that's it for tonight. an extraordinary interview. good afternoon from cnn hong kong and welcome to "world business today." i'm andrew stevens. >> and good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. these are the top stories on thursday, may 19th. a defiant dominique strauss-kahn resigns as imf chief. vowing to fight sexual assault charges with all his energy and strength. natural disasters, economic

aftershocks, japan enters recession for a third time in a decade. as industrial output freefalls and consumers hold on to their cash. and the crumbling foundations of a failed property market. we'll look at the wreckage left behind by ireland's housing crisis. facing multiple charges of sexual assault in the united states, the managing director of the international monetary fund has resigned. dominique strauss-kahn tendered his resignation just a few hours ago in a letter to the imf. in it he writes i want to protect this institution which i served with honor and devotion and especially, especially, i want to devote all my strength, all my time and energy to provingmy innocence. in his statement strauss-kahn strenuously denies the allegations against him that alleged he sexually assaulted a maid last saturday at a new york

hotel. he's still in a new york jail, his lawyers are going to court later on thursday to ask for bail. he's offering to post $1 million to stay in manhattan under house arrest, to wear an electronic device and surrendered his u.n. travel documents. prosecutors say they will oppose his bail request. the imf says that in the near future, it will explain how it goes about choosing a new managing director. in the meantime, the first deputy director, john lipsky will fill that role. let's go to john defterios. a sense of relief, perhaps, that the resignation has been tendered and now the process of finding a successor can begin? >> reporter: that's a fair comment, andrew. i almost look at it as book ends on both sides of the atlantic that stood up yesterday with the

calls for the resignation. timothy geithner, the u.s. treasury secretary and now here at the business summit of the finance ministers, the president of the european commission, jose manuel berrosso. that was the critical turning point on both sides of the atlantic for the managing director to step aside. the institution has built a higher profile under him which ironically was the reason he needed to step away because of the higher profile of the imf. >> there has been a mott of speculation, a lot of names have been brought up in relation to a successor. is there an obvious front-runner at this stage? >> i think we should look to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, andrew, i'm not trying to be cute here. it's a case where if the front-runner is out there too

early, it undermines their chances longer time for political reasons. christine lagarde is an obvious choice. she has extremely good relations in france and asia. angela merkel has put forward three candidates from the banking sector, leading economists, one of them being axel. and the secretary general of the oecd. he was in brussels yesterday filling the slot of dominique strauss-kahn by the way who could not make the keynote address at an economic forum here. >> do you think europeans are making a convincing case for a european to continue at the helm of the imf? >> well, i think after the banking crisis, andrew, we went from a g8 formula or context,

very quickly into the g20 which welcomed the money from the chinese into the imf, welcomed money from saudi arabia into the imf and added indonesia, turkey, mexico, to the mix. if there's a break with tradition, it would have to happen now because we've moved to a global economy with the emerging markets representing over half the growth and global output. let's not forget these emerging market economies are growing at 6.5%. this would send a phenomenal signal if they put a person at the top of the imf, perhaps a number two from the emerging markets is a likely scenario, i would say. >> all right, john, thanks very much for that interesting -- there was a lot of talk about the new world order in the wake of the global financial crisis back in 2008. we'll see how this plays out. john, thanks for that. john defterios, joining us live from brussels. nina. strauss-kahn's alleged

victim lives in the bronx. she's alarmed at the prospect that strauss-kahn might be released on bail. that lawyer, jeffrey shapiro tells cnn that the woman is under great emotional strain. >> i think she's doing remarkably considering what she's been through, starting with this attack. she's had not a moment of peace since then. she's not been able to go home. she's been separated from her daughter for a considerable period of time. she doesn't know what her future will be. she hasn't been able to get professional help of any sort. she's been subject to the interrogation and cooperation, i will say, of the new york city police department and the district attorney's office, had trouble sleeping. had to wear the same clothes for three days because she didn't have a change of clothes. but if someone would withstand all of that and keep her head held high and operate, she's been able to do it.

