roosevelt, truman. >> click. >> truman, eisenhower, kennedy. hi, i'm zain verjee in london. japan's prime minister survived a no confidence vote. naoto kan appealed to his democratic party of japan before saying he would resign later this year after the nation recovers from the march 11th earthquake and tsunami.

political infighting has seen japan with five different prime ministers in five years. witnesses report loud explosions in yemen near a presidential palace in sena. months of failed protests have failed to bring down the president. the deadly e. coli outbreak in europe has left more than a dozen dead and hundreds sick, mostly in germany. the source of the outbreak is not known. google said hackers have targeted g mamail users with a phishing scheme that may have begun in china. those are the headlines. i'm zain verjee in london. "world business today" starts

right now. good afternoon, welcome to "world business today." i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> good morning for me, nina dos santos in london. japan's prime minister survives a no confidence vote but signals he'll step down after the earthquake aftermath is cleaned up. and hundreds of high-profile gmail accounts are breached after suspected chinese hackers go phishing. >> this guy is not the only trader who has had better days on wall street. the steepest u.s. stock slide in a year exposed fears of a stalling economy. the dow and the broader s&p

posted their biggest loss since june of last year after a dismal job data, economic slowdown and a new downgrade in greece. that puts greece on par with cuba now. >> that downgrade to a caa-1 rating by moody's, something that perhaps you would expect from an impoverished developing nation but not one from a major eurozone partner. that greek downgrade is understandably weighing heavily on the european markets now. moody's also put the chances of a greek default at 50/50. the implications of that are enough to send chills right through the stock markets, well beyond european shares this is how things are look in the first hour or so of trading. heavy losses from frankfurt to london, cac 40 down about 1.35% at the moment. let's move on to currencies.

not a huge amount of movement on that front. the euro has risen about a fifth of a percent against the dollar today. earlier on in the week it hit a three-week low against the u.s. currency on the back of these concerns. the dollar, one dollar buys you 1.4375 in terms of euros. 1.6335 is how the pound stands at the moment. should point out the dow lost more than a quarter of its gains for the year on wednesday that collapse in sentiment in the u.s. was enough to push the asian markets deep into the red this day. let's go to randy. >> investors lost a lot of money yesterday. the nikkei, let me bring that up, the nikkei fell about 1.7% to close at about 9555. this plunge came on the back of two developments.

the first was that political one, prime minister kan's no confidence vote, which he did manage to survive. the second was poor sales of japanese oautos in may. hon in hong kong, the hang seng was down about 1.5% to close at 23,263. this is the left finish for the index in about four months it was led by a fall in oil shares. cnooc and petrochina, their shares fell about 2%. over in the mainland, looking at the shanghai composite, the index fell about 1.4% to close at 2705. looking at slower growth and manufacturing numbers, real estate curbs, and falling banking shares today. like the hang seng, today's close was the lowest in about four months.

and australia, the asx 200 fell about 2.27% to 4600. this was led by mining giants, bhb billton and rio tinto. you can bet the major selloff across our region has investors nervous about where the week is going to end. if we get more bad data, maybe those unemployment numbers from the u.s. on friday, we could see another stock slide in asia. >> everybody will be watching those nonfarm payroll numbers. nina? >> let's show viewer house big a hit the u.s. markets took on wednesday. at the closing bell, traders were staring down losses of 2.2% for the dow jones industrial average. a report earlier dmin the day showed investors looking ahead pessimistically to the

government jobs report out friday. the news just got worse as the day went on. with the u.s. manufacturing index falling and then we had that news that we've been telling you about throughout the course of the show, moody's downgrading greek debt by three notches to caa-1 pushing it further into junk territory. the nasdaq and s&p each lost about 2.3%. the bleak figures has sparked some bargain hunting. futures are looking up at the moment. this is how we stand in terms of the pre-market action. modest gains, but modest the operative word. you can seat nasdaq poised to open the day for the moment up by 0.10%. a weak start for the other two movements. >> i guess it's a relief just to see green arrows upcoming. the signs had been rather bright for the u.s. employment picture, which was due out on friday. economists were expecting at least 170,000 new private sector

