welcome to "street signs." i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. a mega media merger lights up the french market. shares in vivendi and havas spike as vincent bollore moves to merge the two businesses he controls in a 2.4 billion euro deal. first world problems for richemont which misses expectations on the top and bottom line, sending shares deep into the red in zurich. g-7 finance ministers play down worries about u.s. tax reform plans as treasury

secretary steve mnuchin arrives for another round of talks in italy. >> i understand there's an ambitious tax reform program in the united states, we're watching closely on what is good for the united states and what would be learned by other countries about tax reform. donald trump calls fired fbi director james comey a grandstanding showboat as he tells nbc exclusively his rational for sacking him earlier this week. >> you said i accepted their recommendations. you had already made the decision. >> i was going to fire regardless. good morning, everyone. it's friday. glad you're with us once again. we have another packed show for you. let's kick things off with our top story. vivendi announced plans to buy a 60% stake in advertising group halves have ff s ha

havas for 2.4 billion euros. the step marks another milestone in vivendi chairman vincent bollore's plans to build another media powerhouse. shares of vivendi are up 5.71%. karen has been following the story all morning long. i wonder what the rationale is. is this another step on building a bigger empire on the part of bollore, or is there economic business rationale behind this? >> i believe it's a defensive move and an attack move. i'll explain that in a minute. i think we are quite interested to know what a french billionaire tycoon is up to. vincent bollore looks a the a stake in vivendi and havas through his family's company. havas is run by his son, janik. so they want to offer up some money, 9.25 euros per share, an

8% premium over the wednesday closing price for havas and totalling the business at 3.9 billion euros. it will equate to a deal about 2.4 billion euros. still havas will retain its listed entity. there's still room for public investors to get involved. i mentioned about the defensive move. if you look at the revenue for vivendi it's been a challenging time in a sense. it's had slow growth areas of the business. the pay tv, television business in france, but strong growth through the record business through universal music group, umg. adding havas should inject more growth into the business for investors to get ahold of short-term. there are impressive pressures under the media landscape, bringing it under one helm would be useful. if you noticed the vivendi moves on some italian names, mediaset for instance, you've seen enormous moves by bollore to get

ahold of this business. if he can raise money in his own private business, he potentially has more fire power. it's hard to read what his overall intention is, whether he's pulling back from those companies or regrouping to have another go at them and remain independent from the french. so it's really interesting from a number of perspectives. >> you raise a couple of good points. i want to bring in conner o'shea. i hope you were able to listen to what karen and i talked about. do you agree with her when she says this is an offensive and defensive move? >> yes, good morning. i will agree with that analysis, i think havas is a company that has done well, controlled by bollore for a number of years. it a financial director of vivendi with a previous financial director of havas. at the haven't agm, vbollore

promised to double the operating budget of vivendi within three, four years time. so the acquisition of that group, havas was the obvious starting point in that respect. it's good use of their debt capacity. they still had some net cash on hand. and for business that's relatively stable, and one they know well, relatively low risk transaction. >> how much is this about addressing the challenges coming from the havas side given that it's really just a two tier -- second tier advertising play. not quite the wpv, we see the likes of facebook, google and now accenture have been encroaching on the advertising giant's territories. do you think this is root key reason for this deal? >> i'm not sure how much this

addresses the structural challenges, convergence and consulting groups within the agencies. i see this more as havas which is already working with universal music, in terms of soft synergies around some of their activities and their own particular challenges. this will bring this on a little bit more, but i'm not sure that it really signals an intent by vivendi to invest more in the agency side within the havas structure itself to face those challenges. i think havas always carved out a niche as far as its agency position. it is a successful transition with bollore will be more about margin growth than moving to the next tier as far as size of account wins. i don't think being within vivendi will necessarily change that, at least in the

short-term. >> this might be vincent bollore's measure to launch another fresh attack on italian assets, for instance, going after them under the helm of vivendi has been difficult, because there's been opposition from italian telekom media, shareholders, but if this is done through a private company there is less oversight and it doesn't destroy execution risk. it doesn't have negative repercussions for vivendi as a business. is this an attempt for bollore to go after those italian assets with his private company? >> could be. sometimes intentions are difficult to ascertain. but i do think that media investment from the bollore group are being channelled exclusively through vivendi. the italian situation is quite complicated, at least in the short-term, and they have to reduce the stake in mediaset according to the first ruling of the italian regulator which they

