good morning and welcome to "street signs." stocks in europe retreat on the last day of the quarter. this despite a solid session stateside, which saw the dow and s&p hit their highest level of the year. static on the line. shares in the french telecoms going lower. italian banks drop while unicredit reportedly looks to delay the cash call. and u.k. prime minister

david cameron chairs a crisis meeting after tata's deal puts its british business up for sale. but the government says nationalization is not the answer. good morning. the last trading day for march. the last day of the quarter. what a quarter it has been. volatile to say the least, although we have seen some renewed risk appetite for the month of march. this is the picture today. we have the stoxx europe 600 ending the quarter as it began, in the red. the index off by about 1.2%. we've seen that post-federally fade despite the gains we saw on wall street overnight. concerns again turning to the commodities picture. here's the trading view on the markets one by one. the ftse 100 off just about 0.8%. we've seen paring back in basic resources firms in the main u.k. market. the xetra dax off by a similar

amount. the french cac 40 off by 1.4%. clearly the underperformer here the italian banks. we want to give you a better picture of how european markets have fared on the quarter overall. we kick started in january with extreme turbulence, of course. although, some renewed optimism going into the end of the quarter. still, we are firmly in the red across all of the major boerses. this really contrasts to what we're looking at stateside with the major markets in the u.s. positive for the year, except for the nasdaq of course. overall, the ftse 100 off by about 1.5%. a lot of people are calling those gains into doubt at the moment. the dax is the underperformer when you look at the ftse and the cac. the french cac 40 off by about 5.5%. the ftse mib down by 16% on the

quarter. we've seen a lot of weakness among the banks. there are concerns over the bad deads for those banks. we'll have a guest talking us through that in a minute. first, let's get a view on the top movers today. we've been talking about bouygues all morning. they've pushed their merger deadline to sunday. the board is still planning to meet ahead of april 3rd to review the purchase of its domestic rival. bhrks ouygues off about 3.7%. the ayal yap banks under pressure. that has been been driven down. banco popolare also dropping. they say this delay will hold unless market conditions

materially improve. according to reuters, unicredit could use a clause in its contract allowing it to postpone the underwriting deal in case of adverse market conditions. banca carige shares also sinking ahead of a shareholder meeting. let's get another look at the u.k. market. the world's largest tour operator reported a 2% increase in bookings and a 1% increase in average selling prices. as you can see, investors liking that news. the stock higher by about 5.4%. this of course is good news after some of the heightened terror threats we've seen across europe that had previously weighed on tui and other stocks in travel and leisure. let's bring you an update on premier foods now. they are bucking the down trend in europe this morning. this as the kipling cake maker has agreed to take part in talks

with u.s. spice maker mccormick following its improved offer to acquire the firm. they raised their bid to 65 pence per share yesterday, up from 60 pence per share. well, that's the view on the big movers today. once again, we've been watching the trends throughout the quarter. no surprise here when you look at the commodities prices that the miners were, in fact, on track now to be the best performing sector this quarter in europe. risk-on sentiment was giving a boost to basic resources amid expectations of lower for longer interest rates and higher commodity prices. as you can see as a sector, basic resources off about 2.5% just today in the session. we talked about how some of those recent gains have been paring back. however, year to date, this sector is up 6.5%. when you consider that the stoxx 600 is down a similar amount, basic resources outperforming the broad erz trend here. for more on the sector, let's

bring in the head of global natural resources at investex. pleasure to have you with us in what has been an extremely volatile quarter for basic resources. you could argue more than any other sectors that we've seen. >> absolutely. >> there's been so much optimism pouring back into the sector on hopes we have a bottom for commodities. but you're not so convinced. why is that? >> we're not so convinced because the fundamentals haven't changed that much. yes, prices have risen, but this period is particularly volatile anyway given the chinese new year and restocking that happens during that time. it's always a very difficult quarter to read. the market has chosen to put a risk on this time around. whether that reverses in the coming quarters is yet to be seen. >> always a difficult quarter to read. however, this quarter we have even more confusion, you could argue, because of the unprecedented central bank action and what that means for the dollar trade. you've pointed out the moves in

commodity prices are largely due to what's going on with the dollar. >> absolutely. if you correlate commodity prices relative to the dollar, it's almost a perfect inverse correlation. as the u.s. dollar goes up or down, the commodity prices do the opposite. so largely speaking, that's been a very good guide. stocks have obviously followed that closely. >> are you suggesting that aside from these currency moves, when you look at the actual fundamentals, particularly on the supply side, do you expect any of this to change in the next quarter? >> i don't see any signs of oversupply in commodities changes. i think that's a persistent problem. it's caused problems in the steel industry, as we've seen. it's caused problems in thermal coal. coal prices still looking very weak. a slight recovery but not much. other commodities, still great concern over copper going forward. >> on copper, when will this supply response properly kick in? because we've seen firms taking action when it comes to reducing investment.

