. welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm willem marx these are your headlines. off the shelf. shares in tesco slip after investors are left disappointed with trading numbers from uk retail sglee retailers. and richmont shares rise but pandora warns of declining numbe

numbers. bitcoin tumbles after one of the biggest cryptocurrency markets thinks about banning trading. >> i get in enough trouble talking about things i know about. why should i talk about things i know nothing about. and the uae oil minister tells cnbc that opec measures are bearing fruit. >> opec is committed to what they have decided when we meet in november, which to continue this deal for a full year. the market is balancing. this is what we have been saying good morning we're about one hour into the trading session. it's thursday. as you can see, the picture bemib behind me is not looking that positive the split between red and green

for europe for the first day in six days, u.s. equities came off their highs. the opening picture for europe is pointing to slightly weaker start to the day just below that flat line. let's get into some of the individual markets uk has a very big earnings day as far as retailers. tesco came out, house of frazier. whale get into tho we'll get into those stories in more detail. ftse 100 is holding up compared to the xetra dax which is down fractionally cac and ftse mib having a good day. we will get the ecb minutes this morning. whether we get more clues on the ecb's thinking from here or if the hawks come out more, we'll have to find out let's see what the picture is like in the sectors. basic resources leading the charge, up 0.6%. household goods up 0.2%.

we had decent earnings out of richemont earlier. but the big story is retail and the individual stories that i mentioned earlier. a bunch of earnings came out this morning the market has not taken them on that well. travel and leisure is down 0.5%. the big story we discussed the last couple of trading sessions is the movement in fixed income, particularly in the u.s. ten-year treasury notes. you can see this morning the ten-year treasury is off the highs. we saw that reached about 2.57 and 2.58 in trading. down to about 2.54 a lot of that was on the back of the china story, where there was a news report out that china were thinking about reducing if not selling some of the existing u.s. treasuries they have had in their portfolio. that's been denied by some chinese officials, still a lot

of move around this 2.50 mark. many are asking if this is the end of the great bull run for fixed income u.s. fixed income will continue to be a focus. another asset class we've been eyeing closely has been the commodities complex. very little change in wti and crude this morning we did come off the couple months highs in yesterday's trading. that picture here, this is just the one-week chart it shows for the week the crude is up 1.7%. we seem to be settling around these levels here. the commodities complex has been driving many things, not just in the commodity space but also in inflation and inflation expectations willem >> i will bring you some numbers out of germany the adjusted preliminary gdp figures year-on-year are up

2.5% exports were up 4.7% that was against 2.6%. that according to the german that sti statistics office. pretty dramatic. marks & spencer has maintained its full-year guidance after third quarter group sales remained flat. clothing and home weware sells r the period, but stronger christmas trading offset a weaker clothing market in october. tesco's fell short of expectations with a 1.9% rise in like for like christmas sales. lower demand for yegeneral merchandise undercut strong growth in food sales, however they said they were on course to

achieve medium-term goals. seems like a good moment to bring in david beedle, from moody's, focused on retail i want to ask you about the uncertainty around brexit. is that the only factor driving some of these numbers that have been less than great >> it's a key factor brexit gives uncertainty for consumers, we had rising prices for -- coming through for the fx headwinds that retailers have faced. those combined with wage growth lagging that inflation means the british consumer is a bit more cautious than perhaps their european brethren. overall in europe we have got a stable outlook for the retail sector but certainly conditions in the uk are tougher especially for established players and especially considering the ongoing shift of demand and

purchasing online. >> so given the continued relative weakness of sterling, do you see that turning around in terms of spending power or consumer confidence? >> i think the fx head win also dim m winds will diminish, certainly in terms of the food market, the grocers, that head wiwind and pressure, it will increase we have seen tesco's results today in line with expectations. same applies for the positive results that came out for morrison's and sainsbury's so as far as food concerned, we're optimistic those companies can meet their hopes and -- >> people have to eat. >> that's the thing. drilling down into that, we had m&s earnings today, they're trying to combine the two. according to your rating you have marks & spencer at stable

