hi, everybody. welcome. you're now watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. these are your headlines today. barclays shares dipping after the bank announces a dramatic profit fall and slashes its dividend guidance as part of a major turnaround, spearheaded by the new ceo. >> we're cutting the dividend for a very simple reason. we need to accelerate the closure of our noncore business. >> ice breaker? well, the owner of the new york stock exchange confirms it is considering a bid for the lse, sending shares in london sharply higher. >> something for the bulls and

the bears. analysts are praising glencore's commitment to cut its debt pile, but almost 6 billion in write downs drives a huge decline in full-year earnings. and pmis out of europe show next to no growth in the manufacturing sector. this comes after the chinese data overnight disappoints once again. hi, everybody. welcome back to another "street signs." very glad you're with us. as mentioned, we're looking at all of this factory activity, the manufacturing activity out of the eurozone. when looking at the eurozone as a whole, the february final manufacturing pmi data coming in at 51.2. that's opposed to 51 even, the flash estimate. 52.3 for the final out of january. basically what you need to take away from this reading is factory growth is very close to a one-year low for the month of february. when breaking it down a little

more, you're looking at the french manufacturing stagnating for the month. you're looking at growth in germany almost halted for february as well, falling to 50.5. just above that contraction-expansion line. in italy, we saw weakness. in greece as well. across the board, factory activity falling for the month of february. as said, this of course after we saw weak manufacturing activity across asia and in particular coming out of china. that was what we were looking at heading into this morning's session. speaking of this morning's session, we're still in the morning session. we're just an hour into trade. our european equity markets flat to a couple points higher at the moment, as seen on the stoxx europe 600.ing a slight, steady gain. looking at a flattish to slightly higher picture for most. greece slightly in negative territory.

let's get into some of the stock specific news out there. barclays shares have been tumbling after the bank reported a full-year net loss of 394 million pounds and announcing plans to slash future dividend payouts. they'll be restructuring their business into two core divisions, focusing on key markets out of the u.k. and u.s., while exiting assets across a number of other regions. the bank is also cutting its bonus pool by 10% and maintaining a hiring freeze. we asked the ceo about the changes to the dividend. take a listen. >> we're cutting the dividend for a very simple reason. we need to accelerate the closure of our noncore business. if we can get the maurchty of our noncore businesses, these are things like the italian retail business, which we sold recently, or the u.s. wealth management business that we sold recently, if we can close these

transactions and just have barclays illuminate the core franchise that we have as a transatlantic bank with a strong consumer franchise, corporate bank, and investment bank, and let the profitability of that core business stand for itself, barclays would be in a very good position. >> now, we also asked him about potential job losses, especially in the investment banking division. >> we have imposed a head count freeze since the day i got here. that has reduced our head count as of now by 5,700 employees. when you reduce employees through a head count freeze, that's 5,700 people we've not had to let go. we will be continuing to reduce head count at a measured pace. we did pull away from nine countries recently in a decision to reset the perimeter of our investment bank. as i said, we're getting out of retail franchises in europe as part of our noncore.

so we're on target to get our head count number to a number that's manageable, and we feel comfortable with the progress we've made thus far. >> now, we were talking about this yesterday, but shares in the london stocks exchange hitting record highs now on news that intercontinental exchange is mulling a counter bid that could top the offer on the table from deutsche boerse. they have until the 29th of march to make an offer. last week deutsche boerse and lse outlined the structure of a potential deal. glencore shares have been trading higher despite the full-year profits dropping by more than 30%. it also reported a $5.8 billion worth of charges in 2015 citing the slump seen in commodities.

