at pork barrel bbq wouldn't be the success that we are today. ♪ good morning welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche these are your headlines mic michael leary claiming kgb was on top of the ryan air hijacking. and the state terrorism among those branding it

terrorism. >> ordinary international travelers are held hostage this is state terrorism directed by the security of the citizens of the european union. bitcoin volatility continues after steep weekend declines and beijing cracks down on mining. and softbank warnings against the olympics going ahead in japan citing significant dangers as medical authorities in osaka is warning the system is facing collapse due to the surge of virus cases. good morning welcome to "street signs." i'll get to the top story of the

last 24 hours. ryanair ceo believes there were kgb agents on board a flight to belarus. he described the incident as a state-sponsored hijacking. belarusian authorities arrested a journalist once the plane landed in minsk. the incident has drawn international condemnation with the secretary-general and top diplomats from the uk and germany. among those calling for the investigation and potential sanctions. lithuania's prime minister describing it as an attack against the international community. >> it is unjustifiable they have been held hostage. this is the act of state

terrorism directed against the citizens of the european union and other countries. lithuania will demand a clear and compromising response from the international community. the air space of belarus is unsafe for everyone. >> u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken saying the act in danger belies the 120 passengers on board. he called for the immediate release of the detained reporter the foreign secretary called on the eu to pose a ban on the commercial flights through belarusian air space >> i believe that is completely unsafe for any commercial flight it should be deemed this not only by eu, but international

community. now, this could be used for any plane crossing the air space i think that it should be first and very clear by the community. we're still in the preparation of the fourth sanction package proposed to the 27 i think it has to be adopted immediately. >> let's get out to the correspondent silvio nobodyticipating this as the topic of conversation. what can we expect from the eu leaders? >> reporter: absolutely. the focus for this summit was on climate, but now, joumanna, this

incident on sunday in belarus. the comments indicate there is a broad consensus among the 27 when it comes to condemning what happened and asking for the release of the journalist detained on sunday nonetheless, a question as to how far they will go in terms of actions. when it comes to the possibilities on the table, one, as you heard, lithuania is asking the eu to consider belarus as an unsafe air space zone the eu official i spoke with minutes ago said that the eu could also consider stopping any sort of airplane coming from belarus to the eu. then another possibility they have on the table is sanctions we did hear that word quite a lot over the last 24 hours and the comments we received the eu already has sanctions against belarus and the

president after the elections which the eu does not recognize as valid the eu leaders could state they want to strengthen sanctions after what happened on sunday. nonetheless, a question as to how far they will go, but the summit meant to be focused on climate is now definitely concentrated on what happened in belarus on sunday. >> stay with me. let's continue the conversation with nigel davies. former uk ambassador to belarus. thank you for taking time to speak with us today. clearly the eu leadership is weighing the responses over what to do as far as belarus is concerned. you put up a tweet saying this act appeared to be carefully

planned. in other words, they were willing to risk the backlash from the international community as long as they achieved the objective which is detaining the journalist in question what does that tell you about the calculus of the belarus kgb? >> excellent question. the calculus of the kgb, but the person who gives the kgb the orders they have been clear in saying that he ordered the scrambling of the fighter that forced the ryanair jet to land in minsk first, he is now an international threat and not just a threat to his own people. the second thing is it shows how insecure he feels himself to be. if he goes to such torouble to

detain a single journalist and risk outrage and condemnation in violating international rules in this most flagrant way it shows he really doesn't care about threatening the lives of european and american citizens just to get a single person who has been publicizing his oppression of his own people >> the ryanair ceo michael y o'leary was giving an interview to a radio station and said he believes there were kgb agents on board the flight. these flights are traveling between two eu nation states >> you are right we had hints and evidence in the

