Shareholders. The network equipmentmaker says its going to hand 3 billion back to investors after a strong First Quarter. Its also unveiled a new ceo. Youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And a warm welcome to todays edition of worldwide exchange. Well kick off with more earnings and the oil sector as wel well. Bp upped its dividend for the first time in six months despite the impact of the crisis in ukraine and on its business. The results come less than a day after the ceo of bps russian partn partner, rosneft was issued sanctions. Sales to europe were up 15 last year. Russias top natural gas producer says any expansion of western Bank Sanctions could lead to adverse consequences and shares in the company. The kremlin meanwhile denounced a decision by the eu and u. S. To ramp up sanctions. Seven individuals targeted by the white house. 17 companies have also been hit. And within the last hour, the eu has followed the states and expanded its black list of sanctions against highprofile russians. The eu is also targeting the deputy Prime Minister. William hague said the western had no option than to introduce these wider sanctions. Increasing the scope of the sanctions placed on russia is the right response for the failure to implement the geneva agreement. In the last two hours, the United States has announced it is imposing sanctions on seven further russian government officials, including two members of president putins inner circle. Sanctions on 17 companies also linked to putins inner circle and additional restrictions on 13 of those companies. Joining us with their thoughts, joseph dire, and lankton. Welcome to you both. This latest ramp up of sanctions. From the European Union its a token gesture from the European Union. As weve seen, the lead is coming from the use. Its much more easier for the americans to lay out tougher sanctions because of their exposure and their energy standpoint to russia is meaningless. What about the u. S. . I think the market said its word yesterday. Since the moment the sanctions were announced, russian index rallied 5 . So the investors deaf nuttily shrugged this off. They feared worse . The concerns were theres stage two and three sanctions that the americans and europeans were very clear on. Were still in stage two. Stage three will be kicked off if Russian Troops enter ukraine. There are a few names being circulated. That did not materialize. That was mostly what fueled the rally. We heard bps comments about rosneft. How problematic will it get for bp and shell . Bp needs russia very badly. It has 30 of its production is derived from russia. A huge proportion of its reserves are derived from russia. You have other companies with longterm projects based in russia. Those companies will dread the day if we go beyond stage two sanctions and we ever get to stage three or four or whatever goes beyond that, which would actually physically affect Energy Operations or investments. If that were to happen, those companies would be very, very badly hit indeed. Even worse than that, if we were to reach that stage, inevitably, oils gas prices would rise and probably quite sharply. The western governments w s wou not want that to happen. Higher Energy Prices would damage Economic Growth very badly. Lets get your view on this. There are always dangers of missteps in a sort of political fallout or cold war, whatever you want to phrase this. And how wide do you think the risk of deeper sanctions are . Well, i think the west is extremely reluctant to impose sanctions which have real meaning. The kinds of sanctions you were talking about in your introduction on named individuals on unsung companies essentially means they cant come to london and couldnt their money so easily. Its not really affecting the real economy if you like. I dont think theres a great danger that those sanctions will be imposed unless there were a Major Political escalation. To try and think of what that might be, say the russians just invaded ukraine. I dont think thats in russias interest. You talked about the falling ruble earlier on. The falling ruble will damage the russian economy. The russian economy is overwhelmingly dependent on their energy export. I dont think the russians want to hurt themselves. The value of the ruble significant, fall in the value of the ruble probably will be significant. But do you think there will be a damage on longterm Foreign Investment . Is that where wed like to see the biggest impact . Russia has been lagging on the Foreign Investment side. Russia has been lagging. But to put the ruble selloff into context, its been stabilizing. Since the beginning of the year, the ruble has been depreciated by 9 , 10 . Since the central bank got into phase and started action with increasing rates continuing its support of the currency within the the ruble has stabilized and its stronger than it was throughout the crimea annexation process. Lets put this into context. A weaker ruble to a certain extent is positive for the russian economy. Russia has been facing some deflation issues. Thats a negative. As an export commodity, a weaker ruble is positive for the current profile of russia. Depending on your view of how this plays out, if you assume at some point well get through all this, russian assets are looking cheaper, of course. But at the moment for investors this is an unwelcome situation. We need more clarity. I think we are seeing some russia investors kind of coming in and buying very depressed valuations at the moment. Both on the equity side and the credit. If you look at a company like novatech, wonderful company, very profitable, good series of catalysts coming up for that company. Investors are coming in and buying it. But may will be a crowded period of time in terms of headline risks. Well get may victory day on the 9th of month, potentially local referendums at the end of next week. And on the 25th of may, the president ial election. Its going to be very difficult to convince investors to buy that russia at this point. Just a final word, just go back to sort of bp specifically, trading higher, First Quarter profits above forecasts, upping their dividend, too. How far are we beyond from the gulf of mexico as well . Thats been key. Bp is still deeply mired in the fallout from the gulf of mexico. We still dont have any indication of what the final bill is going to be for the spill. And so far, bps managed to sell 40 billion worth of assets. Its got another 10 billion to 15 billion worth of assets on the block to try and raise money. Bp is a longterm play is a very, very difficult stock to call, simply because this massive elephant in the room of what the final gulf of mexico spill bill will be, you cannot take a longterm view on bp until that has been quantified. Were no nearer quantiification of that. Bp versus various levels of the court system. There doesnt seem to be any end in site to the litigation. As long as that is the case, bp is always going to be, if you like, operating with a hand tied behind its back. Good to see you. Thanks very much. Thank you both. Global equities, just over an hour and ten minutes into the trading day in europe. We waited to the upside round, 81 advancers outpacing decliners, helped along by the focus on earnings. Besides bp, infinium, deutsch, well ebe talking about deutsch. Xetra dax up yesterday 0. 5 . The cac current is fairly flight and the micex is up 1 . Nokia, up 6. 7 . Its unveiled plans of more than 3 billion in buy backs and extra dividends, this despite a slip in the First Quarter revenue. Shares in Shire Pharmaceutical up 3 . The botoxmaker is preparing a fresh takeover approach for the british drugmaker. One of the fallers, abb, down 6 . The pound and Technology Reporting an 18 slump in its First Quarter profit. Results come as the swiss firm continues to sell off parts of the business that arent vital to its activities. Check in on where we stand with bond rates today. Tenyear treasury yields, 10. 7 , looking ahead to the fed meeting, of course, we dont expect a change. The real Success Story of the fed is to think its actually something of a nonevent, we expect another tapering of 10 billion of quantitative easing and for that to wrap up by october. Gilt yields, q1 gdp coming out in the uk in round about 20 minutes or so. Sterling ahead of that, up 4 1 2 year highs against the dollar. Well show you where we stand at 1. 6835 at the moment. Aussie dollar, pretty steady. Dollar yen, slightly up on the session. We keep our eyes on euro dollar, 1. 