fresnillo reporting a net profit drop. they're the world's largest primary silver producer. they're also reducing their capital expenditure and exploration budgets for 2016 because, again, of these lower commodity prices. as mentioned, china, conditions there in their manufacturing sector continue to deteriorate with a factory pmi rating for february falling to a four-year low. sri is in singapore. we were just looking at this manufacturing data here in europe. looking very weak. similar story coming out of asia. >> yeah, that's right. and the pmis were pretty down be be be beat. the issue here is very china specific. the february numbers are always distorted. typically distorted by the seasonality. there's a fair degree of noise because of the effects of the chinese lunar new year. that's probably an explanation

as to why the market largely shrugged it off. the offsetting factor is remember yesterday we saw support from the pboc. that seems to have unleashed the animal spirit in the stock market for now, at least. the sense is it's fairly short term and will have a fairly marginal impact. the property market liked it. that's the risk here. we have these unintended consequences of risk asset bubbles fueled by easier liquidity conditions. that's the unintended consequence and the risk. all in all, a stronger day. a rebound in mainland china. that helped the rest of asia. indian stocks like what they saw in the budget. the market outperforming today, up by 3%. that's where we stand. back to you. >> sri, good to see you. thank you. let's talk about the currency markets and how to react on all of this news in currencies.

global head of foreign exchange strategy is with us. good to have you with us this morning, hans. pmi data weak across the board. do we go short, euro heading into a weaker data front. >> as the euro is going to come under selling pressure from various fronts, as we decided to establish a euro short position at 113.5. . the first impression is we were assuming a more positive risk outlook. we did see this correlation between risk and the performance of euro-dollar. what we think now is happening, we have factors driving the euro lower, which are clearly related to the european economy. you mentioned the pmi data. we have seen three consecutive.

the european central bank is going to swing back. the only question is how are they going to do that. importantly, inflation expectations, the five-year inflation swap, continues to decline. that means that the german audience has become quiet. that implies maybe mario draghi has more room to maneuver within the next ecb meeting. and i think that needs to be a small value in the exchange rate, so we expect the euro trading lower. >> hans, let me just tell viewers what our e-mail address is. it's streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can also find us on twitter @louisa bojesen or @streetsignseurope. they love talking to you. we always get questions about the yen. the yen up by more than 7.5% during the month of february alone. is that going to continue, especially when we're now looking at the potential for more easing to come from the people's bank of china with possible knock on impacts on

other currencies? >> the world seems to have changed with a couple months. i remember when i was trying to market this view of a firmer yen in autumn of last year. almost nobody was a believer in this yen strength story. there's a fundamental environment for that, that you have the pension fund industry in japan running record amounts of foreign asset holdings at a time where the real effective exchange rate is at a 45-year low. woe s we saw that was unsustainable. then you have the negative risk appetite. we're not surprised that you see the japanese yen trading higher. so what is going to be the next few weeks going to show to us? i guess the focus is going to turn towards the 15th of march boj meeting. then the question is, are they going to continue to cut rates

into the red, or are they taking additional measures to support. that is really the most important topic to look at. sos is japan able to support the pension funz. if they're able, you have a rebound back to 116. if not, you return immediately into risk aversion. >> and the negative yield also seen on the japanese ten year for the first time too. you've got to wonder what this is telling us about flows. you were talking about this positive risk market. is that part of it? >> well, you could interpret it that way. i think the negative yield for long data japanese bonds is a reflection of going into the red. what is important here is you

need to look that since the year 2012, we have seen a one-time adjustment into asset holdings. i think that is now complete. the amount of potential currency hedging, which japanese institutions will have to do, to take some risk off their books within an environment, which i believe second base going to look more challenges. that actually could mean over the course of '16, you'll have to deal with a higher japanese yen, not a lower one. so maybe dollar-yen going slightly higher. what do i expect for the next 12 months? it's a much lower dollar-yen. >> hans, you have some calls, some trades of the week. we'll get to that here in just a couple minutes' time. by all means, get your questions through for hans while he's with us. hurry up, get them through.

it's streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. hans, thank you for now. we'll chat again in a couple seconds, so don't go anywhere. >> reporter: and louisa, we're live from the geneva motor show, where despite some strength here, some super cars on display. you can't ignore the dark diesel cloud hanging over this industry. we'll hear from it the volkswagen ceo in a bit about why the cost tied to the scandal could get worse before it gets better. stay tuned.

