this one calls for an opper attic. >> memo to all the spotty, tax-dodging, scrounging anarchists in london, please just give it a rest for today, can you? thanks. [ laughter ] >> i like the thanks at the end. i feel like -- this is good. this parrot is the smartest animal i've ever seen. amazing. yeah. i don't know. >> the thoroughly impertinent josh groban joins me tomorrow. that's it for us tonight. "ac 360" starts right now. thanks very much. i'm max foster from cnn london. these are the top stories right now. no negotiation is certainly no surrender.

at the same time that message whennet out on seirius tv on wednesday. he and his father were open to talks. libya's national transitional council is in for tough questions today. he goes for the libya contact brief in paris to discuss his plans for the future. international support for the ntc is reporting. russia tv is now recognizing the group as libya's new authority. amnesty international has release add disturbing report describing the deaths of detainees. they cite at least 88 victims and say that more than half the bodies show signs of torture. india's most famous corrupt activist is regarded as a haier. he was admitted to the hospital after striking.

those are the top stories from cnn, the news leader. i'm max foster. "world business today" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning from cn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." the top stories, the 1st of september, the u.s. got blocks at&t's buyout of t-mobile usa. >> they worry about a global takedown take hold. and new zealand hopes the world cup can help boost a flagging industry. the european marks were up on wednesday on the hopes that the federal reserve will take further action to stimulate the u.s. economy. let's have a look at where

they're trading at the moment. as you can see, largely speaking in the red and we have the heaviest losses coming from the ftse index. they skam out with disappointing returns. there were dispiemting figures from earlier in the week. let's move along to the currency markets. we're seeing a little bit of weakness from the euro versus the u.s. dollar. the euro trading at 143 president 18, the british pound at 1.6235, and the japanese yen is 76.84. andrew. >> the euro down in europe but up here in asia. it's been a pretty busy day on asia. the manufacturing numbers came from several asian countries including the key one china. factory output in china remaining at the near 29-month

lows in august. this is how the markets around the region finish the day. the nikkei, you'll see, up more than 1% boosted be i shares in the tech sector. that's after sony nnounced it's going introduce its first. hong kong up by 1.25%. shanghai, though, finishing down again fourth day in a row for shanghai. that was really all about what's going on in the manufacturing sector. the official government manufacturing index shows it grew just slightly in august. but the more closely watched private sector showed it contracted slightly in august. so certainly there has been a continuing slowdown in china. and very quickly in sydney, the mark-up up a quarter of 1 percent. that showed retails in july were

about half of 1%. nina. >> and to u.s. markets, they managed to close higher on wednesday after the wild ride we've seen throughout the month of august. felicia taylor wraps up the final month on wall street. >> stocks backed off of session highs but still managed to close with modest gains, pushing the dow into modest territory for the year. the dow rose 53 points to 11,613, but shares of at&t lost 4% following the justice department's move to block the proposed acquisition of t-mobile. the nasdaq gamed half of 1%. adp found u.s. employers added 91,000 private sector jobs in july. the rise marks the 20th month in a row the sector has added positions although the growth has been painfully slow. two separate readings on

factory activity. the chicago purchasing imagining report contracted last month but the dip was less than expected and manufacturing activity in the area was expanhandled. they rose almost 2.5%. looking ahead to thursday there's more manufacturing data due on more reports of auto sales, retail sales and spending. that's a wrap of today on wall street. i'm felicia taylor. let's get more on the u.s. government's deal to block the deal between at&t and t-mobile. >> this was always a controversial risky deal but the timing was is a surprise. government regulators just restarted the clock after requesting and getting more information from at&t. ultimately the department of justice is concerned with competition matters. they say, bottom line, this was not a good deal for consumers. >> the department filed this lawsuit because we feel the

combination of at&t and t-mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the united states facing higher prices, fewer choices, and lower quality products for their mobile wireless services. >> during the press conference regulators pointed out at&t and t-mobile compete head to head in 97 of the largest 100 cellular markets. at&t was quick to respond saying, quote, we are surprised and disappointed by today's action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the department of justice, and there was no indication from the doj that this action was being contemplated. i interviewed at&t's ceo randall stevenson back in march when the deal was announced and he argued at that time that this deal was good for consumers and the country. >> what this transaction does is allows us to go a step further. by putting these two companies

together it allows us to do what neither could do independently is cover 95% of the country. here are 47 million rural americans who will have access. >> at&t has a lot of reasons to be upset about this. as part of the deal with deutsche at telecom at&t must pay a $3 billion break-up fee and give up spectrum if the t-mobile merger doesn't go through. that all but guarantees that at&t will fight hard in court. what we don't know is whether the telecom joint will be willing to give up more concessions and push this deal through. maggie lake, cnn new york. >> you're watching "world business today" on cnn. when we come back, this place sits at the center of the zur zone crisis. stay tuned to find out what we're talking about. there may be plenty of sand and sea and sun, but here's a hint. it's not greece. i'm good about washing my face.