3857. German Consumer Confidence today according to gfk up near a sevenyear high. Thats where we stand right now in european trading. Lets recap that asian session. Sri is with us out of singapore. I had, hi, sri. Ive got to say this, youre talking about botox, thats something you and i will never need with our chiselled futures. The stx under pressure, one of the lost leaders, down by 50 points. Remember iron ore prices have been under pressure. Theres a probe going on into iron ore financing. Thats hitting sentiment amongst the resources names and by implication in the Broader Market as well. The gainers, the shanghai and the hang seng, up by 1. 5 . Yes, the japanese market is closed today because of public holiday. Liquidity, trading volumes that much more feeling that the ground may be leading to outsized moves on the other marks. The earnings season has been quite favorable so far. Especially for some of the insurers names and the banks. Thats lifting the broader index or the hang seng. Also on the mainland as well. Not much else really to talk about. Theres bifurcation. Thursday will be quite important. Thats when we get the april official pmi from china. Markets arguably are going to be something in a Holding Pattern until then. Tomorrow, getting back to japan, the markets will be reopening and also we have the bank of japan policy meeting, the policy review. No surprises there although they will be releasing their economic projections. That should be something of an asset test for abonomics. I dont know what botox is. I dont know what that would be used for. From sri jegarajah, thank you. Deutsche bank has been telling investors its focusing on strengthening its capital base. More on the details for us. Whats the reaction from investors, annette toa . Shares are up by 2 . That was widely expected. The numbers were better than expected, the margin so important, trading within Investment Banking came in more than expected. Also better than a lot of their competitors. Deutsche bank wants to be one of the top three investment banks also in the United States. Theres a huge competition there. So in general, what theyre saying about 2014, though, still sounds a little bit lackluster in terms of litigation costs. The cfo during a Conference Call was saying hes expecting significant litigation charges in the coming quarters and also that the upcoming stress test, a big unknown in terms of capital costs. So it sounds clearly as if Deutsche Bank was preparing investors also that we might actually see more capital hikes during the course of this year. For now they have refraened from it. There was a lot of speculation from Deutsche Bank, that they might also say theyre raising capital as soon as today. What they were saying late yesterday is that theyre planning on selling cocoa bonds in the volume of 1. 5 billion euro as soon as may. Thats not the big capital hike people were expecting it to announce. Were seeing here the leverage ratio of Deutsche Bank which is clearly one of the biggest leverage ratios around, among big investment banks. But what has to be very careful if we are comparing u. S. Banks with european banks, because u. S. Banks have a smaller Balance Sheet because they are netting the derivative exposure. But nevertheless, capital will be one of the big concerns also in 2014 for the banks. The one tier capital ratio fell from 9. 5 to 9. 7 . That shows Deutsche Bank has one of the lowest capital ratios among its peers. That is why investors are pressuring the bank once again. And, again, to bolster its capital. For now theyre saying theyve readied all option to go down that path for now. They dont it the see the necessity. With that, ross, back to you. Thank you for now. More on Deutsche Bank later in the show. Cfo compensation at the european banks was up an average of 16 in 2013. Stewart gulliver had a net income of more than 16 million, this according to data compiled exclusively for cnbc. When the bank does well, the ceos will obviously be able to reap rewards. What has changed in the pay packages over the last five years, theyve been struck suhred so its no the just a one year and done pay package. It relies on that being validated over several years. The executives will see the increases and wont be able to get the final payout for the equity awards for several years. Its going to have to be creating shareholder value and not a oneyear blip. The Eu Banking Authority set to outline the details of its coordinated stress program today. Weve been speaking to the chairman of the citi uk advisory channel. He was asked whether European Regulation risks are stifling londons industry. These things ought to be face down or we have a say into how theyre going to be adopted while were still in the eu. One of the problems we see if youre outside, you wont have in fact a seat at the table and, therefore, you wont be able to influence eu regulation which will be harmful in itself, not just for london but europe as a whole in competitive terms. We dont want caps on salaries, do we . The instinct seems to be to continue bashing bankers and doing that punitively through salary caps. Thats not the right way to make this the preeminent areas of the world. You dont have the same ability to claw back and you saddle yourself with fixed overheads with salary caps. Im against salary caps. Im certainly in favor of moderation of bankers pay. Salary caps by themselves wont do it. When were hoping that the banking industry, the financial sector, will lead us to better growth and higher Economic Performance in europe here but we have the stress tests to get through, we also have potentially some recapitalization of major european banks at this stage. Can i ask you, is it important we see failures in the stress test for them to be credible . And secondly, do you think its important that that recapitalization take place very quickly . I think the recapitalization for the credibility of the Banking Sector taking quickly is very important. I think failures i dont know, some banks have, of course, anticipated failures and, therefore, have one ive seen already is italy very responsibly capital has been raised. Has the capital been raised because banking management felt it was the right thing to do or because they feared that if they didnt raise it that there might be stress tests which might go adversely against them . I didnt know. I suspect there will be fewer failures that we might think. But partly one will have been if one looks at it. Kuwait a lot of capital will have been raised this year. I suspect there will be some failure. Still to come on todays show, is britain on the recovery . How strong and sustainable is it . We bring you the first estimate of q1 gdp. And millions of extra dollars are poured into a new resort in shanghai. And have you ever wanted to go inhood the scenes an see how major internet players really work . Amazon has opened up some of its warehouses to allaccess tours. [paintball noises] the annual company retreat. Planned, as usual, by this guy. Nature lover. People person. And you put up with it all. Because he also booked you a room. At this place. Planet earths number one accomodation site booking. Com booking. Yeah youre watching worldwide exchange. Now, reports suggest siem s siemens what do we think the terms of their offer might be . It depends what theyre offering in terms of job protection in france. Really this is the Main Objective of the french government, the economy minister started a meeting nearly one hour ago with the unions of alstom. They are widely explain that job protection is to keep job security. Francois hollande says the government would focus on the job protection, the maintenance of operations in france and obviously the French Energy independence. Now, in practical terms, its not going to be that simple for the government to have its say, first of all because the french state is not a shareholder anymore of alstom since 2006. Secondly, even if there is a lull in france, energy sector, Nuclear Power production is not part of this strategic list. Last but not least, there is a risk that a potential seem with seimens will be blocked by antitrust authorities because there will be a significant lap between alstom and seimens. This is what was explained to us yesterday from paris. We are expecting an offer from seimens. And alstom is expected to make an announcement if Francois Hollande and the whole government is ut ing pressure on alstom about a decision, not to make it. They will announce another delay, to inspect the offers, one were expecting from General Electric and one from seimens. The second stage has been launched. Carmakers given investors 7 new shares for each 12 held. T you can see where all the magic happens, not at disney but not at amazon. The online retailer will open sim of its warehouses for public tours. It starts next month. The tours will be held on the first and third tuesday of each month and can be booked online. Amazon wont say what people will see. This is where millions are scored, boxed and shipped to customers. Tours are being offered in arizona, california, delaware, enen, tennessee and virginia. So thats of some interest. If you could go behind the scenes at any company, which one would you choose . Get in touch with us worldwidworldwide worldwide cnbc. Com. Well be back with uk gdp after this. Dewhos got twond rhooves and just got ae. Claim status update from geico . This guy, thats who. Sfx bing. And i just got a. Oh no, thats mom. Sorry. Claim status updates. Just a tap away on the geico app. Youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. Headlines from around the globe. Bps First Quarter profits ahead of forecast. Rosneft has been also hit by u. S. Sanctions. Its announced a bond issue to increase the strength of its balance street. Persia launches a 2 billion rights issue which will see d g dongfeng motor. The firm has unveiled a new ceo. Sterlings weaker, uk gdp for the First Quarter, the initial present up 0. 