meeting kicks off. >> the dollar takes a breather but oil continues to slide with wti hovering above a 6 year low. brent below. >> elon musk takes to twitter to defend the social media site. >> one of uber's top executive is taking a ride home. the cfo is stepping down to spend more time with his family. >> and what a way to kick off the week. it seems like st. patty's day came early for wall street. a rebound and the nasdaq posting a better than 1% gain. what made it interesting is that oil prices hit a six year low. typically there's a correlation between stock and oil prices. this time around doesn't seem to be the case. >> that's looking at one day and one of the interesting factors of the last three or so weeks is it has been in correlation with oil prices. one daybreaking with that mold is too short of a time frame to draw conclusions from. but what is of interest as well is its the best day in 1.5 months and the worst day for the dollar index in over one month as well. the stronger dollar and expectations of what the fed is about to to has been a big influence. >> it will be inter

yesterday. today's move puts oil back on the slide with wti hovering around $43. >> target agrees to a $10 million settlement for last year's credit card data breach. this amid reports they're following in wall street's footsteps with a minimum wage hike. >> the sec paves the way to vote on a potential spin off. >>> and welcome to worldwide exchange. the fed did it again. removing the word patient but saying the rate rise would not come as likely. the nasdaq composite breaking 5,000 briefly in yesterday's session. let's take a look at u.s. futures right now. they are pointing to a lower open despite the rally that we saw yesterday so it does seem like there's a little bit of nervousness in the market. investors still trying to assess what that fed statement means for global markets. the dow down 53 points in today's trade and premarket but back to the rally we saw yesterday utilities moving higher and lower interest rates makes dividend yields look relatively more attractive. in response we saw the dow utilities gain 2.6% in yesterday's trade. energy stocks also gained ground in yest

definitely are delivering the shock and aw to european equity markets. crude, wti west texas -- 52.39 up 6.5%. that is -- up 19% in five trading sessions. brent is up the longest-running uplift wince 2014. all on the political issues in the southern part of yemen. nyumex volume was three times the normal day volume. it was triple the volume. gold rocking up to $1208. the whole question of risk. money is coming out of the yen. oil is rocking. that is the longest run of advances in gold since 2012. currencies display the most liquid -- catalyst of where you want to hedge yourself. in in terms of your exposure pretty cannot move on equities overnight but there is one market you can pick up some protection and begin to do some currency moves. this is yen rising. the dollar down $1.1866. as the most liquid risk market in the world. the dollar is down by .3 of 1%. semiconductor makers are under pressure. they will be the biggest movers in europe through the day. there is the commodities. you move on and have a look at that. down 1.2%. asml down. arm holdings down 5%. all to do with the philly

benchmark, the brent benchmark, has held up a bit better than the wti nymex crude because of these concerns of a glut of oil in storage already and that the u.s. could get tapped out as far as its storage capacity. that has made the brent premium really jump over the last couple of months double from a sense of being at par with wti and brent, and now it's $10 above. and that actually is spurring more of a carry trade. some folks in the stock market are seeing it worthwhile to take our oil and ship it all the way to asia and compete on price with opec to try to sell to those customers there. very interesting die. thattics in the oil market these days. back to you. >> we'll come back to you later bertha coombs. >>> when we return jack ma gets in your face. we'll explain that. also ahead, the co-founder of comecore. dow hanging on to a 110-point gain. we're back in just a moment. ♪ ♪ ♪ first impressions are important. you've got to make every second count. banking designed for the way you live your life. so you can welcome your family home... for the first time. chase. so you c

see today. a quick look at the oil price the commodity has been soft. wti below 50 at at 49.8. but also pointing out the gold price around three month lows 1173 it's bouncing back a little bit today. back to you. >>> let's also take a look at the session in asia and it was an ugly one as well. we have it negatively from wall street. the nikkei down 180 points on the session. growth was revised down on the back of disappointing numbers. it's worrying signs of the virtuous cycle we heard of that was supposed to be abenomics yet to come to fruition. up nearly 2 percent on the back of disappointing data. why did the markets srise? banking stocks surging because the securities regulators said it's considering licenses to banks. that would be a big source of revenue for the banks. that's how we're looking. it was a negative session but we ended mixed because of the news out of china. >> let's give you a run down what to watch in the trading day in u.s. there's no economic data today. look out for reports on retail sales and ppi. results after the bell while mcdonalds reports february sal

