welcome to "street signs." i'm gemma acton. >> i'm willem marx here are your headlines. >> can he avoid a taper tantrum? mario draghi walks a tightrope as the ecb president looks to shift away from easy money without royaling markets ab bpob posts a weaker than expected second quarter.

deutsche telekom adds more than 1 million customers in the latest quarter >> we've been fortunate in the first quarter again following a good streak of acquisitions last year we extend with a disciplined approach our portfolio we've seen a broader and higher open in europe with the stoxx 600 up over a third of a percent. taking its lead from more record closes in the u.s. overnight and a raft of earnings results are out today. on the whole broadly positive which has signaled the market opening higher

you can see that reflected in the key movers in the markets today. let's look and see how the individual bourses are shaping up the xetra dax is in the lead, up 0.75 cac 40 up over a half percent. the ftse 100 up over 0.40% negative statements out of easyjet, yes, it managed to deliver higher unit revenue, but the issue is that there is overcapacity in the sector and it gave a bearish outlook for what's ahead let's look at which are moving better we have construction and material up around 1%. chemicals doing well on the back of givaudan results. let's look at how some of the individual companies are doing

today that have released easyjet did manage to deliver positive unit revenue growth for the third quarter, their third quarter. they said that was due to the fact that easter fell late this year not so much confidence going forward. abb underperformed with regards to its second quarter results. trading at the lowest point in 3 3 1/2 months this is because they have been unable to pass along commodity strength prices to customers on the other hand, the opposite of that, givaudan, they're doing well because they did manage to pass on some of these effects from higher prices straight through to customers let's look at deutsche telekom, doing well on the strength of its u.s. market. if you look at t-mobile operations, unexpected growth

and customer numbers and a better outlook going forward publics, another company doing better on the back of how things were going in north america. the broader picture is more worrying for publics, they have been going through reorg sai reorganizati reorganization, will they get on the digital band wagon quick enough, but they have attempted to leverage all of the work of the individual agencies better which seems to be paying off willem >> thanks. the european preen centrcentral meet for the first time since mario draghi's hawkish comments last month in sintra there are hints for when the central bank will begin tapering its bond buying program. annette joins us from frankfurt. good morning are we expecting more cautiousness from mr. draghi today then >> well, good morning. what we probably expect in

frankfurt is more a balanced approach to the language you referenced the speech in sintra, that was taken quite wildly by the markets. the ecb was not happy with that what they want to avoid by all means is a taper tantrum scenario here in the eurozone. perhaps you can see that speech in sintra as a test case how sensitive the markets are. that was quite visible the day with yields spiking in the bond market, the euro jumping that's what they want to avoid today i think the focus will be on the balanced approach while staying on message that the economic recovery is surprisingly strong in the eurozone, and that inflation eventually will get there. another area of focus is the focus that we need to be persistent and at the same time

prudent in order to avoid those volatility in the various markets. that will be the main area mario draghi will try to tackle in a press conference it comes with a tweak in language of course i think the most is that they're dropping the reference that due to potential enlargement of the qe program, it's another sign that we are getting closer to a real withdrawal of the monetary stimulus so it's baby stretchepsteps tow exit of the ecb, and then maybe more news on how the qe program might look like next year. analysts think the press conference will be in frankfurt when mario draghi and his team will outline the vision for qe

in 2018. that will be crucial above all the competition of the qe program will be a big question in 2018 and as well how they sort of envision the reduction in the asset purchase program from january 2018 onwards. it's still up in the air it's only september. for now, it's widely expected they stay put in terms of language probably a bit more of a balanced approach in order to avoid an unwanted tightening of monetary policy conditions in the eurozone with that, back to you >> thanks, annette that's annette live outside the ecb in frankfurt we bring in oliver brennan annette was talking about the composition of what their actions next year will consist of that's the next question i want to ask you, where do you see it going in terms of their dialing

