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 you. we kick things off with breaking

deal news. cigna reportedly close to buying express scripts. the terms of the potential deal have not been disclosed but the deal could be announced as soon as today shares of both companies there for you. express scripts up 13% we'll have more analysis on that coming up for you in the show. but that news just crossing the wires overnight. you can see a decent move for express scripts. president trump was expected to make an announce the on tariffs this afternoon, but a senior administration official tells nbc news that is now unlikely to take place today let's get to tracie potts live in washington with the latest. positive announcements yesterday that helped the markets recover when we expected two things, one, the tariffs would be signed today and two, special carve

outs for countries like canada and mexico to be excluded from the tariffs. where do we stand on that timing >> that's the hold up here that administration official says the president is taking more time to think about that as they try to renegotiate nafta, also trying to find carve outs, not only for mexico and canada but the spokeswoman says make for some other countries as well this was the big criticism from his own party, pressure and a letter from more than 100 republicans asking the president to slow down and reconsider the broad tariffs, 25% on steel, 10% on imported aluminum instead focus on the problem the problem, they say, is china. so with that pressure we're hearing that the president is going to back off that announcement that was supposed to happen today before steel workers and steel executives, no word from the white house on when and if that will be

rescheduled. we know it's the thing that prompted gary cohn to step down. now the white house says cohn will be an advocate for president trump's policies and may be considered for a cabinet position so he's not quite out of the picture yet, or he may not be out of the picture yet as for these tariffs, it looks like that announcement will not happen today while they figure out how these carve outs for mexico, canada and some other u.s. allies might work >> lots of potential follow-up questions, starting with the tariffs and then cohn. the potential carve outs and the delay of implementing the tariffs, is that seen as president trump softening his position and listening to threats from other countries or what >> softening his position and listening to his own party lots of people on capitol hill were concerned about the threat of retaliation from allies

canada talked about it the eu talked about it tariffs placed on the united states, possibly sparking a trade war that they thought might hurt american workers. so the president seems to be trying to figure out how do you carve out exceptions for certain countries or delays. there was talk of a 30-day delay for mexico or canada the details of how that would happen, we don't know yesterday. looks like the white house is trying to figure that out. >> in terms of gary cohn, he had a big role if he went to the cabinet, would tsh seen it be seen as a promotion or a move sideways? >> a promotion, yes. it's something he had been pushing for. one of those other factors that seemed to be involved in his resignation. >> tracie potts, thank you very much let's check in on global markets. one of the big reasons we saw an intraday rally yesterday, this

time yesterday we were down over 1% because of cohn's departure but we closed flat for the s&p, higher for the nasdaq and the dow. we hoped there would be carve outs within those tariffs. this morning the dow slightly lower. the zch sligs&p slightly lower e nasdaq slightly higher ten-year treasury note yields have ticked up a bit. still off the highs which were above 2.9 on the ten-year, 2.885. markets around the world, asian equities picking up nicely following wall street's recovery intraday decent return of a percent and a half for hong kong gains elsewhere in the region. european trade was slightly higher today

it was a decent week so far. the ftse and dax have been higher more than 1% week to date germany softer dau of manufacturing data disappointing. the dax down 0.4%. europe focusing on the ecb meeting today. no expected change in interest rates or mario draghi's rhetoric on when he might end the bond buying program commodities, looking at oil, which is flat today. yesterday it was down over 2%. still roughly flat for the week as a whole had a decent start to the week dollar board for you, not much move in the overall dollar yesterday. the euro did gain. it's now pushing close to 1.24, despite a 0.2% decline today also focused on the ecb meeting. the dollar against the yen is

flat not much against the pound gold prices fell a half percent yesterday. down a bit more today. still positive for the week, 1,3 2 25 is the price of gold. joining me is art hogan. thank you very much for joining me markets this week and last were focused on tariffs to what extent would tariffs with carve-outs not be bad for the market >> i think it's a case of taking more time to develop this planment that's very important seems like we rushed this plan out and said we will do this globally with the push back in the market, economists, members of the cabinet and economists saying this is not the best idea, we should be more targeted here, if we're taking some time and being more targeted and actually using this as a

negotiation tool during the nafta negotiation process, probably has a much better result and more market friendly. the original blunt instrument that is a global tariff on all steel and aluminum was looked at as bad policy. if these lead to retaliation or still bad policy, but not as bad as this blunt instrument that was a negative market moving event. >> has it changed your perspective of what to own in the u.s. >> it's interesting. this market had volatility introduced into it because of a fear of a policy mistake we saw that jobs number from january, the wage component was hotter we assumed the fed would make a mistake, raise too fast, push us into recession now we're concerned about a policy mistake on trade. as we focus on that, i think the market is juxtaposed against

