welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche these are your headlines european stocks follow wall street into the green shrugging off the biggest reform to europe's financial market in a decade asset managers were the only sector slowed down. christmas cheer for next the retailer rises as it upgrades its profit forecast payment decline. the u.s. blocks the takeover of

moneygram by alibaba in the buyingest deal to be stopped by trump's administration. and north korea is the first to dial in after the border hotline with south korea is reopened ♪ the day is here. after some seven years in the making, mifid ii regulations came into effect today the sweeping legislation will touch every part of the financial services system and is meant to make the eu more transparent and competitive. now, the sprawling rules will radically change how assets are traded and how money is managed with investors focused on changes to investment research under the new model, banks will have to charge separately for

research and broker services so someone will be on the hook for picking up the cost. according to the cfa institute survey, 53% of respondents expect their firm to absorb the expense. 15% expect clients to pay. 12% expect an equal balance. 21% are to the sure. you can see that behind me in terms of how asset managers are thinking about covering the cost of research. the legislation attempts to make stock markets more transparent by setting a cap on trading in dark pools as well the new rules allow only 8% of total volume in any stock to trade hands on on a private or unlit venue. mifid ii will not yet be a global standard. many questions remain on whether other regions will follow suit >> they were counting on as investors would see this transparency, this new amount of information, they would push for

it globally. i think we'll start to see in the u.s. that some of the large state pension funds are looking and lobbying the s.e.c. to say what we're getting from the european asset managers is actually really beneficial >> europe is at a disadvantage of course transparency is a positive thing, but the playing field has not been leveled you can see if you look at the outlook for u.s. banks over european banks, the u.s. banking sector is more positive. >> the spinning plates between the u.s. and europe are difficult to manage between the two regulatory bodies. we have not seen mifid ii come into practical application until january 3rd. it's difficult to say how it will go practically moving forward. the deregulation of the u.s. financial system by some is seen as a benefit, by some seen as an

advantage. so it is mifid day let's look at how european markets are looking. trading on a lot of -- well, much better footing than things were looking yesterday strong performance in the tech sector and nasdaq in yesterday's session, and we're seeing equal amounts of optimism and positivity in european markets let's look at financials financials are the major focus on this all-important mifid ii day. the exceptions being deutsche bank and commerzbank but overall the picture for the banking sector does look positive let's switch to asset managers and see what the picture is like there. interestingly and at odds with what we just saw from the banks, asset managers are struggling a bit. you can see a lot of the blue chip names there are down almost

1% or so old mutual down more than 1.3% as people come to terms with mifid ii and what that means with businesses. joining me on set is the managing director and portfolio director of portfolio management as an investor and managing director of your firm, how will mifid ii affect how you're doing business >> we're complying with the regulation as a firm we'll absorb the cost for research it does affect us in how we source research and consume it as far as the mechanics of trading, we don't see a significant impact going forward. there's going to be winners and losers some of the unintended negative side effects of deregulation is that it disadvantages smaller

firms. could lead to lower liquidity in trading of smaller companies, which i think is unfortunate hopefully it is something that can be resolved over time. >> can i ask you when you started thinking about which research analyst you would stay with or not? is this more like a last minute decision you took in november and december or have firms like yourself been thinking about this for a year or two >> it's been a longer-term project that picked up steam towards the end of the year. the process of really evaluating the quality and value that is being delivered by different providers. it's something that picked up steam in the fourth quarter. >> do you get a sense that the blue chip banks and larger banks will have a competitive advantage, say the smaller boutique firms, in the sense with the banks you can get skill, access not just to

research analyst, but a couple research analysts that you follow as opposed to a single piece of research produced by a smaller firm >> you're likely to see a narrowing of research to areas that make commercial sense in that sense you will get probably better quality for the more mainstream areas. as i mentioned that may leave more niche areas where specialists could create a business model that makes sense for them then asset managers have the ability to look at both, to fill the spectrum >> as an equities guy, how are you thinking about the dark pool caps that's one of the more contentious issues to the mifid ii legislation up to certain limits investors will no longer be able to access the dark pools of liquidity and be forced to go back to the exchanges. how will that affect equity trading given that equity

