hi, everybody. good morning. welcome. you're now watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. your headlines today, another dent in demand. the international energy agency forecasts further downside to oil demand, and it's saying this weekend's producers meeting will do little to support the price over the long term. a fashion faux pas for burberry, sending shares deep into the red. a sugar rush for nestle but

less love for unilever, which sees sales slipping on currency headwinds. and coming up, we'll be hearing exclusively from bill gates. we'll also be hearing about the fallout from the panama papers. >> i was surprised there were so few americans. hi, everybody. welcome to "street signs." i'm glad you're with us this morning. we're just getting the iea's monthly oil market report coming through. just to tell you a little bit about what it exactly it is they're saying. they're essentially talking about there will be more downside in oil demand. they're forecasting that we'll see more of a dip there. they're trimming their 2016 global oil demand to 1.16 million barrels per day. they see 2016 non-opec

production falling 710,000 barrels per day. the estimate largely unchanged since the report we saw last month. and they're also saying that the opec, non-opec freeze deal will have limited effect on supplies. we had some comments from the russian minister yesterday, which the markets took into consideration. but the iea talking about how they anticipate to see some scaling back. they're also talking about how a freeze deal wouldn't change the market amid the easing surplus. iran's return to the market is more measured than expected. the march output level being 400,000 barrels per day higher than at the beginning of the year. let's talk to a man who's all over this report. neil atkinson subpoena the head of the oil industry and markets division at the iea.

he joins us live from paris. good to have you with us. i just gave a couple of the main lines hitting the wires from this report, forecasting more downside to oil demand from the iea. >> well, i think the very, very small change we've made to the demand numbers is more a little bit of tinkering rather than any fundamental change in our view. we still believe that demand is going to go up by about 1.2 million barrels per day this year, which is steady. it's nothing like the figure we saw for 2015, but that was an exceptional year. we're very comfortable with that, and we don't see major changes to it. >> potential output freeze, though. the meeting coming up this sunday. you're saying it would have limited impact on supplies. >> well, certainly in the first half of the year because we're obviously now well into april. at the moment, we're unclear and

most outsiders to the talks are unclear as to what the proposal will be if there is, in fact, to be a proposal. earlier in the year when this idea first surfaced, there were talks about the outputs being frozen at the january levels. since then, we've had february and march production. there's now talk of production being frozen at some sort of average of that period. we don't yet know. but in terms of its actual physical impact on the oil market fundamentals, there is very, very little impact from any kind of agreement that we think is on the table. but of course, as time goes by, if there is an agreement, then that may be different. but we have to wait and see what they actually agree. >> and can you guess what they might be looking to agree? how difficult would an agreement be at this stage given all the members that need to come up with something? >> well, there's a very large number of countries apparently who are involved in these talks. we obviously see very, very

clear statements by, for example, saudi arabia, which has said it will not count on a production cut. there's a little bit of confusion around what may be the outcome of the talks, but i think we're just going to have to wait and see. the market will judge, along with the analysts, of course, on monday morning when we find out what the outcome was. >> you talk about in the report that india could be replacing china as the main engine of global oil demand growth. what's the time frame for a switch like that taking place? >> well, what we're seeing is china's demand growth has been one of the biggest contributors to global demand growth in the last decade or so. many years of very, very strong growth. but we're seeing a structural change in china's economy more towards a consumer oriented

economy, less use of energy. so we're starting to see lower rates of growth in china. meanwhile, india is a little further behind on the development curve than china. we're beginning to think india could be embarking on a period very similar to that which china started back in 2004 when we saw the beginning of a long period of high growth. india is beginning to grow. the middle class is growing in india, so you're seeing a big growth in vehicle populations and the use of transport fuels. so india could well be on its way to becoming one of the key components of global demand growth if not the key component. we'll have to wait and see. >> russia's economy minister saying that he sees oil averaging at around $40 per barrel with crude rising to 50 by 2018. i know also that the iea chief is saying that they expect oil

prices, or you expect oil prices, to rebound at least no 2017. how much of a rebound should i anticipate? >> well, the problem we have is that we can't be precise as to exactly when the oil market will rebalance. it's getting close to balance in the later part of this year, and we know it will rebalance -- or we think it will rebalance in the early part of 2017. once the market is rebalanced and started to draw down, the stocks that have accumulated over the last few years, there has to be something of a limit to the upside as far as prices are concerned. when prices do begin to rise in 2017, which we think they will, that is obviously going to offer encouragement to the higher cost producers, particularly in the united states who have been taken off the table in the last year or so. so there's always going to be an upside -- sorry, a cap on theup side for prices in 2017 and

