i was like, that's something-- that's what i want back. i'm going to go for it. ♪ european stock markets are open for the friday trade and we are picking up on the back of the central bank action. we had it from every central bank communicating on the playbook for the year. the ecb this week talking about the prospect for a spring cut, possibly june. we heard from the bank of england to say it is not unusual to expect a rate cut this year and the big one, the fed, being

on script toward the rate cuts. the market is in the rally mode. in the united states having fresh records and handing the bat b baton to us. we just are pulling back a bit from the high water level down .25%. modest dip on the back of what has been strong action over the course of the year. let's go to the individual sectors. a couple of patches of red versus the green. mostly moving to negative territory. technology is down .80%. basic resources in the basket trading weaker. it has been a firmer trade. a couple of sessions where resources has been strong to propel the ftse 100 to higher

territory. the retail basket of stocks, jd.com and h&m and dior is in the red along with lvmh and boss. chemicals down .40%. banking names down as well as autos. bmw down .9%. travel and leisure in reverse along with industrials. healthcare is a bump for real estate and improving for insurance names. telcos moving higher. vodafone tracks weaker as it is in talks with the regulator about consolidation. telcos are the third top per for performer. look at the index here this morning. we have anothernine or ten

points to the upside. we are just shy of 7,900 points. if you chart this index, we don't stay at the high level for long. is it going to be the same situation this time around? a look at the other markets. french mark is down .13%. the flat performance from spain with .10% from italy. we are drifting on the smi. steve. karen, not the first time i had a problem. i'm dubious of the 79% increase for galderma. unless i'm missing something. from 53? take with a pinch of salt what you see on the right side of the screen. on the left side the screen, that is accurate. they were issued at the top end of the range with the market cap

of 26 billion swiss francs. that doesn't look like a 79% increase to me unless my math. 27 off 53. there you go. you know about the company. skin care company quite popular. >> we have a company which is coming to the market in the same space as a lot of other companies that have been ipoing as well. we don't see strength in the consumer areas, but we see perfumes and cosmetics and this particular company in the space of performance. cosmetics as we talked to the company the other week and it is sweeping up today. we saw appetite in the ipo space yesterday with reddit. a stunning performance for a company that doesn't make any money. you have appetite to get back

into more risky areas of the market. >> let's go back to that reddit story. i have nothing against reddit. i wish them well. the fact of the matter is, there is nothing new about it. it is not nvidia. it is not exciting that we haven't seen 25 years ago. that's fixed. hate to say i was right. trading at 60.5 at the moment. i don't know if that withan errn our part. >> it was a human. >> you have been around 19 years, mate. i love the way the cnbc interview with the ceo and you met the ceo. he said we like the fact that the reddit share roholders are investors. do they have a different issue for working at a company? >> they go down by more and go

to the reddit community and tell everyone to buy it and they buy more and you have a meme stock and the hedge funds are wiped out. >> i'm not againstanyone making money as long as it is legal. it is not as exciting as the amazing tech ipo. >> it is early innings. it has not been a great window for the last 12 months for the ipos. let's move on to the big telco players. vodafone will have a regulatory commission look into the merger unless the concerns are rehe solved. the regulator said it is concerned the deal to lead to higher prices and reduce quality. the two have five working days to respond. this is fascinating.

this is the old argument over telcos for years about ensuring the customer is protected here. a no leaning into the profitability of the industry and investing for the future. we talk about more digital needs and we will have the a.i. link that we are talking about impacting the mobile and telecommunication universe in the coming years where the ability to respond to that from players -- >> maybe i'll bring in our guest in a few moments time. i'm not buying technology equals bonus for telecom companies. >> it doesn't. they have to invest in the network. >> that is making up for the century as i watched the demise of vodafone. we hear about the amazing technologies and they invest in the technologies, but others make the money. the software companies and technology companies.

