wt else there could be. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. ♪ happy wednesday, everybody. welcome to "street signs." i'm mandy drury along with frank holland and here are your headlines. the stocks are opening in the green as u.s. futures tread water ahead of the all-important cpi print. fitch downgrades its outlook from china from negative to stable. european chipmakers get a boost aftertsmc sales march

higher. whistle-blowing claims pile on with boeing. good morning, everybody. it's hump day. welcome to "street signs." let's take a look at the big heat map behind me where what the market tooketh away yesterday it cometh back. more on that in just a moment's time, but, of course, we're still very much in a holding pattern. we've got the cpi print coming out of the united states later on today. and tomorrow here in europe, we've got the ecb as well. let's take a look at the individual european markets for you, shall we? yesterday after quite the red day indeed, we saw losses of

0.9% to 0.1% for germany, france, and italy. today, good scores on the board. the xetra dax is up, ftse 100 by 0.6th as well. and resources, names such as bhp, because missiles are bounding higher, there's hopes the manufacturing is getting underway and finding its footing out there. it's all about the chips. not the delicious salty vinegary chips you eat on the couch. i'm talking about tmsc. its revenue, which beat expectations, that's following through to some really good gains for the likes of asml, infineon and others, the names you see in our european region.

technology, the leading. auto is up 1%. oil and gas moving to the upside there. indeed wti and brent actually fell in u.s. trade, but nonetheless have done very well so far this year and very much oscillating depending on what kind of news we're getting out of gaza and the ongoing cease-fire talks. we're going to be talking more with an israeli government spokesperson later on on our show on what is happening on that front. anyway, let's take a look at what's happening with futures. it's big inflation day out there, frank. we did get some commentary. the most recent commentary was governor bullard that he relates there could be three cuts this year. but bostic, who we do know is a hawk, he recommends there's the possibility of only one. it depends who you want to listen to. frank, different day, different message, but nonetheless, let's take a look at what's going on

in the world's second largest economy, shall we? >> cpi being closely watched. we continue to watch the u.s. futures throughout the morning tosee if there's any action. over to the news in china that you mention, china's ministry has hit out at fitch after they revised the country's rating at an a-plus. fitch's rating system fails to effectively reflect the policy of china's fiscal policy. fitch says it takes into account the public finance outlook amid certain economic prospects. fitch's revision leaves s&p and as the only one with a stable outlook on that country. here to discuss that and much more, duncan ridley. great to have you here. >> great to be here. >> there's a lot to digest when it comes to fitch. i want to talk about debt. this is fitch's numbers.

debt to gdp, 61% . in 2024. that's up incredibly from prepandemic where it was up 39%. is that a big issue or does china have a point,understand t fiscal policy? >> here's the thing. china has significant debt, local government debt and the public sector, and that's the sector it's trying to move away from in its current plan. >> is it confusing to you that you have the a-plus rating, but the negative outlook, i think some of only that is confusing to the members. how do you rate that? >> fitch is holding up a warning flag just in case. here's the thing. the vast majority of china's debt is owed to chinese

entities, chinese banks, financial institutions, china is not going to default on its own as state-owned institutions. i think what fitch is looking at is more of a growth risk. the issue is in restructuring the economy away from the old traditional sectors, china's going toward advance manufacturing. that's the big plan. growth is going to be a bit soft in the process. and that's why china is putting in more fiscal stimulus as far as trading, cash for clunkers plan, and that does drive up the public debt in the short term. >> this all comes as china is trying to find its footing economically speaking. yes, there are real pressure points out there fiscally and in the property sector. ip and production sales came out better than expected. mind you, the 5% target that came out, that still feels

rather much, don't you? >> i think fitch has got it about right. you have a downward drag especially from the property sector, the economy firing on two cylinders, let's say. exports has been surprisingly strong as well as industrial production. consumption, a bit undercooked, i would say, coming out of the reopening. there are pockets of strength like tourism. so you have this sort of investors, i would say, amgd a disappointing recovery we've seen from china since reopening. that's partly, frankly, because the government has saidwe're not going to go for a big credit stimulus. instead we're going for this restructuring plan that tries to wean away china's dependence on some of the old sectors which require lots of credit, lots of debt. what that means in the interim

