good morning. ready to act. breaking overnight, japan's finance minister says his country can take steps against the strong yen if needed. earnings alert. alcoa shares under pressure after weak aluminum prices hit results. and the race for the white house. new this morning, an nbc poll shows trump and clinton holding sizable leads in the next big primary state of new york. it's tuesday, april 12th, 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 get right to the markets for you. yesterday we lost steam throughout the day's trade, ending slightly down for some markets. basically flat for the nasdaq. today we're expected to bounce back but only slightly. the dow called higher by 22 points. the s&p by 2.8. the nasdaq by about five points. of course, we have kicked off earnings season. alcoa the first big name to report late yesterday, down 4% in premarket trade. let's have a look at the ten-year note on the u.s. treasury. we're looking at the yield at 1.75%. in general, the story of the last month has been yields coming down. however, we've just come off that very low level of below 1.7% that we hit last thursday. >> ready or not, here comes earnings season. quarterly results likely to set the tone for the markets in the coming weeks. first out of the gate last night, alcoa. earnings beating the street by a nickel but revenues did fall short. results were hurt by low commodities prices like

aluminum, the strong dollar, and plant closures. alcoa is also lowering its full-year outlook for global sales in the aerospace industry and announcing plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs. the ceo was on "closing bell" to talk about all of that yesterday. >> if you look at this quarter, you really see profits are up in all of the iconic segments. that's the name we've given to the value company we would soon launch. you also see on the commodity side, the two segments are holding up and are profitable in spite of the very strong pressure on the market side with low prices. secondly, on the revenue side that you addressed, we are growing and cutting at the same time. we're growing, as you mentioned, in aero as well as auto. both look good. at the same time, we're cutting on the upstream side capacity that is low profitability or no profitability. >> alcoa says it's still on track to split its two businesses in the second half of

this year. >> yes, we've got job cuts. yes, we've got revenue down. earnings themselves relative to what analysts were expecting with r a beat. yet, we've got it down 4% in premarket trade. we know all these earnings are going to come out the next few weeks and disappoint in terms of absolute fall from this time last year. as long as they beat where analysts are, we'd expect a good response. we're down 4%. >> maybe that earnings is not good enough. the sales miss is certainly in focus. the lowered outlook and guidance. that's perhaps what investors are looking for this week. >> but i think it just shows even though expectations have come down, we're still going to need to see much stronger numbers to get the market to respond. >> absolutely. >> let's check in on global markets this morning. a relief rally in japanese stocks on yen weakness. this as japan's finance minister said they could act against one-sided and speculative exchange rate movements. we have the yen basically flat today. major markets in asia basically

flipping around from what they've been doing the last few days with the nikkei up. that leading most of asia with it. the shanghai comp bucking the trend in the say way it's done in the opposite direction recently. it was down this morning 0.3%. >> as for early european trade, we are seeing a mixed picture there as well. they've got earnings about to come as well for the first quarter. there are some jitters ahead of that. the german dax is flat at this hour. in france, you're seeing declines of about 0.3 percent. nothing dramatic. in terms of the economic data out of europe, u.k. inflation accelerating in march, though still well below the bank of england's target. consumer prices rising 0.5%. in germany, cpi inching higher, rising only 0.3%. europe as a whole, still in negative territory when it comes to consumer prices, which is the big challenge for the european central bank. >> it is indeed. let's have a look at the broader markets. commodity prices this morning. oil last week, as we said yesterday, a nice 6% gain for

wti. up above 40 today. 40.8 for wti. do bear that in mind. we were down for u.s. equities last week. we were down yesterday despite a strong rally from oil prices. markets definitely waiting for earnings. they want to see something strong before they respond. let's have a look at gold prices as well. at the moment, we're looking at gold at 1262. it's up 0.4% today. president obama meeti ining privately in the oval office with janet yellen. the white house says they discussed the economy, labor market. they also talked about regulation of the big banks and although the fed and the white house are in regular communication, president obama and yellen rarely do meet face to face. their last meeting coming in late 2014. also, josh earnest was careful to say they did not really discuss the path or trajectory of interest rates because the fed does have to maintain its

