welcome to "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm nancy hungerford. these are your headlines. santa not providing cheer in europe this morning. stateside, though, the dow coming within a whisker of 20,000, driven higher by financials. banco monte dei paschi says its liquidity will dry out in four months instead of 11, as the italian lender makes a last-ditch attempt to raise private capital and avoid a state bailout. spanish banks sinking to the bottom of the european market as the eu court of justice

overturns a spanish court ruling on mortgage interest repayments. shares of mediaset hit a 16-month high after vivendi increases its stake yet again. but the italian media group warns it will take all measures necessary to defend its assets. good morning, everybody. good morning. kind of christmassy. >> i know. we're trying. just a few days to go. hard to believe. >> i'm not one of those with the sweaters with rudolph's nose popping off. missed that day here. >> i did, too. >> i have a few in my closet. wrueuropean equity markets, just a bit lower. we hit an 11-month high yesterday on european equities

what goes up must come down. what goes down must go up. today just drifting. when it comes to the main european equity markets, slightly mixed trade. the ftse just bucking the trend, hanging on to slight gains. these markets i call them flat. a bit lower by a half percent on the ftse mib. it had bucked the trend on the upside at the open, then heard that bmps has less money than we thought. that tends to be a bigger story today. we'll get on to that in a second. i want to show you the sectors out there. you have basic resources pulling up the most followed by construction and material and technology. to the down side insurance and banks off by just -- just shy of a percent or so. if you have not heard, bmps liquidity to run out in four months instead of the 11 months they previously had been forecasting. this being the world's largest operating bank. maybe also kind of a -- i

wouldn't say a bellwether for the italian market but one people are looking closely at to see how the authority also react toe them needing capital. other italian banks in the same situation. >> a bit different depending on which lender. >> yes. >> not just monte dei paschi, even though that's the one we focussed on recently because they set this rather swift timeline as well when it comes to the cash call by the year-end. today bmps saying that the bank's liquidity will run out in four months. this is instead of the 11 months that was previously forecast according to reuters. let's get out to claudia standing by in milan with all those details. good morning. >> good morning. certainly that news about the liquidity affected the markets this morning as the stock now suspended down by almost 13 percentage points. monte dei paschi siena the important aspect is that it looks as though the private road

to the capital hike is most likely not going to go through. it's looking as though the deadline for the debt to equity swap, the second debt to equity swap announced, an extension past the institutional one, this one expected to bring in about 800 million euros. so far the number is around 400 million to 500 million euros in terms of bond holders that had adhered. the capital hike deadline that's tomorrow is even more delicate. that, in terms of what they expect to be able to raise is looking grim at this point. if the private route were not go forward, the government is prepared to step in. the government has approved a 20 billion euro intervention overall in the banking sector in italy. not clear how much of that would go to monte dei paschi siena and the bank would then have to deal with the issue of having the state intervene. so it would open a whole new

page. for months the bank has been working on trying to avoid bankruptcy and moving along a private solution. but at this point it's really -- the clock is ticking on that. >> claudia, you mentioned they are trying to avoid a state solution here. interesting that monte dei paschi laying out some conditions of the italian bank rescue fund, how they envision the participation here. they're making quite clear that alante will not participate if state aid rules are triggered. >> exactly. atlante was going to step in in the process of spinning off the almost 30 billion euros of bad loans. they have stated if the private solution, the one the bank was working on, that spinoff part of that initial plan would actually probably not take place right away because the state solution would have changed the course of what has been worked on so far.

so atlante clarifying the conditions under which they would be willing to invest that 1.5 billion euros of that fund are that the state not intervene for more than 1 billion euros and they not go forward with the burden sharing. so these are the two conditions that basically are just once more clarifying what atlante's since the beginning of their involvement was willing to do. more than anything, it's a specification of these conditions. but they seem less and less likely necessary if the private solution does not go forward. >> claudia, thank you very much for walking us through those developments. joining us now here on set is nicholas davidson equity senior portfolio manager at alliance bernstein. good morning. >> good morning. >> >> thank you for joining us, just days to go before christmas. yet again looking at banco monte dei paschi in italy. do you think this is having knock-on effects when it comes to the banking sector in europe?

