welcome. you're watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. shares in roche rally as a key trial shows that a combination of two of the pharma group's oncology drugs can reduce the occurrence of breast cancer. cementing growth. shares of lafareholcim rise after the cementmaker posts better than expected earnings for the fourth quarter. ceo eric olsen says the company will benefit from u.s. infrastructure spending under president trump. >> we're ideally positioned in the u.s. we as lafareholcim, we believe

we stand to benefit very well from these investments going forward. a trillion in investments and infrastructure is a real commitment. building bust. travis perkins slides to the bottom of the stoxx 600 after reporting a 67% fall in pretax profit. disappearing app snap getting ready to make a lasting impression on the market preparing to go public just a day after the dow jumps over 300 points to close above 21,000. good morning. let's kick off with some corporate news. shares in roche trading at nine-month highs after the success of a key cancer drug drill, a combination of her-ciptin an per-jeta together with chemotherapy reduced the occurrence of aggressive prostate cancer or death. when i spoke to the company back

in february, the coo of roche explained the significance of the trial. >> it's the next big clinical trial to read out. i understand there's a lot of focus on that specific trial. what i would say from a roche perspective, it's one of a number of important clinical read-outs we will see during 2017. what is testing per-jeta, which has been launched in the metastatic setting of breast cancer, it's testing now in the early stage setting of breast cancer now. i remain optimistic but let's wait for the data. >> when i was preparing for that interview on the 1st of february, everybody was talking about aphinity trial. there may be another $2 billion in sales for this drug by 2018. >> these pipelines are so crucial for these drug

companies. also the copycat drug cycle. once they run out, they need something to replace it. engie said its transformation plan is ahead of schedule having realized 530 million euros of cost cuts in 2016. the french utility sees organic growth accelerating forecasting net income return between 2.4 and 2.6 billion euros in 2017 as they reported full-year earnings in line with expectations despite booking 3.8 billion euros of impairment. lafareholcim shares are getting a lift after beating expectations. helping the company to hit its full-year profit target. it says it will buy back up to 1 billion swiss franc shares over 2017 to 2018. shares up 3.8%. speaking to cnbc earlier, the ceo said the company was well positioned to benefit from

anticipated infrastructure spending in the u.s. >> we're the leading cement producer in the u.s., and we have approximately 30% available capacity due to investments we made in the last three, four years. we're ideally positioned in the u.s. to benefit from not only a market that's on an upward swing in general in residential, commercial, but also infrastructure investments. the important thing to remember about the u.s., yes, there is going to be, we believe, a big commitment and big increase in infrastructure investment but as well the overall cycle in our industry is on the upswing. we would expect it to be that way for the next three, four, five years. we as lafareholcim, we believe we stand to benefit very well from these investments going forward a trillion in investments and infrastructure is a real commitment. >> anheuser-busch reported weaker than expected earnings for the fourth quarter dragged down by a slump in sales in

brazil. the brewer raised its cost savings target to $2.8 billion from $2.45 billion from its takeover of sabmiller. and deutsche telekom had a loss after a writedown. the telecom group proposed a 9% increase in its 2016 dividend, slightly below forecasts. we'll speak to the ceo first on cnbc at 11:40. continental posted profits near the high end of expectations and expects an increase of 43 billion euros in sales this year. the german automotive group raised its dividend. we will speak to the ceo at 11:00. adecco's fourth quarter earnings topping analyst

estimates with net profits rising 17% during the quarter. the temp staffing agency cited strong growth in italy and portugal as boosting revenues. the firm is seeing the impact of brexit on recruiting in the city. >> we see the first sign of the brexit in the recruitment activities. we had minus 15% in q4, and we see that the financial services companies, mainly located in london, are in a wait and see mode. now, our european markets this morning are relatively flat. relatively flat. you would be forgiven for thinking you would see more activity in europe this morning on the back of what was an extraordinary day yesterday in the u.s. glancing at u.s. markets, taking off in yesterday's session, after donald trump's speech to congress, we had a slew of