now, volkswagen's ceo has told cnbc that he's confident of a deal with u.s. authorities for a diesel fix. he also said that the carmaker is preparing for additional costs relating to the emissions scandal. nancy a the geneva motor show. you've been talking to a whole bunch of ceos, but it's fair to

say a lot of people are still focused on the emissions scandal. >> reporter: that's right, louisa. several of the executives we've been speaking to from the likes of daimler, other companies outside of volkswagen, bmw, are all still trying to adjust their business to this new reality. a big press here coming from european regulators when it comes to emissions standards and how to get the real road results to comply closer with laboratory tests. that could mean higher costs and lower margins. when we get to the volkswagen case specifically, i spoke at great length with the ceo yesterday on their progress when it comes to finding a fix in the united states. we now know that a california judge has set a march 24th deadline for volkswagen to finally get a fix for the some 600,000 impacted vehicles in the u.s. fixed. i asked the ceo whether he was confident he could reach that deadline, and if not, whether buybacks of those cars would then become inevitable.

>> translator: there are a host of possibilities. buybacks or recalls are other options. as i've said, i don't want to pre-empt results here, but i'm confident we'll reach a solution together. >> and so much of what happens in the united states regarding the recall process and fix there will have an impact on your financial results. we now know that the financial results have been delayed. do you know when they'll be released, and can they be released until you have a resolution in the united states? >> translator: i dedeally, we should wait for the result in the u.s. we want to improve the quality of our annual result, and the result of the negotiations in the u.s. has an important effect. >> are you expecting you'll have to increase the provisions you've already set aside, the some 7 billion. >> translator: until now, the 6.7 billion were provisioned for

the recall. we assume and are confident that the number or volume of the provisions needs to be increased, but to mention figures at the moment would be speculation. >> reporter: that was the volkswagen ceo there laying out very clearly that what happens in the united states, whether or not they can come to an i agreement on a recall process, has a lot to do with their ability to release financial results. of course, investors, credit rating agencies keeping a very close eye on when we'll get those results. the ceo there saying provisions will likely need to go higher. it's not just volkswagen still dealing with this crisis. it's had a major impact on the industry as a whole. i had a chance to speak to the ceo of daimler yesterday and asked him how the diesel issue was impacting their business. here's what he had to say. >> we talk about diesel specifically in our sales. we see no change in europe. we have no conversations in our

showrooms about that topic. from the market side, we see no impact so far. >> do you think it has left any damage to the made in germany brand? >> overall, certainly the industry altogether has an issue with its credibility, and we have to move forward in order to prove that this is not warranted. we are just launching a new e-class with a new diesel engine, which shows another step of efficiency improvement. i would say the cleanest diesel engine available in the marketplace. that's the kind of answer we have to give. >> and you recently waded into the debate of electric over hie ready. why are you so confident electrics are a sure bet? >> well, i did not say they're a sure bet. just in the last two or three years, electric vehicles have

developed faster. therefore, they have a better chance than three years ago. but to call it a final game is far too early. >> reporter: the daimler ceo there sounding quite confident on his outlook. but you can't ignore these headwinds. nerls, the diesel case still an issue. also, the cost there of turning to more fuel efficient, largely electric cars. well, coming up, we'll have something very special for you. we're taking another look at a different segment of this market. that's the ultra, ultra high-end lamborghini, which falls under the volkswagen brand. unveiling one of the most highly anticipated cars here. we'll have the details with the ceo speaking to cnbc first in a little bit. >> the ultra limited edition hyper car. is that right? something like that. >> reporter: it has your name on it. >> yeah, i'm not so sure. i prefer the understated stuff.

nancy, we'll chat soon again. sounds brilliant. i'm sure viewers would love to see more of these flashy cars. what's your favorite so far, nancy? >> reporter: well, you know, louisa, having been raised in detroit, i'm always partial to the corvette. but i like the vintage style, which isn't on display here. >> niche market. the ears listening should do something about that next year. nancy, thank you. hans is still with us. you have been writing in. it's fantastic. you always have lots of questions. before we get to the questions, let's just talk about your trades of the week. what are you looking at, at the moment? >> well, a couple of issues in the market. one is the new zealand dollar. you see the business climate.

