Profits. Nestle hits the sweet spot. Despite a slow down in emerging markets. Coming up we speak to the ceo of the swiss consumer giant. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange bringing you Business News from around the globe. Straight to our top story this morning, in the last ten minutes the ecb has denied or thes that policy makers have discussed capital controls from greece. The report came from a german newspaper citing bank sources. Anneta lets start with you. Were just hearing from the ecb that the governing counsel has not passed capital controls for greece. That refers to the report we had this morning in which they were quoting ecb officials saying that it would be a good idea for greece to install capital controls looking at the outflow of deposits which were currently seeing. Of course the ecb is saying that has not been dispatched from the governing council but putting that official opinion aside, looking at the rational behind spreading such rumor at that point in time could lead to further destabilization of greece and the Banking Sector because if you put the topic of capitol controls on the agenda it itself could trigger their deposits from the banks and that in itself could trigger a bank branch. That of course is not in the interest of the ecb itself because the ecb just yesterday increased at least raised the caps for emergency liquidity assistance for greek banks to 68. 3 billion wrur 68. 3 billion euros. That was less than the bank of greece actually hoped for. That also tells us a story. Greek banks are losing deposits by the minutes. And as high of the pace of them losing deposits the higher likelihood as well that they need more money from the ecb and the likelihood then is that the ecb at one point in time i say you dont have a liquidity problem, you have a solvency problem. Back to you. Thank you. Julia what are you having if the ecb were discussing capital controls for greece it would highlight the ecb was very concerned about the unfolding situation. I think as far as greece is concerned i agree with annetta its completely unacceptful but if it helps to focus minds about how important a deal is then we can say theres a use in that at least. From what im hearing from sources in athens a hot of progress has been made over the last 24 hours. The greek officials here working closely with the euro group. Not the commission we heard reports of on monday to try to thrash out a proposal acceptable to both sides of this stage and hopeful that what they have come up with will be acceptable at this stage. High hopes as far as the greeks are concerned. We have heard reports yesterday of the Euro Group Meeting on friday or perhaps a teleconference. So that fits it too. But a teleconference more likely than getting all the finance ministers over here but in terms of broader details we have to wait and see. Theres been reports that it follows closely to what we proposals are concerned. I look at the details o on this and my own personal opinion as far as the difficulty in predicting just what the economy is going to look like going forwar. Particularly what we have seen. I wonder if we get an extension in place right now and thrash out the details afterwards. He said lets get an extension in place and talk about the details. We have to wait and see. We of course havent even had a formal announcement of a proposal placed at this stage but from what im hearing in athens hope we reach a deal in the next couple of days. Back to you. Thank you very much for your report. Edmond would you value a euro and a greek bank the same as you would a euro in a german bank this morning . Ultimately yes. Ultimately yes because i think that we are just playing right now. Greece is going to have to come for a deal. Theyre pushing for the best deal they can get. Who wouldnt and theyre pushing back saying basically, tough. You have to accept some conditions. Well loosen but were not going to give you everything you want but if we do that now how is it going to look for us. But if you had big savings of euros in a greek bank surely you would want to move some of it elsewhere, wouldnt you . Depends. If you were nongreek you wouldnt have any savings in a greek bank would you . Frankly the capital flows out of greece have been monumental already. Whos left . The only people that have money there are the middle class that dont have quite enough money to be worth moving outside of greece. Lets talk about the developing story about the ecb denying that theyre suggesting the greeks to introduce capital controls but maybe thats not such a bad idea. There has been a massive withdrawal of deposits from greek banks. Greek banks are losing around 2 billion jurors rows of deposits a week. Of course they are but this is what we have seen in other countries like russia. People want to get their money out and get it safe. I understand that perfectly but capital controls are not helpful. They are very much a last resort i think if you want to be a conspiracy theorists you can say theyre heaping more pressure on the greek governments by incorrectly leak leaking this idea to make it more difficult for the finance minister. Help our audience understand what that means. Economics 101 is you want free trade. You want move to be able to move boarders because that encourages investment. Capital controls what hope is there ever for greek to atrack investment from board. Zero. But the concern is about protecting their banks seeing an acceleration of the withdrawals. But if the greek government came to an agreement, that would solve the problem, wouldnt it now . Lets move the debate on from greece and over the last week or two we had descent data out of europe and perhaps europe some of the economies have turned the corner even before it started. Thats crazy, the euro zone wheres the growth, why would i bother . Lets turn it around the other way. The u. S. Market is super expensive. You look at the u. K. And of course we have may election general elections which will introduce a lot of political uncertainty, particularly in a certain number of banks and utilities. So maybe the u. K. Is not the place to be. The euro zone everyone loves to hate. Everyone is underinvested and some numbers start to look good in germany. Breaking news. I want to bring you up to date. Greece has requested theres speculation this would take place but according to a greek Government Official greece has requested an extension of that agreement. There was talk last night that finance minister would request a loan extension and greece has requested that extension from the euro zone for six months as the market has been speculating. I would love to get your Quick Reaction to this news because were seeing the euro dollar move on this. We all knew it was going to happen. More excited edmund. No, i love the greeks but dont get me wrong. To me i think people are blowing it out of all proportion. We know theyre going to come to a deal and both sides are going to introduce a little bit of volatility. Im quite surprised just to look at the reaction of equity and bond markets. They dont care. Some of the market cares. We have been looking at yields. Its moving quite significantly off the news in the last two minutes. Are we going o toto talk about two minute trading. But if we get a resolution to the greek issue and the euros move thats a good positive step. I think youre right. Were moving closer to the resolution and compromise which will allow the greek finance minister to present the deal as some sort of win for the greek people and for the European Union youd say we didnt give in completely. So we will eventually get to that winwin situation. Edmund does not care about greece. Thats the headline there. Well continue discussion around greece and the euro as well and the fed minutes that did move markets last night. Now it was a strong day in Continental Europe yesterday. Less so for the ftse and that meant we opened quite significantly down yesterday. We opened down. 7 in the stoxx 600. You can see a rally. Seeing us down. 3 . Edmund doesnt think thats because were Getting Better news out of the greece concern. But yoyoing either way. Were down only. 3 . Having rallied in the last 20 minutes. Lets look at the individual markets, the ftse 100 is down down. 2 . That doesnt help Energy Sectors. The dax just below. Like wise france and athens is rallying a little bit today. A sub 1 move in the athens index. Nothing too significant for greece. Lets look at bond rates. The u. S. Ten year did move yesterday. Nonetheless, lets put that in perspective. We have yields higher than we were a week ago and then a month ago. We just came back from being above 2. 1 . A little bit of a move there. In italy 1. 65 and even if we have had some kind of agreement coming out of greece or request for extension of that bailout term were still at 10. 26 . The range bound for the ten year in greece is between 10. 5 and 9. 