. we're at a six-year low on wti crude but the dow is up 232 points. >> go figure that one out. keeping an eye as well maybe it's the euro/dollar. as that has been under pressure it's put some pressure on the market. also stay with us for an exclusive interview with lift ceo logan green. ride sharing companies like lift and uber are under fire recently. there's a lawsuit from drivers that could increase their labor costs. >> the question is are drivers employees or are they contractors, independent contractors in relationship to uber and lift? big difference. >> and there's an interesting point diane made on our panel just at the end of the last week where she said we're becoming sort of the next generation, a 1099 generation not a w-2 generation. a lot of odd jobs that ultimately has to prout youvide you a standard of living and health care. these questions all underpin the conversation we're going to have. >> very, very important. let's show you how the markets are trading right now. the dow is about at the highs for the session with a gain of 232 points. 1.3% same amount percentagewi

adding air power in tikrit. wti above $50 a barrel. maybe it's having an impact on the broader markets. here's the ten-year note yield. heard from lockhart he was with steve, saying soft soft in the economy. >> february was not a great month. >> no february wasn't. our road map, it does begin irk with the sell-off in the markets which is continuing. futures lower. you saw that oil up saudi arabia, yes, it is striking in yemen. sandisk is also under pressure this morning, after a tough day for semiconductor stocks. the company cuts its sales outlook and its stock is down as a result. and new, chilling details on that plane crash in the french alps. officials saying the co-pilot deliberately downed the plane. more details as they emerge. a news conference from lufthansa in the next half hour. >>> oil prices surging past the $50 mark. you saw that. that's the first time since march 10th, after saudi arabia and its allies launched air strikes on yemen. that news weighing on futures, one day after a sell-off which saws the s&p fall nearly 1.5%. the du'sow's down almost 300 point. nasdaq dow

market. >> reporter: more supply wti prices could fall and according to some fall dra mastically $20, $30 a barrel more in the short term. back to you. >> morgan thank you. becky, it was broken arrow. >> broken arrow. >> got time join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is next. ♪ >> good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber at new york stock exchange. premark weak again after the worst day for stocks since january. downgrade of alcoa today adding to sentiment. the european economy shows signs of improving. oil managing to hang on to a level above 50 at 50.6. the ten-year remains around 209, 210. road map begins with the markets. investors facing this continuing pullback, after the nasdaq broke 5000 earlier in the week. private sector employment data not helping, days ahead of friday's jobs number. >> everything must go. target aiming for billions in cost cuts while abercrombie shares get discounted on mixed quarterly results. >> pressure mounting on ge's ceo jeff imle. we'll explain why that's in the news. >>> stock

down three quarters of a percent. what going on now? >> look at wti, a domestic product. i understand the iranians are sitting on oil, they're not alone, there's a lot of oil sitting around a lot of places, especially here. we have -- the issues that drove us down have not been resolved in terms of storage and approaching that limit, and i think you have to start looking at wti as vaguely natural gas. we can't export it. if we get stuck with too much, we have no place to put it at all. we can't ship it to europe, we can't ship it anywhere. i look for wti. we're going to have storage issues and going to keep going lower, and until that's resolved, it's going to be a problem for us and the iranians. >> great, and tomorrow we're getting inventory numbers, tomorrow is the one that matters. we could see the 12th week in a row of records, fascinating stuff. great to see you. good for consumers, elliott. don't deny it. >> always. liz: good to see you, we've got the closing bell ringing in 48 minutes. all up to date on the breaking news. the u.s. state department says the nuclear t

. climbing over 4%. it was much as much as 6% earlier. wti, 51.6. just under 5%. brent just shy of 60. 59, excuse me. that's up 4.34%. gold rallying as well. that's at 1212, up 1.4%. also the euro is back above 110 up .5%. the turn around in the u.s. dollar has been very pronounced. is it just a correction? the u.s. dollar had been very strong or is it an outright change of direction. is that story over? we'll be talking to citi strategist toward the end of the show to discuss that but the euro dollar at 11030 today. let's check in on markets in asia. sri is standing by for us as ever. over to you. >> the situation here is grim in a word. we're seeing some fairly widespread risk aversion because of two negative factors. the first one is what you talked about earlier. the drop on wall street overnight one on the nikkei pulling it down to 1.4% on the close. the other factor is the surge in the price of oil. we saw it in the trading sector continuing on where you are in london as well because of the saudi led gcc military action against the forces in yemen. big spike in the price of oil