is that now, sure, even with a bit of fiscal stimulus growth, it's likely to be a little lower. >> been there, done that, don't want to do it again. so what does the chinese government have to do now to mitigate an actual downgrade and how likely do you think an actual downgrade would be? >> i mean, i don't think an stonew actually downgrade is definite. china owes debt to itself. but there are pockets which are likely to see defaults, you know. >> property. >> property is the case in point. >> but what are the other sectors? we talked about country garden and a number of other companies. what are the other areas at risk right now? >> well, there are some of the financial institutions, some of the small local banks. china has 4,000 banks. a lot of tiny local banks.

many are more exposed to the property sector. we're already seeing some pressures there in terms of rising bank debts. another area, smes. a lot of those have been really struggling coming out of the reopening. still struggling now. government is throwing more money at it. >> state firms, local governments. china have been bailing out a number of local government municipalities. >> you have off-sheet debts. and in the lacking regions, you are seeining default pressures. >> you're alsoa chief economist. i want to talk about another sector. as you've seen other

manufacturing move to like vietnam, how does that play out when it comes to china growth? consumers don't seem to be spending, yet manufacturing is still ramping up. >> it is. it's growing at 7%. >> is that logical? that doesn't seem like a logical situation. there's overcapacity in china when it comes to solar panels and evs. i'll talk to someone from ch china's beige book and they'll say consumers don't have confidence. >> exports, relatively strong. there's a risk there. they're exporting to nontraditional markets and also new products like electric vehicles instead of panels. domestic demand is a bit weak. where the government is trying to stoke things up is in terms of capital investment. the manufacturing sector,

infrastructure investment. the logical consequence of o oversupply. prices are falling. prices are continuing to export falling prices. >> which keeps inflation down in other countries, but i have to ask you. we've seen a series of disappointments when it comes to china's recovery since they liftsed the covid lockdown policies. we wonder if this time is real as we see china try to find its footing. it's important for the rest of the world that the world's second largest economy does find their footing. is it real? is the dawn coming? >> i think the dawn is coming, but it's going to be a slow dawn frankly. >> because of headwinds and demographics and the shift away, the china plus one strategy? >> all of these things and moving away.

it takes a few years, frankly, for china to get back onto kind of a self-sustained footing. in the meantime, you know, china is going to keep propping up growth, but it will be through government support, fiscal stimulus, monetary support as well. so i think from an investor standpoint, there's two things. one is a medium term. it's going to be a medium term story. but i think in the short term there is a surprise as some of the fiscal stimulus comes into the economy and the headline figures. >> we'll have to look out for that. duncan wrigley, chief china plus economist, thank you very much. we're going to turn to the world's biggest economy. we're looking for a key inflation report due today with the fed said to be frustrated with its attempts to hit its target. it's set to be 0.3% and the core figures would leave it at 3.4%

on an annual basis. traders continue to be uncertain over the fed's rate-cutting path with over 60% expecting a cut in june. that's according to the cme fed futures. >> coming up on the show, we'll discuss what to expect northwest with nvidia in correction. that's coming up next. stay with us. pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation/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. and sell more with the best converting checkout on the planet. a lot more.