5 so were still at elevated status. A quick look and the euro rallied a little bit in the last 20 minutes. Its 1. 143 as we look at things at the moment. The most significant mover today is the rouble which slid about half a percent. Worth pointing out, sterling was particularly strong yesterday after wage growth came at 2. 1 significantly ahead of where core inflation is of course and thats saw the pound climb over half a percent. Were at just above flat today, 1546. Commodities, oil slid late in trade yesterday, particularly in the u. S. Hours and were catching up with that today. It did go below 50 earlyier today. Brent has fallen over the last 24 hours. 58. 8 down to 2. 84 . Whats coming up . Coming up on Worldwide Exchange las vegas impose dark. Yes, thats right. Find out why sin city turned off its lights for only the 7th time in history and as a west coast port standoff continues we ask if the dispute will hurt retailers like walmart that does report earnings today. And first snap chat now pinterest. How much it could value the tech start up. They do confirm a very Challenging Market for 2015 according to an analyst but the good news is the capital levels are still very strong and the company did pay another special dividend plus it announced a 1 billion Share Buy Back program and were hired by 0. 4 here. The key metric is 4. 5 . That was in line with expectations but keep in mind this is the second year in a row they missed the organic growth model of 5. 6 but theyre expecting to return to the 5 growth target. Also when we do speak to the ceo later on this morning at Worldwide Exchange i will want to know from him how he is dealing with the inflationary environment. How much conversation power do they have . Thats coming up in 45 minutes time. Were looking forward to it. Well keep an eye on nestle. The fed may not be in any rush to raise Interest Rates. Minutes from last months meeting show more officials lean to it keeping them at 0 longer than wanting a move. A hike could hurt the u. S. Economic recovery while only several thought a later move could result in higher inflation. Here we go. Another fed minute coming in which does tell us perhaps a june rate hike not on the table. Im not surprised at all. I have been having this argument time and time again. Labor participation still at record lows. Interestingly if you look at some of the last numbers while theyre being fantastic in payrolls. What is going on . And the answer is people are not counter in the labor force statistics. They are coming back possibly. Youve seen the u. S. Ten year yield push above 10 . It did move yesterday but people are pretty positive. Yeah theyre still saying second half. People are very fluid. Personally id say second half. It was interesting when reading the fed minutes the fed did reference the stronger dollar. It called it a persistent source of restraint. Could that be a reason they keep rates lower for a longer period of time . Obviously. They said it was a bigger concern. Theyve had a weaker dollar for a long time. They wouldnt reference it because the longterm is a weaker dollar that causes inflation. It inflates the costs of imports. For the first time the boot is on the other foot. Now just as the euro the ecb used to refer to the bank of england, now the fed is starting. What they should say is its a form of monetary tightening. Were doing nothing but the currency is doing the job for us and we dont need to do anymore. We know earlier you really like european equities but theres certain types of u. S. Equities you like. Are valuations justified at the moment. Its a weird market in the u. S. In many areas the answer is no. I would say health care and biotech an excellent value. Biotech come on. Toe to toe, seema, 5,000. Where was the nasdaq last at 500 . March of 2000. How many years ago . 15 years. Have earnings gone up. Its all relative. Year over year yes earnings are up. Yes earns are exploded for the nasdaq. Draw the chart. Old tech names are still seeing stagnant growth. Not like facebook and twitter. What is stagnant growth. Youre not seeing an incremental increase in growth as we typically saw in the 1990s. But mathematically thats the first derivative. The first is the growth rate itself. Are they exhibiting positive Earnings Growth . Yes or no. Depends on who you ask. Microsoft, apple, cisco. Apple for sure. Is it trading at a pe of Something Like 10 or 11 times right now, maybe 12. Isnt it 13. Extra cash pile. Around apple its 13 right now. Whats it for the s p. 16. Its higher. So you take all of those names you mentioned, sis coe, microsoft and apple all trading at massive discounts. What about the facebook and go pros shouldnt be we worry about that . Dont care about them. Its means a small portion of the market which is massively overvalued i wont go near. Whats your top picks. Gilead sciences biotech company, hepatitis c, number one job rate. 11. Despite the run up weve seen in that stock. Its a big mover. Its going to show us great move this time. Its still going to take jumbo market share. Its still going to be the number one player for the next few years. Quallcomm . I like quallcomm but i like a chip equipment maker. Cheap, blowout recent results and im thinking its cheap, theyre breaking new highs im having some. Did you ever want a job in journalism . Because you do a great job of animating. I couldnt do this day after day. The getting up early is not for me. The Energy Sector you happen to be dipping a toe in . Yes but yes but i would say when you look at the economics of the oil sector its nonsense u. S. Production is back where it was in the 70s. So theyre up between 60 and 80 barrel all in price. Wti is still under 60. Rig counts are collapsing. That tells me the oil price isnt going to go back down to 50 40 50. Youre going to have to trade it because its been massive volatility. And inventories yesterday came in five times higher than we expected. So will you see todays fall back in the oil price and yesterdays fall back was justified . I think we have bottomed. I think we have bottomed but the process can be volatile and take a number of months. With these statistics you get one good one and one bad one. The market reacts one way one day and another way the next. We will see a slow gradual climb in the oil price. Does the nasdaq break 5000 this year . Of course it does. Should investors stay to the sidelines . No but they shown buy stuff like facebook or go near the new ipos because theyre ridiculously overpriced and they should stick to apple and microsoft that generates good earnings. Doesnt that worry you that thats a pretty consensus trade . Yes. Which is why i like oil. Most people are scared to go for oil. Go for yield. One area in Energy Fracking sand producers. The sand used high crush, go for those. Going for yield, those three probably would be. Thank you for joining us. A great half an hour with you. And lets talk more about tech. Yahoo will be courting atpp makers in San Francisco today. Ceo marissa myer gives a speech at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. They have been Holding Similar events for more than five years. They expect yahoo to pass twitter in mobile ad revenue for the first time this year. Shares of yahoo down 1 in todays trade. But keep in mind over the past 12 months up about 36 . Samsung may be looking to challenge apple pay. Theyre booking loop pay for an undisclosed amount. It can turn a card reader into a touch less receiver. Unlike apple pay it works in about 90 of existing point of sale retail terminals. Samsung was an investor in the company already. Pinterest is in talks to raise 500 million in a new round of funding. That could value the social media cite at 11 billion. If thats not a sign were in a tech bubble i dont know what is. Thats double its current valuation. Pinterest plans to raise the money in the coming weeks. The news comes days after reports that snap chat was looking to raise money to value it. Im sure youre a big fan of snapchat. Yes valuation inside. Are you a Snapchat User . It took up too much time. The ecb releases minutes for the first time. Well look at the impact of the qe program on poland and hungary coming up next. The greek government asked for a six month extension of its facility agreement. This as they deny policy makers discuss capital controls for athens. They voice concerns about raising rates too soon. Policy makers are concerned about low inflation and problems abroad. Oil back on the slide amid expectations of record u. S. Inventories. Shares of u. S. Utilities as the slump in Energy Prices hurts profits. Keep an eye on nestle its getting the sweet spot earnings in line with expectation. Coming up the ceo comes on cnbcs Worldwide Exchange. Take a look at european markets. Of course news of the bailout extension by six months not impacting markets right now. Perhaps thats already priced in. Ftse 100 down. The cac 40 seeing green but the italian markets trading slightly in negative territory. How do bonds look . We have the greek ten year still in around 10. 