unilever. welcome to "street signs." i'm willem marx. these are your headlines profits double, but shares slide. shell trades at the bottom of the ftse despite fum-yell-year earnings above $60 billion. shares in spain's second largest bank, bbva, get a boost as mexico helps offset a writedown. roche expects 2018 profit to grow faster than sales as it

gets a boost from u.s. taxes and new drugs in the pipeline. the ceo says china is a major focus. >> china is getting much, much more important for us. in diagnostics it's already the second most important market for us it's still smaller on the farm suite cal side, there's no doubt the market is strongly growing. we scream for ice scream unilever sales beat expectations as the ice cream business returns to growth but the ceo says a mix of flavors from m&a is needed to keep expansion from softening. >> we have a good cadence of developing our own brands. at the same time we compliment our portfolio. we are moving these businesses premium on a combination of organic, new brand launches, as well as m&a activity

just seeing some eurozone pmi manufacturing numbers coming out. they matched the forecast of 59.6, down from 60.6 for december the january manufacturing pmi numbers for the eurozone on the back of positive numbers out of other european countries the dollar up slightly this morning to 1.24. let's look at the markets across europe the stoxx 600 trading in positive territory a lot more green on the board there after quite a mixed week frankly. we look at the specific markets, the ftse 100 up 0.15%. the ftse mib almost up 0.9%. let's look at the sectors that are driving some of this movement up. financial services there up at 1.3%

banks up 1.5%. same for utilities healthcare is the only sector that looks flat. the uk prime minister, theresa may, says the golden era in britain/china relations is not over she said london hopes to increase investment in beijing claiming the two countries will sign 9 billion pounds worth of deals during her trip. while meeting with the premiere, he pledged the relationship would not change after brexit. he proposed lifting a ban on chinese imports of british brief. eunice yoon joins us how is this series of meetings going then >> theresa may has just kicked off her meeting with president xi jinping the two are going to be discussing a range of issues

that go from regional issues such as north korea to environmental concerns, and the ivory ban -- ban on ivory, some cooperation on stopping that and then of course on trade issues, economics. that's really the main mission of her whole trip. she is traveling with a massive business dell gaegation and has wanted to drum up business for british companies looking to china for more business. throughout hertrip she has bee talking to a variety of people, hitting a number of cities including here in beijing, but also going to shanghai after this, to promote trade and investment but one of the spectors hanging over her trip is the concern about brexit even though the chinese premiere outlined this is not a concern for the relationship going forward there have been many

people here concerned about whether or not the negotiations and uncertainty around brexit will be limiting for further growth for a lot of these british companies as well as the relationship between china and the uk so, for example, with the agreement the two made with the trade and investment treaty, there was some brief that could be a precursor to a free trade agreement down the line, but that will take years to negotiate, and everything is so uncertain because of brexit. willem >> eunice, thank you very much we are also joined by asher bennett of teva motors i wanted to ask you, theresa may looking to promote brit inbusiness interests among other things during this trip. how on earth will a company like yours take on bigger firms when it comes to electric trucks,

like the mitsubishis of this world? >> actually, if you look at it, if there's a country that needs green trucks, it's china, but it also needs trucks that can work for 9, 10, 12 hours a day. so we're a very good fit for china. i was at the recent ev100 conference in china. there's a lot of electric cars in china, electric buses, but very little going on with trucks that's because trucks operate in a different way than cars and than buses so you need different solutions. >> a firm like byd, they have first mover advantage over someone like yourselves. what is it about your product that makes you more attractive to chinese fleets? >> we are range extended besides a large lithium-ion

battery that you charge at night, we have a small backup generator, this is a technology we brought over from the world of electric submarines it changes everything. it's not about needing this range extender, it's about removing the risk of using the battery. you don't have to put in all these reserves of coming back with the battery half full this is how trucks work. >> one final question. how worried are you about brexit and limitations on the british government when it comes to forming new trade deals during that transition period, something that brussels said they will not allow. >> i'm not a world expert on brexit i can see how well this delegation with our prime minister is being accepted here in china how open they are to technologies from the united kingdom. how many chinese companies because of this delegation and