extraordinary. just how is france reacting to the news? we're joined from cnn's paris bureau. how is france reacting to this news? >> well, i think the french are expecting, of course, mr. strauss-kahn will face tomorrow the truest day about this affair which has been making the french amazed at what happens. we see the impact today. everybody thinks now even inside the socialist party, as you know, concerning the next presidential elections in france, 11 months away from now, mr. strauss-kahn was the big, huge fabric of that. even inside the socialist party today you see a lot of people taking a distance from dominique strauss-kahn and getting used to the idea right now that the man won't be running, that the man will face difficult challenges ahead and may be staying in new york for quite a while if he has

to face a trial. so we see the impact this morning in the polls. mr. strauss-kahn is out and now there is a top contender inside the socialist party, mr. holland, who becomes the favorite of the socialists, facing mr. sarkozy in this presidential campaign, which started with a lot of tension ahead as can be expected here. the french public opinion waits until tomorrow to see what's kept in store for mr. strauss-kahn and his future, not political future but his normal future. >> you mention a number of the polls. some polls are indicating that many french people think mr. strauss-kahn is innocent and that he could be a victim of a plot. tell us a bit about that. >> yes. it's true. still a lot of people thought mr. strauss-kahn, they don't understand, they said how is such a man like him, an intelligent man with so many

assets, heading the imf, one of the most powerful positions in the world, being the favorite in the next presidential elections, how could he fall into maybe a potential trap? and they don't understand. but at the same time, they have to get used to this idea that now the political future of mr. strauss-kahn is out. and it's true that he had a lot of supporters in this country to succeed mr. sarkozy and the french still don't understand why it happened this way. they think -- at the time when we are getting closer to the elections and that he was the favorite. a lot of people think some people had interest in having him fall into a trap for political reasons. but where would he come from? everybody wonders about that and still asks but we have no answers. it seems also that there is a

new debate in the press this morning, saying a lot of people in the political media, anybody in the press knew about mr. strauss-kahn' attitude towards women and especially sometimes behaving like somebody harassing women in private. i heard this morning, journalists saying and even women saying, working with strauss-kahn sometimes that even journalists went to interview him, woman, said when we wanted to meet mr. strauss-kahn we were trying to make sure we didn't come on somebody, we came with somebody. that's amazing, showing such a distress with strauss-kahn. the question is why did these people talk before and wait until today when mr. strauss-kahn appear? we have to be careful, appear guilty and talk now this way? it's amazing. >> thanks very much for your views. cnn analyst from francois television talking to us about

all of those rumors that are in the press. we must stress, andrew, at this point, we don't have any confirmation about any of these other stories. andrew? >> absolutely. okay, nina. there is one other big story in asia that people are focusing on this thursday. it's clear the balance of economic power in the region is shifting ever further away from japan. japan's economy shrank by 0.9% quart ir-on-quarter in the first three months of this year. that's the second quarterly contraction in a row. the gdp is down by 3.7% and the march 13th disaster is only partially to blame. we have the full details just ahead. meanwhile, the nikkei has taking a bit of a hit from that economic data this trading day, given the contraction is almost twice what analysts had been forecasting. let's take a look at the broad numbers across this region. starting in japan, the nikkei down by about 0.5%, the hong

kong index adding 0.66% to the 0.5% yesterday. reversing the gains of yesterday, back down by about a half. and the australian market, up by 1. %. in currency, new zealand dollar has climbed to its highest value in several days after a cautiously optimistic budget statement from the government there. three months after the earthquake in christchurch and a huge cleanup bill, the deficit is projected to peak next year. the budget surplus may raise to 1 billion u.s. dollars, about a year earlier than expected. nina? let's move across the globe, andrew, markets in europe largely in positive trading at the moment for the second day in a row. one of the markets down, the zurich smi, down by about 0.1%. the ftse, that market up by

0.6%. the commodities traded glencore, that comes at a time when the commodities markets are at their most volatile in years. many analysts expect that kind of volatility could work in glencore's favor. they priced their shares in the middle of the quoted range, hoping to see an early rise. it's actually falling, down by 1.82%. just a few moments ago, the stock was down almost 2% coming in at 538 pence per share. it's now down by 1.8%. not as bad. actually the opposite from what they're expecting, andrew. >> yes, interesting sign of the times. it shows about the worries in the commodity markets at the moment. you're looking there at the closing bell on the street, the dow bouncing back from three days of losses on wednesday, tech stocks getting a nice boost thanks to the solid numbers

coming out from dell after the market on tuesday. the computermaker's stock was up more than 5% after they said earnings tripled in the final quarter. rising oil prices, chevron up 2.5%, exxonmobil up by 1.6% and by the end, as you can see, pretty healthy gains, green arrows across the board. the nasdaq techs up by more than 1%. it's another dark day for japan in its seemingly endless economic winter, a strong yen, a nuclear catastrophe, a an economic crisis. we have the details ahead. plus the business networking site that clearly means business. we'll tell you how much linked in has raised as it floats its shares in new york. to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk.