2018. so $50, $60 a barrel by the end of 2017 could well be possible, but we need to get the market balanced first and then understand where we go from there. >> neil, thank you very much. thanks for being with us this morning. neil atkinson, head of the oil industry and markets division at the iea. our european markets this morning, we're pretty flat to a little bit lower on the stoxx europe 600 as indicated here on our beautiful wall. we're just a little lower. our main european equity markets indicating that as well. a slightly mixed story from the early morning trade. that's continuing. the xetra dax just pulling a little higher versus what's going on with the cac 40. the ftse mib having a whale of a day yesterdayer, higher by 4% on the close with a lot of buying back into the italian banks after the italian state now is leading this plan to set up a 5

billion euro fund to shore up some of the weaker banks out there. so just a bit of a reversal. now, lower rates have improved the profitability of eurozone banks. that's according to the ecb vice president. however, he added there are still clear limits to the use of negative rates and that they're not the right policy for the united states. separately to that, the irk mf has also defended the negative interest rates as being, quote, a net positive for the economy. this in stark contrast with recent comments coming from the german finance minister, who agreed the ecb's record low rates of causing extraordinary problems for german banks and pensioners. >> there are limits in terms of how negative interest rates, how far down they can go or for how long they can remain at the

present levels. but that does not mean that they do not play a useful role because negative interest rates like other unconventional monetary policy tools of central banks helped to provide monetary accommodation that ease financial conditions. that's something that helps consumption and investment and supports the economic recovery and inflation. that's what central banks, which are using these policies, are pursuing. so yes, there were limits, but they remain an overall net positive for the economy. beyond that the monetary stimulus that central banks are introducing through unconventional monetary policies has been to support the kmuk recovery. >> now, in asia, the nikkei posted its biggest gain in a month, closing up by 3.2% as yen

weakness boosted sentiment in the tokyo stock market. meanwhile, kuroda says he's ready to loosen further monetary policy if need be. sru joins uses from singapore. how are you? this loosening talk is not going away. >> no, it's not. roll on april 28th. that is when the bank of japan meets next. backs against the wall. there's frankly a lot of justifications and defenses of negative rate policy by mr. kuroda. anecdotally, he's having to go to the diet, the japanese parliament, on almost a daily basis to explain that policy. it's been very controversial. it's essentially a tax on savings. so that's the situation there. it's pretty much on ice right now. it begs the question, yes, there are additional easing measures, and the bank of japan is ready to undertake them in need be, but they're running out of road

here. they've almost exhausted jgb purchases. the other factor is it's going to come down to equity purchases. right now they stand at around 3 trillion yen a year. are they going to be upsized in an effort to get to 2% inflation? in the here and now, japanese yen. that's been backing off for the past three days from 17-month highs. so good news for the japanese exporters. good news for the market as well. monster rally into the close on the nikkei, up by 530 points. in my mind, this is not looking sustainable when there are so many problems still. arguably, the wheels are coming off abenomics, et cetera. i want to talk about the australian market. jobs data, that was upbeat. that helped sentiment. over here in singapore, we got a surprise easing move from the de facto central bank here. so perhaps this was a pre-emptive stab at the possibility of worsening in the external trade picture going

forward. so that went down pretty well with the markets as well. so this is where we stand right now. i think the inflation data stateside later on today is going to be very interesting, especially the implications for fed policy and the implications for the u.s. dollar as well. back to you. >> head of the chinese growth figures tomorrow. are you still there, sri? >> absolutely. >> guess where i was yesterday. >> let me guess. put my thinking cap on. i cannot -- i do not have any answers. >> lego land. >> ah, right. >> it was closed, but we were speaking to the ceo. we'll talk more about that later on in the coming weeks. have you ever been to lego land? >> i have not, but it's been a staple in my household. it's been a staple in my childhood and long may it reign. i think it's a fantastic toy.