independence. it does not want to be seen as political in any way, especially in an election year. >> exactly right. interesting they do meet. interesting it's a one-on-one discussion. >> why not? obama is the best adviser on economics you can imagine. >> in that particular point you finished with that they have to stay nonpolitical, it's an interesting one. yeah, they didn't decide. >> it didn't even come up. a pair of economic reports are on the agenda today along with speeches from several fed officials. march import prices are out at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. forecasts rebounded last month. at 2:00 p.m., we get the monthly federal budget statement. railroad csx reports after the bell. >> and if that's not enough, robert kaplan says it's too soon for an interest rate hike in the united states, but he would be open to a move at the june

meeting if gdp, employment, and data are sufficiently strong. he will elaborate further with our own steve liesman. he as an exclusive interview with rob kaplan on "squawk box" 8:00 a.m. eastern time. very interesting but a kaplan is new to the fed. this is his first time speaking out in an interview. he's got a different background than some of the other heavy duty ak dcademicacademics. he was an executive at goldman sachs. he specialize the at harvard in corporate governance and leadership. >> and less in economic academics. >> maybe that's good. we'll hear from rob kaplan in a few hours. >> the justice department is reportedly in talks with hedge fund och-ziff capital management. "the wall street journal" says authorities have looked into whether the firm knowingly bribed government officials to secure investments in libya and other african countries. they argued the behavior wasn't

widely known and shouldn't be held criminally liable. the ceo of royal dutch shell says they may sell some assets. shell said it would sell $30 billion in assets to finance that deal. speaking a the a conference in australia, shell is exploring new opportunities in iran, although he says it's important to remain cautious when dealing with tehran, of course. more stocks to watch today. marathon petroleum selling noncore assets. you mited airlines will likely comply with two hedge fund requests and add more members to the board. the agreement could come within the next week. general motors calling off plans to build a small cadillac

plant in michigan. no move in the premarket stock price. a few more stocks here. juniper networks has been hurt by weak demand. lvmh reporting disappointing first quarter sales, saying the terrorist attacks in paris have actually been weighing on its european business. and nomura plans to shut down its european equity operations, this as the biggest brokerage firm in japan tries to stop years of heavy losses overseas. investors like that news. that stock up 4.5%. more than 1 billion people use facebook each day. the social media giant aims to gain more active users as it kicks off its annual f-8 developer conference today. landon dowdy joins us with three things to watch. >> good morning. ceo mark zuckerberg takes the stage today in san francisco where analysts are expecting a few hot topics to be discussed. here are three things to watch. firts, chat bots. this is a robot feature on faust

book's mass jer applicatiesseng. that could lead to people spending more time on facebook. >> it's the same folks who are building apps for your phone and can now build chat bots inside these facebook applications. >> second virtual reality. they need to encourage developers to create vr content, which would allow users to change how we communicate. and third, this is likely the most important item, as facebook is trying to grab dollars away from tv and prove it can be a platform for live. zuckerberg debuting the company's big investment in live last week with features making it easier for users to find and share clips in an effort to compete with the likes of youtube and periscope. i have to ask, wilfred. there are 1 billion users. are you one of them? >> i'm not officially one of them. >> still? come on. >> it's something i debate every day. >> he has to spend all of his

time on snapchat. >> taking selfies, of course. >> there are a lot of different social media. >> you can put your pictures on there too. >> how many selfies do you have to upload every day? >> you have what, five, six? >> on average. depends if it's weekend or weekday. >> landon, thank you. billionaire entrepreneur robert bigelow wants you to spend some time out of this world. he's teaming up to fly humans to space. inflatable space habitats are made of a kevlar-like material that protect against impact from orbiting debris. they're folded for launch and then inflated with air. at a news conference yesterday, he said his project hinges on space taxis and other commercial space transportation services being developed by spacex, boeing, and other firms. only a matter of time. >> space taxis. i like the sound of it. coming up, a new report finds the u.s. dollar is having the biggest drag on corporate

profits in five years. the details of that are coming up. but first, here's a fun throwback for you. on this day, 1996, yahoo! went public. the internet search giant priced its shares at $13 apiece, closing 154% higher on its first day of trading. today the stock trades at around $37 a share. the firm is currently up for sale after a four-year turnaround attempt by ceo marissa mayer proved mostly unsuccessful. >> that's a great chart for a pre-2001 tech company. >> absolutely. we'll be right back on "worldwide exchange." whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond.

