signs. here are the headlines nine years and $4.5 trillion later, the fed starts unwinding its balance sheet. chair janet yellen sticks to the rate hike path, brushing aside the inflation mystery. >> what we need do is figure out whether or not the factors that have lowered inflation are likely to prove persistent or they're likely to prove transitory the fed bank boost reaches europe as the sector hits a one-month high amid reports

unicredit is eyeing commerzbank for a megamerger anglo american shares jump after indian billionaire anil agarwal ups his stake, making him the south african miner's top shareholder. protesters are arrested in barcelona after tens of thousands take to the streets to demonstrate against spanish police raids of government offices, in a bid to block the catalan referendum.. good morning it's thursday. a busy morning for us here let's kick things off with the stoxx 600. we are up to the tune of 0.2%. just off session highs one hour into the trading session we have a couple big stories going on we have the fed impact and we've got some m&a stories circulating around commerzbank before we do that, here's a look

at the indices one by one. all of them are firmly in the green. the xetra dax is up 0.2% ftse mib up by 0.4 the ftse 100 in the uk may be lagging a tad. i should point out yesterday it was the ibex, the spanish market that underperformed giving the ratcheting up of tensions between madrid and barcelona, given this upcoming referendum on october 1st today the ibex is bouncing back to about 0.1%. when it comes to the sectors, there you go. you have the banking stocks outperforming, up by 1.5%. we'll get to that story. construction also doing better as crh in ireland is buying a u.s. cementmaker italy's largest bank, unicredit, could be exploring a merger with commerzbank. the combination would create one of europe's largest banks and could come after unicredit's two-year turnaround plan is

complete both banks have declined to comment. annette joins us from berlin with her take from the german capital it seems like the german government has slightly different plans for commerzbank. >> well, i think they're just now in the hearing stage they're listening to everybody who is interested. but it is reported that they have a preference that the commerzbank stake might go to bnp paribas, a french lender so the speculation is as follows, that the german government would not prefer -- would actually prefer a french bank to an italian bank, the belief on the ground is the italian banking sector is still not the most healthiest in europe so where do we stand now how realistic is the whole merger speculation looking at the share price of 10 euro, where commerzbank is

standing right now, they need to eat pay huge premium or to see the share price rally a lot. only at a price of around 18 euro the german government can exit the stake without a loss. that equals 3.5 billion euro, and that's the price tag the potential buyer would have to put on the table obviously the german government has no interest in exiting commerzbank at a loss. there's also no hurry. there's also no loss currently from the bank. so you see, i think what we're hearing here on the ground is that it could be as soon as november that we get some traction in that story but for now there is no imminent action to be expected. of course, "a," we have the election coming up then there's the lengthy period of coalition building during which the political decisionmaking in berlin will

come to a standstill "b," of course there needs to be a serious offer on the table for that stake the government's currently holding in commerzbank as i was saying early on, this needs to have a certain price. the rumor is 3.5 billion euro or an equivalent of 18 euro share for commerzbank. so there's still a way to go for the shares back to you. >> annette, do you think there's protectionist forces at play do you think the german government ultimately would favor a german tie up? we knows there been talks between deutsche bank and commerzbank, but they turned out to be not very fruitful in the end. do you think that this would still be the favorite option >> i'm not very sure there's always competition element to it. these statalks you're referring were brief, a matter of

exchanging ideas when we talk about tying up commerzbank and deutsche bank's business of course european solution is what they favor, perhaps a solution also as i was saying between bnp paribas and commerzbank. bnp paribas not a stranger to the european market. they took over other parts of european banks back in the financial crisis days. so i think that's something -- that's the preferred solution. >> all right unfortunately we have some issues with the line out of berlin we got the gist of what annette was talking about with this potential for a french/german banking merger we'll see whether unicredit has some say in that let's check in on the reaction in european banks, once again after the fed meeting financials in asia followed u.s.