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welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. the third biggest economy in the world shrank by 0.9% in the first three months of the year compared with the previous three months. it's the second quarter in a row that japanese output is actually contracted. that means it officially puts the country back into a recessionary phase. this rate japan's economy will shrink by 3.7% over the full year. the reason, well, of course, the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on march 11th. the ongoing subsequent nuclear crisis. japanese consumers and businesses stopped spending and smashed factories have also meant that the supply chain there has broken down. in the meantime, the costs of the recovery will continue to drain the country's finances. the government is setting aside close to $50 billion for reconstruction projects and another $50 billion has been set aside for the victims of the nuclear crisis. andrew?

nina, it just goes to show that japan faces a long and tough climb to get its economy back into line. even before this triple crisis hit in march, the economy of japan was weak and it was also getting weaker. as you mentioned, nina, the economy annualized rate of contraction of the economy now stands at 3.7%. that's almost twice what analysts had expected. behind that figure are some even gloomier statistics would you believe? i want to focus on this one. industrial output, down 15.3% in march. that's the worst monthly drop in japan's history. and businesses also took an unprecedented battering in the disaster zone. 10,000 of 24,000 enterprises were affected. that's 42%, nearly one out of every two businesses in the zone was asecond. 600 of those may never actually

recover. the worst news for japan, financially speaking, the worst is probably yet to come. kyung lah joins us now. we've had a three-week impact of the tsunami in the first three months. that means the second three months will bear the brunt of it. >> that's what some economists think, that the upcoming quarter will be far worse. there are other economists that say maybe some of the reconstruction will have helped the gdp. the general sense across the board from many economists we've spoken to, today was a surprising figure so they simply don't know what to expect in this upcoming quarter. there is this feeling of now what happens, the policymakers have got to figure out how, amid all of the underlying problems in japan's economy, how to not just work on the reconstruction, how to deal with a new energy policy, how to deal with an

ongoing nuclear crisis and then try to fix this economy. a lot of things on the plate for this government to do, andrew. >> what is the sort of feeling about that at the moment, kyung, because the japanese policymakers certainly haven't covered themselves with glory in recent years about trying to kick start the economy, now faced with even bigger threats and bigger crises, is there a feeling this time they could react in a different way. >> it depends, really, if you are an optimist or someone who you might call more of a realist when you look at japan's policies and the government. there is still political discord, there is still a lot of political infighting. there certainly is, even though there's a public mandate to try to get the economy on track, to try to get the reconstruction going, to try to get these people, remember we're talking about 120,000 people who are still living in evacuation centers, trying to get them into temporary housing, there's still

tremendous political discord. there is a sense among some analysts that perhaps the policymakers will join in the public sentiment of trying to get japan on track. the question is, do you have faith in the policymakers and in the lawmakers of this country? some do, some don't. >> okay, kyung. thanks very much for that. i guess it's a bit hard to have too much faith if you look at the track record. kyung lah, joining us live from tokyo. for the queen of england is on a historic visit to ireland. making a bid to heal old wounds, nina. >> security for the visit is actually costing ireland $2 million. all this is a big bill coming at a time when this country needs to pay its bills and help to do so. what happened to the keltic tiger? we'll investigate, just ahead.

welcome back, you're watching "world business today." britain's queen elizabeth continued her historic visit to ireland with a state dinner at dublin castle on wednesday. earlier she toured a stadium where more than a dozen sports spectators were killed in 1920. she also laid a wreath and today she'll travel to the irish national stud. she'll later attend a concert hosted at the british embassy. the queen is the first british monarch to visit ishld in almost a century after nearly 100 years of transformation and turmoil, the two countries it seems enjoy a solid relationship as modern trading partners and good neighbors. as part of the national rescue package for ireland, the uk loaned the irish government $11.3 billion, the british government calls it a loan to a

friend in need. ireland is also britain's biggest trading partner by 7% of all of the uk's exports. and 1 % of irish exports are actually sold to britain. that just illustrates the reciprocal relationship here. facing a three-year decline following a property market crash and banking crisis, ireland, of course, as we all know is mired in debt and it's also the recipient of a european bailout. >> the question is what caused ireland's sharp decline? fingers are pointing at the boom that went spectacularly bust, particularly in the housing sector. cnn's donna magnate has that part of our story from the irish town of mullengarr. >> reporter: building materials abandoned beside derelict homes. no one's visited these show

