Violence in charlottesville in an erratic News Conference prompting more criticism and departures by key Business Leaders. I think theres blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it you dont have any doubt about it either. Only and if you reported it accurately, you would say it good morning its wednesday welcome to another episode of street signs. Want to kick things off with comments coming from the ecb saying that the ecbs president mario draghi will not deliver fresh policy messages at the jackson hole symposium which usually takes place the end of august in wyoming, in the u. S. He wants to hold off on that debate until the autumn. Thats according to sources familiar with the discussion once again, reuters reporting this morning that the ecb president , mario draghi, will not deliver a fresh policy steer at jackson hole. We know jackson hole is usually known forbig policy announcements, whether it comes from the fed or the ecb. A lot of people were expecting for fresh commentary on tapering, on winding down the ecbs Balance Sheet at that conference lets look at how the euro dollar is reacting. On the session it is sliding down by 0. 1 changing hands at 1. 1717 this is a big drop on the back of tho reportof this reuters ret lets get some insight from jeffrey sachs. Did you think we would get huge signals from mario draghi and the ecb in jackson hole . We thought it was possible. Even if we dont, we will have an ecb meeting, at that meeting mario draghi will indicate further tapering the qe program will end a year from now, the first rate increase is a year after that. Even as they taper t will ab gradual progress we look at the chart, we had Short Covering to 1 stnt. 12, ad since then buying. The prospect of tapering has spooked equity markets quite a bit since that famous speech the ecb tried to play down those expectations of imminent tapering and trying to taper the language thats what theyre doing once again today by relaying to tohoe sources that there will not be fireworks at the jackson hole symposium. It seems that the market is not buying the message from the ecb. The ecb is treading a fine line if were too hawkish we get a situation where bonds sell off if they taper four far longer than expected, that will imply weaker growth. At the moment we think equities still look cheap even as the likelihood of tapering increases. Bonds look very expensive across europe well continue that discussion in a bit want to show viewers whats happening with the european markets. Were back to fum trall trades. Yesterday was a holiday for some markets. The stoxx 600 is up 2. 61 were seeing that miners and oil and gas are leading the charge before we come to the sectors, heres a quick look at the european markets one by one. The ftse 100 up by 0. 75 the xetra dax is up by 0. 9 . The cac 40 seeing similar gains of 0. 9 . We have been higher for three days in a row now after that sharp sell that we witnessed last week on the back of the north Korea Tensions lets come back to the sectors as i said, basic resources doing well along with some other cyclic cyclicals. Telecoms, insurance, utilities the relative underperformers but still in the green more Business Leaders are quitting President Trumps Manufacturing Council following the firestorm over his response to the clashes in charlottesville. Aflcio president Richard Trumka and his deputy resigned saying the president tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism scott paul also left the council. President trump attacked them on twitter saying for every ceo that drops out i have many to take their place walmarts chief executive duck mcmillan is joining the critics of President Trump in a memo he said the president missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together. But mcmillan plans to stay on the strategic and policy forum lets get back to jeffrey sachs. I know youre not a political commentator, but we have to talk about the impact on the u. S. Equity markets theres a lot of uncertainty about policy and a lot of distraction about what the president of the United States was wanting to do for the u. S. Economy. Does that make you a lot less constructive about where u. S. Equities are headed . No, it doesnt. We expect that the u. S. Growth outlook will be reasonably resilient in the year ahead at about 2 if we get tax cuts towards the end of the year or early next year, that will give further impetus to u. S. Growth that will be reflected in earnings, the recent earnings season that been a good one for the u. S. We think its late cycle, you need to be more selective but theres upside in the market you see that nonu. S. Techities witechit equity also outperform equities over time. Will this happen if you see upside potential for u. S. Stocks we had multiyear underperformance of markets, and we expect multiyear outperformance now the pe multiple discount to the u. S. Is 30 . The underperformance is substantial over the last five years. Were starting to see a turn its the early stage of that process. Inflows into european equities have picked up after nine years of significant outflows. We think that trend will continue where are the inflows coming from from the fairly fickle Retail Investor or the Institutional Investor who is finally coming on board they take longer to make that big tactical change. Its partly institutions. They look at european equities year to date up 18 in dollar terms. Thats only up 6 in local currencies so theres a big euro incentive to add to european equities. Secondly, we have fixed income investors incentivized by european equities. The gap between european dividend deals and fixed income is historically wide at around 3 we also got flows from fixed income investors finally the dividend deals in european equities are high, 3. 