market alert wall street points to a higher open as investors look to extend last week's gains, we'll tell what you to watch in the day ahead. cutting ties, the backlash grows against the nra. the fallout ahead. and the china power play, what the world's second largest economy just did that could leave xi jinping in power indefinitely it's monday, february 26th, 2018 "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "worldwide exchange." on cnbc. i'm morning morgan brennan.

>> i'm mike santoli. wilfred and sara are off we have futures looking to gains from late last week. we pulled out positive, s&p 500 up 0.5%. in the broad markets continuing that coverage from the sell jot from the january hype. you see what we're pointing to, another half a percent gain. the dow looking a bit stronger up, 170 at this hour the nasdaq which has been the performer both before and after the correction is up, looking at about 18 points right now. taking a look at the ten-year treasury this obviously has been an area of tremendous focus lately in the last month or so although the move last week was very plod defendant. basically going sideways for four weeks, really it's amazing how many people are watching that 3% right now pulling back ever so slightly, 3.86 you wonder if that 3% mark is the watched pot that everybody

is waiting for, seeing if it will boil or not the dollar bounced slightly last week up in the dollar index, about 0.5% it's basically fixed mostly down. the yen, you see the dollar down almost 0.3 percentage point against the yen and euros. >> dollar and treasuries something that we have to watch this week with fed chair powell testifying this week >> totally that's the open question, how is he going to react to this. >> absolutely. we'll have more on markets but first, big news from overseas, china abolishing term limits on presidency that is a move that could leave xi jinping in power indefinitely eunice, great to see you >> that was really interesting over the weekend because what we learned that the communist party had dropped the two-term limit for the presidency and vice presidency this has been signaled maybe for the past 12 to 18 months because

the government has been building this cult of personality around zee jinping. people are talking about him in terms of awe and also late last year, we saw his name and political thought were written into the party constitution so, we haven't seen power accumulate like this since mao zedong for about four decades or so so, the timing of it was a little bit unexpected just because people had been noting that president xi jinping is heading into his second term they thought because he was heading into the second term, this would happen in the latter part of the second term, and that's not the case. so, there's been some speculation that perhaps he's trying to make a move when he has a lot of power >> one of the things i'm missing in terms of early reads from wall street analysts on the move over the weekend is that there are positives to this and negatives to this of course, the time be can't be

overlooked for the timing that china is coming here stateside, maybe at potential for a trade deal as the term limits are lifted what do you think? >> yeah, i think there are positives and negatives on the one hand from a u.s. perspective you can see there's going to be a lot of continuity on policy because xi jinping will be there forever. and also his policies will continue, a very aggressive china. you can expect to see more promotion of i.t. industries it doesn't mean that foreign companies wouldn't be welcome, but it just means that foreign companies wouldn't be put in place of priority. >> obviously, we're talking about change of policy within the ruing partie i ruling partyt but is there any way to lead the response internally in china right now? >> internally, you mean within the political sector >> yeah. >> it's very, very difficult to say. i think it's clear that a lot of

factions have been disempowered. so, we've heard a lot of speculation in people who are nervous about what this means for them either from an activist standpoint or just from people on social media. a lot of people have been complaining that they're concerned about this lack of term limits and what this means and also for his political opposition i think in the end, it's going to mean a continuity of power for him. >> certainly a lot to talk about. we'll be talking to you about this later on in the show. thank you for joining us, eunice yoon and packing economic data this week, today look for january home sales tomorrow, we get durable goods s&p case schiller. and gdp is out on wednesday, along with chicago pmi and spending home sales. thursday, manufacturing index,

also auto sales. that's followed by consumer sentiment on friday. as for earnings, as you can see, 30 companies in s&p 500 report this week. many retailers, macy's, kohl's, gap, jcpenney. >> and let's talk about what that means for the markets now joining its, art hohogan good morning, art. where do we sit, 4% off the highs of the major u.s. indexes. it's one month to the day since the all-time highs january 26th. market is comparing itself with one eye on what the bond market is going to do where do you actually see us in terms of field position? >> it's been a tale of two markets, right we had the first two weeks into the january peak where nothing could go wrong we were jumping into stocks trying to figure out what a new

