good morning. welcome to "street signs." i'm louisa bojesen. >> i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines this morning. the u.s. strikes syria with 59 tomahawk missiles in an attempt to disable an airfield which was allegedly used for a chemical attack on a syrian town. european markets in negative territory, but oil prices rise after the missile attack, with president trump declaring that he acted in america's national security interest. russian president vladimir putin calls air strikes on syria an aggression against a

sovereign nation, confirming moscow's view the syrian army does not have chemical weapons. we are in a positive mood over grease, says eurogroup chief jeroen dijsselbloem, as ei finance ministers arrive in malta to try and reach a deal to unlock the next greek bailout tranche. the united states has launched a missile attack on a syrian government-controlled airfield near the city of homs. 59 tomahawk missiles were fired at the target. speaking from mar-a-lago , president trump said that the strike was made in response to the assad's government use of chemical weapons earlier in the week. the pentagon spokesman said the attack was a proportional response and was an attempt to stop the regime from using chemical weapons in the future. jay gray has the latest.

>> reporter: tonight a u.s. military response after horrific illegal chemical weapons attack in syria. >> tonight i ordered a targeted, military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. >> reporter: after discussing options with his military and security teams from mar-a-lago , president trump launched tomahawk missiles from two ships in the sea. targeting the al shayrat afield. >> ashatt choksad choked out thf helpless men, women and children. it was a slow and brutal death for so many. even beautiful babies were

cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. >> president trump's first known mission as commander in chief signals a major shift in focus for u.s. troops in the region, previously centered on the ongoing fight against isis, now clearly questioning assad's leadership. >> tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in syria. >> reporter: as the fight in syria now intensifies. jay gray, nbc news with the president in palm beach, florida. the pentagon confirmed the u.s. military gave russia advance notice of the strike and did not target specific sections of the airfield where russian forces were believed to be present. speaking to reporters after the strike, u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson said russia failed to uphold its responsibility to

locate chemical weapons as agreed upon in a 2013 resolution. >> we had quite a lot of response from various global leaders. at the moment, coa joint respon from merkel and france's hollan hollande, they spoke by phone, and they said they will continued their efforts to hold assad to account for his criminal acts. they also say that they're calling on the ber nainternatio community for a political transition to take place in syria. a joint statement having been released. they say assad is responsible for the latest developments in syria. and again, they spoke by phone. they want to hold him responsible for what they call criminal acts. it's interesting, this u-turn coming from the u.s. a swift u-turn given trump's previous statements and stance on not entering and attacking

assad. >> he was opposed to that back in 2013. let get the reaction coming from russia. that's quite different to what we're hearing from europe. the kremlin condemned the u.s. military action saying the act of aggression against a sovereign nation violated international law and has dealt a blow to russian-american relations. it added the syrian army does not possess chemical weapons and that the u.s. attack was an attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in iraq. russia suspended its air safety agreement with the u.s. and called for a u.n. security council meeting. let's get deeper into this topic. chris, this is a strong language coming from russia. is this in line with expectations or do you think things between the u.s. and russia are escalating quickly? >> it's strong language. i think in your report there you missed on one important detail which i would draw attention to, which was the kremlin spokesman

said that the missile attack had been carried out on a farfetched pretext, farfetched pretext. that is russia does not accept, as a given truth, that this was a -- on the 4th of april, a premedicated chemical weapons attack by the syrian regime. they point out in the same statement that the anti-assad rebels, jihadi rebels have had a track record of using chemical weapons themselves, and that what they describe as a hon cent monstrous crime, the responsibility for that can only be established by an independent investigation. so, the answer to your question, the risk of confrontation is greater because both russia and the u.s. are coming from completely different viewpoints and understanding of what actually happened. you mentioned in your report the russia reaction. president putin never failed to react one way or the other.

we've seen this gesture on the -- on the air cooperation agreements. the next question is what might follow behind that. >> that's a very good question. no one knows at this point. the bigger question is this a one-off by the u.s.? u.s. officials indicated that it is. maybe because this region is so incredibly complex. syria is also backed by iran, not just russia. do you think the u.s., because it's so incredibly complicated will hold off on further action? >> you know, there's i think an analytical trap here, that normally analysts would say that what you need do is understand the motives and goals of the main actors, and then you will have your conclusion. therefore if you think of what the trump administration wants to do, perhaps this is just a one-off move, which has perhaps colateral foreign policy goals involved, signaling north korea in conjunction with today's summit in mar-a-lago with

