good morning. hawks v. doves. janet yellen says the u.s. is not a bubble economy, but today we'll hear from policy members from both camps. and that could spark a volatile trading session. consumer crunch. shares of gap under pressure this morning as retailer sales fall short. and it's cut day in augusta. defending champion jordan spieth at the top of the leader board. it's april 8th, 2016, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. a weekend of golf. what could be better?

good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. great to be with you this morning. let's get right to the market action. we're looking at gains for u.s. equity futures following the lead we've seen in markets elsewhere around the world today. almost triple dimgits on this friday for the dow. the s&p up 12 points. the nasdaq up 31. this follows a day where markets traded in the red for most of the session yesterday. the dow seeing its worst daily performance since the 23rd of february. it was a disappointing day for markets yesterday. we are bouncing back, however, today. let's look at the yield on the u.s. ten year. amazingly enough, it fell below 1.7% briefly yesterday. we're back above that but only fractionally. for whatever you see of gains in equity markets today and in general over the last month, there's no doubt that is a relatively bearish signal, what we're seeing in that yield compression. >> but the story of the week, of

the morning, of the last 4 hours is the japanese yen. breaking overnight, japan's finance minister talking down the rapid rise in the currency. no surprise they're in full job owning mode, saying the government would take steps, quote, as needed. but he did decline to comment on any sper invention in the market. the dollar falling below 108 yen overnight for the first time in 17 months. we're back above that level and actually marching higher, which is a sign that the yen is coming off a little bit from those highs. the big question, will they intervene? the last time they did this was back in 2011 after the tsunami and the nuclear crisis. we were at much stronger levels in the japanese yen, and it was much more disorderly. >> absolutely right. the yen is just having such a big effect in general on asian trade as well. it's not just affecting the nikkei. >> seen as a sentiment gauge.

>> although, if you look at a weekly chart, the shanghai composite is in the fwreen this week. the rest of asia has been in the red. shanghai comp, despite today's move, is just in the green for the week. we've seen the shanghai comp manage to regain a bit of confidence. >> the data has looked bet everever ter. the yen is weakening. that's seen as a beat for global markets. >> upbeat in european trade. let's have a look there. gains across the board. 0.8% the order of the day for the german dax. similar moves for the other indices. we're led higher by commodity stocks as oil prices rise and also by banking stocks, which have suffered heavily thus far this week. a quick look at the euro, similarly to the yen.

it's getting a little bit of reprieve. no, it's basically flat now, up fractionally. at least it's not strengthening, which hurts european equities. >> let's show you the commodity trade. some of the enthusiasm is coming from the higher price of oil this morning, and we are seeing a big bounce here with wti crude up almost 3.5% in the early session. still below 40 there. brent, the international bench mark, is sitting above 40 this morning. up another 3%. some nice gains in crude oil lifting spirits. show you gold quickly. yesterday was all about protection and safe havens. treasuries, the yen, and even gold. today coming off a bit, down about a buck. >> we briefly went off course and touch on asia, but let's get to singapore for the expert opinion of what's been happening there. sri joins us. >> hi, wilf.

hi, sara. let's pick up on the equities action and the currency. we have seen this move higher in dollar-yen. that means a weaker, relatively speaking, japanese currency. it could very well be the late stage effects of all that verbal intervention we've been seeing yesterday and today. could also be an element of positioning heading into the weekend. let's not forget the yen has had a very big run up to 17, 18-month highs. so some investors cashing n taking some profit off the table there. nonetheless, we have seen an immediate impact in the late session, in the afternoon session on japanese equities from the relatively weaker yen. we saw the nikkei top 16,000 very, very briefly. came back down, pared those gains, and this is where we settled. 15,821. as you said, that correlation between the currency markets, the yen, and equities, very, very powerful indeed. china markets, some weakness there.