>> yes. i think it's a reminder you need to be cautious about banks that there are regulatory risks there, risks about balance sheets, it can be harder to understand than some other sectors. equally it would be a mistake to avoid the sector altogether. in our portfolios we have the northern european banks with strong domestic franchises and strong balance sheets. >> raises the question of whether or not 2017 could be the year that some european banks play catch up. when you look at the u.s. banks, particularly with goldman sachs, jpmorgan, on the heels of this trump rally, europe banks still underperforming relatively speaking. >> yes, we've seen some rally recently, but you highlight a key point, there's a major trend we've seen in equity markets, starting in early july as interest rates bottomed and accelerating sharply after the u.s. presidential elections as people have moved away from some of the parts of the market seen as safe, high quality, low

beater, towards the more cyclical exposures including banks. that probably has further to run in 2017. >> we had a guest yesterday saying he's calling the top of the markets. enough is enough. we've had this run. valuations don't make sense. do you think we're at the top of the market? >> i think it's always hard to call those markets. >> super hard. >> i would say for european equities starting valuations are not demanding, not particularly cheap by historical standards but not expensive either. interest rates remain low. as an investor what are your options? equity options look more attractive than bonds. >> are you in the camp that think the fed will hike two or three times next year? depending on who you ask, a lot of people are scaling back expectations for how many times the fed will come out and perform. >> yes. i think it's hard to make those macro forecasts with confidence. what i would say is this clearly

is strong interplay between currency markets and interest rates. if you continue to see the dollar rising strongly, that does some of the fed's tightening work, you may not see the two or three interest rates people are expecting. if it's more muted, i think more rate rises are likely. >> just curious, you say it's hard to call these macro trends. i completely agree with you. fantastically difficult to see through some trends in the longer term. how do you then make your calls at the moment? the macro environment is still one upon us. very much kind of leads the way when looking at the central banks. >> that's absolutely right. as an investor what you need do is be aware of what the major macro risks are. try to make sure your portfolio is relatively balanced in relation to what might happen. so going back to that big risk rally we talked about, as i say, that's likely to be sustained. when you look at valuations in the market, those high quality low beater safe stocks that have

been in favor for several years remain expensive, undervalued, more cyclical stocks remain cheap. there's further to go, but those trends can reverse sharply and unexpectedly. you don't want to have too much exposure in any particular macro sensitive area. >> since you predicted this risk rally has legs, people wondering whether the dow will hit 20,000 before christmas. do you think so? >> as i say, these short-term predicti predictions, i won't go there. >> sector speaking in europe, you pointed out french industrials as one area you like. a lot of concerns coming after the french political risk as we get closer to elections. why do you like french industrials? >> some of those risks have weight on valuations. if you look at companies like airbus, in our view they're still cheap. they're positively exposed to some of those macro trends. those costs are in euros.

revenues mainly in dollar. if that currency market trend continues to play out, that's good for airbus. we think more importantly that underlying revenues, the growth of orders for large aircraft remains strong. because of some of those macro concerns, you can still buy that company at an attractive price. >> speaking of the low euro impact, how significant will this be when we get to the core earning season in europe? >> that will vary from company to company. a lot of the larger cap companies have more global exposures. they will benefit more from a strong dollar. some more domestically focused companies will benefit less. i don't think that's something you can answer on a macro level. it's where company analysis is critical. >> all right. nicholas, thank you very much for joining us. nicholas davidson, equity senior portfolio manager at alliance bernstein. german police are still on the hunt for the driver of the truck that plowed into a christmas market in berlin on

monday night killing 12. authorities freed an initial suspect they were holding because of lack of evidence. germany's interior minister said the perpetrator may still be at large. the islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack but provided no evidence. they say the person responsible was a soldier of the militant group and carried out the attack in response to "calls to target nationals of the coalition countries." hans nichols reports from berlin. >> reporter: the isis claim coming in the middle of an urgent manhunt. police tonight looking for a suspect after that surprise move. releasing the 23-year-old pakistani migrant they originally thought was the truck driver. now high alert across the city. tonight we've learned new details about the attack that left at least 12 dead and nearly 50 wounded. just after 8:00 p.m. last night,

a large truck jump the the sidewalk and plowed into the crowded christmas market. authorities say the truck drove through the market, about 250 feet, crushing wooden huts selling wine and sausages. today the truck was removed from the square. revealing the horrific aftermath. witnessed by american shandana dorani who moved to berlin, she said she barely survived and hid behind a stall. >> all of a sudden i heard banging and screaming, i looked up and saw a semi truck barrelling down the street towards me. >> one of the victims found inside the truck's cab, an employee of the polish truck company found shot. the last phone call to his wife, monday five hours before the horror began.

