Lundstedt. Pass the mustard mccormick buys Reckitt Benckisers food business for 4. 2 billion, adding frenchs mustard and franks hot sauce to the company spice rack the ceo of akzonobel steps down citing Health Reasons as the Dutch Chemicals Company continues to battle activist investor elliott managements attempts to oust its chairman. Weve had so many numbers out of scandinavia the last couple of days and speaking to so many ceos out of that region. Ericsson yesterday tough numbers there. Great numbers today from scedbank we spoke to tele2 who are weathering regulatory problems left, right and center and electrolux and volvo are moving in Different Directions on the market today, but electrolux upgraded its north american outlook after a stronger than expected rise in Second Quarter earnings. The swedish appliance maker upped air north American Growth star get to 3 to 4 citing strengthening demand and a favorable macro environment. Its not the only firm today citing a pick up in north american demand. Volvo, this is trucks. Some of you get confused, i get confused as well this is volvo, listed company in sweden eyjafjovo volvo cars is china. These two companies are moving in Different Directions. 4. 2 higher for electrolux and volvo shares trading 3. 7 lower. The electrolux ceo Jonas Samuelson will join us in under ten minutes time we will also speak to the ceo of volvo, Martin Lundstedt in about 40 minutes time. Mccormick and company, we were talking about hormel and unilever earlier in the week, but mccormick and company will buy Reckitt Benckiser in a deal worth 4 4. 2 billion the brands include frenchs mustard and franks hot sauce. American seasoningmak ining mak the move will help the margins and adjusted earnings per share. Mccormick added the 2017 pro forma net sales were expected to amount to 5 billion Reckitt Benckiser will use the funds to pay down debt we spend a lot of time on cnbc talking about numbers, about bidding wars, about m a, aggressive corporate activity. Let us never forget, lets remind ourselves that sometimes theres a human cost to this its human beings who are running these companies. Weve seen tragic instances where people pushed themselves too far in the past. Not this time, the ceo of akzo nobel, ton buchner stepped down with immediate effect. Buchner led the dutch patieint maker since december of 2012 he is being replaced by Thierry Vanlancker who ran the Specialty Chemicals division the backdrop to this, i think there is some connection from what the Conference Calls have been saying, but its not directly affecting i had health is health at the moment, but they have faced pressure from Elliott Advisers to sell to ppg for a 7 27 billion deal earlier i spoke to bob parker on squawk box to get his take on buchners decision im sure he will reemerge somewhere else but if he feels that way, one has to sprekt his decision it will be interesting to see what elliott has to say about this lets take a broader look at some of the markets. Im delighted to welcome ursla marcioni from blackrock. Good morning good morning. Lets talk about some of the biggest issues here as well. I continue to hear commentator after commentator telling me how great european equities are, how they have a real kind of earnings and growth tailwind, how politics calmed down i have a head wind, thats the strength of the euro that gentleman there, bob parker, he reckons it will get to1. 20 will that make some of these exporters underperform or not . If you look at most recent Exchange Traded product flows, i think you get a bit of a pulse of the market and how investors are trying to answer the question that youre posing, which is very well founded what i would say is that couple of points. One, were coming from a situation where in 2016 europe has been severely sold so if you look at Exchange Traded product flowsas an element, weve seen 34 billion going out of the markets 28 have come back this year. I think you can totally see that we are moving into a different phase of this growth and money situations so coming from an end of h2 sorry, h1, where we came from a situation where european equities were severely underearned, and we had the Political Risk you had the big wall of money coming back to a situation where the momentum will continue we remain positive on european equities european markets, japan remain our overweight for the third quarter. We believe theres more to go despite the concern that you have raised. Yet the momentum, the pace of this trend is probably due to slow down. A bit of a slowdown what happens when the ecb, if the ecb says, we bought everything we can find we cant buy more. Nothing else weve done our job deflation is defeated. Vil what happens when the ecb stops buying thats the big question if you look at the technicalities of the Bond Purchase Program towards the end of the year we will have some serious questions. In a way or another this is something that will remain in focus. Yet i think if you think about tomorrow, if you think about later, we have a bit of time its totally a question for later on in q3, but we think that for now theres still room to go its also relative discussion absolutely. Equities versus bonds. Heres my issue as well. The bond market has rallied way further than people thought it was going to do. The equity market has had a good run up as we discussed as well does the bond and equity market continue to move in tandem once we have had the end of ecb purchases . Do we see yields picking up and equities coming off . You said youre constructive on european equities on a lower pace, but if they say were done, spring next year, do equities have a wobble good question i give you another element in terms of what i see investors coming to us being worried of. One question has been for the majority of h1 how do we think about a rising rates environment and how do we restrict sure our fixed income exposures if i look at the last two months, that question has somehow slowed down and subdued. So we get significantly less demand for testing and stress testing portfolios around these scenarios. I think we are in an interesting situation. At blackrock we believe curve also steepen in the long run, because markets will start to price higher risk for inflation. But aside from the last few days, its undeniable that a flattening has occurred. I think investors remain in terms of q3 constructive on risky assets, on equities. This is what i hear from the 600 plus investors that weve helped build portfolios over the last few years. The best performing stateside sector has been i. T. I mentioned on squawk box that i think its 2 higher. The nasdaq has had a stunning run up to the upside people bought that because they think the market has gone up theyre not worried about the yield. Ive been looking at your notes, the yield is a serious concern for many investors where are they finding yield bond market . Corporate bonds . Equity what kind of products are you putting together to find yield the longer for lower environment has been the big question that everybody is asking for and will continue to be in our view so certainly up to now emerging market debt and dividend growers in the equity space have been the choice Going Forward we like Investment Grade in the u. S. As obviously were getting closer to an end to cycle situation where high yields might be less ttractive all right talking about volatility in a bit of time. Its something that is a perplexing sum others are worried about it. Well come back to that and see lou that is fitting into portfolios let me update you on the European Equity markets. Its okay, unless youre in spain. By in large a mildly positive start to trading after what were mixed markets stateside overnight. Lets look at the sectors. Construction materials down 0. 4 nothing really on real estate. Ill call that flat. Technology, you saw this great move up on netflix moving 1. 2 to the upside. Ibm underwhelming overnight. Household goods 1 higher. I think we can say thats electrolux i think thats down to electrolux in terms of electrolux, shares seeing a boost after the appliance maker lifted its north american outlook the ceo. Jonas samuelson will join us after the break. Your brain is an amazing thing. But as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Just looking at shares in electrolux, 3. 6 higher, 15 higher over the last three months hitting record highs after the company upgraded its north American Market outlook, this as it reported a stronger than expected rise in Second Quarter earnings the appliance maker upped its north American Growth target to between 3 and 4 citing strengthening demand and a favorability macro environmefav macro environment. Jonas samuelson is the ceo of electrolux and joins us now. Thank you very much for joining us north america, fantastic high spot there what is driving the growth of business i think first of all we do see good construction environment. People moving and trading up and buying new appliances. Thats supportive for demand our focus has been a lot on operational deficiency focusing more on the most competitive, most profitable product categories and working on our cost efficiencies thats fueling the earnings improvement. How do you grow the u. S. Business Going Forward you try to buy that ge business. That went to the chinese in the end. So you saw the opportunity it could have been better for you stateside what is the next stage . In organic growth or do you buy more brands . I think its organic growth we are focusing a lot on the frigidaire brand it is a good brand with a lot of opportunities to grow. In terms of europe, the headline was western europe under pressure, but more specifically its unite td kingo as well. You are one of the ceos ive spoken to who is seeing a brexittype effect we are seeing two effects. One is the british pound being weaker since we import our goods into the uk that has a negative impact secondly the market is down and has been down for the last year in the Second Quarter down about 5 , more or less for the year to date period. So, are you particularly worried about what happens next with the uk, bearing in mind the pound remains under significant pressure is it a major area of concern for you Going Forward . Is an important market in europe its the second largest market in europe. So anything that happens in the uk is important to us. And, you know, weak currency and weakening demand are, of course, unfavorable to us. So were hoping that that whole brexit negotiations will become smoother and with better visibility for everybody involved how do you feel about the Trump Administration ands of white goods, manufacturers of all products they try to build products domestically. Its not cost effective. No matter who you are you outsourced your manufacturing to lower costs, in many cases emerging market regions. Is the trump mantra of buying american, will that affect you in any way, shape or form . First, actually about 80 of what we sell in the u. S. Is manufactured in the u. S. So we have less of that challenge. You know, we have a Strong Manufacturing footprint. We have a strong american brand portfolio in frigidaire. I would say on balance that is not something that is having particular Significant Impact on us of course were very much in favor of free trade and we do have a Global Supply chain specifically in north america we have a good and competitive local Manufacturing Base in the u. S. Sure, your margins state side were impressive. 