welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm sri jegarajah let's bring you some headlines >> european stocks see green amid a global relief rally as trade war fears ease with the white house saying some countries may be exempt from the tariffs. >> we expect the president to sign something by the end of the week and there are expected carve-outs for mexico and canada based on national security.

hugo boss shares slide after delivers a cautious outlook. merck shares fall in early trade after chinese competition hurts sales. the ceo says investors need to be patient and acs and atlantia are in an offer good morning, everyone happy international women's day. let's check in on markets. overnight trading in asia, things looked better as it appears the u.s. administration is looking to impose some exemptions on the steel and aluminum tariffs when it comes to canada and mexico and other countries. so a bit of a relief rally in

trading. overnight the nikkei with you up 0.5% hang seng also up. in europe, slightly above the flat line. trading greener, 0.1%, but nothing major here switching to european bourses, the focus today is that ecb meeting coming up in a couple hours time xetra dax lagging, down 0.2% cac up 0.3%. earnings related there all eyes on what mr. draghi will say. will he drop the easing bias will he turn more hawkish? all of those questions need to be answered in a few hours time. let's switch to sectors. here we continue to see an under-performance from all sectors that will be impacted by potential trade war, potential tariffs. basic resources down 1%. autos down 0.4%. oil and gas, the main sectors that have been yeen underperfor.

real estate up 0.6%. food and beverages up a similar amount the white house says canada and mexico could be offered exemptions from potential tariffs on steel and aluminum imports this could be extended on the outcome of nafta talks and other countries could be exempted if there's a national security case. president trump will give further details on the tariffs as early as today. more than 100 republican lawmakers have sent a letter to president trump urging him to reconsider broad tariffs in the letter the republicans warned against the damage it could do to the american economy and its workers. instead of blanket measures, they encouraged trump to consider targeted tariffs on countries that are trading unfairly kyle bass has told cnbc the u.s. tariffs are pore than just

about steel and aluminum he has had a long-term short on the yuan and has been critical of china in the past he backed a tough approach on china. >> we import 90% of our basic aluminum needs in the u.s. our aluminum smelt verse been emasculated by the chinese the chinese play the long game if they want to control an industry or bring our dependence to them and other foreign suppliers, they can do has because they're a state actor, we're a free market economy. those two things are not congruent with each other every now and then in this case i'm a believer that we need to maintain productive capacity in certain industries this is not about producer versus consumer. this is about national security. i think we get lost in that argument >> larry kudlow continues to rank high on lists of who could replace gary cohn as top

economic adviser for the trump administration cohn stepped down after the move towards tariffs served as a final straw. kudlow declined to comment on speculation about his own future he also said he's not a fan of imposing broad tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the u.s. >> i don't like blanket tariffs. i don't want anything that's going to hurt our prosperity outlook, which is really improving. the president and gary cohn and steve mnuchin have done a great job lowering tax rates, rolling back all these regulations, energy, moving on to infrastructure these are pro-growth measures. it's already showing up in the economy, it makes america more competitive. that's the key point i don't line blanket tariffs i don't want to punish friends and allies and let the real bad contacters get off e er er er ef

top ceos are giving their reactions to cnbc on the potential tariffs. morgan stanley's james gorman spoke about the potential of a trade war. >> we have needed volatility the fact we're having some the last several weeks does not bother me at all tariffs, i thought it was a bad idea, to be blunt. the biggest issues this country faces are not trade deficits, they're fiscal deficits. i think what we need to be doing is focusing onn on the real isss you can always enter into a trade war. doing it with alliey allies, the best way to move forward.

