? >> no. no take on steel. >> all righty then. copper is on the move after moody's downgraded china. we'll hit the future pits next. ♪ predictable. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future. >>> welcome back to "the halftime report." i'm jackie deangelis. we are watching copper today falling after moody's downgraded china's credit rating for the first time in nearly 30 years. china the world's largest consumer of copper. did you short copper on the down grade? >> i did not. that was a mixed down grade. think of how moody's hedged themselves. that was actually an upgrade. the modern day silk road from 2,000 years ago in china, that silk road we're calling one belt one road will touch 50% of global gdp, and that infrastructure should buo

in china's great wall of debt. moody's downgrades the country's credit rating, citing beijing's warning financial strength and rising liabilities. >>> a potent combination concerns over excess iron ore supplies coupled with china's credit downgrade chip away at europe's mining stocks. >>> the british government deploys nearly 4,000 soldiers on the streets of the uk after raising the country's terror threat level to critical as police conduct a series of raids in connection to the manchester attack. >> further attack may be imminent. the change in the threat level mean there's will be additional resources and support made availability to the poliavailab police as they keep us all safe. >>> legacy issues hurt like for like sales for two of britain's top retailers. france still provides a headache for kingfisher, with sales down over 5% while clothing weighs on m&s. >>> good morning. you're watching "street signs" as always at this time of the day. glad you're with us once again. we have another busy show for you. let's get straight to the european market action. the ftse 100 a bit

. according to a report from moody's the sector remains sound, and we now have lori mayers, associate manager and director of moody's around the desk. let's talk about the first quarter. i spent a lot of time talking ubs and the numbers and being very bullish. we see this, given seasonality, how much of the strength was se seasonality and how much is strength? >> well, we do expect that the markets will remain volatile. so we're not saying that one quarter necessarily makes a trend. but it was a good quarter for the european investment of funds and the market revenues with the exception of barclays. but really, what we saw was that capital markets revenues pulled the revenues for the quarter. because as revenues overall were relatively flat. and that's really reflecting, you know, weaker results in some of the noncapital markets where low interest rates continue. >> much of 2016, i feel like we talked about the fact that u.s. banks were gaining markets here at the expense of the european rivals. do you feel with that strong first quarter, european investors are able to claim back the