tv Street Signs CNBC November 8, 2018 4:00am-5:00am EST
4:00 am
welcome to "street signs." i'm willem marx in london. socgen sees green after net profit jumps 32% in the third quarter driven by strength at the retail bank. the ceo tells cnbc the comeback in trading activity has helped >> it's still a pretty difficult environment for europe and banks. i'm happy to see a growth of the capital market revenues by close to 8%. commerzbank investors cheer turnaround progress as shares
4:01 am
trade higher after the lender beats third quarter profit forecasts. we'll speak to the cfo at 11:40 a.m. central european time. and a big miss for unicredit sends shares into the red. the italian lender fails to hit profit forecasts and president trump fires attorney general jeff sessions in a move some democrats have branded a blatant attempt to disrupt the russia probe as they take back control of the house for the first time in eight years. the stoxx 600 is trading up around 0.30%
4:02 am
the foot foot, xetra dax, sacroiliac are all trading higher the ftse mib is up nearly 0.22% autos after quite a solid day yesterday are down about a fifth of a percent unicredit third quarter net profit missed expectations the lender blamed a writedown on its stake in a turkish bank. the cte 1 ratio is down to 12.1%, down from 12.5% in yune. commerzbank's third quarter net profit fell but still beat analyst estimates. it left the full-year outlook unchanged. the lender is in the change of a
4:03 am
major overhaul with the ceo saying the bank still needs major changes before the strategic shift would be complete annette is in frankfurt. does it seem like this turnaround is working? >> it doesn't seem like the turnaround strategy is working looking at the share price, they lost another 30% since the beginning of the year. they're now trading near record lows that's also because the strategies is banking on higher interest rates if interest rates were around 3%, 4%, commerzbank would probably be a good story interest rates are nowhere there, and many people also expect them never to go back to that level so the concentration on retail banking and to be dependent so much on interest income, net interest income is not a
4:04 am
strategy which is going down too well with investors. at the same time many people are worrying what an economic downturn could mean to their credit book. that's another big area of the bank lending to mortgage or lending to german households, lending to german corporates, in case the economy is turning around, that could provoke major losses the numbers, as you were pointing out, they're okay they're beating expectations in most of the areas of the business apart from the corporate bank where they still do investment banking. that's an yarea where they're still seeing low trading activity among clients, that's clearly a weakness with commerzbank. having said that, the big topic for the lender and if people are watching the lender is whether
4:05 am
they can do it on a stand-alone basis for the foreseeable future the rumor is not going away that they clearly at one point in time will be tying up with deutsche bank. both lenders seem to be too weak to stand global competition. with that, back to you >> thank you very much annette will talk with the cfo at 11:40 central european time. societe generale reported a 32% rise in net profit and it beat expectations. revenues also exceeded forecasts at 9% thanks in part to growth in the bank's retail unit. joumanna bercetche is this morning in paris where she interviewed the bank's ceo was did he say about the broader
4:06 am
french economy >> to pick up on your point these numbers acrore strong. if you adjust for sales, they are up 4.5% still. decent growth there. profits at 1.2 billion we are seeing good strength in their investment banking business and also in the international retail business. that's the business that has exposure to eastern europe, russia russia is about 10% of that overall unit the french retail business is flattish year on year. that's still better than expectations but we are in a low interest rate environment there are loads of headwinds still facing european retail banks. this is not a new story. they're generating good fee income there i had the chance to sit down with the ceo one thing i asked him, particularly as it pertains to
4:07 am
the french retail business, how is french retail activity on the ground >> things are still doing pretty well in france when you compare france with other countries we posted a better growth gdp figure i was happy in the composition of the gdpis based on consumption but also investment by kocorporates that remained strong that is seen in the investment loans. overall the euro slowed down but we remain constructive in the coming quarters. we tend to think in the u.s. and in the eurozone things should remain relatively good, provided there's not an event which could derail the confidence level. we remain positive overall >> do you worry about domestic politics because the president is losing popularity >> no, we have the benefit of
4:08 am