peers higher after the s&p financial sector closed at the highest level since the start of the financial crisis back in 2007 this is the picture for the european banks deutsche bank rallying nicely to the tune of 3.7% commerzbank, that's the story of the last 24 hours, up by almost 5% or so some of the swiss banks also doing well pnb paribas up by 1.73%. the federal reserve pulled the trigger on unwinding quantitative easing. chair janet yellen announced the central bank would begin reducing its balance sheet from next month policymakers held rates steady but left the door open for another rise with the dot plot showing conviction for one more hike this year and three more in 2018 yields rose across the board with the two-year yield hitting the highest level since 2008ment as a result financial stocks got a big boost with the s&p financial sector rising to its

highest close since the start of the financial crisis in 2007 with inflation still below the fed's 2% target, many investors were anxious to hear what fed chair janet yellen had to say following haven't low ratings. >> for a number of years there were very understandable reasons for that short fall. they included quite a lot of slack in the labor market, which my judgment would be is largely disappeared. and very large reductions in energy prices and the large appreciation of the dollar that lowered import prices in mid-2014 this year the shortfall of inflation from 2% when none of those factors is operative is more of a mystery and i will not say that the committee clearly understands what the causes are

of that. janet yellen also talked about how the balance sheet reduction plan might change if the economy took a turn for the worse. if there were that type of material deterioration in the economic outlook would warrant a sizeable reduction in the federal funds rate as long as we believe we can use the federal funds rate as a tool, that's what we plan to do. >> the fed chair was quizzed about her own future in the job as well as the abundance of empty seats on the board >> it is conceivable we will be down to three governors. i have confidence if that happens we will be able to carry out or compliment of

responsibilities i think it's important to have a broad range of views around the table as we deliberate on policy actions. i've had very good interactions with randy quarrels and hope he will be confirmed. >> let's get more analysis on what the fed had to say with the global head of fixed income strategy she joins us from amsterdam. the biggest takeaway was the fact that december is back in play interest rate futures have a 70% rate of a december rate hike happening, versus 50% before the meeting. you guys are still not sold on that why not? >> i think the market is getting more and more sold on this the key word that was mentioned in your very nice introduction was the word conviction. i think the federal reserve made its policy and its communication with conviction.

though the market was not convinced before, it's getting more convinced the one thing we're not so convinced about ourselves is the fact that low inflation is just temporary phenomenon we've seen the uptick in inflation. we are very much wondering whether we will see stronger inflation going forward. that will be key for what the fed will be able to do this year >> janet yellen repeatedly has been pretty sanguine about the low prints of inflation. she said some of it is down to transitory factors, but it's been persistent and quite puzzling to most economists out there. is it okay to ignore the weak inflation prints for months on end? >> it very much depends on your beliefs and what you see in the data the higher -- somewhat higher inflation number, the latest inflation number was due to energy prices and shelter.

what we would like to see is higher inflation in services, and just main goods in the economy. wages t would be nice to see wage inflation in the economy. that's not the case yet. we would like to see that evidence in the months going forward. >> what's really been interesting over the last couple months, mary, the fact there's been a persistent disconnect between what the market is pricing in and what the fed dot plots are showing us we're seeing the fed is more hawkish than the market right now. that was tempered yesterday when it came to the longer term projections. you make an interesting point in your note saying maybe the long-term projections don't matter because the fed could be looking different starting from next year. do you think we should discount the current disconnect between the market and the fed because of that reason >> yeah. the gap is increasing between the market and a fed

that's a good sign that means the credibility of the federal reserve has restored to a large extent. but it's also a fact that, you know, we could potentially be looking at a very different constitution of the board from january onward different people may mean different course janet yellen was very much trying to down play this, but we know from previous experience that if there are different people at the helm, the fed might want to steer a different course >> what does it all mean for the dollar where is the dollar going? it is seeing a tick up in the haven't days because of this lift in yields how sustainable is that? is this the start of the dollar bull run for real? >> i think the dollar was obviously being quite weak against the euro, so a bit of a retreat is not a surprise. you know, even some -- a few cents lower may be on the cards

