share sale. an activist investor creates a connection for ericsson. shares in the swedish telecom equipment maker rally as cevian capital buys a stake of just over 5% citing the company's potential. good morning. glad you're with us once again. let's look at the stoxx 600. fairly subdued picture. we are off by less than one point. hardly any action on the stoxx 600 this morning. let's show you what's happening on a market by market basis. the ftse 100 at 7,545. the latest polls show theresa may may lose hir er majority ine house of commons. one sector under pressure is basic resources off by 1.5%, despite fairly upbeat chinese economic data in the form of manufacturing pmis. autos also under pressure. food and beverages, households good, technology also on the upside. the f.a.n.g. stocks have outperformed the u.s. markets year to date up some 30%. back to our top story. a massive car bomb rocked central kabul killing more than 60 people and injuring over 300, that's according to the interior ministry. french and german embassies in the area have been damaged but the number of foreign victims has yet to be determined. willem marx joins me on set. >> more than 300, 319 injured. the german foreign office, they said they have not yet accounted for all their staff. they'll be issuing a statement soon. the uk embassy not far away. one of the main western supermarkets, some of the telecom companies, and a lot of afghan government buildings nearby. the explosion took place about 8:30 this morning. the height of rush hour. a busy part of city. 30 vehicles were destroyed by the blast. people more than a half mile away had shattered windows due to this explosion. we're at the stage of the year where the afghan taliban have launched their spring offensive. it's an annual time of year where they go back on the offensive after the winter snows retreat. the area around kabul has been the most heavily hit by militant attacks. they have seen the highest number of casualties. many of them civilian, and today is no different. a large number of civilian casualties. >> do stick around. want to bring in the senior analyst for terrorism. willem was talking about the attack that could be by the taliban who at this time of year goes on the spring offensive. do we have anything on who the perpetrator could be? >> no one has claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday. kabul has been targeted in the past by the taliban and the islamic state. so there's a range of possibilities here still at this point. given the launch of the spring offensive and the high frequency of attacks in and around kabul, it is likely that the taliban may be behind this particular massive attack. >> what does this mean for security in and around that very secure zone in kabul? a lot of embassies in the area, a huge amount of check points and police sort of number there's stationed in the area. does this worry foreign embassies? we heard talk about foreign targets for the taliban, particularly thissier. that's been this year. that's been a big focus. >> the taliban has, indeed, focused particularly, as it does every year, on targeting what it calls the foreign occupiers, occupiers in afghanistan. of course being able to penetrate a secure area like this is worrying. it could be a sign of faltering security measures or it could be a sign of taliban's penetration into networks in the capital or, indeed, the islamic state if it turns out the islamic state was responsible for this. being able to infiltrate security check points and make sure that even a huge -- what's described initially now as a truck bomb, would be able to get into the highly secure zones. in terms of an increase in troop presence or an impact from this explosion on foreign government is, and their strength in afghanistan, i think it's early to be speculating on that. but what is for sure is that the security situation has been worsening significantly on the back of the announcement of the spring offensive. given the sheer size of this explosion, this may be something that has been planned for a longer time, or is this something that could be done easily given the resources that potentially the taliban has if this really was the attacker. what does this say about how orchestrated this was. >> any type of attack in a secure location like this, particularly utilizing a very high yield explosive as we've inferred from the level of damage and the reports of this truck bomb suggest quite a substantial level of planning. this is not something put together on an incredibly short notice. we can expect that the attack has been planned for some time. i remember to the many years ago meeting with tall piban command in and around hotels. they had no trouble traveling in and out of the city. getting explosive there's is another thing altogether. do you think partners are looking at potential infiltration inside security forces as a big concern following on from this attack? >> i believe that is a concern not just on the back of this attack but the number of insider attacks in which members of the taliban have infiltrated security forces and used that access to conduct attacks. that remains a key concern that will have to be resolved to increase security in these areas. >> thank you very much for that. appreciate it. want