phy: did you talk to her in the courtroom that day? joe kowynia: yes. joe kowynia: that i love her. you know that we miss her and that we finally got him and hopefully you can rest in peace and we can move on. welcome to "street signs." these are your headlines. investors splashing out after a luxury group posted a smaller than expected drop in the fourth quarter sales of performing. european starts on pace to close the week on a downbeat note and the post cpi rally fizzled on wall street, even as the dow hits a 14,000-point milestone.

>> retail sales falling short and know home prices drop in over nine years and prompted beijing to unveil a series of stimulus measures to try and prop up the beleaguered sector. they condemn the biden administration on the latest decision on exports. the company can deal with challenges to its global ambitions. >> if there is any situation the eu requires change in strategy, change in pace, require local, you know, deployment or immensement we have to look into these and we have various challenges to volatile situations. a famous song by leah says back, back, forth and forth and

pretty much what you're seeing out of this market this week. a lot of movement into the record highs and, unfortunately, kind of tracks back. the question is what is the momentum that would continuously drive markets high. interest rates have certainly been at play and what markets have certainly focused on but the earnings market right now and what you're seeing out of this earnings season has been a lot more positive, particularly state side. a fewquestion marks around europe and when they have been in the stock 800 or ftse 600. markets are looking for the momentum to head higher but looking for the impetus. it doesn't seem today like there is one. we found yesterday across european markets, you're getting the same sense today. it's that earnings picture that will look at. again, it is out of switzerland

s switzerland. that earnings is showing that there is a difference in the kind of companies that you could looking at and investing in particularly in the luxury space. overall, though, more negative than positive here. the ftse 100 losing a step. as well as cac is down in this early morning trade. an hour or so since the market has opened in europe. week-to-date, weaknesses have been seen across a lot of these mar markets. we look to close out the markets in bigger markets in negative territory. there could be significant moves today which could actually alter a lot more of this narrative. if you're looking for a mixed board, this definitely is one. ftse 100 week-to-date, down for

the dax. all three of those majors have hit record highs over the year and big gains across some of the other markets, the ftse as well more than 2% to the market out of switzerland. speaking of switzerland. suisse luxury group reported a 1% decline in fourth quarter sales only 1% behind and in higher than expected. it is down on a 12-month basis. the company also announced the reestablishment of its ceo role appointing the current ceo as the head of that position. charlotte has been following this one for us. we have been focusing on that luxury sector. there are different sides to this luxury theme clearly and richemont playing that. >> they are playing the high end of luxury showing it is quite

resilient. here showing is there a slow down in demand. results were better than expected and better than some of the other key players. we know that when they reported the numbers, we tried to compare with them because, of course, january, for example, richemont have [ inaudible ] quite good to compare and they did better than. sales up 2% on constant exchange rate. looking at the different regions because of a recent slowdown in china. comparisons were quite tough because last year this quarter was the reopening of the chinese market. the comparisons were tough. some resilience in other markets. europe up 7% and europe up 12%. some resilience in the markets for the luxury sector. a couple of updates were interesting.

the currency is now the new ceo as of june 1st. he said he is not stepping back from the business. he will very much stay involved in there. some rumbles on the market when it was sold and the chairman was offered that failed could not value to the group so very interesting here to clarify this. another update. we know it's been kind of a lost making investment there for richemont and down 1.5 billion loss due to discontinued operation to the deal they had with a collapse last year. they said they are in talks with several potential buyers and hope to be in the position to disclose more details by the end of this year. overall, numbers better than expected. the high-end luxury is quite resilient and received 5% shares

and up 26% from this year. >> very interesting story here. as we said, the divergent in these luxury players. you speak about it as well. there are certain segments. i found it weird, speaking about that, perfumes that managed to move higher tho them. this one is particularly focusing in on things like diamonds, jewelry, all of that pushes a little bit higher as well. >> suddenly, very high-end resilient and we see the performance -- showing that. you mentioned perfumes. they announced this morning that they are creating a new roll for higher perfumes in beauty. a lot of luxury players are pushing this. maybe the bridge that buyers have been squeezed out because of inflation and luxury prices getting so much higher. richemont to create that to get a slice of that pie. >> certainly a pie that looks like it's working for now.

