good morning. u.s. equity futures in the red pointing to a third straight session of losses. trump's town hall. the president plans to meet with some of the biggest names in business today. we'll tell you what's on the agenda. and the tar heels take the title. the highlights of the ncaa championship game coming up. it's tuesday, april 44, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning. a warm welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm will little.

>> i'm a little bleary eyed today. i stayed up and watched the game. >> i'm just tired because it's a tuesday. congratulations to our landon dowdy and kayla tausche. i imagine we'll get a great hit from landon later. she may be suffering in a similar way. futures as i said pointing slightly lower at this hour. comes off a day of delclines yesterday, but fractional declines. quite resilient again when we come to the ten-year note. futures for you today, as you can see, the dow called lower by 51 points, the s&p by 5, nasdaq by 12 points. let's look at the ten-year treasury note. as i said, yesterday's slight declines fairly resilient given that yields slipped again. we've been in and around the 2.4 level. now we're much closer to the 2.3 level than 2.4.

2.33. yields slipping yesterday. also the two-year slipping across the curve. but we did not see that selloff in markets that we've seen correlated when yields have fallen in recent days and weeks. >> let's show you the action in the asian pacific markets. japan's nikkei falling close to 1 % on the back of u.s. dollar strength. also yen strength and dollar weakness versus the japanese currency. as for europe, i'll guess we'll let you check in on that. >> yen strong, nikkei down. pound is weak, ftse is strong. albeit the ftse had been up 0.6%. that's slipped in the last half an hour or so as we have uk construction pmi data that came in 52.2 expected. at 52.5. another soft reading on the uk

economy. the manufacturing pmi that came out yesterday was the stand-out weak reading versus the rest of continental europe. looking at those uk data and eurozone february retail sales also hit. plus 0.7 % month on month and 0.8% year over year. the picture in europe is better than yesterday, though wall street was resilient yesterday, europe was down a half percent. today almost green across the screen. address fchecking in on com oil, wti breaking a four-day winning streak yesterday. brent, second negative session in a row. both down 0.3%. the u.s. dollar having an impact. the usd five positive sessions in a row. maybe we're back to u.s. dollar strength. gold also seeing a second positive session in a row as well. gold is coming off a quarter where they broke a two quarter losing streak. >> the dollar interesting to

point out given that, "a," we said equities resilient in the face of falling yields. those correlations have been holding true of late. not really over the course of the last three or four trading sessions. moving on to the wall street agenda, february trade deficit figures are out at 8:30 a.m. trade deficit figures never used to be that important, but more important under the trum agep agenda. more important this week with the visit of xi jinping. that is followed by february factory orders. daniel tarui ushgstarullo speak afternoon. he's stepping down from the fed tomorrow this is his outgoing speech. it will be interesting to watch. albeit his stepping down creates

a vacancy of who will oversee more of the federal relation types to the fed. that makes the appointment of vice president of supervision more important. >> harker making an interesting note yesterday, shifting the view and focus to the balance sheets, instead of talking about interest rates and how many hikes we'll see. the white house taking steps to hash out a compromise on the healthcare plan. vice president mike pence, he'll -- he did meet with moderate republicans at the white house last night and headed to capitol hill to meet with members of the conservative freedom caucus. the trump administration is trying to find a compromise on insurance regulations. president trump telling nbc news that he thinks the best way to finish the bill is to reach consensus with republicans rather than working across the aisle and with democrats. on the washington agenda president trump plans to hold a town hall meeting with about 50 corporate leaders to talk about ways to improve the business

climate. among those expected to attend, the ceos of jetblue, mastercard and the new york stock exchange. emphases will be on infrastructure, modernizing government and creating a pro business climate. amongst that, we have brian moynihan, the bank of america ceo speaking in washington at an event about lunch time. jamie dimon later. so quite a lot of commentary to come today. >> looking forward to that jamie dimon investor letter later on to see his views on what's happening in the markets. >> always something to watch. i would say up there with the warren buffett annual letter. people focus on this for the sector. it's due at around 11:30 a.m. >> you might get a bit beforehand. on capitol hill, the senate is setting itself up on a collision course. democrats assembled enough votes to filibuster the supreme court nomination of judge neil gorsuch. the question is whether or not