5 unusually so for a late cycle period thats encouraging dividend yield investors. Lets talk about some markets you do like in particular. One stood out to me, that was germany. If the cyclical recovery continues, that is a sure bet. Why not. That said, we have the euro strength, which could be a bit of uncertainty are you not worried about where the euro is headed, if were going down the path of tapering . No, we think the quality of European Companies is high a lot of them are value added producers. The havent result season has been strong. We had 85 of European Companies reporting. 60 beat the consensus for net profits. In germany that was particularly so so we think that the multiples have scope to expand further the earnings forecast for europe as a whole is mid teens, which is very reasonable can i take you back to germany . You say thats one of your overweights. I know were a month or so away from the German Federal elections, probably not a whole lot will change. Angela merkel will probably be the next chancellor of germany again. Its not quite going to be the macron moment that we saw for france why do you think there will be further upside for german stocks firstly, with the macron moment we had a discounting of a possible populist victory in france we dont have that in germany. Were not coming off a low what we do have in germany is strong Economic Data the recent ifo indicator, which measures sentiment amongst the manufacturers is the highest its been since it started in 1991 other measures like retail sales, car production, looking strong so the fundamentals of germany look strong. We think theyll look strong through the german election and into next year we spent a lot of time talking about equities what about bond space a lot of guests we have on the show tell me steer clear of bonds at this point. Maybe you want to go into other parts of the bond markets. Certainly not governments. Would you agree with that view yes we are underweight bonds globally, and within europe particularly underweight in sovereign bonds. More constructive in corporate bonds. We prefer high yield over Investment Grade even high yield has not performed that well. We have seen inflows, but the spread between high yelled aield Investment Grade is not that compelling the spread has fallen from 300 basis points to 100. You need to be more selective, but its a benign upcycsigupcyc. Theres still opportunities, and the gain is respectable, and youre getting reasonable coupons if you are selective within high yield. Within the sovereign space, we have an unusual situation. 40 of solvers in europe are negative yielding. Not giving us great value. What is the biggest risk to markets now . Is it tapering the pace of tightening is it something that donald trump says is it china . What keeps you up at night what are your clients concerned about . Earnings is the key risk. Markets at the moment are not cheap. So they need earnings to come through in order to justify the multiples. Were confident they will over the next 12 months all right jeffrey, thank you very much for that you seem optimistic. In other equities news, akzo nobel has reached an agreement with Elliott Advisers in a deal which sees the activist investor end Legal Proceedings against the dutch paintmaker for three months elliott says it will support the nomination of the new ceo, Thierry Vanlancker and two other board members. The two companies have endured a pretty hostile relationship since akzo nobel rejected a takeover bid ppg earlier this year elliott has raised its stake in bhp billiton this allows Ken Mackenzie to take constructive steps for bhp and owners elliott called bhp to exit the shale business and end all parts of its petroleum business. Get in touch with us on twitter, streetsignseurope cnbc. Tweet me directly, carolincnbc. Do send us your thoughts on anything you see on the show and maybe about this coming up on the show, after a short break, runway wars air berlin filed for bankruptcy sparking a Battle Royale for assets well examine who is eyeing what after the short break. And i got robbed. Thats why i started lendingtree the only place you can compare up to 5 real offers side by side, for free. Its like shopping for hotels online, but our average customer can save twenty thousand dollars. At lendingtree, you know youre getting the best deal. So take the power back and come to lendingtree. Com, because at lendingtree when banks compete, you win. Fixodent plus adhesives. Theres a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening. Just one application gives you superior hold even at the end of the day fixodent. Strong more like natural teeth. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost, so all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Welcome back shares of fiat are trading up on speculation that a Chinese Company is considering buying the italianamerican carmaker. A report on the potential deal first appeared earlier this week on the u. S. Based website automotive news. Fiat declined to comment on the report fiat has joined bmw to join selfdriving car technology. The Group Includes intel and continental and delphi it aims to proviews fuduce fully Automated Vehicles by 20 it 1. T 2021. The uk is setting out a plan to avoid a hard border with ireland. There are concerns of inflaming regional tensions. Social democrat leader Martin Shultz has attacked chancellor Angela Merkel for what he calls her zig zag policy on diesel vehicles he says that creates uncertainty which is problematic for drivers and auto workers she recently came out in support of banning diesel cars separately Wolfgang Schauble says the Auto Industry made Serious Police takes and needs stronger regulation but offered no detail. The Campaign Mode by both parties is in full swing now the battle to acquire air berlins assets is underway following a bankruptcy filin yesterday. Lufthansa says it is in talks to buy parts of the Airline Easyjet is also reportedly in talks. Ryanair is heading back to a potential lufthansa deal arguing that a takeover would break competition rules. A quick look at how the airlines are faring lufthansa continuing yesterdays strong gains up by 1. 5 . Yesterday it added on 4. 7 air berlin just a penny stock down, trading at 45 cents. Easyjet and ryanair, even though theres uncertainty about what sort of assets they would snap up, they are trading higher to the tune of 2 to 2. 5 as i said, air berlin stock continues to head lower in the session following from yesterdays sharp losses the main rivals are trading in the green and hopes that air ber l air berlin will cut capacity in the skies. Stephen furlong joins us now who ultimately will be the bigger winner . Is it clear to say it will definitely be lufthansa . Good morning. For sure the biggest beneficiary of air berlins demise is lufthansa if your biggest competitor in your domestic market is going into administration, and youre going to be involved in the solution, and the terms and conditions, favorable. I know the cfo at the havent results was talking about the fact that air berlin had too high costs, too high debt, also potentially cartel issues. I think what happened is the solutions have been found to all those three things, and theyre going to benefit and probably buy the bulk of the assets of air berlin maybe their strategy of waiting for years and years and just criticizing from the sidelines was a very smart move in the longer term talking about lufthansa here it seems like now they wont have to buy the whole company, they can cherry pick and buy the best bits without the double and some loss making issues. No yeah. I mean, i think the minority investor in air berlin are clearly cutting their losses and they are likely to almost jump horse to lufthansa in terms of, i guess, deepening relationships there. It certainly is good for lufthansa. Overall it should be good for the sector in that it helps sentiment in the sector, maybe stocks are rerating a bit on the view there may be a bit more consolidation in europe, which, of course there was in the u. S. Over the last number of years. Anything where theres a bit less capacity in the market is helpful. A lot less capacity is something that we can do with in the European Space thats been putting pressure on prices, rates and overall. You know, obviously italia air, air italia is in administration. It ceases to exist now we have air berlin do you think this is the end of it are the troubled children gone now . Well, theres no, lets say, immediate obvious other candidate. But i think well probably end up with more m a in the sector over the next couple of years. You know, iag under Willie Wallace have been inquisitive over the last number of years. They did the deal where b. A. Merged with bmi. Its kind of similar here, lufthansa and air berlin they bought air liner lingus rey theres other government owned airlines, expanding a lot is norwegian. I think there will be, over time, more consolidation because were not at the level of the u. S in the u. S. Theres four airlines controlling over 80 of the market in europe we have the Top Five Airlines only got about 50 of the market so its much more fragmented than in the u. S. Yet, as you said before, there are always going to be antitrust issues ryanair hit out at that yesterday, informing the Eu Commission of what they call obvious conspiracies, saying that the lufthansa takeover would breach the Competition Laws do you think theres any merit in that . Do you think the Eu Commission who said theyre looking at this will investigate this further and will find something . Well, whether theres merit or not, i dont think they will find something i do think that ultimately