why not jump in? thank you for that, charlotte. i appreciate it as we focus in on that luxury sector. quick look at how the session looks stateside. interesting yesterday. perhaps not necessarily about that 14,000 mark. if you watch "squawk" you would steve talk about that not as important as the rest of the market but it is about the momentum. the momentum in this market is still up. yes, yesterday, you saw a bit of a draw-down after the dow hit that 14,000 mark. s&p breaking past 5,000 mark. what is catalyst in this market? is it just that earnings picture or interest rates? that certainly has been the issues at play. corporate a.i. spend has been a big topic as well across this earnings season. that has been interesting to look at.

we also wanted to touch on that dow having hit 14,000-point mark yesterday and significant mover. as you can tell over a five-year basis it's moved silthgnificant higher. 19 months ago it crossed 1,000 mark october, 27, 2022. you look at the stocks that picked up the dow since then? there is the list over there. microsoft on a point basis, microsoft has helped the dow pick up toward that 40,000 point mark. if you want to talk about percentage gainers, salesforce being big increases on that front and goldman sachs looking to doubling in the time span since october 27, 2022, so significant moves on that side as well. the dow notching that

14,000-point mark and has been able to find that spot again today and stay above it, will it? we will see. speaking of which, futures today. what you're seeing on that picture. slight retreat. looks like it could be in play. maybe we don't necessarily hit up that 40,000-point mark on the dow. s&p looks like it could be negative. the chief economist is joining us. not necessarily equities but what do you think would move the needle right now? is it more economic data or does the world worry about corporate a.i. spend, the earnings season a little bit more. do we worry about which one do you think is more significant today? >> well, for me as an economist, the answer is obvious. i look at the fundamentals and i know as an economist, the day-to-day' often the week-to-week moves have very

little to do with as they have to do a lot with earnings revision and have to do a lot with sentiment. what we notice is that the major market mover, even on almost day-to-day basis, seems to be expectations for u.s. interest rates and that is with economists coming to play and over there our core remains the next move by the fed will ease but chances it has to wait until after the election because the economy in the u.s. is resilient enough to not need the interest rate hike. >> you don't think of data that the highs will stay longer and september isn't the time for the first rate cut? >> september is a bad time on for that because it's ahead of the election. you want the rate cut starting ahead of the election or you wait until after the election. september is possible but the market focusing on september

seems to be simply the market being unsure whether it's july or december, so market pricing is september without that being a point forecast that september is, indeed, the most likely thing just ahead of the election. of course, the fed could move but it would need a clear republican to do so. at the moment, the data is not suggesting a reason to act right now or in the very near future. >> if you were to act any time now, would you be acting because you're thinking we are now at a stage the kickoff to a moderation or lower pricing environment is about to kick off? it's not in the per view to predict things that might be the sentiment, okay, the hottest prints are behind us. >> the hottest prints are probably behind us for both growth, which in terms of final domestic demand was fairly

strong early in the year. for inflation we probably had the hottest as well. some of the recent data, i like to put them in perspective, you know? we spent the first three months of the year talking about u.s. inflation and pricing to the upside and u.s. demand to the upside and now everything surprising to the downside or at least inflation on track. for me this is so far more the usual volatility of the data. the underlying trend is generally but slow moderation in academic grobwth. as a result of that some underlying moderation in later markets and paid pressures and inflation pressures and in consumer demand but this is a moderation rather than a steep fall and fed not be in any hurry to act. also for the market perspective, i think if the fed were to now deliver an almost cut, say, in june, the market would probably