presidents trump and xi jinping to do signaling on iran and israel. russia has its agenda. the trap is to forget that this is a problexy where in syria wh the proxies can run out of control. depending on who you believe, either the syrian regime is a war criminal, and has done chemical attacks and might now do more in the sense that the gloves are coming off now that they've been attack the directly by the united states for the first time or conversely, depending on who you believe, the jihadi rebels who have used chemical precursors, might decide to do it again in order to attract more u.s. fire power on their side. lo and behold you have a trigger train reaction which could lead to confrontation between a military fashion between great

powers. >> there's also talk about how this u-turn came about. was it a trump personality u-turn as we've seen in the past with certain issues, whether he sees pictures of the children who died in this chemical attack, i think we can call it a chemical attack now as opposed to alleged chemical attack. he sees these pictures and reacts, and has plans drawn about an anti-assad strategy. or is it, as you allude to, is it part of the broader scheme of planning a much more thorough military layout going forward. also maybe testing the waters for north korea? >> my pick on your question would be the former. that is that if you change your mind once, you can change your mind again next week. your report on the mine changing understated how these flip-flopping go quicker. you referred to the change from u.s. policy from years ago. it's a change from last week. last week rex tillerson said the

future of president assad is a matter forev the syrian people. he had a longstanding russian line for how the conflict should be fixed now we're back on to a full-on regime change in syria. perhaps the optimistic view is if you can flip-flop like that in a week, you can flip again. perhaps we can avoid a spiraling confrontati confrontation. >> do we think there's a danger of further chemical attacks? >> i would suggest that's the principal changer in this situation. that armchair global strategy about trump's agenda in north korea and iran should not distract commentators and investors from the reality of proxy war and the proxies running out of control. they have chemicals. they have incentives to use them. these events strengthen those incentives. >> christopher, thank you very much. christopher granvil.

here in europe this morning our european equity markets trading a bit lower, but not by much. still down in the region of less than a half percent or so. stocks were off a bit yesterday, also stateside before the news. and this morning again markets are called off just a tad. safe haven trade is really on. we saw a big reaction in oil with oil hitting the highest levels that these contracts have been at in a month's time. setting on course for a 4% rise for this week. wti, crude and brent higher in the region of 1.5% having come off from this hard rally we saw after the attacks. >> the safe haven trade continuing across the board with the yen, gold, the bund benefiting as well. at least for the time being. let's get more investment reaction to this with the investment director from global

equities, gam. is there another need for a layer of security protection in portfolios given the sense of geopolitical risk? >> definitely it will have an impact on oil, as you mentioned. it's clear was that oil was already at $50, $54 yesterday, not at the costs where we were replacing the oil reserves we were drawing down. this adds and reminds everybody that there is geopolitical risk. we've not seen problems in iran or iraq. all the production despite all the turmoil there has been good. now reduced with opec cuts, production has been good, but those geopolitical risks exist. so we've been shifting more towards oil. getting more positive on oil, because we think particularly in the u.s. and gently globally oil is due for stronger prices.

>> oil is not your typical safe haven. when you talk safe havens, it's usually gold, the swiss franc, the yen. is there room still to run in these safe havens? >> i don't think what's happening in syria is disastrous but i don't think it has a reaction in the global economy. unless russia gets dragged into it, i don't think russia has intention of getting dragged into it further than they already are, i don't think those safe havens are the answer. gold is at the same time this tradition inflation play. we're looking at inflation running higher than what many may have anticipated. >> you're talking to somebody who doesn't particularly like gold. i think gold is -- doesn't have any particular use on -- an industrial use. so it's really a play on sentiment and what people feel, and personally i prefer to invest in real businesses that

have real earnings. >> where would you be at the moment then? >> oil. i think financials and banks particularly in europe are interesting. we're seeing clearly all the pmis are good. political risk. still trading at a slightly more distressed level because of the election happening in france. we like those and new tech. there's a lot of talk about electric cars, so on and so forth, but there are real companies already seeing significant benefits because of that. >> like which? any that you care to point viewers towards for more -- >> yes. not to talk to specific companies, but we like power semicon ducte e semiconducters which have a small number of players.

there you have a structurally sound marketplace because of everything that's happening on that, and not too many players which should benefit greatly. >> thank you. want to bring you breaking news on greece. fwroo greece and its kred did creditod a preliminary agreement on its bailout. mr. jeroen dijsselbloem tempered expectations and said we won't get a final deal today but a preliminary one is possible. so no full deal on the review of greece, it's in its third bailout but we did get a preliminary deal. so it seems like we have a tentative deal in place. get involved. get in touch.