>> do you know what, they produce 72 billion pieces of lego -- actually, a bit more than that if you factor in the tires and little figures. 72 billion. the equivalent of like everybody on earth having ten pieces each. >> great toy. >> anyway, we have to go. sri, thank you very much. talk soon again. e-mail the show. thank you very much for those of you who already have. gary, yes, i am back. good to be back with you all. the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can also find us on twitter. the show is @streetsignscnbc. my direct handle is @louisa bojesen.

anyway, burberry seems to be falling out of fashion among investors. the british fashion house is predicting full-year pretax profits will come in at the bottom end of the range that analysts had given. burberry blames a challenging demand environment, especially in europe and hong kong. shares off by close to 8% at the moment. rocket internet posting a 69% jump in revenue. it says it's on track to make three of its startups profitable by the end of next year. the german e-commerce firm also revealed it has $742 million available in its fund. and ivy league will be on sale. we'll be hearing from mr. phillip green coming up. stul ahead, phillip green

reveals exclusively what it was like to work with beyonce on their new brand ivy park. >> she really got engaged. she eventually educated me to say, y'all love it.

hi, everybody. welcome back to "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. casino has confirmed its full-year guidance after posting first quarter earnings, which beat expectations. the french retailer's results were boosted by demand at its core market. we'll be talking more brazil here in around 20 minutes' time. unilever has meet the street with first quarter underlying sales growth. the group behind brands inclu including ben & jerry's says

sales rose by 4.7%. nestle topping expectations in the first quarter despite pricing pressures and currency headwinds. the company confirmed its full-year outlook after logging sales of just under 21 billion swiss francs. jon, good to see you this morning. how do the two companies compare to each other in terms of their performance at this stage? >> you know, to be honest, i think both had a pretty decent first quarter with the multiple headwinds out there. i think the biggest surprise was probably nestle coming in with underlying sales growth close to 4%. the close was looking closer to 3.5%. the big gain there was actually in terms of volume growth. a lot of innovation coming through at the company.

north america frozen food relaunch looks pretty decent. signs of improvement in china. that was a positive, and that's reflected in the stock price. come to unilever, a better underlying sales growth, close to 5%. that was in line with expectations. and maybe the market wasn't so happy of the big magnitude of pricing. that was takenen away by the 4x head winds. so the 4x negative there came in worse than expected. that's probably why the stock is off a little bit this morning. you know, signs of good innovation from unilever in its personal care business and also in its home care business. overall, pretty decent from both companies, given a very tough environment. >> and how is the environment in particular in emerging markets looking for both companies? >> yeah, i think it's a bit of a mixed bag. obviously you're about to talk

about brazil, but obviously brazil is a big focus of attention for both of these companies. they're both big markets. you saw unilever increasing prices in latin america. obviously there's an inflationary situation there in addition to, you know, what's happened with the currency. nestle held off pricing in latin america. that will probably come later in the year. trading conditions are difficult, but again, both companies are able to price up and still see volume growth, so maybe not too bad. swinging into china and india, i think india overall is probably the most robust emerging market economy in the world at the moment. obviously there's a one-off regarding nestle with that noodles recall. in china, signs of stabilization, maybe things are getting a little better there for the companies, which has struggled in the last year in china amid channel distribution to online platforms and away

from modern trade. elsewhere in the emerging world, it seems investors are more constructive on emerging markets, and maybe there are signs that things are bottomed there for the time being. >> you mentioned volumes with regards to nestle, that it seems the growth was driven by volumes. where is pricing in this? how much elasticity in pricing is there? >> yeah, it's a very deflationary environment in the developed world. that's for sure. in the emerging world, obviously the commodities remain quite depressed. it's hard for these companies to price up. in the case of nestle, we saw 3% volume growth, which is the best performance in quite a few years. the flip side is they're saying, look, in terms of their pricing contribution, less than 1% in the quarter, which has been the lowest for ten years. so it is a pretty deflationary environment.