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welcome back. let's get to today's trade of the day. oil prices are rallying on investor speculation about a potential production freeze agreement, which could come at an oil producer meeting this sunday. our data team crunched the numbers to find out what you should be buying if oil continues this upward trend. historically, the top performing s&p stocks that rose when oil rose 10% or more in one month were freeport, pioneer natural resources. for more, go to cnbc.com and check out cnbc pro. a lot of these stocks have been in the news. they've been hammered as the price of oil has absolutely collapsed. will they get the relief? there's a lot of expectation going into this weekend's meeting. >> not small moves we're seeing

there either. with the rally oil has had over the last week or so, we have the likes of bhp and glencore leading the charge. >> part of it has to do with the dollar. global currencies weakened against the dollar exchange rate. fluctuations in the fourth quarter turns out had the largest negative impact on north american countries in almost five years. joining us from london with more on a new currency report is wolfgang costar, ceo and currency strategist. good morning. >> good morning, sara. >> as we look ahead to the first quarter, how much of the strong dollar headaches are going to be with u.s. companies? >> it's not going to be as bad as q-4 was. what you got to remember, this isn't all about the dollar versus the rest of the world. these companies are getting impacted by euro, indian rupee. it's not just dollar versus euro, dollar versus sterling. the average company has over 200 currency pairs exposed.

>> so the fourth quarter was ugly. first quarter is still going to be ugly but not as bad. when is this going to be a tailwind? when is the weakening of the dollar going to start helping companies? >> well, i think the only solution actually is to better manage and improve managing the currency risk. the good news in the report is while the q-4 was the worst reporting revenues you've seen in the last five years, the earnings per share bottom line impact was not the worst, which means north american companies are doing a better job managing that currency risk. what you and i have been talking about for now going on two years is that these companies actually can use technology to actually manage that risk much better. you're seeing some of that impact already. some large corporates are doing a great job. other companies are not doing a good job yet. >> as the year goes on, do you think we're going to see differentiation in terms of what the u.s. dollar is doing against various different countries, or does this all just come down to

what the fed is doing and the dollar will respond accordingly? >> i mean, the fed will certainly have some back on that, but i think there's a significant diversity, and the negative correlation of the dollar versus the rest of the world just isn't there anymore. i was just this morning having breakfast with the global head of foreign exchange at deutsche bank. we were talking about how in the last four years, these companies have really come to the realization that isn't just dollar against the rest of the world or here in europe euro or sterling against the rest of the world. it really is that they have so many exposures from all over that it isn't just the dollar anymore. therefore, you're not going to see just the dollar impacting top and bottom line for these. what's also interesting in the report is five years ago, you saw roughly 4% of north american companies actually report, whether negative or positive, on foreign exchange impacts. you're now seeing a tipping point. in this report, you saw 46% of

companies actually report on this. if you compare that to europe, europe right now you're looking at roughly 6% of companies. we think that trend is going to continue just as well. so what you're going to see is much more currency. >> i know some of these companies are your clients. so you don't like to name names. give us a sense based on the fourth quarter data going into first quarter about who is most exposed. which kind of industries and sectors? >> well, it's pretty sector agnostic. some of the sectors i'm obviously close to, as we're a technology firm, the oracles of the world are not as well prepared. their smaller but more nimble competitors. really interesting there. pretty hard to believe when they're actually, one, profitable, making 10% margin.