are appealing. but in theory that avenue is blocked in the short-term. but you must not forget that the bollore group has a lot of wide different interests, of which media is one. the other assets that it has in infrastructure in africa and logistics are not necessarily cash generative, yet they have serious long-term ambitions of their own which require significant investment. this is another way of bringing cash back into the bollore group perhaps to be spent on other activities, because the transactions are being done all in cash, where previously the market expected the havas deal to be done partly in shares with a view to increasing possible stake in vivendi without him having to lay out extra cash. a bit of a surprise it's being done in cash which suggests part

of the reason for that is to invest in other activities within bollore group, not necessarily in media. >> all right. sounds like a smart move. thank for that, connor o'shea. we want to thank karen tso. it is your weekend now. eight minutes late, but it starts now. europe's g-7 finance ministers have expressed their opinions on u.s. tax reform and donald trump's economic plans as they meet in bari. willem is live from bari. the italian finance minister has caused those plans ambitious. >> he did indeed. we caught up with him a few minutes ago. there's been voices from inside the imf that talked about the concerns that some of the economic plans especially tax reform in the u.s. might stoke inflation, some of the ambitious plans as he put it would be problematic in that sphere. let's have a listen to what he said to us a few moments ago. >> u.s. tax policy, i understand

there's a tax reform program in the united states. we're watching closely on what is good for the united states what would be learned by other countries about tax reform. >> so they'll be watching closely he says there. we're still watching closely to see whether the u.s. treasury secretary, steve mnuchin will arrive here. his colleagues are waiting inside for him. his role is to explain what it is the trump administration plans to do. it's an important role according to his counterpart from germany, wolfgang schauble who also spoebl spoke to cnbc. we need a strong united states to lead the global economy and global politics on a sustainable rate, and united states is still the most important political economy of the world and the best alliance for europe. >> now, speaking of europe, first item on the agenda this

morning will be greece, both the european leaders and the americans both say it's an important matter trying to resolve greaseece's debt proble. steve mnuchin said he is concerned about lingering debt in greece and europe. they're hoping the recent lending resolution they've seen with greece as far as tax reform and pension reform is a step in the right direction. we expect steve mnuchin to arrive any moment now. >> i hope you can squeeze in some time for some pasta in that area. >> i just bought some. i'm bringing it back to the office on monday. >> fantastic. have a great weekend. let's look at the european equity markets this friday. the stoxx 600 index is inching just a tad higher to the tune of 0.1%. look, we are still trading close to 21-month highs. what is really lighting up the

market today is the fact that we got this m&a deal between vivendi and havas. vivendi up by 6%, havas up by 2%. what you'll see looking at the indices, the cac 40 is underperforming just a tad, but some big m&a stories playing out in that market. the xetra dax in germany not far away from recent record highs. 12,726 points. elsewhere, the ftse mib is up by a third of a percent. once again luxury stocks are under pressure because of that profit miss and the challenging outlook coming from richemont down by 5%. that's weighing on the household goods sector. why luxury is included in household goods, i don't know. basic resources are off. media, with all that activity in the sector, is the best performing sector up by more than 1%. do e-mail the show. the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com.

you can also find me on twitter, @carolincnbc. still coming up on the show, is optimism over opec growing? we talk the latest moves in oil prices and what's driving it after a short break. we'll be back in two. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock.