the positive seems to be trying to call the bottom for agricultural commodities. obviously that would help going forward. if we had a little more inflation in the system, obviously the pricing component is important when it comes to organic sales growth. so volume growth very decent, driven by innovation. what you probably want to see is more pricing coming through. hopefully that will come through later in the year. >> john, thank you very much. john cox, head of european consumer equities. now, in the wake of the panama papers exposing some of the world's wealthiest determined to hide their money, we turned to someone who's just as determined to share his own. microsoft founder bill gates announced a $50 million grant from the qatar development fund into his lives and livelihoods fund.

gates' charity initiative with the islamic development bank aims to help battle poverty and disease in the bank's predominantly muslim member countries. hadley has been speaking to mr. gates. >> so this is basically about a $2.5 billion fund to help the poor muslims in several different countries, including 400 million of them worldwide. of course, this has a lot to do with the backers here in saudi arabia, qatar as well. he's just been in saudi arabia. i asked bill gates for his assessment of what's going on in that country, whether they're diversifying away from oil fast enough, and also of course about that u.s.-saudi relationship ahead of the president's visit there next week. take a listen. >> there's so many challenges now, whether it's related to syria or libya or the gold states working as one. are they in alignment with each other about these various issues? are the gold states aligned with europe and the united states about these issues?

and these are very tough issues. it's not like somebody has the solution to isis and they're holding back on it or they know how to build stable governance in libya and they're holding back on it. so the relationship is probably more critical today than it's ever been. >> now, this $2.5 billion fund he's working on is looking to address health care, agriculture, and infrastructure issues, but also you have to remember, you know, when you look at the funding here, this is going to be in conjunction with the islamic development bank and also of course now with the qatari government as well. private donations have been blamed for a lot of the funding of isis and other radical fighters in iraq and syria. of course, the islamic development bank in the past has been related to projects with hamas. i asked bill gates, are you worried about where this funding is going to go? >> i think saudi arabia is always trying to make sure their aid is constructive.

you know, a little bit -- we've got to make sure we're not completely cutting off aid, you know, that the opportunity to lift people up -- no one wants to fund any sort of terrorist activity -- that we're able to achieve both goals. avoiding those negatives while continuing that generosity. i'm sure a lot of effort has been put to that. the areas we work, like buying vaccines, which is the global alliance for vaccines, in a number of countries have supported. that's very clear because you can track exactly what's going on. so we're quite careful. we're always offering opportunities where we have enough visibility that people can feel confident that both avoiding corruption and

redirection of the funds is not a risk. >> now, speaking of following the money, this region hasn't been immune to the fallout from the panama papers. the king of saudi arabia, the former imir of qatar, and the leader of iea all mentioned. >> i don't have any expertise in what happened there. i was surprised there were so few americans. >> doesn't the tax system prohibit it, really? make it not worth it? >> well, u.s. citizens, whenever you file your tax return, you're asked to declare what overseas bank accounts and assets you have. it doesn't mean that everybody absolutely answers that question correctly. so it's not impossible that might have come up. >> so bill gates there in the region for a couple of weeks working to get some funding for

this $2.5 billion fund, which is designated for muslims across the world. of course, the big question is, where is he looking to get that funding? he's working to get it here in the gcc and even with oil hitting these economies hard, it's clear that they're still managing to pony up. >> hadley, thank you very much for that. we have a little break coming up. the bottom of expectations for burberry. the fashion house shares slumping as it joining the list of luxury players under pressure. stay tuned for more. we'll be speaking also to someone i just spoke to, phillip green. we'll keep a secret of who's joining ining us in the studio.