republicans follow through on plans for the so-called nuclear option. the move is a last resort that involves changing the senate rules so that a nominee can be confirmed with a simple majority of 51 votes instead of 60 votes required. if you change the rules for one candidate? what about the future for future candidates? >> it's a big political talking point. i think it's less important for markets. clearly the appointment of a supreme court judge has less effect on the markets than a tax cut bill, but more importantly the investor sentiment towards realizing that trump is not always going to get his own way is congress has already been priced in by the failure of the repeal and replace of obamacare. it's an interesting political talking point. i don't think it has much market impact. >> from a market perspective, yes. but as an american citizen living in america with the

interpretation of the constitution and laws, it's a being deal. to today's corporate news, verizon announcing a new name brand for the digital media division. landon dowdy joins us with the details. first of all, congratulations to the tar heels. >> thank you very much. hopefully you learned after two years of being in america, unc is the way to go. this year we pulled it out. >> i always knew that, i definitely know it now. >> you've bot aol ceo tim armstrong announcing aol and yahoo! will combine under one entity called oath. a billion plus consumers, 20 plus brands, unstoppable team, #take the oath summer 201. marissa mayer will not be continuing with the new company. it will be headed by arm stront

as oa armstrong. it's not clear if mayel wir wilt the $10 million severance pay she's owed. the settlement deal due to the hacking is supposed to close within the next month. verizon and yahoo! little changed this morning. >> oath. not so sure about that. >> take the oath. >> sounds like oof. >> all these acronyms get confusing. stick with one of the two names. i don't know. >> let's talk about landon and unc. was that color choice on purpose today? has to be. >> actually, i think this is duke blue. it's more of an anti-duke thing, pro unc thing. >> either way, you win. doesn't matter. thank you very much. on a programming note, aol's ceo tim armstrong will join "squawk box" today at 6:30 a.m. eastern time. take the oath. stocks to watch this

morning, kate spade reportedly wants more time to negotiate a potential sale after receiving an offer last week from coach. reuters says michael kors is still interested, but hasn't been pursuing an acquisition as actively as coach has. kate spade, as you see, down 10%. danone winning approval to buy whi whitewe've. they will sell stony field as part of this deal. and toshiba meeting with creditor banks to ask for loan support. the company wants the banks to accept shares in its memory hip unit being split off and other businesses as collateral and not call in the loans. toshiba in a lot of trouble, down 9%. again, the future in doubt. will they be listed as an entity on the tokyo stock exchange. watching shares of tesla.

electric carmaker saw its stock rise by 7% in yesterday's session, pushing the market value above ford's. the big automakers came under mre pressure on disappointing market pressures yesterday. shares of paratek pharmaceuticals soaring. the drugmaker announcing positive results in a late stage study of an antibiotic. and boeing signed a deal with an iranian for 37 737 max aircraft for an undisclosed price. shares of boeing are up 40% over the past year. they have been soft over the past month, but flat this morning. still to come on the program, a round up of the corporate stories including aig now looking for a new ceo. as we head to break, check out the trading picture in europe. stay tuned, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. tools, right at your fingertips,

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so you'rhow nice.a party?

i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. let's go. i'm ready. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] [ tires screech ] hold on. [ upbeat music ] the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me watchathon. xfinity watchathon week! now until april 9. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just getting up, an update on the market action. asia is for the most part lower. apart from india which is up 0.7%. theresa may is currently in india announcing various investment -- sorry, the chancellor, fephilip hammond, g it wrong. theresa may is in the middle east at the moment. the rest of asia soft off the move lower in yields yesterday.

in particular currencies are impacting global stocks right now. the nikkei is off 0.9% because the yen is higher. if we switch to europe, you'll see that the ftse 100 is higher. that's largely because the pound is lower. the biggest mover of the european currencies this morning. the ftse was higher, up 0.6%. softened off uk construction pmi came in softer than expected. follows softer manufacturing pmi yesterday. both readings above the crucial 50 level, so in expansionary territory. germany soft. france fractionally positive coming off the back of a half percent of declines for europe yesterday. let's look at what the u.s. is doing now. u.s. equities were lower, but fractionally, in the light of a big move lower in yields. the ten-year above the 2.3 level. so we moved away from the 2.4 level. encouraging not to see equities sell off more meaningfully here.

