particularly if you see this pressure on the ftse.e would caution about getting too bullish on corporate bonds. our suspicion is they will track government bond yields higher. >> mike, always a pleasure speaking with you. thank you very much for your time. mike aimee from pimco. >>> let's change tact and talk about the elections in france. authorities in france say they thwarted an imminent attack in marseille as presidential candidates urged tougher protections ahead of the elections on sunday. police confiscated explosives as they arrested two islamic radicals. claire fournier is covering the elections in paris. is this a game changer for any of the candidates, claire? >> well, the islamist threat has made a spectacular comeback at the center of this presidential campaign. it had been pretty -- it had not been at the center of the stage in the meetings apart from marine le pen's plemeeting. in the final days she has been stressing about rhetoric about security and islam. when the news broke yesterday, it was for her a way to talk mo

the yellow line is the ftse small cap, the purple the ftse and the blue line the ftse 250. we saw the foot the wake offtse sink in the the may announcement to call a snap election. sterling's rally pushing the ftse 100 lower and it is down again today. higher and the ftse midcap is unchanged. the ftse down for a fourth day, the worst since march. these are three indices that have rallied since the initial selloff post the brexit vote in june last year. i am not going to show you sterling against the dollar. i am going to show you the intraday swing between the pound and dollar. this chart takes the spread of the high price and low price for sterling on any given date, and it goes for over a year. in the last year the only time this was a wider spread than yesterday was brexit, and october the seventh. that was the day of the flash crash when sterling was down by a matter of 6% in a matter of minutes. sterling jumping 2.2%, the most since january. it is down by 14% since brexit. volatility measures surge before the french election on sunday. germany appears to be a relative

the ftse 100 fell 2.5%. worst day since brexit, more because of the rise in the pound off of theresa may's announcement of a snap election on june 8th than outright reasons for the ftse to fall. it was a big fall for the ftse 100, a bit soft today, nothing compared to yesterday. also worth noting the french cac was down 1.7% yesterday. as we near that first round election vote this sunday. i'll be traveling to paris overnight to continue coverage of that. otherwise, as you can see, germany and france up a quarter percent. u.s. futures taking a lead from that. they're up as well. about a quarter percent for the nasdaq. yesterday we did see slight declines for the nasdaq and s&p. the biggest decline for the dow, down a half percent. could have been down more with declines from goldman sachs off 4.5%. >> the russell 2000 outperformed yesterday. >>> in other news, european car sales surged to a record high last month as car sales took advantage of a surging economy. european sales rose and sales in the uk rose m

ftse futures down .41%. keep your eye on london markets because of the pound movement that makes everything equities from bonds to equities what you name it. bunds.ut also you can see we went all the way -- 0.15, still5 at an incredibly low level for german debt. carefully, youg look at the role of the 08 t us somese they know inject confusion. already, it is a pound trade, we will continue to watch that very carefully. exactly which way the pound goes. to one of theking lib dems. marketsrican currency trading lower. the peso giving back some of its recent gains, the aussie dollar is down by .5 of 1%. the brand is softer as well this morning. plenty to pay attention to. it will be an interesting session. lots of politics to think about. for positioning i would argue just as important in terms of some of these key markets. let's get a bloomberg first word news update. here is juliette saly. juliette: u.s. vice president mike pence has called north korea the most dangerous and urgent threat to peace and securi

ftse global companies and bank their profits in dollars and euros.g rises it reduces the level of their profits and their value. but looking ahead traders are saying the election is coming on june the and they are pricing in a majority conservative win unless anything in the opinion polls suggest that will change. we janner expect to see much more reaction on the markets and will wait and see what happens when the election results through. john healey is the labour shadow housing minister. good to see you. first, theresa may has made it clear she believes this is an election about brexit. is that what you think? brexit is going to happen and labour in government would see it through. but this election is about much more than brexit. this is an election in the end that is about which party has the plan for the uk after brexit, who is going to rescue the nhs. which party is best forfamilies who is going to rescue the nhs. which party is best for families and their living standards, who is going to improve schools for all children and build more afforda

that has also been pulling the ftse down ever so also been pulling the ftse down ever so slightly.tion in stirling, reaction in the market is fairly muted, they do not expect a big reaction until the results of the election come through, unless polestar to show that the conservatives won't win a majority. i'm going to begin the next segment with a video that has been shared thousands of times, you may well have seen it. this isjon kay in bristol breaking the news of the new election to a woman called brenda. you're joking, not another one?! oh, for god's sake, i can't honestly... i can't stand this. there's too much politics going on at the moment, why does she need to do it? she says this will produce clarity. it gets things out in the open, sorts things out. i thought she said that initially when she took over. no. i disagree with this entirely. are you excited about another election? no, not another one! it's too much. it's great, isn't it? it means that we can get her out. let's go further west from bristol, truro, where cornwall voted for brexit and swung heavily towards the c

