good morning. fed speak and policymakers are likely to dominate today's conversation. the heat is on. republican leaders unveiling changes to the proposed healthcare bill ahead of a key vote. and banned for takeoff. why temporary restrictions will bar electronic devices on some flights. it's tuesday, march 21, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen.

>> i'm wilfred frost. very good morning to you have me as well. let's get straight to the global market action. yesterday we saw the third straight day of declines for the dow. >> just barely. >> exactly right. you completed my sentence before i could. down just a fraction. >> nasdaq closed positive, right? >> nasdaq slightly positive for its fourth positive day in a row, albeit similarly four p slight positive days. 7 out of 1 1 sectors were negative. the most notable decliner was financials. the bank stocks down over 1%. a poor day for them. a large part of that was what was happening in the yield curve. ten-year treasury note. the yield curve slipped across the board. it wasn't that it just flattened. the ten-year note hit a low of 2.46.

at 2.48 at the moment. that was a low not seen since about the last three, four weeks. japan, remember, was closed on monday. it did open tuesday. declining about 0.3%. hong kong and shanghai remain strong. the hong kong stock market, the hang seng is actually at the highest level since the end of 2015. so we're talking about 20-month highs plus. as for shanghai, also closing higher by a third of a percent. early action in europe. let's show you what's happening across the continent there. pretty mixed picture. the german dax barely positive. france up a third of a percent after the debate last night. the ftse 100 is trading flat. so is the swiss market. let's look at broader markets. oil prices, first up which have been slipping more recently yesterday fell about 0.1%. today bouncing back by 0.9%.

we move on and look at the dollar, it was up by the end of yesterday's trade. i said it was flat, it had been lower at the start of the day, but things like the pound changed direction during the course of yesterday to end lower against the dollar. today the pound and euro moving higher by a half percent. the dollar is higher against the yen by 0.1 %. gold prices to round things off, third positive session in a row for gold. today a small negative, 1,231 the price. several more fed officials are speaking out days after the fed raised interest rates. bill dudley, boston fed president, eric rosengren, esther george and cleveland fed president loretta mester will be in front of the microphone. just one report on the agenda, fourth quarter current account. and the earnings, general mills, lenar reporting before the

opening bell. after the close, fedex and nike. what i'm going to be watching in nike, which was the dow's biggest loser last year, down 18%. and is now one of the biggest winners. big comeback for nike. up about 15% this year. number one, revenue growth. they've seen a slowdown because of competition from the likes of under armour, but mainly adidas. can they get revenue growth back up? they missed the last few times. they say it's not important to look at futures orders, but the market pays attention. they turned negative last time. will they rebound? that's going to be a big question. then as for celebrity endorsements, that's something adidas nailed with the likes of kanye west, puma went after rihanna, nike is working with drake on a new line. the more it talks about that sort of thing, investors will pay attention.

nike has the athlete market cornered. i was looking at the sweet 16 now of the final teams that are left, most of them are nike. though kansas is adidas. that's the favorite number one. >> there we go. they'll trying to sign up drake, but it's not steph curry, so under armour has your heart. >> under armour has steph curry. nike missed the boat on that one. but the curry threes, the latest shoes have not been doing that well, which bodes well for nike, which has 98% of the market share on basketball shoes. this is a category they own. they have to get pricing right. they had a few missteps. >> this lady knows her sneakers. >> i love sneakers, i cover sneakers. to politics, house republicans releasing a package of amendments to last night's bill they hope will repeal and replace obamacare.

at a rally in louisville, kentucky, president trump said the goal is to bring down costs. >> we'll have a great competitive bidding process, medicine prices will be coming way down, way, way, way down. that's going to happen fast. we're just adding that to the bill. i said we have to add that to the bill. we'll we were going to do a bill later. we'll try to add it to this bill. if we can't, we'll have it right after. we have some crazy laws in case you haven't heard. the house will vote on the bill on thursday. as for the early front pages, comey makes all of them. james comey testifying for hours, even though he couldn't say much, i thought was riveting testimony. "usa today" leads with no obama wiretap. "wall street journal" -- >> was very, very krit tall crit

the claims of british intelligence being involved. >> no evidence of that. and comey confirms probe of russian ties. so the two are split on the big news. >> the other takeaway, the tweets that were coming out of the president during this process didn't really tally with what was being said. i think if you look at the write-ups in the press today, that is what really is questioned. is there a slight disconnect between what he's tweeting and what the facts are? this is a stark example of that because it was happening live and they weren't really in line with each other. >> i don't think it's news that white houses -- that anyone spins to try to reflect the points that they're making. it was interesting because it came from the @potus account, which is different from the @realtrump account.