back when it comes to corporate versus public sector >> well, we think the announcement will be in september to start the unwind in january. and an average pace of $10 billion per meeting. so the whole program would finish in q3 we don't distinguish between the corporate sector and private and public sector. we expect it to be just an average pace of reduction. >> oliver, a lot of people after mr. draghi's speech in sintra attempted the market reaction as people misunderstanding what he was trying to say. do you think he's going to be far more careful if it's even possible to be more careful when it comes to his choice of language today >> prudent is the right word the ecb are constantly walking a tightrope. now, there are 40 basis points

more to sell off to 1% which would take out the qe term premium. that needs to occur f it o, if occurs within one or two months, the ecb would be less happy. we would expect the ecb to dial back a bit on comments, but growth is strong, inflation expectations are low, the balance risk is still low, we expect they would likely lean on those to justify a slow pace a slow move towards the taper. >> when people talk about the market reaction to draghi's speech, a lot of focus is on what happened with the dollar. are we looking at the wrong metric should we be more focused on the trade weighted euro moved by around 1% versus around 3% move in the euro/dollar >> yes that's fair. the trade weighted moved about 6% this year there's still tightening coming through from that.

looking at bund yields is important as well. all the easing measures has been on yields. they estimate around 150 basis points in total, of which half was down to qe from there we surmise slightly less than half has been on the euro the euro is not weak, it's on the strong side, but we should look at range of market indate kay indicators >> peripheral yields have not moved quite as much since sintra i'm not sure that makes perfect sense. my understanding was that the ecb was moving ahead with easing, and that it should drive the periphery yields more than bund yields arguably >> it could. for example, in italy there's a lot of credit premium in the

spread between italy and germany due to the risk of the italian election in q1 next year so there's other drivers on the credit side as opposed to the term premium side. when the ecb stops buying these high yielding assets, the yield on french debt may rise more on the bund but the bund is the clearest metric to understand exactly what's happening >> oliver thank you very much. oliver brennan from ts lombarb we'll bring you live coverage of the ecb rate decision from london and frankfurt, decision to our live program "decision time" at 13:45 coming up, unilever posted a 3% increase in underlying sales growth will that be enough to secure unilever's future as an independent company? we'll hear from the firm's ceo after the break. it's a good thing we brought the tablets huh?

yeah, and i can watch the game with directv now. oh, sorry, most broadcast and sports channels aren't included. and you can only stream on two devices at once. this is fun, we're having fun. yeah, we are. no, you're not jimmy. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. xfinity gives you more to stream to more screens.

welcome back easyjet shares are trading lower after the airline said it was expecting to see continued pressure on passenger revenues easter gave the quarterly results a bit of a bump, but without that the numbers would have been negative the low-cost british airline raised its profit outlook and filled more seats in the recent quarter and in a per seat basis it improved costs and increased revenues easyjet's ceo left earlier this week and the company faces uncertainty from brexit. easyjet is warning that capacity will continue to pressure yields is weighing on the travel sector as a whole with airline stocks leading losses this morning. >> shares in abb are trading lower after the company posted second quarter earnings that fell short of analysts

estimates. the swiss industrial company reported quarterly revenues of 8.$8.45 billion missing forecas. abb is struggling with an order backlog which totals 23$23.6 billion. rising costs in s.a.p.'s cloud services during the recent quarter pushed down operating profits and they came in below expectations but the german software firm's revenue for the second quarter rose 10.4% beating forecasts s.a.p. said it expects to meet full-year targets. t-mobile reported record low customer attrition, helping the wireless carrier beat second quarter forecasts. t-mobile said it was considering a quarterly dividend as a consequence adding that it was mulling various options. it expressed an option of speaking with sprint in the u.s. about a potential merger.

