trade lower as they face the stress tests, too. and europe touches multi year lows. the ecb could ease policy as early as next week. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. and a very good morning. welcome to the show here on "worldwide exchange." very good morning to you if you're just joining us, as well, in north america. european stocks yesterday were softer. the dow down. this morning, futures are indicating we are going to get a bounce higher on the dow by something around 17 points or so. we're pretty much half a point above fair value for the s&p and the nasdaq yesterday having its worst performance in two weeks, down 1.4%. as you can see, futures were just indicating -- i think we had a flat opening. the s&p down 0.7% yesterday and the dow jones average was down 0.6%. facebook down nearly 7% after agreeing to buy oculus for $2 billion. we saw that big fall in king, as well. just an hour into the trading day, this is where we stand. the ftse 100 down 0.5%. we were flat yesterday, 0.4 points is what we were down. down another 0.5% this morning. the squat dax and kakt 40 off 0.25 as is the ftse mib. let's take a look at where we stand on the bond markets. 1.70 on the five-year. two-year treasury yields yielding 0.44% at the moment. 0.47 is where we've been post yellen. 0.34% before that. durable goods orders yesterday are up month on month, maybe a little better than expected. but there is some devil in the detail with that figure, as well. now, as far as peripheral debt, still continuing to see yields heading lower. spanish yields, continuing to be down here for quite some time. 3.267% is where we stand on spanish debt at the moment. italian debt, 3.21% wab as well. euro/dollar has been calming down. saying maybe we could talk about negative deposit rates if the euro got too strong. then draghi coming out and being more hawkish than that and more comments coming out, as well. we might be doing something. 1.6565 is where we stand at the moment. remember the two and a half year high, 1.3967. retail sales coming out in around 27 minutes. 1.5564 is where we stand. we've been around that 1.65 mark. so the imf has confirmed an aid package for ukraine which may reach as much as $18 billion. financial support from the wider international community is now estimated at $27 billion. details of the bailout includes an imf assessment of economic reforms needed by officials in kiev. in response, ukraine's central bank chief has warned that overall -- by the deal might be quite painful. at the same time, the eu is to work with washington to try and prepare further tougher sanctions on russia. barack obama has warned that the kremlin is -- europe's borders cannot be redrawn by force. the u.s. president has called for the international community to apply pressure on russia. >> one of the things that i think medium and long-term we'll have to examine is whether everybody is chipping in. and this can't just be a u.s. exercise or a british exercise or one country's efforts. everybody is going to have to make sure that they are engaged and involved and i think that will help build more confidence among some of those border states. >> that was the president. meanwhile, the russian economy minister has warned of slowing growth this year. alexi has forecast 0.6% gdp groekt for this year. that number is based on the assumption that cash flowing out of russia will top $100 billion. joining us with his thoughts, brian mcmillan, chief investment officer. brian, very good morning to you. people are trying to work out -- >> good morning to you. >> -- the economic back of this political standoff between the west and russia. how do you price it in? >> well, i think the assumption largely in western markets has been everything is okay. and i think the problem is that, in fact, the west is particularly the u.s. is determined to make sure that everything is not okay. so i think the markets have been mistaken in that assumption and investors need to be more cautious. >> yeah. you say russia is the new poster child for -- well, we talk about it, a deglobalizing world. >> what we have is we have a world that for 30 years has been globalized. we have countries coming together, working together. and just recently, russia joined the ga, they joined the world trade organization and they've actively said we are going to send troops into part of a european nation. they are pulling themselves back, disconnecting from the global economy. this is a symptom of a large r impact it's going to have across all the countries in the entire world. >> now, we have growth of u.s. energy, reshoring of manufacturing in the u.s., you say look, that means further decoupling from the growth. is that really the case? >> well, you can look at it as decoupling or you can look at it as each country emphasizing more its national interests. you can see specific where it's russia, but you can see cases with the u.s., as well. for example, let's talk about energy. as u.s. energy production grows, there's more talk about do we even want to export? and it's a question of which is better for the national economy? this is a discussion that would have been less imaginable ten or 15 years ago. when there was more of a commitment to globalization. in china, they're shifting over to more internally financed