i think that we are talking about relative underperformance for the new zealand dollar. if you add to that there are signs of slowness in the local housing market, that is an important argument as well for the reserve banker or for new zealand to cut interest rates. over the past few month, we have seen inflation numbers undershooting. it's an interest rate story related or spilling over into a weaker new zealand dollar. how to trade that, there are a couple of ways. you can do that the conservative way against australia. you can do it in a more sporty way against the u.s. dollar. the u.s. dollar, we think, is generally going to stay relatively strong. the other topic which we are focusing on is we are looking into asia. we see very long balance sheets there. we see very low return of assets and falling return of asset, which means that the region has

to deleverage. that means we are going to see savings building up. and within there, you need to look into entities where it's most to be expected. on the other hand, in india, which has seen significant portfolio inflows from japan, you have to think about what is happening if japan's yen is really going to appreciate in the long term as we are suggesting. >> okay. so you're saying sell the kiwi versus the u.s. dollar. and you're especially negative on asian currencies. just summarizing. then jumping into some of the viewer questions coming through, hans, we have people writing in. i won't mention names right now. somebody says, if there's no brexit, where do you see the euro against the pound?

>> well, if there's no brexit, you have to consider what is a discount, trading relative to interest rate differentials. when you take that into account, no brexit relative to the tightness of current survey data wouldn't be a positive surprise. therefore, sterling could have one or two months of relative outperformance. then you have to continue to think about the environment in which the u.k. is currently in. so we have a current account deficit. you have a procyclical fiscal policy. you have enough deficits on the

fiscal side, double-deficit situation. in an environment of tighter global financial conditions, it will be much more difficult to finance. therefore, i think if there would be no brexit, sterling would rebound. i would see this significant rebounds as a selling opportunity. >> okay. if there's no brexit then. so how about the canadian dollar as well as what happens after the u.s. presidential primary results, super tuesday today. glen and linda write in, a whole bunch of people want to know what's the outcome of these primaries. >> well, starting with the canadian dollar, you need to look into what is happening with the oil market. what you see is there's a sentiment change taking place when you look at speculative positions that turn from negative into positive. we are now at risk to break a trend which had been in place since august of the year 2015.

i believe it is only short term. i thinking in two or three weeks, you have to think about shorting the canadian dollar because i'm not a believer in long-term rebounding commodity prices. the super tuesday issue, it is a political thing. it is about where do markets see the biggest risk, in which type of candidate. of course, you need always to look at are people pro-market or more on the regulatory fringe side of matters. and does that outcome today need to be watched, what is the final race going to look like. are we going to see two moderate candidates fighting against each other, or are we going to see two fringe candidates fighting against each other. i'm not mentioning any names

here. >> hans, we've got to go. thank you very much. global head of foreign exchange strategy at morgan stanley. thank you for your participation. keep those e-mails coming through. we're on twitter as well. some of the changes happening in the u.s. t might be down to anger. that's what a lot of research is saying. read 13-d research if you have it. it's fantastic on a whole bunch of levels. i'm super excited. we're talking to the ceo of lego in this half hour. it's 84 years old, the company. did you know if you have lego blocks from 1958, they still connect to blocks today. anyway, more to come on that. slashing the dividend and bonus pool, barclays hoping to get back to profitability. hear the first on cnbc interview

with ceo jes staley.

hi, everybody. welcome back. you're still watching straet street. i'm louisa bojesen. barclays shares dipping after the bank announces a dramatic profit fall. it also slashes its dividend guidance as part of a major turnaround spearheaded by the new ceo. >> we're cutting the dividend for a very simple reason. we need to accelerate the closure of our noncore business. >> ice breaker? well, the owner of the new york stock exchange confirms it is considering a bid for the lse, thereby sending shares in london to record highs. something for the bulls and for the bears. analysts there praising glencore's commitment to cut its