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taking a look at a few of the world's currencies this hour, seeing a little bit of weakness for these three major trading monies, the euro, the pound, the yen, all down today against the u.s. dollar, but relate actively speaking the currency markets relatively stable at the moment and these figures not showing much of a change on yesterday. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on c. time now for today's big number and it comes in at $595 million. that is the amount of money that new zealand's reserve bank predicts that they'll spend during the six-day rugby world cup tournament. they estimates 595 will start. they could certainly do with it. u it's been struggling since the deadly earthquake in cite church. japan's quake and tsunami

haven't helped either. japanese tourists make up a large part of the market. japanese rivals were down a whopping 43%. in new zealand they're using smaller aircraft in roupts between new zealand and japan because of the weakened demand. nina. one place where tourism is growing may surprise you. spain may be experiencing a hard economic climate at the moment, but this time of year is also enjoying fantastic weather. that and a few of the factors have set the stage for tourism boom across the country. al goodman now explains. >> reporter: alluring m mediterranean beaches, sun and sand, an old formula that's drawing tourists back. the government says tourism in spain is making a rebound despite the eek nconomic crisis especially here where visitors have increased by 50% from last

year to this. this family is visiting for the first time. what do you thing of this place? >> very nice. >> it's not really hot and the people like it. good foot waves. >> the food. >> the food is wonderful. >> everything is wonderful. >> reporter: tourism officials say span has benefitted from visitors too worried to travel to turbulent north africa, but prices have been a key. prices along this coast have dropped 20% in the last few years. this family is paying about $100 a day per person for a one week package that including travel, hotel, meals and drinks. tourism accounts for 11% of spain's gdp and 11% of all jobs. right now tourism and spanish exports are among the few bright spots for the beleaguered spanish economy. spain's 21% unemployment rate is far higher than in northern europe and that has provided an opening for business, says the president of the coastal hotel

association. >> translator: there's a better economic perspective in germany, how land, belgium, and england. >> reporter: in madrid the national tourism director says it also helps that the industry has built up loyalty for clients over the years. >> translator: the nearly 53 million international visitors to spain last year, 84% had been in spain before. 41% had previously been here ten times or more. >> reporter: at poolside, these friends from englarngsd here for the first time, say they're already thinking of returning. have you been awake mainly during the day or during the night? >> both. >> we sleep down here and then we go out. >> we roll in in the early hours in the morning, yeah, and then repeat the day over again. >> it's good luck. >> the night life is good around here as well.

drinks are cheap, things like that. so we're enjoying it. >> reporter: spain's tourism industry is enjoying it too and hoping the lights won't go out on the recovery. al goodman, cnn, spain. >> and sticking to the tourism theme, seasoned business travelers will probably recognize this site. it is, of course, the london eye. it's been a feature of london's skyline since march of 2000. at that time you may remember it was called the millennium wheel. well, eight years later in 2008, singapore joined the club. it got a giant observation wheel of its own, the singapore flywheel is the largest. they're now casting their gaze a little further, a field all the way to hong kong. the plan was to build a

60-foot-meter-high observation wheel right there. it's going to be roughly that height as well. it's in front of the venerable company there and right on the water froont as you can see with the city's business district as you can see also in the background. but looking at this, a couple of things spring to mind. a, you're going to be looking into about the 25th floor of most of the buildings and, b, you're going to be looking across the water when you want to look across the water back to hong kong. i told a couple of people in the office here, i'm not sure that the poogsing is right. in fact, i wonder if it's attraction tick. what do they say about the london eye. >> there was a little bit of skepticism. i wasn't initially a backer of it when it originally came out but it has proved to be a

corporate success. it takes about a half hour to go all the way around if not perhaps even longer and it has been quite a success. the only criticism is perhaps it's a little bit expensive for the average londoner to go on more than once. i, myself, have been on it only once. >> i like the idea of having corporate functions on it. basically when you're on there, you're a captive audience because you have to sit and listen to the full pitch. very clever. >> indeed. it's better if you get a bit of a glass of champagne on the way which is often the way to do these things, andrew. >> absolutely. >> well, let's tell you what's coming up after the break. another report is out on u.s. executive compensation, but this one has a twist. we're going to be telling you which companies are paying their chiefs more than they're actually sending.

