good morning. closing out the first quarter. the dow on track for its first six-quarter win streak since 2006. breaking overnight, the president's former national security adviser, mike flynn, offering to testify on russia allegations in exchange for immunity. a live report on what it means for washington. and spacex nails is. elon musk's firm makes history with the launch of the first recycled rocket. it's friday, march 31, 2017, "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪

good morning. happy friday and welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm sara eisen. >> a quiet and reserved happy friday. >> yeah. >> happy friday! >> happy friday! tgif! >> good morning to you from me as well. i'm wilfred frost. >> i thought you were referring to the music, too. >> maybe the music lulled you into it. it's new music friday. we're not sure what that song is called. we'll find out. we'll give you the name later. let's get to the market action. >> the global market this morning after a mini rally on wall street yesterday, show you the futures board this morning and how it's shaping up on this final day of the quarter. a great one for global stocks. the wordow futures are lower th morning on the final trading day, down about 48 points. s&p down 5.5, nasdaq down 14.

the nasdaq outperformed everyone this month. the s&p went flat yesterday to higher in the trade. the dow still down for the month of march. as for the ten-year treasury note yield, ticking higher yesterday. bonds selling off. you saw that healthy financials, the industrials, that whole trump rally back on when yields started to tick above that 2.42 level where we sit this morning. >> the story for u.s. equities over the course of the week, they are higher, around about a percent. for the quarter certainly higher. for the month we have the dow in negative territory. the other two slightly positive. certainly a more lackluster end to the quarter than it began. a lot of mick data out of asia. japan's consumer price rising 0.2% in february in line with forecasts. household spending fell 3.8%, missing estimates. japan's february jobless claims declined to 2.8%, the lowest rate in two decades.

in china, official manufacturing pmi 51.8. services pmi stronger than expected, 55.1. looking at asian equities this morning. a soft end to the week, month and quarter. japan and hong kong down about 0.8%. in terms of sarah's comments of a strong quarter for global stocks, hong kong up about 10% for the quarter. up nicely for the month as well. nikkei less impressive, down slightly for the quarter. >> one of the few major markets down. >> so much of the softness in the dollar against the yen playing into that. looking at europe. german retail sales rose more than expected for february, but dropped for the year. and for the uk, q4 gdp grew at 1.9% year on year. european trade for you this morning. a little bit soft, but comes off the back of decent returns. europe is up week to date, month

to date, and quarter to date. the outlyer compared to the u.s. is the month to date performance. that's because they needed to play catch up. in terms of the overall quarter to date performance for europe, similar to the picture of the u.s. looking at about 5% of gains for the quarter, for the broader stoxx 600 index. showing you broad markets now. wti had a strong day again yesterday, which sent it above $50 a barrel. crude prices are down about a quarter percent. 50.22 is your trade on wti. brent at 52.75. we gained a bit of strength. towards the end of the quarter, that has been a rough one for crude. just looking at wti, which trades here, down 6.3% heading into today for the quarter. worst quarterly performance since back in 2015. as for the u.s. dollar, also not really joining the party this quarter. falling out of the trump rally. the dollar down almost 2% for the quarter heading into today.

as you can see, the euro's firmer, again against the dollar. trading right below 1.07. got higher than 1.08. >> bounced back, the dollar. as a whole, the dollar up nearly a percent. worth keeping that in mind given that it's fallen for the quarter before this and for the month coming into it. >> as for gold prices, on the flip side of the u.s. dollar, they've been firmer. and they're down this morning. about a quarter of 1%. we'll be watching gold. headingicy uncertainties. up about 8% for the quarter. breaks that two quarter losing streak. having the best quarter since 2016. >> the main takeaway, we've seen profit taking when we have the days of negativity, and everyone gets worried, when you look at it for the quarter, a short-term time frame, up 5%. the month flat, depending on had index you look at. none of this is terrifying

correction-type statistics. >> just a few percentage points away from record high stocks. >> still looks good. resilient at worst. >> fed speakers have been out in force this week. last night william dudley said interest rate hikes are appropriate to redutsz the risks of overheating. he argued that the federal funds rate remains unusually low. he believes fiscal policy is likely to become more stimulative but add there's is considerable uncertainty about the policies and their contribution to the economy. today we'll wrap up the trading week with a trio of economic reports. february personal income and spending out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. followed by march chicago pmi at 9:45. the final read on march consumer sentiment at 10:00 a.m. minneapolis fed president neel kashkari, james bullard will be speaking this morning. one earnings of note today, blackberry out before the opening bell. it's been a light week for