homes in years, not since the property bubble burst three years ago. home owners found themselves with houses worth half as much and the dream of the keltic tiger suddenly turned into a nightmare. there are 620 of these ghost estates across ireland, the scars of the property boom, visual reminders of everything that went wrong, easy credit, lax planning regulations and just nowhere near the demaned to meet the number of houses actually being built. on the next door estate, things are going better, for now. but tour this site and you find out just how the property market's working. three years after a period of unprecedented prosperity in ireland came to a crashing halt. the banks are still lending if you have a large enough deposit. so buyers like this woman who managed to get mortgages can snap up bargains. >> the original prices with

300,000. we got it for close to half price. >> reporter: it means developer johnny owens is scraping through for now but only just and with money he knows he can never pay back. >> when you come into the estate and you see this great big sign, he's the name on the top of the board. the developer here is really the bank. guys like me, it's managing bank's money and turning it into those houses. >> reporter: turning it into houses but at such a slow rate. demand's fall an way, the builders and plasterers and electr electricians who depend on the developers, are laid off one by one, the young leaving for overseas, the old with nowhere to go. >> they know within the last 60 years with johnny owens, every one of them have gone australia or the united states or canada. there's nothing around. what do we do?

we're just left on the scrap heap, really. >> reporter: didn't you think about demand as a developer? is there demand for these houses that i'm building, when everybody is building, right, left and center? >> i had no reason to think otherwise. i had no reason to think there was demand. the previous site we build, we couldn't build the houses quick enough. >> reporter: johnny owens wasn't the only one. like the country he calls his home, all he can do now is try to stay afloat while he tries to pay his debts. cnn, ireland.

welcome back. you're watching "world business today." i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. let's revisit our top story today. the international monetary fund managing director has resigned with immediate effect. dominique strauss-kahn is facing sexual assault charges in new york. he is informed the the international monetary fund of his resignation a few hours ago. in the letter he said he wanted to protect the imf and incested he is innocent of the charges. his lawyers plan to go back to court to try to get him released on bail. more specifically, where the person would come from.

many europeans want a fellow european. many say it's time for a change. let's go to john defterios. >> reporter: the process has quickly moved to the next phase. in part because a major voice on both sides of the atlantic have made a call for resignation. as you suggested, one of those voices is jose manuel barroso. >> they have already stated that the recent events will not undermined their international capacity but of course in terms of leadership, we don't like -- so i think it will be important to have this matter resolved. >> there's been a clear desire by chancellor merkel and others to retain a european as managing director of the international monetary fund. is it time to get some clarity,

though, since there is so much global attention on what's transpiring with dominique strauss-kahn? >> look, first of all, i think the executive director has to be chosen on merit. we want a strong, respected, competent executive director for the imf. but i think it is only natural that the european union countries, together they are by far the biggest stakeholders, to have a responsibility to fill the opening. i hope they will give the imf credible and strong leadership. >> should we break the mold of the european at the imf and american running the world bank? should we get out of that practice? >> look, once again, if they are doing good jobs, why should we replace? they're doing a good job in the world bank.

we have the problem in the leadership with the imf. let's find another one, a leader for that. >> should be a european is what you're suggesting. >> yes, i think it should be a european. europeans together by far, they are the biggest stake holder in the imf and there are a lot of europeans that can do that job. why now choose someone because he's not european? that makes no sense. i think there will be good candidates from europe. let's not make now an issue of flag, about this, what is important that we have a strong, credible candidate and i think we can present that candidate. >> once again, the president of the european commission there. this is the next phase opening up now. face-to-face diplomacy and phone diplomacy, the president of the commission had a bilateral with angela merkel over the weekend. president obama will be meeting with david cameron of the uk next week. angela merkel will weigh in

heavily as the largest economy in europe. don't leave out wen jiabao. >> as the emerging markets make more noise, they will be listened to much more closely as they gain weight in the imf as well. john deaf tefterios in brussels thank you. nina? there's plenty of them on the board. the debate is, of course, very heated at the moment. let's go to emily reuben who joins us now from our london studio. emily, this scandal involving dominique strauss-kahn is unprecedented for the corridors of the imf. presumably they will want a safe pair of hands now. >> i think it was interesting what john was saying earlier. strauss-kahn's resignation comes at a time when the economic

