. welcome to "street signs." i'm willem marx. these are your headlines oil prices and global markets rise as european leaders scramble to save the nuclear deal with new reports that iranian and israeli forces have exchanged rocket fire in syria. rbs agrees to a 4$4.9 billin settlement with the department of justice in a smaller fine that could pave the way for the government to sell shares. and bt shares fall sharply as further restructuring fails

to connect with investors. the company cut its profit guidance and warns of regulatory pressures. and the three americans held by north korea have been welcomed back to u.s. soil by u.s. president donald trump. >> i think he did this because i really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world. i really believe that. good thursday morning from me here in london. let's look at european markets you can see there's a positive picture across the continent for those trading. a number of them closed for ascension day. the ftse 100 into positive territory. the dax the clear leader up almost 0.64% the cac 40 is up 0.10 %.

the ftse mib trading just above the flat line. looking at sectors across europe media is performing well retail is up 0.60% that sector bouncing well with some numbers you can see oil and gas among one of the main losers so far. the energy sector down 0.50% looking at oil, a major factor in the market movements over the last few days. both wti crude and brent are in positive territory, up around three quarters of a percent. brent trading as close as $78 per barrel that's a lot to do with this major story. european leaders are scrambling to preserve the iranian nuclear deal after president trump ended u.s. involvement in the agreement and vowed to reimpose sanctions on tehran.

the french president has taken the lead on this effort calling hassan rouhani to assure him the deal was still alive macron urged the agreement's remaining signatory countries to stay the course. the leaders of germany have echoed those sentiments. >> i think it's a mistake, that's why us europeans have decided to remain in the 2015 accord i had the opportunity earlier to remind president rouhani, this deal we signed it, we think it is the best way to curtail iranian nuclear activity until 2025 >> this was an important step to keep the world safe and both i and the foreign secretary will continue to work on this with our european and other allies. >> translator: and i believe yesterday showed us once again that we will face more responsibility in europe and foreign policy, in the area of

securing peace, in the area of the political solutions we must find yesterday the u.s. president decided he would withdraw from the nuclear agreement with iran. france, the united kingdom and germany have decided that we remain committed to this agreement. in washington, d.c., president trump defended his decision to withdraw from the agreement adding he now expects iran will come to the negotiating table. >> i will make either a really good deal for the world or we won't make a deal at all iran will come back and say we don't want to negotiate. of course they would say that. if i were in their position i would say that, too. but they'll negotiate. or something will happen and hopefully that won't be the case >> something will happen iran's supreme leader said president trump had made a mistake. he blasted the u.s. leader for what he said was a silly and superficial speech that contained more than ten lies

he suggested the deal could be salvaged if europe provided stronger guarantees. >> translator: if you can get guarantees from them in such a way that they can be trusted, no problem. you can continue if you cannot get such a strong guarantee from them, we cannot move and continue like this anymore. the chances of an expanded conflict in syria seem to have escalated after state controlled media reported that israeli forces bombarded targets across the country. the strikes followed israeli military claims that iranian forces fired rockets into the golan heights. israel said those missiles were shot down before they caused damage we have seen a number of these tit-for-tat strikes. starting with the situation in the golan. they had that drone base that the israelis targeted a couple

months ago what limits are there on israeli and iranian forces in syria that will stop this from escalating further >> i don't think that the israelis want a comprehensive war. the iranians might want such an escalation, but certainly mr. putin in russia does not want to see his accomplishments in syria go down the drain. i suspect mr. assad would not welcome this conflict with israel there are more significant challenges, or limited scale campaigns in syria, tit-for-tat, but it remains short of a war. of course this is a new environment and we need to adjust to that >> let's talk now about the sanctions as well. we've seen a fair amount of uncertainty when it comes to tariffs, particularly in europe from the trump administration. is there any sense that these new sanctions, when they are supposed to be reimposed in iran

