets there. see if it holds. >> that's it for today. thank you so much for watching. i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm nancy hulgrave. "worldwide exchange" is up next.

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good morning. a global rally. stocks trading higher around the world right now. the dow closing in on its second positive week in a row. >> apple responds. the tech giant firing back at the u.s. government in an official legal briefing. new this morning, some of apple's biggest rivals are coming to its defense. >> plus, the gloves come off in texas. gop presidential hopefuls go on the attack just days before super tuesday. it's friday, february 26th, 2016. "worldwide exchange" begins right now.