economic data. fed speak has really dominated and yet to make a big move in markets. clearly the fed has changed, shifted to a hawkish tone this quarter. opens up some uncertainty. will we see two more rate hikes or three for this year. the brexit talks are just beginning. plenty of uncertainty as to the economic impact that will be felt there. of course the trump agenda stalled this quarter when the healthcare bill failed. what does that mean for tax reform? what does that infrastructure? investors are optimistic. >> when you have the fed and political impact on bond markets, we're ending the quarter about 2.42% on the ten-year. it's not broken out of any range. 2.3, 2.6, it's been at that throughout the quarter. for all this banks soar one day and fall the other day, they have not broken out of that range. as you come back at it and look

at the end of the quarter to the beginning of the quarter, things don't look that worrying as far as correction type territory. basically where we were at the start. dollar come off a percent or so, but nothing too significant. >> you can always chalk that up to overseas action. >> does the hawkish tone of the fed focus on the bull market more than the politics. the president's former national security adviser, mike flynn, has told the senate intelligence committee he's willing to be interviewed about the trump campaign's possible ties to russia in turn for immunity. eamon javers has more. >> reporter: this is a worrisome development for the trump administration, because it raises the question of what exactly mike flynn might say when he goes and talks to the senate intelligence committee and when he talks to the fbi, if he ends up doing that. here's what we know as of right now. nbc news last night confirming that mike flynn has told the senate intelligence committee he will testify in exchange for

immunity for himself. the "wall street journal" is reporting that flynn made the same offer to the fbi. the "wall street journal" also reporting that so far no immunity deal has been granted. his lawyer put out this statement last night saying no reasonable person who has the benefit of advice from counsel would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution. of course the lawyer is right. in our system you're entitled to a defense, entitled to the presumption of innocence. this may not mean mike flynn has anything damaging to say. it might just mean that this is good, aggressive lawyering by his defense attorney. the problem for mike flynn is one of optics. that's not at all what he said last sec last september when he was talking about certain hillary clinton aides who received narrow immunity deals last year.

here's what he said on "meet the press" last year. >> five people around her have had been given immunity, including her former chief of staff. when you are given immunity, that means you probably have committed a crime. >> not sure if mike flynn still believes when you are given immunity you have committed a crime. that's the box he's in politically this morning. we'll say the to see if this deal comes through, and what, if anything, he has to say. >> how worried is the trump administration about this? was flynn's swift departure from the administration, was it an acrimonious one? does he feel hard done by that the administration didn't stand done by him longer and there's a risk he may throw the administration under the bus? >> absolutely. this was an accrimonious departure. he was accused of lying to the vice president of the united states, fired by the president of the united states, a president who values loyalty

above all things this was a difficult moment for this administration early on. now mike flynn is out there, feeling political pressure, feeling legal pressure, possibly feeling financial pressure. it's not clear what he'll do to earn a living going on. all of that stewing in mike flynn's mind as he knows whatever he knows about the trump campaign's coordination, if any, with the russians. that's a dangerous thing for the trump administration to have out there percolating. there's not a whole lot they can do about it. smaun spi sean spicer was very defensive this week with reporters about the russia story. one reporter said you guys have the russia thing moving along. he said we don't have russia, you have russia. he says this is an obsession about the press corps. >> that's the same line of questioning where he said something about russia salad

dressing. >> he said if the president has russian salad dressing tonight, you will say there's a connection between him and russia. >> so give us the next steps here. you're waiting to see if flynn gets immunized, and then waiting for the hearings? >> it's interesting to see the divergence. you have the house intelligence committee, that's the one with devin nunes as the chairman there. that seems to be sort of cracking up. they're having an investigation, but devin nunes is caught up in this whole story of whether or not he got documents from the white house and then pretended he didn't get them from the white house, released them back to the white house. that has become sort of a partisan story line. in the senate, you have richard burr, chairman of the senate intelligence committee working very well with mark warner, the top democrat on that committee. they held hearings yesterday which were fascinating but more