jobs to have been created in the past month. on wednesday, some of that optimism was extinguished by the payroll firm adp. its report suggested a total boost of 38,000 in private sector, less than a quarter of the predicted figure. fears of a slowdown in the u.s. recovery focusing on the end of q qe2, the bond bonanza. that was due to finish at the end of this month, but the slump may have arriveded earlier than expected. andrew sullivan has more on this. is it a case that we have been talking about a slowdown in the u.s.? has it or does it now look like it's much more severe than we thought? >> i think the worry with this jobs number is if they are not creating jobs, then, yes, the slowdown is not only more severe than we thought there will be more of it to come. the key thing here is that the u.s. investor drives the u.s. economy. and if the consumer, if there

are not jobs there are not consumers. if there are not consumers, they're not buying goods from the rest of the world. >> and we've seen the slowdown in manufacturing numbers which would bear that out. just before we move out of the u.s., how does the end of qe2 play into all of this? >> it's one more uncertainty for the market. they said they will continue rolling over the money they already invested in this and trying to keep the interest low. but the worry is that interest rate also start growing. if that happens, that's going to stifle growth. >> we're talking about interest rates at the long end, the 30-year mortgages, things like that? >> they're trying to control the long end, but in doing that they're trying to control the short end if they can't control the long end, if people think inflation will come back in, they won't be able to keep the short-term rates low either. >> so all of this means people spending less? >> spending less, but also the general economy starts slowing down. the real worry is that it has

not got going fast enough to afford to slowdown. they got their interest rates basically at zero. they can't put them further down. the real worry is we get a situation like we've had in japan over the past ten years occurring in the u.s. and that's worrying to investors. >> yesterday, one of our wall street reporters said they were talking to traders on the floor and they said there was no possibility of a double di-dip recessi recession. do you think there's a possibility of a double-dip recession? >> i think there is. the thing is it will slow down. now, adp's numbers can be wrong, obviously. people will be hoping that's the case. but it's an indicator. the market goes on indications. and that's what's worrying. the knee jerk reaction is that you take money off the table. >> which we have seen in asia today. talk us through your scenario

now for the asian markets. >> the key thing for the asian markets is whilst the slowdown in the u.s. will hut them, it won't hurt them so badly, but this week we've seen slowing down in chinese manufacturing, a slowdown in indian manufacturing. those are two big markets. we had the sentiment out of china that they will try to create a better consumer within china. they're moving towards doing that, but it's a long process, and they also have their own internal problems, as we've seen, a lot of it still basically an agriculture economy. >> short-term outlook for asian markets? >> short-term outlook is probably the markets keep trading sideways, that we don't see growth. because most of these companies in asia run on cash, not credit, they're not hurt so badly. >> we won't see another big dip. >> i don't think so, i don't

think we're going back to 18,000. >> andrew sullivan, thank you for coming in. nina? >> andrew, japan's prime minister in a due or die vote in parliament. coming up how naoto kan managed to survive a no confidence resolution. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit...

with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan.

you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. from cnn hong kong in london, this is "world business today." welcome back. a day of high political drama in japan. the prime minister has survived a no confidence vote, but he says he will step down after the nuclear crisis is over. his critics accused him of failed leadership. now the devastating earthquake and tsunami, the nuclear plant

crisis that followed and the debt crisis gave naoto kan's opposition plenty of fuel, but he survived by a 2-1 margin. correspondent kyung lah has more on that. a day of high political drama. what happens now? >> reporter: what happen now is the patchwork. can prime minister kan try to get his political party, what's left of it, back together, sew the pieces together and try to get some work done. the prime minister has said i will step down, but let me try to do something here. let pe me try to fix the disast with the nuclear problems and

fukushima. he wants to try to make some progress. progress is difficult with japanese politics. this is the sort of political hi highjinx that has upset people in japan. in the tsunami zone, we heard voices throughout the day popping up in the japanese media saying why are you doing this now? isn't now the time to have political movement forward and trying to get real progress done? that's the word here. is the political party going to be able to patch itself up and get some work done on behalf of the people. >> are you saying this appears to be more political maneuvering, an actual effort by the japanese leaders to sort out their problems? >> it's a little multi-layered. prime minister kan early on in the disaster was seen as a --

