. welcome to "street signs." i'm karen tso. >> i'm nancy hungerford. these are your headlines. by executive order, president obama launches a series of sanctions against russia saying americans should be alarmed by the kremlin's intervention in the elections. our country should move on says president-elect trump, playing down the move but admitting he will meet with intelligence chiefs to discuss the findings of the russia report. u.s. stocks are on track for

the best year since 2010 with energy as the stand-out sector helped by a 50% jump in crude. europe treads water amid thin holiday volumes. and johnson & johnson considers breaking up actelion as part of its takeover plan which it values at $30 billion. good morning. welcome to "street signs." the last trading day of 2016. this was the picture on wall street going into the last day. a bit of softness. dow jones industrial average getting further away from that 20,000 mark. the s&p 500 closing just barely in negative territory. the nasdaq composite lower by 0.1%. yes, these are modest losses. you must keep them in perspective because it's been a rally, especially since the

election results. we'll take a closer look at that in a minute if we can hone in on the dow jones for the moment, year to date this index is up 13.7%. the outperformer among the s&p 500 and the nasdaq. let's hone in on the nasdaq. higher as well by neighborhood of 9%, just shy of that at 8.5%. we continue to watch the big names in this sector, but also with the likes of nvidia making near 200 gains this year. in europe, a quiet session. a lot of traders rushing out to celebrate the new year. a fair amount of red on the board behind me. we've been keeping an eye on the ftse 100 to see if it will hit the closing record high. doesn't appear to be the case this morning, off by 0.14%. let's get a shot of how the uk

market fared on the year. it's a real outperformer. globally this index is higher 14%. a lot of that down to the post-brexit strength taking a cue from the weaker sterling. on the session, a bit of weakness, off by 0.14%. despite the ftse strength, you can't lose sight of the gains on the german main market. the dax is holding out on its own here, higher by 0.65%. yes, a bit of weakness today. overall investors have been relatively relieved given the political risks we've seen towards the end of the year. >> thank you. talking about markets and performance in 2016 in a moment, in other news president obama has ordered sanctions on two russian agencies and the expulsion of 35 diplomats. the state department announced the closing of two russian compounds in new york and maryland that they say were used

for intelligence activities. president-elect donald trump issued a written statement saying it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless in the interest of our country and it's great people i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation. ron allen has the latest. >> just as i told russia to stop it -- >> reporter: today president obama made good on that promise to retaliate. targeting russia's top intelligence agencies with sanctions, officials in vladimir putin's inner circle but not the russian president himself, all but singled out by president obama. >> i told him to cut it out or there would be consequences. >> reporter: freezing the assets of russian diplomats named, banning business contacts with americans. russia also accused of harassing u.s. diplomats abroad and espionage operations in america. >> we've seen verbal and physical harassment.

we've seen them try and revoke their credentials, try and detain them. >> reporter: 35 russian diplomats in the u.s. expelled, just 72 hours to leave. closing two russian government compounds, rec centers allegedly used for spying, shut down as of noon friday. in a statement, president obama saying, all americans should be alarmed by russia's actions. >> the actions today were designed to make very clear, we will respond at a time and place of our choosing. >> reporter: also targeted, two alleged cyber criminals accused of stealing millions from american banks and personal data from e-commerce sites. the u.s. also declassifying information designed to help computer experts block more hacking. the russians dismissed it all as another sign of aggressive foreign policy, to deal a blow to the incoming administration's foreign policy plans. earlier president-elect trump again rejected allegations of russian interference in the election. >> i think we ought to get on with our lives. >> reporter: while trump may have the power to reverse today's sanctions, that may prove politically difficult with republicans and democrats calling for tough steps against russia.

