cnbc's steve sedgwick live for us in london. good morning, steve. >> yes, very good day to you, brian. the catalyst for that rally was some of the best trade figures for the month of november the u.s. has ever seen, so that was very positive stuff there, helped of course by less energy imports. let's get to corporates. microsoft, the search for the new ceo to take off from steve ballmer getting close. alan mulally, the boss at ford, was seen as a front-runner. he says he's staying at ford for at least a year, so ruled himself out. there's a couple outside candidates and insiders as well, including the former boss over at nokia, steven elop, considered to be front-runners for this. elsewhere, the man unwinding the fraud of the madoff scandal, $17 billion of lost money there, he's now recovered a total of $10 billion worth of money for those clients who lost money from the madoff scandal. 59% recovered. he's chasing more money from more banks, the likes of unicredit, hsbc amongst those. they have denied benefiting from the madoff s

steve sedgwick is live in london. a tough day yesterday for sure. >> it was. but we have to put it in context. look at the run up we had last year with the s&p putting on the best part of 30%. yes, we have got some january jitters, but this is pre-earnings season jitters. 10 out of 11 companies that have pre-announced have all called down their numbers. this means we're being set a very low bar. so some of the companies may do what they do historically and that is beat lowered expectations. elsewhere a lot of m&a. $61 billion deal potentially in the offering, this time charter communications going back for a third time to too maime warner pitching that bid. time warner has said we don't want to deal, but if you really want to pursue us, $160 per share is where you need to come out. and of course both companies leaking video customers in the second and third quarter which is really hiking the need for more consolidation. >> and this is the big investment into the future. google taking a significant interest in the internet of things, purchasing ness labs, they

steve sedgwick live in england for us. t mobile shaking it up. now they want undercut at&t's business. >> this vicious war between the top four players in the states is getting nor intense. now t mobile, the fourth largest is offering customers $650 in credit after trading in their phone. they have to pick up a new phone and also offering five lines per family for consumers who leave the carriers. at&t in response said they would give credit specifically to t mobile customer who's switch to them. elsewhere though, we've got a new phenomenon in credit checking. this is where a lot of the potential lenders are looking at facebook and other social media sites, trolling through looking for information that could judge whether someone is credit worthy or not. you put different information on your application for loans, what you got on your page or facebook page and they're looking for lists such as that. >> i know you're a big wrestling fan. jimmy super fly, magnificent moma rocco, 24/7 wrestling soon? >> yes, what they're saying at wwe, we have the c

cnbc's steve sedgwick live in london. steve, what do you got? >> well, as you say, the markets took rather well last week. the fact the jobs numbers were so bad, that's because they think there is less tapering of quantitative easing. elsewhere, keep an eye on general motors. the cfo is tantalizing saying we are getting closer to resuming a dividend. there hasn't been a common stock dividend on general motors since may, 2008. they are getting closer and closer. elsewhere, very interesting report. big casinos in nevada lost a cumulative $1.35 billion in 2014. they are getting more in revenues. 5.7. they are losing mormonfully from that. so they are making out very well in las vegas. >> we are getting the 2013 data on the airline safety record, one of the best that they have had. this is quite extraordinary. we have the best in terms of that, 265 fatalities from 29 air accidents globally is there. that trend on the fatalities is at a record low. the dates are from the transportation security administration. a nationwide increase of 20%, more firea

cnbc's steve sedgwick, any new ties or jackets for issue no, all the same stuff. >> a couple dreadful christmas jumpers, but that is normal service. talk about highs in coal come, record highs in new york, as well. the s&p and dow closing at record highs. some on the best part of 30%. we have a deal already in 2014. buying 41.5% stake in chrysler. he thinks it's a cheap price. elsewhere, a group calling themselves syrian electronic army which is a group of hackers have hacked in to skype, social media accounts and basically owned by microsoft. they blamed microsoft for being part of the nsa surveillance program underlined by the resolutions from edward snowden. >> so walmart has a recall of donkey meat because they're not sure what is in it. what would they be worried is in it in china? >> what did you mean you haven't had five spice donkey meat? >> no, i asked if we should go out for donkey burgers for lunch. >> and i have to read the story a few times to make sure the do thatky meat was wasn't the bit contaminated. it seems that it's a fine delicacy in china and the problem is the f

. >>> steve sedgwick is joining us now onset. steve, as we just pointed out there, now the real work begins, how confident can we be of this working and the iranians following through? and what are thement ply cases of that? >> i don't know. i'm not an expert on geopolitics in iran, but i do know about the ramifications for the oil market. this is the real key, because the iranians are very excited about obviously getting back into the export market in some fashion. they and the iraqis for a very long time have had this big battle about saying, we've got more reserves than you, no, we've got more than you. so 150 barrels underground is what they both say they've got. the early estimates are close to anywhere near true, this challenges the supremecy of the middle east and broader opec. so that will be interesting. and the iranians have been it in-picking and fighting against each other in meetings previously as well. i spoke at the last opec meeting in december to the iranian oil minister, and he was very excited about what the rem