tv Worldwide Exchange CNBC February 22, 2017 5:00am-6:01am EST
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good morning. the street awaits the minutes from the fed's latest policy meeting and any potential clues about a rate hike. icahn takes aim. the activist investor takes a stake in bristol-myers squib. could the drugmaker be a possible takeover target? and faceball. could baseball be coming to a new speed near you? it's wednesday, february 22, 2017, and "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪
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good morning. very warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. i'm wilfred frost along with seema mody in for sara today. good morning. >> good morning. great to be here. let's check in on the market action. record highs once again across the board yesterday. about 0.5 to 0.6% of gains and unlike last week it was a broad rally. every sector in positive territory, real estate and energy the leaders of the pack. the worst performer, materials, that was up 0.4%. so only a tenth shy of the overall market return. highlighting the broad nature of yesterday's gains and optimism. let's look as well. futures call for another set of record highs today, only slightly. essentially the futures market is flat, even though the color is green. if we look at ten-year note, 2.425%. of course this time last week, we did see yields spike significantly off the back of janet yellen's comments in
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congress, slightly more hawkish than expected tone. it's amazing how quickly we came back down once though comments had gone away. looking at the minutes released today, even if they strike a similarly hawkish tone, we will have less reaction judging by the way yields came down quickly. the minutes will be the main mover for those yields today. >> that will be the conversation today as to whether there will be any more indication as to where that next rate hike comes in march. let's look at asia, following the global stock rally. u.s. stocks closing at a record high. in asia we saw gains with the hang seng closing higher by 1%. shanghai also seeing a gain of 0.2%. the japanese nikkei flat. we should point out toshiba is a big gainer on trade. shares were up as much as 20%. keep a close eye on asia. stocks in brazil, i should point
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out, a six-year high. argentina at a two-year high. this rally not just about the u.s. anymore. it's really extended overseas. indeed. emerging market currencies as well surprisingly strong over the course of the last couple of weeks. several economic reports out of europe this morning. the german business confidence index coming in at the highest level for four years, overall business climate jumping to 111. consensus for just below 110. current conditions also higher than expected. across the board a better than expected set of numbers. we had the second estimate -- second revision on g 4 gdp for the uk, slightly higher, 0.7%. just getting eu cpi numbers coming out as well. we'll have those for you in a moment. down 0.8% month on month that number. january inflation confirmed at 1.8% year-on-year. that's the more relevant number.
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there are the european markets. higher once again for the most part. about half a percent for france. the ftse 100, 0.3%. germany, 0.2. yesterday the stoxx 600 had the tenth out of 11 sessions in positive territory. we're on track for that to be an 11th out of 12th and highlighting your point, seema, gapes are global. >> the euro dipping below 105 on those election jitters in france. let's look at oil. a lot of movement there. continuing an upward swing yesterday. slightly lower today. ice brent crude at $56.26. interesting note from goldman sachs, expecting global crude inventories to keep falling due to production cuts and strong growth in demand. looking at 1.5 million barrels as their estimate. nat gas the world's -- i should say the worst performing global commodity, down 0.6% after
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losing 9% just yesterday on the el nino fears. and that we will have perhaps less cold winter/spring. and that means for the consumer we won't be using our heat as much. let's look at the u.s. dollar. that could be potentially a conversational point today as we wait for the fomc meeting minutes. right now at 113.20 against the yen. and as you can see, the euro back at 1.05, lower against the u.s. dollar. pound, you were mentioning the q4 growth numbers out of the uk, 1.24 against the u.s. dollar. >> the dollar was up yesterday strongly, 0.5%, those moves against the major currency pairs, versus emerging markets. dipping below 1.05 yesterday briefly, but in and around that level at the moment. that's on election fears.