debt pile, but almost 6 billion worth of write downs. on the road to nowhere. pmis out of europe showing next to no growth in the manufacturing sector. this comes after chinese data disappoints once again. all right. i was mentioning the weaker than anticipated pmi data across europe. the same goes for the u.k. as well. we're just getting the february manufacturing pmi data through on our wires. we're looking at a figure of 50.8. that's opposed to 52.9 seen in january. so that's a pretty big drop. the reuters poll was looking for a figure close to 52.2. again, 50.8. they say new orders are the weakest seen since the recovery began almost three years ago. so what you need to take away from this is that u.k. manufacturing activity now slumping to an almost three-year low. so it's looking pretty weak out

there on the pmi front. now, the u.s. close yesterday and what we saw there, well, we're still looking ahead. some four hours to go before the open of the u.s. markets. the u.s. close yesterday was slightly negative across the board with the dow jones industrial average and s&p 500 and nasdaq composite all off by just shy of 1%. here in europe, we had a slightly lower call. we opened in relatively flattish territory. we're looking at the ftse a bit higher. the cac and ftse mib also holding on to steady gains. now, barclays shares, they've been dropping after the bank reported a full-year net loss of 394 million pounds and also plans to slash future dividend payouts. we asked the ceo how he felt about the release today.

>> the core franchise of barclays, the core consumer corporate and investment bank, that core franchise is as strong as i'd hoped for. in 2015 even, that core franchise produced a double-digit return on tangible equity. so we've got a great core business at barclays. our challenge is basically twofold. we need to wind down our noncore assets, those assets we've decided to exit as we simplify barclays' business model. and we need to put our conduct and litigation issues behind us. but i'm very pleased with how our core franchise functioned from our retail bank in the u.k. our very strong credit card operation. and our investment bank, while not hitting its cost of capital yet, did double its earnings in 2015. >> let me ask you about capital. you're cutting the dividend. you're getting rid of certain assets in africa and elsewhere. does this alleviate concern in

the market, you're going to have to go directly to the market to raise money. >> we have done a lot of strategic things over the last couple years. we've moved our tier one capital ratio from 9% to 11.4% today. so we've got plenty of capital and like our capital position. we're cutting the dividend for a very simple reason. we need to accelerate the closure of our noncore business. if we can get the majority of our noncore businesses, these are things like the italian retail business, which we sold recently, or the u.s. wealth management business that we sold recently, if we can close these transactions and just have barclays illuminate the core franchise that we have as a transatlantic bank with a strong consumer franchise, corporate bank, and investment bank and let the profitability of that core business stand for itself, kbar clas would be in a very good position. >> let me ask you about the proposed selldown of barclays

africa group. how are you hoping this will take place? the market is concerned about your ability to find a single buyer for this asset. >> we own 62% of barclays. a very strong shareholder base in africa. there's a strong institutional base. we're going to give ourselves two to three years to sell to a deconsolidated, noncontrolling position in barclays africa. there's a lot going on in the continent. it's a terrific franchise. there will be a lot of shareholder interest in barclays, but we'll do it over a safe period of time. >> another big announcement on strategies. we know the chairman was talking about a mother-daughter relationship that regulators were simply not approving. you've described it more as a sibling relationship. is this sister-sister, how you would describe the ring fencing taking place today? >> we're simplifying the

business model to a transatlantic bank. it will be run by two divisions. one will be barclays u.k. that will be comprised of barclays retail presence in the united kingdom. and our u.k. credit card business. plus, our lending to small businesses, our small business practice. that's a very strong, powerful franchise. very profitable. it'll be well capitalized, and it will stand very much on its own. then we'll have barclays corporate and international. that also will be a well-capitalized, strong franchise with solid investment grade ratings. it will focus on our investment bank, on our corporate bank, and on our consumer business anchored by our credit card business across europe and across the united states. so we'll have two divisions underneath barclays, which are strong in their own right. ultimately, we'll be compliant with all the ring fence rules, and we'll run it as a sibling structure. >> well, the overhaul at

barclays is part of a wider trend to shake up banking. in one way they're doing this is adopting new technology. let's continue this chat. so new technology, this increasing world of digitalization. what's it doing to wealth management and to private banking? >> it's doing a great thing to wealth management because it adds another channel through which we can interact with clients, and it gives us the possibility to stay close to our global and international clients. because obviously swiss based wealth management is a very different type of animal. it's a global product. we're an export industry based in switzerland on the wealth management side that exports advice and discretionary mandates throughout the globe. thanks to digital, we can do that and stay close and in realtime interaction with our clients. >> shouldn't one of the reasons that clients choose switzerland

