welcome to "street signs." i'm julianna tattlebaum and these are your headlines europe's rally fades tesco shares jump towards the top of the stock 600 as the retailer beats expectations with a more than 2% rise in christmas sales. eriksson slumps as they set aside 6 billion swedish kroms. jaguar land rover is

reportedly set to axe thousands of jobs as they suffer amid falling chinese sales and brexit uncertainty. s. european markets have opened in negative territory this morning. they have been trading for about one hour now, and this comes after a relatively patchy handover from asia on the back of some weakness in chinese inflation numbers. this draws stark contrast to the trading session we saw yesterday, not only in europe but worldwide on the back of optimism around u.s./china trade talks and a dovish set of fed minutes around the december meeting. we have heard from both sides, both china and the u.s. now around those three days of talks, and while we have had positive signals from both sides, the bottom line is no deal has been delivered yet.

so perhaps part of what is driving european markets slightly lower in addition to that soft inflation data out of china. let's get into european markets and see how the different regions are fairing. a negative picture across the board. the worst is the cac fresh stocks are off .9% no region istrading in positiv territory as of yet. in the u.k. we are seeing the ftse 100 dip brexit coming firmly back into the spotlight as we head towards next week's partnership vote we will get out to willem on that let's get into the sectors this morning. yesterday of course the story was risk on. those trade sensitive sectors were benefitting the most. we saw basic resources, autos, technology, industrial trading higher around this time yesterday. now it is a very different picture. the three sectors are at the bottom of the leader board

technology down 1% as well while at the top we have the more defensive sectors, utilities, tellcos. it is an over all muted day. i want to get into the auto sector this is the worst performer of the bunch alongside basic resources. auto suppliers in particular, i want to highlight one condition, osram. shares have slumped to the bottom of the stock 600 after the ceo warned of a weaker than expected fourth quarter. other suppliers are down as well you have valeo down 3.2% right alongside osram which is down a pretty hefty 7.8% again, driving concerns there around china now i want to get to another sector in focus today, luxury. barchburg has cut the target prices citing late stage cycle concerns along with a potential

china slowdown the luxury center heavily exposed to china so this change is having a fairly substantial impact on the luxury sector. you have burberry down and caring down 2.8% so quite a negative day for the luxury sector china, meanwhile, says the latest round of trade talks with the u.s. have, quote, established the foundation to resolve concerns this comes after american and chinese officials wrapped up three days of discussions in beijing. the u.s. welcomed china' commitment to buy a substantial amount of american goods and services but warned there is still plenty to discuss on issues such as i.p. protection and chinese subsidies for domestic firms chinese producer price inflation rose at the slowest pace the figure hit 0.9% while cpi reached 1.9% both measures came in below

reuters expectations and that is inevitably contributing to what we saw in terms of market reaction in asia and now in the u.s. emily tan find this report from hong kong. >> chinese consumer prices rose 1.9% in december on year that is less than expected at the producer level prices rose 0.9% down from the 2.7% in the month preceding and marks the slowest pace since september 2016 stocks rised as they raised the prospect for more stimulus the on shore strengthening .68% against the dollar the pboc has pledged policy support amid a trade dispute with the u.s. and a weakening economy. the central bank announced a 100 basis point to the rrr last week and the first targeting medium lending facility will come into operation at the end of this month. it will stick to prudent lending

policies it will use counter cyclical factors to stimulate the economy. we have date at that due later this week expected to show china growth slowing to around 6.6% in 2018 that's from 6.9% in 2017 trade number scheduled due out next monday. i'm emily tan, back to you. i want to bring in kerry brown from kings college, london in your view what is behind the softness that we're seeing in the inflation data and does this warrant more stimulus from the chinese? >> i think the main issue is the confidence in china now is not great. that's an accumulation of what's been happening with the united states in consumer confidence is not great. there's a lot of volatility and that's going to get worse as the year goes on the overall issue is that what china wants, what america wants