outlook. sales fell a bit short of expectations, slightly weaker. food sales dropped a bit, but clothing down 2.8% this is another manifestation of a retailer struggling when it comes to the clothing division how do you think about m&s prospects from here? >> it's one of those retailers that faces that challenge of remaining fresh and compellingc. it's trying to deliver in that respect. it's trying to make itself more competitive in terms of the price and trying to get back to values of being good value for money et cetera. actually it's pretty well positioned in its credit rating category and as such from a credit

perspective we feel that it looks relatively stable. but that shift online is something that it needs to address along with all other non-food retailers, the clothing players in particular. >> we don't need you to name names, but do you consider some of these legacy retailers in the uk are in deep trouble because they've been slow to shift to the online retail strategy >> i don't think it's being too slow to shift towards it all of the big names are doing something about it and have been for a number of years. when you're a bricks and mortar focused retailer and you have these shops that have been around for a long time, need staff and heat and lighting, you have got to manage that multi channel approach and try and get customers to come to your shops. click and collect can work it's a way of -- >> combining the two >> one thing that was

interesting, the house of frazier numbers this morning their online sales were down 7.5% this is an environment where all online retailers are having a great time boohoo earnings up this morning up 25% or so house of frazier is struggling online, struggling to bring people in the store, sales are down heavy discounting. what's the outlook for house of frazier? >> actually, house of frazier's update this morning they were talking about the fact they're not chasing revenue at the expense of margin. so they pointed to the fact that margins are stronger year on year they're going through transformation they need to invest in their online platform. they changed the online platform earlier in the year and they talk about being pretty positive over the black friday events it's definitely a challenge. we downgraded house of frazier

in december, and then we downgraded some others >> caa1 is the rating for house of frazier, that's close to junk level. >> junk starts in the bs at least. as a loose definition, we don't call it junk, we call it noninvestment grade. it's got issues, a lot of debt and long leases, and it is going through that transformation program. they are talking about support from the parent company and the liquidity situation for house of frazier looks good for the time being. >> back to groceries we've seen over the last decade or so significant disruption from the discounters coming overseas it's a competitive marketplace

what is your prognosis for aldi, lidl and market share? >> they've been winning market share about 1% per year together for the last four, five years. we issued a piece of research at the end of last year that looks at the fact that we expect that to continue. in two, three years time from now they'll have about a 15% market share between them. that doesn't necessarily translate to bad news for the other grocers, because, you know, it does depend or collectively it does, at least, because you have population growth -- >> sure. >> but it's certainly the case that the british consumer wants, as in clike consumers across th region, they want value. as in other segments, whether in fashion or general merchandise,

you have the underlying players like amazon doing well and cardo doing well in grocery. >> thanks for that it's a super thursday for uk retailers. that was david beadle from moody's. feel free to get involved in the conversation the address is streetsignseurope@cnbc.com of course we are on twitter. follow us at streetsignseurope@cnbc hays posted a 13% rise in net fees bolstered by growth at international units. the british staffing company said the overall business remains stable earlier paul venable said he is concerned about business in the uk >> universally europe is as

strong as i've seen it in 2006 i've been through all of the cycles the last 11, 12 years we're actually happy with these results. they're 1% but stable. >> 24 countries at 10% plus, you have never seen it better in continental europe, and the uk is turning in 1% >> yes, because of the massive uncertainty we got here. if you remember, two things drive our business first is clients what investments do they need? the key one is will they replace levers in their business the positive for the uk is they are. we have a large business, profitable in the uk, they're replacing levers we're not seeing front-end investment we're seeing little or no new starts or new projects in manufacturing, little or no new investments. so a lot of maintenance spend is going on at the moment you compare and come trast that

