The month of december. That was the highest reading since february of 2011. So a bit of weakness in the month of january. Looking at the sub components, the ifo Current Conditions index is at 116. 9, bang in line with the forecast. But the headline index below expectations. The Expectations Index is at 103. Once again below forecasts. Louisa, yesterday we saw a mixed performance when it came to the pmis. The Services Number for germany was below what analysts had been anticipating. Manufacturing was stronger. Overall the Fourth Quarter in germany has seen a strong end to the year what were seeing in january is a more mixed performance but a continuation of that overall strongish trend. Some say theres the seasonal factor at play, i think it will be interesting to see how this data holds up, especially after some of the projection indexes on optimism given the huge changes were seeing in the states on policy. Whether or not that filters through. Glancing at European Markets, were higher. Were higher. Up by a percent. Just with gains seen pretty much across the board. Showing you those main indexes. Seeing that reflected there with the positivity. All european stock markets trading higher this morning. The sectors, where were seeing repositioning from yesterday, autos higher, banks up by 2 , insurers higher, utilities flat to a couple points lower. People looking closer at the banks and you also have prosecutors in milan opening up an investigation into alleged false accounting and embezzlement at bts italian unit. The development happened after the Telecom Giant announced yesterday that the accounting scandal at bt italia was more severe than what had been originally thought. That revelation along with a profit warning for the uk business caused shares to drop by more than 20 in yesterdays trade. A huge reaction seen there yesterday. Adding a tiny bit on to trade this morning. Intesa sanpaolo has confirmed it is considering a possible tieup with generali saying in a statement its management would carefully examine any opportunities this after shares finished 8 higher on increasing speculation that the bank was interested in making a bid or building a stake. Generali launched its own preempttive strike to ward off any move since it was reported that intesa was interested in a takeover by allianz. It effectively blocked intesas ability to take a minority stayed. Finally analysts have questioned whether rival axa from france may step in with a bid since generalis new boss was previously an executive at the french insurance giant. However generali is considered a strategics a s s a setasset for government. Quite a protracted story there. Its very complicated. Lots of moving parts. If this deal needs to go through, we need to look at some of the anti Competitive Pressures all these Companies May be facing. Sticking in the arena of financials, Deutsche Bank has declined to comment on its report on a report that its mulling a part ipo of its asset arm as part of its restructuring plans. Cnbc sources learned that a partial flotation is planned. They could sell off a quarter of the deutsche asset management. Speaking to cnbc in davos, the Deutsche Bank ceo, john cryan denied the bank was considering a spinoff. Asset management remains core. Its a separate fiduciary business. The regulations make it a little bit more separate, but its a super business. Very sizable. People forget how big it is. Its a lovely, steady stream of predictable profits and revenues for us. We like it very much. Well keep that. Sysisco bought appdynamics f 3. 7 billion. The deal is ciscos largest under Chuck Robbins as the Company Seeks to expand in areas outside of its corone networkin business. Lets go to our guest who salt through a long read about generali. All of these companies are trying to shape up their business. Is it out of desperation because growth is so hard to come by in this environment or because they see plenty of opportunities out there . I think theres another factor as well in that work about generali, that countries are beginning to encourage national champions. Its part of this populism protectionist move that a number of companies are talking about, that desire to build big, you know, global leaders, big champions. There is part of that mindset companies are latching on to. I think its more about a lack of growth than it is about a reflection on strong growth. If you look at when big m a cycles tend to happen, its not at the bottom of market cycles, its very much at the top and about trying to replace slowing growth or stagnating businesses with some m a activity. Its often very much the fear of missing out. The fomo that everyone talks about. Do you want to buy into that fom os o trend . I think any company that overreaches for growth is always going to do a disservice for shareholders. Its you cant manufacture growth. Financial engineering can be one of the curses of the financial system. I think ultra low interest rates, a world of low nominal growth does actually force chief executives into that sort of mindset. Theres not a lot of evidence that it adds value to the shareholders or the whole economy. Andrew, im glancing through some European Market charts. Some extraordinary rallies. Dax going from 8800 a year ago to almost 12,000 now. The ftse a year ago, close to 5,500, now near 7,000. How much more to the upside do you think there are in European Equity markets compared to elsewhere. You mentioned the returns over a year. When i was here 12 months ago, we were all terribly pessimistic. We were talking about China Growing at zero, america entering recession. A lot of that move is about a recalibration of extremely pessimistic fears last year to realizing the world is not so bad. You mentioned the pmis and the surveys, all of