vodafone, i have been studying vodafone ever since christian was the ceo. i interviewed him and other people. they keep promising me jam tomorrow. not just vodafone, but it was an awful sector. >> it is the sector. >> most of the mobile world congress. >> the investment came through, but it is at 4g prices. it is a great offer and great for consumers. great for businesses. it is priced at 4g prices. >> i covered the 3g auctions and 4g auctions. it wass stunning for 5g. let's bring in our guest. i moved things around a bit, director, i hope that is okay. i want the telecom sector to be

amazing. you know this. every time someone says how about telecom? >> there may be other opportunities elsewhere. >> are you saying that now? >> in telecom, yes. it is not an area where we see it. >> is the income exciting? >> yes. there are other companies which provide income which don't have the competitive pressure. i think it is fair to say that technology has improved expenses to a certain point. there are other competitive pressures which they had to deal with which is the issue. >> if you take a different approach and allowed consolidation, would you change the sector with fresh eyes? >> we would look at the sector, clearly, but there are more

opportunities which are interesting over revamping an old legacy sector. >> that is telling. can we put vodafone up, roger? thank you very much. what is amazing is you could have lahad an awful issue. no one -- look at that. you could not have a flatter stock. no one is surprised by this. >> the regulator has not been looking at the performance of stocks or investment of concern. it is all about the consumer. that is the argument from the sector. it is a one-way direction. >> you term younger than me. i remember when i first got my mobile phone in the early '90s. i had to carry the brick for my traders. if i hold one, i look cool down to the market. i looked like wally holding two of the phones. of all of the things i spend money on every month, i love the

value from my mobile phone. i get to carry a personal computer and it is cheap as chips. >> isn't that the point? >> absolutely. the regulators got this wrong. >> the reality is the journey you are enjoying with your phone is one benefitting other sectors. the chip providers and mobile phone company which created the device. should we talk about that? >> we have to move on and come back. shall we move on to the shoe companies? nmnike warned that revenue woul fall in the first quarter and the strategy is not as expected. nike ee could be in for a boost after they are the official

supplier to the football industry. can i pick this up? to me, there was a broader conversation with a rrepricing f assets with the consumer strategy. a lot of investors thought this is a way to reprice a lot of the stocks with a better multiple if you have a d-to-c business. nike is saying it is not as profitable. is this a warning sign? >> we have to look at pricing power. pricing power is important for companies. if you look at the consumer sector, consumer discretionary and consumer goods have to do better than staples. it is difficult with price increases. between the two sectors, luxury is a better pond to fish in. >> we just heard from karen this

week that gucci sales are lower. not the same level of interest across the asian mpacific marke as we thought. >> we know china in particular is having problems in terms of the economy and in terms of the propensity to save and also in japan, consumption has been slow. we still think in the long term without looking at difficulties in the short-term, that there is value in luxury stocks. particularly that could be a good entry point. >> there are lovely ideas you have given us in your notes. let's go to the tech story. that dove tails from the previous conversation about other places that look interesting. you have been doing work on the valuations now and i don't know

if i mentioned the turn of the certainty. how does it look? >> we get conversations with customers about technology companies compared to the tech bubble. we looked at valuations and there are a couple of differences. if we take the top four stocks during the stock bubble of the 1990s, the stock is on a trading pe basis. it is around 80 times. it is high valued. if you look at the s&p excluding the stocks, the s&p was on 23 times. today, the top seven, magnificent seven that everyone refers to, trading basis on 40 times and the s&p excluding those on 21 times. the tech sector leaders are half the valuation they were in the 1990s. the big difference also is the quality of the companies.

the companies today are managed by people with experienced and the companies themselves have an huge track record. back then, there was hype and management was not experienced and a lot of the companies were young. not proven. we don't want to dispute that valuations are elevated. the s&p excluding tech at 21 times is not cheap. we are not at euphoric levels. >> you called out opportunities in the tech space and say semiconductor tech chain. a lot of partnerships and pieces of the puzzle as well as healthcare. everyone is talking about the healthcare industry to benefit the most. talk about the sectors. >> now we are on the sector front. for technology, the supply chain of semiconductors from the chip

design to the manufacturing equipment and to the foundry is benefitting from the cyclical and secular trends. cyclical because the sector is seeing greater demand. prices are increasing and secular because of all of the a.i. applications. with respect to healthcare, we are looking at the convergence in biological sciences and combined with the advancement, the healthcare sector has suffered after covid a lot of write offs. prices have come down. we think the opportunity there in terms of the defensive sector is attractive. >> the bank of japan was interesting. not as interesting as the snb. i'm fascinating for what it means for equities. they had a terrific run. the dollar surging against the yen as well.