today german chancellor angela merkel visited the scene, holding a single white rose to remember the victims. >> two possibilities, either he's a lone wolf and will go into hiding or he has co-conspirators. >> reporter: tonight a makeshift memorial here is growing as germany mourns the victims of a deadly attack and wonders if more are to come. today merkel said it would be hard to bear if the attacker turned out to be a refugee, an acknowledgment that the attack could have consequences for her policy which let in close to a million migrants and led to deep divisions in german society. elsewhere, turkey has detained six people over the assassination of russia's ambassador. those arrested include the gunman's mother, father, sister, his roommate and three other relatives. russia and turkey have said the killing won't alter recently m

improved relations. it's always good to hear from you about the show. you can find us on e-mail, streetsignseurope@cnbc. also live on twitter, or find us directly, i'm @louisabojesen. >> you can find me @nancycnbc. coming up, once again, media madness. media set pushes back as vivendi increases its stake in the company. take one.

directv now. stream all your entertainment! anywhere! anytime! can we lose the 'all'. there's no cbs and we don't have a ton of sports. anywhere, any... let's lose the 'anywhere, anytime' too. you can't download on-the-go, there's no dvr, yada yada yada. stream some stuff! somewhere! sometimes! you totally nailed that buddy. simple. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. hi everybody. welcome back. you're still watching "street signs." we're glad you're with us. shares of mediaset are in focus

this morning after vivendi increased its stake to 25.7% on tuesday. under italian market rules, should vivendi increase the stake to 30% it would be required to launch a full takeover offer. mediaset said vivendi's recent actions have been illegitimate. and takeover talks between act l actelion and sanofi are making progress. according to reuters sources, actelion reached a point with the french drugmaker where it can't now call off negotiations without triggering an investor rebellion. ab imbef agreed to sell for $3.15 billion. the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2017. volkswagen added another $1 billion to its u.s. settlement bill with a deal to fix or buy back another 80,000 diesel vehicles.

the settlement covers 3 liter volkswagen, porsche and audi models sold in the united states and brings the german carmaker's total spend in america to $17.5 billion. the world's number two carmaker faces the possibility of further payouts to resolve a justice department criminal investigation. shares higher by 0.4%. overall investors see this as a relief. blackberry has reported better than expected third quarter earnings and raised its full year outlook thanks to growth at its software union, but warned it would take three to five quarters to halt revenue declines. shares soared on the improved outlook but saw a sharp retreat to close almost 3% lower after the comments. you know what i did the other day? >> no. >> i have the blackberry and iphone. >> still? >> i do. i love them both. somebody else in the news room has -- lots of people also have

blackberries. so i was on my way home. i'm holding my iphone, on the phone, trying to logon to my blackberry, it says you have two times left we'll wipe the things clean. what's going on? i did two more times, it said now i'm wiping the whole thing clean. >> no reason why. >> i didn't know my password for whatever reason. i call i.t. i try to get through to people. spent an hour of mess and nonsense setting the whole thing up. an hour later going into my bag, i find the blackberry. i wiped somebody else's blackberry clean. >> did you find out who? >> yes. she was out traveling. i wiped the whole thing clean. >> it happens. hopefully she had backup. thank goodness for the cloud. >> felt so bad. i mean it's like it's texts, pictures. >> hopefully have a nice christmas present in store for that person. >> i know. i picked it up as i was walking

