welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm sri jegarajah, here are your headlines >> white house adviser gary cohn resigns removing the most high profile free trade advocate from the administration. the dow is called to open about 300 points in the red. the ceo of telecom italia says he welcomes a dialogue with elliott management and puts a joint venture with vivendi on

hold after the company posts worse than expected full-year earnings. and shares in wpp and publicics sell off as advertising is vowed to be taken away from the big agencies already struggling with disruption okay our top story today, gary cohn is resigning as top economic adviser to president trump it comes after weeks of speculation about his position cohn was a driving force behind the major tax cuts passed by the white house at the start of the year he with you never comfortable with the protectionist policies pushed by others in the administration the recent moves to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum appear to have been a last straw

cohn is the latest in a series of white house departures. the markets attention will turn to who will have the president's ear when it comes to business and economic policy. administration officials have hinted that peter navarro and larry kudlow are leading candidates to replace cohn navarro has strong protectionist views, kudlow, a cnbc contributor, has spoken in favor of free trade and criticized the tariffs on steel and aluminum. secretary mnuchin remains in place and has many fans on wall street president trump addressed the high turnover in his administration saying that minu anyone who leaves will be quickly replaced >> the white house has tremendous energy, tremendous spirit it's a great place to be working. many, many people want every single job i read, gee, maybe people don't

want to work for trump believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. they all want a piece of that oval office. they want a piece of the west wing not only in terms of it looks great on their resume, it's a great place to work it has tremendous energy. gary cohn's former boss, lloyd blankfein, tweeted high praise for cohn. he said he deserves credit for serving his country in a first class way and is disappointed to see him leave. let's look at futures. the dow is pointed to open about 300 points lower the markets did not take this well the news came in after trading hours yesterday. we saw a down move in asian equities on the back of the news with some major indices down 1%. markets are not reacting well to the news that cohn may be leaving. joining us now we have eric robertson, the head of global macro strategy at standard

chartered. thanks for joining "street signs. and on the line we have brian klaas, a fellow in comparative politics with cohn's departure, brian, is there anyone left in the white house administration who could oppose the imposition of these tariffs in. >> president trump met with secretary of defense maddux and rex tillerson who tried to point out that the tariffs are likely to have geopolitical implications by driving a wedge between america and western allies and weakening nato. trump has so far not responded to that advice as a result of cohn's departure fewer people are making the argument on economic grounds that means there's more clout given to people like peter navarro who will push for policies aimed at trying to punish china, his main driving

force in advocating for tariffs. >> eric, we've seen a lot of market volatility in the past 24 hours. markets are not reacting well to this and the potential of a global trade war this does not seem to be a time where even if you were bullish on the fundamentals that you can let loose and buy into the equity trade here because of so many uncertain questions >> i think you raise a valid point. we know global markets do not like uncertainty even a more simplistic way to look at it is the economic uncertainty from potential policy changes but also the uncertainty of personnel in the white house until we have a sense for the empty slots being filled, the personalities who will fill that, we don't know which direction the u.s. will go we think it's interesting that the equity markets seemed to have taken the brunt of the selling. if you look at foreign exchange, a number of emerging market

currencies seem to have been relatively resilient so far. >> that does raise questions about where the direction of travel is for the u.s. dollar here despite all of the measures announced, the tax reform measures, the spending plan, the dollar has not performed well this year, you would expect with the imposition of tariffs that that would be dollar positive. but overnight we see dollar weakness where do you stand on that debate >> i take a slightly different stance on this we've been pretty negative for the dollar on the last 11, 12 months our review remains steadfastly dollar bearish in spite of rising interest rates in the u.s., markets seem to be more focused on the loss of what i could call political credibility in terms of fiscal discipline there's been quite a bit of renewed focus on the expected deterioration in the budget deficit and broader twin

deficits so i think what you're seeing now in terms of the dollar versus the euro or the dollar versus the yen is an increase in political risk premium for the currency that's troubling >> ryan, let me bring you back in here. is it safe to say that the ross navarro combination have trump ear on trade and trade policy? >> i think that's a natural partnership because trump wants to sell this to the base trump's driving force in this is not economic heats not thinking about what's best for the economy or growth, he's thinking about what's best for his political base white house insiders are thinking about how this will be an easy sell to his core voters in the rust belt i think it's an indication that we can expect more turmoil ahead. as we have been talking about with senior staff turnover, reuters reported that in comparative terms, the senior staff turnover in the white