secretary of state rex tillerson reportedly plans to skip a meeting of nato foreign ministers scheduled for april 5th and 6th in priebus brussels. tillerson will attend a florida meeting with xi jinping in florida instead. in washington today, supreme court nominee neil gorsuch will head back to capitol hill for a second day of confirmation hearing. now on to political news, last night marked the first televised debate between the leading candidates for the french presidency. the faceoff between macron and le pen provided the most drama. macron proved he was able to defend himself, though le pen made an effort to portray macron as wishy-washy.

his former prime minister, francois fillon. >> the real serial killer for french spending powers is mrs. le pen with her plans to exit the euro and restore the franc. that would spark runaway inflation. it would have no positive increase on spending power. you are dragging this country towards real economic and social chaos. the french need know it. >> that was francois fillon the center right candidate. coming into this, the pressure was on mr. macron as the leading mainstream candidate. everyone suggested he faced the most punches, he seemed to deflect them sufficiently. the polls that came out saw him gain slightly. he got up to 26.5%. he will pen slipped to 25%. he now has a lead. he's the center-left independent, mr. macron. basically came out unscathed. >> the euro shot up, which is sort of what i looked at first. >> euro recovered late yesterday

afternoon. >> clearly economics are front and center with such a plan to take france out of the euro. second biggest euro member. that would be massively difficult, i think, to propose. this is different than the uk leaving, the uk is not part of the euro. this is the common currency with the common european central bank. that sound bite gave a snapshot of the debate. >> if marine le pen won, there would be significant hurdles for her to take france out there. would be various other votes, but that would be the headline if she won. the thing to continue to watch is thee levse levels of polls, first or second, but these people are only 25%, 26%. so the second round is key. the polls do suggest mr. macron or mr. fillon would comfortably beat le pen in the second round. if you look at the division of the polls, it tells a similar

story to other elections. paris, very much favors the mainstream political candidates, many rural areas favor le pen. again, as we learned with brexit and donald trump, it wasn't so much about winning the traditional swing voters, it was about turning out your core support that led to victory. that, i'm sure, will be a big swing factor here that makes the polls less accurate than in the past. either way, polls at the moment confident that it will be a mr. macron win. today u.s. authorities will announce a temporary ban on certain electronic devices on certain overseas flight the ts.s the restriction will only apply to foreign carriers that operate from certain countries. royal jordanian airlines jumped the gun advising passengers yesterday of those rules saying their cell phones and laptops would need to be checked.

still to come, apple's ceo tim cook is in china today. we'll tell you why he hopped on a bicycle. stay tuned, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. 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. making headlines, a technical glitch impacted closing trades in dozens of etfs yesterday at the new york stock exchange. etfs with market values above 1$150 billion were affected, tht includes the spdr gold trust.

nyc arca says it is reviewing closing prices after the glitch stopped closing symbols from completing the auction. arca handles about 10% of daily volume on u.s. exchanges. lots of people own etfs. a u.s. federal judge rejected a bid by leon cooperman to dismiss the s.e.c.'s insider trading case against him and his firm omega advisers. the judge said the s.e.c. made a claim that cooperman and omega made about $4 million from the sales of atlas. the trial date has been set for november. goldman sachs is building a robo adviser aimed at given ing investment advice. this comes as goldman looks for ways to broaden customer base beyond the wealthy. walmart is launching an

investment arm to expand its e-commerce business the plan is led by walmart's e-commerce chief mark lorey, who joined from jet.com. the venture called store number eight will work with start-ups that specialize in robotics, virtual and augmented reality and ai. walmart says it will keep the start ups separate so they don't affected the bottom line in the short-term. softbank has dropped 1$100 million investment in a smartphone startup that competes with the iphone according to the "wall street journal." softbank was planning to take a stake in the firm called essential products which was founded by the creator of google's android software it scrapped the plans because of its close relationship with apple. some stocks to watch today. ppg is reportingly preparing a takesover bibid for akzo nobel.