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all right. welcome back to "street signs." bytedance profit roeportedly ha surged 620% according to rivals ten cents and alibaba. bytedance's scrutiny in the u.s. with lawmakers seeking to ban tiktok in the country unless it sells the platform. tsmc shares are up almost 1.5% after they surged manufacture than a third after the sale in march, adding up to 1 195, $21 billion. google is setting out the

details of its new center called actionion. it will enable it to compete with firms like nvidia. intel is announcing its new gaudi chip. the hardware will be available to customers in q3. well, nvidia shares are recouping some losses the premarket trade after slipping in negative territory, a drop of 10% or more, thissin on the bacf the positives of tsmc and their rivals. investments into ai could be crowding out non-ai. some could still see some growth again this year. . joining us to discuss it more is david choi.

david, good of you to join us. i'd like to ask you a quick question on nvidia. the correction we've seen, is this a much needed breather or the start of something bigger? >> hi, mandy. good to be here. well, you're talking about the stock price. in the next year we expect it to be pretty strong? >> why? >> there's back orders, way oversupply, and that's going to continue. we've heard from customers they can't get enough of the gpus right now. that's the fundamentals that's still strong and we expect it to continue for the next few years. >> let's talk about something that might have influence over the next success tore.

that's the c.h.i.p.s. act. they have supply chain resiliency and depend less on fabrication in parts of asia such as taiwan, home of tsmc. what implications, though, does that have for the sector? >> the c.h.i.p.s. act is very important because without it, the private firms will not be incentivized enough or economically viable to build jobs in the u.s. so it's a great first step. so if you think of success that way, it is already a success. but if you also think about how expensive these fabs are to build in the u.s., they cost -- for leading-edge fabs, they cost at least tens of billions. so $52.7 billion of c.h.i.p.s. act money is not enough for this to be a successful program, but it is a good first step for u.s. to at least attract firms to

build fabs on u.s. soil. >> frank holland here. you mentioned customers can't get ahold of u.s. chips. that becomes a bit of a logjam when people are trying to build out their data centers. what do you think about companies that build their own chips like amazon and google. long-term, how does that shape your ability as far as ai? >> there are a few things. i think building out ai requires a lot of cpu chips, a lot of memory. if you think about the hyperscalers that amazon, microsoft, and google, they have a lot of arm chips accelerators, and they're all very much in demand now. they don't have to be built in the u.s., but because of what

we've experienced through covid with the supply chain disruptions, they want to make this a national security interest and priority to build fabs in the u.s. i think they're inter-related, the c.h.i.p.s. act and building chips in the u.s. and also to meet the insatiable demand of ai chips. >> if you look at the price targets on nvidia, they're all over the maps. some people have the stocks doubling, some have it moving incrementally. in your mind as we see these other big tech companies build their own chips, does that change how we should build microsoft and the excitement around this particular company? >> i think the excitement is warranted. we hear from the whole industry that ai is here and it's going to be more -- there's going to be more growth going forward. so the demand is real. ai is real. there will be productivity gains

from it. it's not going to be a straight line though. nvidia, while they continue to grow, competition will also intensify, so you're hearing it from the customers too. they don't want to be solely reliant upon nvidia's cpu chips, so the customers will have to design their own chips to diversify or reduce their reliance on nvidia. i think this is something to be expected. it's not going to be a straight line. our view is the whole industry, the semiconductor industry will benefit from it. >> we're about to start the earning season in the united states. i spoke to a number of analysts and strategists. they say, right now we need to is see some impact of the whole ai story. will we see the impact of ai or higher margins? how do we see the actual impact? we can say it's real, but what's the real impact? >> right. i think it will come in stages. in the early stages is the build-out of ai infrastructure,

and we already see that from nvidia, microsoft, and some of the companies that are starting to monetize ai, for example, co-pilots. but different companies will monetize or benefit from it differently. some will have actual use cases and they will have new products and they can generate more revenue and cash flow from it. some will adopt the ai capabilities to improve their products just to -- just to be more competitive compared to everybody else that are using the ai capabilities. so i think it will be uneven. your question about whether or not this earning season we're going to see some ai benefit, i think it's still too early. that except for the hardware and the semiconductor companies that we're already seeing benefits from, but the software stack, i think that will come because the use cases are still not quite there yet. >> all right. a bit of a show me quarter when it comes to the earnings season.

