show with a weather warning today. t beware of a gathering storm, investors in europe take notice. >> china sees its fifth straight day of gains after china's top leaders have a blueprint in the face of slowing growth. and edf's cfo walks out. shares sent sharply lower. and a new life for old mutual? the uk rallies on reports that

it is planning a multibillion pound breakup. the drama. the drama, the drama. >> i know. >> thunderbolts behind us. >> i know. there's good reason, though. the bis, which we'll get to in a second, warning that potentially heading into further negative rate territory is not the best idea. here in europe we might be listening to what they're saying. that may be a reason why we're seeing a selling mode on european equity markets, we could also be repositioning ahead of the ecb on thursday. >> some thoughts that the relief rally went too far. now we're in overbought position. >> the bank for international settlements which is dubbed the essential bankers central bank, they are warning of a gathering storm for the global economy. so, what they're saying is that financial markets are losing

faith in the "healing power of overburdened central banks." so they're basically arguing that with the negative rates that instead of the banks being able to pass that op or live with having to pay out larger costs, what's happening is they're raising mortgage rates. >> this is not the first organization or the first body to warn about negative rates. we've been hearing warnings from the likes of the german finance minister, bank ceos warning it's not having the intended effects on household s but highlighting what it means for financial firms. many point out this is a tax on financial firms. we will talk about how the financials have been performing. once again, the bis raising those risks, and timing is crucial. as you mentioned, we're getting ready for the ecb meeting on thursday. ecb widely expected to go further into negative rates no

coincidence this warning. the leadership of china's communist party emphasized growth over reform at the national people's congress. the shanghai and the shenzhen both moving firmly in the green. for more on this let's get to eunice yoon standing by with the latest. >> reporter: hi, nancy. the government acknowledged concerns about the economy and the slowdown in growth. over the weekend the chinese premiere said he decided to lower the growth target to 6.5% to 7%. that's seen as a positive move to many, but some economists, actually many economists, have been concerned that the policymakers in china still won't reach that level. they'll struggle. a lot of the commentary today by chinese officials and yesterday have been how the country here

will avoid a hard landing. the central bank reiterated today that even though they're seeing more cross-border capital flows, that it was imaginable. also the finance minister today said that he finally addressed a very important issue for china, which is rising debt, which has been weighing on the economy. this is what he had to say. >> translator: raising the deficit is what's needed in the new normal. there are lots of problems cropping up under the new normal. by raising the deficit we are hoping the economy will realize mid to high speed development. we raised the deficit in order to avoid a quick and big slide. we also need to continue structural reform. >> the finance minister said the government here does have more room for further fiscal spending. the authorities lifted the fiscal deficit to 3% of gdp from 2.4% in 2015.

the main takeaway, though, is probably one that many economists are not going to be very happy about. that's that the government is still going to prioritize growth over structural reforms. the main concern that many people in the business community have had is if you continue to delay reforms you might be able to hold up near-term growth but you will just see potentially a larger consequence and bigger pain down the road. >> eunice yoon, thank you very much for that, joining us live from beijing. the chief china economist from icbc standard bank joins us. i think eunice's last point that she was making is they're focusing more on growth than reform is a key takeaway message from this weekend. would you agree? >> i would agree. this time what we need to be quite reminded of is the fact that this is the first ranged

target that we've seen. so, by doing that, effectively it's a subtle sign that the government is willing to accept a slower pace of growth. usually around 7% which was last year. this time the bottom line is 6.5%. absolutely right, the bottom line is still 6.5, that's the growth necessary to double gdp from 2010 to 2020. that's why that's the bottom. >> we had the pboc vice governor saying how china's fx reserves are stable. that's one thing the international community is looking closely at, also looking at the interest environment globally. how does that fit in with the growth story out of china? >> i think economists on the ground and international i will have one voice, that capital outflows has been hurtful for the economy.

