Closing Bell

Frederic Oudea, CEO of Societe Generale, told CNBC, "the beginning of the year is probably better than anticipated, clearly we ended 2011 with a lot of fear on the euro zone, I think there are some positive signs, there are still challenges ahead but overall a little bit more positive."

Dr. Ahmed Heikal, chairman, Citadel Capital, told CNBC, "it is clear that we have another five months to go in Egypt's political process, we have achieved the first step which is to have a democratically elected parliament, but we still have a constitution to write and then after that there is a presidential election."

The economic slowdown in the European Union is affecting Russia somewhat but with oil prices still high, the impact is not all that big, Arkady Dvorkovich, chief economic advisor to the Russian President, told CNBC. "We're seeing impact in terms of demand reduction, oil prices are still high... the physical demand for our commodities is going down," he said.

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, told CNBC, "I don't think it's panic at all, I think it's a carefulness to try and support the markets but what I would try and bring to the policy table is not just the day by day reaction to the markets but I am trying to focus on some of the structural changes."

The dogs of the Dow is one of the best known dividend investing strategies, but after giving a boost to investor portfolios last year, the strategy is in the dog house so far in 2012, with CNBC's Jeff Cox.

George Soros, Soros Fund Management chairman, explains why the European debt crisis could be worse than the 2008 crisis in the U.S. While Europe has a common central bank, he points out, it has no common Treasury. By contrast, the U.S. had the authorities in place to deal with its financial crisis in 2008, he tells CNBC's Maria Bartiromo.