>> it's about the message we give to the free world about who is leading this world. in my view, the united states has always been the inventor of free trade, the inventor of globalization. the inventor of freedom of trade and may the best team win. that's more a disturbing message to the image, rather than how many millions, companies or customers need to pay in the end. >> it's astonishing given how the amount of backlash that president trump has got for the proposal with the tariffs that he is pressing ahead and that they will introduce these tariffs. yesterday they did come out saying there may be some exemptions, particularly for their allies in the nafta agreement, so canada and mexico. but given how much resistance they're seeing within their own party. more than 100 republicans sent a letter saying these tariffs are a bad idea

why the trump administration is so intent on pressing ahead on these. >> he seems to be guided by politics rather than solid economic reality when you take all of this to its logical conclusion, it means that inflation could go up if it's harder to procure imported goods because of these tariffs, those margins will go up and u.s. businesses will have to pass on higher margins to the consumer so then you have a tax on the consumer that will offseat bet or possib wipe out the trump tax cuts. on the inflation side, we have not seen that much of an impact on the picked income side, but the u.s. dollar, if you talk about the sequences or the imposition of tar rififfs, that should encourage domestic consumption and that should cause the local economy to grow

faster the next step is a faster interest rate hiking cycle coming out of the fed. typically all of that would be u.s. dollar positive what we've seen is the reaction has been so far negative on the u.s. dollar, not because of the sequencing effect but because people are sitting there saying hang on, is this the start of a trade war? this is not a good thing there are too many questions and unknowns >> it looks to be growth negative >> and not necessarily a good thing for the domestic consumer. >> seems to be very, very short-sighted, politically driven with one eye on the midterms and trump looking to safeguard and protect his core constituency it's a big gamble when you consider that all of this will inevitably ricochet back on the u.s. consumer in the form of higher prices and inflation. that could destabilize everything that we've come to know and love about synchronized global growth. >> the area to watch is what

happens when the intellectual property rights coming from china comes up even if these tariffs are watered down, the intellectual property and that move against china will be critical in the next few months. >> if the trump administration seems to be emboldened to pursue more hawkish trade policy and trade action, then section 301 under the trade act is the story to follow. that could mean the trump administration turning the heat on china china seems to have avoided the worst of the steel import tariffs. and let's face it, it's not a major producer, ek porter expor the u.s., but it could be a problem once 301 comes around. >> if you would like to join us,

tweet us at @streetsignscnbc coming up, communication seems to be the ecb's biggest issue at the policy meeting in frankfurt. we'll look at what they should and shouldn't say in a few moments.

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aviva is trading lower after profits at the canadian unit shrank and operating costs increased. the company launched a 500 billion pound share buyback as operating profit rose 2% to over 3 billion pounds for 2017. earlier in the show we spoke to the owner, mark wilson >> the low spot was canada canada frankly had a terrible-year. weatherrelated costs, increase claims frequency so canada had a terrible year. that brought our results down by 220 million pounds it shows the strength and diversity of the group despite that, eps was well up.

eps ticked up sharply even with that big drag from one country engie opened positive after announcing a positive and higher than expected dividend earlier we spoke to the ceo about the turnaround plan. >> when you look at the three-year plan we announced two years ago, we're pretty much done with it we're at 90% completion. quite frankly we're there. >> and akzonobel expects continued headwinds from rising raw material costs the firm posted a 3% increase in full-year revenues while net profit dropped 14% last year the company rejected several buyout offers from ppg we spoke with the ceo of akzonobel and asked whether ppg

might come back with another takeover bid >> we can only focus on what we control. as in the past when somebody knocks on our door, we look at it as a proposal and see what we can do the whole management team including ourself is focused on delivering 50% return of sales by 2020. though the chairman changed in the company, all of the decisions and actions this were taken last year were unanimous in the board and executive committee and the board of management i don't expect big differences there. as you see, we've been active looking. we've done our own acquisition, so that becomes part of the mix. it depends on who knocks on the door with what and does it stand up to our own plan. hugo boss opened lower after a sharp drop in fourth quarter net income and missing expectations the fashion house expects higher sales this year saying it plans