shares in publics are trading higher after strong second quarter earnings. results for the second quarter have been boosted by improved performance in the north american business. the advertising giant rallied with 0.8% in underlying sales. net profit rose 1.6% in the first half with the improvement coming after a broad reorganization of its business unilever shares are trading higher after a reported second quarter earnings that were broadly in line with analysts forecasts. the consumer goods giant raised its margin expectations and says it is on track to deliver full-year underlying sales growth of 3% and 5%. i spoke to unilever's ceo, paul pulman earlier this morning and asked about the strategy to improve the performance after kraft heinz's failed takeover attempt. >> we're trying to do with a company like unilever, we will not be the only ones to have a

long-term sustainable growth model. for that, we've been around for 130 years. we also have to invest in sustainability if you run out of fish stock, you won't selfish. if we keep cutting down the forests, we can't live decent lives anymore. we see the world being stressed. more and more demand for sustainable, responsible product. we think that's an important part of our operating model. any business should be there to serve first and foremost society. business that may not focus on share holders are business that usually don't have a long life, increasingly we can show that by doing the right thing for all of our stakeholders it's also the right thing for shareholders these things go hand in hand but in unilever, the story is a long-term compounding growth story. if in 1968 you would have invested 1 pound in unilever, would have over 80 pounds right

now if you invested in the global wealth index you would only have 17 pounds. there's a long-term compounding growth story that's an important part of us there's up the doubtedly tension the short-term of people who are becoming increasingly shorter term and the longer term business models that we want to run. fortunately a big part of the investor community has long-term obligations. if you look at pension funds, and we provide that security, 38 years of dividend increases, 8% on average these are enormous numbers but i don't deny, as we have seen, that tension exists and you have to deal with that part of the way we dealt with that was a dividend increase part of that was a 5 billion share buyback of which we have completed now 1.4 billion. so i do have to walk a fine line i don't deny that. but it is a fine line with a long-term compounding growth

model investment base. that's quite different than some of the other models that are out there. >> getting back to results for a second, as you mentioned there was weakness in the margarine business looking through results i see that you note that it is well underway the separation. do you have any more details to add on that? >> no, we made the announcement clear. we are working on that, that we have to put separate accounts in place where we have that business people are working day and night to do that we are talking to other people interested in these businesses we think we can complete the process as it looks now by the end of the year or early first quarter. in that timing that we're working towards. >> similarly the duel lial list structure is under review. >> that's progressing well it's awfully complex the lawyers and tech experts and other people on it we just had a meeting yesterday on it still. we will make a decision by the end of the year on that as well.

there's so many factor the coming in it needs a good discussion >> let's thrash the results out in more detail robin, thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> my first take was these were reasonably strong, and a mild miss on organic sales growth but made up for by more optimism around the margin progress what would you say >> i would say so. top line was broadly in line with expectations. margin was a lot better than consensus. i think the call, which just ended not that long ago was focused on how to extrapolate the first half results into the full year. they were cautions around 100 basis points guidance. >> which is better than the original 80 basis points which they signaled earlier in the year my concern with looking at the results is the focus on pricing.

a big reliance on pricing over volume growth is this something they can improve, do you think the company is guiding to an acceleration in the second half in terms of volume growth. innovations are a way the companies will step up its brand investment, which should put more oomph behind volume growth. volumes have been a concern for the market on unilever for some time they continue to say they're outgrowing the end markets, but the end markets are still slow >> i want to ask a more broad question about sector consolidation. you remember, of course, back in april, reckitt benckiser commissioned a review of its foods business, and put that essentially, that business, into play unilever were reportedly looking at it a few days ago, earlier this week, mccormick, the u.s. spice giant swooped in with a 4$4.2 billion bid is that putting pressure on unilever's acquisition-driven

growth strategy? >> i think it probably has more repercussions for the potential sale or listing of spreads than it does in terms of acquisitions their acquisitions are more targeted towards personal care and home care. particularly businesses which are directed towards new channels, like dollar shave club, or in terms of more renewable or easier on the environment such as seventh generation i don't think the food sale will impact their purchasing. potentially on the disposals >> let me ask you about the acquisition strategy i was interested to see that hourglass made a few moves into the prestige market recently is this a sensible vatgy, strato you think? l'oreal has done the same thing and has resulted in investor premium. is it the right move >> if you look at the long-term