tax program was going to look for earnings in 2018 then all sorts of great things, all of a sudden, it wasn't, right? then we started to get concerned with inflation and yield and that probably got overblown. but now a 10% correction and now, we've retraced about 60% of that which is exactly what we're supposed to do. i think we're in no man's land unfortunately. there's a tug-of-war going on right now, where fundamentals remain extremely strong. earnings up. the fundamental data continues to improve we've got a lot of that this week then we've got this other cohort that is concerned that we need to retest the lows we've seen that salvo mentality that that last hour is sort of the witching hour on friday. where market orders come in and people are like we have to retap those loads to set up the base to move higher >> how closely are you watching the new fed chair jerome powell

this week testifying >> yeah, morgan, i think we're going to parse everything he says obviously, new to this role. a little concerned with him on the first runthrough remember, he was only there about a month and a half ago talking about being data gen dependant. and talking abnormalizing that balance sheet. and it will going to be difficult for him. it's more theater than anything else he'll hear things like elizabeth warren talking about data too big to fail. and regulatory issues and needing more regulatory. and then it falls into that argument which i think is one of the things that the market likes about him. >> art, we'll leave it there we'll see if that market tug-of-war continues this week art hogan, thank you very much

in corporate news, the weinstein company says it will file for bankruptcy. this comes after the embattled movie studio failed to find a buyer. the weinstein company has been understand intense pressure to make the yield since allegations of sexual misconduct first surfaced against the former chairman harvey weinstein. in other corporate news, warren buffett's berkshire has reported a profit. berkshire's profit jumped five-fold. $19,500 per class a share. berkshire as $116 billion to spend on a deal or deals but it can't find anything cheap enough to buy we'll hear much more about all of this coming up with becky quick's exclusive sitdown with warren buffett that interview kicks offer in less than an hour from now >> are you going to ask mr. buffett any questions? >> i think i have to submit them

to becky, right? >> you can tweet them as well. >> i think she shows all of the relevant questions he's always kind of bullish. you wonder if he's not negative about the markets. >> i want to get his take of ge. especially since he told out and we had the 10k filing. it's obviously a company fraught with disclosures >> one that he no doubt has followed for years absolut absolutely and the companies cutting ties with nra continues to grow after the school shooting in florida. landon dowdy joins us with more. >> good morning. big business is pushing back in a big way following the february 14th shooting that left 17 people dead. we told you about the first national bank of omaha cutting ties with the nra. since then, the number of corporations cutting d ting tieh

the gun lobby has ballooned. and over the weekend, and delta and then hours later, united followed suit. rental car companies reacting, aveis ends in march. hertz and alamo ending theirs as well health and insurance and tech firms are taking a stand like starkey technologies, metlife, chubb and truecar. and amazon, roku, apple, fedex and youtube just to name a few back to you. >> fascinating to watch that play out some stocks to watch today, ge, as morgan was talk about set to restate earnings. regulatory filing shows updated standard will result in a 13 cent cut in reported earnings for 2016 a 16 cent reduction for 2017 you see the stock there opened -- indicated it opened slightly higher actually

meanwhile daimler and its chinese partner baic plan to investment $2 billion to build a plant in klein dma it comes after the chairman of china's geely auto has said he bought a 10% stake in daimler. and phiat chrysler to eliminate diesel models in 2022. in the midst of volkswagen's cheating scandal fiat doesn't sell cars in the u.s. but popular in europe still ahead on "worldwide exchange," chugging along. many transports pushing off february lows. but still down for the year. so, what is next for the sector and what does it tell us about the broader market we've got a top analyst's take straight ahead and later, smarter war samsung opngdrpi the new galaxy phone to compete with apple's

