the life room outdoor hello. welcome to "street signs." i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. the trump slump loses some steam in europe but equity markets remain in the red with financials following their wall street peers lower. the justice department appoints former fbi director robert mueller as a special counsel to oversee the russia investigation adding pressure on president trump after a tumultuous day on capitol hill.

shares in fiat hit the skids after the u.s. department of justice reportedly prepares to sue the carmaker over its excess emissions. burberry shares are in fashion with investors in early trade as the company reported better than expected underlying profit as a new ceo gets set to wear the pants. sent to where the pen good morning once again, it's thursday. glad you're with us. let's get straight to the markets, see what the fallout from the white house drama continues to be. the stoxx 600 is still off by 0.5%. the dax seeing its biggest loss since before the trump election. the dax down 1.4%, the cac off 1.8%. the worst day in more than eight weeks. as you can see, we're extending that selling pressure on the markets. let's look at the sectors one by one. you can see autos are under pressure, off by 1.4%. this is mainly because of fiat

chrysler given the u.s. investigation and the pressure on the carmaker. we'll get much more from nancy hungerford. utilities, household goods are the few out-performers. utilities up by 0.4%. in the financial space, this is one of the sectors that suffers so heavily in yesterday's trading session in the u.s. when we saw financials off by roughly 3%. given the concerns around the trump trade. the stoxx 600 financial services off by 1.3, given worries that trump will not be able to roll back regulation as much as he promised during his campaign. let's show you what the dollar index is doing. it's slightly higher today. not by much. 97.64. the dollar index still very close to six-month lows. it's given up all its post-election gains. once again, all down to the trump worries. when it comes to the vix, this

is the fear gauge for the markets. the vix at 14.63. yesterday it went above 13 for the first time in a month that shows you the degree of nervousness in the market. it comes back to this story, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein has appointed robert mueller as special counsel to oversee the investigation into possible ties between russia and the trump campaign. in a statement trump said as i stateded in many times a thorough investigation will show what we already know there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. >> reporter: the justice department tonight appointing former fbi director robert mueller as special counsel to step in and lead an investigation into possible trump campaign ties to russia. the administration bending under pressure from both parties. in a statement president trump repeated that there is no collusion between his campaign

and any foreign entity. adding i look forward to this matter concluding quickly. mueller led the fbi for 12 years under presidents bush and obama. >> he has a superb reputation as director of the fbi. he's well thought of by people on both sides of the aisle. >> we have to detox this. >> reporter: the house and senate are each leading their own investigations and nbc news learned two central figures from the campaign, former manager, paul manafort and former national security adviser michael flynn have been asked to respond to a grand jury. the number two house republican, kevin mccarthy explaining something he said last year that then candidate trump was paid by russian president vladimir putin. >> if you listen to it, everybody laughed. you know it's a bad attempt at a joke. that's all there is to it. >> reporter: what he calls a laughing matter then, now the subject of serious questions.

mule ler have mueller have to appoint a special team before he can get started. tonight mueller said he accepts the responsibility and will discharge it to the best of his ability. blayne alexander, nbc news. this comes as michael flynn did inform the president trump and his transition team that he was under federal investigation weeks before the electielection. flynn told donald mccann that an inquiry was opened into his work as a paid lobbyist. despite this flynn was made national security adviser before being fired after 24 days on the job. richard lewis joined me around the desk. we'll have to continue to talk about the fallout from the white house drama. >> yes. >> do you continue to buy u.s. equities or global equities despite this? >> i think the wall street drama is creating a great news story and a narrative for why the

market sells off, but quite frankly the trump trade had been in reversal for a long time. the whole move into cyclicals and financials which the trump victory initiated in the fourth quarter has already been washed out. so i think there are other factors behind this sort of risk pump that we're seeing. now, the risk appetite was very, very extended up until yesterday. we had this enormous move for more than a year with hardly a flee flick in it. suddenly we have a bit of a flee flick. the question on everybody's mind will this turn into something more than a correction? i don't think the answer lies with mr. trump. >> you think this is really the market's excuse to take profits? >> yes. >> because valuations were so high. we have seen this great run up in the trump trade. >> yes. i think the dynamics behind the great risk on move have some little wobbles in them, which they haven't had for a while. i always come back, when i personally am trying to assess