wi contrast that with the rest of the word, they're focussed on growth richemont reported strong third quarter sales citing double digit growth in asia and solid jewelry demand sales came in line with estimates. the swiss watchmaker's profits are recovering as chinese buyers snap up luxury products. and pandora is warning profit margins will fall sending shares to the bottom of the stoxx 600. the ceo said the tough u.s. retail climate have been challenging. it also announced its cfo resigned canada launched a wide ranging complaint about u.s. trade practices with the world trade organization the canadian case challenges washington's use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties and cites nearly 200 cases of alleged misconduct most of the allegations have dealings with other trading partners like china, india and

the eu robert litehauser called the measures groundless. and mexico says they will withdraw from nafta negotiations if the u.s. triggers its own exit from the talks. reuters earlier reported that kach canada is increased that the u.s. will announce its withdrawal soon. kayla tausche has more on the state of nafta talks coming up >> the secretary of agriculture said a completion and improvement of nafta negotiations remain a top priority but president trump has suggested to advisers in the past that only by withdrawing can the u.s. get the necessary leverage to negotiate the deal it wants the speculation that president trump will do it this round of nafta talks is based on timing such an announcement would trigger a six-month withdraw window expiring just before mexican elections this summer. that, he presumes, would put

added pressure on the mexican side to reach a deal proposals that u.s. trade officials put forth so far have been called poison pills, non-starters by mexico which are determined to show they're willing to talk and that the u.s. is being difficult. this week president trump said canada and mexico are making too much money from the deal and that makes negotiations difficult. the next round of talks starts january 23rd, a lot can happen between now and then there are still several trade deadlines that will happen notably commerce department recommendations are due on whether to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum produced by state-own enterprises. that investigation was commissioned in april and has been a source of friction amid varying viewpoints in the white house. the industry wants tariffs of 20%, 25% and wants strong action of the president, but too strong could be met with retaliation from china and russia. the report on the steel industry

is due next monday, the aluminum report the following week. >> we did see some movement in dollar/peso yesterday on the back of some of those comments coming up on the show, if you trade this asset it won't end well find out what where remember buffett is warning about after the break.

. welcome back to "street signs. china is denying that it was consider i considering buying purchases of the u.s. debt. ten-year note deals spiked after it was reported that beijing was considering a halt in bond buying in a statement on its website, the regulator said the news quoted the wrong source of information or may be fake news. >> convenient response, fake news it's catching on. bitcoin has fallen sharply after the south korean

government announced its preparing legislation to ban cryptocurrency trading seoul has expressed concerns about crypto trading warren buffett said while he doesn't know anything about crypto trading, he believes it will not end well. >> i get in enough trouble with things i think i know something about. why should i take a long or short position in something i don't know anything about. so, you know, we don't have to know what cocoa beans are going to do or cryptocurrencies, we have to focus on 8 or 10 stocks that -- businesses that we think are decent businesses. i think what's going on will come to a bad ending >> warren buffett may not know much about cryptocurrency, but arj arjun kharpal does do you think those regulatory restrictions will be a problem in that country? >> south korea is a major market

for the trading of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin, ethereum and ripple if you look at the trade done in terms of korean yuan in those countries, it can be as high as 30% depending on the cryptocurrency in question it's an important market but this is not decided yet. there is still a long process to go, if this is going to happen we've seen other countries, like china in the summer last year said we will ban outright cryptocurrency trading, mining, none of that materialized. it's a difficult thing to put into place we saw a big reaction on the cryptocurrencies this morning. they have pared a lot of those losses >> there's a difference between regulating and banning so far the regulatory moves have included banning certain type of trading. but regulation is a different ball game. what can they do to set up something by definition that is

decentralized? >> they regulate not so much the technology behind it but the exchanges in focus so they may have to onboard customers, the know your customer checks. they may have to be more strict about the way they control price movements. there are circuit breaks in place. does that mean the regulators might require those to be on bitcoin exchanges? it goes back to how bitcoin and these other cryptocurrencies are defined. many say they don't come under our securities rules many countries say they are fairly unregulated but the exchanges are what's going to be regulated. shutting down exchanges completely, that would be a very bad thing for the market in terms of the price moves regulating the trade may not be a bad thing. some are saying more regulation in the space is great. it's going to bring a larger