strong institutions. there is no election in the coming quarters, in the coming years, which could change the picture and the president has the majority at the parliament, he has the capacity to implement further reforms. >> i want to ask about brexit as well there was a report that you have been preparing and speaking to some personnel in the uk for the possibility of either losing jobs or having to move countries in case of a no-deal brexit. can you confirm that's true? >> on the brexit we remain in a very uncertain situation, like all banks. we are in a wait and see mode. i hope there will be an agreement. i hope that things will go smoothly i'm happy to see the commission has said even if there's a hard brexit, there will be a transition for the businesses. we are there in this wait and
4:09 am
see mode we will be able to adapt to whatever scenario. we have to get ready let's wait we should know in the coming days and weeks >> we heard that wait and see mode about brexit from a lot of people i wanted to ask about this polish business that the bank sold what did he say about that >> it's part and parcel of the bigger structural transformation plan going into 2020 they told investors at the end of last year they would be looking to sell nonessential businesses one of them was a polish subsidiary they announced they were selling they sold other businesses in eastern europe earlier in the year the ceo said the strategy behind it is two-fold one is to refocus on core businesses and the second would be capital generating to sell those businesses it is expected the polish
4:10 am
business they sold will add about 10 basis points to their tier 1 ratios. if you recall when the european banks stress tests came out on friday, societe generale did not score high on that metric. one focus will be on beefing up capital. one way to do that is by off-loading some nonessential businesses we'll have to keep an eye on that and keep an eye out on potential acquisitions they could make in the space. >> oumanna, thank you very much if you have views on these european bank performances, get in touch on twitte twitter, @streetsignscnbc. coming up, my colleague, karen tso has been discussing brexit with tony blair brexit with tony blair we'll bring you thatdma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally conversation after this brexit break.
4:11 am
- 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. even when nothing else is. gopi's found a way to keep her receipts tidy, (brand vo) snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, $4,628 in tax savings. quickbooks. backing you.
4:12 am
4:13 am
with xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. and with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. ...you're about to find out! you don't even know where i live... hello! see the grinch in theaters by saying "get grinch tickets" into your xfinity x1 voice remote. a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he. bringing you live pictures from the california town of thousand oaks where a shooting seems to have taken place overnight at around 2:30 a.m.
4:14 am
local time according to the sheriff's department, at least six people have been injured in that shooting the suspect apparently remains at large those are live pictures from thousand oaks where a shooting outside a bar seems to have taken place overnight in california president trump will now have to work with a divided congress after the midterm election results democrats won back control of house of representatives after eight years. republicans gained a few seats in the senate. karen tso, you've been talking to someone there who knows a bit about politics >> exactly ten years in office, tony blair, the long-term uk prime minister was on stage with me for 30 minutes yesterday just hours into t after the midterm elections. his point was that it wasn't a
4:15 am
bad result for donald trump. he said if you think back a year ago, there was a widely held belief this would be a one-term president, he would not go unchallenged in 2020 but now the race for 2020 isup in the air that means there's soul searching to do for the democrats. so what do they do coming up to 2020 this man is a fame centrist, he held the center ground strongly in the uk, part of a political movement he said populism is still alive and well you will swing to the left and swing to the right he is asking why aren't the democrats picking up the independents in the middle donald trump said the center ground was dead to the democrats, accusing them of swinging hard left so a lot of the work that tony blair believes the democrats need do is try to capture the center ground, not get hamstrung
4:16 am
by identity politics we also talked about if he sees donald trump crossing the aisle. this is a president that's been divisive republicans have to get behind him. so i asked tony blair what he expects trump to do in the final two years in office. >> let's say theresa may gets a deal, she brings it to parliament, parliament votes the deal down. the alternatives are general election or a fresh vote for the people or we go out without a deal. in my view, a general election is highly unlikely because of the state of the conservative party unless they're suiciding, in politics today you can't discount that. let's assume they're not they won't want an election. no deal is absurd. we should have the chance to go back to the people
4:17 am
here's the reason why it's not undemocratic in the two years or more since we have that vote, our knowledge of what it means has been hugely enlarged there are about five different versions of brexit on offer. if theresa may does the deal that she wants -- i say this with no disrespect to her. she's in a difficult position. she's doing this from good intentions but the deal she's trying to do is an attempt to find a way around this dilemma. there is no way around it. you either do brexit in a way that keeps us in step with europe's rules, to minimize economic damage, that's the pointless brexit if you're in step with europe's rules, why are you leaving or you do a deal that wrenches us out of the european single market altogether and the customs union and that will do real economic damage