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm mike santoli, if you're just waking up, let's get you up to speed on early market action u.s. equity actions pointing to a positive open looking to open the friday rally last week s&p 500 set to open just under .05% gain. the dow looking at 180 nasdaq up 19 the strength was carried over

from friday, overseas, if you want to take a look at the asian markets right now. we just had them a second ago. there they are very positive. shanghai composite, interestingly up, 1.25%. following the news over the weekend that xi jinping, the chinese leader is going to be there endeavorly because they abolished term limits there. the hang seng up and nikkei also more than 1% europe has also been mostly in the green overnight. you see slightly smaller gains germany up 0.5%. and smaller gains in the uk and france, up 60 basis points right now. back to morgan >> thanks, mike. and the dow sector down for the year what's next for the transits donald, great to see you thanks for waking up bright and early today. >> glad dob here, morgan how are you? >> i'm great what are the transports telling us right now and how can we read

through the broader economy based on that? >> well, right now, transports are telling us what they've always been very capable of telling us they're delling us that this deal is just a correction. it's not the beginning of the next big bear market it's interesting that the dow transports say that the transports need to confirm that the big moves up or down otherwise, you can't rely on it. and the reason is, because the stocks themselves are not somehow omniscient it's that the stocks are on the underlies goods flow how many cars are moved tells us how many housing starts are going to be. how many steel or parts tells us how many auto sales are going to be freight moved into best buy and walmart and amazon distribution centers tell us what you retail sales are going to be. again and again, we get these

reads that tell us what's going to happen long before it actually happens so, we get early indications in the supply chain with transports as a result, they seem to have predictive value >> in light of all of that, what are the trends we're seeing? and where are you putting your money in relationship to that? >> well, we're seeing extraordinarily strong air freight right now. parse el freight right now parshall is a direct result of ongoing growth of commerce it may not be happening at dillard's or macy's, but it's happening at amazon and other retailers out there. we're seeing extraordinarily strong results out of asia pacific air freight which has been a good indication of semiconduct semiconductors, tech investments. we've also seen extraordinarily strong air freight out of europe and that -- that makes us look at the recent strength in the euro versus the dollar and say, gee, that makes all kinds of sense. and we like transportation companies like xpo, for

instance, who have -- and fedex, who have larger exposure to europe we're also looking at companies that have exposure to what's happening in e-commerce, and, you know, in the segment which again takes us back to fete ex-and xpl. and throughout the markets, we're looking at the goods flow first. >> donald, it's obviously a positive one as you've been saying what are the tax cut effects on the companies themselves and is that perhaps influencing how the stocks themselves are reacting? >> you know, we have seen more of a transient effect. certainly, we've seen people increase bonuses we've seen people increase how much they're going to spend on cap x. these are dupont duvall 101, everybody learns in first year finance companies, the more sensitive it becomes to asset

turnover rates so, we're looking at the increased investments they're going to make in those assets. we see that as a positive long term, that's been the biggest real effect of the tax law changes is companies saying look, we're going to investment x billions mar in our infrastructure we know what happens is, they become more capable from a capacity perspective in handling more goods, but they become more efficient in moving those goods, if they choose to spend those dollars wisely >> donald, always great to get your thoughts on this. >> always a pleasure still ahead on "worldwide exchange," samsung dropping its new galaxy s9 smartphone 'sll about the camera. we'll run you through the 15s when "worldwide exchange" returns.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm mike santoli samsung launching its new galaxy s9 and s9 plus phones in barcelona. cnbc's john 40 is there. he's seen the phones joins us with the latest hey, john. >> reporter: hey, mike, i've got the s9 plus here one of the features, the camera features ar emojis see, there's me. no tie, you can recognize me on the back of the phone, you'll see there are two cameras. samsung's first time digging into that with the galaxy line and they've got dual 'per ra

tour that allowed for dedicated lines to dig into that it's qualcomm's snapdragon's process that helps with that this is the first one to use snapdragon's 845 chip. some of the models are going to use samsung's 9810 those are most likely in asia. the price of this looks downright affordable with iphone's x at 1,000. s9 at $720 s9 plus 840. available in march the two titans have gobbled up the share of it making did difficult to compete makes things tougher, the

smartphone market isn't growing anytime. we've got the x and the samsung s9 plus, these are the two heavyweights from the two heavyweights in the industry camera features on this one are definitely what samsung is emphasizing. it seems to be if anything what consumers are looking at, worldwide performance. so this dual aperature feature is what people are looking for >> and we've seen the new video with sony? you have you gotten a chance to check that out >> i've not. both phones are using season nir sensors for the camera so sony provides a lot of the imaging tech it seems that 4khr video is something that they held back