hard to believe they're offset. two, they have euro-rupee exposure. then you have companies like the manpowers and some of those companies not doing well. i was talking to the cfo of jda software, just a $500 million revenue company doing a great job. so it is not about size. it is not about sector. it is literally about ceos and cfos making companies currency aware and holding them accountable and accountability is going to come from the analysts and investors. >> we'll see if those companies get a pass for missing on the strong dollar. we know you'll be here to tally the damage, as always. thanks for joining us. still to come here on "worldwide exchange," new poll numbers show donald trump has a big lead in new york, but he's still outraged this morning. we'll tell you why. but first as we head to break, here's today's national forecast from the weather channel's kelly cass. >> good morning, sara and

wilfred. we need the umbrellas for many towns and cities up and down east coast. it is pouring in some of these areas from boston to hartford, right on down toward the south. we're still looking at the possibility of thunderstorms. atlanta towards mobile, alabama. also watching out for some severe storms today across southern texas. nice looking day in denver. 70 degrees and a warmup under way across the northern and central plains over the next couple days. still scattered showers in the west, including seattle with your high in the mid-50s. otherwise, a dry day for l.a. san francisco towards san diego as well. enjoy the weather in st. louis and kansas city. there's your warmup i spoke of. 72 in atlanta. 59 degrees in new york city. that's a look at your national weather. friends coming over?

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." let's get to politics. nbc's tracie potts, as ever, is standing by with an update of what to look forward to with the all-important new york primaries on the agenda. >> reporter: well, a big part of what's happening in new york right now is donald trump complaining that things are not fair in all the states in terms of selecting delegates. we looked into it, and we found that right now he's got 45% of delegates but only 37% of the vote. even with a 33-point lead in new york, donald trump is complaining of dirty politics. >> it's a rigged are, disgusting, dirty system. >> reporter: after his delegate

loss in colorado. >> they took away their votes. >> 65,000 people voted in the state of colorado. they just didn't vote for you. they voted for our campaign. >> reporter: but now the cruz campaign is also crying foul after losing key convention positions in michigan. they're accusing trump and john kasich of colluding to squeeze cruz out. kasich denies it. he's polling number two in new york, facing tough questions on religious liberty. >> i'm a traditional marriage guy, okay. but the court ruled. i'm allowing the court ruling to stand. >> reporter: hillary clinton has a 14-point lead over bernie sanders in new york. she's focusing on gun violence. >> my opponent voted against the brady bill five times. >> reporter: sanders on trade costing buffalo jobs. >> secretary clinton supported virtually every trade policy. >> reporter: hammering local issues to win new yorkers one

week from today. but new york could end up being tough for bernie sanders for one reason. it is a closed primary, which means only people who are already registered as democrats can vote. sanders has largely been supported by independents. in some states, independents can come in and vote either ballot. if you're in the a registered democrat, if you're one of those independents that's been supporting bernie sanders, you can't vote until november. >> tracie, thank you very much, as ever. fascinating one to continue to watch. in sports, after 20 years, kobe bryant is just about ready to take his final curtain call. the l.a. lakers star and future nba hall of famer is retiring at the end of this season. kobe's farewell tour making its second to last stop monday night in oklahoma city as the lakers took on the thunder. the fans giving bryant a standing ovation in appreciation of his career, which includes five nba titles. kobe finished with 13 points, but the lakers lost by 33. to baseball now.

one fan had himself a day to remember. detroit tigers fan bill dougan caught five foul balls on monday, four during the game against the pittsburgh pirates, and one during batting practice. he gave them all away to the kids in the stand. he's a season ticketholder. he says all five balls came within 15 feet of his seat, which is just behind home plate. >> that's crazy. >> that is a lucky catch. five times in a row. >> very impressive. right. back to u.s. politics after the break. lots more to discuss on that. we'll also be analyzing earnings season coming up. also, looking to fly first class? we'll tell you the best way to do that as cheap as possible. >> news you can use. as we head to break, we want to hear from you. our twitter and facebook question of the morning. earnings season is here. they're expected to decline 9%. that is bottom line earnings from a year ago. are analysts too bullish off