in 9 d in 89 days, 179 days, whether they will be piece male or thear thorough >> i think there's clarity that the u.s. will move for the implementation of sanctions. we've been provided with some leeway in terms of implementation guide lines, 90, 180 days that's meant to pave the path for a new negotiation with iran, a new agreement that the europeans might deliver on, or we get these sanctions imposed i doubt, despite the rhetoric we hear that there will be an effort to evade u.s. sanctions the u.s. has a significant control over the global financial system, and evading these sanctions would be problematic for any party. >> some european leaders say firms operating in iran should wind down operations immediately what are the risks for those

companies that have assets or cash in their iranian-based operations now, not just from sanctions but also potential reactions inside iran. >> the iranian regime was or has been negotiating with them to allow them to invest in the country. now they pull back, it's not clear they can liquidate that easily as far as the u.s. is concerned or the host government, they are telling them basically that sanctions are coming and you have to comply one way or another. they must find it very difficult to operate in this environment but i suspect some deals signed and agreed with would need to be reconsidered or eliminated >> you go braack to 2015, one o the arguments by mr. rouhani was getting foreign companies to invest in iran it would be good for the iranian country. what can we expect now with sanctions on that iranian

country? >> i don't think we've seen a lot of large-scale investments in iran. it's been limited -- >> press releases rather than actual projects. >> it's mous, but not physical money. money has not been transferred that's why the rouhani government has not seen some of the benefits from the iran nuclear agreement and the position domestically has been weak we're back to the age of containment, containing iran's financial power, but iran's rise in the region, with less access to oil money, investment, the likely trajectory is internal pressures in iran will increase over time. >> let's talk about foreign policy in syria. we talked about those strikes. what about in iraq, lebanon, we saw hezbollah pick up a few seats over the weekend, and missile technology improving and

that presents a threat to the saudis is that something that could be a byproduct of this? >> absolutely. i think the iranians will push back where they can, and one area would be supporting shia populations across the region. i would say in lebanon they can cause gridlock, not really a security crisis. in iraq they can choose to support a more hawkish prime minister, maliki as opposed to the centrist in yes, ma'men, the missiles diy threaten saudi arabia, not only do they do that but missiles flying over riyadh -- >> and that's the challenge. >> exactly >> you mentioned not a lot of concrete actions have been taken by concrete firms in iran.

one challenge is the movement of money, and that has to do with the hesitancy of banking giants outside of iran to form those relationships with iranian banks. one argument that the previous u.s. administration said if you guys go ahead, you big european banks do this, we will let you do it. but a lot of european banks said we're not happy to do that that doesn't seem like a reasonable risk. any have been proven correct >> absolutely. there was no certainty as to the long-term u.s. position in relations to the nuclear agreement. there was a buffer time in which banks wanted to explore what's the risk and reward structure here and i think they've been proven right that the risk of actually having some form of a business relationship with iran is quite high if they did have any exposure to the iranian economy today in massive amounts they would have to wind that down. i think they've been proven right or that the risk aversion

is probably the correct path >> there are people in washington who say that they're concerned about hawkish elements within president trump's administration does the you'euasia group see increased pressure in iran >> we are seeing the u.s. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, but we have not seen a push towards military escalation in the region the u.s. is not aiming for that. i think it would be wrong to assume that trump's target here is to start a war with iran. it's to renegotiate what he views as a bad deal. an obama legacy agreement. >> we will leave it there. thank you very much for joining us we're also joined by ali arouzi

in tehran. how does this reaction that we have heard from iran's supreme leader limit president rouhani's moves? >> it ties his hands when this deal was signed, he was a hero in the country. he was able to quiet the hard line elements in iran that were against the deal, they were against talking to americans so when he signed the deal everything looked rosy at the time he was almost a national hero with his foreign minister, zarif who led the negotiations the tables have turned dramatically for rouhani his hands are tied he won't be able to go out and make deals with the europeans, especially the americans to make economic decisions without approval from the top. he will need the blessing of the

supreme leader he will need to consult powerful elements within the revolutionary guards for any international move he wants to take iran in they are saying you failed on this deal. you made a deal with america, we were reluck tctant to make this deal, the supreme leader did not really want this deal to happen. he's been saying time and time again over the last few days that we could never trust americans. this is inevitable and this will be difficult for rouhani so it's going to be difficult for him to make decisions without consulting some powerful elements in iran and even though rouhani, a perfect example of this is yesterday rouhani said we can try to push this deal forward with the europeans as long as we see benefits from the deal but the supreme leader, ali

