what jolene -- janet yellen said , how it has been interpreted by markets. >> relatively hawkish. everyone was talking about forward guidance. it turned out to be a lot of noise. they kicked the sick .5% threshold -- 6.5% threshold in the bin. this was about right expectations. looking at grade expectations, this was in the summary of economic projections. all about the dots. familiar,who is not tell us what are these dots? >> it is in the summary of economic projections. the federal reserve puts out its forecast for things like gdp, unemployment, but also for rates. they do it through dots. for one official, where they think rates will be. we know now that the median rate 2.25% inis 1% in 2015, 2016. this is up from december's forecast of 0.75% and one point 75%. -- 1.75%. there was a slight forecast -- change in the forecast for gdp. >> how do you explain it? >> she tried to talk it down. the market is not buying it. there is no forward guidance anymore. they went straight to those dots and thought, we are going to get a rate hike next year. people started to price it in. i think it is more new ones. it is not really an exact science. you don't know which dot belongs to which official. yellen is much more important. >> these are dots over the next couple of years. all fomc members will get a vote. >> they still matter. she is talking about a considerable amount of time after tapering finishes. she said that was six months. whether she backtracks from that remains to be seen. the interesting part of it, they have got to get going. they have to go quite quickly. if they are looking for 1% next year, when are they going to start? >> lots of markets to consider. they have a lot to digest. jon, thank you very much. >> next has broken earnings. caroline is here with the details. have they overtaken m&s? >> they have. is thelion pounds full-year underlying pretax profit, up 12%. that is more than the 665 million pounds at marks & spencer's in its last financial year. the 32-year-old has beaten the 130-year-old. they now have more profit at next. investors have been betting on this. they have driven the market capitalization of next above marks & spencer's. they have been driving the share prices higher. up fivefold in five years. now next returns that belief to the investors and says, we are also more profitable. sales, nowhere near marks & spencer's. full-year sales are about 3.7 billion pounds. m&s about 10 billion per year. still, they are far more profitable. dividends are coming the shareholders' way. that is by earnings-per-share keep driving up. it is all about their online presence. they have mailed it in terms of online. they already have a catalog business. they were the biggest u.k. home shopping is this already. they knew how to get your orders to your home. they invested big and now we are seeing a 12% increase of online orders. >> you were talking about the long service of the management team. the strength of our group is built on the hard work and productivity of the management team, they say. >> look at the statistics. lord wilson, chief executive. he has been at the company more than 20 years. the finance director, the product director have been there for more than 20 years. the sales and marketing director as well. it brings you consistency in management. it brings consistency in what they provide to the buyer. they didn't slash their prices on christmas. i was there showing you how m&s had slashed rices by up to 30%. dividends had done the same. >> shoppers weren't seeking out lower prices. they were staying loyal to the next brand. >> they went in droves throughout christmas and helped with profits. also, they knew they weren't going to find the items they purchased cheaper next day. you had to wait for boxing day. interesting that now, they are scaling up. they are not going to just give you clothes. they are getting better quality and also they are going to home wares. they might become more like department stores. that seems to be the way in which next is developing. they want bigger flagship stores. we heard that from zara yesterday as well. it seems to all be about size. already they have 500 shots in the u.k. and ireland. >> they keep puffing. >> there up fivefold in five years. >> it is not often you see a statement around retail that starts with, the year through january 2014 was a good year. thank you very much. >> does life begin at 32? [laughter] >> so rude. >> eu leaders meet in brussels today to discuss possible further sanctions against russia over crimea. ryan chilcote is in brussels with that story. good morning. >> good morning. eu leaders will have to decide how and when to punish russia and the kremlin for its plan to push forward with annexing crimea. they have got two options. one is to take that blacklist they currently have of 21 russian and crimean officials that they intend to subject to asset freezes and travel bans and expand it. potentially even to russian business leaders, both of state-controlled companies and the so-called oligarchs. doin --cond option is is to impose economic sanctions. several officials we spoke with think that is unlikely at this point. the reason is, the eu rules by consensus. each country has their own economic interest. they are concerned about economic