the work of the department of international trade before that have approached us for our specific solutions >> asher bennett, thank you very much sticking with brexit, theresa may says european citizens coming to britain after may of 2019, may not get the same rights as those here now. this could set up a clash with the brussels power base which last week said the eu nationals should have full residential rights during the almost two-year transition period after britain leigh leaves the block britain is set to release to parliament a series of leaked brexit reports which suggests the economy would be worse after brexit the government was initially hesitant to hand over this analysis saying it could damage its negotiating pow wer brusser

brussels speaking to cnbc in davos last week, the uk chancellor, philip hammond, defended the decision to delay the release >> while it would suit some people to have all of our analysis laid out for everybody to see, to some extent we need to play our cards close to our chest. we will publish what we think we can publish without prejudicing our negotiating room in the maneuver feel free to e-mail us any questions, streetsignseurope@cnbc.com, or tweet u us @streetsignseurope@cnbc. no rate moves right now, but expect changes down the line that was the message from janet yellen's final reserve meeting ♪

(nadia white) the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, it's a race against time. and keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. (dane chauvel) sometimes the product arrives, and the cold chain has been interrupted, and we need to be able to identify where in the cold chain that occurred. (tom villa) we took our world class network, and we developed devices to track environmental conditions. this device allows people to understand what's happening with the location, but also if it's too hot, if it's too cold, if it's been dropped... it's completely unique. (dennis woloshuck) if you have a sensor that can keep track of your product, it keeps everybody kind of honest that way. who knew a tiny sensor could help keep the food chain safe? ♪

you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. welcome back to "street

signs. it is the 1st of february, so we can see some numbers for january. let's look at the u.s. markets for the month of january the s&p 500 there was up 5.6% for the month. it's trading very slightly up yesterday. let's look at the dow. also up 5.8 %. and the nasdaq similarly for the month up 7.36% let's look at the u.s. dollar. it was down 3.5% we saw that pretty much every day over the course of the month, weakening against the euro and the pound you can see the dollar down 3.5% for the month. we take a look at the ten-year treasury, we can see quite what an impact that has had over the course of the month. a lot of conversations about yield on the ten-year. you can see those numbers there really quite striking. wilbur ross has told cnbc that tax cuts are having a strong impact on american

workers. president trump's critics are being proven wrong about u.s. growth he says >> the naysayers were before president trump's election, they were saying we would never get over a 1.5% to 2%. they've been proven quite wrong. this year the tax bonuses are being paid, almost million americans are getting,0 $1,000 r more in a check. the federal receive sees inflation picking up even though it did not raise rates at the latest meeting, which was the last one for janet yellen, the outgoing chair the central bank wasn't expected to hike, but comments about inflation expectations have some market watchers thinking the fed

may quicken the pace of rate hikes. we have a market watcher with us diana moaz from jpmorgan asset management what are your views on fed rate rises this year? when will they be and why? >> we think the fed are on track to raise rates four times this year we expect a hike in march, which is pretty much priced in by the market we also expect they will most likely hike again in june, september and december the reason why we're more aggressive than maybe what the market is pricing in is because of the strength of the u.s. econo economy. i think that came across strongly in the fomc minutes after the statement released after the meeting. i think the fed acknowledged that growth is strong or on a strong robust momentum inflation is starting to pick up solid gains in both the labor

market, domestic consumption and also business investment so in aggregate we think u.s. economy will be doing quite well this year. inflation will gradually normalize and meet the fed target and we may get tailwinds coming through from the u.s. reforms. >> so that's the u.s. economy globally growing you think it's the same thing on a global scale >> yes, we had european pmis, lower than last month but close to the highs in january. momentum on european growth is strong and this is not just in core europe where germany in the past had been doing well. we're seeing that as well in the periphery. so spain, italy, the data is quite strong we have similar data out of asia with japan and china beyond that, the emerging market economies. for the first time in a while, we are seeing synchronized

