. >> abruptly quitting the bank. the problem simply too great for him to overcome. we'll get an analyst take on the move and what it means for the stock straight ahead lynt, its ipo at$72 a share, above the range, but where will investors take the money-losing ride-sharing company when it begins trading today? we will soon find out. and we are just getting some major movement out of china.

a little doors on your friday morning welcome from wherever in the world you may be watching. i'll brian sullivan. thank you very much for joining us let's get right now to a big money move this morning. look at this chinese stocks are soaring high-level trade talks wrapping up in beijing. the shen zen and the chinese security index all up more than 3% as well there was a lot of optimism out there right now. we just heard from treasury second steven mnuchin. let's get right to kayla who is live in d.c. with more on these trade talks and why there is optimism today kayla. >> we're still waiting for some of the details to trickle out from the meetings that took place in beijing overnight between the u.s. and china.

as the two sides try to work through a trade breakthrough that was smfd by the end of the month, larry kudlow, director of the national economic council, signalled it could be months, but that the two sides are moving in the right direction. that is an important point for market watchers of this situation. now, yesterday before leaving for a rally in michigan president trump answered a question on china trade, and it's been one that we've been mulg throughout the week how does the mueller report in its findings potentially change the tenor of these china trade discussions. here's what the president said

on that. >> i can say this. >> we will see exactly what was put forward and agreed upon in these meetings as some of these details start to come out. >> does it appear that the intellectual property issue, which really had seemed to be the sticking point is finally become overcome a bit? >> it depends on how you define overcome there is a sense of optimism that china has put forward real and long sought proposals that china -- u.s. businesses, rather, that are operating in china have not been able to see in the previous decade

that being said, the question is always about enforcement china has been willing to say a lot of things, but not carry through on those promises. the u.s. side wants to make sure they have a very strong enforcement mechanism to make sure that doesn't happen this time around. >> kayla, we'll see you in a few minutes. thank you very much. now to your top corporate story on this friday wells fargo ceo tim sloan abruptly quitting the bank sloan, who took the helm in cnbc -- numerous and public and private problems in the bank, including the massive fake account scandal. sloan was not ceo when that happened, but his efforts to clean up wells fargo appear to have fallen short. particularly in the eyes of some washington legislators taking many by surprise, including one of wells fargo's top shareholders none other than warren buffett listen to what he had to say to becky quick just two hours and 11 minutes before sloan

announced his departure. >> does tim sloan have your support? >> 100%. i don't want his job massachusetts senator and presidential hopeful elizabeth warren tweeting "about damn time tim sloan should have been fired a long time ago. he enabled wells fargo's massive fake account scam, got rich off it, and then helped cover it wrup now let's make sure all the people hurt get what they're owed." warren adding, he, sloan, should be investigated by the s.e.c. and the d.o.j. for his role in all the wells fargo scams. if he is guilty of any crimes, he should be put in jail like anyone else.

the stock up 10% under sloan's tenure joining us now on the cnbc newsline gerrard cassidy with rbc capital management what do you make of this move? >> i think tim is a man of integrity and character and he recognized what was in the best interest of wells fargo was for him to step down, and it's going to change the narrative as you pointed out tim was on board as a senior executive when these problems happened. by choosing to go outside and to find a successor as the chairman duke yesterday indicated that's what wells is going to do, i think it's going to change the nar tiff, and it's going to take wells in a different direction it will move past these problems, which is good for shareholders over the long run >> one of your competitors, raymond james, says this is good for the stock and removes a head wind it soupds like you would agree

with that. >> you are absolutely right. tim afs good leader. however, he was there when this problem happened. who would you pick as the new ceo, wells fargo >> that is the $64,000 question. i can describe the person you want to pick jaime diment when he picked -- i'm not certain you want to find an established person i'm not sure an established

person would want this job gordon smith is one name that comes up he is the head of jp morgan's consumer business. that doesn't seem like something that he would even want to do, since he is already established. another name that comes up is bill demchec, the ceo of pnc he is part of pnc and has been for quite some time. they have probably second to none the best consumer deposit franchise in the country than in bank america, so once this management issue is resolved, it's going to be an opportunity for investors to see, you know,

