how important is that part of the equation for you, dennis lockhart, if you watch the economy. t in 2016. how does that factor in? dennis: many answer your question -- let me answer your question by emphasizing the thought process i think is important for a policy maker. you have to take external factors that is global development and understand, or try to get a sense of how they track back to our ultimate, domestic objections -- objectives. those of the stable prices and full employment. is monitor ando evaluate what is going on around the world and understand the transmission back to the domestic economy and back to the two objectives we have been mandated to achieve. economyext of the u.s. is weak, and apparently getting somewhat weaker. i don't think we can ignore that. at the same time, i don't think the u.s. economy is highly vulnerable to external factors the way a small country might be. so, it is certainly -- the context certainly deserves to be considered, i think, in setting policy. that would argue for caution. argue for, perhaps, patients in terms of what we are see

kathleen hays spoke to dennis lockhart today in chicago.while there are enough fed meetings for 2-3 rate moves, he will not advocate for one this month. >> i don't know what the committee will decide. i know there will be a range of opinions on whether to make a rate adjustment. based on what i have seen recently, i will not be advocating a move in april. >> are you and a camp that says it would be not only acceptable, but good, for inflation to overshoot its target for a while because it has undershot for so long. the implication is more caution and even longer before the next interest rate increase. >> i would like us to have a soft landing around 2%, and then sustain something around 2%. that would be the ideal world. overshoot for a limited considering what other benefits that might have for the economy, it could be an acceptable situation if we get above 2.5%, i would get a little nervous. point that another is important, because the committee has reiterated its position that our attitude towards inflation is symmetric, that is to say

dennis lockhart will delicately answer questions.for that on television and radio later this morning. ♪ tom: good morning. euro. international economics into the weekend; we will do that with the spring meeting of the ims in washington. right now, with our bloomberg business flash, here's nejra cehic. nejra: thanks. for every group says earnings this year will be at the low end of analyst estimates. the uk's largest luxury goods maker is struggling to cope with ebbing demand in hong kong in europe. they say wholesale revenue will drop about 10% in the first half of the year. debris also reported a slight drop in second-half sales. nestle says first-quarter revenue beat estimates. sales rose 3.9% on an organic basis; analysts expected 3.6% rise. the first quarter growth rate is the slowest since 2009, into the struggling to get consumers interested in frozen pizza and convenience meals. unilever says growth was in line with estimates in water detergents and personal care units offsetting prices in europe. underlying sales include 4.7%

betty: speaking about the fed, atlanta fed president dennis lockhart spoke earlier this morning. i want to ay for you for those who have not heard him come up art of what he said about the fed rate tightening cycle. dennis: if you look at the calendar, there are enough meetings remaining this year, that if the data were to suggest it's the appropriate policy to have three moves. i don't know, two moves, three moves. both are possible. it will depend a lot on how the economy evolves. betty: i don't know if you does not know. he has to know. [laughter] david: no heed does not have to know, betty. his right. -- no, he does not have to know, betty. you have to look at the data. betty: no one will know until we get more and more data. it what it -- what is looking light, danny? in a: we have never been cycle liked this before. there are no textbooks to tell us what to do. there is no plan other than to watch the data and see what happens. he is right. this, but the data does not come in liked that, q1 data is really bad. due to starts to look -- q2 starts to look really bad. markets h

that according to atlanta fed president dennis lockhart speaking at a cfa symposium in chicago.ripped out the proverbial rug saying he no longer thinks an april rate hike is appropriate, but he still thinks june is a viable option, even took it a step further telling bloomberg there is room for the fed to hike two, maybe even three more times this year. but the markets -- which were seeing muted trade before lockhart's little statement there -- are moving higher now, up about 21 points. not even the highs of the session, but the s&p is better by just about one and a half points, the nasdaq up by two. i'm going to say this is not really aggressive trading. still pretty muted. mcdonald's is a dow component and not loving it. it may be higher on the stock charts, but protesters across the country are joining the fight for 15, targeting the world's largest burger chain, mcdonald's, asking them you've got to pay your workers $15 an hour. the protesters are being joined by verizon workers as well as health care and educational professionals. we have shares of mcd which has hit all-tim

federal reserve bank of atlanta president dennis lockhart said he will no longer push for a rate increase this month. speaking to bloomberg's kathleen hays, the fed official said there are still opportunities and ray to make a move. you look at the calendar, there are enough meetings remaining this year that if the data were to suggest it is the appropriate policy to have three moves, to moves, three moves, both are possible. it is going to depend on how the economy evolves. least nine people were killed when a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in southern japan caused the strongest shaking ins for 2011 disaster. the quick yesterday also injured more than 750 people. there were no reports of damage to japan's only operating nuclear reactors. global news 24 hours a day powered by our 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. think -- francine: thank you so much. inwill go to enda curran just a couple minutes to talk china. we had news that china's economy stabilized in the first quarter. gdp rose 6.7% in the first three months of the year. march saw industrial output and resa

alix: plus, dennis lockhart says he will no longer push for a rate increase in april.s still at the top of the mind of hollis -- of policymakers. scarlet: we are halfway through the trading day. let's head to the markets desk where julie hyman has been tracking the moves. when it comes to equities, we are moving to io