be spooked, what do they know, even if they don't know anything. i think this sentiment that it's going roughly the way the fed would like things to go but growth is holding up enough in real-terms and other terms including pricing holding up enough to underpin corporate earnings is a pretty good scenario for equities. >> interesting, actually. let's talk europe quickly. the expectation is, according to the market and the members themselves, pretty much you'll get that june rate cut. the path after that, that is what we are all worried about now there. >> first of all, it's very interesting that we are talking about the meeting after this rather than the next meeting. they have rarely ever pre-announced a move that clearly. as to after that, we probably have, first of all, an economy that regularly recovers, meaning we probably think there is no dramatic need to cut rates

aggressively. but -- so i would say in september follow-up, rather than immediate back to july follow-up, is significantly most likely. but then we will likely see consumer price inflation decelerate towards 2 and probably below 2% by the ends of the year, just because market prices for gas and electricity have fallen and that we are gradually feed through to ever more consumers. so inflation may briefly undershoot the 2% target at the turn of the year and probably under pin future rates to 2.5% but looking at 2026, this energy price relief is temporary. it may be back to hiking rates in 2026. >> wow. a fascinating story. i think it's such a dispersion in who is going where and what. we have to talk about the emerging markets later on with another guest but we will talk

china with you in a moment. speaking of china. we got news breaking for you and coming out of. pboc as well as some other state-owned entity. china housing invite minister speaking saying local governments can organize local state-owned enterprises to buy some existing commercial housing at a reasonable price for affordable housing and we will unpack this a little bit. the conversation whether this would be happening and whether a vote on it, whether further conversations around it and how you can, obviously, shore up the property sector in china that has been languishing and struggling recently. they say probably dispose of revitalize stock of land and because of difficulties of real estate enterprises and set up 300 billion relending loan for

affordable housing and some sold housing projects under construction face difficulties. we will unpack that for you later. on the back end of a short break, chinese property stocks jumping after the country announces a slew of support measures for the ailing sector and we will bring all of those details and rekilehe adnefor you next. bills are craze has no idea she's sitting on ae goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. hi. i'm wolfgang puck when i started my online store wolfgang puck home i knew there would be a lot of orders to fill and i wanted them to ship out fast

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welcome back. china has announced what is a list of measures aimed to alleviating its housing crisis and allowing local authorities to buy some homes for affordable housing at what they are saying is reasonable prices. the country's central bank will lower interest rates on housing-funded loans by a quarter of a percentage floor and will scrap the floor at second homes at a national level. china found its fastest rate of new home price declines in almost a decade in april and it fell by more than 3%. also, retail sales rising by

2.3%. that is the slowest increase since late 2022. surge of the uptick that was anticipated coming out of china is not necessarily happening so growing pains there. however, industrial production did surprise to the upside. it did rise 6.7% as you can note over there. what does this mean for the stocks which relatively of lately on the back of support? double-digit gains across the board there and managing to find 25% of gains, in fact, so, overall, definitely a positive week across that property sector, whether it continues to allay the fears and the worries perhaps in the sector is proof of the pudding and will certainly be in the eating and certainly take some time, but at least the step in that direction means that investors are clearly liking those moves, even if it is just for now. russian president vladimir

putin saysing that russia stands ready to supply china with clean energy. he was speaking as he wraps his first foreign visit since being sworn in for his fifth term. putin and his chinese counterpart xi jinping signed a joint statement on thursday hailing a new era of stajic partnership between the two countries. imf hit at the out biden administration over its decision to raise tariffs on some chinese exports saying the u.s. would be better served by maintaining open trade policies that have been vital to its economic performance and warning a worst-case scenario of geo political fragmentation could reduce global output by as much 7%. biden hiked tariffs on electric vehicles by 300% earlier this week as a package of measures aimed at combating the u.s. -- what the u.s. deems

overinvestment by the world's second largest economy. >> i would say that ev, as well as smart ev, is a huge growing segment of the economy. i think if you see, you know, high growth segments, it's hard to predict there will be overcapacity because there will be a lot of overcapacity competent in icu world if you use that as an analogy. i'm very confident that there will be a lot of robust demand around the world for, you know, beautiful affordable great and smart products and i think our product will fit into that category. >> the chief economist of berenburg is here. support from the chinese markets