khamenei said he does not trust the leaders of europe, and he doesn't think they'll give >> ali, thank you very much. sounds like a three-year lame duck presidency ahead of him. coming up, a major upset in malaysia's general election as the ruling party loses parower r the first time since 1957. the digital divide is splitting this country. we have parents who are trying to get their kids off of too much social media and computers, and then we have parents who would only hope their children have access. middle school is a really key transition point, right. the stakes start changing. students begin to really start thinking about their futures. what i like about verizon's approach is that

it's not limited to just giving kids new tools, it's really about empowering educators to teach in different ways, and exposing kids to more active forms of learning. giving technology is not a total solution. teaching technology, now that is.

mr. elliot, what's your wiwifi?ssword? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome.

. there are two things that investors will be watching out for at the bank of england meeting later, and neither of those will include the words rate hike. market participants will be looking for confirmation that a rate hike in august could be on the horizon. the quarterly inflation report will be another focus of attention as analysts look to see a trend of weaker economic

news will continue weaker growth, joumanna, how could that influence today's decision >> that's the big question everyone is asking going into today. we had the weak gd pap prints, johning john i joining me is john rathe some say the data was impacted by the weather and we could see a pick up going forward. do you agree with that view? >> to a degree i think the bank of england will say that today if you look at what was said when the data was released, they said it had a marriaginal impact we think the growth is somewhat weaker than the bank of englan >> in the last month or so,

expectations for a may hike plummeted from 90% to 10%, but august hikes have gone up. and a full price hike by november do you think that sounds about right? >> i think for today, yes. it's not just the governor's dovish sounding comments about three weeks ago, it's all the data around the time he made those comments and since there's been a lot of weak data in the uk. today there is not a case for a rate hike. going forward, yes i think they'll certainly try to keep expectations of a hike later this year alive. they will still have, as i said, a forecast of growth 5:seg ratirat accelerating in our view they won't get to raise rates. we think growth will be weaker inflation is falling faster than they thought so the case for rates later in the year won't be made >> so no hikes this year >> we don't think so we thought today would be the last opportunity since tif the s

stronger >> what does this mean for their able to manage forward guidance? a month ago, it was thought they would almost certainly go in may. since then carney talked down some data in washington, data disappointing, and now expectations down to 10% will they be happy with this flip-flopping around the meeting dates? >> at the last meeting when they talked about the high probability at the time and didn't do anything to push back against it, they were expecting 0.3, but that was only because of the weather they said 0.4. to see it come in at 0.1, to see the you' circumstances, they have taken that debate away from them so the market would have worked out a hike at this point was less likely than was perceived

to be the case in march. going forward they want to give guidance to their views, but ultimately if their views are not playing out in the data, they have to adapt what they're doing. >> absolutely. john, thank you. you heard that, there's lots of moving parts, but at the end of the day how can you do forward guidance if data is disappointing so much. ultimately they will be data dependant. >> joumanna, thank you very much she will have a special decision time program that starts at 12:55 central european time. very separately the 92-year-old former prime minister of malaysia, mahathir mohamad has had victory in the general election he has been granted an audience with the malaysian king more or less as we speak sri jegarajah joins us now what does the election of mr. mohamad mean for economic policies we've seen under prime

minister najib razak >> very interesting question already we are starting to hear some developments and some economic policy changes. some of them radical from mahathir one of them is not just a roll back on the gst policy that was implemented under the najib administration, but mahathir saying it won't be rolled back, it will be canceled. this is a potential problem for the fiscal balances and fiscal consolidation in malaysia. moody's responding to this has made it clear, if there is fiscal slippage in the form of gstb being rolled back, and now if we are going to take his words seriously, canceled, that will constitute quite a serious credit negative for sovereign malaysia if it is not accompanied by anything to really generate revenue, any offsetting

