good morning. welcome, you're watching "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. a drovish mario draghi sends the euro lower as the ecb chief says there is no need to change the current policy path due to a lack of inflation evidence. >> inflation is not just converging towards our aim, but stabilizing around it. we would need to see signs of such pressures building, but so

far there's scant evidence of this. european equities open in negative territory after u.s. stocks post their largest one-day reversal in over a year as a more hawkish fed indicates it will start unwinding its balance sheet this year. unilever bucking the european trend announcing they will be selling their spreads business. >> the business has leading market shares in most of the markets in which we operate in, so i'm sure there will be a lot of interest. a series of polls sees french presidential front-runner emanuel macron lose ground to marine le pen after the television debate as his alleged lead in the first and second round narrows. good morning, everybody.

welcome. it's pretty red out there. >> it is pretty red. we saw that reversal in the u.s., based on what fed was saying about high valuations, also about reducing its balance sheet and then the comments from ryan about tax reform. >> seems we have more timing now, more timing with regards to the reduction of the balance sheet. when looking at european markets this morning, trading in negative territory across the board. every bourse out there is in the red. that's reflected on the main european equity markets. lower by a percentage point. a bit less with regard to the cac 40. with regard to the sectors, more red than green. one sector hanging on to slight gains. auto, banks, media leading the way lower. unilever is selling its spreads business and merging its foods and beverage units, this after kraft heinz faeiled

takeover bid in february. unilever said they were targeting an operating margin of 20% before restructuring in 2020. they also announced a 5 billion euro share buyback this year and raising the dividend by 12%. i asked the ceo if kraft-heinz would be a likely buyer for the spreads business. >> we are currently looking at the business to see what the full value of the business is. that's a process that will take us through the end of the year. i don't want to jump to conclusions at this point in time. it is obviously a business that has leading market shares in most of the markets in which we operate, a business that is very well minced. i'm sure there will be a lot of interested buyers in that. we attracted a majority of investors that like our long-term compounding business model. the 190% share older return that we've been seeing. those investors we're trying to listen to. there is a broad range of

investors out there with a broad range of opinions. the splitting of our food business from the rest of the business frankly would lead to dissynergies, and less opportunity of value creating. >> after that failed bid by heinz-kraft back in february, there was investor pressure about improving shareholder returns, about improving profitability, and my question to him was to what extent the strategic review was meaningful enough to please those investors who thought the company wasn't profitable enough and where unilever wanted to be in terms of the consolidation drive in the industry. >> unilever has always been a buyer, over the last eight years we moved our business up from 38 billion euros to 55 billion euros, part of that has been a 10 billion net m&a opportunity. last year we brought dollar shave club in the u.s., blue air purification company in china,

sevens generation, household cleaning products more sustainable for the future and living proof premium hair care bre brand. we also divested our soy brand beverages. so we always looked at opportunities to position our portfolio for growth sectors of the future. that's one of the reasons we've outgrown the competitive set and the markets over this period as well. >> as you heard, he said he with you outgrowing the rest of the market or the business to be more specific. and, you know, the peculiar thing about unilever, they have roughly 58% or 60% of sales coming from eamericans markets. emerging markets. i wanted to know what percent of that market was down. >> we have nearly 60% of our business in the emerging markets. the emerging markets have had a bit of a downforce eventually,

but we think with 80% of the population being there, structurally more sound than any other time in the history of that part of the world, that we are well positioned. our portfolio is a portfolio of leading brands, leading market shares, also well positioned. not surprisingly we are reinv t reinvesting two-thirds of the savings we're generating into further growing our business. these factors combined, i believe, will put us in good position to continue to ben fet from this compounding growth rate that our investors have become accustomed to. >> they also said they wanted to simplify the dual structure. they are listed in amsterdam and london, and only want to be listed in one city. it will probably be london, i guess. they say or he hold me that it should be just one location to optimize the m&a optionality. i guess it will be london. whether that is impacted by

