You. First thing is first, we always check the markets. On whates us guidance investors think. The Federal Reserve continuing to drive a rally in the dollar. Asian shares falling, u. S. Equities higher. The topix finishing at the highest since december 2015. Yen was lower. Tokyo shares jumped after the dow at 21,000. Little bitocks a unchanged after closing at the highest level in more than a year yesterday. The dollar extending some of these gains after brainard became the latest fed official to support the case for an Interest Rate hike. Lets get to the bloomberg first word news. Heres nejra cehic. Nejra the u. S. Justice confirmed that attorney general Jeff Sessions had conversations with russias ambassador to the u. S. While he was a surrogate for Donald Trumps campaign. He said during his confirmation hearing that no contact occurred. Sessions said in a statement that he never met with russian officials to discuss the campaign. The news has prompted Top Democrats to call for him t
Great job done by mark barton today. That is on this index, the dax. You are looking at the best quarter since 2003, and equity index that has added 200 billion euros in value. You are looking at 25 out of 30 components of the dax over 10 . It really is a great synopsis of what has gone on in the dax this year. Bank of america merrill, 63 of Fund Managers favor the european market. That is very much evident in terms of what is going on. Dealmaking, banking, getting the deals done bartering as to who will run the company between the lafarge and holcim deal. Buying 6 billion euros worth of assets. It will make crh the number one player in cement in the united kingdom. What has albert got to do with u. K. Holdings . Holcim and lafarge, will they get the savings . 77. 25, 77. 30 for wholesome. Credit suisse, another day another scandal. What youve got there is, monte dei paschi is suing Credit Suisse for alleged unauthorized financial activity. I should say that banko leonardo is also incl
Over 1 . Some individual news that is worth bringing to our viewers attention, these are three stocks we will be watching. Well holcim do the deal with lafarge . Is bruno the man that the market wants to see at the helm . Lafarge wants to do a deal and they want new management structure. That has implications for this company, crh up 0. 9 . 24. 70 is where we are. Hes got his eye closely fixed on that. Next this is where it gets a little spicy. Fullyear numbers. They have lowered their guidance for this year. They say you are going to see sales rise between 1. 5 and 5. 5 . Originally, they set a rise between 2. 5 and 7. 5 . They are in 70 countries at the moment. The market doesnt like the critical issue. We get some data from switzerland. Centralbank comments later on from mr. Jordan. Johnny is on his way to do that interview. We have seen exports drop over 2 . Theyve dropped their sales. Still doing very little to impact that particular stock. The question is actually lets have a loo
Up in the u. S. This is the pulse. Live from london. European leaders meeting for a second round of talks in brussels. Russia and greece remain very much top of the agenda. On russia, the group has pledged to extend sanctions until the end of the year. For greece the eu has asked the government to submit a more solid reform plan. Lets bring in our reporters. Caroline connan joins us from brussels. Marcus joins us from athens. Caroline, lets start with you. Caroline on russia, which was on the agenda like greece in brussels, they decided to put off the decision to aging summit. A june summit. The eu sanctions expire in july. They might extend these until the end of the year. Which would match the timeline of the minsk agreement. [no audio] guy we seem to be having technical difficulties from brussels. You are looking at live pictures from brussels as leaders gather in enter the building. We will monitor what they have to say. We will get a sense of where we stand on two issues of russia
And the Opposition Party says they will allow for over 850 Million People who make their way to the polls in the biggest democracy. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange bringing you Business News from around the globe. Good morning. Welcome to the show. It is merger monday. And they are seeking approval for a 50 million merger. Lafange is the largest company. And next what we are looking at is the deal has finally been sealed after a bidding war for 17 billion euro deal. Well see how that ends. It is now down to three bids despite those offers being backed by the french government. The stock is up nearly 8 . That news had to give a boost to markets in europe. Earlier the squawk box team said a big ticket deal will dominate the deal landscape this year. Emphasis has now moved to quality. So its moved from volume to quality, which is going to translate into much larger, more strategic transformationsize deals. You are going to see doubling in size of intention. So those surveyed said more t