apple supplier ams warns of a weaker quarter. and s.a.p.'s first quarter operating profits jump despite a slip in software revenue as cloud computing helps the full-year forecast bill mcdermott tells cnbc his firm is in a sweet spot. >> you have this nice trifecta where our new business in the cloud, our core business is rock solid and the operating margins are expanding the way we said they would s.a.p. is in good shape as a growth company. also coming up on "street

signs," in his first major interview since taking the helm of volkswagen, we asked herbert deis about what the future holds. >> there's a lot to be done. still many months to go through until we can say bye-bye diesel. good morning we just got the german ifa data out. that shows the business climate came in at 1 102.1 versus 102.7 the ifo expectations came in at 98.7 versus a forecast of 99.5 so it missed across all strands

here bear in mind that the mode of calculation for ifo has changed for this month they introduced a new methodology, and also the fact that the data has disappointed a bit. you can see there's a little bit of a reaction in currency. euro/dollar down a bit that's in line of a theme of stronger u.s. dollar in today's trading. let's check in on markets. in asia, we saw a bounce back across some major indices. nikkei up. strong session for chinese equities with some of those indices up 0.2 the stoxx 600 is up in early trading. we were talk about the ifo, a tad disappointing.

euro/dollar is down 0.1% just below that 1.22 mark. 1.2193 the theme is one of dollar strength today you can see that expressed in dollar/yen as well almost up to 109 108.85 cnbc we did speak to kuroda over the weekend, he emphasized the need for more accommodative policies no doubt that is having an impact cable is down below 1.40, trading at 1.3925. again, dollar swiss is also a bit stronger it's a big data week as far as europe is concerned. ecb is coming up even now on the ifo, there's weakness of data the piqmi numbers are slowing

down it looks like in germany the situation is no different for the time being >> we're hearing from german corporates about german headwinds. we're seeing that on firms like s.a.p. bill mcdermott talking about that this morning. something to watch when you talk about some of these corporate stories, to see what that dollar strength is having on some of these numbers. >> speaking of ifo, the president of the ifo institute joins us now on the line before we get into the data. can you talk about the changes in methodology for this month. you announced this new change and how it will be calculated. can you walk us through what the changes are and why you thought now was a good time to do it >> es. the most important change is the integration of the service sector into the index. the service sector in all developed countries is an important part of the economy.

the old index used to focus on manufacturing, on industry and construction but we had a separate index for the service sector we have had service sector index for ten years now. we think that it's time to integrate this into the business climate because the idea is that the business climates will reflect the entire german economy. >> so it's a better reflection of the german economy today? >> correct if we look at the development of the two indices in the praast, they are similar, but we should have the service sector in there to have a complete picture >> looking at some of the survey results, it looks like across the board all of those numbers have disappointed relative to consensus forecast what are some challenges being cited in the survey >> we think that one of the challenges is that many companies in germany are running

into capacity constraints. we've seen a build up of employment for a long time this is slowing down the second issue is that we have a very high level of orders, but new orders are lower that's why companies say this current situation is very good, but for the next six months we are less optimistic because there are less orders coming in. >> less optimistic on the economic outlook that's interesting because it's coming at a time where some people are saying the cyclical upswing in europe has come to an end. we have seen the peak and coming forward we should see slower numbers out of all of the eurozone would you agree that that tends to be the mode for germany on a forward looking basis? >> that's consistent with what we see in the index. not a downturn, but a cooling down, normalization. it's possible we've seen the

peak of the upswing. >> one other thing you mentioned is capacity constraints. i wonder if you're seeing an impact on inflation. in germany, the public sector wage deal was reached. little signs of inflation have been popping up in wage strength, then you talk about capacity constraints you are getting the sense that businesses are concerned about rising costs and wages >> businesses are certainly worried about rising wage costs, also possibly about rising self insurance contributions. inflation is not strong in germany. but it is at like 1.7 or 1.8, which is relatively high compared to the average, which is often closer to 1 so we see prices increasing. we see prices increasing in construction there we have strong price