for the dollar we think longer term the euro will strengthen vis-a-vis the tlar dollar it's only a temporary phenomenon in our view. >> you still like equities, you are underweight government bonds, but you still like credit has anything changed as a result of yesterday's news from the fed? >> it's firmed us in our conviction that interest rates will go higher it's not a matter of whether they will go higher, but by how much and for how long a prolonged period rates will be able to go higher but if rates are going higher, we prefer to be underweight in bonds, that's our recommendation to investors we still very much are comfortable with taking the equity risk, so maintaining an overweight equity position in this environment supported by growth and an overweight position of corporate bonds in

our bond portfolio >> mary, thank you very much for your time. appreciate it. now, the bank of japan held policy steady in an 8-1 vote expressing confidence that inflation will reach the 2% target that keeps its main rate in negative territory one dissenter said current easing measures were not sufficient to boost inflation. at a news conference governor kuroda said the bank would respond as needed to any impact of the north korea situation on the japanese economy the dollar/yen moving higher to the tune of 0.25%. that unchanged view from the bank of japan was expected also because we have a snap election this fall, most likely. and we have some delay in some of the fiscal rules. so i guess that leaves the boj in a bit of a bind that wasn't the only central bank meeting today we have norway

let's tell you about what they did. they also left the key rate unchanged at 0.5%, saying there is continued need for expansionary monetary policy the outlook suggests inflation will remain below 2.5% in the coming years that said, they also said that the new forecast implies a somewhat earlier rate increase than previously stated that has led to this rise in the norwegi norwegi norwegi norwegian krona. coming up, angela merkel tells supporters every vote counts ahead of the weekend election more from germany after this short break. ah, dinner.

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angela merkel is set to beco become -- anglo american is set to become a top shareholder after vol ckanvolcan was eyeinis >> karen, you have been following this company, the sector for a while why does he increase the stake it seems like there's a broader motive behind this >> let's explore the personal investment it has been a recovery play. very strong performance. back in february the company was effectively doing a massive u-turn to investors, saying we're no longer forced to embark upon sales of certain assets that we consider non-core. we can hold on to these assets, including iron ore mines, because they had a strong commodity price. the company was facing huge debt

so it could pay down the debt quicker. it was in a much better position fiscally the balance sheet was in better shape. it held on to the assets, as a result it was able to pay a dividend in july restore the dividend for investors. very strong recovery, about 8% higher for agarwal in terms of his purchase in march. so this has been an okay investment for a family trust. could there be a secret agenda not for the next six months, he says he is not interested in a takeover after that six months, you have to wonder is there a consolidation drive. in 2016 the same billionaire approached angelo to discuss a merger with henderson zinc so there are ways and means that he can consolidate certain assets that he owns in his individual companies i don't think investors would be fully rolling out a takeover at some stage

perhaps there's one down the stra track. you have to wonder whether there would be appetite from investors for consolidation down the track. >> you also have other players, other stakeholders, share holders, the south african public investment, they hold a 15% stake. i wonder what they have to say about a bigger investment, influence coming from a personal investor >> that's a blocking stake or strategic stake. would have to convince the south african pension fund to sell their stake if you wanted a full blown takeover it tells a broader story about mining companies, don't forget where there have been consolidation attempts this big mining giant story has been well and truly over, even for rio tinto and billitobillitn so whether angelo american shoud

be tied up that's a question. >> thank you very much a large number of ryanair pilots rejected the bonus offer to work additional days. ryanair tabled an offer of up to 12,000 euros to work an extra ten days as it attempts to tackle a pilot shortage which forced it to canal is over 2,000 flights. ryanair said it expected to reaaccommodate over 90% of the 315,000 passengers affected. demonstrators took to the streets of barcelona to protest moves by spanish officials to halt a banned referendum on c catalonia's independence state police raided cat lalan offices and arrested officials leaders were asked to cancel the

