Sovereign nation, confirming moscows view the syrian army does not have chemical weapons. We are in a positive mood over grease, says eurogroup chief jeroen dijsselbloem, as ei finance ministers arrive in malta to try and reach a deal to unlock the next greek bailout tranche. The United States has launched a missile attack on a syrian governmentcontrolled airfield near the city of homs. 59 tomahawk missiles were fired at the target. Speaking from maralago , President Trump said that the strike was made in response to the assads government use of chemical weapons earlier in the week. The pentagon spokesman said the attack was a proportional response and was an attempt to stop the regime from using chemical weapons in the future. Jay gray has the latest. Reporter tonight a u. S. Military response after horrific illegal chemical weapons attack in syria. Tonight i ordered a targeted, military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. Reporter after discussing options with his military and security teams from maralago , President Trump launched tomahawk missiles from two ships in the sea. Targeting the al shayrat afield. Ashatt choksad choked out thf helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. President trumps first known mission as commander in chief signals a major shift in focus for u. S. Troops in the region, previously centered on the ongoing fight against isis, now clearly questioning assads leadership. Tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in syria. Reporter as the fight in syria now intensifies. Jay gray, nbc news with the president in palm beach, florida. The pentagon confirmed the u. S. Military gave russia advance notice of the strike and did not target specific sections of the airfield where Russian Forces were believed to be present. Speaking to reporters after the strike, u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said russia failed to uphold its responsibility to locate chemical weapons as agreed upon in a 2013 resolution. We had quite a lot of response from various global leaders. At the moment, coa joint respon from merkel and frances hollan hollande, they spoke by phone, and they said they will continued their efforts to hold assad to account for his criminal acts. They also say that theyre calling on the ber nainternatio community for a political transition to take place in syria. A joint statement having been released. They say assad is responsible for the latest developments in syria. And again, they spoke by phone. They want to hold him responsible for what they call criminal acts. Its interesting, this uturn coming from the u. S. A swift uturn given trumps previous statements and stance on not entering and attacking assad. He was opposed to that back in 2013. Let get the reaction coming from russia. Thats quite different to what were hearing from europe. The kremlin condemned the u. S. Military action saying the act of aggression against a sovereign nation violated International Law and has dealt a blow to russianamerican relations. It added the syrian army does not possess chemical weapons and that the u. S. Attack was an attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in iraq. Russia suspended its air safety agreement with the u. S. And called for a u. N. Security Council Meeting. Lets get deeper into this topic. Chris, this is a Strong Language coming from russia. Is this in line with expectations or do you think things between the u. S. And russia are escalating quickly . Its Strong Language. I think in your report there you missed on one important detail which i would draw attention to, which was the kremlin spokesman said that the missile attack had been carried out on a farfetched pretext, farfetched pretext. That is russia does not accept, as a given truth, that this was a on the 4th of april, a premedicated chemical weapons attack by the Syrian Regime. They point out in the same statement that the antiassad rebels, jihadi rebels have had a track record of using chemical weapons themselves, and that what they describe as a hon cent monstrous crime, the responsibility for that can only be established by an independent investigation. So, the answer to your question, the risk of confrontation is greater because both russia and the u. S. Are coming from completely different viewpoints and understanding of what actually happened. You mentioned in your report the russia reaction. President putin never failed to react one way or the other. Weve seen this gesture on the on the air cooperation agreements. The next question is what might follow behind that. Thats a very good question. No one knows at this point. The bigger question is this a oneoff by the u. S. . U. S. Officials indicated that it is. Maybe because this region is so incredibly complex. Syria is also backed by iran, not just russia. Do you think the u. S. , because its so incredibly complicated will hold off on further action . You know, theres i think an analytical trap here, that normally analysts would say that what you need do is understand the motives and goals of the main actors, and then you will have your conclusion. Therefore if you think of what the Trump Administration wants to do, perhaps this is just a oneoff move, which has perhaps colateral Foreign Policy goals involved, signaling north korea in conjunction with todays summit in maralago with president s trump and xi jinping to do signaling on iran and israel. Russia has its agenda. The trap is to forget that this is a problexy where in syria wh the proxies can run out of control. Depending on who you believe, either the Syrian Regime is a war criminal, and has done Chemical Attacks and might now do more in the sense that the gloves are coming off now that theyve been attack the directly by the United States for the first time or conversely, depending on who you believe, the jihadi rebels who have used chemical precursors, might decide to do it again in order to attract more u. S. Fire power on their side. Lo and behold you have a trigger train reaction which could lead to confrontation between a military fashion between great powers. Theres also talk about how this uturn came about. Was it a trump personality uturn as weve seen in the past with certain issues, whether he sees pictures of the children who died in this chemical attack, i think we can call it a chemical attack now as opposed to alleged chemical attack. He sees these pictures and reacts, and has plans drawn about an antiassad strategy. Or is it, as you allude to, is it part of the broader scheme of planning a much more thorough military layout going forward. Also maybe testing the waters for north korea . My pick on your question would be the former. That is that if you change your mind once, you can change your mind again next week. Your report on the mine changing understated how these flipflopping go quicker. You referred to the change from u. S. Policy from years ago. Its a change from last week. Last week Rex Tillerson said the future of president assad is a matter forev the syrian people. He had a longstanding russian line for how the conflict should be fixed now were back on to a fullon regime change in syria. Perhaps the optimistic view is if you can flipflop like that in a week, you can flip again. Perhaps we can avoid a spiraling confrontati confrontation. Do we think theres a danger of further Chemical Attacks . I would suggest thats the principal changer in this situation. That armchair global strategy about trumps agenda in north korea and iran should not distract commentators and investors from the reality of proxy war and the proxies running out of control. They have chemicals. They have incentives to use them. These events strengthen those incentives. Christopher, thank you very much. Christopher granvil. Here in europe this morning our European Equity markets trading a bit lower, but not by much. Still down in the region of less than a half percent or so. Stocks were off a bit yesterday, also stateside before the news. And this morning again markets are called off just a tad. Safe haven trade is really on. We saw a big reaction in oil with oil hitting the highest levels that these contracts have been at in a months time. Setting on course for a 4 rise for this week. Wti, crude and brent higher in the region of 1. 5 having come off from this hard rally we saw after the attacks. The safe haven trade continuing across the board with the yen, gold, the bund benefiting as well. At least for the time being. Lets get more investment reaction to this with the investment director from global equities, gam. Is there another need for a layer of Security Protection in portfolios given the sense of geopolitical risk . Definitely it will have an impact on oil, as you mentioned. Its clear was that oil was already at 50, 54 yesterday, not at the costs where we were replacing the oil reserves we were drawing down. This adds and reminds everybody that there is geopolitical risk. Weve not seen problems in iran or iraq. All the production despite all the turmoil there has been good. Now reduced with opec cuts, production has been good, but those geopolitical risks exist. So weve been shifting more towards oil. Getting more positive on oil, because we think particularly in the u. S. And gently globally oil is due for stronger prices. Oil is not your typical safe haven. When you talk safe havens, its usually gold, the swiss franc, the yen. Is there room still to run in these safe havens . I dont think whats happening in syria is disastrous but i dont think it has a reaction in the global economy. Unless russia gets dragged into it, i dont think russia has intention of getting dragged into it further than they already are, i dont think those safe havens are the answer. Gold is at the same time this tradition inflation play. Were looking at inflation running higher than what many may have anticipated. Youre talking to somebody who doesnt particularly like gold. I think gold is doesnt have any particular use on an industrial use. So its really a play on sentiment and what people feel, and personally i prefer to invest in real businesses that have real earnings. Where would you be at the moment then . Oil. I think financials and banks particularly in europe are interesting. Were seeing clearly all the pmis are good. Political risk. Still trading at a slightly more distressed level because of the election happening in france. We like those and new tech. Theres a lot of talk about electric cars, so on and so forth, but there are Real Companies already seeing significant benefits because of that. Like which . Any that you care to point viewers towards for more yes. Not to talk to specific companies, but we like power semicon ducte e semiconducters which have a small number of players. There you have a structurally sound marketplace because of everything thats happening on that, and not too many players which should benefit greatly. Thank you. Want to bring you breaking news on greece. Fwroo greece and its kred did creditod a preliminary agreement on its bailout. Mr. Jeroen dijsselbloem tempered expectations and said we wont get a final deal today but a preliminary one is possible. So no full deal on the review of greece, its in its third bailout but we did get a preliminary deal. So it seems like we have a tentative deal in place. Get involved. Get in touch. The address, streetsignseurope cnbc. Com. Were also live and well on twitter, find us directly at louisabojesen. Or carolincnbc. Still coming up, we will be live in france for the last leg of our tour across the key National Front strongholds in france. Dont miss it. For years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. We