this morning softness on the u.s. futures. the dow called lower by 54 points. the supply of debt in the u.s. municipal bond market fell nearly 10% in the first quarter. citi group was the top underr e underwriter. bank of america and merrill lynch was was second. jpmorgan was third. a report by the fed's watchdog says the central bank is inconsistent in how it monitors big banks and could make it more difficult toemergi. each of the 12 different banks have different guidance. the report questions whether the data collection that started after the financial crisis is necessary after banks are on more solid footing. something banks will concur

with, but in the moment no immediate changes in how the fed does the monitoring. the u.s. government that ordered wells fargo to rei state a former bank manager fired after reporting potential fraud at the company. soal safety and health administration says wells must pay up 4$4.5 million in bak wages and legal fees. the manager was forced to leave in 2010 after telling supervisors and superiors that he expected two subordinates of bank, mail and wire fraud. the decision is not related back to the wells fargo account scandal. this is an individual case. general motors ceo mary bar ra barra's salary dropped last year. her total compensation for 2016 was 22$22.6 million, down from 28$28.5 million a year earlier.

aig is looking for a new ceo. the board of directors says they are actively engaged in a search for a new leader. in a letter to shareholders, the nonexecutive chairman says the board believes strongly that they are on the right strategic path after the former ceo, peter hancock, resigned from the insurance conglomerate following a major setback in his turnaround plan. apple's industrial design group is losing another veteran member. christopher stringer is leaving the company after 21 years. his exit follows others including danny costa who left after two decades to join gopro last year. >> i'm willing to bet that compensation packages are very good at apple. >> i think so. big designers, very sdef ideser

if you went to bed early. we have the highlights from the ncaa championship game. find out how the tar heels won their sixth national title. first here's today's national forecast from the weather channel's jen carfagno. it's raining hard in new york, i can tell you that. good tuesday morning. we have another busy day ramping up especially into the afternoon and into the evening. so we have rain in the northeast. some snow actually in parts of maine today. it's wendy, cold, rainy day for boston. could be some snow up in parts of maine. we go to the next round of severe weather. this gets going. at the same time snow in the colorado rockies. some snow in denver, it will be piling up in the mountains. up over a foot of snow there. severe weather tomorrow as well. out ahead of that, the moisture as well as the heat returns. we have a lot of warm temperatures through the south and east.

87 in dallas. 82 in atlanta. 88 in miami. on the west coast, warming up again. 74 in los angeles. that's the coast to coast forecast. i'm meteorologist jen carfagno, "worldwide exchange" continues after this. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. you give us comfort. and we give you bare feet... i love you, couch. ...backsweat and gordo's everything. i love you, but sometimes you stink. ♪ new febreze fabric refresher with odorclear technology... ...cleans away odors like never before. because the things you love the most can stink.

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exchange." to politics, the fight to confirm the president's supreme court nominee neil gore such is on the verge of going nuclear. tracie potts joins us from washington with the story. good morning. we are talking about a couple of things happening in congress.

first, the fact that they are about to use that nuclear option, because it looks like enough democrats have lined up in order to prevent this vote from happening. so, they're going to have to lower the threshold. also on capitol hill, something we have not talked about in about a week and a half, healthcare. >> reporter: revived? after flat lining less than two weeks ago, the republican health plan may be coming back to life. >> good to see everybody. >> reporter: vice president pence led a late-night trip to capitol hill last night to pitch skeptical conservatives a compromise that allows states to opt out of obamacare mandates like covering maternity, mental health and emergencies and allow insurers to charge sick people more. >> we're encouraged by at least the idea, intrigued by the idea but need more information. >> reporter: the details

expected today with a possible vote this week. covering pre-existing conditions and young adults on their parents insurance would stay. not everyone likes that. >> we're approaching this strictly from a public policy standpoint. and i'm quite confident we can do much better with healthcare reform than we're doing. >> reporter: the compromise comes after an earlier meeting with septembkeptical moderate republicans and weekend golf diplomacy with rand paul, one of the loudest critics. >> i think the president made clear that he intends to work with anyone who wants to help him get to the number of votes. >> reporter: that number still in motion. and, in fact, if the vote happens this week, as they're hoping, lawmakers may end up voting blind a bit. the congressional budget office won't have time do the rescore, the assessment of what the healthcare plan with the changes would cost. >> thank you very much. tracie potts in d.c. some other news out of