the bonds are getting more attention. what does it mean for equities? you like them? >> yes. we had an overweight position in japan for almost 18 months. >> that's worked out nicely. >> it has. you don't want to get things wrong once you get them right. we asked if it is a good investment case. it is. what attracted us to japan is better profitability for the corporate sector. since then, the corporate governance reforms happened and a number have taken measures to improve the total dgovernance. there has been a revamping of the nippon savings scheme. making it more interesting for households to invest in the stock market. japanese households hold more than half of the assets in cash

because the market was so bad. there was no point in investing in the stock market. the amount of cash is huge. it is almost twice the size of the japanese economy. if you think of just a little bit of the cash finding its way to the stock market, it could underpin further. valuations are not stretched, but still a tttractive means the are legs to the story. >> i love the comment of the japanese investor is the life of the party with the gains on the stock market. we see gains from the ftse 100 this week. it looks like it has found a leg higher. cracked 7,900. is there more to go? >> well, there's a lot of value in uk equities. they are cheap. >> you could have said that for five years. >> yes. it is difficult to see really a catalyst which can make the

stock market perform on a sustainable basis. the performance of the ftse 100 has been disappointing for years. so, a little bit of a bump upwards is possible. we have the general elections. perhaps there will be a change in terms of the relationship with the trading partners which could be positive. it may take months. there are some stocks, particularly with respect to global leaders listed here, or takeover candidates are attractive. we are seeing a lot of the corporate sector coming to pick some stocks up. i think it is a better opportunity to invest in a basket of stocks ready to be taken over than to invest in a broad ftse. >> especially the telecom. lovely to see you. thank you very much for that. the head of investment strategy

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and to use that to help ukraine. that's the proposal that most are in countries in belgium or northern ireland. >> the question on iereland taking responsibility? >> i never had a question on ireland over free defense. what we say to them is we want to bring something to the table. >> the outgoing prime minister

of the republic of ireland talking to reporters in brussels. let's get to silvia who is digesting the ones speaking and what we are expecting from the meeting. silvia. >> reporter: there's a lot happening here in brussels. you mentioned we were hearing from the prime minister of ireland. most of us, when you look at the subject matter, what is important for the audience is knowing there is a political agreement among the 27 heads of state to go ahead and use the proceeds of russian frozen assets in europe to support ukraine. we are talking about 3 billion euro annually to be used to supply arms to ukraine. the head of the european commission did say yesterday if all goes well, the first cash could be used for the purpose as early as july.

we know ukraine is desperate for new ammunition and air defense systems. president volodymyr zelenskyy made that very clear. from the conversations i had with the leaders this morning, the prime minister of belgium told me that he was surprised how soon the 27 heads of state came together to agree on this specific proposal. here's what else he had to say. >> on the belgium side, we are ready to use the taxation and proceeds and isolated pattern and given that completely to ukraine, but on the proceeds themselves, what is important was there is enough macroeconomics stability making sure it is bulletproof from the legal standpoint and not have macroeconomics impacts that would be too hard to digest. i feel confident that the

commission has done the proposal well on how to use the proceeds. the issue today is ammunition. i would love to reinvest in reconstruction. it is pointless if you are losing the war. >> reporter: there is a sense of urgency among the member states to focus and deliver more when it comes to the overall european sectors. the leaders said they are giving the green light to the european investment bank to also lend to projects to invest spending. it is an unprecedented move for the institution. they went as far as having another conversation on using joint borrowing to prop up the defense sector going forward as well. the president of the european commission made it clear this was an initial conversation. we cannot exclude the idea

