market alert. the fed set to begin a two-day policy setting meeting. investors expecting the third interest rate hike in ten years. washington watch. a new report says 24 million more americans would be without health insurance and the new gop plan. details for you and the political responses from both parties. and snowmeddon, there could be blizzard conditions and up to two feet of snow in many places. it's tuesday, march 14, 2017,

and "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ since we have no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ♪ ♪ welcome to "worldwide exchange," i'm sara eisen. >> we're live from the nasdaq market site in new york. i'm wilfred frost here in times square. this is awesome to be here. >> it's exciting. this is your first new york winter. >> no, it's not. i've been living here for a year. >> this is a duzoozy. >> what's a doozy? >> a big one. >> the hype leading into it. what are you wearing? >> i'm wearing a turtleneck. it's a snowstorm. >> we're not actually in a ski resort this is not davos. >> maybe we'll get to do that tomorrow. as you can see, the snow is falling. it's very exciting that "worldwide exchange" has moved to times square. perhaps not just for the snow.

we'll see. we'll have to start that campaign slowly. there is a sight that the snow is expected to pick up significantly over the next five to six hours. up to 18 inches of snow some people are saying. >> it's causing travel delays, a mess across the east coast. >> a full live weather report in a minute. first, the market action. futures at this hour pointing slightly lower. 28 points on the dow. the s&p by 2. the nasdaq by 5. yesterday we were essentially flat, slightly higher nfor the s&p and the nasdaq. intel the big faller. investors did not warm to the 5 $15 billion takeover. also a sense yesterday, as we were flat, that there was a wait and see mood among investors. bank of england, bank of japan. nordic national bank. the big one being the fed. we did not move much yesterday.

not expecting huge moves at the moment. the ten-year treasury note crossed back above 2.6% yesterday. it stands at 2.62. >> we have some sterling strength, but first the major winter storm underway in the northeast. many cities declaring a state of emergency. jay gray joins us live from new york's central park with the latest. good morning. sn . >> i'll step out of the way here for a second to show you the only traffic going on right now, snowplows that are moving through, trying to stay ahead of what is a monster storm here. that will continue throughout the day as this storm that moved in overnight only plans to intensify through the morning and into the evening. we'll see snow falling for several hours here, as this plow gets through. again, trying to stay ahead of this mess. that will be difficult. also dropping some sand to try

and provide a little traction. we know that schools are closed, we're under a state of emergency in new york as well as a blizzard warning right now. a lot of employers here told employees to work from home if you can, but try to stay out of this mess because it will be a mess for quite some time. this is a system that will continue to move through boston into maine for the next couple of days. we'll see a lot of snow over a wide area affecting millions. it's going to be a tough go. sara, wilfred? >> jay gray. thank you very much. we'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning. economic data out of china. painting mostly a rosier picture. industrial output growing by 6.3%. fixed asset investment growing 8.9% year over-year, and private investment rising 6.7%. but retail sales growth was only

up 9.5%. analysts were looking for a 10.5% increase. imagine if we got those numbers on interest rate sales here. where would interest rates be? they'd be soaring. >> higher. the nikkei sold off a bit. shanghai closed positive, just barely. india also a big mover on some of the local election results there. >> data overnight from europe to report. final read on german cpi, rising 0.6 month over month and 2% year over year. you can see, if we look at european trade, we are, for the most part, in the red today. comes off slight gains yesterdaying. interesting to see the ftse 100 holding on to positive territory. the pound falling sharply on the latest brexit news. as for the broader market picture here, let's see what's

