good morning. global markets are under pressure. european stocks trading lower. and the major u.s. averages are on track to snap a six-week streak. and terror in brussels. new details this morning on the bombers and their connection to last fall's terror attacks in paris. it's thursday, march 24th, 2016. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost.

let's have a look at u.s. equity futures this morning. we're on track to snap a six-week winning streak. we've had a bit of red this week. not in pronounced a fashion. low volumes and low conviction, really. but we're looking to continue that today. the dow called lower by 24 points. the s&p by 5 1/2. the nasdaq by 13. even if i day say low conviction just there, the move in the u.s. ten year yesterday did show some risk aversion. we did see some buying of the bond, pushing the yield on the u.s. ten year down. we're currently at 1.87%. that slide in oil impacting the market. economic data and fed speak front and center this morning ahead of a three-day weekend. first up, weekly jobless claims and february durable goods. orders are forecast to have dropped by about 3% last month following a big gain in january. the markets are closed for good friday tomorrow, but the government is still going to be releasing the final revision to fourth quarter gdp that morning. in earnings central, we'll get

signet jewelers, finish line, winnebago, and game stop. st. louis fed president james bullard speaking about the economy this morning before the opening bell. yesterday bullard was one of the multiple policymakers making hawkish statements, suggesting an april interest rate hike could be possible. that speculation influencing the currency market, where it has been a story of dollar strength. stronger dollar pressuring stocks, pressuring commodities. you're seeing the euro back up a little bit more today. below that 1.12 region. there's the s&p 500. it is on track, along with the dow and the nasdaq, to finish the week lower. as wilfred just mentioned, the first down week in the last six. >> not too big a correction given the five-week bounceback we've had. let's check in on global markets this morning. they're certainly influencing

u.s. futures today. european markets there for you down to the tune of about 1% across the board. france leading the way, lower, down 1.2%. germany a little better than that, down just 0.8%. asia seeing red as well. the hong kong market down 1.3%. sha shanghai, 1.6. we are snapping a decent winning streak. >> among the headlines out in asia overnight, china's premier says the government will not seek to devalue the yuan in a bid to boost exports. he also argues that china has enough tools to ensure a stable economic performance in his words. >> let's have a look at broader markets this morning. commodities, oil prices have gone back below 40. we're down another 1.3%. sara said earlier, oil's slide did hurt market sentiment yesterday. again, we're close to ho.

we' -- we're close to 40. compared to some of those debts in the middle of february, nothing too significant. it's been a poor week for gold. we're looking at 1216. we're coming off that nice-shaped chart we'd had for the start of this year. gold going up very significantly. down another 0.6% today. i suppose, sara, the question is how much conviction is there in this little correction that we're seeing this week, and given the level of volumes, you'd probably say not too much. >> the other question i would have, especially after this week and the last 24 hours is what on sert this federal reserve's communication strategy? it is so confusing. last week we hear from janet yellen, who is the most important person to listen to on the fed, especially when she's talking at a press conference after a policy decision, talking about worries in the global economy and financial markets, pushing out interest rate hikes at least. the entire fed forecasting now only two instead of four.

then a slew of fed speakers out yesterday talking about the better economic data, the higher inflation number, the fact we might need to go sooner than later in april. chris rupke is an economist, he's been on the show. he said this is the most fouled up communication strategy from the fed. it is confusing. whether that's led to the selloff or not, it certainly has helped strengthen the u.s. dollar, and that's something multinationals are still dealing with, hence nike, general mills this week. >> i think the fundamental reason for these disagreements between certain fed members, and there was a great debate on "closing bell" yesterday, but i think the main reason is there's a debate between them about how much they should be taking account of the foreign situation. i think domestic data continues to still be pretty supportive, and perhaps they should have already hiked in march or perhaps they should hike in april. even yellen has decided to start to take in kind of general fears