hawkish comments from various fed officials. the dow closing above 21,000 for the first time ever, posting its best day of 2017. the s&p and nasdaq seeing their best days of the year, both of these indexes closing at record highs. the s&p at 2395. it's taken 24 days to go from 20,000 to 21,000. you have to wonder when 22,000 is coming, 23,000. >> maybe two weeks time. the time between the two marks will get shorter. i would argue we did see the effect on the european markets yesterday. yesterday we saw the ftse 100 and ftse 250 hitting a record high. the cac and dax up more than 2%. we're seeing the cac at a 15-month high, and the dax at a 22-month high. the trump reflation trade is fully back on even though he did not give details. that makes me scratch my head. why does the market still rally so much on promises from trump? >> you're right in terms of the trump reaction yesterday in

europe. after these extraordinary gains, not to see it pushing more into the financials in europe, and now the data was a lot better in the u.s. as well. does it mean we keep going until i saw one quote this morning until the fed kills the run seen in financials and elsewhere? there's a lot to talk about this morning. incidentally we will be speaking to one of the fed members a bit later on via the states. lots of comments coming through. jerome powell, federal reserve governor at 17:15 cet. steven isaacs joins us from alvine capital this morning. extraordinary run in the u.s. yesterday. do you think we keep going higher? >> i'm kind of wrong, but short and cautious is what we call it. it's hard to predict how far these movements go. in 1988 and 1989, the market

weptd hi went higher and higher. to answer your question, why did the market like what trump said? the reason is ronald reagan could have given that speech. the calmness of delivery and content were mainstream republican. they were not the sort of extremism that people are still concerned about from trump. if you have a mainstream republican administration both in the white house and in congress, business and the markets will like that. >> terms of investment and what i do if i'm sitting with a portfolio today, do i figure we're going to 22,000 next? am i following this flow? am i thinking i want to take profits? the tech sector is back at levels not seen since 2000. financials back to 2007 levels, pre-financial crisis levels. we've been flirting with these highs for quite some time. do i keep going until the fed is at 2%? >> are two views here.

the warren buffett view is that the market is not that expensive. the american economy is doing well, long-term investors should always be engaged. at the end of the day he's done a good job managing other peoples money on that basis. the other view, which i'm afraid i agree with, is that we're in a cycle, top of a cycle. valuations show absolutely no value. then snap comes along. sometimes a deal at the top of the market can be something that actually crystalized the insanity. and, you know, morgan stanley and goldman should really wring their heads in shame here. not about valuation. i'll leave that to one side for a second, but non-voting shares? "a," crazy valuation, "b," absurd momentum, but no voting shares? isn't that the ultimate example of bubble trouble? i say we're in a bubble. i say there's no value. and investors should be sensible here and take a lot of risk off the table.

>> we talked to david rubenstein of carlisle yesterday, he pretty much mirrored what you said. he said i saw the top of the cycle, i thought we would see a downturn in the cycle which you see after every six or seven years in the u.s. or around the world, he thought we would see that in 2017, i guess it's not happening this year with this infrastructure spending coming from trump. will we see it in 2018 or is the simple turn of the business cycle not happening given that we have trump? >> there is the business cycle and people forget it when it suits them. and we're eight years into the u.s. business cycle. there's only once in the post-war era where we went longer than eight years. the average is five years. you don't know when the shoe will drop. momentum and confidence can take you a long way. we know the business cycle will bite at some stage. if we're in bubble crazy territory, where do you want to

put your money? >> i think you want to be conservative. buy short-term u.s. dollar bonds to be frank. for currency view, moving on to politics for a second and what's happening in europe, i'm indebted to my wife's view on this one. in france, the female vote, i think, will start to count in a big way. marine le pen, perhaps mirroring marianne is making an effective and sensible pitch for the woman's vote. if you think traditionally populist parties have been sort of male, disaffected industrial workers and women have sometimes been turned off by egregious populists, for instance marine's own father. she's a different kettle of fish, perhaps she's tuning into the mood around the world and this table where women rule the world. we have mrs. may, merkel, so

strong women role models. i think she's still the big risk factor that people are not taking into consideration. i like dollars, i like short-term conservative dollar assets. stay out of this european political issue, it could be dangerous. >> stay out of europe. we'll see whether your wife is right or not. thank you very much for that. >> she's always right. >> that's the general rule, right? for any marriage, the wife is always right. steven isaacs from alvine capital. e-mail the show and let us know whether you agree with the view that we're in a bubble crazy market. streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. or you can tweet us directly @carolincnbc or -- >> @louisabojesen. >> had you had a pessimistic view 24 days ago you would have lost out on a thousand points in the dow. >> lord rothschild said he made money by not buying at the bottom or selling at the top but by taking profits. coming up, will investors

snap up shares of snap? as they prepare to make their public debut on the nyc today. we'll be back in a couple minutes.