8 . Quarter on quarter, there had been a consensus expectation moving up 0. 9. Hencesterly falling back to 1. 68. The annual rate as expected 3. 2 on the year. The annualized rate, nevertheless, this is the strongest yearonyear gdp growth since the Fourth Quarter of 2007. Preliminary First QuarterProduction Output up 0. 8 . Preliminary First Quarter construction output up 0. 3 quarteronquarter. Joining us with his views, simon baptist, global economist at the ieu. Thanks for joining us. The consensus was 0. 9. You thought it might be 0. 7. We were more bearish than consensus on the economy. Why are you a bit more bearish . Really, the recent bounceback is partly due to investment that was building up through last year that didnt actually take place for various reasons. Thats now happening in the first half of this year. Thats representing a temple factor rather than a big sustained recovery. When does growth in the uk peak . We see growth peaking this quarter and next before dropping back to 2 later this year and early next year. One of the best, if not the best in the g10. The growth number looks very good but we have to remember where the uk has come from. Theres still a lot of Spare Capacity in the economy, productivity is low and the uk had one of the deeper recessions in the oecd. This is a nice bounce back but its lower than in a normal recovery. Are we going to get the investment growth now to sustain this . Part of the pay back that the economy is having now is from increased exports. Eventually the years of weaker sterling and subdued wage growth are starting with the companys competitiveness. The Government Cut back on investment massively over the last few years. Theyre now starting finally to turn that around. And thats where most investment will be. Not private sector, business investment. We see the Public Sector being the drive of investment over the next couple of years. Okay. Does that concern you or not . Its a perfect time for governments to be borrowing. Theres low Interest Rates and huge slack in the construction sector. Theres no better time for the government to be investing. Its ridiculous they havent been. Okay. I get that point. Our Government Bond rates going to stay low . Yes, they should do for the short term. We dont see Interest Rates rising in a substantial sense globally until midtolate 2015. Even though rates are only going to be in the order of 3 or 4 over the next five years. Low Interest Rates for a long time. Carnie has been talking about the recovery broadening. Theres still plenty slack in the labor market. The big question for the uk economy is in the recession, employment did not go down by very much. Thats now reflecting in our weak productivity numbers in the uk. The question for the upturn is does that build Inflationary Pressure in terms of wages . In terms of wages and prices and do workers increase their productivity back to prerecession numbers. How much of the jobs are full time as opposed to temporary and how much the labor market has changed over the last five to ten years. Yes, i mean, it is one of the large questions, whether the changes weve seen in the labor market are structural or whether theyre cyclical. The next year or so will be an important one to watch for the labor market. Stay there for a second. Lets bring you up to speed with the way european equities are currently trading at the moment. The ftse 100 has been up 0. 5 this morning. We had numbers out from bp. There are concerns, of course, about whats going on in russia and the ukraine self. The ftse is up slightly, the xetra dax is up, the ftse mib is up as well. Well keep our eye on the fed and conditioncy market, sterling is it dollar 1. 68. Euro dollar, 1. 3869 is where we stand currently. Meanwhile, Chinas Central Bank says it will establish an insurance system and will quicken Interest Rate liberalization. Well keep our eyes on what potentially that means as well. The french Prime Minister presented his Fiscal Program to Parliament Today before sending it to the European Commission for approval. Their plan is to slash state spending in an attempt to reach the eus deficit target of 3 of gdp by the end of 2015. Rejoining us is stephan with more on that. Stephan, what do we think of the plan . We know already, ross, that some social iist want vote the pact of stability, how many of them will refuse to vote the plan is the question. Its consultative. Well discuss this plan with our guest next, the head of economic research. Thank you very much for being with us. The new plan, phillip, is based on the gross assumption of 1 this year and 1. 7 next year. Do you think it will stick . This year is probably most realistic. The question is 2016 and 2017 with growth of 2 . It means that the target, the deficit target will be only attain attained. Thats the question. Probably this year, 1 is achievable without too much problem. Next year will be more complicated. More than 2 activity expected. Its stronger than what france can do. It means that europe must have a strong growth everywhere, in germany, spain, uk, to go to converge to this target. Do you think the French Economy would be able to benefit from the growth from other countries . Thats one of the targets of the plan is to say we tried to improve the companys situation and in that case, it will be both to capture the eurozone trajectory. Thats the target of the government. Phillip, when we tried to reform the French Economy, theres always something funny or perhaps even worrying. The best reform in france is always the one that is not impacting myself. So french people are reluctant of the impact of the reform. Its mostly everywhere always the same thing. Its always better when your neighbor is changing its mind in this situation. What we see and what is important currently in france is that gdp per capita growth, it means that what you earn is what i lost. Theres one winner, one loser. And thats why its practically difficult at this moment of the cycle. Thats why manuel vass ask ed, o try to make this reform being voted. The target is to save 50 billion euros. Do you think it will be enough to bring the public deficit to 3 . It will be enough if the gdp growth is as expected. If gdp growth is slower than what is expected, probably deficit will be higher, another plan has to be expected. So there is a real arbitrage. And the government has made an arbitrage saying we could trust in our Growth Prospect and that we fear that its a little thats a point we have to mention. If not, it means moreous t t austerity. They may not be ready for austerity. Well have to change our mind. The point clearly in france now is that productivity gains among the euro. We have to change how our growth process, our work to be able to create a surplus that will be that will help for new income and new jobs. We are not able to do that now. We can make adjustment. It will not be enough. So if we do not converge to the target as define, well have to really make structural reform and probably whatever the situation will have to do some of the structural reforms. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment. Ross, votes later in the day at the national assembly. We know already that some socialists wont support the plan of the new Prime Minister, manuel vass. Thank you. Thats the latest out of france. Some of the stories out of asia, Samsung Electronics posted another quarter of shrinking profit, this makes it the second in a row. Operating profit down more than 3 to 8. 