profit taking. we have had a pretty good run up over the course of the last month or so. let's not forget we have a lot of data to contend with over the next week. we have lending numbers. we've also got inflation and the trade figures from the world's second largest economy. so perhaps we'll see the leadership come back to the north asian markets, to china as well, and away maybe from the fed and the impact of the weaker dollar as well. so there you have it. china and the data could very well be the next big test for the markets in the week ahead over here. that's how we're looking. back to you now. >> sri, thank you very much for the rundown. as far as the markets here, looking ahead to next week. earnings reason really kicks off in full. i was talking to stephanie link at tiaa on "closing bell" yesterday. she said it's nice to see lower price action because it raises

the odds they'll beat expectations. but that's the missing link here. earnings growth, profit kbroet, margin recovery, and the guidance. she said also in the second half of the year, this weaker dollar should begin to help. don't look for it just yet. >> and markets have generally been treading water over the last two or three weeks waiting for earnings season. they need to see whether this stimulus, this fundamental data is feeding through. >> we'll also get the world economic outlook from the imf. back here in the states d you see this? fed chair janet yellen saying the economy is on a solid course. she did push back against the political talk suggesting that the bubble is ready to burst in the economy. have a listen. >> we think it's partly transitory. namely oil prices and the strong dollar that are responsible for pulling inflation below the 2%

level we think is most desirable. i think we're making progress there as well. this is an economy on a solid course, not a bubble economy. >> not a bubble economy, sort of a nod to what donald trump has been saying, that we're in a bubble economy with a massive recession coming. yellen also defended recent action by the central bank saying she didn't consider december raising interest rates. that decision a mistake? nope. yellen was speaking last night on an epic panel with ben bernanke, alan greenspan. i thought it was riveting. not for the news that was made but mostly because they were humans. and because they were making jokes. especially bernanke and volcker and greenspan, who are not in the fed hot seat right now. even janet yellen. it was a light hearted debate.

it was about what they thought of the power. ben bernanke said i didn't get into this for the adulation. if i did, i would have failed. >> we weren't looking at the kind of day-to-day, week-to-week announcements. she said, i certainly don't regard it as a mistake, referring to that december hike. we've all been talking about how they've gone dovish again, but she was embracing that hawkishness. >> and i think it also was a good reflection, the whole conversation, as to some of the big challenges that the federal reserve faces now versus during the paul volcker central bank. for instance, there's a lot of discussion about the international effects. does the federal reserve consider what it does to the rest of the world when it makes its decision. the answer was yes. the fed cannot operate in a vacuum. that's something fairly new. they did talk a lot about communication, which is also a new challenge for the fed. i highly recommend it. even if you didn't watch it live yesterday, go to cnbc.com and

check it out. >> we also recommend, once we pull it together, that you watch sara and i's panel with kuroda, draghi, and yellen. one day. >> in other fed speak, we're also hearing from the lone dissenter at the fomc meeting. kansas city fed president esther george said the stage could be set for a recession if it waits too long to raise rates further. she argues the job market appears to be near full strength and inflation is picking up. ahead of earnings next week, it is a light day for data as we wrap up the trading week. watch out for february wholesale trade at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. it tracks the value in u.s. dollars of all merchant wholesalers. so a good barometer there. new york fed president bill dudley will be speaking about the regional and national economy. he's seen as one of the key fed members of the inner circle of janet yellen. let's get to corporate news. bill ackman tells cnbc the

embattled drug company won't butt bausch & lomb on the block. it's a core asset we're only considering selling noncore assets s what he told cnbc. his pershing square fund has lost about $1 billion on valeant since taking a stake in march 2015. but ackman says he expects to make back his losses on the drug company. >> this comes after the allergan ceo earlier this week said it was an attractive asset, talking about wanting to do deals again. >> you tease up a lot the other show appearances. i hope you also tease up "worldwide exchange." >> even more sor. and you as well. some stocks to watch today. corning plans to buy alliance fiberoptic products for more than $300 million. the board of both firms have approved the deal.