by. i had the wrong blackberry with me. >> you need a sparkly cover on it. >> you're absolutely right. crystals. moving on. facebook has become the latest u.s. tech giant to come under fire from the european commission. the social media company has been accused of providing misleading information during its takeover of what'sapp. a change in the messaging app's policies said it would share some users phone numbers with facebook despite the latter indicating during the acquisition that it would not be able to mafrp ttch the two comp accounts. if found guilty, facebook could face up to $179 million in fines. and at twitter, adam messenger has become the latest executive to call it quits. taking to twitter to make the announcement, he said he was leaving the company after five years to "take some time off." engineering vice president ed ho

will take over the engineering and product team. analysts at global equities research said the move proved twitter was toast saying the stock was not even worth $10. some harsh words there. >> we have pelam smith with us. good morning. you us some notes before, there were some things on here i didn't understand. unless you are a real techie, this might be a learning curve. starting with oled phones what we're seeing, explain what are oled phones, why do you think this is something we should be focusing on? >> so, right now your iphone is an lcd screen. most samsung phones have an oled screen. oled is a thinner version, similar technology, but much thinner. you can bend it, stuff like that with oled.

so the samsung galaxy edge, that's an oled screen. it's nicely curved at the side and stuff like that. your iphone, nice and flat. now, in 2017 it's expected that apple will move some -- probably not all of its phones to oled. they placed orders with samsung's subsidiaries for classic oled. >> so it's more bendy. >> it can create curved screens. >> you won't have the cracking in the pocket issue. like they had in the beginning. >> yes. >> you also mentioned again you talk about the difference between virtual reality versus augmented reality. >> yeah. >> it doesn't seem like we've seen this massive push towards either to the extent we would have anticipated 1 month2 month.

>> there was a lot of talk a few months back about these headsets, but you needed a personal computer and to spend thousands of dollars on these headsets. two months ago, sony brought out the play station vr. they have run into supply issues, only made about 750,000 in time for christmas. the speed with which they were taken up. if you wanted to buy one for christmas right now, you probably had to pay about $150 extra on ebay to get one such is the premium. this is the first time an affordable headset has come through and demand has taken off. >> i want your thoughts on electric vehicles. you have some interesting calls on tesla. you're not so convinced about investing in tesla, but how do you play this? >> tesla should get through as a car manufacturer quite okay. the problem is that they

probably need to finance and raise more equity during this time. as a consequence, it's quite tough for existing shareholders given how expensive the stock is. the best way to play it through some supply chains. the most expensive part of the tesla is the battery. that's relatively affordable way to play that through panasonic. >> what's the other top tech pick going into 2017? >> the virtual reality, i think sony is the other one. japanese technology companies. >> number one player. >> yeah. >> a lot of kids disappointed this christmas because it's hard to get those headsets. bet it wasn't on your list. >> no. i'm more basic. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> sure. now, it might be one of the most popular christmas drinks in the u.s., eggnog, that thick, goppy drink. love it or hate t one school in minnesota came up with an end of

year contest involving eggnog. who can chug just over a liter of the drink the fastest. and keep it down. i guess that's what they're trying to do the event has been an annual one at the school for the last ten years. this year the high schooler jake klugg took the prize, as opposed to glugg. >> lots of girls in that shot. didn't see them running up there to chug the eggnog. >> we do other funny things. i don't know. i don't know. i guess that kind of -- it's wasteful. it's -- i don't -- >> you do eggnog in denmark. >> y bes, but a tiny one, an eg yo yolk mixed with sugar. >> and you do mulled wine. >> yes. >> let usthink,.

>> world markets live a great website. our blog that runs throughout the entire european trading day. we'll be back after the break. ex

. good morning. welcome back to "street signs." i'm nancy hungerfordment. >> i'm louisa bojesen. your headlines this morning.

