i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm charles hodson in london. here are the headlines. it's jobs friday. u.s. economy is showing signs of picking up but just how is that translating into employment growth? we look at what's expected. >>> making new inroads into india, ford's allen moulally. >>> caution has crept in before the week is out. european markets are marginally out, asian markets are marginally down. futures are flat. the predicted number of new jobs is around about 150,000. many say that is better but charles still not good enough. >> no. i think that's very much going to be what is dominating

. >> and good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." our top stories this thursday, january 5th -- >> european investors are on edge as greece sounds the alarm and france faces a big test on the bond markets. >> after remaining -- for four months can yahoo! regain direction with a new man at the helm? >>> also ahead -- >> honorable gentleman could perhaps aten more closely to what i'm saying. rather than how i am saying it. he may receive a valuable education in spite of himself. >> as the iron lady debuts in london, we chart margaret thatcher's lasting economic legacy. >>> the word on the world stock market is not particularly cheerful this thursday. exchanges in asia, mostly down after closing a short while ago. in europe, things aren't getting off to much of a start either. let's get straight to the numbers. charles? >> absolutely. right across the board, an hour and three minutes into the trading session, what is worrying these markets, we're seeing a french bond auction today, long dated sove

. >> and i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome. top stories this day, apple fans in china turn angry and skuffle with police after sales of the new iphone are shelved. >>> kristie will he gallon tells hungary to get its finances in order before it cuts a check. >>> and can japan's new cabinet push through the unpopular changes needed to fix the economy? >>> first up let's go straight to the european markets. they've been open for about an hour today. as you can see, this is how the main indices are performing on track to have four straight weeks of gain. when it comes to the broad 50 index which tracks 50 leading stocks around this particular region, i can tell you that it's at its highest level in two months. when it comes to the volatility index which measures fear based on the euro stocks 50, that has been going in the right direction. it's fallen to its lowest level in about five months on the back of worries about the eurozone decreasing, let's say. investors cheered the success of two particular events in yesterday's session.

>>> i'm nina dos santos in london. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong.me back to "world business today." >> let's take another look at the european stock market action 19 minutes into today's trading session. what we have is everybody's eyes firmly fixed on sales of spanish and italian debt. we have the ecb deciding on rates today. not expected to move. expected to keep them on hole at 1%. still, we have plenty of news moving the ftse 100. in particular, rbs. this is royal bank of scotland, 83% earned by the uk taxpayer has announced an additional 3,500 job cuts as part of a re-organization at its investment banking. on the other hand, countering that kind of news. that has been lifting rbs's stock price up by 7%. we have disappointing sales figures coming out of tesco. that has the uk's largest grocery store down by 1 .4% at the moment. >> getting retail numbers out of the u.s. later today. that will be an interesting comparison. here in asia, a quiet day. there was one big story rolling through the markets a little early this day and causing volatility

. >>> hello, i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. you're watching "world business today." >> and i'm nina dos santos in london. these are the top stories. >>> $1 trillion, the imf puts a price on fixing the world's finances. >>> political turmoil brings economic hardship in syria. we speak to the people who are feeling the pain. >> and the captain of the capsized cruise ship in italy reportedly says that he abandoned ship after tripping and falling into a life boat. >>> first up, though, the imf says it needs more money to safeguard the euro zone and the wider global economy. but in order to keep a large chunk of the developed world affront, it seems as though developing world countries will be footing much of the bill here. the imf is hoping to raise an extra $500 million in the short term and may double that over the next few years to come. $200 million has been pledged by eu nations but with washington refusing to prop up the euro zone and, of course, uk wavering on its own contribution, the lenders calls could yet go unanswered a

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >>> i'm nina dos santos in london.u for the opening bell. in the meantime, goodbye for now.

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >>> i'm nina dos santos in london.t's been a big week in the world stock markets. after some early optimism, take a look at at markets. you can see there's debt worries coming to the forefront of investors' minds. this is how the european stock markets stood 90 minutes into the day. they're all firmly fixed in the red. the heavy losses coming from the dax. it's down nearly.5%. >>> we had big gains in shanghai today and lesser degree in hong kong. hong kong turned around right towards the end. the shanghai boost coming from comments from the premiere. he says he plans to protect investor rights. this is a sentiment for investors there. the outlook for the economy in china is still pretty clouded with the tight monetary policy although there is hopes that there will be a rebound in equity prices this year in china after a pretty dismal year last year. looking at australia, the index closing just flat there. retail sales in november came out showing that consumers not putting their hands in their pockets. sales stalling a

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >>> i'm nina dos santos in london. debt talks deja vu. european leaders try yet again to save greece and the single currency. >>> ryanair dedefies forecasts. >>> we take these jobs at the pleasure of the president. at a time when he faced so much challenge, so much pressure, if the president asks you to do this, you have to do them. >>> treasury secretary timothy geithner talks exclusively about america's economy, the eurozone and laying the groundwork for growth. >>> forgive us if you've heard this one before. eu leaders will gather in brussels this monday to secure the future of the eurozone, but there is going to be an elephant in the room, and that elephant is called greece. now we may be close to an agreement on writing down one lot of greek debt, but big questions remain over athens ability to repay its next bailout installment. the country's creditors are demanding that it live up to its promises on implementing straight austerity measures, but a german suggestion that greece needs supervision to put those measures into practice ha