objectives, unilever wants to get to about a billion in turnover, in prestige they're about half of that now if you look at the growth rates they're achieving, 15% to 20% in hour glass, living proof at the time it's an investment phase. the gross margin on cosmetics and personal care is materially higher it makes sense in the long-term. >> let me take another broader question looking at the sector more holistically. there's been activist pressure, with third point coming after nestle are these investors being too aggressive there's a focus at unilever of having a long-term, sustainable focus for a company? who is right here? is there a happy medium to be found? >> i think there is. if there was a criticism about unilever before, it was arguably

two top line focused, not enough margin everyone drew attention to the potential on the margin, but it was slower to materialize. i think 3gs efforts to get the company prodded them to release the information sooner it's a fine balance between bottom line growth and top line. european companies have been a bit too slow to deliver on the margin but it is important to keep the long-term growth prospects intact as well >> robert, thank you very much for joining us today he helped us break down unilever's results in more detail. we will take a quick check out world markets live, our blog which runs throughout the european trading day we'll be back after this

welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx. >> i'm gemma acton these are your headlines >> can he avoid a taper tantrum? mario draghi walks a tightrope as the ecb president looks to signal a shift away from easy money without roiling markets. engineering giant abb underperforms the rest of the swiss market after posting a weaker than expected second quarter profit, despite a strong

performance in its robotics division >> the ceo of unilever tells cnbc he is not worried about deals like reckitt benckiser striking, as they celebrate improved margins in the first half >> we've been fortunate in the first quarter, again following a good streak of acquisitions last year we extend with a disciplined approach our portfolio easyjet shares reverse course falling towards the bottom of the stoxx 600 and taking other airlines with them after warning that capacity will continue to pressure yields. we are looking at june sales

up 6% month on month against may. retail sales 2.9% up year-on-year against this time last year. in terms of sales x fuel, up 0.9% that's 3% year on year, 0.9% month on month the second quarter retail sales up 1.5% this most recent quarter q is 1 and q2 retail sales up 2.6% year-on-year versus q1. let's look at how u.s. futures are getting prepared for the open waiting for the board there. in the meantime we can say that european markets have opened broadly higher so let's look at how european markets are trading. this is following a strong close in asia overnight. and a lot of momentum from european earnings so far in this trading session. if we look at the individual bourses, they are actually still in the green, still reasonably strong in the green, but since

trading opened about an hour and a half ago, things are moving lower. ftse up over a third of a percent. cac 40 up a half percent we are seeing this coming down a little let's look at the ecb, and what it anticipates doing later today. we have seen -- we have seen a lot of rallying in the euro recently up around 3% versus the dollar since the sintra meeting we've seen it dropping below 1.15 it had pierced that level yesterday. but some caution regarding whether draghi will have a slightly more dovish bent in order not to spook markets like he did after the sintra meeting. looking at flat cable trade. cable just pushing up above 1.30, just 0.1% higher today. let's look at how the u.s. futures are getting set to open.

not a muhuge amount of movement out of the nasdaq. 4.3% higher. the tech index yesterday rose to a 17-year high not seen since the dotcom boom back in 2000 the dow jones looking to open around 25 points higher. green across the board expected for the u.s. markets >> here is britain apparently the uk could survive without an eu trade deal. that's what the trade minister told the bbc in an interview that aired this morning. his intervention comes as the latest round of intensive brexit talks draw to a close. speaking to cnbc in brussels, the vice president of the european commission also warned that the outlook for a trade deal between the uk and the eu looks uncertain. >> it's difficult to estimate anything in this stage the faster we can settle the

financial issues, issues which are concrete, even though they're complicated. the faster we can start negotiating future relationships, eu is negotiating on trade agreements with 20 different -- jurisdictions at the moment. uk will be 22nd. >> despite acknowledging the difficulties between the talks, he expressed optimism that there could be a brightspot. >> eu could be a brighter market than so far. add to this all the trade agreements which we are negotiating at the moment f we're looking at further deepening of defense corporation and things like that, eu will be more in the trade, easier to understand and better market for

