welcome to "street signs." these are your headlines the war of words between the u.s. and north korea escalades with the rhetoric state saying a load of nonsense saying he only understands absolute force the swiss stocking group misses on revenue and sales. and glencore slashes debt and prepares for an m&a spree

leaving investors waiting for increased payouts. good morning, everyone it is thursday let's take a quick look at the stock 600 index. we are still lower extending yesterday's losses we are down by roughly 0.25% yesterday the dax and the cac losing all between the escalation of the u.s. and north korea let's have a look at the markets one by one what you'll see is that we're still deeply in the red across most of them the ftse 100 losing 2/3 of 1%. this is in part to we have a lot of the names in the trading index. and ae cac off by 40 points. this is the picture. utilities and health care doing a little bit better. we're still waiting for

credential numbers they'll be out in half an hour's time basic resources down by 1% and glencore is a factor here. we'll get to that story in a bit. let's get back to our top story. trump adviser says the u.s. is willing to, quote, use any appropriate measures against the north korean regime. the warning comes after pyongyang said it could be ready to announce a missile strike against the pacific territory of guam within a matter of days terry, it's quite unusual to be given that many details. >> yes and that very factor is what seems to be concerns a lot of investors, and also surprises a lot of north korean experts. but i have to tell you, we have had north korea making similar threats back in 2013

and since after. yeah, so we're talking about the same place as well we're talking about north korea making similar kind of threats to preemptively strike north korea as well as hawaii back in 2013 but this kind of detail. so let me just go through some of the details here. north korea says state-run media reporting this morning following up on the threat that it made yesterday saying four rockets will land 30 to 40 kilometers away from guam and we have a timeline here by mid-august and north korea saying it's going to be ready to go ahead with the strike now and wait for the leader kim jong-un's strike to go ahead or not i think this kind of detail certainly is unprecedented but i'm going to have to tell you that i'm still getting this consensus from a lot of north korea watchers and experts who watched this situation for many, many years

saying that fundamentally there is no change when it comes to north korea's story. it's just that what's different this time around is we have a different leader in washington and certainly threats of fire and fury coming out of washington from the u.s. president himself is certainly something that the world has not seen before. so certainly on the surface many experts say yes, it does look like it's a different level of tensions and rhetoric. but at the end of the day, this is what north korea wants and wants to deal with the united states and directly bypassing all of these other relevant countries. and at this point it certainly looks like it's throwing out all these rhetorics out there. but leaving room for some kind of breakthrough at this point. >> and you're in the midst of the bustling city called seoul that's only roughly 50 miles from the north korean border i know that south koreans are

used to the aggressions coming from the north, yet does it feel like this time around there is a little bit more nervousness within the city, within the country? >> not really. it's a little strange to be telling you this, our viewers, for so many years that south koreans are just business as usual no matter north korea says back in 2013 we thought things were really heated up between north korea and the u.s., but back then i also talked about how south koreans are just keeping things as normal and it's the same thing. it's the same way this week as well and i was actually speaking to some of the people who work here, who the driver who drove us here. i think there is this strange level of conviction in south korea among many south koreans that things will not get to that level where north korea strikes militarily or any of the relevant parties will go to war.

i think they understand or they believe, i should say, that north korea and south korea cannot go to war or do some kind of -- go for some kind of military option without consulting first, so to speak, with china and the u.s so i think that's what's sort of keeping things calm at this point. but certainly they'll be watching the news and stay tuned to what's going on between the leaders of north korea and the u.s. because this kind of rhetoric, this verbal threat is something that we have not seen before >> thank you so much for that update and it certainly looks like it is business as usual in the megacity of seoul. let's have a look at how this story impacted the market zone impact was very much palpable against global asset classes but also the vix so far this week it has risen some 12%

still historically depressed levels at 11.6 when it comes to the safe havens, that's the swiss against the dollar it has made similar gains. the yen also gaining 0.7% against the dollar and gold this week up by 1.7%. peter head of investment strategy europe vanguard management joining me now. is it too late to go into safe havens to protect yourself against this kind of geopolitical risk? >> i think it's very difficult to time this political risk at the moment especially because there's so much political risk out there at the moment investors over the last couple of years have been bombarded by a range of different political events brexit, trump, now north korea and being able to predict them in advance is difficult enough but even after the event knowing which way it's going to jump as

