unilever down 3.5%. the full year is in line but there's concerns the trend may be weakening for the global c consumer products group. deutsche bank had a fourth quarter loss. the investment bank going into a loss. 4.4% but even as tra ztrazeneca out. how have we fared in asia? >> we're looking pretty good for a thursday. take a look at the gains across the region. there seems to be optimism creeping into the markets about the global economy. a couple of things we had better than expected economic data from the u.s. better pmi from europe and asia. so that's spurring some risk taking here in the region. shanghai, it's all about the financials. we had a report that said a dividend payout will be cut easing the capacity constraints or capital constraints pushing this wall higher 2%. the financial firms also seeing the hang seng lift about 2% holding on to its key level, moving average over in japan earnings continue to be in focus. sonys had a new ceo announcing troubling results. how will the company turn

and it makes sense in the context of unilever, because a successful mrs. going to do $4 million in sales. so that's meaningless to unilever. it's a waste of their time. to us it's very meaningful. those are the kind of brands we pick out of big food companies when they put up for sale. they mean something to us. we get behind them. we launch new products. we pursue distribution and grow the brands where they were declining under the big companies. >> one of the things i like to do is read through the conference calls. >> yep. >> and the whole group of foods. the conference calls have become unruly almost. proctor's was a rebellion. but in your conference call, people are kind of scratching their heads. they're saying what the heck? why are you not having to raise price dramatically, and therefore, frankly, losing volumes like some of your competitors? >> well, we just don't have the commodity exposure that a lot of other people do. you know, we're not heavily into using things like wheat and corn and things like that. wheat is one of our biggest purchases.

selling us food that makes us thin as well and sometimes these these industries exist side by side unilever for example owns ice cream companies as well as weight loss brands but the fact is that the choices that we have are structured much more by the companies that make money off selling us calories and they're selling us the means to get rid of it than they are individual to do about our individual charts and speaking of choice there's a lot of times it's the poor people that apple last choice has talked about how often it's the poor that fall victim to the s.s. out well that's it i mean it seems paradoxical that in the united states where as i say i mean the majority of people are overweight and in the united states at the moment and people are often shocks to hear this about fifty million americans. go hungry that's a got me for forty nine million the most recent year were what's called food insecure that it's not surprising that hunger and. obesity and overweight are neighbors and the reason that we're the way it works is like this that if you are on food stamps on supplementary assis

unilever said that these ideas would provide a higher quality education for students >>the full forecastididideu're not my dad ahh!! hey honey, back feels better little dancing tonight, you and me? dr. scholl's pro inserts relieve different types of lower body pain by treating at the source so you're a whole new you. go pro with dr. scholl's. idououou're like my patients you want to hear you've done a good job. that's why i recommend a rinse like crest pro-health multi-protection. it helps you get a better dental check-up. so be ready for your next dental check-up. try any crest pro-health rinse. ou will soon come to a close. the warmer weather also signals that there are a limited amount of days left for ice skating at the rink at wrigley. will be open until sunday february 26th it will be located in the cubs parking lot at the corner of clark street and waveland avenue there is no question that the sunlight is 230% stronger more than twice as strong as it was december 21st at the beginning of winter the days are getting longer yet this is the look warmest winter we have had in 80 years with t

unilever down 4%.wasn't so much the numbers as the outlook for the global consumer products group. it was a difficult period ahead and the thought may be declining. sony down 4.7%. they had an annual loss of 1.2 billion. they're talking about an annual loss of $2.9 billion. everything has been thrown think company, structural problems, and when you look at supply change disruptions from tsunami, earthquakes and the like and howard stringer is stepping down in april as well. the ceo has been there for the last seven years. a quick look at bond options, spain got good auctions and saw 25% of the issuance for the year n. france $8 billion. and yeuro/dollar, premier wen speak to go angela merkel, suggested they would be interested in putting some money into the esm or the efs so the euro/dollar a spike up. we heard the talk before. whether it follows through is still a big question mark. back to you guys. >> all right, ross. we appreciate that. >> i still don't have an answer to punxsutawney phil. they cla

unilever was saying 2012 would be a difficult year. how does nestle compare against those particularly in the key area charlie was talking about in terms of price and valuation? >> in terms of price and valuation actually the balance of price and volume was actually very balanced at nestle this year. clearly priced for all the key food groups has played a significant role in the second half of the year. bear in mind that many of the price increases that had to be managed. the second half of the year, so we were expecting stronger growth numbers because of the contribution of pricing in the second half of the year. however, bear in mind that as is the case for the ceo of unilever just a couple of weeks ago the outlook for 2012 remains pretty robust for these companies which are expecting, you know, 5%, 6% -- in the range of 5% to 7% organic growth. interestingly both indicated only modest margin increases this year, guidance 10 to 20 basis points essentially because the company is dedicated on reinvesting as much as possible, i.e., inqu

but that is part of the multinational unilever. it has two old hippies fronting it but they say -- they are supporting the 99%. they are a part of it. there is a subsidiary of an anglo-dutch multinational. if there -- you would understand the point of it. i ordered a stove because i had just done an event with howard dean. we were very vermonty together. i thought that would be great. just the sort of thing. the very name has that small town green mountain folksiness where we would sit around a wood stove shooting the breeze about it came from ontario from sinister canadian corporations. the business -- the state -- i have yet to be a young person in vermont. my young daughters actually -- just started high school. my town doesn't have a high school. she goes to vermont. it is -- not that happy to say -- is a public school. what i find interesting is you talk to any young person in vermont they're all ambition is to work for nonprofit. what you going to do? i would like to work for a nonprofit. think of the kind of nonprofit -- com

unlike unilever and danone it expects margins on top of earnings. the big loser today, sector loser, spanish banks, spanish financials and you can see down here a lot of spanish banks, the weaker stocks out of the dow jones s it toxx 600, no longer applying today and so investors decided to make some money out of shorting spanish banks while they can. now this comes on top of the fact that we actually had another good auction today for spain. they raised just over the $4 billion they were wanting. bid to covers were good. yield on twof out of the three issues were lower. the key point is spain has now raised nearly 35% of their total planned issuance for the year and here we are second week through february. so they have raised a chunk of money. yields on the whole continue to be lower. spanish government debt steady at 5.51%. a good auction out of france today as well. solid demand. the ltro impact still being felt. french debt yields set steady. but what is noticeable those concerns about greece have once again lowered bund yields, more demand ris

ben and jerry's ice cream, but then and jerry's is part of the anglo dutch unilever, so they're saying we're the 99%. they a wholly owned subsidiary of an anglo dutch multiman. they're uniband or jerry leave leaver, you'd understand the point. i ordered a stove from vermont castings wood stoves because i thought -- i'd just done an event with howard dean and weed been very vermonty together, and i was thinking, getting a vermont cattings wood stove. the sort of thing -- has the whole -- the very name has the small-town green mountain folksiness where me and howard would sit around the wood stove shooting the breeze about -- imcame from ontario, the vermont castings wood stove. from a canadian corporation. none of vermont's boutique business are vermonty at all. i love the way that -- when you meet a young person in vermont. my daughter, bless her, is actually just started high school on the -- my town doesn't have a high school so she goes over the river to high school in vermont, and. >> host: -- high school. >> guest: it is, i'm happy to si -- well north that happy. it's a public sch