. good morning. market alert. china trade data sparking a rally around the world. earnings central. the nation's biggest banks ready to roll out quarterly results. and mark zuckerberg gets political. we'll tell you what the facebook ceo really thinks about donald trump and building walls. it's wednesday, april 13th, 2016. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. a very good morning to you from

me as well. let's have a look at u.s. equity futures at this hour. decent day yesterday around about 1% in gains for the main markets sparked by big gains for oil prices. we're looking at gains once again today. almost triple digit for the dow. 85 points in the green are u.s. dow futures. the s&p called higher by 11 points. the nasdaq by 32 points. let's have a look at the yield on the ten year. we've come away from that 1.7% level we hit last thursday. we're close to 1.8%. so risk sentiment has just improved over the last week or so. 1.781 on the u.s. ten year this morning. now, bank earnings are likely to set the tone for the trading day. jpmorgan set to post results shortly. the financial giant expected to report earnings of around 1.26 per share on revenue of 23.4 billion. this will be the bank's first

year-over-year earnings decline in five quarters. shares of jpmorgan since the start of 2016 up there for you -- now they are down 10%. just over 10%. they're flat in premarket pretty much ahead of these results. >> been a rough year for financials overall. the question is, are the fears justified, and are they baked into these valuations already? >> i think capital markets are going to be down. all of the banks have guided clearly on that. within that segment, people will be focusing on whether they've been able to manage expensies t offset those declines. >> there's other news on financials this morning. u.s. regulators are expected to reject the so-called living wills of at least half of the nation's systemically important

bangs, including jpmorgan. a decision could force the banks to change their plans for dealing with a potential bankruptcy. meantime, in a report yesterday, the nonpartisan government accountability office, or gao, criticized the regulators, saying big banks don't have enough information on living wills that are being judged. so we'll wait for word from that and whether it could result in yet again higher capital ratios and rules and more regulations. >> it's not united states as big an impact as june, but certainly something to keep an eye on. let's check on the global markets. this morning the shanghai composite rising as china trade data beat expectations. significant gains across the board. it is worth pointing out that whilst the export data was better, there was probably a currency impact there. the likes of the yen and euro

much stronger. i think oil price gains late yesterday having a big impact on markets in asia today. 3% gains for hong kong. 1.4% for shanghai. a longer term chart of the nikkei showing it's up the most in a week and a half as exporters gained on a weaker yen. the yen of course slightly changing its tune in the last few trading days. early european trade for you there, following suits of asia, germany up around 2%. commodity names, energy names all leading the charge, as you would expect after that strong gain in oil yesterday. >> in fact, global stocks are near the highs of 2016 overnight. we're also watching cloud ahead of that producer meeting on sunday. among the latest headlines, iran reportedly will not send its oil minister to the gathering. only a government representative. and saudi arabia's oil minister ruling out a production cut, reconfirming his country's position in an interview today. also, pressuring prices. data yesterday showing a larger

than expected build in crude oil stocks could come. wti crude is giving back about 1.3%. though, this comes on top of a 13% rally in a matter of days. wti is still over that $41 a barrel mark on this idea that into the weekend we could see this production freeze. >> and we hit the highest level of the year for wti yesterday. not a surprise to see a little bit of a pullback today. let's have a look at broader markets. the dollar is, in fact, having a stronger day today. so not the same kind of move as we've seen for the last few weeks. the dollar is gaining, up half a percent against the yen. up about 0.4% against the euro. quick look at gold as well. currently trading at 12.47. it's off 1% today. jeffrey gundlach says it's looking more and more like the fed rate cycle is a one and done this year.

