Unicredit reports its highest Fourth Quarter profit in a decade and rolls out its first Cash Dividend in half a decade. Shares in swiss re spike nearly 6 at the open addres ja softbank looks to invest in the insurer. Insurance is finally a very interesting industry its in a transformation its in a radical revolution the parameters that run the industry and constrained the industry for years no longer exist. And chinese imports surge in january and contributes to the yu yuans worst day in 2 1 2 years. One of the big stories, softbank in talks with swiss re about taking a stake in the company, that sent shares close to the top of the stoxx 600. The deal could be worth around 10 billion and would give the Japanese Firm a onethird stake in the reinsurer swiss re said the talks were at an early stage and theres no certainty any transaction will be agreed. Doesnt seem like investors are seeing it that way Zurich Insurance reported fullyear net profit ahead of expectations the figure came in at 3 billion, a decline of 6 , but still above forecast from reuters. Zurich also will raise its dividend they have dealt with losses from naturalcatastrophes but it confident it will deliver targets for this year and the next geoff joins us live from zurich. How confident are they about this year and next year . Its interesting. The insurance sector used to be boring you took the insurance, you forgot about it, the company clipped the coupon, took your payment, and everybody got on with their business. I think the message from mario greco is that the industry is getting more exciting. You cited that softbank story. Well have to see whether this is anything more than a strategic stake for softbank we also had Technological Developments with amazon teaming up with jpmorgan and berkshire to look at what they can do in the Health Insurance sector. So that would bring renewed technology and renewed focus on disruptors to the sector all of that is going on in the background, even as mario greco has taken the knife to the company and 700 million swiss francs into a 1. 5 billion cost cutting program. Hes making the business leaner, more capital efficient they bested the 100 level on the combined ratio on an underlying basis and they would have demonstrated strong underlying growth in these numbers but 2017 was a difficult year for hurricanes and other natural disasters. Lets listen to what mario greco had to say about the state of transformation in the industry insurance is finally a very interesting industry its in a transformation its in a radical revolution the parameters that ran the industry or constrained the industry for years no longer exists this calls for a completely different shape of the industry. Players will adapt and change or disappear. Were leading this were being innovative well continue we welcome this. This for us is a great opportunity. We look carefully at all this action, events as further opportunities for us to innovate, push further our relationship with the customers, and to gain new space an nd new services i got the sense theyre optimistic about 2018. Of course the one thing you can never bet on is what kind of natural disasters we may see through fullyear 2018 the 2017 triplet of harvey and maria and irma gives them an opportunity at a commercial level to raise prices to customers. Theyll take advantage of that if they get the additional premium and they have a much more stable year for 2018, a lot of that will go straight to the bottom line. Back to you. Geoff, thank you very much. At this point well bring in a guest via telephone, Marcus Rivaldi joins us we heard from mario greco he sees this sector undergoing radical transformation do you see it that way absolutely. M a is a scene were focused on within the insurance industry. Bottom line, its an industry facing a huge operational challenge, and there are businesses out there that need to be driving great efficiency in operations, cost savings where they can get it, and looking to reinvest in really reinvigorating the Business Models for the technological changes that we see. Equally from a sellers perspective, people trying to sell noncore assets so they can refocus businesses on to really what they want to focus on they want to raise resources to reinvest in operations of course financing is cheap and plentiful. So m a is a big theme for the insurance sector that leads us neatly on to softbank and swiss re. It looks like they have the first mover advantage in terms of really beefing up technological innovation and digitalization is the industry doing enough to future proof itself . That is a very, very tough question to answer i think theres a lot of businesses outside of traditional insurance looking at the space, thinking about how they can get involved and disrupt the space. Its not just swiss re if you look at xl group, it was up over 12 on speculation that allianz and others are looking at it again. What is going on is a huge confluence of different drivers coming together at the same time