the ftse, it was up yesterday, the biggest gain since january. keep an eye on that after unicredit surge 6%. take a look at the bond trade. upsideentum was to the in yields as investors were selling off getting out of that safe haven trade that they wound up. bundt down to 0.15 on the and we went above 0.20. we are me back down below that. a little bit of buying in bunds to make up what we saw yesterday. guy: let's highlight some of the things you have been talking about. today was the italy move. we have seen south korea raising, chinese markets also trading higher. the peso is getting back some of its recent gains. the indonesian current see is down. 128 .19. is trading the area of the market expected to find itself in. how sustainable is it around the 128 level? morgan stanley talking about the fact that the bank of england anld be faced -- forced into earlier rate hike. we will see a shift in the way that the government approaches its balance sheet as a result of the general election. that could be something to pay attention to in terms of th

pound is weak, ftse is strong. albeit the ftse had been up 0.6%.hat's slipped in the last half an hour or so as we have uk construction pmi data that came in 52.2 expected. at 52.5. another soft reading on the uk economy. the manufacturing pmi that came out yesterday was the stand-out weak reading versus the rest of continental europe. looking at those uk data and eurozone february retail sales also hit. plus 0.7 % month on month and 0.8% year over year. the picture in europe is better than yesterday, though wall street was resilient yesterday, europe was down a half percent. today almost green across the screen. >>> address fchecking in on com oil, wti breaking a four-day winning streak yesterday. brent, second negative session in a row. both down 0.3%. the u.s. dollar having an impact. the usd five positive sessions in a row. maybe we're back to u.s. dollar strength. gold also seeing a second positive session in a row as well. gold is coming off a quarter where they broke a two quarter losing streak. >> the dollar interesting to point out given t

xetra dax is underperforming, the ftse 100 off.but we are busy when it comes to corporate updates for the first quarter. you have unilever and man group outperforming. that's the key catalyst now. when it comes to the currency markets what we're seeing is an increasingly robust euro/dollar pair, up by a half of a percent on the day. that's quite astonishing given that we're a few days away from an uncertain first round of the french elections. also the dollar coming back off three-week lows we hit earlier this week. that's because treasury yields are moving higher on the back of the beige book. i want to come back to oil prices. they are rebounding after the big selloff we saw in yesterday's trading session. the worst day in six weeks on the surprise build in gasoline inventories. brent krut up crude up by 0.3%. wti up by 0.3%. it's also boosted by the fact that there is more and more talk about an extension of the oil price cuts. ♪ let's get back to the election season. french far-right candidate, marine le pen, focused on securit

ftse slightly lower. spain is up about 1% as well. >> ftse had a rough few days.een down nearly every day this week. as for the broader market picture, starting with the currency board. and the u.s. dollar -- the action has been in commodities lately. some nice moves in the market. stronger euro, 1.0767. goes with that stronger france. strong dollar against the yen, 109. at that level. stronger british pound at 1.2835 which is partially why you are seating the ftse 100 in the uk down, and down sharply for the week because of that rise in the british pound. exporters hate the strength of the pound. gold prices, on the flip side of what is a mixed picture for the dollar, gold down about a quarter of a percent. 1,280 an ounce. oil is the big story after yesterday's 3.8% slide, we watched that 50 a barrel level closely. a nice snap back of 1%, not making up for yesterday's slide. brent sits at 53.41, and nat gas getting a pop. >> energy dragged down the s&p yesterday. that's our top story. saudi arabia and kuwait signaling today that opec producers will likely extend

the ftse is down by 2.8%. look at sterling, up by 1.5%.or the ftse, the biggest drop since june 27, three or four days after the brexit vote. sterling up 1.6%, the biggest increase since january 17. breaking through its 200 day moving average. all of these currencies are rising against the dollar. i will just move away from brexit because there is a big election taking place in france on sunday, and if it was not for theresa may's surprise i would be giving you chart after chart on the french election, hedging, how the markets are coping. this is the yield differential between france and germany, lowering a bit. almost one third of the electorate is still undecided. the front runners are clustered around 20% of the poll for the first round on sunday. the race is unpredictable, perhaps the most unpredictable in the country's history. supportingerday macron, 24%, le pen, 23%, fillon , 21%. upset, for a political goldman sachs, deutsche recommending selling french debt into the two round election. pimco says it would be illogical hedge. a buy

the ftse hanging on to slight gains, 7.318. the xetra dax, cac, ftse mib all treading water. out of asia overnight, that session relatively flattish. people looking towards this important meeting between mr. trump and the chinese president taking place on thursday and friday. this after trump having tweeted the end of last week that the meeting will be a difficult one. the u.s. stands ready to tackle north korea alone regardless of china. could be a tense meeting indeed. of course also rounding off the week, just to remind you, with the non-farms payroll data. the big data of them all. i'll ask our fx guest about what anticipated dollar moves we can expect on the back of this. when it comes to the sectors to the upside, real estate poking up a bit. travel and leisure higher. media, oil and gas on the gainer's board. six sectors in negative territory, banks, telecoms and autos leading the way lower. you would have noticed weaker auto sales data stateside. when it comes to the u.s. markets and the u.s. close, this is what we're looking at yesterday. slightly lower close across