hi, everybody. welcome back. you're watching "street signs." headlines this morning, europe cools the risk rally, sticking to the flat line. this after the nikkei posts its

biggest gain in the month, and u.s. stocks close at 2016 highs. another dent in demand. the international energy agency forecasts further downside to oil demand and says this weekend's producers meeting will do little to support the price in the long term. a fashion faux pas by burberry. warning that weaker demand will see bottom end of the forecasts. and a sugar rush for nestle. less love for unilever, which sees sales slip on currency headwinds. all right. well, checking in on expectations for how the u.s. markets are going to open. we're still a number of hours away. but the implied open seen on the right-hand side of your screen. a couple points lower there. dow jones being called some 20 points off or so. s&p 500, nasdaq just following

in its tide. this after we saw an interesting session overnight. asian shares at four-month highs. singapore unexpectedly easing policy as growth stalls. you saw the currency taking a bit of a drop on the back of that move there, hitting a two-week low in singapore. our european markets here this morning slightly mixed picture. the xetra dax a little higher, hanging on to slight gains along with some of the other european markets out there. green spots, including portugal, some of the smaller markets. otherwise, you have the ftse, the cac, the ftse mib all down. well, bur berry seems to be falling out of fashion among investors. the british fashion house is predicting full-year pretax profits will come in at the bott bottom range of what has been

forecasted. tania broieer joins us this morning. >> already the downturn in china was affecting them, so they were worried with about it. it seems to have caught up. of course, they're very forward on social media. they livestream the show. they're probably putting a lot of hopes on to that as well. >> they had kind of a revamp where they left the old checks -- didn't leave it completely aside. >> slaubl. the product seems to do very well editorially. his designs are very popular. he really is very popular amongst the show biz elite, but it's whether that translates on

to the high street, of course, is the big question. >> let's talk about another company as well. sir phillip green is no stranger to tax controversies. the billionaire has courted criticism over the fact that arcadia group is actually registered to his wife a monaco resident. tania caught up with sir phillip green at the launch of top shop and beyonce's new brand, ivy park. she asked him what he thought of the panama papers scandal. >> where's panama? i don't want to get involved in that. it is what it is. let's stick to fashion. it's more fun. >> can you blame -- can anyone take the blame, really, for that, or do you feel anyone should? >> i don't think it's about blame. everybody sort of suddenly -- sort of everybody sets up their

businesses or people set things up in a certain way. do people go out and set things up illegally? i wouldn't have thought so. but people take different views. they say two views make a market. >> but everyone's always interested in your view. >> i don't have a view. i don't know enough about it. i'm not involved in panama. so we'll stay there. >> so he didn't really want to talk about the panama papers. >> absolutely. and look, we were there to talk about ivy park, the launch. he was launching his new partnership with beyonce. so of course that's what we were there to talk about. i did ask him about what he thought about panama. of course, he's had his own critics where it comes to tax. so we were very interested to hear his views, which we heard there, louisa. of course, the partnership with beyonce is what we were there to

find out about. they were launching in over 50 countries around the world. she's a huge name. she's a superstar. anything beyonce says or does gets reported on. i remember a meeting 19 months ago where they were just talking about the collaboration. it's actually come to fruition now. i asked philip last night what she was like to work with. >> as we started to develop a thinking, which took us sort of six, seven, eight months to get there, it was about building a brand. for whatever reason, top shop we'd actually not got into this whole sector that's really on fire. most people now wearing these pants, these leggings. it's now become a way of life. so for whatever reason, we hadn't got into that. then we sort of developed that concept and we started.