>> santa fails to provide much cheer in europe. stateside, though, the dow coming within a whisker of 20,000, driven higher by financials. banco monte dei paschi says its liquidity will dry out in four months instead of 11, as the italian lender makes a last-ditch attempt to raise private capital and avoid a state bailout. spanish banks sinking to the bottom of the european market as the eu court of justice overturns a spanish court ruling on mortgage interest payments. actelion shares bounces after reuters announces that sanofi is making progress with the drug giant. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "street signs." it was just within a whisker that the dow almost hit that 20,000 mark yesterday. we were talking about some 13 points that it missed that level by. looking today, u.s. futures pointing to a soft open for the

dow jones, called lower by 2.6 points. people are wondering with just a few days to go if it will hit the 20,000 mark. s&p 500 called slightly higher. the nasdaq called higher. it was another record day for the dow and nasdaq. in that wait and see mode. relatively quiet u.s. futures, we're getting to that quiet near christmas period. in europe, an outlook at where we stand. the xetra dax barely in the green. french cac, lower by 0.15%. the italian market lower on fresh fears from monte dei paschi. monte dei paschi shares suspended limit down by 12% earlier. the italian market is off 0.3%. a look at the fx curve. the dollar once again, a big story yesterday. that dollar index hitting the

highest level since 2002 that sent the euro against the green back to its lowest level since 2003. people wondering now whether we'll hit parity sometime soon. the you're reuro making a small gains the greenback. sterling off by 0.2%. aussie dollar off by a quarter percent. bmps is saying the bank's liquidity is expected to run out in 4 months instead of the 11 months previously forecast. they aim to raise 5 billion euros before the end of the year in order to avoid government assistance. however demand has been dampened by the political turmoil sparked by matteo renzi opens referendum loss and resignation. and shares in spain's biggest banks are languishing near the bottom of the stoxx 600 after the european court of justice overturned a spanish court's

ruling that capped banks liability for floor clauses in mortgage contracts. the lenders now have to repay customers over the entire life of the loan with costs expected to amount to between 3 billion and 4.5 billion euros. >> on that decision, a note saying bank santander does not have floor clauses. french banks are suing the ecb over capital. lawsuits have been brought over by bnpb and three other banks. it's the first case pointing to tensions between banks and the monetary authority. the case relates to capital set aside against special tax-free accounts known as cdcs. europe's banking troubles

are limited but there's a broader issue of low profitabilities and oversupply of banks. that message is coming from the chief economist of the ecb who told the dutch newspaper that there needs to be sector consolidation creating pan-european banks. he argued this would reduce the overexposure of any one country to a national economic shock. andrea joins us now. italian banks are not your expertise, let's start off with the broader scheme of things. how -- how would paint the picture of europe's banks at the moment? how healthy are they? how worried should we be? >> our outlook for 2017 for the global investment banks is stable. this is on the robust capitalization and liquidity positions.

and also we see sort of risks decreasing over 2017 from two main areas, first one is litigation. we expect global investment banks to continue to settle these matters. second one is from the reduction in legacy assets, had is still a problem particularly in europe. >> do you worry still when hearing about banks balance sheets, like deutsche bank. i was speaking to somebody who says we have no idea what is going on within deutsche bank. that it might still be worrisome with regards to details that might emerge in the future and how much capital these investment banks need to sure up. >> with respect to our rating, monitoring process, we have quite in-depth discussions on banks on matters that concern

us. our ratings represent the bank's key strengths and key weaknesses. it's part of our rating process. >> so based on that analysis who is faring near the high end? who are the best among the european lenders? >> certainly the -- among the highest we have, hsbc in the uk, globally diversified bank, which is clearly important operations in asia pacific and u.s. then we have sort of ubs in switzerland, which is obviously going ahead of the path for the financial crisis, and the two large french global investment banks, bmps paribas and socgen.

>> what do you make of them joining on the late against the ecb? some say when you talk about the cdc, it doesn't affect them as much as other french lenders? are they trying to send a message to the ecb or is it bigger than that? >> we are following, but we can see both sides of the story. it's not for us to express judgment as to how certain exposures would be treated. we observe our credit developments evolving and reflecting in the ratings. >> what will it take in order for your outlook to go from stable to improved to strong? >> the key weakness for the global investment banks is the profitability. we think many of them will not be able to deliver profitability

below cost of capital in 2017. so improvement in profitabilities on a sustainable basis. stronger controls of risk management, allowing them to control the risk management banking part of the business and continued demand for banking products. >> i'm wondering how much of it is down to just looking at profitability and we talk about capital one ratios, how high the various banks, their ratios are. then you look at -- there's still banks where they seemingly should be performing well, but then they get caught by nonperforming loans, have debts from the past, overhangs. i often wonder the metrics with which we measure the banks. and also remembering back a billion years ago when we first started covering this in more depth due to the financial crisis or before the financial