again, let's bring you up to date on the price of bouillon at the moment. it's down a little more, $2 an ounce to 1825. also crude oil has checked that. pretty rough month for oil. tilt's now trading down a

fraction at $88.53 a barrel. welcome back from cnn hong kong in london, you're watching "world business today." the sky-high monies paid to ceos have been a matter of controversy for some time. one company is shining a spotlight on big companies who have paid their chief executives more than they've actually paid in federal income taxes. lisa sylvester has the numbers. >> reporter: tax breaks and loopholes, companies can get very psychiatry yative at reducing their tax bills. a new group found in 2010 more than two dozen companies paid more to their ceos than they paid in federal income taxes. according to the report general electric made $5 billion but claimed a $3.3 billion tax credit.

ge's ceo who's also head of president obama's jobs council received a compensation of more than $50 million that year. verizon claimed a $705 million credit despite posting billions in profit. the ceo made more than $18 million. putting off tax payments until future years is one ways companies have been able to reduce their tax burden. >> e with think of deferred taxes as saying to the irs is the check is in the mail. it may be delivered next year or 25 years from now. that's not something u.s. families get to do. >> reporter: some companies use offshore subsidiaries to shelter some of their profits. it's all perfectly legal but the company in the study took issue. they said in a statement ge pays what it owes including significant income taxes in 2010 for previous years. and while ge's federal income

tax liability was zero, the company said it did pay more than a billion dollars in payroll, state, and local taxes. verizon says it has paid, quote, a total of more than $7.5 billion in taxes over the past five years. many companies including cnn's parent company including time warner used tax revisions to reduce their tax burden. dan is pushing for a more simplified tax system. >> we have a tax code that runs to 70,000-plus pages. well, guess what's in that 70,000-plus pages? all sorts of exemptions, reductions, loop holes, if you're rich and powerful and you have the lawyers and lobbyists and accountants, you can manipulate this tax system until the cows come home. it's the ordinary people that wind up paying the very high tax rates. >> they say the 25 companies featured in their report spent a combined total of $150 million

on lobbying and campaign contributions to lawmakers last year. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. >> well, california's cell maker received a $535 million loan guarantee from the u.s. government back in 2009, but this week the company filed for buncy protection. s solndra. the white house had made a point to grant loan garon teams to green technology companies but republicans accuse the obama administration of investing in what they say was always a questionable venture. now, they're turning a normally festive occasion into a rather contentious one. these are moon cakes and they're usually eaten to celebrate the mid autumn festival. it's traditional for employers

in china to give them as gifts to employees but it just emerged that the moon cakes are taxable. they'll be applied to the salaries and then taxed accordingly. employees are hardly over the moon about that. >> nice turn of phrase, andrew. a surprise move by brazil central bank. we'll get the latest views of cnn's c nn cnnespanol correspondent. what it could mean for the world's economy.

santos. and i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." let's take another check on the european stock markets. 90 minutes into the trading day. there's plenty of things moving these markets at the moment. on the one hand across united kingdom we've had the british chambers of commerce downgrading its forecast for the third time so far in just nine months. also on the euro-zone front we've had the purchasing manufacturers index survey of manufacturing across that region and its 17 nations that share the europe. that's fallen to a two-year low. some of the reasons why these managements are down as you can see and the dak suffering the most. tesco is now going to be pulling out of japan. they said japan was the weakest country for sales growth for the last financial year,

underperforming from other asian markets. tokyo ow toq toq tokyo's home to 109 other stories. they managed to capture only half of the city's grocery market. here in asia it's been a busy day. they did finish mainly higher and that came despite weak manufacturing numbers from several asian countries including china. that's how the markets around the region finished out the day. you'll see shanghai remains out. it's a very similar story yesterday. they're still fierce about inflation in china, particularly apart from that, though, the nikkei up by more than 1%. nikkei up by a quarter as was sydney. china's premiere says the battle remain as top priority in the near future. premie