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the best case of most analysts is not that marine le pen will win but her odds have been ticking up. they've been getting more favor in nature over the last couple of weeks. the euro is matching that as are french yields. as you step back of the three candidates, macron center left, fillon center right, and le pen, that highlights the risk out there for markets, all around 2/1 odds suggesting a 33% chance, the favorite still is macron, but certainly le pen has been gaining in the polls. >> that follows macron's visit to 10 downing, getting that invite from theresa may, the prime minister of the uk. it's interesting to see how the bond market, they're sending a message that there is fear around the french presidential election. the currency market also showing that but not the equity market just yet. >> no across the board european equities doing well. gold prices just to round things
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off, basically flat yesterday. basically flat today. 1238. to today's agenda the housing market in focus. january existing home sales at 10:00 a.m. eastern. sales of previously owned homes are expecting to have rebounded. at 2:00 p.m., the minutes from last month's fed meeting. among the companies reporting results before the open today, tjx, the parent of tj maxx and marshals, and theme park operator six flags. after the close, we hear from tesla, hp, l brands and square. making headlines this morning, bank of japan governor says the boj does not plan to push rates further into negative territory. the central bank chief making the comments to parliament today. kuroda suggests that economic growth in japan is accelerating and that inflation will hit the 2% target during the fiscal year ending in march 2019.
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of course, this reflation trade and the rise of inflation in many parts of the world, including europe, will start to make its way to japan. that would be something that would be welcomed by the japanese, which have been in this long phase of deflation. we continue to watch the peso today after mexico said its central bank will offer up to $20 billion in currency hedges. the move is designed to help mexico calm the volatility what has impact the tpeso thus far. the dollar is stronger against the paeso. >> since donald trump's presidency, the peso rebounding 9%. u.s. treasury secretary steve mnuchin urging christine lagarde to use surveillance powers to police the exchange rate policies of members. the two spoke by phone
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yesterday. mnuchin's comments go along with president trump's larger efforts to challenge some of the u.s.'s biggest trading partners. a programming note, treasury secretary mnuchin will be on "squawk box" tomorrow, for your first on cnbc interview at 7:00 a.m. carl icahn has reportedly bought a large stake in bristol myers squib. the "wall street journal" says it is unclear how large his position is, but sees the drugmaker as a potential takeover target. the move comes after the company announced it would get three new board members. bristol-myers has a market cap of more than $90 billion, but that's down significantly since august when it announced disappointing results for a lung cancer drug. and some other activist
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news, starboard value has taken a more than 6% stake in tribute media, the television group formed by the split of the tribune company in 2014. starboard says it believes the company's stock is undervalued but does not have immediate plans to push for changes. starboard's investment follows the surprise announcement last month that tribune media's ceo would rescene after four years at the helm. saudi aramco has offered 5% of the state owned company. it could fetch as much as $150 billion making it the largest ipo ever. so, great news for those banks. >> especially if that means more business in the middle east after following this big ipo. let's talk about snap. it's holie i holding its ipo ro
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this week. the company is targeting a valuation between 19 billion and $22 billion, lower than the initial range following negative investor feedback. some potential investors say they remain unconvinced by snap's claim that it is more valuable than facebook based on revenue at time of the ipo in 2012. an update on the scandal at uber. arianna huffington, a board member of uber released a statement following claims of sexual harassment by a former employee. huffington said she is serious about leading the investigation into the claims and will hold the leadership's feet to the fire on this issue including travis kalanick, if necessary. coming up on the show, a round of this morning's news overseas, plus shares of airbus and bayer both taking a hit during the european session. the details after the break. stay tuned, you're watching
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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just getting up, yesterday the dollar was stronger, particularly against the major currency pairs and the euro in particular. the euro continues its slide today in and around the 1.05 level. politics there ahead of the french election starting to take hold and affect markets.
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the spread between the french and german bond is at highs as well. not seen since july. the dollar is now losing ground against the yen today. a bit of a reversal on yesterday's trade where there is no politics it affect it let's look at the equity futures which are for the most part flat. the s&p slightly lower. the dow higher by about points. yesterday we saw about 0.5, 0.6% of gains, record highs for these three all once again. it was a broad rally. the worst performing sector was materials. itself up 0.4%, just behind the market gains. slight reversal from last week where things were led by the banks. a broad warally yesterday. earnings still front and center. toll brothers posting numbers. q1 earnings of 42 crepes a share. that topped wall street estimates. revenue is better than expected. home building deliveries were about flat in dollars. increased 12% in units.