david tsui. i'm going to call you an nvidia bull. thank you very much. richard teng says the company has moved past culture issues after it was hit with a fine of more than $4 billion to settle a case against the u.s. department of justice. bitcoin is down almost 5% from yesterday's highs. arjun is here after doing a stellar interview. i got to hear some of your comments. >> well, look. binance is such an interesting story. the world's largest crypto exchange got into big trouble with the department of justice. some of the things they brought up is not having the right level of checks when it comes to anti-money laundering, knowing your company, et cetera. but one of the biggest issues dj had was the culture. they talked about cz, that he bought in this culture where it

was better to ask for forgiveness later rather than ask for permission. this is something i asked to the new ceo, richard teng, a few months into the job. i asked him how do you go about changing the culture of the company. let's listen in. >> you need to know how to operate in that sphere. secondly, institution investors. we should understand all the regulations and users and investors coming true. i think now in 2024, i understand we're at a very early stage. one third of the global regulators are regulating in this space, two-thirds are not. again, there's this illusion of development. there's no clarity on that. binance was operating in a certain fashion, right? we have moved past that. >> richard teng saying this was issues of the past of a startup still trying to grow very

quickly and actually the company has matured. they're working closely with regulators and are hoping to be a lot more compliant. richard teng, a former regulator himself. he knows how to bring the company into a more mature stage. >> a serious question. how much of it was binance's -- the move first, ask for forgiveness later, how much of it related to guardrails? >> as a startup, that is the mentality. i think a part of it is lack of regulation and santa claraty around the laws. and part of it is, of course, a culture. now, one of richard teng's biggest issues is the old guard at binance is still very much in the company, and so how can he enact that kind of change. >> while i've got you, arj, they say hong kong is likely to

approve a spot bitcoin etf -- actually etfs, plural, and some launches come this month. what are your thoughts on this? >> hong kong has been sort of the test bed, i guess, for china in terms of crypto after its crackdown over the past few yours. you've seen the hong kong regulators be open to cryptocurrency and trading and sort of the blockchain and web3 industry. so it would be a huge deal, i would say quite a large set if they were to approve it. this scene will happen in the u.s. they've seen this demand for such products. so that perhaps is what's informing hong kong let's move. >> a huge step. according to this report. the announcement was as early as next week, would make hong kong aza's first cityan offer and faster than industry's expectations of launches

sometime later on this year. >> of course, that market, given what we've seen and the wipeout of some of the values of giants, it's looking for new ways to bring in investors. and clearly given the excitement around crypto, perhaps this is one of the ideas. >> all very exciting. that thank you so much, arj. perfect timing. >> i just popped up. >> it's the sixth sense. coming up on the show, u.s. president joe biden brands is israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu actions on war a mistake. we're going to be joined by avi hymam, the israel government spokesman, next. what is cirkul? cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your

way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. 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 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

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fishdown grades from negative to stable citing the risks of finances. tsmc sales march higher, surging more than a third on the year, and boosting at a time in u.s. premarket trade. there's an investigation into boeing whistle-blowing claims. let's take a look at the european markets for you. we've got some lovely green on the screen. normally we would say it should give us some kind of idea of where we might be going with regard to u.s. interest rates, and, of course, the ecb decision tomorrow as well, you would normally say we're in a

low-volume holding pattern. no, we're seeing them voting with their feet. very good gains across the board. the ftse 100 is up by half a percent and only a hair. only a hair away from cracking the 8,000 mark once again and a particularly good gain there for the xetra dax up by 0.8%. we're seeing chipmakers and basic resources like bhc, rio tinto opening on gains and keeping the mood buoyant here in european trade today. the eurodollar is currently sitting at 108.58. very low volatility out there if the forex markets of late, much to traders' chagrin. the dolladollar/swiss holding.