>> he has a senate and house leadership that have also supported these actions. if he backs down and he does this, it will be perceived that it was done for putin and at putin's request. >> that was ron allen in washington. our next guest sees opportunities in the real estate market next year but suggests the oil and mining sectors should be avoided. joining us is roger jones, head of equities from london capital. we are taking stock of 2016, looking for areas of opportunity for 2017. flesh out the case for us. real estate, we are meant to be seeing rising interest rates? >> probably one more controversial than most in terms of total return from real estate stocks next year, it's too attractive to ignore. you also have real asset backing as well. in times previously when interest rates have gone up, real estate has done well. we have the lead-up in very different times to financial crisis, we had a rising rate

environment then. into the mid 2000 s, and real estate stocks performed. i think in terms of where expectations have moved and where we got to now in terms of interest rates, expectations of hikes next year, that might well disappoint in terms of inflation hawks, and rate hike builds. so i think you have a situation where total returns for real estate can be attractive. >> it's one of those strange conundrums around real estate. rates seen as things you want to avo avoid, rising interest rates, by then you have hot assets to the fore. how do you play that in your book? >> that's a very good point. in terms of how you look at real estate, the areas we don't like are the more traditional real estate markets. we don't like retail or office. we like the structurally advanta advantage businesses, data centers, healthcare, big logistic aal warehouses as well.

those are the areas we think are attractive. normally you get a better yield from these assets compared to real estate which are more difficult areas. >> it's interesting that you say avoid oil. because investors are saying finally i can get back into the energy sector. you're not convinced, why? >> in terms of the way i'm looking at it at the moment and the way i've seen t we have seen a recovery to normalization in these markets. however the overarching fundamentals are still weak. a lot of supply out there. that supply base is changing. sure it's going from opec supply to more u.s. shale. it's still out there. the markets are awash with supply. this is not just the oil markets, but copper, which is likely to be a surplus next

year, iron ore. a lot of base metals. i think we're looking at a situation where there was a massive overshoot in commodity prices. we have to normalize environment. but to go forward, we need a bigger recovery in demand to justify the amount of supply out there. >> so you've not been encouraged on data on the industrial front out of china and japan saying we could see an uptick in growth and therefore the miners this year? that's happened in china especially. we had a big stimulus plan, end of q1 q2 last year. that's starting to come through. that's been a big restocking rally aspect. we've seen this start to happen. this is driving prices. we also had measures out of china in tomorrows of coal production which were favorable in terms of the mining environment. the problem is now that's happened and the market being a discounting mechanism looking forward, i struggle to see that

momentum continuing. it looks a bit mixed, the industrial message. so i'm remaining cautious. >> talking about different sectors here. with real estate it feels much slower to move, either to the upside or down side. commodities and energy, you look at the size of the rally in brent prices, 50%. the performance for glencore has been extra oordinarextraordinar. when you call for caution, what you are seeing as the outlook? >> i would say in terms of stocks like glencore, obviously a huge issue this time last year about the financial viability of this business. >> different than where we stand now. >> absolutely. that's changed with commodity prices where they are. the problem i have with it all, when i look at those fundamentals and commodity prices, the move seems slightly speculative.

we see a lot of stock being driven up in the lme. we saw after the election, if you look at copper price, an immediate 20% rally, post-u.s. election story, neimmediate 20% rally in the copper price. i think caution is warranted. oil is slightly different. in terms of the expectation for oil going forward is not just $55, $60 a barrel oil, i think we need higher than that to get free cash flow into the bigger integrated oils, to see them having financial flexibility again. >> roger, thanks for fleshing out the case for us. roger jones staying with us. i want to talk about the valuation discount on european markets which you have been talking about. plenty more to come with roger. let's talk about some deals out there. johnson & johnson mulling a deal with actelion which would divide

the swiss biotech firm into separate entities it would create a newly traded public r&d division and a structure that would allow j&j to make a cash acquisition of about $265 per share. actelion shares have staged a sharp rally since november on m&a speculation. bank bailout atlante has made an offer for three small italian banks. italy rescued the banks with nearly 4 billion euros last year but has struggled to sell them as required by european regulators. got some new year's eve plans? >> very sadly, a quiet one. that's okay. i saw the uber numbers expected, that's not something i will be fighting for. >> one of the places to be is

timing square in new york. i must say, having been in new york for new years, i've been not brave enough to take on times square. they always have rock concerts, pop stars performing. >> i think you're better off watching on tv. >> the ball descending which marks the time we tick over to the new year. preparations are underway. what time is it in new york? >> 4:13? >> yeah. >> do you have big plans this year? >> no i'm at home with a bottle of champagne. >> that's the best way. >> let us know what you're up to for your celebrations. with the xfinity tv app,

anything with a screen is a tv. stream 130 live channels. plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. good morning. welcome back to "street signs." let's give you a shot of how asian markets closed out on the last trading day of the year. mixed picture on the map. mainland shanghai composite closing higher.