100, 72.92n the ftse i think we will be up to tenths of a percent.risk could be interesting story for the french market as we await the arrival of the debate at 8:40. all 11 candidates going to be involved. a touch.100 up let's find out the details. manus: where the u.s. consumer may not be as confident, they are now putting their money down. financial focus as we get into the market. about 4.6 need billion euros in capital. energies up by a half of 1% this morning. this is the difference between the s&p 500 index banks and the stoxx pipe -- stocks 50. financials were the strongest beneficiaries of the potential 40 regulation. has that trade faded or do you look at european closing that the back of u.s. on a changing dynamic from the central bank over the next 18 months, along with the potential for nonperforming loans to be finally sorted out? could there be a european tarp on the cards? currencies are in focus. dollar-yen is moving, begin moving higher and that -- the .en moving fire -- higher they are still going to make it to 118. the momentum is

because sterling rose, that rings the ftse down as well, lots of the companies in the ftse bank profitsstrength of sterling brings down the value. that has been pulling the ftse down ever so slightly. traders are saying that apart from the initial knee jerk reaction, reaction is fairly muted, they don't expect to see a big reaction until the results come through, unless polls start to show that the conservatives will not win a majority. many are thinking, commenting on it is not a bad time to go foran commenting on it is not a bad time to go for an election, looking at the economic figures, looks to be in fairly robust financial health but inflation is climbing, wage growth is slowing, retail spending peaking, and consumer debt is also at a record high, so before the figures start to slip, it could be a good time to go to an election. the result of the election, the market is pricing it a conservatives win, what that could mean for "brexit" negotiations seem to differ, some say a strong conservative wing could lead to a stronger mandate for theresa may and allow her to serve up theresa

has been bad news for britain's most important stock index as many multinational companies on the ftse 100 have foreign-based revenues. here is how one senior analyst responded. >> it looks like markets are taking the story of a may election victory at face value. they are expecting a strong majority from conservatives based on the polls, of course, and that led to the big rise we saw in the ruling yesterday, and that has had a knock on negative affect. there are probably many spills and thrills to come over the next six or seven weeks also. >> the strong pound hurting the footsie -- the ftse. corrupt -- the 40 closing down. dow jones down .5% on the back of some disappointing news from ibm. we will have more on that story in a moment. the european commission has determined britain will have no say on the location of eu agencies post brexit. that means the banking authority agency will be moving to continental europe. london had been hoping to retain not only boosted the city's prominence but also employed a number of people and hosted annual events in the capital. time now for a look

there is the ftse 100.. ♪ president trump orders accrue missile attack after accusing me using chemical weapons. backed the strikes. we have the very latest. today, investors await the latest u.s. jobs report. will

what about the ftse? it is down around 2% today.ws was broken. it has been a four—day weekend, a lot of the financial markets have been closed. there are geopolitical tensions in career, french presidential election starting on the 23rd of april. there isa starting on the 23rd of april. there is a lot to digest. 0il starting on the 23rd of april. there is a lot to digest. oil and mining stocks were down on the ftse. then the announcement of the general election. that boosted sterling, and strong set —— strong sterling causes the ftse valued the paul cook —— causes it to fall. that uncertainty there, we now have the certainty of what the announcement is, but that ftse itself is 90%. the markets and the city have been talking. we had word from the institute of directors saying this must be used as a chance to debate but leaving the eu means. we have had the cbi saying that distractions from getting the best eu deal must be kept at minimum. the figures are looking good, but this time next year they may not look so good. inflation is ri

the ftse for the close to its record high.still well-off from the all-time highs it hit back in 2000 and still off the it hit in 2007. we are talking about 6600 or around the 6100 level for those years respectively. the cac had a bank update, it is still pretty far off from the highs it's all a decade or two ago. or two ago.decade guy: petting a little bit of weight to the market. let's talk about the upside. we will see much of christian dior folderstian then. he is still with us. some seamen positions -- siemens position. >> a cleans up a long-standing problem, but i think in terms of management, it brings together dior could tour -- your could tour -- i think that has to be a good thing. >> where is this business -- i'm looking at headlines overnight out of china saying they are .ulling back where is this business getting the most of its sales growth. is it the asian area? >> yes. i think the recent results did comment particularly on chinese whethers driving demand it is in paris, sydney, or tokyo, they are spending. >> gr

london ftse down.are going the hear from industrial giant general electric as well as honeywell, we will see how a stronger u.s. dollar is affecting their bottom line. nicole: in sports lebron james stage historic comeback against indiana pacers. in hockey the penguins eliminate the blue jackets. lauren: 5:31 a.m. in new york. friday april 21st, good morning, everybody, welcome to fbn:am, first look at morning markets, breaking news and what to expect for the day ahead. nicole: reopens after a deadly shooting just days before francÉs presidential election. in fact, you are looking at live pictures there in paris right now as a gunman opened fire on police killing one officer and wounding three people before police shot him. >> i saw three men in audi and shoot on the police and killed one of the police and injuring one. then i have to run away. nicole: isis claimed responsibility for the shooting, meanwhile french police have taken into custody three family members of the gunmen. lauren: some of the pr

