kuroda's nomination to the bank of japan governor. 92.31 is where we stand. relatively unchanged as is sterling/dollar. off its recent lows of 1.51.71. that's where we stand in europe. now more back to sixuan for more on that asian session. >> thank you, ross. it's a relief rally here in asia as investors pick solace ask drag its comments on the eurozone. the nikkei jumped a stunning 2.7%. the nomination of the boj chief boosted sentiment. exporter stocks rebounded on bargain hunting. komatsu shares added 3 .7% today. also a strong session for the shanghai composite up over 2%. this despite the pboc raining from its liquidity operations on thursday after draining from the markets this week. property developers rallied after the country's largest bank posted a 30% jump in its 2012 net profit as shares gained a whooping 6%. in hong kong, the hang seng chopped up a 2% gain helped by financials and energy plays. property counters lent support after final end posted an 80% jump in its first half underlying profit. the kospi gained over 1%. meanwhile, australia's a

haruhiko kuroda has been nominated as the nominee. he's president of the asian development bank. kuroda was once a senior finance ministry official. the 68-year-old has head of the adb since 2005. it approved by the diet, he will take over the boj post. the prime minister put forward the names of the two deputy governors. they are gakushuin university professor kikuo iwata and boj executive director hiroshi nakaso. it needs support from the opposition parties as the ruling coalition does not have the majority in the upper house. many members of the major opposition democratic party are of japan are set to support abe's nominees. they say there isn't much doubt about kuroda's ability, especially his negotiating and management skills. >>> asian development bank spokesperson announced kuroda is resigning from the top post of the manila-based institution on march 118th. >>> u.s. tech giant apple has won a patent lawsuit in tokyo over south korea's samsung electronics. the ruling is the second in a series of court cases in japan involving smartphones and tablet computers. the tokyo di

kuroda. cnbc ftse global 300 up 13 points. the ftse 100 despite the downgrade for moody's on friday, it is up 0.5%. we were up 0.9% about an hour ago. the xetra dax is up 1% still building on the recovery gains we had on friday. boosted by, of course, better than expected ifo number. the ibex is up 0.7% and the cac 40 in france is up 0.5%. plenty of focus on where we stand with yields. italy, as we go through the election, steady 4.46%. we have key bond auctions coming out on wednesday. today we get zero coupons and bonds in inflation and index link as we get the results of those in the next 15 minutes. don't expect them to be unduly impacted. gilt yield here in briptan, starting to recover. 2.10%. last week, these yields were 2.2% before the moody's downgrade. so not much of an impact on gilt year. more of an impact on sterling. this just shows you where we stand with cable. sterling/dollar, 1.5137 at the moment. we did get down to, what, a 31-month low of 1.5173. we bounced off the low. there are those out there who think we

he plans to nominate haruhiko kuroda. he served as finance minister from 1999 to 2003.moved to the adb two years later. the meeting was the first with a leading figure from take juan since jinping became general secretary of the communist party last november. the meeting held behind closed doors. but the central news agency says they will push for peaceful unification. xi's predecessor, hu jintao also worked with taiwan. the communist party decided in november it will seek to develop mutual trust at the military level and also aim to sign a peace accord with taiwan. >>> cradle of culture, economic powerhouse. many enjoy the fruits of prosperity along the path to a new china. but millions are still missing out and public discontent is growing. against that back drop, officials are choosing a fresh slate of government leaders, ne newsline will bring you continuing coverage of incoming president xi jinping's new administration. don't miss "china: change and challenge." >>> israeli leaders are showing they're ready to defend their country against a wider range of threats. t

and abe is considering haruhiko kuroda as successor. he developed connections around the world while serving as vice finance minister from 1999 to 2003. he moved to the adb two years later and is serving third term as president. he is a strong supporter of more monetary easing. abe has said the next governor should be willing to pump more money into the economy and be able to negotiate with leaders of other central banks. many traders welcome monetary easing. it weakens the home currency. ai, good morning. >> good morning, catherine. it also weakens the home currency and lengthens stock prices and that's usually good news. that's why market participants are so keen to find out who the next boj governor will be, and as catherine said, it looks like it will be chief haruhiko kuroda. ramin is at the tokyo stock exchange. ramin, how are the governors responding to the news so far? >> we've already seen a bit of reaction in the currency markets, so why don't we go to that first and then i'll bring you the opening levels for the nikkei and th