do business where you do business. Good morning. Welcome back. Youre still watching street signs. In the latest French Election polls. Emanuel macron appears to be in a dead heat with his farright rival marine lep l pen after th latest tv debate. Claire joins us from frejus in france. Were talking about this flipflopping in the polls, and have been talking about this for quite some time. Tell us about why it is that youre now in frejus and what these latest polls mean, if anything at this stage. Well, it means that the people are very volatile for this president ial election. They are not sure who theyre going to vote for. That is something that we have observed during our tour of the Front National strongholds. Im here for the last bit of this tour in frejus. Its not the industrial decline thats a motive of the Front National vote. You have to know this is an area thats been traditionally leaning to the right, and the department where frejus and cannes are is the department with the most Front National cities. It has three Front National cities. Still, it is rightwing leaning, but it was a shock when the mayor who is not even 30 grabbed the city hall behind me. You have a sluggish economy, a traditional france that doesnt recognize itself as a multicultural france and unease about immigration and islam. After this week of touring, can we draw conclusions from the local votes to the president ial vote . You will see thats not so clear listening to the people weve talked to. Translator this issue that she wants to change europe, she doesnt want to stay in europe and it will be hard. Many people we put off because of that. Translator i think indeed that among my clientele, plenty like le pen, not because we like the mayor here, but out of rebellion of these president ial elections. You think locally the frontnational mayor is doing good action . For the city, i guess. For the country, im not sure. Well see. Translator i have to admit that the mayor has done good things for the city. Why not vote for the farright . After years of the left and the right, were still at the same level or worse. Reporter so, the volatility and uncertainty of these electors is probably a good representation of what the whole of france is thinking right now. What we observed is that team want new faces. Theyre fed up with the traditional rightwing divide and they want new faces. This is pretty much represented by Marine Le Pen but also emanuel macron, her major contender. Well see what outcome is in two weeks. Back to you. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. Victor nusek is from wisdomtree and is with us. You painted out threeary arsce for what could happen in france. Talk us through them. One is where the status quo prevails. Macron will succeed going through the first round and essentially a riskon trade. You want to be piling into the equity markets and potentially play the spread developing in the widening of spreads in bond markets. So go short, bonds go long, italian btps, spreads look overextended. The other scenario is a race which is more the contrast where you will really see le pen making it through the first round and becoming president. In which case its really risk off very much. We think in the bond markets, the pressure points will be the largest. You would want to be considering the safe haven, which is the german bunds, and the pressure in france oets would build up, not only that but italian bonds. And the third scenario . Will be either between fillon or macron, in which case its in between the first two scenarios that i discussed. You dont get a clear conviction in what will happen in the bond market. But then we would argue why not consider the equity market and be export tilted and move away from domestic focus, equities, hone in on exporters. Setting yourself up for the first round of elections, how should i position if i dont know what the outcome is . I would consider, as a eurozone investor to essentially consider the overweight position in equities predominantly because the equity market has been very much immune to the everb bracra around election risk. The Banking Sector has been a key indicator for improved assets gently. Weve seen Significant Bank restructuring in italy. This is helping sentiment stay alive irrespective of the election outcome. Until that outcome feeds into legislative change, which is very, very remote, even with a win with a farright movement, you could argue overwhelmingly that the riskon trade for equities survives. How drastic would the moves be in the euro dollar if le pen wins the second round . A reuters poll said it could drop close to 5 . How much are you looking at . I dont know what the target would be. I would say the euro would stay weak. You know, heading back towards parity, right now its 106 to the dollar. Yeah. Thats realistic. You dont necessarily want to be exposed to that currency volatility. I think its around 9. 5 , 10 on the euro dollar, which is elevated. As a foreign investor, you wanted to be currency hedged to debt degree, not talking about the direction of the euro ultimately be. That depends also on what the ecb is doing. Victor, we have to leave it here. Thanks for the outline of those three scenarios. We will go for a quick break. Check out World Markets live our blog which runs throughout the trading day. On the other side of the break, plenty of uk data to digest. Welcome, youre still watching street signs. Im carolin rothment. Im carolin roth. Im louisa bojesen. These are your headlines this morning. The u. S. Strikes syria with 59 tomahawk missiles in an attempt to disable an airfield which was allegedly used for a chemical attack on a syrian town. European markets in negative territory, but Oil Prices Rise after the missile attack, with President Trump declaring that he acted in Americas National