premiere wen says they should -- china's inflation hit 6.5% in july. that far exceeded beijing's targets. mr. wen is backtracking a little bit from the stronger comments he made earlier in a financial times opinion piece that happened in june. at that time mr. wen said we are confident prices will be firmly under control this year. obviously, nina, they're not at the moment. >> not indeed. now, it's not every day that the closing bell rings from san francisco. the tech company sales force.com rang the bell remotely from a cloud community industry event in california. back on wall street, u.s. markets ended a grim month on a higher note. the gains were moderate ones at best. all under a half a percent as you can see there. it left investors cautious. the consulting firm says that the number of planned job cuts fell 23% in august and

separately payroll processor adp said private payroll sectors rose by 91,000 for the month of august. that was still lower than had been expected. of course, we've got the very big jobs numbers out this friday. concerns about the state of the global economy has led brazil's central bank to make a move that surprised many analysts. joining us here in studio now ho discuss what they did and why slg cnn's es spanol's correspondent. >> as you just said, they lowered rates to 12%. 12.5%. something i would like to tell you they're doing this in the context of 7% or around 7% inflation in the country. it didn't happen. there's a number of reasons, right?

>> i'm sure there is. but it's interesting because the inflation rate is very similar to china at the moment and hopefully they'll be able to bring it down. so down 12% now, the interest rate which is very high. how does that compare with other countries in latin america? >> well, yes. it's one of the highest rates in the world. especially in a very attractive market as brazil. brazil has been the talk of the town for quite some time. and the important point here is that it's been receiving lots of capital. many people, you know, brazil exports commodities. we know they are expensive, they're going to make money. so we're going to throw our cash into the country, right? the interest rate attracts that cash and it's been making the real stronger is and stronger and stronger and for a long time, even back to the days of the previous president, we have words by the economic affairs minister of the then -- the then economic minister of brazil already talking about currency

wars and already talking about how disadvantaged brazil was with this stronger real. so it's been a little bit of a surprise. but i would like to talk about a little bit what is happening in the rest of the region in this context. and mexico has already signaling a similar move. and in the meantime, what some analysts call the conservative decision is placing chile, peru, and colombia on constant rate. in this context brazil is a little bit different. maybe in the future other countries will follow suit. >> that's interesting. now, brazil has become a key trading partner with china. you'ving got a heil rielle, falling interest rates to try to stimulate thing. what does that mean for the relationship between china and brazil? >> well, this is what puts the

decision in context. you would say they tried to fight inflation, you know, they tried to -- they tried to follow suit with all these inflation nair problems you just mentioned with china. from brazil, the situation looks very dire. the world may or may not go into a recession, right? may or may not call. but for brazil, china will necessarily call. it's in the plans of the chinese government. >> yeah. >> soybean, iron, other metals. to china. it's a big, big, big trading partner. it sells always oil. a lot of -- a very good relationship. so if china's going to call anyway, brazil will have growth prospects anyway regardless of what happens in the countries of the atlantic. >> so they'll slow down -- brazil stands to slow down too. >> exactly. what they want to do, they want to make sure investments go out

and spur economic growth. >> thanks for coming in. cnn es spanol kropt based here in hong kong. nina. andrew, rebuilding and running the new libya is going to take a lot of money and it seems now some of the much needed funds are finally on their way. the british government has started delivering money into frozen at the start of the uprising in the country. the uk foreign country's secretary says they've delivered about $228 million to the central bank of libya in benghazi. the money will be used to pay the way to the public sector employees across the country such as teachers, police officers, and medical staff. fasten your seat belts. when we come back, we'll show you how modern cockpit technologies have made the skies a little less safe. stay with us. rminal in hong kon.