creating a spike in m a interest we heard from geoff talking about mario grecos transformation of zurich how do you rate that effort to streamline the business . Again, he also touched on 2017 being a tough year. What was interesting today was that the board was able to look through the noise coming out of the hurricane activity, look at the underlying improvement of the business and therefore feel comfortable to ratchet up the ordinary dividend buy to 18 swiss francs a share moving that dividend up sends a signal its not going down it only goes one way from here on top of that they talked about antidilution activity, removing di dilution from past share Employee Benefits and future compensation plans sending a strong signal about the prospects of zurichs earnings Going Forward and the Capital Position of the group. Combined ratio is the industrys preferred gauge i know a lot depends on Mother Nature and the extent of claims and payouts. For zurich, give us a sense of your outlook for 2018. Will that industry metric stay or fall below 100 . Again, uncertainties aside, i think clearly zurich has been focused on reunderwriting its business, shedding premium it feels is not profitable to get that combined ratio lower. Absolutely we should expect a combined ratio towards 95, 96 level over the next couple of years. Quick one before we let you go im based in singapore, i hear a lot about how underinsured the broader region is. Taking a different view aside from the big reininsurance, when you look at life insurance, is asia the place to be and are they moving aggressively enough . In europe when you look around and see growth is a challenge for most insurance companies, one stock that a lot of european investors turn to for growth is prudential theyre big in asia and the whole dynamic around asia growth, underinsurance, filling that protection gap, all of that is very much part of the prudential story for growth, names like prudential are top of investors minds. Great conversation. Thank you very much for joining us Marcus Rivaldi there Societe Generale posted an 82 plunge in quarterly net income Fourth Quarter profits suffered from tax related charges and Retail Banking restructuring costs, but the french bank exceeded expectations from analysts who were forecasting a loss for q4. Socgen says it is starting out 2018 with confidence in a financial environment that should be more favorable. And joumanna spoke to the deputy ceo of Societe Generale about the results and asked about the volatility we have seen in the global stock markets. Its fair to say in our market activities we continue to get market share this quarter. Our fixed income performance has been solid with specifically structural products demand, which were more positive in equity we have a significant demand in terms of products. If you compare with the rate of the market, its fair to say our performance is the average of the quarter. When i look at the equities performance, you said a pronounced rebound of 39 compared to the Fourth Quarter of 2017 in an environment with low volatility because structure product picked up whachlup what structure products . Could be return investors or institutional investors. In light of the Market Action the last couple of days, fair question i think to ask whether or not Societe Generale has also structured some products that involve selling volatility in etf format if you are thinking about the reverse volatility, were not involved in that type of product. Globally speaking, its a Market Correction which was an anticipated one. But it does not change in our view the positive outlook for the insurer in terms of market activity we are still positive for the environment. Do you think and expect volatility to pick up this year . We are low in terms of volatility last year, it was historically low if i speak about the vix indicator. We had a peak last monday, but its not a structural level. Do you think Societe Generale is able to take advantage of that if volatility picks up . The demand is related to the rate of olatility. That was the deputy ceo of Societe Generale talking to Joumanna Bercetche unicredit returned to profit as the italian bank posted 2017 net earnings of 3. 7 billion euros, excluding extra ord flair it items. The bank says this shows the turnaround plan is working commerzbank suffered a sharp decline in Fourth Quarter earnings but managed to beat analyst expectations Fourth Quarter net profit fell 51 as the cost of the lenders massive restructuring effort took its toll. The banks ceo says more work is needed to improve profitability but it plans to resume Dividend Payments this year if you wish to email us on any of these topics, streetsignseurope cnbc or follow us on twitter, streetsignscnbc. You can also tweet us directly coming up, more on the chinese trade surge and what that is doing to fx markets. Welcome back lets look at the european markets. Wall street lost momentum towards the close of play and asia was trading around sixweek lows translation is a bit of sluggishness for the stoxx 600 off by 0. 