for ev demand. we have seen the demand high but ease off. if this certainly just a case for china to continue to try and find other ways to ramp up their economy because the old models are just not working any more? >> well, the oldchinese growth model is not working any more and the new model, which they are trying, namely to off-load excess capacities by exporting more to the world market by subsidized products or prices that benefit from the previous subsidies to these companies is unlike to work very well either. china, basically, has wasted capital on -- >> why doesn't it work? one would think it's lower prices so you create demand and more people buy. i'm playing devil's advocate, right? >> that is the right way to start the conversation if somebody subsidizes production and we as consumers would be happy. there are two segments to it.

that is the correct reaction. if too much of that happens too rapidly, then the domestic consequences in the labor market, in the domestic companies may be have political ramifications. that is one thing. the other thing if it's high technology, you have to be cautious nowadays. electric vehicles are saying what information technology is in there and what data are being collected and where are the data sent to and processed, so is borders to some extent on security concerns and we should allow cheap chinese product but look whether they threaten our industry too much and whether there is security issues in there. if china goes overboard swamping the world market with cheap sus --

>> one could have the 2048 around you had blinken head over and yellen head over to china and speak about do not export these things at these cheap levels because it will -- it won't help trade situation. the moment she leaves and goes back to the u.s., then all of these tariffs are slapped back on china. the thought would be we just had the conversation and i thought it was a great conversation. now, all of a sudden, it clearly isn't. does this just -- i mean, i know you're not necessarily geo political tensions conversation that we want to here, but does this create an environment where it becomes tricky to even trade now and it changes the growth dynamics of the u.s. and china and anybody in between? >> first of all, we do have a situation where, indeed, the chinese are doing what they want, regardless of what the west tells them. you can say that is fair. that is a big country. for instance -- was told by

restrain putin and if you don't do that could have serious consequences for china and europe. next thing -- a party for putin in beijing. we have to know that china is pursuing its only policy, which in a way, make sense. but then we have to note and that means our policies towards china can no longer be solely a reflection of near term commercial interests. they have to take these things into account. the overall noneconomic policies with china is pursuing. >> yeah. unfortunately, we have run out of time. i want to askyou about property sectors which we have unpacked quite significantly. >> the property sector in china is weak and remain weak. the remaining weak is certainly the chinese consumers have lost trust in the growth model, but the worst of the weakness is

probably over now with this government -- >> very interesting conversation. that property sector is one they need to prop up or trying to and make that helps to find a solution. so good chatting to you. hopefully, we do it again, especially around the table with all of your travel. he is the chief economist at -- >> they are kicking off the country's election in africa. we will have more next. my name is ashley cortez and i'm the founder of the stay beautiful foundation when i started in 2016 i would go to the post office and literally fill out each person's name on a label and now with shipstation we are shipping 500 beauty boxes a month

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signs." these are your headlines. investors are splashing out on richemont after they posted a smaller than expected drop in fourth quarter sales of per perfper performing sector peers. european stocks on pace to close on a down beat note after a fizzle on wall street even as the dow hits its 40,000 point

milestone. this has prompted beijing to unveil a stimulus measures including 300 billion relendsing loan facility. imf condemns the biden administration's latest tariffs on chinese exports. kpeng saying a company with challenge to its global ambitions. >> if there is any situation that requires change in strategy, changing in pace, require local, you know, deployment or immersement, we have to look in all of these. as a company, we have to be nimble to respond to various challenges and developing situations. so, me. south african will head to the polls today. that is ahead of the country's election on may the 29th.