house was 34%, compared to 9% under obama and 6% under george w. bush. this week it's tariffs what will it be next week? we don't know. there's not seasoned hands who understand the nuts and bolts of policy around trump. those people are being weeded out. cohn is one of the last ones who understood the nitty gritty of trade. it's bad news for the u.s. economy going forward that he's gone >> how do we approach the cyclical trade-related, trade-sensitive markets that are most vulnerable to this new climate? do we lighten up ek pxposure on japan and south korea for example? >> the way we have approached risk is under the umbrella of a more constructive outlook. we have pared back our beta. we have increased our hedges by

selling mexican currency, the new zealand dollar against our portfolio. we take a constructive view. we think the global outlook, economically and in terms of monetary policy and em is constructive for attracting assets how far this trade war goes will be the key factor. i want to go back to one point if i could that brian made this is all about politics and not economics. if you go after countries like china, the only thing this is going to do is raise the cost of imports for u.s. consumers that inflationary narrative, i think, is troubling. i also think it raises the political and economic risk premium for dollar assets. that's why we remain negative on the dollar >> we've got some comments from german economy minister who was speaking about the resignation of cohn and said the situation is serious you get the sense that in the last 24 hours, the rhetoric is

ratcheting up a notch and there are major concerns about retaliation here i wonder as far as china is concerned, even though the irony is that china is least impacted by steel and aluminum tariffs, how are they likely to respond that's maybe a question more relevant to brian. but i want to ask you, eric, could we see an economic type of response from china that may lead to them selling their huge share of u.s. treasuries brian, let me start with you first. how do you think china will look to retaliate on some of these measu measures >> i think they'll be cautious i think they'll wait and see china is 10th or 11th on the list in terms of steel producers that the u.s. buys from. this is ply mare primarily a t that trump will try to sell as

hurting some, but really it's hurting the u.s.'s allies. south korea is fourth on the list as the u.s. is trying to work with south korea on geopolitical aspects related to north korea, it's not the right signal to send we're getting into a trade war with you i think trump is not understanding how the international policy he is pushing forward is affecting geopolitical things. >> one interesting thing is how china is selling treasuries, before that our view on china is they would do everything they could to avoid retaliation they have been in the united states meeting with business and political leaders. it's our expectation they're trying to negotiate something behind the scenes. what we have to remember is china's holdings of treasuries

is so large, if they use that option, they hurt themselves as much as the u.s. there's been quite a bit of media discussion and financial market discussion about the potential for china to sell treasuries i suspect their response will be much more targeted on specific industries >> let's talk about more debt. if the trump administration does have the upper hand now on a more hawkish trade policy, does that embolden him to pursue section 301 under the trade act that turns up the heat on china and what washington perceives as intellectual property theft? is that next >> that seems to be the direction we're headed the problem with that particular narrative is even if the united states goes down that path, what is the medium or what is the platform by which they raise that complaint is it through the wto?

is it something they do on their own? as blrich brian eluded to earli there's the political angle, and if trump were to go down this path he's hurting his own companies as much as attacking china. we're troubled by that prospect. >> already boeing and soybeans seem to be on the black list if china does choose to retaliate eric, thank you very much for joining us >> thank you the full story on cohn's dpe pa departure is on our website, cnbc.com cnbc will get more reaction to gary cohn's departure from wall street when wilfred frost sits down with james gorman at

21:30 cet. coming up, the saudi crown prince visits london as questions grow about the country's role in the middle east and the fate of the aramco o. more after this break. overwhelming air fresheners can send you running...

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welcome back to "street signs. as we were talking about, the main story has been gary cohn's rez zig anything that frsignatie house. most of the major indices are trading down as much as 1% the weakness is permeating into the european session you can see the stoxx 600 is down about 0.3% or so. a bit lower. let's switch to european indices and see what the picture is like ftse 100 down 0.15%. all eyes will be on mohammed mohammed bin salman's meeting with mrs. may and the queen later. xetra dax, cac also trading weaker

ftse mib following on with the italian election results and lots of uncertainty about the coalitions and how negotiations will go will con to trade heavy. it's down 0.2% let's switch the sectors it's no surprise the sectors underperforming are the ones that are most impacted by this aluminum and steel tariffs we've seen that in the last couple of days basic resources sectors are down 2% autos as well will be hugely impacted by the tariffs, down 1% oil and gas trading down 1% as well oil, couple of things there. it's not just steel and aluminum tariffs, we also had excess inventories that came in about 2.5 million barrels more than expected the only sector in the green is real estate. the oil and gas industry must invest more than $20 trillion over the next 25 years