about what's happening to global growth a little more strongly than they had done last year. >> the only thing i would say is pay attention amid the cocoughny of fed statements to the three core fed members. janet yellen, stanley fischer, and new york fed president dudl dudley. that's the core of the fed. ultimately, that's who's making policy. >> more comments from bullard today as well. >> now to the latest from brussels following this week's deadly terrorist attacks. our very own michelle caruso-cabrera joins us from the belgian capital. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: good morning, sara. the key development overnight is that the authorities believe there is a definitive connection between the attacks here in brussels and the attacks in paris back in november. the two brothers who died as suicide bombers here, one in the subway, one at the airport, are believed to have been accomplices, facilitators of the paris attacks, providing safe

houses and/or transportation. this is raising the level of criticism of the security officials here. the argument is you have this belgian terrorist cell. you have terrorists working across borders, but intelligence services not necessarily cooperating or working across borders. so this is already becoming a political discussion here. does this situation require more europe. the euro skeptics are saying it requires less europe. we need to reduce the ability to cross borders. we need to control our own borders individually as countries. so once again, the key development, there's definitely a connection between paris in november and brussels here in the last two days. other developments are that the suspected bomb maker is believed to have died as one of the suicide bombers at the airport. they're looking, perhaps, now beyond the one man hunt we've been telling you about, from the one individual seen on the

closed circuit television at the airport. there's perhaps another individual from the subway station they may be looking for as well, somebody who may have been there beyond the suicide bomber who died there. so those are the key political developments overnight. also, some of the investigative results or details we've been watching for. we are here in front of what used to be the stock exchange here in brussels. it's now a museum. this is where there's a memorial, a constant vigil, as people here in brussels come together to mourn those who died, at least 30, and more than 100 injured. back to you. >> michelle, tell us what the sentiment is there on the ground. i know we're in a day of mourning, standing in front of a memorial there. there's been a great sense of solidarity across europe and across the globe, of course, in response to this. but these updates you're telling us, you know, it does point towards some intelligence failures, perhaps mistakes made leading up to this. is there a sense of anger as

well, or have we not got to that stage yet on the ground? >> reporter: i haven't heard that yet. i heard it very, very quickly after paris because, remember in november when the large paris attacks occurred, "charlie hebdo" had already occurred. so the french citizens felt like there should have been more done in the time period between the two. the why did it happen again. i haven't heard anger here yet. we'll see if we actually hear it, but this is a city that has been dealing with closures, a very high level of alerts, shutdowns constantly as there have been raids over the last several months. so it's quite possible that you start to hear that, wilfred. >> and what about the airport? is it still closed? is it sort of life back to normal, people at work? i imagine with heightened security measures, of course. >> reporter: it is not life back to normal. the airport is not open to

commercial traffic yet. it's not clear when that's going to happen. they told us it's at least through friday, even though private planes can fly and as well as cargo planes. at the train station, we have some video of that if you want to show it. there used to be multiple entrances to that train station. now there's only one. we are told by the authorities that they were frisking people as they went in, even though we didn't see that ourselves. so certainly that is not life back to normal, having to be frisked when you go into a train station, not being able to go about your typical commute. >> michelle, thank you very much for joining us this morning. michelle caruso-cabrera in brussels there. switching gears to corporate news this morning. starboard is reportedly ready to launch a proxy fight to remove yahoo!'s entire board. they've been a critic of the company's management. starboard owns less than 1% of the company. "the wall street journal" says the hedge fund plans to announce this morning that it will

nominate nine directors to yahoo!'s board. yum brands is reportedly in talks with private equity firms to sell a minority stake in its china operations. yum, as you know, is preparing to spin off the chinese unit. reuters reporting that the possible sale values the china business at about $10 billion. the stock shot up yesterday on that report. sequoia's president has resigned. the mutual fund has been hit hard by its big stake in valeant. morning star says sequoia has underperformed at 98% of its peers so far this year. some other stocks to watch today, pvh reporting better than expected fourth quarter results, but the maker of calvin klein and tommy hilfiger apparel is giving down beat guidance for 2016. the company citing increased promotions, restrained consumer spending, and currency headwinds. appearing on "mad money," the

ceo says he sees growth opportunities in china. >> the calvin klein business is about $275 million in china. tommy is less than half of that. we've been experiencing significant growth with both brands. i think there's a real opportunity to really take that business. i think both brands could be in the next five years over $500 million. that market is growing. that consumer continues to spend. we're well positioned there. both brands are really well received by the consumer in china. >> echoing nike's bullish numbers on china as well. kb home first quarter profit rising 68%, beating forecasts. the home builder saying a healthy backlog is contributing to a favorable outlook for the full year. the company also reporting a 5% increase in average selling prices to more than $344,000. nice reaction there in the stock. up almost 7% in the premarket. raytheon is raising its annual dividend to $2.93 a share.