past that the belarusian kgb is acting beyond belarus. this is the clearest demonstration of that so far there's a carefully planned operation. it appears to involve belarusian kgb officials operating on eu soil in the carefully coordinated operation to force down an eu flight. again, this shows the international dimension of the threat to the countries around it >> good morning, nigel do you think more sanctions from the eu would work in this instance given the eu already has sanctions against the regime those don't seem to have beared any fruit? >> the sanctions the eu imposed

take time to work. we need pay setience in the mat. there is a great deal more that the eu can and should do indeed the united states as well these include, for example, banning flights from landing in belarus. it is important to take into account the borders of belarusian here. there are certainly sanctions imposed on belarusian companies that trade with the west and also the question of making it more difficult for belarus to raise money abroad through bomb sales, which is something it is still allowed to do despite recent outrage within the country. much more systematic pressure on the belarusian system and not

only on the individuals who make decisions. i think that is the direction ahead. >> we have this european summit later this evening now, of course, this incident in belarus. do you expect any assertive stance from european officials when heit comes to belarus and also when it comes to russia >> yes i think this incident is so outrageous and such a flagrant violation of international rules and the rhetorical response already has been so strong that there have to be more severe and significant measures if the eu fails to act, it is not only belarus that will draw conclusions about its ability to get away with things like this, other countries will watch the eu reaction, too that includes russia we have seen recent examples of the russian and belarusian

security services cooperating with one another we need to look at that angle, too. for lots of reasons, it is imperative that the eu and i hope with american support as well, will take a much stronger and concerted stand. >> i would like to talk more about that it has been 30 years since the fall of the soviet union how closely aligned today is the belarusian kgb with the russian kgb? how does this affect the international relationships? it is a huge topic of debate if there is a putin-biden summit in coming months. do you think the incident over the weekend could somehow derail things >> on a matter of belarus-russian intelligence cooperation. yes. there are signs of close links

just about two weeks ago there was what appeared to be a bizarre joint operation that arrested on frankly ridiculous charges a number of belarusian figures. including a former biographer of lushenko it was kgb involvement obviously. part of the large either picture of russian seeking to exert greater control over belarus putin has long sought to make belarus completely dependent on russia and also use belarus a place to put russian air bases

that is a security concern for nato and the west. on the matter of the summit. this matter of the ryanair flight and in fact the combination of terrorism and kidnapping we have seen on the belarusian authorities more will come out in the coming days if it turns out that russia is involved, that would with clearly be extremely serious and the west would have to draw conclusions. i emphasize that there is no clear evidence of that, but it is something we should be open to and it would be one more example of russian behaving in dangerous ways abroad. we have seen examples of poisoning in eu countries and so on as part of the larger pattern. >> sir, to round up the

discussion i don't want to end it without asking about the journalist him himself. what hope is there for the international community to get involved and try to secure a release of the detained individual the only other comparison we can have is alexei navalny >> it is a worrying situation, i'm afraid there are already several hundred political prisoners in belarus. there have been since last autumn there are also shockingly cases of political prisoners dying in prison a case literally two days ago of that happening it is absolutely right and imperative in the community to demand the release the journalist

consequences must follow it is something that needs to be watched closely. >> thank you, sir. thank you for sharing your thoughts on "street signs. nigel gould-davies also coming up on "street signs. with limited trading in europe, we preview what is set to be a busy week to come in markets with the chief european economist at goldman sachs that's coming up next.

another day, another chance. it could be the day you break the sales record, or the day there's appointments nonstop. with comcast business, you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses, and you can get the advanced cybersecurity solutions you need with comcast business securityedge. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. get started with a great offer, and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. (gentle, upbeat music) - [non-compliant id] wow, looking good. - [real id] thanks, just powered up to a real id. - power up? so future me has x-ray vision. - more like future you can fly, to all 50 states, d.c., and the u.s. territories. - whoa, you can fly? - sure, i'm real id-compliant. means now i can fly to florida for the nasa launch today, then to utah for the stargazing trip. - sounds good, have fun.