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show me top artist. show me the top hot 100 artist. they give awards for being hot and 100 years old? we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. welcome back to the show. we are still in the thick of earnings season. richemont missing expectations with full-year results, sales growth and net profit came in below forecasts. as watch sales fell 15%. but there's a clear improvement in the second half thanks to a rebound in the u.s. and china. richemont proposed raising its dividend by 6% and launched a new share buyback program of 10

million shares. ti thyssenkrupp reported a n loss of 879 million euros for the second loss. they said they expected a significant net loss mainly due to the writedown of its brazilian steel division. earlier we asked if the company has a plan "b" if the deal with tata steel, it does not go through. >> we always clearly stated that for us, for thyssenkrupp, we need to strengthen our industrial businesses. we need to work on the underlying industrial issues we see especially in the material sector. there you see tata is moving into the right direction. leading the discussions with the pension regulator. they sold long steel businesses and specialties, yes, we confirmed we're talking to them. now these discussions are not over. but consolidation in this sector, in the steel sector and

in europe due to overcapacities that are there are name of the game and i think people have to be patient and see when we will come to a point and when tata will be ready that we can clearly say there is a case on the table or not. so therefore there is some time needed, there is not the right timing to talk about anything of plan "b"s. >> arcelormittal posted first quarter sales of over $16 billion, falling short of forecasts. shares off by 4.75% this as the steel shipments fell more than expected. the mining and multinational managed to turn out a net profit of $1 billion and says it expects market conditions to be broadly stable in the second quart. and unify lever ceo paul polman defended his position not to allow craft heinz to take

over. he also criticized warren buffett for pulling the strings on the takeover attempt. >> my returns have been higher in the last eight years than warren's returns, so i think it's better if he leaves us with what we know how to do well. crude prices are steadying today after finishing more than 1% higher in thursday's trade, this after the u.s. energy department reported a fall in inventories and the biggest weekly decline in the stockpile since december. brent hanging on to 50.79, wti crude up to 47.85. john t. rushworth is from s&p global, how long will this mini rally, if you can call it that last? will it last until we see the next build in u.s. inventories? >> that's a good question. the market has been in a line dance between the opec producers and u.s. production. with the comments from the saudi oil minister at the start of

this week, that put in a bullish tinge. that does also mean when we come to the meeting at the end of may, a lot of what's expected there is already priced in. on the other hand, we have rig counts in the u.s., data shows active rigs now above 1,000. the impact of that is not felt for about six, nine months after production. a lot of that the market is pricing in. the big question is what happens around demand. what is happening to demand? i saw in your notes that india is going very, very strong, but when it comes to the absolute size of their demand, that is still way short of what china's demanding. where is the swing demand -- >> coming from. >> yeah. >> china has become the largest importer in the world. a section of that demand is from strategic stock building. that will be price responsive. if we see too much change in

prices that could disappear quickly. india has a lot of growth. investing heavily. their economy is doing well this year. there is optimism there. as you say, it's from a lower base in china. most eyes will be on china over the next six months and what really happens there. >> one of the key turning points this week, i believe, was the fact that saudi arabia has cut the crude allocation to asian refineries. and these are some key customers that in the past have been shielded. do you think this is one of the key turning points when it comes to the opec agreement, showing us that it's finally paying off? >> well, you know, you have to see these moves within the light of what happens year to year. and may is traditional turnaround season for a lot of asian refiners. even though there may be allocation cuts, i don't think that means that saudi arabia is cre ceding market share in asia. that's unlikely to happen soon. on the other hand, where is the u.s. crude going this year?

to asia. that battle between those two supply sources in asia is as hot as ever. >> i read an op-ed on cnbc.com saying this rally is fake because there are big supply overhangs in china and we're seeing compliance is probably at a peak, and then you have the very flexible u.s. production, the highest since august 2015. do you agree with some of those points? >> we have the plats crude oil summit this week, it was fairly evenly split between the bulls and bears. it's easy to construct a narrative that says the cuts are there, u.s. production will take a while to come up. on the other hand, the stocks are very high around the world. and it is -- there's a lot of crude out there. so, it's difficult -- i think the other point that gets begotten, as much as opec cuts, that increases owe puck spec su