conte contextual, we'll see if that committee can bring forward from some key testimony. >> any reaction to our putin interview yesterday where geoff cutmore squarely got an answer from president putin on whether he intervened in the u.s. election. >> that was a fascinating moment. one of the things was that putin quoted the famous american presidential line, which was read my lips no new taxes when he was asked about geoff cutmore -- >> wrong president, right? >> right. he quoted reagan when it was george p.w. putin is probably a good enough student of history, when he refers to that, he was referring to maybe one of the most famous broken promises in history. if that's what you're relying on in terms of a denial of spying, i'm not sure what that was telling us. fabulous job of geoff cutmore going eyeball to eyeball with

putin. >> holding his on. >> that's not an easy thing to do. that's a career moment for him. that was very impressive stuff. >> we agree. thank you. eamon javers in washington. president trump expected to sign two executive orders today aimed at trade. one calls for a study of past trade agreements looking at whether they delivered on promised benefits. second order designed to improve the collection of financial penalties against other countries for dumping goods or illegally subsidizing companies. yesterday commerce secretary wilbur ross told cnbc that the trump administration wants to start the nafta renegotiation process before congress goes on its april recess. secretary ross will be joining "squawk box" again later this morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. secretary of state rex tillerson is in brussels today attending his first nato meeting. he is expected to press allies to step up defense spending. still to come here on

"worldwide exchange," spacex makes history with the launch of its first recycled rocket. the details of that coming up next when "worldwide exchange" returns. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ thanks for doing this, dad. so i thought it might be time to talk about a financial strategy. you mean pay him back? so let's start talking about your long-term goals. knowing your future is about more than just you. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

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about a half percent for the dow, 1% for the s&p, the nasdaq up about 1.5%. >> market moving news out of south africa. check out the rand, the country's currency, plunging overnight on track for the worst week since 2015, this as the country's president fired his finance minister along with eight other ministers. the currency move rand was one three performing eamericamergint currencies last year and this year. these political concerns have weighed on the country's assets at large. you're seeing a strong dollar, weak african rand. donald tusk says parallel talks on brexit and a future trade deal are not possible. tusk says talks will be difficult, confrontational, but promises the eu will not take a punitive approach.

it's an olive branch given out by donald tusk and the european council saying it's plausible this a future trade deal can be made during this two-year period. but significant progress has to be made on the brexit talks, sfrags te separation terms first. the olive branch was confirmation that the end of the two-year period could deliver for the uk what it wants, but overall the tone of the letter was firm. something that is a warning sign for about brits. the olive branch was that it is plausible today in the two years, a future trade agreement will be reached as well as separation terms. which is key for the markets. this is just posturing for both sides, laying out the plan and strategy ahead of the hard work. >> these are draft terms, which will be confirmed at a summit in a couple weeks. on the topic of europe an commerce, yesterday i sat down with the european union's chief antitrust cop. since taking her job her approach has been aggressive

cracking down on some of the world's largest companies including u.s. tech companies like apple and google for their business and tax practices. given the political environment in the u.s. with president trump taking an america-first approach when it comes to business, i asked her if they fears backlash for going after all these american firms from the new administration. here's what she said. >> we have an obligation to the european citizen to make sure that you as a consumer can enjoy the benefits of competition. europe is open for business, but obviously it's not a market open for misuse of dominant position, for cartels, tax evasion or any of the sort. what we wanted is an inviting market where you compete on the merits. >> you can catch my entire sitdown today at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, she has the case against apple, the two cases delivered this week, blocking

the london stock exchange, deutsche boerse a bit, and improving conditionally the dow/dupont chemical combination. a lot to get to with her. >> interesting she used the phrase open for business. that is now the big advertising phrase that the brits are using and london are using, despite leaving, britain is open for business. >> i asked if they blocked the deutsche bourse bid because they would be taxed in german, a lot of people did not like that, she said nothing to do with it. >> of course. spacex launched its first recycled rocket last night. the biggest leap in the company's effort to cut costs and speed up flights. the falcon 9 blasted off from the kennedy space center in florida, sending a commercial satellite into orbit. the booster, was separated from the rest of the rocket and

touched back down on a landing pad in the atlantic. this is the first of six planned launches for spacex this year involving recycled rockets. verizon -- we will skip that. we will do it after the break. financials outperforming all sectors in yesterday's session led by the banks. when we come back a deeper dive into what's driving the move higher yesterday but lower over the last month. stay tuned, you're watching "worldwide exchange." ready to help if you need it. it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. e*trade