this is why you have the record the exportbetween heavy ftse 100 and the more domestic centric ftse 100this is the bliss index which measures the economic health of the u.k. economy. looking at various gauges of well-being. it is rising a little bit today. above a downward trend. feeling more confident about the economy between the high and low range. to 90 minutes into the trading day in the u.s.. what does it look like over there? thee: we have green on screen. major averages are higher but we are not seeing major gains. and then the dow nasdaq. s&p 500 up by .3%. ofwant to run through some the earnings. financials are leading the gains today. and this is in due to the strength of earnings coming out. american express out after the close yesterday and it does appear to slowly be moving past the loss of the contract. if you look on it like for like basis, we saw a revenue up 6.2%. net income did fall but it was a smaller decline than estimated. regional banks -- both reporting a net interest margin that the estimates and blackstone, the world's largest private equity --m selling a prou

the ftse and the cac both trading a bit higher. xetra dax flip-flopping. the ftse mib off by a tad..s. market futures, we're still 4 1/2 hours away from the market open. a bit mixed. the implied open was slightly higher across the board a half hour ago. now s&p 500 flattish open is implied. nasdaq having gone through 6,000 for the first time yesterday. the rally continues in the states. good-bye for now. "worldwide exchange" is up next. i'm louisa bojesen. i'll see you tomorrow. same time, same place, b. finding time to get things done isn't easy. but we've got the digital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount >>> good morning. market milestone. futures taking a breather after an earnings fueled rally pushes the nas

the ftse weighed down in part by barclays. a good week for european trade. france up 4%.t's what busch is known for. what are you known for? i'm indecisive. scratch that. no, that's right. although... [sfx: buschhhhh] did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. >>> it is earnings central today. besides the tech movers, shares of expedia dipping after earnings fell short. still the online travel company says total gross bookings grew 14% for the quarter. >>> gopro posting a smaller than expected quarterly loss thanks to strong sales of flagship camera drones. shares are under pressure. they initially popped on this news. a beat on earnings for a change. the ceo will be on "squawk alley." >>> baidu shares are dropping. the

the ftse up ever so marks are been getting on. the ftse up ever so slightly. the markets are closed. jd sports, their shire price up, it is upjust over 8%. that is it from me. the queen has been feeding some elephants. that is not the queen feeding an elephant. that is gavin lee. let us ta ke elephant. that is gavin lee. let us take you to whipsnade zoo later. that is called a tease! they have been there, we are having trouble proving that pictorially. perhaps we will talk about that a little bit more after 11.00. as tensions mount over syria, we'll have liberal democrat leader tim farron's assessment of borisjohnson diplomatic skills. also on the programme, as united airlines deals with the consequences of dragging one passenger off an overcrowded flight, we'll be speaking to the association of british travel agents about your rights as an airline passenger. fla is all coming up after four. let us catch up with the weather. matt has the let us catch up with the weather. matt has the latest. let us catch up with the weather. matt has the latest. thank let us c

the ftse was off about 100 area. people we re ftse was off about 100 area.ting a little bit more from the fed. they talked about getting rid about 4 trillion of investment in depth. it is selling bonds again? yes, during the financial crisis they bought bonds nobody else wanted to buy. the credit markets were frozen. now they are going to sell it back into the markets. no timescale and no value. you had that, you had the fed minutes, which had some red flags that caused markets to wobble. also commons from paul ryan about how tough it has been for the trump administration to make change. we have not had the economy boosting reform he promised ? have not had the economy boosting reform he promised? that's right. one is tax reform and two is infrastructure spending. paul ryan, the house speaker, said they went with health care reform first because they thought it was easier than tax reform. they didn't get health care reform. what about the european central bank due the markets don't seem to be terribly happy with marco druggie. -- the word in frankfurt seems

the ftse traders are saying this is a game changerfor sterling.arkets have been closed over the long easter weekend, so closed over the long easter weekend, soa closed over the long easter weekend, so a lot of catching up to do, things that happen over the weekend — lowball geopolitical tensions, the french presidential elections, and commodity prices were down, pulling the ftse down before we even knew this announcement was coming. when it came through and sterling then rose, that pull down the ftse again, because lots of those companies are global companies. they bank profits in dollars and euros, so when sterling rises, it reduces the level of their profits, and that reduces their value. but looking at, traders are saying that this election is coming on the 8th ofjune, they are pricing in a majority, quinn. unless anything in the polls suggest that will change, we don't expect to see much more reaction on the markets, and we will wait to see what happens when the results come through. rachel horne when the results come through. rachel home with

the ftse being hammered 1.6%. you did have yields falling below 1%. they are back up a little bit, now only down one basis point. the sterling is moving much lower on the announcement that theresa may was going to speak today. to theow bouncing higher highest level we have seen since february. a verification of theresa may calling those snap elections. this deal will add point one and working in 2018 -- in 2018in 2019 and 21% in 2019. alix: -- david: coming up at 9:15, we will get more economic data. hour, esther george speaks at it barts college conference. we will have an exclusive interview with her at around 10:00 eastern time. cabinetting with a where we agreed that the government should call for a general election to be held on the eighth of june. less: that was theresa may than an hour ago at number 10 downing street. now is simon kennedy and a correspondent at the scene of the announcement. was unexpected, david. even right up into the right up to -- even the announcement, there was some speculation as what it could be about. we were expecting