increases. that's also the sector where the boom is continuing the only sector where we get higher readings. overall we see prices growing more quickly not excessive but for german conditions, we do see an increase in price growth >> one final question for you. there's been a lot of talk about the currency, we're heading into the ecb on thursday. some people are saying perhaps mario draghi will try to jawbone down the currency here i wonder what feedback you're getting from businesses and whether businesses are impacted by the strength of the euro currency here. >> i don't have the impression that businesses are impacted by the strong euro. so fort strong you'far the stro a symptom, and the last month the value of the euro has not increased anymore. it's been more or less stable. so i don't think the euro

exchange rate is the driving factor here. >> thank you for that. that was clemens fuest. the yield on the u.s. ten-year yield has been hovering near 3%, a key psychological level for investors. inflation expectations fueled this move after the recent rally in oilprices the market is also bracing itself for more than a quarter trillion dollars of treasury issuance this week jeffrey gundlach spoke to cnbc at the sohn conference in new york and the bond king outlined his views on the market impact if that 3% number is reached >> closing above 3 would lead to acceleration of yields we have not closed above 3 the other level is 3.22 on the three year, then we backed off,

now we're back up to 3.16, 3.17. so i think breaking above 3.22 on the three-year. >> he thinks it's a big deal, but why do investors think it's a big deal generally >> it's funny. investors all have these psychological levels that are big levels the dow, when we crossed 25,000, it was deemed to be a big break. as far as yields are concerned, we have not seen a 3 handle in many, many years we almost got there early on in the year we reached about 2.96, 2.97, so this means it's setting a precedent. it's getting new support from that moment on it becomes a technical move so what a lot of people are saying is that 3% will trigger some selling, forced selling, new entrants to the market what we've seen in positioning is that the build up from the cta community is actually getting bigger and bigger. it tells you this market is being driven not only by levered

accounts or hedge funds hoping that this level breaks, but algos and cta. when those algorithmic traders get in there, like mr. gundlach is saying, if we get above 3%, we could easily see 3.20 also the flattens in the u.s. yield curve is probably getting a bit overdone as well if you think of some fundamental reasons cited for why ten-year yields have been selling off, people have been pointing to the rise in inflation expectations commodities boost as well. oil price, energy prices have shot higher. if that's the case you would finally expect that to be expressed in the belly of the curve, not just the front end of the curve, which means we could eventually see some steepening flattening has been a big theme

as far as the u.s. yield curve is concerned it's been a pain trade anyone who has had this, but you get the feeling sentiment is turning especially when you hear mr. gundlach saying ten-year, 30 year could break through the 3% and set a new trajectory going forwards, hovering around higher levels than in the past. >> all right >> again, is 3% just a number? head to our website for more market commentary on the move and the u.s. treasury yield. >> let's look at markets looking at the slightly disappointing ifo number let's talk about equity markets as well and dive into individual bourses here and this morning, we're about one hour into trading. the picture for europe, mostly speaking is positive we've seen ftse 100 up about 0.3% i think some of that is on the back of the slightly weaker

currency we're seeing. cable is below 1.40. clearly that's helping ftse 100, that exposed index there xetra dax is also putting in a good showing today, up 0.3%. cac 40 around flat mr. macron is in the u.s. for meetings with the trump administration we should hopefully get more color on whether any tariff exemptions will be applied the next couple of days. that will be a key driver for cac 40 and ftse mib, down 0.1% no real progress on the italian government progress, so that's what that is reacting to. today the outperforming sectors are technology, up almost 1%. we have oil and gas up 0.8% in line with the move we're seeing in spots and to the down side, we have travel and leisure down almost