the likely risk appetite in financial markets, one of the great drives for me is always monetary conditions. there have been little rolloffs in the rate of credit creation for some time. i've been waiting really for the risk-on momentum to find an excuse to break. i think this might be it. >> who is long? is it the short-term investor or is it already the longer term investor? are they fully convinced of this rally which you say might be at the cusp of ending? >> i think if we look specifically at u.s. equity market, as ever the epicenter, the short-term community, by which i mean they had long/short equity hedge funds have been getting longer. which is a potential vulnerability because they will just cut their positions into weakness. but they're not at long extremes. our figures show the net exposure to equities in the

long/short is about polilus 50%. plus 60 is a warning sign, plus 50 is high. >> to what extent to you think sentiment can pick up easily again if this investigation blows over quicker than people expect and then trump can carry on with reforms when it comes to taxes, infrastructure, healthcare. do you think the rally will pick up again? >> i think the rally could pick up again. there's enough great news around to fire it. but it's not to do with mr. trump. i don't think the market expected mr. trump to put through tax reforms or healthcare reforms. in terms of financials, he won't be able to put through regulatory reform but he will be able to hire and put in place people less onerous on the system. it won't be to do with trump, it will be to do with the earnings, the real dog meat of the market. the first quarter earnings announcements, profits

announcements for u.s. corporates were fantastic. that's the catalyst if risk appetite comes back. >> let's look at the european and asian markets what we've seen over the last two trading days is, yes, there has been contagion given all the worries about the white house, the special counsel and whatnot. i can't say european and asian markets have decoupled. do you think they will in the future given the earnings growth in both parts of the world? >> on a day-to-day basis, it's very difficult for markets to decouple. if wall street finishes down 2% overnight, other markets will open down as well. in a short time. in the medium term you do see decoupling. you had a huge outperformance of wall street over the last five years, could some of that reverse? absolutely. the condition s s for that trad are in place. >> you still like europe and asia versus the u.s.? >> yes, europe, asia and even

japan. primarily europe and asia versus the u.s. >> richard, thank you very much for that. richard li lewis from fidelity. one long-time bull is not afraid of the fear around trump. jeremy seal says the market rally has been based on the republican agenda not the trump agenda. head to cnbc.com to find out why he thinks the dow could spike 1,000 points if the president resigns. e-mail the show, the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com. you can also find us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc and tweet me directly @carolincnbc. still coming up on the show, burberry shares are getting a bid after posting better than expe expected numbers. but challenges still remain for the new ceo. we'll drill into the numbers after the break. finding time to get things done isn't easy.

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welcome back to the show. burberry is trading at the top of the ftse after the fashion firm told investors its pretax profit is set to rise this year. however on a less positive note, the luxury group reported a 21% fall in underlying profits for the last year. the stock is up nicely. michelle negrade is from direct investing and joins me now. thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us. why do you think shares are up by this much give than we saw wholesale weakness in the u.s. still. >> i think the market was relieved, though a bit worried about what the results might be. people were expecting them to be flat. but i think they came in with a good set of numbers. the fact that sales actually rose 1% year over year, like sales, i think that was

positive. what the market is really looking forward to is the new ceo coming on board an seeid se how that dynamic will work. >> he takes up the role in early june what do you think is the first order of business? i guess the market is excited we have a proper ceo back at the helm of the company, no longary creative director. what do you think she be doihe doing first? >> i think she get in sync with christopher and find out what christopher is trying to do, and then look at the logistics of the firm. christopher's job is to provide the creativity, the reason why people want burberry, and marco's job is to get the product to the market in the most relevant way for customers. he's the logistics of the company. >> but that shouldn't be a problem overall because burberry

has been leading when it came to the digital side of the business. they had a good way of reaching to millennialmillennials, then demographics favor them. we have a huge burgeoning middle class in asia. what could go wrong for them going forward? >> what could go wrong for them is that the -- they could become yesterday's story. so they've always got to be leading the edge. so you're right. in digital they are leading the way. the products are exclusive and desirable. the chinese love them. so that's already there. but it's easy to fall off your perch. he's got to keep the company there. the other thing he's got to do is look at costs. what they did well and what 2016 has been great for them is the fact that sterling fell. all the costs are in sterling. all the sales are in dollars. it's been fabulous from that point of view, but that dynamic

