Transcripts For CNBC Worldwide Exchange 20140307

And investors braced for todays investment report and another low payroll numbers. U. S. Stocks hit record highs as investors celebrate five years since the bottom of the market after the financial crisis. Welcome to the show. The s p is up another three points. Here we are an hour into trade, weighted to the down side. The ftse by the close last night was up some 13 points. Its down 27 at the moment. 0. 4 lower. Xetra dax down 0. 8 . Cac 40 down 0. 3 and the ftse mib off 0. 5 . The nikkei was up when we closed up for trade in the week in gentlemanen pa. The hang seng down marginally, the asx 200 up about 0. 3 . The focus is very much on the u. S. Employment report. Looking for an increase in 152,000. The Unemployment Rate may tick down 6. 5 depending on which forecast you look at. Here is treasury yields. 2. 712 . We were at the close wednesday with a close. It looks like military action is less likely in ukraine, so yields are just perked up, 2. 72 . But ahead of them, the bond report more cautious. Bond yield steady 1. 63 . Gilt yield still at the 2. 762 mark. The yield curve is at the highest point this year. Currently at 11. 3868. Still targeting that 1. 3894 level. Traders have that in their sights. The dollar has just come back from a fiveweek high against the yen. Currently 102. 84. And sterling just above 1. 6753. The aussie dollar continues to pull away from its lows that we saw at the beginning of the year. So u. S. President barack obama has urged president putin to seek a diplomatic solution in the ukraine. The two health a lengthy telephone call last night after which the kremlin said russia doesnt want ties between the kremlin and u. S. To be damaged. This is both the eu and the u. S. Announced sanctions on those responsibility for moscows military intervention including bans on travel to america and freezing of assets. Steve, after the diplomatic moves we saw yesterday, where are we now, today . Lets just recap a little bit more of that conversation between putin and obama. Putin doesnt want relation toes be sacrificed over albeit extremist nationalist parties. Obama is saufrg a dramp, a threepart solution. One that the ukraine and moscow Start Talking to each directly and number two, international monitorers are allowed into the crimea and three, Russian Forces return to bare acracks. The kremlin is still saying this is pro russian selfdefense troops. The president itself, alexander basically saying article 73 of the ukraine constitution says a referendum has to go through the whole of ukraine, not just crimea. But on the other hand, the only force in crimea is Russian Armed forces. The kremlin isnt recognizing the forces in kiev. The government in kiev isnt recognizing the regional authority. After two days of talks between mr. Lavrov and secretary of state kerrly, weve seen no progress over the paris or madrid talks. In the meantime, the parliament in crimea has voted to become part of the russian federation. Lets update the macro situation. Because of the financial situation, it is equally dire. They came on the 4th of march. Theyre working out of the offices of the National Bank of ukraine. Now, we had access to those offices yesterday and we had an exclusive sit down with the governor of the nbu, stephane kubiv. We spoke to him about a whole host of issues, including an update on the current financial situation and conditionality the imf may be asking for and where we are on the form. Lets listen in. Translator we have already explained the first steps in terms of monetary policy. In terms of exchange rate, we start to move in the direction of a flexible rate and we understand we have to a a responsible approach. So we have to keep our word and do what we agreed upon in the imf. Our last actions include the only thing would be the market and the relations between the markets of ukraine and the bank regulators. We didnt take a dollar to influence the Flexible Exchange rate that we had in these difficult days in ukraine. We set three priorities that commercial banks and nbu have to focus on in this situation. We have to support liquidity of the banks and stabilize the market. So we have to work on these priorities. How confident are you in the Liquidity Position of the ukrainian banks . There have been b concerns about corruption in the Financial System. Are you confident that regulation is Strong Enough across the Banking Sector as it stands . When ukraine was in a state of default and political default, there were a lot of forecasts saying we were going to experience economic default. Default is a very strong word and i think the crisis is more of a cross roads. We have to decide which way to take it, the way to high quality of life, to reforms, otherwise we will stay the way weve been for these past 20 years. So when we choose a market economy, freedom of speech, it will require a lot of reforms. Some of them are going to be unpopular. But we have to keep telling them the truth and be open and transparent and take the necessary steps. Given what weve seen from the European Commission, which is going to be called the heads of state of the eu today and the loan guarantees that have been offered by the United States, how much funding in crude terms does ukraine need from the imf . Ill talk about the amount we already know of. Thats 1 billion that has been confirmed. 1. 6 billion from the eu. As to what we are going to get from the imf, it will depend on how it all comes together, what the quality of the documents will be, what the program will be, and it will also depend on whether its going to be a longterm or a shortterm solution. In addition to the public funds, we are hoping to attract credit funds. We are planning an absolutely new investment environment to become a new investment point and accumulate money to become a stronger economy to quickly develop and can increase the quality of life of the ukrainians. Thats stephane kubiv talking exclusively to the National Governor of ukraine. He was adamant that they would be letting the currency free flow which will be part of the imf conditionality, as well. Were seeing an economic crisis. What we havent seen is and i think thats probably interesting in terms of the currency elise having a run on it. Yes, weve gone up from those peg levels trading around 8 versus the dollar in 2013. It goes down to its as well. Solo theyre letting it free flow and hes been talking to me about not trying to intervene in the current ski and use reserves for that they have that 15 billion of reserves interesting we havent seen that pressure. Since 2008, ive been traveling to these areas, lisbon, ma did, etcetera, its been very difficult for the well meaning Central Bank Governors to deal with. They havent started with the conditionality attached to troy ka packages, as well. It seems such an enormous challenge. And i think if this is going to turn its around economically, theyre going to need absolutely enormous support from the west. Its intrinsically leaked, the economy, to russia still. It certainly is. Thats the latest from the ground in ukraine. What about businesses who are active in the region . Joining us right now is martina besojova. Good to see you this morning. Strategists are not pulling out of ukraine. Its very large. It has a big population. Theres a lot of potential for growth, especially in areas like consumer products, agriculture, health care. Targets have had to be revised multiple times this year and thats obviously not very good for investor confidence. No. What about russia . That is obviously a bigger market and theres a lot of companies that dont like wouldnt want to do business in russia, anyway, because of corruption. Are people now rethinking that investment or the level of investment that they may put in . Yes. A lot of our plans, a lot of multi nationals have been very concerned about the impact that this has had on ukraine and on russia, as well. Not everybody is in ukraine, but everybody wants to be in russia. But at the same time, youre absolutely right, there has been a negative impact on investor confidence. Russia is already seen as a market which is difficult to do business in and is unpredictable. If i was a new executive right now, i would be getting some very difficult calls from headquarters. Youll also got the ruble depreciation, a soft. Ing demand picture, anyway. Thats exactly right. Demand is going to stop in both of those markets. The demand in russia is much more detrimental to performance than in ukraine. And. There is a lot of uncomfortable in russia that is going to be exacerbated by these events. Are we going to see other emerging markets benefit or not . Yeah, definitely. What weve seen is because of the slowdown in turkey, in Central Europe and russia, companies are looking for faster growth in other places and those will be places like kazakhstan, even uzbekistan. Thanks for that. In the middle of this, president putin is set to open the paralympic olympics in sochi today. Official from ukraine will determine whether they would participate or not. Still to come, the countrys first ever bond default. Well cross over to beijing to assess the implications right after this. Save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Ould yep, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake . Uhoh. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together the Fastest Internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. Police have arrested two people in south korea for allegedly swiping the personal data of 12 million individuals. They allegedly suspects hacked into korea telecoms website, stealing customers names, addresses, phones and bank account numbers. That information, police say, was sold to telemarketers for nearly 11 million. Regulators warn of drastic action if it happens yet again. Workers at a plant run by ibm in Southern China have gone on strike to test their move to lenovo. The wall street journal reports the workers have until march 12th to decide whether to become lenovo employees or resign. They want higher severance packages if they heave. Chaori solar regards has become chinas first ever Corporate Bond default. Now three chinese firms say theyre halting or delaying plans to issue new debt. Eunice yoon is with us in beijing and joins us for more. This first domestic bond default comes at a time when record levels of corporate debt, eunice. Just how big might the implications be, do you think . Well, a lot of people are talking about how this small default could portend big change in china. Its a small player in the sole onner industry, borrowed a lot of money, but wasnt able to make its interest payments. Now, in the past, what the government authorities would do in this type of situation is coming in and trying to help out the company in order to try to prevent any economic fallout or fallout in terms of job losses. But this time, nothing happened. There was no white knight. A lot of people are seeing that as a signal from the leadership that it is comfortable with the idea that companies could be in trouble, that some companies could fail, and that we would see more defaults. Now, the optimists are saying that this is a very positive development. Because up until now, the way the Financial System in china has worked in terms of borrowing mope, you basically were able to get better rates if you had a buddy in the government. But now, it looks as though the government is more willing to make some changes and shake things up so that companies could get the credit that they need. Now, the concern that a lot of people out here have is that as the market starts to deprice some of that risk, which were already seeing happening, there could potentially be some sort of trigger or tipoff of unintended consequences, which could lead to a financial crisis. And that is what people are worried about here. So far, though, from the regulators, they have said that they are very closely monitoring any possible Systemic Risk to the system as they make these changes. Ross. Eunice, thanks for now. Ill catch you a little bit later. Joining us with his thoughts are mark matthews, head of he research for asia. Jewela a julius baer. I suppose this is a market that needs to mature and grow up a little bit. But as we go to a market that is much more riskbased, how big are the ricks . Well, ross, youre right. Nobody really knows. But thats the thing about china that borrows us. We dont trust the debt, the air quality numbers, the food, the products that they make any more. So china itself is cognizant that it has this huge credibility issue. This is, i believe, the first small step to rectifying that situation. It will take many years. And allowing companies to default is only one aspect of it. But i am an optimist. I view this in a very positive light. On the basis that were going to have much better credit analysis, the introduction of government, better governance, all those things. Yeah, thats right. Positive on the basis that this shadow Banking Sector and this trust was part of that has really crowded out a lot of lending that should have been done to the private sector and, instead, money was siphoned off into these double digit return products which, you know, just shouldnt be the case. Its very inefficient Financial Market in china. Theres been a tremendous overhang on the banking shares. We dont know the level of the stat. And im sure a lot of it might default and wont be allowed to. But, you know, i would also just say if the americans could rewind the clock back to 2008, im sure they wouldnt have let things transexpire the way they did there, either. So there will be selective defaults as a message to not to basically put an end to the shadow Banking System and thats a good thing. And you talk about selective defaults. I imagine what investors will now do is price differently those companies that are seen as strategic and have Good Government support and those which the government may see as not that important and may just let it go. This is what they want to achieve is more of a marketbased economy. By the way, its not just in these kind of defaults, but in making the Stateowned Enterprises more responsibility to the market. They just started privatizing three Stateowned Enterprises. So i think as we continue to see this unfold, and as i said, its a multi year process. In fact, it will result in more efficient economy, more Efficient Companies and, therefore, eye chronically, even though the economy is going to be slowing down, profits are going to pick up. Yeah. Although in the shortterm, there might be more refinancing risk, as well, i guess, for some companies. Mark, good to see you. Thanks for joining us, mark matthews. Now, back here in europe, greek bank perez is set to return to Capital Markets after a fiveyear drought. The companys biggest lender will issue 5 million worth of debt. Greek banks have been shut out of the Capital Market since the debt crisis hit in late 2009. Parting shots have rung out between bill gross and Mohamed Elerian. Go counseleder gross has accused the departing executive of trying to undermine him about talking to media about deepening tensions between the two. Gross has been monitoring he has been monitoring elerians calls and has evidence that elerian wrote a detailed letter to the media. And in some other corporate news, europes telecom giantses have called on the European Commission digital chief to ease industry regulations. In the joint letter, they outline how restrictions and mergers have put them on the back foot compared to their counterparts. Shares in Telecom Italian are lower today. Theyll not be taking the 2013 dividend on ordinary shares. And Air France Klm is near the top of the stoxx 600 after the company says passenger traffic rose 279 in february. The airline carried 5. 34 million passengers last month and reported growth in capacity. Cargo traffic, which was up 3. 5 , helped to improve the companys load factor figures. For more news on the aviation sector, according to the states well be speaking to the iag Ceo Willie Walsh later today. Aig own both iberia and British Airways and that will be at 8 00 p. M. Cet. Meanwhile, lets get more with whats going on with Telecom Italia. Claudia has the details for us. Whats behind these figures . Yes, good morning, ross. We are seeing figures that are boosting the stock this morning. Its trading higher by one percentage point. This is after it started in negative territory. It was the worst performer, probably because they didnt pay out a dividend for this year, which is a first for Telecom Italia. But that was already in the works. So it was probably in the price and shortly after the stock went into positive territory. They did ultimately beat expectations even though telecom did post a loss of 674 million euros. In terms of bottom line, they did reduce that loss. The loss was down lets say in terms of revenues, down by 7. 7 for the quarter while for the third quarter, they were down by 10 and even more so in the first part of the year. So theres a slight improvement fundamentally in the domestic market, as well. They expect the domestic market to give Telecom Italian better margins last year. In terms of debt, the company did fall below the 27 billion euro level at 28. 