My apologies. We seem to have some technical issues. Lets recap this morning some of the headlines. Desktop computers are not dead. A rallying call from meg whit man as the hpcoe tells cnbc exclusively a turn around plan is on track but admits there is still work to do. We have to continue to innovate and you can discover the innovation engine is alive and well at hp. A lot of heavy lifting ahead. The eurozone finance ministers outline a political bargain to wind down troubled banks that fail to agree on the crucial issues of sharing costs. Hes confident that a deal can be done before christmas. We can now see the outline uls of a compromise and im quite optimistic that next week we can finalize it. Announcer youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. All right. We have the latest data coming out from the iea, their report just coming out. Highlights of this, theyre talking about the wti spread, which we have looked at. It was around 17. 55 a barrel at the end of november. Its down quite a lot since then. We have Inventory Data coming out today which may show a fall in the stockpile. The iea saying the estimate of Global Demand being revised up to 29. 73 Million Barrels per day. The key thing about this is nonopec crude topping 43 Million Barrels a day for the first time in a decade. Opec crude fell for the fourth consecutive month. Smaller drops in nigeria, kuwait, venezuela, upsetting a higher output than iran, iraq and angola. Opec ministers keeping their Group Outlook target unchanged. Thats the latest on the iea. As far as european equities are concerned, slightly firmer this morning after falls yesterday. The ftse 100 down some 36 points. The dow off 52, as well. Right now, were pretty flat for the ftse 100, you cant recollect ra data. The cac 40 up 0. 5 and principlively flat for the ftse mib. North yot bo Nathan Bostoc left his position. British bus and rail Operator First Group stock up nearly 3 rejecting a proposal to split the firm and sell the companys u. S. Business, saying the plan is not compelling and contains inaccuracies. The worlds biggest clothing retailer posted a 10 raise in sales for the first weeks of the First Quarter. Well get more on inditex in around 45 minutes. As far as bond markets are concerned, we saw treasury yields down to a yield of 2. 8 . Were currently on tenyear treasuries just above that at 2. 81 . We were yielding 2. 93 after the jobs report last friday. And on the currency markets, the dollar is town to a sixweek low. The euro yesterday we saw up to around 1. 3748. We are above that at 1. 3767. Not far away from the high of 1. 3830. Dollar yen is back below 1. 30 moving away from that sixmonth high. Sterling dollar, 11 is. 6416. That is the trading in europe. Lets bring in sixuan from singapore with the update on whats happening in asia. Hi, sixuan. Hi. Thank you, ross. A lot of red arrows in asia today. China markets led the losses saying liquidity would dry up towards yearend. Financials, home applians and cementmakers. Markets also await the end of the annual market planning meeting to get more clarity about the countrys 2014 economic targets and reform priorities. And over in japan, the nikkei 225 ended lower by 0. 6 with the dollar yen falling below the 103 handle. South koreas kospi, australia asx 200 both lost near 0. 8 . Meanwhile, the new Zealand Market was dragged just a bit lower by fontera. That stock tumbled as much as 10 to its alltime low before ending down by nearly 6 . This is after the group slashed its 2014 earnings and dividend guidance. Meantime, india reported a november trade deficit of 9. 2 billion. Thats nearly a 50 drop from the previous year. Trading lower by 0. 6 . Now for some individual movers. Chinese coal producers took the brunt of the selling today after beijing said all users will be curved to combat pollution. And on the other hand, Clean Energy Stocks as you can see from the bottom row here, they got a nice boost as a top official said china will speed up the development of hydro nuclear wind and solar power. Back to you, ross. Thank you. Closer to a deal on a Banking Union outlining how a new agency could close failing lenders. Julia caught up with the euro Group President and asked him whether the talks were a success or failure. I think they were a success because on the number of big issues weve moved along, we can now see the outlines of a compromise and im quite optimistic that next week we can finalize it. You call it a compromise. Just how watered down is this, really . Its hard to tell. We will see next week. But i think the fundamentals are going to be very strict and firm. We have strict bailin rules. We will have a fund in which all banks have to contribute. There will be one single set of rules. All the banks will be under sms supervision. All the banks will be under the resolution, some direct and some national. You didnt mention the key word, which is a common fund. Its going to be a single Resolution Fund. The architecture of it is to be discussed. But i think we all want to make sure that its credible, that the funds will be available if banks have to be resolved. But luckily, we have firm bailin rules put in place. They will take the first blow. They will deal with the first losses and then if there are more losses, then we can go to the fund. Were not addressing the link between weak so much s between weak so muchovereigns a banks is a concern. Is that still going to be a concern . We will have eurozone funds. There will be, especially in the first year, some national responsible. If that causes a problem, then we ever the esm according to the agreed rules. So i think the outlines of how its going to work are becoming more and more clear. Thats your position. What about everybody else . Well, im just going to convince them. Are we going to have a solution by christmas . Before christmas. Wow. Hes fairly confident. Have