happening with oil. hovering near three-month lows, it is getting a bit of a bounce this morning. up 0.2%. $48.50 a barrel. brent at 51.45. nat gas getting a pop. the colder weather giving much needed lift to natural gas prices. as for the u.s. dollar, a mixed picture. seeing strength this morning against the japanese yen. the euro is a bit firmer against the u.s. dollar. we'll wait for our currency board. there it is. euro has reversed. it's pretty much flat. 1.0646. dollar strong against the yen. and the pound weaker. down about 0.7%. 1.2135. as for gold, the dollar has been mixed into the fed meeting, fixed into firmer. gold is under a bit of pressure this morning. the pound is a mover, why? >> gold did snap a nine-day losing streak yesterday, but not significantly. let's look at the pound on a

one-week chart. this is all talk on whether buy the rumor, sell the fact as we approach the invocation of article 50. the big news yesterday is that theresa may's bill fully passed parliament. she has the power to invoke article 50 as and when she wants and to negotiate as hard or as soft as she would like. the pound down 0.7%, hitting an eight-week low. that said we are pretty much back where we were one week ago. the reason why i bring up the idea are we buying the rumor selling the fact, will the same apply to the fed meeting? so many people expected this fed rate hike at the meeting starting today, will the dollar react to that when we get it or has it already priced it in? >> perhaps pricing it in. because there's 100% odds of the fed pricing in a rate hike. the question for the dollar and the market post-fed is on janet

yellen's tone and language when it comes to referring to further interest rate hikes. 100% certainty of a rate hike. the question is will we get four this year or three this year. >> or 50 basis points. >> will they be more dramatic? any shift in the language? look for potentially removal of the word gradual from the fed to signal that interest rate hikes are coming faster. depends on how they react to the improved economic outlook in the u.s. as a result of the election and some fiscal policy stimulus measures being talked about. tax reform, infrastructure spending and when members believe that will come to fruition or whether it already has an impact on the economy. >> either way, would have to say markets have been resilient in the face of those rates rising and oil prices slipping over the last week or so. the fed begins its two-day meeting in washington. the fomc policy announcement due at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.

also on the docket, the producer price index will be released at 8:30 a.m. eastern. no major companies are scheduled to release earnings today that we know of. >> to politics, that new report last night from the nonpartisan congressional budget office. this was one of the most widely anticipated cbo reports i have seen. the number of americans without health insurance would grow by 24 million under the house alternative to obamacare by the year 2026. at the same time the cbo says over the next two years premiums in the individual market would jump 15% to 20%, according to the cbo. the proposed bill would also cut the government deficit by 337 billion over the next ten years. tom price responding to the cbo's claims last night. listen. >> the cbo looked at a portion of our plan but not the entire plan. the entire plan includes the regulatory apparatus that we got the ability to use at health and

hulen servi human services that the previous administration used significantly, but we wanted to make sure patients are helped and costs are decreased. they ignored completely the other legislative activities that we will put in place to make sure we have an insurance market that works. >> house speaker paul ryan issuing a statement after the report was released saying the findings confirm that the american healthcare act will lower prolo lower premiums wiand paul ryan encouraged by the numbers and was probably bracing for a bigger number on the uninsured. >> that was the spin he was putting on the shows last night, that he thought it would be worse. we'll see how it plays out from here. political developments across europe. the netherlands heads to the

polls tomorrow to elect its next prime minister. joining us now is peter spiegel news editor at "the financial times." thanks for joining us. plenty of focus on this election given that there is an anti-eu, anti-immigration, anti-islam candidate doing very well in the polls in mr. wilders. sum up how significant the fact he's leading and whether it's likely whether or not he'll become prime minister? >> it is significant. it is a trend that's occurred across europe. we've seen marine le pen in france, the alternative for germany. the far-right parties that are anti-immigrant and not shy about it which is relatively new in european politics. the trend in the netherlands, geert wilders, his numbers actually started coming down the last week or so. this happens with some regularity in dutch elections. this happened five years ago,