1% autos are also struggling, down 0.6% in today's trading. cloud revenue has driven s.a.p. to a jump in first quarter operating profit the company raised its full-year forecast on the back of the numbers, this despite a slip in software revenue and continuing headwinds from that strong euro. bill mcdermott, the chief executive of s.a.p. told cnbchol be encouraged. >> when you add the currency effect, it's a tigotal rout of s.a.p. in a mar set sense compared to our competitors. ams warned of a second quarter downturn after first quarter sales were to the low end of guidance. they count apple as a major

client and cautioned of "lower business from a large smartphones program" and it did not specifically name apple. that news is dragging you're europe's chipmakers lower. and bank santander is under pressure after posting a first quarter rise in net profits after a strong performance in the key brazilian market net profits jumped to just over 2 billion euros. its fully loaded cte 1 ratio also increased. and akzonobel has seen first quarter profits come in well below forecasts. adjusted operating income fell 28% to 149 million euros analysts anticipated 181 million euros. the results exclude akzonobel's specialty chemicals unit which the company agreed to sell for

just over 10 billion euros last month. shares in volvo down after operating margin of 9.3% missed forev forecasts. demands from the supply chain raised costs truck order intakes grew by 29% compared to an average forecast of 21% that result helped raise operating profit for the period to 8.3 billion swedish krona coming up, we'll speak to the volvo chief executive at 11:00 a.m. central europe time if you want to talk to us about the numbers, follow us or contact us on twitter, streetsignseurope@cnbc, you can also tweet us, @streetsignscnbc. coming up, swatch out for fakes. the ceo of swatch tells us which online shopping platform deals best with fake luxury goods.

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alibaba is doing a better job than amazon when it comes to frighting fakes. speaking to cnbc in an exclusive interview, he added that alibaba is providing a better job for consumers. geoff cutmore is in zurich this morning. geoff, what can you tell us about this interview >> fascinating clearly the chinese consumer is back and buying watches. i think that was the first message that nick hyak wanted to pick across. he talked about the record double digit monthly sales that they're now registering, which would be somewhat better, i think, than current market expectations as to what the business will do for full-year 2018 i think it was his comments around technology and the chinese consumer more broadly

that will resonate the middle class is growing. he's comfortable with the direction the economy is moving in in china. on technology he was cross with amazon, which he says was not doing as well as alibaba in protecting goods, too many fake goods, he said, and also cross about the business model at amazon, which he doesn't believe is creating true value let's have a listen in to what he had to say. >> what kind of business model is it if you make 80 billion or 100 billion turnover and you make 1 billion of profit it's nothing they make 1% of profit i say this is dumping what they do you distribute everything in hundreds of millions of pieces, sell it at the end, and then

where is the profit? you know this is one of the problems. you should not always look at the stock market price at the value of the stock market you should look at what is the value of the company what are they doing? are they creating added value for the people they work with and for the consumer in a way, yes. they deliver product if i look at what alibaba is doing and aldi's, they're trying to make a cservice for the consumer and trying to identify fw fakes. this amazon is not doing they have lawyers that saying we should not enter anything to force us to fight against fakes. the chinese are doing it they fight against it. >> you're in the smart watch business

tell us how that's going because there's a lot of interest as to whether your unique approach is winning against the rivals i said this since the beginning. swatch has created this. swatch is not watch, it's second swatch that's why it has the name you're not only owning one watch, you change your watches you go to an opera performance or sports, if you go to work, if you go swimming, if you go holidays, you change your watches that you have. so people started to own more than one watch everything that is creating, that a person doesn't think he buys a watch and keeps it 30 years, 40 years without changing it will grow the total market. that's what happened when the people announced they do smart

watches which are more consumer electronics. when apple decided to bring in the apple watch, it was fantastic for us nobody buys ang app apple watch keep it all the time if you do sports or travel, you exchange it. this is the best that can happen the worst is people who have nothing to risk. when you start to wear something for whatever reason, you will also change and switch to others this will make the market grow this we had in the watch industry the market is always growing there's space for apple. space for others and there is, of course, a lot of space for us. >> so there you go what is the opportunity in the luxury space at the moment sheila wong is with us, she runs a luxury stocks fund good to see you once again i know you have swatch in your fund at the moment why would you own swatch now