beyonce was really engaged in how we developed it together. she wanted to know about the fit and this and that. she saw every piece on, tried it all on. it was a really sort of long, hard slog to get to tonight. >> and what's beyonce like to work with? >> she was great. we laughed a lot. as you go along, like anything, she was more and more engaged, wanted to understand inside stuff with the pants, support, how they fit. so she really got engaged in terms of, you know -- and then she eventually educated me to say y'all love it. off we went. >> sounds like she was very involved. >> well, we had lots of meetings. i've only got half an hour, then three hours later after she sort of -- once you're into it, you get on with it. we worked, it was fun, and i think it got all my team

engaged. this is a true superstar. she's a perfectionist. >> he's had lots of collaborations in the past, right? >> he has, louisa, but this is very different. he's had collaborations famously with kate moss that did very well, but this is actually a partnership and a brand they've built together. that brand is going to be sold in other stockers. in nordstrom in america. all around the world, in over 50 countries. so they're building this brand together. they've done some test runs. sir philip said the feedback has been incredible. beyonce is a superstar. she's so well known around the world. she's starting her tour. when she's up there in front of everyone, she can wear her own ivy park collection. as he said, she was very involved. she tried on all the pieces in the collection. she danced in them. she wanted to know exactly how they feel. and looking at them, the price points are from about 14 pounds sterling to the most expensive 140 pounds sterling.

so average praice about 30 to 4 pounds. judgesing from last night, i think it's going to fly off the shelves. >> someone said she could market a sack. >> she's so popular. it's a very, very good partnership together. >> tania, thank you very much. just want to get you some breaking news hitting the wires. the ukrainian parliament has appro approved volodymyr groysman for prime minister. the resignation taking place in the last week or so. the ukrainian parliament having approved the new prime minister for this post. now, the mexican government has agreed to a $4.2 billion

liquidity injection into pemex. the current crude price rout has hurt the company further. the government says pemex must reduce its liabilities as a condition for accepting the support. now, argentina has returned to the international capital market after more than a decade on the sidelines. this after a u.s. court cleared the way for the country to begin raising $15 billion on the bond market in order to pay off its creditors. the decision will be welcome by the newly elected president, who made settling the country's debt one of miss main campaign promises. and let's talk about brazil as well. dilma rousseff has vowed to unite the government if she survived an upcoming impeachment vote in congress. the embattled brazilian president has seen a swath of defections. rousseff struck a defiant tone

in the face of tomorrow's debate. >> translator: i'm sure brazilians will be with me on the 15th, and we will win the battle against a coup, against an impeachment that doesn't have a legal base. from last week, after we turn that page, we will start a new pact to overcome the crisis and retake the economic growth. >> well, simon evans is a chief emerging market strategist. what do you think president rousseff's chances are of surviving an impeachment vote at this stage? >> she has chances. let's not forget she was democratically elected. there were about 20 impeachment calls against her. the parliamentary speaker decided on one. one has to take this on into context. at the weekend, 67% of mps are needed. she got about 60% in the parliamentary committee. so that's where we stand. it's a very touch-and-go situation. >> she says her opponents, that

they're planning a coup. what do the opponents look like, if they were to come to power? >> that is a very good question. at the moment, there are really very few opponents who you can say are viable to be running the country essentially. so what we need is a new impulse from opponents to come up and be able to say, look, we can run the country with the support of the young population. if you look at it, it's really the young population driving this whole process. >> the claim is, among other things that, she's manipulated government accounts. now, even if she survives, how difficult would it be for her efforts to try to continue to rebuild the brazilian economy, which is really dire. >> absolutely. just like in argentina, it's not as bad, but huge challenges for the government. they had eight to nine months after the last elections in 2014 to push through. rating agencies waited.

nothing happened. so there really is no one to drive that force within the government. >> and you mentioned argentina, of course. they're returning to the bond markets. what's the timing like for this? >> well, you know, we've been following the situation for about 15 years in argentina. it's quite a process. i remember being there back when they devalued. the country's been through a lot of turmoils. a lot of destruction, if you like, economic destruction. so the new government that we have in place now has, let's say, a 12-month time frame to bring things in order. they still have electoral support in opinion polls, but i think from the timing point of view, it's just right. we have a window now, maybe one or two or three weeks to get those bonds out there. fund managers have plenty of cash. so let's see what happens next week. >> is there enough support, especially given his mention to links with regards to panama papers? he says he hasn't done anything