if it's to meet demand growth and come pen tate for tpensate o of fields. >> so far we are working to list saudi aramco saudi aramco became a joint company effective january 2018 so all signals are this thing is going ahead. ultimately it's a shareholder decision all the signals in terms of changes by the government to prepare aramco for the listing is done. >> saudi arabia's crown prince kicks off a three-day visit to the uk today he's scheduled to meet the queen and buckingham palace before heading to downing street and talk with prtheresa may. the prime minister is expected to express deep concern about

yemen. hadley is outside buckingham palace you cannot ignore the politics when we talk about uk/saudi relations. some commentators have gone so far as to say vision 2030 may fail if the crown prince cannot win the war with yemen how tricky is this going to be >> there is a deep strategic partnership, but despite the protests here and despite the deep questions that many in government here in the uk have about what that relationship will look like going forward, we're really talking about not just weapons sales, we're also talking about the potential for a strategic partnership with saudi arabia that could see cross investment over the next decade as long as we talk politics, they have to look at the broader

picture of the middle east, destabilizing forces in the region and what that will look like going forward and could they lose afford to lose saudi arabia destabilizing saudi arabia by not getting behind the one person who seems to be at least so far val vgalvanize that couny and move it from the dependents on oil, by not getting behind them, do they have more to lose? back to you. >> let's continue to talking about this issue with our guest. we are joined also on the phone by fasel j. abbas, part of a delegation traveling with

mohammed mohammed bin salman what can we expect can you offer us insight in terms of how closer aramco is to listing in london? >> as you have heard earlier, shareholder decision and the decision has been floating between a number of cities there are a lot of potential for london mostly. it's a developed market. there are less risks here. some analysts would say that, and i would be monitoring closely to see any announcements that come out during this visit. >> and this conversation is

ostensibly about diversification, but ultimately it's going to be about whether aramco will list in london do you think they are close to doing that >> we've seen a strong pull from london to be much more competitive against hong kong and new york the main question today is whether we will see any decision from the fca after their c consultation about changing some rules so aramco can list in london if we see more moves from the london side, that can give us a better indication if this is technically possible >> i saw an ad online, you know how you get those google ads it was saying saudi arabia is opening up to the world. do you think mdf will succeed? >> we've seen one of the most committed efforts to reform in saudi arabia so we've come the closest in the

country's history to reaching more realistic targets that the transformation plan can have if one of the legs of that is diversification of revenue away from oil, then the public fund and how that is expanding investments may be one factor discussed in the uk with mohammed bin salman's visit is on track to reaching and increasing the investment footprint of saudi arabia. >> the uk sold over 4 billion sterling worth of arms to saudi arabia in previous years are you expecting there to be more deals on that front coming out of these discussions >> i would certainly hope so let us remember that the -- the united kingdom and saudi arabia have been close allies for 80 years. we've been aligned politically for 80 years reports earlier mentioned the war in yemen let's remember why theyemen sta.

there's been an armed militia that overthrew the legitimate government of yes, ma'ammen. that government asked the coalition for help let's not forget about the cooperation between the united kingdom and saudi arabia saudi arabia is a crucial ally for london in providing anti-terrorism intelligence. saudi arabia has given more in terms of money, in terms of resources and souls that we regretfully lost in the fight against qatar. we are all on the same side here in the fight against extremism and terrorism. so my answer to your question is i do hope there's more defense and security cooperation between the two countries. >> given the fact that theresa may has made it clear that she will express deep concern about the war in yemen, will that limit the possibility of any

defense cooperation? >> there are mass demonstrations also going on. >> precisely >> i think it will be whether terrorism dominates the political side of the equation or the economic side of the deals. so far economic deals have taken precedent. >> what does the uk get out of investment deals with saudi arabia >> we work with multinational companies across different industries all of them are interested in investing in saudi arabia, but they need to see clear signs of regulatory reform, diversification away from oil and improvement in talent. a lot of the cooperation between saudi arabia and uk on education, on technology transfer, that will be an important sign for investors to go >> brexit, can the uk still pursue deals with saudi arabia with or without a transition deal >> i think that saudi arabia will be a crucial partner for

the uk once the negotiations with brexit -- regarding the brexit deal has concluded. the two countries have been close allies for over eight decades. there's a significant amount of trade between them and there is no intention that i felt among the saudi leadership or saudi business executives that brexit will make the uk any weaker in fact, we are actively looking for opportunities to increase trade and investment and this will be solidified in the ceo conference happening during this visit. and i know for a fact there will be some exciting announcements coming out of it >> we will leave it there, sir thank you very much for your time and also thank you coming up, was trump will do