kuroda or mr. yuata will be elected. >> it's a tricky message, obviously, to sort of say yes, it's okay. what do you expect out of washington, out of these meetings tomorrow? >> well, i think this is the very important trip to mr. abe because this is his first trip to u.s. while we understand that the u.s.-japan relationship is the most important bilateral relationship for gentleman pap. so to make this trip very successful is really important task for mr. abe and i think that the both sides want to reaffirm the close tie given the fact that we have seen the rising tensions, geographical tensions over north korea and over the senkaku islands. >> east asia is becoming more and more precarious. that was a quote from one professor to another. how does the political back drop complicate, if it complicates at all, the macroeconomics for japan? >> well, not really. well, i think that the very fortunately the bilateral relationship between japan and china has been improving after the september last year d

kuroda is the chief of the asian development bank. abe is planning to present his nominees to the diet for approval by the end of this week. the government needs support from opposition parties. some members have expressed concerns. they say signing off on his appointment could be construed as approving the there isn't much doubt about his ability. some say there's not much mileage in continuing its opposition because his no, ma'am nominees are being received vorly.o, ma'am nominees are being received favorly., ma'am nominees are being received favorly. ma'am nominees are being received favorly.ma'am nominees are being received favorly.a'am nominees are being received favorly.'am nominees are being received favorly.am nominees are being received favorly.m nominees are being received favorly. nominees are being received favorly.nominees are being received favorly.nomi are being received favorlalybly. vice finance minister for international affairs name is on the short list. officials will announce their choice soon after he steps down.

. >> reporter: natsuko kuroda is the latest winner of the akutagawa prize, japan's most prestigious literary. she is 75. 61-year-old bin hamuro walked off with last year's naoki prize, a high-profile tribute for popular writing. older scribes are on a roll. these titles all won prizes in recent years. the youngest author is in his late 50s. and major publishers are taking notice. staff at this one are actively scouting for mature talent. they organized a competition for mystery stories. only writers over 60 could apply. more than 200 people sent in manuscripts. editors say they were surprised by the high standard. and they noticed something different in the stories. >> translator: their lifelong experiences are projected in the work, creating aa new kind of sensibility, a little different from popular writers today. >> reporter: "short skirt girl" claimed top prize. it a crime story. murd and intrigue revolving around a mysriouwoman. the writer drew on real life scandal and personal experience. >> translator: i'm not afraid of a lawsuit. i'll post an article of correction and pay a settlemen

a another prominent county is haruhiko kuroda. the asian development bank's president for a 2% inflation target and was a top currency diplomate in the late 1990s. kazamata iowata is a strong candidate. he's an advocate of more quantitative easing. the current boj chief will step down on march 19th. back to you, kelly. >> let's get a view on this from michael plasnik. so where does the yen go from here? >> i think it's important to take into context the comments made by abe and aso. you have to reverse engineer the situation. they're not going to be able to hit a 2% inflation without a significant yen weakness. so they need the yen to weaken about 40%, auto% in order to get 4% inflation over a two-year period. so if you reverse engineer from there, you say, what do you need to do to get the yen weakness? i think they're willing to do anything it takes. >> that's extraordinary. was that impressive? >> it's about a 50% depreciation in the yen. 15% pass through. that's 4% inflation. is it unprecedented? i mean, yes. yes and no, right

shinzo abe getting his guy, kuroda into the bank of japan, a lot more easing down the road, weak todaywill we hit a sustained bull market we hit new highs today or any zmat key thing here is the bears have had very good arguments here, sub 2% gd st. a problem for the stock market and anemic top line growth is a problem. however there are two things why the bulls have been right. number one, of course, mr. bernanke, he reiterated rates will stay low. if you focus on the economic data and recognize a lot of this weakness is government driven, i think you can make an argument that we are at least holding up here in the high range. i think that's very good point to make. let me move on to the retailers. the key point about the retailers is the string of cautious guidance that we've given it. so look today, we have got kohl's below expectationses on 2013. limit bead low expectation. joining home depot, abercrombie, nordstrom, dollar tree just off tonight of my head. all those guys guided below expectation, i think is that little bit concerning, housing, despite the fact retailers seem uncom

kuroda. that's where we stand here in europe ahead of your trading day.ack to you guys. >> for a while, you were aaa and we weren't, ross? is that -- >> yeah. >> does that seem logical to you? was this a big surprise that this was coming at this point? >> no, it wasn't a big -- people have been talking about it. i think what was a surprise is the timing, joe. we've got a budgets in a couple of weeks. most people thought that moody's would wait to see what the outcome of that budget was and then -- >> oscar weekend. i mean, the timing is suspect. all right. oscar weekend, right? because they have great actors. if you have an accent, you will win -- >> there were a lot of brits at the oscars last night who were winning. >> if you have an accent, you will win the award for acting because it sounds so good. >> why do you think i call them the vigilantes? >> by the way, there's news out from barnes & noble this morning. len riggio, the largest shareholder in that company is apparently going ahead and saying that he would be interested, andrew, i think in split