8. 4 despite continued price pressure i cant see why would want to manufacture in the United States when you could manufacture not far away in lore cost mwer costs were investing in our u. S. Manufacturing footprint to further improve efficiency its a balance between, of course, labor costs logistics costs. Being located in the u. S. Has a significant advantage from a logistics cost perspective that tends to balance out. Jonas, you only said very sensible and understandable answers so far today one thing i dont get from you is uber for laundry. This is an april fools, yeah . Were working on a lot of exciting ideas around the smart home and around helping consumers get more out of products theres lots of interesting ideas floating around an interesting products coming to market so im not sure if uber for laundry is the magic bullet, but theres a lot of exciting developments going on there. I just will explain, this is where consumers would use their own washing machines to wash other peoples clothes. I can only imagine what happens next jonas, congratulations on the great performance. Thank you nobody wants my wash. I can assure you disappointing Bank Earnings drag the dow lower as weaker fixed income trading weighed on bank of america and Goldman SachsSecond Quarter numbers with that, lets get back to our guest, ursula marchionne do you have any in terms of the Financial Markets and as our previous guest said, im comparing apples and pears, but what have you got for us financials is an interesting sector we have seen flows from Exchange Traded product investors in addition to technology, those have been specifically for the u. S. Two seinteresting sectors. They underpin the strong growth of momentum strategies within the factory investing space, which we were discussing earlier on its a space to watch. We continue to like momentum mostly Technology Focused but it has an exposure to financials which could buffer Going Forward in a rising rates environment any potential downturn in the tech sector. Explain to me the rational for momentum trading there are those of white houus k buying on green and blue and selling on red where is the valuation argument in momentum trading . Or is there one . I think you have long persistent drivers of returns in markets. First i would say you need to take a step back and expand your investment horizon as opposed to intraday trading perspective if you buy into that argument and if thats how you are constructing your portfolio, then certainly there are parts of the Economic Cycle where momentum is interesting and has prove ton deln to deliver outpec versus the broad market. It kind of works until it doesnt. We are going up, going up, going up, we stop going up, then what do you do when you are stuck in an area where its bobbing or going down do you have a short momentum product . We dont. But you can certainly short long to medium etfs you can take two perspectives. One is the more static one its been proven buying diversifying you can outperform in the longterm the market. Or you can trade in and out different factors as there is evidence that certain factors tend to perform better in given parts of the Economic Cycle. From what i hear from you, youre probably in the latter. Im on the fence on everything i like to give the alternative view vix has been under ten for a Record Number of days already this year. How are you offering products or what kind of products are you offering to trade volatility we have minimum volatility structures, which have been in the market for quite some time and very popular i guess on volatility i would point out theres a lot of nervousness in the market in terms of these levels are too low, this indicator will revert. We will see a spike in volatility, everybody gets worried. Our view at blackrock is slightly different in terms of we dont believe volatility is a reverting indicator. It doesnt go back to a level. It tends to operate in regimes weve sondone a study from 1872 theres evidence that those types of periods remain for quite some time and the flip, the button can only be switched if something significant happens. Or the end of an ecb buying program. Just tying the two together. When the biggest player in town is a long buyer trying to buy every single level, once that buyer disappears, is that the catalyst is that the regime change that will ruin the momentum trade and the mean reversion or get the mean reversion trade back on track . I agree the risk of ecb policy error is high and is one risk we need to look for equally i would point out to the other side of the argument which is its equally very risky to remain under invested and underrun risky assets in an area where there is still room to grow despite those oldfashioned concerns about valuation ursula, thank you very much for joining us ursula marchionne from blackrock. Coming up on this show, solve the trade issues thats the message from top u. S. And chinese businesses to respective governments well have plenty more after this break and we have to take that quick break, but check out World Markets live, our blog which runs throughout the european trading day. Very warm welcome to street signs. Im Steve Sedgwick these are your headlines volvo shares slip to a twomonth low, as weak margins weigh on results this despite the truck mak