>> first of all, thanks for having me. good to see you. long time no see yes, we own swatch as you mentioned, luxury is recovering strongly. also the watch industry is recovering >> the currency trends also look supportive at this point this was something i raised with nick hyak, but he said at the end of the day the currency markets will do what they do we can't affect that outcome we can benefit are you seeing evidence the swiss luxury industry is doing better on the trends >> i think the weakening of the swiss frank is a positive for the luxury industry. currency is difficult to forecast, for this year the impact will be positive given that the majority of the cost base is based here in switzerland. >> one driver seems to be the return of the chinese consumer is there solid evidence that the

chinese luxury shopper is back >> yes, the chinese consumer is back in full force all the numbers that we've seen over the past two, three quarters, the biggest surprise is all the luxury companies that have reported are coming from asia and driven by mainland china. >> are they back to stay we're worried about some of the debt trends. do you think the middle class is growing and still keen to by luxury >> i think the appetite for luxury is here to stay the chinese as a country have proven they managed to avoid a hard landing that many predicted two, three years ago investor confidence towards china increased. it seems even this year they will grow 6.5% in consumption given the rebalancing of the economy, we will continue to grow above average

>> is there a lot of headroom in the stocks, even swatch looks price pricey >> when this area recovers, it recovers strongly, you better be in before it goes up estimates are not too high first quarter numbers, it seems they were still able to beat expectations by quite a bit. i'm confident for this year. >> one challenge it seems to me is recognizing what the millennium shopper wants and how companies manage this transition from the boomer to the millennium how do you think the industry is doing and which company does it best >> are two major trends companies need to look at. one is digitalization. the second is linked the increasing importance

millennials. millennials are spending more money on luxury brands omni channel is a big topic for luxury companies i think that many of the strong brands are investing heavily in this channel >> and e-commerce is the right way for this industry to go? i knows there some reservations that you can sell to a customer who doesn't get to touch the product immediately. if you compare sentiment and where views were three, four years ago, that's changed completely three, four years ago there were luxury brands saying they are not going online, but given what's happening and what we've been seeing you need to offer optionality, especially for young people to shop online. omni channel, it does not mean shops are not important. it just needs the optionality of offering this channel, and the online channel is the fastest growing channel for this industry >> top picks for you

>> we have all the major names in our fund. we're seeing a strong comeback of the big and beautiful brands in the luxury space. >> sheila, nice to see you thank you very much for joining us >> guys, i'll send it back to you from a very pretty and sunny zurich >> enjoy your lunch. a quick clarification to note that amazon responded to the claims from swatch saying amazon invests tremendous resources to protect customers from inauthentic goods. they continue we welcome the opportunity to work with swatch and enroll the brand in brand registry so that we can continue to provide customers with a trusted experience >> coming up next, we'll hear from the new volkswagen ceo and why he thinks the car's problems are not dead yet vo: gopi's found a way to keep her receipts tidy,

even when nothing else is. brand vo: snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, $4,340 in tax savings. quickbooks. backing you. welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx. >> i'm joumanna bercetche. these are your headlines. the u.s. ten-year yield toys with 3% but fails to break

through that barrier jeffrey gundlach says crossing that level will spark higher rates. >> closing above 3 would lead to an acceleration to higher yields we have not closed above 3 the other big level is the 3.22 on the three year, which we did close at earlier this year and then backed off nicely. ad sales help alphabet top earnings forecasts, but higher coasts means tighter margins feeling chip wrecked shares in europe's chipmakers fall after a.m.s. warns weaker orders from an unnamed major customer will lead to a second quarter slowdown and s.a.p.'s first quarter operating profits jump despite a slip in software revenue as cloud computing helps raise the