planned elections, but catalan called for a democratic response from the region. >> translator: freedom is being suspended and repressed. the government of catalonia and our allies in the coming hours with economic and civic institutions will have the appropriate response to give in any case, citizens are called in to vote on october 1st to defend democracy before a repressive and intimidating regime, and we have to give a massive and civic response >> a quick look at how this has been affecting the markets the spanish stock market this morning is rebounding after underperforming the rest of the european indices amid the increase in violence yesterday yesterday the ibex was down 0.8% verses a flat overall stoxx 600. again, a bit of a rebound this morning. doesn't seem like so far it's had a huge impact on the yield picture in spain for more on what a catalonia split could mean for the spanish economy, you can head to cnbc.com the banking lobby group

cityuk is urging theresa may to do more to secure a brexit deal. the group warns that london risks losing its status as a global financial hub just as florence did after the renaissance. that's many centuries ago. e-mail the show. streetsignseurope@cnbc.com is the address. you can find us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc and i love reading your tweets, tweet me at @carolincnbc we are going to go for a quick break. coming up on the show, unicredit could be exploring a merger with commerzbank. we'll look at what that might mean after this short break.

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hello. welcome back to "street signs. i'm carolin roth these are your headlines nine years and $4.5 trillion later, the fed starts unwinding its balance sheet. chair janet yellen sticks to the rate hike path, brushing aside the inflation mystery. >> what we need do is figure out whether or not the factors that have lowered inflation are likely to prove persistent or they're likely to prove transitory the fed bank boost reaches

europe as the sector hits a one-month high amid reports unicredit is eyeing commerzbank for a megamerger anglo american shares jump after indian billionaire anil agarwal ups his stake, making him the south african miner's top shareholder. protesters are arrested in barcelona after tens of thousands take to the streets to demonstrate against spanish police raids of government offices, in a bid to block the catalan referendum good morning if you're just tuning in, let's peek at the u.s. futures i sound like a broken record these days when i tell you once again the dow hit a record high yesterday. record close for the dow and the s&p on the fact that we saw the fed maybe being more hawkish than we expected the december rate hike is back in play. that helped the yield curve steepening further, but also the banking stocks today we're looking maybe at a little bit of profit taking or

weakness the dow jones seen off by 5 points the s&p 500 seen off by 3 or 4 the nasdaq seen lower to the tune of 8 or 9 points at the start of trade in europe, we are still looking positive the ftse 100 is eking out a gain of 0.1%. dax up by 0.2. cac 40 up by 24 points, or half of a percent one of the main things driving us is the banking stocks the banking sector at a one month high in europe on the one hand it's the fed effect, feeling the love from the fed. on the over hand it's all this talk about a potential tie up between some mega banks in europe we'll get to that in a second. before that, i do want to show you what the fx markets are doing. we are seeing the dollar has risen to a two-month high versus the yen. the dollar is weaker against the euro 119.08 is the handle

now, back to our top story italy's largest bank, unicredit could be exploring a merger with commerzbank. that's according to a report by reuters. the combination would create one of europe's largest banks and could come after unicredit's two-year turnaround plan is complete unicredit expressed interest in the deal to the government let's explore these options with marco elser joining us on the line thank you very much for taking the time do you think a tie-up between unicredit and commerzbank would make strategic sense >> the situation is that this is still rumored, it's unconfirmed. unicredit has implemented a plan which could keep the bank afloat and growing by 2020.