and we have seen in the fx reserves data just out this morn morning that it has stabilized a bit. last year corporate offshores were paying off their liabilities. the depreciation expectations on the currency still is in place. so, i think rather than concentrating on stability of the currency, what you probably want to prioritize now more is to lessen the costs of defending the currency by using up the reserve reserves. >> there's a question about what the real picture is in china. the leaders saying some of the debt fears are overblown. yet china like the rest of the world is dealing with low inflation. this makes the debt burdens more difficult. how concerned should investors be about that side? >> the most concerning areas is probably corporate debt. first of all, the overall size

of the debt, government debt, household debt, probably not as concerning, but corporate debt is quite an issue. with the current plan it doesn't look like deleveraging will start sooner rather than later. so i think the concern for investors is when the government will tackle the problem of the debt, particularly local debt or corporate debt. >> corporate debt more of a concern than any one sector? we've been following debt within the banks for quite some time. >> are certain sectors that are concerning, particularly the overcapacity industryies, wherea lot of the banking sector credit and debt is very much focused on. priority for government is to assure that social stability is in place. i think fundamentally that draws the line between growth and tackling reforms in china.

>> as a china economist now, with our hat on as well as we look forward to the fed and the ecb, is china heading in the right direction? will we see a larger slowdown than what we're anticipating currently? will we be okay? >> as your reporter said, economists may not be happy we're not seeing an aggressive or ambitious plan there, because the bottom line is still for growth. perhaps investors should be happy that the priority is still growth. the policymakers still have a lot of policies in its toolbox to exercise. they have not yet done so. i think investors should be happy that there's plenty of policy maneuver left in the chinese authorities. >> jinny, thank you for being

with us. good to see you, nancy. >> great to be here. >> did you have a nice weekend? >> quiet but nice. and you? >> i'm frozen because i've pulled something in my back. i'm a little like this today. it hurts. >> the big old move. >> exactly. e-mail the show. we'll float the address on screen for you throughout the next hour. you can also find us on twitter. >> that's right. >> you can find us individually also. so much to come still in the show. we want your thoughts. one thing we're watching, cheerleaders on the move. they are cheering on hillary clinton. we'll tell you which powerful woman is rooting for the democratic frontrunner. plus we're talking metro bank as negative rates squeeze the big banks. is the old-fashioned lending model under threat?

stay with us.

. hello. welcome back to "street signs." we've been watching management changes this morning. edf among them. trading sharply lower after cfo thomas piquemal resigned. this comes over a disagreement about the hinckley project in the uk. according to reuters, piquemal believes the $18 billion pound project would further stress edf's financial problems. xavier girre is the new director. >> martin zielke will be in charge of cemmerzbank ceo in

may. he worked for deutsche bank previously. elsewhere, spain's fcc shares are jumping to the top of the ibex. up about 15%. this follows a takeover bid from carlos slim amounting to 7 euros and 6 cents per share that would represent a 15% premium to its closing price on friday. old mutual shares have been soaring on reports that it is planning a breakup which could see the insurance operation split into four groups. old mutual has responded to offers saying no decision has been made yet and it will give a strategic update on the 11th of march. want to bring you a check of metro bank shares. today is the bank's first day of trade on the public market with

an issue price of 20 pounds per share. you can see there metro moving just a bit higher off that, nearly 6% on its debut. challenger bank which was launched in 2010 slashed its ipo by a fifth last month after the selloff in financials. some profit taking among the banks this morning. this after the stock 600 europe banks closed up by 5.6% last week as a whole. that's the best week in over a year. paul cavanaugh is director and ceo at petronas partners. so the stoxx europe 600 banking index seeing its worst streak since 2008. looking at the ecb potentially moving further into negative territory on deposit rates and more stimulus as well. what will the impact be on the banking sector? >> the two fears for the banking sector during 2016 is what the

central bank will be doing with deposit rates. the expectation this week is that there's a further ten basis point cut to deposit rates. that clearly impacts on bank margins. goldman sachs sa goldman sachs highlighting for every 10 bonus patienoints, the anticipate 2%, 3% per share. are there further 10 basis points declines or is draghi doing to be a floor under rates or introduce a tier system under banks excess reserves against those he would like being held there for security reasons. >> what do you think the longer-term consequence of a negative environment will be? some are saying actually it's not hurting the banks to the extent that we thought it would.

