that's the assessment of the ifo institute. the latest survey in germany shows expect actions coming in higher than expected. meanwhile, the big news out of the uk a short while ago, the unemployment rate has ticked down more than we might have thought. there was a big fall in unemployment by 99,000. some people thought that was by around 40,000 which caused that unemployment rate to drop. and countdown, 36,000 and the boe said we'll see, you know, what happens with growth, but they are surprised by the lack of productivity growth. still with us, julian calo and helia. on this last point, helia, would you have been focused a lot on activity and the conundrum. what do you make of the numbers there? >> i think that's the big question b now for the bank of england. are we going to return to levels of productivity that we saw before the crisis? yesterday the house of lords saying there is no reason why the uk economy shouldn't reach the levels of productivity and growth that we saw precrisis. but so far, there's no evidence of that

german confidence data in the ifo. there is a wonderful quote from mark carney. "the material news will be when a central bank begins to sell holdings. that is when markets may well move." equity markets are set for a stronger opening today. unemployment numbers will come out. the drop in the jobless claims in the united kingdom most unlikely to move the story. equity markets getting a little bit of a bank this morning. texas has a beautiful piece out this morning. in the u.k., typically december is a good month for the ftse. they say that at the board level, it means the u.k. market, if it can break 6516, you could retest 68.20. one ceo from the mining industry is talking about the price of iron ore. up in 2014,ill go but it is still a good business to be in. there is going to be more supply. services,mes to world this is a theme developing through the week. technip down 9.4%. weaker margins in their subsidy division, capital expenditure concerns that we saw coming through from cgg are overdone and overblown. exploration and what the oil majors are doing and spe

. -- the ifo business confidence.l signs indicate a stronger german economy. >> a closer look at those market numbers for you now. we sit in frankfurt where the dax rallied by about 1%, losing at about 9100 81. it was a little over 1% for the euro stocks. investors were positioning themselves ahead of the u.s. federal reserve's decision on whether to continue its monetary stimulus program. that decision is today. in new york, however, investors are playing it a bit more cautious. it's just under 1% higher. the euro is currently trending higher against the dollar. all right, we have to take a quick one-minute break, but we'll have a whole lot more news coming up. >> welcome back to the show. one of briton's most notorious criminals has died at the age of 84. >> he gained international notoriety as part of a now they only focus on the good things, positive things. they are in control, not the tax man. wouldn't you like to be in this position, never having to worry about taxes or mandatory withdrawal rules for your retir

the truth is that obamacare only works ifo= it.payoff to insurance companies that guaranteed their support for the law three years ago which is lots of new customers, hell the people -- healthy sending their money. and so, yeah, massive dropoff, it mirrors his larger poll numbers. the good news for democrats is these are not people who vote in midterm elections anyway, so i'm not sure it's going to to make a huge difference in '14. martha: perhaps not.júwÑ something very interesting was said on this show yesterday, ccris, and it was that the thing that started to turn some of this group, this 18-29-year-old group, was the nsa issue, that the whole issue of, you know, sort of oversight and messing with my cell phone or my social media or getting access to my private life which this group holds extremely dear is a huge no-no. >> well, that's the first breach. when you get to the point of breach between the president and these most important supporters that he had -- because, remember, to tucker's point, not only do young voters provi

the xetra dax is up, we had an important ifo result out as well.well, up to 9.05 in october from -- sorry, from 109.3 in november. and it seems to be a fairly broad based recovery, as well. the cac 40 is up 0.6%. the ftse mib is up about 1% at the moment. break that down into sectors. all the sectors are up. even the weaker sectors, the oil and gas not doing too badly. retail is the weaker sector at the moment. there has been some concern in the uk that it's going to be a fairly soft christmas. discount retailers taking away from the largest super market group and we had a company called debit the store coming out today and a report suggesting that they are negotiating tougher terms which suggests all is not as well as it might be in these crucial few weeks ahead of christmas. autos, technology, banks have got the best of it right now. that's where we stand. with this very classy hit from london. back to you. >> stay classy world people are saying. did we find mine? we can put ross and me side by side. i think we did. not yet? >> i don't think we found it yet. but maybe after the break. >