global growth, so the fed can hike with more confidence. >> let's talk about some emerging markets are they things you're watching very, very closely in terms of geopolitical risk? >> yes, we are not just geopolitics, in terms of idiosyncratic risks we have latin america as a whole, we have elections in mexico, brazil, big emerging economies, elections in south africa we're monitoring that closely. our view is as these risks fall behy behind us, as the year progresses, we will have clarity by year-end. it will make these economies much more investable >> between now and that point, you expect volatility there? >> we expect volatility, but we think it will be contained so what i think ultimately these

markets still flag quite cheap compared to developed market the market has been pricing in some of that political risk premium. at a point where we are becoming behind this and starting to see that falling behind us, we will see some of this premium dissipating. we think it is in the price. it's the reason why these economies have relatively high yields, and we will expect as that falls behind, we will see reform >> let's talk about wages. i mentioned wages earlier, when do you expect wages to pick up in the u.s.? >> we had the employment cost index data out yesterday, which is the highest of the cycle. of this expansion. so 2.6% year-on-year so wages are picking up in the u.s. i think the point is they're not

perhaps accelerating meaningfully just yet. but that is eventually going to come through as the labor market continues to tighten, we will see this excel ra acceleration the 2.6 is a good wage pick up for the u.s. we are not quite there in terms of excess capacity so employment levels have improved across the board. but they still have a lot of slack in the labor markets elsewhere. there are areas where this is not the case if you look at the markets in central and eastern europe, there we're starting to see significant pick up in wage inflation. so we're seeing wage pressures there. but in most of the emerging markets we don't see that coming through. we see that coming through in

europe >> do you think increased productivity ends up in the pockets of share hoholders or workers long-term? >> i think a mix of both i think now we're starting to see the u.s. corporates announcing wage increases as a windfall for the employees following the tax reforms. there's an element of corporate strength to pass on some of that we expect as productivity gains improve we will see more meaningful wage increases. also i expect a pick up in dividend payouts from the corporates so it will be a balance. >> thank you very much for coming on. >> thank you for more on janet yellen's final fomc meeting and why the committee thinks inflation is set to pick up, head to cnbc.com unilever delivered higher sales and profit in 2017 helped

by strength in emerging markets. the consumer goods company posted a profit of 8. bi1 billi as revenues rose i sat down with paul pullman and asked how the company planned to sustain sales growth >> you take the last quarter, we are growing 4.3% in the last quarter, 3.2% of that is volume. so you can see if you get your business right, the mix is also fairly healthy we again see versus our competitors that we're growing ahead of the market. one reason we can do that is theny organizational model we put in place, which has seen us step up our pace of innovation for the first time in the history of the company we launched last year five new brands ourselves over the last three years we have done about 20 acquisitions that put us in the faster growing segments of the future

increasingly you see the benefits of that coming through in results, and i assume they will be well received today. >> you talk about acquisitions, when you disposed at your spreads business to kka you talked about reshaping and sharpening your portfolio. sharpening implies more disposals, and reshaping hints at the idea of getting into more markets. should we expect more m&a activity or more creation of new brands in-house? >> we do both. last year we launched dove beauty and planet, which propelled us to the number one in hair care we had others in india and china. we have a good cadence of developing our own brands. but at the same time we compliment our portfolio if i may take an example in tea, where the market is rapidly

moving to premium tea, we were fortunate to associate ourselves last year buying the taso brand from starbucks and launched ourselves a premium brand which we call pure leaf. we also have the tea too brand, a store model some we're moving these businesses premium on a combination of organic, new brand launches and m&a activity. >> a couple months ago you delayed a decision on structure. how soon can we expect a vote on that >> we don't delay, we just take our time to do this. this is a decision we take that affects the company for the next 30, 40, 50 years that's how we look at it we don't want to rush that because someone is eager to hear the outcome. we will continue to work this. >> do you have any guidance in terms of timing? >> we always said we will do that over the first quarter of this year.