alibaba acquiring ticket platform damai. toshiba's westinghouse electric is taking offers for a financing package to help it go through u.s. bankruptcy. but reuters says the move is in preparation as no decision has been made on bankruptcy filing. few others here. shares of apple hitting a record intraday high following a bullish piece on the company in barron's and reports about the prospects of new ipads being released as early as this week. the best performing dow stock of 2017. hyundai shares hitting their highest level in 22 months. this on speculation that the parent group may reorganize its structure. and alcoa announcing details of secondary offering. the company will not receive any of the proceeds. the ceo of target getting

political opening up about his thoughts on the proposed border adjustment tax. >> if this goes forward address currently proposed. it's the consumer in the united states that will pay for it. they're going to pay for it because there will be higher price force apparel and home goods and other items they buy. those school supplies that you reported on. and for a company like ours and many other retailers, if we can't deduct all the items we import, it puts us in a difficult position. >> the leader of the retail giant also said he's hoping for a different plan that works for both american families and retailers. tim cook making a stop at a bike sharing startup during his trip to china the startup is one of two major bike sharing startups in china and was created by university students looking at making commuting more convenient. it expanded across several cities across china.

cook wrote thanks for welcoming me today ofo team. great energy behind your mission to make commuting greener, more efficient and fun. we know he's an investment in didi, the ridesharing company. trying to make more connections. >> seems like it's going down fairly well. >> the apple numbers. >> see where he delivers come s forward. coming up, president trump makes a push to repeal obamacare. the latest from washington coming up. first here is the national weather forecast from kelly cass. >> good morning. our first full day of spring, and it does feature a bit of a warmup in the northeast before it gets code agald again by thef the week. new york city, mid to upper 50s. a bit of wintry weather across

upstate new york and the higher elevations. that's about it. otherwise we are keeping an eye on the threat for severe weather today stretching from the boothill of missouri, northeast arkansas down to northern alabama, northern georgia could get some strong, gusty winds, possibly some hail with these storms as well. here comes a massive system across the west. rain drops from seattle down to los angeles. temperature in denver, pretty warm today, near 70 degrees. that's look at your national weather. we'll be right back.

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yesterday at the age of 101. he was the grandson of standard oil founder john d. rockefeller and the brother of former new york governor nelson rockefeller. he also ran what is now jpmorgan chase, he oversaw the family's sprawling interest in philanthropy ranging from environmental, conservation and the arts. another passing of note this morning. martin mcguinness, the irish republican leader who moved towards reconciliation with brit hahn died at the age of 66. his sinn fein party announced his passing this morning. the i rshg

mcguinness never hid the fact he had been a commander of the ira. now back to u.s. politics, president trump and house republican leaders are pushing forward on healthcare ahead of a key vote this week. tracie potts joins us from washington this morning. >> reporter: good morning. while that's what the president wants to focus on, in fact he's coming here to talk to republicans about it this morning, the testimony of the fbi director has been a big distraction for this white house, just days before the healthcare vote. >> reporter: president trump is back this morning from kentucky. >> i am thrilled to be here. >> reporter: where he assured americans the republican health plan moves forward when the house votes on thursday. >> this is our long-awaited chance to time finally get rid obamacare. >> reporter: the revised plan would end obamacare taxes this year, require most medicaid recipients to work and delay action on baby boomers who could

see premiums jump 700%. >> we'll negotiate and it's going to go to the senate, back and forth. the end result is going to be wonderful. >> reporter: not so wonderful? evidence supporting trump's tweet that president obama tapped his phones. >> the department has no information that supports those tweets. >> reporter: the white house says it is not over. >> we're still at the beginning phase as to see what kind of surveillance occurred and why. >> reporter: the fbi director publicly confirmed for the first time that they are investigating ties between russians trying to influence the election and the trump campaign. >> would not only be a serious crime but represent one of the most shocking betrayals of democracy in history. >> reporter: the investigation could take years. we learned the president is getting a new adviser at the white house, his daughter ivanka is moving into the west wing. she won't have a title, a position or a salary, but we're told her office will be just