higher prices in the future. >> gerrard, thank you very much for joining us a big story. appreciate it. >> you're welcome, brian >> not everybody agrees, deutsche bank analysts out just moments ago downgrading wells fargo from a buy to a hold they've got a new nice target of $54. a little above where the stock is trading their main concern is cost savings. they say that will have to be evaluated by a new ceo once they find a permanent replacement another big story today. the most hotly anticipated public debut of the year lyft pricing its ipo at $27 a share. that values the ride-sharing company above $20 billion. let's get right now to sima where lyft will begin trading. a big day. >> it certainly is for the nasdaq good morning this ipo was already oversubscribed reflecting strong appetite for what is the biggest tech ipo to hit the u.s. market since snap went public on the new york stock exchange in 2017.

lyft is still unprofitable, burning over $900 million last year with no signs of going profitable in the near future. morning star thinks it could be 2022, so in about four years now, over the says last couple of years lyft reportly received interest friday anumber of firms including gm, alphabet, amazon, apple, and china's dd. lyft decided to go to the public market to raise proceeds it's expected to raise over $2 billion today in its ipo the company says it will use towards growing its business successful lyft will not be determined by just today's debut on the nasdaq. it will be in the coming months where lyft will have to prove to investors that while its loss-making, it's expanding its user base, and working towards becoming profitable. brian, back to you

>> seema, thank you very much. coming up later on this morning, andrew ross sorkin, speaking with the co-founders of lyft, john zimmer and jordan green. be sure to catch that interview around 8:20 a.m. eastern time. stocks look set to rise on this friday and final trading day of the quarter dow futures are up about 43 points right now nasdaq and s&p futures up about the same this could tie a bow on what has really been a rose of a quarter. if you have not been paying attention, the s&p a500 is having its best quarter since all the way back in between. we are up 12.3% heading into today. it's even better news for small cap investors. the russell 2000 up 14% this quarter. that puts it on pace for the small cap's best start through the year and it's all the way back in 1991 british stocks, by the way, up 8% this year they're actually some of the worst performers so far in 2019.

the past is the past the big question you care about right now is very simple will the rally carry in to quarter two? let's bring in jeff, head of u.k. investment at ubs wealth. doesn't sound like you're convinced. your advice to clients and investors, get a little more defensive. why? snoo q4 last year at one point seemed like we were can pricing in recession pushing back against that, now q1 we're pricing in reality. reality is decent growth, but is it great is it at the level we saw in 2017 and early 2018? probably not we're still net-net overweight global equities, but the last few years we've taken are a bit more defensive we're taking risk off the table and adding protection. >> what does that mean selling stocks, beeg bonds, buying cash?

>> so two ways to do that, fist, is this will be more diversified. not exactly adding to cash in a broader asset allocation we do towards alternatives as well through our u.s. equity exposure right now, we are adding protection through the buying of puts on the s&p as well. again, reality is being priced back into the markets. we push back against what happened in q4 up ahead it's still going to be a rel tvly challenging year with growth still being soft and also those politics to worry about too. >> if we get a brexit deal, will that change your views, jeff >> on the margins it might help europe a bit where does european growth go? once the u.s. trade talks have

impeded, is there more prospects between the u.s. and europe. the auto sector is fretting about that too we're certainly not in the clear yet. >> we are getting started on what is a busy friday. up next, raising the red flag. the one high-end retailer sounding the alarm on the american housing market. huawei sticking it in america's eye. they've posted a huge blow-out ouitexr, and we'll tell you abt nt. - 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!

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and now get $250 back when you buy a new samsung galaxy. click, call, or visit a store today. welcome back what might have caused that deadly boeing 737 max airplane crash at ethiopia earlier this month? frank holland is here with more. frank. >> closer to answers investigators have restate preliminary conclusion and anti-stall system on that 737 max was activated before the plane crashed. this is according to the "wall street journal." these are the first findings based on data from the plane's black boxes, and they may be the stroongest indication, the same system misfired and both the ethiopia air flight on march soth and the lion air crash in indonesia in october u.s. officials have been analyzing details gathered by their counterparts in ethiopia, which may be subject to change the journal says ethiopian authorities are expected to put out their own preliminary report