our concern is that by purchasing commerzbank, he may be actually putting too much on his plate now. commerzbank is a bank that was bailed out by the german government quite a few years ago. the german government is a large, significant shareholder and has consistently said they do not want to be shareholders i think if unicredit buys it, it coulc could be a wise move, but now it's dangerous because unicredit has a lot of problems to fix domestically in italy. they shrunk their international businesses to a small number of countries. think divested nonstrategic, noncore investments. and a purchase of commerzbank, while strategically interesting could become problematic as far as headaches are concerned because of putting two huge institutions together. >> so just to make sure i get this right you think the timing is the

issue. not so much the strategic rational to be honest, both banks have been moving in the right direction. they've been divesting some noncore assets, focusing on the retail and corporate client, less on the investment bank. strategically this would be a nice fit, but simply not now you say in five, ten years time. is that right? >> i wouldn't say 5, 10, but i don't think they should be courting each other. they could start courting each other, it's like a dance, i'll kiss you, you kiss me. i don't think they should be going second base until the summer of 2018 when there's more visible on the restructuring of the bank bear in mind something, there's a famous american saying in the 1980s. how do you build a mid size banking institution? you take two mid size banking institutions and put them together that does not mean you will make a big bank unicredit and commerzbank are still considered mid size institutions compared to the significantly larger banks

in fact, they are a fraction of what their original worth was years ago before the whole banking crisis happened. >> mark koshgs i'm ncomarco, i'a the press this morning where the government may favor pnb paribas versus unicredit how unhealthy is the italian banking sector still >> i have said unicredit, when they bought banca de roma, didn't realize they were buying a bank, they were buying a cemetery of problem loans. unfortunately they sold a lot of npls, but there still are a lot of problems, especially in central italy, which i don't

think have been fully -- they've probably come to people knowing about them, but it takes a lot of political time to solve them. because there's some very, very touchy situations that are very, very embarrassing. >> you're a distressed debt investor do you think there's still value in npls and snapping up some of those assets are we past the low point in italy? >> we're definitely past the low point. in fact, we're so much past the low point i believe that right now the quantitative players coming into italy right now, carolyn, is such that the person who wins these bids generally wakes up the following morning and says, my god, did i really pay that much for this asset they ended up overpaying they'll make money on it, but the irrs will be significantly lower than transactions that took place in 2013, 2014, 2015 >> that seems like a rude awakening in the morning

what do i you invest in? where do you see value i won't share that information because a lot of the audience is perhaps not sophisticated. the transactions we do are generally not available -- they're definitely not available to retail investors. so, i will not be able to comment. i will say though there are still lots of pockets of opportunities in southern europe and asia >> all right i guess we'll have to leave it there. thank you very much for your insights on this potential deal. marco elser from lonsin capital. moving back to the german elections, every vote counts that was the message from angela merkel speaking at a campaign event. she has been looking to bolster support, many expect the outcome of the election to lead to another grand coalition with the

cdu's biggest opposition party martin schulz, her rival, is asking people to use the votes for the spd. merkel said her record serves as a good blueprint for the future. >> translator: i can't see the future i can't know what will happen. but i believe that we have shown we have, for example, halved unemployment, solved many other problems we have shown we are always looking forwards into the future and that we want to shape our lives for the future while always being responsible for those coming after us, for our children and grandchildren >> annette spoke to the deputy finance minister and asked him for his view on the most likely coalition. >> i hope that the cdu will lead the new government

a >> there's some concerns that coalition talks this time could last very long because of the potential coalition formations is that something you share as well as a concern? >> i think we'll have three weeks after the general election, the local elections. so i believe after this local election we will start the discussion about new coalition i believe it could take some time to come together and bald new government >> what does it mean that for the first time in many, many years a political party to the right of the cdu and csu a entering parliament with the afd? what does it mean for political berlin >> i think it will bring us a new style of the political debate the second i think the other

parties, the democratic parties have to some problems, which are in the few of the people are available. for example, the problem of migration. if we do it, i hope that we can reduce this right wing >> in other words, do you think that if the future government will be successful in tackling or the integration of the immigrants in germany, that the afd is a temporary phenomenon? >> i hope that it will be a temporary phenomenon, because this party is strictly against european unification, and the european unification brings us peace and freedom for people, and i hope we keep this for the future mexico has declared three days of national mourning

following the 7.1 earthquake. emergency crews are sifting through the rubble trying to find survivors dozens of buildings have been toppled or damaged and at one point nearly 5 million homes and businesses were without power. ron mott reports from mexico city. >> reporter: this is one of the search and rescue missions still underway, now 30 hours after this earthquake hit, a 7.1 rattler that rattled nerves and cost more than 200 lives behind me, this is a former employment agency, we know there are survive nerts building officials have been able to speak to them, have been able to get water and food to them you have anxious relatives and friends waiting all day long for good word that their loved ones have been brought out alive.

