welcome to "street signs." these are your headlines yubl yurp even equity markets lack direction after retail sales reignite growth fears overshadowing optimism about ongoing trade talks in beijing spanish prime minister pedro sanchez is expected to call the country's third election in less than four years. this after his 2019 budget plans were rejected. universal music sales help vivendi have a rise in full year

core operating profit after the french media group confirms it plans to sell up to 50% of the music unit and telecom italia shares surge on a report italian state lender cdp has been given the green light to increase its stake in the company to 10% well, good morning, and welcome to "street signs." as i mentioned, one of the top stories of the day is happening in spain spanish prime minister pedro sanchez is about to hold a post-cabinet press conference in madrid his 2019 budget was rejected by parliament yesterday as you can see, things are just coming together there now, and this is the very important press conference as we are expecting him to call a general election now, willem marks joins us live with more. what more can you tell us about what we can expect from this press conference today

>> well, if mr. sanchez does go ahead and call for french national elections in late april or perhaps even late may to make them coincide with the parliamentary elections across yier europe, that would be a signal that he feels, a, confident that his socialist party would be in some way able to benefit if you look at the poll numbers published by the newspaper the last couple of days based on a poll of polls, it shows that his party has gained pretty significantly over the last couple of years in those polls with a psoe. that's the acronym for his socialist party. now up 24% the critics, the catalans. they blocked his budget in a vote here on wednesday the critics saying, well, he has called these elections because he thinks he will benefit there from these elections

as we see spain's politics increasingly fragment over the last few years we've seen the end of a generation of two-party rule here there's going to be a lot of jostling none of them looking to have anything like an outright majority who will team up with who once the numbers come in from the election, and if it coincides with the european parliamentary elections, it will be even more paradox paradoxical. >> we'll be getting back out to you over in madrid later this morning. meanwhile, on the trade side of things u.s. treasury secretary steven mnuchin has hailed productive talks following negotiations with chinese officials in beijing u.s. trade negotiators will meet with chinese president xi jing ping according to trump economic advisor larry kudlow kudlow said there has been no decision about an extension to the march 1st tariff deadline.

now, unieunice has more. we've been watching closely over the last several days. what can we expect in terms of any concrete official statements later today? >> well, we're still waiting to see if there is going to be a statement to see if there is any progress on this trade deal, but as you were just highlighting, a treasury secretary steven mnuchin, or trade representative robert lightheizer have wrapped up their final day of discussions, and just moments ago they did take a photo op with president xi jing ping at the great hall of the people, which is a major government building here in china, and the chinese vice premier was also present, and he has really been the one who has been the key negotiator on the chinese side who has been in those discussion with lightheizer and steven mnuchin. he earlier also tweeted out saying that the conversations that he has had over the past

couple of days have been productive, though, of course, he hasn't detailed what that really means at this point it's unclear exactly what kind of deal the two sides have been able to make all the talk has been that the two sides have been working on trying to hammer out some sort of framework of an agreement that could then be used as a basis for a summit between president trump and president xi as early as next month, so not clear whether or not that's all been worked out, but what's even more disconcerting for anybody who would be watching -- you know, watching the details of this discussion, is whether or not the two sides were able to make any progress on some of the thornier structural issues there's been a lot of talk about how the chinese reportedly had said that they wanted to focus more on the narrowing the trade gap by offering to buy more american goods such as american semiconductors however, there wasn't a whole lot of progress as far as we know on some of the tougher

issues, such as state subsidies. the americans want china state subsidies and for the chinese reportedly wasn't able to get that far we're going to have to see whether or not a statement comes out in the next couple of hours. juliana. >> thank you so much for that excellent clarity. as always, we'll be continuing to keep an eye on developments over in beijing. now here in europe, i want to give you an update on how things stand. we are now just over an hour into the european trading session, and the stock 600 is currently up just under 20 basis points, but it's really been a morning where stocks have struggled for direction. we saw stocks dip early on, and now we're seeing a little bit of a recovery here, but no major moves. remember, in addition to watching headlines around u.s.-china, investors are also digesting a double whammy of weak data yesterday. we had the german gdp print come in flat for q4, and then, of course, late in the session we had those weak u.s. retail sales numbers come in. plenty on the data side for investors to digest.