3 . It looks like the Global Markets are trying to adjust to the threat of higher inflation and also higher yields the flip side, the earnings and the underlying economic picture look sound for now lets look at the sectors in focus. Its a big day for the banks socgen disappointed and commerzbank also, q4 numbers were down. Nonetheless stocks are up. It it wasnt as bad as the market was expecting banks up by 0. 3 basic resources down by 1. 4 total out with their numbers as well lets look at the individual bourses. Theyre under water. The dax is the rank underperformer today up a by 0. 7 ftse 100 off by 0. 4, and similar losses for the ftse mib and the cac, off by 0. 3 or 15 points. Lets take it to asia. The yuan is on track for its worst day since the Chinese Central Bank devalued the currency back in the summer of 2015 it started sinking early in the session amid talk that policymakers will step in to soften gains the loss accelerated on the back of the latest chinese trade data chinese trade data smashed expectations with imports surging 37 in january compared to a reuters forecast of just under 10 . The spike in the figures has been attributed to stockpiling ahead of the new year. Coal imports rose to the highest level since january 2014 amid Colder Weather across the country. Chinese exports rose more than expected lets get analysis on these numbers and talk about china macro more broadly with Michael Metcalf from state street Global Markets. Good to see you. Theres always a lot of seasonal volatility with the numbers. When you styou strip these out, does it tell you the lunar year timing, Energy Imports boosted numbers. The underlying trend is very telling. You saw it in the german data as well global trade volumes are healthy. So the chinese export numbers were also stronger than expected all of this despite the protectionist back drop. Protectionism is probably a bigger risk than last year we were worried about it in 2017, but the data changed our minds. Thats where we got the strong Global Growth, rising tide, but the trade data is still putting that negotiation across. The surplus narrowed somewhat i guess the Trump Administration will be happy to see that development to a certain degree. Still its at a sizibility level when you consider the overall aggregate surpluses. Is this going to be a bug in terms of protectionist dynamics . The protection rhetoric is not going away its not due until the middle of the year, but well focus on the treasury currency manipulation report again they dont have a leg to stand on given that the yuan is closer to 6 than it is 7 completely. The reality today is no country meets that criteria. As this data shows, the trade surplus is narrowing but i do think, particularly your point at the start is how much oyuan strength will be tolerated. If the dollar is generally weakening, there is a question about how firmly Asian Countries will lean against dollar weakness because of this fear of protectionism. Thats the theme can we talk about sterling and the bank of england today. What do you expect from sterling and walk me through that expectation an why you got that. I worry a bit that the Interest Rate market and currency markets are priced in quite a lot today. So the bar is quite high in terms of where market rate expectations currently are the bank of england needs to justify that to keep sterling where it is. I think one thing were concerned about in sterling right now, is that the valuation premium is gone. You might say the renminbi is overvalued before, certainly this time last rear you could argue that sterling was more than 10 undervalued that is now completely disappearing so the concerns about brexit uncertainty are no longer impacting and weighing on sterling in terms of valuation, precisely. Before it was easy to make the case that there was a discount priced into sterling because of brexit today its harder to do that the reason why that valuation gap is closed because we expect at least two or three hikes from the bank of england. Thats what the market is discounting. The bank of england said that this is the beginning of a tightening cycle they also said its gradual. Theres a back and forth between the market one more question about currencies and central banks. Given powells likely continuation of Janet Yellens policies at the fed, do you expect policy changes elsewhere that will weigh more heavily on currencies usually currency markets are driven by the yale differential. Today that correlation is at a threeyear low and instead currencies are driven by the curve slope. Its about changes in policy coming we sort of know the fed will go three, four times this year, thats baked in but the market price has done nothing with the ecb for almost three years its about the promise of policy elsewhere, not what fed is doing now. Volatility is back in Global Markets. To me this is the initial throes of Global Markets adjusting to an inflation overshoot and higher