to attract younger customers is gaining traction. the ecb will make the latest interest rate decision on thursday there seems to be disagreement among the golf verning council r communication. some expect the bank to drop its easing bias at this meeting despite a number of governing counsels failing to do so. annette is in frankfurt now. she joins us for a preview what are the odds that the ecb will drop the easing bias at this meeting >> i guess that they won't do that given the clear heightened uncertainty in the global political market and the heightened uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook, given those potential or the threat of a trade war, that might have given more ammunition to the so-called dogs in the governing council who are afraid of an unwanted tightening of monetary conditions

having said that, the hawks, the governing council members who are actually arguing that the asset purchase program should stop as soon as possible and also abruptly in september are also quite vocal about the fact that it is high time to at least start the tapering message, recalibrate the message of forward guidance going forward i was saying earlier on, back in december, it seemed that the governing counsel was more courageous on the steps to end the asset purchase program and to give the markets more clarity about further steps, but this seems to have vanished with the volatility back in the market and now with the threat of a looming trade war. most likely we continue get an

awful lot from today's meetingmemeeting me but perhaps some good commentary from mario draghi during the press conference the real gist will come as soon as june according to the majority of analysts and economists june could be a good meeting for that after june, the june meeting, there will be the annual sort of jackson hole of the ecb, sintra, and then they explain themselves once again back to you. >> thank you very much for setting the scene for us let's continue the conversation on the ecb and bring in fabio balboni from hsbc. good to see you. if price stability remains the ecb's primary mandate, what is the appropriate policy stance given where inflation is heading in the eurozone? >> i think easing bias is

receiving attention. this is a red herring from an ecb monetary policy. all that says is if the condition turns out to be worse than what the ecb is currently expecting, they might be doing more than the 30 billion per month than they pencilled in until september. i don't think there's anyone out there in the market expecting that the ecb could be doing more as we think about the forward guidance of the ecb, the key -- the most important bits are the sequences, where won't hike rates until the end of qe, but we could extend the asset purchases beyond september there's no chance any of those two things will go that in answer to your question is because the ecb is worried about the volatility in the market, about the strengthening of the euro and m some of the latest numbers coming in softer. so there's every reason for the

ecb to wait until june or july to let us know what the next step might be. what about the signaling effect? i agree with you, most people tend to agree that the easing bias is a moot point, also from a technical perspective they're physically running out of bonds to buy if they remove that today, it's not such a big deal, but they're telling the market they're tweaking the language, preparing the market for the prospect of ending the net asset purchase program and eventually starting with that sequencing that will end up with a rate hike. the more they postpone it, the more they have to take huge decisions at one meeting, perhaps in june or after and run the risk of spooking the market. do you not have sympathy to the view that they should start spoon feeding the market a bit >> you make a good point the ecb has been saying our forward guidance at the moment is probably inconsistent with the data, the strength of the data we've seen. i think there's a good chance they might drop the easing bias.

i'm saying it probably won't matter a lot in terms of market expectation. i don't think -- when it comes to qe, our view has always been that qe has to come to an end, whether abruptly in october or a couple of months, or from that perspective i don't think things change >> today we get the updated economic projections, and the thing people are watching out for is the 2020 hipc forecast. is that the only thing we should be watching for? if it goes higher, it could lead them to be more hawkish. >> the ecb might have some difficult news to digest there you have a strengthening europe compared to the forecast in

september. in our view that maight take of to 0.1 in 2018, 2019. and they might try to shift attention to their definition of core inflation, which is stripping out energy in the ecb inflation forecast they have to play with the downward sloping oil future curves, so if we go back to september our inflation stripping out energy and food was already 1.9. there's a good chance they might remain at 1.9. that's how they might phrase the conversation saying we're still on target to meet our goal in terms of inflation, even if the headline -- or we had to revoiz do revise down the headline inflation number what is your best case for when they might hike? some put it mid-july 2019.