growth. internally generated growth rather than exports. that's a good thing. it's necessary. but at the same time, relatively speaking, there is a shift in focus from international trade to the domestic economy. we're seeing this in europe, as well. with each of the countries in europe through difficult times, there's a need to focus on your own domestic needs and you're seeing that, as well. >> bearing in mind the u.s. is going to have the biggest market still, whatever happens with china, just in terms of the numbers of consumer spending is that where you, therefore, want to put your investment? >> i believe it is. what we have is we have russia creating uncertainty, at a bear minimum in europe. we have a europe that is facing rising political uncertainty. there's a rise of anti-europe, anti-eu parties in many countries and in france, for example, the national budget did quite well. and with the european parliament, elections coming up. that's something that's going to create, i believe, more uncertainty going forward. we have a swelling recovery in europe which the european central bank has now said, well, maybe we'll consider quantitative easing after all. that's a big step. so there are two things going on there. and it can't help but create more uncertainty, which in general, as you well know, markets dislike. if you look at china, there's a very open question about how robust the growth is going to be going forward. again, it's not that it's going to fall off a cliff, but there is uncertainty and markets don't like that. on the other hand, you have the u.s. where we have a central political stability despite all of the shenanigans in washington, d.c. you have a strengthening domestic recovery that's largely caused by domestic factors and isn't really as susceptible to disruption in the rest of the world. if you look at where the uncertainty is going to be, and even where the growth is going to be, the u.s. and other developed markets are really the place to focus your investment. >> let's stay there because there are a couple of tech stories we want to wrap up, as well. internet stocks under pressure. the nasdaq is down by nearly 1.5% in the session. facebook led the market down. that stock off nearly 7% as the firm shelled out $2 billion to buy virtual reality headsetmaker oculus. and king has taken the crown as the worst ipo debut in 2014 so far. the stock closing the session lower by more than 15%. it listed at $22.50. investors seem to be concerned, as we talked about. the company won't be able to replicate the success on of its candy crush game. but the interesting thing about it, he said this is the worst first day drop in 15 years for u.s. ipo rating at least $500 million. what is -- there may be specific reasons for that. is there any broader, anything broader you can take away from that stat or not? >> significantly. i think the candy crush, the king digital example is a good example of that. i think some of the big m&a deals we've seen recently are an example of that. recently, we've seen the broader market. we've seen the s&p open up and then close down on several occasions. and we've seen the market repeatedly try new highs over the past couple of weeks and not make it. and that concerns me because in conjunction are everything else with the uncertainty and particularly with the fed's ongoing taper, that says to me that maybe the energy isn't there to move much higher, at least in the short-term. >> stay there. we'll get more from you in a second. have a cup of coffee. still to come, citigroup canceled plans to adopt the green light. see you in a few moments. u in a. predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. u in a. but, manufacturing in the united states means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. the imf announces a bailout deal for the ukraine up to $18 billion. the nasdaq suffers its worst day in two weeks. facebook and king digital dragging the markets down. citigroup fails the fed's test. on the agenda today in the united states, we've got weekly jobless claims out at 8:30 eastern, forecast to rise by 5,000 to a total of 325,000. also at 8:30, we get the final estimate on fourth quarter gdp. growth is expected to be revised upward from 2.4% to 2.7%. and at 10:00 a.m., february pending home sales are out there forecast to rise 0.2%. accenture, lieu lieu let meon, gamestop and winnebago all expected to record today. citigroup, zion's bancorp and the u.s. units of hsbc, rbs and santander as part of its annual stress tests. citi's plans were rejected for the second time in three years. citi haven't made enough progress in improving its risk management and control. in a statement, the ceo says he's disappointed. citi will stay pay a 1 cent dividend and continue its $1.2 billion buyback. it had asked to raise the dividend to five cents and the buyback to 6.4 billion. as for the banks, payments will be limited to last year's levels. the fed made bank of america and goldman sachs pay back their captain plan. as far as the shares of those individual banks are concerned, citigroup down in frankfurt. bank of america, goldman sachs down. hsbc and rbs off 1.24%. brian, what do you make of the restrictions on these banks and their capital plans? >> i'm actually very pleased to see this. because it demonstrates that the fed is indeed taking the need to recapitalize the u.s. financial system seriously. the fact that they failed five banks, including probably arguably the most prominent one says to me that the fed is, first of all, trying to make an example. second of all, demonstrating their serious. and third of all, committed to making sure we don't have the same kind of problems going forward as we've had in the past. i think it's a good thing. >> yeah. what was interesting is they wanted to increase dividends and buybacks which they've cleared been restricted from doing. and they had this point made from larry the other day and said actually companies can stop raising dividendes and buybacks and investors need to see some investment in future growth. do you have some sympathy with that? >> i think that's exactly right. simply because we have a situation where most of the groeth growth in earnings per share has come back from investments not growth. it's still mott where it needs to be. the idea that the best use of the of your company dollars is to buy back makes sense if your stock is cheap. but the market is at all-time highs. it's very close. this is expensive stock. how can this possibly be a good investment over time? >> always good to see you. thanks for joining us this morning. brian mcmillan joining us from commonwealth financial. >> thank you. you're looking at the latest pictures from rome. u.s. president barack obama is currently visiting pope francis in the vatican city. he's having a pretty busy trip. still to come, has lululemon's new ceo helped the company bounce back from its share in yoga pants? we'll get an earnings preview after this. after this. oh! the name your price tool! you tell them how much you want to pay, and they help you find a policy that fits your budget. i told you to wear something comfortable! this is a polyester blend! whoa! uh...little help? i got you! unh! it's so beautiful! man: should we call security? no, this is just getting good. the name your price tool, still only from progressive. sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts... ♪ ...work with equity experts... ♪ ...who work with regional experts... ♪ ...who work with portfolio management experts, that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration. u.s. markets right now s&p is up 1 point, dow jones is up 23 points and the nasdaq is high by 7 after the worst day in two weeks for the nasdaq yesterday. back of america, meanwhile, is going to pay $9.3 the billion to fannie mae .freddie mac to settle claims it sold them bad mortgage bonds during the housing bubble. this is the tenth settlement the agency has reached since filing 18 lawsuits against financial firms in 2011. bank of america says the settlement will reduce first quarter incomes by $2.7 billion. bank of america's kevin liewis has reached a settlement over the merrill lynch deal in 2008. the settlement with the new york attorney general's office prevents lewis from serving as director or officer of a public company for three years. lewis was initially seen as a white knight for merrill, but by the end of the deal, bank of america needed government help to keep frit failing. now, lululemon is set to release its first results under the new law. before the u.s. opening bell. he took over the helms from christine day after she set down just three months after the see-through yoga wear debacle. the retailer is expected to report earnings online with its announcement that it released in january for the fourth quarter. joining us with her thoughts, senior analyst at mcquarry securities liz. liz, lululemon seems to split opinions like no other stock out there. can they recover from the see-through pants incident and the founder's comments that his company's clothes aren't meant for some women? that took a real hit on their fan base. >> i think they absolutely can recover. i think the question is how much it takes to recover, how much time and how much money do they need to maybe initiate some more formal marketing, do they need to be investment quality? there are a lot of questions, though, around how they will recover. i don't expect to see it in the quarter or in the guidance, but i absolutely think the brand is strong enough to recover. >> yeah. what do you want to see? do you want to see them tweak around with the discounting, the pricing strategy? and you talk about marketing. getting that balance between how much i spend and what bang i get for my buck is kind of difficult. >> well, i don't think that they can be both brands through offering sharper prices. i don't think that's ever been a successful approach to long-term building a brands. but i do think that they could do a little bit more formal marketing, maybe some outreach to customers. they spend a very small percentage of revenue on marketing relative to the rest of sort of global brands and perhaps that could be a direction they can. i think they could invest more in product quality and communicate that to consumers. i think whatever they do, it's likely to take a bit of time. >> yeah. how much time and how tough is it? credit swiss is saying that they're got an online brand commentary, 34% of comments on lululemon are negative up from 22% from a year ago. the trend is against them. >> yeah. you know, we've done some of those surveys, as well. and the online commentary has swung a bit more negative. but i think that that could be a little bit of a reporting problem in that there's more awareness of these share issues and so more people are reporting problems with sheerness or pilling. i think that the brand -- i mean, i'm active in the workout community here in new york and in california and the brand is still very, very popular. when i go to these classes, i see women wearing lululemon products, probably 70% of the women in some of these classes are wearing the product. i still think the brand is very strong. they some work to do to prove to the consumer that they're committed to quality. >> they've been opening 34 stores per year. should they continue with that? should they continue with the international expansion? >> absolutely. i think they have to strike while the iron is hot. it's usually a competitive market. you have traditional athletic brands going after it. you have some brands that sort of mimic lululemon, brands from other countries and now in the uk you have sweaty betty, all kinds of brands going after this market share. i think it's important that l u lululemon move quickly to build up their brand prudently. i wouldn't want to see them slow the pace of expansion at all. >> would today be an entry point for the stock or not? >> today could be interesting. you know, i think that they will guide below the street. we put out a preview. but as i've talked to many of my counterparts, it seems as though buy side is expecting even worse numbers than my lower than street numbers. so i think that there's a point where, you know, we could see very bad numbers out of them and the stock could rally. but to the extent that it doesn't, i think it could be an interesting entry point. i've got to see what they say, obviously. but it's a brand i believe in over the long-term. it's just about sort of timing the right entry points. >> good to see you this morning. thanks for joining us from macquarie. you have pictures there of president obama who is currently meeting with pope francis in the vatican city. it's the first time the president has met the pope. the president is in italy in the european talks. we'll take a short break. more on this and the headlines when we come back. when we come . the imf announces an aid package for ukraine up to $18 billion. stocks drag, pushing the nasdaq to a two-week low. king digital's ipo takes the crown as the worst monthly debut this year. and citi shares fall as the federal reserve drops its capital plan. ubs, santander and hsbc all trending lower. plus, nar dell la takes the stage after taking the first job at microsoft. will he unveil the ipad? >> you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. good morning to you. u.s. futures are indicated a little higher after the fall we've seen first thing this morning. the s&p and dow are down respectively. the dow is now some 37 points above fair value. the s&p at the moment is 2 points above fair value and the nasdaq is currently 10 points above fair value. european equities after being fairley flat yesterday, the ftse, it was down. it's currently up 0.3%. it's turned around a little bit here in europe in the last hour. the xetra dax is up 0.1 the cac 40 is flat and the ftse mib is up 0.2%. we've had some data, as well, out of the uk. first of all, we've heard from the bank of england. and some strong retail sales data, as well. gilt is shedding 15.6 on strong retail sales data this morning. february retail up 7% month on more. the forecast is for it to be up 0.5% month on month. clearly better than expected. sterling, up quite a lot on that. 1.66. short time ago we were at 1.6565. so up on the back of that. as we've been discussing, internet stocks have been under pressure. the nasdaq closing the session lower by nearly 1.5%. it was facebook that helped pull i it down, the stock losing nearly 7% of its value after shelling ow $2 billion to buy oculus. google off 2%. amazon down over 3%. in the same time, king has taken the crown pass worst ipo debut in 2014 so far. the stock closing the session low by more than 50% after listing at $22.50. investors seemed concerned the company won't be able to replicate the results of candy crush. joining us now, richard, founder of mobile. before the market opened, what is the strategy here? >> that's an excellent question because everyone is scratching their heads and asking the exactly same question. i'm afraid i don't have a good answer for you. there is no rationale reason why facebook should branch out into virtual reality hardware. and when you take that into conjunction with the pride that they paid, around $2 billion, it's very difficult to see how investors are going to see a positive retur on that. >> yeah. mark zuckerberg is calling it a platform -- mobile is the platform for today. this is the platform of the future. you clearly think he's wrong? >> well, i mean, i don't necessarily disagree that he's wrong, but he may be thinking 20 years into the future. the other thing i would also point out is if you look at what game developers have said, pretty much all of them have said we have no plans to develop for this platform in the future. so how this helps facebook go into gaming or to develop further in the future, again, one big mystery, to be honest with you. >> does that raise fundamental questions about the -- sort of the alignment of shareholders and the control of the company, which is questionable if they've logged google, as well? >> yeah. i mean, exactly, it does. the central problem with both google and facebook is the founders still control the companies. what that means is that they own more of the votes than they do the economic interests. which means effectively they have a license to spend other people's money with no comeback at all. and when it comes down to it, if there should be a problem or investor action is needed, the investors themselves have absolutely no power to remove management, pass resolutions at the agm, and on that basis, frankly, i think when you look at what these companies are worth, once should be looking at taking a discount for that. >> you mentioned gamesmakers. what happened with king digital shares, clearly they just don't believe -- you know, you can be more than a one-hit wonder or it's very hard to be more than a one-hit wonder. >> yeah. i mean, i think that's fairley clear. i think the other problem is if you look at the trajectory over the last couple of years, and look at the trajectory of king, you can actually draw very clear comparables between the two. in fact, right before the ipo, the metrics on king have started to go in the wrong direction, which is probably why the stock fell so heavily on its first open day, predicated by the fact i think that the general view is if it goes down on the first day, it's going to continue going down for one so everybody rushes to the exit, which is why you saw such a large move yesterday. >> all right. stay there. we want to talk about microsoft as speculation that microsoft could set to unveil the ipad later today. the san francisco press briefing is focused on the incident every section of cloud and mobile computing. that's what it says. and it will include the first public remarks by ceo nadella since his appointment last month. morgan is taking a closer look at what we might be able to expect. >> in its first press event since taking the helm, ceo nadella will talk cloud later today. he's expected to unveil office for the ipad. microsoft is saying it will involve news focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing. the new service will reportedly look and feel similar to office for iphone. include word, excel, powerpoint app and require an office 360 subscription for editing. analysts believe office for ipad would be a multibillion dollar career opportunity for microsoft. in addition, it will be the first chance to get more details about nadella's overall vision and strategy since taking over for steve bomber last month. the event kicks off in san francisco at 1:00 p.m. eastern and i'll be live outside with all of the details. back to you in london. >> richard, what are your thoughts here? clearly, it's been a struggle for microsoft the last few years. what strategy would you like to see unveiled today? >> well, i very much doubt you're going to see a new strategy unveiled today. he's only been in the job a month and it takes at least three to decide which way to jump. the key thing on microsoft is is it going to become an enterprise company and ditch the consumer assets or is it going to go forward and be a complete ecosystem company which permanently i think is the best option for the future. what i think he's going to announce today is probably what people are speculating, which is office for ipad and a device management system that allows the microsoft infrastructure inside a company to manage both microsoft devices, apple devices and android devices. >> office for ipad might be quite successful. i don't know. >> yeah, it could be. yeah, i mean, i think it could be. i think a couple of years ago, there was definitely a concern about cannibalism, i.e., you know, people if you have office on an ipad, there's no reason to buy a laptop and, therefore, microsoft loses maybe $120 operating systems sale. i think in the last few years, what's clearly developed is that, you know, the ipad, the tablet, that's part of the market that is lost to the pc already. therefore, if i look at it in that perspective, putting office on the ipad could be incremental to microsoft in terms of pushing their ecosystem outside of their core area. richard, good to see you. thanks for that. richard windsor, good to see you. now we've got an update on the missing malaysian airline flight 370. the search operations have been halted once again because of severe weather. fresh satellite images wednesday spotted more than a hundred objects in the southern indian ocean that could be related to the missing jet, although no ships have been able to locate a debris field so far. separately, a u.s. based law firm said it expects to represent families of more than half the passengers on board the missing jet in a lawsuit. the chicago based ribbeck law plans to sue boeing and malaysian airlines for the crash. still to come, bank of america has reached another big settlement over its mortgage business and find out why former ceo ken lewis is back in the headlines. headlines. huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know bad news doesn't always travel fast? (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. the imf announces an aid package for ukraine. facebook and king damage tall's ipo dragged the index down. citigroup failed fed tests along with others in the united states. staying with financials, bank of america is putting another legal case surrounding its mortgage business behind it. the company's former ceo is also back in the news. bertha's at cnbc hq this morning in the states and joinings now. hey, bertha, good to see you. so another settlement? >> yep, another one out of the way. bank of america is goc to be paying $9.3 billion to settle claims that it sold bad mortgage funds to fannie mae and freddie mac, helping the company end one of the biggest legal headaches it still faces from the financial crisis. the settlement result charges filed by the federal housing finance agency, which is fannie and freddie's u.s. regulator. it includes $6.3 billion in cash. securities will buy back from the lending giant. this is the 10th settlement, the shfa has reached as part of litigation that began in 2011. it sued 18 companies over about $200 billion in mortgage funds. bofa still faces a lawsuit from the justice department and several other federal probes over mortgage-backed securities it sold during the housing bubble. bank of america says this latest settlement is expected to reduce its first quarter werings by about 21 cents a share or about three quarters of what analysts had expected. checking shares at this hour in germany, they are trading down fractionally lower. separately, bofa and former ceo ken lewis had settled a lawsuit filed by new york attorney general eric snyderman, alleging that they had mislid led investors about mounting losses at merrill lirch. bofa bought merrill at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. it had initially been seen as a white knight as merrill could have filed for bankruptcy. but by the time the deal was finalized, merrill's balance sheet deteriorated so much bofa needed help from the u.s. government to stay afloat. lewis, who resigned in 2009, will pay a $10 million fine and be barred from serves an an officer of a public company for three years. although, i am told that the bank is actually going to pay that fine, so he won't personally be paying that. >> there you go. bertha, good to see you. thanks for that. have a good day. the fed has rejected the capital plans for five banks. citigroup joins bancorp and the u.s. units of rbs, santander and hsbc as part of its stress tests. kayla tauchy has the report. >> the federal reserve just saying that 25 banks had their capital plans approved. shareholders & could see better returns in the coming fiscal year. the fed rejected five banks for several different reasons. three of those five banks are u.s. subsidiaries of foreign institutions. the fed saying this is the first time those banks are going through the exercise, that they simply have not shown that they happen ready to prove that they had capital here in the u.s. to with stand a crisis. one of those banks, zion's, had not cleared the fed's most recent hurdle so they cannot return capital to shareholders and will need to resubmit and possibly raise equity toes meet the fed's hurdles. the group citigroup is a shock to the shareholder base and to the market in after hours trade. the stock seeing a lot of pressure, going deep into the red after the fed rejected it on a qualitative basis. the fed saying this time citigroup models were not up to snuff. it wouldn't have actually put them in the preparations in place to have its business units with stand another crisis. citigroup's ceo for his part, mike corbatt, saying he is deeply disappointed in the fed's decision but that they would work with the fed to resubmit something that would pass the fed's muster. on the other banks five years after the financial crisis showing the ability to start returning capital to shareholders sometimes for the first time. bank of america reintroducing a $4 had billion buyback program. those shares were up after hours, as well. morgan stanley adding a new buyback program, doubling its dividend. shows shares were up, as well. wells fargo and jpmorgan had slight increases that also were passed by the federal reserve. and goldman sachs passes, as well. it did say that its capital plan provided some flexible. the financial sector in focus, this is a very important time of year as the market awaits what the fed will say. for now, citigroup will be in focus as shareholders await what's next. that's the latest from the u.s. markets. back to you. japan's nippon airways has ordered a record 70 must plans from boeing for $16.5 billion. 