to begin with is because you know you'll be getting one-on-one care, maybe to a greater extent you would get elsewhere. you're seen as an individual. >> yes, exactly. and we do not want to break that. we want to strengthen that actually and just to give another way to communicate with your dedicated relationship managers. but we have just learned that people want the digital channel. >> let me ask you about what's going on in the broader realm of things in switzerland. you have negative interest rates. i have viewers writing in already, asking what your view is of these negative interest rates and what'll happen if the ecb puts more stimulus into play on the 10th of march. you'll have this money flowing back into the swiss franc, making it stronger.

>> obviously i'm very cautious with commenting on the bank's policy because we have a lot of respect for the swiss national bank. i think it has defended very well the monetary independence of switzerland. we view negative interest rates from a swiss perspective as a defensive measure against too high of an exchange rate. so we see our -- we understand ourselves more as being driven by europe and other developed markets than by having our own program to prop up a still soundly humming economy. >> but it doesn't bode well if they have to step in. they scrapped the peg a year ago. we saw some immediate volatility. not as much maybe as what could have been anticipated. but what happens if there's more volatility? what's the knock on impact on people wanting to invest? do they end up saying, you know what, i'm not going to touch x,

y, and z traditional assets, i'm going to look at other classes that are more stable. >> that's a very good question. what is the long-term effect of that very strong swiss franc. what are the real economy impacts? you may have seen yesterday came out a report by the swiss mechanical engineering associations, and things are getting more difficult. it is true, this effect. the impact on the real economy will come through in 2016 and 2017. >> it's always interesting because i always ask people to get involved with the interviews that we do here in the studio. it's nice to bring for people in around the table virtually. people wanting to know -- well, jeremy says, for example, do you see signs of a clamp down on secrecy in europe and switzerland, whether that's prompting clients to funnel funds to asia, especially singapore? is there a shift taking place? i was speaking to somebody about

this just recently. why would i, as a wealthy client, why would i want to park my money in switzerland any longer as opposed to in the u.s. if we kind of feel like the rules are being dictated by the u.s.? >> well, first of all, you should work with us because you're convinced by our skills, by our service, and by our capabilities. then after you're satisfied and happy with that, you should still cherish swiss quality, swiss stability, and swiss performance standards. coming back to discretion, what we experience in the market, that it's actually a level playing field and kind of the whole world driven by the g-20dt level of transparency. we may debate that at a personal or political level, but as business people, we take it as part of our framework. within that level playing field, our experience is switzerland is very competitive. >> are you seeing these flows to

asia happening? >> when you look at aggregate net flows to switzerland, they have remained positive throughout the last years despite the fact switzerland obviously had to do some homework on the legacy business out of the last century. >> thank you very much for your time this morning. much appreciated. >> you're most welcome. >> are you a lego fan by any chance? >> i did it very intensively as a child, yes. >> longevity in that. we're talking about lego later on. >> good luck with it. >> thank you, thank you. thanks for coming in to talk with us. now, today of course is super tuesday, which is when 11 states, or 12 for the gop, hold primary elections. going back through history, u.s. stocks tend to rise when the favorite candidate achieves a strong win. in 1996, the s&p 500 dropped by close to 3% in the week running up to super tuesday.

stocks then rose by 2.3% after bob dole's victory. in 2012, the index fell by 2%, but then saw a 4% rebound after mitt romney's win. controversy, however, still continuing to follow donald trump. a rally for the billionaire in virginia was disrupted by angry protesters. in one altercation, "time" magazine photographer chris morris was thrown to the ground by a secret service agent. nbc's tracie potts is in washington, d.c. tracie, it's ever heated, the primaries. we're just looking at pictures there from one of the altercations with the "times" photographer. the primaries, if trump walks away with a win in the majority of the states, that's a certain in for him as a gop candidate. is that what we're supposed to think now? >> reporter: it's a close in for him as a gop candidate. it means that it will be virtually, not completely, but