concerns over policy mistakes and strong fundamentals. so we've seen a market relati relatively strong priced we think the sectors you want to look at, tech, financials and industrials. that's consistent. as you look at 2018, you want to make a sector allocation, those three sectors will outperform the broader market that's agnostic of what is going on in the background in terms of concern over trade policy and monetary policy. >> we saw some good jobs data yesterday. the bigger jobs number comes out tomorrow that could suggest a stronger dollar, yet we got an ecb meeting today which depending on the hawkishness of mario draghi could send things the other way. where are you now in terms that dollar debate? >> the ecb is probably a much larger player in the conversation we're getting to a point where we think the ecb obviously because of the growth we're

seeing in the eurozone has to get a touch more hawkish and talk about quantitative easing ending in the summer september rolls in, we'll have much more synchronized global central bank when we think about that, that's probably not necessarily dollar bullish. the dollar and the index hovers around the 90 level, which is fine we're at 8975 on the close last night. as you look at the dollar and the ecb getting a touch more hawkish, we'll settle into a level. what the dollar has been doing the first two months of this year is pricing in a more hawkish central bank away from the federal reserve. >> art, thank you very much for joining me turning to the wall street agenda, the european tral bacen bank will announce its rate decision at 7:45 a.m. eastern time followed by mario draghi's news conference at 8:30. also at 8:30, weekly u.s. jobless claims

deltech nl technologies and kro before the open. don't miss the cfo of kroger live on "squawk box" at 8:20 a.m. eastern time. wynn resorts says two board members will step down as the company continues to deal with the investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by former ceo steve wynn in the first investor presentation since wynn's r resignation last month, they will be bringing on new members. wynn is up 4% today. a decent move. caesars entertainment swinging to a fourth quarter profit results were helped by gain from the new u.s. tax law the casino operator has also benefited from the emergence of one of its biggest yunes from bankru bankruptcy costco helped in part by the new tax law, but they faced

increased competition from walmart and amazon it's down 1% we're just getting started on "worldwide exchange. still ahead, firing back europe and china out with warnings over a potential trade war. live reports from brussels and beijing. and caught in the cross hairs. the u.s. states that could get hit the hardest if we enter a full blown trade war that analysis mi ucongp on "worldwide exchange. but i'm not standing still... and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working, just like it should ♪

>> you can't be unilateral in these things the world -- for all the concern about the level of importing that we do, look at the exports. we are in a net surplus on services fastest growing part of the economy. we're net deficit on certain goods in certain sectors sure, people can't pick and choose once you put in tariffs, they will respond whether friend or foe. that was part of my interview with james gorman. we're already seeing global pushback to president trump's tariffs. willem marx is live in brussels with the eu angle for us this morning. >> yes yesterday we heard from the commissioner from trade and then donald tusk the european council president. he loves word play

mr. tusk said that trade wars are bad and easy to lose we've been hearing this morning from officials across europe including germany where they are saying they will take this case to the world trade organization, echoing what we heard from the european commission. and others saying this is a terrible idea. we heard from a former foreign minister in france saying the european union would have many weapons as part of its arsenal that could be deployed against the u.s. in response we had comments also from the european union's vice president, the commission's vice president saying that past examples of u.s. tariffs on steel have ended in thousands and thousands of job losses for americans they're trying to protect also european jobs. he said the eu is still working with its u.s. partners to try to

deescalate the situation >> if we did see carve-outs which have been mooted as it relates to the nafta partners, mexico and canada, would be the eu be more furious if there were carve-outs for some and they were not included or would they see that as progress and room to work with with this president? >> certainly the comments over the last 24 hours, there's be wd be a great deal of anger if the europeans were not included in those exemptions they cannot fathom why the u.s. is using this pretext of national security and applying it to them since they're such strategic allies that's something that would provoke consternation here >> willem marx, thank you very much for that. if the eu fires back on president trump's tariffs, what impact could it have on the u.s. economy? landon dowdy has been working on

that side of the story >> good morning. well, who would be most impacted in a trade retaliation steel and aluminum would likely take the first hit in a trade car. in 2017 u.s. steel exports were up 12% to 7 pr.6 million metric tons there are trhree states to focus on wisconsin, the homestate of paul ryan it's home to harley davidson frequently that's mentioned as a target on the retaliatory short list the country relies on europe for 16% of sales another wisconsin product that may take a hit is cranberries. the badger state is the top producer of the fruit. second, kentucky with bourbon. the home of senate majority leader mitch mcconnell brown-forman gets 26% of its revenue from europe. peanut butter also may be taking