this is the 12th straight year the defense contractor that boosted its annual payout to stockholders. american airlines is bringing back profit sharing. certain employees will get a cut of 5% of pretax profits starting with the airline's 2016 annual earnings. american had profit sharing before filing for bankruptcy in 2011, but employees hadn't received payouts since 2001 because the company had not been profitable. terex said it received a nonbinding takeover offer from zoomlion for $31 a share or more than $3.4 billion in total. the crane maker says its board hasn't changed its recommendation in support of a proposed merger. oxford industry's fourth quarter profit rose 11% but revenue missed forecast. the maker of tommy bahama.

when we come back, a huge weekend for retail. we'll bring you the big numbers behind easter next. >> but first, as we head to break, we want to hear from you. our twitter and facebook question of the morning. heading for our first down week in six for u.s. equities, where are we? a bull market, a bear market, or simply range bound? get in touch with us. we want to hear from you. we'll discuss the results of that with many market experts coming up here on "worldwide exchange." e market. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your investments through good times and bad. for over 75 years, our clients have relied on us to bring our best thinking to their investments so in a variety of market conditions... you can feel confident... ...in our experience. call a t. rowe price retirement specialist or your advisor ...to see how we can help make the most of your retirement savings. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just getting up, let's get you up to speed with the market action. u.s. futures pointing lower. th they've extended their losses over the last 20 minutes, but not too much. >> oil still weaker, dollar still stronger. that's part of the story. easter is this sunday, so you still have a few days left to spend. as americans prepare to celebrate the holiday, they're getting out their wallets, hunting for the perfect gift, and retailers are certainly welcoming them with open arms. what do people buy more than candy? >> retail sales expected to be hopping, pun intended, as americans anticipate they'll spend more than ever. the national retail federation expects sales of $17.3 billion this year. that's up more than 5% from last year's high. those celebrating forecast to

spend an average of $146 per person. where are people planning to fill up their baskets? more than half will go to discount stores so they can take advantage of promotions, but shoppers aren't putting all of their eggs in the same spending basket. food retailers expect to see the most benefit with consumers forecast to spend $5.5 billion on food. that's followed by $3 billion on clothing. you can't forget about the chocolate. americans are expected to spend $2.4 billion on candy with sales driven by people taking part in easter egg hunts. sara and wilfred, i wanted to do an easter egg hunt, but our producer said we didn't have enough time, so i got you guys some chocolate bunnies to make up for that. >> no way. that's epic. i'm going to eat that at the break. >> that's better than guinness on st. patrick's day at 5:18. >> i don't know. the guinness was pretty sweet. >> and guys, the holiday weekend means two hours of "worldwide exchange" on monday morning. >> that is right. 4:00 a.m. we will be here on monday. >> all of us with very genuine

smiles on our faces. landon, thank you very much. >> thanks, guys. still to come, a war of words and photos between donald trump and ted cruz about their wives. the story tops today's political talk. that's coming up. but first as we head to break, here's today's national forecast from the weather channel's jen carfagno. >> after the fifth snowiest march day on record in denver, colorado, the storm that really shut down the city for the day, this thing is on the move now, bringing snow to the upper midwest, including southern minnesota, parts of wisconsin, and even northern michigan as well. plus, there is a severe side. watching for storms to pop, really starting throughout the day, but really getting severe later into the afternoon. watching regions from southeast texas right up into tennessee and back into alabama. the risk for storms with hail, damages winds, and even the risk for tornadoes as well. temperature-wise, there's going to be a lot of warmth across portions of the east. not quite record breaking but warm temperatures well above average. in fact, nearly 20 degrees above

average. plus, where we got the snow? we got temperatures cooking down but a quick rebound coming right behind that. that's your coast-to-coast forecast. world word continues after this. cathy's gotten used to the smell of lingering garbage...

