you add that up, you get about 14 votes for martin winterkorn. ppears to have enough backing to go on. the criticism is, why hasn't he done more to promote sales in the u.s.? winterkorn himself has put in the namesake brand of volkswagen a big cost-cutting structure. they want to see profitability go from 2.5% to 6% by 2018. sales per, right around 10 million. one thing to look at, the stock up 37% this year, although it is down on this news. guy: thank you very much, hans nichols joining us from berlin. francine: coming up, an exclusive at the house of hinduja. the man who bought britain's war office building tells us why he is not worried about a slowdown in london's property market. ♪ . francine: welcome back to "the pulse." i am francine lacqua. guy: i am guy johnson. francine: china's exports plummeted. forecast were for a gain of 9%. it came in at -15. let's get to tom. export data looks pretty terrible. is it as bad as it seems? tom: 15% contraction in exports is never going to be a good think. so i think it is bad. at the same time china's

piak has not provided his support for martin winterkorn. the answer and is really -- the uncertainty is troubling. even mr. piech does not have a lot of time as chairman and it looks like he wants to assign a new ceo before he steps down. mark: it is my understanding that mr. piech was mr. winterkorn's mentor. do we know what happened? kevin: aside from anything personal, the only shortcoming i had seen in mr. winterkorn's rein is the performance of volkswagen in the u.s.. the drive to become the largest automaker is going to require more than a 3% market share in the u.s.. china and europe is helping them but in the u.s. 3% market share you are seeing incentives starting to climb in mind with some of the domestic automakers. it tells you that strategy here is not working. mark: do we have any idea where volkswagen's unions are? kevin: i do not think anyone has chosen sides publicly. the thing unions want is to remove the uncertainty. talk of someone from porsche being inserted. martin winterkorn has done a lot of great things. record profi

chairman piech said he has lost confidence with martin winterkorn.et's get more details on the story with nancy. very convoluted story. what is the problem that mr. piech has with the ceo, winterkorn? >> it's a very good question. in that interview, mr. piech said i'm distancing myself. very few details. wasn't clear exactly what he was on odds with mr. winterkorn on but the assumption is the costs. vw has been extremely successful in really boosting their volume. we saw record sales last year but the costs continue to increase and people are very concerned about that. they are also concerned about slow investment into the united states and people that haven't seen growth of that name sake in that vw brand in the u.s. market. as we know winterkorn is getting to the end of his tenure. his contract expires at 2016. there's been quite a bit speculation what happens next. who may take over. on the other side a lot of speculation he could stay beyond 2016 and if he doesn't, the initial thinking he would take over from piech when he was expected to step ou

for the now, martin winterkorn, the chief executive, is firmly in the company. >> shareholders are welcoming that news. how are the rest of the markets doing today? >> we are seeing a pretty muted trading day. the impasse over greece's bailout is weighing on investors. we have seen deutsche bank trailing down about 5% after announcing an overhaul of its banking operation on the back of very heavy losses in shanghai -- very heavy losses. in shanghai, we saw a seven year high. the meeting of the u.s. federal reserve. a downgrade for tokyo. the ratings agency has cut japan's credit rating from one much -- for one notch, from a-plus to a. it is uncertain whether tokyo will be able to address its debt burden by raising enough revenue. scotland has $5.5 billion worth of loans in america. rbs is trying to reshape itself as a corporate and retail bank focused on its domestic market. apple will reveal its first-quarter results later this monday after record-breaking earnings in january. it has warned that the surge in the value of the u.s. dollar could cut as much as $2 billion from its quarterly rev

he publicly challenge the authority of ceo martin winterkorn and dismissed him as a potential successor who has been a close confident for decades, came ch withoutck from piefc clear explanation and the spat continued after people back to him. this -- backed him. a tycoon has defied calls for him to quit as chairman as an indian liquor maker controlled by them. the board wanted him to go following an internal inquiry into loans and deposits made by the company over a three-year period. threes the end of a rocky years since the company was acquired by diageo. they have begun a detailed inquiry into transactions including a loan to entities under mallya. mallya is rejected the call for his resignation saying that the board's decision is based on half-truths and twisted facts. back to. rishaad: later on, criticism and consequences. and international condemnation. indonesia prepares to execute nine convicted drug traffickers. details live from jakarta. earnings continue to tumble but will they make a recovery? a positive outlook on india coming up next. ♪ live images coming through from the