this deal will happen because you have a situation where otherwise air berlin will run out of the government loan very quickly the 150 million. So there needs to be a deal happening. And this is in effect a bankrupt airline. I think the reality is that its likely to happen there may be merit in it but i think buying the assets rather than the company, and theres a couple airlines involved, possibly easyjet i think what will happen is that airline berlin have strong market shares in the german domestic market. Youll have lufthansa and air berlin combining maybe a bit less combined traffic. That opens up all the airports in germany who will ultimately want traffic from the likes of ryanair and easyjet. You will see longer term those carriers entering the German Market nearterm good news for lufthansa and overall good news for the sector clearly air berlin what youre seeing is failed companies failing, and stronger airlines prospering. Okay. All right. Thank you so much for that i guess lufthansa only getting stronger, up 1. 5 in todays trading session. Stephen furlong from davy research. Carlsberg has reported better than expected Profit Growth in the first half they saw special profits rise 20 but revenues missed expectations carlsberg maintained the 2017 outlook as the company benefited from growing growth in asia. Maersk said a cyberattack which struck the Company Earlier this year will negatively impact Third Quarter results by up to 3 300 million the danish shipper posted a net loss where analysts expected a net profit revenues came in close to expectations well go for a quick break still coming up on the show, well bring you the latest unemployment figures from the uk also along weith that wage numbers. The big question is will those rise find out after a short break your brain is an amazing thing. But as you get older, 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. Im carolin roth these are your headlines bhp billiton outperforms at Elliott Management raises its stake in the miner to 5 maersk warns the recent cyberattack will hit its earnings as the group posts a surprise net loss in the Second Quarter despite a return to black in its main shipping line. U. S. President Trump Doubles down on accusing all sides for violence in charlottesville in an erratic News Conference prompting more criticism and departures by key Business Leaders. I think theres blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it you dont have any doubt about it either. Only and if you reported it accurately, you would say it all right. Good morning if youre just tuning in, just waiting for data out of the uk in the form of the labor data. Whats key once again is the wage data. Were looking for a print of 1. 8 including bonuses. Lets have a look through the numbers as they come through the jobless rate falling to 4. 4 , the lowest since 1975. The expectation was for a print of 4. 5 . This shouldnt be too much of a surprise lets have a look at the average weekly earnings. Up 2. 1 yearonyear in the three months to june this is much better than the poll number 1. 8. In june we saw a rise of 2. 8 . When we look at the threemonth to june average earnings, 2. 1 the three months, to may average earnings unchanged at 2 exbonuses up 2. 1 . We are seeing that the wage data a little bit of a mixed bag. Lets look at the reaction in steriles 128. 93, up by 0. 2 quite a spike on the fact that wages are rising thats a goalie lock gold by gos scenario a quick look at the equity markets, the ftse 100 is reducing gains ever so slightly. We are seeing a spike in the pound centering. Cac 40 is up a strong gain for European Equity markets for a third day in a row in the fx markets, the big story today is that the ecb is saying we will not get major news coming from the symposium in jackson hole, putting a lot of pressure on the euro dollar, down by 0. 2 thats putting a lid on european yields u. S. Futures look like this. There we go. Weve got them looking quite positive the dow jones up by 78 points. S p 500 seen up by 5 or 6 points lets continue to this weeks theme, rise of the robots. Taking a deep dive into the breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence that could drive the future of Global Economy lets turn to robotics where investigations like umi can perform a number of functions done by human. We are joined by sami attya. How smart are your robots nowadays well, hello thanks for this opportunity to talk about robots and the exciting Artificial Intelligence robots are becoming smarter over time and they are doing tasks that we didnt imagine them doing years ago. I dont know if you know the history, but 1974 the first controlled robot was built by us, abb. Last year we introduced the umi, which stands for you andme it is a Collaborative Robot that you can place in a manufacturing setting, side by side with humans so he that is really, you know, enabling absolutely new ways of production exciting areas for us. Automation has been in place for many decades i guess that concept as a whole is not entirely new. The new aspect is now ai, Artificial Intelligence. How are you working this into to the Robotics Division . Ai