as soon as next week. so make it easier for pilots to control. the 737 max jets will remain grounded worldwide until the faa and other regulators sign off on that fix and new pilot training is conducted that can take months boeing shares are down just slightly brian, back over to you. >>. restoration hardware is braming the slowdown in sales at the end of last year as well as negative trends in the high-end housing market this comes just three months after the company gave a bullish view on business wow. another stock to watch, astr

astrozeneca is announcing a $7 billion deal with japan's daiichi to help sell that firm's promising cancer drug. it will fund up front payments daiic rising 16% in japanese trading overnight. oxford industry stock down today. who is that? well, they are the owner of the tommy bahama and lily pulitzer brands they still beat forecasts. >> huawei posted a huge quarter. brian, bullish growth in the face of adversity. that was the message today

delivered by one of the chairman of huawei. as you reported, revenues for 2018, that topped $100 billion for the first time in the company's history. that was the consumer division the smartphone, its laptops. huawei is the third largest smartphone player in the world that really helped offset some of the declines we saw in its core network and business. that's the hardware. it sells to telecom carriers around the word. i also got a chance to ask about his outlook for the rest of the year for 2019 in a q and a session. he said that in the first two months so far they've seen 30% revenue growth year-on-year, and it still expects to enjoy double digit growth this year what was very interesting was the strong words being delivered to the u.s. in that press conference when asked by journalists about the u.s. he said that the u.s. has a loser's attitude and that it was trying to smear huawei because it couldn't compete with the

company. very strong talk there as it came out swinging. suing the u.s. as well strong talk. even as it continues to face pressure around the world. including the latest headache for the company in the u.k. which has said a government-led body saying that the company's software still carries risk to the carriers in the country. brian, back to you >> really with all the commentary from the united states and the trump administration naming names, huawei comes up all the time not a lot of indication that it danled its sales worldwide. >> a lot of those allies have actually defied washington are,

germany and italy have not excluded huawei. thailand is doing 5gtesting with huawei. there's been a shift towards the company home, and the u.k. is a crucial market that's going to be a very closely watched situation to see how it develops over there >> archen, thank you very much still ahead, a warren buffett triple play. what the oracle of omaha thinks about the american economy, apple, and the recent ipo boom, and, later, the rise of the robots continues boston dynamics showing off its newest robot, and this is video yoveoto e.u' g tse trust us we're back right after this.

424 in chicago 5:24 here. welcome back warren buffett going on the record he sat down with our own becky quick yesterday. he talked about everything apple to airplanes, and even the health of the american economy >> it looked leak it's slowing down i don't mean it's reversed in course or anything, but it does seem from all of the businesses, but to railroad statistics they cover such a broad spectrum, and it gets distorted by whether people are herding up the pacific trade because they're worried about terrorists and all of that sort of thing. i would say that it does look

like the pace of increase in the economy has slowed down. >> hesees a lot of that advanced data. buffett, by the way, giving his take on apple's big move into streaming. listen >> entertainment is a game that's really -- i mean, the big players are in it, and they're playing for keeps. apple, you know, i love to see them succeed that's a company that can afundraiser a mistake or two you know, you don't want to buy stock in the company that has to do everything right. >> buffett also on the recent wave of big name ipo's he had a big warning for you, the investor >> we haven't bought an initial public offering, or i haven't. charlie hasn't i think buying new offerings during hot periods in the

market, i don't think it's anything the average person should take about at all sfwloosh i love to know what the ipo was at $55, by the way we'll have more on that next hour on "squawk box. all right. up flex here, are you ready for liftoff? the right-hailing company gearing up for its first big day of trading, and then later, did tim sloan really quit wells fargo? was he forced out.