illegal at all. >> there are different perceptions about this whole thing. we've had all these papers come out. honestly, many people knew about these sort of situations before. it's apparently come out into the open. all over the world there's going to be a lot of repercussions. but he has about 60% electoral support now. it dropped about 10, 15 percentage points since january to february, but he's got the support. as i said, he has this 12-month opportunity now. inflation, 30%. public debt of 50%. very tough call. >> i note that you say that we feel a wind of change. coming from where and blowing us to where? >> i think the wind of change is actually coming from the north. it's also coming from the south. you see the change in the electorates. they're fed up with governments who have been pushing through massive changes, which are not helpful to the economy, not helpful to growth. we've seen the change now in

argentina. we've seen this wind of change happening in brazil. from the north, we've seen it in u.s.-cuban relations. after decades of not seeing a president visit cuba, mr. obama did visit this year. i think this is a very strong positive impulse that we'll also see in venezuela. today or tomorrow, the 15th of april, is the date when the congress in venezuela can start issuing a recall referendum. >> i know you look at emerging markets. just a quick question on ukraine as well. the parliament approving the new prime minister now. what's that going to mean? >> again, politics destroys a country and the economy. over 10, 15 years. we need change in ukraine just like we need change in lata. the president and the prime minister are speaking with one voice. they have very challenging process in the eastern part of

the country. we see that the european union is having problems with ukraine, just as russia. we need to see some peace in the country. i think we should see an impulse coming there. >> simon, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> coming up, jpmorgan setting a very high bar with a solid set of earnings. will the other u.s. banks do the same? stay tuned. we'll be discussing banks in a moment. keep your e-mails coming through. streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. or we're on twitter. we'll see you in a jiffy.

welcome back to "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. british broadcaster itv is reportedly in takeover talks with the canadian production company entertainment one. discussions are only at a preliminary stage and may not lead to a deal. itv told cnbc it wasn't willing to comment on speculation

surrounding this potential deal. responding this morning, entertainment one says no approach has been received. meanwhile, david l.neuhauser says there could be a number of potential bidders for the media company. >> i don't want to speculate too much. i think there's a number of players that have the potential for that globally, so i think there's some u.s. players. i actually think there's some players in china. you can obviously look at some deal flow that's happened in the past two years. those are the obvious players potentially, but i think someone would want to be really specific towards the company and see what the real synergistic value is. my view is i want us to receive the true intrinsic value of the business. again, we may reject that as well. we may embrace it. it just depends on what comes of it.

facebook is in focus this week as well, as the company holds its annual developers conference. wilfred joins us with a look at some of the big headlines for the company. wilfred, what can we anticipate from facebook? >> well, exactly. facebook had its annual developers conference. lots of things coming out of that. a new research report, in fact, getting pickup overnight. it suggests facebook's first quarter ad growth was worse than expected based on incomplete data. the comments from the analyst causing a dip in facebook shares yesterday, though it did bounce back. facebook shares up about 6% so far this year. in other news on the tech giant today, facebook has hired regina dougan away from google to focus on large, breakthrough technology. on the u.s. trading day ahead, we have a number of banks following jpmorgan yesterday

beating expectations. bank of america and wells fargo on the agenda. also, black rock and delta airlines. louisa? >> wilfred, good to see you. have a good show coming up in ten minutes. be sure to tune in for "worldwide exchange." moving on, the defending nba champion golden state warriors defeated the memphis grizzlies 125-104, recording the best ever regular season record with 73 wins and only 9 losses. last night's win breaks the previous mark set by michael jordan and the chicago bulls. that was back in 1996. i remember that. i was there. warriors superstar stephen curry also setting a record by making 402 three pointers this season, breaking the mark of 286 he set

last season. full on celebrations. meanwhile, nba legend kobe bryant went out with a bang at his final nba game scoring 60 points and leading the l.a. lakers to victory over the utah jazz. bryant dominating the game, taking a career high 50 shots and scoring 23 of his 60 points in the fourth quarter. can you believe it? bryant retiring after 20 seasons. 18 all-star game selections and five nba championships all with the lakers. nice way to go out on a high. back to markets. are investors betting that one swallow will make a summer? u.s. bank stocks rallying throughout the session after jpmorgan beat forecasts on a solid performance in its consumer unit. investment banking still took a hit with stocks, bonds, km commodities contributing to the downside, raising concerns over how the other large financials will fare during this reporting