resurfacing in the upcoming meetings. the leaders are taking a family photo which is why you see a lot of movement behind me. they will taking photos with the leaders of lichtenstein and other countries. i had a chance to speak with one who said he recognize there is is this urgency among the 27 eu leaders to deliver and do more when it comes to the defense. listen in. >> russia has developed a full-scale war economy. that is not how we do it in europe. we have to scale the way with that industry to provide our own access to the defense industry and also to be able to support

other countries. that is happening now as we speak. from the norwegian side, we have been taking part in the big european endeavors to provide new production. it is norwegian technology defending citizens of ukraine from attacks coming from the air. i'm hopeful and i would stress with all the seriousness required that we have to step up our efforts and we have to do itting together. i see it happening. >> reporter: another thing in mind for the conversations about to start today is the question of agriculture and the expectation that the eu is going to impose tariffs on russian grain. this is a political topic because some members have been worried about food prices in europe. we know inflation has been a

problem for a long time now. indeed after what has been two years of this invasion in ukraine, they are now dpbe gearp for the tariffs on russia. i have to conclude by saying this is their last formal meeting. the last meeting where they are expected to take decisions before the european elections in early june. guys, it is campaign mode, no doubt. >> silvia, thank you very much. i'll take you back to the reddit ipo. we heard that cathie wood's ark invest bought 9.982 shares of reddit on the new york stock exchange. >> wow. did you say 9,900? >> yes. >> that's a hell of a chunk.

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stoxx 600 inching lower despite the gains on the ftse. this after the wall street sees more record highs. nike slides pre-market on the disappointing guidance dragging others lower in early trade. apple shares closed down 4% after the department of justice sues the giant claiming it has a monopoly over the phone market. and galderma shares open higher on the market debut. 15% in the green as switzerland's biggest listing since 2017 tests the european appetite for ipo. in european stock markets,

it has been trading for a half hour. the ftse 100 has gone through 9,700 points. we are now seeing a little bit of red on the boards early on. it is not as much as the initial starting point and some of the market is trading in the gleree. we have seen movement. here in europe, the ecb guiding with a spring rate cut. bank of england talking about the potential for cuts on the horizon. a lot of messaging. the big one is the fed that we are on script for the rate cuts stateside. a positive signal and as a result, we climbed to fresh reports on the stoxx 600 as we drift off that level today. we are seeing it on the dax in germany over the course of the trading week. let's look under the hood at the individual trades. mostly in the red at the start. this is evening up as we move

through the initial trading session. technology at the bottom. down .9%. household goods with kering on the back of the luxury names. chemicals are trading down. telcos and the attempt to consolidate the mobile phone market and they have five days to come up with a negotiations with the regulator or face a deeper investigation. media stocks is .4% up. stocks on the move at this hour, these are the big ones for the friday session. phoenix group. 7.9% on the upside. grifols is 3% higher. edp on the move. weaker trade this morning. jd sports is reversing 4%. christian dior is in the red in

the luxury space. let's move on to lvmh and antonio belloni is stepping down. the second in command will depart next month after 23 years at the company. behind a lot of the success of the company. he is set to be succeeded by the head of watches and jewelry. the stock is down 3.5%. spain's main market says there is no evidence that drugmaker grifols reported inaccurate debt levels following the accusation from gotham city research. the regulator said there were deficiencies provided by grifols, but these were not significant enough to require accounts to be restated. steve. apple lost more than $100 billion of the market cap after the u.s. department of justice

sued thursday accusing it from preventing hard hware and softwe f features being accessed. karen. according to data from the irish central stats office. michael joins us now. the ceo of ida island. >> great to be heerp. >> the good news is the shop this week and the friendly face for business investment. does that dent the history of ireland for investment? >> i spent last week with him in the u.s. and in new york and in d.c. it doesn't dent it. what we have in ireland is a pro

enterprise policy with pro government. we will see the shock. i think it underlines the irish political system. >> ireland cleverly played the tech story. big u.s. tech titans cleaned up with market share with every consumer facing business that has been disrupted. ireland has bhad a slice of the pie. what do we talk about with the a.i. race? it is the same companies inn know he s innovating with a.i. >> if you roll back the clock two decades ago, it is a different situation. across technology today with financial services and high value engineering brings a core of enterprise that under pin th modern economy.