more precarious is on the second floor of this building, there's one survivor there you have to consider there's three or four levels of concrete and mortar on top of this one individual, but that person is alive. his family has been notified of that a lot of attention has been focused on that elementary school where we have already had a confirmed fatality count there approaching two dozen with still some three dozen school children and adults unaccounted for that rescue effort goes on as well today we got word of another building collapse. we have also gotten word that there is another building that is at risk of collapse so while we are now getting rain tonight, fortunately today the earth has stood still for the most part. we have not heard or felt any real aftershocks from yesterday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake officials here will works for all night until they can clear this scene the work is tedious, time consuming and very slow. puerto rico is under a curfew as the island begins the

recovery process after hurricane maria. the storm is still packing 115-mile-per-hour winds. forecasters expect maria to strengthen during the next few days as it turns north. the federal reserve assessed the impact of the busy hurricane season on the u.s. economy it said that while there will be some near-term impact to economic activity and prices, hurricanes harvey, irma and maria won't have much effect over the medium term this comes as hanover re warned it may miss profit targets for 2017 the german reinsurer said while the budget for natural disasters would be able to cover losses from hurricanes harvey and irma, it would not be enough to absorb hurricane maria and the earthquake in mexico despite the profit warning, hanover rueck said a dividend payment was still possible. coming up, google places a billion dollar bet on asia in a deal that could smak up thake u

smartphone market. we'll explain after the brk.ea

welcome back want to draw your attention to what's happening with ryanair. the budget airline seeing its stock tank once again. off by 3%, hitting a session low, this as the ceo, michael o'leary has been speaking at the agm. this company has been in the news for the wrong reasons, given the pilot shortage which led to some massive losses, huge reputational losses. he says he will consider taking back one of four weeks of annual leave from pilots, says it is allow dodd this under current contracts. he says if a week of leave is not taken back from pilots, rostering would be tight at the same time he is trying to assure investors saying we will not have a pilot shortage saying

that they recruited 125 pilots in the past two weeks. this comes as we got news overnight that a significant number of ryanair pilots have rejected the bonus offer so don't think that things are looking too bright for the pilot situation and addressing that shortage at ryanair. robert muller, the special council investigating russian meddling in the presidential election asked the white house for documents relating president trump's firing of the former fbi director, james comey as well as a trump meeting with russian officials. that's according to a report in the "new york times. a trump lawyer declined to comment on any specific requests by mueller. president trump has been meeting with members of the united nations blayne alexander has more. >> reporter: another day of u.n.

diplomacy for president trump one day after calling the iran nuclear deal an embarrassment he said he made up his mind on whether to end it. >> i have decided. >> reporter: but would not say what that decision is. iran's president said the agreement should not be scrapped by rogue newcomers, but stopped short of calling out president trump by name. here with mahmoud abbas, pup sounding upbeat on middle east peace. >> who knows, stranger things have happened. we have a good chance. >> reporter: after threatening to destroy north korea, total a less ominous message we must all stand accountable and be implementing u.n. resolutions. >> reporter: today making the rounds, backing a push to reform obamacare. >> i think the previous shot was