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now, the company says the average price of homes delivered declined due to changes in product mix. shares down fractionally in pre-market trade. other stocks to keep an eye on. bayer's q4 profit falling 26% this time from last year. dragged by by litigation and restructuring costs. airbus has reported a fresh 1.2 billion euro charge for its a-400m military group dragging down profits. airbus still raised its dividend 4% to 1.3 euros per share. shares in lloyds banking group getting a boost after profit hit a ten-year high in 2016. >> newmont mine iing missed its forecast. first solar seeing its sales coming in above expectations. it's down, though, 2.3%.
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shares of texas road house getting slammed after the company missed q4 estimates. same-store sales coming up short and the stock is down 10.5%. corporate news, vice media has reportedly hired banks to help fund and produce scripted programming. bloomberg says the process is in early stages but the company plans to distribute shows in more than 80 countries by the end of this year. vice already produces unscripted programs. disney and 21st century fox own stakes in vice. at the time of the last investment vice was valued at $4 billion. still to come, the top stories out of washington including the trump administration's plans for enforcing immigration laws. >> but first the weather headlines from jackie jeras. >> a nice day from the mid-atlantic to the northeast.
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mild temperatures and staying on the dry side. all the wet weather focused down here across the southeastern parts of the country. we'll see rain showers. they'll be heaviest across the sunshine state. not a lot of sunshine here. we could see really heavy downpours along the i-75 and i-95 corridors. one to two inches of rain, widespread, can be expected. this will be an all day event for you across florida. still a lot of heat across the nation's midsection, changes are beginning. our storm system in the west will be moving through the inner mountain west and make its way towards the midwest. we'll go from record highs in minneapolis to snow by the end of the week. highs today in denver, 64. around freezing by tomorrow. the bottom line is, for your goals,
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welcome back. it was another record day on wall street with the dow, s&p and nasdaq closing at record highs. the rally was broad, even the russell 2000 participating in this financial outperformance. right now, traders taking a wait and see approach ahead of the fomc minutes where all eyes are on whether the fed is looking to raise rates in march and the central bank's view on trump's growth policies and the impact that could have on growth in the u.s. the dow indicating a lower move by nine points. the nasdaq lower as well. now on to politics. new details emerging on the president's deportation enforcement plan. jay gray joins us from washington with more. good morning, jay. >> reporter: good morning to
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you. homeland security officials insist there will be no massive roundups, still the new initiatives announced will clear the way for millions of illegal immigrants to be deported. >> how you can justify building a wall? >> yes. how can you justify building a wall? how you can justify manning them 24 hours a day? >> reporter: the new homeland security immigration enforcement plan is extensive, aggressive and frightening for millions across the country. >> anybody who is undocumented, whether they're going to the grocery store, dropping off their kids to school, at any given day they could be deported. >> reporter: the trump administration wants to hire 15,000 additional federal agents to help enforce the new regulations including an end to so-called catch and release. those detained at the border
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will now be held until court hearings. anyone illegally in the country for less than two years will be immediately deported. the time frame used to be two weeks. plus adults who pay human smugglers to bring their children into the country illegally will be prosecuted or expelled. >> it's the cruellest act i ever heard to really impact and separate these families. >> reporter: dreamers, children already here illegally, will be allowed to stay. continuing the initiative that was part of an order signed by president obama five years ago. >> we have to have people come in that will love the country, not people that will harm the country. >> reporter: revised presidential orders restricting travel to seven predominantly muslim countries is expected by later this week. some of the changes will take months, others years to enforce. civil rights organizations already started mounting a legal challenge. that's the latest live in washington, back to you.
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>> great stuff. thank you very much. in other political news, secretary of state rex tillerson spoke with china's top diplomat by phone yesterday to affirm the importance of productive u.s./china relationships. the state department said the two men agreed on the need to address threats posed by north korea. they also discussed economics and trade and possible cooperation on counterterroism, law enforcement and transnational crime. the call follows a meeting by tillerson and china's foreign ministry on friday. to sports. facebook wants to bring you closer to the action on the field. reuters reports the social media giant is in talks with major league baseball to stream one live game per week in the upcoming season. the partnership could give mlb access to a larger and younger audience. that was a main reason univision struck a deal with facebook earlier this month to live stream 46 major league soccer matches in english this year.