brexit, he said it has nothing to do with brexit. >> i think it's also important that they seem to be a well-run company. they have been quite conservative, quite well run. it seems like they want to make sure to keep shareholders on their side given this takeover approach that didn't go anywhere. they have to appease shareholders. the last special dividend, 1999 as opposed to this hike of 12% in the dividend now. the buying back of the 12 million shares in the past, calling it financial engineering. turning around on that front, too. >> this company always put emfacy on long-teemfa emphases on long-term share holding creativity. seems like he's had to strike a fine balance between the two yielding to some investors wo want to see much quicker results, much better returns versus the longer term goal of sustainability which the company has been focusing op.

it'sfocusingon. >> now, we've got timing. we have some timing for this great unwinding. minutes released from the march minutes shows an agreement from the board members to start shrinking the balance sheet later on this year. while a selldown in holdings was expected, the time frame was unclear until now. discussion also took place among fed members about the high valuation of u.s. equities. stocks yesterday posting their biggest reversal in over a year. the dollar, treasury yields heading lower and reversing earlier gains. thomas harr joins us from danske bank. what do you make of the fed's comments and the market reaction which was more interesting than what the fed had to say. >> it was interesting. i think this reduction of

balance sheet is coming up. we had initially expected it would happen the early part of next year, but it seems it could happen earlier. that's a big story for markets as is always the expectations around the ecb. >> you minuentioned the ecb. draghi talking about lou thehowb policy remainsen changed. remains unchanged. >> we think inflation is coming off in europe. we're not seeing a lot of core inflation. in our view, ecb will extend qe next year, continue with the 60 billion euro per month and this is in line with that view. this is not a lot of underlying inflationary pressures in europe in our view. >> a more dovish ecb, but more hawkish fed, if you will, for the markets.

you say the quantitative tightening is moving closer. that would lend more strength to the dollar, wouldn't it? >> on the short-term, that's the thing we're seeing, relative rates will tend to support the dollar on the short-term. of course the story about balance sheet, then you have more complicated things like the basis effect and so forth. basis market. i think the overall theme is slightly stronger dollar in the short-term given the move in relative rates and some expect taeg expectations about political uncertainty in europe. >> the fed only sees fiscal stimulus from the new administration and donald trump in 201. that was confirmed by mr. ryan yesterday who said the white house, senate and house were not on the same page yet when it comes to tax reform. do you think that will change the tightening schedule by the fed? >> i don't think this year, but you're right it could over time. i think the way we see it is

that, you know, it will be late this year before we have the tax measures in place and affect the economy. maybe the earliest q2 next year. but the fed is not that hawkish. we are still looking for three hikes this year, three to four hikes next year, and that can only happen if the stimulus kicks into the economy q2 next year. >> am i correct in saying you're a bit more pessimistic on trum nom trumponomics and what that could do for market performance? >> we're seeing the whole reflation story. we think that's about to turn now really because one is the fiscal stimulus from the u.s. has been postponed. also because the economic so i cal seems to us to be peaking n now. and the inflation story.

there's signs of inflation in u.s. but not over europe. so the whole reflation story is turning now, which means in our view lower yields and potentially lower stocks. >> what is the main investment of the minutes? what should we be looking at? >> i think one thing to look for on the short-term, that is a slightly stronger dollar. that is clearly something we should focus on. that should play out over the next one month or so. but i think we have to get used to that markets will be rangy. we should not look for the big themes, big market breaks. if yields come off a bit, it has already come off a bit. we can see a bit of a flatter curve, it's not going to be huge moves because the market has already seen this, i would say, for the last two, three weeks. >> thomas, thank you very much. thomas harr, fwloebl head globac strategy. e-mail the show,

streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can find us on twitter @louisabojesen. >> or @carolincnbc. >> coming up we have a lot more. the amazon founder, jeff bezos making a $1 billion on bet in space. and claire's tour de france continues. we'll be back in two. so you're having a party?

