lse. vin esthers snap. welcome. you're watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. shares in the advertising group wpp slide after the firm says it sees a slow start to 2017. ceo sir martin sorrell tells cnn he's bullish about president trump's policies in the years ahead. >> his pro business, pro growth agenda is good for business. america first will probably benefit the u.s. economy. 2016 profit rises at the

london stock exchange but the seemsly doomed deal with deutsche boerse casts a shadow on otherwise solid results from lse. and investors snap up the tech ipo of the year sending shares of snap higher by more than 40% on its opening day of trade valuing the messages app at $30 billion. a private e-mail scandal, but this time in the republican camp as it is revealed vice president mike pence used his personal address to discuss state business. good morning. welcome to the show. it's friday. we have date to flow out here at the top of the hour, getting you the italian final fourth quarter gdp, it's confirmed at plus 0.2% quarter-on-quarter. they expanded the revised 1% year-on-year according to the

latest round of data. confirming the preliminary estimate, but revising down the previous 1% year-on-year growth. not sure that comes as a surprise. >> probably not. also we've seen a strong run of eurozone pmis. earlier this week, we got the manufacturing pmi, the strongest in almost six years, that's mirrored by the services and composite pmis. the services pmi for february, 55.5, lower than the flash estimate of 55.6, but an improvement coming from the january final number of 53.7. this is the highest number since may of 2011. the composite pmi number for february is 56, in line with the flash. the highest since april 2011. how are markets doing? >> mostly red at the moment. trading lower, down by a half percent for most of the european

equity indexes. the ftse, just bucking the trend a tad along with some of the smaller markets. seems like it's been a volatile week after we saw mr. trump's address, right? the address to congress. and that we're maybe just leveling off heading into the weekend. >> pausing for breath, but janet yellen speaks later today. >> and fisherer. >> one of the reasons the ftse 100 is trading down is wpp. the stock is trading near the bottom of the stoxx 600 after the company says it has seen a slow start to 2017 after reporting like for like revenue up 1.5% for january. the world's largest advertising group said it would plan for a more conservative budget for the year ahead. but wpp ceo sir martin sorrell told cnbc he is optimistic about president trump's economic agenda. >> whatever you think about the

personal side of the equation or some of the policies in relation to immigration, whatever, his pro business, pro growth agenda, if it gets implemented, is good for business. america first will probably benefit the u.s. economy. because that's a $19 trillion engine out of 72 trillion worldwide of gnp, or gdp, that's good for the world economy, certainly good for the u.s. economy. i would expect the u.s. growth rate to be greater than the 2% that we've seen, which is subtrend, below where we were prelehman, which is 3%. shares of wpp down more than 6.5%. tom singlehurst joins us. this is a shocking share price move for the likes of wpp. it never falls to this extent on an earnings day. what does this come down to, profit taking or the di

disappointment of the poor outlook? >> i think it runs around enthusiasm for the year ahead, and the company has a strong track record of making numbers, but it is all about that outlook. the company had talked about 3% top line growth for the full year 2017. as recently as december of last year. so to move it back down to 2% doesn't feel like a big move, that's driving the caution this morning. >> is there a way that wpp can turn this around in the course of the year that maybe in the second half we'll see an acceleration towards 2.5% to 3% again? because sir martin sorrell talks about the benefit to the trump administration. >> one is the driver of the reduction is relatively specific. there are a couple of big account losses that happened the tail end of last year which is really the 1% move. a second point to make actually concerns inorganic factors.

you not only have the higher base but the group is delivering strong margin improvements, a beneficiary of fx moves t has m&a, doing another 2%, 3% buy back. this is one of the things that always happens with wpp, at the beginning of the year we focus on organic, at the end the earnings. for the moment the organic is disappointing. >> those fx moves have benefited by the fall in sterling since the brexit vote, but the outlook for the uk is mixed. >> with the uk, we're obviously in the heart of the storm. i know sir martin in the past has said it's relatively positive relative his expectati expectations. for wpp, it's the global growth, so for the u.s., about 35% 40%. other emerging markets as well. >> listening and reading between the lines, he was essentially