the india main market on the green. on the down side, the australian main market off 0.6%. this despite hitting a fresh record for the year in the previous session. weakness in indonesia and people focusing on the nikkei because we did see some weakness in the nikkei, largely down to the moves we saw in the dollar/yen trade. the dollar hitting a 15-day low against the yen. let's look at this chart year to date. the nikkei 225 did manage to eke out a gain for the year. gains of 0.4%. that would be the fifth straight year of gains for the japanese equity market, the longest winning streak since the late 1980s. emerging markets into the new year shrouded in uncertainty as donald trump assumes office in january. seema mody looks at this in 2017. >> reporter: 2016 was a banner year for emerging markets until

the election of donald trump who cast a cloud of uncertainty over emerging markets. no matter which policies come out of trump's cabinet expect 2017 to be a challenging year for emerging markets which are already facing tough headwinds from rising interest rates and a stronger dollar. here are three predictions for the new year. if the president-elect goes forward with protectionist trade policies and a tariff on foreign goods t would threaten some emerging countries competitive edge as a destination for cheap labor. specifically china with analysts forecasting a nearly 4% decline in the world's second largest economy. the other country likely to get hurt is mexico, which is a big trading partner with the united states and has already been hurt by the depreciation in its currency, the peso. one bright spot in the emerging world, russia. rising oil prices and a friendlier relationship between trump and putin could draw more investors in.

hsbc echoing that sentiment calling russia the cleanest play in emerging markets next year. for cnbc business news, i'm seema mody. is it a bird? is it a plane? is it an amazon warehouse? the e-commerce giant is turning to the skies for its latest project winning a patent to develop airships equipped with drones to deliver packages. the airborne fulfillment centers would fly at around 45,000 feet and could provide a base for delivery drones. the application was logged about two years ago but only just discovered bay tech research firm. back on land, the trouble may be brewing. the founder of run dmc has filed a lawsuit against amazon for the alleged sales that infringe the

dmc trademark. snap is telling investors it should be considered in the same class as apple and facebook. that is according to the "wall street journal." the paper also reports that s p snapinc is trying to reassure investors it will be like tw twitter, and languish. it looks like snap is trying to dispel confusion among investors. do they want to get a message across that they're not a one-trick pony? >> the whole idea around twitter is tweeting. one product that they came to market with. snapchat has come to the market, it's easy to look at it as a company that you just post pictures that disappear or videos that disappear. actually it's bigger than that. i was speaking to an investor in the company a few weeks back saying they've been laser focus the on monetizing this from the

start. snapchat has introduced ads 2014, early on in the company's life cycle and has been bringing brands on board and showing them you can use this product to reach a lucrative millennial audience. >> let's put some color around the founder, evan spiegel. i know he's engaged to an australian supermodel, meant to be a young 26, but is he a visionary? >> a few voices have seen him like noon a zuckerberg or a steve jobs. the new thing is spectacles, glasses with a camera in them, but you can only get them from a dedicated vending machine. >> are we going to miss the fact that we don't have access to them? >> not at all. it's so close to an ipo, bringing out the hardware product, but it's the whole mystery around it, the hype around snapchat and even spiegel

as a visionary, he can pull these innovative and bold moves. that's part of the appeal to snapchat for investors, is this a founder or ceo who will take this company on, make big, bold bets like facebook and mark zuckerberg has. >> let's bring roger back into the conversation. tech, talking about testing the market appetite for a company, do you like tech in 2017. >> there are mixed segments to it. in looking at some semiconductor stocks which are had strong runs t looks as if mobile phone data and handset data may disappoint. pc sales, laptop sales are looking better. it's a mixed picture. it comes down to very much stock specifics in terms of various different areas, the internet side of the business as well.