4:18 am
that's the painful brexit. you have pointless versus painful. neither is a good idea so my view is simple before we go down the path of pointless or painful ask the question again of the british people in these circumstances do you want to proceed? >> i think we tried to confuse the audience a bit we were going to play a clip on the midterms, but that was a clip on brexit you can hear from the conversation we also had a discussion around brexit tony blair very much calling for a second referendum. he wants the people to have another vote that came through. it's quite interesting to hear the crowd response here. split opinions still around brexit here in europe with the technology audience, a global audience, they're very much supportive of a second vote and a halt to the brexit proceedi proceedings. there was a cheer when tony
4:19 am
blair said he was 100% opposed to brexit. the midterm election is so important when you think about a man who stayed in power for so long and as we talk about strategies for donald trump in 2020 let try to play that clip about what donald trump will do to cross the aisle, stay in power and make some progress in the final two years in office. >> trying to predict donald trump is -- it's challenging >> there's so many other things you could say there. >> right so the honest answer is i can't be sure. i suspect he'll do a mixture i think sometimes he'll try to work with the democrats and then put the democrats on the wrong side of an argument if they're not going to work with him the other thing he'll do, if you are in midterms, and you lose the house, the disadvantage is
4:20 am
the house can block your legislation. the advantage is you can play off them you can say to your constituents i'll be able to do all these things for you but these guys won't let me when you get to the next presidential election you can use that i think the changing hold of the house poses a challenge for him but also for the democrats >> so you're saying 2020 got much harder for the democrats because they got control of the house? >> no, but what these elections show is the democrats can't take it for granted so they'll have to think carefully how they play this so it doesn't look to the public as if they're just going after trump. they'll have to go after him on issues and they probably, if there are areas where he makes them a reasonable offer, they're going to have to be careful of being pushed into a corner where
4:21 am
it looks like they're opposing things that the public might want because it's him that's proposing it this is where the politics will get tricky i guess my point is, you know, if you think back to 2016 and the election victory and the first few months of that trump presidency, at points it looked as if the whole thing might just disintegrate and frankly if you were hearing cnn or reading the "new york times" you would think it was just about to collapse it hasn't collapsed. i think it will require smart politics and real genuine thought through political strategy, plus the right candidate for 2020 that's going -- this is what i believe is the challenge, is going to pull sufficient numbers of those independents into a democrat
4:22 am
position >> tony blair there talking about the challenge now for the democrats and what the strategy would be if he were in the states he would be on that side of the aisle of being a former labour politician, he would be a democrat if he was part of american politics. we spoke about some key areas. policy areas that would be important for investors, whether it's trade or infrastructure, the two areas where there is some level of accord between the republicans and the democrats. on the trade side in particular he thought that there might be a break through given that in the interests of china and the united states to move forward on trade. he said where it could get challenging is if china decides to play hard ball. so i think investors are saying what could happen on trade it's the next big issue that could be crossed and one that the democrats will have to tackle many probably thought the democrats would be facing trade as their first policy point of action but after the resignation of the
4:23 am
attorney general yesterday, jeff sessions, it seems like the russia investigation will be one of the first issues that the democrats will tackle. i think we're in for a noisy two years and the run up to 2020 that's the takeaway from tony blair. certainly a fascinating december cushion on stage >> karen, thank you very much for that interview prime minister theresa may has shown cabinet colleagues a draft of the brexit withdrawal treaty "the financial times" reports that it lacks detailed arrangements regarding the irish border but covers 95% of that withdrawal text. may was planning to hold another special cabinet meeting today, but that meeting now may take place over the weekend or early next week. the irish prime minister says the chances of a special brexit summit to finalize a deal before the end of this month are with every single day that passes becoming less likely.