you know, stepping forward trying to take some political steps, trying to take some unifying steps. but it largely was seen as not being strong enough. but that's partially because of the way the japanese parliamentary system is set up. that it's very difficult to make decisive, strong moves within this system. so that strong leadership that the country needed in the wake of these massive disasters wasn't really there. so that's where the criticism is stemming from. if you look at who is making this criticism, it's coming from the opposition party. a party that held on to power before the dpj came to power recently for almost 50 continuous years. i read many things in the japanese press about the sharks smelling the blood in the water. that the prime minister is viewed as being weak. he was weak before the disasters, his popularity continues to be low, and they thought this was the time now. the question is is all this going to backfire on the

politicians? will people continue to be disgusted with japanese politics? is there going to be votes who are disenfranchised, especially in the region that needs political leadership and the work to be done if they're going to continue to be a loud voice asking what have you done for me? >> just very quickly, five prime ministers in japan in five years. is there an obvious number six out there? >> absolutely not. if you talk to people here in japan, they scratch their heads and say who wants this job? you can't even put your name in ink anywhere anymore in japan. it's so easily erased. if naoto kan stays on the job until next thursday, a week from now, he will be the longest-serving prime minister out of those five you're talking about. it is a revolving door it is a continuous problem. if we look at the long-term

lingering economic policies that have led to 20 years plus of economic stagnation, these are significant problems that need strong leadership and consistent leadership and that's certainly just not the case. >> kyung, thank you very much for your analysis on that. kyung lah live from tokyo. nina? a >> andrews, after the break, world football's governing body has been battered by haven't allegations of corruption, but that didn't stop it from re-electing its president for a fourth time. will he pull fifa out of its troubles? the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lilly and i are back on the road again, where we belong. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. [ male announcer ] get up to $6 in savings

on zyrtec® products at zyrtectv.com.

welcome back. after months of allegations of corruption involving officials of football's world governing body, you'd think the man at the top might be tempted to hang up his boots, but you'd be wrong. sepp blatter emerged from wednesday's presidential election unscathed and is promising to transform fifa in the next four years to come. >> thank you very much. fifa president sepp blatter said he expected football's world governing body to reunite after his unopposed re-election in

zurich. the 75-year-old announced fifa could clean up its act and be more transparent after months of corruption allegations and he dismissed allegations that the main sponsors would pull away. coca-cola and adidas expressed concern around fifa and said there must be reform and blatter said leave it to him. >> we've had contact with the sponsors, and specifically through our marketing division and secretary-general and myself was in contact with two of the main sponsors in fifa, and they told us we trust you, but please bring back this fifa or this boat of fifa in better waters. >> reporter: the waters have been so choppy that the english fa proposed to delay the votes for other candidates to challenge blatter and give voters a choice. but 172 of 206 delegates opted

against the proposal. so blatter gets the fourth and final term as fifa president. the swiss, who has said he would not run again in 2015, was first elected in 1998. under his watch fifa has become the richest sports body in the world with cash reserves of a cool $1.3 billion. that's it for me. back to you. >> you are watching "world business today." still ahead, politicians in washington play russian roulette with meamerica's credit rating.

from cnn hong kong in london, you're watching "world business today." wall street's biggest

selloff in months has trigger adam ed a domino effect in the rest of the world markets. lower than expected job creation, lower than expect d e credit ratings, and lowering of the greek debt. about 90 minutes into today's trading session, and boy is it a sea of red, as you can see. there currently down by 1.3% for some of these markets, such as the cac 40. andrew? pretty much the same picture here, nina, if you look around the region. the u.s. jobs numbers which came out last night raising fears about the exports from this part of the world and the general global economic slowdown. a lot of people saying the slowdown in the u.s. may be now sharper than had earlier been thought. the electronics companies and the japanese automakers are among the stocks to be taking a big hit as the nikkei was down

1.7. the political uncertainty in japan did not help. hong kong down 1.5%. shanghai down 1.5%. australia down 2.25%. the big miners leading the way down in sydney. nina? >> let's hone in specifically on wall street as we are just seeing a triple whammy of bad news which sent stocks spiraling on friday. here's a recap of exactly what went wrong. >> reporter: another wave of weak u.s. economic data hit wall street hard and stocks sold off sharply. at the close the dow plunged 279 points. the biggest one-day point loss for the blue chips. the nasdaq dropped 66, or 2.3%. and the s&p 500 suffered big losses as well. setting the negative tone, adp said the u.s. private sector created just 38,000 jobs in may.