the ftse 100 later this year. the ftse100 currently down around 0.42%.dding the most, 8.3% —— 7.83%. that is all the business for this hour. more on the website, and you can get in touch with me on twitter. thank you, alice. just to let you know we will be talking a little later about the case of the father who lost his legal challenge against a fine for taking his daughter on an order for the rot against a fine for taking his daughter on an orderfor the rot —— on an unauthorised term time holiday. before that, let's get the weather with thomas. the weather is looking very promising over the next few days. high pressure over as meaning settled weather, some sunshine. quite nippy in the morning but we have had some beautiful sunrise pictures coming in today. here is the satellite image, and you can see the satellite image, and you can see the sunshine across central and eastern areas, the south as well. there is a bit of clouds stuck in the area of high pressure being streamed in the direction of northwest britain and cloud is something that is hard to fo

the ftse 100 — the leading stock market in london — fell 1.8% — the biggest fall since early novemberr it's because a stronger pound makes their dollar denominated earnings look weaker. but despite the ongoing uncertainty, the international monetary fund has revised its forecasts for the uk economy up — predicting growth of 2% this year. that would make it the second fastest growing developed economy in the world, behind only the united states. business groups have used yesterday's news to demand politicians make firm commitments as part of any potential election campaign. will they get them? that's the big question. in a moment, we'll hear from the boss of wpp. which is the world's biggest advertising agency. but first here's the director general of the confederation of british industry which represents nearly 200,000 uk businesses. more uncertainty not welcomed by business but in terms of the longer term benefits, ithink business but in terms of the longer term benefits, i think many businesses are seeing the opportunity for a government with a stronger mandate bringing longer—term

numbers atre the .emy >> let's tell you what is happening with the ftse 100. see some volatility. that is where fair value is pointing down another 1.2%. let's talk about levels, let's talk about the fibonacci levels, you could see some support on this fibonacci line, the 23.6 line that comes in north of the 7000 level. so what's that is a key line in 23.6.nd for the markets, let's start about what moved the market yesterday and that was the pound. the concerns surrounding the election, that is not a line you can draw. what you can draw is line tween what is happening with the pound, the market was sure the pound, we knew that and we were looking for something to keep is higher. we saw this move here yesterday. let's talk about levels. action a while -- along the 127 levels. a traitor said you have to respect the recent ranges. while we had a little push higher we did see the levels being respected. level at the 128 moment. are we going to come back down, is this where the support is, the mid-one 27th. 127's.->> sterling, let's talk about the real yield on wha

it is linked to the ftse 100 because they sterling surged.inked to the ftse100 because they are doing well as well. what was the mood? not ain! as well. what was the mood? not again! this is the biggest issue, it creates uncertainty, uncertainty about everything, which is why i doubt necessarily agree with the point that theresa may having a majority helps with brexit because all that does for the next month is create more uncertainty. her idea is it creates more uncertainty about brexit. and certainly for her. for the rest of us not necessarily. we don't know what brexit means yet! moving on to the ft, if you want uncertainty, look at caracas, venezuela, a country in milk down, protesters flood the streets of caracas. it's like somebody has finally let the lead off and it has blown —— finally let the lead off and it has blown — — meltdown. finally let the lead off and it has blown —— meltdown. it has and how do you get it under control? the economic issues within venezuela have been huge for a long time. they have been huge for a long time.

stocks — and then a bounce in sterling— well that usually translates into a fall in the value of the ftseheir profits in dollars or euros so a stronger sterling reduces those values. but cutting through all of that let's find out what the markets think of this move. joining us now, live from the city is kallum pickering, senior uk economist at berenberg bank. how would you describe the reaction by the markets? so much to think about. the market is basing its most likely scenario that the conservatives win. in the short to medium term, the status quo does not change and the uk economy continues as it has done for the last few months. given the most likely outcome is the conservatives take even more control over brexit, the risk of a hard brexit has risen. we may see markets pricing that in more acutely. do you think this has arisen, if theresa may has a stronger mandate, she could serve up a softer brexit because she will not need the support of so many hardline brexiteers and perhaps a softer brexiteers and perhaps a softer brexit could be served up which businesses could refer? that is t

the ftse down almost 2.5%. the dollar. lots of markets news happening, keep up—to—date on the website. you'll get loads more information and will be back tomorrow with the other business headlines. we are going to go straight to the scene outside number 10 downing street were the prime minister's car is waiting to ta ke prime minister's car is waiting to take her to a meeting with members of the backbench 1922 take her to a meeting with members of the backbench1922 committee. this is a regular meeting we understand. but certainly not on a regular day. our political correspondent is watching and waiting for the prime minister. certainly not a regular day as she goes to this meeting with conservative backbenchers, what is she likely to be saying to them?” expect she'll be getting them ready for the general election, getting them excited. the door is just opening now, will this be the prime minister? have you changed your mind, prime minister? another u—turn, prime minister? how many times are you going to change