is an Important Pillar of our development. And in our case we narrow it down to what we call Machine Learning and there we give the robots the capability to not be programmed, but be have the ability to learn. And when we say learn, its like us humans. As children theres something called supervised learning you show the robot or camera pictures of a cat. After 1,000 cat pictures, actually the robot recognizes a new picture of a cat it didnt see before that gives us options in unstructured environments where robots used to have to be taught what to do, now hes taught to learn, that i can pick an object after seeing 100 or 200 of them. The other area, which is interesting, is how we as humans learn, unsupervised. Thats basically by acting and rewarding, which is trial and error as children. Thats also a fascinating area so we let the robot perform tasks. If he does it well, theres a reward function. He gets better over time that will enable in the future, for example, a robot that is in singapore performing a specific task learns something new, that could send this information back to milwaukee and there the robot could recognize the same type of object after learning it in singapore. Fascinating areas, and increasing options for the deployment of robots it does sound exciting. I have to admit that on the other hand, i will bring up the argument that we usually talk about, how many job losses will that lead over the longer term we hear scary figures of millions of jobs being lost to the rise of ai and robots. As a result, should robots be taxed . I personally believe that robots will create even more jobs and if we would just look at the facts at hand, we use a term called robot density, which is the number of robots in a country per 10,000 employees if you look at the average worldwide is about 69 robots for 10,000 employees in the countries, germany, south korea, and japan, they have about 300 in per 10,000. These countries enjoy the lowest up employment rates. If you look at the automotive indust industry, about 80,000 new industrial robots were installed. At the same time 230,000 more employment in that same sector happened so Artificial Intelligence robots are for us, tools we need to learn to work with them they will increase the quality of life, but they are not a means of their own were positive about the development of robots. Sami, thank you very much for that fascinating discussion sami atiya president of robotics at abb. From robotics to how Artificial Intelligence can be used in the Financial Industries far from replacing jobs, my next guest thinks Ai Technology can compliment the skills of traders to give them a competitive advantage. Why do you think that robots at some street wouldnt take the job of a Portfolio Manager if the robot does a better job and gets better returns . Thats a good question. The answer is that today the complex tasks that we talk about in trading and Portfolio Management are still tasks that rely extensively on years of expertise and robots today continue to rely on imperial experience today we do not have the granularity or the frequency of these large data sets going back far enough for robots, or Artificial Intelligence ail algorithms to learn from hes experiences. The events of last week. We saw for the First Time Since the Reagan Administration free talk of a Nuclear Exchange frankly speaking, the last time this happened there wasnt data capture methodology that presented imperial history that wo robots could learn from so thats a great exam where robots cannot handle these shocks to the market place on the other hand you could argue that robots or an ai machine sitting behind the trading desk or being implemented in the trading desk is much smarter than a loomen but theres not going to be a human error . Not a fat finger trade, there wont be tiredness there wont ab kneejerk reaction to everything if we assume the robot is completely rational. Would you agree with that . I agree what youre describing is an example of narrow intelligence. Where we are operating with very well designed guardrails this is what were seeing happen in the marketplace today, there have been adoption of techniques and on the trade floor its been to help traders, human traders access multiple sources of liquidity, execute trades in a faster fashion and lower costs so theres a case to be made for Robotic Process Automation, where we are talking about well defined routine tasks within which a robot can add value. However we continue to operate within an extremely well regulated environment. A lot of the innovation so far over the last 15 years, part of the reason why were getting to the point where ai is mature enough to lend itself to financial services, a lot of that innovation has happened in unregulated markets, like consumer markets is it more likely that well see more flash crashes like the one we saw a couple years ago on the s p happens because of the rise of robots and trading machines is there any way to circumvent that thats a risk weve seen play out over the last few years. What is likely to be required in that case is sophisticated regulation as banks and Asset Managers begin to