it may sound like a small move, but it's a big step towards a market-based economy and as sarah eisen tells us, it could benefit big companies. >> reporter: china wants a world-class economy, but they need a world-close currency. china took a bigger step towards the goal this weekend letting the uyon float. the chinese economy is not slowing down and encourage investments. >> in the long run, i think it should make chinese assets more inextensive which could attract more investments but they have to get over slower growth and the risk of default. >> reporter: it may help the chinese economy. they long held the chinese government kept the value low on purpose making experts cheaper. the currency has a powerful upside for the global economy because the chinese consumer will have more spending power. american companies that stand to gain from consumer spend income china are yum brand, mcdonalds and proctor and gamble. even if it means more ups and downs for them. >> when a country is making a fundamental shift in the composition of its economy, away from investment-driven and export driv

sarah eisen has the story. >> reporter: food inflation is coming. a new report from the united nations showing food prices jumped last month by the most in more than a year and a half after a long decline. according to the u.n. food commodity price index, cereal prices were up over 3% from january to february of this year. vegetable oil up nearly 5%. dairy up 3%. sugar up just over 6%. meat, however, was down. the reason? all of the abnormal weather not just in the united states but around the globe. global unrest also leading to supply issues. there's also a growing thirst for milk in asia. more products from the u.s. is being exported. the question is when does it show up in your grocery aisle? mostly it's a 6 to 9 month lag because costs for the big companies are mostly locked in. so when you start hearing guidance or forecast from these companies into 2015 you'll hear about this price spike and you'll hear about higher prices on the shelves. prices might show up earlier for dairy and hamburgers. those are the exceptions because they're harder fo

sarah eisen spoke with nike's ceo exclusively.out competition, international growth, talked about a lot of things with you. >> international growth is key because nike is a business that gets most of its sales outside of the home market, the united states, for investors the big question for international growth for nike is china. here's what mark parker said about that market. >> i feel good about turning the corner in china. we're not completely around the corner. but feeling good about the momentum that we have. feeling like we're laying the foundation for another whole round of growth in china. >> important point there on china because according to last earning's report, future orders were actually higher after pretty rough 2013. >> behind north america, we're the number two market. >> he's in barcelona unveiling a new knit shoe, a football boot. a complete is hleat is how we s united states. 3.6 billion people watched the world cup in 2010 in south africa. >> sarah also pushed mark parker on the fact that, you know, adidas has

sarah eisen spoke with nike ceo. >> reporter: it's officially the kickoff to the world cup, at least for nike which doesn't sponsor the tournament like adidas but is going all out on products, technology and innovation for the event and for its team, the excitement began today when nike unveiled a knitted football boot or cleat. -escalate the company calls it revolutionary. >> four years in the making. -escalate the intertriintricaci decline, the technology in this new shoe is actually above and beyond anything we've ever done certainly, and i think the players have actually voted with tremendous feedback. >> reporter: adidas recently launched a similar knitted cleat for the world cup as well, because when it comes to capturing a global audience for sporting consumer companies, there's nothing like the world cup 3.2 billion people watched it the 2010 tournament in south africa. that's 30 times the super bowl audience the competition is fierce. >> innovation for the world cup this year is more than we've ever produced for any major event certainly in the sport of football ever this is

sarah eisen has more. >> reporter: jamie hart is a barley farmer in the san lewis valley of colorado. a valley which gets 85% of its water from snow melts to the rio grande river. >> water is what we live on. it's our lifeblood for our industry. >> reporter: but there's a problem in the valley. snowfall in surrounding mountains has been below average for the last six years. >> it's been getting worse as we go through time here, and we're sure hoping to see the weather change. >> reporter: that's something barley growers and beer giants like millercoors can't count on especially with barley crop on the line, one of the key ingredients in beer. >> coors is really famous for saying that barley is to beer as grapes is to the wine. >> reporter: kim marada is director of sustainability for millercoors. one of her key jobs, finding ways to reduce the company's water footprint. it reduced the water it uses to 3.9 barrel of water for one barrel of beer less than the industry average. on the farm they know they've got a lot more work to do. >> we learned more than 90% of the water is really wit