2 . Were looking at things in the u. S. We saw a little pull back of the greek yield. A little bit more bond buying. Were still above 2 . Were higher in yield terms than a week ago or month ago which highlights some of the more positive sentiment out of the u. S. Over those two time periods. Germany. 37 . Now straight to our top story this morning. The greek government asked for a six month extension of its, quote, master financial facilities agreement. Lets bring you a flash relating to the capital controls that we heard the story developing this morning or earlier today the ecb denied they would even discuss that and a greek Government Spokesperson has come out to say speculation of capital controls has no bearing on reality. Lets get out to julia in brussels. Julia. Actually i want to deal wilfred with the capital controls right now and reiterate what annetta has been saying all morning. How unhelpful this and how dangerous regarding capital controls is for a country. Especially when we heard from the ecb and they werent discussed on wednesday and the dangers of the situation as far as banks are concerned by speculation. So drawing a line into that incredibly important at this stage. But as you quite rightly said a proposal to extend the master financial agreement, under the eff is what the greeks have asked for. We have been talking about this all morning of course and this is what we were expecting after sources in athens suggested similar to me. This has been talked about within the euro group. I want to make that clear at this stage too. The hope from the greeks is this will likely be agreed over the next couple of days. Im also hearing its likely to be a Conference Call with the euro group held tomorrow rather than actually a meeting in person. Well have to wait and see but that ties with what im hearing right now as well in terms of potential detail. We have to wait for that but i wonder from my own personal conversations here given the difficulties in predicting whats going on with the greek economy, particularly over the last couple of months whether or not we wait and after we get this deal as far as negotiations and discussions as far as potential reforms going forward. Obviously we heard from him the last couple of days and as far as labor is concerned theyre firm right now but we have to see what happens with this negotiations. The working group here going to discuss this today. Weve seen what comes out of that meeting before we hear any formal announcement. Guys, back to you. Thank you very much. We want to get you up to speed on a developing story when it comes to adidas. The german based athletic maker. Adidas says their board launched a formal search to find a successor to the long serving ceo. Interestingly enough the ceo of adidas did tell a german newspaper he had no intention of stepping down but their board has launched a formal search to find a successor to the current ceo. As you can see adidas shares popping on the back of the news about 1. 3 . Well keep you up to date on that story. Meanwhile, the European Central bank will for the first time publish the meaninutes from one of the last meetings today. What do you think these Meeting Minutes will highlight for investors . Well actually it will be interesting to see the rational behind their discussion. What were probably getting is the rational behind the pros and cons of quantitative easing. We already know there was a big majority behind implementing qe as soon as january 22nd when mario draghi announced it but probably will get more of the thinking of the ecb and also could be interesting to see why they decided on the amount of pay. Perhaps we get some insight on that. To bring you perhaps a little bit of insight, this whole publication of the public accounts as the ecb is calling it, has very long history. I think it was 2012 when they first started to think about it. They were misread by analysts. So it took a long time. Of course they were afraid that if you publish minutes with the names and decisions like the fed is doing that could read to the Central Bank Policies in the euro zone. They all come from different nations with different problems and we already have the central bankers in the euro zone and probably they would try to not have that propelled by the minutes. Thank you. Make sure to stay on cnbc. We will be breaking into u. S. Programming at 13k 30 cet. Plus analysis of what it means for investors. What funds are they going to use . It will be interesting to see. Maybe janet yellen will talk about how to release these minutes. Well bring you that at 12 30 london time. The next guest is the emerging market economist. Thank you for joining us. Of course the on going debate good deflation versus bad deflation. In general, you think theyre facing the good kind. Exactly. Its disinflation caused by oil prices. Food as well in eastern europe. Partly by the sanctions that russia put in place preventing imports. Were not really seeing proper deflation in terms of core inflation and negative territory. Durable goods purchases being delayed and Central Banks in the region are aware of this but equally aware of the wall of money theyre about to face coming through into march as and theyre focused more on that as opposed to inflation itself. What do we need to see that makes you convinced it maintains in the good camp and not the bad camp. Because good deflation can cause bad deflation. What were looking at is consumer sentiment. Were looking at consumption data in gdp and real wage growth as well. At the moment its about 5 . Thats a huge boost to household Balance Sheets going on. So those data should give us an indication of whats going on. In the euro zone theyre upside down. Come aresome are calling this the year of central bank activism. Yesterday hungary announcing a quantitative easing program. Is this the new normal . Should we be expecting a more pivotal role as they deal with more slushish growth here in europe but theyre dealing with declining business because of russia. Exactly. Well it was the extension of a Different Program to boost growth. Its quite political but shows the need to keep conditions very very loose in the face of what the ecb will be doing. In Czech Republic the market is humming about the 27 euro check flaw in place. We think that will stick in place. Theres a long euro check to take a bet on that at the moment. Poland is having the most difficult time. Very split. Its worried about needing to keep hold of a certain amount of ammo in case of a more severe deterioration in case of greece but likely to see a lot of capital in flow. Poland is an interesting place. Investors in europe will see all of their bonds bought up by the ecb. Polands looks like a semideveloped marketplace and that play force it. We can see them develop out of the economies and look to these markets plus the search for yield given the relatively low yields across the euro zone . Exactly. South africa as well even where you see the policy talking about keeping rates unchanged for a couple of months not even cutting rates but really its a matter of timing we have a lot of excess buying going on and bonds. Theres probably three to six months where the ecb will be buying out their excess demand before people start looking elsewhere. Its going to be very supportive for particularly external debt and euro denominated external debt for places like hungary, romania and places like that and local markets as well to a degree. Somewhere like poland you think might benefit but other countries might not. Well Czech Republic is probably the most activist. It has a currency intervention policy with the flaw and might raise that flaw to weaken it further. Hun fwrks hungary and poland are unlikely to take them. Russia theres not even a debate about good or bad inflation. Its the opposite. Very serious inflation. Whats your view on that . It should probably peak around 20 . Caused by sanctions and supply difficulties. For us actually the real sort of impact on the economy is only coming through the end of this year when you see it drag particularly around lack of oil investment, sanctions, industries that arent investing. You start getting the Economic Impact into employment. You can make a case about greater pressure on putin. At the moment that real shock isnt coming through into the economy so its not really possible to say theres as much dissatisfaction against whats going on there as there might be through into next year. Its a long wait given whats happening in ukraine. A lot of events can happen between now and there. Something well continue to watch but you write that quantitative easing will be beneficial for a lot of these emerging european economies. If you had to pick one, whats the one our viewers should know about or be watching as a break out over the next couple of months . In terms of markets, probably poland. Poland is your pick. Thats the one that looks most likely like a developed market people can rotate into. Well see if youre right. Emerging market economist, pleasure to have you on thank you. And one of the largest schemes in history could be headed for the small screen. 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Even so, january marked the 31st straight month of trade deficit from japan which is the longest period since comparable data became available more than 35 years ago. Thats all from the nikkei. Back to you. Thank you very much. A couple of flashes coming out that we want to bring you up to speed on. Frances president has spoken with merkel putin, poroshenko today and the flashes are that he says there is a break of ceasefire condemned in that telephone call and leaders have agreed to implemented minsk accord. The outcome of that meeting taking place between merkel putin, as well as poroshenko. The ukrainian president. He called on the u. N. To send peace keepers to enforce a ceasefire with russia. His comments come after they sent orders to the town for ukraines troops to with draw following intense fighting there. Meantime, the german chancellor says europe must continue to act to protect ukraines boarders. Translator your european peace order and the fact that we have been living in peace for the last 70 years is based on one principle. Boarders which have been agreed upon must not be breached. This has to be respected, dear friends, as anything else will destroy peace in europe. Oil futures plunged overnight after data revealed a surprise search in u. S. Crude inventories. As you can see today reacting in european trade. Were just below about 50 in wti. It did fall earlier. Brent at 58. 9, down 2. 66 . Those reports are early reports. We get the government figures today which is worth look out for. An explosion at an exxon refinery pushed up local gasoline prices yesterday as investors worried about how long the facility will be off line. Joe freyer has the story. The explosion was so strong. My house shook, the windows shook. Many thought they were in an earthquake. You could feel the vibration. It felt like just a pulse going through your body. The blast ripped apart buildings and damaged cars under refinery grounds. Four workers received minor injuries. It was a processing unit where the explosion occurred. Exxon mobil says we will have a thorough investigation of the event. After the explosion a giant flame burned atop the refinerys flair stack. Its like a safety valve relieving pressure when theres a problem. Neighbors see them on occasion but say this was bigger than normal. I saw the flames and then ash starting to drop. Many noticed the ash falling from the sky. This car coated was 2. 5 miles from the refinery. No armful air emissions have been detected but officials did issue a smoke advisory. I could see the big cloud in the air and i thought this is a good time to come in and close the doors and windows. Students in 13 schools were told to stay inside but that order was lifted within three hours of the blast. Now Lower Oil Prices a big boom for the Indian Consumer and, in fact the sensex approaching record levels with stocks rallying for seven consecutive full sectionssions. Investors are hoping for business friendly measures to boost growth. Lets talk more about the indian opportunity. Were joined here in studio. Its been fascinating just to watch the sustained rally in indian stocks. Even preprime minister modhi becoming prime minister. Does it have more room to run . Are investigators overly optimistic of what he can achieve. Clearly theres a lot of optimism in the price of most indian Financial Assets we inquirity markets. Im a bond investor and we actually still think theres room in the bond markets but youre right. A lot of this is local investors but also Foreign Investors. I noted research yesterday shows Foreign Ownership is at an all time high. It reflects the optimism about this revolution. And at the moment the performance we have seen is many more based on the hope he can execute reforms rather than initial examples of execution . Theres still a long way to go . Absolutely. Thats an accurate characterization. He doesnt have a majority in the upper house as we have to rely on the ordinances where he is doing this by executive degree if you want to do an anlage with what obama is doing in the u. S. But he does have this wave of popularity. So theres very limited opposition opposition. And the ordinances are meaningful and good ones. Investors have been waiting for them for quite a long time. But the economy still has some signs in improvement. Its rivaling china in terms of growth for this year and a narrowing of the current account deficits so there are fundamental reasons to be bullish on india, would you say . Absolutely. They just did this revision of historical gdp and theres still a lot of head scratching. India looks like it has grown 7. 5 in the last year. A lot of people have difficulty with what they see on the ground and High Frequency data but theres a rebound and inflation on the down side because of the oil story which has been very powerful. We could be looking at a balance this upcoming year. Mind blowing. Extremely powerful. And overall for india when we look at the overall attractiveness, the dem fwrafographics still powerful . Yeah we have been discussing how the economy can deal with a slow down in china. We believe its a structural phenomenon. Its still going to grow at a healthy rate. Just not the rate it used to go. Can india take the baton and play the role china served over the past decade. It probably cannot completely mitigate the full impact of a china slow down but we think it can help definitely smooth over this. Given the low rate environment the yields on indian bonds quite attractive but the big question is what happens when the u. S. Does raise rates . Will some of the Foreign Investors pull money and invest it back in the u. S. . India is a market where were probably less concerned because the indian bond market is the one market that doesnt have unfettered access. It restricts the ability to invest in india. When you look at foreign investor exposure its rather low compared to some regional peers so when the day of reckoning come when the u. S. Starts tightening policy india will be one of the less susceptible markets to that tightening. Less vulnerable. Interesting. Thank you for joining us. Now lets focus in on some of todays individual movers. Air france sharply lower after it announced plans to curb investment. This comes after 2014 earnings missed expectations. Stefen joins us from paris with the latest. They reported a significant reduction of its net loss for the last year. Its due to exceptional items so its not the most relevant indicator. It was almost unchanged and broadly in line with expectations and the gross operating profit was a bit weaker than expected. The disappointment comes in terms of out look. First of all, they have not been able to capitalize and benefit on the lower price of oil because of its aging policy. Its still paying the oil at twice the market price. Mainly you know we have a strong policy of hedging. Carry about 70 of opposition. So we had a little help given the hedging and the very complex relationship between brent and fuel price. It has an adverse effect on the heading. They also warn that currency swings will probably offset most of the gain from ois pricesl prices this year. That explains partly the disappointment for investors. The stock is down almost 5 on the french market. Stefen thank you very much. And lets get out to other news. Dont adjust your television set. This is not a major power outage. Casinos on the strip turned their lights off early this morning to honor the former luv basketball coach that died later last week. Las vegas has only gone dark seven times before. Following jfks assassination, elvis pressleys death and president reagan and passing of frank sinatra, sammy davis jr. , and dean martin. He lead them to a National Title in 1990. Have you been to vegas . That must be a long flight. It is good to tag on to an end of a trip to the states. Those nights are worth it. Absolutely worth it. Well take a quick break and check in on the price of gas in california as a fire rips through an exxon refinery in los angeles after the short break. Welcome everyone to Worldwide Exchange. Our second hour. Im seema mody. Im wilfred frost. Heres the headlines from around the world. U. S. Futures calling for a lower open with officials warning about raising rates too soon. The greek government asked for a six month extension of its facility agreement. This as the ecb announced policy makers discuss capital controls for athens. We get a check on the u. S. Consumer when walmart reports 4th Quarter Results before the opening bell. We have an exclusive interview with the ceo coming up later today. Fuel prices surge following an explosion at a major refinery but its not felt in the oil markets. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange. Bringing you Business News from around the globe. It was a choppy session on wall street but once we got the dovish minutes it was higher and the focus will remain on the nasdaq closing above 4900 which means its 100 points away from breaking 5000. A level it hasnt traded at in 15 years. Of course risk off sentiment we saw yields come back a little bit but they to remain higher than they have been for the last week or month and still above 2 which highlights a bit of positivity remains despite the occasional segment. Look at the euro zone yields. Some are having to go overseas in order to find some type of yield. Absolutely. Relative to u. S. History. They look low but of course relative to developed markets across the world today they look very attractive. Lets not get started on the negative yielding bonds. U. S. Pu tours, here we go. Dow jones down about 14 points in remarket trade. The nasdaq a 6 consecutive gain. Will the rally continue . Pointing to a lower open. Well have to see how trade pans out on this thursday morning. A good gauge of stocks across the world. We should point out japanese stocks closing at a 15 year high today. A lot of optimism around what the bank of japan is doing and here in europe the focus on earnings and the other focus on greece. Requesting the six month extension of its Loan Contract that was seen as a good sign in terms of the right step for greece because now it gives them more time to negotiate with european leaders. The big question is will they actually be able to see eye to eye with the euro group and European Central bank . Of course yesterday this comes after the ecb last night approved that 3. 3 billion euro extension of liquidity for the countrys banks. The dax seeing a little bit of green and athens is seeing a gain of 1. 2 but despite talks about this Loan Agreement theyre still not able to see eye to eye so are markets overly optimistic of what this will achieve . Still a long way to go and markets muted today because they were quite strong yesterday in Continental Europe. Lets also look in at the bond market and kick in with the u. S. Just come off the highs it saw a day or so ago because of the dovish comments from the fed but were still above 2 and higher than a week ago and than where we were about a month ago which has been really off those better than expected job numbers weve had over the last few weeks. German yields. 37 . Still low. U. K. 1. 81. We have seen yields kicking up in the u. K. Yesterday we saw a very strong wage growth number which meant sterling rallied over half a percent. Ranges between 9. 5 and 10. 5. Highlighting that were not out of the woods and focused on the necessary developments that still need to come. Lets look at currencies as well. Ill start with the pound as i said. Strong day yesterday. At 154. It had a stelthalth rally last january. So sterling doing well over the last few weeks. Particularly yesterday up. 5 . Lets look at the euro. It was up about. 4 . Its pulled back all of those gains today. Its just below the 114 handle to volatile day for the euro. Lets have a quick look at commodities and oil prices have been weak over the last 24 hours. Wti did fall below 50 a couple of hours ago. Brent is is below 60. Thats down 2. 3 today. Just when we thought oil prices were moving higher. The fed may not be in any rush to raise Interest Rates. Minutes from last months meeting showed they were keeping numbers at zero longer than those wanting a premature move. Some said it could hurt the economic recovery while several thought a later move could result in higher inflation. Joining us is the chief Investment Officer and portfolio manager. A pleasure to have you on this morning. Good to be here. There is an incredible sensitivity when it comes to when and if the fed will raise rates but given the dovish tone used or seen in the Meeting Minutes yesterday does it tell us that a june rate hike is off the table now . Its anyones guess as to whether theyre going to slightly raise Interest Rates in june or not. The more relevant thing is really the bigger message. The bigger message is were in this era of cheap money. This liquidity thats been induced to fight inflation. That trend is not going away. My view is in terms of Interest Rates were not going to see anything really dramatic or meaningful for quite sometime. And yesterdays minutes aside, has the data coming out of the u. S. Thus far in 2015 been better or worse . Fundamental data releases weve had . Wages, drops, productivity those sorts of things. Well its all consistent with an economy thats healing. Thats improving. The headline numbers in terms of the s p 500 earnings in the most recent earnings system if you look at the overall number they were disappointing. Year on year earnings were down Something Like 5. 6 but if you strip out the effects of Lower Oil Prices which were brutal in terms of the drop as well as the fact that low Interest Rates make longterm liabilities for some Companies Much more expensive so there were some write offs there, if you strip those things out, actually earnings are up around 5. 7 which is robust and very attractive. I know you focus more on the u. S. Margins but here in europe theres lingering concerns about greece and the prospect of the country exiting the euro zone. How worried are you about that happening . Well a lot of it is baked into Security Prices in europe. Certainly the domestically focused European Union companies are very cheap right now. More of the international, the glamour stocks, the loreals of the world are just as expensive as their american counter parts. They seem to be a bit oblivious but from what i have read and it seems if you look at the european history, the tea leaves looks like the germans are probably going to come to some sort of an accommodation and greece will muddle along. But margin quickly, going forward, where would you put your money in european equities or u. S. Stocks . Well theres been sort of a stealth correction going on in the u. S. Last year more stocks were down by more than 30 than were up by greater than 30 . So in the u. S. There are opportunities, particularly in the Asset Managers and some of the industrials, some of the high quality blue chip industrials which have had nice pull backs. In europe i think that the opportunities are really with the domestically focused companies. You can find any number of Companies Selling at 12 times earnings and yielding at 4 or 5 and thats a very attractive market now. Primarily in the mid cap space. Well catch and the mid caps did hit recently an all time high. Well continue to watch that space. Thank you so much. Lets also get you a rundown of what to watch on the trading day. Weekly jobless claims out at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. Expected to fall below 300,000 mark following a jump in filings the previous week. At 10 00 a. M. We get the philly fed survey and january leading indicators. Walmart reports 4th Quarter Results before the opening bell. Were talking about the Worlds Largest retailer. Price line tmobile u. S. And newmont, and nordstrom. Coming up an exclusive interview with Doug Mcmillon at 11 00 a. M. Eastern. Dont miss that one. Greece asked for an extension of its agreement. And reuters is reporting the euro group will meet on friday to discuss that request. Lets get to julia with the latest in brussels. Thanks so much. As you quite rightly said, formal request today to extend their master financial assistant facility agreement. We have been talking about this all morning. This process has been very well negotiated with the euro group. Thats rather than the European Commission which is what happened on monday according to reports and the deal was rejected. That could be crucial. I know the greek government is very hopeful that they have come up with something that will be signed off by the euro zone finance ministers. Expected to talk about this on friday. The working group behind the scenes expected to talk through some of the details today. We have to understand whats in the details but judging by what i heard the question is whether or not details like the reforms that greece goes forward with gets discussed after we have an extension in place and that fits with what the president of the euro group said to me earlier this week. Get an extension in place and then we negotiate details afterward but for now we have to see a final point on all the speculation as far as capital controls on greece is concerned. The ecb said that wasnt discussed at the governing council. Very important to draw a line and very dangerous to speculate as far as the greek banks are concerned and the most important point is to extend the deal for greece and sure up the country and discuss whats next. Back to you. Thank you. Progress but still a long way to go. Lets take a look at todays other top stories. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of an exxon mobil refinery in california. The blast ripped through the processing unit at the plant. State officials ordered exxon not to operate the unit until their investigation is complete and the shutdown could last for six months. Gas prices surged to the highest level on fears that local supplies would be tight. U. S. Commerce secretary joined the talks with shippers and dock workers at the west coast ports. Theyre urging the two sides to settle their contract dispute which has lead to major back ups of cargo at 29 ports. Several republicans who chair congressional committees are urging president obama to become more involved. So a developing story, indeed. Nestle reports sweet sales. Well talk to them after the short break. Know your Financial Plan wont keep you up at night. Know you have insights from Top Investment strategists to help set your mind at ease. Know that planning for retirement can be the least of your worries. With the guidance of a pnc investments financial advisor, know you can get help staying on track for the future youve always wanted. Welcome back. Lets give you headlines. U. S. Futures trade low off the back of Falling Crude prices. Greece seeks a six month extension of its facility as the ecb denies discussing capital controls and the Worlds Largest retailer walmart is set to report earnings with analysts predicting a slump in sales. Shares in the worlds Biggest Food Company nestle are trading higher after they reported earnings in line with expectations. The organic growth number came in at 4. 5 . Joining us now is paul the ceo of nestle. Always a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for taking the time. In the Fourth Quarter we saw a further deceleration of emerging Market Growth but pick up in developed markets. Has that continued into 2015 . Good morning, first. We have indeed a soft trading environment that has given us so much growth in the past. Its softer but still there is growth. What we saw is a little bit of a pick up for us at least in europe in our sales and thats good and because of innovation. So it has been involved for quite a while. For two or three years now but we have been able to grow inspite of all of that. Every time i talk to you, you seem pretty relaxed about not reaching that 5 to 6 nestle growth model. Organic growth of 5 to 6 . But for two years in a row you have underdelivered on that front. Now for 2015 you say you can get back to the lower end. To 5 . What makes you so optimistic . Because i feel and see the 4. 5 of last year the quality of it. Which is linked to our people and how they are aligned and committed and you feel the strength. When you go to even syria where we have people. Thats our strength. But then it is also built upon last years growth. So it is consistent and thanks to our Global Presence and strong portfolio and that combination gives me optimism. Growth is not going to be for free. Were going to have to go after it but we out perform and thats what motivates me. 5 to 6 is a line and 4. 5 last year is one of these fundamental blocks. We have overdelivered over so many years. Sometimes youre over it. Sometimes youre under it. You have to have growth every year. That is what we deliver. I know that your paul is very very well diversified company but you report in swiss francs. Your divy is in swiss francs. 20 of your debt is in swiss franc. How worried are you about the appreciation of the swiss franc . Are there any measures to offset that . First of all, this is not new. In the last six years the franc has strengthened over the others have weakened 40 . So what happened a few weeks ago is not new. We have an actual hedge. We produce and sell in the countries normally where we are active but we do have ten factories exporting and we have our rnt and we have to look like we did in the past on productive gains and see how we can make and compensate for strongest swiss franc. We have to continue doing that. It has an impact plus less than you would expect but still we have to cope with a small impact. I want to talk about the pricing environment in the euro zone. In many parts of the world theres disinflationary pressures. How tiff cut is it to keep prices stable let alone raise prices . First of all its easy to say but were not in a price value. We create new offerings and new value for the consumer so that pricing is not the same product during the whole cycle. Then again you have deflation nary environment in europe and other pars. And thats where that irons itself out over time. But these are basically that we are not taking too much into our daily decision making. Pricing is also done locally. We dont have a pricing policy worldwide because thats where the appropriate sense and amount of pricing can be done. Paul always great to speak with you. Thank you for your time. The ceo of nestle and as i have been saying before shares are among the topper formers on the smi. Were high by twothirds of 1 . Thank you for that interview. Now i want to get you up to speed over greece. Dprees has request greece has requested a extension of its contract. Will they give up on appeals theres a couple of flashes right now. Greece is committed to fiscal balance during this interim period under request under the requested Loan Agreement extension. The six month extension will give the government room to proceed with negotiations for a new government deal in line with a 2012 agreement. The new deal will include agreement on Debt Reduction and it looks like a meeting will be held on friday to discuss further around the prospect of the greek bailout extension. Exactly. You can see it was up best part of half a percent earlier. Now still to come here on the show the home of Country Music is frozen over. Were live as an arctic chill grips the nation. Were back in a couple of minutes. Record low temperatures are expected from Northern Michigan to the deep south as an arctic chill greets a fair amount of the u. S. We have jay gray live in nashville tennessee, seen as the capitol of u. S. Country music. Whats the scene like over there in nashville. How much is it snowing over there, jay . Good morning, seema. Brutally cold here. Theyre used to records but not the kind of records we have been seeing here lately. Record lows. Minus 14 celsius right now. Its been so cold for so long. You see the fountain here. Its turning into an ice statue. Just a representation of what they are dealing with. We have a dusting of snow on the ground. Ice as well. This is the type of situation and type of conditions people are dealing with across the country right now. Millions of people suffering through another arctic blast. Here theyre still working on power lines that were downed by the last system that came through just a few days ago. Heavy snow and ice causing those problems. We could see a bit of a warm up tomorrow maybe even 10 to 20 degrees and the concern is more snow in the forecast here and in other parts of the country. So its going to be a tough go for quite sometime as this cold air continues to have a grip on so many seema, wilfred. Stay warm out there, thank you for getting us a look at how the weather of course continues to persist but its not as cold as where i was over the past weekend. Iceland. It was extremely cold. 0 degrees celsius. He said it was minus 14. Hes a trooper. Lets talk about tech. First snap chat now pinterest. We reveal how much the latest round of funding could value the obstetrics start up at. Thats coming up. Plus take a look at futures after a positive day for wall street. Futures indicating a lower open. All eyes on the nasdaq getting close to breaking 5,000. About 100 points away and free market trade down about 5 points. Opportunities arent always obvious. Sometimes they just drop in. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. 30 minutes to go until we hit 6 00 a. M. Eastern. Here are your headlines from around the world. Got to start with markets. U. S. Futures calling for a lower open with officials warning about the impact of raising rates too soon. The greek government asked for six month extension. The Financial Assistance facility agreement. They have discussed capital con rolls for roll trolls for athens. Walmart reports fourth Quarter Results before the opening bell. We have an exclusive interview with the ceo coming up later today. Nestle suggests a dividend hike. The ceo tells nbc that hes optimistic on growth prospects. Were going to have to go after it but we outperformed the others and that is what motivates me. And at 4. 