and the more i suppose franchises coming through. still a lot to be proven. >> for many of us, we think about technology, we think about u.s. companies and the access to investing in these stocks via the nasdaq. i know you're cautious, this is contrarian because investors are saying they want u.s. stocks and are cautious on europe. but you're talking about a discount in the european stock market. >> yeah. absolutely. to come back to that, in terms of the u.s., i think in terms of the discount, it's a wide discount as historically has been the case. however there's very good reasons for that discount in place. i'm saying the u.s. is very expensive compared to europe, because when you risk adjust that, it's more moderate. where this risk comes from in europe is political risk. we have the dutch elections in march next year. then closely followed by the

french, german elections. that won't go away. the big issue with that ultimately is this political risk comes into question sustainability of the euro, the monetary system in europe. that's not something that will go away in the short-term. however, coming back to the u.s., where that could change is if the u.s. expectations, currently very, very high, and most people are bullish in the u.s. do suffer a setback. we're at the stage now where everybody has been in the u.s. if 2016 has taught us anything, we have to be very careful of central positioning, that's why we saw this big first half, second half 2016. >> we've been talking so much about the european political risks coming up in 2017. yet when you look at the real shocks 2016, not only did markets move higher, so why would 2017 be different? >> in terms of all the risks and investors ability to deal with

risks has been diminishing substantially. however that doesn't mean they don't build up in the system. so we have a lot of risk out there. we are not sure what straw will break the camel's back. but i would say, just one more thing, please, ultimately within that is something like the monetary system, monetary system like the euro coming under pressure being questioned and that would be a big issue. >> i hate the politics for investors, so uncertain, so difficult to try and trade, but something we can look at. you point out the operating margins in europe are much lower than in the states. when do they improve? what can ceos do about the margin story? >> there's a tailwind coming through in terms of weaker euro which is helpful for that. we're starting to see it, a lot of french companies have made big moves in terms of strategic agenda here and looking at the cost base, looking at what's vital and proving the

competitive environment and taking on better management systems, it's all incremental to making a much better operating performance business. actually something that's happened in the u.s. and the uk to extent in the last five years is happening in europe. >> roger, arjen, thank you both. plenty coming up. including how you can read more about the latest technology on tech trends, head to cnbc.com and find out about the rise of virtual reality. arjen has tried all the devices, read up about the technology coming your way from a consumer point of view and key investor point of view. still to come on "street signs," we speak to the author of britain's top-selling book this christmas. he also happens to be the star of "little britain" that's david williams, more of that interview after this short break.

welcome to "street signs." i'm karen tso. >> i'm nancy hungerford. these are your headlines. by executive order, president obama launches a series of sanctions against russia saying americans should be alarmed by the kremlin's intervention in the u.s. elections. our country should move on says president-elect trump, playing down the move but admitting he will meet with

intelligence chiefs to discuss the findings of the russia report. u.s. stocks are on track for the best year since 2010 with energy as the stand-out sector helped by a 50% surge in crude. europe treads water amid thin holiday volumes. and johnson & johnson reportedly considers breaking up actelion as part of its takeover plan, which could value the swiss firm at $30 billion. good morning. welcome back to "street signs." we want to give you a closer look at the euro/dollar session. there was a dramatic spike overnight in the asian session. we hit higher by almost 1.6% on the 1.07 handle this came to the surprise of many. but keep in mind it's thin holiday trading. liquidity was limited. a lot of people are putting this down to algorithmic trading

there. we stabilized since. the dollar is trending lower as part of a change in risk appetite overnight. let's look at sterling/dollar trade. it is the last trading day of the year. sterling is making some slight gains against the greenback. the real story is the year to date picture. sterling lower by 16.5%. you can look at that dramatic fall we witnessed in the end of the eu referendum vote on the 23rd there. the dollar index, it's not just strength against the sterling but overall the basket has been moving higher by 3.6% year to date. >> i feel like there was more in that trade than 3.6%. >> let's move on from thin trading to what has been thin on the news front, but president obama has ordered sanctions on two russian intelligence

agencies and expulsion of 35 russian diplomats from the u.s. in response to their interference in the 2016 presidential election. the state department also announced the closing of two russian compounds in new york and maryland that it said were used for intelligence activities. president-elect donald trump issued a written statement in response. saying it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless in the interest of our country and it's great people i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation. let's bring in ed lawrence from washington. it's been that kind of week where obama has really flexed some muscle in the final days of his administration. how do we look at this situation around these sanctions and what donald trump might do when he takes office. >> we don't know what donald trump will do, but president obama is taking a hard line. the russian foreign ministry this morning said these sanctions undermined bilateral relations and will not go