6 billion. The number in terms of on top line, bottom line and Debt Reduction are all moving in the right direction, even though theres still a lot of work to do. Also, the idea that they were going to sell that company, which a lot of shareholders did not want to happen, seems to be moving further and further away. Thats a very important asset for Telecom Italia, very strong performer, as well. Things might be looking brighter in the future. But as far as the market is concerned, this morning, Telecom Italia once again higher. It has been up about 19 Percentage Points since the beginning of the year. Certainly a stock to keep an eye on. Ross, back to you. Thanks for that, claudia. Milan. Its officially the hardest working city in america, new york city. According to data, new york businesses work an average 6 6 hours a week. Las vegas came in number to, although they dont know whether its night or day in las vegas. Boston and san jose round out the top five. Reports suggest new york businesses work 13 more than the national average. Now, if you want another comparison, that is much higher than in europe, the eu imposes a 48 hour maximum working week. Should europeans work longer hours or are the u. S. Average working weeks too long . Let us know what you think. Join the conversation on worldwide exchange. Get in touch with us, email us, worldwide cnbc. Com, tweet cnbcwex or direct to me rosswestgate. Is whats important the productively per hour works rather than the total number of hours worked . Think about that. Efficiency is everything. If youre better at what you do, you dont have to do it for so long. Still to come on the show, japan says bitcoin is not a currency, but i may still want to tax future transactions. How does that work out . Well get into it after this. The headlines from around the globe, no closes to a deal. Putin says the kremlin and the white house are still divided over ewe krien despite an hour long call with u. S. President obama. China has his first ever Corporate Bond default. Its a landmark move that could change chinas bond landscape. Bitcoin is not a currency. And the bank should not be allowed to provide bitcoin toes customers. But it is considering the idea of taxing transactions. And investors are braced forred a teps u. S. Jobs report. The bull run conditions as u. S. Stocks hit report highs as investors celebrate five years post the financial crisis. European equities are just about at the session lows, 8 2 decliners outpacing advancers. Yesterday, the ftse kicked up some 13 points. This morning, its down 0. 5 . The xetra dax off nearly 1 . As far as bond markets are concerned, tenyear treasury yields, 2. 73 . 2. 739 is where we were at the close yesterday in the states and wednesday, 2. 69 . Given the range. On the currency markets, the euro dollar has a 2 1 2 month peak. The highest for the year. Were currently at 1. 3879. Thats pretty much on the high of the year and were not far away from the 1. 3894, which is the highest weve been at since 2011. Dollar yen has just come down off its fiveweek high around 103. 17 which we hit late on thursday. We have some reports out of the bank of england with its inflation report. It says the february year ahead Inflation Expectations, 2. 8 . And that comes down from 3. 6 in november. The twoyear ahead Inflation Expectations now, 2. 8 . Between, that was 3. 4 . So Inflation Expectations have eased. The fiveyear ahead inflation, 3. 2 versus 3. 7 . Its taken more pressure from the bank of england. The economy does better than expected inflation and Inflation Expectations are falling. 40 of surveys expect the first rate rises in the next 12 months. 31 of the survey respond house prices up 0. 5 in the year ahead. A comfortable survey, one would suggest, for the bank of england. Sterling dollar has offered a peak on the session at the moment, 1. 6764. More news coming out of the russia. The Foreign Ministry says natos decision demonstrates bias and prejudice approach on ukraine. This is the latest statement. And it comes after u. S. President barack obama has urged the russian president Vladimir Putin to issue a diplomatic resolution. Moscow does not want ties between the u. S. And russia to be damaged by the crisis, but putin and the white house are still far apart on the issue. Jim maceda joins us from moscow. Jim, the political talking is being ratcheted up after the hourlong conversation. One cant escape, though, the fact that were going to have a referendum in the crimea which surely pushes this into a new phase. And one wonders how everyone is going to react to that. Exactly. It is a new phase. Youre talking about a Crimean Parliament now that effectively voted to secede from ukraine. In ten days time, theres going to be a referendum. And the Russian Parliament said today if the crimeans decide in that referendum to become part of russia, the duma, the Russian Parliament will not resist that or object to that in any way. So that conversation between obama and putin came at the end of an extremely, busy, difficult day. And obama apparently spoke with putin. He initiated the call. They spoke for about an hour. It was the second long call in six days. But there really is still a gulf between the two leaders on how to resolve all this. But obama in the course of the conversation calling the pro russian crimean government illegitimate and putin claiming that the government in kiev is unconstitutional. This morning, there has been a statement coming from the kremlin saying the two sides were still far apart, but did stress that putin said that relations between the two countries were simply too important to be damaged by any one, albeit major issue. But diplomacy did continue, ross, in rome, led by u. S. Secretary of state john kerry, that he again failed to bring the Russian Foreign minister, sergei lavrov, into the same room with his ukrainian counterpart. That said, lavrov is reportedly carrying u. S. And eu proposals back to putin today to look at. These are two very different sets of proposals. Youve got the u. S. Plan, which is calling for Immediate International observers in crimea, direct talks between kiev and moscow. Whereas the russians, of course, want to get back to the Viktor Yanukovych days, february 21st and the agreement he signed. He would lead and oversee the National Unity government. And eventually at the owned on of on this year, which seems like ages away now, elections. So woeflly well see something change drastically. Jim, thank you very much. Moving on to a absolutely different story, tin venter of bitcoin has reportedly been discovered. A japaneseamerican man has been determined as bitcoins founder by news week. The 64yearold son of a british priest has, however, denied connections to the crypto currency. Japans government has ruled bit coins cant be provided as customers. Japan says bitcoin is not a currency, but that some transactions using it should still be taxed. Jeremy joins us for now. Good to see you. Whats your reaction to news . Governments have been investigating bitcoin and wondering what to do with it. Japan is the first one to come out and say in our view, its not a currency. How significant is that . I think its pretty big. Its great that theyre making a statement of this. Its clear that theyre still investigating it, which i think is true of a lot of governments around the world. So what were seeing is a lot of, well, maybe its this, but were still researching. So i think this year well see more formal guidance for bitcoin. Its interesting that its more currency so were still going to want to tax transaction. Okay. Has that been more having your cake and eating it, too . Well, yeah. I think governments will want to take a slice of that. What are they going to do, transactions i mean, bitcoin, that is the sort of thing that they dont know. I think it depends on the i wouldnt tell. The uk recently announced bitcoin would be exempt for trading in the in between for individuals. But in the case of the future when we want to pay for goods, that may be a different story. Its interesting. Because if youre in a parter situation, of course, you wouldnt pay the yield necessarily, would you . Exactly. Exactly. I think you know i guess im thinking further down the line where bitcoin has a Payment Option on ebay and things like that. Now, you mentioned mt. Gox collapsed. People in mt. Gox lost all their money. Yes. That is clearly something, somebody can look at and regulation. That sort of well, that comes at a risk and its a wake up call for everybody. Is that where theyre going to look to regulation . I think so, yeah. I think for bitcoins to become a legitimate currency, i think there needs to be a level of Consumer Protection there. Good to see you. Thanks for that. Just reminder of whats on the agenda in asia this weekend, china is releasing february trade figures as well as cpi and ppi data. The north korea extreme Peoples Assembly is going to hold elections. Voters will have only one ballot box to tick. Not the biggest choice. Plus the bank of japan kicks off its twoday policy meeting on monday as it unveils Fourth Quarter gdp figures in the country. Elsewhere, bob dudley is facing criticism after his total pay package grew threefold to 8. 7 million primarily through cash and share bonuses. He justified the rise and warned the compensation deals could be part of a worrying trend among ceo. Dudley received 40 of the amount payable missing targets for shareholder return. Alan mulally is get ago nice bonus president. The ford ceo is being awarded nearly 14 million in restricted stock for the companys performance last year. And value will depend on when he sells it. In january, mulally removed himself for consideration for the microsoft ceo job, affirming plans to remain at ford through tend of this year. Hes credited with reviving fords financials. He had to steer the company through the financial crisis, as well. But there is one man not receiving any threat of bonus, carson young. The owner of the Football City club has been sentenced to five years in jail for money laundering. I wonder if he fails the fit and proper test. Still to come on the show, have you made any plans for the weekend . Holding the bag of a San Francisco launch, the team behind yplan, the app behind spontaneous resolvers will join me on set right after this. There is a tech trn going on in europe. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Youre watching worldwide exchange. Now, have silicone valley investors moved on to Greener Pastures . Julia wood has this report on the next big start up in singapore. As technology heavyweights take over silicone valley, waging wars for talent and office space. Startups on the midst of a global search for new homes. So why not singapore . The worlds bank is actually ranked singapore the easiest place to do business for the last seven years running. But thats not the only incentive. And with singapores technology stand, the government will coinvest up to 500,000 dollars in certain startups, while golden gate ventures, whose founders hail from the valley provide both funds and guidance. Were investing in 18 companies to date and we work with probably a larger group of about 40 companies. For example, carousel, we spent eight months working alongside of them and helping them with marketing, conversion retention and made an investment. They see funding for singapore Tech Companies surged to 1 is. 7 billion in 2013. Putting it behind china, but ahead of japan, south korea, and hong kong. With 19 in total funding for asia. 71 behind me has become the unofficial hub of southeast asia. There are more than 1 00 Budding Companies in this building. The government believes that clustering helps the flow of ideas and funds. When it comes to its here that there are software set ups, there are electric mobility set ups, so a lot of new ideas come. The research and innovation comes from interaction, cross poll nation and diversity. About 20 singapore based startups were acquired in 2013, including video streaming site vika. The founders met while attending harvard and stanford, but started their company here in singapore, despite a new Economist Intelligence study ranking it as the worlds most expensive city to live in. In cofounders were in korea at the time. So i like to be close to the asian audience. And be able to join talents. Tried to buy singapores Pro International business environment, big guns like facebook, yahoo google and microsoft had established their regional headquarters, serving as inspiration for the next tech generation. Julia wood, cnbc, singapore. Thats the latest on the tech growth in asia. Meanwhile, wide plan res going out at which provides smartphone users with tips and tickets to experiences now launched in San Francisco. The londonbased firm is now alive in three cities around the world, which includes new york. Yplan has williams and kucher. Its first round of funding is more than drop box, loud cloud and twitter did at the same stage of their development. Joining us now, cofounder of cplan. Vito, youre here, managing director of yplan north america. Do you have to work for this business, do you have to have a difficult surname . Absolutely. Its the number one thing we look for. Welcome to you both. We came on just to cure that 12 million funding which what are you done with the money since . Youve gone live in new york and San Francisco. Absolutely. We had just completed the investment about a year ago. Since then, yplan has moved from being just a London Service to london, new york and San Francisco. The team is now 50 people. Its all about go, go, go now. Just remind everybody, this is an app which lets people purchase tickets to a greater selection of local events on the day. On the day, last minute. Most of the tickets are bought five to six hours before the event starts. Thats what were talking about. You want to do something fun tonight . You open up yplan, too quick, youre going. How many people do you need in each city to be there . You will have your feel of that, find out whats going on, right . Exactly. We need to have a couple of people per region. The more we grow, the more regional and National Relationships we strike with the largest promoters and producers, as well, which allows our businesses to grow a lot faster. You joined when . October 2015. Youre responsible for San Francisco which Just Launched last week. It was the third market we got into globally, Second Market in north america after new york and the San Francisco launch was extremely successful for us. We sold more tickets than we launched stronger than in the two previous launches. You came from ticket master. Not directly. What attracted you to join this business . Despite the fact your name is also difficult to pronounce. The world is going mobile. And in the ticketing business and the live event business, we see more and more consumers and more and more fans are buying their tickets closer to event date because when tickets go on sale, they dont know if theyre going to be in town. Sometimes its months or a year out when tickets go on sale. This is capturing the way the buyers are behaving. The things sports teams, concert goers want to be sure of, because many of the users are first time buyers, theres no cannibalization. Thats another reason that i was attracted to yplan, because its not necessarily an industry solution. They focus on the consumer and making sure that the app is clean and only two taps to get in. This is interesting. Weve had other businesses, halo, shazam, theyve all come out of the uk. Youre not british, but youve developed a business here. I lived here for five years. How much now of British Technology firm is really challenging whats going you know, in the mobile space in particular . In an absolute major way. The shazams of the world, yplan, halo, city mapper, all of those are mobile focused services that are absolutely world class. And they all came out of, you know, london and the british start of ecosystem. So really a lot of change in the last four to five years. Why has that happened . We built an ecosystem here that is now for a couple of hours, i think the reality is basically the ecosystem has matured and there is enough talent and the ecosystem of investors, start up, and potentially ipo and exit opportunities are starting to be there. I was a disappointing network of lawyers and advisers and accountants helping startups succeed faster. What you need is the Healthy System from a to z and thats start to go happen in london. Good to see you. Thanks for joining us. Come back in another six months, youll probably have how many more cities in all . Were charging ahead very, very fast. Good. Thanks so much. Very nice to see you, as well. All the best. Actually, i havent got any plans for tonight, id better go on and have a look. Now, in our news, the turkish Prime Minister says the country could ban facebook and youtube. He says the sites have been abused by political enemies. The comments were made in a late night interview with turkish broadcaster atv. It comes after a number of video recordings alleging corruption. The turkish Prime Minister said he would not leave the nation at the mercy of youtube and facebook. Im not sure anybody has ever been at the mercy of youtube and facebook. Meanwhile, the messaging Service Whatsapp could have hit a road block. Private sis i have asked regulators to store the deal until there is a clear understanding of how facebook would use whatsapp. The privacy policies will not change. The s. E. C. Filing notices that facebook altered the privacy sharing of instagram after acquiring the business in 2012. Lisp up, today is the fifth annual national day of unplugging in the United States. The day is supposed to help people take a break from their always connected lifestyles. Participants are encouraged to put away their phones, tablets, other devices from sunset on friday to sundown on sunday. The time might be used for quiet reflect job, reconnecting with family or friends, focussing on a subject or watching tv. Hey, thats probably allowed, right . Maybe. An Old Television set, how about that . More news coming out of russia, a Spokesman Says putin is not orchestrating events in crimea and that events met with no understanding. The ukrainian Prime Minister says nonl in the civilized world will recognize the result of the socalled referendum on crimea joining russia and also to declare their readiness for negotiations with russia and has requested a phone call with the russian Prime Minister. He went on to say russia Must Withdraw troops and fulfill its obligations under the International Agreement to stop support for the separatists. Now, the cities and other states, now new york is also officially the hardest working city in america. According to data gathered, new york businesses work an average 66 hours a week. That is much higher than in europe where there is a maximum 48 hours in europe. Are the average work weeks too long . Weve been asking viewers this. And, of course, it comes down to productivity, as well. Do you do more with your hour than somebody else . If you want to join us on the conversation, get in touch with us. Worldwide cnbc. Com. cnbcwex. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. Youre watching worldwide exchange. Im ross westgate. The headlines from around the globe, no closer to a deal. Put yip says the kremlin and the white house are still divide over ewe crepe. Despite an hourlong call with barack obama. China suffers its first ever Corporate Bond default. A small firm has been allowed to miss payments on its debt. Its a landmark move that could change chinas bond landscape. And investors are bracing for todays u. S. Jobs report and another low payroll number. But stocks putting pressures as investors celebrate five years since the bottom of the market post the financial crisis. Announcer youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. And a very warm welcome if youre joining us stateside. It is going to be about the jobs report today. Ahead of that, futures a little bit mixed at the moment. Remember, the dow up some 61 points yesterday. Currently, futures suggest its going to open up around 12, 13 points above fair value at the moment. The nasdaq at the moment, that is just about a point above fair value. And the s p closing up at a fresh record high, up three points on yesterdays session. Right now, were just about 1. 5 points above fair value. The cnbc ftse global 300 ahead of that is fairley flat. The nikkei up 0. 9 . The european equities have been softer during recession. This is where we stand at the moment. Ftse 100 down around 0. 3 . Not far off the low for the session. It was up 13 points yesterday, currently down 25. Nearly a percent lower for the xetra dax. Off 0. 25port cac 40 and the ftse mib is also off 0. 25 . I mentioned the nikkei perform was up nearly a percent today. The shanghai composite fairley flat. Hang seng down 0. 2 . And the asx 200 is up 0. 3 . The dollar is getting stronger today, as well. Sentiment is dictated very much by what happens with this u. S. Jobs report. They expect gains to be pretty modest especially while the month was affected by Severe Weather. The february forecast is 152,000 in february with 113,000 in january. As far as Unemployment Rate is concerned, it could come in at 6. 5 . The january jobless rate is 6. 6 . Joining us now, lindsay from sterneke. What are your results on what well see today . The market was anticipating that february would be that proverbial tiebreaker between the strength that we saw in october and november and followed by that weakness in december and january. The problem is that cold arctic weather continued through february, so its unlikely we see a clean report until march. Meaning the we do see a disappointing report this morning, its likely that the market schluffs that off. The weather explained that 75,000 gain in Payroll Employment in december. Its less clear than it is in january, 113,000, isnt it . I think youre exactly right. I think its disingenious of the market to not look at that declining momentum that was clearly in place ahead of these winter storms. Weve seen the average of u. S. Employment growth fall to 2013. Clearly, employers are still very hesitant, remaining on the sideline, not putting that cash to work and certainly not additional employees at this point. We get what looks like to be a third consecutive month of payroll growth being weak. Will there be some pricing in, do you think, even if we dont necessarily believe in the possibility of the fed, you know, tapering its tapering . Well, you know, i dont think that its been weak enough. And thats really been the problem. I think we would need to see consecutive reports coming in under 100,000. So, of course, december coming in at that 75 level and then january above 100,000. If we see this mornings report around 125, 130, which is what im looking for. Again, thats very modest growth. Certainly not enough to force the feds hand to say, okay, we need to take a pause in terms of rolling back those monthly bond purchases. But if we do see a trend this morning of under 100,000 and then again under 100,000 in march, meaning four excuse me, three out of the last four coming in under that 100,000 mark, i think that, then, would be enough to force the feds hand to taper the taper. Yeah. And when you, lindsay, look at sort of business surveys and what youre hearing, as well, are you of the view or not that actually when the weather improves there is enough intention there for firms to pick up hiring . You know, im really not seeing that. If we look at the most recent beige book reported by the fed, we hear from Small Businesses saying theyre still very concerned about regulation, taxes, the cost of obamacare and all of those are long standing issues that are keeping businesses sidelines. So i really think that is the underlying issue drawing down that momentum in hiring rather than just temporary weather effects. Lindsay, good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us. Its an early start for you. We appreciate it. Stay there for a second. Lindsay from sterne aghee. Investors can look for january trade deficit numbers and Consumer Credit data as earnings, we have a pair of retailers, big lots and foot locker. U. S. President barack obama has urged president Vladimir Putin to seek a diplomatic end of the to the crisis in ukraine. The two had a lengthy call after which the kremlin said ties between the white house and kremlin are not wanting to be damaged. Still to come, china suffers its first ever Corporate Bond default. Is this the first of many . Is it essentially a good thing . Will it bring some discipline to chinas corporate debt market . Well get the latest as we cross over to beijing. [ male announcer ] first the cookie at checkin. Then a little time to kick back. Earn double Hilton Honors points with the 2x points package and be one step closer to a weekend break. Doubletree by hilton. Where the Little Things mean everything. Weather remains a dominant theme as investors get ready for u. S. Payrolls. President obamas phone call with president putin fails to gain ground on ukraine. And Mohamed Elerian is accused of leaking a failing relationship to journalists. Chaori solar energy has become chinas first ever Corporate Bond default. Its failed to meet a full 15 million Interest Rate and authorities are saying they are hoping or delaying plans to issue new debt. Eunice yoon is in beijing with the latest on this. Eunice, theres two ways, i guess, of looking at this. On the run hand, i guess its a business scary because this is the first ever bond default. On the other, its maybe a sign were going to get to a more mature credit market, were going to get greater corporate governments and people have to base things on normal risk analysis. But, you know, how rocky might the path to getting there be . Right. And that is what people here are concerned about. One of the reasons why one Brokerage Firm had actually asked the question as to whether or not this is chinas bear stearns moment. By that, they meant they were concerned about what has been a small default could over time eventually lead to some sort of trigger that could unravel the Financial System here. Now, basically, what happened was a small minor player in the Solar Industry borrowed a lot of money, but wasnt able to pay its interest payments. So in the past, what would happen is that government authorities would come in and it would make sure that that company was made whole. In order to try to prevent any type of job losses or other economic fallout. However, in this case, nobody came to the rescue and that has been sending a signal here that the new leadership wants to try to break away from the assumption that people have here that the government will always be there to bail them out. And that assumption has led to very risky behavior in a big pileup of debt. Now, as you had mentioned, theres a big positive that can be read here, that there could be more changes, but the scary part is that as the government tries to exert this type of market discipline, there could be unintended consequences that could really lead to some scary situations here in china. Ross. Eunice, thanks very much, indeed, for that. Well be watching that with great interest, eunice yoon in beijing. Now, this weekend marks five years since the equity market bottomed after the financial crisis. Since then, stocks have roared back with u. S. Equities hitting alltime high these week. So the nas dak has been the outperformer index out bit more than 230 in that period over the last five years. The dow up 147 . European equities, well, they havent fared quite so well, but theyre locking in gains of more for 100 . The xetra dax and ftse 100 has been the lagered. Another poor performance from basic resources. Its a different story over in asia. Take a look at the shanghai composite. That has recorded a loss over the last six years. And the nikkei, 112 , a lot of that gain coming in the last year. Still to come on the show, alan mulally is getting a nice bonus present. Find out how much hes getting paid for last year. And a reminder of where our european stocks are trading ahead of employment. We are weighted to the downside decliners outpacing vapsers 8 2. S could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no ones around, it does make a sound . Ohhh. Ugh. Geico. Little help here. I needthats my geico Digital Insurance id card gots all my pertinents on it and such. Works for me. Turn to the camera. Ah, actually i think my eyes might ha. Next Digital Insurance id cards. Just a tap away on the geico app. In corporate news, bob dudley is facing criticism after an total pay package grew threefold to 8. 