The wearable space. And billionaire to hold stocks with snap chats management about a potential business deal as the startup eyes fresh funds that could value it at 19 billion. Well welcome to the show. Two important bits of information for you. We only have a hour today but it is as actionpacked as ever. Im thats right. Im filling in for seema. I have the new music. Its pretty epic. I enjoyed it. Big markets days. Absolutely. We have a lot to fit in the hour. Its interesting what youre seeing across the market. We thought they were ready for rate hikes. Its looking tentative at this point. I think we have a chart i want to show. I want to point to emerging market currencies. I used to sit in singapore and we watched from the front lines there in singapore all the merging markets around us that tamper tantrum when ben bernanke said he was going to tamper off the quantitative easing program. We saw huge reactions in the currencies in time all theguests have been saying that theyre better prepared. They put reforms in place. If you take a look what happened to the emerging market currencies like the peso and the lira weve seen the reaction over the last 30 days or so. Absolutely. And the u. S. Collar as youve been saying has been rallying against all currencies. Because the data continues to be so impressive and keeping rate rise expectations. Thats why i was quite surprised by the settlement u. S. Equities on friday. The data it was a better than people were expecting but it wasnt like a blow out. And rate rise expectations were and the comments to congress in june or september. They havent really changed. I think its more than just a rate rise expectations. I think it points to the fact we havent had a major correction in u. S. Equities since january. Were six years in the rally. We have to expect them now. The markets are coming off record highs in the case of the nasdaq and lot of European Markets. Today is the day that qe starts and, you know, the markets arent looking all that great. They have brought up a huge amount since then. Lets get a look at u. S. Futures. Willed from was saying on friday it was an ugly session. Take a look how were expected to open today on the wall street. The s p and the dow jones slightly lower falling further away from the record highs. A little bit of weakness there. We continue to watch the data. It comes from the report on friday which is raising expectations that perhaps the fed could raise rates earlier rather than later. So lets take a look how its playing out in europe as we will show you, it is a weaker session. Theyve been trading for about an hour so far. This is when qe officially launches in europe. Investors have been anticipating it for a long time and theyve been pushing up equities a huge amount in the last few months. Were seeing a little bit of a give back here. There remains some uncertainties such as the meeting today. There was some big rhetoric from the greek finance minister over the weekend ratcheting up the pressure on the grip. Its posted to get a list of reforms today. The euro group will decide whether theyre good enough. This is the picture were looking at ftse 100. Coming off some very, very, very loftily levels. Relatively strong week relative to u. S. Equities hence right across the border selling off today. Lets look at bond markets. We had interesting moves particularly in the u. S. On friday. Yields ticked up. We saw equity prices comet down and bond prices coming down highlighting that reaction on friday was to rate rise expectations as opposed to the fundamental data. The ten year in the u. S. 2. 2 . We flirted back down to 1. 9 a few weeks ago. And those moves were short lived. As we were saying a the top of the u. S. Coming forward rather than backwards which is the opposite of the case in the u. K. Where expectations are yield about 1. 92 . Theyre now, of course quantitative easing kicks off today in europe. The german ten year. Greece on the other side of that trade remains elevated. Lets look at the u. S. Dollar the broader index has been rallied to fresh 11 year highs. The strong usda draft pushing it up. The euro has been the most marked on the other side. Its bouncing back today. Its up a half percent. On january 22nd we touched the 114 handle sorry february 22nd. And only taken a few weeks to get below not just 111 which was an important barrier and now 110 and 109. Were 108. 9 and the euro dollar has been sliding significantly all though bouncing back as you can see today. A quick look at the oil price the commodity has been soft. Wti below 50 at at 49. 8. But also pointing out the gold price around three month lows 1173 its bouncing back a little bit today. Back to you. Lets also take a look at the session in asia and it was an ugly one as well. We have it negatively from wall street. The nikkei down 180 points on the session. Growth was revised down on the back of disappointing numbers. Its worrying signs of the Virtuous Cycle we heard of that was supposed to be abenomics yet to come to fruition. Up nearly 2 percent on the back of disappointing data. Why did the markets srise . Banking stocks surging because the securities regulators said its considering licenses to banks. That would be a big source of revenue for the banks. Thats how were looking. It was a negative session but we ended mixed because of the news out of china. Lets give you a run down what to watch in the trading day in u. S. Theres no Economic Data today. Look out for reports on retail sales and ppi. Results after the bell while mcdonalds reports february sales before the open. Lets take a look at the other top stories today. Were on apple watch. The fever is building. Apple holds an event in San Francisco today where it is expected to unveil details about the smart watch which goes on sale next month. It includes pricing, the base model starts at 349 but analysts think that higher end versions including the gold watch could go for more than 8,000 or more. Somewhere around 8,000 pounds. Its going to be an expensive one. How consumers can upgrade the device. Take a look at apple shares. We know its been on the roll over the last decade but currently at 117. 