are two very different things. china is wanting to have more autonomy and control and america is obviously very, very anxious as your report just said about intellectual property. there's a real clash. >> now in terms of the issue being consumer confidence, would more stimulus from the government actually resolve or boost consumer confidence or is it these -- the overhang from bigger macro issues that are less in the control of the chinese government's hands that will actually impact sentiment >> it's a vicious circle they've been doing stimulus for a long time. ten years ago they did it after the big financial crash there. consumers, you know, they need to know that the government has a plan in china. they expect the government to have a plan. the government says it's got a plan but it's clear at the moment over the last six months that it's had several plans that haven't really worked with america and i think that creates doubt. i don't really see an easy way

i mean, the current kind of discussions to deal with the tariffs being imposed in a couple of months time, that may be resolved. it probably will be resolved the underlying issue is the american and chinese are obviously on a clash course. the chinese people need to think that their leaders have a solution to this, which they don't seem to have at the moment. >> do you think that is playing into the leaders decision making at this point, the fact that they know people in china need to feel like they're in control. are they highly cognizant of the message it would send if they do get panicked and trigger more stimulus is that holding them back? >> yeah, i mean, what they've done in the last three or four years when there's been market issues is the government's got involved and it's usually got involved quite early and i think that that shows that it does get panicked i mean, the government is very nervous at the moment. there's all sorts of ways that it shows that. that makes people nervous. that makes consumers nervous the core thing is hard to

quanti quantify you can see it in all of these data that there is a softening of confidence in china and that's easy to lose and very hard to get back. >> in terms of president xi's handling of the u.s., is it your sense that he's been on a defensive or has he been in control of the situation >> i think so we shouldn't be too hard on the chinese government because no one's read trump right, but i think that they believe they were dealing with a very transaction politician and they hit kind of pretty core belief that trump has, probably the only core belief he has, and what's become clear in this whole process is that around xi jinping it's a very tight group if they get things right, cool if they don't, well, there's no correction mechanism it's not easy to correct the way they've been handling this. >> on the issue around tech, we had a guest on the show who likened the tech issue to the cold war, meaning that it's an

issue that's long term, strategic and going to keep rolling on you have no hopes of it being resolved in this round of talks and perhaps not by march either. do you agree with this this is something that's going to be a cold war like issue? >> on the one side you have a china that wants more autonomy, wants to control the innovation and then on the other you have an america that has a huge amount of technology but is very, very suspicious of china you can't really resolve this. china wants to go alone and it still needs america and america wants to know that china needs it >> is that going to be a satisfactory outcome, we just don't resolve the issue? >> we live with these things all the time i mean, at some point in the future it will probably be resolved depends how it gets resolved this is going to be a war of attrition. not a cold war this is a ghost war. no one knows what they're fighting, how they're fighting at some point boundaries will be

clear. >> if we get a resolution on trade, what does this mean for forecasts for the chinese economy? >> well, it will improve things of course if they can deal with this tariff issue, but the underlying structural issues because of the u.s. issue we have forgotten that china has massive structural issues it was dealing with, shifting into services and consumption creating innovation. all of the issues with how to deal with the imbalances within its own economy. those haven't gone away. they have been put on the back burner but they'll probably come to the fore. i think most analysts would say they're expecting a pretty good year for china. >> when i think about in the past, sector wise they have in the past invested in a lot of industrial sectors that now are seen as highly pollutetive and part of their over arching policies to pull back things like chemical, coal investments.

if we were to see them take targeted measures into certain sectors, where do you expect to see that is it in consumer innovative sectors and what will be the past >> the current five-year program was to have services and help in the shift of the new economic model. that's continuing. it's a question of how much they can put into it, but their aspiration is by 2021 when china is a middle income country, gdp of 13,000, they want a services dominated ecologically friendly economy and, i mean, they feel like they're getting there 70% of their energy still comes from fossil fuels. >> excellent thank you so much for that added color. now shifting gears to the

oil markets. oil prices are slipping this morning after u.s. crude supplies fell less than expected over the last week eia showed it fell below their retreat shows a 5% surge in yesterday's session fueled by on tow mission over u.s./china trade talks. speaking in riyadh, khalid al fali reiterated his commitment to balancing the market. >> we are concerned about volatility in the northern markets and we have seen volatility go outside of what we consider to be explainable over the last quarter of 2018 we would lead consistently, deliberately and with conviction to bring the market into balance. we're not going to let go and