the address, streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. we're also live and well on twitter, find us directly at @louisabojesen. >> or @carolincnbc. still coming up, we will be live in france for the last leg of our tour across the key national front strongholds in france. don't miss it.

for years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to small businesses. but for many businesses, it's out of reach.

why promise something you can't deliver? comcast business is different. ♪ ♪ we deliver super-fast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. we do business where you do business. ♪ ♪ . good morning. welcome back. you're still watching "street signs." in the latest french election polls. emanuel macron appears to be in a dead heat with his far-right rival marine lep l pen after th latest tv debate. claire joins us from frejus in france. we're talking about this flip-flopping in the polls, and have been talking about this for quite some time.

tell us about why it is that you're now in frejus and what these latest polls mean, if anything at this stage. >> well, it means that the people are very volatile for this presidential election. they are not sure who they're going to vote for. that is something that we have observed during our tour of the front national strongholds. i'm here for the last bit of this tour in frejus. it's not the industrial decline that's a motive of the front national vote. you have to know this is an area that's been traditionally leaning to the right, and the department where frejus and cannes are is the department with the most front national cities. it has three front national cities. still, it is right-wing leaning, but it was a shock when the

mayor who is not even 30 grabbed the city hall behind me. you have a sluggish economy, a traditional france that doesn't recognize itself as a multicultural france and unease about immigration and islam. after this week of touring, can we draw conclusions from the local votes to the presidential vote? you will see that's not so clear listening to the people we've talked to. >> translator: this issue that she wants to change europe, she doesn't want to stay in europe and it will be hard. many people we put off because of that. >> translator: i think indeed that among my clientele, plenty like le pen, not because we like the mayor here, but out of rebellion of these presidential

elections. >> you think locally the front-national mayor is doing good action? >> for the city, i guess. for the country, i'm not sure. we'll see. >> translator: i have to admit that the mayor has done good things for the city. why not vote for the far-right? after years of the left and the right, we're still at the same level or worse. >> reporter: so, the volatility and uncertainty of these electors is probably a good representation of what the whole of france is thinking right now. what we observed is that team want new faces. they're fed up with the traditional right-wing divide and they want new faces. this is pretty much represented by marine le pen but also emanuel macron, her major contender. we'll see what outcome is in two weeks. back to you. >> thank you very much. thank you for that. victor nusek is from wisdomtree and is with us. you painted out threeary arsce

for what could happen in france. talk us through them. >> one is where the status quo prevails. macron will succeed going through the first round and essentially a risk-on trade. you want to be piling into the equity markets and potentially play the spread developing in -- the widening of spreads in bond markets. so go short, bonds go long, italian btps, spreads look overextended. the other scenario is a race which is more the contrast where you will really see le pen making it through the first round and becoming president. in which case it's really risk off very much. we think in the bond markets, the pressure points will be the largest. you would want to be considering the safe haven, which is the german bunds, and the pressure

in france oets would build up, not only that but italian bonds. >> and the third scenario? >> will be either between fillon or macron, in which case it's in between the first two scenarios that i discussed. you don't get a clear conviction in what will happen in the bond market. but then we would argue why not consider the equity market and be export tilted and move away from domestic focus, equities, hone in on exporters. >> setting yourself up for the first round of elections, how should i position if i don't know what the outcome is? i would consider, as a eurozone investor to essentially consider the overweight position in equities predominantly because the equity market has been very much immune to the everb bracra around election risk. the banking sector has been a

key indicator for improved assets gently. we've seen significant bank restructuring in italy. this is helping sentiment stay alive irrespective of the election outcome. until that outcome feeds into legislative change, which is very, very remote, even with a win with a far-right movement, you could argue overwhelmingly that the risk-on trade for equities survives. >> how drastic would the moves be in the euro/dollar if le pen wins the second round? a reuters poll said it could drop close to 5%. how much are you looking at? >> i don't know what the target would be. i would say the euro would stay weak. you know, heading back towards parity, right now it's 106 to the dollar. yeah. that's realistic. you don't necessarily want to be exposed to that currency volatility. i think it's around 9.5%, 10% on

the euro/dollar, which is elevated. as a foreign investor, you wanted to be currency hedged to debt degree, not talking about the direction of the euro ultimately be. that depends also on what the ecb is doing. >> victor, we have to leave it here. thanks for the outline of those three scenarios. we will go for a quick break. check out world markets live our blog which runs throughout the trading day. on the other side of the break, plenty of uk data to digest.