a result has proved very difficult. so i'm very wary of investors dealing with the problems. >> is there a case for always having some proportion of your assets invested in gold and yen in the swiss and also equally in cash because you never know what might come up. >> i'm not a great fan of having that sort of big safe element of the portfolio. we think that for longer term investors, having a diversified portfolio, that we'll have a market share cap but we think trying to second guess the market in that way is not a particularly smart strategy >> so how would you protect yourself, your clients against any sort of volatility at this point? we know volatility has been absent for much of this year yet it will come back time and time again especially when volumes are so low it might come back and bite you. this is what some traders feel like this week they're on holiday and think, wow, i wish i would have had

some protection. can you stay in equities and still be protected against this kind of event? >> the alternative is to move into the bond market in a big way. and, you know, i've had conversations about this about what do we move out of bonds. claiming we're at a point in the bond market where the market could turn for us even though it sounds boring, we're big believers of keeping that balance of bond and equities obviously more bonds, the more risk averse you want to be the more equities for longer term horizon so yeah. we don't like the sort of tactical switching in and out as political events come along. we think it's too difficult. >> so you are -- don't necessarily agree with the likes of jamie dimon who told us a couple days ago he wouldn't buy a government bond anywhere in the world at this point? >> no. >> you still want to be invested >> yeah. i think you've got to remember why you hold bonds in your portfolio in the first place they're there to provide a bit

more stability relative to equities and a counterweight to equities. we know when equities plummet, bonds give you some counterweight. and that's still true. >> yeah. we're in, you know, a phase of tightening monetary policy not just from the fed but also increasingly from the ecb. it will come at some point from the bue. it doesn't seem to be that much appetite for bonds >> no. and i'm not trying to pretend that -- we've got to remember investors over the last ten years, maybe more than that, have had a fantastic ride with bonds. they've been outperforming equities for long periods. and looking forward, the return on bonds is going to be disappointing. partly because of the incredible accommodation by policy makers partly because real returns allow for all the reasons people have been talking about. low growth and activity and so on yeah, bonds are going to give lower returns than they have for many years

but remember when real interest rates are low, that affects all assets i think it's better to think about a low return environment in general not just bonds themselves. >> where's the best place to invest right now what are you telling your clients? i know it depends on their risk profile and stage of life they're in, but where's a good place to hide? >> i don't think there is a good place to hide. i think as much as anything, we try to warn clients away from moving up the risk/return spectrum in a way that sometimes gives clients the false impression that they're getting that extra return that's been lost in the low-return environment. we think that's a bit of a fool's errand. because you can only get those extra returns by taking more risk that's a perfectly respectable investment strategy, but people have to realize they're taking more risk. as the interest rates return, some of those people may be

looking exposed. >> the life strategy 60 and 40, those are the most popular funds within what you're offering. why do you see so much interest for that what exactly is it that investors are looking for? >> so they are most successful balanced multi-asset funds very much consistent with the philosophy that i've just been talking about. they're very simple. they reflect a view that diversified strategy, capitalizization is a very good strategy to follow and relative to many of the competitors who are using allocations trying to move in and out, most of the time this strategy outperformed. >> all right peter, you're going to stick around far little bit longer peter westaway from vanguard asset management in the meantime, there's an update on other news this morning. french authorities have arrested a man suspected of driving into a group of soldiers in a paris suburb injuring six yesterday. he was shot while attempting to

evade police investigators are looking into whether he has ties to terrorist groups and the u.s. has imposed new sanctions on eight venezuelan officials. the new penalties do not target the country's oil industry but reuters reports that washington is considering sanctions on venezuela's energy sector. of course you can always follow us on twitter or tweet me directly love reading your tweets in the morning. coming up on the show, which company is the latest to bat its lashes at america's charter communications find out after this short break.

all right.