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm charles hodson in london. here are the headlines. it's jobs friday. u.s. economy is showing signs of picking up but just how is that translating into employment growth? we look at what's expected. >>> making new inroads into india, ford's allen moulally. >>> caution has crept in before the week is out. european markets are marginally out, asian markets are marginally down. futures are flat. the predicted number of new jobs is around about 150,000. many say that is better but charles still not good enough. >> no. i think that's very much going to be what is dominating investor thought really all way around the globe. we are seeing this slight rebound here in europe. there was a bit of a sell-off, i think perhaps in anticipation of a strong nonfarm payroll. maybe as many as 90,000 jobs being created. that's the whisper number on wall street. as that number goes down to more than 150,000, which seems to be the consensus, there's less prospect of u.s. interest rates being moved up soon and perhaps there's pressure on the euro. there is a

. >>> hello and welcome to "wbt," i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >>> and i'm nina dos santos in london. >>> a bad situation just got worse. there are red faces in europe after a ratings downgrade but greece is the country that's the real epicenter of the debt crisis this week. >>> as search and rescue attempts continue, the focus moves 0en to who is to blame for the sinking of a giant ocean liner off the italian coast. >>> and we'll tell you which production houses is big at the golden globes and what these awards tell us about the upcoming oscar ceremonies. >>> first up, though, if the new year promised a new europe, well, some people could be disappointed. standard & poors last week had other ideas completely. to nobody's great surprise, this particular influential company decided to downgrade the credit scores of nine countries across the euro zone on friday. these particular downgrades apply to a large swath of central and southern europe. it is this country in the center here, france, that is commanding all the headlines today. this after france lost its treasured aaa rating. that

." >> and i'm andrew stevens. thanks for joining us. science in a slow down, but china's enveeble growth continues sparking a rally on the markets. >> and the captain of a wrecked cruise ship will today face judge of possible criminal charges, including mans laugter. >> plus, cnn uncovers widespread child slavery on cocoa farms in ivory coast. well, markets in asia are rallying after chinese economic data exceeded forecast today. the country's economic growth is slower than it's been for the past two and a half years. despite stagnation in many western economies. in the fourth quarter of last year, china's gdp growth slowed to 8.9%, better than the 8.7% that analysts have been expecting but continuing the downward pattern that you see there. now, growth the full year measured 9.2% and that was down from 10.4% in 2010. the drop is partially down to spiraling inflation. and on that score, it appears to have succeeded with both the consumer and producer price indices rising much more slowly in december. now in a position to refuel the econ

. >>> a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens and welcome to the first edition of "world business today" of 2012. this is tuesday, january 3rd. it is a new year. but one report already suggests businesses may be haunted by the same cries of confidence this year as last. >>> the republican party's race for the white house takes off this tuesday. they're claiming they boost business and put a dent in america's debt. >>> why discount stores are replacing more established outlets on the high streets of the united kingdom. >>> 2011 was eye year many in the financial world would rather forget. certainly, that was the case here in asia. most of the big markets were down between 15 and 25% last year. 2012 has got off to an optimistic start at least. markets in asia are higher boosted by encouraging manufacturing data. it's different in europe where the sector contracted for the fifth month in a row. but market are on the rise nonetheless. the question is how long will it all last. charles, there's been a lot of talk about recession in the euro zone. i guess there's not a l

. >> i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong.

he might have voted for steven douglas because he was a jacksonion and madison had pretty good relations with andrewresident and madison lived to see that but i think he probably would have voted for the fourth guy, john bell, who was the candidate of the union party. he was from tennessee. and this was a party that wanted the union to be maintained and everybody to shut up about slavery. and bell carried virginia, kentucky and tennessee. and his running mate was a name named edward everett who published an article by madison in his retirement when madison is expressing alarm over calhoun and the southern prosecessionists. so that's how madison would have voted. now, bell finished fourth in the popular vote. so after fort sumter, what would have madison have done? i can't imagine that he would have seceded. even though lincoln the victor would not have been his way of handling things, he was such a strong unionist and one of the last things he writes -- the little piece that he wanted published after death was that anyone who preaches this union to be treated pandora with her box open or like a serp

he might have voted for steven douglas, the northern democrat because he was a jacksonian, and he had good relations with andrewn as president, and madison lived to see that, but i think he would have voted for john bowel, the candidate of the union party from tennessee. this was a party that wanted the union to be maintained and everybody just shut up about slavery, and he carried virginia, kentucky, and tennessee, and his running mate was a man named edward everett who published an article when he's expressing alarm of the recessionists, and i think that's how madison would have voted. now, he finished fourth in the popular vote so what would madison have done? i can't imagine he would have succeeded. even though lincoln, the victor, would not have been his way of handling things, he was such a strong unionist, and one of the last things he writes, it's a little piece that he wanted published, and it was called "advise to my country," and the point he makes is anyone who preaches this union should be treated like pandora with her box open or like the serpent creeping into paradise, so that was his great fear.