welcome back. you're still watching "street signs" on cnbc. snap will be making its public debut today on the new york stock exchange. the company behind the social media app, snapchat, pricing its ipo above its target range of $17 per share. looking to raise $3.4 billion. leslie picker has the details. >> snap officially decided to price its ipo at $17 a share. 200 million shares being offered by the company and previous venture backers as well as the founders, $3.4 billion offering size is more than twice the amount that tech ipos raised in the u.s. all of last year.

pricing discussions took place yesterday afternoon at morgan stanley's offices in new york. you can see here executives, including emran kahn exiting the bank. i'm told that snap's management and advisers knew earlier this week they wanted to price a dollar or two above the range but opted for $1 above in an effort to garner more of a pop today. snap has benefited from almost perfected market conditions. the broader equity gauges gained every day of their road show except one and volatility was lower. snap's bankers are hoping for the same luck today when shares are expected to begin trading. one key sticking point of the deal is governance. reuters reported yesterday that an investor committee that advises the securities and exchange commission is reviewing snap's decision to offer only non-voting shares, something that has never been done before. the concern is that it could cause the company to limit investor disclosure on things

like executive pay. that said, i'm told by sources there was a lot to of demand in this deal, but the key question is whether those investors will stick around through today. guys? >> the italian luxury retailer moncler has seen demands rise by 18% thanks to strong demand in the united states. claudia has been speaking to the ceo. >> we have been speaking with the ceo, spoke with him yesterday afternoon. the company did bring in revenues that grew by 18% reaching the 1 billion euro level at 1.04 billion. profits grew double digit coming in at 196 million, eby the was up by 19%, coming in at over 300 million, when expectations were for 280. they beat on all fronts in terms of what expectations were. analysts did boost the ratings

as well as their target prices since those numbers did come out. the company yesterday, the stock traded positively. not as high as the ceo could have expected considering these numbers were very, very strong. this was due also to go management of inventory, strong sales of new categories, they are an outer wear company but also producing eyeglasses, accessories and shoes. so new categories to help boost sales for the rest of the year. the fourth quarter was particularly strong. they have started the year out very strongly as well. so, january was quite strong. but there are, of course, concerns about instability that could keep growing. so it was a strong year, positive outlook, but let's start from what they said about the performance in 2016. >> we reached 1 billion, if you

think i bought the company in 2003, and it was a small company. i opened my first store in 2008. honestly, 1 billion is something for a company like us. the future, the future is -- if you want to look back at 2016, the world was very volatile. everything up. starting from uk, then going to turkey, then going to united states, very volatile. i think a good -- if you want to manage the right way a company, you don't have to make a plan for the next three years, but you need your own strategy, and i would say you have to adopt your own strategy monthly. as i say, it changes. i don't think we have to make anything different than what we did in the last two, three years. we have to only improve. we have a lot of things to improve in the company.

i will say quality for the people here, quality is not only in the product, quality is everything, relation with the customers, the people in the stores. >> so the company has come quite a long way since rufini bought up moncler in 2003. so 181 stores, the next one, the flagship being built in hong kong. that's part of the future plan, also looking out for their show done in paris in the next few days. this is one of the few brands that actually shows, goes on the catwalks in milan, new york and paris. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. in the latest election poll from germany, the social democrats have narrowed the gap with chancellor angela merkel. support for cdu/csu fell 1% to

33% of voters, the spd held 31% of voters' supports. annette joins us from berlin. yesterday was a crucial day for the election campaign, it was ash wednesday and that's usually when the gloves come off what did angela merkel say? >> ash wednesday is when political parties are rallying supporters and bashing out against the opposition. angela merkel for the first time was holding a speech which was a bit more aggressive against the social democrats arguing they are concentrating on the past. they want to unfold very important reform package packed by the administration ten years ago. this is was she's saying, that this is not like oriented towards the future, it's just backward oriented. that's her aggressive tone towards the social democrats.