unanswered. president obama had those sweeping actions in an executive order. executive orders can be overturned. still security experts say this sends a clear message to russia and any other country who would want to interfere with our elections. there's bipartisan support for these sanctions on capitol hill. some folks believe it should go further. others are questioning the timing of this saying this action should have happened before the election took place. as you mentioned, president-elect donald trump weighed in through a statement saying it's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. he went on to say he will meet with the intelligence community next week to get the facts related around the case. the russians are dismissing the accusations and sanctions saying this is an aggressive foreign policy by the u.s. vowing to take counter measures. >> regarding the facts around this case, will we ever find out what took place here other than russian's intention to

interfreer wiinterfere with the elections? people are look at these sanctions wondering what was their intention and was there any impact? >> a lot of security experts are saying the intentions of the russians initially was to antagonize the u.s., specifically hillary clinton and the obama administration and it morphed into possibly helping donald trump try to win this election. we may never know exactly what that report says, the classified report that the cia and fbi put together. both agencies agree that the russians did hack in order to partly influence the election. whether it had influence or not, they're not saying. president obama stopped short of saying that it did have influence on this election. they're just saying they tried to meddle into the election. >> it is key when we talk about elections in europe for 2016 for the germans and french. do you think there is a lesson here and how closely do you think international leaders will

be looking at this situation unfolding on cybersecurity? >> a lesson or a wake-up call. a lot of folks will be looking at their systems on how they handle the elections and the information around the elections to make sure they're secure. the united states spent a lot of time before the leak shun securing election devices, the booths you go in and push the button. other countries may be looking at this saying there may be other ways that other countries can affect the elections. through the hacking, they released private information that could have influenced voters. so i think other countries will look at this and take measures around their elections. surely this is a wake-up call to the international community. >> ed lawrence, thank you very much for joining us. 2016 was a volatile year for american politics. john harwood takes a stab at what lies ahead in 2017.

>> reporter: if the 2016 campaign taught us anything, it's the unpredictability about anything for donald trump, so anyone making predictions for the white house better do it with humility. here goes. in 2017, president donald trump will sign tax reform into law. but it won't be comprehensive tax reform of both individual and corporate systems. he'll focus on international tax reform with the goal of returning corporate profits to the u.s. and raising money to finance his infrastructure spending plans. at least one of president trump's cabinet picks will be defeated by the senate. even though republicans control more than enough votes, opposition democrats will look for opportunities to peel off a few moderate republicans to block trump picks they consider too far out of the mainstream. target number one, health and human services secretary designee tom price who favors big changes to medicare and medicaid. and finally, the incoming

president will not rip up the nuclear deal the outgoing president struck with iran, even though donald trump criticized it during the campaign. u.s. allies britain and france were part of that deal and so was russia. the u.s. adversary mr. trump wants better relations with. the new president may embrace stricter monitoring of the deal, but getting rid of it altogether is just not worth the trouble and the risk. john harwood, cnbc business news. david williams, he just is not an award winning tv comedian and children's author, he's a judge on "britain's got talent." during the cnbc conversation, tanya breyer asked him what makes working on "britain's got talent" so special. >> it's fun. i enjoy watching the show, and i met simon before i did the show. he said our show -- he said our show is the real-life version of your show. as in he meant, you know, it was

the real-life "little britain." i said i'm addicted to watching it. i love all the characters you have on the show, the eccentric characters. i said we watch it to get inspi inspired. in the early stages of those shows, you get loads of eccentric people with bizarre acts, and they're often comedy gold. i wasn't expecting to ever be asked to be on it. simon cowell said this curious thing to me, he said i don't like comedy, i don't find comedians funny, but i find you fun funny. i thought that's kind of unnerving, you're basically saying you have no sense of humor but you find me funny. that's weird. not sure i want to hear that. i think i was unsure how i was going to be on it. the first day i just kind of got into it. i buzzed the first person, got

over that. i was winding him up, the audience was loving it. i thought this is fine, i can do this. it's slightly strange because you are judging people on things you can't do. i can't sing, i can't dance. i'm sitting there passing judgment on people who can. at least my role is the court je jester, and i don't have to take the whole thing seriously. it's sort of where a dancing dog can win, so it's not life or death for anyone. >> does anyone ever ask you what simon is like behind the scenes? >> yes, they do. he's -- i think he's the kind of person who has his life exactly how he wants it. he doesn't want to get up until 4:00 in the afternoon, he won't. if he wants to have, you know, sausages and jibs every night for dinner, he will he has his life exactly how he wants it.