4:24 am
and the eu competition commissioner set a probe into google's advertising services. she said the european commission could hit the company with another fine earlier this year a record fine was imposed against google after it used its mobile operating system to block rivals vestager said that they are examining the antitrust rules. >> we have a close working relationship with the doj and the ftc on mergers, and we also discuss cases when we come together i find that not only with this president but with former presidents there is a strong partnership across the atlantic when it comes to these matters recognizing completely differences in legislation and differences in the market situation. but it may be a renewed deeper
4:25 am
interest in curiosity into what we're doing in europe. siemens reported a fall in fourth quarter profit compared to last year but sees a favorable market environment on the horizon for next year. the engineering group saw net profit fall 46% for the year to 681 million euros, which beat expectations siemens plans to raise its dividend and launch a 3 billion euro share buyback program. conteinu continental's thirr profit dropped to 30.1%. they predicted an ebit of more than 9%. it previously cut its guidance for sales due to declining revenue and higher research and development costs. coming up, astrazeneca is in the green after returning to sales growth we'll hear from the ceo after this break so a tree falls on your brand-new car and totals it.
4:28 am
and as if that wasn't bad enough, now your insurance won't replace it outright because of depreciation. if your insurance won't replace your car, what good is it? you'd be better off just taking your money and throwing it right into the harbor. i'm regret that. with new car replacement, if your brand-new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
4:29 am
welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx in london. socgen sees green after net profit jumps 32% in the third quarter driven by strength at the retail bank. the ceo tells cnbc the comeback in trading activity has helped >> it's still a pretty difficult environment for europe and banks. i'm happy to see a growth of the capital market revenues by close to 8%. commerzbank investors cheer turnaround progress as shares trade higher after the lender beats third quarter profit forecasts. we'll speak to the cfo at 11:40 a.m. central european time. astrazeneca is getting a shot in the arm as the drugmaker returns to growth. >> we are building the pipeline, step one we are launching new products. we don't have one or two new
4:30 am
products, we have several. we have five, six, seven new products in that space and president trump fires attorney general jeff sessions in a move some democrats have branded a blatant attempt to disrupt the russia probe as they take back control of the house for the first time in eight years. in europe the major indices are trading in the green the ftse 100 is up in paris the cac 40 is trading higher and in italy the ftse mib is trading up more than 0.10% let's check in on currencies we can see the dollar weakness continuing to be a factor. it looks like euro has slightly weakened against the dollar. similar storywith the pound.
4:31 am
significantly weaker in performance against the greenback. let's check in on u.s. equity markets ahead of their open. the dow jones of those three major indices is looking to open higher both the s&p 500 and nasdaq called slightly softer at the open we've been talking about drug prices, specifically this year quite a lot in the wake of donald trump's election, something he made a big part of his campaign promises. astrazeneca shares are trading higher after the uk-based drugmaker said it's returned to sales growth new drugs helped drive that growth chinese sales increased 32% in the third quarter. julianna tatelbaum has more what is pushing this stock higher >> todays all about product sales growth investors were looking to see
4:32 am
their new protects deliver on the growth front that's what we have seen product sailinl sales grew 9% so this company is seeing patent expirees easing out and new growth so a good result this morning. better than analysts were expecting. total revenues at 5.34 billion, analysts were expecting 5.3 billion. a couple things in focus in the broader healthcare space you mentioned one in the u.s., drug pricing also with the midterm elections coming through, there's been an increased focus on healthcare in theelectorate. i had a chance to ask about the midterm election result and what this means about the state of healthcare in the u.s. moving forward. >> as a company, we're not only a u.s. company, we have a broad global scale we're big in china china is material for us
4:33 am
about 20% of sales as it relates to the u.s., who can guess what will happen it is clear that the market is under pressure changes are coming inside the u.s. market place, the so-called part "b" segment, the segment of products that people have been talking about price referencing represents only about 10% of sales. so exposure to all of this is relatively limited but still we will have an exposure it is really hard to know what the government will implement because everybody has an idea. now that the democrats are in the house, they control the house, they will have to work with the administration and we'll see what they come up with >> on that topic of drug pricing you joined a number of other drugmakers over the summer in freezing prices in the u.s. for the remainder of 2018. now as you say with the democrats in control of the