starboard value has taken a nearly 7% stake in the drug maker depomed. saying it intends to nominate a slate of directors to the board after raising concerns about the firm's decision to reject a takeover offer from horizon pharma. that stock flying on the news. an advisory panel to the food and drug administration unanimously backed the accelerated approve of intercept pharmaceutic pharmaceutical's drug to treat a liver condition. that led to a more than 9% gain. still to come, follow the money. new data on fund flows. the numbers and what they tell us about investor sentiment coming up. but first, our facebook and twitter question today. we've got that friday feeling. so do u.s. futures. is that justify sn? get in touch. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. back in a couple minutes.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." making headlines this morning, investors pouring money into stock etfs for the sixth week in a row. $3.5 billion put to work. th meantime, stock mutual funds posted $328 million in outflows during the same period. so how should investors view the market at this juncture? he's one bearish view from ubs chief equity strategist jaul yan emanuel on "fast money" yesterday. >> this is a different

environment than the last 3 1/2 years. this is a high volatility environment. you have the rubber band stretched to the downside in february. you had massive capitulation. you know, we're happy to see it and we think the markets will finish higher at the end of the year. in fact, when the vix trades back down to 14, where it was yesterday, and we've essentially gone up in a straight line, at the same time the expectations for the economy in the first quarter have gone from 2% growth to the atlanta fed's gdp now at 0 0.4%. there's a disconnect there. >> so while strategists don't seem to agree on the direction of the markets exactly, one thing that's a common refrain is volatility is the name of the game. it's something we saw in jamie dimon's shareholder letter of jpmorgan yesterday, which argues for protection in some of the safe haven assets, no matter which direction we end up. by the way, the s&p 500 is now slightly negative for the year after yesterday's selloff. >> and on the volatility front, of course, one thing in the

short term we've seen a lot of volatility in is oil prices. what does that mean? >> and how close is the market tied to it. that's also been a question this week. >> it is indeed. former imf chief economist criticizing the ecb this morning in an interview with cnbc in europe. he says mario draghi and team jumped the gun by moving to negative rates. listen in. >> there's no fire in the house. basically, we have to keep monetary policy as helpful as possible, but it's not time for desperate measures or extreme measures. in that respect, i think negative rates is something they should not be using at this point. sf >> let's get at view from europe. steve, what's happening? >> yeah, good morning. very interesting here in that conversation about volatility. yes, volatility is back in the markets, but how come then the vix is only trading at 16? that's well below the highs we saw in some of the recent down ticks. look at these moves on the

market. the ftse, i pareapparently u.k.s supposed to be under pressure because of brexit concerns. the cac and mib down as well. what's the theme a thematic of week? we've been listening to the ecb. is there a question in investors' minds about the potency or impotency of central banks? let's listen to mersch from the ecb about his concern in these markets. >> there should not be, i would say, competitive devaluations. >> that's really important.

there should not be beggar thy neighbor policies. remember the g-20 a couple weeks ago. everyone thought there was a whisper about the fact they may be refraining from policies, from actually using your currency to boost your terms of trade. of course, everyone's been accused of this for years. the japanese had a fantastic time. now it's below 109. as far as the ecb is concerned, they've never said it's about the currency. with the euro rallying to 1.13, how concerned are they, that they have all these policies, yet it's not getting the currency down. big questions, guys. >> you might be more excited about the currency action than me, steve, which is hard to do. i just have a quick question on the fundamentals here. the actual economics that are underpinning the european trade. this week we really started to question the european recovery. what are you seeing out at numbers, and what is the kppg

here? it's such an important piece for corporate profits in the u.s. and for global economic growth. >> absolutely. and we've been looking at the u.s. earnings. they could be down over 7%. we should be concerned about it as well. i think the european story is very similar to the u.s. one, sara. i think if we took gen one and what our expectations were there before we get to the dimon bottom, but what's happened to the economic data? actually, it's been pretty consistently average. that's the same as we've seen in the u.s. we get a good bit of data like the weekly jobless claims, then bad factory orders. that's the u.s. side. europe, we get decent surplus figures out of germany, okay pmis, but then something negative as well. i would suggest to the viewers despite the excitability of me, you, the markets, the data hasn't changed that much, which is very interesting given what chairwoman yellen said. >> thank you, steve. the enthusiasm as always.