full-year forecast bill mcdermott tells cnbc his firm is in a sweet spot. >> you have this nice trifecta where our new business in the cloud, our core business is rock solid and the operating margins are expanding the way we said they would s.a.p. is in good shape as a growth company. also coming up on "street signs," in his first extended interview since taking the helms of volkswagen, we asked herber deis about what the future holds. >> there's a lot to be done. still many months to go through until we can say bye-bye diesel. let's check in on markets. we had a stronger session in asian markets overnight with the nikkei up 1% chinese indexes up almost 2% on more economic and market reforms there. you can see for most of europe, with ftse mib being an exception

for now at least, all of the indices are trading in the green. xetra dax is leading the charge, brushing off that disappointing ifo data let's switch to u.s. futures and see what the mood is like there. dow is seen opening up about 80 points higher. s.a.p. about 12 points higher after four negative days in a row for the dow. nasdaq was the only index that is still positive for the year it looks like today's session will be slightly more positive as far as u.s. equities are concerned. >> equities and commodities and where they intersecting, the u.s. government extended the deadline for rusal to comply with sanctions it has also suggested that sanctions may be removed if -- if mathe major shareholder relinquishes control of the company. shares of rusal have rallied on that news and alcoa traded lower

in u.s. sessions aluminum prices trading lower in london new volkswagen chief executive herbert deiss says the company may have to consider spinning off assets. nancy hungerford sat down with him. nancy joins us now from beijing with mosh re on that interview >> we are right here in beijing at the volkswagen press conference you may be able to see behind me a lineup of volkswagen's latest vehicles among them fuel efficient and electric vehicles which are crucial to their business in china given the push that china is making for nevs volkswagen as you know just appointed a brand-new ceo, dr. herbert deiss who we spoke to earlier, shareholders have big

expectations when it comes to these electric vehicles behind me but also on the cost side as always volkswagen faces pressure from the works council, the local government so in some ways they are limited in their room to maneuver with costs. i had a chance to speak about the other options on the table and whether or not he would consider spinoffs within the broad sweep of brands here now that he is at the helm of the group. take a listen. >> we have to reconsider value chains there's a lot of investment going into value chain and whether that is appropriately spent. we have to invest in new technologies, in software, batteries. we have some noncore assets where we either have to develop a business plan forward for growth, for more value, and we have to consider to spin off something. >> is the sale of ducati back on

the table? >> it's not. my background, i have to say, belongs in motorcycles i was in charge of motorcycle brands i think there is a future and we have to decide now what could be the way forward. will it be a multi brand strategy, more electrification i think wo-wheelers will play role in individual mobility. that will be our driving theme, also for the next ten years or so what we have to do now is forward strategy >> there's no secret that the council was opposed to the ducati sale. what did you do to bring them to the table and bury the hatchet it has not always been easy with the works council. >> no, but for many years he's been in the company, and he was as head of the works council he knows the company from inside

out and also a strategic thinker. this is where we're quite close in our estimate on how the future looks, what challenges we're facing, and that allowed us to finally agree to a olympian which is -- which will reduce our work force considerably in germany but also allow us to invest in future technology i think in the end as far as osterloh is concerned about is how many workplace we have saved. >> speaking of the future, many saw your appointment as ceo as a way to put the diesel crisis behind the company days ago, still news surrounding porsche and audi when are you confident that you can say it's over, there are no

more diesel scandals >> we have so many still problems around the world which needs to be -- needs to be sorted we have lost so much trust with some of our customers. that will require a few more years that we really can say we have left diesel behind. the company still requires change, cultural change. i think we have to monitor lehr thompson who is advising us it's helpful it's a good exercise he will help us to become a more future-proof company, much more compliant than we have been. so a lot to be done. still many months to go through until we can say bye-bye diesel.