welcome, you're still watching "street signs." i'm carolin rothment. i'm carolin roth. >> i'm louisa bojesen. these are your headlines this morning. the u.s. strikes syria with 59 tomahawk missiles in an attempt to disable an airfield which was allegedly used for a chemical attack on a syrian town. european markets in negative territory, but oil prices rise after the missile attack, with president trump declaring that he acted in america's national security interest. russian president vladimir putin calls air strikes on syria an aggression against a sovereign nation, confirming moscow's view the syrian army does not have chemical weapons. we are in a positive mood over greece, that's what the euro group chief, jeroen

dijsselbloem, is saying as eu finance ministers arrive in malta to try and reach a deal to unlock the next greek bailout tranche. good morning. welcome back. just seeing sterling just on the back foot, coming off a tad after the latest round of data hitting our wires. uk february manufacturing output data minus 0.1% on the month. plus 3.3% on the year. on the month, it was forecast at plus 0.3% month on month. so a bit of a dip as opposed to what people were anticipating. year-on-year also weaker. industrial production, minus 0.3% on the month, 0.8% on the month. that was weaker than forecast. and a january industrial

production figure revised lower as well. manufacturing output, plus 2.1% and down a tad on the year as well. 0.1% to the down side. let's show you what u.s. futures are doing at this point in the morning. seeing markets moving a bit risk-off. the s&p 500 off seen off by 4 points. the dow jones off by 17, and the nasdaq off by 6. not a huge effect after the u.s. launched an air strike on the syrian air base. in europe this morning, we're lower across the board. the ftse 100 off by a few points. cac trading weaker. and similar declines for the german markets. the se the xetra dax off half a percent. we have seen a flight to safety overnight. yen buying, swiss franc buying, also seeing some selling in the

turkish lira and the russian rubl rubb rub ruble. the u.s. missile strikes on a syrian air base, we've been getting international reaction in the last hour or two hours. the kremlin is saying the strikes deal a significant blow to russian-u.s. relations. russia's foreign ministry says it is suspending the air safety agreement with the u.s. and is calling for a u.n. security council meeting. >> the uk government is saying it fully supports the u.s. action saying it was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack which it said was launched by the syrian government. british defense ministry -- excuse me, british defense secretary michael fallon says he doesn't see the strikes as the start of a different military campaign. the french government say they were informed of the strikes

before they took place and added that the future of syria is not with president assad. willem joins us now. good to have you with us this morning. putting syria aside for one minute, what are the broader talking points people are focusing on or is it down to syria? >> i think syria is something people here will be talking about. i wanted to ask you about syria. we had reaction from the french, they said they knew about this. the british government saying they wholeheartedly support the american position. do you think this was too hasty a reaction from the trump administration? >> i think hollande and merkel's response is right. there's a reaction from

trump which seems to be a little bit too rushed, without correct preparation, without allies, without relationship with the international organizations. so it seems to be a little bit rushed. we have to know what will be the consequences. and what will be the next steps. is it one-off or not? maybe it is too early to say. >> you're very pro europe. do you think this is an indication that the u.s. administration is going to work without support, without gathering that kind of support from european allies? >> it seems to be a very unilateral initiative. that's clear. the true point is that is it another step, an example of this new zig zag foreign policy that trump is starting to apply? frankly speaking, until now in

the last two months, in the first two months of his presidency, we were there seeing and watching changes in -- each week with a different angle, with a different point of view. and in the last days my feeling is that the decision was influenced, i think the emotional swings were very important to influence the decisions. the pictures, and so on. that is important. i repeat, assad is the unique guilty of this terrible situation and what happened with the gas attack was terrible. and the only guilty is assad. the russians have to understand it. but i repeat, to have a foreign policy, military strategy, you need to have a comprehensive strategy. not to have the zig zag foreign

policy that worries me. >> it's worth adding you're now dean of the paris school of international affairs. you talk about this with your students, a huge amount as well. when president trump visits here in late may, down to sicily, he'll be meeting with other g7 leaders. do you think european leaders have an important role in helping shape his foreign policy? >> i hope so. i hope so. we need to strengthen the transatlantic alliance. we can't eliminate this tie that is the most important tie in terms of global security. so i hope that the meeting will be an important push for strengthening and launching the transatlantic alliance. depends on trump, i would say, because up until now it's trump that created a lot of problems for this alliance.