dollar/yen can't seem to get above 152 or 151. very much holding patterns for forex there. 151.85 on the board. there's always a threat of intervention. i don't mean verbal intervention which we get almost every single day, but physical intervention from japanese authorities which ma i be stopping the dollar/yen from cranking up at least from the sustainable 152 mark. the australian dollar is holding about 66 u.s. cents. really got a lift in overnight trade as metals continue to push higher. as for u.s. futures, the implied open at this stage of the game is looking like it's going to be slightly positive. this is after we saw yesterday a mixed close. the dow falling ever so slightly. it's about 2.5% off its record-high, isn't it, the dow. the s&p 500 is about 1% off the record high.

sitting at lofty levels if not at their record peaks. frank? >> president biden has criticized prime minister netanyahu and his handiling of the war in gaza. there are an e estimated 1.4 million palestinians believed to be sheltering in the city. more than 33,000 have been killed with around 76,000 reported injured. the israeli military says at least 256 soldiers have been killed and an estimated 133 hostages are believed to still be in gaza. joining us now to discuss more of this developing situation, avi hyman, government spokesman for israel. avi, good to have you here. good morning. >> hi, frank. thanks for having me on. >> i think we have to talk about what's going on right now. we mentioned some of the tensions between the u.s. and

israel about this possible operation in rafah. how does israel balance national security and humanitarian concerns with youral lyes including u.s. and europe, very concerned about the impact of the operation? >> frank, we didn't choose this war. we didn't want this war, be we need to fight this war. this is an existential war for our very existence. on october 7th, people have forgotten, hamas ripped through, raping little girls, burning families. >> we understand the violence, of course. the violence is terrible. but there is a serious humanitarian concern. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has announced this operation will go on despite other allies advising against it. >> frank, we need to move on rafah for the simple reason, the

last four hamas battalions, we've taken out close to 20 of them. if we were to leave them there, then we would leave hamas in power. they would take back control of the gaza strip, do what they say they want to do, which is october 7th again and again and again. now, we understand the humanitarian issues that hamas has caused with the start of this war. that's why we will do in rafah what we did in the north of gaza and the center of gaza. people didn't understand. there are so many people in rafah because we enabled them to get out of the line of fighting because our fight was with hamas, not the people of gaza. we'll move the civilians out of harm's way in rafah. we'll move on to destroy the last four hamas battalions, and i'll remind you, there are 133 israeli hostages, men, women, and children being held sfwents their will in gaza. we can't leave a single stone unturned until we find them and

bring them home. that includes american citizens, british citizens, people taken against their will, a crime against humanity. they need to be reunited with their families. >> lawyers say civilian casualties have been exacerbated by hamas' practices of putting civilians in the way of supply areas dhouchl you respond to growing accusations of the national community of genocide? >> mandy, this is an outrageous lie against our armies. experts have said israel military goes out of their way to avoid cua they not only inflate the numbers, but make up the numbers. john kirby from the white house have said the americans have checked out all accusations against us, that we're

essentially breaking humanitarian law, and they have found no evidence israel is doing that. this is or very core, our very dna, our very ethos. we will go after hamas and minimize civilian casualty because that's what we believe is the right thing to do. >> regardless, how does israel plan to win back public support not just from the international community but from at home as well where we're seeing ever-increasing levels of public dissatisfaction with the israeli government? >> mandy, i'm proud to be an israeli, in a vibrant democracy, where people protest every day about all types of things. i wouldn't blow it out of proportion. the last part of israel stands with the government. definitely a large, large part supports the war aims, to win the war, bring home hostages, and make sure hamas doesn't bring a threat to us.

you have to see we have issues with so many. a drone came all the way from iraq and hit an israeli target. all of the strings are being pulled by the terrorists in tehran. this is a royer for our very existence. we need to win this war for the sake of our children, for the sake of the children of gaza too. >> you're mentioning the future of not only israel, but gaza. something i want to talk about is support. you've gotten support from the u.s., but at the same time, they do not support this. the secretary of defense has said flat out that this operation has the potential to only increase the violence and it may possibly extend terrorist acts in the future. is that a concern here, in some way to mitigate it? >> we got a lot of the same warning a at the beginning of the war. we appreciate all the help and