for themselves, sony now, i don't think there are any analysts who expect sony to gain a lot of share based on that, but it is bragging rights and did emphasize sony's camera technology >> great, john thank you for breaking that down jon fortt in barcelona nbc's francis rivera in new york with the latest. president trump said all drug dealers should face the death penalty. according to axios, mr. trump has been telling friends that singapore's mandatory drug penalty for drug traffickers is the reason why their drug use rate is so low he often jokes about killing drug dealers he said you know the chinese and filipinos don't have a drug problem, they just kill them six people are hospitalized following an explosion due to an explosion north of high chester. police say there was no

indication that the blast is terror related and clip and joanna gaines announced that their company based in waco, texas, is on the search for creative minds and will be hosting an exclusive job fair in march. morgan, back to you. >> definitely have to check that out. still ahead on "worldwide exchange," today's top stories and a roundup of the global market action. and later, an olympic medal mix-up, u.s. men's team getting the gold and getting it's wrong medals we'll explain. books like peak performance... and endurance. books that energize and inspire for just $14.95 a month. less than you'd pay for the hardcover. with audible, you get a credit-a-month good for any audiobook. if you don't like it, exchange it any time. no questions asked. you can also roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. audible members use the free mobile app

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market alert, dow futures up triple differents as the fed looks to add to last week's gain power play what china just did that could be a game-changer for the world's second largest economy and warren buffett sitting down exclusively with cnbc in 30 minutes from now what you can scomphekt to hear from the oracle of omaha coming up it's monday, february 26th, 2018 "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm morgan brennan >> and i'm mike santoli, wilfred and sara both off today. let's get a check on the be global markets this morning. the futures pointsing to a positive open. the s&p 500 closing strong on friday for a positive week the s&p now looking to be up 13

points a little bit less than 0.5% the dow up 190 at this hour. and the nasdaq has been the outperformer looking to be up 21 points right now you see the treasury market has been calm today. in fact, for a while now, everyone watching the ten-year note yield you see here 2.86, a little more than that. it's been basically sideways for the last couple of weeks in fact, you know, i think four weeks ago when it first got above, let's say, 2.85 it's kind of been sitting there as everybody watches and sees what it means for the other markets right now. it is kind of quiet. taking a look at the foreign currency markets the dollar has been on the defensive this morning it remains the case. you see it down there against the euro, the yen and the pound in the uk. >> and let's talk more about the early market action. joining us is jonathan glolleb chief analyst at credit suisse

thank you for joining us we've been talking about u.s. equities how close are you still watching this >> we're watching it really closely. but i think the mark as misread on this. we just put out a report over at credit suisse which says as greats decline, stocks actually go up. and a higher bar across our problem but economics pushing stocks higher which would tend to coincide with rising rates. >> i'm glad you brought that up because i was looking the that note it's certainly contrarian versus the other commentary that higher rates go, the more you'll see the u.s. equity potentially tip over i guess sort of based on your report, i mean, we're coming out of a decades of unprecedented massive monetary stimulus. how much does that skew the ewages he equation here? >> a lilt bit.

but the reason we've had really low interest rates forget about what the fed is doing, it's all about the barring rate for companies we've had roughly 2% gdp for the last decade. if you go back the last 15 years, it's been 3.5 it's weaker for that but while the economy is still in good shape, we do expect it to grow 2.5% >> even if the rates do go up for correct reasons because growth is picking up, don't we have an equity market that still has to sort out exactly how it should be valued in light of that, between 2.85 and 3%, it's a decent distance, but in the mind of the stock investors that might be game over in half a percentage >> i'm not sure i agree. right now, the p-multiple on the stock market is just about what, 17 >> 17 forward. >> yeah, 17 forward. which is above average but not

crazy above average. interest rates are still, i mean, compared to history, average rate historically on a ten-year bond would be 5%, 6%. we're like half of that number i know we had this huge volatility spike but stocks have been half the volatility that they normally are. and that's mostly because the economy has turned more towards the service economy. stocks are smoother. companies do an unbelievable job for managing for cash and returning it so, all of that points to higher multiples. >> just quickly, does this mean it's a quick volatility shack and up answer away until the end of the year? >> listen, nothing is ever perfect. but what we saw in the last month was absolutely a volatility shock if you look at the vix, it will continue to come down, people thought we were going to stay at this height of volatility, they're wrong. >> we'll have to wrap this up. we've got warren buffett coming