geert wildersing with er ers w well until five weeks before the election. now the markets believe he could finish second and that the current prime minister, mark rutte, center of the more mainstream party will couple together a government at some point. so you have not seen real movement on dutch yields, the euro move on this. markets are focused on the french elections next month where you have a much better chance of marine le pen becoming president. >> i wonder whether if mr. wilders, who is expected to get about 30 seats of the 150 seats, if he did better than that and got 40, still he wouldn't be likely to form a government, but if he could that would that increase the worries that the polls underplay how much these populist support gets, and that 10% could mean a lot to marine

le pen. >> any of the polls out there have a huge margin of error. one of them showed 40% of dutch voters undecided. so we had this last minute where are people going to far. one thing playing in rutte's favor is a flair up in diplom diplomatic fight between turkey and the netherlands. the rutte picked a fight with erdogan. he is seen to be strong against a muslim leader, standing for law and order when some riots happened in rotrotterdam a coup weeks ago. so rutte has peeled off some support that wilders would get. but we've been wrong on this multiple times before. there's a lot of undecided votes if we saw wilders do better than anticipated, people would wonder whether the french polls which show marine losing in the second round to emanuel macron, whether those polls are wrong and we got

it wrong again. >> which would be a disaster for someone like angela merkel. i wonder how all this populist wave that's happening now affects her as she comes to washington. was supposed to meet with president trump today, i think that got postponed until friday because of the weather. how that bolsters her case for free trade, integration economically like in europe. not to mention she had this open policy towards refugees. >> it influences it, because she is increasingly isolated. she doesn't have an aly in any of these issues. she used to have obama, david camera. the brits are leaving the eu. she is standing by herself. to be honest, it's a role the germans and merkel doesn't like. the germans haven't been in a leadership position for generations. they are very uncomfortable being asked to play that role. it is not something they're comfortable with or have done historically.

but when she arrives in washington, she has to calibrate that message. people who black globalization and international trade are looking at her to take a leadership position. it's not hugely popular in germany now either. suddenly she's finding herself in a race against a mainstream party. the social democrats in germany. suddenly she has to calibrate her message for a domestic audience which is also anti-trade, they see it as benefiting american banks, american companies at the expense of german employees and german companies. she has to be careful domestically as well on this message. >> peter, thank you very much for joining us. the dutch go to the polls tomorrow. the results probably coming out around "worldwide exchange" time thursday morning. sticking with politics. friday an saturday u.s. treasury secretary steven mnuchin will attend a meeting of g20 finance ministers in germany. a senior treasury official says mnuchin will push hard in his first meeting with his

counterparts. it will be interesting to see what kind of message he delivers there when it comes to trade. a lot of them have to be concerned about the rhetoric from washington. not the only meeting on the docket. rex tillerson is taking his first trip to asia this week as u.s. secretary of state. he is scheduled to leave today for east asia and the pacific region. his week-long trips will include stops with japan, south korea and china. he will discuss the recent north korea missile tests and security interests in the region. hitting indian stocks which are hitting record highs. soaring another 2%. the rupestrength strengthening the dollar after modi's win in some big elections. some key heartland states which were surprises. they are having a market impact here, strengthening his case for his economic reform agenda which has been embraced by the market. he doesn't face a national

election until 2019, but these local state wins did come up, as i said, as a bit of a surprise and support for him and his party and agenda. >> and offsets some local election losses in the last 12 to 18 months that he had faced. look at that. on a tear. that's the local stock market. when we come back, the stocks to watch including valea valeant. bill ackman throwing in the towel, selling his stake after a multibillion dollar loss. stay tuned. you're watching "worldwide exchange" live from times square on cnbc.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." just getting our times square selfies taken and loaded up. >> it's a beautiful scene. snow coming down. >> you can see futures pointing lower. 20 points or so for the dow. coming off a day where we were essentially flat. intel declined 2.2%. the s&p and the nasdaq slightly positive yesterday. let's look at sterling. the big mover in the currency markets. yesterday the prime minister's brexit bill cleared all stages of the legislative process giving theresa may the tower to invoke article 50 as she pleases and to negotiate as she sees fit, raising the questions of a possible hard brexit once again. the pound down 0.6%. some stocks to watch in the