probably won't last. >> especially now since the pound sterling has been rising going into the uk elections. >> yeah. >> last year margins were great. we saw this hike in the dividend today. that's great news for investors. but there's talk that there could be an additional shareholder return, capital return after the current 150 million pound buyback is completed. do you think investors are hoping for too much here? >> no, i don't think so. it's a bit of a cash cow. it has been increasing its dividend nicely. from a dividend growth point of view it's been great. shares have fully priced in all expectations at the moment. they're not cheap. i suppose burberry is not meant to be cheap in the first place. you know, i think it's a good share for the long-term growth. definitely. especially if these two guys get it together and make it work. >> that's true. i want to come back to the

valuation. pe of 28 times earnings. that's quite a lot. how does this compare to the rest of the luxury markets, luxury apparel markets? what's your top pick? >> the pes of all the successful ones are around that level. the luxury market you hinted on earlier has an advantage because they are desirable to the rising middle class in the emerging market. the market is growing fast so they're different from the high street. you can't compare the two types of companies. the high street is struggling at the moment. competition is rife. and people are being a bit more discerning there. in the luxury market, margins are higher. the market is growing. it's kind of win-win. but the thing they've got to do is keep exclusive.

which is in this digital world quite a difficult thing to do. >> that also means do not cut prices. that would be the ultimate mistake. then it means the product is no longer exclusive. >> this is it. don't make it too available as well. that is also an epic challenge. the thing is that what these companies can't do, and what burberry doesn't want to do is go to their affordable luxury area. once they step down to that area t changes the dynamic, they start competing with high street. >> we've seen that happening to the likes of michael kors and that didn't go well for them. thomas cook posted a 3% rise in half year revenue in line with expectations. the british tour operator also said it expects strong demand during the summer season. speaking to cnbc, the cfo said the pick up in demand shows the company's strategy is working.

>> sitting here last year with the events that were going on around thomas cook, it's pleasing to see that finally we can see that the strategy we've got, which is focusing on the customer, customer care and looking after the customer by giving more services is working. facebook marks the fifth anniversary of the ipo today. the social network's growth has been looked at over the past five years. >> reporter: thursday marks a full five years since facebook's ipo in 2012. the user base is 2 million people. far bigger than any country on the planet. we estimated trillions of dollars of productivity have been taken away from the world as a result. if everybody spent their time working a minimum wage job instead, you could have added $1 trillion of value to north america's economy. another $5 trillion across the globe. that big number is a reminder

for how giant the company has become. by itself facebook resen repres 11% of the market cap of publicly traded software companies. five years ago many analysts thought the company was overvalued, overhyped and not worth the price. take dennis gartman who wrote the world has not revolved around facebook, never have and never really will. he had to change his tune. he told me this week he got it wrong and had to be convinced by his daughter that he missed the point completely. he's glad he never shorted the stock the last five years and agrees now facebook has become an integral part of the global economy. >> let's turn to autos. general motor also sts will stog its vehicles in india. they plan to focus on new technologies and enhancing its presence in china and brazil. gm said it would continue to

build products in india to sell in other countries. fiat shares are tumibility i tumbling after reports emerged that the u.s. justice department will sue fiat chrysler over excess diesel emissions. the dodj could file a civil lawsuit as early as this week if no agreement is reached over the alleged violations of clean air rules. the italian-american company maintains software in its cars was not designed to cle ed ted emissions tests, but fiat chrysler still has not explained its purpose. let's get more analysis from nancy hungerford. there's a disconnect between what fiat chrysler is saying, the doj and the epa is saying. >> the discrepancy comes down on to whether or not the software was designed to cheat. the statement from fiat chrysler has been there was no defeat

device as was in the case of volkswagen. they said anyone who compares us to volkswagen is smoking an illegal substance. and they've gone on to say we will vigorously, especially point that they had cheating software. so there's a discrepancy. the company continues to say we have not cheated. but the mere fact you're talking about this threat of a criminal lawsuit weighed on the stock. >> so it feels like this is down to semantics and where does this lead? >> to an extent. you may say was the software causing a discrepancy, was it designed to cheat? the big difference all along was that the device they had was only designed to cheat the emissions test. we talked about discrepancies about standards across vehicles, but outside volkswagen the other