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you are just waking up, let's get you up to speed on the market action. u.s. equity futures lower across the board. dow futures down about 44 points a the this early hour. s&p down eight. nasdaq down 21. this after a selloff yesterday.

and we're looking at the first down week for stocks in about six. the u.s. dollar is strengthening right now. let's show you what's happening. weakness in the euro below 112. dollar stronger against the yen by almost half a percent. stronger against the british pound as well. oil is very much a part of the story, which is selling off, though i would point out we're seeing bigger moves in places like the russell, which is the small cap stocks. we saw yesterday a bad day. the bio tech stocks had a brutal day. >> we've just seen europe extend losses. they're down 1%. to politics, the presidential campaign taking a personal turn this morning. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with new developments. >> it escalated a bit, both ted cruz and his wife are fighting back against this. both candidates, donald trump and ted cruz, have said that

dragging the wives into this is unfair. >> for donald to go after heidi i think is despicable. and it reveals a lot about his character. >> we will not stoop to the level of donald trump. >> these sort of personal things are way out of bounds. >> reporter: trump first tweeted he'd, quote, spill the beans about heidi cruz after an anti-trump super pac ran this ad featuring milania trump handcuffed and naked in a photo shoot. the group that created the ad claims trump had already been going after cruz's wife. >> his campaign has been calling numerous reporters and talking about supposed criminal and mental issues. >> reporter: meantime, bernie sanders just wrapped a late-night rally in los angeles. >> if we win the california

primary with a decent vote, we're going together to the white house. >> reporter: and hillary clinton's talking national security. >> how high does the wall have to be to keep the internet out? >> reporter: denouncing trump's wall as ineffective against terrorists. now, the democrats are really focused on the west coast right now, so tonight you'll see hillary clinton in l.a. last night it was bernie sanders. sanders is moving up the coast. he's going back to washington state, a state he thinks he can win. >> yeah, i'm just reading some of the tweets, the twitter reaction to this. as you can imagine, brutal. kara swisher of recode, #how did we get on cruz side, talking about donald trump threatening ted cruz's wife. it strikes me it comes on a day where the house speaker, paul ryan, came out to talk about dirty politics and to tone down the rhetoric and the insults, right. >> reporter: and keep in mind that ryan is also the chair of the republican convention coming up in cleveland this summer. he's trying to tamp things down

before they get to cleveland. donald trump has suggested they could have riots in cleveland. they're preparing for that. paul ryan comes out and tries to say, look, we need to unify this party, we need to be focused on civility and not some of the nasty things we've seen. he didn't mention donald trump by name, but he certainly is trying to change the tone within the republican party. >> maybe he should have. tracie, thank you. good to see you this morning. more on the ryan speech in my must read later on in the show. we want to get to sports. a showdown of western conference rivals in the nba last night. the los angeles clippers traveling to the bay area to take on the golden state warriors. steph curry and his clippers counterpart chris paul getting ready before the game here. golden state winning their 51st straight game at home, 114-98. >> wouldn't have been the first or else we wouldn't know who steph curry was. >> and we do. you do thanks to our daily updates of his magic on the courts.

>> and his endorsement of under armour. the clippers loss to the warriors was probably not the present steve balmer was hoping for. the former microsoft ceo has a milestone birthday today, turning 60. he bought the clippers for $2 billion. happy birthday to him. >> the most enthusiastic and entertaining ceo. one of the most, that is. still to come, this morning's top stories, including some market moving fed speak. that and much more analysis of the situation in bruflssels is coming up here on "worldwide exchange." e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. and i'd like to... cut. so i'm gonna take this opportunity to direct. thank you, we'll call you. evening, film noir, smoke, atmosphere...