eu companies but also third country companies. so, i'm very glad that there's been sincere counter reaction from citizens, from the government side to all those negative phenomenon which we have seen. >> moving on, the saudi-led block of four arab led nations boycotting qatar reduced the list of demands that it says will end the diplomatic spat a new set of six commitments including fighting terrorism and fighting the halting of extremist groups the groups dropped their call for the qatari news network, al jazeera to be shut down. we are joined by the qatari ambassador to the uk thank you very much for joining us >> thank you >> first question, one of the big things that th qatari government has been pressing is that the uae was behind the hacking of the qatari

news agency. the question i have for you and your government, what evidence is there for this? >> thank you for having this opportunity and giving me this opportunity. the united states intelligence community has proven that united arab emirates is behind this hack this hack which led to this -- imposed the blockade, illegal blockade of my country >> sorry to interrupt you. has the u.s. government shared that information with you? has your government seen the evidence behind that >> my government trusts that the united states intelligence community has -- >> they formally said -- the u.s. formally said to qatar that the uae was involved in this or is this all you're seeing in the "washington post" reporting? >> we're seeing the exchanging with the intelligence community over there as you mentioned, the community has proven that the united arab emirates is behind this

information. >> one of the things that the qatari government has been saying for the last few weeks is that the ultimate aim here is to limit qatar's sovereignty. we've seen a reduction in demands. why do you think saudi arabia, the uae, egypt and bahrain want to limit qatari sovereignty? >> it's a matter of power in the region but my country is alwahas all sd coming to the table of negotiation, discuss this frankly, we have no problem to discuss this first lifting the blockade is the most important issue it's an illegal blockade we stress that it's illegal discussing the issues, throwing this through the discussion table. and as i said, the united nations is providing the facility to discuss this, otherwise they can use the gcc, the gulf corporation country

mechanism to discuss the issue of any kind of dispute >> you'll forgive me for asking, is this not one of the problems, the idea they're doing this to limit sovereignty, is this one of the problems with non-elected governments that egos can drive behavior that may not be in the interest of the people in saudi arabia or the emirates or bahrain? >>i just assured that the negotiation between the countries should be respected and put on a platform through the right channels we are not talking -- we are talking about the governments here governments should respect their commitments and should, you know, when it comes to the discussion, and it is a term now for negotiation and dialogue not confrontation. >> we saw 13 demands initially

there's now six. those demands still include allegations about terrorism, financing and demand that that is concluded do you think if you're being honest that qatar could do something, any measures they could take to try and alleviate concerns that saudi arabia and the emirates have about this is it a question last week the qatari central bank governor said we're happy to open our financial books, auditors can come in and look. is that the kind of measure you think your government isfulfill? >> we believe in transparency. that the -- that's our strategy. therefore we have prevented any kind of finance to terrorism and we've been very clear and very frank we signed the mir rand dumb and united states to fight terrorism

and we encourage our friends to come and sign this it's a matter of transparency. qatar is very -- did its best to improve its legislation procedures, to monitor financiers. >> how long do you anticipate negotiations dragging out? >> the negotiation has a limit, as we said we need the other party to come to the negotiation and to lift illegal blockade because that has an effect on the international community, not just qatar >> what about the fact that the banking sectors in particular in the region -- i know you're based here as a diplomat, one thing that struck me while i was there is how intertwined the financial sectors are across the gulf do you think as your finance minister has said that this is

just as damaging for them as it is for qatar or is this far more damaging for qatar? >> i think as my minister of finance said, it's more damaging to them, like, you know, he said it's damaging. and that's the cause not just on qatar. >> you're based in the uk. the uk has been relatively closely involved, obviously our foreign secretary of the uk, boris johnson was in the region not long ago do you think international actors, whether it's germany, the u.s., uk, are doing enough to resolve the issue are they taking reasonable sides when it comes to the various arguments? >> we appreciate all the efforts done by our allies, especially the united kingdom, the ambassador here. we're doing our best in terms of solving this problem