automakers have insisted they have not been cheating. we'll have to wait to see what happens. there's a may 24th deadline with a series of lawsuits coming from owners who drive these vehicles. if they can't come to an agreement before that time, then the officials in the u.s. and fca could see criminal action. the company says they will fight any of those charges. i think it's important, too when you talk about what could happen, if we get that suit. analysts over at evercore were looking at the numbers, and the maximum fine that they could face is 4$4.6 billion. if you look at what happened with volkswagen, analysts are saying that's not likely that it would get that hard. and if, in fact, they do get in trouble with authorities, it could be a software fix. but we're still a long way to go on that one considering fca wants to fight the charges. >> in the case of vw, we saw the civil claims, and those ran up the tally. do you not think that history will repeat itself in the case

of fiat chrysler? >> it's difficult to say. as we were talking about this morning, the latest revelation that the volkswagen ceo is now being looked at, an investigation about market manipulation. it's not just the fact of defeat devices and what they knew, but it's the fact should they have disclosed to shareholders earlier. it's too early to make those comparisons. one thing we can draw from this is the issue with diesels going forward. they're not a huge part of the u.s. market but it raises questions about the future in europe. >> nancy, thank you very much for that. that was your last hit here in europe. you'll be off to singapore soon. >> yes, taking a break. i will be back on in singapore shortly at the end of june. >> was a pleasure working with you here in europe. we'll be seeing you across the screens as of july 1st, i believe. >> yes. very much looking forward to it. >> enjoy your long holiday or whatever you're doing. we'll go for a quick break. check out world markets live, our blog which runs throughout

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welcome back to "street signs." i'm carolin roth. these are your headlines. the trump slump loses some steam in europe but equity markets remain in the red with financials following their wall street peers lower. the justice department appoints former fbi director

robert mueller as special counsel to oversee the russia investigation adding pressure on president trump after a tumultuous day on capitol hill. shares in fiat hit the skids after the u.s. department of justice reportedly prepares to sue the carmaker over its excess emissions. the eu hits facebook with a proportionate and deterrent fine of 110 million euros for providing misleading information over its acquisition of watts a whatsapp. good morning, everyone. let's get straight to uk data. uk retail sales data on top. they rebounded more than expected in april. sterling/dollar up by 0.3% on the day. nice reaction to the bump up in sales. uk april retail sales up 2.3% on

the month, up 4% on the year versus a forecast of 1.5% on the month and 2.3% on the year. keep in mind that these numbers are incredibly volatile. and reading some an lerss notes befo analysts notes t will indicate the numbers are weaker. real wages being squeezed. now actually negative given the rise in inflation coming in at 2.7% last month. do take this with a pinch of salt. right now sterling/dollar is rallying, hitting 1.30 for the first time in eight months after the uk retail sales data. 1.3022 is the current print. u.s. futures at this hour, looking at a little bit of a rebound potentially. the s&p 500 seen up by almost 2 points. the dow jones could open higher to 20 points. the nasdaq set to add less than one point.

this is after u.s. equities closed lower yesterday after investors continue to worry about the latest news coming out of washington. the dow lost 372 points, off 1.8%. the s&p was down 43 points. the nasdaq also off. the dow seeing its worst days since december. the nasdaq had the worst day since the june brexit vote. that's also very much the picture that we're still seeing in the european trade. financials under pressure. the ftse 100 off 0.9%. the xetra dax off by 0.3%. when it comes to fx, maybe the dollar is seeing a rebound here. not seeing too much of that happening. the dollar index at six-month lows and giving up all of its gains. wanted to show you what's happening in cable, pound versus u.s. dollar. 1.3017 after better than