yields, de facto tightening theres more pain to come surely well, theres a correction in volatility volatility was too low we have overshot the other side now in equities. Interestingly not in fx. Fx markets have been calm in comparison inflation, im not quite sure where that is. January Inflation Numbers will probably show a fall in the annual inflation rate. We look at inflation closely through online data. It shows that inflation is robust, but not runaway yet. But the pulse is quickening not only do you have within the u. S. Context the tax cuts, oil moving to a higher priced bracket. Coiled spring of tighter labor market near full employment in the u. S. And on top of that the weaker dollar. Surely at some point in cycle this year absolutely. I think just as volatility was too low, we had a correction, Inflation Expectations at the start of the year were too low, and now we need to see the data justify the rise in expectations michael, thank you very much for that we were just talking about inflation. Heres one potentially big driver thats the price of oil. Were seeing a bit of giveback for brent crude. 65. 48 is where were standing. U. S. Futures, wti, 61. 69 total is boosting its dividend and planning a Share Buyback net adjusted profit rose 68 last year. Totals ceo says the strong results were helped by a 5 increase in production growth. The firm plans a Dividend Increase of 10 over the next three years. Publicis will revise its 2018 profit target its underlying sales grew 0. 8 in 2017 to 9. 69 billion euros. Very separately, Pernod Ricard beat forecasts for first half organic profits. Group sales reached 5. 1 billion euros, ahead of analysts forecast stronger demand from china and india helped drive the Spirits Company as did the travel retail at 11 00, well be joined by Gilles Bogaert stay with us for that interview. Coming up, could another rate hike be on the way from bank of england . Well look ahead to the key issues facing the mpc after this break. Some air fresheners are so overwhelming, they can. Send you and your family running. Introducing febreze one for fabric and air. No aerosols. No dyes. No heavy perfumes. It cleans away odors for a pure light freshness. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one, breathe happy. Welcome back to street signs. Im sri jegarajah. Im willem marx here with your headlines shares move up as invests shake off investment declines at socgen and commerzbank the french lender deputy ceo says he is watching Monetary Policy very closely. The real fear of the market is related to inflation rates. This inflation can come back and generate an unanticipated exit from the quantitative easing of some banks unicredit reports its highest Fourth Quarter profit in a decade and rolls out its first Cash Dividend in half a decade. Shares in swiss re spike nearly 6 at the open as japans softbank looks at a stake in the reinsurer. Insurance is finally a very interesting industry its in a transformation its in a radical revolution the parameters that run the industry and constrained the industry for years no longer exist. And chinese imports surge in january outpacing expectations chinas narrowing trade surplus contributes to the yuans worst day in 2 1 2 years welcome back lets look at the european markets. Its a weaker picture. We are inheriting a wall street that stumbled towards the close, lost momentum and an Asian Session trading near sixweek lows the overhang is still the same the market coming to terms with a higher rates environment, driven by the u. S. And expectations of inflation and the risk of higher cost of money. And also the earnings picture, which seems to be fairly sound relatively speaking and that coming against a fairly underlying economic back drop. There are some concerns that Global Growth may be peaking this may be as good as we get. So lets look at the forex markets. Amid all volatility, its been an innocent bystander. We have seen some safety flows into the swiss franc and the yen. The dollar making a comeback today. Over the course of year as well. Knocking on the door of dollar yen 110 governor kuroda saying it will take some time before they unwind off the massive stimulus program. That is feeding into the dollar yen story on the down side for the japanese yen. Cable, the bank of england, 1. 3855 is where we are standing. Dollar swiss, 94. 63. Lets look at the u. S. Futures a little bit of shakiness towards the open, thats what the futures are telling us the dow expected to drop by 70 points no disasters there s p 500 expected to open down. The implied open down by 7. 5 points the nasdaq off by 5 points i hasten to add that the futures underestimated the decpth of the declines in the volatility we are seeing play out in the Global Markets we had a visit from an american on this side of the pond, Robert Kaplan is in frankfurt talking this morning some things hes saying are getting a bit of attention the nonvoting member of the fed policy committee saying that he expects unemployment in the u. S. To dip below 4 . He said there will be stress in the labor market as a consequence and 2018 will be a strong year for the u. S. His forecast saying gdp between 2. 