u.s. session today. bill ackman's pershing square selling its entire stake in valeant. the stock got hammered on the news last night. down 10%. toshiba filing a request to delay its earnings report as the company investigates allegations of impropriety at its u.s. nuclear subsidiary. company also plans to reduce the number of directors and work to strengthen global management, supervision and risk monitoring. ruby tuesday says they will seek alternatives, including a sale or merger. they have been dealing with sluggish sales and intense competition. reminds me of my childhood days going to the mall, mall retailers and restaurants having a good time. still to come, the stunning catch from football to baseball

player tim tebow. before we go to break, here's today's national forecast from the weather channel's kelly cass. >> good morning. how about a blizzard today? that's what we got going on in parts of the northeast, including new york city under that blizzard warning. winter storm warnings for the rest of the northeast including philadelphia, hartford, boston as well. d.c. not expecting as much snow because of the warm air off the water. more of a wintry mix with rain mixed in and all rain along the immediate coastline with that threat of coastal flooding with that steady wind from the north and northeast. chicago, still have the snow, lake-effect snows. 25 for your high. very cold. mild in dallas, couple of thunderstorms are possible in miami, 83. another system working into the pacific northwest, keeping it in the 50s. warming up in the southwest united states. that's a look at your national weather.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." good morning. let's get you up to speed on the market action. u.s. futures under selling pressure ahead of the fed meeting. fed kicks off a two-day meeting. we'll get the big policy decision. the fed is expected to raise rates tomorrow. it's all about the news conference with janet yellen suggesting a faster pace of tightening. dow futures are down 19. s&p futures down 2 points. nasdaq futures down 4. one market we wanted to highlight, the nifty fisty, the

indian stock market. it is trading at a record high. it jumped again in today's action, all responding to election results over the weekend where prime minister modi's party did get some support in key heartland states ahead of the 2019 election. support of his economic agenda has been driving stocks there to a record, the rupee to a one-year high against dollar. energy stocks are getting a bit of a bounce this morning. wti still 48.53. brent at 51.49. nat gas above $3. to sports. tim tebow turning some heads at spring training playing for the mets. the former heisman winner and nfl quarterback dove head-first to rob the marlins of a hit. after going hitless in his first eight spring training chances about the about thhe recorded his first hit with a

single yesterday. making that transition work. we're sending birthday wishing to golden state star steph curry. the point guard turning 29 years old today. the two-time mvp it the third highest paid player in the nba with earnings of 47 million. >> you're blushing. >> we're showing video of just the tw of us from his endorsement deals. >> did you send him a birthday card? >> i did not. but it's my father's birthday as well. two key men in my life have birthdays today. one turns 29, one turns 60. >> two of the key. >> not the two key --. the real key man in my life has the same birthday as me. >> yes, he does. >> but that's the three key after the most key, your husband. >> right. still to come, this morning's top stories and a round up of global markets. plus we'll head to new york's central park as the east coast

braces for a blizzard. stay tuned for more "worldwide exchange" live from times square, new york. f capital? what's critical thinking like? 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

good morning. markets and futures pointing to a lower open as the fed prepares for a two-day meeting. >> a new cbo report says 24 million americans would be without health insurance under the new gop plan. a live report from washington coming up. and snowmegeddon as the

northeast prabraces for blizzar conditions. "worldwide exchange" continues. ♪ >> late in the season for this music. >> i hope you noticed frosty the snowman. >> it makes me think of the holidays. it's mid-march. >> and your co-anchor -- >> frost. >> only just? that was the whole point? >> i'm wilfred frosty the snowman. look at that beautiful sight outside. chilly, but very lovely to be here in times square, new york. futures pointing to a slightly lower hoopen. a couple points for the s&p, the nasdaq 3 1/2, 17 1/2 points on the dow.