you're looking at aim fib bus assault ships. they're enjoying a bit of r & r, some 3.5,000 sailors. a little bit of money pouring in in hong kong. welcome back. you've watching westboundet today. now, from ships to aircraft. when you board a commercial airplane you probably take it for granted your pilot is well train and is able to handle any sort of emergency in the sky. well, that may not actually be the case. as brian todd tells us too many pilots are dependent on computers and that has pretty severe and deadly consequences. >> reporter: june 2009, the auto pilot system on air france flight 447 disconnects. a stalled warning goes off. a co-pie lit repeatedly says

climb, points the nose up. it's the opposite of what he's supposed to do. the pilot comes into the cockpit and says, no, no, no, don't climb. too late. they plunge into the atlantic ocean killing all 228 people onboard. they question the pilot's training. >> they were misreading their cues and unfortunately the aircraft continues its stall. >> reporter: he's part of a group of independent experts out with a new report commissioned by congress and loosely overseen by the faa. they found that overall pilots are relying overall too much on auto pilot situations. >> they're becoming very dependent on using the auto pilot and throttle and computer systems to operate the entire flight. >> and they're getting rusty as a result of this? >> yes. because you don't actually hand-fly or manipulate the controls. therefore your computer skills get greatly enhanced but your flying skills start to get rusty

very it's sometimes called automation addiction. january 2009. as a kol began plane reaches new york it tells him what to do to get out of a stall. the plane crashes killing 50 people. it's another example of a pilot possibly forgetting some key procedures. part of the problems is standards have evolved to the point where in recent years pilots have been only flying manually one and a half to three minutes for every flight and takeoff and landing. experts say the problem may get worse because of the way younger pilots are trained. >> when you bring on a new pilot who's not been through some of the things the older guys have, they've never flown an airplane that had anything but thumb computer activity on it. they don't understand what to do necessarily when something goes wrong with their computer. >> reporter: the authors of the new report say this is not really the fault of the faa or

any one in particular. it's just how the technology and standards have evolving over the year. the faa would not comment on the report. the airline pilots association e-mailed cnn saying the safety of airline today is a testament of the pilots. brianed to, cnn, washington. well, the second hurricane of the season has formed in the atlantic and a tropical storm has its eye on japan. for this let's go across to jen delgado at the international weather center. hi, jen. >> hi, steven. you're right. we're seeing the rain action working into parts of jab. there's our tropical storm khattiya. you c 100 millimeters of rainfall over southern parts of japan. some good news to report. initially models were showing it as a typhoon making landfall in

parts of jachlt the winds right now 102 kilometers. we're not expecting a lot manufacture strengthening out of it. it's moving more westerly than initially what we saw earlier this week. but this is going to be bringing some very heavy rainfall as well as, of course, rough seas is as we go through the next 24 hours. but, again it looks like making landfall as we head into friday. now our second hurricane of the season in the atlantic ocean there. there is katia all by herself. about a thousand kilometers away. a good distance away. we're going to be watching that because it looks like it's going to become a major hurricane possibly by this weekend. it's going to be a favorable wind environment. look at those winds coming up from 175 to 185 right now. not a threat to land but really over the next five days, again, we'll be watching that system. again, in the caribbean, this is what we're worrying about right

now. this has a chi chance for development, a lot of rain developing in parts of cancun. you see a lot of moisture developing here. they're dealing with heavy rainfall but that could become a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours. if it does, it looks like right now it's going to be moving through the gulf of mexico. but watch what it's going to do. potentially bring some much needed rainfall through parts of the south. of course, texas, louisiana, oklahoma, all those areas in the southern parts of the u.s. have been dealing with the severe drought. wildfires. so it would bridge welcome rainfall. you never want to see it heading in those directions but there could be direction out there. keep in mind. $3.2 million. that's the cost for the wildfire so far this year. andrew. >> isn't it. they can't have an upside as well. >> absolutely. bringing much needed rainfall. et it's bad across parts of the south. >> yeah. okay. thanks, jen. >> you're welcome.

now, what's a superhero to do when comic book sales are slumping? why, change underwear, of course. when we come back e we'll be taking a sneak look at a man who steal as new look and a new strategy capturing market share to evildoers everywhere. this is unbelievable. it's a lifetime. gone. we'll make it right, john. when the unthinkable happens, we're right there with you to help you get your life back on track. nationwide is on your side. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind

♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh

we like the picture so mump before we thought we'd show it to you again. what we do want to show you, this is actually quite rare to see an american war slp tied up alongside the terminal there. you see that's looking across now to central hong kong. those ships usually anchored quite a way out in the harbor. as you said, it's up close and personal. let's take a quick look at the price of gold now. it's edging lower at this hour, down $3.50 at $1,823.75 an ounce. welcome back to c n nn in hong g and london. you're watching "world business today." from today these superheroes will have new histories, new story lines and also new costumes. let's give you a glimpse of what

a couple of them might look like. starting out with the ultimate hero himself, superman. the most noticeable change of costume is on the man of steel himself. as you can see her he's lost the kind of spandex suit and underwear which he's famous for, right, for a more sculpted armoire-like look and a bit of a bulkier look. he's wearing jeans, boots, and a short-sleeved t-shirt. let's look at the old wonderwoman. now she's going to be alternating between shorts and pants and as you can see she's showing more flesh than she used to. then let's move on to green arrow. he's always dressed for a little bit like robin hood. he's an archer who invents tricks with arrows like exploding arrows, tear gas

arrows. now he's getting a tougher and grittier look. take look at that. he's got a full six-pack and a mask and now he wears a hood instead of a mask. things have changed a bit as you can see on the dc comic front. the rebarand is part of the slumping sales. we're seeing whether they're beg to win over the new fan has instead alienated its old ones. >> reporter: i'm in midtown manhattan where many fans have been lining up since 11:00 on tuesday morning for the release at midnight, august 31st on this comic book. what's important is it's also going on the web. it's going to attract a new line of readers for other comic books. it's a multihundred million dollar business that's about to expand. >> i'm with a real comic book fan who's actually tattooed himself. how many?

>> about nine tattoos. here's batman, the catwoman. >> that's my favorite. >> ninja turtles on my legs. >> tell me how long you've been out here. >> my husband and i arrived around noon today. >> and you're going to stay until midnight tonight. >> we are, yes. >> why are you such fans? >> i can't say i'm a fan but my husband is a huge d.c. comic books fan and he needed a companion to get his food and relieve him. >> you're a the gopher. >> one of them, yes. >> this is huge. comics, reader "showbiz flashpoint" is going down. they aren't buying comics as much. they're jumping off because they're not up with the story. this is do or die. this is either change or the industry could collapse. >> it's large comic bookstores

like this one that has been on a decline. it's that lost audience in addition to a new audience that d.c. is hoping to capture on the web. >> sit's a huge book of initiative we're doing in september. it's 52 books we're relaunching and renumbering with new koos tombs and story lines. >> i think it definitely is going to change things. it's a game-changer because not only are we changing the content but some of the delivery. we're doing digital day to day. you can download it digitally. that's a big change for us because it allows us to tap into new markets, hopefully find new readers. we want the comic books to reflect the society that le live in. we have lesbian characters, other characters that are members of a team called storm watch, a lot of different ethnicities. we're trying to mix things up and keep things as fresh and modern as upon. >> if you were to draw me as a

superhero, what would it look like? >> it would be on the spot woman. >> felicia taylor, cnn, new york. >> not sure if -- there's a lot of super power going into that cartoon, but, nina, i don't know. looking at those, i thinking, you know, they've goed to modernize and make them sort of relevant, but i'm pretty sure men weren't wearing their underwear on the outside of their trousers in the 1930s. why do they have to change them now. >> i don't know if jeans would have been socially acceptable and short-sleeved t-shirt and scruffy look like that. when he drew felicia, did you notice he kept her microphone as the ultimate weapon of choice. we're going to take that as a cue as that being felicia taylor's lethal weapon, the microphone. >> exactly.

the microphone is mightier than the muscle obviously in superhero. yep. anyway, it's nice to have your picture -- draw a picture of yourself as a superhero. maybe they'll do one of us one day. you never know. okay. this is totally unrelated left. 's get back to the stock markets now. starting in asia, this is how the markets ended up this day. and as you can say, three out of four were higher. shanghai continues to weaken on fears about inflation. this really kicked off on friday when a surprise move in beijing saw the authorities rating in bank lending. that happened after the markets closed on wednesday. we now have four days of falling prices there. the chinese premiere talking about tinflation. >> over here on this side of the atlantic or indeed on the other side of the atlantic from where you are, an drew, what we're seeing is a number of bodies carrying on, cutting the growth figures for some of the

countries, like for instance united kingdom. downgrading its forecast for the third time this year. also disappointing manufacturing numbers out across the euro-zone and that has these markets falling even further in just the first couple of hours of trade. as you can see, the dax is down 32%. moving on, it's also having an effect on the currency markets. we've got all three falling against the u.s. dollar. last time we looked the british pound was fall, the yen was falling, and we also had the euro falling against the greenback. the euro trading at 143.80. >> so, i guess the backdrop of everything falling, we'll say farewell for now. you've been watching "world business today" tod. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. you're watching cnn, the world's news leader.