trading is a big part. >> we are a multi asset team and invest in equities it impacts more higher frequency type of strategies that will be impacted by day to day liquidity and how the mechanics of the execution work we tend to have a a more intermediate term focus. i don't see a significant impact on investors who have a longer term perspective, and more of a buy and hold mentality it will be more difficult for higher frequency hedge fundstrat fund strategies that will be impacted >> high frequency traders are one of the beneficiaries of block trading when they do occur on the exchanges we have to see how that evolves. one last question on this topic. broadly speaking, europe has been hit by a bunch of legislation over the last couple of years do you get the feeling that

europe and europe financial services industry is becoming less competitive versus the likes of the u.s. where you get president trump's administration saying they're thinking of repealing some aspects of regulation >> that's a great question we finally have some regulatory certainty in europe after a decade of uncertainty for the sector that itself will be quite positive we think that's a potential driver for some re-rating of the sector in europe but relative to the u.s., it is falling behind we do think there is material deregulation in the works, in the u.s., through different personnel that have been put in place in the agencies and some regulations like day one certainty and mortgages that are going to give the u.s. banks even further advantage than they have already >> we'll talk about market opportunities in a second. that's the managing director and

portfolio manager of pine bridge investments. we have an exclusive interview latertoday with steven maijoor from 12:15 cet. next shares are rallying after the british retailer raised its full-year profit guidance the company attributed its stronger than expected performance to cold winter weather. next also said it expects the retail environment in the uk to become less challenging over the next 12 months the profit upgrade is giving a boost to other uk retailers. shares in mms are also higher. other retail stocks are also getting a lift shares in ted baker and ab foods are also seeing gains. you can see in front of me, ab foods is up almost 3%. marks & spencer almost up 1.5% following next's positive

results. shares in altice are getting a boost as it signs an agreement with m6, one of the most profitable private television channels in france it produces the french equivalent of the x factor and britain's got talent and holds the french license for a number of large u.s. tv series. we've discussed a lot of things if you have any mifid related questions or comments, feel free to e-mail the show, streetsignseurope@cnbc.com as ever, you can follow us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc or tweed me cnbcjou. coming up, shg, the ecb rate setter hints at the end of quantitative easing. more when we come backr your h

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. welcome back to "street signs. it's the second trading day of the year and mifid ii day. not a lot of focus just on mifid ii but on the u.s. dollar which continues its downward trend

we've seen that over the last couple of months in front of me, if you look at that, cable for example, many of them are trading at the highest crosses since last september, which tells you that the dollar transfer now appears to be intact and it's in a downward trend in line of what we saw with q4 last year. so no respite for the u.s. dollar here and raises a few questions about the direction of euro/dollar from here. another commodity that was taking a lot of the headlines recently was oil the price action we've seen there. and the interesting thing about oil is obviously it has been impacted by multiple but temporary supply disruptions, but boosted by the protests that are occurring in iran. i mentioned this a couple days ago, this is the first year that wti and brent start the year at higher than $60 since 2014

gold is also making some new highs. as you can see behind me, the gold has just come off the high of yesterday of about 1316, that would put it at its highest level since september. i guess there's no coincidence as the dollar price has gone down, gold has gone up it's on pace for the eighth straight day of gains. some are pointing to the strength in rsi, that's about 75 anything above 70 does indicate that the length in that asset class is getting a bit too much. some tech analysts say we could see a pull dak in goback in gold ryanair carried 129 million passengers in 2017, a rise of 10%. the traffic grew 3% to over 9 million customers with the load factor rising to 95% the airline has applied for