comes off a flat trade yesterday. the dow weighed down by intel's 2.2% incline. asian trade has been mixed. india doing well. sara has been keen to point that out, following modi's decent performance in local elections. shanghai, japan and hong kong pretty much flat. europe saw some gains yesterday. today it is mixed. the ftse 100 holding on to positive territory in the face of a much weaker british pound as the brexit bill finally passes all stages of the legislative process in the uk late last night. the pound falling helping the ftse 100. that seen bad for uk assets. >> oil fell again yesterday. closing at the lowest level since back in november. getting a bounce this morning. that's been building steam throughout the half hour. wti 48.58. brent at 51.58. nat gas up 0.3%.

cold weather bullish for the price of natural gas. as for the ten-year treasury note yield, the fed kicks off its meeting with the announcement tomorrow. 2.62 is the ten-year note. the pound is really a big mover on politics, 1.2134, down almost 0.3%. and gold in reverse. usually following dollar/yen, it is weaker to unchanged. now to the major winter storm that is underway now in the northeast. many cities declaring a state of emergency. jay gray joins us from new york city's central park with an update. >> good morning. since we last spoke, believe it or not a jogger ran by. a guy is out jogging in this. it's good to be healthy, but, come on. it is going to be a mess here today. it's been expected for the last

couple days. there goes another jogger as we talk. more dedicated than i am, that's for sure. we'll see heavy snow throughout the morning. really intensifying when we get into the morning rush. hopefully they'll be no rush. the roadways are clear now. it's still early. crews have been out trying to stay ahead of the storm with the plows trying to clear away some snow. a losing battle, to be quite honest. there's too much snow falling too fast. it will only intensify. we could see it at its height later this morning. inches or more an hour for several hours. they expect between 12 and 24 inches of snow. not only here in new york. boost season dealing with this. up and down the eastern seaboard this will be a problem for the next couple of days. thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed. that number will grow significantly. schools are closed here. a state of emergency and a blizzard warning in effect for

new york city. employers have said if you can do some work from home, that's great. if not, stay out of the mess. it's going to be a rough go for the next couple of days. >> jay, great stuff. thank you very much for being out there for us. moving on to washington, a new cbo report on the gop healthcare plan is the talk of the town this morning. kayla tausche joins us from the nation's capital with the latest. >> the big questions after house leadership last week released their new healthcare bill is how much would it cost the government, participants and how many people would lose insurance under the plan? yesterday we got some answers from the nonpartisan congressional budget office. here's what they found in a brief review of the legislation. they said the premiums would rise initially 10% to 15% for individuals, but over the course of a decade they would fall by 10%. they said the deficit for the federal government would fall by 3$337 billion over ten years, ad

they said that 24 million people would lose insurance, largely because the legislation proposes to remove the individual mandate that requires people without insurance to purchase it from the federal government. now, republicans including house speaker paul ryan, chairman of the weighs and means committee kevin brady as well as press secretary sean spicer have declined to acknowledge that people would be losing healthcare under this plan. but it's safe to say the republican response to the cbo report could be summed up by hhs secretary tom price. >> i think it's important we ask the question compared to what? the fact of the matter is this is about real people, about real peoples lives, about the coverage, the health coverage they have but also the healthcare they receive. the fact of the matter is that right now, current law, we have individuals who have health coverage but no healthcare. >> he says the problem is there will be two additional prongs to this legislation.

