Stocks in the ukraine in the call between Angela Merkel and the president. This following pro and antirussian ral lies in kiev. And the biggest banana producer. Chiquita is merging to create a billiondollar fruit giant. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange. Bringing you Business News from around the globe. Hello and welcome to the first Worldwide Exchange of the week. And for those of you in the u. S. And asia, for the next three weeks, youll only be seeing one hour of the good stuff as the u. S. Has now switched to daylight savings. You used to be able to see the twohour program, but good morning to everybody in north america if you are just joining us. Well start your Global Trading week. The leading story today is the continuing search for clues on the disappearance of malaysia air flight 370. In the last few minutes, the vietnamese rescue Team Investigating reports of a yellow object floating out at sea have said it is not a plane life raft. This is investigators that still have not found any parts of the malaysian plane missing en route from kuala lumpur to beijing on saturday. They say all possibilities are being investigated. There are many theories that have been said in the media. There are many experts around the world that are using their knowhow and knowledge about what could happen, what has happened. And as far as we are concerned, we are equal ly we are joined for more. Details are very thin on the ground, what is happening there right now . They are. Well, needless to say, ross, im sure you know this to yourself, this is a human tragedy. And this is a story thats resonating very deeply in china. And many of the families and the relatives of the chinese nationals on board mh370 are very, very hangry and upset at what they feel is a lack of cooperation, lack of transparency from the chinese authorities and the government. Bear in mind, also, that more than half of the passengers on the flight are chinese nationals. So what we understand now from a press briefing that we just heard from the acting transport minister is that chinese official delegation has now arrived in the capital of kuala lumpur and are assisting the authorities here on two counts. The first count, first and foremost, is to assist those chinese families and relatives of those on mh370 who are currently in china and are arriving here. And to help them and to give them more information. And the second track here is to for the chinese official delegation to help cooperate with official heres on the issue of stolen passports. So theres the security dimension here as well. The other issue we learned at this press conference is that the oil slicks that youve probably heard about, that some are saying could be linked back to mh370, they are undergoing tests and analysis right now to determine whether there is a direct linkage. Whether they did come from 370, but at this stage in time, those results are not yet available. So we are waiting for that. Were waiting to see if there is, in fact, any kind of linkage. In the meantime, ross, the Search Operations continue. They have been extended. They have been intensified. And they involve at least nine countries, a lot of assets on the ground, naval forces, we are talking about 74 ships and aircraft combined in this search. But a lot of people are very staggered here, that despite all this 21st century technology, nothing really has turned up in terms of debris that they can reconstruct and determine what happened in the last moments of mh370. But the search does continue, ross, back to you. Sri, for now, thank you, in kuala lumpur. We have the aging manager at flight global, greg, it is extraordinary for all the search and rescue nothing has been found. Does that suggest maybe that the plane was not on the intended flight path . There are other guests from cnbc that they have been looking in the wrong place. Its hard to tell where they are actually going to find debris. If the plane came apart, if indeed it did come apart at a very high level, it will be a very wide debris field. Whereas if it hit the ocean, it would be a very small debris field. Nonetheless, you have to remember this happened i guess this is nearly three days ago. So the debris has had a lot of time to float around and disperse in the currents and wind of the South China Sea. So they are looking for a needle in a hay stack in a very cluttered environment. Something, clearly something unexpected happened. And anything we say is pure speculation, but it had to be catastrophic in nature to prevent the plane or the crew communicating it. What does that suggest to you . Its very difficult to speculate. Its going to be months if not years before we have any idea what happened. But it is extremely bizarre and baffling that there was no distress call and that they lost track of the transponder. It just the aircraft effectively disappeared. And thats very, very, very unusual. We had these reports that the plane had was trying to turn back, have you got any more information about that . Thats just a theory offered by the malaysian government so far, but its obviously one they have to take seriously because they do have assets serarching n the straits quite a distance from the last known position of the aircraft. Did it turn back, did it not turn back . Its obviously anyones guess but something the authorities are taking seriously. As far as the plane is concerned, boeing said they are wondering whats going on, but the 777 is one of the safest planes in the sky today. I definitely agree with that. Its the backbone of the worlds wide body fleet. And its had an unblemished Safety Record since the introduction in 1995. Only a few minor incidents including aseana last year, but that was pilot error, not the aircraft. Greg, good to speak to you, manager at flight manager in singapore. They have confirmed 20 of their employees were on flight 370. The spokesperson for freescale said the employees were mostly engineers working to make the companys chip facilities in china and kuala lumpur. They say it will definitely be a huge loss for the company. A boning 737 dreamline hit another snag. They discovered