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good morning. global markets under pressure. european stocks trading lower and the major u.s. averages are on track to snap a six-week winning streak. >> a shake-up at yahoo!. an investor wants the tech company's entire board gone. and if you hear it on tv, it must be true. how the australian prime minister is adopting the campaign slogan of a well-known u.s. television comedy. it's thursday, march 24th, 2016. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. let's get right to the u.s. equity futures. they're pointing lower to the tune of about 40 or 50 points for the dow. currently 42 points.

the s&p down by about 7 1/2. the nasdaq by about 20. so we are on track to snap a six-week winning streak. futures pointing lower, following asian and european markets down. let's have a quick look at the ten-year treasury note in the u.s. we saw some buying of this yesterday, some risk aversion out there. not too pronounced, but we're at 1.87% on the ten-year note. >> among the stories front and center today, a senior u.s. official saying the two brothers involved in the brussels attacks acted as facilitators in last november's attacks in paris. the suspected bomb maker in paris is believed to have been one of the two airport suicide bombers in brussels. belgian and french media are reporting it's suspected there was a second attacker in the bombing of the subway station in brussels, but it's unclear whether that person was killed in that attack and may still be at large. >> let's check in on global markets this morning. as i mentioned earlier, europe is seeing red. the losses in europe have just extended a little bit in the last half an hour.

now down over 1% for all the main boards. asia also seeing some red. hong kong was down 1.6. china down a little bit more than that. asia and europe facing a similar theme as the u.s. markets on track to snap a recent winning streak this week. but in not too pronounced a fashion. we're not staring a huge correction in the face. >> let's show you the broader market picture right now. dollar strength is back on. the dollar has risen for the last four sessions at least, marching higher, causing all sorts of pain in commodities and multinationals that do business overseas. dollar/yen, 112.84. euro weaker against the dollar. the pounds continues to sell off. oil has been a big part of the story, weakening almost 4% today, dekwliclining e ining ag.

up a lot mofor the month of mar. quickly show you gold, its worst week in about four months. the strength of the dollar is pressuring gold. there's also so much fed speak that's confuse b everybody about when the next rate hike is going to come. more on that in a moment. but gold selling off again this morning. >> and i think the other point to make is that volumes are still pretty low. not just this week. the week we might snap into a fall for equity markets, but last week as well. the final week or so of the correction upwards, now perhaps a slight correction downwards. very low volume. the question is, is there no conviction or -- >> or no catalyst. >> that's a good point. >> that's an issue. >> she's good with words. >> thank you, wilfred.

a big jump in january for spending. it is expected to decline a bit for last month. that number out today. initial jobless claims on thursday. tomorrow, even though the market is closed, we'll get a revision to gdp. >> another potential catalyst, of course, is another fed commentator today, james bullard is speaking. that's been a crucial influence on markets. >> they're all over the map. i mean, some of these fed presidents are saying everything is great. the unemployment rate is 4.9%. inflation has ticked higher. that's our dual mandate. we can start to look at raising rates. then janet yellen out last week, the federal reserve chairman saying we're worried about foreign international developments and market stability. the question is, who do you listen top? has to be yellen, core of the fed. this has been the key to the whole trade. emerging markets have reversed. dollar stronger. all of those were getting some relief after the fed last week. you wonder with all this fed talk how it's messing it up.

>> i wonder whether this week's geopolitical developments might influence the fed. >> we do have corporate news to get to this morning. starboard reportedly ready to launch a proxy fight to remove yahoo!'s entire board. the activist has been a vocal critic in the tech company's management, most recently asking yahoo! to central its asian assets and sell its core business. we also would note that starboard owns less than 1% of yahoo!. >> they have a strong voice in all the arguments we see. >> well, that's because the stock hasn't done very well. she hasn't really engineered a turnaround in the core business. they have a strong case. yum brands is reportedly in talks with private equity firms to sell a minority stake in its china operations. yum is preparing to spin off the unit. reuters reports the possible stake sale values the china business at about $10 billion. now to geo politics.