5, and 2. 75 he says they are near full employment they expect that to dip below 4 this year. Hes seeing Slower Growth in 2019 and 2020. He says he Still Believes accommodation should be removed patiently and gradually and that any flattening of the yield curve does not worry him thats Robert Kaplan talking in frankfurt this morning, which segways nicely to a discussion of the bank of England Monetary Committee which willdeliver a decision on Interest Rates today with forecasters expecting no changes. Joumanna bercetche joins us from outside the bank of england this morning. We heard about a flattening of the yield curve what do you expect today from this ninemember committee . So today, as you know, the big fireworks happened back in november they hiked the first time in a decade, so nobody is expecting a hike to come out of today. A couple things to watch out for, the split on the committee. Theres expectation that you may see two dissenters, Michael Sanders calling for a hike at the meeting and that would send a hawkish expectation into the market it is priced at 60 probability of a rate hike that seems high. Well have to see if the language justifies some of that hawkishness. And november priced for about 80 . Just looking back where we are today versus back in ovember, the market had two hikes priced in over three years, now were looking at three hikes priced in the question is whether or not theyll give a signal as to whether or not that is justified. Where the signals will come from will be in their inflation forecast as a reminder, back in november their 2020 inflation forecast was 2. 1 thats close to the 2 target. And that may change a bit. On one hand you have very strong commodity backdrop oil rebounded 10 since the last meeting. That could cause an uptick in Inflation Expectations but longer term the cable moving back up to 1. 40 could put pressure on Inflation Expectations and as i mentioned at the beginning, rate expectations are higher the twoyear yield is 40 basis points higher than where it was, which means it could drag on that Inflation Expectation if they come out with an Inflation Expectation of 2 or even sub 2 that would be dovish relative to a market that is expecting a 60 probable of a hike if youre wondering what to do with your lunch break today, Joumanna Bercetche and i will be bringing you the bank of england decision from 12 50 Central European time. Thomas cook shares are sharply lower as traders have doubts about the British Travel company. The firm says it is on track to meet forecasts for the current fiscal year and that there are worries about margin pressure. Net profit at ab b fell 4 restructuring charges impacted the figures. The Engineering Group says it has a positive forecast for growth as markets improve. Lets get back to geoff in zurich let me start with what was said about refocusing the business on high Growth Markets and cutting costs. Theyre still struggling to increase sales whats going wrong the issue is that, one, this is a business going through a restructuring program. Two, the order book looked lumpy in the past because the business relied heavily on very large keynote contacts one of the messages that the company is delivering this morning is theyre more focused on winning higher quality, higher margin, but lower sized business they think thats one way of smoothing the business through the cycles but also making the business more robust so its those under 15 million contracts that they have been focusing on getting over the line so i think Fourth Quarter, yes, it will have looked less exciting because the comparative period for 2016 showed a large indian deal this is not in the business for the Fourth Quarter this time around but of course they are arguing these are better quality earnings because of the size or scope of smaller deals that have been done. Its clear the market is still not satisfied. I think one issue Going Forward, okay, you have done the restructuring, now how are you going to return the money back to shareholders when you can deliver on a higher order book and better operating margins that was a question i put to them you suspended the 3 billion Share BuybackProgram Last Year to do the ge deal, when is that going to be reinstituted lets listen to what he had to say. We did three large scale transactions, we closed transaction in the spring and summer and it was a game changer. It was a tan fafantastic opport to save on the key transaction that helps us on the communication side of the digital trade. Ge Industrial Solutions is signed but not yet closed. It will be closed during the first half of the year if you look at Capital Allocation priorities, its varied organic growth, and we continue to do that number two, the dividend and we have committed to a steady raising dividend and this is the ninth year that we