Out 22 higher majorly underperforms the u. S. Peers ending more than 7 lower. Bye bye 2019, a new decade is upon us as big ben prepares to ring in the new year in style. Welcome to street signs. Our top story today, former nissan chairman ghosn has fled japan for lebanon. He was banned from traveling abroad in a statement, ghosn said, he had, quote, not fled justin but fled injustin and political persecution. A loyal said he was surprised by the departure and called ghosns actions inexcusable and there is a high probability he violated his conditions he said he has not spoken to the police or ghosn himself. This is his actual lawyer in japan. Further more, he said the lawyers still have all of his passports. You have to wonder how on earth he made it out of japan to lebanon. One of the press companies there are citing that he may have hired a private company and indeed a private jet landed in beirut airport coming from turkey when it comes to next steps and what this means, clearly hes violated the terms of the bail he paid for. I think he paid about 13. 8 million. Hell have to forfeit now. There are no extradition laws from lebanon there is no legal way to get him outside of the country unless he voluntarily leaves the country, which puts had ima very interesting situation. Wouldnt you say forfeiting 13 million is a very small price to pay considering in japan, he was facing a very unfair court system. In japan, there is almost a 100 conviction rate. Confessions are allegedly conduceded by long periods of detention. Hes saying hes not fleeing justice but fleeing an injust system there is a comment from the French Community minister saying she was very surprised she heard of it via the media. She also told french radio that regardless, ghosn would still be able to get french support because he is a french citizen that reminds viewers there are multiple countries involved in this. There is japan where hes been held up and was on house surveillance he was the ceo of nissan he turned nissan around and pushed the merger together, one of the cruxes of the problem renault had a 43 stake in Nissan Nissan had a lower stake in wren renault. Theyve turned more vocal as to whether or not it makes sense that the synergies are not as beneficial today as they had been in the past nissan is down 70 , renault is down 33 we should also spare a thought for mr. Greg kelly, the former aid he was also arrested and still faces trial in japan he was accused of falsifying mr. Ghosns pay and Financial Statements he denies that he did conspire to help with those hes still in japan. Hes stuck there the trial for the hearing was set to go ahead in april 2020 according to people who are close to the situation it was supposed to happen in japan around spring of this year they are invest gating him for four Different Reasons one is that he falsified the statements but understating up to 18 million and second that he allegedly misused Company Assets for personal gain via other vehicles and one has come up up now that hes in lebanon, it will be almost impossible for the japanese authorities to get him out and back into japan. Yes it has really thrown the japanese process into disarray it is a story that will no doubt be written into a script for a movie. Looking at the decade that was. The s p 500 is up by 188 . The dax over the past decade has gained by 122 in germany. In china where the shanghai composite, only. It dropped not even a gain. Down by 7. 4 you had that massive build uppost crisis where they were investing and spending like crazy. That was a big spike a lot of things have come off the profits. A lot of focus on growth that is quantity, not quality for the 10year treasury note, down by 50 over the past 10 years what else have we got . Thats about it 10year treasury about half of what it was looking back at 2019 and how low Interest Rates were. Looking at the treasury yield, we are about 50 lower from where we were in yield terms 1. 8 versus 3. 8 10 years ago. Stock markets are 120 higher. You would think that bonds would be higher than where they are today. I would love to know what various economists and fixed income strategists were 10 years ago. I know. Probably 6 . When the u. S. Yield curve turned this year. However the spread is widening again. Zurich insurance guy miller explains why none of this means we are out of the woods when it comes to a possible recession in 2020 we are not expecting some kind of significant recession. Most of us still remember what happened in 2007, 2008 thats not what we are expecting. We are expecting a negative. When you have what we think is a mild recession, people dont know when it is going to end that is always a danger and people feel bad about it it affects business and sentiment at the time before we see a turn and a gradual move out of that before we get to 2021 what on earth should your clients do with the holdings it is interesting it seems the sentiment shifts d dramatically bond yields hit new lows any kind of data it gets into the low where people are expecting a mild slow down when it comes to the bond market, we dont think we have seen the end of a stress we think bond yields are likely to retest the lows it has been a profound stimulus taking place we think well get a recovery greater in the year and it should gradually lift these bond yields it will be capped because the growth will remain ee neemic the question is the trigger for the recovery the German Economy in your research remaining under pressure from the industrial and export exposures will that be a trigger in 2020 for more stimulus for the germans . Wed like to think so weve made a point i think future generations will look back and say what were these guys thinking about. You dont take an opportunity to reposition these economies