a hit. j.m. smuckers has its biggest production facility in lexington. orange juice in florida. pepsico owned and they rely on 16% of sales from europe eu also targeting cosmetics. cody gets 43% of its revenue from the region. we'll see what happens as president trump gets set to make this announcement. >> landon, thank you very much for that. let's talk more about the growing threat of a trade war, joining me is peter spiegel from "the financial times." i guess the reaction from europe and london is the first thing i'm interested in hearing about. particularly as this has progressed over the last week. there's been some signs of softening. what's the view of the president and this particular action on tariffs at the moment?

>> the issue of tariffs coming today is one thing, but the bigger concern in london and europe is the direction of travel not only do you have the tariffs, you have the departure of gary cohn who is well known here in europe, particularly from his time with goldman sachs. another issue that got notice here and maybe not as much as in the u.s., is sifi preempting this deal with qualcomm. so they're using national security exemptions. this occurs in all trade treaties but only selectively used there's concern that trump will use this across the board to undermine a lot of the existing trade apparatus.

this issue itself, steel and aluminum tariffs is of concern, by the direction of travel, they think know with cohn leaving they'll be in fora big trade war going forward. >> peter, as an american originally based in brussels and knows all sides of this argument, is there any level, particularly if there were carve-outs in the tariffs, is there any level where you can agree with the president's concern about the eu's trade policies the eu does impose a 10% tariff on u.s. cars coming into the eu. does the president have some grounds for concern about the trade relationship between america and the european union >> sure, but these issues were intended to be taken up in a bilateral trade agreement that was being written up during the obama administration there are some things they want to get rid of on the tariff

side the eu has done in agreement with canada and south korea and japan, but the administration says they don't want to engage in these multilateral trade agreements if you look at the retaliation the europeans are considering, it's targeted. you mentioned wisconsin and kentucky these are the senate and house leaders on the republican side they're trying to be political and focus on the retamiation here if the administration does go on cars and other products that are the life blood of the trade relationship, things will ratchet up the trump administration is using national security as the reason it's imposing these tariffs. these are nato allies. they fight with us they share our intelligence and security i think you're getting anger on the european side. there are issues of tariffs and other things, but to use this national security exemption is the issue they're angry about now. >> very quickly, your take on

the results from the italian election populous parties did better than expected does this undermine the macron agenda of more centralized power? >> that's largely a german/french thing, and italy does not usually derail things i think watching mario draghi today at the ecb, italian bonds have responded almost not at all to the turmoil in italy, that's because a huge amount of the bones are owned by the ecb so we'll see today messaging from draghi on how fast he wants to unwind qe, does that have a knock-on effect to italy there was concern about rising bond rates i think we have yet to hear the italian knock on effect roar i don't think it will be political. italy is not a central player when it comes to a drive on

eurozone reform. the french tend to represent interests in those discussions more broadlyon financial stability, that's the place to watch it we could see a result quickly on that >> peter spiegel of "the financial times," thank you for joining us. frigid returns it's been a harsh winter for some hedge fund managers new numbers coming up for you. and the one rv stock motoring along this morning after posting record resul 'll discuss that when "worldwide exchange" returns starting with advanced manufacturing that brings big ideas to life. and cutting-edge transportation development to connect those ideas to the world. along with urban redevelopment projects worthy of the world's top talent. all across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state visit esd.ny.gov.

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. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." florida's governor will consider a gun and school safety bill that would raise the age to buy firearms to 21, impose a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases and potentially arm educators. the bill is in response to the mass shooting in parkland that left 17 people dead. a new report reveals one week before her resignation, outgoing white house communications director hope hicks reported one of her e-mail accounts was compromised hicks told the house intelligence committee she could no longer access two e-mail accounts and believed one was hacked it's unclear if she was referring a personal account or one used for president trump's campaign. and the mystery winner of a 5$560 million powerball jackpot has been claimed but we still don't know who the

winner is. a lawyer accepted the payout on wednesday on behalf of a trust set up for the winner from new hampshire who is suing to keep her identity secret. nae lawyer says she will be doting up to $50 million to charity.