above her father's on the second floor, right above the oval. >> i was actually surprised to learn that she didn't already have that. she's been in all the ceo meetings, so many of the oval meetings with foreign leaders. >> working remotely. >> i guess so. one question, you mentioned the comey testimony was a distraction, a lot of people were wondering if he would use this rally last night to speak out against what we heard. did president trump say anything about comey? >> no, not really. it seemed he was really sort of in his element before that crowd and it seemed, and the white house gave us the impression that he wanted to focus on healthcare, though it took him a half hour into the speech to get into that. but no, we didn't see a lot of that push back. he left that with sean spicer to deal with being peppered from the media about what all of that meant. >> tracie potts, thank you very much. still to come here from cnbc, the top stories and a round up of the global market

action. plus stephen hawking is headed to space with a little help from sir richard branson. details on that coming up next. i work with people everywhere on sea, on land, and in the air. inspecting towers way up high avoiding turbulence in the sky. personalizing treatments with dna and recommending who should play. a dress that thinks, which crops to grow, tax prep to help keep payments low. you can find me on an oil rig,

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good morning. markets now, u.s. equity futures pointing to a higher open ahead of a deluge of fed speak. washington watch. president trump heads to capitol hill today to make the hard sell for the gop healthcare bill. plus the rv industry revving up. why winnebago could be a big

stock to watch this week. it's tuesday, march 21, 2017, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning. welcome back to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> i'm wilfred frost. very good morning to you from me as well. let's check in on the global markets after stocks pretty much did nothing yesterday. the dow closed lower by 9 points. the nasdaq finished positive just barely. dow futures up 42. oil is up. that could be a big part of it. s&p futures up 6. nasdaq futures are up 16. overnight action in asia, strength in china and hong kong. the hang seng, the hong kong stock market is trading at the highest level since the end of 2015. shanghai comp closed up by a third of a percent. the nikkei closed lower. it was closed for holiday trading on monday. so this was the first time it

opened this week. little bit of a catch up there. as for the early action in europe, flattish to mixed picture there. you're seeing the ftse 100 down 0.1%. on flip side, french cac up about 0.1%. and the german dax is basically unchanged. the euro is stronger after the french debate of the five remaining candidates. >> let's look at broader markets. oil prices, which yesterday fell 1%, just over 1% for the second negative session of the last three, bouncing back today up 0.75%. ten-year treasury note, an important factor yesterday. we did see the whole of the yield curve slip yesterday from short to long end. we are just below 2.5%. picking up on the yield a bit today. that was a factor for why financials and banks in particular were the worst performing sector yesterday. dollar, let's look at that. which ended the day flat yesterday. softer to start, but factors

like the pound changing direction during the course of the day from stronger initially against the dollar to weaker by the end of the day meant the dollar ended flat yesterday. the euro and pound both higher while the yen is a bit softer against the dollar. gold prices to round things off, a little bit lower today. gold prices are 1231. to the agenda. several fed officials are speak out days after the central bank raised interest rates last week. bill dudley, boston fed president, eric rosengren, esther george and cleveland fed president loretta mester will be in front of the microphone. just one economic report, the fourth quarter current account at 8:30 a.m. eastern. general mills and home builder lenar report earnings before the opening bell. after the close, fedex and nike. i don't think this market is paying as close attention to the fed speak as they normally do. yesterday we had a bunch of it.

it seems to be two debates inside the fed and in the markets. three or four rate hikes this year. three is considered conservative at this point. four is considered maybe necessary based on the improved outlook for the economy and markets. and do they have to look at the balance sheet and try to pare that back as they normalize policy into higher interest rates? mostly it sounds like fed officials are saying we'll deal with that once we see strength and inflation gets past target. >> absolutely right. what we've seen is how much the dollar had priced in that initial hike this year. at least two or three more. certainly the dollar has been week off the back of that. we had a realization on the euro side and the british side for various reasons that that differential in policy could be close with higher rates priced in sooner than expected. let's go back to the dollar board. the pound's rally did extend the last 20 minutes it was up about 0.75%, it was up a half percent

earlier. now up 0.83%, because we had uk cpi coming in 0.7% month on month, the consensus was 0.5%. so we might see tightening of policy in the uk sooner than expected for different reasons to the u.s. >> it is that weak exchange rate pushing up inflation. >> and someone is flying to london tonight. >> it's moving in the wrong direction for my shopping habits. >> that extra 0.2% over the course of one month won't derail your weekend too much. >> it will not. >> in general the fall in the pound will be more helpful. >> look for the currency impacted on fedex, which is a global shipper and on nike. they both stand to lose if there is increased trade barriers, and both are considered economic barometers, even though with nike it's more of a test of the athleisure and sports apparel market. >> on the note of earnings, rv