we heard anything from the germans on this . Well, this plan, ross, look like what the germans were asking for. Of course, its complied to their demands. The kicker really here is that, yes, were talking about having a common fund eventually these funds turning into an individual fund. But individual countries will be able to vote on whether or not that fund can be used. Their vote count is going to be based on ecb capital. So if you add in the germans, the dutch and the fins, they could decide if these funds will be available. But the other crucial thing is this fund is not going to be built until the next or its going to be built over the next ten years. So what happens if somebody needs to use a fund at the National Level and its fully depleted . What next . And who backs up the back stop . The german view on this is that the stability mechanism shouldnt be available as additional cash. So we came out of this meeting, yes, with a broader framework, but theres still plenty of questions. As i asked the president of the euro group there, are we truly breaking this link between the banks and some of the weaker sovereigns . Im not sure we have. It will be interesting to see whether we actually agree something stronger next week when we come back to the drawing board. With the work set to continue, ross. Stay there for a moment. Lets bring in robert quinn. Robert, youre a favorite of banks as an investment. How much of this story plays into that or how much are you ignoring it . I wont ignore it. A lot of the issues down here are very, very important politically and in terms of its impact on banks, in terms of its impact on share prices, it doesnt have so much of an impact. It doesnt necessarily. You dont see a lot of this news shaking the bank. You dont see share prices coming off weak in the last weak or so. Are you confident that all the regulatory headaches, pressures, fines, everybody else is also in the price . You saw that maybe a couple quarters ago. Now the stronger banks are going to hit with Oil Litigation funds. But in terms of whether or not they can handle that and have the capacity for greater provision in the greater handle in these funds, im wholly confident on that. Jules. You know, were talking about a Banking Union here. Were talking about something thats going to apply to these banks far off in the future. Do you think investors understand that when were talking about a common backstop for the bank, that it isnt going to be available for incne year when we have the asset review and the stress test, right now, those countries are very much on their own dealing with these issues. Do you think they understand that . I think they do. Its very important for the ecb and the European Banks as a whole. Youll get harmonzation. I think the imf, looking at what they did in their global stability report, they analyzed the total loss absorption quality of spain and italy. That is relatively well contained. Remember, spain and portugal are both into independent asset quality reviews in the last two years. The bank of italy has done their own review. What we do expect to see from an investment point of view from bank shares is an increase in provisions ahead of the cutoff q4, 2013. So from an investment point of view, spanish banks, italian banks, a majority of the European Bank as a hole look at the benefit performance sectors next year. Robert, stick around. Youre with us for a whies. House and Senate Negotiates have reached a budget deal. The agreement sets federal spending levels at 11. 012 trillion for fiscal 2014. A little higher than the current law, but less than the democrats wanted. It hikes Airport Security fees and reducing federal Workers Pension benefits. The House Budget Committee chairman paul ryan says the teal is a step in the right direction. Patti murray, his counterpart, says it rolls it back in a balanced way. I think this agreement is a clear improvement on the status quo. This agreement makes sure that we dont have a Government Shutdown scenario in january. It makes sure that we dont have another Shutdown Scenario in october. This deal builds on the 2. 5 billion deficit reduction that we have done since 2011 and sequestration shouldnt be replaced with spending cuts alone. Congress must still approve the deal, particularly the house. The House Speaker john boehner praised it. He didnt say whether the house would pass it or could pass it. The pact doesnt address the u. S. Debt ceiling which has been extendsed through to february 7th. But it does suggest that weve got Congress Working together to come up with something before they have been pushed to something. Thats helpful, isnt it, for Risk Appetite . It is. What youre getting now is youre getting into the period where youre only a few quarters away from midterms. Every time they have these departments, the republicans come out worse. They cant necessarily afford to push back again because its potentially political suicide leading into the midterms. At the same time, youve had a series of progressions. Its interesting where this might leave the fed. If we believe political reasons are maybe why the fed didnt taper in october, is it more probable they could taper in december or january . They could. Youve got yellen coming in any moment now. I think wanting to get around to the next round of economic forecasts from the fed in the march meeting. We upgrade our gdp forecast. At the same time, we dont see the same need for taper. Taper is becoming much less ral lieutenant for equity investment. Are you saying we could divorce ourselves from bond yields shoot up . Youve already seen u. S. Treasury rates on the tenyear have moved about 150 basis points in the last 12 months. Weve already seen that. But if you look at macro fundamentals, it should be around about 3 . So the actual year on year event in u. S. Treasuries is largely taken place. I