pool of investors into the market >> do you foresee a day where the enforcement is really directed not so much at the exchanges but the individual consumer investors who were told you cannot trade if you do there will be penalties. >> yeah, that's a logical next step, but not a near-term step first a lot of regulators are grappling with what are cryptocurrencies they're saying how is this stuff traded how does it work how much money is going into them not a lot of transparency around them then looking at the exchanges and making sure that they are regulated, they're doing the right things for customers, then do they fall under the regulatory regimes, the rules around that. and then establishing how these are traded and the rules around trading them then it goes to individuals as well >> one of the extraordinary things to me, every time we hear

the slightest whisper or comment or statement from a government anywhere in the world, we see these cryptocurrencies just drop rapidly. >> i was going to ask about that what is the other driver apart from regulation and bans going on if you're thinking about investing in cryptocurrency or you're invested in ethereum, ripple, what else should youing looking for apart from various crackdowns going on? >> let's put this into context the price run-ups in the likes of ethereum and ripple, ripple was up in the region of 36,000% last year. ethereum was up substantially as well if you look at sometimes what you see is this huge run up in cryptocurrency prices, and all it takes is the smallest whisper of something negative as a reason for a selloff you have to context wallize some of these movements there's been a huge run up in the currencies >> seems like there's no real world reason to sell besides these government statements.

>> i guess it depends on what do you think drives these cryptocurrencies >> this is pretty exciting for me if you have trouble telling bitcoin, ripple and ethereum apart, don't worry, there's a new pop group from japan that is here to help the name translates to virtual currency girls, they have eight members who each represent a different cryptocurrency you would imagine the membership will expand as the world of cryptocurrency continues to do so their first song "the moon and virtual currencies and me" is partly inspired by recent regulatory warnings. the group is holding their first crypto pop concert in tokyo tomorrow get those tickets, they can only be bought with cryptocurrencies, of course. much more on the cryptocurrency ban and other new developments in this fast-moving and exhilarating space find our coverage at cnbc.com.

>> slightly different tact the uae oil minister tells cnbc that opec measures areeang bri fruit. more from abu dhabi in a few moments. or even trouble with recall., thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. these are your headlines off the shelf. shares in tesco slip after investors are left disappointed with trading numbers from uk retailers. richemont shares rise as strong demand in asia boost the firm's sales figures, but pandora warning of declining profit margins after 2017 revenues miss expectations, sending shares sharply lower and bitcoin tumbles after one of the world's biggest krip crypto markets considers bannin trading. >> i get in enough trouble

talking about things i know about. why should i talk about things i know nothing about. and the uae oil minister tells cnbc that opec measures are bearing fruit. >> opec is committed to what they have decided when we meet in november, which to continue this deal for a full year. the market is balancing. this is what we have been saying all right. it is thursday, and yesterday was the first day in six days that u.s. equities actually had a down day, breaking that six-day winning streak the picture this morning is more positive relative to the performance we saw yesterday dow jones looking to open up about 30 points higher s&p about three points higher. let's switch to europe and look at how individual indices are looking on this super thursday ftse is struggling a bit down 0.1%. we drilled into some of those earnings a bit earlier

xetra dax also underperforming cac standing out a bit ftse mib having another strong day, up 0.5% the dollar also had a weak session in yesterday's trading down about 0.25% but again, you can see that currency pair is struggling to break through the 1.20 mark. we hit 1.20, broke through it earlier in the week, but have come off of that level some of that could be pointed to long positioning in the space. there was a record number of longs in euro. the price action would indicate that some position trimming has been taking place. dollar/yen, that currency pair has bounced a bit in overnight trading, up 0.2% cable a tad softer, down from 1.35 to 1.3480 two currency pairs in the market