that's the timing we're still under. >> this week, i'm sure you followed it, michel barnier was given fresh negotiating directives for the brexit negotiations how does that impact your business >> you know where we are on the issue an we've been activity participating on that no we're working with the government to be sure we have the least possible damage coming out of these negotiations, both for europe and the uk, may i add the longer we have the transition period as we always called for, it was impossible to do it shorter. the better it will be. as you have seen over time from the initial positions of the general group of people, not its become more reasonable i think buying some time hopefully leads to an outcome that will be more satisfactory i do believe over time common

sense prevails so the transition period is a must you could not implement a tremendous program like that without it >> a lot of earnings this morning. royal dutch shell doubled in the fourth quarter with higher energy prices and increased production the 4$4.3 billion was a bit ahed of analyst expectations the company took a $2 billion charg related to american tax cuts late last year shell scooped up more than half of mexican and oil and gas blocks in yesterday's deep water auctions and dassault is trading near the top of the stoxx 600 after they came out with double digit growth in revenue. dassault systems faces currency headwinds that will last through the first quarter of this year and novo nordisk has fallen

to the bottom of the stoxx 600 fourth quarter profits dipped below expectations 2018 figures are expected to be hit by the weaker dollar the chairman announced he will step down with the board proposal helgelund as the replacement. shares in skanska are slightly higher in early trading. the construction firm reported operating profit ahead of guidance 2017 order intake came in under analysts forecast at 151.8 billion crowns earlier skanska talked about the construction firm's margin challenges >> what we delivered last year in the construction stream was not an acceptable level. we have strong performance when it comes to north construction

stream and europe as well. but we do have issues in u.s., part of u.s., uk, czech republic and poland roche shares are trading near the flat line after posting a drop in full-year net profit due to impairments 2017 sales rose 5% and they proposed a dividend of 8 swiss fra francs roche also said it expects earnings to grow broadly in line with sales the ceo said the approval of its new ms drug was significant. >> you look at the launch of the drug last year, recorded close to 900 million swiss francs of sales. so we see continued growth in the united states. and now we've gotten approval in europe, so we will see the

rollout of ocrevus in europe ahead, surprising new comments on europe from the leader of italy's five star movement we'll bring you our interview after this break

welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx. these are your headlines profits double but shares slide. shell trades at the bottom of the ftse despite full-year earnings above $16 billion with weaker cash generation disappointing some investors shares in spain's second largest bank, bbva, get a boost in early trade as strength in mexico helps offset a big wri writedown. roche expects 2018 profit to grow faster than sales as it gets a boost from u.s. taxes and new drugs in its pipeline. the ceo tells us china is a major focus.

>> china is getting much, much more important for us. in diagnostics it's the second most important market for us still smaller on the pharmaceutical side but there's no doubt the market is strongly growing. unilever sales beat expectation as the ice cream business returns to growth but the ceo tells cnbc a mix of flavors from m&a is needed to keep expansion from falling. >> we have now good cadence of developing our own brands. but at the same time we compliment our portfolio we are rapidly moving these businesses premium on a combination of organic, new brand launches as well as m&a activity after some positive eurozone pmi numbers and other positive numbers from across europe, we have the uk manufacturing pmi

numbers out. they are not quite so positive they're the lowest since june of 2017 55.3 that's down from december's number of 56.2 not having an impact on cable so far. we can see sterling trading almost half a percent up against the u.s. dollar. so those pmi numbers not impacting the currency so far. let's look at the broader currency complex u.s. dollar strengthening against the yen, clawing back a lot of the losses over the last few days the euro strengthening against the dollar and plat againflat ae swiss franc. italy's manufacturing pmi rose to 59.0 up from 57.4 in