to bring you up to speed with the latest death toll as a result of this explosion. you may have seen it on the screen there, the latest death toll has risen to at least 80, up from previously 60. with more than 300 wounded. willem, thank you very much for insight on this story. coming up on the show, the latest on the uk election race. that's when we come back. you think traffic's bad now, the future's going to be a nightmare! does nobody like the future? c'mon, the future. he obviously doesn't know intel is helping power autonomous cars and the 5g network they connect to. with this, won't happen in the future. thanks, jim. there's some napkins in the glovebox. okay, but why would i need a napkin? you could have just told me a bump was coming. we know the future. because we're building it. welcome back to the show. shares in ericsson are trading near the top of the stoxx 600 after cevian cap hall hital hasa stake in the group. the irish government launched an initial public offering for allied irish bank with 25% of shares to be issued to raise an estimated 3 billion euros. aib which was bailed out by dublin during the crisis was listed three years ago. and metro swings to an operating loss due to weakness in key western european markets. the german retailer also maintained its guidance for the full year. let's get back to one of our top stories. sterling is under pressure this morning after the times released details of the latest yougov poll suggesting conservatives could fail to maintain a majority in the uk general election. previous opinion polls suggested that prime minister theresa may's party would increase its party which stands at 17 seats. speaking on the campaign trail, may ramped up the attacks saying corbyn would be naked in the negotiating chamber if he was the head of brexit talks. >> it's important, too, to understand that the referendum was not just a vote to leave the european union, it was also a way to change the way the country works and for whom the people works. it was a quiet revolution by those who felt let down and left behind for too long. a revolution in which millions of fellow citizens stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored anymore. >> jeremy corbyn criticized what he called the conservative party's negligent of small businesses. he said the tories were only interested in helping out their super rich friends. >> the small businesses, the backbone of our economy have been ripped off by the conservatives. instead of supporting the real wealth creators, start-ups, ambitious strivers, the conservatives have penalized the self employed by raising national insurance contributions, squeezing the income of thousands of small business owners. frankly they rigged our economy. handed our wealth and public assets to their super rich friends, and they expect our communities to pay for it. us a t us a ter >> does this move the needle when it comes to uk investments. you have an underweight on uk stocks. would you change it just on this one poll? >> i wouldn't. our underweight is driven by fundamentals. clearly what we've been seeing in the last few weeks as polls have been coming through, the way the markets have been impacted is through currency. as the tory majority has been declining, then the pound has been weakening and driving the uk higher temporarily. but we think it's much more important to take a six-month view. over that time period the fundamentals usually outweigh the politics. >> do you not think if we get this vote in parliament based on this yougov poll that we could see a softer than expected brexit and the pound will strengthen? >> we have a range in the short-term of 1.25 to 1.30 against the dollar, and over the longer term we expect further dollar weakness. the polls are reacting to the currency. you know, we will see how the election turns out. share vote does not necessarily translate into seats as we have seen in previous elections. >> i guess anything could happen when it comes to the polls over the course of the next week, even the founder of the yougov poll said we could still see big swings. if corbyn wins, i know this is an outside chance, he probably won't get a majority, we could be looking at the nationalization of a certain number of companies. is that a real risk in your view? >> obviously in terms of exposure to the equity markets, utilities is an area identified by the labor party. some of the postal areas as well. generally that is not great news for listed markets. you know, if that were to happen, the interesting thing is that at what price you nationalize and having seen the rally in the tick markets that we've had in recent years, they're not particularly cheap to buy out. how you go about doing that and what the implications are as a result of that would be important if that were to be the scenario. >> coming back to the make up of the ftse, we know a large part is dollar earnings. we know a large part is basic resources. we're seeing once again pressure the basic resources stocks, even though china data was fairly upbeat. is china a much bigger factor for the ftse as opposed to politics? >> probably it is. about 15% to 20% of earnings are direct link to china. that's a large part given that only 25% of the ftse 100 earnings are derived in the uk. so we do always need to keep an eye on that. in terms of the earnings outlook for the uk, there is forecast to be over 20% earnings growth. but three quarters of that is due to come from the energy and materials sector. the outlook for commodities will be key to the direction of the ftse 100. >> stick around. i want to get to this story. fed governor lael brainard says it is reasonability to assume more rate hikes are on the way but warns soft inflation could slow the pace of hikes. brainard said the lack of progress of moving core inflation back to 2% is a source of concern. dallas fed president, robert kaplan, said he expects two more rate hikes in 2017. speaking to cnbc kaplan said he believed any removal of accommodation should be done gradually. steve liesman asked him for his outlook on the u.s. economy. >> i'm concerned about the recent weakness the last couple months of inflation. my own overall view is gdp growth will bounce back, i believe, for the remainder of this year. it's been disappointing for the first quarter. the reason i think that is we've got a relatively strong consumer. household balance sheets are in good shape. we now have better business spending. i still believe we can grow at % this year. while that is sluggish by historical standards, that's sufficient growth to take slack out of the labor market. regarding the inflation numbers, even though the recent numbers have been weak, some of it is idiosyncratic. telecommunication pricing. if you're getting to a tighter labor market, my own judgment is with a lag effect, inflation pressures are building. >> ecb board member, benoit curde says rap tid action needs to be taken on greece. he said a rapid debt agreement would help. caroline simmons from ubs wealth management is still with us. does it matter to any investor out there apart from your typical investor into greek bonds as to whether greece gets this debt relief or not? five years ago, yes, that was an issue, but now does anyone care? >> that's a good question you ask. it's been with us for a long time. our assumption is that there will be an agreement that enables greece to repay that bond when it comes due. it don't effect our position on the market. >> there have been some questions on the overweight on european equities, given that china is tightening, that the pmi strength may be tapering off and we may be looking at tapering or tightening by the ecb down the track. you are concerned about these factors? >> we are also forecasting the ecb to taper it doesn't prohibit us from wanting to have an overweight on the eurozone market. we think fundamentals have been improving from a low base. it's been lagging, particularly the u.s. and global markets for many years now. there's catch up recovery. and therefore you do have a higher operating leverage in the eurozone market. if you get a pick up in the top line, it should feed through to earnings. >> what about the u.s.? we're still seeing healthy earnings growth over there. maybe not as quick when it comes to the pace as we're seeing in europe. still seeing record high after record high. what do you do with that market which by many means is probably overvalued, but you can't beat the trend, can you? >> that's right. fundamentals in the u.s. still look solid, we've seen a broadening out of the recovery to a global picture, not just the u.s. so we've taken the u.s. equity market back to neutral and have a preference for global equities. >> we're just talking about the fed there. and what the market is anticipating, maybe one or two more hikes this year. i would argue why do you need another hike? why do you need one in june if core pce, the preferred measure by the fed to look at inflation is at 1.5%. that's the data from yesterday. at this point in time there's no real justification to hike, is there? >> they will remain data dependent. when the data is sufficient, they will. if there's doubt about whether the data is strong enough, they won't. that's the approach we've seen. hence why the hiking has been gradual. we have two more hikes forecast. one in q3, one in q4. does that give upside to the dollar or is that priced in? the dollar has been a bit of a disappointment to the dollar bulls over the past couple months. >> we think the dollar will continue to weaken. generally once you get into the rate hikes, it's priced for that. it tends to weaken afterwards, particularly when valuation is extreme. the dollar is expensive. other currencies like the euro are cheap. it may be that the ecb is starting to do their taper and that will be the catalyst to unlock the value within the euro, you'll get the flows out of the dollar and into the euro. >> caroline simmons, deputy head of the uk investment office at ubs wealth management. president trump's personal attorney, michael cohen, has told nbc news he will testify if issued a subpoena as part of ongoing investigations into russian election interference. cohen had previously said he would not comply to any requests from congress. speaking on tuesday cohen said i have nothing to high, i will make myself availability aveiav more than willing to testify but they have to be specific. jared kushner, president trump's son-in-law, reportedly tried to set up a secreted communications channel. peert a peter alexander has more. >> reporter: the white house tonight struggling to fend off questions about son-in-law jared kushner's connections with russia during the transition after a wave of headlines that aides concede blind-sided west wing staff. >> i'm not going to get into that, but your question presupposes facts that have been not been confirmed. >> reporter: press secretary sean spicer did not deny a report that during kushner's meeting at trump tower with michael flynn and russian ambassador sergey kislyak, the 36-year-old proposed setting up secret back channel communications with moscow using russian diplomatic officials for the talks. >> i think that assumes a lot. i would just say that mr. kushner's attorney said mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress what this means. >> it's not inappropriate for officials to speak with foreign counterparts. what is unusual is for there to be a preparation for a back channel outside the bounds of u.s. intelligence or diplomatic channels. >> reporter: also under scrutiny, whether kushner was looking for a direct line to vladamir putin as reported by the "new york times." a surge that during the transition connected kushner with a russian banker with ties to putin. the president defending his trusted advisor saying jared is doing a great job for the country. i have total confidence in him. the white house saying kushner was acting in his capacity as a transition official. mr. trump venting on twitter. russian officials must be laughing at the u.s. and how the lame excuse for why the democrats lost the election has taken over the fake news. that explanation tonight echoed by putin in a new interview calling the allegations of interference fiction invented by trump's political opponents to explain their loss. peter alexander, nbc news, the white house. staying with president trump, president trump tweeted about 4 1/2 hours ago, despite the constant negative press, cofifi, since then -- i don't even know if i'm pronouncing this right or wrong. that's been one of the top twitter trends in the world. look at the spelling there. the reaction on twitter has been phenomenal to use mr. trump's own words. we have seen a lot of backlash here. a lot of questions about the pronounce yegs, whether this is a dish, any sort of food, coffee. but then again he didn't finish that tweet. the miriam dictionary tweets, wakes up, looks at twitter, regrets looking at twitter, goes back to bed. i guess that's what happened. it's 4:25 in washington right now, i guess the president, some officials will be waking up, realize or might not realize what he has write tten there. he'll keep us guessing. in the meantime we'll be amused by what's going on on his twitter account. we'll go for a quick break. check out world markets live, or blog that runs throughout the european trading day. we'll be back with more stuff on "street signs" in two. with type 2 diabetes a lower a1c is a lot about choices. but it can be hard sometimes, 'cause different 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ownership with a 25% share sale. an activist investor creates a connection for ericsson. shares in the swedish telecom equipment maker rally as cevian capital buys a stake of just over 5% citing the company's potential. we still have a couple hours to go until the start of the u.s. markets. let's see how u.s. futures are shaping up. yesterday a slightly down session. the s&p 500 this morning is seen bouncing back by just a small margin. the dow jones seen off by 5.5 points. the nasdaq seen adding 2.5 points. the nasdaq traded 0.1% lower yesterday despite the fact that amazon broke through the 1,000 threshold for the first time. and the nasdaq and the s&p snapping a seven-day winning streak. when it comes to the european equity markets, a slightly mixed picture. the ftse 100 is seeing outperformance. this has to do with the fact that we're seeing a plunge in the pound/sterling after the latest poll says theresa may may be losing votes in parliament. when it comes to the fx markets, cable at 1.2799. just below the 1.28 handle. off by 0.4%. euro/dollar holding on to the flat line, 1.1180. wilbur ross has told cnbc he is open to resuming trade talks with europe. it comes amid a slew of tweets from president trump pointing the finger at germany and its trade surplus. ross told cnbc that as one of the largest trading partners, the u.s. would want to negotiate with the eu as a block rather than individual nations. the white house also reacted to what appears to be a growing rift with one of the u.s.'s closest allies. kristen welker has the full story. >> reporter: i'm kristen welker at the white house where it's not just russia that's roiling the trump administration but some of the united states' closest allies after the president, during his first foreign trip last week, publicly scolded nato members for not paying their fair share. >> this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the united states. >> reporter: lashing out at germany for what he described as unfair trade practices. now the backlash. a senior u.s. intelligence official tells nbc news that german intelligence says it does not need support from the u.s. in monitoring and safeguarding germany's upcoming elections this fall. the u.s. officials saying the germans simply don't want any hint of u.s. involvement in any way. that sentiment echoed by german chancellor angela merkel who recently said -- we europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands. today press secretary sean spicer downplayed talk of a rift. >> i think the relationship that the president has had with merkel he would describe as fairly unbelievable. they get along very well. >> reporter: but the president tweeting defiantly today, we have a massive trade deficit with germany, plus they pay far less than they should on nato and military. very bad for u.s. this will change. foreign policy experts warn -- >> i think the russians are laughing, but they're laughing at how easy it is and how our president, unfortunately, is helping with their agenda. >> reporter: all this may be taking a toll. today the president's communications director resigned after only three months on the job. now mr. trump even eyeing the possibility of bringing in reinforcements, ousted campaign manager corey lewandowski and former deputy campaign manager david bosse both spotted at the white house monday. >> there's always some tension. there should be tension in the white house. you don't want a white house where everyone agrees all the time. but really that should be happening outside of the public view and done inside the white house to help the president do his job. >> let's change gears. former italian prime minister matteo renzi says all political parties have found agreement on a german style system. the new law could be voted on in parliament the first week of july. the approval of a fnew electora system is seen as a last step before elections can take place. federico santi joins us now. we saw a big market reaction to this on monday. the banking sector down 3.4%. 10-year bbp yields up. i thought this was good. i thought this was progress. >> i think markets are looking at early in the context of the chronic political instability problem. a very uncertain political outlook with fragile economic fundamentals. the economy is still very much weaker compared to other regions in the country. spain very much lacking behind. very large public debt which is still rising. a political situation is worrisome, particularly in the context of forthcoming ecb tapering, which is widely expected. in this sense i think the agreement over electoral system is a worrying sign and it could signal the fact that elections could be brought forward from may 2018 to later this year. >> and at this point that would signal a hung parliament? >> i think there's a significant risk that will be the case. depending on whether or not the system will be approved, the risk is lower than with the current system. i would say the baseline for now is a grand coalition government involving the ruling democratic party and the right-wing parties. >> i thought the five-star movement was leading in the polls, so they won't be a part of any government because nobody wants to enter a coalition with them. >> i think that was a longstanding assumption, but i'm not sure that's still the case now. there's a real risk we could get a populist euro skeptic government in italy. i wouldn't say this is a base case, but it's a real risk. >> if we look at the specifics, the technicalities when it comes to the differences between the majoritiey system that we had before and prot pothe proportio system. the proportional system, i guess, would lead to more instability. we had so many governments over the last 70 years. why would mr. renzi, who is known to be a reformer, why would he go for this proportionalist structure? >> he tried to change it italy has a chronic political instability problem. the electoral system is part of that. that held back economic reform and affected economic performance. but they tried to institute a more majority rule, and i think now the latest agreement we saw is realistic assessment of what's feasible. in parliament this hinges on whether you think the electoral system in and of itself can be enough to change the political landscape. i think the new system that they're trying to introduce will not help on that front. >> do you think this is another ill-fated gamble by matteo renzi? the referendum didn't work out for him. he had to resign as prime minister. he made a comeback as leader of the pd party. will this go well for him? >> i think he wants to make another bid for leadership. he wants to bring elections further fearing decline in support. but the electoral system change in and of itself, as i said, is a realistic assessment of what's feasible. this is the best they could come up with in the fragmented parliament. >> when could this pass? june? july? >> i think it's ambitious to get it done over the summer. but feasible. i think any delay beyond mid-july would significantly reduce the chances that renzi will succeed in bring the election forward. >> so when is your best guess for when the election happens? not september then? >> i think the odds are in favor of the fall as opposed to next spring. >> federico, thank you very much for that. saudi arabia's energy minister said opec and non-opec members remain committed to bring oil inventories down to a five-year average. speaking in moscow alongside alexander novak, he added cooperation between the two countries will last