that means that is where the ftse is back.re and go to kevin cirilli quickly on it quiet -- a quiet trump day in washington. i want to come back to gary shilling and talk about this. your er. jamie dimon's annual report. labor participation in the 50's. it is 97%, 100% is up here somewhere. then there is a little last and here that's a little less and then in the 70's and 80's, this is 94% which is nothing towards the decline we have seen in men 25 to 54 participation. here is where the rest of the world is. the developed economies are up here at 93%. in america, to borrow a phrase from the president, it is failing in our labor participation. is 10 million jobs not there. guy: i want to talk about what is happening in the emerging markets. one of the things we have seen over the last few weeks is the reflation trade. we are also seeing the dollar story being really important. money in the fixed income space is just pouring in, thanks to emerging markets, local denominated bonds. we saw a decent life higher. in the last couple

i can tell you right now that the ftse is little changed.milar to what is happening to the stoxx 600 after four days of gains. have a decline with the stoxx 600. the two weekly winning performers -- this is bloomberg. ♪ mark: it is 11:00 a.m. in new york, 30 minutes left in the in london. vonnie: this is the "european close" on "bloomberg markets." marco we take you from new york to london in the next hour. beijing, melbourne -- here are the top stories we are following on the bloomberg around the world. global stocks are mixed today. rising geopolitical tensions with shorts in trade. dollars are rising. oil is on track for the biggest gain in a year as libya suffers another outage. thate: jim bullard says america remains in slow growth mode. we have more from the bloomberg interview with you. is the hp bulletin latest company to be targeted by activist investors.

and the ftse seeing slight losses.e're looking at futures where we're setting ourselves up for trade, five hours from now, the u.s. markets opening being called a little higher. this week, we got payroll data once again on friday. and trump meeting his chinese counterpart xi jinping on thursday and friday as well. so a political perspective is, it's going to be an important week as well. >>> united kingdom is, quote, steadfast in the british enclave gibraltar according to prime minister theresa may. in a phone call to the cabinet minister says that the uk would, quote, never enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which gibraltar is not content. this comes after the european union offered its veto rights to spain regarding its relationship to gibralter and the bloc granting power to the territory. speaking to cnbc earlier, picardo has explained. >> to what the whole of europe what spain has pursued this is quite evil over what it has over gibraltar, over the whole of europe we need to be looking at how we

the independent business section looks at the effect on the economy reporting the ftse 100 suffered its day since last june after mrs may called for the snap poll. but the business telegraph has a more positive stance writing that the resilience of the uk economy had given the prime minister the confidence to seek parliamentary approval for the election. joining us is politicaljournalist james millar who writes for the new statesman, total politics and the international business times, among others. a busy man! thank you for coming in. starting with the telegraph and the issue of timing, this is all about timing. including when the election would have been at theresa may not called a snap election? yes, i mean, the obvious place to start with timing is 1115 yesterday morning when she made the announcement. i've never seen when she made the announcement. i've never seen anything like it as an actual surprise in westminster. this is not something that has been done, certainly not since the tony blair yea rs. certainly not since the tony blair years. there were rumours and whispers, nothin

the ftse and the dax and other markets are all up.acks the european union, he likes free trade. it is the tonic they need. they cannot believe their luck. this could be the end of the brexit revolution sweeping through europe. look at the money going up. massive rises. also, what they are saying is if the political dangers can be put to one side, some of the economic fundamentals in europe and eurozone are looking more cheerful so allows people to make judgments on the economy again, not on political risks and that is one reason why the markets are going up. the euro zone economy has been doing 0k. the daily mail briefly, gps failing thousands of cancer patients, christopher? mail briefly, gps failing thousands of cancer patients, christopher7m is alarming. gps pick up these issues before they have to take them on to consultants in hospital. there are saying some on to consultants in hospital. there are saying some are on to consultants in hospital. there are saying some are not being caught. this is what gps are for. u nfortu nately,

the ftse 100 the former ukip leader, nigel farage has told the bbc he will not stand in the general electionthe 8th. let's get more from our chief political correspondence in webs mr. what has he said in explanation? he hasn't really given one but i think after attempting seven times to be elected as an mp perhaps he has decided it is not for him this time. he has been trying since 1994. in the last election just two years ago in south thanet, he stood again but was not successful. he is no longer leader of ukip. he is an mep, he was elected as that several times but i think he has now decided to sit this one out. the question for ukip more generally is about their prospects, many people are asking will they be able to stop a decline given that the vote to leave the european union has now happened. many ask what the point of them is. they were formed and nigel farage was so instrumental in that decision and campaigning for that outcome, and now it has happened, what do they do? they have said they want to make sure it is a proper brexit, no backsliding from the government on all of this, but