growth right now. has made itus which very clear that they are against sanctions. countries like hungary and romania are on the fence. we did hear from angela merkel and david cameron yesterday speaking on the telephone, saying they believe it is time to ratchet up sanctions. >> ryan, the annex nation of crimea, it is not exactly a done deal yet, is it? >> it isn't a done deal. , russianotesters militia, russian forces, moving on to ukrainian installations in crimea yesterday. including one naval base. keep in mind, there were several hundred ukrainian troopshole -- on their bases as russian forces took control of crimea. they have woken up in a region that is calling itself independent and about to the annexed by russia. ukraine wants to get them out. two nights ago, we had violence as some ukrainian servicemen refused to leave. generally, ukraine would like to move into the east of the country. they are not concerned that it is over just yet. i talked to the ukrainian prime minister and he said, they think that what they saw an crimea could be repeated elsewhere. have a listen. >> it is crystal clear for us that the russian authorities will try to move further and exploit the situation in southern and eastern ukraine. we still maintain control and we still preserved the fragile stability in these regions. >> keep in mind, this is a two-day summit. next week, on the sidelines of another big summit in the hague, the g7 gathers yes i did say the g7. russia has not been invited. that would be another opportunity for the g7 countries to escalate the sanctions and try to ratchet up the pressure on the kremlin. rex ryan, thanks. >> australian authorities may have found signs of the missing malaysian flight in the indian ocean. australian prime minister tony abbott said aircraft had been sent to the area to locate the object that appeared on satellite imagery. let's get to zeb eckert in hong kong who is covering this story. >> that is right. this would be the first sighting of any possible object in connection with the missing malaysian airlines aircraft. is the southern indian ocean we are talking about. the area identified by the australian prime minister today is 2500 kilometers away from perth, a very remote area at very deep depths with very rough seas. we have aircraft on the way as well as ships headed to that direction representing the u.s., australia and new zealand. trying to figure out whether these two object picked up by satellites may be linked to that aircraft. in australiaagency today holding a press conference, saying one of the object appears to be about 24 meters in size. , its wingspan is about 60 meters. it is anyone's guess whether this could pan out to be something. the prime minister earlier warned that it may be another false lead. they have to go check it out. let's listen in. >> new and credible information has come to light. in relation to the search for 0alaysia airlines flight mh-37 in the southern indian ocean. the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible object related to the search have been identified. >> the malaysian government put out a statement, the transport minister saying, i followed every lead from the beginning and we will follow this one. they hope for a positive development. this will be slow going. said to have poor visibility in the best of conditions. the seas are rough. -- 250000, matters kilometers from land. the first aircraft arrived about 1:50 p.m. local time. that is just about 4.5, 5 hours ago. we will bring you up-to-date as we get any developments on the missing malaysian airliner. >> thank you very much, zeb eckert. >> coming up, in his budget speech george osborne announced the creation of the alan turing institute to help harness the potential of big data. we are speaking with the ceo of one big data firm next here on "countdown." ♪ >> welcome back to "countdown." >> time in london is 7:15. george osborne used his budget speech to announce the creation of a research institute dedicated to big data. one man who welcomes the news is david richards. he joins us now. thank you for joining us. a number of things to cover. let's start with the budget announcement. the alan turing institute, you are quite impressed. >> i am amazed. the government has done a really good thing. alan turing is thought by many including me to be the grandfather of computer science. >> you name a meeting room after him in your offices. >> that is right. he is a hero. a legend to many computer scientists all over the world. back in the day, he was put in prison and really disparaged. now, he is getting the credit that he deserves for all the work that he did. >> what difference will this institute make to the u.k.? you have also been quite critical of education in computer science in the u.k. you say it doesn't live up to the u.s. >> by contrast, our experience in the u.s. where we take fresh graduates and sit them down in front of the computer, they can start coding, do job and so on. we don't really get that experience in the u.k. this is an important first step in tackling the problems of the education system. our education system was designed 100 years ago. traditional industries like banking, finance, we do that very well. the digital economy, however, i don't think we have done a good job with that. >> you made big strides in 2013. sales jumped, bookings up i-87 present. you won new business, big data contracts. tell us about that. tell us the strides you are making in this world that is big data. a business that could reach $50 billion by 2017. think --nouncement, i it is a very traditional industry. you wouldn't imagine adopting this new technology so quickly. to -- we areints in the middle of a tech renaissance right now. this is new stuff, important stuff. i think big data will be the fundamental source of competitive advantage across all kinds of different industries. utility companies like british gas, banking, finance, those industries too. >> those people who aren't aware of this, will you explain what it is? the independent analyst factodc says it is a de big data platform. explain for us why we care. decidedin 2006, yahoo! they needed to become a big data company. if you look at all the companies out there today, facebook, , they arebay, amazon all really big data companies. their platforms are built on big data. the data was born with google. we have two of the original -- with the acquisition of a company last year. this is happening very quickly for us. it was in november 2012 we made that acquisition. 2013 was all about building products. >> mark mentioned some of the forecast we have seen for this industry. howgive us your take on, big is this industry now? how big is it going to be? >> i think we have to go back in history. in the 1970's, we had these big things called mainframes. if you were going to implement a software system, it was likely a mainframe system. in the 1990's, we got client servers. that was a disruption in the marketplace. disruption creates new companies. out of that was born microsoft, ,ntel, network storage, oracle now we have this thing called big data. that is to client/server what client/server was to mainframes. this is disruptive to the overall digital economy. service.he fundamental data is so critical. we announced a deal a couple months ago with uci medical. , they saveechnology people's lives. they can predict days in advance -- that is amazing. >> the health-care sector is something that you are working on. >> you do have presence in china. idea of how business in china could grow and what your feelings are about the economy there right now? >> china has scale. -- all of yahoo! runs on about 40,000 nodes. they have massive implementation. it is a huge opportunity for us. we set up in chengdu. we are very excited about it. >> thank you very much for joining us, david richards. ahead, from puppets and stop motion to high-tech computer designs. we will take you through the evolution of animation. ♪ ." welcome back to "countdown creatingt of characters for the big screen has come a long way in the last couple of decades. bloomberg businessweek's second annual design conference, and animation director talked about the evolution of animation. i am here to talk to you about giant robots battling giant monsters. the animation industry and the visual effects industry has changed a lot in the last few decades in terms of the business end of it and the technology we are using. when i started out, if you wanted to do creatures and movies, you did it with stop motion animation. now, everything is computer graphics. in terms of the actual job of the animator, creating performances from characters, that job really hasn't changed a whole lot. just creating characters that an audience looks at and believes it whether it is a monster or a thinking character, a speaking character. when they look into the eyes of that creature, they believe it is thinking and living and breathing. when we are doing a film with creatures, the more outlandish and alien they are, the more we need to look to nature to inspire us and to ground the creatures and things that are familiar. we look at all different kinds of animals and skins and the way they fold and a different scale patterns. even next thing animals. mother nature is full of weird looking eyeballs. just go out and search, it is awesome. people often ask, when did you know that something is finished? as with anything, it has to be taken away from us. supervisors ons, the project who are trying to make the imagery as cool and details and interesting as they can. then you have the producers who, it is their job to at some point say, enough. we have to fit our time and our budget into this box. it looks great, the client is happy. step away from the keyboard and stop working on it. we need someone to tell us when enough is enough. we can't help ourselves. >> that giant robot -- >> transformer. >> know it is called a jaeger from the film "pacific rim." they fight these monsters called kaiju. if you want to impress the young, bring up that. >> i wondered where this was running. that was. informative. coming up, we take a look at europe's number one voted start up in berlin. that is coming up. ♪ >> welcome back to "countdown." >> let's get right to jonathan ferro for the fx check. >> just a little bit boring in the fx market. nothing boring about the moves yesterday. take the dollar index. up 0.7%. the biggest moved higher since august. it is about rate policy. where'd he say they really -- where do they see rates moving higher? how aggressive do they move after that? that is starting to be priced into the fx market. dollar/sterling -- this is what happened yesterday. down towards 1.38. does that make mario draghi happy? as for the bank of england, if the fed moves first without pushing sterling higher, that is something to think about. >> thanks, jonathan. these are the bloomberg top headlines. yields on two-year treasury notes climbed the most in three years after janet yellen said a rise in interest rates could come within six months after bond purchases end. at her first news conference, yellen said the central bank would drop unemployment rate thresholds for considering interest-rate increases. the fed also trimmed its stimulus by another $10 billion per month. malaysian authorities say it is not yet clear that objects spotted in the indian ocean are from the missing jetliner. the fbi has joined in the inquiry into the missing flight. it was revealed that a flight simulator used by one pilot has some deleted data. ukraine's interim prime minister once that russia will try to further provoke tensions in eastern and southern ukraine. eu leaders gather today in brussels to discuss ways to respond to russia's move to annex crimea. arseny yatsenyuk said that it is clear russia will try to further escalate the situation in other russian speaking areas of his country. >> crimea is a ukrainian territory. recognize this so-called referendum and annexation. >> the european union wanted to move fast on a 1.5 billion euro aid plan for ukraine according to economic and monetary affairs commissioner. he talked to bloomberg exclusively. that it is the responsibility of the ukrainian government and ukrainian authorities, parliament, to respond. the ownership of reforms, without responsibility, nothing is possible. back.come i am anna edwards. >> i am mark barton. if there is one thing we have learned during the recession, it is that luxury brands have barely suffered. hardly surprising, the world's richest still buying watches and fast cars. what about a tree house? tom gibson reports. >> as a child, the perfect escape to nature or from your parents is a tree house. if you think they are off limits adults, think again. from a fully fitted kitchen and the latest electronics to the skyhigh price tag, this structure is anything but childish. >> if we were to resell this tree house, we are probably looking at about $400,000. this is pretty standard. a lot of them have everything from heating to hot tubs, you name it. on display at london's ideal home show, this model is proving popular. one of its special features is how it blocks out the outside world. it is full of noise reduction technology, from the insulation in the glass to even the food blenders. the team says he's an quiet is an important luxury in today's hectic world. some of the this folk tree houses sell in excess of seven figures. they didn't start out like that. >> we were building kids toys. with the recession, that changed. we lost most of that market. we upscaled to do really high net worth. >> that can sometimes mean strange requests. >> we had a client who firmly believed in fairies and insisted on separate entrances for the fairies. some fairy furniture. theyoever ordered it, don't let imagination get in the way of their design. tom gibson, bloomberg. >> that is not like any tree house i have been in. looks very impressive. tree house that i which was built for me as a child. no back for fairies? mine was made out of rubbish. >> we are looking for caroline to contribute. ground sorte of a of gal. i did try to persuade my dad to build one. >> let's talk about luxury. the treehouse was fairly luxurious. let's talk about luxury handbags. we have an update from mulberry. >> they don't have a creative director. she quit last year. they are struggling to replace her. quitshe chief executive after that enormous profit warning we had in january that sent shares tumbling by 30%. they haven't recovered so far. just two years and he handed in his resignation. godfrey davis takes up the reins while they try to find a successor. he used to be chief executive. he is currently nonexecutive chairman. what dire straits. the move from luxury success story of the u.k. to international brand is really struggling at the moment. weak sales in the u.k. because they were hit by discounting just before christmas. they had south korea, a particular area of concern. no one has been buying. orders have been canceled their. they are stuck in this awkward middle-market situation. expensive but not phenomenally expensive. the high-end buyers aren't buying. that bracket plate in favor of some u.s. brands that were perceived to be somewhere in the middle. it is a complicated story. i am looking at the share price. worth 25012, this was pounds per share. to 636.5 p.wn >> and going to follow. 