okay, john defterios, thanks very much indeed for joining me here live.nisha. >> yeah, we've been watching oil prices, gold prices but definitely stock prices as well, especially in this part of the world, charles. asia-pacific trading marginally higher on this tuesday. only modest losses on monday. classic case of well it wasn't as bad as it could have been so we decided to buy. all those as debt talks continued in washington. ramy inocencio has the latest. how is it looking? >> there's a belief or at least a hope out there that washington's going to come through with a debt deal at the last minute. with that the tokyo nikkei did close up about half a percent. investors there jumped into company companies reporgt some solid earnings, things like camera maker canon and cow. at the same time the yen reached its strongest point against the u.s. dollar since just after the march 11 quake and tsunami. investors are still flocking in as a safe haven as that u.s. debt deadline looms. right now trading. here in hong kong the hang seng closed at 1.25%. that close

john defterios, thanks as always. and if congress and the white house can't agree to raise the country's own debt ceiling by august 2nd, as we've told you many times on "world business today" throughout the past couple of months, america could soon default on its own debts. the short time frame may encourage congress to pass relatively small increase that would cover only a few months, but the u.s. president, barack obama, has invited congressional leaders to meet at the white house on thursday to try to avoid precisely that s lly that >> i've heard report there is may be some in congress who want to do just enough to make sure america avoids defaulting on our debt in the short term, but then wants to kick the can down the road when it comes to solving the larger problem of our deficit. i don't share that view. i don't think the american people sent us here to avoid tough problems. it's what drives them nuts about washington, when both parties take the path of least resistance. >> democrats in congress want to increas

i'm john defterios. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week.

as john defterios explains, a credit downgrade could have consequences not just for the u.s. but also other countries with top notch credit scores. >> reporter: let's call it the aaa club. a fairly exclusive club of 20 countries that have a top rating given by standard & poors. not surprisingly as the world's largest economy, it is the largest sovereign debt market, $11.1 trillion. the rest of the country adds up to $7 trillion. the five that follow the u.s. is germany at 1.72 trillion, france at 1.7 trillion, the uk gilt market and canada and australia with $300 billion. there is some concern that if the u.s. is downgraded it may force an examination of some of the others. why the mess in the u.s.? the numbers tell the whole story. the 2011 budget deficit, 10.7% of gdp. the 2011 debt-to-gdp is at a ratio of 102%. the u.s. has not been in that position since the end of world war ii when it had to refund the rebuilding after that. the u.s. was averaging 60% to 70% during the 1990s. it topped over 100% after the funding of the iraq war, the afghanistan war and the collapse of l