cyril rah maphosa is ahead in t polls but expected to drop below 50% since 1994. thank you for joining us. i appreciate it. you write in your notes that a lot more investors care a little bit more about this election than some of the other elections happening. with india going through their lexs right n-- elections right now. >> we have heard that half of the world's population will be experiencing some kind of election in their countries this year. yours and mine included. obviously, i think we can all agree the most consequential one will be november for the united states. we have mexico next month as well. india, you mentioned. i think in these places, more or less markets are expecting policy continuity, whereas, in

south africa, on may 29th, we could be ushering in a majority they lose their majority for the first time in 30 years. this propensity for change is very symptomatic of the state of the world in that population is showing discontent when it comes to racial injustice and income inequality and lower living standards and dissolution with corruption, with the security issues, right? and so the political pendulum is swinging quite aggressively here. and so with this, we are all thinking about potential policy changes, what is the economic outlook for south africa, you know, given the starting point is already anemic growth for many, many years, and fiscal issues that are also very emblematic of the state of the world. >> is the market worried that you'll get stag nation in terms of policy? because some might say that if you have a government that

doesn't necessarily have the majority as they anticipated is not to have in this election, that it means you have to tie up with other parties that you may not necessarily like or maybe don't have the same sort of alignment? that means that policy goes ultimately nowhere, or is it a fear we now are moving a little bit more left or a little more right? >> i think it's more the lead-up to the uncertainty. ultimately, actually, at bnp, my economists still expect a scenario we have a coalition and it's anc with ip that is most likely but that conviction level is also waning. >> really? i'm sorry. i'm probably going to the weeds a little bit here. you think anc, ifp is not on that list but fifth in all of these parties and thats like the most likely? >> that is a scenario but with waning conviction, the second and third scenario would be a coalition formed with eff or da.

>> i think question marks have always been raised whether the eff would realign with the anc being a part of the leader the past years. if the ruling loses that 50% is where the weakness comes in or does that bode well to say change comes and maybe it might be dramatic? >> as of right now, like you said, you know, the rand is one of the best currency which is a disconnect to the uncertainty leading up to the election, but when we mapped up the scenarios, the most likely scenario, the most likely outcome is that it will still lead to something that is positive for the policy agenda, for the growth agenda. so i think that is what markets are pricing in right now. again, we shouldn't be complacent, given the lack of reliability of polls that we

have seen, i would argue right now that the rand probably doesn't have a lot of premium to reflect this uncertainty and our strategists have a long dollar rand on recommendation right now. >> interesting. fiscal worries? the big ones as well to be in play here and the president ramaphosa had a national health insurance to make health care more affordable whether it be private or public sector. does that begin to play into the worries of investors right now? >> i think that is at the forefront of concerns when it comes to the south africa store of fiscal issues. on the national health insurance act i wouldn't be too worried, given that the implementation is probably not going to be many, many years down the line. >> i think that is a sad part, right? implementation is actually the problem? south africa, right? >> exactly. yeah, exactly. i would say there was a political interive for ramaphosa to push for this bill ahead of

the elections but it's not feasible as it stands receipt now. there is no fiscal ability from the national treasury to even afford this. but, you know, on the fiscal, if you will look at south africa, the debt path is deteriorating and imf has a forecast for debts gdp to reach 80% the next few years and the interest bill will exceed 5% as well. we are looking at ballooning fiscal deficits in a world there is a collision course between higher deficits and higher interest costs. so that is a concern for south africa. >> yeah. if one wanted to ask the question as to what exactly is shifting things in south africa, so many issues. all of the above are prominent and we have not spoken about power cuts or the jobless rate, which is the highest in the world as well. so many issues at play. i appreciate the time and hopefully, we can continue this conversation. thank you for joining us in the studio. >> thank you.

>> she is the global head of em strategy at vnp. let's do a quick roundup of the european markets and show you where they are right now. negative across the board for a lot of this market. half a percent down across a lot of these with the ftse path easing off and policies stateside where we saw that decline by the close of trade even though the market had initially breached record levels across the board. still some positive momentum, though, across the board as you're seeing gains for a lot of this week. even though the market now beginning to dip a little. what are the u.s. futures? we saw that at the back end of trade yesterday. looks like it may continue then as we head toward the opening trade out of the united states. anticipated more earnings, of course, still in the picture. but it's all about whether we get a further push higher and what is driving that further push in the equity market. this year's mental health awareness week!