adecco is trading after second quarter earnings missed expectations on the top and bottom lines take a look at the shares off by 5.5% however, ai deco's response -- and a falling quarter of the brazilian steel mill the conglomerate saw a net profit fall from 120 million euros down from the previous year net profit also missed analyst estimates. though revenues came in about expectations henkel is trading sharply lower to the tune of 2.5% after disappointing second quarter organic sales with 2.2% growth only earnings rose to 839 million euros missing forecasts. growth added adhesive business was slower and the beauty care sector was flat. this was the big story from

overnight. altice is exploring a takeover of charter communications and what could be a $200 billion deal the french telecoms group has made no secrets of its plans to extend stateside but it could face stiff competition from softbank which has also been working on a bid al tees shares agreed on a buyout offer from remaining fsr shares here's more on the potential move for charter >> you can add altice to the list trying to buy charter communications they are working on a deal to buy charter communications but have not yet brought a proposal to charter there is no guarantee that altice will engage, though the prospects do seem likely altice and its founder had long-term decisions to expand in the u.s.

and drahi has decided to see if he can compete altice has bankers and lawyers working to devise a bid for charter. but it faces critical hurdles to meet on price while not being complete with the stock of the acquiring company which would be the smaller altice usa as i reported a couple of weeks ago, softbank has been working on charter that effort continues. though it's far from clear either can come up with offers that meet the price objectives and structure of charter's management or its largest and most influential shareholder liberty media. both softbank and altice are hobbled by an inability to craft deals with a large enough amount of cash. drahi are taking on massive amounts of fuel to invest.

but it's not clear if they have interest in accepting a deal in which much of the value they give up a traded for stock in a new company laden with debt and relying on the chart tore pay down the debt. altice has shown a unique ability to cut costs and generate higher ebida margins. still liberty, i'm tolding with is wary of taking altice in the belief it is too early to tell whether those gains are sustainable. >> let's get back to et ppeter westaway and obviously altice is a company that's usually highly leveraged. they depend on the rate cycle. where are we in the u.s. rate cycle? do you think we'll get a third one this year? >> i think we will i think that the fed are uncomfortable with a huge amount of accommodation that's still in the system you know, you just -- if you landed on a spaceship in the u.s. and looked at where we

were, there's no spare capacity. unemployment is very low inflation is pretty much up at the top level. so why on earth would there still be so much accommodation i think they're itching to get that accommodation removed the problem, of course, is that inflation is picking up the way you normally expect it too >> the core pce inflater which is something that the fed looks at closely is only 1.4% in the month of june. and that's simply too low. on the one hand given that they've got this mandate they have to raise rates on the other hand, they can't justify it. they seem to have been in this spot for a long time >> yeah, and i think the underlying inflation pressures is a little stronger in the u.s. i think there's temporary factors holding inflation down >> what do you think it is >> i think there's a more general phenomenon across other countries. we're seeing the same thing in europe in ecb where the movement in normal circumstances would cause wage inflation to pick up.

it's just not happening. whether it's the new globalized labor market, all of these factors that people have talked about, it just means that inflation is just a bit more of a sluggish animal to get moving again. >> maybe we should disregard inflation at this point. maybe that shouldn't be the key mandate for central banks anymore. at least maybe not that 2% target maybe that should be lower to 1.5% in this new labor market. >> no, i don't think that's the way to go. because i think as soon as policy makers start accepting what inflation is in the market, we'll have to follow that. you then have a system where the anchor is just slipping all over the place. ultimately central banks are responsible for the rate and eventually this phillips curve will kick in it's just taking longer than in the past >> hopefully it's been broken many years now. when we look at the dollar this year, that's been one of the key underperformers contrary to everyone's expectations. there are so many out there at the start of the year. when does that turn?