ready for liftoff. one of the hottest start-ups in america is about to make its public debut we'll break down the key things to watch in the year's most anticipated ipo. here you go. it's friday, so it's riddle time what do will smith, the titanic, and your money all have in common the answer to that bizarre question as we roll on right now. ♪ welcome back thank you for being with us here on cnbc. happy friday it is a very, very busy news day, and we continue our coverage of a story that caught nearly everybody by surprise late yesterday perhaps even the great warren buffett. tim sloan out as ceo of wells

fargo. it ends a 31-year career at the bank the company now on the hunt for awe new ceo who will no doubt come from outside the company. now, in an odd bit of timing, warren buffett was live on cnbc just hours before the news broke talking up his support for tim sloan. >> does tim sloan have your support? >> oh, yeah, 100%. yeah, yeah i don't want his job >> attorney c. allen parker who joined the company just two years ago will serve as interim ceo while a permanent new successor is found parker will receive a base pay rate of $2 million a year plus $2 million in grants we're joined by writer bethenny mcclain. do you believe that tim sloan quit or was this p.r. spin for his ouster from wells fargo? >> well, there was a lot of anger after the hearing a couple

of weeks ago, as you alluded to. it's really rare to have regulators be as critical of a bank as both the occ and the federal reserve were of wells. one person described sloan's demeanor in that hearing to me as both defiant and defensive. you had the occ, wells's regulator, come out hours later with a really tough statement saying they were disappointed in it the bank. the odd thing is that sloan took a pretty big pay package, almost $20 million, an increase from the previous year, and it's pure speculation, but one person did speculate to me that would you have taken that much money if you weren't planning to go, or where every would you have done something that looked a little bit more appealing the federal reserve, which never criticizes specific institutions, was critical of wells after that >> do you think the hearing was the last straw, or do you think tim sloan had plans for this >> there is been a tone deafness at wells ever since this scandal hit years ago. it didn't get any better under sloan's leadership you can speculate that maybe the

hearing was the last straw, but it obviously came as a huge surprise to everybody. nobody on the investment community was expecting it as you guys have noted. buffett wasn't expecting it. it's a huge surprise >> was wells fargo's greatest misstep picking mr. sloan? i mean, not knocking him personally, bethenny what i'm saying is with all the scandals, should they have gone outside the company two and a half years ago >> right well, there's something really odd and dare i use the word dysfunctional going on there to pick a 30-year veteran of the bank who is there during all -- during everything that happened, everything that went wrong, was an odd move in many ways, and maybe wells taught that they could confine the scandal to the retail bank, but then the news continued to break of problems in other parts of the business too, making it look less and less like sloan was a clean pick look, it's odd now, too, with his resignation and one reason why you have to believe that kael really came as a surprise inside of wells too, is picking

the general counsel as. >> elizabeth warren tweeting on this number one, saying, pardon my french, it's about damn time for sloan's ouster also saying she's calling for an investigation by the s.e.c. and/or the department of justice and if anything was found, that he should go to jail do you believe an investigation is valid >> there may be something big this we don't know about that could have instigated this departure. that's just pure speculation i think it's just been this steady drumbeat of continuing problems and wells's business. i don't know i think they're going to have to roll out a new advertising campaign that's reinvented 2019 or reinvented 2020, right? since the 2018 reinvented doesn't seem to have gone all that well. >> does it need to be broken up?

>> you can ask that question about all the big banks, going to the financial crisis. one of the big tragedies, i guess, is that we came out of this with even bigger banks rather than some kind of rethink of our banking system. if wells fargo needs to be broken up, then you can certainly make that argument about the rest of the big banks too. >> what do you think will happen with wells fargo, bethenny >> i think it's going to struggle for another couple of years. i think that culture went so deep at the bank that really intense sales-driven culture, and you yank that out and say you can't do that anymore, and then you have to replace the culture with something else. i don't think they figured out what that something else is. i also think that the bank has continued to be really tone-deaf. they were tone-deaf when the scandal first hit. they didn't think it would be a big deal they didn't realize the extent of the anger, and they've been -- they were tone-deaf in picking tim sloan as the next ceo. they have continued to be turnover e tone deaf over the last couple of years no one gives -- none of that gives you the view of an

institution on the cusp of a dramatic step forward, right >> right bethenny mcclain, always great to have your valuable insight. >> i think so ththank you for h. >> we have two conflicting analyst calls on wells fargo already this morning deutsche bank downgrading wells fargo from a buy to a hold the analyst at db concerned about the new management's plans tore the big bank's cost-cutting in the meantime, raymond james going the other way. they're upgrading wells fargo. ray jay lifting its sell rating saying tim sloan's departure is a positive for the stock investors agree to a point the stock is up just over 1% right now. we're also following a developing story on dow dupont the company is cutting its sales forecast due to those devastating floods that have ravaged the midwest. those floods have idled ethanol plants, slowed rail shipments of agricultural products and swamped storage bins