the cdu is afraid, that was an unprecedented situation they are in with the social democrats being actually at the same level as they are in the opinion polls. of course that's one big issue for angela merkel. the other big issue is still the alternative for germany, which is the populist party here in germany. their opinion polls sit at roughly 10% nowadays. a little bit lower than previously last year when we were seeing more pressure from the refugee crisis. but still 10%, they're stealing away voters also from the cdu. yesterday we caught up with leading figures of that party. i was asking whether he is seeing support by the general movement of populist parties in europe for his party as well. listen so what he had to say. >> there is a general movement in europe because the citizens are to longer willing to -- to

trust the establishment. the politicians so far. so they want to have a change. they see change is only possible with new parties. this is why in austria, marine le pen, or the afd, we're coming up because people want to have an alternative. we are the alternative. >> so, for a change, this year will be super exciting here when it comes to the election campaign in germany. it's not a given at all that angela merkel will win these elections once again. there's pressured from the right, there's pressure from the left, the big question is whether the germans really will kind of sign up to that rather social democrat leftist rhetoric from maureen shultz who wants to scale back the reform packages

that we've seen which made g germany an economically successful left, whether germany wants to move left or not move left. also business-wise, speaking to people from the business community, they are really afraid that marine shultz may end up being the chancellor of germany. if that will be the case, he actually promises to increase social security, also increase labor market laws, so nothing really pro business. back to you. >> thank you very much for that comprehensive insight. dutch nationalists geert wilders resumed his campaign after leaks caused him to temporarily stop appearances. he said voters wanted to see us saying he would visit amsterdam on sunday. the dutch party for freedom has seen a supplied in tlide in the

of the march 15th vote. >> the question is whether he stopped the public appearances because he was falling in popularity in the polls. look at world market lives. it's our blog that runs throughout the european trading day. loads more to come on "street signs." we'll talk more about what's going on in greece. we'll hear the latest out of dubai and we'll get you a new book and a take on wall street a bit later on in the show.

welcome. you're still watching "street signs." i'm carolin roth. >> i'm louisa bojesen. your headlines today -- shares in roche rally as a key trial shows that a combination of two of the pharma group's oncology drugs can reduce the occurrence of breast cancer. cementing growth. shares of lafareholcim rise after the cementmaker posts better than expected earnings for the fourth quarter. ceo eric olsen says the company will benefit from u.s. infrastructure spending under president trump. >> we're ideally positioned in the u.s. we as lafareholcim, we believe we stand to benefit very well from these investments going forward. a trillion in investments and infrastructure is a real commitment. building bust. travis perkins slides to the bottom of the stoxx 600 after reporting a 67% fall in pretax profit. the white house faces another internal issue amid calls for attorney general jeff sessions to step down.

that's over reports that he withheld details about communications with russia. good morning, everyone. if you're just tuning in, let's get to some uk data in the form of uk construction pmi. that picked up pace in the month of january. a print of 52.5 versus -- for february, versus a january print of 52.2. and that is slightly higher than the reuters poll of 52.2. obviously a very small component of the uk economy. only 6% or 8%. yesterday the manufacturing pmi was slightly disappointing. the big one is the services one. that's set to come in the next few days. >> there is a slowdown in new orders, which is a mixed signal. that's what to come in the future. given we have all this brexit uncertainty, new orders

increasing at the slowest pace since october. yeah. we'll have to see. see what happens in the uk. >> sterling/dollar 1.2276. at a six-week low yesterday on the back of weaker than expected pmi on the manufacturing side but also the strong dollar on the back of the fed speak. that was the more important side of the equation. let's come back to u.s. futures. let's peek at how they're looking this morning. the s&p 500 off by 3 appointments. the dow jones off by 7, the nasdaq by a similar amount. this following the markets taking off on wednesday following donald trump's speech and the dow closing above 21,000, that's for the first time ever as it posted its best day of 2017. the s&p and nasdaq seeing their best days of the year. both indexes closed at a record high. the s&p 500 is at 2,395. let's show you what european