lea: the ftse in london higher by 32. cac quarante lower by seven, dax lower by seven.tail sales report later in the week. a flat mark it barely move to the upside yesterday. stocks now slightly lower. s&p downgrade, nasdaq been fixed looking at the futures. lea: look at oil lower by 14 cents 52.90% barrel at 12.57 atari announced. an investor focus on global tensions and also corporate earnings. joining us now is chief market strategist at wunderlich security. nice to see you again. thanks for being back with us. >> good morning. thanks for having me. lea: are you concerned with deeper u.s. involvement in syria and rhetoric out of north korea right now? is there any concern that investors can do to protect against political risk right now? >> yeah, geopolitical risk is the largest risk in the market right now. the markets very resilient, very patient towards getting the president's new policies in place which get pushed a 2018. the large unknown if this first strike in syria the beginning of a much longer process and obviously a fresh is complicit in this entire action

the laggard is the ftse 100. down a half percent.many facing a half percent of declines. >>> oil looks to start firmer again this morning. lost some big gains yesterday but remains green. wti crude 51.19. brent at 54.45. nat gas is flat to red. ten-year treasury note yield following the digestion of what was conceived as hawkish minutes from the fed, 2.35 is the yield on the ten-year. that's coming down. some dying of treasuries. dollar trade right now, little changed in the early action. the euro is a bit stronger. 106 1.0668. the dollar/yen, 110. and the pound is weaker against the dollar. gold is up half a percent. i couldn't remember which way because the dollar is had in search of direction and gold could go either way. >> that's right. they've been doing soul searching lately. the big political story, president trump and president xi jinping will meet for the first time today. xi and his wife -- president xi and his wife will join president trump and first lady melania trump for dinner florida tonight. trip and xi -- sounds lik

the ftse 100, the leading stock market in london fell 1.8%, the most since early november. the ongoing uncertainty, the international monetary fund predicts the uk economy will grow by 2% this year. this will make it the second fastest—growing developed economy in the world, behind the united states. business groups have used yesterday's news to demand politicians make firm commitments as part of any potential election campaign. well, the confederation of british industry is one of the uk's biggest business lobby groups. ijoined by its director—general, carolyn fairbairn. good morning. first of all, your reaction. the snap election — a good idea? all, your reaction. the snap election - a good idea? more uncertainty is not welcomed by business. but many businesses are seeing the opportunity for a government with a stronger mandate bringing longer—term stability and also a potential benefit in terms of timing, and that the implementation period at the end of article 50 was going to have a general election in it, and now may need to be run with a bit of stability. so some good

and here is an update on the markets for you, this is how the ftse 100 in london, down markets for youthis is how the ftse100 in london, down half a point today, the dax up slightly, and in trading in the united states, and in trading in the united states, a mixed bag, too. more how on oui’ main story and mps have voted overwhelmingly to back the prime minister's call for a general election onjune 8th. they backed the motion by 522 votes to 13 — easily surpassing the two thirds majority of all mps needed to trigger the poll. in the last hour the prime minister theresa may has been speaking at a campaign event in bolton, setting out the conservatives stall for the election campaign. it is about sticking to our plan for a stronger britain that will enable us a stronger britain that will enable us to secure that more stable and secure future for this country and ta ke secure future for this country and take the right long—term decisions for the future. it's about strong and stable leadership in the national interest. and you only get that strong and stable leadership by voting for the con

the ftse up by 0.3%. xetra dax up by 0.3% as well. autos are doing well on the back of a strong report from daimler for the first quarter. >>> this is how u.s. futures are look. z s&p 500 seen up by 4.5 points. the dow jones, up by 23. and the nasdaq up by 8 points. once again, as you would expect going into easter, volumes are very, very light. >>> the fbi has obtained a secret court order during the presidential campaign to monitor the communications of carter page, an adviser to the trump campaign. the so-called fisa warrant was part of an ongoing warrant into possible investigations between russia and the trump campaign and required convincing a judge that there was probable cause that page was acting as "an agent of a foreign power." last march donald trump pointed to page as someone advising him on foreign policy but spokespeople have down played page's involvement. we want to get you the latest coming out of the meeting that's been taking place between the u.s. secretary of state, rex tillerson and the foreign minister of russi

the ftse 100 to hang onto some games. in asia overnight, stocks lower with the hang seng and shanghai both closed. losses in japan and south korea. march madness in the books. [cheers and applause] we have the highlights from north carolina's win over gonzaga. some say they've ruined the game. six national championships for the tar heels. all of that in so much more coming up this morning. national political reporter caitlin healy birds. this morning we are going to talk about susan rice. "wall street journal" global economics editor jon hilsenrath anat lansky and partners president, lee carter. i go through all the newspapers to see if any of the major national newspapers had the susan rice story on their cover. nope, nope, nope. "washington post" met putin ally in secret. they are still writing about the alleged relationship between trump. i said the cover, john. >> i was going to say you have to turn to the inside of the new europe post to get some of that. dagen: know where you're going to get it? you are going to get