bit of a bottom of r50 for wti and $60 for brent. it looks like we might test those but $10 for each. 53.3 for brent. as i said six year lows. gold is also soft at the moment. that's around 3 month lows 1147. back to you. >> wilfred the big story of the day will be on the fed. imf managing director warned emerging markets must be prepared for a rise in u.s. interest rates saying the move could be a surprise with regards to its pace and tiling. now speaking in india, lagarde struck a warning over the impact it could have. >> just as quickly as it's built up can unwind suddenly when such policy is reversed creating as a result significant market volatility. >> in the past when there have been worries that janet yellen would be more hawkish than dovish we did see volatility in emerging market currencies so these markets are vulnerable to any type of fed rate hike given that we have seen the surge in dollar denominated debt. >> they'll be a bit under pressure when we see rates go up but i'm surprised to see the softness over the last few weeks. they got through that. we had a bit of soft

continuing the losses up by 0.8%. wti sitting at 4812. remember crude did fall by 5% in friday's trading session and spot gold off by 0.8 percent. we are in singapore. how are we doing? >> thank you very much. pretty solid performance overall lead by mainland china equities by 2.5%. all clarity from beijing over the martin silk road initiative. it benefitted the infrastructure stocks. over the weekend the government pboc central bank did suggest that more easing was coming and he they said the scope for further policy moves by the central banks. the markets liking those two streams of news. elsewhere we got worsening marc data from japan. missed by a wide margin indeed or the market seems to take it in stride 19,411. a lot of positions just before the end of the quarter for japanese equities. s&p asx off by almost 2%. the resources were leading it low. that's where we stand. back to you. >> thank you very much. >>> and coming up on world wide exchange. a bigger threat than putin. we tell you about the latest poll that suggests republican seat president obama is a -- >> is it time to sell

be short lived or not. wti and brent 57.9. >> the price of oil on the slide after the sharp gains following the launch in air strikes in yemen by a saudi lead coalition. they're saying the assault would have only a impact on supply. it sits on the bab el-mandeb straight. >> war planes struck an air force base just five kilometers from the oil field. meanwhile yemen's president is expected to attempt an arab summit this weekend. the leader of the group accused them of a campaign aimed at occupying the country. let's get the latest from hadley gamble with more on the story. lots of different sides making their stakes in the public arena but this is a saudi versus iran fight on the surface. >> absolutely yes. we talked about this yesterday about this being the soft underbelly of arabia and you're not going to allow them to take over iran and you heard from the u. s. yesterday and they're saying the same thing but what i think is interesting and fascinating to watch is the fact that the arab countries, for so long the arab league was so toothless and they would make these big grand pr

volatile. highlighted by the fact that wti is down 47.4. brent is up 55.3 today. seema back to you. >> wilfred you are looking at live pictures from the french alps where the rescue operation of the crashed germanwings plane is being directed. they'll visit the site later today. they said the first black box retrieved yesterday is damaged but usable. meanwhile germanwings confirmed further flights will be cancelled after some crew members refuse to fly over safety concerns. annetta joins us from outside the aviation station at frankfurt airport with more on this story. >> thank you very much. there's some germanwings crew members that are saying they're not willing to fly but what i have been hearing is not that it's out of safety concerns because it's just for personal matters. they are just shocked that an aircraft of their fleet could essentially explode in the middle of the alp mountains. let me bring you up to speed. they're tweeting they're trying to fly the relatives to the site of the accident of the crash so the relatives have the possibility to mourn on location there and

brent more high. >> sorry. you're right. >> and wti continuing to suffer from supply issues. what brian is talking about ultimately there is a supply disruption bid to brent that's existed a long time. the question is what has happened to that bid over the last 18 months when we've had a lot of issues? part is iran and part is other supply. i think that spread goes to 15 bucks by the summer. i agree with brian. i don't know if yemen is going to be that linchpin. no question that brent is what you follow. >> wti and brent move higher, would we continue to see that fit's a brent issue? >> i think you could see both move higher. that spread will move higher. both will be in tandem. i guess the only thing that would change that if that spread would compress is possibly if we decrease or get rid of the export rules here in the u.s. then that spread would compress. so if you have a supply disruption in middle east, which actually causes the u.s. to allow experts of oil, then wti would come up to the brent price. >>> "pops & drops," pop for lumber liquidators, up 11%. >> a dangerous one.