we appreciate their efforts. we appreciate the kuwaiti efforts in mediation in that regard we hope that leads to solving this crisis. >> what's your message -- you're a diplomat here in the uk what is your message to british expats working in qatar and their situation? what are i saying to them? >> qatar is respecting its contract, qatar will continue as an open market for investors to come and invest and be welcomed to continue their businesses we'll be committed to our businesses as our government has kept these measures. >> thank you very much >> thank you >> that is the qatari ambassador to the uk joining us on set in london. >> the trump administration said it halted a covert cia program to equip and train rebel groups fighting syrian president bashar

al assad u.s. officials explained the decision as a way to improve u.s. relations with russia who find themselves on the other side of that conflict. the cia program started back in 2013 under former president barack obama the agency when questioned has declined to comment. donald trump jr., jared kushner and paul manafort are called to testify about campaign ties to russia we'll look at the latest from capitol hill after this short break.

welcome back to "street signs. let look at how european markets are trading. we see there's green almost all across the board at this point we see the xetra dax is leading the charge up by 0.7% at this point. and overall the markets have been largely driven by a

positive tone set overnight in the u.s. and asia. and secondly by on the whole positive earnings results coming from several companies reporting today. let's look at how the sectors are shaping up construction materials just shy of the 1% positive mark. travel and leisure is at the bottom of the stack. that's largely driven by warnings out of easyjet that there's overcapacity in the sector and they do not see an ability to deliver positive unit revenue in the next short period ahead. chemicals doing well, largely driven by strong results out of givaudan let's move on to some top stories of the day president trump called on republican senators to get back to work on a plan to repeal and replace obamacare before leaving d.c. for the august holiday. this as a new report from the cbo showed 32 million americans would lose health insurance if the plan is repealed without a

replacement. nbc's hallie jackson filed this report >> reporter: senate republicans facing failure on a bill that looked all but dead are now getting a booster shot from president trump and a warning shot >> we shouldn't leave town until this is complete, until this bill is on my desk we're very close >> reporter: they're not not right now. but president trump's pushing them back to plan "a" again. >> i think the people of this country need more than a repeal. they need a repeal and a replace. >> reporter: over lunch in the east room he hoped to sway skeptical senators like dean heller next to him, the most vulnerable republican up for re-election with a jab couched as a joke. >> look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn't he? okay >> reporter: president trump deploying his bully pulpit and

holding on to hope healthcare reform will happen with his comments today an about-face monday's message, repeal and replace. >> we will end up replacing it. >> reporter: turned into repeal now, replace later that night. but by tuesday -- >> we'll let obamacare fail. >> reporter: now today. >> we have no choice we have to repeal and replace. >> reporter: are you experiencing some political whiplash here? >> well, it's pretty obvious we've had difficulty in getting 50 votes to proceed, but what i want to disabuse any of you of is the notion that we will not have that vote next week. >> reporter: senate leadership leaving the door open to either repeal only or to repeal and replace in that vote next week despite concern neither option will get enough support to pass unless at least some senators will change their minds. >> nobody said it would be easy. obviously it isn't, and we're still working hard at it >> that was hallie jackson u.s. senator john mccain has been diagnosed with brain cancer mccain's office said he is reviewing treatment options including radiation and surgery.