does that soun right d right tou >> we think the first hike could come in march. this will be data dependent. it depends on where inflation comes through in the second half of the year. we have an mornt wahave an impoe coming in. >> when you look at the pmis, they may be peaking or close to peaking. >> absolutely. that's our view the growth peak is past. if you look at how -- what has been boosting eurozone growth is largely export and investment, domestic demand has been slowing across the board including in germany where you would expect domestic demand to stay stronger in terms of risks i would have thought a high risk of the ecb pushing back rate hikes. i don't think as mario draghi said in the last meeting we could have a rate hike in december but i do think we will get a rate hike in the first half of

next year, certainly before draghi's term comes to an end in october. i think it will be a good farewell gift to his successor >> and there's talk about that >> nice gift to the market >> thank you very much for that. we will have full coverage of that ecb decision and president mario draghi's press conference from 13:30 cet. it's international women's day. people around the world have taken to the streets to call for progress in a year marked by the #metoo and times up movement thousands called for gender equality last weekend and celebrating the 100th anniversary of women in the uk getting to vote. we will focus on equality, pay,

harassment over the course of the week with a number of high level of guests. coming up later on cnbc, we will bring you the davos debate on gender equality here's a sneak preview >> we need men as part of the solution but what we don't need is continued silence that men have perpetuated it's not acceptable to have silence in the workplace when women are discriminated against. >> we have president trump addressing the forum on friday in terms of women's movement, if you have a global leader like that who has been criticized in his attitudes toward women, how you can go forward when you have the leader of the free world -- >> i do not accept that we can allow one man's views to say we women are powerless. of course not. >> it's not just one man's view. he is representing --

>> whatever president trump says, we all know he's quite vocal for what he stands for, he's only one man. we have to understand women and take our power we're 50% of the population. we need to speak out >> that will be fascinating. coming up, the saudi crown prince and theresa may meet in london after inking a multibillion dollar deal what this means for uk/saudi relations after the break. i love you, basement bathroom of solitude,

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. good morning welcome back to "street signs. i'm sri jegarajah. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. these are your headlines >> european stocks see green amid a global relief rally as trade war fears ease with the white house saying some countries may be exempt from the tariffs. >> we expect the president to sign something by the end of the week and there are potential carve-outs for mexico and canada based on national security. and possibly other countries as well based on that process out of fashion

hugo boss shares slide after delivering a cautious outlook. merck shares fall in early trade after chinese competition hurts sales. the ceo says investors need to be patient while the firm makes investment for innovation. and acs and a it s atlantian the road to take on hawyey. u.s. futures were implying a firmer open on wall street but that picture seems to have changed somewhat, so caution creeping in. trade tensions are easing to a degree as trump suggests some countries may get exemptions on

steel tariffs. let's look at the european markets. they are reasonably stead did you. markets are cautious here because the trade war threat lingers on the markets want to get clarity from the european central bank that mochb tear ponetary policyt 13:45 cet, and the press conference at 14:40 cet, that the when you tend to get the fireworks. draghi expected to sound fairly cautious here because of the uncertainty regarding synchronized global growth and mario draghi may have choice words for u.s. policy as he has done in the past he's not been shy about criticizing the u.s. position. doesn't pull his punches euro ahead of the usd.

the key question is whether ecb drops the easing bias. >> one of top stories, britain and saudi arabia agreed to a $6 billion trade and investment partnership. ahead of her meeting with bin salman, theresa may was forced to defend the relationship with the kingdom in parliament amid heavy criticism of riyadh's human rights record. hadley joins us from central london let's talk about that 65 billion number that appears to be a goal for trade and investment do we have more details? >> the details seem to be scarce about this 65 billion pounds, but it's interesting to note there's been no lack of praise coming from the saudi delegation in terms of how they feel the trip has gone so far and it

