East and africa were disappointed. U. S. Saw the kleins of 4 u. S. Saw declines of 4 asia, middle east and africa saw declines of 4. 4 this read is not something investors would like to hear. If you look at the share price it is down by 1. 8 . Betty and it might go lower given these numbers. U. S. Sales down 4 . Incredible. Scarlet mcdonalds japans february same store sales fell 29 . A sense of the challenges mcdonalds faces. Mcdonalds had some issues in japan, particularly they could not sell french fries because of the port strike on the west coast. That gives you a sense of the difficulties in the asiapacific region. Betty and the difficulties for Steve Easterbrook as he takes the helm. Thank you, scarlet. Lets look at top stories. Europes central bank taking the first steps towards boosting price growth in the region. The ecb buying german and italian bonds. Those insecurities and french notes are being bought. A part of quantitative easing. Officials saying the new greek plan to a
Greece to step up. Mario draghi says greece must let other countries and study its books. Apple showing up the bells and whistles of its smart watch. Besides texting, email and fitness apps, the watches can receiving phone calls. 10 people are dead after the midair collision of two helicopters in argentina. Three french sports stars are among the victims. They were shooting scenes for a european reality show. Some republican senators being criticized for sending an open letter to iran. Joe biden says it undercuts the president. The president says he is keeping his sights set on getting an agreement. Those are your cap headlines. Desktop headlights. Your top headlines. I want to go straight to hans nichols. He has been following the greek fiscal odyssey. The saga that seems to never end. It seems like too much talk, not enough action. What exactly is on the agenda now . They will be satisfied when they understand the liquidity situation inside greece. Dont call them officials from they
The zionist union. The price of west texas intermediate down 12 . I think were going to see equilibrium this summer. That does not mean we will see we will not see a dem, but it will be a temporary dip if we do. We are running out of storage in the u. S. Japans central bank not planning to extend its stimulus plan. Inflation will pick up even if Cheaper Energy costs consumers lower prices. There might be another Interest Rate cut this year. In a few hours, House Republicans will unveil budget ideas. It would partly privatize medicare, turn medicaid into state grants and oh and appeal obamacare. Apple finetuning its television plans. Their Online Television service will debut this fall. It would offer about two dozen major channels on apple devices but not on the list is nbc because of the fallout between apple and nbcs owner. Apple would soon except blackberries and android phones from people who want to buy iphones. Those are your top headlines. The other news to watch is the fed or w
Here are the top stories we are watching ahead of the closing bell. Former Federal Reserve chairman ben bernanke speaking in mexico saying that he is more pessimistic about europe than the u. S. Or japan. He is cautiously optimistic about the north American Economy and believes inflation is too low in the u. S. Black rock in a venture seeking to raise one point 3 billion. Money managers are looking to expand the pool of money they oversee and diversify in the bond market. And bank of america will along will allow longtime investors to vote on its board to nominate its board. They will now be able to propose candidates if they have held shares for over three years. We are going into the close am trading. I want to go right to the breaking news desk. Scarlet, the nasdaq, are we going to see it . Are we going to see an extra high here . Scarlet the nasdaq is inching away from that level, but it is in our sites. The s p 500 had its best weekly advance and five. The dow, this is its seventh