analysts were expecting a gain of about 170,000. the adp report is often seen as a preview of monthly jobs numbers, and some analyst lowered their estimate force friday. a slowdown in manufacturing activity put more pressure on stocks. the manufacturing index grew at a much slower pace in may than april. the slow june was caused by sharp declines in new orders which indicates sluggish consumer and business spending. u.s. automobile sales also slowed in may. higher prices and lower incentives cut into demand, while the aftermath of the march earthquake in japan put japanese models in short supply. one bright spot was in sales of fuel efficient models like the cruze and the ford focus, that's no surprise considering gas prices. coming up on thursday, investors will look at the latest weekly jobless claim

numbers, analysts are looking for a slight improvement but claims are to remain above the critical 400,000 level. it seems as though there's been a bit of bargain hunting in new york ahead of the start of today's trading session. just a short time ago, features were looking up, they're still up but by modest amounts. the nasdaq leading the way up by about 0.10%. andrew? the other big story in the u.s. at the moment is the political posturing over the country's debt limit. as lisa siylvester explains f lawmakers don't raise the debt limit by august 2nd, america is at risk of defaulting on bond payments. >> reporter: if the debt ceiling is not raised t could have a catastrophic effect on main street. the treasury department lays out a frightening scenario. as we near the beginning of august, interest rates could increase if investors start to

get spooked and it appears that the u.s. may not meet its financial obligations. if congress continues not to act, social security and medicare checks could be stopped or delayed and services could be cut off to military families and unemployment benefits halted. the cost of borrowing for everything from a house to college tuition could rise steeply. one economist at the liberal economic policy institute says the gop is playing chicken with a freight train. >> they're behaving like children. they're not getting their way so they're refusing to act. but it's incredibly irresponsible and they better come to their senses before august 2nd. >> reporter: the doomsday scenario has many folks worried. >> terrified. >> we'll lose our credit rating, next time we need to borrow, nobody will give us money to borrow. >> reporter: but republicans are holding the line arguing the $14 trillion u.s. debt is a drag on the economy, hindering job

growth. they're demanding billions of dollars in spending cuts before signing off on raising the nation's debt ceiling by another $2.4 trillion. if you're going to raise the debt limit, the spending cuts should exceed the debt limit. >> reporter: republican lawmakers met with the president in what's been described as a frank discussion, but so far no deal. there are americans who agree that the binge spending needs to stop. >> i don't think the debt should be raised anymore. i think we need to stop spending as much. >> we should start paying off and figuring out ways to pay off the debt we already have and then figure out, you know, how can we spend this money properly so we don't have to keep on raising the ceiling. >> reporter: the u.s. government's debt ceiling has been raised repeatedly over the decades, 74 times since 1962. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. in a spring that has already

set records for deadly u.s. tornadoes, the east coast state of massachusetts has now been hit by deadly twisters itself. at least four people are dead and several cities are reporting major damage. so it's not just the american south and midwest getting hit hard this year, jennifer delgado is at the cnn international weather center with more on that. how is it looking? massachusetts, not where you would expect to see tornadoes, is it? >> you're right. typically you only see about two of those a year, that's since data has been taken back in 1950, that's according to noaa. it was an incredible day indeed. let's go to some video and show you exactly what it looked like. this is video, actually, of a man who was driving and captured a tornado video while driving this is dylan mcdonald. you have to take safety first. if you look closely, you can see that debris and the trees being whipped around. you are also going to see that tornado in the background. we saw some of the damage that's

left behind. four people died. you know, they have not had a deadly tornado since 1995 across massachusetts. and that was an ef-4. things are quieter. we did have that tornado watch in place across the northeast. since then things have quieted down. we had that cold front, it shifted off. now we are left behind with cooler and quieter weather across parts of the east coast. through central parts of the west, we are quiet there. we are looking at severe weather, but that will be dying down as we go through the next several days. the severe weather threat will not be that great. people are asking when do you see the peak of tornado season? that is in may. now that we are in june, we typically see the numbers going down. here is the proof for you, fairly quiet weather for the