measures that's one thing the other dwinteresting development from mahathir has been the economic relationships with china there's a lot of chinese capital coming into the country as part of the belt and road initiative. dr. mahathir said that will be renegotiated and re-examined now. so i think we have to be careful here i don't think this incoming administration will pull the plug on chinese investments. i think there's going to be more scrutiny to them, so some investments may be put on hold or develop to a slower pace. back to the here and now there are real questions about the transition process prime minister najib issued a declaration or some comments really a couple hours ago here in the malaysian capital it wasn't really tantamount to an outright concession to the opposition coalition in fact, he chose his words carefully. i think he was speaking to his

constituency and to grassroots supporters, because it was really tantamount to questioning the numbers here and what the defeat of prime minister said is no single party won a majority in the election so there's some issues there in terms of the process, by dr. mahathir was clear on this as well he said that we want to govern his coalition want to start the business of governance as soon as 5:00 later on today there is what he had to say. >> we would like to make it clear that there is an urgency here we need to form the government now, today that's because currently there is no government of malaysia the role of interim government is now over.

>> so dr. mahathir mohamad clear in his words he wants to get on with the business of governing. he wants to be sworn in as prime minister but he has to get the royal go ahead from the king. it's ceremonial, but there is the remote possibility that the king may rule in favor of the incumbent. it's remote, but some in malaysia have been talking about this risk. there's been some bad blood between the king and dr. mahathir it looks like this will get through. 5:00 is the critical time over here in the malaysian capital. we're just over a half hour away from the king meeting dr. mahathir, so once that is over and done with, then we get back down to the business of really forming government of forming the cabinet and composing the

cabinet. i think this will be something of a tricky issue for dr. mahathir, because remember, this opposition coalition, this government in waiting, if you will, is formed by four different parties. some of them former stalwarts of the former government, some of them ethnic chinese. there will be vsome horse trading, but the most important thing for the markets when they resume trade on monday is economic policy. how soon will we see that gst being canceled what are the implications of subsidy reform as well will we see roll back in the subsidy? then you'll have serious questions asked by the ratings agencies about fiscal slippage back to you. >> thank you very much >> coming up, we'll hear from boeing's middle east president about how the planemaker could be after fefected by fresh sanc on iran.

♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪ ♪ tired of wrestling with seemingly impossible cleaning tasks? using wipes in the kitchen, and sprays in the bathroom can be ineffective. try mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. simply add water, and use in your kitchen for burnt on food, in your bathroom to remove soap scum, and on walls to remove scuffs and marks. it erases 4x more permanent marker per swipe. for tough kitchen and bath messes, use mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. brand power. helping you buy better.

- 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 "street signs. i'm willem marx. these are your headlines from london oil prices and global markets

rise as european leaders scramble to save the nuclear deal with new reports that iranian and israeli forces have exchanged rocket fire in syria. the three americans held by north korea have been welcomed back to u.s. soil by donald trump with the american president giving his thoughts on the reasons for their release. >> i think he did this because i really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world. i really believe that. rbs agrees to a $4.9 billion settlement with the department of justice in a smaller fine that could pave the way for the government to sell shares. and bt shares fall sharply as further restructuring fails to connect with investors. the company cut its profit guidance and warns of regulatory pressures.

we have a lot of talk about economic data in the uk ahead of the bank of england meeting today. uk march numbers for things like balance of trade, not looking all that wonderful noneu trade deficit of 2.4 billion pounds that's against an estimate of -- previous number for 2.2. that's seemingly lifted very slightly the march manufacturing output is down 0.1% on the month. it's still up 2.9% on the year if we look at some construction numbers for output as well, we can see, if i can pull it up in front of me, there's a huge number of bits of data floating about, industrial and construction data likely to have a negligible impact on qd 1 impacts. ands good and trades balance is down more than 3 billion pounds versus the february revised numbers of 1.176 billion pounds.