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as we wrap up the end of the first quarter, wilfred has been looking at the banks. >> they've been front and center throughout the quarter. as we discovered late last year and early this quarter, when yields rise so do bank stocks. as we found out in march the opposite also holds true. january and february were fairly steady and positive for banks because yields were not falling. then in march a double whammy, yields fell across the curve and the curve flattened. this chart shows the strong correlation between the ten-year yield and the bank's index. at the same time as yields fall the twspread between the ten-ye and the two flattened. what about other factors that affected the bank price? the slipping of the trump legislative agenda a factor as for what it means for tax reform and dereg laulation a large amo

of deregulation can be achieved but appointments and tones. there's been less of a pickup of m&a, with it some luke warm investment banking commentary. that alongside less positive loan growth, which has reduced hopes for q1 earnings. on that note, the key things to watch in q2, earnings, fed rate hikes, regulatory appointments, most notably the fed vice chair of supervision and the publication of the wells fargo independent review in the sales practice scandal. yesterday's bounce in bank stocks flattering the month to date figures, quarter to date still strong. >> feels like of all those factors that you mentioned, on a day-to-day basis you can usually look to yields. >> absolutely. yesterday was a great example of that. we went from 2.38 to 2.42, banks bounced back significantly, making the figures look much better for the month.

march is the talking point. january and february was calm. march was the selloff. the ones that sold off most in march was goldman sachs and morgan stanley. no doubt as i already said that yield was a huge, huge factor throughout daily performance. but interesting that goldman sachs and morgan stanley the biggest underperformers in march. when we come back, the top stories and a round up of gobel m global markets. and rebuilding america could that bridge the divide between democrats and republicans? you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. you can't predict

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good morning. cloegz the ba closing the books on the quarter. the nasdaq leading the way. and the trump administration's trillion dollar plan on rebuilding america. a live report from washington coming up. and the top trending stories including a color being pulled from the crayon box. it's friday, march 31, 2017, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ good morning. welcome back to "worldwide exchange" on a friday on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> i'm wilfred frost. good morning to you from me as

well. we're starting off your friday with the latest song from the bleachers and lorde. it's called "don't take the money." >> new music friday. let's get to the market action. hopefully i can deliver this information correctly. we had about a third of a percent of gains yesterday, taking us into territory for gains for the week. the dow up about a half percent. s&p, 1%, nasdaq, 1.5%. futures down by 4 points for the s&p. the dow down 37. the nasdaq down 11 points. for the month, the dow remains in negative territory. the other two indexes slightly positive. for the quarter, all are up nicely, some 5% or so of gains. let's look at asian trade. we have got a bit of softness to round off the day, the week and

the quarter and the month. all of those coming on the same day today. hong kong, big gains for the quarter, up about 9%. japan down about a percent. the strengthening yen has played a part in softer returns for the japanese market. european trade for you, is soft as well today. but week to date, month to date, quarter to date positive for european markets. the outlyer compared to u.s. markets is the month to date performance where, of course, has been softer u.s. side. that's europe just playing catch up with the u.s. returns. for the quarter as a whole, similar gains, about 5% of gains for europe for the quarter. >> oil had a tough month and quarter. that's been a big story. down almost 78% for the month ad the quarter. wti yesterday had a big bounce taking it above $50 a barrel.

50.23 this morning. brent at 52.77. nat gas popping. the ten-year treasury note yield. back above the 2.40 level. that's helped out the bank stocks in yesterday's session. we saw yields ticking higher, but overall muted action within a range. towards the lower end of the range for treasuries versus what we saw for instance after the election where yields popped higher initially on this reflation trump rally. >> last friday we ended out at 2.40. for the week as a whole, we are nicely higher on yields. that playing into that bounce in bank stocks yesterday. >> let's show you the tlar, which had a rough quarter as well. interesting to see oil down, dollar down and stocks higher for the quarter. the euro is firmer this morning, just fractionally here. as for dollar/yen, that's a big story. that's where we saw weakness in yen strength. that's why the japanese stock market ended the quarter in the

red. dla the dollar down almost 2% for the quarter. that was the worst quarter in a year for the green back. as for gold, had a strong three months. gold firmer on the back of dollar weakness. and it is at 12.44 right now an ounce. business and commerce front and center in washington. president trump is expected to sign two executive order the today aimed at trade. his administration plans to unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan later this year. that takes us to a special series on cnbc today, we're calling it rebuilding america. there are deep divisions between democrats and washington these days, but frix might be able to bridge that gap. some have been skeee skeptical rebuilding bridges and roads, so democrats will be needed.