he says the fed should be cautious because of the, quote, gentle downward path of nominal gdp. he says yellen has already been talking conservatively about rates because it's an election year in the u.s. he says the s&p will struggle and trade sideways this year because earnings will continue to be downgraded. not dissimilar to what he said in the past, which is that the fed has made a mistake by raising rates in december and should be cautious and slow and should not raise into an earnings recession and a manufacturing recession. his comments have been backed up generally by the caution we've heard with janet yellen. but nobody at the fed is talking about a one and done. they're talking about gradual interest rate rises. >> we got lots of fed commentary yesterday as well. richmond fed president jeff lacquer says the central bank will likely have to raise interest rates around four times this year. that matches the fed's original prediction in december. >> and on that note, it's a very busy day for economical dar. starting with march retail

sells. it comes out at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. sales are expected to be flat after dipping slightly in february. also at 8:30, we'll get march producer price index. headline ppi expected to rebound, up 0.3%. we'll see that ma means for inflation. we did see a decline the previous month. at 10:00 a.m., look for february business inventories. then fed's monthly beige book. always one of my favorites at 2:00 p.m. you get snapshots from the regional economies. all sorts of color and commentary. >> look at that. you really are excited about it. more so than the imf numbers yesterday and the conference. >> no, the imf global economic outlook is the best read. that's a must read. but also i love the beige book. >> very good. so lots of things to look out for today. in corporate news, nearly 40,000 verizon workers from massachusetts to virginia are set to walk off the job and strike at 6:00 a.m. eastern time. the union's workers in the wireline operations, which

includes land lines and internet service have been working without a contract since august. verizon says it's been training thousands of nonunion employees to fill in for those who walk out. got a few stocks for you to watch today. the firm starboard value upping its stake in depomed to 9.2% now. starboard said it intends to nominate a slate of candidates to the board to shake things up at the firm. mccormick walking away from its takeover proposal for the british food company premier foods. the american spice maker saying it decided it would not be able to propose a price that would be approved by premier's board while also delivering for its own shareholders. that means we're not going to get -- what was that food? >> mr. kipling's exceedingly good cakes. >> damn. >> indeed. some more stocks to watch. an investor group says they

offered to buy the chip maker integrated device technology, but some doubts have been raised by the legitimacy of the offer. in the s.e.c. filing, one of the investors listed his address as what appears to be an empty warehouse in oregon. tesco reporting first quarter sales growth for the first time in three years. still, britain's biggest retailer is warning it continues to battle a price wall, which could continue to pressure profits. a california judge is backing the charter time warner cable deal but with some condition. some of the stipulations including converting households and upping speeds. out with the old and in with the new. amazon ceo jeff bezos is betting on the new kindle to be the next moneymaker for the tech company, and here's what we know about the e-reader ahead of the announcement at 9:00 a.m. eastern. in fact, landon dowdy is going to tell us what we know about the new kindle. >> hey, morning. in fact, jeff bezos teased the

new kindle for this week, but alibaba's site leaked images. here's what we learned before the spoiler was quickly taken down. this is the new kindle. the price tag, $290, which is nearly double the price of the kindle paperwhite. it has a bezel on the left side, or the right, behindidepending you like to hold it. it's the lightest kindle, weighing less than half a pound. it also has a rechargeable battery case. however, there's no sign of it being waterproof or water resistant, something customers have wanted for years, to enable worry free reading by the beach or pool. it's set to ship in the coming weeks. back over to you. >> that does sound useful, rechargeable battery. >> it does, but i never got into using a kindle. i like the hard copy. >> ipad guy? >> well, ipad ahead of a kindle. >> he's old fashioned. >> i want to feel it so i know i'm making way through the book.

>> i also make notes and fold pages down so you can come back to them in the future. particularly if it's an interesting book. >> that's how i read the beige book. thank you, landon. speaking of jeff bezos, the billionaire race to space is heating up president amazon founder, elon musk, and richard branson are among the names working on commercialization travel beyond the earth. bezos talked about his rocket yesterday. here's what he said. >> i want to go into space, but i want to do it in blue origin vehicles. even though i want to go into space and i am very -- as kind of a personal thing i'd like to do that, it's not what's important to me. what's important to me is lowering the cost of access to space. there can be many winners, even hundreds and thousands of companies in a truly great industry. i think that's what we're headed toward here. so from my point of view, the more the merrier. i want virgin galactic to succeed. i want spacex to succeed.