5 last year its one of these fundamental building blocks. And fuel prices in california surge following an explosion at a major refinery but thats not felt in the oil markets. Crude prices are down today on reports of u. S. Inventories. A choppy day of trade on wall street following that dovish fed Meeting Minutes. Right now arrows pointing to the downside. The dow indicating a lower open by 29 points. The nasdaq that was able to rise for the 6th consecutive day which does mean its 100 points away from breaking 5,000. A milestone for the has the tack. Its pointing to a lower open down about 5 points. Here in wrurpeurope, the focus continues to be on greece. Another crucial day. They have requested a six month extension of its Loan Contract. Athens says it will honor its financial obligations to all creditors. Some say this is a step in the right direction and it gives greece more time to find a negotiation or solution when it comes to its discussion with european policy makers. In the meantime lets get back to u. S. Markets. The nasdaq continues to move higher 6th consecutive day of gains. Is the nasdaq approaching this bubble territory . Lets get out to chad who is portfolio manager, a pleasure have to you. Lets talk more about the nasdaq out performance. Does the recent price action tell you that it can continue to move higher . We would take a more cautious tone for the overall markets at this Inflection Point with a forward looking pe multiple of 17 times we think that earnings as well as growth rates are going to be come what more decelerating over the course of 2015. Within the nasdaq there are certain seems of opportunity, Old World Technology but we do believe there will be a reversal from the high momentum stocks to more low momentum. I remember reporting on the nasdaq when it broke 4,000. Now were getting closer to 5,000. Does that scare you that were getting close to the tech bubble that ended up popping back in march of 2000 . Without a doubt it doesnt scare us at all. Valuations are high but not in bubble territory. We would be more cautious again but at this Inflection Point when we look at the global background of a decelerating Global Growth and earnings in the s p that are going to grow about 3 with Revenue Growth of 2 we would take more of a cautious tone. I want to talk about one of the reasons you listed that may make you want to trim equity positions. Why is that happening while equities are still able to push higher . We just believe that what happens within the credit markets is that you start to see a widening of the spread when you see growth rates within cash flows as well as perhaps political instability. The greek issue starts to occur. We decided to go from a neutral weight to more of a modest underweight. That doesnt mean were looking for a massive correction but if you see a 10 to 15 correction over the next six months we would not be shocked. Wow, thats a big call. Lets also talk about the feds latest Meeting Minutes. They did Reference Oil prices. Lower oil prices could slow Economic Growth which, chad that caught some market par gattis panlt participants by surprise. Lower oil tells you a couple of things. One is supply issues but also potential demand issues. You can see the demand curve go a little bit lower. It doesnt mean demand for oil is going to go negative. Squus means some what more muted. Backdrop for that is the euro zone. Were expecting growth within the euro zone to be about half a percent this year and within asia, in particular china, we think that gdp growth is going to be about 6. 5 . Hence the reason why oil prices will be in a trading range of about 55 barrel to about 40 tlrs dollars barrel. Lets talk about a couple of your top picks. You like ebay. Why is that. Well for full disclosure i own it personally as well as we own it for our fund. We think that the value of the company is roughly about 65 to 70. Thats our price target. The sum of the parts analysis is some what more exciting for us. We think, though that this is an earnings play. Our expectation for eps for 2016 is roughly 3. 50. So youre getting a value stock as a Value Investor at appropriate growth rate. Youre getting paid well for taking on the risk. So we would be a buyer of ebay. And the stock up about 6 over the past two weeks. Well leave it there. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. Lets take a look at some of todays other top stories. Shares trading higher after it formally launched a search for successor to the current ceo. His current contract runs until 2017 but he has been under pressure as rivals like nike gain big ground. They say it will have sufficient time for a smooth transition. Its up 6 today on the news. All right. Lets talk about apple. It is being sued by a maker of batteries for electric cars. A123 systems alleges apple has been poaching engineers since last summer to build a large scale battery division. Apple has not responded to the lawsuit. Last week apple was talking with Industry Experts with the aim of learning how to make its own electric cars. Weve been having an active discussion around the role apple is playing in the auto space. It will be interesting to see if they decide to launch this icar. Absolutely. Theyve had the same success as the iphone and ipad. Its a very different kettle of fish. They want all of those devices to be synced in terms of the ecosystem but a car is a different one. Well see. Absolutely. Yahoo will be courting app makers when its holds its first ever Developers Conference in San Francisco today. Marissa myer gives a speech at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Google and facebook have held similar events for more than five years. They expect them to pass ad revenue for the first time this year. Its down 1. 2 today. The competition is heating up between samsung and apple. Samsung may be looking to challenge apple pay. Theyre buying loop pay for an undisclosed amount. Unlike apple pay, loop pay works in about 90 of exiting point of sales retail terminals. Samsung was already an investor in the company taking a look at shares of samsung, they were down last time i checked. Now pinterest is reportedly in talks to raise 500 million in a new round of funding that could value the social media site at 11 billion. Thats double the current valuation. They plan to raise the money in the coming weeks. The news comes a day after reports that said snap chat was looking to raise money that would value it at 19 billion. We look at some of the Old Tech Companies and valuations in the late 1990s and saying were not seeing the same valuations today. Yahoo was at 1,000 times earnings from the late 1990s. Today its at 6 times the private market youre seeing the mega valuations. Uber at 40 billion. I think the case for buying traditional tech is it increases when you start seeing the ones when they increase dividends as well. Yeah, growth as value. Coming up, residents in Southern California are bracing for pain at the gas pump following an explosion at a major refinery near los angeles. Were getting you those details coming up after this break. The future of the market is never clear. But at t. Rowe price we can help guide your retirement savings. Our experience is one reason 100 of our Retirement Funds beat their 10year lipper averages. So wherever your longterm goals take you we can help you feel confident. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Welcome back. The nasdaq is in striking distance of breaking 5,000. Lets take a look at some of the big winners so far. There are 14 nasdaq 100 stocks up more than 1,000 percent since the market bottom in 2009. Heres some of the big names, sirius xm. Theyre the topper performing stocks. Netflix on a tear. Chinese social Media Company bidu and starbucks as well. Apple has played a significant role in pushing the nasdaq higher but apple only up about 980 since the market hit a low in 2009. Some of those best performers small stocks not like apple. One of the best performing is the Energy Sector which has been lagging and investigators in california are trying to determine the cause of an explosion at a major refinery on wednesday. An incident that could have a real impact on gasoline prices in the states. Lets have a look at this story with landon. The blast that happened wednesday morning local time felt like a small earthquake. It registered 1. 7onthe rictor scale. It was about 30 miles from downtown los angeles. Four contract workers were hurt. Theyre prohibiting exxon from operating the unit which produces 100,000 Barrels Per Day until their investigation is complete. The shutdown could last six months. Trade publication opis reports the unit exploded as the contract workers were doing maintenance and sources say the unit could take up to a year to replace. It produces 155,000 barrels of gasper day and accounts for 50 of all gas sold in california. Gas prices surged to the highest level on wednesday on fears local supplies will be tighter on the coming weeks. It rose as high as 40 above prices. The highest prices in the country for their gas. The state uses its own solution fighting gasoline. Blends not found in other states. As a result the majority of gas sold there comes from the 14 refineries which dont keep much fuel in storage. So prices can spike. They close down on wednesday and analysts say it could benefit from the exxon shutdown. Were going to switch focus and talk about vegas. I love vegas. Here is a picture of las vegas but dont adjust your tv sets because its not a major power out outage. They turned off their lights earlier this morning to honor the unlv basketball coach that died last week. Vegas has only gone dark seven times before including jfks assassination. I think we should do an episode of Worldwide Exchange from vegas. What do you do . I spend times going to shows and museums and getting food. Go to a party. Enjoy a show or two. Anything you want to tell us . What happens in vegas goes on instagram. Stays in vegas. Heres headlines at this hour. U. S. Futures trade lower off the back of the fed and Falling Crude prices. Greece seeking a six month extension as the ecb denies discussing capital controls and the Worlds Largest retailer walmart, is set to report earnings with analysts predicting a slump in profitability. Well get you the latest on that. Introducing preferred rewards from bank of america the new banking rewards program that rewards our customers, every day. Youll get things like rewards bonuses on credit cards. Extra interest on a savings account. Preferred pricing on merrill edge online trades and more. Across your banking and investing get used to getting more. Thats the power of more rewarding connections. Thats preferred rewards from bank of america. Lets get back to our top story right now. Greece will work with the euro zone over the next six months to end its bailout after proposing a new deal. Now this request for a six month extension to its Financial Assistance facility, thats what theyre calling it includes a proposal for humanitarian measures and should also allow the ecb to return to accepting greek Government Debt as collateral so the market seeing this as a positive development. Take us through what the bond market is telling us. A little bit of a positive move. Nothing too dramatic. It tells the story the best. The ten year has shortened from about 10. 2 earlier to 10 . So not a massive move but a bit of a move in that 9. 5 to 10. 5 area. So were right in the middle. A sense of improvement but not out of the woods yet. As we look at the shorter end of the curve, elevated yields at 18. 2 on the greek three year. Lets look in at markets on the whole. Yesterday was a strong day and today was weaker. But we have strengthened throughout the at a. The ftse 100 is below flat. Of Course Energy stocks weighing today on that index as the Oil Prices Declined over the last 24 hours. Germany is about flat. France is up. 3 and athens is now up about 2. 5 . Of course these types of moves, 2 is not rare in the stock index at the moment. Lets take a look at premarket trade. Right now suggesting a lower open on walmart following a mixed day of trade after we got that fed statement. Interestingly enough the nasdaq and nasdaq 100 were able to close at their highest levels in 15 years. The nasdaq now above 4900. So less than 100 points away from breaking 5,000 which is being seen as a major milestone for that index. Right now the nasdaq indicating a lower open to around 3 points. Walmart reports 4th Quarter Results in about an hour. 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. The Worlds Largest retailer is forecast to earn 1. 53 a share down from last year on revenue of 134 billion. It is following a long stretch of flat or negative results. Cnbc has an exclusive interview with walmarts ceo after the Company Reports earnings. Thats today at 11 00 a. M. Eastern on squawk alley. One not to miss. Lets preview you the earnings numbers though. Joining us is the managing director at strategic resource group. Thank you for joining us. What are you expecting from these numbers . Were expecting a positive continuation after last quarters results were pretty good. Wilfred, its definitely stabilizing the same Sales Numbers for the first time in five years. We expect walmart to beat the 1. 53 on earnings per share. We expect a miss on revenue related to it. From looking at previous results walmart has been dealing with disappointing same store sales. Customers have been complaining about the retail experience. This is the Worlds Largest retailer. What else does Doug Mcmillian have to do . What you referenced seema is the board of directors at at walmart has to give doug more budgets for more staffing to put sufficient number of team members in the store and inventory to restock the shelves. They can increase by a factor of plus three to plus four percent. Theyll be one of the biggest beneficiary when the west coast stocks shutdown and settle. Walmart has very actively redirected product better than its competitors to gulf coast ports and east coast ports and worldwide walmart is turning around and still has a number of challenges in latin america as well as asia. But mcmillan is probably the best leader walmart had for 15 years so you should see a turn around. The stronger dollar has been a big concern this earnings season but given that walmart has high domestic exposure 4,000 stores in the u. S. Does the stronger dollar work as a tail wind versus a head wind for walmart . Youre raising a really pressing point. With 59 of the total worldwide revenue based in the u. S. And significant amount based in canada and the u. S. Walmarts north american operations are a real tail wind for the company which will help relative to International Competitors. That said walmart still has a long way to catch up versus its best International Competitor which is costco. Lets talk about ecommerce. Theyre doing better than other bricks and mortar retailers but is it still a margin killer for them . It is both a margin killer and walmart invested in ecommerce five times in the last 15 years. Walmart is starting to succeed this time but what were seeing in our store checks worldwide and particularly walmart in america is with ecommerce walmart is short staffed and Customer Service so it doesnt have the people to do the collecting in the stores. Were also picking up theres some credit card fraud not related to the company but we lated to the Credit Card Companies with walmart. Com. But theres some issues but to the companys credit on the fifth time in its initiatives theyre doing better this time than the previous times. How much are retailers going to be negatively impacted by the long standing labor unrest that effected many west coast ports . Do you expect walmart to comment on this in todays Earnings Report . Were expecting walmart to comment. Its effecting 30 of shipments overall but because walmart has done such a good job redirecting its logistics we expected west coast shipment slow down to effect walmart by about 2 . The currency headwinds by 3 to 5 . So better than its competitors and as you referenced tail winds, more of these work for walmart, the results will get better as we get into the next calendar year. Thank you for joining us today. Much appreciated. The managing director at strategic resource group. Dont forget cnbc has an exclusive interview with the walmart ceo after the Company Reports earnings today at 11 00 a. M. Eastern on squawk alley. Following the ceasefire between russia and ukraine, i want to get you caught up on headlines coming out. Prorussian separatists launched an attack on a village near the russian town. Assets already trading lower given that wti crude and brent are both lower. Thats all weve got time for here on Worldwide Exchange. We enjoyed it. I hope you did as well. Next up is squawk box. Have a great day. Call it progress. Breaking overnight, greeces new government applying for an extension to its loan and asking to renegotiate some terms. Oil prices plummeting right now on a rise in u. S. Inventories and renewed fears about oversupply. The siberian express. Temperatures running 30 to 40 degrees below average today because of all the warming from the Mississippi River to the east coast. Its thursday february 19th 2015 and squawk box begins right now. Live from new york where business never sleeps this is squawk box. Good morning everybody and welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. Im becky quick with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. Welcome to the year of the sheep. Most major markets in asia are closed for celebrations today and heres one piece of trivia for you. The Lunar New Year falls on february 19th in japan and china but its the year of the goat in japan this year. We have a couple of top stories to follow this morning. Greece desperately tried to avoid running out of cash so athens asked for a six month extension today to its euro zone Loan Agreement. Its boosting hopes for a last minute compromise. Well see where that all goes. Unlikely, i think at the moment at least. In the meantime Corporate News walmart is set