4:34 am
house, the trump administration who has really driven the drug pricing initiative so far, there's the potential we see them find more common ground and crack down what can we expect medium term given this new political backdrop >> again, as i said, it is hard to imagine what will happen to prices i think one of the things that i would say as far as the u.s. marketplace is that it needs to gain transparency. today companies have list prices, and then they give a lot of rebates they have net prices i can give you a couple examples the drug for the treatment of as marks the list price is $350, which is very high the price insurers really pay is the same as it is in europe. when people compare prices, they look at list prices, but we give ab enormous amount of rebates to
4:35 am
distributors and net price is sometimes similar to europe. so the system needs to become more transparent those rebates need to go so payers can pay a net price and the patients can have transparency of the prices >> that was the ceo of astrazeneca talking about the impact of the u.s. elections on the healthcare market. while it is still too early to tell what ultimate implications are, it's clear transparency is key and the market is under pressure so more changes to come i also got the chance to ask the ceo about brexit and how the company thinks about this. we already knew astra halted investment in the uk as they prepare for brexit let's listen to what the ceo said on this topic >> you have two aspects in the uk we have research and development and we have manufacturing. research and development, as i
4:36 am
often say, cambridge is where we are based. th it is a good place to do science. so our commitment to cambridge is strong. we continue investing there, and we recruit people to do science and research and discover new products then you have the manufacturing aspect our chairman reflected on manufacturing. we have suspected an investment until we get clarity as to how the borders will work. it's still unclear how product will be moved across borders today they move easily because the uk is part of europe tomorrow you have a border you have to clear your goods at the border we need clarity on how that will work otherwise we'll have disruptions of supply chains >> how worried are you about medicine shortages in the case
4:37 am
of a no-brexit scenario? >> we've been preparing for the possibility that the clearing of goods at the border is slower. new processes have to be put in place. new people are recruited we have increased our stock for about six weeks so we have enough to make sure patients do not miss out on their drugs. our number one priority is to make sure patients don't miss out on important medicines >> again, that was the ceo of astrazeneca telling us that while we've seen a strong quarter from astrazeneca, uncertainty still exists around the pharma sector. brexit being one of those key uncertainties. >> i want to broaden this conversation out with our guest. daniel, for me, i'm fascinated by what may or may not happen in the u.s. after these midterm elections. i wanted to ask you, clearly the democratic party made it a plank of their campaign to try to keep healthcare prices down, specifically as it relates to
4:38 am
drugs. it seems to me also that state governments, not just the federal government, state governments are paying attention to things like pharmacy benefit managers and the huge margins they make on generic drugs do you foresee that as a threat to the business models of some of those companies involved? >> within the drug space you have to think about the rebates that were talked about i think the pharma industry is focusing in on this aspect of list prices growing at 2%, other prices growing at 6% so there needs to be transparency there that could be bad for distributors and pharmacy managers in the u.s. this is middle men making masts amount of money in a healthcare system that many agree needs to be reformed. if you're a drug care company looking at changes to the system, how do you take advantage of that? how do you try and position yourself for potential changes given that you have these incredibly long time horizons
4:39 am
when it comes to r & d >> focus on value. what you have to focus on is producing drugs that improve clinical outcomes and are better for patients companies like astrazeneca are delivering drugs that deliver value, they'll get the price so the u.s. will pay for innovation they won't pay for me-toos >> i want to talk about this shift away from primary care focused models to more specialty drugs like oncology. how much of a valuation uplift do they deserve in transitioning from older models to more specialized portfolios >> i think that transition happened i think it comes down to how much earnings growth any of these companies can generate if you look at astra, they have high teens earnings growth, 20 times earnings next year so i think that is a reasonable valuation. other companies that are not growing will struggle.
