good morning. markets now. u.s. equity futures are flat after the s&p breaks a four-day losing streak. seven people arrested in anti-terror raids following yesterday's deadly london attack. a live report from parliament straight ahead. plus washington watch. the house set to vote on the healthcare bill. we have the latest on last-minute notiegotiations com up. it's thursday, march 23, 2017, and "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning. warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc, i'm wilfred

frost. >> i'm contessa brewer in today for sara eisen. >> straight to the global market picture. futures at this hour coming off the day which was a winning day, a fight back day for the bulls out there. the dow was fraction tally negative, but the s&p higher. nasdaq was higher by a half percent. bottom line there r this was a back from tuesday's trade. this morning essentially flat. the s&p slightly higher, the dow and nasdaq slightly lower. despite the fact equities were resilient yesterday, we saw yields slipping which had been part of the catalyst and spark for the declines the day earlier. we went down to 2.4 on the ten-year, hit 2.35% yesterday. the lowest since the 28th of

february. just back a that 2.4 level again this morning. that slight slippage of yields yesterday didn't do much to derail stocks. asian markets are ending higher today as well. that's a definite improvement for the nikkei, which lost 2% yesterday. as you can see across the board, the nikkei is up 0.2%. hang seng flattish, but still in positive territory. the shanghai up 0.1%. in europe, the european markets are mixed right now after ending the day in negative territory. there you're seeing the ftse down slightly. the dax up just slightly. just barely into the positive territory. and the cac is off by 0.2%. let's look at the broader markets. oil prices in particular, they fell 0.4% yesterday, the third negative session in a row. fourth negative session in five. today they are bouncing back. wti crude up about a quarter of

1%. dollar board, the dollar was down yesterday, not by much. around 0.1% or 0.2% for the broader index. in particular it was the yen that was stronger against the dollar yesterday. the other point of note yesterday is that the pound was largely rezil yechbt resilient face of those terror attacks. the euro above 108, an important resistance level, but just back above that at the moment. it broke above the level but not meaningfully higher. just above the 1.077 the price on the euro. gold prices as well, which are down a little bit today. they are off 0.1% at 1,248 having gained a bit yesterday. the overall takeaway as jim

cramer with was framing this, it was a victory for bulls, after that tuesday selloff, we didn't get much improvement on the political front, yet we didn't see further extension of a selloff. so it seems a one day stepping back of profit taking. >> i think cramer made an excellent point when he was asked the question of when will investors look at the fundamentals of the companies involved here as opposed to what's happening in washington and using that as a litmus test for how strong the economy is, regardless of whether trump gets what he wants on healthcare, repeal and replace and obamacare. let's get to the developing story out of the united kingdom. police have made seven arrests in connection with the london terror attack near parliament yesterday that killed four people and left 29 others injured.

six raids occurred in cities including birmingham and london. police believe, though, the culprit was acting alone. the house of commons is opening this morning. theresa may is expected to address lawmakers. we will head to london for a full report in just a minute. >> the fed front and center once again. chair janet yellen will give opening remarks at a conference in washington at 8:45 eastern. minneapolis fed president neel kashkari is speaking at that event. dallas fed president, rob kaplan is talking about the economy and monetary policy at a gathering in chicago this evening. as for data, weekly jobless claims at 8:30 eastern, followed by the february new home sales at 10:00. consulting firm accenture reports earnings before the bell. after the loews, micron,

gamestop and kb home. the house is scheduled to vote on repealing and replacing obamacare with the gop's american healthcare act. president trump and house gop leaders are making a major push to get the 218 votes needed. late last night the white house reportedly offered a tweak to the plan by getting rid of the set of men mum benefiinimum ben insurers are not providing customers. >> let's go to fast money trader guy adami. how are you? >> thanks for having me on. >> our pleasure. let's discuss the bounce back yesterday in equity markets. do you frame that as a victory for the bulls? >> not necessarily. think about it, a bounce back, it wasn't some resounding bounce back. the s&p was up four handles or so. let's put it in context.