hairline cracks on the wings of planes in production. Boeing says none of the 122 dreamliners are affected. It says roughly 40 jets could have cracks taking one to two weeks to inspect and fix. Separately, jl says the 787 flight from tokyo to San Francisco made an Emergency Landing in hon lu lu on sunday due to a possible problem with the hydraulic system. Boeings stock is down 3 . All right. Lets bring you up to speed with u. S. Futures after we saw last week the dow up. 8 on the week, just up. 2 on friday. Post that u. S. Jobs report, this is where we stand at the moment this morning. The dow is kind of six points above fair value. The s p a record close on friday, fairly flat by tend, but up five out of seven sessions hitting fresh highs. Futures for the s p over here, thats up a percent. And the nasdaq has been up for the last five weeks. And it is currently around 4 to 5 points. It is forecast 149. We did see the Unemployment Rate tick up slightly with greater labor force participation. The ftse global 300 ahead of the u. S. Open this morning is fairly flat. The ftse 100 last week was down 1. 4 in contrast to u. S. Equities. This is an hour and ten minutes into the trade. Well flip it on for you to show you that. There you go. Thank you very much. Up 1. 5 . The cac is up 1 . And the f strtse is up 1 . Li sixuan is here with more. China markets took a beating today. The china composite tumbled almost 3 and the shenzhen tanked 3. 5 . Over in hong kong the hang seng index lost 1. 7 . And that weakness in china also weighed on the rest of asia. And the nikkei lost 1. 01 . And Technology Shares set the kospi lower 1 as well. Australia stocks posted their biggest drop in five weeks with the asx 200 ending lower by 1 . As for malaysia, shares hit a oneweek low asthmalation airlines tumbled 4 , recouping most of the morning losses due to the flight mh370 incident. Minors in the region suffered due to the falling oil prices. Metals in atlas tumbled by 10 in todays trade. Meanwhile, copper futures dropped another 5 . Daily limit to its lowest in more than four years after the dive last friday. So chinas metalsrelated stocks also broadly weaker. In the tech base, they are joining with jd. Com seen as a bid to take on bigger rival ali baba. You are looking at yeartodate performance as an upward trend with shares losing 2. 2 today. Thats a look at the asian markets. Back to you, ross. Li sixuan, thank you for that. Good morning to you, steven. Good morning. First of all, you saw the chinese export data down 18 in february. Forecasters say up nearly 7 . Clearly they have an impact to look firmer, how do you read it . Well, i think you have to be careful in reading it. Any time you get readings, either for january or february near the chinese new year, they are subject to a lot of error. The january numbers seem to be way overstated. These numbers looked very weak and will take until march to understand where they are. You add the two together, they are somewhat weak, but be careful about reading the end of the world into it. Yeah, there are some that say that we had inflated trade data in 2013, january and february in particular, so actually if that data was false, the compareson doesnt work anyway. Look, theres indications that china was importing more commodities than they were manufacturing products, manufacturing is flat all the isms are flatter, a bit down, yet commodity imports were going up. So they did have excess inventories and i think this is gearing the market a bit. But again, i think its an issue, but i dont think i think things would be worse both in australia with the aussi dollar and globally if there was a sense that this was going to be traumatic. The aussie taking it on the chin down, 1. 6 today, but it has rallied off the lows. What is your outlook for aussie dollar . It is stuck between domestic issues and chinese growth. I refer to the aussie as the runup currency. Based on chinese growth and driven by manufacturing production, heavy industry, a lot of commodities demand, you know, its clear from what the rba is saying from the numbers coming in this is no longer going to be the case. And the issue for australia is can they find enough demand outside of the commodities sector to grow at its potential growth, and the answer is yes, but the needs and Exchange Rate is much below 90. We are talking closer to 80 than for 90 for australia and aussie dollar. Steven, stay there. Well measure that jobs report from friday. More to come from you. Also still to come, talking about commodities going bananas. A deal is ape for the biggest banana prirs. More on that as well right after this. You know, millions of people have saved with progressive, so i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. Heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multicar, paperless. You make a mighty fine missus, mlady. Im not saying marks thrifty. Lets just say, i saved him 519, and it certainly didnt go toward that ring. Am i right . [ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive. Com today. I call this one the robox. Sometimes they just drop in. Always obvious. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. Recapping the headlines, the search continues asthmalation investigators still find no clues to the cause of the airplanes disappearance. An unexpected plunge in chinas export data send stocks tumbling in shanghai. And they are creating the biggest banana producer. And a look ahead to the agenda today in the states. Theres no economic data. Well look for key reports later this week on retail sales inflation and consumer sentiment. The president charles plasser is in paris to speak next hour. And Charles Evans speaks about the economy this afternoon. Urban outfitters reports before the open and mcdonalds is out with their february same store sales numbers. It was also five years ago today the current equity bull market in the u. S. Began after the major indices hit multilows in march 2009 during the financial crisis. The s p 500 plunged to 666 causing fear amongst most investors, but weve come an awful long way since then. Steve englander is still with us from citi, steven, in