how nice. 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. you're still watching "street signs." the french presidential front ro runner emanuel macron is losing ground to marine le pen according to latest poll. both are expected to win enough votes to go through to the second round but the gap between

candidates is narrowing. claire joins us. claire, good to have you with us on your tour de france. where are you now and what is the significance of that region? >> we are in the south after going to the north. it's very interesting to be this neighb city, this is the fourth poorest city in france with a staggering unemployment rate of 21%. that's double the national average. a third of the population that lives below the poverty level. you have 12% of immigration here. all the ingredients for the front national to prosper. in many ways, beziers represents what a france under marine le pen would look like. a mayor who would reinforce the police. who said he would clean the

streets. he expelled the homeless people on the outside of the city. he installed a curfew and has gone after the ngos linked to refugees. yesterday i talked to the two founders of an anti-racist association, and they gave me interesting elements as to why he was elected mayor here. >> the mayor won because there was an erosion of the right which was in power for 19 years. he won because there was a combination of several factors, endemic unemployment in the southern regions, strong presence of people leaning towards the far right especially expatriates from algeria, damaged mick actieconomic activ. >> you have to realize for 15, 20 years, since 2002 actually, immigration and security have

become two big issues in every election, that's where the national front is very strong. it succeeded in forcing all the political parties to compete. >> quite a point being made here, because she is a front-runner, marine le pen managed to impose her themes in the campaign, and immigration is one of them. she wants to curb immigration by 80% and reduce the arrivals to 10,000 a year. as a result, francois fillon wants quotas. immigration is a common ground that could be found between the front national and traditional right if marine le pen wants to have a majority to govern, as the mayor of the city explained to me this morning. >> translator: the front national has to understand if you want to win and want this

country to change you have to unite the whole of the right. that's what needs doing. if you want to change this country, you need a right-wing union. i hope between the two rounds marine le pen will understand this. >> in the prospects of uniting the different rights, immigration could be a common ground. but it will be more difficult to find a common ground on the proposal of marine le pen to leave the euro, to leave the european union because the traditional right, along with a lot of french people, definitely doesn't want that. back to you. >> claire, thank you very much. three, two, one, share sale amazon founder jeff bezos says i

will sell stock to fund blue origin. he outlined his aspirations in colorado. >> reporter: here at the space symposium in colorado, springs, jeff bezos meeting with media in an intimate event to talk about his space startup blue origin. as the founder and ceo of amazon, bezos knows about competition and is looking to apply those strategies to space travel. just today competition with amazon was -- has been in the news, sort of blamed for payless filing for bankruptcy. when it comes to space, will blue origin be just as competitive? what's the strategy there? >> of course we'll be just as competitive but how do you compete? when people say that something

is disruptive in an industry, they mean customers are adopting that new way. to be -- we were -- at amazon, we had a lot of inventions that we were very excited about. customers didn't care at all. believe me, those inventions were not disruptive in any way. so, all -- the only thing that's disruptive is customer adoption. if you can invent a better way, if customers agree that it's a better way, then they will use that. so, that's exactly what we're trying to do at blue origin. listen, we have a system here, we're at an equilibrium in space. the whole space industry is too small. it's a very small industry. the whole launch services market is 2$2.5 billion. not a very big industry. >> how will blue origin pay for

it all? bezos had an answer for that as well. >> my business model right now for blue origin is i sell about a billion dollars a year in amazon stock and use it to invest in blue origin. the business model for blue origin is very robust. and i do want, you know -- i think it's very important that blue origin stay on its own feet. it all speaks to the broader trend transforming space industry as private companies move on to take on larger roles and in the process driving down coasts, ushering in what bezos hopes to be a golden age of exploration. i'm morgan brennan, cnbc business news. >> he's already channeling it with the aviator glasses, the jack testimony. >> tom cruise 1980, all the way.