saying troumponomics could be positive, so even if we see growth in the u.s., the issue is we're not seeing growth everywhere else. the international economy is hampering them. >> that's a factor. it's actually got the least exposure to the u.s. of the larger agency groups. that's an important point. it's also a function of their sectoral exposure. one unfortunate thing for the agency is they have more higher exposure to the staple things, not only is consolidation a feature of the market but real focus on costs. those are the two challenges for wpp. >> what about the intensifying competition, from some internet giants like google, amazon, facebook, then increasingly the likes of accenture. what do you think of that? >> they are a threat over wpp and the sector more broadly. that will be factored into the move today. at least on the threat from

other consultancies, it moves in both directions. part of the reason why some consultancies are becoming more active is because the wpp is becoming more active in the i.t. services. so it goes two ways. at this point, it's a much more local issue around challenges for new business. >> what should one do with the stock today? buy on the dip? we like wpp on a 12-month view. it shows a seasonality to performance relative to the market. it always does quite well between october and into full-year results. the problem this stage of the year is the market focuses on organic trend. we have organic disappointment. on a 12-month view we like t it's a question of what it does over the next three months as the market focuses on organic trends. >> tom, thank you very much for that. the london stock exchange is saying that it's working hard on

the merger with deutsche boerse. on the earnings call, the lse ceo chaifier rolot said the head of the company would be in london and that it is not a nationallism fueled project. this as the exchange posted a rise in full-year profits and hiked a dividend. cgg had a loss of $280 million because of difficult markets. shares off almost 12%. psa group could announce a deal to buy opel from general motors in the next few days. they are getting closer to an agreement on pension liabilities on gm's european division. the report stated that the announcement could come as early as monday. speaking to cnbc late last month, the ceo of psa, carlos

tavares said it was too early to set out a potential time frame of the tie-up. >> i would like to be respectful of my partners, recognizing we are still under discussion to eventually conclude this deal. i want to make it clear to stakeholders that the deal is not done. we are discussing. as you know, there was a leak last week. we are talking about this matter today because there was that leak. so i would prefer not to answer precisely your question. my apologies for that because we are discussing. as long as the discussions are to the concluded it would be premature. >> nancy will speak to carlos tavares at the geneva motor show, that's happening on tuesday. by all means get involved. many of you did yesterday. keep your e-mails coming through, streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can also find us on twitter directly. >> @carolincnbc or @louisabojesen. coming up, say cheese.

snap makes its much anticipated debut on the new york stock exchange. how did the photo sharing app fair? we'll find out after this short break. news tonight. ways wins.

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you wouldn't pick a slow race car. then why settle for slow internet? comcast business. built for speed. built for business. hi everybody. welcome back to "street signs." we have to talk about this hugely anticipated tech ipo. shares of snap popping in the company's initial public offering on the new york stock exchange finishing the day 44% higher at $24.48 per share. recall that snap opened the day trading at $24, its closing price values the company at more than $28 billion, roughly in line with the valuation of target and marriott. according to cnbc sources, the

ipo was 12 times oversubscribed. we said 10 to 12 times, but 12 times vestors snapped up shares, concerns are over growth and the app's daily users. year over year growth declined from 65% in the june 2014 to december. >> one big winner is morgan stanley, the lead underwriter in the public debut. this bank is set to bring in almost $26 million in fees according to the "wall street journal." goldman sachs could make as much as $21 million. julia has the story on snap's public debut. >> reporter: it was a big day for snap inc., the stock soaring

out of the gate, this after the company priced shares at $17, above the range the company projected last month of $14 to $16. the opening price of $24 puts the market cap at about $34 billion, about the size of marriott and target and about three times the size of twitter. analysts weighing in today are concerned about the company's valuation. raising concerns about facebook copying its features. nomura recommends investors reduce their ownership of shares with a $16 price target, while pivotal has a sell rating and a $10 price target saying while snap is promising it's overvalued considering the risks. here at snap headquarters neighbors protested it's effect on the community claiming that snap is driving up real estate prices and driving out mom and