does it turn this year, you think? >> i think if we see the tightening of the policy coming through in the u.s. ahead of expectations relative to the ecb, then i think we could but at the moment, there's a pricing in that ecb will also withdraw that stimulus that's going to be supported for the euro too i don't think it's a done deal >> how do you feel about your exposure to european exwe quiti? some are more wary than others where do you fall? >> i think we've been optimistic about europe we've called the fact that european growth has been pretty strong and i think there's still more to come let's not forget that european equities have lagged others for a long time. this wariness you say because of the legacy of the debt crisis. i think that's gradually being dispelled as the political

risks -- obviously it's not sorted out but political risk in europe is not nearly as great as it was >> peter, we'll have to wrap it up here. thank you so much for your time. peter westaway, head of strategy at europe vanguard asset management and glen core has raised its full year expectations the minor increase is 2017 guidance by $100 million glencore has said it wants to create long-term value for shareholders underpinned by its tier one commodities adjusted ebida came in and dong energy has beaten ebida estimates. adding it would have capacity within the next two years. will enable it to increase payments in a disciplined manner omv doubled its operating

profit to 662 million euros. the result was driven by its move to lower cost production in countries like russia. speaking earlier, the ceo pointed out that the uncertainty in the oil price was one of the main risks he still sees for the year >> one would talk about the risk of the remaining year, i think as everybody doesn't know what the price is going to do, we do have the oil price uncertainty the the market i think geopolitics are really determining more and more of the business still coming up on the show, will prudential follow its peers to a break we'll have the earnings next stick around - honey, remember to slaughter the tomatoes with the nun. (screaming) remember to water the tomatoes when you're done. - [announcer] sometimes, hearing isn't easy.

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welcome back to "street signs. i'mcare lynn robin escalates with the state saying he only understands absolute force adecco shares falls to the bottom of europe stock 600 and glencore prepares for an m&a spree leaving investor waiting for increased payouts. altice prepares to buy

charter communications at a potential $200 billion deal while also raising its stake in fsr. all right. i'm just waiting for a host of data points this morning i'm waiting for the uk industrial production, construction output numbers. there you go you've got data crossing the wires. beating expectations the outlook is a little bit more marquee. we've got the industrial production if i can find the exact number, it was forecast for a drop of 0.2% month to month. the actual was 0.5% on the month. and 0.3% on the year so once again, that is slightly better than forecast the uk trade deficit meanwhile widening unexpectedly in june after goods exports slide.

we've also got numbers out on the equities side from prudential net profit came at 1.5 billion pounds revenues of 43 billion pounds. and pretax profit of 2.21 billion pounds operating profit of 2.358. so let's get back to the uk economy story. we're seeing that uk ons saying the data points revise to the -- that's not a whole lot but it says that the fall in the june car production is offset by an absence of oil field maintenance. as usual, you've got a lot of specific factors to deal with. i also want to bring you the uk second quarter construction output number. that is for the month of june. that is down 0.1%. and that was versus expectations of 1.5 increase.

negative 0.4%. so that seems to be well below expectations that once again the june construction output only 0.9% year on year versus a pull of 0.9%. so you've got a mixed set of points, industrial output beating expectations below trade. that was also a bit of a disappointment let's try and make sense of all these numbers with portfolio manager at pimco does it trade on brexit and what the boe is doing >> it does trade on data to some degree i think the key driver of where it goes is brexit. if you look at where sterling has been trading, europe has been strong. running around 1.30. dipped below the last 24 hours or so. so the -- you know, the big influence on sterling is still brexit but i think brexit is part of

the story in the data as well. you mentioned the construction data was weaker there. if you look at the pmis, the weakness in the construction data has been in the commercial sector i think some of that is brexit related. so i think the brexit uncertainty is feeding into the data having an effect on sterling and keeping it on the weaker side. >> just want to show you once again to our viewers, sterling/dollar inching off the day's lows but increasing somewhat after the better than expected industrial production data now changing hands at 1.2978 what would it take for sterling/dollar to go back to the 1.32 levels that we saw just a week or two ago? >> i think there's a couple of key levels there's the recent highs that is related to interest rate expectations you've seen interest rate expectations fall back, so the first rate hike is now priced for the beginning of 2019

opposed to the middle of 2018. so i think that's behind the fall in the short-term and then longer term i think to get any kind of meaningful momentum on sterling upwards, in reality you need clarity on brexit and some certainty as to whether there is going to be a transition period of not we can all speculate as to whether there will be. until we get certainty on that, it's tough to see them make a decisive move higher >> when it comes to the cable pair, isn't the force here the u.s. dollar? because it's been so weak the past couple months, that was the only reason why sterling was able to cross that 1.32 level, wouldn't you agree >> yeah. there are a few things in play there's been the dollar weakness sterling has had a pretty poor run over the longer term for awhile now and to decisively change that, i think you need a shift in the uk politics in terms of this kind of 1.20 to 1.30 range, i think a lot of that relates to the dollar