virtually impossible, very difficult for another candidate to amass what's needed to stop him at that point. >> go ahead, tracie. >> reporter: i was just saying in terms of donald trump, he's leading in so many of these states that in order to stop him, either ted cruz or marco rubio would have to come in a very close second in virtually all of the states or win a couple states possibly and then come in a close second. then on march 15th, take either florida or ohio, which are winner take all states. that would actually give them enough delegates to be competitive and to remain competitive in this race. back to you. >> tracie, thank you very much. apologies. i thought there was a bit of

picture play we were going to be rolling. apologies for that. we'll chat soon again. tracie potts joining us live out of washington. now, the bricks, they may be for playing. the company, though, keeping it real. lego's latest range includes a working mom and a stay-at-home hipster dad. you know the small little lego figures? that's what they're putting out now. we'll be speaking to the company's ceo in a bit. feel free to send your questions or comments through for jorgen. you can find us on twitter @louisa bojesen, on e-mail as well, streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. powee making a difference to change climate change with passion and excitement earth hour is about inspiring climate action celebrating a global movement and impact ♪ join us at earthhour.org 19th march at 8:30pm ♪

hi, everybody. welcome back. you're still watching "street signs" here on cnbc. i'm louisa bojesen. the u.s. futures, we're setting ourselves up for a slightly positive start to the session today. the implied open on the

right-hand side of your screen. while we're seeing a bit of green here in europe this morning across the board, that's also what you can expect stateside in around 4 1/2 hours or so. and sticking to the u.s., a new york city judge has sided with apple in a drugs case where the u.s. government ordered the unlocking of an iphone as part of an investigation. the ruling found that the u.s. government could not force the company to unlock the device in a decision that strengthens its case against the fbi in the san bernardino case. this came as the u.s. attorney general loretta lynch said she hopes apple will comply with the court order. the pain continues for valeant. shares sank as much as 18% in monday's trade after the drug maker said it was facing a new probe from the s.e.c. in the u.s. this investigation is separate from a previous one into their purchase of salex pharmaceutica pharmaceuticals. shares clawing back some of the

day's losses after hours, popping by almost 2.5%, as seen here. exxonmobil has sold $12 billion worth of new bonds in one of the biggest corporate debt deals of the year. wilfred joins us from the headquarters of cnbc. hi, wilfred. how are you? >> i'm very well, louisa. yourself? >> very good. very good. what's going on with exxonmobil then? >> yes, not just a very big deal in size, $12 billion, as you correctly said, but the coupons on it not that high for a company in a sector that's been in the eye of the storm throughout this year and last year as well. the percentage yield on the two years, they got away 1.24%, ranging up to 4.1% for the 30-year bond. so a significant raising of capital for the oil company. not at prices that are too bad. of course, this is an attempt to hold on to its coveted aaa

status. moody's last week confirmed they were still on aaa, but they had been put on negative outlook for a possible downgrade because of expectations of negative cash flow given the headwinds that the sector is facing. this will help investors feel they can hold on to that aaa rating. the timing, of course, comes as oil prices have turned in their first positive month in four, albeit only just for february. but last week we did finish with wti up over 10%. that's a big percentage move in the oil price. not a huge absolute move, given that we are so low now with oil prices. that particular factor, that volatility that has become the norm in 2016, another factor, whether it is up or down that makes it harder for these types of oil companies to plan for the future. another bonus, this significant capital raising. as we look at things today, wti just shy of 34. it's up about half a percent on the day.