45 up about a third of 1 in the last session. So much to talk about when it comes to apple. The event today and the stock on the roll. We have it included in the Dow Jones Industrial average. And the event today is exciting. The apple watch itself i dont think will be a gamechanger. But many of the announcements with apple. They put thought and expertise in there. I was interested in knowing where it was calmed the apple watch or iwatch. Will it drive iphone sales as well as watch sales . Will there, any other secret announcements today . People are saying there might be a brand new macbook or something else. One more thing. But you dont think its going to be a gamechanger. I dont know i remember getting my first ipod and how incredible that was. You knew right away. Thats what im interested in. I think once you have the watch you can feel, look, and use it. Youll know whether its going to be the gamechanger. But the charging. Thats my biggest question. If you have to charge it every night, is that going to be very useful . I use my fit bit and it tracks my sleep. Thats one of the best things i like about it. Its going to be important to watch. All the details coming out of San Francisco tonight. And on that topic, we want to hear from you on this. Are you apple . Is it going to be a gamechanger or could sales fall flat . Join the conversation here on worldwide exchange. Get in touch with us. Our personal handles are on the screen. Moving on saudi prince has met with snapchats senior manager including the ceo. A statement from the princes Investment Company said they discussed a potential business corporation. The talk comes snapchat is looking to raise new funds at 19 billion. The prince invested in several tech brands including twitter and chinese e commerce site. 2015 has been a record breaking year for European Equity issue yans. Europe lead global activity for the First Time Since 2005. Joining us more. Is it going to be another bumper year . Well, its all about the life blood of the u. K. Economy, and a lot that have is driven not just in employment but growth and contributions by small or mediumsized businesses. This event behind me is about making sure those companies which are starting up at record rates lately make that leap to the next stage. I spoke to the London Stock Exchange chief executive and asked him how that propg was going. And also what are the main differences between the environment here in the u. K. Compared to the one in the u. S. . I think what is happening in the u. K. Here is very important. Traditionally europe rather heavily. Still to the tune of about 80 and bank lending can be a powerful means of accelerating velocity of creating new wealth but overreliance on bank debt is not the solution. In the United States only 18 of Corporate Funding relies on bank lending. What is happening in the u. K. Is a diversification of the funding ecosystem. To introduce new elements such as equity for example, which is the right type of funding for startups to compliment if you want the traditional tools like bank lending to accelerate the growth. And last year when this project was launched you railed against the fact that sme were still using credit cards to grow. Apart from access to funding and this diversified community of money they could get, what are the other conditions . Are things like Energy Prices a dividing line between success in the u. S. And that here at home . Yes, there was definitely a big advantage in the United States. Its the advantage of prices up until recently only about a third of what they were here in europe. I think the recent development in the market at least partially fix that competitive disadvantage, but the one area where the u. K. Stands almost supreme is innovation. Particularly in the area of technology. Many world class anyone elevations ss innovations coming out of academia came here in the u. K. Theres a host of engineering or Software Types of innovation that are giving the u. K. A unique opportunity to create the new jobs. The two million jobs that have been created in the private sector in the last couple of years essentially come from the sector. Lots on the ground here today about the inflow of capital coming from overseas to invest in the u. K. Its not all weve been doing this morning. Weve been venn dhurture tureture venturing out to talk to european banks. In is the bank that emerged out of bankers santo. Well have more on that interview in a short while. Thank you very much for that. And we look forward to the interview. Coming up on worldwide exchange. General motors set to pay out 8 billion. Find out which activist could be joining us. Saudis prince is on a deal with snapchat. Could it push the 19 million evaluation even higher . Well discuss later in the show. Before larry instantly transferred money from his bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. Before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an underserved season. And before he quit his friends leafraking business for not offering a 401k. Larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. Thats why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. Thats the power of streamlined connections. Thats merrill edge and bank of america. Welcome back. Europes banks need to cut costs by a fifth and grow revenues by 15 . This is according to a new study. The report says european lenders return on equity set to average less than half their costs of capital again this year. They said 69 of European Survey respondent ends were considering restructuring options. Portugals banker posted a loss of 468 Million Euros in the second half of the year. The lender was rescued from nearly 27 billion euros. Reporter i was talking to earlier about this bank being really at the epicenter of the european banking crisis. Its almost collapsed at the end of last year with major news brought about great scandal in portugal. These are the major results. The numbers dont look pretty as you said. A loss of 468 million and impairments that run to 700 million pounds. But the Capital