it has the theme of movement to mark the occasion, tonya sat down with the captain of hotberg and the national team and joins us now. tonya, thank you for joining us. >> interesting. >> interesting fellow he is. >> yes. >> it's one of those things where football is always thought to be just play football. you get paid so much money to play the sport and just kick a ball! you should be fine no matter the situation! but he highlights and has continued to highlight over many years and we have seen the rise of that actually in football over the last year or so, mental issues are a big part of your performance. >> absolutely! also talking about football is around the world. they are huge role models as well. so he is opening up business his own mental health issues will help so many young men around the world and especially in ace.

he is from south korea. there is more awareness now. when i sat down and talked with him, i asked him about how he copes with the pressures. >> the most difficult part, i think, in this position. you have a social media, whatever we are saying, and everybody can give you advice or they can comment whatever you're doing, but to become a footballer, i work hard, you know? i work hard in my way and you win there, you know? when i was working hard. but as soon as you get successful, everybody was jumping on what you should do this, you should do this. for me, it was just like, no, i'm doing my side, even if it's wrong, you know? and then you land info from it

but, you know, like i'm very, very, i think, say, positive guy, luckily, and, obviously, i'm also seeing the comments it doesn't affect me, you know? because i work hard to be here. i don't want to break the -- because of this kind of comments of problems, i would say, and also when you have problems, i always talk to my family, you know? obviously, still i'm young and i need advice from parents, also my brother, which is really helpful. and i think to open up, to speak up, i think is also very important, but has to be that who loves you. >> and for more of my interview with son, you can watch the leadership league which is coming up in june. don't miss it. i'll be very upset if you don't watch it. >> i'm very interested in this.

i interviewed him as well. it's just a character who is so vibrant and lively. >> yes. >> on the field, right? >> yes. >> off field, he sort of is reclusive and gets back into his shell and speaking to the mental issues, you might be two different people in two different spaces, yet, the whole world expects one character and one live persona and all of that could be affecting you as well. >> yes. i think he is a very humble shy character, which i think is also to be applauded. he is, obviously, one of the best footballers of his generation and he takes his role very seriously. of course, he is captain of the south korea national team as well. i think he really tries to help younger players as well. if they are having problems, he tries to help them. the fact he is talking about it so openly, they do -- we see not only online, but when they are playing their matches, so much

abuse could be held at them. >> it certainly can. i mean, i can see manchester united fans -- >> like yourself. >> heckling. you see a great or good player on the field, you don't want them performing well against your team. >> what position are you on the table? i think chelsea is a little bit -- >> our conversation didn't have to go about where we are -- >> final game on sunday! >> it is against brighton and i'm going there to watch it as well, possibly. >> good luck for that. >> everything needs to happen at once here, we will see. we will see. i might be running away from the stadium. >> you got the 25th to look forward to as well. >> i do. so we actually have a trophy that we could fight for, unlike chelsea. >> thank you, thank you for reminding me. i'm a big chelsea fan.

we have fun on sundays. >> good luck! >> let's start with a sports update. coming up on the show, the countdown to the european parliament elections is on. we will be joined by the prenti othcerist group coming up after this. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com.

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welcome back. we are 20 days away from the first polls opening in this year's european parliament election with polling suggesting the epp will hold its position as the largest party. can comes as the right wing ecr and democrat groups look to gain some ground. now in france, here is a look at the lead in weeks. double the vote share of that president renaissance party. charlotte is joining us with a little bit more on this conversation. >> thank you very much. we are joined by a special guest who is an ex-european news person. thank you for joining us. looking at the polls, we know

the past two european elections, the far right was leading france but the gap this time between the renew party you present and president macron and far right are huge. i remember when he was elected in 2017, he said he would work hard to give -- reasons not to vote for the far right. it looks like that has failed. >> nothing is written and we have to fight and a democratic campaign and fight which is difficult because domestic issues are sometimes hard. we saw again this week we had insecurity, riots, for instance. so sometimes it's difficult when you talk about europe every five years before the eu elections to focus the attention to european issues themselves. that said it's always been difficult to be a pro-european -- force in french politics still now and we have to say to french voters, this is important, this is only every