peter defazio from oregon is a key ranking member of the transportation committee and the exact type of democrat that the president is trying to court. he comes from a district split nearly down the middle during the presidential election, and he said he could see himself working with donald trump. >> if you want real investment i can deliver almost all the democrats, but you have to roll the republican leadership who are opposed, but rank and file republicans will support the investment, but you have to get past the speaker who doesn't believe public infrastructure th should have public investment. >> defazio wants federal money from the projects to make sure they don't get abandoned if investors don't turn a profit. but the amount of financing will be a sticking point. we know that president trump wants to promote private investment. he will unveil a more detailed plan this summer.

we'll find out more yesterday. >> we expect a big proportion of this to be federal dollars, or a big part of this to be spending from the u.s. government. the question of how much is key to see whether democrats are on board. turning to trade, it will be a big story today. president trump tweeting last night, ahead of the meeting with president xi next week on the trade issue, the meeting next week with china will be very difficult, we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. we wonder how fuf tough he will on china and trade. >> the white house is expected to sign two executive orders later today. one of them, it would be a broad review of countries with which the united states has a trade deficit, china being the biggest one. the administration officials who spoke to us about this told us that this is not just about

china. this is really about looking at any potential trade abuses from any country in which we may have a trade imbalance. >> trade abuses is one thing, but trade deficits, that's where the economists and investors say maybe not the best way to judge how much we're losing jobs. >> theater. ththat's right. this administration feels that's part of the reason why we have such a trade imbalance with mexico, japan, because of inappropriate actions or as the official said in a call to reporters, bad behavior. is this bad behavior something they're willing to crack down on, something that might come up during that meeting next week with president xi? we'll have to see. but there's an effort to lay the ground work, the analytical ground work for what some of those problems might be. >> ylan, what's the latest in terms of possible time frame for renegotiation on the nafta side of trade things for the administration? >> the administration has begun

drafting a letter to congress that's required by law for them to send to lawmakers in order to kick off that 90-day countdown clock to the beginning of negotiations. so, once they send that letter which could come in the next few weeks, they will then start having that timeline in order to begin negotiations, perhaps sometime late this summer. ylan mui, thanks for joining us on infrastructure and trade. more on that, the commerce secretary, wilbur ross will be joining "squawk box" later this morning. getting back to the markets on this last day of q1. joining us is brad mcmillan, chief investment officer from commonwealth financial network 679 how abo and how about this trump tweet, this meeting with china will be a difficult one, we can no longer have major trade deficits. does that worry you to see that kind of posturing ahead of this massive meeting with the world's two biggest economic

superpowers? >> not really. mr. trump presented himself as someone who wants to be tough, out there. this is more theater that i think the market is getting increasingly used to. i don't think the market will react to that. the meeting itself, we'll see what happens. this is normal theater. >> as for the trading relationships, china included, we're expected to get that executive order. commerce secretary ross telling closing bell yesterday that he wants to restart the negotiation with nafta before the april recess what you are looking for here? that's more than theater. they're going back to the trade agreements. >> that is more than theater, but at the same time, particularly with nafta, what we've seen so far is there's more smoke than fire. when you look at the change, is that are being bandied about, they're more minor than what would be anticipated by listening to mr. trump's rhetoric during the election. it will be a question of the

reality versus the expectations. the expectations are quite high. when you look at china, there is much more of a potential for disruption. that's why, as i say, we'll have to see what comes out of the meeting. at the end of the day, we do have leverage with china, but not as much as most people think. >> if you take away the trade issues, brad n terms of what's happening, not just in china but around the rest of the world, is the story of this quarter a resoundingly positive one of improvement? >>. >> it is. we had a wonderful quarter. this is the first synchronized expansion we've had since the fichbl c financial crisis. globally conditions are better than they have been. that seems to be giving us a mutually reinforcing cycle. this could be the start of continued improvement. this has been missing in most of the past false starts. we could be getting there this time. >> it sounds like you're not too