more fallout from the panama papers to tell you about. british prime minister david cameron has admitted he made a profit on shares of a panamanian trust set up by his father. when asked mondays about the offshore accounts, cameron denied all ties. the trust was mentioned in those panama papers, which were leaked earl wier this week. cameron said he sold the shares in 2010, but said the firm set up by his father was not set up to avoid taxes. >> lots of fallout on this. he should have come out fully on monday, then it would have been fine. the opposition party getting a little bit of traction saying is he was covering things up. no suggestion of any wrongdoing, but he just didn't manage the pr side of it so brilliantly. right. still to come -- >> empire state of mind. why new york is so critical right now in the race for the white house for a change. first, as we head to break, here's today's national

forecast. >> good morning to you. let's take a look at what we can expect around the country. in the northeast, all those easter colors popping up. the rain, the sleet, the troublesome snow. it's going to be sticking around through a good part of the day. some of the showers drip their way into portions of the south. lo and behold, west coast, you have some scattered showers. just the opposite for parts of the pacific northwest. nice and dry in seattle. bismarck, 49 degrees. warm times expected in miami with 85 degrees. 41 in chicago. 50 in new york. 64 in atlanta. all right, folks. more coming up. you're watching cnbc. you. you. ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. i order b14. i get b14. no surprises. buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster white knuckle thrill ride. you're promised one speed. but do you consistently get it? you do with comcast business. it's reliable. just like kung pao fish.

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serena williams. hi watson. you are a fierce competitor. i've heard that. i have analysed your biggest matches. oh really? when down a point, you serve an ace 5.8 times more than other top players. you sound like a coach. i am not. but i can customize training programs based on biomarker data. watson, that's pretty impressive. you might say i am the serena williams of cloud-based cognitive systems. nah, i wouldn't go that far.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." to politics. donald trump is hupgerring down in new york in preparation for a battle over delegates. on the other side of the political fence, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are slugging away at each other. tracie potts joins us now with more. >> reporter: good morning. there's been some buzz inside the trump campaign from some that things are disorganized, that they've been late to the game in some states like colorado. so you're right, he's hunkering down in new york, making some changes behind the scenes. we are also looking at the lawsuitest overnight developments and what had been a war of words between the democrats. bernie sanders early this

morning on late night promisiin to support hillary clinton if she's the nominee, even after he called her ununqualified. >> on hillary clinton's worst day, she's 100% better than any of the republican candidates. >> i will take bernie sanders over donald trump or ted cruz any time. >> reporter: trump and cruz are both taking the day off today. trump canceled events in colorado and california. >> an indication to me that they believe they're either in trouble in new york or they want to make certain that he wins his home state. >> reporter: behind the scenes, he's got a new manager in charge of convention strategy. the campaign is lowering expectations on how many delegates he can win. ted cruz is picking up support in colorado, where three newly elected delegates are cruz favorites. more will be elected today. meantime, new yorkers are being bombarded by candidates and new ads. >> hillary will be an awesome president. >> want to stop the clinton machine and win the white house? your only choice is john kasich.

>> reporter: new york's primary is april 19th. but first, there is wyoming for the democrats this weekend, and there are 18 delegates there at stake. >> tracie, thank you very much for that. tracie potts reporting from washington for us. in sports, round one of the masters is in the books. last year jordan spieth led wire to wire. this year his quest for a second green jacket got off to a great start. the 22-year-old, who signed a ten-year endorsement deal with under armour last year, hits this approach shot on the 18th hole, landing within feet of the cup. he then taps it in for birdie to finish the round at 6 under. he is also trying to become just the fourth player to repeat a masters champion. new zealand's danny lee and ireland's shane lowery are four shots back, while paul casey and justin rose are three shots

back. come on, brits. >> we talked to the ceo of under armour. i was trying to talk to him about steph curry. he was just talking about spieth. >> both have really helped you should -- under armour. coming up, a story from sweden where you can actually pick up the phone and call someone. the scandinavian country has a new tourism campaign with a very personal touch. we will explain coming up. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. a fair price, quality service, and that in a new house, you probably don't share the same tastes as the previous owner. ♪ [ dolphin chatters ] so when you need a little house painting or a complete remodel, we'll help you get the job done right, guaranteed. get started today at angie's list, because your home is where our heart is.