this is a market that has cut back in the last seven years in an amazing way. every time we've seen a selloff of any magnitude. though yesterday did not inspire me much, the resilience of the market is something to behold. we can talk about some of the flies in the ointment and things, but in terms of yesterday, i thought it was a desed decent day but nothing to get excited about. >> what are your thoughts about continuing to have a bounce back or a sell offlioff like on tuess it the ten-year yield or the equities? >> if you asked people what they thought would happen with the ten-year over the last couple weeks, they would have said the opposite. i'm probably one of those people. you follow these things closely and do a great job, is the fed hiking us into an inverted yield curve? the answer appears to be potentially yes. that's not necessarily a good thing. say what you want about the fed,

i havenymy issues, if they are raising and the ten-year ratchets back down, they could hike us down into a slowdown or recession, a lot of people disagree with that. that's extraordinarily important. the other thing that is important, the performance of the banks over the last 10, 12 trading days has not been particularly strong. specifically goldman sachs. since goldman sachs made that high two weeks ago, the stock has not traded well. if these are a barometer for stocks going higher three, four weeks ago, you have to look at them as a barometer for leading us back down. i nthink the performance of the banks over the next couple days is critical. >> what is the role of the oil markets on overall equities? >> i think oil is extraordinarily important. a lot of people have taken their eye off the ball on that front as well. they're sort of putting it off

as a selloff of what's been a strong move to the upside. i want to give you one stock to look at. look at exxonmobil over the last three months. common was a $96 stock, give or take in the beginning of the year. here's the stock trading $81 on a broader market that's effectively gone up until the last couple of days, and an oil market that's gone sideways to slightly lower. what's going on with exxon? is that telling us something in terms of crude oil? it's critical that exxon bounces from here as well. if you're looking for bellwethers for spaces, goldman sachs not trading well for two weeks, exxonmobil in terms of energy has not traded well for two months. >> guy, thanks for joining us. >> love you guys. you know i love your show. tess, welcome to cnbc.

good luck, look forward to having you on our show. >> thank you very much. >> in london investigators are working to figure out the full scope of the deadly attack outside parliament. cnbc's wilhem marks joins us now. >> the crime scene behind me is pretty extensive still. a lot of traffic blocked from getting closer to a few hundred yards the site of this attack. the bridge behind me, westminster bridge was where the attacker drove at speed along the pavement hitting pedestrians, many of them left critically injured. 7 of them left critically in hospital, four deaths, including a police officer who he stabbed to death inside the grounds of parliament. the metropolitan police have performed a number of raids, arresting seven individuals at

six different addresses. things are returning to normal a bit. we are seeing people returning to work, cycling to work. cafes are open, even tourists and tourists boats are coming up and down the thames here. >> so they have not publicly identified the attacker yet. any indication why these other people have been arrested? >> so, they're not wanting to identify the attacker because they say they don't want to jeopardize an ongoing investigation. they're following a number of leads. the people arrested clearly have some link to the attack but it's not clear more detail than that. >> willem, good to have you with us. the other pictures we've been showing of the surrounding area were from yesterday, they're not live pictures as of today, like your shot is. want to ask you as well about the day ahead in terms of what we can expect in london. of course, parliament will be going back to work. is that right?

>> that's right, over the last few hours we've seen westminster bridge behind me being cleared of larger vehicles. as of yesterday evening, eight large london buses were on there. those have been cleared away. in about 15 minutes time the house of commons will rise for prayers. the prime minister, theresa may, who spoke outside number 10 downing street last night will address the commons at around 10:30 local time, 6:30 with you guys on the east coast. later on this evening, at around 6:00 p.m. local, 2:00 p.m. for you, the london mayor has called for a candlelight vigil in trafalgar square, not far from this attack. just to round things off, the defense secretary, sir michael fallon was speaking moments ago on bbc, he said the phrase lone wolf attacker, single assailant is the brief. we have not seen following the

prime minister's cobra meeting last night, any change to the forward looking threat level in the uk. is that right? >> that's right. they kept it at the fourth out of five levels for security threats, an indication from the prime minister and her security advisers they don't see there being any fresh attacks linked to what we saw yesterday afternoon, where that man drove at speed across this bridge, aiming at pedestrians on a sidewalk, knocking many down, including one woman who was knocked off the side of the bridge behind me. he seems to have attacked on his own. >> thank you very much for joining us. willem marx from london. coming up, stocks to watch. plus, could north carolina have stolen $81 million from an account at the new york fed. >> we'll have much more coming up on "worldwide exchange." 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.