for a higher sustainable growth. You didnt use these to decarbonize economies and build out infrastructure all of these things need to happen to your question, i think it will be a piece meal fashion i dont think we are going to see anything profound as a game changer. Even the headlines weve seen out of japan the likelihood is only a very small part of that will reach the underlying economy or the clear water impact as they put it we are in a Climate Crisis where action needs to be taken the Outgoing Bank of england governor called on institutions to begin prioritizing the environment saying the sector is slow to curb investments on fossil fuels warning inaction could make some assets worthless his next position will be envoy for special finance. Getting to our guest i actually want to start with this very important point, which is that Central Banks are becoming more cognizant to what is posed to the financial instability. One of the recommendations was introducing the Climate Change stress test. Even now, you hear of the ecb conducting the review. One of their focuses will be on incorporating the considerations into how they think about the policy do you see more moving into this policy and how important it is for finance as a whole Central Banks have had a mandate of price stability as youve alluded to. One of the things found when launching a report early this year, so this is very timely more and more Central Banks have a viewing climate and the environment as part of their mandate because they see it affecting the price ability in a way that historically theyve left it to governments and to the fiscal side to deal with i do think we will see more Central Banks a good majority and portion focusing on why their assets are and qe has been a conversation i think those will continue into next year. I think what is very interesting is that the ngss greening has really come into its own and there are now over 40 members and eight observers. Then you have the three strands. The bundes bank, the bank of england and you have a climate view what needs to happen is a focus on the taxono 346rmy i think those are where we are going to be in 2020. Is this going to be the carrot on a stick . A corporation might take it upon themselves but at the end of the day, to get the action happening, does it need to come from above to say that as a group or as a country, this is what we are going to do on that front. Definitely. I think it is about everyone comeling together and everyone playing their part there is a view in what role does the central bank play in society and economy. How independent should they be and what role should they take i think corporates play a role governments certainly play a role and so do International Bodies i think more and more those conversations are happening. It is interesting you raise the questions about the actual role of the central bank and one of the reasons why they are undertaking the review about time that they do. But also what was interesting and emerging out of this discussion is an understanding are that perhaps negative Interest Rates are having damaging side affects. That part of the policy package may need to be reconsidered in favor of perhaps new unconventional policy methods. Possibly. I think throughout the review, you will not see huge amounts of change, the conventional thinking in that review in so many years time, youll reassess the september policy package. There was tearing and negative interest rate. There could be an extension of that and the role of quantitative easing under review as well. What is really interesting is this year, possibly 2019 can be viewed as the year where Central Bank Strategy is under huge amounts of scrutiny and review you have a new governor at the bank of england. Bank of canada and the new madam lagarde and the new deputy governors. The whole leadership of the ecb. What i dont think youll see is a huge amount of change in Interest Rates throughout the year thats what mandy was saying. We went into 2019 talking about Central Bank Normalization the feds cut Interest Rates. Ecb went back to their old tricks even the bank of england are turning more dovish. Are Central Banks stuck here what weve been hearing is that from the ecb, there needs to be fiscal stimulus that compliments this policy where the governments have the space to do so that will potentially free up the Central Banks. I think those two things go hand in hand. There are still ways to go that Central Banks can deploy i dont think they are in a position where they are weary of normalization without the review in 2020 and beyond, how much will we be talking about Central Banks. Certainly china is leading the charge but what about other Central Banks . Port of tart of the review ik at that. Just left the ecb to move to the bis to head up the Innovation Unit hes also very keen on europe having a payment system. This will only be a more grounded conversation. You are looking at wholesale rather than retail, Central Bank Digital currencies and maybe not using the current framework. I think that the review will be a huge step towards those conversations happening. A subject very close to Christine Lagardes heart. One of the longest answers she gave was about digital current si thank you for joining us. Programs manager for europe. If you want to get involved in anything weve discussed it is the end of the decade. Weve talked about carlos ghosn, tweet us at street signs cnbc. Coming up, well look at europes Top Performing markets. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. Thanks for staying with us. Policy and politics dominated the conversation some of the couldnt tents lesser wellknown markets have flown under the radar and havout performed. Lets meet top stock performing markets in europe 2019 we have greek, russia and italy in the top through throughout 2019 some investors might have thought these markets are too risky we ask see the Greek Stock Market rose 43 in 2019. Russias grew 29 and in italy, the ftse mib is up 28 one of the things they all have in common is the loser policy. The ecb announced further stimulus in russia, the bank announced cuts to its key rate let me tell you more about greece because the stock market was not just the top performer year but across the world. One of the things we witnessed in greece in 2019 is a change in government in july some of the measures that this pro business government has put forward have supported appetite for greek assets let me tell you some of the things they have produced for instance the program that is meant to help greek lenders we saw the full end of capital controls, corporate taxes being reduced to 24 we saw the announcement of different innocentives to wealthy individuals to move and live in greece having said that, when we look at the figures, the Greek Stock Market is way below the preprice levels we can talk about this in more detail. Context is everything. Lets look at the Stock Exchange over the last decade a different picture. Back in 2010, we were trading close to 100 more than 100 lower than where we were. It will take a lot of time for the stock market to make back some of the losses endured over the financial crisis but still 43 this year, very impressive i want to ask you about one element. That is a big focus during the crisis years still very, very high how have the banks done let me show you the top figures. Pirios bank rose 158 . The other two lenders, alpha bank up more than 70 . Euro bank up by 60 . Not as high as the National Bank of greece but we see a hurg surge in the price when you look at the shift of perform action over the last 10 years, this is different what is the government you talked about that a program was announced in october and approved by the commission we should start seeing some of the effects in the coming months its meant to last ibelieve 18 months but it could be extended if it is well received by the Banking System and the ee con any overall. We spent a big part of the year discussing the back drop it hasnt been a great year for europe but also hasnt been a bad one. Greece has been as well some what immune to the weakness weve seen in germany and the likes. The manufacturing slump seen in the rest of the eurozone how long can they keep up the immunity some argue that after falling so much, it is only natural we see the Greek Economy coming up now. Also when you look at the latest figures, we did see as a lower growth rate in the third quarter. That was because of the international context. We saw a slow down in the export sector and so, lets see what will happen then Going Forward it will be really interesting to see how greece performs especially the bond yields, which are trading through italy now. Thank you for breaking it down for us. Greece, the big winner this year congratulations. Coming up as well, boxing sales slump. Fewer people are heading to the shops in search of a bargain the retail expert weighs in on the drop welcome to street signs. These are your headlines man on the run carlos ghosn flees trial in japan for lebanon saying he wont be held hostage by a rigged Japanese Justice system wall street lower in fin trade as investors book profits ahead of the start of the new decade the shanghai composite closes out 22 higher the biggest gain in five years but majorly underperforms from its peers. Bye bye 2019, a new decade is upon us as big ben prepares to ring in the new year in style. Lets take a look at the european markets where we have the if i si and the ibex to the down side. France sitting there on top of the line the color is green nonetheless, it is extremely thin and short on holiday trade for these markets. Dont read too much into it. Lets take a look at what is happening with the 4 x world the dollar seems to be rolling over some what moving to multimonth lows against a number of currencies the dollar index is holding above the 1. 96 handle experts say that 96 number is a key one to hold. If it breaks below that, we could see more breaking through not exactly good news for a number of exporting names since we saw a lower picture because of the strength in the single currency moving along here, youve got the sterling above the 1. 31 mark sitting at 1. 3139 and moving higher against the weakening green back and the dollar sitting there at 1. 96. The Australian Dollar is also at multimonth highs sitting above the 70 handle lets flip over the boards and take a look forward. U. S. Futures are suggesting it is going to be a slightly stronger start after we saw some profit taking kicking in for the u. S. After what has been a stellar year to the point where a number of our guests here have been telling us, it is starting to look a bit overboard and might not be a bad idea to take a bit of a pause, a breather swroo if you are watching, you should look to take a breather a point to springboard who said it is the largest drop for boxing day since they started publishing the numbers not very encouraging data. Part of it was the weather. Yes, it was rainy. We get rain a lot in the uk, sos that not unusual its more about the structural changes taking place we are much more concerned now all about black friday and taking the steam out of boxing day. Does that necessarily translate to overall sales or that people are showing up less to the stores and buying more on line suggesting that on line sales have had a good couple of days so far post policy. A majority of money is going through the stores we see a big core relation it if tfoot fall is down, then e are down we have constant shop