a uk license to protect routes ahead of brexit. the irish low-cost carrier said it filed applications to safeguard its three british domestic routes that could be at risk in the event of a hard brexit. the uk is in talks to join the transpacific partnership after the brexit britain has held informal discussions with tpp members as it looks to boost exports after it leaves the eu if included the uk would be the only member that does not border the pacific ocean or the south china sea, but the british trade minister said there was no agree graphic geograph geographical membership question the european bond yields rose across the board after an interview from the ecb board member he said the ecb's 2$2.5 trillio

bond buying scheme will end in 2018 if the europe economy stays strong he also added that money is flooding into european stock markets and that heated u.s. equities look more dangerous than european real estate. german jobless numbers dropped more than expected last month with unemployment at a record low of 5.5% in december now, the managing director and portfolio manager of pine bridge investments is still with us it's interesting that novotny is taking shots at u.s. equities being overvalued here and not so much german real estate. taking a step back from that there's a lot of momentum in the european economy will that present a good trading opportunity for 2018 >> we do, but on a selected basis. you're seeing euro strength, maybe not today but an upward trend towards euro strength for this year as policy normalization proceeds, that can

pressure earnings from more of the large caps that are more export oriented. so we think that domestically oriented stocks would be perhaps a better place to focus in europe where earnings can still grow and not be challenged by the currency >> i was reading in your note that you said that the capex cycle only recently started, and you expect that to persist why is that the case what indicators are you looking at to gauge whether or not the cycle will continue? >> we've had a decade almost of lack of corporate investment lack of confidence on behalf of companies to invest. that's changing. 2017 is the first year we saw that happen. there's areas where capacity utilization is quite high. europe is one of them. that triggers a need and a willingness on behalf of

management to invest in their businesses what's different this time around is investment is not going towards capacitied ay ei a a additions but efficiency gains geared towards technology in areas within software and equipment upgrades that's positive for more of a disinflationary growth cycle to continue >> you expect that to happen in europe or globally >> this is a global phenomenon we're seeing it across the whole pine bridge network from the bottom up. analysts are hearing this across the board. an example is in japan where we see a flurry of investment activity taking hold it's a global trend. in europe it's coupled with mo e

traditional capex and construction areas as well >> does that make you more positive on tech stocks? there's been chatter about the performance of fa.a.n.g.s in 2017, but based on what you said you would still want exposure to tech stocks. >> that's a good question. we do think technology is well placed to continue to benefit from the environment ahead however the names you named are more consumer focus. >> mainstream. they've been benefiting from secular types of growth in earnings we think the next phase of growth is much more geared towards technology companies that are facing corporates where we see corporate investment accelerating, that's where the next leg of growth will be within technology. there the earnings on a go forward basis look attractive and valuations are actually much

more reasonable. >> can you give a couple of names? >> names within cloud computing areas, software as a service, cybersecurity, areas which are much more geared towards corporate capex are much less pricing in the earnings growth still to come. >> brilliant thank you very much for your thoughts now, north korea has made first contact after reopening its border hotline with south korea. kim jong-un welcomed seoul's willing tons hold peace talks. this hours after president trump appeared to mock kim jong-un on twitter chery kang has more on the story. >> reporter: north korea starts the year with a charm offensive.

it revived the phone line at a village that's been cut off for nearly two years south korea is welcoming the development calling it a significant development. quite a turnaround for the inter-korean relations that seemed pretty much nonexistent for most of 2017 but washington is skeptical. the state department questioned the sincerity of kim jong-un and u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley says north korea can talk with anyone it wants, but it still needs to go nuclear-free >> we won't take any of the talks seriously if they don't do something to ban all nuclear weapons in north korea we consider this to be a reckless regime. we don't think we need a band-aid we don't think we need to smile and take a picture we need to have them stop nuclear weapons. they need to stop it now north korea can talk with anyone they want. but the u.s. will not recognize

it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have >> no word yet on whether north korea actually wants to hold high-level talks next tuesday as south korea had suggested. the question in focus now is whether the regime makes nice with seoul without any strings attached back to you. u.s. officials have urged global leaders to stand in defense of anti-government protesters in iran demonstrations that began over iran's economy and corruption have now swept over several iranian cities at least 20 people are dead with more than 450 protesters arrested iranian leaders accused enemies of the state of stirring up the protests the protests come as many are dissatisfied with the state of the country's economy. this is not the first time economic conditions have driven demonstrations to the streets. michelle caruso-cabrera has more