maker winnebago trails behind the rest of the industry ahead of earnings tomorrow morning. landon dowdy has the details we need to watch out for. >> good morning. the rv industry has been revving up the past few years, increasing 160% since 2009. however camping stocks have been getting crushed. winnebago down about 14% in the last month. thor industries tumbling about 12%. while the street expects demand to remain strong there's growing concern that winnebago will lose further market share and lack growth. winnebago's worry is millennials. winnebago is weighted more towards high-end motor homes than towing rvs. new buyers are jumping on the rv bandwagon due to easier landing options, an area that camping world is winning big in. add to the worries, labor costst and longer timelines to achieve

operating efficiencefficiencies. winnebago reports second quarter results tomorrow morning. will the rvmaker turn down the road to improvement? that's one to watch. joining us now is michael pervus, chief global strategist from weeden and company. thank you for joining us. let's touch on the dollar to start. as sara and i were discussing, despite that rate hike we've seen declines in the dollar over the past week or so. the euro and pound picking up momentum to the upside. >> one thing that's important to point out when you talk about the dollar, what it's trading off of is the longer end of the yield curve, in particular ten-year real rate differentials. so when you got those rate hikes, you know, that is sort of icing on the cake. it's not the cake. it was a dovish hike as well. i think what's very important, you know, after that dovish hike

we got, you saw the ten-year l rather than explode, it sort of edged down a bit. i think it's very important to understand that our u.s. ten-year, its fate is heavily defined by other sovereign paper which is quite low, the german bund and its japanese equivalent. >> maybe it's the market pricing in the fact that the trump ag t agenda is not happening as fast as anticipated, or there will be roadblocks. yields are lower. the dollar is lower. small caps are underperforming. financials have started underperforming. these are all the trump trades that spurred the rally post election reversing. >> there's no question that there has been a retracement of a lot of the trump trades as those look increasingly likely to be watered down and sort of pushed back. i don't think they're gone, but certainly they're retracing there. but there's also another factor, which is if you look at where

the relative momentum is in terms of economic growth, it appears to be a little bit more in europe now than in the united states. i think that's another factor that is giving some more support to the euro. >> so you are long european equities as opposed to u.s. equities? >> i think right now -- short answer would be broadly yes. obviously there's two different types of political risk in europe versus what we have to deal with in the united states. very different types of political risk. but, you know, in this globally sinkynchronized growth, there i quest for relative value. there's no question europe f we can clear some of these political clouds that seem to be disappearing, there's no question that i think money will continue to come in to european equities and that u.s. equities are going to be -- i'm not saying there's a lot of down side in them, but i think at the very least there's a lack of upward momentum now.

i would be more focused on european equities and for that matter emerging market equities. >> is it time to be defensive? if you look at the outperformers, there are groups back up again like real estate, utilities, telecom as those yields start to move south. is that where you want to be? >> well, i think the defense of equity trade in the united states, it's really coming back to where your view is on the ten-year treasury yield. i think there's good arguments for it to go higher and good arguments to go lower. one thing missing from the discussion is so much of where that goes is going to be a function of whether the german bund breaks through 50 basis points. if it were to cruise up to, say, 80, 90, 100 basis points that would have a huge impact on the ten-year and put downward pressure on utilities, reits, mlps, other high dividend equities, no question there. so there's a lot of good -- i think there's a lot of very strong bullish arguments for treasuries as well.

the positioning is -- the bearish positioning in treasury futures is aggressive. you have to be sort of very careful and tactical as you trade those at this point. let's not forget those defensive sectors played great offense over the last 12 months as a function of interest rates. >> michael, thank you for joining us from london. moving on to the top trendingphen hawking is heading space. he is offered the opportunity to go to space by sir richard branson. hawking saying branson offered him a seat on virgin galactic and he said yes immediately. he will get that opportunity. i don't think they're quite ready yet. if i were him, i would let the first few flights gofrmt. >>.