he will be writing new laws, and that congress will push additional legislation to remove regulations and to overall push reform of the industry. the problem is we don't know what policies those procedures will target. so it's hard for the cbo to weigh in on exactly what that would do to impact healthcare overall. nbc news caught up with senator lindsey graham to get his take. he's ban critic of previous healthcare drafts. this is what he said last night. >> i don't think it's good news, even if it's half right. the responsible thing is to look at the cbo report, can we find ways to deal with the issues they raised? >> the president has listening sessions today. he has a call with the ceo of anthem, with hhs secretary tom price. he also has a call later in the afternoon with house speaker paul ryan and house majority leader kevin mccarthy to talk about how to move forward. we'll see what comes out of

those calls. >> i'm looking at some of the paul ryan commentary. he is billing this as a success. you can sort of cherry pick this data. because it does decrease the deficit. while premiums rise in the near-term, over the long-term they should go down. 2026, 10% lower premiums than the current healthcare bill. >> one of the issues, though, is that the way the deficit is cut by 337 billion is largely because the government won't be pursuing that expanded medicaid program under the affordable care act. that's something that republicans in the senate want. there were four senate republican who came out before the bill was published and said we're worried about funding in our states. we want medicate to give a cushion to governor that we represent. so the fact that the cbo is acknowledging that medicaid will be cut steepening and that's where deficit narrowing is coming from, it's unclear if the senate can get on board with

that. >> to what extent are democrats going to stay in support of obamacare and oppose this repeal and republicans will vote to repeal obamacare either way? >> you have two camps that are opposition here. you have democrats, which is prtiprt i pretty obviously also conservative republicans within the party, and that's something i don't think paul ryan was expecting. that's why you are seeing the president's schedule fill up with these campaign-style rallies the way it has. we got word yesterday that he will be going to kentucky, home of senator rand paul who has been a vocal critic of this healthcare reform. he appears to be looking at the states where votes are most vulnerable and choosing his schedule that way. it's also unclear who is talking the talk and who is willing to vote against this. >> what do you get as to where the republicans go from here? do they just go on an all-out campaign to try to get this passed? or do they go back to the

drawing board and come up with some fixes? >> yesterday press secretary sean spicer said we're open to ideas. this is the bill that will make it to the president's desk, but this is not the final language if people, meaning executives, meaning congressmen, meaning anybody who wants to weigh in on this, now is open season for negotiation. the administration appears ready to make changes to this. it is unclear what substantive changes all of these different factions of the republican party can now get on board with. >> conservative drudge report goes with the headline that cbo throws stink on the healthcare bill. kayla, thank you. >> we also had the first cabinet meeting yesterday as well. >> yes. saw the pictures that -- >> which president trump said was an historic meeting, though complained he still didn't have his full cabinet members. four awaiting their approval. when we come back, the must reads. first as we head to break, a look at where european stocks are trading at this hour.

looks like a mixed picture to mostly lower. led by spain. down about more than half a percent. stay tuned, you're watching w "worldwide exchange" live from the nasdaq market site. hello, my name is watson. i am helping 8 million taxpayers get the largest refund they deserve. one million people can benefit from precision cancer care. 197 million passengers can fly with less turbulence. i am on my way to working with one billion people. i look forward to working with you.

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all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. safety isn't a list of boxes to check. it's taking the best technologies out there and adapting them to work for you. the ultrasound that can see inside patients, can also detect early signs of corrosion at our refineries. high-tech military cameras that see through walls, can inspect our pipelines to prevent leaks. remote-controlled aircraft, can help us identify potential problems and stop them in their tracks. at bp, safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." let's get up to speed on the market action. futures declining this hour, down about 19 points on the dow.

the s&p down a point or so, coming off of flat data. dow in the red, the other two in the green yesterday. to the major winter storm underway in the northeast. landon dowdy has the impact it's having on the business world. good morning. >> good morning to you. blizzard 2017 is not just affecting your commute to work. here's what to expect. in washington, d.c., federal agencies are open under three hours delayed arrival. the federal reserve is front and center this week and kicks off its two-day policy meeting today. we're hearing no signs the blizzard would interrupt the fed meeting where it is highly expected to announce an interest rate hike tomorrow afternoon. as far as stocks, don't miss out on the snow trade. the new york stock exchange vowed to remain open. so which stocks have the most to lose in a snowstorm? dunkin' brands and shake shack could be most impacted as it estimates 70% of their business is in the northeast and the storm could slice into same-store sales.