let's look at the currencies there. sterling is not really too much movement there cable slightly dipping, but nothing significant yet. it's at 135.40 if we look at the european markets more generally, we can see that fx markets, the euro strengthening slightly the dollar strengthening slightly against the yen the dollar also weakening slightly against the swiss franc. a bit of a mixed bag there looking at european markets that are open this morning. the ftse 100 is up about 0.1%. xetra dax in germany up almost 0.3% cac 40 is slightly above the flat line. in italy, the ftse mib is trading pretty much flat italian president sergio mattarella is reportedly willing to give more time to the

five-star movement and the liga to strike a deal this after berlusconi gave the green light to form a government with the five-star government. berlusconi said he would not impose any veto on his right-wing allies. the five-star movement are very, very uninterested in working with him apparently. that's preventing a potential break in the political deadlock following those general elections. intesa has been boosted by liar fees and net income the italian lender plans to pay 85% of profit in dividends last month intesa sold its bad loan business offloading nearly 11 billion euros in bad debt earlier on cnbc spoke with the ceo of intesa sanpaolo about

that deal. >> we think it's a good deal, i'm proud of having realized a deal with an industrial partner. we best business unit to deal with nonconforming loans to make this work for other banks and companies in italy. the combination will create a leader that can increase revenues for intesa san paolo. so it can create a business unit, and it's not only a fantastic deal from the deleveraging point of view >> unicredit opened higher after reporting its best first quarter results since way back in 2007 net profit beat expectations, while revenues rose 44%.

that w 4%. loan losses helped to boost performance for the first three months of the year banco bpm shares are under pressure they cite an asset sale and rising interest income for the strong performance banco bpm added that its debt recovery business attracted interest from buyers rbs shares are rising after the bank agreed to a smaller than expected settlement with the u.s. department of justice the deal mafshg marks the longg investigation into the sale of its securities it could clear the way for the british government to sell its 71% stake in the bank. any sale would represent as a loss to the british taxpayer of more than 20 billion pounds.

21st century fox posted better than expected third quarter earnings the murdochs faced several questions during the call on the pending sale of the film and tv julia boorstin breaks down the numbers. >> quarterly revenue beat expectations of 7.$7.42 billion, but earnings per share fell cents short of expectations. on a short earnings call, more than focusing on quarterly results, analysts focused on potential m&a. that was the issue front and center executive chairman lachland murdoch and james murdoch faced questions about comcast's reported interest topping disney's stock deal for fox. here what lachlan murdoch had to say. we won't engage in speculation

around this. we are committed to our agreement with disney and are working to bring it to a loewsing in addition our directors are aware of their fiduciary duties. >> when asked about comcast taking on fox's bid about sky, james murdoch indicated that fox's lengthy process already long under way has an advantage. >> we remain committed to our bid to buy the remaining sky shares we do not own and expect to receive uk regulatory process in a month or two. comcast just begun its regulatory process and we think it's reasonable for comcast to undergo a robust regulatory review that could take months. >> they also said that planning for new fox, the parts of the company that are not selling to disney is under way and they are making strategic investments such as the acquisition of seven tv stations from sinclair tribune to bolster new fox's

reach. julia boorstin, cnbc business news los angeles. bp shares are slumping after the company announced it would cut 13,000 jobs among the managerial and back office staff. the company will maintain its dividend and plug a sizable hole in its pension obligations they reported a 3% drop in fourth quarter revenue to just below 6 billion pounds senior research analyst at bernstein broke down the results for us >> it's remarkable this business has gone from being a darling of the investment community in the 2015 time frame, a positive outlier in europe, a growth story, a belief that you could perpetuate that with an investment in content, a management team that could do nothing wrong, to now -- 30,000 correction in the labor force, which implies this has gone from

a growth story to a restructuring story. next shares are jumping after raising their profit forecast sales rose 6% with online sales rising 8% during the same period the fashion retailer expects a 5% boost to earnings per share thanks to its buyback program. shares in walmart slid over 3% after the u.s. retail giant announced a deal to take control of flipkart. the bid gives walmart a 77% stake in the business and gives flipkart share holders softbank a 60% return on its initial inve investment it's an important play for walmart as they compete with amazon in the online retail space. the players championship begins today at tpc saw grass in florida. phil mickelson, rory mcilroy and