pop shops. there's no question for other tech companies in los angeles, snap could be a game changer as the largest ipo ever from los angeles. back over to you. >> julia spent a lot of time talking about valuations and what firms make of it. morgan stanley raking in a lot of money from them as one of the main underwriters. they're not allowed to put out a price target just yet. i'm sure it will be a positive one. nomura initiated snap with a reduced rating and a $16 price target citing slowing growth and lofty evaluations. what investors are doing is buying into a stock that is or a company that is not profitable yet. they don't have a proven business model. they're competing with the likes of instagram and we've got this very tight ownership story where you're buying the shares but not voting rights. that is just mind boggling. >> nomura put them in the lower quadrant of users of engagement relative to big competitors that you mentioned like youtube,

facebook, pandora. they have some big names to compete with. when looking at the valuation story, it's incredible to see some of these valuations put on tech sectors, and to compare snap versus uber, 66 billion, airbnb, 30 billion, and looking at how markets have been reacting as well, back to levels not seen since 2000. it's the perfect time to list if you're a tech company, big tech company out there. a lot of the bulls, they point out revenues rose by almost 600% last year. goldman sachs says they could be doing 2 billion in revenue by 2018. one main issue to ask if you're not a bull, if you're a bear, these moody teens, how long will they stick around for? >> i call them moody and fickle. we have the same discussion around twitter when it listed. what happened to twitter? it popped on the first trading day, now it's off almost 70%

from the day's high on the ipo day. >> then you had facebook, all these high expectations, initially in trading facebook didn't do well. >> that's true. >> yeah. definitely one to watch. >> are you on it? >> i'm not. i'm not. we were saying, it's like a full-time job to be across all of the media channels. >> i tried it once. i guess i don't fit into the age category anymore. >> we need to get with it. >> maybe. the u.s. markets coming off a stellar session just before yesterday. we saw slightly lower markets in yesterday's trade. not a big surprise given these record highs that we're seen on wednesday's trade. thursday pulling back just a tad. a lot of people looking towards janet yellen and stanley fischer's speeches given today. we have had hundreds of fed speakers of late, more bets being placed on a fed hike to come. dudley fisher, brainard

typically dovish also sounding the same chorus that it might be time for a hike. the dow is on pace for the fourth positive week in a row and the s&p 500 and nasdaq are pointing to their sixth positive week in a row. steve liesman has more on the market's climb. >> reporter: like a great running back, the stock market rally sprinted past 21,000 with explosive speed. but it's also done with considerable strength dragging defenders along the way. the yards have come while stocks have battled a faster rate hike from the fed and a stronger dollar. the fed rate hike in march has more than doubled in just the past couple days and the market is increasing priced in a third rate hike this year. fed governor jay powell made clear that a march hike is a real possibility. >> the economy has behaved pretty much as we expected. in the meantime the balance of risk that has been to the down side has shifted to being even and perhaps to the upside

because of the possibility and the likelihood of some fiscal action. you put all that together and the case for a rate increase has come together and i do think it's on the table for discussion. >> stocks seem to believe in a solid economic underpinning. wednesday's 300-plus point rally ignored weaker economic data. powell suggest the u.s. could finally be getting help from abroad. >> for the last few years we had significant global risks and weak growth abroad, and i think the risks have diminished and growth in europe is a little stronger, inflation's higher. same is true in japan. we see a slightly brighter picture abroad and i think that will help us. >> it seems likely that's what driving investors is the promise of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation from the trump administration, all of which seem more likely after tuesday night's speech. how the fed could react could become more clear by speeches on friday by stanley fischer and

fed chair janet yellen. steve liesman, cnbc business news. we have the head of european equity strategy from deutsche bank with us. welcome. broad question to kick things off, given that you're head of european equity strategy, do i buy europe now given what's taken place in the markets? >> it's an interesting question. that's what we hear from clients. people say i want to buy europe, which has been a laggard for the last couple of years. i just want this political risk to go out of the way, then i'll be buying. we are not in. we would be more skeptical. the markets are up, and driven up by the sharp rise in economic momentum, but that is at the top end of the range. valuations are 5% of where models say they should be. sentiment looks stretched. any sentiment indicator suggested people are bullish. we say, yes, the structural conditions are better for the equity market but this is perhaps not a good entry point. >> doesn't that indicate we