in addition to u.s.-china, in addition to more corporate earnings let's get into the european regions and see how trade is shaping up across the block, and it is -- we are seeing some signs of divergence. as i mentioned, it continues to be a big day for corporate earnings yesterday was massive. we had everyone from the banks to consumer staples to utilities reporting. now today in focus we do have a number of reports as well. rbs, allianz, vivendi. ftse 100 up eight basis points the cac, the main outperformer, up 40 basis points german stocks and italian stocks lagging behind them. let's get into the sectors big day for corporate news as well at the bottom of the pile we have autos down about 1%. remember, earlier this week autos are one of the strongest sectors, so giving back some of the early gains. at the top of the leaderboard we have media up about 70 basis points there we are seeing the sector brought up in particular by telecom italia

shares trading very strongly after the news i just mentioned in the open around the italian state lender, cdp authorizing an increase in their stake to 10% now, i want to take you, as i mentioned, to the u.s. sales data that i mentioned briefly. this was firmly in focus yesterday in the afternoon session we had the u.s. retail sales data actually show a 1.2% decline in december. this confounded expectations and really reignited concerns around slowing growth in the u.s. now the figure sharply lower missed a reuters forecast, which had anticipated a rise of 0.2% the publication of december's date was delayed due to the partial government shutdown, while no date has been set for the release of the january report now, the fall in consumer spending over the season, it has sparked recession concerns triggering a number of banks to

revise down their fourth quarter gdp forecasts. now, the federal reserve's lyle brenner has told cnbc that some down side risks to the u.s. economy have increased in an exclusive interview brainer said she is watching a number of factors for 2019 >> i'm very attendive to all the recession indicators that people look at, including the slip of the yield curve, but in terms of the other kinds of down side risks, foreign growth has slowed it was first very apparent in china, but now we're seeing those numbers coming in below expectations in europe policy uncertainty is still high, whether, you know, we look at the trade conflict with china or whether we look at brexit, and financial conditions have tightened. i want to take those on board as i think about the year ahead >> now, i want to just take you back to madrid briefly as i mentioned, that press conference that we will be closely watching, spanish prime

minister pedro san clechez is holding this post conference just kicking off there now his 2019 budget was rejected by parliament yesterday we'll bring you updates as we have them. there you can see it is just kicking off. we will come back to that momentarily. for now i want to come back to the studio and bring in mark richards from jupiter investment management and come back to the data that i have just highlighted. u.s. retail sales, a key focus for markets yesterday. quite a grim number, down 1.2% in december, and it has renewed the fears around the u.s. economy given that the u.s. consumer has been the pillar of strength that a lot of -- that has given a lot of economists comfort. what is your view on the strength of the u.s. consumer and the outlook for the u.s. economy for broadly this year? >> sorry the trajectory we've seen in u.s. growth slowing very sharply from q3 into q4 is clearly a concern. you're right to point to the consumers' previous area of strength of something that

gained a lot of confidence for people looking at the health of the u.s. economy i think if we look at the data in a bit more detail, looking at the control group number that goes into gdp was an even more sharper drop down 1.7%. that was the weakest month since 2000, even weaker than we saw through the crisis this is leading to a few more people to be a bit more suspicious about that data print itself it's like a step back. look at the other data we know where about. we can look at the health of the labor market, look at the health of normal income growth, look at where consumer confidence has been and where it's at now also, not forget the u.s. equities fell 15% in december. that -- we had guests on this morning, and that caused panic we had business confidence slowing very sharply now we're kind of looking for where growth is going to go into q1 our view is that growth in the

u.s. is about 2% the flash point you just showed with the big banks lowering their gdp forecast, but we're now getting closer to where trend is on the back of two years of strongly above trend growth, and now we're coming to around about where trends should be >> taking your point about the weak stock market in december feeding into consumer confidence, does that mean because we have seen now a much stronger start to the year, that we will see a recovery once we do get those january-february figures? >> some of the very high frequency prints on consumer confidence there's even a daily one done by rasmussen, and it's picked up in line with the stock market the question is here, what level of growth is the stock market pricing, and how much uncertainty is there about growth we still think there's a lot of uncertainty about growth not just in the u.s., in china, in japan, in europe. market pricing has kind of come back off the very lows of december now it's around trend. we have taken more of a neutral stance of risk assets having

bought into that sharp fall at the end of december. >> neutral stance on risk says assets instead of piling into those, where are you putting your money now? >> yes to go back to the end of december, we thought that was an anomalous overly negative reaction by the stock market we bought into that. we played the rally for six weeks. the important thing is that investors have to be nimble. we've been doing that. we've been taking money off the table since early february in terms of broad asset allocations at the moment, there's allocations to u.s. and european high yield. the emerging market debt we're offsetting that with some down side protection on the u.s. and an underweight in european equities >> an overweight in u.s. high yield. that's quite an interesting call given the concerns that there are in the market around debt levels, credit markets what gives you confidence that u.s. high yield can perform? >> undoubtedly, debt levels in the corporate sector is one of the key concerns about imbalances in the economy.

when we look at the sectors more closely, what you find is coverage ratios are still fine ebida growth is okay there's not a huge amount of excess given that certain pockets of high yield went through a credit cycle in 2015-2016. we think there's more advivisiby now. >> in terms of investor positioning, i just was looking at some data this morning from epfr which shows that european equity funds saw the largest weekly outflow since july 2016 in the last week that's the second worst on record going back to 2000. big outflows from germany. big outflows from the u.k. where do you think investors are going? >> they've been going to cash. i think if we look at the flows into money market foout mutual funds, they've been increase coast guard, and also just in terms of equity outflows, it's not specific to europe we've seen big outflows from the u.s. equity market as well that's been anomalous with this rebound we've seen

if we look at broadly sentimental positioning, some of the investor confidence surveys have rebounded, but we haven't seen positioning match that rebounding it's like some confidence that we're neutral rather than going to underweight because we haven't seen anyone reallocate back to equities >> we were just mentioning the spanish election developments or the expected developments there. how concerned are you about europe we are seeing not only political risk escalate in various countries, but also the data is weakening there. are you becoming more nervous around the outlook for europe? >> we've always been nervous about the outlook for europe i think going through things spe specifically, the spanish political risk that is rising, i would not put out on the same level as italy we think any election we would like to reach a coalition government remember, in 2016 it took nearly a year to form a government. i don't think -- and because the health of the spanish economy is much better than italy

there's less cause for concern in terms of growth momentum in europe, i think you have to differentiate between domestic and external, and, clearly, the slowdown in global trade and the u.s.-china conflict has been a bigger weight on european growth than any other region. dples ekly it still looks okay i think we have the german gdp there was domestic capex and fiscal spenting. we think growth is very low in europe anyway. we're not looking for a hunl rebound. some stabilization around that slow trend rate of growth in each one this year >> all very clear. as we look to developments in spain today, important to remember, as you said, that the spanish economy, much stronger than per se italy. thank you very much for joining us mark richards, multi-asset strategist, jupiter investment management coming up next, former german finance minister wolfgang weighs in on the european

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>> meanwhile, vivendi has reported a 25% rise in its core operating profit for 2018 given by strength in its universal music business they had to take a is.1 billion euro write-down. vivendi confirmed its plans to sell up to 50% of universal. french firms top investor vincent volare announced he will leave the board in april, handing over to his son.

he was speaking exclusively to cnbc about the recent decision to veto the proposed siemens alstom rail merger he was speaking to anetta who joins us now tell us a bit more about your exclusive chat with mr mr. schauble >> we tackled everything from europe over to germany and, like, the problems ahead when it comes to artificial intelligence and digitalization one of the topics also very dear to his heart is whether the new incentive or initiative by the economy and ministry to have an industrial policy for germany, but also the recent decision by the you the european competition authorities and what that means for the economic outlook and the

future of the euro zone. that was one of the big topics as well. i had to ask him what his take is actually on whether we should change new competition law, like the french are pushing, or whether the european architecture is good as it is. take a listen. >> it will be decided by the europeans themselves, whether we will remain competitive or not until now we are competitive, with all due respect i have a lot of admiration of the achievements which have been achieved in china. there's also strong economy with a lot of success, but nevertheless, we are still in a situation in which we can compete, but as you just have mentioned, what german government, we all do agree on this, we want to stay above the

markets, and we will remain open for investments in both elections, but we want an equal playing field. that is what we want the more the european act together, the more efficiently we'll be >> do you think because france is pushing for a change in also competition law for you quite loudly, so to say, because, like, the chinese corporations are so much bigger do you think that's needed >> it's a question you mentioned the decision on alstom-siemens i quite understand that there's a new discussion under -- between the authorities. the question is what is the relevant market? if you only rely on the european market for competition, it's better to have no fusion between

siemens and alstom if you look at the global market, there are good arguments to say, oh, look, we need to -- a strong european competitor for instance, in the german competition, the possibility that the economy can overrule a decision of authority for competition, that is not different in the european legislation, and, therefore, the proposal, if i got it rightly from the french minister of economy, is that we should include such legislation, even in european laws this is a reasonable proposal because we have it in german law. i think it's both opinions have a lot of good arguments.

it's not -- it's not a matter of black or white >> i guess given all the international tensions, that topic will not go away we'll get more discussion whether we should see a renewal and a slight change of the competition law also in europe we're going to see more discussion whether we need an industrial policy approach also for europe to counter the growing influence of china back to you. >> annetta, thank you very much for that great interview now, i want to come back to spain. as i said, the key focus today, the press conference from prime minister pedro sanchez, and he has confirmed he will call a general election for april 28th. now, we windily expected him to call a general election. the key unknown today was when this would take place. he has called for it april 28th. there were other possibilities, but that is the firm date now to

look forward to. in terms of what else to look for from that press conference, we'll look to see if he offers any commentary around the bunl defeat and, of course, any more details around what to expect as we head towards that key april 28th date now. we will be getting back out to willem who's live in madrid later in the show, but that is the news from madrid coming up on the show, u.s. retail sales see their biggest decline in almost a decade, triggering recession concerns. nor on that when we come back. stay with us

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universal music sales helped vivendi deliver a 25% rise in

full year core operating profit as the french media group confirms it plans to sell up to 50% of the music unit. and telecom italia set shares surge on a report italian state lender cdp has been given the green light to increase its stake in the company to 10% getting back to spain. our top political story of the day. we just heard from madrid that prime minister pedro sanchez has indeed called a general election, and he has set the date for that electionas april 28th the big question mark into today was when he would call this election it was widely expected by the market that he would be calling for snap elections after he suffered that budget defeat earlier this week. there were other dates being floated, but we have now confirmation from the pm that that will come on april 28th

now, we do have willem in madrid with us. he has been bringing us updates throughout the morning we will be getting back out to him later today. i think he may even be able to join us now from madrid. willem, tell us a little bit more now that we have confirmation we're looking at an april 28th election >> yes one of the dates that has been floated ahead of the statement from pedro sanchez's associate prime minister it doesn't coincide with the parliamentary elections in may that means that spaniards can focus on their own national elections and spanish political parties can focus on these national elections what we've seen, of course, in the last three years or so is an increasing fragmentation of the landscape here woef had a generation of two party rule prior to that now we're seeing the rise of some of the smaller parties, including on the far right, the vox party. i'm actually right now inside the headquarters of one of their coalition partners in elections

back in december of course, it's the leading e leader of the ppi, marianna, who was toppled by a vote of no confidence back in june by pedro sanchez. an indication of quite how complex the parliamentary mathematics is in spain. he now facing trying to get his own budget through on wednesday, defeated pretty significantly in a vote that afternoon. that was largely due to the decision of two catalan separatist parties that had previously supported his government efforts to decide to stand against that budget. they have all been standing

trial here in madrid a very, very great cause of concern for the separatist movement, and that seems to be one of the reasons they've been so obstinent >> thank you for the excellent content. we'll be back to you shortly in madrid now let's go to u.k. retail sales data just out. very strong numbers for january. u.k. retail sales have beat expectations for the month retail sales rose 4.2% year-on-year this is up from 3.1% in december it's also stronger than expectations the polls suggest analysts were expecting a 3.4% gain. this is the biggest rise since december 2016. quite a strong print there in terms of the volumes on a month on month basis they were up 1% versus december's 0.7% month on month decline it looks as though shoppers were flocking to those january sales. very interesting stark contrast to yesterday's very weak u.s.

retail sales data. taking a quick look at sterling, we are seeing it just a touch lighter on the day about two basis points lower really holding firm at that 1.28 level despite the very strong numbers from the u.k. retail space. now shifting focus to the corporate space. allianz has posted a 19% jump in fourth quarter net profits, meeting expectations the german insurer is also launching a 1.5 billion euro share buy-back program speaking to cnbc earlier, cfo julio said the firm has managed headwinds. >> when you look at the growth of the german pac company, there was a very healthy 4% up compared to the 2% we had in 2017 when you look at the growth in germany, it's very good. you are definitely right there are headwinds out there, but as you see, in our

performance in 2018 we've been capable it manage against that and achieve most of our work >> shares in standard life aberdeen have fallen after mi s mitsubishi ufj sold its entire stake in the british asset manager. it sold its shares for 349 million pounds following a review of its strategic investments. the two companies have been in a business alliance since 2008, and mufg said it will will remain an important partner. elsewhere in the financial space, rbs full year profit has more than doubled in 2018. the british lender also hiked its annual dividend to 13 pence per share. prior to the third quarter rbs had not paid a dividend in ten years. however, the majority state-owned lender warned that ongoing brexit uncertainty could make it difficult to hit its 2020 cost cutting targets.

chinese factory inflation has hit its lowest level as the manufacturing sector continues to suffer amid u.s. trade tensions the january consumer price index rose 0.1%, slowing for the seventh straight month cpi also missed expectations on the back of falling food prices. now, to help us make sense of this chooiina data, i'm very hay to bring in david howner, head of em strategy at bank of america merrill lynch. now, last night we -- or overnight, rather, we did have that weak inflation data coming out of china we have had really mixed signals in terms of the state of the chinese economy on the macroside. in addition to that inflation data, retail sales have been weak auto sales have been weak. on the corporate side of things, we've heard pretty encouraging comments from lvmh, nestle before we get into the trade tensions in your view, how is the chinese economy doing?

>> on balance, the data have been very weak what you can see is that the consumer is doing better than the manufacturing sector that makes enough sense because the government has been focussing more on consumption. they have been stimulating the economy through tax cuts for households, measures to show up the real estate market, and that's showing up in decent numbers on the consumption side. pretty weak numbers in terms of manufacturing and exports suffer much more from the trade war net-net, wethink that there will be a stimulation in chinese growth when you look at the overall gdp numbers by second quarter, but we also think that the market hasn't really priceed in a lot of that expectation >> in terms of what the market has priced in, in terms of u.s.-china trade negotiations, in your view, what is the market expecting? >>skbroirchlts now the market

thinks, i believe, there will be some sort of weak deal there will be basically some purchases from china, from the u.s., possibly reversing some of the sanctions they have taken buying more soybeans, plane, energy there might be an opening for financial firms. americans in contrast will promise that they will not slap the 25% tariff for the time being, but if there's no improvement on intellectual property, then they stay on the cards. i think the risk is that the market gets a little disappointed by the ultimate details of the deal. >> given that that is -- if it comes in line with expectations, that would actually be seen as disappointing. if we do get a firm extension on

the deal with little evidence of the details, you think that this is going to be a negative for markets? >> yeah. i think it will be we have been calling for wavgly a bullish rally at the beginning of the year. we have been saying it's time to hedge because of these potential disappointments, and for us to be surprised to the up side we would really need to see a deal that looks like the mexico-canada deal one that establishes a new trade relation for the next decade >> what does this mean more the broader emerging market space? how do you feel about them going into 2019 and in relation to what comes of u.s.-china trade >> tactically speaking, we recommend hedging, buying some puts on mciem or on hedging on the fixed income side. we remain bias on the dip because we think that the china

data will ramp into q2 >> what are you specifically talking about? >> we're talking about equities and also credit. we think that ultimately this is a year where em will still gain from here, and we like equity markets like china and korea in particular, but, again, on the one-month view, we think it's a good time to buy some hedges >> excellent very clear good time to buy some hedges that's according to david, head of em strategy at bank of america merrill lynch. well, the u.s. shutdown showdown could be over after congress passed a bill to keep the government open. the bill now heads to president trump who is expected to rubber stamp it later today however, the white house has said trump will also declare a national emergency in order to secure more funding for his border wall. it's a decision that has drawn fire from both democrats and republicans alike. nbc's blaine alexander has the story. >> reporter: after passing the house, clearing the final hurdle on capitol hill --

>> the yea's are 300, the nay's are 128. >> reporter: a compromised spending bill to avert another government shutdown tomorrow now headed to president trump. it sets the stable for a new battle the president planning to sign the bill, but with executive action, a national emergency declaration to bypass congress and get more money for the border wall. democrats already considering a legal challenge. >> we will not have an enron around the congress of the united states. >> reporter: the bill only provides for a fraction of the wall money president trump wanted tonight some republicans firmly backing him. >> i think he has all the legal authority in the world to do this, and i will stand behind him. >> reporter: others in his party calling it a bad idea. >> you know, i have been very clear on my concerns about the president dough clairing this as an emergency >> reporter: the white house says they are prepared for a possible legal challenge and say with this action, the president is keeping his campaign promise to build the wall. >> reporter: tonight the hop republican on the house armed services committee says he does

not want the president to take money from the military, saying that it would be detrimental to the troops blaine alexander, nbc news, washington well, coming up on the show, spain heads to the polls as prime minister pedro sanchez calls a general election for the end of april stay with us

are azpliefrmts there are serious doubts that they'll be able to get a withdrawal agreement done by the end of the month. now, theresa may was not present for yesterday's vote, prompting opposition leader jeremy corbin to once again accuse her of running down the clock up to brexit day >> the government cannot keep on ignoring parliament or plowing on towards the 29th of march

without a coherent plan. she cannot keep on just running down the clock and hoping that something will turn up that will save her day and save her face so it is surprising that the prime minister is not even here. i was going to ask her to come to the dispatch box now and admit that her strategy has failed and come forward, bring forward to the house, a coherent plan. >> meanwhile, over in madrid, spanish prime minister pedro sanch sanchez has called a snap general election it will be the third election to be held in spain in four years

>> this morning i'm joined by antonio lopez. he is a member of the european people's party and an mep for the party depopular, one of the main parties in spain. i wanted to ask you first off, what are we to make of this announcement from pedro sanchez? was this the only choice he had available to him >> this is an announcement that had to be done this has been a transitional government that had no reason to continue so many months. now is the time for late elections. i think it's in the best interest of the country that the spanish society finally declares through elections and not through motions of no confidence what is the future they want

political future also for our country. >> you make it sound from your perspective, this has been a wasted eight months, and some of the political analysts i'm talking to, when it comes to the idea of not having past every passesed a budget, they see this as economically an opportunity cost a lost opportunity to make reforms with the party depopular, if you end up bah being in government, will you be making reforms >> i don't think so. the job was already done by previous government. there are years we had to take tough austerity measures that were tough, but finally put them on the right track, creating no less than two million jobs this government throughout these months has done nothing about that the only thing has done is racing the salaries of civil servants that's the only thing about the job or salary related great measures that have been done the so-called social budget, that is not the case we always say the best social

solution -- that was done previously, and we hope that now in this new election, the spanish society will come back to the philosophy of our party, which is to create jobs for the spanish people we have still big problem with yooult employment, and this is something we have to focus during this election not only national, but also european and local and regional electrics. >> one of the reasons that the previous prime minister and the leader of your party was put under so much pressure was obviously a corruption scandal inside your own party, and the issue of catalonian i wanted penicillin, and we saw that aborted independence referendum. clearly, the catalan separatists are relevant today in the sense that they're the ones that have voted down this budget on wednesday. i wonder, we saw mr. sanchez try to start negotiations with them. it's something that your party has obviously dismissed. what would the -- well, not des missed >> i wouldn't say the case because vice president of the

government during the government of -- was for a year trying to -- >> trying to find -- >> -- ways out of this >> i should rephrase that then the conciliatory tone, the way that sanchez went about trying to was not something they were happy with what's the message going to be to try and resolve this deadlock >> first of all, i believe that it's important to understand that the trials we are facing now, these are legal trials. these are not political trials spain is, and the economy is clear. spain is the 19th democracy in the world by recognition in all the standards, and we have, of course, separation of powers and judges who are very clear. they announce before the consequences of their actions to this radical politicians that did not want to follow the constitution of spain. the constitution was given by

the spanish people in 1978 i have to remind after that dictatorship and big problems for our country, and during 40 years we have lived in peace and prosperity thanks to the constitution it is clear that we are defending the constitution of spain, but this is the majority of the spanish population and the majority also of the population in catalonia. this is not about nationalism in catalonia. that has appeal like many other places in europe and, unfortunately, during the latest years, it's all linked also with pop lichl. we have seen this before in europe many years ago. i don't want to remind everybody what happened then in our legal system -- >> you mention the rise of pop lichl, and, yet, your party worked along side a new party

vox to the right of the center here in spain in the elections is that a party that you will continue to work with leading into these elections, do you think? >> depending on what they do after the european, for example, elections. if they join the ranks, for example, of marie la pen, who has been an advocate, that will he define them for them and put them in the extreme right. this is not now the case many of the leaders are former members of our party we know them we want to guide them through the right path, and this will come after this election we will see what is the path that they're going to run. you have to understand that today they do not have any members on the spanish parliament or in any parliament around the regions or mayors it's difficult to say. woel kn we'll know after the elections >> thank you so much for joining us really appreciate your time this morning. that was antonio lopez, a member of the european parliament

representing, of course -- for spain. >> thank you for bringing us that interview well, in the sports world heavy weight boxing world champion -- stands to earn around $25 million for his next fight, which will also mark his u.s. debut the fight will take place on june 1st in new york at madison square garden. adam reed, our sports enthusiast, joins us around the desk what are people saying about joshua at this point in his career >> this is the first time that anthony joshua has been facing real questions, bearing in mind he has been trying to unify the divisions. he has made a good crack at that he has three/four of the main belts. there's one belt that's alluded him at the moment, and that's currently held by deante wilder, the american the problem is that tyson fury

has come back on the scene he counts himself as the linear world champion tho those two had an incredible fight which ended in a very controversial draw now joshua has been going, well, how can i get a fight, bearing in mind these are the two guys and they're going to be fighting each other those are the three men. the fourth man to come out of nowhere really is the man you can see on your screen at the right. it's jarrell miller. he is nicknamed big baby, by himself. he calls him big baby miller he weighs 315 pounds, would you believe. i've stood in front of him he came in at his last fight at 245. bear in mind, i know how big that is, so baby miller is not incredibly short and wide. he is tall in his own right as well over 6 foot. this fight has come out of nowhere, and it's meant that anthony joshua has given up his place at wembley stadium, which was booked for april 13th.

80,000 people could be in attendance there they did believe he wasn't going to make that amount of crowd interest because of miller's lack of profile in the u.k they're taking it to the boxi i mecca of madison square garden everyone has fought there. ali and frazier, sugar ray leonard. all the greats of boxing have been there now, that's where anthony joshua is going to make his u.s. debut. we can hear from anthony joshua now. he has been talking about the decision to scrap the fight at wembley and move it to america also, he has been explaining, but he has also been apologizing. >> the common state of the division was the undisputed championship of the world. myself and dante wilder, the active current heavy weight champions of the world and we was looking to get that fight on april 13th, but things happen boxing politics. i'm sure you guys are aware.

we had to branch out and look for other options, and jarrell miller came up >> as you just heard from adam, june 3rd is the night to watch try to get a ticket over at madison square garden. i just want to take a quick look at u.s. futures before i happened you over to our colleague stateside. we are looking at a negative start to trade over there. remember, this is all on the back of yesterday's very weak data on the retail side out of the u.s. well, that is it for today's show i'm juliana at that timelebaum, and worldwide exchange is coming up next. 300 miles an hour, that's where i feel normal. having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. learn more at retire your risk dot org.

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a national emergency and announce $8 billion for a new border wall. this is lawmakers passing a new spending bill to keep the government open. we are live in washington with all the late-breaking details. also, high level trade talks between the u.s. and china wrapping up in beijing we'll take you there live. futures in the red as th