power in the world is shifting to emerging markets. the institutions like the imf and world bank are very much in the hands of western economies. finance ministers from sweden to spain want a safe pair of hands. they're saying look at the sovereign debt crisis in europe. we need a european leader. then others are saying let's have somebody from the emerging markets. here's what the economist martin wolf had to say on that subject. >> in the present situation, however, there is an argument to be made that the extraordinary political sensitivity of the imf's role within the currency union, which is a very special structure, requires someone with extremely good connections to other european policymakers. that doesn't have to be a european but it has to be someone that they really can trust and can have a good relationship with. >> martin wolf is eloquent as ever. also straight to the point there. we have a euro zone crisis going

on, presumably keeping this in european hands would be a good thing. talk to me about some of the candidates people are earmarking. >> there's a strong and varied field of candidates. it boils down to whether or not europe will relinquish its default control of the imf. one of the names in the fray is the finance minister of sith pore. he was brought in to chair the ifc. he's closely linked. kemal dervis. he's the odds on favorite. another name in the frame is stanley fisher, of course, the government of the bank ever israel. his name has naturally come up given that he used to be number two. >> the other thing, stanley fisher was there during the asian financial crisis. the imf was heavily criticized for that. >> and that's why mohammed

el-erian might be good as well. he heads the world's largest bond fund but he didn't have the that much political experience. i think that's one of the requirements of the job. it's not only about economics, it's about diplomacy and politics. >> i'm afraid we'll have to leave it there, emily. we could go on and on and on. as john deaf tearrifterios has . the political ramifications of beer earmarked for this role is quite significant. mohammed el-erian, the ceo and cio of pimco has been earmarked for some of the head jobs at the imf already. who knows. >> it sounds listening to john, we have maybe up to two weeks before we get a decision on this. there will be a lot of names

coming up, nina. we'll bring them all to you here on "world business today." let's quickly turn to the markets. two sides to the story in the asia pacific region. japan, the benchmark, understandably reacting negatively to the country's worse than expected gdp contraction as japan entered its third recession in ten years. the nikkei was down by 0.5%. now two consecutive quarters of negative growth in japan, the annualized rate, which means the projected full-year contraction of the economy stands at 3.7%. that's significant given this is the world's third largest economy. perhaps not surprising given the huge disruptions it's faced in march. the rest of the reason, australia, the best one, up by 1.3%, nina. what's going on in japan will have ramifications for

european countries trading those shares on the markets today. it was a mixed picture where you are. seemed as though there's a mixed picture and a positive sentiment in the markets today. in particular, let's take a look at what's going on in london. the ftse was up by 0.6%. still holding strong where it is. this is partly because a lot of people are looking at one stock that's listed there. it is the shares of the commodities giant glencore after it made a $10 billion initial public offering. we saw that stock actually down by about 2% in early trading, trading at 583 pence. going in the opposite direction, i should say, andrew, to how the company's management thought it would go on its first day of trading. >> yes, interesting. i guess it does say quite a lot about what investors are making of the commodity volatility at the moment. in the u.s. meanwhile, rising energy and tech stocks helped the major markets draw a line under a presession losing

streak. here's the rest of the action on wall street. >> the dow bounced back from three days of losses wednesday and tech stocks got a nice boost, following solid results from computermaker dell. at the close, the dow rose 80 points, the s&p 500 and nasdaq also posted gains. shares of dell rose more than 5%. the company's quarterly earnings nearly tripled. even though personal computer sales slumped. that was offset by strong corporate demand. i'll prices jumped more than 3%, closing above $100 a barrel, after a weekly oil inventory report showed less supply than expected. shares of exxonmobil and chevron got a lift from crude's comeback. coming up thursday, possibly the hottest initial public offering of the year, linked in is expected to go public. pricing expectations have jumped 30% in recent days, valuing the site at more than $4 billion. we'll also get reports on weekly

jobless claims and april existing home sales. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosik in new york. let's get a little bit more on the stories that allison was talking about. a new ticker code will ab pearing on the new york stock exchange when it opens in just a few hours from now. linked in said on wednesday that its stick will debut at a price of $45 per share. look at what price that gives the company. 3$352 million.8. that's what linked in stands to gain from its u.s. public offering. it's a significant figure. i think it values it at about 11.3 times the company's earnings in 2010. that figure in turn will bring the value of the company to about $4.25 billion. maggie lake looked into the evolution of lunged in as a whole company and as she explains now, the company stands