limelight yesterday, here i'm talking about the dollar/mex pair and the dollar/cad. for the week, dollar/cad up 1.34%, and dollar/mexican up 0.83%. a report was denied by white house officials that the u.s. was looking to withdraw from the nafta deal >> interesting because the pound has been another currency affected by geopolitical issues. it was weaker this morning theresa may is expected to meet leaders of major financial companies later today and she's trying to clarify how brexit could impact the city of london. chancellor hammond will also accompany the prime minister as she sits down with some ceos

financial firms are saying they're increasingly concerned about london's status as europe's leading financial center that comes after the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, warned there would be no special day for the city. a report by recruiting firm morgan mckinley said brexit is to blame for a 37% drop in the number of new jobs available in london's financial sector. findings show the number of vacancies dropped by 1800 in december, compared to the same period last year the report says uncertainty over the status after brexit has left many city firms reluctant to hire on to germany. the spd leader, martin schulz, says there are sheeveral hurdles to clear before forming a grand coalition with the cdu he said his party will take all time it needs. merkel appeared to back the views saying she sees a number

of obstacles both parties will need to decide by today whether to move on to formal negotiations on establishing a new government. in the u.s., a federal judge is supporting the trump administration's efforts to take control of the key financial regulator. the court has denied a request for an injunction that would prevent trump administration bug budget director from taking control of the cfpb. the deputy director there had asked the court to block mr. mulvaney while she made her attempt at controlling the agency and top business leaders are urging u.s. lawmakers to pass new legislation what would protect undocumented immigrants who enter the country as children more than 100 executives from companies including facebook, apple and gm demanded that legislators maintain the deferred action for childhood arrivals program known as daca they warn that ening the program could lead to a 2$215 billion

loss for the u.s. economy. legislators and the white house have struggled to reach a deal so far on a daca deal and it has become a sticking point as they seek to avoid usa government shutdown tracie potts has the latest from washington my understanding is that as far as president trump is concerned, in order for them to make progress on the immigration bill, they would need to go hand in hand with a deal on a wall. what is the latest there >> exactly keep in mind that he asked for $18 billion just last week for that wall. unclear if that would happen then he sat down with democrats and republicans and said we don't need the 2,000 mile wall there are areas where there's already a natural border now he's come back and insisted we need the wall so there are mixed messages coming from the president on this as lawmakers here on capitol hill, a small group of democrats and republicans, try to figure things out

on daca, whether or not they can come up with a permanent fix to allow these 800,000 dreamers brought here illegally as children to stay in the country past march when the president winds down that protection and on border security, whether or not that includes the wall. we are told they're talking about the other priorities that were outlined in that white house meeting. chain migration, allowing people who have relatives, allowing those relatives to come into the united states if they have someone here and the visa lottery we're told the congressional black caucus on capitol hill is opposed to that because they think ending the lottery would end pretty much all immigration from africa. they're concerned about that all of these issues are on the table. the negotiators have said that they do think they're close to a deal that could get 60 votes in the senate, keeping in mind they're trying to do this in conjunction with the budget deadline next week >> tracie potts from nbc news

bringing us the latest from washington the energy minister from the uae told cnbc exclusively that opec is committed to seeing through its supply cuts for the rest of the year adding that he fully expects a balanced oil market in 2018 hadley gamble joins us from abu dha dhabi. >> interestingly enough we heard a lot of positivity from the new president of opec. he's the energy and industry minister in the uae. i asked him about what's worrying him he said mideast tensions, war, the possibility of new things coming out of the trump administration and he told me that it's not something that is bothering him in terms of the outlook for 2018, he also said he's not worried about shocks to output let's listen in to what he had to say when i asked him if there was a specific price point where this agreement could start to fall apart