washington, president trump signing a repeal of obama era broadband privacy rules. the rules never went into effect but they would have required broadband and wireless companies to get permission before sharing sensitive information about you such as your location, or the websites that you may have visited. moving on to sports, north carolina has erased the memory of last year's buzzer beating loss to villanova in the championship game. the tar heels pulled ahead with less than two minutes to go and topped gonzaga by 71-65 to win the national title. it's the sixth ncaa crown for the men's team and the third under hall of fame coach roy williams. congratulations to them. very exciting stuff. a bit late for us. a bit late for me. you stayed up. >> you have to stay up. i watched the whole tournament. seen my bracket blown up. might as well watch the pinnacle of it. congratulations to the tar heels, they said this is a redemption year for them after

losing last year. 8-0 run to cap off the game. let's get to other sports news. i don't get this. the national hockey league, they will not be sending their players to the winter olympics in south korea next year. the nhl announcing the decision yesterday in response to owners who had unhappy the league shuts down two weeks during the games so players can take part. the nhl player's union says it is short-sighted and some individual players say they plan on going to the olympics regardless of the decision. so canada versus the u.s., usually that's the last few olympics, that's been the penultimate game. if you don't have the nhl -ers n there. it's not worth watching. >> either way, as we were discussing -- >> if an nhl-er doesn't go what

about the nba? the professional athletes? >> it comes to a bigger point we discussed during the summer olympics, if being the olympics for a sport is not the pinnacle of that sport, it shouldn't be included in the olympics. it lessens the idea of the olympics, same for soccer, tennis, golf, the like. they shouldn't be included this is a prime example of why hockey shouldn't be included. >> i think all sports should be represented, especially if you are representing your company. but let everybody play. >> they're not the best in the world. that's the whole point. it diminishes the idea of the olympics. in soccer, you don't even have the real professionals playing. >> in the nba, you have the best players. >> nhl players are not going. >> right. we are being told we have to go to break. we'll discuss this off-camera and not bore you with it anymore. how coca-cola is using

warren buffett to make a splash chin in china. and we'll have frank lavin joining us next.

good morning. u.s. equity futures pointing to a lower opening on wall street. today's test. investors will be watching today's trade ahead of the big

trump/xi meeting. plus preserving tweets. why the white house is being instrung i instructed to archive all of the president's posts, even the ones he's deleted. that's coming up on this tuesday, april 4, 2017 on cnbc. ♪ good morning. a warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. i'm will little. >> i'm susan li in for sara eisen today. >> great to have you with us. let's get straight to the global market action. we are called lower off the back of slight declines yesterday. fractional declines they were. you could say they were fairly resilient in light of the slipping yields. ten-year above 2.3, as opposed to being just above 2.4. it seems to be manifesting itself in weakness this morning. the dow lower by 50 points. s&p by 5.6. nasdaq by 14. a quarter of a percent as we

look at things at the moment. asian trade has been a little soft this morning. we have hong kong and china closed. but the likes of the nikkei in japan down somewhere close to 1%. we have the trade coming up for you. the nikkei down 0.9%. that comes in light of a stronger yen. that's the explanation for why that's weaker. having a problem with our boards in a moment. here it comes. asian trade down 0.9%. nikkei in light of a vonger yen. india is up. softness across the region, hong kong and china closed. european trade, ftse 100 outperforming. up 0.2%. in light of a softer pound. we have lost a bit of steam in european trade over the last half hour. we had only germany in the red and bigger gains for the uk.

now only the uk in the green. slight declines for continental europe. oil pricing, west texas and brent crude seeing declines. wti breaking a four-day winning streak yesterday. the brent also breaking a two-day winning streak. now as for the ten-year note, we've been talking about the yields were dipping further and further lower and lower. 232 basis points. that's down from the 240 that we ended the week last week. a flattening yeield curve which does not point to stronger growth in the future. as for the u.s. dollar, the u.s. dollar index has been positive for five sessions in a row. but did give back versus the yen yesterday. as you see, looking at some small declines across the board. then gold prices, seeing if we can check in on that. breaking that losing streak last quarter. >> though the dollar stronger against the euro and the pound