capability. there is always the ability to supply if needed. volatility will be the one to suffer in the next several months. it's difficult to spike if you have opec there to produce. >> i wonder, are we not reading too much into the fundamentals of supply and demand? isn't a large part of the oil market the price moves driven by what speculators are doing and what we've seen since the end of april, that prices have drawn by around 10% when it comes to crude. and we see many long positions in the market have been taken out. isn't that as much of a driver as some supply views? >> i think on a day-to-day basis, there's a lot of speculator watching that goes on for sure. but at the end of the day, the derivative contracts have to come in line with the physical. that physical is very much fundamentally driven. so, for one day to the next, volatility there, you could look at that. from one week to the next, one month to the next, it's the fundamentals that drive the

markets. >> where and when do you see rebalancing? is it still in the second quarter of this year? is it going closer to the third or fourth quarter? >> we're in the second quarter now. the iea says they expect a shortage, this quarter and into the third quarter. we had an event a couple months back. we asked that question to a lot of assembled global oil industry. i would say there's a fair amount of skepticism that the market would be in deficit by q3. there's an expectation of balance for sure. >> yeah. >> so i -- balance in q3 seems, you know, the name of the game. >> but deficit may be a long way off. >> the iea says deficit. >> thank you very much for that. john t. rushworth from s&p global platts. bitcoin briefly passed the $1,800 mark to set a new record high two days after breaking the 1700 level. it's down today in asian trade but the rally has been driven by

japanese demand after the currency was legalized in the country. bitcoin has risen to around 300% this year with the market cap standing at nearly $29 billion. investor mark cuban has told cnbc that he wants to give snap a chance and said there may be some upside potential. he said he expects snap to get better at selling ads and said that the company can get its act together on revenue he does not see some of the risks others have identified. cuban also said the f.a.n.g. stocks are state undervalued. he was bullish on amazon saying the opportunity for the company is very big. take a listen. >> my biggest holding is amazon. it's the ultimate ai company. it's the ultimate start-up. they use it better than anybody. when amazon talks about opening up grocery stores, it's not because they want to sell groceries in stores, they want to know what you need, when you need t before you know you need it so they can deliver it to your door.

the opportunity there globally is yoendbeyond enormous. >> i'm looking at some comments from mr. mnuchin at the g-7 meeting at bari, he has been saying he's excited about trump's administration trade policy. he said he is happy with the u.s./chinese trade measures. we'll hear plenty more comments from the g-7 on trade today. we have plenty more "street signs" for you on the other side of this break. do stick around.

welcome back to "street signs." i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. a mega media merger lights up the french market. shares in vivendi and havas spike as vincent bollore moves to merge the two businesses he controls in a 2.4 billion euro deal. first world problems for richemont which misses expectations on the top and bottom line, sending shares deep into the red in zurich. g-7 finance ministers play down worries about u.s. tax reform plans as treasury secretary steve mnuchin arrives for another round of talks in italy. >> i understand there's an ambitious tax reform program in

the united states, we're watching closely on what is good for the united states and what would be learned by other countries about tax reform. donald trump calls fired fbi director james comey a grandstanding showboat as he tells nbc exclusively his rational for sacking him earlier this week. >> you said i accepted their recommendations. you had already made the decision. >> i was going to fire regardless. good morning, everyone. it is friday. let's look at u.s. futures. yesterday we ended lower in terms of the u.s. stocks. but well off the session lows. the nasdaq snapping a five-day winning streak. the dow fell for a third session. this morning the s&p, dow jones and nasdaq are seen just a tad lower when starts get underway. the s&p 500 off by 6 points. the nasdaq seen off by 12 points after hitting so many record highs this week. a look at european equity

markets. they're looking friendlier. the ftse 100 up by 0.25%. the xetra dax inching higher. and the cac 40 showing signs of performance despite the news of a megamerger in the media space between vivendi and havas. in the fx markets, the dollar is below an eight week high versus the yen. the dollar up by 0.8% this week. watch out for retail sales and cpi. of course we'll keep an eye on comments from mr. mnuchin and finance ministers from the g-7 meeting in italy. vivendi has announced plans to buy bollore's stake in havas for 2.4 billion euros. it would add a new business to the vivendi group with more than 13 billion euros in revenues. the step marks another milestone

