kuroda was at a gathering in tokyo, its chairman and executive of member firms attended. >> translator: if many firms raised prices and wages at the same time, that will have a positive impact on the economy overall, so the authorities in charge of policies must come up with bold measures that will let corporate executives change their attitude. >> kuroda also said he sees signs of an up turn in the economy, financial markets, and sentiment. he planned to further ease monetary measures and reach a 2% target. >>> tokyo's main benchmark climbed three quarters of a percent today, finishing at 16,009. it's the highest close since 2007. futures sent the index higher towards the close. market heavyweight fast retailing jumped 5% to pose this year's high. analysts are saying hopes emerge that retail investors may buy back shares after the market digests its selling due to tax changes. the nikkei gained more than 5% through wednesday. most other markets in the region were shut for the christmas holiday. forces that were open finished their sessions higher, tracking overnight gains on wall stre

abe nominated kuroda as the head of the central bank, fueling speculation of further monetary stimulus. and increased fate between member countries. but a pledge to inject 1$1.4 trillion into the economy in less than two years stunned the markets as the boj aimed to double its monetary base by tend of 2014 with kuroda's term just beginning. in may, though, weak chinese data and the first mention of the federal reserve drawing back quantitative easing sent the nikkei 225 plunging more than 7%, its biggest one-day loss in two years. and by the summer, expectations fizzled when abe-nomics has unveiled reform which disappointed many hoping for details. but by july, the political climate improved with abe's push for economic recovery, the liberal democratic party coalition cemented power in japan's upper house election. by october, japan took a long awaited decision to raise its sales tax by three percentage points. that's the first increase since 1997 and was accompanied by a $5 trillion yen stimulus plan. november marked the first year of abe-nomics, and while japan's health dramatically

and then from april, actually, governor kuroda was in position of boj and real policies have started. the second half things a bit changed. investors tend to say, check and monitor what happens. so positive of investors are quite stable, but no addition. so second half was quite stable market for japanese equity. next year i expect a good market, mostly from the normalization of the global economy rather than japanese specific issues. so normalization, say, typically in the united states is expected starting from tapering of fed. my year-end target is 1,700, which is 15% upside from now. and it is supported by export sales volume is expanding and also inflation expectation. so it's a combination of global economy and domestic economy, both growing for next year. >> so now he is pretty bullish, but some people are worried that a sales tax hike in april may hurt the economy. now 2013 is the year of the horse in the oriental zodiac. ramin mellegard near the tokyo stock exchange. >>> north korean media are urging people to unify behind leader kim jong-un on the two-year anniversary of his

kuroda gives the items up for the tapering announcement. they're going to keep their rates on hold ahead of the sales tax hike coming next april. >>> mark zuckerberg is selling 2.3 billion worth of his social network shares as the stock joins the s&p 500. plus, russian president vladimir putin has reportedly freed jailed tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky after ten years in prison. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing us business news from around the globe pop. >>> if university just joined us in north america, a very good morning to you. welcome to the global trading day here on cnbc "worldwide exchange." u.s. stocks pretty flat at the close yesterday. the dow is up 11. s&p down 1 points. right now, the s&p is trading over 3.5 points above fair value. the nasdaq at the moment is about 8 points above fair value and the dow at the moment is trading some 25 points above fair value. european stocks have been firm. the ftse cnbc global 300 is pretty flat. we had a mixed session in asia. more fears about a cash crunch in china w

. >> kuroda also noted market participants today have a better understanding of the fed's policy intentions. the governor said the pace of economic growth may slow down between april and june next year due to a consumption tax hike, but he added the personal spending will remain firm in fiscal 2014 as a whole and the economy will continue to expand. >>> now let's check on the markets. european equities are set to close a gain for the week, snapping a recent losing streak. this is how major indexes are trading at this hour. london trading up by a tenth of a percent. frankfurt's dax by 0.4 of a percent and paris marginally lower at 4,173. this stems from signs of upbeat economic sentiment in germany. the latest survey shows consumer sentiment in the country will remain upbeat in the future. earlier in the day, asian stocks ended mixed. china's shanghai fell more than 2%. a spike in short-term money rates remained a source of concern as it increases borrowing costs for banks. tokyo's nikkei edged up 0.7%. the dollar is maintaining strength against the yen. the pair right now trading at 104.42-

kuroda, bernanke, draghi, better or worse, those three guys had more influence, i think, on the worlde that are out there. they helped stabilize the global economy and, again, you may or may not agree with what they were doing but i have no doubt, without them, those problems that i listed, could have steamrolled into something much more serious. vie no doubt, my personal opinion i don't know how you feel, dan, markets who have been lower without the activist policy. >> we can argue about the manner in which they did it whether too generous or not. they are supportive of what the arguments against what rick santelli would say we would have had a larger washout, yes, at the bottom but the rally would have been better and more sustainable. >> nobody took me up on my offer, man of the year for the three men? >> they put, you know, central bankers -- >> i think they had the biggest influence on people around the world, including the people's bank of china. >> "time" magazine, they may be listening, bob. >> they're not listening. >>> speaking of rick santelli, he's in chicago with the sant