december former prime minister there, silvio berlusconi called off a television chat show appearance, his second cancellation this week the 81-year-old blamed his absence on tiredness but said he is kneeling well overall italian political observers are raising questions about his health ahead of national elections in march berlusconi is expected to play a crucial role in coalition talks. luigi di maio, the leader of italy's anti-establishment five star movement was in london to meet with international investors. i caught up with him and asked if there's any political group he would not form a partnership with >> translator: i think we'll be the single largest political party in the elections i think we can win more than 30% of the votes if we don't win a majority, we'll form a partnership and i

hope they join a government forsake of gaining for the sake of gaining positions. we hope all those forces will listen to our appeal and join the five star government >> so you would not rule out a partnership with any political party at this stage? >> there's political parties we're struggling to speak with they represent the establishment that killed our country. i want to see facts. i don't have prejudices towards anyone i want to see them in action i don't trust them until i see how they act in parliament >> one thing that worried investors about mr. luigi di maio and his party is that they have in the past hinted that they want to call a referendum on eurozone membership in the past he said it was a last resort. i asked him what it would take for brussels to do or not do that would prompt him to call a referendum on euro membership.

>> i wouldn't contemplate that last resort. germany, france and spain are renegotiating some eu rules. this is the type to make some deficits, make investments and relaunch the italian economy i won't consider that last resort i believe in the power of dialogue other european countries are also weaker. germany can't form a government. in france, political parties don't gain much traction spain and portugal have minority government is, and there's brexit brexit weakened the eu we need to renegotiate eu rules. >> it seems like you're not being clear there, if i can be honest with you. it seems like your views on the futu future of italy's membership in the eurozone have changed, evolved. is that something that should concern businesses that you're potentially going to be a leader -- certainly already a political party leader, but developing your political

doctrine as you are getting ready for office >> at a european level we need to renegotiate economic investors. i met with investors today i told them we wanted to stabilize our economy. our stance on europe, the euro, is that we want to remain part of the eu and the eurozone, just change economic rules this should not scare businesses or investors. we want to get real results for italy and relaunch the eu. >> investors in the ftse mib this morning don't look scared it's up 0.40%, down from where it was a few moments ago the cac up more than 0.2%. the same for the xetra dax and the ftse a slight lager this morning. the world's major economies are transitioning between something called muddle through and something called reflatiore.

our next guest is steve rice from standard charter private bank what is muddle through >> muddle through is too slow, too soft in terms of growth and inflation. it's an environment where monetary policies remain extremely loose and we don't see the tightening that we're already starting to see. last year the view was we would get a slight pivot towards reflati reflation. we think reflation will finally pick up this year. that was eluded to by the fed last night >> but no change from them yesterday. are you worried about the policy decisions over the coming months >> not really. they have an easy job to do. their markets are leading them higher from that perspective they'll be comfortable in terms of setting policy and raising rates in march. i don't think it will be much of a shock. the key risk is inflation picks up more dramatically than people are expecting. >> you're not worried they'll

raise rates too quickly? >> no, if i was them, i would want to let the bond market lead me a bit i don't want to push the curve to being inverted. that's a potential negative for market markets. >> let's stay in washington, d.c. special counsel robert mueller's investigation into collusion between the trump campaign and russia and variations thereof does not seem to be going away soon we have midterms in move we hear about a potential democratic wave. if republicans lose control of the senate and/or the house of representatives, what does that mean for the economic agenda for president trump? >> his economic agenda has not been hugely successful, though they got the tax cut through he will still face challenges no matter what, because he is at odds with a lot of people even within the republican party. if he loses control of one of the houses that will be harder >> how do you avoid that as a risk

how do you get exposure to the upside of nux infrastructure investment >> the economy is doing well regardless of what's happening in washington. the risk is they put their foot on the accelerator too much and that force the fed that they might tighten monetary policy more aggressively. overall, from our investment stance, we still prefer global equities over other asset classes. u.s. is not a favored market u.s. should still do well. >> you talked about the fact that mr. trump is at variance with a lot of people, that includes members of the republican senate. 36 have written to him about nafta saying he should support it the canadian prime minister saying he does not expect mr. trump to pull out of nafta we have more plans for negotiations do you expect that the u.s. will try to change things this is a man who's gaining a reputation in office for ignoring advice from other peopl people >> it is an area where i would