1% we understand today. no recovery for shares. from 700 to 1000 pounds at mulberry. that is what is known as the middle-market. it has been the squeezed middle-market. those purchases have been delayed because of austerity. people have been counting pennies a bit more. or perhaps saving up for the really flamboyant purchases. this is a company that never seems to have a piece of good luck. >> 380 million pound company now. worth a lot more a year ago. >> thank you very much, caroline. >> the first federal reserve decision under janet yellen suggested a policy shift. we will have more right after this. ♪ >> time for today's company news. using chatbanks rooms have the potential to raise currency prices. that is according to the head of the u.k. financial regulator. they told bloomberg that banks should have had control over employees' use of these systems. and we are too lax still dealing with that. it is easy to say with libor that it was timing because most of the event or around 2007-2008. if you look at four x, that is very recent. we are sending a strong message to banks. >> iliad is said to be discussing a purchase of the entire greek telecom unit. after greece's failed bid for fsr, an agreement was reached to have iliad by part of the phone company to avoid antitrust concerns. starbucks is going big on booze. the company is expanding its alcohol and like its menu to thousands of stores. the chief executive says the program will help boost sales and the rollout will take several years. welcome back to "countdown." we are 18 minutes away from the start of european equity sessions. >> we are. that means the same number of minutes away from "on the move." francine lacqua joins us now with a preview. good morning. you were quite taken by the idea of booze at starbucks. maybe not with your morning coffee but a little later. have beer at mcdonald's in france, why not? >> reminds me of that scene in "pulp fiction." let's talk about futures. >> for the moment, they are actually down. we heard from janet yellen yesterday, signaling that and mark interest rates could rise about six months after the central bank ends bond purchases. futures down between 0.6% and 0.8%. >> plenty for european markets to react to coming out of the u.s. what about more homegrown news? let's talk about some of the companies we have heard from. >> we have a couple of movers expected at the open. activebanking may be after saying it seeks to earn at least 4 billion euros in income by 2016. novartis, the drugmaker, another one we are watching. mean anything to me as soon as i saw the news, but reading up, it may be one of the game changers. >> let's talk about luxury. caroline was telling us about the story with mulberry. this is anfigures -- amazing performance for 2014. it has been bucking the trends. they are the makers of the bag that sells for over 3000 pounds. they say a .9% increase in 2013 earnings. on the other side of the spectrum, we had news from mulberry. there is a british handbag maker. they say the ceo is stepping down. they are finding it tough to replace the creative director. i think they will open quite differently. >> thanks very much, francine. we will be back at the top of the hour with "on the move." >> our next guest says if janet yellen wanted to make an impression in her first meeting at fed chair, she certainly six needed. -- certainly succeeded. ♪ >> welcome back. this is "countdown." says janet guest yellen certainly made an impression in her first meeting as fed chair. let's get straight to him. michael houston joins us right now from cmc markets. jonathan ferro also joins us on set. she made an impression on the markets. will it be a lasting impression? >> judging by the open, quite likely. my concern, what i am puzzled about is, everyone is focusing on what she said. they are not focusing on the dots charts. if you had taken the trouble to look at them, they would have given you a clue as to what she was going to say. they moved their guidance on the funds rate higher. >> one man did focus on the. charts. john ferro. >> i don't think anyone expected them to hike up as much as they did for next year. say six months? is she likely to backtrack on this? >> we will find out maybe tomorrow when mr. fisher gives his speech here in london on monetary policy. a speech later tonight as well i believe. we also have mr. bullard tomorrow. defended i think the removal of the inflation target. it is now a much more qualitative outlook. they have done away with -- >> what do you make of this wide range of factors? be replacing to unemployment as the data item to watch? >> with the bank of england, it is spare capacity. how do you define that? janet yellen says it will be a range of indicators. i don't think there is any sort of what i would call transparency about what they are going to monitor. it is alchemy. does tapering finish? october or december? when is the first rate hike? >> i would say the middle of next year but projections already say that. >> for the rate hike? >> yes, but that assumes tapering continues on its current course. that is not given. >> another question we have got to ask is, last year we talked about tapering and how it wasn't good for the global economy in the short term. tos this bailout the ecb some extent? what does it mean for the bank of england? >> i think it bails out mr. draghi, absolutely. this puts a cap on the euro. doesn't pay itd back from what janet yellen said last night, three words -- about six months. what an effect. if you had looked to the guidance, you would see that anyway. -- haseuro has improved proved very successful for many currency forecasters in the last year. it has been a tricky one to guess. it has continued rising. you think this is it. >> i think it alters it ever so slightly. what i would like to see is a move above 1.38. euro/dollar continues to remain very resilient. i don't think that mr. draghi is at the place where he wants to be to do full-blown qe. we are not there yet. i don't think we will be there for quite some time to come. >> a quick word on the u.k. budget. the pensions, related businesses were sent into something of a -- well, sent lower. >> i think it is a good thing. if you give people ownership of their own money -- >> you don't have to buy an annuity anymore. insurance has been authors of their own misfortune. there has been opaqueness around annuity fees. incomes haven't been great. in an era of low interest rates, they are not making money. giving power back to savers is a good thing. the only concern is -- it was raise yesterday -- it might cause people to fritter them away. >> thank you for joining us. thank you, jon. >> let's get over to hans at this big conference in berlin. take it away. mark, last night we spoke with peter thiel. this morning we are speaking with one of the companies getting an investment from him. i am here with the cofounder of transfer wise. thank you very much for joining us. why are you in berlin and what do you hope to learn? >> berlin is the fastest-growing city for our users right now. i am here to learn about the market and meet local entrepreneurs. >> transfer wise, tell us what they do. >> it is an online money transfer platform. we help people make international payments. anks are known for offing really poor service at a high cost. >> so let's say i want to send a lot of euros back home to my cousin. how do i do it? >> you open your smartphone, load up the application. cousin's details, your debit card details and off the money goes. >> you were the first employee at skype. what growing pains have you had at your new company? what did you learn from your experience at skype? >> we learned about how to go through the growth of the company. how do you set up the teams, the structure, how do you manage when everything is changing constantly? 30%re growing about 20%, and everything is changing all the time. changeser thing that all the time is currency rates. euro/dollar right now is about 1.38. if i transfer with a bank, what rate am i going to get? >> you end up losing about 5% of the money you send. using transfer wise, we save you about 10 times that money. charge 0.5% for making a transfer. we very clearly quoth the fee we are charging you. >> so there is a fee plus 0.5% on the overall transfer. the market rate is set where? >> it is set when you are making the transfer. the fee includes the 0.5%. >> bank's must be very upset with you. they have a monopoly on this. >> it is going to take them a while before they realize which way the market is going. >> currency exchange is a $5 trillion a day market. big market. >> one of the biggest markets. it is incredibly fragmented. banks will definitely realize over time that things are changing but it is going to take a while. sayingou're takin -- the existence of your company is going to force banks to offer lower fees. >> absolutely. you saw things happening with skype. telecoms were really dismissive at first. down the road, now skype owns 40% of one company. >> so you're going to have 40% of the fx market. that is $2.2 trillion a day. >> i think new companies including transfer wise will own 40% of the market down the road. >> what happens if someone wants to buy a bunch and you don't have it? >> we are plugged into a bunch of markets. if we don't have liquidity, we get more liquidity from the markets. >> lower fees. the cofounder of transfer wise with me here. mark, i know that when you are going to send a bunch of pounds to me into euros for purposes we cannot discuss on-air to buy certain things that may be legal here, you can use transfer wise. hans, you got yourself into all kinds of trouble now. >> he will put it towards his treehouse. >> billionaire hans nichols needs a treehouse. we will put in a few calls. thank you very much. 7:50 five, about five minutes away from the start of today's european equity session. janet yellen has spoken. >> she is about to make her mark on european equity markets. >> telling us that stocks could open the work. the mulberry ceo has stepped down as well. big day for "on the move." francine that take you through the next hour. ♪ . . , this is on the move. we are in a bloomberg cost european headquarters. we are moments away from the start of european trading. our markets team has everything covered, from companies to currencies. they are standing by on the ground. let's talk about janet yellen yesterday. are lower. but she had an impact on equities in the united states and mergers and acquisitions. said it was going to one percent. that is higher than december. the press conference is six purchaseser asset finished. everybody is trying to time the rate hike. we also have an exclusive interview with the commissioner who says that they need to move quickly on sending aid to the ukraine. country and we need to take action. at the same time, they face significant security challenges. what do we expect there today? leaders are gathering in eight hours to decide how to punish russia