zblarchlts welcome to street signs where are. >> here are your headlines this friday morning >> you want k. prime minister trees kra may set to meet imn t imminently with the leader of the back bench conservative 1992 committee sir brady amitt reports that she could be set to announce her resignation later today. european stocks recover some ground as president trump predicts a quick end to the u.s.-china trade war and says huawei could be part of the deal

>> considerable trade uncertainties continue to weigh as the company misses first quarter profit forecast. we'll speak so soren next. >> casinos surge after the parent company kwets protection from all creditors for at least six months our top story. wig day in the u.k. today. the prime minister theresa may this hour meeting with the leader of the back bench conservative sir gram brady and is kbpd to make a statement right after. steve has the latest from westminster. in front of downing street, eebl, steve. at the prime minister is expected to give a timetable for her departure from office what more do we know >> actually, we don't have any details as of yet from number 10 downing street everything has come from close colleagues, sources, other

ministers, from the 19 -- we don't actually have any confirmation from number 10 as to what happens next we were talking to mrs. may about the timetable for what happens next of course, there are two things going on here that we must remember one, she's the leader of the conservative party two, she's the leader of the -- what she's expected to -- she's the leadership of the party. very soon if not immediately perhaps even after the trump visit, which is from the week -- that we get a process which could last four to six weeks where a new conservative party leader is picked now, whether mrs. may remains prime minister in the meantime is a question of much debate the base is that mrs. may will remain leader of the country until perhaps late july when the conservative party has found a new leader and, hence, that

person becomes the prime minister there are other scenarios where she could resign more immediately where there's a caretaker leader, someone that people date back to david liv g livington where he would step in the most likely scenario would be we expect very imminently this morning as well an announcement from prime minister here at number 10 where she will announce her resignation and thereafter start this two-stage process to peculiar a successor as leader of the party of course, as we've explained before, the first stage is by back bench mps who will witle down to two the number of candidates to lead the party and thereafter it will go to the 125,000 conservative members of the party in the country then we have this extraordinary scenario where 125,000 conservative members will pick the type of prime minister we have will it be a brexiteer or

remainor the question what happens to the actual brexit process, and if nothing happens to the brexit process in the meantime, i hasten -- britain will fall out of the european union without a deal on the 31st of october this year huge questions one, the timetable this morning. twosh the time tabl for her premiership. three, the timetable for the new conservative party leader, and then what happens at the end of all this to the brexit process of course, we are amidst the yourp ev european parliamentary election where we get the results of that where the rest of europe has voted at 10:00 p.m. on sunday evening. >> steve, we'll leave it there thank you four your time looks like european markets soog a positive start to the day. >> that's right. we'll get into some of the priced action. yesterday was a weak session all athlete marriages ending deep at one poin the dow was down 400 points don't forget, it's not all just about u.s.-china trade war we had weak manufacturing data

at the u.s. yesterday. that spurred a rally into u.s. treasuries oil price plummeted in yesterday's session as well. the mood is a little better in asia asian exquits a little more mixed, and this again on comments from president trump that he does foresee an end to the trade standoff between the u.s. and china, but so far we don't have a lot of details. he also suggested that huawei could be part and parcel of an eventually deal if we get there. you can see the stock euro 600 today is firmly in the green we've got the index trading up about .7% firmer we're only one hour into trading. really incorporate some of the losses that we had in yesterday's session. a lot of green on the board today i want to start off first with the ftse 100. so many developments about to take place, and we are immine imminently expected to hear from the prime minister asking

questions about the time tabl she's going to be giving and whether or not she's going to hold on to that and how long she'll hold on to her premiership. lots of questions really grappling the mind of investors in the index today ftse 100, though, up .7%. >> also up 800 percentage points one name in particular is casino that's up 15% on news of the holding company getting protection from creditors. ftse mib, the italian index up 1.2% as steve just said, we dent have obviously the results. those will come out 10:00 p.m. on sunday, but that will be a