that's a policy decision that has been made and i have been charged with monitoring the market and make sure that we stay focused on fundamentals and make sure we bring the balance back sooner rather than later. >> meanwhile, saudi arabia has sold $7.5 billion in bonds demand exceeded $7 billion now in other news, telecom's company eriksson will undergo further restructuring including job losses as it bids to save the faltering support services unit they're making a 6.1 billion swedish crown provision to revamp the unit. as tech firms roll out their latest products,media companie

are eyeing new ways to advance their streaming services cnbc's julia boorstin sat down with the ceos of viacom and discovery at the event and filed this report. >> reporter: on the heels of so much consolidation in the media space, disney buying fox, at&t time warner, one of the big questions here at ces this year is where the remaining media companies fit into the new landscape. with disney and at&t launching their streaming services later this year. discovery ceo david zaslav telling us about his fish services, cycling and golf, and the fact that he's adding his channels into other bundles should generate value. >> we added our channels to hulu they're growing significantly. one of the reasons is hgtv, food, i.d., tlc are four of the top five channels. if these skinny bundles grows, hulu, directv. it will be less channels

we have more carriage on those than anybody else. >> bob backish saying disney and time warner pulling back their window, it will let viacom be the greatest in the mix. >> accessing, making sure the flagship brands are represented in other components and that's what we're focused on. >> he says he cease the combination of driverless cars, 5g, two technologies very much in focus at ces giving people a lot more time and opportunity to stream video more time streaming videos, of course, a good thing ft. meade yeah companies julia boorstin, cnbc business news, las vegas. if you want to share what you're watching on your favorite streaming service you can do so

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welcome back to the program. u.k. lawmakers have dealt a fresh blow to prime minister theresa may shortening the time she has to come up with a plan b if her brexit agreement is rejected by parliament next week meanwhile shadow brexit secretary kier sturmer -- >> if she continues we will fight her tooth and nail every inch of the way. mr. speaker, every member of the house has a sole duty to consider the deal before us, not the deal the prime minister has pretended to have negotiated but the text before us labor is clear the deal has not seen a national interest it doesn't come anywhere near meeting our text

it will make the country poorer and more divided when i say that with certainness because i shadowed three different brexit secretaries and to now have a deal that's so demonstrably not uniting the company all able to command the support of this house is a tragic waste of the two years available for negotiations and a miserable end to this part of the process. we will have to vote on it next tuesday. after that it will be time for this house to decide what happens next may also promised to give parliament more power in talks with the e.u. as she looks to ease lawmaker concerns over her brexit deal. we've also been looking at how parliament can take a greater role as we take these negotiations onto the next stage and so i can tell the house that in the event that our future relationship or alternative arrangements are not ready by the end of 2020, parliament will have a vote on whether to seek to extend the implementation

period or bring the back stop into effect. >> willem marks joins us from westminster with more. willem, how much have events limited the government's room for maneuver >> reporter: certainly, janelle la, what it's done is take control away from the timetable. this amendment that passed with 17 conservative votes in favor of it yesterday essentially limits the time available to the prime minister and their advisors to come back if the vote next week goes against us with an alternative plan originally it was going to be 21 days, the utmost limit now it's three days of parliament sat in the house of commons behind me. to make sense of why that may or may not be significant, i'm joined by georgeanna wright. with that amendment put forward passing the house yesterday, why does that matter >> it matters because it gives parliament and greater role.

essentially the message from parliament is we don't trust you. we don't trust that you're going to be able to deliver a plan and actually we're running out of time and, therefore, you need to present something within three days and we might have a week of parliamentary hearings and discussions, but you need to get your act together. >> the brexit point person for the opposition labor party in the united kingdom, he said it looks increasingly inevitable. is that, again, a reflection of this idea that the government had been hoping to run out the clock? >> well, yes and no. i think he's pointing to the inevitable na at the moment we don't have an agreement in place. the odds are rising. the government should ask to extend that period of negotiations with the e.u. what we forget is you can't extend article 50 without the approval of every single member