2 billion. Things might be looking up. Samsung thinks the world cup in brazil will turn things around for the second part of the year as people buy second quarter, rage, as people buy new tvs and smartphones to watch the action. Lg electronics is posted its strongest Quarterly Results in two years. A 44 jump in operating profit from a year ago. It equals around 486 million. Strong sales of its highend tvs boosted the bottom line. The firm expects that trend to continue into the second quarter. Australia could be about to brace for more income taxation, even if its only temporary. The Prime Minister, tony abbott, flagged the idea that australias highest earners may pay more taxes to help fight the countrys rising deficit. Those making over 80,000 aussie dollars could see an extra 1 in taxes taken from their pay. Those making over 180,000 could see 2 for an unspecified temporary period. The bank of japans policy decision tomorrow and outlook report, along with japanese industrial output. Also keep your eyes on results from fujitsu, jal and ana as well as nomura. Singapore will have earnings from two of its biggest banks, dbs and uob. At t launches plan to unvoil its own wifi service on planes. All the details, coming up. If i told you that a free tensecond test could mean less waiting for things like security backups and file downloads youd take that test, right . Well, what are you waiting for . You could literally be done with the test by now. Now you could have done it twice. This is awkward. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people , great things happen. Youre watching worldwide exchange. The four main candidates vying to head the European Commission came head to head on monday in the first ever televised debate between president ial wanna bes. Schultz argued more money needed to be spend to the tackle youth and the economy. Joining us is lecturer in european politics at conditions college in london. Eduardo joins us now. What did you think of . A bit of history. Its the first ever televised debate between candidates for the European Commission. Its the first time and as the first time it was quite successful story, i believe. It was a real debate. There were even good jokes from the candidates. They may have been quite constrained in what they wanted to say. Keller did very well, cheerful, good jokes, good mood. Eu citizens do not directly elect the commission. So who were they who were they politicking to . Thats very true. European parliament have been traditionally defined as elections. European citizens will vote in each of the 28 counties of the European Union. They will vote their National Party but they vote interNational Party. Thats the big change. By voting the National Party they will also vote for a candidate for the European Commission. If youre french and you vote for a certain person, you will also support martin schultz. Will it be that clear thats what theyre doing . Will the message get through . This is this persons party for the presidency. Thats a good point. There may be different from country to country. In some country, in italy, for instance, theres the name of the candidate will be on the ballot. So you know that by supporting a National Party youll also support a candidate for European Commission. Some of the country, you might not have the name. Thats your point. These are European Parliament elections. They produce a european outcome but still they are contested in each and every of the 28 member states. There is an increasing skeptical wing to european politics in terms of antiuse stance or separatist stance, however you want to view that. Is this are they doing this because they want to try and hit that directly . How big a threat is that . This is something they discussed yesterday in the debate. The real absent is the euro candidate. Euro skeptics are not together. But of course all the other extreme candidates face euro skepticism. Thats the big enemy. At some point one of the candidates said, you know, vote whether you want but vote for a democratic party. You cant let the euro skeptics have big success in europe. That would be democratic, wouldnt it, voting for anything else . Its democratic. Thats what the candidate said, of course. Voting for euro skeptics, it may bring criticism. Do you think at some point in the future we are going to have a democratically elected european president . One thats elected by the electorate . Already now in this first time competition between candidates, we make a big step. 20 years ago, there was nothing. And even last time, the decision on the candidate, on the present European Commission was thinking behind closed doors between the head of state and government. Now, parties are in and thats a big change. The criticism here, if you hear from the euro skeptics, the eu policy doesnt represent the views of the people. The way to cancel that is to say we will have properly elected leaders in europe. I wondered whether you think that is going to happen. Didnt matter what the time scale is. But whether you think that will happen. In the short term, certainly, no. Im talking about long term. There might be. 20 years ago there was nothing. Just the European Council, not even the parliament. Now parties matter in the election of European Commission president. Its a first attempt. Lets see if there is a tie, whats going to happen if the European Council will take into account what europeanled parties have done before. Thats really the litmus test. Thank you. Thank you very much for your analysis. Well see whether the next debate gets even more coverage. We have numbers out from volkswagen. Its First Quarter sales, 47. 8 billion. They had seen First Quarter sales at 47. 1. A little bit better than the consensus. The First Quarter operating profit, 2. 9 billion. The First Quarter operating profit at 2. 7 . Well get more reaction on that. The Exchange Platform is disrupting the traditional methods of exchanging money. Currency fare, joining us is the ceo of currency fare. How do you work then . Its based on the idea that in the major currencies we are dealing with, people are sending money in both directions. If we can match these people up from they have to go through what i consider to be a clumsy and expensive system, if we can catch them before that, we dont need to send the money internationally. Currency bear is an orderdriven marketplace, similar to the stock market. But instead of the price of stocks, youre looking at 9 exchange rate. I have 2,000 pounds. I want aussie dollars. I can say whats the rate at the moment on the market . I go i can take that instantly, no, im going to ask for awe higher rate, leave my order and something going the other way, aussies can match that up. Youre presumably getting a much bigger spread. Yes. Whether youre going to a regular bank or anywhere else. Banks typically charge 3 in the exchange rate. European banks are even worse, 5 . We charge 15 basis points. 1. 5 when customers match each other. You bypass the swift charges in a receiving bank, corresponding bank. Someone else send money into the account in sydney, we match off, i now own aussie dollars and they stay in the local system. Its faster as well. You talk about toing into a market you call digital nomads. Yes. What is this class of person that you think there is . Well, see, we try to tap in all the different flows around the world of people moving. One that we have a lot of business in at the moment is irish people have moved down to australia. We look at trying to work out what it is these people need and focus on how can we reach these people because we find once a few people within that Community Know about the product, then they tell other people. Its really about capturing all those different flows of people. These days a lot more people are moving around. Puts you into small payments business. This is going to be a business that we talk about small payments. Youre saying 500 or something . Yes. You say this is businesses like facebook, apple, amazon, google, all going to take over from the banks. Why . I think largely, you look at facebook announcing a move. I think they will stay in the small payment space. Asset spot, currency fare is more than a thousand up. We do smaller payments but were unbeatable. You know, to consider using facebook to move 100 grand to pay for a house, certainly not at the moment. People are not looking for that kind of thing. Small payments, facebook has a chance of being successful, they have all these users already. They have a chan toll market straightaway. I think not actually convinced theyre going to do necessarily a good job. Payments for facebook is more about monitorizatietarization rn innovation. Its and interesting area. A lot of people may be interested. Were more focused on the developed nations, expats, smes paying foreign invoices and people investing overseas, maybe you need to send money to or from a u. S. Brokerage account. Thats the sore of payment were talking about. Ceo of currency fare. Amazon opening up for public tours. It starts next month. The hourlong tours will be held on the first and third tuesday of each month. Amazon wont say what people will see. But this is where millions of items are scored, boxed and shipped to customers. Tours are being offered in arizona, california, delaware, indiana, tennessee and virginia. Were asking if you could go behind the scenes at any company, which one would it be . It might be amazon. It might not be. The Blind Squirrel tweeted and said playboy. Cant imagine why. Get in touch with us, email us, worldwide cnbc. Com, twe tweet rosswestgate. Will they have any impact in ukraine, the sanctions . The latest in donetsk. Youre watching worldwide exchange. Bp says its earnings hit by a weaker ruble as this firm is hit by u. S. Sanctions. Deutsche bank trades higher as the german lender beats profit targets and announces a bond issue to increase the strength of its Balance Sheet. And the french government take bigger stakes in the carmaker. Plus, its payday for nokia shareholders. They also announce a new ceo. Youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. Welcome to cnbc. U. S. Futures indicating well tick higher at the open. The s p up 0. 