good morning. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." yesterday we saw a bit of a bounce back for markets following that significant decline on tuesday. the dow was, in fact, negative but fractionally essentially flat. the s&p was positive, the nasdaq was up a half percent. today we're basically flat in the premarket. the dow called lower by 9 points. two big factors have been influencing markets over the last couple of weeks. let's look at them.

oil prices first up. they're bouncing back a bit today. they declined for the third straight day yesterday. just a slight decline. the fourth day out of five for declines. right now up about 0.4%. wti, 48.2. we did see brent dip below $50 a barrel yesterday. but nicely back above that. 50.8. treasuries, the yield curve has been key for markets. particularly on tuesday when we saw those significant declines. yesterday we did see the ten-year treasury note dip below 2.4, hit a low not seen since late in february. back above the 2.4 level again today, but the declines in yields yesterday not as significant as on tuesday. that was a big reason why markets were able to bounce back a bit yesterday. of course, the story over the last two, three weeks has been one of a flattening yield curve which hurt bank stocks, that's why the likes of bank of america off almost 10%, though stemming some of those losses yesterday.

federal prosecutors are preparing cases linking north korea to an $81 million theft at the new york fed. that money was taken at bangladesh's account last year. if filed the charges would target alleged chinese middle men who prosecutors think helped north korea orchestrate that theft. some stocks to watch. mylan is recalling about 81,000 epipens outside the u.s. following two reports of the allergy shot failing to work in emergencies. the recall affects devices distributed in australia, new zealand, europe and japan. mylan off 0.7%. five below reporting earnings, revenue and same-store sales in line with expectations. the discount retailer will open about 100 new stores this year, including locations in california. pbh beating the street on top and bottom lines. the parent company of tommy hilfiger and calvin klein offering upbeat guidance and

increasing its buy back. cintas earnings coming in slightly above expectations. revenue in line. shares of nintendo are rising. blackrock now owns more than 5% of the company's stock. and apple's acquiring work flow, an ios app for creating short cuts and out matie imati g matingprocesses. amazon has struck a deal with souq.com. the site, which is based in dubai, sells fashion, household items and other goods. the price of the deal is unclear. souq raised 4$420 million since founded in 2005 and was valued at $1 billion after its latest funding round last year. u.s. lawmakers sent a letter to ptc therapeutics yesterday

seeking pricing information on the company's recently acquired drug to treat a severe form of muscular dystrophy. yesterday ptc said they would buy the drug and promised to examine its hefty price tag. marathon was charging $89,000 for the drug, but u.s. patients could import it for $1,000. the move has drawn criticism from lawmakers forcing the company to halt its launch in the united states. still to come on "worldwide exchange," the final push. just hours left before the healthcare plan heads to the house for a crucial vote. a live report from washington coming up. but before we head to the break, here's today's national forecast from the weather channel's reynolds wolf. good morning. let's look at that forecast. we have plenty of sunshine in places like new york city, 43 degrees. atlanta, cloudy skies, 53. miami, chance of thunderstorms.

your best possibility of severe weather is for the central and southern plains, back into texas. breezy conditions for you in dallas with 85 degrees. los angeles, gorgeous day. 69, plenty of sunshine. further north you go on the west coast, better chance of shower activity and the snow season for the rockies never seems like it will come to an end. more can be expected for the tetons back into steam boat springs. denver, front range breezy and partly cloudy skies. that's a look at your forecast. more coming up on "worldwide exchange." stay tuned.

the big action on capitol hill today, the american healthcare act heads to the house tonight for a critical vote. tracie potts joins us from washington with the latest. give it to me here. how much wrangling is going on on capitol hill to get the freedom caucus republicans on donald trump's side? >> a lot. it's happening from the white house and on capitol hill. overnight there was a meeting that house speaker paul ryan had with a lot of republicans. he's trying to get on board. but after the meeting one republican said he's not voting for this healthcare plan because he thinks it misses the mark. >> president trump on the phone with lawmakers all night meeting with the conservative freedom caucus today in a last-ditch effort to flip six no votes to yes. >> this is going down in flames. >> reporter: what will it take to save it? >> conservatives a see the at the table. >> reporter: our count shows 29