i want unite d launch alliance o succeed. and of course i want blue origin to succeed. i think they all can. >> on the competition there. bezos says the biggest hurdle right now include the cost of space travel and the lack of practice. almost looked like he was in space in that shot. >> it did. and if he's watching, if you can please arrange on the new kindle oasis for the beige book to come out on it. >> which is not actually a book. >> i know, but, you know, i'm sure he can manage to get the release and the data. >> i'm sure he's watching a the 2:00 a.m. in seattle. >> he might. right. still to come here on "worldwide exchange," your trade of the day. plus, tech billionaire sean parker announces he's giving away $250 million. we'll tell you where and why. but first, it was on this day in 1902 that james cash penney opened his first store in wyoming. 114 years later, the departme

department -- jcpenney is now undergoing a major reinvention following several years of falling sales and ceo changes. the stock is up 47% this year.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." very good morning to you, if you're just getting up. let's get you up to speed on the market action. the ftse all-world index is on track for its highest level of the year as a whole. we have gains in asia, gains in europe, and u.s. equity futures pointing higher. this follows about 1% in gains for u.s. markets yesterday. we're looking at the nasdaq called higher by about 0.8%. the dow now almost pushing triple-digit gains at the open. let's have a look at oil. it was a big factor for the gains yesterday. we saw the highest level of the year for wti. we're just coming back off those highs. understandable given that we hit the highs of the year. wti right now 41.6, down 1.25% this morning. sara? >> wilfred, time for today's trade of the day. so with the market sitting pretty much flat this year, investors are scrounging for ideas that can generate some returns. if the s&p 500 stays basically

where it is, turns out consumer staple and tech stocks, as well as treasury bonds offer the best performance and can be attributed to attractive dividends, of course. this happens usually when the s&p 500 sees little movement. for more, go to cnbc.com and check out cnbc pro. >> indeed. there we go. back in time. in global news, organized crime prosecutors have raided the law firm behind the panama papers. police officers set up a perimeter around the offices. the firm has denied any wrongdoing, saying it only set up offshore financial accounts for clients and was not involved in how those accounts were used. president obama will be signing a bill that provides financial incentives to companies working on treatments for the zika virus. the bill allows the fda to include zika drug developers in the agency's priority voucher program, but it doesn't include

actual funding. earlier this week, democrats and administration officials lobbied congress to allocate $1.9 billion in emergency funds for fighting zika. fears are deepening about the virus. the cdc issued their strongest warning yet earlier this week, calling it, quote, scarier than we initially thought. meanwhile, new studies have linked the virus to adult brain damage. this was my must read yesterday on that $1.9 billion. republicans want them to use what was left over from ebola. it looks increasingly like it's going to cost a lot more to come up with treatments, vaccines, and prevention. >> and the type of things it affects is increasing as well. switching focus. sean parker is on a mission to fight cancer. the tech billionaire who founded napster is announcing he's giving $250 million to six u.s. cancer centers, including memorial sloan kettering in new

york. sean parker will discuss his effort when is he joins kelly evans and bill griffith today on "closing bell." still to come, house speaker paul ryan slams the door on speculation he could win the gop nomination for president. that story tops today's political news. that's coming up after the break. first, here's today's national weather forecast from the weather channel's jen carfagno. >> happy wednesday, sara and wilfred. we're tracking a big cluster of thunderstorms that rolled through texas overnight, dropping more hail. we're in day two of the hail cleanup project here in texas. this cluster of storms will actually track right along the gulf coast, right along the northern gulf of mexico. new orleans later today, eventually by midnight tonight it's getting into florida. meantime, it is hello high pressure across the northeast. sunshine is back. temperatures are moving back up as well. speaking of the warmup, that is really going to happen today.

we're going to start to see temperatures running more than 20 degrees above average across the northern plains. active weather across the northwest. this is the next system that sets up and actually will eventually stall out across the middle of the country for the weekend. for now, it's staying in the west. it's really the warm temperatures across the middle of the nation we see temperatures going well above average today and continues for a couple days. that's the latest coast-to-coast forecast. "worldwide exchange" continues after this. i'm vern, the orange money retirement rabbit from voya. orange money represents the money you put away for retirement. over time, your money could multiply. hello, all of you. get organized at voya.com.