>> i love the business model. i just sell a billion dollars of my stock. >> what if the business needs more money? another billion? >> it's always interesting with this space investing, we would not have mobile phones if there were not investments in space if not for the u.s. military putting efforts into exploration into space. >> would you go? >> no. >> let us know, would you want to go in space and be in this capsule? write in. streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. we're both on twitter. @carolincnbc or @louisabojesen. we need to take a quick break. check out world markets live. we'll be back. loads more after the break. we'll talk about the china/u.s. meeting taking place between trump and his chinese counterpart.

welcome. you're still watching "street signs." i'm carolin roth. >> i'm louisa bojesen. your headlines this morning. a dovish mario draghi sends the euro lower as the ecb chief says there is no need to change the current policy path due to a lack of inflation evidence. >> inflation is not just converging towards our aim, but stabilizing around it.

we would need to see signs of such pressures building, but so far there's scant evidence of this. european equities open in negative territory after u.s. stocks post their largest one-day reversal in over a year as a more hawkish fed indicates it will start unwinding its balance sheet this year. unilever bucking the european trend announcing they will be selling their spreads business. the co remains mum over kraft-hines as a potential buyer. >> the business has leading market shares in most of the markets in which we operate in, so i'm sure there will be a lot of interest and buyers for that. a series of polls sees french presidential front-runner emanuel macron lose ground to his far-right rival marine le pen after the television debate after the

election lead in the first and second round narrows. let's look at u.s. futures. we saw major reversal for the s&p and the dow yesterday. at one point the dow was up 200 points and then closed lower to the tune of 0.2%, or 41 points. this morning the s&p 500 is seen off by 2.6. the dow jones off by 27 points, and the nasdaq by 8 points. the reversal yesterday was down to more hawkish fed minutes, also the fed increasingly worried about valuations in the market and speaker ryan casting doubts over tax reform and when that could come. let's look at european markets. seeing a wave of selling hitting us. the ftse 100 off 0.3%. we have the xetra dax off by a half of a percent. and in the fx markets, we had

mario draghi speaking in frankfurt. the euro/dollar at 1.0651. and dollar weakness ahead of the japanese yen and the president xi and donald trump meeting in florida. mercedes-benz has reported their strongest ever month for sales in march selling 228,000 cars. they delivered their best quarter of all time january to march selling more than 560,000 units. in europe, the german brand eclipsed 1 00,000 vehicles, shipping over 35,000 and recalling that the u.s. vehicle sales data eventually was weak. then we saw yesterday we had the strength of new car registrations coming out of the uk. so it seems like a patchy picture with auto recovery. we have seen a strong recovery over the past recent years. >> we have.

that's in line with some of the european recoveries that we've seen. i wonder to what extent the sales numbers are sustainable if we see a strengthening of the euro/dollar. how much of these record sales numbers from not just mercedes but also dmw is down to the weak euro/dollar? >> yeah. weak euro/dollar, and then global economic recovery. people deciding to purchase bigger tick quet items. later today, president xi jinping will meet donald trump. one of the key issues is trade. during his election campaign, president trump vowed to get tough on trade, promising to impose a 45% tariff on chinese imports to tackle the united states 3$347 billion trade deficit for china. last week trump tweeted that the meeting would be a very difficult one, perhaps eluding

to the fact that he's ready to turn his tough talk into action. another i could priorikey p security after north korea launched a missile off the coast. speaking to the "the financial times" over the weekend, the u.s. vowed if china will not solve fnorth korea, we will. and don't forget the issue of currency manipulation. president trump upheld one of his key campaign promises to label beijing a key currency manipulator on day one of his presidency. the chinese have taken steps to strengthen the yuan against the greenback this year, it's up 1% year to date compared to a 2% decline to other trading partners. the president recently repeated his comment that china is a world champion of currency

manipulation. so fee whphia is in beijing. it would could be a tense meeti. what is the chinese take going into the meeting? >> it could be very tense. the rhetoric of the talk from the u.s. and china from both sides has been strong leading up to this meeting. neither side seems to want to back down. there's post chouring at play t has an impact on where relations stand at the moment. on north korea, for china, it's a big hot potato for them. china does have diplomatic ties with north korea, of course they are also worried about the imposing threat of a nuclear weapon that north korea may be developing, certainly north korea has launched a number of missile tests as recently as yesterday. so that worry has continued to build. gary locke, the former u.s. ambassador to china discussed this issue about where china stands with north korea. >> china has to convince north