4:40 am
another thing that came through the astra result today is the strength we're seeing in china it's a massive market for them they talked about how the market is itching for drugs in the respiratory space and the diabetes space how big is that opportunity? do you expect to see more of the u.s. players start to enter the chinese market >> for astra, china is growing at 30%, nearly a $4 billion business that's nearly 20, 25% of the top line that shows astra is a great selling organization other companies have tried to get into china, they are in china. they're not perhaps doing as well emerging markets were flagged as a great growth engine six, seven years ago. we had all the issues with gsk and bribery allegations. there's a big opportunity there. >> so the big opportunity there, what other markets besides china would you say the big pharma giants are looking to for growth >> i think they're looking at
4:41 am
all of southeast asia. countries like vietnam which is growing fast looking at any of those parts of the world. south america, because of the currency issues has been ho-hum. that may recover parts of that are a good market. you see that with the drugs that some biotechnology companies have developed they've done well in places like south america. africa is a long way behind. >> if we're thinking about the european drugmakers compared to the u.s., which offers more of an upside in terms of valuation from here? >> focus on the companies that are developing drugs with value. in our view, novartis, astrazeneca. i think keep an eye on roche i think roche has a great pipeline, but they have this bisimilar headwinds. copies of their drugs could be coming to market but they are innovative. keep that in mind for the
4:42 am
future >> daniel, thank you very much for coming in. thanks also to julianna for that interview. sticking with specific companies, solvay reported more than a 50% jump in third quarter net profit higher prices offset increases to raw material costs. deutsche telekom raised its guidance for the third time this year after t-mobile boosted overall revenues during the third quarter. the group says it expects adjusted core profits to reach 23.6 billion euros this year. the ecb has chosen italy's andrea enria to head up the banking authority in europe. he's a former supervisor at the bank of italy and some bankers have criticized him for what they considered his harsh
4:43 am
approach to unpaid bank loans. the fed is widely expected to maintain interest rates at current levels when it announces its latest policy decision today. the meeting was delayed a day to take account of the midterm elections. policymakers are contending with a strengthening dollar and signaled the rate rise will be coming in december that's also in line with the latest cnbc survey steve liesman has more >> no rest for the weary fresh after dealing with the u.s. midterm elections, investors have to think about the federal reserves here are the fed expectations for the november meeting 90% of the panel says no rate hike in november 85% expect that rate hike in december so some pretty good certainty around a fourth rate hike for this year. how many next year 2 1/2. that means good agreement on doing two. half of the panel of 30 say they will stay at two another half say they will do
4:44 am
three. let's put all these quarter point rate hikes together. we'll end the year at a fed funds rate at 2.4, going up to 3. we stay there. eventually the panel believes the fed gets restrictive by a quarter point and ends the cycle at 3.3%. remember, hiking rates is one thing that the fed is doing. it's also reducing the balance sheet if it stays on course it will reduce around 600 billion we asked the panel what is that worth in rate hike terms 15% say less than one hike 32% say it's equal to a single quarter point hike so in your mind when you think about how much the fed is going to do next year, it's the rate hikes, maybe two or three, but an additional 6$600 billion reduction in the balance sheet
4:45 am
back to you. zurich insurance has posted a rise in premiums and blamed higher than expected losses from weather events and catastrophes. they expected losses from around 1$175 million from hurricane michael in the fourth quarter but is still on track to hit targets for the year as a whole. and strong life premiums and disposals have boosted gener generali's nine month profit estimates. they hold around 60 billion euros in italian government bonds which have, as you may well know, fallen as a result of the budget row between rome and the eu. coming up, jeff sessions is the latest casualty of the trump administration we'll vhave the latest on his firing when we come ck ba.