today. now to today's wall street agenda, including a pair of economic reports. february trade deficit numbers out at 8:30 a.m. eastern, followed by orders at 10:00 a.m. daniel tarulla speaking this afternoon. stepping down from the fed tomorrow. to a farewell speech today. on the washington agenda, president trump plans to hold a town hall meeting with about 50 corporate leaders to talk about ways to improve the business climate. among those expected to attend, the ceos of citi group, blackstone, jetblue, mastercard and the new york stock exchange. the focus will be sfr infrastructure, modernizing the government, and a pro business climate. the highlights this week will be the u.s./china relationship and the meeting between president trump and xi jinping in

mar-a-lago , florida later this week. joining us from washington, frank lavin, export now ceo, and former commerce secretary under george w. bush. good to see you. let's talk about chinese president xi jinping and president trump and their meeting. you're versed in the chinese diplomacy lex islexicon. how important are optics? >> these are the two strongest militaries in the world and the singular relationship in the world where the primary dynamics are not defined. china is a rising power, trump is new to office, he has a set of issues important to him. the tone and tenor and chemistry will be important to establish a working relationship between these two countries. >> over the weekend in an interview with "the financial times," the president said the incentive for china to do business with the u.s. is trade.

trade is something that the u.s. has some ground to work with with china. is that something president xi will agree with? will he come over and ultimately realized that president trump has some ground to make up in that area and some rhetoric he's been arguing about on the campaign and since is fair? >> well, i think there's at least two levels of analysis here. one is how valid are the u.s. concerns? to my mind, there's a lot of validity to them. there are clearly barriers on the chinese side to certain industries like autos. overproduction in certain industries like steel that causes dumping in the united states and price suppression. to my mind there's valid concerns. that's one level of analysis. the other is political. regardless of how fair or unfair you think the allegations might be, there's a political constituency in the united states that propelled president trump into office that's concerned about these issues. it behooves all parties to take

them seriously and come up with steps to solve them. there's a bit of a spotlight on president xi to say what ideas do you have to make china more open, the trade environment more level so u.s. industries have that chance to compete in the chinese market. >> once you were the lead negotiator for trade in china under the commerce department. it's interesting that president trump is trying to will china into helping the u.s. or north korea through trade. is that a lever he can pull? >> i suspect he will be better off if he has horses for courses. so keep all the trade issues in their lane and keep these important korean issues in the korean lane. but there are strong reasons why it's in china's interest to see improvement in north korea as well as in the u.s. interest. so there's a convergence of views, some what of an alignment there. and i think on the strategic merits, china has an incentive

to get its game up and be more constructive with north korea. just to zero in on trade, we spoke to the current u.s. commerce secretary, wilbur ross last week, he said we are already in a trade war. do you agree? >> i would say this, there's an enormous amount of unhappiness in the u.s. and u.s. leadership on where we stand on trade. it's not a tit-for-tat going on or people deliberately trying to have trade relation deteriorate, but there's an enormous undercurrent of dissatisfaction in the u.s., and that could easily translate into political steps. we're getting near the edge of the cliff, but i don't think we're there. i don't think we're in an active trade war at this moment. >> what about currency? you and i are aware that strictly speaking china is a currency manipulator. they have a fixed currency peg. if that was allowed to free float, the currency, the yuan would get weaker and further

hurt the competitive argument between exports of the two nations. so what's likely to be discussed there? and should president trump be pushing them for a free-flowing currency? >> i think the currency came up as a rhetorical point in some campaign rallies for president trump last year. as we got closer to the meeting and into the presidency this year, we saw that issue fade as a cited reference for the reasons you articulated. it does not really contribute to unfair chinese ek ports. i don't think it's an issue front and center. i don't think it will come up in a significant way at mar-a-lago . >> thanks for joining us. warren buffett is the face of cherry coke in china. it's a drink he has daily and claims is his secret to staying young. the ceo of coca-cola saying i

can't think of a better way to launch cherry coke than with its best known fan on the package. berkshire hathaway is coke's largest institutional hair shoulder. lo shareholder. how good is it that mr. buffett in his 0s c80s can be used as a advertising tool. and i'm surprised cherry coke had not launched yet in china. >> when they asked warren, they were surprised he agreed to it he's a great advertisement for health and vibrancvibrancy. >> he is also a great ambassador for all of his brands, as to the point of accepting the offer, he loves getting involved. good to see. watch out, alec baldwin. come by central is launching the president show. that's right. so, they're going to have a weekly late night series star