>> that's a hot ticket. drake's new album is off to a record. this one breaking some records. the album called "more life" collecting 89.9 million streams globally in its first 24 hours on apple music. that's a new single day record of streams from an album on apple music. spotify says "more life" generated the best first day of streams for an album on its surface. i heard it. >> is it worth it? >> yes. >> there we go. you'll be listening to that on the flight to london tonight. >> yeah. youtube's restrictive mode setting may be a thing of the past. this after days of backlash over the setting which many lgbtq creators realized hid some of that's videos. the bottom line is the feature is not working the way it should, we're sorry and we're going to fix it they said.

i don't know much about that feature. when we come back, the must read stories. first as we head to break, a programming note. don't miss an interview with ibm's ceo giceoginni rometty to 2:00. i moved upstate because i was interested in building a career. i came to ibm to manage global clients and big data. but i found so much more. ( ♪ ) it's really a melting pot of activities and people. (applause, cheering) new york state is filled with bright minds like victoria's. to find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin.

. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." now to our must-read stories, those catching our attention.

my pick is in the "the financial times" titled the merger model, the next kraft heinz target. this is like an interactive article on ft.com where it runs through the reasons that kraft heinz's merger worked and the metrics of why it worked. we have options for the next possible target ranging from unilever, the failed bid writedown to clorox, kellogg's, general mills. you can play around on this interactive article with some metrics. you can discuss which you think is most important and it gives you companies within that list that they could take over. >> not really must-read. >> it's a must play with. but it is a must-read. also ten pages long. the impact of kraft heinz -- >> i'm glad you brought this up. >> it's fun. i managed to make it create that the only one to buy is unilever, which clearly is not the case.

>> this has just come out. posted three hours ago. i'm not sure why they posted it three hours ago, but it's quite good fun. it analyzes kraft heinz initially. >> general mills is outwestern i with earnings this morning. the more they may become a target of speculation for the likes of kraft heinz. i wonder if the model will change. my pick is from the "wall street journal," brett stevens, other people's babies. the title is a jab at steve king, the gop congressman from iowa talking about immigration. you read a lot about immigration, but this piece is so good, it looks at the economics of japan and their lack of open immigration policies. and what that would do to our country. without immigration our demographic destiny would become japanese but our culture wouldn't, leaving us with the worst of both worlds, economic

stagnation without social stability. multi ethnic america would tear itself into pieces fighting over redistribution rights to the shrinking national pie. some of the benefits to the japanese society, not allowing a lot of immigrants and refugees in. balanced with the massive economic problems of the demographics and the fact they are not reproducing, not a happy place, he says, and then he goes into the traditional immigration benefits to american society, the nobel prizes, the ceos, how much it helped american culture, the melting pot. really it gets to the economics and demographics. >> i will read this. you teased it well. not just the immigration factors, but the failure to relax various labor laws over the decades added to that issue for japan. the team is getting ready for "squawk box." steve liesman joins us today from new york with a look at what's coming up. good morning. >> good morning.

we have an interesting show. we'll continue discussing this issue on russia and what it means for the markets, either something historic happened if you read the "new york times" editorial or nothing happened if you read the "wall street journal" editorial. the markets look like they're siding with the "wall street journal" on this. we have former democratic senator evan bayh, current weighs and means committee chairman kevin brady as well. we will talk to people from pimco and puzzle through the political on-goings here and what it means for markets and the economy. >> sounds good. >> steve, have you seen the rally we have in the euro and pound? >> no but you and i have been on this trade. >> we would have been if we were allowed to. >> when does mr. draghi have to pony up and change policy to back up this strength in the euro? >> i don't think immediately. it could be some more rhetoric in about three or four meetings

times towards it would be enough. on the uk side we had some more inflation data stronger than expected. not good inflation that we're seeing in the uk versus the better inflation here, before you it could mean a change in policy sooner than expected. >> so just not doing more negative and perhaps ending the infinity when it comes to quantitative easing in europe is enough to strengthen the euro? >> as well as easing political fears and growth and reflation coming six or so months later than we've seen stateside. >> though there's a strange bid for the euro. it can never get below 105. you throw everything at it, political mess, brexit, strengthening u.s. economy, trump rally, the tightening of the fed versus the ecb, the euro remains above that level. >> but the em currencies have done well amid the fed tightening. >> they have. emerging market stocks are also now near multi-year highs.

steve, thank you. >> sure. still to come, lots of fed speak on today's agenda we'll get you ready for the trading day ahead. ta talley leger joins us next. the command performance sales event is here. experience exciting offers on our most thrilling models ever. get up to $2,500 customer cash on select 2017 models for these terms. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains.