worried about trade. ylan outlined some infrastructure plans and sticking points. is that a workable sort of investment thesis for you, but have caterpillar and deere already had their run. >> when you look at what we need to be paying attention to, infrastructure, there's a lot of talk about it. there's a lot of talk out of washington, d.c., that points to the real issue, politics versus economics. when you look at politics, there are a lot of potential opportunities, but it's an open question whether they will come through. what we're doing at commonwealth, we're continuing to play off of the strong economy. consumers are doing better. job growth continues. you know, these are the procyclical opportunities that we think you should be paying attention to. not so much politically related opportunities. >> brad, the yield curve has had such a big impact on stocks over the courts se of this quarter, including the bank sector.

what is your expectation of drives that in the second quarter? is it political led or can the fed hawkishly come back. >> if you look at the mix of the voters on the fed, i think it's going to be the fed that drives it. if you look at the mix of the voters, they're more dovish overall than people think. the overall mix is fairly hawkish, but the voters are fairly dovish. that said, the pressure is building. the inflationary expectations are getting stronger. wage growth is picking up, and you're hearing more and more talk of faster rate rises. the fed in the past has historically always gotten behind the curve and then hustled to catch up. that's what i see happening. the dovishness of the fed fighting against the need to act. and i think the dovishness will lose. >> brad, thank you very much for joining us. key theme there's for the

market for q2. top trending stories. crayola is retiring the dandelion color from the classic 24-count crayon box set. the company announced the news a day earlier than expected with a video posted on twitter. dandelion is the first color to be pulled from the box in its 1 00 ye1 100-year history. >> at least they're replacing it. i was thinking 23 is an odd number. >> crayons makes people nostalgic. >> big time. >> nostalgic for the terrible drawings that i pulled together. >> even the smell. >> the smell. yeah. they're good fun. you scribble and make crosses, then your parents tell i hyou h wonderful you are. britain's oldest man is celebrating his 109th birthday this week. while declining a card from the

queen. robert waton says his reason for not accepting was simple, he already had too many. this is because brits receive a card from the queen when they turn 100 years old and get one every birthday from then. he felt there was no point in having a whole row of them. he did say i accepted one from her two years ago because it's the only one i've seen she was smiling on. on the rest of the cards she looked misrablt on while performing duties. >> this reminds me of an episode of "the crown." she'll have to start sending those letters soon. >> she would have had to do that if anyone turned 100 back then. i suppose the age expectancies weren't as high. >> she's writing more letters today. >> happy birthday to you, sir. 109. when we come back, q1 by the numbers. some stats you'll need to see to believe as we wrap up the

quarter today and look ahead to the next quarter. first, a check of where european stocks are trading at this hour. in the red, germany faring the best. ftse 100 in the uk down almost a half percent. france down a quarter of a percent. the euro is firmer.

today is the final trading day of the month. landon dowdy has more on the market winners and losers. good morning. >> good friday morning.

the major indices posting a nice rally thanks to the trump trade as we wrap up the first quarter of 2017. the dow up about 5%. the s&p up about 5.7%. the nasdaq seeing a nearly 10% increase. here's a look at the q1 winners and losers. for the s&p, the information technology sector up about 12%. healthcare and consumer discretionary up about 8%. the top stock soaring 50%. and energy is the worst performing sector this quarter, down about 7%. telecom sliding about 4.5%. the worst performing stock, under armour tanking more than 30%. dow and apple the top performer in the dow. boeing and visa up about 14% each. the worst dow performers, mostly oil companies. chevron and exxonmobil down about 8%. guys, back over to you.

>> apple up 25% in the realize. still to come, matt jones u.s. head of equity strategy from jpmorgan will join us for his take on the trading day ahead. i love you, couch. you give us comfort. and we give you bare feet... ...backsweat and gordo's everything. i love you, but sometimes you stink. ♪ new febreze fabric refresher with odorclear technology...