what's happening is they're hiking mortgage rates on the other hand. >> indeed. margins can always over the course of time be adjusted to a new environment. we know account charges can be placed. banks have many ways to manipulate that. the key is what's happening with the economy. is draghi going to do enough to avert the worst of potentially a third round of european crisis and the impact of defaults on corporate loans and bonds? it's that which i think is the second measure that has been impacted on banks. we were down about 30% to mid-february this year on banking sector. it recovered about two-thirds of that we're going into the meeting with a fair degree of understanding of what he will do this week. if we get further volatility in banking shares, it will be a result of the extrapolation. >> the selloff on banks was

largely tied to the mixed earnings season. but there seemed to be an overriding trend where retail was holding up despite the low-rate environment but that corporate institutional banking side hit by volatility in trading. oil price volatility there as well. does this suggest we're seeing a divergence here between a success model with more traditional banking and we'll continue to see the banks wind down the corporate investment side? >> certainly over the last six months. we've ended a trend of some stability in financial markets over the past two, three years. and it's the collapse in commodity prices, and when things can go wrong they can go really wrong. to see a 70% decline in the oil prices has effects on the markets where banks are exposed. it put a risk premium in the market. i think for some too much risk has been priced into the banks. i wouldn't say we're out of the woods yet, so the bit of profit

taking today may ensue through the later part of this week. >> the miners, do you think this is a bear market relief rally or is this the real deal? >> certainly towards the end of august last year there was a sense we were getting back to balance back into the energy markets. that was the quote heard out of the oil chiefs in bp and shell that they felt the worst of the imbalances were being addressed about six months ago that has allowed at least a decent rally into some of these energy prices. it was really the most shorted stock. there was a huge squeeze that we've seen now, stocks like glencore have doubled over the course of 2016 alone. many investors have been kept quite short of it. again, i think this is really just pricing in ahead of we got overbearish in the first half. there's been a recovery rally. not sure this is a trend you can rely on. >> we should point out we did see miners moving higher when

trading started this morning, now a significant downturn. they are reversing now as we see the rest of the european markets go back into the red. >> when looking again at some of the measures that the central banks could do now and should they be heading down the route of more negative rates? also some are saying it's just a quick temporary solution to try to weaken currencies. >> sure. >> then we look back at the bank of japan and what they did, even though it was a big surprise when they cut further into negative territory, you initially saw the yen weaken, but only for a minute. then it bounced again. even that's not working. >> that's right. the central banks, the charge being leveled against central banks during 2016 is that they are a spent force. we've seen too many examples of the stimulus that they started applying in 2012 having material impacts on both the financial markets and, of course, in terms of aiding some stability in the

general economy now begin to run out of steam. that's beginning to happen in china. we've seen this with good evidence in japan. i think investors are just sort of weighing up the balance here as to what further impacts this could have. it's an important speech this week from the ecb to try to take back that possession of we can continue to sort of keep this economy on track. once you start losing faith on that, once they're sort of spent on further qe stimulus is seeing more limited impact on the economy. i think that's been the worst fear factor in 2016, then clearly we start to question the sort of routed direction of what they're doing. >> even this tier model on the banks, it sounds so complicated. you have stimulus, then negative interest rates, then a tier model on the banks. how do you unwind it? i don't want to be in the camp where you criticize and say the ecb shouldn't do anything, who

knows where we would be, worse off or better off if they didn't do anything. how would a tier system, is there a chance of that working? how would it look? >> and how do they communicate it effectively? >> everything has to be designed to almost reduce this conservatism that is pervading through the banking sector, very much through the corporate sector at the moment and increasingly i expect on the consumer sector. once it goes into the consumer sector, you have this disinflationary repair and they have to continue to take extraordinary measures to keep that wolf from the door at the moment. the markets are saying the chances of them succeeding is reducing over time. >> speaking of this deflationary environment, we see gold continuing its strong recent run here. the gold miners off the back of that continuing to rally. do you expect strength in gold

to continue? >> yes, i do i think investors are putting an allocation towards gold. gold is a small market. it's a $7 trillion market compared to $242 trillion of bonds. the more we see the devaluation of money, devaluation of cash by central banks as they take more extraordinary measures, what history served us back in the '70s is that it's the precious metals that can perform the best in that environment. i think it's an asset allocation, people shied away from the gold trade, but it is returning. i would be allocating towards gold. >> do we fear deflation? the talk again at the ecb or with regards to the ecb, that they were going to move into negative territory, minus 0.4% for the ecb. is that going to make a