five years. use it for the european message. what we have done these five years was not easy. to change europe we have done it in response to covid and vaccine and the package that was launched and defense in security area but sometimes we tend to forget what happened over the last five to seven years, what europe has brought to us and this is also our message and our duty in a way to explain this to voters whether the -- party is hiding european dimension in the elections. >> yet, looks like the turnout might be an issue here as well. the last election in france was 50% of people came to vote and looks like it will be lower this time around. is that something that concerns you? >> yes, of course. for our party, for our campaign, but more generally speaking for the democracy and the way it works, the less time we show that there was a rise in the last days in turnouts and that

there is no reason to deny whether european election after european election turnout will decrease. last time it increased so it is possible. it depends on the way we are conveying european message and saying to our people look what happened to ukraine and look what happened regarding the chinese position in the trade policy, look at the american athletics, which will happen next november. june 9th election, we will deeply regret it and not have another one in years so it's important to take the democratic and european opportunity. >> could poor results at this election damage president macron's credibility? he lost his majority back home in his own national assembly. we know he gives a lot of the diagnosis, right? he was talking about strategy economy and proven right after he talked about european -- then in practice it looks like he is

struggling to build consensus around him and support from other european leaders, et cetera. could poor result damage his credibility on the european scene and back home? >> we never change our european conviction and european fight to get a stronger europe. we have faith and president macron has faced deep crisis the last seven years. every time it was said it would be difficult in brusselss when france is facing changes. we have been very consistent in defending our european agenda, whatever the situation so we will in and president macron will go in no doubt about this but, of course, this is an important election. more members of european parliament which are close to president macron's policy, we get in the election, the better we can promote and defend our european agenda. >> what does president macron point out then as his -- the top

item that people should be voting for him on? to say this is exactly why i would want president macron to actually be in? because it feels like there is a wide ranging issues that he has tried to be on top of but being successful at all of them is going to be very difficult. >> one policy area which is probably the most important for this election is defense and security. we have been credible defending european defense and security policy even before the war in ukraine. now it's even more poppeimporta. we need a europeanbudget for defense and need more support for defense industry and this can be done only at the european level in addition to the efforts we are making at the national level. i think we are and i'm sure we are the only party to put up a consistent proposal in this respect and have credibility what we have done over the last five to seven yearsand i think for people, this is a key

message. look at what happens in europe. we showed that no country would leave and it happened. we saw peace was forever guaranteed our continent but not the case. all of this items have been proven fragile. we need to be strong and depend as pro europeans and my main and key message for these elections. if we don't take this moment, we will lose a huge opportunity for trends in our country, france in my case, and the whole continent. >> the europe's president is hoping to be renewed in the job and opened the door to work with allies there, european -- a party -- et cetera. is there normalization on the far right, including from some of the century's politicians? >> we have been always very clear in our delegations and european parliament we don't

work and don't do any political compromise and work for these parties from the far right. two groups from the far right there and i don't know how it's organized, whatever, but we will not work with them and we will not support them and we will not normalize them. that said, when you are, for instance i work for president macron directly as european adviser in the council. you don't exclude from the table one government as i may say so but we have to be very clear since there is no institutional political cooperation in the european parliament which is far right parties which basically have hidden their agenda but still want to destroy it and convince the european project and european union. >> thank you for the time. appreciate it. i think this is a fascinating set of elections we definitely will see on this one. thank you both for joining us for this conversation.

a quick check in on the market picture across europe. around two hours or so since the market opened. mixed as you can tell across some of those indices with half a percent draw-down unfortunate both major indices and dow and s&p hit record highs passing significant marks just yesterday. it doesn't seem like that rally will happen but we will only see a little bit later on in the day. thank you for joining us. have a wonderful weekend. hi. i'm wolfgang puck when i started my online store wolfgang puck home i knew there would be a lot of orders to fill and i wanted them to ship out fast that's why i chose shipstation

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