be concerned with trump. he has carte blanche to do what he wants when he's got that, he pushes the foot down on the accelerator. he will try to renegotiate over what time horizon, who knows. i think trade is a concern what about geopolitical risks outside of the u.s. and europe mr. trump heavily involved in u.s. policy when it comes to north korea. that's another area where he seems to have carte blanche to some extent. is that something you're worried about? is the middle east an area you're worried about >> from the north korea perspective, there's clearly challenges that have to be hammered out it's going to be difficult for this to go smoothly. but, you know, full confrontation, i don't think that's something we'll see we might see short-term market volatility we don't think it will be more material than that you heard some of that interview with luigi di maio yesterday his party not looking like they

have a chance of winning an outright majority. he's hoping for 35% of the votes that would force him to form a coalition agreement with some party and smaller parties. one party he may have to deal with is notoriously euro skeptic and has been for decades is the italian election something you're worried about >> it was 1 month2 months ago bt we're less concerned now there's quite a lot they have to do to get to an eu referendum, they have to win the election, form a coalition, change the constitution to get that vote and win it so we don't believe that's something that will happen the economy is turning the corner we think that will shift more to the status quo rather than euro skeptic parties. >> thank you very much for joining us this morning. if you have views on the italian elections, tweet me. you can follow the show on twitter streetsignseurope@cnbc

coming up, we're in the teeth of the earnings season and the f.a.n.g.s are coming out did you like that pun? we'll dive into the stories behind the world's biggest tech companies after this break for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

welcome back shares in microsoft edged up in after-hours trading after beating earnings for the fiscal second quarter despite a one-time hit, the company saw good growth in its cloud business josh lipton has a full breakdown of those numbers >> reporter: microsoft reporting eps of 96 cents on revenue of 28.$28.92 billion $9 billion in business profits, office 365 commercial revenue growth up 41%. revenue from intelligent cloud segment, 7.8 billion within that segment, azure, the

answer to amazon's aws, saw revenue growth of 98%. but they are not breaking out s azure revenue specifically pc unit growth was basically flat microsoft saying they're seeing good strength in the pc sector cloud revenue was up 56% glo gross margins at 55% a tick down. evercore isi says that is the key focus for investors. microsoft is one of the largest cloud platforms and that will be a driver over the next few years. he acknowledges they are great results but also there were great expectations

josh lipton, cnbc business news, san francisco. we are in the busiest week of earnings season this week the f.a.n.g.s are in the spotlight. there were originally four f.a.n.g. stocks, but we're widening the bite to include apple and alibaba. facebook reported earnings ahead of expectations, but the stock wobbled on thoughts that people would spend less time on the site, 50 million hours a day mark zuckerberg says people are spending less time on viral videos investors are focused on advertising revenue and the contribution from instagram, which was 4$4.1 billion last year amazon has threatened to enter a number of different sectors. many investors are more interested in its cloud business, aws. apple stuck struggled in january amid worries over iphone x sales. the latest figures after the bell today. alibaba will be scrutinized

in the competitive space and netflix has surpassed expectations for subscribed growth facebook says the amount of time users spent on the site dropped sharply in the fourth quarter. jew >> facebook had revenue of 12 7 $12.97 billion that's more than the 12.55 billion expected the company announced nearly 3 $2.3 billion impact from tax regulatory reform had a negative impact of 77 cents per share the company projected a 4% 5% t 60% growth in capex. there will be more changes to

the timeline, prioritizing communication between friends and content and changes they made last year to viral videos >> we expect time spent on facebook to be decreased by 5% we made changes to reduce time spent on facebook by an estimated 50 million hours every day to make sure peoples time is well spent >> in after-hours trading, facebook shares shot from the red to the green after sheryl sandberg said reducing time spent on facebook is not a bad thing. it's actually yielding higher revenue. >> we're not doing this to be positive or negative for revenue but it's the right thing for our community. the impact it has on monetization is not clearly negative >> sandberg and zuckerberg explaining how investing in the long-term will create a more