longer than the current output cut. oil is off this morning. brent crude at 1.25. wti crude at 49.13. jeff spoke to the russian finance minister, anto anton siluanov. >> with this issue, we take our lead from the view of analysts. the opec countries have undertaken to maintain a range of limiting measures. on the one hand, this should keep prices at the levels they are at present. on the other it gives a signal to those companies which are extracting shale oil, particularly in the usa by increasing levels of drilling and increasing levels of extraction and in the final reckoning by the growth of offers on the oil market. therefore we think that the decisions taken by opec countries will give the opportunity for prices on the oil market to stay at present levels. it will give the opportunity for extra revenues to go into the budgets of opec member countries on the one hand, but all the same it is necessary to be attentive. it is necessary to be ready for the fact that the possible surplus offers of oil will put pressure to lower the price. our task as the ministry of finance is to be prepared for any such changes. to create extra reserves as we have talked about, and hedge our budget from any fluctuations on external commodities markets. >> dara mcdowell has just joined me around the desk. i want to talk more about the outlook for oil prices. what russia's finance ministry is working with is the assumption of $40 a barrel. that's very orthodox and very very conservative. is that a realistic assessment? >> given the projections we have, yes. pretty much. we expect oil over the medium term is going to exceed those prices. it will be above $40 a barrel. there's always something that could be around the corner. could be, you know, a new discovery in the u.s., something that disrupts supply. something that reduces demand. over the next two, three years, yes, absolutely. but the question is the longer time horizon and does russia get in the economic reforms that it needs to to put the country in a long-term footing so far we're not seeing a huge amount of that. >> why is that? is that because of political remember sure? >> precisely. vladimir putin is running for re-election in 2018, while there's no doubt about the outcome at this point, this is a political regime that is reliant upon public opinion. it does want to demonstrate there is real enthusiasm and real support for putin in the countryside. not just acquiescence. so we expect the russian government to be on cruise control. in the interview siluanov did not say much about the mineral extraction tax. they are look at changing the way they tax oil exports and where the balance of taxation falls in their energy system. that's being delayed because of disputes with rosneft. there are various interests and stake holders within the russian government that don't want to see this going forward and rock the boat prior to the election to we're seeing a bit of an autopilot phase at the moment. >> i'm curious to what extent the man on the street in moscow or st. peetersburg worries abou the dispute between russia and the u.s. when it comes to allegallege alleged hacking, this fbi investigation, all the news flow out of washington. does this sew disconsent for what one was hoping would be a major reset of the relations and easing of sanctions? >> for the russian man on the street, the average citizen, no. are they interested? >> to the degree they're interested, this does not go for everybody, just in a broad sense, looking at the media, they're interested in the sense that they probably don't believe that russia directly interfered or if they do, they feel it was justified. right now there's a bit of schadenfreude going on with the united states and the allies seem to be in disarray or could be portrayed as being so. and russia is this island of stability. this is the narrative that putin and the kremlin have put forward for a while. but it's doing well at the moment due to external events. what does it mean for russia give than we have this ongoing investigation. who knows when this will wrap up, what the findings will be. until then sanctions will stay in place and nothing will change in a fundamental perspective? >> we don't expect sanctions to be lifted in the medium term, into 2018. mainly because europe has been well united on this issue and is determined to show a degree of strength towards moscow, particularly after the alleged interference in the french elections. and on the american side, while the current sanctions as they exist, it's within the power of president trump to lift these unilaterally. it does seem that congressional republicans have indicated strongly if he does that, they will legislate for these sanctions. his hands have been tied a bit on this one. it's all of these stories about rumors of closeness between the trump administration and moscow that have made it very, very difficult for him to do this at this point. >> daragh, thank you very much for that inside. join us as we head to the st. peertsbu bupetersburg inter forum. tomorrow geoff will be speaking live talking to business leaders and officials attending that event. a mrassive car bomb rocked central kabul killing more than 60 people and injuring more than 300. french and german embassies in the area have been