employ technologies it will be whether or not there are these well established guardrails to prevent such mishaps from occurring in addition its important that we recognize this human practitioner insight into the development or the supervised learning of these ais will go a long way to making sure ai does not respond to an outdated story that it finds itself on a website. Finally, before i let you go. Whats the impacts on the job markets . Will we still need Portfolio Managers finance, back Office People in the next decade or so . Is this a generation that simply wont be needed for anyone going into a finance degree now, will they be needed they absolutely will. I would argue they will need to argument those skills with technology were finding financial industry participants hiring data scientists, Machine Learning experts alongside traditional finance and economics disciplines. So thats something that will continue to play out this is a reflection of the changing labor force entrants into this tech space are more tech savvy. The jobs that historically were manual routine oriented which we are now transforming through Robotic Process Automation are the ones that labor participants are not interested in taking thank you very much for that. In this weeks trader poll were asking you which jobs will be the hardest hit by automation head to traderpoll. Cnbc. Com to cast your vote. Lets get back to more Business Leaders leaving President Trumps Manufacturing Council as the controversy over his response to the virginia violence is increasingly distracting from his Economic Policy agenda. A News Conference that was supposed to focus on rebuilding roads and bridges turned into a Combative Exchange about charlottesville. There was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you just called them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want but thats the way it is on both sides you said there was violence and hatred. I do think theres blame on both sides you look at both sides, i think theres blame on both sides. And i have no doubt about it, and you dont have any doubt about it either. And and if you reported it accurately, you would say that Edward Lawrence joins us from washington with the reaction the reaction has been harsh nbc news obtained the talking points that the white house had to give out to republican lawmakers. In it they said they should agree with the president that both sides were at fault for this, both sides were violent. However republicans and democrats are lining up to criticize the president. In a tweet senator marco rubio said the president needs to call this what it was a terrorist attack by white supreme cysts. Senator Bernie Sanders said the president was embarrassing to all those americans who died fighting neonaziism two Group Leaders did publicly defend the president saying his comments were fair thats the former grand wizard of the kkk, david duke and the White Nationalist leader, richard spencer. Both agreeing with the president. As you said now, six ceos and president s have left the president s Manufacturing Council. The president responding to that by saying they do not take their job on that council seriously here however the backlash in the United States for this has been extreme. Back to you. Edward, thank you very much for that Edward Lawrence of nbc news joining us out of washington coming up, with the geopolitical instability on the rise, is now the time to invest in gold etfs well be back in two lets get back to the big story. European government bonds have jumped on reports that the ecb president mario draghi will refrain from delivering a fresh policy message at the upcoming fed conference in jackson hole later this month draghi will focus on more macro themes on his speech and leave Monetary Policy until the ecb autumn meeting the your ro dolleuro dollar has from the initial slump we are now getting back towards the session highs. So maybe some disappointment over that report has waned a bit. 1. 1730 the imf is out with a warning about chinas debt levels the fund said Downside Risks have increased because of the continuing rise in public and private liabilities. They forecast debt to hit around 300 of gdp in five years. But it raised chinas 2017 gdp forecast from 6. 2 to 6. 7. A loehost of retailers postd earnings yesterday Courtney Reagan has details. Reporter another busy day of retail earnings. Some weak and some strong. Home depot beating across the board, that continues. The dow components earnings beat by 3 cents. Revenues outperforming comp sales up more than 6 versus 4. 