but a big decisive move would be much more likely to come from a brexit clarity or either way than it would be anything else >> mike, let's also have a look at the space we saw that the gilt yields came up on a six-week low this was on the back of the north korea tension. at the same time i'm reading reports that overseas investors, their gilt holdings have dropped to three-month holds is it an interesting place to be right now? >> i think the gilt market looks relative to other markets in particular to u.s. treasuries. you know, the underlying economics of both economies with very low unemployment rates but a challenge to get inflation, you know, underlying wages in particular are up. it's similar in both you have more yield protection in the u.s the fed is raising rates, but

you want government bonds to provide protection in the event that you get unexpectedly bad news and yesterday obviously was an example of that. 2.20 on a 10-year treasury in the longer term gives you more of the yield protection than a 10-year gilt so relative basis, we think the best place to be is u.s. treasuries >> talked about duration i want to point out that duration for the 10-year uk government debt currently at eight times its yield. that's well above the long-term average. how much does that worry you >> yeah, i mean, when you look at the level of the markets, i wouldn't -- we shouldn't lose sight it is tough for central banks to get rates significantly off the bound. it's taken the feds an awful long time to get up to these levels the bank of england has talked about hiking and has not yet managed to do it yeah you don't get paid much yield per unit of duration but the reason for that is there's still a high stock of global debt.

and it's pretty tough to see, you know, central banks raising rates aggressively any time soon our medium term forecast is that rates stay low for a multi-year period >> mike, you said before that you like u.s. treasuries what else do you like in this environment? >> yeah, sure. we've published a few pieces recently noting that the risk assets have been through a pretty good run. it's pretty hard to identify what the catalyst for a backup in spreads and volatility in the stock market would be. but, you know, valuations to us and a lot of risk assets look fair to slightly rich. we've been taking money off the table in risk assets what we do still like is things like securitized product where there's a complex premium on the market. so there are still things out there you can buy. but our general theme has been to dial down our risk and recognize that a lot of valuations look fair to slightly rich >> all right, mike thaun thank you for that in the meantime, i do want

to recap what's been happening at prudential. the global insurer also announcing it will merge its uk business. it's combining mmg and prudential in europe and that will allow it to better leverage their considerable scale and capabilities of that business. once again, connecting mng and europe to form quick look at u.s. futures and yesterday we did recover quite a bit from the session lows in fact, we saw a fairly mixed close at the end of the trading session. we'll see what today has got in store and we're looking down once again the s&p 500 seen off four points. the dow jones off by 20 points nasdaq expected to fall by 21 points the dow off 0.2% s&p holding onto the flatline. nasdaq off 0.3% in yesterday's trade. when it came to the european equity markets yesterday, we saw

pressure coming off the north korean tensions. and we have the dax, cac down more than 0.1% when it comes to the fx markets, you saw a bit of a rise against the dollar to 1.2972 off the better than expected data we had out a couple of minutes ago. eu euro/dollar off a little bit against the japanese yen still the safe haven play keeping investors busy and that's all because of north korea. the country has hit back at threats of fire of fury from donald trump calling it, quote, a load of nonsense also issued an update on a missile strike near guam saying preparations should be ready in a matter of days meanwhile, the pentagon has prepared a detailed plan for a

preemptive strike on north korea missile sites. arrangements are in place should president trump order such an attack tracy pollocks joins us from washington how likely is this preemptive strike, really in. >> a lot of military experts out there say it's not the best option that it will prompt an immediate response and essentially send the u.s. and north korea almost immediately into war the diplomacy or other options should be on the table first but given the fact that the situation is escalating, the trump administration says all options are on the table and by escalating, we mean this. north korea has now made its threat against guam. our u.s. territory out in the middle of pacific more specific saying they will send foreign missiles into the waters around guam essentially to scare them in a show of their military might and