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twitter just finished streaming its first season of nfl games. this getting companies into live sports footage, it makes totally incense. having looked at the english premiere league for many years, it is surprising they haven't gotten into this business sooner. to basketball, the lakers hope to bring a little magic back to los angeles. team president and co-owner jeanie buss named laker legend magic johnson as the new head of basketball operations. she also fired her brother, jim buss, from that same position. magic was drafted by the lakers in 1979 and led the team to five nba titles. he was part owner of the lakers for several years, and part of the investment group that bought the dodgers in 2012. still to come, we have all the top stories and a round up of the global market action. plus top trending stories,
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including why undecided voter ken bone is going viral again. '. where, in all of this, is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you don't. you partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. morgan stanley.
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piggybacking off the emoji. that trending story coming up on february 22, 2017, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ good morning. warm welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost along with seema mody. i'm sorry we didn't have an emoji ready for you. >> i'm sure we'll get one. >> they're not bad. >> they look quite nice. very good looking you might say? there we go not bad. checking in on the global markets a look at what futures are doing at this hour. pretty much flat coming off the back of another set of record highs for all of the indices yesterday. about 0.5 or 0.6% of gains for the markets. the worst performing sector, materials, up 0.4%. real estate was the best
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performer a slight change from last week where we did see a yield-driven, banks driven rally carrying the markets higher. yesterday was broad optimism. the dow and the nasdaq slightly lower. s&p slightly higher. asian trade at this hour is -- was positive. it's closed now. japan ending flat. hong kong and shanghai higher. we got some chinese house price data, rising 12.2% year on year, month on month just 0.2%. decelerating pasz of that since september. but on a tear year on year basis. we are on track for another day of gains, albeit slight ones. just higher in germany, france and the uk. uk gdp revised higher for q4, 0.7%, as opposed to 0.6%. and german confidence data beat on every measurement.
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>> looking at broader markets, specifically oil. it's lower today. we should point out a bullish note from city yesterday caught the attention of commodity traders. they say crude oil prices could shoot up to $70 a barrel by the end of 2017. all of this predicated on that opec cut and what that could mean for oil demand. wti crude at 54.02. ice brent crude at $56.28. nat gas falling 0.94%. the u.s. treasury note is front and center as we await the release of the fomc minutes on what janet yellen and the central bank has to say about a rate hike in the month of march. ten-year yield at 2.41%. u.s. dollar could be a part of the discussion. we saw the dow jones post its
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eighth positive session. right now it's lower against the yen. the euro at 1.04 against the u.s. dollar. breaking below 1.05. that is a central story, predicated a lot on what we're seeing in france, the political jitters ahead of the french presidential election and specifically populist leader, marine le pen, her gaining support and what that could mean for france and the economy. that's the conversation there. we got some uk data today. the pound a bit weaker against the u.s. dollar. looking at gold. it's been flat relatively over the past two days. similar story today. >> now to today's agenda. the housing market is in focus. january existing home sales are out at 10:00 a.m. eastern. sales of previously owned homes are expected to have rebounded last month after falling 3% in december. at 2:00 p.m., we get the minutes from last month's fed meeting.
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among the companies reporting results before the open, we have tjx, parent of tj maxx and marshalls and six flags. after the close, tesla, hp, l brands and square. speak of tesla, landon dowdy joins us with three things to watch with this highly anticipated earnings report due after the bell. >> the street is looking for tesla to report a loss of 43 cents a share on revenue of $2.2 billion. here's the three things you want to watch. guidance on 2017 deliveries. tesla promised to ramp up production to half a million vehicles by 2018. this after delivering less than 90,000 vehicles in 2016. wall street is skeptical as the company would have to produce 400,000 more cars in 2018 to hit that goal. listen to what to expect in 2017. the model 3, tesla said
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production would begin mid year with the first versions by the end of the year. investors will want to know if those dates are still set in stone. the third thing to watch, investors focussed on tesla and the self-driving ridesharing. watch to see if elon musk will make a bigger commitment to compete with uber, lyft and others in developing an autonomous ridesharing unit. shares of tesla on a tear. up 45% in the past three months, hitting a 1 1/2 year high. >> i want to know how he manages it all. >> people sometimes critical of if he's spread too thin, but the share price the last three months ignoring that. toll brothers posting q1 eps of 42 cents a share topping estimates. revenues better than expected. home building deliveries were flat in dollars and increased 12% in units.