which are buoyant. Were in that stage where its show us the money. You mentioned Companies Beating on profits, having profit warnings. Its a mixed bag out there. At the moment we enteral earnings season, its all about the individual companies showing what theyre made of. From here its a much more different story. Theres a lot of expectation built in of an immediate trump bang. A lot of the things he talks about could have a negative impact or will take time to play out. The rate of ascent is almost certainly going to slow. Why do you say a negative impact . A lot of people would disagree and say hes loosening regulations, for example, the oil and gas sector could be flying. You could see the Banking Sector also under loser regulation, have a much easier time in operating. Why does it have to be a negative . Probably the same people forecasting recession in the u. S. Last year. The reason i say there could be a negative is, one, a lot of that is discounted in share prices. The s p 500 is on a price to sales ratio above that in 2000. Its not cheap on the underlying driver of profits, which is sales. Thats making a big assumption that either growth will be strong and or margins will be strong. My concern would be that for the u. S. In particular, that its success could be the seeds of the disruption of the market cycle in that markets have been rerated over the last five years on ultra low interest rates. Earnings growth has been mediocre to flat. The market rating has been buoyant and rising. So as we begin to see growth reassert itself, then you have to see the yield curve steepen further, rates rise, that challenges the notion of what the right valuation on the market is. Im not saying you cant be optimistic that there is a Growth Opportunity out there. But it could very well be in the price. Nobody is thinking about the negative that if inflation comes back, growth is above normal t could lead to a derating of the market. Before we let you go, give us some actionable advice. It seems like youre somewhat hesitant when it comes to investing further into the markets. Is europe the market that will surprise everyone in 2017 . Where else do you look for value . Last year, you know, it was a great example of the best advise you can give to people, keep engaged with markets. Last year everybody got terribly te pessimistic, this year all those left tail fears out there. For us, its about keeping a balance d portfolio, looking where there is growth, not just chasing the latest fad. Asia and europe look attractive. Valuations are down. Theyve done nothing for five years. If Global Growth picks up, theyre a warrant on improved sentiment. You have anthony writing in saying strong upis yesterday, underlying u. S. Data, strong trump pipeline environment, two different views here. The macro is more troubling. The macro, we have to wait and see whether these hopes are followed up with action. You know, i dont think the u. S. Is without its challenges and problems. The auto industry, the Housing Market may be beginning to send didnt signals. We are also in a massive transition in the corporate sector from old economies to new economies. If you look at a lot of Government Policies theyre trying to support the old and dying, which is not a recipe for longterm economic success. We have to leave it there. Thank you very much forever being with us. Andrew perry. By all means get involved. The address, streetsignseurope cn streetsignseurope cnbc. I dont know about you guys, i was up way too late last night reading about the changes happens stateside via trump. You can follow us on twitter. carolincnbc or louisabojesen. Coming up, robotics, iu, molecular manipulation what are the top areas investors should be eyeing in 2017. Well big into the stocks to watch after this. With the xfinity tv app, anything with a screen is a tv. Stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. You can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Download the xfinity tv app today. Welcome back to street signs. Lg electronics swung to an on rating loss of 31 billion yuan in the Fourth Quarter, it was weighed down by weakness in the mobile business. And line posted a 17 rise in sales for the full year. Shares of the firm are down more than 3. 5 over the past year. Japans exports have inched up for the first time in 15 months on stroke sales of car parts and electronics. For more on the asian markets, we have pauline with us out of singapore. Positivity coming through from the nikkei as well. Yes. The nikkei leading the way as the asian markets are sitting at a three month high right now lets start with the nikkei, which closed up 1. 4 . And exports rose for the first time in 15 months as those numbers came in much better than expected rising 5. 4 year on year versus the 1. 2 expected. The kospi ended flat, once again samsung shares hitting record highs. This is a day after samsung reported very strong q4 earnings numbers. And additional Share Buybacks. We saw investors piling into the stock there. The hang seng also up in positive territory, trading is very thin in shanghai as traders have already left, many of them left early for the Lunar New Year holiday. The nifty is rallying led by the Banking Sector off the back of strong earnings. Some banks showing the demonetization drive didnt have as much of a negative impact as might have been expected. And theres optimism within the Financial Sector right now, a week ahead of the financial budget which will be unveiled a week from today. Back to you. Thank you very much. Logitech shares hit the top of europe after posting the highest Retail Revenue in the companys history. The firm raised its outlook on the back of a 13 rise in quarterly sales. Shares up by 13. 