3. Pretty flat for the nasdaq. We did see rotation into the stocks. Pfizer doing well. Talking about its bid for astrazeneca. The s p 500 is currently around 7 points above fair value and the nasdaq at the moment is some 15 points above fair value. The ftse cnbc global 300, just ticking higher by around 9 points. Were two hours into the trading day here in europe. Earnings helping us along again this morning. Numbers out from the likes of infinium, bp, Deutsche Bank and nokia as well. The ftse 100 currently up 0. 5 . Gdp in the uk coming out with the strongest annual weight of growth, 3. 2 for the First Quarter. Quarteronquarter, that growth up 0. 8 . That was an expectation that might have hit 0. 9 . The xetra dax up twothird. The micex up 0. 2 . On the bond markets, well show you where we stand with treasury yields. They have inched higher during the course of the european session this morning. Of course the fed kicks off, nothing wildly different from what we expect. On the currency markets, ahead of that, the euro dollar, marginally higher. 1. 3867. Dollar, 102. 64. The euro inching up after comments from the ecb, draghi suggesting if we get low inflation, were not going to necessarily react from there. We were around 1. 6840. Coming down to 1. 68 after that gdp, slightly weaker than expected. Thats where we stand right now. Two hours into the european trading session. What about asia today . Sri has the detail for us out of singapore. Sri. Thank you, ross. Investors this side of the world are liking what theyre seeing in terms of the earnings numbers and the report cards, especially in the Greater China markets thats why they are the outperformers, hang seng, shanghai compaosite, up 1. 5 . That stock was up by 1. 7 . I have to say that trading activity volumes, liquidity, that much more thin in the ground today. You can see that the japanese markets are not trading. Were not seeing quotes from the nikkei and the topix today. Both markets are closed for public holiday. Elsewhere, bifurcation in these markets. S p 200, the resource of stocks to blame for the negativity. Iron ore prices slipping. We saw some associated weakness in the iron ore as well. Also not helping is the fact were seeing this probe going on in china, into iron ore financing. So weaker markets on the s p asx 200, that market in australia and the Greater China markets are primed and ready for thursday. Big day in terms of the data calendar and the event risk we have the china pmi on thursday. These will be official numbers for the month of april. As i said, liquidity thinned the ground, japanese markets closed today. Tomorrow will be important. Boj meeting. No surprise is expected. Although the bank of japan will be releasing their economic projections. That will be an important test, especially to see if inflation is moving into the right direction towards that 2 target to go off the boj and also very important asset test for abonomics. Sri, stay there. I want to get your view from comments from the peoples bank of china, the central bank. They said theyre going to improve the u. N. Exchange Rate Mechanism and establish deposit insurance system as well. I mean, these are things weve been talking about. The fact that theyre now saying, look, well do it, what are the implications . I think the implications is that this is good news, of course, for the capital market, Interest Rate liberalization, of course. They are moving very gradually. This has been the watch word from policy from china. Its been gradualist, its been prudent, very calibrated. This is really more of the same. Its being quite well flagged to the markets. It will be interesting to see how they respond to it tomorrow. As i said, its very well plan. As it always is in china. Very calibrated approach here. Okay. Absolutely. Sri, thanks to are th s for tha. Thats the latest out of asia. Meanwhile, back here in europe, Deutsche Bank has been its First Quarter forecast. Profits did fall on the year. There was no rumor on the capital hike, though the cfo said ecb Bank Supervision may cause further capital changes. The europe Banking Authority will release the methodology for its stress test in around about 25 minutes or bring you that here on cnbc. First joining us with his thoughts on deutsch, simon mond, from otoas technologies. Leg costs easing. Theyll have a bond issue as well. What do you make of where they stand . They remain a very leveraged bank, a bank where forecasts for return on equity this year very much at the lower end of the peer group. And yes, as you point out, the numbers have come in better than expectation, expectations of what had been already dampened. The bigger issues, the one the fundamental investor looks at are still very much there for deutsch. The coceo saying well get more costs because of the increase in regulation. How big a head wind is that going to be . Less litigation but other increased costs. Theres every likelihood that deutsch will miss the 2015 targets that they put in place. Long term, thats a downgrade from analysts regardless of what the shortterm 2014 outlook is. And why is this . Because deutsch has been surprised by sustained low Interest Rates and increased regulatory costs. Im sorry. Whats the new Interest Rate environment or the new pressure on Bank Regulation that should cause this tremendous surprise . One other thing causes me concern as well. When i look at their outlook statement, within i look at their outlook for the economy, its of a progressively rising gdp throughout the whole of this year. Im not sure that bank lending globally, bank lending in the states, whats happening around a lot of the Major Economies of the world is supportive of that gdp forecast. So i think we might be hearing a little bit later in the year from deutsch how theyve been surprised yet again. The economy has not performed to what theyve expected, basically is what you think theyll be saying at the end of the year . Theyre too optimistic . Theres a serious risk they are too optimistic. This is a bank that cant see low Interest Rates and rising regulation. Goodness knows why we should give them credit for the forecast of gdp. Thats a fair point. Simon, stay there. We have the methodology coming up later for the stress test, get your view on how we go through asset reviews, quality reviews and all that. The fed begins its twoday meeting today. The fomc widely expected to continue tapering its monthly bond buying by another 10 billion to stand at 45 billion. It would then end the program if the schedule is maintained, sometime this fall, october is what we presume. And once the fed is meeting today, the Senate Banking committee is expected to approve president obamas three nominees to the fed board, fisher, brainard and powell, though the full senate may not vote on confirmation until lay may. Mary Joe Whitehouse testifies before the House Financial Services committee. Shes expected to address lawmakers worries about highspeed trading. While this is one of her primary concerns shes given no signals that the s. E. C. Will try to reign in High Frequency trading. And on the agenda in the United States, the monthly s p home price index. Thats out at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Prices forecast to have risen 13. 1 in february. At 10 00 we get april Consumer Confidence. Thats expected to rise slightly from last month and on the earnings front, looking out for numbers from bristolmyers, merck, adm, coach, forest labs, mgm mirage, goodyear and ebay. Well also hear from twitter and dreamworks animation. At t has unveiled plans to launch its own wifi service on planes. Well have the details, coming up. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people , great things happen. Youre watching worldwide exchange. A recap of the headlines, bps business remains strong despite the crisis notice ukraine. The firm beat expectations with its figures in the First Quarter. Deutsche bank shares jumped, beating profit targets. No word on the rumored cancel hike. And more tapering on the way. The fed kicks off its twoday meeting today. Numbers out again today, bp trading high after First Quarter profits came in above forecasts. The oil giant, up dividends. Rosneft was sanctioned by the United States. Bp says rosneft results were adversely impacted by the stump in the ruble. Its still committed to rot nest and russia despite the sanctions. Gazprom says sales to europe were up 15 in 2013. Russias top natural gas producer says any expansion of sanctions could lead to adverse consequences for the business as well as shares in the firm. And the kremlin denounced a decision the eu and the u. S. To ramp up on the sanctions. A list of seven individuals targeted by the white house, 17 companies have also been hit. Within the last couple of hours, the eu has followed the states and expanded its black list of sanctions against highprofile rugs. The eu is also targeting the deputy Prime Minister dmitri kozak. A statement from Russias Foreign Ministry says that the European Union is under washingtons thumb. And this all comes as there have been more clashes between prokiev and promoscow supporters in the east of ukraine. This as negotiations continue to try to feed a team of military observers in europe. Nbcs jim maceda is in donetsk in ukraine and joins us with the latest. What is going on today, jim . Reporter hi, ross. Well, that proukraine demonstration last night started very peacefully in downtown donetsk. This was not a group of neonazis as the russian state media has said. Rather, ukrainians from all walks of life, mothers with children, grandparents, who have gathered together despite the known risks, ross. It was announced beforehand that pr pr provocativers could be there. They did come out to express their idea that ukraine should be united. They want ukraine to be at peace. The march went food for 200 or 300 yards where suddenly out of nowhere, a couple dozen of these prorussian rebels, some masked and camouflage, most in civilian clothes, seemed to pounce on anyone carrying a ukrainian flag. It was chaos for a good 10 or 15 minutes, a mix of fireworks flying back and forth, smoke bombs, tear gas, not much. At one point, a very loud stun grenade. Through that meleemelee, the ri police who highly outnumbered rebelers with their baseball bats, didnt control the situation. A lot of police simply scattered and watched. Ross, local police did exactly the same thing. They just watched. Earlier in the day, about an hours drive from here in a town called constantinolska. It had almost a festive feel to it. Town folk were watching as these Massive Concrete blocks were being raised by cranes, no less, in front of town hall to protect the people from terrorist attacks. People were calling it a holiday. One prorussian official when asked if there had been any resistance at all to this sudden takeover told us the police are on our side. Ross, back to you. Thank you for that. How safe do you feel online . Well get into that within we come back. Stocks are trading ahead of the u. S. Open today. Were weighted to the upside. U. S. Futures this morning indicating were going to get a tick higher again. U. S. Markets currently caught up higher on the s p 500. The nasdaq is flat, currently higher by 15 points. Herbalife beat analysts forecasts by 20 cents a share. The Nutritional Supplement company, which has been accused of being a pyramid scheme by bill ackman, is suspending dividends in order to buy back shares. Herbalife is raising its fullyear earnings forecast, frankfurt pretty steady. Merck is expected to release its First Quarter earnings before the bell, just one of numerous Big Pharma Companies in talks over m a deals. Questions have been raised over the motives behind the deals with Tax Implications being touted as a big reason rather than future pipe lien and r d. We have the Program Manager at frost and sullivan. Good to see you. Thanks for joining us. A lot of u. S. Companies, a lot of money overseas. They dont want to bring back for tax purposes. Is this what pfizer is doing with astrazeneca . I might as well spend some of this money rather than pay tax on it . Pfizer definitely, the tax savings are not the key reasons why they want to merge with astrazeneca. Moving their tax base to the uk means a huge savings on tax. The tax rate in uk is much lesser compared to the u. S. Having said that, there are other reasons as well. Astrazeneca built a huge pipeline. Thats one key reason why pfizer wants to acquire astrazeneca. And astrazeneca is concerned that pfizer wants to pay 70 of the price in shares. Is this bid under value . Its not yet a bid but the talk around the price, is that under value, the company . What is interesting, astrazeneca is not saying, we are not for sale. Its just price negotiation. I think its not about undervaluing. Its more about more liquidating in terms of cash. Probably pfizer could come with a sweeter deal, maybe 40 in cash, this deal could move really forward. Huge surge in m a activity in pharmaceuticals. You say already around 120 billion worth of deals this year. What is hundreded that . What is driving it now . This is unprecedented season in the pharmaceutical sector. There are a couple reasons. One reason is the last couple of years, most of the Pharma Companies have been sitting on a huge pile of cash. They are trying to offload this cash and probably think this is the right time to outload the cash. That is one reason. Another reason is, you know, tax savings, for instance, in the case of pfizer. We need to look at this on a casebycase basis. There are plenty of other companies outside of pharmaceutical industry that have large piles of cash. Technology companies. Theyre always in the news. I would imagine the u. S. Authority is not particularly happy about this use of cash, which is effectively permanently avoiding tax. Any sign at all that the u. S. Can do anything about this . Well, they could push for tax reforms. So that is a possibility. The government could push for tax reform in 2015. Having said that, in the pharmaceutical industry, its not about tax savings. Its also about basically a strategy in companies trying to focus on their core businesses. Its about strengthening the core businesses and exiting. Even if the business segment happens to be in a stronger growth market, for instance, last week we saw the deal between gsk and novartis. Gsk sold off the cancer segment, a high growth segment, because novartis felt it wasnt key to their business. So in the pharmaceutical sector theres a Clear Strategy of companies focusing on their core competence. Allergan trying to take over a different company. This is happening in the pharmaceutical industry. Milan are trying to acquire another company. Were going to see more of its not end game. Theres still m a activity happening. Good to see you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Program manager at frost sullivan. Stick around. Well get to the stress test analogy. And still to come on the show, microsoft scrambling to fix a major security flaw with its Internet Explorer browser. Well speak to the company which found the bug. This is worldwide exchange. The headlines today, bps First Quarter profit, ahead of forecasts. The oil giant says earnings at rosneft have been hit by weaker ruble as that firm has also been hit by u. S. Sanctions. Deutsche bank trading higher, the german lender beats profit targets and has announced a bond issue to increase the strength of its Balance Sheet. Peugeot launches a 2 billion rights issue. Plus, its payday for nokia shareholders. The equipmentmaker says it will hand 3 billion back to investors after a strong First Quarter. The firms also unveiled a new ceo. Youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And we have the latest methodology being released for the eu stress test of its banks. Theyre going to have to show simultaneous routes in bond, property and stocks. The toughest date by regulators to date. It all aiming to restore confidence in the Banking Sector and industry that have to be rescued by the taxpayers in the financial crisis. Lets run through some of these. The stress tests includes the commercial real estate sector. It includes fx shocks as well in europe. A deviation from the eu gdp baseline. By 2. 2 in 2014. The eu unemployment is higher than the baseline level by 0. 