>> reporter: the ongoing protests in iran are the most violent since 2009 since students rose up in response to what they believed was a rigged election political observers say the current uprising which started thursday is significantly different. >> this one is more broad based. it's occurring in many, many more cities. previously really centered in tehran, more a youth intellectual movement. this one is almost populism on the move there's real dissatisfaction in the iranian population with the lack of growth in the economy, which they were promised >> reporter: initial reports last week said protesters were angry about a sharp rise in the cost of food inflation reached as high as 32% back in 2013 unemployment also a problem in iran 12.4%, according to iran's statistical office for men it's only 10.7% but for women, almost 21%. youth unemployment even worse, 29%.

for young men, 25% for young women, 44% the economy did improve after some sanctions were removed by the obama administration as part of the nuclear deal. it allowed iran to sell oil again. and according to the imf gdp growth from 2016 to 2017 was nearly 7.5%. however growth in the non-oil sector was less than 1%. there is still extensive government intervention into the economy in terms of price controls and subsidies and the revolutionary guard control large swaths of the economy. experts are divided on whether or not these protests will lead to regime change >> the supreme leader can and will use ruthless force to put them down if he has to that could be around the corner. >> reporter: but the death of so many protesters could have a ripple effect. >> once we start having funerals, we could get into a 40-day cycle of mourning and protest which is ultimately what brought the regime down in 1979. >> reporter: how the government reacts could determine whether these protests escalate or

fizzle out for cnbc business news michelle caruso-cabrera. donald trump threatened to pull aid from palestinians in a series of tweets, he said money from the u.s. was not appreciated. he wrote with the palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make massive payments to them this comes after global fallout over trump's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital. coming up, the u.s. blocks m taking over moneygram. more after the break

welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche these are your headlines not moved by mifid european stocks follow wall street into the green, shrugging off the biggest reform to europe's financial market in a decade asset managers were the only sector weighed down by the legislation. christmas cheer for next the retailer rises as it upgrades its profit forecast

lifting m&s and ab foods and north korea is the first to dial in after the border hotline with south korea is reopened the u.s. blocks the takeover of by alibaba in the biggest deal to be stopped by the trump administration so we have just got the uk december pmi data. the construction sector came in at 52.2 versus a consensus estimate of 52.5 so a touch smaller but the construction pmi new orders came in at a 53.1, the highest construction new orders number since may 2017.

and as you can see, there's no reaction in the currency for now. let's look at u.s. futures and see how things are looking on this second day of trading. in the u.s. we will a rosy start to the day nasdaq broke through key levels. the picture today is looking good s&p looking to open about 1 point higher dow jones about 6 points higher. nasdaq with a strong day yesterday and looking to open up stronger the picture in europe, ftse lagging a bit. that may be on the back of the slightly weaker construction data xetra dax and cac putting in a good day with the italian ftse mib underperforming. dollar has been a number one focus in the markets for the

last couple of months. the dxy is at the lowest level since september and that has sent others higher we are at 1.2040 for the euro/dollar. cable around the 1.36 level. continues to move higher the highest on the crosses since september. the u.s. has blocked china's ant financial from buying moneygram citing national security concerns. the two companies said they were unable to secure approval from the committee on foreign investment in the united states despite extensive efforts to address the committee's concerns moneygram shares fell nearly 7% in after hours trade the collapse of the deal is a blow to jack ma whose alibaba owns ant financial china's foreign ministry says it