could keep going? even if it shouldn't make sense, if you're saying that structurally people are still sticking with it, it's too early to get out. >> i think it's important at any point in time to identify what are the drive market drivers now. we can explain most of the rebound in the equity market by the fact that you have seen the strongest acceleration in global growth momentum in seven years. the question you have to ask yourself, can this go further? the indicator we fine most helpful is global macro surprises, they're in the top 5% of the historical range. in the past when they hit this level, they typically fade back to a more normal level. if that were to happen, you would see the equity market pull back by 5% or so over the next 3 to 4 months. if you say i think it has further to go, you would say i expect global growth momentum to boost through the historical range and go to new highs. that's an optimistic expectation. >> sebastian, you put out a great piece of research where

you focussed on the impact of some of the u.s. tax reforms, specifically the u.s. border tax arrangement on european corporates what did you fine? who are the winners and losers? >> so if you had a u.s. border tax you would penalize companies that don't have production in the u.s. but export a lot to the u.s. we find that in particular it makes a big difference what your margin is. the lower the margin, the more vulnerable you would be. we look at the 70 companies in europe most exposed to the u.s., we find on average they would take an earnings hit of 5%. 5% hit to the net earnings, given the earnings weight in the index that could mean a 1% reduction in european earnings if that tax were to be implemented. >> looking at fiat chrysler, volkswagen, those could be hit the most, and zodiac, meggett, do you think this is sufficiently priced in. is this something that is

underappreciated by the market or priced in? >> a couple indicators look at this and say how this may be a possible policy 5:shuchbaction. right now the market is skeptical of this. if you look at the sector level, one stand-out sector is the autos. for out toes thautos that are e earnings could go down 15%, because they have very little production in the u.s., a lot of sales exposure and thin margins. so autos is one sector that could certainly move. >> sebastian, we have to leave it here. thank you very much. world markets live is the blog that runs throughout the trading day. we'll be right back. we'll be speaking to a front

national member and gina miller.

welcome to "street signs." i'm carolin roth. >> i'm louisa bojesen. welcome. good morning. your headlines. shares in the advertising group wpp slide after the firm says it sees a slow start to 2017. ceo sir martin sorrell tells cnn he's bullish about president

trump's policies in the years ahead. >> his pro business, pro growth agenda is good for business. america first will probably benefit the u.s. economy. 2016 profit rises at the london stock exchange but the seemingly doomed deal with deutsche boerse casts a shadow on otherwise solid results from the lse. and investors snap up the tech ipo of the year sending shares of snap higher by more than 40% on its opening day of trade, valuing the messages app at nearly $30 billion. a private e-mail scandal, but this time in the republican camp as it is revealed vice president mike pence used his personal address to discuss state business. welcome back. data once again hitting our

wires. uk february services pmi falling to what looks like a five-month low of 53.3. that's below the reuters poll of 54.1. and also versus a figure that we saw in january of 54.5. input prices component rose to 66.4, which is quite a bit higher than in january of 65. some uk services firms are reporting signs of consumer spending, a slowdown seen there. and the february composite pmi falling to 53.7, a bit below january. they say the uk pmis are consistent with the first quarter of 2017 gdp growth of 0.4%. and fourth quarter 2016 growth of 0.7%. so, a little bit of a slowdown felt in that particular area of the economy. >> also manufacturing, as we saw earlier this week, construction, too, a little bit.

i guess we're plateauing or softening when it comes to the u.s. a look at u.s. futures. seeing a fairly negative trend. the s&p 500 off by 5.5 points. the dow jones set to fall 34. the nasdaq down by roughly 15 points, yesterday after the s&p 500 ended the day 0.6% lower. the biggest one-day drop since january 30'd. again, remember this follows a wednesday which broke all records, record highs for all the major indices on more optimism about trump and obviously the impending fed hike, which might come as early as march. what we're seeing is just a bit of profit taking. profit taking is the name of the game when it comes to the european markets, which have also seen multi-year highs. the dax off by 1.5%, still slightly above the 12,000 handle. the ftse 100 is weighed down by earnings from wpp over a cautious outlook for 2017. only the ftse mib is hanging on

to a fraction of green. the fx markets, we are seeing some profit taking in the dollar as well, which has risen some 2% -- sorry, 1% over the last two trading days when it comes to the dollar index. that's pushing up the euro against the dollar by a tad. the japanese yen has also been doing a little bit better. that's because core inflation came in positive for the first time since december of 2015 this morning. now, wilders will resume his campaign this weekend after halting appearance over an alleged security leak. according to a poll aggregator, his party of freedom has fallen to second place for the first time since november. investigators have raided the home of embattled french presidential candidate, francois fillon according to a report in a paris newspaper. the center right politician is under investigation for claims he paid his wife and children