6 . And the stress test will be conducted on a sample of 124 eu banks and will cover at least 50 of each national Banking Sector. The adverse scenario also include an increase in global bond yields as well and stalling policy reforms. Thats some of the things that are going to go into it. Simon still with us from otas technologies. Is it stressful enough, do you think . Looking through the headlines that have just come out, it looks like that is the type of scenario we were looking for. It was very much designed to be more stressful than the previous tests. Because there had been a lot of criticism about the earlier ones they just didnt really take into account sufficient factors. Of course, the banks are generally stronger now. And even the weakest banks in europe have been getting ready for the asset quality review. Yes. By raising equity. The banks are able to take stronger stress tests now. There is always a chicken and the egg in this. If theyre that strong in the first round, they could never be that strong. They could never be that strong. Theres a risk that some of the banks misinterpret whats going on. I would imagine the stress tests are here to stay. I imagine theyre going to get ever tougher. Its not hard to design scenarios in which leveraged institutions like banks go bust. I imagine theyll get ever harder. Its a way and means of the eu forcing higher and higher Capital Requirements on banks. So the question investors have to Ask Management is, have you done enough to prepare for a scenario which capital will get more onerous or are you twiddling your thumbs with loads of writeoffs still to do . Which means well have sharp division. Those will be in a position to lend and make money. You either win or lose. Are we going to clear out the middle ground . I think we will. Weve seen a fantastic rally in some of the banks that have been in the troubled category, driven by a tremendous move in sovereign credit rates, down in peripheral economies, accompanied by a collapse in the cost of credit for italian, spanish, portuguese banks. These are the institutions where they still have to make the writedowns, an additional equity that shareholders put into banks maybe as a result of these stress tests, probably dont go to productive use, just gets written off. I think investors will start to shift now towards the Higher Quality institutions with the stronger Balance Sheets. You can use additional equity to lend money and grow. Yes. One of the key points here is whether, you know, how much of a liability whether its a liability as an Asset Holding huge quantities of sovereign debt. Is it a good or bad thing . I dont know. Clearly, its been a huge positive. The rates have collapsed. If youre going to do a proper stress test on it, it will become a negative. Simon, good to see you. Simon maughan from otas technologies. Currently its called higher on the open by around another 53 points or so. The s p 500 is higher by 7 points and the nasdaq which was down to negative yesterday, not by much, currently called higher by around 16, 17 points. The open equities have been firm as well. Helped on the whole by good earnings for today. The cac current is flat. The micex in russia up by a percent. The glitch affects versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer. Which collectively account for 50 of global web traffic. The vulnerability was discovered by a softwaremaker. Joining us now is the chief operating officer. Good to see you. How are you. All right. How disturbing is this. You have to take notice of it. When you have 25 of the desktops vulnerable, you have to do something. As we did the investigation, we learned the malware got there by an attack we had never seen before. Which is new about this attack . Theres no patch for it. Theres a way to break in a machine and we just dont have a patch. A patch . A patch, exactly. Have you ever heard of patch tuesday . Right. That shows you how often we have to patch things. Every every tuesday. Its just something it means theres a front door thats open and theres no locks on that door. Thats what a zero day is. That to me sounds slightly sort of is this a new generation of malware. There used to be hundreds of zero days every year. Last year there were approximately a dozen or so. Maybe this year, the same thing, 12 to 15 zero day attacks, meaning ways to break into peoples machines with simply no patch available. You come out with this, you can do everything right but still have a security breach, right . Right. If you can do everything right and still have a security breach, how do you stop it . How do you stop it . Exactly right. Its really hard to secure the enterpri enterprise, somebody will click on a link and hack themselves essentially. Something will open an attachment. That attachment will have an evil payload. What you try to do, make sure if somebody does get around the endaround, that you eliminate the impacting consequence, youre right on it, meaning from the moment theres an alert to the moment you know how to fix it or do something about it is timely enough that the bad guys dont steal anything. What is microsoft doing right now . Whats that . What are microsoft doing right now . Theyre coming up with compensating controls. There are other security programs that microsoft can put on your machine to help you detect some of the attacks. The u. S. And uk governments have come out and said, look, dont use it. Right. Are they going too far . I think you might as well be as cautious as possible. The average consumer may not want to go through ten instructions on how to get other security safeguards in place. Right now, the easiest way to avoid being compromised by this exploit is simply dont use Internet Explorer. The good news is, there are other browsers you can use in the meantime as well. Absolutely. Good to see you, kevin. Thank you. Congratulations on finding that. Thank you. As well. Maybe those zero days well get less of. That would be good. Thank you. Chief officer from fireeye. At t service which could be available by late 2015 aims to bring a smoother and faster connection on board flights via the companys 4g lte wireless network. Gogo has contracts with most airlines and has Equipment Installed on planes. Shares dropped nearly 19 after hours, though. Netflix struck a deal with verizon to get faster delivery of its tv shows and movies, the second such deal the firm reached to pay fees for quicker access to Broadband Networks that it argues should be free. Terms havent been disclosed. In february, netflix signed a deal with comcast, the parent of cnbc. Reed hastings says he reluctantly agreed to pay fees so customers would get a better service. Netflix today in frankfurt up nearly 4 . Still to come, the future of one major u. S. Sports franchise could be up in the air today after a tape of l. A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling allegedly making racist comments emerged this weekend. Are sponsors going to support or abandon the team . Well have the latest, next. Youre watching worldwide exchange. Bps business remains strong, despite sanctions by the u. S. Deutsche bank shares jump, beating profit targets. No word on the rumored hike. And more tapering should be on the way. The fed kicks off its twoday meeting today. More on the fed meeting to come. First, a path of tornadoes ripped through the u. S. State of arkansas carving an 80mile path of destruction through the capital little rock. Winds reached some 136 Miles Per Hour as many lost their homes and businesses. The National Weather service is warning of further storms across the midwest and the south. Joining us for more is Jennifer Delgado from the weather channel. Good morning to you, jennifer. Whats going to happen with those storms now . Oh, yes, we are still tracking the storms right now. Were looking at a Severe Weather threat once again today. The spc has us at a moderate risk. You can see where the thunderstorm warnings are in the yellow box. We have a squall line moving through. We are seeing the area going through of strong storms. Another round is going to come later into the afternoon as we advance our graphics and show you the lightning out there. It is explosive. Today were looking at the Severe Weather threat and the stronger storms possibly producing these long track tornadoes. Weve had a history of of the storms producing tornadoes, even some earlier this morning suspected. Anywhere youre seeing in the shaded area is where well see the greatest risk for the storms to become strong in the afternoon as well as we go through tonight. In addition to the tornado threat, were talking about damaging winds as well as sizable hail. So this whole area is really going to be looking at this, going through tomorrow as well. As we talk about the Severe Weather threat, the other part of the story is when these storms move slow, they drop a tremendous amount of precipitation because the system, its not going anywhere anytime soon. As we show you, anywhere in this location we could see 3 to 5 inches of rainfall. That means flash flooding will be a problem in addition to that Severe Weather threat. Thats your total that were looking at. As we show you parts of the northeast, the