hopes the u.s. can create a level playing field and predictable environment for chinese enterprise arjun joins me on the set to discuss this transaction let's take a step back what does this mean for ant financial? for them, they had already upped theired by to take over moneygram. this came as a surprise to them. does it set back some of their ambitions to expand on the international horizon? >> yes for the past two years, ant has been trying to push the ali pay into new markets it has done so by investing in countries like indonesia, then it began to move into europe it's done that again by partnerships with companies. the moneygram deal would have been the first time ant financial has really made that kind of size of acquisition, but

also that type of acquisition in such a huge market like the u.s. the other acquisitions have been in smaller companies and in smaller countries. so this would have been a key deal for ant financial to expand into the u.s., which is a massive market here for consumers and for payment. of course for alibaba, which is listed over in new york, too this is a big setback for the way ant financials looks to expand into other countries. it's interesting to see how they move forward my feeling is they will continue to invest in smaller companies we've seen tencent use their money to invest in startups, take stakes in the startups to gain a foothold. that's perhaps the way ant financial will move. >> do you think some of this retaliation was based on the fact that chinese tech companies have been investing in the u.s.

but the reverse has been difficult. in the future do you think it will be harder for chinese companies to invest in the smaller u.s. tech companies? >> the u.s. has found it increasingly difficult not just to enter the market, they can't make investments in startups the exception is apple which has managed to invest in one or two companies and launched products there, but the american companies see the potentialting market and a way to expand across the globe so i think you will see some of the companies investing in u.s. tech >> the irony is jack ma was one of the first billionaires to stand next to president trump when he got elected. back then he promised millions of jobs svia the alibaba

platform how important is ant financial to alibaba >> it's a key product. ali pay is not just a payments platform i was in shanghai last year, the only way i could pay for anything was via ali pay it's such a huge platform. it's all the services that are also added on to that. they have lending products, mortgage products, all the financial services around that it's engrained in a lot of the chinese lifestyles and daily lives, so it becomes more than somebody comparable to an apple pay or a samsung pay that's why it's a crucial product. it gives alibaba key data on consumers and a new revenue stream >> maybe people will have to start using cryptocurrencies instead. one of silicon valley's biggest names made a big bet on bitcoin. head to cnbc.com to read how many millions peter thiel has invested in the cryptocurrency

german new car sales fell in december to 254,000. that's according to an industry source quoted by reuters the source said the figure fell in part because of fewer selling days during the month. new car sales in germany did see a rise of 2.7% for the full year george gallio from evercorp joins me on the set. it appears the numbers out of germany were better than the numbers out of france yesterday, where we saw that the french car registration levels were very disappointing, and that did send the auto sector down quite a lot. it's rebound today on the back of the german numbers. what is the european auto market looking like from a sales perspective this year? >> yeah. from a sales perspective, 2017 was a relatively strong year, where we continued to see growth across most of europe's major

markets. as we look to 2018 we expect to see some growth, but that's likely to slow down in germany but also when we look at france, italy and spain. on top of that, we would expect uk registrations to continue the decline we've seen since the end of q1 2017 so we expect western car sales to be up only around 50 basis points in 2018 >> i was reading in your note that one name you like is volkswagen volkswagen has been in the news for many reasons most eventually by the emissions scandal. you have many people who bought volkswagen cars who are demanding a refund or compensation what makes you constructive on vw going into this year? >> the names we like are the ones that have specific company stories. within that, volkswagen stands out. the diesel scandal was a shock

to the system at volkswagen. what's happening as a result is a re-evaluation by management of the company's processes and operations we see restructuring taking place in north america for example. we see increased discipline on r & d and cap ex and they should see some improvement in the south american market. >> how important when you value these companies, how important is it that they have a strong infrastructure in place for electric vehicles and billing that electric vehicle platform that's going to be a key driver of demand going forward. >> you're right. i think when we look ten years out, electrification will be a key and differentiating advantage for some of the oems in the near-term a lot of investors look at it as a cost it requires increased r & d which weighs on free cash flow