crisis lows particularly when it comes to wti crude. part of the worry is perhaps there's something that will come back in the market but really the issue here in the u.s. is about the oil glut. when you look at where we were back in march of 2009 well wti is down at the same levels. wti production is way up. we have nearly doubled production. and the most recent numbers go back to december 2014 from eia. we've nearly doubled since that time. that's a lot more coming onto the market from the u.s. that's why wti has not held up as well as brent crude on the international market. back to you, sayre. >> thank you very much. watching the oil trade. new clues to housing. diana olick is in washington with the latest read for us. diana? >> well, that's right. despite the warming weather the march home sentiment is not a good one. sentiment is down two points to 53. 50 is the line between positive and negative. it's better than 46 which is where it was a year ago, but this is the third straight falling build of confidence which started at a high of 59 last september. of the three components

or offshore committee big number. -- offshore, it's a big number. the shift from wti to brent -- in the west, we are at a refinery -- it starts to go up in april. the pressure ships to brent. mark: oil is up 11%. what will that mean for opec? >> opec stays the course. saudi arabia and their gulf arab allies will allow this to continue. they will not actively try to and the supply. mark: how is this making the global supply glut worse? >> the issue is u.s. shale oil. we have seen no impact on shale production. mark: are you surprised by that? the rig count down and there is no slowing in production? >> there is something in today's report which is interesting -- production for the lower 48 states as flat. -- is flat. we are a month or two away from declines in shale oil. the market has been waiting for that but we are about to see it. mark: how does the strong u.s. dollar factor into what we are saying? >> it is a factor -- big picture , more about the oil fundamentals. the dollar is secondary. on any given day, today is a perfect example, it can be a big market mover. it's something

of the government in yemen, oil spikes higher brent is up, wti is up, this turned the oil story and this is potentially something that unsettles all of the arguments about disinflation. if we move into a higher conflict areas in the middle east. elliott: a couple of months ago arise in the oil prices was good with the stock market. if you remember back to the beginning of the year when everybody was really worried about the nation and oil prices sinking, it is a poignant reminder that there is a great deal of potential and instability in many places around the world, the important not just of a small nation in a geopolitical situation but a geographical location is where it is affecting transport volumes. caroline: how does this hit the likes of the u.s. economy, we soul -- saw durable goods fault yesterday and you can see the repercussions of a much lower oil price and also making the strong dollar a key headwind when it comes to wanting to buy goods. where do you see the current situation, what is the outlook? >> in terms of the change in show -- in the oil price, that is on the w

got april options expiring on wti nymex crude, biggest position for strike price at $40. not sure if we'll see that today but expire this afternoon. that could make for more volatility. we are trading may brent crude contract now. take a look at complex, continues to be under pressure here. one of the things people are watching whether the talks with iran bear fruit. also the dynamic on the election in israel if you get a new prime minister there might be more amenable to some treaty with iran the u.s. and others getting a treaty that could bring more oil back on to the market which is not what the mark is looking at. despite weaker dollar for a second day, we are not seeing any carry through in commodities, certainly not in the metals. they're giving back all of their gains from yesterday. >> thank you. we'll talk to you soon. >>> a new valuation for pinterest. shares of rack space up sharply since taylor rhodes became the ceo six months ago. his unique strategy for moving beyond the cloud. >>> having trouble putting two up days together. dow's down 131. back in a moment. the road.

disappointing data out of china. that hurt sentiment in the oil price. 47.3 for wti down .4%. 55.7 for brent. that's down .23%. i mentioned the flash pmi. that fell to an 11 month low in march missing analyst forecasts. shares regained some of the ground toward the close. let's get a summary of what happened in markets in asia so far today. sri standing by as ever in singapore for us. >> good to see you. it's interesting wasn't it? the composure has returned to the asian markets toward the close of trade. yes, the pmi number the first blush number the flash figure from hsbc was pretty ropey and it did tell us that the chinese economy remains very fragile, especially eternal domestic demand. activity dropping to an 11 month low. so that builds the case for more stimulus but they didn't see it that way. they seemed to take the numbers at literal face value. we did see quite a sharp sell off by as much as 2% but they did stage a come back and here we are. steady at the close for the shanghai composite so what the markets are are doing is probably from running the idea of more stimulus. be

down at least in today's trade. the wti crude at 46.86 down about .4%. brent crude, the international gauge of oil seeing red as well down about .5%. we have been seeing a rise in shares of gold and today another day of green up about a quarter of a percent. >> thank you. that's the fundamentals. that's what you should be focused on but in case you're at all superstitious you may have noticed today is friday 13th. long considered an unlucky calendar day in western culture. but are stocks unlucky today as well? going back 22 friday 13th data suggests it's not a great day for market returns. on average the euro stoxx 50 is the worst on this day followed by the dax and russell 2000. dow jones is flat and they're average positives and lucky. >> hang seng positive 70% of the time. >> do you believe in friday 13th? >> no it's not anything worth looking at. but quite interesting the stats there. >> why not. >> let's take a look at the other top stories. u. s. prosecutors are probing possible manipulation of stocks. they interviewed people hired by the hedge fund manager that lead a long runn