seems the uk has brought in to the crown prince, but there have been some awkward moments from time to time let's listen in to one of those yesterday. >> could you imagine a female prime minister in saudi arabia one day? >> we will see >> at the end of the day, the crown prince of saudi arabia is being hailed across the region in terms of being a reformer there is a great hope of the region in many ways. there are a lot of concerns about saudi foreign policy and what it will mean for the region going forward. there's a lot of hope about what he's doing in terms of the economy and questions on the ground in terms of what the new economic relationships will mean, especially with what we've seen with the ritz carlton and what the saudi economy is going through in terms of oil prices and how quickly they can bring new people into the work force, young people and particularly women. let's listen in to what boris

johnson has to say about yemen >> it's vital we bring this appalling conflict, which has inflicted so much suffering to an end britain supports saudi arabia's right to defend its national securit security against missile attacks from yemen, many targeting cities like riyadh any solution to the conflict must ensure that saudi arabia no longer faces this cross-border security threat. >> in spite of those questions in terms of the ethics of selling 1$1.1 billion in 2017 t saudi arabia that has not stopped the government and prime minister theresa may from committing to 65 billion pounds in the near future over the next ten years in terms of cross-border investment, economic opportunities and the security dynamic we'll wait to hear more over the next couple of days in terms of what happens next for the crown prince and previewing his visit to the united states that's

coming up in a couple weeks. >> you're standing on a busy intersection there various buses and taxis driving past you >> little too near the traffic >> i know you're standing in front of the house what should we expect to hear from the house later today >> this is closed to the press, but i have to tell you that some of the biggest names in saudi vision 2030 are present. you have the energy minister, the minister of trade an commerce, we will hear from the new ceo of the 5$500 million meg plan being built on the sea. hopefully we'll have more detail as the day goes on michael stevens, research fellow from middle east studies joins us on the set. a cynic would say that all of these deals are basically going to be about oil and arms

do you share that view >> no. one of the reasons that there's an engagement with mohammed bin salman and the rest of the gulf is to get away from this perception that the uk only cares about selling arms to the gulf states, which traditionally has been the way in which the success in our relationship has been measured. what mo hhammed bin salman are asking for is investments into high-tech sectors, high growth sectors that will help them move away from an oil-based economy not only that, with defense sales, they can be up and down, there's no way of plotting a steady trajectory forward when it comes to defense sales. the saudis may need aircraft tomorrow, they hey not with qatar there was only five days lead time before they knew the deal was on. they'll talk about education, healthcare, moving into fwregre

tech >> that being said, i agree with you, diversification, there's a big emphases on that in these discussions, but the aramco deal has something to do with this. do you think both of these sides are quietly laying the ground work for the ipo to be hosted here >> i think when we look at the aramco ipo that dwarfs the $65 billion figure let's deal with that as almost a separate and closed space. the $65 billion figure or 65 billion pound figure is about our investments into the kingdom. that's not the aramco situation. we have a strict framework for ipos in the united kingdom saudi arabia needs to build confidence in london it's taking steps to improve transparency so that kind of conversation is

ongoing, it will be happening today and tomorrow with these senior saudi figures in tow. we've seen a number of different companies coming in from saudi arabia talking about transparency, talking about improving economic indicators, performance measures so that's trying to do the same thing. in the next 48 hours we will see trust and confidence from their side and from our side regulations. >> what role does domestic internal security play the crown prince does personify the end of consensus rule in saudi arabia there may be more purges to come and possibly domestic unrest is that an environment british business wants to operate in >> i don't think there's going to be much domestic unrest in saudi. the crown prince is popular. it's not easy to find out how popular he is, because people in saudi if they dissent face the full weight of the law, but at the same time most of the time there's support for what he's

try fog do shging to do. the measures he took against corruption in early wintertime last year did not work out they scared investors off. i think the saudis understood that's blown back in their faces a bit. that's one of the reasons they're here, to try an fix what was done last year, a basic attempt at transparency and corruption and now they have to do the real stuff so that we can all judge whether what they're doing is for real. >> the trip itself has been controversial. there's huge demonstrations. we spoke about mrs. may being forced to defend the visit in parliament yesterday many people say are we going to pursue trade deals and investment deals at any cost turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis like we saw