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the average price of homes delivered declined due to product mix. shares just slipping about a half percent this morning. carl icahn, the activist investor has reportedly bought a large stake in bristol-myers squib. the "wall street journal" says it is unclear how big the position is, but he sees the drugmaker as a potential takeover target. this after the company announced it would add three new board members and buy back $2 billions in stock in a deal it negotiated with another activist investor. bristol-myers has a market cap of more than $90 billion. this would not be a small takeover target. that is down significantly in august after it announced disappointing results for a trial of a lung cancer drug. starboard value has taken a
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more than 6% stake in tribute media, the television group formed by the split of the tribune company in 2014. starboard says it believes the company's stock is undervalued but does not have immediate plans to push for changes. starboard's investment follows the surprise announcement last month that tribune media's ceo would resign after four years at the helm. tribune up 4% this morning. newmont mining, costs and expenses jumped 51% during the quarter, and first solar reporting estimates that beat forecasts. its sales came in above expectations. shares of texas roadhouse in focus getting slammed after the company missed fourth quarter estimates. the restaurant chain same-store sales coming up short. you can see the stock is down about 10%. bayer's q4 profit falling 26% from this time last year. the company was hurt by one-off expenses, restructuring and litigation expenses. airbus's full year net proftd plunging 66%.
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it was hit by high costs for its a-400 military aircraft program. lloyds reporting and tthe ht annual profit in a decade thanks to cost cutting efforts. the british government is aiming to return the bank to full private ownership in the coming months. shares up 3.8%, in sharp contrast to the performance of hsbc in london yesterday which closed down 6%. rbs ticking higher. jimmy kimmel is considering retiring from late night tv. the abc late-night talk show host telling variety he will do the show for another three years. kimmel saying my wife's pregnant. at a certain point i would like to have a little more free time. i have very little free time as it is. kind of a bit weird, this i read all these comments. he sort of painted out his job to be an unbelievable choere.
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>> it's an honor, i'm sure. >> he said at best a marathon, and at worst a drain of his time. i know he's doing an interview ahead of doing the oscars. seems like a dream job, and it was a down beaten depressing analysis. >> from far away it sounds like a dream job. but it does require a lot of work and time. three more years. another trending story, ken bone is back. he's got a new job. the then undecided voter shot to internet fame last fall. victory holdings announcing yesterday that bone will be joining its team as chief people officer. >> what does that mean? >> i'm not sure. he's squeezing the last little bit out of his internet fame and good for him on that. >> good for him. was a well-liked person. trending after that debate for quite some time, the ken bone hashtag on twitter.
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apple bit emoji app may be in the work. the tech giant granted a patent for an edit emoji environment. there's that much demand for bit emo emojis. >> they've been gone, haven't they? they certainly have been in my life. i felt there was a rush to use them a year ago, but now less so. >> on snap i still see them sometimes. but not so much on other sites. coming up on today's show, we have our must reads, plus a programming note. don't miss treasury secretary steven mnuchin on "squawk box" tomorrow. you don't want to mis it. that's a first on cnbc interview at 7:00 a.m. eastern. as we head to break, look where european equities are trading at this hour. it's a positive day as we look at the euro breaking below 1.05. opportunities aren't always obvious.