>> there you have it herbert deiss admitting there is still some time to go when it comes to putting the diesel scandal behind them. i was talking there about recent raids at porsche and audi regarding the diesel scandal there. i also had a chance to speak to the ceo about their strategy in china. he was encouraged by the steps that beijing has taken in recent days, proposals to change the foreign ownership structure and reduce imports volkswagen has a localized base here when it comes to production, but they still export outside into china a lot of higher margin vehicles. that could be another win factor, many are waiting to see how the current trade tensions pan out. >> nancy, thank you very much for bringing us that interview for more on the beijing motor

show, head to our website, cnbc.com to the other side of the world where president trump has welcomed french president emanuel macron to the white house. discussions on trade and the iran nuclear deal are expected to dominate what looks to be a friendly visit the french leader has previously said he has no plan "b" for limiting tehran's nuclear ambitions. he sees no better option than the current agreement. as he traveled to d.c., the iranian government urged european leader the, including macron, that they needed to convince trump he should not scrap that 2015 agreement made under his predecessor. blayne alexander has more details on that message. >> reporter: from the united states, a warm welcome to the leader of its oldest ally. french president emanuel macron marking the first official state visit of the trump administration setting the table for a range of

discussions. >> security about trade and a lot of military issues that are important for our countries. >> reporter: and macron expected to lobby in favor of what president trump calls a bad deal the iran nuclear deal. this as the white house defends the president's negotiations to denuclearize north korea the president walking back his claim that the regime has agreed to denuclearization. leader kim jong-un only told south korea that he will discuss it. >> we will not take the north koreans at their word. the maximum pressure campaign will continue until we see concrete actions >> secretary of state nominee mike mom ppompeo received an unexpected boost today when aproved by the senate foreign relations committee. >> i have changed my mind. i decided to vote for director pompeo

>> rand paul dropped his opposition to pompeo after a series of conversations with the president. now with the help of a handful of democrats, pompeo appears headed for a narrow confirmation win on the senate floor later this week. if he is is confirmed, mike pompeo will jump into his new position heading to a nato meeting in brussels at the end of the week. there was some video there of president trump and president macron and their respective wives planting a tree together at the back of the white house interesting history. the tree comes from a region in france where u.s. marines in the first world war drove back a germ be an offensive so this representation of the longstanding friendship between these two countries. france, of course, at the start of the american republic was the country's first major ally to recognize the united states.

a bit of a stick in the eye for the old british empire. >> the german offensive there. the irony is not going unnoticed. good digging skills from both. the purpose of this meeting is not just about planting symbolic trees. they will discuss iran one of the major reasons macron is there is to ask for exemptions on the supposed tariffs that will be imposed >> you hear about yet more proposed tariffs for china the u.s. president there looking to issue another 1$100 billion the europeans managing the exemption. trying to get that made concrete and permanent. whether he can do that or not, we will find out >> i was at the imf washington meetings, there was a lot of talk about global growth is looking better things so far in the short-term have good momentum then certain risks on the horizon. one of them is trade wars.

that came up a lot in our conversations. everyone from imf policymakers to finance ministers were talking about trade war rhetoric and what this rise of protectionism means for global trade and a global economic outlook. definitely a lot of concern about what the u.s. are trying to achieve here. of course, you hear about the europeans, you hear about china themselves actually willing to reach out on a bilateral basis with the u.s. and find some common ground there. have to keep an eye on that. the cost of higher costs blowout expenditure overshadows ab's numbers more on that when we come back pack in even more adventure with audible. with the largest selection of audiobooks. audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track.