mccain's fellow lawmakers sent messages of support, that includes one from president trump who said in a statement the former presidential nominee has always been a fighter. president trump's son, donald jr., has been asked to appear before the u.s. senate to answer questions about the campaign's alleged connections to russia. trump's son-in-law, jared kushner and former campaign manager, paul manafort has also been called to speak in front of lawmakers. the white house repeatedly denied collusion. deutsche bank expects to get some subpoenas over the trump russia probe key democrats called for the lender to reveal details about the president's accounts

james pathakukus joins us on the line from washington good morning, james. >> good morning. >> thank you for joining us. let's start by talking about what's happening with john mccain and the implications of his illness on firstly the healthcare bill, but more broadly the trump presidency >> the biggest near-term implication is that republicans need to find another vote to pass the obamacare replacement bill or get a repeal i think the most likely scenario is they don't have enough votes for either, and obamacare stays, and they move on to trying to work with democrats to fix some of its flaws >> how serious is this in terms of the overall trump agenda? does this mean people will start

doubting tax reform and some other initiatives such as the deregulation drive or will we be able to move past this and focus on other initiatives >> there are a lot of republicans who want to move on at this point. if they can't replace the affordable care act, to get that behind them, move on to something which republicans supposedly have expertise and enthusiasm about, which is cutting taxes. that's not going to be easy at all. i think what happens there is they don't get massive tax reform they don't get massive tax cuts. they'll get a tax cut, it will be a temporary tax cut, probably not the best thing for economic growth and a rather large climb down from what republicans were promising at the start of the year >> james, it's gemma's cleg colleague, willem here do you think mitch mcconnell is is failing to live up to his reputation as legislative genus or do we need to cut the guy

some slack and he's almost in an impossible situation >> they had quite a few years to come up with a plan. they have been unable to come up with one that can satisfy both conservatives and moderates. you can be a master negotiator, but if the math is not there, it's tough to come up with an agreemen math just is not there obama care and it's difficult for taxes as well. they're trying to do big tax cuts, they made all these promises in the past about balancing the budget you can be the most wonderful negotiator in the world, but you can't make one plus one equal three. >> is this essentially then a clash between the popular swing in the party and the kind of orthodoxy focussed conservatives in the republicans coming together, realizing they don't have a huge amount in common and realize flag split will impact their legislative agenda

>> i think the biggest problem is sort of the expectations that this party has raised with voters, that they could quickly repeal healthcare, obama's healthcare plan and come up with something that would save money, cover more people, and lower premiums they promised they could massively cut taxes and really balance the budget those just don't work. when you told your base year after year for many years that you can do that, and then don't do it, that's going to cause all kinds of ramifications, it will make it impossible to get to an agreement and you will have disappointed voters. >> let's recall an issue that dominated the headlines last week, donald trump jr.'s e-mails with some russian authorities. this has fallen off the front page of the papers given what's happening in healthcare this week is this a situation that will continue rumbling on

have there been developments which we have not been focused on this week >> it's going to keep rumbling on one reason is because the president will keep tweeting about it he's been tweeting a lot more about about russia and e-mails, about hillary clinton and the election than he has using his bully pulpit to talk about healthcare reform and taxes. that becomes more difficult as his approval rating continues to drop next week is a big week. they will still try to push through healthcare the headlines will be dominated by russia and that is continuing to drain energy and political capital from this administration they had a lot of big plans, big ideas at the start of this year. slowly, drip drip drip, russia has drained a lot of that energy >> james, thank you very much for all of your thoughts and

insight. so let's have a look at how the u.s. futures are set to open right now they're all caught up following the lead from europe which is broadly higher across the board and a stronger finish in asia. remembering that we saw new highs for some of the new record closes last night for more of the markets. dow jones set to open around 25 points higher. looking at nasdaq around 3.8 let's look at how the european markets are faring two hours after open broadly in the green on the back of strength in european earnings i'm afraid that's it for our show that's all we've got i'm gem mra actma acton >> i'm willem marx "worldwide exchange" is up next. your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory.

the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

good morning the record rally kicks into a higher gear as earnings and the economy take center stage. we have your trading day set up. breaking overnight, the branch of japan leaves reits unchanged but slashes the inflation outlook. we're live in tokyo with market reaction. and the congressional budget office is out with new numbers on repealing obamacare we're headed to washington for the latest on that and more. it's thursday, july 20, 2017 "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪ >> good mornin