bigger focal point if the u.s. iran deal comes into tech. wti down by 1.8%. brent crude down 1.4%. >> then again we have the stronger dollar weighing on oil prices an later today we get the api numbers expected to show that used commercial crude stocks likely to have seen another record high for the 12th consecutive weak. >> that's amazing. it's the deadline day for iran. diplomats have entered the final sprint and they now have less than 24 hours to come up with a deal on teheran's nuclear program. progress has been made but the u.s. state department says they're just a 50/50 chance the deal can be done. the iran talks sparked a domestic battle. state side republican lawmakers are angry that an international agreement could bypass congress as the white house looks set to agree to sanctions relief. take a listen to the back and forth. >> congress built the sanction structure that brought iran to the table and if the president moves to dismantle it we will have a say. >> when congress passed legislation to put these sanctions into place they included in that legislation presidenti

for wti. 54.4 for present. let's check in on markets in asia. we are standing by in singapore. over to you. >> thank you very much for that. we had a reasonably stronger wall street at the tail end of last week. so that's benefitted the asian markets. earlier on in the trading day. but as you can see sop of the gains are evaporating and most of the markets coming off from the best levels of the day. it was a stark -- shanghai come site were the standouts today. new, fresh 15-year closing high for the nikkei. so strong performance for those two. the story in the shanghai is that the property developers did very well today on expectations that they could see more stimulus heading in their direction. i want to give you just a brief word about singapore and the singapore market. stable at 3,415 we are mourning the loss of singapore's founding father the elder statesmen and the first prime minister of this country lee kuan yew. he passed away earlier this morning just after 3:00 a.m. local time. he was a giant of a man and you cannot underestimate what he did for this country. which is n

sharply in early trading. take a look at what's going on. you're seeing wti crude down at $51. michelle what did i call you. >> chief investment correspondent. understandable flip. >> chief international correspondent correspondent. >> it's not just that. it's over the dollar. >> if you didn't role the futures it would be at 45. >> this is one of the pieces of news that it's driving oil higher overnight. gives me options. that's good. let's role the video. saudi arabia began air strikes in yemen last night. attacking rebels. the saudi kingdom vowed to do whatever it takes to restore the saudi backed government rooted by iran. the president abandoned the country leading on a poet leaving the southern part of aden. it was announced by the ambassador to the united states last night at the embassy in washington d.c. >> they he have then taken over the armed forces of the yemeni state. they are in control of heavy weapons as well as military bases and ports. the yemeni president, the legitimate president of yemen was able to escape. >> oil is sharply higher. the rebels are backed by iran. th

-- well that's wti. >> wti? >> yes we think it can go higher than that 60 plus. >> and 65 plus for brent. >> yeah. so we would expect -- assuming these two risks don't occur. >> why would we put anything in the stock market then if we're going to get 50% in oil. why don't we buy oil futures. >> exactly. when the future is the shape of the curve. >> how long before we're back to 70. >> i think it could be pretty soon here. within 6 months. >> rarely do you have investment opportunities like that. rate of return is 0 and the stock market we hope for high single digits. slam dunk 55% over the next six months. >> that's exactly what i'm trying to tell you. the price of oil has come down 55% which is a huge amount for the amount that we're oversupply and people think it's just because we're oversupply but there's a lot of reasons why crude has come down so much and the factors will reverse. the fair price of crude or marginal cost is at let's say $80. >> where is is that the fair price? they can make it for $10 in saudi arabia. >> that's true but people don't realize that saudi arabia needs t

? >> yeah that was quite a jump wasn't it? wti crude. and right now it's $50.86 a barrel. crude futures popped up to the $51 in fact at one stage as a saudi-led air strike fueled worries that oil shipments may be disrupted. the net effect has been a big sell-off in the transport sector. so i'll track shipping and airliners here which may feel the effect but on the flip side we may see resource-linked economies such as australia and indonesia and others getting a bit of a boost from rising oil prices which previously had dragged down a lot of those economies when oil was hitting those record lows. so we shall see. i'll track a lot of those. but right now the 'nique sxait topix trading in the negative. i'll have another update in a few hours. back to you, ai. >> sounds good ramin. we will check in with you then. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. and i'll be back next hour with more headlines in business. here's a check on some other markets. ♪ >>> chinese president xi jinping has welcomed his sri lankan counterpart in beijing. he's hoping the countries can develop t