exxon, r yesterday finished its equity price down 2%, just over $80 a share. in premarket, it hasn't moved too much from the close yesterday. on that note, louisa, back to you. >> wilfred, thank you very much. great stuff. wilfred frost joining us there live from the states. i just want to briefly mention to you that barclays shares, they've just resumed trading. they were just halted a second ago, off by almost 10% right now. pretty big drop coming after the announcement this morning. we've just seen trade in barclays resuming. just be aware that's going on. a lot of you are really excited about this next guest. i've been tweeting this morning, you've been tweeting back. lego has announced a 31% increase in net profit in 2015 thanks to strong demand for its "star wars" collection. the company this month outlined a new set of figurines designed to reflect reality with, among other things, a stay-at-home dad, a working mother, a

wheelchair user. the ceo of lego group joins us live from copenhagen. good to have you with us. talk me through the results first of all. i'm glancing at the release. i see 19% growth in sales. i see revenues increasing by 25%. what are some of the other key points? >> yeah, so an amazing year. what really matters to us, being a privately, family owned company, is to reach as many children as possible with our playful experiences. we truly see how they develop the child. we've estimated reached about 100 million child through our global expansion in 2015 leading to this 19% growth in local currency. phenomenal from fulfilling our

purpose but also making a business out of it, a business with a social mission. then we've taken huge steps in the area of responsibility in our company. in 2015 we've dedicated a huge investment into finding a sustainable material, still plastic, but another kind of plastic that consumes much less co2 in its manufacturing and therefore is a more long-term, sustainable material for us to build our very iconic lego brick. then we've invested massively in offshore wind farms that allow us to be 100% based on renewable energy. so those are some of the really important aspects of 2015 for us. >> what are you seeing in terms of growth in the different areas across the world? are you seeing an equal amount of interest still coming through in europe as opposed to asia and the u.s.? >> yes. what was interesting about 2015 was that we actually saw a very strong growth in the european region. also, in the americas, we

continue to deepen our penetration of the market and reaching more children than ever before. i think generally the toy industry is in a very positive trajectory in 2015. it seems to continue. but also, of course, we are expanding in markets where we're less penetrated. most notably for us, that's japan and china, where we had very strong growth in 2015, continuing a path that started several years ago and is likely to continue, of course. >> and i'm guessing the importance of merchandising on the back of popular trends like "star wars" or disney princess, elsa's sparkling ice castle is one of the best-selling products, which must be geared towards girls as well. this continues to be a strong driver. >> absolutely. what's important is that two-thirds of our product is based on themes we have invented ourselves, such as lego city or lego creator. we do work with select, very

iconic properties out there that typically originate from movies. "star wars" is the most iconic of them all. we've been working with them since 1999. in a way, i think we're part of defining the "star wars" universe, keeping it vibrant. now this year, a fantastic movie has been launched and lego has been part of the global excitement around the "star wars" property. "frozen" another one. a new movie that came out a couple years ago, but already a strong established classic within the very exciting disney universe that so much resonates with the brand. >> what's this about reality figures, or figures that mirror real life, like a working mother or a stay-at-home father? what is that trend about? >> well, it's really a reaction that has surprised me and the company. what we do in, will ego city is what we call reality play. lego city is one of our five biggest themes. it's been with us for 60 years.

it's a classic lego. it's about reality. it's about being, you know, a fire chief, a policeman. our designers continue to reflect that reality in the set. what does street life look like in the real world? they did this wonderful set that's been met with this global media reaction. from our side, no intention to make it something that would be caught by the media or called out as particularly new. >> people writing in. jeff wants to know whether legos don't appeal more to adults than kids. he says he loved them when he was young and still does. adults play with legos as well, right? lots of collectors out there. >> absolutely. and today i was announcing our annual results here at our headquarters in denmark. there were several adult fans that had traveled here to the press conference, even from the u.s. so lego has a big and growing community among adults also. >> we've got to go.

thank you very much. ceo of lego, which incidentally comes from the danish word meaning play well. >> thank you. >> reporter: louisa, here we are again still at the geneva motor show, racing around. we've now landed at lamborghini with one of the most highly anticipated cars of the show. i know you said you like low key, but this is going to excite you. we're talking 0 to 60 in less than three seconds. we'll be right back speaking to the ceo of lamborghini.

good morning. breaking overnight, chinese stocks rally, shrugging off weak economic data, but will green arrows across the rest of the world follow suit? >> happening now, barclays shares under pressure after the british bank posts a full-year loss and cuts its dividend. >> and decision 2016. voters in a dozen states head to the polls today to pick their party's candidate for president. it's super tuesday, march 1st. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. happy super tuesday. i'm sara n.