one thing we like about volkswagen is the improvements they're making in working capital and other parts of the business means the free cash flow yield could be north of 10%, which amongst the space makes it a better performer. >> another interesting thing from your note, many automakers have taken big bets on china and the growth of the chinese market over the next couple of years, particularly in the electric vehicle space. you're skeptical why is that? >> we're skeptical on china for 2018 it's largely the result of the fact that the chinese market benefited in '16 and '17 from stimulus and small capacity and internal combustion engine vehicles with that stimulus not in place there's a risk that chinese auto sales head into reverse and we're forecasting them to be down 2%. longer-term we do think the growth story in china should continue in fact, though we have forecast down 2% this year, we think long-term around 5% or 6% for

the market is achievable >> interesting thanks for clarifying that point. thanks for your time this morning. feel free to get involved in the conversation the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com of course you can follow us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc and tweet me rat. a number of clearing houses are given last-gasp mifid reies. prverehen we come back

the day is here. after seven years in the making, mifid ii regulations come into effect today it will touch every part of the financial systems and is expected to make the eu more transparent and competitive. investment bank als will now ha to charge separately for

research options wilfred frost has more on the regulations and what they could mean for u.s. banks. a new part of financial regulation from the eu known as mifid ii comes into play january 3rd it means asset managers will be required to pay banks and brokers directly for research they provide instead of combining it with commissions earned from executing trades the main aim was to increase transparency the biggest implications are for asset managers, like blackrock, jpmorgan and vanguard have said they will pay for the research out of their own pockets many think this will become the industry norm which may hit smaller firms harder also the new roules bode well fr asset managers who have their own in-house stock and research analysts equity managers are more affected than bond managers who use external research less

but the sell side, broeshkers ad investment banks also face implications it may lead to consolidation on the sell side. many sell side research firms already operate without execution services and are essentially paid in hard dollars already. they could be set to benefit though this is an eu rule, it's forcing u.s. banks with a global foot print to adapt for european operations while it's possible this could become the global industry normm in the long-term, u.s. brokerages will be able to continue business as usual for now. three clearing houses have been granted extra time to implement the mifid ii rules they won't have to comply with open access mifid provisions until 2020

eurex warned open access rules could threaten financial stability. the chief regulatory officer from deutsche boerse joins us. thank you for joining us on this all-important day for europe i want to go back to what i read about some of the futures exchanges playing for waivers of the open access rules. why is that the case surely the exchanges had ample time to get the waivers in place. >> allow me to take a step back on that topic. what is true as an objective for all financial regulation is the objective of financial stability. that holds true for regulators and politicians, it holds true for the industry and also for the broader public if we look at the current situation of the european market, that's a complex and

challenging landscape, right now we're in the implementation of mifid ii and brexit is a game changer. any decision needs to be weighed against the overarching objective of stability this that context that's the reason for us and why we have applied for article 54 and have been granted the exemption that you mentioned. >> just reading between the lines, you say it has to be taken in the context of overall stability. isn't the purpose of mifid ii to introduce stability, more transparency, more liquidity into the system? i'm not sure i'm following why you don't think it's succeeding at doing that now. >> you're right. at the core of mifid there are transparency, stability investment protection. with regards to the access provisions you have to keep in mind that while we are right now

in implementing mifid, that's keeping the market busy, ourselves as well, we have to look, if we think of access provisions, that we are not sure -- we don't know at this point in time how the uk regime will look once the uk will have left the european union. that means access provisions need to be thought about in an uncertain legal and regulatory environment. >> when did the waivers expire is there a timeline on them? >> as you mentioned, 20 months as we know, it was -- it is only relevant for derivatives, and put in by regulators for these type of uncertain situations >> switching to one other topic of mifid and moving away from the open access on the exchanges, another contentious topic is that of direct pools. the intention of mifid is to cap