the future is digital and sustainability. it is green and digital. that will be key focus for how companies bring in the tech technology. we have to do it in a sustainable manner. we have to look at the energy supply. in ireland, we have an ambition in terms of the green energy. the biggest national resource in the world with offshore wind. we are looking over the next two decades to bring on offshore wind. >> i had the pleasure of visiting ireland professionally all my career. the last 20 years, you know it better than i do. the write up in the "galaic tiger." it has been an extraordinary journey. putting on the conversation. you go down and see the amazing

tech hubs. what has ireland got in terms of attracting technology companies compared to what it used to have? let's be honest. one of the things ireland had was the amazing corporate tax regime which drew in the apples and big u.s. companies. there are rules in place to negate that. >> there is a manufacturing company that comes to invest for a particular future. one is not tech, but talent and people. you can have the most important tax system in the world, if you haven't got the people to bring the business forward to develop the products and verservices, t business doesn't thrive. not only do we develop our own scale of talent internally, we take the approach on the progress of a.i. over a decade ago in terms of what it means

for the research perspective. finally, as well, we are an open economy. we are attracting skills. very attractive location to become part of a career. >> i know and you know and we all know that ireland's population, young population, are some of the best travelers on the planet. they love to get their education and go off to the states and come off to the uk and other areas as well. getting them back is sometimes the problem for ireland. >> i think travel is good. for irish people, we always had two choices. stay where we were and locked in. we know what that has done for a number of generations or we look outwards. that means not just in terms of our people, but to come back with the expertise. we had advocates all around the

world as to why ireland. in terms of attracting ireland, irish people attract others from other locations. you now have opportunity and just to say it is not just dublin. ireland across the economy's regional development. you have opportunities for the balance and quality of life. >> address that more. that has been any capital city. london and paris as well. dublin has had the same problem. i know cork. historical historically, has it been a problem? >> it is always attracted to large centers. that's a trend. for us as an organization, we are very deliberate to balance region development. we made a statement of 50% of the investment is outside of the cap capital. we are seeing that come true. last year in the numbers, 54% of

investment were outside of dublin. the people employed by the companies, 52% are outside of dublin. we are seeing that not just in terms of numbers, but substance. that is having a massive impact in the region. >> over the last few areas, we spent time looking at the irish map and the northern sea wall thanks to brexit. how are things progressing? has ireland been a beneficiary or not? >> first of all, brexit was a disruptor for everyone. for ireland, it was disruptive. the uk is our biggest trading partner. i think the reestablishment of the assembly in northern ireland and i mentioned last week where it was great to see the deputy

and the ministers on the stage in d.c. talking about that opportunity. for my perspective, we see the advantage coming forward. northern ireland has a unique opportunity with the trade agreement from the uk and europe. that can be for the benefit of the whole of ireland. >> super to see you. it is good to hear the latest on the irish development. thank you very much for your time. congrat lulations on the six nations. >> thank you very much. >> you didn't win the grand slam? >> sorry. >> i can't remember why? anyone? irish director in my ear? i can't remember. >> to get grand slams back-to-back is difficult. kudos to england. >> amazing game. lovely to see you, michael. the ceo of ida ireland.

coming up on the show, vodafone gets the call as the mobile provide faces the heat from breakdown of the penalotti deal. we break down that story next. 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 it takes less than 5 minutes for me to get all of my labels and get beauty in the hands of women who are battling cancer so much quicker shipstation the #1 choice of online sellers go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free 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