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get in the know. good morning. earnings season opens for play. alcoa results disappoint and shares are under pressure. crude realities. chevron ceo speaking out. we'll tell you what me has to say about supply, demand, and prices from here. and "harry potter" and the u.k. sbejs ageintelligence agen.

how the two worlds almost collided. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. let's check in on the global markets this morning for you. yesterday we lost steam throughout the day's trade, finishing fractionally down. today we're expected to bounce back. the dow called higher by 36 points. the nasdaq by 12. the s&p 500 by about five points. let's look in on european trade as well. that's red. red across the board. although, not too meaningfully. in fact, we found a bit of impetus in the last half an hour to bring the likes of spain and germany into the green. italy still down by about 0.5%. asia was mixed. in fact, a reversal of what we've seen in recent trading

days. china had been bucking the trend recently, holding on to gains last week in the face of declines for the rest. >> the weaker japanese yen today is helping the mood in europe and in asia overall. today's top corporate story is alcoa. earnings beating the street by a nickel but revenues did fall short. results were hurt by low commodities pricprices, the str u.s. dollar, and plant closures. alcoa is also lowering its full-year outlook in the aerospace industry and announcing plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs. the big earnings story this week, the banks. financials have been the worst performing sector year to date, down 7% or so. q-1 earnings in focus more than ever. there are three main areas can of focus. n capital markets, and interest rates. given the start to the year the energy sector had, investors are more focused on the level of write downs and nonperforming

loans than they had been since the financial crisis. second area, capital markets. it's the biggest reason for the downgrades. falls will be particularly severe because of tough comparisons from the first quarter of last year. whilst the absolute numbers will be poor, banks have -- third is the impact on the core retail banking parts of the business. the focus of which is on interest rates. so december, the hike of course being a positive for this quarter's earnings, but clearly analysts have reduced expectations for further hikes this year, which impacts their full-year expectations. we kick off with jpmorgan tomorrow, sara. wells, bank of america thursday, and citigroup on friday. >> the question is, will investors start to pay attention to these bank valuations, which have continued to come down. yes, there are already low expectations, but at some point, you have to wonder whether these

banks are just too cheaply valued, given the fact we are still in a recovery in this country in terms of the economy. >> i agree. what we also learned from the alcoa numbers this morning, that guidance looking forward had a big negative impact. the biggest impact on earnings for the quarter for the downgrade is the capital markets performance and key will be how the ceos guide going forward. was q-1 just an aberration? of course, the levels of markets has improved, but the quality of volumes haven't. so what do they think in terms of going forward? was that just for q-1? that'll be the key, i think, factor to see where share prices go. >> also always interest to be hear what executives say about outlook on rates and how that's going to impact their business. kicking off tomorrow, you're

going to be covering it. nineteen time, the slump in the global pc market continues. gar gartner saying shipments dropped 9% in the first quarter. customers are opting for smartphones and tablets. lenovo keeps the top spot worldwide with 19% of the market. dell has now dethroned hp as the top pakistan seller in the u.s. >> definitely one to continue to watch. chevron ceo john watson says demand for natural gas is expected to rise 35% over the next 20 years, but costs to develop those assets needs to remain under control. speaking at an industry conference in australiaaustrali says they'll need a deal like

lng every year. in an exclusive interview, watson also addressed oil prices, saying they're mostly a function of supply and demand. >> what we've seen is a withdrawal of capital from the business. we're in a resource business that declines over time without capital. so new projects have been slowed down, but also a lot of short-cycle spending, the shale oil developments in the u.s., what we call infill drilling in the business, that's slowed down measurably. we're starting to see a supply response that'll bring markets into better balance. >> in other corporate news, pratt and whitney, which is a unit of united technologies, has won a $1.4 billion government contract to build f-35 fighter jet engines. shares of utx up slightly, less than 1%, on the news. meantime, boeing has opened talks to sell airliners to iran. if a sale does materialize here, it would be one of the highest profile deals between a u.s. company and iran since the west lifted sanctions on the country