global security is sure to be top of mind for voters following the attacks in brussels this week to discuss the brussels situation. also the u.s. political situation. joining us is the director at the global market strategy. great to have you with us. if we kick off with the brussels situation, i suppose even as recently as last year after the paris attacks, very quickly there was a debate, how do we solve the situation, how do we put a stop to it. it focused on syria and iraq. we saw an elevation of military action there. very quickly this time it seems like the debate is purely domestic. it's purely europe and how do they solve a problem internally. is that a fair summation? >> i think what's happened is the unfortunate reality is this is perhaps the new normal in europe. what i mean by that is the paris attacks maybe was just the beginning of a wave of a series attacks. now will this be every week,

every month? the fact is over the coming weeks, months, and years, this will be the new normal in europe. over time as the refugee crisis has taken place in europe, there's been over 1 million refugees. many jihadi elements have used this particular crisis as a pretext to infiltrate europe and set up cells. >> does europe have the ability, the tools, the know how, the intelligence to stop it? >> out of all the member states of the european union, i'd say the united kingdom has proven itself, particularly after the 2005 attacks. in paris, french authorities are engaged in overseas commitments against jihadis. overall, they've prevented many attacks. many others throughout europe who are in the accustomed to this threat still have a long way to go, particularly belgian authorities. >> you mentioned the u.k. there's been a lot of focus on what the developments mean for the brexit vote.

do you think these developments strengthen existing supporters of a brexit, or does it really start to influence swing voters as well and change the outcome altogether? >> those who are committed to brexit, in my opinion, are committed to brexit. it's those swing voters that events like this, particularly if we're looking at the referendum in june, between now and june, there possibly can be other attacks. the more attacks there are, the more chaos there is, the more it will swing those sway voters. >> when we look to the political situation here, does it make a big influence on people like trump, who have clearly advocated a hard line on terrorists in the past? >> his supporters who love him are dedicated and committed to him, but there are many others sitting on the fence, similar to those sitting on the fence in terms of the brexit vote. in terms of the more attacks there are, the more likely it is to strengthen his position in terms of his rhetoric of a hard line on foreign policy.

as he says, going after isis. although he's not provided any policy detail in how he'll do it, a lot of his rhetoric has been marked by rhetorical flips and sound bites. it still strikes a cord with many ordinary americans struggling to understand with this jihadist threat. >> i'm looking at your note here. you say huge economic impact, which i'm a little surprised to read given the market reaction was fairly muted to these attacks. >> in terms of huge -- what was that statement? >> i'm getting it from your notes. countries have benefitted from open borders and there's going to be a big impact. >> in europe itself, many of these strikes where you have countries with solid fundamentals, it'll be short-term impacts. in terms of other places in the world, if you're looking outside of europe, particularly in the middle east in countries like egypt that have a high tourism

industry, where you have terrorist attacks in places like that where the economic fundamentals are not strong, that's where you have a longer term impact where it does impact the economy. largely in europe, these type of events, i think, will have short-term impacts. the fundamentals are quite solid. >> if we go back to the u.s. election debate, and we mentioned trump's foreign policy there, on many levels, of course, trump and sanders are polar opposites. another point you make in your note is there are some areas of foreign policy, protectionism, where they actually have some similarities, even though they're seen as being on two political extremes. >> one could use the term neoisolationism. with trump, you get more of that rhetoric. i think trump to a large extent, his instincts are isolationist. as time goes by, he may fall into place. this is going to be a long election process. as this process goes by, he will -- his rhetoric will continue to remain

neoisolationist. i think over time, he's going to have to accept that you cannot disengage america from the world. whereas president obama in terms of policy action proved to be somewhat of a reluctant incrementalist. trump might be end up being a reluck tantd internationalist, albeit with rhetoric that's fairly neoisolationist. >> do you think the markets will pay attention to that? >> over time. i think it's still too early. if you look after labor day from september, october, leading up to election day, i think the markets will be far more sensitive to what's being said. i think for now they're looking at accepting it in terms of election rhetoric. >> just quickly, if it was a clinton versus trump race, do you think it's plausible sanders supporters could flip and vote for trump, or are there too many gaps between the two? >> certain may, but i think that would be a vast minority. i think the majority are going to fall in line behind hillary clinton. >> it's been fraet to have you with us this morning.

thanks very much. it is time for today's top trending stories now. starting with politics. president obama dancing the tango during the official state dinner in argentina. president obama is there to a two-day visit to the country after his visit to cuba. >> should we do our own quickly? >> we can't do a seated tango, can we? look at that. he's got moves. >> he has got moves. this debate this week, does he embrace the trips he's on and join in on the planned festivities, which he's clearly done, or should he have flown back? he's stuck to his guns. there's obviously been a debate. he's good. >> and michelle obama also there on the floor. >> right. australian prime minister has adopted the campaign slogan "continuity and change." it's the same one used in the hbo series "veep."

the writer and executive producer saying it was the most meaningless phrase they could think of, yet it's been used. >> you don't watch, do you? >> i haven't, but i'm wondering if i should. >> you should especially since you're a "house of cards" fan. the whole thing is a parody on politicia politicians. now the producers are coming out mocking the australian prime minister. what does continuity and change mean? it's such a paradox, such a joke. they cannot believe it's for real. >> it's meant to be a great show, as "house of cards" is. both of them copies of british sitcoms. >> brilliant. coming up, today's must reads. that's coming up after the break, including threatening our political processes and trump and brexit affecting conservativism. "worldwide exchange" is back in a couple minutes.

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welcome back. it is time for today's must reads. i picked one in "usa today." a long-time republican adviser wrote, paul ryan is right, will anyone listen? quote, if you want to get sick to your stomach, read the facebook page of any member of congress. the things people will say to public servants are completely outrageous and disrespectful. it's worse on twitter. most newspapers have decided to not even publish comments at the end of articles because they're so inappropriate. social media just making things worse. he talks about the incivility

that's affecting our political process, and he likens what's happening on the campaign trail to an episode of "real housewives of atlanta" where all the friends get together and they just bash each other and call each other liars and throw insults and insult each other's spouses. that's what's happening right now. >> and it's happening all across europe as well. it's not just reserved to the u.s. in fact, my must read talks to a sort of similar topic with a different angle. it's by tony barber in the "financial times." it's titled "trump and brexit whirlwinds are tearing apart conservativism." matters have now reached the point at which it is no longer inconceivable that both the republicans and confideservativ will break apart. clearly he's not saying it's inconceivable, this is likely. the parallels aren't exact. what's happening in britain is

not exactly the same, but both the conservative party in the u.k. and the republican party here are being divided by it. it remains to be seen what the conclusion is. >> absolutely. the conclusion is that at least in this piece and some of these columnist pieces and paul ryan's speech yesterday is we need a filter for our society. it's important our leaders send a message of respect. i don't know. it certainly helped people like donald trump. they don't want him to be politically correct. it's refreshing in some way. we're approaching the top of the hour. that means the team is getting ready for "squawk box." joe kernen joins us from new york with a look at what's coppicop i -- coming up, joe. >> the pendulum swings. we've seen that in life. we've gotten microaggression. we've gotten to the point where on universities, the word coddled has been used. the latest incident down at emory, where the president is

really worried. someone wrote trump 2016 somewhere. some of the students unfortunately saw it. they're in pain. they're frightened. he's tried to help the situation by being very -- i'm going to have trouble getting through this myself because i can't imagine what those young students are feeling right now. you can go too far. on the other hand, i have called twitter. harvinger of the end of days. it is just a cesspool. anonymously you can say whatever you want, and lots of people will see it and retweet it. it's just a race to the bottom. >> not to mention the role in global terrorism. >> it reminds me of the end of days. also, wilfred, you say it's not a surprise to me when you say it's happening in europe too. don't get high and mighty. i've seen what happens in the house of commons over there. it's usually not words. it's usually fists flying.

>> you say don't get high and mighty. i'm agreeing this is happening everywhere. >> it's not all the earl of grantham walking around over there. just get off your high horse, will you? >> i don't know where this is coming from. i'm agreeing. >> i'm just used to you -- see, i was just there. i know you people. anyway, getting serious again, i was thinking about the european markets are down today. how could they be up this week? how can anyone, just in terms of -- animal spirits are one thing. a lot of times, you know, if things are -- seem okay in the world, maybe people feel better about buying stocks or something. who knows how this plays itself out. 400 trained fighters. not only is there something ahead of this that's totally uncertain and frightening, but it's not a great time to be, hey, i'm going in the market because i'm really excited and

buying stocks. i'm not surprised we're having trouble making any headway. it's been a tough week. it's just really been a tough week. i'm still thinking about the people that are trying to recover. not even out of the woods yet. can't ghaet out of my mind. >> absolutely right, joe. it has been a tough week indeed. we look forward, though, to "squawk box" coming up in nine minutes' time with joe and the team. still to come here on "worldwide exchange," fed confusion. could a rate hike be in the cards next month? we'll have fidelity's head of global macro straight after the break.

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what say you? >> we're sort of in a market purgatory here. we're in between a bear market and a bull market. most global markets were down 20%, 25%, or even 30%. we've had a pretty solid correction in most global stock markets. we're sort of -- this six-year bull market we saw since '09 is being put on hold because we have this policy divergence between the fed and other central banks, especially the pboc. we need for this policy divergence to play itself out. then i think we can get back on track. we're not there yet. >> but i mean, my response to this twitter question was very much bear market because i cannot believe even aside from this week we're flipping back down. i can't believe how quickly we bounced back from this torrid start to 2016. have any of the issues that brought us down in the first place been solved, whether it's

central bank ability to act, it's china, the strength of european banks, let alone recent geopolitical concerns. we haven't had any solutions to any of those questions, have we? >> we had two shocks pushing us down, right. it was oil prices, and people always ask me, why is everything tied to oil? that's because it was a big earnings growth coming from shale that has been reversed. also, it became a credit probable because there was so much debt involved in putting all these drill rigs into the ground. when oil went to 30, it caused a lot of pain in the credit markets and in the stock market. like i said, we have this policy divergence. it started last august when the chinese devalued. that kind of pushed the fed back in terms of not tightening in september. then things quieted down and the fed went in december. then things got shaky again. the fed is again on hold for march. now things are quiet again. so we continue to have this back and forth. the markets were very oversold in january.

then they double bottomed in february. now we're getting towards the high end of the range. but it's still a range. 1800 on the s&p to 2100 or so. i don't see the catalyst for us to break out of that range in the near term. >> very quickly, what do you make of all the fed commentary, the fact that there seems to be real disagreements on the timing of interest rate hikes and the view on the u.s. economic data. what on earth do you make of it as an investor? >> well, you know, there's sort of some conspiracy theorying going around about was there a plaza accord during the latest g-20 summit and did the fed talk to the pboc and the pboc convince the fed to kind of go slow, keep the dollar down, because if the dollar goes up, it puts pressure on everyone. now it sounds like some of the fomc is sort of backtracking on that, even talking about an april hike, which i think is silly. a june hike, you know, the odds are 50 right now. it's a coin toss. we're back into the same mode of

how the numbers stack up. >> got to leave it there. thank you. >> thanks. >> that's it for wor"worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is coming up next. announcer: if the hardest part of your day is the staying awake part... [train horn blares] sleep train has your ticket to a better night's sleep. with a 100 night low price guarantee, sleep train's love your mattress money back guarantee, same day delivery, plus helpful advice from the sleep experts, it's no wonder more than a million people fall asleep each night on a sleep train mattress!

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good morning. oil prices falling further, below $40 this morning, following news that u.s. stockpiles grew three times faster than expected in the last week. got another shake-up at yahoo!. an investor wants the tech company to clean house and ditch the entire board of directors. and terror in brussels. new details this morning on the bombers and their connection to last fall's terror attack in paris. it's thursday, march 24th, 2016. tomorrow is good friday. "squawk box" begins right now. holy thursday.

live from new york, where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. right now the markets are on track for their first down week after six weeks in a row of gains. you can see the dow futures are down by about 37 points this morning. s&p futures down by 7. the nasdaq down by 17. in europe, red arrows as well. the dax is off by about 1.1%. cac down by 1.4%. the ftse down by 1%. overnight in asia, stocks fell by 1.3% in hong kong. china's shanghai composite was also down. oil prices under pressure, falling further below $41 a barrel. yesterday the dollar was