federal reserve bank of atlanta's president dennis lockhart says he will no longer push for a rate increase this with weakening growth and low inflation. speaking to bloomberg's kathleen hays, he says they are still opportunities ahead to make a move. if you look of the calendar, there are enough meetings remaining this year that if the data were to suggest it is the appropriate policy to have three moves. i don't know, to moves, three moves, they are both possible. it is going to depend on how the economy evolves. juliette: global news, 24 hours a day, powered by 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. you can find more stories on the bloomberg at top . guide. -- guy. guy: juliette saly joining us. she was mentioning china's economy stabilized in the first quarter. gdp rose 7%. that's rose 27%. picked up lastut month beating analyst forecasts. tom orlik joins us now from beijing did tom, is this -- from beijing. tom, is this stimulus in action? tom: yes. china's government put a huge amount of stimulus into the economy in the second half of 2015. multiple cuts

later today we will hear from dennis lockhart, who will be speaking to kathleen hays at 1:3 0 today. take you across several oceans. let's pretend you have a private jet. fan?ou a mets or braves richard: neither. i think it is interesting. if i was able to speak to lockhart, i would love to see what the sense of the varying views on the fomc are. how divided our policymakers. we know what janet yellen thinks, she has gone out of her way to tell us. but what do each of the regions think and how important is that for fed policy? the fed is very dovish and leading towards a cautious stance, while some of the regions are less dovish. hans: we have a budget micro-economies. new york is booming for what ever reason. maybe they have some of the shale action from pennsylvania. and then we have many recessions throughout the country. richard: yes, it is very much like europe. we have a multi-speed europe. germany is doing much better than some of the other regions. and that is true of the u.s. as well. given the regional distortions and the regional specificities, i think that makes a lot of

atlanta fed president dennis lockhart is speaking later today. as for earnings, look for results from wells fargo, blackrock, and we also hear from delta airlines. that's all before the opening bell. of course, financials were a big driver for the broader market yesterday following better tha k expected results from jpmorgan. a nice gain of 2.25% led by j.p., up about 4% yesterday. >> that was a strong reaction to jpmorgan. i'm curious, do you think it was a jpmorgan story or a banking sector overall story? >> i think definitely there's a factor it was jpmorgan that led the charge. it brought all boats up with it. i think the capital market side saw a bit of an immaterial provmt -- improvement in march. we got guidance that march was better than april. energy losses were significant. i think we need to keep an eye on what the other banks report there. that could still be a negative surprise for some of the names. bottom line, the interest rate centers were very strong. analysts have lowered their forecast for how many more hikes we get this year,

obsessed about brexit in the u.k., but we have also had the fed saying, and i believe it was dennis lockhart saying, that brexit is on their radar, and they are concerned that any sort concerns may feed into the u.s. economy. with the fed meeting in june a week before the brexit vote, it might be too soon. guy: compare and contrast the domestic story. you talked about the brexit story and what is happening with the boj and ecb. domestically, things are taking along pretty nicely. richard: for a data-dependent fed, and i'm a bit of the data that has come down considerably since two weeks ago. 2% was the estimate for gdp. now it's about 0.4%. it has come down considerably. i think a lot of economists are saying, the fed can discount a soft patch in the first quarter. for a data-dependent fed, the most recent data they look at was quite a bit softer than what even as of sixed weeks ago. i'm going to think you from berlin. i'm also going to apologize i can't be with you in london. up next, we are joined by the chief financial officer of bank go santander. firstl discuss the bank's quarter result

now, atlanta fed president dennis lockhart is also speaking today. we're going to have to wait to see what he's got to say about all this. also, for earnings, look for results from bank of america, blackrock, wells fargo, delta airlines, and pnc financial. all of that is coming up before the bell. in the meantime, full-time leaders from around the world are in washington today for the imf world bank spring meeting. sara eisen caught up with treasury secretary jack lew and asked him about the recent crackdown on inversions. >> i said several years ago the right way, the best way to do it is for legislation to be passed that would do serious, comprehensive business fax reform and shut down inversions once and for all. it's a complicated matter. you don't have infinite flexibili flexibility. we have worked and worked on it. this is the third action we've taken. each time we've slowed down the pipeline. each time i've said congress needs to act because we want to make sure that inversions are stopped. i think that it should have been no surprise to anyon

alix: plus, dennis lockhart says he will no longer push for a rate increase in april. inflation is still at the top of the mind of hollis -- of policymakers. scarlet: we are halfway through the trading day. let's head to the markets desk where julie hyman has been tracking the moves. when it comes to equities, we are moving to section -- two session highs. julie: moving north but not much north. not much change in the overall averages. it is indeed a better than it was earlier. it is an individual stock story today. i wanted to look at some of the biggest pushes and pulls that we are seeing. first of all, the stocks that are helping the s&p 500. jpmorgan rising for the second day, bank of america rising despite the fact that earnings missed estimates as the company cut more expenses. is sounds like the ceo willing to cut more costs in order to preserve profits. that appears to be what is driving shares higher. exxon mobil is doing well and citigroup is out tomorrow and is also higher. on the downside today, we do have ca coming out with preliminary earnings. by 19%hare

will unnerve investors but we are getting news out of atlanta federal reserve bank president dennis lockhartho is seeing recent signs, encouraging signs of growth that inflation is firming and it might warrant some action at the june fed meeting. he is not a voting member of the committee but his comments, his colleagues feel the same way. a june hike is not expected but if it were to happen it would be a surprise. ted cruz is told there is no chance of stopping donald trump but he has succeeded in picking up some delegates, 34 in colorado, what if i told you the strategy of finding loose change and cash cushion could pay 130 to hundred 70 delegates or more. whether that is doable, i am thinking that could be a race changer. >> it could be on the second ballot. he will not get those delegates on the first ballot. neil: he does that going at the first ballot, denies trump, and all bets are off. >> all bets are off if trump doesn't get 1237 on the first ballot, he will not be the republican nominee. there is only one place for him to go and that is down. neil: that typically happens, not histo