back in january. alibaba has purchased a controlling stake in the ecommerce company. and verizon workers may begin to strike tomorrow in an effort to push for new contracts. they want the telecom giant to hike their pay, limit outsourcing, and improve working conditions. sumner redstone doesn't agree with the selling of paramount stakes. redstone still owns voting stakes of about 80% in viacom and cbs. trc capital made an unsolicited mini tender offer for costco. they've offered to buy up to 1 million shares of common stock for nearly $150 million a share. abbvie and roche winning regulatory approval for a drug they teamed up on that treats a rare type of blood cancer. let's get to today's top trending stories. if you want to travel first class affordably, try flying on

a wednesday. new studies by fare compare shows wednesday is the least expensive day to fly first class if you book your ticket at least seven days in advance. it's nearly 20% more expensive to fly on a friday or a sunday. there we go. one to take note of. >> which makes sense. friday and sunday are the most popular travel booking days. >> it's not ground breaking. >> it's a supply and demand. helpful to know. on a wednesday. police arrested 400 sit-down protesters on capitol hill yesterday. the demonstration was led by progressive group democracy spring in favor of changing rules on political money. capitol hill police originally totally underestimated the size of the situation, bringing only one school bus to actually transport those arrested out of the area. they needed a few more when they encountered a few hundred protesters. >> indeed, they did. the national weather service will stop shouting its weather forecasts after having published in all capital letters for more than a century. the service will switch to normal sentence style next month.

>> they're throwing out the typewriter. >> it's from days of tele printers, which didn't have lower case letters. >> such an industry inside thing. we receive the national weather service updates, then we broadcast them. they are always weirdly in all caps. >> it's going to be sunny today! >> makes it seem like there's a hurricane coming any moment. publix employees are seeking to free the beard through an online petition. the company currently asks employees to leave or buy shaving supplies at the store if they show up to work with facial hair. guess what, beards are trendy. now there's a whole movement to allow -- >> i feel their pain. i'm not allowed to have a beard. >> i like facial hair on men. . >> i used to have a big beard, long blond hair back in the day. >> that's a tbt photo can't wait to dig up. publishers of the "harry potter" series are saying there's a possible leak of the

sixth book. they saw an early copy on the internet. turns out it was a false alarm. the page was fake. the agency told the u.k.'s "sunday times" they do not comment on our defense against the dark hearts. i love this. just shows they're really looking out. "harry potter" books were such an important point of -- >> u.k. security? >> they set a u.k. agenda back then. they tried to help. i like it. >> then prevented the leak, which was fake to begin with. led zeppelin's robert plant and jimmy page must face a trial in the u.s. as to whether they stole the opening cords to "stairway to heaven." a jury will decide whether they're liable for copyright infringement.

some other news to tell you about this morning, the 2016 ford f-150 pickup is the only full-size pickup truck to score a top rating in a new front crash test performance by the insurance industry. rivals from chevy, gmc, dodge, and toyota did not fare as well here. this replicates what happens when a vehicle runs off the road and then the front end hits a free or pole at 40 miles per hour. a boost there for ford safety. still to come, today's must ra reads, including one on the day after brexit. and our twitter question. earnings season is here, expected to decline 9% from a year ago. too bullish, too bearish, or just on target? we'll share results later in the show.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures pointing to a slightly higher start on this tuesday morning. dow futures up 41. s&p futures up five. nasdaq futures up 15. little in the way of economic data. a lot in the way of fed speak. of course, we are getting into earnings season with the big banks starting tomorrow. that could determine direction. sort of felt a little conviction lest right now. >> absolutely right. let's get to today's must read stories catching our attention.