hundreds of thousands of euros for work they did not do. he denies the allegations. marine le pen, the leader of the far right front national party is on course to win the first round of voting in the french election. that's according to the latest polls. the survey finds that emanuel macron is likely to beat marine le pen in the final round of voting on the 7th of may. we have marine le pen's project coordinator at front national he's with us. good to have you with us. i want to start with some of the latest news within the last day or so. marine le pen losing the eu parliament's immunity for tweeting graphic images of isis executions on twitter back in december of 2015. in other words, parliament is now allowing for legal action against her. do you fear this is going to make a difference in the last bit of campaigning before the actual election date?

>> well, good morning. no. answering your question, there will not be any consequence regarding that democratic evolution of the election. as you see, the figures of marine le pen regarding the polls are still very high despite all this judicial news that is coming from parliament. the french people, in fact, deeply understood that there are many differences between what is the approach to francois fillon for example and what is the approach to her. regarding those images on twitter, a deputy national assembly was not lifted from his immunity, so for the same fact you have two different reactions. and that proves this is political agenda which is behind

the judicial agenda. >> marine le pen described the brexit vote as the most important thing since the fall of the berlin wall and described president trump's victory as an additional stone in the building of a new world. describe the pillars of this new world that you would like to be a part of. >> well, the old world was opened in 1979 and begun in 1981, which opened an era of almost 40 years of free trade, no borders, globalization, et cetera. 40 years later, the same two countries are closing this pr parenthesis by brexit and donald trump.

so the new word to come is organized by return of the state, return of political willingness over the economic and financial interests. the returning of the borders in greece, the returning of nation states which is basically the word that was drew by france two centuries ago. >> it seems like you're taking a page straight out of trump's playbook here, the lack of nationalism or pride has never been the main problem for france. the main problem is the lack of competitiveness on the international stage, the lack of jobs, the lack of economic growth. how exactly are you going to tackle that? i don't see many details about that in your program. >> well, in fact, both things are -- are totally linked. once you lose the notion of national interest, once the main

objective of the elite and the government is to construct a post national identity, which is the european union and federalism that is hidden behind this european union process, of course you lose all the factors and national elements like unemployment growth, et cetera what was shown during this past year is that countries, which were focused on the national interests are the countries that succeeded in tackling unemployment and in creating a growth dynamic, which has basically all the european countries who are outside the eurozone, and outside the european union. >> so, essentially you're saying protectionism equals economic growth. i'm not so sure about that. how do you want to finance all of these measures? for example, on security, increase defense spending to 3% of gdp by 2020.

do you think that international investors will still be buying your bonds? because they're selling them at this point already. >> you know, you are talking about france. france is not venezuela, is not argentina, as i read in many papers. france is farance, the fifth or sixth most important economy in the world. we have the means to create new politic dynamics basically by saving a lot of money on fiscal innovation, on immigration, and also on the fees and interests we pay on our public debt, which is totally detained by financial markets today. so, it's not, for example, the british public debt, nor is it american public debt. we feel that we have created a monopoly of the financial markets on our public finances. which costs us a lot of money,

because the national interest we pay on our public debt is the second most in our public expenditure in france. so by saving a bit of that, we could also have more money to spend on other things. >> yeah. i want to ask you, a lot of people might look at front national and say not a lot of years ago, front national wanted to deport 3 million foreigners, a party of holocaust denial and scene phobia. and marxenophobia. you yourself being born in egypt, how do you feel this necessarily is going to make a safer and better france? >> you know this has nothing to do -- when i arrived in france back in the '70s, immigration was still very low. so when immigration is low and

done, you can integrate into the country, you can integrate and assimilate people. you assimilate individuals, you do not assimilate peoples. that's the first thing. regarding the genesis of front national, everything changed since the arrival of marine le pen in 2011. if you take the genesis of all of the french party, it started back in the '70s with an extremist line. and this party's evolved to a more centrist attitude a few decades later. if we cannot make politics by looking in the past, we must look forward and now front national and marine le pen is the head of the sovereignist movement in france. >> yeah. >> and this is the effected that cannot be denied also. >> thank you very much for talking to us.