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welcome to "street signs." i'm sri jegarajah. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. these are your headlines >> the trade wars claims its first victim as white house adviser gary coh resigns removing the most high profile free trade advocate from the administration. >> european stocks open broadly low as the dow is called it open 300 points in the red. the ceo of telecom italia says he welcomes a dialogue with elliott management and puts a joint venture with vivendi on hold after the company posts worse than expected full-year earnings. and shares in wpp and publicics sell off as u.s. consumer giant p & g vows to take advertising away from the big agencies already

struggling with disruption since we looked at markets about 15 minutes ago, the ftse 100 has tipped into green. that's the only positive index in europe so far in trading. up almost 0.1% at the other end, ftse mib has actually rebounded a bit, it was down about 0.25% in the last 15 minutes or so, things have bounced somewhat let's switch to foreign exchange on the back of the news of cohn's resignation, we saw a knee jerk dollar weakness reaction in trading overnight. this has continued mostly. euro/dollar trading stronger, 00 0.1% dollar/yen, this currency pair, you have to watch that and think it's somehow going to factor

into the bank of japan meeting coming up later in the week. trading down through 106 that will raise a lot of questions. it's beginning to bite the nikkei a bit nikkei down about 1% in yesterday's trading. cable lower, down 0.3% doll us f u.s. futures, the dow will open up about 300 points or so lower. s&p opening up about 30 points lower. it doesn't appear u.s. equitys to the news. >> gary cohn is resigning as top economic adviser to president trump. it comes after weeks of speculation about his position cohn was the driving force behind the major tax cuts passed by the white house at the start of the year, but he was never

comfortable with the protectionist policies pushed by others in the administration the recent moves to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum seem to have been a last straw for the former goldman sachs president let's bring in tracie potts. she is live from washington. with cohn gone, does this usher in an altogether hawkish trade policy or is there anyone that we can point to as an immediate successor who could moderate the tone >> sri, he was the person who seemed to be holding people back who had concerns about these tariffs that seemed to be the last straw there were other issues, but the announcement about the tariffs was a rift between the president and his chief economic adviser because cohn was a proponent, an advocate of free trade he was pretty vocal about that he was the person that skeptical republicans were counting on to try to get the president to

reconsider he had been talking to allies who were concerned, letting them know this was not a done deal. it was still being reviewed. now with him gone, we've already seen asian markets lower we'll see what happens with the opening bell today he was also a friend of wall street as a former banker, but also as someone who had pushed free trade as opposed to the president's america-first policy when it came to the tariffs. the tariffs seem to be the issue but there were other things also happening in the background. cohn wanted a bigger job according to one official. there had been some consideration for that, even after he was passed over previously for a cabinet position he had been tapped to lead the president's infrastructure initiative, but that really didn't go anywhere when congress got sidelined with a number of other things so cohn was stuck in what he was trying to get done now he's decided to leave this

white house. the president praised him for his work on the tax cuts cohn with friendly words saying he appreciated the opportunity, but as of this morning he's out. president trump says he will name someone else soon >> tracie potts, thank you very much for brigging ibringing ust wall street is not reacting well to the news. markets opening down about 300 points thanks for the latest on that story. shares in rolls royce are trading at the top of the stoxx 600 after the company delivered a 25% rise in underlying pretax prompts for 2016 they forecast 2018 underlying operating profit of about 400 million pounds but warned the year would be impacted by costs related to repairs rolls royce added that it's on track to meet its financial goals for 2020 shares in telecom italia are lower after the ceo said he welcomes dialogue with activist investor elliott

he put on hold a joint venture with vivendi following worse than expected full-year results. the company cites restructuring costs related to the digital strategy as one reason for the drop revenue rose just under 20 billion euros with the group saying it expects low digit ebita growth until 2020. telecom italia promised to boost investor returns as it shifts to digital. under the new plan the company will invest billions in italy and brazil primarily for broadband growth it expects to generate 4.5 billion euros if free cash flow in the three-year time period. the strategy comes after shares touched a four-month high after yesterday's session following word that elliott management is building a stake in the phone group. the hedge fund led by paul singer confirms it has built up its holding in the company