difference to deflation at all at this stage? >> we're seeing the initial part of the deflation cycle came from energy, but it's now starting to pervade across a broader sector of economies as prices are starting to adjust. the cycle we're in, it's not all about debt, but it's about technology, the implementation of technology across a broad range of sectors, compressing margins at the moment. every startup at the moment, their ambition is to take everything we do and reduce the price of it. that's attacking the prices and margins. so we are operating at a disinflationary cycle at the momen moment. >> all right, paul. we will keep that focus on the central banks as we await the ecb on thursday. as we came into the trading day today, people wondering if this relief rally would hold. the investors say not so. back in the red, uk miners

reversing gains as well. paul kavanagh, thanks for joining us. let's look at telecom italia, shares of that firm have been under pressure. as the ceo denies that he's been asked to sell the company's brazilian business. let's get out to claudia with the latest. >> good morning. we are seeing pressure on telecomitalia this morning after a strong week last week. there's a lot of news surrounding what's going on. some going the possible exit of the ceo, and that vivendi may be working on a substitute. at this point the comments he's made is that managers are always being looked at and that the shareholder is sovereign, but there's no issue regarding the sale or not of the brazilian activity which could be at the

center of the exit of the ceo. he said he wants to hold on to brazilian assets, which are important for telecomitalia. they do expect things to improve only in 2017. it looks as though vivendi may not agree with that and may want to sell that asset. other news that came out to help the stock is that telecom argentina sale will go forward. they got a green light from regulators and that investments have been decided in a plan set out weeks ago by the ceo of the groups. so 12 billion in investments will be put in for italian activity. also moving forward on the wireless tower sales, so that will be helpful for telecom italia. so there's a lot of good news as well as the big question mark on whether or not vivendi, which holds 23.8% of telecom italia wants an exit of the ceo.

they have four board members out of the total 17 that make up the board of telecom italia. this could be the start of more speculation. we'll watch that stock carefully. this morning it is under pressure, down by 1.7% with a market down a bit under 1 percentage point. back to you for now. >> claudia, thank you for that. we want to bring you another check on activity we've seen within the uk miners. we did have strong performance in the miners in the early hours of trade, extending gains in australia, but a different story as you can see here. uk miners moving at the bottom of the ftse 100 in the neighborhood of 2%, 3%. nevertheless a reversal to show you on a broad down day across europe. the assumption is profit taking after three straight weeks of gains. perhaps investors fearing equities could be overboughtment. >> could be also the fed might

hike now. >> strongish. >> strongish. coupled with the ecb expected to do more on thursday. maybe some repositioning. we've got a break to take. we'll be back with more on "street signs." we'll see you in a jiffy.

>> welcome back. no, this is not the weather channel. you are still watching "street signs" but we have a weather warning coming from the bank of international settlements saying a gathering storm could be here in europe. taking notice of the negative interest rate environment. >> china, though, markets seeing their fifth straight day of gains after beijing's top leaders unveil a blueprint to

borrow more cash in the face of slowing growth. >> building a bid? shar shares rising after carlos slim is considering a takeover offer. and old mutual, news that there may be a multibillion dollar pound breakup. >> good morning. welcome back to "street signs." we have the weather warning from the bank of international settlements, this comes after three straight weeks of gains for equities in europe and the united states. friday on wall street, we saw a lot of relief rally going on. here we are in europe, back in the red. before we get there, let's look at where u.s. futures are calling markets today. we had the strong payroll numbers on friday.

concern when it comes to wage inflation, weaker than expected. negative and some were looking for an uptick of 0.2%. overall job growth was solid. all three major markets called slightly lower now. in europe, the if thecy off 0.4%. the dax off about 0.7%. same story as we look at france and italy. investors continuing to watch the relief rally we saw in basic resources, banks last week, some of the biggest gainers there moving to the downside. also keeping an eye on the asian session. we had the china npc meeting in focus, but also some individual stock movers. foxcon among them, proposing an acquisition of sharp saying it's on the right track. discussions could wrap up as

early as this week. for more on this story, we go to singapore. sri, we were shocked when we saw this mega deal done and then dran saying they had to do more due diligence. >> i think the story relies to the liabilities and debt load that fox conn will be or will be concerned about assuming from sharp. so we need more clarity on where sharp stands. sharp says they have fessed everything up. foxconn not buying that one. so we need to do more due diligence on this deal. it's yet to get over the line in the sand. elsewhere we are seeing a continuation of the risk on rally that we saw last week. admittedly we did overshoot to the upside last week. so, a bit of give back now. especially on the nikkei. still below the 17,000 handle. some profit taking with the