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to power global e-commerce fedex networks are massive far-reaching and, yes a little magical. ♪ futures indicating a higher start for wall street. this after stocks ended yesterday little changed coming off the seventh week of gains in the last eight. joining us now is talley leger from oppenheimer funds. you are looking at ways the trump rally started fading what are you paying most attention to? >> i think it was clear that following the election last year that the market performance was all about reflation trades. bond yields backed up significantly. small cap value stocks led, the dollar strengthened. now many of those same trends

have reversed at least partially. i think the markets are sending us a message here. that is that we need to see the policy follow-through that was priced in so quickly. >> are you encouraged by the overall resilience of markets in face of that, in light of that, or are you saying this is the start of a much more worrying trend? >> great question. i'm in the camp that this is the pause that refreshes, as opposed to a change of trend. i think what we need to do as investors is just acknowledge the risks here. look, it's an aging bull market. we just had an eighth year birth ta par day party for the s&p 500, we're transitioning from that high octane rally to something less intense, driven by earnings as opposed to multiple expansion. >> i was going to say can the valuations be supported without

the big economic growth people expect as a result of these policies? >> i think the earnings recovery is off to a good, albeit, early start. and i think the scenario i'm kind of experimenting with here is, yes, multiples are elevated, but you could grow into that multiple. and revenues and earnings are the key. >> and in terms of sector performance, with that in mind what are you positive on at the moment? >> so i'm kind of in the camp once again, i believe in the triumph of the optimists. while we're careful to acknowledge the down side risks here, just want to underscore we still see the base case as the expansion continuing. i think as a result you want to have cyclical exposure. >> through what, banks? >> financials, industrials, but also have some exposure to some defenses of interest. i think healthcare for a really long-term perspective would fit

the bill. >> i'm glad you brought up healthcare. "usa today" pulls out health care stocks saying they're the second best performing group of the s&p in 2017 despite the back and forth and fight over the bill and the uncertainty that lies ahead for some companies like insurers, drugmakers and hospital stocks. broadly how do you think about this group given what's going on in congress? >> the starting point for me at least is the valuations, cheapest sector of the market. and probably cheap for a reason. to your point in the very near-term, i'll admit i think the picture is cloudier here. some counter forces, but i like to default to the longer term. that is we have got a high class issue in this country and that is that people are living longer, better, healthier lives. that will probably mean more spending on healthcare services and goods. >> you see opportunities around the rest of the world or focused domestically? >> right now our bias as a

function of our strategies is to really emphasize u.s. stocks here. but i think that longer-term case -- defaulting to the longer term outlook, for emerging markets has improved. again, i like to start with the valuations. that's not really new information. but the point is when you're sitting here looking at these extended valuations on u.s. stocks, still seeing room for upside, but longer term there's much more room for expansion in the emerging market equities. good to check in with you as always. >> thank you. >> minute left what are y. what you are watching. >> i think the fall of the dollar against the pound. and the euro, despite that fed rate hike, the dollar is slipping. what does that mean for banks which slipped yesterday. you're looking at -- >> nike earnings after the bell. big dow component. big loser last year. big win their year. will they talk about border adjustment and trade? not likely.

>> will they talk about drake? >> they will talk about drake that could be a point of strength. "squawk box" is next. your path to retirement may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call us or your advisor t. rowe price. vest with confidence.

good morning. futures trading higher on wall street, but speeches by four so-called fed heads could drive trading today. healthcare is in focus. the gop tweaking its proposal ahead of thursday's key vote. a rundown of the changes straight ahead. and we have kevin brady on today. and a new security restriction for international travelers. electronic devices larger than a cell phone banned on flights from the u.s. from some airports. it's tuesday, march 21, 2017, "squawk box" begins right now.

♪ >> 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 steve liesman. good morning. >> good morning. >> good to have you here. >> great to be here. i was in philly yesterday, got on that reliable amtrak, came back. it worked well. >> you spent a week in philly? one afternoon? >> exactly. which is where comcast is headquartered. beautiful city. >> whenever i say that, you remind me, in a good way. >> we love philly. >> we do. >> beautiful town. >> schuylkill, the row houses are beautiful. the zoo. >> great place to get -- to culture great management. really good managers. really good corporate -- >> something in the water there. >> something in the