7 million primarily through cash and share bonuses. One top 20 investor says dudleys performance doesnt justify the payroll and has warned that the compensation deal could be part of a worrying trend among ceos. Along with other on executives, dudley received 40 of the amount payable under the performance share scheme. Despite missing targets for shareholder return. Alan mulally is getting a nice bonus present. Hes being awarded nearly 14 million in restricted stock for 2013. The value of that will depend of course on when he sells it. In january, mulally removed himself from consideration for the microsoft plan. Theres been criticized with making a forp since reviving fortunes since back in 2006 on. Fords stock up around 19 since last year. There is one man not receiving any sort of bonus. His name is carson yeung, other than of the Birmingham City football club. Hes been sent yad to six months in jail for money laundering. Ahead of the unemployment report right now, u. S. Futures indicating a fairley tepid start as you might expect. The s p is just about less than a point above fair value. The dow jones is 10 points above fair value. So undoubtedly all change when we get the nonfarm payrolls report. And the atlanta fed president , Dennis Lockhart, says u. S. Gdp will likely pick up after the soft first quarter. He says bad weather has probably hurt recent data, but hes stail taking an optimistic view on the economy overall. Lockhart, not an fomc voter this year, says there is a high bar set to reverse the course of tapering. He supports keeping rates low for a while longer to support growth. This comes after yesterday, the philly fed president plosser told us bad wlb has been clouding his judgment. Weve had storm after storm after storm, particularly on the east coast. Theyve got droughts in the west. Its been difficult to get a decent reading on the economy. I think its important that we sort of take a step back, be patient here, and not overreact to whats going on because we just dont really know for sure yet. Lindsay, when Dennis Lockhart says i want to keep rates ultra low for a while longer, how much is a while longer . Well, i think its not just lockhart, but weve heard from many fed officials that suggest that were going to continue to remain in this accommodative stance with ultra low Interest Rates for the next couple of years, meaning the first fed rate hike is unlikely to come until late 2016 or early 2016. Giving us ample time to get this economy back on track. And what is okay. How will we know when the economy is back on track . Is it just going to be job what are the numbers that the fed is going to want to see . I think it all comes down to jobs, jobs, jobs. And were going to continue to watch these nonfarm payroll reports in terms of headline job creation. But were also going to be keeping an eye on the Unemployment Rate which includes parttime workers, discouraged works and takes into account the fact that we have seen a u. S. Participation rate drop to a near threedecade low. So fed officials are going to be watching that target level of 6. 5 in terms of the Unemployment Rate. But theyre going to be watching that in the broader context of other labor market indicators, most of which continue to point to tepid growth in the u. S. Labor market. Household net worth is close to a record high. Thats been boosted, i guess, by the rebound on equity prices as well as real estate. If you look at it in those terms, you can actually say maybe qe has been affected because if you get that record high, household net worth, you would expect that at some point to lead to higher consumption . Well, its certainly helping to boost asset prices. And that really is the point of qe. But here is the problem. When we look at those temporary factors, such as a rise in equity markets, such as a rise in house price appreciation, those are fueling confidence in the near term. But in terms of supporting Consumer Spending longterm, what we need to see is that underlying job and income creation. Unfortunately what weve seen is job creation that sa positive for the u. S. Economy. But 40 of the job creation that we have seen has been in low wage jobs. And so were not seeing that high wage job creation typically needed in order to get that credit cycle, in order to get that consumption cycle going again and propel the u. S. Economy above this stagnant 2 , 2. 5 range. And my point is, if weve got higher house prices and equity markets and that is that going to lead to higher consumption growth . Because higher consumption growth causes a key point with firms wanting to create jobs. It will help provide a floor to growth. But remember, just because housing was the killer of the economy does not mean that its going to be the savior of the economy this time around. Particularly because consumers are no longer using their homes as atm machines. Remember, during the housing run up, the u. S. Consumer was very comfortable borrowing up to 1 trillion against the appreciating value of their home to finance everything from luxury boat purchases to vacation to gasoline to groceries. This time around, we wont see ta additional spending power as a result of a recovering housing market. So we lose that additional momentum. Again, hoping to provide a floor, but it certainly will not be enough to provide above trend momentum for gdp. Whats your thoughts on what happens with treasury yields over the course of the year . I mean, weve clearly been in this range from 257 to 3 . Very comfortable with that. Will we break out of it . You know, i think that we are poised for a lot of volatility as the market seems to be cherry picking the data, one better than expected report, one disappointing report. But if we look at the underlying fundamentals, the u. S. Economy is arguably very little change over the past 12, even 24 months. So i suspect that treasury yields remain in this tight range keeping the tenyear under 3 . Lindsay, just stay there. Theres one other thing i want to raise with you. On a programming note, former fed chairman Alan Greenspan will be joining the squawk box team at 7 30 eastern. Yes, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve at 7 30 eastern. It will be an interesting discussion. Meanwhile, they say cities never sleep. Now new york is also officially the hardest working city in america. Thats what the data says. This is data gathered by locality. Com. New yorkers work an average of 66 hours a week, las vegas came in at number two. Reports suggest new york businesses work 13 more than the national average. Now, that, since youre asking, is much higher than in europe. The eu imposes a 48hour maximum working week. So should europeans be working longer hours or are the u. S. Average working here too long . Josh says with the u. S. Stagnated economy, they are obviously doing something wrong. Join in the conversation. cnbcwex or direct to me rosswestgate. Lindsay, you may have noticed chicago is not in the top five hardest working cities. It came in at number seven. Now, i dont know, maybe youre just more productive with the hours that you work. Is that the case . It certainly could be. Now, being here at 4 00 in the morning, i like to think that we are one of the most hard working labor forces out there. But you know, i have fought looked at the survey data and i suspect that theres a lot to do with productivity, a lot to do with geography, but certainly the u. S. Has one of the most productive, one of the most entrepreneurial labor forces in the world. And that is one of the reasons that i am very optimistic that w as we continue down this path to recovery, the u. S. Will eventually push out of this stagnant 2 range and get back towards potential growth. I just think my father lived in chicago for six years. I just think you guys squeeze a lot more into your 60 minutes frankly than they do in europe. That certainly could be. Yeah, particularly if youre down wall street or somewhere. Good to see you, lindsay. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Now, we have some news coming out of the ukraine paralympic chief. They say they will pull out of the games. Remember, the Sochi Paralympics are about to kick off. If Russian Troops invade ukraine. They would like president putin to ensure peace during the paralympic games. Still to come, turkeys Prime Minister says the company could ban facebook and youtube. Well find out why, next. Plus, in the last half hour, Steve Sedgwick has been talking to the ukrainian Prime Minister. Well be out to kiev to bring you that interview. Really . So our business can be on at ts network for 175 a month . Yup. All 5 of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line, anytime, for 15 a month. Low dues, great terms. Lets close new at t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. Youre watching worldwide exchange. Im ross westgate. Investors bracing for the u. S. Jobs report and another low payrolls number. But that hasnt set the bull run on equities. U. S. Stocks hitting fresh record highs as investors sell brite brat five years since the bottom of the markets post financial crisis. No closer to a deal, Vladimir Putin says the kremlin and the white house are still divided over ukraine as ukraine pulls out of the winter paralympics in russia. Ask and china suffers its first ever Corporate Bond default. A small solar firm was allowed to miss payments on a debt that could change chinas landscape. And bill gross accuses mohammed elerian of trying to undermine him by leaking information to the media about their worsening working relationship. Announcer youre watching worldwide exchange, bringing you Business News from around the globe. All right. Good morning to you. If youve just joined us stateside, welcome to the start of the final trading day of the week. The jobs report to look at. Just a quick correction for you, as well. The ukrainian paralympians have not pulled out of the Sochi Paralympic games. They are threatening to do so. Now, u. S. Futures ahead of the u. S. Employment report, pretty flat, as you might expect. The dow yesterday was up some 61 points. Right now, we are some 13 points above fair value. The nasdaq is currently just a point above fair value. And the s p hitting a fresh record high, up 3 points yesterday. Today here on friday morning, the s p 500 is just about a point above fair value. Much will be decided by the employment report coming out at 1 30 eastern an hour before equity markets opened up stateside. The ftse cnbc global 300 is fairley flat. The ftse 100 is down 0. 3 . The xetra dax is down nearly 1 . The cac 40 is up about 0. 3 , as well, and the ftse mib is currently down 0. 25 . On this final trading day of the week and ahead of the employment report, what are investors to do . Here is a recap of some of the thoughts of some of the guests weve had on the channel today. Europe is higher. I think its over certainly it looks overvalued across the board. The trick here is the geopolitical race with the ukraine and russia. It seems like theres a gain between European Union, the u. S. On the one hand and russia on the other. When you look at this, its just one of them. If you compare it to the dotcom boom, everyone knew amazon was a great service. Everybody saw amazon turning into a Gigantic Company to serve every kind of things you need. It was the wrong price. Just like it is the wrong price now for netflix. Youve had seen treasury yields back up 100 basis points, another hundred on the brazilian spread. So, you know, they have an issue for a long while. Mostly countries, if theyre paying an extra 2 per year, really for these countries, it is not enough to make it difficult. All right. Our thoughts weve had out, it is really going to be about the u. S. Employment report today. Its due out at 8 30 eastern. Economist res setting the bar fairley low again while hiring likely picked up last month, they expect those gains to be fairley modest because much of the country was impacted by Severe Weather especially during the week the government surveys were taken. Forecasts calling for an increase of 152,000 in nonfarm payroll versus 113,000 in january. Unemployment is expected or could tick down to 6. 5 . Patrick is joining us from cnbc in the states. Patrick, always good to see you on a jobs friday. Give it to me, then. Whats your forecast . Looking for about 160,000 net gain in february. All of those jobs being in the private sector. Do think that theres something other than weather thats influencing the numbers, but overall, like most, we expect were going to see an improved number. But, you know, ross, forecasting the jobs is always like throwing darts at the board. The past couple of months, all of us have missed the wall. Yeah. I mean, its interesting in terms of you take december and january, december we know is bad weather. January, you know, its not so clear about that. When does this all get evened out . When will we know the real underlying picture . I think were going to require another month. Weather is certainly a factor here. Its deterring hiring somewhat, deferring the actual hires. We cant ignore the fact that housing had slowed down beginning the middle of last year. Retail sales and autos slowed down in autumn. Personal tax and incomes are flat. There may be something beneath the surface here that indicates that the pace of growth has slowed. Not that weve got a downturn or rather we have more of a slowdown in whats going on. Briefly, for now, what happens to the Unemployment Rate with regards to the Participation Rate . Participation rate continues to decline. All of the almost all of the decline in the Unemployment Rate has been because of a shrinking labor force. Theres no indication particularly for bad weather that the Labor Force Participate rate is going to go up. If we see a decline in the Unemployment Rate and i dont anticipate one it would be, again, because people gave up looking for work, not because they found it. Patrick, stay there. Get a coffee and well back to you fairley shortly. Thank you. Now, before we take a break, take a look at this. The 15 minutes of fame may nearlily be up for the man behind Goldman Sachs elevated twitter account. His publisher, touchstone wouldnt say why it dumped him other than citing information that recently came to our attention. The servers identity was revealed last month by our very own andrew ross sorkin. He admitted he never worked for goldman. As for goldman, it had only this to say on its twitter page, guess elevators go up and down. Up next, attention safeway shoppers, theres a takeover deal in aisle nine. All the details on that story. Plus, steve has been talking to the ukrainian Prime Minister. Coming up, well bring you that interview from kiev. [ male announcer ] this man has an Accomplished Research and Analytical Group at his disposal. But even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. Morning. Morning. Thanks for meeting so early. Oh, its not a big deal at all. Come on in. [ male announcer ] its how edward jones makes sense of investing. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. President obamas telephone call to Vladimir Putin fails to gain ground on the ukraine. And pimcos big cross accuses outgoing mohammed elerian of leaking a failing relationship to journalists. U. S. President barack obama and russian president Vladimir Putin has been speaking on the phone in over on an hours conversation. In the last half hour, Steve Sedgwick has been in kiev speaking to the ukrainian Prime Minister. He joins us now. Steve. Ross, without furg ado, i think it comes down to four key questions. Ill tell you what the questions are and you can listen to his response. One, the legitimacy of the situation in crimea, given the ethnic mix, given the referendums on the agenda. Two, ive got his questions, his answers on the legitimacy of his own government. The russians are not speaking to him. Until they do, we cant get anything going. Four, i asked him of the ability of the eu to have firmer sanctions given himself interest. Lets listen in first of all to his answer about the credibility of whats going on in crime kra. There will be no referendum as it is absolutely and entirely no one will recognize this referendum, probably except moscow, syria. And i want to be very clear. Crimea was, is and will be an integral part of ukraine. No concessions. So you talked about diplomatic efforts. Mr. Lavrov and mr. Kerry have come away with nothing. Mr. Putin and mr. Obama appear to come away with nothing, as well. What can your government do to profits legitimacy given their issues with the removal of mr n yanukovych and the failure of your to be recognized . This is the government supported by an overwhelming majority of the ukrainian house. 371 votes. I can remind this kind of support in the ukrainian history. This government is represented by minorities, by different by people with a different records and different origins. This government represents National Unity. And the opposition, which is the party region supported these governments and supported the governmental problems. So i would like to reiterate that we urge the russian president to pull back forces, not to support separatists and terrorists and to start real talks with the Ukrainian Government and to accept this. Yeah, but theres nothing to to get tt russians to the table, theres nothing it appears obama can do, the eu can be to get the russians to the table with you. Weve started this process. Dont be in a hurry. Have you made some progress, sir . There is no negative implications, i will say. Not as bad as we expected. Not as good as we need to do this. And finally, sir, if i may, theres a lot of questions about the European Union response about france deals with russia, about russian money in london, about german investment in is this preventing firmer action from the eu . Im not sure i can respond on this side of the eu, but what i can do, i can just court the decision. The solution for the crisis should be between the Ukrainian Government and russia. In the absence of such results, the European Union will decide on additional measures such as travel bans, visa cancellations. It seems to me that this is a very strong signal which was made by the unanimous decision of the eu member states. I think the one thing i can say about that interview was dont be in a hurry. Its not as good as it could be, plenty more to do. Addressing