yesterday we saw the ftse hold in positive territory. the rest of europe declined.oday germany up about 0.3%. it's grown across the screen. we've had data out of the uk as well in terms of unemployment. this sort of headline is that the unemployment rate pretty low, 4.7%. indeed, the overall employment level of 74.6% is the highest rate since 1971. but the wage growth was slightly disappointing. either way, the ftse still holding on to gains, as is the pound. >>> looking at broader markets, checking in on the price of oil. higher at 53.66 for wti crude. ice brent crude at 56.55. geopolitical worries a big factor in play for the price of oil over the past couple of days. something in focus in today's trade as well. that g-7 foreign minister meeting, no resolution in sight when it comes to the middle east and syria. we'll watch for the latest from secretary tillerton in moscow. nat gassying so iseeing some gi. the doll gains. the dollar in focus today. the bid for safety helping the currency move to the upside. not good for japanese stocks. that's the reason we saw a

ftse 100 outperforming to the tune of 0.3%. the xetra dax is off by 0.2%. slight declines for the cac 40. we are seeing some techs and banking stocks really dragging us down. we've had the big downgrade impacting dialog. we'll talk about that later on in the show. luxury doing better on the become of better than expected numbers from lvmh in the first quarter. u.s. futures look like this. s&p is seen off by 2. dow jones seen off by 13. nasdaq is expected to fall by 3 points at the start of the trading session. fairly choppy session for wall street yesterday. stocks ending little changed. >>> let's talk about commodities. oil has slipped back from five-week highs as an increase in u.s. shale production is off-setting news of the closure seen in libya's largest oil field. gold prices have been inching higher. prices reacted little to a dovish janet yellen who said the fed would be raising rates gradually only if the u.s. economy continued to perform strongly. karen hodgin is with us. good morning. gold having risen 5% over the course of this past month. how m

the ftse 100, up 0.2%. oil and gas stocks and basic resources doing better. oil prices close to one-month highs. seems inventory levels are slowly but surely falling. this after the dax is under pressure, off by 0.3%. we're in wait and see made ahead of that trump/xi meeting which happens late their week. that brings us to fx. ahead of that meeting, the dollar is more subdued. maybe getting a bit of support from the pmi numbers at the top of the hour. speaking of pmis, the services pm i pmis were stronger than expected. that is leading to that nice surge in cable. >>> in france, all 11 presidential candidates clashed in a live tv debate that lasted almost four hours. anyone who watched the full 3 1/2 hours, i don't know. in an exercise, each candidate was given the same amount of time to speak regardless of their standing in the polls. according to some, the far-left candidate, melenchon was the winner, with macron coming in second, and le pen coming in third. he will pen clashed with macron when she said france should put in clever protectionism. >> translat

the ftse 100 off by 0.45. banks underperforming. for the week we're on track for a small loss of 0.2% for the stoxx 600. here's a quick check on what's happening in the currency markets. again, the dollar, it slid quite a bit on the back of donald trump's comments. we're still seeing the dollar against the japanese yen at a five-week low. given the safety concerns this week, 109.01. >>> turkish citizens will head to the polls on sunday to decide whether the country should shift from a parliamentary system to a presidential public. the move would grant erdogan presidential powers and tighten his grip. hadley gamble joins us from dubai. heading into this important vote what are the indications so far? >> what we've seen from most polls is a slim majority for president erdogan in terms of taking these presidential powers and increasing his authority in the country. a lot of worries internally about freedoms, the fact that the judiciary may be unduly influenced and the round up of intellectuals in response to the coup attempt in turkey.

the ftse and lacks both down around about half a point in trading in europe.d nasdaq both down. let's return to oui’ nasdaq both down. let's return to our top story, the explosion on the st petersburg metro. 0ur correspondent is in moscow. just confirm the metro is still shut down. yes, the metro is shut down and will remain so until tomorrow, which plunged st petersburg into powerful gridlock. it must be said some of the drivers are volunteering to help others reach the places they are going. also, is it not confirmed, we know prime minister dmitry medvedev, has been suggesting this is a terror attack, has that been confirmed? they are at various stages of naming this a terror attack. the investigative committee has lost an investigation concerning the act of terror. the statement by prime minister is probably less formal. he posted on facebook saying he expresses his condolences to the victim of the terror attack, but none of the officials have actually spoken firmly, colin is an act of terror. it has to be said, this took place just after lunchtime. the cas

london's ftse 100 rallying again today.rprise here the french banks, some of the biggest winners. all surging today. they're leading the european banking sector. now, the stock 600 banks index, up about 8% year to date and up 5% today alone. taking a look at the macro picture, the spread. which had been widening amid uncertainty of the french elections, german 10-year, narrowing to the tightest gaps since december. the euro also jumping to a five-month high. the first time the banks had really since its asset purchase program scaled off a little bit here. finally, moving on to the m and a side of things. axo with a new record high. ppi sweetening the bid to buy the paint company. akzo says it will quote/unquote carefully review and consider the company's proposal. a lot going on here, of course. green across the board, carl. back over to you. >> a lot of news. thank you. >>> when we come back, a street apple analyst with a call to worry some investors. "squawk alley" continues in a moment. and the wolf huffed and puffed...