a trade time out stocks hovering near the flat line as investors await more details on president trump's tariff plan. cigna reportedly close to

buying express scripts. and what one mcdonald's just did to celebrate international women's day. it's thursday, march 8, 2018, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost. cigna close to buying express scripts. the terms are not out yet, the "wall street journal" says a deal could be announced as soon as today cigna's flat in the premarket. express scripts 14% higher this is not only deal in the health insurance industry at the moment last year cvs health announced to buy aetna for $70 billion. in 2015, aetna agreed to buy humana, but that deal was

blocked. we also heard about a potential tie up moving forward between the likes of jpmorgan, berkshire hathaway and amazon. so lots of consolidation going on at the moment express scripts itup 14% in the premarket. u.s. futures are around the flat line which is where they ended yesterday, which is a vast improvement from the market moves we saw 24 hours ago before the open on this show when we were down over 1%. we ended flat for the s&p, slightly higher for the nasdaq, slightly lower for the dow this morning we have the dow slightly lower as is the s&p the nasdaq slightly higher markets enjoyed that decent day on the market front and talk of a carve out for various allies with the tariffs. ten-year treasury note, 2.88 is

what we're looking at now. we'll look at the european side today, mario draghi and the ecb have their meeting and press conference in a few hours time. president trump was expected to make an announcement on tariffs this afternoon a senior administration official tells nbc news it's unlikely to take place today let's bring in john harwood. good morning to you. what's your latest take on why we're seeing a delay in is the delay potentially a positive if it's to include some car ve out to some of these tariffs >> yes we're seeing pushback from a hastily announced policy that was announced off the cuff last week we're seeing a white house policy development process that's gone awry you had gary cohn who since announced his resignation cut out of the final decisionmaking. then the president announced it off the cuff markets reacteded.

the president then doubled down and said, yes, i'm going to do this then you had push back from republican senators and members of congress. more market reaction to cohn's resignation. and the president is reacting by backing and filling and doing things he said he wasn't going to do. he first said, wilf, that there could be exceptions for canada and mexico if they give me what i want on nafta. yesterday sarah sanders said there could be exceptions for national security because canada and mexico are our allies. this is a national security problem. we know it's not a national security problem that was a justification it's a haphazard process it's a president with a short attention span who likes to make a point and is less invested in the actual policy and who knows what will come out the end of this >> talk about larry cohn's latest tracie potts was reporting earlier that he may remain in

the administration but take a different role, something in the cabinet. do you think that's a possibility? >> i think that's unlikely given all that's gone on the president was not happy that he announced he was leaving. he did make that announcement. he was earlier unhappy with gary cohn after he signaled distance after the charlottesville episode. anything is possible with this team people who are out can become in people who are in can become out. i would be stunned if after all this gary cohn remains in the trump administration unless he's exacted some sort of promise like i will stay if you do x on tariffs. can't rule that out either this is very incunconventional i have never seen a major policy on -- affecting the economy be rolled out in this disjointed kind of way. >> in terms of the potential carve outs that we see, the

likes of mexico and canada have been mentioned what about the eu? if it's on national security grounds those two countries are excluded, the eu should be as well then we move towards a policy that a lot of developed world partners of the united states could sort of be happy with. >> and you end up with a policy that doesn't do much china is our ninth leading importer or exporter of steel to the united states. the more exceptions you grant, the less effect you have and the less benefit those steel workers that the president is hoping to help in pennsylvania and other places would receive yes. you could end up neutering the policy itself and end up with a purely symbolic gesture. that may be where the president wants to finally go. he wants to appear tough he wants to do things he says

that the previous presidents disgracefully didn't do. they didn't stand up for american workers he can stand up ret tore ic rhed then back off. he likes to tout rising markets as an instant report card for his success. when he sees market drops of multiple hundred points in response to things he's doing, that will make an impression on him. that may have been what happened in this case >> john, thank you very much john harwood joining us from washington let's discuss the market angle with this. joining me now is steven englander. >> good morning. >> markets sold off initially on this news but have tempered those declines and hada day or two of rebound what's your take on how significant for markets and the economy these tariffs are as they take shape at the moment?

>> you know, if they just stick to steel and aluminum they won't be that significant for output or inflation they won't create many jobs either, but they'll go part of the way to fulfilling a campaign promise that trump made. i'm surprised so many people are astonished that he did this. he never made it a secret that trade was an area that the u.s. would work on. you can agree or disagree with his views but he made no secret of them. markets-wise, this is a fire and fury tich fury type of thing six months ago we were going to nuke north korea and that drove markets, now we're talking to them so he starts with something that sounds terrible. he whittles it back down to something that markets and other countries can deal with. >> in terms of what to expect on the domestic front, yesterday's

private payrolls were strong what do you expect for the non-farm payrolls and implications for fed moves this year >> with payrolls, even if you have all the information, you can be off by 100,000 because of the randomness none of the data suggests deterioration in the u.s. labor market you look for a number, 200,000 plus or minus sounds reasonable. you look at claims, you look at sentiment, there's nothing there to suggest anything is weak. where i do think the market could get surprised on is on the earnings number. some of the strength we saw last month was probably a carryover from bad weather at the beginning of the month, that cut hours and artificially raised earnings so earnings could surprise on the downside tomorrow, which may take away this edge in the market about how fast or aggressive the fed will be with respect to rate hikes. what's your view on the ecb?

how pronounced could the moves be if we get a hawkish set of messaging about when the ecb is ending its bond buying and raising rates? >> some of that is already in the market the question is whether this possibility that they'll cut further, it's been a nonstarter for months they may remove that from the statement. initially the market would view that as hawkish, but at this point it's so unrealistic to expect them to do further easing, once you get past that knee jerk reaction markets will get back to normal >> steven, thank you for joining me this morning. stocks to watch today. colgate is hiking its quarterly dif den. the new payout is effective in may. thor industries beat forecasts and revenue came in above estimates. the company saw increased demand for affordably priced travel trailer and fifth wheel rvs.

okta reporting better than expected results on higher subscription revenue they also raised guidance for the quarter and the full year. time for the top trending stories. landon is here with those. >> it's all about the girls today. international women's day. in honor of that, one mcdonald's turned its golden arches upside down to form a "w. the arches have been physically flipped at just one single california location, 100 restaurants will have special pa packaging, shirts. you like a this? >> it's very interesting good for them. great ploy >> great for women >> looks good. i like the look of that. >> the northeastern women's basketball team had to take transportation matters into their own hands literally.

the huskies are in philadelphia for the caa championship tournament yesterday their bus got stuck in the snow the players got off and pushed cheering when they freed it from the snow i feel like beyonce should be playing in the background. >> this sepic. that's n that's not a small feat >> strong girls. the amazon alexa device has a bug, and it's no laughing matter [ laughter ] several alexa users are reporting their devices are randomly laughing without being prompted >> not even laughing, evil cackle >> it's creepy amazon said alexa was hearing the command alexa laugh. >> they should record a new

noise for that >> it's like a witch >> the way technology gets in on our lives, i have not bought one of these home speaker devices yet. i never will >> why >> it could be a peek into how much people are letting technology into yaour lives. >> it's like possessed i wonder if people will start pulling back clearly lots of people are buying them. so i'm probably not representative for everyone else i done want that kind of intrusiveness intrusiveness. >> or recording everything at home >> or the risk of someone not laughing at my jokes >> she laughs. that's not the problem >> on that note, maybe shy get one. >> someone would think you're funny. a truck spilled 60,000 pounds of busch beer on to a florida

highway yesterday. nobody was hurt, but the beer didn't fair so well. not exactly a happy hour get it >> and a waste of cans since the prices could be going up thank you very much for that. >> still ahead, china's steel ghost town a look inside one of the biggest closed mills. and comments from former workers about trump's proposed tariffs. let's get the national weather forecast from bill karins. >> good thursday morning to you. we are watching our nor'easter still plaguing areas of northern new england. maine is in the midst of it getting some very heavy snow improving a bit in massachusetts, rhode island and connecticut. cleanup will be all day in areas of new jersey. some spots got two feet of snow. for today, we watch this storm system kicking up and weakening up through maine a little bit of snow shower activity off of lake erie and

lake ontario during the day. cool in the northeast. but we will melt some of the snow additional snowfall, about one to four inches throughout northern new england maine will get more than that, maybe six inches the rest of the country looking decent the other half of the country fairly warm. more "worldwide exchange" when we come back 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.

