through to the oil and gas sector here. utilities and food and beverages both hanging on to slight gains. glancing also at the bond markets. we continue to see depressed yields. u.s. has a 10-year yield falling to 1.5%. also worth noting that guilt prices have been soaring after the bank of england move to increakreecrease stlis. >> you were talking about charts. if you look at how it's been tracking this year, very strong performance for august. in fact a breakout. down to numbers today as the insurance company has beat expectations. $739 million despite all quarter by natural disasters. >> reporter: absolutely. i'm sure the company would like to highlight the fact that some of the reforms or the change and adjustments that mario grek co-has implemented since he became ceo are starting to gain traction. we have seen disposals from the portfolio. making the case some of these businesses are just not core and a distraction perhaps and unnecessary to the kind of zurich that he is currently creating. so as far as as the numbers are concerned. i don't think there was too much here that shoul

. crude now $42 per barrel. oil and gas analyst joins us is morning. good morning. >> nick garthside is here from jpmorgan asset management opec members talking about out put. is anything going to come of it? >> i doubt it. you won't see a massive change from when they spoke earlier. the talks have been derailed from saudi arabia suggesting they wanted iran on the table. has that changed? i doubt it. if it has significantly increased, it's close to -- per day. [ inaudible ] iran doesn't want to stop at that level. iran wants more optimal level. that's not going to change between now and september. even though november annual, bi-annual meeting that opec is going to have, i doubt they will have any joint decision once again to curb the output. i also believe that -- quota without a cap and vice versa is not going to work. they have to happen at the same time. for that to happen, you have to have all the members producing at optimal level which isn't happening now. >> i'm trying to think of the last time that happened. quite a while ago. >> quite a while ago. we have a lot of destructive

sectors and some of the standouts, what we're seeing oil and gas performing the best. i'm not sure if i can call it standout. it's higher by half a percent. from the downside you have basic resources off half a%. you would have noted we saw a big rally yesterday in brent. softer trade taking place this morning, but there's a speculation that opec could try to curtail outlook. and that rally initially on imex and brent. sterling just to talk about another mover we had out there. cable currently shy of 1.30. pound falling to one month lows on speculation we could be looking at more bank of england easing. an opinion piece for the times predicting that more easing may be necessary and that sent the pound lower. >>> altice reported a lift in second quarter earnings. this despite a low down in french where they continued to lose subscribers amid aggressive competition. >>> sfr improving in the second half. this despite a second quarter loss. the french tell comes operator has come under pressure from tough competition and price promotions. let's mention standard life. their first operating h

prices. oil and gas has been the real story of the week. watching moves in the oil price. we did get another boost just near in the session yesterday. we will have more details on the ongoing talks. speculation that iran would be willing to get in talk of peck freeze. more coming up in the chose. oil and gas off about 0.3%. speaking of iran, they have told opec members it will attend talks set for september. the one line statement sent the kcar cartel's agreement. perhaps it can be reached. meantime, iraq's prime minster says his country has resumed pumping crude from oil fields. via a pipeline to turkey. this process allows the extraction of gas while avoiding damage to reservoirs. >> joining us around the desk is peter head trader and managing director. pierre, it's good to see you. >> good morning. >> so much to talk about despite it being the last week of august. first and foreman, letskand for about the oil situation. others saying this is still much to do about nothing. >> definitely the latter. i think one thing they didn't bother showing up for the meeting that was earlier th

euros in the next couple of months -- industrial gas firm reported a slight drop in net profit in the first half from a year ago. >>> the qatar investment authority is going to take a 25% stake in st. petersburg airport. the german company expects to gain between 30 and 40 million euros from that sale. frap ort says it will hit the earnings forecast ziemt iag to 20% saying it -- shares in aig lost a quarter of their value since britain voted to leave the eu. a fall in the pound after the brexit vote is making british companies more attractive to foreign buyers. >>> britain is delaying a decision on whether to go ahead with construction of its first nuclear plant in over a decade. the decision cast doubts on whether eds hinckley point project in the southwest of england will get a green light. the government needs to consider carefully the project before taking a decision in the fall. >>> bank a, ratio fell in the stress tests. we spoke to victor mass i can't who told us that it's the weak link in the otherwise resilient italian banking system. >> there is the monte dei paschi stor