nikkei and the market there snapping four days of gains. elsewhere, we are seeing stabilization in the chinese markets. there's a degree of caution associated with this week as we get closer to the ecb meeting, will we see more policy support from mr. draghi and companies? will it come with unintended consequences as we talk about negative interest rates and the impact on the banks and the impact which we have seen on sharp relief with the japanese experience with their forerae into nerp policy. there's uncertainty on the policy front, in the political front, and the brexit issue. that will be the case up to june 23rd. a lot can happen there. when we talk about china, we have to continue watching the currency. this will continue to be the transmission mechanism that will color sentiment associated with the mainland china markets and

what happens with capital outflows, and liquidity conditions. that's where we stand. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. let's switch topics. the german finance minister told the bbc that a brexit would be poison to the british, european and global economies. he warned of the disadvantages the uk could face. >> translator: of course there are countries within europe that are part of the market but they have to pay within the budget of the community and accept the free movement of people so they have all the disadvantages of the common market and they're not involved in the decisionmaking progress of the internal single market. >> john longworth has resigned as director general of the british chamber of commerce after speaking out in favor of a brexit. the organization decided not to campaign for either side in the debate and mr. longworth's personal views may have caused

confusion. longworth was suspended on friday leading to concerns that he was forced out. downing street denied they had any part to play in the suspension, b suspension. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has accused the anti-immigrant alternative for germany party for stirring up prejudice and polarizing society. she called for a joint european solution to the refugee crisis and called for germany's borders to remain open. take a listen to what was said as tsipras walked into the summit. >> this is a common problem, this is not the frproblem of on country, it's a european

problem. unfortunately between the two governments there were agreements that did not implement for everybody. this is a problem for our common home, for europe. these are agreements that are not implemented, they are not agreements at all. so now there is a difficult situation that we have to handle. i'm looking forward to have some results in this meeting between the u.n. and turkey. imm no order to implement the action plan, in order to decrease substantially the flows and at the same time it's necessary to accelerate the relocation process, substantially.

and to have a credible relocation process because i think everybody will understand that in europe we have some principles, some values. so one of our foundation principles was sharing responsibility, sharing burden and solidarity. i'm looking forward that these principles are for all. rules are for all. and everybody has to implement our common decisions. >> well, julia joined us in the studio with more on exactly what is taking place out of brussels today. also with us is phoebe griff from ippr. welcome to you as well. julia, let's start with you. in case viewers are just joining us from the states, what's taking place in brussels, and

why is this so important? >> what's so important is what we've seen in the past few months and weeks is that individual countries have acted unilaterally and taken their own actions. austria is the most important deciding to cap the level of refugee flow into the country despite what anybody else thinks. the expectation is what the leaders will announce is that the balkan route, the route into europe via greece up to the northern european countries will be closed. they'll try to reestablish a zone which has been suspended for a number of countries in europe and work with turkey to stem the flow across the aegean sea. we've seen agreements of this type in smaller pieces over the past few months and the follow-through has not been there. the commission wanted some centralization of dealing with asylum claims which is what tsipras was complaining about there.

the problem is you still rely on quotas. at this point it's just voluntary. >> phoebe, how you are viewing this. >> i think it's true. it has come to a crisis point. and i think the dynamic with turkey is didn't at this point. i think the eu is much more prepared to compromise. there's more pressure, particularly domestic pressure coming from the political scene and countries not just like poland or, you know, hungary, but increasingly countries like germany and sweden. so they've changed their tune. i think there's an appetite to accommodate turkey much more. there's a sort of -- i guess people have come to terms with the fact that they have to turn a blind eye to certain things going on in turkey to reach a deal, and to reform the system. looking at outsourcing a lot of this to turkey rather than dealing with it within the european borders.