next several days. with the peak of the tornado season in may, we see 192, then 172 in june and 97 in july. let's look at your city by city forecast. we'll talk about heat after that. welcome back. hopefully weather across your neighborhood is nicer than what they're experiencing across the middle east. we're talking 30s and 40s. these are the current temperatures. you could wait city, 44. abu dhabi, 41 degrees, that's roughly the 90s and lower 100s

if you want to translate that to fahrenheit. look at the temperatures yesterday, extreme heat. temperatures climbed into the lower 50s in parts of kuwait as well as iraq. it's going to be another hot day. this is the image out of pakistan. pakistan also dealing with the heat. a young boy jumping off a bridge into the arabian sea. he was desperate for a cooldown. nina? >> 50 degrees centigrade? that's huge. >> would think it's broken. >> my gosh, we don't get those temperatures here in britain. thank you very much as always for that. there's been a new development in europe's e. coli scare. russia now says that it is banning vegetables from the eu. the e. coli outbreak suspected to have been caused by organic cucumbers in spain is responsible for 15 deaths in germany and one in sweden. at least 1,500 people have been sickened by the deadly bacteria. russia's import ban went into effect as of this morning and

official theres there ordered t vegetables removed from stores. military officials, journalists and activists are trying to assess the damage done by hackers that google says are from china. that's just ahead on "world business today".

welcome back. a day after the u.s. government classified cyberattacks as possible acts of war, google has announced evidence of an attempt the hacking campaign from china. it targeted several u.s. and chinese government officials. google said the attacks started in jinan. there is no direct evidence that the hackers were working for the chinese government but google is

not ruling out the idea that this spate of hacking may have been state sponsored. the hackers used a sophisticated technique known as spear phishing, sending e-mails specifically tailored to appear important to the person being targeted. for example, one e-mail sent to a u.s. government official had this subject line. draft of u.s./china joint statement. >> it's something that looks like a legitimate e-mail in your mailbox, gets you to click on something, then a box pops up asking you to type in your google password, except you're not typing the password to go to google, it's going to another site this is something that's quite common unfortunately these days in most peoples e-mail boxes. >> in a statement released by google, the company said google detected and disrupted this campaign to take users passwords and monitor their e-mails. in addition we notified relevant authorities as well. google is issuing the following

security advice to customers, telling people how to protect themselves on this webpage. the company says it will take about ten minutes for gmail users to follow its instructions. the website advises people to keep an eye out for suspicious forwarding instructions in their account settings. andrew? nina, love it or loathe it, twitter looks like it's set to stay. the last count puts the number of users globally at more than 200 million. now, new research from the pew research center survey says that 13% of online adults in the u.s. now use twitter. that's up from 8% just one year ago. so, what were the top tweeted events? champions league football, the final between barcelona and manchester united. that came in at more than 6,000 tweets a second. that's double the number of tweets during the world cup final last summer. but the record still stands in

japan. the japanese new year celebration at its peak, 7,000 tweets every second. that's a lot of tweeting. so, where are the tweets coming from? japan is a big one. let's look at the top five. now, according to comscore, there they are there, the netherlands, japan, brazil, indonesia and venezuela. the netherlands is number one with 26.8% of the population tweeting. globally, it is about 1 billion tweets sent every six days. that's something to tweet about. >> it is, indeed. i tweet myself, but i have to say those figures put me to shame. on friday, the u.s. government releases nonfarm employment figures that are expected to fall short, well short of initial predictions. we have seen the effects of that across the global markets. while the average unemployed american may be struggling now, there's one position that firms are keen to fill.