we've heard the chinese authorities saying they wanted to tackle the capacity problem head on. when will it have an impact? >> i think it is having an impact on copper. the only worry is that if prices pick up too much, those producers who have curtailed capacity bring it back on again. so they haven't actually shut down a great deal yet. it's being curtailed rather than shut. >> when we look at the price on the year so far, up about 3.6%. so as soon as it kicks back in, that raises concern. we look at the specific mining companies here, specifically those weighted on the ftse 100. a lot of them already taking actions to cut the dividend, cut investment. do they have room to go further if the price picture doesn't change materially? >> good question. i think that they have pretty much cut as much as they can in terms of their capital expenditure, their dividends.

dividends have been cut to the bone. they're really on capital restructuring mode, restoring their balance sheets to an acceptable level. i think there is more room to cut, but most of the ftse 100 companies are unlikely to cut further. >> we want to get your thoughts on the steel market as well. of course, we have been watching this crisis here in the u.k. the prime minister is set to now chair a crisis meeting in order to deal with tata's decision to sell its domestic steel assets. britain's business minister also says the government is looking at all viable options. but they're now ruling out a public sector takeover. >> i don't think that nationalization is going to be the solution because i think everyone would want a long-term viable solution. if you look around europe and elsewhere, i think nationalization is the answer, particularly if you look at the big challenges the industry

faces. >> jeremy, you have to imagine that when the government is looking at the different options on the table for how to deal with this steel plant, they're wondering what the price outlook is as well, if perhaps we'll see a turnaround. what do you think? >> obviously steel prices have recovered this quarter a little bit, which has given some relief to steel makers globally. but we still feel that the main problem is china. china has far too much capacity in steel and has to be cut substantially before any real recovery can happen in steel prices on the longer term. so i think that the problems that tata are experiencing are entirely due to overcapacity in china, which at the moment is not going to weigh. the chinese have indicated they wish to cut. they haven't done it yet. we wait to see what happens going forward. of course, any rise in steel prolongs that agony because maybe there's a chance of having a recovery. >> and we talk about potential sales here that tata could be looking at. they say they're writing down the value to zero.

the book value, that is. doesn't it argue to give some time for the rebound to kick in? >> tata obviously have some political issues. they've done a lot to keep that investment. i think they're at the end of the road now, as far as i can see. >> jeremy, thank you so much for joining us. head of global natural resources at investech. well, global natural resources may have been positive, but banks are poised to be the worst sector in europe in the fourth quarter. this has raised concerns that perhaps more cost cuts and dividend slashing could be ahead for the banks. overall, stoxx 600 banking sector is off about 1.9% today. for the quarter, we're off about 21%. joining us for more on the sector sis simon willis. is has not been a good quarter for the banks, needless to say.

but some improvement towards the end here. march has been better than what we saw in january, of course, as people had time to digest some of the disappointing bank earnings. what do you expect going forward? is it too early to declare a recovery this year for the banks? >> as you say and as jeremy was saying, it's been a somewhat volatile first quarter to say the least. banks, particularly those with investment banking arms, have had a somewhat challenging quarter. as it bottomed out, in actual fact in the big picture, some of the macro issues, the macro drivers of the commodities sector, so commodities cycle oil price, are two of the things. and china slowdown. right at the heart of some of the issues in the big picture. low interest rates and lower for longer over here. the outlook on a three-month, 12-month view for the banks has to be better.