state. they're unlikely to say, yeah, sure, let's extend it. they would want a good reason. >> what would a good reason constitute in your mind? >> i think for them, you know, it might be a general election, a second referendum or if parliament needs to pass other >> lots of general elections in the state. you have the refugee crisis. you have italy's budget. they have a lot to get on with >> when we were close to this, quote, unquote, meaningful vote last month, there was a significant number if not a majority of mps who probably said they would not back it. is anything different four weeks on >> not really, no. of course it's difficult to say

how they will vote but reports and what you're hearing is it suggests that they will get through but, of course, at the moment a majority of them oppose it lots of them are thinking, where is this going to lead. some think it leads to a general election others think it might fill the case while others feel that they can go for a softer form of brexit this is unchartered territory. we just don't know. >> when you look at the alternatives, do any of those command a hypothetical majority in this chamber? >> no, that's the whole problem. there's nothing at the moment. no alternative and dominates a majority i think the government's message is going to be very clear. we need the deal or we need to extend article 50 but then that requires the consent of our negotiating partner, the eu. if we don't have a deal we're going to crash out with no deal. that will have really quite

devastating consequences. >> one of the principle reasons a lot of proponents they have given, not voting in favor of it, involves the back stop on the republic of northern ireland. theresa may has tried to make more con concessions on that trying to give the northern ireland group the ability to veto elements they don't like but also offering parliament here the ability to stop that back stop from being triggered or stop an extension of the transition period. by doing that, by offering parliament that power does that not entirely undermine the legally binding nature of the withdrawal agreement that's been negotiated with the europeans? >> i mean, the back stop was always going to be part of this negotiation. we share this and cross trade is really important it was always going to be an

issue how you can leave the single market and keep that border open. you're absolutely right that this amendment doesn't look very good for the u.k so partly it looks that if all of a sudden parliament were to say actually we're just going to not -- we're not going to have the backstop or we're going to veto the exception, the e.u. on the other side are thinking, okay, that doesn't make you look very good as an international actor because you're breaking an agreement, a promise and, secondly, further down the line when we start discussing trades and the u.k. negotiators say, just trust us on this, the e.u. can say, can you be trusted? we've reached a withdrawal agreement. it took months and then parliament adopted this ame amendment that said you could break the agreement altogether >> we'll leave it there. that was georgina wright outlining some of the potential complexities involved in the

debates and votes going through to next tuesday. >> thank you very much, willem coming up on the show, tesco reports a solid performance but the rest of the u.k. sector doesn't fare as well stay with us

welcome back to "street signs. i'm julianna tattlebaum and these are your headlines. europe's two-day rally fades as investors wait for concrete details from the u.s./china trade talks. tesco jumps towards the top of the stock 600 as the retailer beats expectations with a more than 2% rise in christmas sales. ericcson shares slump as they set aside 6 billion swedish crowns. jaguar land rover is reportedly set to axe thousands of jobs as the u.k.'s largest automaker suffers amid falling chinese sales and brexit uncertainty. european markets have been open for about 1 1/2 hours now

let's take a look at where things stand it is shaping up to be a negative start to trade with the euro stock 600 down this morning. we are seeing losses across the various parts of europe. the worst performer of the bunch is the cac which is down about 70 basis points. over in the u.k. we are seeing about 39 basis points drop early on brexit, of course, coming back into focus we just heard from willem as we head towards the parliament vote retail in focus with a number of trading updates out today. we'll get into a little bit more detail on those shortly. but first let's have a look at fx markets yesterday, of course, we had a dovish set of meeting minutes from the federal reserve this sentences sent a pretty big message to markets and drilled the dollar to its lowest level since mid october. now this morning we are seeing some more weakness in the u.s. dollar the euro is trading -- excuse

me, we're seeing the reverse today getting back some of that. what we saw yesterday the euro is currently 14 basis points weaker versus the dollar around the 115 mark sterling slightly weaker against the dollar around 127.50 mark. let's get over to the u.s. and check out how futures are shaping up today of course, it's been a very strong run for u.s. stocks since the christmas eve period it's really been an extraordinary rally with gains around the 10, 12% mark for the three major indices. this morning it looks like we are seeing a little bit of a pull back there. all three major indices looking to open lower. this week a lot of the narrative in the u.s., a lot of that optimism was driven by u.s./china trade talks which have now, of course, concluded some positive signals there. the bottom line is no deal has been dedelivered yet the dovish meeting minutes from the fed also contributing. weak inflation data overnight from china weighing on the overall market narrative this