good morning. global market alert. talking down the yen. japan's finance minister says his country is ready to take action, and the world is taking notice. an honest sale? jessica alba's company reportedly putting itself on the block. and trouble at the turnstile. the hillary clinton subway trip that has social media on fire this morning. it's friday, april 8th, 2016, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. happy friday. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. a very good morning to you. let's get straight to the market action. what are u.s. equity futures doing at this hour? >> they're rebounding after the dow's worst day since february

23rd. a 1% decline yesterday on the s&p. looks like we're set to rebound, up nine points early. but not enough to make up for what was a pretty lousy week in terms of equity performance. the nasdaq futures up 24 points. the dow is the only one of the maur major three that is actually in the green for the year. let's show you the ten-year treasury note yield, which stole the show yesterday, dipping below 1.70. we're above that this morning, 1.71. we'll see if yields push higher throughout the session. >> the big story of the mortgage is the yen, which was at a 17-month high against the u.s. dollar yesterday. breaking overnight, japan's finance minister talking down a rapid rise in the currency, saying the government would take steps as needed. he declined to comment on any intervention in the market. the dollar falling below 108

against the yen for the first time in 17 months yesterday. as you can see today, it's getting a little bit of reprieve to the tune of about half a percent. that's helped the stock market in japan. as you can see, the nikkei up half a percent. overall, this has been a soft week for asian trade. in fact, the shanghai composite going the other drerks. >> let's show you the early trade in european action. a negative week for europe as well. down more than 1%. it's up half a percent in terms of the german dax. >> let's have a look back here in the states. janet yellen says the u.s. economy is on a solid course and still on track to warrant further interest rate hikes. >> although interest rates are low and that is something that

can encourage reach for yield behavior, i certainly wouldn't describe this as a bubble economy. we have relatively weak global growth, but the u.s. economy has been doing well, and domestic strength has been propelling us forward in spite of the fact we're suffering drag from the global economy. >> yellen also defended recent action by the central bank saying she doesn't consider the december decision a mistake. yellen was speaking last night on a panel with former fed chairs ben bernanke, paul volcker, and alan greenspan at the international house in new york. of course, apart from being a very exciting spread of people to watch for people like us, it was also interesting to see her be more upbeat again. i suppose because this was stepping back a little from the weekly and daily announcements and slightly more light hearted, she was able to look at a big picture. it was more positive on the u.s.

economy. >> there's nothing better than the world's most powerful central bankers cracking jokes. there was one point in the discussion where fareed zakaria, who was the lucky moderator, asked about unwinding the balance sheet and getting out of this extraordinary monetary policy. he was talking to ben bernanke, who got us into this during the financial crisis. he asked, how's it going to go when you're going to get us out? bernanke said, well, i don't have to do it. so yes, it was light hearted but also nice to see that they didn't sound very nervous about getting us out of extraordinary policy. bernanke said he didn't think the taper tantrum was that big of a deal, talked about communication challenges, and talked about the international sensibilities, which i thought was interesting. sort of this new unofficial mandate of the federal reserve, which we're hearing a lot more about. >> i think janet yellen enjoyed that setting for having to talk

rather than being in front of congress, which is often a little more heated. but interesting to mention that, of course, because the more dovish tone out of the fed has been one of the reasons stocks have rallied. one of the other reasons has been oil prices. more resilient in general over the last month than they were at the start of the year. big moves today. one of the reasons why stocks are up globally, particularly in europe and u.s. futures. 38.54. i bring this up again because today is clearly one of the positive days. this week has seen volatility come back with a vengeance. big, big moves on wednesday. another big move today. even though we're back closer to 40 again, volatility in any way in the oil market is not necessarily a good thing. one of the positives markets have taken was resilience and a sense oil prices have plateaued for a bit. this volatility this week brings back this question. >> but what happened this week was it wasn't just oil prices that were the gloom barometer. it was also the treasury market, which could be tied to the price