markets are doing. they're still positive but less than yesterday. the dax is slightly under water at 12,056. yesterday the dax and the crack were up more than 2%. in the fx markets, dollar reigns supreme. the dollar trading at a seven week high, showing more strength against the japanese yen this morning, 114.27. the march highs have risen to 66% from 30% a week ago. that's based on what dudley said and braynard affirmed that thought. >> so 80% now. >> so my 30% number is outdated. >> we were watching yesterday the press conference with fillon, the late press

conference, but the presidential candidate, emanuel macron said he would sell down 10 billion euros of government stakes in major french companies, the pillar of this manifesto to be unveiled momentarily. and francois fillon promising that he will continue with his presidential campaign despite being put under investigation. he was speaking in paris yesterday. he called the probe "political assassination." francois hollande saying a presidential candidate should not question the actions of police and judges. melenchon disagreed with that saying the right deserves a candidate and fillon's situation is not good for democracy. a lot to take in nancy joins us from paris. a lot of people were surprised that fillon told us he was continuing with his campaign yesterday, that announcement

coming. the issue is whether voters will be sticking to him. will they continue to back him? >> that's right. the question is if they don't back mr. fillon, who will they then support? because consensus among political analysts and political scientists we've been speaking to this morning seems to be ultimately it would benefit macron, who is unveiling a big speech this afternoon right here in paris, talking about additional details in his platform. we did get a glimpse at some of the economic proposals including additional changes to the pension system. earlier last week he talked about increased spending, a tax overall but he wants to be careful not to touch socialist platforms, which include protecting things like the 35-day work week. a sensitive issue when we talk about emanuel macron during his time as an economy minister under the socialist party was criticized for going too far

right on economics. today potential voters want to hear a message that he is serious about certain issues. he's not just serious about being the compromise candidate. look out for additional details including the one that may sprayed some on the parliamentary side talking about reducing nearly a third of the seats in both houses of parliament. that may unravel some of the establishment here, but that could be to his benefit. we were talking before about france, like britain and the united states wants to give the establishment a bit of a shakeup here. macron is hoping that translates to votes for him. others are concerned if mr. fillon's troubles continue, his votes go to le pen. polls showed show macron beating le pen by 60% or more, but some say it's too early to tell. >> nancy, thank you. to continue that conversation,

charles deibel from aviva investors, charles, good to see you. how do i play this french uncertainty heading into the elections? >> well, you have already seen a fair amount of movement in the bond market spreads. i think that perhaps if you really all that worried about the tail risks, simply buying some sovereign cds is a simple way to protect against the tail outcome, because they don't have a lot priced in. overall, to be honest, the markets are largely discounting a negative outcome in terms of a le pen victory because the probability seems low. >> so i shouldn't be positioning for a frexit? >> certainly not based on our estimation of events. not only because of the opinion polls, but likewise the number of hurdles, even if she were to win the presidency, given you

have the general assembly elections and then put it to a referendum, we think there are too many hurdles for that to be a realistic probability. >> in that vain, why aren't more investors buying on that at this point? shouldn't you buy on the dip? >> the easiest way to deal with it is scale down investment and really not get involved. to say there is value is true if you assume our conclusion. such would be the profound nature of it actually happening and were it to happen. the best course of action is to steer clear. let's take a moment here. stay with us. we're seeing macron delivering his fully budgeted manifesto. he's speaking in paris at this point, speaking in french, as soon as we get more information on that, we'll bring you any

sort of commentary from him. charlie, let's get back to you. we've seen quite a bit of inflow into bunds in the last couple weeks or so. given this political risk surrounding france, at what point will bunds trade on the back of reflationary trends again? today we're getting more eurozone inflation data and that could point close to 2%. >> this does play into the french story to some extent because owning german bunds is a fairly good and defensive way to play. likewise you have the scarcity issue which has been driving the value of german assets up relative to their european peers. that partly needs to be addressed by the ecb, making sure there is available collateral for repo purchases into the market, but also some of this election risk needs to be down-priced, if you'd like. we have the dutch elections not too far away.