morning. now as i mentioned, retail in focus this morning it's been a mixed day for british retailers. tesco reported a 2 point be point 2% rise in sales out in front of the market and beating analyst expectations this came after sainsbury said they missed forecast there's quarterly drops in total sales down 3.9 and 5.7% respectively debenhams is looking to restructure. u.k. retailers faced the worst christmas period since the outbreak of the global financial crisis a decade ago. that's according to detail produced by the british retail consortium like for like sales were 0.7% compared to a 0.6% rise last year the brc blamed the retail slump with the continued slump and coupled with a no deal brexit. now joining me right now around the desk is richard lim, ceo of

retail economics to help us put all the different pieces together we've now heard from a number of the u.k. retailers through the christmas period what do you make of the results that we saw today from m&s and tesco and how this fits into the broader picture of how u.k. retail is doing? >> overall i think what we're actually seeing is a few distinctive friends that are emerging over the christmas period i think the first thing to mention is christmas is becoming an increasingly online event the portion of christmas spending that's migrated towards online has increased on this time last year you mentioned the tlc figures is 30%. it was over 1/3 in november and so this migration towards online continues and that continues to put traditional retailers like m&s under pressure because they're having to deal with the shift online while essentially having too many stores, too much

space and dealing with that pivot in the business model that's needed. >> now i want to get into that pivot in just a moment, but first on the christmas season. in terms of margins, all we've seen today is sales updates from these guys the big question this season is really around the effect of discounting in the run up to christmas on margins so what are you expecting to hear once we do start getting the updates from companies >> i think since black friday running right up into christmas we had an unprecedented level discounting in the retail sector inevitably this will put margins into the sector. they're suggesting that their margins were under pressure. while we have this environment for consumer spending, migration towards online, retailers have still got those fixed operating costs associated with their stores so we actually measure operating costs and operating costs are rising by about 3.5% year over year they're driven higher by a

national minimum wage, business rates. a lot of these pressures are accumulating for retailers. >> sort of combining a couple of the points that you made on costs and on the pivot to online with what the brick and mortars are trying to achieve. m&s interestingly in their comments said their current food basket size is not appropriate for online acquisition in terms of the economics, the costs associated with doing so, is it really possible or is it beneficial -- is it optimal for m&s in particular to try to shift their proposition online >> of course all retailers will place their own challenge, shifting more of their operations online. food retailers operating really different business model from non-food, clothing, et cetera. m&s in particular, like you say, typical basket values are smaller than the big process and so to make the economics work when you think about the cost of

picking, packing, delivering those goods, essentially they really need to try to drive the basket sizes up to really make that an optimal operation for them so it's going to be difficult for them to do that. >> is that the answer for them, to try to shift their basket size to be bigger? is that -- is that the goal? >> of course m&s, half of their retail sales are driven by food. the other half is driven by non-food they really need to try to optimize the operation for both halves of the business that requires different strategies for them. essentially there needs to invest into the experience, the in store experience. create a meaningful experience for their customers. get the products right to resonate with their core customer base and try to drive sustainable levels within stores they've got too many stores so they need to cut back and really execute right sizing initiatives and store disposals. i think that's going to be top

of their priorities heading into 2019. >> shifting gears now to tesco, the other big name focus this morning. they have outperformed the market, 2.2% rise in christmas sales. that's stronger than analysts had been expecting can you give us color on what you think is happening here in terms of market share reallocation is this simply a case of tesco taking market share from sainsburys and morrisons or is there more going on? >> there's lots of moving parts within the grocery sector. it's going through unprecedented structural change. i think with tesco in particular, what they've done is really executed well the plans that they've put in place over the last couple of years they have a laser like focus on food they've continued to deliver food growth over the last 12 consecutive quarters and they've reshaped the business. they've cut down the number of skus, number of lines. they've increased the proportion of their sales for own brand

labels which obviously have higher profit margins and they're really seeing the benefits of those -- of that feeling through now. of course, acquisition has played an important role in that as they try to integrate the two businesses together or continue to integrate the two businesses together, they would start delivering more operational efficiencies >> excellent good news for tesco, more challenges ahead for m&s that is richard lim adding some color to debate around u.k. retail. jaguar land rover is set to cut up to 5,000 jobs in the u.k. work force the layoffs will impact managerial and administrative roles are part of a $2.5 billion cost cutting plan. they come as the british car maker is addressing a dip in chinese sales. the company was not immediately available for comment. meanwhile, rolls royce has reported record sales in 2018

but the bmw british owned car brand remains concerned about the upcoming exit from the european union they urged lawmakers to, quote, avoid an abrupt change. volkswagen and ford are expected to unveil a new alliance at next week's detroit auto show. this will go beyond a focus on commercial vehicles. the scale of the partnership is still being debated with the car makers working out details with collaboration on autonomous details. remember, you can follow us on twitter @streetsignscnbc. you can tweet me directl directly @cnbcjulianna. coming up, minutes released by the fed, members were divided. we discuss what that means for jerome powell and the future for

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welcome back to the program. airbus has ended its five-year dominance of the jet market losing out to rifle boeing in the race for orders in 2018. the company said it had a net 747 orders down 1/3 from 2017. deliveries up at 11% coming in at 800 deliveries outstripped new orders in other news, a u.s. shareholder in danske bank have accused it of defrauding investors by failing to stop alleged money laundering the kwlams filed by a new york pension fund it's seeking damages for investors.

afford to be patient about further policy forming the minutes showed disagreements about the rate hike. steve liesman has more. >> the central bank con throw versely raised rates they were already thinking about bringing a halt to their hikes in fact, the minutes show some

members at the meeting even opposed the hike at the time in the end the fed decided to raise rates based on strong economic and jobs data despite the selloff in the market and rise in volatility, the minutes show officials still expected growth to remain above trend this year and that more rate hikes could be coming. but officials tried to tweak their language to indicate that future rate hikes were far more dependent on economic data than they had been in the past. didn't really work at the time in the wake of the meeting the dow jones would decline 2300 points or nearly 10% before calling back most of the post fed meeting cost it took some soothing comments suggesting the fed is more flexible on the rates than markets thought. several fed speakers on wednesday emphasized this new patience they said they're likely to hike but we'll wait to see whether the pessimism in the market or the optimism from the data wins out. steve liesman, cnbc business

news. joining us on the line from new york is steven englander, global head of fx research at standard chartered bank. thank you so much for joining us this morning now the minutes struck a more dovish tone than the statement and the press conference did back in december what explains the difference between what happened during the meeting and what they decided to deliver in terms of communication to the market? >> well, you know, we all saw the weakness in the markets in the second half of december, the aftermath of the meeting the minutes actually sounded a lot like what the market expected to get at the actual meeting, both from the statement and in terms of comments, but it certainly wasn't what powell delivered. but it does sound very close to the sort of emerging fed consensus that we heard since the beginning of the year. >> huge focus on powell's use of the word patient, but what exactly is meant by the word

how patient is patient >> you know, that's a very interesting question we had rosengrand saying patience means 1/4 implying that skip march and in q2 you see how things are and maybe get back on the hiking course. others, bosstik, kaplan, bullard have been pretty explicit saying patience should be much longer that's supposed to be one of the questions that will be put to powell and clarida when they speak today. the other question is whether patient means, look, let's skip one hike and then just keep on doing it or whether it means let's give an explicit signal that we're close to a peak the market really wants to hear that peek word. >> what is the real risk of them taking a wait and see moment and pausing at the next opportunity to hike rates? >> you know, they've come around

and the market already was there basically to the view that if there's no inflation problem, it's just anything inflation expectations are coming off and the inflation numbers are getting softer we saw the cpi and ppi out of china overnight. imported inflation is expected to be an issue the -- you know, the market viewpoint and increasingly the fed viewpoint is if there's no inflation problem, why not take your time and see if there's actually any reason to be hiking right now. so i think that that allows them to actually take a longer term perspective in terms of kind of saying, look, we don't have to -- we really have the luxury of waiting and seeing and if the phillips curve is as glib as it seems to be, the hesitation isn't that high. >> they asked about the dollar

index yesterday, it dropped to its lowest level since october what is this uncertainty but also what is this more dovish tone from the fed mean for the dollar in q1 >> well, we expect the dollar to weaken in the course of the year obviously it won't be among the product weakening. empirically the market has really been focused on what the question of u.s. rates are going to do after 2019 and with the expectations of fed hikes disappearing from the market this puts a lot of pressure on the dollar downward side i think that it means certainly the emerging markets that were pummelled last year, their funding is much easier if they're rate sensetive so we're seeing that rally we're seeing euro and g10. we expect that to continue in the course of the year but it's never going to be a straight line.