crisis. and capital ratios had to be 5% or whatever, that was seen as being adequate. then 8%, then 10%, then 13% for some banks. these -- the metrics keep moving. i find it confusing. it's hard to know what is a healthy bank any longer. what metrics are we supposed to be looking at? how do we judge them? >> sure. there's not just one metric we can use to judge the credit worthiness of the bank. it's a number of aspects that can be measured through metrics. it's obviously starting from the risks that the banks have on the balance sheet, block iing at th mi mitigants to those risks, and we have a number of qualitative factors that cannot be expressed in metrics but are engaged through the firms.

>> andrea thank you for bringing this up with us this morning. we want to bring you up to speed on this development coming out of mexico. at least 29 people have died and more than 80 were injured by an explosion at a fireworks market in mexico. the blast struck about 20 miles north of mexico city and local television showed a flurry of fireworks exploding. similar fires engulfed the same market in 2005 and 2006. that leveled hundreds of stalls. president obama has announced what he described as a permanent ban on off-shore oil and gas drilling in parts of the arctic and atlantic seaboard by invoking an obscure position of a 1953 board. the outer continental shelf lands act allows the president to remove any unleased lands off the coast of the u.s. from future lease sales. there's no cause that allows for

the president's successor to repeal the move. he was tweeting they're doing this for the environment. >> that will come to the relief for environmental activists. a check on oil prices, because we did get an uptick overnight and continue to see an uptrend here. brent crude higher by 0.7%. wti moving in line there. this after the american petroleum institute's weekly report cited a decline in u.s. stockpiles. crude inventory showed a larger than expected draw of 4.1 million barrels in the week ending december 16th. the projections are expected to be confirmed by the weekly report due out later today. the trump transition team is on the defensive after a new controversy surfaced involving the president-elect's sons. reports raised questions about whether they were planning to swap big money charity donations

for access to their father. >> reporter: tonight, pushback on a chance to party with the president-elect the day after he's inaugurated, at least for donors who give $1 million to a newly formed charity called opening day. if they do, this initial brochure obtained by tmz says they get a photo-op with donald trump and a hunting or fishing trip with donald trump junior and eric trump, both avid outdoorsmen. >> for a charitable event such as this, it looks like you're selling your largest on the auction block. >> reporter: the perception that charity donors may pay for access to the president-elect is what he accused hillary clinton of on the campaign. >> more pay for play. >> reporter: now he's facing questions about access to him and his family.

earlier this week, a charity auction to win coffee with ivanka trump were canceled. the trump sons are not involved in any capacity said a report. a new final event brochure now shows no photo-opes or hunting trips with the trumps. the brothers are named as managers of the non-profit, but a transition official tells nbc news don and eric were not aware they were listed as directors of this newly formed entity adding their names will be removed from the filing. >> that was haley jackson reporting. what do companies like goldman sachs, exxonmobil and general dynamics have in common? they're a few of the names with board members joining president-elect trump's administration.

>> reporter: donald trump's incoming administration has a common theme, a lot of business experience. many of his future leagues are on the boards of directors of u.s. companies. we took all the companies that his future employees are on the board of and put them into their own basket of stocks, we're calling it the trump cabinet index. it's up 14% since friday. beating the market gain of 6%. two-thirds of the stocks index are beating the market. some of trump's incoming team includes james mattis, gary cohn, wilbur ross, rex tillerson and elaine chao. none of these people are in the government yet and there are discussions about whether nominees like tillerson are the right choices but the index is something to watch and consider once they do take office. will their experience in office

have more of a side business or will those stocks sell off more or less down the road. hello to all of you. ray, good to have you with us. david, great to have you with us. giving us comments on everything from markets to trump to santa claus. will santa be giving a christmas bail o bailout to the italian banks. we'll have to wait and see. >> the state would like santa to come in. coming up, don't move a muscle. maybe you should. we'll talk to the ceo of a world leading motion capture firm and find out how this technology is making a splash on and off the big screen. off is easy. see you in a second.