damaged but the number of foreign victims has yet to be determined. the german foreign minister said germ germans have been injured and a guard has died. >> this is a look at the heat map and the stoxx 600. no major movement on the stoxx 600. we'll be back in two. welcome back to the show. active money managers are doubling down on tech according to bank of america merrill lynch which shows investors are holding a record amount of overweight positions. big tech firms have accounted for a third of the overall gains in u.s. stacks with data showing apple, amazon, facebook, microsoft and alphabet enjoys the most significant share price jump. amazon broke above $1,000 for the first time ever in yesterday's session. with the nasdaq at an all-time high and tech stocks at 15-year peaks, we are asking wlyou what would you buy for $1,000? with more than 4,500 votes counted, 36% of you have chosen bitcoin. bitcoin. wow. i thought many of would have gone for amazon. head to traderpoll.cnbc.com to cast your vote. one analyst who correctly predicted bitcoin could hit $2,000 now believes the currency could reach as much as $100,000 in ten years. head online to find out why. let's change gears. janus henderson completed their merger yesterday with the listing of shares in the combined group on the new york stock exchange. they took the decision to merge amid increasing outflows. janus henderson hopes to see 100 million in cost savings per year as a result. gemma joins us. you talked to one of the co-ceos this morning. >> what you mentioned was talking about the defensive point of view of why the merger went ahead in terms of cost savings, defending against increasing pressures in the industry. clearly what the ceo -- co-ceo was talking about is more the opportunity he sees there. one point he dwelled on was scale and the necessity of being big in the industry, now going forward. talking about the fact that some of his clients, banks, shares are also moving towards consolidation. so it's necessary. let's listen in and wlahear whae to say. >> we listed yesterday. it's been nearly a bit over seven months since we announced the deal. it's shaping up to how when you look at asset management, trying to deal with all the different challenges, whether it's changes from our clients in terms of how they're looking to work with their partners asset managers, regulatory change, is that we all face, or even technology changes, changes in the way we do business, it's important for firms to be truly global. >> i was making the point that everything old is new again. i was covering this story in sydney when they before trying to spin off henderson. a business they couldn't get rid of quickly enough. fast forward to 2017, another buyer thinks it's a good idea to add this business to their portfolio of assets. what changed in this time frame? >> i was here in 2003 as well. i think the issues that anp had was more on insurance side than the asset management side. in 2003 when we spun off we included pearl, underlife, npi, now part of the phoenix group. we went back to a pure play asset management firm. one thing australian share holders have supported since 2003, as henderson we were nearly 70% owned by australians. as janus henderson we have a share holder base of 40%. people recognize the strength the asset management industry has despite the challenges we see in markets and the change in buying patterns. asset management firms continue off a strong growth prospect. >> andrew formica there talking about the benefits of scale. there are other benefits to the merger, particularly in this case but also in m&a, looking at product complimentarity. the u.s. equity base is janus's strong point, and for henderson global fixed income it is stronger. janus brings to the table quantity of equities, which is helpful for henderson. we had an interesting conversation about that, talking about they serve as a big part of the future going forward. >> can i ask you about the model of two co-c osheos, it hardly e works. do you think it will work in this case? >> andrew's argument is that he wouldn't be able to get the support he needs from the janus side in terms of integrating the merger. however the integration is only maximum a three-year process. so the question is what happens after that. you're right in terms of nerves, why we hear some investors are pulling back and some analysts are cautious, the co-ceo structure is a huge factor for them. gem gemma, thank you very much for that. before we wrap up the show. here's a look at u.s. futures. looking mixed in the s&p 500, seen up by a fraction. dow jones would fall by 7 1/2 points. the nasdaq seen adding two points after it slipped slightly yesterday. snapping a seven-day winning streak. that's it for today's show. i'm carolin roth, "worldwide exchange" is up next. see you same time, same place tomorrow. bye-bye. good morning. sterling slides as polls show theresa may could lose her majority in parliament. today's market test and earnings front and center as always. and trump dishes out his digits. why the president is reportedly telling world leaders to call him on his cell phone directly. it's wednesday, may 31, 2017, "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪ good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" on