of oil. that yield dipping below 1.70 really spooked people. also, the japanese yen. that took center stage as the indicator of worry. are central banks out of bullets? are they being as effective as they can be? japan has really thrown everything at this to try to weaken the japanese yen and help their economy. if the market fights them, that could be an ominous signal. a lot of that is reversing today. we'll see if those correlations or trends change next week or if the focus can shift to u.s. earnings, which we get alcoa and some of the big banks. >> although, reversing at the margin, we've only got the yen moving 0.3% today compared to moves in recent weeks. stocks to watch this morning. gap disappointing investors again. same-store sales tumbled in march.

gap's banana republic division saw its sales dip the most of its relative brands. ulta salon is set to replace tenant health care in the s&p at the close of trade today. ruby tuesday reporting a wider than expected quarterly lost. the restaurant chain blaming bad winter weather for a decline in sales. >> one thing i would point out on gap, it also owns old navy. old navy had been bright spot for gap. actually, sales were lower there as well, down 6%. some of the trends are not looking great for gap. we have some other corporate news to tell you about. uber agreeing to settle a california lawsuit for as much as $25 million. the suit accused the ride-hailing customer of misleading customers about the strength of its background checks on drivers.

uber will pay $10 million within 60 days. the remaining $15 million will be waived if it does comply with the terms of the agreement for at least two years. jessica alba's honest company is considering a sale. this is due to the continued coolness of the public market. >> which is a big topic. and it relates to my morning must read. more on that later. but it's time for today's trending stories. if you've ever ridden in the subway in new york, this may be a familiar feeling or scene. hillary clinton couldn't get her metro card to swipe at a turnstile. it took her five tries to finally get through. it happens to me all the time. >> i mean, i have to say the london underground has a much better system. you just touch it. got to get you to london. up to date with what's new there. after 15 years on air, "american idol" had its final season

finale last night. 25-year-old trent harmon took home the crown. every idol winner from past seasons appeared for performances alongside the judges. >> sound like an "american idol" fan. >> well, no, i'm more of an "x-factor" fan. but they're a bit dated. how many more people can you scour country to find? >> 15 years. pretty incredible run. >> good to see them bring it to a close. >> wipers have done well on that show. >> they have. the swedish tourist association has set up a hotline to allow callers from around the world to chat with a random swede. the number was set up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of sweden abolishing censorship. 9,000 calls have been made since april 6th. what do you do if you call and ask for a swede? >> that's really random. >> apparently one of the most

popular questions is, how many pieces of ikea furniture do you have? another must-read story, sonic is selling square-shaped milk shake december signed to fit instagram. the shakes can be purchased through the app. >> that's called a social strategy. >> i quite like it. >> it's square, so it fits on the instagram picture. >> but instagram is adapting, so you can post nonsquare ones. >> i don't know. can you? you've moved on. snapchat. >> it is much better. >> a deer crashing through the window of a nail salon in hartford, connecticut, yesterday. the deer struggles to get up before running through and eventually leaving the salon. luckily no one was injured. that must have been a scary situation. >> why was it in there in the first place? >> it just charged a window. maybe it thought it was open.

gave him quite a scare. >> those are your trending stories for the day. coming up, today's must read, including why new york matters in this race for the white house. the candidates on both sides are pulling out all the stops to secure a win in the empire state. we have the details o that and a preview for today's market action still to come. don't go away. we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, the lowest taxes in decades, and new infrastructure for a new generation attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in rochester, with world-class botox. and in buffalo, where medicine meets the future. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov

now to today's must read stories catching our attention.