power. they say they are promising a show of absolute force in light of the heated comments that president trump made about fire and fury raining down on north korea. so certainly the rhetoric is heating up, but the concern is what may really happen on guam and perhaps even elsewhere given the fact that we know they have missiles that have a range that can reach as far as the midwestern united states as far as chicago as far as the pentagon plan you talked about, multiple military sources tell cnbc the plan is ready. they would use b-1 bombers to attack what's been identified as missile launch sites in north korea if president trump decided to order a preemptive strike which again a lot of military experts say should not be the first option >> traci, we're showing our viewers pictures of the state department briefing yesterday. it was interesting to listen to

that given that we heard stuff like we're all speaking in one voice. obviously rex tillerson, he tried to portray a message of, you know, let's keep americans calm he said you can sleep well at night. are they really speaking with one voice? >> well, that's what the administration says. you know, the president talked about fire and fury and raised a lot of concern about whether or not he was trying to egg on north korea into some sort of military conflict, possibly even nuclear war given the language that he used rex tillerson came behind him and tried to calm people down and said things are safe guam should not worry. people can sleep at night. it doesn't sound like the same message. the state department says it is the same message we also heard from the defense secretary with a more muted tone but a similar message to what president trump said essentially warning north korea of consequences, severe consequences if they decide to

strike guam or any u.s. territory. >> thank you so much for that update meantime, just want to bring you the latest coming out of south korea. the south korean presidential blue house saying its national security council is urging north korea to stop all actions driving tension on the korean peninsula. that's the official line coming from the south korean presidential blue house. still coming up on "street signs," would you let your employer microchip you think about that question for a moment that's the dilemma facing staff at one wisconsin firm. we'll be discussing the latest developments in workplace surveillance what the futurist is after the short break stick around

toy maker lego has appointed

its second chief executive in just eight months. speaking to the ft, lego's chairman said he could only stay on for a short period and the decision had nothing to do with his performance. and markets may be near record highs with optimism bounding, but not all is well on wall street. layoffs are hitting trading desks. bob pisani explains why wall street is having a tough summer. >> call it wall street's miserable summer even as the markets hit new highs and sentiment remains strong, wall street continues to lay off its own people the truth is, wall street is shrinking. among the ten meeting global investment banks, the head count for traders is now more than 20% from 2011 to 2016. and it's declining again this year what's behind this it's another year of record low volume, record low volatility, oceans of money leaving active management for passive investing, and the growing use of artificial intelligence to pick stocks.

it means traders in hedge funds are suffering through another year of slow business. in the old days volumes would pick up. but no more. the market's called to new highs but they aren't moving on a daily basis. moved 0.5% on any day last quarter. that's low activity. less trading average daily trading volume declined 6% in the u.s. year over year. that means less business for traders. volumes of volatility are dropping across the board from the u.s. to europe even in japan. traders are getting paid less on top of that. pay is down 5% to 15% for equity traders just from 2015 to 2016 and it's still dropping. is it all over for a wall street career not necessarily. but forget about the trading jobs ubs says they're hiring psychologists now as well as

experts from shipping to confirm the research process others are hiring social media consultants. and computer geeks who can write code for complicated algorithms. it's a whole new world i'm bob pisani, new york is facebook finally going to have to admit it's a media company? it has just launched a rival video platform to youtube called watch which would feature original content from its partners ceo mark zuckerberg said the platform is all about finding programs that bring fans together but some critics say tv have been doing that for decades. tesla is developing electric freight trucks that can drive themselves and move in platoons. that's according to reuters, the tesla commercial trucks are expected to be unveiled in september. long haul trucks are seen as a prime target for driverless technology because of their relatively consistent speeds and the need to allow drivers to rest south korea is making moves to bring in a robot tax due to

worry about machines replacing human workers. it plans to downsize tax incentives for automation as part of a shakeup of its financial loss. they will make up for lost income by workers who have been replaced by machines as you may have noticed, we've been talking about the rapidly changing future of work this week. today we're looking at how companies were to anticipate what surprises technology will throw at us. next i'm joined by bob from talk talk business. first of all, what's your title all about? futurist how do you become a futurist >> well, i wish it was that i had a crystal ball and could tell you what the stock prices would be like around christmas this year. >> that would be fantastic >> exactly but what it really is is somebody who looks at trends and tries to track slightly further than the company's normal strategy we want to look at what happens after what comes next. and trying to help businesses to