Position improved. I asked those questions and what the outlook was like to the bank and the portuguese economy to the chief executive. Have a listen in. Which we may have some problems, as you know the bank had some real projects that were not in the best shape, and so we have been very keen in doing the right provisioning. Doing the right provisional levels we needed to do in that specific model. I can tell you that concerning the other the projects with the export companies. Its much better than the legacy portfolio in the projects related with the real estate or driven by real estate projects. And lets talk about the flight of capital. When you first talk about the bank hemorrhaged about 11 billion euros in terms of capital and deposit. Has there been any improvement . Very significant improvement from the moment the bank we recovered more than 2 billion euro deposits. If you look at the situation since the end of september we recovered more than 4 billion. So that has also given us the opportunity to improve significantly our longterm deposit duration. And end of the year 26 and i can tell you january and february we did improve the ratio further and we gotten very close to the 20 . Which is good. What do you make from the risks of places like greece and the problems theyve been having. Is this going to affect you in the next year . We dont think it will effect us. Its healthy. You can see that by the yields and the 10year yield of the portugal government. Significantly below 2 . We dont have any so we dont think that well be impacted directly or indirectly. A lot of ice on him. Hes the mr. Fixit that is supposed to clean up the bank so it essentially gets sold. Its an auction process at the moments. About fifteen buyers looking to buy the company. Impairments today of 700 Million Euros, but a stronger Capital Position that hopefully will ease the way to some of that money returning back to the Resolution Fund in portugal. Absolutely. Well be watching closely. Still to come on the show the race for electric vehicles and new smartphones has driven a surge and demand for lithium. Well speak to the ceo up next. And futures as we head to break reporting to a negative open after strong declines on friday. Back in a couple of minutes. Xkc the countdown is underway for apples big event later today. Theyre expected to unveil details of the new smart watch. Fierce competition in the smartphone and wearables field is one factor helping to drive demand for lithiumion batteries. The worlds lightest metal is used for everyday products including glasses, ceramics and pharmaceuticals. Its one firm taking longterm bet. They struck a deal to industrialize lithium in bolivia. Im delighted to say were joined by alejandro garcia. Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us. Lets talk about lithium, quickly, first, and move on to other parts of the business. Despite the global commodity selloff lithium prices are holding up. Essentially a commodity in contrast we know its the trends of oil. Lithium the price has been stable and actually going up due to that huge demand that existed. And the demand mainly coming for batteries, is that right . Definitely the industry of the battery, the industry of the energy is the one that is driving that exploit nowadays. And do you forecast there to be a big growth in batterypowered cars. Is that one of the reasons youre positions yourself in the Lithium Market . Definitely the demand on the battery for the cars has driven it. We in our case are looking at 0 longterm development. Not only lithium is the only topic. Today the more sexy topic to attract the investors and development but looking also at other so there is a vast industries that will be serviced out of that. Right now as you mentioned a major use for electric cars. But it feels like weve been waiting for song so long for electric cars to become popular main stream. What will it take to have electric cars come main stream. Is that one of the risks you look out for because it may not happen because for political or other reasons. I think there are several factors. How the technology and, you know, the industry of the car were looking at able to come out with the long range that will take us beyond 150 or 300 kilometers. I think technology is one. In this case that is what were working to establish a sustainable supply. Lets move on to talk about the other main part of your business. Quinoa. Its becoming trendy to eat it all over the world now. Yeah. Actually the quinoa right now one of the main parts of our business. Quinoa has been increasing the demand. Today there is one of the main commodities. What makes you convinced its not just a fad . The demand for quinoa in the western world . As a matter of fact the modesty tic we are able and thats what were trying to do with the challenge is trying to stabilize it the supply and demand. Trying to establish use of monetary and traceability. Trying to get away from just a simple exportation and getting to the fair commercezation. Thats what will get us to the longterm sustainable business. Thank you very much for joining us. It was alejandro garcia. And still to come on the show. Today is the day for apples spring forward event. Where tim cook is likely to pitch the new apple watch. Well be discussing. Thats up next. Lets have a look at u. S. Futures before we go to break. Were expecting a negative open for the s p and the dow with the nasdaq bouncing back slightly after they declined more than 1 on friday. Heroes charge explosion explosion explosion lead your heroes in the hit mobile game download heroes charge now welcome to worldwideworldwide exchange exchange. These are your headlines from around the world. Its a Global Market selloff. U. S. Futures indicating a lower European Markets in the red. After fears that the fed will hike rates sooner rather than later. Chinese imports slide outweighing a surge in exports japanese Fourth Quarter gdp is revised lower. The bulls and bears on apple. The details on the smart watch and the hefty price tag and the competition. And the prince alwaleed holds talks with snap chat