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welcome back. markets are in a bullish mood this morning, building on yesterday's gains. u.s. futures indicating a higher start with the s&p futures up 13. the dow after a 165-point close higher yesterday tacking on another 100 point here's in the premarket. the nasdaq up 38 points. in terms of currency, that weaker yen is helping fuel the mood. there's the dollar-yen. 109.26. just in terms of the euro action, weaker euro, stronger dollar. that's something to watch. better chinese trade data overnight has also helped fuel gains. oil sitting near its highest level in four months. some profit taking today, giving a little back. wti crude down 1%. just below $42 a barrel. brent down half a percent, 44.45. all leading into a very important meeting of opec and

no non-opec producers this weekend. >> sara, thank you. let's get to political news. the gop race for the white house might be a little more settled today after house speaker paul ryan slammed the door on speculation he might seize the nomination if the current candidates fall short. on the democratic side, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are preparing for one last debate tomorrow night before next week's make-or-break new york primary. nbc's tracie potts joins us with a roundup of today's big stories. >> reporter: hi there, wilfred. let's start with the republicans. ted cruz is admitting that after new york, he could see some losses this month. and donald trump is getting some feedback now. overnight, new reaction from the republican party on his claims that the process is unfair. donald trump's complaints about losing colorado's delegates raising new ire from the republican party. the party's chief insists

everyone knew the rules. complaints now, he tweets, give us all a break. but trump tells cnn the party may be trying to derail his nomination. trump's new top strategist says they're compiling evidence to challenge convention delegates. on capitol hill, house speaker paul ryan made it clear his name won't be in the hat, but with the "today" show, he left the door open for a former candidate to win. >> i'm not going to fore close anybody's option. >> reporter: trump's campaign predicts and ted cruz admits april could be rough for cruz. after new york tuesday, several northeast contests favor trump. but nevada's republican governor now says he may not support trump if nominated. and here's john kasich on trump politi politics. >> that could drive america down into a ditch and not make us great again. >> reporter: meantime, the democrats -- >> this is our moment. >> reporter: -- are preparing

for tomorrow night's debate. that debate is happening in new york, where hillary clinton holds a 14-point lead over sanders. >> tracie, thank you very much for that, as ever. one to watch, that debate. and of course the new york primary next week. also, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg took a swipe at donald trump at his company's f-8 developer conference yesterday. listen. >> i hear a voice calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others. for mocking free expression, for slowing immigration, reducing trade. instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges. >> sounding a bit like a politician himself. zuckerberg later wrote a post on his facebook page, the comments were not about any one person or country. he didn't name any names. he did talk about building walls. >> i think it was pretty clear, albeit attempted to be veiled.

>> but going after trump's world view. right. let's get on to sports. hockey's second season begins tonight with the first round of the stanley cup playoffs. the action kicks off with three games on the schedule in the east. the detroit red wings head to south florida to take on tampa bay. the new york rangers will be in pittsburgh for game one against sidney crosby an the penguins. the chicago blackhawks are in st. louis to face the blues. you can catch all games throughout the playoffs on nbc, nbc sports network, cnbc, usa, and the nhl network. speaking of sports, kobe bryant is hanging up his basketball shoes tonight, but another l.a. sports legend is also getting ready for his farewell tour. dodgers play-by-play announcer vin scully is retiring after this season. at tuesday's home opener, the team honored him with several hall of fame players presenting

him a special game ball. scully was just 22 when then brooklyn dodgers hired him. at 88 years old, he's probably seen more baseball than just about anybody in the game, including at least 20 no hitters and three perfect games. >> there we go. amazing, amazing career. right. still to come here on "worldwide exchange," this morning's top stories, including better than expected export data from china. >> but first, we have a question for you. this is our twitter and facebook question of the day. banks are the worst performing sector so far this year. so earnings are kicking off this morning with jpm at 6:45. do you buy the banks? let us know and we'll bring you the results later on the show. friends coming over?