. >>> coming up next, "business before the bell" with cnbc's sarah eisen.s' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. ♪ >>> welcome back, everybody. fast-food companies, they are duking it out in a battle for breakfast. the latest being taco bell, with the latest burrito. however, mcdonald's isn't going down without a fight. craig melvin reports. >> i'm ronald mcdonald jr. and this is ronald mcdonald iii. >> reporter: in its new commercial, mcdonald's finds a few guys named ronald mcdonald to profess their love. >> and i love taco bell's new breakfast. >> reporter: the eye-raising ad is the latest punch in the high-stakes battle

sarah eisen is up next with the skinny on food inflation. they're battling it out for tight of the trader of the year. plus, find out who is making a big move in his portfolio today. playbook playoffs when "the half" comes back. >>> look at all those lonely people up there. coming up at the top of the hour, banking on bonds, should you invest in a newport to rick can bond that just hit the market? it could yield 8%. is it worth the risk? >>> a new painkiller causing a lot of controversy. also hitting the market. get this, it is ten times more powerful than vicoden. the company behind this super painkiller chl painkiller. >>> and new twist in the mystery srnd that disappearance of the malaysian jet. we have the latest up to the minute news there. much more "half time" show right after this short break. there's a new form of innovation taking shape. at a company that's bringing media and technology together. next is every second of nbcuniversal's coverage 0f the 2014 olympic winter games. it's connecting over one million low-income americans t

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. ♪ >>> it's time now for "business before the bell" with cnbc's sarah eisen. h its earnings report. it posted a loss, in tough shape. but the loss was smaller than analysts were expecting. they're clearly going to have an uphill battle when it comes to a comeback, but they have a new ceo, john chen, and amazingly managed to sell 3.4 million handsets during the quarter. actually, most of the blackberries were the old blackberry 7s, not the new ones. listen to this, guys. we're just learning that blackberry in the next 18 months is planning to launch a new high-end smartphone for keyboard lovers. it's all about the keyboard. that's why i still have mine. >> i love that. >> that could be good. >> always in search. that's surprising news. bad news for blackberry, but not as bad as we thought, sarah. >> exactly. >> thank you so much. great, we appreciate it. >> sarah eisen, thank you. >> and you'll go back at the end, trying samsung now, i think in the end you'll go back to that blackberry. >> i wonder. >> i'm telling you, so easy to type on. >> we'll see. on monday

we get the numbers now from sarah eisen. sarah?e added in the month of february. economists were only looking for a number just over 150,000. this comes after two months of very disappointing reports because of the weather. so perhaps that momentum that we had seen in the labor market is really picking up. also want to flag the unemployment rate. 6.7%. that actually ticked up. but it may be good news, because it may be a sign that people are out there looking for jobs. labor force participation rate, 63%, right on par with what happened back in january. it's still pretty low, the lowest near the 1970s, late 1970s. but ticking a little bit higher. so not as bad news to blame it on the weather. and u.s. equity futures pointing to a higher start here for wall street. >> all right, cnbc's sarah eisen. thank you. 175,000 added, miles. >> that's a good number. >> it is? >> well, the number i had heard, people expected was 139,000 jobs, so 175,000 is actually quite good. 150 has sort of been the average over a longer period of time. look,

it's time for "business before the bell" with sarah eisen. of the day. we'll be watching tesla stock down here at the stock exchange. new jersey becomes the third state to become tesla's model of direct selling of cars to consumers. so every other car company goes through dealerships, but now, arizona, texas, and new jersey, backed by very powerful dealership lobbies, saying, nope, you can't sell directly. if you live in new jersey, you'll have to buy a tesla in pennsylvania or a neighboring state. you can bet, ilan musk is very upset about it, tweeting it out. elon musk versus chris christie. >> that's weird. now i'll have to find a tesla dealership in wyoming. terrible. sarah, thanks very much. we appreciate it. >>> up next, malaysian officials are trying to bring clarity to the confusion surrounding the missing flight and its passen r passengers. the latest is next on "morning joe." e skin look pretty. but there's one that's so clever, it makes your skin look better even after you take it off. neutrogena healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% of

cnbc's sarah eisen joins us. what are you watching so far?believable. and here we are, every time we go higher here, we're in record high territory. for u.s. stocks. the question is, why? because some of the economic data have been mixed, including soft reports on manufacturing, on retail. and for now, traders are just blaming it on the weather. a big day will be tomorrow, because that's when we get the monthly jobs report. remember, we're coming off two very disappointing jobs reports because of the weather factor. tomorrow, expected to be the same. the question is, will the data turn positive once we get into springtime weather. that's certainly what traders are hoping for, and betting on, because we are in record territory, as i said. it's unbelievable. >> speaking of data. let's talk more about the motivation about the changes behind the s.a.t. we love talking about this this morning before we got on the air. there is the business angle to it. it's not just about making the tests -- and i hate to use the word easier -- for students, but m