connell: bob shanks. melissa: on a ritz?nt welcoming north korean dictator kim jong-un to a coastal city in russia for the first summit between the two leaders. putin insisting north korea is ready to denuclearization if it gets international security guaranties. fox news's greg palkot has the latest details. greg? reporter: mixed signals coming out of the summit involving north korean leader kim jong-un and russian president vladmir putin today. it was the first time the two had met. it happened in the eastern russian port city of vladivostok. it happened as relations between the u.s. and north korea recording the north's nuclear program, well, they are not in great shape. the talks went on longer than expected. one-on-one staff meetings and a splashy dinner. they were a bit on the formal side by generally friendly. no real agreement, but important messaging from putin. he and washington agree on the need for north korea to give up nuclear weapons but he says that pongyang needs more security guaranties including other coun

interview with ford's chief financial officer — ‘the ship is starting to turn' for the company, says bob shanksone makers. people are hanging onto their old phone for longer than ever. verizon in the us says the upgrade rate fell to a record low last quarter. and don't forget, let us know what you are spotting online — use #bbcthebriefing. that's it for the business briefing this hour, but before we go, here are the markets. asian markets retreating on friday thanks to strengthening us dollar and ahead of us growth figures. crude oil prices dipping from six—month highs as supply concerns eased. japanese industrial production fell at its fastest pace in almost four years in march, according to a preliminary reading, while retail sales in the country picked up pace. citizen's advice says council tax debt in england and wales is on the rise. a single missed payment can escalate to a bill of more than two thousand pounds within weeks. colletta smith reports. unpaid council tax is a growing problem. it's the biggest issue for people contacting citizen —— citizens advice with worries about debt. afte

it's getting a little better. >> let's dive right back in with phil lebeau along with ford cfo bob shankse cnbc cfo council. phil, kick it off. >> bob, you're joining us from ford's headquarters. let's talk about the first quarter. i know investors will look at these numbers and say much better than expected is the turnaround in your opinion finally taking hold? >> yes i think the ship is starting to turn after a lot of work on the fitness of the business, rethinking the product portfolio, working on a number of alliances, the ravine investment yesterday is a good example of the most recent thing. the ship is starting to turn but there is still a lot of work ahead of us. >> a lot of investors have said this turnaround his been slow in developing in the sense that they're not really sure what benchmarks to look for in the future in terms of earnings per share. and your guidance, you're talking about improved earnings. you're not putting any earnings per share metrics out there. at what point do you do that, where you say okay, we believe we will earn xyz and you can count on it? >> we're c

but others have been more positive, for example, ford's cfo bob shank said the chineseo y seems to be stabilizing chinarmes said sales in were actually accelerating. the bottom line is this. the u.s. economy continues to outperform, but global growth is ill a problem. it's not clear if china has accelerated or decelerating, despite massive stimulus for its central bank. for "nightly business report," i'm bob pisani at the new york >> let's turn now to jim o'sullivan to talk about the gdp data and he's telling us about the u.s. economy. jim, welcome. good to see you. thanks, kelly, hello. >> the components of the report that show consumer spending is okay and business investment is weaker and areou with those who say the one-time contribution from exports and inventorie will be reversed next quarter? always i mean, there's volatility in the details from quarter to quarter so you can always quibble a little bit with it, but it is fair to say that the inventory number will go negative over the next quarter part ino that particular will probably be reversed to some extent and that boosted

. >> we are joined from detroit by bob shanks, chief financial officer of ford motor company. about -- talk with you. we call you a big winner. on the eps number, what drove that? bob: it was a nice way to start the year, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us, david. most of of the beat, the business. north america was better. europe was better-than-expected, china better-than-expected. bestord credit had its earnings since 2010. this was a broad-based result to generate the $.44 per share. david: so less bad in china, better in europe. how much of it was north america, and how much was trucks? bob: north america and credit are the two pillars of the company. $2.2 billion in north america on an adjusted basis, 8.7% margin, so extreme healthy. within that, we saw a strong mix, strong positive net pricing. costs were only up a little bit, so we had good leverage. wasin that the f-series strong. positive contributions from the new ranger, and america's best-selling van, the transit, also contributed. david: you mention costs. the ceo talks about making the company fit. how

cfo: that was the outgoing from ford bob shanks.lk about the car let's start with today's earnings. what is daimler going to focus on? since earnings fell sharply in the first quarter as expected , they are sticking to their .019 plan for rising earnings they will have to cut costs. and finding efficiencies in production because there will not be a lot of support in terms of car sales. car markets are weak this year. of the powertrain icao, what is the significance of this? om: they have been planning on this for a while, but the timing is being put off into 2020. it is unclear if there is an issue within the division itself , if they are making plans for the separation, or if they are looking at the overall car market and thinking if the stock market is not great, why should they sell it later this year when they can do it next year? anna: in the u.s. we just heard from the ford cfo. what are executives saying about the strategy of the business after the share price went over $10 for the first time since august? to daimler,rast for

cfo bob shanks did do an interview not sure with which organization, said going forward there could behe new launch as and restructuring. i feel the optimism. i still wonder are we headed toward the peak soon? charles: we hit peak auto. no one is buying cars. to your point, gasoline, i heard number has to be four bucks a gallon. there is a point where people stop buying the suvs. thank you very much. >>> president trump spoke about saudi arabia and others to increase oil flow. speaking of oil. all agree california tax on gasoline is causing big problems in pricing for that state. speak to your government about reducing economic numbers, 3.2% gdp for what is often the worst quarter. looking good. oil by the way falling big today. at a three-week low. one of the few areas that is down today after president trump called on opec to lower their prices in an effort to contain fuel costs. >>> microsoft joining the ranks of amazon and apple in the one trillion dollar club. people are pointing to its ceo as the main reason for this company's turn around. so the question is, who are the other ma

plan that has been put in place is starting to work we had the cfo on closing bell last night, bob shankshina, this was a big focus for investors. the losses in china, while still losses, is -- are narrowing. the automaker has a loss of $128 million in china, $22 million improvement. here is what shank said about it >> the chinese economy seems to be stabilizing, we saw on an industry level the flat over year basis the government has already announced some things they're going to do, for example, reduction in that to stimulate the broader economy and our sector and there is rumors that they're going to do more the government recognizes the importance of this particular sector and it is possible that they'll give us a bit of help and simulation as the year progresses overall, i think we're seeing a more stable environment than perhaps where we were a few months ago >> better china, better north america, i like the release, the ford earnings release. you can go through and see which models are working this is a company that is changing its entire lineup they're focused on trucks and utiliti

and ford motor credit hadda huge quarter and the china business is improving and here's cfo bob shafrp shanks talking about what he sees in china for ford >> the chinese economy seems to be stabilizing and they were flat on a year over year basis and the government has already announced some things that they're going to do, for example, a reduction in that to stimulate the broader economy and also our sector and there's rumors that they're going to do more so the government recognizes the importance of this particular sector and it's possible that they'll give us a bit of help and simulation as the year progresses and overall, i think we're seeing a more stable environment than we were a few months ago >> two other notes, melissa, ford affirms that it expects to keep its dividend at 15 cents a share for the remainder of this year and the conference call which starts in a couple of minutes that will be key i think analysts want to hear what the tenor and tone is from ceo jim hackett. some of the past call, he's been very vague in terms of where the company is headed and how the turnaround is t