New york city. We begin with 25 days to go until the year end fiscal cliff deadline for the first time in days president obama and Speaker Boehner spoke on the phone yesterday. Both men agreeing not to publicly characterize how the conversation went. But the stalemate in negotiations entered bold New Territory yesterday with treasury secretary tim geithner suggesting the white house is ready to go off the cliff if republicans refuse to raise taxes on the top 2 . If republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff . Absolutely. Again, theres no prospect to an agreement that doesnt involve those rates going up on the top 2 of the wealthiest members. Only 2 . The size of the problem in some sense is so large it cant be solved without rates going up. Again, there is broad recognition of that reality now. One fallback option, republicans are reportedly considering to accept tax cuts for the middle class, allow rates to go up to the wealthiest and
Youre watching Worldwide Exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. Warm welcome to todays edition of Worldwide Exchange. Plenty to get through. We start off with perhaps europes most important economic indicator. Its come in 10. 4 in may, below the consensus number which was 110. 9. Current conditions index, 114. 8. The Consensus Forecast was 114. 5. The german expectations index, 106. 2 in may. The Consensus Forecast, 106. 6. The april number was 111. 2. We have dipped down from that. A lull theyre talking about seeing in the German Economy in may, no revisions to the april indices. Euros been weaker ahead of this number and indeed it is ticking down again. Down to 136. 36 is where we stand at the moment. We are at fresh 2 1 2month lows on euro dollar on this lull. Joining us is christian schultz, senior economist at beringburg bank. Your reaction to this . The pmis yesterday paint maybe a slightly different picture. Both indices show the German Economy is growing at
Sales at 10 00 eastern time. Economists are looking for sales to have risen by 9 just over the last month. Andrew, back over to you. We have Corporate News it talk about this morning. Hewlettpackard announcing it plans to cut as many as 16,000 more jobs. This is part of meg whitmans plan. The Company Posted Quarterly Earnings in line with investors. Also, take a look at gap. Gaps earnings beating the street by a penny. Revenues in line. The retailer is dealing with weak demand for its gap and Banana Republic apparel brands. They had a bit of a resurgence, nor more questions. Aeropostale warning of a betterthanexpected loss. I havent been there in a while. I hope not. Its a teen retailer. I do remember the days, abercrombie, american eagle, aeropostale. We should tell you, tivo, which i do have and like by the way, tivo shares getting a boost in extended hours trading. Earnings beating the street. Total subscribers crossed 500,000 for the first time. Thats happening more often than not
Last time i looked around 2. 5. There it is. 2. 53. Flat looinds. Think theres something happening there and it doesnt happen. It is amazing. A look at europe which has been less than amazing although you can see, mixed picture over on the european continent. Road map starts with yeah, hewlettpackards earnings report. More job cuts coming an exclusive interview with hps meg whitman, on her continued efforts to turn this Massive Company around. Its been a rough week in retail coming to a close now. Another retailer, though, lowers its outlook but the gap surprised to the upside. The secret . Athletic wear, old navy, and the stronger april. Show me the money. Russian president Vladimir Putins working the crowd and moving the market ahead of elections in ukraine this weekend. Hewlettpackard is where well start. Announced plans to eliminate an additional 11 to 16,000 jobs. That is on top of 34,000 positions hp said it would cut or has cut 31,000. This is a Restructuring Plan announced in 2
Records. Telephone companies will control the data and the nsa will need permission from a special court to review the records. It is a victory for senator mike lee of utah the bills main republican supporter in the senate, but also seen as a defeat for Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell who argued the measure jeopardized national security. This is a significant weakening of the tools that were put in place in the wake of 9 11 to protect the country. 60 of americans are in favor of the bulk Data Collection program, so i think congress is misreading the public mood if they think that americans are concerned about the privacy implications of this. Let me say again, as other speakers have said repeatedly nobody is listening to your phone calls. Theres some of us who feel very strongly about this and we were not going to simply just roll over and accept the house bill without debating it and attempting to amend it. Ive covered capitol hill for six years, that was the most angry ive eve