i'm sure europeans are ready to strengthen the alliance and have a comprehensive approach to the stability and strategy. i think europe needs to have -- to become more adult in terms of being strong in security, defense. so i think it's the next mission for european leaders and for the european union as a whole is to strengthen his ability to be aj agile on strength and stability. it's an important topic in the french elections, german elections. the reaction of the french leaders, german leaders, it's important to understand what the path for europe is on security. >> you talk about the strength of europe what about the strength of the european union itself fol wlolowing the trigge

article 50. what effect do you think that will have on the continent as a whole in terms of the political environment? >> i think there's an unbalanced situation between the uk and the rest of the continent on brexit. for the uk, it's topic number one. for the rest of the european union, it's becoming more and more marginal as a topic. that is good news for negotiations, for the european side. you can't have negotiations under a permanent electoral campaign. that it is in the uk always headlines, always big news on the negotiations on brexit. you have to leave negotiationor working, and then the next step. not always focusing on this. this is why i think the european union started in the correct

way. i trust the european negotiator, and i don't think the brexit negotiations will affect the european recovery in the next future. i hope that the negotiations and the final result of the negotiations will be useful for a good reshape of the relationship between the uk and europe. we need good shape in these negotiations. and in the relationship. so, i am confident, i would say if the negotiations maybe get out from the focus on the electoral campaign, on the permanent electoral campaign in the uk, it's necessary to have a good work for the negotiators. >> you talk about a permanent electoral campaign in the uk, what about here in italy. what's your outlook for the next

italian general election? >> i hope the next elections will happen after an electoral reform and after decisions on economy and budget. it would be a big mistake to have early elections without new electoral reform and without avoiding the deficit, the excessive deficit procedure that the european union said italy is under. the possibility to have it. so, it is necessity to have a good electoral reform early, because we need to have the next situation in which we can have a stable majority, and we can avoid fragmentation, and the impossibilities. but at the same time we need the

budget completely under control, and we need to avoid a new procedure of excessive deficit. these are, for me, the two main missions in the next months. and with two missions accomplished, i think we can trust a more stable situation in the next elections. >> you warned in the past about anti-european sentiment on the rise in italy. what about europe-wide elections. what changes would you like to see in terms of electoral reform there? especially with the uk leaving in the next couple days? >> i trust that 2017 can be a year of european recovery. of recovery of pro european sentiment, after the year of disintegration, '16, with brexit, trump weakening the european sentiment. i believe 2017 can be the european year. i strongly believe that the role

of the french elections will be divisive for this, and the french elections will be a sliding door for europe. because le pen means game over for europe. macron means launch in terms of pro european mode. i think the 7th of may we will know what will be the destiny of europe in this year, 2017. but i'm optimistic for europe in '17. >> thank you very much. the former prime minister of italy, now the dean of the school of international affairs in paris. back to you in london. >> willem, thank you very much. want to get you up to date with the latest comments coming out with regards to the u.s. attack on syrian soil. russian lavrov speaking saying the u.s. strikes on the syrian air base, they are an act of aggression. he says the strikes remind him

of the western attack on iraq in 2003 without u.n. approval. he's being smart in terms of -- the russians are being smart in terms of taking a step back and guarding themselves, also, as you say, this is done without u.n. approval as well. lavrov saying moscow will demand explanation from the u.s. on the strikes, and hopefully this provocation will not lead to irreparable damage. he said with the strikes, the u.s. wanted to draw attention away from attacks and that somehow the u.s. could have supported or funded some of these rebel groups in the early stages. lavrov also saying no russians were killed in the strikes. we will keep you up to date with some of these comments. >> especially as the u.s. wakes up to this. the reaction coming out of

europe and from the kremlin, let's see what they have to say. >> and whether this will be a wait and see scenario, or whether we will see more. we need to talk about monetary policy in europe. differences in outlooks between the top european central bank. the bundesbank president made a speech setting out the case for tapering, while mario draghi said it was too early to beg g unwinding qe. annette ta, y annette, you spoke to another influential voice, peter prett. >> yes, i did speak to him and i spoke about the sequencing of the exit strategy. there were still rumors in the market that the ecb could hike deposit rates into positive territory before they touch the asset purchase program. the negative deposit rate is

hugely unpopular with the eurozone banking industry. but saying there's a clear logic to the exit strategy. >> i think things are quite normal. things are going better. we have more confidence in the inflation in our projection where we have to make an assessment in the coming months. at this stage, we haven't had discussions in the governing council on, let's say, the exit. but it's clear that the cycle evolving in the right direction. these questions naturally come. and as today in this conference, that was discussed intensively by market participants. in general, i ha you have techn problems, problems of timing, and one consideration is when the time comes, it must be an orderly process. >> of course. most market participants are