sadly let down. >> reporter: with the fight over pre-existing conditions once again center stage >> we'll give plexibility flexio cover sick people, but sick people will be covered. >> reporter: today former president obama weighed in with rare public comments on his namesake policy. >> people are alive today because of it. that's progress. >> reporter: democrats vowing to stop the new plan at all costs this is an emergency all hands on deck. >> reporter: while republican leaders say they hope to vote on this next week if republicans cannot pass this by the end of the fiscal year, that's next week, the number of votes they'll need goes up from 51 to 60, essentially making it impossible to pass blayne alexander, nbc news, washington. google has agreed to buy part of the taiwanese consumer electronics company htc for 1$11 billion. this marks a fresh push for for the software giant

under the agreement, google will acquire a team of htc employees. tesla is working in partnership with the semiconductor company advanced micro devices to develop its own ai chips for self-driving vehicles amd shares rallied after cnbc broke news of the partnership. the effort to build its own chip is in line with tesla's push to be vertically integrated and decrease reliance on existing suppliers. as bitcoin prices continued to push higher, the chinese government's clamped down on cryptocurrency trading pushed bitcoin back below the 3,000 mark, it has clawed back some of those losses and is trading just below the 4,000 mark again joining us is cedric jonson from

bit spread you call yourself a marketmaker. let's talk about this rise and the fall of bitcoin. the huge volatility we've seen we ask questions about legitimacy of bitcoin. can this currency be legitimate as a currency if it's so volatile >> yes the ecosystem now is moving towards regulation we've seen the trade in japan where regulators decided to regulate bitcoin or digital currency as a means of payment so, that's great news for the ecosystem. we know this is a legal tender in california, for instance. we have seen that in asia there's talk about regulating exchanges under the use of digital currency that's great news. i think the bitcoin is a network

for people run by people and accessible by people it meansthat one of the important factors of this ecosystem is to add liquidity. you mentioned the high volatility, the high volatility is after low liquidity that we have on exchanges today. so the important thing is to have the appropriate rules around those exchanges i think the regulators are basically looking at that right now. >> critics will say, one of the biggest critics is jamie dimon, saying bitcoin is a fraud. >> jamie dimon is a smart man. i respect him. he will not cut the branch on which he's sitting because the business model of jpmorgan is to take money from people >> is he just making those comments because the banks are underprepared? >> the banks are trying to catch

up but the view, in fact, as i would think people view bitcoin as internet. as an example, you're in thailand, you have some skills, you want to sell furniture unfortunately you only have your domestic market. with bitcoin you can access a global market, you just need to set on your website a bitcoin address, you are good to receive the equivalent of your currency on your e-commerce website for you and me, we don't have their currency to send to them, but we can send bitcoin easily so this has a great value for developing the e-commerce globally we think bitcoin is a vector for

that >> you run a bitcoin hedge fund. would call yourself a marketmaker, and you've been running this for five years, which is an eternity in bitcoin terms. and you have had pretty good returns. i just wonder what are the risks here the returns in a ray almost swae to be too good to be true. >> we were trying to create something low-risk, conventional by attracting institutional money into the ecosystem in the low-risk way so this fund is something which is adding liquidity, through exchanges around the world exchanges we have selected after 12 amongst of due diligence making sure they have the right way. we are quoting half a billion dollars of bitcoin or digital currency every month we became, i think, the biggest market maker on the exchanges.

>> we'll have to leave it here fascinating business model. before we wrap up, a quick look at u.s. futures we are expecting a mixed start to the trading session the dow jones eking out a very modest rise compared to what we saw a half hour ago. maybe another record close for the dow jones who knows. the european markets are looking green. ftse 100 up by 0.2%. the xetra dax pushing ahead to 0.3% banks are outperforming today. that's it for today's show i'm carolin roth, "worldwide exchange" is up next

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the great unwind the fed announcing plans to start shrinking its 4$4.5 trillion balance sheet the market impacts and analysis straight ahead. president trump's approval rating ticks up as he cuts a deal with democrats. and dialed in. google just made a billion dollar bet on hardware for smartphones. the details coming up. it's thursday, september 21, "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning a warm welcome