basically, martin winterkorn is the best possible ceo according to the supervisory board and has fulle is going on here? matt: what else would they say? i think the death of ferdinand piech has been widely exaggerated had the last time he did this, supervisory board also backed him and fired him a couple of months later. this guy is the most powerful auto-making ceo in world history. he is ferdinand's porche's grandson. he pushed through the 917, which no one wanted to do, and it is now one of the greatest race cars of all time. when he's a something nasty about a ceo running volkswagen people listen. carol: the guy he wants to get rid of -- he is led the company to record profits. matt: guess what, subaru outsells volkswagen in america? they're not doing well. betty: 32 days -- the last time there was an all-time high for u.s. stocks. the s&p had averaged a day between highs. equity indexes from asia to europe have climbed to multi-your highs in recent days. today, however, not so much. all right, mike reagan put it well today. we have gone so greedy. we are used to these record high

the 78 euros stepped down after he publicly challenged martin winterkorn. credited for pulling them back from the brink in the 1990's transforming it into one of the world's top three automakers. a tycoon defying calls to quit his chairmanship the board wanted him to go following an internal inquiry into loans and deposits made over three years with transactions including loans of $204 million. >> later on the program, signs of optimism to the singapore banks leaving rewards going up next on the emerging markets getting the country fixed from jpmorgan when "asia edge" returns. ♪ >> checking some of the stories making headlines around the world. >> international condemnation is growing over the indonesian decision to execute convicted drug smugglers. nine people could be facing a firing squad on tuesday. authorities made a deal for clemency for two citizens and france says that there will be consequences if one of their people is put to death. ask 14 people have been killed in a series of car bombings in baghdad, the deadliest attack happening outside a busy

martin winterkorn is the ceo of the volkswagen group.hey have had record sales and are close to eclipsing toyota but sales in the u.s. have been sluggish and that could be why at least some on the board are upset. writing to the rescue of him is the cousin here is what he had to say in a statement released he said porsche is also on the board and when you look at how it is broken down, the porsche side has two seats in the pf side has three seats. there are 20 seats on the board and 10 are held by the workers council. mr. winter corn appears -- vendor corn appears -- mr. win tercorn appears to have the backing of the council. they have had remarkable success with their luxury brand but their profitability in 2014 they had a 2.5% operating profit. their goal is to get that to 6%. they sold a lot of vehicles and have had a lot of growth, the question is, where is their profitability. it has been a good quarter in terms of stock performance but now we have this internal turmoil and we will see how it sorts out him a but it is a remarkable s

the difference is that martin winterkorn was in a position of strength. volkswagen last year reported record profit and record sales. mr. winter corn was able to line up the other power players on the nonexecutive board that runs the company. essentially the labor leaders. even some of mr. piech's own relatives, including wolfgang porsche, his cousin. they all backed mr. winterkorn. guy: let's talk about mr. piech's strategy. he has acquired all kind of businesses. ducati, they run a group that makes everything from the soft to golf to all kind of other cars. he built an empire. the stock is up today. is that because there is no more empire building? chad: that's exactly why the stock is up today. he did create a 12-brand empire. he started in the luxury car segment, buying porsche. he didn't buy audi, but he was the one who made audi into the behemoth it is today. they are number two in luxury car sales fighting with bmw and mercedes. he also bought man ansd d scania, and he expanded significantly in china. china is now volkswagen's largest market. they

chairman that he will resign with immediate effect this after losing out in a power battle with ceo martin winterkorn who is expected to take over the chairmanship as well. >>> deutsche bank plans to significantly pare bank its investment banking business cutting $200 billion in business. it's part of a 3.7 billion euro restructuring program. coming up on cnbc we'll be speaking with anshu jain you won't want to miss it. >>> will it be a juicy quarter for apple? they report after the bell. we get the details coming up in two minutes. >>> and that question has got us talking. what is going to happen to that cash balance or is that not the top aspect for these results? will you be looking for iphone sales or guidance on apple watch sales or something new, apple tv and the rest of it the internet of things. get in touch with us. email us world wide at cnbc.com or via twitter and our personal handles are on the streen -- screen as well. before we go to the break, we're going to look at u.s. futures. we're looking at a positive open. s&p up 2.5 and dow jones up and nasdaq up 8. we'll be right back in a cou

. >> volkswagenen shareholders are reportedly scrambling over martin winterkorn's future.e -- roithers -- reuters suggests that it's been weakened. let's get out to aneta. >> actually there were reports that other supervisory board members have even asked the very influential leader to resign as all of the others were against the criticism. he was surprisingly in an interview a week ago. but now what we're hearing from the company is that everybody is back pedaling and while the major aim is to get mr. winterkorn and the ceo and the head of the supervisory board to work together there's reportedly a meeting of the supervisory board ahead of their agm on may 5th to actually sort that out because shareholders will ask about that spat during that agm, and they want to have a decent answer to the problem. the head of the supervisory board was allegedly and reportedly not happy about the performance of volkswagen in the united states. perhaps an answer to that problematic area when it comes to product development could be something which might apiece him lability. on the other