it's at the top of the executive ladder. poppy harlow met with the senior ceo selector in america. >> even though the u.s. ranks in our global talent index number one, it still has its challenges. for example, do executives today have the cultural quotient what we see in terms of demand, supply demand issue, it's great if you have the iq, we talk about the eq and social skills, but do you have the cultural quotient that is lacking in many executives today? therein lies the challenge when it comes to recruiting executive talent at the top. >> what about compensation? we spoke about this in davos, when you look at the pressure, especially in the financial sector to rein back compensation for top executives at banks, is that taking its toll? are we seeing talent flee that sector in this country? >> i think what's happened, bank hag been interesting this year, specifically because you saw a lot of the major financial institutions retain employees

last year given the jobs market when it came to certain sectors of finance. what we've seen is all of a sudden there's been a push again to recruit top talent, particularly in banking, investment banking and other areas. and the walls just opened up over the last couple, three weeks, where it was kind of quiet for the first two months of the year, which is rare. >> when you look at compensation for u.s. ceos, are u.s. ceos overpaid on a global basis? >> it's interesting. there's different dynamics. in continental europe the average ceo gets about 850,000 plus euros. in the uk it's about 3.5 million pounds. in the u.s. it's roughly 7 million, $8 million. a large component of that is equity based. i think it's relative. asia is completely different. you have a lot of family-owned businesses there. still ahead on "world business today," in an age of iphone apps, google maps, gps

and trip adviser, find out how one man made a piece of folded cardboard the latest must-have accessory in high-end travel.

live from cnn hong kong and london, you are watching "world business today." time to meet a plan who knows how to mix business with pleasure.

with travel dominated by guide books and the budget conscious, this man explains how his focus on luxury is breaking the mold. ♪ >> reporter: the luxe guide started organically. it was a man-man band. and i lived in bangkok for two years, and i'm very passionate about design. design, passionate in style, lifestyle. in bangkok you can design pretty much whatever you want. furniture, fabric woven, glass blown, so i did. people kept asking where did you kept those drapes? majority of it i designed and it had made. this became a list, and i added a few snarky comments, and a few hotels and a few restaurants.

i started to send it to friends. like one of those light bulb moments where you go, oh, actually other people have clearly enjoyed this. and that's really where luxe started. it was difficult, it still is difficult. our biggest challenge entering a new market is to have people look at this. it's a piece of folded card, people are like there's no pictures. we know. there's no map. we know that, too. and we broke the mold. we completely rewrote how travel guides are. we just took a list and we said, you know, go with us. trust our voice. this is an opinionated voice. we've been there, traveled there, spent the money, done all your work for you, believe us. come with us and experience it.

♪ to have an opinion, you really have to experience what you're talking about. whether it's about travel or about anything, the minute you do you -- your placement rockets. you really can say i've been there. i've eaten there. that's delicious. you should have that. you know, isn't that better than just, like, they have a great menu. that doesn't help anyone. i mean, it's like -- the important thing about luxe, and i think why we took off and why we were different in the marketplace and why we were successful is fun. we have a giggle, you know? we travel for two reasons, business and pleasure. those are the two main reason why anyone travels, basically. and i don't see why business and pleasure should be mutually exclusive. when you speak to the average

business travel you get this weary look on their face. yeah. yeah. i travel for business. they sit in their room and they have the old club sandwich. it's 9:30, they're missing their family and they would rather not be there. actually, there might be a great jazz club from around the corner of the hotel. we might have a strong opinion and you might not like our righting voice. i know not everybody likes how snippy and snark. yes, we are, but that's our opinion and voice. if i had to sum up luxe in one word, we have more personality than anyone else in the business. >> grant thatcher there continuing to break the mold. one last look at the european markets. moody's decision to downgrade greek debt further into territory is giving it a 50% chance of default, that has been spooking investors right across europe. of course negative u.s. jobs data won't have helped the mood this thursday either. as you can see, about an hour or

two into the trading session already we're seeing some pronounced losses. currently the cac 40 down about the most alongside the dax. off the intraday lows, but pretty red it matches my jacket, andrew, you know? >> i guess when you got up this morning, i think wearing red was probably a fair bet. i should have wore my red tie. an equally negative seen in the asia pacific region. exporters among the big losers on thursday as the u.s. job numbers suggested a drop in demand. political uncertainty in japan not helping things in the nikkei. that's not having any sense of longevity, the political scene in japan. naoto kan, the prime minister, saying he will step down after he's cleared up the mess of the tsunami and the ongoing nuclear crisis. with that, we will say farewell for now. you've been watching this edition of "world business today."

nina and i will be back in a later edition. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. "world one" is next.