support we've received from our allies, be it america, briton, and others, and we'll listen to advice from our friends. but at the end of the day, we're a sovereign country. we have serious issues to deal with, security issues, and we will move on with those. now, we believe thal the only way to do that is to destroy the 24 hamas battalions. that e operate like an army. we need to take them apart. we need to ensure that hamas in gaza is demilitarized, deradicalized, and there's a new type of palestinian leadership there that teaches their children about love, love of life. >> is there a potential for this operation to only further radicalize? >> no, no. i mean, people say that you can't kill an idea, and there's some truth to that. but i'll remind you, you know, there's still people who pretend to be nazis marching through the

streets of america with torches that they bought at bed, bath, and beyond. but there's no more nazi regime. the third reich was pulled down. that's what nights to be done. the hamas needs to be pulled down. they can't be in control of a territory, just like i.s.i.s. can't be in control of a territory. we will do that and do that as soon as possible. >> to frank's point about once you've achieved your goal of neutralizing hamas, what would take its place, and what would you say to the proposals from a number of countries that lasting peace could only come with a two-state solution? i do believe that we've lost avi. we will try to get him back, because we do want to continue this very important conversation. we've been speaking with avi hyman, government spokesman with israel. we would very much like to ask him, if we can get him back, about iran's iayatollah who reportedly said israel must be

responsible for the attack on the consulate . they have not taken any responsible for that. but i wanted to ask about that. >> i believe we have lost him, but another question we certainly wanted to ask him is about the cease-fire talks going on. i believe we did lose avi hyman, government spokesman for israel, but to recap, he said basically he believes the israeli government believes this is a step to deradicalize hamas and retake the territory. we've got to move on. we're going live with the wed keors ana ycp. 'll be right back. the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. shipstation saves us so much time

it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation/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 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. 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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hiring as they take on a supreme power. charlotte is with us now. in case you didn't know it was paris. i don't think anyone is being mistaken. it looks like spring has sprung over there. >> reporter: yes, it has. everything is getting ready as you were saying. next week with mark 100 days to the paris olympics. we spoke to the ceo of accor, premium partner of the games and europe's largest hotelier. they said they got asked to be partner back in spring 2020. it with us very tough for the hospitality industry in the middle of the pandemic. they were losing a lot of money at the time. they say this is too good of an opportunity that they just had to get involved. that is their home turf and a way to show case all the hotel has to offer. >> it's our home country.

we need to shine. we need to be the best, we need to respond. it's kind of a big test for me. here it's my showcase, my home. it's where we should be showing not only the best of the best, but many will be looking at france in terms of service, in terms of arrogance and obnoxiousness. we want to show we can be generous, warm, responsive, we can be who we are, i think nice people. >> and you'll be providing services to the villages. is that an opportunity for you to recruit and retrain staff as well? >> yeah. we're going to be managing -- it's huge actually. almost 95 different residentials. 73 for the athletes' village, which is 15,000 beds and another

23 buildings for the media, with is another 1,500 beds. we're going to have to be doing the cleaning and hiring. 700 people for that occasion only on those two sides. on top of that, we'll be hiring 300 people who are basically volu volunteering. my biggest wish is to keep all of those people after the events. at the end of the year, we'll probably offer a job with those who want to stay with us as we did in doha. >> there has been staff shortages. >> you know what? it's been a happy surprise. we had many more volunteers than we needed. the question is accommodations. people are volunteering to come from different european countries. even though they don't speak french, you need to train them, guide them. you need to host them. it's a difficult time to find a hotel room.