will fulfill our promise to shareholders and have another dividend raise, which is a key element of our Value Proposition to shareholders. The other priorities are m a, and returning additional capital. We made a conscious choice of putting the Share Buyback oncome transaction. Our cash flow is very good its at the same high level address 2016, and when the Balance Sheet is strengthened and the cash comes in after the dividend is paid, we will look at ail tulternatives to return. So i think the argument is this is a leaner and more focused business, and in exciting areas where we see growth smart grids, solar technology, sun to plug as they like to call it they invested quite heavily in the expectation that we will see more Companies Embracing this technology Going Forward and of course robotics. Whenever you get into a conversation with abb, you have to talk a bit about Industrial Robotics and the potential for sales into asia and the United States it is clear that they have the potential to be a disruptor in this space the question is and one that investors will be looking to answer is can you deliver through full year 2018 back to you guys Geoff Cutmore for us. A true more details between the cdu and the spd parties in germany which was announced yesterday. The spd will get the foreign, finance and labour ministries. Martin schulz has been offered the role of foreign minister and will step down as party leader spd members now have to ratify that deal. Speaking after the coalition was announced, Angela Merkel said the deal contained the foundations for a good and stable government. Translator the people had two justified demands for us firstly, do finally form a government and a stable government secondly, during the negotiations, do consider intere people im sure the Coalition Contract is that, the foundation of a good and stable government and which by the way many in the world expect from us. There were some casualties for the spd. Martin schulz has announced he will step down as leader of the party. Its expected that nahles will be elected leader at a Party Congress nahles said the fight pictuuturp was a key focus of the talks translator it was important for us to achieve a policy shift in one particular area, that was the policy towards europe. And i want to be clear, this was one of the show pieces of the Coalition Treaty remember, its all about you, the viewer. Do email us get engaged. The address is streetsignseurope cnbc. Com you can also tweet us and follow us on twitter, streetsignscnbc. You can tweet us directly. Moving swiftly on, we have more to come on the show after sending falcon heavy into space, elon musk was back at his other job as tesla earnings came out did production targets give cheer to investors well find out we have a short amount of time to get our patient to the hospital with good results. We call that the golden hour. Evaluating patients remotely is where i think we have a potential to make a difference. barry murrey we would save a lot of lives if we could bring the doctor to the patient. Verizon is racing to build the first and most powerful 5g network that will enable things like precision robotic surgery from thousands of miles away. As we get faster wireless connections, itll be possible to be able to operate on a patient in a way that was just not possible before. When i move my hand, the robot on the other side will mimic the movement, with almost no delay. Who knew a scalpel could work thousands of miles away . Yourbut as you get older,thing. It naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back to street signs. Political tensions in the middle east generate caution on the potential for growth in the region today Vladimir Putin and the turkish leader agree ed d to coe ties lets get over to hadley gamble who is at the Milkin Institute in abu dhabi we have talked many times about the geopolitical overlay in the region, it comes down to the proxy wars fought between saudi and iran what sense are you getting about how turbulent the picture will get this year . Its interesting to note when you talk to people outside the region and people inside the region its a different narrative. Theres no doubt the geopolitical head winds have an impact on whether Foreign Investors want to get involved i asked about how geopolitical tensions impact i investments on the ground as one told me, bombs here, bombs there, this is egypt i think he was trying to say people are used to working in these tough political environments and they just get on with it if you look at a country like ours, the wealth was taken and spent in the country you can see schools. You can see infrastructure you can see just better quality of life for people im sure other countries are doing the same so my take on this is that we as human beings were just ignorant were influenced by the media. Some of us travel more than others i still discover in certain parts of saudi arabia and egypt. Ignorance is a fact and the media contributes to it, but the