big cities, including d. C. , new york and into parts of pennsylvania, well be looking at as well, 3 to 5 inches. In addition to the Severe Weather threat were talking about flooding being a concern. Of course this will have a big problem in travel delays, say, in atlanta, that is a huge airport. Thank you. Thats the latest from the weather channel. U. S. And canadian customers of mt. Gox have decided to settle their lawsuit against bitcoin exchange. Theyll accept their share of bitcoins that are still held by the company. Energy future holdings, the Texas Utility at the center of the biggest private equity buyout ever is reportedly set to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy as early as today. The company, formerly txu has reached an agreement to restructure. Kkr, tpg and goldman took it private in 2007. They thought Natural Gas Prices would rise would would allow txu to raise higher rates. Instead this inste instead, they fell. They lost billions. The owner of the l. A. Clippers franchise comes under fire for being caught on tape, allegedly making racist comments. Courtney reagan has been following the statement. Good to see you. I wonder what the fallout will be from sponsors. This one is a story that keeps the nba commissioner adam silver, he will discuss the leagues investigation into the matter and possible disciplinary action. Donald sterling was secretly recorded by his former girlfriend. Sterling warned her not to invite them to any future clippers games. The tape was released by the tmz website this weekend, earning condemnation from current players, lebron james, kobe bryant and other stars, like michael jordan. Samsung, kia motors, carmax, Virgin America as well as others deciding whether to suspend their relationship with the team. The clippers are currently in the playoffs, facing the Golden State Warriors in the first round on sunday. Players made a protest statement, throwing their warmup gear down on center court and wearing shirts inside out to cover up the teams logo. The clippers play game five of their series tonight. The nba will announce its findings from an investigation today. The league doesnt have the power to force sterling to sell the clippers, which hes owned since 1981. Commissioner adam silver can levy a feign of up to a Million Dollars without the other owners consent. The nba could invoke a clause to withdraw sterling from daytoday operations in order to protect the leagues best interest. What a mess. Ross, back to you. Thank you for that story. Good to see you. Fed policymakers are meeting today. What are we going to expect after this twoday meeting . Well get to washington for more right after this break. Honestly, im pouring everything i have into this place. Thats why i got a new windows 2 in 1. It has exactly what i need for half of what i thought id pay. And i dont need to be online for it to work. It runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. But its fun, too with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, cause a good playlist is good for business. I need the bosss signature for this. Im the boss. Honestly i wanna see you be brave without standard leather. You are feeling exhilarated with frontwheel drive. You are feeling powerful with a 4cylinder engine. [ male announcer ] open your eyes. To the 6cylinder, 8speed lexus gs. With more standard horsepower than any of its german competitors. This is a wakeup call. This is a wakeup call. Heres a good one seattle. What did geico say to the mariner . We could save you a boatload foghorn sounds loudly whats seattles favorite noise . The puget sound foghorn sounds loudly all right, never mind doesnt matter. This is a classic. What does an alien seamstress sew with . A space needle foghorn sounds loudly continuously oh come off it captain geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Ahead of the open today, futures indicating well get a tick higher again this morning. The currently dow futures are indicating a start higher by around 50 points. The s p 500 is calling that index higher. The nasdaq being down, currently called higher by around 18 points. This as the fed begins a twoday meeting today. The decision is due wednesday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern. The fomc widely expected to taper bond buying by 10 billion. Fisher, brainard and powell, are expected to be nominated. Greg joins us from washington, d. C. Greg, good to see you, as always. Good morning, ross. The feds done a good job now, were not really talking about this. Its a yawn,en is it, another cut in 10 billion, well wrap up by the end of the autumn. Job done. Thats what they would like, isnt it . The last meeting in march it was Janet Yellens first turn before the cameras. And it was probably a lit more exciting than she and the ref of us were counting on. There was a move in the hawkish direction. She dropped those words, a considerable period could be six months, implying that the fed could raise Interest Rates in the first half instead of the second half. That was more than we bargained for. It got things excited. Weve since seen a few fed officials modify if not fully walk back the hawkishness of those remarks. The data has come in pretty much on track with where the fed and the consensus expects it to be. The weatherrelated hit seems to have largely faded. The latest data on employment, jobless claims, retail sales, all suggesting were back on track for normal growth. Its hard to see why there should be so much divergence in the feds program. Another 10 billion off the monthly qe pace and continuing to lower Interest Rates for the time being. Whats the key bit of data . Wage pressures . What is janet yellen focused on most . Well, she has listed a whole variety of labor market data shes looking at, everything from employment to the number of people working part time who would like to actually work full time, nominal wages, the vacancy rate, all these sorts of things. She has a dashboard with a dozen indicators. Shes wisely avoided having to pay too much attention to any single factor. I think theres two indicators im personally watching closely. The first one is inflation. A lot of people at the fed have been concerned and perplexed, frankly that the inflation rate continues to trend below 2 , which is their target. On a core basis, using their preferred index its a little over 1 . They made it clear that unless they see the number raise close to 2 , theyre not going to raise rates. There may be a modest uptick in core inflation. Were still a long ways from the 2 level. The other is one you just mentioned, wages. In discussing labor market developments, janet yellen has said what can we look to that gives us a fair bit of confidence that the slack in the labor market, the excess resources of people looking for work is starting to diminish . Shes a number of times pointed to wage pressures. Im looking closely at month over month and year over year indicators. Those two have slowly started moving up, but not enough to suggest were running out of slack, much less having an inflation problem. Thanks for that. All right. Tomorrow, u. S. Economics editor and cnbc contributor. Just before we go, reminder that reports that siemens may kiet with a ge bid after president Francois Hollande. He says the government would block any unfit deal. Translator the government will take the necessary steps to defend the interests of our country. More of the interview coming up. Squawk box up right now. Good morning and welcome to squawk box. Did disney want to add buzz feed to the Magic Kingdom . Well hear from the chief of the mouse house, bob iger. And could one of the ugliest feuds on wall street be coming to an end . Did carl icahn and bill ackman kiss and make up . Its tuesday, april 29th, 2014. Squawk box begins right now. Why cant we be friends why cant we be friends why cant we be friends good morning, everybody. Welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. We do have a big morning for cnbc. One hour from now, cnbcs first 25 list of the most influential rebels, icons and leaders that transformed the Business World will be unveiled, thats coming up at 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. Well have a sneak peek at the number 15 on the list later this hour. Earnings central heating up today, drugmakers merck, bristolmyers and forest labs all out this morning. Forest labs ceo will be talking to us first on cnbc later in the show. After the bell, ebay and twitter will be capping off the day. Meantime in washington, the Federal Reserve kicking off a twoday meeting, leading to an announcement on wednesday after noon. This sun with of the meetings that does not come with a news conference. Check out the markets right now. Yesterday we did see a mixed day for the markets. The dow was up by about 87