in yemen or the qatar blockade none of those things have come up on the agenda >> well, they have. the uk government has been robust the feedback i'm getting is that theresa may had a frank and forthright discussion with mohammed bin salman about some of those political issues. i decided to look at one of these protests yesterday to see how big it was a couple hundred people. not massive. but there are some clear areas where people don't like mohammed bin salman and said he is not welcomed it tends to be along a left wing/right wing split. the right-wingers say he should be worked with, the left wingers say this is an appalling human rights regime. so you either do business with him or you don't he through the last 12 months

has become the big guy in saudi. no win one is challenging him anymore. the post-brexit moment means we're weaker in what we can say or can't say to him. if you look at the strategies, the gulf policies in the uk government were setting out in 2015, this was already in the works to diversify the relationship with the gulf states to move it along these lines we've been talking about, which is clean energy, education sectors, all these things. it's not just the new face of the british government, it was coming before brexit, it's just been put on turbo because of brexit >> i was just reading this morning that saudi is the sixth fastest growing trade partner. so potential on the trade side thank you for joining the show today. >> thank you as we cover international women's day, we've been asking

high profile guests what can be done in and outside the workplace to close the gender gap. >> i look back at that 32-year-old inga and i don't recognize her now. i was fortunate enough to work for a firm that had a proactive talent program that said as a manager you have to show you're promoting women. only through that they persevered through me and persuaded me to take that job. you have the confidence to do that >> i think a keyissue for managers and leaders is the pipeline of women into the senior management. we've got a pretty good representation at the senior level of our company, but i have to improve that pipeline a lot i'm not proud of that. it's something that we have an action plan that we're working on every day >> all of us want to attract the best people, so we should not exclude 50% of the talent pool on this. so we need to create conditions to attract the best, including all the good women that are out there.

>> where is the power in the world? it's in politics it's in the economy. are women pulling their weight there? no, they're being held back. i would do something to get rid of this cult of the alpha male i know the alpha male is bad for women. it's bad for most of the men too. >> the eu warns it could retaliate against president trump's plans to impose tariffs. we'll head to brussels for the latest after this break. successful people have one thing in common. they read more. how do they find the time? with audible. audible has the world's largest selection of audiobooks. 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.

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chinese exports rose to a three-year high in february. imports missed expectations growing 6.3% for the month the country's trade surplus increased 33.$33.74 billion in february, as trade tensions mount between china and the u.s. the chinese foreign minister said the country would rather avoid a trade war with the states, but added if it does

happen china will take action. >> china and america working together will benefit not just our own countries, but also the whole world. china and the united states don't have to be rivals. but we should strive to be partners in cooperation. trade war is never the right solution in a globalized world, it is particularly unhelpful in the event of a trade war, china will make a justified and necessary response the bottom line is as the world's largest economies, china and america's interests are deeply intertwined >> germany's economy minister has said that the eu must respond if president trump goes ahead with proposed steel and aluminum tariffs she said i think we need to react because the competency is with the european union. she said that the eu will need to make a complaint to the world trade organization

french foreign minister said they must respond with firmness to president trump's tariffs willem marx joins us live from brussels the eu has drawn up the back list of u.s. imported goods, everything from bourbon to oranges. how shaky are the alliances between the u.s. and its allies in europe and nato after trump used national security to justify the tariffs? >> that's something the european commission yesterday said they were not buying. the pretax of national security which was never questioned before is not sufficient ground for the u.s. the european union preparing to respond to those terms by trying to inflict the same level of economic damage to the u.s.