republicans likely lined up against it. still, the house speaker is confident. >> we feel like we're getting really close. >> reporter: the white house admits there's no plan "b" if the vote fails. >> this is the only train leaving the station. >> reporter: former vice president joe biden rallied with democrats marking the seventh anniversary of obamacare. >> i ain't going nowhere. this is not going to pass. >> reporter: he questions whether president trump has a grip on things in washington. >> it's getting down to the wire here in terms of whether or not he's going to take charge. >> reporter: during his long awaited meeting with the congressional black caucus, president trump talked about the next step, lowering drug prices. >> we'll bid on drug prices and try to have the lowest prices anywhere in the world. >> reporter: that's part three. first -- >> you going to vote tomorrow? >> are we in congress? don't we vote on thursdays? >> reporter: he has to get through today's vote which looks iffy with hours to go.

there's been a question on whether or not republicans might cancel this vote to save face. staffers are telling us, no, the vote is happening today either way, yes or no. >> just remind us exactly what time that vote is likely to happen? >> we've got it scheduled for 9:00 a.m. eastern time. >> okay. great stuff. tracie potts for us there in washington. moving on to sports, the united states proving to be the best in the world at the country's national past time, baseball. team usa beat puerto rico 8-0 in the championship game of the world baseball classic at dodgers stadium last night. it's the first title for the u.s. since the tournament was created in 2006. really? that's rather disappointing. it's also a good start to international competition for the u.s. as baseball is returning to the olympics in tokyo 2020. now, i mean, if -- our good friend joe kernen were listening to this, he would have to admit that a legitimate criticism of

who it's baseball, basketball, or the nfl is you don't have real decent international competitions, like the world cup and soccer where it's just a fantastic global event. nfl and baseball and the like, it's just usa dominance. >> i concur. >> yeah. there we go. contessa is on my side. coming up a round up of global markets. and disney's "beauty and the beast" remake is crushing it at the box office. it's a beast at the box office. we'll tell you what record that movie just broke when we come back. stay tuned, this is "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ng 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 ♪ what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream except that the next morning it all makes sense. to power global e-commerce fedex networks are massive far-reaching and, yes a little magical. ♪

i provide for my family. i will use my education to help my community. i will inspire our next generation of leaders. i am a college student, but i am only 1%. only 1% of college students are american indian.

donate now, and help our numbers grow. ♪ . good morning. today's test, investors on washington watch ahead of a crucial healthcare vote. seven people arrested in anti-terror raids following yesterday's deadly london attack. we'll have the latest straight ahead. and google under pressure. millions of dollars could be at stake as major advertisers pull their marketing campaigns off youtube. that story coming up. it's thursday, march 23, 2017. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning. warm welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm contessa brewer sitting

in for sara eisen. let's get to the global market pic chorture. a fight back day for the bulls yesterday as we saw the dow fractionally negative, essentially flat. the s&p slightly higher, the nasdaq up a half percent. the bottom line from yesterday is that that selloff just lasted for one day on tuesday that significant selloff. we had had slight declines in the days leading up to it. today we were mixed. we are now positive. albeit slightly. the dow called higher by six points. the s&p by 2.3. nasdaq by 0.7 points. asian trade at the moment is slightly higher. it comes off the back of sharp declines yesterday where they were playing catch up with wall street's declines on tuesday. today we have about a quarter percent of gains for japan's nikkei. slight gains for hong kong and shanghai. european trade for you is lower

by a bit, comes off a day of decent declines. more in reaction to wall street than issues taking place in london. in fact, you would say markets in both london and the british pound were resilient in the face of those terror attacks. this morning a mixed picture across european trade. >> let's look at the broader markets. oil seems to be turning things around. brent saw a $50 low overnight. wti up by 0.6%. brent is up by a half percent. nat gas up by a half percent. on the treasuries, we're seeing yields trading lower here. let's go to the treasuries now where we're seeing the ten-year t note at 2.41%. the 2-year, 10-year, and 30-year hitting lows. the ten-year at 2.4%. seeing some movement with the