good morning. welcome back to "street signs." we want to bring you reports coming in about the saudi arabia budget which is due to be unveiled tomorrow. reuters has an exclusive report saying they see the 2017 budget plan with an increase on spending to 90 billion riyal, up 6% from 2016. they say they're expected to boost spending to support economic growth while raising domestic energy prices to ease the government's subsidy burden. it is saying the saudi government 2017 budget plan will raise domestic energy and is due to include new financial support for lower income citizens. this is from reuters sources. we expect the full budget to be released tomorrow. the motion capture technology is best known for its use in budget busting hollywood movies, but lesser known

application applications could have a life changing impact. joining us is nick bolton from oxford metrics. good morning. >> good morning. >> tell me what exactly oxford metrics is and what you do. >> we're an analytic software business. we apply that technology to two specific markets, one is motion measurement, motion capture. the other area is infrastructure asset management. that's managing all the assets you see on a street scene. from crossings, lights, yellow lines, red lines, white lines. quite a diverse portfolio. at the core of it is analysis software allowing you to manage that massive amount of data. does that include face recognition, security measures? >> it's in those applications. we had a business bought by boeing that was in the defense space specifically. now we're focused on those two areas, motion capture, and

infrastructure asset management. >> how big is this market? >> two different markets. both very much global markets. customers in over 70 countries. for a small start up uk business that's broad global reach. in both market there's are needs within the hospitals of the world or the entertainment companies of the world or engineering companies of the world to measure things. there's an awful lot of road in the world, street lights, crossings that need to be managed. very much a global opportunity. >> the motion picture side of the business is the sexier headline grabbing side. >> it is. it's cool. >> it is cool. you worked on "iron man" fantastic beasts. but this infrastructure side is important when people are talking about boosting infrastructure spending, including here in the uk. do you expect to benefit from that? >> yeah. we've been in the space of infrastructure management for eight years, taking technology from hollywood but applying it

to a highways context. bringing leading edge technology and applying that to a global need. there's no doubt the focus now is on that infrastructure. how can we better manage that. that's not just throwing money at it broadly, it's about making sure you target the money to deliver the right outcomes for the community, for the social context. that's where we fit right at the point of making sure that money is spent most efficiently and effectively. >> do you worry looking at the other side, motion pictures, do you worry there will be a day where hollywood institute yos will say we can do this on our own. we don't need your panes because we can bring this technology inhouse is that happening? >> not happening. one thing we're seeing is a higher degree of collaboration. in the '30s there was a howholl owned studio system, that's all dispersed. there are experts in technology,

in lighting. and our area is very much an area of expertise. i see our place being central. >> your life division, what ended up happening with that? is it still loss making? >> we discontinued that through last year. great technology. but really couldn't get a foothold within the market. >> you kept the market share? you kept a stake in it? >> was some technology in there relating image recognition, using machine learning techniques. you will know the buzz around machine learning and ai in general. that's very new technology. it requires different type of capital to see that business grow. we have a minority share holding in that spinout business. we'll hopefully see growth there as well. >> as a uk company, i have to ask -- i believe you called 2016 a crack year. >> a cracking year. >> i did. >> not something we have heard

with companies surrounding brexit. are you concerned about these fears going into 2017? >> leaders of any business or leadership teams within those businesses you have to be focused on the stuff you can control. i don't think i can control what happened around brexit or what happened under the u.s. administration. you better understand your needs, build products and services to meet those needs, corral the energy around to innovate, create solutions in those space. >> nick fulton, thank you very much. that's it for today's show. >> "worldwide exchange" is up immine imminently. we'll see you tomorrow. generosity is its own form of power.

you can handle being a mom for half an hour. i'm in all the way. is that understood? i don't know what she's up to, but it's not good. can't the world be my noodles and butter? get your mind out of the gutter. mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1.

the trump rally rolls on. the dow notching its 17th record close since last month's election. and new this morning, shares in the world's oldest bank plunge on word its liquidity will dry out in four months. and swoosh, nike shares rally as the largest footwearmaker beats the street. it's wednesday, december 21, 2016, the first day of winter. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning.