reject a multibillion dollar bid from the u.s. giant. and russia braces for further sanctions from the u.s. and europe as pro-russia separatists release one military observer but keep seven others hostage in eastern ukraine. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> french president francois hollande is currently meeting with alstom's gm to hear an alternative proposal. let's go out to frankfurt for more on this. annetta, what has this approach from siemens meant for the future? >> this is a good sign that they are quite old when it comes to act weations. so some people would have or already said it might be the case that he's more reluctant and that would be very bad for siemens, so he's not trying to miss out on an outstanding opportunity. siemens is calling that a good sign for the future. so what is on the table, siemens according to the letter that was sent to the ceo yesterday and circulated and leaked to various media is bidding up to $15.3 billion u.s. dollars for those energy assets. that's a lot more than ge is putting on the table. and they are also proposing an asset spark, which would actually mean that siemens is planning to create two big champions, one energy champion which is siemens and one trained champion, who is alstom. so it sounds like they are offering an european alternative to what ge is trying to do without them. so the german media is actually even talking about european general electric which might be created by such a deal. looking at the rational for siemens, it is a win/win situation one could argue for siemens because if the asset deal goes through, they could get rid of the badly performing train division right now. the profitability of the train division is really lagging. the sold siemens profitability. at the same time, they could get something from the competitors. of course, this is the big thing of the future. that market is very competitive with the chinese getting into the market and increasing competition. for now what we can say is of course the siemens shares are reacting negatively, but traders are also saying everything is actually played now through the siemens shares and they are not traded until wednesday. with that, karen, back to you. >> thank you for fleshing out the german side because it explains the rational for it. while she was speaking, president obama has been talking about the sanctions against russia. it says new russia sanctions will target vim individuals and companies with high exports to russia. meanwhile, the president goes on to say the new sanctions represent calibrated efforts to change russia's behavior in the ukraine crisis. you can see live pictures coming through. the further context of what he's saying is that the next would be more sanctions possibly targeting banking and defense areas. and he says the u.s. and allies are keeping in reserve for sanctions against russia. he's flushing out put more detail saying there could be more down the track, but so far they have not chosen that. i'm not sure if we have sound to listen to. do we want to listen to sound? let's have a listen in. >> i think that there are going to be territorial disputes around the world, like we have territorial disputes with some of our closest allies. i suspect that there are some islands and rocks in and around canada and the united states where they are dating back to the 1800s, but we don't go around sending ships and threatening folks. what we do is we sit down and we have some people in a room, it's boring, it's not exciting, but it's usually a good way to work out these problems. and work out these issues. and i think that all the countries that i've spoken to in the region during the course of my trip, japan, south korea, malaysia and now the philippines, their message has been the same everywhere i go, which is they would like to resolve these issues peacefully and diplomatically. >> u.s. president barack obama there talking about fresh sanctions against russia. let's come back to our top story here and get the perspective from alstom and how the french are dealing with this competing offer from siemens with one on the table from ge. stephane, isn't this nearly a change of bedmates? >> reporter: france is not that close to international investors. recently we had a deal, last week between the publicist and a almacon, we will discuss that next with our guest here, thank you very much for being with us. do you have the feeling that the government is two dimensional? >> i don't think so. i think france is believing in free markets. we are a country that is open to international investors. france is a great place to invest, so, no, i don't think the government is. they are vocal, which is quite normal. we are in france, so you have to play by the ruling. >> reporter: let's talk about the deal itself, do you think, first of all, alstom can remain independent or will merge with another french company? >> well, alstom is a great company but it lacks critical mass. it is highly leveraged, and it is currently suffering from europe. so alstom currently needs to find a partner. it's too small. >> what do you think would be the best deal for alstom. >> for alstom or the shareholders? >> alstom. >> the problem with siemens is there is a huge envelope in activities, so it means probably a lot of job losses and it also means that tit would be extremey difficult for them to obtain for siemens. >> reporter: do you feel that general electric's deal is almost done? >> well, i think the deal is well advanced. apparently the board of ge has already given its green light. so i think the deal is almost sealed. >> reporter: but why then the seal of cement to meet with french president hollande? >> well, siemens and alstom hedge each other. a few years ago, siemens tried to kill the plan of alstom, so they can't allow them to fall into the hands of ge without reacting. so they are trying to kill that deal, but getting a deal done for siemens is quite challenging. >> reporter: thank you very much for your comments and analysis from outside the french finance minute industry. we'll be back a bit later in the program with more on that story. over to you. >> stephane, good language there trying to kill the deal to prevent a love affair. who do you think will win the bidding battle for altom, ge or siemens? plenty of other news, the mega merger of two advertising giants is in doubt. the wall street journal reports on the publicists that can't agree on the $35 billion deal announced last july. they are at odds over who will be the legal acquirer delaying paperwork with the sec. while both companies will own 50%, one has to buy the other for accounting reasons. the common publicists have held 70 meetings of integrate committees. this is a look at the shares today in frankfurt. shares are trading lower for omnicom at 2.7% lower and pub c publicis groupe is also 1.4% lower. mylan made an initial offer earlier this month that was rejected. meda plans to remain a single company. let's move on to america reportedly close to a deal to sell the consumer health care unit for close to $14 billion. the business includes consumer brands such as coppertone suntan lotion and claritin allergy bills. they also own the rights to dr. scholl's and also sell mucinex. buyers of consumer brand include alcaseltzer. a big move in buy shares. a little bit less moving in the other two stocks. pfizer has a renewed approach to astrazeneca about a takeover maker. this is a look at the shares today. a big move in astra's shares, one of the top on the ftse, 14%. pfizer a slight bit higher in germany today. katherine boil is joining us with more on that. there's been a lot of discussion behind the scenes, is the next offer going to be a hostile one? >> well, it looks like pfizer is very much taking that tone with the statement today saying they made a couple of efforts to engage with astrazeneca management and they are not engaging back and are going directly to shareholders. what we have to see next is how much of a sweetener they are coming back for the shareholders because actually, if you look at astrazeneca shares today, they are trading close to the initial offer price made back in january. so pfizer definitely is going to have to add a little bit more to that to see shareholders really respond. >> no doubt the hedge funds are snipping around this deal already, but when we talk about the hostile approach, these are much more difficult to get across. but you have a backdrop where big farmer is on the move with the hallowed activity out there. do you think it's us is taped for shareholders to listen to the approach at this point? >> in terms of the economy, there's a lot of talk about big pharma deals for the past year and all of a sudden this month everything is kicking off. and there's actually a relatively small investor for phrma, so there will be a lot of investors to sohold shares in pfizer and astrazeneca to listen to benefits for them. >> we have been listening to the french government over the alst t alstom takeover? >> there has already been a little bit of movement from some of the opposition u.k. politicians. astrazeneca is one of the biggest manufacturers here in the u.k. and one of the biggest science companies. if there was a threat to u.k. jobs, that would be really, really worrying. but having said that, the pfizer chief executive has come out to say that the u.s. tax regime is bringing better tax into the actual property and that's one of the reasons pfizer wants to potentially make this deal. so there's a bit of positive, a bit of negative there for the u.k. government to take from that. >> katherine, thank you for joining us to talk over the deal. katherine boil with us on the program. let me tell you what is coming up on today's show. japan's retail sales rise a bit to the fastest pace last month as consumers go on a spending spree ahead of the tax hike that came to affect last month. we asked how much of a drop to see in april's numbers as a result. and we'll look at apple as the company has a $17 billion debt there. we'll discuss whether the u.s. homeownership rates will fall as baby boomers look to retirement. and are we about to witness the death of art dealers? 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[ male announcer ] introducing xfinity my account. available on any device. we are looking at the european markets as deals drive stock activities today currently tracking around the highs of the morning session. we'll look at the major indices. the weak links out there are basic resources of health care shooting higher by 2% on the back of phrma deals. and the ftse spiked .4%. the xetra dax spiked .60%. the italian stock market today traveling higher by .18%. ukraine is kicking around the backdrop as well with fresh conversations from president obama about the sanctions russia could be facing, but all the activity seems to be pushing up risk appetite on the markets. and yields are lifts across on the bond markets. 2.6% on u.s. treasuries. and a lot of investors want clarity on the timing of the interest rate hikes. so the meeting tuesday and wednesday will be studied by investors, but we close out the week with u.s. nonpayroll numbers. just a bit of rate positioning ahead of the markets. 1.5%. just below that level on volumes currently. let's just drift on to what we are seeing on foreign exchange markets. there's been a lot of movement on some of these trades on the euro and on sterling today both trading higher by a quarter percent. some of this likely down to the deal flows as well as you see money reallocated toward europe and u.k. we have a bit of a bounce playing out in the australian dollar climbing through the 93 u.s. mark. the exception has been to the japanese yen as you see 102.21. there's some ukraine safety going into the japanese currency, but the u.s. dollar is trying to pull back territory there. we'll go out to asia where we are joined by sri. we seem to have the green captured on the europeans today. >> a pretty negative session out here in asia. and it's exactly what you were talking about the main risk event of ukraine. we have heard from president obama now there will be some further sanctions. they will be expanded into more sanctions. this does up the ante on the risk environment, but you have to ask yourself, is it enough to really chase moscow and to humble vladimir putin. i'll leave that question hanging. it does raise the risks here on the radar screen for the asian investors. but also there are a number of other factors. we have a negative lead from wall street that was fairly uninspiring. and over in japan, retail sales data for the month of march pretty solid rose at its fastest pace in 17 years. but remember these numbers pre-date the sales tax hike. so that was a lot of front loading here. you have to already ask yourself whether the numbers are indicative of real demand in the japanese economy. and that appears to be why the markets are brushing it off, negative tone as i said. the stronger yen as you pointed out is instrumental in driving down the exporter names by indication of the broader market. one of the performers is down by 1.5%. some of the moves could be exaggerated because liquidity that much thinner on the ground. tomorrow's a public holiday in japan. the market will be closed. then on wednesday we have the boj. no surprises there, but we will have some new economic projections. one of the big loss leaders today is the shanghai comp really testing the 2,000 market. and the story there is we'll be seeing the resumption in ipo. the fear in the market will drain the liquidity. the overlay is quite negative because the data sets haven't been very convincing with the lack of stimulus. and speaking of which, speaking of data, rather, we'll have on thursday the official pmi numbers from beijing. so if it does slip further below 50, then we could see some more negativity in some of these equity markets. having said that, a lot of the bad news has been factored in, hasn't it? back to you, karen. >> sri, thank you very much for that. we have been following the comments and we are expecting to hear fresh sanctions today from president obama. interesting comments to obama saying he'll mobilize european countries, many skeptical about taking action against russia to impose sanctions over moscow for the ukrainian crisis. we'll see what the sanctions are as the question mark for today. let's take a look at some of the earnings news out driving some of the trades. investors are cheering german drugmaker bayer after a strong set of first quarter numbers. underlying profit rose more than 11% in a period that was thanks to a strong performance. bayer also enjoyed a strong outcome in the plastics division as they trade higher in germany today. a different side for halcom part of a big tie-up agreeing to a deal with france. holcim's ceo says it will be completed by the first quarter of next year. car line, that deal is more interesting today. how is this progressing? >> well, they say that as you said in the read there, it is still going to close in the first quarter of 2015 and there's huge concerns about the regulatory issues around what kind of absence holcim and lafarge would have to sell off. holcim said we're looking to get rid of $8 billion in assets but they are looking at which assets to sell. but some interesting commentary in the media as holcim says there's, quote, huge interest from buyers for holcim assets both from the financial and industry players. they are all interested in those assets. so again, they are hoping to get the thumbs-up from the regulators for this deal to actually go through. let's take a step back and actually look at the earnings. yes, it was overshadowed by the m&a news, but the profits were down 50%. not great. we had a strong performance in europe. we had a very resilient performance in north america despite the very cold start to the year, but that strength would more than offset bernstein says by the weaknesses we saw. also mexico, we are looking to lower prices and volumes in asia pisk pennsylvania civic and latin america. overall, the outlook the company gave us this morning is not as cautious as it has been in the past because this is a company that usually strikes and is very cautious and they are seeing higher margins going forward. >> what do you make of this from the cultural side because one of the issues when you merge two companies is there the cultural deals are too far off that it doesn't make sense. we'll look at siemens and holcim's case, think about it with the swiss and the french. even though the two sides don't want to admit it, they are not too far in terms of the cultural overall. if you see a deal happening within europe, i don't think that the nationalistic concerns are going to be as huge as they are with a u.s./franco tie-up. >> thank you, caroline ross. still to come on the show, we are on the ground as the region increases militarization on its borders. say tuned for the update. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. 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[ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2. you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> merger monday. francois hollande is meeting with the ceo of ge right now. siemens shares trade lower as the company comes in with a counter offer. and pfizer has a fresh takeover plan for the firm. >> a the swedish drugmaker says no thank you to mylan after they reject the multibillion bid from the giant. and u.s. president barack obama says the u.s. will announce fresh sanctions on russia today as he calls on putin to step up on the diplo diplomacy front. >> the goal here is not to go after mr. putin personally, but the goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the sanctions he's engaging in ukraine could have an adverse reaction on the the economy. we are still holding on to a lot of the gains across the european markets as it seem investors have been focusing on this wave of activity across the market. some big reports on the move today. health care has been trading higher. their whole sector fairing particularly well up 2%. we also have gapes taking place with alstom. we've got siemens shares trading lower on a hold, but the cac on a move with a lot of activity around french stocks. almost .60% higher many the market, but one of the big gainers has been the italian stock market as well. the lack of safety in the bull market, the yields have been trading higher today across the board. the peripheral at 3.1%. even on paper, you can see not a lot of movement on the yields. just a little firming than tracking lower as you would expect with fresh concerns about ukraine. making the u.s. dollar not being bid higher, there's more traction in euro up a quarter percent along with sterling and australia on the move. a lot of action in the currencies other than the u.s. dollar. the unrest in ukraine is causing some market moves. brent and nickel are moving higher. micex is down .40%, but gold is above the 1300 level. all this as president obama says the u.s. will announce new sanctions against russia later today. he was speaking in manila where he's currently midway through a tour of asia. the president says the sanctions will tie both the vims and the companies. take a listen to what he had to say. >> the goal here is not to go after mr. putin personally, but the goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he's engaging in ukraine could have an adverse impact on the russian economy over the long haul and to encourage him to actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to diplomatically resolving the crisis in ukraine. >> this as seven international observers are still being held in eastern ukraine by pro-russian separatists. the rebels say the officials from the organization for security and cooperation in europe are on military duty with nato something that is denied. jim, what is the mood on the ground there? how intense has the conflict been? >> reporter: hi, karen. we are seeing on the ground over the past few days forces on both sides, pro-russia and pro-ukrainian forces really starting to beef up their positions. we see inside the stronghold for the pro-russian rebels. they have serious weapons in that town now and they are beefing up their defensive positions, expecting some kind of attack. while outside on the roads now you see many more ukrainian military, especially ukrainian special forces and special police. they are extending their presence creating a cordon around with the intention of cutting off rebels inside from supplies and weapons. and just this morning, karen, a few dozen pro-russian militants here have reportedly seized the ground floor of the police station and yet in another up to, i should say in the ream, the actual town is an hour drive from here. so what we're seeing is a low-grade covert conflict, mostly intimidation. sometimes lethal beatings. increasingly abductions. as you referenced in your lead, the eight now seven osc members here trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution, for instance, are still being held by the pro-russian militants. one swedish member suffering from diabetes was released on medical grounds yesterday, but rebel leader says they have absolutely no intention of leasing the others unless it's part of a prisoner swap with rebels held in kiev jail. so it gives you and idea, karen, of the level of lawlessness and chaos that now prevails here in eastern ukraine. back to you. >> jim, the increased violence in the military forces you explained to us does set the scene do. you think this is why the u.s. president's hand is forced on fresh sanctions that he's likely to declare today? >> reporter: yes, of course, that is a reason. remember, president obama said only yesterday about russia and its compliance or lack of compliance that it had not lifted a finger yet to do anything to influence the pro-russian side. the pro-russian militants. to de-escalate the situation. so we're seeing today, not yet an announcement with a formal announcement later today based on what president obama was saying in manila this morning. more targeted sanctions against people inside putin's inner circle. some of their businesses, but it's incremental in nature. it's not targeting putin himself. and, of course, there are a lot of calls back in washington for more hawkish sanctions, secondtorial sanctions in the energy sector, for instance, and the economy. but those are just not happening yet because of the eu, the situation there of course is that the eu countries, many don't have the stomach for those types of deep sanctions because of the kinds of level of trade that europe is doing with russia. and its dependence on natural gas. so, yes, more sanctions, but quite unclear, karen, whether these like the others will deter putin from his current policies here in eastern ukraine. back to you. >> appreciate the update. jim maceda from nbc. joining us now is bill, enormous cost to many european companies with $375 billion between eu and russia in 2012. no doubt probably higher than that, this as $26 billion from the states to russia. you can see the different sides of the equation there, but if you look at the markets today and there's talk that the europeans are on the page for fresh sanctions, you are not seeing the impact on markets. we are so focused to part ukraine for the moment. >> i think the markets are seeing a view of what is the long-term implications of ukraine and what they are going to be. ukraine is going to be an enormous problem to solve in itself for europe, and you have the likelihood that the long-term story for russia is very, very negative. that's why we're seeing the threat of sanctions causing more money coming out of ukraine and russia and getting pumped into the u.k. housing markets as quietly and lack of transparentally as possible. but long term russia will suffer. that clearly has implications for the european economy as well, but of course the hope is that europe will get lifted by global growth spurt whereas russia will be clearly excluded from that. >> the links with germany have been noted by the market because of its trade with russia, but even the german market is trading higher by half a percent today. there's no short age of deals out there. no doubt you have been following them. what do you make of the level of activity we're seeing so far this year? >> well, it is interesting, the market's been waiting for real signs of growth. and growth isn't just about gdp numbers. growth is about companies having the confidence to go and spend money to do things. so finally we're starting to see that happen, but i wonder if it's still a little bit reigned back. what we're seeing are companies doing -- let's think about apple for a second. apple this morning launching a $17 billion deal to finance shareholders so they can pay extra dividend. now they are not doing that out of their cash pile but doing that by borrowing cash in the market because rates are so low it's more efficient for them to do that than to face the taxes they get of the assets to the u.s. but that is an example of the corporate struggling to find things to do with its cash pile. repaying it to investors doesn't say they've got new ideas, but another sector is saying we are starting to see people expand and start to say let's create more growth opportunities. but then they are being reigned back by the lack of consumption. and this is the thing i think is really holding back the global economy just now. you've got to get consumption as well as production going on. and that consumption demand, that kind of looks slow because western consumers are still very cash strapped. they are still loaded down with debt. and jobs aren't as easy to find. and quality jobs, the amount of money people are earning is a problem. and i think that's not driving things. >> so the organic growth is not there which could explain why the ceos are so active to add on growth. we'll look at some of the top stories and flush them out for you. french president hollande is meeting with siemens. he is looking for an alternative proposal from siemens. america is also close to selling the health care unit for $14 billion. the business includes consumer brands such as coppertone suntan lotion, dr. scholl's foot pads and claritin allergy pills. also sales for over-the-counter medicine like mucinex and alcaseltzer and aleve. record shares are softer on the u.k. market. pfizer has confirmed it made a renewed approach to astrazeneca this weekend about a possible takeover. the u.k. drugmaker won't engage in talks. pfizer says it originally approached astra in january and they held high-level discussions, but those ended that month. the previous bid would have valued astrazeneca at $98.7 billion. or about $76 a share. reports say a new bid would be likely near $100 billion. that's the largest deal since lambert bid back in 2012. the move has gone to astrazeneca shares and investors bidding it up 15%. pfizer also tracking higher today in frankfurt. back to bill about some of these deals. bill, the important one that the market is focused on today is alstom with the discussions taking place with the french gochlt. what stands out to you with this? the intervention from the french state? what's the most important thing here? >> there's a couple things, one is just because we have a rash of mergers in one sector. in fu the farm supharmaceuticals are start. why are they not talking to investors and the company to figure out the best way to do this. this is the story. france remains very much an old style controlled economy, and i think that's one of the problems that anyone is going to find. i'm almost reminded of the tire company story of the union writing to them with theirs by which they could take over the company. of course, nobody had any interest in taking over simply because you had unions writing letters like that. >> so you have that in the backdrop, the union side but then the french government who can be an acquirer. what does that do to premiums of trip ch companies because they don't acquire the same as other companies do. >> this reduces the attractiveness of any french company. i think that's factored in and that's been a long-term process and evaluation of any french interest because you've got to factor in about how free the company really is. but it's also kind of -- it flies in the face of europe, doesn't it? >> you saw the mood change around the french stock market in the past month or so as investors looked at the language from the socialist government and says this is more market friendly. >> but it is just noise. it's not actually happened. it does not happen overnight when an economy turns itself around, but if you look at the situation france is in today, it's not entirely unsimilar to the situation germany was in a decade ago or britain three decades ago. it takes a long time for economies to reform. and it almost appeases me when i see headlines and magazines like "newsweek" or "the economist." in the past that was germany or the u.k. now the u.k. is the top performing country. reform takes time. and i think we have talked it over many times on your program. why do you invest in a country? you take a country on how effective the effects are and what the capacity for long-term is? long-term france will get there, but if you're looking to buy a french company, you have to be a ware of the hiccups. >> the stinky part for the deal for me is the personal mergers going on here. if you look at earlier in the year, francois hollande is taking or talking at energy policy. siemens was trying to get rid of assets as the company was underperforming as a spoiling giant. it feels like on both sides there's a lot going on in the backdrop. >> there is an awful lot going on in the backdrop. if you look at the whole theme of europe this year, we have moved away from it just being about bank regulation and union. and the ukraine situation has precipitated the needs to have energy policy, so finally europe is talking about its energy policy. and i think that has re-triggered all the discusses on how countries can get together. if they don't have the discussions, the whole european dream is coming apart unless there's common interest. so that's why you have the power for the frankfurt solution. whether it makes sense is a completely different issue. let's move on to china with the latest out of that part of the world. earnings have been hitting in particular hard. china up construction bank beat estimates with a 10% rise in quarter net program. that's china's second biggest lender. ccb is one of the four largest lenders to report better than expected result this is year. let's bring in the head of the investment strategy at shk private. steven, the numbers are showing us that chinese lenders are growing despite a slowing economy and change is in the sector. what do you make of the strength coming through from the banking sector? >> well, today we're going to have the china merchants bank to discuss earnings later today. we believe that it's going to confirm the picture of the construction bank. abc and bank of china have given us. basically we are seeing a rise in bad loans. together with that, we are seeing higher professional charges as well. but altogether we are seeing a stronger growth and fee income. altogether this is giving you a bottom growth double digits, so we believe a lot of things are present in the market and the activists are showing us the markets are pretty resilient to more bad news out of default. especially where we are moving into the second quart we are a lot of repayment heading up. >> hi, steven, bill here. how sustainable are these kind of returns, though? 10% this year, but with the slowdown and the rise in defaults finally happen, can it continue? >> the first thing is we are seeing that china's economy is still going to slow down. it's not the first day we are talking about a slowdown in the chinese economy, but a 7.5% gdp target is what we are seeing with the chinese government using a mix of policies that you'll be able to achieve over the course of 2014. that's going to keep basic earnings to grow for the chinese banks over here. we are seeing the fees are outpacing the income and will overtake that and go on. we believe that the real focus here is that based on our stress test, even with a lot of defaults in the property sector and mining sector, we don't believe that it will happen in china together with the high dividends and low evaluations. we believe it's still a time to accumulate the chinese banks rather than shying away from them. >> steven, i want to know what is priced into the markets because you eluded to the fact of some of the investors taking the stride in china. we talk about the u.s. market hedge funds saying there's no earnings growth or negative earnings for there to be a significant sell-off in the u.s. market. look at the shanghai composite this year. the performance has been lackluster down 5%. so what is priced in around the earnings growth for the chinese stork market? >> well, the chinese stock market is pressing in as a high sing billion digit overall earning scroll. that's a combination from all the sides. the shanghai composite is one of the worst performing indices in the world so far this year. and recently we have seen the ipo market being reopened, probably later this month in april and may. and these are issues with the preferred shares to compete for capital with the secondary market. so these are things from the shapg high composite right now that we believe will go on for the next couple of weeks. however, if you look into the past ipo markets that are shut down and will reopen, this negative action lasts for a couple weeks, but after that it's going to be the same for this year. so after a first couple weeks of the ipo market reopening, we should see negative effect fade out. >> thank you for setting the scene in the china market. we have the investment strategy here. elsewhere shares of honda fell on monday after friday's results. that was the first chance to react to the news, which forecasts a 3.6% rise in their profit for this year below what the market had been expecting. shares in japan display also fell to the lowest level since their debut a month ago. the world's largest maker of smartphone screens slashed its providence over the past year by nearly 11%. the company makes displays for apple and is tapped as a panel supplier for the iphone 6. staying in the region, japanese retail sales grew 11% in march as many people went on a shopping spree headed to the cop summer tax hike that came in effect in april. we'll get more from makiko joining us. >> reporter: yes, the last time retail sales showed such steep growth is whether the consumer tax was raised 17 years ago. a breakdown shows refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners among the most popular item for it. and sales of liquor items will also see a jump. and department stores benefited the most with sales rising 25%. the market sales grew 11% while korean stocks are up 7%. automakers logged a 14% rise in unit sales for the month of march. the fiscal government for 2014 shows shares grew to $1.4 trillion continuing to rise. helped by improved economing positions and cause of electronics, ahead of the consumer tax hike, back to you. >> thank you for the update. here's what's's coming up in asia tomorrow. first up, a holiday? japan honoring the birthday of the former emperor. in china we are taking your results for icbc. both are reporting with the second largest mobile phone being exposed to subscribers. we'll look at art sales online and how they could change the face of the party. new research explores online art buying trends, what people are buying, how much they are spending and the barriers to purchase. it reveals growing confidence in buying art site on scene for the future generation of art buyers likely to make their first purchase online. joining us now to discuss is robert reid, head of fine art. he is also an artwork that sold some artwork. first up, tell us why people are willing to purchase something on the internet when there's a lot of passion involved around art. so you would think one would like to see it in person. >> i can see that, but it is incredibly convenient to buy online. it does allow you to see art all over the world, so you can look at something coming up in auction in yorkshire and it is very convenient and very easy. and people like that. plus, you have been buying online for lots of different products and art is next. >> yeah, in the past i have participated in art auctions where i have nope who the artist was and seen it online in the catalog and put my bids in accordingly. i won that one and knew exactly what i was buying. and i didn't need to go and see the actual piece of art itself. i knew it was a scottish artist that i wanted to collect, but can you do that with modern art and other forms? >> i think you have to be careful about the trust. you trust who you are buying from. and i think the people will succeed in the market with trusted brands. >> we'll be right back after this. we did a 27-point inspection on your chevy,ce, you got new tires and our price match guarantee. who's this little guy? that's birney. oh, i bet that cone gives him supersonic hearing. watch what you say around him. i've been talking a lot about his procedure... 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[ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2. welcome to "world woid exchange." siemens shares weigh lower as the company weighs in with a counter offer. swedish drugmaker says no thank you to mylan after the biggest shareholder rejects the multibillion bid from the u.s. generic giants. and u.s. president barack obama says the u.s. will announce fresh sanctions on russia today as he calls on putin to step up on the diplomacy front. >> the goal here is not to go after mr. putin personally, but the goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he's engaging in in ukraine could have and adverse impact on the russian economy. >> you're watching "worldwide" exchange bringing you business news from around the globe. french president francois hollande is meet iing meeting a to take over alstom. ge already has a bid on the table. let's get out to annetta for more in frankfurt. tell us about the rational for siemens to weigh in at this point. >> reporter: well, it was a long offer to get a combined trained company for all of europe, and that's what he's reporting to a letter he was sending to the ceo of alstom. so the rational is to do an app swap to put the train unit into the hands of alstom whereas alstom will hand over a bigger chunk of its energy business and the renewable power division and the corrective division. so siemens is saying the assets are valued by their own calculations of up to $11 billion euro, which is a lot more than ge would put on the table. so what is happening today is crucial because both parties are meeting with president hollande right now. also, high officials from siemens are telling me the head of the sup advisory board and the ceo of siemens are meeting with hollande to discuss that offer, which was made just yesterday to the ceo of alstom. essentially they are focusing on the job security, something which probably they are doing to make that deal look more attractive than the general electric deal. so it's a job security for all of the alstom people in france. back to you. >> joining us now, there are big trends and action deals carrying big fees, but on the other hand it is complex trying to drag the french government over the line on any deal process. >> and it is not just the french government. they've got to drag their shareholders over the line as well. i mean, karen, it's interesting because when you look at these big deals. and what's happened this year is really big deals, most big deals don't even close within nine months. and 15% to 20% don't close ever. so there's thing that is come in the way of these deals. >> in this particular case, there's a lot of opposition. if you were the american company, ge, would you be walking away at this point and cut your losses? because it's pretty clear french doesn't want the business from ge. would you step away and look for something else at this point? >> remember, it's not the first time ge has had problems here in europe as well. they once tried to get together to merge with honeywell and they did it back in the u.s. and then the eu scotched the deal. so ge does need to think carefully about whether they want to go through this one, but maybe there's big stakes at hand worth it. >> the other interesting angle for me is the fact that the germans are looking at this with france and looking at the german offer with open arms. you have seen the franco/german alliance as nothing to write home about. >> i think siemens very clearly wants to keep ge out of this one, but i think that deal could be harder to get through than the ge deal with two major european players, both dealing with the monopolies and antitrust issues when trying to put two major european players together. >> on two different fronts, in particular. you're staying with us, scott, we'll come back to discussion in a bit with so many other deals to chat with you about. let's show you what is coming up stateside march, home sales are r risen up 1%. we'll also hear from the insurance provider, lowe's, general growth, herbalife and buffalo wild wings. and a $17 billion sale would be ranked the biggest bond sale ever. apple plans to use the proceeds to pay for its stock buy-back which its raising from $60 billion to $90 billion instead of tapping the $150 billion cash pile. a majority is held overseas and bringing cash home triggers a tax rate of 35%. the foreign debt sale would likely target the eurozone but interest rates are lower in the states. apple shares in frankfurt are trending higher by 7.7%. citigroup plans to meet with the justice department and the first round of talks end at probes of the securities business. reports could be in the billions of dollars. estimate citi could pay $3 billion in cash and $2 billion in consumer relief. last year they settled issues with them for $13 billion. they are now just slapping high. we'll turn to our previous conversation. new york research firm says buying art site on scene will bring future generations to make their first purchase online. robert, we are having a discussion on who is interested, but we'll talk about the price tag people will fork out over the internet. you're saying more than ten pounds is an absolute amount to spend. >> nearly a quarter of those we surveyed had an average span of 10,000 pounds. it is not just happening near the bottom but also at the top. >> this fits into the investment of art rather than the decorative art when talking about a price ticker, 10,000, right? >> i think that a 10,000 is not quite at the investment level, that's still at the enjoyment level. >> why do people say we have to stop that kind of money? if you are not talking about a willing investment, why are people willing to part with cash to make their homes richer. and they got money to spend. and it is enjoenjoying what thee buying. >> i think that's one of the easiest things. you'll find that many nights you are not going to get surprises by empty. >> where does the market go from here in is this a radially growing area because we buy a lot of transactions over the internet, or are there stumbling blocks. >> there are stumbling blocks and the art market is splintered with seoul traders to make this up. i do expect that to change. we'll see rapid growth in the online art sales. and it is starting to change. it's never going to replace what is going on, but it is very easy and convenient to buy online and people want that. >> it's time to make this look cheap when you look at $10,000 for a fancy piece of artwork around the house. up next, president obama says the u.s. will announce fresh sanctions against russia later today. we'll go live to you crain, next. ball noises] the annual company retreat. planned, as usual, by this guy. nature lover... people person. ♪ and you put up with it all... because he also booked you a room... at this place. planet earth's number one accomodation site: booking.com booking.yeah! these are your headlines. it is all about alstom as we have another bid. and astrazeneca could be bought by pfizer. and more sanctions are coming to russia targeting individuals and companies. the markets are faring this way ahead of the u.s. session. all are slightly firmer mimicking some of the european markets today led by a whole bunch of activity. ukraine is a codominant thing here. i'll switch over to the boards to show you how the major i didn't indices are doing. just over.60 on the french market with strong gains on the periphery with the heavy market in charge. we are near the highs of the session. we are seeing more gapes throughout the morning. come bond markets, this is also reflected with yields rising. so even though there should be a little bit of a safehaven out there, we are just not seeing it. think of the risk in the market with the watch and balance around the trajectory for possible interest rate hikes. enormous focus on that. we round up the payroll reports, and we could be seeing a little bit of positioning around that yield coming down on spain. curious in the last few minutes or so, 3.05%. worldwide exchange markets, there's an appetite for the sterling today. still holding over the aussie, but euro is being bid up. the money is reallocated to this side. the u.s. dollars try to reclaim territory to japanese yen again signaling that the safety bid is just not in the market for new trend. this has been one of the go-to trades about the crisis. let's go out to asia with sri joining us. a little bit more on the trading session in asia with the confidence not on your side of the world, sri. >> reporter: no, absolutely not. we had our own lead from wall street on top of that and continue to see the steepening crisis in ukraine. the latest news is saying the use of sanctions being used against moscow may be a response. we don't know this same, but vladimir putin, the jury is still laughing at one. so the scene among investors is northbound wants to come into a huge position here. to make matters worse, you were talking about the yen has been stronger, but we are seeing give-back now, but that's been a factor pressuring the equities market, where are you? there you are. the nikkei 250. we did see large u.s. sales numbers and so forth, but in 17 years, growth retail sales. the important thing is that they are coming before the sales tax hike. so front running is the case here. and people are looking twice at those things with the earnings season. remember liquidity in volumes. tomorrow will be a public holiday with the markets closed in japan. then on wednesday, more risk event at the boj meeting. no surprises expected but they will be releasing that economic projection. one of the things last week is a resumption of the ipo activity. there are fears that they could train the liquidity, one of the reasons the market is lower and the overlay has been bad for chinese markets because of the gluten. a third of the market comes out with the official pmi for the manufacturing sector coming out the middle of the week. thank you for that. president obama says the u.s. will announce new sanctions against russia later todd. he was speaking at midway with two of asia. the president says the sanctions already target and here's what the president has to say. >> my goal is not to go after mr. putin personally but i want to change his calculus in how the current actions of these engaged men could have an adverse impact on on the russian economy and i encourage him to walk the walk instead of talk the talk when it comes to resolving the crisis in ukraine. >> jim maceda, you have been traveling to the border, what stood out to you about the ties the on the ground there, just how strong have the military interventions be up? >> reporter: well, that's true. starting year we are seeing over the past couple of years forces on both sides, pro-russia and pro-ukraine. tightening controlling the areas they control. the u.s. special forces are not out in this area, but a few dozen pro-russian militants have reportedly seized yet another police station and yet another town. constantinople. what we are hearing is lethal beatings with baseball bats and an abduction that has become the norm, so seven out of ceo members here on a mission to negotiate a piece will surrender, for instance, or still being held by the pro-russian militants. one swedish number suffering from diabetes was released on medical grounds yesterday, but local leaders say they have no intention of releasing the numbers unless it is part of a prisoner swap that they held kiev yesterday. in terms of the border, we went to the major border crossing yet afternoon. one that would be used by russian invasion over mixed opinions, but they are very anxious about a possible war. they see the ukrainian border guards busy at work as we did preparing for war and beefing up their divisions. russian soldiers are only 600 yards away on the other side of the no man's land. >> thank you for that. jim maceda from nbc. still to come, pfizer makes a fresh approach fors a stra accident ka. we'll have the details, next. this is our u.s. futures shaping up before the session. the s&p 500, nasdaq and dow all up today across the european markets so far. bigger news out today driving sentiment. pfizer confirmed it made a renewed approach to astrazeneca. the u.k. drugmaker won't engage in talks. pfizer says it originally approached astra back in january and they have held high-level discussions, but pfizer's previous big was $98.7 billion or about $76 a share. pfizer and astrazeneca shares are on the move in the u.k. today. well, moving into the u.s. market, merck is looking to buy over-the-counter sales. comcast is reporting a $20 billion deal to remake the u.s. paid tv market. the "financial times" says it is getting regulatory crew to buy cable, it would involve comcast, the parent of cnbc, investing in 4 million subscribers or 18% of his net worth. stay tuned. we'll have more on this during the break and how the big transactions are dealed, but it is valued if not more for men to stay home. >> that is true, but nowhere near the frothy levels back in 2007. so even with everything going on, we are not quite there yet. but these are the big-ticket deals. the volume is down when you look at totals. >> what concerns me is that private equity seems nowhere to be seen in this market. and last year basically tearing my hair out saying this is nothing to combine right now and prices are riding so high, so you have fear in public companies, are they? >> you can get synergies. i'm sure the ceo of ge is thinking about what he can do in impleasanting something to do. private equity if i weies canno synergies. is it pricing up for the equity firms? but then again, when you think about the peak. they are nowhere near that right now. >> it's been a mixed look out there and some of this was not going well and they could be out of a job. it suggests people are bullish about what they can extract. >> it does, although interestingly enough, equity sends to be the current safety. they don't necessarily need working company, especially the company is coming back slowly. so they need to just have apple with a huge amount of crash, but it's interesting to see them go to the debt marks with cash there. but all the companies that have the testing need to put it to wo work. why not continue with her in it, basically, you have nothing left with no're ideas. we returned money to the shareholders, that's one of the things a lot of the companies have been resistent on. we'll be right back after this. let me show you the futures in the meantime. there's sentiment coming up to the u.s. market. siemens shares are weighing lower. astrazeneca shares are higher as pfizer confirms it made a fresh takeover approach for the firm despite the u.k. giant's robust. and the swedish drugmaker says no thank you to mylan after a multibillion bid from the u.s. generics giant came in. and the u.s. president barack obama will announce fresh sanctions today as he called on vladimir putin to step up on the diplomacy front. >> the goal here is not to go after mr. putin personally, but the goal is to change his calculus in respect to how the current actions he's engaging in in ukraine could have an adverse reaction to the u.s. economy. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. if you're just tuning in, thank you for watching. let me show you the u.s. markets shaping up before the open today. chasing some green after a sell on friday and over the course of last week. so looking for a positive tone, but some is influenced by all the m&a out there across the european markets and inspired by u.s. takeovers as well. the ftse global cnbc 300 index is traveling into new territory. up a quarter of a percent. but stronger gains across the individual european markets. in particular, the german stock market has been very solid in date to match up against the other markets. the ftse is traveling higher by .40%. the german stock market trying to catch up, .70 on the cac market. so how do you make money on these markets? here's what the experts have been telling us this morning. >> what we think will happen this week is the potential that u.s. data, particularly the up nation surprises on the topside. and you have a bang of japan meeting where the expectation for signally is a lot. >> putting the market acquisition together to be carried. news out of france, i don't notice anything different about the economic policies, there are a lot of principles that underlie there in the economy, so although it's always been the pain frame going through france on the fundamental picture, but such is the narrowing theme. i think it will be a blend of large heels, but there may not be as many big public or privates in history, but a combination of the drive pounder targets and we'll continue to fuel lot of primary. let me bring you the latest from ukraine with president obama announcing fresh sanctions on russia. but there's been increased violence on the ground. this is reflected in one of the latest flashers crossing the american hostage with a gunshot wound. he was shot in an attack according to his press secretary and is currently undergoing surgery. you can see how violent the standoff has become. and this after certain econom economics. the brent, gold, nickel all moving higher. the nickel is stronger than that. still holding on to .67%. it was trading lower earlier on the territory. so it's a mix decision from the latest developments. all this as u.s. president barack obama will announce new sanctions against russia speaker today. he was speaking to midway talking about the same thing. the sanctions will talk about individuals and companies. take a listen. that's what he had to say. >> my plan is not to go after mr. putin personally, but my goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions of these have had an impact on the russian economy over the low haul. eventually you have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk when trying to resolve the crisis in ukraine. the pending home sales in march released a 10:00 a.m. eastern kicking off a key week to data in the real estate market stateside. meantime, attention will be focused on the s&p home index, the same thing to show you there. the stocks borrow the itf. the manager of the total returned fund said he has been level in years not leaving. as baby boomers retire, they push the s&p 500 joining us is the ceo of the company. shaurp, we'll bring out a couple different boys with you. on the back of earnings season, we saw that finance rates were tapering off. what do we suggest in the real estate market? >> well, all the indicators are pointing in the same direction right now. which is a slowdown. so home sales, for example, are down. food prices are half the level in terms of increases that there were last year. and when know that those are all the result of a artificial influences. the investors who were chasing the more michigan-base d -- the one missing piece is the traditional including the happier household formations. >> we have to break in as we are getting breaking news from astrazeneca. this is a company that has been robust in approaches from pfizer from u.s. giant. it's announcing a mistake in pfizer theying the board of astrazeneca has receded a question that the shareholders strongly advice to -- it is significantly undervalued with its prospects. so the latest just crossing there in a statement. pfizer requested that both companies issue a joint statement prior to the market open on the 28th of april. 2014. announcing that think had they had good discussions. astra coming out to say, we won't tell the shareholders to take no action. they are often exchanging visit si sins -- it received the initial contact from pfizer back on the 25th of november. we have been hearing about a january approach. pfizer is looking into this. you can see the shape of my spine. much of the increase is skewed to the last 24 hours or so. 18.5%. the size of ukraine, we'll go back to our conversation with sherry olsen, we apologize with more than $80 billion on market. but we'll pick up on some of these points. there's been a lot of buyers taking off in the market as you have seen keys returned in this crisis, but there's a point that boomerang buyers, those who traditionally hand over those coming back to the market. there's somewhere between 5 to 8 million of these people. in the u.s., there's a mandatory waiting period if you leave your home for a short walk foreclosure. that means from two to four they want to get back to housing. for example, we have a relatively new program called the back to work program that will allow folks back to home opener ship in as little as a year. and like i said, they may be looking into the market crash and now they are trying to get back to a progress with the asset growing. >> we are seeing more injury advocated by pricing under $300. when you look at the decrease of sales, that's where we are seeing the businessest hit because of tight credit. in the price range of under $100,000, sales are down by over 18%. whereas in the price range of over a million, sales are up 20%. so this is a water picture of the u.s. economy, and people are struggling. targets are the heat iing or cheating. we are having the investors pull for us. >> we'll come back to the discussion in a bit, but in the meantime, a couple top stories to be aware of. apple is preparing a $17 debt sale to range as the largest corporate bond server ever. apple plans to ease the pricing to pay for its installed action, which it is raising from 60 to 90 billion