difficulty is asking somebody to work somewhere else other than their own home. >> that was sebastien bazin, ceo of accor. the olympics, a big game for them. all of this will very be good for them. the rebound of travel very much happened in 2023, set to continue in 2024. accor hoping to benefit from that. travel as well. they want to be like travel. they want to be a key player into some of the key brands. so very interesting interview. of course, the closest rendezvous would be the paris olympics, just 100 days away. >> if it means a summer in paris, i'll apply. is there recruiting? i don't care what i do. thanks a lot for joining us, charlotte. the federal aviation administration, the faa, has

confirmed it's investigating claims by an employee that they ignored claims around the 777. the whistle-blower faced retaliation. boeing says the claims are not accurate. boeing deliveries for the last month were below half the level recorded in 2024 -- or 2023 possibly as regulatory action and increased quality checks delayed production of the 777s. it has secured 107 orders for buses compared to 121 just a year ago. delta ceo ed bastien, you can catch that interview at 1:10

p.m. cte. tesco expects a further rise in profits from 2023. it expected operating profits of at least 2.8 billion pounds in 2024. sylvia has more, and it certainly seems very encouraging, some of the commentary coming out of tesco, seeing food inflation, coming down to low single digits later on this year. that would be great, wonuldn't it? >> a lot of positives there. that is reflective in some of the share price reaction thus far in the equity session. they are indeed suggesting that the inflationary pressures are receiving. and when it comes to their market shares, you see important numbers here. they have said that are strengthening their market share in the united kingdom. let's not forget they're the biggest grocer in the country. they saw volume increase by 53 basis points here. when it comes to their overall profits, it came in line with what the company had guided at

the start of this year. however, looking at the next year, they have slightly increased those expectations. and gnnaturally it's boosting stock around the company. tesco is the bellwether of what's happening in the uk economy. with that in mind, that i said they're seeing signs of improving consumer sentiment, so a positive there as if you're trying to look at the uk economy and the fact they've also increased their overall profit expectations for the next year is also a positive sign as you try to understand what are the dynamics for the uk economy. of course, worth keeping in mind, if you're an investor, the announcement is also very relevant they're increasing their buyback for the next year. potentially it will see a bank cut from the bank of england as well, but all in all as investors have put it, it's a positive message from tesco. >> they have a very optimistic

outlook, but they also cited rising competition in the uk as well. what airy are they facing competition in? >> they're still the number one player, but maybe we can share their reaction for the past five years. they've had to do a lot of work when it comes to fending off competition from new players such as aldi, and they have managed to do that so far. they have addressed some of the concerns with the cost of living prices by cutting their own brands, the price on their own brands significantly, but, of course, let's see how this will pan out. we know it is a very crowded space, and, of course, inflation is still a problem. it has receded, but it's not clear. >> and they've really singled out cocoa, right? coffee, much to everyone's chagrin. and potatoes as well. there's areas where inflation is still very sticky. i also thought it was interesting. they said, look, over the last

couple of years, we've all been conditioned to shop differently, to be more value-seeking in terms of the products we pie to put food on the flags. even as food inflation comes down, some of those habits might be hard to die. >> they've been quite clever at attracting the customer. that is also one of the -- the focus they have had in recent times, and that is clearly paying off by driving customers from other players. >> you're really threading the needle, taking the market share while still competing with some of the lower cost grocers and market expansion at the same time. that's a pretty neat trick. >> we ee see if it continues. we look at this stock for how much longer can they actually continue to surprise. >> have you been to a tesco next? >> where do you two shop? >> i love max's, whole foods,

mns. >> i'll go to all of them, whatever's more development. >> i don't think i have a favorite yet. i go to each one. uk grocery stores are very different than the u.s. the u.s. is a cornucopia of evidencing. at least in the city, it's quite a small selection of things. >> they do ready-made food v really, really well. >> one thing i can't find is where is the fresh meat and fresh fish. >> you have to go to the portuguese mom and pop store down on the corner. well, that's going to do it for today's show. i'm frank holland. >> and i'm mandy drury. "worldwide exchange" with the lovely frank holland is coming ayunt.ay nex st ted.

it is 5:00 a.m. an cnbc global headquarters. i'm frank holland. here's your "five@5." investors await the march inflation report and read the tea leaves on what it could mean for the fed's next move. the one voting fed president who says he's already expecting just one rate cut by the central bank this year, but he's open to the possibility of none at all. we see performer fed vice chair roger ferguson