>> we're looking at two separate things. one being the desire for brussels to say we want a centralized system out of brussels to deal with asylum seekers and the other being we want to make sure asylum seekers are being sent back to turkey? >> absolutely. they're trying to control within greece, trying to process the asylum claims and deciding at that point who is viable. is this person from syria, and they're allowed in, or are they known as economic migrants. the first problem is they are not sure which countries are safe, which aren't. even if turkey says you can relocate them back to us, they need to sign third party agreements with the countries they're going to send them back to. this is not a simple prospect. >> what are the budget consequences? i know this is something you have to be following closely.

in brussels today a lot of these meetings are centered on who will pay for it. >> the 3 billion euros will be provided to turkey to address this problem, turkey says we are stemming the flow, but it's the winter months. so we would see some kind of stemming of the flow. the question is how much are they actually doing? with this agreement with nato to tackle the smugglers, whether or not they actually follow through. they have their own political issues and shenanigans going on. >> it's interesting what's happening in the uk in the context of this debate. up to now immigration has not featured prominently in the debate as to whether or not britain will stay in the european union. britain has handled the refugee crisis different to germany and other european countries. britain said they will offer support in the aegean sea to

tackle the smuggling problem, to not take part in any kind of burden sharing scheme, but to be much more proactive on the borders of europe ensuring that smuggling is actually tackled. >> that's twe've got to go. thank you to you guys. julia and pheobe. of course, germany's government paying attention to what's happening stateside with the elections. donald trump has been called a threat. this as angela merkel complimented the democratic front-runner, hillary clinton, saying it has always been a pleasure to work with her. meanwhile the action on the campaign trail keeps on going. bernie sanders has won the democrats main caucus. beating front-runner hillary clinton by double digits in the latest battle for the presidential candidacy. let's get straight out to tracie potts from nbc news. pleasure to see you again. how significant is this victory

for sanders? >> it's helpful but the reality is he's still far behind hillary clinton in the delegate count. she has twice as many delegates as he does. 1100 by our count as of this morning. so he has a lot of catching up to do that process will begin tomorrow in michigan. it's a critical primary. both candidates were in flint, michigan last night for the debate where the topic was the flint water crisis and auto jobs. it's a big deal in the midwest. hillary clinton and bernie sanders sparring over who really fought for the auto bailout to save those jobs. we're watching that closely tomorrow. also in michigan, the republicans where donald trump has a double digit lead there and in florida. many of the republicans have already turned their focus to next week's florida primary. it's winner take all. it could make or break this company for some candidates like marco rubio who is hoping to win his homestate but is down by

double digits according to our poll in florida, some of the polling we've seen in florida. ted cruz actually is not that far behind in the delegate count. he's hoping to pick up some delegates this week and next week as well. >> all right. we will certainly be back with you as we get the other primary information. everybody in washington watching the sad news, and that is that former first lady nancy reagan died at the age of 94. she passed away in los angeles on sunday from congestive heart failure. she was one of the most influential first ladies in u.s. history. the current president and first lady led tributes saying we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example and her warm and generous advice.

good morning. while peyton manning is now retiring after 17 seasons and his second super bowl victory, manning informed the broncos saturday night of his decision and will officially announce his retirement today. he leads the game as the all-time leading in passing yards and passing touchdowns and is the league's only five-time mvp. >> i was reading some interesting research about basically brain damage and playing these types of games. >> it's horrible. >> there are lots of documentaries on that. >> a lot of voices out there saying they should get rid of the helmets altogether and change the game a bit. >> they talk about kids -- one of the pieces of research, if you ask a 10-year-old is it a good thing to knock heads at this speed? they say no.

why do we continue to do it? that's for a different discussion. >> definitely a concern. still in the world of sport, former tennis world number one, maria sharapova has called a press conference today to make a "major announcement." this has prompted speculation that she could announce her retirement. the five-time grand slam champion has been troubled by her left forearm since the beginning of the year. when you get injuries, it reminds you how short-lived that career is. >> and here are people doing something to get the injuries, i have a frozen back, a lot of you are writing in telling me what to do for this frozen back. bill says try nexatin tablets or a heating pad. >> these are people who have a reason to like to have aches and pains. any way, the inventor of modern e-mail, ray tomlinson,

died over the weekend. he lived in lincoln, massachusetts. tomlinson expanded the technology to allow electronic messages to be shared easily among multiple recipients. when he first wrote and sent his first e-mail, very few people had personal computers and the technology didn't take off until years later. >> do you remember the first e-mail you had. >> i don't remember the very first, but i know it was through aol. >> i hope he got proper credit for that. >> it took years before it properly took off. >> i used my very first computer in college. >> wow. >> i know. can you believe it? >> first internet experience. yeah. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and the u.s. secretary of state, john kerry, say they are optimistic about the cease-fire in syria. robert amsterdam is an