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great time for a shiny floor wax, no? not if you just put the finishing touches on your latest masterpiece. timing's important. comcast business knows that. that's why you can schedule an installation at a time that works for you. even late at night, or on the weekend, if that's what you need. because you have enough to worry about.

i did not see that coming. don't deal with disruptions. get better internet installed on your schedule. comcast business. built for business. good morning. stocks are rallying, oil is dropping. the biggest movers straight ahead. the nation's banks ready to ral out quarterly results, starting with jpmorgan this morning. plus v a little time on your hands? well, google has the answering, launching a new app to help you fill three minutes. it's wednesday, april 13th, 2016. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost. yesterday we saw about a percent

of gains for the main u.s. equity indices. we're expected to extend that. almost triple-digit gains for the dow this morning. the s&p called higher by 13 points. the nasdaq by 37 points. it is a risk-on day, and it is in europe as well. if we look at european trade, we can see about 2% in gains, or more than that now, for the dax. the ftse 100 is up about 1.5%. it is very much the commodity names, the energy names leading the charge. why? because oil prices gained significantly yesterday. they're, in fact, down 1.3% today. we hit the highest levels of the year on a 4.5% gain for wti a few other factors helping the mood. a weakening yen for the first time in april over the last two days. overnight, china trade data. has china initially turned a

quarter here in terms of the economic pain we saw earlier this year? >> i'm going to go out on a limb and say no. on the face of it, the export number was very solid. it's driven partly a risk-on move out here in asia. the stock markets certainly like the number at face value. it's showing tentative signs of stabilization in the export picture. still a lot of stress overseas, in the u.s., in europe. major export destinations for china. the bottom line is we need more data, more quarters of data, more movanths of data to really see confirmation of a trend if it is a meaningful recovery. i'll put that aside and talk about the bounce in oil we saw yesterday. we are seeing some give back now as wilf mentioned. that's really helped the animal spirits out here. that correlation between oil and equities still very powerful. the other correlation is what the currency markets have been doing and japanese equities and their trajectory.

nikkei at 1 1/2 week highs. the hang seng, very powerful session. the best percentage gain in two months. the shanghai composite liking the data at face value. three-month highs there at the close. that's where we stand. >> a lot of green behind you. thank you, sri. bank earnings likely to set the tone for trading today. that starts this morning. jpmorgan set to post quarterly results within the next couple hours. the financial giant is expected to report earnings of 1.26 per share on total revenues of 23.4 billion. this would be the bank's first year-over-year earnings decline in five quarters. shares of jpm are down about 20% since the start of 2016. wilfred, you going to be covering these results. you're watching the energy losses. >> definitely want to see how big those losses are for

jpmorgan. probably around $600 million is what people are forecasting. they actually got ahead of that on their investor day in february. for jpm, we'll look at the investment banking and the capital markets revenue. again, all of the industry has guided clearly that's going to be down. the biggest swing factor is probably the expense management on the other side of that. if the revenue in that area is going to be down, have they managed to control costs as well. on both the energy front and banking front, what's the guidance for the year ahead? has q-1 been an aberration? is this something that might carry through? >> and how as a bank executive do you give guidance at a time where interest rates were starting to finally rise after nearly ten years, which they need for their bottom line profitability. we got the first hike in december in nearly a decade. now seemingly on pause. >> i think with that particular issue, it's kind of like also asking them about the political situation. it's very hard for the management to say, oh, i'm

pretty confident we're now going to have two hikes. what's clear from the management and from the banks is you can work out the sensitivity to an interest rate hike and the investor day in february, jamie dimon said $2 billion to the bottom line is a feed through from a 25-point basis hike. in q-1, the interest rate in december is a positive. it's just that analysts have clearly lowered their expectations for further hikes during the year ahead. i think that's something as hard for a ceo to predict as it is for all of us. >> 6:45. >> 6:45 earnings out for jpmorgan. a very busy day on the kmuk data front. march retail sales out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. expected to be flat after dipping in february. also at 8:30, the march producer price index. headline ppi is expected to rebound, up 0.3% following a decline the previous month. at 10:00 a.m., look for february business inventories. then the fed's monthly beige book report at 2:00 p.m., which