in vincent bollore's plans to create a media powerhouse. cnbc spoke to havas ceo yannick bollore in march in which he said he was a believer in integration in order to boost activity. >> we need to transcend and reunify creativity in media. i believe integration is the key to success we have today. in the end, our two divisions will disappear, i wanted to come back to a more united group as we used to be in the past, but being much more complex. >> i guess integration will be taken one step further. president trump said he planned to fire fbi director james comey before receiving a recommendation from the deputy attorney general. in an exclusive interview with n nbc news, the president described multiple conversations with comey about whether or not he, the president, was under

investigation. trump also explained his rationale for removing the fbi director.+r֖ >> look, he's a showboat. he's a grandstander. the fbi has been in turmoil, you know that. i know that. everybody knows that. you take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil less than a year ago. it hasn't recovered from that. >> monday you met with the deputy attorney general rob rosenstein. >> right. >> did you ask for a recommendation? >> what i did, i was going to fire comey, my decision. it was not -- >> you made the decision before they came in the room. >> i was going to fire comey. there is no good time to do it, by the way. >> because in the letter you said i accepted their recommendation. >> yeah. >> but you had already made the decision? >> i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. he made a recommendation, highly respected. very good guy. very smart guy. the democrats like him. the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i

was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election, that they should have won. and the reason they should have won it, the electoral college is almost impossible for a republican to win. very hard. because you start off at such a disadvantage. everyone was thinking they should have won the election. this was an excuse for having lost the election. >> are you angry with mr. comey because of his russia investigation? >> i just want somebody that's competent. i'm a big fan of the fbi. i love the fbi -- >> are you a fan of him taking up that investigation -- >> i think -- about the hillary clinton investigation? >> no about the russia investigation and possible links between -- >> look, look, let me tell you. as far as i'm concerned, i want that thing to be absolutely done

properly. when i did this, now i said i probably maybe will confuse people, maybe i'll expand that, you know, i'll lengthen the time because it should be over with -- in my opinion, it should have been over with a long time ago, because all it is is an excuse. i said to myself, i might even lengthen out the investigation. but i have to do the right thing for the american people. he's the wrong man for that position. >> let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. comey. you write, "i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation." why did you put that in there? >> because he told me that. he told me -- >> he told you -- >> i've heard that from others -- >> in a phone call. did you meet face-to-face? >> i had a dinner with him. we had a dinner, because he wanted to stay on. >> he asked for the dinner? >> the dinner was arranged. i think he asked for the dinner. and he wanted to stay on as the fbi head. i said, i'll consider, we'll see what happens.

we had a very nice dinner and at that time he told me you are not under investigation, which i knew anyway. >> very entertaining interview. new french president macron's party has revealed most of its candidates ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. most of those have never held elected office before. macron's party along with his centrist ally also receive the majority of votes in the election. and the outgoing finance minister of italy are in bari for a ministerial meeting. he was asked about macron, a man he once worked closely with. >> translator: i see you are familiar with the ministry. governments are made up of individuals with their own personalities. that was the case for macron and

me. at times we held different points of the view. the president makes choices that are applied. that's what happened with the both of us agreeing. i believe macron has the personality it takes to make choices and to ensure they are passed by a majority in the assembly. whatever their origin or voting preference what french people want today is for france to succeed and for it to work. ours is a great country. it's a great economy. it has wonderful qualities, too, alongctions in voting patterns, where some voted on the far right, some on the far left. 65% of those who supported macron in the second round did so because they want macron to succeed. he has what it takes to mac

france succeed. >> let's discuss this with jonathan fendi. always a pleasure to have you on the show. this plan to have half of the parliament or half of the members of the en marche parties coming from the civil society, half of them women, the civil society part, y i see how this would be revolutionary, he wants to drain the swamp, if you will, but isn't this a risky business, a risky endeavor give than this will be a totally inexperienced team? >> it is a high-risk strategy, but macron has been following that since setting up the government and helped by a lot of luck along the way. yes, of course, a lot of these people watching the new candidates on television last night, they were inexperienced, it must be said. at the same time, what macron is

doing, which he has given less publicity to, he's reaching out to some of the established parties. he's got a number of socialist deputies who joined him. he's not running candidates against some of the former ministers. >> such as manuel valls. >> and he's not running against some of the republican leaders. he's hoping to get liberal members of the republican party not necessarily to join up with en marche but alie with h ally after the election. >> some say macron is taking a tougher stance on trade and foreign investment because he's afraid of too much globalization. do you think he's diluting his message too much by trying to gain enough support from the right? >> this is the question.