dow dupont says the rising waters have limited the company's ability to simply deliver its customers their products dow due pobt shares down right now. coming up, your top trending stories on this friday, including a water bottle battle. nestle coming under fire for its holland spring brand we'll tell you why your final rbi of the quarter proves exactly why you should be watching cnbc every single day the worldwide leader in business ne rur rhtft ts.wsetnsig aerhi td with a specialized guard designed to reduce it. because we believe all men deserve a razor just for them. the best a man can get. gillette.

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zpliefrmts another vote on theresa may's brexit plan is being held many hope maybe the third time will be the charm for a plan that has simply failed in some cases by a wide margin the first two times it was voted on. another day, another vote on brexit in the u.k. we get the market-moving headlines, of course we will bring those to you when it happens up negs, your friday rundown a big exit at wells fargo. lynt's market debut, and china trade and a chinese soaring stock market all topping your morning headlines. plus, a staggering market stat as we close the books on the first quarter. the market is about to do something it has not done since titanic was king of the world at the box office we'll tell you what that is and when it was when we return

. welcome back thank you for being with us on this busy friday morning we are following three major developing stories number one, wells fargo ceo tim sloan abruptly leaving the bank. lyft gearing up for what is no doubtly the hottest ipo of the year some major movement out of high level trade talks in china as always, we have full team coverage of all these big stories, and let us begin with china where stocks soared overnight. trade talks wrapping up in beijing, and we heard from treasury secretary steven mnuchin recently let's get out to kayla with more, why chinese stocks moved so much, the latest on the trade battle >> after a single day of negotiations, the official word came via twitter just about two hours ago. treasury secretary steven mnuchin tweeting that the two sides constructive trade talks, and he looks forward to

welcoming the vice premier back to d.c. next week. a closer look at this picture and prior pictures of these talks. we'll show you one key difference here mnuchin is shaking the hand of china's top negotiator while in previous rounds it was ambassador lighthizer taking the position next to the vice premier in a february 15th picture and occupying the sole microphone during u.s. talks two weeks later. now, this may seem like a small detail, but the chinese placed great importance on these protocol details it could signal some dovishness on behalf of the administration even as the findings of the mueller report this week were expected to embolden president trump in talks here's trump yesterday being asked what impact the mueller report would have. >> i can't tell you whether or not it had an impact on other countries, including china i can say this that countries are reacting very well we're doing very well with our trade talks with china and our trade talks and other talks with other countries. our country is doing great

>> as we wait for details to trickle out of the meetings, we're pinging sources. it usually takes a few hours for the information to make its way to reporters we'll let you know when we have it >> we look forward to that thank you very much. now another big story. tim sloan abruptly stepping down as wells fargo's ceo let's bring in now wilford frost with a bit more on this. >> wells fargo ceo tim sloan has resigned and retired effective immediately, as you said sloan also confirmed it was not to do with upcoming earnings or any upcoming bad news that needs to be announced. here he was on the call last night. >> i'm confident in my ability to effectively lead wells fargo through the work that remains to be done. it has become apparent that the focus on me has welcome a distraction that impacts our ability to successfully move weltz fargo forward. therefore, i have decided it's

best for the company that i step aside so wells fargo can benefit from a new ceo with fresh perspectives >> while sloan says he has made the decision himself, he essential has been under immense pressure pressure from shareholders because the tied where i-up from the scandal has taken longer than promised, which includes the fact that the fed's asset cap punishment remains in place despite earlier guidance that it would have been lifted by now. and the share price is significantly under performed. on top of this, political pressure has been persistent and focused on sloan personally given that he was a senior employee during the time that the cross-selling scandal developed. elizabeth warren tweeted after last night's news, "about damn time tim sloan should have been fired a long time ago. he enabled wells fargo's massive fake account scam, got rich off of it, and then helped cover it up chairwoman betsy jduke on th call last night. >> although we have many executives within the company,