currencies against the euro positive upward movement against the euro, against the yen down just slightly. against the pound slipping off. >> just going to a live picture in london where we have the minute of silence being held by the metropolitan police in the westminster area. this being held following the deadly attacks across london or in london and westminster yesterday. let's just listen in to this, just for a moment. observe this silence. we also understand a minute of silence being held in parliament

any minute. theresa may to give a statement on the attacks in a little under an hour. tonight in trafalgar square, a individual organized by the mayor to come as well. we might bring you pictures of the minute of silence in parliament at any moment when we have it. in the meantime, let's recap that police have made seven arrests in connection with the london terror attack near parliament yesterday that killed four people and left 29 others injured. six raids occurred overnight in cities including birmingham and london. at this point investigators believe the culprit was acting alone. the house of commons, as i just said, reopening for business this morning. and prime minister theresa may will address lawmakers in about an hour from now as i already said. let's discuss this further. joining us on the cnbc news line is colonel jack jacobs, nbc military analyst. good morning, colonel. thank you very much for joining us. it seems at the moment that this is being -- we also will just bring pictures of the minute of silence in parliament, colonel,

as we talk to you and let's just object th observe this for part of a minute before we come to you.

>> so that was the minute of silence in the house of commons following those deadly attacks in and around the parliament of westminster. joining us now is colonel jack jacobs. good morning to you. a minute of silence there from the metropolitan police and lawmakers in london. otherwise london back to work, showing solidarity and a sign of defiance to get back to work this morning. londoners won't be cowed by terrorists. >> yeah. i lived in london for about five years, years ago when i was with bankers trust. there were lots of difficulties from time to time, but london is an extremely resilient place. i'm not surprised things at

least have an air of getting back to normal. >> kol necolonekocolonel, at th is being treated by the british as a lone wolf attack. sir michael fallon saying they're working on the assumption that it's linked to islamic terrorism in some form, though that's not the conclusion yet. what do you take from that? of course other attacks we've seen across europe in the last couple of years? >> well, the attack itself followed the playbook of isis and was almost exactly like the things that isis in previous publications has encouraged supporters to do around the world. you know, isis has been suffering substantial losses on the battlefield. and for the west, this is good news. it means that the chain of command is having a difficult time of it. they're not going to be able to fight back. not on the battlefield like they did before and so on.

but there's a cloud in this silver lining. that is that isis has become fragmented, a bit like al qaeda did some years ago. while you will have lone wolf attacks, it means it's extremely difficult to ferret them out before the fact. it requires a great deal of intelligence, surveillance, it's labor intensive, capital intensive, not easy to prevent attacks before they occur. while it looks like this is not necessarily related to isis, it does demonstrate that there's a possibility we'll have to be much more vigilant so we can try to stop attacks before they occur. >> jack, doesn't that just illustrate one of the real threats now to the even international coalitions working against terrorism, is that if you're only inspired by a certain ideology, and you're a lone wolf, if you're not working with anyone else the chances of

intervening and stopping an attack before it happens becomes much slimmer. >> yes. it's extremely difficult to do. if there's no collusion among people, if there's no conspiracy, if there's no conversation between various parties who are trying to plan an attack, it's -- it's very, very difficult to try to stop it. you can't even identify who is possible. it's surpriseding that there were raids in birmingham overnight and seven people were arrested. that would indicate not necessarily collusion, but perhaps the police were able to find people, conduct raids based on the identity of the automobile that was used, so forth. that's going to be a rare occurrence if there is going to be an increase in lone wolf attacks, people who are merely sympathetic and inspired by

isis, it means it will be much harder to find these people. >> colonel jacobs, thanks for joining us this morning. >> you're very welcome. let's go to the day ahead on wall street. the fed front and center once again. chair janet yellen will give opening remarks at a conference in washington at 8:45 eastern. minneapolis fed president neel kashkari is speaking at that event. dallas fed president, rob kaplan, is talking about the economy and monetary policy at a gathering in chicago this evening. as for data, weekly jobless claims at 8:30 eastern, followed by the february new home sales at 10:00. consulting firm accenture reports earnings before the opening bell. after the close, we will hear from micron, game stop and kb home. verizon and at&t pulling all nonsearch adds from google. this after google may have placed ads against terrorism or