on with becky quick and "squawk box," he said over the weekend, $100 billion for investments where would you tell him to put his money right now. >> if i were a economy that had tax savings, i'm not sure what warren buffett is going to say, give it back to the shareholders the economy is good. there's lots of opportunity. >> that's one thing that warren never does, is force it. jonathan, thank you. speaking of buffett, warren buffett's berkshire hathaway reporting a quarterly income tax rate the fourth quarters income jumped five-fold to $32.5 billion. and one of the shareholders, berkshire says it has $116 billion to spend as morgan mentioned but it can't find anything cheap enough to buy at least by its standards. we'll hear much more about all

of this coming up with becky quick's exclusive sitdown with warren buffett in actually less than a half hour from now. the nra concern after nearly two weeks from the shooting in florida. >> big business is pushing back in a big bay, following the february 14th shooting that left 17 people dead we told you about the first national bank of omaha conduct ties with the nra. since then, a number of corporations severing ties with the gun lobby has ballooned. in fact over the weekend, the travel industry joined in, delta airlines on twitter said it's ending its contract with the nra for discounts of rates through its group travel program hours later, united airlines followed suit. rental car companies reacting, avis sighing it will end its its partnership in march hertz and alamo as well. health and insurance and tech firms taking a standlike

starkey technologies metlife and truecar. there are a few relationships such as amazon, roku, apple and youtube just to name a few up next, a china game-changer, the big power play that just happened in the world's number two economy the full details on that plus, new numbers on the health of the hedge fund market we'll bring you those coming up. a quick check on the u.s. equity futures pointing to a positive open with the dow indicating to open up 182 points ayght now. st tuned you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. these birds once affected by oil are heading back home. thanks to dawn, rescue workers only trust dawn, because it's tough on grease yet gentle. i am home, i am home, i am home

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm mike santoli we're getting new numbers on the health of hedge fund industry. cnbc leslie pickler is here with us >> hey, mike, solidifying rebounds the industry rablging in more than $14 billion for the month the best start to the year since the financial mortgage crisis. to put that in perspective, the amount of hedge fund money collected in january is already half of that of all 2017 it's also the first january inflow since 2014. the strategy takes in the most macro as well as long and short equity as well as credit investors have said those three strategies have become popular macro inflow suggests there could be more interesting comparisons in the world

long/short picture indicates at least allocators believe stock picking will once again be in vogue. and direction at credit among central banks. now, the real question is after allocating to these strategies in january, how well did they hold up to the correction in the beginning of february? we should start to see those numbers this week, guys, as it starts to trickle out. >> i think it's interesting that you point out we saw inflows it's been much stronger to start the year than in 2017. do you think this is a reflection of the increased volatility that we're seeing >> it could be, although these inflows came before the incre e increased volatility i think there's expectation that volatility will increase and that hedge funds are a good way to protect and preserve the capital you that have. and that's why they're starting to pirate into the sector. because as you know, the returns have not been stellar. so this isn't anything that has been driven by the strong form

mns from 2017 from the strategies that we've seen >> among investors, maybe that we're in the latter part of the cycle, it's time to lock in and go to strategies that can navigate a little bit of change in environment >> exactly that's why when you see the specific types of strategy that are taking in the capital, there's no correlation with performance. it's purely strategies that could protect against that rising interest rate investment that we'll likely see this year and next year. >> leslie picker, thank you very much we're approaching the top of the hour, that means the team at "squawk box" is getting ready for the show becky quick, today, that mean, she's live in omaha with a huge interview coming up. hey, becky >> hey, mike, it's good to see you guys warren buffett is here, he's getting ready to come on as you know, this weekend, the company was out with the annual letter from warren buffett to the shareholders we'll talk about what's in the letter including the idea that the