the fiveyear period, where do you think we are now. Post that jobs number on friday, which you saw the euro pull back from the twoandahalf year peak, what happens now . Well, i think the friday number was important because the market had been buying into the view, not just with bad weather, even though everyone was talking about the weather, you take a look at where futures rates have been moving, what investors were expecting, the threemonth rates to be at the end of 2015 2016. They have been moving down quite significantly over the last month or so. And so i think that even though everyone is talking about the weather, what was priced into the market was that the fed was going to be more dovish for an extended period. Either because the economy was really weak or because the fed just was more dovish. And i think fridays number was a wakeup call. And the odds are that were going to get a very good number in next month, in april, and so i think market is going to have to deal with the possibility of a fed thats pulling back liquidity more rapidly than they have been thinking the last month or two, which will make it harder for equities, doesnt make it impossible, but its not the environment we have been in the last five years. Treasury was 2. 7 and went up to 2. 79 going through the european session. When you say they are going to pull liquidity faster than we thought, it wasnt the consensus to wrap this up by october, are you saying it will be quicker than that . Possibly quicker than that, but its also a question, and this is very much on the mind of the market, do we have as much labor market slack as the fed is saying . If you looked at the average earnings for production workers, it was up 2. 5 , the highest in a couple years for total workers was up 2. 2 . Theres a fear in parts of the market that we just dont have that reserve army of the unemployed that the fed seems to see, and that as months go by we get numbers and we are going to find that basically we are closer to full employment and that the fed will have to move quicker and more aggressively when the time comes. Whether its true or not is unclear, but visiting clients, that seems to be a very palpable fear among investors that the fed will tighten quicker than they are saying. Okay. Steven, stay there, ill get one more view from you. Also, still to come in a few moments, stories we are following, its a bananas deal. The american banana producer chiquita is going to merge with another company to make the biggest banana firm. And a move is seen as a preemptive strike against antitrust concerns. This will bring a fully functioning network in 2015 to contract with orange the following year. Still to come, well go out to moscow to reports that russia is continuing to tighten its grip on ukraine. U. S. Futures are a slight tick higher after the s p closed at a record on friday. The dow up. 8 last week. And we keep our attention to whats happening in ukraine. Angela merkel and her chinese counterparts both called for diplomatic solution. Protests continued in kiev and crimea ahead of a planned referendum in crimea this weekend. Jim maceda is joining us from moscow. That referendum, is that still on as far as we know . Reporter hi, ross. Well, yes, we are six days away from the referendum to take place on crimea. And with the international monitors preventive for a third time from entering the peninsula over the weekend, its pretty clear now that the final result of that vote will be to secede from ukraine and become part of russia, russian or proRussian Troops continue to consolidate militarily over crimea. Some 20,000 to 30,000 forces, thats two to three divisions now occupying almost a dozen Ukrainian Border guard posts according to you cranan sources. And along the stretch near crimea and ukraine proper, some reporters have seen Russian Troops or proRussian Troops laying land mine there is to make the point that crimea is de facto, no longer a part of ukraine. But here in moscow the kremlin is still existing, but it has no control over the prorussian militias. It clearly supports them, however. Putin still pushing the line that ethnic russians are under dire threat from what he calls extremist elements back in kiev. So crimea for all intensive purposes, ross, is russian. Diplomacy, meanwhile, is trudging along trying to get traction hitting a wall. German chancellor Angela Merkel who has emerged as one of the only western leaders that putin can trust, he thinks, and can turn to, he speaks good german, she speaks fluent russian, merkel said over the weekend as well that after another phone call with putin that, quote, he is relentless in his logic and his goal to take crimea back. According to analysts here, that would be the price the west must pay for russias loss and putins loss of influence in kiev. Ross, back to you. Jim, thank you for that. Thats the latest from moscow. Jim maceda there. Steve is still with us, we saw the impact of the yukrainian crisis impact slightly, but are we going to get higher yields from the u. S. Data . Then what happens to the dollar, how supportive is that going to be . I think it will be pretty supportive for the dollar. I think when we were getting higher yields on optimism when it looks as if the ukraine crisis was going to be diffused, there was a risk positive event when all the assets went up. If u. S. Yields are going up because the market is beginning to be afraid the fed will tighten rates, thats not a risk positive. And it tends to be much more dollar positive, certainly against currencies like the yen, but also against currencies like aussie where you have the china hanging over it plus higher rates will be a negative. Canada where Canadian Dollars also noncome pettive outside of commodities. So we would think its a dollar positive. More ambiguous against the euro because a lot of people are trading the euro rate differentials against spain and italy in the u. S. Its been a relatively stable currency, but i think across, in general, its a dollar positive event. Steven, good to see you, thanks for that. Have a good week. Steven englander from citi, new york. Still to come, the bull market tu