the board has concluded that seeking someone from outside is the most effective way to complete the transformation at wells fargo. somewhere there is a highly accomplished leader out there who is going to look at the challenge and opportunity and say i'm a really good fit for wells fargo, and we're going to say, yeah, we believe that, and i really want to do that i want to sign up for that, and that's the person we want as ceo of wells fargo >> she said they hadn't spoken to anybody yet or started that process looking for ab outside candidate. wells fargo shares roads on the news up 3% late last night as the news broke paired back to 1% again, brian >> you know, ironically, though, this would not have been the top story in your world, the banking world but for the sloan news there was another major departure. the president of morgan stanley also stepping down late yesterday. >> absolutely. colm kelleher stepping down. this is another retirement and one that was expected at some point in the next couple of years, so the timing took us by

surprise, but he was never somebody that was seeking to take over in the long-term he is, in fact, one year older at 61. james gorman is 60, and he is doing a very good job and isn't going anywhere soon. this now gives gorman a about the of time to pause and decide who should replace kelleher as his number two, and that person would likely then be seen very much as gorman's heir apparent for two, three, four years time. all of those potential successors to kelleher that will give him time to make the decision as to who does deserve to be both his number two but also likely the next ceo of morgan stanley in a number of years time >> thanks. we'll be on the wells fargo story all day long appreciate it. now let's complete the hat trick and switch gears to the other big top corporate story. lyft pricing its ipo at $72 a share. that values the ride-hailing

company above $20 billion. it will begin trading today at the nasdaq, which, by the way, in no consequence is where we find seema lyft, there's a lot of operatives about this. no doubt i don't think it's hyperbole the most hotly anticipated ipo of the year. >> wall street is a waiting list highly anticipated ipo the ride-hailing company pricing at $72 after raising its price range from $2.70 to $72. indicating that there is healthy demand for this ipo, pricing between $70 to $72 would give lyft a market cap north of $20 billion. keep in mind, that is nearly $5 billion higher than its private market valuation why is demand so strong? well, it's the biggest tech listing since snap went public in 2017, andist also the first ride-hailing company to hits the public market. now, getting lyft to list at the nasdaq is a big win for the exchange it will be the biggest ipo for the nasdaq since chinese ipo

iqu, which raised $2 billion last year, and before that it was facebook in 2012 lyft unofficially kicking off a wave of tech ipo's pinterest, slack, uber set to debut. lyft may have beaten uber to the public market, but uber is still much larger than lyft. it has a more diversified business with uber eats and a stronger international presence. however, for today lyft gets to step out of uber's shadow, expecting the company to start trading here at the nasdaq around 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. eastern. back to you. >> i'm sure we'll hear nothing about that as the day goes on, right? it's the last time you'll be on tv today >> many more hits coming to go we are excited for good coverage >> we'll look forward to it. thank you very much. by the way, we're going to hear from lyft's co-founders andrew ross sorkin did a ride-along with them and at the asked what it's like gearing up for a big ipo. >> we've been going nonstop for

the last two weeks we've had to raise a lot of money over the years, so -- then a whole new crop of public market investors it was fun, and -- >> so do you see this as, like, one milestone along the way? >> yeah. for us this is a milestone on our mission. our mission is to improve people's lives to be the world's best transportation, and this would not the goal to be public, but it is an exciting milestone. >> do not miss the rest of that interview today at 8:20 a.m. eastern time john zimmer, logan green, lyft ipo. let's turn now back to the market and your money. stocks indicated to rise higher on this final trading day of the year dow futures up 53 points what a quarter it has been the s&p 500 having its best start to a year that will be titanic as number one at the box office the year was 1998.

the question now is this rally kind of like a titanic is it an iceberg or smooth sailing ahead? let's bring in -- seema, if we kept this pace for a 48% rate annualized return of the year, not sure anybody expects that, but what do you see happening for the rest of the year with the u.s. stock market? >> well, as you said, q1 has been fantastic, but i think looking at the yoer as a whole, you are going to see that most returns are very much front-load front-loaded a much weaker q2 and q3. in q4 we could see a pick-up, and the main reason is q1 was really lifted by the fed's dovishness and optimism about u.s. and china it allowed the markets to almost ignore what's going on in the actual economic dynamic and the underlying economy now as we're getting to q2, seeing over it is last few weeks, that markets are refocussing on the economic fundamentals it has been somewhat

disappointing weakening growth in the u.s. and in europe, and still waiting for a sign of stabilization in china that i think is really going to weigh on risk assets over the coming months. that's not to say the risk assets aren't going to outperform, but they're going to have a weaker performance than we saw in q1 >> here's the confusing part, i think, for many cnbc viewers on one hand they're hearing about this aiz magazine start to the year small caps, their best start to the year in decades. on the other hand, you've got this inverted yield curve, the three tens, whatever you want to call it, on negative yields in germany, which people say, well, there you go that's a global slowdown how do you square it >> well, as i said, you know, we've had that first quarter where markets have really not focused on what's going on with the economy. in the last few weeks we've had the fed and the ecb both come in with weaker expectations for growth we've had downgrading interest rates forecast as well, and now markets are starting to wonder does the central bank know

something that we don't know about what's going on in the global economy that's why you see deals across the globe fall like they have. what we are now waiting for is for equity markets to catch up i will say that it does seem like global bond markets have already exaggerated their reaction we certainly do not expect to see recession later this year, and certainly maybe not even into 2020. there has been a slight exaggeration for that reason i actually don't like to be in global bonds i think there could be a sell-off later on, and at the same time i think equity markets have to come in. you are going to have a meeting somewhere. >> you don't want to be in government bonds, but equity markets have to come in. where is the best investment idea right now >> the key thing is when you have an economic -- not a recession, but a slowdown, you have to have a pivoting on your portfolio allocation you are looking more at defensive over cyclicals and are thinking about stuff like consumer staples, health care. if you don't see a recession,

and you don't see inflation picking up too much and rates stay where they are, this is actually a pretty good time for real assets. at the same time because we actually expect the chinese economy to be picking up at some point in the second half of the year, that should also start lifting emerging markets even further. actually, it's a case of global pivoting towards more towards emerging markets and also position yourself towards defensives rather than cyclicals. >> right now as we speak, there is yet another vote about to happen in u.k. parliament, the mps, ministers of parliament they're debating again theresa may's brexit plan where, it's failed the says first two nobody -- most people aren't expecting it to pass whether or not if we get a hard brexit that doesn't happen you're will there. does that make you more bullish on u.k. stocks, on european stocks, american stocks? >> i think anything which considers good news is something that eradicates the idea of

having a no deal brexit. as long as you don't have a hard brexit, this is a positive i think for markets, and that's one of the things that most people are watching most closely because that's the easiest way to determine what's going on with brexit is that sterling wants certainty. what they want to see is they don't want to see a change in government they want to see this brexit and dialogue actually being finished sooner rarn later. the best case scenario from a sterling perspective right now would be that theresa may's deal passes today and then you actually get brexit coming to an end within the next couple of weeks. >> quickly, is a hard or no deal brexit already priced in >> no. if it was priced in, you would see sterling much lower than where it is today. >> great insight, as always. see you soon thank you very much. let's get another check on the futures. as we wrap up the final trade day of the quarter, it has been a blow-up quarter for the stock market s&p up 12% small cap stocks up even more on pace for their best quarter

since 1991 and futures are higher today squawk b"squawk box" will pick coverage next. we'll see monday morning have a great weekend see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

stocks in china surging. u.s. equity futures are higher on hopes of a trade deal we'll get you ready for the final trading day of the quarter because it's april fool's day on monday lyft pricing its ipo at the high end of the expected range we'll tell you how much the ride-hailing service will raise in its public debut, and bring you a first on cnbc interview with the company's founders ahead of the day's debut

plus, a big bank shake-up. wells fargo ceo tim sloan retiring effective immediately we'll show you what warren buffett has said about sloan as another warren might have been a little involved in all this. we'll talk about that just before the announcement. it's friday, march 29th, 2019. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ i like to dream ♪ yes, yes ♪ right between the sound machine ♪ >> live from new york where business never sleeps. this is "squawk box. ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. andrew ross sorkin will be joining us later in the show with a first on cnbc interview with the founders of lyft. more on that in just a moment. our guest host for the hour is ed lee he is "new york times" reporter. also a cnbc contributor and, ed, good morning >> good morning. >> good to see you we'll put you through the paces. lots of news to run through.