korea that it will protect north korea from the south, that they will not allow u.s. forces to ever cross the border. they will be behind north korea in terms of security measures. but that nobody is served by north korea developing a nuclear weapon. china is beginning to worry about the unpredictability of this young leader. they don't want the united states ever invoking military action. they don't want a democratic, unified north and south korea that would be democratic on the borders of china. >> on the trade issue, trump has alleged that china is stealing american jobs, but state media reports say china is not at all to blame. other reports have shown and tried to push and highlight the importance and benefits of chinese investment in the u.s. one company that state media has

reported on is byd auto, an automaker that set up plants in the u.s. that story claimed that it's increased and added jobs in the u.s. for the overall issue with trade, a lot of experts say that both parties have benefited as exports have increased for china, the i heconomy is the world's second longest. a lot of people who made more money, these rich businessmen have been invested in the u.s. as manufacturing ramps up here in china, goods in the u.s. for consumers started to cost a lot less. given that it is still in the first 100 days of the trump administration, it is a bit unusual for an american president to be meeting with his chinese counterpart so soon. certainly this is a chance to recalibrate and reset the tone for bilateral relations going

forward. back to you. >> sophia, thank you very much. let's pick up this conversation with miranda carr. we had a guest on the show yesterday who said expectations for the meeting between the two is extremely low this is about building a are porrapport. do you think we could see a positive surprise? >> people are speculating there could be a big announcement on u.s. investment, chinese investment in the u.s. or something on north korea, which would be pepfhelpful. the interesting thing is how they brought the summit forward. they want to set the tone for the next five years in terms of u.s.-china relations. the fact that both sides seem to think we have to get the meeting and a new dialogue established and then set that framework up is the key. then that will guide us looking forward. >> this meeting is crucial for

president trump and significant for the chinese president, he's facing the national peoples congress in november. why is it so significant? what does he want to portray in this meeting with president trump? >> if china gets acknowledgment, it is the u.s. and china world now, and it's given this sort of credibility. that will play well into president xi's hands going into the 19th congress where he's saying i'm leading one of the world's superpowers. obviously with the u.s., they may want more concrete measures coming out of it. for china, a lot of this is their -- something like what rex tillerson said when he was in beijing. giving them that kind of kudos as a global superpower, that would be going down well in china. that's, i think, the key aim for that side. >> so, how would you characterize the best case

scenario? the best outcome from this meeting? if you have the u.s. basically acknowledging, giving them -- giving china. status it thinks it deserves, that would play down well with china if there was some kind of deal for the u.s., where they could go to their audience, we succeeded in either investment or north carolinincom north kor. but it will be down to the relations, and how that plays out. because there's quite a lot of scope for this to turn bad as well. >> out of the issues, taiwan, trade and investment, the south china sea, what else? north korea, currency manipulation. out of those issues, is there one that will test the relationship? >> the geopolitical stuff, whether it's the south china sea, north korea or taiwan, that

is the long-term geopolitical risk. as everyone is focused on trade, and how that will affect individual sectors. so it might affect the clothing sector, or it might affect the steel sector. we think the big risk is on currency. at the moment you have the renminbi and u.s. dollar managed against each other in order to stop a big depreciation in the currency. stabilize, you know, capital flows between the two countries. if that doesn't continue and you have labeling currency manipulator or disagreement between the two sides, that disagreement -- that agreement breaks down, then the potential for destabilizing capital flows, currency risks, devaluation becomes the biggest problem. that will affect everyone. >> the optics going into the meeting, they look better. the chinese yuan is trading