big determinant of the price action when we come back on monday let's take a quick look at sectors now as well. you see the breakdown. you only have one down in the red. very -- just a touch below the flat line. it's slightly weaker up at the top, as i mentioned, 1.6% firmer. telecoms seeing a rebound. he says huawei, even though it has emerged over the last 24 hours that more and more operators in the world internationally are cutting off shipments and ties to huawei, but we are seeing a bit of an uplift, and even though yesterday we had a weak session for oil prices overnight, again, it's a little bit better as you mentioned, with the stock prices firmer, and -- in terms of earnings today, we're looking at the data shipping company mersk, which

has reiterated its full year guidance that says it expects trade tensions for considerable unseshts the company says higher tariffs would weigh on container trade routes and mersk also slumped a first quarter net loss as it changed its dividend policy. riff news and core earnings also missed expectations, but only narrowly you can see that the stock is trading off at .3% firmer today. i'm very happy to bring in the ceo of mersk who joins us on the line sir, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. i just like to kick off by asking you, look, all of the evidence that we've seen recently in the economic data suggests a slowdown in the trade environment. the volumes have collapsed how much of an impact is that having on a business like yours? >> well, so far this year volume growth has been in line with the expectations we said already back in january when we announced our full year

guidance we said at the time we expect demand to grow 1% to 3%. first quarter was 1.7% it's been in line -- in a line -- in line with our expectations, but i also have to admit that many analysts have had high expectations through growth gin where we are today, what's going on, and as -- there is no fusht escalation to trade -- to the trade process between e.u. and china and the u.s., then we would still believe that 1% to 3% off this year which is, by the way, relatively low number >> sir, i also want to ask you about something else beyond the trade war. obviously, you may have heard me talking about it, but oil price and the cost of fuel obviously is a lot higher in the last couple of months.

>> you almost matched expectations when it came to ebida this repeat quarter. you've released the financial numbers. you've talked about a warning that trade tensions are one of the "considerable uncertainties that face your business. can you quantify in a bit more detail for our viewers, for your investors, quite how big of a threat to your bottom line the tariffs and the spat between the u.s. and china really are? >> well, to put it simply, if we were to continue along the current path and deliver a

demand growth in the 2% to 3% range, then for container shipping, that would mean that demand whether probably grow on power supply or maybe even outgrow it slightly, and the same picture next year if trade tensions escalate further, we see more tariff, then we expect demand growth could be impacted by as much as a percentage point, and that, of course, would mean slightly weaker balance between supply and demand >> but given the uncertainty, it must be very difficult for a firm like yours to make predictions about either volume or indeed the rates around your freight, and so i'm just wondering should investors take your forward guidance with a pinch of salt? we are, of course, almost five months into the year, so we have some visibility at least to our first half of a result by now, so you should day the guidance

for what it is >> one of the questions for you, sir. i wanted to ask you about your year-end numbers what else could impact it in terms of china and the u.s in terms of trade specifically >> well, as i said, the previous earnings call, obviously, the u.s. also have an outstanding discussion with china -- with the european union, and if the chinese-u.s. conflict is resolved, then our expectations would be that that would immediately lead to a discussion between the e.u. and the u.s., which -- so i don't believe that we will be done with trade any time soon even if the chinese-u.s. situation is resolved >> i'm very interested in your annette dotal observations of the trade war as well. a couple of months ago you said that it was very clear that u.s. imports from china rose significantly in the fourth quarter of last year while its

exports to china fell to opposite of what the president was trying to achieve. how are those volumes and how is that activity looking for the first three months of this year? >> it was very clear that there was what we call front-loading of imports to the u.s. leading up through the year in last year as new tariffs were likely to come in effect on the 1st of january. that meant that all the retailers were importing ahead of need. in the first quarter this year we've clearly seen a drop in demand, so there's been negative import growth to the u.s., and we see that simply as the stocks have -- the stocks start building down again, and that's natural. >> let's talk about europe as well, and it's something that the economists are watching very slowly, and that is the inventory build-up or so to speak stockpiling effect that is taking place on the continent, largely due to brexit uncertainty, not just trade war as well.