i'll just hang here. - [narrator] be your real id self by may 3, 2023. make a plan at dhs.gov/real-id. welcome back to "street signs. france firm solutions 30 has published the annual report without approval from the auditor. it had not received the necessary information to do so solutions 30 which missed the deadline to publish accounts said it strongly disagreed with the reasoning. that stock is down 72% today in trading.

cineworld has reopened the world's second largest cinema chain expects a strong recovery with the releases of "cruella" and "quiet place 2." as for european markets as a whole. german markets are out and swiss out for holiday. and others are searching for direction. ftse 100 up .30% and italy is down despite the euro win over the weekend. it is set to be another key week for the europe economy. the health of the german economy tomorrow and the may report will be revealed. france will have a final reading

for first quarter gdp on friday. the chief european strategist jari stehn is here with me to talk about it. i just want to ask you if the data you have seen as of late is evolving with your forecast or do you see potential upside from here >> yes, i think the data is involving strongly here. we are seeing sharp gains in the early may data we had very good flash pmi on friday they went up across the board. the forward looking aspects such as new orders and business expectations suggest the further gains in the pipeline. we remain constructive on the european rebound we think we will see strong growth into the summer and i think that growth will surprise

on the upside. we expect a lot of good news here in the pipeline >> if you look at the pmi numbers that came out on friday, one thing emerged is there is clear price pressure emerging from supply chain. price of consumer goods are going up and anything to do with energy is going up as well do you expect a pass-through from producer prices to consumer prices >> we think headline inflation will go up substantially over the next six months. you have seen a big increase in commodity prices you will see upward pressure from reopening and also a number of technical factors in the pipeline we do think those will push up headline inflation over the next few months we have german headline inflation reaching 4% in november we think underlining inflation

pressures will weaken again as we e go into 2022 some of the factors will drop out. we think the fundamental drivers of the inflation with long-term inflation remains subdued and will reinsert themselves with pressures in europe to firm. only 1.5% in 2024 for corn >> what about the uk all of the latest signals suggest that the demand for labor right now is much greater than the supply that is available. clearly that will have inflation consequences is the inflation picture in the uk looking different than the eurozone because of what is happening on the wage front? >> i think it is looking different because inflation

pressures over the last year in uk have been higher. uk has not had the problem of dragging anchor or falling inflation expectation over the last few years of course, the rebound in the uk is going to be even stronger, we think, in the euro area. the numbers here have already moved up substantially we do expect upward pressure on inflation in the uk. we also think that is a lot of slack and it will take time for inflation pressures to firm on a sustained basis. relative to the euro area, inflation areas will be higher we think 2% in 2024 rather than 1.5% the broad family work is similar in the uk as it is in other advanced economies >> what do you think should be the appropriate response from the bank of england? they announced they are reducing

the size of the weekly purchases. it is not a tapering at what point should they think about rate hikes >> i think rate hikes are a long time off because of underlying inflation pressures are subdued. we think the ecb will slow the purchase pace slightly at the june meeting we think that would be consist end consistent with the reaction we think underlying inflation pressures are weak they think they will cement the guidance and keep on hold for some time. we don't see the first rate hike until 2025 >> interesting that doesn't square up with the short-term outlook

goldman came out with the 7.8% forecast and then the data in the uk has been extremely strong as we go from reopening phase to reopening phase. are you still hovering in at 7.8% for the year or do you also see upside risk as well? >> for uk, we are slightly above that at 8.1% now for 2021 the data has come in, as you say, strongly. we had upward surprises to q1. we also are seeing a lot of strong momentum into the second quarter. on friday, the composite hit an all-time high. we see strong momentum with growth in the second quarter we have to see that in the context of the pent-up demand that we still have in the economy and the outlook gap.

we h calculate that output gap the uk is minus 10%. it will take a long time for the spare capacity to be absorbed and inflation pressures to build. it will be some time until the bank of england tightens policy. >> very clear. jari, thank you for joining us jari stehn analysts at credit suisse have picked a slew of stocks to make good hedges amid the sign inflation is picking up across the globe. coming up, china will crackdown on bitcoin mining as it tries to lower the risks. we will have more details after the break.

welcome back to "street signs. i'm joumanna bercetche these are the headlines. belarus draws outrage after the ryanair flight is forced to land

in minsk >> it shows he really doesn't care about threatening the lives of european and american citizens just to get a single person who has been publicizing the oppression of his people >> michael o'leary calls it a state sponsored hijacking claiming kgb agents were offloaded at the airport bitcoin volatility continues after the steep weekend declines as beijing cracks down on cryptocurrency forcing to shutdown mining operations. u.s. futures trade higher while the white house tries to win over the infrastructure bill counteroffer

good morning let's catch you up on markets. a bunch of european markets closed today for bank holiday. germany out. switzerland out. trading is lighter than usual. you can see the most part the indices are leaning to the green. i should take stoxx 600 closed a quarter percentage away from the all-time high. stocks are performing well ftse is reporting up and cac and france are similar italy is down .40% the only trading in the red today. let's switch to foreign exchange it is continuing with the weakness this morning. the pound trading at $141.50 we tried to get to the 1.42

level. it has been struggling to break through. 141.50 that strength in the pound versus dollar. dollar/yen moving. trading stronger this morning. euro is shy of the 122 level a key level the last couple weeks. as for u.s. futures. all of the three majors are pointing to open up in the green. the s&p up 16 points and dow up 30 with the nasdaq up 58 the s&p and dow ended the week in negative territory last week. nasdaq, despite the volatility in tech stocks as of late, did end positive for the week. one stock we are watching is apple. big court decision later this

week u.s. senators have unveiled a bipartisan funding package for highways, roads and bridges. as lawmakers look to break the deadlock on the infrastructure deal it comes after the white house lowered the cost of the structure package. republicans have rejected the updated proposal saying the two sides seem further apart g7 countries are closing in on a corporate tax agreement targeting the largest multinationals a g7 pact could be announced as early as this friday after progress was made among the top officials. agreement between the top advanced economies could pave the way for a global deal later this year when former negotiations take place in paris. aiming to bring in all g20

governments. the u.s. lowered the corporate tax rate deal to 15% from the initial goal of 21%. let's look at bitcoin after the volatile week last week. we had bitcoin trading close to $40,000 on friday. over the weekend, it got as low as $31,000 today, it is trading back up again. 10 percentage points higher at $36,000. this as china says it will crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading in a bid to lower financial risk regulators in hong kong are set to follow suit >> reporter: hong kong stocks under pressure the government has taken note of the rapid change in digital assets in response, following market

consultation, cryptocurrency will have to be lie censed by t market regulators. currently dozens of crypto exchanges opt-in under hong kong law, the financial services and treasury bureau proposes the changes in the 2021 and 2022. back to you. made.com will reveal an ipo in london following the surge in demand after the pandemic. the online furniture retailer would be valued up yoto 1 billin

pounds special purpose acquisition companies or spacs are under performing against the broader market spac post deal index is down 17% year to date according to the financial times, it is now more common for shares of the companies to slide after takeover announcement and stark contrast to space earlier in the year. matt simpson, partner of wells springs partners join us matt, the spac index is down 30% since february there was a lot of excitement of spac at the beginning of the year has the fizzle started to come out of the spac market here? >> good morning, joumanna. nice to be with you this morning. when with you look at the spac index, you are looking at d

de-spac companies. reversed merged and now a small cap equity the ups and downs of those may be related to the risk within the sparks as opposed to when the spacs in the searching states spacs in general have fallen from the february highs, but overall, the securities people forget while they are spacs, but while they are de-spacs and trade around the trust values. >> there is speculation over the spac listings because of what has happened in the peer group is that your sense as well is the bar for getting people or new start ups higher than it once was

>> to be in the public market, the bar is higher. only recently has that barlowered a little bit. now that bar is moving back up again. that is a little bit in part because of the regulations coming from the securities exchange commission in the u.s >> what are the other things that people talk about in the context of spac? if you plan on going public in ipo, you have to file an s-1 with disclosures the disclosures with onerous how can this system meet the revenue and growth in the future given they are giving less disclosures than the ipo route >> that is an excellent point. when a company goes public the regular lway, they relare limit with the forecast. the spac has the funding

there's been changes and innovation you have to really dig into the numbers and i would say this is where you need professional management this is still a relatively small market although we talk about it in the market and hundreds of the companies. in terms of total market cap, the market is fairly small $100 billion compared to the s&p 500 at $27 trillion. that's made up of 500 different companies. you need to get into the details more than just the s-1 to make an assessment here. >> i know wealthspring capital is involved. can you give us the color of the pipeline for the year and the type of sectors that may be looking to go public via spac? >> spacs are technology. they are a way for companies to

go public through reverse mergers into the spac vehicles at wealthspring, we service clients in 32 states and around the world. we try to not concentrate on different sectors. we like all of the general sectors that lead to innovation. sparks tend to be the vehicle for taking those companies public whether it is sports and gaming or financial services or electric batteries and cars. we look for teams that look to be disruptive within the industries sy industries. >> matt, the broader macro world is watching the fed with the monetary policy this year. some talk about tapering by the end of the year. how do you think the fed is going to affect the overall appetite for spac deals? >> that's a good question. spacs, if you buy at par and interest rates go higher, will

earn more money short run. the securities and exchange commission mandates they can be held in treasury bills under six months no spacs hold only a couple of months if interest rates go higher, the accrued interest within the spac goes up. the higher interest market may have impact on the ability for spac to successfully de-spac the interest rates are low right now and we are seeing some sponsor teams add money to trust to make it more interesting for inve investors. that may go away with interest rates were higher. >> some people may have an alternative view and say raising interest rates could take the froth out of the market. that is a different discussion thank you for joining us matt simpson starting at 1500, cnbc is

launching the first nft auction. he predicted the market had hit rock bottom. he was right a year later, the s&p was up 73%. >> $2 trillion there's $5 trillion. that's money that's not coming back in. >> right sdplchlt however, i'll step out on a limb here. >> hold on >> i think we're at the bottom >> mark died send years ago today. to honor him, we are auctioning off the ft all proceeds go to charity half for autism speaks and the other to the council on the economic education for financial literacy if you don't want to participate in the auction, we have nfts for a set price. the auction starts in a few hours. do to mintable.app/cnbc.

coming up, we speak with the ceo of co-diagnostics. they look to develop covid tests for ina.di don't miss that after the break.

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welcome back soft bank ceo masa son has warned the olympic games could pose a massive health risk he said the event to threaten lives and damage japan's economy. the comments come after the international olympic committee says it still plans to hold the games despite the covid restrictions. more than 300,000 people died from coronavirus in india as the country reported more than 4,000 new deaths in the past 24 hours. the nation, which is currently battling a second wave of the disease, reported 222,000 new daily infections taking the overall number to 26 million

the pfizer and astrazeneca vaccines are effective against the variant first identified in india. the report says that two doses of the vaccine offer similar levels of protection against the strain as they do for other variants of the virus. uk health secretary matt hancock says the country was doing the right thing. >> after one jab, it is a little less against the new variant in india. the effectiveness after two jabs is essentially the same. that is good news because it means we can be confident that our national strategy for dealing with this pandemic is on track and is the right one >> and co-diagnostics is developing quick covid testing

kits for india joining us now is the ceo dwight egan dwight, great to have you with us on the program. i want to start by framing the covid tests differ from what is on the market right now. >> co-diagnostics has been producing since the beginning of the pandemic for india we had the approval for covid-19 tests. our tests are accurate pcr tests. real-time pcr tests. they differ from antigen tests in the terms of accuracy as relates to asymptomatic patients. >> can i ask how many tests within india have you manufactured to date how challenging has it been to get the tests to the people who

most need them >> we have done millions of tests in india we do hundreds of thousands of tests a month. india is a place that you mentioned earlier on is in its second wave which is now 60 days in length compared to the united states with the second wave that lasted 45 days the challenge has been to meet demand in both of the surges in p indi india. we brought more raw materials from the united states to india to meet the demand we have a first-class manufacturing facility there they are able to produce a large number of tests. we have brought in pieces of equipment. we have 160 customers in india in what will be over 100 different laboratories which is 75% had no access to the

diagn diagnostics to use this in the cities and labs and hospitals, but also out in the rural areas where they have the particular problems right now. >> you must have a pretty good grasp of what is going on. how sensitive and critical would you say the situation is right now in india as far as the pandemic is concerned? >> there's no way to characterize it except for a humanitarian crises. it is absolutely desperate and awful. we are in connection with the teams there on a daily basis i think it is very, very important that the rest of the developing world, rather the

developed world, we don't get triumphant of the current status of the ckconquests of covid whie many other countries in the world are in the deepest throes of the pandemic. we delivered 1.6 billion vaccinations worldwide that is 1% of those going to low-income countries it is just very critical the rest of the world realizes it is not in the overall interest of the planet to have large portions of our society that don't have appropriate access. in india, they have a two-prong approach they have to do they have to get vaccinations on the ground and they have to continue to fight it in terms of suppressing the presented of the disease. this has to do with things as rudimentary of social distancing and masks and, of course, accurate testing it is an all-out war on the

covid virus in india it is affecting everybody. the variant doesn't let anybody out. you can be healthy, unhealthy. all ages >> you are producing tests that help, obviously, with the identification of the virus. that is one part of the bigger puzzle there is a need for social distancing and need to relieve the pressure on the health care system there is a lack of equipment as well particularly with the lack of oxygen. what is the number one priority for the indian government? >> i think the indian government is doing everything they possibly can it is a situation where, you know, from oxygen to all kinds of other medical supplies. it is desperate at every level i think the international community should come to help as much as possible we are trying to do our part at

co-diagnostics in terms of providing accurate tests i think there is a lot of people coming to the aid of india around the world helping with the predicampredicament. it is not just india there are other populations that are also in desperate straits currently. >> you talk about the need for the international community to step up. we are hearing more and more from world leaders saying they are looking to donate a portion of their existing vaccine supply to help out emerging and developing economies india is one of them under what sort of timeline do you expect this to happen? do you expected the situation in india to be in control by the end of 2021? >> the current predictions by august, india will have as many as 1 million deaths from covid you mentioned earlier they are

currently 300,000. that's 700,000 to go just between now and august i think what we have to worry about is if this is off the rails so much, what happens with the other strains and variants that further complicate the issue not only in india, but elsewhere in the world no man is an island and we are vulnerable india is about 3% vaccinated africa is about 1% vaccinated. in places like the united states, where we can feel comfortable that we have about half of the people who have gotten at least one shot and 40% fully vaccinated, that's still only representing 1.5% to 2% of the entire population of the world. we can't get comfortable in terms of where we sit as an overall population of the world

in vaccinations. >> under sstood. >> india was the prolific producer of the vaccination and they have such devastating disease hampers the ability to make vaccinations. >> sir, we will leave it there thank you for coming on the show today and painting the stark picture. that is the reality in india dwight egan. before we go, the europe air safety is in the touch with the member carriers over the forced landing of the ryanair flight in m in minsk. stay tuned for further developments on this story

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it is 5:00 a.m. at cnbc. here is the top five at 5:00 crypto crash the roller coaster continues as it bounces off the lowest level since january. the dollar value you have to see to believe will bitcoin woes bleed into the stock market cathie wood making the case that value has overtaken growth and the trade of choice for