international lawyer with amsterdam & partners. why should we be optimistic about this cease-fire agreement when you still havections on thd in syria that probably won't be putting their weapons down. >> i'm not sure we should be optimistic. i think this is a difficult moment. the fact is the russians have not stopped bombing. they have a list of groups they feel they can deal with with impunity. this may, in fact, weaken the situation relative to turkey and that could escalate matters. i don't think there's a large cause for optimism just yet. >> isn't putin heading in the right direction on at least getting leaders to speak together? he picked up the phone personally and called a number of global leaders to try to move somewhere towards finding some type of resolution.

mr. putin is an expert at exacerbating a crisis and then pretending to be a peacemaker as he has recently done with ukraine. the fact of the matter is other leaders have abdicated their roles. mr. putin is challenging nato through his challenge to turkey. what we're not seeing is american support for allies. the u.s. continues to support the gulan organization in the united states. the u.s. and obama failed to show the real strength they need to demonstrate there are more sides than just russia at the table. so i think ever since we gave russia a pass on the issue of chemical weapons, and let them steal the show, the u.s. has largely been absent from the constructive discussion. you mentioned the role the u.s. is playing or lack thereof. are you surprised when you watch

the debates we've been watching stateside that there's a lack of discourse here? do you expect that to pick up once we get to the general election? >> i do. i think one of the main issues that goes ignored is that turkey has taken 2.5 million refugees, while in the united states they're debating whether to allow 10,000 or 15,000 into the country. the refugee crisis and the fact that it has gone unnoticed is that putin has weaponized the refugees. and this attempt to destabilize, particularly merkel -- there's an article about that today, is going unnoticed. he's playing a card trick where he's acting as an alleged peacemaker, but working very hard to destabilize many of our allies in europe. robert, you have extensive experience in russia and mr. putin. you actually represented the former boss of ukos there.

based on your dealings with the country, how would you characterize the environment between the corporate sector and the government? >> wildly challenging. the recent arrest of the owner is another example that inside russia today there's an ongoing weakening of the strength of private industry. the state's role continues to grow. if oil prices continue to creep up, we'll be back in a position where russia will continue to be more aggressive. >> all right. >> robert, what would you like to see happen next with regards to russia's international role? there should be a place for russia give than it is such a great country as -- in terms of size. how would you view the next step? >> in my view, it's about america reentering the game.

it's all about an intelligent approach to russia where russia senses strength. part of our problem is that russia sees obama as incredibly weak. they watch how obama's treated turkey, the key ally in that region. they compare it to how russia has been viewing assad. >> robert, thank you very much for being with us. robert amsterdam, international lawyer with amsterdam & partners. >> let's look at u.s. futures as we go to break. in europe we're seeing profit taking after three straight weeks of gains, that's said to be a similar story on wall street. futures pointing to a bit of a lower open there.

modest losses at this stage. the dow jones off by 57 points. s&p 500 off by 9 points, the nasdaq lower by 23 points. the focus will be the oil price. we've seen reaction in minors, baminers. >> i'm excite d. we're not going short on the euro like last time. it's not like we are expecting a disappointment this time, last time we weren't expecting a disappointment, we got one. haven't seen the same positioning. sorry, my back. >> investors don't want to be burned this time. >> no. >> big expectations from mario draghi on thursday, we will watch that in the lead-up to the ecb decision. >> the bank of international

settlements have warned of a gathering storm for the global economy. they say heading down the negative interest rate route may not be the best one. they are considered the central bank for central bankers. they are saying financial markets are losing faith in the healing power of overburdened central banks in general. it's great to criticize, what's the alternative? how about proposing a solution. >> how do you get the governments to pick up on restructuring. that's it for today's show. i'm nancy hulgrave. >> i'm louisa bojesen. we'll see you tomorrow. have a lovely day. bye for now. earth hour is about empowering people making a difference to change climate change with passion and excitement earth hour is about inspiring climate action celebrating a global movement and impact ♪

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. good morning. the bulls take control. a new weeks bring new tests for the markets. scam artists hit seagate technology. a phishing e-mail scam causing the company to disclose private information including social security numbers and salaries. >> and race for the white house. a ra a roundup of the weekend. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