hate content. the "wall street journal" saying this suspension affects the youtube and google display network. wells fargo is rolling out cardless withdrawals on monday. people can withdrawal using a smartphone. the technology is being applied to all 13,000 cash machines after piloting the idea in select locations across the united states. the interesting part here, there are other banks working on this technology, but they're not there yet. wells fargo has seen a drop in the number of account holders, so will this be enough to lure people back in? the fact they could, instead of digging through their wallet, get a card, just get on the smartphone? >> wells are proud of this development. it's not leagues ahead of others, other banks are already there, and moving with similar technologies. i suppose the bigger question is when the branches themselves

will be going because of the developments all the banks are making in this area. >> what a headache it will mean for the people who run in those banks and keep running out to the atm answering questions from people using their smartphones. "beauty and the beast" live action remake has officially topped the original. in just five days the remake topped the box office sales of the original 1991 film. globally it's getting close to breaking the 5$500 million mark which is expected to happen by the end of this weekend. i have not seen it yet. i'm looking forward to seeing it. >> really? >> you not? >> i am, but i have children. small children. >> no, no. >> i can just -- if someone said what movie do you think wilfred would most like to see at the theaters this weekend, "beauty and the beast" is not the one i would have come up with. >> contessa, our viewers from last week would know it was top

of the list. >> in that case, since you're clearly such a fan, you surely have seen the original "beauty and the beast," can you sing any of the songs? >> i could, but i will save yourself and our viewers from that misery. i'm tone deaf and not a singer. still to come, today's must reads. as we head to break, a look at where european equities are trading at this hour a mixed performance across europe. we have germany up a bit. uk and france down a fraction. back in a couple minutes.rk ets . at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." let's get you up to speed on the market action this morning. we had some uk retail sales data coming out at plus 3.7 year on year. that has led to the pound spurting up once again. 1.25 we just got up above. it was a bit soft earlier. so 0.1% move in the pound off the back of that data and worth pointing out that the pound rallied significantly over the last two weeks from close to the 1.21 level and was fairly resilient yesterday in the face of the london terror attack. moving on to our must-read stories, my pick is in the "wall street journal" titled "terror on the thames." mr. rowley, deputy commissioner of the metropolitan police, said

earlier this month that authorities have thwarted 13 planned attacks on various scales since 2013. considering that hundreds of brits have traveled to the middle east to join islamic state, the relative safety to date is a credit to its intelligence services. that's the last line, the one i wanted to pick out to the credit to british intelligence services, something that i think people feel reassured about across the united kingdom and london as they do here in the united states. it's not through want of trying that the uk has suffered an attack in the last couple of years where continental european neighbors have. it's through the success of these security services that they've been thwarted. i suppose yesterday could have been worse. our thoughts and prayers remain with those people who suffered from it. credit to the security servers.

>> my pick is in the "washington post." penned by elizabeth warren, the democratic senator from massachusetts. joe donnelly, the democratic senator from indiana. it's titled trump's s.e.c. chairman must look out for american families not big corporations. american families need an s.e.c. chairman who will watch out for their interests, not short-term corporate profits. that's why we'll be asking clayton about his willingness to be more vigilant and increase oversight of stock buybacks. we also want to know if clayton will be willing to help investors identify companies that choose to invest in the united states economy and american workers. of course he appears today before the senate banking committee on his nomination. elizabeth warren is asking for more transparency for companies and where they're investing overseas, she's been an outspoken defender of the american middle class and wanting more accountability on wall street. >> i read this as well. i strongly disagree with the

arguments that senator warren and donnelly make in this. they also cite utx saying they are still moving a net amount of 1300 jobs abroad despite continuing to pay buybacks. the writers of this argue that's short-termism for share price moves as opposed to benefiting the underlying economy. you can't make a direct link between capital decisions and operational decisions that management make. also to force a decision like this on a economy and frame it as benefiting the long-term hopes of an economy is misleading. you can be redistributive if you want on the other end through tax rates and things like that, but a lot of their arguments are misleading, i found. got to push back on senators warren and donnelly for that particular op-ed. we're approaching the top of the hour that means it's getting close to time for "squawk box." becky quick joins us. >> we have a lot of things going