out among its internet networking peers. >> linked in is one of the pioneers of social networking, based on a simple premise, to connect business progressionals via the internet and advance their career. we tracked down ron bates with more than 4 ,000 connections. this linked in super user caught up with us via skype in his offices in portland, oregon. >> everybody utilizes a networking platform for different reasons. i'm a retained executive recruiter so the concept of connecting with more people makes sense for me given what i do for a day job. >> reporter: thousands of connection may seem like small change in this time when celebrities have millions of twitter and facebook followers. bates says the quality of connections on linked in can be more valuable. >> on linked in, the connectionsconnections are much more direct.

they're typically there for a reason in terms of the benefit that people get from a networking relationship. linked in is a networking platform where facebook is less so a networking platform and more so a social media platform. >> it's the world's largest professional network. helping people find and share opportunities every day. >> reporter: users like bates may gush over linked in but in the investment world there's concern about whether the company can live up to the hype and can generate robust revenues and profits. >> i don't think we're seeing the same kind of daily user base that we do on facebook, you're locking in every day. linked in is positioning itself as the business networking site. to be logging in once a week or whenever you get a message that would be a concern for anyone invest are. >> reporter: we'll see how linked in ultimately connects with the investing world as it

makes its debut. u.s. president barack obama is still rumored that he wasn't born in the u.s., even though he's released his long-form birth certificate. he's we he's getting his supporters to wear these campaign t-shirts. on the front, made in the usa. on the back there is an image of the president's birth certificate. it extends to mugs as well. it may be designed to raise awareness but obama supporters also hope that the t-shirts will raise cash as well. you won't be able to get one unless you donate 25 bucks to his re-election treasury. good to see he hasn't lost his sense of humor. you're watching "world business today," we'll be back in just a moment. the first sunblock designed to be applied directly to wet skin. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens.

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welcome back. in china, power cuts are fairly

common. they usually happen during the summer but this year they've come early and beijing has warned that energy shortages will be more severe than unusual. the world's most populous nation is now rationing energy as global fuel prices continue to rise. ramy inocencio, asia business analyst has been looking at this story. >> thanks, andrew. coal is still the king of fuels in china. the country relies on it for about 70% of all of its energies. that's a huge amount. we're looking at at benchmark price that's at a two-year high. that's making it impossible to keep up with that. the price of coal over the past year has risen by about 20%. beijing has only raised taxes by about 2%. you can see the big gap between here. that's forcing suppliers to close or reduce power generation. that's where the power cuts are coming in that we're talking about now. here's a look at some of the

regions affected. china's financial capital shanghai is seeing major cuts there. and a regional power house, zhejiang is seeing it worst in seven years. also many other provinces through south and central china have all made cuts as well as the largest city, which has about 31 million people. of all those regions combined there are about 400 million people in that area. that's more than the united states and canada combined. >> thank you ramy inocencio, asia business analyst. nina. bernie madoff is driving some investors to drink. we'll explain all after the break. but you can do this. bengay pain relief + massage with penetrating nubs plus the powerful pain relief of bengay. love the nubs!

hello and welcome back. live from cnn hong kong and london, this is "world business today." let's just give you a final

recap of the markets this hour. trading is positive at the moment. right across the european continent and also across the united kingdom. take a look at that. the only market that's dune is the zurich smi which is edging into the red, down by about 0.25%. ftse down by about 0.5%. all eyes are fixed on glencore which just made its market debut at 530 pencer with share. andrew. >> and in the process made quite a few billionaires. the bench mark in japan suffering after those very disappointing gdp number which is shows that japan, the world's third biggest economy is back in recession. the rest of the numbers there, australia having the best day, up by 1.3%. now, to a bit of news about some liquid assets of the sweet, dry aenvironment.

a bevy of booze bottles left languishing in bernie madoff's home has been sold at auction for more than $1,000. the most expensive item, 12 bottles of chateau rothschild. profits are going to a fund for victims of madoff's notorious scams. another 1.5 million auctions of the same value would be needed to recover all the money that madoff accumulated in his ponzi scam. that leaves an aftertaste, a bitter aftertaste, doesn't it? you can see what you could have taken home from that auction by logging into the cnn money website. make sure you do that. nina? i'll be checking it out myself. i wish i had the budget for it. definitely got the taste for it. that's it for "world business

today," i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. "world one" is just ahead.