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. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just getting up. let's get you up to speed on the market action. the ten-year treasury chart over the last week. this time last week when janet yellen was speaking in front of congress, her hawkish tone did push yields higher. we crossed above 2.5%. yields have slipped since. the focus for this chart and this asset will, of course, be
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fed minutes today. if we get a similarly hawkish tone as we got from janet yellen last week, this might move back up again. yields last week were a big factor for equity markets. the higher yields allowed bank stocks to rally. that dragged the market higher. futures are basically flat this morning. the moves higher yesterday were not yield driven. much broader. wasn't led by banks. it was the whole market going higher. 0.5, 0.6% of gains. all s&p sectors were higher. we slipped a fraction over the last hour. >> down about points on the dow. >> it's time for our must reads of the day. my pick is in the "wall street journal." it's titled iraq is a huge opportunity for trump. this is mr. trump and his advisers must not underestimate
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iraq's importance. when president obama took over in 2009, iraq was a dedicated ally at peace with its neighbors, under power of a federalist constitution passed by a legitimate parliament, then the u.s. backed away in 2011. we had that meeting on monday with mattis visiting iraq. this points to an interesting story, if donald trump, the president of the united states, wants to make combating isis and providing peace in the middle east a big priority, leveraging the help of iraq may be key, just given its agree graphical standpoint, its role in combating isis as it tries to take over mosul, the second largest city in iraq. isis has been playing a larger role there. we should point out, this is one of the best performing global stock markets over the last six months. the baghdad stock market is up about 60 psh%. >> that right? >> yes.
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did you not know that? >> i did not. what's the overall market cap? probably small. >> smaller, but they have oil and there could be a larger opportunity there. back in 2008 it was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. it may be on the mend. rather your 401(k) in the baghdad stock market man mine. my pick is mnuchin's metlife job. it's pretty niche. this relates to the fact that insurance companies were included in the too big to fail bracket. they appealed. they won. then the obama administration and under jack lew reappealed that decision. this article suggests this would be an easy thing for mr. mnuchin to drop, to drop the obama administration appeal against insurance companies being excluded from too big to fail. the trump administration has said it wants to revisit obama era banking rules, but that job will be much easier without
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judicial precedents that enforce the obama treasury's interpretation of vague statutory language. mr. mnuchin and jeff sessions should get on the case quickly. so this article, which i have to say the "wall street journal" has written about it quite often in an accurate way, suggests the first and easiest thing for mr. mnuchin to do in terms of financial regulation is to drop this appeal. already that would start the ball rolling of some sensible and easy to do financial deregulation without the need of passing laws. something to watch and a good sign of further things to come, to withdraw insurance companies from that too big to fail bracket. something they can do without congressional approval. >> ahead of mnuchin's interview tomorrow on "squawk box," perhaps this will be something that is discussed. as for what is coming up on "squawk box" today, let's go live to new york for a preview from joe kernen. good morning. >> that all depends. i need -- i vent talked to you
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in a while. >> no. i missed you. where have you been? >> i was only out one day. i need to talk about -- i get a lot of my euro stuff -- my euro updates, euro analysis from you. number one, i saw there's an olive oil shortage, which we may talk about in the chairs. big price spike. >> i missed that. i'll read into it. >> that brings me to italy. >> yes. >> i'm worried again about italy. worried about grease again. you saw bannon went over and pence went over with sharply differing stories on whether the trump administration loves the whole model of the eu or they don't. almost like a good cop/bad cop. >> i think so far that's not gob down brilliantly in europe. the tones from what mr. pence said about nato and the eu over
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the weekend do differ not just from what mr. bannon has been saying but the last things that president trump said. europe would love to see the same message now echoed clearly by president trump. there is a summit -- >> i don't know what europe wants. i saw what people in the uk wanted. i want to know your prediction on le pen. i want to know. >> i think it's interesting to see the way the odds have narrowed. if you stand back and look at it, it's pretty equal between macron, fillon and le pen. it's now a third and third and third for each of them. crazy to suggested it's that close. >> yet the markets are following the u.s. market. against the back drop of -- >> the equity markets are, but the euro is starting to react. down near 1.05. >> relax. it looked like it would go apart. it didn't. the bond markets have been quiet. what's been interesting are the
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equity markets. against the back drop of what -- if you read the newspapers and the papers here, you wouldn't believe the back drop to all of this people are freaking out about every little development. yet the market keeps going higher. >> one key point is equity markets are forward looking and they don't necessarily react to fundament fundamentals. >> they used to react to zero interest rates. >> that's what i mean, you can't just say that -- you can't say political headlines are why markets push higher. >> but i can say that given you would think from certain parts of the -- at least the media here, that this is just disarray, chaos, and oh, my god, how can they -- will the democracy survive? the market seems to be taking hard some of the deregulations, some of the potential for other
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positive things to happen. >> that's a fair point. >> we will drag you along with us. you keep your socialism, you keep your euro -- you can help it. it's going to spread. >> i am the flag bearer for all things socialist and european. >> i know. >> the point about the french market, with the euro falling, you get exporters benefiting. >> that's the uk, too, right? >> i know. joe, we have to leave it there. >> embrace it. embrace it. get on board. get on the train. >> i'm on every train. i never quite understand where the criticism here is focused at. we look forward to "squawk box" in just under ten minutes time. coming up, economist chris rupkey and his expectations for today's fed minutes. and don't miss eli lilly's ceo on power lunch this afternoon, an exclusive conversation at 2:30 p.m. eastern. stay tuned.
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welcome back. investors will dissect the release of the fed minutes today for clues on whether the next rate hike will come in march or later in the year. joining us is chris rupkey. chris, good morning to you. >> glad to be here. >> we saw quite a reaction last week to more hawkish tones from janet yellen and some other fed speakers. we went back above 2.5% in the ten-year. now we're back down again quickl quickly. >> it's europe. >> europe is moving that? . that's why we came back down. we followed bunds. >> but my point being, if we look at minutes today, if there's a similar hawkish tone in those minutes, could that reignite yields rising here in the u.s. again? it could. we got up to 2.52 on core cpi.
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but we just keep coming back down. we need more fed speak to really get the markets juices going. push up ten-year yields. backbone for treasury yields is fed policy, so they have to raise the rate. there's a lot of talk. i don't know. we don't seem to get action. >> the economic back drop is more encouraging from growth, inflation, pmi numbers. across the world we're much better than expected. can the economic data offset the political concerns? particularly what we're seeing in france? >> i hope so. there's only one vote on the fed that counts. that's chair yellen. she's been known to delay very cautious leadership. i'd like to think march is on the table. you see these various fed members, and they say march to
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be a on the table. i don't know if she wants it on the table. i guess i'm looking for inflation. cpi inflation, that's the relevant measure for inflation. that affects all of us. it's what we spend out of pocket. they like pce inflation, that's coming out march 1st. it's always lower than cpi. so they think there's not enough inflation, but there certainly is. that is march 1. that could get close to 2% finally. let's see, march 1, then they make their decision march 15. maybe the key is inflation. >> do we know enough about trump's policies, or do you think the fed will take a wait and see approach? >> i get that -- i am asked that quite a bit from customers, what's going to happen with trump. >> hard to know. >> luckily fed chair yellen has come out and said herself that
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we don't have any information. there's nothing we can go on. she was hit hard in the testimony saying why do you only have 2% growth? don't you believe in the trump economical miracle? >> one thing we have certainty on is data from around the world. is growth potentially now stronger outside the u.s.? we've been so focused on u.s. growth picking up. where around the world is most encouraging? >> europe has come back a bit. remember it was almost every single year we sold off the stock market on fierce ears of happening in europe. now we have a new situation in grease, and the markets are not tanking. that's good. it's not all about growth. especially here in the u.s. it's the labor market. it's tight. there's not enough workers. there's no way president trump is going to -- it was a campaign sound bite, but he can't create 25 million jobs in ten years.
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we don't have enough people. >> chris, great stuff. we have to leave it there. that's it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is next. a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley
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good morning. chasing the rally. thank god you did, right? stocks hitting new highs. the dow up more than 13% since the november election. it was bound to happen any way. that's what ed will tell us. and a run down of today's market drivers straight ahead. icahn takes aim. the activist investor taking a stake in bristol-myers squib. could the drugmaker be a possible takeover target? and face ball may be coming to your facebook feed. maybe one game a week? it's -- i can watch baseball any
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time i want and i rarely do i don't know why it would be better on facebook. a new report says the social network wants to stream mlb games. go ahead, you're welcome to it. it's february 22, 2017, "squawk box" begins right now. live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." >> good morning, welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. if you look at the u.s. equity futures, it was another big day yesterday. eight sessions in a row for the dow. the nasdaq and s&p set records in 8 of the last 9 sessions. the futures are weaker this morning, at least for the dow, it's down by about 20 poin
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