expected retail sales. okay. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein has appointed former fbi director robert mueller as special counsel to oversee the investigation into possible ties between russia and the trump campaign. in a statement president trump said as i stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know, there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. blayne alexander has more from the white house. >> reporter: the justice department tonight appointing former fbi director robert mueller as special counsel to step in and lead an investigation into possible trump campaign ties to russia. the administration bending under pressure from both parties. in a statement president trump repeated that there is no collusion between his campaign and any foreign entity. adding i look forward to this matter concluding quickly. mueller led the fbi for 12 years under presidents bush and obama. >> he has a superb reputation as

director of the fbi. he's well thought of by people on both sides of the aisle. >> we have to detox this. we have to take the politics as best as we can out of it. >> reporter: the house and senate are each leading their own investigations and nbc news learned two central figures from the trump campaign, former manager paul manafort and former national security adviser michael flynn have been asked to respond to a grand jury. the number two house republican, kevin mccarthy explaining something he said last year that then candidate trump was paid by russian president vladimir putin. >> if you listen to it, everybody laughed. you know it's a bad attempt at a joke. that's all there is to it. >> reporter: what he calls a laughing matter then, now the subject of serious questions. mueller will have to appoint a special team before he can get started. tonight mueller said he accepts the responsibility and will discharge it to the best of his ability. blayne alexander, nbc news. former national security

adviser michael flynn informed president trump's transition team that he was under investigation weeks before the election. that's according to a report by the "new york times." flynn told donald mccann that an inquiry was opened into his work as a paid lobbyist for turkey during the campaign. despite this flynn was made national security adviser before being fired after 24 days on the job. let's get more on the drama unfolding in the white house. the economic policy analyst from the american enterprise institute and a cnbc contributor joins me bright and early out of new york. always a pleasure having you on the show -- sorry, that's washington. give me a sense of what the reaction is in washington to the appointment of mueller as special counsel. i know he will not have as much power as a special prosecutor. what's the sense there? >> is he going to have vast

powers, vast responsibility. he has to report what he's doing to the assistant attorney general. this is a powerful position. the trump administration would prefer this not happen. but there's some relief that there is already three congressional investigations. now we have this additional investigation. and we'll see what it turns up. but there's no doubt that at least among republicans they would be trying to focus on healthcare reform, taxes. and they would have much preferred that the last two weeks been donald trump giving speeches, pushing for healthcare reform and tax reform rather than firing fbi directors and having a special prosecutor announced. >> what's the risk? that this investigation will be overshadowing the trump administration, it's campaign promises until the midterms, and that's only in november of next year. that's a long time. >> right. it may seem like it's still early. it's not.

they still have to pass budgets. you have months off in august. there's not a lot of time. the closer you get to midterms, the harder it is to get anything passed. if you look at history, the record of administratimendmentd engulfed in this kind of scandal, usually you don't get big things done. they don't happen. what the republicans are trying to do and the trump administration is trying to do is get big things done. healthcare reform is huge, tax reform is massive if history is a guide, those things will be difficult to accomplish. >> james, is the market going to chance? will the economy collapse if none of these things happen? because as far as i remember, the u.s. economy actually gained steam before trump was put in office. >> right. i think of the short and medium term, the macro factors are more important. this is an economy that

continues to generate jobs. that seems to have settled in 2% growth. so it's not like we're in crisis. if you think the key to raising that growth rate to something beyond 2% is better public policy, if that's the longer-term forecast, this has to be disappointing. the u.s. needs healthcare reform and tax reform. if those things don't happen, if you're making bets based on a more robust u.s. economy, then you have to reconsider that. perhaps that's what we're seeing in the markets. >> mr. mnuchin goes on about the 3% level that the u.s. economy could be hitting if all these campaign promises are fulfilled. now you say that's never going to happen because productivity is so low. why would you say that? >> i think it's very difficult. you have -- because of demographic changes and weak productivity, turning the economy around in a short period

of time so we're consistently growing at 3% or better is very, very difficult. i think you can do that. but it's going to require a portfolio of policy changes. not just tax reform, but other things including education, immigration, which the trump administration has a problem with. so turning around based purely on deregulating energy, and lowering the corporate tax rate, that's putting a heavy burden and i expect to have much faster growth based on those things. it needs to be broader than that and it will take time. >> james, can i ask what you think will happen? will this end in obstruction of justice or will we go for the big "i" word, impeachment? >> listen, don't ask me to predict what will happen between now and tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. this has been a completely unpredictable scenario. we don't know if the other shoe will drop. these are extraordinary investigations.