>> we believe that the five-year average is a good point for us to have as a reference and if that is true, then we still have some room for improvement to achieve that level. do we have enough investments coming to the market to bring the new oil that demand -- or that the world is needing in terms of demand growth everyone, if you remember last year, was expecting 1, 1.2 demand but we ended up with at least 1.5, we ended the year with demand level of almost 2 so this means that the -- whatever forecast you have, and you put, it's not necessarily that the world is going to meet it the expectation for next year in terms of -- for the world economy, growth is strong at

least. at least what we had in 2017 if not stronger if we have strong demand the expectation is to have new investments coming to the market but there's good news. there's 109 almost billion dollars investment in the next four years through the value chain -- throughout the value chain. and saudi arabia have announced similar level in the next three years. so nocs, and i think iocs at time, they will come to put more investments. that's what we targeted. the pace of that would trigger a correction of the -- or taking care of the risk of supply and demand imbalance if we achieve that level, then we will not have shocks for the world economies of very high

prices and very low prices you asked me about 2017. on average, it's a good year, but wehave 4seen $40 and almost $70 in the same year for policymakers looking at budget and for a country that's not a healthy fluctuation. >> that was the uae oil minister telling me that he expects strong demand for 201. and that things like mideast tensions, potentially a war, geopolitical unrest in this region are not really weighing on him when he looks ahead to the rest of the year guys >> thank you very much for joining us the intercontinental exchange says it will shift trading in 250 energy futures contracts from london to the

u.s. the move comes as its customers look for ways to avoid new mifid ii regulations in europe 245 options and futures contracts in oil and natural gas liquids will be removed from the futures exchange in london and added to the exchange in the u.s. that puts trading oversight under the supervision of the cfdc rather hahn european regulators that seems an effective way to get out of mifid ii. get involved in the conversation streetsignseurope@cnbc.com we are also on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc the nba is back in london. we will hear from the co-owner of the boston celtics ahead of tonight's game against philadelphia we get his thoughts on private equity

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welcome back to "street signs.

bank earnings season is drawing around once again. many will be examining the results for guidance on how the u.s. tax overhaul will impact some of wall street's finest, particular attention will be paid to jpmorgan and goldman sachs. both have had the same ceos at the helm for a longtime, so investors are wondering what success plans look like. wilfred frost has this report. >> reporter: the median tenure of the big six banks is eight years. for the s&p 500 companies overall, just four years half that. clearly jpmorgan ceo's dimon jamie dimon and lloyd blankfein stand out in terms of tenure alone. they're also the most talked about. let's talk about possible successors goldman sachs, if the transition is soon, it's hard to see anyone else getting a look over than david solomon and harvey schwartz the longer that we wait for

transition, the more this younger group of leaders stand a chance pablo salami has a good chance of being elevated to deputy. where chavez, gnodde, wald rn, and lane, all stand a reasonable chance as long shots longer out. let's have a look at jpmorgan. if dimon decided to leav today, his most likely successor would be the head of the consumer bank, gordon smith. in that instance, daniel pinto would keep plenty of control, too. a few years out, at 55, pinto's chances, of course, improve as time goes past and other wildcards come into play as well of this younger group of leaders, marianne lake is the front runner, largely because of the breadth of her current role, but if any of them are given

broader exposure, it would be a major vote of confidence from dimon. now the bottom line for dimon and blankfein, they stand apart. here's share price investments of all the banks since blankfein took over when both of them were in position. because of this performance, they and they alone will decide when it's time to go guys >> that was wilfred frost from the u.s. the nba is back in london with the philadelphia 7 eflphiladelpn the boston celtics the celtics are on a six-game winning streak and are atop the eastern conference of the u.s. the co-owner of the team joined us earlier this morning and he happens to be the co-chair of bain capital he was asked about the private equity opportunities he sees in europe and asia. >> we've seen great success. we have a european team that's been here for 20 years and had outstanding success through thick and thin we're seeing that dynamic now.