4:49 am
shipping firms transport goods before higher tariffs kick in next year. import growth was 21.4% higher than it was for the same month last year. china's trade surplus with the u.s. fell from the previous month to just below $32 billion. that smaller trade gap is a good piece of news for d.c. eunice yo eunice yoon joins us now with more what type of products does mondelez want to bring to china next >> there are just so many. you know, the trade war has dominated debate between the u.s. and china, but perhaps to better understand exactly what is at stake you should try a seaweed flavored oreo cookie i'm at the research lab of the american food giant mondelez this is the maker of the oreo
4:50 am
cookie here at the lab they come up with all sorts of various flavors of the oreo to tailor to chinese tastes that means wasabe, seaweed or spicy chicken. mondelez is not really in the business of moving stuff in and out of the country instead it's localized its operations earlier today i spoke with the china chief who told me that localization has helped the company to be able to generate a tremendous amount of business despite the trade war. >> we are seeing as a company that is rooted in china. we like openness as a multinational. we like free trade as much as anyone i would not say it has influenced a lot we make and bake for china
4:51 am
>> he says that china generates $1 billion in sales for the company here it's also one of the fastest growing markets for mondelez it's increasingly becoming more important. part of that is because of the oreo cookie. when i was speaking earlier, they say what researchers do is they come up with the idea and talk about what flavors are popular in china that means savory as well as spicy. so he said because of all the localization that the company has, they were able to move this product from the idea to the market in just four months he called that china speed it is really amazing how quickly it sold out. nine hours for the first batch >> eunice, i want to hear back from you once you had a chance to taste those seaweed flavored oreos. thank you very much for joining
4:52 am
us president trump has fired his attorney general, jeff sessions sessions said he was resigning "at the request of the president. the former senator from alabama angered trump after he recused himself from the russia investigation. trump named sessions' chief of staff, matthew whitaker as acting attorney general. following that news, chuck schumer warned president trump about interfering with mueller's probe into russian meddling. >> i find the timing suspect, number one number two, the paramount view is that any attorney general, whether this one or another one should not be able to interfere with the mueller investigation in any way they should not be able to end
4:53 am
it they should not be able to limit it they should not be able to interfere with mueller going forward and doing what he thinks is the right thing president trump slapped down suggestions he would seek to shut down mueller's investigation. >> i could fire everybody right now. i don't want to stop it. politically i don't like stopping it. it's a disgrace. it should have never been started. there was no crime everybody has conflicts. they all have conflicts that are beyond anything that anybody has ever seen in terms of conflicts. i stay away from it. you know what i do i let it go on they're wasting a lot of money i let it go on i don't want to do that. >> tracie potts joins me now from washington, d.c in the immediate term, the short-term, what are the real world implications for the mueller investigation? >> the man who is temporarily
4:54 am
replacing sessions is his own, as you said, his own chief of staff. whitaker has been critical of that investigation publicly saying not long ago that he thought the investigation was going too far. he said instead of firing the man in charge, robert mueller, you could drain mueller's budget and bring this investigation to a screeching halt. keeping in mind now matthew whitaker is the person mueller will have to go to if he wants more authority and if he wants to expand the investigation, if he wants to bring charges in the investigation. whitaker may have to approve that as well having someone critical of the investigation in charge of making decisions about it is raising those questions with democrats about whether or not, as they put it, this is the beginning of obstruction of justice. am i right in thinking we're not heard a huge amount from the mueller investigation in recent
4:55 am
weeks. is that because of the lead up to the midterm elections >> it certainly could be there's always that question about releasing something that could be highly political. but, no, we have not seen in recent weeks charges or really any leaks coming out of that investigation. >> tracie potts from nbc news joining us from washington let's take a check on european markets before we go. you can see two out of four of the indices are in the red the ftse 100 still trading higher by more than 0.10%. the dax slightly above the flat line the cac 40 is trading lower as is the ftse mib in italy interesting to watch that italian market seesawing the last few weeks let's check the currency market. we've been seeing dollar weakness over the last 24 hours. that seems to have been
4:56 am
reversed the euro is trading weaker against the dollar, as is the british pound. the dollar is stronger by more than a tenth of a percent against the yen. it is also slightly stronger there against the swiss franc. let's check in on the u.s. equity markets ahead of their open the s&p 500 called lower by 5 points the dow jones also being called lower by a couple points that seems to have fallen back over the last half hour or so and the nasdaq as well-being called around 18 points lower at this stage that's it for our show in london i'm willem marx. "worldwide exchange" is coming up right now
4:58 am
your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.
4:59 am
[ready forngs ] christmas? no, it's way too early to be annoyed by christmas. you just need some holiday spirit! that's it! this feud just went mobile. with xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. and with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. ...you're about to find out! you don't even know where i live... hello! see the grinch in theaters by saying "get grinch tickets" into your xfinity x1 voice remote. a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he.
5:00 am
it's 5:00 a.m., here's your five at 5:00 the dow hovering at the flat line right now after surging more than 500 points during yesterday's session. we'll find out what's fueling that big rally new fallout this morning after president trump fired attorney general jeff sessions we are live in washington with all of those details the fed front and center once again policymakers are a few hours away from announcing the latest rate decisions. tesla naming elon musk's
85 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CNBC Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on