tiger woods are among the top con ternsd vtenders vying for v. i'm joined by adam reid around the table here it seems like tiger is back in the thick of things >> absolutely. there's always a buzz when tiger woods is playing golf. he hasn't been doing that a lot in the past few years. he's had a couple of good results before an uninspiring stint at the masters but he is here this field is incredible it's not a major tournament but it's treated like one. all 53 of the top 5 p playe3 plr playing in this, and tiger woods is paired up with phil mickelson. these guys have been going at each other for 20 years in tournaments like this. the fact they're playing together after all this time, and i assure you there will be a huge crowd following them along with ricky fowler, the other man in the group it's going to be an incredibly

excite oing one to watch on that point, tiger woods is happy to playing golf. he's pain-free he committed to playing at the open championship in july. the two-time winner has not always played his best golf around there, but he can't wait to get going again, and there is that rivalry with phil mickelson. >> now that we have the opportunity to play against each other on the first day, when the gun blows, it's going to be fun. i enjoy either competing with him with him on the first or second day or last day it's always a blast. he's one hell of a competitor. it's always going to be a challenge to try to beat him >> this is an incredibly exciting golf tournament not least because it's known basically as having one of the hardest finishes of any golf tournament, of any golf course

anywhere in the world. the 17th green will be familiar to golf fans look at this it looks like an ocean of water between tee and green. but it's actually only 137 yards. believe me, it's going to be incredibly difficult for players to land a golf ball on that very small green. some will be falling foul of this tomorrow, i can assure you. >> i would be falling off that small causeway if i had more than a couple beers. >> don't forget, there will be thousands of fans watching as well then you have the 18th which has water around it. >> you mentioned 53 of the top 53 players it's presumably part of the love of the game but also the prize money. how does that compare with the other majors >> as you mentioned, it's a total purse of $$11 million. that's only bettered by the u.s. open you can earn more money here than you can do at the british open, which will be played in

july the top prize here is 1.$1.98 million, about 18% of the total purse. it's the same as the masters, more than the british open, but all the way down maybe if you want to come 50th, it's not a bad prize there, $27,720 available if you're looking further down the leaderboard. >> that's a fun weekend even in miami. >> not bad and you get to sit in the sun in florida. >> thank you very much coming up, donald trump welcomes home three americans detained in north korea. what could that mean for his potential meeting with kim jong-un after this break is comi. and it's time to get outside. pack in even more adventure with audible. with the largest selection of audiobooks.

audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. or discover magic when you hit the open road. with the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. and for just $14.95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. if you don't like it exchange it any time. no questions asked. you can also roll your credits to the next month if you don't use them. so take audible with you this summer... on the road... on the trail... or to the beach. start a 30-day trial and your first audiobook is free. cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. no matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. text summer4 to 500500 to start listening today.

welcome back to "street signs. a few hours until the u.s. markets open all three major indices are looking to open into positive territory with the dow jones

implied open more than 33 points the nasdaq up more than 14 it's been an interesting week for those markets. we have had the oil prices to watch and news coming out of north korea. now those prisoners landing back in washington. let's look at european markets the ftse 100 still slightly above the flat line. not the case in italy. the minute is down more than 0.1% many ge in germany, the dax up almost 0.60%. the euro is stronger against the u.s. dollar, against the yen, the already dollar trading stronger the pound as i mentioned is down slightly against the u.s. dollar the dollar pretty much a parity

with the swiss franc swiss pharma giant novartis admits it paid 1.2 million pounds to a consultancy firm run by president trump's lawyer, michael cohen, to gain access with the incoming administration >> reporter: the white house facing questions but not answering whether the president's personal attorney, michael cohen, tried to sell access to the oval office. >> we're not engaging in matters in this process at all i would refer you to outside counsel for anything that has do with michael cohen. >> reporter: the allegations are coming from michael avenatti, the attorney for stormy daniels. he says millions of dollars flowed into cohen's account beginning just before the election, more than $1 million came from novartis, which tells nbc news that cohen promised access to the white house. at&t confirms it paid $200,000

for insight into the new administration avenatti says he has documents showing cohen received $500,000 from a company with ties to a russian oligarch and that the money was deposited into the same account used to pay hush money to stormy daniels. cohen says that's not true >> the documents are inaccurate. >> reporter: that company also denies they paid for access to the president, saying cohen was consulting on real estate and other ventures in a phone conversation earlier today, the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, tells nbc news that the president is not involved in any way with these alleged business dealings either before or after taking office. blayne alexander, nbc news, the white house. michael avenatti very much seemingly pushing the narrative in the u.s. news agenda when it comes to that michael cohen case, and getting this push back from the president's personal lawyer we will talk briefly about