sadly is not available on kindle yet. >> but we will be printing it out old school and reading it. in corporate news, something to tell you about here with cme dpr group. according to the futures company, it's already received a notice of approval from the fed. this is a privilege that's usually restricted only to banks. some other stocks to watch today, schlumberger cutting operations in venezuela. csx blaming a drop in coal volumes more disappointing earnings. they expect that weakness to continue throughout the year. coal giant peabody energy has filed for bankruptcy. peabody is one of the many coal firms that have been struggling with high debt and low energy prices as well as new environmental regulations. as we said, jpmorgan is reporting. it also reportedly cut jobs at

its asia wealth management unit. jauls grosfeld has resigned from the board of directors. he had been calling for the chief to step down. >> jetblue with disappointing results for march, but it's up 1% in premarket trade. time for this morning's top trending stories. google calendar with a new feature called goals. the scheduling app has users setting personal goals for themselves. then it automatically finds time every week for you to accomplish them. >> you think that'll really help? it's a nice idea if your phone kind of beeps and says, oh, come on, work towards this long-term target. oh, okay then. >> i think people with relate to the idea of setting goals that never happen because there's never any time for them. so if you get constant annoying updates and reminders -- >> i think it just increases the

li likelihood of me smashing my phone. >> but it is kind of like the snooze button on your phone. just shut it off. >> which is why you were late. >> i was. >> amazon in talks to add cable tv to prime streaming. big task on their hands. interesting to see if they manage to crack it. deutsche bank is halting plans to add 250 jobs in the state of north carolina in response to the state's controversial new bathroom law. the german lender planned to add jobs outside of raleigh at its software development center. companies like facebook, twitter, apple have all spoken out against the law, which requires people to use the public restroom that corresponds to their biological sex on their birth certificate. we are really starting to see the economic damage pile up here against north carolina. paypal scrapped plans to add a new plant that it was building. it's interesting. i go back to an interview we had

with the lieutenant governor of north carolina where he said these are just threats. they're not going to actually take action. now we're starting to see them get active in a way they have not before. it worked in georgia. >> talking about 250 jobs here on this. it's not a huge number. but very symbolic. a sign of perhaps further things to come. >> the original "star wars" trilogy will return to theaters this summer for one night only. theaters in select cities are showing the original trilogy back to back for seven hours straight. tickets go on sale may 4th. gosh, seven hours straight. that's a lot of popcorn. >> for all the 25-year-olds who missed the originals and people like me who never watched them. >> are you going to go? i think unlikely if you need google calendars to remind you. when we come back, today's must read stories. why negative interest rates are not the fault of central banks. and trump's plan to win

conservative support. two very timely topics in our must reads this morning. "worldwide exchange" will be right back. >> the negative interest rates one is better. cathy's gotten used to the smell of lingering garbage...

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that was positive today. >> they did indeed. let's get to today's must-read stories. in the "financial times," my pick from martin wolf, who writes negative rates are not the fault of central banks. this article comes off the back of people like larry fink recently criticizing negative rates. also, the german -- >> whose fault are they? >> the german finance minister. he says the savers. there's an understandable complaint of a creditor nation, but this does not mean the objection makes sense. the world economy is suffering from a glut of savings relative to investment opportunities, and therefore central banks are just adjusting the relative price of these things. it's just worth a read. it's sort of defensive negative interest rates from someone who's not necessarily a plooefr -- believer in them. in brief, he concludes, we must regard ultra low rates as symptoms of our disease and not its cause. >> it does feel that right now

the sort of narrative has changed in terms of central bank stimulus policies. investors like qe, not so much negative rates. they like low interest rates. but helicopter money, that idea has really come out. >> as a possibility. i don't think they like qe anymore. i just think that qe was perhaps effective when it first was introduced. as were lower interest rates because they were coming from high levels. now you change from already low rates, the percentage decrease is very small, and of course everyone else is already at low levels. >> i picked a political op-ed today out of "the wall street journal" entitled "trump's plan to win conservative support." fred barnes outlining the strategy here that mr. trump has to follow. mr. trump now plans a series of formal speeches on policy issues, set pieces drafted by speech writers, and delivered from prepared text. this assume mr. trump follows