higher versus the u.s. dollar compared to previous years. also the pbc hiked rates, that would lend strength to the currency. do you think that china has managed the optics going into the meeting? >> definitely. the stabilization and the currency is phenomenal. volatility dropped down significantly, looking at the cnh or cny, everything has been managed in a tight range. we're not devaluing. but that's not a long-term solution. it's got -- you got to have market trading. you have to bring in market forces again. so what happens after this is going to be key. >> thank you very much for that. appreciate it. miranda carr. u.s. treasury yields slid after paul ryan cast doubt over the prospects for the timing of

tax reform. the speaker of the house saying a change in tax policy could take longer than overhauling healthcare adding that the house, senate and white house still are not on the same page yet about tax reform. donald trump has removed chief strategist steve bannon from the national security council. the reshuffle, which also restores the roles of other defense officials comes weeks after bannon's appointment sparked criticism. hallie jackson reports. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: the president's inner circle today in a single file line with a notable exception -- chief strategist steve bannon. a source familiar with the decision says bannon was working on healthcare instead, but his con sp no-show came hours after he was released from the national security committee.

>> steve bannon raised eyebrows at first because you don't put political people on a national security committee. it's too soon to tell if he's losing influence. but he's clearly been diminished. >> reporter: the vice president insisting it's not a demotion. >> this is just a natural evolution to ensure the national security council is organized in a way that best serves the president. >> reporter: the move, winning bipartisan support. >> i'd be very pleased that he's not on the national security council. my hope is that he would have no role in government at all. >> reporter: that's not happening. while bannon is not on the nsc anymore, he can attend meetings and still has one of the highest security clearances in the west wing. a top white house official says bannon was originally put on the committee as a check against michael flynn, the now dismissed national security adviser. bannon's goal originally, to break down the obama era structure inside that national security team, led at the time by susan rice. she's in the president's cross hairs now, as he accuses rice, with no evidence, of committing a crime. by requesting the names of the people connect to the trump team be unmasked. >> there is simply nothing

wrong, unexpected, illegal about doing that. what would be wrong and illegal is if she took that name and then, you know, e-mailed it to the press. >> i leaked nothing to nobody. >> reporter: the president, yet again, making an unsubstantiated surveillance claim telling "the new york times" it's quote one of the big stories of our time. >> now, something completely different. it's every advertiser's worst nightmare. pepsi felt the wrath of social media as the latest ad with kendall jenner was slammed for trivializing protests. >> reporter: tonight pepsi is in damage control after being accuses of exploiting racial protests to sell soda. the two and a half minute ad released tuesday on youtube, features model and reality tv star kendall jenner happily joining a group of young protesters. it never specifically references

the black lives matter movement but many critics noted the stark contrast between the image of jenner handing a soft drink to an officer and pictures like this one of riot police detaining a woman in baton rouge last summer. >> this ad trivializes the urgency of the issues and it diminishes the seriousness and the gravity of why we got into the street in the first place. >> reporter: on social media, the video quickly drew widespread anger and ridicule. even martin luther king jr.'s daughter bernice sarcastically tweeted, if only her father had known about the power of pepsi. >> i've never seen an ad get this negative response so quickly, and i think it will make pepsi re-evaluate what they're doing with their brand. >> reporter: today pepsi yanked the ad showing a global message of unity, peace and understanding, clearly, we missed the mark and we apologize. ♪ decades ago, this iconic coke commercial during the flower power movement struck the right tone at the right time. as pepsi found out, times have changed.

gabe gutierrez, nbc news, miami. >> it is a tough balancing act. there's been research saying that the team behind this ad, they were all white. i don't know whether this ad would have been coming out in this particular forum had there been one or two minorities present on that team. i don't know. >> it's astounding to see in the current climate that they would put an ad out like this and not think twice. especially with the reference -- it seems like there's a lot of similarities between the picture we saw there of this 18-year-old girl who stood up to the riot police and this black lives movement. speaking of the whole white issue as well, seeing as well that nivea, they have been under fire as well because they apologized now for an advertisement that featured the slogan white is purity, which drew a lot of cheers from white

supremacists. those types of groups. they've also come under fire. a lot of these groups are having to think twice before they put out these ads. >> on the upside, this makes a great case study for marketing students. this is the best case study we've seen. >> as the person said in the spot that we saw, you rarely see this much of a backlash, this heavy backlash that quickly after an ad hits. >> from pepsi to something less contentious or maybe not, mario draghi coming up "street signs," don't rock the boat, a dovish mario draghi says there is no need to change the ecb's current policy path.

>> ecb president mario draghi says there is no need to deviate

from the central bank's policy path. speaking at the ecb in frankfurt, draghi said the bank had to build confidence before it could change its stance. >> we are confident that our policies are working. and that the outlook for the economy is gradually improving. as a result, the forces that are currently weighing on domestic price pressures should continue to wane. even so, we have not yet seen sufficient evidence to alter our assessment of the inflation outlook which remains conditional on monetary accommodation. hence, a reae social securisses current monetary policy is not needed at this stage. >> annette, we have seen more

hawkish comment from the ecb, today mario draghi wanted to sound more dovish still. >> it depends on where you look in that speech from mario draghi. parts where he was assessing the economy, they were a bit more positive than previous. but he doesn't want to talk about exit. i will be joined now by the chairman of the german council of economic experts. we'll discuss that as well in length. thank you very much for joining us. what's your biggest takeaway from the speech of mario draghi? >> one can say views on the normalization has to come about at some time are converging somewhat. the german council has advocated that the monetary policy of the ecb, given the macro economic situation is too expansion air. given the risks to financial stability. and you see now all of us seem

to agree there's some recovery, economic recovery in the euro area, which is not self-susta self-sustaini self-sustaining, very much carried still by monetary policy, by changes in oil prices. but still underneath there's also some recovery forces that are more sustainable. at some point we need normalization, and our view is this should be communicated now because you have to phase out the asset purchase program, end it at some point. to have it not end too december ru disruptively. there's some indicthis statemenn months past. >> so you are saying that he at least is starting the phasing out process? >> he's talked about some -- some normalization at some point. i think in rhetoric this is

already a good indication that the economic recovery in the euro era is more stable than some pessimists might think. you see core inflation is slowly creeping up. unemployment is going down. euro area is closing its output gap by 2018 shlg gigiven the cu forecast. at some point there will be room for normal saegs and weization . >> in germany, our economy is facing elections, the alternative candidate to angela merkel also has a program, at least the vision for the economy. what do you make of these first plans we're hearing? >> the vision is not yet clear, but one hears that the program, the reform program of the schroeder government that was

initiated around 2005 that carried so much of germany's stability throughout the crisis is questioned and this is worrisome. one should take a step back here and reconsider because the german labor market has been stable throughout the crisis. unemployment has come down. employment has risen, even throughout the crisis years. it's not all the reform policy of the schroeder government but some is behind that. to question these reforms would be the wrong step. >> another headwind for the german economy, the trade agreement between the states and germany. how concerned are you about that? >> i'm very concerned. free trade is for the whole world, all advanced economies have benefited very much from free trade. it's not a zero sum game, but positive sum game. so if a big player like the u.s. is questioning this arrangement, this is worry bz soisome for ev.

germany being dependent on its openness, the openness of its economy is -- we should be worried about this. >> thank you very much for your time. have a good day at the conference. with that, back to you. it's an interesting day in frankfurt with a lot of talk, of course, about monetary policy, but also about economic policy. >> thank you very much for that. we're almost at the end of the show. want to send our congrats to our director, will, who got engaged over the weekend. >> we love anything romantic. he was very romantic, i hear. you are invited? i got the invite already. >> for sure. front row. >> all the best. bye for now.

good morning. the china factor. president trump prepares to meet his chinese counterpart for the first time today. the stakes are high. what you need to watch coming up. wild swings, the dow and s&p post their biggest one-day reversal in more than a year. the factors at play and what's ahead. and why jeff bezos is selling $1 billion a year in amazon stock to finance his race to space. it's thursday, april 6, 2017, and "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ >>