oil front and center as the biggest oil ministers meet in saudi arabia we're headed there live. exodus at mike more high-level departures to report as the company tries to clean up its culture. and the ceo of america's biggest steel producer says the clock is ticking on tariffs. we'll bring you his exclusive comments this friday, april 20, 2018 "worldwide exchange" begins now.

good morning welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm seema mody >> i'm dominic chu brian sullivan is off today. here are the top five things happening right now. number one, wall street pointing to a lower open as investors await another round of earnings. number two, uk's regulators fining jes staley for trying to uncover a whistle-blower in 2016 number three, china zte calling new sanctions on the company unfair and warning they could endanger its survival. and number four, ericsson having the best day in nearly a decade after reporting a blowout quarter. number five, president trump tweeting no collusion, no obstruction following new released memos from former fbi director james comey >> we'll have more on all of these stories coming up, first a check on the global market setup here futures are lower across the

board. the dow lower by 45 points, nasdaq off by 21 yesterday stocks did close lower as treasuries moved to the upside here's a story in asia a down day pretty much across the board with the shanghai leading markets to the down side down 1.5%, closing the week lower as well. these trade tensions still a big concern for investors. hang seng lower by 1%. the nikkei lower fractionally. in europe, you can see it's a mixed day so far inflation has been a big part of the story in europe. mixed conflicting data points on where inflation is headed in the eurozone the ftse 100 in the green. the dax flat on the day. >> look at treasury yields, because they are front and center those yields remain above 2.9% 2.91 for the ten-year note

yield. let's look at the dollar we're seeing a theme of dollar strength against the euro, 1.23 ans the y gold prices you can imagine against some of those higher dollar values, gold 1,343.80 oil prices very much front and center for traders wti crude, $68.40. a bit of a bid there, fractionally to the upside brent crude $73.91, also about 0.2% to the upside we'll stick with that oil theme. the world's biggest energy ministers are meeting now in saudi arabia steve sedgwick is there and joins us now with the latest steve? >> dominic, seema, great to speak to you both who would have thought it when this was signed in 2016 that the world oil

powers would manage to get $30, $40 on to the price of oil, would have huge compliance because we accused opec ministers previously of cheating andi and getting those inventories down to five-year averages they have been successful, but are they targeting prices and are prices hurting demand at $74 a barrel i caught up with the host of this meeting, the most powerful oil man in the world let's listen in to see what the saudi oil minister had to say to cnbc >> i have not seen any impact on demand with current prices we have seen prices higher in the past, twice as much as where we are today i don't believe prices have

declined significantly most economies are taking much less energy to produce a unit of gdp than they did 20, 30 years ago. this leads me to think that there is the capacity to absorb higher prices. i'm not a macro economist. nor can i influence global prices >> nor can i influence global prices that's probably the most extreme modesty i've heard in a long time this is the saudi oil minister he said no hit in demand at $74. i know some u.s. consumers are worried about the price of gasoline ahead of the memorial day holiday as well, but adding that the world has the ability to tolerate higher prices. i think that's key, which means

they don't see a danger to global demand coming at $68 for wti, and 7 7 -- $74 for brent so will we have a new deal is the current deal going to be extended these are big questions for the market and questions i will ask in the next ten minutes to the russian oil minister, and they produce about 11 million barrels a day. >> it is where the rubber meets the road i paid more for gasoline just this morning let's bring in boris schlossberg. boris, we heard some of steve's report with regard to the oil dynamic now. how are prices playing out do you think there is potentially more upside like some traders do think? >> i think the 70 figure is the big handle everyone is watching

in oil oil trades in my opinion, i'm a currency guy, and it trades on weakness and demand. i think 70 at this point, given global demand and the fact the dollar may be bottoming out here could be the top of the near-term, unless we have a shock. the huge other factor of why we're pricing so much is because of this geopolitical risk with iran that's a big unknown that nobody can predict. assuming things are quiet, i think 70 tops it out at the near-term level. >> just touching on currencies, why is the dollar so weak, especially when looking at the u.s. ten-year move to the new highs here >> it's a mystery. given where we are, as far as u.s. growth, given where we are as far as u.s. yields, we should be much higher than now. we can barely try to make it past 108 in dollar/yen

we are seeing today a bit of a rally. ten-year above 2.9 is helping the dollar the key issue is not economic but more political it's the trade tensions and the geopolitical tensions that are making people skittish about being long dollars it's the only way to explain the fact if it was just trading on pure interest rates, the differentials should be much higher >> earlier this week president trump tweeted that china and russia are playing the currency devaluation game which was perplexing because the yuan was moving higher against the dollar if that's the case, where do you think those comments go from here and will we see more political pressure put on china when it comes to currencies? >> the critical question, i think the dollar is going lower because china is not buying as much paper as they should.

there was a small story last week about iran saying they will do all of their transactions in euros. it was a clear political ploy, but an interesting point of view because it suggested there are many actors in the world that want to move offer the dollar standard certainly the chinese and russians would love not to pay for oil in dollars the primary value of a dollar is the fact every commodity is settled in dollars chinese created a new yuan-based crude contract it's small, but they always play the long game. if they could get some liquidity, that will demean the value of the dollar going forward. >> you mentioned interest rates as part of that whole discussion is this a situation now where the dynamic for the u.s. government bondmarket is going to be in many ways tied to its peers? are our rates pretty much capped because of the low levels of

other interest rates across the world? >> does not seem to be this way. you see this divergence in rhetoric between the ecb, boe and boj officials, all of whom are adamantly dovish at this point. and the fed where they continue to say we'll raise rates we see nothing wrong with the any. there is real possibility that we go to four rate hikes this year so this gap looks to be only widening that's the mystery where the gap is now, we should be much higher on the dollar >> a lot of cross-curre currentn the macro world. boris, thanks for joining us cnbc confirming more high-level departures at nike. kate rogers is here with those details. good morning >> good morning. analyst sam poser put out a note yesterday disclosing three more nike executives have left the

company recently cnbc confirmed the moves with a nike spokesperson. that brings the number of top level departures to nine over the past 35 days the latest include the chief marketing officer of converse, the director of global consumer knowledge. one of the executives also left for a competitor nike says these departures are not related to workplace conduct issues the exodus began in march when trevor edwards resigned, that came out as mark parker sent out a pane-wide e-mail talking about investigation of inappropriate behavior these departures could be more disruptive than expected as most of these executives played key roles in executing nike's strategy its lowing its price target from $62 to $59

nike stock is lower this morning it seems back over to you >> big picture, it's still up about 5% this year if you look at some competitors, under armour up a similar amount adidas has been up 25% this year >> that is a part of the discussion, is there an execution gap now? if that's the case, is there a chance for folks like adidas or under armour or other sports wear makers to get there there and steal some share >> or some of the talent >> on a relative trade basis, we talked about nike and under armour for quite a bit, is it time for traders to look for a reversal where nike underperforms and under armour picks up because it's been beaten up so much. this might be one of those reasons why traders make a change >> i guess it all comes down to earnings never a good sign to see this many high-level departures, but

does it have a true impact we'll see. another executive exit to report here. mattel's ceo is stepping down. she's expected to take the top job at ancestry.com. the change will become effective on thursday. mattel shares fractionally higher we are just getting started here on "worldwide exchange. next, a double dose of bank news barclays ceo jes staley and wells fargo both facing fines from regulators. those details straight ahead. and a big win for this food stock. why the maker of duncan heinz is skyrocketing this morning. ghorldwide exchange" will be rit back

internet providers promise business owners a lot. let's see who delivers more. comcast business offers fast gig-speeds across our network. at&t doesn't. we offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g wireless network backup.

at&t, no way. we offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." stock futures pointing to a slightly lower open. right now the dow would open down by 60 points. the s&p off by 5 the nasdaq down by 29. keeping a close eye on the u.s. government bond market treasury yields as you can see there -- ten-year, excuse me, 2.916%. a big part of the story has been financials and their reaction double news on bank news, starting with barclays its ceo, jes staley under fire british regulators fining staley

for trying to unmask a whistle-blower back in 2016 but staley will keep his job u.s. federal regulators could also fine wells fargo up to $1 billion for financial misbehavior in its autfractionay >> your big individual stock stories right now include shire. shares of the drugmaker are down in europe after allergan confirmed it does not intend to make an offer to buy the company. yesterday shire reject$63 billion bid from takeda pharmaceuticals. jana partners has taken a 9% stake in pinnacle foods. in a filing jana says it will seek talks on a range of issues including a possible sale of the package foods maker. qualcomm has confirmed they will cut more than 4% of their work force starting in june.

the layoffs include about 1200 employees in san diego where the chipmaker is headquartered e-trade are lower today despite the online broker reporting better than expected first quarter results. e-trade added nearly 96,000 new accounts in the quarter. skechers beat forecasts, but the shares are down today. the foot wear maker reported weak second quarter outlook. the stock is down 21% right now. ericsson is on track for the best day since 2008. they reported fi earnings and margins that beat estimates as cost savings from job cuts and restructuring kick in >> big moves in the market so far. still ahead on "worldwide exchange," the comey factor. the newly released memos that

are giving a glimpse into the white house and have everyone talking this morning but zte fires back the china tech firm has some harsh words for the u.s. governme government why they think the new sanctions are unfair as we head to break, here is the national weather forecast from bill karins. >> good friday morning to you. the weekend forecast looking up. don't have any snow in the forecast but still chilly across the country. temperatures below average you need the coat and gloves as you head out this morning. this time of year the sun goes to work and we get a nice warmup st. louis, kansas city, oklahoma jumping into the 60s a lot of snow melt in areas of the northern plains. the east is still cool, especially the northeast, highs in the 50s for the weekend forecast, saturday watch out, heavy rain in oklahoma, texas we'll take this rain on sunday through the south notice we keep the northern half of the country dry. we love the mile there

especially where it's been so cold in the northern plains. watch out areas from tennessee, alabama, mississippi, could be a atshout sunday th's your business travel forecast more "worldwide exchange" when we come back now there's new scotts thick 'r lawn, the revolutionary 3-in-1 solution for weak lawns. with a soil improver to strengthen roots! seed to fill in gaps! and fertilizer to feed! the result, up to a 50% thicker lawn after just one application. ♪ ♪ now yard time is our time. this is a scotts yard. now yard time is our time. ♪ directv now gives you more for your thing. your letting go thing. your sorry not sorry thing. your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. get the live tv you love. no bulky hardware. no satellite. no annual contract. try directv now for $10/mo for 3 months.

more for your thing. that's our thing. visit directvnow dot com hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers! that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan the best trip. so i'm more than confident. forgot me goggles. kayak. search one and done.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures pointing to a lower open the s&p 500 did close down yesterday. financials and energy did outperform the dow off by 78 points s&p down the nasdaq is lower by 36.

>> the political world is buzzing following newly released memos from former fbi director james comey. tracie potts is live in washington with the details. i got to read this, the president of the united states says no collusion, no obstruction. >> we have 15 pages of memos that mostly have already gone public a lot of the information in them was already public there is some new information. they were only released under threat of subpoena new overnight from the comey memos, president trump claiming former national security adviser michael flynn had serious judgment issues and former chief of staff reince priebus asking if flynn was under surveillance. >> you did give him an answer. >> correct >> was it improper for you to tell him directly in that moment >> i didn't think so. >> reporter: comey said he began the memos after a trump tower meeting to brief the

president-elect on russian claims involving prostitutes >> he might not tell the truth about those if it became an issue. i needed a written record. >> he told you he had a personal conversation with president putin about hookers? >> yes >> reporter: president trump tweets says the memos show clearly there was no collusion and no obstruction and that comey leaked classified information. three republican committee chairs point out comey never says he felt obstructed or threatened the top democrat on oversight says they prove trump interfered in a blatant effort to deny justice. >> you will notice there some areas were blacked out members of congress will get to see the whole thing today unredacted >> and today mayor rudy giuliani is joining president trump's personal legal team for the mueller probe. does this help our hurt trump? >> he knows president trump very well

and the president says is he a long-time friend he also has significant legal experience working in and with the government he's the former mayor of new york but also the former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york he knows how the feds working how they operate and how they conduct these investigations, which could provide an advantage to the president as he tries to defend himself in the allegations in this russia investigation. >> certainly an interesting development. thank you, tracy now let's check on what's happening outside of the world of business. phillip mena is in new york with the latest >> moving tribute to former first lady barbara bush who died this week at age of 92 a cartoon that's gone viral showing mrs. bush reuniting with her daughter robin who died of leukemia in 1953 the car soontoon was retweeted

jenna hager. today students across the country are expected to walk out of their classrooms to oppose gun violence students from more than 2600 schools, at least one in every state, will take to the streets at 10:00 a.m. in every time zone. some deals on munchies in honor of the stoner holiday, 4/20 spicy nugget also make a retus n at burger king, hooters and wing zone are also offering specials. >> which deal will you take advantage of >> maybe all of them but i'm just an unhealthy eater. thank you very much. still ahead, a lot more coming up including crude realities. oil prices sitting near

three-year highs we're drilling down on what's driving prices plus today's trending stories, this mickey mantle card just sold for big money we'll tell y houow much when "worldwide exchange" returns happy anniversary dinner, darlin'. can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra? oh yeah one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three bottles of this other liquid. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. ♪

with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

oil sitting near a three-year high as oil ministers gather in saudi arabia we'll bring you the headlines straight ahead. ge on deck what to expect from the dow

component when it reports results in the next hour. and firing back. zte says the u.s. is threatening its survival we're live in beijing with details. it's friday, april 20, 2018. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ good morning welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm dominic chu. >> i'm seema mody. brian sullivan is off today. >> we are poised for a lower open the dow would open down around 80 points, so we're moving a bit lower as the hour progresses here the s&p off by 7 points. the nasdaq off by 33 points. as for the treasury market, ten-year yields are still in focus. 2.92% the last trade there two-year treasury note yields at

2.43%. >> it's been interesting to see the global yield story yields have picked up in asia and europe look at the market setup in asia a down day and a down week for asian equities led by china, lower by 3.2% for the week in europe, with inflation in focus as well as trade, chancellor merkel and macron both visiting the white house next week, the ftse 100 higher by 0.3%. transand germany are flat. >> let's take you to the broader markets. we have seen some dollar strength euro at 1.2303, dollar/yen at 107.62 a lot of that attributed to mark carney's comments that the next interest rate meeting is not set

in stone on whether they would raise rates over there gold prices, dollar strength means a bit of gold weakness 1,341 the last trade there it's also playing out in the oil markets. if you look at wti crude, we're at $68.36. brent crude is also flattish, $73.87 the last trade there. let's talk about the rally in the energy market joining us is matthew smith director of commodity research at clipper data. renewed interest from the studies to boost oil, is this because of the saudi aramco ipo? >> i think it's because of the saudi aramco ipo there was an epiphany in may of last year where they realized that by targeting u.s. flows,

they could really provide bullish sentiment to the market by cutting deliveries. that's what we've seen over the last year we had comments signaling what saudi arabia will do in terms of those flows and they acted on it so they had a huge amount of credibility in terms of that going forward, everything we hear from saudi arabia about what they want to do with production cut deals we have to take heed from everything they said so far has played out so they're trying to support prices here. >> matthew, those energy prices could be supported by some of the geopolitical risk that is out there globally right now if you look at oil prices, they're reacting to those geopolitical risks where other markets may be shrugging them off. how important is tension in the

middle east and elsewhere for those prices going forward >> it's a huge concern the reason it's having an impact now is because the market is much more finely balanced than 6, 9, 12 months ago. the concern as well is that there is not just one pocket of geopolitical tension with syria, but we have it elsewhere in the middle east, in iraq, in yemen as well, but also in latin america with venezuela and colombia, and in north africa and west africa with libya and nigeria. there's a number of different concerns here at a time when the market is that much more on edge that's why we're seeing that reflected through into prices. >> oil has been commanding our attention, so it aluminum and nickel moving on these fears of tariffs. what do you make of the move in some other energy assets >> sure. it's all being swept up to a

certain degree in that geopolitical tension we are that much more on edge. real concern lies with china as well at the moment if we are going to see a trade war developing there, that could be reflected through to commodities. there is always the concern that we could see an impact in terms of propane we have to remember china is a huge consumer of u.s. energy they get propane from the u.s. the u.s. is the large effort supplier of propane to china we're sending about 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil there now as well. the concerns with other commodities is related to that and movement in the u.s. dollar as well. >> how important is the u.s. in terms of the oil market dynamic right now? we get rig counts later on today. can producers be expected to take advantage of these higher prices globally speaking >> yes, absolutely

that's why we're seeing oil production about a million barrels higher than this time last year. u.s. oil inventories increased by last year, and we're seeing tightening in the market even though the u.s. is ramping up supply fundamentals are tightening along with geopolitical tension, that's why we're in the 60s for wti. >> matthew smith, thank you for joining us >> switching gears to trade. the ceo of america's biggest steel producer says the clock is ticking on tariffs here's what john farreola told jim cramer last night on "mad money. >> we need the president to fulfill his commitment we must not let the date of may 1st slip further his credibility and the credibility of america is on the line here.

we expect him to hon er the date of may 1st, and install either tariffs or quotas to those country that have not been able to negotiate a separate agreement on that date >> even without the tariffs, nucor saw strong results they're running at 92% capacity to meet demand >> the new u.s. sanctions on the company zte are called unfair. eunice yoon is live in beijing with that story. >> just a couple of hours ago, the chairman of zte held a press conference to protest the seven-year ban imposed by the u.s. commerce department this ban will block american

companies from selling critical components to zte. just to give you a refresher of the background, zte pled guilty last year to violating u.s. sanctions and supplying to iran. it agreed to pay a hefty 9$900 million fine, and also to take action against the employees involved today the chairman did admit wrong doing, but said that the punish didn't meet the crime. this is what he said such sanctions could put the company into a coma. we resolutely oppose such an unfair, unreasonable punishment and especially the act of politicizing trade they said they will use all their legal means necessary to safeguard interests. what was also interesting here is the chinese reaction. there were two competing

reactions. on one hand, if an effort to whip up nationalist sentiment around the company and also around chinese tech. in the state media, the china daily, they said the u.s. action against zte aims to hit china's 5g advantages. at the same time what's interesting is the case has shaken up a lot of people here who now have been talking about that there are real dangers of a trade war with the united states because the u.s. makes a lot of stuff that the chinese don't make on social mediaone person said only when you have high-tech can you have a say now a lot of calls from experts for china to build its own homegrown chip industry. >> eunice yoon, thank you. a story we're watching because one of the biggest suppliers in the united states is qualcomm. you have to wonder what the seven-year ban means for u.s.

chipmakers >> a lot of other smaller manufacturers, components that go into these smartphones took huge hits on this decision to impose those particular sanctions. time for the top trendin stories. kate rogers is back with some of those. >> hi, guys. with earth day coming up this weekend, america's biggest company is doing its part to help the planet. apple releasing video of its iphone recycling robot called daisy. the company says daisy can extract recyclable materials from products efficiently. they also will make a donation to conservation international for every iphone turned in to be recycled. mr. west is back in the building kanye west returning to twitter. he will release his new album on june 1st just a weeklater he'll be dropping a collaboration album with kid cudi. his last album was released back in 2016, so fans are likely

looking forward to this wealth of new music and information, life advice? i like reading his twitter feed. >> it's wide ranging >> it is he weighs in on so many different things but after that absence, it was like the shock to get that back again. >> he tweeted something about not needing anything in life kim kardashian embedded it really, you don't need anything? what about me? he's always informational and entertaining. baseball card collecting might not be as popular as it once was, but a big sale last night prove there's are still avid collectors out there. a mint condition 1952 mickey mand mantle tops card sold for 2$2.8 million. the seller is looking to use the proceeds from the auction to finance his family's dream home. no word yet on the identity of the card's new owner >> fun fact for you, i used to collect baseball and basketball cards. >> come on

>> they're in some shoe box in my parents storage >> were they tops cards? >> they were top deck. but i would go to the store, pick them out. only because my cousins were into it. i joined >> that's cooler than the rock collection i had, which is not worth anything and signifies child nerdiness at its peak. >> we all have our thing >> we all love you, kate still ahead on "worldwide exchange," earnings are on deck. general electric set to report and it's one you won't want to miss we'll breaking down what to watch for after the break. and as we head out a check of european equities seeing some green in france. the ftse 100 higher by 0.35% we'll be right back. hi, i'm mindy kearns. it's great to finally meet you. nice to meet you too. your parents have been talking about you for years.

sorry about that. they're all about me saving for a house, or starting a college fund for my son. actually, i want to know what you're thinking. have a seat. yeah. knowing that the most important goals are yours. with 15,000 financial advisors, it's a big deal. and it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

dinner date...meeting his parents dinner date. why did i want a crest 3d white smile? so i used crest. crest 3d white removes... ...95% of surface stains in just 3 days... ...for a whiter smile... that will win them over. crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life. - 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. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures now pointing to a fractionally lower open. the dow jones would open down by 60 points if things stand the way they are the s&p off by 4 points. as for the treasury picture, a bit of a tick higher a slight tick higher in ten-year u.s. treasury note yields, 2.916% that stayed static here so far we'll see if that continues.

our morning must-read stories. my pick is from the "usa today." it's called protecting robert mueller against mitch mcconnell. the editorial board writes both mcconnell and tom tillis agree with the majority of meamerican that trump should allow mueller to complete his investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and whether moscow cocolluded with the trump president campaign tillis simply believes no president should be able to place himself above the law. the reason why i picked this is not because i agree or disagree with the political tenants of it, but aloz of these comme lote drive markets. those things move markets, so when you have these things

happening, it's certainly something to pay attention to. >> especially with this story. it's been a long-term overhang on this market my pick is from the "wall street journal. it's called sales tax revenue is not collapsing south dakota claims massive losses from online sales, but he points out the state's own data shows that says and use tack revenue grew faster than the state's economic growth and that the governor's budget for 2018 projects the state's sales and use tax revenue will be more than $1 billion, 4% higher than last year with no change in rate that's 29% higher than five years earlier. interesting data point to look at or to chew on especially as we talk about amazon, how much it pays on taxes and the third party vendors that use amazon to sell their goods >> and what it has in terms of implications for those people and sellers who have to impose

that sales tax something to watch still ahead on "worldwide exchange," india's big bet on the u.s. a top government official making a pitch to all americans he'll do it rehe on "worldwide exchange." racing isn't the only and with godaddy, i'm making my ideas real. with godaddy you can get a website to sell online. and it will look good. i made my own way. now it's time to make yours. ♪ everything is working just like it should ♪

ge is set to post results in less than an hour. morgan brennan has a preview of what to expect we have gotten a bit of a preview from the company itself over the last couple of weeks, right? >> we have but there are many things, many moving parts that investors will be watching. we'll start with analysts looking for 11 cents per shared a justed on 27.45 billion in revenue, so a 46% drop in profit nearly 1% drop in sales. keep in mind just a week ago the company did restate its 2016 and