i've got one in the "financial times" titled "boris johnson, david cameron, and the day after brexit." it's a sort of fictional take on how the day might unfold. i picked it because it is very amusing. it's definitely got a pro-european spin on it. bear that in mind. it's just quite an amusing take on how the day could play out. if you want to have a bit of a laugh this morning on how boris johnson might become prime minister and then trip as he goes into 10 downing street because he's a bit of a clumsy individual, it's quite amusing. boris johnson's favorite joke he's been cracking on the campaign trail in terms of arguing whether you're going to get free trade in the exit or get all the things you want to get. he keeps saying, my policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it. good take. very amusing. >> this is serious, right. have the odds of a brexit gone up after the revelations from the panama papers about david

cameron? is that too much of a jump? >> too much of a jump. at the margin, has his authority weakened at the peak of those issues last week? perhaps. he fought back yesterday quite effectively. >> for my pick, i went to the "usa today" on the zika warning. the title "a bit scarier: our view." the editorial board is writing after the cdc deputy director came out yesterday and say zika seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought. the "usa today" team says this seems to to be directed at republicans in congress who are refusing to fund emergency funding to fight zika. whenever the money comes from, clearly billions of dollars need to be dreked at trying to find some sort of way to attack this

as the mosquitos carrying zika come to the united states. there's no vaccine for this right now. they're going to need to find a cure. the warnings keep getting scarier and scarier, and not just for pregnant women. >> absolutely right. still probably not as big a scandal as some of the health scares we've had recently, but it does drag on. >> we move from crisis to crisis. it's hard to operate like that. anyway, we're approaching the top of the hour. that means the team is getting ready for "squawk box." joe kernen joins us for a look at what's coming up. good morning, joe. we don't have his audio. looked like he was saying something. >> sadly. i don't think he enjoyed the discussion of zika. >> we'll bring him after the break. >> "squawk box" in 13 minutes. as we go to break, reminder of our twitter question today. are analysts too bullish, too bearish, or on target as we head into earnings season?

we will be asking that question not only to you but also to john manley from wells fargo. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. we were born 100 years ago into a new american century. bo with a hunger to fly and a passion to build something better. and what an amazing time it's been, decade after decade of innovation, inspiration and wonder. so, we say thank you america for a century of trust,

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welcome back. good morning. futures slightly higher. audio issues fixed. joe kernen joins us from new york to tell us what's on tap for "squawk box." good morning. >> you missed your chance, sara. >> we're just so desperate to hear from you this morning. >> you should be. the mosquitos, god forbid that we use some chemicals to kill them that are not gluten free or that aren't, you know, somehow politically correct. it's hard to tell whether the mosquitos are actually suffering any pain when we use those pesticides on them. the left at this point, you just got to really be careful. don't use anything -- they're

free-range mosquitos, actually. >> is that the issue? >> we don't know. well, it's not because we're worried about the mosquitos. you can't use anything that -- i don't know. we're just very obviously environmentally careful to introduce anything into the environment. in hurting mosquitos, some things do linger. i think there's a way of doing it, probably. now someone is talking in my ear. i think it sounds like dave. so listen, guys. 5-2 for the reds. they lost yesterday. is it for real? the cubs beat them yesterday. joey votto finally got a couple hits. are you following this? >> i'm not. i'm rooting for them. >> you're like an ex-pat. you leave cincinnati, suddenly you're watching the yankees. >> no, no, no. >> you're like hillary. >> i'm like a reds fan but just not as engaged.

>> did you know the season started? >> i know the season started because the reds open the season every time. i know that. oldest team in baseball. >> they don't do that actually numb. >> i thought they did. >> they should. john manley tells me i'm right. >> i think johnny bench was mad. wilfred, what's with the flat bad? isn't that easier when you try and hit something? >> i don't know. i'd much rather face a baseball pitcher than a fastballer in the world of cricket. >> they're so much more skilled. such a much more sophisticated game. >> do you know what, that is exactly my point. >> it always is, isn't it? >> you get a nice five-day game, which is important as well. allows for much more champagne to be sipped on the side whilst eating scones. >> some games here seem like they go five days. okay. finally, boeing -- so iran is going to buy planes from the