it's a 6% stake. the move puts it at odds with vivendi led by vincent bollore elliott said it may push to replace some of telecom italia's board but is not seeking to take control of the company the he the stock has lost roughly 25% over the past two years since vivendi took majority control of the board back in 2016 >> quite a story to watch that one. international paper submitted an official offer to buy smurfit kappa for about 8 billion euros. on tuesday the american company announced the unsolicited bid but it not disclose how much it valued the irish paper group shares in europe's two biggest advertiser groups, wpp

and publicis group are trading lower. p & g told the financial times that it plans to save $2 billion in spending with ad agencies like wpp and publicis. you can see both of those stocks have not reacted well to the news accounting has been criticized at german tv group prosieben. they say the media company overpaid for acquisitions and they have inflated revenues from non-cash transactions. prosieben has rejected the allegations calling them incorrect and misleading it says it has considered taking legal action against vice roy

and its representatives. and rbs reached a settlement with the state of new york over mortgage securities sold ahead of the 2008 financial crisis the bank will reach a larger settlement with the department of justice in the coming weeks and there's a 32% rise in operating profit for l & g the company's investment management saw assets rise 10% earlier on the show we spoke with the ceo, nigel wilson, about the impact of brexit >> it's in everyone's common interest that there's a reasonable solution from brexit. at the end of the day, it's a change in the terms of trade between the uk and europe. and in a certain sense there's sadness around all of that but it's a change in the terms

of trade it's not that we are exiting all relationships with europe. indeed as i said earlier, we had record flows from europe last year and a number of partnerships in the uk with european institutions who are committed to invest in the uk. we're obsessed in the square mile about brexit. outside of london, it's on such low volume compared to london. >> three fed hikes or four we'll hear next from someone who downs. we'll hear from donald kaplan after this break

welcome back to "street signs. the ecb will make its latest interest rate decision on thursday, and there seems to be disagreement among the governing council about communication. some expect it to drop its easing bias at this meeting despite a number of kouccouncil

members failing to do so in january. meanwhile the italian political uncertainty is broadly seen as an individual risk and not enough to influence the ecb's decision sri and i will be hosting decision time tomorrow watch for that hurting relationships with trading partners will hurt the u.s. dallas fed president robert kaplan said it was too early to see the effects of imposed tariffs. >> on the tax legislation it has caused us to mark up numbers, my concern is that there are elements of recent legislation that will improve sustainable growth in the united states, but the elements of the recent bill and also this budget agreement actually i'm concerned will

actually turn out to be a stimulus funded by increasing the debt, which will give us a bump in '18, less so in '19 and '20, and a return back down to trend growth dpeexcept we'll be highly leveraged that leverage could become a head wind for economic growth in the united states. it certainly makes us more interest rate sensitive, which is a vul nnerability we're creating >> are you surprised about yields, or is it how you thought they plight hamight have reacted >> part of the yield increase may be stronger economic growth. part may -- my concern may be part of it may be the prospect of greater u.s. supply that has to get sold in the years ahead that would be a more ominous reason for the increase in yields my concern is when you have

these issues, and now a third including the future path of government debt, i'm worried that's a bad combination for future growth in the u.s. economy. >> i need to bring it back for investors trading today, tomorrow, six months and talk about the path of rates here when you talk about more growth in 2018 because of the tax cuts, what does that do to your preferred path or optimal path when it comes to monetary policy, which is a long way of asking three or four this year >> my best case is three for this year. i think we should get started sooner rather than later we'll see whether that should stay at three or something more or less. for now i would say three. i think we should get started soon >> what would be the thing that would bring over the top -- is it the inflation rate? is it the growth rate? is it the unemployment rate?

what is the thing that would say we're behind the curve >> i think a thing i'm sensitive to, we think the employment rate will get into the 3s in 2018 below 4% so we're either at or beyond full employment now. i think on the bright side it means more people will have jobs it will lead to some wage pleasurmres pressure i'll be watching the history of overshooting full employment in the united states and having a soft landing is not a long history. >> it's a nonexistent history. >> the reason i want to start removing accommodation and raising the fed funds rate, that will give us the best chance to extend this expansion for longer >> the eu will officially respond to trump's tariff threat this morning when a press conference will be held at 11:30