company saved about $29 billion from the corporate tax plan that went through we'll talk to him about that also talk about the idea that they have more than $116 billion of cash on hand. i'm wondering if that's burning a hole in his pocket if there are acquisitions that he'd like to see he did talk in the letter about how he'd like to buy something but they haven't found anything at a reasonable price. we'll talk about what that means for prices overall lots of things coming up, of course, guys, this is the first time we're sitting down with warren buffett and talking to him since warren buffett, jamie bezos announced their health care initiative to tackle the ever increasing costs of medical care and health care spends. a lot of things we're running through, marks, health care among the top of the list. guys, if you have questions, let us know. you and everybody else can send them in. the oracle of omaha will be

answering lots of them i've got piles of questions coming in. you can send them at squawk cnbc with the #askwarren. >> ooh, okay we'll be watching this closely over the next couple of hours. see you soon time for this morning's top-trending stories kylie jenner posting a video of her new ferrari on instagram saying to fans it was a push present for giving birth to stormy, it was unclear who gifted the car but jenner were seen in it yesterday. all i can think right now, how are you going to get a baby seat in there >> you're not. >> is this for date nights? >> i'm also not exactly sure how it's unclear -- in my world, there's only one person who gives that present

>> push present. exactly. the u.s. men's curling team, meantime, winning gold at the olympics, as you know. but there was a mix-up at the podium, the medals they were awarded said women's curling the mistake was corrected before the flight home which wasn't as luxurious as they might have hoped. defeating to delta our olympic curling champions are flying home on monday, upgrades? unfortunately, the request was denied congratulations gold medal champions. we're honored to be your ride back home. while we don't have any upgrades to offer, we look forward to seeing you at home >> there's only five curling members. >> i have a little bit of sympathy for delta being put on the spot. >> yeah, the flights are very full, everybody coming back from south korea. and the medals >> and the precedent, i mean >> yeah, dunkin' donuts and the

girl scouts are teaming up to make your morning a little sweeter. the coffee chain and girl scouts announcing thin mintzes, peanut caramel and peanut butter cook condition sweets tre treats make their debut. i want the coconut flavor samoaesque cookie. >> i think that's in lieu of the cook cookie, right? >> i'd do it with a side of thin mints as well. >> it works. they're just great marketing organizations among other things >> and now that the girls are an exception to the boy scouts it's one way to keep their foothold still ahead on "worldwide exchange," the china factor, china setting the stage for president xi to stay in office indefinitely la this means for markets. let's get another check on u.s. equity futures. they are still positive.

the s&p 500 looking up 12 points the dow pushing close to a 200 initial point gain at this point. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. some air fresheners are so overwhelming, they can...

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm morgan brennan alongside mike santoli time for our must reads. my pick is from "the wall street journal. called "xi jinping, president for life." editorial board rides, it's worth noting that mr. xi over the last five years, although the worthy agenda of giving greater scope to forces as the bank showed interests and balances have built up due to system loss policies that require excessive debt endangering china's economic development. reading this and given the fact that we are seeing china

basically look to eradicate term limits for a president, i just can't help but wonder, i mean, when we looked at the financial crisis about a decade ago. it was like if america sneezes, the whole world gets a cold. what happens with china? is it going to be a similar story? >> yeah, obviously kind of a cautionary interpretation by "the wall street journal." >> yeah. >> people wondering what it means for perhaps even more authoritarian leadership there i do think, investors, it's a known quantity at the moment exactly what the leadership is and maybe the idea of having radical political reforms. >> in light of all of this, we have eunice yoon on the set. what is your feeling about this? >> well, there's been a lot of look, that president xi is going to look for a way to stay beyond the two-term limit

so, now, we see it i think that it's exactly what you were saying, i think a lot of the take-away is really that the policy is going to stay the same there is a known quantity there. and so for u.s. investors, i think that's important also that china would continue to be assertsive on the world stage. i think there's going to continue to be major proposals coming outside of china like the infrastructure of the roads so big global initiatives are going to be pushed and also that china is going to champion its own industries and it's going to continue to find ways to do that again for investors they're going to be somewhat welcome in the big growth in the china story. but at the same time, it's all going to be china and this policy >> and the assertiveness that you put out there, there's multiple tracks, right, there's massive investment overseas? and obviously, maybe rectifying the balances and stuff like that and then the trade side. those are just three