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welcome back to "street signs. it was a whipsaw session for shares in alphabet last night. the prices initially jumped in after-hours trade then lost all of its gains to close lower. the company reported a mixed set

of results operating margins increased 22%, below forecast and down from the previous year. earnings per share and operating income beat expectations, as did global ad sales at over $31 billion. the top line benefitted from one-time gains on how the firm values its startup investments sticking with tech, regulation and privacy were also high on the agenda for other investors at the sohn conference jeffrey gundlach said he was short facebook >> i think the regulation here is a big event and i also think that there's never one cockroach in the kitchen. we had this apology tour i think we're one apology too far. one more problem, i don't know what will happen

and there's going to be one because there was never just one cockroach, but i don't know what happens with the credibility of the "i'm sorry we'll make it better" type of statements box shares post their second best day ever, and chamath palihapitiya spoke about that. >> i tend to think, when i think about these businesses, can they make 10x in ten years. >> so you think it could grow from 3 billion to $30 billion in ten years. >> i think so. >> and shares in telenor have beat q1 expectations the telecoms operator expects revenues to grow between 1% and 2% for the year and adjusted its organic growth up to 2% to 3%. i'm happy to say the ceo of

teshgs le teshgs -- telenor, sigve brekke joins us on the line there's some price action in early trading. i guess the question that most investors have here is where the revenue growth is going to come from so where is the growth on the revenue side, the top line side coming from in your view >> i'm satisfied that we are still having a strong position in norway. they're the biggest market we have, and after several years we are now back to growth in malaysia and stable situation in thailand the growth, however, is going to come from our emerging markets, especially pakistan and bangladesh we had a soft start to the year, but now that we're going into march and april, we have better growth

this growth is mainly coming from data, more and more people starting to use data it's also from more subscribers. we have 2 million new subscribers in the quarter in bangladesh and more than 1 million in pakistan. i'm optimistic for the growth prospect for the rest of the year >> i see that you decided to dispose of your central and eastern european business. what is the rational there for disposing that line of business? is it that you did not see good growth opportunities there >> we received an offer for those assets, we decided to accept this offer. the reason for that is that we think we can generate more value and focus more on the growth prospect in the asian part of our business that's the main reason for that decision >> so that side of the business represents about 8% of your annual profits you will take the proceeds from

that sale, hand them back to shareholders at a time when you're also cutting costs in the form of thousands of your workers jobs is that a bit of a pr nightmare, holding money back to share holders while divesting 2,000 jobs last year, 6,000 jobs over the next three years >> we are going to return around 25% of the proceeds we get from the disposal of the central european assets back to shareholders that's true. the rest of it, we're going to use to continue to invest both in spectrum and in superior form so that's the plan going forward. >> you are giving money back to shareholders over the next year. i'm wondering whether that reflects well on a company that is one of the most valuable and wealthiest countries on earth when you're also firing 6,000

people >> we are not firing 6,000 people we do not have any targets on reducing the number of employees. however we see that there's still transformation, and it has an effect on our employees, especially people using distribution channels. >> one other question, a lot of critics seem to have is why you are sitting on so much cash? >> we have now for the last two years been clear on our financial policy we have a strong balance sheet, we want to have a dividend policy, which is increasing payouts year by year, and we want to be a solid company positioned well for capital growth and value going forward so that's the reason for the decision we have now on a strong balance sheet. >> thank you very much for joining "street signs" today that was the ceo of telenor after the earnings release

let's look quickly at u.s. futures and see what the mood is like there we are right in the middle of earnings season. i was just reading that earnings per share growth for the quarter so far is up 24% that's way higher than expe expectati expectations so earnings season is starting off on a strong foot about a quarter of u.s. companies have reported so far as you can see, dow is looking to open about 100 points higher. s&p about 16 points higher as well in terms of data, watch out for new home sales later and u.s. consumer confidence. that is it for today's show. i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm willem marx "worldwide exchange" is coming up right now

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you are looking live at new york city's times square it is 5:00 a.m here are your top five at 5:00 number one, breaking corporate news the "wall street journal" reporting that china's uber competitor in talks for an ipo with a potential valuation of more than $80 billion. alphabet shares slightly in the green after reporting a beat on the top and bottom lines. former president george h.w. bush in intensive care in a houston hospital. four, president trump hosting french president emanuel macron at the white house. the two will hold a join