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some headlines out of brussels, where secretary of state rex tillerson is joining his counterparts for a foreign secretary meeting of nato members. he's saying the united states will uphold its agreements it has made to defend its allies. secretary tillerson also saying nato allies should agree at the next meeting with all of the prime ministers and presidents that allies would have met financial pledges or will have to do so, or will have plans to do so. that's an important point for president trump. but assuring some allies that the u.s. is committed to ensuring nato has capabilities

to support a collective defense. we'll keep an eye on those headlines, very important after president trump has been kr critical of nato and some members for not allocating their 2% of gdp thresholds. >> and the timing of this meeting changed to meet secretary rex tillerson's only agenda. >> he wasn't going to go because of xi's visit. >> and all of nato singing to his tune to have him at the meeting. today we'll wrap up the trading week with a trio of economic reports. february personal income and spending out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. followed by march chicago pmi at 9:45. the final read on march consumer sentiment at 10:00 a.m. minneapolis fed president neel kashkari, james bullard will be speaking this morning. joining us to get ready for the day ahead, matt jones, head of u.s. equity strategy at jpmorgan private bank. thank you very much for joining us. i suppose as we round off this quarter, the statistics still are pretty impressive, about 5%

of gains for the dow and s&p throughout the first quarter, which kind of goes against some of the themes of the last couple of weeks of negativity. >> yeah. i'd say that. it's ban stroeen a strong quart. markets are resilient. they lock throuok through any te may be seeing, and stocks are hanging in there. we're looking forward to earnings season. earnings have responded well since the third quarter of last year and we expect the first quarter to be another strong earnings season. >> what are the expectations baked into the market when it comes to nexti earnings and the rest of the year and what your expectations are? >> consensus is around high single digit earnings growth for the quarter. when we look out for the year, we see 7%, 8% earnings growth, being supportive of the market going forward. a lot of eyes are look towards washington and some policies

that could play out over the next 12 months. we're focused on earnings, especially looking forward over the next week and a half. >> in terms of sector performance, clearly the banks have been very much in the spotlight over the course of the last six months, but the last month in particular, hat pullback in the month of march created a buying opportunity? >> we think so. there's been a lot of dispersion among sector ts in the market. banks have been highly correlated over the last several weeks as it relates to bond yields. bond yields have come in from around 2.60 on the ten-year to below 2.40. this week they've bounced back a bit. the banks are bouncing back with them. we think that's an excellent opportunity. banks are the most sensitive to the policies that we're looking for going forward. we expect at the private bank that the ten-year ends around 3% that will be a tailwind for

financials. when we look at things like capital return in the form of dividends, buybacks and the opportunity for tax reform down the road, there's an opportunity for nice upside to bank earnings going forward. >> what about the economic growth numbers? we've seen a tremendous rise in confidence, for consumers, ceos, home builders, that continues to build post-election and into the trump administration. what does it mean for the actual so-called hard economic numbers going forward next quarter and the year ahead and whether the market reacts to that. >> yeah. that's something that we're watching closely. obviously ceo and consumer confidence and even investor optimism is really improving this year. especially since the election. we want to see that hard data play through. we have the pmis next week. employment data has been strong. we expect that to continue at a meaningful pace. we're watching for that to translate into earnings. as long as you get that earnings support continuing to move

forward in the market, we think we're constructive on u.s. equity markets going forward. that's something we're watching closely. we want to see that translate into earnings growth. >> how does that stack up in terms of attractiveness to international equities now? >> that's a great question. we have pivoted towards europe. we're seeing the opportunity for europe to be a real out-performer going forward. there's some event risk going forward with the french elections, but economic data is responding very well. for the first time in a while we're seeing earnings respond. they had a strong earnings season. we raised our earnings estimates in europe, and we're very positive on european equities now. >> matt, great stuff. thanks for joining us. matt maujones joining us. >> 20 seconds left. chart of the month? >> the mexican peso, strong comeback to the dollar.

>> mine is ten-year yield. >> have a good weekend. >> that's it for "worldwide exchange."

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good morning. it's a final trading day of the first quarter. the dow is on track for its first six-quarter winning streak that goes back to 2006. a full market rundown straight ahead. breaking overnight, the president's former national security adviser mike flynn offers to testify on russia in exchange for immunity. that's in the "wall street journal." semantics, i think that's basically true. and rebuilding america, cnbc's coverage of president trump's infrastructure plan and the stocks poised to benefit from the pledged trillion dollars of spending.

i believe that's a thousand billion dollars. friday, march 31, 2017. tomorrow is april 1st, april fools' day, "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning. welcome to "squawk box." we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew is off today. sitting in with us is joe terranova. good morning. >> beckgood morning, becky. good morning, joe. >> you have that high and tight today?