9 Growth Expectation the doityourself projects and Merchandise Sales grew, sales to professionals like Home Improvement contractors outpaced the diy wires. Sales of appliances and flooring were strong. Some questioned how long home depot can continue to benefit from strong Housing Market trends and Home Improvement trends but with still a tight supply of homes for sale, and with twothirds of homes at least 30 years old, theres still opportunity for home repairs and updates. Coachs quarter was mix, beating earnings but largely due to a lower tax rate Gross Margins fell and revenues missed citi said there are some charges that cloud whats happening with coachs business on the Earnings Call victor luis did note 45 of coachs handbag sales were 400 or mo, thats up from 40 last quarter. Tj xwsh jshg tjx beat on earnings, revenues and comps, but guidance and sales are below the treats expectations, along with the full Earnings GuidanceDicks Sporting Goods shares plunging after they missed across the board comp sales particularly disappointing along with the fullyear forecast sharply below co consensus. As the retailer decides cutting prices is necessary. Courtney reagan, cnbc Business News the price of gold is trading slightly lower after hitting a twomonth high last week as tensions between the u. S. And north korea have appeared to ease currently at 1270, off by a fraction on the day. The ceo of greenach shares joins us live. Is there a place for gold in your portfolio despite the fact were seeing the easing of geopolitical risk . Very much so. So gold has done incredibly well this year in dollar terms. It is outperforming equities according to the s p 500 its up about 12 yeartodate thats not just because of the north korea situation, but because the u. S. Dollar has been on a decline since the beginning of the year, which always helps gold instead of the north korean situation, theres interest in gold because of the elevated levels in the stock market, and also on the bond side. So investors have been looking for uncorrelated or low correlated Asset Classes in order to hedge some of that risk what i hear from a lot of experts is that there is no other alternative when it comes to investing the famous acronym that we tend to use is gold directly benefitting from that . Even though it doesnt have yield . I think the gold and commodities broad i will have seen interest after being in a lull for a few years. Certainly gold tends to get more headlines than perhaps the broader commodity complex because gold is unique versus a number of other commodities. The general theme is similar, people want exposure to something that has low correlation to equities and bones and are looking to diversify portfolios at this time when we have geopolitical and elevated markets across the board. Gold does have this invest relationship with the u. S. Dollar i guess, in your direction of where you think gold is headed depends on what you think the trajectory will be for the u. S. Dollar if you think the dollar will go up, gold will fall are you in the camp that says the dollar will stay depressed thel dollar has been strong for the last year. Thats been a big head wind not just for gold but commodities more broadly the dollar has been on a downward trend since the beginning of the year. I think that will continue going forward. I think the dollar doesnt have to increase in any mine ieaning way to hurt gold, but dollar weakness helps gold and commodities more broadly talk to me about the nature of inflows into the gold etfs last week, when we saw the es a escalation and the war of words between the u. S. And nx. Aandnorth korea are these fickle investors its hard to tell week to week in terms of composition of flows. If people were looking to hedge against the north korea situation in particular, thats more faster money and more likely or susceptible to a reversal shortterm than longer term sticky money. The investors i talk to, they are more interested in longer term asset allocation. From those types of people theyre more concerned about the direction of the dollar, hedging portfolios against the stock market theyre more concerned about the upcoming debt ceiling here in the u. S. And manging sure congressmaking sure Congress Avoids that debt ceiling. Before we end the show, a quick look at u. S. Futures heres the picture looking for another positive open the dow jones seen up by 73 points s p seen up by 5 the dow was only up by five or six points yesterday stocks very much rangebound maybe well get more direction today when we get fed minutes. Whats it for todays show im carolin roth Worldwide Exchange is up next. I am totally blind. And for years ive struggled with non24, a circadian rhythm disorder that can turn my sleep cycles upside down. It kept me from doing the things i truly love to do. Sometimes id show up early; sometimes i was too late. And sometimes, even though i was there. I didnt really feel. There. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424 to learn more. They save us from getting lost, getting hungry, and getting tired of places like this. Phones changed everything shouldnt the way pay for them change too . Introducing Xfinity Mobile. Where you can pay for data by the gig, and share it across all of your lines. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save when you pay by the gig. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Markets now, stocks pointing to a higher open on wall street as investors await a key update from the fed. More Business Leaders distancing themselves from President Trump after he doubled down on his response to charlottesville. And wells fargo makes changes to its board that story coming up on Worldwide Exchange on this wednesday, august 16, 2017