bnp paribas says the capital hike is not linked to any acquisition plan, but the ceo of the bank declined to comment on some reports that bnp would be interested in buying the dutch assets of fortis. the stock has been widely up, 277%. now trading lower, still, eads after airbus confirmed that it will deliver 13 airbus 380 this year, which is one less than expected. it's not clear whether it's due to technical reasons or st if it's just because of market conditions. the ceo of the company made clear that the euro strength was an issue for airbus and would become a major problem if the price of the -- the level of the euro will continue to increase against the dollar. that's the story in paris this morning. over to adam now in singapore. >> thank you very much, stephane. well, the asian markets got pulled higher today thanks to the triple digit gains that we saw in the dow jones industrial average. in gentleman opinion, the nikkei 225 coming back up from the two-month lows, although the topix index had a little trouble here capping gains in the market. the world's second largest economy ma

bnp paribas, up 32%. the whole banking sector is doing well today. renault is now trading lower despite precise targets in terms of electrical cars. the ceo of renault wants to sell at least 100,000 units of the new electrical vehicle by 2012. the stock started higher, but now we are trading lower like the rest of the car sector in europe. now let's have a look at the asian markets with them. maura in singapore. >> temasek holdings was out today with its annual review. adam has just rushed back from the press room with the details. >> still sweating from rushing back, mauer are. glistening. >> there's good and bad in this report, as you know. 2008 to 2009 was a bleak year for the equity markets. as you can imagine, for any investment firm, they saw deep, deep losses across the board. temasek managed to make money in terms of profits for the previous financial year. a net profit of $4.2 billion, less than a year ago. in terms of the bad part about it want naturally all the contributions from its major corporations and also a lot of foreign firms lifte

therefore, bnp paribas wants to repay part of the money before that date. air france klm is trading higher on the back of comments from the ceo that the company may break even before the end of the next fiscal year. however, it's hard to say when the airline will be profitable again. the company continued rumors. investors were worried this morning about the potential cost of this acquisition for france telecom. the stock is still up more than -- well, close to 1%. let's have a look at the german markets in frankfurt. >> a nice turn around. we are trading close to indiana ra day session highs. merck and adeed das, merck came through with the announcement that one of its cancer drugs has had positive test results. on the back of that one, it's up about 2.7%. adidas got an upgrade this morning. same sort of story for puma. so these sportsmakers moving higher in today's session. infineon, back on the main gainer boards up about 1.8%. watch out for freqenias medical care. fresenias has been downgraded, a straight downgrade and a straight reaction in the markets

well, ian, thank you so much for joining us, ian stanner, bnp paribas. >> thank you. >>> the u.s. recovery is under way. that's the latest view from the federal reserve which vowed to leave rates on record lows for a prolonged period yesterday. joining us now is peter dixon senior economist from commerzbank securities. peter, what is your reaction to the fed comments yesterday? what does that say about where the economy is right now? >> i think it was a statement of cautious optimism. the fed is basically telling us what i think we already know, that there are signs of a turn around certainly in the gdp growth cycle, but i think it's quite clear that central banks around the world and the fed is no exception are concerned about just how durable this recovery will likely prove to be. subsequently, they're not hanging any flags out just yet. they're going to take it easy, wait and see just how durable the recovery is before they start thinking about tightening monetary policy. >> now, peter, you say that w-shaped recoveries are talked about a lot, but seldom seen. what kind of shape

bnp paribas launching a $3.6 billion rights issue so help repay the emergency funds its received from the french government and ubs's ceo says that the company's u.s. unit, painewebber, is no a core part of bank's operations but won't be sold right now. he also said that the company wants to buy its way out of a bad bank dielt. he told the company that ubs would make a to buy back it's toxic ago ets to escape the very expensive charge of insurance against losses that it has on them, on the books. >> meantime, german business leader are asking their new government for tax cuts, more flexible labor laws and a better education system. the ceo of basf says the election is an opportunity for significant policy changes. let's head to the overseas market this morning. lisa oake is standing by in singapore. we'll get to her in just a moment. we'll start things off with steve sedgwick who has the latest out of europe. it's great to see you. >> great to see you, too, becky. these markets are taking a bit of a breather today. marginally away from that on the likes of the cac 40 and the ftse 100.