margins, opportunity and growth in the middle east for the last 20 years, even if you make a mistake, its so much worth it now, of course if im doing business in the uae, its comfortable, its safe if i have to go to cairo, i have to know the government,cy ci he to know the mayor of cairo and alexandria, but thats what we do thats what we pay for thats what we have to do to move our business forward. So the scene is positive i think what the middle east is going through unfortunately is not new. We are the middle east we have been living in the middle east. We are very popular on cnn and cnbc and bbc but the truth is that opportunities exist. We have people who have to go to school, shop, find jobs, open factories, new technology, tourism, you name it so therefore i think thats contributing to the Overall Economic growth. Thats the chairman of emaar properties, saying this is a region with a lot of influence and opportunities, in spite of those geopolitical headwinds which are there. This is a man who is involved in the retail sector, hospitality, he has malls, and now in ecommerce as well so he is basically saying get in, this is the time to invest hadley, thank you very much for that u. S. Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on a budget deal. The bipart sacisan compromise wl raise federal spending over the m next two years if approved by the republican controlled congress, the agreement would fend off a Government Shutdown ahead of a deadline tonight and extend the debt ceiling through march 2019. After last months threeday shutdown, Many Senate Democrats were willing to strike a deal separately from the debate over immigration. 21st century fox powered past quarterly profit and revenue expectations thanks to a boost in fees it collects from cable and satellite distributors fox previously announced it would focus on the sports offering after sealing the rights to air nfl matches. The media giant is in the process of selling its film and media assets to disney tesla shares closed over 3 higher after its biggest ever quarterly loss was not quite as big as analysts had expected they maintained the model three production targets, those asserted by elon musk not long ago, followed by two previous delays phil lebeau has taken a closer look at the companys report card reporter shares of tesla moving higher following Fourth QuarterEarnings Report where the Company Reported a narrower than expected loss the company losing 3. 04 a share, 8 cents better than expectations revenue coming in better than expected its the model 3 guidance, thats the reason tesla is breathing a sigh of relief the company reaffirming its guidance that it expects to build 2500 model 3s per week by the end of the First Quarter and 5,000 per week by the end of the Second Quarter with regard to the model s and the model x, their sales are expected to be flat compared to last year as the company focuses on ramping up model 3 productions and making factories more efficient on the conference call, elon musk said he is cautiously optimistic that tesla will be gaap profitable in 2018. Phil lebeau, cnbc business news, chicago. South koreas president moon jaein will meet a highlevel delegation from north korea on saturday the delegation to the Winter Olympics will include kim jonguns sister just to show you how important it is for the government in the north. U. S. Vice president mike pence has already arrived in south korea ahead of the games now, south koreas economy is heavily tilted to tech and homes to Companies Like lg, hyundai. There are many tech no invasiin on show at winter games. Go to cnn. Com to get a full list of the new technology in the spotlight as the Winter Olympics get under way in pyeongchang a few hours ahead of the trading open in the u. S. , it looks like a soft open. The dow jones looking right now to open down more than 81 the nasdaq down around 8, 7 points s p 500 also with a soft open, down by 7. 5 points for our european viewers, stick around for the interview with Gilles Bogaert that will start at 11 00 after this short break for or u. Ur u. S. Viewers, thatt for our show Worldwide Exchange coming up next. So youre looking for male customers, ages 2554, who live within five miles of your business . Like these two. And that guy. Or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness. Namaste. Whichever audience youre looking for, well find them were the finders. We work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. Anywhere, any way your audience watches. Consider them found. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. The dow futures pointing to another lower open following yesterdays roller coaster ride on wall street a top strategists take straight ahead. Oil falling to a onemonth low as us sto. S. Stockpiles gro. Despite a handshake deal in the senate, congress has to pass a spending bill by midnight tonight to keep the lights on. Were live in washington, d. C. With the latest. Its thursday, february 8, 2018, Worldwide Exchange begins now