obviously there are more >> go ahead. >> i was going to say how does that come from here? >> the trade part is interesting for anybody that has been worried about rise in protectionism or worried that there could be increased economic conflict especially with the united states, i think you have xi jinping who has not been willing to make a lot of concessions, it doesn't really make you feel good about where things are headed. he had mentioned before that china has sent a major player here his name is tapped to be the vice president a premium -- not the vice president, the vice premier. but also the head of the central bank but he's xi jinping on the economic policy. we've been seeing him rise in stature and power. and now, he's in washington, d.c. and he's going to be talking to people there there's been talk about some

sort of negotiation about trade. >> well, we'll certainly have to deep that in mind, eunice. stay right here. we're also going to bring in michael purvis, local strategist, to talk about this how does this play into your view with the markets, sir >> well, one thing i think is important to point out there's been a strong correlation between china peoppi and the correlation over the last couple years has been .08 and when you talk about inflation for the united states it does go back to what china is dealing with with its own economic reforms the cutbacks in aluminum and steel capacity and if you go into walmart, it's a good chance anything you bought was from china. i think weakening in the metrics there, it will be interesting as they continue to reform in particular from an environmental point of view and whether all of

that continues as to emerging market equities that have a high china component, a really a lot of that is from the china bank side, right? with the emerging market etf, i think it's interesting to see how that plays out with this brave new china world we're working with >> how does this affect, i guess, your investment pieces if at all >> you know, right now, it's sort of a surprise but it's really not a surprise, right we've seen this evolution come for some time. so, i don't think it really has any impact i think it really comes down to what happens, does he really change course or not and if you're right, you know, it's sort of just marching on as he has been, it's probably going to be pretty constructive. although, you do keep an eye on the chinese data some of it has been weakening over the last four months. >> there has been been argument because he's in place, he could

in theory pursue economic reform in the way he wants it so, alleviating poverty. and you mentioned the economic protection he's trying to promote. and just this beak, thereweek, going to be another economic pose me policy meeting people are wondering where the reforms are. >> how is the news of anbang that we got on friday play into economic reform? >> in terms of economic reform >> the government taking over an insurance company, for example >> yeah, that was surprising so, we've seen something like that happen in the past with some smaller players, but i think what it's an indication of is that the state is going to continue to play a sizable role in the economy, despite a lot of the talk that was surprising to see that in it was such a major -- it's just such a major move to do it. but, yeah, the fact that he disappeared. or the fact that there were charges against him that really wasn't that surprising. >> a lot of things to continue

to watch yu thank you, eunice, michael, appreciate it. just about a minute left in the show let's set you up with three big things to watch. we're watching new home sales. a leadership group in the markets last year. faltered a little bit this year. we'll see how it responds to higher interest rates. >> a lot of focus, home prices rising inventory dropping. higher rest rates. and keep an eye on ge. tied to the recognition rules too took place at the beginning of this year they did warn that they would be restating, the big news, hiding into theleased over the weekend. they expect them to move ahead >> we'll see if the bad news is all out there on the market for ge now don't miss warren buffett on "squawk box" today he'll be live answering your

questions from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. that's it for "worldwide exchange" this morning quk x"s mi unext ♪ begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

good morning and welcome to a special edition of "squawk box." we are live from omaha what, nebraska i'm here at the berkshire hathaway ceo warren buffett. he's going to be answering your questions for the next three hours. we will cover his annual letter, berkshire investments and much, much more. keep sending your questions on twitter and facebook with the #askwarren folks, it's monday, february 26th, 2018 and "squawk box" begins right now.

live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm joe kernin, becky, you just saw live in omaha with -- oh, with warren buffett. okay all right. i got it we'll get back to her in just a minute, though i misunderstood. so, that's why -- that's why you're out there three hours with -- >> that's why i'm here >> excellent, excellent. how many -- we got to get -- i've got to look how many questions do you have from our viewers, do you think, becky? >> a lot >> everybody should get in >> and i have to say, the questions are really good this year people have gone through it's not just like what's your favorite stock tell me which stock to buy 58,000 variations of the same question a lot of otherhing