the oil markets with wti crude rising and then giving back some gains. settled at $52.52. brent saw gains at 2.5% as you see there. jackie deangelis h >> reporter: the oil market reacting to geopolitical news today after israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressed a potential nuclear deal with iran saying, quote, this is a bad deal a very bad deal. we're better off without it. saw a spike on the wor but then some of the gains when president obama reacted. >> let's wait until there's a deal on the table that iran has agreed to at which point everybody can evaluate. >> reporter: the significance of deal or no deal is iran's oil supply. if we get a deal u.s. could lift sanctions on iran. if oil could flood the market and depress prices further. if we don't get a deal we could see the market work through the supply it already has and prices could slowly rise again. a deadline for the talks is late march. crude managed to settle over $50 a barrel with brent crude over 60. oil prices have been hovering in this range for weeks. what could be some of the short-term catalysts? well t

. stocks overnight. the fall in the dollar actually pushed up wti crude for april by 2 1/2%. brent crude for may jumped 4 1/2%. also want to quickly keep an eye on the tech sector. sony has announced its intent to move into the online tv sector. and of course nintendo's announced its intent to put a lot of its games on mobile devices. so we'll check all of those. i'll be back in a few hours. ai. >> okay. we'll talk to you then. ramin, thanks a lot for that. >>> well, executives at japanese electronics manufacturer sharp are trying to revive its core tv business. sharp expects to report yet another loss for the business year ending this month. and executives say they plan to cut about 10% of the company's domestic workforce. they may ask 3,000 employees to accept voluntary retirement. they're also looking at downsizing the overseas workforce. sharp in 2012 cut about 3,000 jobs in japan. the company's also asking its main creditors, mizuho bank and bank of mitts beechi bfj to lend it more money. the two banks say sharp has to further streamline its business. >>> okay. that's the late

concerns. wti finished down apartment 43.46. another six-year low. after the market settled, the american petroleum institute reported another surge in inventories. >>> on capitol hill house republicans unveiled their ten-year budget plan. chairman tom price says the proposal will not only cut spending but help create a surplus by 2026. >> our balanced budget for a stronger america saves $5.5 trillion. gets the balance within ten years without raising taxes. we responsibly lay out a plan for a healthy economy, an opportunity economy, one that opens the doors for people not subjects them to the dictates of washington, d.c. >> is the plan calls for a full repeal of the affordable care act, an overhaul of the tax system and partly privatizing medicare. the gop partly increases funding for the military. >>> at a conference today, mary jo white called for new regulations that would require brokers to have a fiduciary standard. it is an issue we've discussed here on "nightly business report." the s.e.c. has been studying the subject for years but still has not taken any action. >>> wha

. wti nearing its 2015 closing lows after the international energy agency said u.s. production continues to climb despite low prices. bob pisani at the new york stock exchange now with two big reasons behind the swing. >> reporter: it was a choppy week that ended on a weak note. the key driver was the dollar's strength and the euro's weakness but late in the week oil off the return has an issue. the dollar strength and the europe weakness is playing havoc in the stock market. first, forcing money out of u.s. stocks and into europe in general. like germany, italy and franls all up this week and germany at historic highs. germany a big exporter. helps them. it's playing havoc with companies that have t operations overseas like ibm and intel. all of which underperformed the markets this week. oil reared its ugly head again toward the end of the week as it approached the lows we saw in january. lows have been quiet recently but the combination of increasing supply and the dollar strength is again pressuring prices. the energy sector was far and away the worst performer this week do

of that fed announcement, the price of wti crude oil has slipped to a six-year low. look at that. strong dollar has led to a fall in gold price as well to the lowest level since november of last year. now, across asia, we also need to check how those falling oil prices will affect resource rich asian markets and their stock indexes as well. as they bear the brunt of lower oil prices. i'll have more in a few hours. that's all for me back to you. >> we'll talk to you in a few hours time. three more european countries say they are on board with a new development bank proposed by china. officials in france germany and italy have given a joint statement saying they intend to become founding members of the investment bank. 28 countries have already announced their intention to participate. they include southeast asian nations, india and new zealand. until the latest announcement britain was the only g-7 member. the officials in the three european nations say the new bank could work with other existing institutions to plan an important role for addressing funding needs for large infrast

prices fall. at $50 per barrel u.s. producers face challenging economics, bringing wti crude to market. american energy producers are finding the economics of oil production challenging in today's low price environment. though they remain largely competitive and are not under as much duress as russia, venezuela and iran. a november 2014 ihs report found 80% of domestic production anticipated in 2015 will break even between $50 and $69 per barrel of wti. on monday wti crude traded at $53 per barrel. that's $55 less than its peak price of $108 in june of last year. american energy producers are aggressively repositioning their operations to better withstand the low price environment. they are generally delaying capital investment, new wells, shutting down production of higher cost existing wells. they're refocusing their attention to lower risk, more economically competitive wells currently being produced in shale oil-plagued sweet spots. as of last friday the total number of active gas and oil drilling rigs active for developing oil and natural gas fell to 1,056. that's down 17.8% from

. now down another 82 cents. we did briefly watch wti touch $42 and change earlier this morning. >>> and let's talk a little m&a this morning. 2014 was a banner year for financial ipos with nearly 40 firms coming to the market in that sector. deal flow has picked up steam. and since record volume on the m&a front. our next guest runs the top bank firm and lead player in bank ipos. he expects the momentum to carry over to 2015. on the set is thomas misho. good morning. >> good morning. >> what kind of deals are we going to see now? >> well the banking industry has been consolidating for some time and the question is how fast does it do that. last year we had about 5% involved in a banking merger. the average is about 3.5%. the reason why people didn't really feel like there was a lot of m&as is because a lot were smaller banks. going to be involved in m&a. we think it's going to move up market cap. >> the big banks -- are he big banks in a position they can do deals? >> so what's interesting is the industry is as segments as i've ever seen it. you've got these companies that are the globa

has anything to do -- i know we're looking at wti. we can look at brent here as well. talk about some of the impact we heard from netanyahu before congress this week that spread between brent and wti has blown back out. wti had a huge month in february. i'm sorry, brent did, moving higher. >> they both did. >> is that having the impact? >> i think oil prices are headed back down. i hate to disagree with kenny. he's a smart guy but the inventoryin inventoryies are skyrocketing. i know there's a depletion rate that you're going to have to deal with and all of that but if you look at what devon has said, rig count is way down but production is up 48% year-over-year and a lot of the other companies are saying the same thing that production is actually up. and until we start sopping up some of that inventory, i think prices are headed lower and the chart looks like it's rolling over. >> jim brings up an interesting point. ed morris was the first one to came out from citi talking about that term full storage. he's calling for prices of crude to be in the 20s, high 20s. a lot of this st

you. you know what it is really dollar related today. if you take a look at the wti chart and also the chart of the dollar, you see the chart of the dollar spiking up in wti. that's selling pressure really intensifying throughout the day. right now we're trading at $46.66. we're down $1.33. what traders are telling me is they need to see a settle below $48 to really feel like the down side pressure is on. they do think that we are going to see more dollar up side and it could send crude lower, but at the same time they're looking at this negative price action today and saying you know this looks like it's just keeping crude from going up at this point. they want to see something that will really take it lower. production numbers also are in focus. the eia is actually saying that the u.s. output this year will not just be 9.3 million barrels per day. that is the previous projection. 9.35 a little even higher. it could just be the catalyst that takes crude lower. when we're talking about brent prices, one of the traders just noting to me before we went on the air here that he is looking

send us back to a six handle on wti. back to you. >> thank you very much for that and later on this hour, speaking to ed walker former chief of missionings to saudi arabia for thoughts as well. trant ports seen as a barometer for the markets and economy, but it's been a rough road for the sector. on track for the worst week in months. what's going on with the stocks? morgan morgan, you know. >> it's the perfect storm, on track for first down quarter in two years. what's happening there and why investors should be paying close attention when "power lunch" returns. in new york state, we're reinventing how we do business so businesses can reinvent the world. from pharmaceuticals to 3d prototyping, biotech to clean energy. whether your business is moving, expanding or just getting started... only new york offers you zero taxes for 10 years with startup ny business incubators that partner companies with universities, and venture capital funding for high growth industries. see how new york can grow your business and create jobs. visit ny.gov/business now with the xfinity tv go app, you ca

. why didn't we see a sharp move in brent as wti today? >> you saw the spread widening out. that's my call. the wti brent spread goes to $18 by the summer when you actually get a through a lot of the supply disruption issues. i think actually the gulf continues to pump. as everybody says, it won't change in the short term. >> short term, what really affected the oil prices, inventories are out tomorrow, sell side shop, research shop i should say yesterday said that the inventories, the glut, the oversupply will be half of what the estimates are. that was near term why oil spiked. virginia lair row, refiners, that's where you should be here. >> i agree. and bank of america conference, today's the 3rd, right? bank of america refining conference you have to take a look at, valero had a big move today. same terms, nine and a half, ten times forward earnings. i think both stocks still feel like they want to make a move higher. >> >> exxonmobile also has its day tomorrow allegedly they are going to unveil their cap ex plans, is that an issue? >> probably an issue, yeah, i'm not sure it'll b

turnarounds and refineries to take the wti but in the meantime it does look like a one-way street. >> where does it end? >> where does it end? i think we get somewhere into the 30s at the outside maybe a full retrace back to the 2009 lows about 32.5 at the outside but that -- i want to temper that saying that's a spot month. we look at forward oil to still $10 higher. it's more time structure and a storage game. >> how does it end? that's when it ends. how does it end? >> great question. >> what's your timing for that? >> okay. i think q2 into q3 make our bottom more or less. going into q4, what we're seeing right now is we're seeing a lot of rig count drops every week the baker hughs numbers coming out dropping, capex budgets slashed huge the rest of the year. these aren't things to turn on and off like a light switch when the price starts to pop up. there's been a lag effect we haven't seen those production numbers cut although we've seen the rig counts being cut every week. i think you'll start to see those effects towards the end of the year as we come out of the turnarounds again after

for quite some time. we have a move to the downside on the hands today, but wti staying over $50. $50.73. we are not looking at this as a very convincing move because of the pop that we had yesterday. you could have profit taking here. those key levels holding is really important. traders are digesting inventory yesterday, talking less about that, more about china lowering growth target from 7.5% to 7%. dollar index over 96 and that's having an impact here. what we're talking about for levels right now is probably to bounce around the $50 for wti and $60 for brent. 48 1 a key support in wti, and then he starts to think about changing the thesis but right now, he thinks the bouncing around volatile action is going to continue. now, i know we've been talking a lot about retail and gas prices. let's talk about that gas price. up again $2.46 according to aaa. that's only now a dollar less than a year ago. if potentially we saw low gas prices helping things out a little bit they may not in the future because traders are saying we're headed to 250 and potentially higher from there. bac

going to front them as quickly as they can. i think $43, $42 on wti may well be a low. but i wouldn't be surprised if you get a lot more pressure on the front of crude oil futures as the storage facilities around the united states fill up. that's the only problem that really can put a downward and even more severely downward pressure upon crude oil prices. we're going to fill up storage and we're filling it up quickly now. >> speaking of supply on the supply side, why do we have to pay attention to nigeria right now? >> people forget that nigeria is an important country when it comes to the production of crude oil. they produce some of the best crude. the lightest, the lowest sulfur. when the united states became almost self-sufficient, nigeria at times was sometimes our second supplier of crude oil. you're going to end up seeing the saudis competing with the nigerians. now that the election is out of the way and there doesn't seem to be any more attacks in the southern part of nigeria where their oil comes from. as long as nothing happens again with boko haram. they made an attack fo

that six-year low. interestingly, today, as options expire for wti nymex crude the largest open position is at 40s. jim euro, which may not hit it today but the big question these days is are we going to make a run at it quickly and hit 35 before we see 50 again. >> okay. as of sunday night, crude broke a key level, the chart looks awful to me. in a short-term basis i'm somewhat negative. but 35, i don't think so. i think it becomes tough sledding down here. we know the story the supply story, but we also know that built into that price is the notion that the fed is going to tighten. if the fed starts backing off i think crude could not hit 35 and hit 55 first. >> brian, what's your technical level? what do you think we should be watching here? 40, high 30s? >> bertha, i think it's right now, i think you step in and buy oil right here. when you look at the options market, fear is not as high as it was a month ago. that's it telling me option traders are setting if for an upward move in oil. goldman sachs had a low-end price target of $40. we're getting close to that and i would

brennan out in kushing saying some of the people in the big businesses out that way say wti could fall by another 20 bucks. >> right. and i would add two data points to that, scott. one and take this with a grain of salt, different ways to look at the commitment of traders report, gross shorts, gross shorts in the wti market are at a record i'm told and secondly, rex tillerson speaking to analysts today, the exxon mobil ceo, speaking somewhat bearishly about the fundamentals and overproduction as well. so that's a bit of a contrast to andy hall. hall as we discussed yesterday is regarded generally for having a bullish sort of posture. he's obviously in line with that, with the letter that we talked about yesterday on the show. there's a lot of divergent opinion but the consensuses seems to be further weakness in crude prices perhaps here and overseas in the near term before the bottoms are set in. hall disagrees with that. >> make a lot of money being a contrarian at points. thanks so much. kate kelly from 30 rock in new york city. is energy where you want to be right now? let's l