2017 earnings as it adopts a new accounting standard. once again, wall street will be laser focused on cash flow looking for the state of the power segment which has seen profits plunge over the last couple of quarters the healthcare of aviation businesses, more insight into ge capital and their liabilities. as crude prices rise, is the oil and gas businesses benefiting. looking for if and when the company could be moving forward with a broader breakup the latest on the probes ge is being investigated by the s.e.c. for some of its accounting practices and by the doj for its subprime mortgage business keep an eye on forecasts, it is forecasting $1 to 1.07 for the

year f year this stock has jumped about 6% over the past week it's trading around $14 a share. we'll see what the numbers bring. but also what management has to say on the conference call that starts at 8:30 a.m. eastern. >> a big day for ge, a lot of industrials in focus here. thank you very much. all right. india is making a big pitch to all americans to come visit. joining us now is k.j. alfonz, the minister of tourism for india. i will be the first to say india has drawn a lot of intrigue. a beautiful country, one i grew up visiting, but there's still concerns about safety of foreigners what is the government doing to ensure that foreigners feel

safe >> india is a perfectly safe company. if we talk about numbers, anything that happens is unfortunate. so there are safety concerns, there was an incident that happened about six years back. if you are talking about an incident that happened six year back and nothing further, i think india is safe. >> there's been concerns around the safety of women and rape, safety for women and girls >> it's extremely unfortunate an incident like that happening, it's really bad, it's inappropriate and unacceptable but let me tell you again, the country is very safe the number of instances of such

incidents happening in india is so few if you analyze over the past two years, three years, the numbers are few. but i'm glad the media takes it up it's extremely important, because this kind of thing should never happen. but compared to most cities and countries around the world, india is so much safer at the same time i repeat again such incidents are unacceptable anywhere >> one thing we want to look at is where you're focusing your efforts on tourism when you open your doors, where do you want tourists to go what's the most appealing thing? i'm a golfer i think about the hero indian challenge on the indian tour is fantastic. where you are focusing the efforts of this campaign to get more people going to india >> last year 6.5 million tourists came to inya, which was an increase of 15% from the

previous year. we grew 15.6%. we have so many segments take the luxury segment. we have the luxury hotels all across all the states, and everybody comes to taj, we have some incredible destinations in terms of old places being converted into hotels, and then we have a super luxury tunnel that takes you to the tourist destinations across the country. take the backwaters, we have 5,000 houseboats there >> really beautiful. >> you stay on the boat. everything is there. food, drinks the entertainment. everything it's incredible. another thing is that 70% of himalayas is in india. so it's an incredible opportunity a

opportunity. we have massive mountains. >> there's so much to see. if i may ask, more americans have been traveling, but what about indians coming to the united states. we've seen a decline in the number of chinese traveling here is that happening with india >> no, no, we're contributing a lot to the u.s. economy. numbers traveling from india was about 3 million indians traveling to the u.s we've been contributing a lot. >> it's a great part of the story as we see the rising middle class, more individuals spending discretionary monies on travel we appreciate it thank you for joining us >> thank you very much >> just a quick check now on the markets, we will open down by about 25 points, a pretty decent move higher here we'll see if that sticks into "squawk box" that does it for

"worldwide exchange. >> "squawk box" is next. she believes in research. it can take more than 10 years to develop a single medication. and only 1 in 10,000 ever make it to market. but what if ai could find connections faster. to help this researcher discover new treatments. that's why she's working with watson. it's a smart way to find new hope, which really can't wait. ♪ ♪ swho live within five miles of custyour business?-54, like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found.

if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network.

fallout from the chip wreck. we'll get you up to speed on the market movers a day after apple and its chipmakers dropped sharply. more executive turnover at nike cnbc confirming the departure of three more executives. and we have the rapid response task force earnings squad. i'm not kidding. we have these guys santoli is a member. general electric will report this hour. we'll bring you the numbers and the instant reaction on wall street it's friday april 20th santoli looks nervous. it's a lot of responsibility "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 are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and mike santoli. let's look at the u.s. equity futures. you will see at this hour it looks like there are modest declines dow futures down by 30 points. s&p off by 1.5 nasdaq down by 17. this comes after a day where the dow was down by 83 points. s&p was off by a half percentage point. the nasdaq was off by three quarters of a percent. not massive losses, but they were -- the biggest losses we've seen for the s&p 500 and the nasdaq