there's not an insignificant chance that this could result in something, a major shakeup of the u.s. presidency. these are serious times. i wouldn't want to hazard a hand wave guess at this. it's serious. you're seeing that in the markets, and certainly people here are focused on what will happen next. >> thank you very much for your caution and obviously we don't know what will happen. we don't know what mr. trump will be tweeting in the next 24 hours or what else can happen. >> you can't predict the tweets. >> you can't. you can't make all this stuff up. you certainly can't. thank you as always. the latest poll from harris interactive shows macron's party gaining support ahead of the french legislative elections in june. he's polling at 32%, ahead of the far right front and center right republicans. president macron revealed his

cabinet lineup. his picks were drawn from across the political spectrum and it contains an equal amount of men and women. macron appointed the previoov environmental director. and the ecology minister sparked a 7% fall in edf stocks. the losses moderating this morning. but he saulot said he would lik see the firm transsingsiitionin from nuclear energy. theresa may is expected to reveal measures aimed at cushing the ri curbing the rising coasts of social care. may is also expected to retain

her party's ledge to limit immigration to the tens of thousands. and enda kenny has stepped down. he said he will continue to lead until parliament chooses a successor which is expected to happen before june 2nd. marri hearten heydon said ireland will have a stronger person. >> brexit is a big challenge for us. and, you know, there are always challenges ahead. the level of expectation in our country is high, in terms of pay of public service and a range of issues because we are getting growth back into the economy. >> willem marx joins me on set. we knew this would happen. this has been well flagged for a couple months.

what happens next? >> we have a contest of leadership for the fine gael party. both of them are ministers, close personally to the outgoing prime minister. what it will mean for ireland's economy and the politics of the country remains to be seen. fine gael rules with the acquies acquiescence of its political parties. they say they will have veto powers over economic decisions. and there's a chance they will not continue with that agreement. and the center right party will say we're not willing to rubber stamp this new leader of your party as prime minister that would trigger an election. that's not entirely likely but a possibility. in terms of brexit, this man has been crucial to preparing ireland for brexit, the imply cakeses f

imfl implications for the country. the question now is will the new leader be in power as prime minister by the time there is a next eu summit in brussels and he or she can meet with european leaders in brussels. that will be the starting point of negotiations with britain and brexit. >> how important is that relationship between ireland and the uk? we heard the comments from prime minister theresa may. she said kenny was a close and important friend. of course it's in her interest to keep this going. >> let's look at the situation in northern ireland. we three times had a deadline for power-sharing agreement pushed down the road. now it looks like late june. the secretary of state for ireland said he is delaying it until after the uk general

election. we have uncertainty on both sides of the irish sea and the northern ireland/ireland border. it's important to both countries that that issue around the border is clarified around the brexit talks. that relationship will be key. they have to find a consensus over that border. that is one of the sticking points in the negotiations. >> just help me out one more time. fine gael. >> we'll pick this up after the show. willem marx for cnbc. coming up, facebook has been slapped with a 1$122 million fie by the european commission. we'll bring you the back story after this short break. we'll be back in two.

linkedin revealed the best companies to work for across europe and fashion is first. john lewis topped the uk list with herrods and asos also making the top five. amazon tops the german firms to work for. you can head online to read the full list of the best firms to work for across europe on cnbc.com. facebook has been fined 110 million euros by the european commission over its acquisition of whatsapp. they say they misled regulators by having capabilities that they said they did not have. arjun kharpal will tell us about this story and the size of the fine. to me t seems small given that

facebook's annual revenue is $8 billion. this seems insignificant. >> in the last quarter alone facebook's revenues were $8 billion. yes, it seems like pocket change when you compare that to the 2 $122 million fine. but this is the first fine the eu handed out under the 2004 merger regulations, which is what they're going after facebook for a. when facebook took over whatsapp in 2014, they said we don't have the capability to link whatsapp accounts to facebook. so the eu commission were like that's fine. the merger can go ahead. what happened in 2016, facebook and whatsapp updated the terms of service agreement and linked whatsapp numbers to facebook. and at the time whatsapp said this will allow us to connect numbers with the facebook system and allow you better friends suggests tons. the eu said hold on a minute, you said you can't do that. facebook went and did it. so this is what it centers