on today. you've been covering the news, what's happening. we'll be looking to london to see the latest on what's happening with that incredibly unfortunate attack that was there yesterday. we have some guests on to talk about that. and "d" day here for what happens with the healthcare reform act. we'll count down to this vote today to see whether or not the republicans actually have the number they need to get this passed, what the reaction on wall street will be if they do or don't. that's what the markets have been keying on so closely. we'll talk to luke messer, a republican from indiana, and republican ted yoho from florida. we'll see if they can get the 22 voters, republicans who may or may not go along with the caucus on this. we have market guests here today to talk about the fallout from that if it doesn't look like they have the votes or if thing also rally if they do get the votes. we will talk to ann marie

slaughter, a former state department official who made headlines when she talked about you can't have it all ways. she will talk about a lot of different events unfolding, not just in london but where we see things with russia and our relationship in the world. all of that in just a few minutes. we'll see you at the top of the hour. >> look forward to that. >> thank you. up next, citi's chief economist will talk about the fed, policy and the impact on growth. stay tuned. say hello to at&t's best, unlimited da deal ever. it's a total game-changer. so now the whole family can binge, surf, shop, navigate, listen, game, stream and more. all without the hassle of worrying about overages... ...or running out of data.

it's less than $40 per line per month with 4 lines. and remember, it's at&t's best, unlimited data deal ever. so get at&t, get unlimited and get everyone more for less. 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. invest with confidence.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." joining us now is william buiter chief economist from citi. thank you very much for joining us. so many eyes have been on what the u.s. yield curve is doing. it's had a huge impact on equity markets. what's your take on where we go from here. has the flattening of the yield curve paused for now? >> well, it would be somewhat surprising if it stayed at

2.4 %. over the next ten years, we should certainly average the inflation target, which 2% for the pd inflate, 2.5 for the cpi would give us a real interest rate of zero over the next ten years. still extremely low and extremely flat. i would expect that especially if we don't get complete stalemate in washington today, and if there's some prospect of meaningful tax reform and fiscal stimulus, that we could see a bit more life on the long end of the yield curve. >> how important is it to see no stalemate, to see progress on the legislative front in washington whether it is just purely on repeal and replace of obamacare or some other measures that you mentioned in order for us to be optimistic about the reflation trade in the u.s.? >> clearly the administration has to deliver, right? the obamacare repeal is the

first real test of the ability to get things through congress. there have been problems in other fields getting things passed, of course, but the congress is the one that makes fiscal policy. so if -- if the house does not pass its share of the deal, then i think it would be a big setback because it would mean a lot of time probably spent trying to cobble something else together. and also it holds out prospects for agreement on something that in principle is just as controversial as repealing the affordable care act, that is tax reform. >> a lot of investors are eagerly looking at trade on the other hand, where you've seen president trump talking about tax reform, he's also talking about cracking down on trade. raising the prospects of tariffs

on german vehicles in the country, speculation about a border adjustment tax, and as we've seen protectionist movements sweeping around the world, we're talking about the process of the g20 abandoning its commitment to free trade, what impact will this have on growth? >> it is not a global phenomenon, it's a u.s. phenomenal and in europe, many emerging markets including china are keen to open up further. i think what the u.s. has made clear through the statements of president trump and his representatives is that they expect concessions on the trade side from countries that they view as taking one side of advantage against u.s. markets. i think this is more a negotiating stand. there will be individual

protectionist trade measures, but those were under president obama as well. >> we have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining us. that's it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is next.

good morning. it's the 11th hour for healthcare. republicans are scrambling to secure votes to pass their repeal and replace bill. we'll tell you how the whip count has changed in the last 12 hours. seems like there was some thawing late yesterday. british police making arrests this morning following yesterday's terror attacks. a live report from london straight ahead. and the futures are flat, but a speech by janet yellen and jobs data could turn things around in the next three hours.

there's a lot going on. it's thursday, march 23, 2017, "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew is off today. joining us for the hour, we have steve grasso, a fast money trader and cnbc analyst. welcome. >> thank you. pleasure. such an honor. >> great american. i watch you guys all the time. >> you are up extremely early. i don't know how you guys do this. what do you do, go to bed at:00 at night? >> don't laugh. yes. >> i came straight here. >> you egg me on at times. >> i do. i