valuable stronger platform out of facebook. the co-founder and ceo of another social media network joins me now in the studio in london this is a social media network for communities. you announced expansion into france how do you choose a new market like that? >> we look at the size of the market we look at the giants like we talked about, facebook, google, apple, amazon, where they are strongest. but ultimately we believe next door what we're working on is a global value proposition so it's just a matter of which order we go in ultimately we would like to be everywhere what defines a neighborhood? >> it's typically defined by the people who live there. we learned after launching 165,000 neighborhoods in the u.s. that neighborhoods are between 500 and 1,000 households and follow some kind of geography. if you live in the mountains, it will be in a valley where the houses are if you're in the city, it could be a city block. but it typically is known by the

people who live there. so one challenge of our business is building a platform where the neighbors can actually tell us what they think of as their neighborhood and then we build it that way. >> i think businesses like patch in the u.s. that tried to build community spirit, report on local issues for a community they struggled because so much of it was user generated is that a challenge for you guys in terms of content, finding people who contribute to a new social media platform when there's so many out there? >> patch was about news. it was an editorially based news service where you would get news from your local community. next door is a way to connect with neighbors to get things done it's quite different from patch and existing social media platforms. existing social media, facebook, et cetera, they are about self expression next door is about getting things done. finding the lost dog actually asking for a babysitter coming together in times of

crisis, whether it's crime in the neighborhood or natural disasters. it's about community with over 40 million messages a day in the u.s. alone, we have not had a problem getting neighbors to talk to each other. the tough thing is building the platform >> why would someone not choose to develop a facebook group in comparison to what you are offering >> next door is built from the ground up for the neighborhood while facebook groups is an all-purpose vehicle for all kinds of people to get together, next door is a place you can go to discover neighbors even if you don't know who they are. you invite people to communicate with you but in america almost 30% of americans could not name a single neighbor by name. we see similar statistics in europe and around the world. if you don't know your neighbors how can you communicate with them that's the challenge we set out to solve >> do you think the larger social media platforms are watching what you're doing with

some trepidation >> in general we're a different kind of service than facebook. facebook is about communicating with friends, we're about communicating with neighbors facebook is about self-expression-ye,-yea we're at utility. the user interface may look similar and we can describe ourselves as a social network, next door is a phenomenon. when facebook has seen something it likes that has threatened its area of expansion, they look to buy it is that something you're worried about? >> it's not something we worry about, the only thing we can control is delivering a great service ourselves. we are learning how to monetize the service and capturing what we think is a great opportunity ahead.

what about fake news this has been talked about a lot over the last 18 months some flplatforms have faced criticism for allowing information on their platforms that is not verified or accurate are you doing anything to make sure posts about lost dogs is accurate >> we're not doing anything different about the information, but the whole approach is completely different to join next door you have to verify your address and the conversations are private. on two levels we don't have any incentive for our members to create fake news the first is you have to use your true identity the second is the only people you're reaching are your neighbors. so if you want to spread fake news to your neighbors, you can reach maybe 1,000, 2,000 people, but that's not what we see happening. the big social media platforms where things travel virally, that's where you see fake news but not on next door >> we'll leave it there.

>> thank you very much a quick look at european markets at the end of this hour. the ftse 100 still the laggard behind the xetra dax the cac up more than a half of a percent the ftse mib up almost 1% let's look at u.s. futures a couple hours ahead of the trading open there the dow jones up almost 20 points nasdaq and s&p 500 both looking to open slightly positively as well that is it for today's show. "street signs" here in london. i'm willem marx. "worldwide exchange" is coming up next on the other side of the atlantic

wall street looking to kick off february in the green after the dow and s&p 500 posted their best monthly performance in nearly two years facebook reporting a big drop off in one key metric a wrap up of the company's quarter coming up. and paypal plunges as ebay says see you later it's february 1, 2018, "worldwide exchange" begins now. ♪ good morninga