the issues about legitimacy in crimea and kiev. Diplomacy takes time. Steve, good stuff. Thank you very much, indeed. Plenty more, of course, on cnbc. Com on whats going on in the ukraine. Now, another area, attention safeway shop onners. Theres a takeover deal in aisle nine. One of the top u. S. Super market chains may be operating under new management. Seema mody has more for us from cnbc hq. I prefer aisle eight, actually, but anyway, here is seema. Safeway has agreed to be bought by private equity firm cerberus capital. The deal is for a little more than 40 a share. It will bring together safeway and albertsons. Albertsons has more than a thousand stores. Saveway operates more than 1300 stores. Last month, saveway put itself up for sale. Its been shedding smaller, less profitable assets in chicago. Safeway and albert sons say the deal will help them better respond to customer needs and reduced costs. They also plan to renovate some stores and expand Product Offerings once a deal closes, which is expected sometime in the Fourth Quarter. Serberus faced potential competition from kroger, which was considering a bid for all or part of the company. Saveway could still make a deal. Safeway and its bankers mae seek higher bids. It would attract attention from antitrust regulators. Saveway would marry the top two u. S. Grocery chains. Safeway fell in after hours trade on thursday. Shares, though, have risen nearly 30 in the past month on hopes the company will be bought for a premium. So a little bit of a buyout speculation. Ross, back to you. Seema, good stuff. Thanks for that. Is have a good friday. Now, parting shots have rung out between pimco executive bill gross and Mohamed Elerian. Mr. Gross has accused of elerian of trying to undermine him by talking to the media about deeper tensions between the two. Hes told reuters that elerian was writing or wrote an article which detailed the showdown between the two. Pimco grapples with large outfl outflows. Lloyds is taking a hard look at the financial industry regulator afinia. Reports suggest finra routinely deletes red flags on brokers from records that it makes public to investors. They dont show things that should be reported, such as personal bankruptcies and criminal charges. And in other news, japan has taken a stand on the bitcoin and says, nope, its not a currency. So instead of regulating it as a financial product, the government plans to treat it like other goods and services and that means Bitcoin Transactions would be subject to sales tax. Japanese Officials Say theyre still working out how to define bitcoin. And any future rules around it ought to be made together with other countries. And in other news, turkeys Prime Minister says the country could ban facebook and youtube. He says the sites are being abused by his political enemies. The comments were made in a late night interview and they come after a set of audio recordings allegedly revealing corruption in a seshgel, which was posted online. The turkish leader says he would not leave the nation at the mercy of youtube and facebook. And for those of you addicted to your smartphones and cab lets, listen up. Today is the fifth annual unplugging that happens in the states. The time might instead be used for quiet reflection. Communicative nature or to reconnect with family or friends. Lets see whether that gets any ground, as well. Still to come, well look ahead to the trading day ahead of that jobs report. Right now, futures are indicating a mild step high onner. But, of course, it could all change after 1 30 eastern. Predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. But, manufacturing in the United States means advanced technology. We learned that Technology Allows us to be craft oriented. No ones losing their job. Theres no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. The technology is actually creating new jobs. Siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. Then a little time to kick back. Earn double Hilton Honors points with the 2x points package and be one step closer to a weekend break. Doubletree by hilton. Where the Little Things mean everything. Just in case you didnt know, the u. S. Jobs report are out at 8 30 eastern. Forecasts calling for an increase of 152,000 in nonfarm payrolls. It was 113,000 in january. Unemployment is expected to come in around 6. 5 . It could stay at the 6. 6 rate, of course. Joining us is todd horwitz, founder of average joe options. Todd, very good morning to you. All right. How are we positioned ahead of this number, then . Good morning, ross. Well, i think the number is going to be another pretty bad miss. I dont think it has anything to do with the weather. I think it has a lot to do with the Participation Rate and the overall growth in this country. But however, in warped wall streets minds, thats probably good news because its kind of priced in that the market still wants to go higher. So even with bad jobs data, they figure more chance for more free money, more chance that yellen could take up off the gas and go back into the more capital end. The market wants to go higher. I think theyre looking and pricing in for a bad number and a pretty good miss. You think the chance of the fed causing its taper is a good thing . I think it i dont think its a good thing personally. But i think that the guys who have the access to the money, you see what wove seen for the last five years, the market does nothing but go up no matter what the data is. We see a lack of growth, we see a lack of jobs, we see a lack of participation. The overall news has not been great, yet the market is up 155 from the bottom. Yeah. It is it is up. We do have a recovery. Patrick, how bad do you think we would have to get in terms of a run of data before the fed actually did pause . I think if we come in again this month significantly below expectations, lets say weve got a number of 110,000 or below that. I think at that point the fed would have to pause a little bit becau because, as i said before, when you look at whats going on underneath the weather, there is clearly some evidence that the economy growth rate is decelerating. Which is the point you were making, isnt it, todd . Yeah, i agree 100 . Theres a lot more issues that were not paying attention to. What weve lost in sight is companies were able to perform well because we were able to buy back stock, cut back on staff. However, the average joe, the middle america, they have not been able to benefit from this program. Even a simple part of getting a loan from a bank, the banks are not providing major liquidity to the average business. So theyre making it very challenging for overall growth and the only real benefit has been the under 2 . There are reports that households net worth is up at sort of a record high. And at some point, one would think that would feed into stronger consumption. You know, when i go back and looked the owe day at the beige book, if you look at the overall picture, this whole qe program has cost about 320,000 for american households. You take a look at the numbers theyve come out with, the markets rallied, but the overall growth has been very poor and very pathetic when you look at the entire picture. I think there could have been a much better use of the money like creating the war effect and putting people back to work, rebuilding america versus giving the money back to the banks. Briefly, patrick, how narrow will the job creation be . Youve been looking at that. If its as narrow as last month, 40 of the month on month gain was in construction, which is simply unsustainable. Patrick, thank you. Todd, thank you both. That report is coming up in squawk box. Of course, theyre taking it up and whatever happens, we hope you have a profitable day. But its our job to find them. The answers. The solutions. The innovations. All waiting to help us build Something Better. Something more amazing. A safer, cleaner, brighter future. At boeing, thats what building Something Better is all about. Good morning and welcome to squawk box. Jobs friday upon us once between. Just a day after the s p closed at yet another record high. Ukraines Prime Minister speaks. We have part of that interview coming up with Steve Sedgwick in kiev. And hours after news week out, the creator of bitcoin. You saw this yesterday. Hes denying the story and running from reporters. Its friday, march 7th, 2014. Squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. Who is in washington, d. C. This morning. Hes going to be joined by former fed chairman Alan Greenspan coming up at 7 30 a. M. Eastern time. Greenspan will be part of our countdown to the jobs report. The Labor Department will be releasing the jobs report at 8 30 eastern time. Economist res expecting nonfarm payrolls to come in at 152,000. The Unemployment Rate is expected to tick down slightly to 6. 5 . As an added bonesus, the january trade deficit numbers are going to be released, as well. That number is expected to come in at 38. 4 billion. Both those reports will be released at 8 30 a. M. And that jobs number is going to be important. Joe, what if we come in at 6. 5 . Thats a key number. We dont believe theyre going to do anything there, do we . Theyre talking their w