through with his speeches, avoiding any distractions that may result after the hiring of a professional campaign manager. this really gets into the trump maybo playbook to win his own party, which the writer argues he needs to actually get the nomination and take on hillary clinton. follow the model of the speech. he read the tell prompter, followed the script, got some standing ovations. as long as he can do that on issues like education and even foreign policy, then he might be able to win the party. >> how long can he follow that sort of guidance from a clear campaign manager? we'll have to wait and see. >> absolutely. i'm headed out a little early today. i'm going to leave you all alone. i'm going to washington to cover the world bank imf annual spring meetings. tomorrow we'll be live at this time from washington with an intervi

interview. we'll be talking to world bank president jim yong kim, a doctor who is fighting zika, which is going to be an interesting conversation. then imf managing director christine lagarde on the back of the imf cutting its estimate for global growth this year to 3.2%. they cut the u.s. forecast as well. we're going to talk about some of the challenges and risks in the global economy. >> it's a great lineup. we're looking forward to that imf coverage. >> thank you. we're going to talk about negative rates too, by the way. >> almost as much as the beige book. >> it's a big week for me. >> just little old me, i'm afraid to say, for the next 13 minutes. sara heading off to washington. >> i trust you. >> next here on "worldwide exchange," mary ann bartels from bank of america will talk about the rally and much, much more. despite sara's departure, don't go anywhere. you're watching "worldwide exchange." century. born with a hunger to fly

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exchange." the los angeles lakers face the oklahoma city thunder in the last game of the nba regular season tonight at 10:30 p.m. eastern. it's also the final game of the career of one of the league's most famous players, kobe bryant. landon dow dy joins us with mor. >> he's won five titles, all with the lakers, three with hall of famer shaquille o'neill, and two on his own. kobe is third on the nba's all-time scoring list with 33,583 points, just ahead of michael jordan and mind only carl malone and kareem abdul jabbar. with that level of success comes a higher level paycheck. bryant is the highest paid nba player this season at a whopping $25 million. add up his total career earnings, and the 37-year-old has brought in $323 million. that's before you even include endorsements off the court. kobe ranks in about $20 million

additional a year with big names like alibaba, apple, and of course nike. bryant signed a five-year, $75 million deal with the athletic gear maker in 2014. so how much would it cost you to catch kobe's last game? the average ticket price is going for $2,100. although, there are courtside seats listed on stubhub for $25,000. >> well, there we go. but you can understand it given the career he's had. landon, thank you for that. we're approaching the top of the hour. that means the team is getting ready for "squawk box." joe kernen joins us with a look at what's coming up. >> you're alone. >> i am alone, but i am now joined by you, which is a dream come true. >> when is that thing in is that today? >> it's today and tomorrow, i believe. >> today and tomorrow. okay. i thought she said tomorrow. i didn't see why she had to leave -- she had to leave before 6:00. >> to catch a flight to washingtjohe's hard working gir.

she's got a great lineup of guests. >> how long have you been here now? >> since the 1st of january. >> what is it, april? so four months. what do you miss most, wilfred? i know you don't like talking about yourself. is it the monarchy? working under the queen? you have sara. >> i'd say i probably miss most the queen of my own family, my mother, my brother. the family and friends. it's easier price worth paying because it's fun being out here. >> you miss standing in queue? do people not call it rubbish? they don't call it rubbish over here, do they? >> we call it rubbish, but you call it garbage, right? >> we call it garbage, trash. things we can't say on tv. >> there we go. i miss those sorts of things, but it's worth it. great to be out here. what's coming up on "squawk box," joe? >> i think there's earnings, i've been told. i'll tell you one thing i've been putting forth.