30 plans from the airbus ap-20 family. ana says the large order is in anticipation of the increase in travelers during the 2020 tokyo olympics. meanwhile, reuters has been selected by ana to provide engines worth more than $1 billion. tensions will power more than 25 of ana's 787 dreamliners. a further planned flight because of strike action. the cancellation affects nearly all european and domestic flights until 4:00 this afternoon. that's 4:00 central european time. germany's main airports have all been hit by industrial action as workers try to put more pressure on the government overpay. if you do plan to fly in or our of germany today, please check before you travel. alcatel lucent, the network company, has signed a deal with china mobile. they've announced a one-year agreement valued up to $750 million euros. still to come, h&m says first quarter earnings were caught cold by the u.s.'s harsh winter as well as long-term investment. we'll take a look at the company's outlook after this. ou. after witness' sessions, futures are bouncing higher. the nasdaq had its worst fall in two weeks it's currently called up by around 10 points. the s&p around 2 and the dow is currently some 35 points above fair value. seeing some poor set of numbers from swedish fashion retailer h&m. the firm disappointing investors with weaker than expected first quarter profits. it said the numbers were hit by big investment and i.t. services. it launched i.t. services in france for the first time this month. it blamed the cold and snowy weather in the u.s. for hitting sales there. dana telsey joins us now. dana, good to see you. first of all -- >> morning. >> -- when we get away from the weather affect? >> when we get away from the weather effect is exactly when it finally starts to get warm. who would have expected that during this last week in march we're continuing to be hit by below freezing temperatures. and we're hearing that not only for h&m, but for other retailers, also, that sales have been challenged by the weather. i think the impact on the earnings for h&m and the reason why they came in below consensus is what you mentioned earlier. the heavier increase in investment spending, being up double digits in dollars compared to an expectation of it being up just over 10% is what caused the lower than expected earnings that are coming in from h&m these days. >> when do they get the return on the investment? is it -- are they doing the right thing? although there's going to be a short-term hit. >> i think overall, we're seeing many companies, whether it's investing online, whether it's invest in i.t., retailers are now having to be multi function and multi channel. transportation, distribution costs, those initiatives are being enhanced with dollars that are being spent. i do think that it's the right thing long-term. it's interesting that on h&m's results, the sales we knew, the gross margin came in as expected with mark downs a little higher. it was the sga where the hit was. there's increase their brand name in the sports arena, putting in h&m sport and other new brands that they have like cos, collection of style are going to be opening up in more countries and they're opening up online in more countries. i think the return they get on it, it's probably a year or two down the road. but you have to begin somewhere. >> yeah. and look, the sales that have been lost, as you say, pretty much across the board because of the harsh winter in the states, do those get made up or not? are they sort of just gone? >> they don't get made up fully. what we are fortunate is that you have the later easter. it's april 20th this year as compared to the end of march last year. we can only hope that by april 20th, you'll be able to sell seasonal spring goods that the stores currently have. we have march and april are typically in the industry known as marpl combined because of always the timing shifts of easter. you typically have at least a 300 to 400 basis point sales list in the month in which you have easter. so we can't wait for april. >> nice platform. let's hope easter weather is on its way. everybody could do it if they know that. thank you so much for joining us. dana tellsy. >> thank you. futures are indicating we're going to get a slightly higher start this morning. the dow is up currently some 37 points off fair value. s&p called higher by around 3. that's it for today's "worldwide exchange." "squawk box," u.s. is picking up right after this with the countdown to the opening markets stateside. we hope you have a profitable day. e day. welcome back to "squawk box." the fed blocks five banks from raising dividends, dealing a blow particularly to banking giant citigroup. i still call it that, as you know. candy was crushed, high profile ipo king digital flies on its first day of rate trading. and the imf reaching a deal with ukraine that could include $14 billion to $18 billion in loanes. it's thursday, march 27th, 2014. it's 22 degrees outside. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ chicago, chicago that town ♪ >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin who is in chicago today for the forbes reinventing america conference. you made it, andrew. >> i did. i did. we're going to tell you all about it in just a minute. >> who do you have coming up today? >> oh, this the is you coming to me. now i understand what's happening here. we are in chicago. >> i know. it caught me by surprise, too. this is different than we usually do. >> we are in chicago this morning, very happily so at the forbes reinventing america conference. we're going to be talking about manufacturing, innovation, bringing jobs back to this country. probably have a debate about the minimum wage and thwhat that means. let me tell you who we have on the program because it's a roster you can't miss. we have the mayor of chicago coming up, rahm emanuel. this is the guy that run these place and has a lot of questions but also a lot of views on what's going on. not just

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