if you had plans to travel today, airlines cancelling more than 4,000 flights ahead of the storm. that's according to flight aware. airports with the most consolati consolations, newark international, and boston logan. >> thank you very much for that. on to the top trending stories. adele revealing she has a secret twitter account. her manager banning her from tweeting from her own profile because she would get mouthy and say her own thing. now she reveal she has a secret account. i like that. secret account for trolling. >> what's the point of that? >> so you don't get in trouble when you say it wrong. >> so many celebrities use their account as official mouthpieces and they get millions of followers. they have more followers than someone like president trump, even though he tweets more policy. today is pi day, in

celebration of the trillion digit number. nasa issuing a series of malt problems that engineers and scientists might solve by using pi. many pizza shops and restaurants around the nation offering deals for pizzas for 3.14. whole foods offering $3.14 off of whole pies. >> this is a thing here. i'm sure it's not a thing in britain. >> i don't know. moving on to the must-read stories. my pick is in the financial times. it's titled pragmatic merkel takes on the unpredictable trump. as a young woman growing up in communist east germany, angela merkel dreamt of visiting the u.s. where, as she later said, the air is full of the spirit of freedom and independence. when the berlin wall came down she achieved her ambition by taking holiday in california. she's returned many times since. but when the german chancellor visits washington this week to

meet donald trump it's in profoundly different circumstances. that meeting delayed from today to friday because of the bad weather. it will be huge, that meeting. the africa shuns between the eu and the most integrationists like angela merkel and donald trump are there to see. it will be a fascinating meeting. >> there's so much tension in the lead up to this, not to mention the fact that merkel was a key ally of president obama and very close that relationship strengthened under his tenure. president trump has gone the other way, cozying up to britain, theresa may after the vote on brexit. and this wave of populism putting her in an isolationist place. it will be interesting. the body language on that one. >> also, this is a meeting where he will meet his match. she is one of the most powerful politicians in the world. she knows how to deal with

leaders who might have antagonistic ways towards her. i think it's unlikely she will cater to donald trump unlike we have seen from other visitors. my pick is in the "washington post." it's titled why we need more forces to find the stalemate in afghanistan. i picked it because it's penned by two key powerful republicans, influential voices on this topic, john mccain and lindsey graham. time and time again we saw troop withdrawals that seemed to have done more with u.s. politics than conditions on the ground. the fixation with force management levels in afghanistan as well as in iraq and syria seem more about measuring troop counts than measuring success. which is something, just putting back on our radar, president trump has a laundry list of foreign challenges, and they want to bring people up to speed on things like afghanistan, where we have been pulling back troops. not necessarily an economic

issue, but i bring up all of these issues because there is a full economic agenda starting with the replacement of obamaca obamacare, tax reform. there will be foreign policy challenges along the way. the question for investors is whether they become a distraction or prolong those policy actions. >> absolutely right. today it was tough picking these, there was a lot op-eds, including speaker ryan's. >> all the covers of the papers leading with the cutting of the insured, which the cbo did come out and score the new gop plan. cutting insured. "washington post" leads with millions fewer insured under gop plan. even right-leaning blogs, like drudge is doing the same. there must have been a lot of must-reads because we didn't even get to our trending story about the bachelor. ending in a proposal. shocking me. >> shocking you. >> though i only watched two episodes, i did pick -- i forgot

her name. >> vanessa. >> vanessa won, and that's who i thought might win it at the start. i don't like the show. i only watched two episodes of it, but i clearly have a taste for picking out the winner. >> maybe you do like it. >> i don't think i do. it's wonderful that true love was found. >> it's real. >> it is real. >> the study of the human condition. lots still to come in the market day ahead and we'll talk to alex dryden and get his take on all the news you need to know about markets. when you booked this trip,

you didn't know we had over 26,000 local activities listed on our app. or that you could book them right from your phone. a few weeks ago, you still didn't know if you were gonna go. now the only thing you don't know, is why it took you so long to come here. expedia. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. let's check in on global markets. u.s. futures under a bit of pressure. things have improved over the last half hour or so. dow futures down 12 1/2. s&p down less than a point. and the nasdaq futures down less than two. tech again was the out-performer in the session. as for asia evernight.