starring a comedian acting as president trump. it will start april 27th at 11:00 p.m. you can bet vp mike pence will make appearance every night. >> we'll see if this one ruffles the feathers as alec baldwin's portrayal. certainly that annoyed president trump. now another high profile example of satirical takes. >> some pretty high standards. >> i have not seen this guy before, have you? >> i have not. >> so it's a daily show. lots of material. the national archives and records administration tuelling the white house to keep each of the president's tweets, even those that he deletes. the presidential records act requires this correspondence to

be preserved. i think that's a good thing. we all occasionally make a mistake on a tweet, you want to delete, come back. i think the president should be held to account. >> this is like film. it's there forever. >> yeah. >> in the national archives. >> we knew that any way, whether we're tweeting or e-mailing or anything. everyone should be held to the same standards. >> the main takeaway, it won't be held at a private server, it will be at the national archives. still to come, the must-reads, first where european markets are trading. we've slipped in the last hour or so. just the ftse 100 holding on to gains. about a third of percent. france and germany soft. stay tuned. we're back in a couple minutes. i love you, couch.

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welcome back. time for our must-reads. my pick is in "the financial times," she will be thinking of home on his florida trip. mr. xi will have to tread carefully. he knows the charismatic businessman who became president partly by appealing to the nationalism of americans could make life difficult for the communist party if he manages to

churn chinese nationalists against their tough talking leaders. it says xi's biggest threat is a massive anti-american protest back home in china if it is seen as if president xi fails to stand up against donald trump. so he will talk the soft issues, not the hard issues on this trip. the risk for down side is higher than the risk for upside. >> and it is a lot how he was introduced to president obama in 2013 in california, another nice, sunny, tropical climate. a casual meeting. bilateral meeting. taking walks across the golf course, on the lawns. i think mar-a-lago will be similar to that. >> that's interesting. the other thing that comes to mind, the tone is so different from when there was a state visit to london in 2013, where this was such a pro-globe world a couple years back. and it was all about chinese investment into the uk and how these would be great partners.

the tone on this one is can we avoid being enemies. that's an interesting change in the footing in the world we've had. >> just getting to know each other. this time xi will be the experienced one and donald trump newly elected. my pick is in the "wall street journal," a world unsafe for democracy. brett stevens writing that the global erosion of political lebity leb i liberty is taking place in democracy. people are losing faith in freedoms that no longer produce a richer, safer, fuller life and in some cases long-term political polarization leads to ineffectual governance. the reason this was written is this week marks the 100th anniversary of woodrow wilson and his approach and the announcement that the u.s. will participate in world war i. he vowed that the u.s. must be safe for democracy. so this piece, 100 years on,

looks at how democracies are faring. we're approaching the top of the hour. the team is getting ready for "squawk box." joe kernen has a look at what's coming up. >> the final four is over. brian steele won the pool. >> did he win it? >> i came in second. if we have a team, do you play at all? >> i don't. i've been asked before whether i can dunk. i don't think i can. i'm not sure about the jumping part of it. >> the guy at gonzaga, a lot of times these guys, they may not play, but they're seven feet tall, they learn how to play. you are willing to do that for the cnbc team if we -- >> you know i am, joe. i'm 100% team committed. >> we're loaded with guards. we have faber, scott wapner. we have more guards -- we have a lot of guards. i can't play for a damn, so -- >> i promise total commitment.

i don't promise total quality. i don't have high hopes for myself. >> we have more guards than -- we can field a whole team of guards. you know what's coming up now -- i forgot completely. you forgot yesterday. you know the masters, you remember who won last year? from sheffield, dude. >> i floated the idea that a brit could fight your great american golfers. >> danny willet won last year, then had a rough go of it. i digress. today we have andy puz nner. what would it be like to be in the cabinet? what do friends say to you? he has a lot of comments on $15 men m minimum wage, and we may talk about some ads that carl's jr. used to run. we have senator bob corker on.

a lot emanating out of washington. and these guys are insisting, gorsu gorsuch, gorsuch by friday, one way or another. we'll see whether any of that effects the markets, which look weak. >> they are soft this morning coming off weakness in asia and europe. we look forward to "squawk box" ten minutes away. still to come on "worldwide exchange," we'll get you ready for the trading day next. coming up, savita subramanian. she looks years younger than she should.