season. just to give you a little bit of a run down, today bank of america, blackrock, wells fargo. they all take center stage. tomorrow, citi reports after warning of a 15% drop in trading revenue earlier this year. morgan stanley reports on monday. then next week, goldman sachs preparing to reveal apparently the worst set of earnings in a decade on tuesday. five of the eight big banks have been told by u.s. regulators that they have until october to come up with a new living will plan after failing the latest bankruptcy test. the results highlighted the too big to fail worries that still exist among lawmakers and show the continued reliance of lenders on taxpayer funds in certain stress scenarios. joining us on the phone is the vice president of equity research financial at rafferty capital. we have a whole host of banks coming up. let's talk about some of the big

ones like wells fargo, jpmorgan. jpmorgan, solid performance at their consumer unit. investment banking not so. >> well, i think that's what you can expect to see for the rest of the earnings season. in other words, the traditional banking business in the united states is actually doing really well. loans are growing at above average pace. interest rates did go up in december, which means that margins are going to be higher. and loan losses, other than what you have in the oil sector, are going to be relatively low. on the other side, everything that's going on in the capital markets business is not doing well. trading is very weak. investment banking is weak. asset management is not doing well. i think looking forward for the remainder of the year, you should expect to see that traditional banking will continue to do well, which means regional banks will do well. it's a toss-up concerning what's going to happen in the capital markets arena. >> so this spills over. this isn't just about jpmorgan. you say in your note on jpmorgan

there's a general panic concerns bank stocks and that the capital market weakness definitely is there, as you just said, but this is across the board then. >> yes, it absolutely is. i think to say that jpmorgan beat its estimate is a bit of a stretch at this point. every analyst, myself included, were in a race to get the lowest number out concerning what jpmorgan, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, bank of america, et cetera, would do in this quarter. if they didn't beat the estimates, it would have been perhaps more surprising. >> how about loan losses? are we still looking at increases in loan losses? >> absolutely. i think that loan losses in the american banking industry for the last three years have been well below normal. i mean, in fact, in the this could of 2013, they were the lowest as a percentage of loans in the history of the numbers.

it would have been irrational to assume they were going to stay at that level. i think you should expect to see loan losses rise in, we'll say, four specific areas. one would be oil and gas. the second will be metals and mining. a third would be subprime auto lending. a fourth would be, you know, commercial real estate. this last one, commercial real estate, is where the biggest hit is going to come from. however, having said that, you know, there's enough revenue coming from the other activities in the bank to absorb these loan losses. i think for the next two to three years, you can expect to see loan losses go up in the american banking industry. >> so today we've got bank of america, black rock, wells fargo. tomorrow we've got citi. which ones of these is the one that sticks out? is there one where there's value to be found and where i might want to get back in? >> well, i think in the case of both citi and bank of america, you have two companies which are selling at 35% to 40% discounts to book value, which is, in my

view, absurd. i think these stocks are unbelieve bu unbelievably attractive. i think both stocks should be able to double. despite what is a sloppy and undesirable quarter, both these stocks should be bought. >> yeah. dick, thank you very much. dick bove joining us from rafferty capital. much appreciated. now, the u.s. markets having been called just a tad bit lower, as seen there on the implied open. we'll be back in just over two hours time. we'll bring you the latest monetary policy rate decision from the bank of england. that's just before 1:00 cet. not to miss that. see you soon again.

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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. the bulls in control. breaking overnight, asian stocks soar to be multimonth highs after u.s. equities close at their best levels of the year. news makers and news breakers. the imf and the world bank holding spring meetings in washington today. on the agenda, the state of the global economy. we'll bring you a front row seat. and a night for the history books. the golden state warriors win their 73rd game, breaking the record for the best nba season ever. and kobe bryant closes his storied career, scoring 60 points to lead the l.a. lakers to