instead of tapping it for $101 cash pile. the majority of that is saying the common debt ceiling would target the u.s. lower right now. did you say the major internet explorer with a security firm knowing him fiz er thefizer the. and the operator still ones with xp. as microsoft stopped supporting the older job decorating system. flipty of "worldwide exchange" coming up after this break. honestly, i'm pouring everything i have into this place. that's why i got a new windows 2 in 1. it has exactly what i need for half of what i thought i'd pay. and i don't need to be online for it to work. it runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. but it's fun, too -- with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, 'cause a good playlist is good for business. i need the boss's signature for this. i'm the boss. ♪ honestly ♪ i wanna see you be brave [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. more news to tell you about today, in particular, the last few minutes, astrazeneca responded to pfizer's takeover approach saying they significantly undervalued the company. they told shareholders not to take any action on the deal. this after pfizer made a renewed approach to astrazeneca this weekend about a possible makeover saying they won't engage in talks. pfizer's previous bid would have valued astrazeneca at $98.7 billion or about $76 a share. reports say a new bid will likely be more than $100 billion, the largest deal since pfizer bought the company back in 2012. looking at the deal, back in the markets, shares are trading higher than the 4684 on the board pushing the stock higher by pfizer. and shares of the american company, also on the the move today up a quarter of a percent. a new takeover offer from the u.s. drugmaker has been rejected. that was worth $6.7 billion including desks and 50% premium. meda prefers to remain a stand-alone company and lack support from the biggest shareholder would sink the deal anyway. made of meda shares, they take up 6%. meantime, america is close to a deal to sell the consumer health unit for more than $14 billion. buyer and consumer brands like coppertone suntan lotion and claritin pills. i was over the counter with medicine used. shares are falling here in london today. the mega merger of two advertising giants is in doubt. the wall street journal reports on the common publicist that they confirmed to a $35 billion deal announced last july. they will be the legal acquirer delaying place at 50%. once has to buy the other for accounting reasons. elsewhere, french president speaks fine. jeffy mills of the $13 billion, he will be meeting the stevens and after that discussion i told multiple i would like to act in the company's interest. i'm looking at a proposal in january with their shares in frankfurt trading on 2%. and ali baba confirmed $1.2 million investment in the leading television company. ali baba's ceo will join the board as part of that deal with youku todou. the local economy is becoming more dependent on help from abroad, mainly from chinese tourists. take a listen to this report. >> reporter: this used to be a bridle passage for horses, but now rodeo drive is a destination. so how is the economy? this city is increasingly dependent on chinese tourists. >> i would say that as much of 60% of our business in some stores and some stores might report more than that comes from chinese shoppers. >> reporter: they are no longer just day travelers coming in huge groups on buses. >> the young ones are now doing on our own or great major ways with 37-year-olds. before it was chicago, new york, san francisco, and now we are finding that 15% of our volume is from australia. >> meantime, beverly hills celebrated a big 100th birthday party on rodeo drive with a massive cake. this was a sample of a cake 12 feet wide, 24 feet long and 9 feet high with 700 pounds of chocolate and nearly 1700 eggs. >> 450 sheets of cake and we'll asemise assemble them later. >> even though most of the shoppers in this day and age come fr. siemens comes to the table with a rival bid for alstom. and no action on the takeover of pfizer saying there have been significant undervalues of the company. >> and russia is bracing for more sanctions targeting both vims and xeaps. ♪ here's a good one seattle... what did geico say the mariner? we could save you a boatload! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly ♪ what's seattle's favorite noise? the puget sound! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly ♪ all right, never mind doesn't matter. this is a classic. what does an alien seamstress sew with? a space needle! ♪ foghorn sounds loudly continuously ♪ oh come off it captain! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. now is it a case of blame it on the rain? the hit seems to be a sound track for the current earning season with 60% of the s&p 500 companies blaming the weather during their investor conference calls. according to research, fedex is one of those blaming the weather 41 times on a call. we are joined from the cme trading floor, and the ceo of the kiniki group. >> i think it is full steam ahead with the feds doing what they need to do to support the markets. they have played this very well. the focus for investors is people are getting a little overemphasizing when it comes to the nasdaq stocks. the nasdaq is not the stock market. yes, we have had a bit of a pull-back with a 10% correction in the nasdaq and bounced back half, but put it in perspective last week, we gave up gapes on friday and exchanged. we were ten points away from the all-time highs in the s&p on thursday. >> we had a conversation before about the weaknesses creeping into the housing market, how much is weather related? >> very little. i mean, we've got fundamental issues here, most of which have to do with financing and interest rates particularly key there. when it comes to housing financing, for example, and "worldwide exchange" reports a lot of the banks are letting the mortgage folks go because home mortgages are a very nonprofitable sector because of all the new regulations. fha is requiring mortgage insurance policy be paid for the full life of the zone. bills are pending now to reform freddie mae and freddie mac. so the access to funds for most americans is key, way more key than the weather. >> let me just switch tones a little bit because there's been an enormous amount of activity in europe, some of it involving u.s. companies like that and ge. we also have talk of fresh sanctions against russia from the u.s. >> those are two separate issues, but the activity is reflective of the market being strong and people are looking for it to stay strong. why do a company merger? why would you buy somebody else unless you that the ground is still misery. i think it's the good follow the money-type theory. it's a battle to be solved because of the economic sanctions and the market capitalization loss happening on them eventually. their stock market is down 25% from the october highs and down on five-year lows. that's where the punishing comes in and all the military talk is just nonsense. the money is where people get hurt the most. >> thank you very much, both of you. we are looking at a slight pause in the u.s. market today. the chief strategist at one stop option, and the ceo of the kiniki group. don't forget, those in europe will be seeing a special interview at 12:25 ct. that's it for today. i'm karen chu. thank you for watching "worldwide exchange." good morning and welcome to" squawk box." pfizer confirms that it could take part in the $100 billion deal. and siemens is interested in alstom. and new sanctions for individuals and companies. it is monday, april 28, 2014. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross-sorkin. and we have a special guest with us for the entire half hour, ceo muhammad alerian. but first we have a big week for the markets with another mega round of reports, a fed meeting and a big economic number. the fed kicks off a meeting tomorrow with new decision on rates. anew language about the taper coming on wednesday. and the ap report for april released at 8:18 eastern time followed up on 8:30 for more on spending and auto sales leading up to the big number. and that is friday's employment report. as for earnings, we have another full calendar for you. merck, e-bay, twitter, chevron, mastercard. all on the list this week,

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