cet. at a statement on monday the european commission said the issue would be discussed in brussels today and vowed its response would be swift, firl a firm and proportionate media reports there's a 2. 8 million list of u.s. products that could be targeted. paul ryan conceded trade imbalances are a problem but said there are better ways for the u.s. to respond. >> there's clearly abuse occurring. clearly there's overcapacity dumping in transshipping of steel and loaluminum by some countries, but the way to go is to make it more surgical and targeted i think 232 is too broad, more prone to retaliation, so we encourage the administration to focus on a legitimate problem and to be more surgical in its approach so we can go after the

true abusers without creatingen intended consequences and collateral damage. and in the auto world, fiat chrysler said he will not be spinning off the mag met meti marelli business. instead he will take marelli outside of the group there 2018. shares of fiat chrysler are down almost 1.8% now. in italy, mateo salvini has said he's the only possible prime minister candidate from the center-right alliance. he beat silvio berlusconi's forza italia he made his first comments in a video message saying he would be the coordinator of the center-right alliance in government already some friction emerging between berlusconi and salvini

there. the results may increase the likelihood of some fiscal loosening and further weakens the prospects for economic reform i spoke to one of italy's big business names and asked about the election results and whether he thinks the euro has been a positive or a negative for the italian economy. >> i strongly disagree with this view because it seems to me regardless of the ideological direction from where you're coming from, i think this is just a technical element it needs to be taken into consideration, and that is this is not doable and it will be a disaster from a financial point of view, competitiveness of country. i see no reason why anyone could

believe that's an acceptable direction. having said that, plitt mrolitil classes need to look at the signals. if we are saying europe has not been provided that sort of guidance that we were waiting for, that could be criticism on which we can work around that's the good part of the observation that we can accept we need to imagine european role from the central european government, if you want to call it that way. but it's more sensitive to the local needs. so i think the more we have seen it in the banking system in italy as well, if you want to be global, you need to have a lot of local knowledge europe needs to be more of a step in this direction the philosophical vision, which

is that europe is already too small and that for sure we cannot foresee further segmenttatisegmen segmentati segmentations, that's an obvious one in my mind >> do you think businesses will get concerned that the potential government will be comprised of people in the past who were euro skeptic and may be more aggressive with their stance towards europe >> i think that, you know, we have been used to this this applies not only to italy but to many other european countries where you see the local government that use international politics for local reasons, for national objectives so i think that there can be no question that europe is not a question marker. maybe we can do a better europe, but i wouldn't take -- i won't say too seriously, but i don't

want to believe that there's really somebody that believes that the direction is fragmenting europe or separating it makes no sense. maybe we want to make it work better >> the reason i asked that question is one of the main points of the lega agenda was that euro as a currency has not worked for italy as a whole. it would be interesting to pose that question to one of the most renowned business men and families in history. he says it has been a good thing for them the question of italy position within the eu is not up for debate what is up for debate and where things could be improved is with respect to europe's overall stance when it comes to imposing policies and i guess this is an issue not just that italy has, everyone has this issue with some of the bureaucratic tendencies of europe then he said something that was interesting. he said in order to be global you need to understand the

local. that should be the stance. that should be the starting point of the future type of relationship or the future rebranding europe has to make for itself in the future lots of questions here but it's coming at a time when 50% of the popular vote in italy did go to anti-establishment parties. >> to the populists. here's the problem, is the five-star movement making an alliance with the center-right or are they going to make an alliance with lega if they make an alints with lia lega that will probably be the most euro-skeptic outcome that does not mean the integrity is up for question of the euro, but there are questions of nationalism. >> i spoke to the deputy leader of lega briefly, he said for now they're sticking with the center-right alliance. he sees himself as the leader, but berlusconi is also saying he has the right to speak on behalf

of the center-right. we have to also see if five-star will do an alliance with pd and whether pd will oblige with that to find out why italy may need europe, head online to cnbc.com. let's take it back to the markets. and this narrative of increased trade tensions dollar/yen is having a bad day biggest drop in a week trade tensions seem to be stoking something of a flight to the relative safety of the japanese yen u.s. futures looking as if they are going to be seeing a shaky start for the u.s. markets that's it for today's show i'm sri jegarajah. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. "worldwide exchange" is coming up next. jimmy's gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. yup, he's gone noseblind. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics...

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. gary cohn out. president trump's top economic adviser resigning from the white house as a trade war brews the fallout from washington to wall street straight ahead. president trump threatening a new round of tariffs this time aimed at the eu. the full details ahead. sounding off, the biggest leaders in corporate america weighing in on the president's trade plan on cnbc we have full reaction coming your way it's wednesday, march 7, 2018. "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