those north korea detainees. the three americans who had been detained for 18 months in north korea. they have returned to u.s. soil. they have been greeted by president trump at joint base andrews. that's a huge development for president trump's administration as they prepare for a potential summit between president trump and kim jong-un, they have been looking at meeting in singapore, we understand, that will be a major, major development if and when that takes place. we're waiting still for details on that meeting. this gesture by north korea, president trump saying it was very, very helpful he offered some comments prior to returning to the white house after those three men had been released from north korea saying it had been a helpful gesture by the north koreans ahead of that meeting. hopefully we'll be joined by one of our nbc news colleagues in

washington, tracie potts she's joining us from washington, d.c. a big moment for mike pompeo and also for president trump how has washington been reacting to these turn of events? >> we certainly saw them erupting in cheers this morning on the tarmac. and by they i mean the few people who were there including president trump who promised that he would be there personally to greet these three men when they came home. they will go to walter reid medical center to be checked out before reconnecting with their family the president talked this morning about the significance of north korea releasing these three detainees before president trump's meeting with kim jong-un. he said it was -- the administration said this is a goodwill gesture they wanted to make sure they were not being used as pawns during these negotiations. this morning they sold president trump it was like a dream to be home they talked about the hard labor they did then the president talked about

this meeting moving forward saying that the date and the location had been set. you mentioned singapore. it was on the list he has not yet confirmed where that will happen >> appreciate that. boeing played down the loss of a $20 billion contract with iran after the u.s. imposed sanctions on tehran. boeing's license to sell aircraft to iran would be revoked. dennis muilenburg said the company had not planned on production of those planes yet hadley gamble has more hadley >> i'm joined by the president of boeing international. [ inaudible ].

>> hadley, thanks. [ inaudible ]. >> we seem to be having audio problems there with my colleague, hadley gamble there in the bahraini capital. let's look at markets before we try to return to that interview. the euro is strong against the u.s. dollar. the u.s. dollar is also stronger against the yen. the pound seeming to win back some ground against the u.s. dollar it's now strengthened by a tenth of a percent against the swiss, it's very, very slightly weaker by a tenth a percent. let's check in on the european markets. a number of markets closed today because it's ascension day, including austria. ftse 100 is trading flat so far this morning there's been a slight movement up, but it's back down against the flat line. a similar story in france and italy with the cac 40 in paris

up 0.10% ftse mib in italy is down. that's despite some of those banking numbers this morning in germany, the xetra dax is the clear leader amongst the european bourses, up bt said they would cut 13,000 jobs among managerial and back office staff another banking story here in britain. rbs shares are rising after the bank agreed to a smaller than expected settlement with the u.s. department of justice

this could clear the way for the british government to sell its 71% stake in the bank. a sale at the current share price would represent a loss to the british taxpayer of more than 20 billion pounds after that bailout several years ago let's take a quick look at u.s. futures ahead of the market open in new york. you can see it's looking like a positive start to the day for all three of the major indices there the dow jones looking to open up more 37 points the nasdaq opening up at 14.5 points "worldwide exchange" is coming up right now ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

♪ tired of wrestling with seemingly impossible cleaning tasks? using wipes in the kitchen, and sprays in the bathroom can be ineffective. try mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. simply add water, and use in your kitchen for burnt on food, in your bathroom to remove soap scum, and on walls to remove scuffs and marks. it erases 4x more permanent marker per swipe. for tough kitchen and bath messes, use mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. brand power. helping you buy better.

mr. elliot, what's your wiwifi?ssword? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome.

>> it was a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out >> an historic moment as the president welcomes home three americans held in north korea. they all touched down at joint base andrews a short moment ago. let's get to tracie potts who has more on this developing story. >> good morning. it's huge. the president was there there morning along with the first lady, the vice president, his wife, the secretary of state all waiting for these three men to