in "the wall street journal," my pick is titled "new york's vote matters for a change." writing, nothing one really campaigns for the presidency in new york anymore. its primaries are all in april, usually after everything has been settled. in the general election, new york is in the bag for the democrats, so why should they expend the energy or republicans the time. of course, this article highlighting that does not apply this time. it says that trump is expected to win big. the writer says, i saw clinton speak yesterday. the audience was appropriately enthusiastic but not wild. that's really how we frame it. trump is expected to do very well. clinton and sanders, it's going to be a bit closer. crucial for clinton. >> what i looked in this piece is she says that new york has always been important for the bug money, that republicans primarily come here to get hedge fund money. they come for the fine dining. but this time is different.

with donald trump, she said, going out to beth page, long island, talking about the long islanders that come from brooklyn, talking about the immigrant experience in new york, how all the sudden these people meat atter. clearly donald trump is gathering enthusiasm. >> in the eye of the storm. >> i went to the "financial times" today about technology. it's titled "investors, first catch your unicorn, then hang on to it." he writes, if these haircuts, and he's talking about mutual funds slashing valuations for privately held companies, are disquieting for investors and fidelity mutual funds, they're even more disruptive for the leaders at companies. for them it can prompt something akin to a crisis drill, summoning employees to reassure them that the business has not been mortly wounded by simultaneously trying to keep

customers from taking to their heels. he says hang on because it happened to jeff bezos and amazon a long time ago. now those mutual funz are riding the amazon stock performance, which has shot up. so it's sort of a positive message for private companies that are seeing their valuation slashed by the likes of fidelity, which we have seen. >> stick with them, but of course some pull back in those valuations had to be expected at some point. they had such a tear. >> but it can almost be more jarring because it's a one and done slash based on the mood and the whims of those funds. >> right. we're approaching the top of the hour. that means the team is getting ready for "squawk box." andrew ross sorkin joins us from new york with a look at what's coming up. andrew, what's on the agenda? >> i will tell you, but i'm add two articles to your list because i like this game. i love a great business narrative, as you know. there are two great business

narratives in the papers today. "wall street journal," the unravels of a wall street. great story of andrew casperson. delicious little details. you're going to think it's self-serving, but "new york times," the james stewart piece on disney and tom staggs. really gets you into what happened between the board. an amazing sense of what took place. i'm adding both of those to the list. >> good. i like it. >> as for today, we have a huge show. becky quick is down in north carolina. we have simpson and bowles on the program. we're going to talk about politics, of course, but really the economy and where it's all going. then in the 8:00 hour, we have hank paulson on the show, who can really speak to so many things, china being one. we're going to talk about inversions being another and so many other topics. that's what we have on deck at the moment. >> andrew, great stuff. thank you very much. we look forward to "squawk box" in 11 minutes' time. >> andrew, you can join us every

day for our must-read section. it doesn't have to be just this week. >> thank you. i appreciate it. coming up, why our next guest says the current environment is still very supportive for stocks. tom lee, managing partner and head of research at fundstrat.

futures look set to rebound this morning after an ugly day on the markets yesterday with the dow having its worst day since february 23rd. dow futures now up 86. s&p futures up 11. nasdaq futures up nearly 30 points. joining us to discuss where we go from here is tom lee, founder and head of research at fundstrat global advisers, who's been bullish for a long time. tom, have you questioned that call at all in some of these sessions, like yesterday where it has been really ugly many terms of financials performance

and transports and all sorts of bearish signals. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, you know, you have to be worried when you see negative rates and the yen rallying and european banks suffering and european credit widening. but as a u.s. focused strategist, a lot of times these are just creating by the dip opportunities. i think that's really been the tough thing for investors to appreciate. as bad as the environment has been since mid 2015 to february, it's really looking like the old bull market, not a bear market. >> so you think that the fundamental economy is strong enough to be buying at the moment? >> yes. i mean, i'd say, if you had to trust one indicator, it's jobless claims that's been strong. but look at the isms for all the u.s. regions. i think earnings -- look, it's not a surprise we're having an earnings recession. the dollar was up 20% year over year. that earnings recession should

end as oil is flattening and the dollar is weakening. >> buy the dip hasn't exactly worked as well this year as it has over the past few years of the bull market. people have also made money, so-called, selling the rip as well. you just think it's a lot of international noise? is that why this comes in? >> we're just at a crossroads. the bull market, seven years expansion. i think volatility had been low. so i think investors are at a crossroads. they're like, look, should i be thinking more about owning cash. one of the strategies we've been recommending investors do is focus less on sectors and really think about this more through the lens of style. one of the things we recommended is something called stocks are the new bonds. about a fifth of the s&p has a dividend yield above their own bond yield. >> so buy the dividend payers. >> yeah, but this is cisco, ibm, cloud com.