5 . Bhp reported strong Second Quarter numbers posting a 9 rise in iron ore output. However they cut copper production blaming stores in australia. And antofagasta has posted its latest Production Report against a back drop of spiking metals prices. The copper Firm Production rose 14 . This comes as the copper rally continues with the price of the metal nearly 30 higher since President Trumps election. It was a miss on the top and bottom line for novartis. Fourth quarter core operating and sales came in below expectations. The swiss drugmaker is returning cash to shareholders, raising their dividend price and launching a Share Buyback of 5 billion. Specking earlier to cnbc, the novartis ceo explained how this will likely impact margins going forward. The whole pricing issue is not new this has been around for many years. Novartis recognized this a couple years ago. We started down a path of contracting based on the outcomes our drug delivers instead of just the transaction of getting a particular price. This kind of outcomesbased contracting is in its infancy, but novartis is a leader here. Thats one way we defuse the arguments around pricing if our drugs dont deliver, we dont get the same kind of price we would if they deliver on reducing hospitalization. Well stay on that path. Spanish banks are getting a boost after santander topped expectations to announce a 4 rise in 2016 net profit. A pick up in brazil helped to offset weakness in the uk. The spanish lender said it is on track to get to its target of above 11 by 2018. Artificial intelligence, Autonomous Cars and Molecular Diagnostics, those are the top three areas that investors should be watching in 2017. Thats according to our next guest, alex gunz, a regular, and a fund manager who is back in to visit with us with another edition of future trends. Youre saying now Artificial Intelligence, Molecular Diagnostics and future cars. The future of the car. Talk us through why youre looking at these . The trends in general, our starting point is simple. Were in a low growth world and essentially looking for opportunities that will allow you to get above average growth. These are trends which we think are growing in importance regardless of whats happening to gdp and regardless of what government is, and regulators are doing. They are things that are disruptive but also making our lives inherently more efficient. Okay. Break it down a bit. So, with Artificial Intelligence you single out google. Thats correct. Artificial intelligence, theres a huge amount of misunderstanding out there about what it means. I was in las vegas the beginning of this year at the Consumer Electronics show. Almost every single device there was labeled as smart, having enhanced intelligence. Thats not what we mean. Artificial intelligence is software, its algorithms, the reality is were drowning in information, but were starved for knowledge. Really the way of the software working efficiently is mining through lots and lots of data, using predictive abilities to come out with the best outcomes. We think though its not evident in googles numbers today, we believe, we understand from the research weve done through the acquisitions they made, particularly buying up smaller businesses such as dark blue labs or deep mine that theyre building a strong presence in this area. All right. Lets talk about a Market Leader in Molecular Diagnostics. What does illumina do . It was a volatile year and there were some good reasons behind that if we go back a step, they produce sequencing machines that allow human dna and also potentially animals and plant dna to be sequenced. The rational for doing this is moving medicine from being reactive to preemptive. Rather than saying going to the doctor and saying i have an ache or a pain here, the idea is that with your dna sequenced, you can predict the diseases you may suffer from in the future and which drugs your body may respond to best. Illumina is the best in this field, selling to laboratories, hospitals, doctors. They had a volatile year as you correctly identified in 2016. They missed numbers a couple of times but things have changed since then. They brought in a new chief executive in the middle of last year. I think hes very much got the ship back on track again. Expectations are set realistically. I think the other Core Development that has helped the stock so far this year has been the announcement at the beginning of january of a new set of sequence called the novaset which will bring down the coast. Going back to 2001 when the human genome was first sequenced t cost about 100 million then, and took ten days. Today its about 1,000 and takes six hours. With this next generation of machines, it probably goes live commercially in about a years time that cost could get below the 100 mark. Thats a huge shift. When i talked to healthcare officials in davos last week, they talked about the future of gene sequencing. Like you said, its about bringing down the cost. Lets talk about vallejo, which is an auto parts supplierment you think theres a story behind it because of the automated driving. Why are they the leader here . We have been investors since 2013. Since that time valeo more than doubled. We think its consistent in terms of delivering. They have an order book of 20 billion euros. If you think about the car today, its an incredibly inefficient vehicle. It gets used less than 5 of the time, yet Car Accidents are the eighth big the cause of death. You have to worry about congestion and pollution. We are gradually shifting towards this futurelike car, electronic, autonomous. And theres a secondary debate, if you dont need to drive a car, why do you need to own it . If you think about what goes into this car, you need a handful of crucial features. Some of them are mapping, some will be electric power, were