Looking overnight in asia. The nikkei droez edclosed down. The hang seng down. The shanghai was up 0. 3 . In early european trading, the dax is down. Down by 0. 4 . Ftse is off by a half percent. If you look at the tenyear yield, continuing to watch that yield below 2. 4 . Yesterday 2. 352 . This morning it looks like the tenyear is yielding 2. 357 . Crude oil prices, which have been above 50 over the last several sessions are up once fwan th again this morning by 3 cents. Some Market Movers yesterday. A lot going on. Really demonstrating how sensitive the market is shethes days. Paul ryan suggesting tax reform could take longer than expected. The possibility of tax reform did you forget your contact lenses . No, no the possibility of tax reform has been a big issue on the table. The house Tax Oversight Committee is planning thearings in connection with the tax reform. No sound bite . No sound bite. You went right through it. Was there a sound bite . There was. Lets get the sound bite up. I didnt know we had the sound bite. I think you left your we will need more time to do tax reform. The house has a plan. The senate does not quite have one yet. Theyre working on one. The white house has not nailed it down. Even the three entities dont are not on the same page yet on tax reform. Heres my question. Are we in newark yet . What . The train backing up . The train backing up. Yesterday you heard me talking to cramer. I thought that might be the beginning of another upleg. Thats disappointing to be up 200 and close down. In the morning, everybody was talking about pence. Everybody is getting along. Freedom caucus talking to moderates. By the end of the day, they got nowhere. And then what paul ryan was saying. The president was talking about multiple lines have been crossed. Talking about syria, north korea. And xi was coming up. Like i was saying earlier, you can imagine if they really didnt like each other. When you talk to china, an important trading partner, this is an important meeting. You have the Nuclear Option, not with north korea. The Nuclear Option and with north korea. But coming up today, in a matter of hours, there will be this vote in the senate. That will change the way things are seen. Were not back in newark. Were not even 2 off the highs yet. Were not even back to will mingson yet. Down near bwi. Which is a the airport which is north of baltimore, right . You think the train has gone further than i have. The minutes from the fed suggesting officials want to start unwinding the massive 4 45 trillion Balance Sheet later this year. Its very significant as janet yellen and others have said and one that would amount to a rate hike. The fed also noted theyre on pace for faster rate hikes. Some fomc members are concerned that the stock market is overvalued. All of that weighed on stocks yesterday. Thank you. When you have accuweather, you can put any city in. I was checking out augusta. Augusta, georgia, just to see. Yesterday the practice rounds got rained out. Today, sunny, but windy. Cooler. 64 degrees. Tomorrow, sunny, breezy. Awesome when theres wind. Awesome for us. Not them. Not for them. Then the way the trees are set up. You see these guys, especially around some of the on the back nine. Theyre looking around. You cant tell whats going on up there versus down here. And it affect par 3, jordan spieth. Remember 12 . Sunday, 78 degrees for the last round. Warmer. Should be great. Will we get when jack tees off with gary . Cant run that . We dont have that, but we have corporate stories. Several deals in the works. Unilever plans to exit its spreads unit, which includes brands like country crock and i cant believe not i cant believe it is. I cant believe its not butter. A double negative. Thats complicated. It worked. The Company Announcing the move as part of the Business Review which also includes increasing margins target and launching a 5 bill roion buyba this year. Programming note, unilever ceo paul polman will join us. Reuters reports that Cardinal Health is in talks to buy medtronics supply business. A deal worth about 6 billion could be announced sometime this month. And japans seven i holdings, the parent of 7eleven is buying more than 1,000 u. S. Gas stations and stores from sunoco. Seven i generates 80 of its profits from convenience stores. Mgm is buying epix in a 1 billion deal. Viacom owns half of epix, which is about 14 million subscribers, lions gate has a 31 stake. The lead story in the journal, ge still owns light bulbs . Yeah. They tried to get out before. They tried, then doubled down on light bulbs in terms of building out the next generation one. Thats when we got the fluorescent ones where the kind where if you drop one, it cracks in the hazmat suit. Just to clean it up . Brilliant. So theyve done a lot at ge, right . Still 29. I dont know what you need to do. Still 29. Tlaif do theyve done a lot. Better than 6, which is where it was. Still not 60, where it was 18 yea years ago or whatever. President trump and chinese president xi will be meeting later today at maralago , florida. Thats where we find Kayla Tausche this morning. Somewhat the winter white house is what people are talking about. That could set a different tone for the meetings today. Reporter yeah. Hopefully a place where the two leaders can break the ice. Maralago is fully cordoned off in advance of that visit that begins this afternoon. We are just down the road. White house officials have said that this meeting will be a test for u. S. china relations as these two leaders meet to tackle their most urgent agenda item. That is handling the what they say is a Mature Nuclear situation in north korea before they move on to issues like military and trade that have put the worlds two largest economic powers at odds. President trump is expected to ask president xi to have china weald more Financial Leverage over north korea to defuse the situation. China is almost the sole trading partner and source of kircurren for north korea. Chinas economy is about ten times the size of north korea. Its unclear how many tools china has in the toolkit. North korea has repeatedly violated u. N. Sanctions put in place, not once but twice last year. In midfebruary china said it would halt all coal imports in north korea, that was a move seen as a preemption of any u. S. Request for them to actually do that. So it will be interesting to see what deliverables and what discussions take place on that matter. For the administration, its as much a test for President Trump and his young and still incomplete administration as they face their first major diplomatic issue. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson visiting beijing last month to lay the groundwork for this discussion. He as well as a very large delegation of almost every relevant cabinet member will be here in florida assisting the president and meeting with their counterparts as this leaders meeting takes place. It will be a couple days of working meetings, no golf. There will be one absence that will be notably felt, thats the u. S. Ambassador to china that has been nominated but not confirmed. Its the longrunning Iowa Governor terry bran stead brans longtime friend of president xi. Not having him here is a loss for the administration. Is that because the senate has not moved to confirm . Thats the problem . Why the absence . Hes not been yet confirmed as ambassador to china, it is believed he will be because he is so well versed in china. Officials had hoped this meeting would take place in fall, but the north korea pushed up the need to do this perhaps before either side is ready to tackle the issues. Would be bad form if he were just down there, hanging out . You cant do that . You have to be confirmed to be around . To be in the state of florida . We know what happened with mike flynn having conversations i guess it would be bad form. To be there in an official capacity. Theres protocol on whether you can be advising the president on official matters, especially many matters which are classified before confirmations. Were you getting this New Washington gig before trumplect maralago would be the place to cover stuff . Are you saying this is all a ploy for me to spend more time in florida . 40 degrees and raining here. But its 70 degrees in washington and sunny. Thats not half bad either. All right. We know that d. C. Will have Florida Weather soon. Thank you, Kayla Tausche. Back to the broader markets. Joining us is david lebowicz from jpmorgan and rob martin, senior u. S. Economist at barclays. I think, guys, that on a daily basis, we get buffeted all over the place. Tax reform is important, you can call it noise but it moves things. We heard from the fed yesterday theyre trying to move forward the plan on reducing the Balance Sheet. A lot predicated on a huge surge in confidence. So, if we dont get tax refo reform later this year, it will be difficult to maintain those levels of positivity. The jobs market seems to have picked up. Maybe not gdp, another bad First Quarter, but some evidence that the consumer that the confidence is translating into more jobs. Jobs have been about 250,000, but theres been softness. We had the 238,000 last month. I followed that number. But a lot construction jobs. Construction jobs are good. Construction jobs are excellent, but thats a weather effect. February was warm, nice. Well see on friday. I think the broader question is do wages start to rise and does that make the cost of labor less cheap. Lane hear been very cheap, and businesses have been inclined to add more people rather than pay existing workers more. Not only is there a question around of what does it look like as expectations converge with confidence, but what do rising wages and Interest Rates mean for the equity market. That will put downward pressures on margins. To me, the question we ask virtually every morning is what premium do you believe is already in the market for these policy changes . If they dont happen, and that evaporates what are you talking about . We talk about the train, returning to the station. I think the deregulation weve gotten warrants being where we are here, and anything above that is icing and additional gains. I will speak to the Consumer Confidence aspect that Consumer Confidence keeps soaring and going upwards. A lot is predicated on expectations that something more will happen on fiscal policy. I dont think the Regulatory Environment is driving that. It could be the jobs picture driving that. Thats okay, but unchanged. Were expecting, weve been expecting a big increase in wages but stuck in the 2. 5 , 3 range. So its early for households to be happy about the raise they have not gotten yet. We averaged 200, but down 160. Even when sand zandy comes in, acknowledged it. I dont know. It may still be within standard deviati deviation. It may not be. While Consumer Confidence looks good, i think the bigger question in terms of how the rest of the Business Cycle plays out is what happens with Business Confidence. Do expectations around deregulation, tax reform, does that translate into more Capital Spending . Its great if you have a repatriation holiday, but if that cash comes back, they pay more dividends and buy back more shares, that doesnt create value in businesses. We need to see Business Confidence continue to strengthen. We need to see businesses feeling more comfortable with the outlook. That will require the administration putting stakes in the ground and letting us know what the timeline looks like around these changes in policy. All right. Thank you both. Rob, david. Well see. Coming up, blackrock chief larry fink will join us for an hour to talk about the portfolio strategy shift towards machines, well get his take on china the markets. First meg tirrell continues our modern medicine series from a location you might not expect. Iceland is known for its extreme environments, from pockets of geothermal activity to lava fields and volcanos to dramatic waterfalls what are less well known are its contributions to medical research. Well tell you how coming up. I love how usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. At one point, i did change to a Different Company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. We have switched back over and we feel like were back home now. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. With e trades powerful trading tools, right at your fingertips, you have access to indepth analysis, level 2 data, and a team of experienced traders ready to help you if you need it. Its like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. Its your trade. E trade. Start trading today at etrade. Com iceland is known for scenic landscapes, volcanos and geysers. But now the island nation of 345,000 people has extensive n genetic operations and has some breakthroughs in the understanding of disease. Lots joining us from wrereykjavik heard iceland is green, and greenland is ice. Beautiful place. They say greenland is ice, and iceland is nice. Weve seen a lot of ice around here in iceland as well. Its having a moment now for tourism. The number of people coming to this country for tourism has doubled, just to see the northern lights. Its a hub of important genetics research, thats because it is a fatherly homogenous population, something known as the founder effect. Meaning a lot of the population here descended from common ancestors, and theyve remained relatively isolated for over 1,000 years. Another thing that makes it greet for Genetic Research is the records here are incredible. We visited the National Archives and got to see the worlds First Complete census taken in the 1700s. Records go back to the 800s. Beyond that, they have great medical records, those things combined make it a great place to do genetics research. Here is why kari sfefansson says iceland is so great for this. Icelanders, who once existed in iceland, its easier for us to make discoveries. Decode has made discoveries in things like alzheimers and cardiovascular disease, sometimes not even things that lead to disease but protect people from disease. They have a blood bank in their headquarters of 500,000 blood samples from half the population of iceland. This gold mine is being mined fby amgen now. Well have more on that work coming up on squawk alley later today. Joe, back to you. Meg tirrell, thank you. That was a cool looking whatever the hell that was, kind of scary. The chart . The thing with the gold all covered, moving. The automated its very tedious, a lot of that work. There it is. We should do a week from iceland. Those are two robots called david and goliath. They operate the blood bank. Theres not a guy there there . Minus 15 degrees. I did not get to try on the giant suit with arms. No. Its a robot. Remember, we started talking about iceland for a different reason a couple years ago. Remember, the currency . It was ground zero for a lot of what happened. The bankruptcy. Wasnt that in your book . Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever been . No, no. Have you . No. On my list of places to go. Talking about it last night. We should do squawk from there. Only a fourhour time difference, the right way for us. Yeah. I dont know. You dont know . No. The right way means youre working until 2 00 in the afternoon or 3 00 in the afternoon. When were in davos. That also means you can get guests to get up. The masters could be missing golfs top player. We dont know yet. Dustin johnson hurt his back after taking a serious fall down some stairs yesterday. Johnson won three straight tournaments heading into the masters. Hes scheduled to tee up at about 2 00 p. M. Eastern today. The weather forecast, as weve already discussed is better today than yesterday. Looks good for the rest of the tournament. Severe storms and tornado warnings sent spectators home early yesterday. The par 3 contest, the popular par 3 contest was canceled for the first time in more than 50 years. Thats a fun deal, but id trade that many for four good days from here on out. If you can have the bad weather, have it come yesterday. Get it out of the way. When we come back, blackrock is shifting away resources from Portfolio Managers towards machinedriven trading. We have the ceo, larry fink, joining us for the next hour to talk about this shift. All kinds of other things well get to. Markets, politics, china. Larry fink is here. Hell join us after the break. Right now a look at yesterdays s p 500 winners and losers. Its been over 100 years since the first stock index was created, as a benchmark for average. Yet a lot of people still build portfolios with strategies that just track the benchmarks. But investing isnt about achieving average. Its about achieving goals. And invesco believes doing that today requires the art and expertise of highconviction investing. Translation . Why invest in average . Because when you really, really want to be there. But you cant. cheering at cognizant, were helping todays leading Media Companies create more immersive ways to experience entertainment with new Digital Systems and technologies. Get ready. Because were helping leading Companies Lead with digital. Is happening before our eyes. Shift in Human History sixty to seventy Million People are moving to cities every year. At pgim we help investors see the implications of long term megatrends like the prime time of urban expansion, pinpointing opportunities to capture alpha in real estate, inf