damaged this gas station bathroom, breaking amir error and a a soap dispenser. this footage shows the swimmers rooefing a party. the swimmers then say they go into a taxi. by 6:06 a.m. they're at this gas station. this video shows them near the bathroom when an attendant walks up, they run out. brazilian officials say the swimmers tried to leave and the station called police. at 60:09096:09, a man approache cab. appearing to point a gun at the car for nine seconds. three minutes later the swimmers get out. another puts his hands up. at 6:56 a.m. the four men arrive back at the athlete village. both the video and police account are inconsistent with what ryan lochte told the today's show billy bush on sunday. >> we got pulled over in our taxi and the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead, said get down. i put my hand up. i was like whatever. >> when lochte spoke to matt lawyer, he changed some of the details. as for the gun, you said before it was placed on your forehead and cocked. he said no, that's not exactly what happened. police say two security guards point

. tilted to the downside in the ftse 100 withn.10 lower. keeping a focus on the oil and gas sector in particular. four month lows now for oil prices. we'll be talking about that later in the show. the bank sector is up 1.5%. we are seeing a pounce in the italian stocks after the selloff we saw yesterday. we have had some results this morning. socgen. than sif is in paris and has been speaking to the cfo. i look at the numbers, the return on equity for the first half of the year, and compare them to the first half of the year last year. three percentage point drop. these profits are getting hard to come by. >> reporter: that's right. in an environment that is increasingly challenging you might say. yesterday saying we h in ing we continue to control costs, but yes in the environment the results are rather resilient. that's the reason you're seeing the stock push higher today. that was well ahead of consensus forecast. also beating when you look at revenue, which, yes, it did come in steady over the year prior almost flat, but in this environment slow and steady is winning the race. i j

me give you a look at the individual sectors. the autos, the health care oil and gas. wti adding more than 7% last week. this morning, there's reports of the russian energy minister suggesting that he's consulting with the saudis and other countries to achieve oil market stability. it comes on the back of comments that we got from the saudis last week too. skeptic in me says i'll believe it when i see it. >> h and m as well in focus today after better than expected sales growth. just a quick check on the homebuilders this morning. jpmorgan lowering some price targets. putting a bit of pressure on that sector. japan's growth is stalled april to june annualized gdp grew coming in below expectations. this marks the second quarter of consecutive expansion. a slower pace than the first three months of the year due to weak cap x and -- abe economic policies whether they're able to produce sustainable growth. let's check on that data and the markets. we're in -- >> there are a couple of things that dragged on growth. the external position continues to look very, very sluggish indeed. no

seeing where the majority of the buying is taking place this morning, you'll note oil and gas right back up there. financial services, basic resources trading higher as well. maybe though surprise given the price of oil at the moment. getting on to a commodity chat here later on in the show. about a half an hour's time or so. we hava guest on to cover exactly what is taking place in the oil market currently. imex and brent closer to 508 than 40. that rally there looking to be relatively in place for the time being. let's move on and talk about some of the bigger stories. nestle missing expectations. part due to an increase in pricing. organic sales growth slowing to 3%. saying while the chinese market continues to prove challenging, it's expecting a better second half. thereby confirming its full year outlook. analyst for consumer joins us on the phone know. good to have you with us this morning. nestle confirming full year outlook. organic sales growth slowing a bit and looking at underlying sales growth improving for the remainder of 2016. what do you make of the numbers. >> good

goods, industrials and banks all holding firm. oil and gas a lot of focus on this one as we look at the pull back in wti overnight. the worst performance in three weeks. in fact you can see wti now off by nearly .80%. >> this was the focus on in the u.s. session. a loss for wti. energy stocks under pressure. the second lowest volume day yesterday all year. gold m goldman put out a note. saying they're more worried about a thaw than a freeze here in terms of oil. if you look at the countries the largest source of disruption, they say any one of these coming inline could tip the balance for supply. >> still saying fragile when it comes to recovery. >> yes. >>> euro zone top three leaders who are merkel, of course, and renzi and hollande. we're talking obviously on the blocks future despite the shock decision to exit the union two months ago. in a symbolic show of unity aboard the carrier, called for a closer cooperation among members and for the end to pop list politics. renzi told reporters despite the brexit vote, the european project was not dead. >> >> translator: many thought aft