get ready for, you know, three to five years from now rather than just the next thing >> okay. use your expertise to tell us what the future looks like in 10, 15 years >> from a technology point of view, some of the big trends we've seen now in the next few years has got to do with wearable technology, got to do with communications, and productivity and i think any time you're looking at technology in the work place, you're trying to i triangulate three things you've got to do that in the context of safety and security of the data and the systems. and then finally these days, more importantly is personal freedoms you know, the whole bring your own device type of discussion is coming and i think those are the three things we're looking at. if you can find technologies that are going to help you with productivity are going to keep

your data safe and then give people the sense of freedom and personal responsibility, then you've got something you know is going to impact the world for the next decade or two. >> that's a very interesting angle. because i thought it was all about the advances and just pure technology itself like using ai, vr, whatnot. have i mentioned them all? i get kind of confused with all the acronyms these days. but, you know, you make the point it's more about flexibility. it's more about using your time wisely it doesn't have to be held >> there are a few of the teches like myself who we'll just take on tech because it's there you know, so so me a driverless car and i'll drive in a back seat but of course most businesses are not driven by fads they're driven by needing a return on investment and so that's the sign that corporate i.t. has typically been looking at.

where do we get a business benefit? but now we also are getting pushback from people, you know, ten years ago your business had better technology than you do. now you do the mobile phone you've got in your hand is way better than the one i.t. will give you and you're probably using outdated software in the office compared to what you pay for yourself at home and so this push from our own employees to say upgrade me, you know, get me into this digital world faster is becoming more and more of a pressure on i.t. >> is there anything, graeme, that's going to ch revolutionize the workplace as much as e-mail on computer and the internet did 20 years ago >> well, i think ai is the place to do it i talked to a business we're currently undergoing, a series of research projects looking at how employees are going to be impacted in the future and the key thing that we're seeing is initially we thought we'd see a lot of fear of, you

know, going to be replaced by the robots and the algorithms. actually a lot of people are quite excited about this in fact, although one in five employers say they're pushing to bring ai into the office about the same number of employees are actually excited because they're saying, well, hopefully the parts of my job that i don't really like, the parts that are the dull, the dreary, the repetitive, let me machines do those. brilliant. that frees me up to do the more strategic, the more interesting, the more human sides of my work. i'm not quite sure how it's all going to play out. i think different industries are going to experience this in different ways but i think there is potential in the next ten years for us to work with the machines rather than just be replaced. >> and rather than against the machine just to work alongside them now, you put out this really interesting report about chip tracking and how uk workers feel about that

they're not too excited. why? >> well, interestingly about 70% of people would be happy to have a wearable piece of technology that tracks their own productivity but as soon as it becomes something that my employer has access to and my employer can start tracking me, then people want to run a mile about 36% of people even suggesting they might leave their employment. >> oh, wow that extreme >> i think that's where that comes in businesses are looking for productivity and safety but people want personal freedom if i feel my employer is watching me and analyzing me from a distance, that's not quite something i'm looking for. >> would you do it would you have a chip installed? >> as long as i knew that i was the one getting the data and had control of it who saw that data, i would. >> i would do it if i could take it off when i leave work if i have to swallow something, i certainly wouldn't do that but graeme, thank you so much for taking a look into the

future of the workplace for me futurist at talk talk business and all week we're talking about how the workplace is changing in this week's trader poll, we're asking you what workplace change you want most fewer e-mails? less time in meetings? shorter commute? or a new boss? head to cnbc.com to cast your vote also have your say on twitter using #traderpoll. quick look at u.s. futures they are looking sloggy at this point in time. s&p 500 seen off by five points. dow jones by 20. and nasdaq 20 as well. that's it for today's show i'm carolin roth see you tomorrow bye-bye. whoooo.

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a load of nonsense north korea hits back at threats of fire and fury from president trump. a live report from the region coming up. watch out youtube. facebook is officially launching a big attack on tv the details of the long-awaited content push straight ahead. plus retail in focus three big consumer names set to report today it is thursday, august 10th, 2017 "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning warm welcome