lots of properties for sale. there's pressure on banks to divest bad loans, that causes companies to sell and trade. so we think europe is a good place to be. if you step back, in asia, we have operations in asla, euroiae and the united states. in asia, there's different investing in financial services and things driving china towards a service economy. we've been successful in japan europe, there's opportunities there as well. the united states continues to be a good basis of strength for us >> as i read it from previous conversations you had, lower exit multiples globally. so tough e tougher going >> when these markets are at these levels, we're often pricing exits at the same or below the multiple so we have to improve the business enough to withstand flat or lower multiples. so that's what we're trying to project. >> there's been a ton of

consolidation literally, mega deals that have been clogged up by big-listed companies, and private equity has almost been cut out of the game. do you think the game is changing as we start seeing interest rates tick up a bit, a new cycle for 2018 >> i don't think the game is changing private equity has gained share constantly for the last 30 years and buying companies these things go in cycles and ebbs and flows so the deal sizes are increasing the largest private equity firms have more global capabilities, there's seven or eight firms that can do deals on the size of 10 billion to 30 billion even today. so we see lots of opportunity out there. we have to pick our spots and be disciplined. if there's a large multinational corporation that has synergy, we won't beat them at auction so we stay out of auctions some of the best ideas solve problems you may not know have existed.

a simple white plastic foot stool that tucks under your toilet made one utah family multimillionaires. jane wells has the strange success story of the squatty potty. >> reporter: most of the world squats when people go to the bathroom here in the u.s. we sit so that causes an occasional problem with pooping and a utah family created the squatty potty, sales last year were close to $30 million. two years ago i was interviewing people in line during the largest lottery jackpot during history, and i asked them what they might buy if they become instant billionaires what will you buy if you win >> a squatty potty for my gi issues >> my face says it all the squatty potty came out in 2011 it had a viral youtube ad about

a unicorn pooping rainbow color colored. >> people sit around like this because they're so used to it. >> i know. >> reporter: bobby edwards created the company with his parents judy and bill in st. george, utah judy suffered all her life from constipation when the family heard that raising her knees above her waist while sitting on the toilet may help, they created this footstool >> we began testing it with people by giving it away as gifts. >> wait. you made a little prototype. >> yeah. >> we were making them out of wood she started giving them away as christmas gifts. it actually is an amazing gift >> on so many levels >> the gift that keeps on giving >> and the kids all thought, wow what is this about >> they thought i was crazy. mom, you're always doing crazy

things >> it was just a matter of time. within days and weeks, we heard from almost everyone on this, wow, this thing works. >> total sales since they started selling in 2011, over 0 $80 million, and they expanded the product line it hasn't been all smooth pooping. they made a lot of mistakes like trusting someone who stole their idea and ended up taking it to market you can hear about that part of the story and their bizarre journey to success on cnbc's new podcast called strange success, which you can download from the apple itunes store good thing to listen to while you're sitting on the toilet back to you. >> never heard the word poop used so much in one story. what an enriching and enlightening story about such powerful technology. now it may be showcasing some of the brightest ideas in tech, but not a single light bulb was on at the ces in las vegas. that's after a transformer there failed and power surged.

the blackout was in one of the main halls and lasted nearly two hours. some of the largest tech companies in the world were affected that is an alanis morissette song to be written very ironic. barratt sales remained flat in the last few months of 2017 compared to the same period last year the house builder said total completions rose 2% with average selling price up 6.5%. >> and sodexo had weak performance in the north american schools arm the french food group said it is confident of achieving full-year targets. it bought the majority stake in a french food delivery start up.

germany's bayer has cut its stake in cosestro to 14.2% it sold 21 million shares at a price of 86.25 euros per share raising much more than expected. a quick look at u.s. futures. the dow jones was looking to open up about 30 points, now pared back slightly to 25. the s&p 500 and nasdaq also looking like they may have a relatively positive morning. that's after yesterday, not such great numbers. industrials did see a new record close. financials hit their highest level in a number of years that's it for the show i'm willem marx. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. "worldwide exchange" is up next. ♪

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the perfect streak comes to an end the nasdaq and s&p 500 posting their first losses of the year as concerns out of china and canada weigh on investors. the death toll rises in southern california as devastating mud slides sweep through the region we have the latest from the ground. and a crypto crackdown bitcoin under pressure as the third largest cryptocurrency market prepares a trading ban. it's thursday, january 11, 2018. "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