economy as they suspect will be impacting theirs, around 2. billi2. bil8 billion euros. we heard the messages from the french, german and chinese that is the message at the moment, to deescalate rather than retaliate >> we are eager not to escalate this we do not want this to go out of proportion the measures that they are possibly still hoping we can avoid it, and we do everything we can to try to offer a doy dialogue it could be a severe blow to the european economy we are calculating the possible injury that relates to the eu economy and in different stages we will then take the rebalancing measures in full

transparency and analyzing what the effects are. we can choose to decide on the list we can have it ready we can notify and have it ready. we can also choose to wait a bit to see how things develop. we need, if we want to comply with wto, to act quite swiftly on the procedural side of this we have no intention of escalating we can also not just stay silent when such a major -- a major measure will be taken to the european economy potentially >> in that same appearance, she said this was as much about protecting european jobs as anything else. we heard from the european commission vice president that they're also quite concerned about losses in the u.s. he pointed to previous efforts by u.s. administrations to introduce steel tariffs saying they led to thousands and thousands of u.s. job losses he said the eu is still trying to convince its u.s. partners

this is not a good idea. that will happen face-to-face later this week when robert lighthizer meets with his european counterparts here that will be what they like to call a robust discussion >> thank you very much for that. let's continue this discussion about the trade tensions with the deputy head of the u.s. program at chatham house if trump is taking this american first doctrine to its logical conclusion through the prism of trade, does it mean he will secure his core voter base in the midterms >> it's a little bit more complicated than that. steel tariffs will benefit the american steel industry, but that's smaller than the industries which depend on imported steel on the one hand he'll be benefiting steel manufacturers on the other hand he'll be

hurting people in car manufacturers. >> downstream. >> downstream will be impacted heavily. and the question is what balancing measures will he be able to take he can do the tariff part of this without too much oversight from congress. they have to step in and prevent him because over time congress has delegated this authority to the president. the taxation measures he would have to have congressional con s sent for people in ohio tend to be representing a constituency contrasting president trump. some praise this move, but the amount of political capital he's losing is much greater than the political capital that he's

gaining. >> we saw yesterday more than 100 republican members of the house wrote a letter protesting the move saying he needs to target the bad actors, not everybody universally. isn't this also essentially a shift in ideology for the republican party this is a party who in the past has espoused free trade and now moving against that. what does that mean for the ideological values of the republican party here? >> if this is as far as it goes, i don't think this is a permanent schism in the party. if what's happening is trump wants to put on tariffs, saying i have done this, defended the industry, stood up for the working class in the heartland, that's the end of it, this will be a survivable and the fundamental free trade ideology of the party won't be affected if this is an opening bid and there's no reason to think it's not -- trump has been

inconsistent about almost everything in his political life but very consistent on trade always protectionist always believed that a country is defined by its core economic resources in terms that would be recognizable to someone in the 20th century >> back to the midterms, if mr. trump does manage to secure a mandate, which is what he wants, under that scenario will he call off the trade dogs >> i don't think we know the answer to that yet i think because the politics of this are not as simple as republicans or free traders or democrats or not, the impact is likely more nuanced than that. if what happens is that he blunts -- the short-term impact is that he blunts u.s. economic growth that will blow back against the republicans in the midterms and he will be dealing with a democratic party in congress in likely 2019 or 2020

which will ironically somewhat more friendly to a protectionist argument will be very, very angry with him and very unwilling to give ground on any other issue. i think it is hard to see the political -- except in very, very specific ways, in the broad stream it's hard to see how this benefits him >> jacob, thank you very much for joining us today let's look at the u.s. futures. earlier they were subjecting a bit of firmness to the u.s. open that picture seems to be changing caution is creeping in now that's all for "street signs. i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm sri jegarajah "worldwide exchange" is up next. - i love my grandma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers.

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wait and see that's the approach on wall street as investors eye more details on president trump's tariff plan. china and europe both responding to threats of a growing trade war. a live report coming from both bay jieijing and brussels. and cigna reportedly close to buying express scripts. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning a warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm wilfred frost. great to be here with