sma overnight, small declines in shanghthe nikkei and hang seng. and the indian stock market surged again overnight. it's trading at a record high after some election results in india bolstered the party of prime minister nmodi. the economic reform ajnd genda been approved by voters. and the rupee gaining. as for early action in europe, across the continent, small declines. this is a big week in terms of tests, key risk tests for the market europe and the u.s. the fed kicks off its two-day meeting today. big announcement tomorrow. the question is on the tune and on the hints of a further rate

hike prospect. >> let's bring in alex dryden from jpmorgan to discuss markets. first question is on the latest european developments. we've got the brexit bill passing fully through the uk legislative process. the pound falling on that. >> yes, a slight surprise there. but a lot of forces at play within the uk, driving that pound in different directions at the moment. we have the announcement of a scottish referendum as soon as 2018. and the brexit bill going through the phases as well as people reacting to the bank of england's potential actions this week. a lot to of drivers playing out. >> u.s. investors are watching the elections in europe and the politics what we've been hearing is it's all about the french election. heard that from investors like david tepper on "squawk box"

recently. what do the election results that we will learn about on thursday from the dutch elections signal for france? >> it's a very good litmus test, the dutch elections. it's a good way to see which way the pop lulist winds are blowin in europe. and how well the freedom party, the break-away anti-eu party in the netherlands do in the polls on wednesday. the current polling data suggests they have taken a bit of a dive recently. their support has fallen from a peak of 32% at the end of last year and fallen to close to 20% to 22% going into tomorrow's elections. there's a lot of momentum being taken out of there. that leads us on to the french election where maybe the populist parties won't take as much of the vote as originally thought. >> alex, is it possible for the fed to surprise to the upside for dollar bulls over the next couple of days?

>> i think if this rated hike is almost 100% priced into markets. i don't think a rate hike this week would come as a viz for investors. instead, it's what will happen after that. the pace of rate hikes going into 2017 and 2018. that's where i look for hawkish comments from janet yellen. the markets are pricing in about 2 and a bit interest rate hikes this year, two interest rate hikes in 2018. the fed may wanted them to be pricing in more than that. so maybe wage growth and the strength of the u.s. economy. >> in 20 seconds or less does that spoil the global stock market party with stocks near record highs? >> not at this stage. rates are coming off a low base. we're not worried about interest rate hikes disturbing this equity bull run just yet. we have some way to go before rate hikes start curtailing this

run. >> alex dryden, thank you. >> that's it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" team is ready. they're up next. she looks years younger than she should. is it dna or olay? new olay regenerist helps take years off your skin age so you can look younger. who needs dna when you have olay? new regenerist.

blasted by the blizzard, up to two feet of floebl warmiglob expected to fall in the area. >> it is fed week. the central bank expected to hike interest rates tomorrow. we'll tell you what it would take to get four rate hikes this year. it would have to be one, two, and then a third, after that, there would have to be a fourth. and republicans defending their healthcare plan after a new cbo report said 14 million americans would lose medical insurance by next year. meanwhile, i didn't appreciate 2015, because that's when it was

31415. today it is pi day, march 14th, but 2017 doesn't work quite as well. ♪ >> live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning. welcome to "squawk box" 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. we have an update on the blizzard pounding the east coast. it's happening right here outside our windows. that's what we walked in through this morning. forecasters calling for up to two feet of snow in some areas. hard to say what will happen, but airlines have canceled more than 4,000 flights. several governors declared states of emergency including new york, new jersey and connecticut. schools are canceled in new