there's so many companies now. what it shows you is there's essentially a yield parody strategy. the idea that, look, it's the same credit risk. why are you getting paid 100 basis points more to buy the stock than the bond. >> you mentioned earnings recession and reasons why it's not as bad as it seems. obviously earnings kicking off next week. is this a really crucial earnings season? you said it's a possible time to buy the dips. do you buy before earnings or wait and follow up afterwards? >> look, i think delivered results are going to stink. we know it. earnings are always telegraphed. either companies preannounce it and it's like the worst in seven years. as we know, it's because energy earnings are down 97%. with dollar strong, multinationals are going to report bad numbers. i think the key is really forward guidance. i don't think analysts are great at modeling fx. >> they're terrible.

>> yeah. >> she says proudly. >> but i think companies are also not so transparent, nor do they understand quite the hit that's going to come with currencies. >> exactly. let's say that -- and i agree. i think that's definitely true, how companies think. as a consequence, think about when they established 2016 guidance. this is early december. dollar futures were looking for 6% dollar strength in 2016. we know companies establish guidance this year based on the dollar being strong. dollar is a lot lower than that forecast. that's the upside. >> do we need to see banks rally to see the overall market rally? >> i think banks are absolutely going to have a catch-up trade. >> worst performers this year down 8%. >> that's right. on march 31, health care was the worst performer. now it's the banks. banks' dividend yields, 5% right now. >> if they're allowed to continue paying out that capital once we get through all the tests. we'll have to see. >> the interesting thing is their cost to debt is 3.5%. >> so your headline is earnings are going to stink, but the

market doesn't. >> remember, it's not what people know, it's what people will be surprised with. i think they're going to be surprised with the guidance. >> okay. tom lee, thanks very much for joining us. it's time for our charts of the week. what are you going for? >> i think you know. japanese yen versus the nikkei, which is the japanese stock market. this is the third biggest economy in the world. it matters. our weakening u.s. dollar has really made the japanese yen quite strong, expensive. that's seen as a sort of barometer of anxiety in the overall markets of liquidity, of central bank action. when it strengthens this sharply, and we're talking about 11% from the highs of dollar-yen, that's a cause for concern. >> i've gone for a stock specific chart of the week. allergan, huge moves earlier as that deal fell through. fascinating to see if there are going to to be more scuffled m&a deals as we move forward. is there a structural change in m&a? we can ask some of the bank ceos next week when they report. that's it for today's "worldwide

exchange." >> have a great weekend. >> have a great weekend. squawk wa"squawk box" is coming.

good morning. a rebound in the markets today. the dow coming off the worst session since february, but futures indicate a higher open this morning, and crude prices are up sharply. the masters is under way. if you have small children in the room, tell them to avert their eyes. a lot of comments on this. boy, do i know that feeling. ernie ells had an absolute meltdown on a tough first hole at augusta. we'll show you the graphic footage. and a simon and garfunkel song climbing the charts this week thanks to a viral video of ben affleck.

that story straight ahead. it's friday, april 8th, 2016. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everyone. welcome to a special edition of "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. this morning i'm live from north carolina. we have a huge lineup for the show this morning, including the co-chairs of president obama's debt committee, former white house chief of staff erskine bowles and farmer senator alan simpson. the two will be sitting down together. we'll be talking taxes, politics, where we stand in the debt situation, and a lot more. we'll also be joined this morning by duke energy ceo lynn good and carolina panthers head coach ron rivera. if that wasn't enough, we'll also be hearing this morning from former treasury secretary hank paulson and honeywell chairman and ceo dave