he's also -- i rather like he celebrates his success, like most stars now are quite coy about showing necessarily their wealth. not him. he arrives in a half million pound rolls royce phantom, designer clothes, shades, long coat. he plays up to being a star. it's quite refreshing because if you go back in time. to more glamorous age, the '70s and '80s, you see joan collins walking through an airport with dark glasses and a fur coat, it was dramatic. now people are walking through the airport with sunglasses on and a beanie. >> he has to have talent at something. >> he has talent for spotting talent. it's hard to believe, but

just one more day left of 2016. head to our website to see the top news stories of the year. we'll be back after this short break.

the global economy is moving in the right direction. that's according to barkleys 2017 global outlook report. we spoke to christian keller and began by asking how central banks will manage uncertainty in the new year. >> this is our assessment. central banks now have to weigh these different aspects. on the one hand, they're finding the fiscal stimulus that they wanted to, the imf prescribed, but they got it maybe with not the same tilt they wanted to. they got it in an uncoordinated

fashion. they got it with a lot of criticism of central banks, and they got it with a lot of protectionism and anti-trade flavor. that puts them in position where they have to look at shorter impact from fiscal impulses, pro growth or inflation. but some things like protecti protectionism are structural impediments. longer term, productivity may not rise. i get higher debt levels. how do i weigh this? bottom line we think central banks will probably be relatively cautious in tightening monetary policy. so therefore i think that's still a good environment for equity. >> want to ask you the same question i asked a number of guests over the days, the point on whether or not we're overdoing this inflation expectation. i refer to a piece i read on how policies and presidents make u turns, but not economies.

and do you think that we are running a risk of overestimating this inflation increase that everybody is anticipating? >> depends. first of all, it's very, very diverse. we see inflation going in the u.s., wage growth over 3%. if you look at europe, expectations are muted. you think by april, u.s. inflation would be over 2. european inflation, even with the energy price boost at 1.4, and japan can be happy to have positive inflation. what we could see, we could see some veinflation in the u.s., where if you create a lot of tariffs, you do manage to constrain domestic resource capacities and inject a lot of fiscal stimulus, you get your domestic cost inflation but with low growth.

>> i guess we're hearing all these expectations that the fed will hike rates a billion times by next year. does it have to? >> we think the fed will go two times next year. probably the second half. at first they want to know what's going to happen. back to inflation, one thing still looming in the background is china. china is doing a lot forever growth, for reflation. the currency growing weaker. a lot of uncertainties in the financial sector. if china would discontinue what they have been providing to the global economy, you could get some large deflationary impulses back into the global economy. the global stem cell market neared $6 billion in 2015 and is expected to inch towards $7 billion this year according to bcc research. ring neuron is developing

several stem cell therapies. joining us is the ceo at re reneuron. i'm fascinating to hear what you're doing going into the new year, but first and foremost can you tell us more about your treatment for stroke patients? a phase two trial this year on that treatment specifically encouraged investors. >> indeed, thank you. yes. we just announced some phase two results from our stem cell treatment for patients who suffered a stroke and are now suffering from chronic disabilities after the stroke. so these patients have absolutely no therapeutic options there is no pharmaceutical treatment available. there is something available for the first few hours after stroke, after that, nothing. what we show in phase two research is that patients who are a few months until a year post stroke, that actually three quarters of those patients can benefit from our treatment.

so we're taking into a phase three study in 2017. >> how long would this take to come to market? >> it will take a few years. always a bit hard to predict. one thing in this industry is you need to take the time it takes to get there. overnight success, we're on the brink of that. it's taking a long time to get to where we are. it's really great hope for stroke patients that they can have an opportunity to improve. the biggest issue for stroke patients is disability, lack of movement, typically many are wheelchair bound, also bed bound. for them to have an opportunity to get more independent and less disabled would be very, very important. >> you are talking about huge hope for families, too it's a big gap in the market. the natural questions is the appetite from governments to fund this type of treatment. there is a lot of skepticism

about the care patients get, particularly the elderly. do you think there's a willingness for government budgets to stretch to pay for the type of treatment you're talking about? >> yes, there's no doubt about that. stroke patients are very expensive. they are in homes. they have to have care coming every day. yes, in some cases it's actually the family caring for them, i guess that's cheap for the government. in the end it's very expensive for the government and there's an impact on work. one of our patients in the phase two trial, he's a brick layer, he was not able to work. now he's able go back to work again. >> this is the cutting edge of research and development. looking at some of your financials, i noticed the red ink has started to lessen to an extent. where do you see the business going and what do you need to achieve in terms of clinical trials, bringing the product to market to be profitable?