u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has announced he will recuse himself from any investigations into russian influence on the u.s. presidential election. the announcement came a day after the "washington post" reported sessions failed to disclose in his confirmation hearing that he met with the russian ambassador twice. sessions maintained that he was honest and correct in his answer, but should have mentioned the meeting with the ambassador. pete williams has more from the department of justice. >> good morning, mr. sessions. >> reporter: the attorney general said he sought the advice of career justice department officials beginning several days ago before making today's dramatic announcement. >> i believe those recommendations are right and just. therefore, i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> reporter: jeff sessions campaigned extensively with donald trump and was a campaign advisor. during his confirmation hearing for attorney general he was asked about campaign contacts with russians in light of russia's attempt to influence

last year's election. >> i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i did not have communications with the russians. >> reporter: sessions talked twice last year with sergei kisylak, russia ambassador to the u.s. in july while speaking to a group of ambassadors at the republican convention and again in september, a one-on-one conversation in his senate office at a time when allegations of russian influence were constantly in the headlines. sessions insists he did not mislead the question because he understood the question about the campaign but wishes he answered differently. >> in retrospect i should have slowed down and said i did meet one russian official a couple of times. that would be the ambassador. >> reporter: some legal experts say he may not have committed perjury but should have been more clear. i don't believe it would be appropriate to prosecute him for

perjury under these circumstances, but he should have been more candid. >> reporter: today sessions said he has no recollection of talking to kislyak about the campaign. the conversation was about terrorism and ukraine. with sessions recused, the acting deputy attorney general, dana boente, takes over the russian case. pete williams at the justice department. democrats continue to call for sessions to resign despite his recusal. house minority leader nancy pelosi said his narrow recusal and sorry attempt to explain away perjury were adequate. chuck schumer called for the department of justice to appoint a special prosecutor to review the matter. the u.s. vice president, mike pence, reportedly used a private e-mail to discuss public business, including security matters while governor of indiana. the newspaper, "usa today," reports that public records show that pence used his personal aol

account to discuss topics including the state's response to terror attacks. his private e-mail was hacked back in june and he set up a new account after that. his office saying pence had a private e-mail while governor but neither denied or confirmed the report. later on cnbc, we will speak to wilbur ross, that takes place at 13:00 cet. and gina miller from scm private joins us to talk the latest on brexit. that's coming up after this break. a conversation you do not want to miss. hi everyone.

welcome back to "street signs." the ecb executive board member

is urging uk lenders to apply for uk banking licenses as soon as they can. she explained that british banks would need to create operations within the eu to qualify for a license. she said the ecb would not look favorably on banks setting up shell companies in order to circumvent the rules. conservatives ministers vowed to resist changes to the uk government's brexit bill. this show of defiance comes after the house of lords voted in favor of an amendment guaranteeing the rights of eu nationals living in the uk after brexit. lawmakers will have the opportunity to remove the lords amendment when the bill returns to the house of commons. i'm very glad to say we're joined by gina miller, co-founder from scn private. you have been a public, very famous figure in the uk, not without controversy. how would you respond to the house of lords vote? >> well, i'm delighted the house of lords actually did their duty and debated and voted for

something that is just comm commonsense. the fact that the house of commons has no backbone and has been whipped to within a lynch of their political careers is disgraceful. >> you have threatened fresh legal action against the government if parliament doesn't have a final say on brexit what do you think parliament is afraid of when it comes to not wanting to discuss this. >> it's a very good question what are they afraid of. it is commonsense, as was found in my case, that it's only parliament, sovereignty in parliament that can debate and vote on rights. that's what will be affected by the negotiated deal in 18 months time. i have to ask why are they just putting in the amendments now and going ahead with brexit as they so anticipate rather hahn being dishonest and say it's about stopping brexit. >> some might say parliament is taking up the vote of the