and if we continue to see the opinion polls in france hold as they are through the first round of voting and into the second round, then the market in the second quarter will start to price out a lot of this tail risk and actually start to focus more on, as you rightly point out, some reflationary pressures we see going through the european economy. >> let me ask you about the u.s. treasury market given the massive moves yesterday in equities and fixed income. the highest level in yields since '09. the ten-year just shy of 2.50. what are your targets here? >> well, to be honest, we see treasuries, ten-year treasuries close to fair value at this point. if there is a weakness in the u.s. curve at this moment, it's because of the rhetoric from the fed and likewise, you know, there is a potential for the fed to move to a slightly more aggressive stance over the course of this year.

particularly if we start to see some more transparency over the fiscal plans that trump may be putting through in the second quarter and further on. we think the long end is probably closer to fair value, certainly the third year part of the curve we don't think is that vulnerable at this point in time. that's largely a reflection of how steep the curve is. to a degree, though we wouldn't necessarily oppose it that aggressively at this point, we do think if there's value it's in the longer end of the u.s. curve rather than the short. >> what is the u.s. dollar more sensitive to at this point, donald trump, the 1 trillion in infrastructure spending or really the fed? >> i think for sure it's the fed. 1 trillion in infrastructure sounds like a big number but probably stretched over a ten-year period. likewise we don't really know the details of that. though it sounds very

impressive, i think it's a magician's trick, creates some sparkles in peoples eyes. without a doubt it's the fed. they're looking at the economy, data has been running good, and they're sticking to their mandate that as we approach full employment and as some longer term inflationary pressures build, particularly with respect to the labor market, they need to respond. i think really that is what we're seeing right now. they are just doing their job, sticking to the numbers, and trying to avoid all of the noise surrounding trump and what he may or may not do down the line. >> thank you very much for that. let's change talk, and saudi's king is in indonesia as part of an asian tour, this as the top borses like singapore or hong kong compete to win the listing of saudi aramco.

so who will finally snag this ipo, hadley? >> carolyn, it's a big question that everyone is asking. certainly there's a lot of interest in asia about what they can do to hopefully get that list i listing. the question going forward is not just about valuation, will saudi aramco be worth $2 trillion or will we see something different? another question, this trip is not just about economics, it's also about geopolitics. one area that may be of interest is this move to asia, this pivot to asia. we had the chance this morning to catch up with the head of the capital markets authority, basically the regulator of saudi arabia, they will be interesting not just to talk about the valuation and where they are listing but how this could improve relations with countries, like the united states. >> what has been quite encouraging from our standpoint in saudi arabia is that there's

been a high degree of distinction between geopolitics and the realm of capital markets, which is the realm i operate. in the realm of economics and the capital markets, it's been an objectively oriented decision on what is good for economy, what is good for business, and that's been kept an independent decision. if i use a quit example, our strategy and our policies in the capital market authority and with respect to the capital market has not really changed before or after the u.s. elections. >> so whether it's new york, hong kong, london, singapore, lots of questions about where this company is going to list. but of course all of this plays into the future of the kingdom and what impact this aramco ipo will have on their ability to diversify economy. >> when we talk about the economic plans in saudi, they're

very much built and based on the future of saudi arabia, that includes diversifying away from oil, that includes having a more private sector oriented economy, one that is more vibrant and diversi diversified. we view this as an independent stance that is hopefully going to be independent of anything that happens in the realm of geopolitics in other country. we believe it has staying power irrespective of what happens with the oil price. i think it's a commitment the country made for the long term irrespective of where oil prices go. >> but still oil prices, economics, geopolitics, all of these things playing together in the region, certainly as saudi arabia looks to diversify its economy, they think they need as much as $4 trillions worth of investment over the next decade to diversify, create jobs, move public employees to the private sector, so a lot of work to be done in the kingdom, all eyes on

this saudi aramco ipo in 2018. guys? >> thank you very much for that. still coming up on the show, president trump has vowed to rebuild america's roads, bridges and airports, how will he pay for it? we'll delve into that question after this short break.

welcome back. the house minority leader, nancy pelosi, called on toattorney general jeff sessions to resign after the "washington post" claims that sessions spoke with russia's ambassador. sessions was asked at his confirmation hearing what he would do if he learned of evidence of communication between the trump campaign and the russian government and he responded, i'm not aware of any of those activities. adding he had been called a

surrogate in that campaign and he did not have communications with the russians. president trump will speak later on today from the uss gerald r. ford, the most expensive ship built by the u.s. navy, two days after saying he will increase u.s. military spending by $54 billion. he also promised to spend a trillion dollars repairing the country's infrastructure. tom costello has more. >> reporter: in the american heartland, an infrastructure emergency. >> through the tunnel, much busier as well. >> reporter: the bridge in cincinnati carries double the 80,000 vehicles it was designed for in 1963. today, concrete from the upper level falls to the deck below. when you see that kind of rust, is that a warning sign? >> it is a warning sign for something that's going to come later. >> reporter: chief engineer bob yager says the only solution is to build a second bridge right next to it. >> if you're going to go from michigan to florida, you're going to travel this bridge.