he set out a strong stall, the globalization, markets, reform, liberal changes. but i think inevitably he's tacking a bit to the wind. but certainly there is the question for him and for the new government which we'll have in berlin after the elections in september of whether they go for, as it were, a strong euro policy, forgetting about brexit and britain but building up europe, getting to grips with some of the euro problems. and whether they say it or not, actually in counter balance to donald trump's america. >> how important is his pick for the prime minister? i read a lot of stuff about this potentially being christine lagarde, how much of a difference does it make? >> will indicate where he's going, where he's heading. there's been so many names mentioned. we could go on all morning leak this. there's one republican mayor in the north who is much mentioned about. if he went for a liberal republican, that would be a

signal to members of that party that he's open for business after the elections. >> jonathan, stick around. we have plenty more topics to talk about and this. theresa may's campaign bus pulls up in the northeast of england today. the british prime minister is expected to attack opposition leader jeremy corbin by claiming he had desserted working class people and that she will strive to be a worthy leader. the labour leader will set out his foreign policy positions at chatham house late their morning. jeremy corbin will say he's not a pass first and will end arm sales so saudi arabia and other oppressive regimes. he also vowed no hand holding or pandering to an erratic trump administration. that reminds us of the hand holding pictures between theresa may and trump what do you make of these comments? >> corbyn is trying to say you

can trust me. trust me with national defense and so on. because the labour party was pushed off balance a bit yesterday when its manifesto was leaked in advance before going to the committee which was going to approve it. that's a left wing program, higher tax rates, welfare spending and so on with commitments which look pretty major at the moment. the question is whether britain wants that kind of thing. on the other hand, you have theresa may insisting she's the only person who can bring a strong, stable government. but also as your intro showed there, she's using the brexit route to get into the league of voters there in industrial areas. those workers always used to be solid lalabour, and this time ty

hope to finish the process by voting for conservatives. >> is this uk general election on june 8th s that really about brexit? to me it seems like it's about personalities? >> it was caused by brexit in a sense. may wanted a big majority. so she could decide what to do, have a free hand to decide what she wants to do on brexit. that, we won't know. it's morphed into a personality, almost a presidential race between trump -- between may and corbyn, with the liberal democrats who have been hoping that they could appeal to the main voters, the 48% remain voters to regain the seats they lost in the last general election. they don't seem to be making progress. >> is there anything corbin can do now until june 8th? it seems like after this very embarrassing moment yesterday of the leaked manifesto, yes, his polls have gone up a bit over

the past week, up by 2 percentage points. that may be the ebb and flow of the polls. is there anything he can do to boost ratings? >> i don't think so. when we were looking at the french presidential election earlier this year, it seemed alain juppe was a shoe-in, fillon was a shoe-in. but i don't see corbyn pulling that kind of trick this time around. >> seems like a done deal then if the polls are correct. they weren't for brexit, but they are more spot on these days. jonathan sticks around. coming up on the show, where's the beef? china and the u.s. strike a deal that will open beef and chicken trading between the superpowers. we'll bring you the latest after the break.

the united states and china have reached an agreement to expand trade between the two countries aiming to increase access for financial firms and allow trade between chicken and beef. the united states says it will allow china's cooked poultry to be imported to the u.s., and u.s. beef can be exported to china. also u.s.-owned card payment services can begin operating in china. want to remind you of some of the comments from mr. mnuchin in bari, italy this morning. he said that he's quite excited about the trump administration's trade policy, and he says he is happy with the u.s./chinese trade measures. chinese president xi jinping is expected to detail plans for his belt and road initiative this weekend. 8 28 heads of states will attend the summit and over 50 project agreements will be signed in a