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but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures pointing lower by a quarter of a percent. 50 points for the dow. improved a bit in the last few minutes. 42 points now for the dow. joining us is savita subramanian, head of u.s. equity strategy at bank of america merrill lynch. yesterday we saw quite a slipping in yields, the ten-year

near 2.3%. it didn't derail markets. if you look at yields, we ended broadly flat instead of slipping. is that encouraging for u.s. equities? >> i think we're moving away from an environment where the yield, like the ten-year yield is the most important watch point for the market. and i guess what it feels like to me, from looking at the data, looking at earnings season, is that we're moving into a more normal market driven by earnings, sales expectations rather than what are bond yields are doing, which is kind of a relief. that's a more normal market environment. so, you know, i think the fact that stocks have decoupled from yields, or yields are no longer explaining every move you see in the equity market is a positive. it suggests we are in a more normal environment. >> yeah, whatever that means. savita, you said that reality is good, but stocks are pricing in

great. so does that mean we're at expensive levels? >> so, you know, that's the sticking point. when you look at any valuation measure, stocks don't look cheap. they did two, three years ago. that's the one kind of framework that makes everybody worried, that the market looks expensive. if we don't see a massive earnings surprise this market run might not be sustainable. my point is it never feels good to buy in the late stages of a bull market. so think about how it felt to buy stocks at the beginning of 1999. you kind of didn't want to. because stocks looked expensive. leverage ratios were high. you knew there was a bubble in the tech sector. but you still really wanted to be in the market in that last kind of capitulation year. because that was one of the best years of that bull market cycle. >> that's right. >> that's where i see ourselves

today. >> last year people had the same mentality going into 2016, if you sat out you missed around 20%. >> exactly. that's right. so, you know, typically the last couple years of a bull market are strong. i think we might be closer to the end than the beginning obviously. but fundamentals generally are not a great predictor in that last year. in fact, it generally feels pretty gut wrenching to actually step in and buy stocks. i would also point out that you mentioned stocks look good. and they're pricing in great. stocks do look good. we're starting to see sales growth recover. starting to see earnings growth come in at levels that are more mid cycle rather than recessionary. those are the harbingers of potential further upside to stocks. i just worry if this euphoria, if this sort of -- the idea that stocks are the best place to be, if that continues with fervor for 250 much longer, it may be

close to time to get out. >> so those that don't have exposure yet and want to get in on the back end of this bull run what is the best way to do it? >> the sector i like the best for the long-term is financials. financials to me looks like a sector trapped in this penalty box for about ten years. think about it, the financial sector peaked in february of 2007, over ten years ago we saw the peak in financials. since then it's been doing this workout. it's been -- lots of companies went away. investors forgot about the sector, short on cash on balance sheets. it looks much healthier than five or ten years ago. and my sense is that over the next five years, if we have a friendlier administration, if we have rising interest rates, you know, kind of a more normal cycle finals could be the sector to own. >> we have to leave it there. thank you very much for that. that is it for "worldwide

exchange." thanks for joining us. have a great day. "squawk box" is coming up next. , , and a team of experienced traders 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 tha...oh, burnt-on gravy?ie. ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade.

good morning. u.s. equity futures in the red pointing to a third straight session of losses. a full market rundown straight ahead. verizon's plans for yahoo!. tim armstrong is here with details on the new entity called oath. that will be a first on cnbc. is it really the end of those two brand names, aol and yahoo!? the tar heels take the title. i think that's number six. the highlights of the dramatic ncaa championship game. i heard it was a good game. that's coming up. tuesday april 4, 2017. "squawk box" begins right now.

♪ we are the champions my friend ♪ >> live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everybody. 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 and andrew ross sorkin. u.s. equity futures have been under pressure after three down days in a row. the dow futures down by 40 points. s&p is off by 4 1/2. the nasdaq off by 12 1/2. in asia overnight, take a look. you'll see, in a moment, you'll see that the nasdaq -- the nikkei was down by 1%. the hang seng was higher. in south korea, the kospi was down by 0.3%. in europe in the early trading already, the markets are mixed. looks like the dax is down by