people. do you agree with that to some extent? >> absolutely not. they're doing their duty. there's a danger that we don't have scrutiny and it will empower mrs. may and the executives rather than the parliament if this goes ahead. they'll makoe momentous decisios with a handful of people rather than parliament. >> why is it important to you to make sure there is this vote via the government or before the government is able to push ahead with article 50? >> there's so much on my plate any way, it wasn't the thing i thought i would be doing right now, but no one seemed to be standing up. in a space where we have very little opposition, we don't have a functioning democracy. we don't have scrutiny. i have the knowledge, connections, the independence to be able to stand up and ask questions. >> i know that there are a lot of people who voted to leave, who have been looking at you over the last many months saying, well, you're a leave

campaigner. that you're trying to overturn this referendum. is that what you're ultimately trying to do? your ultimate goal is to overturn what's been voted for? >> absolutely not. i can't influence the votes in parliament. all i'm trying to do is ensure that debate happens and there is a space and oxygen for them to do their duty. because at the moment, the way the media and certain politicians are acting, it's just blackmail and bullying happenin happening. >> because you can't undue the brexit vote, don't you feel like you're fighting a losing battle here? >> absolutely not. it's about the negotiated package. we will leave, but no one knows what will happen in europe, much less in britain in 18 months time. we don't know if it will be the same europe we have now. how can you sail in this brexit ship with no life boats, no life jackets? you wouldn't do it. that's what i'm talking about, about us being on this pragmatic

journey rather one that seems to be fantastical and quite insane. >> how do you feel about theresa may and the job she's done so far? you have got to give her credit for the fact she's been very straightforward, very clear in her message that she wants a hard brexit. >> she's sticking to a message, but unpick the message and there's nothing there. it doesn't have any details. the white paper was a disgrace. it was political. it didn't have practicalbalance mitigating negativity. i would say there's a lot of hard words but very little wind behind them. >> people might not know you're known for having a campaign for transparency in investment and pension funds which would benefit quite a lot of us, you would think. you also started something called the true and fair campaign in 2012, which campaigns against miss selling and hidden fund charges. is this about transparency with regards to what the golf mvernm

is doing? >> i'm glad you brought that up. people think i have come from nowhere, but i have spent ten years fighting for scrutiny and transparency. this is what i'm talking about now. >> do you think the government is on track to invoke article 50 by the end of this month? >> i think there's no reason why they can't. what, to me, makes the most sense is to create legal certainty by allowing the two amendments, one on eu citizens, and one on a meaningful vote, then it goes ahead. >> i was looking at some comments from the head of the cbi who warned that leaving the eu without a trade deal is not only wrong but irresponsible what do you think will happen if the uk is left to fall back on wto rules after brexit? >> i think we're in a bad place. people forget that we were actually on track, our economy was on track to overtake germany in the '20s and '30s, we could go back to where we were before we joined the european union,

the sick man of europe, even behind italy. it would be the worst of all cases. >> your training is in economics, you're a fund management by training. you are active in the asset management. >> i'm not a fund manager. i run a fund -- >> but you're very well versed in the field. when you look at the data coming out of the uk, it's extremely bullish. given that, people months ago were forecasting a recession. we are not in a recession, we're resilient to the brexit worries does that surprise you in a way? >> doesn't because we haven't left. i think nobody knows what will happen. in an area where you have such political uncertainty, such volatility, doing nothing might be the best thing. i know it's a hard thing to do, but doing nothing can be the best decision. >> just to recap, this latest possible legal action that could be taken is to end up with no

deal potentially being on the table. >> but what mrs. may is promising in 18 months time is a promise of a vote on a no deal or a bad deal. which actually is saying do you want to lose an arm or a leg? i'm saying it has to be a meaningful vote, which might include yes, you're leaving if the eu is not in a picked state to remain a member or going back to the table and negotiating again. >> gina, pleasure speaking with you. thank you very much for your time. u.s. markets and how we're setting ourselves up for trade later today. the implied open on the right-hand side of your screen. being called down again. keep an eye out for janet yellen and stanley fischer, they will be speaking today. that's it for today's show. i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. "worldwide exchange" is up next.

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good morning, stocks stumble. major averages retreat from record highs hit by selloffs in financials. and snapped up. shares of the vanishing messaging app leap in the wall street debut. and the president defends his attorney general amid criticism about conversations with russia. the latest out of russia straight ahead. it's friday, march 3, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning. warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" this friday morningn