>> reporter: it's a national problem. one in nine bridges deemed structurally deficient. engineers give the country's entire infrastructure a "d" plus. on tuesday, a huge sinkhole in new jersey swallowed up an suv. last month, 200,000 people in california forced from their homes with the oroville dam in danger of breaching. the hope is that big projects like this one will bring not only much needed improvement but also jobs, taking a page from the depression era jobs program of the 1930s. like the welding jobs that bridge builder vertas steel. >> it would mean job security for me. it would mean i could put food on the table for my family. >> reporter: the question, how to cover the trillion dollar price tag. president trump has suggested a mix of public and private sector investment. but it could be a hard sell for fiscal conservatives in his own party with the white house also suggesting tax cuts. >> if you add to that a large infrastructure effort as well, that could really balloon the deficit.

>> reporter: as americans tonight drive home across 55,000 crumbling bridges, the question is how soon a fix may be coming. tom costello, nbc news, cincinnati. >> separately the department of homeland security has only identified $20 million to build the planned border wall with mexico, that's according to a reuters report. head to cnbc.com for more on what the trump administration is facing. let's talk about wall street with william cohen author of "why wall street matters." pleasure speaking with you. thank you very much for getting up early. in your previous books you have criticized wall street, now you're defending them. why? >> i know, it's a bit of a switch for me. look, i spent 17 years on wall street as an m&a banker, the last 13 years writing about wall street. i think what's been going on frankly for the last eight years is that politicians, regulators,

have been villainizing wall street, using it as a whipping boy for their own political grandizement, and both sides of the aisle, obvious during the presidential debate whether it was candidate trump or candidate clinton or candidate bernie sanders, wall street has become a convenient whipping boy. i felt the american people, the people around the world did not understand how wall street really works. the functions that it provides, the importance it plays in the world economy. i thought it was time to take a deep breath, take a moment, and really in clear, precise language explain to people what wall street does right and what wall street needs to change about its behavior and the way it's regulated so wall street works best for the people around the world. >> i take your point that a country needs strong banks not burdened by excessive regulation. aren't you worried we're going from one extreme to the other and now banks with the roll back

of certain administrations under the trump administration may have too much leeway? >> yes, i am worried about that. i didn't think i would be worried about that. i don't think people in the u.s. thought they would be worried about that because i don't think a lot of people thought donald trump was going to win. but give than he has won and he is intent on rolling back the financial regulations that were enacted after the financial crisis, i think it's really important now that there's some prudence, that a scalp will be used to take away those regulations that don't work as opposed to a sledgehammer. i also think it's important that president trump enact what i call a grand bargain with wall street. that would say, okay, we will reduce regulation on you, that you've been asking for. because frankly some of that regulation that been throwing sand in the gears of wall street and the beautiful engine that is wall street. and demand in return that you change your compensation system. >> william, we're running out of

time. briefly, am i right in saying that you're suggesting that there's some type of executive group that's created so shareholders can go after their full net worth if things fail? >> yes. it's a bit of an outlying idea, but the idea is in the moment that these banks fail, that creditors would have a first lien on the assets of the 500 top executives at each wall street firm, the full net worth, to make sure they have skin in the game and not taking big risks with other peoples money. >> william, thank you very much. come visit us in london. william cohen, author of "i would wall street matters." that's it for today's show. i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. "worldwide exchange" is up next.

good morning. stocks march higher. wall street kicks off the new month by hitting another milestone. oh snap, prices above the expected range. and jeff sessions is in the hot seat over a report he lied under oath. we'll take to you the capitol for a love report on that. it's thursday, march 2, 2017, "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange