connie hoagland: he was. he didn't know me at all. craig melvin: that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning welcome to "street signs." i'm joumanna bercetche >> i'm julianna tatelbaum. these are your headlines >> european equities open lower as investors gear up for more inflation data and fed official brace for a slower pace of rate hikes. the outgoing goingvernor sa the inflation is too high. >> we have many years of low inflation and all of a sudden

inflation is way too high. that means we are completely in a different territory compared to five years ago. state officials insist several regions are past the peak of covid infections pfizer could begin manufacturing the covid treatment in china through a local partner. >> we are extending as fast as we can to supply them. emmanuel macron faces a key test as they reveal a pension reform plan setting up a clash with lawmakers. the uk government fails to strike a pay deal with unions settling up further strike action as the bank of england warns high inflation could last longer than expected

good morning welcome to "street signs." let's catch up on the map. a bit of a break from the price action of the first week of the year the european markets started off with a strong footing. a lot of that momentum has fizzled out in the last 24 hours. overnight, some market participants commenting we had hawkish remarks from bostic and daly both suggesting the terminal rate will not just move above 5%, but stay above 5% for a longer period of time. that was not interpreted well by the markets. we have high inflation numbers from japan and then the china reopening as well the session was more bearish the stoxx 600 is down .70% in the early hours of trade let's get to individual european

indexes and break it down. you see every single one of these on the back foot dax down .50%. yesterday, we spoke to annette about the strong german output number, despite the fact that consumption was down and production had to use less energy in the last couple months the output number still managed to hold out which was pointing to surprising resilience in the manufacturing sector in germany. cac 40 in france is down .60%. france will layout the pension reform plan. we will talk about that on the show it is a catalyst insofar as a mover is concerned as well as unrest speaking of unrest, union members and the government talks to put an end to the industrial action we have seen the last couple months in the uk.

it did not yield any tangible results. we will talk more about that on the show pretty much a risk-off session today. in terms of sectors, every sector is now trading in the red early on in the session with oil and gas the only green now everything down 1.2% and retail down 1.3% as we highlighted yesterday, keep an eye out on the uk retailers releasing information at the end of this week. that is something you want to keep an eye on let me bring your attention to uniper, the german utility we spoke about, many times over the last year at the heart of the european gas crisis. the utility received approval from the european commission around the acquisition by the german government by uniper. the ceo and coo of uniper are to

resign this year in terms of the comments, the ceo and coo both willing to continue working until replacements have been appointed. successors will be announced in due course in both cases, an orderly transition will be insured according to the company which just announced the changes this has been quite a long road for uniper effectively on its way to nation nat nat nationalization. this is the latest leg in the story. you see uniper shares up 1.2%. you see shares have plummeted in the last few years. lengthy queues outside beijing as china releases the restrictions

the yu an on the rise yesterday with the economic recovery you see the dollar/yuan trading at 6.77. one of the key parts of the market to china reopening is oil and we saw a big bounce. brent and wti trading .80% iron/ore prices right there. we hope to have a chart for you. clearly, that is another commodity in focus from a china perspective. to get more insight into the china reopening for commodity markets, david pfeiffer joins us of th us david, 2022 is a turbulent year. now the story is shifting away

from supply chain issues and russian war in ukraine to china reopening. on that front, give us an overview of what china reopening means for commodity markets and which commodities stand to benefit most from the reopening from china >> thanks very much for having me i think when you consider china taking the key commodity trade flows globally, china accounts for 30% of those trade flows ove overall. it is critical for the health of the global commodity space in general. imports into china in 2022 overall for the calendar year probably off by around 5%. taking all the key commodity imports into china one exception to that was

copper copper imports to china were up 10% last year. that speaks of the continued ele electric kinto china imports of oil, gas, coal and iron/ore were steeply down last year the market was looking at the extent which china can really step up purchases. i would just caution that, you know, it may well be not until probably the second quarter that we see chinese demand picking up on a more sustained basis because they still have to get through this run-up in covid-19 cases which is likely to run through much of the first quarter. >> i want to pick up on a couple of points. fascinating what you had to say especially the numbers with the imports of china down 5% given

the fact the country was under lockdown for the most part of 2022 it is impressive that it was still only down 5% i had also read comments suggesting that china had already started thinking about stockpiling toward the end of last year. they anticipated they may be moving in the direction of eventual reopening do you see any evidence of that? one data point i draw to is we are not seeing a bigger jump in the price of oil as china opened up that suggests they have done a bit of stockpiling >> i think the last couple months of 2022 we did see an uptick in crude imports. we also saw actually also an uptick in refined product exports which suggests that refined products demand domestically in china is still

comparatively week you know, i would say on the oil side we did see a pick up in purchasing in the last couple months of 2022 >> david, from the european perspective, one of the big stories of the last six months has been how the energy crisis hasn't been as bad as feared in thanks to the europe's successful efforts to acquire more lng at somewhat reasonable prices all things considered what is the outlook for lng prices and lng security within europe now china is poised to become a pretty big buyer of lny >> that is the big, big question for china and the rest of asia has scaled back on lng purchases. partly because of the sharp run-up in prices in response to

the russia/ukraine crisis. bear in mind that the russian pipeline deliveries to europe are down 90% from pre-invasion levels clearly europe has had to turn to lng and replenish stocks and we had a mild winter probably for the remainder of the winter, the market seems relatively relaxed i think the big question comes when we are looking to replenish stockpiles in the appears of russian supplies, pipeline supplies into europe, and i suspect european gas prices, although below asian prices currently, may have to move back higher than asian spot prices from the spring onward in order to continue to attract lng into europe >> david, just to continue along the china theme.

which kmcommodities are best placed for a fully opening >> i think you mentioned one in the piece when you talked about iron/ore iron/ore china accounts for 65% to 70% globally traded iron/ore. with a bit of fiscal stimulus signs that the chinese authorities are going to try and help out the real estate sector which has been, you know, in freefall over the past 18 months you know, some relaxation of credit controls for selected real estate firms in china obviously that could kick start a construction boom or mini boom in china iron/ore should be strong. copper probably will be

relatively strong. really across the complex once by the second quarter, china comes out of the worst of its covid spike, then the entire commodity complex will benefit from that. >> david, thank you so much for joining us david fyfe from argus. with all eyes on china and reopening and how the country fares with covid, pfizer could manufacture covid-19 drug paxlovid within three months speaking at the conference in san francisco, the ceo albert bourla spoke >> it is some interest in paxlovid it was registered months ago and given low quantity now the cases are sky rocketing

from what we are hearing we are sending as much paxlovid as we can. our manufacturing are working. >> and shares of moderna is higher as they have generated $18 billion last year. speaking at the same conference, moderna ceo was asked if his company was seeking vaccine sales in china >> we are in discussion with the chinese government we have been for quite a while as you might be aware, europe tried to give an amount of vaccines to china which they refused from what was reported so at this stage, there is nothing to announced nothing was signed we are actively in discussion. we hope something will happen. of course, it is the opportunity. >> elsewhere in the healthcare space, shares of eisai improve after the alzheimer's drug were

approved the first of its kind and we spoke earlier in the week from emily field from barclays about the drug it is helping to slow the rate of cognitive decline for patients in clinical trials. a price of $26,000 a year has raised concerns as the drug wadiw waiting for broader insurance coverage in the u.s. the ceo said reimbursement for patients should be coming soon. >> this should be the first time we had an answer to one of the puzzles. it would make a difference that is the perspective one has to take. right now, according to the guidance, they are looking for full approval. based on a file for full approval on friday evening we don't know how long the fda will take to do that somewhere i think probably toward the latter half of this year >> a significant breakthrough in

that space cincor shares in a deal worth $1.8 billion astrazeneca will take $26 a share which is double the $11.78 closing price. jpmorgan chase conference continues today. our colleagues in california will bring you the latest. including the interview with vasant narasimhan. and after the break, we will continue to go through the uk labor strike showdown as they fail to reach conditions

welcome back to "street signs. bank of england chief economy says the uk is at risk of persistence inflation pressure as the energy costs stabilize. in a speech on monday, the context in the uk will

strengthen the monetary position markets pricing in a base rate hike of 4% over 400,000 uk households will see their mortgage rates double. they are set to expire withs exn the costs to tenants. the britain winter strike is continuing after the talks with union leaders failed to come to agreement. strikes by healthcare workers are set to begin tomorrow after the largest union described the talks monday as a missed opportunity. the uk health secretary will meet again with the treasury and nursing union this week amid reports the government is preparing a lump sum payment in a major u-turn

arabile joins us now how much is this political over a fiscal consideration >> i think a lot of it is a bit more fiscal than actual political consideration. there have been conversations that we will get to in a moment. rishi sunak says this will cost 28 billion pounds if they were to agree to all of the wage proposals while all of the entities in the union. that figure may be inflated depending on which estimate, it still is a big figure considering that the uk government had to borrow so much money and in a tight fiscal situation. if they were to agree to the high figures, it would mean it could possibly evntrench

inflation at a higher level and forcing mortgage rates higher. there is that element. the other element to the discussion is productivity that is where the politicking may come to the floor. it is one of the things the unite union was angry about yesterday in the conversations that government is speaking about trying to find some productivity measures for future engagements with the unions. particularly the ambulance workers and nhs staff. it feels unfair they work around 18 hours and during covid-19, they insured the economy continued to work. we had work from grant and he was speaking around productivity and efficiency measures. this is exactly what he put forward and said yesterday >> modernization now and often

do things differently in the past the challenge for the whole society. public sector and nhs in particular there are efficient ways you look at our lives have changed. you were reading a book on your phone, for example ten years ago, you probably would not have done. there are many things that have come in that make practice of health care and running railways more efficient >> that is the politicking perhaps put forward and unions say we can have that discussion post a raise in wages which is at high levels considering the government >> speaking anecdotally here, it feels every sunday i check the industrial action taking place and the strikes and which day of the week and i plan around that. to what do you expect the public

support is waning because how disruptive this has been over the last couple months >> it varies on which strike the nurses and nhs staff, the public is not waning on that one issue is covid-19 and the second is if you are unable to call an ambulance in a time of need now, you are galvanized so this can be sorted over. on the other side with the rail strikes, some may feel at some point we need to try to find a solution to all this there is a big franchise agreement put to bed in some parts of britain as well which is another factor. so much politicking and not find

age sf finding a solution 1.5 million days lost unfortunately, due to the strikes in the month of december >> certainly an issue paralyzed the country and both sides charged. arabile, thank you and u.s. lawmakers are calling on the government to end the bolsonaro stay in the country. he is living in florida and refusing to concede the election the supreme court and presidential palace had 1,500 people arrested in kegs connectn with the protests. bolsonaro's wife says he is currently in a florida hospital. kamala harris condemned the issues with the protests in brazil >> this was an obvious attack on

the democratic process i will also say as i've said to the ambassador that i'm very confident in her ability to represent the united states and to extend to president lula all that we mean in terms of the work we will do together as allies on some of the most important issues facing our world. we are very much looking forward to her leadership and working with president lula. >> all this turmoil is having an impact on the brazilian assets let's look at the brazilian real this doesn't seem to be updating live over the course of yesterday, the real did actually lose 1.6% over the u.s. dollar it wasn't just the currency. we saw it in other key brazilian entities for example, petras took a beating yesterday. as we discussed on the show, it

will be asking interesting going forward if voinvestors are lookn past the past couple days as buy into the story of 2022 or if the events of the storming of the congress will hangover the country in 2023. one big questioning moving forward. coming up on "street signs," seunhigh how high will he go? emmanuel macron will push to raise the retirement age in france we will discuss after this break.

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millions at finding success on their own terms. start your journey with a free trial today. welcome back to "street signs. i'm julianna tatelbaum >> i'm joumanna bercetche. these are your headlines european equities openlower as investors gear up for more inflation data while fed officials reaffirm hopes for a slower pace of rate hikes. the outgoing governor tells cnbc the inflation remains far too high. >> we come from an environment

of many years of low inflation and all of a sudden, inflation is way, way too high that means we are in a different territory than compared to where we were five years ago uniper ceo and coo will step down this year after majority takeover by the german government with the reshuffling of the board under works. china reopen rally fades, but state officials insist several regions are past the peak of covid. pfizer ceo tells cnbc they could begin manufacturing its treatment soon. >> we are sending as much paxlovid as we can france's emmanuel macron faces a test to his presidency as his government sets the pension reform plan setting up a head with the union and lawmakers.

we're just about an hour and a half into the trading session. we are seeing a pull back. yesterday, the stoxx 600 gained 0.9% the fifth positive session in the last six this morning, trading on the back foot after a strong run for european markets ftse 100 is down .30%. pension reform in france taking place. we will discuss that with charlotte next and the swiss market.90% you still have oil and gas in negative territory the pull back on the price of oil today. yesterday, commodities rallied copper gained 3% wti and brent rallying 1%.

natural gas rising a little bit of reversal on the trade yesterday. on the retail side, industrial and construction under per perf performing it is mixed with cyclicals and defensives no clear trend turning to fx markets. we saw the moves in the dollar u.s. dollar dropping 0.9% yesterday. weakening to the lowest level since june all eyes today from a monetary policy on the symposium in sweden jay powell and a number of other bankers. currency markets will be one to watch in the day ahead joumanna news from germany. the ceo and coo of uniper will resign this year both will continue in their roles until the replacements are taken place. the german government completed the full nationalization of

uniper last month. one company caught in the cross wires of the gas crisis. this month is a test for emmanuel macron as he pushes ahead to overhaul the pension system the government will present reforms today after years of delay and proposed raising the retirement age by two or three years. up from 62 charlotte joins us with more to discuss. charlotte, it has been a long time coming. tell us what they will propose today and the likelihood of it actually passing given macron doesn't have majority. >> this is the hottest of all hot potatoes with french reform. this is the fifth in 30 years. that was part of the manifesto in 2017. he started negotiations and the

pandemic hit and it was detlaye and shelved. now in the second election and he said in the speech, he said we must work longer. he was going to try to push the pension reform the key issue is pushing the legal age for retirement up from 62 to 65 or 64 that could be a concession that the government is making today in terms of fiscal discipline, they need to do that they had public finances and debt at 110% of gdp. you have three pensioners per ten and now it is around six you need to do the reform now to keep the system balanced the unions say this is a red line to raise the pension age. including some centrists unions sat down on monday and

said raising the legal age is an absolute no-go there are other ways to balance the books. this is not the right way. the public opinion is also against this reform, no surprise this is a big political gamble to bring it on the table now particularly with the context with inflation and cost of living crisis, et cetera this is a big gamble for him he doesn't have majority to get it through he relies on the center right. that will also be in favor of pension reform he needs to get it through with the far right opposition and left wing opposition are against this the union is waiting to see what is in the proposals this afternoon. it is already admitting a potential for strike could happen it would be a huge challenge for president macron. >> it is interesting to hear you talk about the public sentiment

around reform. especially in france where people speak up about things they don't like. given the lack of public support for the reforms, why is macron so committed to pushing them through? >> you can say he is consistent. it was always part of the political program. in a way, that is a way to show his reformist as president that is what he did. he pushed reforms through. the pension reform was key one he didn't push it through in the first mandate. now it is a way to signal he is president and it has been at whatever cost as covid and now the issues with businesses and inflation shows it is an important thing to do. he is pushing through with it. the raising the legal age is a big political gamble that wasn't part of the first reform presenting the first mandate. he is not consistent in the

reform he wants to push through. he is sticking to that line. it will be a big gamble. >> charlotte, thank you for setting the scene. fascinating. we will continue the conversation with the sociology prof professor. our colleague, charlotte, broke down the reforms that president macron is planning to push through. i'm curious your view on why now that part of the president's first manifesto reforms and why is now the time to push them through? >> thanks for having me on the show i guess the reason for the timing is this is the first part of the term and this is the moment when you have the most political capital. if you want to push something into parliament, that the moment you would have to do that. this be a reform for macron which he has been saying he is doing and your correspondent saying rightly, that is

president macron is keen on keeping that image he wants this to go to parliament now. >> what happens if he isn't successful in getting reforms through? it seems like it is a tall task. what happens to the government deficit and what are the implications for the president >> the main drawback is political. i guess he is trying his power at the moment and he needs to get the reform passed in order to maintain a bit of political capital. otherwise, france is a majority of the moment which will be hard for him to continue with reform agenda if he doesn't manage to have this record in the past it is a gamble because with a hot button issue as pension reform and a topic where public opinion and experts are having

an issue with it you know, it is not that it will bring back so much money on the table if you compare it with services invested in relieving corporations and households alike. >> it is worth noting that the retirement age in france is below the retirement age of other major european countries that is something worth flagging i also want to go back to the possibility of it passing, but with the support of the congress in that, macron would be relying on the support of other parties. >> it is a fair point that although reform is highly contested, i don't foresee road

blocks in parliament you point out that les republicans is likely to strike a deal i guess he will get the votes that he requires even if he didn't get that, there are constitutional revisions in france which allow the government to pass a bill to make it into law without the parliament agreeing to it. this is something they used quite often in the past six months they used that provision ten times. i would not be surprised either way the reform gets passed then there will be public debate in the street. that's another story >> president macron is not one to shy away from a challenge the country is gripped in the cost of living crisis.

energy bills have gone up and trying to introduce pension reform as well what do you think all of this will mean for president macron's eventual popularity coming out the other side >> it is always hard to forecast these things popularity is a volatile indicator. it will not fare well because reform is unpopular. it is more unpopular than the previous one introduced in 2019 which had the support of some moderate unions. at the moment, this reform is really opposed by 60% to 70% of french people and frowned by all of the trade unions. i don't think it will fare well with popularity. popularity may not be his concern because he will not run for election again and he doesn't really need that to govern maybe that is not what is at

stake here. >> very good point one final question i want to ask is what you would put the probability of an early general election at and do you think that is a likelihood to happen in the next couple years >> that's what everyone is usu discussing since the june 2022 election what was sort of quite plausible outcome is now breaking down on fault lines with reform would be yet again on the table however, it is unknown to all of the people who are forecasting that, it is unlikely to do something to bring less of

majority than at moment. >> etienne, thank you so much for joining us turning attention to the auto sector. we have an update from mercedes-benz on deliveries. we are seeing whether they are easing with the manufacturing and how demand is holding up mercedes-benz announcing deliveries were up 4% in europe. 21% up in the u.s. and 13% higher in china. mercedes-benz delivery in q4 up 17% of 540,000 vehicles. for the year overall, passenger cars delivered over 2 million vehicles to customers. 1% fewer than in 2021 as the city -- industry dealt with

supply chain issues. >> 21% in the u.s. and 13% in china. julianna,a lot of the supply chain issues which wrecked the industry for the better part of the pandemic have now seemingly subsided that is very welcome for the auto industry and encouraging that orders are up it tells you about the health of the consumer probably a lot of pent-up demand we tried to buy a car a year ago and because of the supply chain delays, we decided not to. perhaps there is some of that coming back to the industry. >> we were looking at cars last weekend. you can now get them within weeks. that was never a possibility during the heartof the supply chain issues on the electric vehicle front, this is worth highlighting battery electric sales for mercedes-benz surged to 117,800 units from 52,000 in 2021. in last quarter of 2022, ev

sales doubled. they gaining a lot of momentum in the ev space. it comes to tesla, the pioneer in ev, the reality is the competition is heating up around the world. also coming up on the show, inflation and rate hikes are top of mind as traders await speeches from central bank chiefs later today we'll tell you more about that after this short break why are 93% of sleep number sleepers satisfied with their bed?

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we expect inflation to come down and partly because of the factors you were mentioning and it will take a couple of years for that to happen given what has happened, of course, it is difficult to make these projections because this is not a chain of events that we have been used to dealing w with in the past you have to go back to the early 1950s to find a similar episode. as always, when you are in central banking, you do your

best in terms of projections and in a good scenario, you happen to be reasonably right and in a not so good world, you have to change >> that was governor stefan ingves speaking to cnbc this morning. let's look at wall street. mixed picture. similarly we saw a mixed picture yesterday with s&p and dow lower and nasdaq gaining it seems the trend will continue today. fairly muted investors in a holding pattern ahead of the fed chair powell's comments later today on the data front, consumer expectations have declined according to the survey, the one-year inflation outlook dipped from the previous month and hitting the lowest level since july of 2021.

two federal reserve officials say inflation data out this week will decide if they show the pace of hikes later this week. raphael bostic would consider slower rate hikes if the data confirmed the cooling scene in the last jobs report and mary daly said the case can be made for a half or quarter point increase >> jay powell will speak at the symposium in stockholm today the speech is scheduled for 1500 cet and comes on the heels of the jobs report. on thursday, we get latest reading on the inflation according to the fed watch tool, traders ares are pricing in a 2e

rate at the next meeting >> we will hear from others at stockholm today. andrew bailey and the bank of japan governor and the bank of canada what an amazing day coming up if you are into that thing. >> i'm very excited for you. >> looking forward to the information. it is a one-off event in sweden. it is an event in honor of ingves today the outgoing governor. they organized this symposium. high level governors coming to speak there. of course, all market participants will watch out for one man today. jay powell the expectation is they can afford to start slowing down the pace of the rate hikes and going ahead with the 25 basis point hike at the next meeting on the back of the non-farm

payroll is the wage growth is decelerating that should be reassuring for the fed. if that is the case, they can afford to go for that 25 basis point hike. >> i wonder if they signal that show they have done away with forward guidance you have the impact of signaling they may be willing to slow down the impact on the markets time and time again which led to the market rally and dialing down the expectations that is one of the drivers of what they fight against with asset prices rise and what it means for the prices in the wider economy. >> one thing i've beeni thinkin about with the davos forum with the monetary policy and larry summers will be there. i was thinking to what extent are central banks in control of

where inflation ends up? it is easy for them to put out the forecast, but the stimulus for inflation did come from factors. to what extent are they in control with the price of wheat from ukraine some of the factors are globalized and in a situation like 2022 and what you did see is not just response from the u.s. central bank, but global quote/unq quote/unquote, central bank community. >> we are seeing, to that point, it is still early days, obviously. we are seeing headline inflation come off in the u.s. and europe. we will see if that is the same case with core inflation holding up i'm curious with the range of central bank voices due to speak today and next week in davos with you, to what extent the fed drives other central banks

will we see another set of act actions? >> i think for the ecb they find themselves in a peculiar situation. it was only in december they came out with the really hawkish commentary i'm reading a lot of reports saying don't under estimate how hawkish the ecb. they underestimated the tightness which would lead to persistent wage growth that is the situation the ecb finds itself in. they are not ready to slow down. you can say the same about the bank of england. it remains to be seen with bank of england or ecb in the same situation where the wage growth pressure have come down to go for the moderate rate hikes. if you look at the industrial action and arabile was talking about the pressures. >> it is interesting that was a different story last year

it seems the wage pressures were more innocuous in europe than in the u.s. super interesting. i'm going to tune in for the panel next week and central bank speakers in sweden. before we let you go, a look at markets a pull back after the further rally yesterday. stoxx 600 gaining for the fifth session in the last six. the dak yesterday out performing by 1.25% part of the pull back in the dax this morning here is the picture. travel holding up, but still in the red. retail is leading the way lower down 1.2%. that's it for "street signs. thank you for watching i'm julianna tatelbaum >> i'm joumanna bercetche. "worldwide exchange" is coming up nt. ex

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it is 5:00 a.m. in new york. here is the top "five@5. tech stocks finding love the sector is hot to start the year can that last? chaos in brazil. the new president vowing to take action against proper testers w stormed the capital. and coming from mexico's president with a tense moment to president biden. and the holiday meltdown continues as one big investor demand