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united nations development program has launched the kids campaign. tanya caught up with the goodwill ambassador about the launch. the tell us about it. >> steve, thank you. undp launched a campaign. they have kids to do the weather forecast if no one takes climate action. they are saying the adults have to make the changes otherwise the kids will suffer. this is a new campaign that came out yesterday. i caught up with the actor and goodwill ambassador who was

filming in iceland when i chatted with him. i asked him what he wants the campaign to achieve. >> we do in the campaign is we basically have kids do a weather forecast in the year 2050. >> heatwaves will make play outside a thing of the past. >> if nothing, if no action is taken and we know will have more extreme weather patterns. you will see there is hope. it is not all doom and gloom, which you get the idea it is either/or. actually, this massive transition is happening all over the world. we need to do more. if you look at what has happened since the last 10-to-15 years and especially since the paris agreement in 2015, we have come a long way. >> do you feel the cop meetings

are relevant? >> this is such a massive thing. i think what is incredible is everybody shows up and everybody wants to achieve something and i wish it was happening quicker. i wish there was more that the writing was stronger, if you will. the fact is we are moving in the right direction. it is all connected and it is about security. we have seen that with the conflicts in europe now. suddenly, energy and access to oil and gas is a very political tool which is not ideal. that is another reason why you can use that argument to say let's go renewable. we have one less problem to deal with. >> he was talking about the latest campaign from the united

nations development program. >> there has been a child at the forefront and now a young woman who had been at the forefront of climate action plans. that is greta thuneberg as well. how is it time for others to pick up the mantle? to keep the youth engaged, is that the plan? >> to keep the youth engaged and if the message is not getting through, it is from the kids to the adults. where are you going with this? the pressure is on you to take action. i think greta, as you brought her up, has been key in terms of awareness. >> yet, business and investment appears to be -- some business. a lot of business are going. there is fatigue in the world at the moment. >> that's right, steve.

that is why the undp had to come up with something new. that's why they use the kids and the weather forecast with a different take on it. this is what could happen. the adults have to take the decisions now. unfort unfortunately, there is a lot of narrative in the field. there is fatigue. they will keep going. if you don't wake up, this is what could happen. >> and it could be the economy or higher interest rates and the real-term effects impacting the younger generations. the millennials were investing in a different way to gen xers than baby boomers. if you look at the survey data, esg investing among millennials to gen zen has plummeted from the years before. we have a younger generation

coming to the market with a different attitude with climate change. that could impact the investing in ten years time. >> that is right, karen. economic living will always impact. >> thank you. have a lovely weekend. irish green. you missed st. paddy's day. i hope they have something on tap this afternoon. >> usual time? >> i used to frequent that place when i lived ynearer to you. not anymore. >> how do you get out of that one? >> i'm home with the kids today. reddit shares surge 70% on the stock market debut closing at $50 per share. this is now the fourth largest on the u.s. exchange this year. speaking with cnbc following the debut, the ceo steve hoffman

talked about the chance to buy stock through a shared program. >> i want our investors to be users. i love our users to be investors. we are all building this together. we are building the platform and we get to build the company, too. it is a privilege. the uk competition market will launch a probe into the vodafone merger unless the concerns are resolved. the regulator is concerned about reduced quality. the two have five working days to respond. we have been debating this off camera. what do you get is scale 27 million subscribers and whether there are remedies with investors causing the sale of

spectrum or the scale of dollars. this is interesting. the other point i made off camera is is there a playbook with microsoft and blizzard of the companies showing remedies. they did ultimately let it go through. >> i don't know. what seems fascinating is the market reaction. to see the deal referred, potentially, in five days means this could be bad news unless everybody was ready for it. two or three things may be happening. one, maybe some of theshorter closing out. a horrible run for the company as well and moving down to 64 p from the highs of the last five years over 1 pound and 50. vodafone knew this next phase was happening. they said in the response to this today. maybe they have some remedy in

place to the cma. the next five days is fascinating. >> 51% of the combined business. >> have a lovely weekend. from karen and myself, that is the end of "squawk box." i'll be reor cplofhe f aoue months. we have more coming up after this break on the german economy. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free. switch to shopify and sell smarter at every stage of your business. take full control of your brand with your own custom store. scale faster with tools that let you manage every sale from every channel.

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it is 5:00 a.m. here at cnbc global headquarters. i'm frank holland and here is your "five@5." we start with breaking through records. wall street looking to close out the best week in months, but could reinflation fears put a dent in the record rally? one regulator and $113 billion wiped out in a single day. we look closer to apple and the crackdown. and big pop in reddit since pinterest. is the stock a facebook rival or the next red-hot a.i. play or something in