assuming this is not happening this year. could you exclude a reduction in asset purchases this year? >> this is premature to the question. we will have a governing council meeting to make that assessment on the basis of today's information, i would not conclude in that direction. >> the deposit rates, some people are saying that -- there are assumptions that the deposit rate might be the first rate which moves perhaps even before you're reducing asset purchases. is that something you could envision? >> we have a clear guidance where we say when the day comes, when we make that assessment, then you start tapering, then well past we will act on the interest rate part. i think this is a logic sequence. it doesn't have anything to do with when you do that. but it's a logical sequence. it would make sense to continue

to purchase and at the same time to increase short-term rates, inferencing the expectations about short-term rates in doing that. the sequence is logical. what we mean well passed, at the time you stop purchasing assets, that's data depending and will be the object of a governmental assessment. >> but it's not that it could not -- it could happen also this year, depending on the data. >> i wouldn't make any speculation on this. we will have to see what comes. you can always have good surprises on inflation, the price per shares remain subdued. i talk about underlying price per shares that remain subdued. in spite of some slight indicators and the latest core inflation figures, we know exceptional figures into that, the timing of easter vacation compared to last year, but still

price pressures are not building up. it will take some time. things are evolving in the right direction but we need to be patient. >> the clear message of the ecb is, yes, the economy is doing better. yes, there are slight signs that inflation is also picking up. but there's not enough to actually think and talk about a clear exit to that program because inflation is only as high as it is because they have all these unconventional measures still active in the market. for now, no exit, and we'll stay put. with that, back to you. >> annette, thank you very much for that. coming up on "street signs" which regions do provide the best bang for your buck when it comes to infrastructure investment? we'll find out.

hi everybody, welcome back. you're watching "street signs." after the formalities of their first dinner together, president trump and president xi will discuss the thorny issues of trade and foreign policy. during his campaign, donald trump criticized china by accusing it of stealing american jobs. he also wants to persuade beijing to exert influence over north korea in order to hold missile tests and nuclear program. >> and no golf. he does not play golf because of the anti-corruption crackdown. >> i think it's incredible. in the middle of the dinner, trump leaves the chinese president, goes out, orders the air strikes, and one would assume comes back and continues his meetings? china and the u.s. in the past have been at loggerheads with a strategy. senate republicans have triggered what is described as a nuclear option over the vote of

up from's nominee for the supreme court, neil gorsuch, this after democrats gathered enough votes to stage a filibuster. a final confirmation vote is expected today. the head of the house intelligence committee, devin nunes has stepped aside as ethics complaints trigger investigations into nunes himself. >> reporter: house intelligence committee devin nunes today dodging questions. slipping out of the capitol after his dramatic announcement that he's stepping back from the committee's investigation of russian meddling into the u.s. election. his comment after the house ethics committee would announce whether he illegally revealed classified information in this bombshell press conference last month. >> the intin a statement today

calls the complaint false. house speaker paul ryan met with nunes last night this morning saying he supports the chairman's decision. >> clearly he made some mistakes here. >> i don't think that's the case. chairman nunes wants to make sure this is not a distraction to an important investigation. >> reporter: nunes came under fire after he told the press and the president about the incidental collection before informing his committee. then came reports that white house officials helped give him information. >> chairman nunes is deeply compromised. he cannot possibly lead an honest investigation. >> it's got to be done in a bipartisan fashion. as far as i could tell, congressman nunes killed that. >> reporter: for weeks nunes resisted demands he step aside. including from adam schiff. the ethics probe was the last straw. and now schiff says the investigation can have a fresh start. >> the work has always

continued, now i think the cloud that had settled over the committee's work has been lifted. >> so here in europe we're seeing quite a bit of red on the screens. the u.s. and how we're shaping up for trade, 4 1/2 hours away from now, implied open on the right-hand side of the screen, just a bit lower. >> it is a bit of a risk-off move in response to the u.s. launching the cruise mittssile attack on the syrian air base. >> that's it for today's show. i'm carolin roth. >> i'm louisa bojesen. "worldwide exchange" is up next. stay with us. did you know slow internet

can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business.

breaking overnight, the u.s. launches dozens of cruise missiles at a syrian airfield. geopolitical concerns sparking a jump in oil prices. a round up of the trading picture. and a u.s./china summit. president trump is meeting with his chinese counterpart later today. a live report from mar-a-lago where it will be taking place. it's friday, april 7, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins now. good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc on a busy