dont see any reason why the u. S. Treasury yield should creep up. Up near the year high, up nearly to 138 again and euro well see what that means from european equities, as well. Hes telling his government ukraine would need the money if it was to sign a trade pact with the eu which is what it backed away from last month and it is causing all the process. Still to come on todays show, italy anticipates Prime Minister gives up another vote of confidence after a sea of political change. Well head had to rome to look at the outlook. Plus, is the euro the new thorn in the side of techs . Well take a look. Its a done deal in the u. S. As lawmakers agree on a budget, but this just progress in sheeps clothing . Well take a look at whats been agreed in more depth. And we have our exclusive interview with meg whitman, ceo of hp. What a milestone, a first woman ceo of an automaker in the United States. Frankly, i think its a real milestone for women in business. Is miley cyrus really now a symbol of the way we live . That is the thought of nancy gibb, who has included the singer on this persons person of the year title. Miley will have to fight off some stiff competition with the likes of pope francis, jeff bezos who all made the top ten. The winner will be announced later today. What were asking you is who represents 2013 for you and why . And Time Magazine do this in either a good of a bad way. It doesnt matter. Have Time Magazine chosen the right tone or missed the man or woman that youll remember the year for. Get in touch with us, worldwide cnbc. Com, tweet cnbcwex or direct to me rosswestgate. This is enrico letta is waiting for a confident vote in Parliament Today. It comes as the italian protesters held a second day of strikes as part of the socalled pitch fork movement. The fivestar movement as beppe grillo urged police to join the antiausterity rallies. Joining us with his thoughts, francesco solenti. What is the reason for this confidence vote . Who is trying to achieve what . Hi, ross. Thank you for hosting me. I guess this vote of confidence is very different from the one we had just two months ago on october 2nd. That one was about survival for lettas government. This is just a medical checkup for the government. Letta gave in to the request for a vote of confidence. But i think this is a lot about corridor tactics, its about consolidating powers, seeing who is supporting whom, counting votes and seeing how large a majority is for lettas government. I do think that letta gave a brilliant speech a couple of minutes ago. He is stating italy needs some serious constitutional reforms before even thinking about other elections. And i do think that most players in Parliament Today are keenly aware of that need. And, actually, i do see a system that is very polarized between reformers on one hand and radicals on the other hand. Those who believe the system can be changed from within and those who think it must be brought down. After this confidence vote, as you say, well have an idea of the support of support for the letta government has. Is it going to be enough to deliver Electoral Reform ones . Ross, actually, i do think the majority is there. Its not a large lead. Speculations are that the lead will be quite a still double digit lead is in the senate. That should definiafinitely be h to make the Electoral Reform. But before thinking of Electoral Reforms, you should bear in mind that there are other reforms which have top priority. Because if you look back at the past 20 years, we had about ten premiers. We didnt just have silvio berlusconi. If you think of the numbers, we had dini, champa, we tell monte, berlusconi, and they all failed to deliver syrias reform. So the question should be what was it that blocked them . Its obviously impossible that they were all dumb, so its probably our architectural design, how our institutions are designed. That design was originally made after world war ii. It was a design that was was specifically aimed at avoiding power concentrations and quick decisions. But today there is a great need for quick and powerful decisions. So the architecture has to be changed before venturing into elections, which is to say that Electoral Reform is a priority. But probably not priority number one. Robert. Hi. Good morning. The italian political calendar is largely hindering on institutional reform and largely in two strands. The nearly electoral law from where i sit seems like a very real possibility and potentially should mean letta will stay in power for the next 12 months and beyond. A rebalance of powers between the upper and lower house seems very unlikely. How does that compare with your thoughts . The question is well taken. He said basically he would put forward a proposal in which the senate will be abolished. And this shows how great the lack of parliamentary experience is because its very difficult, obviously, to have the senate to swallow a decision of selftorpedoing. If you phrase it that way, you must vote to selfdestruct yourself, youll never get their party. Theres probably rather than abolishing one of the two chambers, the smartest way to handle that is to have a system where the two chaipg chambers dont just overlap like theyre doing today, but they differentiate themselves like in germany where stheer hanling different things. In italy, we have two chambers basically voting on the same bills and just causing a delay. Fair enough, francesco. Thank you so much for joining us. Joining us from rome, robert sticks around. The rbs chief jumps ship after just ten weeks on the job. What does it mean . Well get into that when we com come back. So i knit until it was full. Youd be crazy not to. Is that nana . [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping th the reliability of fedex. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas. Thats why new york has a new plan dozens of