great satan, and we're going to sell planes to the axis of evil. it's like, hey, business. what do you want from us? isn't it weird how business takes precedence over all ideology? must be a we learned that in "the godfather." >> joe, we're going to have to leave it there today. >> relax, wilfred. you can respond. no one is going to die. see you later. bye. >> thanks for the reds update. >> "squawk box" in seven minutes' time. the dow on a three-day losing streak heading into the start of earnings season. joining us now, john manley, chief ek withquity stat gist at fargo funds. earnings season always crucial as we come into it. what particularly are you focused on this week? >> banks are always sort of the venus structure of what goes on in the financial world, the market world. i think we have to see decent numbers from them, or more importantly decent guidance. this may be the worst quarter. other things matter more. >> what matters in terms of the

actual numbers? it feels like after alcoa, maybe the bottom line beats are easier to come by. not so much on guidance or outlook. and profit margins. what will you be watching? >> it'll come hopefully. the whole idea is it you keep the bottom line going because you do things to enhance it, which helps bigger companies, at some point in time the world economy recovers. that's the hope. is it going to happen? it hasn't happened. it's been a year and i've been wrong. it hasn't arrived on cue. but thing seldom do arrive on cue. that doesn't mean they're not going to get here. >> oil prices come back nicely on a six-week view but also on a one-week view. so the energy sector, are they now going to be able to guide a little more positively than we would have thought a week ago? >> i would think so. it's not going to take things back for other people or other corporations. $40 or $50 a barrel is a good number. it's down enough to still be cash in the pocket for consumers, but you're not going to see as many people having problems. i think they can function.

i think that's where saudi arabia wants it to be. >> as a strategist, are you recommending clients buy the sectors where you're actually seeing earnings growth? there are only a few. consumer discretionary, technology. or do you want to go with the beaten down energy, materials, financials on the hopes they'll rebound? >> sort of the second. i want to buy the health care, which have been beaten down. i think they're still pure growth. being an old man, you know we're going to need them. big oil is still very, very attractive. >> currencies, as we look around the world, are they still absolutely key as opposed to earnings themselves? is the yen still the bigger factor on marks? >> on a very short-term basis. currency just sort of shakes out. currency is a medium by which strength is transferred. along the way, you'll get some bumps, but it's more like a mosquito bite than anything else. >> don't say mosquitos right now. i just want to get to our twitter results from our poll this morning. earnings season is here. expected to decline 9% on the

bottom line. we asked everyone out there, are analysts too bullish, too bearish, or just on target? 42% say too bearish. only 24% say too bullish. 34% on target. what do you think? >> at wells fargo, we think more than one thing. i think the dollar may be under pressure at some point. >> just overall. 9% earnings decline. >> i think it's going to be better than that. it almost always is. i won't say it's a no brainer. >> but still an earnings recession? >> call it an earnings recession, but it's just a couple kwarquarters of flat earnings. the market is going to be driven by earnings. i think they get better. second half of the year, oil is going to be better. easier comparisons. i think the economy is getting better. that should give you the better comparisons. that makes the first quarter old news very, very quickly. >> john manley, thank you very much for joining us. the mark will be driven by earnings, he said. what are we watching today? i suppose csx earnings on that note. >> i'll be watching the reaction to alcoa. shares down sharply in the premarket. earnings beat, sales miss,

outlook decline. >> that's it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" coming up next. have a great morning.

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good morning. earnings season is under way. almost seems like we do this four times a year. alcoa shares under pressure after weak aluminum prices hurts results. a new warning on zika. cdc officials say the virus could be scarier than they initially thought. and the race for the white house. new this morning, an nbc poll shows that trump and clinton hold sizable leads in the next big primary state, new york. it is tuesday, april 12th, 2016. "squawk box" begins right now.

live from new york, where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. dow looks like it would open higher 45 points. nasdaq looking to open 17 points higher. the s&p looking to open up about six points higher. overnight in asia as we flip the board around, we'll show you what's taking place. things are looking up across the board. japan's nikkei is the big one moving up over 1%. we're going to get to the currency issue. >> it's because the yen was weak for the first time in eight days. >> you know, the problem s we have this board and then we're going to do the european board. then we get to the currency. we probably should do -- can we do currency now? >>