around. that's why the fine has been given to facebook. it's significant in that if you look at what the european commission has been doing, it's going after the likes of google, apple and facebook. this is the first significant fine that's come under the eu's push here. >> are more to follow? given that the eu commission competition chief has been quite aggressive, not just when it comes to apple but also the m&a. >> aggressive is the correct word. we know absolutely that google is still under investigation when it comes to the antitrust side equation, with the android operates that the eu accused google of hampering competition in the block. something google denied so there are potential further fines to follow for other u.s. tech companies. >> apple is tapping the european debt market. the tech giant becomes the latest company to take a bite out of strengthening european markets despite sitting on a 0

$250 billion cash pile. 23 billion euros have been raised by corporate since emanu emanuel macron was elected earlier this month. and the chinese fin tech firm is raising bonds before going public. arjun, this is centsly your stocent essentially your story. >> what's happening in china is regulators are keeping a close eye on how much money is being moved out of the country. this can make it difficult for chinese companies when they want to look to expand abroad. in the case of fant financial, they have invested into a number of other start-ups to get

footholds in places like india. it's expanded aggressively into europe as well. in order to continue to do that throughout the year this year, it needs that debt to fund that. it doesn't need the money as such, because it raised a 4$4.5 billion equity round last year. >> that valued them at $60 billion. >> yes. one of the top three most valuable start-ups in the world. this particular round was really in order for it to continue to grow internationally. this debt round will allow it to do that. there is a lot of appetite from investors to do this. originally they were targeting 2 to 2$2.5 billion worth of financing. it has ended up closer to the tune of 3$3.5 billion. alibaba reports later this morning. there was hope that we would get details on the ipo plans. based on the story you've

written, this was never set in stone. >> no. sources i've spoken to at the company, this is in discussion. it's constantly being discussed. there was speculation all over media that ant financial could pull the trigger last year, then it was moved to this year. now reports suggest it could be no sooner than the end of next year. the company says we have never had a timeline. you can't set a timeline for an ipo. if we don't have a timeline, how can it be delayed. that's the line the company is going with. they're in no rush. look at the money they're able to raise. so there's no need for them to tap the public markets now. >> why would you, if your private valuation puts you at 0 $60 billion. >> and look at the size of the backing there. the 3$3.5 billion debt round. that's nearing the close. of course they have very heavy weight backers as well. that does help a company's cause. >> of course. arjun, thank you very much for that.

arjun kharpal, our cnbc technology reporter. before we wrap up the show, let's have a quick look at u.s. futures and how they're shaping up. i guess we're looking at a tiny rebound after yesterday's very, very heavy selling pressure. the s&p 500 is seen up by almost 5 points. the dow jones could open higher to the tune of 20 points. the nasdaq seen up by 2 points. i want to give you a sense of the selloff yesterday. u.s. equities closing sharply lower. investors worry about the latest back and forth in washington. the dow is off 372 points. the s&p fell 1.8%. the nasdaq off by 2.6%. the dow and the s&p seeing the worst day since september. nasdaq having its worst day since the brexit vote. also want to show you what's happening in europe. we're stilt seeil seeing a bit selling. the ftse 100 is off by 1%. falling away from the record highs we saw earlier this week. the xetra dax also falling off

the record highs, 12,582 is the print here. the cac 40 is off by half of a percent. fiat chrysler is under pressure today given the u.s.'s investigation into the company over potential cheating devices when it comes to diesel emissions. when it comes to the fx markets, the dollar is still under pressure. sort of clinging on to six-month lows. it's now given up all its post election gains. pound sterling is up because of better than expected retail sales. that's it for today's show. "worldwide exchange" is up next. we'll see you same time same place tomorrow. finding time to get things done isn't easy.

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good morning. u.s. equity futures staging a comeback after the dow and s&p suffer their worst days since september. a developing story. a new special counsel appointed to oversee the investigation into russian interference in the presidential election. and breaking overnight, facebook fined by the european union. why regulators say the firm misled regulators while acquiring whatsapp. it's thursday, may 18, 2017. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