>> you know, biotech is basically a cash burning business. investors believe in us, believe in what we're doing. we're investing that money to come up with clinical trials, deliver good results. in the end, yes, we will go to market and become profitable. what's important to show is proper clinical results, you have a placebo control where the therapies are working and making a difference. the safety aspect has to be done as well. it's all about showing that efficacy is there. >> what about the ethical side? where do you see that obstacle from the broader public? >> was probably an obstacle a decade aor so ago. >> you don't think people still object to that? >> no, basically what you're doing is taking medical waste

and doing something useful with it. if you ask any patient suffering from stroke or losing sight they're happy to be treated. >> leads me to the next question about competition. i know what you're doing is in one specific area, when it comes to stem cell research more broadly, how much activity is there in the sector? >> there's a lot of activity in research with stem cells. different types of stem cells. probably the ones doing the best from a commercial point of view is off the shelf therapy, so you used the same therapy for all patients. that gives you an opportunity to treat more patients, scale it properly and to have a profit. >> do you think there will be more consolidation within this area than going down the road when you look at the cash required for r&d? >> i think so. i think there will be more consolidation and a huge increase in the value of the individual companies before that happens. we'll see more and more impact from the clinical trials coming

through. and what's great about stem cells, you can treat patients suffering from diseases, where there's absolutely no treatment available today. >> all right. thank you so much for joining us. and with just two days now until the new year, security is tightening as the world preparing to ring in 2017. following this year's terror attacks in orlando, nice and berlin, stephanies goi goss loo the show of force. >> the confetti and rain poured into times square today. as the city gets ready for its annual bash and its annual massive security operation. >> people will be safe this new year's eve because we're there, along with our law enforcement partners. >> reporter: in times square, a record 7,000 uniformed and undercover police, including hundreds of heavily armed counterterrorism officers, will hit the streets. and in the wake of vehicle

attacks overseas, the berlin christmas market attack killing a dozen, and nice over the summer, leaving 86 dead, sand trucks and other vehicles will be used to block off new york streets. in chicago, fences and concrete barricades went up today amid concerns about isis-inspired attacks. boston is taking similar steps. >> it's sad that we have to do this type of stuff, but it's the reality of what's happening now in the world. >> reporter: in pasadena, california, home to the rose parade, law enforcement outlined their new strategy. >> we'll be using a series of police radio cars, staffed with either uniformed officers or deputies, and water barriers to create a chicane of sorts. >> reporter: overseas security is being increased across europe. in germany, officers in some cities are now armed with machine guns. in london, police presence is ramped up around buckingham palace and at the markets. >> yeah, i think it's quite

safe. >> reporter: and in times square today, support for the police. >> i think they've been doing a great job anyway, and just enjoy it like we're enjoying it. >> reporter: part of law enforcement's strategy, a big show of force to create a deterrence and instill confidence in everyone looking to celebrate. >> stay safe wherever you are. we are looking now at u.s. futures. doesn't give us much hope for the rest of the european trading day. if you look at futures stateside, it might give us an indication of what lies ahead for the rest of the trading day. looking soggy there and across here in europe. it has been a strong year for equity markets. well, nancy, happy new year. >> happy new year to you. >> we do have monday's guest, howard goldring will take you into 2017. that's all for today's show. i'm karen tso. >> i'm nancy hungerford. "worldwide exchange" is coming up next. with the xfinity tv app,

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good morning. sayonara 2016. futures pointing higher on this last trading day of the year. russian retaliation. president putin vows to respond to u.s. sanctions in the wake of that alleged election hacking. details coming up. and your 2017 playbook. oil prices on track for their biggest yearly gains since 2009. predictions on what next year will hold for commodities. it's friday, december 30, 2016, "worldwide exchange" for the last time this year begins now.