>> that will help the trading activity when we look at the energy trading related for some of the investment banking side. there were some concerns about debt exposure to the energy sector as well. still, the central bank factor you can't ignore here and concerns this is effectively putting a tax on bank profitability. do you think that's a real threat? >> yes, you can look at low interest rates. some say artificially low interest rates, but low interest rates, lower for longer, has a clear impact on your view on the bank sector versus other sectors. i brought ft in this morning simply because of the headline. front page of the second section, torrid second section takes toll. so de facto, banks with investment banking arms q-2, still tough. look at the u.k. banks.

that means that you're short with thes inment banking arms. but in the broader picture, interest rates lower for longer and going through restructuring is a big issue. for the u.k. banks, we've had regulatory one offs. hopefully we're getting near the end of that. the outlook on a 3 and 12-month view, as i say, if we're going to see volatility ahead of q-2 and brexit, lloyds is a relatively safe haven. barclays, less so. >> we have the macro things on one hand. to some degree, banks have less control. do you expect we'll see the benefits of the restructuring under way kick in, or do yo uh think banks have further to go when it comes to cost cutting and it could affect their profits here? >> all large european banks have

been going through restructuring, which means cutting head count, for the last several years. if we look at the news flow over the last few week, and it doesn't matter if it's the u.k. banks or ubs and deutsche over here, we're still looking at going through further restructuring in terms of head count because that's such a big part of the cost-income ratio. >> what are your thoughts on exposure to emerging markets, specifically when we talk about the larger em exposed banks, that being hsbc, standard chartered among them. will that turn into good news for the banks as we get into quarter two? >> standard charter is the big play in that regard. it has been -- stock price has more than halved since last

summer. >> all right. well, simon, thank you very much for your perspective. well, get in touch with us early here. we want to get your questions into the guests. we want to know what you think about the quarter that's about to pass and what you expect for the second quarter. the various sectors you're investing in. we'll be talking more about metals coming up, especially on the gold price, which is now set for an extremely long record when we talk about its biggest rally in nearly 30 years. get in touch on twitter. @nancycnbc. still to come here on "street signs," nationalization is not the answer. the u.k. government rules out buying tata's british business as david cameron chairs a crisis meeting. we'll have all those details after this short break. ♪ before a movie star unwittingly gave you a global product endorsement.

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good morning and welcome back to "street signs" on what is the last trading day of a very volatile quarter. we want to give you a view on some of the asian markets and how they've been faring on the quarter. first up is the nikkei here, which on the quarter is off about 12%. of course, nikkei continues to keep an eye to the boj. expectations perhaps of additional easing. but weighing to the downside has been the stronger yen against the dollar, of course. on the session, the nikkei is off about 0.7%. and let's give you a view of the shanghai composite as well, which really has been missing out on the global relief rally we've been seeing, especially stateside. the shanghai composite on the quarter is still off some 15%. this despite a rebound for some other emerging markets. we'll be getting in more detail in a little while. for more on the asian marks trading this morning, let's get to akiko fujita standing by in singapore. >> good morning to you, nancy.

we're following several stories out of the chinese markets that are moving the markets tlp first, china's eighth largest investment bank. reports they have defaulted on their dim sum bonds. these are offshore bonds traded in yuan. the "financial times" reporting this default is putting a 38 million yuan coupon payment on those bonds at risk. this is significant because it marks the first time a state-owned investment bank has defaulted in nearly two decades. certainly highlighting how fragile the chinese financial system is. the big banks there already under pressure, reporting their slowest profit growth in a decade in 2015. three of the major banks reporting they wrote off a combined $22 billion in irrecoverable debt last year. looking over to the hong kong market, the hang seng closing down about 0.1%, but shares of

commercial properties soaring more than 18% on news that china's largest commercial developer was looking to go private just two years after going public. that news certainly highlighting the struggles that chinese developers face with property prices falling in smaller cities, even as we've seen those prices heat up in big cities. looking over the nikkei, you already pointed this out. 17,000. below that 17,000 handle. kuroda said essentially there was no limit, quantitative limit to the monetary easing, essentially shutting out any doubters out there, saying that he has not run out of ammunition. we still saw the yen move higher against the u.s. dollar, putting pressure, increasing pressure on exporters who have already seen their profits depleted from the strengthening currency. the biggest performer of the day

in japan, toshiba. their shares soared 7% today on news that they would likely post an $800 million profit in the first quarter on sale of its white goods business to china's midi group. back to you, nancy. >> thanks for that, akiko. we want to hear your thoughts on what's happening in the asian space. would you be buying the shanghai composite after it's been down 15% on the quarter relative to the positive territory we're now seeing stateside? what do you think about europe here? get in touch. the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can also get us directly through twitter. the show handle there is @streetsignscnbc. and tweet me directl directly @nancycnbc. well, still to come here on cnbc, make sure you tune in a bit later today because the canadian prime minister will be joining susan lee on "squawk on the street." that's an exclusive interview starting at 15:30 cet. you certainly don't want to miss that one.

good morning and welcome back to "street signs." i'm nancy hulgrave, and these are your headlines. stocks in europe retreat on the last day of the quarter despite a solid session stateside, which saw the dow and s&p hit their highest levels of the year. static on the line. orange and bouygues push out their deadline, sending shares lower. italian banks also leading the way down, while unicredit reportedly looks to delay the cash call. and u.k. prime minister david cameron chairs a crisis meeting after tata steel puts its british business up for sale, but the government says nationalization is not the

answer. good morning and welcome back to "street signs." we've been watching moves on the nikkei this morning, hitting a two-week low, partly due to moves in the yen/dollar trade. also individual movers to watch. that's japanese car parts maker takata among them, now denying reports that costs for recalling its defective air bags could reach $24 billion. for more on that stoirks let's get out to the nikkei's makiko for the latest. >> hi there. yes, reports say that if all air bag inflators made by the firm containing ammonium nitrate, which is the explosive chemical used in the faulty air bag, were to be recalled, if could affect over 280 million inflators. it also said in a worst-case scenario, costs could reach $24 billion, which is far above industry estimates. the reports sent takata shares to an all-time low yesterday. today, takata denied it in a

press release, saying the firm had no estimate figures on the matter. the firm's woes are far from over. so far over 60 million cars using takata air bags have been recalled and costs are expected to reach at least $5 billion. u.s. authorities have slapped takata with a $200 million fine and several class-action lawsuits have been filed. major automakers, including h hon honda and toyota, will stop using takata floodplain to inflr cars. takata plans to sell an american auto parts producer as well as other assets to raise the needed funds. meanwhile in the stock market, news of sharp finally being acquired by taiwan's foxconn was generally welcomed by investors, and sharp shares rose at the start of the trading day.

but sharp had revised its forecast for the year ending march, saying it will likely face a 170 billion yen loss. that kept investors cautious. that's all from the nikkei. back to you. >> thanks for that update, makiko. meanwhile, we want to give viewers a look at u.s. futures. markets, of course, ending the day in positive territory, except for the nasdaq. just barely there. its highest level since january 5th. this is the view today. we're starting ing ting to see federally fade globally. what a quarter it's been. so we want to get a look at how the s&p 500 has fared on the quarter. as mentioned, positive for the year. year to date, in fact, up almost 1% for that broader index. on the session there, up just about 0.4%. we should keep in mind this has

really outperformed the trend we're seeing in europe. overall, the stoxx europe 600 is negative on the quarter, off about 0.7%. now we're getting a view here on the session trade for the individual markets. similar story for the main german market, off about 1.2%. a lot of the italian banks weighing to the downside. this all comes as the markets await eurozone inflation data due about 10:00 a.m. local time here. that's for the month of march. and this comes after ratings agency standard & poor's slashed its forecast just yesterday for inflation on the year from 1.1% to as low as 0.4% when we talk about the full-year inflation rate. investors are also looking to see whether draghi's monetary policy loosening has given a boost to price levels. keep in mind that increase in asset purchases is due to kick in tomorrow. so it may be some time until we

see a real pickup in the inflation level as they intend, but with the euro/dollar trading at this level, that would not be perceived as good news for president draghi, you have to imagine. and we also want to give you a check on fourth quarter gdp here out of the u.k. it is the final estimate. you've got to keep in mind here that overall sterling has been among the worst performers for g-10 currency there is. already negative on the day. continues to be off just slightly against the dollar here. on the fourth quarter, gdp was up about 0.6%. that is revised slightly higher from 0.5%. on an annual basis, however, it was revised higher as well with fourth quarter gdp coming up 2.1% for the u.k. that compares to the other revision of about 1.9%. so that is good news from the u.k. side of things. we're also getting current account deficit as well.

>> well, it is the last trading day of the quarter. we've been watching all the different losers, the winners, and gold among the big winners here, on course for its best quarter in nearly three decades. recent volatility driven by fears over chinese growth and the strength of the u.s. economy initially triggered this rally. now we've got the dovish fed expectations also moving investors to pile in to the safe haven asset. joining us now for more on gold is metal strategist at bank of america merrill lynch. michael, great to see you here. gold one of the most interesting assets we've been watching just throughout the quarter here. when we get a view to what happened last year with gold, though, falling sharply

throughout the year, do you think this is simply a bear market rally, or does it have legs? >> that probably is the biggest concern in the markets at the moment. i think the call that we have been making is that many of the usual gold market drivers, which were very bearish last year, just not as bearish this year, so we've called for more. looking for a rally, particularly in the first half. >> do you have a specific price point? >> 1350. >> for the end of q-2. >> through q-2. >> when we talk about that price level, the overall trade in g gold, you can't ignore what's going on in central banks. there continues to be confusion over the fed specifically and their rate hike timeline. we did hear from janet yellen what's perceived to be a dovish statement. we heard from the san francisco fed president saying we could get two rate hikes this year. don't put june and july off the

table necessarily. if we get a more hawkish fed, does it change your view on the gold price? >> it would make it a little more difficult. when you looking last year, a hawkish fed in a disinflationary environment has always been bearish for gold. now you're moving towards a more dovish fed that looks more at what's happening on the inflation side. it would be a big u-turn if they deviated from that strategy. >> so right now you're look at a fed that's perhaps willing to let inflation tick up a bit more. overall when we look at the demand side, let's say, when you look at demand coming from emerging markets from china, what's your view there? >> it's been lackluster. that's fair to say. that, i think, is preventing a more meaningful rally at the moment. we have seen a lot of buying from investors. so inflows have been quite strong through the quarter. i think that was really the key price driver. >> and when we look at the other

side of the argument, some analysts who call into question whether or not gold can go farther, they look at silver prices and say, look, silver is not following the trend quite as sharply. do you think that's a genuine case here, to be concerned that gold price upside is limited. >> there are similarities between the two markets. suler have is just much more exposed to that than gold. >> elsewhere within precious metals, you stay demand for platinum has improved. what's driving that? >> a lot of that came through china. that's an interesting thing that we see across the border.

>> you talk about china and almost having an effect across the sector. what's going on with the slowdown in china? authorities have come out saying we can control it. some are a bit more skeptical. how does this play out when we talk about overall industrial metal demand? >> i think it's a bit of everything you've just said. the beginning of 2015 was terrible. we looked at double-digit decline rates year over year in some of the sectors. a lot of the sectors are doing much better right now. sustainable or not is a different question. i think at least for 2016, some of the stimulus that the government is extending should support metal intensive sectors. 2017 and '18, i think you're looking at that overall rebalancing in the economy that

means you may have relatively subdued growth. that's one side. the other side is the supply side. that's where we see a lot of attention as well. the government is actually focusing really on closing down capacity in sectors that are not particularly efficient. that from a supply side perspective does take some of the downward pressure away. >> up with of those sectors they said they want to tackle is steel. that is really being felt here in the u.k. we've been talking about somewhat of a steel crisis here in the u.k. this comes as u.k. prime minister david cameron is now set to chair a crisis meeting to deal with tata's decision to sell its domestic steel assets. the government is looking at all viable options but has ruled out a public sector takeover. michael still with us here around the desk. i want to get your thoughts on this. tata could be writing down the value to essentially zero when you look at book value of this

asset. do you think the government should kind of wait for recovery to kick in before any sale, before any options are fully considered? >> i would approach that from a general industry perspective. i would say that globally we do have an issue with overcapacity. so profitability and margins in the industry. also because of the growth we have seen in china over the past few years has been quite depressed. i would argue that it's difficult to see a meaningful improvement over the next few months, quarters and years. for all intensive purposes, it remains relatively challenged. >> and does that hold through year end? do you think we could get more of a recovery in steel? >> a little bit of a recovery in the past few months, say, since the fourth quarter. again, that was partly because china closed down some of the capacity.

again, sustainable, that is a slightly different question. it seems unlikely you get a meaningful rebound given you still have an overcapacity. >> they said they're going to clamp down on some of the overcapacity, but what about the subsidies coming from beijing? >> that's another interesting one. what we're seeing is now is the government is becoming more reluctant to support loss making enterprises partly because that burden is already quite high. you're seeing a real change right now. >> all right. it will be interesting to see exactly what comes out of that emergency meeting that the u.k. government is holding and what to do about the steel plant. michael, thank you for joining us. well, shifting focus here a

bit. back to the u.s. election race. donald trump is now facing a new round of criticism after saying women who get illegal abortions should be punished. >> this is not something you can dodge. do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >> yeah, there has to be some form. >> well, nbc's ed lawrence joins us from washington, d.c. with the very latest. ed, the latest comments from donald trump invoking a lot of criticism among all circles here, but i understand he's kind of backtracking on the original statements. >> reporter: he is. his campaign is backtracking, nancy. both republicans and democrats have always said that donald trump's comments would get him into trouble, and it hasn't happened until now. donald trump this morning backing off the comments he said where he said a woman needs to be punished for an abortion. as you heard there, donald trump answered yes to the question from msnbc's chris matthews, should there be a punishment for

abortion. then he answered yes to the follow-up question, for the woman. the campaign immediately clarified his response. i'm going to read this for you. they're saying the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. the woman is a victim in this case, as is the life in her womb. still, the exchange has both republicans and democrats con denling the republican front runner for saying that the woman should be punished. those republicans and democrats saying the woman should never be punished. some wisconsin female voters who were interviewed after this town hall meeting say that they still stand with trump. however, he needs to, quote, tone it down. there's a new poll out this morning in wisconsin showing that donald trump is trailing senator ted cruz by ten points in this crucial state for the 42 delegates that are up for grabs. back to you, nancy. >> ed, we're now less than a week away from the crucial wisconsin primaries here.

what is stacking up on the democratic side? what do polls indicate there? >> reporter: hillary clinton is expected to win the wisconsin race on the democratic side. she's actually increasing her lead. she's put more focus back into the election now. because of the sweep bernie sanders had in the western states over the past weekend, she has put more attention and more money into this as she's trying to pivot now and talk about the republicans. hillary clinton did come out and condemn donald trump for his statements that were just made there. so he is trying to turn that corner and pivot. bernie sanders has a long road. it's not implausible, but it's a very difficult road to try and catch the amount of delegates that hillary clinton already has. >> all right. ed, thank you for that update. that's ed lawrence from nbc news. staying in washington for the minute, leaders from more than 50 countries have arrived at washington, d.c. for president obama's final nuclear security summit.

global terrorism fears rank high on the agenda with the u.s. president hoping to push through measures aimed at safeguarding uranium and plutonium stockpiles. a notable absentee will be russia, which said it was skipping the event due to a, quote, shortage of mutual cooperation on working out the agenda. meanwhile, nobody wanted me to fail. those are the words of the former lehman brothers cfo speaking exclusively to cnbc. in a candid interview, she said she wanted to take accountability in her part of the failure of one of the world's largest investment banks. she said she would absolutely not work with fuld ever again. cnbc also asked the former cfo whether she had been ready for the role. here's what she had to say.

>> maybe there was some hubris on my part going into it, thinking i'm being picked for this role, so it must be that i'm ready for it. i think so, and i tried to look hard at myself on that point. but i did have a tremendous amount of qualifications for the role also. i think if the timing had been different, things would have worked out quite well, but it wasn't. this is where i was at that point in time. i can't really regret that decision because it's part of who i am and where i am today. >> amazing to think eight years on from the lehman crisis, banks are still struggling. in fact, stoxx europe 600 banks the worst performing sector on the quarter. . more coming up on "street signs." boeing is set to ground thousands of staff in a fresh round of job cuts. find out exactly what the plane maker is planning after this short break.

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welcome back to "street signs." chipotle is looking set to take a bite out of the burger business. the mexican fast food chain has filed a trademark for the name better burger. a spokesman for the restaurant, which is expected to post its first quarterly loss following the e. coli outbreak last year, so the chipotleel could easily be applied to a variety of foods. and a spike in the price of vanilla could cool your ice cream plans for the summer. a weather phenomenon in madagascar has caused a poor harve harvest, meaning a shortage of the bean. while vanilla is seen as a plain flavor by consumers, it is the second most expensive spice in the world, behind only saffron. who knew. well, here's a bit of a different story. for all you investors who are still nervous to get involved in conventional assets, we're putting a new spin on alternative investing with this one as whoopi goldberg gets into weed. that's right.

actress whoopi goldberg has launched a new start-up selling medical marijuana to help relieve women from period pains. the "sister act" actress is releasing a cannabis infused menstrual survival kit with products ranging from bath salts to mini snacks. she's just the latest so-called ganjapreneur in the industry. meanwhile, metlife is not too big too fail. this comes from a federal judge. regulators believed a collapse in the insurer would devastate the u.s. financial system and required the firm to hold for capital. the move was welcomed by wall street, with metlife shares ending the day more than 5% higher. u.s. officials still have the right to appeal. and turning to a number of companies that have announced layoffs recently. boeing is reportedly planning to cut up to 8,000 jobs in its airplane business. according to reuters, the move would help the aerospace company save $1 billion in costs.

separately, boeing has confirmed plans to get rid of 4,000 jobs in its commercial division by mid-2016 and black rock is reportedly planning to shed around 400 jobs. that's equivalent to 3% of its work force. this comes as the company looks to funnel resources to, quote, growth areas. and brazil's petrobras has unveiled a restructuring plan to cut costs. the company hopes the plan will save around $500 million a year. the company is also looking to sell assets to offset oil price weakness and its reduced access to finance. this comes just weeks after they reported a record profit loss. staying in latin america, the president of argentina has scored his first major

congressional win. the landmark vote allows argentina to tap global credit markets for the first time since it defaulted on debt just 15 years ago. argentina has been paying almost double the rate for borrowing compared to its neighbors. and let's get an overall look at how emerging markets have fared in this quarter. what started off as a vol time first quarter really saw a risk appetite. the overall emerging markets index is up 5%. the trend is carrying over into action today. we're seeing a session trade of about 2.4% move to the higher. now, brazil, without a doubt, has been the top performer in this space. in fact, the top index on the quarter here.

joining us now for a look at the broader quarter moves are daniel morris, senior investment strategist at bnp paribas. daniel, what a quarter it's been. we were just looking at emerging markets there. what really started off was the ugly duckling in the start of the quarter here. we're finally seeing sentiment improve. are you convinced this relief rally is for real? >> it would be nice to think it's all over for emerging markets. i think it's a bit premature. we've had just one hike from the fed. there's all the structural issues they haven't addressed for the most part. i think it's a short-term rally, primarily based on the dovishness out of the fed. but that's going to turn at some point. i think at that point, you'll see emerging markets sell off. >> just how many more fed hikes are you expecting? there continues to be a great

deal of confusion when it comes to reading the tea leaves here, reading the different comments we're getting. >> probably around two for the year. certainly the most recent comments from yellen were quite dovish. we have to remember there is inflation out there. it's going to persist. there are questions about how much it's just seasonal. that's a question. if we get really strong payroll numbers this week, that will raise doubts in investors' minds. >> will the payroll number be enough to pare back the gains we saw following janet yellen's quite dovish comments? when you look at her comments, a lot of focus on the global picture, some concerns over china, and she had already stressed improvements in the labor picture. >> that's a bit of the yin and yang of what's going on right now. if you get strong numbers, core cpi starts to recover. i think that's going to bring inflation back into investors'

minds. >> so that being said, the real focus come friday for nonfarms will likely be on the wage inflation, not so much the overall payrolls number. >> i think both certainly important. especially the comments you just had, the stories about layoffs. the point is, they are still hiring. there's a reshuffling, if you will, of the labor mark. overall, still strong growth. >> the reshuffling in the corporate environment makes us think of the earnings season that is ahead. just about one more week until we really get into the thick of it with u.s. earnings. some concerns that perhaps we are in the middle of a u.s. recession, but you have a more positive take on the earnings picture. >> yeah, certainly don't expect a recession in the u.s. this year. if you look at what analysts so far have forecasted for the quarter and for the year, you're kind of wanting to perform relative to expectations. expectations are modest for this quarter but still positive for the year. i think what we might see is with a bit of stability in the price of oil, a bit of stability in the dollar, hopefully ceos

will be a little more confident about their guidance for the rest of the year. that could be the marginal change from last quarter that could give a slight boost to equities. >> sector specific? do you have any favorite when is it comes to the earnings season? >> we have been looking at consumer general. we know the market is at risk of selloffs, so consumer staples would also benefit from a slightly more defensive tone. broadly speaking, consumers look good. health care looks to expand, regardless of what happens in the election. it's going to be a sector that becomes more important in the u.s. economy, though you need to pick the parts of it that are going to be winning. also, technology, certainly a lot of volatility. if we go back to this idea of companies laying workers off because they're worried about margins, taat the same time, they're also going to be investing. >> daniel, we also talk about the china factor when we look at earnings. i just want to bring a flash to our viewers coming from reuters. s&p has revised its china sovereign credit outlook down to negative. that's from stable. so again, the s&p saying they've

revised their credit outlook for china to negative from stable. current rating is aa-minus. how concerned are you about this transition that is under way in china to a more consumer services-led economy? do you think beijing has a proper handle of t or can investors be surprised to the downsi downside? >> sure, i think china is going to be the source of a lot of surprises. the important thing to keep in mind is whatever bumps there are along the road for china, europe is much more exposed to that than the u.s. you still see negative earnings revisions for emerging markets. that's going to hit europe, whereas the u.s. is relatively resilient. >> and europe, you could say, some of this is already priced in. we have the stoxx europe 600 underperforming the s&p by quite a bit. down by some 7% almost, while the s&p 500 now in positive territory. does this suggest there's opportunity to get into european equities? >> it's all when you think that's going to change in terms of sentiment for the fed hikes. when the fed starts turning a

little more hawk ish, that's going to help the dollar sell off, the euro weaken and boost european equities. it's the timing that's the question. over the course of the year, that should be an opportunity. >> when we talk about the central bank divergence, if the fed does do two rate hikes, what does that do to the ecb? >> you hoped initially at the beginning of the year the fed would hike and draghi wouldn't have to do anything. now it's what tools does draghi have to get the currency weaker. we're printing more euros, buying more bonds. that doesn't seem to be doing a lot of good. they don't necessarily want to go to negative rates. i think for now they're in a bit of a bind. >> and we are expecting inflation data for the eurozone due just after the show at 10:00 a.m. expected to show inflation on the quarter actually negative once again. that undoubtedly giving a headache to draghi. does this spell bad news for the export picture in europe as well? >> certainly is the biggest challenge i think they face. i think the core numbers are

also going down at the same time that you have core ratings rising in the u.s. it's not just an oil story. i think it is a demand story. to the degree that the lower rates and the lending do boost demand and try to push up prices, that will help, but we're not going to see it certainly over the next month. >> all right, daniel. great to have you here as always. before we go, we want to bring you an update on comments coming from u.k. prime minister david cameron. of course, this as the government holds an emergency session on the tata steel plant here in the u.k. the british prime minister saying that nationalization is not the solution to the steel problems, echoing what we heard from the business second story just a bit earlier. he has said that the government is working on a long-term, sustainable future for british steel, and saying there are no garn e toos that we can find a buyer for tata steel assets. we've been talking about how the book value of these assets could be written down to zero here. guests on the show saying today

steel recovery is not on the card in the near term at least. so the government has a difficult situation on their hands. prime minister cameron saying they are working with others in europe to try to introduce penalties for those who dump steel. well, before we go, let's give you a picture of how u.s. markets are set to open. it was a great day stateside as that federally continued with the dow, s&p 500 in positive territory for the year. the nasdaq just missing out on that level barely. we're looking a the softness today on the markets, but just modest losses called at this stage. that's it for today's show. i'm nancy hulgrave. "worldwide exchange" is coming up next. see you tomorrow. ♪ before the band separated over unknown creative differences. [ crash ] and reunited three decades later for a tour that sold out in three minutes. and your cisco hybrid cloud handled millions of ticket orders without breaking a sweat.

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good morning. ending on a high note. stocks hit 2016 highs again with banks and tech fueling the rally. we'll see if it holds on this, the last day of the quarter. tesla's big reveal. it's model 3 day. customers are lining up for the new electric car. is the firm's big bet a sell signal? chips and fries. will burgers help chipotle rebound? it's thursday, march 31st, 2016. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning and welcome to