what type of evidence are you seeing to that effect in europe? >> well, actually, volumes into europe from asia were pretty decent in the first quarter, but, of course, we are mindful of the fact that the macroeconomic numbers on europe are growing, but not by much, and that cannot be, you know -- that cannot be good for demand growth if you look for the whole year >> one final question for you, sir. three months ago you told investors "profitability needs to improve, and the numbers we're seeing this morning, you are getting good on that promise essentially. >> well, i think that we can say we've had a good start to the year i mean, our operating earnings are up by one-third. we have dollar -- from operations we have sold the remaining shares we had, and that enables us to have the strength in our benefit to start executing on a share buyback program.

all in all we are on the right path, but obviously we need to continue to improve earnings >> thank you so much for your time ceo. we really appreciate you being with us this morning oil prices, we talked about them briefly, didn't we they stabilize this morning. that's after wti fell almost 6% during the u.s. session. of course, there are fears about over supply along side those trade and geopolitical tensions we talk about. also in the middle east, of course, and you look at brent right now. it's trading 1% higher up 68 cents at 68.44 wti is up more than 1%.

>> the expectations that they could continue along with these cuts and obviously, when you see days like yesterday with the oil price plummeting at 6%, then that's going to send alarm bells. i think the bigger picture here is that of the impact the trade tensions are going to have on global growth. i was looking at some numbers yesterday out of goldman sachs, and they said that if the second round of tariffs has applied, another $300 billion worth of chinese goods, that could have a significant financial tightening implication. it's not just stock markets that will get impacted, but also financial conditions that's requesting to hit growth. obviously, growth and demand are a big driver of where oil goes from here. >> the oil traders looking at this price are trying to look ahead of the future. they're facing the same challenges the ceo is facing not knowing where they're going to be. therefore, what that demand picture will look look, and, therefore, trying to assess where this price is going to go must be quite a challenging job at the moment. it's just interesting seeing

such violent swings essentially in the price over the course of the day. it's so clearly driven by comments from the white house about trade, comments from the beijing authorities. it's just absolute extraordinary that the breadth of the impact that those kinds are having on all sorts of asset classes across the world >> i think that if you speak to traders using the investors these days, they're saying that so much of what the decisions they're taking are a function of the tweets that come out of the u.s., of the political narrative, political discussions. reality is on a day like yesterday markets are trading heavily in the red, and by the end of the day the president said that huawei could be part and parcel of a trade deal with the u.s., and overnight chip makers rebound it's a tricky environment given even they don't know where they're going with this. it's quite difficult to hedge out a lot of that uncertainty. again, you know, oil is a good example of that because so much of it is driven by those types

of zugss and ultimately, the impact -- the trade war will have on global growth. that is a huge factor there. >> somewhere else we've seen uncertainty will be inside downing street >> theresa may is meeting with the leader of the conservative party back bench mps those are members of parliament that sht inside her deposit. she's megt with sir graham brady, who has been a pivotal figure, and the prime minister will make a statement soon after that meeting finishes. of course, there is a set of rules that govern the way that the conservative party leader is chosen, and the current existing set of rules essentially mandate to try and avoid all this kind of uncertainty that if you challenge the party leader and you lose the vote -- >> you get 12 months >> 12 months what may be happening is that members of this kind of executive committee inside the conservative party say this is the time where we need to reconsider these rules because this is an extraordinary set of

circumstances. >> unless she voluntarily decides to step down >> and that's where enough pressure from members of her own party could trigger that she could see no way forward potentially, but, again and again over the last, you know are let's say 12 to 18 months, theresa may has been ruled out by members of the party, very publicly slamming. >> let's talk about flash points we also have the fourth meaningful vote that's starting to take place that week as well. from everything of the reports that i have read, if she were to step down, it has to be after that crucial week. >> the south african has spbded its ceo peter. the company has cited a material

breakdown in trust in confidence between the firm's board and -- she added that chief operating officer ian wellson will take over as ceo with immediate effects. a reported 427 billion swiss banks. the net new inflows currently has a strong positive market are performance that helped to overcome a rather soft start to the year the annual gross margin, why the key capital ratios are just a little over 13%. sorgss have confirmed that deutsch bank will make further cuts to its u.s. equities business the bend e lenders management board survived a confidence vote on thursday despite lower approval ratings and a slumping

share price. as ever, our colleague anita joins us with more from frankfurt. oom not sure what will be enough to really convince investors that this equity story is actually a positive one. i think what happens now is that the management will go back to the drawing board and really will think about what needs to be done and where the cuts will actually take place.

>> they're tripping it down even further. that is what investors wanted. investors want to havea slimme investment bank, which is profitable at the end of the day. i guess the positive message from that agm is that the management board apparently got a sense of urgency, and that they also have to act in that running mate in order to convince shareholders that this is a -- that the shares are worth having i guess christian is very much under pressure to do something about the share price. for example, he only got an approval rating by shareholders of -- above 60%. this is a very pour result he could be in danger because he

cannot run that part of the investment bank profitably also, the head of regulatory affairs is doomed to leave the bank according to my sources because there were so many scandals in the past, which he preceded over, money laundering, et cetera. i guess this bank after that agm, there is some relief that they got this charge from the shareholders for confidence for both the supervisory board and the management board, but there is a huge amount of changes to come >> you have been following the story for years now really you've been following it very, very closely i just want to go back and point to some of the confidence votes that we had yesterday out of the agm. we just had the chart up on that looking at it. the ceo had around 75% of a vote of endorsement the chairman had 71% would you say that those numbers

are higher than some people had anticipated going into the agm given the significant amount of pressure on the company here >> they werea little higher than previously anticipated. the sleer amount of jokds to the board and to laettner is quite immense, even though it was the results in the end were a little bit better than expected most of the advisors have been lobbying to vote against discharging the board. there were some exceptions to that, like the u.k.-based brexit advisor was saying we should

give them their approval because the alternative is we have an ailing lender without a management board and also without ahead of supervisory board. the question is whether they're the right people at the top of the bank jury is out. there are so many management changes. that's close to wonder that he is still there back to you. >> thank you so much really appreciate it it's about an a difficult 24 hours for deutsche bank. >> another term that is facing difficulties is casino shares are actually doing pretty well this morning after french retailers said the filing of parent company rallye filed protection for creditors will not have an impact on long-terp plans. casino said the firm still retains majority control of it meanwhile, shares in rallye have fallen sharply on the news

these were, of course, suspended yesterday, these shares. interesting to see how they're responding this morning. look at that down 60% over the last three months >> for the viewers who are not familiar with the structure, eg it's complex here. they have a 51.7% stake in the company off of reports the ultimate ceo, and this has been an ongoing issue between the structure of the company, the holding company casino, and the investment community if we can just pull up the price of the casino stock, you can see that over the last year the stock has really come under a lot of pressure from the investment community there have been a lot of short sellers, and this is something she directly pointed to last year, and he said, look, the investment kplunts acommunity a attacking us the investment community says, look, this is a competitive environment in france. this business is facing multiple headwinds internationally and

domestically, rolling out the business also for competition as well in their view, it was an excuse to be short. the other issue that was really flat for investors is that of the very complex holding structure. today, actually, as an example where what was last year casino's achilles heal is today its fort yea because what's happened today is the holding company, rallye, has got this reprieve from creditors, so they have six months. >> yeah. groo defense mechanism set up.

>> you have them talking about the leverage, and they're saying this is problematic. people should look at this because of these quite public criticisms, we he were certainly saw a number of headwinds jump in there, and you end up with this, you know, billionaire who owns the company ultimately basically trying to publicly push back against these hedge funds and saying you guys are going to get in real trouble, you're going to end up losing your shirts on the back of this bet because my company is going to be strong enough, and you're completely misreading the situation. you know, it's interesting to see that massive drop over the last, let's say, 12 months for both those companies today suddenly a really significant bounce on the back of this reprieve for six months. >> also, let's not forget -- i mean, one of the other big challenges for casino is their debt they've got to do something about the debt situation that's quite impressive of the strategy.

certainly a story that we are monitoring very closely. another story that we're continuing to monitor is that further developments out of downing street nearly half past the hour, so let's just go back and take a look at some of your headlines for this today's session no top headline today, u.k. prime minister theresa may set to meet sir graham brady, the leader of the 1922 committee of back befrmers of the conservative party amid a lot of media speculation that the prime minister could be imminently set to announce her resignation. european stocks recover ground as president trump predicts a quick end to the u.s.-china trade war, and says

huawei could be part of that deal >> considerable trade uncertainties continue to weigh as the data shipping company misses first quarter profit forecasts. >> we were just talking about shares in casino surging after its parent company gets protection from all creditors for at least six months.

>> now you can't really use the same reason for april. you look at the sectors in detail to give you a bit more detail it looks like nonstore coming in year-on-year at 20.6, and auto moev fuel obviously a big, big constituent part of those numbers coming in at 9.0 >> we are seeing the currency bounce a little bit to the tune of about 20 pips or so we struggle to break through 126 on the down side

interesting price action the number one thing people are watching out for are those developments on downing street we'll look at that let's switch our attention to broader yourp even markets the picture is one of risk on today. we've got all the majors trading up in the green. a different picture from what we had yesterday afternoon. a lot of that was boosted by some comments out of the u.s. president yesterday. president trump suggesting that they are still working on a deal with china and that huawei will be part and parcel of an eventual deal. it will help boost sent menlt overnight. we had the shanghai end up slightly in positive territory p, even though the tech complex is still coming under pressure in asia. you can see in europe that all of the major indexes are actually still trading in the green.

about one-tenth of a percentage point firmer we did have weaker pmi numbers coming out yesterday it looks as though the currency market for the time being continues to brush off some of the bad news on the macroside of things you can see that yen is still -- it's about half a percentage point firmer versus the u.s. today. dow was over 3400 points weaker before recovering slightly you can see the picture for today is pretty positive across the board. s&p up 13 points higher. dow triple digit territory up 125 points higher in temz of data, you want to watch out for goods data coming

up later in the u.s. our top story, u.k. prime minister theresa may is this hour meeting with the leader of the back bench conservative sir graham brady, and is expected to make a statement right after steve joins us life from outside downing street just break it down for us. what can we expect what are the flash points where he need to watch out for over the coming days? >> around about just under an hour ago her husband arrived through the back entrance of number 10. the prime minister is in the house. as indeed we understand the conservative party chairman, brand new done lewis julian smith, one of the few senior figures of the conservative party the chief whip, the man responsible for cajoling mps to do the will of mrs. may and the government in the house of

commons. that would be sir graham brady we don't actually know whether as willem was explaining earlier on that there will be a need for change in the rules so that back bench mps can challenge the prime minister the last leadership election being back in december, and that means that the prime minister cannot be challenged again until december of this year. we understand that might not be necessary, and that the prime minister will make a statement that is expected to be this morning whether we see the famous podium of number 10 coming out and the prime minister making a statement or indeed wherever she makes it within the headquarters of prime

minister remains sob seen. we've heard up to ten key figures that may put themselves forward as potential leader. well, then it could be i along and convoluntarily outed process. in previous battled to be the leertd of the conservative party, there's been biweekly ballots on a tuesday and a thursday, but, of course, sir graham brady, who will be in charge of the first stage of the process, may want to speed things up a bit if indeed the timetable of finding a new leader and putting it to a second stage to the 125,000 conservative parties e party members throughout the united kingdom, whether it goes to them and we have a new leader by the end of july. it's pretty much of key importance, many would say as well whilest we have a leadership

battle and while rs we do not know what the kind of chemistry of the leader and his or her cabinet will be, will we a breck it or will we have a remain oriented remains to be seen. that date looming there is summer recess here in the united kingdom. pretty much at the end of july as well. not a lot will get done then a long process could be kick started later on this morning when it taps finally despite as willemsays the qualities of mrs. may who has been written off many, many times before. if this indeed is finally the end.

>> never a dull day, steve we'll come right back out to you when we get more headlines, and that's widely anticipated statement out of the prime minister the new rule is expected to impact china, and it could hit japan, india, germany, and switzerland. in a statement customers secretary wilbur ross said the new rule would stop countries from using advantage of american workers and businesses

farmers would receive billions in direct payments and would be determined by location rather than by crop >> four prominent fed officials have warned that the ongoing trade spat could derail growth and is creating uncertainty for business. zwro i'm happy to bring in karen watki watkins. thank you for joining us today we did have the fed minutes a couple of days ago that suggested the fed are very much in be patient mode, wait and see developments over the last 24 hours, it looks as though they're getting

increasingly concerned about the trade war and the impact that that's having on growth. >> i think so. i mean, i think to the earlier comments, you know, the big impact i think from trade tensions is just the ongoing uncertainty. the direct impact of tariffs, i think, would have some impact on gdp growth, but it's really the uncertainty and not knowing what's going to happen, which is potentially weighing heavy on business confidence and that is i think the bigger concern that the fed is expressing, but also generally you're seeing that >> the investment dmunt is quite negative on where this is all headed looking at what the market is pricing in, pricing in a possibility to cut this year and another 30 bates points next year two cuts over the next 24 hoz or so is that valid, or is that overly negative especially given, you know, we had the eocb report yesterday, and he and it showed it's projected to growth north of 2.5% this year >> from our percent bekt, we think that's potentially a bit overdone, and actually, if you look at the rest of the u.s.

economy in terms of where, you know, you have tight labor markets, have you wage growth at the highest levels in a decade, and so actually the strength of the u.s. consumer is still very strong to a degree, that will continue to support the u.s. economy. we think it's very positive and so actually expecting the fed to immediately get into easing mode is potentially overdoing it. >> let's just pick up on some of the commentary around hard data in the u.s. in particular. when you look at unemployment levels where they are in the u.s., when you look at wage growth, you're not seeing that as yet to feed into inflation. in many, many measures i am wondering then from your perspective, when you are trying to anticipate what the fed might do, why is that disconnect important? >> it is important, and we think that that's a key watch point, actually, and that could end up surprising the markets in terms of when you do ultimately see that inflation starting to feed

through. i think the markets have been -- however, if you look over there at the next. >> we're seeing different manifestations of that, but we think ultimately that's going to put upward pressure on inflation, which could take both the markets and the central banks by surprise. >> let's now talk about europe because we've got elections going on at the moment when you talk about pop lichl. >> when it comes to nationalist protectionist merds. >> i think, yes, it makes it

harder to forecast what is going to happen in these policies, but the expectation is from these more populist leaders is that there will be a focus on domestic industry. it's going to impact global trade, and we're seeing those effects of deglobalization as investors we can think about those dynamics >> how do you trade in that if you are looking for those trends how do you position yourself to benefit from them? if you can focus your portfolios perhaps on areas where it's giving you more exposure to, say, the u.s. consumer which woef said is very strong that cab things through real estate and securitized assets, for example, which are much more underpinned by consumers than necessarily by corporates, that can help give you protection if you are going into that type of environment.

what made you stay say you want to be out? >> we have -- coming into this year wrrn think it's now the balance of risks has become even more weighted. we've got to take into account where we are today versus where we were at the start of the year you've had double digit returns across most parts of equity markets. value wags back to more average levels >> i went to the -- a lot of the conversation was about the impact the trade war has had on gloelk growth, but then also

everyone seemed to agree that this was a self-inflicted problem. it was a problem that didn't need to happen, but it arose because it was put on the table by the u.s. president and sense then the whole world has been locked in this dynamic of trade war tariffs, et cetera it could easily equally be unwound in the future. if we get to a resolution on tariffs and goods numbers, the more imminent, the easier problems to solve between china and the u.s., would that be a catalyst for you to get back involved in u.s. markets, or do you think harmt is done, and it's going to have longer term effects on companies, et cetera. sno i think the directed impact of tariffs is muted in fermz of gdp growth i think the bigger problem is the ongoing uncertainty and what

that ends up doing to corporates in termds of holding back investment and capex, and it does end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy, i think. >> we hear a lot about the impact that it would have on owe meernling markets. what about the incredibly stlong dollar we've seen. where do you think that's been felt the most? that is an area where we're seeing -- it's an area to pin you down here. where would you say those opportunities when you are

talking about em >> from our perspective, you know, we think the credit side of things looks appealing given kind of relative yields both in the hard dollar kind of space where you can get good yields versus kind of similarly credit rated kind of credits in the u.s. market. sfwlrp some reports that the officials would be willing to let that currency break through that will psychological level of seven. if that does happen, what kind of knock-on effects will that have klein are not playing by the rules here, when the -- they kept the currency underpinned, and now things seem to be

deteriorating. >> i think to the degree that we've seen fairly aggressive kind of monetary and fiscal easing from them i think speaks to the fact that they are the authorities there are doing kind of what they need to do to continue to kind of support growth sneer saying if you want to go head-to-head with, you you're going to go head-to-head with you. we're going to start supplying

subsidies to local chipmakers so we can try to create our own new ecosystem and be self-sufficient. from an investment growth standpoint, do you see that and think, okay, well, this creates a considerable amount of opportunity for me to inverts in china given the government's attention is focused inwards rather than outwards >> absolutely. i think if you are investing in emerging markets, it's understanding what those dynamics are you know, he do see toounts opportunity in china where you're still seeing that kind of strong domestic demand, but it's about finding those sectors which will benefit from the inward focus, so those companies that will benefit from the infrastructure projects and things coming through. >> one of the questions about the u.k. specifically, we've obviously seen a weak pound for some time now. i think we all know why. yet, the data in the u.k. has not always been so disappointing. i'm wondering why do you think more investors from outside the

u.k. are looking at the british equity market and thinking there's some really good opportunity to get exposure to that relatively strong consumer demand >> i think it depends where you are looking in u.k. equity market the kind of ftse 1 00 that's dominated by multi-nationals rather than necessarily playing on the domestic demand space we haven't necessarily seen all of the hard data koong through, but we are seeing i think more uncertainty in the u.k. market in terms of some of the business confidence and consumer confidence indicators, you know, versus other parts of the market you can understand why investors are nervous gin that just too much uncertainty with everything >> there is a lot of it. thank you so much for joining us really appreciate it, and having talked there about the u.k we should mention that the podium outside number 10 downing street has been deposited in front of that famous front door.

it seems like things are getting ready for something more official >> we can see this over my left shoulder that does mean an announcement is imminent. i'm told from one or two reports, it could be in the next

15 minutes that we get a statement from the prime ministerit would be difficult for her to get legislation through on brexit, in the meantime, despite the fact that we are seeing commentary and actually stephen barkley would get through to less contentious parts of brexit, such as citizens right, in the meantime, and parliament had something to do because, of course, if u.k. politicians and certainly the conservative party is wrapped up in its leadership election, which we really have been starting now, although many of the conend tenders have been on

the hot seat for weeks as well what else will parliament be doing other than watching the tea leaves to see who becomes the next leader of the conservativematter and, hence, then prime minister? >> boris johnson has a strong chance of leading the party and, hepts, leading the country as well it would be very interesting to see houch how many names start getting put forward in the next couple of weeks. the barriers to entry just to remind our viewers as well, to

put your name on the list to the 1922 committee for the first stage of the battle are very, very low we understand sir graham brady would want to witle down to the final two very quickly back to the final two names and they can get put to the 125,000 conservative party members and can thereafter there are a combination mostly ballots really we will see the leader of the conservative party come through. it koog softer candidate who wants -- and not just within their own party.

the future of the conservative party very much depends on who wins this battle in many ways. >> you see frequently the press release statements coming out of number 10 downing street, and they typically have the words check by delivery, and they're essentially saying this is exactly what the prime minister said during her statement. that is one of the conservative leaning -- in which he says he has received one of these press release statements from number 10 downing street with the words the below -- check against delivery, but the delivery is not checked. there is no text beneath that announcement it seems it will be a formal deposit announcement yesterday i was talking to conservative mp on my way home who said that he does not expect

her to go today, but does expect her to go very soon. i also have the good fortune to run into boris johnson's father yesterday afternoon, and i asked him how he thought his son, the former foreign secretary, was looking ahead of any leadership contest, and he said he was very well positioned. gist talks us through some of the potential candidates for the leadership position if we do come to that leading on from today.

your five at 5:00 is brpds we are following a major developing story out of the u.k. british prime minister theresa may may announce her resignation within moments you are looking live at 10 downing street in london we will take you there live. it is friday, may 24th, and worldwide exchange begins right now.