them on to trading that is done under direct pools and move it back to lit exchanges. is that a positive development in your view >> is a positive development let's start with the unintended consequences of mifid i, that was to ensure a significant level of competition it had unintended consequences, that was otc volume raising up to almost 50%. so mifid ii creates a market structure that serves in that regard that means that otc flow will move from the unregulated otv space to regulated infrastructure that was the whole purpose of doing it >> there's also an alternative view and some criticism leveled at this is that it may discourage investors from trading more frequently, especially if they have large

blocks on the other side of it you will have the high frequency traders who are looking to take advantage. that's one asset of direct pools that was beneficial for a certain investor base who did have the large flows and larnge liquidity to go along with it. so in some cases it may hamper liquidity rather than increasing liquidity in the system. how do you respond to that >> i don't completely buy into that argument, i have to say we see a clear transparency regime we will still have regulated dark trading that will follow and there will be, based on liquidity definition of instruments, there will be the possibility to execute large blocks in the regime >> just coming back to what we were saying at the beginning of the show, the uncertainty about brexit and what that means for regulation in the uk once the uk does leave the eu, do you get

the sense that other regulators -- talki ing about t u.s., asian markets, are they looking to align their own regulation with mifid so there's not too much geographical disparity? >> i think you're pointing to the fact that financial markets are global so efficient capital flows don't stop at borders. that requires consistent rule sets across different jurisdictions. this is what we see coming from the g20 objectives years back after the financial crisis i think we might see more equivalence decisions and obviously more alignment across regulation i think europe is the starter here >> thank you very much for your time cnbc's coverage of the mifid

ii launch will continue throughout the day later today, i will speak to steven maijoor you can catch that interview from 12:15 cet. at least a dozen people have died in the u.s. as the country suffers from a record breaking arctic cold snap sub zero temperatures have gripped much of the mainland east of the rockies with a state of emergency announced in georgia and weather alerts across much of new england >> oh, my god. someone just ran off the road. >> reporter: tonight 19 degrees and snowing in buffalo a massive pileup is snarling interstate 90, a foreboding look at what's to come with a major snowstorm set to move up the east coast. >> wow look at that truck. >> reporter: much of the country already sits under a brutal deep freeze contributing to at least 15 deaths in chicago, the fourth day in a row below zero temperatures. >> biting you in the face.

it's just cold no way around it i don't think you can really prepare. >> reporter: more than half the u.s. population, 200 million americans, saw temperatures below freezing today from the north at niagara falls, down south to savannah 23 people hurt in bronx, new york, including a firefighter as they battled elements, fire and ice hoses and ladders frozen frozen pipes a common site in midwest. this illinois house caught fire when homeowner tried to thaw pipes with a blow torch. >> i would not recommend a homeowner trying a torch this is for professional use only >> reporter: check out close call near dallas, a police officer slipped and fell on icy highway as car nearly slid into him. not all bad, crisp air makes it ideal viewing for tonight's super moon ice fishermen happily dropping

their lines. but amber martin isn't looking for silver linings. >> i couldn't even tell you how many inches of ice it has on it. >> reporter: she's looking for a way out. >> that's quite a lot of snow. of course that is having an impact on commodities. most relevantly natural gas here, at the highest level in a month on the back of this freezing cold weather that is blanketing much of the u.s. right now. a bit weaker today as you can see in front of me, down 1.7%. still highest level in a week. wti and crude still trading stronger a look at u.s. futures all looking to a stronger start for the day. and that's it for today's show this is the mifid ii special i'm joumanna bercetche "worldwide exchange" is up next. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory.

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tech on a tear the nasdaq breaks through 7,000 as chip stocks rally to kick off the new year north korea reopens cross-border communication with south korea as tempers cool in the region and southwest airlines showing some real love for the new tax law. we'll tell you how it's january 3, 2018 "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪ good morning warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm wilfred frost. let's check in on the global markets. the positivity that we ended