>> finally, does a resolution on u.s./china trade mean we will see an imminent return to a more hawkish fed. >> i don't think it's going to be imminent because the headwinds that we're seeing say to price increases coming out of the rest of the world and domestic u.s. inflation doesn't seem that intense. so we don't think they're right to hike in the first half of the year we don't think they'll take their time the real question is going to be the estimates of neutral are so vague. they can let the data tell them what to do they don't have to use a model and say this is our target. >> excellent really appreciate you joining us this morning steven englander, head of global 10 fx research for more on the latest fed minutes and why officials believe the policy path ahead is less clear, head to cnbc.com. meanwhile, house democrats have called on u.s. treasury

secretary steven mnuchin to brief congress over the trump administration's plan to end sanctions on companies linked to russian oligarch they argued that his interests in the companies were, quote, effectively frozen deripaska will remain sanctioned and other illicit activities. u.s. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein plans to step down his oversight of robert mueller's russia inquiry has made him a target for criticism by donald trump. nbc sources say they're likely to stay on until the report is submitted to the justice department. u.s. president donald trump has walked out of a meeting with democrats over the government shutdown calling it a total waste of time. the shutdown now entering its

20th day, 20th is on the cusp of becoming the longest in u.s. history. nbc's tracie potts is in washington and joins us with more where do things stand after yesterday's meeting? >> reporter: in an absolute stalemate because after nancy pelosi refused to give even one dollar to the president's border wall, that was it. he walked out. he confirmed on twitter that he thought the meeting was a waste of his time and there are varying reports of how tense it was in the room. it was about a 20 minute meeting but the bottom line is after three attempts to sit down together, democrats and president trump can come up with nothing here on day 20 of the shutdown as you said, it now could become the longest in u.s. history. tomorrow we will tie that record if the shutdown is not ended at that point on saturday, we will break that record. here on capitol hill democrats have a strategy. they're trying to reopen parts

of the government piece by piece. yesterday it was the irs dealing with tax issues. today the federal department that supports farmers and food stamps they're trying to lengthen the process of reopening the government by daily focusing on one particular group of people suffering as a result of the shutdown we've heard from federal workers. there are demonstrations planned today. not only federal workers, but other employees, other industries that are impacted by this shutdown. air traffic controllers and tsa workers are not at full speed, this affects the airline industry we will hear from pilots and flight attendants today as well. when this will end we have no idea. the president is headed down to the border today he has said that it's democrats who are refusing to fund border security and forcing 800,000 federal workers to go without

paychecks likely beginning tomorrow >> tracie, thank you so much for that color tracie potts, nbc news. before i hand you over to our u.s. colleague, let's take a look at u.s. futures and see how the markets are shaping up it is looking like it is going to be a negative start to trade state side s&p down 18. the dow jones just shy of 150 points lower the nasdaq down 52 points. this comes, of course, on the back of yesterday's pretty decent day for trading we saw all three major indices trading slightly higher. today it looks like it might be a slightly different picture i'm julianna tattlebaum. "worldwide exchange" is coming up next. ♪ (vo) here's a question. was it necessary to create a luxury car more teched out than silicon valley? with a cockpit fit for aspaceship. hang on. radar that senses things the human eye can't. busted. and the ability to make a thousand decisions

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will the d.c. drama derail the mini rally we are in that is the trillion dollar question it tops your five at 5 president trump storming out of a meeting with democrats calling it a waste in a time nine in a row. can oil's win streak keep going and what would it mean for stocks if it does. fresh talks out of china we will take you live to beijing. sears stays alive for now. the last-ditch effort to save the iconic american retailer speaking of retail, the one retailer you will hear about today. here's the question. can bath towels ease