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theseare heading back home.y oil 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 good morning welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost. let's get you up to speed on the

market action. flat in the premarket. a surprise given how low we were at the open. that sort of uncertain flat market continues this morning. nasdaq slightly higher the other two slightly lower european trade is slightly positive it's been a decent week. germany and the ftse 100 up more than 1% for the week germany is lower today on soft manufacturing data asia for you, enjoying that wall street recovery late yesterday, having declined its previous trading session. it's up today, 1.5%. china's foreign minister promising a necessary response if the u.s. kicks off a global trade war. in the heart of china's steel country one booming steel town appears to have gone bust. eunice yoon is live in beijing with more. hi, eunice >> the chinese government makes

persistent claims that it's doing everything it can to reduce excess capacity in steel. we went to a town in the heart of china's steel country to find out for ourselves. this steel mill used to be at the center of life in this town in northern china. now it's a relic of its past as the country attempts to clean up the environment and reduce capacity we're about a three-hour drive from beijing the government here declared this city steel-free back in november when the authorities visited a steel mill behind me, the last one in this town and determined it had been officially shut down in its heyday, baoding had eight steel mills contributing to the world's largest steel producer, yet china has come under criticism for flooding global markets with cheap steel, pressuring steelmakers in other countries like the u.s the steel company has been all gated up and there's no activity the capacity la been shifthas bt

a firm south of the country. that's why so many trading partners are frustrated with the chinese. they're reducing capacity here but it's moving elsewhere. this man worked 14 years at the plant, now he's jobless. i've been speaking to sorm fome former steel workers, they say they have not been happy with the compensation they got $800 for every year employed, a big reason why china may never close steel plants as quickly as president trump wants. the issue of closing steel mills is highly sensitive in china as evidence of that we got harassed by the police even though this is a town that has been very proud of the fact that it's become steel free, the police took us to the police station and after verifying that -- and acknowledging that we had every right to be there,

they politely escorted us out of town >> eunice, great reporting great to see you back safely to what extent verses a decade ago is china still arbitrarily producing steel just to keep people employed as opposed to wherever it's being produced, producing enough so there's demand for it? >> if you look at the government statistics they don't match up the premiere had said last year they reduced capacity by 50 million metric tons. that sounds significant, but then when you put it into context, china still has 1.16 trillion tons of capacity. in terms of production, it's steel production went up by 6% last year. so i think all in all the program that the chinese government has, though it's trying to reduce the capacity, is not really as effective as

they would like to have. and the trading partners are very critical and say that china needs to do more >> eunice, thank you very much still ahead on "worldwide exchange," trading the trade tariffs. what you should be doing with obur money as the threat of glal trade wars grows. we're back in a couple minuteslk it's that easy. this is a scotts yard.

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♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ ♪ everything is working, working, just like it should ♪ welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures are mixed this morning the dow is down slightly, as is the s&p. the nasdaq is higher similar to how we closed yesterday. let's discuss things with mike holland who joins me on the phone. good morning to you. what's your view of the tariffs, particularly if they do include a carve out for some allies. does that make them easier to stomach overall? >> absolutely.

good morning there's no question the markets are saying that as well. the markets around the world asian markets in particular. right now it looks as if the tariff question is being greeted as much to do about nothing. with the carve-outs, first indication is that may be correct. >> would you use the current volatility around this topic as a buying opportunity in the u.s. >> i think that's what it has presented itself to be i think far more important to the markets, whether it's federal reserve or various other things as you previously said, people shooting nukes several months ago was the concern the global economic recovery, the global economic expansion continues at pace. numbers this morning out of china for exports were

astonishingly good overall the fundamentals remain intact and valuations while expensive are not crazy. >> in terms of the international picture, you're a big invest ner ch investor in china, is china worried about these tariffs? >> the chinese act like the grown-up in the room when it comes to these moments right now i think the chinese are stepping back. the comments they made are measured i believe that six months from now we'll look back and say this was much to do about nothing probably the chinese look to be approaching it that way. i think when we end up a year from now, the chinese economy will continue to have roared ahead. >> mike, we have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining me mike holland that's it for "worldwide exchange." in the short-term, the focus will be on the ecb

that decision coming up in a couple hours "squawk box" will have that and much more. you can't predict the market, but through good times and bad at t. rowe price we've helped our investors stay confident for over 80 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. hey, what are you guys doing here? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that tie. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

new details on president trump's tariffs. they could include carve-outs for some countries, like wilbur ross told us yesterday morning. and our reporter in china went to investigate a shut down steel plant, and was escorted out of town by police. she will join us live from beijing. and breaking deal news cigna is reportedly close to buying express scripts it's thursday, march 8, 2018 somehow we survived the gary cohn departure markets in tumult.

"squawk box" begins right now. live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin who is back. made it in the snowstorm >> i made it in the snowstorm, which was crazy. >> welcome back. >> thank you, american airlines. >> mike santoli is with us as well he'll talk about the markets >> cigna did it. it's acquiring express scripts for $67 billion. >> whoa. >> the press release is out. >> this was expected, sort of. >> yeah. >> expected after i read that for me