that is that, you know, the markets always go up when you don't expect it. there's an old expression, don't short a dull market. the dollar has backed off a little. oil prices have recovered. but we're in this nether period where earnings aren't going to be good. in fact, they'll probably be down year over year. yet, the market, i don't know, it's getting some firmness. a lot of the things we were worried about like the dollar and like oil and china, a lot of those things have been put on the back burner. not a lot of enthusiasm. the market has been making some strides, going up here. i guess earnings will give us a better look into things. >> okay. great stuff, joe. we look forward to that. "squawk box" coming up in seven minutes' time. let's talk about markets more broadly in the final minutes of "worldwide exchange." joining me is mary ann bartels at bank of america, merrill lynch. good morning. >> nice to meet you. >> and you too. jpmorgan earnings coming out today. we've seen this great rally

since the middle of february. why haven't banks taken part? >> well, there's a lot of concern about global growth. we actually took down our gdp forecast of 2% to 1.7%. we're seeing the imf take global growth numbers down and we're seeing yield curves flatten out. banks do not do well in that kind of environment. earlier in the year we were talking about recession. that never works well. fund managers don't want to own banks if you have the "r" word. so there's been a lot of concern, even over earnings, especially as interest rates move negative around the world. again, that's not a very profitable environment for the banks. >> you mentioned the yield curve flattening out. what does that mean for how sort of long this rally can go on for? how bearish this rally is. >> we have our fund manager survey out yet yesterday. we saw cash levels rise in a market that went up 13%. that's not traditionally what you see. so there is some defense.

but when we look at the market, the s&p right now is trading almost 19 times earnings. that's kind of expensive. yet, we've seen analysts take their numbers down for the first quarter. in fact, they've come down about 9%. the market is kuind of priced fr perfection but also priced for surprises. we expect episodic volatility. we think some companies will do very well in this environment. some companies will not do well. but the earnings season will be very important because we're actually forecasting the third quarter of a contraction in earnings. if earnings really can't expand, if we can't get topline growth, i think top line growth is going to be very important. the risk is that we do eventually get another selloff in the markets. >> and we know with earnings that the headline numbers aren't going to be great this quarter, but are the expectations for bottom line earnings low enough for earnings season as a whole potentially to be a catalyst for stocks? >> i think it's a catalyst, but the risk is that you get a slek group of surprises.

overall, if earnings continue to contract, i don't know how you go to new highs. we're already at our target for year end of 2000. again, we're bracing clients for continued volatility this year. >> now, we thought we'd slightly broken that strong correlation with oil prices in stocks, but yesterday another big gain in oil prices, big gain for stocks, carrying through to today. how important is that correlation? does it hold for the rest of the year? >> here's the thing. i learned a long time ago that your old leadership will always stay in focus, but other leadership is emerging. i think commodities is old leadership. we're just anchored on the old story. so the market will stay focused on it. but it's not where you want to be investing. we're seeing opportunities within the market in terms of innovation, technology, select industrial companies, health care with baby boomers is also doing very well. but really bottom line for our clients, they want income. anything with income is actually really doing very well in this market. >> mary ann, a pleasure to have

you with us. that's it for today's "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is coming up next. have a great morning.

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good morning. okay, jpmorgan, it is earnings season. i don't think alcoa does anything during earnings season. jpmorgan does. we're going to bring you the numbers and reaction from wall street. breaking overnight a surge in china exports. that's sparking a rally in stocks around the world. donald trump will put an end to that. >> and nearly 40,000 verizon workers are going on strike this morning. we'll get a live report from the company's headquarters in new york. it's wednesday, april 13th, 2016. "squawk box" begins right now.

live from new york, where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. check out the u.s. equity futures. we are continuing to pick up steam this morning, with the dow futures indicated up close to 90 points this morning. s&p futures up close to 12. the nasdaq is up by 35. overnight in asia, china's trade data for march showed a surge in export that was much stronger than expected. that was offset by weaker than expected export data. still, it was enough to spark a rally in stocks. the hang seng was up by more than 3%. the shanghai composite rose by nearly 1.5%. let's take a look at things in europe right now. you're going to see in the early trading there, there's strong gains as well. looks like the