bid to further the progress. the ambitious initiative to build a new silk road between china and europe was introduced in 2013 but specifics have remained scant. a $40 billion fund has been earmarked for the scheme but concerns arose over the economic and security risks of the proje project. while some remain sus person shus suspicious of china's aims. it's an ambitious plan encompassing 4.4 billion people and up to 40% of global gdp. is it too ambitious? >> at the moment, yeah, it's too ambitious. it's been built up to be a big global initiative. for the moment, it's largely part of a more broad effort by xi jinping to increase china's influence. some say he is moving into areas from which the u.s. has

withdrawn from. secondly, china has a lot of reserves and money which it can throw at this. what's interesting is how little has been thrown at it so far. you talk about 40 billion, that's largely from the china development banks, another 1 is 1 0 billion from chinese companies. it's still early days. we have to see what's built on that. there are all kinds of problems in this. if you're going to build a highway and railroad from the port that's being developed in pakistan up to western china, you will go through some dangerous territory there. so you have to have chinese border guards all along the way. a lot of the other elements are nice ideas, but let's see the beef. >> are countries right to be concerned about china's assertiveness when it comes to showing its imperial power, or is it not really about that? is it an economic drive? >> it's an economic drive, but

behind that is the geopolitical, which clearly xi jinping in 2014 made the decision. up to then china was to be hide our brilliance, bide your time. we don't need their trade, investment and technology. now xi is up there, you could see that up at the speech at davos and after, he is out before the chinese economy congress to establish himself as a big world figure. >> what i find interesting is the fact that on one hand china is trying to crack down on fdi, that is deemed irrational, such as outward m&a, for example. and then on the other hand they're looking to spend 600 billion to 8$800 billion over te next five years, a huge outward investment. would that not be deemed irrational as well? >> what they want to buy, above all, china, is companies, enterprises, that suit their development needs.

for instance, they need gm seats, they don't want to buy hollywood television studios. that's the control element. but you can see the commerce department in washington and the chinese issued a statement yesterday saying the u.s. would welcome inward china direct investment. that's the kind of thing china wants. they're investing a lot more money in developed economies rather than the countries along the silk road. >> how much is this a response to trump's increased protectionism? i know these plans were in place long before trump was even a candidate for the republican party since 2013. but now it seems like the plans have been specified and this has been ramped up and launched even more. >> yes. i think that's so. you can see the pattern, since the end of november last year, when on the same weekend trump tweeted that the u.s. was going to pull out of the trump specific partnership under him, and that weekend xi was at an

apec summit in lima, and announcing we are the globalized power. they've been building on that since. that's the chinese narrative now, which a lot of people like. they hope it will be accompanied by chinese money. if we can show that beautiful wall that we've shown today. that's barking to beijing. >> i know, barking is suddenly become a world center here. >> the first time that barking will make it on a world map. >> barking, of course, in the east of england. >> i was going to say, you better tell people. >> jonathan, thank you. tune in on monday when we'll be live from beijing with all the latest developments from the forum. our top story, french media conglomerate vivendi announced plans to buy group bollore stkeg in havas for $2.4 billion. it would add a combined business to vivendi with more than 13

billion euros. vivendi up by 5.3%, havas up by more than 10%. now, shares in astrazeneca are rallying hard after the success of a cancer drug trial. shares up by 4.5%. a drug that helps the body's immune system fight cancer has been shown to significantly reduce the worsening of nonsmall cell lung cancer in stage three patients. before we wrap up the show, here's a shot of the european equity markets. the ftse 100, up, the xetra dax up, the cac 40 almost unchanged. when it comes to u.s. futures, we expect a slightly downward move for these u.s. equity markets today. s&p 500 seen off by 6 points. dow jones seen off by 39. nasdaq could fall by 14 points based on early indications. that's it for today's show.

i'm carolin roth. "worldwide exchange" is up next. we'll see you same time same place on monday. have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

. good morning. retail rocked. the sector under serious pressure. we look at what is going wrong and which names are being hit hearted. and president trump calls james comey a showboat. behind the scenes details of the fbi director's firing. and bullish on big tech. mark cuban reveals his biggest holding last night on cnbc. we'll tell you what it is. it is friday, may 12, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now.